Justin Timberlake Wrecked My Piano. And Other Dream Mysteries.

My subconscious is angry that I have only done one big NYFF write up. Last night I tossed and turned -- 3 hours of sleep tops -- and had one of those persistent dreams which recycles stuff you've just experienced. Each time you fall back asleep you return to it and in its relentless disturbance, it becomes a nightmare even though it's not scary.

It took place in a huge empty house in which I'm throwing a party. At some point I was doing an elaborate photoshoot with two actresses. Please don't stop to ponder why they were Franka Potente (!) and Meg Ryan (???) or why they were then Juliette Lewis* and Sandra Bullock. (Was this a 1990s period piece?) Everyone was angry when they discovered the shoot was in black and white. At one point someone wore a Princess Valhalla Hawkwind costume. My dad was suddenly there smiling with approval that I knew famous actresses (This was the "you're dreaming!" moment -- or like that bit in Inception where all the subconcious projections turn to look at you -- whoever the forger was, he wasn't as prepared as Tom Hardy. My dad would never do this.) I went out for coffee since the party was running low.

Then I'm in the atrium and I see Justin Timberlake and Jesse Eisenberg lowering my rented grand piano down through the building and all is chaos. The piano strikes a railing and begins to break into pieces. They claim they were trying to help but they've ruined my life as the cost of a grand piano will bankrupt me.

Then there is no party, and the dream is a mystery about some crime which keeps changing and to which I am not privvy and the detectives (Mills & Somerset, natch) keep asking me if David Fincher did it. How self referential! They also tell me they're investigating "Joe" and Abbas Kiarostrami** and I keep telling them I know nothing but everyone is sure that I do.

We know you've seen them! They were at your party

Nothing makes any sense from moment to moment in the dream's third act. It's all fractured clues, 2 second scenes, filmmaker name-checks. The last image is a shot of dusty footprints leading nowhere. I don't know who did it or what they were supposed to have done but I'm pretty sure that bastard Justin Timberlake who wrecked my piano is guilty.

My dream was edited with a chainsaw. The chainsaw had ADD. I hope your night was more restful and the celebrity cameos less willfully destructive and angry. Feel free to share.

*regularly makes cameos in Nathaniel's REM life.
** I assure you this is a first time appearance.

Beauty Break: Emmanuelle Béart

Today is Emmanuelle Béart's 46th birthday. Here she is to your left earlier this summer with another Gallic great Isabelle Huppert. Huppert is still an arthouse draw in the states but it seems like it's been ages since Béart made it to our screens in any significant way. There's been a teensy run here and there (Strayed, The Witnesses) but the last film that won any real attention was 8 Women (2002) also starring Huppert... and Catherine Deneuve and Fanny Ardant and Ludivine Sagnier. Mon dieu, je l'aime!

The last time I remember hearing other Americans talk about Béart was in college in the early to mid90s when Béart had that critically acclaimed run of Un Couer en Hiver (Cesar nom), L'Enfer, A French Woman and Nelly & Monsieur Arnaud (Cesar nomination) but international stardom is a tough thing to maintain for anyone, no matter how beautiful or talented. Exceedingly rare are the Hupperts and Deneuves who can hold on to it with a steel grip all their lives.

Béart often gets wet in photoshoots, non?

She's not French but look at the career of Franka Potente? How the hell did she not stay as famous as she was in the late 90s after Run Lola Run? She was just as riveting to watch in The Princess and the Warrior even if the film wasn't as good and she more than held her own in The Bourne Identity. Makes you wonder what will become of Gael Garcia Bernal, Audrey Tatou, Marion Cotillard in ten years time. Hasn't Zhang Ziyi essentially disappeared already?

<--- The star with her husband, french actor Michael Cohen.

Béart first won my heart as skinny dipping Manon, the youthful goddess of Manon of the Spring. That movie made me bawl. I remember being greatly confused that Jean de Florette (the preface) and Manon (the conclusion) weren't nominated at the Oscars. That epic two-parter had to make due with Globe and BAFTA attention -- though I knew nothing of the other awards back then so the honors were lost on me. I was so obsessed with Jean/Manon that I even bought the soundtrack and used to sing along with the theme song phonetically. What was I singing about? I didn't know but assuming it was a hymn to Béart was good enough for me.

Here is the original trailer to Manon and a recent French cel phone commercial (creepy or funny?) starring the famous beauty.



Where would you rank Béart in the pantheon of French goddesses? And which young French actress are you obsessed with? I mean, besides Ludivine Sagnier who I'll assume you love? If not, don't tell me otherwise!

