I first posted this story 2 years ago. I've just returned from seeing Martin Scorsese's Hugo and I hadn't realized that the film was so closely tied with the story of the real Georges Méliès. Here's a synopsis of Méliès life. Please enjoy the accompanying films.
Many of us have seen a clip of the ancient film where the poor Man in the Moon gets smacked in the face by a rocket. Georges Méliès, born in Paris in 1861 is responsible for that early film and as a film maker Méliès was the first to utilize cinema's potential to tell magical stories.
Méliès was an illusionist by trade. Before making films he was a stage magician at the Theatre Robert-Houdin (how wonderful).
In 1895, after seeing a demonstration of the Lumière brothers' camera, he became interested in film. Two years later he established his own studio.
From his rooftop property in Montreuil, Méliès directed 531 films ranging from 1 minute in length to 40 minutes. These early films are similar to the magic tricks that Méliès had been performing on stage featuring disappearing objects or people. Despite this, Georges Méliès revolutionized early cinema. Although many of Méliès’s early films were devoid of plot, his special effects and storyboards became fundamental aspects of filmmaking. His films were even pirated!
He wrote, directed and acted in nearly all of his films. His most widely-known film is 1902’s A Trip to the Moon (Le voyage dans la Lune) includes the celebrated scene mentioned above in which the rocket-ship hits the Man in the Moon.
However, Méliès, the poor guy, could not compete with the larger studios like Pathé (who eventually bought him out) and he spent his last years selling toys in a boutique in Paris’s Montparnasse train station.
Méliès did not grasp the value of his films, and he allowed most of his film stock to be melted down into boot heels during World War I. Many of his films were recycled into new film and as a result much of his legacy does not exist today. Luckily, a copy of Méliès's 1899 short film Cleopatra, believed to be lost, was discovered in Paris in 2005.
The importance of his work was recognized in the years prior to his death. In 1932 the Cinema Society gave Méliès a home in Château d'Orly where he died in 1938.
Please enjoy these Méliès videos found on Youtube.
(vozdh)
I first posted this story 2 years ago. I've just returned from seeing Martin Scorsese's Hugo and I hadn't realized that the film was so closely tied with the story of the real Georges Méliès. Here's a synopsis of Méliès life. Please enjoy the accompanying films.
Many of us have seen a clip of the ancient film where the poor Man in the Moon gets smacked in the face by a rocket. Georges Méliès, born in Paris in 1861 is responsible for that early film and as a film maker Méliès was the first to utilize cinema's potential to tell magical stories.
Méliès was an illusionist by trade. Before making films he was a stage magician at the Theatre Robert-Houdin (how wonderful).
In 1895, after seeing a demonstration of the Lumière brothers' camera, he became interested in film. Two years later he established his own studio.
From his rooftop property in Montreuil, Méliès directed 531 films ranging from 1 minute in length to 40 minutes. These early films are similar to the magic tricks that Méliès had been performing on stage featuring disappearing objects or people. Despite this, Georges Méliès revolutionized early cinema. Although many of Méliès’s early films were devoid of plot, his special effects and storyboards became fundamental aspects of filmmaking. His films were even pirated!
He wrote, directed and acted in nearly all of his films. His most widely-known film is 1902’s A Trip to the Moon (Le voyage dans la Lune) includes the celebrated scene mentioned above in which the rocket-ship hits the Man in the Moon.
However, Méliès, the poor guy, could not compete with the larger studios like Pathé (who eventually bought him out) and he spent his last years selling toys in a boutique in Paris’s Montparnasse train station.
Méliès did not grasp the value of his films, and he allowed most of his film stock to be melted down into boot heels during World War I. Many of his films were recycled into new film and as a result much of his legacy does not exist today. Luckily, a copy of Méliès's 1899 short film Cleopatra, believed to be lost, was discovered in Paris in 2005.
The importance of his work was recognized in the years prior to his death. In 1932 the Cinema Society gave Méliès a home in Château d'Orly where he died in 1938.
Please enjoy these Méliès videos found on Youtube.
(vozdh)
Milos Forman’s film Valmont came out in 1989, the year after Steven Frears’ Dangerous Liaisons. Both are based on Chloderos Laclos' scandalous 1782 novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses. Both feature rich and bored aristocrats and are set in Baroque France prior to the guillotine.
