ESCAPE FROM KATRINA?

After watching 6 hours of Katrina coverage on Sunday, I realized I had to get out more. The weather in NYC has been exquisite for a week and I've been glued to the disaster on TVin my tiny apartment. When you live in NYC, you normally pay a fortune for a shoebox-sized apartment, but on perfect days like the ones we've had when everyone and everything is out on the streets, you feel like you own a piece of a great city.

So determined to get out more, I caught a couple flicks this weekend. One was a flop at Lincoln Center called PANDORA AND THE FLYING DUTCHMAN--absolutely abysmal but it stars Ava Gardner at the height of her allure. Ava is fairly forgotten, but she truly was a rare beauty. Undeniably sexy, but never trashy like a bleached blonde "I-want-to-please-you"-type bimbo. More like, "I'm an imperious fox whose majesty you are fortunate to gaze upon." To use a word I hate, she's CLASSY, even though she was traish from North Carolina--as I am.



I couldn't sit through the whole feature with Lypstinka--who else would you attend a forgotten Ava vehicle with?-- with it's pompous voiceovers by leading "man", James Mason, but it was worth it to see a beauty at the height of her powers lit so beautifully in colors and costumes designed specifically for her. I'm partially color-blind--I know, I know, that explains many of my outfits--but I hung on each lip color change! For an hour and a half, anyway.

I always forget holidays like Labor Day cuz I ain't got no regular job. But luckily a friend didn't, and we got tickets to see another "Gardner"--A CONSTANT GARDENER, which Time Out listed as DON'T MISS. At the last minute, GARDENER seemed a little too Katrina-ish with it's government conspiracy plot so we switched the tix to GRIZZLY MAN. OHMIGOD! ***** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! HYSTERICAL! RETARDED! EVEN HEARTWARMING? I knew nothing about his film other except what my friend told me: a guy goes to live in the wild with bears and gets killed by them. I couldn't imagine what kept one's interest with such a long set-up and inevitable ending. I'll tell you what. HE's A FAG! Or at least faggy/ a closet case. A ridiculous closet case who films himself with the bears and foxes doing different takes to make sure that his blond hair is fixed just right with a variety of "butch" bandanas and kooky sunglasses. Director/narrator Werner Herzog found a goldmine in this guy's footage and assembles it with some newly shot interviews. The humor comes from how spazzy the guy is and of course, since you know how it ends, all of his vain pronouncements about his kinship with the bears are rendered all the more ridiculous! The audience didn't want to laugh at first (I didn't even know it was 'sposed to be a comedy) but we were guffawing by the end. It's even touching at some points because even though we may laugh at new revelations like his assumed name (Timothy Treadwell) or the way he met his business partner (at a medieval-themed restaurant where he played a squire!) he basically did something with his life/death that meant a lot to him, was fully aware of the dangers and was prepared to die doing it. I'm not really director-savvy enough to tell you what else Werner Herzog has directed, but he handled this so well that I'll definitely keep my eye out for his new projects.