<![CDATA[[CinemaRatty] tag: cannes]]> http://cinemaratty.com/tag/cannes Sat, 03 Jan 2009 08:40:00 +0000 iRatty Engine http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss <![CDATA[2009: Resolutions, Plans, Changes, etc.]]> http://cinemaratty.com/article/14cc80d0d6483929af227cc77231f079 http://cinemaratty.com/article/14cc80d0d6483929af227cc77231f079 As 2008 drew to a close, I spent some time reflecting on the many changes I've gone through -- both personal and professional -- over the past several years. A schizophrenic period (to say the least) that found me bidding a bitter farewell to corporate America and the many years I spent whoring myself in the financial sector -- a series of middle-management positions that were soul-numbing and pointless. Yes, the money was great, but my entire existence was built on a foundation of dishonesty and self-betrayal. 

Things began to change when I started the blog, and I soon found myself immersed in a world that was the antithesis of the corporate mindset. I began to meet fellow travelers, both in person and via email, several of whom have gone on to become close friends. Opportunities began to arise -- invitations to speak on panels, or contribute to symposiums, as well as offers to write elsewhere -- all of which I was immensely grateful for. Hell, if it wasn't for the blog there's no way I would have been filmed for the upcoming Synecdoche, New York DVD.

Yet in the past year or so I've felt a gradual souring in the blogosphere -- a sense of aggression and competitiveness that I hadn't felt before. It's as if there's a race to see who can churn out the first words on a particular film. The now infamous live-blogging of the Indiana Jones film from Cannes was just one of the many lowlights of 2008, and at this year's New York Film Festival press screenings I was dumbstruck by the number of people who would race to their laptops before the end credits had finished rolling.

In the world of paid blogging, things are even worse. There is incredible pressure to maximize hit counts, and the fallout of this is that many sites have adapted a quantity over quality model. There's also been a rise of faux-contrarian and/or narcissistic posts geared to generate controversy and oodles of angry comments. The end result being that it's become increasingly difficult for me to find the motivation to go on.

Thoughts of putting the blog to rest filled my head, and for a while it seemed like the wise thing to do. I kept starting posts that I'd never finish -- mostly on awful Hollywood films. I came to realize the futility in those exercises -- other than catharsis, what purpose does it serve to rail against the screenwriting crimes of Eric Roth, or Sam Mendes' homicidal act on Richard Yates masterwork? These films will continue to get made, and seen by millions. Do I really need, or want, to be just another voice amongst the throng -- writing about crap films that hundreds have already weighed in on?

A few things happened in December that changed my outlook. First, there was the debut post from friend and Benten partner Aaron Hillis over at GreenCine.com, which he has been asked to helm now that David Hudson has moved on to IFC. There are some inspiring words contained within, and it served to remind me why I started this site in the first place. The second incident occurred right before the year's end -- a handful of stimulating conversations at an old-timey Brooklyn watering hole with some of New York's finest film-folks. It was during my 3:00AM walk home in sub-zero weather that I decided to persevere, and at the same time to simplify.

Step one is to heavily prune my RSS list. The old faces and places will remain, as will some more recent discoveries, but there's a lot of fat to be trimmed. I'm also going to make a stronger effort to be more participatory, and not shy away from epic threads on other sites as I've done in the past. As for this site, I'm going to return to my roots, as it were, and make an effort to concentrate on films that aren't being done to death everywhere else. I'm going to dig deeper into the 60s and 70s, as well as pay closer attention to Asian cinema, which I've admittedly been lax about for quite some time. (The timing of today's news from the Berlinale seems fortuitous.) I'll use the Tumblr blog to post clips, posters images, and other ephemera. I'm also considering taking a stab at video essays, as I've become very inspired by the work of Kevin Lee.

Oh, and...yes, the quiz will go on.

As Emily Watson said to Adam Sandler at the end of Punch Drunk Love, "Well, here we go."

]]> Thu, 08 Jan 2009 11:45:52 +0000 awful hollywood films films indiana jones film tumblr blog film blog crap films effort time 2009: Resolutions, Plans, Changes, etc. <![CDATA[Another look at Soi Cowboy]]> http://cinemaratty.com/article/5b6fd419f88cc5a580c33488cccd5cc2 http://cinemaratty.com/article/5b6fd419f88cc5a580c33488cccd5cc2 One of my top 10 Thai films of 2008, British director Thomas Clay's Soi Cowboy, opens in Bangkok tomorrow.

Ahead of the movie's limited theatrical run, producers DeWarrenne Pictures have a trailer on their YouTube channel. It's embedded below.

The movie takes its name from a neon-splashed red-light district in Bangkok, which is presumably where the film's first two main characters met. The street doesn't really play an integral part in the film, though it is seen in passing during the daytime.

The first half of the film is in black and white, and follows a couple - a corpulent Dane (Nicholas Bro) and his tiny but pregnant Thai girlfriend (Pimwalee Thampanyasan) - as the two go through their humdrum daily routine, mainly consisting of the great Viagra-popping Dane looking forlornly at the little woman, hoping she'll have sex with him. The second half of the film switches to brilliant color and takes place in the countryside, where a young guy has come to collect his older brother's head.

The trailer makes use of the country-gospel song "Where We'll Never Grow Old", which is sung by Art Supawatt. In the film, the performance is during a dreamy, Blue Velvet-like sequence in a parlor. A scratchy-sounding 1920s version by Alfred Karnes is used over the opening credits, and the song really put the hook in me. It set up the whole film for my enjoyment, and afterward, I went home and found the song on eMusic and downloaded it.

Soi Cowboy debuted in the Un Certain Regard program at last year's Cannes Film Festival, and garnered critical acclaim. It was in competition at the STockholm International Film Festival in November, and it won Best Foreign Director and Best Foreign Female Actor awards at the Melbourne Underground Film Festival in October. The film has also been featured at the Sarajevo Film Festival, Rio International Film Festival, Warsaw International FilmFest, Vienna International Film Festival, Leeds International Film Festival, Oslo International Film Festival and Mar Del Plata Film Festival. It played once to a capacity crowd during last year's Bangkok International Film Festival.

I'm glad to get another chance to see it. It's playing at Paragon Cineplex.

