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Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
Club Notice - 11/03/00 -- Vol. 19, No. 18
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. Comments from member John Sloan on my comment that anti-matter
was supposed to be getting medical uses:
Just a quick note: antimatter is already in common use in
medicine. PET or Positron Emission Tomography involves
injecting the subject with a tracer containing a radioactive
isotope that emits positrons as it decays. The positrons
strike electrons. Gamma rays given off by the mutual matter-
antimatter annihilation are detected and imaged. A typical
application is using a tracer of glucose, which lead to those
striking images of thought processes as the glucose is
metabolized in the brain. The downside is that the PET scanner
must be near a particle accelerator. The half life of the
isotope is so short that they manufacture some of it, rush it
to the scanner, where it is injected into the patient.
So when you're PET-scanned, you're really having matter-
antimatter explosions going off in (for example) your brain.
No documented cases of a brain going in to warp drive as far
as I know. :-)
===================================================================
2. Every once in a while I take one of these truisms, one of things
that everybody else knows is true, and just ask myself do I really
believe it.
I correspond with a friend from Germany. We started out discussing
science fiction films, but we both are both interested in politics.
Sooner or later the conversation had to get around to politics and
comparing the two political systems. Is it better to have a system
where the third strongest party, whatever it is, is very weak
compared to the first two or one where parties have power
commensurate with size. That sort of thing. My friend asked me
about American voter apathy. He had a statistic that said that of
eligible voters only 52% actually voted in national elections.
Does this not point to something being wrong in American politics?
I gave this some thought. Well we all know that everybody who can
should vote. We even see billboards and college notebooks telling
people they should vote. Is it a bad sign that only 52% of
eligible people do vote? Even if it is, should we be trying to
convince people who might not vote that they should. Most of us
would say immediately that we want everyone with the right to vote
actually exercising that right. I am not so sure.
I own stock in a number of companies. Every year they send me
proxy statements. Every year they want me to vote for who will be
part of the board of directors. I always abstain. I simply do not
have a good educated opinion of who should be on the board of
directors of a company I own stock in. It would be irresponsible
to vote where I do not have an intelligent opinion. To be
perfectly honest I have no idea how to evaluate the candidates for
the board of directors of a big company 95% of the time or more. I
abstain and I suppose I deserve what I get. But it never makes a
noticeable difference. If I do not have any idea who are the
better candidates, I really feel I have a responsibility to
abstain. Should the same principles apply to national politics?
Where we live we are seeing billboards going up telling people they
should vote. I ask if that really makes anything better? Do we
really want to increase the actual voting percentages of those
people who are qualified to vote? I am not saying that this would
not be a better country if everybody studied the issues and
candidates and made intelligent choices. The sad truth is that
that is not going to happen. Given that a lot of the people who
abstain, if forced to vote, would probably not do it in a logically
informed manner, why do we try so hard to get them to vote
regardless of the value of their vote? I think coercing these
people to vote endangers the quality of the results of the process.
Now one reason I hear for convincing people to vote is that if they
have the right they should be exercising it. To this I say "bull!"
Nobody says you have to exercise all your rights in order to make
use of them. For most of your rights, just having them is enough
to be using them. Do we want the government to try to billet
troops in everybody's houses just so we can use our Constitutional
Right to refuse? Should we all go out and commit crimes so we can
exercise our Miranda rights? No, it is enough that we have these
rights and have the option to exercise them if the need arises.
And with every one of our rights we have one more right. We have a
right to choose not to exercise that right. And certainly in some
cases we should know that it is best for all concerned that we do
not exercise it.
Another reason I have heard to push for increasing voting
percentages is that is we pick another loser then people more will
be able to say, at least they had a hand in picking him, so they
will have no kick coming. This argument is also a load of duck
tires. When we get a poor choice winning an election, the entire
eligible voting population has responsibility whether they voted or
not.
