Hollywood Round-up, 6/7

In the future, computers will play frisbee: the new billboard for "Tron."

By Jason Apuzzo. • Shrek takes top prize at the box office for the third week in a row, amidst an otherwise tepid weekend.  Shrek euphoria tempered by new report that Shrek glasses sold by McDonalds may kill you.

Moviegoers obviously not digging this summer’s offerings.  Also: a new report suggests just how much Avatar is saving Hollywood this year.  Subtract Avatar, and movie attendance would be down a whopping 12.9 percent this year, and revenue would be off 7.1 percent.  If that isn’t alarming enough,  James Cameron is still too busy cleaning up the BP oil spill to hunker down to his next Avatar sequel – which is not due out for 3-4 years, and other major franchises are currently in shaky condition.  Hollywood has the reverse problem of BP: not enough money gushing anywhere.

• … which is why eyes are currently turned to Christopher Nolan, whose Inception is hoped by many to rescue Hollywood’s summer.  In a new interview Nolan is calling Inception his On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, which is apparently his favorite Bond film.

This is a problem.  Why?  Because On Her Majesty’s Secret Service is easily one of the worst films of the Bond series.

The new George Lazenby?

Let me be the first – apparently anywhere on the internet – to express some doubts as to whether Inception is going to be the success everyone thinks it will be, either artistically or financially.  There are reasons to doubt this film will play well beyond the fanboys; suffice it to say for now that Inception is looking a lot like The Matrix: Reloaded … long on hype, but probably with short legs.  Outside the Batman franchise (i.e., someone else’s storyline), Nolan hasn’t shown he can really connect with large audiences yet, chiefly because his themes are too obscure and off-putting, and because he apparently has no sense of humor.  [Can DiCaprio implant that, too?]

• Vadim Rizov asks whether misogyny is what made so many critics hate Sex and the City 2. Answer: yes.  Govindini has more thoughts on this in response to her readers.

• Joel Silver says the new version of Logan’s Run will be shot in 3-D. At this point I would cast Megan Fox.

• Controversy still raging over whether Robert Rodriguez’s pseudo-controversial Machete should receive Texas tax credits. There’s always carbon credits.

• The Wall Street Journal complains that Hollywood demonizes capitalists. It’s called ‘biting the hand that feeds you.’

• Hollywood currently weighing in on the Prop. 8 court battle. Is that why Miley and Sandra are now kissing girls?

Hollywood's 'new domesticity.'

• If you missed the MTV Movie Awards, here’s what you missed: griping about the oil spill, a deluge of f-bombs, Sandra Bullock kissing Scarlett Johansson, Lindsay Lohan wearing a low-cut top to distract from her alcohol-monitoring anklet, and Jennifer Lopez spanking a bald Tom Cruise.  Sounds like a pretty tame night, to me.

• Tired of celebrity ‘placement’ at Lakers games?  You’re not the only one: see here.  Can we go back to real celebrity fans at Laker games, instead of fake ones?

• New billboards are out for Tron.  See above.

• Elton John receives $1 million to play at Rush Limbaugh’s wedding. For the same price, it actually would’ve been more entertaining to watch Jennifer Lopez spank a bald Tom Cruise.  [While Lopez covers Sir Elton’s “Can You Feel the Love Tonight”?]

• AND FINALLY … Sir Ben Kingsley spoofs Heidi Montag today, recording his own audition video for Transformers 3. File this under ‘things to do after your knighted.’

And that’s what’s happening today in the wonderful world of Hollywood …

Classic Movie Update, 6/6

By Jason Apuzzo.  • The original King Kong is coming to Blu-ray.  The ‘Heat Vision’ blog at Hollywood Reporter says that Kong will make its Blu-ray debut Sept. 28th.  Warner Brothers is releasing the disk, and it will essentially be a re-issue of the two-disc DVD special edition put out in 2005 that coincided with Peter Jackson’s remake.  This new Blu-ray edition will come with a 32-page booklet written by film historian Rudy Behlmer that will also feature rare photographs.  Behlmer himself actually interviewed Kong‘s director, the great Merian C. Cooper, back in the day.  I thought that two-disc edition from 2005  was extraordinary – especially the very detailed documentaries done on the making of this landmark film.  Kong was an entirely revolutionary film that changed not only motion picture visual effects, but also the development of motion picture sound.  I’m very much looking forward to this disk.  You can buy King Kong on DVD in the LFM Store below, and you can also pre-order the Blu-ray.

