10th Anniversary: MUSIC

Ten years ago today, Madonna's Music (2000), one of her very best records, dropped into record stores. Director Guy Ritchie, to your left, was then her new man. He was advertising -- the record I mean! See the "Music" logo on his tanktop? Ever the selfless altruist, Madonna wore a black t-shirt promoting his project, Snatch (2000) which had opened the month before in the UK and was soon going to the US. It would become his biggest hit. Until Sherlock Holmes (2009) that is.

But back to 2000. Ah, the heady days of early romance. She had given birth to Rocco, her only biological child with Guy, the month before. They were married by December.

Madonna was of course, no stranger to loving alpha male movie men since actor/directors Sean Penn and Warren Beatty preceded Guy. Famously, she's now entered their realm. Paparazzi are basically snapping Madonna daily now while she films W.E. (2011) starring Abbie Cornish (see previous post). There must be a lot of outdoor shots. I suspect she wanted to do this much earlier than her first feature Filth & Wisdom (2008) -- I remember her discussing it back in the early 90s when she was still trying to become a film star and mentioned how much she loved Sally Potter's Orlando! It's curious that she didn't start with her own music videos. That career path has no stigma anymore given how many hipster cinematic giants have transferred over from music videos: David Fincher, Mark Romanek, Michel Gondry, Spike Jonze etcetera...

The videos (and movie connections) in order of release.

Music

Is you Madonna? You babylons look less big than they do on the telly but I still definitely would.

With this video, directed by Ray of Light man Jonas Åkerlund, Madge introduced Americans to Sacha Baron Cohen before HBO's Da Ali G Show and Borat and Brüno.

The actress Debi Mazar makes her fifth Madonna video appearance. They've been friends since they were both hitting dance clubs in the early 80s (before the Fame hit). To your left is a private pic of them from Fire Island which Debi showed Wendy Williams. It's around the Dick Tracy time period since they were flying there in a private plan with Warren Beatty. Lifestyles of the rich and famous, you know.

Don't Tell Me



This one comes from frequently collaborator Jean-Baptiste Mondino. It was a huge success worldwide and parodied by Kirsten Dunst and Jimmy Fallon at the MTV Movie Awards. The costumes are by DSquared and Oscar nominee Arianne Phillips. Phillips is also a frequent Madonna collaborator and is working on W.E.. There was a fascinating interview with her in the New York Times when she was promoting A Single Man (2009) that you should read if you haven't. Phillips has only been nominated for one Oscar (Walk the Line) but her filmography includes costuming gems like The People Vs. Larry Flynt, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, 3:10 to Yuma, Tank Girl and The Crow. Oscar's costuming branch doesn't regularly have an eye for iconic contemporary or genre wear, preferring superbly executed period pieces for the bulk of their nominations and especially their wins.

What It Feels Like For a Girl



The third and last official single was directed by Guy Ritchie and banned on MTV for violence. Not that banning on MTV meant anything by this time since they weren't really showing videos. But the song largely tanked, ending the singles release from Music.

The spoken word portion is by singer/actress Charlotte Gainsbourg from this scene in the film The Cement Garden (1993). As you know I thought she was pretty fantastic as the Bob Dylan-proxy's abandoned wife in I'm Not There's (2007). Other people went nuts for her recent turn in Antichrist.

American Pie



This is not an official song from Music but is on some of the CDs depending on the country. It's from the soundtrack to The Next Best Thing (2000) which is why you get then Madonna BFF Rupert Everett himself -- Sean Penn introduced them when Penn had just started dating her -- on back-up vocals and dancing with Madonna toward the tail end. They were very tight and though Rupert claimed in a revealing and typically prickly interview (he can be such a handful) that they're friends again, most sources say they she did not react well at all -- in a permanent way -- to his book in which he claimed that she dropped gay friends due to Guy Ritchie's homophobia.

I've only ever read Rupert's first book Hello Darling Are You Working? Has anyone read the one that caused the rift? If you own Music are you about to put it in for a 10th anniversary spin? [tangent: I'll use it today for workout soundtrack. I've finally gotten back to the gym. But I can't be proud of it until it becomes an actual habit rather than a once a quarter "maybe this time" delusion.]