Voting is a valuable right for those who value it. If some people
self-choose to not exercise that right, it is probably a good thing
for society that they not be prodded, forced, or coerced. That
will only lower the quality of the results of the process. [-mrl]
===================================================================
3. CHINESE COFFEE (a film review in bullet list form by Mark R.
Leeper from the Toronto International Film Festival):
Capsule: Effectively a one-act play of a writer
and his friend and agent talking about their
Bohemian lives in Greenwich Village in 1982.
This is a film of narrow appeal. It is too
much of talking about what is right and wrong
about a fictional book and with the
personalities of fictional people. Not much in
the way of deep thoughts and only occasionally
is the conversation of interest. Rating: 0
- One act play by Ira Lewis
- "I don't trust him. We're friends." --Bertold Brecht. Quote
sets the tone
- Greenwich Village, 1982
- Failing writer Harry Levine (Al Pacino)
- He is 42 and has nothing
- Jake Manheim, his agent and friend (Jerry Orbach)
- 2 AM talk
- Jake is jerking around Harry
- Harry remembering his girl
- Wants money from agent
- Talk about money, relatives, coffee, success in promotion of
authors, health, how Harry lost his girlfriend: subject not
intrinsically interesting to viewer
- At least MY DINNER WITH ANDRE had ideas and odd worldviews
- Occasionally witty dialog
- Back and forth among flashbacks
- Two people trying to get on each others nerves
- Narrow appeal
- Better as a radio play
[-mrl]
===================================================================
4. THE STRANGER (a film review in bullet list form by Mark R.
Leeper from the Toronto International Film Festival):
Capsule: A straightforward and by the numbers
crime film. Two drug dealers and a cab driver.
After smuggling a kilo of cocaine into Vienna
then cannot sell it. No big surprises and not
even much excitement, but it entertains.
Rating: low +1
German language
- Vienna, Austria
- At airport immigration Mercedes and Rainer enter separately
- Rainer detained by customs
- Mercedes smuggled in 100kg of cocaine
- Taxi driver Harry notices them and takes from airport
- Rainer taking drugs from what he was to sell
- Rainer's connection arrested, needs new connection
- Mercedes breaks with Rainer taking 100kg, runs into Harry
- Harry invites Mercedes to stay at his place
- Harry and Mercedes against Rainer
- Harry must find a way to survive drug deal
- Reasonably clever solution to drug deal problem
- Slow and by the numbers
- Mercedes Mexican and wants to return home
- Acting is believable but nobody stands out
- No familiar actors
- TV level action but not so violent
[-mrl]
===================================================================
5. THE AMERICAN NIGHTMARE (a film review in bullet list form by
Mark R. Leeper from the Toronto International Film Festival):
Capsule: In the late 60s into the 70s was a
flowering of American independent horror films
fueled by turbulent times. This is a
documentary of interviews with five major
horror directors of that time and other people
involved in horror films. The link of
inspiration to current events is not always
clearly drawn, but the film is never dull.
Made for the Independent Film Channel. Rating:
high +1
- George Romero: Civil rights, government overstepping, early
black hero, big southern sheriffs as villains, odd government
experiments
- John Carpenter: admitted counter-revolutionary, women who have
sex are murdered
- David Cronenberg: sexual revolution brought about by parasite
- Wes Craven: films discussed by connection not well drawn
- Tobe Hooper: feminism, women who must rescue selves as in
TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE
- Tom Savini, makeup engineer: served in Vietnam and tried to
recreate in makeup injuries on the battlefield
- Night of the Living Dead like civil rights issue using images
from Civil Rights news footage
- Vietnam and horror on screen
- Savini imitated Frankenstein makeup as boy, then in Vietnam
thought how to do on screen injuries he saw
- Prof. Alan Lowenstein commenting on films (who is he?)
- Anatomy is destiny, but we try to avoid that destiny
- John Carpenter films less tied to times
- Horrors are recollection of fears
- Leveraging off of real fears of world
- Moment to moment struggle in dangerous world
- People of the 60s rejecting dogma of the 50s
- David Skal says WWI injuries coming home inspired 30s horror
films, Savini says Vietnam inspired gore of 70s, why little or
no horror from WWII?
