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  • A.O. Scott revisits ‘Gattaca’

    I must say I’m really enjoying the New York Times’s Critics’ Picks video series — the clips are short, sweet and to the point, the discussion in them lucid, and the selections impeccable. Occasionally rather imaginative, too, as with A.O. Scott’s latest pick of Andrew Niccol’s 1997 masterpiece “Gattaca.”

    The film was sadly neglected on release, scoring a paltry $12 million gross (against a budget three times the size) and a solitary Oscar nod for art direction. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration, however, to name it one of the greatest sci-fi films of all time, one whose crisp, chilly technical trappings allow the unnerving human desperation of the story to shimmer through. (Jude Law, meanwhile, was robbed of every supporting gong going.) Happily, it seems to have gathered a number of devotees over the year; even more happily, we’re in good company with Scott.

  • To adjust or not to adjust — thoughts on box office reporting

    Box officeIt seems every week somebody writes a comment on the Sunday Cents column questioning the historical figures I present or wondering why I choose to use adjusted numbers when I cite them. The answer, I suppose, is pretty simple. I feel that’s the way to most accurately provide context for what happens today.

    Tracking box office in general is a fool’s game. Box office reporting is done by the studios that release the films on, more or less, the honor system. In other words, a theater playing “Julie & Julia” calls Sony and reports their gross and Sony compiles it and reports it to the press. What’s stopping them from inflating the actual figures? Nothing really.

    There are independent services that also compile grosses from theaters and every studio has a general idea of what every other film is doing but neither is 100% accurate. So when it comes time to report a final figure for “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull”’s opening weekend ($100.1 million, if you forgot), there’s no way that Paramount is reporting a figure under $100 million, even if it actually clocked in at $99.2 million.

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  • 8/26 Web Round-up

    Tim Burton• The “Inglourious Basterds” one-sheet that could have been. [Poster Wire]

    • On the occasion of Tim Burton’s 51st birthday (yesterday), an appreciation. [Hero Complex]

    • On Marvin Hamlisch’s “hilariously schmaltzy” score for “The Informant!” [The Playlist]

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  • Prince of the city

    I have Chad to thank for pointing me to this Criterion DVD cover (pictured left) for Matteo Garrone’s “Gomorrah,” a film you may remember we kind of liked here at In Contention. Chad is no fan of the cover art (which of course riffs on one of the film’s most widely publicized images), and a number of readers at The Auteurs seem to be with him.

    Criterion cover for GomorrahUK DVD cover for Gomorrah

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  • Venice gears up for Kurosawa centenary

    Akira KurosawaWe may be celebrating the 70th birthday of “The Wizard of Oz” today, but the Venice Film Festival has decided to start the party early for another major film-related milestone  coming up next year: the 100-year anniversary of Akira Kurosawa’s birth.

    I’m sure we can expect more retrospectives of the great man’s work when the day rolls around on March 23, 2010, but since Venice has something of a history with the filmmaker (“Rashomon” winning the Golden Lion in 1951 gave a critical boost to his international profile), festival organizers have decided to pay tribute on their own time, with an in-depth panel discussion of his work.

    The formidable, internationally-flavored panel will be chaired by venerable film historian Peter Cowie, while the likes of Richard Corliss, Michel Ciment and Donald Richie. Should be a good sit, though I’m disappointed they haven’t yet mentioned any screenings to accompany proceedings. Surely that would be advisable? Press release extract after the jump.

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  • A thing of beauty

    When I headed off to Wales this past weekend to camp out at the Green Man music festival, I wasn’t expecting to find anything to feed my cinephile appetite. (Well, I did entertain the far-fetched possibility of Jarvis Cocker revealing his “Fantastic Mr. Fox” compositions. He didn’t.) But I was wrong.

    The best thing I saw all weekend — and one of the most tingly performances I’ve seen all year, musically or cinematically — was a screening of Robert Flaherty’s classic 1934 documentary “Man of Aran,” rescored live by the great indie band British Sea Power. The stark, balletic poetry of Flaherty’s images fused with the lush rock orchestrations of the new score was hypnotic to behold: I can’t imagine anything quite replicating the power of the live performance, but the rescored film is now available on DVD. I recommend checking it out.