Speaking of the now... Rupert Everett will be back in cinema's next month opposite Bill Nighy and Emily Blunt in Wild Target. But wouldn't his brutal Brit wit be a perfect fit for the Sherlock Holmes franchise in some capacity? Ah well, something tells me Guy Ritchie won't be casting him any time soon. The untitled sequel starts shooting next month (?) with Noomi Rapace and Daniel Day-Lewis joining RDJ & Jude. The Guy Ritchie film will be opening for Christmas 2011. No word yet on when his ex-wife's movie will arrive.

Put the tunes in your headphones for an anniversary spin.




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Cannes Coverage Cometh

We're not in the south of France (sniffle) but we'll make do through the magic of the internet to cover Cannes as it happens.


Robert, who writes that terrific Modern Maestros series, has volunteered to keep you up to date on Cannes reactions as they progress. The festival stretches from May 12th through the 23rd.

<--- In addition to Robert's roundups, we'll have a few visits from a special French correspondent Julien (left) who will be attending the famous fest and dropping us little bits when he can.

Please be generous with your comments to keep them going. Festivals are exhausting and comments are like fuel. So are food and sleep but festivals leave little time for either of those.

I'll pipe in if I have something extra that needs saying.

The festival kicks off Wednesday night with Ridley Scott's "untold story" (er????) Robin Hood. The closing night film is The Tree. In that film, Charlotte Gainsbourg returns to grieving mode as a newly widowed mother. While it's true she was just raging with that painful emotion last year, this should be a good one and nothing at all like Von Trier's provocation. The film is by Julie Bertucelli, director of the sensitive and subtly moving Georgian film Since Otar Left which you should check out if you haven't. It's very good.

Finally, I don't know if you've heard this but the Cannes festival has added a Queer Palm to the awards they're going to be giving out this year. I guess they're taking a cue from Berlin and Venice, two A list European festivals that have long had a queer prize among their coveted laurels. Wanna bet that Xavier Dolan (I Killed My Mother) takes it for Les Amours Imaginaires?

Katey and Nathaniel Talk Antichrist

Katey moved far far away

She didn't leave New York exactly but I'm being dramatic about it because we used to live mere blocks away. She's too far away. Getting together has been more difficult so we're experimenting this week with a remote discussion of Antichrist. I was not alone in my difficulty connecting with it... though we both recommend in that 'we're film fanatics and you have to see certain films' kind of way.



It was good to chat movies with Katey again. Have you seen this particular controversy magnet yet, now that it's in theaters and VOD?
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A Couple of Notes on ANTICHRIST

I had intended to open this post with an image of Lars von Trier's head almost floating in the space of a giant gray screen. It was a real image that I had snapped from my camera while attending the Skyped press conference at the NYFF weeks ago (von Trier, as you know, doesn't fly so cross-Atlantic festival appearances are out of the question). While Von Trier gazed down impishly at the crowd from the screen that had just shown his latest firebomb Antichrist, my thoughts jumped to Shosanna's "Giant Face" in Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds. It wouldn't have surprised me at all to find that the doors had been locked and von Trier was planning to burn down the theater. Figuratively! Though Lars is kind of a sick puppy, he's more of a prankster than a true nihilist.

...I lost that image and also lost my notes. Very ill the day of the screening, you see. Also missed random minutes of the movie thrice. Thus, no proper review and an indecisive grade. Maybe those of you who brave it this weekend can help me decide what to make of it.

"Eden" production design by Karl Júlíusson, art direction by Tim Pannen
and cinematography by Anthony Dod Mantle

In the movie Charlotte Gainsbourg as She and Willem Dafoe as He play doctor both figuratively and connotatively after the death of their only children. That is to say: He's a psychiatrist who decides to treat his own wife (taboo), they fuck (a lot), they fuck each other up even more (mentally at first but then...). "She" and "He" do all of this in a place called "Eden". Von Trier's giant face mentioned the title of this country home and shook his head at the heavy handedness. "Yeah, sorry about that" He told the crowd unprompted.