[If you aren't familiar with Béart or maybe just beginning to fall in love with French cinema, Netflix has 21 of Béart's movies. Lots to choose from.]

We Can't Wait #20 The Bourne Ultimatum

Oscar-nominated director Paul Greengrass (United 93) discussing a shot with Matt Damon

Matt Damon proved himself a gifted actor early in his career but carrying a huge action flick? That was a gamble in 2002. The risk paid off and this series, which supposedly concludes here with The Bourne Ultimatum, is now a no brainer bet for two hours of quality action thrills that don't insult your intelligence. Aside from the smarts of the series one of its key strengths has been in the casting. Damon carries the films but he's always had ample great support from name actors in small key roles. For the third installment wimpy Julia Stiles and steely Joan Allen reprise their roles. The Bourne Ultimatum opens in August.

Gabriel ranked this first on his list. What's the draw?

Lu: Yes. Really. WHAT is the draw?

Gabriel: What's the draw? What's the DRAW?!?! You gotta be kidding me. Matt Damon in buff mode (check those biceps!). Joan Allen, Goddess of All Things. The best director to emerge in the new century. Excellent new cast additions (Paddy Considine and David Straithairn). And the conclusion to the most intelligent and gripping action franchise our time. What's NOT to get excited about? I mean, you're all fussy, artsy types, but seriously...

JA: Who you callin fussy? Do I get to see Julia Stiles die if I go to this movie? I want that guaranteed with admission, or no sale here.

At this point I'm lying and saying I'm waiting for all 3 films to be on DVD so "I can experience the trilogy in its complete form" though.

Joe: When was the last time you’ve looked forward to an action movie for the acting chops? Yet here we are. I’m almost giddy waiting to see Joan Allen let loose again like she did in Supremacy. And, as if I wasn’t already hugely in his corner, Damon made yet another leap in skill level, I found, with his performances in The Departed and The Good Shepherd. Both artistically and commercially, he’s on one hell of a roll, and I don’t think he gets praised for it enough. From Ocean’s Eleven onward, the man has been on fire.

Nathaniel: I'm a little agnostic on the series since they killed off Franka Potente. You just don't kill my Franka! But, that said, I'm seconding Joe that Damon is hot right now and the thought of Joan Allen throwing us that Pamela Landy shade again. I'm totally there even if it wasn't actually on my list.

Readers, are you heeding this Ultimatum?

UPDATE: New set photos @ Random Good Stuff [src]

Link Lola Link

The Movie Blog eyes Franka Potente (Run Lola Run)'s next project
Gatochy reminisces about François Ozon's delectable 8 Women
Cinematical on Robert Altman's next vehicle (pun intended)
Black Wing Diaries has a beautiful tribute to The Little Mermaid
Esquire names the sexiest woman alive.
Golden Fiddle tunes in to Marie Antoinette

Streep. Potente. Portman. Zellweger. Ziyi

"Actresses of the Aughts" continues with #25 through #21 as Franka Potente, Natalie Portman, Meryl Streep, Renée Zellweger, and Ziyi Zhang arrive on the countdown. Read and discuss. Next up? My Top 20 Most Valued Players of the Aughts.

Days One and Two

These grades are EXTREMELY subject to change. I'm being totally sincere here when I say that watching lots of movies in a row can totally distort your usual abilities to read your own reactions... and in the festival setting I want everything to be really good considering the time and money spent.

DAY ONE
CLEAN (Olivier Assayas)
Very low key effort from Assayas here which won Maggie Cheung (as Emily the wife of a former rock star) the best actress prize at Cannes. Early in the film the doomed rock-star husband whose fate sets the plot in motion remarks with abundant self-pity that his latest recording is "lazy, shoddy--I've done better than this." It's too harsh an assessment of Assayas' work on this film but the last part certainly applies. Maggie Cheung is blessedly not trying to win an Oscar and is fairly restrained but the film as a whole could've used a little more gas. One of the problems seems to be the screenplay which spends a lot of time with expository dialogue...that’s not entirely unusual for Assayas. He did the same thing with demonlover to an extent but the difference there was that the subject and plot was so labyrinthine that you needed it. This time we get lots of uneccessary info about a relatively simple story and characters. Things you can tell just by looking at them. What energy the film gets comes from its peripheral characters.The film perks up intermittently for its fine supporting cast. Beatrice Dalle is always watchable and is unusually warm here as an old friend of Emily's. Two other actresses unfamiliar to me also make notable appearances as fighting lovers. And there's all those great shots of international power-women charging through bustling offices talking or arguing with one another in corporate settings with glass walls everywhere. Maybe I'm making this up but that seems to something I've seen in demonlover and irma vep and the way Assayas and his DP shoot these scenes is gorgeous to me. I can't say why but i adore it.
C+

CREEP (Christopher Smith)
Please note: I am not a fan of horror films so take this with a huge grain of salt if you are...

