Ars Gratia Artis – Art for art’s sake

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s motto is “Ars Gratia Artis”, it appears on the company logo inscribed into a ring of film that surrounds “Leo” the roaring lion that is at the heart of the companies brand image. The Latin phrase translates to “Art for art’s sake”, but how many studios truly believe in this concept. Is the motion picture industry the one art form where cash is king and art is an afterthought? More so than any other art based industry including music, the bottom line comes first and if they make some art along the way that’s a bonus.

Where would the movie industry me if the money men took a step back and let the artists run the industry? Would it be a case of the lunatics running the asylum and all the studios would go bust, or would the products be so great that they would make money along the way? To go back to the comparison with the music industry, manufactured bands who want to be rich and famous often make it big for a short time, make lots of money then disappear without a trace. Whatever amount of success they have often pales in comparison to genuinely talented artists who are in it for the love of the music.

The late 20’s through to the end of the 40’s is often referred to as the Golden Age of Cinema. Many people dispute this as it was controlled by the big studios and their moguls, it was also the time of a huge amount of censorship. It was the time of the “Studio system” where stars were bound up in studio contracts and the vertical integration of production, distribution and exhibition was designed to dominate the industry. But constraint often inspires creativity and this era produced many classic movies, Citizen Kane and Casablanca to name just two. The system came to an end in the late 40’s following a Supreme Court ruling and things would never be the same again. But did they really change that much from an artistic point of view?

The lunatics did run the asylum for a while, or at least the actors ran a studio when in 1919 D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks founded United Artists. By the end on the 1940’s the studio existed in little more than name, producing and distributing very few movies. Of the original stars who set up the studio only Pickford and Chaplin remained. Following the US government revoking Chaplin’s re-entry visa the pair agreed to sell the studio to Arthur Krim and Robert Benjamin, a pair of lawyers turned movie producers. Throughout the 50’s 60’s and 70’s the studio produced many classic movies and launched the James Bond series, but it was a long way from the ideals of Griffith, Chaplin, Pickford, and Fairbanks.

Then came Heaven’s Gate. The director Michael Cimino, had won Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Director for The Deer Hunter (a film I don’t think has aged that well and its crown as a classic may be slipping) and was given unusual creative freedom. There are lots of articles about this by people who know the story far better than me, look them up. The important thing here is the result and the fallout. The film had a budget estimated at $44 million (around $140million when adjusted for inflation), it took around $3million at the US box-office. Around this time the company was sold by Transamerica (a holding company that had acquired it a few years before) to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It is estimated that they paid around $350 million. Was this for the artistry of the companies back catalogue or its value in the emerging home video market? I will let you decide. So there we are back at the beginning. The company that proudly bares the slogan Art for art’s sake purchased the company that was set up by artists for arts sake.

Heaven’s Gate may have seen the end of what is often referred to as New Hollywood, but the echoes of the era are still been felt and many exponents of the time are still making movies, they include: Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Woody Allen, John Carpenter, Francis Ford Coppola, Brian De Palma, Clint Eastwood, William Friedkin, Terrence Malick, Roman Polanski and Ridley Scott. There are also great directors who work outside or on the edge of the system like Quentin Tarantino, Wes Anderson and Richard Linklater. Their films may sometimes suffer from being bloated and or self indulgent but this is a small price to pay. Most interestingly are the directors like Christopher Nolan and Danny Boyle who work within the system but make it work for them in a similar way to the auteurs of the golden age.

So what’s the conclusion? Sadly I have no insight or profound words. As a cynic, I truly believe that the studios are in it for the money but as a film lover I believe there are artists (actors, writers, directors and other creative people) in the industry who are in it for the love and for the art, and once in a while they create art. True art, Art for art’s sake.

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My acceptance of 3D

In the past I have been vocal about my hatred of 3D, but I may have come to accept its place in cinema. The reason I have seen it working twice in recent years.

When I was a kid 3D meant red and green lensed glasses with cardboard frames. My first experience of what was then branded Real D was in 2007 with the motion capture Beowulf. To the best of my memory I didn’t see another 3D movie until the end of 2009, that was James Cameron’s giant Smurfs epic Avatar, this again was a largely animated movie. From there things went downhill fast. The biggest problem comes when movies are retrofitted with 3D purely for profit. Apologists for 3D will tell you it is immersive and gives depth to the image and that it has moved a long way from the pointy gimmick of 3D horror movies. The truth the gimmicks are what worked and 3D movies have no depth, just foreground, background and a void in the middle. The low points came with movies like Alice in Wonderland (2010) where the best thing I can say about them is that I forgot they were in 3D. Or Drive Angry (2011) and the last two Resident Evil movies (2010 and 2012) that did not have a 2D option. The odd example of 3D being effective involved a hatched, bucket and a bolt flying out of the screen towards the audience.

