Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Which movie...
...most reminds you of a happy night in your life? (It doesn't even have to be a happy movie to do so.)
A Midwestern 80s Moment: Kathleen, Meryl, Terri, Lesley
I'm sure it was because I lived in Michigan in the 1980s and that's when John Hughes movies were always in theaters but it seemed (to young me) that the Midwest was Hollywood-Hot back then. So this one goes out to all the Midwestern readers and to four fine actresses who are often associated with the 1980s though one of them has clearly transcended our puny mortal concepts of time.
So we'll start with her...
Indiana
If you're a Meryl Streep fan -- and who isn't? -- and you live anywhere near Indiana University you should know that there's a free "evening with Meryl" at the college next month. (Why Indiana? Her husband Don Gummer studied there in the 60s). Free tickets for the public are available on November 3rd in the morning (for the Nov 12th event). I'm sure the lines will be long to snag one but Meryl will be discussing her career with IU alumnus Jane Pauley and there's even a Q&A afterwards.
Missouri
Cinema St. Louis just honored Kathleen Turner with a lifetime achievement award on Sunday and We Are Movie Geeks was there to tell you about it. Can any Missouri-located readers answer me this: Does the Cinema St. Louis always have such good taste? Kathleen is in Missouri with her new play "High" which co-stars Broadway great Michael Berresse (Tony nominee, Kiss Me Kate). Kathleen was born in Missouri sowhile she's in town, why not throw an event in her honor?
I love Kathleen nearly as much as Roger loved Jessica Rabbit so I mean this with the utmost fondness, but she just so doesn't care about things that celebrities are supposed to care about. Note that she wore the EXACT SAME OUTFIT to this event that she wore to the AFI Michael Douglas event. Oh, Kathleen. You're just not even trying to be "showbiz". It's all about the art of the theater for Kathleen now which I'm not knocking. Her "Martha" in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? was one of the greatest performances my eyes have ever witnessed and my ears have ever heard.
Michigan & Illinois
Teri just wanted to say "Hey."
Upon discovering that she didn't have her own label at TFE she let out a torrential stream of the brown word that we haven't heard since her multiple "sh**" freakouts in Tootsie ! No one speaks of Teri Garr anymore but I've always respected her as one of the only Hollywood types to publicly bitch about Category Fraud at the Oscars. You'd bitch about it too (at least in private) if you thought you could have won if the co-lead of your movie weren't competing in your category.
The dearly departed blog StinkyLulu once did a smackdown about the 1982 Best Supporting Actress race. Oscar went with Jessica Lange but Teri was hilarious in that movie and the Smackdown made it a tie. Still, my imaginary retrospective Oscar vote will always belong to Lesley Ann Warren in Victor/Victoria.
(Chicago) Illinois
Pookieeee. hhmwwhhmmiiiII'mhorneeeeeeeeeeey"
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Okay, now back to 2010.
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So we'll start with her...
Indiana
If you're a Meryl Streep fan -- and who isn't? -- and you live anywhere near Indiana University you should know that there's a free "evening with Meryl" at the college next month. (Why Indiana? Her husband Don Gummer studied there in the 60s). Free tickets for the public are available on November 3rd in the morning (for the Nov 12th event). I'm sure the lines will be long to snag one but Meryl will be discussing her career with IU alumnus Jane Pauley and there's even a Q&A afterwards.
Missouri
Cinema St. Louis just honored Kathleen Turner with a lifetime achievement award on Sunday and We Are Movie Geeks was there to tell you about it. Can any Missouri-located readers answer me this: Does the Cinema St. Louis always have such good taste? Kathleen is in Missouri with her new play "High" which co-stars Broadway great Michael Berresse (Tony nominee, Kiss Me Kate). Kathleen was born in Missouri sowhile she's in town, why not throw an event in her honor?
 |
| Inset: in St. Louis for her lifetime achievement prize, Oct 2010. Main: at the AFI Michael Douglas night (with CZJ) in June 2009. |
I love Kathleen nearly as much as Roger loved Jessica Rabbit so I mean this with the utmost fondness, but she just so doesn't care about things that celebrities are supposed to care about. Note that she wore the EXACT SAME OUTFIT to this event that she wore to the AFI Michael Douglas event. Oh, Kathleen. You're just not even trying to be "showbiz". It's all about the art of the theater for Kathleen now which I'm not knocking. Her "Martha" in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? was one of the greatest performances my eyes have ever witnessed and my ears have ever heard.
Michigan & Illinois
Teri just wanted to say "Hey."
Upon discovering that she didn't have her own label at TFE she let out a torrential stream of the brown word that we haven't heard since her multiple "sh**" freakouts in Tootsie ! No one speaks of Teri Garr anymore but I've always respected her as one of the only Hollywood types to publicly bitch about Category Fraud at the Oscars. You'd bitch about it too (at least in private) if you thought you could have won if the co-lead of your movie weren't competing in your category.
The dearly departed blog StinkyLulu once did a smackdown about the 1982 Best Supporting Actress race. Oscar went with Jessica Lange but Teri was hilarious in that movie and the Smackdown made it a tie. Still, my imaginary retrospective Oscar vote will always belong to Lesley Ann Warren in Victor/Victoria.
(Chicago) Illinois
Pookieeee. hhmwwhhmmiiiII'mhorneeeeeeeeeeey"
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Okay, now back to 2010.
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"NOW a warning?"
"Bottoms up!"
Say it with me now...
"NOW a warning?!?"
Related Post: "She's Mad at Hel and She's Not Going to Streep it Anymore!"
First and Last, "I'm in the Wrong Movie"
the first and last images in a motion picture (excluding opening/closing credits)
Hmmmm. You may need another clue. The first and last lines:
Want to try more puzzles? Challenge your friends to guess. All solved puzzles have the answers in easy highlightable text for guess-checking if you've been away or are just joining us. The fourth season of F&L will end with the 200th episode later this year.
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Hmmmm. You may need another clue. The first and last lines:
first: "Hey, what's this? One of ____'s tricks? I'm in the wrong movie!"Can you guess the movie?
last: [Can't share it. They're singing the title.]
