Rants and Ruminations – Page 19

BBC’s 100 Greatest American Films

October 19, 2016 by movie gourmet

ALL ABOUT EVE - needs to be on the list! — ALL ABOUT EVE – needs to be on the list!

The BBC has surveyed film critics and came up with BBC’s list of 100 Greatest American Films. I’m a sucker for lists, and this is a rare “Best List” that’s focused only on American Cinema. American films only constuitute about 50-65% of the movies on my list of Greatest Movies of All-Time and my yearly “Best”lists, and I relish this chance to delve into the canon of American films.

Naturally, I have opinions, having seen 96 of the 100 (all but The Band Wagon, Love Streams, Letter from an Unknown Woman and the 1959 Imitation of Life). (Confession – I had never heard of the short film Meshes of the Afternoon, but was able to view it on YouTube.) The list has gotten some notoriety because Gone With the Wind is only #97 (which is okay with me).

Bottom line: it’s a really good list. I especially appreciate the inclusion of some films that are truly great but tend not to get recognized on “great” lists: 25th Hour, In a Lonely Place, Deliverance, Groundhog Day, The Right Stuff, The Best Years of Our Lives, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, It’s a Wonderful Life and Pulp Fiction. I also was tickled by the inclusion (at #85) of George Romero’s 1968 seminal zombie classic Night of the Living Dead, which really was a groundbreaking film.

I do have some quibbles. I can’t fathom why anyone would think that Marnie and Johnny Guitar would rise to this list. Michael Cimino’s cinematic disaster Heaven’s Gate was reassessed by critics a couple of years ago; I rewatched it again, too, but I still found it laughably awful today. Just as indefensible as including Heaven’s Gate was the omission of Cimino’s REAL masterpiece The Deer Hunter.

Though I personally loathe Terence Malick’s The Tree of Life and Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut, a critic can make a plausible argument for them. Still, the list is too reverential to Kubrick, Malick and David Lynch (both Mulholland Drive AND Blue Velvet?).

Documentaries are represented here by Killer of Sheep and Grey Gables, two groundbreaking films from the late 60s/early 70s that have been seen by everyone who’s taken a film course between 1980 and 2000. But I actually prefer Salesman from that period. And there are much better American documentaries that I would include instead: Harlan County USA, Hoop Dreams and the entire work of Errol Morris, especially Gates of Heaven and/or The Thin Blue Line.

Here’s another serious beef. The only animated film on the list is The Lion King, which I think is an excellent movie, but probably not in my top ten of American animated films. The BBC list excludes the Toy Story series and Fantasia (and all of the other Disney movies from Disney’s classic period) – CRIMINAL!

There’s also an “Eat Your Broccoli, It’s Good For You” aspect to the list – as if every movie important to study in film class is “great”. There are some hard slogs on this list. I wouldn’t recommend that most movie fans run out and see, as important as they are, Sunrise, Greed, the Cassavetes films, Killer of Sheep, Meshes of the Afternoon or The Magnificent Ambersons. (By all reports, Orson Welles made a masterpiece in The Magnificent Ambersons – but none of us has seen it because it was mangled by studio editors; frankly, I have really tried to embrace the available version of Ambersons, but it’s never rung my chimes.) Hey, Bonnie and Clyde is a really important movie, too, and it’s not on the BBC list.

There are some missed opportunities, too. Any list of great American cinema MUST include: All About Eve, Sullivan’s Travels, Fargo, Out of the Past, Laura and last year’s masterpiece, Boyhood. The BBC also whiffed on the entire work of Clint Eastwood; I would have included Million Dollar Baby, but Mystic River and Unforgiven are deserving, too.

Woody Allen gets two of his deserving movies on the list, but how about Manhattan and Hannah and Her Sisters, too? Similarly, Robert Altman’s recognition should also include The Player (and Gosford Park, if it counts as an “American” film).

I could also make a case for: The Producers, High Noon, All the President’s Men, American Graffiti, All That Jazz, Bull Durham, Cool Hand Luke, Five Easy Pieces, My Man Godfrey, Best in Show and Sideways.

Still, I always enjoy haggling over a list, and it’s great to focus once in a while on purely American cinema.

