R.I.P. x 3

Two great directors of world cinema died on the same day last month: Michelangelo Antonioni and Ingmar Bergman. Bergman, without question, leaves behind the richer legacy: witness the many lists of 'must see' Bergman films published after his death (like this one). My only contribution to that dialogue is this: any critic who doesn't include Bergman's 1960 black-and-white masterpiece "The Virgin Spring" -- IS A HACK!

Of course, Bergman had his famous "The Silence of God trilogy" (and I've seen them all: Through a Glass Darkly, The Silence, and my favorite of the three, the bleak Winter Light, with Bergman stalwarts Ingrid Thulin and Max von Sydow). But Antonioni's strict, unwavering formalism in his equally-famous "Alienation trilogy"carries a unique fascination for all you hardcore foreignfilmguy(s) out there. (I know you're out there!)

I recently had the pleasure of seeing the last of the trilogy ("L'Eclisse," following the more famous "L'avventura" and "La Notte" -- all starring the lovely Monica Vitti), and I had a revelation: Monica Vitti is the original 'RPT' (that stands for 'Ron Palmer type' for those who don't know me and my weaknesses, and it is shorthand for what I humbly consider to be the ideal woman).

Why Monica Vitti, and not, say, Greta Garbo, Louise Brooks, Anna Karina, or Hedy Lamarr? All are mysterious, exotic, desirable, pale-skinned brunettes. But Monica had something extra: she was totally out-of-reach, not only for this kid from Pampa, Texas, but for every man who entered her orbit. She personified the untouchable female: her existential angst and ennui formed an impenetrable barrier to any human connection that came to dominate the relationships throughout European cinema in the great decade of the Sixties. She was not only beautiful and bored, she was completely and totally unknowable. She couldn't (or wouldn't?) let anyone in. Watch four of the five films she made with Antonioni, and ask yourself after each one: "What was her f**ing problem, anyway?" She remains, like the films she stars in, an inscrutable puzzle, and THAT is what makes her the quintessential RPT.

The third passing I mourn is that of the German actor Ulrich Muhe, star of the 2006 Oscar-winning "The Lives of Others." Like Italian comic actor Massimo Troisi in "Il Postino," this brave and accomplished actor completed the role of a lifetime while facing a life-threatening illness. Godspeed, Mr. Muhe!

4 overlooked movies you can still catch on pay cable

These movies keep popping up on my gazillion free movie channels (gotta love the Dish!), and I am always sucked into watching them again:

1. V for Vendetta (2006) - this really should have made my TOP TEN list (not as a measly 'honorable mention.') Sure, it has two strikes against it:
1) it's based on a comic book -- excuse me, "graphic novel"!!; and 2) it hides its political message in a loud, action-packed, mass-market entertainment vehicle.

But a message it does have: and like a 'serious' movie that came out during award season and garnered much more praise ("Children of Men"), it is a strong indictment of Post-9/11 governments running amok over civil liberties and the Constitution. Great cast, too.

2. "The Weather Man" (2005) - Nicolas Cage seemingly makes five movies per year, and four of them are pure crap ("Gone in 60 Seconds" and "Ghost Rider" come to mind), but The Weather Man was the 1 good one! At first glance, he's playing another hapless, sad-sack character that he should have patented by now. But instead of covering that familiar ground, the movie is a perceptive character study, with a well-written voice-over narration, and a clever soundtrack. What's surprising is the creative team behind it all: director Gore Verbinski (the 'Pirates' dude!) and composer Hans Zimmer (the old boy has some originality in him still!).

3. Stay (2005) - I'm going to beat this particular drum until someone tells me they have actually seen it! It lasted a nanosecond in theaters (poor marketing: the ads make it out to be a horror movie), despite its pedigree: directed by Marc Forster, fresh off "Finding Neverland;" starring Ewan Magregor and the lovely Naomi Watts (and the lovely Bob Hoskins, for that matter!). And in a break-out performance, Mr. 'Half Nelson' himself . . . RYAN GOSLING!

Sure, it is experimental: scene do not cut so much as they morph into different ones; backgrounds change at will; and the flashbacks and flash forwards are dizzying. But the disorienting effect is intentional, and masterful. And the music and end-credits are hypnotic. Worth a rental and repeat viewings (but PAY ATTENTION, people: don't 'Netflix it' while you fold the clothes!!) (you know who you are).

