By Jason Apuzzo. I’m curious as to what people think of this preview (above) for NBC’s forthcoming series, The Event. Here are the main elements I’m getting from this trailer:
• Heroic, charismatic young black President.
• CIA conspiracy involving illegal detainees.
• A secret detention facility in Alaska?
• Some sort of 9/11-type event.
I believe this is what is referred to as ‘on the nose’-style filmmaking. And we apparently now have the Obama Administration’s own version of The West Wing.
Somehow you knew this was coming, didn’t you?
[Special thanks to LFM’s Patricia Ducey for tipping me off about this.]
[Special thanks to Hot Air for linking to this post.]
By Joe Bendel. Americans expect their property rights to be respected, even posthumously. However, those rights evidently do not apply to when the property in question is especially valuable. At least that seems to be the case in Pennsylvania, where the state government, the city of Philadelphia, and a group of powerful non-profit foundations have in effect legally plundered the priceless Barnes Collection according to Don Argott’s eye-opening documentary, The Art of the Steal, now available on DVD.
Steal opens with the unseemly yet so appropriate video of former Mayor John Street’s news conference, in which he overflows with glee at the prospect of finally getting the Barnes in Philadelphia. All that is missing is a football for Street to spike before doing an end-zone dance. However, this display is problematic on multiple levels.
Albert C. Barnes hated Philadelphia. The self-made entrepreneur and Roosevelt Democrat amassed probably the greatest private collection of impressionist and early modern art. Yet, when he unveiled his collection in the City of Brotherly Love, it was panned by the local press and mocked by the chattering classes. Eventually, Philadelphia realized what they had missed, but it was too late. Barnes had established his Foundation in exurban Lower Merion, where career-defining Renoirs, Cézannes, Matisses, Picassos, and Degases were integrated into a progressive art school, with only limited opportunities for public viewing.
When the childless Barnes passed away, the terms of his will were explicitly designed to keep his collection intact and out of the grasping hands of Philadelphia and its despised Art Institute. However, as the original trustees passed away, control of the Barnes Foundation eventually fell to Lincoln University, a traditionally African American school safely outside the Pennsylvania establishment in Barnes’s day that became state affiliated in 1972. As Argott makes crystal clear, from that point on, Barnes’s intentions no longer governed the Foundation that still bears his name.
One of the unspoken ironies of Steal is that Barnes, the New Dealer and sworn enemy of Nixon confidant Walter Annenberg, was ultimately undone by Democrats like Street and Governor Ed Rendell. At least the governor consented to an on-camera interview, justifying the hijacking of the Barnes on grounds that incontrovertibly contradict the spirit of his will (like the fact that more people will be able to gawk at his collection on the Franklin Parkway). Conversely, representatives of the Pew Charitable Trust, which Argott identifies as the shadowy power player in the takeover of the Barnes, conspicuously declined to participate in the film. (In a further irony, the only political figure in Argott’s film speaking on behalf of Barnes’s intentions is Lower Merion’s Republican congressman Jim Gerlach, to his credit.)
Producer Sheena Joyce, exec. producer Lenny Feinberg, director Don Argott.
Though he is covering the rarified art world, Argott approaches the Barnes case like a criminal investigation, and with good reason. He also memorably establishes the mind-blowing dimensions of the stakes involved, establishing the term “Barnesworthy.” As art-dealer Richard Feigen explains at a supposedly blockbuster Sotheby’s early modern show, most of the work on display that would soon be bought for millions of dollars would not have merited a second glance from Barnes. Though Feigen himself declined to assign a dollar figure to the entire collection, its value would be estimated in court filings at twenty five billion (with a “b”) dollars. This is what “Barnesworthy” means.
Steal is a smart, persuasive documentary that challenges some previously sacrosanct notions regarding the merit of museums as public institutions. While some of the finer points of estate law might sound dry, Argott makes it all quite compelling, pulling viewers through step-by-step with remarkable assuredness.
