This Savage Art

I occasionally check out the Criterion site just to salivate over what will be coming out soon. Now that I have a Blu-ray player it really takes this fetishism to another level. Admittedly, I am buying less DVDs than I have in the past even though I do have a pretty impressive collection.  But since the whole delivery system is in flux I’ll stick with Netflix, my collection and the occasional buy. I was pretty happy to see a couple of interesting choices added to their coming soon list. Resnais’ Last Year At Marienbad, a film that I haven’t seen because a good print is so hard to come by and I missed the last Film Forum run. A big surprise was Fincher’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Looking forward to seeing that on Blu-ray.

Now all we need is a decent version of Rocco and His Brothers.

Added: The most recent Coming Soon list.

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I uhhhhhhhhhhhh, don’t know what to say other than I’m preparing my mind to be blown as we speak.

[Hat tip: BSLS]

See below for meta thoughts on the film, career and being percieved as a recluse from Kaufman.

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These are some of the films I will attempt to see this Fall, you know, the film release season that pushes all the crap aside and pulls out all the stops. I’m sure there are others that I will add as the season progresses. Am I missing something?

* denotes must sees.

September

Burn After Reading…9/12

Elite Squad…9/19

Choke…9/26

Miracle at St. Anna…9/26

October

Nick & Nora’s Infinite Playlist…10/3

Religulous…10/3

W….10/17

*Synecdoche, New York…10/24

Zack and Miri Make a Porno…10/31

November

Milk…11/26  and whatever I didn’t see in September and October.

December

*The Curious Case of Benjamin Button…12/25

Valkyrie…12/25

Note to self: take this number and cut it in half, add the remaining to Netflix queue.

More Fall coverage from New York Magazine.

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2001: A Space Odyssey entered the cinematic landscape 40 years ago today.

Tomorrow….a new being enters the world.

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Now that the holidays are here a lot of people are scrambling to get gifts for their family and friends. One gift always undeniably works for the cinephile – a DVD from the Criterion Collection. Looking over the site today I noticed that there is a four disc set of Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor in the works. Nice! As we all know a lot of films are still missing from the catalog. A couple came to mind for me:

• The Landlord – This 1970 Hal Ashby [not the Will Ferrell/Adam McKay wacky short]  satirical gem taking place in pre-gentrified Park Slope, Brooklyn is no where to be found on DVD.
• Angelo My Love – A little seen but excellent film written and directed by Robert Duvall about the rituals of a gypsy community in New York City is also nowhere to be found.

Added:

• Last Year at Marienbad – Alan Resnais’ strange and mysterious classic. How can you go wrong with characters named A, X and M? [screening at the Film Forum in 2008]

Are there any films you would like to see Criterion do a hi-def transfer with all the extras? Which one’s do you think deserve the treatment?

Related: The Criterion Contraption.

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December 26th

Early word on There Will Be Blood [added 11.9.07]

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One thing that I and many other’s who attended the IFP Conference¹ [ending today] got slapped in the face with constantly was how the film watching experience has changed and will continue to change. With new platforms for exhibition and distribution [my head is still spinning] the future is surely up for grabs. I don’t think theaters are going anywhere but a change in New York would definitely be welcome. Thing is, I live next a great theater, technically speaking. Audio is up to par, video projection is available. Films that play there, well, that’s another issue.

I’ve been hearing about the wonders of the Alamo Drafthouse for a couple of years now even though I haven’t been there and have myself had fantasies of building the ultimate film experience for discernible tastes. Feeding the masses has been catered to by the multiplexes but this corner of the market isn’t really getting served properly. I have been enjoying what the IFC Center has been doing. I’ve always been a big supporter of the Film Forum and even the Angelica whose been kind of slacking off lately. But, this is New York City! Cinephile capital of the world!

Just days after I was asserting this opinion [bitching] to a couple of collaborators of mine at the Conference about the shitty state of movie going it looks like Texas has come to save the day for New York.² The Alamo is looking to open up a theater in New York by 2008.

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1. At some point next week I will post an entry on all my notes and musings on what I got from the IFP Conference this time around.[↩]
2. I’m not even going to touch that one.[↩]

I know the city is getting swallowed up by Mumble Mania right now but as far as I can tell other films are still being shown throughout our fine metropolis. I told you about attending the ACE Film Festival on Sunday. There was an excellent film there called Little Chenier directed by Bethany Ashton Wolf that takes place on the pre-Katrina Bayou. It’s a moving piece with authentic Cajun flavor down to its local dialect. In a Q&A Wolf explained how a month after the wrap every single location was destroyed. Luckily it exists on film which you will be able to see soon, it just got picked up for distribution by Radio London Films. Also worth mentioning: (all shorts) The Doorstep, Villains and Aesop’s Diner.

