Monday, June 28, 2010

365 films: Honeymoon review

The honeymoon holds the first role the temple off Shirley, the tonality off Franchot, and the standard Madison in this 1947, film off William Keighley. Almost 18 years, Barbara (temple) moves to Mexico City, to meet her beautiful (Madison) in preparation off obtaining married. The only problem is, both hardly know another, goal for has some odd reason, they want to obtain hung in any vent. Trying to find her beautiful and slightly lost, Barbara meets David (tonality), year older American and completely tended, who sort to bring together the Young people lovebirds, goal the best chance in the world does not cuts. It missed so much in this film. Terrible The manuscript is and the scenes between the tonality and the temple disturb more than slightly. I cuts so many things to say, that I did not like approximately this film, goal I C not want to make this post to skirt, than it must Be. Even old At “old” the off 42, I always found Franchot to Be very beautiful and full with ! spirit, goal it just should not Be could in this film. Shirley, while Nice, lack off any capacity to Draw me inside. It was thus badly allotted in that! Standard The just looked terrible At so, playing been engaged, and I saddened him, to see it playing has so stupid character. Certainly, I would recommend to jump this! Review for the tomorrow: The more the merrier (Re-Observes!)
Great classic films, best all time movies

âSiamo Givesâ

Young stag two segments off the collaboration off Rossellini/Bergman in 1953 “Siamo Gives. “Ingrid sort to solve the problem gold the mystery off which destroys its pinks. Appreciate thesis shorts! Individual It is enough to hear has Swede speak Italian! She knew so many languages (Swedish, German, English, French and Italian)! It astonishes me.
Great classic films, best all time movies

365 films: Honeymoon review

The honeymoon holds the first role the temple off Shirley, the tonality off Franchot, and the standard Madison in this 1947, film off William Keighley. Almost 18 years, Barbara (temple) moves to Mexico City, to meet her beautiful (Madison) in preparation off obtaining married. The only problem is, both hardly know another, goal for has some odd reason, they want to obtain hung in any vent. Trying to find her beautiful and slightly lost, Barbara meets David (tonality), year older American and completely tended, who sort to bring together the Young people lovebirds, goal the best chance in the world does not cuts. It missed so much in this film. Terrible The manuscript is and the scenes between the tonality and the temple disturb more than slightly. I cuts so many things to say, that I did not like approximately this film, goal I C not want to make this post to skirt, than it must Be. Even old At “old” the off 42, I always found Franchot to Be very beautiful and full with ! spirit, goal it just should not Be could in this film. Shirley, while Nice, lack off any capacity to Draw me inside. It was thus badly allotted in that! The so terrible type just looked At, playing been engaged, and it saddened me, to see it playing has so stupid character. Certainly, I would recommend to jump this! Review for the tomorrow: The more the merrier (Re-Observes!)
Great classic films, best all time movies

Sunday, June 27, 2010

âSiamo Givesâ

Young stag two segments off the collaboration off Rossellini/Bergman in 1953 “Siamo Gives. “Ingrid sort to solve the problem gold the mystery off which destroys its pinks. Appreciate thesis shorts! Individual It is enough to hear has Swede speak Italian! She knew so many languages (Swedish, German, English, French and Italian)! It astonishes me.
Great classic films, best all time movies