Want to try more puzzles? Challenge your friends to guess. All solved puzzles have the answers in easy highlightable text for guess-checking if you've been away or are just joining us. The fourth season of F&L will end with the 200th episode later this year.
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Linky Linky
/Film James Franco making another poetry film. From behind the camera this time.
MCN Halle Berry's Frankie & Alice to get Oscar qualifying release. Have I ever told you how much I hate the one week qualifier rule? "YES. SHUT UP," the readers shout in unison. I'm just sayin' movies should be eligible only if the year of their real release. It's the only way a calendar year 'future history!' eligibility system actually means anything.
Serious Film wonders where the critical bar is set for Best Picture nominees in the wake of the cool response to Hereafter. As some of y'all know I don't put much stock in rotten tomatoes scores as Oscar signifiers (partially because all positive or all negative scoring (the dread thumbs!) is an inherently flawed system for reflecting worth and even true opinion. Unless of course everyone is all "A"s and "F"s these days and I realize that's the sad way it's been heading.
The Spy in the Sandwich reviews an interesting-sounding film I hadn't yet heard of called Le Fil (The String), a gay film with Antonin Stahly and Claudia Cardinale (!)
Hell on Frisco Bay looks at the explosion of film festivals over the last decade. I suspect this is our future since distribution has become so impossible for so many films. My guess: people attending festivals these days are the people that used to frequent their neighborhood arthouses.
Paul C wrote a (spoiler-heavy) review of Never Let Me Go that I think is really interesting and perceptive ...though he likes the movie much more than I.
offcinema just cuz
Before Glee revives The Rocky Horror Picture Show mania for the next few days, why not a peak at Russell Crowe in fishnets in 1987 playing Eddie & Dr. Scott. Whaaaaa? [hat tip: Cinemablend]
I wish I knew who was playing the other roles. Anyone else famous on that stage?
Everything I Know a perceptive review of Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson which I just saw on Broadway (see "crush of the moment" in the sidebar.) I wish movie biopics had this much irreverent invention.
ONTD Madonna to open fitness centers around the world. "Hard Candy"! Ha, I love this idea. Sometimes when celebrities branch out into other fields it's a big "No!" head scratcher. But this one makes perfect narrative sense.
Luc Latillipe awesome drawing of Yvonne Craig's Batgirl. There are no other Batgirls if you ask me.
Monday, October 25, 2010
LFF 2010: Northern Lights, Black Swans
Dave from Victim of the Time, reporting from the 54th BFI London Film Festival.
We're winding down now. Today's gala screening, the sparky, perceptive The Kids Are All Right, is old news on American shores, so it's a good thing that I've taken so long to ponder over today's films. Today's theme might be... don't expect too much. You'll only get hurt.
Darren Aronofsky’s films consume. They consume the characters, slowly more obsessed with a singular goal or self-destructive impulse, but they consume the audience too. His last film, The Wrestler, was, despite its emotional intensity, less stylistically immersive than is typical of him. We are, in more ways than one, back to ‘normal’ with Black Swan, which simply can’t resist overpowering you with the contrasting black and white thematics of Swan Lake. Any other colour scheme would seem nonsensical, but Aronofsky doesn’t merely prescribe to the ballet’s bald imagery. The whole film seems to mimic the necessarily overdramatic, telegraphed stylisation of the whole artform; the escalating nightmarishness of Nina’s (Natalie Portman) fixations are pitched to the rafters, defiantly relishing the kind of flourishes of red and flashes of madness that Powell & Pressburger would be proud of.
It’s a fine balance, though, and the trappings of imitating such a florid style are easy to fall through even as it delivers vivid, scorching imagery. As a result, it often feels as though it’s in service of an increasingly flimsy set of dynamics. Nina is, physically speaking, a huge step forward for Portman, but as a character to inhabit, she’s reduced to an alarmingly simple ‘coming-of-age’ narrative: a realisation of sexuality, a rebellion, and a descent into madness that, since it is telegraphed right from the off, she is never defined apart from. Confusing, and possibly reductive, suggestions about sexuality (and particularly lesbianism) rear their head, and, coupled with the similarly basic friction between oppressive mother and stunted daughter, Black Swan leaves a slightly bitter taste in the mind at points from the sheer abundance of cliché.
If I sound like I’m being overwhelming negative, it’s merely because my expectations were far higher than any film deserves. The viscerality of the Black Swan experience is such that it’s not difficult to commend, and indeed recommend, and it doesn’t entirely deny Portman the chance to, er, spread her wings. But, ultimately, it feels like a step back for Aronofsky, a triumph of style over substance, and even if the style is slightly magnificent, it’s still a niggling disappointment. (B)
I spent a lot of time sitting watching Aurora, and most of it was spent trying to find the greatness in it. I knew it had to be there somewhere; after all, Cristi Puiu’s previous feature, The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, was a majestic, darkly ironic masterstroke, so there had to be at least a hint of it here somewhere. Finally, as the film approached its end, the rather restless audience around me seemed to find some appeal, chuckling away at the film’s sudden change of tone, and I gave up. There is good in Aurora, but not only is it never great, the goodness is drowned. The film’s intriguing treatment of violence as an event barely more notable than an exchange of money or visiting your parents’ house seems to make sense of the extraordinary running time, but the slowness of the building character study never justifies this length. Puiu’s favouring of long shots, with diegetic sound covering dialogue, seem gratuitously inscrutable rather than fascinating, and though the closer shots are alert and responsive, the lethargy of the film is overwhelming. As the film gathers pace and events are felt a bit more keenly, Aurora seems headed to a meaningful apex, but it torpedoes itself with a finale of absurdity within its realist aesthetic, with the sardonic, humourous social commentary suddenly laid on so obviously it’s as if we’re being buried beneath it. As Puiu introduced the screening, he seemed to acknowledge the wearing length, but it seems he couldn’t resist. Depth, Cristi, doesn’t necessarily require length. (C)
It’s unlikely, no, that a film would name itself after something so intriguing and then barely engage with it? For the soap-opera dynamics of the half of Patagonia that actually takes place in Patagonia don’t have any need to be there at all, although I doubt they’d be much more engaging in California or Siberia than they are here. Rather curiously sheathed in half, with two plots that are cleanly unrelated, the film swerves between Patagonia and Wales without much rhyme or reason. There isn’t much sense of Patagonia as a place distinct from any of the rest of South America, except that the characters – two of whom are visitors – speak in Welsh. Showing the disconnect that should likely be the point of the film, the characters in Wales speak in Spanish, though this plot is played much more heavily for the cultural tension. As the soap-opera dynamics of infidelity and a tired coming-of-age plot crowd the film and Wales is inevitably depicted as a rosy, pastoral landscape, any deeper angles that have been vaguely suggested are shunted aside. The brief hints of something more specific that we are given make the film’s overall disinterest even more maddening – there are stories here being ignored, snubbed for ones that have probably been written during a deep sleep. (C-) [edited from full review]
Still left on the LFF docket are Sofia Coppola's Venice champion Somewhere, and closing night film 127 Hours, which Nathaniel just left word on. If you're so inclined, take a look at the screening log on my sidebar and let me know if there's any film you're just desperate to hear my thoughts on, and I'll slip it into my final post in a few days.
