When Demme Was One of The Lion Kings

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I’m crestfallen about the passing of the great Jonathan Demme, who was one of the leading hot-shit directors of the ’80s and early ’90s (Melvin and Howard, Something Wild, The Silence of The Lambs, Philadelphia). Demme died this morning in New York City from esophageal cancer and complications from heart disease. The cancer hit him in 2010, recurred two years ago, and then advanced in force over the last few weeks.

I knew Demme casually or slightly in a non-interview context. A run-in here, a party chat there. Once through the late Stuart Byron, the ex-Village Voice columnist who was friendly with him, and with whom I ran a consultancy business called re:visions. Demme seemed to be all about spirit, mirth, excitement. He was approachable, unpretentious. He loved Caribbean culture. If he was a worry wart behind closed doors, I never saw it.

The last time I spoke to Demme was at the Gotham Awards in December ’08. He was hanging with Jenny Lumet, who had written the screenplay for what would later be regarded as Demme’s last hurrah as a top-ranked auteur — Rachel Getting Married. The forthcoming inauguration of Barack Obama came up. I asked if he thought it was a good idea to self-identify as “Barack Hussein Obama,” given recently voiced concerns about a U.S. President sharing a name with Saddam of Iraq. “The yokels won’t like that,” I said. Demme’s response: “Fuck ’em!”

Born in February 1944 (too late for the Baby Bust generation but not a boomer either), Demme had four distinct career phases:

#1: A low-budget, exploitation-tinged, Roger Corman-affiliated chapter (writing and/or producing Angels Hard as They Come, The Hot Box and Black Mama White Mama, and then directing Caged Heat, Crazy Mama and Fighting Mad). This was followed by a dicey period noir-thriller, Last Embrace (’79), which I re-watched four or five years ago and found wanting.

#2: His peak period as an assured, studio-supported mainstream director of seven films — Melvin and Howard (’80), Swing Shift (’84), Stop Making Sense (’84), Something Wild (’86), an inspired detour with Swimming to Cambodia (’87), the not-so-hot Married to the Mob (’88) and then his two greatest successes — The Silence of the Lambs (’91) and Philadelphia (’93).

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Alien in Manhattan

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Ridley Scott‘s Alien Covenant opens stateside on Friday, 5.19, or 7 days after the 5.12 debut in England. The French opening is on Wednesday, 5.10. The first U.S. media screening I’ve been told about happens in LA and NYC on the evening of Friday, 5.5. My red-eye flight arrives in NYC that morning. Straight up to Fairfield, unpack the bags, a two-hour nap, a little filing and then drive back to Manhattan around 4 pm. That’s a lot of trouble and mileage in order to savor the death of Danny McBride, but I so want to see this. Why is the U.S. among the last countries to see this thing?

Japanese Dogs

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Wes Anderson‘s Isle of Dogs (Fox Searchlight, 4.20.18) “follows a boy’s odyssey in search of his dog.” Pic is shooting in England but will be set in Japan. This Japanese poster was released today by FS. Bryan Cranston, Liev Schrieber, Greta Gerwig and Yoko Ono teaming with Anderson regulars Bill Murray, Edward Norton, Jeff Goldblum, Scarlett Johansson, F. Murray Abraham, Tilda Swinton, Courtney B. Vance, Frances McDormand, Bob Balaban and Harvey Keitel.

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Anticipation of Pain

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20th Century Fox will open Matthew Vaughn‘s Kingsman: The Golden Circle on Friday, 9.22. The sight of Taron Egerton…don’t ask. Costarring Colin Firth, Channing Tatum, Halle Berry, Julianne Moore, Jeff Bridges, Pedro Pascal, Sophie Cookson, Mark Strong, Michael Gambon and (best wishes for a speedy recovery) Elton John.

From my 2.12.15 review of Kingsman: The Secret Service: “Many of the geekboy genre zombies who didn’t approve of Steven Soderbergh‘s Haywire are giving a pass to the cynically disconnected, utterly rancid Kingsman: The Secret Service (20th Century Fox, 2.13). I get what the scheme is but it’s not funny, exciting or the least bit intriguing…a waste of my time and a ton of money down the well…why?

“The point of Matthew Vaughn‘s 007 genre spoof, in the tradition of many God-awful action flicks made over the last 20-plus years, is to levitate outside itself and in fact outside the trust or belief system that all good cinema depends upon, and to deliver cretinous action cartoon riffs. Kingsman, trust me, is pitched to the absolute lowest caste of fanboy plebians, and is incidentally delighted by the many ways that adversaries as well as bystanders can be sliced, hatcheted, drilled, shot, bludgeoned, stabbed and vivisected. Oh, right…that’s part of the attitude humor. Marvellous stuff!

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Beware of Will Smith Vote In Any Context

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The 2017 Cannes Film Festival jury was announced this morning. By my count it contains five serious filmmakers who can probably be counted upon to choose wisely and well — jury president Pedro Almodovar, Toni Erdmann director Maren Ade, actress and socially-attuned twitter maven Jessica Chastain, South Korean helmer Park Chan-wook (I’m not a big fan of his films but he knows his stuff) and Italian director and visual maestro Paolo Sorrentino.