25TH HOUR - getting its due. — 25TH HOUR – getting its due.

A Tale of Two Trailers

October 2, 2016 by movie gourmet

I thought that I had a pretty good grasp about film American Honey, which opens this weekend, because I’d seen its trailer several times over the past couple months. After all, it’s directed by Andrea Arnold, a director I very much admire for Red Road and Fish Tank, two superb and VERY unsettling movies with female protagonists. American Honey won the Jury prize at Cannes and has been favored by critics who’ve seen it (unlike me). But THEN I saw a more recent promo for the film and was jarred by the contrast. Both the trailer and the promo are from the distributor A24. I’m showing them to you in the reverse order that I saw them. Watch them both and see what YOU think.

Here’s the promo. Seems to me like it’s about a party-heavy, teen adventure road movie. A lark.

Now here’s the trailer that I had seen first. Seems like a searingly realistic movie about alienated and unsupported teen runaways, dabbling in all sorts of scams and and illegality, with lots of risky (and very dangerous) behaviors. Seems more edgy and even disturbing to me.

One of these (I suspect the promo) is going to end up on my list of Most Misleading Trailers.

Anyway, by all reports it’s another fine film from Arnold, and I’m looking forward to the entire 2 hours and 41 minutes.

Ronan Farrow’s unique perspective on Woody Allen and the media

July 31, 2016 by movie gourmet

Tomorrow, I’ll be writing about Woody Allen’s latest, Café Society. I put aside the creep factor when I watch Woody Allen’s movies. What’s important to me is what’s up on the screen. A movie can be a masterpiece (or crap) even if it’s made by someone to which you don’t relate, someone you find detestable or even to be a monster. For example, I admire most of Roman Polanski’s movies, even though he committed a despicable and criminal act in the 1970s.

I know that other folks have other sensibilities and approaches that are completely justified. For example, The Wife will not watch movies that feature certain actors with domestic violence histories. Unlike me, she doesn’t compartmentalize, and she knows that she would be thinking about the real-life domestic violence during the movie. I respect her principle and her self-awareness.

Of course, I do not live under a rock, so I am aware of the distasteful 1992 episode when Mia Farrow booted Woody upon learning about his relationship with her then 21-year-old daughter Soon-yi. (Soon-yi and Woody have been together ever since and married in 1996.) And, much more disturbingly, Woody’s own daughter Dylan Farrow recently accused him of molesting her when she was little, an accusation which he denies.

Ronan Farrow is Woody Allen’s son and Dylan’s brother. He is also a serious and accomplished journalist. Recently, he wrote a guest column in The Hollywood Reporter entitled My Father, Woody Allen, and the Danger of Questions Unasked. In it, he shares his perspective on the Dylan Farrow/Woody Allen situation.

Ronan Farrow also makes a broader critique of the media, how it treats both accusers and the celebrity accused. He focuses on the relative power of the accuser and the accused, and it’s an especially thought-provoking and valuable essay. (His column was written before the recent Roger Ailes sexual harassment scandal but I found it to be relevant and instructive in absorbing that story as well.)

I will continue to watch Woody Allen’s movies and to write about them. But from now on, I’ll be including a link to Ronan Farrow’s My Father, Woody Allen, and the Danger of Questions Unasked.

Stellan Skarsgård – at last, we see his funny side

July 3, 2016 by movie gourmet

Stellan Skarsgård in OUR KIND OF TRAITOR

Stellan Skarsgård stars as the chief money-launderer for the Russia Mob in Our Kind of Traitor, and Skarsgård completely dominates the movie with his always robust and often hilarious performance. Who knew that the familiar Skarsgård could be so funny? After all, he usually plays a character that is brooding or menacing.

Skarsgård had already amassed over 50 screen credits at age 35 when the American art house audience really noticed him in Breaking the Waves (1996), He played an amiable and lusty seafarer who transforms the mousy Emily Watson with his joie de vivre, before he becomes a heartbreakingly suicidal paraplegic.

Emily Watson and Skarsgård in BREAKING THE WAVES

Although I hadn’t remembered him, earlier, Skarsgård appeared in The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988), where he played The Engineer who had a one-night stand with Juliette Binoche’s Tereza. Then, in 1990, he played the Russian sub captain in The Hunt for Red October.