]]> Wed, 07 Jan 2009 09:30:00 +0000 film cannes film festival film switches sarajevo film festival soi cowboy movie takes country-gospel song movie song Another look at Soi Cowboy <![CDATA[Slumdog Millionaire]]> http://cinemaratty.com/article/dcbb021c4849fc69e4ba61c9c43bed52 http://cinemaratty.com/article/dcbb021c4849fc69e4ba61c9c43bed52

A pair of Muslim brothers from the Bombay slums fend for themselves and mature after their mother is murdered in a religious riot. Told as a series of flashbacks framed by a game show in which each flashback illustrates the answer to a question posed to the younger brother, who's on the verge of winning 20 million rupees. British / American.


Interesting narrative structure, plenty of colours, and a fast-moving camera bedazzle what is otherwise an entertaining, but conventional and mediocre film. Better than Boyle's god-awful Millions (whose African final scene reminds how bad Slumdog could have been), stylistically reminiscent (cribbed?) of Fernando Meirelles' Brazilian-slum saga City of God, it features plenty of Indian images familiar to Westerners adorned by pretty poor people and glossy poverty. First hour is best, with its [superficial] treatment of Bombay's social problems setting the stage for a string of adventures and close-calls. Boyle sputters, however, as he turns his attention to romance and melodrama in the second hour, and climax is as-expected: gun; girl; cash; lesson, audience, taught. Films about serious subjects don't have to be serious, of course—and it's silly to criticize Slumdog solely for being a fantasy or for not being depressing—but neither does a lighter take on serious subjects automatically make "the film world's first globalized masterpiece" (Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal).


Had Slumdog been a "feel good", "emotional" story set in America and headlined by Will Smith, the critical consensus would be "cheese". Morgenstern is right about "globalized", but Hollywood has been globalized for 80 years and Slumdog isn't a masterpiece. It's merely the latest in a history of standard Hollywood (Warner Bros. paid a third of its budget) fare set in far-off, exotic places. Indeed, if it was made six decades ago, we'd probably consider it an example of how quaintly the white Englishman still sees his brown colonials. A slick contemporary style doesn't mask a heart that beats for the cinema of the 1950s—especially when that style, with its energy and flair, skips ahead of its creator's control and veers into the haphazard. Slumdog is a tye-dyed sugar cube of a film, but misses the precision and mastery of Boyle's best visual achievements: Trainspotting, Sunshine. On the whole, the best film-parallel is Marcel Camus' 1959 Brazilian-set version of the Greek Orpheus myth, Black Orpheus. Consider this paragraph from a BBC review:

An international hit on its original release in 1959—it won both the Palme D'Or at Cannes and the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar—Black Orpheus helped create an exotic vision of Brazil for global consumption. Directed by a Frenchman Marcel Camus (Albert's brother), it presents an outsider's photogenic view of the Carnival in Rio, which, whilst celebrating Brazilian culture, glosses over the social and cultural injustices endured by its favela-dwelling black characters.

Slumdog Millionaire ascends out of the slums, but lands firmly in the middle class. A comfortable salary and steady existence, yes; richness? No.

Danny Boyle, 2008

5
]]> Tue, 06 Jan 2009 08:39:00 +0000 slumdog slumdog millionaire ascends bad slumdog mediocre film boyle sputters film boyle slumdog solely bombay slums fend Slumdog Millionaire <![CDATA[PSIFF0925 Films Michael Hawley Would See If He Were Going To Palm Springs.]]> http://cinemaratty.com/article/da906ae00298775d739d45796e025ed2 http://cinemaratty.com/article/da906ae00298775d739d45796e025ed2 The benchmark 20th anniversary edition of the Palm Springs International Film Festival (PSIFF) gets going on Tuesday, January 6 and runs until Monday the 19th. During the past two decades, this annual celebration of cinema in the California desert has established itself as the first major U.S. film festival of the calendar year. I had the great pleasure of attending as press in 2007 and 2008, but will regrettably have to miss out on 2009.

When I learned that I couldn't come this year, I vowed not to torture myself by looking at the schedule when it was announced December 27—a prohibition that lasted all of two days. The good news is that of the 80-some films still lingering on my 2008 wish list, only 25 of them are being screened at Palm Springs. The bad news is exactly the same as the good news. So here's a somewhat forlorn, section-by-section look at what I'll be missing at PSIFF 2009, along with a fervent hope that these 25 films will turn up in the Bay Area in the months to come.

AWARDS BUZZ

The first thing I noticed about this year's program is that it's considerably leaner – down to 209 features from 2007's all-time high of 252. This particular section, which compiles the submissions for Best Foreign Language Film Oscar and is PSIFF's claim to fame, is no exception. Last year, 55 out of 63 possible submissions were screened, and this year it's down to 50 out of 67. Still, there's an amazing selection of films here, including nine from my list.

1. The Baader-Meinhof Complex (Germany) A historical drama about the 1960s/1970s German terrorist group RAF (Red Army Faction), starring my favorite German actor, Moritz Bleitreu as Andreas Baader.

2. Eldorado (Belgium) A junkie and a car dealer hit the road in a film that won rave reviews when it screened in Cannes' Director's Fortnight. With French boogeyman Philippe Nahon (I Stand Alone, Calvaire, High Tension) in a featured role.

3. Last Stop 174 (Brazil) Veteran director Bruno Barreto (Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands, Four Days in September) has made a narrative feature of the events depicted in José Padilha's astounding 2002 documentary Bus 174 (about a Rio bus hijacking that became a major media event).

4. Lion's Den (Argentina) It seemed as though every major Argentine director released a new film in 2008, making it an unenviable task to choose just one for Oscar consideration. The winner was this women's prison drama from Pablo Trapero (Crane World, Rolling Family).

5. Snow (Bosnia and Herzegovina) A Bosnian village populated by war widows is the setting for this Cannes' Critics Week Grand Prize winner.

Three Monkeys (Turkey) The country's leading auteur Nuri Bilge Ceylan (Distant, Climates) left Cannes with the Best Director's Prize for this familial thriller. One of the films I'm most desperate to see.

7. Tony Manero (Chile) Another must-see. In 1978 Santiago, a Saturday Night Fever-obsessed psychotic is determined to win a John Travolta look-alike contest, even if it means bumping off the competition. And during Augusto Pinochet's reign of terror, who'd notice?

8. Tulpan (Kazakhstan) A young sheepherder recently released from the army struggles to find a wife in this top prize winner from Cannes' Un Certain Regard.

