Persepolis

The Cinematic World Tour Blogathon is an event in which participants use the movies to take virtual trips around the world, using settings and moments in movies to inform their writing approach, hosted by All Good Things. This blogathon lasts from Memorial Day to Labor Day, so check back periodically at the host site for posts from participating blogs.

Persepolis
seen @ Films on the Green Festival @ Pier 1, Riverside Park, New York, NY
7.14.11

Greetings from Tehran!

An unusual vacation choice? Perhaps, but as an artist, I can't help but be attracted to Iranian architecture and religious iconography and paintings. It's quite beautiful. Unfortunately...

...I had a bit of a problem with my camera. All my photos came out looking similar to this. I hope you'll bear with me.

Stormy Weather

Stormy Weather
seen on TV @ TCM
7.12.12

I think I've talked about this before, but as much as I sincerely love classic movies, and always will, every now and again I'm reminded that they were all made during a period in American history when racial segregation was a normal, accepted practice. Therefore it seems to me that the incremental baby steps Hollywood took to present black people as more than just maids and porters, cheesy though they may be, are worth looking at from a historical perspective.


I have the wonderful Alex to thank for drawing my attention to Stormy Weather, a film which TCM apparently played for the first time ever last week. It's basically one huge showcase for some of the most talented singers and dancers, black or white, in the 20th century. (Story? Where we're going we don't need... story...)

Lena Horne might not be as well remembered a singer as, say, Billie Holliday or Ella Fitzgerald, but she ranks right up there with them, and between this film and Cabin in the Sky, 1943 was an amazing year for her. She got her start at age sixteen, singing in Harlem's famous Cotton Club and hanging out with the likes of Duke Ellington and future Weather co-star Cab Calloway. From there it was on to Broadway and eventually Hollywood, but wouldn't you know it, MGM cut all of her movie scenes before showing them to Southern audiences. Maybe that's why she made Weather at Fox instead.

Bill "Bojangles" Robinson was born in 1878, a mere 13 years after the end of the Civil War. His specialty was tap dancing, in particular tapping up and down flights of stairs. He took to tap at the early age of six. In his teens, he worked the vaudeville circuit, and like Horne, played the Cotton Club with Calloway and others before moving to Broadway and eventually Hollywood. In the 1930s, when he wasn't playing butlers, he was often paired with Shirley Temple - four times, in fact. He starred in the all-black production Harlem is Heaven from 1932, allegedly inspired by his life.

THE NICHOLAS BROTHERS GO NINJA STYLE ON YO' PUNK ASS

Cab Calloway started out studying law before getting his first singing gig in the late 1920s. He would go on to form his own orchestra which toured hotels, theaters and nightclubs nationwide, including, of course, the Cotton Club. Even if you've never seen The Blues Brothers, chances are you've heard the song "Minnie the Moocher"; it was the first jazz record to sell a million copies.

These and so many other black entertainers make up Weather, a movie where they don't have to do too much more than what they do best, and it's fun to watch (at least, whenever those annoying kids in the framing sequence aren't around). The music is mostly jazz/big band material, with elements of Southern blues, and the dancing ranges from tap to ballet - and I agree wholeheartedly with Alex in that the brief sequence from the acrobatic, breathtaking Nicholas Brothers is like nothing you've ever seen before, or will see, I imagine.


It kinda breaks your heart a little to know that all these incredible performers didn't go further in Hollywood, but I'd be willing to bet that they had few regrets. They made their mark with an earlier generation, played on all sorts of stages all around the country and earned the respect of their peers. In a time of segregation, you can't ask for much more than that.

Take This Waltz

Take This Waltz
seen @ Kew Gardens Cinemas, Kew Gardens, Queens, NY
7.10.12

One thing I've never understood about every "cheating" movie I've ever seen - from The Scarlet Letter to Brief Encounter to Fatal Attraction to The Bridge of Madison County and more - is how someone, anyone, can think a sexual relationship with a married party would be worth pursuing. Morality aside, even if the married party is unhappy in their marriage, which is usually the case, is a little bit of hot sex on the side worth the copious amounts of inevitable drama? 

Sure, it happens all the time in real life - some of the greatest romances in Hollywood history were the result of extramarital affairs - but it seems to me like it's asking for trouble more often than not. After all, what guarantee do you have that the married party will definitely leave their spouse? The spouse will likely linger in such a relationship, the elephant in the room you can't avoid, and you can never be truly free as long as they're still around. So what do you do?

