Image of the Day (8/20/12)

 

Déjà vu (Tony Scott, USA, 2006)

Tony Scott died yesterday. He was 68. Read the obituary here.

Read an essential piece of criticism by Michael J. Anderson on Deja Vu's exploration of memory and trauma.

I will have more to say on the director on next week's Cinephiliacs.

Interlude: Judith Crist on "The Long Goodbye"

            It is into the 1973 world that Altman has thrust his Philip Marlowe and seen him, half in sorrow and half in laughter, as a man out of his time, clinging not only to the clothes, the unfiltered cigarettes, and even the car (a 1948 Continental convertible) but also more importantly to the ethic and morality of a time gone by. And, unfashionably at the moment but with remarkable success, he has embodied him in Elliott Gould, that capable actor over-exploited and misused after his initial success, who makes of Marlowe a loose mam, a too rational and too caring a man for now, a sotto voice commentary his bulwark, that foolish grin a façade for the devastating perception of where people are at. And when he puts his values on the line because he alone still cares about right and wrong and gets “You’ll never learn—you’re a born loser” in exchange, he does what the last righteous man has to do—in 1973. And down the road he goes, a shattered myth behind him and a surging swell of “Hurray for Hollywood” flooding the soundtrack.

--Judith Crist, “Current Shock,” New York Magazine, October 29^, 1973.

 Crist was 90. Read the obituary here.

Interlude: The Limits of Control?

            My occasional Twitter pal Richard Brody has a nice post up in regards to the Sight & Sound poll, remarking on the fact that many films are by directors with complete control of the camera as opposed to looser filmmakers. He writes:

The prominence of films by of Stanley Kubrick (“2001” at number six), Francis Ford Coppola and Andrei Tarkovsky (three each), and Akira Kurosawa (two); the relative absence of Italian neo-realism (“Bicycle Thieves” at thirty-three, “Voyage to Italy”—if that counts—at forty-one); and, in general, the lack of movies where the strings seem looser (e.g. John Cassavetes, Elaine May) indicates that directorial control freaks have a higher standing among the voters than those whose movies reflect heads-up curiosity, spontaneity, and responsiveness to unexpected discovery.

            Richard is certainly right – Vertigo is dominated by Hitchcock’s precision in every frame, as is The Searchers and Tokyo Story and 2001 – and I too lament the absent of Rio Bravo, or anything by Howard Hawks for that matter. But I think to call these films lacking in unexpected discoveries might be a little too mischievous. Part of this might be due to the fact that Richard is a better critic than I’ll ever be – nothing misses his eyes or ears, while sometimes I need repeat viewings to fully take in some films. That’s what happened when I re-watched Vertigo two weeks ago, and I noticed, on my tenth viewing of the film, that Scottie is not the real name of Jimmy Stewart’s character, but instead it is Johnny (or “Johnny-O” as Midge calls him, which reminded me of Roger O. Thornhill – The O stands for nothing, he tells us – in North by Northwest). 

Taking Back MY Space

            I have no business commenting on the terrible tragedy that took place this morning, but I feel compelled to say something, mainly because I’m so shaken up by it. I am not writing this to trivialize any other horrifying event from the past or even going on right now, but there’s one fact I can’t get over: it was a movie theater.

As a film blogger, I spend a lot of time in movie theaters. I don’t go to that many press screenings, so when I see movies, I see them with a paying audience who have come to escape into something beyond themselves. And this jerk wants to ruin it for all of us.

            I go to about five or six movies a week right now, almost all in theaters. We sometimes like to complain about theaters—bad staff, prices, questionable projection, and of course distracting audience members. But that’s my space. That’s my church, and I’ll take it just the way it is. This guy wants to make movie theaters into something different, and I can’t let him do that.

            Tomorrow, I’m getting up early to see The Dark Knight Rises, and at this moment, I’m kind of terrified to do so. But I know if I don’t go, then this guy wins. As scared as I am, I cannot wait to get in that theater, enjoy the movie, and walk out safely. I don’t want to go through a metal detector or be frisked by police to do so. I don’t want anyone to do that. I want to reclaim MY space.

