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The diary entries of a little girl who is now 30! ~ Part 2 - Page 477

post #7141 of 12769
3/1/13 at 11:24pm
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Originally Posted by warrenpchi View Post

 


Quote:
Originally Posted by Silent One View Post

 

destitute but decidedly determined folk rolleyes.gif like me.

 

And me.  smile.gif

 

There have been times in this hobby (several?) when I really really really lusted after a new component, cable or accessory. And couldn't rub mad.gif two nickels together. If I really think I ought to have it, I'll have Soup For One. Drink cheap bagged tea. And wait in the dark to save on SoCal Edison.

 

Wait...it just occurred to me, if I suspended buying vintage tubes and vintage Champagne, that...

deadhorse.gif

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post #7142 of 12769
3/1/13 at 11:44pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Silent One View Post

 

Wait...it just occurred to me, if I suspended buying vintage tubes and vintage Champagne, that...

deadhorse.gif

 

Well you might as well say you're gonna stop breathing to preserve oxygen then... c'mon, we gotta stay realistic here.  wink.gif

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post #7143 of 12769
3/2/13 at 4:00am
Thread Starter 

This morning my thoughts turn to Peter O'Toole in The Ruling Class, specifically during the last 30 minutes of the film or so when he... uhm... totally goes off the deep end. Sure, it's too over-the-top to be Woman Under the Influence level cuckoo acting, but dear God that film sure ramps it up well into the f'ing red. In fact, I'm trying to think of another film that builds to such a full-on face punching creshendo.

 

I can think of two off the top of my head. The first is The Sword of Doom, a film about a sociopathic samurai who basically ruins everyone's schiit cuz his mama didn' raise him rite (I can only assume). The lead is played by one of my favorite Japanese actors ever, the rather equine-faced Tatsuya Nakadai who is just a purebred badass. Anyway, the film itself is pretty uneven; it was actually supposed to be the first in a trilogy, but the other two never got made, so it has one of the most abrupt endings in film history. Unintentionally this affords it a level of sheer brilliance and elevates it from merely cool action reel to one of the most memorable cinematic experiences I've ever had.

 

 

Warning: Sword of Doom Spoiler! (Click to show)

Okay, so the samurai has been living a pretty terrible life, killing people indiscriminately and using the women he meets. Several folks have vowed revenge and have been following him over the years. Basically, things come to a head. He's sitting around minding his own evil business, being attended to by a servant woman who is one of those folks who wants to kill him, when he gets ambushed by a whole bunch of assassins. For the next 10 minutes or so, he goes on a total rampage, killing guys left and right, ripping down screens, setting fire to stuff... it just spirals out of control, ramping up more and more as the body count and flames rise.

 
Now, in a lot of action movies today, it's not uncommon for there to be like 10,000,000,000 or more jump cuts made in post production. In an older film like Sword of Doom with actual directing, a lot of the action takes place in a single take. This gives the film a certain cohesiveness and artistry that is sort of difficult to articulate. Basically, the gradual escalation of violence and brutality is conveyed much more skillfully this way.
 
So it just keeps escalating more and more until finally... everything stops. We get a freeze frame of the samurai in the midst of his torrent of rage. It's like he's seething with so much hatred and anger and wickedness that the film just collapses. It implodes under the weight, no longer able to support it all.
 
The stream of violence leads nowhere. There's no resolution. It's just a mobius strip (an image used by Takashi Miike in his film Izo, which is essentially the ending to Sword of Doom stretched out over the length of the entire film, but to less effect).

 

 

The other film is Werner Herzog's Stroszek. It tells the tale of a European immigrant, played by the enigmatic Bruno S., who comes to the midwest of America to try to escape his problems back home. If you know anything about Herzog, then you know that's not going to end well. I still feel Aguirre: The Wrath of God is Herzog's more iconic film, but as great as the monkey-tossing-over-the-shoulder ending on the raft is, the last part of Stroszek just takes the crazy cake.

 

 

Warning: Stroszek Spoiler! (Click to show)

Poor Bruno. His girlfriend runs off with some rednecks she met at the truck stop, his trailer home gets repossessed, and all his worldly belongings get auctioned off by the bank. He sort of loses his mind at that point, and with a shotgun and frozen Butterball turkey takes his rickety pickup truck for a drive up north. With snow all around him now, he stops off at a pit stop and has some coffee with a stranger who mourns with Bruno over life losing all meaning. After their chat, Bruno puts down the last few dollars he has and goes outside, starts up the truck and sends it into a perpetual loop, the engine running as it goes in circles around and around in the parking lot.

