WEEKEND EDITION: PARTLY FICTION.

A few nights ago Marti and I watched Sophie Huber's compelling 2012 documentary Partly Fiction, about actor Harry Dean Stanton. A native of West Irvine, Kentucky, Stanton will turn 90 this coming July.

Stanton had dozens of Westerns and other genre films under his belt, then appeared in a series of cult movies that brought him to the forefront: Paris, Texas (1984), Repo Man (1984) and The Last Temptation of Christ (1988). In the latter Stanton played Saul/ Paul, shown here with Harvey Keitel as Judas Iscariot. (Also on the Last Temptation set: the late singer-songwriter Michael Been of the 1980s band The Call. I saw him perform with Harry Dean Stanton at Washington D.C.'s Bayou club back then.)

Martin Scorsese's adaptation of Nikos Kazantzakis' controversial 1953 novel Temptation was itself a cause celebré: On October 22, 1988, a radical Catholic group set fire to the Saint Michel theatre here in Paris. An incendiary device charged with potassium chlorate injured thirteen people, four with severe burns. The cinema itself was badly damaged and reopened three years later after restoration. The Archbishop of Paris, who had previously spoken out against the film (without having seen it), condemned the attack, calling the perpetrators "enemies of Christ."




I was happy to see that the songs from Ms. Huber's Partly Fiction had been released as an album. I downloaded them from iTunes this weekend.




Harry's video for Zimmie.


Finally, here is an interview with Talk Show host Harper Simon (Paul's kid):