If you're in a film noir, you could kill the spouse, but that never works out. There's always a betrayal or a double cross of some sort which you never see coming (even if the audience does). If you're in a horror movie, it won't even matter, because you'll wind up getting killed anyway through nothing more than fate - remember The Rules. No, you have to hope for being in a rom-com, in which a wacky third act climax will lead to some kind of happy resolution in which either (a) you discover you're meant to be together after all, or (b) you have to settle for an alternate pairing with the best friend - depending on whether you're the alpha or beta couple.


There's a married friend I have who, if she wasn't married, I would totally go after, but I have way too much respect for her husband to ever act on my feelings. He's a good guy and he's good for her. I may flirt here and there, but that's as far as it would ever go. In my case, however, it's simple morality at work. I know exactly how I'd feel if another man made a move on my girl.

Still, extramarital affairs always make for great drama, which is why they get made, and that's cool. I can't recall seeing such a movie in which the principals were all young (late 20s) before seeing Take This Waltz, and the more I think about it, the more I feel like it was a bit of an impediment. Writer-director Sarah Polley presents a very mature, very adult kind of story with a married couple who are all lovey-dovey and sickeningly cutesy with each other, like the honeymoon never ended. I wasn't entirely convinced that there was enough of a reason for Michelle Williams to step out on Seth Rogen other than boredom, which makes her seem like a bitch for cheating!


I tried, I really tried to find something about Margot's situation that could make me sympathize with her more, but I couldn't - yet I couldn't get as angry with her as I wanted to, probably because she is Michelle Williams, an actress I absolutely adore and am naturally inclined to like. For one thing, she's not as manipulative as, say, Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction. Nor is she entirely passive. She enters this affair with her eyes open, but she doesn't seem to know what to do with it. She's not after some kind of shared relationship; while she has issues of some kind with her husband, she doesn't demand a divorce, and she doesn't seem guilty enough to want to reconsider her affair, so what's the point really? Thankfully, Sarah Silverman is there to eventually tell her what a bitch she's being, though not after going through some shit herself.

Williams, as usual, makes the whole thing watchable, and in more ways than one this time. Prior to last year's My Week with Marilyn, I had always found her beautiful, attractive, but not... sexy. Not in a Scarlet Johanssen-type of way. I had always thought of hers as a demure, down-to-earth kind of beauty, like Winona Ryder at the same age. Portraying an iconic sex goddess like Marilyn Monroe proved Williams could turn on the heat, but even that didn't prepare me for seeing her in this movie completely full-frontal naked. There's a brief but steamy sex scene near the end, but even before that, there's a shower scene about halfway through that's actually pretty important in a character-developing way.


I totally did not know she was gonna be naked in this movie, and while I certainly can't complain, at the same time she always struck me as the kind of actress who wouldn't do nude scenes. Not sure why; just a feeling. I imagine it's indicative of the level of trust Williams had in Polley - this is only the latter's second film as a director. For what it's worth, most of her nude scenes aren't necessarily prurient. They're like European films in which it's incidental.

I guess I'm finding that my perception of Williams as an actress is continuing to evolve, and that's cool. Like I said, I'm a big fan of hers. I've found the types of films and roles she's taken in the past few years to be exciting and unique. I'm even willing to see her in a big-budget Hollywood genre movie like next year's Oz: The Great and Powerful. I just hope she continues to make good decisions with her roles. Waltz didn't work for me as well as, say, Blue Valentine, but it does seem like part of the continuing path of progression Williams is on as an actress, and I like that much, at least.


(As an aside: I had no idea Toronto was so colorful! The colors in this movie really pop out.)

Do You Like Hitchcock?

The Best Hitchcock Films Hitchcock Never Made Blogathon is exactly what it says on the tin. It is hosted by Tales of the Easily Distracted and Classic Becky's Brain Food. For a complete listing of participating blogs, click on the links to either website.