  • New generation

    Apropos of nothing really, except this thin story about her being cast in the latest John Carpenter thriller, but for the first time this afternoon I took time to properly look at Mamie Gummer. You might know her better under the name of “Meryl Streep’s daughter.”

    Gummer has been cropping up in supporting parts for a couple of years now, notably in “Stop-Loss,” “John Adams” and now in “Taking Woodstock,” while she played a younger incarnation of her mother in the dismal “Evening.” I can’t say she’s ever particularly stood out to me, but on glancing at the photo accompanying the Screen Daily story, I was suddenly startled by the family resemblance. If she goes on to major things, this could get quite unsettling.

    Mamie Gummer

  • Scratch Mirren, Powell

    Helen MirrenOne of the films I’ve been keeping an eye on as we march up to the awards season is Julie Taymor’s “The Tempest,” a re-imagining of the William Shakespeare yarn with a female lead rather than male.  Helen Mirren seemed a great bet in the lead actress race and of course design heads Sandy Powell (costumes) and Mark Friedberg (production design) were going to be in the conversation.

    Well that conversation will now shift to 2010, as I just got confirmation the film would not be ready until next year due to the amount of visual effects yet to be included.  That effectively leaves Miramax with the already released (and mostly forgotten) “Chéri” for its lone awards hopes.  It looks like it’ll be a year away from the fray, since I don’t think Mike Judge’s “Extract” is exactly going to light up the circuit.

    This also whittles the lead actress race down even further, while giving Powell the go-ahead for a potential nod for “The Young Victoria,” now that the film has a US distributor.  Mirren’s “Love Ranch,” directed by husband Taylor Hackford, could still be a thread if it gets picked up by a distributor.  It’s getting to be that time…

    I’ll update predictions again on Monday, August 31.

  • ‘Whip It’ poster

    Whip It

    (Courtesy: MTV)

  • THE LISTS: Top 10 “Greatest” lists ‘The Wizard of Oz’ deserves to be on

    Judy Garland in The Wizard of OzAs you have probably heard by now, today marks a rather special anniversary in cinema. (And it’s not Sean Connery’s 79th birthday, though we do wish him well.) It is, of course, 70 years ago to the day since a little film called “The Wizard of Oz” opened nationally in the United States. Perhaps you’ve heard of it.

    So much has been documented and discussed about this film over the years that it seems redundant to discuss its slow-burning impact on, and importance in, the landscape of American cinema.

    The film’s troubled production – from its casting musical chairs to its rocky reception – is now the stuff of Hollywood legend, while its place in the commonly regarded Hollywood annus mirabilis of 1939 only cements its status by association, as the film is forever banded with the likes of “Gone With the Wind” and “Stagecoach” in endless “they don’t make ‘em like they used to” discussions.

    You know all this, readers: just two months ago, you voted it the fifth most influential film of all time, after all.

    “The Wizard of Oz” may have dictated several of the still-held standards for fantasy and children’s filmmaking in Hollywood (and elsewhere), but even when we’re not watching it – or even thinking about it – the film has made its presence felt in our daily lives.

    Phrases like “yellow-brick road” and “friend of Dorothy” have acquired linguistic meanings independent of their source. Sundry American Idol contestants warble the film’s signature song on a daily basis (while artists from Prince to Pink Floyd have filched from elsewhere in the soundtrack). A current series of British cellphone ads features the Wicked Witch of the West alive and well in suburban London.

    Still, as ubiquitous and occasionally over-analyzed as the film is, we couldn’t let its 70th birthday pass without baking a cake and lighting some candles: hence the devotion of this week’s edition of The Lists to all things Oz.

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  • Dante, Bahrani added to Venice lineup

    The Movie OrgyEarlier this morning, Kris pointed you to the news that four features have been added to the Venice lineup: Joe Dante’s “The Movie Orgy: Ultimate Version,” Angela Ismailos’s “Great Directors,” Hana Makhmalbaf’s “Green Days” and Peter Greenaway’s “The Marriage.” Under the radar (and out of competition) they may be, but all of them further my anticipation for my trip to the Lido next week.

    The former two are intriguing American cinema-themed documentaries: Ismailos’s film, her debut, lives up to its rather blunt title by examining the work of ten contemporary helmers, including Todd Haynes, Richard Linklater, John Sayles and David Lynch. Dante’s film, meanwhile, is a slightly (and, at 280 minutes, I mean only slightly) more disciplined cut of his mammoth 1968 film, a 7-hour valentine to B-movies of the 1950s and 1960s.