9. White Night Wedding (Iceland) The latest from Baltasar Kormákur (101 Reykjavik), whose Jar City was one of my ten favorite films of 2008.

Also screening in this section are several films I've already seen. Strongly recommended are France's Palme d'Or-winning The Class, Italy's Neapolitan mafia exposé Gomorrah and Israel's genre-busting animated documentary Waltz With Bashir (seen respectively at the SF Film Society's French Cinema Now, New Italian Cinema and SF International Animation Festival). Less successful, but still of interest are Switzerland's The Friend and Jordan's Captain Abu Raed. Austria's Revanche is one I look forward to seeing later this month at our local Berlin & Beyond festival.

If I'd found myself with extra time on my hands in Palm Springs, I might have been tempted to also look at these: Everlasting Moments, the latest from Swedish master Jan Troell (The Emigrants, The New Land); Norway's O'Horten from Kitchen Stories director Bent Hamer; Iran's The Song of Sparrows by Majid Majidi, a director I've both loved (Children of Heaven, Baran) and loathed (The Color of Paradise, The Willow Tree); Spain's The Blind Sunflowers, a Spanish Civil War film that just received a hefty 15 Goya Award nominations; and Tear This Heart Out, the big-budget historical epic Mexico bizarrely chose as its submission instead of its smaller, international prize winners.

It's worth mentioning here that the Bay Area has its own series of Best Foreign Language Film contenders at the Smith Rafael Film Center. For Your Consideration runs from January 15 to 22, and features 13 films. Unfortunately, the series runs about a week shorter than in years past, and of the 10 films mentioned above, only Eldorado has been included.

MODERN MASTERS

Three films from this section are on my list:

10. Four Nights with Anna (Poland) Jerzy Skolimowski, last seen playing Naomi Watt's uncle in Cronenberg's Eastern Promises, directs his first film in 15 years.

11. Of Time and the City (UK) Terrence Davies' (Distant Voices/Still Lives, The Long Day Closes) love/hate cinematic ode to his native Liverpool, England. Highly anticipated.

12. The Window (Argentina) I mentioned 2008's wealth of new releases from this country's top directors—here's another one, the latest from Carlos Sorin (Intimate Stories, Bombón el Perro, The Road to San Diego).

There are two additional films in this section I would also be tempted to see: Modern Life, Raymond Depardon's most recent documentary on rural living in contemporary France; Kabei, in which Yôji Yamada follows up his recent Samurai trilogy (The Twilight Samurai, The Hidden Blade, Love and Honor) with this, his 80th feature film. There are also new films from Paul Schrader (Adam Resurrected) and Germany's Doris Dörrie (Cherry Blossoms), which I would not be tempted to see.

WORLD CINEMA NOW

It's worth noting here that the PSIFF has eliminated its Cine Latino section for 2009 (not that there's a dearth of Latin American films to be found). Also, there are no special sidebars, such as 2007's SKØL: Scandinavia and 2008's New Israeli Cinema: L'chaim! That said, World Cinema Now is where I'd be spending most of my time this year, with 12 films from my list.

13. The Desert Within (Mexico) Rodrigo Plá's follow-up to La Zona, this tale of religious madness won all the major awards at last year's Guadalajara Film Festival.

Goodbye Solo (USA) An unlikely friendship develops between a suicidal, 70-year-old white southerner and a Senegalese taxi driver half his age in this Venice FIPRESCI prize-winner from Ramin Bahrani (Man Push Cart, Chop Shop).

15. Heaven on Earth (Canada) An unhappy woman in an arranged marriage enlists sorcery to solve her problems in Deepa Mehta's follow-up to 2006's Oscar-nominated Water.

16. Hunger (UK) The last six weeks in the life of Irish republican hunger striker Bobby Sands is the subject of this Cannes Camera d'or winner for best first film.

17. Il Divo (Italy) Director Paolo Sorrentino won Cannes' Prix du Jury for this saga of infamous Italian politician Giulio Andreotti.

18. It's Not Me, I Swear! (Canada) A 10-year-old boy wildly acts out against his dysfunctional family in Philippe Falardeau's follow-up to 2006's fanciful Congorama.

19. Lake Tahoe (Mexico) A small town car crash is the catalyst for this minimalist, deadpan comedy from Fernando Eimbcke, director of 2004's wildly creative Duck Season. Winner of the Alfred Bauer Award and FIPRESCI Prize at Berlin, it's the 2008 film I'm anticipating most.

20. Moscow, Belgium (Belgium) A Cannes' Critics Week favorite, in which a 40-year-old working class Mom is romanced by a young truck driver. This dramedy has been favorably compared to early works of Mike Leigh.

21. Pedro (USA) Biopic about Pedro Zamora, the openly gay, HIV-positive AIDS activist and cast member of MTV's Real World—San Francisco.

22. The Sea Wall (France) Acclaimed documentary filmmaker Rithy Panh (S21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine) directs Isabelle Huppert in an adaptation of Marguerite Duras' novel set in 1930s Indochina.

23. Sugar (USA) Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck's follow-up to Half Nelson, in which a Dominican baseball player emigrates to Iowa to play for the minor leagues.

24. Tokyo Sonata (Japan) Genre master Kiyoshi Kurosawa leaves the metaphysics behind for a different brand of modern day horror: the unraveling of a family caused by a father's loss of employment. Also highly anticipated.

I've seen two films in this section that I can easily recommend: Turkey's My Marlon and Brando and Italy's Black Sea. Cloud 9 is another film I look forward to catching at Berlin & Beyond.

SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS

25. Public Enemy Number One (Parts I and II) This is the epic tale of notorious French career criminal Jacques Mesrine, who was gunned down on the streets of Paris in 1979 after 20 years of bank robberies and prison breaks. Starring Vincent Cassel, with an all-star supporting cast that includes Ludivine Sagnier, Mathieu Amalric, Olivier Gourmet, Anne Consigny, Cecile de France and Gerard Depardieu.

TRUE STORIES

Another program you won't find at this year's PSIFF is the Awards Buzz: Best Documentary Features and Shorts. In recent years the festival made it a point to screen all (or nearly all) of the docs shortlisted for Oscar consideration. This year they'll only be screening three of them: Blessed is the Match: The Life and Death of Hannah Senesh, The Garden and Pray the Devil Back to Hell. This section contains a total of 34 documentary features, of which I can recommend two I've seen: Be Like Others and Walt & El Grupo.

