Blog
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Counting to ten
Since the Academy announced the new ten-lane track for the Best Picture race, any number of bloggers have projected which extra films might have made the cut under this format in the last few years, a process that, for many, retrospectively hands hypothetical nods to everything from “Doubt” to “Memoirs of a Geisha” to “My Big Fat Greek Wedding.”It’s a process that is as dispiriting as it is occasionally heartening, but so far there hasn’t been much informed analysis of how the Academy’s weighted balloting system might affect the lower reaches of the list. (I must wonder, for example, whether a “Geisha” had enough number-one votes to even crack a list of ten — the new format will certainly test the remaining power of the studio system.)
Anne Thompson, however, offers by far the most interesting backward-glancing “what-if” piece I’ve yet read, in which an unnamed (but clearly authoritative) film historian digs a little further back to consider what a ten-nominee Best Picture category might have looked like in the years from 1967 to 1979.
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Saying goodbye to Karl Malden
In the wake of actor Karl Malden’s death at the age of 97 yesterday, a number of appreciations, remembrances and good old fashioned obituaries have predictably flooded the net. I thought I’d collect as many as I could in this space, beginning with, for me, the most heart-warming sentiment of the lot.John Farr at The Huffington Post:
It’s sad and scary both to say goodbye to you, because you represented the last man standing from a period in film-making whose like we won’t see again.
Robert Berkvist at The New York Times:
Mr. Malden was perhaps the ideal Everyman. He realized early on that he lacked the physical attributes of a leading man; he often joked about his blunt features, particularly his crooked, bulbous nose, which he had broken several times while playing basketball in school. But he was, he once said, determined “to be No. 1 in the No. 2 parts I was destined to get.”
(More after the jump.)
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Sprawling, sumptuous, baroque / cozy, warm, friendly
I finally got around to watching Criterion’s wonderful Blu-ray package for Alain Resnais’ New Wave tour de force “Last Year at Marienbad” earlier in the week. I’ll get into the particulars of that sterling disc at a later date, but today I came across the most intriguing theory pertaining to the 1961 classic. From Glenn Kenny at Some Came Running in a brief item titled “Last Year at Punxatawny”:
My Lovely Wife and I have been batting around the notion that Groundhog Day is in fact a loose remake of Last Year At Marienbad.
Nothing more than that aside, though if you’re familiar with both films, nothing more is really needed. A thought tossed out into the ether, ponder it, consider it. Fascinating.
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7/2 Web round-up
• Michael Bay is a drug. [First Showing]• Three years after stirring trouble regaring the on-set particulars of “Miami Vice,” Kim Masters decides to take aim at Michael Mann once again with speculation and anonymous quotes. [The Daily Beast]
• Meanwhile, Harvey Weinstein seems to be making a transition to film critic, calls “Public Enemies” the start of the 2009 Oscar race. [The Daily Beast]
• Elliot J. Gorn questions the historical accuracy of the film, fails to understand compositing, artistic license. [Slate]
• Headline of the month: “Tippi Hedren tells Michael Jackson’s former pet tigers of his death.” [The Guardian]
• Attempting to steer coverage slightly away from commerce, Eugene Hernandez introduces a new, David Hudson-inspired column aggregation column. Not exactly novel to the net but certainly to the outlet. [indieWIRE]
• Geoff Boucher sits down with Guillermo Del Toro. [Hero Complex]
• The 10 most clever bank robberies in movies. [Spout Blog]
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Food for thought
“We wanted the look of Public Enemies to have a high level of realism, not an over period feel…Among the historical aspects are a lot of action, romance and drama, and Michael [Mann] and I talked about achieving an immediate feel. One thing you can do with a digital camera that you can’t do with film is shoot with a 360-degree, or no, shutter…We tested that with gun-muzzle flashes from the machine guns and some flares that we planned to use to light a few scenes, and the 360-degree shutter had a really great look in those situations.”
Dante Spinotti, talking to Jay Holben in this month’s issue of American Cinematographer magazine. The article isn’t online yet but the magazine is on the rack, so pick it up, give it a look.
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R.I.P. Karl Malden
Too many films to recount, too many great pieces of acting to list. “On the Waterfront,” “Baby Doll,” “Cheyenne Autumn,” an impressive TV streak in “Streets of San Francisco.” I’ll always remember “Streetcar.” He was 97. Now that’s a life.
