observat ions and op in ions about new orleans au tumn 2007

2525

25

of the more jaded

of us in New Orleans seem to be increasingly skeptical of the city’s rank in any art form other than jazz. Who would have thought that New Orleans played such a prominent role in the history of motion pictures? In fact, Thomas Edison developed what is generally considered the first commercially viable motion picture projection system, the Vitascope, in 1896. In June of that very same year, the first theater in the U.S. dedicated exclusively to projecting motion pictures was established on Canal Street. Appropriately enough, it was called Vitascope Hall. Not as enduring as Preservation Hall, but certainly a more reassuring thought than our current City Hall.

All of which raises an interesting contrast between motion picture projection and life in New Orleans today. The illusion of motion resulting when a series of film images is displayed in quick succession is based upon the theory of persistence of vision… having to do with the interaction between the retina of the human eye and the brain. Unfortunately, in this post-Katrina landscape, a persistence of vision is lacking when it is needed most. We seem to be floundering about more than the third rewrite of the screenplay for the latest Adam Sandler disaster. Perhaps that is why it is more comforting than ever to lose yourself in the dark of the theater. Surely we find as much solace in Canal Place or The Prytania as did late 19th Century New Orleanians in Vitascope Hall and its flickering light.

by Michael Allday

From Tom Waits, Jockey full of Bourbon

Not

Anyw

here

Els

e. B

y A

nne G

isle

son

As

a te

enag

er g

rowi

ng u

p in

New

Orle

ans

in th

e ei

ghtie

s, I

was

very

con

scio

us o

f the

dis

conn

ect b

etwe

en th

e la

rger

cul

tura

l aes

thet

ic —

slic

k, b

right

and

syn

thet

ic a

nd th

e

mys

terio

us d

ecay

ing

world

aro

und

me.

Lis

teni

ng to

jazz

and

eng

agin

g in

slig

htly

unde

rage

fora

ys in

to v

ario

us d

ives

acr

oss

town

wer

e m

eant

to c

atap

ult m

e in

to th

e co

mpl

exiti

es o

f adu

lthoo

d wi

th fa

r mor

e al

acrit

y tha

n lis

teni

ng to

the

Go-G

os a

nd

watc

hing

John

Hug

hes

mov

ies

(whi

ch I

still

did

ple

nty o

f). Tw

o m

ovie

s ca

me

out d

urin

g th

is ti

me

that

pac

kage

d th

is ro

man

ticis

m a

nd s

old

it ba

ck to

my p

erm

eabl

e ad

oles

cent

imag

inat

ion:

Jim

Jarm

usch

’s Do

wn B

y Law

in 1

985

and

Alan

Par

ker’s

Ange

l Hea

rt in

198

7. A

noth

er N

ew O

rlean

s-ba

sed

mov

ie a

lso

prem

iere

d in

198

7, th

e em

barra

ssin

g De

nnis

Qua

id v

ehic

le T

he B

ig E

asy w

hich

did

n’t i

nflu

ence

me

exce

pt to

resi

st it

s ca

rtoon

ish

depi

ctio

ns o

f our

city

, its

acc

ents

and

aph

oris

ms.

¶ In

the

open

ing

sequ

ence

of D

own

By L

aw, J

arm

usch

reel

s ou

t a tr

acki

ng s

hot o

f row

afte

r row

of s

hotg

un h

ouse

s, e

ssen

tially

the

sam

e ba

ckse

at p

anor

ama

any k

id b

roug

ht u

p in

New

Orle

ans

woul

d be

num

b to

o, b

ut in

bla

ck a

nd w

hite

and

und

ersc

ored

by th

e m

uted

dan

ger o

f Tom

Wai

ts’ “

Jock

ey F

ull o

f Bou

rbon

,” it

was

reve

lato

ry, s

udde

nly

givi

ng o

ur to

o fa

mili

ar la

ndsc

ape

a su

rpris

ing,

bal

d lyr

icis

m. W

ith it

s id

iosy

ncra

tic d

ialo

gue

and

hips

teriz

atio

n of

the

crim

inal

ele

men

t, Do

wn B

y La

w wa

s a

tem

plat

e fo

r 90’

