I hope we'll be gone before you disappear forever

[sovay]

I slept last night, which was something of a big deal because the previous night I had not. The weather was bright and fresh, which was also something of a big deal because two nights ago the ash which had blown across the continent from the wildfires was making the end of our street look like the Great Smog of 1952. After my doctor's appointment, I brought home chopped liver and duck pastrami from Mamaleh's and read about half of my recently acquired paperback of Eric Lomax's The Railway Man (1995), a different edition of which I had left in the basement of the Harvard Book Store two or three years ago, assuming I would have the money for it the next week, and then of course never seen in any book store again. We took a walk after dark, around the library and the high school and the bridge under which the commuter train streamed, illuminating the curve of the rails before it. An older couple paused to watch it, too. I like this low-light picture spatch took of me.



I had a letter waiting in the mail from selkie when I got back. The Hot Rock (1972) is a brilliant movie about an escalatingly stupid heist. I missed Polar Noir's "If Everybody Listened" when it was released for World Oceans Day, but I quite like it. We have the Perseids in August to look forward to. It is important to have days that feel like days.

Comments

[alexxkay]

Been vaguely meaning to watch The Hot Rock for ages; it just moved up the queue :) It's within the last year or so that I ran out of Dortmunder novels to read, so it may be fun to visit another filmic interpretation of one. (Bank Shot was pretty good, but added some goofy over-the-top humor that I think detracted from it. I think Dortmunder, like much humor, is much funnier when played completely straight.)

[sovay]

It's within the last year or so that I ran out of Dortmunder novels to read, so it may be fun to visit another filmic interpretation of one.

I have no basis for comparison of such, but I loved The Hot Rock. It's directed by Peter Yates, who I associate most strongly with The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973), and they would in fact make an amazing double feature of incompetent crime in the complementary keys of comedy and tragedy. It's played very straight, it's just that the incredulity levels keep rising to the point where almost everything becomes funny. spatch found a review by someone who hated it on principle of Robert Redford, but I really enjoyed the fact that Redford's Dortmunder looks like someone who should organize the cleanest, coolest heist since Frank Sinatra in Ocean's Eleven (1960) and in practice is a lot more like Richard "Never the Luck" Conte. Wonderful New York photography. Wonderful cinematography, full stop. Nice music, courtesy of Quincy Jones. Zero Mostel out of nowhere. We regretted only there was not more of Charlotte Rae as Murch's mom.

[choco_frosh]

Yay sleep?

[moon_custafer]

There is one (1) Dortmunder fic on Ao3, based on the novels and written for Yuletide 2007: https://archiveofourown.org/works/39352

[oracne]

Sleeeeeeeeeeeeeep.

[selkie]

Well, good on the postal service! For once.

[minoanmiss]

Hooray for sleep!

[alexxkay]

Thank you! That was delightful.

[alexxkay]

Yeah that contrast could work for a movie. Book-Dortmunder is definitely a schlub, thoughh.

[sovay]

Book-Dortmunder is definitely a schlub, though

I've read a number of the books! My mother used to own some and others would come through the house thanks to libraries. What I meant by no basis for comparison is that I've never seen another film interpretation. I didn't even know The Hot Rock existed until it turned up on Criterion.

[edit] What I would say about it as an adaptation is that it changes a number of personal and plot details, but it has the correct atmosphere of a job that looks only mildly dubious to begin with—Redford gets a marvelous monologue about the pros and cons of taking on the theft of the Sahara Stone from the Brooklyn Museum, which he delivers so flatly that at the end of it George Segal as Andy Kelp just looks at him and says, "I don't know where the hell you are or what the hell you're saying. Just tell me, will you plan the job?"—and by the end, without ever achieving the grandeur of a lone breathtaking fuck-up, has spiraled into full-bore WTF while Redford quietly gets an ulcer. Oh, and Rollo is played by Harry Bellaver, whom I last saw in some film noir in the '40's and '50's, which seemed appropriate.

[sovay]

Yay sleep?

Definitely yay sleep!

[sovay]

Sleeeeeeeeeeeeeep.

I appreciated it!

[sovay]

Hooray for sleep!

Thank you!

[sovay]

Well, good on the postal service! For once.

It was a good thing to receive.

*hugs*

[selkie]

I'm very glad. *hugs* If I can procure LeGuin stamps, I may put one on just because one should.

[gwynnega]

Yay sleep!

I am very fond of 1970s heist movies, so I should check this one out.

That is a lovely photo.

[asakiyume]

That is a faboosh photo that might make a good author photo!

[sovay]

That is a faboosh photo that might make a good author photo!

Thank you!

[sovay]

Yay sleep!

I appreciated it!

I am very fond of 1970s heist movies, so I should check this one out.

spatch and I found it delightful and couldn't figure out why we hadn't run into it in a repertory series before now. It really is like the dumbass flipside of a neo-noir.

That is a lovely photo.

Thank you.