Screenplays of '12. Pg 12. "Lincoln"

I didn't forget about my page 12 sharing in honor of 2012 but the year slipped away from me. Let's resume, at least in brief, for a moment from LINCOLN as scripted by Tony Kushner based in part on two chapters from "A Team of Rivals" (a book I'm continually hearing great things about).

Tony Kushner speaking about Lincoln at Harvard

Two soldiers fasten a flag to the halyards. Lincoln moves into places; as the crowd applauds, he takes a sheet of paper from inside his hat and glances at it. Then he looks up.

        LINCOLN
The part assigned to me is to raise
the flag, which, if there be no
fault in the machinery, I will do,
and when up, it will be for the
people to keep it up.

He puts the paper away. The audience waits, expecting more.

        LINCOLN (CONT'D)
That's my speech.

He smiles at them. They applaud, some laughing.  As Lincoln turns the crank, hoisting the flag, a solo trumpet plays "We Are Coming Father Abra'am" and the audience joins in.

That's a really short scene in Lincoln but a telling one since it gives Daniel Day-Lewis one of many opportunities to demonstrate the President's refreshing sense of humor. A good sense of humor goes a long way in sweeping out the cobwebs from the Great Man Hagiography that so many biographical films become.

three more celebrated screenplays I'm also celebrating today

I too love this screenplay and it's one of my own nominees for BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY just posted! My ballot for BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY is also up for this year's Film Bitch Awards kick off. Click over and see what's nominated from soulful indie dramas like Aya DuVernay's Middle of Nowhere and curios like Sean Baker's Starlet through to big budget superhero epics like The Avengers (no really) and certain Oscar players like that controversial Zero Dark screenplay we already talked about. 

Octolinky

Slant Kurt interviews the "singular, essential" Parker Posey who is currently starring in Price Check
IndieWire Jared Leto in drag on the set of Dallas Buyer's Club 
Vulture ranks all of Steven Spielberg's movies. Huh. We have the same #1! 
Bella Calledonia has a different perspective on Ben Affleck's Argo and Iranian representation in film than most 

Broadway vote on the sexiest man alive (on Broadway). I voted for Cheyenne Jackson. Duh!
Awards Daily Alexandre Desplat's Argo score. I wish I could get into scores more but I remain an accidental Philistine of this category.
In Contention thinks Cloud Atlas and The Hobbit will lead the makeup & hairstyling race. I'm less sure. That could be an easy get for Lincoln, couldn't it, if they need a place to reward the film? 
Unreality "the many faces of Johnny Depp" 

Today's Must Watch
Here's a clever new way to promote your upcoming movie -- get your unknown star to do impersonations of very famous stars as the character he'll be playing.  So Meta. So Mimiccky Good.

The actor's name is Ross Marquand and if he ever becomes famous he'll obviously win an Oscar since this is AMPAS's favorite party trick. The real test of this trick, if you ask me, is being able to "do" famous people that you wouldn't immediately think for impersonations. Vocal impersonations of Brando, Pacino, Walken, Cher, etcetera are common. But I personally never imagined I'd see/hear Harrison Ford and Brad Pitt mimicry this good. 

Jurassic Park Anyone?

My policy is I don't see 3-D revivals of old movies. Don't encourage them !!!

Though it's been my lifelong dream that mainstream multiplex would be in the habit of devoting one screen to older films -- a way of giving something back to the art we love so much -- I didn't foresee it happening in this way and I'm not too happy about it since 3D is a cheap (okay, expensive) gimmick and not the way these films were originally shot and therefore impure (like colorizing black & white movies).

But you know, if they must do it, this one's maybe the best choice. Don'cha think? Maybe I should make an exception just this once.

Most people love Spielberg unreservedly. Alas not I. But I do love some of his pictures so I thought I'd do a top ten. But it turns out I only have five. They are...

1. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)... aka the second best picture of 1981
2. Jaws (1975) ...a member of maybe the best best picture lineup ever
3. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) ...the only one I've written about recently
4. Schindler's List (1993) 
5. Jurassic Park (1993)

All the others I have minor or major quibbles with. But those five? Pass the popcorn! Extra butter.

Oscar Horrors: A Shark in the Edit Suite

Oscar Horrors looks at nominated contributions to this non-Oscar bait genre. Here's Craig on Jaws.

HERE LIES... a beautifully cut shark by the name of Bruce. Oscar-winning editor Verna Fields did the celluloid slicing and dicing...

Spielberg made it a star of fearful proportions. John Williams gave it an iconic theme tune. Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss and Robert Shaw obsessively stalked it. And Richard D. Zanuck and David Brown looked on, clutching the purse strings, as they all went about their blockbusting business. But the person who gave Amity Island’s Great White unwanted visitor fierce presence and a sinister personality most could arguably be the editor Verna Fields. Alongside Spielberg and Co. she was instrumental in terrorizing the world with Jaws, summer 1975’s maiden blockbuster movie. She manoeuvred the shark’s arrival and departure – in tandem, of course, with Williams’ score – helping to create cinema’s scariest PG-rated, non-human villain.

Fields worked wonders with Jaws’ spatial particulars. The film is a feast of horizontal expanse and vertical depth cut with sharp attention to the terrors evoked by the mysteries of distance. When poor Chrissie (Susan Backlinie) – in the instantly memorable and terrifying first, post-titles, scene – feels the pull of (mechanical) death on her water-treading legs, we vicariously retract ours. The endlessness of the ocean is reason enough to inspire terror, but Fields mercilessly positions us alongside, then below, Chrissie to establish instant fear: she’s a gliding silhouette on the surface, Bruce’s first victim; a meal. And we’re right there with her.

Click to read more ...

Yes, No, Maybe So: On "Lincoln" and Trailer Premieres

Four score and seven years ago One hour and some minutes ago our Spielberg brought forth, upon this internet, a new trailer, conceived in Marketing, and dedicated to the proposition that all biopics are created equal.

LINCOLN will arrive in theaters on November 16th, 2012, a mere ten days after the election when everyone will undoubtedly be exhausted by politics (if they aren't already). And for reasons unbeknownst to The Film Experience Lincoln became the first movie to have its trailer premiere in this Google Hangout fashion with immediate commentary from fans afterwards. A sober presidential biopic isn't a natural fit for "OMG!" Insta-Reactions that fanboys pics can bring in trailer form as you'll see if you watch. You can watch the event (non-live) right here.

There is some hedge-betting from Steven Spielberg with which I personally great sympathize. The much beloved filmmaker hasn't bought in 100% to this new frightening world where trailers and not movies are the things that get people talking en masse.

Strathairn worries, Nathaniel doubts, and the trailer after the jump

Click to read more ...