MT VOID 11/20/98 (Vol. 17, Number 21)

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Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society


Club Notice - 11/20/98 -- Vol. 17, No. 21



Table of Contents

URL of the Week
Holidays
GOING HOME AGAIN
Toronto Film Festival (part 7 of 10)


Outside events:
The Science Fiction Association of Bergen County meets on the second
Saturday of every month in Upper Saddle River; call 201-447-3652 for
details.  The New Jersey Science Fiction Society meets on the third
Saturday of every month in Belleville; call 201-432-5965 for details.

MT Chair/Librarian:
  Mark Leeper   MT 3E-433  732-957-5619 mleeper@lucent.com
HO Chair:     John Jetzt    MT 2E-530  732-957-5087 jetzt@lucent.com
HO Librarian: Nick Sauer    HO 4F-427  732-949-7076 njs@lucent.com
Distinguished Heinlein Apologist:
  Rob Mitchell  MT 2E-537  732-957-6330 robmitchell@lucent.com
Factotum:     Evelyn Leeper MT 3E-433  732-957-2070 eleeper@lucent.com
Back issues at http://www.geocities.com/~ecl.
All material copyright by author unless otherwise noted.

URL of the Week: http://www.iplus.zetnet.co.uk. Infinity Plus - The SF & Fantasy Archive. An archive of fiction and non-fiction by authors such as Stephen Baxter, Greg Egan, and James Patrick Kelley. [-ecl]

Holidays: Just a month or so ago we came to the time of year most Jewish kids used to look forward to when I was growing up. It is that period just after the holiday season, when we have no more Jewish holidays we have to pay attention to for about another six months. I know. That sounds a little crazy, doesn't it? Holidays are supposed to be something that you look forward to. They are the bright spots on the calendar. Well, wake up and smell the coffee. Not all cultures are alike.

For some time I have been acutely aware that disliking holidays is something that is not as true in other religions. In most religions holidays are things to look forward to. They are sort of a reward for the putting up with the daily grind. Frankly I always preferred the times that were not Jewish holidays. So did most of the Jewish kids I grew up with. I won't say that Jewish holidays are all unpleasant--mostly because I have been trained not to say it and I expect some sort of Divine Retribution. But I will say this. But no matter how bad things got when I was growing up, I usually could tell myself at least it wasn't a Jewish holiday.

Jews have two kinds of holidays, the unpleasant ones and the joyous ones. It takes an expert to tell them apart. The unpleasant ones we do like we have been doing them 3000 years and must carry on the tradition. The joyous ones we do with the uncertainty as if they were really invented some time around the time around the mid-60s and we still don't quite have the hang of them. Jews are just not quite sure how to enjoy themselves on the joyous holidays.

I don't know for sure what it is like in other religions, but Jewish holidays are not really exciting for a kid. Jewish holidays are more occasions of responsibility. For the serious holidays you have the responsibility to participate in certain rituals. For the pleasant holidays you have the responsibility to participate in certain rituals. But in addition you have the responsibility to enjoy the holiday. There might be some fun things to do, but usually they get skipped.

I guess that Christians really enjoy Christmas. Boy, do Christians enjoy Christmas. They can't wait for things like the lighting of the Rockefeller Center tree. This is early November and it has already been lit. That is about a sixth of the year that the thing is lit. I think by the year 2050 they will not bother ever shutting the thing down. Then you get to December and you cannot escape Christmas music just about wherever you go. Chanukah is not the same sort of thing, somehow. It is okay and it is nice to have a gift-giving occasion, but it is not like non-Jews think. First, to lay one myth to rest, you don't get a gift every night of Chanukah. We didn't anyway. We exchanged gifts the first night only. Chanukah was always a sort of low-rent version of Christmas--a sort of a "me too" holiday. Rather than all the tree-trimming and stocking-hanging and the other razzmatazz, in theory you celebrate Chanukah by eating potato pancakes and playing a game where you spin a top called a dreidl.