After Breaking the Waves came Insomnia, Good Will Hunting, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and lots of really bad Hollywood movies where he’s the best thing in them – primarily dramas, thrillers and action films where he’s the intensely stolid or sinister presence.

Now, everybody’s got to start somewhere, and in 1973, Stellan Skarsgård’s second year making feature films, he starred in a cult Guilty Pleasure – Anita: Swedish Nymphet. As the title suggests, the story is about a 16-year-old girl (played by a 23-year-old actress) with psychological issues which compel her to have sex in random and unhealthy encounters. It’s completely trashy, but, of course, the appeal of Anita: Swedish Nymphet to US (male) audiences was lots of nudity and sex – still uncommon in American movies.
Skarsgård plays Anita’s counselor, who eventually cures her by making her his girlfriend.

But now’s the time to enjoy Skarsgård in Our Kind of Traitor, It’s not a great movie, but Skarsgård makes it damn entertaining. By himself, he’s worth the price of a ticket.

Skarsgård in ANITA: SWEDISH NYMPHET — Skarsgård counseling a troubled girl in ANITA: SWEDISH NYMPHET

Peter van Eyck: the Nazi who wasn’t

June 2, 2016 by movie gourmet

Peter van Eyck in THE WAGES OF FEAR — Peter van Eyck (left) in THE WAGES OF FEAR

During World War II, Hollywood looked for cruel-visaged actors to play Nazi characters that were cruel-looking and who could accomplish evil with chilling efficiency. With his Aryan poster boy looks and German accent, Peter van Eyck became Hollywood’s favorite on-screen Nazi. The irony is that, in real life, the German-born van Eyck was a fervent anti-fascist who had fled just before Hitler took power.

Van Eyck bobbed around the world doing odd jobs until he landed in New York and befriended Aaron Copland, Irving Berlin and, finally, Billy Wilder. Van Eyck’s first attention-grabbing performance was in Wilder’s Five Graves to Cairo, which airs tomorrow night on Turner Classic Movies.

His role as Lt. Schwegler in Five Graves to Cairo is embedded in a sequence of nine straight German soldier movie roles during 1943-44. Sometimes his roles didn’t even have names – “German officer”, “SS Captain”, “Gestapo”.

Back to real life – van Eyck served as a film officer in the US Army’s occupation of post-Germany. Returning to Hollywood, his roles diversified to the point that he was only playing a German officer about half the time. He ended up with 94 screen credits on IMDb, including high-ranking Wehrmacht officers in The Longest Day (1962) and The Bridge at Remagen (his final film in 1969). One of Van Eyck’s most notable roles is as one of the drivers in Henri-Georges Clouzot’s hyper-suspenseful The Wages of Fear.

It is said that acting is pretending. Typecast by looks and accent, van Eyck was a refugee who happened into a prolific acting career – playing exactly what he wasn’t.

the young Peter van Eyck (center rear) in FIVE GRAVES TO CAIRO

a more mature van Eyck in THE LONGEST DAY

IFFNOHO Preview: the documentaries

May 11, 2022April 27, 2016 by movie gourmet

Artistic Director Nicholas Goodman has programmed an especially strong slate of documentaries at this year’s International Film Festival of North Hollywood (IFFNOHO):

IFFNOHO is showcasing the LA premiere of Gazelle: The Love Issue LA premiere as the festival’s opening night film on Thursday, April 28, and it’s a sure-fire crowd-pleaser.
The Cross of the Moment helps us understand the bleakness of the “or else” if we fail to stall or reverse climate change. The IFFNOHO screening is the world premiere of this absorbing and important film.
Peter Miller’s documentary Projections of America reveals the story of American-made World War II propaganda films, designed to reassure the soon-to-be-occupied Europeans. “Propaganda” is a sinister word, and the surprise in Projections of America is how indirect, subtle and superficially benign these slice-of-American-life movies were.
The most popular of the propaganda films in the Projections of America series, Autobiography of a Jeep, has its own separate screening at IFFNOHO.

