Father Geek here with a very good, but late Euro-AICN column. Sorry, its not our Euro-staff's fault. Harry and I have been tied down with BUTT-NUMB-A-THON, etc... for the past several days starting at 10am Friday with a screening of O BROTHER WHERE ART THOU and continuing thru the fest till the end of a screening today of TRAFFIC. Scattered throughout the non film viewing hours were our duties dealing with the press, hauling films and doorprizes to the Alamo, and hosting 150 out of town BNAT guests; giving them rides to and from the airport, cafes, clubs, AICN staff member's houses, Geek Headquarters, and of course The Alamo Drafthouse Cinema. Many of the traveling geeks bare names you'll know from different areas of the site, names like: Capone, Cartuna, Moriarty, John Robie, Todd (IronGiant), Disturbed, Flmlvr, Auntie Meat, Gregor Samsa, Nordling, Vegas, Henchman Mongo, Harry Lime, Segue Zagnut, Indio2, and 135 more. They came from New Zealand, Canada, Mexico, England, and all over the USA; Seattle, Iowa, Kansas, Chicago, Pittsburg, New York, New Jersy, New Mexico, Georgia, Minnesota, Washington DC, Hollywood, San Diego, San Francisco, Arkansas, Arizona, Colorado, and who knows where else. It was a great Birthday party for Harry and 300 friends, and we doubled the money raised for our Saturday Morning Film Club for children in the Big Brothers & Big Sisters program. Anyway Father Geek is sorry this report is late, but its here now, so here's Edgard from Paris, France...
EURO AICN
Well another Euro week has passed... you will get the usual : news, reviews and more from Euroland... Check the 2 interviews here below... Check the cool pictures from Germany... Check Ozy's corner... and have a great Euro week !
Grozilla interviewed M. Night Shyamalan (for UNBREAKABLE, released in Europe in January) and Arnold & Co. for THE SIXTH DAY (released this month in Europe).... Here're some parts of these interviews (my apologizes to the persons interviewed; I received the interviews already translated in French and I had to re-translate everything in English......don't think Shyamalan or Schwarzy can't speak English correctly - well about Arnold...). And thanks a bunch to Grozilla ! :
* Interview #1
Well another Euro week has passed... you will get the usual : news, reviews and more from Euroland... Check the 2 interviews here below... Check the cool pictures from Germany... Check Ozy's corner... and have a great Euro week !
Grozilla interviewed M. Night Shyamalan (for UNBREAKABLE, released in Europe in January) and Arnold & Co. for THE SIXTH DAY (released this month in Europe).... Here're some parts of these interviews (my apologizes to the persons interviewed; I received the interviews already translated in French and I had to re-translate everything in English......don't think Shyamalan or Schwarzy can't speak English correctly - well about Arnold...). And thanks a bunch to Grozilla ! :
* Interview #1
* Interview #1
M. Night Shyamalan (UNBREAKABLE)
How do you survive from a triumph like the one from THE SIXTH SENSE ?
Everything changes. Even if you don't change, the image other people have from you changes. Today when I am invited even just for a birthday party, it becomes an event. And if I decline the invitation, they think "Who does he think he's ?" I get phone calls where I am begged to come to parties like if my presence was essential. The smallest thing has 10 times more consequences than before. Just because I had a succes makes everything I do totally enormous, while I am just doing my job. I am quite a bad loser in basketball, before I was yelling at everyone, now I can't anymore otherwise it will be in tomorrow's newspaper. Once I went to get my daughter from school. A weird thing happened : no one talked to me, everyone was keeping a distance from me. When I was about to leave a teacher ran to tell me "I'm sorry, we had a meeting where it was decided not to talk to you; but I had to say how much I loved your film". Can you imagine, they hold a meeting because I was coming to the school ! (laughs). I want to be able to stay someone who can tell stories about normal people; danger would be to create some barriers to protect myself. I stay in Philadelphia to stay in touch with a normal life, not to become one of those rock-stars who are forced to live in a mansion, who can't have normal contacts with people because of their celibrity.
How would you define UNBREAKABLE ?
It's a genre film. It's supposed to be at the same time a surnatural film a thriller and a fable. A little bit like a twisted episode of the Twilight Zone.
Your films have a tone and a tempo very specific, almost unique today in Hollywood...
