In Contention

Author: Guy Lodge

  • More Eastwood…

    These must be hard times for anyone who doesn’t like Clint Eastwood, and I realise that we at In Contention aren’t doing much to reduce the saturation. But with two pictures coming up in the space of four months, and a massive retrospective at the BFI Southbank (formerly the National Film Theatre, for those of you who haven’t been in London recently), he is – again – the man of the moment.

    To tie in with the retrospective, the UK press has been awash with Eastwood coverage, but this piece in last week’s Independent was only just brought to my attention, and rather nice it is too. It’s more in line with the idolising tone of Sight and Sound’s recent profile than Alex Cox’s hastily executed contrarian view in the New Statesman (a missed opportunity, to say the least). Writer James Mottram doesn’t really have anything new to add, but in true Independent fashion, it’s considered and thorough, with a nice sprinkling of typically pithy Clint quotes. This one in particular raised a smile:

    Now he is 12 years into his second marriage, to former journalist Dina Ruiz, some 35 years his junior. And with seven children by five different women, it’s no surprise that he says: “I still feel film-making is the second most fun thing to do.”

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  • First look at ‘The Burning Plain’

    As I mentioned in my Venice preview, “The Burning Plain,” the directorial debut from screenwriter extraordinaire Guillermo Arriaga, is one of my most anticipated titles of the year. Now a new series of images from the film has been revealed – check them out here.

    Not much to be gleaned from them that you hadn’t suspected already – it’s clearly an intimate piece focusing on actors rather than visual fireworks, and Charlize Theron is in dressed-down (but still beautiful) mode. The synopsis provided indicate that Arriaga is playing typically complex structural games:

    “The Burning Plain” weaves together two storylines taking place in the past and present. Kim Basinger will play Gina, the mother of Charlize Theron’s character as seen in childhood. Theron will play Sylvia, who tries to find common ground with her parents after a turbulent childhood. The two narratives eventually converge.

    So far, so good. Meanwhile, the announcement that the film will also play at Toronto only emphasises that this is one to watch. Arriaga has yet to misfire in my view – incidentally, his novel, “The Night Buffalo,” is excellent too.

    We all know by now how great an actress Theron can be when she connects with her material, and Basinger, rather like her ex-husband, is a more interesting character player than she ever was a star. (I’ve squeezed the former actress into my list of predictions – you can take a look at them here.) Here’s hoping the momentum keeps building.

  • ‘Valkyrie’ changes tack

    Well, I’ll be. In what appears to be Tom Cruise Week in showbiz newsland, the most surprising development is the return of the long-suffering “Valkyrie” to the 2008 release slate. Bryan Singer’s WWII thriller, a project that has been maligned virtually from the get-go, will now bow on US screens on 26 December.

    That will go some way towards raising public and critical expectations for the film – which honestly couldn’t have been any lower after MGM shifted it to the February graveyard shift months ago. However, I wonder whether it can be saved. As Kris has pointed out before, the script isn’t much to write home about (regrettably so, since Chris McQuarrie can be a hell of a writer) and that trailer that mysteriously started doing the rounds in April or so didn’t really set many pulses racing.

    Most of all, I think Tom Cruise may ironically be the film’s trickiest selling-point – I simply have no idea how many people out there will pay to see him carry a film these days. There’s no denying he’s a massive media presence (as the “Tropic Thunder” hoopla has made abundantly clear), but there comes a point sometimes where the roles of celebrity and movie star are no longer synonymous. Of course, he could turn it all around if he and the film are actually – gasp – good, but he could just as easily be on the cusp of becoming the Michael Jackson of screen acting. “Valkyrie” will be an interesting litmus test to see if audiences still want to see him as someone else.

    Why the scheduling change, incidentally? The studio seems to be playing the gosh-darn-ingenuous card there, with sources saying it’s a “purely commercial” decision made after positive test screenings. The awards season is “not a factor,” apparently. Actually, I believe them – though I wonder if that isn’t a hint of an admission that the film isn’t award-worthy. We shall see.

    Finally, I had to chuckle at the other stated motivation for the move: that MGM believes the film to be a “holiday pic.” Nothing says Christmas like Nazis, right?

