Welles on Hemingway

A fascinating interview where Orson Welles discusses his relationship with Ernest Hemingway.

 

Jazz Hand

I went the Millennium Stage to see a show called "Jazz Hand" last week. It was a series of skits based on the experiences of Mary Theresa Archbold, a woman who was born with one hand. Here is a version of the skit that opened the show that I saw.  Additionally she is now seven months pregnant, still did this dancing, and at one point even did a split. I just hope the baby did not get a concussion from this.

 

Alicia Vikander

I saw two movies in the last week with Alicia Vikander, an incredibly beautiful and talented actress from Sweden.

Here she is discussing her role as Kitty in Anna Karenina.



A scene from her Danish film A Royal Affair.



The official Trailer for A Royal Affair.

Silent Film Style

From The Guardian, a collection of photographs displaying the style of the stars from the silent era, including this photograph of Lillian Gish.

Style lessons from silent movie stars - in pictures

Lucy

A tribute to Lucille Ball on the 100th Anniversary of here birth.

Harold Lloyd

Roger Ebert has this blog post—Harold Lloyd: A rare early short and an interview—that contain video of the recently restored Harold Lloyd (1893-1971) film Captain Kidd's Kid.

Lloyd was one of the most successful comic film stars of all time. He is not as well know today as Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, partially because he was shrewd enough to retain the copyright to most of his films. His films were not broadcast on TV, because of the high price he wanted to sell the broadcast rights. The Ebert post also contains video of a 1962 interview Lloyd did with Harry Reasoner.

In addition to the clips you can watch on Ebert's post, here is the sequence that Lloyd is probably most remembered for today—the clock scene from the 1923 film Safety Last.

Everything Must Go

[Added 9/26/11: Read Why Don't You Dance?, the Raymond Carver short story this film is based on Here, until 11/15/11]

What better way to mark what would have been Raymond Carver's 73rd birthday than to see a movie based on one of his short stories. It would probably be more correct to say that the film Everything Must Go is inspired by the short story Why Don't You Dance. Both involve a man who drinks, and has all his furniture on the front lawn. The short story is only about 5 pages long, so you could not make that into a movie even if you wanted to.

I am always apprehensive about any film based on one of Carver's works, because his stories don't seem very filmable to me. Also I had seen the trailer for this film, and it did strike me a something I wanted to see. But being that today would have been Carver's birthday, I went anyway.

I ended up liking the film more than most of the critics. I do think the film had the tone of a Carver story, even if the story was not really one that he had written. A film like this is totally dependent on the actors, because if they don't give good performances, nothing else can save the film. In this case I thought all of the actors gave great performances, including Will Ferrell as the lead, in a more serious role than he usually takes.

Sometimes you just have to be in the right mood for a film like this, so I guess I was in the right mood tonight. This film has no chance to be a big box office success, but I am glad that I decided to see it.

Add to that I really liked the soundtrack, even though I have not been able to find a track listing for the film.

Jane Eyre

The new film of Jane Eyre may be the best adaptation of the book ever made. Not that I have seen all of the previous adaptations, or even read the book, but this is a very good film. Mia Wasikowska, who was Alice in Tim Burton's recent adaptation of Alice in Wonderland, really does transform herself into Jane. Michael Fassbender is Mr. Rochester, and Judi Dench is Mrs. Fairfax.

Any film with these three actors would have to be good. Add to that, this film has a great script. The cinematography is done mostly with muted colors, but that really works with the tone of the story. I liked the score so much that I went home and bought a copy of the soundtrack. Something I rarely do. Scored by Dario Marinelli, who won an Academy Award for his score for Atonement, it is mostly done with sparse and haunting orchestration.

Here is a featurette. I would say that the scenes included in the trailer are all of the most melodramatic of the film. Most of the rest of the film is a lot more restrained.

The Conspirator

I saw The Conspirator on Tuesday. This is the film about the trial of Mary Surratt for the assassination of President Lincoln. Directed by Robert Redford, the film is a bit didactic, so I am not sure how much the story was skewed to make Redford's case on the injustice of military tribunals. I think it is mostly fact based though. I was bothered by a scene near the end where Secretary of War Stanton and the military prosecutor have a discussion about influencing the military jury to change their decision from life in prison to hanging. The film then proceeds to the delivery of the verdict. There seemed to me to be a big gap here concerning whether Stanton did intervene with the jury, and I am no sure why that was left out. The implication of the film is that he did, but that is never represented in the film.

That being said, the film is worth seeing, if for no other reason than Robin Wright's performance as Mary Surratt. The entire cast, including James McAvoy, Kevin Kline, Tom Wilkinson, Evan Rachel Wood, all give great performances.

Dale Dickey

One more movie related post before the Oscars tonight. In Winter's Bone there is a performance in a fairly small role that really struck me. I was not able figure out who the actress was from the credits, because I could not remember the characters name. I now see that I was not the only person impressed by the performance of Dale Dickey as Merab. She won the Independent Spirit Award for best supporting supporting actress. She only makes a fleeting appearance in the trailer. IMBd does have a short clip of one of her scenes Here.

Here is a video of Dickey after she won the award. I hope she gets a lot more film work.

Astor Place Riot

Tonight are the Oscars. We will find out who is allegedly the best. Despite the fact that our political disputes have become so nasty, in the last 150 years we seem to have become a bit more civilized in the way we determine who is the best actor. In 1849 the Astor Place Riot broke out in New York City, killing at least 25 and injuring over 100. The riot was brought on by a dispute over who was the best Shakespearean actor, Edwin Forrest, an American or William Charles Macready, an Englishman. There were deeper underlying reasons for riots, like relations between the US and Britain, and class conflicts. Still I trust that no one will be killed at the Academy Awards tonight, unless someone gets trampled to death trying to get a glimpse of the Red Carpet.

