GET PERSONAL: HUMPHREY BOGART

via: hc

Humphrey Bogart is the unlikely leading man who turned his brooding, cynical, and quietly vulnerable persona into one of the most iconic personalities in film history.  His strength of character and fierce intellect combine to create an undeniable sexuality, as subtle as his smile. Born in New York on Christmas day, 1899, Bogart got his start in film during the great depression, when theater lost funding. He made a name for himself as a character actor, playing gangsters in films like Angels with Dirty Faces (1938). It wasn’t until films such as High Sierra and The Maltese Falcon that Bogart broke out of his typecast and became a leading man in his own right.  Though he was married four times, he is most famously linked to Lauren Bacall, who he considered the great love of his life. She was only 19 (he was 45), when they fell in love on the set of To Have and Have Not (1944). Bogart’s legacy will live on in his films, which will have women lusting after his dark, mysterious aspect until the end of time.  Credits include: The Harder They Fall (1956), The Desperate Hours (1955), The Left Hand of God (1955),

The Barefoot Contessa (1954), Sabrina (1954) (Academy Award), The Caine Mutiny (1954), Battle Circus (1953), The African Queen (1951), Sirocco (1951), In a Lonely Place (1950), The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948), Dark Passage (1947), The Big Sleep (1946), To Have and Have Not (1944), Casablanca (1942), Across the Pacific (1942), The Maltese Falcon (1941), The Wagons Roll at Night (1941), High Sierra (1941), They Drive by Night (1940).

GET PERSONAL: WILLIAM GOLDMAN

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In his memoir, Adventures in the Screen Trade, William Goldman offers the priceless advice: “nobody knows anything.” The memoir, written in the 1980s, gives a clear overview of the screenwriting industry at large, for those who are unfamiliar with it. Almost no one would be more qualified to do so than William Goldman. Having won two Academy Awards for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) and All the President’s Men (1976), Goldman imagined (or adapted) some of the most beloved films of all time.  Goldman’s interest in writing began at Oberlin College, where he took creative writing. As he developed his skill as a novelist, playwright, and poet, he finally made the jump to screenplays in 1965 with Masquerade. He is now revered as one of the most influential screenwriters in the industry, not to mention a valuable script doctor. Credits include: Dreamcatcher (2003), Hearts in Atlantis (2001), The General's Daughter (1999), Maverick (1994), Chaplin (1992), Misery (1990), The Princess Bride (1987), Heat (1986), A Bridge Too Far (1977), Marathon Man (1976), All the President's Men (1976), The Stepford Wives (1975), Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), Masquerade (1965).

 

NOT A JOKE

This weekend, “Just Go With It” recovered some of its $80 million budget, opening number one at the box offices.  The film, starring Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston, even out-sold Justin Bieber’s highly anticipated 3D concert-movie. While this box-office showdown has me confused, no doubt, it proves how lastingly bankable certain celebrities can be. Certainly the film itself is not the draw, but its talent. As A.O. Scott states in his New York Times review of the film:

I should start by confessing that I spent a lot of time before the screening of “Just Go With It” — and a few stretches while it was actually going on — trying to remember what the darn thing was called. I may have to look up the title a few more times before this review is done, and the movie is likely to live on in my memory (to the extent that it will) as “that one with Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston in Hawaii.” Which pretty much sums up both the appeal and the limitations of this passive-aggressive, naughty but nice, sometimes obnoxious and occasionally quite funny late-winter romantic comedy.

Not a rave, to say the least. But the success of this movie got me thinking about the original funny-men. