Month: March 2023
Where’s The Horizon Line?
Jacob Fisher of Discussingfilm.net is reporting that Clint Eastwood is closing in on directing a thriller called Juror #2 for Warner Bros.
The plot “follows a juror on a murder trial who realizes he may have caused the victim’s death and must grapple with the dilemma of whether to manipulate the jury to save himself, or reveal the truth and turn himself in,” according to Fisher.
Enough Of This Horizon Line John Ford Shit
Dead-center horizon lines are banal, agreed, but the best outdoorsy photos, paintings and cinematic compositions are about whatever works, depending on the ingredients…the mystical altogether, balance and intrigue…God’s eye is God’s eye, and horizon lines be damned. I’ve been snapping photos since I was 12 or 13 so don’t tell me, John Martin Feeney.
“Towards Thee I Roll”
“…this all-destroying, constantly-farting Chad Stahelski leviathan…to the last I grapple with thee…in!…in!…oh, damn thee, whale!”
Here I Sit, Broken-Hearted
The legend of Pauline Kael and the cinematic artistry of Quentin Tarantino will not come together in a forthcoming QT film called The Movie Critic. It was a nice Borys Kit speculation while it lasted, but nope.
World of Reel Jordan Ruimy is reporting, in fact, that the main character isn’t even a movie critic. The story is set in 1977. Filming will begin in Los Angeles next fall.
Tarantino clarified things during a special book-promotion appearance on Wednesday, 3.29 at the Grand Rex in Paris.
I’m a little bummed, I admit, but I’ll get over it.
Greatest Opening Shots
There have been many great opening scenes over the last century or so, but if you’re asking which is the greatest opening shot, I would have to go with two films released in ’79 — Woody Allen‘s Manhattan and Francis Coppola‘s Apocalypse Now.
One of the greatest opening sequences is the Union Station opening of Strangers on a Train (‘51), as the camera follows two men whose faces are unseen and whose shoes are their primary identifying trait…arriving by taxi, strolling into the station, etc.
Reitman’s “Twins” Also Opened in ’88
Six hour-long Amazon Prime episodes of Dead Ringers, based on the 1988 David Cronenberg original and starring Rachel Weisz behind streaming sometime in mid April.
There’s also the actual 35-year-old Cronenberg film, which ran 115 minutes.
Irons played twins named Beverly and Elliot Mantle; Weisz does the same.
I have no thoughts….none whatsoever.
Does McNally Count As Impartial Film Connoisseur?
Keith McNally, the hotshot Manhattan resturateur behind Augustine, Balthazar, Cafe Luxembourg, Cherche Midi, Lucky Strike, Minetta Tavern, Nell’s, Odeon, Pastis and Schiller’s Liquor Bar, is a Woody Allen fan from way back. Would it be fair to say that McNally is “in the tank” for the guy? Yeah, I think.
Within the last several hours McNally announced on Instagram that he had “wheedled” his way into am early-bird screening of Woody’s Coup de Chance, which many of us are hoping will show up in Cannes in mid May.
McNally #1: “It’s fucking great!…Allen’s best film since Midnight In Paris.”
McNally #2: “Coup de Chance is a contemporary film about romance, passion, jealousy, infidelity and murder. It stars terrific French actors and actresses, and is sensationally shot by maestro cinematographer Vittorio Storaro.
McNally #3: The film most critics will probably compare Coup de Chance to is Match Point, but the film it most reminds me of is Louis Malle‘s 1958 masterpiece, Elevator To The Gallows. The music especially. It’s a truly wonderful film.”
HE to McNally: A film reminiscent of Elevator to the Gallows suggests a plot that pivots on dark irony and passion-driven perps caught in the cruel grip of karma. In Match Point a lucky guy got away with murder — perhaps not this time.
(Thanks to World of Reel‘s Jordan Ruimy for the tip-off.)
Desert Hearts
Of all the familiar or brand-name actors in Wes Anderson‘s Asteroid City, two are featured more prominently than the rest — Jason Schwartzman, 42, as a bearded, somber, man-of-few-words type, and Jake Ryan, a dorky-looking actor in his early 20s with a bee-stung nose**.
I haven’t counted and categorized all the shots in the trailer, but it’s possible that Ryan has more lines than Schwartzman. He certainly has as many closeups, if not more. This is my primary observation.
Otherwise Asteroid City appears to be another visit to Andersonville with a few splashes of alien salad dressing. I’m getting a little bit of a Moonrise Kingdom vibe from the adult-ensemble-mixed-with-precocious-kids. I love the mid ’50s station-wagon woodie (driven by Rupert Friend) with “French Press” stenciled on the driver door. A whole lot of people on the film’s IMDB page are credited with visual effects and creating models and miniatures.