A scheming widow, the Marquise de Merteuil, and her sometimes-lover Valmont make a bet regarding the corruption of a recently married and very pious woman. Valmont wagers that he can seduce the newlywed, even though she is very honourable. If he wins, the Marquise promises him one last night with her. However, in the process of seducing the married woman, Valmont falls in love.
I prefer Valmont to Dangerous Liaisons. Colin Firth as Valmont does the "wet puffy shirt" before Mr. Darcy strips off in 1995’s Pride and Prejudice. Firth is passion and charisma to John Malkovich’s reptilian cold-bloodedness. I know who I’d rather snog with.
This was the first role I saw Annette Bening play. She’s ripe, peachy and pretty and looks too nice to play Madame Merteuil but she’s just as evil as Glenn Close.
Pretty Meg Tilly played the pious Madame de Tourvel. Well and truly seduced, Firth moved to the forests of Canada to be with her.
Here’s a list of the major players in Valmont and their equals in Dangerous Liaisons.
Colin Firth – John Malkovich
Annette Bening – Glenn Close
Meg Tilly – Michelle Pfeiffer
Fairuza Balk – Uma Thurman
Henry Thomas ( Elliot from ET) - Keanu Reeves.
The themes of music and love tie Paris in the 60s together with contemporary Montreal and wrap the whole story up in a completing knot in the last seconds of the movie. Café de Flore is an epic love story that covers two lifetimes. It recalls thedestinies ofJacqueline, the Parisian motherof a Down Syndrome child, and Montreal DJAntoine and the women orbiting around him. It raises the question if soul-mates can last forever.
The character of Antoine is deftly portrayed by Quebec rocker Kevin Parent in his first acting role. The sharp-edged Jacqueline is played by the ex-Mrs. Depp, Vanessa Paradis.
Café de Flore is stunning - expertly crafted - yet has only made about 20% of what the film cost. This mostly Canadian cine-gem would be a contender for Best Film if it were made in Hollywood. People would be laying prostrate at the feet of director Jean Marc Lavallee as the new great auteur. Although the ending could only be called bittersweet, I fully recommend that you watch it.
"Talk about a fulfilling movie. That's the kind of movie I could sit through again immediately" That's the sort of remarkable thing my husband sometimes says and what he said to my son and me as we exited our local rep cinema after watching Woody Allen's latest foray, Midnight in Paris. Our west-end Toronto street-scape is more like the Wild West than the cobbled, curvy streets of Paris but we sauntered home, with romance in our eyes, expounding on the virtues of this great film.
We're on a bit of a Woody Allen bender at the moment; seeing Annie Hall on Friday and Manhattan on Saturday. My two men were expecting another witty, urbane rom-com and they got it. What they weren't expecting was a little time travel thrown in.
In Midnight in Paris, Owen Wilson plays a Hollywood screenwriter working on his first novel. He's totally besotted with Paris; its beauty and its foibles. Disenchanted with his life, he longs for the days of Hemingway and Fitzgerald. His fiance, exhibiting the worst xenophobic American traits, and his soon-to-be-in-laws are in tow, soaking up the best Paris has to offer but putting the city and the French down at the drop of a chapeau.
Wilson's character, Gil Pender, distances himself from his betrothed, her family and their new know-it-all friends. At the stroke of midnight he magically finds the portal that takes him to his favourite time period: Paris in the 20s.
He's startled to be hobnobbing with Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Zelda, and Cole Porter. No explanations are given for the time warp and Gil doesn't seem to want any. He just wants to go back again, and soon.
Actor Corey Stoll plays an excellent Hemingway; "Who wants to fight?". Marion Cotillard is Gil's 1920s lovely love interest. In another hiccup in time, Adriana (Cotillard) and Gil find themselves face to face with Toulouse-Lautrec, Degas and Gauguin.
Rachel McAdams plays Inez, Gil's fiance. Michael Sheen (whom I saw arm-in arm with McAdams on Toronto's Bloor Street, yay!) plays their pendantic friend. France's First Lady Carla Bruni has a cameo as a guide at the Rodin Museum.
When I saw Kathy Bates' name in the opening credits, I thought who could she be but Gertrude Stein. Check mark! The Surrealists had no problem at all with Gil's time travel. Adrien Brody's turn as Dali (Rhinoceros!) was so perfect I had to see it again. I told my husband I wanted to rent the film as soon as it came out. "Rent it," he said, "I want to buy it." Could there be a better endorsement?