s in

die

film

s. Y

ears

late

r my l

ife w

ould

unw

ittin

gly c

onve

rge

with

var

ious

loca

tions

from

the

mov

ie. T

he d

ecre

pit g

as s

tatio

n wh

ere

Robe

rto B

enig

ni p

ract

iced

his

inde

x ca

rd E

nglis

h is

one

blo

ck fr

om w

here

I wo

rk a

nd a

few

bloc

ks

from

my h

ouse

. A L

ower

Gar

den

Dist

rict a

partm

ent I

onc

e liv

ed in

is th

e ba

ckdr

op fo

r ano

ther

sce

ne, a

nd t

he V

icto

rian-

trim

med

bui

ldin

g in

the

fore

grou

nd w

as c

ompl

etel

y tak

en o

ut b

y Hur

rican

e Ka

trina

, kne

e-hi

gh w

eeds

hav

ing

recl

aim

ed th

e lo

t.

A sa

d an

d be

autif

ul w

orld

, ind

eed.

¶ A

ngel

Hea

rt’s

dark

er ta

ke o

n th

e ci

ty p

laye

d to

its

spoo

ky, s

oulfu

l rep

utat

ion,

as

did

the

visu

al rh

ythm

cre

ated

by c

erta

in re

curri

ng im

ages

: Mic

key R

ourk

e’s d

oom

ed d

etec

tive

Harry

Ang

el ru

nnin

g th

roug

h th

e ra

in

in Ja

ckso

n Sq

uare

. Slo

w-ch

urni

ng fa

ns.

Insc

ruta

ble

blac

k vo

odoo

ladi

es. S

treet

urc

hins

tap

danc

ing

unde

r cas

t iro

n ba

lcon

ies.

New

Orle

ans

was

Harry

Ang

el’s

final

, swe

aty

stop

bef

ore

his

inex

orab

le d

esce

nt in

to h

ell.

Bot

h fil

ms

disp

laye

d th

eir

own

styli

sh, v

inta

ge a

spira

tions

that

app

eale

d to

man

y of u

s—th

e nat

ty cl

othe

s and

cool

mus

ic. T

he lo

cale

s, th

ough

, wer

e our

s. A

lthou

gh n

ot h

ustle

rs, d

evil

wors

hipe

rs, d

etec

tives

or vo

odoo

pra

ctiti

oner

s we i

nhab

ited

a fle

sh a

nd b

lood

vers

ion

of th

ose

onsc

reen

wor

lds.

¶ In

Wal

ker P

ercy

’s Th

e Mov

iego

er, h

is N

ew O

rlean

ian n

arra

tor B

inx B

ollin

g cal

led t

his p

heno

men

on, t

he po

wer o

f the

mov

ies t

o tra

nsfo

rm re

ality

, “ce

rtific

atio

n.” “

Nowa

days

whe

n a pe

rson

lives

som

ewhe

re, in

a ne

ighb

orho

od, t

he pl

ace i

s not

certi

fied f

or hi

m. M

ore t

han l

ikel

y he w

ill liv

e the

re sa

dly a

nd th

e em

ptin

ess w

hich

is in

side

him

will

expa

nd un

til it

evac

uate

s the

entir

e nei

ghbo

rhoo

d. B

ut if

he se

es a

mov

ie w

hich

show

s his

very

neig

hbor

hood

, it be

com

es po

ssib

le fo

r him

to liv

e, fo

r a ti

me a

t

leas

t, as

a p

erso

n wh

o is S

omew

here

and

not

Any

wher

e.” B

etwe

en th

e yea

rs of

med

ia co

vera

ge a

nd th

e bur

geon

ing

loca

l mov

ie in

dust

ry, th

is w

hole

town

is d

ue to

be c

ertif

ied,

all

of u

s acu

tely,

at t

imes

pai

nful

ly, a

ware

of b

eing

Som

ewhe

re a

nd n

ot A

nywh

ere.

