Shekhar Kapoor‘s tribute to India’s admired-and-deeply-loathed Bollywood genre — Bollywood: The Greatest Love Story Ever Told — will screen out of competition during the 64th Cannes Film Festival. I probably despise Bollywood musicals a little more than Asian martial-arts films so I can’t wait not to see this thing. The doc was directed by Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra and Jeff Zimbalist. It runs 81 minutes.
Gavin Wiesen‘s Homework was recently retitled as The Art of Getting By. During Sundance 2011 I wrote that star Freddie Highmore “delivers every line and emotion exactly the same way with the same faintly self-amused expression, the same faint intellectual-hipster smile, the same space cadet/distracted-artist vibe, the same glassy-eyed stare. I wanted to see him get hit by an MTA bus.”
Fox Searchlight is opening the quirky Manhattan-based romance on 6.17.11.
Received this morning at 12:12 am Pacific: Pool Report #5, Los Angeles, CA
04/21/2011 / Maeve Reston, Maeve.Reston@latimes.com:
“President Obama arrived at his final fundraiser of the evening at around 8:20pm after speeding down Interstate 405, which had been completely shut down for the motorcade ride from Culver City to Brentwood. The dinner was held at The Tavern in a private room that held about 50 people. Major celebrity wattage at this event.
“Calif. Gov. Jerry Brown and his wife were seated a table in near the middle of the room. Other celebs included George Clooney (whom the President acknowledged), Steven Spielberg as well as Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson, and Will Ferrell. Tables were covered with forest green tablecloths. Potted trees and twinkling white lights created an atrium-like setting. About 50 guests seated, possibly a few more.
“Obama was introduced by Jeffrey Katzenberg, DreamWorks Animation SKG’s chief executive. Katzenberg noted that about three years or so ago most ‘everyone in this room embarked on a great journey and adventure with you,’ he said, directing his remarks to the President. ‘I think we all would agree that nobody has ever inherited a set of challenges — and nobody I think could possibly be better in tackling them. So we all feel very lucky to have you as our president (applause) for four more years.’
“‘Four more years…,’ Obama said, taking the microphone. Speaking from a slightly elevated position that appeared to be a small set of stairs or stage, he added: “Technically it’s actually five and a half more years.’ (Laughter).
“[Obama] thanked Jeffrey and Marilyn, calling Jeffrey ‘an extraordinary friend.’ (Jeffrey Katzenberg’s wife name is Marilyn; Can only assume it is the same Marilyn)
“A lot of you got involved at a time when the prospect of electing Barack Hussein Obama to the Oval Office was slim. None of you asked for my birth certificate. It was complete leap of faith,” he added to laughter.
POTUS said he wanted to spend most of the evening moving from table to table and wasn’t going to give a long speech. He acknowledged Calif. Gov. Jerry Brown – to applause – and the U.S. ambassador to Bahamas: Nicole A. Avant.
“‘It’s a nice gig isn’t it?’ he said to laughter.
“When we started this journey — it was actually about four years ago — I think we understood that the country was at a cross roads and we were going to have to make some fundamental changes so that we could make sure our kids, our grandkids, the next generation inherited the same kind of big-spirited America that we inherited from our grandparents and parents,” the President said. “We didn’t maybe know how steep the climb was going to be to get to where we needed to go. But we understood it was not going to be easy. The campaign wasn’t easy. There’s a lot of revisionist history going on now — ‘Boy, his campaign was so easy.'”It didn’t feel that way at time. It was hard.”
“But we kept at it, because we understood that a country that is generous and compassionate; that is looking after our children and grandchildren making sure that they’ve got a shot at the American dream; is making sure that our seniors have dignity and security in old age; that is looking after families that have got a disabled child; that is investing in our infrastructure so that we can move products and services and people and information around rapidly; that is a benevolent influence in world and respected around the world. We understood that getting to where we needed to go wasn’t going to be easy.
“And it hasn’t been, but we have made extraordinary progress over the last two and half years. We’ve pulled this economy out of a recession. We’ve stabilized the financial system. We’ve passed historic health care legislation to make sure that 30 million people aren’t going to go without coverage (applause). We’ve repealed ‘Don’t ask, Don’t tell.’ We have put two women on the Supreme Court including the first Latina (applause). We’ve passed equal pay for equal work. We can go down the list, but we also know we’ve got a lot more work to do. We’ve just started and we’ve got a lot more work to do.”
“There have been times, I’m sure, during the past two and half years where you read in the papers or you’re watching on TV and you’re saying ‘Ah, Obama, why did you compromise with the Republicans.’ Or why did health care take so long. I want a single-payer plan anyway.’ ”Golly if he was just as good a communicator as George Clooney,'” the president said, looking at Clooney to laughter, “I’m sure the American people would understand exactly what needs to be done.'”
“That’s understandable, because there have been times when I’ve been frustrated,” the president continued. “But I don’t want you to lose sight of how much we’ve gotten done. What we’ve done here has been historic and we’re only a quarter of the way through.”
The President said the budget debates “crystallizes the debate that we are going to be having in this country over the next 18 months about who we are, what we care about, what our values are, what our commitments are to each other.”
POTUS noted that his poll numbers “go up and down depending on the latest crisis — and right now gas prices are weighing heavily on people.”
“But when I talk to ordinary folks, they are not always paying attention. If you ask them what the makeup of the 25 percent is, they will say 25% of it goes to foreign aid. If you ask them about Medicare, they will say I love that program, but I wish the government wouldn’t get involved in it,” he said to light laughter.