Unfortunately, the establishment considers the Barnes’ impending move to downtown Philly a done deal, even though the rag-tag Friends of the Barnes group still fights on. Maybe so, but Argott’s film could make it a pyrrhic victory. It is hard to imagine how anyone could willingly step foot in a Barnes bastardized by machine politics after watching Steal, regardless of the significance of the collection within. Highly recommended, Steal is now available on DVD and streams on Netflix.
By Jason Apuzzo. • It was such a pleasure seeing Mao’s Last Dancer this past weekend. It’s an emotional, stirring film that is carried by two very strong performances by Chi Cao and Bruce Greenwood. The story of how this young Chinese dancer rose to prominence during the nightmare-period of Mao’s reign, came to America – and then fought tenaciously for his freedom – is a story that everyone should see, especially when it’s told as elegantly as director Bruce Beresford tells it here.
What I was stunned by, however, were all of the flattering references in the film to (then) Vice President George H.W. Bush, and also to President Reagan. It’s made quite plain that the elder Bush was instrumental in securing this young dancer’s freedom, and this is probably going to be the most flattering take on the Bush family and/or legacy you’re going to see on film any time in the near future. We’ve got a brief except from the film below in this context, by the way.
I cannot recommend this film highly enough, as it expands into wider distribution next weekend. Mao’s Last Dancer is not only a compelling indictment of the communist system, but a rousing testimony to the opportunities available to high achievers in free societies like our own. Make sure to see it.
On the box office front, Mao did over a $192,000 in business on 31 screens in 10 markets. It opens to 15 new markets this upcoming weekend. Make sure to check out the clip below.
• From the sublime to the ridiculous … the other film I saw this past weekend that involved a ballet sequence (ahem), Piranha 3D, finished #6 at the box office this weekend with over $10 million … which is actually only about $6 million less than the #1 film, The Expendables. Despite the strikingly positive reviews this film received (Rotten Tomatoes currently has it at an 81 rating), the rather obvious problem this film faced is that its intended audience – namely, teenagers – for the most part couldn’t see it due to its R rating. [Personally I think the film easily could’ve received an NC-17.] Still, I think Alex Aja has created a genuine cult masterpiece here that will live long and prosper once it reaches its natural milieu of unrated home video. 🙂 And, indeed, word is now breaking late today that Aja and Dimension films are already planning a sequel to the film, possibly to take place in Thailand.
From "Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader."
Good for her. How odd that at this point I feel more confident in how she’ll handle this material than, say, how Stallone might. Salt, by the way, has thus far grossed $216 million worldwide.
Turning heads at the Creative Arts Emmys.
• The annual article about ‘Hollywood Reaching Out to Christians’ has come out … this time from The New York Times. It’s a little tiresome reading these articles each year. Basically the only reason films get made that appeal to Christians these days is because Christians themselves – usually working outside the confines of the Hollywood system – pony up their own money and get them made.
By Jason Apuzzo. I’m going to keep harping on this point until people get the message: namely, that Sylvester Stallone has not revitalized the action genre, but merely his own career (sort of), with The Expendables.
So sorry, Sly, we’re still not buying your film’s sham ‘patriotism,’ its ‘re-invention’ of the male action genre, or its box office prowess. And you and your action buddies are still getting your clocks cleaned by a girl.
By Jason Apuzzo. Most of the attention surrounding the re-release of Avatar in ‘special edition’ form has centered around the extended ‘alien sex scene’ – which is sounding pretty tame, frankly. [Having recently seen Piranha, of course, pretty much everything is seeming tame right now.] Buried, however, in an article today from The New York Post, is this tidbit from James Cameron about another scene that’s been put back in the film – a scene Cameron refers to as “the drums of war.”
• A scene Cameron calls “the drums of war,” which he hopes will clarify why the humans choose to wipe out the Na’vi. He compared it to America’s decision to invade Iraq. “We had to provoke Saddam to do something stupid, and it’s like that with the humans invading Pandora,” he said. “I felt when I was writing it that the Na’vi had to counter-react and do something that is called an atrocity that gave [humans] the moral right to go in and destroy and displace them. The additional footage is pretty short, but it fulfills that purpose.”
