Movie City Indie Archive for May, 2005
Danny Boyle's Thing
Asked by the Telegraph to pick a fave, Danny Boyle, currently prepping a SF pic, goes for John Carpenter‘s The Thing: “Exactly where he first saw the Antarctic-set chiller now escapes him, but it had him from the start. “I loved it!” he says in a child-like whisper. “I thought it was incredible, so frightening! The thing I remember most vividly is the opening,” he says, his Mancunian tones now ringing out proudly, “with the helicopter chasing the husky dog through the snow. And I thought, what the fuck are they trying to shoot it for? And that to me is one of the best openings of a movie I think I’ve ever seen.” As Boyle points out, the opening’s strength lies largely in its strangeness: what is happening? Suffice it to say here that the crew have ample reason for their attempted canicide, and their failure leads to the members of another research station… meeting a particularly unfriendly alien…. “I think what’s really interesting about Carpenter’s version is the shape-shifter idea. You never really get to meet the alien—it always has the form of the person or animal that it’s taking on as a host. I love that.”
Landmarketing: Sundance Cinema?
A perennial if unrealized refrain is sung one more time: “The Sundance Group on Friday announced that it will finally move forward with long-held plans to create a group of Sundance Cinema movie theaters. Financial backing [comes] from Los Angeles’ Oaktree Capital Management.” It’s not the first time alliances have been announced, but the forebears of Landmark Theatres are involved: “Paul Richardson will serve as president and CEO, with Bert Manzari taking the reins as president of film and marketing. The two previously teamed in 1975, when they established a series of specialized theaters that was eventually bought out by Landmark Theatres in 1982,” reports Los Angeles Business. (Richardson and Manzari left Landmark in 2004.) Oaktree is already a partial owner of Landmark, Loews Cineplex and Regal Theaters.
The Seattle weaseley: spite match in P-Northwest!
In the Seattle Stranger’s newly launched blog, a few moments are taken away from an ongoing flush of Miranda July-love for staffer Charles Mudede to note the treatment of a movie he wrote at the hands of the competish: “The fact that Seattle Weekly did not mention in their SIFF guide one kind or mean word about Police Beat the movie, which was screened at Sundance, and is to be screened at SIFF, proved to me once and for all that that paper is staffed by weasels of the first order. Instead of being critics, the Weekly writers prefer to be weasels. They weasel their way into this, and weasel their way out of that. We should call that paper Seattle Weasely.”
Canning Cannes: I've gotten the money reviews and not the money
Anne Thompson on why good don’t sell, noting that Cannes perennials like Amos Gitai, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, David Cronenberg, Atom Egoyan and Michael Haneke “are far more prized names overseas than stateside… “You almost look at this year’s competition films and don’t have to worry about buying anything,” says Warner Independent Pictures president Mark Gill, who, having viewed about 90 films… might not buy any. “They may be good, but none of them are remotely accessible to an American audience.” … Hard-nosed professionals know what they like — and what sells at home — which accounts for about 35% of global box office. They all chase the same holy grail: A cutting-edge, stylish English-language movie with a few names that will nab great reviews… “In the last couple of years, I’ve gotten the money reviews and not the money,” ThinkFilm distribution chief Mark Urman says. “The critics are not quite as influential. So many films that have gotten extraordinary critical support haven’t worked. … people don’t want to be challenged to the degree that they used to. If films are dark, depressing, nasty or searing—what used to be recommendations— now they are turnoffs.”
Weathering tragedy: tsunami movie tourism?
Reuters reports on unseemly post-tsunami Thai optimism: “Thailand officials are hoping that a clutch of Hollywood movies and TV documentaries on the Asian tsunami that are scheduled to be shot in the country might actually help bring back tourists to its devastated beaches. … Thai Tourism Minister Somsak Thepsuthin said he was counting on movies to boost tourism similar to what the Lord of the Rings trilogy did for New Zealand’s tourist trade.”
Star warmth: a few kind words
Among con-and-pro Sithings—mine’s here—I like Kottke’s directness: “I didn’t want to see the Jedi slaughtered. When Yoda went to face the Emperor, I wanted that little guy to kill him.” For a “public choice economics” reading, try here: The core point is that the Jedi are not to be trusted. At Infowars.com, Alex Jones offers a harsh reading of Sith in the real world. [Caution: heavy politics involved.]
