Found On The Web, Reads

Here’s a couple of the articles that I’ve come across on the net the last couple of months that I remembered to make a note of.

Good profiles of actors...

- Dan Callahan in Bright Lights George Sanders A Mitigated Cad

- The Daily Mail had a great piece on How Sean Connery seduced a movie legend and faced the wrath of the Mafia

-  Tony Curtis on his fling with Marilyn Monroe 

In the Guardian: 

- Jason Solomons helps Danny Boyal recall the talented cast of Trainspotting

- Kira Cochrane reflects on Teeth and cinema's avenging angels

- Dennis Cozzalio prepares for a screening of 1941 and I Wanna Hold Your Hand 

- And then he follows it up

- An oral history of The Rise and Fall of Chappelle’s Show

- Barbara Kopple's  favorite Docs

- Scott Marks reports on a supposed uncut print of A Night At The Opera found in Hungarian Film Archives

- I’ve only seen two of them but it’s a cute little list at IFC

 Counting Down Ten Sadly Underseen Films

-sweeneyrules

Greatest Hits - Damn you! God damn you all to hell

It's a madhouse!

I know we don’t get a chance to post as much as we would like to (currently I’m putting together an epic list of actors directing films). And I know the blog can be sloppy and I usually go edit stuff I wrote days after posting, I need distance to see all my typos and mistakes. But i can proclaim, we’ve said a lot of stuff before most of the other mainstream media outlets. 

For instance you mighta noticed recently with the release The House Bunny, critics and writers finally took notice of the comedic talents of Anna Faris, they were falling all over themselves praising her. Well you may recall sometime ago I wrote a gooey drunken love letter to her (where I also pointed out her comic genus) entitled I Think I Like-LIKE Her.

With the new awful looking De Niro/ Pacino flick about to be released. Critics are finally starting to write pieces about their wasted talent. Just today The NY Sun’s James Snyder wrote Pacino & De Niro Circle Back To Each Other

And the great David Thomson wrote a good piece You want ham with that? in The Guardian.

Of course I’ve been making fun of those two over-emoters since we started this blog

I pointed out the limits in the roles Pacino and De Niro do in Cop Or Criminal

and with Coppola Now! I wondered... “The movies no longer feel like events and De Niro no longer seems to give a shit who he works with.  Why did he do Hide and Seek? Was he dying to work with the director of Swimfan?”

And concerning Pacino’s flick 88 Minutes I asked "How many different Producers... does it take to screw in a (lame lookin') light-bulb?

A recent festival in NY had all the NY writers reexamine the underrated career of crazy Charlton Heston.

We wrote and posted a bunch Chuck stuff with Your Name's Mud

Two movies that were only on VHS I wrote about a while ago, have recently been released on DVD and “rediscovered” (by people without VCRs)

King Of The Gypsies and Baby, It’s You

And watch come December when Frost/Nixon gets released and the awards hoopla starts, everyone will be falling all over themselves to reexamine Frank Langella’s career. Just remember, we all ready did that.  Frank Langella Starting Out The Evening 

As The Chuck told Dr Zaius "We Did It First! And we did it better!" 

Shit let me go check my DVD see if I quoted that right.

-sweeneyrules

REPRESSED SEXUALITY IS BAD FOR TEENAGE GIRLS

Recently I rewatched Peter Weir’s haunting 1975 flick Picnic At Hanging Rock.  Dug it the first time I saw it. But wowie, this time, I went gaga.  Matter-of-fact, I’m obsessed now.  I can’t stop thinking about this little flick.  With it’s eerie pan-flute score and it’s Virgin Suicides-like dreamy teen-memory feel, I keep trying to put the pieces together in my head.  What just happened?  What did I miss?  What was actually in the movie and what cracks in the story did my brain automatically fill in for me?

For those who haven’t seen it, here’s the Criterion DVD site's synopsis...

Twenty years after it swept Australia into the international film spotlight, Peter Weir's stunning 1975 masterpiece remains as ineffable as the unanswerable mystery at its core. A Valentine's Day picnic at an ancient volcanic outcropping turns to disaster for the residents of Mrs. Appleyard's school when a few young girls inexplicably vanish on Hanging Rock. A lyrical, meditative film charged with suppressed longings.