4. "Kingdom of Heaven" (2005) - not one of Ridley Scott's best efforts (but nowhere near his worst!) this historical epic is more historically suspect than "Becoming Jane" (the screenwriters may have made-up her romance out of whole cloth, but at least they didn't turn Jane Austen into a blood-thirsty murderer of non-Christian civilians, as Kingdom did to real-life figures Guy de Lusignan and Raynald of Chatillon... thank you, wikipedia, for the history lesson). [I hope I haven't provided some Hollywood hack the idea for his next 'pitch': "Kingdom of Jane".]

But the movie is beautiful to watch. I didn't like Edward Norton's portrayal of the leprous king of Jerusalem on first viewing, but it grows on me every time I see it; and Liam Neeson and Jeremy Irons should be cast in every historical epic for as long as they continue to work. Along with the French-lovely Eva Green ("Casino Royale"), for that matter! I'm looking forward to seeing it one more time, because I just learned that "Rome" star Kevin McKidd (Lucius Voernus, for you fans) is also in the cast. Gotta love the Dish!

Additions to my CLASSICAL MUSIC faves list

(I can't believe I left them off in the first place!)

Janine Jansen

She's DUTCH!

Look at her cradling her violin!

Here she is lounging (after a concert, no doubt).

Anna Netrebko
The red-hot Russian Soprano!
[Appearing December 15th, 2007 as Juliette at the MET!]

"Black Book": or, the vulgarity of a Paul Verhoeven film

This is not the vulgar part (in fact, it's my favorite scene in the movie!)

I'll never forget Roger Ebert's reaction to David Lynch's "Blue Velvet": He was critical of the director for leaving his actress (the fearless Isabella Rossellini) so exposed and vulnerable (as if he owes a duty to his actors to honor the trust they have placed in him). She was definitely exposed, if you remember: but at the time I thought Ebert overreacted, and I still do: Rossellini's faith was rewarded in a shocking, memorable performance. (Much like Laura Dern in "Inland Empire" -- she put it all on the line for that movie. Would any actress do that for, say, Michael Bay (to cite the most obvious Hollywood hack)?

Lynch can get away with such things because he is an artist. Paul Verhoeven, on the other hand, is a crass, mass-market entertainer: and Elizabeth Berkley is still trying to overcome "Showgirls" as a result. So the lovely Dutch actress Carice van Houten had little chance to emerge from "Black Book" unscathed.
The things this cinematic sadist Verhoeven puts this poor beauty through is unforgiveable.

Let's get one thing straight: I've got no problem seeing the supple Ms. van Houten slip out of her clothes at the slightest provocation. But the escalating degradation she is forced to endure throughout this movie is prurient and unseemly, especially since the movie strives for nothing more than popular entertainment!

The apotheosis of this degradation is blatantly telegraphed: why else would a scene begin with a close-up of a communal bucket of shit? ("Oh, I wonder if that will play a part in the upcoming scene?") True to form, Verhoeven first strips and taunts the main character, Rachel Stein, before, oh so predictably, dumping the entire bucket of shit on top of her. Subtle, Paul .... ohsofuckingsubtle!

I won't dwell on the endless improbabilities and false endings that make this movie such a chore to sit through: at that point, I didn't care how it ended, I was just praying it would end--both for my sake and Ms. van Houten's.

"Once"

I have just seen (for the second time) the most-perfect movie with music ... I cannot call it a "musical" because it is light years away from "Hairspray" or "Dreamgirls." "Once" is the latest Sundance darling that (for once) lives up to the hype that annual designation brings --oftentimes regardless of quality. This indie Irish gem of a movie stars two talented singer-songwriters that I had never heard of: Glen Hansard (of the Irish group "The Frames") and his newest collaborator, Czech sensation Marketa Irglova. For non-actors (as most of the cast apparently are), they are naturals in front of a camera.

