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News The Playlist Looks like more development hell for Nicole Kidman transgendered drama The Danish Girl New York Magazine Can AMC survive its own success. Growing pains for the network (They've just rejected all six of the pilots they were considering.)
Randomness Stale Popcorn Glenn continues to the best of the posterologists online Just Jared interviews Kristin Chenoweth. She's tremendously busy but I sure hope this Tammy Faye musical works out. Wouldn't she be perfect? Ultra Culture thinks Lars Von Trier's Melancholia is major. Cineuropa loves the new Norwegian film at Cannes from Reprise's director and star (pictured left) and writer (not pictured) called Oslo August 31st. You may recall that I was absolutely nuts for Reprise -- and met and interviewed Joachim Trier (who was a doll) -- so I'm looking forward to this one.
And in other Cannes news, Hitler has already reacted to the Cannes Festival / Lars Von Trier kerfuffle...
It's a little long for a concept joke but there are some great lines.
List Fever Pajiba The Five Coolest Muppets La Daily Musto the two biggest lies actors always tell. I wholeheartedly co-sign. I've never seen an actor talented enough to sell either of these but they always try, bless. Telegraph's 10 Best HairDressing moments in film Movie|Line 13 Facts about Woody Allen and the Box Office
Fact #1: I love Easter, bunnies, Easter bunnies, chocolate bunnies, coloring eggs. Fact #2: Seeing Hop would ruin the upcoming holiday entirely for me because nothing makes me gag harder than animated CGI characters doing hip anachronistic things like oh, I don't know dreaming of playing in a rock n roll band. Just typing this out gave me salmonella. Mainstream moviegoers felt otherwise throwing their hardearned cash at the British wabbit. It had the best opening weekend since Rango. Where were these crowds when The Rock was doing Tooth Fairy?
01. HOP $37.5 new 02. SOURCE CODE $14.8new 03. INSIDIOUS $13.2 new 04. DIARY OF A WIMPY KID: RODRICK RULES $10.0 (cumulative: $38.1) 05. LIMITLESS $9.3 (cumulative: $55.5)
Poor Patrick. Things never end well for him at the movies.
Hop's success frightens me and the only possible joy that can come from it is that maybe someone will give James Marsden another plum comic gig like the one in Enchanted. I would however totally want to see this week's chart topper if it were about Jake Gyllenhaal and the Easter Bunny ibeing thrust back in time repeatedly until they saved Patrick Wilson from demonic possessions in The Source of That Insidious Hopping. Don't you wish you could sometimes watch three movies at once?
Per Screen Average Which movies were you most likely to find crowds at? I've eliminated all the specialty IMAX stuff and everything that's only at one theater because "come on" and here's what'cha got.
01. HOP $10,000ish 02. IN A BETTER WORLD $8,000ish (The Danish Oscar winner is finally on a few screens. Weird to wait an entire month post Oscar win to debut.) 03. WIN WIN $7,000ish (cumulative $1.9 million. Big jump in screen count this past weekend. I almost went today but my friend shifted plans.) 04. JANE EYRE $6,700ish (cumulative $3.4 million. Still going strong. Yay) 05. INSIDIOUS $5,500ish (and this type of movie is always better with a crowd)
What did you see over the weekend? I was entertaining so I didn't get out. Although we did watch the SXSW winner Weekend which was fairly strong as indies go. It definitely knew what it wanted to be and didn't get distracted at being that and that's always a huge plus.
We haven't mentioned the Berlinale at all in the heat of Oscar week. So let's do that, shall we? Better late than never. The festival closes tomorrow but the awards were handed out over the past two days.
"Nader and Simin: A Separation" GOLDEN BEAR
Asghar Fahradi, who got a lot of Oscar buzz a couple years back (though no nomination) for ABOUT ELLY, won this year's Golden Bear for Nader & Simin: A Separation (2011). The Hollywood Reporter explains the film like so.
Farhadi's drama traces the breakup of a Iranian family set against the political tensions in Tehran. While not overtly political, Nader and Simin is starkly critical of conditions in Iran, notably the country's huge class divide. It was widely tipped to win Berlin's top prize, not least because of the current upheaval in the Middle East.
Fahradi dedicated his prize to jailed filmmaker Jafar Panihi who was also supposed to be serving on this very jury. Isabella Rossellini's jury was one short as a result. Rather than replacing him they held a symbolic open seat for him. Some articles are already suggesting that Nader & Simin could be submitted for next year's Foreign Language Film Oscar. But given the open criticisms and the dedication to a jailed filmmaker I wouldn't place your bets just yet; it can be tough to read Oscar submission politics when filmmakers and governments clash.
