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dbguidebook · 1 year

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Darling Bonnie's Movie Club: 'Paris Is Burning'. #Societythings

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disappointingyet · 8 months

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Variety

Director Bette Gordon Stars Sandy McLeod, Luís Guzman, Nan Goldin USA/West Germany/UK 1983 Language English 1hr 40mins Colour

Weird but absorbing indie noir

What kind of film is this? When it begins with a conversation between Christine (Sandy McLeod) and Nan (Nan Goldin) in a locker room, it feels like this could be an early example of the young-woman-trying-to-do-something-arty-in-NYC-and-struggling microgenre, and that would be fine. Instead, a rather weirder plot is set in play when Christine surprises her friend by saying she would take the one job that Nan knows is available: working the ticket booth at the Variety, a cinema that shows dirty movies.

Christine initially seems pleased with the job, but it seems to have some unsettling effects on her. During conversations in public places with her earnest, somewhat uptight boyfriend Mark (Will Patton), she’ll break into long monologues describing erotic scenarios.

Then she starts following the besuited middle-aged regular at the Variety who has invited her out. It’s clear he’s involved in dodgy stuff, which might be connected with the corrupt fisherman’s union Mark is doing an investigative report about. Less clear is what Christine is up to, and whether she grasps how much danger she might be in.

Contrasting with the thriller elements are scenes in the bar where Nan works, with groups of women just talking about their lives.

So what we’ve got is part offbeat noir, part psychological drama and part slice of life. I’m not sure all of that fully gels, and there were occasionally bits where I thought I had missed something but the film works nonetheless.

I think the thriller elements are surprisingly effective (some other reviews seem to disagree). Like the film as a whole, they gained from being shot in the real world. We get the assorted filth-industry locations of the type so carefully recreated in the David Simon series The Deuce, but these are actual working peep shows etc. We also get the crumbling boardwalk at Asbury Park, a huge fish market and even Yankee Stadium (I was wondering if they had permission to film there or somehow snuck a camera in - not easy to do with the equipment they had in those days.)

There’s an interesting mix of folks involved, some then experiencing their moment, some whose time would come later. Writer Kathy Acker – whose work was daring or notorious, depending on your perspective – gets a script credit. I don’t generally like a sax-driven score, but this one is excellent – it’s by John Lurie, who around the same time was starring in Jim Jarmusch’s breakthrough Stranger Than Paradise, which was shot by Tom DiCillo, who (yes) was one of the cinematographers on Variety.

There are a couple of character actors making early appearances here who are still busy in the 2020s. I’ve already mentioned Will Patton – the other one is Luís Guzmán, who plays Christine’s co-worker at the cinema. I’m here to report that Guzmán arrived in the movies fully formed – to say he’s easily recognisable in Variety is an understatement.

But I’m guessing it’s Goldin’s presence that meant I could see this in a cinema in 2023. Clips from Variety appear in All The Beauty And All The Bloodshed, the recent critically beloved documentary about Goldin’s life and work. She seems to be playing herself: the character is called Nan, she’s a photographer and she works in a bar, as Goldin did at the time. (I'm assuming the bar she worked at and the one in the movie are the same place, but don't know that for sure.)

Variety had a slightly strange origin – Bette Gordon was an underground New York-based film-maker offered a chance to make a bigger film by a German TV channel (Britain’s recently established Channel 4 contributed too). Gordon came up with idea and asked Acker to write it – but three other people get a credit for the screenplay and I think I can guess which bits are left from Acker’s draft.

It’s very much a snapshot of a moment in early 1980s New York, but it’s also an involving and fascinating movie. I like it a lot.

#1980s new york #1980s movies #film noir #nan goldin

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thoughtportal · 1 year

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5 ninth avenue project

https://www.youtube.com/user/5ninthavenueproject

#tiktok #youtube #1980s #1980s new york #new york #cinema verite #watch this #nostalgia

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dogandcatcomics · 2 years

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#repost @boohooray @boohooraybooks (New York City, USA). There is some tangential canine representation in this cover of The Valium Addict No. 3, Richard Kern, ed. New York: H.A. Product, 1981. Photocopied zine, saddle stapled. 31, [2] pp. 5 ½ x 8 ½ in. Additional content by Tommy Turner, Stewart Wilson, Mary Otto, Chris Sanders, and d. Bennett. A document of the No Wave movement.

#perro #dog #chien #illustration #hund #hond #dogs in art #animals in art #no wave #fanzine #fanzinero #zine #zinester #vintage zine #vintage fanzine #autogestión #1980s culture #1980s New York #print culture

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stevepotterwrites · 2 years

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Free on Amazon Kindle May 25th - 29th: Potatoes in Brooklyn

#short fiction #free ebook #free kindle reads #short story #american ficition #working class fiction #1970s new york #1980s new york

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yodaprod · 3 months

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Early 80s pre-Disney Times Square...

#flashing gif #new york city #times square #new york #nyc #1980s #80's #80s

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twixnmix · 4 months

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Keith Haring, Grace Jones, Eartha Kitt, and Beverly Johnson getting ready for New Year’s Eve at the Roseland Ballroom in New York City on December 31, 1987.