I went with a Franka Potente horror vehicle because I thought "why not?" The answer to that question is: totally derivative, gross more than scary --I mean I jumped several times but loud music cues will do that to me in any 'thriller', and so predictable I just couldn't bear it. Technically speaking it's no disaster of course. Good makeup effects, good sound work, creepy title sequence, etc... but I just found it boring and grisly for grisly's sake. Really really grisly. And so much for going the horror route with Franka. She was also phoning it in. If I see one more scary movie in which the hero or heroine has several opportunities to kill the killer halfway through the movie and instead drops their weapon and runs I am going to pick it back up and bludgeon the screenwriter with it. (kidding but you get my point) I mean, yes, people do crazy things when they're scared but let's say you have the guts/adrenaline/rage to take one shot at someone with the weapon they may have intended to kill you with. If you were brave/energized/mad enough to stop shaking in your booties at that moment and clobber them, wouldn't you also make sure you finished the job? Seeing as how you're already holding the weapon and you know that either you or it will be meeting a grisly end one way or the other.
D-

MA MERE (Christophe Honore)
In the International Goddess sweepstakes of Saturday the 11th, the winner is the always riveting Isabelle Huppert. Is there another actress alive better able to capture perversity and depravation? I think not (though perhaps some will feel that that's a dubious compliment). As the titular character here, she's randy, drunk, and nihilistic... and wants to make sure her son is as well. This film is not for everyone of course ~neither was Huppert's last 'degrade me/make me bleed' film, The Piano Teacher. Enriched somewhat by a pitch black gallows humor (the ending is perfection as these things go) but still pretty tough to sit through. If I knew more about the author whose work this is based on I might have liked it more.
C-

DAY TWO
HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS (Zhang Yimou)
Maybe it’s not quite as visually ravishing as Hero but that’s kind of like bitching that not every DaVinci portrait is as mysterious as the Mona Lisa. Daggers is quite pretty enough thank you very much. It’s production is so polished and beautiful and large that it really makes you wonder how Hollywood spends $100 million on their films and they don’t look half as expensive as this. From the beginning it’s quite clear that they are very different films...even if both deal with rebel assassin alliances and their empircal enemies. Daggers in its first (indoor) act feels as joyous as a technicolor musical filling up a massive soundstage. It even has one complete music number and its first action sequence (The Echo Game) could qualify as a second despite the swordplay. I’m not going to give anything away because the development of the narrative is fun and far more accessible (if less 'where is this going next?' fascinating than Hero). But you can’t keep these martial arts rivals inside for long. The rest of the film is outdoors and you may well swoon from the beauty here too. Another marked difference betwen this and Hero is that it offers a healthy does of good humor but for me it still falls just short of Hero’s accomplishment. Close call in some ways though. Politically at least this one is far more innocuous. And its lots and lots and lots of fun to watch. Even if it does go so melodramatically baroque in the last 20 minutes that you may be tempted to hand Zhang some ritalin.
B

WALK ON WATER (Eytan Fox)
The highlight of the first two days for me. It’s not that I consider it a great film (still to fresh in the memory and too muddled up with all these other films) but that I was just totally involved with the storytelling. For frequent readers you know that plot is usually the least of my concerns but this drama about a Mossad (sp?) agent and his involvement with two German siblings whose parents may or may not be hiding an old Nazi was very interesting to me. It’s not as tightly written or concise as Fox’s last film, Yossi & Jagger. But the film seems to be in love with all of its characters, a surprisingly compassionate approach when you’re dealing with generations of hatred and political unrest. Somehow, despite frequent talk of bombings and death and an honest treatment of the difficulties of letting go and moving on, the film manages to feel appropriately sad but also truly optimistic. The optimism doesn’t even feel all that forced despite the *two years later* coda that’s a touch overemphatic about the happy ending... even if you’re glad for it all the same.
B

YES (Sally Potter)
Iambic Pentameter! It’s hard to summarize what Yes is about since Potter’s screenplay is an essay on a lot of things within us and on global politics. I’d be lying if I said I completely understood what she was getting at. It’s alternately annoying and really fascinating. And for once that ancient device of speaking directly to the camera seems to work wonders. Goes on too long though and Potter's messaging gets a bit messy indulgent and hard to follow. At least for me but maybe it's that after watching all of these movies already and knowing there are so many more to come... I need something easier ;)
B-/C+