Master of gore and horror Dario Argento is at it again. This time he’s decided on a pallet of yellow, black and red and though it doesn’t look like the film is quite as stylized as Suspiria, I really dig the poster for Argento’s upcoming film Giallo.
The film stars Adrien Brody as an Italian detective who teams up with a stewardess to find her sister who has been abducted by a maniacal serial killer known only as “Yellow”. I don’t think things can really get any worse than Argento’s last debacle Mother of Tears (our review), so I’m hopeful that this will actually be a step forward in the right direction.
/Film has tracked down the first few photos from the production and though I’m not holding my breath, they certainly look promising. I just hope it’s not an entire year before we actually get to see the film.
I’ve posted a few photos under the seat and a few more can be found at the official website.
Crispin Glover is an interesting character. Not your typical leading man, he has managed to make a career for himself as an actor who takes on oddball and strange rolls and alongside his fairly eclectic hobbies, he’s developed an almost cult-like following.
I’ve never been a huge follower of Glover’s but he’s a bit of an enigma and that holds some appeal for me and apparently for a whole load of other folks. Glover is currently touring “Crispin Hellion Glover’s Big Slide Show” which features a one hour slide show presentation, a screening of one of his films and then a Q&A. The show will make a stop in Vancouver for a three night engagement at the Pacific Cinémathèque on July 18th, 19th and 20th and will feature a screening of his directorial debut What Is It?. For a mere $20, you too can be enlightened by Mr. Glover.
I plan on being there, opening night, to take in the spectacle and maybe, just maybe, have a moment to corner Mr. Glover for a quick chat. Wish me luck. In the meantime, be sure to check out the strange trailer for the film tucked under the seat!
The Academy has never really taken a liking to superhero movies. And probably rightfully so. I have plenty of fun watching the likes of Batman Begins, Spider-Man, X-Men, and Hellboy, but never once have I thought to myself, “Ooooh, Tobey Maguire could get a Best Actor nod” or “Man, I think X2 might be Best Picture material.”
Yet, I’ve been convinced since seeing the first footage of Ledger as the The Joker that he was going to win himself a posthumous Oscar and I’ve stood by that ever since. Yeah, sure, so no other competition for the Best Supporting Actor award will come around until the Fall at the earliest, so it’s pretty silly even making such a prediction since it’s impossible to judge what his competition will be, but I stand by my statement - and it looks like those that are finally actually seeing the film are agreeing here.
Here’s just a few excerpts about Ledger’s performance from recent early reviews
Sara Stewart - The New York Post “Ledger’s green-haired fiend overshadowed all of them [his co-stars], from the first moment he appeared onscreen … In this flick, Ledger showed us what a masterful actor he was - certainly deserving of a posthumous Oscar nomination. … [I]t’s Ledger’s performance that clearly completes the movie.”
Peter Travers - The Rolling Stone “I can only speak superlatives of Ledger, who is mad-crazy-blazing brilliant as the Joker. Miles from Jack Nicholson’s broadly funny take on the role in Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman, Ledger takes the role to the shadows, where even what’s comic is hardly a relief. … If there’s a movement to get him the first posthumous Oscar since Peter Finch won for 1976’s Network, sign me up.”
Kevin Smith - Filmmaker “Heath Ledger didn’t so much give a performance as he disappeared completely into the role; I know I’m not the first to suggest this, but he’ll likely get at least an Oscar nod (if not the win) for Best Supporting Actor.”
Todd Gilchrist - IGN “Finally, there’s Ledger, whose performance I suspect will be the subject of many analyses of all sorts in the weeks and months to come. What he does with The Joker is, quite frankly, nothing short of transcendent. … [Y]ou realize that Ledger was a master of his craft, only in his final years finding roles that truly offered him the chance to explore that mastery. His is the definitive movie Joker, and he owns the role and achieves a level of abject insanity that is terrifying as it is irresistible.”
So, can his performance really live up to this hype? If not a win, does Ledger have a nomination locked? Only time will tell - and us less privileged only have a few more weeks until we can make up our own minds.
