Video of the Day 2: Russ Meyer, the King of Sexploitation
3/1/2007 5:30:00 PM
Black Snake Moan opens this week, and despite its Sundance pedigree, everything we're hearing suggests it's basically a strangely compelling exploitation flick with a redemptive third act. (Needless to say, this makes us more eager to see it.) So in honor of that, it's time to recall the grand-daddy of the genre, the great Russ Meyer, the man who brought us Faster Pussycat, Kill Kill! and so, so much more.
Here's the British documentary, Russ Meyer: The King of Sexploitation. It's in six parts -- we've linked to Part 1 above. Click on the YouTube link to get to the other parts.
— Bilge Ebiri
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Expansive Welles: Why Orson’s Ghost Still Haunts Us
3/1/2007 4:45:00 PM
Can you believe that we are still arguing over Orson Welles?
By "we," of course, I really mean "they," the critics and the pundits who issue alternating books and essays first defaming and then defending the Pantheon auteur. "We" remain serene in the fact that Welles continues to be one of the greatest filmmakers, whose work rewards constant revisits.
Maybe that's why academics and critics return to Welles, to have an excuse to write about him, even if often their remarks are misguided or derived from Welles's earliest advocates, such as Charles Higham, who started that whole "fear of completion" tangent of Welles's biography.
Now, at the New York Review of Books, a Mr. Sanford Schwartz enters the fray
(in the March 15, 2007, issue) and one is immediately relieved to find that he is a Welles lover, who writes that Welles has created "as rich a storehouse of images and moments as any American artist." The official purpose of Mr. Schwartz's visitation is two new books on Welles, volume two of Simon Callow's ongoing Caro-on-LBJ-length biography, and Joseph McBride's new book on his idol. Into the mix, Mr. Schwartz also tosses in remarks in passing on books by David Thomson and James Naremore, among others. If Mr. Schwartz, in the end, rather overestimates the value of Thomson (for his "across-the-boards account of everything that was failed, fraudulent, and self-indulgent about him"), and undervalues, due to what he ascribes to a "lack of affinity" for his subject, the contributions of Callow (who in his second volume has highlighted for I think the first time the full extent of Welles's political involvements and their subsequent effect on his career), he nevertheless manages to cull and then add some interesting observations about Welles.
Noting the "emporium-like quality" of Welles's style, Mr. Schwartz traces "the disparity between the stories Welles wanted to tell and the way he filmed them," which results in a highly realist content presented in surrealistic form. Mr. Schwartz insightfully likens Welles's visual style to Giorgio de Chirico and tracks how surrealism was "an underlying issue for many artists coming of age in the 1930s and early 1940s whether they were tied to Surrealism or not," though he notes that Welles maintained to Bogdanovich that he was really an anti-surrealist (which isn't necessarily a contradiction). Yet the inner, psychological realism of Welles's films was also a sort of breakthrough in national cinema. His films are death obsessed ("Charles Foster Kane is encountered the second before he dies"), and Welles was one of those peculiar young filmmakers more interested in the aged.
Welles emerges from these books as a larger than life personage with a grim impatience for anything less than adulation and an indifference to the quotidian. The saddest passage occurs when Mr. Schwartz writes that, "Even Joseph McBride, a writer long identified as one of the director's champions, adds some sorry details to the picture. McBride was in and out of Welles's orbit for the last fifteen years of the man's life, and he writes warmly about the director's later activities; but he is forthright and honest enough to say that on some crucial level the relationship never clicked. When McBride asserted himself, initially, as a budding writer and filmmaker, Welles, he feels, was threatened and put on permanent guard, with the result that the younger man tamped himself down, and 'always felt somewhat uncomfortable around Welles.' McBride realizes that the director never really saw him as an individual, either." In this, as in so many other ways, Welles resembles Stanley Kubrick, and one thinks of that sad passage on the Clockwork Orange DVD when in an interview Malcolm McDowell expresses a small degree of hurt that, once shooting was over, the friendship that he thought he'd forged with the director failed to bear fruit.