I originally posted this on Sept 3, 2009. I see that the book is about to hit the big screen with some big talent. Can't wait. It really IS time I read the book. I've had it on my bedside table for 3 years!
Now here’s a book I have to read.
Here's the true story of the Monuments Men (and women).
The “Monuments Men” were a group of approximately 345 men and women from thirteen Allied nations who comprised the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives section during World War II. Founded in 1943 this group of Allies was established to assist in the protection and restitution of cultural property in war areas during and following World War II. As the war came to a close, they worked to locate and return works of art and other items of cultural importance which had been stolen by the Nazis.
Countless monuments, churches, and works of art were saved or protected by the dedicated personnel of the MFAA section. Frequently entering liberated towns ahead of ground troops, Monuments Men worked quickly to assess damage and make temporary repairs to paintings, frescoes, sculpture and statuary, before moving on through conquered Nazi territory with the Allied Armies.
In the last year of the war, they tracked, located, and returned more than 5 million artistic and cultural items stolen by Hitler and the Nazis.
Many of the groups personnel were museum directors, curators, art historians, and educators and went on to have prolific careers in institutions such as the National Gallery of Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, as well as in museums and other institutions in Europe.
Beginning in late March 1945, Allied forces began discovering hidden repositories in what would become the “greatest treasure hunt in history.” In Germany alone, U.S forces found approximately 1,500 repositories of art and cultural objects. While many of these caches of priceless treasures had been looted by Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, others had been legitimately evacuated from German museums for safekeeping. Monuments Men oversaw the safeguarding, cataloguing and removal of all works from these repositories, regardless of their origin. The Monuments Men remained in Europe for up to six years following the conclusion of the War to oversee the complicated restitution of stolen works of art.
Here are some examples of what they found (courtesy of Wikipedia)
Berchtesgaden, Germany: The 101st Airborne Division, known as the “Screaming Eagles,” found more than 1,000 paintings and sculptures stolen by German Reichsmarshall Hermann Göring. The cache had been evacuated from his country estate, Carinhall, and moved to Berchtesgaden in April 1945 to protect it from the invading Russians.
Bernterode, Germany: Americans found four coffins containing the remains of Germany’s greatest leaders, including those of Frederick the Great (Frederick II of Prussia) and Field Marshal Paul Von Hindenburg. Also found in the mine were 271 paintings, including court portraits from the Palace of Sanssouci in Potsdam, which had been hidden behind a locked door and a brick wall nearly five feet thick. The site was originally used as an ammunition and military supply complex manned by hundreds of slave laborers.
Merkers, Germany: The Kaiserode mine at Merkers was discovered by the U.S. 3rd Army under General George S. Patton in April 1945. Reichsbank gold, along with 400 paintings from the Berlin museums and numerous other crates of treasures were also discovered. More dismal discoveries included gold and personal belongings from Nazi concentration camp victims.
Neuschwanstein Castle: Over 6,000 items including ERR (Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg, Alfred Rosenberg’s task force organized for the “legalized” looting of Jews) documents, furniture, jewelry, paintings and other belongings stolen by the ERR from private collectors in France were found here. Monuments Man Capt. James Rorimer oversaw the repository’s evacuation.
Altaussee, Austria: This extensive complex of salt mines served as a huge repository for art stolen by the Nazis, but it also contained holdings from Austrian collections. More than 6,500 paintings alone were discovered at Alt Aussee. The contents included: Belgian-owned treasures such as Michelangelo’s Madonna of Bruges stolen from the Church of Our Lady in Bruges, and Jan van Eyck’s Ghent Altarpiece stolen from Saint Bavo Cathedral in Ghent; Vermeer’s The Astronomer and The Artist’s Studio which were to be focal points of Hitler’s Führer Museum in Linz, Austria; and paintings from the Capodimonte Museum in Naples that had been stolen by the Hermann Göring Tank Division (Fallschirm-Panzer Division 1 Hermann Göring) at Monte Cassino.
San Leonardo, Italy: In the jail cell of this very northern town, Allied officials discovered paintings from the Uffizi that had been hurriedly unloaded by retreating German troops. Among the masterpieces were paintings by Sandro Botticelli, Filippo Lippi and Giovanni Bellini.