At some point in the press conference he asked if anyone had walked out of his movie, and seemed delighted when someone yelled out that they did in fact see someone leave. People, especially jaded critics, like the idea of people fleeing a movie. I like it too. It helps us feel superior to people who can't handle audacious cinema. But, um, that was me. I was just going to the bathroom. Thrice (didn't return to the same seat). It's not like I'd walk out of a von Trier picture. I love that Mad Dane.

Antichrist has a few of terrific moments, some decidedly vile ones and several arresting images. And, yes, those categories overlap as the couple descends further into violence (that already infamous scissor poster is not the half of it), psychotic breaks and demonic hallucinations in Eden, nature being "the church of satan" according to She. But in the end this psycho-horror film felt -- to sick me remember (I'm willing to try again) -- like a 45 minute story that kept repeating itself as the director dragged his actors sadistically through their grotesque marks. The praise for the twin performances seems excessive. Dafoe and Gainsbourg bravely render He and She, sure, but these aren't characters so much as blue puppets for the auteur. Not that every film needs full characterisations (this one didn't).


I suspect that von Trier is having a chuckle at all the “masterpiece” talk since the film often feels like an increasingly sick comic conversation he’s having with himself. The topic is his own perceived misogyny, recent confessed depression and general cinematic nihilism. Antichrist plays like a movie about von Trier for von Trier starring von Trier. Perhaps that's why my very favorite moment came first. I loved the loudly scored cut from the title card "LARS VON TRIER" to the title card "ANTICHRIST", both hand-scrawled in bold colorful colors. I'm not sure if the former is the latter, owns the latter or merely feels a special kinship but it was hilariously juxtaposed all the same.

update: Katey and I talk about the movie

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for previous takes on Antichrist (everyone will have an opinion and some guests have already weighed in) just click the label below

He-Man.

Jose here with a bit of an awards doubt. After watching Antichrist (Read my review here) where the hell is Willem Dafoe's Best Actor buzz?

While it's true that Lars von Trier is a notorious actresses director (see Emily Watson, Nicole Kidman and Björk among others) he also has gotten some brilliant performances from his leading men (Paul Bettany was spectacular in Dogville).

His leading lady Charlotte Gainsbourg got the Best Actress award in Cannes but he gives the film's best performance (although being one of only two actors in the movie this might be a bit hyperbolic). Once again he goes for extreme subtlety and commands the screen as he tries to deal with his wife's condition while coping with his own grief. Any actor who can subject himself to tortures which von Trier had previously reserved for the ladies should be getting more attention.

Because of Dafoe Antichrist goes beyond being the arthouse horror film most think it is/want it to be and actually grows a heart of sorts.

TIFF Day One: Antichrist and Jennifer's Body

Lev Lewis reporting from the Toronto International Film Festival

My first day at the festival yielded two opposing ends of the horror spectrum. On one end: Antichrist, the latest piece of controversy from Danish provocateur Lars von Trier; on the other: Jennifer's Body, the horror-comedy written by Diablo Cody. It's not difficult to say which one I prefer although words such as "prefer" or "enjoy" are not words that one should ever use to describe Antichrist.

Antichrist is everything you have heard and then some. I came into my screening moderately prepared for what von Trier had in store for me. I'd seen his previous work, read numerous articles detailing the controversy surrounding the film, thought I knew what I was in for. But, without trying to sound hyperbolic, nothing can prepare you for this. Perhaps, there will be people out there who will find themselves unaffected by the film, but I simply cannot imagine who they would be. Antichrist is the most audacious, disturbing, gut-wrenching, terrifying film I have ever encountered. At this point I'm still having difficulty applying any sort of critical sensibility to a work this powerful. Honestly, I'm unsure if a film has ever affected me quite as much as von Triers' has. Three quarters through I was literally shaking.

Charlotte in Eden

I need a bit more than an evening's perspective to really dissect the film, but needless to say Lars von Trier, along with Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg (who give astonishing performances as the grieving couple) have created what will likely be one of the seminal works of our time.

Willem Dafoe watched the whole film with us and then did a Q&A. I wasn't quite sure what to expect from him, but he was extremely suave, intelligent and funny.

Megan and Amanda: They know what boys want. They know what boys like.