It's just a question of editing. This element is over-used in today's blockbusters, like the use of shot/reverse shot while before this technic was not made for that but to give some meaning to the form. I try to use it only when I have no choice, when it feels right, when I need to show events in a quasi-real time. The opposite effect, whic I like more, gives me the opportunity to leave silences in my films. In the same shot, letting pauses in the dialogue of a character allows to say much more on this character than if I was over-editing the shot. It's in these digressions that yopu can find the atmosphere of my films, but in fact I am just using an old-school way to direct. For UNBREAKABLE my intention was to bring in a very ordinary family a surnatural element. It was the same approach in THE SIXTH SENSE.
What's the originality of this film ?
My first idea comes from the ideal that children have about their parents, from the way that sons can look at their fathers like supermen who are not afraid of anything, who seem invincible... The script became after "What if a little boy was right to look at his father that way ?". I have always been excited by the possibility to build a script on different layers. I work on the different levels of reading a story, sometimes I happen to find a different angle to look at a story more than a month after I started writing about it. The pleasure being to find another level of reading when I know that everyone would be satisfied with the inferior level.
What do you prefer : to write or to direct ?
On the SIXTH SENSE, I prefered to write; on UNBREAKABLE, to direct. On each film, I stay focus on a particular domain, on UNBREAKABLE, I tried to be a better director by learning different angles, lighting, editing, actor direction...
Precisely we have never seen Bruce Willis as restrained than under your direction.
It's always easier for an actor to play handicaped or retarded characters than normal people. It was not easy to remove from Bruce some habits he took from his heroic image he has in other films where his character can never look surprised or has to show some assurance while facing difficulties. In these films, Bruce has often the habit to look down before raising his head with an ironic look. In UNBREAKABLE, his character cannot have this assurance, this self-confidence. It was important then that Bruce didn't take the usual direction. I was correcting him every time I felt he was going there. We had decided first to work together on his act, to reinvent it.
Who do you direct more easily : a star like him or a child ?
I don't make a difference between the two yet because I was lucky enough to work with two children really mature and smart, and all I had to do was to treat them like adults.
UNBREAKABLE finds inspiration in the Comics genre. It is said at one point you can't lock life in a vignette, while the characters themselves seem prisonners of their conditions...
I don't know how the public will react here but when Bruce Willis character hangs his raincoat to the rack, the American public reacts and understands it is a uniform. And it's exactly where I wanted to get and bring the public , to remind them that the material of the movie itself is a comic-book. This symbolism is my way to confront a bit more fiction and realism.
Are you a reader of comic-books ?
As a kid, I was reading some. I was particularly a fan of Batman and Superman who were for a long time my heroes. I had their posters and toys in my room. They were a bit like my guardians when I was going to bed. I remove them when my friends start to come to my house. It was becoming embarassing (laughs).
You are from Indian origin, how do you look Indian cinema - the most productive in the world - when so few Indian directors make it to Hollywood ?
As far as I'm concerned, I was raised in the USA, so in a way I am an American making American films. Indian cinema is particular in its way to tell stories, everything is dramatized under the soap-opera influence; it's never about naturalism. Rules are not the same, it needs for example that a film must contain 7 songs that will be its strand. Western cinema is very different in its construction. It's then logical than few directors can make it, how could they make the transition ? There're still a few examples like Mira Nair pr Shekar Khapur who have a different approach of this problem. For me it's easier as I already had a foot here. But it will change as the future Indian directors grew up watching E.T. or RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK and they're trying to integrate their codes.
You are briefly appearing in the film as a drug dealer. Is it a possible lecture of the director's job who's selling with his/her own way a substance which alters reality ?
(Laughs). You can see it like that, but I just wanted to put someone totally innocent for that short role.
* Interview #2
Arnold Schwarzenegger, Roger Spottiswoode and Mike Medavoy (THE SIXTH DAY)
After TOTAL RECALL, you're once again in total paranoia...
A.S. : In the first version of the script, my character was even more against all the new technologies, he was living even more in the past. Little by little as the story goes he familiarises himself with his environment until he wants to meet his own clone, to understand that he is like him in his way of thinking, in his motivations... I don't think he's paranoiac.
Last year you were fighting against the Devil himself, the evil by excellence; today, you're in difficulties in front of your genetic copy. Should we understand you're your worst enemy ?
A.S. : It's true that somehow I try to kill myself in this story. But it's probably more by ignorance, by fear of something else. The main objective at first is to get rid of what you don't know. The real trigger for my character is when he has the opportunity to kill his clone but can't do it as he understands they share the same humanity and soul. It's impossible to go against cloning, we know perfectly this technic will be very fast in place. Meanwhile it's important that this is not limited to a minority.
Two Arnold's in the same film, does that mean twice the salary ?