Do You Like Hitchcock?
seen online via Hulu
7.9.12

This past spring, I wrote about Alfred Hitchcock and talked about his early career in England, before he crossed over to America and became a superstar filmmaker. According to IMDB, among the many directors over the years who have cited him as an influence on their work include some of the greatest names in film history: Stephen Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Brian DePalma, William Friedkin, and Quentin Tarantino. A new film is currently in the works in which Anthony Hopkins will play the master of suspense himself. In the more-than-30 years since his death, Hitchcock remains a giant in the film world.


While many have tried, precious few have come close to capturing that which made Hitchcock special in their films. One prominent director who claims a debt to his work is the Italian filmmaker Dario Argento. The last time I wrote about him here, I didn't go too deeply into his career, which has spanned over forty years. Though he has never been a mainstream success in this country, those who know his work revere him and rank him among the great horror directors.

In Italy, the type of work Argento does is referred to as "giallo," which, like Hitchcock, refers to crime and suspense stories, though in English the word also implies horror. The word literally means yellow, a reference to the European equivalent of cheap horror fiction novels, characterized by yellow covers.

Some have called Argento the Italian Hitchcock, so perhaps it was inevitable that one day he would make a movie called Do You Like Hitchcock? It was an Italian TV movie that came out in 2005, and as a result, it's not as gory as some of his more popular theatrical releases. It's about this peeping-tom film student who witnesses a murder and is convinced that it was inspired by the Hitchcock film Strangers on a Train, in which two strangers conspire to commit murders for each other. The peeping-tom aspect, of course, also brings to mind Rear Window. 

A movie geek trying to solve a murder naturally brings to mind Scream, in particular the video store scene where Randy tries to examine the killings as if it were all happening in a horror movie, which, of course, it is. Though there is also a video store scene in Hitchcock, this movie is not quite as self-aware as Scream.


Hitchcock screened at the Brussels International Festival of Fantastic Film in 2005, and in an interview afterwards, Argento talked about, among other things, capturing the Hitchcock feel, in particular with the music:

I would like to remind you of something. When Brian De Palma was shooting one of his movies, Bernard Hermann died. Brian was desperately looking for someone that could compose like Hermann; he was mainly a violinist, a great one! [Composer Pino] Donaggio substituted for Hermann and wrote the music for De Palma. Since I wanted to make a film with musical influences from Bernard Hermann, Donaggio was the obvious choice because he was his heir. Pino Donaggio is a great musician and my friend and we worked together. But we don't work together that often because like I said before, I am an unfaithful director [Dario laughs] and I with musicians I feel there is a necessity for changes!

Argento also talked about working in television:

I want to shock the television audience! [Dario laughs] Yes, usually the stories you see on TV are the same, very stupid! Stupid! It is not enough! I want to do something. I come from the movies. I want to show you something! 

I know that despite the limited nudity, this movie is more constrained than Argento's usual fare. I thought it was just okay, but then, the only other Argento-directed film I've seen is Suspiria, so I can't say for sure how much different it is. I wouldn't mind seeing more of his films, though.

The Thin Man

The Thin Man
seen on TV @ TCM
7.9.12

Awhile ago, I talked about my drinking habits, such as they are. Basically, I don't drink unless it's a special occasion, like a party. Last week, I was fortunate enough to have attended three different parties, and I drank at all of them, some to greater degree than others. It was what most people at these parties did and was no big deal.

Today, we're more aware of the dangers of drinking to excess, whether it's a celebrity being hauled off to rehab, or PSAs that emphasize having a designated driver.  I believe there was even a recent movie about the guy who founded AA. And this is as it should be. Alcohol is as easy to obtain as a trip to the supermarket or bodega, provided you're of legal age (and sometimes not even then), and it's even easier to abuse.

Back in the day, though, social drinking was looked on with much less of an eye towards responsibility. In watching The Thin Man yesterday, I was surprised to see William Powell's character, Nick Charles, depicted as such an unapologetic lush. I imagine Dashiell Hammett wrote him as such in the original book, but to see it in a movie is another thing.

It didn't spoil my enjoyment of the movie; indeed, it was kinda cool to see such an un-PC character. (One wonders if the remake will handle him the same way.) No, we don't see Nick suffer the painful effects of too much alcohol, but if you want that, you can always see The Lost Weekend, or better yet, The Days of Wine and Roses. This is not that kind of movie, and that's okay. Still, I did find it somewhat surprising. It had been a long time since I had seen The Thin Man and I had forgotten that aspect.