A day late, but that’s the sunny Canadian weather for you. While the onset of summer has gotten a few us out in the sunshine more and in the living room, consuming DVDs less, There is still plenty of films we have been watching that never made it into their own column or article. We gather these in the “Movies We Watched” subsection (link on sidebar), complete with a little blurb for you to chew on. Here is the last week and change:
The Guatemalan Handshake (2006) 3.5/5
If David Gordon Green’s All The Real Girls had a lovechild with Napoleon Dynamite you’d get the slice-of-life with stylized touches that is Todd Rohal’s debut film about lonely souls looking for something they’ve lost. The gorgeous colours pop off the screen on this one, and it is optimistic and funny as it is strange. - KURT
Viagem ao Princípio do Mundo (1997) 4.5/5
Dedicated to Marcello Mastroianni and featuring the master actor’s last performance, “Voyage” encapsulates memories, perceptions, history and emotion into a quiet, deliberately paced story of a trope of actors and a director (said to be partly biographic of Oliveira himself) on a quest. One actor is in search of an aunt he’s never met and along the way, the Portuguese director reminisces about his past, sharing memories of what was in parallel to what is and along the way, the group discuss everything from the importance and relevance of memories to mortality. The triumph of this film comes in the last twenty minutes when we meet the old aunt and learn of the hardships of life in the Portuguese countryside. It’s emotional and poignant. - MARINA
Aniki Bóbó (1942) 4/5
Manoel de Oliveira’s first full length feature is a charming cautionary tale of what happens when you don’t do the right thing. It’s also a gorgeous film documenting a time, place and way of life, in this case early 40’s Porto, of the past. The film’s message is wonderfully displayed with little exposition and the result is a story in which the actions speak louder than any words. A little seen classic. - MARINA
Duel (1971) 4.5/5
Spielberg’s first feature film shows exactly why he became the genius that he did. With probably no budget, Spielberg put together this terrific psychological thriller on wheels. Sort of “Two-Lane Blacktop” meets “Falling Down” meets “Psycho.” Shot completely on location in 12 days with kick-ass angles and stylistic shots is awesome. If you took away all the CGI from Spielberg so that this is the kind of thing you get, I want more! Oh yes, and the special edition DVD has the closest thing you’ll find to a Spielberg commentary. - ANDREW
Ghosts of Mars (2001) 1.5/5
Even by John Carpenter’s semi-campy, b-movie-esque standards, this movie is pretty awful. I actually wasn’t able to watch it all in one sitting. No joke it took me 4 nights of viewings to get through it. Pretty poor acting, HORRIBLE fight choreography and laughable set design. Hell, the storyline itself was basically a futuristic rip-off of “Assault on Precinct 13.” The villains look kind of cool and Natasha Henstridge is hot, but otherwise I recommend Dave skip this one in his John Carpenter series on the site. It’s not worth the pain. - ANDREW
The Other Boleyn Girl (2008) 3/5
I’ve come to notice that I don’t care for a movie without at least one character with redeeming qualities. “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolfe” and “Margot at the Wedding” spring to mind. I can now include “The Other Boleyn Girl” to that list. Despite some nice acting, lovely sets, amazing costuming and some pretty exceptional cinematography, every character in the story is completely despicable. I can understand why some people would be fine with that and still love the movie, but for me, it just makes the already slightly bumpy (although dramatic) storyline nearly intolerable. - ANDREW
The Signal (2007) 2.5/5
Broken into three parts by three different directors, to say the film’s transitions are jarring is an understatement. To be swept up within each segment is easy, to be ripped from the experience and thrust into something unwanted is even easier — and an unwelcome experience. By the end I just didn’t care. The first and second segments do have potential if they were to each stand on their own as a feature film however. - ANDREW
I‘m going to out myself as a huge and I mean huge James Bond fan. I’ve read several of the books but for me it is the movies that count. There has only been one Bond movie that I did not thoroughly enjoy and that is Thunderball. Yes, that means I even enjoyed the later Brosnon ones where technology got way out of hand and also the Roger Moore where humour got way out of hand. I know I’ve got a serious case of nostalgia going on and that I have a hard time recognizing what is wrong in each movie but so what everyone needs something they gush about.