So after we got gifts on the first night, Chanukah had already outstayed its welcome and there were still seven nights to go. The traditional fun game of Chanukah is dreidl. I can't even tell you the letters on the side of a dreidl. The traditional Chanukah gift is money or pieces of chocolate clad in foil to look like money. Like the myth that Jews are particularly mercenary isn't bad enough: we give candy money at Chanukah. But believe it or not, Chanukah was always a very minor festival. It only became important these days because it was at about the same time as Christmas and it had some tradition of gift-giving. (More next week.) [-mrl]

GOING HOME AGAIN by Howard Waldrop (Eidolon Publications, ISBN 0-9586864-0-8, 1997, 223pp, A$19.95) (St. Martin's, ISBN 0-312-18589-8, 1998, 223pp, US$22.95) (a book review by Evelyn C. Leeper):

Back in 1979, Baird Searles and friends wrote a book titled A READER'S GUIDE TO SCIENCE FICTION, the main part of which consisted of short biographies/descriptions of science fiction writers, each ending with a paragraph saying, "If you like [this writer], you should also try [these other writers]." At the end of R. A. Lafferty's section, they said, "There is no one who writes like R. A. Lafferty, so if you like one of his books find some more." If Howard Waldrop had been included in that volume, that's what they would have said about him as well.

For example, "El Castillo de la Perseverancia" is about Mexican masked wrestlers. (Note: It was written three years before Jesse "The Body" Ventura put wrestling on the front pages.)

"Flatfeet!" has the Keystone Kops careening through the major events of the twentieth century, perfectly oblivious to them. Even his "straight" alternate history stories ("You *Could* Go Home Again," "Household Words; Or, the Powers-That-Be," "The Effects of Alienation") focus on people like Thomas Wolfe, Charles Dickens, or Peter Lorre rather than Hirohito or Hitler.

"The Sawing Boys" is Waldrop's retelling of the Grimms' Brementown Musicians, a story that goes nowhere. "Why Did?" has its source in the "Little Moron" jokes that used to make the rounds, not exactly obvious material for a science fiction story. "Occam's Ducks" is about shooting "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" as a race film. (I suppose I should say that "race film" here means an all-black film for black audiences, of the sort produced into 1920s and 1930s, and not a film about horses. With Waldrop you could never be sure.) And lastly is "Scientifiction," which I am at a loss to describe.

Waldrop also includes lengthy afterwords for each story, and a complete bibliography of his work. He writes an introduction which follows one by Lucius Shepard. Even if you had all the stories (and given that one appeared in a World Fantasy program book and another is original to this book, that is unlikely), the book would be worth it for the supplementary material.

I have no idea why this got its first publication in Australia, but now that it's available in the United States, Waldrop fans here have no excuse for not buying it. [-ecl]

1998 Toronto International Film Festival: (film reviews and commentary by Mark R. Leeper) (part 7 of 10)

THE EXTRAORDINARY VISITOR (Canadian)

CAPSULE: John the Baptist is sent from Heaven to see is the world is worth saving. He must find some sign of hope in the people of Newfoundland. This is little more than a TV skit in movie form. It is watchable and apparently will be released to theaters in Canada, but it is unlikely to be seen on the international market. It is diverting but hardly a serious piece of cinema. Rating: 4 (0 to 10), 0 (-4 to +4) Minor spoilers in this review.

• Written and directed by John W. Doyle.
• John the Baptist sent to St. John, Newfoundland. Gets an invitation to live with a family. That extraordinary hospitality for some reason does not count as a reason for hope.
• Script has a lot of holes.
• Friend who adopts John is surprisingly militant and is planning actions to destabilize Wall Street.
• John does look Middle Eastern, but somehow one expects John the Baptist to be more dramatic.
• There is a conspiracy in the Vatican riding on the result of the visit, though that result seems small compared to the end of the world.
• Big yucks like seeing a nun give the Pope a pedicure and evil Pope's aid praying to a Mendes goat.
• In large part a satire of life in Newfoundland taking licks at things like the poor produce. The one good tomato in grocery (by virtue of a miracle) "must have fallen off the truck to Toronto."
• Based on a 20-minute short film.