Taking on retakes: Cronenberg in Cannes
David Cronenberg tells the Reporter about esthetic deja vu: “It’s very perplexing because many of my old movies have been suggested for remakes. There’s been talk of remaking Scanners and The Brood and even Videodrome, and that fills me with horror of a different kind. I really think it’s a lack of faith in the creative process. It is part of a general atmosphere of conservatism, in this case not politically but creatively. You want something that has some proven value, even if it only had value 30 or 40 years ago because you’re so uncertain about what could possibly work as original. You’d think that people would be looking for strikingly original work, but it’s quite the contrary. That’s the hardest sell… It’s too bad because a lot of the stuff that was done in the ’70s… was powerful because it was original. Now, it’s not a great era for moviemaking, I’m afraid. It’s all retro. The strange thing is, that Tarantinoesque sensibility—the idea that if you remake ’70s trash it will somehow be better now. … I remember those ’70s films, and they weren’t good then. Why would you want to remake it? … I think it’s so restricted in its range of creative inquiry, that it’s just an endless, incestuous cycle of trash. … The whole idea of making films just because you love movies really derails the whole process of art. That’s not enough of a reason to make a movie — because, gee, I loved that movie when I was a kid so I’ll remake it. That’s really weird, and I think the results are pretty pathetic… It’s almost like it’s a fear or an inability to respond to the real world and instead retreating to your video corner to relive your childhood in a very superficial way. It’s not very exciting.”
1.13% is how much?: Taiwan hates Taiwan pix
The Taiwan News does the numbers on the local movie market, quoting a regular moviegoer who “can’t remember the last time he went to see a film that was made in Taiwan. “I like Hollywood movies better. When I go to see a movie, I am usually looking for something exciting, entertaining, relaxing or at least easy to understand,” the 32-year-old marketing executive said.” Drily, the News adds, “Taiwan cinema does not usually fall into these categories… Taiwan directors have been dubbed box office poison at home because local audiences think their work is irrelevant or just plain boring… Hollywood productions dominate with more than 95% of [b.o.] on this island of 23 million. Taiwan films accounted for only 1.13 percent of ticket sales in 2004, and just 0.3 percent in 2003… The figures are an embarrassment for Taiwan’s government, which has generously subsidized the film industry since 1990… “Our values, our way of lives have been under so much Hollywood influence already,” said… Tsai Ming-liang, whose The Wayward Cloud won a Silver Bear for outstanding artistic contribution in Berlin… “If Taiwan makes 100 movies a year and they are all the same, the world has 100 more Hollywood-style movies, so what?” he said. … “The joy of filmmaking is when you have something unique, not something ordinary.”
2 prints is how much? S. Korea hates Korean artpix
Kim Ki-duk, director of The Isle, Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring and 3-Iron is not putting his money where the rathole is, aiming The Bow at only two screens in the entire country, and skipping press previews. “I realized that outside of feature films with big budgets and famous stars, people in Korea do not go to theaters to watch art films or low budget films…If billions of won is spent on promotion and many copies of the film are made, losing money becomes inevitable given this reality,” the Korea Times quotes Kim from an email. Its Thursday opening boasted 996 tickets sold in one theater each in Seoul and Pusan, a 20% capacity. Hong Sang-soo ” also believes that showing his film in the same manner as big budget films, which are shown at many theaters with billions of won spent on promotion, will obviously lead him to see another commercial failure and eliminate the chance for his fans to see his movie at theaters. “My previous films have never reached the break-even point, so I have been thinking that I have to reduce production cost. That’s why I established my own production company. And I am now discussing releasing my new film at only certain theaters for a long time with its investment and distribution company,’’ Hong said after previewing his Cannes-bound Tale of Cinema. “Hong said success at film festivals has had nothing to do with domestic commercial success… The domestic investment and distribution company… will release the film only at certain theaters that promise to show it for at least 3 weeks regardless of its commercial success.”