There are a few remaining PSIFF sections I should touch upon. ARCHIVAL TREASURES will feature three screenings, including John Schelsinger's Midnight Cowboy. A dozen films by first or second-time directors can be found in NEW VOICES/NEW VISIONS. VALLEY VIEWS offers eight films that have a major connection to Palm Springs and the surrounding Coachella Valley, whether they were shot or take place there, or were produced or directed by a long-time resident. Finally, there are five GALA SCREENINGS, including opening nighter Last Chance Harvey and festival closer The Burning Plain, which is the directorial debut of screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga (Amores Perros, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, Babel).

Cross-published on film-415.
]]> Tue, 06 Jan 2009 06:34:00 +0000 films film film-415 80th feature film guadalajara film festival additional films major media event major 80-some films PSIFF0925 Films Michael Hawley Would See If He Were Going To Palm Springs. <![CDATA[Overlooked Classics: Love The Hard Way (2001)]]> http://cinemaratty.com/article/a8c7f541219075a142cadfefecc143af http://cinemaratty.com/article/a8c7f541219075a142cadfefecc143af



Before he had an Oscar sitting on his shelf, before his Coke advertisements, and before his career began to take a downward turn with poor choices and missed opportunities, Adrien Brody was one of the most exciting and interesting young American actors to come out of the nineties. Arguably his greatest work came in 2001with the intense and sometimes remarkable Love The Hard Way, a film that sat on the shelf for over two years before all but disappearing after its brief theatrical run in 2003.



Based on a cult Chinese novel from the eighties, directed by a German filmmaker, co-written by a French writer, and shot on location in New York with mostly American actors, Love the Hard Way is a hard film to categorize. Harking back to the character studies of flawed men that populated America films in the seventies, as well the haunting traveling isolation that propelled so much of the German New Wave of the same period, Love the Hard Way failed to captivate modern audiences and critics who routinely reject both styles during its brief release five years ago.



Love the Hard Way got its start as a Chinese novel from author Wang Shuo entitled Yi Ban Shi Huo Yan, Yi Ban Shi Hai Shui. Refashioned as a New York crime and love story centering on a corrosive love affair between a small time thief and a naïve young college student, director Peter Sehr and Marie Noelle’s script would have to be considered a loose adaptation of Shuo's work at best, although to my eyes it is an incredibly successful one.



Born in Bad Koenig in 1951, writer and director Peter Sehr started out his career in film as a Second Assistant director on several German productions in the mid to late eighties. He made his debut as a writer and director with 1991’s acclaimed The Serbian Girl. He followed that production with the award winning Kaspar Hauser (only slighted related to Herzog’s famed film) in 1996 before his attentions turned to collaborations with his new bride (French writer, filmmaker and producer Marie Noelle), began with 1997’s Obsession (a film that featured an early role for future James Bond star Daniel Craig). Love the Hard Way would mark the couple's second major film together when they got international co-financing for it in 2000.



Shot on location in and around The Bronx, Brooklyn and Manhattan less than a year before 9-11, Love The Hard Way captures New York City at a very specific time and, even now, less than a decade later it is hard to not look at the film as being a snapshot of a city undergoing remarkable and sometimes unfortunate change. Sehr manages to capture some of the remaining griminess that was still apparent in the city (which allows his film to recall the works of both Scorsese and Ferrara) but the ‘new’ New York is also rearing its polished head, and the collision of the two make Love the Hard Way one of the essential New York films of the decade, if one of the least seen.



The New York of 2000 is indeed captured very nicely by award winning French cinematographer Guy Dufaux, who finds just the right mixture between shadowy noir and urban realism, and composer Dahoud Darien supplies the film with an excellent mixture of Trip and Hip-Hop, that Sehr wisely allows to often act as the character’s internal monologues rather than the unnecessary voice-overs that have plagued so many of the ‘neo-noirs’ that have landed since Pulp Fiction. None of this would have mattered though had Sehr and Noelle miscast the film, as it is finally a potent charcater piece, but thankfully the two leads they found seemed custom made for their roles.



Adrien Brody had an aura about him as the nineties were giving way to the new decade and many of us thought that he was going to turn into one of the finest actors of his generation. Scene stealing roles in films like Adam Bernstein’s Six Ways to Sunday and Spike Lee’s Summer of Sam showed him as a remarkably inventive and charismatic actor who seemed as versatile as he was handsome. Since winning his much deserved Academy Award for Polanski’s brave and heartfelt The Pianist in 2002, Brody’s career has failed to live up to his early promise. Quality performances have been given by him in John Maybury’s woefully undervalued The Jacket (2005) and Wes Anderson’s The Darjeeling Limited (2007) but more often than not Brody has seemed slightly neutered since his Oscar win. His work for Sehr in Love the Hard Way though is anything but, as Brody is totally captivating and believable as the sometimes cruel but always likable Jack Grace, a clever small time thief who holds secret ambitions to be a writer and escape from the life he has made for himself.



Perhaps even more impressive than Brody is co-star Charlotte Ayanna, a wonderfully subtle actress too often mis-cast and underused in films. Just 24 when she shot Love the Hard Way, the very admirable in real life Ayanna (her book written about her struggles as a foster child is highly recommended) turns in a great and sometimes grueling performance as a young woman so possessed by her love for Jack Grace that she is willing to completely sacrifice her hopes, dreams, dignity and maybe even her life for him.



While the film is controlled by Brody and Ayanna in front of the cameras, the supporting cast is impressive as well and includes nice turns from Jon Seda as Grace’s partner in crime Charlie, August Diehl and a small but effective turn from legendary Pam Grier as the cop who first wants to take Grace down but who finds herself finally sympathizing and helping him.





Not taking away anything from Sehr’s direction, or the cast, the real star of Love The Hard Way is editor Christian Nauheimer whose work here is quite remarkable. A relative novice when Love the Hard Way was shot, German born Nauheimer delivers some real exciting and sometimes extremely subtle cutting to the film. Especially noteworthy is the first love scene between Brody and Ayanna that recalls Nicolas Roeg’s Don’t Look Now, and perfectly captures both the anticipation and recalling of one’s first sexual encounter. Nauheimer also manages the tricky feat of switching the film’s expected point of view from Brody’s character to Ayanna, something that is both refreshing and necessary for the film’s subtext of losing oneself in another.



