40 days hence VCI is releasing a DVD of a film I’ve never heard of — Stuart Heisler‘s Island of Desire (1952), a Tab Hunter movie with a somewhat older Linda Darnell (29 to his 21) as the love interest. Who in the world would buy or rent this? It’s obviously negligible. Older gay guys?
The IMDB notes that “the July 22, 1952 edition of The New York Times noted that this film would make its local debut at Lowe’s Metropolitan Theatre in Brooklyn on Wednesday, July 30. However, the newspaper did not send a reviewer on opening day.”
“Lieutenant Elizabeth Smythe (Darnell), a U.S. Military hospital-ship nurse, and Marine Corporal Michael J. “Chicken” Dolan (Hunter), are the only survivors when a hospital ship hits a mine in the South Pacific during World War II. The two spend months alone on a deserted island and, in spite of the age-difference, fall in love…and for other obvious reasons. Their peaceful existence is shattered when an airplane crashes on the island and the only survivor, William Peck, also falls for Elizabeth.”
An end-of-the-year recall of a moderately amusing music video with Will Ferrell, Andy Samberg and JJ Abrams. Made for the 2009 MTV Movie Awards, originally aired 5.31.09…when I was still in Europe and not paying attention.
“The skiing sequences in Michael Ritchie‘s 1969 Downhill Racer are still hold-your-breath-and-don’t-blink thrilling,” writes MCN’s Douglas Pratt (editor of the DVD Newsletter). “In fact, the whole movie is thrilling. Deftly staged and then masterfully edited, every sequence in the 101-minute feature is exquisitely succinct and yet abundantly rich in conveying the psychologies and emotions of the characters.
Robert Redford in Michael Ritchie’s Downhill Racer
“Robert Redford stars as a hotshot American skier prepping for the Olympics, Gene Hackman is his coach, and Camilia Sparv is his short-term romantic interest. Redford’s performance is as fearless as whoever was doing his skiing. His character is utterly self-absorbed and yet magnetically charismatic, so that the film, along with everything else, seems to be a primer on how unlikable people can still be heroes because they channel their souls into what makes them heroic at the expense of everything else.”
It’s almost surreal that the TAGHeuer ad slogan — “What are you made of?” — seems to exactly articulate what everyone in the Western Hemisphere is wondering about Tiger Woods at this moment. The downside, of course, is that the the slogan jabs so precisely with Woods’ situation that the product is rendered all about invisible. Woods is not the first superstar athlete to cat around. I’m pretty sure that Mickey Mantle was just as “bad” if not worse. What other sports legends were insatiable in this regard?
The dull anasthetic of rural New York State — Tuesday, 12.15, 3:50 pm.
Somebody forgot to explain the drill to the San Francisco Film Critics Circle. It’s Inglourious Basterds‘ milk-drinking Nazi Christoph Waltz for Best Supporting Actor, dummies, and not Christian McKay for his bellowing genius performance in Me and Orson Welles. Scores of obsequious critics in cities across the country have voted for Waltz over the last three or four days, so how could there have been a misunderstanding?
And what’s with the SFFCC giving Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach their Best Adapted Screemplay award for Fantastic Mr. Fox?
Otherwise the SFFCC fell into the ranks. Hurt Locker for Best Picture, Kathryn Bigelow for Best Director, Colin Firth‘s Single Man performance for Best Actor, Quentin Tarantino‘s Inglourious Basterds for Best Original Screenplay, Meryl Streep‘s Julie & Julia performance for Best Actress, etc.
I’m sickened by the coast-to-coast toadying shown to Streep over a lightweight “bit” performance. I enjoyed her as well but this is Carey Mulligan‘s year…obviously!
“You’ve been promoting Mulligan since Labor Day,” a critic friend wrote this morning, “but speaking as someone who voted in two critics groups this week (NYFCC and NYFCO), I can tell you that she barely registered. The big showdown in best actress in each group was between Streep and Tilda Swinton (Julia), with Streep squeaking out the win by only a vote or two in both cases.
“And Swinton, who gives one of the ballsiest performances of the year, isn’t even a Golden Globe nominee — and probably won’t register w/the Academy either because each, in their own way, are the province of the lame, the halt and the feebleminded.”
My first reaction to the news about Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe‘s Robin Hood movie was “again?” This new trailer doesn’t change anything. I feel as if I’ve seen it already. What could it bring to the table that’s significantly different from the Kevin Costner version? Apart from the grittier cinematography and production design and Crowe’s machismo, I mean? It’s the same old recipe.
Here‘s a neat little video taken last summer on the outdoor Robin Hood set, which uses the same clearing (located in Bourne Wood, Tilford — south of Farnham, Surrey) seen in the opening battle scene at the beginning of Gladiator.
I have to get a rental car and drive all the way the hell up to frigid Syracuse this afternoon to pick up Jett and take him back down for the holidays. I’ll be staying there this evening and thereby missing the Nine premiere and after-party in Manhattan.
The Golden Globe nominations were announced this morning. (Here‘s the Indiewire link.) Up In The Air accumlated six nominations, and Nine did fairly well with a Best Picture Comedy/Music nomination plus ones for Daniel Day Lewis and the very deserving Marion Cotillard.