Does anyone else confuse William Powell with Melvyn Douglas, or is it just me? As I watched The Thin Man, I kept wondering whether or not Nick Charles was played by the guy from Ninotchka...


The Thin Man, of course, was one of the earliest Hollywood franchises, spawning a whole bunch of sequels, and in thinking about that now, this seems like an even more extraordinary thing when one considers the kinds of movies that spawn franchises these days. Seriously, can you imagine a franchise being built around a movie like this today - one that values witty dialogue and mature, sophisticated characters, without special effects of any kind?


Says a lot about the way tastes have changed, hasn't it?

A Simple Plan

A Simple Plan
first seen in New York
1998

Okay, so here's what I would do if I found a great big bag of money. Actually, scratch that; make it "might" instead of "would." It's one thing to speculate on what we would do in a given situation, another thing altogether when it actually happens, so I probably shouldn't be so sure of myself here. But here's what I like to think could happen if I were faced with the situation proposed in A Simple Plan:

Assuming I found the money, like in the movie, somewhere in the vicinity of where I live, say, a park or a vacant lot, I wouldn't take the money back home with me. I'd stash it someplace that couldn't be traced back to me, someplace that I could access in secret, at any time. I'd go to this place as little as possible, and only at night. I'd wear gloves at all times and wipe away any fingerprints I may have gotten on it initially.

If I found this bag with two other people, also as in the movie - well, actually, that's where the comparisons to the movie begin to break down. I don't have a sad-sack blood brother or an irresponsible, loudmouth friend. I have an older sister, but chances are she'd out-think me on this; indeed, I can see her in the Bill Paxton role more easily than myself!


So for the sake of argument, let's say I found the bag with two friends who I could control to a certain extent. I'd take control of the situation, arguing that the less they knew about where the money is, the safer it would be all around, like Paxton's character tries to do. I'd divide the money three ways, give each of them their share and get us all to agree to never see each other again.


Then, I'd take my share of the money, pay off any and all debts, and move out of town. If I have reason to believe that someone criminal may be looking for this money, it would be imperative for me to not only throw them off the trail, but to protect my loved ones.

Most importantly, I would not spend the money all at once in a big spree. That's something that tends to trip up a lot of people in movies like this; once they have big money, they can't wait to spend it on all the things they've been dreaming of all their lives. By doing so, they attract undue attention to themselves, and the next thing you know, BAM! - either the good guys or the bad guys catch up with them (depending on what kind of movie it is). 

I would spend the money at a slower pace, spread it out over a series of months, perhaps even years, and not make a big deal about it. In fact, I might even go to certain lengths to make myself look poorer than I actually am (not sure how, but given time, I bet I could think of something).

Basically, it would all come down to discretion. Having a lot of money can make people indulge in their worst excesses, especially when they've never had so much money before. It's understandable, but in a situation like this, it's the absolute wrong approach to take. It would make you a target, and in more than one way: if people know you have money, some would try to take advantage of you by hitting you up for some - playing on your sympathy, that sort of thing. People never think about stuff like that in stories like these, and it always comes back to bite them as a result.


In case it wasn't obvious, I love A Simple Plan. It's a fascinating character study with some rock-solid performances, and it's the kind of movie I could happily watch all the time precisely because it invites you to speculate on what you would do if it happened to you.

Star-spangled links

I'm back. Hope you had a better Fourth of July than I did. It wasn't terrible; I just went to a party I didn't like - although on the plus side, it was on the beach, at least. I've got something very special planned for my 500th post, which now looks like it won't be for another month or so at this rate, but it's something I know you're gonna like, so don't miss it! In the meantime...

In the wake of the death of Andy Griffith, here's Ivan's 2010 piece on The Andy Griffith Show on the occasion of its 50th anniversary.

Alex writes about a unique indie sci-fi film from the 80 called Born in Flames.

Ruth's partner-in-crime Ted writes about roads not taken for several popular films.

I miss old movie theater marquees. And so does Retrospace.

Go Retro is a nice little nostalgia blog that you should totally read. Here Pam writes at length about Steve McQueen.

Here's an interesting piece about how princess stories aren't what they used to be.

Whoopi Goldberg talks about using Kickstarter to fund her directing debut.

This New York Times article sums up many of my misgivings about superhero movies, and to an extent, superhero comics as well.