May 30, 2000
4:20 PM Subscribe

Ursula K. LeGuin's "The Lathe of Heaven" is being offered to local PBS stations in the month of June. It hasn't been broadcast in about 20 years. VHS tape and DVD due out in September. Both KQED (San Francisco) and KRCB (Rohnert Park-Cotati, CA) aren't going to broadcast it. I guess Suze Orman needs the airtime...
posted by paddbear (2 comments total)

While the book is fantastic, both the direction and editing of this film were horrendous. The early part of the film is nearly incoherent from the editing.

Being from Portland (where the film is set) they also overdo the rain in the early scenes. But the worst direction is in a couple of scenes where there are a lot of people who are standing around, and as soon as George Orr starts to move they all do too. It makes no sense at all; it's just jarring.

It's worth seeing, but don't expect a masterpiece.

posted by Steven Den Beste at 7:14 PM on May 30, 2000

Jeez, do I ever hate following up a Steven Den Better Than You post. The Lathe of Heaven changed my year when it ran in roughly 1980. I remember calling up PBS (from New Brunswick, collect) to compliment them on it, saying it was the best film I'd ever seen. I rather doubt I would believe that today. My memory of the crazed scientist alone pegs my hammimeters (a specialized instrument used to measure hamminess).

The film comes to mind every couple of months, and absolutely every time I walk through a parking garage, which, in the book, have been turned into office buildings, with off-kilter floors and residual exhaust odours. And now it's all coming back to me! Yes, I actually wrote a book report on The Lathe of Heaven after watching it on TV.

Wow. Seminal.
posted by joeclark at 9:09 PM on May 30, 2000

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May 30, 2000 4:20 PM Subscribe

May 30, 2000
4:20 PM Subscribe