Link Club
Sunday, August 11, 2019 at 11:28AM • Variety RIP Piero Tosi one of the great costume designers. His film credits include Death in Venice, La Traviata, La Cage Aux Folles and The Night Porter so he's the one responsible for Charlotte Rampling at her most sexually provocative
• BuzzFeed good piece on Brad Pitt's talent and why he shines in weirder sideline roles as opposed to leads... though we object to any notion that he isn't a leading man in Once Upon a Time... but this battle is already lost since critics keep calling him supporting even before the Oscar campaign does. (sigh)
more after the jump including The Hunt, a fun conversation on Hobbs & Shaw, Tarantino and Almodóvar...
• Awards Circuit Joaquin Phoenix and Meryl Streep will received TIFF's inaugural Actor Tributes next month
• Gold Derby ranking Viola Davis's 12 best films
• Coming Soon Universal cancels the release of violent satire The Hunt in which wealthy types hunt "deplorables"... We don't understand the plot, to be honest. Why would the wealthy hunt deplorables when deplorables are the ones stupid enough to keep voting against their own interest which keeps the billionaire class unchecked?
• Forbes ...has some feelings about this "morally indefensible and financially unavoidable" decision
• Film School Rejects fun conversation between two female critics on the Fast & Furious franchise and Hobbs & Shaw; one loves it, the other doesn't
• Brian Koppelmann reshares an old Grantlant piece from 2014 about a plane trip with Quentin Tarantino and Tarantino's feelings about his own scripts
• Deadline Turns out Gilda Radner wrote a screenplay before her death. Somebody make this into a movie now!
• IndieWire Highlights of the Television Critics Association tour of new shows
• Cartoon Brew Nezha has become the biggest animated film of all time in China. Will it have any export potential?
• The New Beverly Kim Morgan (who is always worth a read) goes long and wistful on Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
• Los Angeles Time yet more trouble with the Disney Fox merger (monopolies are bad, people -- there used to be laws against them!)... seems 20th Century Fox's vast library will no longer be able for theatrical screenings which is really bad news for people who like to see old movies in movie theaters at specialty houses.
• The Guardian Pedro Almodovar "can no longer hide" how personal Pain & Glory is to him
Reader Comments (11)
Pitt's character primarily serves to reflect and facilitate the growth of DiCaprio's. He has no character arc of his own. I understand why one would consider him a lead and do not object to that either, but supporting is not so egregious here, especially compared to the *truly* erroneous past cases of it (Steinfeld, Mara, Vikander, Stone, etc).
Jonathan -- since when does having a character arc make you a lead though? Some supporting characters in movies get character arcs. The story is about their relationship and they each get solo adventures within the movie. Equal screentime, etcetera.
But i get what you're saying about it not being "as" egregious.
Nathaniel: Agreed. Indeed, one could say that DiCaprio's character is supporting Pitt's just as much as the other way round, in the sense that Pitt's character is slowly revealed to be more than just second fiddle to the 'star' he chauffeurs around Hollywood. The film shows us that Hollywod's stunt men and TV aerial fixers and concerned citizens/Manson Family challengers are people in their own right. For me, DiCaprio and Pitt's characters are both leads.
The recent years of category fraud (it was never so much of a problem before the 2000s) have conditioned people into thinking that a film can only have one lead. Films can have multiple leads. The Favourite arguably had three. Syd Field in his screenplay books talks about 'main' characters and 'major' characters, and I think that is useful here: main characters are leads but major characters can be leads too.
To be clear: I have no problem with superstars competing in the supporting category if they are playing supporting roles. For me, it's not so much about supporting actors/character actors being robbed of their rightful place in the category by a star placing themselves in support to win an Oscar. It's more that I object to actors who are playing supporting ROLES being crowded out by actors playing leading roles - whatever the status of the actor.
Someone pointed out that this Disney-Fox move means movies as cherished and valuable to budding cinephiles as Murnau’s Sunrise will no longer be played in repertory cinemas. That fills me with a sadness that cannot be fully articulated here, but I hope something can be done to stop this. Are there no Hollywood insiders with enough influence and appreciation for the art of film to sway these money-hungry CEOs from this crass decision? Nicholson, Beatty? Surely someone can talk some sense into Bob Iger.
Now that The Hunt has been pulled because of some Fascist shithead w/ a tiny dick? Does this mean we should try and get it shown via... illegal screenings?
Sad news about Piero Tosi, but a long life. He got a very well-deserved Honorary Oscar a few years ago. His costumes for The Leopard and Death in Venice, among others, are outstanding.
Pitt deserves an Oscar for removing his shirt and still looking so hot at 55. "The Hunt" looked to me like another version of "The Most Dangerous Game"
Edward L -- oh i dont either. I only use the character actor argument so often because the bulk of these situations are superstars in leading roles pretending to be supporitng. But when they actually have a supporting role, it's totally fine. The category is supposed to be for the supporting roles, period. And it was originally designed to honor character actors because in early Hollywood the line between leading players and "character actors" was much more pronounced. The lines have definitely blurred yes. But they're not half as blurry as Oscar campaigns pretend they are.
The film that The Hunt seemingly resembles even more than The Most Dangerous Game is the apparently forgotten 1965 Italian flick The 10th Victim.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_10th_Victim
I guess only old-time film buffs like me recall that one!
Yeah, having just seen Once Upon a Time in Hollywood this weekend, I have no idea why anyone would call Pitt's role Supporting. They're being completely disingenuous in doing so.
Rob, agreed.