 
Taking the turkey and shotgun, he proceeds to a little tourist trap amusement park across the street. There are all these weird little vending machines with animals inside, and when he trips the circuit box it activates all of them. Lights start flashing, and the animals come out of their little cubby holes and start performing tricks. A little bunny climbs onto a firetruck and the sirens wail, a rooster pecks at a toy piano. Finally there's "the dancing chicken," a little machine whose interior is made up to look like a 50s diner. A chicken comes out and starts scratching on the little spinning dance floor while a bell chimes over and over.
 
Bruno summons a ski lift and sits down as it passes by, placing the frozen turkey and shotgun next to him. We see Bruno ride the lift around and around while the animals dance aimlessly. The scene cuts back to the pit stop where the truck is now on fire, still spinning in circles. Finally we see Bruno off in the distance take the shotgun and blow his brains out while riding the ski lift. Cut to firemen trying to put out the burning truck, and a police officer talking on his radio:
 
"We have a 10-80 out here, a truck on fire, we have a man on the lift. We are unable to find the switch to turn the lift off, can't stop the dancing chicken. Send an electrician, we're standing by."
 
They can't stop the dancing chicken. We see it going, dancing aimlessly to the sound of the ringing bells, now overlaid with country music from the soundtrack, a man yodeling. The chicken keeps dancing for several minutes. Fade to black. The end.
 
That's life.

 

 

Sure, there are plenty of amazing film endings. The greatest of all time is still that of Mizoguchi's Sansho the Bailiff in my humble opinion. Close behind is The Apu Trilogy, Ordet, and The Silence. However those two above just... punch you in the face. 

 

Which brings me back to The Ruling Class. I think no other ending punches you quite so hard, really. Here. Have some O'Toole taking it straight into the red:

 

 

One of the best on-screen male screams. Okay, maybe the absolute best. The only thing coming close is Charles Laughton in Night of the Hunter when the children slip past his grasp in the swamp. Totally different thing though: Laughton gives a closed-lip whimper like a child throwing a tantrum that boils over into a psychotic outburst. It's frustration at its best. He wants that damn money, damn it.

 

O'Toole on the other hand just doles out unbridled rage. However there's a certain melancholy to it... almost as if he's angry at everything in the universe. Like he hates himself and everything around him just by virtue of the fact that it exists. Like he can't escape the own maze inside his head. I think the upward glance, the staring at the heavens echoing his former state (when he thought he was Jesus) is sort of telling in that respect. Before he could only see love, and now he knows he can only see hate.

 

 

Warning: The Ruling Class Spoiler! (Click to show)

Basically he thought he was Jesus. His family was mortified because the inheritance would be going to him, a royal looney. In an effort to "cure" him, they call in a psychiatrist who breaks his mind and turns him normal. Or so everyone thinks. In actuality, he now thinks he's Jack the Ripper.

 
So he goes on killing women in the streets, and the inner circles of the upper class are none the wiser. In fact, spouting off his new views on how people should be punished and how violence and hatred is the answer, he seems to blend right in to high society.
 
The scene with the scream happens after his wife kisses him. The touch of his wife---who seems to genuinely love him---solicits the deepest feelings of revulsion in him. After this scene, it cuts to the House of Lords where he gives a speech before the assembly. He talks about how there needs to be strictly enforced punishment and how the poor should be reigned in and trodden upon. 
 
Then we see things from his perspective. A close up on his eyes as he looks out over the assembly. Everyone looks mummified, with cobwebs strung up everywhere. In fact, the entire House looks like a house of horrors.
 
After his speech he gets a standing ovation. "You're one of us now, Jack!" All the mummies and skeletons stand up and cheer as the national anthem plays. The camera pulls away and we see the whole ghoulish scene of corpses and decay. The House is a tomb, and the ruling class is sealed away in their insular detachment from the world. Old and decaying. Perverse. Obsolete.
 
It ends with a cutaway of the estate, the scream of his wife as he kills her.

 

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post #7144 of 12769
3/2/13 at 6:18am

MF, you really seem to like peculiar movies. Ever watch more mainstream fare?

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post #7145 of 12769
3/2/13 at 7:24am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by 333jeffery View Post

MF, you really seem to like peculiar movies. Ever watch more mainstream fare?

 

I watch all sorts of stuff.

 

Often times mainstream fare is some of the most peculiar stuff of all. 

 

 

I see what warrenpchi means about this thread being quiet lately. Seems dead 'round here these past two days.

