« TIFF Saturday Shorts | Main | Baa Baa Big Sale »
September 11, 2006
TIFF Monday Comin' Down...
Today and tomorrow burn the festival candle at both ends before things start slowing down considerably.
(Yesterday’s shorts are here. And today’s Hot Button is fested.)
It is a sign of how weak a festival it is this year – with due respect to a movie I look forward to seeing and am expecting to like – that Sarah Polley’s Away From Her had 100 or so turnaways at this morning’s press screening (in 2 theaters), including Sony Classics’ Michael Barker, who politely cued up with all the rest. Truth is, there was nothing else of any significance to see this morning before a 12 noon screening of The Fountain.
Last night, after a lovely Picturehouse dinner with the great Guillermo and the group from Pan's Labyrinth, at which I consumed almost as much bourbon as Peter O’Toole in Venus, I saw Venus... and yawned a bit. It’s another one of those films that would play great on BBC America or HBO and garner Emmys out the Girl In The Café wazoo. But is this really Oscar material?
I love O’Toole with a passion, but as much as I smirked at the anticipation of his appearance in Troy, I could see the struggle of an aging genius simply trying to cross a room (or in that case, a terrace). The same is true here. Roger Michell gets a lot out of silent shots of O’Toole simply staring that are so calm and beautiful that you wonder whether he knew the camera was rolling. They are excellent portraiture. And the spirit of the tiger still burns in The Great O”Toole.
But one scene in which young Venus (whose actual name in the movie is Jessie and is played by Jodie Whittaker) offers O’Toole’s Maurice a whiff of her most private scent kinda of defines the film’s frustration for me. It is a heartbreaking bit of business. She has, after having her interest in love and sex revived by the interest of this much older man, Jessie’s taken on a sex partner (“lover” would be too crude a phrase for this bit of rough trade) and she wants a tattoo to match his. And so, to finance this, she reaches inside her panties and then offers her fragrant fingers to Maurice. The beat to come is that Maurice grabs her and then she physically pushes him off and he retreats. But O’Toole’s aggression, while we feel it in our hearts, is not powerful enough to demand her physical response to him. Five years ago, he might have offered enough of a threat to make the response fit the crime. But not anymore. And for me, that was more heartbreaking than the scene itself.
It’s a delicate balance and nearly impossible to cast. Warren Beatty at 69 is still too vibrant to be trusted by this 20-year-old girl in the way she trusts Maurice. Yet, O’Toole’s spirit is more willing than his body at 74. Thinking of older legends of cinema – and that status is part of the conceit in filmmaking here, creating extra sympathy when it might not be strictly necessary – there are no many left that fit. Jack Lemmon played this kind of role a couple of times late in the game, though with less quality behind the camera and the typewriter. Gary Oldman, when he is an old man, would be able to subsume his male aggression enough to make a character like this legendary. Jim Broadbent is still too young. But that is, to me, more the range. Maybe the great Bill Nighy (58) could bring his pulse down to the right speed. But he probably needs another decade or so on aging to make it truly real.
Still, O’Toole is O’Toole and the movie is, a bit surprisingly, a crowd pleaser. (Material this naturally dark rarely is.) So I don’t put it beyond Ms. Swartz and her magic flute to make this nomination happen and, if heaven forbid, the race for Best Actor continues to need a Viagra itself, maybe he could actually win. I could never begrudge him that. But I do wish he was a few years more physical. It could make an “almost” into a small masterpiece.
Posted by poland at September 11, 2006 07:36 AM
Comments
I gots a bad feeling about THE FOUNTAIN. Anxious to hear your thoughts...
Posted by: PetalumaFilms ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.mcnblogs.com/thehotblog/nav-commenters.gif)
at September 11, 2006 08:29 AM
All I can say about The Fountain is that it has one of the cheapest, photo-shoppy looking posters for a major film I have seen in my lifetime.
I understand the concept, but the execution says pure, photoshop fromage.