So you can bet that I’m pretty damn happy about the new Quantum of Solace trailer that has just come out. I really enjoyed Casino Royale and I can now say that I really like the look of this new trailer. Daniel Craig may not be at the level of Connery yet but he sure is approaching it and after one or two more Bond movies he may very well become my favorite Bond.
You can also check out the Quantum of Solace trailer in High Definition at AOL
Now, the latest installment of Hidden Treasures. At the suggestion of some of the Row Three community (OK, it was Henrik), I’m toying with a new format. Please let me know what you think of it.
Django (1966)
Played by Franco Nero, the title character of Sergio Corbucci’s 1966 film, Django, is just about as textbook-perfect a spaghetti western gunslinger as you can get; a man as quick with a gun as he is short on conversation. In fact, the only thing that sets Django apart from other heroes of this genre is his traveling companion, which just happens to be a coffin. As the opening titles of Django play out, our hero is seen dragging this coffin behind him, through the mud and up a steep hill. As character introductions go, this one’s hard to top.
Within moments of his (and his coffin’s) arrival in a Mexican border town, Django finds himself in the middle of an ongoing feud between two murderous mobs. On one side are the local Mexican bandits, led by the ruthless General Hugo Rodriguez (José Bódalo), and on the other a crew of American Confederate soldiers under the command of Major Jackson (Eduardo Fajardo). As is the case with most such feuds, gun battles often break out in the middle of town, where innocent civilians inadvertently serve as target practice. What neither side counted on, however, was Django, who’s blazing guns and badass attitude show no favorites when it comes to dishing out his own unique brand of justice.
As mentioned above, Django has all the makings of a great Spaghetti western hero, yet like all such films, his heroics wouldn’t amount to much if it weren’t for the lowlifes on the other side of his gun. In Django we’re given two strong adversaries, the first of which is Major Jackson, a bigoted Confederate Army officer with a hatred for all things Mexican. The second baddie, General Rodriguez, proves just as brutal as his American counterpart, and even cuts the ear off a man he accuses of spying for Jackson. At the outset, Django and Rodriguez appear to be friends, yet friendships like theirs aren’t destined to last very long.
Due to its excessive violence, Django was banned outright in many countries, with the MPAA refusing to issue it a rating upon its release in the United States. With one or two exceptions, the violence in Django is tame compared to what can be seen in movies today, yet what hasn’t dissipated with time is this film’s exhilarating style, heightened by a handful of incredible gunfights. With action and excitement aplenty, Django takes its rightful place as one of the best the Spaghetti Western genre has to offer…
…Coffin and all.
Owning Mahowney (2003)
Dan Mahowney (Philip Seymour Hoffman) works as an assistant manager for a large Toronto-based bank. With his low-key mannerisms, he is the consummate professional, a man who serves his customers while keeping a sharp eye on the bank’s bottom line. He is smart, well respected, and someone you can depend on to get the job done. Dan Mahowney is also a compulsive gambler, one who has embezzled over $10 million from his employers to feed a habit he can no longer control. Owning Mahowney, directed by Richard Kwietniowski, tells both sides of his story.
Based on an actual event that occurred in Toronto in the early 1980’s, Owning Mahowney is the detailed study of a man who lived two lives, that is until the day one of those lives finally took control of the other. At first, Mahowney successfully concealed his addictions from those closest to him, including his girlfriend, Belinda (Minnie Driver), who never once suspected that the man she loved flew to Atlantic City every weekend, dropped tens of thousands of dollars, then returned home to her. In fact, Mahowney became such a regular at one casino that its President, Victor Foss (John Hurt), took to treating Mahowney as if he were a member of the royal family. Yet as his notoriety as a gambler grew, so did the danger that his world would come crashing down around him.