In the middle you have director, screenwriter, actress and singer Agnes Jaoui (The Taste of Others).

And then you have a pair of softies who are probably inclined to vote for the emotional, humanist, warm-hug element in whatever film they see — actor, ex-Scientologist, onetime bulletproof superstar and up-viber Will Smith and Chinese superstar actress and producer Fan Bingbing. And finally you have another emotional fellow — composter Gabriel Yared — who may or may not side with the Smith contingent.

So basically you’re looking at a 6-3 majority in favor of cultured cineaste attitudes and aesthetics. Maybe. All I know is that when you invite Smith into the room, the conversation will most likely become more emotional and gut-driven, and less intellectually acute. I’m sorry but I feel like I know the guy pretty well at this stage.

“A Criminally Weak Sister”

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I own a razor-sharp HD-streaming version of John Frankenheimer‘s Seven Days in May (’64), and I really don’t see how the Warner Archive Bluray can look much better. It’s a nicely done A-minus film, but it only has one great scene — i.e., when Kirk Douglas (Col. Jiggs Casey) first informs Fredric March (President Jordan Lyman) and Martin Balsam (Paul Girard) that a military plot to overthrow the government may be underway. It’s all dialogue, but the late-night atmosphere and just-right performances seethe with tension.

There’s only one big problem. Every scene that features or alludes to Ava Gardner‘s Eleanor Holbrook character, the vaguely alcoholic ex-mistress of Burt Lancaster‘s General Scott, is weak. The movie tells us that a few steamy letters about their affair might compromise Scott’s standing with the public. However prudish or naive American culture might have been 53 years ago, this is a huge subplot sinkhole today. Sexual dalliances can harm the reputation of a politician running for office, but who could care about a little wick-dipping when it comes to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff? So what if a Curtis LeMay-like figure has been playing “poke-her”?

Boxy Allegiance

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I ignored Acorn’s Smiley’s People Bluray when it popped in August ’13. I’d watched it two or three times on DVD, and I figured that high-def resolution wasn’t worth the candle. But I’ve just bought it for two reasons: (a) the price is down to $26 and change, and (b) I realized that Acorn hadn’t cleavered it down to conform to the aspect-ratio fascism of 16 x 9 screens — they actually stuck with the original 4 x 3 boxy shape, which was de rigeur when this legendary miniseries premiered in ’82. My heart warmed over. I couldn’t help myself.

Rat On A Plate

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From Hugh Hart’s wheretowatch.com’s piece about the silhouette-y main-title sequence for Feud: Bette and Joan: “Kyle Cooper, who first turned industry heads in 1995 with his famously gritty main title sequence for David Fincher’s Se7en, decided to render the Feud stars in silhouette after studying Saul Bass‘s 1955 title sequence for The Man With the Golden Arm. He also checked out the 2002 opening for Catch Me While If You Can and revisited paper cut-out collages produced by Henri Matisse. The wiry sculptures by Swiss sculptor Alberto Giacometti were another key influence.”

Quote: “I set these parameters that everything had to be in silhouette, so we wouldn’t see any details in the people’s face and there wouldn’t be any kind of shading.”

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High Dive

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Nobody needs to make a big thing out of this except myself and the SRO, but we’ve decided to tie the knot at a sunset beach ceremony this Friday. West of Trancas around 7 pm, actually. Ourselves and three or four friends. No band, no formal wear, no caterer, no crossed lances. Just the vows, the sand, the magic-hour light and the sound of the waves. Chris the “officiant guy” will conduct the ceremony and make it all come out right.

I haven’t been married in 25 years, but I’ve sampled enough iffy, mezzo-mezzo or inharmonious relationships to know what the right chemistry and a lucky connection feel like. Do I have a deep and abiding need to get married? No — I could be very happy just living in sin. But if I don’t pull the trigger before long the SRO will be obliged to return to Russia so why fiddle around? The family thinks it’s happening too quickly, but I know a good thing when it’s fallen into my lap. I’m holding five hearts, queen high. Plus we’re doing Italy after the Cannes Film Festival, and we might as well call it a honeymoon.

Plus she needs to dive into the job market and make it happen as best she can, and she really can’t do that without the necessary credentials. She’s executive material with an impressive job history. She’s my idea of whipsmart and well-organized. No, I don’t remember the plot of Peter Weir‘s Green Card, but I assure you I’m not Andie McDowell and the SRO is not Gerard Depardieu.

We’ve been shoulder-shrugging about the doubters. They might be right, but it sure doesn’t feel that way. I’m basically that Warren Zevon guy in “Lawyers, Guns and Money” — “I took a little risk.”

If it doesn’t work out, I’ll survive. I’ll always have the column, which I’ve been married to for 18 and 1/2 years now. But I suspect it will, at least for a few years. Or maybe longer. She’s beautiful and blonde and laughs easily. I trust her. When you meet someone who’s “great partner material”, you just know. (I had the same instinct about my first wife, Maggie.) Like me she loves to hike and ride bikes and travel, and she loves my cats. I’ve never been with a smarter, more loyal and super-focused lady in my life. And, like I said, if things go south I’ll always have my wordsmithing.

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