softer than satin was the light
Wolcott:
In 1986, Pauline Kael invited a bunch of us to an early screening--possibly a private screening--of a movie by a director whose previous work had wowed her. It was a movie about which everyone involved, including the director, had nervous jitters regarding its reception. We settled into our seats, having no idea what the movie was about or even who was in it--most of the castmembers' names rang no bells. The lights went down in the screening room and when the director showed us a close up of a severed ear in the grass being scaled by ants, it was apparent that this was a movie that intended to extend the boundaries of the American Gothic.
Couple hours later we evacuate to the sidewalk out of Blue Velvet, dazed, delirious (me less so than others--I was troubled then and still am by the punching-bag use of Isabella Rossellini, esp when she staggers naked and bruised into the night), babbling our own interpretations. On the walk over to the Algonquin or Un Deux Trois, Pauline wondered aloud what it it was Dennis Hopper was wheezily inhaling from his inhaler.
"Insecticide," said Veronica Geng.
After dinner, drinks, whatever it was we had, Kael placed a phone call to let David Lynch how much she loved the film. "Oh God bless," he said, sounding like a choir boy.
Over the years I've often found myself wondering if certain members of the devil's party inhale insecticide to psyche themselves up for the evil they do. Tom DeLay is a logical candidate, given his professional background, and Ann Coulter often has the bug eyes characteristic of bug-juice abuse. Watching Fox News, I figured they might keep a industrial-sized bug inhaler in the offices for their producers and hosts to take an invigorating hit from before pushing the Bush agenda.
<< Home