Father Geek here filing the 1st report from Ozymandias' man on the scene at the Venice Film Festival, Colin McKenzie. He'll be sending us items daily from the fest we all wish we were at. However, Father Geek does have a little fest here in Austin that I've been attending and I just got in from Spaghetti Western Night at the Alamo hosted by Quentin Tarantino. Earlier Moriarty, Tom Joad, Harry and I stuffed ourselves on all sorts of pasta to prepare for the evening. We then sat back to watch and listen to Quentin introduce us to his FAVORITE genre, "Man... I could... like do a WHOLE 10 day festival of nothing but THESE films!" To arrive home after an evening of kickass Italian Western features, and 3 dozen plus related trailers (Fistful of Dollars, Once Upon a Time in the West, Good Bad and Ugly, Cemetery without Crosses, Take a Hard Ride, Stranger and the Gunfighter, A Bullet for Ringo, My Name is Nobody, Minute to Pray a Second to Die, Death Rides a Horse, Etc...) to find an unexpected report on Clint Eastwood's SPACE COWBOYS and a doco entitled EASTWOOD: OUT OF THE SHADOWS was just way way too cool...
August, the 30
The Festival is starting officially today, but i have already seen two movies yesterday and two press conference this morning. There's just one name to say: Clint Eastwood. Even if today we have other movies to see, everyone is speaking about him. He'll receive in the evening, by the hands of Sharon Stone, the Golden Lion for his career. So, what are the movies whom i'm speaking about? Of course, one of them is Space Cowboys, that many of you had already the chance to see. The other, instead, has his premiere at the Festival and it's the documentary about Clint Eastwood realised by Bruce Ricker.
Space Cowboys, by Clint Eastwood
There was so much talking, in these days in Italy, about Space Cowboys. Many journalists were fascinated by these old mens that save the world. Me too, i was waiting for something original. And, for an hour and a half, i really appreciated the humour. The history: a russian satellite is falling down. Only one man (that's not difficult to perceive who he is) knows the old technology that was used to build the satellite. But the Eastwood character is an outcast because, after he and his fellow Tommy Lee Jones have destroyed three planes in the 1958 when they were young and they partecipated at the project Daedalus, they lost the chance to arrive to the moon. So, this is a new possibility to achieve their goal to arrive in the space. Clint is perfect as a guide for the other members of the project Daedalus and his quarrels with James Cromwell are delightful. The four actors are great and their relationship is one of the most interesting i've seen in these years in american movies. Sadly, the last 45 minutes dedicated to their mission aren't so brilliant and reminded me too much similar situations in Armaggeddon. So, this is a very good movie to open a festival, but that's not as wonderful as Unforgiven or The Bridges of Madison County. But maybe that's my fault, because i consider Eastwood a genius and i'm not satisfied by a simple "good movie". If you like Eastwood as me, you can't miss Eastwood-Out of the Shadows.
Eastwood-Out of the Shadows, by Bruce Ricker
The life, the career and the achievements of Clint Eastwood in 84 minutes. Bruce Ricker made a marvellous job. He gathered a lot of informations and extracts by Eastwood movies for the cinema and for television. We can see some pictures of his childhood and he's described as a shy guy by his mother. Very soon, we arrive at the part most interesting: his relationship with the cinema. So, that's very funny to see some footage by movies as Tarantula, one of the first apparitions of our hero in front of a cine-camera. Very soon, he started with television, with some episodes of Maverick and being the protagonist of Rawhide (i think it was a very popular serial in The United States, but pretty unknown in Italy). Of course, he became a movie star with Sergio Leone and with movies as A Fistful of Dollars and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. But with the character of The Man with no Name and above all with Dirty Harry started also some misunderstandings about his political views. He can see in the documentary Pauline Kael that described him as a "machine for killing" and Ronald Reagan that borrow from Eastwood the legendary line, "Go ahead, make my day". Unfortunately, whereas the european critics adored him for movies as his masterwork Bird, the american press didn't consider him an artist. Eventually, the success of Unforgiven and his four Oscar gave Eastwood the deserved tribute. Go to see this movie and see a part of the movie history.
Tomorrow reviews of Uttara (India), I cento passi (The Hundred Steps) and Sade (France). Press conference of Space Cowboys and Sade.
See you