After boycotting 3D for a year, this time last year I went to see Hugo. Fully intending to go for the 2D option I had a last minute change of heart. I’m not sure exactly what my thought process was at the time but remember thinking that if Martin Scorsese had made a movie in 3D he had earned the right for me to see it in 3D. One of very few directors who have earned the right to do whatever the fuck they like, I’m glad I went on the journey with Scorsese. Not only was Hugo my favourite film of 2011 but also demonstrated that 3D can work. Many 3D movies, especially retrofitted ones have foreground and background split by a gaping void. Hugo has real depth.

Since seeing Hugo I have seen a few more 3D movies, they have renewed my prejudice towards the medium. Until now! Life of Pi is not only stunning to look at but like Hugo it has real depth in its 3D images. It is also so bright and vibrant that I never thought about 30% light loss. I have come to accept 3D but not to love it. I accept that in exception circumstances in the hands of true artists and auteurs it can work and can add to the cinema experience. It doesn’t mean I will be rushing to see the next 3D movie but I will be less likely to dismiss it as a pointless gimmick.

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When Will The Dark Knight Return?

With The Dark Knight Rises bringing an end to Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy there is a lot of talk about where the character should go from here. It would be naive to think this is the end of Batman on screen. There is too grater appetite from viewers and too much money to be made from the studio point of view for it not to happen.

WARNING this paragraph contains The Dark Knight Rises plot spoilers 

Firstly a little background. You may remember the whole thing about all Marvel characters who couldn’t appear in the Avengers movie because the rights have been licensed to other studios; Fox’s has dibs on Daredevil, Fantastic Four and Silver Surfer while Sony/Columbia have the big money Spider-Man. Batman has no such problem, Time/Warner owns DC Comics giving Warner Brothers exclusive rights to do whatever they wish with the character. The result of this is that the true power lies with the studio. If they want to continue the Nolan universe going with a new director, Joel Schumacher for example, they can. The way The Dark Knight Rises ended leaves great potential for spin-offs. Blake (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is set up to become Robin or even a second Batman, this has endless possibilities. Selina Kyle aka Catwoman (Anne Hathaway) came to the Nolan Batverse as an established character with a slinky costume and a shady back-story. This gives her character the option for an origin story as well as a spin-off. And then there is Batman himself, depending on your interpretation of the end of the movie, Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) may or may not be alive. If he is alive, he has certainly left Gotham, what will he get up to in a different country. As tantalising as these possibilities are, it is probably best they remain unmade leaving customers wanting more. Fortunately, my understanding is that Christian Bale has said he won’t play Batman for any other director so they will need to change him to. I would like to think the rest of the cast would do the same. So where do we go from here.

But the Nolan Batman universe doesn’t have to end here, there is something that could happen. What is possibly the best Batman story, Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns remains un-filmed (an animated version is due out later this year). Did Nolan avoid using the title because he wants to save it for a future movie? Probably not but you never know. They will have to wait at least fifteen years until Christian Bale is approaching his mid fifties, and that is the interesting thing. Christopher Nolan is yet to make a bad film, and more importantly from a studio point of view he is yet to make a flop, but that is a career has lasted just fifteen years to date. Given another fifteen years and another half dozen movies there is no way of knowing what position Nolan will be in and what his motivation will be. We also don’t know if the world climate will be right for a movie like The Dark Knight Returns. With all this in mind I haven’t given up on a new Christopher Nolan Batman movie somewhere around 2027! To keep continuity with the existing movie a rewrite will be required removing Superman from the story, this isn’t as big a problem as you would think. Superman would be replaced by a government sponsored elite team who are sent to take Batman down. And best of all the timing fits, there is enough time between now and then for another actor and director to take on the character before Nolan and Bale return.

Before then there is something else we have to contend with. The Justice League aka the Justice League of America first appeared in comic books in 1960, for those not familiar, it is a sort of DC equivalent to The Avengers. Rumours of a Justice League movie have been around for years but is yet to happen. The big problem; all the other original members (Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman and Martian Manhunter) are all supernatural, superhuman or alien. But the problem goes deeper than that, none of them have appeared in a decent movie for thirty years. The long and short of it, there can be a Justice League movie, but it can not include Christopher Nolan’s Batman. They will also struggle to make it as successful as The Avengers. The sensible thing to do from an artistic point of view would be to make a Justice League movie with its own story, its own cast and its own continuity outside the other movies. If successful it could create its own franchise, if it flops it would do so without harming other franchises.

There is sure to be a reboot, but when and how. Although it seems like longer, there was less than a decade between Batman Begins and Batman & Robin suggesting a reboot could happen as soon as the end of the decade. Or have things been accelerated by the quick reboot of Spider-Man? While I am not suggesting a Joel Schumacher style farce, the tone and style of any reboot has to be dramatically different to Nolan’s vision. This is essential for its own good as well as avoiding the impact on Nolan than way Schumacher’s movies taint the memory of Tim Burton’s movies.