CLAY PIGEONS (United States)

CAPSULE: A non-murderer who broke the law avoiding a possible murder charge finds himself deeper and deeper in trouble. The plot is tightly written and reminiscent of Hitchcock's FRENZY. Tightly paced and well acted. Only the very last sequence rings false. Rating: 8 (0 to 10), high +2 (-4 to +4)

• Nice vicious murder mystery with a patsy caught in the middle.
• Should appeal to the same audience that liked RED ROCK WEST.
• The viewer (almost always) knows what is going on, but the web of events becomes tighter and tighter around the neck of Clay (Joaquin Phoenix).
• Great little suspense thriller set in Montana (though filmed in Utah). Having caught Clay fooling around with his wife Amanda (Georgina Cates), one guy commits suicide, framing Clay for murder. Clay decides to cover up the suicide starting a bigger and bigger chain of events linking him with other murders.
• Vince Vaughn steals the film as Lester Long. Vaughn is very natural in front of a camera with an easy charm and grace. (P.S. He also was good in RETURN TO PARADISE and is going to play Norman Bates in the new version of PSYCHO.)
• Sarcastic FBI agent played by Janeane Garofalo. "A murder scene is not crowd-appropriate." (That sounds a lot like Garofalo's own style of humor and may well have been ad- libbed.) She makes fun of deputy named Barney.
• Sound editing has loud noises on soundtrack, made this audience jump.
• Final scene does not make sense logically.

09/16/98

We could sleep in a little more this morning since our first film was not until 10. We ate at a sit-down restaurant. I had eggs and toast. We got to the theater and found a line. I guess the show from last night had not let out. Right.

THE HOLE (Taiwan/French with subtitles)

CAPSULE: A science fiction allegory. At the Millennium a lethal contagious virus has hit Taiwan. Officials have cut off water and other services to the center of contagion. Life there devolves and degenerates. A man in an apartment has a hole in his floor and with it harasses his downstairs neighbor. A slow but harrowing film to be missed if possible. Rating: 2 (0 to 10), low -1 (-4 to +4)

• The Taiwan Virus is ravaging Taiwan and the part of the city that is the center of the contagion has been evacuated of anyone who will go. One apartment building still houses people. A woman, formerly an office worker, (Yang Kuei-mei) is tormented by her upstairs neighbor (Lee Kang-sheng) who has a hole cut by a plumber in the floor and is using it as a drain. Neighbor runs a small failing grocery store.
• To make things more depressing, it is constantly raining hard.
• Upstairs neighbor vomits through, pours water, etc. A small and almost entirely one-sided war starts. Allegory about callousness and selfishness.
• Woman is living on a pile of rolls of toilet tissue.
• Incongruous songs added to show downstairs neighbors dreams. These are the songs of popular Taiwanese singer Grace Chang.
• Apartment is falling apart. Wallpaper is separating from walls. Plumbing is failing.
• Boredom shown by long cuts in which nothing happens. A lot of film seems to be used up.
• This story might have been done much better as a ten-minute animated film.
• Stars are considered to be great dramatic actors by one reviewer.
• This film seems longer at 95 minutes most two-hour films.

THE GIRAFFE (German/Swiss, In English and German with subtitles)

CAPSULE: An anti-Semitic incident in Germany sparks a murder and starts events connected with a 50-year old mystery involving the Holocaust and two people claiming to be the same person. This is a well-crafted thriller. Rating: 8 (0 to 10), high +2 (-4 to +4) Minor spoilers in this review.

• Dani Levi directed. He and Maria Schrader co-wrote, and star.
• Two women unknowingly share the same identity. When the factory of a wealthy Jew in Germany is torched by anti- Semites, and it appears in a New York newspaper, an American Holocaust survivor recognizes the victim as her own father whom she had assumed was killed by the Nazis. She tries to contact her father only to find out that there is a woman in Germany who has lived in her father's household since the war also claiming to be the same daughter. Two elderly women are each sure they are the same person. When the New Yorker is mysteriously murdered, her son decides to investigate the mystery on his own.
• Action takes place in New York and in Germany.
• Daughter of the German woman and the son of the American woman form an uneasy alliance to try to find out what has happened, against the recommendation of a Jewish Defense League lawyer played by Davis Strathairn.
• Some of early action is intentionally mysterious to be intriguing.
• View of New York Orthodox (but not Hassidic) community. Includes such stereotypic roles as the matchmaker.
• A complex plot told in a crisp style.
• Director has a real ethnic mix of characters in New York.