Somewhere over Rainbow: a Weinsteinco deal falls into place
As rumored, Weinsteinco finds a way to do a deal with the Dolan family’s Rainbow Media Holdings: “Seven weeks after negotiating their exit from the Walt Disney Company with talk of building a “fully integrated media company,” Harvey and Bob Weinstein, the brothers who founded Miramax Films, have made their first strategic deal,” reports the NY TImes, “an acquisition fund and distribution arrangement with Rainbow Media Holdings, the programming subsidiary of Cablevision Systems Corporation. The Weinstein brothers will be given an undisclosed sum of money to acquire low-budget films for distribution mainly on DVD and television, and their company will become the sole home-video distributor and overseas sales agent for Rainbow’s IFC Films unit.” Programming from AMC and other ventures is included.
"Enron": contaminating a jury pool
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room has its highest grosses in Houston: “It’s got people talking,” said John Smaistrla, general manager of La Griglia, the upscale Italian restaurant that was once a favorite of top Enron executives. “There’s no comfort level. They’re still upset about Enron, and this movie just regenerates those feelings.” … Attorneys for Lay and Skilling said the film was loose with the facts. “It’s a caricature,” said Lay’s attorney, Michael Ramsey. “Houston’s a lot closer to the Enron story than anywhere else, so I would expect more people would go see it than in Dubuque. But that also makes me very anxious about a movie that obviously is not founded on truth. They’re contaminating a jury pool.” … A lineman from Portland General Electric, a company acquired by Enron in 1997, said his retirement fund of more than $300,000 was reduced to $1,200 by the time he could get to it. “That’s just not true,” Ramsey said. “It is a lie.”
Polite Times: Dargis on not cutting at Cannes
“I got shut out of the 8:30 a.m. press screening for the Jarmusch, which was a drag. (This is the first time I’ve ever been shut out of a morning press screening.) I showed up before 8:30, but there was a mob of far pushier and taller people who I just couldn’t elbow past. I kept thinking about how if I were younger and wearing spike heels, as I used to do once upon a punk time, I could have dug my heels into everyone else’s feet on my way toward my goal. By the time I finally did squeeze to the front, the publicist was pulling select people out of the mob. But since he didn’t know me and because I am far too embarrassed to yell “New York Times,” I remained behind. I’ll see the Jarmusch today at the second press screening or so I hope.”
Miranda shops for shoes: July in Cannes
Me and You and Everyone We Know is better than Miranda July‘s journal, but it’s a sweet Cannes-Cannes, and illustrated, too: “This is an absolutely disgusting picture, I’m sorry. But this is my heel. I had an elaborate system of bandages I wore in my shoes, almost like a false foot. You can see the residue… And here I am buying the new shoes. My hosts thought it was very funny that I was having all these problems given that my character in the movie has similar shoe problems. I wanted to buy these men’s bedroom slippers but I could see that the hosts were not so excited about them.”
Die, boomer, die: manifestoing resentment of older auds
Reacting to what Manohla Dargis wrote in her TimesCannesBlog about dull movies in arthouses, the Nantucket and Sarasota Film Fests’ Tom Hall works with a live grenade: There are a million reasons to go to the movies in New York City, but sitting in the Lincoln Plaza Cinemas among the older Upper West Side elites as they grumble their way through another charming French movie ain’t one of them. Call me ageist, call me an asshole. Guilty as charged. But the only way to build and sustain a foreign film base in the USA (aside from pulling the culture out of this xenophobic, anti-intellectual quagmire we live in now) is to get younger people invested in the connections between foreign artists and their own concerns. And that means getting young people to read subtitles, to see their lives… reflected in… other cultures. If a film like the Cesar award winning L’Esquive can’t turn on urban American teenagers, its time for a look in the mirror. Don’t listen to the guy in the White House. It’s not them, it’s us. So, baby boomers, thanks again for everything, but if you don’t mind stepping to the side, we’ve got a future to run.
Todd McCarthy loved it: Manderlay
After his anti-Dogville invective (for ostensible anti-Americanism), Variety’s Todd McCarthy is modestly more amused by Lars Trier‘s Cannes-preeming Manderlay: Due to the moderately more lively dramatization of the issues, better pacing and a more cohesive group of characters, “Manderlay” is less tedious than “Dogville,” even if it can be equally headache inducing to those not attuned to von Trier’s giggly camera style. Those eager to lap up what the Dogmatic one has to say will readily do so.
