I love the way Sidney Lumet, the director of this 1982 courtroom drama, holds on the master shot for a fairly long time before finally going in on Paul Newman. Very nice. I also love Andrzej Bartkowiak‘s inky blacks during the opening beer-and-pinball credits sequence.
Until today I never knew that Bruce Willis had a non-speaking extra part as a “courtroom observer.”
The Santa Barbara Film Festival Blogger Panel video, taken last Sunday afternoon, has finally been posted on YouTube. It looks dark, muddy and quite hazy, like it was captured by a Bill Clinton-era camera on 8mm videocassette. Well, at least you can listen to it. It comes in six portions: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5 and #6.
A video companion to a profile of Guillermo del Toro‘s most intriguing monsters, written by New Yorker writer Daniel Zalewski.
One of my many encounters with Del Toro happened at the end of the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. It was the year of Pan’s Labyrinth, of course, which I’d seen at the Star Cinema on the rue d’Antibes. Near the end of our chat I took this photo of his workbook:
“The King’s Speech is an anesthetic movie, The Social Network an invigorating one — and their scripts’ departures from the historical record serve utterly divergent purposes,” wrote New Yorker/”Front Row” critic Richard Brody earlier today. “The inaccuracies in The King’s Speech and The Social Network are as different in kind as the movies are different in quality.
“The tale of royal triumph through a commoner’s efforts expurgates the story in order to render its characters more sympathetic, whereas the depiction of Mark Zuckerberg as a lonely and friendless genius (when, in fact, he has long been in a relationship with one woman) serves the opposite purpose: to render him more ambiguous, to challenge the audience to overcome antipathy for a character twice damned, by reasonable women, as an ‘asshole.’
“Imagine if George VI, working to overcome his stammer, were seen at his balcony endorsing Neville Chamberlain‘s Munich agreement (as, in fact, happened), or had expressed a preference, as N.Y. Times Review of Books‘ Martin Filler writes, for ‘the appeaser Lord Halifax to Churchill as [Chamberlain’s] replacement.’ It might have made the movie more surprising and more complex than the pap that’s currently enjoying an outpouring of undeserved honors.
“P.S. My colleague Nancy Franklin tweeted a link to a recording of King George VI’s actual speech of September 3, 1939. It shows up the bland prowess of Colin Firth’s performance. Listen to the exotic, perhaps now-extinct tang of the actual king’s vowels, and his hint of vibrato, and compare them to Colin Firth‘s dulled-down inflections. There’s as little flavor to his speech as to the movie itself.”
In a 2.1 Vanity Fair posting about big-time Hollywood salaries, contributing editor Peter Newcomb reveals that (a) “by the time Avatar plays out on broadcast television, James Cameron will make close to $350 million” (and he’ll be making two more Avatar sequels for creative kicks?), (b) Johnny Depp pocketed a third of a $150 million “profit pool” from Alice in Wonderland (or roughly $50 million?) and was paid $35 million for the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean — $85 million total; (c) Vince Vaughn got paid $17.5 million for The Dilemma; (d) Michael Bay got paid over $100 million in 2010.
That’s over $550 million paid to four guys with Vaughn getting the pauper’s slice.
I’ll definitely be attending and covering a “Reel Oscar Talk” forum at the 92nd Street Y on Tuesday, 2.8 at 8 pm. Columbia film professor Annette Insdorf will mix it up with N.Y. Times critic A.O. Scott, film critic and author Molly Haskell, “Pictures at a Revolution” author Mark Harris and 42West co-chief of entertainment marketing Amanda Lundberg.
I nearly forgot about my acidic King’s Speech stomach during last night’s Santa Barbara Film Festival Geoffrey Rush tribute. I’ll never be able to watch Quills again, and Rush’s over-acting in the HBO Peter Sellers biopic (which he was too old for) and the Pirates films is a tough thing, but he’s just about perfect in Tom Hooper‘s high-end buddy flick.
Last night reminded that Rush is a wise, cultured and very eloquent fellow. He made an excellent impression all around. And he looks good as Mr. Clean. If he wins the Best Supporting Actor Oscar, as Sasha Stone suspects he might, I will not twitch or shudder in my seat. His Lionel Logue is a first-rate inhabiting.
King’s Speech costars Colin Firth and Helena Bonham Carter dropped by atr the end of the tribute along with director Tom Hooper,
Like many in her realm, Entertainment Weekly critic Lisa Schwarzbaum is close to apoplectic (“gobsmacked”) over last weekend’s DGA triumph by The King’s Speech helmer Tom Hooper. But perhaps, she adds, Hooper does merit exceptional recognition for his clever use of classical music in four important scenes.
“What were those DGA voters thinking?,” she writes. “My conclusion: They weren’t thinking; they were feeling. And they were feeling because of incalculable help provided to the director by two geniuses ineligible for an award in this or any other year to come. I’m talking, of course, about Ludwig van Beethoven and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Without them, The King’s Speech would be filled with much emptier words.”
Gee, I wonder what inspired Salon‘s Matt Zoller Seitz to post a slideshow piece about the most egregious Oscar’ wrongos of all time? Did the idea just arise out of the blue? Or is there a present-tense contender prompting rolled eyes and audible groans?
Update: Hollywood Foreign Press Association president Phil Berk has denied Ricky Gervais‘ claim that he’s been asked to host the Golden Globes yet again next year, despite the brouhaha sparked by his his stint earlier this month. “There is no truth to this rumor,” Berk said in a statement. “We have not asked him to come back. Nice try, Ricky.”
Earlier: The Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. has reportedly invited Ricky Gervais to return and host the 2012 Golden Globes telecast. That’s the Stockholm Syndrome, no? It’s also one hell of a swing from what one HFPA member told Popeater’s Rob Shuter about Gervais not only being finished as a GG emcee but his future films being blackballed in terms of potential Golden Globe honors.
Gervais has expressed reluctance about doing the show again. He’d be a fool not to, of course. The whole “he went too far!” thing (i.e., shock and umbrage, death-ray looks from Tom Hanks and Tim Allen, objections from Robert Downey, Jr., publicists reportedly calling to complain) has boosted his stock and then some.
The complete classic quote: “‘Hit Me,’ said the Sadomasochist. ‘I won’t,’ said the Sadist.”
