April 26, 2024
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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
Anyone else completely underwhelmed by the first trailer for X-MEN: Days of Future Past?
“Blue is the Warmest Color”
SPOILERS
Anyone else think that it should have ended about 50 minutes early when she is swimming in the ocean? Everything after that seemed a bit plodding (I was numbed to sexuality at that point) and on-the-noise; didn’t add anything to our understanding of the characters; BUT, I would say that it *may* have been some mini-masterpiece had it been cut-off there.
Thoughts?
Hate to offer mine, but hopefully I’ve annoyed someone with something I’ve said about the film (however restrained I’ve attempted to be in my problems with it)… which would delight me immensely.
@Pete B.
Yeah, looks like “Last Stand: Part Deux” (meta-prequelbla…)
They’ve managed to make most classic X-men characters look like a Bratz*TM* doll
Et tu, Singer?
The trailer didn’t underwhelm — it completely convinced me to never, ever (for any reason) see that movie.
I liked the trailer, but like I said in the other thread, am so sick of Adagio D Minor in trailers.
Question: What’s the best foreign language film you’ve seen this year? At this point (I have not seen BLUE) I’d have to go with “In The House” (latest by the guy who did “Swimming Pool”…it’s like a dark “Stranger By Fiction” combined with “Ruby Sparks”), or the German crime procedural “The Silence.”
I liked “In the House” and “The Silence,” Et, but my favorite 2013 foreign language film (that I’ve seen anyway) so far is “The Grandmaster.”
It might not be a GREAT Wong Kar-wai movie, but to paraphrase the NYT quote about the faux Wes Anderson horror movie on last weekend’s SNL, “You had me at Wong Kar-wai.”
First thoughts that come to mind — “A Hijacking,” “Kon Tiki” (I didn’t see it till about March, I believe), “The Grandmaster,” “Wadjda,” “The Hunt” and a bunch more I’m forgetting… can’t wait to see “The Past” and “Paradjanov” when they’re around.
Definitely loved “Swimming Pool” but “Stranger than Fiction” combined with “Ruby Sparks” (even though I liked both films, particularly the latter) doesn’t inspire much confidence in me. I remember a film called “The Silence” coming out a few years ago — are we including recent foreign films as well?
Yeah “The Silence” came out this year. I think there’s been a few movies with that title.
Re: “Kon Tiki,” I accidentally saw the film in English…not dubbed…in English. Apparently they filmed the entire movie in both English and Norwegian to satisfy a financier. They’d film each scene twice, back to back. What an insane experience that must have been.
I hope that isn’t a trend. The slightly disappointing adaptation of Marlen Haushofer’s Austrian feminist landmark, “The Wall” about a woman’s descent into madness was filmed in Austria, starring a German actress…in English. I don’t think it helped.
ET, the DVD and Blu-Ray of The Wall contains both original German with subtitles and the version you saw, with English voiceover. (I contributed to the liner notes.)
Movieman, have you see the Chinese cut of GRANDMASTER as well?
RE: Kon Tiki
Considering the setting of the film — yeah, shooting scenes twice over in two different languages must have been absolute hell.
@Ray:
How would one go about seeing the Chinese cut in North America? (in a theater, that is…)
I don’t think it’s been shown in a theater. I got the 0-region Blu-Ray via Hong Kong.
It’s a lucky thing “Kon-Tiki” has those long, dialogue-free stretches because it seems like a great movie in the non-English version and a borderline incompetent one in the English version, where the acting is dreadful. It reminded me of when the knock on Penelope Cruz was that she was a terrific actress in Spanish and a lousy one in English. It can’t be easy to act in a language that does not come naturally to you.
It’s baffling to me, that here at least, they released the English version of “Kon-Tiki” into theaters, because yeah it’s not good, and also they couldn’t advertise it as an Academy Award nominee.
Ray, I saw “The Wall” via Amazon Prime. Sites like Prime and iTunes don’t give you a choice…that’s awesome that you were involved with it though. Liked the movie, not sure anyone could have pulled off a better adaptation of such challenging material.
Not sure if it counts as this year or last year, but Xavier Dolan’s Laurence Anyways is maybe the best film I’ve seen in years, foreign language or otherwise. Towering performance from Suzanne Clement, a script wise beyond the years of its 23 year-old writer, and really gorgeous imagery in 1.33.
A shame it hasn’t received better promotion and distribution, and an even bigger shame that many ageist critics couldn’t enjoy the depth of its relationship examination, choosing instead to label it “indulgent” because of its length, flights of fancy, etc.
Still haven’t caught “Laurence,” dying to see it. Xavier Dolan’s an amazing talent. “I Killed My Mother” is just an incredible piece of work from the then 19-year-old writer/director/actor/producer.
And “Heartbeats” completely blew me away. Dolan serves as actor/writer/director/producer/editor/costume designer on that one at the ripe old age of 20.
Favorite foreign films released in the US this year: Beyond the Hills, Post Tenebras Lux, Like Someone in Love and Museum Hours.
No I haven’t, Ray.
I’m hoping that someday “The Grandmaster” is released as a “Special Edition” blu-ray w/ (apparently) all three versions of the film.
I can dream, can’t I, lol?