Based on a 1967 novel by Joan Lindsay which had already taken on a legendary status in Australia. 

I can’t get enough info on it. I’m dying to learn more.

Unfortunately Criterion’s DVD is, um, lacking.  

While the English 3-disc Deluxe Edition DVD is loaded with hours of extras including the 25 minute on-set documentary A Recollection: Hanging Rock 1900.  

But what has me in a total drool, appears to be the feature length documentary (It's like ninety minutes long!  That’s longer then your average Adam Sandler flick) called A Dream Within a Dream: The Making Of 'Picnic At Hanging Rock.

I've been combing the internet to see if anyone downloaded the doc, to watch on-line.  But I haven't found it yet....YET.

* Some of the foreign additions also contain many of the deleted scenes.  Which are explained with photo’s here.

* Apparently Hanging Rock itself has become a tourist trap which plays up the myths created by the movie and the book.

* This site, Castle Of Spirits explains the origins of the ‘fact or fiction’ behind the story.

* In the article Picnic at Hanging Rock: The Unseen Voices, writer John Godl discusses the casting of the young girls and the eventual complete voice over work done with one of the actresses work.  For a guy like me who wants to gobble up all the info I can, it’s fascinating stuff.  But Godl does get a little whiny about the voice actresses not getting their (kudos) due.

* I must say most of the user’s comments on IMDB are usually really lame. 

But one ‘commenter’ fedor8 from Serbia weighed in (Not recommendable to MTV fans..., 7 August 2007) with some interesting observations and theories concerning the Botticelli Angel.

* Bookmice goes even further with the ideas and themes behind the imagery.

THIS JUST IN:  I just came across these... 

* Rock of Ages by Michael J Bayly which is loaded with info!

* Brett Mckenzie offers his "Solution to Joan Lindsey's Novel".

* In an interview with the director, Peter Weir points out some "mysteries aren't necessarily there to be solved".

Picnic at Hanging Rock is often compared to Antonioni's L'Avventura (1960) and perhaps Powell & Pressburger's  Black Narcissus (1947).  Fairly Roger Ebert compares the movie to David Lean’s final film, the adaptation of the E.M. Forster novel A Passage To India (1984).  Both, unexplained mysteries involving  suppressed Victorian sexuality and public hysteria.

I’m reminded of Don Siegel's The Beguiled (1970).  In which Clint Eastwood plays a wounded Union soldier taken in by the residents of a girls boarding school, where he goes about seducing the Head master (Geraldine Page), the teacher and the students.  

It’s a sorta Southern-Gothic yarn. Clint with his big, cool, blow-dried 70’s hair, in probably the closest he’s been to a villain and his most ‘sexual’.  It’s also  probably contains Eastwood performing more dialog then all his previous films combined. 

Zelena at Live Journal fits both films ‘within the 'Girls' School' genre’.  

A favorite genre of mine, that might also include Clouzot’s brilliant Hitchcockian thriller Diabolique (1955).  As well as the more obvious The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969) and The Children's Hour (1961) and the groovy Therese and Isabelle (1968) and the recent disappointing The Woods (2006). 

You could also though in The Trouble with Angels (1966) and it’s sequel Where Angels Go Trouble Follows! (1968), along with the Australian flick Flirting (1991) and the French  Innocence (2004) and the Canadian Lost and Delirious (2001) and the TV-Movie Satan's School for Girls (1973).  Dario Argento has at least two, Suspiria (1977) and Phenomena (1984).  And maybe I'd add the misplaced 007 classic On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969).

Here’s hoping we, the poor souls in the bloody-States who don't have region-free players, will someday get our own neato two or three disc version of Picnic At Hanging Rock (and how about The Magnificent Ambersons on DVD? Like Europe has.)  Maybe new leadership from the White House in 09 will finally rescue us from being a third-world-country DVD-wise.

-sweeneyrules

JUNE READS

Some of the more interesting reads I've stumbled across this last month, that have helped me not finish the books I've been trying to read... 