Philip Seymour Hoffman gives a remarkably reserved performance as Mahowney, a man who had perfected his poker face to the point he wore it 24 hours a day, seven days a week. He loved the thrill of the odds, and this love became so addicting that it extended beyond the personal to his professional life as well. He started by slyly withdraws millions against the loan account of the bank’s biggest customer. Then, to get his hands on even more money, Mahowney creates a fictitious loan account, gives it his personal approval, and begins withdrawing heavily from it as well. Having made a career as a shrewd, careful administrator, Mahowney was now taking staggering risks. Dan Mahowney the professional was slowly disappearing, and Dan Mahowney the gambler was moving in full-time.
The chances that the title character takes in Owning Mahowney, both at and away from the gambling table, will have you cringing. Yet while Dan Mahowney certainly lost control of his life, we come away believing that, in the end, it was a sacrifice he was more than willing to make. For Mahowney, gambling meant living, and every moment he spent away from his obsession was a moment wasted.
In the end, he wasn’t wasting any time at all.
Northfork (2003)
Written and directed by brothers Mark and Michael Polish, Northfork is the kind of movie I adore, a film brave enough to introduce fantasy into a realistic setting as it simultaneously balances elements of both comedy and drama. Whether you want to laugh, cry, or simply be amazed, you’ll find what you’re looking for in Northfork.
It’s 1955, and the good citizens of the town of Northfork have been asked to abandon their homes to make way for a new hydroelectric dam, which will flood the town once it becomes fully operational. Yet despite repeated warnings, not everyone has left Northfork, and it falls to a small group of men in black suits to make sure those who remain leave before it’s too late. Among these men is Walter O’Brien (James Woods) and his son, Willis (Mark Polish), who, along with the others, are promised tracts of land in a brand new community as a reward for performing this most difficult of tasks. As they’re quick to learn, however, many who remain in Northfork are determined to stay at all costs. Father Harlan (Nick Nolte) is one such person, who’s remained in Northfork mostly because he’s too busy caring for a dying young boy named Irwin (Duel Farnes) to even think of moving. As father Harlan has come to realize, Irwin is a very special child. While lapsing in and out of consciousness, Irwin experiences visions that have him convinced he’s the long-lost Angel of Northfork. In fact, a small band of actual angels have themselves just arrived in Northfork, looking to investigate Irwin’s ‘divine’ claim.
Elements of several genres show their face throughout Northfork. First off, there’s the dramatic, on both a grand scale (the loss of the town) and a more personal one (the illness of young Irwin). In fact, the film’s dramatic moments, which I found to be so very powerful, are themselves enough to transform Northfork into an unforgettable cinematic experience. But then there’s comedy as well, perpetrated mostly by the men in black suits during their various run-ins with Northfork’s most stubborn citizens. One such resident, Mr. Stalling (Marshall Bell), isn’t leaving because he believes he’s properly prepared for the coming floodwaters; he’s transformed his house into an Ark. While Mr. Stalling didn’t have enough time to gather 2 giraffes, 2 tigers or even 2 chickens, he was at least able to rustle himself up two wives. Finally, and perhaps most impressive, is Northfork’s sense of fantasy, presented within the story of Irwin and his four angel friends. One of these four, an angel named Flower Hercules (Daryl Hannah), believes Irwin is, indeed, the lost angel of Northfork, while her accomplices, such as Cup of Tea (Robin Sachs) and Happy (Anthony Edwards), have their doubts (the fourth angel, Cod, played by Ben Foster, may or may not agree; we never know for sure because he never speaks). The imagery surrounding these angelic characters is inspiring, and the various scenes they appear in challenge us time and again to accept the incredible, even when presented within the context of this story’s reality.
With Northfork, the Polish brothers have successfully combined fantastical whimsy with the everyday humdrum, at times leaving us to wonder where the whimsy begins and the humdrum ends. Films like Northfork carry with them the promise of marvelous possibilities lurking around every corner, and I, for one, loved this particular journey to uncover them.
I was in the middle of tracking down trailers for the upcoming “Trailer Roundup” but I simply couldn’t just throw this one into the mix. It’s deserving of its very own post of rambling love and excitement.
