Friday, April 25, 2008

My First Foreign Film of 2008!

In spite of my new year's resolution, I made an obligatory appearance (on the last day) of WorldFest Houston, exiled as it is to the strip-mall Hell of West Houston, to see the 1982 Italian Classic "La Notte di San Lorenzo" (released in the U.S. with the more romantic title "The Night of the Shooting Stars.")

Whatever you call it, it is a masterpiece that stands the test of time. Told from the perspective of an eight-year old girl, think "Pan's Labyrinth" without the scary monsters...and with Italian Fascists in place of their more sadistic Spanish counterparts. [It would be interesting to compare the post-war cinematic treatment of each European country's own Fascist brethren: for the Tavianis, the blackshirts retain a scrap of humanity: the movie stops long enough to show a father's grief over his dead son, and, in a surreal pause in the climactic battle in a wheatfield, two peasants from the same region share a moment of recognition before shooting at each other.]

As my post title suggests, I am here to review a *new* foreign film, the Closing Night entry by Frenchman Claude ("A Man and a Woman") Lelouch: Roman de Gare (2007). A stellar cast (headed by Fanny Ardant, last seen on these shores as the more attractive half of a bickering couple in "Paris, je t'aime"), intriguing premise, expertly filmed -- but I risk damning it with faint praise by comparing it to, and declaring it better than, a similarly-themed French literary mystery: Francois Ozon's "Swimming Pool" (which I hated). Both involve successful female novelists working on their next book in France. Both tease and confound audience expectations. But RdG doesn't play its audience for a FOOL by pulling the rug out from under it at the end of its 90-minute investment in the story, like a certain other movie did (I'm still bitter).

Instead, the audience is rewarded for its investment in this progressively unbelievable scenario by its mostly-believable characters, especially the character portrayed by French newcomer Audrey Dana. The Cesar-nominated Audrey Dana (for best breakthrough performance). As you can see, she is not a raven-haired gamine like Audrey Tatou, but more of a vulnerable, romantic blonde like Sandrine Kiberlain. I cannot wait for her next film.

The movie does unravel in its second half, and by its conclusion, you are painfully aware that this is the director who cannot stop remaking the hopelessly romantic (and ultimately empty) Un homme et une femme (that was 1966, Claude! Give it up!).

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The ending sucks.

Saturday, April 19, 2008

An UPDATE to my Updated Music Links

"Pure, musical Viagra"
The great thing about the category-defying singer Shelby Lynne is that her sexuality crosses all sexual orientation boundaries...judging by the audience at her most-recent Houston appearance, anyway. (Finally, someone besides David Sedaris to bring us all together!) Her latest album- "Just A Little Lovin' (inspired by Dusty Springfield)" - she released on vinyl! How cool is that? [I was never a Dusty Springfield fan, and I assume my readers weren't, either.]
If you haven't seen her live, you just haven't lived! (I'm sorry, but you haven't).

Thursday, April 03, 2008

Random thoughts in 2008

Heath Ledger - R.I.P.


It takes a special person to get a special "In Memoriam" on this blog, but the tragic, accidental death of Heath Ledger last January in a Greenwich Village apartment merits a special mention. After a long deliberation, I am ready to concede that he gave the BEST PERFORMANCE in all of 2005 as Ennis del Mar in "Brokeback Mountain" (sorry, Joaquin, Phillip Seymour, and Terrence). Suprisingly, after all the acclaim he received, he only won ONE acting award for it: the Australian Film Institute's Best Male Actor in an International Film. Way to go, AFI!!

Now all we have left to look forward to is his last performance in this summer's Batman blockbuster, "The Dark Knight."


Another thing I hated about "I'm Not There"

I've been listening to a great collection of songs from the soundtrack to Curtis Hanson's under-appreciated "Wonder Boys" on my way to work, and I keep skipping tracks to listen to the 4 separate Bob Dylan songs in a row: "Things Have Changed," "Shooting Star," "Not Dark Yet" and "Buckets of Rain"(the most of any artist on the compilation cd). I do give credit to Todd Haynes for piquing my interest in the enigma that is "BOB DYLAN". (The movie did not edify me in any way, it just made me more curious). That's why I am doubly-mad at Haynes for giving the shortest-shrift to one of the most-fascinating periods in Dylan's life: folkie Dylan!

Instead, Mr. "I'm so Original nobody gets me" Haynes falls back on a hackneyed story-telling device to dramatize that period: a mockumentary! [a gimmick whose time has come, and thankfully gone.] An ineffective pseudo-doc at that: a cross between This Is Spinal Tap (without the laughs) and a typical VH-1 Behind the Music episode. Haynes never bothers to dramatize any moment in Dylan's life from that period. What a wasted opportunity, not to mention a waste of great acting talent (Christian Bale as Dylan and Julianne Moore, reducing her to a talking head). Say what you will about the awkward scenes in 2006's "Factory Girl" between Dylan (played as a laughable impersonation by a way-out-of-his-depth Hayden Christiansen) & Edie Sedgwick (Sienna Miller, so spot-on it is creepy!), at least they made the effort to play it straight.

Soon to be seen in "The Mysteries of Pittsburgh" (by the author of "Wonder Boys")


30-second review of "Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day"

Fans of Masterpiece Theatre will be in heaven watching "MPLFAD" (don't make me cut-n-paste that title). And why not? It is a lively British romp in the spirit of those 1920s comedies the Brits do so well. It has all the requisite elements: good soundtrack, nice costumes, fast pacing, and CiarĂ¡n Hinds ("Rome") and Shirley Henderson ("Topsy-Turvy") to give it its British bona fides. I half-expected Bertie Wooster to pop-in (without the limp, 3-day growth of beard, and bad attitude, of course).

The two American actresses in the leads -- Frances McDormand and Amy Adams -- not only hold their own, but give utterly convincing performances (parts that Angela Lansbury and Judy Holliday, respectively, would have slipped-into effortlessly in an earlier era) carry the film to its satisfying conclusion. Not even Masterpiece Theatre has been this good since Jeeves & Wooster last shared a cocktail and a bon mot.

The lovely Miss Amy Adams