The Bricolageure

Various goings-on in the Roger Corman masterpiece, A Bucket of Blood {1959}. Dick Miller {as sculptor-of-sorts Walter Paisley}, and Julian Burton {as the somewhat legendary beatnik poet/bon vivant Maxwell H Brock} are brilliant. Folk singer Alex Hassilev {of The Limeliters} also appears.

A few of the poet's utterances:

"Swim on you maudlin, muddling, maddened fools..."

"Life is an obscure hobo bumming a ride on the omnibus of Art."

"Repetition is death."

Book Covers of Wonderment, by Julian Montague.

Some folks really do enjoy their work. Bill Pullman and Julia Ormond are brilliant in 2008's Surveillance.

Discomfiting and unnerving encounters with strange, pale men, in David Lynch's Lost Highway {1997}. Bill Pullman and Robert Blake are both perfect in this brief yet memorable interlude.

In this epic, taut scene from 1953's Shane, the gunslinger Wilson {Jack Palance} hears some familiar-sounding words coming from the equally legendary man-of-arms, the film's eponymous hero {Shane, portrayed by Alan Ladd}. One of the tersest, most carefully measured, and most intense dialogues ever filmed. The whole scene plays out almost ritualistically, as if every word, pause, and action had no option but to unfold as it did.

The slippery and nefarious Dr. Zachary Smith {*perfectly* portrayed by the great Gary Oldman} has some slippery/nefarious plans in store. From 1998's Lost In Space.

Peter O'Toole as the Director Eli Cross engages with Cameron {Steve Railsback} in various interesting ways, in 1980's The Stunt Man.

Reluctant prognosticator Clyde Bruckman (the great Peter Boyle) is stymied, not so much by the pitfalls inevitably bound and fettered to foretelling future events, but by the Official Title of a certain music festival. Afterward, a "chance" encounter with an "inconspicuous" man foreshadows a great deal of homicidal activity to come. Season 3, episode 4 of The X-Files.

Clyde Bruckman demonstrates that his brand of augury does not necessarily extend to winning the lottery, prompting Existential (of the rhetorical persuasion...) queries, and despair. Mulder (David Duchovny) is then set straight about other matters.

Peter Boyle, with a brilliant performance as Clyde Bruckman, reluctant sage/soothsayer, not only quasi-uncannily detects the authorship of a newly received missive, but (politely) passes along the author's (polite) greetings to the FBI agents at hand: Scully (Gillian Anderson), and the aforementioned Mulder (David Duchovny). Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose, 1995.

As far as cryptic conversations go, this one, involving the serial-killing dentist  Dr. Dave Lowry (Ned Beatty, in a brilliant performance), the offbeat genius Mike Keppler (Liev Schreiber), and unamused Detective Jim Brass (Paul Guilfoyle) would have to qualify for the Pantheon of such things. CSI season 7: Sweet Jane.

Uncle Charlie (the great Joseph Cotten) seems less than enthused that a would-be interviewer/photographer (or two...) is/are in the offing. Perhaps the fact that he has sought refuge at his older sister’s “normal” home, far from his litany of serial murders, is a salient element in re: his Less-Than-Enthused-ness. Another breakfast in bed takes a turn south. From Alfred Hitchcock’s noir thriller Shadow of a Doubt (1943), which allegedly was the maestro’s favorite of all his cinematic creations. The subtle, yet inexorable escalation of dread in this film, due in no small part to Mr. Cotten’s superb performance, is indeed the stuff of genius.

Joseph Cotten continues his mesmerizing, chilling performance as the increasingly sinister Uncle Charlie, as he metamorphoses from congenial and convivial, to quite menacing, in mere moments, at the dinner table. His views on women who live in "The City" are not terribly flattering, as such.

Psychopathic DEA agent Norman Stansfield (Gary Oldman, in a titanically twisted, iconic, epoch-defining performance), after a riotously intense, musically-inspired murder-fest, calmly, though menacingly, imparts his tips for better living through Beethoven-ism to another soon-to-be victim.

Sharply dressed DEA agent Norman Stansfield, during a questioning on protocol, sanguinely explains his dearth of time for such things. He then demonstrates his nonpareil abilities in re: making a splashy exit.

Stansfield really gets down to some serious malevolent weirdness in this scene with would-be DEA agent-slayer Mathilda (Natalie Portman). After ingesting his mystery drug, and undergoing its incomprehensible initial effects, he queries the young lady in ways that would bamboozle,unnerve, and intimidate anyone in human history. His final question to Mathilda is hauntingly disquieting.