There’s a John Frankenheimer movie starring Burt Lancaster movie called The Train in which a German colonel loads a train with French art treasures to send to Germany. The Resistance (mainly Lancaster) must stop it without damaging the cargo. It’s pretty thrilling and different from the usual war movies made in the 60s.
Speaking of 60s war movies, the clip above promoting Robert M. Edsel’s book The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History, features the rousing theme music from the film Where Eagles Dare. A real eye-opener, I must say, first thing in the morning.
Where I sit and write right now, a few blocks north of Lake Ontario, I am enduring Toronto’s annual air show. It sounds as if we are under attack. Mon Dieu!
Noomi Rapace and Rooney Mara, whose names are almost anagrams of each other, are actors who both play Lisbeth Salander in the Swedish and Hollywood versions of Stieg Larsson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
Which one do you think fits the bill better?
My husband, who is a completist, purchased the extended Swedish version. Originally called Millennium, it actually ran on Swedish TV before it had a theatrical release. It's nine hours long. Therefore I'm more partial to Noomi Rapace because I've been exposed to her more than Rooney Mara.
Noomi just seems a little tougher, a little more grownup. It's more believable that the men she meets, Armansky and Blomkvist, fall for her just a little. Rooney just seems a little young, a little frail, although Lisbeth is frequently mistaken for a rebellious teen.
My husband, the completist, has also purchased all three books, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest in hardcover. That will have to round out his purchases because Stieg Larsson died of a heart attack in 2004 at the age of 50.
In the autumn of 2012 the Art Gallery of Ontario will exhibit works by Mexican artist Frida Kahlo and her on again, off again husband Diego Rivera. Frida & Diego: Passion, Politics and Painting will feature works by the two artists, primarily drawn from the Museo Dolores Olmedo in Mexico city. The works to be exhibited will highlight Rivera and Kahlo’s lives, both together and apart, their politics and how their passionate views and activism influenced their work. The exhibition will be at the AGO from Oct. 20, 2012 through Jan. 20, 2013. Frida & Diego: Passion, Politics and Painting is presented in collaboration with the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia, which will display the exhibition in February 2013.
Photo by Carl van Vechten via Wikipedia
Frida Kahlo is a fascinating woman who should never be dismissed as the lady with the eyebrows who painted only portraits of herself. Her paintings were described by the Surrealist André Breton as “a ribbon around a bomb,” She was called a Surrealist by some, but she resisted the label and claimed she painted her reality, not her dreams. Rivera's and Kahlo's work show their support for the Communist movement, as well as the concept of Mexicanidad, an identification with Mexico’s indigenous roots.
Frida's relationship with the muralist Diego Rivera was a tempestuous one. They married in 1929. They divorced in November 1939 only to remarry in November of 1940. It seemed to be a case of "can't live with him, can't live without him". Early in their relationship they had a double studio/house built in San Angel; separate living quarters joined by a bridge. Rivera, despite his 300 pounds, was catnip for the ladies. Frida had many affairs with both men and women including Leon Trotsky, sculptor Isamu Noguchi and Jaqueline Lamba, the wife of André Breton. Many photos of Diego and Frida can be viewed on the PBS site.
riveraexperts.com
Hayden Herrera's biography of Frida Kahlo is an excellent read. Adapted from Herrera's book was the equally-excellent 2002 biographical film Frida. The movie was directed by Julie Taymor, currently avoiding brickbats for the Spiderman play. The movie is up there on my list of top 20 films and it's worth seeing.
Napoleon crops up a lot in my Art History and Paris Salon classes. The 19th-century French exalted him and then seemed cringingly embarrassed by him. Hindsight is 20/20. Byron seemed to prefer that Napoleon just fall on his sword, so distraught was he that Napoleon had been defeated and sent into exile. Despite the death of millions of Europeans after 17 years of war, Napoleon manages to remain a cultural icon. Many towns, streets and ships, even a pastry are named after Napoleon and his victories. Napoleon was just under 5 ft 7. (1.686m) Nelson was known to be 5 ft 6 and regarded as average in height. Heck, the average Frenchmen today is just 5'8". What gives?
Years ago, back in the days when I used to have fun, I was at a meeting of the Ontario Archaeological Society. The speaker was promoting the idea that Napoleon had been poisoned by arsenic which was evidenced, apparently, in his hair. So I was able to hold a ziploc bag of Napoleon's reddish-brown hair in my hands. Talk about six-degrees of separation.
