Red Carpet Convos: Hungry Premieres

After a brief glamour break post-Oscar it's time to walk the red again as 2012 heats up. To kick off a new season of Red Carpet Convos, I nabbed Guy Lodge for a moment before we were both due to jet off to previous appointments. Let's discuss the Hunger Games premiere looks and other recent premiere looks.

Nathaniel: Hi Guy, we haven't talked since ‪I don't know when ... Oscars? And Jennifer Lawrence is already Best Actress campaigning at the premiere for Hunger Games.‬ What else can a gold dress mean?

Guy: ‪I was about to say -- she's clearly taken a leaf from Meryl‬. Are those figures all in proportion? Looks like you've given Lil' Josh Hutcherson a boost.

Cato, Effie, Peeta, Katniss and Gale

Nathaniel: H‪ee. I didn't meant to give Josh a boost as remove the high heels from Katniss and Effie but I think I did push it a little. You know on set they'll give him boxes to stand on or some such.

Guy:  ‪Aha! Either way, he still ends up as his own pocketable action figure.‬

Nathaniel: He comes from a long proud tradition of short leading men. Although it's trending away from the pocket-sized hunks with people like the Hemsworth boys and Alexander Ludwig (far left) and so on.‬

Guy:  ‪Which Hemsworth boy is this? I can't keep up. I only learned to distinguish Thor Hemsworth from the other Chrisses last year.‬

Nathaniel: ‪This is Liam to the far right.‬ Who also auditioned for Thor if I recall.

Guy:  ‪Looking very junior copywriter at Sterling Cooper, which is always a good thing‬

Nathaniel: Mmmm Sterling Cooper. If I didn't love Hiddlesloki so much i would suggest that maybe it would have been cool to cast actual brothers as Loki and Thor.‬

Guy:  ‪I'm amazed they resisted!‬

Nathaniel:  ‪but wait. WRONG FRANCHISE. back to Hunger Games. Have you read it?‬ (Guy's answer and more conversation after the jump)

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Yes, No, Maybe So: "Dark Shadows"

I meant to start the Burtonjuice series tonight, a full retrospective of Tim Burton each Thursday night, but that might have to wait one more Thursday. Because we're all Burton'ed out after watching the trailer to Dark Shadows twice in a row to see if it was for real.

Are you for real, trailer?

The trailer runs its mouth but does not answer.

It blabbers, nudges and winks, spreads its finger claws dramatically then goes back to amusing itself. We're glad someone is amused.

So let's break it down with our Yes, No, Maybe So system. 

YES

• It does appear that Eva Green is having some fun with her role. Particularly fun is the ass on the piano bit and her deranged in-your-face sexuality.
• Green reminds me a bit of Lisa Marie here. I know that Tim Burton has long since moved on to Helena Bonham-Carter but don't you kind of miss Lisa Marie? I do.
• Production Designer Rick Heinrichs is clearly enjoying this Production Designer's Dream Project.

• As is the costume designer.
• Ummm... I'll think of something else. I will.

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Distant Relatives: The Bicycle Thief and Broken Flowers

Robert here w/ Distant Relatives, exploring the connections between one classic and one contemporary film. This week the second in a three part series on how one classic film can have many children.

Broken Flowers isn't exactly a sexy subject for an article. In 2005, it came and went as a well received if unextravagant entry in the Jarmusch canon and another minimalist comedic melancholic performance by Bill Murray in the style of Lost in Translation. But the reason the film won me as its champion over five years ago is the same reason it fits together so nicely with The Bicycle Thief is the same reason it was dismissed by so many. This film is not about what you think its about.
 
Hitchcock called it a "macguffin." It's the plot device that exists to drive the film, but isn't really what the film is about. In The Bicycle Thief, that device is a bicycle stolen from Antonio, a poor man who needs it for work. In Broken Flowers it's a letter from an anonymous ex-lover of Don Johnston (Murray) claiming that he has a son. In both cases, this early development sets our protagonists out on an almost impossible odyssey to either find and retrieve the lost bicycle or find and reclaim the unknown child.

 

Long before modern independent filmmakers were finding influence from The Bicycle Thief (discussed last week), Jim Jarmusch was borrowing the realist aesthetic back in the 1980's as a great way to stylistically account for having little to no budget. It shouldn't be surprising that his films, which often feature social outcasts on a quest owe much to Vittorio De Sica and his neorealist contemporaries. Especially in Broken Flowers, because in both films the climax does not solve the problem or the "macguffin" put forth in the film's first act.
 
We don't know if Antonio will ever find his bike or if Don will ever find his son. It doesn't matter. The resolution of these mysteries are not the purpose of our films. The purpose is in the journey. Generally, more viewers seem to accept this in the older film, possibly because it's foreign or because those seeking it out have a greater understanding or expectation of its purpose then anything that must be marketed for modern audiences.
 
But it's not infrequent for this concept, the unresolved mystery to be met with shock. So it was in the 60's when a missing person in the Italian film L'Avventura went undiscovered. And so it was a few years ago when a showdown over a satchel of money in No Country for Old Men never came to fruition. The purpose is in the journey, not the payoff.

 

It may be too strained of a connection to suggest that both Antonio and Don's journeys are mid-life crusades to make something of themselves in the eyes of their progeny. But it's not too much to say that both missions end in abject failure, both take desperate men and hurl them deeper into desperation than they ever thought possible. Both films reveal to their protagonists truths that they failed to truly understand before: the importance of family, the dangers of vanity, and the interconnectedness of hope and pride.
 
What matters at the end of both films isn't whether their journeys have been worth taking, but how they have come to define these men's lives. Like last week, the resolution isn't particularly cheerful, but the humanity both filmmakers show toward their protagonists is palpable and the suggestion that even in middle age, a life can become redefined is powerful.

The saying "life's a journey, not a destination" is as cliched as they come. But perhaps we've not heard it enough if films with ambiguous or unresolved endings like these continue to inspire apathy or derision, or an inability to see the massively changing lives unfolding in front of us.

John Carter Vs... ?

In tribute to my friend JA who always gives good lulz with "which is hotter"... a few loincloth-offs (hmmm) between John Carter (reviewed) and his screen ancestors. You decide.

Criss-cross sci-fantasy menswear

poll by twiigs.com

 
excuse my typo there. Sean Connery. I'd fix it but then the poll would reset to zero. We can't have that and you know what I meant.

Emergency gun-manning in the desert whilst wearing only reddish loinclothes and boots!

poll by twiigs.com

Face paint and/or face blood* is a must have when calling your troops to war!

poll by twiigs.com

 *They bleed blue on Barsoom, bitches.

Oscar Dates

The countdown is on...

Oscar Nominations will be announced on Tuesday morning January 15th, 2013... or in exactly 306 days, 11 hours, and 17 minutes... or thereabouts. Not that I countdown to Nomination Morning like it's Christmas with hundreds of prezzies. Not that I do that! New Year's Eve... er, excuse me Oscar Night happens on Sunday night February 24th, 2013.

As per usual, our first set of predictions will arrive starting on April 1st, 2012. Until then there is only obsessing over this past year.