Jennifer's Body, Diablo Cody's second foray into film, yields dull results. It's difficult to say whether Jennifer's Body feels inferior to Juno* due to a less able director (Karyn Kusama in the place of Jason Reitman), a lesser cast, or whether it is simply due to a poor script on Cody's part. So while it is certainly true that director Kusama is a) unable to combine horror and comedy in any sort of resonant way, and b) build the mood or tension very much needed for horror, blame must also be attributed to Cody who insufficiently blends her already-dated, stylized pop-culture laden dialogue with 80's camp-horror. Sadly, this is the one distinguishing element of Jennifer's Body and the only aspect that separates it from every horror film of late. Like the rest, scares are derived from characters walking slowly through dark spaces until something jumps out, which is of course complimented by appallingly loud thumps on the soundtrack. As well, the numerous flashbacks, which always begin with the obligatory dissolve to white and the contrast pumped to the max, do little to set Jennifer's Body apart from its modern-day peers.

<-- Seyfried & Fox in blood red heels at the premiere.

The film's Midnight Madness premiere was packed and the audience was eating out of the hands of Cody, Kusama, Fox and even Seyfried. However I can't imagine many people getting worked up about Jennifer's Body outside of the late-night festival atmosphere. Or perhaps I'm giving moviegoers too much credit. It is also possible that people will devour the audience-baiting of Jennifer's Body. For instance, at one point Amanda Seyfried, from out of nowhere and with no motivation, sucker-kicks a nurse who has done nothing to warrant such violence. The nurse flies through the air (accompanied by mind-numbing sound editing) and falls bloody and battered into an array of tables. This lurid act of violence received huge rounds of applause from an apparently blood-thirsty audience. Grade: D+

More fun than the film itself were the proceedings. The whole cast and crew were in attendance and up on the stage were: Karyn Kusama, Megan Fox, Johnny Simmons, Amanda Seyfried, Adam Brody, Diablo Cody and Jason Reitman. The rowdy crowd was quite thrilled at the appearance of Fox, and asked numerous questions about the kiss between her and Seyfried. However, Diablo Cody stole the show announcing that her greatest contribution to cinema has been the words "Stick it in".

*Not that I am, by any means, Juno's biggest fan.

related posts: "Places Willem Dafoe's Ass Has Been" / Jennifer's Body trailer

Cannes Winners for 2009

OFFICIAL COMPETITION
Jury president was French actress, deity, provocateur Isabelle Huppert
Palme D'or: The White Ribbon by Michael Haneke. Cannes loves him long time. And so does Isabelle Huppert, his La Pianiste leading lady. Sony Pictures Classics has US distribution rights to this black and white costume drama about German village and school prior to World War I. It sounds like something of a departure for Haneke since his films are usually contemporary and often tightly focused on small casts. The extensive German voiceover will be rerecorded in English for that release.

Michael Haneke nabs the top prize

Grand Prix: Un Prophète by Jacques Audiard. Sony Pictures Classics also has this one -- winner and runner up prepping for release? Not bad, SPC, not bad.
Jury Prize: It was a tie between the family drama Fish Tank by Andrea Arnold and vampire drama Thirst from Oldboy director Park Chan-Wook

Special Jury Prize: Director Alain Resnais won this special prize for Wild Grass. He's 86 and he's still making movies. His most famous film is probably Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959) but, rather incredibly, he's never had a film nominated for Oscar's foreign language race and he's only had won prize winner at Cannes, Mon Oncle d'Amérique (1980)
Best Director: Brillante Mendoza competed last year with Serbis and for this prolific Pinoy director, the second time is the charm. He won the prize for his violent drama Kinatay. This award will cause a ruckus. Many people detested the film, including Roger Ebert who declared it the worst in Cannes history.


