Film Fatale

One of Saturday Night Live's funniest-ever sketches had Kevin Spacey's impersonating a young Christopher Walken in a long lost screen test for the role of Han Solo in the original STAR WARS. (It went on and on--with ever more inappropriate 70s stars (Jack Lemmon, Woody Allen, Barbra Streisand) soldiering through George Lucas' turgid dialogue.

Andrew Hearst at Panopticist has linked to something almost as funny: Robby Benson's audition for the role of Luke Skywalker--and yes, that is Harrison Ford reading opposite him. Benson, who would go on to teen dream stardom in ICE CASTLES and a slew of TV movies, is...well, let's just say he's way more juvenile than Mark Hamill.

You Tube member Ghyslain is uploading a black and white treasure trove of real auditions for the roles of Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia. There are 90 minutes of screen tests, and not every actor announces him or herself at the start. But so far you should recognize the young Lisa Eilbacher (of AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN) and the very, very young Terri Nunn of the band Berlin.

I don't know who the dark haired, sharp featured actor is at the start of Terri Nunn's tape.

Posted by Justine_FilmFatale at 08:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Slate's Brendan I. Koerner reports that IMAX's biggest hit is the long running paeon to NASA entitled THE DREAM IS ALIVE, which has earned more than $150 million since its 1985 debut. It's also kind of a snooze--despite some breathtaking shots of spacewalks and Earth views (yes, the astronauts really did lug an IMAX camera along on an early 1980s space shuttle mission). Writes Koerner, "these sublime moments are sandwiched between scenes of shuttle crews learning how to don their spacesuits and tedious footage of mission-control geeks with their endless rows of buttons. Every so often, narrator Walter Cronkite checks in with a corny declaration like, "Now that we know how to live and work in space, we stand at the threshold of a new age of discovery.'"

The NASA doc's sustained popularity is due in part to the fact that IMAX theaters are attached to space-themed attractions, like the National Air and Space Museum and the Kennedy Space Center. For schoolchildren, these movies are often part of a field trip or family holiday. Another space exploration documentary, ROVING MARS--the first IMAX feature to use extensive animation to tell its story--got great reviews earlier this year, and it, too, is likely to have a long life as an educational film.

In 1992, IMAX theatres began showing regular features on their screens. As Koerner reports, some movies are being tailored specifically for the 70mm screen: SUPERMAN RETURNS had about 20 minutes of 3-D effects added during a remastering process.

Posted by Justine_FilmFatale at 11:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I would admire anyone who slogs through the works of Joyce, Heidegger, Derrida, Kierkegaard and "Who Moved My Cheese." If such a person existed, I would admire him. Until then, I'll make do with the Bard of Lazarus, Connecticut: literary critic Nanx Hedwerp, who shares his (her? its?) thoughts on books and music with the readers of Amazon.com
.

On PRIDE AND PREJUDICE: "A comedy of manners with simmering emotions. This is Austen's best novel yet, and I can't wait to see what she comes up with next...my second favorite book this year after THE SOUTH BEACH DIET."

On Tolkien's THE SILMARILLION: "Very hard to put down. But then again, it was suspended from the ceiling by a string."

On Wittgenstein's TRACTATUS LOGICO PHILOSOPHICUS: "A bit slow...I did not find the main character compelling. I recommend The South Beach Diet."

Some day, Nanx Hedwerp, Manohla Dargis and A.O. Scott will retire, and the New York Times will come calling.

Posted by Justine_FilmFatale at 08:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Does that creepy, eyeless little girl on the poster for THE WICKER MAN look familiar? Interesting that she, not the wooden idol of the 1973 original genre-bending shocker, ended up as the key art for the Neil La Bute remake. Nicolas Cage plays the cop obsessed with tracking her down. Any sensible person would run in the other direction.

Because there's nothing like an uncanny child to suggest weird goings on, here's an entire day care center full of horror movie moppets.

The little girl from SILENT HILL has no mouth, yet she must scream.

Adapted from the Konami videogame by Roger Avary, this arty horror movie was long on atmosphere but short on thrills--which was a surprise, considering that the director, Christophe Gans, made the witty action film BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLF.

Gamers probably enjoyed the way the film evoked the strange, solitary experience of exploring a strange landscape, but there was something oddly unscary about the weird monsters (burning bodies, faceless nurses) who menace the intrepid heroine (Radha Mitchell) and her butch-cop pal (Laurie Holden, channelling Falconetti).