I’m not a particularly big fan of the Saw franchise and frankly, I didn’t have a lot of hope for a new film from the director who took over the franchise at number two when the original director wanted nothing more to do with the films. Director Darren Lynn Bousman has made a couple of entries into the Saw franchise but he’s also not sitting around for yet another call from Lionsgate for the next film. Instead, he set off to make his own twisted vision Repo! The Genetic Opera, a modern rock opera set in a future where people are repossessed when they can’t pay for their organs.
It sounded interesting enough and with a cast which includes Paul Sorvino, Sarah Brightman, Bill Moseley and Anthony Head, I was definitely curious. So curious, in fact, that a while back I posted what appeared to be the first teaser for the film. The then scheduled release date has come and gone with no film but now we have a newly minted trailer and release date to gush over.
I have a feeling the film is going to have limited appeal but it certainly tickles me. I absolutely love this trailer, even in its sad quality. I love the title cards which look like war propaganda, the music, the sets and the costumes. The trailer reminds me of Moulin Rouge! on an acid trip gone wrong. I’m ready to see this next weekend (this weekend is a little overbooked with Wanted (our review) and Wall-E).
Repo! The Genetic Opera is scheduled to open August 8th.
Asian movie posters, actually change that many foreign movie posters seem much more interesting than the domestic ones we are used to. This one is for a Korean movie that came out a while ago but it amused the hell out of me since it doesn’t really match up with the tone of the movie.
I decided to have a little bit of fun and see if anyone could figure out what movie it is from.
Like most people, I love to read. Yet my passion for the written word has become, shall we say, much more “focused” in recent years. In short, I love books about movies (of the non-fiction variety), and I read as many as I can throughout the course of a year; everything from the history of the French New Wave to Roger Corman biographies. For me, spending time with these books is like having another cinematic avenue to explore, and I love them for it.
This brings us to this post you’re now reading. Every once in a while, as I’m perusing one of the books in my collection, I come across a passage, quote or story that I feel is worth sharing; something that I think others might enjoy as well. Seeing as I’m the only film fanatic I know in my neighborhood (when it comes to cinephiles, my little corner of Pennsylvania is a barren wasteland), the most logical option available is to share these excerpts with the Row Three community.
My plan is to make this a weekly posting (I’ve stumbled across enough interesting tidbits over the course of the last several years to warrant a daily one, but who has time for that?). I welcome all feedback, and would also appreciate any book recommendations you’d care to throw my way.
For this first installment, I offer an excerpt from “Samuel Fuller: A Third Face”, an autobiography written by Fuller (with some help from his wife, Christa Lang Fuller, as well as Jerome Henry Rudes) and published by Applause.
Samuel Fuller has always been a favorite director of mine, but as this autobiography reveals, his life outside of movies was equally as fascinating. He worked in the newspaper industry from the time he was a young teenager, starting as a copy boy until eventually working his way up to crime reporter, a job he learned to love. Then, at the outbreak of World War II, Fuller enlisted in the U.S. Army, and saw more than his share of combat as a private serving in the Big Red One (his 1980 film of that name dramatizes many of his actual adventures). Following the war, he went west to Hollywood, where he worked as a screenwriter until getting his first break at directing (a small film about Robert Ford, titled I Shot Jesse James). The rest, as they say, is history.
This particular passage from “A Third Face” takes place shortly after Fuller had directed his two cult classics, Shock Corridor and The Naked Kiss. It’s the mid-1960’s, and Fuller’s just moved to France to work on a screenplay for two independent producers (which would never see the light of day). While there, Fuller was introduced to several young filmmakers of the French New Wave, all of whom absolutely loved his films. In fact, one particular filmmaker was such a fan that he asked Fuller to make a cameo in his upcoming movie.