Competition Jury Golden Bear: Jodaeiye Nader Az Simin (Nader and Simin, A Separation) by Asghar Farhadi Silver Bear The Jury Grand Prize: A Torinoi Lo (The Turin Horse) by Bela Tarr Silver Bear Best Director: Ulrich Kohler for Schlafkrankheit (Sleeping Sickness) Silver Bear Best Actress: the female ensemble in Nader & Simin Silver Bear Best Actor: the male ensemble in Nader & Simin Silver Bear Best Screenplay:The Forgiveness of Blood written by Joshua Marston and Andamion Murataj.
Isabella and her jury liked Nader & Simin so much they gave it ALL the acting prizes, too. This wasn't good news for Coriolanus, the Shakespearean adaptation from Ralph Fiennes that won Vanessa Redgrave in particular Oscar friendly reviews. Regarding the Screenplay prize: If Marston's name looks familiar think Maria Full of Grace. We were wondering when he was going to be back to the cinema.
Silver Bear Artistic Contribution: Wojciech Staron, Cinematography, and Barbara Enriquez, Production Design, for El Premio Alfred Bauer Prize: If Not Us Who (Wer Wenn Nicht Wir) by Andres Velel First Feature Award: On the Ice by Andrew Okpeaha MacLean Special Mention: The Guard by John Michael McDonagh Special Mention: Die Vaterlosen by Marie Kreutzer
Crystal Bear These prizes are for family films. Separate jury.
Best Kplus Feature Film: Keeper’n til Liverpool (The Liverpool Goalie) by Arild Andresen [Norway] Special Mention: Mabul by Guy Nattiv [Israel/Canada/Germany/France] Short Film: Lily by Kasimir Burgess [Australia] Special Mention: Minnie Loves Junior by Andy Mullins and Matthew Mullins [Australia] Best 14plus Feature Film: On the Ice by Andrew Okpeaha MacLean [U.S.] Special Mention: Apflickorna by Lisa Aschan [Sweden] Best 14plus Short Film: Manurewa by Sam Peacocke [New Zealand] Special Mention: Get Real! by Evert de Beijer [Netherlands]
Scandinavia is always winning prizes for family and kids films. It's a niche. Here's the trailer to the winning film. You can tell the "family friendly" categories aren't judged by US prudes. This won the Kplus award, and within seconds of the trailer starting there's jokes about people being well hung and there's shower nudity. Different worlds!
Audience Prizes Audience Award, Fiction Film: También la lluvia (Even The Rain) by Icíar Bollaín [Spain/France/Mexico] This was one of the finalists for BEST FOREIGN FILM but did not make it to the nomination shortlist. It's currently open in select US theaters. Second Place: Medianeras by Gustavo Taretto [Argentina/Germany/Spain] Third Place: Life in a Day by Kevin Macdonald [Great Britain] Audience Award, Documentary Film: In Heaven Underground - The Weissensee Jewish Cemetery (Im Himmel, Unter der Erde. Der Jüdische Friedhof Weißensee) by Britta Wauer Second Place: Mama Africa by Mika Kaurismäki Third Place: We Were Here by David Weissman (USA)
Teddy Awards Berlinale's Teddy Award, which is separate from the main fest and judged by LGBT film festival programmers, is one of the oldest annually bestowed Queer Cinema awards. It was first handed out in 1987 to Pedro Almodóvar's Law of Desire. What a kick off, eh? Perusing the list of past Teddy Award winners is actually a great way to catch up on LGBT films you may have missed. Gay cinema is increasingly not what it used to be. With assimilation into mainstream culture, queer cinema definitely lost its edge and brain-power if not its sex drive. These days we don't seem to get new Gregg Arakis, Gus Van Sants or Todd Haynes and their like but people whose names we never learn directing straight to DVD sex comedies. (sigh)
Last year's Teddy prizes were unusually Hollywood friendly with James Franco's first short film The Feast of Stephen [clip. NSFW] winning Best Short Film and Lisa Cholodenko's eventual Best Picture nomineeThe Kids Are All Right winning the top prize.