— D.K. Holm
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Afterglow: Jamie Stuart Recalls Sundance
3/1/2007 4:15:00 PM
Jamie Stuart has created a beautiful short from his experience at this year's Sundance Film Festival. Wisely letting the film narrate itself, it is made up of all the small moments that are the week of Sundance; buses, parties, interviews, ski lifts, etc. For anyone that has been there or dreams of going, this gives about as close to a real impression of Park City and the surrealism of the festival as you can capture in five minutes. Aside from whatever is supposed to be happening in that inter-cut parking lot scene...
— Bryan Whitefield
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Too Young for Renoir and Kurosawa? Bah!: The Kids Are Alright in Nashville
3/1/2007 3:30:00 PM
The average film buff probably caught the movie bug sometime in college – with arthouse theaters, college film societies, cinema studies classes, etc. Then there are those of us who started younger – discovering John Ford or Jean-Luc Godard or Stanley Kubrick while in high school, sometimes even middle school. But in Nashville, it appears they’re breeding ‘em extra young, according to this item from Nashville Scene film critic Jim Ridley, in which he interviews “Jasmine Rich, 12, and her 8-year-old sister Grace Gilmore,” regular faces during the “50 Years of Janus Films” retrospective.
But before you get alarmed: It's not that these girls are precocious movie nerds clutching crusted-over copies of The Village Voice film listings next to their Hello Kitty backpacks or anything. Indeed, what's most encouraging about this article is that they seem like pretty ordinary kids on some level; it's just that they're extremely curious and open-minded, and are able to appreciate something like Children of Paradise even if there are many aspects of it they're not quite getting, at such a young age. And kudos to Mom, I say, for letting the kids explore the world of the film canon.
The piece is well worth reading. Ridley gets their impressions of some of the films in the series, too. (Check out the one on Rules of the Game.)
— Bilge Ebiri
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The Unterminated: Screenwriter-Blogger Josh Friedman Returns
3/1/2007 2:45:00 PM
Josh Friedman's back.
You remember Josh Friedman? He's the happily bitter screenwriter who wrote Spielberg's War of the Worlds and De Palma's The Black Dahlia, and quietly started a blog a few years ago in which he may have single handedly begun the internet Snakes on a Plane craze. Currently he is working on The Sarah Connor Chronicles for TV and recovering from a bout of cancer, Woody Allen's worst nightmare, about which he wrote extensively on his blog. On January 1 he once again quietly resumed his popular diary.
He begins by writing poetically that, "It was crazy there for a little bit, what with the all the snakes and planes and depalma and tyra and cancer and killer cyborgs and the apocalypse and that one monster spammer and the fever dreams of anonymous that I should be better at what I do, more of what I was, less of who I am." Then he proceeds to describe going through the Black Dahlia press, running into an unnamed actor / actress from said film who can barely give him the time of day.
Then he adds that "there were two types of Dahlia reviews: the ones that never mentioned me and the ones that mentioned Brian Helgeland. I preferred the former."
This is a guy whose Hollywood memoir would be eminently worth reading. Unfortunately, he hasn't posted any entries since.
Drop in, read, and give him encouragement to write more. But be sure to read the comments, too, one of which is from his dad, begging him to call his mother.
— D.K. Holm
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The Movie Moment: The Tree of Wooden Clogs (1978)
3/1/2007 2:00:00 PM
The Italian Neo-Realist movement began as a reaction to the more lightweight entertainments that usually focused on upper-class protagonists. In contrast, neo-realist directors such as Roberto Rossellini, Luchino Visconti and Vittorio De Sica explored the poor and working-class Italy of the day, training their cameras on laborers and prostitutes instead of captains of industry and heiresses. Because of this, neo-realist filmmakers more often than not would forego the casting of name actors, preferring to find non-professionals who could embody the types of characters in the film.