  • Ang Lee takes Woodstock

    Here’s what I love about Ang Lee: there is simply no way of anticipating what his next project is going to be. So far, the decade has seen him bounce from “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” to “Hulk” to “Brokeback Mountain” to “Lust, Caution” – a group arguably linked by thematic concerns of outsider identity, but with precious little in common besides. If there’s a more adventurous filmmaker at work these days, I don’t know his name.

    Now Variety confirms that his next project sees him revisiting Nixon-era America, the period having served him well in “Brokeback” (part of it, at least) and what I believe to be his finest work, “The Ice Storm.” Not that “Taking Woodstock” – Lee’s third film in a row for Focus Features – sounds like anything he’s done before either.

    The project, which enters production this month, has been adapted by James Schamus, Lee’s regular cohort, from the memoir of Elliot Tiber, a Greenwich Village interior designer who wound up in the creation of the biggest rock concert of all time when he lent his family’s motel to the event organisers.

    In an inspired piece of casting, Tiber will be played by “The Daily Show”‘s Demetri Martin, while other members of an interesting, and evidently complex, ensemble include Imelda Staunton as Tiber’s mother, Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Tiber’s closeted lover, Emile Hirsch as a Vietnam vet, Paul Dano as a hippie concertgoer, Liev Schreiber as a transvestite, and Eugene Levy as Max Yasgur, the owner of the farm where it all took place.

    Sounds like a suitably broad canvas for Lee to paint on – this should afford him plenty of room for a typically nuanced investigation of class, sexuality and popular culture, while offering him another completely new story world to explore. I can’t wait.

  • Nat Rogers calls dibs on Hathaway

    You’ve all surely seen the trailer for “Rachel Getting Married,” Jonathan Demme’s supposed return to form, by now. And while it’s true that it has generally raised expectations for the film, I wonder if Nathaniel Rogers over at The Film Experience isn’t getting a bit over-excited. Treating a Best Actress nomination for Anne Hathaway as a virtual fait accompli, he gloats as follows:

    Long before the other Oscar sites glommed on to it, I was touting the possibility of “Rachel Getting Married” being a return to form for Jonathan Demme. As a dedicated actressexual Demme is a director I’m inordinately fond of … I had the feeling that he had another Best Actress nominee in him. Not to blow my own horn –ok ok, I’m blowing! But remember, when Hathaway is walking those carpets: I called this one first.

    I don’t like to rain on anyone’s parade (not least since I did my own share of wafty Best Actress speculation last week), but isn’t it a little early in the game to call anyone a certain nominee, particularly for a film we haven’t seen yet? There are a lot of Academy heavy-hitters (Streep, Winslet, Linney, Theron, etc) waiting in the wings, and the less familiar likes of Melissa Leo and Sally Hawkins are angling for position too. The Best Actress race is actually looking rather crowded for a change – at least until we know more about some upcoming films.

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  • Sight & Sound celebrates Eastwood

    Now I know I mention British film publication Sight & Sound quite often (I don’t work for them, honest), but they keep printing such good stuff. The September issue, just out, has an extensive career profile, with accompanying interview, on Clint Eastwood – a happy coincidence in the week that our friend Mr Foote’s book on the man has emerged.

    The piece, by the venerable Geoff Andrew, echoes the oft-stated view – one I understand, but still don’t share – that Eastwood is America’s finest living filmmaker, one who “believes in the old-fashioned art of drawing us into a film rather than in displays of virtuosity.”

    There’s also an evaluation of “Changeling” in which Andrew disagrees with S&S’s editor, and matches the breathless trade paper reviews at Cannes, making lofty comparisons to “Chinatown” and “LA Confidential” to boot:

    J. Michael Straczynski’s deft script and Eastwood’s measured, quietly meticulous mise en scene manage to fashion (many) disparate elements into a complex, multi-stranded but entirely coherent drama … What’s possibly most impressive is the way Eastwood makes it all look so easy; as the story steadily grows broader and deeper in its import, it still feels like a damned good yarn.