Note the differences in the pictures below.
Napoleon Crossing the Alps J.L David, 1800.
Bonaparte Crossing the Alps, Delaroche, 1850
Napoleon on His Imperial Throne, Ingres 1806
Napoleon on His Imperial Throne, OOOPS, Napoleon at Fontainebleau, Delaroche, 1840
Here's one I couldn't resist. He must be Napoleon Bone-Apart.
corgiaddict.com
and
frenchpastrychef.com
There's a very enjoyable 2001 film called The Emperor's New Clothesstarring Ian Holm as Napoleon. During Napoleon's exile on St. Helena, loyalists hire a doppelganger to swap places with him. While the imposter lives in luxury on the island, the real Napoleon returns to Paris in order to retake the throne. During Napoleon's journey back to France, the imposter dies. When Napoleon, Ian Holm, sets foot on French soil France is in mourning for him but he can't make anybody believe he is the real Napoleon. Antics ensue. Napoleon lodges with a widowed pumpkin seller and shows her little boy magic lantern slides of his exploits. I recommend this film if you have the chance.
like what... okay... um... For me, uh... ooh... I would say... what, Groucho Marx, to name one thing... uh... um... and Willie Mays... and um... the 2nd movement of the Jupiter Symphony... and um... Louis Armstrong, recording of Potato Head Blues... um... Swedish movies, naturally... Sentimental Education by Flaubert... uh... Marlon Brando, Frank Sinatra... um... those incredible Apples and Pears by Cezanne... uh... the crabs at Sam Wo's... uh... Tracy's face...
I should come up with my own list. I know that it would include my husband's eyelashes.
I saw a BBC drama yesterday called Recovery starring David Tennant (Dr. Who) who receives a personality-changing head injury that affects the lives of everyone around him. This portrayal, originally aired in 2007, was so similar to what happened to my father in 1979, that it felt as if it had been written by my mother.
My father was plowed into by a driver heading to our town to face dangerous driving charges. How about that for irony? It was the first snowy day in November and she skidded off the road only to drive straight into Dad’s lane upon correcting herself.
What happened in the TV dramatization was like reading a diary. It was like reliving those days at the end of '79.
The doctors saved my father's life but they didn’t save my “father”. After a coma that lasted three weeks, he was better and recovering but he had lost his “Raymond-ness". Dad was a librarian for a huge swath of northern Ontario. He was an active member of our small town’s cultural community. He was well-liked. People thought he was funny; his British sense of humour won over many.
But people thirty-years ago didn’t understand head-injuries very well. They didn’t “get” what had happened to Dad. There was no psychiatrist in our small town of 5,000; no therapist that could be objective. Despite the smallness of the community I grew up in, people seemed to forget that Dad had been injured. Six months later they expected him to be normal again and couldn’t understand when he didn’t recognize them on the street.
In the dramatization, when Tennant’s character Alan comes home he appears to be fit, but things don’t fall into place for him. He doesn’t understand how to unlock the car. He sets fire to the kitchen because he can’t remember how to use the toaster. Sentimental songs have no meaning for him any longer. He acts inappropriately and his sense of decorum is shot. He's suddenly furiously angry and doesn't understand how this affects those around him.
My father was unable to drive. He set fire to the lawn and had no idea how to put it out. Simple tasks like changing a light-bulb were beyond him from then on. People were backing off of committees he was on because of his sudden temper. He couldn't add much to a conversation. Jokes and puns were strange and esoteric. What he did want to talk about, and he did incessantly, were reminiscences of his life in England shortly World War II.
The thing that affected me most in the movie was the teenage boy. He was exactly the same age as I was when my dad was involved in the accident. Like me, he had enrolled in post-secondary education and couldn’t wait to get out of the tinder-box of tension at home. He was charged with looking after his Dad when his mother wasn’t at home. It's tough situation going from child to care-giver when you’re that age. It’s your Dad for heaven’s sake, he’s supposed to look after you.
Like Alan in the movie, my father could never make any attempt to help himself because he never understood he was different, despite trips to doctors, neurologists and worker’s compensation boards. Alan starts back to work to find that he can’t cope. My dad managed to work for another 4 years with others propping him up until he was given the golden handshake.
