Movie City News Archive for August, 2013

CBC Infographs How Big Summer Films Fared Worldwide

CBC Infographs How Big Summer Films Fared Worldwide

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Of Nebraska Award Chances, Bruce Dern Sez, “If I Go Supporting, I’m A Whore”

Of Nebraska Award Chances, Bruce Dern Sez, “If I Go Supporting, I’m A Whore”

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“I know. Who doesn’t admire Nora Ephron? Pretty much any woman who has drawn breath in the last 60 years is a fan.”

“I know. Who doesn’t admire Nora Ephron? Pretty much any woman who has drawn breath in the last 60 years is a fan.”

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Charlotte NPR Affiliate WFAE Looks At What North Carolina Gets From Its Film Tax Incentives

Charlotte NPR Affiliate WFAE Looks At What North Carolina Gets From Its Film Tax Incentives With – Part II And Part III

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“‘Una Noche’ Stars, Who Play Twins Fleeing Cuba, Expecting Twins After Fleeing Cuba”

“Una Noche Stars, Who Play Twins Fleeing Cuba, Expecting Twins After Fleeing Cuba”

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A Status Report On Canadian Filmmaker John Greyson, Still Jailed In Cairo Under Vague Accusations

A Status Report On Canadian Filmmaker John Greyson, Still Jailed In Cairo Under Vague Accusations

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Stephen Frears On Bringing Humor To Dark Philomena

Stephen Frears On Bringing Humor To Dark Philomena

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Terry Burke, 62, Canadian Short Filmmaker And Foley Artist

Terry Burke, 62, Canadian Short Filmmaker And Foley Artist

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How Much Does The NYPost Actually Lose? Estimates Differ

How Much Does The NYPost Actually Lose? Estimates Differ

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What’s Next For Alamo Drafthouse?

What’s Next For Alamo Drafthouse?

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Elder Reagan Son Says The Butler Mean To Memory Of His Father And “Liberal” “Lies”

Elder Reagan Son Says The Butler Mean To Memory Of His Father, And Contains “Lies” From “Liberals”

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China-Owned AMC Entertainment Files For IPO

China-Owned AMC Entertainment Files For IPO

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“Why black British directors and actors leave the UK for Hollywood”

“Why black British directors and actors leave the UK for Hollywood”

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Prisoners Breaks Out

“I think the way Hollywood deals with violence is deplorable, cartoonish, garish and ignorant. It plays a role in feeding a society that’s far too violent. So we could only deal with violence in a way that shows its true horror and banality.” Prisoners Breaks Out

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Dr. Uwe Boll Turns To Kickstarter For An Edward Snowden Comedy

Dr. Uwe Boll Turns To Kickstarter For An Edward Snowden Comedy

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Olsen Indie-Focuses Joe Swanberg’s Career Turn

“Every mean thing that could be written about me has already been written. I’ve already been poor for 10 years and made movies that nobody saw. Going back to that doesn’t scare me. So I’m at a playful, experimental point right now. What’s the worst thing that could happen?” Olsen Indie-Focuses Joe Swanberg’s Career Turn

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What Extinct Things Would Björk Bring Back To Life?

What Extinct Things Would Björk Bring Back To Life?

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With Labor Day, Jason Reitman Sez It’s Personal This Time

With Labor Day, Jason Reitman Sez It’s Personal This Time

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Reconsidering Richard Curtis’ RomComs

Reconsidering Richard Curtis’ RomComs

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Jonnie Rosenbaum Salutes Finnish Filmmaker Peter Von Bagh On His 70th

Jonnie Rosenbaum Salutes Finnish Filmmaker Peter Von Bagh On His 70th

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Movie City News

“I don’t think it’s cruel to say this, because John himself would undoubtedly have turned it into a gleeful anecdote: When he had the stroke that killed him, he was at a local dinner theater. Hell of a review.”

“I am inclined to aver that every activity needs its critics, from narcissists bloviating in Washington to exhibitors of knee holes in their blue jeans by way of following a fad. So, too, tennis players and others wearing their caps backward. There is, to be sure, only fairly innocuous folly in puncturing pants or reversing caps, but for political or artistic or religious twisting of thought or harboring holes in the head there is rather less excuse. I have always inveighed against the bleary journalism practiced by newspaper reviewers, as opposed to the real criticism performed by, well, critics.”

“I often felt a twinge of grief at the idea that John Simon had devoted his life to a method of work that could only make him increasingly unhappy. Here was a man, elegant, articulate, and vastly knowledgeable, fluent in at least half a dozen languages, whose gifts of mind gave nothing back to the arts he wrote about except a few unkind remarks that made fun of someone’s performance, ethnicity, physical attributes, or, with a pun, on his target’s name. (“If this is Norman Wisdom, I’ll take Saxon folly.”) Other theatre critics keep such darts in their rucksacks for occasional use; John lived by them.”

“One person’s critic is another person’s crackpot. That they are not united in their opinions is ascribable to the Latin saying: quot homines, tot sententiae. I myself prefer being considered a creep, but that is what you get for having what Vladimir Nabokov called ‘Strong Opinions.’ It is odd that in a country so wallowing in negativity, starting with mass shootings and climaxing with Trump, such an unimportant matter as theater criticism should generate so much hostility. The only target patently more important is lead in the drinking water.”

Review: Little Women (no spoilers)

The DVD Wrapup: Cold War, Betty Blue, Official Secrets, Demons, Olivia, American Dreamer, Land of Yik Yak

20 Weeks To Oscar: Cinema, Trump, and Oscar

E. Scott Weinberg On Youthful Fangoria Encounters

Rome Bookstore Closes

With a Grauniad-Alleged $300 Million Budget, Could The Yet-Unseen But Surely Weird Cats Pass A Billion Dollars at The Box Office?

Quote Unquotesee all »

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