The Rep Report, July 11 - 26
7/11/2007 4:00:00 PM
SAN FRANCISCO: The 12th Annual San Francisco Silent Film Festival kicks off at the Castro on Friday, July 13th, with Ernst Lubitsch's 1927 The Student Prince of Old Heidelberg. The festival continues through the weekend with a huge selection of silent rarities, a selection of Hal Roach comedies, Alla Nazimova's eye-popping folly Camille, and William Wellman's
1928 life-on-the-road drama Beggars of Life, an absolute must-see for fans of the still-vibrant, enduringly modern heartbreaker of the silent screen, Louise Brooks.
BERKELEY: Pacific Film Archives offers to scare some environmental awareness into you with Eco-Amok! An Inconvenient Film Fest (July 11 - August 29), a series of sci-fi flicks in which — to steal a line from the ads for the 1972 Frogs, which I am delighted to report is included in the program — "Nature Strikes Back!" This might be one of those series where the assembled films benefit from association and develop a charge that is greater than the sum of the individual parts; it could be fun to compare the giant, marauding ants of the '50s-era Them! with their smaller but perhaps smarter descendents in the 1974 Phase IV, the only feature directed by Saul Bass, and see that the ants seem to have been studying the Vietcong and learning the virtues of guerrilla warfare. There's also the 1979 John Frankenheimer film Prophecy, which grows in interest once you notice how much the rampaging woodland monster looks like the kid from Eraserhead all grown up. And anyone looking to get deeply in touch with their inner hippie should check out Douglas Trumbull's 1972 Silent Running, with Bruce Dern as an eco-warrior astronaut (with adorable robot pals) trying to preserve the last greenhouse while fleeing through space, pursued by the Man and hounded by the sound of Joan Baez trilling on the soundtrack.
NEW YORK: The Museum of Modern Art presents Premiere Brazil 2007 (July 12 - 23), the annual festival drawn from current Brazilian cinema. In addition to the new stuff, this year's program includes Hector Babenco's 1981 classic Pixote, which is being shown alongside a new documentary, Pixote in Memorium, which deals with the making of the picture and catches up with the surviving cast members to learn how the film's success affected their lives.
The Film Society of Lincoln Center has Leading the Charge: Woodfall Film Productions and the Revolution in '60s British Cinema (July 13 – 26), which, despite the inclusion of work by other filmmakers, is to a very real degree a tribute to Tony Richardson. Richardson co-founded Woodfall, but his heavy presence in this program is a reminder that he just about was the English film industry in the 1960s. (His chief rival for the title, Richard Lester, isn't actually English, but for God's sake, don't tell him.) There was a time when these films, with their anger and seediness and class awareness, hit like a tidal wave. With the shock long since dissipated, some of them look a bit rickety now, but the adaptations of John Osborne's The Entertainer, with Laurence Olivier, and Look Back in Anger, with Richard Burton, preserve landmark performances by the stars that retain the electric charge of the Angry Young Men period. It was also a sharp move to include perhaps the best of Richardson's later, neglected movies, The Border, a 1982 melodrama starring a seething Jack Nicholson as a border patrolman mixed up in the illegal-immigrant slave trade. Twenty-five years after it was first dumped by the studio, it hasn't gotten any less timely.
— Phil Nugent
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Don Cheadle Presents Talk To Me
7/11/2007 3:00:00 PM
Last night at Lincoln Center's Walter Reade Theater audiences were treated to an advance screening of the film Talk To Me followed by a live interview with the film's star, Don Cheadle. Talk To Me is a rare bird in today’s cinema. It's a movie based on a real person unconcerned with being a cradle-to-grave biopic. It's a period film that actually uses the era it replicates to bolster its characters and remind us of a time when words had power and Americans, as individuals and as a nation, were faced with towering questions on a daily basis. It's also the first film in some time to feature an entire cast (and Martin Sheen) of well-rounded, well-written, filled-out black characters. In fact, the relationship between slick-talking, ex-con radio DJ Petey Greene (Cheadle) and suited-up program director Dewey Hughes (the increasingly dependable Chiwetel Ejiofor) is one of the best explorations of black male friendship in America that I can remember seeing on screen. While there's plenty of dialogue (as the title implies), to the actors' credit, much of their relationship is established with the non-verbal communication men tend to hide behind. Talk to Me should generate awards talk for Cheadle, Ejiofor and the very talented Taraji P. Henson as Vernell, Petey's girlfriend. It's easily one of the best American movies I’ve seen this year.