Love the Hard Way premiered at the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland in late 2001 where, despite winning a Silver Leopard for Sehr, it failed to find a distributor. The film played several such festivals throughout the next year or so where it received more awards and acclaim, but it wasn’t until it landed at The Cannes Film Festival in mid 2003 that it finally sparked some interest in a proper American release. Mostly due to Brody’s then recent Oscar win Kino picked the film up for home video release and, after a very brief theatrical run, it finally came out in the States in the fall of 2003.



Critics who caught the film in its brief run in 2003 were mostly unkind to Sehr’s out of place film, with Roger Ebert, Richard Roeper, J.R. Jones and a handful of others accepted, and its never found much of an audience on DVD. Thankfully though for those interested in seeking out the film, the DVD is a nice one and includes a terrific hour long documentary, as well as a selection of deleted scenes.



I really admire Love the Hard Way and, despite a couple of minor missteps in it's 104 minute running time, have revisited it often since I first saw it several years ago. Honestly it’s the kind of film I could have developed a major emotional attachment too had I seen it as a teenager. Containing the best work of two of America’s most interesting young actors, Adrien Brody and Charlotte Ayanna, as well as an emotional and adult honesty rarely seen anymore in American films, Peter Sehr’s Love the Hard Way is one of the most intriguing under the radar films of the decade.]]> Tue, 06 Jan 2009 05:26:00 +0000 love film locarno film festival major film herzogs famed film cannes film festival hard love scene scene Overlooked Classics: Love The Hard Way (2001) <![CDATA[Village Voice 9th Annual Critics Poll]]> http://cinemaratty.com/article/6812cfb14841e86931995c9af885f1ea http://cinemaratty.com/article/6812cfb14841e86931995c9af885f1ea

Thanks to glimmer for reminding me (twice) about this year’s annual critics poll conducted by The Village Voice among “(mainly) alt-press critics.” In an attempt to psychoanalyze the year in movies, J. Holberman says “critics turn into optimists”:

Unlike last year, when Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood materialized in late December to snatch the prize from the Coen Brothers’ No Country for Old Men and David Fincher’s Zodiac, there was no groupthink stampede. Critics had months in which to cogitate over the eventual poll winner. Pass the popcorn, not the ammunition: While last year’s top films were characterized by murderous violence, WALL-E radiated hope. The new optimism was also manifest in Mike Leigh’s Happy-Go-Lucky, which, boasting a relentlessly upbeat performance by Sally Hawkins, finished a close third in the poll just behind Hou Hsiao-hsien’s relatively cheerful The Flight of the Red Balloon, as well as Gus Van Sant’s ultra-inspirational political biopic, Milk (#7).

yay, new optimism! Good news for Slumdog Millionaire, right? Wrong. Good news for Wendy & Lucy.  oh, alt-press critics, must you be so emo?

1. WALL-E
Determined little whatsit saves Earth and rocks the vote. Shouldn’t it be the other way around?
2. The Flight of the Red Balloon
Great Chinese filmmaker remakes a 50-year-old French kiddie classic. Paris has never seemed more gloriously strange—nor has puppeteer Juliette Binoche.
3. Happy-Go-Lucky
4. Still Life
5. A Christmas Tale
6. Waltz With Bashir
7. Milk
Van Sant goes straight . . . for the heartstrings, that is, in this wildly affirmative biopic of the San Francisco activist Harvey Milk, played with a controlled enthusiasm by Sean Penn.
8. Wendy and Lucy
9. Let the Right One In
Bullied 12-year-old boy falls in puppy love with the androgynous 200-year-old child vampire next door, in this gritty, wintry, bloody adaptation of Sweden’s equivalent of the Twilight novels.
10. Synecdoche, New York

Acting, documentary, and other choices, after the cut.


Best Actor

  • Sean Penn, Milk (86 votes): Reining in his mannerisms, Hollywood’s moodiest male star triumphantly vanished into the role of community organizer–political martyr Harvey Milk—and could well emerge brandishing an Oscar.
  • Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler (74 votes)
  • Benicio Del Toro, Che (25 votes)

Best Actress

  • Sally Hawkins, Happy-Go-Lucky (83 votes)
  • Michelle Williams, Wendy and Lucy (60 votes): Williams performs a virtual solo as a young woman who loses everything when she loses her dog. No one this year held a close-up better.
  • Juliette Binoche, The Flight of the Red Balloon (55 votes)

Supporting Actor

  • Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight (75 points): A no-brainer. Even had the release of Christopher Nolan’s Batman sequel not been preceded by Ledger’s untimely death, his turn as the anarchic Joker in Louise Brooks eyeshadow would have immortalized him among a generation of moviegoers and aspirant Method actors.
  • Eddie Marsan, Happy-Go-Lucky (43 points)
  • Josh Brolin, Milk (30 points)

Supporting Actress

  • Penélope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona (42 points)
  • Viola Davis, Doubt (35 points)
  • Rosemary DeWitt, Rachel Getting Married (30 points): Although Anne Hathaway has commanded the lion’s share of press, it’s DeWitt’s less showboating performance as the titular betrothed that provides a welcome oasis of calm at the center of Jonathan Demme’s big, fat U.N. wedding party.

Best Documentary

  • Man on Wire (16 points): A nonfiction film with the heart of a Hollywood caper, James Marsh’s wildly entertaining docudrama revisited French provocateur Philippe Petit’s 1974 tightrope walk between the twin towers of the World Trade Center and turned it into an eccentric valentine to imagination, risk taking, and creative self-expression.
  • Waltz With Bashir (11 points)
  • Trouble the Water (8 points)

Best First Feature

  • Ballast (20 points)
  • Frozen River (8 points): This year’s other Sundance-awarded drama about America’s working poor, Courtney Hunt’s old-school indie essayed a lived-in decrepitude and working-class gristle that proved a perfect fit for the hardscrabble character actress Melissa Leo in her first major leading role.
  • Hunger (7 points)

Worst Film

  • The Love Guru (5 points)
  • Towelhead (3 points)
  • Burn After Reading/Changeling/Doubt/Gran Torino/Rachel Getting Married/Step Brothers/Synecdoche, New York (2 points): Proof that one man’s classic is another’s hunk of junk, all seven films (including two by Clint Eastwood) tied for third place here were also named by voters in our “best film” category.

