With Antichrist getting near the top of my favorite films last year and Penélope Cruz still tops in my annual shallow list (coming soon), it’s with great delight we learn that she’ll likely be starring in Lars Von Trier’s next film: Melancholia.
Yesterday, on Danish television the controversial director told the public he indeed has been thinking about Cruz for the lead in this role for quite some time.
More interesting than the casting decision however is the plot summary for the film in which a rogue planet (Planet Melancholia) looms ever closer to colliding with Earth. Rather than a big budget effects bonanza however, anyone familiar with Von Trier’s work understands this will be much more of a “psycholigcal drama” with “no more happy endings.” I’m not sure how it could be any more twisted or psychologically brutal than Antichrist, but if anyone can do it, it’s probably going to be Von Trier. It’ll be fun to watch how the relatively meek Cruz handles working with the notoriously misogynistic director.
With a modest budget of only $5 million, no announcements have been made as far as shooting schedules are concerned, but Sweden and Germany have been named as principal shooting locations. Some are hoping for a completion target that will have the film ready to go by next year’s Cannes Film Fest.
While Adam Green is arriving a bit late to the party of the ‘foolish young suburbanites have no damn respect for the wilderness‘ subgenre, trail-blazed with 1999s The Blair Witch Project and blossomed a couple years after with Open Water, The Descent and The Ruins (I supposed to a higher brow audience Grizzly Man and Into The Wild), there is no doubt that he makes the most of his kick at the can. Thoroughly milking the concept of three friends stranded very high up on a ski lift after the resort has closed for the week(!) he creates a sense of believability in the situation, a lot of tension and moments of wince-inducing horror. Using a fair bit of restraint – something that was lacking in the fanboy homage, Hatchet, and uneven psycho-drama, Spiral – along with location shooting, and very, very convincing wolves, Green can be proud that there will be a lot of nervous people on chair-lifts if they stutter or shake or stop, particularly during a lonely night ski.
I can’t think of the last time that I read or saw a Bill Murray interview, but he did a very interesting one with mailonsunday that has been making the rounds, large in part due to a confirmation of a Ghostbusters rumor that has been floating around (don’t read on if you don’t want to know the potential spoiler). You should definitely read through the whole interview, but I’ll highlight the parts that I found the most interesting below.
On Awards
“I don’t approve of awards ceremonies. I should never have attended the Oscars (when he was nominated for Lost In Translation but lost to Sean Penn). I was angry at myself. Comedy never gets the Oscar. Groundhog Day was one of the greatest scripts ever written. It didn’t even get nominated for an Academy Award. And a movie called Dave won, which was a rehash of a movie about a Spanish dictator who died and had an actor replace him. How can that be the best original screenplay? Laughter and the lighter moments of life always seem easy to deliver. I don’t expect those giving out the awards to understand.” [My Note: While nominated, Dave actually didn't win Best Original Screenplay that year, but rather The Piano did]
On Working With Him
“People say I’m difficult and sometimes that’s a badge of honour. At work I’m just nothing but trouble with anything I don’t want to do. And I fired my agents. I said I didn’t ever want to speak to them again, and I never did. It saved me money but mostly it stopped the irritation of the endless phone calls. … If you are working with me and you are unprofessional I will dismiss you completely. When our relationship is professional, and you’re not doing what you’re supposed to, forget it.”
On Ghostbusters
“I almost felt like I could quit after Broken Flowers in 2005. I thought that was as good as I could do and I should stop. I’ll come back in Ghostbusters III only if I get to be a ghost. I said to them, ‘I’ll do it if you kill me off in the first reel.’ So now they are going to have me as a ghost in the film. The first 45 minutes of the original Ghostbusters is some of the funniest stuff ever made. The second one was disappointing, because the special-effects guys took over. I had something like two scenes – and they’re the only funny ones in the movie.”
