It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?
So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.
And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.
There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.
I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.
So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.
But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”
My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher
“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.
~ David Simon
My issue with the film was that I just didn’t care about what Haneke was saying and at the end – I’m all for downer endings from time to time – i just felt like I’d listened to a lecture by a pretenscious wanker on a topic that seemed really obvious. It’d be like watching An Inconvenient Truth again, except instead of global warming the issue was violence in cinema and instead of “we can make a difference!” it ended with a “you’re all gonna die!”
Or somesuch.
That was a really weird analogy, but whatever. I’m tired.
“when a film is meant ot make you uncomfortable, and you are, has it not done its job?”
Art porn.
Which was also the name of an uncle I had. Died under mysterious circumstances.
The movie works in the way that watching a nuclear explosion is aesthetically beautiful.
I’ve said it before. Today, in fact:
Critics are tweedy pussies. Violent movies OWN.
Why is ANYONE *EVER* SQUEAMISH about ANYTHING on screen? Man up. It’s not like it’s real.
I’m seeing this eight times this weekend and I won’t even flinch.
Oh, and after I see FUNNY GAMES, I’m gonna come home, drink beer, listen to PANTERA and make fun of people on the Internet.
Being 35 OWNS.
Is today your birthday, Lex?
SexyLexG OWNS!!!
I don’t think the critics who are “bashing” Funny Games don’t have a problem with a movie making them uncomfortable. I think what’s so anoying is that the filmmaker is trying so hard to shock that he comes off as a sharp film school student who everyone says has talent, but is wasting it on making ART.
Kubrick (A Clockwork Orange), Noe (Irreversible), Peckinpah (Straw Dogs), and even Craven (Last House on the Left) have coverd similar material in far more complex and disturbing films.
I thnk critics would less outraged if Funny Games wasn’t so well crafted a piece of porn. The movie would be less offensive if it were ineptly made. The high level of craftsmanship proves that the filmmkaer is capable of handling the subject matter. His problem is that his ideas about violence in society/medis/America are those of a man who has read Lord of the Flies way too many times.
Grow the fuck up.
“when a film is meant to make you uncomfortable, and you are, has it not done its job… or at least enough of it not to deserve a beat down?”
I haven’t seen Funny Games yet, David…but Hostel Part II was supposed to make you feel uncomfortable, and it seemed like that worked.
You will perhaps argue that it was meant to make you uncomfortable in a different way, or by a different kind of standard, or did so with less artistry, or even that you feel Eli Roth is lying when he says it’s supposed to make you feel uncomfortable (while Michael Haneke is not; indeed, I’ve read a review or two that accuse him of being disingenuous in intent). But horror and suspense as a whole are indeed supposed to make the viewer uncomfortable.
If you can articulate how the movie does so, that’s a fair review, whether it ultimately is a fresh or rotten tomato.
I look forward to checking out Funny Games this weekend – I never caught the original.
“Being 35 OWNS.”
Anyone think Lex is fighting middle age a little too hard?
Has anyone here ever heard of a movie called The Penthouse?
The Penthouse? Nope. Nevertheless; this flick is cheesy. It has a cheesy premise and a cheesy execution. It’s also another one of those motherfucking horrour movies that loves to tell the audience; “YOU ARE ALL PIECES OF SHIT.” Yeah. I love to sit through flicks such as these. Woo to the hoo. Such fun times.
The following technical glitz brought to you by the OPERA WEB BROWSER. OPERA: “Making shit difficult since 9.25.”
Blackcloud, I don’t think it’s Lex fighting middle age, I think it’s Lex pretending he’s fighting middle age. Because only a high schooler would type the things he does the way he does. He’s probably just not getting any from the chick with glasses at his school.
Yeah, it’s all a very complicated, mirrors-within-mirrors facade which is why any response is feeding into his game, and therefore useless.
IOIOI, the premise and execution of the original Funny Games are pretty far from ‘cheesy’, the execution in fact is exactly what Jimmy the Gent is saying: a very high level of craft at the service of a very trite piece of thought. I unfortunately am going to have to see the new one to confirm that it follows the original, or not.
I sure do, Joe. “The Penthouse” was a 1968 British flick directed by the ever-sleazy Peter Collinson starring Suzy Kendall that was popular at drive-ins when I was a kid (saw it on a double-feature with–I shit you not–Leone’s “The Good, The Bad and the Ugly”). The thing freaked me out as a tyke, but it seems to have disappeared into the ether.
It definitely seems to have been an inspiration for “Straw Dogs,” the original “Funny Games,” etc., though.
I personally can’t wait to check out the new “FG,” but I’m anticipating a disappointment similar to when “The Vanishing” director George Sluizer (what ever happened to him???) did a 1993 American remake of his same-named arthouse hit.
Still, I’m a big fan of Haneke’s 1997 original and love the new cast.
It’s just not that easy a flick to see in northeastern Ohio: only playing in two theaters here. Plus, I missed the press screening because of last weekend’s monster winter storm.
Hoping to catch up with it next week.
