Movie City Indie Archive for November, 2005
Terry Gilliam: Swedish visionary?
The Scotsman reports Terry Gilliam got the Stockholm Visionary Award: “I never thought it was fun,” the director said laughingly of his craft, talking to reporters in a hotel room. “I just thought it was a hard job. And I wish I wasn’t obsessed with making movies, then I could have a happier life. “I’m a visionary!” Gilliam said with another booming laugh. “I don’t know what I was until Stockholm decided I was a visionary. I guess I was just a film director. Now I’m a visionary.”
David Lynch: One day I crawled into a bin behind Bob's Big Boy
Greencine’s John McMurtrie gets David Lynch to expand on his multi-billion dollar TM university notion, but of course, we’re drawn to the Lynchian world of cuisine. You’re a smoker and you drink a lot of coffee. I’ve read 15 cups a day… Maybe 20. That doesn’t sound especially relaxing. Well, you know, I’m pretty relaxed… It’s a funny thing. I just love coffee… I’m proof that you don’t have to give up something to start meditation, and that happiness does come from within. It’s so powerful, it almost doesn’t matter what we do. I think I would go faster on the trail if I, you know, was a hair cleaner.” And, of Bob’s Big Boy, Mr. Lynch adds, “I used to go there at 2:30 every afternoon to try to catch ideas. I’d have coffee and a chocolate shake. And one day, after about 7 years—not every day, but I mean over a period of 7 years; I really liked going there at that time and thinking—I crawled into a bin behind Bob’s and looked at the ingredients of the shake, and everything ended with “zine” or “ate,” and so I figured I better stop that. They don’t serve those anymore. I don’t want to say that those are still on the market there. They’ve changed their shakes.”
Out of 15, 9/11?
David Poland is predicting that of the 15 shortlisted nominees for Best Documentary Oscar, the winner, sight unseen, could be On Native Soil: The Documentary of the 9/11 Commission Report. Watch the trailer. Its rapidfire impact demonstrates that director-producer Linda Ellman is a veteran: an NBC News veteran who’d worked for Tom Brokaw and who also executive produced Hard Copy. A truism of the movie industry is that it takes the industry a minimum of three years to respond to historical events, and often, much, much longer. Thus, Oliver Stone‘s World Trade Centerand Paul Greengrass‘ Flight 93. There’s a brief stock shot of the Twin Towers, tall at twilight, in Rent, and the image no longer startles. References to the events of that day and its aftermath are starting to flood into movies. Ideally, there will be a minimum of bathos, and a film like On Native Soil will not merely repeat conventional wisdom, but go beyond the news-porn of endlessly repeated images of the first Tower failing, the second Tower failing.
A ridiculous human being: O'Reilly-on-Greenwald action in WalMart fracas
Fox News entertainer Bill O’Reilly has his one-sided way, saying of Wal*Mart, the High Cost of Low Price director Robert Greenwald, “this guy is just to the right of Fidel Castro, I mean, the guy is just a fu—, a ree-dick-you-lus human being… He’s an idiot. He is. He’s a liar and an idiot.” Back on his Brave New Films site, Greenwald writes, “I have discovered the miracle cure for all ailments. As I work through 18 hour days on a tour with the Wal-Mart film and the body rebels, the wonder drug appears! An attack by my friend Billy! What a pleasure, what an energizer, what a restorer of faith in the levels that Fox News will go!… Leave it to Billy Boy to come down on the side of corporate greed and fighting unfairly… but then he knows all about that from his personal experience.”
Fear, terror, war, red states, liberal or populist: issue movies now
In a “red state”-centric riff in the Reporter, writer Kevin Cassidy asks some questions about politically-charged movies. North Country screenwriter Michael Seitzman reflects, “I feel like people misconstrue liberalism as populism when it comes to Hollywood… Movies are a populist art form; they have to be because they require so many people to embrace them in order for them to make a profit. Conservatives will often purposely confuse [liberalism with populism] because it serves their agenda. North Country is not liberal or conservative; it’s about the right to work, the right to make a living, the right to feed your family… the right to live free in a just society, regardless of the color of your skin. That is a populist message that applies to Democrats, Republicans and anyone else who wants to be treated equally.” Syriana scribe Stephen Gaghan adds, “Although I live in California now, I spent most of my life in Kentucky: I’m from the middle class on the middle of the block in a middle-of-the-road state in the dead center of the country. My parents still live in Kentucky, and there’s no great gap between what they want and what I want: fiscal responsibility, a safe world for my children, less torture done in my name and the name of democracy, moral as well as strategic leadership. I think before you declare war on terror, you should first declare it on fear and misunderstanding because by the time I get to terror, I’m utterly useless.”
Finding Comedy in the Muslim World: Albert Brooks goes UAE
Albert Brooks was invited to debut his newest, Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World at the Dubai Film Festival in the United Arab Emirates; “We’re going,” he told ABC News on November 4. ScreenDaily.com says it’s a coup for the new festival there [sub. req.].