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PAGE TO SCREEN: “An Education” by Lynn Barber
“I was damaged by my education,” writes renowned British journalist Lynn Barber at the end of the captivating centerpiece essay in her newly published memoir “An Education,” a sober conclusion to a personal account that otherwise brims with breezy anecdotal humor.The eponymous “education” is not academic, though she makes clear her lingering resentments over that too. Rather it’s an emotional – I’d say sentimental, but Barber treats it with too much venom for that – education, covering not only romantic and sexual instruction, but a deeper acquaintance with the betrayals and hypocrisies of adulthood.
The ostensible antagonist of the piece is the older lover who courts and ultimately cons the naïve 16 year-old Barber, but it becomes clear that she is using this story as a lens through which to examine the failings of her own parents, who allowed – encouraged, even – the end of a schoolgirl’s innocence.
It’s a forthright, often cruelly funny reflection that braids unconditional affection with anger, and it’s little wonder that producer Amanda Posey immediately saw its cinematic potential when the essay was published in literary magazine Granta in 2003.
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Tell us what you thought of ‘Public Enemies’
I think we all know what most movie-goers — well, those who won’t be lining Fox’s pockets at “Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs” — are going to see this week, so while I’ve offered my thoughts in full, and even dedicated an installment of The Lists to the film’s director and his eye for talent, it’s time to deliver your thoughts. I imagine people are beginning to make their way out of matinees by now, so head on back here once you’ve seen “Public Enemies” and tell us what you thought.
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TCM gets in the gangster mood
Speaking of John Dillinger’s final hours, it’s worth pointing out that TCM will be showing a slew of classic gangster titles tonight, including the Clark Gable starrer “Manhattan Melodrama,” which was the last film Dillinger would ever see. Mann makes considerable thematic use of the film in “Public Enemies,” as noted by critic F.X. Feeney in an exchange with Jeffrey Wells two days ago:“I will admit La Cotillard takes the coupe du monde in [Mann’s female characters’] honors, but then she is not only great in herself but that magnificent hall-of-mirrors moment when Dillinger contemplates her angelic double, Myrna Loy, in ‘Manhattan Melodrama.’ It seems to me that here, Mann grandly contradicts the old saw that men’s ‘immortal dreams of women’ are ‘unattainable.’ From where Dillinger sits, that dream has been attained quite fully, thank-you-very-much. A ticklish mystery, this.”
In addition to “Manhattan Melodrama,” TCM will be showing “Fog Over Frisco,” “G-Men” and the 2008 documentary “The Public Enemies: The Golden Age of Gangster Film.” Set your DVRs.
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Vishnevetsky’s dispatches from the set of ‘Public Enemies’
“Public Enemies,” opening nationwide today, is the first film to bring Michael Mann back to his native Chicago since his feature filmmaking debut, 1981’s “Thief.” Fellow Midwesterner Ignatiy Vishnevetsky was on the set for a few days in the summer of 2008 and has been collecting his thoughts over at The Auteurs’ Notebook. It’s a gem of a feature for Mann enthusiasts.Vishnevetsky digs into the man and his aesthetic motives, pondering this or that on-set particular and drawing connections to Mann’s portfolio throughout. Most of the entries seem to have been written from the location shoot of John Dillinger’s (Johnny Depp) FBI slaying outside Chicago’s Biograph Theatre.
Watching the gun-down happen over and over again in real time as takes are refined and repeated, Vishnevetsky spends considerable time in part one analyzing Mann’s approach, observing, taking it all in. Color me incredibly envious.