We're winding down now. Today's gala screening, the sparky, perceptive The Kids Are All Right, is old news on American shores, so it's a good thing that I've taken so long to ponder over today's films. Today's theme might be... don't expect too much. You'll only get hurt.
Darren Aronofsky’s films consume. They consume the characters, slowly more obsessed with a singular goal or self-destructive impulse, but they consume the audience too. His last film, The Wrestler, was, despite its emotional intensity, less stylistically immersive than is typical of him. We are, in more ways than one, back to ‘normal’ with Black Swan, which simply can’t resist overpowering you with the contrasting black and white thematics of Swan Lake. Any other colour scheme would seem nonsensical, but Aronofsky doesn’t merely prescribe to the ballet’s bald imagery. The whole film seems to mimic the necessarily overdramatic, telegraphed stylisation of the whole artform; the escalating nightmarishness of Nina’s (Natalie Portman) fixations are pitched to the rafters, defiantly relishing the kind of flourishes of red and flashes of madness that Powell & Pressburger would be proud of.It’s a fine balance, though, and the trappings of imitating such a florid style are easy to fall through even as it delivers vivid, scorching imagery. As a result, it often feels as though it’s in service of an increasingly flimsy set of dynamics. Nina is, physically speaking, a huge step forward for Portman, but as a character to inhabit, she’s reduced to an alarmingly simple ‘coming-of-age’ narrative: a realisation of sexuality, a rebellion, and a descent into madness that, since it is telegraphed right from the off, she is never defined apart from. Confusing, and possibly reductive, suggestions about sexuality (and particularly lesbianism) rear their head, and, coupled with the similarly basic friction between oppressive mother and stunted daughter, Black Swan leaves a slightly bitter taste in the mind at points from the sheer abundance of cliché.
If I sound like I’m being overwhelming negative, it’s merely because my expectations were far higher than any film deserves. The viscerality of the Black Swan experience is such that it’s not difficult to commend, and indeed recommend, and it doesn’t entirely deny Portman the chance to, er, spread her wings. But, ultimately, it feels like a step back for Aronofsky, a triumph of style over substance, and even if the style is slightly magnificent, it’s still a niggling disappointment. (B)
I spent a lot of time sitting watching Aurora, and most of it was spent trying to find the greatness in it. I knew it had to be there somewhere; after all, Cristi Puiu’s previous feature, The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, was a majestic, darkly ironic masterstroke, so there had to be at least a hint of it here somewhere. Finally, as the film approached its end, the rather restless audience around me seemed to find some appeal, chuckling away at the film’s sudden change of tone, and I gave up. There is good in Aurora, but not only is it never great, the goodness is drowned. The film’s intriguing treatment of violence as an event barely more notable than an exchange of money or visiting your parents’ house seems to make sense of the extraordinary running time, but the slowness of the building character study never justifies this length. Puiu’s favouring of long shots, with diegetic sound covering dialogue, seem gratuitously inscrutable rather than fascinating, and though the closer shots are alert and responsive, the lethargy of the film is overwhelming. As the film gathers pace and events are felt a bit more keenly, Aurora seems headed to a meaningful apex, but it torpedoes itself with a finale of absurdity within its realist aesthetic, with the sardonic, humourous social commentary suddenly laid on so obviously it’s as if we’re being buried beneath it. As Puiu introduced the screening, he seemed to acknowledge the wearing length, but it seems he couldn’t resist. Depth, Cristi, doesn’t necessarily require length. (C)
It’s unlikely, no, that a film would name itself after something so intriguing and then barely engage with it? For the soap-opera dynamics of the half of Patagonia that actually takes place in Patagonia don’t have any need to be there at all, although I doubt they’d be much more engaging in California or Siberia than they are here. Rather curiously sheathed in half, with two plots that are cleanly unrelated, the film swerves between Patagonia and Wales without much rhyme or reason. There isn’t much sense of Patagonia as a place distinct from any of the rest of South America, except that the characters – two of whom are visitors – speak in Welsh. Showing the disconnect that should likely be the point of the film, the characters in Wales speak in Spanish, though this plot is played much more heavily for the cultural tension. As the soap-opera dynamics of infidelity and a tired coming-of-age plot crowd the film and Wales is inevitably depicted as a rosy, pastoral landscape, any deeper angles that have been vaguely suggested are shunted aside. The brief hints of something more specific that we are given make the film’s overall disinterest even more maddening – there are stories here being ignored, snubbed for ones that have probably been written during a deep sleep. (C-) [edited from full review]Still left on the LFF docket are Sofia Coppola's Venice champion Somewhere, and closing night film 127 Hours, which Nathaniel just left word on. If you're so inclined, take a look at the screening log on my sidebar and let me know if there's any film you're just desperate to hear my thoughts on, and I'll slip it into my final post in a few days.
7 Word Reviews: Made in Dagenham, Stone, 127 Hours, Etc...
Can you feel Oscar precursor season gearing up?
The mountaintops are a-rumbling. To delude myself into thinking I've "caught up" before the avalanche, herewith seven word reviews on a bunch of movies I haven't got around to talking about just yet. More to come on three of them.
127 Hours
In which James Franco plays Aron Ralston who is pinned under boulder in southern Utah.
