Author Archive: Peter Jakobsen
Perfect Murder Perfect Town
Jon Benét Ramsey's grave at Saint James Episcopal (by Taurusrus)
(2000) (Dir. Lawrence Schiller) Directed by Schiller as a tele-movie, originally a series, from his own book about the murder of 6 year old glamour-puss Jon Benét Ramsey on Christmas Day (or Boxing Day) 1996 in Boulder, Colorado, it violently divided critics and viewers alike as either partisan, too procedural or just plain icky. Young Jon Benét was found strangled in the family’s cellar after what was called “the ‘War and Peace’ of ransom notes” turned up. The parents became prime suspects; police and prosecutors clashed over the making of a prima facie case, and no one was ever charged….
Continue Reading →Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg
Stage Design by Helmut Jurgens, Munich 1949
(Richard Wagner) (Met, N.Y., Dec. 2014) Whilst perhaps a German might find an opera of over 6 hours duration a droll concept, only Richard Wagner would turn that concept into reality. Yet in mirific fashion, he succeeds with his most human and entertaining work, a wonderful mix of romance and comedy that does not equate, thanks god, to a ‘romantic comedy’. From the Magisterial overture to the polyphonous redux of the Masters’ motto, we are enthralled and can even look past the score-settling with critics like Eduard Hanslick (the libretto originally had Beckmesser as ‘Hanslich’), with Jews such as Meyerbeer,…
Continue Reading →Half Glass Beats Full
The full glass (The Ritz Bros. photographed by William P. Gottlieb)
In the wake of the banal, humour-free and self-aggrandizing gang-bang that is the Academy Awards, we are reminded of a scene from Tropic Thunder in which Ben Stiller, conversing with Robert Downey Jnr., regrets the failure of his dramatic film, Simple Jack. Stiller complained that “I did the work.” Downey points out the tactical error of going Full Glass instead of Half Glass, adding “Ask Sean Penn, 2001, I Am Sam. Remember? … Went home empty-handed.” Downey cited Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man, Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump and Peter Sellers in Being There as examples of acclaimed or Oscar-winning half…
Continue Reading →Oscars – the people aren’t right
Kevin Marc is as shocked as us at some of the Academy's choices...
It is timely, in this awards season, to recall that Aristotle suggested the three bad forms of governance were tyranny, oligarchy and democracy. With these matters in mind, let us roam at random over some of the choices (for best picture) of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. To judge film awards, you presumably have to have clear criteria and then see everything. This is not feasible or even sensible. To make an appraisal, you have to be a ‘stakeholder’ in the proper sense of the word – in other words, be completely disinterested. This is not feasible or…
Continue Reading →The Candidate
(Dir. Michael Ritchie) (1972) Before he signed on as that perennial emblem, Bastard Dad, in the shrill and leaden “comedy series”, Everybody Loves Raymond, Peter Boyle did some interesting stuff: Joe, Taxi Driver, and in particular, his role here as a political Svengali to neophyte golden-boy Robert Redford in his against-the-odds shot at the California Senate race. Fascinating depiction of a modern campaign’s trajectory, with strong performances by supporting players Boyle, Allan Garfield as a bumptious PR guy, Melvyn Douglas as the candidate’s former Governor Father, and Don Porter as the formidable Republican opponent seeking yet another term. Highly watchable,…
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