A.S. : (laughs) At first, I thought about it. I went to see Mike (Medavoy), the producer. He told me : it does not concern me, talk to the other producer. As it was, me. And it's what I did and the producer in me said : only one salary. Today I regret it a bit. My wife too actually (laughs).
Would you like to be cloned ?
A.S : Roger (Spottiswoode) should answer this question instead of me. He's older (laughs).
R.Spottiswoode : There's something intriguing about cloning. Let's say you make a clone from me, what are really the physical and psychological parts that would keep evolving ? If you clone someone from a foetus, would you get the same person ?
A.S : I am at the opposite of my character Adam Gibson, I am totally not afraid of new technologies. If I could do it, I would say yes righ the way. And I would make 4 copies : one to take care of my family, to take the kids to school in the morning... The other would sit here and make the promotion of my films, answering questions; the third one would improve his golf, without feeling guilty as others will take care of the rest, while the forth one would be with my wife. All of them would meet in the evening to discuss about their day... I think it can only be a positive exeprience... Of course you should be able like in the movie to copy the memory of the person for the copies. The question is to know if we should remove the bad memories, the bad experiences to keep only the good ones. To make sure this technic will not end up in the wrong hands. You must trust the science to let it be beneficial.
Adam is extremly jalous when he finds his clone with his wife. Does that mean we are ready to accept a new technological age but not an advance of the feelings ?
A.S : I think he's more confused than jalous. If he's angry it's because his clone and his wife are having sex in the van he likes above everything else (laughs).
This answer reflects the irony used in the film, especially concerning the violence that lets you think that - in the future - it will be worst to steal a cigar than to kill someone...
Mike Medavoy : Our first goal from the beginning was always not to preach for an argument or another with this film. For me this kind of film must use 3 fundamental ingredients : 1. to entertain the public; 2. to develop feelings through the character so the public can identify themselves. Here it was important that at the end Adam lets his clone see his family so there was something noble about it; 3. that people get out of the film with questions about what they saw, not only on a pure entertainment point of view but also on a ethical point of view. The question is certainly not if cloning is possible, we know it will happen, but in what conditions will it be possible, what are going to be the rules. Science has always had two faces, one positive, one negative. Who can say today that it was a bad idea to genetically modify - like it was recently the case - a chicken to get out an element that could cure a kind of cancer ?
A.S : Chosing Roger to direct this film was linked a lot to this question of the use of violence. Having directed a James Bond, we knew he could direct a film for a large public while giving it some content.
R.S : You're right about the irony : as it's about clones, we could have fun with them. As they can have lives as much as they want, why not cut them a leg or a hand ? But I didn't want to make it as violent as...
A.S : … some of my previous movies ?
R.S : Exactly (laughs).
The film was first developed for Joe Dante, a more subversive director...
R.S : That's right. Two years before I got on the project, a script had been written for Joe. That kind of situation happens a lot in Hollywood.
M.M : I know that in Europe, you have the tendancy to think the director is the key element in a film, but for me he's as important as the actors or the technicians. In fact, it didn't work with Joe because he didn't want to shoot outside of Los Angeles. When I received the first draft of the script, the main character was a really normal guy. To represent that type of character you need an almost unknown actor. A 50 millions $ film with an unknown actor is too risky. Arnold's agent called me to know what I thought about him for that part. I had worked with him before so I knew he was totally able to do it and I told his agent that the most important was to know if Arnold really wanted to do it (...)
FRANCE
* Daniel Auteuil will be the President of the 26th Casear ceremony (the French Oscars). It will take place on February 24th 2001 and the nominations should be announced on January 29th. Auteuil received last year the Cesar for best actor in Patrice Leconte LA FILLE SUR LE PONT (GIRL ON THE BRIGE).
GERMANY
* Christan sent us these very interesting props pictures from a film based on a HP Lovecraft story that will be made in Germany very soon : Hi there, since I am a huge fan of your site I thought you might be interested in the following. I have built a couple of props for the upcoming movie "THE HAUNTER OF THE DARK". Its a german project based on a short novel by HP Lovecraft. There was already a note on your site with some storyboard images. Now I have brought a couple of prop and artwork images on my homepage and maybe this is something you would like to show your fans.
I know this is unusual to show props before the movie is shot but with this movie project nearly everything is unusuasl and the fans are much more involved in the process of the film making than on other projects. I have attached some images to give you an idea what I am talking about.