Such was the case with Ermanno Olmi’s The Tree of Wooden Clogs (1978), which was made a quarter century after the heyday of Italian Neo-Realism but nonetheless is very much in the same tradition. The Tree of Wooden Clogs captures life on a farmstead in Lombardy, Italy near the end of the 1800s, and Olmi’s cast is comprised entirely of real-life peasants. The film doesn’t attempt to tell a conventional story so much as intertwine the lives of the people who worked this land, raised their families and fought to survive, and while the cast of non-actors might not have worked for a more straightforward narrative, here it’s the right choice. Olmi directs each of his performers so that they feel perfectly natural and free of affectations.
The film’s most emotionally-involving plot strand involves a shy courtship between two teenagers, Stefano and Maddalena. Despite some initial awkwardness, they end up getting married. What’s fascinating about their wedding day is how modest it is compared to most people are used to in real life, much less Hollywood movies. But so it must have been among most poor people of the time, and everything that seems alien to modern audiences makes sense -- the small, early-morning church wedding, the sack lunches the newlyweds bring for their honeymoon, and so on. Even the honeymoon itself is consistent with the characters’ economic situation, with Stefano and Maddalena taking a barge to Milan to visit her aunt, Sister Maria, in a convent. While it’s only a few hours’ voyage to Milan, it’s entirely possible that this is the furthest either has ever been from home, and in fact Sister Maria states that “it’s been years since I saw my sister,” Maddalena’s mother.
After taking a tour of the convent, which is also an orphanage, they eat with the nuns (who sing them a hymn as they dine) and are taken to a small, Spartan bedroom. “We’ve never had newlyweds here before,” Sister Maria tells them. The next morning as they prepare for the trip home (tellingly, they wear the same clothes they came in), Sister Maria enters their room again, a child in her arms.
“His name is Giovanni Batista. He is 1 year old and in perfect health. Aren’t you, Giovanni Batista? He only needs real parents to make him happy, a real mother and father. He can already be a help to his family because he has an inheritance. He has good clothing and a little money which is passed to our institution twice a year. For a family of poor people, this could sometimes be a true gift of Providence. We must help each other in this world. He can be useful to you, and you can be very helpful to him.”
Maddalena then takes Giovanni in her arms and holds him close to her. In a Hollywood tearjerker this would probably be enough to elicit “awws” and sniffles from the audience. But if and when you watch The Tree of Wooden Clogs, pay attention to how Olmi’s camera focuses on the expression on Giovanni’s face. He doesn’t instantly take to Maddalena, but holds back for a few seconds, as if sizing her up. Finally, almost like he’s decided to accept her as his mother, he leans his head against Maddalena’s and relaxes.
I love this scene because of the way it turns an unexpected development into something lovely and sort of profound. It says a lot -- not just about these newlyweds, but about the culture in which they live -- that they so unconditionally accept Giovanni into their lives. The money promised them by Sister Maria plays a small role in their decision, I’m sure, but I’d say that their religious beliefs and values were a much bigger deciding factor. For many poor people, no matter where they live, faith is something that is very real to them, accepted rather than scrutinized and questioned. So it is with Maddalena and Stefano. On their first night as husband and wife, Sister Maria advises them, “may you always deserve God’s blessing.” In the minds of all concerned, Giovanni is just such a blessing.
— Paul Clark
Previous Movie Moment columns:
- February 22, 2007: The Girl Can’t Help It
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Speedy Cinema
3/1/2007 1:30:00 PM
The cinematic equivalent of speed-dating, Film Racing has begun accepting applications. Your mission, should you choose to accept it? Make a short film in 12 hours, from noon to midnight. Something of a flash-fried combo of National Novel-Writing month and Iron Chef, participants receive a themed assignment on the day of the event, and compete to make the best film they can around that theme. New York and Boston are already open for registration, with eight more cities coming soon.
— Leonard Pierce
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Do Not Mess With the Sound-Mixers. They Will Tear You Apart.
3/1/2007 12:45:00 PM
This Kevin O’Connell thing has spun totally out of control. You may recall that earlier this week we noted that O’Connell, sound mixer for Apocalypto, lost out on his 19th Academy Award this past Sunday. Turns out that in the press room after beating out O’Connell, Dreamgirls sound-mixer Michael Minkler, had some bizarre words about the whole thing, saying, “I think Kevin should go away with 19 nominations…We work really hard, and if we stumble upon an award, we are so grateful. I have to wonder ... Kevin is an OK mixer, but he should take up another line of work."
