A little kid in a Michael Haneke movie?!? Poor kid.What horrific, psychologically distorting fate awates him?
Cannes over the weekend... for those of you who've been offline
Roger Ebert "fings ain't wot they used t'be" - lovely piece
Bright Star scrapbook. Jane Campion has such an eye
IFC Daily Strong response to Mother, from The Host director Bong Joon-ho
LA Times Doctor Parnassus still waiting for buyer. The last film of Heath Ledger and a f***ing Terry Gilliam movie with major stars and they don't want it? I will always love the cinema as an artform but as a business it sometimes seems like a malevolent soul crushing destroyerIn Contention joins the chorus singing that Cannes competition lineups need to be riskier than just 'insert 20 famous auteurs'
Getty Tilda Swinton & Agnès Varda of the avant-garde
IndieWire Lars Von Trier does it again with Antichrist. Boos and applause at the premiere
Spoutblog Lars Von Trier does it again for Antichrist. Quotable egomania
I am the best filmmaker in the worldI know it's too much to ask that all directors be as brilliant as Lars Von Trier. But why can't they all be this entertaining?
Cheeky Dafoe, 'the best filmmaker in the world' (?) and sweet Charlotte Gainsbourgtoo much Cannes? These posts have never been to France.
PopWrap Shia Labeouf overshares with Playboy
Topless Robot Star Trek = Star Wars. It's Benji Button = Gump all over again
Lazy Eye Theater Remembering Royal Tenenbaum in The Royal Tenenbaums
BoingBoing Twitter graph -- how topics get played out. hee
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Posts
23 comments:
Re: Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus - you can't polish a turd, no matter who's last move it is. Selling that turd to the public is even harder when they can see X-Men 14. RIP Heath
I will gladly look in Gilliam's toilet!
and A LOT of turds have been sold to the public. Like, oh, X-MEN 3 & 4! ;)
Jude Law + Johnny Depp + Colin Farrell + Heath Ledger (for the mainstream) crazy imagery + Gilliam + Tom Waits + Christopher Plummer (for the artsier crowds)
.... even if they had to lie to open it (it's not like 50% of movies don't in their trailers) why wouldn't people go see it on opening weekend?
I'm pretty sure that Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus will eventually find a distributor. Sadly, there are lots of other films at Cannes that would deserve a chance to be seen and they'll never get it.
Eh, that's the difference. Stupid American audiences will pay to see shit like X-Men and Transformers. Nobody outside LA or NY is going to see The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus. That doesn't change no matter how many names you want to throw out there.
One reason nobody outside LA or NY is going to see The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus is because the film is not going to play there. Give the stupid audiences a chance, maybe they will go see it. If only X-Mens,Terminators and Star Trekkers play at a theatre near them, what are they supposed to go see?
Eh. I don't mean it judgmentally, it's just the way it is. Surely, yes, there are some people who would see it. But are we really gonna argue that the half percent of the movie-going population is enough to justify distribution there? Don't you think the film would be distributed everywhere it would likely make money? The idea is to make profit, after all. You seem to argue that people in Middle America won't see it because it will never be released there, when in fact it will never be released there beacause yeah - not that many people would see it.
Remember the crazy struggle he had to get Brazil released? And that movie is so brilliant, and so ahead of its time, and all those other things...
Also, Lars von Trier looks deceptively friendly in that photo. Like he would sit down next to me on a bench, strike up conversation, and then start harassing me for my lack of dedication to the purest forms of cinema. Yeah, he scares me.
I hate to have to drive 2 hours to see a decent film. I am very upset at this distribution model. I might have to move.
First Lars roughs them up and then Haneke delivers the KO punch. - Cannes 2009.
but anon 11:22 i think the reason this topic always angers people is that there are MANY people who enjoy movies with a freakier / indier / quirkier / artsier / more challenging / whatever you want to call it "spirit" who don't live on the coasts.
all types of people exist practically everywhere.
and the theory that people won't see artier movies can never be proven because they never get a fair playing field. Hollywood's distribution system has been training people to ignore anything but would-be blockbusters for decades now. People learn what they are taught.
I remember Johnny Depp complaining about this when What's Eating Gilberg Grape came out. He was annoyed at the lack of P&A and said something to the effect of 'people might actually like this if it was promoted and they could see it'
of course that requires P&A expenditures and if studios don't believe that the audiences they've trained not to like "off the beaten path" movies won't go to them even if they finally do spend money on them, they won't.
it's all negative reinforcement of beliefs that are probably somewhat true (less people do like "art" than "product", you're right) but have been greatly exaggerated and encouraged by the current system.
I know, I am in the Midwest and I hate it too. That's why I complain about it so bitchily, I guess. I am in that "half percent" but understand that movies don't really make money that way. It's nice to think that lower-budget "art films" or whatever could possibly find an audience, but the Coors-swilling Nascar hoi polloi surrounding me beg to differ. Sigh.
I also know lots of people outside on NY and LA who would see it. I live in Chicago so I do get to see some of those films.
~Lily
Oh yes, cue the *raising hands* and people saying "Well, IIII outside NYC and LA and...."
The point isn't that there is NO audience outside of those places, just that it is very little - certainly little enough for a distribution house to not even bother with. Just because you're into art house films or indie films or non-Blockbuster fare doesn't mean that suddenly there's some burgeoning market there.
You guys don't think there's not a shit-ton of marketing research, focus groups, etc. that go into these decisions? Trust, if there were an actual market for 'alterna-films' in Middle America i would be exploited to the nth degree.
And, uh, Chicago ain't exactly rural OR dying from lack of less mainstream films. Just sayin'.
Well, I don't see a burgeoning market in LA or NY either - what, playing a film on 2 screens is a flourishing business? Why even bother then?
Asia Argento is on the jury? WICKED . . .
Did you actually read what I said, or shall I repeat myself? I do get to see some of those films because I'm from Chicago! So there was no point of you're last sentence.
Prick!!
~Lily
Lars von Trier is awesome. At least he has a number of great films to back that asshole statement up with, unlike a Uwe Boll. I am going INSANE over the reviews for "Anrichrist" and I need to see it NOW. With this and "Enter the Void" I think my arty trauma quotient may be filled for the year.
And all this discussion of hard-to-see cinema by Midwesterners... Living in Lincoln and Omaha, Nebraska, I've still seen the likes of "Inland Empire", "Drawing Restraint 9," Cassavetes and Almodóvar retrospectives. There's hope for you country bumpkins after all.
Von Trier is so winning somthing. Huppert is known to be into that kind of stuff - self-mutilation, violent sex, humiliation - it's all in La Pianiste and in Ma Mère, really
I will always love the cinema as an artform but as a business it sometimes seems like a malevolent soul crushing destroyer.Not just the cinema. The business of ALL art forms can seem like a malevolent soul crushing destroyer.
- Alison
Well, if von Trier's Antichrist gets US distribution it's a good example of what will certainly not play in Midwest.
alison -- good expansive point.
Maybe Dr. Panarsus is just really bad. Maybe they will do a straight to video. I'm sure the heath fans will want to see it.
But a whole bunch of stars in a movie doesn't garrentee a great movie.
check out this list of bad movies with great casts
http://www.premiere.com/Feature/17-Bad-Movies-With-Great-Casts
it include ALEXANDER, TROY, DEATH TO SMOOTCHIE, BONFIRE OF THE VANITIES, and another Heath film THE BROTHERS GRIM
Shia is a punk.
He talks as if we give a shit.
Thanks for the link, Nat. I appreciate it.
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