(Hey, it happened w/ Terrence Malick’s “The New World”!)
Yeah, Smith: “Post Tenebras Lux” is pretty darn amazing.
I saw it over the summer, and am still thinking about/processing it.
“Beyond the Hills” and “Museum Hours” — two films I thought would receive more attention… what can I REALLY expect from these niche foreign releases though?
I love the Tsai Ming Liang quote, but I couldn’t find the press release in the press releases section. DP, could you post it?
It’s not available online as far as I can tell, was provided to journalists at film fests and has been re/mis/quoted in various other places since. If I find a link to the whole document, I’ll post it.
Best foreign of the year – or any other – is The Hunt. I saw it last year but I believe it’s a 2013 release for Oscar purposes.
I’m only slightly exaggerating with the “or any other” line too. It really is fantastic.
Thanks, Ray!
Beyond the Hills and Laurence Anyways are two of my favorites I saw this year. Both just stunning pieces of work.
Blue Is The Warmest Color
“Spoilers”
I agree the swimming scene would have been a better ending. I came out of the movie theatre feeling angry, emotionally drained and exhausted. And now I have to sell movie tickets without letting customers in on my emotional distress.
Days of Future Past trailer was mediocre. I loved the title card FROM THE DIRECTOR OF XMEN AND USUAL SUSPECTS.
as opposed to THE DIRECTOR OF SUPERMAN RETURNS AND HACK THE GIANT SLAYER
Worse than mediocre–it was boring.
I just looked it up and couldn’t believe it didn’t contain any of the basic elements of the story: the Sentinels, Wolverine with white sideburns, the X-Men GETTING KILLED…nothing. At the very least they should’ve shown the “second class” being killed off just to create some shock and macabre interest.
(Since Singer killed off Senator Kelly in his first outing, you have to wonder how he’s going to kick this story off since it was Kelly’s assassination that led to mutant internment camps. Plus, Wolverine was incinerated by a Sentinel, leaving only his adamantium skeleton behind, so that bit of the story was also thrown out the window.)
EDIT: Apparently Wolvie does have faint gray wisps of hair in the trailer, but it’s not at all like in the comic, where he definitely looked like grandpa material.
why are we talking about X-Men 15, a sure fire bonfire, when we should be yapping about Blue Is, you know, Strongest Color in the rainbow …. Emma is a blonde after the 1:15 mark, the only blue are the blouses … they go out on a date … the break up of a small couple in the orgasm of love mirrors the breakup of modern society in the throes of street parties and ren fairs …. from school to home to parties … BITWC is at the very least a welcome addition to the book of Margaret, the journey of a neophyte into the world of sin .. let the sin begin
I think it’s problematic to refer to anything that Adele (or Emma, for that matter) does as “sinful.” Especially in relation to the discussion about the vice of gravity to water. Are you there, God?
Was she really blond at 1:15? It doesn’t really matter because Kechiche is obsessed with his own aesthetic preoccupations with the color (read: painfully obvious).
I think this actually highlights one of the biggest problems with the film: there was no indication of lapses in time except for Emma cleaning up a little crust and going a little more urbane. Perhaps this was a comment on how time was in stasis for Adele, but, I can’t conceivably justify every fault of a movie due to supposed “intent.”
Also, one thing I noted is that the film is so dramatic and all this drama is so externalized that it really would work well as a play — yet the entire thing is conceived in close up. I feel a little cheated. I didn’t even understand the isolation of Adele, due to the town feeling bigger than it actually was meant to feel.
I could ramble all day, so I can at least say the film is good enough to inspire that… (and I really did enjoy many parts of it, to be clear, there were just glaringly obvious faults that I feel a lot of people are ignoring)
Wolverine: Bad Grandpa…?
Laz- the company that distribute Laurence Anyways is atrocious….I should know. I think I’ll email them now as I’m excited to see how much we didn’t make this quarter in their movie protection program.
The company you’re referring to, Breaking Glass, also bungled another great LGBT film this fall, “Out in the Dark.”
A little off topic, but does anyone have an idea what it costs to buy a traditional 35mm print of a film?
We got Kon-Tiki at the library today and I really hope we didn’t get stuck with this stilted English version. Having said that, I kind of love that they filmed both versions simultaneously. Makes me think of all the ’30s alternate-language projects like Hitchcock’s “Murder!” and its German variant “Mary,” or the old Universal Dracula.
Ryan, the cost of a 35mm print depends on numerous factors:
1) How long does the film run? Duh.
2) What kind of film stock do you want to print on? Yes, there are “standard” and “premium” stocks. And if your film is in B&W, that’s an additional factor.
3) What lab will you use? Rates vary.
4) Is the negative timed? If not, the lab will have to do it and make you a check print. That’s expensive.
5) How many prints do you want to make? Like almost any business, there are volume discounts; the majors, who in the old days made thousands of prints for each release, get the cheapest rates. Back in 2004, we made our LOST SKELETON OF CADAVRA prints on standard color stock at DeLuxe. As a big customer (Sony), we got the best rate (13 cents a foot); had we printed on B&W stock, it would have been 65 cents a foot. Of course, those prices were nearly ten years ago, when digital was barely a factor, so they shouldn’t be taken as gospel.
Hope this is of some help.