CLOUD ATLAS - Flawed, yes, but a massive storytelling effort that’s impossible to dismiss.
...I See Frants
In 1999, when I was a senior in college, pursuing a Bachelor’s in Drama, I directed three Samuel Beckett one-act plays in an evening called Solitude (Act Without Words II, What Where, & Krapp’s Last Tape). Here are the first two paragraphs of my director’s notes:
When I was about eleven years old, I was looking through a book about space, and I came upon a picture of an astronaut spacewalking. The only thing in the frame was the man, the Earth, and infinite blackness. I had seen a million pictures like it before, I was an astronomy nut as a kid, but something struck me with this one. I imagined what it would be like if everyone on Earth disappeared while he was on his spacewalk: I imagined the man, floating in space, suddenly being the only living person within trillions of miles. “Houston, are you there?………….. Houston?”
I started to cry; an eleven year old astronomy lover was crying over a picture of an astronaut. It was then I realized that I had a fear of being alone. Physically, emotionally, any kind of being alone. I thought I was afraid of the dark, but only, I discovered, when I was by myself. It is a fear that I still carry with me, if to a lesser degree.
Fast forward to today. One of my favorite films ever is Alfonso Cuaron’s Children of Men, and his next film, Gravity, I have been dying to see for just about ever (it comes out, fittingly enough, on my birthday: Oct 4).
Here’s the first teaser, and as you can imagine, reading the little blurb up above from 22-year old Frants, it’s already getting to me. The idea of Cuaron’s long, masterful camerawork, his skill at isolating a character against such an enormity of a task. And of course, the very trailer opens with a piece of music that always punches me in the feeling places, Arvo Part’s ”Spiegel im Spiegel” (see also: trailer for Gerry, Mike Nichols’ Wit).
This film may devastate me. Yes yes yes please.
An even better version of the concept I enjoyed with the webgame Pursued last month, this one is called GeoGuessr. Plops you down into Street View somewhere in the world, and you have to click around looking for clues as to where you are. Once you have an idea, you drop a pin on the map and make a guess. It gives you points based on how close you get it.
Addictive. No cheating!!
(h/t Kottke)
Love love love today’s Google Doodle honoring the 93rd birthday of the great Saul Bass.
JACK REACHER - Chris McQuarrie won an Oscar for his Usual Suspects script. But what he really wants to do is direct Tom Cruise.
MAMA - The initial short film version of this scared my socks off almost two years ago. Still sockless, and haven’t seen this one yet.
UPSTREAM COLOR - The creator of Primer finally returns with a movie I’ve heard nothing but bizarre things about. As expected.
Saw one of the greatest epics of all time yesterday, finally on the big screen. And what a big screen: Hollywood’s famous Cinerama Dome, built to showcase crazy big films such as this. Complete with orchestral overture, blue curtains opening on the Columbia logo, and a full intermission.
Glorious. The best way to see this film, by far.
I had forgotten all about these. They. Were. Awesome.
Happy Star Wars Day. May the 4th Be With You.
This may be my favorite part of the fantastic 1972 film Cabaret. It literally gives me goosebumps every time I see it. The way the song begins with a handsome blonde boy singing about the future. It starts sounding pretty good, and so some people join in. And some others. By the end, the entire German beer garden is singing at the top of their lungs - save for the old men who’ve already seen one war.
Contrasted with the shunning a few uniformed Nazis get at the club in the beginning of the film, this scene has a chilling momentum to it.
I do so love Nick and Nora Charles…
(Source: ruthgilmartin)
SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK - A well-acted rom-com that’s been cleverly “mis-cast”. Won Lawrence a Best Actress statue.
Music from today, dancing from yesterday.
I kinda dig it.
This is how you open a movie: a quiet plantation house outside Singapore. All the workers lounge in their barracks, when GUNSHOT. Out of the main house stumbles a man, injured, trying to escape. He’s followed by a calm Bette Davis, holding a handgun, which she fires again and again into his back. She stands over his dead body as the workers run up.
What could have turned into a spurned lover melodrama instead becomes a deliciously fun noir, directed by the great William Wyler (Mrs. Miniver, Roman Holiday). Instead of a flashback, we hear her tale of what happened. Her lawyer prepares for her easy trial, her husband is ready to take her away from all of it. Unfortunately, the lawyer’s odd little assistant has some news: there is a letter, presumably written by Davis to the dead man, asking him to come over that very night. Uh oh.
It’s wonderfully acted, skillfully shot and photographed. There’s always someone lurking in the shadows, some new twist on its way. These are the kinds of roles Davis was born to play, those wide eyes ever so slightly betraying a dark secret. It was nominated for 7 Academy Awards, including Actress, Director, and Cinematography. A high recommend.
LILLY TURNER
This 1933 Pre-Code drama, directed by the great William Wellman, stars one of the more notable early sound-era actresses, Ruth Chatterton. She’s not “movie star beautiful”, but she brings with her a strength and natural charm that earned her quite the career (see Frisco Jenny and Female).
This film is an unfortunate jumble of scenes, seemingly put together simply to allow the female character to get wooed and screwed over multiple times in 77 minutes. Chatterton plays the title character, and as the film opens she’s marrying an actor from New York City. Once married, he admits he doesn’t have much of a career, and takes a job as a magician in a travelling circus. Once Lilly’s knocked up, she learns her ‘husband’ has been married already, and is wanted for bigamy. So she marries the drunk carnival barker (admittedly, he’s good to her, despite his alcohol), loses the baby (not on purpose), and joins a travelling medicine man selling miracle tonic. The strongman falls for her, the medicine man falls for her, a cabbie falls for her. It’s very choppy, from one wooing to the next, as she sasses back and smokes cigarettes and gives looks.
Chatterton, as always, is wonderful to watch. But Wellman’s done better (let’s be fair to the man, this is one of SIX features he made in 1933, including the very good Wild Boys of the Road). Overall, not as racy a Pre-Code as you could find, a thin story spread across too many scenes.
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Love the way this older building is hanging in there amidst blocks and blocks of steel and glass.
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I don’t normally do the whole GIF thing, but… c’mon.
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dorothybrocks asked: Hey! I just wanted to say that I had never heard of Clue until you started posting it. I watched it for the first time last week and now I'm obsessed so thank you for introducing me to that perfect movie! :)
YAY! Aww this makes me so happy I just want everyone to watch it and have fun haha Thank you so much for telling me!
