Video of the Day 2: Satan – RISE! (from Quatermass and the Pit)
11/1/2006 4:00:00 PM
The great British screenwriter Nigel Kneale, a master of sci-fi, suspense, and a variety of other genres (think of him as Britain’s Rod Serling, only even better), died this week at the age of 84. He was best known for the popular and influential Quatermass series.
This video clip, consisting of scenes from Quatermass and the Pit, wherein a burst of energy results in the appearance of a Martian monster, a cross between Satan and a locust, is still amazingly creepy, so many years later.
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Will There Be Another Mad Max Movie?
11/1/2006 2:30:00 PM
The two principal players in the legendary Mad Max franchise, star Mel Gibson and director George Miller (who, we must add, is one of ScreenGrab’s favorite filmmakers, not just for the Mad Max series, but also for the most underrated film of the 1990s), both have movies coming out this season. Gibson’s obviously got Apocalypto, and Miller’s got the CGI penguin movie Happy Feet coming out. That means they’re doing press. And that means they’re going to get asked about another Mad Max flick.
Sure enough, there’s a story up on Ain’t It Cool News today about an interview George Miller gave to In Focus magazine in which he seems to confirm that Mad Max IV is definitely in the works. Here’s the excerpted quote:
“Mad Max 4 is so prepared, there seems to be a lot of momentum for it to get done. Right now, I’ve got another, smaller film to do, and then we’ll gear up and do “Mad Max” again. In what form and so on, I don’t know. But it hasn’t gotten stale in the meantime, and I’m very very keen to do it. It seems like there’s the appetite out there.”
Miller also seems to suggest that Mel Gibson is attached to the film. (He denies the rumor that the film will be a prequel.)
But then there’s this new interview with Gibson (which we also linked to yesterday) wherein he seems to dispute the idea of a new Mad Max flick, saying he’s “gettin’ a little long in the tooth for that one.” (Although the one film he really doesn’t seem to want to make is another Lethal Weapon, saying, “Oh boy was that done to death.”)
I dunno. With a new Die Hard, a new Rocky, a new Rambo, and possibly even a new Indiana Jones film in the works, I suspect that Gibson might be made to reconsider. Especially if: 1.) Happy Feet does well, reconfirming Miller’s status as an A-Lister (he’s been in the dog house ever since the awesome-yet-reviled Babe: Pig in the City); and: 2.) Apocalypto underperforms, suggesting that Gibson’s recent personal troubles haven’t been entirely forgotten.
 | | They sure do love animals, don't they? George Miller (left) and Gibson. |
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Worst Moviegoing Experiences: Children of the Porn
11/1/2006 1:30:00 PM
Last week we featured a story from the great Missy Schwartz about how her visit to an arty George Clooney sci-fi film was ruined by a screaming, rambunctious child. This week Missy chimes in with an even better story about kids at an even more inappropriate film.
Last time I related a story of a five-year-old at Steven Soderbergh’s meditation on Solaris, and I didn’t think that brand of inappropriateness could be repeated, much less topped. Boy was I wrong!
In the late fall of 2004, Regal Cinemas opened up a 14-screen theater in the revitalized Convention Center/Chinatown district of Washington DC. Being that it was on my way home from work and very likely a cleaner, quieter substitute for the always rowdy Union Station theaters, I decided to cozy up with the dour, dreary-hued Birth, a film noted for its creepily long takes (the opening sequence of a winter jogger who collapses to his death, the uncomfortable hold on Nicole Kidman’s face at the opera)...and, of course, the fracas surrounding Kidman having a bath with a ten-year-old boy.
Why then, do you suppose a woman brought along her two rambunctious grandchildren, both under the age of double-digits.
They shuffled in and plopped themselves in front of me in the front seats of the riser section of the stadium theater, which I quickly discovered was so they had the space to run and roll and horse around and generally be a nuisance. Like Romper Room at a funeral.