Posted by: Nicol D at September 11, 2006 08:42 AM
My interest in The Fountain waned somewhat after Pitt and Blanchett were swapped out for Jackman and Weisz.
Posted by: Eric at September 11, 2006 08:52 AM
Yours certainly seems to be a unique perspective on the film.
Posted by: Kristopher Tapley at September 11, 2006 09:44 AM
I would rather have Jackman than Pitt, for sure.
Nicol, are you referring to this poster:
http://www.movieposterbid.com/itemdetl.asp?id=14483
?
If that's what you personally can do in Photoshop, I hope you are a professional art designer, because it looks pretty good to me.
Posted by: jeffmcm at September 11, 2006 10:32 AM
Kristopher, if you were talking to me, I'm not understanding what you said.
Posted by: Eric at September 11, 2006 10:45 AM
Eric, I was talking about David's opinion of "Venus." Sorry about that.
Posted by: Kristopher Tapley at September 11, 2006 11:05 AM
Jeff,
Perhaps I know a higher calibre of art designers than you...cause that is the poster I was referring to and in full size, in a movie theatre it looks like shite.
Posted by: Nicol D at September 11, 2006 11:13 AM
Ah. Gotcha.
I don't have any problem with Jackman, per se, but I've never been too impressed. Which roles made you a fan, Jeff? Or is it a dislike of Pitt?
Posted by: Eric at September 11, 2006 11:20 AM
it does look kinda photoshoppy, but remember that Fountain is a fairly low-budget film. So in general the effects may be less than state of the art due to that, but it still looks very interesting to me, even if the reviews so far have been so-so.
Posted by: martin at September 11, 2006 11:22 AM
Yes, just to be clear, I am not referring to the film itself; just the poster that screams 'We want this film to lose money and bomb'.
It has that Solaris whiff to it.
Posted by: Nicol D at September 11, 2006 11:27 AM
Many actually see the Pitt/Blanchett replacement as a lucky improvement, but I'm not really on one side or the other.
The poster tells me that there is ambition, but lacking a polish beyond what has already been seen in, say, a recent Star Trek one sheet.
The trailer, thankfully, is a bit more well-rounded.
Posted by: Tofu at September 11, 2006 12:07 PM
I've really grown to like Pitt. He generally has a good taste in projects and the right director can coax a very good performance out of him.
Also, I have a huge, huge crush on Cate Blanchett.
I like Jackman well enough but have never seen him bring anything surprising to a performance. I'll admit I've only seen his more commercial movies, though.
Posted by: Eric at September 11, 2006 12:23 PM
That poster is kinda cool, actually. Reminds me of some 70's sci-fi posters I've seen. Maybe even 2001.
And I too have a crush on Cate Blanchett. I really realized it in LIFE AQUATIC when she was knocked up and still incredibly hot. I also liked her evil twin in COFFEE AND CIGARETTES.
Posted by: PetalumaFilms at September 11, 2006 05:09 PM
I prefer the Jackman/Weisz team up frankly. Brad Pitt just didn't seem right from what I had heard about the movie. Although Jackman/Blanchet probably would have been great. I like Jackman, and I really want him to start making better movies. The Fountain is, I see, a step in that direction. But who knows, the film could be crap.
But really, I'll see anything by Aronosfsky. Plus is has Ellen Burstyn!
But I really don't like Pitt at all. I find it entirely generic. I liked him in Thelma & Louise many moons ago and he impressed me in Fight Club but I dunno... something about him doesn't sit right with me.
On Venus, that sounds mediocre. Can't really get much interest for that. But, it's hard to believe that Warren Beatty is 69! Jesus... Annette is one lucky gal to have a 69-year-old husband who looks like that.
Posted by: KamikazeCamelV2.0 at September 12, 2006 12:50 AM
Well, I don't feel so bad I couldn't make it this year...NY Film Festival is going to rock this year...seems to only have the good stuff from Toronto/Telluride.
Posted by: EDouglas at September 12, 2006 01:53 AM
Post a comment
Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)
(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)