    With each review I read, I change my mind regarding the contender status of this oddly-scheduled film – Andrew’s take certainly suggests it has the gravitas to the distance, though there’s nothing on Angelina Jolie’s much-hyped performance. (Neither the profile nor the interview, however, feature any reference to “Gran Torino,” which is still something of a mystery package sitting in prime awards-season territory.)

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  • Don’t give up on Maria Bello

    It is a well-known fact (okay, okay, this writer’s opinion) that Maria Bello was robbed of a 2005 Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her taut, unnerving performance in Cronenberg’s “A History of Violence,” despite a gong from the New York critics and a (lead) nomination at the Globes. (She wasn’t far off for “The Cooler” a year previously, either.)

    Now you may recall (though I wouldn’t blame you if you’d already forgotten) that the winner of Best Supporting Actress that year was Rachel Weisz for her agreeable and, in my opinion, wholly unremarkable work in “The Constant Gardener.” It’s a win I’ve never really understood.

    Now, in a depressing twist of fate, Bello finds herself taking over Weisz’s role in the godawful “Mummy” franchise, the latest installment of which Kris seems less than keen on. If you ever needed a textbook demonstration of the difference an Oscar (or at least a nomination) can make to an actor’s career, there you have it.

    However, in an interesting Guardian interview with the excellent film writer Ryan Gilbey, Bello appears to be making the best of a bad situation. The usually more indie-minded actress tells Gilbey that she’s always hankered after just such a part:

    I’ve been telling my agent for years that I wanted an action movie, but no one saw me like that. Two weeks before my 40th birthday, I guess I’d given up. I mean, how many action roles are there for women over 40? Soon after that, I got a call to say they were considering me for the part.

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  • Melissa Leo: could she be a frontrunner?

    So far, 2008 hasn’t presented a surfeit of cast-iron Best Actress contenders. (Consider that by this time last year, we all knew Marion Cotillard and Julie Christie were locks.)

    Angelina Jolie seems to have been installed as the de facto frontrunner since Cannes, but I’m not really buying it – her performance has some high-profile detractors, and I’m not sure many people feel she’s earned entry into the double-champ club. Sally Hawkins would be in if I had my way, but as Kris has pointed out, the performance can be divisive. For the rest, we only have unseen prospects to contemplate.

    Into this blurry picture comes 47 year-old character actress Melissa Leo, playing a broke single mother who gets involved in illegal immigrant trafficking in zero-budget Sundance champ “Frozen River.” She is currently riding a wave of unanimous critical adulation that is swiftly translating into Oscar buzz. Over at Awards Daily, Sasha Stone has been supporting her enthusiastically, bluntly stating:

    The great Melissa Leo … is going to be among those left standing by the year’s end if anyone with half a brain is paying attention. Her performance WILL stand out among the performances of this year, male or female.

    This is no blogosphere conjecture either: Leo is getting significant press coverage, most notably a major profile in the New York Times, which notes the “thrill” of watching Leo get “enough room to explore one of the complicated, surprising women she’s so good at sketching in smaller roles.”

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  • The Guardian fires the starting gun

    No particularly new insights to be gleaned from this, but when a Limey paper declares awards season to be officially on, you know it’s here.

    Guardian writer Jeremy Kay glosses over the upcoming Venice and Toronto festivals, picking out some awards potential from the lineup. He begins by trumpeting the Best Actor chances of Mickey Rourke, rumoured to give a “standout performance” in Darren Aronofsky’s surprise entry “The Wrestler,” which I discussed yesterday. Elsewhere, however, Kay finds little to chew on in the lean American lineup:

    The Venice lineup of US entries is skimpy this year because the writers strike in the first quarter slowed down production. As a result the studios are holding back some of their big guns until later in the year because otherwise, well, they wouldn’t have much to get excited about come November and December. Mueller and his team previously announced that the Coen brothers’ dark CIA comedy Burn After Reading will open the event and, while an Oscar win for a comedy is about as unlikely as a snowstorm in July, it would take a brave pundit to bet against Joel and Ethan, who won three statuettes for No Country For Old Men back in February.