For half a century, children have been traumatized by the sudden appearance of Test Card Girl, the iconic placeholder who helps technicians color-correct and center images. Now the little terror steps out of our collective nightmares and into prime time drama as a recurring character on LIFE ON MARS, the excellent detective series on BBCAmerica. Fear her.

Is it my imagination or is that kid behind Hillary Swank floating a couple of inches above the ground? THE REAPING, a supernatural thriller set in Louisiana, will be out Nov. 8.

Posted by Justine_FilmFatale at 12:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Los Angeles Times has opened up its archive of lurid, fascinating coverage of the 1947 murder of Elizabeth Short, better known as still unsolved The Black Dahlia murder case -- just in time to prime audiences for the Sept. 15 release of THE BLACK DAHLIA, Brian De Palma's film of the James Ellroy novel.

The movie website has more photos (Mia Kirshner plays the unfortunate Miss Short) and a timeline of the initial investigation.

Ellroy's novel came out in 1987, and it not only launched his career as a modern hardboiled crime writer-- it reignited interest in the Short case. The book's cover carried a haunting, stylized image of Elizabeth Short, based on a real photograph.

There are numerous true crime books and other, lesser novels about the murder, and whenever people cast the role of The Black Dahlia in their minds, I'm pretty sure it's the ghostly goddess of the cover art that they think of, not the black and white photo. That Betty Short--a cute/beautiful girl trying to look older and tougher than she was, has a troubling expression on her face. Or in-trouble.

Because this stark photo looks so much like a mug shot, and accompanied the January 1947 Los Angeles Times coverage of the murder, I wondered if it was actually a police mug shot. However, a look at the numerous Black Dahlia-dedicated web sites out there told me that the front-and-side head shot was actually done as a work ID card when Short worked a civilian job on a military base. It was the first thing available to police and journalists after she was killed, and that's how most of us remember her.

THE BLACK DAHLIA premieres at the Venice Film Festival.

Posted by Justine_FilmFatale at 03:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Over at Sunset Gun, the excellent Kim Morgan rounds up a bestiary of creatures gone wild -- the full complement of WHEN ANIMALS ATTACK flicks that preceded SNAKES ON A PLANE.

From the classy (Hitchock's THE BIRDS) to the traumatic (JAWS) to silly (FROGS), Morgan has seen them all--and she's included wonderfully cheesy posters and stills, too. Can anyone tell me why Joan Collins is smiling while she's being eaten by a giant insect in EMPIRE OF THE ANTS? (Maybe it's the other way around?

One fan points out that she omitted the must-see bunny-rage horror of NIGHT OF THE LEPUS, in which mutant rabbits terrorize a mining town. No amount of low angle and forced perspective shots can disguise the fact that the monsters are just little rabbits.

Posted by Justine_FilmFatale at 03:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you know anything at all about Kazahkstan, most of it probably comes from its unofficial, fictional ambassador, Borat- one of Sasha Baron Cohen's most charmingly obnoxious alter egos.

New York magazine interviews the city's Kazakh elite, who are predictably horrified by Borat's co-opting of their national identity. Before the release of the Borat movie--CULTURAL LEARNINGS OF AMERICA FOR MAKE BENEFIT GLORIOUS NATION OF KAZAKHSTAN, the country's president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, will visit the U.S., and his government will buy “educational” TV spots and print ads about the “real Kazakhstan.” Which does not, one presumes, include voting rights for horses and awards for "mouth sex."

Of course this will only add to Fox's publicity efforts for what looks like a hilarious movie.

Though www.foxmovies.com doesn't have a Borat page, the studio gives the release date as Nov. 3. You can find the trailer on Youtube and imdb. And if you're feeling lonely, you can get friendly with Borat on his myspace page. He's wicked popular.

Posted by Justine_FilmFatale at 09:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert, who had surgery in June to remove a cancerous growth on his salivary gland, says that he'll be taking more time to recover. His home paper has the news and interview.

At RogerEbert.com, editor Jim Emerson is keeping up with new releases. A series of guest hosts will sit in for Ebert on the television show "Ebert & Roeper," but so far the only full time critic will be the Chicago Tribune's Michael Phillips. Other guests include NBC Tonight Show host Jay Leno, director Kevin Smith, screenwriter John Ridley (who also hosts AMC network's "Movie Club" and "C.S.I." actress Aisha Tyler.

Get well soon, Roger.