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The Dark Knight Rises, Their Finest Hours

The Dark Knight Rises may turn out to be both the biggest and the best film of the year. Every movie fan with a virtual soapbox to stand on will review it in one way or another, I may do so myself some time in the future, but for now I will not. Instead I have decided to do something different. I am looking at the key players in the movie and picking out my favourite of their movies or performances excluding The Dark Knight Trilogy.

Christopher Nolan: The modern interpretation of the term masterpiece refers a pierce of art (in any medium) that is receives high critical praise and is often considered the pinnacle of the artists career. But the original, true meaning is very different. During the old European guild system, an apprentice wishing to graduate from a guild and become a master craftsman or member of their guild would have to produce a Masterpiece. If successful, the piece would be retained by the master or the guild. Using this theory, Following (1998) is Christopher Nolan’s masterpiece. An ultra low budget mystery, crime, thriller with no star names. This led to him making Memento (2000), a simple revenge, thriller that is elevated to a superior mystery by the ingenious idea of telling the story backwards. Using the same criteria, it could be argued that Following was a practice run and Memento is the true masterpiece. Taken on its own merits Insomnia (2002) is a great movie, it just isn’t as good as the Norwegian original. It is a worthy and justified remake that is sympathetic to the story of the original but has its own individual touches. You know how movies come in two’s, this year there are two Snow White movies, a few years ago there were to giant asteroid movies, 2006 was the year of the Victorian stage magicians. Neil Burger’s The Illusionist was good, Christopher Nolan’s The Prestige was much better. Legend has it that after The Dark Knight took a billion dollars Warner Bros let Nolan make any movie he liked. What he came up with was Inception (2010) a little art house movie disguised as a big budget studio blockbuster. Inception may well be his best (non Batman) film, but for introducing me and most of the rest of the world to his work I am declaring Memento to be both his masterpiece and finest hour for Christopher Nolan.

Wally Pfister: Cinematographer/Director of Photography Wally Pfister started out as a cameraman for a Washington news service before being given his first break by Robert Altman. He then enrolled in American Film Institute where a film he worked on was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film. Like so many great filmmakers, he received his first break as a Cinematographer from Roger Corman. Most of his notable works have been on Christopher Nolan films, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Cinematography for Batman Begins, The Prestige, The Dark Knight finally winning for the movie that truly is his finest hour, Inception.

Christian Bale: Where do you start with Christian Bale? A child star in Empire of the Sun who found real fame in his late twenties. Noted for his extreme physical transformations for the movies The Machinist and Rescue Dawn, in I’m Not There, it is a tossup between him and Cate Blanchett as to who is the best “Dylan”. In 3:10 to Yuma, The Prestige, The Fighter, Public Enemies and Terminator Salvation he gives more subtle and low key performances than his co stars, it is therefore a surprise that his finest hour is probably his most showy and over the top performance, Patrick Bateman in American Psycho.

Anne Hathaway: Many people know Anne Hathaway from her film début The Princess Diaries and can’t see beyond that. I first saw her in Havoc or Brokeback Mountain (saw them both around the same time) where despite all the praise going to Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal I thought the best performances came her and Michelle Williams. I was impressed enough to go and see The Devil Wears Prada and enjoyed it, but her finest hour is Rachel Getting Married. A family drama about a young woman who is released from rehab to attend her sisters wedding. A truly an amazing performance, her character is ultimately a miserable, selfish, narcissistic bitch but she also comes across as vulnerable, funny and sometimes even likable. 

Tom Hardy: I have seen many movies featuring Hardy and remember a great buzz about him around the time of Star Trek: Nemesis, but to be honest I really didn’t take notice until Bronson. Since then he has been brilliant in everything I have seen him in. as for his finest hour, it could easily be Warrior where his performance is monumental or Inception where he offers some great comic relief within an ensemble, but it has to be Bronson. 

Gary Oldman: How do you pick the finest hour from the thirty year career of an actor as talented as Oldman? Far more varied than you would think Oldman is at his best when he is wild and out of control, look back at Sid Vicious in Sid and Nancy, Stansfield in Leon and Beethoven in Immortal Beloved. That is why it may come as a surprise that his best performance may well be his most low key and economical performance, George Smiley in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. 

Michael Caine: Gary Olman’s career may be long but Michael Caine has been around for ever, certainly since before I was born. Many of his most notable performances came in the mid/late 60’s and early 70’s and include: Alfie, Sleuth, Zulu, Get Carter and The Ipcress File. He reinvented himself in more comic roles in the 80’s such as: Educating Rita, Without a Clue and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. Outside Christopher Nolan movies, the pick of his 21st century movies are The Quiet American, Children of Men and Harry Brown, but for his finest hour, you need to go back to the 60’s for his iconic performance as Charlie Croker in The Italian Job.

