Podcast With Katey. Oscar Rule Change

Hey people. Katey Rich, who you'll remember from those old vodcasts and podcasts right here (that's us to the left when we were talking up Inglourious Basterds) has been making waves with her podcast/vodcast series "Kino Katey." I'm a guest star for the first time there to talk about the Oscar changes. Listen in!

She's also doing this fab new series "Virgin Territory" where she watches a classic she's never seen before and talks it up with a friend who loves it, the latest being Apocalypse Now.

Kino Katey. Oscar Rule Changes

Unsung Heroes: The Archer of 'Robin Hood'

Michael C. from Serious Film here. As a rule, I don't indulge in nostalgic, "They don't make 'em like they used to" wallowing. I don't see the point. There was quality then and there is quality now. That having been said, it doesn't mean I can't geek out over one of the shining examples of classic Hollywood, which I will now do.

Watching The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) directed by Michael Curtiz and William Keighley it is hard not to feel a twinge of longing for the studio system, Hayes Code and all. It was firing on all cylinders with this production and, man, is it glorious to behold. Everything is bold and colorful and exciting. It can go toe-to-toe with Singin’ in the Rain for pure joy of filmmaking on display. 

As a nine-year-old viewer it was enough to inspire lifelong devotion. More than anything I think I responded to the reality of the film. Not realism, of course. This is a Movie-Movie if ever there was one. I mean the tactile reality of the things physically happening on the set. This is what we are losing with CGI. When something isn't faked it reaches a viewer (especially a young one) in a powerful way. In this movie we have Errol Flynn’s athleticism - swinging on vines and scaling walls - the impossibly cool sword fighting. And the arrows. Above all the arrows.

Howard Hill (archer) with Errol Flynn (movie star)

No movie does archery like The Adventures of Robin Hood. Which brings us to the hero of this episode, one Mr. Howard Hill, archer. If the arrows here have an impact lacking in other movies there is a good reason for that. Howard Hill was actually shooting people with real arrows.

I’ll say that again.

For a bonus $150 stunt men would throw on a steel plate and some padding and Hill would shoot them with real arrows fired at actual lethal speed. They could get away with this because Hill simply never missed. Seriously, he has to be seen to be believed. You can look for yourself on the DVD extra features where he is shown in archival footage splitting twine from fifty paces. He even worked with the sound team shooting his own specially designed arrows past microphones to create that instantly recognizable high-pitched “whoosh” sound that arrows make in this movie and no other.

Now, if I had to decide whether it’s right for stuntmen to risk getting shot with arrows by anyone, no matter how skilled, I would have to be a killjoy and say no. But since the arrows in question all flew over 70 years ago, I feel at liberty to point out that this method is really, really cool. Not only does it come across brilliantly on camera, but it spares us all the tricks the director would have needed to get around fake arrows - the kind of minor slight of hand that viewers let slide but nevertheless take us out of the movie a tiny bit each time.

Legend has it Hill personally performed the unforgettable stunt of splitting the arrow in one take. I saw an episode of Mythbusters where they declared this an impossible feat for a variety of reasons. Call me naïve and protective of my favorite childhood movie but I’m not convinced. I would prefer Mythbusters amending their verdict to “Busted for anyone who is not Howard Hill.” 

previously on Unsung Heroes: Glengarry Glen Ross, Zodiac, Oldboy, The Iron Giant, Hedwig and the Angry Inch...

Are You New?

Professor (Nathaniel) R.My psychic powers tell me that some of you are new.

You know how some television series make it nearly impossible for newbies what with their complex mythologies, beloved idiosyncracies and verbal/visual shorthand for long running threads? I sometimes worry about new readers here at The Film Experience. Do they slip away in confusion? A friend once told me that TFE is way too complex with its hiearchies of heroines and love-to-hate-them "villains" that you'd need a user guide, or perhaps a castle map to navigate the throne rooms and dungeons of the cinephilia.

I don't know about all that but IF you're new, please say so in the comments and welcome!

The easiest way to get acquainted would be to check out the Best of... posts, top ten lists, Oscar coverage, or click around to regular programming like Hit Me..., "First and Last" quizzes, Unsung Heroes, or Curio. In the sidebar to your right you can find links to the most recent reviews. We've been on a bit of an animation kick lately. Oh and mutants.

Nathaniel -- sorry to refer to myself in the third person (it happens) -- also really likes to draw which is not something you get much of on other movie sites.