“As I continued my stroll along the Champs Elysées, a young man came up to me and introduced himself as a writer for Cahiers du Cinema, I think, Luc Moullet. I was happy to meet him because he worked for a helluva movie magazine. He invited me for a drink in the bar at Fouquet’s. Moullet pulled out a recent issue of Cahiers with an article by Jean-Luc Godard calling Shock Corridor a ‘masterpiece of barbarian cinema’. I didn’t know what the hell that meant, but I was happy if it helped sell tickets. By then Godard had successfully made the transition from critic to New Wave director, with Breathless (A bout de Souffle, 1961) and Contempt (Le Mepris, 1963). Godard was still contributing reviews. Moullet wanted to set up a dinner so Jean-Luc and I could meet.
About a week later, I showed up at Brasserie Lipp, just across from the Café Flor on St. Germaine des Près. Godard and (Andre) Bazin were already sitting at a table by the window. With his thick black glasses, long curly hair, black beret, and Gaullois hanging off his bottom lip, Jean-Luc looked like Central Casting’s choice for the role of ‘young French intellectual eccentric”. Being eccentric was the only thing Godard and I had in common. Otherwise, we were really opposites, me coming out of a working-class background, Godard from an upper-class Swiss family whose money allowed him the luxury of bucking the French establishment. I was prone to excess, while Jean-Luc was a minimalist. I liked the guy, but certainly not because he told me how much my films had influenced him. I laughed at that influence crap. Let’s face it; Godard had stolen a bunch of my ideas from Pickup on South Street and Underworld U.S.A. for his early pictures. I didn’t mind, but why not call it what it was?
Jean-Luc was going to shoot a new film, called Pierrot le fou, with Jean-Paul Belmondo, and wanted me to appear in a scene. I suppose it was his way of saying thanks. I said I’d do it. Without the faintest idea what I was supposed to say, I showed up at a studio on the outskirts of Paris the day of the shoot. Godard stood me up against a wall in some fancy cocktail party set full of half-naked women and intellectuals, and put a glass of vodka in one hand and a good cigar in the other. He let me wear my sunglasses because of the bright lights. The Belmondo character strolled in and was introduced to me, ‘the American film director’. Belmondo turned and asked me, ‘What is cinema?’ We never rehearsed the damn scene. I wasn’t sure what Jean-Luc wanted, so I took a puff of my cigar and played myself, blurting out a line in my tough-guy vernacular, which a bilingual lady repeated in French as I spoke.
‘Film is like a battleground’, I said. ‘Love. Hate. Action. Violence. In one word, emotion.’
One take, and that was that. Godard loved it. Believe me, I’d be rich if I had a nickel for every film magazine and festival program around the world who printed that goddamned line!”
For years after “The X-Files” went off the air, I assumed Gillian Anderson had fallen off the map when in fact, she was making small films overseas.
The first of those films was The Mighty Celt, the story of a boy who becomes involved in greyhound racing. The film, which also stars Robert Carlyle, was filmed in Ireland and released in 2005 to mediocre reviews. Now the distributor Cinequest, is attempting to extend the mileage of the film by releasing a Region 1 version of the DVD on July 15, just ten days before the release of The X Files: I Want to Believe. I’m not sure how well the plan will work but it’s certainly a good attempt by Cinequest to squeeze out a few more bucks.
The story doesn’t interest me much and the trailer for the film doesn’t strum up any more excitement but I love Anderson. As far as my untrained ears can tell, she does accents like nobody’s business and I’ve enjoyed seeing some of her other performances over the last few years, most recently in the surprisingly good Straightheads. What I love most about Anderson is that she seems to fully embody her characters and she’s constantly taking risks with roles that one wouldn’t expect from an actress who audiences feel they know from her long stint on television. She refuses to be typecast and I love that about her. It also helps that she’s an immensely talented actress. I’m not marking the calendar for the release but I’m definitely curious to check out her performance.
Technically not movie news, but if Lost has its place on Row Three, then so should the far superior The Office (you know, only the best show on American television).
Browsing /Film, I found that Ricky Gervais broke the news on his blog of Steve Carell’s new three year contract he just signed for the critically acclaimed show.
