@@@@@ @ @ @@@@@ @ @ @@@@@@@ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @
@ @@@@@ @@@@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @
@ @ @ @@@@@ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@
Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
Club Notice - 10/23/00 -- Vol. 19, No. 16
Chair/Librarian: Mark Leeper, 732-817-5619, mleeper@avaya.com
Factotum: Evelyn Leeper, 732-332-6218, eleeper@lucent.com
Distinguished Heinlein Apologist: Rob Mitchell, robmitchell@avaya.com
HO Chair Emeritus: John Jetzt, jetzt@avaya.com
HO Librarian Emeritus: Nick Sauer, njs@lucent.com
Back issues at http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper
All material copyright by author unless otherwise noted.
The Science Fiction Association of Bergen County meets on the
second Saturday of every month in Upper Saddle River; call
201-447-3652 for details. The Denver Area Science Fiction
Association meets 7:30 PM on the third Saturday of every month at
Southwest State Bank, 1380 S. Federal Blvd.
===================================================================
1. Like it or not, the world will end some day in the (hopefully
distant) future. It is inevitable. When it does go, what will be
the cause? This is the way the world ends: an article that takes a
serious look at twenty mechanisms that we know of that are
candidates for the cause of the end of the world. Thought-
provoking stuff can be found at
http://www.discover.com/oct_00/featworld.html. [-ecl & mrl]
===================================================================
2. I had to share this piece of junk email with you. This is an ad
Evelyn really got. [-mrl]
====================
Subject: BRAIN TRANSPLANTATION - Be Young Again !
Have you ever dreamed to be young again?
To relieve memory of your childhood. Or may be you just want to
have strong, beautiful body. It is all becoming possible right now
with a latest advancement in microsurgery. Thanks to the procedure
called: Brain Transplantation. When you car is too old to fix it -
you will buy new car. Your body is that car, and you just a
passenger. Get new body - keep your IDENTITY !
FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE VISIT http://www.ny-best.com.
Human always dreamed to live forever. Now when it is became
possible our responsibility is to make it in ordered way.
Unfortunately brain transplantation involves a lot of complexity.
Especially in finding appropriate host body. As a result waiting
for operations can take up to two years. To be considered for
nearest brain transplantation we suggest you to join our waiting
list. We will keep you posted about latest news in Brain
Transplantation, you will be receiving semimonthly issues of
Identity Advancements Today magazine free of charge. As soon as
your term will closing in you will be notified by our staff.
FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE VISIT http://www.ny-best.com.
===================================================================
3. I thought that this panel description from the worldcon this
year might be of interest to science fiction fans. This stuff
hopefully has a little more behind it than tabloid stories do.
Past as Prologue: "Panelists discuss scientific discoveries and
what they could lead to."
Participants: Gerald "G. David" Nordley, W. A. Thomasson, John G.
Cramer (M), Mike Moscoe
I dropped into this panel at Chicon 2000 and found a lot that I did
not quite follow, but some of the ideas floating around were either
whimsical or ones with deep implications. The ones that stuck with
me were:
Hopi Indians and the (or some) Japanese may have a connection.
Both may be descended from the Ainu.
An early tribe said to have invaded prehistoric Ireland may have
actually been Egyptians.
There was a mention of spears found thought to be 500,000 years
old. This would make man a tool-building animal half a million
years ago. Apparently there are indentations found of weaving that
also goes back to before the ice age. Did Cro-Magnon survive the
Neanderthal because when the glacier came the former had underwear
and the latter did not.
New gradations on degrees of autism seem to include behavior
patterns of many of our most creative people. Autism may be more
widespread than we had thought.
The NSA is putting a lot of money into quantum computers, a new
approach to solving equations at very high speed. The literature
is hard to understand but you set for the equation and the waveform
collapses only when the problem solved. NSA would like to use it
to break public key systems.
Anti-matter may be useful to fight cancer. It may be possible to
shoot an anti-matter beam so that it does nothing for say three
inches and then interact with matter. That would mean you could
destroy a tumor without boring a hole to get to it.
The energy from the Big Bang may be held in vacuum in some way we
do not understand. It may be what is pushing the universe to
accelerate outward.