Afterwards, a relaxed, gracious and consistently funny Don Cheadle entered to a standing ovation and then spoke on a variety of subjects including how budget constraints and other limitations can make a better movie, his lack of a set acting technique and a meeting he had with Condoleeza Rice about the U.S. and U.N.'s role in the human rights crisis in Darfur (Cheadle is an impassioned activist). The actor also revealed that the original cast for Talk To Me included Terrence Howard, and that in early conversations the two had gone back and forth about which roles they would play. He closed by answering a question about how he stays humble by reminding the audience of the five stages of an actors career: "Who the hell is Don Cheadle? Get me Don Cheadle. Get me a Don Cheadle type. Get me a young Don Cheadle. Who the hell is Don Cheadle?"
— Bryan Whitefield
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That Gal!: Miranda Richardson
7/11/2007 2:00:00 PM
Since movies, even today, place far more emphasis on a woman's looks than on her talent, there have always been more noteworthy character actors than character actresses; older women tend not to be given the latitude to develop their craft the way older men are. But the history of cinema is full of fine character actresses, and one of our favorites is the remarkably diverse and profoundly talented Miranda Richardson. With the looks of a aristocratic Julianne Moore and the skills of a continental Glenn Close, Richardson has forged a twenty-seven-year career on film and television with only a few leading roles to call her own; indeed, when she got her second Academy Award nomination (no, really — for Tom & Viv in 1994; you can look it up), Vegas oddsmakers gave her the longest odds of any nominee to date, and more than one newspaper reported the name of the movie as Tom & Vic. The Glenn Close comparison is no coincidence; Richardson was originally offered the lead role in Fatal Attraction and turned it down, finding the character "regressive" and the script sexist and reductive. Always more interested in interesting roles than profitable ones, Miranda Richardson is hardly a household name in American film, despite having appeared in half a dozen major motion pictures; much of her recognition here comes from cult audiences for shows like Blackadder, where she often appeared as Rowan Atkinson's female foil, and delivered a juicy portrayal of Queen Elizabeth that Cate Blanchett could only dream of. Indeed, she's one of the rare actors of either sex who's just as adept with comedy as she is with drama; she can bring unexpected wit to even her most serious roles, and her comic roles always contain surprising depth. Now entering her fifties, the modest, solitary woman from Lancashire has shown the kind of range and skill that could have made her another Meryl Streep — but, by her own admission, she'd rather do endless character roles on film and television than "one blockbuster that made me rich but had no acting."
Where to see Miranda Richardson at her best:
THE CRYING GAME (1992)
Jaye Davidson got all the attention for this cleverly crafted Neil Jordan twister. Fair enough — it's a spectacular performance. But easily overlooked is what could have been a breakout role for Miranda Richardson as Jude, Stephen Rea's former lover, IRA handler and an ice-cold killer in her own right. In a movie filled with stellar acting jobs overshadowed by the film's highly publicized twist, Richardson turns in one of the best.
DAMAGE (1993)
A woefully little-seen Louis Malle production, Damage made a bit of a splash when it first appeared; its frank depiction of sexuality — not particularly graphic, but intensely passionate, to the point of being disturbing — netted it an NC-17 rating in the U.S. It's hard to believe that anyone could steal the show in a movie whose romantic leads are a gaunt, explosive Jeremy Irons and a grasping, needy Juliette Binoche, but if anyone can do it, it's Miranda Richardson, in a stunning turn as a grieving mother and betrayed wife. The movie is nearly forgotten today, but it netted her an Oscar nomination. (No, really!)
THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (2004)
We'll be honest with you: this recent adaptation of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical 'classic' isn't great. Or good. Or even not terrible. It's pretty awful, from the hokey lead performances to the clumsy script to the production numbers that go on and on and on. But it does have a few redeeming features, and the two best are Minnie Driver as the prima donna Carlotta and Miranda Richardson as her second, Madame Giry. The two obviously knew what they were in for when they signed on, and threw up their hands in defeat early on, opting instead to amuse themselves by playing a hotly contested round of Dueling Atrocious Accents.