Saturday, June 26, 2010

Ton take UP exotic haven the studios fate

MGM set sail in 1935 with "China Seas," an exotic trip from Hong Kong to Singapore -- although no one left the back lot. Still, the stars were out in full force, and producer Irving Thalberg kept everything moving full steam ahead, which keeps this film from capsizing.OK, how many bad boat metaphors can I use in one lead?Actually, think "Grand Hotel" meets "Mutiny on the Bounty." While it's not as good as either of these films, "China Seas" works in spite of itself. The stars look fabulous, the dialogue clips along at a fast pace, the action scenes are exciting, and the audience can just sit back and forget the fact that story is pretty flimsy. It's worth noting that Thalberg had produced "Grand Hotel" in 1932, which ! featured for an unheard-of five top-line actors and multiple story lines going at once. The formula works even today, and in the years following "Grand Hotel's" success, MGM wasn't afraid to tap into its vast acting pool and bring together that much talent for a film. "Dinner at Eight" from 1933 is a good example, and this film follows suit with three stars and story lines to spare. Thalberg knew that star power can detract from lesser material.The movie opens by introducing all of the various characters and plotlines -- and there are TONS of plotlines, big and small, for a 90-minute film. It's like every nook and cranny of the ship is filled with some intrigue. You've got Captain Alan Gaskell (Clark Gable), arriving somewhat drunk yet feared by his crew for being an unrelenting taskmaster. He's broken off with the earthy Dolly (Jean Harlow) in port, although she's decided to book passage to be near him. He then runs into Sybil (Rosalind Russell), a classy woman he befriend! ed years ago, and he pursues a romance with her. In retaliatio! n, Dolly works with Jamesy MacArdle (Wallace Beery), who is in cahoots with a band of pirates wanting to steal a secret gold shipment that's on board.These are the main plotlines. Then you have Davids (Lewis Stone), a fallen captain detested by the others for being a coward who Gaskell hires to be third officer; a female passenger with fake pearls she's trying to hide from her husband and a man blackmailing her; and McCaleb (Robert Benchley) as an author who's constantly inebriated. A few other minor characters are around for color and you've got to keep track of a lot. The plotting gets to be too much at first, and the romantic triangle isn't all that intriguing. Once you get to the action, though, the movie picks up. ! A typhoon and a pirate raid provide plenty of excitement, and the second half of the film is really quite fun.Plus there's plenty of focus on the stars. Harlow plays the dame -- typecast once again. But she does it with so much energy that it's hard to resist. The film cuts awkwardly at times to her closeups that clearly look like they were shot at a different time than the rest of the scenes, almost saying "here's the gratuitous star closeup for her fans." But what would a Harlow film be without a few gorgeous closeups of its star?Gable looks even more handsome and dashing than usual. His charisma is fully in use here -- he gets to be hero, lover and tough guy. Plus there's a chance to see him in an undershirt and a sleek black knit long-sleeve shirt during the typhoon that ups the swoon factor.Beery, like Harlow, plays the same type of character in his films. Usually they are earthy or men who have made something of themselves but are rarely polished. There's no exception! here. Gable, Harlow and Beery were all established stars at t! his poin t, and MGM knew it and draws on that star power here.On the other hand, Russell was just beginning her long movie career. For anyone who's enjoyed the force of her comedic skills or the strength of her dramatic talents, she's simply playing a throwaway role here -- the love interest, and one who is secondary to Harlow. Russell doesn't have much to do, but I don't think MGM knew what to make of her yet. Thankfully, that would change.During the past year, I've been watching a lot of MGM films from the 1930s, and I'm enjoying seeing how the great studio managed to turn out so many likable films, whether they were truly great or simply enjoyable like this one. MGM had the stars and instructed its directors and cameramen to make their stars look amazing, even if their characters weren't glamorous. This is a film where the studio's know-how is on full display.Or, really, it's Thalberg's touch at work once again. This was one of his first films after a long hiatus from the studio d! ue to his health. He was on the "China Seas" set constantly, giving advice to the actors, until director Tay Garnett confronted him and pointed out that Thalberg was undermining his authority. Thalberg immediately stepped back and thanked Garnett for being open and honest about it. This is one of the stories that makes me appreciate Thalberg. He was a genius, but he also tried to treat people with respect. So, with "China Seas" you've got MGM in the 1930s with Thalberg as producer and Gable, Harlow and Beery as stars. What's not to like about this crew?
! Great classic films, best all t! ime movi es