Alan’s wife Tricia, played by Sarah Parish, sounded just like my broken-record of a mother. My mother’s incessant cries of “It’s like I’ve been widowed already”, “I didn’t want a third child”, “The man I know is gone” were echoed throughout the film. He was a different, strange Raymond. They never shared a bed again.
Dad wasn’t the most emotional of men to begin with but we were left with someone who didn’t care. If someone was sick, or a long-discarded friend had died or if we had personal trouble, he didn’t flinch. When my mother fell down the stairs he barely looked up from his crossword. Alan in the film left us with the hope that he would try to be a better husband. That didn’t happen in our family. To carry on with this depressing theme, my house was filled with another thirty years of acrimony, cold-shoulders, dinner time arguments. My mother was the worst of all possible "nurses". She never gave up the notion that Dad was doing this to her deliberately.
If anything positive can come of this, I was thrilled to see that my story is out there being told so accurately by others and that I wasn't the only one who had suffered the effects of a brain-damaged relative.
Is it time to try this again, I wonder. I carried it off very successfully in 1982. Could it translate today? Am I too plump and old? Annie's outfit in this scene always jumps out at me; it always impresses. I love it.
Annie Hall is on my list of all-time-favourite movies. Jr Teen Pup loves it too. We got it for him for Christmas. I catch him watching it alone sometimes. He's a big softie at heart.
Here I am blathering on about another movie. We watched Walk Hard - The Dewey Cox Story again on the weekend and I just caught myself singing, "Walk Hard - Hard - Down Life's Rocky Road" so I thought I better get this down in writing.
Walk Hard starring the very talented John C. Reilly is a witty, clever parody of rock star biographies. I initially steered clear of this movie because I found the poster of Reilly as Jim Morrison repellent and I didn’t want to muddle my brain with Will Ferrell/ Talladega Nights kinds of movies. It’s also made by the same guys that made Superbad and Knocked Up so I almost walked hard in the opposite direction. But my son rented it and we found it really funny. My husband almost laughed himself off the couch and had to watch it twice.
Walk Hard which I think came out Christmas of 2007, is a really smart movie. You sort of have to know what they’re talking about before you can enjoy it. Maybe that’s why its rating on IMDb is kind of paltry. The movie follows the life of fake rock star legend Dewey Cox and spoofs all sorts of bio-pics. In the 50s Dewey Cox is discovered and his Elvis-like story unfolds like the Coal Miner’s Daughter and the Buddy Holly Story. He morphs into a tex-mex Roy Orbison and then he becomes a copy of Bob Dylan straight out of D.A. Pennebaker’s Don’t Look Back. Dewey meets the Beatles in India. With a full orchestra including the didgeridoo, Kalahari Bushmen, and a herd of goats he becomes Brian Wilson.
When Dewey, suffering from writer’s block, sinks into a mundane existence his manager persuades him to do a “Sonny and Cher” style variety show. Then he falls into a Partridge Family lifestyle with his plethora of children. Again, you’ve got to know what they’re on about before you can understand the joke. Dewey Cox becomes a national icon and the movie culminates with a tribute to Dewey at the end of his days.
Walk Hard can be crass, but the smarty-pants cleverness of this movie redeems it for me. The music really impresses. John C. Reilly is a talented singer and performs all the songs on the soundtrack. And the soundtrack is great. All the songs – derived from popular styles of the day – stand up on their own right. The DVD also includes videos and songs not included in the movie. We find ourselves, as I mentioned above, singing them around the house. The Bob Dylan spoof "Royal Jelly" is hilarious. I was going to print it here but you really have to see it.
The homely (what a mug!) but pleasant John C. Reilly plays Dewey Cox from the age of 14! to 71 which in itself is a joke. Jenna Fisher from The Office is his love interest and does a good job of being Dewey’s June Carter-Cash. His first wife Kristen Wiig is left with a bunch of children and a giraffe. She’s fond of saying “I love you. You’ll never amount to anything.”
Tim Meadows is Dewey’s drummer – introducing him to the drug of the month in a series of hilarious repetitive scenes. Other names to look out for are: Harold Ramis, Chris Parnell, Frankie Muniz, Jack White, Jack Black, Jackson Browne, Jewel, Lyle Lovett, Eddie Vedder, Paul Rudd and the ubiquitous Justin Long. In the extended version Cheryl Tiegs is Dewey’s 1970s wife. Patrick Duffy, Cheryl Ladd and Morgan Fairchild make appearances too.
