The Film Experience™ was created by Nathaniel R. All material herein is written by our team. (This site is not for profit but for an expression of love for cinema & adjacent artforms.)
News continues to trickle in about this year's New York Film Festival, the 49th (September 30th through October 16th). So, yes, expect 2012's festival to pull out all the stops to honor its own 50th birthday. We always cover this festival since its the easiest for The Film Experience, being NYC based, but this year we're aiming to do thrice the amount of our usual coverage. Stay tuned.
Here's what we know so far.
Opening Night ~ Roman Polanski's CARNAGE Centerpiece ~ Simon Curtis's MY WEEK WITH MARILYN (World Premiere) Closing Night & Lineup In General ~ TBA... though it's usually selections that previously debuted at Cannes or Toronto. THE SKIN I LIVE IN is frequently rumored.
The Burmese Harp (1956)Masterworks ~ This is the section where they show old films, rare prints and retrospectives.
This year they'll be screening a restored and aspect-ratio corrected print of William Wyler's much-Oscar'ed Epic BEN-HUR (1959) which is a MUST for big screen viewing. I've had the opportunity once and the chariot race has to be seen blown up for maximum effect. There will be a rare screening of Nicholas Ray's experimental WE CAN'T GO HOME AGAIN (1973) which he tinkered with until his death in 1979. And the bulk of this section is a Centennial celebration of Japan's chameleonic Nikkatsu Corporation. They're showing over 30 of their films including the Oscar Best Foreign Language Film nominees THE BURMESE HARP (1956). More on that sidebar event here.
Tickets go on sale on September 12th unless you're a Film Society member in which case you can purchase early. Among the older films, I'm definitely taking in The Burmese Harp which I've never seen.
Blu Ray CollectionI missed the final critics screening of Rise of the Planet of the Apes due to my Michigan trip, but some critics and pundits have gone quite wild for it. And once again Andy Serkis, aka Gollum aka King Kong aka Pioneer King of Motion Capture Performing, is getting "give him gold" attention.
Meanwhile, in an effort to make me feel even worse about missing the new flick before it hits theaters tomorrow, guess what arrived while I was in Michigan? The Planet of the Apes 40th Anniversary Blu-Ray Box Set. Maybe apes aren't very good at math because the first movie was from 1968 which is 43 years ago but whatever.
It looks SENSATIONAL. I love the packaging and it's even got a gatefold timeline detailing the whole sci-fi tale. I have no idea when I'll find time to watch them all (I've only ever seen the first one which I love but mostly for camp reasons... actual NSFW *LOL* shot ) but I'll try.
So with apes on the brain, I asked Team Film Experience the following question and I want to know your answers too.
WHAT'S THE FIRST THING YOU THINK OF WHEN YOU HEAR "PLANET OF THE APES"?
CRAIG: Since The Simpsons' parody, I always think of Stop the Planet of the Apes, I want to Get Off!
MICHAEL C: In college I engaged in an ill-advised marathon of Apes VHS tapes, memories of which are blurry, but one scene from the surprisingly un-terrible, Escape from the Planet of the Apes stands out. After Cornelius and Zira have time traveled back to present-day Earth and become celebrities (of course) they bizarrely engage in one of those out-on-the-town, trying on lots of different outfits montages. I have never rewatched the movie so this is one of those movie memories I am never 100% sure I didn't hallucinate. Maybe somebody can help me out with this?
ROBERT: Usually I think Charlton Heston shouting "You damn dirty apes!" However currently I can't help but think of the commercials for the new film which make me laugh every time. Those apes just look so angry.
JOSE: Charlton Heston in a loincloth *drools*, wait, eww.
Michelle Pfeiffer sightings are so rare that we must share each and every one of them. The Power of Pfandom Compels Us. She arrived in LAX two days ago so these pap' shots cropped up. Where was she coming from?
She's got her passport so my guess is a break from Dark Shadows (2012) filming in London? Or maybe she's done already. You never know.
The latest from Tim Burton is an adaptation of the cult favorite soap opera about the matriarch of a troubled family (Michelle Pfeiffer) on a crumbling creepy estate. Her centuries-old vampire relative returns (Johnny Depp). Jude Law bestie/Angelina Jolie ex Johnny Lee Miller plays Pfeiffer's brother and the ubiquitous Chloe Moretz her rebellious daughter. Most promisingly, Helena Bonham Carter plays her live in psychiatrist. A live in psychiatrist! Oh the thrilling actressy neuroses that portends.
(Don't you love how I just described the entire movie like it's about Pfeiffer when it's really all about Depp!?! I'm gifted at self-deception!)
The movie will arrive on May 11th, 2012 and no matter the quality it will make a bajillion dollars and win the Art Direction Oscar which Burton movies always do no matter how gaudy and McGothic they end up looking!