Mr. Submarine for lunch. I had a BBQ rib sandwich, but it will be my last chance to eat before late tonight. At a film festival there is time to watch film, eat, stand in lines, sit in dark theaters waiting for films, walk between buildings, sleep occasionally, hit the john. That is just about everything. I am surprised I have been able to fit in time to write reviews.

CURE (Japanese with subtitles)

CAPSULE: A series of killings, each by a different killer seems to have elements in common. One killer may be using mind control to avoid being caught. A Japanese film with an effective concept for a serial killer who would rival Hannibal Lector. Rating: 6 (0 to 10), high +1 (-4 to +4) Spoiler warning: nearly any description of the premise will be something of a spoiler.

• Director is Kiyoshi Kurosawa has done many films in Japan, mostly crime films, but this is first international film. It is a different idea and one that is likely to be copied, or would be if it were used in a film that got seen in this country.
• There are a series of almost identical crimes, which would point to one killer, but in each case the killer is caught and it is a different person each time.
• Atmospheric horror-mystery. Reminiscent of FALLEN.
• Subdued color which creates a mood as effectively as black and white.
• Pace is a little slow at times due to some long and lingering camera shots.
• Detective trying to piece thing together in spite of personal problems with a disturbed wife.
• Complex film with many things going on at once.
• Slow but effective horror film with deeper meanings about mind control. Themes similar to THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE.

LOVERS OF THE ARCTIC CIRCLE (Spanish with subtitles)

CAPSULE: A tender love about love, fate, and the power of coincidence. This is the story of Ana and Otto who love each other from childhood, become foster brother and sister, lovers, and finally have linked fates within the Arctic Circle. Rating: 7 (0 to 10), low +2 (-4 to +4)

• Written and directed by Julio Medem.
• Arctic plane crash under the credits, a teaser for what will happen in the final reel.
• Story is told in chapters, usually alternating between "Otto" and "Ana."
• Otto as a child loves paper airplanes. He flies dozens over the school playground setting several plot lines in motion. Otto's father meets Ana's mother and leaves Otto's mother for her. Otto and Ana fall in love even though they are living like brother and sister. They have a secret love affair in their parents' house.
• Stories and flashbacks keep interconnecting with each other.
• Otto who has left his mother's house to live with his father and Ana then blames himself for his mother's death. Theme of guilt and shame.
• There is some nudity in some nicely filmed love scenes. Spanish films usually seem to have interesting approaches to their frequent nude scenes.
• Supposedly story is told from one character's point of view or the other's. Yet scenes in which they come close but do not see each other cannot be from either's point of view, or how would they have known?
• Characters believe very heavily in power of coincidence and coincidence is what drives the story. Some of the coincidences are extremely far-fetched.
• End of film seems very contrived.

Following that we joined the crowds waiting to see APT PUPIL. I sat next to a woman who was enthralled by Stephen King and horror writers in general. I asked her if she liked Richard Matheson and she had not heard of him. I told her something about him.

APT PUPIL (United States)

CAPSULE: A boy fascinated by the Holocaust finds a fugitive war criminal living in his neighborhood. What follows is a battle for power of each over the other. The theme of the Holocaust seems misused. Good performance from Ian McKellan (so what else is new?). Rating: 6 (0 to 10), 1 (-4 to +4)

• Directed by Bryan Singer though APT PUPIL is not nearly as good as his THE USUAL SUSPECTS.
• Todd Bowden (Brad Renfro) is fascinated by the Holocaust and has memorized pictures of all the principles so he recognizes Kurt Dussander "the Butcher of Treblinka" (Ian McKellan) when he sees him on a cross-town bus. With photographs and fingerprints he gets evidence that this Arthur Denker really is the Kurt Dussander whom he thinks he has found, then follows a game of power between the two. Initially Todd just wants to hear an eyewitness account. But the game between the two becomes more serious.
• We never find out why Todd is so interested or what his point of view is. In the final analysis APT PUPIL has little to do with the Holocaust. It is just there as an excuse why Todd knows something that had can blackmail Denker with. In fact, it ruins some of the credibility. Denker tries to blackmail Todd by threatening going public. A war criminal would never do that.
• Some shocking scenes where Todd uses Denker as a puppet.
• Todd wants to understand the Holocaust better than he can from books but the script does not have anything for Dussander to reveal about the Holocaust that is not already common knowledge.
• When Todd's grades suffer, the guidance counselor makes an offer to Todd that no high school would ever offer. It is convenient for the plot, but makes no sense.
• Denker is fighting to defend a meaningless existence of drinking whiskey and watching cartoons.
• It was not six million people killed in the Holocaust, it was six million *Jews*. There were ten to twelve million *people* killed. And a pie graph on the board seems to show only about a third where it was really a much higher proportion.
• A simple documentary about the Holocaust like "Night and Fog" is far more chilling than anything that Singer managed to get on the screen. What is a single murder next to ten million murders?