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  • Mariah Carey on ‘Precious’

    The festival season is gearing up and with it comes a film that I’ve been dying to see ever since it set Sundance alight: Lee Daniels’s “Precious.” The film will play the Toronto, New York and Chicago fests, perhaps Telluride (that typically secretive line-up is begging to be revealed slowly in conversations around town).

    I stumbled onto this interview with Mariah Carey recently talking about her work in the film.  It’s probably old news but I hadn’t seen it yet, so I thought I’d share.  Carey will also be a contender for Best Original Song with her track “100%,” featured yesterday in our tune speculation thread.

  • ‘The Princess and the Frog’ featurette

    (Courtesy: Cartoon Brew)

  • 8/25 Web Round-up

    Charlize Theron in The Burning Plain• Jeff Wells speaks up on the Best Actress race. [Hollywood Elsewhere]

    • “Black Dynamite” goes to Apparition. [Variety]

    • Behinds the scenes of “The Burning Plain.” [Coming Soon]

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  • Did Michelle Monaghan just enter the Best Actress race?

    Michelle Monaghan in TruckerI haven’t seen James Mottern’s “Trucker,” which had a world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival and was praised in many quarters, most agreeing that Michelle Monaghan’s lead performance was awards caliber.

    Ironically, the press release (published in part after the jump) quotes The Hollywood Reporter’s Roger Friedman front and center just a few days after he bemoaned what he perceived as a weak year for Best Actress contenders.

    The strongest contenders right now look to be Meryl Streep in “Julie & Julia,” Carey Mulligan in “An Education” and, sight unseen, Hilary Swank in “Amelia.”  If enough voters see “The Burning Plain,” Charlize Theron certainly has a shot.  But the bubble is big on this race, I’ll give Friedman that.

    Monterey Media has decided to release the film up for an October 9 release, right in the middle of the awards season.  We all know surprise contenders show up sooner or later.  Maybe we’re looking at our first one right here.

    A snippet of the press release after the jump.

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  • Banging the drum for women

    Andrea ArnoldI’ve already mooted the possibility of 2009 being a history-making year for female filmmakers at the Oscars. Whether or not awards season plays along in a few months’ time, however, there’s no denying it’s been a banner year for women behind the camera — both in terms of quantity (for starters, Cannes had more female-helmed films in competition than ever before) and quality (my three favorite films of the year so far all fall under the category).

    The media is clearly sensing the trend, too. In a handy roundup, The Auteurs points to an unusual confluence of assorted female-focused coverage this last weekend alone, from The Observer’s excellent interview with Andrea Arnold, director of the terrific Brit drama “Fish Tank,” to a New York Times piece in which Michael Cieply digs into the numbers supporting the truth that Hollywood is still very much a man’s world:

    What the count shows is that Hollywood directors are pretty much what they have always been: a small brotherhood of highly skilled craftsmen — more than 90 percent this year are men — who could hit or miss with any given film, but who tend to have solid experience.

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  • Richard Kind in ‘A Serious Man’

    Richard Kind in A Serious Man

    More photos from upcoming Oscar season contenders, including “Up in the Air,” “The Lovely Bones” and “The Informant!” at MTV.

  • Below-the-line ‘Basterds’

    Brad Pitt in Inglourious BasterdsIt does my heart good to see more and more outlets giving the proper consideration to below-the-line talent when it comes to film publicity.  As you know, we’ve made it a rather concentrated effort to spotlight these individuals in Gerard’s weekly Tech Support columns and have been at it for the last three years.

    A couple of pieces caught my eye today featuring talent associated with Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds,” a film that, despite my feelings of the narrative, had a rather refreshing visceral sheen to it.  That’s a tribute, no doubt, to folks like Bob Richardson, David Wasco, Anna B. Sheppard, etc.

    First up is a piece at BoxWish.com featuring costume designer Anna B. Sheppard (whose work in the film is on display at LA area theaters this week).  An esteemed costumer twice Oscar-nominated for Holocaust cinema (Steven Spielberg’s “Schindler’s List” and Roman Polanski’s “The Pianist”), she certainly brought a lot to the table.

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