Posted by Justine_FilmFatale at 09:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

When I reviewed the Bollywood melodrama KABHI ALVIDA NAA KEHNA ("Never Say Goodbye") for the Boston Globe last Friday, there were no advance screenings -- I attended the first show on opening day, August 14. To my surprise, the midday show was packed--everyone from twenty- and thirtysomethings skipping out of work on a beautiful day to grandparents to a two-year old who happily ran up and down the aisle for the movie's three and a half hour (plus intermission) running time. I wasn't the only non-Indian face in the crowd, either--many of the younger Desis sat with boyfriends, girlfriends, classmates of all colors.

Though KANK, as its distributors have nicknamed it, was playing in only a few markets on just 64 screens, it grossed $1.8 million over its first week. The film's per screen average was $28,330--extremely high. Director Karan Johar's previous film, the worldwide hit KABHI KHUSHI KHABHIE GHAM ("Sometimes Happy, Sometimes Sad" also had a big U.S. opening: $1.37 million its first week on just 73 screens. That 2001 film actually opened in sixth place--an extraordinary achievement for a foreign language film, and for any film playing on so few screens.)

No question about it, this is an event movie--and the industry's most expensive production (budgeted at $10 million plus) and filmed mostly in and around New York City. The real draw was seeing two of Indian cinema's biggest stars, Shah Rukh Khan and Rani Mukherjee, go where Bollywood has seldom ventured: a realistic look at modern marital dischord, adultery and divorce. When the film's romantic leads--both married to other people--actually check into a hotel for a guilty getaway, a kind of sensation rippled through the audience. Shock! They really did it (discreetly)

Even though KANK has already opened in the US, it'll be one of the gala presentations at the Toronto Film Festival next month.

A couple of other reviews--there's much controversy over the going-all-the-way aspect of the love story and a straight-ahead look at the way a marriage can break down, despite the best efforts of both parties. Despite all the tears and angst, this is a breakup movie without the bitter aftertaste.

Here's Variety and the New York Times. And a report from Reuters claiming that while urban audiences are turning out for the film, "conservative heartland" Indians aren't comfortable with the frank treatment of unhappy marriage. Is the film even playing outside of urban multiplexes? KANK may not be the across the board crowd pleaser that Johar's lighter-than-air earlier movie was, but he's hit upon a hot button issue, given it his trademark high gloss style and set it to a danceable beat.

Posted by Justine_FilmFatale at 07:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Above: Director Atom Egoyan (WHERE THE TRUTH LIES) meets Kirby Dick, the crusader behind THIS FILM HAS NOT BEEN RATED.

In the Observer, Mark Kermode writes about Kirby Dick's investigation/documentary THIS FILM IS NOT YET RATED, a look at the MPAA's movie rating's board which has handed down some inexplicable and indefensible classifications over the years.

Using an avalanche of film clips, Dick offers "thrust for thrust" comparisons between straight sex scenes in movies like AMERICAN BEAUTY, SINGLE WHITE FEMALE, which earned R-ratings, and independently made films BOYS DON'T CRY, BUT I'M A CHEERLEADER, and MYSTERIOUS SKIN, which had same-sex love scenes. The studio-made, straight sex scenes were deemed "R" material, while the indie, same-sex encounters edged close enough to the X that the filmmakers had to appeal to the MPAA, or cut their films, in order to earn an R rating.

Of course, filmmakers do have the option of releasing an "unrated" film--but many theater chains refuse to book a movie that doesn't carry an MPAA rating. That's what happened with Atom Egoyan's WHERE THE TRUTH LIES.

"Consider this," writes Kermode. "In America, you can take a child to see Basic Instinct, but grown-ups have a hard time finding a cinema showing Atom Egoyan's Where the Truth Lies."

"he ratings board, with its ridiculously secretive procedures, may be unjust in its judgments, as Dick's ribald movie demonstrates. But it is the infantalisation of popular culture in the US which lies at the heart of these ratings wrangles, a desire to treat everyone as children, and an unwillingness to accept the responsibilities of being an adult. Isn't it time America grew up?

Posted by Justine_FilmFatale at 01:51 PM | Permalink

Now is the time to submit your eyewitness reports of SNAKES ON A PLANE's opening night screenings. The audience shoutbacks. The shootings. Anything else you might notice.

Which publication will be first with the hater headline SNAKES BITE"?
And which fake populist critic will shill himself into the blurb whore pantheon with a line like, "who'd have thought a thrill ride about cold-blooded reptiles would turn out to be such a warm hearted, winsome surprise!" or "The plain truth? Snakes On A Plane is Hisssss-terrical!"

