3 Notes on New Photos of "Frankenweenie"

My beloved cat has had some health issues this weekend so time has been short and I've been majorly occupied (hence Oscar chart update/ column delay). But here's a quick bit about a beloved fictional pet, "Sparky".

• Tim Burton's Frankenweenie, due in theaters less than a year from now, is a remake of sorts. That's all Burton does these days but at least this time he's reworking something from his own imagination. Frankenweenie was originally a short in 1984 and if you ever get a chance to see that one, do so. It was from the time frame when Burton was THE young director to watch, making magic every time... or every other time. Damn. Whatever. From 1982 through 1994 it was all spellbinding. I'd even throw 1996 in there but I realize Mars Attacks! isn't for everyone. ACK!
• I'm so pleased this will be a black and white stop-motion picture. With so many animated films debuting each year, it's good to have some variety. 
• Is there any other director who has never changed his hairstyle? 

• Speaking of awesome short films, Tim's Sparky looks just like Brad Bird's "Amazing Stories: Family Dog", doesn't he?
• Little Known Fact: Films about beloved animated pooches require awesome actresses in the soundbooth:Frankweenie (1984) had Shelley Duvall; Family Dog had Annie Potts; Wallace and Gromit and The Curse of the Were-Rabbit had Helena Bonham Carter; Bolt had Miley Cyrus;  the new Frankenweenie gets Winona Ryder and Catherine O'Hara !
• Are you a cat person or a dog person? And if so do you think your pet is fairly represented on film? 

NYFF: "The Artist" Is A Work of Art

The orchestra swells immediately. The retro credits practically shout the glory of the talent "MICHEL HAZANAVICIUS!", JEAN DUJARDIN!" "BERENICE BEJO!" (exclamation points ours -ed.) but the first telling words on the screen in The Artist are actually wittily posted on a sign, urging everyone to keep their mouths shut. 

Please Be Silent Behind The Screen."

George Valentin shows off at his big premiere

We are at the premiere of A Russian Affair, the latest from silent film star George Valentin (Cannes Best Actor winner Jean Dujardin) as he paces behind the screen waiting for the film to end. You can feel the tension as he waits for the audience reaction. The score drops out completely and we hear... nothing (Tension!). Then comes the audience's thunderous applause (Relief!) ... but we still hear nothing. This punchline in the absence of sound gives The Artist its first huge and knowing release of laughter. We can't hear the applause but we sure can see it in the joyous smile spreading across the star's face. That smile is already mirrored and multiplied by anyone watching this new gem.

George meets PeppyThe push and pull between what we expect to hear or see, and what comes instead is one of the great and consistent punchline joys of this silent film about silent films. Again and again the writer/director and his excellent cast (led with infectious verve by the Oscar-worthy Dujardin) will surprise and move us. Sometimes the magic comes through an unexpected camera movement or destination and sometimes through the physicality of the actors themselves and often by both at once. The laughs even come through sound -- though never in conventional ways; The Artist is, from start to finish, an exuberantly inventive homage to the movies such as they were and such as they are.

The story is both charmingly dated, and blissfully universal, which is to say contemporary; technology and tastes will always evolve and change and disrupt the status quo. George Valentin has the world at his (happy) feet in 1927 when the movie begins but by the time the 1929 title card arrives, he's already a dinosaur. He just didn't feel the asteroid's impact and hasn't yet felt the chill. Valentin laughs off his co-star's (Missi Pyle doing an intentional riff on Lina Lamont) sound test even though his director (John Goodman) warns him...

That's the future."

The future arrives, as it always does, through doors opened by the past. In 1927 Valentin gives a leg up to a complete nobody Peppy Miller (Bérénice Bejo madly winking and, well, peppy, filmed at 20 frames a second) by giving her a big fannish paparazzi moment. She makes the most of this flashbulb spotlight and lands a part in his next film A German Affair . In one of the film's funniest sequences, which sneakily lays dramatic foundation for the second act, we see them do several takes of an inconsequential dancing scene together. I won't spoil the many joys of the unfolding plot but let it suffice to say that it fondly recalls all rise and fall and pick yourself back up showbiz narratives particularly A Star is Born as Peppy's star rises (she's the new "it girl" in talkies) just as Valentin's falls. 