Morgan Freeman: Freeman found fame relatively late in life. In his early fifties and after thirty years in the business, in a two year period he appeared in Driving Miss Daisy, Glory, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and The Bonfire of the Vanities. He makes a lot of movies, therefore there is a certain amount of crap in there too, but the highlights are very high, the include: Unforgiven, Se7en and Million Dollar Baby. His finest hour is probably The Shawshank Redemption. 

Marion Cotillard: A captivating actress who has been brilliant in every film I have ever seen her in. For many people she if best known for her Oscar winning portrayal of Edith Piaf in La vie en rose. Others will know her from her English language movies: Public Enemies, A Good Year, Big Fish and Nine. She was also memorable in Midnight in Paris and Inception. Although deep down I know her finest hour was as Edith Piaf in La vie en rose, I still go back to where I first saw her, Lilly, the long suffering but high maintenance girlfriend in Taxi (and its first two sequels).

Joseph Gordon-Levitt: The former child actor found fame as a teenager in the TV show 3rd Rock from the Sun. his most notable movie appearances from this time is probably 10 Things I Hate About You. He went on to appear in: Havoc (along side future Dark Knight Rises co-star Anne Hathaway) and earned acclaim in Mysterious Skin Stop-Loss and The Lookout. In recent years he has impressed in 500 Days of Summer, 50/50 and Inception, but his finest hour is still the high school noir Brick. 

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The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec

1911, journalist, novelist, socialite and adventurer Adèle Blanc-Sec (Louise Bourgoin) is in Egypt searching for a Pharaoh’s mummified doctor that she hopes professor Espérandieu (Jacky Nercessian) can resurrect, why? That will become clear later. Meanwhile back home in Paris the professor is practicing his skills by hatching a 136 million year old pterodactyl egg. After surviving a spectacular confrontation with rival “tomb-raider” Dieuleveult (an unrecognisable but brilliant Mathieu Amalric) Adèle returns home to find the pterodactyl wreaking havoc and the professor imprisoned. Our heroine must rescue the professor in order to complete her very personal mission.

Based on a mixture of two stories from the comic-book series by Jacques Tardi’s The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec is the latest movie from French filmmaker Luc Besson. Comparisons to Indiana Jones and Lara Croft are inevitable and understandable, with the combination of action and fantasy the comparison is fair but only tells half the story. Adèle Blanc-Sec is a totally bonkers movie and is very French, these are good things if you were wondering! By Hollywood standards the CGI is a little ropy at times but this is easily forgotten amongst the stunning and sumptuous vision of early 20th century Paris created by director Luc Besson and long-time collaborators Production Designer Hugues Tissandier and Cinematographer Thierry Arbogast. When you look at his back catalogue (including: Subway, The Big Blue, Nikita, Leon, The Fifth Element, Joan of Arc, Angel-A and Arthur and the Invisibles) you can hardly say director Luc Besson has a stereotypical or definitive style, but this movie is a departure even for him! Looking more like a film made by Jean-Pierre Jeunet or Terry Gilliam.

Despite the absurdity of the plot and the characters, the cast play it straight, in what should be a bizarre train wreck of a movie but strangely and to Besson’s credit it really works. Resulting in a movie that is charming, fun and funny. The same is true of the character, Adèle Blanc-Sec; Dealing with shy would-be suitor Andrej Zborowski (Nicolas Giraud), hapless policeman Inspecteur Albert Caponi (Gilles Lellouche) and big-game hunter (Jean-Paul Rouve) with the same pout, Gallic Shrug and look of distain, Adèle comes across as adorable when she should really be annoying, this is largely thanks to the delightful Louise Bourgoin.

The film is not completely without flaw, at its heart is an often slapstick comedy of errors that could have been aimed squarely at children but it never feels like a kids film. This is emphasised by a brief glimpse of nudity that may have felt out of place or even gratuitous if not in a French film. The greatest success of the movie is the casting of Louise Bourgoin who is brilliant in the title role. I don’t think the film is strong enough to make her as iconic as Audrey Tautou’s Amélie or Anne Parillaud’s Nikita but it isn’t far off.

Not the best film I have seen this year but certainly the most fun and one I would like to see more of. Given the fact that the movie is already in profit before it is released in the lucrative North American Market suggests we may see more of Adèle Blanc-Sec.

Four Stars out of Five

★★★★★

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Sidney Lumet (1924–2011)

 

 

Sidney Lumet (1924–2011)

 

Just a couple of weeks after Elizabeth Taylor we have lost another Hollywood legend, this time one who made his name behind the camera, Sidney Lumet. Lumet made his way into film via television in the 50s making his feature film directorial debut in 1957 with an adaptation 12 Angry Men (adapted from a teleplay of the same name by Reginald Rose). An impressive debut that earned him the first of his four Best Director Oscar nominations, and still my favourite of his movies.

