The Depp-Heard defamation trial is over, and now we’re all waiting for the jury’s verdict. They both lied, they’re both guilty…it was just a bad marriage that turned ugly, to a significant extent due to Johnny’s drinking and drugging. But after the Washington Post editorial he wanted his day in court to say to Hollywood and the world, “I was addicted and kinda bad at times, okay, but she was even worse.” When it began I wasn’t expecting that so many people would slam Heard as the senior destructive element. She’s really been hit pretty hard, reputation and career-wise. That bed turd will always be there. No one will ever forget it.
“Original Top Gun helmer Tony Scott was to have directed Top Gun: Maverick. Tony had a signed contract with Paramount and was developing the screenplay. But ten years ago this August, Tony jumped off a San Pedro bridge to his death. I am not certain of the whys behind the suicide**, only that it is always a sad event when someone checks out early. It’s especially sad when it is someone as sunny, bull-headed, and easy-to-laugh as Tony. He silently battledcancerfor40years but kept it quiet. There was no sign of it in the coroner’s report or any other underlying health issues. His brother, Ridley, called his suicide ‘inexplicable.’
“I first met Tony on the screen. He was a lad of 15 years. He starred in his older brother’s first experimental film. It was shot with a Bolex in Hartelpool England. The movie was called Boy & Bicycle — 45 minutes of Ridley Scott doing fancy camera moves while Tony rode around. It was not as powerful as Truffaut’s first film which also tackled the subject matter of bicycles, but it showed the daring and power of the film language that Ridley would later command in movies from Alien to Blade Runner to Gladiator.
“Tony had a sweet demeanor in that short movie. While he was 8 years older than I, I always treated him like a younger brother. What does that mean? I was kind but firm with him because he could be prone toward mischief and disobedience even while smiling and hugging you.
“In the flesh, I first met Tony in an interview with Ned Tanen, the head of the studio, at Ned’s house in [Santa Monica] on Channel Road. The meeting was to determine if Tony should direct Top Gun. During the high-tension meeting, Tony fell asleep. In mid-sentence. While explaining his vision in Ned’s favorite chair.
“35 Hollywood directors had turned down TopGun. The producers, Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, were anxious to keep the project alive. But NO ONE wanted to get near it. Don and Jerry had a monster hit with Flashdance. BUT when first viewed, Flashdance was a hot mess. After the preview, the theatre was empty. The audience had walked out. It was that bad. Flashdance went through 35 arduous previews until it morphed into an audience-pleasing juggernaut success. Paramount was infamous for previewing until the movie was the best it could be.
“After the meeting with Scott, Tanen turned to me and said ‘well, what do you want to do?’
“Then came the most important prompt of my life. I learned so much through that prompt. Ned said, ‘Listen, I hate this fuckin’ project. I hate these fuckin’ looney-tune producers. Everyone in town hates the script. But I believe in you. If you want to make a fuckin’ movie with this Brit who falls asleep in the middle of a job interview, then be my fucking guest. You make the decision, right or wrong. And when this fucking movie comes out, you’re going to wear it, for better or worse. You get it? Do you understand me?’
“I took up the gauntlet. To be fair, Scott was jet-lagged. He had gotten off a plane from London and was rushed to Ned’s house for the meeting. I felt bad for my younger brother.
“That night, I booked a projection room on the Paramount lot, ordered some take-out, and watched Tony’s last movie, The Hunger, about lesbian vampires. It was beautiful to look at, and it was godawful. Commercial storytelling demands that a director put the energy of the narrative in the right place. It was a bunch of pretty images and nothing more.
“In The Hunger, Tony was so focused on closeups of high heels and red-painted mouths and endless fluttering curtains, I never had a clue where I was in the story. He never established the geography of the narrative. There were no masters. No exits and entrances of people into rooms. Where the heck were we?
