Goodness me where to begin? The film was based on Gary K. Wolf’s dark novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit?, which tells the story of detective Eddie Valiant investigating the murder of Roger Rabbit. This exquisite animated feast follows the story of this self same detective (Bob Hoskins) as he seeks to clear Roger Rabbit’s name (Charles Felischer), following his framing for a murder he did not commit, and reunite him with his wife Jessica Rabbit (Kathleen Turner).
Part animation, part film noir, part slapstick comedy, part mismatched buddy movie, part postmodern treatise, director Robert Zemeckis’ and executive producer Steven Spielberg’s valentine to the cartoon heroes of their youth is all astonishing technical know-how in the service of infectious exuberance and pure wonder. Empire
While the film was made in 1988, it was set in 1947, the golden age of cartooning. The costumes, set design and beautiful animation are a true show of strength from Disney. Throughout the film they are showing you quite plainly ‘this is what we can do’. The opening scene’s disaster sequence where Baby Herman was crawling around the kitchen with Roger in tow, trying to avoid injury seemed to go on forever and included a head spinning amount of mishaps. Then something extraordinary happens, the cartoons step out of the animated world and into the real world, seamlessly. Zemeckis’ genius and the raw capabilities of the animation of Disney come alive at this point.
Where Roger Rabbit still amazes today is in just how much the cartoons feel part of the real world, rather than being pasted into it. Nifty mechanical effects (robotic arms, intricate wirework, sets built six feet off the floor to accommodate puppeteers) enabled props to be moved by cartoon characters – who were added in later – giving the dailies the appearance of an Invisible Man movie. Empire
Christopher Lloyd (Back to the Future) plays an extraordinary villainous figure in this film as Judge Doom. His litany of mafia mongooses follow him as he exacts his twisted version of justice on all those in his path. He is the perfect dark anti-hero to the colourful camp excitement of Roger Rabbit throughout the film. I noticed that the plot had a slight nod to Chinatown, the latter being the apex of the film noir genre. And this brings me to an important point, while being visually staggering throughout, and playful and fun, Who Framed Roger Rabbit remains an excellent, well paced, character rich film. Above all the visual brilliance and noise, the tension and plot development is kept tight throughout. This is a testament again to the director’s genius.
There is much more to be said for this film but the best thing to do would be simply to watch it.
Following on from a highly enjoyable 5 Favourites post in March, I have decided to make the feature a running one.
Sparks – Propaganda
The brothers Mael find themselves in a series of tricky situations for the cover of their 1974 album, Propaganda. The middle sleeve is the photograph I used for the cover of this post, but these two can also be found gagged and bound in the back of a car on the back cover of this wonderful album. The album itself is an astonishing and flawless work of art, please do listen to it.
Supertramp – Crisis, What Crisis?
These three famous words, misattributed to Labour leader Jim Callahan in 1979 during the Winter of Discontent ( who actually said “I don’t think other people in the world would share the view [that] there is mounting chaos”), were the inspiration for the dramatic cover you see above. Although if we look back further the line was Zinneman’s 1973 film The Day of the Jackal. Anyway, the cover itself is quite striking. The background was a still taken from a Welsh mining town which brings home the point the cover is trying to make even more.
Thomas Dolby – Aliens Ate My Buick
This is one of my favourite albums ever, it is flawless start to finish, inventive and novel. It is the kind of album which leaves you feeling like you’ve been missing something your entire life when listening for the first time. But in terms of the album artwork, this 1950s comic book esque cover with Dolby and his girl in the foreground is just great. Aliens are destroying buildings and eating his nice Buick, while nicely dressed people are running for their lives. It’s just great. The back cover is even better, the faint outline of the car and some fiery traces, at a drive in movie about aliens stealing cars is totally inspired.
The Kick Inside – Kate Bush
“…and then I find it out, when I take a good look up. There’s a hole in the sky, with a big eyeball, calling me….come up and be a kite, and fly a diamond night…” Kite, Kate Bush
Jay Myrdal was the photographer who gifted us with this wonderful cover. The idea is said to have come from Pinocchio, when Jiminy Cricket floats past the whale’s eye using his umbrella like a parachute (Kate Bush News). Kate, a then relative unknown, came to Myrdal’s studio, driven by her father with a car full of wooden sticks and yellow material. The rest, as they say, is history.
Grace Jones – Hurricane / Dub
Another one of Jean Paul Goude’s masterpieces and lessons in photography, the cover of Hurricane / Dub shows Grace in 2008, then 60 years old, wearing a rhinestone studded bowler hat and smoking a cigarette. The open mouth and position of the head are reminiscent of the cover of Slave to the Rhythm, which we will certainly cover later. This stunning hat was the focal point of the below performance in 2010, where Grace became a self styled disco ball. Having seen Grace live myself (a quasi-religious experience), I can understand why the crowd absolutely lost their minds.
John Phillip Simpson (1782–1847) was a British portrait painter. Until his death he was a frequent exhibitor at Royal Academy and was even the appointed painter to Portuguese royalty. Today I want to talk about a piece of his which has moved me rather. I wanted to include this in Black History Month back in February but almost feel it is more impactful being seen as a stand alone piece some weeks later. After all, the issues highlighted in Black History Month are suffered year round.