    Well, it’s a theory. Meanwhile, I’m quite confident to bet against the Coens – the Academy rarely feels obliged to reward newly-crowned directors for their follow-up efforts. (Just ask any number of recent winners: Sam Mendes, Ron Howard, Peter Jackson, Ang Lee… ) And “Burn After Reading” doesn’t exactly look like Oscar fodder. (Of course, neither, in a different way, did “No Country for Old Men.” Who knows what these guys like anymore?)

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  • Venice puts cinema ahead of stars

    There are some major surprises in the competition lineup for next month’s Venice Film Festival, not the least of which are the global flavour and soberness of the lineup itself. In previous years, the Lido has proved a launchpad for starry, surefire awards vehicles (“Atonement” and “Michael Clayton” both made successful bows there last year, while recent festival hits include “Far From Heaven,” “The Queen” and Golden Lion winner “Brokeback Mountain.”)

    Looking down this year’s list, it’s difficult to find much that has quite the same cache – and the competition looks all the more intriguing for it. Artistic director Marco Mueller has commendably narrowed the English-language contingent, and has taken greater risks within that selection, most notably nabbing an unexpected “wet premiere” (as in straight from the lab) of Darren Aronofsky’s latest, “The Wrestler.”

    The film, about a retired pro wrestler struggling to make a comeback, sounds like an interestingly low-key change of pace for Aronofsky after his beautiful folly “The Fountain” (another Venice debutante) fell foul of pretty much everyone two years ago. This project finds the former wunderkind working from someone else’s screenplay for the first time, which could prove a healthy change, and there are some interesting changes of the guard elsewhere too – most notably swapping regular cinematographer Matthew Libatique for the exciting Maryse Alberti (continuing what might be a banner year for female DPs). With an almost too perfectly cast Mickey Rourke in the lead, and support from the ever-terrific Marisa Tomei and Evan Rachel Wood, a warm festival reception could put this on the Oscar charts.

    There will be fewer megastars parading the Venice carpet than in previous years, but when one of them is Charlize Theron, how many do you need? Together with Kim Basinger, she will be at Venice to promote the competition title that, together with the new Miyazaki, I’m personally most excited about: Guillermo Arriaga’s helming debut, “The Burning Plain.”

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  • Bond chooses ‘Another Way to Die’

    Well, I said I would remain guarded when the rumour mill stated that Duffy was “almost certain” to sing the long-discussed theme song for “Quantum of Solace.” And rightly so. After a drawn-out process in which seemingly everyone in the pop universe but Michael Jackson was at one point in the running, the producers have finally announced their selection. And I, for one, did not see this coming.

    Alicia Keys. And Jack White. Together.

    Yep, in what will be the first ever duet in the 22-song history of Bond themes, the soul diva (who was, in fact, deemed the frontrunner for the gig a few weeks ago) and the blues-rocker will collaborate on “Another Way to Die.” (Now wouldn’t that have been a better title for the film?) The White Stripes and Raconteurs frontman is writing and producing the track, and will also – oddly – play drums. (Is Meg busy or something?)

    Now I know this sounds hypocritical coming from me, since I pretty much slated Keys as a potential Bond chanteuse, but this pairing has me excited. Keys has a terrific voice; it’s her bland songwriting of late that has bothered me. White’s writing should hopefully push her into more dangerous musical territory, and the fusion of her lush throwback sound with his more elemental style sounds like a good fit for an old-school film franchise that’s undergone a very contemporary makeover.

    At the very least, the song should be interesting. (And I haven’t said that about a Bond theme in some time.) And the team-up has the right balance of familiarity and critical cred to prove, potentially, rather Oscar- friendly. It’d be nice to have a Brit involved, but you can’t have it all.

    Smart choice, 007.

  • Sheer cool overload

    Sorry for another music-related post, but this is surely too awesome to actually be true. Word is out that Jarvis Cocker is writing music for Wes Anderson’s upcoming adaptation of Roald Dahl’s “Fantastic Mr Fox.”

    The former Pulp frontman, responsible for pretty much the greatest, wittiest, most perceptive and socially on-the-button song of the 90’s, has written “three, four songs and some that might become bits of the score” for the film.