More can be seen on http://www.darkart.de
Christian
* From Screendaily some early news on the forthcoming Berlin Children's Film Festival : The UK is already well represented in the line-up selected so far for the forthcoming Children's Film Festival (Kinderfilmfest) sidebar at the 51st Berlin International Film Festival (February 7-18, 2001). To date, four UK titles have been chosen: modern fairytale There's Only One Jimmy Grimble, directed by John Hay and starring Robert Carlyle, Gina McKee and Ray Winstone; coming-of-age tale The Testimony Of Taliesin Jones, by Martin Duffy, with the late Ian Bannen, Jonathan Price and Geraldine James; Losing Touch by NFTS graduate Sarah Gavron; and the animation film Hooves Of Fire by Richard Goleszowski, a former collaborator of Aardman Animations' Nick Park and Peter Lord. In addition, festival director Renate Zylla has picked Danish director Natasha Arthy's feature debut Miracle; Moroccan drama Ali Zaoua, about street children in Casablanca from Nabil Ayouch; veteran Indian director Tapan Sinha's 42nd film Anokha Moti about the struggle of good vs evil when a fisherman makes a magical present for his small daughter; and Andre van Duren's adaptation of the Peter van Gestel children's novel Mariken.
ITALY
* And this week's box-office news are Italian. From Screendaily : Cult horror The Exorcist provided the biggest fright of the week in Italy, grossing $1.9m after the weekend, with a per screen average of $8,400. William Friedkin's 1973 hit, released by Warner Bros on 226 screens, rose from the dead to take possession of the number one box office spot, stopping Disney monster Dinosaur and Book Of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 in their tracks. While Italian critics cursed the resurrection of yet another dusty cinema classic, audiences came out enthusiastically to witness the Linda Blair project. Despite The Blair Witch Project's record-breaking run last spring, Book Of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 failed to scare up much support in Italy, only managing third position on its opening weekend. Distributed by FilmAuro, which also took Blair Witch through its paces, the film pulled in $937,102 on 212 screens, averaging $4,420 per screen, as compared with Blair Witch's $4.5m from 440 screens during its first three days in March. Buena Vista International's Dinosaur, which grossed $1.2m on 173 screens, is likely to have sturdy legs as the Christmas season gains pace, giving a fillip to family fare.
OZYMANDIAS CORNER
* Hey guys, It seems that our man in Italia Robert has been whispering the AICN word in powerful ears..........
Hi Harry, it seems that Ron Howard (or someone of his staff) is listening to your prayers. A few days ago I and my colleague Marina Ricciardi interviewed Howard. He was in Rome to promote The Grinch, which will open in Italy this thursday. He said that probably Imagine will work at other adaptations by Dr. Seuss books, but he is not sure if he will be involved as director. He also confirmed that Jennifer Connelly is in A Beautiful Mind as Hollywood Reporter wrote. I asked him about your suggestion to work on Ender's Game. He was aware that someone on the Internet recommended him this book and, even if he doesn't know the novel, he was very interested and wanted to take a look at the site (we told him it was AICN) and at the book. Of course, I'm not saying that after A Beautiful Mind Ron Howard will shoot Ender's Game, but there is a possibility and i'm sure that at least he's gonna read carefully the novel. You (and your readers) can see the videointerview (in english) with Ron Howard at: This Location
Bye
Robert Bernocchi
* Also from the UK Nick has been scanning the airwaves and has.... wel bad news....
Hi Harry, It's Nick Branch from London again with some news for the Josie and the Pussycats movie. A entertainment morning show called the Big Breakfast todayhad a behind the scenes look at this Hollywood remake. The showed clips of the cartoon with clips form the new movie. If you are a fan of the cartoonthen I have bad news. This looked as faithfully to the cartoon as the Scooby Doo movie! It sucks. Rachel Leigh Cook (complete with red hair) was discussing the movie with the fellow 'cats' when they showed a scene wherethe band were performing. NO INSTRUMENTS!!! Not only that but they are going for a really cheap MTV video look with this film. To make matters worse at the end of the scene a load of extras joined in the 'fun' and proceded to dance in a big line to this awful song. Can-Can style. They said that top producer Babyface had penned the songs but obviously even he can't save this tragedy of a film. If they are going to re-make a cartoon, they could atleast keep the things that made it a hit for the first place, not try to ruin everyones memories (hint, look at Inspector Gadget!).
This is Nick Branch signing off, till next time
L8r, Ozymandias
Ain't It Cool News - Ireland/UK Office, Penthouse Suite, Ozymandias Towers, Dublin, Ireland.
