March 15, 2010

Alice in Wonderland reaps another $62 million to top Green Zone at the BO. People do not want to see movies about the Iraq War. Dancing Johnny Depp, however, is okay. (MTV)
Burt Lancaster: “He approached the script like a scientist.” Richard Burton: “You were never quite sure whether he would blow his lines or explode.” James Dean would call just to hear his voice. Brynn White on the enduring enigma of Montgomery Clift, an actor’s actor whose preference for second-tier auteurs may account for an after-life in the shadows. (Moving Image Source)
After flirting with that Heavy Metal project, David Fincher finally signs to make Pawn Sacrifice, about Bobby Fischer’s 1972 chess cold war against Boris Spassky. Will they keep in the anti-Semitism? Scripted by Steven Knight, creator of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and author of Eastern Promises. (Variety)
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Tags:Agnes Varda, Alexander Payne, Alice in Wonderland, Beau Bridges, Bobby Fischer, Burt Lancaster, Cleo from 5 to 7, Daniel Clowes, David Fincher, David Letterman, Edward Everett Horton, George Clooney, Green Zone, James Dean, Jean Peters, Johnny Depp, Leigh Brackett, Leonardo DiCaprio, Mel Gibson, Michel Gondry, Montgomery Clift, Pawn Sacrifice, Peter Graves, Pick-Up on South Street, Richard Burton, Roger Moore, Steven Knight, The Descendents, William Monahan
Posted in The Slate | 1 Comment »
March 24, 2009

Imagine a war between the New York Times and the New Yorker, and you might think of Walter Burns tossing inkpots at the effete Eustace Tilly. In fact, it appears to be the other way around. A.O. Scott’s elegant consideration of a certain type of American Neo-Realism has been blasted via a pugnacious blog post from Richard Brody. After an initial exchange of fire, both returned for another salvo. The various broadsides can be read here, here, here and here. But for those who would just prefer to fall asleep without moving their mouse, here’s Squally’s scorecard.
It all started when A.O. Scott, as is his wont, looked over a series of forthcoming films and attempted to write a serviceable trend piece colored with his usual thoughtful commentary. In the best New York Sunday Magazine style, he explained to readers something they presumably hadn’t noticed before and gave them a bit of a back scratch as well. That “something” was the adaptation of Neo-realist techniques by filmmakers like Ramin Bahrani (Man Push Cart) and Kelly Reichardt (Wendy and Lucy), occasioned by the release of Bahrani’s Goodbye Solo, Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden‘s Sugar and So Yong Kim‘s Treeless Mountain in the next few weeks.
These films, he wrote, represented “an urge to escape from escapism,” an alternative to films like Watchmen, Knowing, and whatever else they’re condemned to watch in Greeley, Colorado. Each has several features in common with the classics of the postwar Italian Neo-realist movement, films such as Roma, citta aperta/Open City, La Terra Trema/The Earth Trembles and Ladri di biciclette/Bicycle Thieves. They are made during a time of economic and political upheaval. They use non-professionals in fictional roles that are close to their real selves. They are filmed on location and make use of “unadorned, specific” locales (Rome, Winston-Salem, N.C., a mountain village in South Korea). They emphasize work–whether as a profession, at home, or in the school. Although Italian Neo-realism passed mainstream American cinema by, these films look to foreign movies and are intent in showing the “American life that remains off screen.” While subdued in nature, these films can be ultimately inspiring in how they portray strength/resilience in the face of adversity.
All seems innocuous enough. But not so for Brody the firebrand blogger at New Yorker’s Front Row. In a numbered list and with a shaky criteria that recalls the manner of his New Wave heroes (Brody has written the acclaimed Everything is Cinema: The Working Life of Jean-Luc Godard), Brody swings at the Old Grey Lady’s oracle … and swings wildly.
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Tags:2001: A Space Odyssey, A Streetcar Named Desire, A.O. Scott, Anna Boden, Anna Magnani, Ballast, Bicycle Thieves, Body and Soul, Cesare Zavattini, Charles Burnett, Chinatown, Chop Shop, David Fincher, Duplicity, Entre les Murs, Federico Fellini, Frownland, Frozen River, George Sanders, Goodbye Solo, He Ran All the Way, Il Miracolo, Ingrid Bergman, James M. Cain, Jean Renoir, Jean-Luc Godard, Jerry Schatzberg, John Berry, John Cassavetes, John Sayles, Jules Dassin, Kelly Reichardt, Kent MacKenzie, Killer of Sheep, Knowing, La Terra Trema, La voix humaine, Ladri di biciclette, Lance Hammer, Los Angeles Plays Itself, Luchino Visconti, Man Push Cart, Marlon Brando, Melissa Leo, Michael Roemer, Michelle Williams, Mickey Rourke, Neo-Realism, Nothing But a Man, Old Joy, Panic in Needle Park, Persona, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Ramin Bahrani, Richard Brody, Richard Bronstein, Robert Rossellini, Robert Rossen, Roma citta aperta, Rome Open City, Ryan Fleck, Sin City, So Yong Kim, Stromboli, Sugar, The Class, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Earth Trembles, The Exiles, The Grapes of Wrath, The Naked City, The Postman Always Rings Twice, The Visitor, The Wrestler, Thom Andersen, Treeless Mountain, Viaggio in Italia, Voyage to Italy, Watchmen, Wendy and Lucy, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf
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