The news about Ghostbusters hits a little hard, seeing as the first movie is probably my favorite comedy of all time, mostly due to Bill Murray’s portrayal as Peter Venkman. The entire idea of him in the movie as a ghost is not just unappealing, but sounds disastrous in a Crystal Skull sequel kind of way that I really don’t want much part of. Either way, I found the interview surprisingly candid and very interesting. I love this guy.
Color me disappointed. Granted, I shouldn’t have expected very much, with this essentially being a fifteen minute commercial for Homeaway.com, but when I was sent this short film sequel to the Clark Griswold Vacation series, I was hoping for a little of the magic that the previous movies had. The original Vacation and Christmas Vacation are still two of my favorite comedies – it’s tough to beat Chevy Chase and his comedic timing in his prime (unless you’re Bill Murray in his prime, of course). It seems like they used all of their money up on their 30-second Super Bowl spot though, resulting in some cheap production, haphazard editing, and plain unfunny writing.
I know, I know. I shouldn’t have had any expectations for this sort of thing, especially considering it is more or less a commercial and Chase hasn’t starred in a funny movie since the 80s, but hey… give me a break. I’m an optimist. It’s my curse.
I have been following the goodness of Belgian neo-giallo, Amer, over at Twitch for some time now, it is one of my most anticipated films of 2010 (more on that later). The recent (and apparently final) trailer just makes me hungrier for it to leave the festival circuit and hit theatres (or at least import-able DVD), as it could be this years House of the Devil for its ability to evoke another era of filmmaking and take itself very seriously in the process.
Desire has always been linked to one’s look. And cinema too. Luis Buñuel knew that very well when he filmed the short of a razor over an eye with a detail shot. Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani recover this image in an experimental film with immaculate style. Someone watches a girl through a keyhole. The wind lightly lifts a woman’s skirt as a group of men look on. The fantasy of a dress tearing. Composed of fragments -of eyes, lights, shadows, gestures– and without dialogues, Amer delves into the life of Ana, always halfway between the real and the imaginary. A film of sensations, always shot skin-deep.
TCM continues their Oscar-nominated month, bringing us a few choices we haven’t featured before, including Sophie’s Choice, which we all hope we never have to make, plus Bananas, The Graduate, and Chinatown. Also, IFC has a chance to catch up with or re-visit Soderbergh’s Solaris. Some other great repeats, especially on Sunday, when it looks like TCM is trying for a stranglehold on my schedule.
Monday, February 8
9:15am – TCM – Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Frank Capra puts on his idealist hat to tell the story of Jefferson Smith (James Stewart), an inexperienced young man appointed as a junior senator because the corrupt senior senator thinks he’ll be easy to control. But Smith doesn’t toe the party line, instead launching a filibuster for what he believes in. Wonderful comedienne Jean Arthur is the journalist who initially encourages Smith so she can get a great story from his seemingly inevitable downfall, but soon joins his cause. 1939 USA. Director: Frank Capra. Starring: James Stewart, Jean Arthur, Claude Rains, Eugene Pallette, Thomas Mitchell. Must See
12:15am (9th) – TCM – Sophie’s Choice
Meryl Streep’s second Oscar came for this film, playing an Auschwitz survivor who was forced to make an impossible choice. 1982 USA. Director: Alan J. Pakula. Starring: Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, Peter MacNicol. Newly Featured!
5:30pm – IFC – Bananas
One of Woody Allen’s earlier films, when he was still in full-on crazy comedy mode. This time around, he rebounds from a bad break-up by heading to South America to become involved in a rebellion in a banana republic. 1971 USA. Director: Woody Allen. Starring: Woody Allen, Louise Lasser, Carlos Montalban. Newly Featured!