Photos by Tseng Kwong Chi

#keith haring #grace jone #eartha kitt #beverly johnson #1987 #roseland ballroom #nyc #new york city #1980s #art

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obsessedbyneon · 8 months

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Brooklyn Bridge, downtown Manhattan and the Twin Towers. From 'Inside New York' (1991)

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#scan #brooklyn bridge #twin towers #new york #1980s #manhattan #downtown #architecture #nostalgia

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retropopcult · 5 months

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In 1987, an ice-skating Snoopy balloon flew high above the crowds that had gathered along the west side of Central Park to watch Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

#1980s #New York City #vintage #Peanuts #80s #NYC #retro #holiday

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undr · 2 months

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Viviane Moos. Man on Bicycle Riding in Empty, Snowy Street. New York. 1996

#viviane moos #vintage #black and white #photography #street photography #art #history #black and white photography #vintage photography #new york #1980s

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tvneon · 19 days

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#big apple minute #new york city #nyc #80s #1980s

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dbguidebook · 7 months

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*Note: This Post Contains An Affiliate Link. | this post is designed to enlighten x enrich, do not glimpse through in vain, it's advisable to take your time with this as each link leads somewhere else promising & worth it.

Darling Bonnie's Must See Cinema: 'Downtown 81'. #Societythings

The DBXCO. Lifestyle Guide:

Gather your artsy clique, with an emphasis on those who happen to be Basquiat + 1980's New york Art scene enthusiast and host a screening of 'Downtown 81'.

Invoke conversations surrounding the 1980's art scene, the importance of AREA & Basquiat's affiliation with it,

in addition to Basquiat's legacy of being 'The Radiant Child' & Glenn O'Brien's commitment to getting this film, Downtown '81, finished long past Basquiat's passing.

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For the affair serve something SAMO like authentic Mr.Chow or at the very least Mr. Chow recreation's.

Post the affair organize a visit to the Basquiat: King's Pleasure exhibit at The Broad Museum and wax poetic about the beauty of Basquiat's supremely jazzy High Street Art aesthetic.

#SOCIETYTHINGS

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disappointingyet · 2 years

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Smithereens

Director Susan Seidelman Stars Susan Berman, Brad Rijn, Richard Hell USA 1982 Language English 1hr 33mins Colour

Authentically roach-infested view of post-punk NYC

Desperately Seeking Susan is a delightful film that takes a touristy trip to a scrubbed-up version of Manhattan’s mid-‘80s downtown scene. For a grimier, noisier and less alluring take, you need to watch director Susan Seidelman’s previous movie, Smithereens.

Smithereens is about Wren (Susan Berman), who we meet wearing a plastic houndstooth skirt and checkered sunglasses. She’s mouthy, energetic, very what people think of as New York (and like a lot of classic New Yorkers, she’s actually from New Jersey). She’s on the scene, talking her way into clubs, trying to meet bands, self-promoting with Xeroxes of herself and the words ‘Who is this?’ that she hands out or sticks on walls.

She’s both vulnerable and a user, and seems to be the kind of person who wears through people’s patience. There’s something proto-Llewyn Davis about the way she runs out of places to sleep/park her stuff. During the short time frame covered by the film, there are two men she spends time with: Eric (punk pioneer Richard Hell), singer in Smithereens, and clueless out-of-towner Paul (Brad Rijn), whose main utility to Wren is that he has a van to sleep in. Eric might seem big time by comparison, but even he lives in an ultra-grubby loft and is constantly on the look out for new ways to hustle cash.

Seidelman does not, then, seem to trying to tempt us into this world. It looks tiring and uncomfortable and none-too-glamorous, no matter how cool some of the characters appear to be before you get to know them.

I wonder a bit about the intended and perceived balance of sympathy, when it was made and now, between Wren and Paul from Montana. Wren definitely strings Paul along, but it’s on him to realise that doing favours for anyone brings no duty to provide sex in return. My guess is that that’s Seidelman’s view but some viewers saw it differently.

Wren, I feel, is something of a precursor to the young women struggling to hold it together in boho New York in movies like Frances Ha, but her existence is more precarious both financially and safety-wise.

It’s low-budget but not experimental – the film is episodic but linear: there’s a clear beginning and end and Seidelman avoids gimmicks. There’s no disguising the low budget but its nicely shot by Chirine El Khadem.

One of the things I mentioned in my review of Desperately Seeking Susan is that while there are assorted cult musicians in doing bit parts, the music is very mainstream. Not so here: weaving its way through the film are the spidery guitars of New Jersey band The Feelies, whose vibe is encapsulated by the title of the first song on their debut album (and present in this film) The Boy with the Perpetual Nervousness. The highlight of the soundtrack might be ESG’s indie-funk classic Moody.

But the real snob points on the music front come not from a band you hear in the film, but whose name you can see on the marquee of The Peppermint Lounge: 3 Teens Kill 4. They are remembered not for any of the songs but because one of their members was artist/writer David Wojnarowicz, the dead-too-soon downtown martyr of choice for people who feel that Basquiat and Haring are way too mainstream.

If Smithereens is more authentic than Desperately Seeking Susan, more representative of the grotty lives that many people trying to get a bit of the action in post-punk New York, does that make it a better movie? Emphatically not – if you see one of these two films, definitely make it Desperately Seeking Susan. But Smithereens is certainly worth a watch if you are interested in this time and place or like a female antihero.

Part of my ‘Every girl should be given an electric guitar on her 16th birthday’series

#smithereens #1980s new york #1980s movies #punk movies

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zegalba · 7 months

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