7WR: Nervously tricked up storytelling, but gripping nonetheless. B/B+
Made in Dagenham
Sally Hawkins leads fellow factory women on a strike for equal pay in late-60s England.
7WR: Engaging nuanced star turn elevates predictable story. B
Stone
A parole officer who is about to retire (of course!) gets mixed up with an inmate and his wife.
7WR: Weirdly acted, overcooked presentation of undefined 'whatthefuck?'ness. D
Salt
In which Angelina Jolie is an American spy accused of being a Russian sleeper agent.
7WR (Angelina): An unactable enigma, so Jolie charismas instead. B+
7WR (Movie): Endearingly absurd but sadly disposable. Lame ending. B-
Soul KitchenFatih Akin's comedy about second chances, a flailing restaurant, and two German-Greek brothers.
7WR: Slow burn silliness and lusty adult appetites. B+
Leaving
Kristin Scott Thomas gets the f*** of her life from Sergi Lopez, then loses her cool.
7WR: Feverishly horny portentousness. Somehow Kristin sells it. C+
I Am Love
Tilda is the matriarch of a rich Italian clan whose family business is changing hands.
7WR: Mouthwatering visuals, melodramatic verve, subtextual theme; Masterpiece? A/A-
Mic-Macs
(From the man behind Amélie.) A man with a bullet in his brain seeks revenge on arms dealers.
7WR: Inspired (But Exhausting) Hijinx Setpieces 'R Us B-
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If you've seen any of these, do share your feelings. I lift the restrictions on word counts for the comments. You may use more than 7! (If you're ever in doubt about whether or not to comment try to think of comments as little crumbs and The Film Experience as a zoo. Here youmay should feed the animals because they don't eat otherwise.)
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| Left: Aron Ralson as himself. Right: James Franco as Aron Ralston |
127 Hours
In which James Franco plays Aron Ralston who is pinned under boulder in southern Utah.
7WR: Nervously tricked up storytelling, but gripping nonetheless. B/B+
Made in Dagenham
Sally Hawkins leads fellow factory women on a strike for equal pay in late-60s England.
7WR: Engaging nuanced star turn elevates predictable story. B
Stone
A parole officer who is about to retire (of course!) gets mixed up with an inmate and his wife.
7WR: Weirdly acted, overcooked presentation of undefined 'whatthefuck?'ness. D
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| Norton: What the fuck are you looking at? Nathaniel: Honestly, I have no idea. You should tell me since you made it. |
Salt
In which Angelina Jolie is an American spy accused of being a Russian sleeper agent.
7WR (Angelina): An unactable enigma, so Jolie charismas instead. B+
7WR (Movie): Endearingly absurd but sadly disposable. Lame ending. B-
7WR: Slow burn silliness and lusty adult appetites. B+
Leaving
Kristin Scott Thomas gets the f*** of her life from Sergi Lopez, then loses her cool.
7WR: Feverishly horny portentousness. Somehow Kristin sells it. C+
I Am Love
Tilda is the matriarch of a rich Italian clan whose family business is changing hands.
7WR: Mouthwatering visuals, melodramatic verve, subtextual theme; Masterpiece? A/A-
(big article forthcoming now that it's on DVD. Probably in a week's time.)
(From the man behind Amélie.) A man with a bullet in his brain seeks revenge on arms dealers.
7WR: Inspired (But Exhausting) Hijinx Setpieces 'R Us B-
If you've seen any of these, do share your feelings. I lift the restrictions on word counts for the comments. You may use more than 7! (If you're ever in doubt about whether or not to comment try to think of comments as little crumbs and The Film Experience as a zoo. Here you
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15 Directors Who Shaped My Movie Love
So there's this meme going around that Paolo tagged me with. So why not? The idea is that you list 15 directors, mainly off of the top of your head, that contributed to the way you experience and think about the movies. This is not a list of my all time favorites though half of the list would probably overlap. This is the list I come up with when I think briefly on the formative masterminds and/or the ones that have or had some sort of claim on my soul if you will. Three of them I could definitely live without at this point but I'm trying to be honest about the exercize.
So here goes in no particular order...
ROBERT WISE (1914-2005)
When I was a kid West Side Story and The Sound of Music were the most Epically ! Epic !!! movies to me. At the time I didn't quite grasp the auteur theory but at some point I became aware that this guy had made both so therefore "He must be the best director of all time!" Later I discovered that he wasn't but I still think he's a stronger talent than he gets credit for being nowadays.
first encounters: The Sound of Music and West Side Story (on television)
ALFRED HITCHCOCK (1899-1980)
As I said in my Rope retro, he's training wheels for any young budding film buff who is curious about The Man Behind the Curtain (Hitch or otherwise).
first encounter: North By Northwest (I think I saw it here, the place I saw many old movies for the first time. My parents didn't know what a monster they were creating by taking me there regularly.)
WOODY ALLEN (1935-)
For the same reason as Hitchcock really; it's impossible to think you're watching anyone else's film. Woody was the first director I "followed", eagerly anticipating and attending each movie as soon as I could. As a result, he'll always have a place in my heart.
first encounters: Broadway Danny Rose (in theaters... my older brother's idea), The Purple Rose of Cairo (in theaters, my idea)
WILLIAM WYLER (1902-1981)
The auteur theory isn't everything. This man understood dramatic storytelling and didn't dumb it down but made accessible all the nuances and fine points. Plus he could wring top notch work from all kinds of actors. His resume is deservedly overstuffed-with-classics. Just last month while watching The Best Years of Our Lives I even dreamed of watching all of his movies chronologically in a row for a blog project. I bet it would be an awesome journey.
first encounters: Ben Hur (revival house) and Wuthering Heights (VHS)
STEVEN SPIELBERG (1946-)
Because everyone loves him and therefore he was ubiquitous when I was growing up and still is to a degree. There was no question that he was shaping Hollywood and more than one moviegoing generation. I never felt personally attached but he was always present in the movie menu.
first encounters: Raiders of the Lost Arc & E.T. (in theaters)... the latter is the only movie I can ever remember seeing with my Grandma *sniffle*
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| Wise with Wood ~ West Side Story |
ROBERT WISE (1914-2005)
When I was a kid West Side Story and The Sound of Music were the most Epically ! Epic !!! movies to me. At the time I didn't quite grasp the auteur theory but at some point I became aware that this guy had made both so therefore "He must be the best director of all time!" Later I discovered that he wasn't but I still think he's a stronger talent than he gets credit for being nowadays.
first encounters: The Sound of Music and West Side Story (on television)
ALFRED HITCHCOCK (1899-1980)
As I said in my Rope retro, he's training wheels for any young budding film buff who is curious about The Man Behind the Curtain (Hitch or otherwise).
first encounter: North By Northwest (I think I saw it here, the place I saw many old movies for the first time. My parents didn't know what a monster they were creating by taking me there regularly.)