Astor Place Riot

Bombshells

From Slate, the great Magnum photos of glamorous Hollywood actresses. I am including a link to this set of photos, because—unlike the LA Times' list of Fifty Most Beautiful Women in Films—Slate did not overlook Ingrid Bergman. They have included this photograph of Bergman filming my favorite Alfred Hitchcock movie, Notorious.

Bombshells

The Fifty Most Beautiful Women in Film

The LA Times has a poll of what they claim are the 50 Most Beautiful Women in Film. I am guessing that the voters so far are skewing young, because Jennifer Lopez and Farrah Fawcett are neck and neck right now with, all of the rest being left in the dust. I am not voting since my first choice is not included in their top fifty. So, even though she is not on the list, I am making Ingrid Bergman the image on my link to the poll.

The Fifty Most Beautiful Women in Film

Two James Franco Films

Recently I have seen two films starring James Franco films. Both deviate from the structure of a normal narrative film. It is always risk to try to do this, but both directors still succeeded in creating engaging, and thought provoking films.

Yesterday I saw 127 Hours, based on the true story of Aron Ralston, who, while hiking alone in the Utah, fell into a crevice, and had his arms pinned under a boulder that fell on it. He was there 127 hours before he cut off the arm to escape. Much of the press on this film is about people passing out from the scene of the amputation, and something like this seems to have happened when I saw the film. Shortly after the critical scene there was a big commotion in theater, with people jumping up and calling for medical assistance. The film continued running, and after a couple minutes everyone settled down. I am not sure what happened, but an ambulance was outside when I left the theater.

It is a very intense film, and there is something in the primitive part of the brain that really does not like to see body parts being cut off. At the same time I would not consider it a sensationalistic film. The Ralston character is very well developed, with most of the film dealing with the lead up to the accident, and then his struggle as he is trapped for five days. The films actually works better because practically everyone in the audience knows what is going to happen in the end. While this lessens the shock when the amputation happens, it does increase the tension throughout the film, partly because everyone is hoping they don't pass out.

For perhaps a majority of the film Franco is the only actor on screen, although you could argue that the Utah landscapes of the film are almost an separate character. The sparse, but stunning, appearance of the setting, does something to balance out the gruesomeness of the story. Also Franco creates a very likable, and carefree character that you really have to root for. If any one character can be said to carry a whole film, I think you have to say that Franco carries this one, so he might get nominated for an Oscar.

Danny Boyle, who directed last year's Oscar winner Slumdog Millionaire, might also get nominated again for this picture. He uses a lot of split screen and fast cut, odd angle editing to create the tension of the film. It may be that this is a little too out of the mainstream for the Oscars, but we will have to wait and see.



About a month ago I saw Howl. In this film, Franco plays Allen Ginsberg. The film goes back and forth between scenes that recreate an early taped interview by Ginsberg, narrative scenes that include other Beat characters, like Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassady, and a recreation of Lawrence Ferlinghetti's obscenity trial for publishing Ginsberg's poem "Howl".

This film is not as good as 127 Hours, but it is an interesting look at Ginsberg, and American society in the 1950's. The cutting back and forth between the different scenes of the film does not get to confusing, and at 90 minutes I think it is the right length to deal with what is being covered. If it had been much, longer I think the jumping back and forth would have become overwhelming.

Movie News

Two interesting bits of movie news this week.

The following voice casting has been attached to Aardman Animation's next film Arthur Christmas: James McAvoy, Hugh Laurie, Jim Broadbent, Bill Nighy and Imelda Staunton. Due out for the 2011 Holidays.

Leonardo Dicarpio may star as the mass murder in the the film adaptation of Erik Larson's novel The Devil in the White City. Seems the film still has a long way to go before it goes to production though, and no word on who will play Daniel Burnham. It will take some work to distill this book into a movie. The story revolves around the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. I am interested to see this recreated on film.

A few post card images from the fair, where the souvenir picture post card made it's debut.

Barbara Billingsley, RIP

Here is Baltimore Sun TV critic David Zurawick's write up on Barbara Billingsley, a very succinct summary of her impact on American society.

Barbara Billingsley, definitive '50s TV mom, dead at 94

RIP Patricia Neal

A clip to mark Patricia Neal's passing. A scene from The Homecoming with Patricia Neal and Richard Thomas.

R.I.P. Lynn Redgrave

Lynn Redgrave's death must be hard for Vanessa, to loose her brother, sister and a daughter in a little over a year. The Guardian Film blog has a summary of Lynn Redgrave's career, with clips from some of here movies.

Lynn Redgrave: a life in clips

Clint Eastwood turns 80

Next month Clint Eastwood turns 80, he made his first film 55 years ago, and is still going strong. Joe Queenan has a profile of his career in The Guardian.

Clint Eastwood at 80: profile of a Hollywood legend

Charlie Chaplin

Charlie Chaplin was born 121 years ago today, on April 16, 1889. His obituary from the New York Times is a good summary of his life.

In honor of his birthday here is a clip from one of his best films, The Kid. Two interesting things about this movie. The Kid is play be Jackie Coogan, who as an adult, many years later, went on to play Uncle Fester in The Addams Family TV show. Also I think this may be the only film I have ever seen that has a dog angel (Not included in the clip below). I am purposefully overlooking the resurrected dog in the movie Michael, because that is a movie I wish I had never seen.