The best film of all time, ever, no comebacks

melodyclark reminded me of this. I may be completely unable to tell you what my favourite book is, or what my favourite piece of music is, but in this field there is only one clear winner:

Young Frankenstein.

Mel Brooks has made some stinkers in his time, and some pretty good films, and some very good ones (I leave the categorisation to you), but with this film he scaled the heights of greatness and planted his flag there for the ages, and the reason is that it is so much more than a comedy, and so much more than a spoof. All the little gag details, the zipper in the neck, the kiddie's kite, the door handle that comes to pieces, they're good, but in the end they are a distraction, an irrelevancy, because this is first and foremost a love letter to a genre of films whose like we can never see again. (What, a love letter can't have jokes?)

Watch Gene Wilder's character, from the outset identified as "Doctor Fronkonsteen" in a desperate attempt to escape his background (an attempt belied by the fact that he could have changed his name completely had he wished) go through the stages from rigid scepticism to dream-haunted terror to insatiable curiosity...as he gradually comes to believe in the possibilities, drives himself and his assistants to the edge of exhaustion in the pursuit of his grandfather's dream, sinks into despair when the process seems to have failed...this is a true portrayal by Wilder, a brilliant depiction without one iota of self-mockery. And the proof is in the scene in the dungeon under the castle, when Fronkonsteen confronts his creation in an effort to "convince him that he is loved." Again, there are the jokes, the old "no-matter-what-I-say" switcheroo, the Monster's reaction when F says "Hello, handsome!", and it's all very funny, and then Inga calls through the door, "Doctor Fronkonsteen! Are you all right?"

Say it with me now.

"MY NAME...IS FRANKENSTEIN!!!"

If that moment doesn't do it for you, then I don't know what will. Thank you, Mel. You put a smile on my face.

From Making Light

This set of three links.

I would love to believe that something would come of this. I just don't have it in me any more. The vision has become a fiction; I can believe in it right up to the moment when I have to engage with the real world, and then it becomes unsustainable in the face of the fact that greed and hate have won, overwhelmingly. And this in spite of Obama's Presidency (which has done some good and may still bear some hopeful fruit but seems to be taking an awful long time about it) and the closest approach to a non-Tory, non-"new" Labour government this country has ever or could ever come, thrown into the rubbish by the non-Liberal non-Democratic leadership, who are still, by some amazing freak of nature, in charge of their party and not rubbing their backsides where the door caught them. (Their spring conference is going on as we speak. Expect no change.)

Next Saturday UK Uncut in Bristol are turning a bank into a library (presumably just for the day, sadly). I don't even have to try to think of all the reasons why it wouldn't be practical for us to go, but I hope it will be a success and achieve its objective, and if this is a genuine movement for good, I wish it well with all my bruised and battered heart.