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« June 2007 | Main | August 2007 »
Monday, July 30, 2007 - 16:14:12
Ingmar Bergman, acclaimed film director, died today. He was 89. Woody Allen, according to The Associated Press said in a tribute in 1988 that Mr. Bergman was "probably the greatest film artist, all things considered, since the invention of the motion picture camera." The New York Times has this story. Stephen Holden, also of The New York Times, offers this appraisal of Bergman's career and influence.
Sunday, July 29, 2007 - 09:44:56
"Rescue Dawn" is Werner Herzog's fictional account of Dieter Dengler, a US Navy pilot shot down and captured during the Vietnam war. The film is terrifying portrayal of life in a POW camp, which is enough to make most people want to stay home. I'll admit, there are elements of the film that are very difficult to watch, but Christian Bale and Steve Zahn give two of the best performances of the year, at least to date, that it makes their life on screen worth watching. Rather than dealing with war in the terms we understand them today; war filled with lies, politics and congressional hearings about torture and cover-ups, "Rescue Dawn" is a story of heroism untarnished by politics. It's a novel concept, and a must-see.
Here's an audio slideshow with Danny Boyle about his latest film "Sunshine." I saw the film yesterday and I'm still blown away by it. I thought it was extraordinary. Boyle ("Trainspotting," "28 Days Later") has crafted a creepy, thought-provoking film that turns the global warming debate in a different direction. What happens if the sun were to die? The film stars the always impressive Cillian Murphy. The ending is a bit odd, but after taking a step back and looking at the film as a whole, I found myself mesmerized by its beauty.Kenneth Turan of The Los Angeles Times writes about the rocky road to distribution for "Once". "The "Once" experience worried me because it underlined how much the risk-averse studio mind-set of being indifferent to quality, of caring more about what can be sold than what will be cherished, is infecting an arena that has always prided itself on being impervious to those ways of thinking. Yet to be fair, it would be wrong to completely blame the specialty distributors for their lack of brio where acquiring "Once" was concerned. If they are timid, if they lack trust in the willingness of an audience to find and support something that lacks marketable elements, it's because experience has shown them that they have reason to be afraid."
The theater was half-full when I went to see this film yesterday at Market Street Cinema. That's not bad for a mid-day showing. Turan raises a bigger issue about audiences and their responsibility in small films like this struggling to get picked up. I've made a similar argument before. People have to make an effort to see these films. It won't completely solve the problem (after all, these distributors are all about the money), unforuntately.
The Los Angeles Times has an interview with Julie Delpy, the star of the upcoming film "2 Days in Paris" opposite Adam Goldberg. You'll remember Delpy from "Before Sunrise" and "Before Sunset" also starring Ethan Hawke. "People often ask me if I'm surprised at the amount of attention The Big Lebowski has received over the past few years. They usually seem to expect me to say "yes," but my answer is always "no". What surprises me is that it didn't do as well as I thought it would when it first came out. It was so damn funny, and the Coen brothers had just won the Academy award for Fargo - I thought people would flock to this thing. To tell you the truth, I was sort of disappointed. But now ... well ... I'm glad people are digging it, that it found its audience." - - Jeff Bridges on "The Big Lebowski" in The Guardian.This one-sheet was released at ComicCon this weekend in San Diego.
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