The Fall

The last most people saw of director Tarsem Singh (apparently, now, going only by his first name), was The Cell. And while that film had its issues (though, in my opinion, issues easily looked over), it was still a stunning vision brought to a life by a very talented and visionary individual. 

Well, now Tarsem is back, thanks to the likes of David Fincher and Spike Jonze, who saw a copy of the floundering The Fall, and used some of their pull to make sure the film saw the light of day. While I'm not sure what the exact story is behind it, I know that The Fall has been around for a few years, but for some reason, was never picked up by distributors.

The Fall concerns a little girl by the name of Alexandria, who is convalescing in a hospital for a broken arm, in early turn of the century Los Angeles. When a note she is trying to pass on to a nurse lands in the hands of another patient, she is quick to try to retrieve the special message she had written for her favorite nurse. The man who has the note is an ex-Hollywood stuntman, who, after an on set accident, has been left paralyzed from the waste down. The little girl begins to bond with the man, who's name is Roy, and Roy begins telling her a story about far away places, bandits, prince's and princess's and evil rulers who seek to destroy the good people. Eventually, though, it is revealed that Roy is using the story as a way to get Alexandria hooked, so that her need to hear the end of Roy's tale, ensures that she will do what Roy asks her.

The Fall, like The Cell, is visually stunning, but unlike its predecessor, it also has a much more accessible story line. This feels like a film that, minus some graphic violence, you could easily bring your kids to. It's enjoyable on, pretty much, all levels, by all ages, and I can't imagine anyone that it leaves out. With spot on cinematography, an amazing stop motion sequence, pitch perfect acting, and perfect art direction, The Fall is about as close to a perfect movie as you can get. Of particular note is the young girl who plays Alexandria, Cantica Untaru, who gives one of the most amazing and authentic performances by a child actor that I have ever seen in my entire life. I don't know whether they improved around her, or she actually developed all of those inflections and pauses and emotions... If she did develop all of those on her own, she could easily be considered a genius at acting.

The Fall, to me, is a great example of how, given a chance, a film that may seem a little "out there", can win over an audience by feeding its most basic needs. The Fall is like a well balanced meal - equal parts that fill you up, and give you what you need, with no useless leftovers.

Waking up to the sad news

Well, I got word from Greta this morning that she won't be able to be in the film. She wrote me a very nice letter, simply stating that her plate was too full, which I totally understand.

It sucks, though. I had really come to see her as being in this role. But that's the game, isn't it? You pick your "A" team, and hope you get them, but sometimes you just don't. I wish her luck in everything she's doing.

Classic Avant-Garde

The other day I pulled out my Films of Kenneth Anger:Part 2 DVD, and sat down and watched Scorpio Rising, Invocation Of My Demon Brother, and Kustom Kar Kommando's yet again. I don't know what it is about this guys films, but they have this entrancing quality to them. Anger was a true master of the moving image. Every once in a while, I'll break out the DVD's and watch some of the shorts, and then re-watch them with commentary. The guy, even at such an old age, is amazing to listen to, and to hear his thought process, and how, sometimes, things were not actually as they seem in the film.

A fool for the "artsy" way

I've always liked the idea of doing smaller, experimental films, but have yet to actually make one. I realized, today, why I haven't yet - I don't thrive in the kind of improvisational environment that a lot of these films are made in. I would rather not make a film, than just go out with a camera and an actor and try to come up with something (hoping that its good).

I've been more excited, in the last few days, about filmmaking than I have been in a long time. Do you know why? Planning. Dare I even say it, Pre-Production (a very bad word in my world). I've been talking about making Indefinable Orbits, a Brakhage style short film, for months now. While money has been a factor in getting it done, it eventually came to be that I just wasn't getting it done for no particular reason. Yesterday, though, I sat down with the script/outline/notes, and made out a shot list. Suddenly, I feel like I'm light years closer to seeing this happen. It seems real. It seems do-able. I'm excited again.