WOODY ALLEN (1935-)
For the same reason as Hitchcock really; it's impossible to think you're watching anyone else's film. Woody was the first director I "followed", eagerly anticipating and attending each movie as soon as I could. As a result, he'll always have a place in my heart.
first encounters: Broadway Danny Rose (in theaters... my older brother's idea), The Purple Rose of Cairo (in theaters, my idea)
 |
| Wyler meeting Charlton Heston's son. |
The auteur theory isn't everything. This man understood dramatic storytelling and didn't dumb it down but made accessible all the nuances and fine points. Plus he could wring top notch work from all kinds of actors. His resume is deservedly overstuffed-with-classics. Just last month while watching The Best Years of Our Lives I even dreamed of watching all of his movies chronologically in a row for a blog project. I bet it would be an awesome journey.
first encounters: Ben Hur (revival house) and Wuthering Heights (VHS)
STEVEN SPIELBERG (1946-)
Because everyone loves him and therefore he was ubiquitous when I was growing up and still is to a degree. There was no question that he was shaping Hollywood and more than one moviegoing generation. I never felt personally attached but he was always present in the movie menu.
first encounters: Raiders of the Lost Arc & E.T. (in theaters)... the latter is the only movie I can ever remember seeing with my Grandma *sniffle*
Para Normal Activity.
The only movie I managed to catch, on a total whim, was the original Paranormal Activity on Instant Watch just as the new one was packing them in at the box office. Hey, I've never claimed to be current with horror. I am totally not that guy. So here I am talking about a year after its sell-by date! I'm not in the now. I am beyond time.
See, even when I do catch horror movies in the theater (rarely) I tend to wait until I feel like I have to see it (due to overwhelming acclaim or whatnot) and thus I get there at the tail end of the run when it's already "over."... like The Descent. I had the theater to myself for that one which is C-R-E-E-P-Y.
I am easily scared but despite a few really good jolts, a pleasingly low-fi approach and that super creepy repeat scene of the girlfriend standing by the bed for hours on end in the middle of the night, Paranormal didn't really get to me. I had no trouble sleeping afterwards. Maybe it was the now ancient and probably nostalgia-boosted memories of The Blair Witch Project (which I saw in a huge cavernous freezing cold theater late at night) that spoiled the experience by comparison or maybe it was the lack of a theatrical crowd to heighten the fear by proximity. But I also think I just had trouble suspending disbelief. People being scared and making stupid decisions in the middle of the woods feels plausible to me. I too would lose my mind. But in the suburbs? I would totally always be having people over or I would just not be hanging out around my house and I sure as hell wouldn't stay in the house when there are so many other options of places to be.
Were you part of the huge box office haul for Paranormal Activity 2? I was reading the box office reports and thinking oh here we go again. When is this genre going to slow down? Most genres are cyclical but horror has been going strong for an awful lot of years now. This bit in the report is annoying
The sequel to last year's ultra-low budget viral blockbuster opened to a surprisingly strong $41.5 million at theaters in the U.S. and Canada this weekend, demonstrating that fans are willing to come to a studio-produced quickie follow-up to an indie hit if it's done well.Correct me if I'm wrong but when people actually pay tickets for a franchise movie on opening weekend -- totally normal behavior -- it has nothing to with "if it's done well." No one knows that it is. Opening weekend purchases are an act of faith, not a reward for quality.
Pet peeve. Had to get that out.
I understand that Paranormal Activity 2 takes place concurrently with this one? So it's neither a prequel nor a traditional sequel... so what's the word for that? We need a new word. "Equel"?
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Sunday, October 24, 2010
Take Three: Anna Faris
Craig here with Take Three.
Today: Anna Faris
I’m always up for a spot of Brokeback love. I know there's been plenty of attention around these parts in the past but let’s divert the love that-a-way. Let’s ride sidesaddle and gallop slightly away from Jake ‘n’ Heath. And Michelle 'n' Anne. And Ang. Hey, look, it’s Anna Faris as Lashawn Malone in Brokeback Mountain (2005).
I’d just seen Faris in Just Friends when barely a week later (January 2006) Brokeback was released here in the UK. The complete contrast between Faris in the two films caught me off guard. She pops up ninety-minutes in during a couples’ C&W night-out scene with Jake Gyllenhaal & Anne Hathaway. She “talks a blue streak” without much pause for breath – and in doing so fills the gap where a homoerotic attraction is becoming increasingly apparent between Jack Twist and Lashawn’s husband Randall (David Harbour). Jack and Lashawn dance; she continues to chatter. A new scene comes and goes with Lashawn entering and chattering her way gaily through it.
Take Two: Coppola load of this casting coup
First and Last, Far Away
first and last puzzles. Can you guess the movie?
first image:
last line:
This one took a while for people to guess. It's such a good movie. The answer is [highlight the invisible text] BURNT MONEY (2000) from Argentina. Really intense crime drama about "the twins" who aren't twins but gay lovers. You should rent it.
first image:
last line:
"You'll see. You'll see how far away we'll be."
This one took a while for people to guess. It's such a good movie. The answer is [highlight the invisible text] BURNT MONEY (2000) from Argentina. Really intense crime drama about "the twins" who aren't twins but gay lovers. You should rent it.
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LFF 2010: What I Love the Most
Craig reporting from the London Film Festival.
