An all-region British Bluray of Joseph L. Mankiewicz‘s tediously talky Cleopatra (’63) will be available in three weeks. The 20th Century Fox release opened in June ’63 so where do they get off calling it a 50th anniversary edition?

I hate to admit it but I’ll be buying this damn thing because it was shot by Leon Shamroy in 70mm Todd-AO and will therefore almost certainly look immaculate on Bluray. I can watch stodgy big-studio films if they were shot by seasoned pros on expensive large-format stock. I have that skill, that knack. I shut my mind off and meditate on the resolution and the tonalities and push the other stuff aside.

Update: It turns out the British version is good for regions A, B and C. The Amazon page says it’s only Region 2.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cleopatra-Blu-ray-Elizabeth-Taylor/dp/B005QV2OV6/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1326079675&sr=1-1

Here’s my best Cleopatra piece, called “20 Brilliant Seconds.”

What New York critic called Cleopatra a “monumental mouse” in her review? Not Kael.

After watching and really enjoying Jose Padilha‘s Elite Squad: The Enemy Within last night at the Palm Springs Film Festival, I’m convinced that (a) it should definitely be considered as one of the top Best Foreign Film Oscar nominees because good is good regardless of genre, and (b) Padilha’s U.S.-funded Robocop remake, which he’s now working on in Los Angeles, has an excellent shot at being fantastic.

I don’t have any excuse for ignoring this exceptional socio-political action thriller when it opened in the U.S. last November. No excuse whatsoever. I apologize. It was lazy and wrong.

I also apologize for the murky sound in the two videos posted within this story. I shot them during last night’s post-screening q & a at Palm Springs’ Regal plex. I was sitting only ten feet from Padilha, but the iPhone 4S simply isn’t as sensitive as my Canon Elph, which I left back in West Hollywood.

While Padilha’s Elite Squad (’07) took heat in some quarters for seeming to favor hard-ass paramilitary “skull” assaults against Brazilian “favela” drug gangsters, this superior sequel has the first film’s tough-guy hero Nascimento (Wagner Moura) getting promoted out of the skulls and into Brazil’s wiretap king, which eventually leads to a pitched battle against corrupt cops and sociopathic government slimeballs.

It’s a highly-charged, super-thrilling, ultra-violent ride from stat to finish. It’s mainly about pacing and velocity and less about character, but there’s sufficient enough attention paid to the things that any good action film needs — motivation, personality, one thing leading to another out of necessity, etc.

I’m going to sit down with Padilha in Beverly Hills tomorrow. I’ll run our chat in mp3 and video form.

N.Y. Times reporter Michael Cieply has broken the news that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ documentary branch members are basically looking to cut down the number of films they’ll have to watch in a given year, and so they’re about to announce a rule that a doc has to be reviewed by The New York Times or The Los Angeles Times to qualify for a Best Feature-Length Doc Oscar.

When the new rule goes into effect the non-theatrical riff-raff can be ignored like Semper Fi and the doc committee guys won’t have to watch as many films. Which indirectly means they’ll have more time to play tennis and eat long brunches and take walks with their wives and/or girlfriends and get to hang with their grandchildren in a more leisurely, open-ended way.

Ric Robertson, the Academy’s chief operating officer, confirmed to Cieply that the new rule “would be made public this week and would apply to films qualifying for the 2013 ceremony.”

Will SAG members understand and perhaps be swayed by James Franco‘s plea for respect and recognition (i.e., a Best Supporting Actor nomination) for Rise of the Planet of the Apes‘ Andy Serkis? Franco’s thoughts appeared earlier this afternoon on Deadline.com, and they’re very well-composed. Franco sounds like an actor talking straight to other actors, explaining the technological facts without any b.s.

Andy Serkis, James Franco in Rise of the Planet of the Apes.

“I, as much as anyone, can get anxious when I think about the future of movies and the possibility of the obsolescence of actors, or at least actors as we know them,” Franco states. “But after making Apes I realize that this is backward thinking.

“Performance Capture is here, like it or not, but it also doesn’t mean that old-fashioned acting will go the way of silent film actors. Performance Capture actually allows actors to work opposite each other in more traditional ways, meaning that the actors get to interact with each other and look into each other’s eyes.

“For years computer technology forced actors to act opposite tennis balls if a movie wanted to have CG creatures, but now the process has come full circle so that actors playing CG creatures can perform in practical sets, just like the ‘human’ actors. In acting school I was taught to work off my co-stars, not to act but react and that was how I would achieve unexpected results, not by planning a performance, but by allowing it to arise from the dynamic between actors.

“On Rise of the Planet of the Apes that’s exactly what I was able to do opposite Andy as Caesar. And Andy got to do the same because every gesture, every facial expression, every sound he made was captured. His performance was captured. Then what the Weta effects team did was to essentially ‘paint’ the look of Caesar over Andy’s performance. This is not animation as much as it’s digital make-up.”

I’ve already said if I was a Republican (which will never ever happen) I’d be for John Huntsman, whose disdain for the nutbag Tea Party right makes him a kind of 21st Century Nelson Rockefeller. But he really distinguished himself last night by slapping down Mitt Romney during the New Hampshire Republican debate. Big money: “This country is divided because of attitudes like that.”

I’m being kicked out of the hotel so I have to pack the bags and then file a bit more from a Starbucks or someplace before driving back to Los Angeles. This day is a mess.

I’ve been living an almost spartan life lately. By my standards at least. Nocturnally speaking. The no-hard-stuff rule (in force since the mid ’90s) plus mostly abstaining from wine, but when I’m so inclined I’ll have no more than two glasses. But it feels better the next morning when I don’t go there at all. Plus I’m riding my bike again and feeling better. But last night that all went south.

I was feeling sharp and attuned and really excited about having seen Jose Padilha‘s Elite Squad 2: The Enemy Within. So I went to the Ace Hotel party and had three vodka and grapefruits over the span of two hours.

What was I thinking? I’ll tell you what I was thinking. I was thinking “I am the Lizard King…I can do anything.”

I slept badly and woke up at 4:30 am and crashed again at 6:30 am, and now the morning is shot and I’m supposed to be out of the hotel to make way for the maid. And I haven’t written anything yet. Well, I’m writing this. I’ve no choice but to blow off the Parker Hotel Variety brunch (11 am to 1 pm). And all because of Padilha and his excellent political action-thriller, which I forgot to see last November when it opened in Los Angeles. I’ve no rational excuse for having dropped the ball on that, let alone for last night’s lack of discipline. I feel badly, embarassed. I need to just file and not be social.

At least I wasn’t driving last night. The Ace is only a few hundred yards from the Travelodge.