“After a sleepless night, I asked to have breakfast with Tony and his manager, Bill Unger. I explained to Tony that we would hire him to direct Top Gun under two conditions: 1) adhere to the budget of $13.5 million and 2) in every scene, shoot a master up front as protection. ‘We have to know where we are, Tony. You are a brilliant shooter but we have to know where we are. If we are shooting a bar scene, we need to see the bar to establish the scene. That goes for every scene, whether it be an air hanger or a classroom. ‘I promise, mate,’ he said as he smiled and hugged me.
“I went back to Tanen and told him we had found our man. I explained why we were hiring him, what the simple strategy of obtaining master shots in each scene. I told Ned that I had gone over the financials and believed with some certainty, with Tom Cruise’s star power, we could reach at least break-even if the picture did $50 million in U.S. box office. With that box office, we should do at least 3 million units in home video.”
Tanen: ‘Listen to you,’ he laughed. ‘You’ll have my job in 3 years.’
“’I appreciate the responsibility and for your belief in me,’ I said. ‘No one has ever believed in me like that.’
“’Get outta here,’ he said but he was choked up. Three years later, I took over his job. He was tired of it. Ned helped me believe in myself. I never worked so effing hard to make Tony work as the director in all my life.
Thompson: “Austria could submit Kreutzer’s irreverent costume drama Corsage [for Oscar consideration]…many thought Corsage should have been programmed in the Competition…[it stars] versatile Berlin actress Vicky Krieps as Austria-Hungary’s rebellious Empress Elisabeth (‘Sissi’)…Krieps shared the Un Certain Regard Best Actress award. With the right handling from IFC Films, the revisionist 19th-century royal slice-of-life could compete for Best Actress and Best Costume Design, as well as International Feature Film.”
HE reality check: Krieps did not “win big” at Cannes. Her Corsage performance resonated to some extent, but there’s no way in hell that Krieps’ moody, sullen turn will be even considered as a Best Actress contender. Corsage may make headway in the other two categories.
Posted from Cannes on 5.20.22: I regret reporting that Marie Kreutzer‘s Corsage, which screened at 11 am this morning, didn’t sit well. I found it flat, boring, listless. The Austrian empress Elizabeth (Vicky Krieps) is bored with her royal life, and the director spares no effort in persuading the audience to feel the same way.
Krieps plays up the indifference, irreverence and existential ennui. Somewhere during Act Two a royal physician recommends heroin as a remedy for her spiritual troubles, and of course she develops a habit. I was immediately thinking what a pleasure it would be to snort horse along with her, or at least during the screening.
Corsage is unfortunately akin to Pablo Larrain‘s Spencer and Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette — stories of women of title and privilege who feel alienated and unhappy and at a general loss.
I’m sorry but this movie suffocates the soul.
In actuality Empress Elizabeth was assassinated in 1898, at age 51. For some reason Kreutzer has chosen to end the life of Krieps’ Elizabeth at a younger point in her life, and due to a different misfortune.
This is one of the most deflating and depressing films I’ve ever seen.
Siri’s inability to understand or verbalize the LMAO acronym (laughing my ass off) leads to “luhmayo” after the punch line. Jokes have to be delivered just so or they don’t work. Yes, I’m aware that this is eight months old.
Disgruntled friendo: “From the Palme d’Or and on down, the Cannes Film Festival awards often don’t make any sense, and this year are only compounding what is now the twee irrelevance of Cannes itself.”
Ruben Ostlund‘s Triangle of Sadness takes the Palme d’Or! And a lot of people are scratching their heads. Sadness is a very funny, impudent and whipsmart satire during the first half, but it loses something when the vomiting scene kicks in aboard the Christina O. The second half isn’t as good as the first, and no one has disputed this. So why did it win the top prize?
I’m a serious fan of the film and Ostlund in general, but this seems like a political call. The film bluntly satirizes the super-wealthy and the general spread of self-obsession, selfishness and social media. Congrats to Ostlund and his cast, but this is kinda nuts, man.