Best Actress Charlotte Gainsbourgh for Lars Von Trier's Antichrist. This film just keeps adding fuel to its media fire. Well done Lars and your latest actress victim. You continue a grand tradition.
Best Actor Christoph Waltz for Inglourious Basterds (see previous post for Rosengje's very similar enthusiasm)
Best Screenplay Feng Mei won for writing Lou Ye's explicit gay romantic drama Spring Fever
Palme D'Or (Short Film): Arena by Joao Salaviza

CAMERA D'OR
This award goes to the best first film. Warwick Thornton's buzzy Australian feature Samson and Delilah (pictured right) took the prize. He's previously made three short films. Special Mention went to Ajami by Scandar Copti and Yaron Shani

FIPRESCI
Competition: The White Ribbon by Michael Haneke
Un Certain Regard: Police, Adjective by Corneliu Porumboiu
Directors Fortnight: Amreeka by Cherien Dabis

UN CERTAIN REGARD
Jury president was Italian writer/director Paolo Sorrentino
Prize: Dogtooth by Yorgos Lanthimos. The synopsis sounds vaguely Virgin Suicides-ish, three teens are cut off from the outside world by their parents.
Jury Prize: Police, Adjective
Two Special Prizes: Father of My Children by Mia Hansen-Love and No One Knows About the Persian Cats by Bahman Ghobadi

CRITICS WEEK
Grand Prix: Goodbye Gary by Nassim Amaouche
SACD Prize: Lost Persons Area by Caroline Strubbe
Cash Prize, Young Critic Award and Regards Jeunes Prize: Whisper in the Wind by Shahram Alidi
Canal Plus Grand Prix (Short Film): Seeds of the Fall by Patrick Eklund
Kodak Discovery (Short Film): Logorama by Francois Alaux, Herve de Crecy and Ludovic Houplain

DIRECTORS FORTNIGHT
Art Cinema, 7e Prix Regars Jeunes and the SACD Prize: Twenty year-old (!) actor Xavier Dolan-Tadros ' (pictured right) won an incredible three prizes for his directorial debut, a coming out mother-son drama called I Killed My Mother (J'ai Tue Ma Mere)
Special Mention: La Merditude des Choses by Felix van Groeningen
Europa Cinemas Label: La Pivellina by Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel
French short film: Montparnasse

THE SNUBBED
Whether you're in the main competition or outside of it in the sidebars, when reaction is very positive the snubs have to sting. The following films won coveted buzz but no hardware: Lee Daniel's Oscar hopeful Precious, Marco Bellochio's Vincere and Jane Campion's Bright Star.

FURTHER READING
Indie Wire live blogged the event. Time Warner Cable of New York wanted me to pay $9.95 per month for the French language station so sadly I couldn't gaze at Huppert and her fire-starter jury myself.

Von Trier's Punk'd

Lars Von Trier is a sadistic prankster auteur. Think of The Five Obstructions and extrapolate from there. He's probably going to have several laughs about reactions to his upcoming film Antichrist. No matter what the reactions turn out to be, there's probably cause for wicked glee.



Horror freaks will likely hate Von Trier's aesthetic. I suspect Antichrist's trailer might be of the Bug variety, i.e. a horror film of the soul masquerading as traditional horror (the audiences overlap slightly, but not by a lot). Jesus freaks lured by the lurid title will undoubtedly hate whatever angle Von Trier has on religiosity... at least if Breaking the Waves is any indication. Art house patrons who didn't show up for Haneke's Funny Games probably won't venture here either. Movie blogs like this one will end up in all sorts of misleading Google searches. If you've wandered here this afternoon looking for discussions of Christ's second coming and you can't wait for the world to burn so you can experience the Rapture... run away (wrong audience!). Run right to that Knowing movie instead.

Do you like the trailer? I personally can't wait to see what Von Trier does with this concept, with the "He" and "She" (no character names apparently) couple and "Eden" as setting. But you're already feeling for Charlotte Gainsbourgh I bet. If you had to live in a cabin in the woods with Willem Dafoe, wouldn't you lose your marbles?
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related post: Places Willem Dafoe's Ass Has Been
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Cheeky Willem Dafoe

In honor of the first still from the new Lars Von Trier picture, subtly titled Antichrist, that was making the blog rounds this week.