The International Film Festival of North Hollywood (IFFNOHO) runs from April 28 through May 1, and here’s the entire festival program.

Women Directors at SFIFF

April 23, 2016 by movie gourmet

Athina Rachel Tsangari, director of CHEVALIER . Photo courtesy of San Francisco Film Society — Athina Rachel Tsangari, director of CHEVALIER. Photo courtesy of San Francisco Film Society

This year’s San Francisco International Film Festival (SFIFF) includes movies from 50 women directors. Some are high-profile (by indie standards):

Academy Award-winning documentarian Barbara Kopple (Harlan County U.S.A.) brings Miss Sharon Jones!. Sure to be a festival crowd-pleaser, this doc chronicles the salty Dap Kings frontwoman and her fight against cancer.
Oscar-nominated Chris Hegedus (The War Room), with her directing partner D.A. Pennebaker, has the animal welfare doc Unlocking the Cage; and
Elyse Steinberg’s Weiner was the top documentary hit at the most recent Sundance.

Among the foreign choices, the Must See is one of the funniest movies at the fest, the Greek comedy Chevalier from director Athina Rachel Tsangari. Obviously a keen observer of male behavior, Tsangari delivers a sly and pointed exploration of male competitiveness, with the moments of drollness and absurdity that we expect in the best of contemporary Greek cinema. This is Tsangari’s second visit to SFIFF – in 2011, she brought her hilariously offbeat Attenberg.

Other strong choices from women directors include:

NUTS! from director Penny Lane – a persistently hilarious (and finally poignant) documentary about the rise and fall of a medical and radio empire – all built on goat testicle “implantation” surgery in gullible humans.
Suite Armorcaine, the character-driven drama from French director Pascale Breton;
Five Nights in Maine, a showcase for David Oyelowo, Dianne Wiest and Rosie Perez from writer-director Maris Curran.

The 59th San Francisco International Film Festival (SFIFF) runs through May 5. Throughout the fest, I’ll be linking more festival coverage to my SFFIF 2016 page, including both features and movie recommendations. Follow me on Twitter for the very latest coverage.

Here’s the complete list of women directors with entries at the 2016 San Francisco International Film Festival:

As I Open My Eyes, Leyla Bouzid, Tunisia/France/Belgium
Audrie & Daisy, Bonni Cohen, Jon Shenk, USA
Ayiti Mon Amour, Guetty Felin, Haiti/USA
Between Us: Experimental Shorts (Rock, Clay, Sand, Straw, Wood, Something Between Us, Starfish Aorta, Winter Trees)
Cameraperson, Kirsten Johnson, USA
Check It, Dana Flor, Toby Oppenheimer, USA
Chevalier, Athina Rachel Tsangari, Greece
The Fits, Anna Rose Holmer, USA
Five Nights in Maine, Maris Curran, USA
Granny’s Dancing on the Table, Hanna Sköld, Sweden/Denmark
haveababy, Amanda Micheli, USA
The Innocents, Anne Fontaine, France/Poland
Irving M. Levin Directing Award: An Afternoon with Mira Nair: Monsoon Wedding
Maggie’s Plan, Rebecca Miller, USA
Miss Sharon Jones!, Barbara Kopple, USA
Mountain, Yaelle Kayam, Israel/Denmark
National Bird, Sonia Kennebeck, USA
No Home Movie, Chantal Akerman, Belgium/France
NUTS!, Penny Lane, USA
Operator, Logan Kibens, USA
Our Kind of Traitor, Susanna White, UK
The Return, Kelly Duane de la Vega, Katie Galloway, USA
Shorts 1 (In Attla’s Tracks, Seide)
Shorts 2 (Partners, The Send-Off)
Shorts 3: Animation (Edmond, Glove)
Shorts 4: New Visions (My Aleppo, False Start, Sept. – Oct. 2015, Cizre)
Shorts 5: Family Films (Bunny New Girl, The Casebook of Nips & Porkington, Mother, Welcome to My Life)
Shorts 6: Youth Works (Child for Sale, From My Head To Hers, I Don’t Belong Here Run, Run Away)
Sonita, Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami, Germany/Switzerland/Iran
Suite Armoricaine, Pascale Breton, France
Thirst, Svetla Tsotsorkova, Bulgaria
Under the Gun, Stephanie Soechtig, USA
Unlocking the Cage, Chris Hegedus, D.A. Pennebaker, USA
The Watermelon Woman, Cheryl Dunye, USA
Weiner, Josh Kriegman, Elyse Steinberg, USA
Wild, Nicolette Krebitz, German