            I want everyone to go to the movies this weekend. I don’t care what you see; I just want you to go. If you don’t go, that’s fine. But don’t avoid a movie theater because you are scared. I don’t want this awful person to win. I don’t want movie theaters to be a tense, uncomfortable place where I can’t lose myself to a film because I have to think what if it happens here. I want to take back my space. That’s my space. And no one is going to take that away from me.

Interlude: Zacharek Zingers

You may hear today that Stephanie Zacharek, the chief film critic for Movieline, will be let go from her position July 13th. It's of course the latest in a string of critics losing their positions. I often disagreed with Zacharek, but she was a damn good critic. Her post on The Artist during the Slate Movie Club is easily the most interesting defense of that film I read during the film's inevitable Oscar run. To honor what is an idiotic movie, I dug through some of her work at Movieline and found some of my favorite lines. Editors, take note:

"If the career of Christopher Nolan is any indication, we've entered an era in which movies can no longer be great. They can only be awesome, which isn't nearly the same thing." -Inception (July 14th, 2010)
 

"The picture has a pale, worn-out look, as if the blood is being drained from it even as we watch – like the characters who populate it, it looks ready for some kind of rejuvenation that may never come." -Post Mortem (April 11th, 2012)

"As the end credits of this last dour Swedish snooze-a-thon started rolling, I clapped my notebook shut as if it were the last day of school. Huzzah! Bring on David Fincher. Please." -The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (October 28th, 2010)

"His body is gangly and puppet-like in that preadolescent way, but every movement is resolute: When he chases after the various kids who, repeatedly, try to steal his precious bike, he throws off sparks of grim determination, like a single-minded marathon runner. Maybe, in the end, he outruns the movie." -The Kid With A Bike (May 15th, 2011)

"Reichardt and her cinematographer, Chris Blauvelt, allow the weather, the time of day, and the landscape, as it shifts little by little beneath the settlers' feet, to determine the movie's color palette: One minute we see strata of sky, clouds and scrubby land rendered in dry, parched tones; the next we're transported into an early-evening fever dream of unreal-looking purples and blues right out of a Maxfield Parrish painting." -Meek's Cutoff (April 7th, 2011)

"When Katz shows the four playing a board time, they're clearly having a great time, and not ironically -- Katz gives us the sense that he cares for his characters, as opposed to just using them as mouthpieces for the discontent of his generation." -Cold Weather (February 4th, 2011)

"Not since Antichrist has a man suffered so greatly at the tiny, grabby hands of God's creatures." -Fury Vengeance (April 28th, 2010)

Interlude: Image of the Day

Click it to see it blown up in all its abstract glory.

Interlude: A Dangerous Method - Flat Compositions in 3D Films

Correction: Danny Baldwin notes below that Men in Black 3 was actually shot on film, not with 3D cameras, but it was still designed with a 3D conversion in mind.

I don’t plan on writing a full review of Men in Black 3, the painfully dull sequel to the Will Smith franchise. The film is rarely inventive and quite laborious, and even the quite awesome Josh Brolin is only so fun as a young Tommy Lee Jones (who seems to have only shown up for a paycheck). The film’s saving grace is actually Michael Stuhlbarg as a being who can see across alternate timelines (useful for watching Mets games, it turns out).

            But besides the lazy script, there was something extremely alarming about Men in Black 3: the flat compositions. Being a hater of 3D in almost every possible situation (sans Pina), I ended up seeing the film in 2D (and in 35mm no less!). This is not the first time I’ve seen a 3D film in my preferred format, but it is the first time I’ve noted that choosing to see the film in 2D was actually a detriment to the film.

Interlude: Hiatus

I was already planning on taking a small break from writing, but I got some personal news that makes this a necessity. I won't be writing anything for the next couple weeks, and I'm going to try and stay off all those platforms we call "social media." If anyone wants to chat with me, I'm available via email. But for now, I'm gonna take a relaxing dive in the pool: 

Interlude: Kael Smash Edition

"The audience is alive to it. Our experience as we watch it has some connection with the way we reacted to movies in childhood: with how we came to love them and to feel they were ours—not an art that we learned over the years to appreciate but simply and immediately ours. When an American movie is contemporary in feeling, like this one, it makes a different kind of contact with an American audience from the kind that is made by European films, however contemporary."