Top Ten: New members 2010 off academy

it's not Tuesday but it's time for a Top Ten anyway... as this is yesterday's news already! AMPAS used to hide their membership roster like the vote tallies but in the information age, they've opened up. Now we get to see the whole list of new invitees each year. I wonder how they keep they're membership around 6,000 given how many people they invite annual. Maybe enough people reject the offer, stop paying their dues, or pass from this mortal coil each year to balance it out?You can read the full list of recipients at Indiewire, but as is the Film Experience tradition, we like to pinpoint the newest (potential) members whose future ballots we'd most like to see. So let's have at it.New Academy Member Ballots We Most Want To S! ee10 Bono & The Edge (music)They're two separate people but we'd like to imagine them filling out their ballots together inbetween sets. We'd like to also imagine that they'll have better taste than the rest of the often confounding music branch.09 Bob Murawski (editor)We love his work on The Hurt Locker and the Spider-Man films and he's a fellow Michigander. Extra points for that. Plus editing happens to be the most fascinating category in terms of how one judges it? How do you know how well an editor is doing if you can't see all the unused footage? And are they really that obsessed with just choosing the movies they love as their nominees or are their individual ballots so very individual that only the absolute common de! nominators are able to rise up to snag nominations, the common! denomin ators being the pictures people love most, regardless of editing skill (i.e. Best Picture nominees)08 Laura Rosenthal (casting director)It's the job I'm personally most jealous of in Hollywood. I assume the casting directors can only nominate in the Best Picture category but in a way, shouldn't they have a say in all four acting categories? Their very business is studying actors and deciding who is best... for the part. Some interesting things on her resume: The Messenger, Chicago, I'm Not There, Far From Heaven and Savage Grace. It's worth noting that this woman was smart enough to give Samantha Morton her first two American gigs (Sweet and Lowdown and Jesus's Son)07 Janet Patterson (costume designer)Her filmography is short but damned if her accomplishments aren't tall. Consider: Peter Pan, The Piano, Oscar & Lucinda, Bright Star, Holy Smoke!, The Portrait of a Lady. She should already be an Oscar winner by now but after four nominations, it's nice that they're extendi! ng an offer. Strangely, the Academy's costuming branch is so small that last I checked it wasn't even listed among their categories. Are there really more makeup artists in AMPAS than costumers (click here and scroll down to bottom of page). If so, why? But then again, maybe my numbers are out of date.06 Peter Sarsgaard (actor)He finally wore down their resistance. That Shattered Glass (2003) snub still stings years later. He works a lot and even if we're starting to want him to truly surprise us again (we fear he's going to become a Ben Kingsley i.e. a great actor who shamelessly phones it in for too many paychecks) we like him. Who will he vote for? Besides Maggie & Jake.05 Adam Shankman (director)He! 's had experience in producing, acting and directing and was a! key pla yer in this last Oscar ceremony. We don't mean this in a judgmental way but he strikes us as the type that will vote for his friends. But he seems to have so many of them that won't he have to snub most of them each time he votes? Does having a million friends, mean voting for your friends doesn't really compromise your ballot? Now, Academy members can only nominate in the category of the branch they're invited to join (as well as Best Picture... then they can vote for the winners in most other categories when the final ballots go out). So this means that he'll be able to have his say at who did the best directing job each year. We love Hairspray and we don't begrudge him Academy membership -- he's a serious power player -- but as a director? Wouldn't he be a better fit for the producer's branch?04 Zoë Saldana (actor)This All American beauty (of Dominican/Puerto Rican descent) was probably invited due to those back-to-back blockbusters (Avatar, Star Trek) but if you stop to consider that she's acted opposite everything from green screens (Avatar and the like) to wood (Britney Spears, Crossroads) and on to A grade thespians like Johnny Depp and Sigourney Weaver she probably knows a thing or two about the acting process in all its iterations. And having recently singled out Tang Wei in Lust, Caution as one of her favorite performances, we know the girl is discerning and willing to look beyond Hollywood for "best". AMPAS could use more of that. We would love to see her nomination ballot in all four acting categories this coming January.03 Jacques Audiard (director)This French auteur's last three features Read My Lips, The Beat That My Heart Skipped and A Prophet have all crackled with intelligence, ! electricity, fine acting and interesting choices. Now being gr! eat at s omething is not the same thing as being great at judging it... but it surely can't hurt. We're always curious about AMPAS's foreign outreach. How many of them say yes to membership and when they do, how international are their ballots compared to, say, Ron Howard's... or Adam Shankman's for that matter?Audiard directs with his hands.02 Vera Farmiga (actor)Her breakthrough, critically speaking, came when she won the LAFCA Best Actress prize for Down to the Bone (2004). Incidentally that film was directed by Debra Granik, who's currently helping Jennifer Lawrence break through with Winter's Bone (2010). Will more actresses line up to work with Granik? That'd be a smart move. It took the Academy another five y! ears to notice Farmiga. Given her frequently fine rapport with male co-stars, we're actually more curious about how she'll vote for the male acting categories than her own. We know she loves Michael Fassbender so... points for that. But the real reason she's ranked so high is those crazy eyes. What do they see? We like to theorize that people with crazy eyes are actually crazy. And crazy is way better than same ol' same ol' when it comes to awards balloting.01 Mo'Nique (Actor)Admit it, she'd top your list too. On account of what the hell would that ballot look like? Her already legendary performance in Precious showed previously hidden depths so maybe she'll be able to see it in others, too? In addition to her being an atypica! l Oscar winner (they don't usually go for female comics) we're! intrigu ed by whether or not she'll take the process seriously given that when last year's race first began she seemed famously disinterested. Will that initial skepticism make her one of those types that just votes for her friends, or doesn't vote at all or even refuses membership? Or will she just crack herself up like she does onstage while she scribbles down outlandish performances? Or did the Oscar journey, which culminated in that beautiful shout out to Hattie McDaniel's history-making win for Gone With the Wind (1939), convert her to the importance of the legacy of Hollywood's High Holy Night?*The rest of the lists if you're curious [source]Actors: Tobin Bell (Saw), Miguel Ferrer (Traffic), James Gandolfini (In the Loop), Anna Kend! rick (Up in the Air), Mo’Nique (Precious), Carey Mulligan (An Education), Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker), Ryan Reynolds (The Proposal), LaTanya Richardson Jackson (Mother and Child), Peter Riegert (Traffic), Sam Robards (American Beauty), Saoirse Ronan (The Lovely Bones, pictured left), Adam Sandler (Funny People), Gabourey Sidibe (Precious), Shaun Toub (Iron Man), Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds), George Wyner (A Serious Man)