SFIFF: previewing the documentaries

April 20, 2016 by movie gourmet

A scene from Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg's WEINER will play at the 59th San Francisco International Film Festival, on April 21 - May 5,2016. — WEINER. Photo courtesy San Francisco Film Society.

There’s a characteristically strong slate of documentaries at the 59th San Francisco International Film Festival (SFIFF). The docs with the highest profiles are

Weiner – This hit from the Sundance and New Directors film festivals is an inside look at Anthony Weiner’s cringeworthy, self-immolating campaign for New York City Mayor;
Miss Sharon Jones! – Sure to be a festival crowd-pleaser, this doc chronicles the salty Dap Kings frontwoman and her fight against cancer. From Academy Award-winning documentarian Barbara Kopple (Harlan County U.S.A.);
Unlocking the Cage – an animal welfare doc from storied filmmakers Chris Hegedus (The War Room) and D.A. Pennebaker (Monterey Pop and The War Room); and
The Bandit, in the coveted slot as the festivals’ Closing Night film, documents the real life bromance between Burt Reynolds and iconic stuntman Hal Needham that led to Needham’s Smokey and the Bandit movies.

But some of the best docs in the fest are less well-known nuggets:

NUTS! – a persistently hilarious (and finally poignant) documentary about the rise and fall of a medical and radio empire – all built on goat testicle “implantation” surgery in gullible humans.
Dead Slow Ahead – a visually stunning and an often hypnotic film, shot on a massive freighter on its voyage across vast ocean expanses with its all-Filipino crew.
Under the Sun – a searing insight into totalitarian North Korean society, all from government-approved footage that tells a different story than the wackadoodle dictatorship intended.

Last year’s SFIFF brought us The Look of Silence, Listen to Me Marlon, Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead and Very Semi-Serious. The festival’s 2016 docs may be even more impressive.

Sharon Jones performs at the Beacon Theater in Barbara Kopple's MISS SHARON JONES!, playing at the 59th San Francisco International Film Festival, April 21st - May 5th, 2016.Jacob Blickenstaff, 2014, courtesy of San Francisco Film Society — MISS SHARON JONES! Photo: Jacob Blickenstaff, 2014, courtesy of San Francisco Film Society.

Happy Birthday, Tim Curry

April 19, 2016 by movie gourmet

Tim Curry turns 70 today – forever Dr. Frank N. Furter from The Rocky Horror Picture Show, the original Sweet Transvestite from Transsexual Transylvania.

Cinequest Insiders Look at the 2016 Festival

March 2, 2016 by movie gourmet

The Movie Gourmet asked the folks who pick the movies at Cinequest about this year’s program.

MIKE RABEHL is Cinequest’s Director of Programming/Associate Director.

What are your predictions for the biggest audience pleasers? Something like THE SAPPHIRES/THE GRAND SEDUCTION/WILD TALES from past festivals?

Rabehl: As the programming director, I simply do not pick favorites. But, I really think audiences are going to find complete enjoyment in films like REMEMBER ME, HELLO, MY NAME IS DORIS, BUDDY SOLITAIRE, THE COMEDY CLUB, CHUCK NORRIS VS. COMMUNISM, I LOVE YOU BOTH, and any of the BARCO ESCAPE screenings.

What might be the festival’s biggest surprise hit?

Rabehl: I think two films that are REALLY going to affect people are LOVE IS ALL YOU NEED? and UNTIL 20.

Is there any remarkable new filmmaking talent (like last year’s The Center)?