Best Undistributed Film

  • The Headless Woman (15 points): After Che, the love-it-or-hate-it attraction of last year’s Cannes Film Festival was director Lucrecia Martel’s intentionally disorienting immersion into the unstable universe of a bourgeois Argentine woman reeling from a bump on the noggin. As usual, away from the Cannes hothouse, the film’s supporters quickly outnumbered its detractors.
  • Tony Manero (11 points)
  • Four Nights With Anna (10 points)
]]> Mon, 05 Jan 2009 10:03:55 +0000 poll annual critics poll critics film category film nonfiction film alt-press critics happy-go-lucky woman Village Voice 9th Annual Critics Poll <![CDATA[FORGOTTEN FILM: SWEET REVENGE (1976)]]> http://cinemaratty.com/article/5543dc6c3ff5dd0a6af95206ea13dfbd http://cinemaratty.com/article/5543dc6c3ff5dd0a6af95206ea13dfbd
One night, in the early 80’s, I saw part of a movie on a local independent UHF channel. I only saw the first half. All I remember about it was that it was something about stealing cars and it starred Stockard Channing, then a big star in my mind because of GREASE.

I didn’t know the title or anything else about it.

Over the years, I kept trying to find out what it was. Was it CORVETTE SUMMER? No, that starred Mark Hamill.

Finally, with the help of the IMDB, I found out what it was, SWEET REVENGE. It also goes by the name of DANDY, THE ALL AMERICAN GIRL.

SWEET REVENGE was released by MGM back in 1976. It played Cannes that year. It was directed by Jerry Shatzberg, responsible for THE PANIC IN NEEDLE PARK, SCARECROW, THE SEDUCTION OF JOE TYNAN, HONEYSUCKLE ROSE and STREET SMART. The only writer of note behind the film was Marilyn Goldin who would go on to write Luc Besson's THE BIG BLUE.

As for the story, I guess I wasn’t too far off. From some online write-ups, Stockard Channing is a car thief, trying to go straight by stealing enough cars so that she can buy her own Ferrari. Sam Waterston also stars, possibly as her parole officer.

After that airing over 25 years ago, I have never seen the film. Since it is an MGM title, I’m surprised it has disappeared. Some posts claim that copies can be found on Ebay, but these are bootlegs as it has never received even a VHS release.

It is another truly Forgotten Film.

]]> Mon, 05 Jan 2009 09:00:00 +0000 sweet revenge film mgm title title mgm vhs release online write-ups luc besson cars FORGOTTEN FILM: SWEET REVENGE (1976) <![CDATA[Top 10 Thai films of 2008]]> http://cinemaratty.com/article/fbf5cb6ff27228f458edd45333ded9b2 http://cinemaratty.com/article/fbf5cb6ff27228f458edd45333ded9b2
Since I started doing my year-end best-of lists of Thai cinema in 2004, I've only listed my Top 5. But for 2008, as I look back with fondness for some of the films I have seen, I found I had the hardest time ever limiting myself. So I've doubled the length of my year-end list this time, in recognition of what I thought was a notable year for Thai cinema.

1. Syndromes and a Century: Thailand's Edition

Now why do I have a film at the top of my list for 2008 that was also at the top of my list for 2007, and was on the top of many critics' lists for 2007? Well, it might seem strange, but the way things are in Thailand it makes perfect sense. Apichatpong Weerasethakul's almost universally acclaimed arthouse masterpiece was supposed to get a limited commercial run in Thailand in 2007. A press screening was held but it was pulled from release by the director after the Censorship Board demanded he cut four scenes. A year later, he resubmitted the film, and the censors demanded that he cut six scenes. So, rather than pull it from release again, he let it run, replacing the scenes the censors cut with lengths of silent black scratched film leader, ranging in time from a few seconds to nearly seven minutes. The result was a trashed, hollow shell of a film that probably shouldn't have ever been shown. But it's good that it was, because it made a poignant statement about censorship and art in Thailand. The censorship also inspired responses from the indie filmmaking community, most notably the short film Diseases and a Hundred Years Period by Sompote "Boat" Chidgasornpongse, who worked as an assistant on Syndromes. Apichatpong served on the jury of the Cannes Film Festival and was made a French knight. He and his works are celebrated overseas, but at home this soft-spoken guy who likes to be called Joe is treated with disdain by the conservative faction of bureaucrats who are determined to control the Kingdom's culture -- he is alienated in his own country. In the meantime, the Ministry of Culture was supposed to have enacted a new motion-picture ratings system to replace the censorship regime. But the ratings system didn't come into effect, probably due to the year's tumultuous political scene with violent protests in the streets, both of Bangkok's airports closed for a week and three prime ministers. Movie ratings might seem inconsequential in the face of all that. And the proposed system still allows for censorship, if a film is deemed harmful to Thai society. Still, the rating system is an important development, and I think it is a building block for a society that sees a value in respecting free expression over the current culture of apathy, fear, repression and censorship.

2. Soi Cowboy

This is a potentially controversial pick, and not because this film is a bit polarizing, but just because director Thomas Clay isn't Thai. But the production company, DeWarrenne Pictures, is a Thai company, and it had Thai actors and a Thai crew, and was set in Thailand and told a story that is about Thailand. So to me, Soi Cowboy is Thai. From the opening strains of an old-timey American country song, to its monochrome look at the humdrum life of the mismatched couple of a portly European man and his tiny pregnant Thai girlfriend and then its full-color Lynchian second half, I found myself succumbing to the charms of Soi Cowboy. The film premiered in the Un Certain Regard program at the Cannes Film Festival, and then played in a single, sold-out screening at the Bangkok International Film Festival. Happily, Soi Cowboy is getting a limited commercial run in Bangkok from January 8, so I'll have a chance to see it again.

3. Citizen Juling

Last year, it was another political documentary, The Truth Be Told: The Cases Against Supinya Klangnarong, that made my Top 5. And Citizen Juling is a complement to that film. Spanning nearly four hours, Ing K's documentary on the fatal 2006 beating of teacher Juling Pongkunmul in Southern Thailand was an exhaustive look at the country's political ills, with a focus on the violence that has wracked the Muslim-majority South. For artist Ing K, just getting the film shown during the Bangkok International Film Festival was a triumph. It was the first time one of her films had been shown in a Thai cinema. Her last film 10 years ago had been deemed too controversial and was banned from public screening. Citizen Juling premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, and it's set for this year's Berlin Film Festival.