Shhh-ing won’t get you anywhere in this situation, much less passive-aggressive sighing. The only thing one can do is get up and move, which I did, all the way to the tippy-top of the theater. I’m sure I stomped my way up there, too.
Then the question came -- ignoring for a moment grandma’s thought process that begat babysitting at a Rated-R-for-Sexuality movie -- what’s really going to happen in the bathtub scene? I mean, wasn’t that partly the reason we were there in the first place? Moreover – duh -- how would grandma handle the unsuitable subject matter? Cover their eyes?
You could sense the urgency building in the theater, all of us wondering how it would all shake out. Grandma’s good sense must have kicked in along with her ability to intuit the upcoming tub scene, because she packed up coats and kids and lurched out of the theater. Gone! Yes!
Sure enough, they returned 10 minutes later.
Previous Worst Moviegoing Experiences:
- Everything Is Explicable In The Terms Of The Behavior Of A Small Child
- Greatest. Screaming. Baby. Story. Ever.
- You Can’t Shut An Actor Up. You Just Can’t.
- Piiiraaates!
- Meet Joe Black, Meet My Limp Noodle
- BewareA Man Bearing Flowers
- When They Called it “Vomit-Inducing,” They Weren’t Kidding.
-Misadventures of a Right Wing Film Geek
-A Good Reason for an International Incident
- Meet the Times Square Crowd. Plus, Sly’s Biggest Fan
- Miami %$*&#!
- ”Like Some Sort of Small Machine
- Hollow Man, No Pants
- Life Imitates Art?
- Men at Work
- Confessions of a Movie Theater Employee
- Introducing Mrs. Inconsiderate Cell Phone Lady
- A Hollywood History Lesson Gets Out of Control
- Mousy Academic Type Takes Matters Into Own Hands, Falls On Face
- Befuddled Tot Likes Windu, Suspicious of Amidala
- ”She Rode a Horse…”
- Screaming Baby + Scorsese Movie = Trouble
Got a terrible, terrifying, or hilarious moviegoing experience to share? Send it to us at screengrab@nerve.com
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Video of the Day 1: Bollywood Does Michael Jackson’s Thriller
11/1/2006 1:00:00 PM
Oh, Bollywood. Please don’t ever change. (Yes, it’s old. But it’s still awesome.)
(Hat tip: The Daily Reel.)
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If You Read This, A Movie That Might Never Actually Get Made May Be Ruined For You.
11/1/2006 12:05:00 PM
Somebody is writing a prequel to Se7en -- or, at least, so reports Bloody Disgusting, having seen a treatment for the film. Nobody has agreed to make it yet, and at this point it’s little more than a gleam in somebody’s eye.
But here’s the interesting part – the movie is called Virtue, and it will be marketed as a regular film. Only at the end will it be revealed that the film is a prequel to Se7en. Because, y’know, anyone who would recognize it as such wouldn’t have ever been online at a movie news site or anything.
Yeah, that’ll work.
Permalink : http://www.nerve.com/nerveblog/screengrabblog.aspx?id=107e7269#7269 |
See If This Makes Sense
11/1/2006 11:00:00 AM
Chen Kaige directed The Promise and in the process “harmed a pristine Himalayan lakeside.” The production was fined a few thousand dollars, and a media storm erupted. Because of the ensuing furor, new regulations were enacted against filmmakers who cause environmental damage. So China has nominated Chen for the “Green Chinese” award, given to those who make a great contribution to protecting the environment. Their justification: Because sometimes a negative example can raise awareness, too.
Dude, that's like giving those cops who beat Rodney King the NAACP Image award. They increased awareness, too.
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Morning Deal Report: Scorsese's Stones Doc, the Wachowskis' Speed, De Palma's Capone
11/1/2006 10:00:00 AM
- It appears that we will get at least one more Martin Scorsese film featuring the song “Gimme Shelter.” He’s recently started directing a documentary on the Rolling Stones, and Paramount Pictures just bought its North American rights.
