It's the 2015 WHITE ELEPHANT BLOGATHON, people!

By now, you all know the drill: film bloggers the world over have submitted their favorite (or, if they're particularly sinister, least favorite) film oddities to me. Those films have gone into a hat and been randomly assigned back to the members of the the film blogletariat.

There were a lot more "hey, you should check out this weird, overlooked idiosyncratic work" submissions this year (as opposed to the usual, "ha ha ha! watch this garbage, dumdum!" selections). So I'm looking forward to seeing how it all unfolds.

Links to all of the submissions will appear here throughout the day, in order of when they post, with some stragglers rolling in later this week. Enjoy (and thanks again to all who participated):

- Bill Ryan introduces the concept of "The Cinema of Cars Pulling Up in Front of Houses" in his review of Griffin Dunne's FIERCE PEOPLE

- Glenn Kenny tackles another work by White Elephant's favorite auteur, Ken Russell; this time the focus is on the "alcoholic bender"-inspired aesthetics of Russell's LISZTOMANIA

- Michael May discusses Joel Hopkins' JUMP TOMORROW, a film featuring everyone's favorite TV On The Radio personality, Tunde Adebimpe

- David Blakeslee jumps on the Enterprise and revisits Robert Wise's STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE

- Kirk Michael arises to have a look at Jim Jarmusch's DEAD MAN

- Roderick Heath has a go at Bertrand Blier's HOW MUCH DO YOU LOVE ME?

- Stacia Jones goes out of her tree with CLIFFORD

- Dennis Cozzalio gets behind Charles Burnett's GLASS SHIELD

- Don Marks would rather hang than watch HIGH STRUNG again

- Patrick Miller opens up John Cromwell's CAGED

- Andrew Bemis ambles his way through Robert Downey Sr.'s TWO TONS OF TURQUOISE TO TAOS TONIGHT

- Craig Lindsey AKA Uncle Crizzle AKA Tavis Not-So-Smiley AKA Etc. confronts the 3RD WORLD COPS

- Craig Phillips fiddles while PARIS IS BURNING

- Christianne Benedict takes a VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA

- Even though his entry was late, Josh Ralske is NUMBER ONE WITH A BULLET in all of our hearts

- Josh Bell writes A REPORT ON THE PARTY AND THE GUESTS

- Paul Clark lives JOHNNY DANGEROUSLY

A Moment of Rosi

Yesterday saw the passing of Francesco Rosi, who made (among many others) the excellent CHRIST STOPPED AT EBOLI, SALVATORE GIULIANO, and HANDS OVER THE CITY. Rosi leaves behind an impressive (and underseen) body of work that is an interesting marriage of neorealism and New Wave sensibilities. I hope his passing renews interest in his work.

Below is an appreciation I wrote of his 1965 bullfighting saga, THE MOMENT OF TRUTH (which contains an unfortunate STAR WARS analogy but please look past that).

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Francesco Rosi’s THE MOMENT OF TRUTH is a blood-soaked poem observing (if not totally celebrating) the gory pageantry of the bullfighting circuit.

The film begins with an extended, dialogue-less trek through a religious festival in a Spanish city. Onlookers line the street while Catholic acolytes in Klan-like capirotes lumber through clouds of incense, holding grotesque statues of Jesus and the Virgin.