The future is coming

Though the film organically veers towards the sentimental in its second half, it has built such comic goodwill and affection that you don't mind laughing less as George's decline takes the film toward its heaviest dramatic moments. The Artist even risks the maudlin as Valentin keeps uncovering new rock bottoms but there's a beautiful simplicity in its heartbreak imagery. In one scene the once great star stands in front of a projector in his lonely home berating himself for being "stupid and proud"; he's now just a shadow on a smallish screen. Hazanivicious, to his credit, never stops blissfully and obviously cribbing from the best of Old Hollywood like Orson Welles, A Star is Born, Sunset Blvd., and Asta. Regarding the latter, The Artist's not so secret weapon iis its star dog "Uggy" -- a constant companion to Valentin -- who could be a direct descendant from that famous screwball comedy terrier. Best of all, Hazanavicius never settles for just one mood, usually gifting the images and scenes with multiple feelings. To cite but one example, there's a shot that highlights Valentin's disintegrating marraige to Doris (Penelope Anne Miller) which shows you three Valentin's: on the wall hangs a deified Valentin in oil portraiture, standing in front of him is Valentin the actual man realizing his wife is leaving him while holding a defaced photo of his movie star self in his hands (his wife has been scribbling on his headshot). Isn't that the archetypal private life of a celebrity actor in a nutshell?

The Artist in concept could have been a mere spoof, or a pleasant but insubstantial comic homage but Hazanavicius and his gifted team never settle, always reaching for bigger laughs, and delivering unexpected and immensely clever mise en scène. The actors are magicians, themselves. Despite the constant literal winking, as befits the era, they never figuratively wink at the material, which would take you outside of it. It's a movie of sincere and not ironic pleasure.

A retroactive time-travelling note to all selection committees of "future" film festivals in 2011: Always schedule The Artist as your Closing Night movie. It's an impossible act to follow and it'll send your audiences off with hearts soaring. They're return with pleasure the following year eager to see what you've programmed for them. When the movie opens in theaters they'll be returning, too. A

Jean DuJardin and "Uggy", a match made in heaven.

Re: the Oscars
The Artist is the best kind of Oscar contender in that it never once feels like it was built to hook the Academy, but it will surely prove irresistibly delicious bait nonetheless. Expect nominations across the board for what will surely be one of our Best Picture contenders. It's the only film this season aside from Martin Scorsese's Hugo that's so deeply infatuated with the history of the movies themselves, the very thing that the Academy was built to chronicle.

Red Carpet Convo: Glamour Casual, Festival Orgy, Namesake Pets

Nathaniel: It says "Jose is busy. You may be interrupting."
Jose: I'm lying about my status.
Nathaniel: Pants on fire! You are never too busy for fashion. This week's red carpet lineup is kind of scattershot. That's how I feel right now with four festivals seemingly happening simultaneously this week.
Jose: That we know of. Film festivals are the Starbucks of the movie world.
Nathaniel: One for every zip code. 

Nathaniel: So...this first batch is a mix of Deauville (Kate Bosworth, Shirley Maclaine, Emma Stone), Venice (Keira Knightley) and a regular ol' boring premiere somewhere (Marion Cotillard). 
Jose: I recognize the dress so it was NYC.
Nathaniel: See. I'm not even here I've already fled town mentally if not physically... yet.
Jose: I have always wondered how movie stars lose their baby fat so freaking fast. What has Marion been eating after petit Marcel was born?
Nathaniel: She's no longer eating for 2 but ‪½ ... actresses, you know.
Jose: Hopefully Guillaume is feeding the wee lad tons of baguettes and souffles but then again said baby isn't the face of Dior and Mommy is.