Salon's Stephanie Zacharek doesn't feel the snake love, but does give the impression that the first-night Times Square screening was the place to be. "When we became restless after too many trailers, a soft hissing noise filled the theater, a boo that was actually a cheer. Time to bring on the motherfucking snakes!" She continues: "While "Snakes on a Plane" barely stands up as a movie, it definitely qualifies as an event. A fellow critic present at the same showing said that afterward, he couldn't quite tell if the crowd actually liked the picture. But everyone sure liked being there."

Everyone but Entertainment Weekly's Owen Gleiberman, who seems decidedly creeped out by the mob mentality in that very same theatre. Smack! We have a winner. "Snakes on a Plane sounds like a title that Don Simpson, at 4 in the morning, scrawled in white powder on a glass table."

Finally, because somebody's got to take umbrage at something in every film, spare a moment for the reaction of a snake expert who points out that "snakes on crack" -- or pheremones -- would be more interested in loving than biting. This same herpetologist also takes umbrage at the film's portrayal of the "bald, geeky" snake expert. “We don’t like to think we’re nerds," sniffed the snake scientist, who wears his long flowing gray hair in a ponytail.

The next time I'm on an ill-fated flight upon which killer snakes escape and go amok, and one of the snakes kills me by chomping down on my bare bosom while I -- like an idiot -- am complaining about the flight attendants or (even better) I'm applying for membership in the Mile High Club, I demand that at least one eyewitness notice, semi off the record, "Nice rack, you know--which makes thisa real tragedy," and that my grieving survivors claim,: "It's how she would have wanted to go."

Posted by Justine_FilmFatale at 11:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

From the Associated Press:

Who was that mystery U.S. Marine who helped find New York police officers buried in the rubble of the World Trade Center? For five years, nobody knew. Until now.

The Associated Press has the story. The actor cast to play him doesn't look a thing like the real guy,

Posted by Justine_FilmFatale at 07:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Mike D'Angelo of Esquire had the pleasure of watching writer-director Craig Brewer's follow up to HUSTLE & FLOW, and he's written an account of his queasy, fascinated reaction ("You Just Can't Look Away") in the Sept. 2006 of Esquire.

Ah, BLACK SNAKE MOAN -- the "button pushing" swamp-tastic love story that Brewer was thrilling over when HUSTLE & FLOW got picked up at Sundance last year. When he described it then, it sounded like BABY DOLL remade with a little more beatin' on the brat and a little less clothing. And not in black and white, but with black and white as, like, an issue.

Christina Ricci plays a hot-pants gal who, when we meet her, Angelo says, "is writhing around on the ground in what appears to be pain but turns out to be--I kid you not--to be heat."

Samuel L. Jackson is the guy who attempts to cure her affliction by chaining her to a radiator. Because he cares.

But wait! The movie was to have been released shortly after the can't-miss SNAKES ON A PLANE, but now it won't be in theatres till February 2007. Can't have two SNAKE movies competing for the same dollar.

Posted by Justine_FilmFatale at 01:05 PM | Permalink

Get ready to be outraged and overcome with sadness, all over again.

One year after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf states--and one year and way too long before the Federal goverment limped into action to help--HBO will air a four-hour documentary about the devastated lives the storm left behind. WHEN THE LEVEES BROKE: A REQUIEM IN FOUR ACTS begins Aug. 21.

Read all about what Lee's been up to lately, and what he hopes this nonfiction film will accomplish. New York magazine's got a hefty profile of the documentary and feature director, and in the New York Times, The Reeler takes a look at his breakthrough movie SHE'S GOTTA HAVE IT - which still looks fresh twenty years on.

Posted by Justine_FilmFatale at 09:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In the Observer, Ryan Gibley writes a profile of the imposing Helen Mirren, who'll play yet another monarch -- this time, she's Queen Elizabeth II in THE QUEEN. The film's one of the most hotly anticipated titles of the Venice and New York Film Festivals.

The film will play right about the time she's up for an Emmy for playing the first Elizabeth, in the HBO miniseries ELIZABETH I.

Posted by Justine_FilmFatale at 08:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

What does Daniel Craig have to do--kill a guy--before all the whiners accept him as the new James Bond?

ABC online has the brief on his interview with Entertainment Weekly. And the September issue of Esquire's got a good profile of him online. (I like David Katz's description of Craig's "crazy blue" eyes--yes, he is a rather intimidating looking man.) "I think there has to be an element of cruelty," says Craig of his Bond. "Certain things he does should be questionable. I think you should go, 'Fuck, that's not nice.' He is an assassin."

Is it not enough that he's the first Bond who's got stage cred ("Angels in America"), indie film cred (THE MOTHER, LOVE IS THE DEVIL), and serious menace (LAYER CAKE)? And how nice is it that an actor who follows the Harvey Keitel/Ewan McGregor tradition of Full Frontal Acting actually has something to front.