“Steve Carell (now one of the most bankable film stars in the world) has just signed up for another three years with us,” Gervais wrote. “He is the hardest working man in Hollywood and the harder he works the better it is for me. I mean… well done Steve you are wonderful. … He is a very nice man and deserves all his success.”
Yay. Rejoice. The Office has stayed consistently fresh and funny for its four seasons so far. I’m all for three more seasons and if it can stay as consistently good, history will place it right up there alongside the likes of Seinfeld and Arrested Development in classic TV comedy status.
Cars 2 is moving forward, with a scheduled release date of 2012, and director John Lasseter told MTV that he hopes Paul Newman will reprise his role as the aged Doc Hudson.
“Well, you know, his character is coming back,” Lasseter said. “He’s a good friend of mine, and so we’re just waiting to see.”
Of course, if the reports of Newman’s lung cancer are true (it’s weird how weeks have passed and there is still no actual confirmation one way or the other), it’s probably not going to happen.
Not much is known about the story or how large Doc Hudson’s role in the sequel is, but rumor has it that the movie will follow Lightning McQueen on a journey across Europe.
To be honest, I’m yet to watch the first Cars (hell, or even Pixar’s other recent efforts, The Incredibles and Ratatouille, for that matter), which is pretty lame, seeing as I idolize Newman. I’m all for bringing him out of retirement for the sequel though, but naturally, only if he is feeling up to it. Who knows, maybe it will inspire him to team back up with Redford for that final hoorah…
Before becoming one of the largest North American film festivals, TIFF used to be called The Festival of Festivals, and they remain that, to a degree, showcasing lots of films on the festival circuit (Cannes, Sundance, The Berlinale, Karlovy Vary, etc.) that haven’t made their way to Canada yet. Their first press release of titles is usually composed completely of this, and behold, it came out today. The TIFF website goes live tomorrow, and tickets go on sale July 7th.
Here are some of the highlights:
Kim Ji Woon’s THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE WEIRD, a South Korean take on the spaghetti western starring some of S. Korea’s biggest films stars (Jung Woo-sung, Lee Byung-hun and the unmistakably brilliant Song Kang-ho) is getting the Gala red carpet treatment. (The Trailer)
Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s THREE MONKEYS, where the Turkish auteur focuses his (gorgeous HD) camera on four characters, a couple and their son plus the husband’s boss, showing how the family opts to stick together by playing blind, deaf and dumb to problems that should in all logic split them apart. (Trailer)
Ari Folman’s WALTZ WITH BASHIR, the Israeli animated war film that made big waves at Cannes. One night in a bar, an old friend tells director Ari Folman about a recurring nightmare. The two men conclude that there’s a connection to their Israeli Army mission in the Lebanon War in the early 1980s. An astonishing and powerful animated feature that journeys into the director’s memory in search of some missing pieces. (Trailer)
Atom Egoyan’s ADORATION, high school student Simon (Devon Bostick) is caught up in family history, technology and a shocking and explosive lie that intertwines the lives of his uncle (Scott Speedman) and his French teacher (Arsinée Khanjian), while forcing him to reconcile conflicting memories of his deceased parents (Noam Jenkins and Rachel Blanchard).
Question: How May Row Three Regulars are going to be in Toronto this September?
Recommended TIFF ‘How To’ Website: 1st Thrusday Blog
The Full TIFF Press Release, with all 30 titles, is under the seat. (more…)
Well, that didn’t take long. Since launching Rowthree back in November, it was my goal to do two of these ‘lets-take-a-closer-look-at-a-good-scene-and-use-it-as-an-
excuse-to-talk-about-the-movie-or-genre-or-techique’ a week as a regular feature. This was perhaps a little too ambitious (especially considering I lack the tools and expertise to rip scenes from my own DVD collection and have to instead rely on the scene in question already existing in the belly of the beast that is YouTube); things seem to average out just under once a week and that is fine.
While I’m navel gazing, it was also my intention to start a ‘neglected’ sci-fi column around these parts (I’ve got a name and a list of films, but seem to be lacking in the time and ‘muse’ factor to get it off the ground), and todays Finite Focus entry would certainly stride atop the pile.