I grabbed a hundred foot load of 50D out of the fridge yesterday, and have been thawing it (you should always thaw film for 24 hours before shooting on it). I'm going to start shooting some of the stuff after next week (when all of the grant stuff is on its way to AFS). Who knows, a cut of it might show up in the next month or two. 

Don't take that statement the wrong way, though, that's not a promise...

DVD - Youth Without Youth

It's been ten years since Francis Ford Coppola's last, credited, film as a director (he did directorial and editing work on a film called Supernova, when the studio was unhappy with the cut the original director turned in). Youth Without Youth represents Coppola's return both to directing, and, supposedly, to his roots as an independent filmmaker.

Tim Roth plays an elderly professor of linguistics who, on his way to Bucharest to kill himself, is struck by lightning, burning his body badly, but leaving him still alive. He wakes up in a hospital and is presided over by a medical doctor/professor played by Bruno Ganz (who was incredible in Downfall). Roth's Dominic begins to make leaps and bounds in his recovery, and when they remove his bandages, the professor and other doctors find Dominic to be a man in his late thirties/mid forties, as opposed to the seventy + years old he claimed to be when he still had the bandages. Through this accident, Dominic realizes that he has been given, not only a new lease on life, but extraordinary powers. Just as he is beginning to realize this, though, the Nazi's are beginning their attempt at taking control of Europe. They find out about this anomaly of a person, and come after Dominic, who slips out from under them to Switzerland.

After the war ends, Dominic meets up with a woman, Laura (played by Alexandra Maria Lara), who is a spot on re-incarnation of his lost love from decades before, Veronica. He begins a new love affair with Laura, who has some supernatural issues of her own. But will this relationship help them discover the mysteries they seek to solve, or destroy them both?

Youth Without Youth is a good film. It's not great, but it is good. I don't really feel that this represents a TRUE return to the kind of independent filmmaking that Coppola used to do. I mean, c'mon, let's be real, who else out there has the money and studio connections to fund a period piece with the kind of subject matter that Youth tackles? Would this film have been made in the 1960's, before The Godfather, The Conversation, or Apocalypse Now? I doubt it. This isn't The Rain People, or even THX-1138 (which Coppola served as producer for).

The plot was just interesting enough to keep me focused on it, though, if you asked me what the movie was about, I would probably tell you that I have no clue. There are more twists and turns in the meaning of this film than I could count. The acting was well done, and felt very natural, considering the somewhat strange story. But, isn't that what Coppola does best? Deal with actors?

The visual effects that he uses throughout the film, and the general visual style, I thought was interesting, though the cinematography itself was, at times, sorely lacking. Especially in the night scenes, where they pulled the student film trick of just shoving some blue gel on the lights to give it a "cold, night time" look. C'mon Francis, you've been out of film school for, what, forty years now? I know you can light better than that. The HD, also, looked kind of crappy sometimes. I think it would have served him much better, if he was trying to save money, to shoot Super 16. He would have kept all of the detail in the highlights, the night scenes would have looked better, and the over all look would have been much richer and deeper. Oh well, Soderbergh's Bubble suffered from the same problem.

I don't know, I liked Youth Without Youth, but, like I said before, I have no freakin' clue what its about. It's worth a watch, though, even if its just to enjoy an interesting story, and an interesting visual experience.

Sydney Pollack, Dead at 73

From Yahoo! news - 

Sydney Pollack dies of cancer at age 73

LOS ANGELES - Academy Award-winning director Sydney Pollack, who achieved commercial and critical success with the gender-bending comedy "Tootsie" and the period drama "Out of Africa, has died. He was 73.

Pollack died of cancer Monday afternoon at his home in Pacific Palisades in Los Angeles, surrounded by family, said agent Leslee Dart.

Pollack, who occasionally appeared on the screen himself, worked with and gained the respect of Hollywood's best actors in a long career that reached prominence in the 1970s and 1980s.

