Crazy Horse

Run time 134 minutes
Not for children.

“Crazy Horse.”

This is not about the famous 19th-Century Lakota Indian Chief who led the attack at Little Bighorn. Rather, it’s a fascinating documentary by Frederick Wiseman about the legendary Parisian cabaret club featuring nude women dancers that contains revealing interviews with the dancers, producers, and director, celebrated choreographer Philippe Decouflé, as well as scenes of rehearsals and performances of their dancing called “nude chic” (also revealing).

Just as an example, in making a request that the show close for awhile to make changes for the new show, Désires, Decouflé pleads with his producers, “We claim to have the best nude dancing show in the world, and that we’re renewing this type of show, so give me the means to achieve it. If we want a dazzling premiere that will impress the intellectuals and all, let’s make it happen. Some things can never be achieved if we never close.”

In a commentary on the morality of the girls who take off their clothes to dance, referring to the act Venus, he said, “The girls often come out of this act in tears.” Andrée Deissenberg, the Managing Director of Crazy Horse, responds, “They hate touching each other…. They don’t like it. Because of the bizarre culture they have here. The girls are definitely not ‘dirty’. They really hate touching each other. They’re modest. Getting closer than this (leaning towards a woman) there seems to be an invisible wall they bump into, but they won’t get closer.”

Another woman makes an intriguing statement, “It’s probably the only place today where naked dancers on stage … really attract women! We have many women fans, many women clients. There’s a key here. When women possess the key to eroticism and enjoy it, men benefit from it … the key to eroticism is the woman.”

Another intuitive comment comes from Ali Mahdavi, the artistic director, “They’re all beautiful. But I often noticed that those of the girls who objectively have a perfect anatomy are not the best on stage: they rely only on beauty. The beauty they are born with gives them self-confidence. They don’t have to go beyond that. While those who maybe have had complexes have developed a strategy and a personality that help them transcend their handicap. It makes them more fascinating and mysterious on stage.”

My main objection to the film is that all people speaking should be identified each time they speak on camera. Even if they are identified the first time, they are all so unknown that people will inevitably forget who is who. I would have enjoyed it more had they been identified each time. But this is a minor complaint.

In addition to the interesting interviews and shots of the show, the film includes travelogue quality views of Paris.

Be warned that the film is filled with shots of naked women, who walk around backstage una-shamed of their nudity. As appealing as that might be to some, this has a lot more depth than just a movie showing nude dancers.

In French and English, at the Los Angeles Nuart from Feb. 3–9.

Contraband

Run time 104 minutes.
Not for children.

Mark Wahlberg stars in “Contraband.”

Last year the best film I saw was early in the year, a French film called Point Blank. I thought I might see some better, but the only thing that approached it was Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris.

Tonight (Jan. 10) I saw Contraband, and I can’t anticipate seeing anything much more entertaining. Mark Wahlberg is a former drug smuggler who is cast back into that roll with the help of his best friend (Ben Foster) to save his brother-in-law (Caleb Landry Jones), wife (Kate Beckinsale), and two children, from a ruthless crime boss (Giovanni Ribisi), in what turns into a violent caper film with twists and turns.

Set in New Orleans and on a container ship, whose captain (JK Simmons) is less than friendly towards Mark, and Panama, the cinematography (Barry Ackroyd) and music (Clinton Shorter) are both first rate. Baltasar Kormákur directs Aaron Guzikowski’s script taken from the film Reykjavik-Rotterdam with pace and tension that never lets up from the opening scene of Landry Jones dumping some drugs off a ship before the drug authorities catch him with them.

Wahlberg gives a scintillating performance, and it’s matched by Foster, Ribisi, and Beckinsale. Thrillers, like comedies, get short shrift from the Academy when it comes to awards, but everyone involved in this film deserves recognition. If films are mainly meant as entertainment, this is first rate.

I use a dollop of maple syrup because I’m still on the no flour, no sugar diet, also nicknamed “Insanity,” and I just don’t feel like I‘m cheating when I use a dollop. My eyes water at the very first bite.

“That good, huh?” Jay, the surprisingly young head publisher of a major publishing house in New York says to me as he bites incredulously into a large stack of chocolate-chip pancakes and smirks. He’s got some powdered sugar on his chin. I let it sit there for a minute, knowing absolutely for certain I’m doing it on purpose.

He likes my writing. This is good. This is very good, considering. But….

“I know a lot of publishers who fool around, oh yeah. It’s all over the place. I mean — come on — everyone in New York is single.”