Back at the room I had some fruit juice and a candy bar.

09/17/98

Well, we can get a late start this morning with our first film not on until 10 AM. Breakfast was at the Coach House. I realized afterward that I had been overcharged. I will be more careful in the future.

THE MAN WITH RAIN IN HIS SHOES (United Kingdom)

CAPSULE: The woman Victor loves is marrying another guy and his job is going down the tubes. Then two magical junkmen give Victor a chance to relive the last eight months again and he tries to avoid the same mistakes. The characters are tiresome and familiar. Rating: 4 (0 to 10), 0 (-4 to +4)

• First feature film by Maria Ripoll.
• Plot concept similar to GROUNDHOG DAY or upcoming TV series SEVEN DAYS. Victor (Douglas Henshall) has really screwed up the last eight months of his life. But he has been given another chance not to lose Sylvia (Lena Headey) the woman he loves. He finds things harder than he expected and requiring more than just good intentions.
• Two mysterious Spanish junk men have the ability to send him back in time and allow Vic to relive the past eight months and not to hurt Sylvia.
• Elizabeth McGovern in a small role as a bartender whose wisdom inspires Vic.
• All these young romantic films seem to have some nudity to keep the audience titillated. It is unnecessary for this story, but expected.
• Vic is not very smart in how he uses his memories of the first time around. He says things that would make no sense to anyone but himself and the audience, convincing people that he is not all there.
• This film makes London look really, really ugly. The capper is walls with signs saying "Please do not piss here."
• Title chosen to be intriguing, but has to be forced into the film.
• Interesting in what can be changed and what cannot.
• Vic is not very likeable. He slashes tires and in general is just not very appealing. It makes the audience not care if he gets the woman he wants or not.

ANOTHER DAY IN PARADISE (United States)

CAPSULE: The overly familiar story of a gang of criminals hitting the road. After initial success mistakes and internal tensions take their toll. The moral is, of course, that crime does not pay. What makes this one worthwhile is the fact that James Woods just sizzles. Also starring Melanie Griffith. Rating: 7 (0 to 10), low +2 (-4 to +4)

• Larry Clark, director of KIDS directs a script by Christopher Landon and Stephen Chin, based on the book by Eddie Little.
• There is little variation in James Woods's screen persona, but he does it so well.
• Mel (James Woods), Sid (Melanie Griffith), Bobby (Vincent Kartheiser) and Rosie (Natasha Gregson Wagner). Uncredited role for Lou Diamond Philips as Jules.
• Bobby and Rosie are junkies. Bobby supports them with smalltime crime like robbing cigarette machines. When Bobby is almost killed Mel saves his life, then realizes he would be useful for an upcoming robbery. Mel decides to mentor Bobby and Rosie. He tells Bobby that a professional thief does not have risks. He has everything planned out.
• Melanie Griffith plays a likeable gun moll.
• Echoes of THE ASPHALT JUNGLE and of THEY LIVE BY NIGHT, among others.
• Opens with bloody robbery. Some scenes are very, very violent.
• Mel is dictatorial and gets angry fast. Also can be winning.
• Mel sets up drug deals with uneven results.
• Early on the gang is successful and the times are good, but it cannot last, and it quickly becomes clear that this is not much of a life anyone would want.
• Woods has a very powerful screen presence.
• This sort of story is very familiar. It has been done many times before.

[to be continued] [-mrl]

                                   Mark Leeper
                                   MT 3E-433 732-957-5619
                                   mleeper@lucent.com