• Capone over at Aint It Cool News as seen the new, restored version of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (currently billed as ‘The Complete Metropolis’).  You can see what he has to say about it here.  The film will be embarking on a nationwide tour before hitting DVD in November.  Some years back I wrote an article about Metropolis for the journal Neurosurgery, which you can read here.  Metropolis is easily one of the most important films in the history of cinema, and its influence can be felt all the way down to the cinema of today.  [Even projects like the recent indie feature Metropia – about a near-future urban dystopia – are impossible to imagine without Lang’s earlier film.]  Of all the forthcoming DVDs for this year, Metropolis ranks right at the top of my ‘to buy’ list …

• Turner Classic Movies will be showing several Dennis Hopper films this Tuesday June 8th, in honor of the late actor-director.  The selections will include: The Sons of Katie Elder, True Grit, Rebel Without a Cause, Easy Rider and Night Tide.  Visit the TCM website for further details.  If you miss the screenings, we’ve got these films available in the LFM Store above.

From "Easy Rider."

• In related news, there’s a rumor circulating (see here at The Criterion Cast) that Criterion may be putting out a special ‘New Hollywood’ DVD box set, to include Dennis Hopper’s Easy Rider, among other classics from that period.  Follow the link for more about that rumor.  Antonioni’s Red Desert also just came out on Blu-ray from Criterion this week.  It’s available in the LFM Store above.

• Kimberly Lindbergs over at TCM’s Movie Morlocks blog has a great review up right now of the Ishiro Honda classic, Dogora (1964) – a film which features a giant jellyfish from space with an appetite for diamonds, a giant tentacle attack on Tokyo, and a sexy Japanese femme fatale.  How could you ask for more?  Dagora is available (in ‘Tohoscope’!) in the LFM Store above.

• Excerpts from the forthcoming book on the Liz Taylor/Richard Burton romance, Furious Love, will soon be appearing in the July issue of Vanity Fair.  For more details, click on the link.  Liz and Dick probably are the all-time screen couple, and were personal favorites of mine growing up.  As a side note, I’ve grown tired over the years of hearing what a ‘disaster’ Cleopatra was – their work on that film being, of course, the catalyst for their relationship.  Cleopatra is actually a magnificent and literate film, arguably the last large-scale epic (other than perhaps Titanic) Hollywood has ever done centered around a woman.  If Liz is a bit strident in the film, one never gets the sense that the role is to big for her – arguably it was too small.  In any case, rumors of Cleopatra being a ‘financial disaster’ are as ridiculous now as they were back in 1963.  In today’s dollars, Cleopatra would’ve grossed $534 million at the domestic box office (i.e., roughly what The Dark Knight made), making it a strong hit for Fox – even when factoring in costs.  In any case, if you’re a fan of Liz Taylor or Richard Burton, feel free to pre-order Furious Love in the LFM Store above.

From "Double Take."

• Finally, one classic film related project to avoid is a new pseudo-documentary on Alfred Hitchcock called Double Take.  Double Take, directed by Belgian filmmaker Johan Grimonprez, essentially treats Alfred Hitchcock and his films as hieroglyphs of the Cold War era, an era ostensibly marked by paranoia and an existential uncanniness echoed in Hitchcock’s thematics of ‘doubling’ (one thinks here of Strangers on a Train, North by Northwest, Vertigo, etc.).  The film intersperses clips of Hitchcock from his television series with archival Cold War footage and staged interviews with Hitchcock impersonator Ron Burrage.

But as film critic and LFM contributor Joe Bendel writes in his review of the film, “[w]hile there is an ostensible storyline involving Hitchcock’s encounter with his doppelganger, the film is more concerned with scoring revisionist points against easy targets from American Cold War history, like Richard Nixon.”  Apparently the film glibly ‘samples’ or ‘remixes’ footage of a body falling from a building in a manner highly evocative of the 9-11 attacks.  Do we really need this sort of thing, just to understand Hitchcock?  You can read more about this film in The New York Times, but even more recommended is LFM contributor Joe Bendel’s review.

And that’s this week’s Classic Movie Update …

Classic Cinema Obsession: Godard’s Vivre Sa Vie

[Editor’s Note: A restored version of Jean-Luc Godard’s Vivre Sa Vie has just been released by Criterion on DVD and Blu-ray, and is now available at the LFM Store below at the end of this post.]