From Tom Waits, Jockey full of Bourbon

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Illustration © 2007 Justin Shiels

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Let’s all go to the lobby and get ourselves a treat.

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Let’s all go to the lobby and get ourselves a treat.

Nobody embodied stylish decadence better than the actor George Sanders. Even when ask-ing a hatcheck girl for his coat, he conveyed the impression of a malevolent cat fas-tidiously licking its chops over the prospect of a particu-larly toothsome mouse.

The definitive Sanders cad is generally considered to be Addison DeWitt, the cold-blooded theater critic he played in Joseph L. Mankiewicz's superb "All About Eve" (1950). (The role won Sanders his only Oscar.) Some sense of DeWitt's personality can be gleaned from his self-description — although mere print can never do justice to the mellifluous Sanders voice, or the ironic hauteur of his delivery. "To those of you who do not read, attend the theater, listen to unsponsored radio programs or know anything of the world in which you live, it is perhaps necessary to in-troduce myself," he purrs. "My name is Addison De-Witt. My native habitat is the theater. In it I toil not, neither do I spin. I am a critic and commentator. I am essential to the theater — as ants to a picnic, as the boll weevil to a cotton field."

When I began to write about movies—I remember it well: I had made the acquaintance of Gutenberg (Jo-hann that is, not Steve) in a coffee klatch in Freiburg; he pulled me aside and, after glancing over his shoul-der, turned to me, his bushy moustache pressed against my ear, and whispered that he had perfected movable type and he was now looking for a film critic, would I be interested?—as I was saying, when I began to write about movies, the “profession” attracted men and women who displayed a highly individual cast of mind and a prose style to complement their particular, not

to say peculiar, aesthetic. (More skeptical observers commented

that the field was a haven for the otherwise unemployable.)

In the national press, in the early days of the Great Hippie Migrations, Andrew

Sarris was propounding the poli-tique des auteurs, a theory of film imported from La Belle France that proclaimed the di-

rector as a film’s true “author,” a notion that was still somewhat

novel during the Sixties and now, of course, wide-ly accepted as axiomatic.

Its adherents demanded respect for old guard Hollywood directors, the likes of Hitch- cock, Hawks, Capra, and Ford, prophets without honor in their own country and, at the time, cavalierly dismissed as mere pop- ular enter-tainers. In the opposite corner was P a u l i n e Kael (her acolytes came to be known as the Kaelites), fierce protectrix to the nascent generation of film school brats, such as Spiel-berg, Coppola, Scorsese, and (most contro-versial) DePalma. On the West Coast, lesser known but with a cadre of no less ardent supporters, was tough guy/film critic Manny Farber who construct- ed very dense sentences that for all their high art erudition still seem to sport a two-day old stubble. Farber applied his highly rarified crit- ical methods to poverty row productions that tended to appear on the bottom half of double bills, B-movie stuff like Samuel Fuller’s Pickup on South Street and Shock Corridor.

Need I add that feuds were endemic among the v a r i -ous critical factions — Trotsky’s break with Lenin pales by comparison with Kael’s savage attacks on Sarris

Illustration © 2007 Mark Andresen

and the disciples of the auteur theory. (Sarris’s inordinate fondess for “ten best” compila-tions afforded Kael an opportunity to gleefully proclaim the poor man “a list

queen.”) At press screenings, the au-

gust critics would arrange themselves so as to avoid any eye contact while strate-

gically situating themselves to maintain enough peripheral vision to keep tabs on the enemy camp. A loud guffaw up front would frequently be fol-lowed by a deep groan in the back.

