Movie City News Archive for May, 2018

Dargis Varda

By Ray Pride - Wednesday, May 30th, 2018

The peerless Agnès Varda turns 90 today – she once said "In my films I always want to make people see deeply. I don't want to show things, but to give people the desire to see." She has done just that over her extraordinary career, and we cinema lovers are grateful for it pic.twitter.com/etV3BSfURS —…

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Inside The “Roseanne” Writers Room

By Ray Pride - Wednesday, May 30th, 2018

“We found out first through the press. We weren’t sure if it was accurate. But then we heard from Tom Werner that the show was canceled. We all knew it was a possibility but the suddenness of it was a shock.” Inside The “Roseanne” Writers Room

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Roseanne Tweets Some More

By Ray Pride - Tuesday, May 29th, 2018

“I apologize to Valerie Jarrett and to all Americans. I am truly sorry for making a bad joke about her politics and her looks. I should have known better. Forgive me-my joke was in bad taste.” Roseanne Tweets Some More

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Madiha Yousry

By Ray Pride - Tuesday, May 29th, 2018

Veteran Cinema Star Madiha Yousry passed away in Cairo , she was 96 years old and one of the early Egyptian divas known for her beauty and elegance. She was the first Screen Brunette with her attractive Egyptian features. pic.twitter.com/tK6ecYoW0W — Zeinobia (@Zeinobia) May 29, 2018

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Frank Marshall Says Orson Welles’ Completed The Other Side Of The Wind To Get Limited Theatrical

By Ray Pride - Tuesday, May 29th, 2018

Frank Marshall Says Orson Welles’ Completed The Other Side Of The Wind To Get Limited Theatrical

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The Gronvall Report: Leigh Whannell on Writing and Directing Upgrade

By Andrea Gronvall - Tuesday, May 29th, 2018

“Well, in Australia, once we did all the rebates and stuff, the film came out to about $8 or $9 million dollars, Australian. Yeah, about $5 million, American, but that’s taking into account the exchange rate, the tax rate rebate, and the fact that I’m Australian. Most movies in Australia are funded by the government, so if you’re Australian, you can actually get some government money. I don’t believe we could have shot this film in Los Angeles; we wouldn’t have been able to do it, but we could pull it off in Australia.”

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Cinematographer Masaki Tamura, 79, Films Include Eureka, Lady Snowblood, Tampopo, Himatsuri, Crazy Family, Eyes of the Spider

By Ray Pride - Tuesday, May 29th, 2018

Cinematographer Masaki Tamura, 79, Films Include Eureka, Lady Snowblood, Tampopo, Himatsuri, Crazy Family, Eyes of the Spider

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“ABC’s decision to cancel ‘Roseanne’ feels like a gutsy move. It looks like a stand against racism, a line drawn in the sand to delineate what is reasonable and what is not. It even looks like a data point in the ‘How do we separate the art from the artist?’ debate, and it offers a heartening answer: We don’t have to, because, in this case, ABC will not finance that artist. It’s somehow even more heartening because it comes from a massive corporate conglomerate that might lose money by making this decision. It feels remarkably just. It feels decent. I’m thrilled that Roseanne has been canceled. It was the right thing to do. But it doesn’t feel correct to hold up ABC as a new bastion of decency, either. ‘Roseanne’ felt like the Titanic, a ship that seemed too big to turn around — but in the aftermath of Barr’s tweet, it also seemed like a ship that was doomed. ABC’s decision to cancel Roseanne is a good thing, but it also seems like a decision to shut down something that was about to implode anyhow. With a little more context, it looks like a network taking a strong stance against racism… in a way that also rids them of a show that was about to fall apart anyhow.”

By Ray Pride - Tuesday, May 29th, 2018

“ABC’s decision to cancel ‘Roseanne’ feels like a gutsy move. It looks like a stand against racism, a line drawn in the sand to delineate what is reasonable and what is not. It even looks like a data point in the ‘How do we separate the art from the artist?’ debate, and it offers a heartening…

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“L.A. region ‘creative economy’ produced 457,400 jobs in 2016, driven by Hw’d rebound”

By Ray Pride - Tuesday, May 29th, 2018

“L.A. region ‘creative economy’ produced 457,400 jobs in 2016, driven by Hw’d rebound”

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“Jennifer Fox’s powerful new film ‘The Tale’ is a reminder of how many #MeToo narratives have centered on the men accused, rather than the people who have spoken up against them.”

By Ray Pride - Tuesday, May 29th, 2018

“Jennifer Fox’s powerful new film ‘The Tale’ is a reminder of how many #MeToo narratives have centered on the men accused, rather than the people who have spoken up against them.”

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Sir Ian McKellen

By Ray Pride - Tuesday, May 29th, 2018

“Nobody looks to Hollywood for social commentary, do they? They only recently discovered that there were black people in the world. Hollywood has mistreated women in every possible way throughout its history. Gay men don’t exist.” Sir Ian McKellen

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“Shari Redstone and Les Moonves are locked in a legal battle triggered by disagreement over a potential merger of Viacom and the broadcasting powerhouse”

By Ray Pride - Tuesday, May 29th, 2018

“Shari Redstone and Les Moonves are locked in a legal battle triggered by disagreement over a potential merger of Viacom and the broadcasting powerhouse”

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Miscellany At Jerry Lewis Auction Includes Continuity Polaroids From “The Day The Clown Cried”

By Ray Pride - Tuesday, May 29th, 2018

Miscellany At Jerry Lewis Auction Includes Continuity Polaroids From “The Day The Clown Cried”

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ICM Drops Roseanne

By Ray Pride - Tuesday, May 29th, 2018

ICM Drops Roseanne

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Iger Roseanne

By Ray Pride - Tuesday, May 29th, 2018

From Channing Dungey, President of ABC Entertainment: "Roseanne's Twitter statement is abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values, and we have decided to cancel her show."There was only one thing to do here, and that was the right thing. — Robert Iger (@RobertIger) May 29, 2018

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RGB

By Ray Pride - Tuesday, May 29th, 2018

RGB is a victory for all documentary filmmakers. The success of this film is HUGE! Congrats to all involved, esp @MagnoliaPics for taking docs into the theatrical arena. — Brett Morgen (@brettmorgen) May 29, 2018

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Racist Roseanne

By Ray Pride - Tuesday, May 29th, 2018

Noticing that a lot of pubs that first said "racially charged" have switched over to the "racist" lane. Curious how much of that is response to backlash, second thoughts or just safer now that ABC's cancelation affirms it was beyond the pale. — Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) May 29, 2018

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Roseanne Rerun

By Ray Pride - Tuesday, May 29th, 2018

ABC cancels #Roseanne, even pulling tonight’s rerun of the show from its schedule, after its star's racist tweet https://t.co/303M5atYP4 — Andrew LaVallee (@andrewlavallee) May 29, 2018

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By Ray Pride - Tuesday, May 29th, 2018

“Roseanne’s Twitter statement is abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values, and we have decided to cancel her show.” “Roseanne” Canceled After Latest Racist Twitter Rant by Roseanne Barr

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Morgan Freeman Attorney Demands CNN Retraction

By Ray Pride - Tuesday, May 29th, 2018

Morgan Freeman Attorney Demands CNN Retraction

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“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?

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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