Helena Bonham carter to The Times' Rosamund Urwin, posted online on 9.26 at 6 pm:
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From Mark Salisbury's "Burton on Burton": "Warner Bros. management disliked the title Beetlejuice and wanted to call the film House Ghosts. As a joke, Burton suggested Scared Sheetless and was horrified when the studio actually considered using it."
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The early to late ’70s saw the flowering of a revolutionary sexual awakening all over…in showbiz circles, in elite professions, in the major urban areas, in upper middle-class neighborhoods. Hell, everywhere.
And especially for rich, powerful, good-looking actors on the prowl. For them every day was a combination of Plato’s Retreat and I, Claudius. It was madness back then.
Even Average Joes tasted the nectar. From a certain perspective they were lucky to be living and frolicking in one of the most breathtaking nookie eras since the days of Ancient Rome.
In our Salem Witch Trial climate there’s nothing to be gained and everything to be lost by being candid about this. I certainly can’t go there but…
The context of the ‘70s was so dramatically different than the climate of today. We’re living in the midst of #MeToo Puritanism — a very conservative and punitive social movement.
That aside, any adult actor who may or may not have had his way with an under-age teenager…such behavior was selfish and cruel. That was then, but this is now. And criminally is criminality. You don’t mess with jailbait.
So many people today have no understanding of how many people in Hollywood and the pop music world diddled around with jailbait back in the day. They think it was just Warren Beatty and Led Zeppelin. Celebrities, or at least many of them, have little sense of morality when it comes to showing restraint or putting the brakes on. They lead wild lives. But no one seems to understand this. The tabloids present banal addiction and divorce dramas as The Truth. They don’t report on most of what actually goes on.
Last Thursday (11.3) an official trailer for Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre's Lady Chatterly's Lover (Netflix, 12.2) appeared. The trailer is decently cut but it obscures a basic problem that I had with the film, which I caught a couple of months ago in Telluride.
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I came across the above description of Todd Field’s Tar yesterday — an analogy between Cate Blanchett‘s Lydia Tar and Daniel Day Lewis‘s Daniel Plainview.
The seed appeared in Jessica Kiang‘s 9.19 Film Comment roundup of the Venice Film Festival ** (“Venice ’22: Women on Fire“), to wit: “For over a decade I’ve wondered, off and on, when we would get a female movie character to equal the ferocity, charisma, and monumental destructive narcissism of There Will Be Blood’s Daniel Plainview. Though the two films could not be more different, I think I can stop wondering now. Lydia Tár would drink your milkshake without ever thinking it might not be hers to drink.”
Kiang’s month-old essay doesn’t mention “Girlboss” though. (Before failing to note the URL, I thought I had read “Bosswoman” or “Bitchboss”.) It comes, I’ve just been told, from a 10.15 Letterboxd piece by Brenda Nowicz. Hats off. (And thanks to “LightInfa” for the heads-up.)
I know that the There Will Be Blood association opened something up. A little light bulb switched on. One could even make the claim that the final shot in that Asian ComicCon gathering in Tar is equivalent to Daniel Day Lewis’s final TWBB line — “I’m finished!”
Tar may be a “monster”, as Kiang calls her, but over the decades I’ve been in the orbit of several such headstrong egoists, male and female alike, and when you become a big, wealthy visionary cheese such behavior sometimes (but not always) goes with the territory. Regrettable and possibly unpleasant for certain parties, but not evil. Kiang is one of those who regards Lydia Tar”s third-act takedown by woke “robots” as a justified thing. That, to me, is horrifying.
Tar is a piece of work, all right, and I wouldn’t want to get too close to a real-life counterpart for fear of stray venom pellets, but she’s not that awful — her behavior has been observed among many headstrong creators. Nearly ever powerful person in world history, especially the creatively powerful and world-famous, has used his or her power to persuade attractive young people to fuck or pleasure them or serve as arm-candy. They’ve all done it. Lydia Tar is no different. Way of the big, bad, grown-up world. And after you turn 20 you have to figure that stuff out.
Plus I”m still bothered by the fact that Field doesn’t allow a single sexual vapor into the film — he asks us to supply our own imaginings.
**Thanks to “SlashMC.”
“I guess we have to ask ‘what is the point of any of this?” Because activists are imposing their ideology on nearly every corner of the industry, making film awards — and films in general — something other than what their original purpose has always been. And honestly, what are these awards going to be but a ceremony inside of a devout religion?” — Awards Daily‘s Sasha Stone, posted on 8.23.22.
10.12.22: Wokesters within the Los Angeles Film Critics Association have decided to follow the lead of the Spirit and Gotham Awards by abandoning gender-based acting awards.
When the LAFCA foodies vote in December they’ll hand out two Best Lead Performance trophies (either gender or gender-neutral) and two awards for Best Supporting Performance (ditto).
LAFCA motive #1 is to emphasize how different L.A. wokester culture is from tens of millions of Joe and Jane Popcorn movie lovers in every corner of the nation, who don’t give a shit about any of this.
LAFCA motive #2: “Non-woke film fans may love the idea of gender-based acting categories for now, but we are leading the way to a bold and brave new realm…henceforth we are living in a gender-neutral world, whether you like it or not. Wake up and woke up and join us…it’s a joyful revolution!”
Here’s a portion of my reaction to the Spirit Award announcement, which I posted six or seven weeks ago -/ obviously the same deal.
