favorite movie #45: rumble fish

Favorite movies that have had an impact on me - #45 - Rumble Fish (1983) - Francis Ford Coppola wrote the screenplay for Rumble Fish with S.E. Hinton while they were filming the adaptation of her first novel, The Outsiders, on location in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Matt Dillon and Diane Lane appeared in both films. But where The Outsiders is an artful, yet faithful adaptation of the popular teen novel, Rumble Fish is truly an experimental film. Filmed almost entirely in black and white, with exaggerated camera angles that suggest everything from Rebel Without A Cause to The Cabinet of Dr, Calgari, Coppola is clearly having fun with the almost mythical tale of former gang leader The Motorcycle Boy (Mickey Rourke) and the younger brother who idolizes him, Rusty James (Dillon). The Police's Stewart Copeland provided the soundtrack, which incorporated real street sounds and a tick, tick, ticking rhythmic beat which emphasizes the "time" theme that permeates the movie. Beautiful, atmospheric, a classic.

these are a few of my favorite blogs ...

Black and WTF has a new, cleaner look and photos that are just as wacky and wonderful as ever.

Some also have stories attached, like this one, from the silent film The General.

Check out the blog for even more curious black and white images.

black and white world

Böhm-Zebras (Equus quagga boehmi) im Vivarium Darmstadt (Hessen, Deutschland) by 4028mdk09

I was looking at the black and white world 
It seemed so exciting
If you'd only put me back to back with that girl
When the night's inviting
With just a little lighting

Miley Cyrus. Just trying to seem all growed up. Surrounded by twats she thinks are her friends who videotape her and then sell it before she has the opportunity to pass out at the party. No one should be outraged that the eighteen year old was partying. Neither Miley nor her "people" should manufacture lame explanations which convince no one. Thank god the internets and facebook weren't prevalent when I was eighteen.

There'll never be days like that again
When I was just a boy and men were men
You never go from moment to moment
You're the living double of a single fiction

I'm still pissed about Carrie Fisher's careless recent "outing" of John Travolta. That is, if she actually outed him. Why is everyone so desperate to label him as either/or? How could labeling anyone anything ever be OK? Why does America want this to be a black and white issue? It's Hollywood people, c'mon. Maybe he likes girls, maybe men, maybe both. Why is no one even considering that he may be bisexual? Why should we care? It's one thing to talk about yourself, to blah blah blah your deepest darkest secrets to the world via twitter or some magazine, but what's with all the finger-pointing? Carrie Fisher should just shut up and so should everyone else. No celebrity or any person owes anyone the intimate details of their intimate details. Sex is not politics. Not for everyone.




You're very colourful with your compliments
As you feel the finger's friction
It's a freeze-frame
Still it's real life
You don't want to look
Cause you've seen the film and you've read the book

As I get older I get more gray, as does the world. Things I was completely convinced about, was sure were black and white when I was in my twenties, now seem to be myriad shades of gray. I know that people can get more rigid as they get older, but happily, at least for now, I'm feeling the opposite. Maybe my opening mind is a result of watching some of life's spools unravel. I can't control what others think, only what I think.

It's more than just a physical attraction
It starts with a face and ends up a fixation
But you're never gonna feel a fraction
Of the way it used to work on your imagination
When you were looking at the black and white world...

Excerpted lyrics from Black and White World by Elvis Costello

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