It's time filmmakers took control of distribution: Peter Broderick opines
The UK’s ioFilm.com listens to Peter Broderick‘s roadshow as he ‘rethinks film distribution’ at the Vancouver International Film Festival Trade Forum; there’s so much there I’ll only quote this: “Broderick also now has a new message, that it’s time filmmakers took more control of the distribution of their films.”
No, I'm king of the world!: how Brokeback Mountain is like Titanic
Defamer elaborates on a Brokeback Mountain quote from Focus Features frontman James Schamus, via MSNBC: When it came time to design the poster for the film… Schamus didn’t research posters of famous Westerns for ideas. He looked at the posters of the 50 most romantic movies ever made. “If you look at our poster,” he says, “you can see traces of our inspiration, Titanic.
Defamer puts the taste to the test: “The posters [have] more than just “traces” of similarity; they are nearly matching sets of pretty young matinee idols in love, all long lashes pointing meaningfully to the ground and chins nuzzled longingly onto shoulders. …Even the [bow] of the Titanic is echoed in size and shape to Heath’s denim-clad, sturdy left arm.” [Snark persists at the link.]
Billionaires in H'wd, freedom of the press and the men who own one
Patrick Goldstein big-pictures who’s paying for today’s rich movies: rich men. “Syriana is precisely the kind of movie studios no longer want to make, certainly not with their own money. That’s one reason why Hollywood has laid out the welcome mat for a new generation of wealthy investors… With costs skyrocketing and studios focused on… Big Event movies, outside investors are [ideal] candidates to finance riskier fare, in particular mid-budget dramas and filmmaker-driven prestige movies. Of the 5 films up for [2005’s] best picture… Million Dollar Baby was co-financed by Lakeshore Entertainment’s Tom Rosenberg, Ray was bankrolled by Phil Anschutz and The Aviator was largely financed by Graham King. Real estate entrepreneur Bob Yari helped finance Crash and Thumbsucker… Jim Stern, part owner of the Chicago Bulls, backed Hotel Rwanda and Proof. Bill Pohlad, whose family owns the Minnesota Twins, co-financed… Brokeback Mountain… Having been badly embarrassed by its experience with Elie Samaha, who made a string of box-office stinkers, including… Battlefield Earth, Warners has stepped up in class, making Syrianawith [Jeff] Skoll, splitting the costs of The Polar Express with billionaire activist Steve Bing and Batman Begins with financier Thomas Tull.”
Oh, huge opportunities: Rupert's 'net fix
The Reporter has an hour with ageless Rupert Murdoch, who offers his view of the internet: “Oh, huge opportunities. The Internet is certainly … you know, it’s … I was operating—we’ve all been operating—during a changing model of communications: television, moving pictures and so on. But the Internet has been the most fundamental change during my lifetime and for hundreds of years. Someone the other day said, “It’s the biggest thing since Gutenberg,” and then someone else said, “No, it’s the biggest thing since the invention of writing.” With the technology that goes with it, the fact is that everybody now is empowered: Anyone can buy what they want, shop where they want, talk to anybody in the world that they want… state their own opinions. There’s no mystery to a blog: Put up your thoughts… find friends. And the younger people are, the more time they’re spending on it—it’s extraordinary. We bought [MySpace] a few weeks ago and just closed the deal last night, legally. There are 32 million people already registered on that, and there are 125,000 a day being added to it. They’re finding common interests: When they’re 17 or 18, they go on looking for dates; if they’re 25, there are 3… or 4 million young mothers out there talking about things. Within that, there are lots and lots of communities, and they can all blog—they can all write in a personal diary every week, or whatever they want.”
Online viewing: White Stripes' Denial Twist
There’s a beguilingly odd, dreamlike video for White Stripes’ new single, “Denial Twist.” Michel Gondry seems to have directed…
Here’s one source where you can watch. Warning: the clip includes an animated Conan O’Brien. Plus: a Real Media link.
Cusack, Chalabi and Arianna: a HuffPuff night
Vanity Fair profile subject Arianna Huffington reports on a “surreal” evening colliding with future Iraqi president Ahmed Chalabi and John Cusack in a pricey New York sushi boite: “Chalabi looked downright laid-back in a multi-colored sweater that can only be described as Cosby-esque. His group was an hour into their dinner when I arrived… the remnants of a sushi meal spread across the table. Most were drinking sake but Chalabi (who doesn’t drink) and I (who wanted to keep my wits about me) stuck to green tea…. His Master of the Bazaar manner reminded me of former Rep. Lee Hamilton’s description of Chalabi as the best lobbyist he’d ever met—other than legendary Hollywood lobbyist Jack Valenti… My cell phone rang at 12:30 a.m. It was John Cusack, who had come with me to the Council on Foreign Relations to hear Chalabi speak earlier… “What are you doing?” … “I’m having dinner with Ahmad Chalabi,” I replied (not a line I get to use very often). I turned to Chalabi and asked if it would be okay to ask Cusack to join us. “He’s an American actor”… “I know, I know…” he interrupted, and [reeled] off a list of Cusack’s movies, including Being John Malkovich and The Thin Red Line. I was going to offer up Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil but bit my tongue.”