Nathaniel: Kate Bosworth eats for ‪⅕ so lets start with‬ her. 
Jose: lol. Remind me again, why is she famous for?
Nathaniel: I can't remember... OH the worst Lois Lane. And a surfer movie, I think.
Jose: Oh true. Also for bicolored eyes and for dating Alexander Skarsgård. 
Nathaniel: If you have to live on next to nothing there are worse things to nibble on.
Jose: She's totally doing a Pam face. He should get her a gig on his show.

Nathaniel: I think this dress is kind of pretty but she is soooo tiny and the dress so delicate that it gives the impression that the tiniest gust of wind -- even something as little as the wind currents coming off another speeding luminary passing her on the red carpet -- would all but knock her over.  
Jose: Kate is pretty but god am I bored trying to say something about her.
Nathaniel: So let's talk about Shirley Maclaine. She was there to be honored for her entire career. I think they showed the ballet epic The Turning Point (1977) of all things. This outfit looks appropriate glitzy and shiny and I love Shirley Maclean Beaty but how can she not afford a better wig? 
Jose: lol. Blame her colorist? This totally reminds me of that Sex and the City episode when Samantha follows her ex BF in disguise wearing a wig from the Raquel Welch collection.

The Many (Great) Faces of Shirley Maclaine

Nathaniel: Jose, it needs to be asked. In the cable system of your mind, are Sex & The City repeats running on like 400 of the 1000 stations? 
Jose: No, but Shirley and I both own the DVDs.
Nathaniel: Anyway, she looks really happy and she certainly deserves lifetime achievement plaudits. It's really a wonder to me that more young actresses don't hold her up as an icon. Her career was stellar, longlasting, and full of interesting movies and classic. And there are so many pixie types. But I guess none of them have a personality even remotely as large as hers. Which is maybe the problem. You can be merely elegant and fashionable and pretend you're the next Audrey Hepburn and people will go along with it for 5 minutes but to try Shirley Maclaine...
Jose: Amen. Anne Hathaway maybe when she grows up? 

Nathaniel: So Emma Stone. Stunning again. This color is gahsome on her. But I have to say... I still don't have a bead on her personal style at all. 
Jose: Her style is "Go with the greatest working designers and blow mortals' expectations every single time."
Nathaniel: Way to narrow it down.
Jose: Remember when I complained about Kate Winslet's structural obsession *fashion nerd alert*?
Nathaniel: Yes?
Jose: Well Emma is doing it right. She went with Roland Mouret, known the world over for his love of structure BUT he does structure with delicacy.
Nathaniel: I'm assuming "the world over" meaning "fashion nerd world"?

KEIRA, GWYNETH, "GLAMOUR CASUAL" and JOSE'S DOGGIE (!!!) AFTER THE JUMP.

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Review: "Beginners"

Have you ever found yourself wincing in premonitory fear that a gay character or theme will be mishandled by filmmakers or actors? Set those worries aside when approaching the expressive charming BEGINNERS. Though the story about a lonely bachelor artist Oliver (Ewan McGregor) and his newly-out dying father Hal (Christopher Plummer) is fictionalized, it has the stamp of the exquisitely personal about it. It's handmade, in other words, never to be mistaken for a movie made by committee. Writer/director Mike Mills' (Thumbsucker) own father came out of the closet when he was in his thirties and the film is an obviously loving tribute from son to father.

Gay characters in the movies are sometimes little more than caricatures and depictions still largely fall into "types". Older gay men have it especially rough in media representations; if they aren't altogether invisible they're desexualized or depicted as lonely and pitiable. Beginners won't have it like that. One could argue that it's practically heroic in its willful embrace of wholly human characters, no matter their age or sexual preference. Hal is played with lively curiousity by Christopher Plummer with that customary dark twinkle in his eye. It's actually brilliant casting since Ewan McGregor is such a kindred spirit when it comes to those mischievous undercurrents...

Read the Full Review @ Towleroad

50½ Thoughts on 101 Dalmatians

Woof! Guess which Disney classic is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year?