Despite enduring critical neglect and eventual obscurity, Simpson was a gifted artist, capable at times of venturing beyond the parameters of society portraiture and his position as a studio assistant. And in one particular work, The Captive Slave, John Simpson produced a painting of iconic status, which can be regarded today as his masterpiece and as a worthy emblem of the aims and achievements of the Abolition Movement.
Britain did not abolish slavery until 1833, some six years after The Captive Slave was painted. Plantations in the far reaches of the British Empire were still profiting from slave labour when this was painted and those profits, of course, made their way directly to London. With this in mind, let us have a look at the above painting. Take some time to examine it. The subject is a black man, chained at the wrists, looking into a dark negative space surrounding him. He seems to be looking towards the source of the light which reflects on his brow, perhaps a window outside the scope of the canvas. His chest is exposed which puts him in even more of a vulnerable position. There is a wetness in his eyes which seems to indicate tears have been shed. And in contrast to the above, he is wearing a striking orange jumpsuit which shocks us with colour.
The colour of the jumpsuit is very effective in highlighting the shocking captivity that this slave finds himself in. This painting hit me with some force. Simpson has used a mastery of technique to convey a deeply human portrait of the slave, which renders his captivity all the more shocking to the viewer. He, and the millions of others in his position, were people, not merchandise, as was believed at the time this was painted. This belief is conveyed beautifully in a striking way by Simpson.
Striking hand detail from The Captive Slave
The model Simpson used for this striking painting is said to have been Ira Frederick Aldrige, a famous Shakespearian actor of the time, pictured below, who had several notable performances including one as Othello and another as King Lear. Overall I am struck by this painting. It is a masterpiece and iconic (in the old sense of the word) emblem of the abolition movement. It stirs so many emotions and allows the modern viewer to reflect on the horrifying racial injustices which are still pervasive in modern times.
This post was not intended to make broad generalisations about a deeply complex issue, or to push any semblance of an agenda, but rather to share a beautiful, meaningful and sadly contemporarily potent piece of art. My sincere apologies if this did not come across in the above.
The plot of Alien is relatively simple: The crew of a towering 800 foot long commercial towing ship, the Nostromo, are tasked with investigating what appears to be a distress signal from an alien planet. The crew investigates this but, unbeknownst to them, bring an extremely dangerous alien life form onto their ship. One by one they are picked off…
Scott, aided by his special effects team, headed by Brian Johnson and Nick Allder, and many others who deserve to be mentioned but can’t be, creates in the confined space of his main set a sweaty little world on its own that responds ideally to his obsessive close-ups and restless, magnifying style. Hurt has said that it was more a matter of reacting than acting, and one can well understand what he means. His own performance makes one miss it when it’s gone. And that of Sigourney Weaver, as one of the two women astronauts, is also consistently watchable (with a bigger slice of the cake). Derek Malcolm
Tom Skerritt … Dallas
Sigourney Weaver … Ripley
Veronica Cartwright … Lambert
Harry Dean Stanton … Brett
John Hurt … Kane
Ian Holm … Ash
Yaphet Kotto … Parker
Bolaji Badejo … Alien
From the beginning Alien is otherworldly in its subject matter, set and striking visuals. The derelict alien ship which is investigated is as large as a building. Its vaulted insides are just as towering. The uniform rows of hibernating eggs, covered by an ominous coloured fog make for terrifying viewing. One can only imagine what the 1979 audience must have felt, before the SAW series of ‘films’ desensitised the public to horror.
However, the crew stayed small (seven, plus cat), the alien stayed medium-sized (no bigger than the man who played him, supple Masai tribesman Bolaji Badejo) and the story stayed simple: ship lands on planet in response to an SOS that turns out to be a warning; alien infects one of the crew; alien kills the rest of the crew one by one. It’s Ten Little Indians in space. Empire
Alien is a triumphant film in many regards, from its sensational design aspect, plot and the acting itself. The late great Sir Ian Holm (Bilbo Baggins, no less) is a phenomenon as the sociopathic, robotic follower of procedure, calm even in the face of his screaming colleagues. Sigourney Weaver as Ripley is of course a marvel as the jaded bad-ass survivor against all odds, increasingly bedraggled with every passing minute of the film. John Hurt’s role may be one of the most compelling but is unfortunately too brief, however superb its denouement.
To describe Alien as a triumph chiefly in terms of its look is not to underplay its dramatic strengths, it’s just that ordinary filmgoers tend to nod off if you pay tribute to designers (art directors Roger Christian and Les Dilley, production designer Michael Seymour, FX team Brian Johnson, Nick Allder, Carlo Rambali… wake up!) Empire
And talk about an ending! Alien for me scores 10s across the board. Even now some 42 years later, it packs a punch.
Perhaps the title of this album should be altered to Changed Forever, as this is how I feel listening to Love. Possibly one of the most diverse rock band of its time, Love enjoyed limited commercial success but their third album, Forever Changes, is now recognised as one of the finest rock records of the 1960s. Forever Changes, written in the Summer of Love (and released in the Autumn of the Clinic?) was about anything but love. The album captured something of the opposite sentiment to that espoused by the pastiche hindsight heavy retrospectives about the era. And it was recorded in only 64 hours!