The story of their friendship -- an always awkward journey of getting to know someone of the opposite sex, stepping through that sexual minefield along the way -- is refreshingly real (they don't even 'meet cute.') This is due in large part to Ms. Irglova's directness: like a true foreigner (in my experience), she immediatley asks the most personal questions to a street singer who, admittedly, was baring his soul in his songs.

The camerawork and street scenes of working-class Dublin add to the movie's verisimilitude (a Spelling Bee word I've always wanted to use). But the movie stands or falls on the music itself -- and fans of the music will not be short-changed. [Count me in that camp: I cannot predict what non-fans will think of the movie overall -- the two are inextricably linked.]

For critics who charge that there is too much music, not enough story or dialogue, I say: The music IS the dialogue! Character is revealed through music in a way that a conventional musical only scratches the surface (of). [As I wrote that, I thought of a number of classic Broadway exceptions to that statement, most involving Stehpen Sondheim, but who would accuse him of being 'conventional'?]

I do appreciate the traditional movie musical ("Chicago" and "Moulin Rouge" being recent notable achievements in the genre). But "Once" is a different animal entirely: not a movie with music as an over-produced diversion but a movie with music as integral as any language.

Halfway to my TOP TEN List

I know we are more than halfway through the year on the calendar, but in Hollywood terms, we have barely reached the halfway point in the 2007 movie calendar (the Fall is the 'serious film season' after all!)

So here's a look at the highlights and lowlights of my movie year (post-Oscars).
First the bad news:
'300' == what a puerile, juvenile, and completely offensive treatment of history! I don't know what to be more offended by: the disrespect for historical figures (here the enemy is not just demonized--they are literally turned into monsters (if I were Persian, I'd be really pissed!)/ Or the adolescent sensibility towards sex and marriage: sex in the depiction of the Greek oracles as naked, nubile, drug-addled babes -- who are being groped, even licked, by pustule-covered, leprous old priests (sublety is definitely NOT in the vocabulary of Frank Miller); marriage in the relationship between the main character and his wife: "Have your way with me, Spartan! -- not like those boy-loving Athenians!!")

But even more offensive is the movie's glorification of war and battle: totally out of touch with this country's mindset, three-plus years into this Iraq fiasco. Get a clue, you clueless punk director! (Zach somebody)...

Now for the good news, my provisional TOP TEN:
Foreign films:
Indigenes (France/Algeria) -- a compelling WWII film in a season of many.
The Lives of Others (Germany) -- a worthy Oscar winner.
Once (Ireland) -- now THIS is the summer movie to fall in love with! So much more genuine than last summer's indie darling: Little Miss Crap-shine.
The Wind That Shakes the Barley (UK) -- this movie makes all the same parallels to our 'war on terror' , and makes them more effectively, than the obvious and simplistic "Goya's Ghosts."

U.S.:
Breach and Zodiac -- see previous post.
Sicko -- Michael Moore does it again! (and I never thought much about health care before. Now I am prepared to say "The French do it better!").

... and the BEST MOVIE I've seen so far this year ???????

LA VIE EN ROSE (France)

Anyone who doesn't know the story of France's favorite singer might not believe everything that happens in this movie, but it's all true! It makes "Ray" and Johnny Cash's life look like a cakewalk! And anyone who compare this movie with those two is quite simply an idiot (I'm talkin' to YOU, A.O. Scott!)

The haters out there might say this movie is as much a mess as Piaf's life--but it's chaotic for a reason: and it works! The sequence where she learns of a lover's death is priceless. And you learn more about Paris from this movie than in all the other disappointing, so-called love letters to that city that have reached our shores this year ("Avenue Montaigne"; "Paris, Je t'aime"; "The Valet"--I've seen them all).
Marian Cotillard Rules!

STOP the Presses -- again!

Actress Naomi Watts has given birth to her first child, a boy named Alexander Pete Schreiber. Alexander was born on Wednesday in Los Angeles and weighed 8lb and 4oz. Watts was born in Kent but moved to Australia with her family at the age of 14, where she first met close friend Nicole Kidman at a casting call. CONGRATS TO THE NEW MOM !

Goya's Ghosts

BEWARE THE EUROPEAN CO-PRODUCTION!