4. 4bia (See Phrang)

This highly entertaining omnibus of four short films is by four directors from GMM Tai Hub -- the Shutter/Alone pair of Banjong Pisanthanakun and Parkpoom Wongpoom, with Body #19's Paween Purijitpanya and veteran producer-director Yongyoot Thongkontoon (The Iron Ladies). Tightly edited, each 25-minute segment explored a different fear. Yongyuth's Happiness (fear of being alone) channeled Hitchcockian suspense in its story of a young woman alone in her apartment, nursing a broken leg. Paween's Tit for Tat (fear of reprisal) trafficked in black magic, blood and gore. Banjong's In the Middle (fear of things that go bump in the night), about four smart-alec boys on a camping trip, was flat-out hilarious, mainly for the way it satirized and spoiled classic suspense films. And Parkpoom's Last Fright (fear of the dead) will make you wonder about those smiling flight attendants next time you fly. 4bia was a sensation with festival audiences in Canada and is set to be among a gathering of Thai horror in the Hungry Ghosts program at the International Film Festival Rotterdam. Also, another anthology is being planned with Ha Phrang -- five shorts with Dorm director Songyos Sugmakanan in the mix and a punny English title that somehow uses the number 5.

5. Chocolate

From Ong-Bak and Tom Yum Goong director Prachya Pinkaew and action choreographer Panna Rittikrai comes a discovery -- "Jeeja" Yanin Vismitinanda -- a tiny young female martial artist who is wound up and let go on a rampage of flying fists, elbows, shins and knees. Jeeja trained at an early age in ballet and then tae kwon do, and Chocolate is the culmination of four years of hard work for her. It paid off in her performance as an autistic young woman who learns martial arts by watching Tony Jaa movies and then goes on a chocolate-fuelled rampage to collect money owed to her sick mother. After its Thai theatrical run early in the year, Chocolate went on to play across Asia and wow audiences at film fests, including Toronto, and then closed out the year with a DVD and Blu-ray release in the U.K. and North American discs due in February.

6. Wonderful Town

This quiet, lyrical romantic drama is set in a small town on the Andaman coast, where the 2004 tsunami had struck and left scars. Into this shell-shocked atmosphere comes a big-city architect. He strikes up a relationship with the manager of a rundown hotel, but the woman's gangster brother doesn't approve. Like a wave slowly rolling in, the drama builds and crashes. Since winning the New Currents Award at the 2007 Pusan festival, Aditya Assarat's assured solo debut feature film burned up the festival and arthouse circuit throughout 2008, winning more prizes and gathering critical acclaim. It played in Bangkok in a limited run as the first entry in the Directors' Screen series by indie producers Extra Virgin and was also part of the Thai Panorama at the Bangkok International fest. It's due out on Region 1 DVD in March.

7. Queens of Langkasuka

Celebrating a decade of filmmaking, one of the pre-eminent directors of the Thai New Wave (and a 2008 Silpathorn honoree), Nonzee Nimibutr, made his most ambitious film yet with the historical fantasy Queens of Langkasuka. In production for three years, the movie was originally to be called Queens of Pattani, but the title was changed to avoid the connotation of Thailand's southern violence. The film had also been planned as a two-parter, but commercial considerations again forced a change, and a version of around 140 minutes debuted at the Cannes Film Market and also played at Venice to tepid reviews. But being a star-studded spectacle featuring Ananda Everingham, Dan Chupong, Winai Kraibutr, Sorapong Chatree and Jesdaporn Pholdee, as well as the comeback of '80s starlet Jarunee Suksawat, the buzz for Queens started to build with a red-carpet gala screening at the Bangkok International Film Festival. When it finally had its wide theatrical release in Thailand in October, the film clocked in at around 120 minutes or so, and moved briskly, with loads of special-effects-driven action and big explosions in a story involving pirates, magic, flaring nostrils, opulent costumes, flying sea gypsies, stingray surfing and extremely large cannon. In short, it was entertainment for the popcorn-munching masses that happily did well at the box office. Hopefully the coming year will see the film featured in genre fests and rack up some international sales.

8. A Moment in June

English-schooled director O Nathapon's feature debut is a stylistic masterpiece with costumes, lighting and a color palette that recall Thai cinema of the 1960s and '70s, a notion that is strengthened with the use of the lilting melody of "Tha Charom" by Charoen Nathanakorn -- a popular song from the era -- as a major refrain. The story seamlessly and artfully toggles back and forth from 1999, when a stage director and his boyfriend are going through a breakup and an older couple have an uneasy reunion, and 1972, when a destructive love triangle is formed. Starring Shakrit Yamnarm, Krissada "Noi" Sukosol Clapp, "Noon" Sinitta Boonyasak, Deuntem Salitul and Suchao Pongvilai, the performances are moving, and by the end everyone is crying. A Moment in June premiered in competition at the Pusan International Film Festival before coming home to Thailand to serve as the opening film of the 6th World Film Festival of Bangkok, which had backed the film's production through its Produire au Sud Bangkok funding workshop. It also played at the International Film Festival of India. A Moment in June will receive a theatrical release in Thailand on February 12.

9. Pid Term Yai Huajai Wawun (Hormones)

One of the "Fan Chan Six", director Songyos Sugmakanan made the switch from the suspense of Dorm back to youth-oriented romance with the ensemble comedy-drama Hormones. Though light, fluffy and frivolous, Hormones was a cut above the usual melodramatic trifles, showing a bit of maturity that was sometimes thought provoking as well as a lot of fun. The movie wove together four stories of young romance over a summer-school holiday. A pair of hyper-competitive schoolboys (Charlie Trairat and Michael Sirachuch Chienthaworn) race to win a girl's phone number. A sensitive geek (Ratchu Surajaras) makes a play for the campus queen (Chutima Theepanat). A teenybopper (Focus Jirakul) is crazy about a Taiwanese pop star. And a porn-obessed college guy (Chanthavit Sunasewee) has his faithfulness to his long-time sweetheart tested when he goes to the beach with a bouncing bikini-clad Japanese tourist (former AV star Sora Aoi). Hormones performed well at the box office, topping it for two weeks in a row.