-Pauline Kael, "Onward and Upward With the Arts," The New Yorker, October 21st, 1967

"SO AGAIN, HULK GETS ASKED THE QUESTION ALL THE TIME: WHAT MAKES A GOOD HULK? AND THE ANSWER IS ANYTHING IF YOU CAN MAKE IT COMPELLING ENOUGH. BUT THERE’S NO DENYING THAT HULKS SEEM TO BE MOST COMPELLING WHEN YOU GROUND THEM IN CONTRADICTION AND EXPLORE LIFE’S GRAND DUALITY. RUFFALO’S BANNER/HULK IS ONE OF THE MORE DEXTROUS AND ALL-ENCOMPASSING VERSIONS WE’VE EVER HAD AND IT’S NO ACCIDENT THAT PEOPLE HAVE BEEN LOVING THE CRAP OUT OF HIM IN THE FILM."

-"Film Critic" Hulk, "The Hulk On Mark Ruffalo's Hulk," The New Yorker, May 8th, 2012

Interlude: Sight & Sound

Following the take from some friends...no commentary, just a list of films I can't live without. This list will be out of date in about five minutes.

1. Vertigo (Hitchcock, USA, 1958)

2. Raging Bull (Scorsese, USA, 1980)

3. Do The Right Thing (Lee, USA, 1989)

4. High and Low (Kurosawa, Japan, 1962)

5. Rio Bravo (Hawks, USA, 1959)

6. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick, UK, 1968)

7. The Passion of Joan of Arc (Dreyer, France, 1928)

8. Sunset Blvd. (Wilder, USA, 1950)

9. Days of Heaven (Malick, USA, 1978)

10. The Searchers (Ford, USA, 1956)

Not included: Psycho, The Godfather, Close-Up, Pulp Fiction, Chinatown, Annie Hall, The Apartment, Sweet Smell of Success, Chungking Express, The Godfather: Part II, and a whole lot more...

Interlude: RIP Criticism of Film Criticism

Because the Museum of the Modern Art pushed back its screening of Jeanne Dielman from Wednesday to Thursday, I decided to attend a panel called “Film Criticism Today” by the New School (who last brought us Tarkovsky Interrupts(!), and it was also free). Here were the five most interesting things said:

--Phillip Lopate’s first piece ever as a film critic was covering the first New York Film Festival for the Columbia Daily Spectator, which is where I got my start too.

--According to Paul Brunick, Peter Wollen is unreadable. Huh.

--Apparently when Vincent Canby was writing for the Times, he kept a little film called Chan is Missing in theaters much longer than it would’ve been, since he was a fan.

--The moderator, Noah Isenberg, thinks it’s horrible that film critics or scholars may use IMDB to find info. Lopate responded, “There are so many other horrors.”

--Glenn Kenny (who was not on the panel) joked afterwards that he never had interest in becoming a critic, but Premiere scooted him into the job, and thus ruined his entire life.

I think there was also a debate on film criticism, and points were made about the Internet and what not. Video essays came up, which were praised by Dennis Lim (who started Moving Image Source) for bring the discussion of form back into criticism, and then sort of given the “that’s nice” treatment by everyone else. No podcast talk (despite having a podcaster on the panel), a little talk of critical advocacy (no mention of #teammargaret), and Twitter dismissed casually. That's all folks.

Bracket-Idiocy, Part Two

In my first piece for Indiewire's TV section, I go further into The Wire and why I found Grantland's "Smaketology" to be complete insanity. This is following up on my flash-second response last week, though the point remains more or less the same. Check it out here.

Interlude: Bracket-idiocy

"[The Media] have less and less ambition and are demanding less and less of themselves as arbiters of what is actually important, of what our problems are and how we’re addressing them. The Wire was trying to say, at the end, 'Look, if anything in the first four seasons struck a nerve with you, don’t think for a moment that anyone’s going to address themselves to it—least of all the watchdogs of society—because their teeth have been taken out.' They’ve done it to themselves." -David Simon, Interview with Vice, December 2009.

"What if we actually did subject the key players of the Wire-verse to rigorous bracketological inquiry? If we played corner boys against dock workers, murder-polices against hoppers, and craven politicos against enigmatic not-actually-Greek human traffickers, in matchups as arbitrary and occasionally unjust as life and death on the mean streets of West Baltimore, would the king stay the king?" -Alex Pappademas, Grantland post announcing a bracket match featuring characters from The Wire, March 5th, 2012.