So let me untangle this for you. Cameron’s ‘thinking’ more or less proceeds as follows:
• America invaded Iraq by ‘provoking’ Saddam into doing “something stupid.” What was that, exactly? Refusing to allow in weapons inspectors? How did we ‘provoke’ him to refuse weapons inspection?
• In Avatar, the Na’vi are thus ‘provoked’ into committing something that is “called an atrocity.” So is it an “atrocity,” Mr. Cameron … or isn’t it? Does an atrocity become less of an atrocity if it’s provoked?
• The atrocity which isn’t actually an atrocity because it was provoked then becomes the pretext for the humans moving in and exploiting the Na’vi’s land. Or something.
Did you get that?
By the way, I’d like all the people out there who still aren’t sure whether Avatar is a political film to please raise your hands – so Mr. Cameron can hand you some free, prune-flavored suckers.
The movie’s strengths are considerable. The first section summons up a tormented period of Chinese history when art was bent to the breaking point in the service of a ruthless state … The film celebrates artistic freedom without preaching a sermon, and often flies when Mr. Chi is on screen. When he is on stage, spinning and leaping to the strains of magnificent music, the film soars.
I’ve put another clip of this extraordinary new film below. Make sure to see it this week. You can read the LFM review of it here.
As regular Libertas readers know, we expressed our enthusiasm for Piranha 3D early on – eagerly devouring each marketing ploy for this exceedingly cheeky and sexy little thriller. It’s for this reason, sensing the possibility that this film might be a cult classic, that we dispatched noted film critic and theoretician Prof. Jacques de Molay to review Piranha 3D for Libertas. He delivered a decidedly impassioned and idiosyncratic review.
I just got off the phone with Jacques, and frankly he’s still raving about the film. I could barely hear him, because he’s currently kayaking down the Amazon river, but some of the phrases I made out were: “Cult masterpiece … easily the best film of the year, possibly of any year … ecstatic pleasure … dream-like … watching hyper-real, 30-foot high females floating underwater in free space in 3D … like something out of a Botticelli painting … or Raquel Welch in Fantastic Voyage … why couldn’t James Cameron think of this?!” At a certain point I had to cut Jacques’ call off, frankly, because he was just going on too much. I suppose I’ll have to see the film now.
• From real-life spies to fictional ones, Angelina Jolie premiered Salt in Berlin this week. This worldwide tour of hers is really colorful, and I enjoy covering it … but I’m wondering if one visit to, say, Greta van Susteren’s show might actually do more good for this film’s box office right now. Has Salt really been promoted as aggressively here in the States as it should be?
• In sci-fi news, an interesting casting notice has leaked for the forthcoming J.J. Abrams’/Steven Spielberg Super 8. I’m very much looking forward to that film – actually much more so than any of the forthcoming sci-fi projects on the books that we’ve been covering here, simply because I have greater confidence in the filmmakers involved. We’re also learning that X-Men: First Class will apparently be taking place in the 1960s. According to Aint It Cool News:
[T]he film takes place in the 1960’s. John F Kennedy is the President of the United States. Martin Luther King and Malcolm X are on TV doing marches. There is a spirit of a hopeful future that was prevalent in that time.
Word on the street is that Indy 5 will be headed to the Bermuda Triangle, potentially with a final stop in Atlantis. Indy 4, along with the suprise-hit Cloverfield, kicked off the most recent wave of alien invasion projects … and I expect Indy 5 to add a new dimension to this whole craze before it’s all over, due to Lucas and Spielberg’s deep immersion in sci-fi lore …
• AND IN TODAY’S MOST IMPORTANT NEWS … would you buy iPod accessories designed by Brit celebrity Katie Price? [They adorn her headgear to the right.] These things look like they’re designed to receive transmissions from outer space – of which she may already be receiving her fair share. She may be trying to snag a role in Area 51, although Battleship or Piranha would probably be more appropriate given that she already comes equipped with artificial flotation devices.
And that’s what’s happening this weekend in the wonderful world of Hollywood.