 

Many diary regulars have been M.I.A. lately, too...


Edited by MuppetFace - 3/2/13 at 7:25am
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post #7146 of 12769
3/2/13 at 7:58am
Well someone did want to take a break because of the incoming MF March LOL. Was it maxvla? I don't quite remember it... Anyway my variation should be ready in tonight.
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post #7147 of 12769
3/2/13 at 8:07am
PSA: InnerFidelity is doing a sweepstakes, giving away a VModa M80. USA residents only though. http://www.innerfidelity.com/content/v-moda-m-80-headphones-sweepstakes
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post #7148 of 12769
3/2/13 at 10:33am

I would post much more often if I had any head-fi related stuff to talk about. But, my primary hobby has consumed my attention lately. Of course, if I could convert some of y'all, we'd have some interesting discussions.....

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post #7149 of 12769
3/2/13 at 11:19am
Quote:
Originally Posted by 333jeffery View Post

I would post much more often if I had any head-fi related stuff to talk about. But, my primary hobby has consumed my attention lately. Of course, if I could convert some of y'all, we'd have some interesting discussions.....

Depends on what the hobby is. What is it anyways
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post #7150 of 12769
3/2/13 at 11:44am
Thread Starter 

Look at his avatar and the last few posts made in this thread, and you should be able to figure it out I think.

 

 

Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)

Guns

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post #7151 of 12769
3/2/13 at 12:21pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by MuppetFace View Post

This morning my thoughts turn to Peter O'Toole

I admire Peter O'Toole,just for surviving over 80 years of being himself.
Often nominated,never receiving the elusive Oscar award.
A hell raising legend,children with different partners and a devoted alcoholic.
Most interesting was the removal of his pancreas and part of his stomach way back in 1976, resulting in insulin dependent diabetes for all these years.
I know first hand what a balancing act that can be,O'Toole gives hope for others to keep forging on.

Without question this is a person who directly felt much of what he acted,revealed in a scene such as you posted.
Insofar as the best male scream,it was always an oldie contest between Robert Plant and Roger Daltrey,no?
Heh,thanks for the memories,MuppetFace.
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post #7152 of 12769
3/2/13 at 1:40pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by MuppetFace View Post

This morning my thoughts turn to Peter O'Toole in The Ruling Class, specifically during the last 30 minutes of the film or so when he... uhm... totally goes off the deep end. Sure, it's too over-the-top to be Woman Under the Influence level cuckoo acting, but dear God that film sure ramps it up well into the f'ing red. In fact, I'm trying to think of another film that builds to such a full-on face punching creshendo.

 

My favorite example in spirit albeit totally opposite in execution is John Cleese's Clockwise.

 

Quote:
Originally Posted by MuppetFace View Post

I see what warrenpchi means about this thread being quiet lately. Seems dead 'round here these past two days.

 

Many diary regulars have been M.I.A. lately, too...

 

Other commitments have mostly overwhelmed my listening time as well as my audio forum-ing time. Probably only for a short time though.

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post #7153 of 12769
3/2/13 at 1:57pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by MuppetFace View Post

I see what warrenpchi means about this thread being quiet lately. Seems dead 'round here these past two days.

 

Many diary regulars have been M.I.A. lately, too...

 

Originally Posted by jgray91 View Post

Well someone did want to take a break because of the incoming MF March LOL. Was it maxvla? I don't quite remember it... Anyway my variation should be ready in tonight.

 

Originally Posted by ardgedee View Post
 

Other commitments have mostly overwhelmed my listening time as well as my audio forum-ing time. Probably only for a short time though.

 

I hope it's not because of the aforementioned (and much overhyped) confusion factor.  I think we'd all agree that it hasn't been that bad.

 

Quote:
Originally Posted by 333jeffery View Post

I would post much more often if I had any head-fi related stuff to talk about. But, my primary hobby has consumed my attention lately. Of course, if I could convert some of y'all, we'd have some interesting discussions.....

 

Bang bang!  Now post more.  smile.gif

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post #7154 of 12769
3/2/13 at 2:08pm

I'd post more,ph34r.gif but I am limited by my username...

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post #7155 of 12769
3/2/13 at 2:10pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Silent One View Post

I'd post more,ph34r.gif but I am limited by my username...

 

biggrin.gif  LOL!

 

So, I'm trying random search terms on Amazon (you know, as you do) and I come across this:  http://www.amazon.com/The-Audiophile-Erotic-Tale-ebook/dp/B00B431DTY/

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