Places Willem Dafoe's Ass Has Been

• Between Charlotte Gainsbourg's thighs
  (His thrusting seems to have woken evil naked tree spirits)
• snugly encased in Green Goblin gear
  
• on stage with the Wooster Group
• Between Madonna's thighs
  (His thrusting did not wake any latent acting skill)
• In bed with yellow fever on the set of Platoon

• In Prada
  
• Out of frame in The Life Aquatic
  (Wes Anderson's head-on horizontal tableaus allow for no backsides)
• In New York City
  
• Between Mary Magdalene's thighs
  (albeit only theoretically offscreen in the dream sequence way. For the Religious Right the new Von Trier movie will be the least of Dafoe's offenses)
• In Italy and Tunisia
  
• In Wisconsin
• Inside tuxedos at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion and the Shrine Auditorium
  

• Directly behind Jude Law's new "bio-port"
  (this scene is not about what they're pretending it's about)
• In Hollywood
• In various yoga positions
  
• Between Asia Argento's thighs.
  (A distinction held by many silver screen asses)
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NYFF: The End

The 45th Annual New York Film Festival is a wrap and I need to get closure (so behind on everything else) Here at the Experience I tie everything off with awards. If I could be hooked up to an IV awards drip, I would.

Todd Haynes & Michelle Williams with Bob Dylans #5 (Blanchett), 1 (Franklin) and 6 (Gere)

Best of the Fest (note: I was only able to see 14 films given my workload)
Picture, Director: (tie --don't make me choose yet) Cristian Mungui's 4 Months 3 Weeks and 2 Days and The Coen Bros' No Country For Old Men
Actor, Lead: Javier Bardem, No Country For Old Men (maybe supporting. Still deciding)
Actor, Supporting: Max Von Sydow, Diving Bell and Butterfly
Actress, Lead: Do-Yeon Jeon, Secret Sunshine
Actress, Supporting: Charlotte Gainsbourg, I'm Not There
Ensemble: The "Bob Dylans" in I'm Not There
Cinematography: (tie) Roger Deakins for No Country For Old Men and Edward Lachmann for I'm Not There
Art Direction: Blade Runner: The Final Cut (I know it's 25 years old but it deserves all art direction prizes for the last quarter century, don't you think?)
Costume Design: (tie) Mic Cheminal for A Girl Cut in Two and John Dunne for I'm Not There
Score: Olivier Bernet for Persepolis
Best Kiss: finale, The Romance of Astrée and Celadon
Best Gratuitous Nudity for Which We Thank The Filmmaker: Marisa Tomei in Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (unfortunate side effect: Phillip Seymour Hoffman nudity)
Best Opening Scene: I'm Not There and Margot at the Wedding
Best Ending: 4 Months 3 Weeks and 2 Days

The Q&A Awards
Most Pompous: Julian Schnabel, The Diving Bell and Butterfly (not that he didn't have competition)
Most Confused: Catherine Breillat's translator, The Last Mistress (the director switched from only somewhat intelligible English to French and back again often, and within the same sentence)
Question Devouring Host: Lisa Schwarzbaum EW (seriously Lisa, let the audience have a turn)
Funniest: Waris Ahluwalia, The Darjeeling Limited
Most Articulate: Todd Haynes, I'm Not There
Charm Machine: Patty Clarkson, Married Life
Most Distractingly Sexy: Javier Bardem, No Country...
Best Dressed: Nicole Kidman, Margot at the Wedding
Most Freakishly Robotic: Nicole Kidman -Margot at the Wedding. Y'all know I lurve her but it was like her face turned off when questions weren't address to her and then suddenly, gears shifting rapidly *whrrr [click] bzzt* body leans in, face "on" and she answers the question with articulate automated response and *whrr --bzzzt* questions answered, body leans back, face shuts off again. Creepy (but I still love ya Nic' --If you're not entirely human, that makes you the most talented cyborg actor of all time!)
Special 'Did Not Want to Be There' Prize: The Coen Bros (not that they didn't have competition)

If you missed any of the articles on the festival, click the NYFF label below

NYFF: I'm Not There and Persepolis

From the 45th Annual New York Film Festival (Sept 28th thru Oct 14th)

I've completed my last scheduled screenings @ the NYFF so now comes the difficult task of sharing the notes (i.e. making sense of my scribblings. It's hard to write in the dark) Where to begin? How about the two films still scampering through me weary brain. Ambitious busy films like these sometimes demand a second viewing. But second viewings will have to wait...