Being published in installments at Movie City News are pieces of screenwriter Larry Gross’s diary from the set of the 48 Hours. Good behind the scenes stories of director Walter Hill and stars Eddie Murphy, Nick Nolte, etc. A great read.

Part One: Before The Movie Shoots

Part Two: The First 120 Hrs. Of Production

Part Three: Philosophical In San Francisco

Part Four: Subway Shooting

At Film In Focus

Director Alexander Mackendrick on his brilliant Sweet Smell of Success

Two of the most unusually sexy actresses ever...

At Bright Lights Film Journal, the great and dare I say, underrated Noir star, is profiled by Dan Callahan, Fatal Instincts: The Dangerous Pout of Gloria Grahame (pictured)

And at DVD Times I came across an Interesting old interview with the star of Thriller: A Cruel Picture, Looking for Mushrooms with Christina Lindberg

Green Briar Picture Shows is loaded with epic insightful articles about old Hollywood

Check out this one, George Stevens Fights The Power

John Mcelwee writes about the directors’ fight over how his A Place In the Sun should and shouldn’t be presented on television

Liz Jones of the UK’s Daily Mail reveals... Models on the make, seedy millionaires and porn between the premieres

Cannes of worms: The ugly truth about the world's most famous film festival

Chris Evans In The Independent tells the fascinating story of...

How Sir David Lean had an epic falling out with Steven Spielberg over the filming of a Conrad novel

While Geoffrey Macnab wonders How David Lean's sex life shaped his films

In Variety  Steve Chagollan claims Warren Beatty perfected art of evasion: The maverick filmmaker worked at his own pace 

Reacting to Entertainment Weekly’s dopey cover story, on his Scanner Blog Jim Emerson asks What makes a movie a "classic"?

In Other movie list news...

The Onion’s AV Club continues to put together fun ones, I got a kick out of their

"I might have a whole new life, next time you see me": 25 worthwhile documentaries about ambitious outsiders

It’s got the usual suspects like Crumb and The Cruise, and it might be a little musician heavy. But I’m always happy to read about two my all time favs American Movie and The King Of Kong.

And I was glad the included the underrated  How To Draw A Bunny about the late pop artist (and fellow Cass Tech grad) Ray Johnson.

And finally, here’s a brilliantly written theater review at Backstage.

- sweeneyrules

STUFF: SEXY FILM GEEKS, 1968, LAZY ACTORS, BLAH BLAH BLAH

HOLLYWOOD- Sitting here on Saturday Night, drinking a beer, watching The Shootist, when I should be out trying to bang chicks, I recalled back to a couple weeks ago when I was at The Egyptian Theater checking out a James Mason double feature. 

I spotted the fantastic writer Kim Morgan whose website Sunset Gun is one of my favs for interesting articles.

Dorkaly, I said hello to her, said I dug her site and I made googly eyes at her. 

The dudes she was hanging with, shuffled her away from me.

Oh did I mention she’s like, good looking. And she knows a lot about movies!

Oh baby, what coulda been.

So defeated, I went to my seat and watched Joe inhale a box of milkduds.

(Maybe I should have done the Chachi “wa wa wa” to her).

Any-whooo...

Recently she posted a fun piece on her Favorite Car Movies (Two Lane Blacktop, etc. Glad to see Mad Max included)

Personally I hate cars (grew up in Detroit). Maybe I’ll make a list of my favorite bicycle movies...

Let’s see, off the top o’ my head... The Bicycle Thief, Breaking Away, The Muppet Movie, Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid, The Wizard of Oz, Condorman, etc. 

(Wow, these lists just roll out of me like magic or a gift (and sometimes a curse) from.... God!”).

Also I should point out a few weeks ago Mrs Masters posted a great piece celebrating what woulda been Bette Davis’ one-hundredth birthday. Give those reads.

Speaking of that old biddy (Davis, not Morgan)

This cool site Cine Beats have a excellent examination of the flick The Nanny (1965)

After being so disappointed watching  Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte, I tend to blow off all those post  What Ever Happened to Baby Jane thrillers Davis made, but this piece makes me wanna recheck out this Hammer flick (I watched it some years ago, but didn’t give it my full attention, I think I was clipping my toe nails that evening).

