Movie City Indie Archive for September, 2010
RIP Joe Mantell: “Forget It, Jake…”
A perfect line and a perfect line reading. Still stellar even in a snip from a trailer.
Teasing Athina Rachel Tsangari’s ATTENBERG (nudity)
From a co-producer of Yorgos Lanthimos’ Dogtooth; impressive word from Toronto-goers like Daniel Kasman. Haven’t seen Dogtooth? The Greek theatrical release trailer is below.
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Arthur Penn Was 88
Born September 27, 1922; Died September 28, 1922. The still, from Mickey One (1964), belies the film’s mood. Below, the opening five minutes, as shot by in ominous, lovely black-and-white by Ghislain Cloquet. It may have been his most eccentric enterprise, aside from Penn And Teller Get Killed.
This Is That Not All That There
Shuttering the brick-‘n’-mortar offices of This Is That Productions, Ted Hope email blasts 6,000 colleagues and acquaintances with a little William Carlos Williams-styled enjambment… also parsed out via Twitter: “Email blasted my poem in homage to WCW eating the plums on my change of address & the impossibility of keeping TITofc open. Whew… I never thought it was surprising that the company could have the #1 film in USA & still not afford to keep ofc open… If i could buy one book on financing indie film @KTFfilms And on investmt structure it would be Das Kapital or Shoot to Kill… Why do people think negative when you say you are leaving the physical world and will continue to strive virtually?…. Fire sale: Mac OS X Serve v10.5 Purchased in march 2009 best offer over $1000 DM me”
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Chicago International Film Festival Turns 46
The Chicago International Film Festival turns 46. It’s been founder Michael Kutza’s baby since its inception. “North America’s oldest competitive film festival” runs October 7-21. The schedule was announced September 21 at Lucky Strike Lanes, a floor below the AMC River East 21, the downtown multiplex where all festival films are shown. Some notable titles arrive from other festivals, including the Palme d’or-winning Uncle Boonmee Who Can Remember His Past Lives, by School of the Art Institute alum Apichatpong Weerasethakul. [Photo: Ray Pride]
Opening Night, 7th Reykjavik Int’l Film Festival
A quirky festival in a fascinating land: I attended last year’s sixth Reykjavik International Film Festival, and just got the press release from Friday night’s opening of the seventh: “The seventh edition of the Reykjavik International Film Festival was officially declared open by Jón Gnarr, the Mayor of Reykjavik, at the Festival’s opening party on Thursday evening. The party, attended by a host of Iceland’s film, stage and television personalities including Oscar Nominee Fridrik Thor Fridriksson (Best Foreign Language Film, Children Of Nature, 1991), took place at the National Theatre building which is more accustomed to hosting stage plays than film screenings, obviously. However, the architect Gudjon Samuelsson designed the grand theatre early in the 20th Century also to be suitable as a film screening room, albeit a very grand one.
“And that was only too fitting, as the National Theatre did very well in hosting the screening of the opening film of RIFF 2010, Cyrus, which is presented in the Special Presentations category and directed by Jay and Mark Duplass, was met with several fits of belly laughter as well as repeated nods of approval, and a rapturous applause when the lights came back on. The comic relief was met with welcoming spirits after a rather acidic “Festival Splash” opening speech where veteran film producer Thor Sigurjonsson took the opportunity to lash out at the Icelandic government’s plans to cut down grants to film and tv production.
“But spirits were high, happy and optimistic in the party after the screening, where copious amounts of champagne were washed down with greetings and congratulations regarding the happy days ahead. After all, RIFF has only just begun and it promises to be a feast of fine, fresh cinema as always. We’ll see you when the lights are switched on again.” [Photos: HAG]
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Postering CARLOS
Paging Sidney Lumet… Sidney Lumet to the courtesy phone, please.
Promo Item Of The Day: Never Let Me Go Naked
If you’ve seen the film, the postmark is ominous and comic: “National Donor Programme.”
David Byrne On The Wall Street Soundtrack
Via David Byrne’s mailing list, notes on his substantial contribution to Oliver Stone’s latest. “On Friday, the movie Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps comes out, and I’m all over the soundtrack! Oliver Stone’s film recreates scenes from the bank collapses and bailouts, and the attendant shenanigans of a couple of years ago… and of course Gekko is back. Stone approached me about music a while back, and I met him at an office and gave him a pile of records. He ended up mainly using a lot of songs from my recent collaboration with Brian Eno (“Everything That Happens Will Happen Today”), a few songs from recent solo and dance score records, and a reprise of “This Must Be The Place,” the Talking Heads song that was used in the first Wall Street movie. It was almost like I’d scored the picture. Stone was super accommodating – inviting me numerous times to view rough assemblies to be sure I was OK with how the music was being used. This is pretty unusual; most times licensing a song for a movie is a bureaucratic formality, and the artist is never invited into the process. That said, I’ve only turned down movie song use once or twice for aesthetic reasons – if I thought a scene made unfortunate associations with a song. If you’ve got these recordings already, this all won’t mean anything to you, but if not, and if you see the movie and wonder, what was that music? – here is your answer. The music, along with some score pieces by fellow Scot Craig Armstrong, is available today on iTunes, and via all the usual download and online outlets.” (Info.)
Ariel Schulman, Co-Director, CATFISH
Elysian Hotel, Chicago, 20 September 2010.
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