Movie City Indie Archive for July, 2010

Postering Enter The Void

All the information that’s in the eye-punching credit sequence… in sixty seconds.

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Markets of Britain, a short film by Lee Titt

Trailering Mao's Last Dancer

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Maury Chaykin with Jian Ghomeshi, April 2010


He comes across as such a sweet man.

Maury Chaykin in War Games

Trailering Happy People, narration/narrated by Werner Herzog


… just not in the trailer.

David Brooks' "magic green jacket"

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Now that’s an in-joke: who inside nytimes.com made this “mistake”? The correct photo is likely in place now on the original page.

Rating of the week: Countdown to Zero

“Rated PG for heavy foreboding, images of devastation.”

Comic-Con carne: Robert Rodriquez wants to serve you tacos…

tacotaco_45678.jpg… if you’re in San Diego. As the p.r. has it: “Robert Rodriguez and the cast of his new film, MACHETE, will be serving tacos at the MACHETE Taco Truck before showing Exclusive Footage from the film at 9 PM. This event is open to the public. The invitation below has information about where it will be taking place. It can be redeemed for a free taco!”

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Christopher Nolan's Doodlebug (1997)


Hint: it’s all in his head. From the Cinema 16 shorts series.

Picturing unknown Brando

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Sixty years ago today Marlon Brando’s first feature, The Men, was released. LIFE’s published a gallery of the “the brilliant brat,” from which these are drawn, here.
“Accompanying Ed Clark’s images in LIFE’s archives were meticulous notes about Brando written by Theodore Strauss, who would ultimately write the magazine’s 1950 profile coinciding with the release of The Men. Strauss details every quirk of the actor: what he wore, how he ate, what he read, how he shunned any sort of red carpet that might have been laid out for him when he came to town. “Stanley Kramer, producer of The Men, had intended on putting Brando in a good hotel, but Brando would have none of it,” Strauss writes. “First of all he insisted on living with the paraplegics in Birmingham Veterans Hospital during the four weeks before production began. This, he felt, was necessary to giving a completely knowledgeable and valid performance in his role. At the hospital he was given a bed in a 32-bed ward, where he was treated almost like any other patient.” Pictured: On the grounds of the hospital, Brando attempts to tip back and balance his wheelchair.” First photo: Margaret Bourke-White. Second, Credit: Edward Clark/TIME & LIFE Pictures

Trailering Chris Nolan's Following reissue on VOD


From the press release: “IFC Films is proud to present Christopher Nolan’s debut feature film, FOLLOWING, available nationwide on demand. A fascinating introduction to the talent and vision of a filmmaker who is fast becoming one of the major American directors of our time, FOLLOWING originally debuted in 1998, and enjoyed a quick succession of Festival prizes and wild critical acclaim. The film is a sly neo-noir thriller which follows a writer who picks out strangers at random from the crowded streets of London shadows them see where they go, how they spend their days. FOLLOWING features the innovative blend of high-minded style and genre elements that Nolan has now made his trademark. The film will enjoy a three month period of availability on demand via cable providers Comcast, Cox, Cablevision, Time Warner, Bright House, Charter and Insight.”

Trailering Schnabel's Miral

Inception, based upon an idea by Andy Warhol

Trailering The Social Network

Movie City Indie

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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