My first thought was “Wait, isn’t that a Ramones song?” Don’t get yourself all worked up in a tizzy – I now know that it also happened to be a movie, made in 1979 starring the Ramones helping a group of rock-music-loving students take over their school. I’m not a Ramones fan and this one obviously isn’t one of the most memorable of films since I’d never even heard about it until yesterday but there we go, the back story.
The really interesting bit that’s come up is that shock radio show host Howard Stern is behind an upcoming remake of the movie. I didn’t care much for that announcement (Stern doesn’t carry the clout he used to) but what did catch my attention was news over at /Film that Alex Winter, Keanu Reeve’s partner in the Bill & Ted movies, would be writing the script. That, in and of itself would probably be no big deal except that I recently caught up with Winter’s cult classic Freaked, an experience that nearly blinded me with its weirdness.
I’m not sure what to expect from this. Apparently Stern is considering doing the remake with the help of a new rock group. Depending on who they go with, I could, perhaps be curious about the project but as it stands now, I’m just scratching my head wondering what on earth Winter will deliver. If Freaked is any indication, I’m definitely going to have to skip this one.
If you don’t recall the original, worry not. I’ve dragged up the trailer, full of cheesy goodness, which you can check out after the jump!
There’s been a lot of speculation, even around here, as to whether Steven Soderbergh’s vision of Che Guevara which was shown in one sitting at Cannes, will ever see the light day. Will it be one movie? Two movies? Shown separately? Together? Cut? There are many questions most of which remain unanswered.
The film still doesn’t have a distribution date for the US but I noticed while doing a bit of pocking around that there’s a bit of inconsistency in the releases. I was originally under the impression that The Argentine was the second film in the grouping but it may well be the fist since it has a Spanish release date of September 5th with no US release scheduled where as Guerrilla has no release dates scheduled at all. This is further supported by the fact that we now have a Spanish trailer for the film which went live yesterday. I could have been confused in my initial understanding of which story comes first or this could be a combination of the two films. At this point, your guess is as good as mine. What is clear is that the Spaniards will get to see this first and further, it suggests that the studio has no idea of what to do with this film for a North American audience.
The trailer itself is a bit grainy and the sound slightly distorted but it still looks good and the dialog, what little of it there is, hints at what we can expect. At one point, there’s a comment that a population that can’t read is a population that can be persuaded. Looks like Soderbergh is aiming for the jugular.
Retro-futuristic and monochrome, this One Sheet for the upcoming William Gibson novel adaptation is a head turner. Yes, it looks more like a novel cover than movie marketing materials, but since it immediately is reminiscent of the body-horror pics of Shinya Tsukamoto, well, that is a fine thing!
Have to agree with the Quiet Earth boys, and Todd over at Twitch in that this one falls into the ‘unfilmable’ category. I love the novel, but still could not adequately envision many scenes in my head (even after multiple readings). And Hayden Christensen in the lead? I weep. Best of luck to first time feature director Joseph Kahn.
While 2007 has been lauded as (thus far) the banner year of the decade, I submit that 1999 is the banner year of the 1990s for quality and experimental cinema. Although many would argue for 1994 they’d be wrong – Pulp Fiction, Natural Born Killers, Ed Wood, Forrest Gump, The Double Life of Veronique and The New Nightmare are simply not up to the volume of great films released in 1999. Over the whole of August (hopefully with more frequency than I’ve been maintaining this column) I aim to hit as many of these as possible and highlight the film and a containing scene. It is notable that more than any other year in the 50+ entries here, there are already two 1999 films done: Magnolia (Finite Focus here) and Ravenous (Finite Focus here).
To kick things off, here is a short tease of the ‘aristocratic orgy’ from Eyes Wide Shut. Stanley Kubrick‘s final film is one of his most elusive. It’s bombastic central set-piece is ludicrous. Absolutely ludicrous. Especially compared with the delicate set-up and conclusion of the film. I loved this film upon first viewing (and that was the censored ‘digitally inserted people’ version) as the rich color palette, score, and other technical virtuosity was overwhelming. Others wrote it off as a colossal failure. But over the past near-decade, I’ve viewed the thing several times and I keep shifting in opinion on the film. The second time, I watched it – upon its 2001 DVD release – I found the film laboured, silly (particularly the orgy, and scenes involving the costume rental) and meta-silly in the fact that the film seems completely designed to make Tom Cruise look like a colossal goof. Yet, a few years on, upon the recent release of the black Kubrick box, it was the first film I watched, and I found the thing mesmerizing, rich is class and gender politics, and amusing that the final word of dialogue from Kubrick‘s long and full career is “Fuck.” Cut to a recent viewing (this week in fact) of the film again. The below scene was a bit of a deal breaker this time around. Unless we are aiming for the mansion sequence being ‘just in his head,’ it is a drastic (if interesting) shift in tone. And it is too facile and makes no sense in the boundaries of the film. The ‘backwards soundtrack,’ the fact that so many people are involved and aware of what is going on is too much to buy literally, yet the rest of the film (costume return excepted) is so grounded in reality, particularly Sydney Pollack‘s lengthy scene which is like the harsh morning hangover to a previous nights fever-dream.
The incense and chanting sequence is the lynch pin of taking the film seriously, or writing the film off as a lesser Kubrick effort. And the bombastic mid-film set-piece remains the films greatest draw and weakest link. All that being said, I’m not an advocate of taking films literally, or railing against things that do not make sense. I simply find Eyes Wide Shut fascinating in that my feelings toward the film seem to change every time I view it. Probably the sign of a masterpiece, really.
My first thought was “Wait, isn’t that a Ramones song?” Don’t get yourself all worked up in a tizzy – I now know that it also happened to be a movie, made in 1979 starring the Ramones helping a group of rock-music-loving students take over their school. I’m not a Ramones fan and this one obviously isn’t one of the most memorable of films since I’d never even heard about it until yesterday but there we go, the back story.