- Larry and Andy Wachowski, the brothers behind The Matrix saga, are making fanboys very happy with the announcement that they will write and direct a live action Speed Racer movie, along with many of their Matrix collaborators.
- Brian De Palma will direct The Untouchables: Capone Rising, “a prequel to his 1987 hit film about lawman Eliot Ness’ takedown of Al Capone…which charts the Chicago mob boss’ rise to power and his relationship with police detective and nemesis Jimmy Malone, the character played in the original film by Sean Connery.” Is there any way this could be any good? Or, more accurately: Is there any way it could be any better than this?
- After briefly dallying with Steven Spielberg, David Fincher, and Gus Van Sant at various points, Audrey Niffenegger’s beloved novel The Time Traveler’s Wife will finally get made into a film – this time with Robert Schwentke, the director of Flightplan, behind the camera.
- Get ready for another goofy Ben Kingsley accent. He’s signed on to play a Middle Eastern oil minister targeted by assassin John Cusack in the satire Brand Hauser: Stuff Happens.
- Donald Sutherland will star alongside Matthew McConnaughey and Kate Hudson in the Andy Tennant-directed comedy adventure Fools’ Gold, about “a husband and wife who have spent eight years searching for a lost treasure and are on the brink of bankruptcy and divorce when a clue to the payday surfaces, forcing them to reunite to find their fortune.”
- Bong Joon-ho, acclaimed director of The Host and Memories of Murder, will direct an English-language film based on the French graphic novel -- La Transperceneige, “set on a train that is the last refuge for human civilization on the run from a devastating ice age.” If they wait long enough they can probably save some dough and just make it a documentary.
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Video of the Day 3: John Carpenter, David Cronenberg, and John Landis in 1982
11/1/2006 9:30:00 AM
In keeping with today's horror video theme, we give you this half-hour roundtable from 1982 with John Carpenter, David Cronenberg, and John Landis, back then they were all at the top of their game. Oh, and the guy interviewing them is Mick Garris, who would become a horror director in his own right.
This is the first ten minutes. Go here for part 2, and go here for Part 3.
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Halo Gets Dumped – But Why?
11/1/2006 9:25:00 AM
It’s being reported all over the place that the Halo movie, to be produced by Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, along with Microsoft, and directed by newcomer Neill Blomkamp has been postponed, because the two partner studios Universal and Fox “did not choose to move forward with financing the Halo film under the original terms of the agreement.” Of course, this led to much plaintive “Why God, why??” ululating among the fanboy community, convinced that the studios had screwed everything up again.
Sounds like a classic case of a big company getting cold feet over a hefty pricetag, right? Or could it be that the problems with the project were more fundamental? One site is reporting that the real reason the plug got pulled is because “director Neill Blomkamp has failed to impress any of the studios,” quoting one studio exec as saying, “He sure can make a Transformer dance, but, we sure as hell are not convinced that we can trust him with $100 million plus dollars.”
Ow. That’s gotta hurt if you’re Blomkamp. Remember, these are the people that regularly trust McG with $100 million plus dollars.
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Video of the Day 2: Saw, the Original Short Film
11/1/2006 9:10:00 AM
Before he made the feature Saw, James Wan made this short film based around the same idea. Though I’m not a big fan of the franchise as a whole, I think on the whole this is a pretty interesting little flick, and remarkably of a piece with the whole series. It’s also kinda cool how this little short wound up spawning a mega-million dollar industry.
Permalink : http://www.nerve.com/nerveblog/screengrabblog.aspx?id=107e7235#7235 |
Looks Like Somebody Isn’t Getting Knighted Anytime Soon
11/1/2006 9:05:00 AM
"Really? Where? As far as I'm aware I wrote a cold, emotionally detached, haughty, difficult, prickly, private, uncommunicative, out-of-touch bigot. But people adore her, because they think it was written with compassion and integrity rather than being a hatchet job."