If anything, Craig is overqualified to play Bond. As an actor, I mean.

I wonder if the lingering resistance to Craig-as-Bond has to do with his looks (rough-hewn-handsome), his perceived class (Non-U/working) rather than public school-type/Eton-boy. Or is there some unspoken homophobia in play here -- Craig has played numerous gay and bisexual characters and done some unusually explicit man/man sex scenes.

Says Craig,

"I watched every single Bond movie three or four times, taking in everything I could about how the character had been portrayed in the past, then threw all that away once I started doing the role. There's no point in making this movie unless it's different. It'd be a waste of time unless we took Bond to a place he'd never been before."

And here's a quote from the Esquire piece. CASINO ROYAL director Martin Campbell promises that the movie will be not a fantasy spy film containing "sharks with laser beams." Well, we can hardly do worse than MOONRAKER, can we?

Before the announcement was made, I was hoping that Colin Salmon--the sophisticated, voice-sexy actor who plays Judi Dench's right hand man--would be named the new 007. Only later did I read that Salmon had portrayed Bond while the producers were screen testing various Bond Girls.

Casino Royale Web site: http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/casinoroyale/site

Posted by Justine_FilmFatale at 07:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Slate is running a startlingly true approximation of those pre-trailer, pre-feature slide shows of idiotic movie trivia and celebrity name scrambles.

The only entertainment in these low-tech time fillers will be waiting for the reaction to "LEM SIBGON."

Posted by Justine_FilmFatale at 07:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

How do you sell RESERVOIR DOGS: THE GAME?

In the UK, you remind the buying public that violence and cussing, American-style, are so ordinary that they're child's play.

Enjoy, motherfuckers!

Ad numero-uno
Ad numero two-o

They were created for Eidos by Loki Productions Ltd:

Which do you like?

Posted by Justine_FilmFatale at 09:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The always suprising Terry Gilliam talks to The Guardian about his movie TIDELAND, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival last year. (It'll finally get a small release in the US on Oct. 6th.)

Even in notably nice Toronto, this was one of the most walked out upon screenings I've ever steeled myself to sit through. I'm a huge fan of Gilliam's movies, but this was an ordeal -- like watching the brain-eating scene in HANNIBAL over and over again: Nasty, nauseating.

It got to the point where I had to stay, in order to count the number of people who walked out. Then I realized it would be easier to count those who butched it out to the end. From a full house down to about 20. Mitch Dell's Texas Grotesque novel (a sort of 'shroomy (shroomier?), uglier WIZARD OF OZ has extensive scenes of, well, grotesquerie, but there's a big difference between description and literal depiction.

At the time, most critics thought the film was unreleasable for a number of reasons: Some were freaked out by the Gothic/Grotesque details of a little girl - the 10 year old heroine, Jeliza Rose, cooking dope for her addict dad (Jeff Bridges) so he could shoot up. That didn't bother me. And it wasn't the scene where she behaved seductively with a mentally retarded man, all but forcing him to kiss her. In a way, both scenes showed how adaptable - and then cruelly manipulative - an abused child could become in order to survive.

No, what got to me was the extended close ups of a putrefying corpse (Jeff Bridges) and the on-screen dissection of his long dead body. Like, an hour's worth of putrefaction. You could practically smell it.

But the characters in the film didn't react. Of course, they were all demented or in shock, so their emotional reactions were shut down or warped. But even mad people have visceral and sense-reactions. There's something false and gutless in all this displayed, demonstrative craziness.

Though it was upsetting to imagine a child in the thick of this weirdness, I'm convinced it was far less weird for the child actress (Jodelle Ferland, who's gone on to work on 24 and SILENT HILL) to peform the scenes than it is for an audience to watch. For a kid, this is playtime. Don't worry about her: she's turned up since TIDELAND in '24' and SILENT HILL.

Posted by Justine_FilmFatale at 08:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Slate's Explainer answers the tech question: How does the MPAA know who's downloading?

They join the most popular file sharing networks -- or they hire security firms to join -- and put live bait (say, a popular movie) out there and see who downloads it.

In a copyright infringement case, the MPAA made the movie MEET THE FOCKERS available through a BitTorrent filesharing network and has now accused a software executive named Shawn Hogan of sharing it. But he's fighting the charges, saying he did nothing of the kind. Slate's item is a short overview, but this is just the edge of a huge story. Read it.

Posted by Justine_FilmFatale at 03:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)