- No British films covered
- Why no cycle came from WWII
[-mrl]
===================================================================
6. EISENSTEIN (a film review in bullet list form by Mark R. Leeper
from the Toronto International Film Festival):
Capsule: This disappointing study of the life
of Russia's greatest filmmaker does what it can
to gloss over those aspects of Einstein would
most be interesting to the casual fan of his
films and instead concentrates on songs he sang
when he was drunk and quick phone calls to find
what Comrade Stalin thought of his films, and
his dance techniques. Director Renny Bartlett
has turned this from an informative film about
Eisenstein into a very personal film bordering
on the surreal. It is an accomplishment but
perhaps not the film that cinema history fans,
more interested in how he worked and less in
how he danced and sang, might have wanted.
Rating: 0
- Modest budget does not cover showing how he filmed spectacles
- "Fable and not a biography"
- Begins with E dying, then told as flashback
- Strange acting exercises in his training
- Drama teacher encourages him
- Only little bits of filming of BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN, ALEXANDER
NEVKSY shown
- Film concentrates more on his eccentricities than his
filmmaking
- BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN not named in film until after we have seen
all we will
- Not much time spent on how he made film
- BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN considered not his film but everybody's
film
- Whimsical look at Eisenstein
- Very sketchy storytelling
- Travels to US and Mexico get too much time
- Gay and Jewish, but could still work
- Pera is wife
- Style reminiscent of excesses of Ken Russell
- Too much time spent on drunken song "That geographical,
hypothetical son of a bitch, Columbus"
- Steering away from interesting parts
- Eisenstein is almost shown as autistic, one never knows what
he will do the next instant. Never felt got inside the man
- I would have been disappointed had I missed it what I
sincerely hope is this one last opportunity to see it.
[-mrl]
===================================================================
7. THE UNCLES (a film review in bullet list form by Mark R. Leeper
from the Toronto International Film Festival):
Capsule: A mentally impaired woman borrows
neighborhood children to cuddle. Her two
brothers decide she needs a child of her own
and set out to choose a father. Low budget
Toronto based film is a warm comedy with no
major flaws and no major virtues. Likable but
not greatly involving. Rating: low +1
- Jim Allodi wrote and directed
- Takes place in Toronto neighborhood
- Faded print in places, from digital video
- Not the greatest writing but okay
- John manages a restaurant for Lino who has plans to make him
responsible for new and bigger restaurant.
- John having an affair with Lino's daughter-in-law.
- John's mentally-impaired sister Cecilia borrows neighborhood
babies to cuddle
- Rochelle wants a baby and will go with John if he asks
- John fells he is in position of trust running Lino's
restaurant
- John and brother Marco want to arrange for Cecilia to have
baby
- Marco finds Spanish football player
- Everyone ends at one table at Lino's house
- Filmed on digital video
[-mrl]
===================================================================
8. SEANCE (a film review in bullet list form by Mark R. Leeper from
the Toronto International Film Festival):
Capsule: A remake of SEANCE ON A WET AFTERNOON
(or a re-adaptation of the book by Mark
McShane) with supernatural elements added.