I'm Not There is currently my least favorite Todd Haynes film. This could change. While watching this genius auteur's new film, I finally understood the past criticisms of his work --criticisms I have never shared-- but yes, his movies can play as intellectual thesis rather than, well, movies. I'm Not There's multiple actor gimmick is fascinating to grapple with but it leads inevitably to an uneven and chameleonic experience. Some pieces click into wonderful place and the movie feels like a blissful experimental ride and puzzle, other pieces only interrupt the flow of the game or fit awkwardly or not at all.

As you've heard by now six people are playing fictionalized Bob Dylan surrogates. What you may not have heard is that Bob Dylan himself is never named. Aside from the disembodied vocals, he literally isn't there. I'm still deciding what I think of Ben Whishaw's piece of this Dylan puzzle --he's the only actor outside of the narrative, multilinear though it be. Whishaw only appears in a talking head interviewee way. Marcus Carl Franklin, Christian Bale, Heath Ledger and Cate Blanchett are all quite strong in their own ways but it's their cumulative performance and the movie's own comparably shifting visual identity that interested me. It's difficult to single anyone out.

I understand though why Cate Blanchett is getting the lions share of the praise: Haynes gifts her with the most iconic time period (Dylan gone electric & eccentric), the most screen time, and her section is absolutely the most fun to watch --the director really amps up the humor and cinematic style. Bruce Greenwood provides a great foil, unimpressed or at least confrontational about her persona. Michelle Williams also crops up in the Blanchett portion inhabiting a glam role that's quite the 180 from her Oscar nominated mousy housewife in Brokeback Mountain.

The movie has many pleasures but what Richard Gere is doing in the movie, why he's asked to do it, and why Haynes saved the weakest link of his experimental chain for last (you have to end strong) remains a mystery to me... at least without a second viewing.

I expect that reactions to this film will vary incredibly. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised to see about six different I'm Not There's emerge in the public discourse surrounding the film when it opens in November. Quite unexpectedly my takeaway was Charlotte Gainsbourg. She plays the French wife of Heath Ledger's actor character (who plays the Christian Bale character in a movie? Get it? No? Well, it's complicated). Every time the picture seemed to be splintering into too many pieces, the highly specific gravity of her demeanor, that sad undertow in her face and her character's steady identity were like a trusty anchor in this choppy sea of mutation.

Haynes current report card from me:
A Far From Heaven, [safe]
A- Velvet Goldmine, Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story
B+ Poison, Dottie Gets Spanked
B I'm Not There

The other film I'd like to see again --actually right now and I just finished watching it-- is the French animated film Persepolis. It's based on the famous autobiographical graphic novel by Marjane Satrapi (who co-directed the film version with Vincent Paronnaud). It's a coming of age fable about Marjane, a young Iranian girl who leaves her war torn country for a life abroad and alone. It's also a heartbreaking crash course in Middle Eastern politics. Like the Bob Dylan picture, this one is jam-packed with historical details, politicized identities, and emotional mini-climaxes. It moves at a dizzying speed for its first hour but begins to lose a little steam when Marjane returns to Iran as an adult, after many shifts back and forth from the personal to the political. It's likely to be one of the most talked about pictures this fall and rightly so. Best of all Persepolis is utter bliss to look at with evocative black and white textures and emotionally expressive animation. B+
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Notes (and a Plea) from Venice - Day 7/8

Boyd from European Films here, reporting on the ongoing Venice Film Festival

Mood: tired
Weather: sunny but not particularly warm
Films seen: Cassandra's Dream, The Nines, La graine et le mulet, Un baiser - s'il vous plaît, The Darjeeling Limited, Hotel Chevalier, Il dolce e l'amaro, En la ciudad de Sylvia, Der Freischwimmer, Mal nascida, Sukiyaki Western Django, Désengagement
People currently on the same square mile of earth as I am: Peter Greenaway, Manoel de Oliveira, Amos Gitai, Tsai Ming-Liang, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Tim Burton, Johnny Depp.

A Plea from Venice:

Dear directors (and dear editors of the aforementioned),

Life is short. Please remember this when putting your films together. Life is short. Repeat after me: Life is short. Life is short. Life is short.