Animators:
 Ken Bielenberg (Monsters vs Aliens), Peter de Seve (Ratatouille), Steve Hickner (The Prince of Egypt), Angus MacLane (Toy Story 3), Darragh O’Connell (Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty), Simon Otto (How to Train Your Dragon), Bob Pauley (Toy Story 3), Willem Thijssen (A Greek Tragedy)

Art Directors/Set Decorators/Production Designers:
 Kim Sinclair (Avatar), Dave Warren (Sweeney Todd), Maggie Gray (The Young Victoria), Douglas A. Mowat (The Sixth Sense), Caroline Smith (The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus), 
Kir! k M. Pertruccelli (The Incredible Hulk), Edward S. Verreaux (G! .I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra)

Cinematographers:
 Barry Ackroyd (The Hurt Locker), Christian Berger (The White Ribbon, pictured left), Hagen Bogdanski (The Young Victoria), Shane Hurlbut (Terminator Salvation), Tom Hurwitz (Valentino The Last Emperor), Dan Mindel (Star Trek), Tobias Schliessler (Hancock), Stephen Windon (The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift), Robert Yeoman (The Squid and the Whale)

Costume Designers:
 Catherine Leterrier (Coco before Chanel)

Directors:
 Juan Jose Campanella (The Secret in Their Eyes), Lee Daniels (Precious), Claudia Llosa (The Milk of Sorrow), Lone Scherfig (An Education)

