Some 251m years ago, the effluviaofSiberianvolcanoes wiped out 95% of life in the seas, andalmost as much on the land, in an episode known as the GreatDying.
The porters' effluvia and the emanations of rotting produce fill the air with an appalling stench, and a burden of relentless heat crushes the esplanade.
With no movie technique (but a great cameraman, Ed Lachman), Simmons has assembled her interests as if in a toy chest: old movies and TV commercials, Broadway songs, good-to-feel-bad bathos, and the effluvia of domestic life.