Movies this week

Cloud Atlas. No, I haven't read the book. Yes, it does have some of the flaws of earlier Wachowski films, but damn if it isn't a spectacular, amazing, multi-narrative, multi-layered film that never slows down and provides some great actors with opportunities to play multiple roles. I'm not always a Tom Hanks fan, but he was brilliant. Halle Berry gets to be more than a pretty face, and Hugo Weaving is awesome as usual. Also features Susan Sarandon, Jim Broadbent, Hugh Grant, Jim Sturgess, Ben Wishaw (he is always amazing), James D'Arcy, and Doona Bae, who was just wonderful.  I want to see it again. Tom Tykwer is co-director, and he and his bandmates provided a gorgeous, gorgeous score.

Silver Lining Playbook (sneak preview). Finally Bradley Cooper gets a meaty serious role where he can show his acting chops. He and Jennifer Lawrence were terrific, and David O Russell managed to combine a serious and often frightening treatment of mental illness with humor and compassion, and a wonderful "redemption through ballroom dancing" ending that was both satisfying and self-aware.  Robert DeNiro gives one of his best comedic performances, and the supporting cast is terrific. The audience I saw it with applauded at the end. Good use of songs with Danny Elfman coordinating the music. Mandy Moore was the choreographer and dance coach.

Howl's Moving Castle. We adore Miyazaki movies, but we have only ever seen them on DVD. To see this film in a movie theater was wonderful. The quality of the art, the colors, the animation, the wonderful music: it was all so much more vivid and compelling on the big screen. They were only showing the English dub, but the voice acting was terrific: Christian Bale, Lauren Bacall, Jean Simmons, Blythe Danner, Emily Mortimer, Billy Crystal.

Buck, the movie

We saw the documentary movie "Buck" this weekend. If you can see it, you should. It's amazing. It's about one of the leading practitioners of "Natural Horsemanship" (as it has come to be called), which avoids punishment in favor of communication, or "firm and fair" communication.

Here's an interview with horseman Buck Brannaman and the filmmaker, Cindy Meehl.

At the end of the film, there is this song by Pearl Jam that gives me goosebumps:

More than "the Dude"

We watched the portrait of Jeff Bridges on PBS' American Masters, called "The Dude Abides." He's a painter and a musician, and a very smart man behind the affability. I'd love to see some of the books of photographs he makes for each movie project.

Watch the full episode. See more American Masters.

Jeff Bridges has done so much more than the The Big Lebowski, One of his best roles was in Peter Weir's movie Fearless, with the amazing Rosie Perez.

An "Artist's Date" with my weekend activities

A commitment I have made to myself for the new year is to embrace my creativity. This weekend I had a variety of experiences, and my "artist date" for today is to blog about them so that I can explores some of the ways my head is still full of images and ideas. The events in Arizona have been an emotional blow, so I'm holding on to these manifestations of human creativity right now.

Errol Morris has a web page chock-a-block full of links to fascinating stories. I must explore it when I get the chance. We watched his film Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control on Netflix on Friday night. I'm going to watch it again soon because there was so much that was fascinating (naked mole-rats! robots with funny walks!), funny and also sad (the lions and tigers). The film makes you think animal life and instinct, mechanical self-perpetuating systems, and the human drives that connect, re-order and create in and around them. There are four stories: a man who devotes his life to creating and maintaining topiary animals in Green Animals Gardens for a wealthy woman in Newport, RI; another who documents and organizes exhibitions of naked mole-rats, an MIT scientist who takes extraordinary pleasure in building artificial creatures that can move like organic creatures, and a man whose ambition is was to be a "lion-tamer." Watching his interactions with the big cats was distressing. What is it that drives us to make a spectacle of the violent confrontation of humans and powerful animals? Can we leave it behind?

On Saturday, we made a visit to the Minnesota Institute of Arts, one of my very favorite Minneapolis places, not least because it is free. We attended a lecture by my U of MN colleague Michael Gaudio on European representations of the Americas and the idea of "natural history," from the Utopian writings of Francis Bacon and the watercolors of John White in the 1580s (including the butterfly above) to "Mister Peale's Mastodon" and art as part of American nationalism. One of the most beautiful images he showed was by an artist named Catesby, a "forerunner of Audobon" who is less well known, but no less accomplished.
I want to learn more about his life and work, having visited botanical gardens in Amsterdam and London. I have discovered that a film has been made about him:

The Curious Mister Catesby from David Elliott on Vimeo.