By Jennifer Baldwin

A CLASSIC CINEMA OBSESSION in 4 TABLEAUX

1
JENNI COMES IN LATE — THE FACE OF MARIA FALCONETTI –CONVERTED — PEOPLE WALK OUT EARLY
I was late to the screening. It was French New Wave Week in World Cinema 340 and we were watching Godard’s MY LIFE TO LIVE (a.k.a. VIVRE SA VIE). It was my first Godard. I was a lazy undergrad. I came in about 15 minutes late, an intruder bringing a squeaky door and too much light into the darkened, cavernous auditorium. I felt hot and embarrassed at my intrusion. I sat in an uncomfortable plastic chair in the back, hiding from all my fellow students. The first thing I saw was a face. It made me cry. It always makes me cry.

THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC is one of my favorite films. Seeing it for the first time, I had a (re)conversion to Catholicism/cinema. Seeing it every time since, I am continually reconverted. And always crying at the face of Maria Falconetti.


I am Nana. She sees the face of Maria-as-Jeanne D’Arc and she cries too.

We are all crying, we three faces. I have a feeling no one else in the auditorium is crying. Before the screening is over, half the students have walked out. Perhaps they were disappointed at the lack of sex and the one bit of sterile nudity in a picture about prostitution. Perhaps they couldn’t feel anything when they looked at Anna Karina’s face. Perhaps they didn’t like lengthy philosophical discussions about the meaning of language and speech. Perhaps they thought the French New Wave weird and pretentious and Godard’s film most of all.

But not me. I was converted that night while watching VIVRE SA VIE. I was converted to Godard. He was my first New Wave love (Truffaut would come later, but Godard was always stronger).

It’s been almost eight years since I watched VIVRE SA VIE in college, but I have never forgotten the images or the effect the film had on me. I have never forgotten it. I recently watched the new Criterion Collection remastered DVD of VIVRE SA VIE — now my second time seeing the film. I still can’t explain my thoughts on it. It is a religious experience in that way. It is a spiritual/emotional thing, not an intellectual one. I have thoughts and feelings, but I cannot put them into words. If words were enough, I wouldn’t need the pictures.

“She sells her body but keeps her soul.” Continue reading Classic Cinema Obsession: Godard’s Vivre Sa Vie

Hollywood Round-up, 6/3-6/4

By Jason Apuzzo. • The full Captain America costume has been revealed – in hi-def, multi-angled detail. And, thankfully, there appear to be no UN markings or indications of one-world cooperation.  Also: there’s some Captain America casting news coming down the pike.  Inquiring minds want to know: are Iron Man and Captain America going to suck the life out of Superman and Spider-Man?  May be too late for re-boots on those.

• In related news, Rush Limbaugh biopic being shopped around Hollywood. It’s tempting to say something political here, but you know what the problem is?  Hollywood isn’t doing good biopics on anybody these days.  They’ll miscast this (my prediction: Philip Seymour Hoffman), spend too much, take snarky liberal pot shots, and make it 3 hours long.  [Still reeling from how Amelia Earhart’s story was botched last year.  How do you botch that?]  Important question here: who gets to play Ann Coulter?

• You can’t stop James Cameron, you can only hope to contain him. Cameron going around everywhere griping about BP, the oil spill, how he and his team of experts need to clean the thing up … Plus he’s going to re-release Titanic in 3D in 2012 (100th anniversary of ship’s sinking), and probably his next project will be the Avatar sequel.  If you’re Michael Moore or Oliver Stone right now, you’ve got to be hating life.  How did Cameron so quickly steal their gig?  Maybe Moore can re-issue Roger & Me in 3D.

• The Sex and the City 2 controversy rolls on, and now there’s word that a “Sex and the City” prequel may be in the works in order to import young babes into the franchise.  (Maybe a few hunky vampires while they’re at it?)  There’s no way they’re going to let this franchise go, given the money it’s making.  Film’s snarky p.c./misogynist critics looking irrelevant right now.

• Actress Q’orianka Kilcher ties herself to White House fence in support of indigenous peoples worldwide, gets arrested. I thought this wasn’t supposed to happen in the Obama era.  Her mother is also described as having “poured a black substance over her.”  [BP oil?]  Brando spent half his adult life impregnating chicks like this, without having to pour anything over them. By the way, it’s nice to see that Obama’s got to deal with this stuff now, instead of just Bush.  Hope you enjoy this stuff, Barry!

The newer, 'edgier' Snow White?

• Sean Penn featured in Vanity Fair, picturesquely helping out Haitians. It’s great that he’s helping, but can this guy go anywhere without a camera crew?  Is that even possible anymore?

