THE MT VOID
11/03/23 -- Vol. 42, No. 18, Whole Number 2300

Co-Editor: Mark Leeper, mleeper@optonline.net
Co-Editor: Evelyn Leeper, eleeper@optonline.net
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Topics:
THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS (film review
by Mark R. Leeper)
Writing in the MT VOID (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
This Week's Reading (TEN PERCENT OF LIFE) (book comments
by Evelyn C. Leeper)

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TOPIC: THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS (film review by Mark
R. Leeper)

[We just passed the 30th anniversary of the release of THE
NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS. In honor of this, here is Mark's
review from 1993.]

Capsule review: Tim Burton proves himself a creative genius with a
film deserving of instant holiday classic status. Just about
everything comes together and genuinely works in the best holiday
film since Alistair Sim starred in A CHRISTMAS CAROL. Rating: +3
(-4 to +4).

From the on-again off-again career of Tim Burton comes a film so
original and incredibly creative that it genuinely is unlikely to
be surpassed as a holiday film for decades. While Burton did not
actually direct in this outing (Henry Selick did), Burton produced
and wrote the story, creating the characters. And THE NIGHTMARE
BEFORE CHRISTMAS shows an unmistakable Burton style. The entire
film is done in beautiful 3-D animation and is the culmination of
the poetic fairy tale style we saw some of (but not enough) in
EDWARD SCISSORHANDS crossed with the tongue-in-cheek horror-spoof
style of "Frankenweenie" and "Vincent." This film dazzles the
viewer with so many beautiful images that I found just taking my
eyes off the screen to make notes meant I was missing something I
wanted to see. The style the film kept reminding me of some
exceptionally creative Czech films--particularly those of Jiri
Trnka--and wishing more films like that could be done elsewhere.
Now a visual style every bit as compelling, perhaps more, has found
its way into an American film. The fairy tale style that I liked
so much in EDWARD SCISSORHANDS I attributed to Caroline Thompson, a
then first-time screenwriter whose talents I claimed were just what
Burton needed. I am very pleased that Burton seems to have had the
same insight. Thompson wrote NIGHTMARE's screenplay also and this
time she and Burton have completely fulfilled the promise their
pairing showed in that film. The ten musical pieces here are
written and scored with the clever style and quality of a Gilbert
and Sullivan operetta.

The story takes place in a land where holidays are born. One town
makes Halloween each year, another makes Christmas. The artistic
genius of Halloweentown is one Jack Skellington, a sort of skeleton
with a globular head. But then everyone in Halloweentown is a
horror, that is the spirit of Halloween. The town is full of
werewolves, vampires, bats, spiders, mad scientists, and things for
which there are no names. Jack is dissatisfied with Halloween and
stumbles on Christmastown. He is enchanted and puzzled by the
idea of Christmas and decides he and his town of horrors can do it
all better. Halloweentown starts working on putting on a
horror-tinged Christmas. If that seems a silly plot, well you don't
expect a holiday film is going to have a Dostoyevsky-level story.
Just accept the story and watch how well it is told. Regardless of
the plot this is a film that you *will* find rewarding. Take it
from me you may possibly have seen a film like this before but only
rarely, and you have never seen it done so well for 75 minutes. If
you thought THE WIZARD OF OZ was an impressive children's film, go
see THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS. Amazingly to me I give a
Christmas film a rating of +3 on the -4 to +4. [-mrl]

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TOPIC: Writing in the MT VOID (comments by Mark R. Leeper)

Some of you may have noticed an abrupt change in the writing style
of the writing in the MT VOID during weeks gone by. Evelyn and I
are now both writing under the house name of Leeper. We each write
and then collect the results as if it was the single writing.
(This is due in part to the difficulties my Parkinson's is causing
with my typing.) [-mrl/ecl]

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TOPIC: This Week's Reading (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)

TEN PERCENT OF LIFE by Hiber Conteris (translated by Deborah
Bergmann) (Fireside, ISBN 0-670-63419-44) is a 1985 Uruguayan
Philip Marlowe novel, though not set in the "Philip Marlowe
universe". In TEN PERCENT OF LIFE, Philip Marlowe is a private
detective who gets involved with the case of the murder of Raymond
Chandler's literary agent Yensid Andress. This Marlowe, a real
person in the Raymond Chandler universe, seems to have been a model
for the private eye in this Chandler's novels. And this Chandler
seems to have taken the names of real people (in his universe) and
applied them to characters in his novels, who have, however, no
resemblance to the characters with those names in his novels. For
example, "Velma Valento" is the ex-wife of Andress in this universe.

In support of all this homage, Conteris provides a quiz at the end
asking the reader to identify where all the names, locations,
events, etc., came from in Chandler's works and life. (This is a
book that cries out for an annotated version!)

Anyway, Conteris also confuses things with changes of both tense
and point of view. (I assume that Bergmann has retained the
original tenses and points of view.) He starts out on the present
tense, then switches to the past. He has some chapters third
person limited point of view of Charles Morton, others as first
person point of view as Marlowe, still others as third person
omniscient. Several chapters consist of long speeches/monologues
by several authors, including Chandler, with most of Chandler's
words coming from Chandler's essays, letters, and other writings.
As far as I can tell, Bergmann seems to have gone back to the
original Chandler, rather than translating what I assume was
Spanish in Conteris's novel back into English. (It seems obvious,
but I've seen examples of a double layer of translation. They're
not pretty.)

Which is to say, even before you consider the convoluted plot, TEN
PERCENT OF LIFE is just as confusing as any Chandler novel.

(Yes, "Yensid" is "Disney" backwards. And "Andress" is an anagram
of Sanders; George Sanders played the detective in the 1942 film
FAREWELL, MY LOVELY, which was based on THE HIGH WINDOW even though
the detective was not called Philip Marlowe.)

[-ecl]

===================================================================

Mark Leeper
mleeper@optonline.net


Recession is when a neighbor loses his job.
Depression is when you lose yours.
--Ronald Reagan

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