He bites again. I sip my black coffee. Powdered sugar hasn’t moved.

“I’m not saying you shouldn’t fool around — I think you should! Just not with someone in the same field as you,” he winks over at me. The gold band he wears on his left ring finger seems a dull gray, the radiance it had when we started the business meeting vanishing as though a magician made it so.

I want to say something quippy, but all that comes out is “I see.” I cross my right leg over my left again and notice my foot is bouncing back and forth like I’m panicked. I thought the story about the eager new writers coming into his office and propositioning him was the last of it.

“I’ve fooled around a lot. But I’m smart about it. That’s one thing I like about your writing: You’re smart.” He winks again and takes a massive-attack bite, getting all four pancakes in with no problem, chocolate chips and all.

The check is dropped and I ask the question I’ve been waiting for the right moment to ask the whole meeting: “Are you interested in signing me?”

Jay wipes his chin, somehow perfectly in one swipe removing the powdered sugar and then asking me if I’ve ever written erotica.

I wonder about men who are in a position of power as I drive home. Does this publisher think I’m an idiot? I remember the thrill I had when I got the call from New York. I stuttered when I spoke to the receptionist. I was embarrassed. And then we sit, over pancakes and coffee, and talk about not writing, but affairs?

What’s wrong with this picture?

I do a breathing exercise my new friend Louise has taught me to help with relaxing. I pull over. I close my eyes. I imagine a few people I love standing there in a large, open field waving at me, smiling. And it works. I’m OK, perhaps a little disappointed, but OK. One good thing came out of it: I now know where to get the best buckwheat pancakes in Los Angeles.

Alice can be reached at AliceActress@yahoo.com.

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I decided to look up ADULT in the dictionary. It leads me to the word MATURE: “Fully developed in body or mind.” Um … doesn’t that take at least an entire lifetime to accomplish?

But the word mature and I have become close friends. I hear that word a lot. Mature. I haven’t been doing too good a job at this whole mature-thing and my boyfriend is starting to lose patience.

“Why did Lady Tarantula put a smiley face at the end of her comment to you and what’s with Kelly writing ‘xoxo’?” This is me a few days ago on the phone with my more than loyal, committed and mature boyfriend again. I have a new insecurity: Facebook. Completely innocuous, I know. I can hear him breathe as he sits patiently on the other end of the phone from Canada. I picture him in his so-cool leather coat and big black work boots. His rings sit snugly on his fingers and he runs his rough hands through his spiky black hair. He’s annoyed. I should be focusing on spending quality time with my family (while I’m home for the holidays) helping my mother find her cell phone instead of badgering Jon with immaturity.

Something crashes. Mochi, our family dog, is jumping onto the Christmas tree again and my mother beats a new record for vocal pitch as she darts into the living room, a cigarette hanging from her mouth, to rescue the tree from falling out the tall window. I should help, but am consumed.

He’s looking for an adult relationship. He’s looking for a mature woman. He’s serious.

Hm….

I swallow. I can hear the saliva sliding down my esophagus; it’s oddly comforting.

My mother manages to pick the tree up and stand it straight up miraculously without dropping the topper, a large sword swung through the absolute tip-top of the tree. Then my uncle calls. My mom finds her cell phone (in her shirt pocket) and announces her brother’s going to Mexico for a while and not to expect any gifts.

Mature.

I want to be mature. It sounds so cool. To be fully developed in body or mind? Who wouldn’t want that? Does this mean I have to start studying Kabbalah? Or change my therapist? Or I don’t know, go green?

I need to figure this out. But first things first: reindeer pajamas. I put on the pair of pajamas I got for Christmas. I may be going mature, but I’ll keep my Christmas pajamas, for now.

Alice can be reached at AliceActress@yahoo.com.

Pictured are Shanna Warren, Executive Director; Ken Marinace, CFP, CEO; and his grandchildren, Rex Dauphinais and Lillian Garretson, both of whom traveled from Bellevue, Wash., for the event.

Burbank-based Comprehensive Financial Services combined a client, Holiday Gala and Toy Drive, to benefit the Boys & Girls Club of Burbank at Oakmont Country Club on Dec. 10. 160 people brought toys and gifts to share the spirit of the season. Ken Marinace, CFP, CEO, hosted the cable TV show You and Your Money and is the author of the popular-selling book A Step By Step Guide to Financial Bliss. CFS was founded by Marinace in 1967 and has been assisting clients with wealth and retirement planning in Burbank since 1981.

You can reach them at (818) 846-8092. CFS is located at 3811 W. Burbank Blvd. in Burbank.