• Rock band Rush tells Rand Paul to stop playing their music at his events. Battle of the Libertarians.

• Bret Ratner to do new, ‘edgy’ version of Snow White legend. Snow White to be deflowered?  Ratner should stick to what he knows best, which is … actually I’m not coming up with anything here.

• Comedy Central has a new comedy show mocking Jesus, which they’re able to broadcast in perfect freedom and legality because American Christians aren’t threatening to chop Comedy Central executives’ heads off, despite what Rachel Weisz may tell you.

• FINALLY, AND MOST IMPORTANTLY … Fox News is currently featuring an on-line American flag bikini show, perfect for a Friday afternoon in June.  Click on over to see precisely how much – and in what proportions – God has so generously blessed this country of ours.

And that’s what’s happening today in the wonderful world of Hollywood …

Now That’s a First Lady

By David Ross. I notice that Carla Bruni-Sarkozy is slated to appear in Woody Allen’s next film, Midnight in Paris, due out in 2011. For the first time in about twenty years, I feel a genuine impulse to eavesdrop on the suffocating repetition and solipsism of Allen’s once great, now moldering career.

I keep my eye on Carla Bruni not only because she is one of the most beautiful women in the world and it’s hard not to keep one’s eye on her, but because the hint of wit and personality makes her beauty fascinating. Who can resist the Cleopatran glamour of a comment like this:

“I grew tired of rocks stars. I wanted a man with his finger on the nuclear trigger.”

Musically, she has been tasteful but not timid, turning, for example, an obscure Yeats poem, “Those Dancing Days are Gone,” into a creditable shuffle. Yeats delighted in beautiful women. I’m sure his shade is amused and gratified.

For the full effect, however, Carla must be experienced in French. Her first album, Quelqu’un M’a Dit (2002) is particularly fetching (you can see her perform Raphaël here). She delivers the entire album in a breathy purr, as if whispering in your ear.

Bruni is not a weighty or ambitious artist, but she is a completely feminine artist. In the American musical tradition, by contrast, even the most demure maidens – Norah Jones, for example – have inherited at least a suggestion of the old blues salt, a certain existential bone to pick in the gruff tradition of Robert Johnson. I would not trade this blues sinew for all the kittenish purring in the world, but Bruni makes for a delicious change, as well as makes clear what, in part, it means to be American.

In related news, widely reported rumors have it that Bruni’s marriage to the French president has become, shall we say, modern. Only in France could the first lady and the president simultaneously carry on affairs while the nation watches in a mood of mild titillation and amusement.

[Editor’s Note: rumors of the Bruni-Sarkozy simultaneous affairs remain unsubstantiated – although the folkloric appeal of these rumors seems potent to the French.]

Review: Neil Jordan’s Ondine

By Joe Bendel. Life as the only admitted alcoholic in a small coastal Irish village is difficult for Syracuse (Colin Farrell), especially with his mean-spirited ex-wife constantly belittling him in front of his wheelchair-bound daughter, Annie. It is easy to see how both father and daughter would welcome a bit of fantasy into their lives in Neil Jordan’s Ondine (see the trailer here), which opens this Friday in New York, following its high-profile run at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival.

Syracuse made a hash of his life through binge drinking. Now on the wagon, he uses the church confessional as his surrogate AA meeting. Barely eking out a subsistence living, one day he pulls up his fishing nets and finds a beautiful woman tangled up inside. Adamant that she not be seen by anyone, Syracuse lets her recover at his recently deceased mother’s ramshackle cottage.

Though Syracuse tells Annie about the mystery woman calling herself Ondine as if it were a fairy tale, the bright young girl automatically assumes it to be the truth. Inevitably, Annie soon meets the woman she believes to be a ‘selkie,’ a mermaid like creature from Celtic mythology, half convincing her father and perhaps even Ondine herself with her ardent conviction. Yet, Jordan periodically drops hints that Ondine’s origins might be darker and worldlier than Annie’s romanticized version of reality.

The human need to believe in something good and edifying lies at the heart of Ondine, but Jordan also deftly incorporates themes of family and personal responsibility. Completely shedding his movie star persona, Colin Farrell is thoroughly convincing and undeniably likable as Syracuse, despite the character’s myriad faults. Indeed, he is the lynchpin of the movie, serving as the tragically flawed moral center of this emotionally deep film. Continue reading Review: Neil Jordan’s Ondine