Documentary:
 Nancy Baker (Born into Brothels), Rick Goldsmith (The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel! Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers), Davis Guggenheim (It Might Get Loud), Tia Lessin (Trouble the Water), Cara Mertes (The Betrayal), Frazer Pennebaker (The War Room), Julia Reichert (The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant), Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me)Film Editors: Robert Frazen (Synecdoche, New York), Dana E. Glauberman (Up in the Air), Joe Klotz (Precious), John Refoua (Avatar)Live Action Shorts: Joachim Back (The New Tenants), Gregg Helvey (Kavi)Makeup Artists and Hairstylists:
 Kris Evans (X-Men The Last Stand), Jane Galli (3:10 to Yuma), Mindy Hall (World Trade Center), Joel Harlow (Star Trek), Jenny Shircore (The Young Victoria, pictured left)Music:
 Christophe Beck (The Hangover) T Bone Burnett (Crazy Heart), ! Brian Tyler (Fast & Furious)Sound: Frank Eulner (Iron Man ! 2), Adam Jenkins (I Love You, Man), Tony Lamberti (Inglourious Basterd), Dennis Leonard (The Polar Express), Tom Myers (Up), Paul N.J. Ottosson (The Hurt Locker), Resul Pookutty (Slumdog Millionaire), Gary A. Rizzo (How to Train Your Dragon), Michael Silvers (Up), Gwendolyn Yates Whittle (Avatar)

Visual Effects:
 Matt Aitken (District 9), Karen Ansel (Angels & Demons), Richard Baneham ( Avatar), Eric Barba (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button), Paul Debevec (Avatar), Russell Earl (Star Trek), Steve Galich (Transformers), Andrew R. Jones (Avatar), Dan Kaufman (District 9), Derek Spears (The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor), Steve Sullivan (Avatar), Michael J. Wassel (Hellboy II: The Golden Army)Writers:
 Neill Blomkamp ! (District 9), Mark Boal (The Hurt Locker), Geoffrey Fletcher (Precious), Nick Hornby (An Education), Alex Kurtzman (Star Trek), Tom McCarthy (Up, pictured left. He's also an actor), Roberto Orci (Star Trek), Terri Tatchell (District 9)

At Large, Executives, Producers & Public Relations Christopher W. Aronson, Jim Berk
, Philippe Dauman
, Sheila DeLoach
, Donald Peter Granger
, Nathan Kahane
, Andrew Karpen, Ryan Kavanaugh, David Kosse
, David Andrew Spitz
, Emma Watts, Stephanie Allain, Gregory Jacobs, Jon Landau, Marc Turtletaub, Glenn Williamson, Dwight Caines, Suzanne M. Cole
, Tommy Gargotta
, Sophie Gluck
, Josh Greenstein
, Pamela Levine
, Wendy Lightbourn, Michele Robertson, Tony Sella, Darcy Antonellis and John Lowry Which ballots do you want to see?Do you think anyone will reject the offer?,


Great classic films! , best a ll time movies

365 films: The edge off the review off coils

The edge off the coils holds the first role Keira Knightley, Sienna Miller, Matthew Rhys, and Cillian Murphy in this film 2008. When Vera (Knightley) unite together with its ex-coils (Rhys), it does not count so that it is married. Its Dylan ex (Rhys) is year insane poèt by drunk individual, who worries more butt, for his wife and child. It seldom treats his wife with any respect, and spends more time oogling At Vera. His wife Caitlin (Miller) finds the friendship in Vera, and the lucky find two which they cuts in common, which right Dylan. It has film which did not hold my interest off the whole. Half off time, I gold really tried to keep my attention one film, gold I spaced just quite simply outside outside. The film rather shorts, goal it is honestly felt ace the film would not finish. I really started to ask me, yew there never went is year end with this film. In has general way, very tedious and insipid and me advise my readers, to jump this film. Review for the tomorr! ow: The queen off Virgin
Great classic films, best all time movies