Friendo: “I didn’t love Triangle of Sadness — like you I found the second half slow and dawdling and didactic, and obviously woker-than-woke in the desert-island section — and it’s just so disappointing that they would give the Palme to Ostland AGAIN, for a film that’s notreallygoodenough. But all you have to do is scroll through the entire history of Cannes winners to remind yourself that one-half to three-fifths of them are utterly nuts. Totally undeserving.”
Grand Prize: A tie between Lukas Dhont‘s Close (fully deserved) and Claire Denis‘ The Stars at Noon….another crazy call. The Denis isn’t even close to Dhont’s realm of accomplishment, and so this feels like feminist positivism — Denis’ film has seemingly won for the same reason that Power of the Dog‘s Jane Campion won the Best Director Oscar — an aging, distinguished feminist helmer is paid tribute for her long brave career.
Trust me, The Stars at Noon is okay but delivers nowhere near the emotional combustion of Close.
Best Director: Park Chan-wook for Decision to Leave. I give up. We all understood that Decision wasn’t any kind of masterful effort except technically, but the Park Chan-wook cabal is curiously adamant about his being honored because…well, mainly because Decision has excellent chops. It’s certainly not good enough to win a big award, but here we are regardless.
Special 75th Anniversary Prize: Jean-Pierre et Luc Dardenne‘s TorietLokita…at least it didn’t win the Palme.
Jury Prize: The Eight Mountains and Jerzy Skolimowsky’s EO…a tie.
Best Actor: Song Kang Ho (the Parasite guy with the slightly oafish expression) for Broker.
Best Screenplay: Tarik Saleh, Boy From Heaven.
Best Actress: Zar Amir Embrahimi, Holy Spider.
Camera d’Or: Riley Keough‘s War Pony, a film that I liked and respected for the most part.
Random sloppy thoughts: Embrahimi’s crusading female journalist in Holy Spider wins for Best Actress? Why? Her peformance is apparently being celebrated because of the feminist symbolism aspect — because her fictitious journalist character was persistent and committed and basically busted an infamous woman-loathing serial killer singlehandedly. Again — Embrahimi is okay but why all the excitement?
I wasn’t dead bored by Broker, but it was certainly an in-and-outer. If you ask me it’s bullshit to give the Best Actor trophy to the Parasite chauffeur guy — Song Kang Ho. Really mystifying. Song just repeated his awkward middle-aged-guy performance from Parasite, the same character wearing the same timid, not-fully-comprehending expression…this time he’s playing another kind of hustler or scammer…more or less the same deal.
I didn’t see Le Otto Montagne but Jerzy Skolimowski’s EO (basically an Au Hazard Balthazar remake) felt sloppy and catch-as-catch-can — meandering, spotty, didn’t kick into gear, overly impressionistic and kind of a mess. No buzz, no excitement and no applause after the press screening ended and yet they’ve split the Jury Prize and given both of these films an award for same? This is CRAZY!
The Angeli Rose Gomez story is a couple of days old but I was buried in Cannes screenings, etc. Someone needs to make a documentary about this woman and what she did last Tuesday in Uvalde, or maybe even a feature.
World of Reel‘s Jordan Ruimy has been told that the Palme d’Or will either go to Lukas Dhont‘s Close (the right choice) or to the sad (i.e., tragic) but unexceptional Tori et Lokita, the latest moderately decent film from Jean Paul and Luc Dardennes, the Belgian brothers who make the same kind of matter-of-fact, low-key, point-and-watch film year after year after year.
Tori and Lokita is fine but very familiar if you know the Dardenne and how their films tend to play. It’s about a pair of African immigrants (not related but pretending to be) suffering cruel or indifferent treatment, mostly at the hands of Belgian drug dealers. You can’t help feeling sorry for these kids, but desperate immigrants have been getting kicked around and exploited for centuries, haven’t they? Life can be heartless for have-nots.