Welcome and stick around. Try us out on your preferred reader feed.

"Dick Tracy" Q&A with Warren Beatty

Alex (BBats) here, doing a lil’ scouting in LA. Oh my oh my!

BBats and Beatty! This past weekend, I had the pleasure to revisit Dick Tracy (1990) on the big screen courtesy of the Los Angeles Times Hero Complex Film Festival.  The film hasn’t aged a day due to that rich pulp style that seeps through every set piece, costume, matte painting, and actor.  The main draw was a Q & A with Warren Beatty after the film! Now, I was battling the flu and taking notes as fast as I could, so keep that in mind and I wouldn’t say anything below was a direct quote.

Beatty stood in the wings as the film’s end credits rolled. Big applause for the film followed and I saw a big smile grow across his face. The moderator brought him out to thunderous ovation (duh). He seemed a little cagey and very careful in selecting his words; this Q & A was for the Los Angeles Times, he pointed out, and would be in print the very next day.

Hit the jump for some Beatty, Dick, and a lil' Bening action!

On Stephen Sondheim
'He did great stuff for this…I’m such a fan of Sondheim’s. Everytime I see one of his shows, I just fall apart on the first song.'

On the film itself
'I’m disgusting because I really do like it a lot.'

Beatty had been attached to the propertry since 1976. The moderator asked why he chose Dick Tracy. Beatty said that he didn’t want to do some picture where everything got blasted around, and that Dick Tracy was this guy who had been around forever and wanted to start a family. He paused and said he thought of it as a gentle picture. (Aside: I love when people call movies "pictures". Super classy.)

This next part is so funny, let's get it right by quoting directly from the Los Angeles Times.

 “Little by little I found myself caught up enough in it to actually go and make a movie about it, because it was hard for me. … I always think of making a movie like vomiting. I don’t like to vomit, but I get to the point where I think, ‘I’d better go ahead and do this, and I’ll feel better.’” 

Everyone  rolled with laughter. The vomiting reference also maybe gives us a little glimpse as to why he hasn’t directed a film since Bulworth (1998). But back to the Q & A.

His desk needs a bucket.

Beatty began to compliment everyone in the cast and the moderator honed in on certain performances and how he cast the roles. Interestingly, Beatty compared the casting process to writing. When you cast someone it's an instant rewrite, even if you don’t change a word.

Madonna sings "MORE" in Dick Tracy and you know you want more, too: Bening, Pacino. Hoffman, Oscars and Dick Tracy sequel nuggets after the jump.

Click to read more ...

Hugh Jackman May Finally Sing On Screen. (Plus: Paul Bettany!)

If I know The Film Experience crowd you've already heard that Hugh Jackman is in talks to star in Tom Hooper's screen adapation of Les Miserables, affectionately known all over God's green earth (that show has travelled everywhere) as "Les Miz". I personally couldn't be more thrilled since Jackman as song & dance man is my all time favorite Jackman. Since I love all the other incarnations of Jackman with great muchness that is saying a hell of a lot.

(I will never ever ever forget or regret seeing him on the boards in The Boy From Oz... and the show wasn't even good!)

You may recall that we did a "Cast This" awhile back and Hugh Jackman was the favorite choice for starring in the comments. My greatest desire IF they secure Jackman --  who has been so ready to sing onscreen that he even supposedly did it in Chinese in his cameo in Snow Flower and the Secret Fan (opening soon) -- that the studio won't feel they have to have huge stars in every role and will cast according to actual vocal/acting gifts. Les Miz is not "pop" music. You can't have a pleasant voice with tiny range and merely be able to carry a tune. You've got to be able to carry epic melodrama in your voice.

Les Miz is a beast of a property and will be terrifically hard to pull off but it COULD make a great film. Especially if they cast well and cast for the roles andvoices and not from fear and bet-hedging. It's a long long way until a first trailer (ha!) but IF when it arrives, Hollywood is trying to pretend that it ISN'T a musical,  as so many modern musicals have done (despite notable box office successes in the genre in the past decade), than we'll know they blew it and the studio is nervous. But for now, I'm trying to stay optimistic. Hugh Jackman would sure help boost the possibility that it will be a great film version.

Good luck Tom Hooper. You'll need it.

AND THIS JUST IN
Paul Bettany has read and sung for the part of "Javert"