Yep, that's One Hundred and One Dalmatians which debuted fifty years back, January 25th of 1961 to be exact. Let's discuss with 50½ quick thoughts as 101 would send most of you clicking immediately away. The Film Experience shan't ask that much of your patience though perhaps you could share the article with 3½ friends if you enjoy it, or leave 1½ comments behind before you go. The more the merrier, you know? And doesn't the movie wag its plentiful tail at that very motto?!

01 The first charming thing is its sketchy, spotty, doggy opening credit sequence. It's a prime candidate for "Art of the Title Sequence" if only they'd do more classics.

02 The movie was released in the early 60s and takes place in London. I can't think of another animated Disney feature off the top of my head that's this British but then,  "The British Invasion" was just around the corner so maybe America's Anglophilimaniac phase was already in the air in the late 50s when Disney started storyboarding this feature?

03 One can't help but notice the immediate resemblance to the palette and cityscapes for Sylvain Chomet's The Illusionist.

04 Pongo, the first (of many) dalmatian narrates and refers to Roger as "my pet". Animated movies have anthropomorphized animals since the creation of the form but one wonders when people started joking about the inner lives of animals? Maybe Adam & Eve even chuckled about how bossy the garden creatures were?

05 Though the movie feels more leisurely than today's animated features, from its opening frame, it's giving you the narrative and characterizations pretty quickly.

06 Pongo wants Roger to settle down. The scene where he's judging human/dog pairs from the window is like one of those now cliché comic audition scenes where you see a few obviously unsuitable candidates before you get to the real goods, the final auditioner, the one you're supposed to root for.

07 Poll Time.

poll by twiigs.com

08 If you give it more than a second's thought you realize it's an odd cliché since it doesn't really occur in real life. You can take it from someone who used to do corporate recruiting. You can't really stop the auditions as soon as you love someone. There are these pesky things called politeness, appointments, and bosses who'd like a few options later on. Sometimes you end with a real dud, not the superstar! And it's not true of dating either. Most people don't settle down with the first person that isn't totally unsuitable ;)

09 Although maybe it's truthy for cutthroat Hollywood? Perhaps casting directors boot out every starving actor in the hallway as soon as they get their first wow?

10 This post: Too fancy? Much too fancy?

11 The pan around Roger's apartment is so evocative, funny, super detailed and gorgeous. It's busy and messy and bachelor chaos without being overbearing. Those background painters really outdid themselves back in the day.

12 This post is set to publish at 5:14 by Pongo's request.

13 If you haven't left work yet maybe you should right now? The weekend is upon you. Take your furry friend for a long walk in the park.

14 Wait, do you even have a dog?

15 Poll time.

poll by twiigs.com

16 How adorable is it that Pongo talks like a dog when he's with humans and we only get the translation with the animal-only scenes. The sound work is pretty strong. You can actually distinguish between the "voices". The movie is full of strong line bark deliveries.

17 The heavy ink lines around the characters are a thing of the past. When I was a little kid I bought "how to animation" books and I remember that the ink lines had something to do with the outlines for cel animation being one job and the painting of color being another entirely. Different people did different jobs though I don't remember what the various positions were actually called although one was named "inbetweeners" I think, which is such a great job title. In some scenes the heavy ink lines are much more prominent than others which I can't quite figure. Was it a quickie production? Did it change hands? Were there different teams for the different "chapters" of the movie? Any Disney historians reading?

18 Is this one of the best "meet cutes" in film history? Pongo wraps the leash around the humans and sends them tumbling into the pond. Pongo thinks it is. He's very proud. It's a sly move and he gets his own wife (Perdita) in the bargain. There's a double wedding... and soon Perdita has 15 buns in her oven.

19 Speaking of ovens... "Nanny" is the stock plump "help" Disney character -- it's like they don't even redesign them at all between movies but for their clothes -- but she's adorable.

Read the full post. THAT DEVIL WOMAN is coming right up.

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