Last fall, he played Marty Bach opposite George Clooney in "Michael Clayton," which Pollack also co-produced. The film received seven Oscar nominations, including best picture and a best actor nod for Clooney.

In recent years, Pollack produced many independent films with filmmaker Anthony Minghella and a production company Mirage Enterprises.

The Lafayette, Ind. native was born to first-generation Russian-Americans.

In high school, he fell in love with theater, a passion that prompted him forego college and move to New York and enroll in the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theater.

Yahoo article on Del Toro winning Cannes Best Actor for Soderbergh's "Che"

Because Yahoo only keeps the articles up for a short period of time, I'm reprinting this in my blog - 

Benicio Del Toro, 'Latino Brad Pitt', wins Cannes award as 'Che'

CANNES, France (AFP) - Oscar-winner Benicio Del Toro, the Puerto Rican-born star often dubbed the "Latino Brad Pitt", won Cannes' Best Actor award Sunday for his role as "Che" Guevara in Steven Soderbergh's film on the revolutionary hero.

"I'd like to dedicate this to the man himself, Che Guevara," said the actor, after accepting his second big award under the US director's helmsmanship.

"I wouldn't be here without Che Guevera, and through all the awards the movie gets you'll have to pay your respects to the man."

And taking one reporter's question after Cannes' red-carpet awards ceremony, all Del Toro saw was her "Che" T-shirt. "I like the shirt," he said several times.

Del Toro, 41, transmutes into a larger-than-life Che in the marathon four-hours-plus movie.

"Che" charts two episodes in the life of the guerrilla hero -- the late 1950s ouster of Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista alongside Fidel Castro, and Che's subsequent aborted bid to bring the Cuban revolution to Bolivia.

Some critics slammed the film shot in Spanish for its length and meticulous documentary-style presentation, as well as for failing to focus on the politically controversial aspects of the Cuban revolution.

Soderbergh needed to tighten it for average movie-goers, they said.

The US director back in 2000 propelled Del Toro into the movie limelight, when he bagged best supporting Oscar for his role as a restrained Mexican police officer walking the moral high ground in "Traffic".

Del Toro, original name Benicio Monserrate Rafael Del Toro Sanchez, also played five years earlier in the blockbuster "The Usual Suspects", where he was the mumbling gangster Fenster.

He has also been directed by the head of this year's Cannes jury Sean Penn, in 1990 "The Indian Runner" and "The Pledge", 2001.

Born in Puerto Rico to lawyer parents, he moved to the United States at the age of nine when his mother died and studied commerce before deciding, secretly, to change to acting.

Del Toro, who has a quiet but immensely strong presence, was involved from the start on the "Che" film, which took nine years of research and 60 million dollars to complete.

In Cannes for the screening, he recounted how like the average American he grew up with a bad guy image of Cuba's hero until stumbling on a book on the guerrilla leader in Mexico.

"He had a really warm smile. I bought the book and then read more. The love people had for this man made me more interested," he said.

Del Toro started his career on television before playing the youngest James Bond villain ever in "Licence To Kill".

One of his most recent star roles was in the much-noticed 2002 movie by Mexican director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu "21 Grams" where he plays a former convict-turned-religious fanatic who kills two children and their father in a road accident.

Other major roles have been as a corrupt cop in "Sin City" by Robert Rodriguez in 2005, and as a drugged-out lawyer playing alongside Johnny Depp in Terry Gilliam's "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas", a 1998 movie about journalist Hunter S. Thompson.

//My Comments//

Can't wait. Soderbergh is, probably, my favorite living director. Everything he's done I love (except for Bubble, which I had mixed feelings about.) I'm looking forward to seeing Che, because its Soderbergh, its about Che Guevara, who has been an iconic figure in my own life for some time, and because it's the first feature (well, two features if they split it) shot on the Red One.