Closer to home, Jon Newlin was making h i s fledgling appearance in The Drift-wood , the UNO (well, LSUNO at the time) stu- dent newspaper. At a time when reviewers were falling all over themselves with ful- some praise for Easy Rider, a sort of Crosby and Hope road pic-ture but with Peter Fonda and Dennis Hop-per taking themselves verrrrrry seriously, Mr. Newlin expressed grave res- e r v a t i o n s , remarking that the film was —and I’ve never forgotten these words— “neither s e n s u o u s nor encyclopedic enough.” Well, there I was, sitting in the LSUNO cafeteria. I put down my cheeseburger, left my copy of Newton’s Principia on the table, stag- gered over to the seawall, and sat staring at the horizon along Lake Ponchartrain till a levee board officer instructed me to “move on.”

About this time, Laura Di Vincent, an as-piring writer (and legend has it, a Melville scholar ) from upstate New York breezed into town and, after a brief

stint at something called the Saint Bernard Linotype, became an assistant

to Mr Newlin, who by now was running (more or less) the arts and entertainment section at the old

Figaro, New Orleans’s own contribution to the then- proliferating “alternative week-

lies,” and the potting soil for an entire generation of local media talent

( cf Bunny Matthews, Tom Fitzmorris, Ellen Johnson —the list goes on and on). Ms Di Vincent would rise quickly under the Newlin tutelage and go on to be Lagniappe’s first full-tilt, in-house film critic. Ms. Di Vincent was inordinately fond of food metaphors and her reviews read less like Aristotelian dia-logues and more like recipes off packages of Kraft Velveeta.

Elsewhere from the bowels of Howard Av-enue, before the days when it would become de rigueur for a daily newspaper to actu-ally pay someone to do nothing but watch mov-ies and give out stars, Frank Gagnard would, on occasion, be pressed into writing a few well-considered para- graphs about a film deemed worthy of column space. His eminently sensible reviews were actu- ally a tonic to the heavy-breathing criticism that would spread like kudzu during the sev- enties and eighties.

And who could ever forget the time that the Picayune’s Jim Perry, tak- ing a break from toiling in the vast wasteland of television reportage, startled the lo- cal film colony when he declared Dog Day Afternoon the best mystery since The Hound of the Basker-villes!?! Whaaaaaaaa?

Technically-speaking, those cur- rently writ-ing about movies are, I suppose, m o r e …mmmm…efficient at what they do; even more “insightful.” But still, dare I say, “ne i the r sensuous nor encyclopedic enough.”

By John Desplas

Illustration © 2007 Mark Andresen

PR Blurb from Fox Televison Network

It's been two years since Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans and a select few still remain at the NOPD. These special cops are bound and determined to bring back the life to New Orleans, otherwise known to most as K-Ville (Katrinaville), and clean up the crime and damage that still remains.

Marlin Boulet, a veteran of the NOPD's Felony Action Squad, was left stranded in the waters by his partner, but still attempted to keep some little bit of order to all the chaos that was going on during the hurricane. He now has a new partner with ulterior motives, Trevor Cobb, who is fresh back from a tour of duty in Afghanistan. Together the two work the streets of New Orleans, trying to make it a better place. Helping them on their crusade are fellow of-ficers Jeff Gooden, Captain James Embry, Billy Faust, and the lone female officer, Ginger LeBeau.

K-Ville was shot on location in New Orleans. Jonathan Lisco, the series writer and executive producer, toured parts of New Orleans with actual New Orleans Police Officers be-fore writing the pilot in hopes of making the series as real as possible.

Illus

tratio

n ©

200

7 M

ark

Andr

esen

Desire is the registered trade name of Desire, L.L.C.© 2007 Desire, L.L.C. 608 Baronne StreetNew Orleans, LA 70113 e-mail: tom@tomvariscodesigns.com

CREDITSPublisher: Tom Varisco DesignsContributing Editor: Whitney StewartArt Direction, Design: Tom VariscoDesign, Production: Jeff Louviere, Rebecca B. CarrPrinting: Garrity PrintingPaper Stock: Accent OpaqueType Face: Trade Gothic

Phot

ogra

ph ©

200

7 To

m V

aris

co