Sunday, August 31, 2008

LOCAL COCAINE

It's the week that the full unexpurgated version of Bob Guccione's Caligula is finally released in the UK on DVD (the so-called Imperial Edition on 4 discs). Malcolm Taylor (aka McDowell) does a commentary as part of this set that I've been reliably informed is absolutely unmissable (brazen luvvie that of course he now is). It's a real shame that his career went downhill so dramatically after such memorable iconic roles throughout the 70s in movies like A Clockwork Orange, Royal Flash and If...., amongst others.

Meanwhile, the thinking man's porn star, the awful 'Dame' Helen Mirren gives us a concise object lesson in the cynical art of how to give the press just what they want as you simultaneously boost your career and personal kudos in the process. Klaus Barbie made me give up cocaine?! We've had the celebrity interviews with the eating disorders and the childhood misfortunes, now this could be the start of a new trend of blaming random tyrants, serial killers, and other assorted monsters for... almost anything.
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6 comments:

Graeme said...

I'll just mention here that the coke I got via a busboy in Denver was way better than the coke I got when I lived in Chicago, and I was getting it via connections through the Board of Trade.

7:32 PM
Sypha said...

Yeah, it's a shame, though it is kind of bizarre seeing all of the weird places that McDowell's turned up in over the years... I think his career nadir (well, one of them) was the guest spot he did on the TV show "Monk."

3:23 AM
Kai said...

You should have seen McDowell when he was on Conan O'Brien's show, talking about the day his old man came to visit his son when, of all things, they were shooting the scene where Caligula had to take a leak in public. Reportedly, afterwards he was told by his thrilled father: "I always knew you were quite a good actor, but I never knew you were THAT good."

8:17 AM
Jack Sargeant said...

I always liked Oh Lucky Man! w/ McDowell.

2:05 PM
Jon Alsbuy said...

For some reason my eyes/brain/arse substituted Barbie for Kinski as I read this, which, much to the ammusement of my colleagues, caused me to spit out a mouthful of tea over my keyboard in a comedy double-take. Nice.

3:22 PM
Odile Lee said...

Personally, I blame Santa.


I had a interesting reaction seeing the old film, cat people.
This sounds bad, but i couldn't help but think- if he was going to take off his shirt, maybe doing some sit ups might have been nice.
I'm not so far as thinking men have to be hairless, with huge pecs/biceps and never lose their man power, in the heat of the moment, so to speak- but i guess I've been conditioned to think they shouldn't be chubby in feature films.
But I can't say the waxed meta-morphed steroid darlings of todays cinema are a improvement. Frightening, really.

5:53 PM

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