Previous That Guy! Columns:
Clancy Brown
John C. McGinley
J.A. Preston
Tom Atkins
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Slamdancing About Architecture
7/11/2007 1:00:00 PM
Graham Rae at Film Threat brings us a very, very, very long piece about Susan Dynner’s new punkumentary, Punk’s Not Dead, which concludes on an interview with the filmmaker. Along the way, though, Rae spends a terribly boring amount of time bitching about how punk rock today is so crappy and meaningless and lame, not like the punk rock when HE was a kid in the mid-'80s, no indeed. And honestly, anyone who spends so much time repeating how jaded and cynical he is really doesn’t have to call it to our attention. For someone who claims to love punk so much, he doesn't appear that interested in how it has evolved in the last twenty years, and for someone who claims to be a big fan of Jello Biafra, he fails to appreciate the man's response to the "Punk’s not dead" claim: "It just deserves to die, when it becomes another stale cartoon." — Leonard Pierce
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Recent Books on Orson Welles, Part Two: Orson Welles Remembered
7/11/2007 12:00:00 PM
Can Americans talk anymore? Can they utter a single sentence unburdened with qualifications and padding? I think not, on the evidence of the otherwise terrific Orson Welles Remembered: Interviews with His Actors, Editors, Cinematographers, and Magicians, compiled by Welles expert Peter Prescott Tonguette. It's maddening to read an interview that could have been half as long if the subject didn't continually qualify his statements with "kind of" and "sort of." Jesus, man, did you or didn't you? Was it or wasn't it?
That being said, Orson Welles Remembered is an enjoyable read (especially the interviews with older subjects, whose lingo is free of padding) and a fine adjunct to the numerous recent bios of Welles. Tonguette chats with thirty people, covering Welles's career from Citizen Kane to The Other Side of the Wind and beyond. He interviews Norman Lloyd about the Mercury Theater and Robert Wise and Sonny Bupp about Kane, tracks down two Macbeth, one Lear and two Fountain of Youth contributors and seven people who shared Welles's interest in magic tricks. The enthusiastic reports by relative unknowns from Welles' later years (such as Welles' "last editor," Jonathan Braun) are more fascinating than the well-trod tales of the early years by Robert Wise or Peter Bogdanovich. Braun tells a good illustrative tale on page 185, and fellow magician and historian Jim Steinmeyer offers up a touching story on page 172. This is a must-have for Welles aficionados. For the rest, it's probably just okay. — D.K. Holm
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Morning Deal Report: Snikt
7/11/2007 11:00:00 AM
Wolverine will go into production as soon as Hugh Jackman finishes the movie he's working on right now, Baz Luhrmann's Australia. As far as I'm concerned, no hairy blue Kelsey Grammer, no deal.
Jeffrey Wells reports that Iraqi insurgents are apparently using parodies of Hollywood posters to demoralize U.S. soldiers. Hollywood — always undermining the troops.
Paramount's planning a musical remake of Footloose, starring Zac Efron in the Kevin Bacon role. What, Bacon doesn't have the pipes? Come on!
Cheap, CG-heavy vampire action movies are all the rage, but Dracula Year Zero shows some promise — it'll be directed by Alex Proyas (The Crow, Dark City).
Kevin Spacey is confirmed for a Superman Returns sequel, with the awkward tentative title of "Superman: Man of Steel." (Why not "Superman: Man Who is Super"?)
— Peter Smith
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The Book Was Better
7/11/2007 10:00:00 AM
The latest issue of the always stimulating Bookforum includes a "Fiction Into Film" section, with a generous helping of "reflections" on the adaptation process by Elmore Leonard (who boasts of having been fired from a movie project with the same words that a character in The Way We Were used to fire Robert Redford), Michael Tolin, Alexander Payne, Barry Gifford and others, and various critics' picks for best movie adaptation ever. They didn't ask me — an oversight that I assume a copy editor is being flogged for, even as we speak — but I'm glad to see that John Huston's version of Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon got a mention, even though they basically just filmed the book almost scene for scene and word for word, which some executive informed Elmore Leonard was a no-no. — Phil Nugent
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Video of the Day: "What the Fuck are You Doing in the Dark?"