Speaking of sexy movie-nerd babes... 

You may of read Manohla Dargis’ review of a documentary, I’m completely itching to see, Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired

Good news: it’s been announced that it’ll premiere on HBO this summer, as well as a number of other festival-fav documentaries.

The controversial doc about the shrimpy Polish director of Rosemary’s Baby will premiere on June 9th. 

Hey, can someone with HBO tape it (or burn it or whatever) for me?

For that matter, did anyone tape that final season of The Wire? Salivating to see that as well.

Speaking of Rosemary’s Baby...

It 'twas 1968, a landmark year for flicks, a watershed moment, the end of an era, the summer of love, blah blah blah....

In his Dread Reckoning column at Pop Matters 

Marco Lanzagorta  calls 1968 ‘A Terrifying Ruby Jubilee’

and illustrates “...1968 saw the radicalization of American society, and an accompanying revolution in the realm of horror genre film making".

Anticipating programs at Film Forum and The Lincoln Center in the NY Times, A.O. Scott explains under the title The Spirit of ’68 “Paris in 1968, as turbulent a year cinematically as it was politically”

I’m waiting to find a used copy or when it comes out in soft cover, but I’m excited to read Mark Harris’s book Pictures at a Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood. 

He breaks down who the five flicks nominated for the Best Picture Oscar came to be and what they represented in the film world.

On KCRW’s The Treatment, Harris was interviewed by Elvis Mitchell 

Sarah Kerr at Slat reviews the book.

What Five Academy Award Contenders Can Tell Us About The '60s

There’s an excerpt from the book on Entertainment  Weekly’s website 

Inside the Making of 'The Graduate

Sam Kashner had his own The Graduate article in the March issue of Vanity Fair.

Now it’s posted on the ‘net.

Here’s to You, Mr. Nichols: The Making of The Graduate 

Speaking of ‘68... 

Gene Hackman got famous that year with Bonnie And Clyde (the new double disc DVD has some great ‘making of’' shit on it).

Geoffrey MacNab of The Independent reports that Gene Hackman Bows Out (he's retiring from acting)

To bad some of his peers continue to make terrible flicks

On the Rocket Blog I pointed out the limits in the roles Pacino and De Niro do in Cop Or Criminal

And back in January, under the title Coppola Now! in writing about the two method hams I wondered....

“The movies no longer feel like events and De Niro no longer seems to give a shit who he works with. 

Why did he do Hide and Seek? Was he dying to work with the director of Swimfan?”

Stealing my idea, Patrick Goldstein in The LA Times says “The once-great actors are embarrassing”

Pacino and De Niro: How the mighty have fallen

(and he doesn’t credit me and his writing doesn’t have my charming drunken grammatical errors. Mister Bigshot, with an editor).

Speaking of fading acting careers (no not my own)...

Michael Cieply at The New Times went all Aint It Cool News, reporting about a sneak preview....

Tom Cruise, in Bit Role, Nips Studio’s Top Gun

They raved about his unbilled role in the latest forthcoming Ben Stiller flick Tropic Thunder

And now with all the disastrous speculation being written about his new flick Valkyrie 

The Times writes another lovey-dovey piece in defense of him.

The Nazi Plot that's haunting Tom Cruise And United Artists

Hmmm. I wonder if the the toothy star has “an in” there. 

Speaking of... nothing

Okay, quickly...

From Twitch

I hope this flick gets released.

Can PARANORMAL ACTIVITY Be Seen?

I kinda liked this low budget flick Mulberry Street (my ‘lil review here)

At The House Next Door there’s a good interview with the Writers/ Director

This is a crazy cool web site.

TOMB IT MAY CONCERN - David Zuzelo Scribbles on Mangled Media! One man's journal through the swamps of mangled media! From Jess Franco to Christina Lindberg to the art of Eurocine. Mangled Media knows no bounds. Nor does it recognize good taste!

"sweeneyrules out"