Argentinian film editor Delfina Castagnino makes her directorial feature debut with What I Love the Most / Lo que más quiero, a slight but thoughtfully quiet film full of long takes and extended pauses. The slim plot follows Pilar, who has recently lost her father, visiting her friend Maria, who is absconding from her boyfriend. The two spend their days by nearby lakes, at gigs or on the beach, idling away the time. Pilar ties up her father’s business loose ends and Maria meets a local guy (Esteban Lamothe) who takes her mind off her relationship and the friends begin to drift apart.
What I Love is a cleanly directed, well-composed film. Each scene is clinically precise in its framing, though often deliberately askew – actors awkwardly shot from just below waist-height, tree-lined landscapes partially obscure parts of the film frame. Most shots outlast their naturally assumed endpoints to further mine seemingly pointless instances of idle banter or connection between leads Maria Villar and Pilar Gamboa.
It feels very much like a hazy-lazy variant of the recent-ish Slow Cinema trend – familiar from Castagnino’s sometime collaborator Lisandro Alonso, and Carlos Reygadas, Antonio Campas etc – but with a foregrounded central female friendship (Celine and Julie Go Floating, perhaps?) Or maybe it’s a film after Eric Rohmer’s heart? But imagine, if you will, Sofia Coppola on holiday and on tranquilisers while remaking Vera Chytilová's Daisies to come close to what Castagnino achieves here. She does draw a pair of natural, unaffected performances from the two leads, but at times the film bordered on the exceedingly wispy, as if all that extended emptiness might just blow away on a vapid, late summer wind. Castagnino’s previous employ seems to have been largely neglected for her debut – once she regains her editor’s touch, and finds a way to better substantiate her themes, a second feature might just be a minor gem. D+
What I Love the Most is showing at the LFF on Sunday 24th and Wednesday 27th October
What I Love is a cleanly directed, well-composed film. Each scene is clinically precise in its framing, though often deliberately askew – actors awkwardly shot from just below waist-height, tree-lined landscapes partially obscure parts of the film frame. Most shots outlast their naturally assumed endpoints to further mine seemingly pointless instances of idle banter or connection between leads Maria Villar and Pilar Gamboa.
It feels very much like a hazy-lazy variant of the recent-ish Slow Cinema trend – familiar from Castagnino’s sometime collaborator Lisandro Alonso, and Carlos Reygadas, Antonio Campas etc – but with a foregrounded central female friendship (Celine and Julie Go Floating, perhaps?) Or maybe it’s a film after Eric Rohmer’s heart? But imagine, if you will, Sofia Coppola on holiday and on tranquilisers while remaking Vera Chytilová's Daisies to come close to what Castagnino achieves here. She does draw a pair of natural, unaffected performances from the two leads, but at times the film bordered on the exceedingly wispy, as if all that extended emptiness might just blow away on a vapid, late summer wind. Castagnino’s previous employ seems to have been largely neglected for her debut – once she regains her editor’s touch, and finds a way to better substantiate her themes, a second feature might just be a minor gem. D+
What I Love the Most is showing at the LFF on Sunday 24th and Wednesday 27th October
Saturday, October 23, 2010
You eat that watermelon, Juliette...
Just eat it!
I'm totally not crazy about watermelons myself. I don't like anything where I have to spit out seeds. You?
This entirely random post has been brought to you by a recent screening of What's Eating Gilbert Grape? (1993) in which just about everyone is excellent even though people only talk about it today in terms of Leonardo DiCaprio's first entirely deserved Oscar nomination. I meant to watch just one scene from it the other day and ended up sitting through the whole thing. Addictive, I tell ya. There's so many choice scenes but one moment I fell hard for all over again is when Johnny Depp's enormously obese mother (played by Darlene Cates), embarrassed to meet her son's new girl (Juliette), introducers herself with a shameful "I wasn't always like this." Juliette merely repeats her phrase "I wasn't always like this" and then a barely visible shrug. It's this unlikely mix of total empathy, unsentimental observation (we're always changing), and 'whatever -- nice to meet'cha' nonchalance. I love Juliette.
Pssst. Interview with Juliette Lewis is coming early next week... I'm behind in transcribing.
I'm totally not crazy about watermelons myself. I don't like anything where I have to spit out seeds. You?
This entirely random post has been brought to you by a recent screening of What's Eating Gilbert Grape? (1993) in which just about everyone is excellent even though people only talk about it today in terms of Leonardo DiCaprio's first entirely deserved Oscar nomination. I meant to watch just one scene from it the other day and ended up sitting through the whole thing. Addictive, I tell ya. There's so many choice scenes but one moment I fell hard for all over again is when Johnny Depp's enormously obese mother (played by Darlene Cates), embarrassed to meet her son's new girl (Juliette), introducers herself with a shameful "I wasn't always like this." Juliette merely repeats her phrase "I wasn't always like this" and then a barely visible shrug. It's this unlikely mix of total empathy, unsentimental observation (we're always changing), and 'whatever -- nice to meet'cha' nonchalance. I love Juliette.
Pssst. Interview with Juliette Lewis is coming early next week... I'm behind in transcribing.
LFF 2010: Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale
Like Winter Vacation (reviewed yesterday and also showing today), more snowy desolation abounds in Almari Helander’s debut film Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale. But this time the setting is a much more grim (bordering on Grimm) and fable-like Finland (bordering on Lapland). There are 24 days to go until Christmas, and high on a mountain a mysterious company called Subzero Inc. are drilling deep, deep down; they discover something, or is it someone, encased in ice. All the local townsfolk are told is that they are to be very very good. A knowing farm boy (Onni Tommila) and his father (Jorma Tommila) latch onto the shady goings-on and decide to investigate further...
It’s a Christmas film for people who hate Christmas: a tale very much about the festive period, but via the quite possibly warped imagination of a Scrooge-like misanthrope. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It’s a kid’s film, essentially, although this is debatable: it uneasily sits as outright family entertainment, but skimps on the potential gore it occasionally teases the viewer with (some judicious cutting occurs at crucial points). There’s fun to be had, but intermittently; the narrative mid-section does drag somewhat. Some moments during the build-up to the tense finale are inspired, however, and far more crafty and well-plotted than I initially expected.
Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale is at the LFF on Saturday 23rd & Tuesday 26th October
Yes, No, Maybe So: "Rabbit Hole"
I probably need to start covering movies I'm not absolutely drooling for in this yes, no, maybe so trailer series. It gets hard to pick the "no" and "maybe" elements for a film like, say, this one here...
John Cameron Mitchell's RABBIT HOLE will hit theaters, albeit only a few of them we're guessing, on December 17th, a date obviously chosen with the perception that it will maximize Oscar prospects.
YES I am, for better or worse, what is known as a "fan" which is to say, once I love something, it tends to be intense (hair pulling excitement, joyful weeping... metaphorically speaking!) and it takes a lot for that love to die out . The word "fan" used to have both negative and positive connotations but now, I suppose, with the invention of the terms "fanboy" and "fangirl", the simpler word "fan" has lost some of its negative connotations. So I'm okay. I'm still discerning. Unless you think I'm a closer to a Kidman "fanboy" in which case, well, yeah, maybe but shut up -- [hyperventilating, crying] She is awesome!
NO Grief as Major Theme is tricky to pull off. There are all sorts of movie potholes on that journey: pornographic actorly histrionics, pandering "everything happens for a reason!" sentimentality, monotony of tone, boredom of plot. Plus the best work in this genre is nearly impossible to live up to. The best grief dramas are always French (Ponette and Trois Coleurs: Bleu) or are one hour long and found in really unexpected places ("The Body"). But it could be I am just overly touchy on this subject because it cuts too close to the bone when it's sharp. When it's dull, it just makes an awful mess of an important and universal topic. I hope this one is sharp, even though that means it'll hurt more.
MAYBE SO Ever since I heard about the artistic teenager that becomes intermingled with the grieving family, I was curious about how John Cameron Mitchell, who proved a very visual director in his first two features (Shortbus and Hedwig and the Angry Inch), would work that in. I'm pleased to note that the marketing team has used it as a sort of guiding motif in the trailer. I love the linear drawing emphasizing the Academy Award titling, don't you? It somehow seems more playful -- and the Oscars should be cuz they're fun! -- than the boring title cards we usually get when studios want you to know that "A PRESTIGE MOVIE IS COMING!"
Even if this movie didn't have such great festival buzz and Best Actress hype, I would still be a YES as all three principle actors are people I either obsessively love (Kidman) have loved ever since I can remember and always will (Wiest) or generally quite like (Eckhart).
But maybe your reaction veers far off in some other direction? Are you a yes, no or a maybe so when it comes to Rabbit Hole and why?
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John Cameron Mitchell's RABBIT HOLE will hit theaters, albeit only a few of them we're guessing, on December 17th, a date obviously chosen with the perception that it will maximize Oscar prospects.
Even if this movie didn't have such great festival buzz and Best Actress hype, I would still be a YES as all three principle actors are people I either obsessively love (Kidman) have loved ever since I can remember and always will (Wiest) or generally quite like (Eckhart).
But maybe your reaction veers far off in some other direction? Are you a yes, no or a maybe so when it comes to Rabbit Hole and why?
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Catherine Deneuve and The Terrified Naked Model
<-- Deneuve with foxy François on the Potiche promotional trail.
Here in the USA when people talk about 60something actresses, it's almost always the big M's: Mirren, Meryl. I'd argue that neither of those admittedly great talents, is still as adventurous in their movie choices as the big D "Deneuve". Deneuve is still consistently serving it up for auteurs in her late 60s. She was wondrous as the unsentimental cancer-striken matriarch in Arnaud Desplechin's A Christmas Tale a couple of years ago and in her current film, Potiche, now playing in France, she's bringing her style and comic sophistication to the latest from François Ozon. It's the second joint effort for the legendary star and the prolific gay director after the musical 8 Women (2002).
She just did an interview for the French gay magazine TÊTU. There's more on that after the jump. But be warned that it's NSFW unless your coworkers go around mooning each other. (And if so, no judgements!)
First and Last, 4.45
the first image in a motion picture, and the last...
Can you guess the movie?
That's right. It's the very recent hit [highlight for the answer] ZOMBIELAND (2009).
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Can you guess the movie?
That's right. It's the very recent hit [highlight for the answer] ZOMBIELAND (2009).
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Friday, October 22, 2010
The 50 Oldest Living Oscar Nominees
I keep the following "still with us!" list, not from any morbid curiousity but from a genuine happiness that some legendary screen stars are still walking the earth even though most of them aren't walking the screens these days. This year has been rough with the losses so maybe I'm going to stop keep this list. My heart was in the right place! We want the following to know that their past accomplishments are acknowledged by new generations.
The Oldest Living Oscar Nominees
All of them were born before the movies even had sound!
All of them were born before the movies even had sound!
- Luise Rainer (2 time Best Actress winner The Good Earth & The Great Ziegfield ... I love her in that one) turns 101 in January. May she live to be as old as she wants to be!
- Norman Corwin (nominee for writing Lust for Live) is 100.
- Douglas Slocombe (3 time nominee) cinematographer of Raiders of the Lost Ark among other classics is 97.
- Elmo Williams, also 97, won his Oscar for editing High Noon (1952) one of the earliest movies (though not the earliest) to be told in "real time."
- Oswald Morris turns 95 in one month's time. He received all of his nominations for Best Cinematography for musicals (The Wiz, Oliver!, Fiddler on the Roof) but he also worked frequently with legendary director John Huston. Puppet classic The Dark Crystal (1982) was his last job.
- Olivia de Havilland (2 time winner The Heiress & To Each His Own) is 94.
- Kirk Douglas (Honorary Oscar and 3 time nominee), Spartacus himself, turns 94 in December.
- Ernest Borgnine (winner Marty) turns 94 in January.
- Celeste Holm (winner Gentleman's Agreement) is 93.
- Joan Fontaine Happy 93rd, Joan! May you have anything you want today, unless it's something that Olivia de Havilland wouldn't be happy about because we love her. Just sayin'.
- Tom Daly (5 time nominee) this Canadian producer nominated in short film and documentary categories is 92.
- Joyce Redman (2 time nominee Tom Jones) turns 92 in December. [Trivia note: Tom Jones is the only film to have ever won three nominations in Supporting Actress. Pity that Robert Altman's Nashville didn't repeat that trick because it was deserving.]