    Cocker has good form with soundtracks, having worked on “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” and Alfonso Cuaron’s underrated “Great Expectations.” (Remember the gorgeous Pulp-Patrick Doyle collaboration “Like a Friend,” anyone?) What could be cooler?

    (Answer: maybe everything about Spike Jonze’s “Where the Wild Things Are,” which has the equally tantalising musical possibility of Karen O involved. Who wouldn’t want to see those two duelling it out for Best Original Song at the Oscars? Not that that would ever happen – not least because it seems we may never see Jonze’s much-discussed fantasia at all. So much for my most anticipated title of 2009.)

    But I digress. With Cocker joining a team that already includes George Clooney, Cate Blanchett and Bill Murray lending their vocal talents to the project, Noah Baumbach on the screenplay, and Alex McDowell, no less, on production design duty, “Fantastic Mr Fox” seems to have everything going for it. This could well be the first Wes Anderson film that I actually love.

    2009’s Best Animated Feature race is starting to look a lot more fun than this year’s.

  • And Fergie makes ‘Nine’

    Ugh, they had to ruin it, didn’t they?

    Yes, apparently the woman whose most significant artistic achievement thus far has been introducing the term “lady lumps” to the popular vocabulary is joining the most star-spangled cast in recent memory. She will play the prostitute from the Day-Lewis character’s youth, who was responsible for his sexual initiation. The mind reels. (Actually doesn’t sound like too much of a stretch for her, but we’ll still have to listen to her sing.)

    I like the sound of this project, and Rob Marshall pulled off some offbeat casting ideas in “Chicago,” so I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt here. But seriously, was no other actress available?

  • Do we finally have a Bond singer?

    The Independent says we do… and it’s Duffy.

    I wrote last week about the seemingly endless parade of names that had been tipped to sing the theme for “Quantum of Solace,” which had most recently stopped at Alicia Keys. Now a “reliable mole” at Pinewood Studios says the 22 year-old Welsh soul revivalist is “almost certain” to be handed the gig.

    There have been so many rumours about this over the months that I remain guarded, but the bookies are certainly believing this one – Ladbrokes have slashed Duffy’s odds to even money. (Yes, the Brits bet on everything.)

    If so, I have no complaints about the choice. “Mercy” is a pretty fantastic pop record, and I wouldn’t mind if the “Quantum of Solace” theme turned out sounding something like it, with a few added strings, perhaps. (I only hope they aren’t planning to work that godawful title into the song.)

    I’ve already said I’d have preferred Amy Winehouse, but that was clearly not happening. Meanwhile, Duffy, with her throwback Springfield-esque voice, button-cute blonde looks and squeaky clean personal image, is essentially the Winehouse you can take home to mom. She’s a hot property right now – her (rather good) album “Rockferry” is the biggest seller of 2008 in the UK so far, and it’s gone gold Stateside too. It’s not hard to see why she would appeal to the 007 producers.

    Not betting the house on this yet, though.

  • Loving from a distance

    Well, “WALL-E” finally lands in the UK today, and this weekend I’ll be able to evaluate it for myself at last. (But hey, at least we got “Mamma Mia!” first. Score!)

    I am always a bit nervous about approaching something that’s been praised to the skies so far in advance of my own interpretation – but today’s very interesting Guardian review gave me some pause. I’d ignore it if it were by that wily contrarian Peter Bradshaw, but Xan Brooks is a genuinely thoughtful writer whose views I value more than most:

    What a rich, strange and intriguing picture this is; a wintry Cassandra in the guise of a pearl-bright summer blockbuster. There is something giddyingly impressive in the way in which its makers have cherry-picked a crop of antique ingredients and then forged them into something new. The plot is a meld of Silent Running, Metropolis and Robinson Crusoe. At times it is possible to catch the ghost of Charlie Chaplin behind Wall-E’s silent, stoic pursuit of his social better. At others the film’s central romance plays like the Genesis story with Woody Allen and Diane Keaton cast in the roles of Adam and Eve. That narrow neck and blinking binocular specs are a dead giveaway.