I love the diverse selection of films form British director Michael Winterbottom. The man can effortlessly slip between styles and genres and drama and comedy (He is the thinking mans Danny Boyle), yet he has never really gotten the respect on this side of the Atlantic he deserves. One thread that runs through the bulk of his films is the effects of the ‘Global Village’ or rather the isolation and division caused by a globalized world. Whether taken head on (In This World or A Mighty Heart) or subtextualized into the film (9 Songs, The Claim) it is something that cannot be ignored in his filmography.
Now take take 2003s Code 46. Globalization forms the aesthetic and the gristle for Winterbottom’s take on a science fiction film set in the near future revolving around restricted travel, Big Brother surveillance and the laws governing cloning and reproduction. A corporate investigator (Tim Robbins, wisely subdued), perhaps the fusion of Winston Smith and Rick Deckard, gets caught up in an affair with the woman (Samantha Morton, earthy and icy) he is investigating for forging inter-zone passports (here, ‘papelles’). He gets caught in Shanghai and unable to travel back to Seattle due to his own papelles expiring. This leaves him with a complicated trio of choices: Go back to the hermetic life with his wife and kids in Seattle; Or start over as a fugitive in the glass and steel and neon wonderland of Shanghai; Or go off the grid into the free-zones of the Middle East. Like most great science fiction pictures (and this Code 46 is certainly one of these) it will take a number of years for it to be recognized as such. It is the nature of the thing with science fiction for some reason. Blade Runner, Gattaca, and Solyaris (all obvious influences on this film) all took a decade or more before receiving a little revisionist love.
Speaking of Blade Runner, doesn’t this interrogation scene below look a lot like the “Is this testing whether I’m a replicant or a lesbian, Mr. Deckard?” Voight-Kampff test? However, the contrast between the medium-shot of the opulent beauty atop the penthouse of the Tyrell Corporation monolith, we have a simple reverse-shot structure in a cramped conference room with anonymous grey steel forming the entire back-drop. The cold near-flirtation comes through in both situations however. “You want to Prompt Me?” Yes, Mrs. Morton, I do. Further in the conversation, Morton’s character has a romantic notion of staying up all night on her birthday to avoid a dream. Of electric sheep perhaps? Yet Code 46 eschews the philosophy and goes after the morality. Similarities aside, it is it’s own self.
This later sequence in the sprawl of Shanghai has one of the most brilliant and affecting lines of dialogue (well to a parent of two kids). As Morton and Robbins continue to flirt, like something out of the silver-screen era of Hollywood, supplanted into unmistakable contemporary filmmaking, he gets on the topic of his kid (sleeping safe and ignorant halfway around the world). Morton’s response is I bet he’s special…Everybody’s children are so special. It makes you wonder where all the ordinary grown-ups come from.” If that isn’t an outright (and right on) attack on the ‘unique snowflake’ soccer-mom child rearing philosophy, I don’t know what is. Surprises like that have a lot to say (remember, the movie also is focusing on cloning, although you’d never know it from these two clips) as science fiction is always a nice mirror for contemporary issues. And one is just a small throwaway bit, Code 46 is quite a dense movie, perhaps off putting by its icy love story and disconnected emotions. But that is kind of the point, non?
One last thing to point out in both of those clips is how the characters flip languages in mid-sentence. This happens often in the film. What a great short-hand to demonstrate just how cross pollinated the near future of Code 46 is, whilst simultaneously preventing any real connection or communication.
Master of gore and horror Dario Argento is at it again. This time he’s decided on a pallet of yellow, black and red and though it doesn’t look like the film is quite as stylized as Suspiria, I really dig the poster for Argento’s upcoming film Giallo.
For this first installment, I offer an excerpt from “Samuel Fuller: A Third Face”, an autobiography written by Fuller (with some help from his wife, Christa Lang Fuller, as well as Jerome Henry Rudes) and published by Applause.
After The Credits Episode 27 - Like a Warm Cup of Tea [48:42m]: 