Unsuccessful psychic/medium wants to prove her
abilities and make herself famous. When she
comes in possession of a kidnapped child, she
decides she feed clues to the police as
verifiable psychic visions, eventually
releasing the child and having visions where
the child can be found. Rating: 0
Japanese language
- Directed by Kayoshi Kurosawa
- Two characters discussing paranormal, artificial way to tell
the rules
- Medium tangentially connected to researchers, via their sound
man, his wife is medium
- Sound man recording sound in woods, kidnap victim has escaped
and hides in one of his cases
- There is a kidnapping of little girl
- Finds kidnapped girl
- Wife, Junco, wants to use this to improve her reputation as
psychic
- Redux of SEANCE ON A WET AFTERNOON
- Supernatural element added
- Slow paced at beginning
- Following two people in daily routine
- Doppleganger
- Slow paced and takes place in world with supernatural,
original did not
[-mrl]
===================================================================
9. LA MOITIE GAUCHE DU FRIGO (a film review in bullet list form by
Mark R. Leeper from the Toronto International Film Festival):
Capsule: Intended to look like a Michael Moore
documentary on what is going wrong for the
workers in the Canadian economy. Instead it is
almost entirely scripted with actors. That
robs a lot of the appeal. Not really a film
that works. Rating: low 0
French language
- The title means "the left side of the fridge"
- Premiere at Toronto
- Starts with layoff statistics for Canada
- Stephan is main character laid off
- Appealing for unemployment, but with little success
- Shown psychology curve, showing expected emotional highs and
lows after so many months of unemployment
- Grocery, forms relationship with check-out clerk
- Repeatedly rejected by companies
- Downsizing all over Canada
- Tries other jobs, including selling encyclopedias
- Tends if not happy in job, move on
- Film loses its focus
- Writer spent eighteen months writing script
- Both sides of employment issue
- Shot on digital video, not as clear, digital makes faulty
images
- Michael Moore-inspired
- French songs
- Gives documentary feel, though not really
- Shot in 26 days
- Some actors, some real people
[-mrl]
===================================================================
10. TWO THOUSAND AND NONE (a film review in bullet list form by
Mark R. Leeper from the Toronto International Film Festival):
Capsule: Quirky and intelligent like some of
the best of Woody Allen. Just at the proudest
moment of his career a paleontologist discovers
he has five weeks to live due to a rare brain
disease. This changes his behavior, his
personality, how he sees the world, how the
world sees him. Under the influence of the
disease he sees his life in various weird ways.
John Turturro at the top of his form stars in
an excellent low budget comedy-drama from
Canada. Rating: +2
- Benjamin Casparian, paleontologist has best and worst news of
life in one week
- Discovers fossil of bony fish from earlier age than they were
thought to exist
- Told he is dying and has five weeks to live
- Talbot syndrome, brain is swelling
- Getting divorced before he had the news, now must also get
used to idea of dying
- Told memory may go
- Strange visions
- Wants to savor last of life
- Wants to bury parents in Armenia near family
- Girl friend into kinky sex
- Develops sense of humor
- Sees his past like home movies in flat wet surfaces
- Scientist interested in cloning his brain
- Loses memory and becomes childlike
- Visual imagination: Opening sequence tribute to 2001, fossils
under credits, silent slow motion walk through streets
- Intelligent comedy with weird and quirky writing. Some parts
like a better Woody Allen film.
- Great script and direction by Arto Paragamian
- Benjamin has odd visions, intellectualizes situation, uses
opportunity for looking at past
- Does not need or want hospital--cannot afford to give up days
- Error: couldn't clone just brain
- Disease seems contrived
[-mrl]
===================================================================
11. VULGAR (a film review in bullet list form by Mark R. Leeper
from the Toronto International Film Festival):
Capsule: Very uneven film with some fairly
harrowing scenes. A loser who makes a sparse
living as a clown is gang-raped by three men.
Left with a death wish he risks his life to
save a little girl and is suddenly a media hero
with his own TV show. When the same three men
try to blackmail him he plans revenge. Shot on
a very low budget in New Jersey, this is a film
of narrow appeal. Rating: 0
- William, overweight and lonely, thinks of himself as failure
- Tormented by mother and neighbors
- Earns a little as Flappy the Clown, doing birthday parties in
lower class neighborhood
- Nowhere job
- Mother is nasty to him in every sentence
- Plan to make money doing bachelor parties, clown named Vulgar
- Man and two grown sons hire then rape and beat him
- With death wish William risks life, saves girl, becomes hero,
gets TV show
- Still not accepted by mother
- TV show sets children's TV back to 50s
- Blackmailed by rapists
- In some ways an agonizing film to watch
- Harrowing abuse scene
- Him being a clown adds poignancy
- Low budget by cinematographer Playing with light and shadow
- Unpolished style reminiscent of some 60s horror films
- New Jersey locations
- William feels pressure on all sides: job, mother, and
neighborhood
- Proto-chainsaw massacre family of rapists
[-mrl]
Mark Leeper
HO 1K-644 732-817-5619
mleeper@avaya.com
The trouble with our times is that the future is not what it used to be.