Jake Yuzna's "Open" (2010). Marie Losier's "Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye" (2011)
Jake Yuzma's far more experimental pansexual drama Open won the Jury Prize. I had the pleasure of attending the premiere here in NYC. Artist Genesis Breyer P-Orridge spoke to the audience afterwards. She and her late partner, Lady Jaye, who famously had repeated operations and plastic surgery procedures to look more and more like one another, were the inspiration for the fictional film. So I was surprised to hear that Berlin honored the very same topic again this year. Their Best Documentary prize went to The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye by Marie Losier.
The Teddy, the main prize went to Argentina's Ausente, Marco Berger's follow up to Plan Bwhich did the festival circuit last year and is now available on DVD.
Ausente is about teenager who falls in love with his swimming teacher, finding all sorts of excuses to spend time with him.
The Teddys in full Best Feature Film: Ausente by Marco Berger Best Documentary: The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye by Marie Losier Best Short Film: (two winners) Generations by Barbara Hammer and Gina Carducci and Maya Deren’s Sink by Barbara Hammer Jury Prize: Tomboy by Celine Sciamma Special Teddy Awards: HIV/AIDS activist Pieter-Dirk Uys from South Africa and New German Cinema director Werner Schroeter (RIP).
Here's the trailer to Ausente which means "absent"
It occurred to me recently that I had never said anything about Let Me In, post theatrical release, so let's do that now since it's fresh out on DVD. The American vampire film won a few year-end citations here and there as a high-quality film but it didn't fare well with the public. It was featured in Cinematical's surprising and funny list of the lowest grossing wide releases of 2010 a month ago. Here's what they said about the vampire film.
Let Me In (Gross: $12.1 million. Widest release: 2,042 theaters.) Let's face it. No matter how good it was, a moody remake of a Swedish import about a non-sparkling teen vampire was never going to be a blockbuster. But we were still surprised at just how poorly this fared in theaters. For comparison's sake, 'Twilight: Eclipse' made $300 million, and even 'Vampires Suck' made $36 million. This is why we can't have nice things.
I get the sentiment and love the joke but I can't agree that it's a big loss as a "nice thing".
It's true that I objected to the remake so I wasn't automatically the most receptive audience. But I kept hearing how good it was so I finally caved and watched a couple of months ago, at first with great interest, about what they'd alter and how its new American setting would affect it. The strong reviews are not surprising. It's a well made, handsome movie. The cinematography is beautiful and moody (though it heavily borrows from the aesthetic ideas from the original, particularly in regards to depth of field), the performances are solid, etcetera.
But the movie fails to answer the question that all remakes must answer: What is the reason you are remaking this? If the movie presents no answer beyond "because it was in a funny language" the movie has failed.
The American version of Let The Right One In didn't make radical changes or bring in new exciting ideas about the characters/story. The few alterations seemed to merely underline the originals suggestion that the victimized boy (Oskar/Owen) would one day become the serial killing man (Håkan/The Father) because he loves that little monster (Eli/Abby). It's creepier when you have to do the work to connect those dots yourself. The only big alteration (place but not time) adds nothing new. And then there were minor erasures of the first film's more difficult and more ambiguous sexuality. Gone was the shock cut to Eli/Abby's genital area and gone was Oskar's gay (?) father -- this character never appears in the remake except by telephone where we learn that he's shacked up with someone named "Cindy". Unless that's a drag queen, he's safely heterosexual for American audiences. Audiences of the original seem to disagree on matters of Eli's gender and on Oskar's father's orientation but the very fact that they prompt argument is another testament to the first film's insinuating ambiguous grip on its audience.
Oskar & Owen
Mostly Let Me In seems content to love and ape Let The Right One In clinging to it as willfully as Oskar/Owen latches on to Eli/Abby. The love is a mark of good taste but a weak excuse for a remake. If you love something, watch it! Be inspired by it. Make your own thing instead. The film it most recalls, other than the Swedish original, is Gus Van Sant's Psycho (1998). That earlier much-reviled "recreation" is a far more interesting artistic exercize because it's so weirdly honest about it's own borrowed artistry and masturbatory xeroxing. Critics weren't at all kind but then that one wasn't in a 'funny language' to begin with.
Screenshots from the 20th minute and 10th second of 2010 films as we close out the year through awards season. [I may be a smidge off on this one, timing wise, as my counter was all knullade but this'll do.]
Helt utrop!
That's damn amazing. Every godforsaken year on his birthday he gets a framed flower in the post. Who is sending them? Why? The answers are in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.
Friday, May 20, 2011 at 11:00PM 
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