Directors! What has happened to you? If the new films presented at the 2007 Venice Film Festival are any indication, anything shorter than 80 minutes is considered a short film, and anything shorter than 100 a medium-length feature. Don't you think viewers and especially critics don't have anything better to do?

Here is the evidence for my case:

Atonement: 123 minutes
Se jie (Lust, Caution): 156 minutes
Sad vacation: 136 minutes
Michael Clayton: 119 minutes
In the Valley of Elah: 120 minutes
Les amours d'Astrée et de Céladon - 109 minutes
Empire II - 180 minutes
Hotel Meina - 110 minutes
Cléopatra - 116 minutes
Cassandra's Dream - 108 minutes
La fille coupée en deux - 115 minutes The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford - 155 minutes
La Graine et le mulet - 151 minutes
I'm Not There - 135 minutes
Sukiyaki Western Django - 121 minutes
Désengagement - 115 minutes
Freischwimmer - 110 minutes
Nightwatching - 134 minutes
and the list goes on...

Do you really think we have nothing else to do in life? That we have no friends, no family, no TV set, no internet connection? What is wrong with you people? If you want to mirror life in your films, please remember what I said earlier: life is short.

In the list above, there are only two films that merit every single minute of their running time: Atonement and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. Both are historical epics and benefit from the long running time (in Atonement's case it should ideally have been even a bit longer; it's closing section is handled too quickly). All the other filmmakers have committed what might be a minor infraction if you are out on your semi-weekly multiplex visit, but what turns out to be something on the level of a crime against humanity if you are at a film festival.

If all the films above would have been shortened by just ten minutes, I would have had three whole hours of my life back, in which I could have: a) seen two medium-length films, b) watched the restored copy of D.W. Griffith's Intolerance playing here in Venice, c) gone out for a nice Italian meal d) gone for a swim in the Mediterranean and a nice Italian snack.

So, my dear directors, pleas bear this in mind when putting together your next film. Less is more. Life is short. Critics also like solid food instead of straw-fed Red Bull and coffee. And a dip in the Med is more than they could ever hope for. After any of the above occurrences (or -- God forbid -- a combination of them) , they might even be more mildly inclined towards your movies as they will not review them in a state of lethargy or somnambulance.

Thank you for your future consideration.

(a sleep-depraved) Boyd
editor of european-films.net and
TFE guest blogger from Venice

NB: Note to the editors working with the directors: If you feel that the film you are working on is too long, please advise the director to "jump straight into the story" (read: chop of the endless city-, landscape or other useless shots at the beginning) and to go for an "enigmatic" ending (read: chop ten to twenty minutes of the ending).

Reviews:

Though I've seen a lot more, I haven't been able to review much (or very extensively) for the past two days, since I've had about a dozen interviews that will be published in the upcoming weeks at european-films.net.

What I can give you are the two reviews of highly anticipated titles that both come with reservations: Wes Anderson's The Darjeeling Limited and, as promised, Woody Allen's Cassandra's Dream. Both star stars and are too long but should appeal to fans of the directors. The links above are to the medium-length reviews on european-films.net.

The score board:

On the score board published in the festival daily, the French film La graine et le mulet (The Secret of the Grain) is currently the top choice of both the Italian critics and the Italian audience so far, with Branagh's Sleuth in second place for the audience and the critics placing their bets on Rohmer's Les amours d'Astrée et de Céladon. My personal top three of festival films so far: The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Atonement and Se
jie (Lust, Caution).

Tim Burton & Sweeney Todd:

Earlier today, US director Tim Burton received the Career Golden Lion from the hands of an actor completely unknown to the director until the time of the ceremony: Captain Jack (the two bearded and bespectacled men can be see in the picture above, courtesy of Fabrizio Maltese). In honor of the director, the festival declared September 5 "Tim Burton Day" and screened the 3D version of The Nightmare Before Christmas and the first eight minutes of Sweeney Todd, which I haven't seen but which I have been told were quite out of the ordinary (not that anything less would have been acceptable from Burton).

The director walked down the red carpet with his rotund partner Helena Bonham Carter (she is eating lots a the moment but has good reason: she's pregnant), who plays the pie-baking Mrs Lovett in the adaptation of the Sondheim musical about the demon barber. Johnny Depp plays the sharp-cutting title character.