It mostly doesn’t work out when novelists become film directors. At best, authors seem to make bizarre cult classics: Tom McGuane’s 92 In The Shade comes to mind, and Stephen King’s Maximum Overdrive has its memorable moments of coke-fueled camp. But both pale to the high weirdness and real-life violence in Norman Mailer’s Maidstone:

From the Criterion site…

Over a booze-fueled, increasingly hectic five-day shoot in East Hampton, Norman Mailer and his cast and crew spontaneously unloaded onto film the lurid and loony chronicle of U.S. presidential candidate and filmmaker Norman T. Kingsley debating and attacking his hangers-on and enemies. This gonzo narrative, “an inkblot test of Mailer’s own subconscious” (Time), becomes something like a documentary on its own making when costar Rip Torn breaks the fourth wall in one of cinema’s most alarming on-screen outbursts.

This week we celebrate the birthday of Rip Torn who turned 85 on February 6. Here’s Maidstone…

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Trying to stick to all spooky posts this month, here’s a look at one of my favorite scary films. For me, Halloween means watching chilling movies and this one is a must-see classic of visionary, supernatural horror. Nicolas Roeg’s Don’t Look Now explores the otherworldly experiences of a mother and a father grieving the loss of their child. That reads pretty vague, but this piece boasts exceptional mood and arresting visuals that, frankly, speak beyond language. This film is a poem. It’s more Poe than Shakespeare. Here are the words on the Criterion page…

Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie mesmerize as a married couple on an extended trip to Venice following a family tragedy. While in that elegantly decaying city, they have a series of inexplicable, terrifying, and increasingly dangerous experiences. A masterpiece from Nicolas Roeg, Don’t Look Now, adapted from a story by Daphne du Maurier, is a brilliantly disturbing tale of the supernatural, as renowned for its innovative editing and haunting cinematography as its naturalistic eroticism and unforgettable climax and denouement, one of the great endings in horror history.

They ain’t lying, y’all. Here’s a great Mark Cousins interview with Sutherland, looking back at Nicolas Roeg and Don’t Look Now…(The only version of this I found won’t play here. Click to watch below and when you’re denied, hover over the screen and click on the YouTube symbol in lower right side of the screen to proceed to my channel where you can watch this along with all the other videos I curate for this blog)…

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This week it was confirmed that the William Burroughs doc, Burroughs: The Movie, will be released by Criterion Collection in December. In the meantime, here’s a cool little video about Burroughs and his connections to the occult. It’s made by Imperium Pictures…

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