Rabehl: So much to answer here. You look at Simon Stone’s debut with THE DAUGHTER, or Michael Boroweic and Sam Marine’s MAN UNDERGROUND, and you have to be in awe of what they make you feel. Yet, I really think women director’s shine this year. You look at the French influence of Estelle Artus’ ACCORDING TO HER, the vibrancy of Alicia Slimmer’s CREEDMORIA, the purity of Jane Gull’s MY FERAL HEART, or the timeliness and importance of Kim Rocco Shields’ LOVE IS ALL YOU NEED?…It’s really tough to pick just one, So many great voices, and every single one I have mentioned is unique and, in the case of several, quite groundbreaking.

Is there anything that we haven’t seen before in a movie?

Rabehl: I think LOVE IS ALL YOU NEED? pushes the boundaries in a big way and takes of somewhere we haven’t gone before—into a world where homosexuality is the norm and heterosexuality is ridiculed. And, I think people are really going to be wowed by Chris Brown’s THE OTHER KIDS—a hybrid of fiction and non-fiction that really shines a light on the newest generation of youth. And, I have NEVER seen a film like PARABELLUM in all my years of watching cinema. Just something totally different and leaves you breathless at the end.

Last year there were some great single screenings – ’71 and Gemma Bovery kind of under the radar and Three Hearts at the California. Any Can’t Miss single screenings this year?

Rabehl: OPENING and CLOSING nights, definitely. And, I think people will be very sorry if they miss seeing THE WAVE, MA MA, and SUNSET SONG on the big screen. We have also ADDED a new film to the line-up on March 13th, with Paramount’s THE LITTLE PRINCE. I saw it in December, and it is going to be a strong contender for Best Animated Feature at the Oscars next year.

You have a good nose for films from Belgium and Norway. Any Must Sees this year from those national film programs?

Rabehl: I’ve already mentioned THE WAVE—which is from Norway. But, two more films from Norway: STAYING ALIVE and WOMEN IN OVERSIZED MEN’S SHIRTS are definites. And, from Belgium, BROTHER and PROBLEMSKI HOTEL would be my picks. Also, from Russia, don’t miss ORLEANS

Demimonde really looks like my kind of movie (noirish), and Charlie Cockey says that you liked it a lot. Anything you want to tell me about it?

Rabehl: Oh, this one is going to really going to be a sleeper. Hungarian cinema has always been one of our favorites. We have two features this year (the other is FEVER AT DAWN), but in DEMIMONDE, you have this sweeping, Gothic story that feels like a noir. It’s a combination of visual set pieces, costumes, and this incredible musical score that makes me wish to see it on the big screen, rather than the small one I saw it on.

CHARLIE COCKEY is Cinequest’s International Film Programmer.

Some of Cinequest’s highlights always come from international cinema – IDA, of course, and THE HUNT, HEAVENLY SHIFT, IN THE SHADOW and last year’s exquisite CORN ISLAND. What should we be looking for at Cinequest 2016?

Cockey: Please don’t miss THE MEMORY OF WATER – it’s rough, emotionally, but it’s incredible filmmaking. Did you see the absolutely remarkable film THE LIFE OF FISH by Matias Bize? Same director – same quality.

My other picks are LOST IN MUNICH, MAGALLANES, PARABELLUM, SONG OF SONGS, WHY ME? and FEVER AT DAWN.

SANDY WOLF is Cinequest Documentary Programmer.

Last year’s doc program was very strong, especially ASPIE SEEKS LOVE, MEET THE HITLERS, THERE WILL BE NO STAY and SWEDEN’S COOLEST NATIONAL TEAM. What do you see as the strongest 2-3 documentary features this year? What do you predict will be the biggest audience pleasing documentary?

Wolf: My favorite doc is CHUCK NORRIS VS. COMMUNISM, which I know you have seen. After that, my next two favorites are TRANSFIXED (which is about a transsexual trying to undergo a sex change, who also has Asperger’s) and UNDER 20 (sad but inspirational about a kid who has cancer but keeps on with his high achieving life) – I could see that being an audience favorite, too.

Three others which I favored more so than some of the others are COMEDY CLUB, DAN AND MARGO and GORDON GETTY: THERE WILL BE MUSIC.

Is there any remarkable new documentary filmmaking talent (first feature, etc.)?

Wolf: TRANSFIXED is a first feature.

Bookmark my Cinequest 2016 page, with links to all my coverage. Follow me on Twitter for the latest.