I don’t think you can make the case that Hostel II was designed to have the same effect, Luke. Haneke breaks the fourth wall, he breaks the “rules” of murderous narratives, etc. Roth just wallows in the “coolness” of the smug, degrading nature of his “cool” images. (And that is not a shot at AICN, Drew.)
It is the difference between Hostel 2 and Irreversible. The latter is far more disturbing than the former… but there is a context developed for the harsh material that is about something and, when you think about it – and that is the real difference… you get something worth thinking about – the images are not as overt as you felt they were. You feel the ugliness more than you see it. Toying with the “rule” of the chainsaw plug coming out and having it rip the girl’s face off anyway is not innovative… it’s porn.
But of course in being outraged at the gore, you miss the actual point of the scene, which is what happens after the moment you reference, DP.
Anyway, Saw II/III/IV make every Roth movie look like Bergman in comparison.
Saw it last night.
It fucking OWNED ALL.
MASTERPIECE.
Actually, Jeff, I’m 34 for another month… just rounding up is all. I’ll give you the heads-up when the big day gets closer so you can come to my birthday SAWATHON.
Movieman: I don’t think it had much to do with inspiring Straw Dogs — unless, of course, the author of the novel Peckinpah adapted was a Penthouse fan — but as I recall the film, I strongly suspect Michael Haneke had to at least have read a review of it somewhere along the line.
I can still remember the creepy story one of the inruders tells about alligators in the sewers…
Er, that should read “One of the intruders…”
BTW: Here’s what Ebert had to say about it:
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19671114/REVIEWS/711140301/1023
And here’s Ebert’s review of Funny Games ’08
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080313/REVIEWS/679566521
half a star out of four.
Emerson wrote that not Ebert…
BTW: I’m not sure I would call Peter Collison “ever-sleazy.” After all, he did do the original Italian Job.
Mutiny, I realised that after I pressed post. Thought I caught it in time, obviously not. Nevertheless, everything he says about Funny Games mirrors what I think. Once you make anybody omnipitent it becomes one big pointless exercise.
Obviously the killers in the movie (the original, I still haven’t seen the new one) represent Haneke himself, in that they, like him, can do whatever and they, like him, loath the bourgeois family that he/they torment.
Joe- I’d completely blanked on the fact that Collinson directed the original G-rated “Bank Job.” The Collinson I was thinking of helmed the ghastly–and vile–“Open Season” with Peter Fonda and the inimitably creepy Richard Lynch in ’74. That would make a great companion piece to “The Penthouse,” no?
Since “Straw Dogs” was based on a book, you’re right that Collinson’s “Penthouse” probably wasn’t a direct influence on Peckinpah. But the precedent for that type of “psychos-make-the-worm(s)-squirm-in-a-confined-setting film was definitely set by ’71.
…naturally I meant, “The Italian Job,” LOL.
Seems to me I vaguely remember another movie with a plot similar to that of Open Season released at roughly the same time. (Yeah, another variation on Most Dangerous Game. I think.)
Looking at Collinson’s credits on IMDB, I’m struck by how often the same actors worked with him. William Holden, who also figured into Open Season, starred in Collison’s last film, The Earthling. (Oddly enough, it is Holden’s second-to-last film.) Oliver Reed made at least three with him (including a remake of Ten Little Indians filmed in, no kidding, Iran), and so did John Phillip Law (including, of course, Open Season).
Back to The Penthouse and Funny Games: I guess you could argue that Harold Pinter’s The Birthday Party was the real template for this sub-genre. In fact, I think some critics described The Penthouse as Pinteresque — or sub-Pinteresque.
BTW: Penthouse appears to be one of many Brit movies from the ’60s/’70s not available on DVD. Where is Villain (with a terrific scenery-chewing turn by Richard Burton) or Joanna (great Rod McKuen score) or Collinson’s own Up the Junction?
I totally agree with you about “Joanna,” a minor late-60s cult classic directed by the tragically misunderstood Michael Sarne.
If I remember correctly, “Joanna” was fairly well received when it opened in late 1968. In fact, it was the film’s (relative) success both critically and financially that persuaded Fox to give Sarne the highly coveted directing gig on their (hoped for) summer 1970 blockbuster, “Myra Breckinridge.”
The weirdest part of the whole Sarne/”Myra” saga was the fact that, despite absurdly out-of-proportion hate-hate-hateful reviews, the film actually made money for the studio. And Sarne’s “reward” was effectively getting blackballed within the industry and never being allowed to work in Hollywood again.
It’s a shame that Sarne wasn’t allowed to at least approximate the “journeyman” career of a lesser Brit talent like Collinson who continued to work steadily despite minimal critical support and/or b.o. success.
I encourage everyone–particularly those of you who weren’t around for the original1970 brouhaha–to take a fresh (or first) look at “Myra” and decide for yourself whether it was “as funny as a child molester” (according to the Time Magazine critic at the time), or an ahead-of-its-time masterpiece (as I do).
Funny story:
Although Rex Reed/”Myron” made a mini-career out of badmouthing the film publicly even before its release, he now takes a perverse pride in the fact that many luminaries–including the great Mike Nichols–regard “Myra” as an unfairly maligned/neglected gem.