The only surprise I’m seeing thus far is their decision to place Meryl Streep‘s Julie & Julia performance into the Best Actress Comedy or Musical category, thus leaving the Best Actress competish open to Carey Mulligan (who’s been strangely losing to Streep in the critics awards so far). Categorizing Streep’s performance as Julia Child under comedy is, of course, ludicrous, but that’s standard HFPA thinking.
They also nominated Streep in the Comedy/Musical category for her It’s Complicated performance, so they’re obviously planning to give her the award.
The only other standout is Tobey Maguire getting Best Actor-nominated for his madman performance in Brothers. Also well deserved.
I can’t be bothered to paste and reformat all the nominees so here‘s the Variety story.
I was told yesterday by producer Ed Pressman that the Hollywood Foreign Press recently rejected the submission of Nicolas Cage‘s performance in Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans for Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical — a not very perceptive call, not to mention unfair and unhip. They also blew off This Is It! as a submission in the Best Musical/Comedy genre.
Esteemed critic Jack Mathews, a guy who’s been around the block and acquired a little perspective, said the following about Precious in a 12.10 discussion with Indiewire‘s Anne Thompson:
“If the Academy hadn’t just doubled the number of Best Picture nominees from 5 to 10 this year, we wouldn’t be talking about Precious as an Oscar contender now. In fact, if director Lee Daniels had cleaned up the language a bit and eliminated an unnecessary rape clip, Precious might have found its natural home [on the tube] and we’d be talking about its rightful fate of an Emmy winner.
“I am not convinced that Precious will make the Best Picture ballot. Most of the 6,000-plus Academy voters watch the contenders — selected for them by critics, guild nominations and box office results — at home. And as a person who saw this movie in a theater with six people, watching it alone is not easy.
“I don’t think Lee Daniels will receive a Directors Guild nomination; directors aren’t easily swayed by emotion and the ugly truth is that Precious is an awkwardly-directed film. The fantasy sequences are almost embarrassingly inept.
“I do believe Mo’Nique is a slam dunk supporting actress nominee — what she does in speaking her dialogue is more humiliating than what Halle Berry did going-for-broke in Monster’s Ball — but those who vote the novice Sidibe are voting for her character more than her performance.”
I flinched when I read Michael Fleming‘s 12.13 story about Mel Gibson‘s forthcoming Viking movie with Leonardo DiCaprio and a script by William Monahan. We know what this will be. What big-league director is more drawn to gougings, disembowelments and beheadings than Gibson? The man is insane.
Fleming says the story “will be as unsparing as Gibson’s Braveheart, The Passion of the Christ and Apocalypto.” And we’re all going to pay $12 each to sit through more throat-slicings, testicle-crushings, skull-splittings and so on. Terrific.
This makes me sound unadventurous and reclusive, I realize, but I’d much rather spend $20 or $25 on a special-edition Bluray of Richard Fleischer‘s The Vikings (1958) than sit through Gibson’s gore-fest. The 51 year-old Kirk Douglas-Tony Curtis version is unabashedly broad and cheesy and sometimes ridiculous. But there are undercurrents in that film that really work. Here’s how I put in in the wake of Fleischer’s death in ’06:
“Fleischer’s peak was The Vikings — the 1958 historical action epic that was mostly dominated by producer-star Kirk Douglas, but was (and still is) notable for two dramatic elements that still work today.
“One is what seems to happen inside the male Viking characters (particularly Douglas and dad Ernest Borgnine) whenever Odin, the Nordic God, is mentioned. We hear a haunting, siren-like Odin theme on the soundtrack, and these rough blustery types suddenly stop their loutish behavior and seem to almost retreat into a childlike emotional place…a place that’s all about awe and fear (of death, God, judgment). This happens maybe three or four times in this big, unsophisticated popcorn movie (which nonetheless feels far sturdier and more classically composed than a typical big-budget popcorn actioner made today), and each time it does The Vikings suddenly has a spirit.
“The other thing that still works is the film’s refusal to make much of the fact that Douglas and costar Tony Curtis, mortal enemies throughout the film, are in fact brothers, having both been half-sired by Borgnine. Costar Janet Leigh begs Douglas to consider this ten minutes from the finale, and Douglas angrily brushes her off. But when his sword is raised above a defenseless Curtis at the very end and he’s about to strike, Douglas suddenly hesitates…and we know why. And then Curtis stabs Douglas in the stomach with a shard of a broken sword, and Douglas is finished. The way he leans back, screams ‘Odin!’ and then rolls over dead is pretty hammy, but that earlier moment of hesitation is spellbinding — one of the most touching pieces of acting Douglas has ever delivered.
“Douglas wasn’t very respectful of Fleischer’s authority during the making of The Vikings, and for all I know Fleischer didn’t have that much to do with this final scene…but he probably did, and he deserves our respect for it.”
Here‘s the last chapter of The Vikings. The post-magic-hour lighting during the funeral scene with the torches and flaming arrows is very nice.