Desperado Duke Mantee (Humphrey Bogart) apprises the assembled hostages of exactly what they should, and should not, do. Plenty of Sitting Down should transpire. Dept.of Being Quiet: affirmative. Listening to the music is not only allowed, but encouraged. Making wrong moves.....not so much. From The Petrified Forest (1936). Erstwhile circus performer Charley Grapewin has a nice turn as Gramp Maple.

Alan Squier (Leslie Howard), disenchanted sophisticate, in making his inexorable way to the summit of disillusionment/world-weariness, finds suddenly a pressing need to become unseated. Less than overjoyed with this (and after issuing a turbo-powered, authoritative, magisterial, canonical, epoch-defining “Sit Down, Pal.”), Duke Mantee employs rigorous deductive reasoning to surmise that Squier's varied physical positionings have little, if any, effect on his speaking capabilities. Howard and Bogart are both brilliant throughout; this film was a breakthrough for the then virtually unknown Bogart, and it was Leslie Howard’s insistence that made it all happen.

Anthony Perkins discusses the Human Predicament with Janet Leigh in 1960′s Psycho, directed by the mæstro, Alfred Hitchcock. Life’s emptiness, the private traps from which we never escape, one’s mother, and other topics are covered. Perkins, who portrays motel proprietor Norman Bates, delivers a stunning, bravura performance, easily spanning the morass between the eagerness of a lonely man who suddenly finds a companion, and the resignation of one who knows he is utterly beaten.

The mood at Bates motel undergoes something of a sea change, as Janet Leigh inadvertently sets it right up on a tee for Anthony Perkins, whose reaction ranges from the utterly incredulous, to a very nearly open hostility, to a quasi-reassuring resignation. Further brilliance from Perkins, who shows astonishing command and control. Perhaps, next time, Leigh will opt for skipping the well-meant suggestion to put Norman’s mother “in...some place”, where thick tongues click, and whatnot.

When the dogged Milton Arbogast, tireless in his pursuit of the truth (and beautifully portrayed by the great Martin Balsam), arrives on the scene, Norman Bates faces a new kind of challenge: a very sharp, determined, subtle investigator. When Norman’s version of events begins to ever so slightly falter, Arbogast brings out the big guns, and proclaims “If it doesn’t gel, it isn’t aspic....and this ain’t gelling.” Stunned silence fills the entire Universe, and an entire epoch is re-defined. Bates is suitably gobsmacked. Truly marvelous and highly skilled performances full of nuance, especially from Anthony Perkins and Martin Balsam.

Where, indeed, does Kelly (Robert Redford; character’s name is actually Johnny Hooker) come from, wonders Doyle Lonnegan (Robert Shaw) in 1973′s The Sting. Also, Lonnegan is intrigued as to whether or not Kelly “follows” his train of thought.

Doyle Lonnegan appears to be somewhat peeved, and knocks Johnny "Kelly" Hooker into next Tuesday with a tremendous, epoch-defining blow of untold power. Kelly gets called an “errand boy” for good measure.

Hannibal Lecter, portrayed brilliantly by Anthony Hopkins, doesn’t take long---perhaps 0.03 seconds, in fact---to transition from Pazzi’s (Giancarlo Giannini) lie, to the business at hand. An unfailingly polite “conversation” (of sorts) then ensues. Some winking may occur, as well as a breezy “okey dokey”.

Dr. Lecter seems to have the upper hand all too often over Pazzi in their various encounters. Here he captures the Chief Inspector (on film) unawares, and then quite intimidates the slightly-trembling Italian with mere words and bare feet. And, perhaps also by reputation. From 2001′s Hannibal.

Usually, one has to worry when the gloves are *off*. With Hannibal Lecter, au contraire. It’s when the gloves are *on* that things become a bit menacing.

Sherlock Holmes and Jim Moriarty have another, different kind of conversation, in the courtroom scene of The Reichenbach Fall, episode 3, season 2 of Sherlock. There is a certain amount of amusement being had. Actors Benedict Cumberbatch and Andrew Scott both are sublime, in vastly different ways.

Moriarty {Andrew Scott} and Sherlock {Benedict Cumberbatch} finally have a proper meeting up, poolside, and converse in a rather intense manner about what happens to Sherlock if certain actions are not discontinued. From The Great Game, episode 3, season 1 of Sherlock. Some burning might be involved. Disappointment and other topics are then covered. Actors Scott and Cumberbatch are both utterly superb, as is Martin Freeman, whose character, Watson, is also involved.