The best record to come out of such turmoil—Love’s 1967 record Forever Changes—is ambitious and prescient, reflecting the cultural shift of the dying ’60s, while tapping into the paranoia that would soon permeate much of American culture in the next decade. Both lyrically and musically, Forever Changes is a snapshot of a turbulent America. AV Club
The opening track, Alone Again Or features the heart rendering line:
You know that I could be in love with almost everyone,
I think that people are the greatest fun,
and I will be alone again tonight, my dear
This sets the album up as being one concerned with isolation in an otherwise plenteous time of choice. “and I will be alone agains tonight my dear” recurs throughout the track, reinforcing the point. The trumpets are gorgeously combined with strings to make for a sumptuous, longing bridge. The guitar work, while repetitive, is precise and pleasantly tuneful.
Arranged By – Arthur Lee (tracks: A2 to A4, A6 to B5), Bryan Maclean (tracks: A1, A4), David Angel (tracks: A1, A4)
Artwork [Front Cover] – Bob Pepper
Bass – Ken Forssi
Cover, Design – William S. Harvey
Guitar – John Echols
Guitar, Vocals – Arthur Lee, Bryan Maclean
Orchestrated By – David Angel (tracks: A2 to A4, A6 to B5)
Percussion – Michael Stuart*
Photography By [Back Cover Photo] – Ronnie Haran
Producer – Arthur Lee, Bruce Botnick
Supervised By [Production Supervisor] – Jac Holzman
A House Is Not a Hotel features some stellar acoustic and bass guitar and vocals from Arthur Lee. The lyrics are a stellar rebuke of the turmoil of war, likely aimed at the discontent fomented by the US war on Vietnam. The guitar solos are just extraordinary throughout. They clash and are disjointed but work beautifully.
Andmoreagain, which I initially thought was a place in Wales, is a more thoughtful, introspective track than the more rock orientated previous track.
The Red Telephone is reminiscent of Syd Barret’s Pink Floyd but is rather more devastating in its subject matter, tackling race, imprisonment and death. The crooning lyrics are somewhat at odds with the dark subject matter, much like the first track on the album. The softness of the guitar is such to highlight the devastating lyrics. In terms of production value, this is off the scale. Violins sit perfectly at ease with the acoustic and bass guitar, managing to sound sumptuous without attacking your ears.
Sitting on a hillside
Watching all the people die
[…]
They’re locking them up today
They’re throwing away the key
I wonder who it will be tomorrow
You or me?
The next song provides some comparative light relief but still captures what Pitchfork refers to as “purgatory characterized by paranoia and grievance”, reflecting the mood of the nation at the end of the 1960s. Maybe the People Would Be the Times or Between Clark and Hilldale bids farewell to audiences. The AV Club referred to this track as characterising the futility of the sentiments espoused by the typical view of the Summer of Love. It is worth noting that Arthur Lee was convinced of his imminent death hence wrote this album as a final farewell, haunted by the inevitable spectre. This comes through in this track, especially notable when listening to him singing along to the trumpets, very much driven by the beauty of the music.
Eventually, he became convinced that his death was looming and that Forever Changes would be his final statement to the world. So he became a rank perfectionist, expressing all his unhappiness, fear, blame, and hope not only in his dark, discomfiting lyrics, but in the music itself, which draws from rock, pyschedelia, folk, pop, classical, and even mariachi. Ultimately, the album belongs to none of those genres.
[…]
This is the truer sound of late-1960s Los Angeles, which was neither a trippy paradise nor a Lizard Kingdom, but a purgatory characterized by paranoia and grievance. Pitchfork
Live and Let Live features a number of 12 string guitars layered together in a way that is meant to disorientate the listener. Somehow Lee has managed to turn the subject matter into the internal monologue of a man planning to shoot a bluebird with a pistol as it was trespassing on his land, a clear and vocal criticism of the US encroaching in Vietnam, perhaps.
You Set the Scene closes the album in a typical upbeat arrangement, masking a greater profound message. That message being that life is short and should be lived with love (sentiment, not the band), depth and purpose. The triumphant horns at the end of this track close the album exactly as it should be closed and leave one almost gasping at the magnitude of what has just been heard.
This is the only thing that I am sure of And that’s all that lives is gonna die And there’ll always be some people here to wonder why And for every happy hello, there will be goodbye There’ll be time for you to put yourself on
Everything I’ve seen needs rearranging And for anyone who thinks it’s strange Then you should be the first to want to make this change And for everyone who thinks that life is just a game Do you like the part you’re playing
This is an album which seeks to expose the lie of the Summer of Love. Love use ingeniously cheery arrangements and devastating lyrics to highlight the disparity between what was heard during this tumultuous summer and what was actually happening. It is a work of profound genius, which has rather changed my life. Forever Changes absolutely lives up to its title and has changed me forever. I hope it will have a similar effect on you, dear reader.