    For all that, faint doubts remain. Wall-E (the character) is eminently lovable, by far the film’s most human inhabitant. And yet Wall-E (the movie) actually has more in common with EVE. It is an exquisitely rendered piece of work; beautiful, flawless, serious in its intent and hermetically sealed. You can admire it to the skies and back. You can even learn to love it from a distance. But does Andrew Stanton’s film amount to much more than a brilliant aesthetic exercise? I’m not convinced it does.

    I understand that there are more than a few people who have been intensely moved by the film, and who would therefore not identify with this perspective at all. But in an environment where Metacritic scores are bandied about as if they’re some irrefutable artistic Solomon, it’s always healthy to read an alternative individual voice. I can’t wait to find my own on this film.

  • Deakins on the web

    OK, it seems to have been around for a few years, so a lot of you are probably aware of it already, but I’ve only just discovered the great Roger Deakins’ website.

    It’s a pretty bare-bones affair, but there’s some fascinating stuff on it nonetheless. I for one am gobsmacked at how this prolific man, between shooting some of the most significant films of the past few years, somehow finds time to answer so many queries in the forums section. You have to wade through a lot of drivel there, as does Deakins – there are a depressing number of people out there who see fit to ask one of the most gifted DPs alive such probing gems as, ‘How is Leo and Kate’s acting in “Revolutionary Road?”‘ (Only without the correct spelling and capitalisation.)

    Dig around, however, and there’s a wealth of technical information and insight for fans and filmmakers alike. As if that weren’t enough, he’s posted some of his lighting diagrams too, including ones for “No Country for Old Men” and “The Man Who Wasn’t There.”

    Finally, for those who can’t get enough pretty pictures, he’s put up some of his photography work too. (I’d pay good money for a print of that “Rain Begins” shot.) The man’s a true artist.

  • Israel leaves Vantage: “It’s not the same company”

    This strikes me as very bad news indeed. Amy Israel, head of acquisition and production at Paramount Vantage, has been shown the exit. You’d think overseeing the production of such titles as “No Country for Old Men” and “There Will Be Blood,” and acquiring, among others, “An Inconvenient Truth,” would count for something. Apparently not.

    Replacing Israel is Guy Stodel, a former exec from New Line. He has some history of acquiring arthouse titles (“The Sea Inside,” “The Upside of Anger”), but worryingly, his most emphasised accomplishment in the press release is having brought the two “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” remakes to fruition. Because that’s the kind of thing we’re looking for, right?

    Israel’s parting statement is diplomatic, but somewhat ominous:

    I’m proud of having been a part of building Paramount Vantage from the ground up under John Lesher, making great films. I love the company we built. It’s not the same company. (It) is evolving a different direction.

    Truthfully, we all knew this was coming. When Vantage was incorporated into the main body of the studio last month, it was pretty obvious they wanted to broaden their focus to more commercial genre projects. Vantage president Nicholas Meyer insists specialty films will remain a priority:

    Although the moves signal that Vantage is moving more in the genre direction, Meyer insists the studio is pursuing a more “eclectic and elastic” slate. “We are not abandoning the specialty business. We are too committed to it,” Meyer said. “As the company evolves, we need to morph and mutate in order to survive in a challenging environment.”

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  • RIP Charles H. Joffe

    We sure are losing a lot of valuable talents this year.

    You have probably already heard about the passing of Charles H. Joffe, the veteran comic manager best known as Woody Allen’s longtime producer, and the co-winner of the 1977 Best Picture Oscar for “Annie Hall.” (Not as well known is that he guided the early careers of such other comic giants as Billy Crystal and Robin Williams.)

    There isn’t much to add to what has already been said elsewhere, but as a devoted fan of Allen’s films (all of which Joffe, with partner Jack Rollins, produced or executive-produced), I can only state my admiration for his loyalty and longevity within that working relationship. Not many producer-director teams can claim a five-decade span. Allen himself has paid tribute with the following statement: “When he was at the top of his game, nobody was better.”

    Of course, Joffe and Rollins were executive producers of Allen’s latest, “Vicky Cristina Barcelona.” Here’s hoping the largely positive word on the film so far means Joffe’s career ends on a high note.