Cheap change: DV, greenscreen and Wiki world
At the Reporter, Scott Kirsner surveys change in the wind, ranging from usual suspects Cuban/Wagner to Gary Winick champing to return to a $300K-level InDigEnt pic after the $100m Charlotte’s Web; SFX wiz Dennis Muren; Randal Kleiser shooting a musical Red Riding Hood entirely in a new green-screen technique in 18 days, plus this from DocWorld: “At Brave New Films, the shoestring Culver City, Calif.-based company behind the forthcoming docu Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, researchers used a piece of Web-based software called a “wiki” to share notes from their preinterviews and later, to post footage shot by camera crews. “We had 10 or 15 people… all over the world doing research,” …Greenwald says. The Internet was the place for anyone on the production team to access… material… during the editing process, Greenwald says, “When I had an idea, I could go on the Web and call up unedited footage on the wiki in the middle of the night and make a note that said, ‘Let’s use this here or there.'” The online collaboration software helped Brave New Films accomplish more, Greenwald says, with a spread-out crew that consisted of volunteers and “poorly paid employees.”
Is it just me or is everything shit?
In New Statesman, Charlotte Raven reviews a newly published cultural rant, Steve Lowe and Alan McArthur‘s Time Warner Books-published “Is It Just Me Or Is Everything Shit? The Encyclopedia of Modern Life.”
“There are many surprising entries, but the book reaches its critical pinnacle when attacking “Quality”, that category of cultural output which aspires to depth and profundity. This is important, because the widespread belief that all is well is founded on the illusion that “art” still has the potential to redeem us from the trash. It’s not frivolous to describe Sofia Coppola as “a supercilious rich-kid auteur who does pseudo-profound confections that people initially twat themselves over but which, on second viewing, are the cinematic equivalent of unflavoured rice cake”. The authors are forcing us to confront our false belief that this kind of fare is more sustaining than some Hollywood movie McNugget. At least we know those are bad for us. Lost in Translation evokes profundity in the manner, the authors say, of “Wim Wenders directing a crap U2 video in 1993″. I fell for it initially, too, then experienced the same rush of irritation as, yet again, significance dissolved into spectacle.” More rant-on-rant action at the link; publisher TimeWarner UK summas that it’s “the standard reference work for everyone who believes everything is shit. Which it is. This book is for the large percentage of the population interested in saying no to the phoney ideas, cretinous people, useless products and doublespeak that increasingly dominate our lives…. This very funny, well-informed, belligerent rant of a book adds up to an excoriating broadside against consumer capitalism that the authors hope will sell loads of copies.”
Edinburgh's jewel, Tarantino's Cameo
Edinburgh’s historic Cameo Cinema may be converted to a pub, and critic Hannah McGill thinks the 1914 edifice is worth saving” “There’s a certain horrifying inevitability about this news. So the Cameo’s beautiful – hell, maybe one of the most beautiful cinemas in the world. So it’s the oldest cinema in a city with a film history that’s unique in all the world. So it has a relentlessly terrific programme, and marvellous staff. So some character called Tarantino has a bit of a thing about it. Screw all that, because what Edinburgh really needs is another big old pub, perhaps with deep-fried onion rings and three-for-two offers on Australian chardonnay. It’s no surprise, and no secret, that arthouse cinemas have faced an uphill struggle since multiplexes owned by global corporations took over much of cinema business…
“I’m not a Luddite. I have an iPod and everything. But don’t some things deserve to be preserved? Wouldn’t it be nice if the next generation of cinema-goers had the opportunity to see a film in an intimate, handsome space, suffused with the history of the art form? Isn’t this kind of important? … Edinburgh is adored by visiting tourists because of its beauty and its sense of history, not its abundance of modern drinking holes. To regard a building as lovely as the Cameo as a disposable slab of real estate isn’t just heartless, it’s plain silly. The Cameo is an asset. Preserving the plasterwork and shoving a little screen in a back room isn’t enough. Preserve the cinema. Whatever it takes. Please.” THE SCOTSMAN’S COVERAGE is here, pointing out that Tarantino discovered the Cameo, “his favourite cinema anywhere in the world,” when Pulp Fiction opened there as “the showpiece of the 1994 Edinburgh International Film Festival.” SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY’S Fiona Leith writes, “Multiplexes across Scotland, it’s a wonder that all arthouse and independent cinemas aren’t doing exactly the same thing. If you build it, they will come; if you sell it they will buy it; and if you destroy it they won’t bat an eyelid. Surely cinema, and the sensory experience of viewing… is something which can evoke enough passion in us to create some resistance to this latest venture. Romance may be dead, but we cannot be apathetic at the removal of romance from the act of ‘going to the movies’ too.” MONDAY’S BILL OF FARE at The Cameo? Alphaville, Notre Musique, Battle in Heaven, Broken Flowers, Corpse Bride, Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence, Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang and Torremolinos 73.