(I am pretty sure I got these ideas correct but if a panelist wants
to say that I have misquoted I let them reserve that right. If you
want more complete information on any of these, presumably the
reader can put the key words into Alta Vista or some other search
engine.)
At http://www.aip.org you can find links to the latest breaking
information in physics. [-mrl]
===================================================================
4. THE YARDS (a film review in bullet list form by Mark R. Leeper
from the Toronto International Film Festival):
Capsule: A very standard gang crime and
corruption plot is given a slightly different
flavor since the gang is a subway manufacturing
company. An innocent man is made the fall guy
for a lot of corruption. The real hero of this
film is the cinematographer Harris Savides who
carves the film from darkness for an intense
noir-ish atmosphere. Rating: +1
- Leo (Mark Wahlberg) released from prison on parole, when
convicted of car theft he protected his friend Willie (Joaquin
Phoenix)
- Willie works for Leo's uncle Frank (James Caan) whose Electric
Transit Company builds anything for the transit system, one of
several companies in competition
- Willie is engaged to Frank's daughter by a previous marriage,
Erica (Charlize Theron)
- Leo wants to work with Willie, Frank is very leery and wants
to get him into other work
- Willie does dirty jobs: bribery, sabotage of competitors
- Willie Takes Leo on rounds. Sabotage job goes wrong. Willie
kills man; Leo caught watching sabotage and beats cop in
self-defense, put in coma
- Family does not know what is going on
- Leo does not want to tell what Willie did
- Leo told must kill cop before he comes out of coma
- This will tear apart the friendship and both men's world
- Film noir film with great downbeat photography by Harris
Savides
- Scenes sculpted from darkness, main figures in shadow for mood
- Yellow filter
- Impressive noir photography
- Standard gangland story with transit companies, but with
semi-legitimate transit companies
- Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Wahlberg are new and popular, but still
only in the promising stage
- James Caan usually gives a good performance
- Ellen Bursten, Faye Dunaway in very minor roles
- Charlize Theron
[-mrl]
===================================================================
5. FACE (a film review in bullet list form by Mark R. Leeper from
the Toronto International Film Festival):
Capsule: Combining themes of THE FUGITIVE and
GEORGEY GIRL, a frumpy overweight worker at a
dry cleaner kills the sister who ridiculed her
for years. Running away, she mixes into
people's lives and finds a fulfillment she
never had at home. Rating: low +2
Japanese language
- Box-office hit in Japan, passed TRAINSPOTTING
- 1994, Masako works at her mother's dry cleaner, her sister
tormented her, for being big and clumsy
- Traditional dress instead of modern, embarrassing to sister
- Cannot decide what she wants
- When mother dies and sister is going to throw Masako out,
Masako kills her sister. Unable to commit suicide she flees.
- Sees Kobe quake as judgement on her
- Treated badly including rape, wanders irrationally
- Wanders in and out of jobs including at love hotel and at bar
- At Beppo makes life for herself
- Achieves one of her childhood goals, learns to ride bicycle
- Lives afraid of knock at door
- Subjective camera used for strangers
- Vomit enters plot several times
- Island fox festival for atmosphere
- Rebirth themes
- Director Jinji Sakamoto has made violent films about men,
first film about woman
- Naomi Fujiyama who stars is Japan's number one female
comedian, now in serious role
[-mrl]
===================================================================
6. THE NINE LIVES OF TOMAS KATZ (a film review in bullet list form
by Mark R. Leeper from the Toronto International Film Festival):
Capsule: A strange alien being is coming to
London to bring the end of the world. Mod
images of British 1960s science fiction and
adventure (e.g. "The Avengers") mix in an
almost totally incomprehensible surreal satire.
Rating: 0
- Much like BED-SITTING ROOM in which Ralph Richardson mutated
into being an apartment room
- Weird alien from sewer
- No (alias Tomas Katz) can exchange places with anybody. Does
so nine times. Leaves human disoriented and confused.
