aighhhh

I watched Dogville tonight--what a piece of ugly swill. Von Trier really seems to hate women--not to mention the US. Woman escaping from gangsters arrives in a small American town where she has to "persuade" everyone to like her so she can hide out. Her one ally is the handsome guy who finds her escaping and he gives her advice as to how to win over everyone. She befriends each but as the gangsters seem more and more eager to find her the townspeople start to show their true colors.

This is the first of his movies that I've seen the whole of (although I watched and loved the first year of his tv series The Kingdom and liked (less) the second year of it).

If you'll remember, I started to watch Breaking the Waves a few months and after twenty minutes could not continue--it was just too damp, clingy, depressing. Next to him Bergman's a comedian. Anyway, this is the first I've seen of his "Dogma 95" films: a group of Danish directors who subscribe to the philosophy of paring down the settings to almost bare stages, very plain camera work, and doing everything possible to prevent the viewer from getting totally involved in the movie as another world.

Which I admit I don't "get"--why would I want a movie to seem as if I'm not watching a movie. I'm sure he and his fellow Dogma followers have brilliant philosophical reasons but for me it's the antithesis of cinema. Anyway, I don't really want to see any more of his movies.

To cleanse the palate I watched the mindless, fast-moving Bourne Supremacy with a really neat car chase in the last 20 minutes and Brian Cox, Joan Allen. I probably should have started with the first Bourne movie but I could figure out what was going on. Oh yeah, and Frankie Potenta (who was great in Run, Lola Run looking anorectic in this one was in the first 20 minutes.

Nicely entertaining.

My friend Robert

When I got home from seeing There Will Be Blood (more on that tomorrow) I found messages on my answering machine from two friends: one cryptic and the second explaining the first. Robert Legault, a wonderful man and a good friend and terrific copy editor died of a coronary some time last week in his NY apartment.

I've known Robert for over twenty years and although we've been close on and off I hadn't really hung out with him in the last year or so except at Jack Womack's get togethers. Before I rented my own book storage lockers, I shared the rent on one with him for a few years but finally stopped out of frustration because he never paid the rent on time. So I'd often have to get the man at the desk to accompany upstairs to open the big lock the company put on his locker (they were nice didn't have to do that). One of the vagaries of freelancing.

He loved Spain, living there on and off during the years I knew him.

He always sounded as if he were coming on to you (if you were a woman) insinuating --but not in an obnoxious way and it was always fun to figure out the best Xmas gift for him --it was easy...Cheesy paperback, some 50s item with a sexy babe on it.

He collected records and I dread seeing what his storage locker (and apartment)holds. I even sold him a few of those I was getting rid of when I went to CDs.

Here's a photo of him from Readercon last year:

Robert

Daylight savings time alert!!!! This Sat/Sunday night so set your clocks ahead one hour and don't miss the service if you're coming.
UPDATE ON MEMORIAL SERVICE
A memorial service will be held for him Sunday, March 9th --10:30 am
at:the Beth Abraham Memorial Chapel
199 Bleecker Street between 6th Ave and Macdougal Street
Their phone # is 212-614-2300 if you need to ask them for directions.

In place of flowers, if you wish, please make a donation to

http://www.jazzfoundation.org/