Pfeiffer's 'Dark Shadows' home... under construction
I miss the days when the thought of a new Tim Burton was exciting. Though perhaps we should be hopeful. He did direct that iconic Catwoman performance afterall and Pfeiffer has always had a knack for elevating genre pieces (see: Catwoman, What Lies Beneath, Ladyhawke, Witches of Eastwick, Wolf, etcetera)
Are you excited about Dark Shadows or have you just given up with Burton?
Bless the Walter Reade theater and The Film Society of Lincoln Center. This summer has been so trying in so many ways, but the Judy Garland retrospective is bliss. It helps that the Walter Reade is such a great place to see older films what with great air conditioning, comfortable seats and a big screen. The same can't (unfortunately) be said for the other prime NYC HQ for cinephiles (Film Forum). Anyway, people often think of Judy as an icon of tragic catharsis: heartbreak voice, trembling gesture, short life... but then you see the movies and she's just got charm for miles, a full range from light touch to direct hit, and she's funny and dazzling. Watching her proves far more joyous than tearful though sometimes the two come together.
I caught two consecutive features earlier this week from the brief moment between her ascendance (Dorothy Gale + allthose Mickey Rooney pictures) and adult superstardom (Meet Me In St. Louis). Both pictures were made around her 20th year, as she left teen stardom behind.
For Me and My Gal (1942) This was the first of Judy Garland's three pairings with Gene Kelly (and his film debut!) and the first picture where she alone was billed above the title, indicating Hollywood's new confidence in her bankability. It's a period piece with Gene & Judy playing low rent vaudeville act "Palmer & Hayden". They're attempting to up their game and become headliners at the Palace (New York) just as Judy's brother and all able bodied young men are being shipped off to World War I. Palmer (Kelly) doesn't want to go when the draft hits him and this relentless career drive looks like cowardice and lack of patriotism to everyone including Hayden (Garland).
Two of the movie musical's greatest bond over song and dance. It's a little bit like that famous scene in ONCE (2007) actually, a kindred spirit discovered at the piano.
The film peaks quite early with the title song, a thrilling example of what modern musicals are always forgetting: songs are supposed to move the story along! "For Me and My Gal" was an old standard at the time -- this is essentially a jukebox musical like Singin' in the Rain -- but it's used as a plot device, the performance of which, falsely casual over coffee, is a sneaky ploy by loveable cad Palmer (Kelly) to win innocent Hayden (Kelly) away from her current act.
As anyone who's ever seen Kelly & Garland perform together knows, they're a match. The ploy will work. That swoony soft tenor of Kelly's, the aural equivalent of a randy comfortable blanket for vocal partners to take to their beds, just nuzzles right up to her more powerful alto, and let's it do the heavier breathing while he moves. And oh how he moves. John Fricke, noted Garland historian, was on hand to introduce the film and he shared that Kelly credited Judy with teaching him how to act for the camera. He didn't yet know how subtly you can play for the camera as opposed to the stage (Before this film he'd become a Broadway sensation in "Pal Joey" and Garland lobbied to hand him this debut.). You can see Kelly's learning curve in this film but as a song and dance man, he just can't be beat.
I amend. The film peaks a little later than that, when Judy sings "After You're Gone" which would become a concert staple for her (see below).
You can chalk up the song's staying power to the weird combo of its fickle tempo changes and Garland's unfaltering emotional control of its content. The film version of this number (I couldn't find a good video), takes place in a improvisational hurry because Kelly has been seeing another woman (Márta Eggerth -- more on her in the next post) and is late to their performance. Garland is essentially selling the song AND three separate character and plot points within its ebbs and crescendos: Hayden's ascendance into a confident entertainer who is able to leave her personal drama offstage, a young girl's immediate and unruly love for a man who is clearly trouble, and a maturing woman's worry about their future as partners. The song is prophecy, future tense, but Garland manages to sell her character's past, immediate present and future depending on the note.
Amazing.
The film's second half -- once we arrive at draft dodging and war bond selling patriotism and even an actual grenade throwing war sequence, is weirdly ungainly and choppy. But the film is definitely worth seeing as a milestone in three of the greatest careers within cinema's musical genre: Garland's, Kelly's, and director Busby Berkeley who considered For Me and My Gal his best film. (People aren't always the best judges of their own work but that's still something.
For Me and My Gal (first half: B+; second half: B-)
As exit music, why not Gene Kelly dueting with wee Liza on the title track years and years after her mama's movie hit it big?
Isn't that sweet?
Next up... the other film from this time period, with some interesting similarities Presenting Lily Mars (1943)
Barack Obama is 50 years old today! Movie stars don't sing to presidents anymore. Such a shame.
If you could pick an actress to sing to Obama today, who would it be?
OOPS. I spoke too soon. In the wee hours just as this was scheduled to post, the internet started sharing video of dreamgirl Jennifer Hudson singing to him late Wednesday night. Here that is
Thursday, August 4, 2011 at 4:26PM 
The Burmese Harp (1956)Masterworks ~ This is the section where they show old films, rare prints and retrospectives.