- The Queen screenwriter Peter Morgan responds to the, er, accusation that he was understanding towards Queen Elizabeth in his script for the hit film.
Permalink : http://www.nerve.com/nerveblog/screengrabblog.aspx?id=107e7237#7237 |
Video of the Day 1: Friday the 13th Death Tally
11/1/2006 9:00:00 AM
The sick puppies over at Film Threat have posted this hilariously disturbing video that is the very definition of overkill: It’s every single onscreen death from the Friday the 13th films, cut together into one demented whole.
Go here to watch the video.
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Forgotten Films: 7 WOMEN (dir. John Ford, 1966)
11/1/2006 8:30:00 AM
From about the mid-1930s on until the 1960s John Ford could count himself among the most respected of American directors. He achieved iconic status with his legendary Westerns (many starring John Wayne), but he also mastered a variety of film genres. He won six Oscars -- two for his war documentaries -- and unlike many other directors with multiple statues, he still has a major critical reputation today, from both mainstream and highbrow writers. So you’d think that Ford’s final narrative film, the ambitious and beautiful 7 Women, would have no business being deemed a “Forgotten Film.” And yet here it is, in all its rarely-screened ignominy.
In truth, I should briefly qualify its inclusion here. A number of influential film critics, including the Ford scholar Tag Gallagher and Chicago Reader film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum, consider 7 Women to be one of the director’s finest films. At the same time, though, it’s very hard to see, with no DVD of it available. (There was a widescreen laserdisc from MGM available back in the 90s, and occasional bootlegs made from that pop up on eBay and other places.) A new print was struck a few years ago, but apparently it costs a pretty chunk of change to rent it for screenings. And it was a financial disaster upon its release, relegated to the bottom half of a double bill with The Money Trap. This despite the fact that many influential critics and filmmakers of the 1960s named John Ford as one of their greatest influences. Why, then, the widespread indifference to 7 Women? Perhaps because it seems, on its surface, such a departure from the prototypical Ford film.
Set in North China in 1935, 7 Women tells the story of a female-run Christian mission besieged by an army of vicious Mongols. But despite the potential such a logline offers for spectacle and exotic locales, Ford’s film turns out to be something of a chamber piece. The film was shot on a soundstage, a far cry from the director’s beloved Monument Valley vistas, and much of the action takes place indoors. More importantly, his concern here lies not with the rampaging hordes or windswept plains, but in a subtle psychological tug-of-war between the conservative, repressed head of the mission, Agatha Andrews (Margaret Leighton) and the adventurous, decidedly secular Dr. Cartwright (a very spirited Anne Bancroft), a free-thinking modern woman who blows into the mission and disrupts its rigid ways. Raising the stakes is the fact that one of the women in the mission, Florrie (Betty Field) is pregnant and in her 40s, and desperately needs medical care. That a cholera epidemic breaks out doesn’t help, either. By the time the Mongols actually take over the mission in the second half, the tribulations of this helpless band of sisters puts to shame those of the Western pioneers Ford so lovingly depicted throughout his career.
 | | Anne Bancroft in 7 Women |
For all its extremes and surface incongruities, 7 Women is most definitely a John Ford film; indeed, one could argue that it’s one of his most refined, most personal works. The director has always focused on civilizing forces, and often on personal conflicts within those forces. Perhaps the most famous example of this comes in the final act of The Searchers, in the way the wounded, puritanical rage of Ethan Edwards (John Wayne) clashes with the more compassionate demeanor of his half-breed companion Martin Pawley (Jeffrey Hunter) over the fate of a girl who has been an Indian captive for years. The conflict between Dr. Cartwright and Agatha Andrews in 7 Women bears some similarities to that struggle: Alone and uncompromising, the older matriarch finds herself unable to understand the complexity of the troubles she is facing. Only a woman of the world such as Cartwright is able to lead these women to safety.