10. Ong-Bak 2

What a year it was for martial-arts star Tony Jaa, who attempted to make Ong-Bak 2 his debut as director, action choreographer, producer, writer and star all in one go. But it was not to be. Strange tales emerged in July that Tony had walked off the set over financial difficulties, and had gone into hiding in a cave. Execs at Sahamongkol Film International struggled to downplay the troubles and get the over-budget film back on track. A tearful Tony told his side of the story, and issued demands. There were lawyers and rumors. And then a handshake and Tony was back, but with his old mentor Panna Rittikrai as co-director and the seemingly last-minute addition of a new co-star. With all the troubles on set, nothing short of a trainwreck was expected, and perhaps it is a trainwreck -- the kind you can't turn your head away from. An extravaganza of non-stop action featuring a cavalcade of martial-arts styles and almost constant bloodletting as seen through the veiled mysticism of a historical epic, Ong-Bak 2 has turned out to be the biggest-grossing Thai film of the year at the domestic box office. It's polarizing though, with critics either gushing with praise or heaping scorn on the film. Aside from the bit of Lucasian revisionism that makes Ong-Bak 2 a prequel to the contemporary-set Ong-Bak of 2003, the real deal-breaker appears to be the abrupt ending -- signs of a rush-job and the production's troubles the critics say -- that gives the film no place to go other than to Ong-Bak 3.

Honorable mention: Somtum

After years of a playing a heel, giant wrestler Nathan Jones finally got to play the good guy, cast in Somtum as a timid, soft-spoken Aussie bloke named Barney who runs into a bit of bad luck while vacationing in Pattaya. After he's robbed of everything but his trousers, he's taken in by a pair of girl street urchins, one of whom is a ferocious little Muay Thai fighter (Sasisa Jindamanee). They make the mistake of feeding Barney some ultra-spicy somtum (sweet and sour papaya salad), which turns him into a raging red hulk. Foreigner diamond thieves (including the even bigger Conan Stevens) are added to the mix, and Barney is force-fed more somtum so he can unleash a few piledrivers and save the day. What a blast! I haven't heard of Somtum getting any release beyond Thailand, despite its obvious appeal to the WWE crowd. Meanwhile, Sasisa is due to co-star in another kiddie-action comedy, Power Kids, also featuring Johnny Nguyen from Tom Yum Goong and The Rebel.

Actor of the year: Ananda Everingham

Hardly a week went by in 2008 when an Ananda Everingham movie wasn't playing. The Lao-Australian star -- Thailand's hardest-working film actor -- was featured in six movies. He closed the year out with Happy Birthday, playing a guy cracking up as he cares for his comatose girlfriend. He muscled his way into an action role, playing a magical, stingray-riding sea gypsy in Queens of Langkasuka. He climbed into The Coffin, co-starring with Karen Mok in a thriller by Ekachai Uekrongtham. At midyear there were three movies in cinemas at the same time: His road-trip romance in the Lao-Thai co-production Sabaidee Luang Prabang (which he executive produced), the Singaporean romance The Leap Years and the psychological thriller Memory with Mai Charoenpura. Ananda also helped pitch Pepsi Max and Motorola phones. He served as a juror at the Bangkok International Film Festival, and headed to Goa with his girlfriend, actress-model Jeed Sangthong, to promote The Coffin. The coming year may see Ananda playing a Filipino soldier, as a member of Aditya Assarat's High Society and donning the mask as a vigilante crimefighter in Wisit Sasanatieng's reboot of Red Eagle.

]]> Sun, 04 Jan 2009 14:30:00 +0000 thai thai company thai crew thai film film film leader film actor sahamongkol film international cannes film festival Top 10 Thai films of 2008 <![CDATA[Huppert à Cannes]]> http://cinemaratty.com/article/9c945f3aeb0ccea35f160017d42cba19 http://cinemaratty.com/article/9c945f3aeb0ccea35f160017d42cba19
Isabelle Huppert has been named as the head of the jury at 2009's Festival International de Cannes. The actress has already won their best actress prize twice, for La Pianiste and Violette. The rest of the jury will be announced closer to May.]]> Sat, 03 Jan 2009 13:09:00 +0000 cannes actress jury festival international isabelle huppert head rest violette named Huppert à Cannes <![CDATA[...and they all lived linkily ever after]]> http://cinemaratty.com/article/31bf043e3b932f5352a79b8378fc0e65 http://cinemaratty.com/article/31bf043e3b932f5352a79b8378fc0e65 Isabelle Huppert will head the 2009 Cannes Jury. Last year's estimable panel, headed by Sean Penn, contained two actresses, two actor/directors and three directors. If the collection is similar this year, who will have the honor of sitting beside her? Will they be frightened for their very souls?


Now, one never knows which actors are expert at judging the craft of acting and filmmaking (criticism being an entirely different skill than creation ... one only has to look at SAG's often horrible taste in "best" to see this dichotomy) but Huppert has an undeniably rare gift and such a thrilling distinct persona that it's amazing just to fantasize about her all godless, gorgeous and cerebral ... peering stone-faced down her freckled nose at the shivering anxious movies. Isabelle the destroyer. But what will she love? [src]

oh yes, the links...
Self Styled Siren a fine piece on Douglas Sirk and... Revolutionary Road?
Film Ick Hugh Jackman, no stranger to stage musicals, is still not transferring it to screen. He won't be starring in Soderbergh's 3D rock musical Cleo after all. Brendon thinks this is a mistake.
Dave Kehr with the list on the 25 movies added to the National Film Registry for 2008. The list doesn't magistically preserve the titles for all postery (shame) but it's an honor suggesting that they merit preservation. Titles include In Cold Blood (see Nick's guest review), Joan Crawford in Johnny Guitar and five silent goodies including Foolish Wives...
Lazy Eye Theater "Robert Rodriguez, you son of a bitch"
Cinephiliac pulls its own plug (just moved to GreenCine) with the top 30 of 2008
MTV John Travolta's teenage son has died. How very sad. Our hearts go out to the family.
Valley Dreamin' says finis to the "Endings Blog-a-Thon" with 22 articles wrapping things up. THE END.
*]]> Sat, 03 Jan 2009 08:40:00 +0000 huppert isabelle huppert undeniably rare gift movies anxious movies national film registry lazy eye theater mtv john travolta cannes jury ...and they all lived linkily ever after