Katharine Hepburn: 1907-2003 It was only two weeks ago I sat in my Modern Drama class watching the film adaptation of Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night. Onto the screen stumbles a frail looking woman, frail but for her chin, which thrust outward as if decreeing by sheer will the nobility of this frozen, fractured woman. The character of course, is Mary Tyrone, a dope fiend. The woman playing her- Katharine Hepburn. Just say the name and you're likely to give a small, almost imperceptible wobbly twitch to your head, your mouth curving upward with a knowing, almost confrontational smile. My first encounter with Katharine Hepburn was watching Desk Set with my mother. It's, I believe, the only film that both she and I agree is universally brilliant. You see, Hepburn plays the head of an Information Department and Spencer Tracy plays an efficiency expert who comes into install the Eniac 5000- a big vacuum tube computer. Hepburn and her gals are convinced "Enny" (as Tracy calls the computer) is there to replace them- and of course...Well, you'll just have to see it yourself. As many of you know, one of my favorite genre's of film is the screwball comedy, which has been lost to the ages. Two of the best, The Philadelphia Story and Bringing up Baby were made by Hepburn's shrewd, wickedly funny performances. It's funny that she's passed away on Gay Pride Day, which commemorates the anniversary of the Stonewall riots, which were set off by the death of another screen legend, Judy Garland. I've always thought that Hepburn was, if anyone should be at all, a far better female icon for the gay movement than Judy. Judy dreamed of going over the rainbow, but wound up in loveless marriages ringed with booze and pills. Katharine, on the other hand, famously wore pants and for years claimed her brother's birthday as her own. Tom Hepburn died at 16, having hung himself by a rope. Katherine was the one who found him. She had her tragedies, she too was caught in a love that could not be public (with the married Spencer Tracy) and yet, this woman- no- this Woman, throughout it all remained dignified, witty and never left a soul without a doubt that she was the one in control. While Judy was a diva, Katharine Hepburn, on screen and in real life, was one of the most talented, socially challenging, rule-breaking, ball-busting, dignified women of all time. Her movies include Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?, Rooster Cogburn, The Glass Menagerie, The African Queen, Woman of The Year, On Golden Pond and The Lion in Winter. Her persona and her characters have been the inspiration for easily a half-dozen characters I've written, but I doubt I will ever come close to matching on pulp, the rich, bold and amazingly vibrant ribbon that was the life of Ms. Katharine Hepburn.

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posted by Japhy at 6/29/2003 09:28:00 PM || #

Hulk Smash! The metaphysics of the monster In a perfect world, Ang Lee's "Hulk", which opened in theatres yesterday, would be nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars. Lee set out to raise the action-blockbuster genre to a new level and he's succeeded brilliantly. I haven't been this jazzed by a movie in a very very long time. From Danny Elfman's nearly perfect score, filled with ever more urgent crescendos, to the fantastically Brechtian use of comic book panel inspired layers to the fact that "Hulk" is at once a treatise on the limits of free will AND a great big green smash fest makes my little geek heart soar. Many critics have been complaining that the movie is emotionally uninvolved. There's some truth to this, but it's deliberate. Lee wants us to be observers, for if we were emotionally connected with He-Who's-Literally-Too-Big-For-His-Britches, then we wouldn't see him for the outsider he truly is. This movie is deliberately cerebral and the mad editing is designed to keep us always at a distance from the characters: a movie of ideas, not heart strings. The Hulk is a character besieged by his own limitations: a missing past, a genetic deformity passed on by his father (Nick Nolte, who despite at one point literally chewing the scenery, is one of the most fascinating screen villains of all time) who loves him both as Daddy and Mad Scientist in love with his own Frankenstein, and most of all by the limits he puts on himself as Bruce Banner (Eric Bana), a man who, even though he is adopted, has managed to wind up in the same field as his creepy, dog-lovin' Dad. There is a moment when Banner's sweetheart Betty (Jennifer Connelly, who takes the girlfriend sidekick to places far more dangerous than you would expect) confronts Banner's Dad about the horror he's brought on his son and the elder Banner replies, "It has nothing to do with him. It never has. I wanted to improve on the flaws inside of me. In me! Isn't the search for truth? To find out what our true nature really is?" While wildly Oedipal, this is a story more about the fact that despite our dreams to the contrary, human beings are a limited, ever-fallible race. If only we could Hulk-out and be free of the limits life has put on us- and it's in the scenes where the Hulk finally embraces his inner monster that the movie, literally soars. As the Hulk jumping-bean bounces across Monument Valley, for a brief moment we are allowed to ride along with him, as he listens to the wind flapping across his massive green body and the Earth below look like some strange abstraction of the mind. Our heart soars with him as we for a moment, get a taste of what it might truly be like to be free- and then the Apache helicopters start firing rockets at the green meanie and once again, we're just a small limited race fucking up on a tiny little planet. If that's not the stuff of tragedy, what is? PS- For those interested, I haven't been blogging becuae I've been working on a new play. I'm going to try to post at least once a week for now on, so there will be new content. Promise :^)

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posted by Japhy at 6/21/2003 02:18:00 PM || #