Walk Hard is rude - there’s no getting away from that. It has its share of grottyness and drug jokes, tons of innuendo and a "little" nudity. I wouldn’t show it to anyone under 14. But it’s WAAAAY funnier than I expected it to be.
I went to see Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law in Sherlock Holmes last night at the local rep theatre. Once I resigned myself that this wasn't going to be anything Jeremy Brett would be proud of, I relaxed and enjoyed the ride.
I thought the film was very good, but being a 47-year-old mum, too violent. The dialogue was a little hard to hear at points. Although not a Conan Doyle story, the plot was exciting. The bad guy, Lord Blackwood, looks like a cross between Dracula and Andy Garcia and has a really gnarly pointed eye-tooth. He wants to retake America.
I thought the acting and relationship between the actors was good. I suspect Robert Downey is rather clever in real life. Maybe he's perfect to play Holmes - easily bored and ready for chemical stimulation. Jude Law is believable as Watson. He's handsome where Downey is splendidly debauched - like a party animal coming home barefoot in his tuxedo at the break of dawn.
The sets - the parts that were not CGI - were a feast for the eye - well-designed, detailed, and layered. Just keep the camera still for a second, Guy Ritchie, let me look. The art direction was stunning - right down to the titles. London was made to look oh-so-grimy. Not the antiseptic Victoriana we are sometimes exposed to on Masterpiece Theatre.
Some of the shots featured a half-finished Tower Bridge. Because I have an inquiring mind I found out that Tower Bridge opened in 1894. Like the Eiffel Tower, I forget sometimes that these structures haven't been around forever. Anyway here's a picture of Tower Bridge under construction. It's completely feasible that this building project would have been a feature of Conan Doyle's London.
Another technicality: My son was put out that the actress playing Irene Adler didn't even try to hide her American accent. I had to remind him that Adler, the only woman that Holmes had ever admired, was from America.
And Holmes' costumes. I had to keep my husband still in his seat. Lots of layers of corduroy and tweed, check and stripe. I imagine that the G-pup will have his waistcoat on this morning, ( Here he comes. Yes. Waistcoat and checked trousers. You rock the casbah!).
Has anybody else noticed that with the rapidly-edited modern action movies that there are no scenes to actually sink your teeth into. I find this with the X-men movies, Iron Man and Batman that the next day I can hardly remember a single scene. Is this because of all the quick takes I wonder? Where as with Jeremy Brett's Holmes I can still see the action unfolding in my mind 20 years later.
Despite my complaints the family as a whole gave Sherlock Holmes an 8 out of 10. The movie ended primed and ready for a sequel which I believe is going to happen in 2011. In the meantime, I'll rent the DVD and catch the dialogue I missed.
The Lumière brothers, Auguste and Louis, whose name aptly means "light" in English, ran a sucessful photography business before perfecting the moving image by tinkering with Edison's Kinetograph. Their invention, the Cinematographe, was an all-purpose camera that filmed, developed and projected moving pictures all from the same box.
Workers Leaving The Lumière Factory was the first commercial movie. Created by the Lumière brothers in 1895, it was screened as the first in a series of 10 short films at the Salon Indien du Grand Café in Paris, and marked the first time admission was charged for a movie screening.
Obtained from http://www.institut-lumiere.org/francais/films/1seance/accueil.html
Here's A Trick on the Gardener (iconaus)
The Lumière's 1895 The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat had the power to astonish. People completely unused to the moving image were quite dismayed and legend goes that the audience hid behind their seats and ran to the back of the theatre. What I like about this and other 19th and early 20th century films is the slice of life offered.These folks aren't in costume - that's how they dressed!
(early cinema)
And one more from (SeppukuEntertainment) The Baby's Breakfast
It was a very Godfather Christmas at our house. J-Pup received the Godfather trilogy and two annotated books about the making of the films. Not very Christmassy I know, but my husband and I try so hard to keep Junior away from gaming that we thought we’d try to turn him on to some other quality films.
The Godfather came out when I was 10 and when I first saw it a few years later, I thought it was dark, boring, unfathomable and gross. Fast-forward 37 years and I can see it for the great art it is. We watched The Godfather, part II and followed it up with Jeff Bridge’s Starman. While I loved Starman when it first came out, it’s not even on the same page as The Godfather films.