This isn't the first time financiers from several EU countries got together an international cast and an A-list director to film a historical epic -- in English, of course (ever mindful of the international box office)-- in order to make a fast Euro. The fact that the end product is an embarrassing, unhistorical mess, wildly uneven in tone and execution, is irrelevant.

Irrelevant to all but us poor souls who expected some art or insight from the great director Milos Forman's take on the complex, larger-than-life Spanish painter Francisco Goya. Sadly, Forman is there solely to pick up a paycheck, casting his actors adrift in an unsubtle morass of a screenplay that swings from comedy to drama so many times they should hand-out Dramamine at the door. At its BEST, the movie's historical re-creations look no more authentic than a History Channel documentary (without the Di-Tech commericals). I cannot conceive of damning it with any fainter praise than that.

Forman tries to draw paralells between the torture policies of the Spanish Inquisition and France's precipitous invasion of Spain with the Bush administration's torture policies and Iraq fiasco, but his digs are obvious and lame (and soon passed over). Because the ridiculous plot does moves at a fast clip: fifteen years pass before the make-up artist can finish Natalie Portman's ageing make-up (it looks like it was smeared-on with a putty knife).

Poor Natalie Portman suffers the most by this general incompetence of this production (both in the story and in her performance): seeing her being stripped and tortured by the Spanish Inquisition, after her ordeal in "V for Vendetta," and I can only hope she is interviewing new agents. Stellan Skaarsgaard is a cipher as Goya -- but the weak-willed title character is merely a spectator in his own film. If you want an artistic treatment of Goya's life and art, rent Carlos Saura's moody and surreal "Goya in Bordeaux" (2000). And Randy Quaid as the King of Spain? Randy Quaid??

I make a distinction for the professional actors because apparently the movie is stuffed with cameos by European aristocrats (to please those demanding investors, no doubt). That explains the several unnecessary close-ups of non-speaking characters, serving only to lengthen an already interminable film. Not that this unsophisticated eye would recognize any of them, but it does give this ill-conceived production one notable, if dubious, distinction: it has to be the first 'Euro-Trash Vanity Pic'!

Stop the Presses!!

Watts Gains "International" Passport

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

By Borys KitFri Jul 13, 2:52 AM ET

Naomi Watts has signed on to star opposite Clive Owen in "The International," an action thriller that Tom Tykwer is directing for Columbia Pictures.
The plot centers on an obsessive Interpol agent (Owen) who spearheads an investigation into one of the world's most high-profile and powerful banking institutions in an attempt to expose them for worldwide arms brokering, corruption and murder. Watts will play a Manhattan assistant district attorney who partners with the agent to take down the bank. Eric Singer wrote the screenplay.

Watts, who most recently starred in "The Painted Veil," next stars opposite Viggo Mortensen in David Cronenberg's "Eastern Promises."

>>She will re-define how to portray a pretty, yet tenacious ADA (for all those past & future Law & Order chicks)!!

An UPDATED Guide to My Music Links

Here is a brief synopsis of each of my musical links (at left) and why I like them!
NON-CLASSICAL:


Sarah Harmer: This Ontario native is Canadian and proud of it! By staying true to her roots, she is producing some of the most genuine rootsy and folk-y music on either side of the border. And she's a redhead.






Idgy Vaughn: the next big thing to come out of Austin, this small town, Midwestern gal is the real deal. And she's a redhead.

Melissa Auf der Maur: Redhead...Canadian....(sensing a theme here?)






Mindy Smith: a country-ish Nashville artist for those of us who don't listen to C&W radio--and who don't happen to think that Carrie Underwood is the second coming of Dolly-or Tammy- or Loretta~!!! (But Mindy's videos do appear on CMT).







Nellie McKay (pronounced 'Mu-KAI'): a New York original: a militantly animal-loving Vegan who, at age 21, already has two double-CDs under her belt. Put her in the hands of a judicious producer , and she could be the next Diana Krall for the tweeners.



CLASSICAL:
the claremont trio: This picture says it all. I love these young, fun-loving Columbia grads!
(and they have a blog like mine)







Hélène Grimaud: She's French.
If you need another reason to like her, she loves wolves.





Hilary Hahn: In her spare time, she reads German poetry in its original German! (you gotta love that!) And she plays a mean violin. And she has the best blog of any classical musician I know.