Dino de Laurentiis(Thalberg winner and a producing winner for La Strada) recently turned 91.Sadly, the movie man has died. RIP.- Michael Anderson (nominee, directed Around the World in 80 Days) is 90.
- Ravi Shankar (nominee, the co-composer for Gandhi) is 90.
- Ray Harryhausen (Gordon Sawyer Award recipient), the f/x legend, just turned 90.
- Mickey Rooney (Honorary Oscar and 4 time nominee) just turned 90.
- Carol Channing (nominee Thoroughly Modern Millie) is 89. "Razzzzzbbberrries!"
- Ken Adam is 89. He's a two time winner for Art Direction and his nominations stretch across 4 decades of cinema.
- Hal David (winner "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head" from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid) is 89.
- Deanna Durbin (Juvenile Award winner) is 88. She was only 18 when she won her Juvenile statue (shared with Mickey Rooney) but she retired from the screen just nine years later.
much more trivia after the jump including Doris Day, the two oldest Supporting Actors and people who are too young for this list.
Linkenstein
/Film Jon Hamm as Superman?
Movie|Line's failed/jokey photoshop attempt at the same thing utterly delights me (pictured left)
I Just Want to Be Perfect Black Swan website devoted to Nina's (Natalie Portman) psyche.
Cinema Blend a look at the newly announced cast of The Hobbit. With pics. Why do I feel that this movie is going to be such a disaster when I love the LotR trilogy? I guess I've lost faith in Peter Jackson given that the beauty of King Kong was smothered by a lack of self-editing and then we got the disastrous The Lovely Bones.
ONTD Rachel McAdams and Michael Sheen. I must have slept through this pairing. This is news to me.
Cinematical Pixar gives its first female director the book (Brenda Chapman was to helm The Brave previously due out in 2012...but you know, I assume this could delay the movie). Boo.
Montages (in Norwegian) a look at what's coming up very soon in Norwegian film. The writer is most excited for The King of Bastøy starring Stellan Skarsgard, Kristoffer Joner and Benjamin Helstad. The film takes place in 1915 and is based on a true story about a youth prison. Hmmm. Could it be next year's Oscar submission? It's never too early to start thinking about that given that the Oscar eligibility calendar is already in the 2011 film year now when it comes to Best Foreign Language Film.
(Partially) Off Cinema
Tiger Beatdown "No One is Ever On Your Side" excellent, excellent article on Mad Men's Betty Draper Francis. A must read for fans of the show in case you missed it.
Benefit of the Doubt on Metroid, feminism and the Aliens franchise (if you're curious as to why that's suddenly in the air again, it's due to the box set's release Alien Anthology.)
Moby Lives on literature's problems in reflecting our internet ruled new world: timeliness or timelessness?
The Faster Times a list of all the new shows coming to Broadway in the spring.
The Oatmeal How to Pet a Cat. Hee
Something That's Really Bothering Me
Did you read the NY Times piece about the shortage of memorable lines in the movies these days? I suppose it's only helping them that everyone has been talking about the piece and linking to it (like me) for a couple of days but I do not understand the response. I've only read a couple of "in response" articles but they seemed to join in the lament. The article cites 90s films like Terminator 2, Forrest Gump and Jerry Maguire as among the last mammoth 'quotables.' Some response articles are saying things like "yeah, it's sad that movies aren't literate anymore..." I'm sorry but Forrest F'in Gump and Jerry Maguire are not literate movies. They just had fun simple catchphrases. Why are people equating catchphrase-making with great screenwriting and extrapolating that into a lament for the state of modern cinema? Does that mean that Arnold Schwarzenegger movies deserved Best Screenplay Oscars? A lack of catchphrases does not a poor screenplay make. The article makes a vague statement indicating that these things can take time, citing "Plastics" from The Graduate as a line that percolated before boiling. But then it blames The Social Network for not having a great lines (um, excuse me? It has hundreds of great lines... it'll just take awhile for a few of them to rise to the top) Meanwhile The Big Lebowski is praised for "The Dude abides." Listen. The Coen Bros write great dialogue. But I was around in 1998 when The Big Lebowski premiered. It was received with pockets of enthusiasm (as their pictures usually are) but mostly a shrug, and some considered it a small setback after Fargo (which had been nearly as popular as Raising Arizona, their first mainstream breakthrough. Lebowski wasn't.) It was only years later after obsessive fandom had successfully added several fresh coats of "classic" paint on Lebowski that people were incessantly quoting its dialogue and acting like it was this huge hit and of the best films of the 90s.
I guarantee you that "milkshake" and "quit you"will never disappear. And that 5 years from now, some line from The Social Network will still be in the public vernacular. One day people might not even remember where they first heard the line they end up using from The Social Network it may dig so deep down into the bone marrow of everyday conversation. You think everyone who has ever said "fasten your seatbelts. It's going to be a bumpy night" was thinking of All About Eve (or had even seen All About Eve) when they first said it?
Review: "Hereafter"
Clint Eastwood, now 80 years old, has never been more regular. Somewhere between the months of October and December each year, comes a new Eastwood picture for your consideration... or "For Your Consideration" if you're a voting member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. In some years, like 2006 (Flags of Our Fathers and Letters From Iwo Jima) or 2008 (Changeling and Gran Torino), we get two movies. This year we get three; they're all called HEREAFTER.
The first movie begins in 2004 with Thailand's awful tsunami which killed thousands of people. It's a gripping horrific sequence that's well filmed though it risks easy ridicule with an extended shot of a teddy bear floating in the water. The terrifying waves sweep up Marie (Cecile de France), who happens to be a famous French journalist...
Read the rest in my weekly column @ Towleroad
If you saw the picture, what did you think of it? If you didn't, do you plan to?
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| Cecile de France just swallowed gallons of ocean water |
The first movie begins in 2004 with Thailand's awful tsunami which killed thousands of people. It's a gripping horrific sequence that's well filmed though it risks easy ridicule with an extended shot of a teddy bear floating in the water. The terrifying waves sweep up Marie (Cecile de France), who happens to be a famous French journalist...
Read the rest in my weekly column @ Towleroad
If you saw the picture, what did you think of it? If you didn't, do you plan to?
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