Day: November 2, 2010

UPDATED: Aint It Cool News Raves over Four Lions + New Chris Morris Interviews

By Jason Apuzzo. Aint It Cool News raves over Chris Morris’ Four Lions today. Here’s the money quote:

FOUR LIONS recalls the fearlessness of Ernst Lubitsch’s TO BE OR NOT TO BE, which made light of the Nazis before the tide of World War II had turned in favor of the Allies. But while Lubitsch’s film was castigated for being way too soon at the time (it hit theaters a scant three months after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and, coincidentally, two months after the tragic death of its star, Carol Lombard), Morris’s ingeniously scabrous satire feels long overdue.

This extraordinarily courageous and funny film opens Friday in select theaters, at which point I’ll be reposting my review of it.

[UPDATE: Here’s a lengthy new interview with the film’s director, Chris Morris.]

[UPDATE #2: I’ve also embedded another interesting interview with Morris below.]

[UPDATE #3: Chris Morris talks to The Wall Street Journal here.]

Posted on November 2nd, 2010 at 2:47pm.

UPDATED: Jeffery Deaver Writing New, Post-9/11 James Bond Novel

By Jason Apuzzo. USA Today features an interview today with novelist Jeffery Deaver, who is writing the new authorized James Bond novel, which will apparently be set in the present day. Here are some key details about the forthcoming novel revealed in the interview:

  • It’s set in the present day – specifically, 2011.
  • It follows a young James Bond, age 29 or 30, who is a young agent in the British secret service.
  • The new Bond is an Afghan war vet.
  • Bond will be fighting what Deaver calls “post-9/11 evil.”
  • A young Moneypenny will put in an appearance.
  • Bond will not smoke (?!), but martinis will make an appearance.

I’ve read all of Fleming’s Bond novels, and I’m not really convinced Deaver is the best choice for this assignment – but we’ll see how it all goes.

Bear in mind that all of this probably has very little to do with what will happen with the film franchise. There’s some internet chatter right now about how this may signal the end of Daniel Craig’s run as Bond – but I doubt that very much, as Craig’s films have done boffo business worldwide, and basically revived the Bond movie franchise. In any case, the 007 novel series – which continues on, with the authorization of the Fleming estate – and the MGM film series have existed in separate narrative universes for some time now.

[UPDATE: MGM is now saying that we can expect the next Bond film by November 2012.]

Posted on November 2nd, 2010 at 2:03pm.

The Last Days of East Germany: The Mistake

By Joe Bendel. The personal should not have to be political, but it always was in the former DDR, often with tragic consequences. As a still attractive woman of advanced years, Elizabeth Bosch ought to be able to pursue a September romance with a handsome visitor to her provincial town in relative peace and privacy. Yet, since he is West German (a Hamburger), their affair attracts the wrong sort of attention in Heiner Carow’s The Mistake, the best and final film of the Anthology Film Archives’ Wende Flicks retrospective, which concludes at the landmark East Village theater this coming Wednesday.

Elizabeth Bosch has always cleaned up after other people, yet she does not even have hot running water in her modest pre-Wende East German home. That means she and her visiting grandchildren must take their baths in the yard, which catches the eye of the wandering Jacob Alain. Though he starts off on the wrong foot, he quickly wins over Bosch. It is not as if he has much competition, aside from Bosch’s boss Reimelt, a small man unfortunately blessed with a measure of power. The town’s slovenly mayor, he blusters about the hard work of building socialism unaware that it sounds like a punch-line to the weary Bosch.

While Bosch and Alain might ordinarily prefer to take things slowly, they simply do not have the time. For a while they make do with letters and all-too brief rendezvouses in East Berlin, but the situation is clearly not sustainable. When Bosch’s older Party loyalist son announces his promotion, it further complicates matters. Now family contacts with the West will come under increasing scrutiny.

Mistake is a sad but wise love story that also serves as a pointed reminder of what life was like under Communism. Bosch does not even have hot water, yet the Stasi still takes an active interest in her romantic affairs. The film also pays tribute to those who stood up to injustice in the DDR – bringing together Alain, Bosch, and her younger son Holger at a candlelight Christmas prayer service for East German dissidents. It all has remarkable emotional heft thanks to the finely nuanced work of its leads.

Angelica Domröse and Gottfried John look like an attractive, warts-and-all couple who we would like to see together. Yet we know the system is stacked against them. Domröse is especially compelling, finely balancing strength and vulnerability as Bosch. It is one of the great unsung performances of world cinema.

One of the best cinematic depictions of mature romance, Mistake is an outstanding film. It is also a heartrending and infuriating document of life under the oppressive Communist system, yet its inescapable political implications never eclipse the human drama. Highly recommended, it screens this Wednesday (11/3) in New York as the concluding film of the Anthology Film Archives’ Wende Flicks retrospective of the East German DEFA film studio’s final productions.

Posted on November 2nd, 2010 at 11:35am.

UPDATED: Stallone Rises … Then Falls

By Jason Apuzzo. Check this out above, from Sly Stallone on Twitter …

Stallone rises!

[UPDATE: … and now Stallone falls. He’s now walking back these remarks above, telling The Hollywood Reporter that his comments were not directed at Obama specifically, but were “a reference to all career politicians.” Sure, Sly. Did the heat get to ya?]

Posted on November 2nd, 2010 at 11:01am.