Despite being nominated a further three times as a director and once for adapted screenplay (Prince of the City (1981)) he sadly never won an Oscar: The Verdict lost to Richard Attenborough for Gandhi; Network to John G. Avildsen for Rocky; Dog Day Afternoon to Milos Forman for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest; 12 Angry Men to David Lean for The Bridge on the River Kwai. Some of those are more understandable than others, but that’s an argument for another day.

One thing I will always remember Lumet for is getting great (often career best) performances from his actors, for example: Paul Newman in The Verdict (1982), Al Pacino in Dog Day Afternoon (1975) and Serpico (1973), Sean Connery in The Hill (1965), Rod Steiger in The Pawnbroker (1964) and the entire casts of Network (1976) and 12 Angry Men (1957). A point proven by the fact no fewer than seventeen actors have been nominated for acting Oscars in his movies: Katharine Hepburn, Rod Steiger, Al Pacino, Ingrid Bergman, Albert Finney, Chris Sarandon, Faye Dunaway, Peter Finch, Beatrice Straight, William Holden, Ned Beatty, Peter Firth, Richard Burton, Paul Newman, James Mason, Jane Fonda and River Phoenix. Four of them actually won, Bergman (Murder on the Orient Express), Dunaway, Finch and Straight all for Network

With over fourty movie credits to his name, Lumet moved back into TV with the short lived but acclaimed legal drama 100 Centre Street (2001–2002). What turned out to be his final film Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead (2007) is hugely underrated contained his trademark acting including a great performance from Marisa Tomei in her best role in years.

For those not familiar with his work, I recommend you start with . Still working into his 80’s he was a great director who will be sadly missed.

  

 

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Danny Boyle – Film by Film

With 127 Hours currently on general release in the UK I thought I would take a look back at the previous movies of one of the UK’s best directors Danny Boyle. The first thing of note is that he has never made a bad movie, almost as notable is the variety demonstrated in his choice of projects. The mixture of genres on display should not be mistaken for a lack of direction, his movies do all have certain themes running through them and all demonstrate his flair as a filmmaker. His characters often make life changing decisions that sometimes have a moral right vs. wrong theme. These characters are not typical movie stereotypes, they are complex and flawed just like real people. A director who always seems to get the most out of his casts, most of his movies feature fantastic performances from actors whether they are moviestars or unknowns.

 

Shallow Grave (1994)

Three friends have a decision to make when they find the dead body of their new flatmate along with a pile of cash. There actions and the consequences of them make for a superior crime thriller as well as a very dark comedy. In some ways it is Danny Boyle’s best movie and according to a recent radio interview it is his fathers favourite of Boyle’s movies. The movie also provided an early starring role for Ewan McGregor and certainly played a part in his future career.

 

Trainspotting (1996)

Based on the Irvine Welsh novel of the same name telling the story of a group of Scottish heroine addicts.  A stunning and totally flawless movie that could not be improved upon from its perfect casting (including Ewan McGregor again) to its amazing soundtrack.

 

A Life Less Ordinary (1997)

Ewan McGregor stars in his third (and final to date) collaboration with Boyle as a disgruntled employee who kidnaps his formed bosses daughter. Aided by two unlikely angels the pair fall in love. A slightly disjointed movie is my least favourite of the directors movies, but following Trainspotting was an impossible task.

 

The Beach (2000)

Adapted from Alex Garland’s novel of the same name that Nick Hornby described as “A Lord of the Flies for Generation X”. A misunderstood and underappreciated movie notable as the first collaboration between Boyle and novelist turned screenwriter Alex Garland. As with most Danny Boyle movies the acting is first rate and the movie is seamlessly constructed and above all highly entertaining.

 

28 Days Later (2002)

A group of animal rights activists release a chimp from a research lab, 28 days later a genetically engineered plague has engulfed the country. There has been a huge amount of debate as to if the “infected” people in the movie are zombies or not, putting this issue to one side and looking at the bigger picture, this is one of the best horror movies or recent years. Telling the story from the point of view of an ordinary person is nothing new but as with everything Danny Boyle does it is handled supremely well here.

 

Millions (2004)

seven year-old Anthony and his nine year old brother find a duffel bag containing a quarter of a million pounds, their situation is further complicated as the currency will cease to be legal tender in a few days. Never a director to do the predicable thing, moving from horror to family friendly comedy/drama. Probably Boyles least well know movies but one not to be missed.

 

Sunshine (2007)

Set in the near future the sun is about to die bringing an end to life on earth. A space ship has to transport a nuclear bomb into the sun to re-ignite it, when it fails another crew is sent to finish the job making them humanities last hope for survival. Moving from Danny Boyle’s least know to one of his least appreciated movies. A great thriller with a perfect blend of tension and action and an existential undertone. If you haven’t seen it you should, if you didn’t like it give it another go, it may just grow on you.

 

Slumdog Millionaire (2008)

Jamal a Mumbai teenager is arrested on suspicion of cheating on the Indian version of “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?” We are then treated to his life story told in flashback and explaining how he knows the answers. But the movie and Jamel have one last secret, the reason he is on the show in the first place. A triumph of filmmaking with a great story, brilliant acting, and a perfectly conceived structure but most importantly a lot of heart. A deserved Oscar winner.