Audience compassion for victims is one thing; recognition of filmmaking excellence is another. The twains don’t necessarily overlap.
The last time I was on the Cannes-to-Paris train was four or five years ago. No SNCF wifi then — you were on your own with your phone signal. Now there’s on-board wifi and with a semi-decent strength. Left Cannes this morning at 11:24 am — arriving at Gare de Lyon around 5 pm (or 8 am Los Angeles time). The high-speed rail vibe is a nice gentle groove. It settles you. We’re just north of Lyon now. The HE pad is at 74 rue Duhesme, in the 18th. I should be opening the door by 6 pm or thereabouts. I’m looking forward to a nice, long, relaxing walk around town.
…had the cast-iron balls to go with a Bridges at Toko-Ri ending, rather than the triumphant one they chose. I’m talking about Tom Cruise‘s titular character and Miles Teller‘s “Rooster” Bradshaw suffering the same fate that William Holden and Mickey Rooney did 68 years ago. I’m talking about Cruise and Teller being surrounded by enemy troops after crash landing and putting up a good Wild Bunch-level fight before being outflanked and shot to death.
Dying together would have added poignance to the brotherly bond that Maverick had with Rooster’s dad, “Goose”, back in the ’80s, not to mention ending the contentious vibe that exists between Rooster and Maverick from the beginning.
A death ending would also have said “oh and by the way? War isn’t a fucking video game….it’s real, and sometimes the mission doesn’t go perfectly and sometimes good pilots buy the farm.”
A Cruise-and-Teller Toko Ri ending would probably translate into a slightly diminished box-office, agreed, but maybe not. A major character dying at the end of Titanic didn’t hurt the returns any. Not to mention Daniel Craig getting killed at the close of the highly successful NoTimeToDie.
“The Henry Hill part came at a point when Ray Liotta might have been headed for a career as a character actor.
“He was unforgettable in Jonathan Demme’s Something Wild, as an ex-boyfriend of Melanie Griffith’s whose possessiveness explodes in still-shocking violence. And in Field of Dreams he played a reincarnation of the disgraced ballplayer Shoeless Joe Jackson. Sometimes the crinkle in his eye reminded the viewer of the man’s corruption, but his portrayal was mostly of an awe-struck love of the game he could now play forever in a Midwestern cornfield-turned-ballpark.
“When Goodfellas was announced, more than one of its eventual cast members told me that it was the movie every New York and Los Angeles actor wanted in on. And Liotta was no exception.
“Everyone liked him for the part save the producer Irwin Winkler. He did not see the actor’s charm. In his book ‘A Life in Movies’, Winkler recalls Liotta coming to his table at a Santa Monica restaurant and asking for a word. ‘In a 10-minute conversation he (with charm and confidence) sold me on why he should play Henry Hill,’ the producer wrote. When I interviewed Winkler, he said, rather sheepishly, ‘You heard the story of me not wanting Ray?’ I told Winkler I had and said, ‘I can’t see anyone else doing it.’ Winkler responded ‘Nor can I.’
“Early talks with his publicist were promising. It was possible that I could get some time with him when he was in New York promoting Marriage Story at the New York Film Festival; then it wasn’t. We were both represented by the same agency; no dice. He was in a film on which a few close friends of mine were crew members. Can’t go there. And as I worked on the book, I heard several accounts of an intense, serious actor who, upon deciding he wasn’t going to do something, kept to that.
“He had spoken about Goodfellas in other interviews, including an oral history that ran in GQ in 2010. The shoot had its challenges: He suffered the death of his mother halfway through and felt at least slightly shut out by male castmates like Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci.
“Going through De Niro’s papers at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin, ‘I came across a thank-you card from Liotta, and inside was a handwritten note: ‘Bob, Now I can tell you how much of a trip it was to work with you. You’re the best. Hope we can do it again. But I really mean Do It!'”