A few words on the festival itself – it’s not easy being the new kid on the block but like Woody Allen says, “80 percent of success is just showing up.” While attending my one day at the first American Cinematic Experience Film Festival I saw signs that the two runners of the festival, Tom O’Malley and Luke Szczygielski, got a lot right with their first run. ACE flags on the street corners (The Tribeca Film Festival makes this kind of announcement downtown – these guys did their homework.) Well put together printed materials. A premium venue located in Manhattan for the screenings. Unfortunately that venue proved to not be the most optimal place to show a film. The space itself is full of old New York grandeur but my biggest complaint was that the echo from the high ceilings plagued every single film. While some films I didn’t mind that I wasn’t privy to what the actors were saying, the dialogue was lost in others and it was frustrating. With a little tweaking, some lessons learned and a new place to screen films I think this can grow to be a serious festival in the future. I wish them all the best.

Tuesday I checked out a double feature of Born To Win and Klute, part of the Film Forum’s NYC Noir series. This is my element, I have arrived. The early bird special crowd, cinemaniacs and film freaks (myself included in the latter that is although I am forty now so eating at 5:00 is getting more and more appealing.)

I always found a likability in George Segal and that hasn’t changed with Born To Win as he plays a strung out ex-hairdresser looking to score. Yeah, sure, some of the slang is dated but it’s slang that I heard growing up. Freehole. My uncle would have gotten a kick out of that one. Keep an eye out for a pre-Johnny Boy/Mean Streets DeNiro if you rent this. Next was Alan J. Pakula’s Klute. Always on the “to see” list but never seen, I can’t believe I let this one slip by. What can I say other than I am now proclaiming Gordon Willis the greatest cinematographer on earth. Damn, does he know how to compose a shot. I think this film, for better or worse, is the template for a lot of modern crime/drama/thrillers¹ and an excellent character study. You can read the screenplay I found online from this PDF I created.

Yesterday I checked out The Panic in Needle Park. I guess a lot of the same people were showing up to see the whole noir series because I saw some familiar faces from Tuesday. The crowd is half the fun. This is no multiplex crowd, hell no. I almost thought for a moment I might have to go toe to toe with this 85 plus year old man because he wouldn’t stop ripping into his wife about what time they were going to get out after the second film of the double feature. A couple of guys behind me were shooting the shit and one wondered why they didn’t program Born To Win and Panic on the same day. Now I know why. It would have been too much. Both films deal with drug addiction in a very honest way. A lot of the nuances of each film overlap each other² . It was the drug culture in the city circa 1971. Brutal, gritty and very real. Jerry Schatzberg’s film based on a screenplay written by John Gregory Dunne and Joan Didion from John Mills’ book is harrowing. It’s probably one of the first films to deal with this subject in this way by chronicling the minutia of day to day junkie life.

So as I wait for my New York Film Festival tickets³ to arrive I’ll bide my time with one more. The French Connection concludes the NYC noir series at the Film Forum playing for a week. C’mon ya gotta go, it’s New York State law.

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1. Sharon Stone owes her career to this film not to mention Jane Fonda. [↩]
2. Characters in both films suffer from receiving hotshots - a lethal dose of poison laced heroin. [↩]
3. As a member of the Lincoln Center Film Society you get first dibs on festival tickets. Fucking expensive tickets! $35 for the first showing of the opening night screening of The Darjeeling Limited (I opted for the second showing at $20) and I still don’t know if I actually got them! [↩]

In an attempt to reconnect with the industry and hopefully create some new alliances I’ve purchased three separate day passes to the IFP Conference running the week of September 16th – 21st. Each day addresses a specific area of filmmaking. I will be attending the 16th [Making Your First Feature], the 17th [Filmmaking 2.0] and the 19th [Real Deal on Deals]. It runs parallel with the IFP Market which I have attended in the past; twice as a volunteer with the Market, once as a screenwriter with a project entered and once just attending the Conference. What’s the key to getting the most out of this week?

• Prepare to network. Networking can be extremely exhausting so try not to take it or yourself too seriously. Meet people, learn, talk up a project if you have one. Everyone is there to push so find what your approach will be to the social aspect of it all.
• Pace yourself. Again, it’s only five days but…Years back when I had my screenplay [what eventually became gearing up too.

  If anyone is attending the Conference this week and wants to meet up and talk shop feel free to contact me.

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It’s no secret that the fall is the time when the cream of the crop get placed into theaters. This one is no different. Here are some must-sees:

The Ten
From the guys who brought us Wet Hot American Summer and the MTV sketch comedy show The State. I saw the trailer before Sunshine, effing hilarious. August 3.

I’m Not There
Todd Haynes’ meditation on the life of Bob Dylan. This looks like a very special film that stylistically and thematically will probably be the most exciting thing we’ll see in a very long time. September 21.

The Darjeeling Limited
Wes Anderson does it again and we are there. I don’t want to read too much about the film I just want to see it. September 29 [limited.]

No Country For Old Men
The Coen Brothers are back with a vengeance. November 9 [limited.]

[...]

The Darjeeling Limited and No Country For Old Men are opening and closing the New York Film Festival this year. Hopefully, with a little luck, I’ll grab me some tickets.

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