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The British Are Coming

I grew up watching Ealing Comedies, Hammer Horrors and James Bond movies completely oblivious to the lack of a film industry here in Britain. Then in 1982 the Chariots of Fire screenwriter Colin Welland declared “the British are coming” during his Oscar speech forecasting a rebirth of British cinema. His promise failed to materialise but in recent years British directors seem to have snuck under the wire and following in the footsteps of Alfred Hitchcock and Charlie Chaplin are making movies from within Hollywood.

Christopher Nolan was born in London forty years ago. His first film Following (1998) may have grossed less than $50,000 but when you put it into prospective it is pretty impressive; the film was shot at weekends over the course of a year and cost around $6,000 to make. After great word of mouth following its premier at the 1998 San Francisco Film Festival it was picked up by various distributors around the world including Zeitgeist Films in America. Off the back of this and in some ways more importantly this resulted in a script being optioned by Newmarket Films, the resultant film was Memento (2000). The rest as they say is history: Next came a remake of the 1997 Norwegian film Insomnia (2002); Batman Begins, the movie that reinvented, rebooted and resurrected the Batman franchise killed by Joel Schumacher in 1997; Based on a novel by Christopher Priest and set in the 19th century The Prestige (2006) was a change in direction for Nolan; Then came film that no one expected, The Dark Knight (2008), an intelligent action thriller that just happened to be a comic book movie, oh and it grossed a billion dollars; His most recent movie Inception (2010) is still going strong in Cinemas so may also hit the billion dollar mark when it makes its way onto DVD. Amongst other future projects a third Batman film has been announced.

Sam Mendes: In 1990 at just twenty-five years old Sam Mendes was directing stage productions for the RSC (Royal Shakespeare Company), just two years later he became artistic director of the Donmar Warehouse theatre in London. His most famous production there came in 1998 with David Hare’s The Blue Room starring Nicole Kidman. He made his directorial debut with American Beauty (1999), the film was a critical and financial success grossing over $350million and won the Oscar for best picture and best director. Based on a comic book Road to Perdition (2002) was nominated for six Oscars. Although it failed to live up to the critical and financial success of his debut Jarhead (2005) was a cutting and irreverent satire based on a true story and well worth seeing if you haven‘t allready. Revolutionary Road (2008) was notable for great acting without being a great movie, Away We Go 2009 failed to find an audience but didn’t stop Mendes from getting the dream job of directing the next James Bond movie. Now in abeyance it remains to be seen if the Sam Mendes 007 movie ever happens but he does have other projects on the way including movie based on the graphic novel series Preacher and a movie remake of the ITV mini series Lost in Austen.

Ridley And Tony Scott: Born in the north east of England seventy-two year old Ridley Scott has been making movies for over thirty years following a successful career making television commercials. With nearly twenty directing credits to his name I will just give you the highlights: Alien (1979); Blade Runner (1982); Thelma & Louise (1991); Gladiator (2000); Black Hawk Down (2001); Kingdom of Heaven (2005). With two Alien prequels announced it looks like there is still more to come from Scott. Although commercially successful younger brother Tony has failed to receive the critical acclaim of his elder brother (sometimes unfairly), his movies include: The Hunger (1983); Top Gun (1986); Revenge (1990); Days of Thunder (1990); True Romance (1993); Crimson Tide (1995); Spy Game (2001). Keeping it in the family Ridley’s daughter Jordan Scott directed her feature debut last year Cracks (2009).

Danny Boyle: Now joining the infiltration: Born in Lancashire in the ‘50’s to parents of Irish decent Boyle worked in theatre and television before making his feature with Shallow Grave (1994), he quickly followed it up with Trainspotting (1996) based on a novel by Irvine Welsh. His first move to Hollywood to make A Life Less Ordinary (1997) is probably his only misstep. The Beach (2000) was unfairly panned by critics and was a commercial success, it was also the first collaboration with British novelist turned screenwriter Alex Garland. Going back to basics 28 Days Later (2002) was shot on digital video with a budget of just $5million. A commercial and critical success it has allread spawned a sequel 28 Weeks Later with a possible second sequel 28 Months Later on the way. Family friendly Millions (2004) represented change of direction but retained Boyles flair. Sunshine (2007) was popular with the critics but wasn’t a hit with cinema goers, I think a lot of people just didn’t get it. Then out of nowhere came Slumdog Millionaire (2008), eight Oscars including Best Picture and Best Director and a box-office approaching $400million has promoted Danny Boyle to the big-time and sent him back to Hollywood. His next movie 127 Hours (2010) is based on the true story of Aron Ralston an American mountain climber who has to make an impossible decision following and accident.

