MOVIE
SUNSET BOULEVARD
(Special Collector's Edition)
Billy Wilder
Paramount Home Video, 1950
DVD release 2004

This movie, now considered one of filmmaker Billy Wilder's greatest achievements and indeed one of the top 20 American movies ever made, received a lukewarm welcome when it was first released. Holocaust survivor Mr Wilder was one of Hollywood's first directors to instill his 'epics' with a certain darkness and bitterness; this tale of excess and opportunistic self-indulgence in Tinsel Town was hard to swallow for many of the industry people, both great and small, whom it appeared to target. In fact, pundits maintain that the movie was snubbed by the Oscars in favour of All About Eve, a wonderful movie in its own right if nowhere near the same caliber, due to Hollywood's anger over its portrayal of a corrupt, cynical film industry. (Trivia fact: Mr. Wilder received death threats and movie mogul Louis B Mayer walked out of an early screening, screaming obscenities at the director.)

To call the film bizarre is an understatement: the casting itself was fraught with irony. Gloria Swanson gives the performance of a lifetime, way over the top, but that's what's called for in this case � and of course she was a has-been playing a has-been, which added unbelievable poignancy to the role. William Holden at that point was becoming a has-been himself � alcoholic, bitter, with no real success under his belt since Golden Boy a decade earlier, when he'd been hailed as 'The Next Great Thing.' (He plays the laconic sell-out Joe Gillis with breathtaking restraint in one of his greatest performances.) And Eric von Stroheim, in the role of the sinister butler, was in fact a brilliant director who got mired in controversy with his scandalous movie Greed years earlier. He directed Ms Swanson in Queen Kelly, an unfinished masterpiece and their silent movie swan song as the talkies took over � their careers were essentially over anyway.

Add to this stellar cast a stunning script which added classic lines to our vocabulary ("I am big � it's the pictures that got small" and "I'm ready for my close-up, Mr DeMille"), combined with Billy Wilder at his directorial best and you've got a classic that rightly deserves its place in the American movie pantheon.
� Madeleine Partous

MUSIC
THE JOSHUA TREE
U2
Island Records, 1987

As one of the 1980s definitive albums, The Joshua Tree struck a chord with fans and critics alike, and catapulted U2 to superstardom.At a time when synthesizers dominated the airwaves, The Joshua Tree went back to rock's roots, delving into blues and folk, and intertwined them together to give the album a distinctively warm, human feel.

There's a melancholy theme that resonates throughout that explores issues of racism, love, death, and drug addiction. But to say that it's a totally sombre album couldn't be further from the truth. The first track, "Where the streets have no name," fades in with a beautiful, endlessly echoing guitar riff that's soon joined by the hard-edged rumbling of bass and drums. In the opening lyrics, lead singer Bono joyously proclaims "I want to run, I want to hide/ I want to tear down the walls that hold me inside."

All the songs on the album essentially capture what the band does best: tackling serious issues. U2 are never preachy though, and aiming to create a memorable rock n' roll tune is always top of the agenda. For instance, in the song "Bullet the Blue Sky," Bono's lyrics about the horrors of war are accompanied by a screeching guitar sound that's symbolic of bombs falling from planes high in the sky. But amidst the seriousness of the song, the listener's fingers are still tapping away in keeping time with the beat.

For anyone looking to add a thought-provoking album to their rock n' roll collection, The Joshua Tree won't let you down.
� Marcello Palmieri

BOOK
DRAWN & QUARTERLY VOLUME 5
Various artists
Drawn & Quarterly, 2003
$39.95

Who among us has never ever read a comic book? Most of us are familiar with the movie reincarnations of Superman, Batman, Spiderman and The Hulk. Some others will be old friends with Green Lantern, Flash, Conan, Wonder Woman and too many others to list. Thus we are lead to believe that we know them all.

Drawn & Quarterly Volume 5 is a Canadian compendium from the Montreal-based graphic novel specialists of the same name. The editors have selected foreign comic book talents, inviting us to become aware that there's talent outside the confines of North America � and I'm not talking about Asterix.

This volume introduces us to Yoshihiro Tatsumi from Japan, Rutu Modan of Israel, and Frenchmen Philippe Dupuy and Charles Berberian. At the same time there's a timely reminder of our homegrown talent, like cartoonist icon Harry Mayerovitch, and Michel Rabagliati, both of Montreal. There's also a much-deserved retrospective of one of Quebec's most prolific and long-publishing cartoonists, Albert Chartier. Mr Chartier's well known to Quebeckers, having been published on the French side in the newspaper La Presse and on the English side in the Montreal Star, but little-known in the rest of Canada. His career started back in the 1940s, and he only stopped drawing new strips in 2002.

I grant you that this book isn't for everyone, but if you're looking for a big, 200 page coffee table book for the family iconoclast, this is definitely the one to get. � Dr Markus Martin