“I will say this straight and clear and true: If the Academy decides to go gender-neutral with the Oscar acting awards, the eclipse will be total and absolute, and I mean beyond the level of anything dreamt of by Michelangelo Antonioni …culturally and aesthetically, the Oscars will have slit their own throats.
“Which award-giving org will succumb next to glorious trans fluidity-slash-equality? If the gender-neutral advocates within BAFTA, the Academy, the Golden Globes, the Critics Choice and the guilds…if they manage to eliminate gender-based acting awards, Average Joes and Janes will simply walk away and stay away…they will raise their fists and voices and say “stop this insanity, stop this bullshit…men are men and women are women and they generate different moods and expressions and ways of living and processing the ups and downs of living…stop this bullshit and come down to earth.”
“Paris, October 4h, 2022 — Microids is pleased to announce Pendulo Studios’ latest narrative adventure game, Alfred Hitchcock – Vertigo, which is now available on PlayStation®5, PlayStation®4, Xbox One consoles, Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch. It will launch on October 4th in North America.
“Loosely based on the famous director’s movie of the same name, Alfred Hitchcock – Vertigo is a narrative experience, also available on PC (Steam, GOG, Epic Games Store).
“Alfred Hitchcock – Vertigo tells the story of Ed Miller, a writer who escaped unscathed from a car crash in Brody Canyon, California. Ed insists that he was traveling with his wife and daughter, though nobody was found in the car wreckage. Traumatized by the crash, Ed begins to suffer from severe vertigo. As he starts therapy, Ed will try to uncover the truth behind what really happened on that tragic day.”
[Originally posted on 3.31.11] I'd always wanted to see Fred Zinnemann's A Hatful of Rain on a big wide screen (rather a small television set, which is what I saw it on when I was 15) because it's in black-and-white Scope -- my favorite format. So I caught it last night at the Aero, and briefly spoke with star Don Murray (who's looking very fit and vibrant at age 82) and listened to a q & a with Murray and costar Eva Marie Saint.
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Two nights ago Bill Maher devoted his "New Rules" segment to a rant about presentism. Terrific, I told myself -- one of HE's pet peeves will get an airing on Real Time! Then I watched it and went "oh."
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Actors should be allowed to play whomever or whatever. In a perfect world none of us would or should have a problem with a straight actor playing gay or vice versa, or a non-Latino playing Fidel Castro or you-name-it.
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Not enough marquee-brand actresses adhere to the Steve McQueen school of less-is-more acting. One of my all-time favorite female performances in this vein was Kristin Scott Thomas‘ grief-struck ex-convict in I’ve Loved You For So Long (’08). On the other end of things are the over-emoters, and one of the most deeply annoying in this regard has been Emily Blunt. For me at least.
When I think of top-tier actresses who seem strangely and fundamentally opposed to the kind of acting that Thomas exhibited in ILYSL, Blunt tops the list.
To me she’s always “acting,” and all this strenuous effort kinda drains my soul. Blunt has been kicking it since playing Meryl Streep‘s assistant in The Devil Wears Prada (’06) and in my book she’s given only two performances I’ve been able to really believe and settle into, and they both opened eight years ago — the hard-ass “Rita Vrataski” in Edge of Tomorrow and the baker’s wife in Into the Woods.
Okay, I liked her also in Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (’11). Okay, she wasn’t bad in Charlie Wilson’s War (’07) and Sunshine Cleaning (’08).
I was actually okay with Blunt until she started playing above-the-title leads, a period which seemed to begin with The Five Year Engagement (’12). All I know is that I flinched, twitched and occasionally rolled my eyes during her performances in The Devil Wears Prada (too much sniffling and sneezing), Looper, Arthur Newman (“I don’t like Durm!”), Sicario (really hated her in this…too emotional, too actressy, picking up some stray dude in a bar), The Huntsman: Winter’s War, The Girl on the Train, A Quiet Place (stop “acting”!), Mary Poppins Returns (awful…Blunt’s second-worst film), A Quiet Place Part II (Blunt suggestion — try imagining that the camera isn’t there and that what’s happening in a given moment is simply happening to your character alone), and Jungle Cruise (arguably Blunt’s worst film ever).
I wouldn’t mind seeing Avatar again…3D or flat IMAX, big sound, whatever feels right. Has there ever been a sequel to a hit theatrical film that came out 13 years after the initial debut? That’s how long it’s damn near been — 12 years and eight months.
Honest admission: I bought my Avatar Bluray in the summer of ’10, and I’ve never watched it once.
Posted on 12.18.09: Avatar was composed with an unusual four-act structure, and it all brilliantly pays off during the final half-hour.
The four acts can be summarized (spoiler whiners are advised to READ NO FURTHER) as (a) Jake Sully’s introduction to the deal and the Na’vi reality — i.e., the opportunity to serve as a military spy through his transformation into a Na’vi body and immersion into the Na’vi culture, and his first adventures going into this process; (b) love and exploration as Jake passes through the rites and passages of becoming a Na’vi, and the blooming of his feelings for Neytiri, his native guide and friend, ending with the line “Jake, what the hell are you doing?”; (c) disappointment, betrayal and downturn as Jake enrages his military boss, Colonel Miles Quaritch, by switching his allegiance to the Na’vi, and then admits to the Na’vi his military mission, which infuriates them as well, followed by brutal military attacks upon the Na’vi that send them scurrying; and (d) Jake’s resolve, forces gathered, Na’vi retaliation, serious payback, love fulfilled and final transformation.
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