Two terrific pieces from the film issue that I missed while I was out:
This is a great, long interview with Joseph Lanza, whose book Phallic Frenzy “spends as many pages describing [Ken] Russell's onscreen pageantry as its symbolic underpinnings: exaggerated phallic imagery, abrasive anti-religious scenes, nude male wrestling, incontinence, rape and forced enemas.”
Says Lanza, “Some people will look at the book and say, "Phallic Frenzy? This must be pornography." Well, it's about penises, but it's often about how terrifying they can be, and what the penis might have represented to Ken Russell at various times of his life.”
In Will Doig’s charming piece, “Hollywood Square,” Will talks about his love for mediocre Hollywood comedies. Many of them feature John Candy. None of them are good date movies.
“Made in America is not a film you want anyone to know you've seen, least of all a philosophy major from the University of Maryland whom you're trying to have sex with. I knew, even as I was walking the box to the Blockbuster counter, that I was torpedoing the date. I could have rented a Cassavetes or a Schlesinger, but I couldn't stop myself. I was going to make him watch this, dammit.”