An afternoon visit to my local video store (the most excellent Videoflicks) made me think about the 2006 film Ten Nights Of Dreams. Not because they had it featured anywhere (it’s sadly not well known), but because I came across the new release of another omnibus film – the recent New York, I Love You. While others in these parts quite enjoyed that film, I’m still smarting from the work in progress print I saw over a year ago. It made me think of, in my opinion, a much better omnibus film…
Written by author Natsume Soseki as a series of ten short stories, the fantastical dreams of Ten Nights Of Dreams cover a wealth of fleeting moments and feelings via different styles and tones. Soseki became quite an accomplished and famous author in his relatively short life – succumbing to a stomach ulcer at the age of 49, he still wrote very popular Japanese novels such as “Botchan” and “I Am A Cat” – and was granted the honour of appearing on the 1000 Yen bank note from 1984-2004. He must have been drawn to the device of using dreams for these stories, because it lets him dabble across a variety of different themes without really having to be concerned about specific plot or character continuity. That’s not to say that there’s no structure to the individual stories, but be prepared to just let yourself float with each individual director’s visualization of their interpretation of Soseki’s writing.
Canadian director Trevor Cawood is probably ecstatic to know that a feature-length adaptation of his short film Terminus is being penned by District 9 screenwriter Terri Tatchell. I’m not sure how they’re going to get two-hours out of this concept, but the short film is pretty damn awesome. Check it out below and be sure to leave your thoughts in the comments.
Hopefully you’re not getting too tired of comic book movies yet, because here comes one that looks to be a little off the beaten path. It’s an adaptation of Jacques Tardi’s comic Les Aventures extraordinaires d’Adèle Blanc-Sec, about an early twentieth-century woman who turns from writing novels to investigating mystical crimes. Luc Besson is directing the film version, and the first trailer has just been released in advance of its April 14, 2010 French release.
Looks like they’re playing up Adèle Blanc-Sec as an adventurer looking into a supernatural danger, with a lot of Indiana Jones-esque touches. The trailer and description make me think a bit of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, which doesn’t sound like a good thing if you’re thinking of the craptastic film, but the original comic series is quite good. I certainly hope that Besson is able to make this into a fun, entertaining romp that we’ll be eagerly awaiting on our shores. In any case, I’m always up for adventure/mystery stories with strong female protagonists.
Thanks to Quiet Earth (and Marina!) for alerting us to this. Trailer after the jump.
If you have yet to check out Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s experimental filmmaking community, which he now says has evolved into a “full-fledged professional collaborative production company,” then you’re missing out. It’s been around a few years and I’ve been following it since the beginning, when it was little more than a few videos posted by Joe and a forum where others could post and discuss their work. For a while now, they’ve been collaboratively working on a short film titled Morgan M. Morgansen’s Date with Destiny, which Joe took to Sundance this year to screen as an example of the possibilities that the collaborative internet process of bringing minds from all over the world together creates.
On his site where he posted the video, Joe talked about the experience:
Albert proposed an off-kilter writing exercise, and then Metaphorest’s beautifully strange short story inspired it all. I read the story aloud, Jenyffer.Maria started drawing the characters, Tori animated Jen’s drawings, Lula and I did a live-action rendition, Lawrie Brewster took the project to soaring heights with his gorgeous visuals, and along the way there was the help, encouragement and roughly 180 contributions from throughout our community. We brought it to Sundance, and Nathan coaxed the lush and vast music out of the newly coined hitRECorchestra. (Good_Girl_Indie has written out a fabulously detailed timeline documenting what happened and when along this RECord’s progression.)
Not only did we close our (two) official hitRECord screening(s) in the New Frontier Microcinema with this piece, but the next day, Sundance added it as a short film to play before the award-winning feature HOMEWRECKER on a much bigger screen.
In a pre-youtube age, Ethan Mather made a series of smile-worthy and observative mini-films called simply “Sodapop.” For each under-a-minute-in-length film, the gag was that of someone opening a can of soda in the auteur stylings of multiple different directors (Woody Allen, David Lynch, Martin Scorsese). Taking the same concept, more than a decade later, and applying to the Superbowl broadcast, is this winner of a video from director Andrew Bouvé, featuring Quentin Tarantino, David Lynch, Wes Anderson, Jean-Luc Godard, and Werner Herzog.
Hattip to MovieCityIndie. Video is tucked under the seat.
If you want to watch it onl1ne for free,...
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