Mail me with your UK/Ireland bits - ozymandias@dublin.com
REVIEWS
CAST AWAY
CAST AWAY
Ozymandias here, Fieldman No. 1 is again doing what he does best being.... er, uhm..... Out in the field! This time at a screener......
Hey Oz, I thought you may like a joint review (Irving and I) of last night's UK castaway screening. I hope its of use. We were told it was the first big public screening in the world.
Castaway Review
Saw the finished print of Castaway – 2 1/2 hours long and one of the bravest Hollywood films for a long time. After about half an hour at the beginning, establishing the character of FedEx (how much FedEx paid for this much product placement, only studio execs know!), employee Chuck Noland (Tom Hanks), there is the very scary plane crash, followed by Chuck's four years on the island. And it is here that the daring comes. As has already been described, it is basically a silent movie, as we watch Chuck go about trying to sort himself out, combat the elements and survive. No music, very little dialogue.
Hanks is great as you would expect – and his transformation, when you see it, is pretty staggering. There is also the most spectacularly disgusting dental surgery scene since Marathon Man. It's a mainstream film that does what it promises to do and manages, pretty much, to avoid copping out in any way. The shipwreck idea is not an new one, but the loneliness of Chuck's predicament is very real. Whether it will do well is anybody's guess, but for sheer guts and originality in terms of its execution, this deserves applause.
Irving and FieldmanNo.1
LAND OF TRUTH, LOVE AND FREEDOM
And from Serbia, comes this review by White Narcissus :
LAND OF TRUTH, LOVE AND FREEDOM is the first movie in the upcoming wave of Serbian low-budget features. It was made with a DV camera and then it was transferred to 35 mm film stock. The budget of this movie was actually non-existent so authors had to use their work print for presentation on The Mannheim Film Festival this year. The print wasn`t an obstacle on their path to The Reiner Werner Fassbinder Award. This award has great value since it bears the name of eminent German filmmaker and it comes from the festival that launched Jim Jarmusch and Wim Wenders.
The director of LTLF is Milutin Petrovic, one of the best kept secrets of Serbian cinema. This talented artist graduated in film direction on the Belgrade Faculty of Dramatic Arts. He also contributed in one of Serbian famous pop bands during the eighties. Petrovic directed some great TV shows and classy commercials. Serbian economical climate prevented him for a long time to make a directing debut in feature films. Finally, he opted to make a low-budget movie of his own. The rest is history.
Petrovic`s low-budget effort tends to integrate pure genre aestetics of American cinema with the ethical jungle of contemporary Serbia. The story focuses on the TV editor that survived the bombing of State Broadcasting Corporation building during the NATO campaign against Serbian people. The editor gets haunted by the fact that he used to edit regime propaganda and that his works caused NATO`s savage massacre of innocent people in the building of State Broadcasting Corporation. So he ends up in the institution. During psycho-analysis with Rohrschach`s drawings he concocts a movie plot out of his own movie buff conscience that was awaken by the test.
LTLF is a smart and funny feature that finds the right balance of philosophy and entertainment. Its story may look familiar and genre-oriented but this movie tells you more about contemporary Serbia than most of the other expensive movies made in last two years.
The cast is consisted of both pro actors and people that are involved in art (like famous writers and musicians). Director Petrovic himself proves to be a great low-key actor in the role of the hitman.
LTLF script was written by Petrovic himself, writer and film critic Sasa Radojevic and Petar Jakonic, editor and filmmaker who inspired the whole plot by his own experience in the State Broadcasting Corp. All these scriptwriters have extraordinary film history knowledge and it shows. Thus, LTLF is the great feature made by true movie buffs that showed us how budget can`t tame the true passion for filmmaking.
LTLF is going to be released in Serbian cinemas very soon and I hope that audience will respond and support the brave authors (and producers) of this pic.
White Narcissus
THE GUILTY PLEASURE OF THE WEEK
Last week I was asking to get some examples of "guilty pleasures" from you, dear AICN readers... well Neil happened to send us a good one so here it is :
Last week I was asking to get some examples of "guilty pleasures" from you, dear AICN readers... well Neil happened to send us a good one so here it is :
Being a fan of horror movies ( hammer films in particular ) i've always enjoyed "captain kronos,vampire hunter"-i've defended that flik way too many times - lol - but recently,i'd have to say (among many,many others) "devil's advocate"-i think pacino has exactly the right take on the role and keanu does some of his best work(stop snickering-lol) besides,with connie nielsen and charlize theron in the same flik,how can u go wrong?
There Can Be Only One, Neil