P.S.= I dig “Villain,” too. That thing was even nastier than the original “Get Garter”!
movie — ‘myra breckenridge’ is one of the most delightfully horrible movies ever made(right up there with ‘valley of the dolls’ and ‘showgirls’)…. but rex wasn’t the only person with an axe to grind against sarne…everybody in the cast (and most of the crew) wanted to kill him……
btw– if mike nichols now regards ‘myra’ as an ‘unfairly maligned/neglected gem’ it might be because that same year he released his own trainwreck…’catch-22’…..both films enjoyed much the same critical appreciation…..
and..fyi — even though rex originally badmouthed ‘myra’, it was always for show…. his apartment in the dakota is loaded with ‘myra’ memoribilia…….
As I recall, Sarne pissed off John Huston so badly that Huston refused to stick around for additional shooting after he fulfilled his contractual obligation on Myr Breckinridge. Once he recahed the cutoff date, he walked. For one director to do that do another… well, as I say, the man was pissed off.
it really was becoming a bloodbath (and great copy!)…..but i’ve been recommending for months that anyone loving daniel day lewis’ performance in ‘twbb’ rent ‘myra’ to hear his inspiration…..
Speaking of Huston: I wonder when people will finally start admitting what a freakin’ great performance Clint Eastwood gave in White Hunter, Black Heart? I think people simply weren’t ready for Clint to come out with something like that. Years ago, he supposedly was offered the Martin Sheen role in Apocalypse Now, but turned it down because he didn’t think people would buy him in the role. And maybe he was right. But I think other people’s lack of imagination shouldn’t be held against an actor trying to hit one out of the park.
My affection and regard for “Myra Breckinridge” is genuine: I really do think that it was ahead of its time and remarkably sophisticated and daring for a 1970 studio production. That’s why it holds up so much better than many critically revered movies from that era that now seem badly dated and egregiously overrated (e.g., “Five Easy Pieces”).
I don’t consider “Myra” a guilty pleasure: there’s nothing to be ashamed of.
But, I’m also a big fan of Nichols’ “Catch 22.”
Love the commentary track Nichols did with Steven Soderbergh for the “22” dvd.
And–while we’re on the subject of 1970–as much as I adore “M*A*S*H,” I still prefer Altman’s less “successful” “Brewster McCloud” from the same year.
While Sarne no doubt pissed a lot of people off during the “Myra” shoot, his punishment (never being allowed to work in the industry again) surely exceeded the “crime.”
Look at all the “bad boys” in Hollywood who routinely get rewarded for their bad behavior (David O. Russell’s name springs to mind), and continue working unabated for decades.
Yeah, Eastwood didn’t get the credit he deserved for his pitch-perfect J. Huston in “White Hunter.”
But the movie itself was terribly underrated (and barely released) at the time.
The mind boggles–but in a good way–imagining Clint in “Apocalypse Now.”
IF YOU’RE NOT DOWN WITH FUNNY GAMES YOU’RE PROBABLY WEAK.
BE A GOD. See FUNNY GAMES.
BEST MOVIE OF 08.
You’re a parody of self-parodies.
Correction: He’s a self-parody of self-parodies.
This just in:
Naomi Watts should get Best Actress for this. Incredible work (though she always is.)
Watch, they’ll give it to some old or fat chick instead. Watts is hot, she can act, and she’s awesome.
Triple threat.
GAMES FOR BEST PICTURE, SON. KNOW IT.
Watts is a terrific actress – she should have gotten an Oscar for Mulholland Drive – and there were terrific performances in the original Funny Games too (haven’t seen the new one yet) but it was still crappy.
NEWS FLASH, McM:
You will KNEEL before THE GAMES.
Hey, does Haneke have any other movies that OWN and where there’s METAL and people RULING and shit?
Or is it usually just some austere piano teacher nonsense? Is CACHE as HARDCORE and AWESOME?
Maybe he should do a FUNNY GAMES II and make it like HALLOWEEN II.
All I know is if I was Tim Roth in that movie, I’d have been running shit and had those two sniveling preppies laid out in no time.
Watts is the best actress going. She owns.
No I won’t.
Aw, that’s sweet. Lex has a crush on Naomi Watts.
Isn’t Naomi Watts too old for Lex? I thought he wasn’t interested in anyone over 20.
I don’t have anything against older chicks.
Long as they look like younger chicks.
Not that I consider Watts “older.”
She OWNS.
She’s 39, so she is indeed older.
(than Lex)
I don’t think we need to spell out what Lex’s criteria for “older” are, but they have nothing to do with age.
You know that old joke about the guy who would fuck a woodpile on the chance there was a snake in it? LexG is the punchline.
But, Lex, I say that with the utmost respect.
That must be an old joke, Joe. I sure haven’t heard it.
Blackcloud: You must be younger than some of LexG’s romantic conquests.
Given that LexG likes “older” women, I suspect that is true.
i suspect lexg’s romantic conquests all have slow air leaks. smiling, plastic air-heads that keep their mouths shut and never age. all the better for lex to OWN and BE A GOD