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Cruise, Kidman, Kubrick and the F word: Memories of 1997 and 1999

While I was a student I was briefly seeing a Norwegian girl who was working over here as an Au Pair. One day we were in a pub and she pointed to the TV that was showing a trailer for one of Tom Cruise’s movies that was going to be on TV later in the day. She made a comment about him being really nice, I thought at first she meant something different but it actually transpired that she had met him (on several occasions) and found him to be a charming and funny man. Stunned by this casual reference to knowing one of the biggest stars in the world I was keen to know more. She explained that when she first came to England the agency she worked for placed he at Luton Hoo* that was being used as a location for a movie.

Her job was to look after the children of the cast and crew during filming. This immediately got my attention; I wanted to know what they were filming. She couldn’t tell me, she was on or around the set for several weeks but didn’t really know what was going on, the most she could tell me was that there were lots of people and they wore nice clothes. It wasn’t until I asked what Cruise’s then wife Nicole Kidman was doing while she looked after the kids that things started to fall into place, she casually mentioned “oh she’s in the film too”. The movie she had witnessed been made was Eyes Wide Shut and she had also met the director Stanley Kubrick although she didn’t know his name and didn’t really have anything to do with him. As for Nicole Kidman, she had less contact with her than her “charming and funny” husband so didn’t really form an opinion but did say “she is even more beautiful in real life”. So two years pass Stanley Kubrick dies and the movie finally comes out. I later found out that the parts of the movie shot at Luton Hoo where mainly the interiors of Victor Ziegler’s (Sydney Pollack) New York house and the party scene set their would account for the “nice clothes”

But was the movie any good? It Received mixed reviews on release but did quite well at the box-office grossing nearly two and half times its $65million budget despite poor marketing. I actually really enjoyed it and it ranks highly of my top ten movies of 1999 (probably the best single year for movies in my memory) and it was the first DVD I ever purchased (I was given The Matrix and Go around the same time).

The biggest problem with the movie is people’s expectations. Some went in expecting something approaching porn, others wanted to see a typical Tom Cruise blockbuster what we actually got was a slow, thoughtful, impeccably constructed and beautiful movie. For me, from an acting point of view I think it represents a career high for both Cruise and Kidman who appear to be putting their heart and soul into the performances. It has been reported many times that the actors were completely subservient to their auteur director on a long and arduous shoot, we will probably never know if making the movie had a negative effect on the couple’s marriage that ended a couple of years later but it is possible.

The last word spoken in the movie (by Nicole Kidman) is “Fuck” that would probably have been my reaction after first seeing the movie if I wasn’t completely speechless. In the case of Kidman’s character, Alice the word is a solution to the couples problems but spoken in such a way that it is open to countless interpretations. To put it into context, it’s the final scene the couple are in a department store Christmas shopping with their daughter (out of earshot) when they say:

Alice: I do love you and you know there is something very important we need to do as soon as possible.

Bill: What’s that?

Alice: Fuck.

For me the word fuck was more an expression of what have I just seen? Eyes Wide Shut is a movie I love but have never been able to find the words to review it. I sat down with the intention of reviewing it today but was unable to hence my recount of this little story.

Written as part of the LAMB “Director’s Chair”. Be sure to check out the other Stanley Kubrick related blogs.

 *Luton Hoo is a mansion set in 1065 acres of English countryside that straddles the Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire borders near the town of Luton. In 2007 it was turned into a luxury (£400 a night) Hotel and Spa, prior to that it is best known as a location for movies such as: A Shot in the Dark, Never Say Never Again, Four Weddings and a Funeral, The World Is Not Enough, Quills and Enigma. It is also conveniently located around five miles from where Stanley Kubrick in Harpenden.

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Happy 80th Birthday Clint Eastwood

Yes that’s right, Clint Eastwood is 80 today. With over fifty years experience as an actor and nearly forty as a director there is no word more suitable to describe Eastwood than legend. Although he hung up his acting hat after Gran Torino he still appears to be going strong as a director with supernatural thriller Hereafter is in post production and is set for release in the autumn (it stars Matt Damon and Bryce Dallas Howard) and a J. Edgar Hoover biography in pre-production, Leonardo DiCaprio is rumoured for the title role.  Below is a list of essential Eastwood directed movies that I first published last year, it also featured in the LAMB directors chair series. Picking just ten was difficult as all his films are worth seeing for one reason or another. I have tried to pick a combination of the best, the most interesting, the most memorable and the most groundbreaking:

 

Play Misty For Me:

“Careful! I might put your eye out”

Eastwood’s directorial début is the story of a one night stand with an obsessed fan that turns into a taught suspense thriller as she begins to stalk him. Think fatal attraction but better! Eastwood plays it safe with the Carmel setting and Jazz score but puts his heroic mescaline image on the line by casting himself as a self centred character who becomes a victim. The slow deliberate direction and the great use of the beautiful location show great maturity from the fledgling director and points the way of things to come.

