I also love the 1922 Fairbanks version, even sillier if that's actually possible. And how is it possible that this fabulous work of art was directed by the same guy who made The Walking Dead, Mildred Pierce, Angels with Dirty Faces and Casablanca (and 140 other films?)

Petrol stations - I seem to remember buying lots of weird, cut-out 45s in petrol stations. Or have I just halucinated that?

Yay! When my kids were young I used to get most of my reading done while waiting for them outside a dance/music/art class…

That's splendid! We have one and sometimes two foxes in a den down the garden. We've noticed they're not here so much these days - the camera will sometimes capture nothing for days. Kind of hard to figure out what they're up to! Elusive critters.

I'm using this as an index for the weakness of most film criticism - almost all the reviews just assume this information is present throughout. As if it's not material that it's withheld until the very end, in the weird, discontinuous Venice bit.

It is a kind of numbing thing isn't it. I wrote it all down here, in case you have nothing on for the next ten minutes lol
bowbrick.substack.com/p/gross-dist...

Gave me weird feels around 'holocaust as plot twist'

Amen. And the potboiler it was based on too - it was called 'an apostolic work'! Pauline Kael, who hated the movie, called it: "…the biggest recruitment poster the Catholic church has had since the sunnier days of 'Going My Way' and 'The Bells of St Mary's'"

Are they in the woods?

GROSS is a serious project - political and economic context, some world history, some comparison with other art forms - some unorthdox views about the classics and the great directors. Plus the jokes. Always the jokes. Join me! bit.ly/48GG5N3

And yes, that is a working URL: gross.ly - I bought the domain from the Libyan registrar - I'm pretty sure they're not sanctioned any more so no one's going to break my door down.

I've adopted Fredric Jameson's phrase 'always historicize!' for the logo! bit.ly/4lXh8DI