Underlying this tradition of representation was both the joy of "illuminating" the world, and the process of conquest, appropriation and colonization. So it was fitting that we should also be able to see the gorgeous, beautifully curated collection of Native American art for a second time. It was crowded because the show was closing this weekend, and we ran into people we knew: one of R.'s English teachers, a former grad student who is now a professor and a sculptor, a colleague from the U of MN. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to see a show that brought together so many beautiful examples of the art, yet painfully aware of how this legacy also speaks to the ongoing reality of colonial rule here where I live.

Finally, we watched the first chapter of a British series "Downton Abbey" on PBS, which is fitting because it dramatizes the slow implosion of the British ruling class. Best line of the first episode: Maggie Smith, "What on earth is a week-end?"

'True Grit and its homage to Night of the Hunter

Movie critic/blogger Jim Emerson's "exploding heads" round-up post points out how how the Coen brothers's most recent film True Grit pays homage to Charles Laughton's only film, Night of the Hunter, both through its use of the hymn "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms," and in one of the film's most beautiful sequences, near the end:

Best homage to "Night of the Hunter": The snake-poisoned night ride on Little Blackie: "True Grit."

Here's that magical sequence from The Night of the Hunter that he has in mind:

Movies in 2011 #4: Simone Signoret in Casque d'Or

(Inspired by Fresca, who is reading the memoirs of Simone Signoret).

One of Jean Renoir's most famous paintings is this scene of a Sunday afternoon open-air dance, "Bal du Moulin de la Galette" (1876).
A scene like this was recreated in the 1952 film "Casque d'Or." In one of her signature roles, Simone Signoret instructs us in the "le coup de foudre" (the thunderbolt), or how two people are magnetically drawn to each other in the space of two waltzes at le bal. Marie, knows as "Casque' d'Or" because of her blonde hair, is the girlfriend of an "Apache" (the name given to Parisian gangsters who frequented Belleville during the Belle Epoque). He doesn't have to treat her well; she's his possession. But watch how Simone "spots her turns" during the first waltz so she can check out the new arrival. Then see how holds her with one arm as they move perfectly together, looking in each other's eyes.

That's it. The rest of the film will play out the rivalry between the men, but the greatness of this scene is how the dance communicates without words.

Casque d'Or - La guinguette
Uploaded by RioBravo. - Classic TV and last night's shows, online.

Here is the description of the clip:
"Film de Jacques Becker (1951). Musique : Georges van Parys (et Antoine Renard pour « Le Temps des Cerises »).

"L’histoire d’un amour impossible et tragique à la Belle Epoque, dans le quartier parisien de Belleville. Ce film culte est inspiré d’un fait divers réel. Le plus beau rôle de Simone Signoret, dans tout l’éclat de sa beauté.

Jo Manda (Serge Reggiani), voyou repenti devenu charpentier, retrouve, dans une guinguette de la Marne, son ami Raymond (Raymond Bussières), membre d’une bande de mauvais garçons accompagnés de ces dames. Entre Manda et Marie, dite Casque d’Or (Simone Signoret), c’est le coup de foudre. Mais ce n’est pas du goût du protecteur de Marie, Roland (William Sabatier). La rivalité se termine par un duel au couteau, à l’issue duquel Roland est tué. L’idylle champêtre qui suit, entre Marie et Manda, est de courte durée. Le chef de la bande, Maxime Leca (Claude Dauphin), qui a des vues sur Casque d’Or, s’arrange pour faire arrêter Manda. Mais celui-ci parvient à s’évader et se venge à coups de revolver. Il finit guillotiné.

L’une des premières scènes, celle de la rencontre entre Marie et Manda. Parmi les mauvais garçons : Paul Azaïs, Roland Lesaffre, Jean Clarieux. Parmi leurs amies : Dominique Davray."