Early on in the film, Ford shows Andrews glancing longingly at the youngest member of this sisterhood, played by Sue Lyon (who had achieved notoriety as a teenager with Kubrick’s Lolita). The implication is that Andrews is something of a closeted lesbian, but it could also be seen as a suggestion that she secretly longs for intimacy of any kind, after a lifetime of repression and denial. (This film would make quite a double-bill with Powell and Pressburger’s Black Narcissus.) The hierarchy Cartwright disrupts is therefore one of both social stasis and sexual repression. But it’s no surprise that she comes from an outside world that will also eventually bring in the Mongols. Andrews’s attempts to keep her mission completely isolated from the world is an attempt to prevent its destruction. Ironically, it will lead to the very destruction she fears so much.
Although it’s a historical film, 7 Women is utterly divorced from actual history. Ford’s depiction of the Mongols reminds one more of the way Indians were depicted in Westerns than anything else. Their two leaders are played by two actors with a combined height of 13 feet -- the Ukrainian Mike Mazurki and the African American Woody Strode, both in somewhat garish makeup – and their gurgled language is left untranslated (one wonders if any of it is authentic). When the two enormous Mongol chiefs strip down and begin to wrestle each other to the death, Ford leaves us at a loss as to why.
A viewer casually watching the film may view such scenes as offensive, but it’s clear that Ford doesn’t intend for this to be taken as authentic in any way, shape, or form. Instead, he’s presenting his female protagonists with a foe that is purely masculine. If the women at the center of this film can be considered a refinement of that which is most civilized in humans – childbirth, compassion, piety, medicine, generosity – then the invading horde is its macho opposite – aggressive, irrational, ignorant, unthinking, and impulsive. Whereas in previous Ford films it was the gunfighter and the soldier who had to mediate the world between civilization and savagery, here it’s the pants-wearing female doctor Cartwright who has to cross that boundary -- and her ultimate fate suggests that Ford in his later years was becoming significantly darker and less optimistic.
In some ways, it’s better to think of 7 Women not as a historical film at all but as some kind of bizarre science-fiction fantasy. (Certainly, the Ming the Merciless make-up on Mazurki and Strode’s faces wouldn’t make imagining that too hard.) It’s the one genre Ford never touched, but his depiction of a world where the feminine, civilizing impulse has been isolated and beset by the unchecked aggression of the masculine, destructive impulse would not feel out of place in a speculative, apocalyptic sci-fi scenario.
 | | John Ford |
One could chalk up 7 Women’s failure at the time as a sign that the aging Ford, with his classical filmmaking style, was gradually finding himself outdated by the free-wheeling, edgier cinema of the 60s. And yet, it’s hard not to look at the film today and see that, in his own way, Ford was indeed keeping up with the times. The raging Vietnam conflict may well have been a potential influence for Ford (whose next credited film would be the 1971 USIA documentary Vietnam! Vietnam!), who perhaps saw in the modern conflicts of the late 20th Century a more complicated and destructive struggle between civilization and aggression. Certainly this film’s cynical, often brutal exploration of gender, identity, and civilization could stand up alongside the greatest works of the era.
--Bilge Ebiri
Previous Forgotten Films Columns:
- October 16, 2006 -- REIGN OF TERROR (aka The Black Book) (dir. Anthony Mann, 1949)
- October 3, 2006 -- MOUNTAINS OF THE MOON (dir. Bob Rafelson, 1989)
- August 18, 2006 -- LUNA (dir. Bernardo Bertolucci, 1979)
- August 28, 2006 -- OUR MOTHER’S HOUSE (dir. Jack Clayton, 1967)
- August 14, 2006 -- THE CHOCOLATE WAR (dir. Keith Gordon, 1988)
- July 31, 2006 -- THE STRANGER (dir. Luchino Visconti, 1967)
- July 17, 2006 -- WALKER (dir. Alex Cox, 1987)
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