 

The Outlaw Josey Wales:

Bounty hunter - “A man’s got to do something for a living these days”Josey Wales – “Dyin’ ain’t much of a living, boy”

This film stands up as one of Eastwood’s best westerns along side the “Dollars trilogy” and Unforgiven. It has all the classic western themes such as revenge and redemption and is full of great characters. Most notably Lone Watie played by Chief Dan George to great comic effect.

Heartbreak Ridge:

“With all due respect, sir, you’re beginning to bore the hell out of me.”

This may at first glance be a strange choice along side classics like Unforgiving and Million Dollar Baby but watching Heartbreak Ridge again for the first time in years you suddenly realise that it stands up well and is a really good film. Eastwood demonstrated his comic timing as both an actor and a director. The story is compelling and its themes are as relevant as ever. Even back then people wanted to work with him Mario Van Peebles learnt to play guitar just to get a role in the film.

Bird:

“The bird has just a little time to flutter”

Eastwood’s love of jazz made him the perfect director for this Charlie Parker biopic. The film is beautifully photographed and gives a real sense of 40/50’s America. But it is the acting that makes the film great. Eastwood gave Forest Whitaker the role of a lifetime and he repays by giving the performance of a lifetime (I include his Oscar winning Last King of Scotland performance in that). Whitaker shows all the pain of Parker’s troubled life in a completely compelling performance.

White Hunter Black Heart:

“You, my dear, are the ugliest goddamn bitch I have ever dined with”

A fictional account of a movie director who becomes obsesses with hunting and killing an elephant that has a striking (intended) similarity to John Huston whilst filming The African Queen. Eastwood’s performance (and the use of an accent other than his own) is different to his usual but completely believable. The film is worth seeing just for the scene where Eastwood’s character confronts an anti-Semitic dinner guest (the quote above comes from that scene). It is at this moment you realise the character is not beyond redemption.

Unforgiven:

“That’s right. I’ve killed women and children. I’ve killed just about everything that walks or crawled at one time or another. And I’m here to kill you, Little Bill, for what you did to Ned”

Unforgiven tears away all the mythology of the western genre (that Eastwood helped to build up) and gives us a gritty, dirty and violent vision of the old west. Like all his other great films the thing that makes this film stand out is the first rate acting. Eastwood’s William Munny is a fantastic character but the film shines because of the first rate support from Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman and Richard Harris.

Million Dollar Baby:

“Frankie likes to say that boxing is an unnatural act, that everything in boxing is backwards: sometimes the best way to deliver a punch is to step back… But step back too far and you ain’t fighting at all”

A truly hard hitting (bad pun completely intended) movie. I went in to the film expecting it to simply be a sports movie and that would have been good. Whilst other sports have suffered on film boxing often comes out well, there have been lots of great boxing movies, Raging Bull being the best. What we got was so different to what I was expecting. The film is moving along nicely when it takes a huge U-turn. The characters played by Eastwood himself, Hilary Swank and Morgan Freeman are all excelant in their own right but there is more to it than that. The relationship and interaction between the characters is what makes the film. If you haven’t seen the film it is both devastating and uplifting and a must see film.

Mystic River:

“We bury our sins here, Dave. We wash them clean”

What starts out as a simple murder mystery becomes so much more. A tragic haunting film that will stay with you long after you have seen it. Sean Penn proves that he is the best actor of his generation with a towering performance. The lighting and photography (Provided by Eastwood’s usual cinematographer Tom Stern) is truly stunning giving a moody atmospheric backdrop for the film.

Flags of Our Fathers & Letters from Iwo Jima:

“I know it’s a good thing, raising the money and that, ’cause we need it. But, I can’t take them calling me a hero. All I did was try not to get shot. Some of the things I saw done, things I did, they weren’t things to be proud of, you know?”

I have included these films as one as they are two sides of the same story shot back to back. Letters from Iwo Jima is probably the better of the two and is about the Japanese defeat on the island, it is based on letters discovered on the island. It goes deep into the mentality and philosophy of the Japanese people and their army. Flags of Our Fathers concentrates on the stories of the six men who raised the flag and the iconic photograph of them doing it (or not as the case may be!) It follows them back home and how they were used for propaganda. The young cast do a great job in a thought provoking film.

Gran Torino:

“Get me another beer, Dragon Lady! This one’s running on empty”

I have controversially chosen Gran Torino over the more critically acclaimed Changeling simply because Angelia Jolie’s great performance aside I actually think Gran Torino is a better film. Eastwood’s character Walt Kowalski is a cantankerous old man who seems to be the sum of all the characters he has played throughout his career. What I wasn’t expecting is just how funny the film would be. I have heard suggestions by people who have taken quotes from the film out of context that it is a racist film. I actual fact although it does have a few things to say on the subject it is far from racist if anything it is the opposite. It deals with many other topics including: life, death, love, loss, hate, age, race, religion and identity. The first must see movie of 2009.

 

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