癲狂院 Vixen Owl Cigar..。o○

A Long Night's Journey into addiction...

Descent Into Madness
"Auto Focus " is an interesting an unwholesome movie about the late Bob Crane, an actor most famous for his role on the TV show Hogan’s Heroes..
Crane was a sex addict whose obsession wrecked two marriages as well as his acting career, and ultimately contributed to his murder in 1978. The case has never been solved.

The DVD has an hour long two-part documentary on the unsolved murder of Crane , and it is interesting to see after watching the film.
Many of the police detectives involved in the case still think Carpenter did it, even though he was brought to trial and acquitted of the charges.
Watch the documentary and decide for yourself.
This may not be the subject matter of a good movie, but the material is fascinating.
I recommend "Auto Focus ", but with reservations.

"Auto Focus " doesn't look a whole lot like any other Paul Schrader picture.
From the opening credits - admittedly the most expensive part of the entire film, by Kinnear's recollection - to the final brutal scenes, the film looks unlike anything Schrader has before attempted.

Which is not to say that he doesn't succeed, he most surely does - his telling of Bob Crane's story is at once fascinating & disgusting.
Schrader is attracted to making pictures about complicated men, men in conflict with themselves.
Well, he'll be hard pressed to come up with a character, fictional or not, that is in such conflict with themselves as Bob Crane was.
Schrader depicts his downfall, showing it step by painful step, and in the process winds up making a gr8 film.
Though you'll probably feel the need to take three to four showers after watching it.....

【Greg Kinnear】Auto Focus【Willem Dafoe】
Hogan's Sexual Activities

Schrader's filming and cinematography even follows wonderfully a story arc in and of itself.
The opening credits are vintage lively not stuffy sitcom style that just sort of dissolve with impression, but not a stuffy reverence..
The last six months of Crane's life take on perhaps a breath or two too sweaty a countenance as the film follows Carpenter's feverish perceptions of the break in his relationship with Crane.

Which brings us back to the end .
Crane was murdered, his skull caved in by a camera tripod.
Two investigations, one in 1978, and another which attempted to convict John Carpenter proved inconclusive.
Four years later, Carpenter died of a heart attack.
So how is the audience to take these last words of narration.
Simple screenwriting bone-throwing artifice
Something with more meaning -- Crane's way of absolving Carpenter. Or an explication of his own life
Some unrepentant unapologetic way of giving his own life meaning
The film itself compels much interest in full exploration of these questions -- not to mention how its a brilliant, exotic and celebratory entertainment all its own...


"Auto Focus" is a powerful & accurate portrayal that Hollywood can learn from.!!