7/10/2007 4:00:00 PM
The sun is hot, water is wet and Peter Greenaway thinks that the linear storytelling mode of cinema is dead. If you like the man’s work, you’re likely to find this interview with Dutch TV (where he explains his recent veejaying activities; you can see his set-up and the results here and here) fascinating and compelling; if you don’t, you’re likely to find it pretentious and obnoxious. At any rate, you should watch it for no other reason than to learn the exact day and date that cinema died. — Leonard Pierce
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Bruce Dern's Things I've Said, But Probably Shouldn't Have
7/10/2007 3:00:00 PM
Over the course of an acting career that has spanned more than forty years, Bruce Dern has earned the image of a venerable, hard-working That Guy. (Having fathered Laura Dern with his ex-wife Diane Ladd, he's also the unlikely patriarch of a show business dynasty.) Now he's established a repository for all his Hollywood stories in a new book, Things I've Said, But Probably Shouldn't Have: An Unrepentant Memoir.
Dern was one of that select group of character actors (including Warren Oates and Harry Dean Stanton) who came up during the sixties, through small roles in A-pictures and slightly larger roles in B-pictures, before taking on old dependable status in the seventies. Early in hs career, he was murdered in Hitchcock's Marnie, decaptitated in Hush, Hush...Sweet Charlotte, and was the guest of honor at the motorcycle-gang equivalent of a Viking funeral in The Wild Angels. (He also advised Peter Fonda on the pros and, well, the other pros of hallucinogenic drugs in The Trip, presumably because Dennis Hopper had a prior engagement.) Later, giving as good as he got, he injured Charlton Heston in Will Penny, shot John Wayne in the back in The Cowboys, and attempted to blow up the Super Bowl in Black Sunday, all of which got him typed as a villain, much to Dern's frustration. For a while there he threatened to become a study in bitterness, angrily demanding that interviewers tell him just what Jack Nicholson had that he didn't have. (A longtime friend, Nicholson had directed Dern in one of his best performances, as a scarily intense college basketball coach in the little-seen 1971 Drive, He Said.) He slipped off the radar during the 1980s. But with his performances in such roles as the doomed low-life Uncle Bud in After Dark, My Sweet, James Woods's antagonist in Diggstown, and the old man in Walter Hill's Wild Bill who calls Hickok out while sitting in the street in a wheelchair, Dern served notice that he was back, intact, and ready to rock.
The new book is an as-told-to, whittled by the writers Christopher Fryer and Robert Crane from 1500 pages of transcripts based on "88 hours of talk." Some of the stories, such as the one about John Wayne cautioning Dern that killing him onscreen would not make him beloved, will be familiar to readers of Dern's interviews over the years, but anyone who has read a few of Dern's interviews will know that the ghosts are to be congratulated just for getting him to talk about something besides his jogging. And Dern isn't about to call himself a writer just because his name is on the book jacket. "I can't write," he says. "I can't type. I failed typing in high school." His modesty on that point may be a scource of amusement to some of the directors Dern has worked with, since there are plenty of stories about how he didn't think he needed to be a member of the Screen Directors Guild to tell them how to do their job. — Phil Nugent
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Chow-dah!
7/10/2007 2:00:00 PM
Speaking at a press conference in London, Matt Groening has promised film audiences the beauty of imperfection, calling The Simpsons Movie "a tribute to the art of hand-drawn animation" done in "the old-fashioned, clumsy, 'erase it if you don't do it right' way." There's more here, and Groening and Simpsons executive producer Al Jean are great talkers. But the best thing about it is that, because it's from the BBC, you get to see Groening described as speaking "with his tongue firmly in cheek."
Meanwhile, the city of Springfield, Massachusetts is lobbying to host the stateside premiere of The Simpsons Movie, and have taken their campaign online with a promotional video featuring Ted Kennedy. There are a dozen other Springfields spread across the map that are vying for the honor, but Kennedy is the Massacusetts town's designated "ace in the hole"; in the video, he extends a personal invitation to "all the Simpsons — Homer, Marge, Bart, old 'Diamond' Joe Quimby, Lisa, Maggie and Abe." For those of you who dozed off at some point there, the joke is the out-of-left-field mention of Simpsons Mayor Joe Quimby, who talks with a Bawston accent, has a history of partying heartily, and is related by marriage to a muscle-bound movie star of Austrian extraction. It'll be interesting to see what the rival Springfields come up with to match that. Maybe one of them will propose deliberately infecting the entire population with jaundice. — Phil Nugent
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