Now here is a job that I could probably do well. I’ve done it once or twice and had no complaints; it probably doesn’t require talking to people much . . .

La Dolce Vita (dir. Federico Fellini). Plot-free.

Plein Soleil (Purple Noon) (dir. René Clément), the first film version of The Talented Mr Ripley, quite good. The French title means broad daylight; I saw nothing that would explain purple!

À bout de souffle (Breathless) (dir. Jean-Luc Godard). One more Famous Groundbreaking Work of Art checked off.

The Apartment (dir. Billy Wilder). Good fun.

The Little Shop of Horrors (dir. Roger Corman). The amateurishness of it all is both amusing and frustrating. — In the first scene we hear Seymour offstage singing “Marble Halls“, a song previously known to me only from Enya‘s third album Shepherd Moons (1991).

Ποτέ Την Κυριακή Never on Sunday (dir. Jules Dassin). Abandoned out of boredom after a few minutes. Remind me not to rent any more foreign movies about whores — or of which I know nothing but the theme tune.

The Magnificent Seven (dir. John Sturges). Contains a line that had stuck in my mind for years, and sometimes bugged me that I could not recall its source:

It’s like this fellow I knew in El Paso. One day, he just took all his clothes off and jumped in a mess of cactus. I asked him that same question: why? — He said it seemed to be a good idea at the time.

Tirez sur le pianiste (Shoot the Piano Player) (dir. François Truffaut).

Tunes of Glory (dir. Ronald Neame).

The Entertainer (dir. Tony Richardson). Lawrence Olivier is splendid as a vaudevillian who cannot accept that he’s washed up. Alan Bates’s first movie; for twenty minutes I didn’t spot him, until some distinctive gesture.

Sunah describes me as “calm, witty, thoughtful, and tall.” Heh. I had no idea that altitude made me better company.

At the party, Eric described a geometric construct that he was having trouble visualizing; so the next day I whipped it up in Povray.

It is credibly reported that Frank Kelly Freas, eminent fantasy illustrator and a very pleasant fellow, died this morning. There will probably be a memorial next Sunday at the LASFS clubhouse.

Later: No, it’s at something called the Church of Scientology Celebrity Center & Manor Hotel, in Hollywood.