“Just because they are busy,” POTUS interjected. “They’re tired, they are working hard; they are looking after their families; they are looking after their kids. If I wasn’t professionally in this – I wouldn’t be following all these debates in Washington. But when you talk to them about your values – what they care about – they say of course we should make sure every child has a good education and gets opportunity. And absolutely we’ve got to make sure our commitments to seniors are met. And of course, we want a family whose child has a disability is getting everything possible to allow them to succeed. And yes internationally we want to stand on the side of human rights and democracy.”
“Added that the world is complicated: ‘But we have a vision about what America should be in the world and we want to live up to that.’
“POTUS said government has to live within its means, but said “we think we can live within its means and still ensure that we’re delivering for next generation.”
“POTUS closed by saying he had faith in them (the next generation) and faith in ‘you.’
“Just remember the camp in 2008, it wasn’t about big crowds and nice posters and it wasn’t even about me. It was about commitments we made to each other as Americans. And those commitments have not ended; they didn’t end on Election Day; they don’t end when I take office. Those are commitments that we have to fight for and work for and be true to, each and every day. That’s what the next 18 months are going to be about.”
“Pool was ushered out of the room at this point.
“At 9:56pm, the motorcade is holding at the restaurant in Brentwood. But departure appears to be near.”
maeve.reston@latimes.com
“Christoph Waltz plays August, the tyrannical leader of the Benzini Traveling Circus, as if he has nothing to lose…except, that is, the respect he gained from his Oscar-winning turn in Quentin Tarantino‘s Inglourious Basterds. For Waltz is channeling the villainous Hans Landa one more time in a performance he could have done in his sleep.” — edited/compressed quote from Brad Brevet‘s 4.22 Rope of Silicon review of Water for Elephants.
A little more than a year ago I saw and reviewed James Rasin‘s Beautiful Darling: The Life and Times of Candy Darling, Andy Warhol Superstar as part of the New Directors, New Films series at the Museum of Modern Art. It opens tomorrow at the IFC Center so here’s the review again.
Boilerplate synopsis for Ruben Fleischer‘s 30 Minutes or Less (Columbia, 8.12): “After hiring an assassin to murder his father for his insurance money, chubby asshole antagonist Dwayne (Danny McBride…who else?) and partner-in-crime Travis (Nick Swardson) kidnap a pizza delivery driver (Jesse Eisenberg) and force him to rob a bank with a bomb vest attached to his chest in order to pay for the hit job.” Aziz Ansari costars.
You realize, of course, that Will Beall‘s Gangster Squad is The Untouchables all over again, except it happens in ’50s Los Angeles with temperamental hair-trigger gangster Mickey Cohen (to be played by a bald-headed Sean Penn) being the target instead of Robert De Niro‘s Al Capone.
Otherwise, as a friend who’s read the script puts it, “Brian DePalma and David Mamet might want to think about a plagiarism lawsuit.” He didn’t mean that literally but in a flip, drink-in-his-hand sort of way.
Ryan Gosling has the Kevin Costner role and Josh Brolin…will he play Sean Connery? The Warner Bros. film will begin shooting in the fall under Zombieland director Ruben Fleischer.
Gosling, meanwhile, has read my 4.15 “Farewell, My Dignity” post, come to his senses and decided against doing The Lone Ranger — one of the wisest better-late-than-never decisions of his professional life.
After Tuesday night’s The Greatest Movie Ever Sold experience in North Hollywood, I dropped into a brand-new joint called Phil’s Diner — a recreation of the old small diners of the ’20s, ’30s and ’40s (actually modelled on a dining car) with a healthy menu and nice wood panelling and all. The idea, I was told, is to create a Phil’s franchise network all over Los Angeles and perhaps beyond, which would be great.
In the mid ’90s I attended a lecture about screenwriting by the great Robert Towne (Chinatown, The Last Detail, The Firm), and I remember his stressing the importance of being able to weave refrains into a script. He was referring to a line or a thought or an offhanded remark that is used or understood in one particular way early on, and then is used again in Act Two or Three in a way that adds to the first meaning and perhaps even doubles back and reverses it in some way. Most HE readers know what I’m talking about, and I’m trying to think of examples of refrain used in any mainstream films over the last….oh, five years or so.
This is a courtyard of an apartment I rented for two days in Venice, Italy, in May 2007. The place is called Ca Guardiani (Calle Dei Guardiani 2403, sestiere Dorsoduro). Hanging outside around dusk with a glass of white wine and doing nothing in particular is one of the most peaceful things I’ve ever done or felt in my life.
On 3.28 I ran a heavily pixellated blowup of the Tree of Life raptor, and today — 23 days hence — The Playlist‘s Kevin Jagernauth, Movieline‘s Christopher Rosen, and Indiewire‘s Anne Thompson ran sharper, larger, better-looking versions of the same shot. Is that enough?
“Clearly, Terrence Malick has an attachment to secrecy. He seems to live for it almost. To be able to work within such an utterly secret vacuum that no one is able to learn any substantive-sounding information is perhaps (who knows?) the bottom-line electric lightning-bolt element in Malick’s life and head. Secrecy! But with all the sniffing around no one, it seems, has stopped to consider the absolute lunacy of attempting to blend a story about an anxious 20th Century man (Sean Penn) and recollections of his distant father (Brad Pitt) with prehistoric pre-time elements, including [in a script description that I heard 20 years ago] a prehistoric creature sleeping in a sea of magma. Good God!” — from 3.23.09 HE riff called “Secrecy and Dinosaurs”
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