Tonight we stumbled on a pair of enthralling documentaries on the Independent Film Channel. "Spaghetti West" interviews some of the greats of the Italian film industry, talking about each other and about the rise and fall, art and politics of the highly stylized homage genre pioneered by Sergio Leone and Clint Eastwood. (I loved seeing Ennio Morricone, the power behind the music that made those films what they are, a shy, aristocratic-looking old man with eyes magnified by his big spectacles.) That was followed, unannounced, by an even more amazing documentary on the Hong Kong kung-fu movie industry (I didn't catch its name, and it is mysteriously not in IFC's schedule), made in a similar style, probably by the same team. Besides great movie clips and cutting, the best thing about both films is that they interview the directors and actors in their own language, even those like John Woo who we know speak English. You could see and hear these artists steeped in the flavor and rhythm of their own culture and language, watch their marvelous faces — and read in the subtitles that they were saying pretty much the same things, the age-old, universal passions, jokes and gripes of those who work in the popular arts. (It's not real kung fu, explains a worldly older martial artist who choreographs fights for chop-socky movies. Real kung fu would bore the audience to death.)

There was Jackie Chan, with bohemian long hair and an expression considerably more sophisticated than that of his lovable comic hero, discoursing fluently in Chinese about his training in — no, not martial arts — in Chinese opera school! We see footage of that extremely harsh, demanding, regimented training, which interspersed beatings with delicate gestures and punishing acrobatics. But it turned out an incredibly skilled, athletic, and versatile performer.

Clips are shown from an early Jackie Chan movie called something like Drunken Kung Fu — no, I see it's Drunken Master — in which a disciple has to learn his alcoholic master's stumbling and swaying, yet unerring and lethal fighting style. Chan had to invent and choreograph this legendary fighting style, and it is . . .

Well, all I can say is, he's a cross between Fred Astaire, Charlie Chaplin, and Bruce Lee, and I adore him.
ed: JH