The press couldn’t decide if Minkler was just joking, or if they had just been graced by the presence of the biggest asshole on the planet. That question was soon answered when O’Connell’s Apocalypto partner Greg P. Russell spoke to the site In Contention, and launched this volley in response:
”He was absolutely sincere with that BULLSHIT. That man has lost whatever respect he had from a ton of people. Kevin mind you left the ceremonies right after our award and went to the hospital where his mother passed away in his arms at 11:32 pm. As if Kevin didn't have enough to deal with. He wakes up to this bullshit.
”It's been a really weird couple of days. I've been fielding all the calls because Kev has been out. The head of our studio came in to say he blasted Minkler for his assault. I even kicked myself for being congratulatory that night. Minkler said to me when I congratulated him that I was always a classy guy and he appreciated that alot. Integrity is something that means everything to me and this man has absolutely NONE. He stood backstage representing the entire Sound Community in front of the world, only to disgrace us all.”
Ouch. Minkler, so far, hasn’t responded, though I suppose we should expect some apology (and probably a stint in rehab) soon. Still, one wonders what he was thinking: Was he, perhaps, under the illusion that since this was a technical award, that no one would give a shit? (Imagine what might have happened if Forrest Whitaker or Tom Hanks suggested Peter O’Toole should give up acting.)
Also, between the alleged Beyonce-J-Hud feud, the whole Eddie Murphy-leaving-the-Oscars-early thing, the David Geffen-Hillary Clinton brouhaha, and now this, that Dreamgirls crew is looking like a pretty fun bunch of people to hang with. How did nice-guy Bill Condon keep all those egos in check?
— Bilge Ebiri
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Video of the Day 1: Sunfizz, Possibly the Greatest Commercial Ever
3/1/2007 12:05:00 PM
So what is horror, exactly? Is it content -- scary monsters, dead bodies, threats of physical harm? Or is it context -- more existential, more about the questions we're afraid to ask ourselves? What happens when we remove both and are left with merely the cold mechanics of horror cinema? Is it still horror?
Judge for yourself with one of the funniest commercials ever made, an ad for Sprite from 1998. All the moves are here -- the tracking camera, the pounding music, the shock zoom-in -- but rendered absurd by one little detail. Yet, even when divorced from something actually, you know, scary, those moves still manage to retain their power.
(I used to think this was directed by Wes Craven; it has the whiff of Scream about it. According to Google Answers, it was Spike Jonze. Why am I not surprised?)
— Kent M. Beeson
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As the Iraq War Becomes Ever More Mainstream…
3/1/2007 11:30:00 AM
Variety is reporting that HBO has green-lit a show by The Wire's team of David Simon and Ed Burns called Generation Kill that will focus on Marines fighting in Iraq. There have been several quality documentaries and a short-lived Steven Bochco series ( Over There) on FX based on the war in Iraq up to this point that many Americans (myself included) have let go largely unwatched. This is certainly the most viewer-friendly attempt so far at shedding some light on what is going on over there. Granted, there are some film projects in the works about the Iraq War, with some top-level talent attached, such as Brian De Palma.
But this Simon-Burns project seems to be in particularly capable hands, as anyone who has had the opportunity to experience The Wire knows. Hopefully, we will be in for the same kind of multi-layered, reality-based drama we've come to expect from arguably HBO's best recurring show. If their track record is anything to go by, this may well be head and shoulders above anything else Hollywood is cooking up about the Iraq War.
— Bryan Whitefield
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This Can Only End Badly: Weinstein to Remake The Lives of Others
3/1/2007 10:45:00 AM
The Hollywood Reporter has an item today about the Weinstein Company renewing “its exclusive first-look deal with Mirage Prods., the production company run by Sydney Pollack and Anthony Minghella.” Not exactly earth-shattering news, but the next sentence in the article goes on to note that “the first new project under the pact… will be an English-language remake of The Lives of Others, the German film by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck that won the Oscar for best foreign-language film Sunday.”