- No the alien breaks down reality as we knew it
- Jokes like a window conspiracy: glass windows threatening a
revolt
- Military holding seances, exploring the spirit world
- Experts on TV discuss implications, talking on Hassidic rabbi
saying things incomprehensible or irrelevant
- Bringing end of the world at same time as a solar eclipse
- London has gone mad
- London underground trains carrying spirits of the dead
- Pieces of London disappearing
- Main character named for one joke
- Playful surreal enigma of film
- Footage made to look silent, like NOSFERATU
- Black and white with a few color touches
- Images of 60s SF and Avengers
- Quatermass influence
[-mrl]
===================================================================
7. BUNNY (a film review in bullet list form by Mark R. Leeper from
the Toronto International Film Festival):
Capsule: This is a film that is serious all the
way through. There is not one humorous line.
But there is one absurdist idea in the premise.
It could give people the idea this is a comedy
rather than a downbeat look at the problems of
two immigrants coming to this country. Couple
takes job as part of a band of people in pink
bunny suits who stand on street corners and
lend passersby a compassionate ear. Rating:
low +2
- Mia Trachinger wrote and directed. -- Low budget: under one
million dollars
- Positioned as black comedy but really not
- We first meet Nik and Luda barricading house in war zone
somewhere in Eastern Europe
- Come to America, Nik very affectionate and protective of Luda
- Live with Aunt Elsie, indifferent to Nik and Luda
- Cannot find work
- Friend from old country gets them strange interview
- Job with bunny suits, giving compassion to passersby
- Luda doing well, Nik is bitter and does poorly on job
- Nik's self-esteem is dying
- Nick is destroyed
- Everything but bunny suits is serious
- Like BEING JOHN MALKOVICH, limited number of absurd where they
lead
- Low budget stretched far, effective lighting
[-mrl]
===================================================================
8. WALK THE TALK (a film review in bullet list form by Mark R.
Leeper from the Toronto International Film Festival):
Capsule: Joe Grasso is an eternal optimist who
believes every motivational philosophy and
everything he hears in church. He also is
something of a wheeler-dealer. When he is sure
without any experience that he can promote a
local mediocre lounge singer to be a star.
This is a rare film to look at the downside of
optimism and positive thinking. Rating: +1
- Australian
- Joe Grasso wants to help Nikki, singer he saw in motivational
lecture
- Believes in power of positive thinking
- "Acceptance is unacceptable"
- Has close relationship with Bonita, a paraplegic
- Becomes agent without knowing or expecting problems of
business
- Gets Nikki audition that goes wrong
- Taking money from Bonita's accident settlement to promote
Nikki and live high life
- Hard to tell if Joe is not just a con man
- Hypocritical, uses religion when it suits him
- Really ambivalent character, hard to tell if you like him or
hate him
- Ending is unsatisfactory, loose ends
- Good dialog
- Perhaps better does not have Hollywood ending
- Shirley Barrett, directed and wrote screenplay
- Filmed on Australia Gold Coast
- Religion in neutral light, most films are positive or negative
- Joe Grasso (Salvatore Coco), perhaps his mistake is to make a
poor choice of goals
- Bonita is bitter paraplegic
- Nikki is totally selfish and somewhat stupid
- Pastor Bob seems well meaning but has little influence on Joe
- Cast of unknown actors
- Salvatore Coco a first time actor, looks like Marty Feldmen
without funny eyes
- Nikki Bennett, played by real singer, Nikki Bennett
- Sacha Horler as Bonita bitter, love-hate with Joe, believable
in roll
[-mrl]
===================================================================
9. LIAM (a film review in bullet list form by Mark R. Leeper from
the Toronto International Film Festival):
Capsule: Life among the poor Catholic family in
Liverpool in 1930s. Vivid pictures of family
life, clashes with neighbors, religion spiced
with hellfire. When father loses job times get
more difficult and ethnic relations take center
stage. Rating: low +3
- Made for BBC
- Sullivan family growing up in poverty in 1930s Liverpool, seen
through eyes of Liam, 7-ish boy
- Begin with view of pub nights, kids staying up late looking
into pub as parents sing and dance against license law
- Casablanca-like singing competition between English and Irish
- Teresa Sullivan, coming of age, works for Jewish woman
- Jewish woman is kind to Teresa
- Father loses job, life gets even harder for family
- Religious school gives worse and worse lectures on sin,
hellfire, and brimstone
- Liam stammers
- Priest and religious teacher terrorizing Liam with lectures on
sin
- Family hiding from Jewish landlord
- Blackshirts come to Britain and anti-Jewish
- Nuns giving movie tickets to children (money children would
have to give to parents)
- Liam struggles to overcome stuttering and stumbles onto secret
- Contrived but still powerful climax
- Photography gives soft loving look to town after dark
- Hellfire sermons seem humorous in retrospect
[-mrl]
