Black History Month ends today, as does Black History Mumf at Big Media Vandalism. Before wrapping things up, Odienator takes a long look at an expected subject: Blazing Saddles, “a film so politically incorrect it should come with a surgeon general's warning for the easily offended. The film is full of racist language, Black jokes, Jewish jokes, gay slurs, religious blasphemy and cruelty to both animals and old ladies. There are at least three jokes about rape, two jokes about improper use of cattle (one of which I've already counted in the rape jokes) , and one joke about implied masturbation between a cowboy and his bathing boss.” Not that he has a problem with that. “I've a rule about comedy which states that nothing is offensive to me so long as it's funny. Luckily, Saddles is hilarious, but every joke is a powderkeg of potential offense.”
Today also represents the official end to the 2007 awards season, as the Screengrab’s own Paul Clark unveils the big winner of the 2nd Annual Muriel Awards at Silly Hats Only. The Golden Muriel for Best Film goes to No Country For Old Men, edging out There Will Be Blood and Zodiac.
At the House Next Door, Vadim Rizov brings us up to speed on the “"Rendez-Vous with French Cinema" series at Lincoln Center. His highlight is actress Mia Hansen-Løve's directorial debut All Is Forgiven, which he says “is so resolutely modest that it took me a while to realize what I was seeing was closer to Yi Yi than another purposefully small-scale festival movie. The style may be hermetic, but all the better to keep the plot away from the melodrama it would've turned into in lesser hands. There's heroin addiction here, destroyed marriages, abandoned children and all kinds of casual emotional damage—but it never feels like one damn thing after another, just a truthful look into the lives of adults fighting problems they should've resolved well before marriage and their potential march to serenity.”
And finally, Cinematical is taking a stand: The Venture Brothers need a feature film. As Monika Bartyzel writes, “the show's structure is much more ideal for a feature film. It's an animated adventure. There's no need to scheme up a way to make it cinematic, because the meat is right there. They've already faced aged prostitutes, the Bermuda triangle, tag sales for super-villains, mummies, Ünderland, space, and even dating. Take any frontier, any situation really, and you could slide the Ventures into it.”