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7/1 Web Round-up
• Drew McWeeny catches up to “In the Realm of the Senses” 23 years later on Criterion Blu. [HitFix]• Anna Pickard breaks down the “Funny People” trailer. [The Guardian]
• Steve Weintraub chats with “Big Bang Theory” star Jim Parsons at the Saturn Awards. (It’s one of my favorite sit-coms, so I thought I’d share.) [Collider]
• So you’ve been asking yourself, “What does a producer do, anyway?” Here’s a primer. [indieWIRE]
• So if you live in Glascow, you can finally watch Monty Python’s “Life of Brian” in a cinema. [The Independent]
• Deborah Landis, designer of the red jacket Michael Jackson wore in “Thriller.” [Speakeasy]
• Dan Zak catches up with “Chéri” star Michelle Pfeiffer at 51. [Washington Post]
• The 25 sexiest movies ever. Eh. [Entertainment Weekly]
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‘Precious’ poster #2
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Steven Soderbergh’s ‘The Informant!’ gets a trailer
Could be softball fun or could be an ace up WB’s sleeve. Matt Damon looks outstanding. First time since “Moulin Rouge!” that a movie title features an exclamation point?:
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THE LISTS: Top 10 performances from Michael Mann films
With the forthcoming release of Michael Mann’s “Public Enemies” (review) dominating — quite impressively, I might add — the publicity circuit this week, all eyes are on Johnny Depp. An Ulmer Scale X factor for this character study posing as a summer blockbuster, Depp’s performance is sure to draw champions and detractors alike for its delicate, internalized particulars. But of one thing we can be certain: the work is of a piece with Mann’s typically detailed approach to character.Mann’s collaborative process with his actors typically involves something called “character acquisition,” a tightly-conceived regimen, of sorts, that gives his films’ characters the authentic touch that makes his work so novel. Many times these details won’t even be discussed in the overall narrative, but their background impact on the performer is unmistakable. Take, for instance, the photos of the childhood home of Tom Cruise’s hitman Vincent in “Collateral” that Mann brought to the actor’s attention, merely by way of more fully developing the character’s clearly complicated formidable years.
The result of this hard work has been a slew of captivating, at times career-best performances from some of the most accomplished actors working today. A Michael Mann production represents the opportunity to go deeper with a performance and perhaps even learn more about the craft. Will Smith has frequently discussed his collaboration with Mann as the most rewarding experience of his professional life. And, as Javier Bardem once told me, “When Michael Mann invites you to his party, you don’t turn him down.”
So with that, a collective representing the best performances to come from Mann’s 10 feature films to date seemed the best way into this week’s installment of The Lists. It’s a very personal list, of course, as yours would be. There are three performances from one film, none from two, and a pair of unconventional supporting turns to shake things up. After going back through the director’s work last week in preparation for the list, even I was surprised my #1 choice was left standing, but regardless of order, see this as a way to compliment a true actor’s director.
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The Academy opens the doors to 134 new members
The headline says it all. After bringing in 105 new members last year, the Academy has just announced a new list of 134 names to join their ranks.Actors include Hugh Jackman, Anne Hathaway, Jeffrey Wright (woo-hoo!), James McAvoy, Casey Affleck (who should have been brought in after his 2007 nomination), James Franco, Michael Cera and Seth Rogen, as well as, of course, all of the first-time nominees from last year’s season. I was rather surprised to see Brendan Gleeson only now getting the invite.
A big huzzah to director Rod Lurie, who made the cut in the directors branch, along with last year’s big winner Danny Boyle and animator Henry Selick, among others. And another tip of the hat to Clint Mansell (robbed blind for his “Fountain” score two years ago), who joined the composers’ ranks along with Peter Gabriel (another guy I figured would have been in long ago) and last year’s winner in both music categories, A.R. Rahman.
Neither here nor there, since now we’re getting to inside baseball, but a big shout-out to Paramount’s Megan Colligan, who was allowed passage in the public relations arena.
Check out the full list after the jump.
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Stumping for Molina in ‘An Education’
I’m late to the table in some sense given that Lone Sherfig’s “An Education” dazzled audiences five months ago at the Sundance Film Festival. But after catching the film last night, I was left with one mission: spread the word on Alfred Molina.Most of the end-of-year awards talk will surely surround Carey Mulligan’s absolutely peerless and incredibly refined leading performance, as well it should. She won’t need much of a boost into the Oscar race when people get a load of what she has to offer here. But I’m circling the wagons for Molina, whose portrayal of a concerned father of the era is, not to put too fine a point on it, the work of a master.
Molina has no showy moment. He has nothing you would say represents a classic “Oscar clip.” But truly, when has he? This is an actor, still without proper recognition from the Academy, who has delivered time after time, from “Boogie Nights” to “Frida” (his one brush with the derby) to “The Hoax” and even blockbuster fare such as “Spider-Man 2.” And in “An Education,” he’s at the top of his game. I was more affected by his subtle additions to the film than I expected and that, I’d say, is the hallmark of an accomplished supporting performance.