===================================================================
10. TELL ME SOMETHING (a film review in bullet list form by Mark R.
Leeper From the Toronto International Film Festival):
Capsule: Complex and disturbing puzzle of a
serial killer plot from South Korea.
Dismembered parts of bodies and lots of blood
keep being found. One troubled young woman
seems to be an innocent link to all of the
victims and may be going mad. Serial killer
themes are (way) overused these days, but this
is one of the better ones. Rating: +1
Korean language
- South Korean
- Very bloody
- Highly atmospheric
- Detectives Cho and Oh investigating dismembered bodies being
found
- Young artist Suyeon is discovered to have known all of the
victims, seems too much for coincidence
- Cho accused of being on the take and is trying to clear his
name
- Murderer performing expert amputations Suyeon could not do
- Mix and match parts, each time leaves complete set, but not
all from same body
- Murders with expert precision
- Some nice source music used
- Some nice visual effects
- Stairwell as symbol of traveling in complex circles into
mystery
- Huge traffic accident staged
- A lot of rain
- Ending very confusing
- I have working idea of what happened and others who saw the
film seem to believe my interpretation, but I am not sure I
followed the ending
- Error: bodies bleed only for short time after death
[-mrl]
===================================================================
11. TIME AND TIDE (a film review in bullet list form by Mark R.
Leeper from the Toronto International Film Festival):
Capsule: A light plot ties together some
extended shootouts. This is a film for people
with small requirements for plot but who want
lots of inventive blow-em-up scenes. Rating:
low +1
Chinese language
- Main character is fighter who serves as bartender and who
picks up a woman who proves to be an undercover cop
- Nine months later cop is pregnant, though she says not by
fighter
- Fighter wants to make money to retire so takes works for loan
shark
- Loan shark is starting protection business
- Shootout in restaurant
- Adventures as bodyguard
- Has two pregnant girlfriends due at same time though he is not
the father -- humor in interaction of girlfriends
- Tries to get one girlfriend "What you most need" and gives her
money
- Extended assault on apartment building, airport, and stadium
- Pregnant hostage giving birth during gunfight
- Flash cut editing
- Car chases
- Views of Hong Kong
- Plot moves very fast
- Episodic
- Engaging only on superficial level, fun to watch shootouts but
not much character value
- Plastic bags useful against tear gas?
- Lots of shooting
- Constant action
- For those who like gunfire
- Long gunfights
- Film wait for no man
[-mrl]
===================================================================
12. CHASING SLEEP (a film review in bullet list form by Mark R.
Leeper from the Toronto International Film Festival):
Capsule: Ed Saxon's wife Eve did not come home
from the high school where she teaches. Ed has
not slept well for weeks and is not in the best
condition to deal with his missing wife. Over
the next few days Ed will go through his own
private hell as he tries to understand the
mystery of his missing wife. His life will
become the stuff of an Edgar Allan Poe story.
A strange claustrophobic horror story. Rating:
high +1
- Entire film (almost) in one house near Seattle
- Ed Saxon cannot sleep since wife Eve is not home yet
- Ed teaches at college level, Eve at high school level
- Calls police, does standard things one would expect
- Misses work, friction with school
- Strange, attractive student comes to visit causing
complications
- Complications build on complications giving more clues to the
mystery
- Virtually whole film in one poorly maintained house, lots of
problems with plumbing, water in walls
- Details like dirty sink, growth of beard, calcium buildup on
sinks and showers, dripping hole in ceiling, all create mood
- Room with clouds on ceiling
- We feel groggy with Ed
- Introspective film with strange Poe feeling
- Everybody including police take pills
- Problems with water throughout house
- Fantasy elements
- Ending is ambiguous
- Low budget
- Shot 24 days
[-mrl]