Movies in 2011 #3: Red Riding (1977)

An article by Colin Colvert in the Strib on the topic of good movies from 2010 that one might have overlooked reminded me that I had meant to see the "Red Riding" British film trilogy in the theaters, but I had missed it. This trio of films was made for British television, with screenplays by Tony Grisoni, based on the novels by novelist David Peace, who grew up in the area and wrote about how the Yorkshire Ripper haunted his childhood imaginary.
Thanks to Netflix streaming, we watched the first film: Red Riding: In the Year of Our Lord 1974. It's grim fare about corruption in Yorkshire society from 1974-1983, the period when the infamous Yorkshire Ripper attacked dozens of women, killing many of them although some survived. Although the murders in the first film are fictional, the real events are intertwined with them. As much as a story, like so much crime fiction, what's at stake is getting to the feel of the place and time, the grim social and political conflicts, the paranoia, the helplessness, the moral choices made by people on the edge. When one of the characters says "every city has its death squads," the protagonist scoffs. But this was precisely the time when death squads were at work all over the world.

The IFC has a page on the films that gives details about the project:

"The three films are directed by three notable filmmakers--Julian Jarrold (BRIDESHEAD REVISITED), Academy-Award(R)-winner James Marsh (MAN ON WIRE) and Anand Tucker (SHOPGIRL). Each boasts a stellar British cast that includes Andrew Garfield (THE IMAGINARIUM OF DOCTOR PARNASSUS), Sean Bean (LORD OF THE RINGS), Paddy Considine (DEAD MAN'S SHOES), Rebecca Hall (VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA), and Peter Mullan (TRAINSPOTTING)."

As David Fincher did in Zodiac (another film about a journalist feverishly hunting a serial killer that is a portrait of a time and place) the director and designers have recreated the period in vivid detail: the clothes, the smoke-filled pubs, the tacky wallpaper, the grim urban settings and desolate rural landscapes always under a cloud that is just about to rain, the quality of the images made with the 16mm film stock of the time.

The actor Andrew Garfield speaks with the same almost unintelligible Yorkshire accent as the rest of the cast. He is now on to glossier stardom after his turn in The Social Network and the upcoming Spiderman reboot.

Movies in 2011 #1 Black Swan

New Year's resolution: blog the movies I see this year!
Technically, I saw The King's Speech on the last day of 2010, so I'll start with #1 Black Swan. Warning: this film has a high ick factor if you have any skin issues (and I do), but I do love overheated melodrama.



I was fortunate enough to see Cynthia Gregory dance in Swan Lake in San Francisco before she retired. She was so exciting!

Roberto Bolle and Svetlana Zakharova showcase the character of Odile:


Does anyone have a favorite ballet movie? Billy Elliot? The Red Shoes?

Traveling with "The Fall" (Tarsem Singh)

Last night, we watched the movie The Fall, (available for instant view on Netflix) by director Tarsem Singh. Tarsem (as he calls himself) has created many ads and music videos ("Losing My Religion" by R.E.M. is his) as well as two spectacular films, The Cell and The Fall.

Adam Howarth, who has also worked on many commercials and films, played a major role in realizing Tarsem's vision by making things blow up, creating building models, and making many of the spectacular costumes, working with reknowned costume designer Eiko Ishioka, including this amazing horned headdress.

Howarth's photos on Flickr are all wonderful, and the set from the shoot is breathtakingly beautiful, giving us a glimpse behind the scenes of a movie that was made entirely on location in some of the most spectacular landscapes and structures in the world. Here is his Flickr Set, published under the name of his company Siam Eye. In these photos, you can see some of the amazing details of costumes, building models, and many of the stunt doubles, actors, local people and sights during the filming.


I wanted to know where all the scenes were filmed, and found this wonderful site where someone who shared my desire has compiled a detailed list with still photos. Thanks, to blogger ally for helping us travel vicariously!


For another vision by Tarsem that incorporates many of the elements he expanded in the film, here is a video he did for the French duo Deep Forest (Michel Sanchez and Eric Mouquet), who mixed a vocal from the Solomon Islands with their own production. The original video, shown on MTV in 1994, can be viewed on his website's reel, but this remake adds much more to the "around the world" dream. In both this video and the film, a young girl's dream vision guides us through the imagining and creation of a voyage around the world.

All movie stills used in this post are available for download at the movie website.