This is insane. Now, I know many film buffs tend not to look fondly on American remakes of foreign films in general, but I’ve never believed that this in and of itself was a sign of badness: I mean, look at The Departed. Indeed, even with lesser films, occasionally you can get some interesting American re-inventions of other countries’ high concepts: True Lies, for example, or even the first Ring remake. Or, hell, The Magnificent Seven.
But The Lives of Others?? I don’t know what they’re planning: Are they just going to do a straight remake, only with English-speaking actors playing Germans? Or are they going to try and translate the thing to an American milieu, maybe to the Watergate era, or to the NSC spying of recent years? Either way, it’s a bad idea.
What makes The Lives of Others such a great film is the manner in which it realizes the particular feel of East Germany during the waning years of the Cold War, and the subtle way it contrasts the socialist regime’s outward solicitousness towards artists with the rampant paranoia that’s actually running through the police state. It's a corrosive kind of duplicity that was very much unique to the Iron Curtain. In other words, this is a film whose very essence has been coded into a specific time and place. An American remake of that would be like an American remake of The Loyal 47 Ronin or something: Pointless, silly, and possibly even harmful.
— Bilge Ebiri
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Morning Deal Report: Audrey’s Dress, Lasse’s Latest, Oscar’s Ads
3/1/2007 10:00:00 AM
- Givenchy and author Dominique Lapierre have inaugurated a school for 200 children in Bishnupur, India, “built with money raised in the auction of Audrey Hepburn's iconic black dress” from Breakfast at Tiffany’s. “The school is one of 15 to be built in the state with $807,000 paid by high bidder Givenchy, now a division of LVMH, at an auction in December at Christie's in London.”
- Now freed from his duties as Harvey Weinstein’s house director, Lasse Hallstrom is planning on directing Columbia Pictures' romantic comedy Sammy, which is about what happens “when a woman who can sense what animals are thinking meets a man who claims to have the same relationship with dead people.” It’s like what would happen if The Ghost Whisperer got it on with the Horse Whisperer.
- If you noticed that the Academy Awards telecast last Sunday seemed to have less commercials than before, then we’ve got some good news and some bad news. The good news is that you were right. The bad news is that you’re probably autistic or something, since in total it was only 30 seconds less commercial time than last year. “The telecast had 24 minutes of commercial time, down from 24 minutes and 30 seconds for the 2006 program. It's also down from 2004 and 2005, when commercial time was either 27 minutes or slightly higher.”
- Whoa! David Poland has started the Oscar prognostication waaay early this year: ”I believe now that Johnny Depp is a 95% bet to be nominated for Best Actor as the title character in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street in a very, very crowded field of 2007 male movie performances… and an 80% chance to win.” And no, he hasn’t seen the movie yet. BTW, if Depp doesn’t get nominated, Poland believes his chances of winning will lower to about 63%.
- Denzel Washington is in pre-production on his sophomore directorial effort, The Great Debaters, a period drama” based on the true story of Mel Tolson, considered one of the great African American poets and in the 1930’s a professor at the historically black Wiley College in Texas, [where he] inspired his students to form the college’s first debating team.”
- Joshua Jackson may join the cast of Masayuki Ochiai’s psychological thriller Shutter, which begins shooting March 12 in Tokyo and “centers on a young American couple…on their honeymoon in Tokyo, who begin seeing ghostly images in their photos as well as around them.”
- DreamWorks has optioned an action-comedy script called The Secret Lives of Road Crews by Kevin Lund and T.J. Scott, about “a clandestine group of road crew workers who are the last line of defense against a subterranean alien race.”
- After some initial mixed responses, good word is now filtering out about Andrew Dominik’s Brad Pitt starrer The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.
- What would happen if the characters of Star Wars fought the characters of Peanuts? A bloodbath, of course. Introducing Nostalgia Wars, “computer-simulated, hardcore, real-world combat between characters we love.” (Hat tip: Pop Candy)
— Bilge Ebiri
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