The first two Godfathers really stand the test of time. What’s great about well-made period-pieces is that you can’t tell if they were made in 1972 or 2002. I can’t see how Coppola could improve on them.
It’s still confusing; although not as much so. It’s still gross, but over the last 3 decades, I’ve become more or less inured to movie violence. The films are gorgeous to watch. Michael Corleone is so handsome. And chilling. Mario Puzo’s novel describes Michael Corleone as possessing “a cold chilling anger that was not externalized in any gesture or change in voice. It was a coldness that came off him like death.” Well done, Al. For that, I forgive you your current bad toupee.
Did you know The Godfather was Al Pacino’s second movie and the first Pacino movie ever released? Amazing. Much to my chagrin I learned that Brando was my age when he made the first film and therefore three years younger than my husband. I was happy to learn there was substantial make-up involved. And Fredo – the perennial milquetoast – he’s so good that I forget he’s acting. During his unfortunately short six-year film career John Cazale appeared in five movies, each of which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture: The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, Dog Day Afternoon, The Conversation and The Deer Hunter. Try to add up the six-degrees of separation there!
Last night we watched The Godfather, part III for the first time. It was so bad. Michael Corleone was actually quite affable and I enjoyed every moment he was on the screen. I can even forgive Sophia Coppola’s and Diane Keaton’s bad delivery for the gorgeous scenes of Sicily. Andy Garcia’s Vincent was an inspired piece of casting even though he did look more like a hybrid of Michael and Kay than Sonny’s kid.
Anyway. Annie Hall and Hannah and her Sisters are in the wings for this weekend. Happy New Year!
"What is it you want, Mary? What do you want? You-you want the moon? Just say the word and I'll throw a lasso around it and pull it down. Hey, that's a pretty good idea. I'll give you the moon...Well, then you could swallow it. And it'll all dissolve, see. And the moon beams that shoot out of your fingers and your toes and the ends of your hair...Am I talking too much?"
In keeping with Brian Miller's excellent post "Star" and Willow's wonderful series of movie quotes at Overheard at the Manor I thought I'd post this famous movie quote. Who said it and why?
Audrey Tautou is about to go supernova with the release of Avant Chanel – the French film due out September 25 on this side of the pond, in which Tautou portrays Coco Chanel before her empire takes off.
I really liked Audrey Tautou in A Very Long Engagement– my favourite film. The time period is interesting, the costumes are great and the characters are charming.
In 1919 a young woman named Mathilde, the same age as the century, refuses to believe that her fiance is dead following World War 1. Manech was to have been executed by his own army, along with 4 others, for wounding himself to avoid combat.
Mathilde receives a box from an ailing man who knew Manech in the trenches and he tells her a long tale of what he believes happened in the trench bizarrely named Bingo Crepuscule.
Relentless Mathilde methodically pieces together events by going through the contents of the box – making contact with names she finds – puzzling out the mysteries that the photographs and artifacts present her with.
The bulk of the story is presented through the accounts those soldiers present at Bingo Crepuscule at the time. Although the narrative can be confusing, (it's fast and it’s subtitled), the story is compellingly interesting. A Very Long Engagement is beautiful to watch - the art direction is astounding.
"Un long dimanche de fiançailles" by Sebastien Japrisot is a great, poetic read. (I read it in English as A Very Long Engagement -I'm not bilingual). Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet (the genius behind Amélie) has stayed true to the feel of the book and streamlined the story appropriately for the screen.
The Clever Pup has also discovered that the café used in the MMM scene is the Auberge Ravoux in Auvers - the inn housing the room where Vincent Van Gogh died.
Look out for Jodie Foster parlez-ing le français. And Marion Cotillard who won the 2008 Oscar for her role as Piaf in La Vie En Rose - this time playing the hooker with the heart of gold (not!)
Albert Dupontel in the third photo is one of my European thespian crushes. Why can't all men have the joie de vivre and the clothes sense of this character? He also bears the great name of Célestin Poux.
I am inordinately fond of this time period, genealogy and all things French. At an auction in Toronto, a serendipitous bid made me the owner of photographs of real French soldiers in the trenches with their own story to tell. A Very Long Engagement is a story that really speaks to me.
If you've yet to see it, I think you will enjoy it. I give it a 9 out of 10.
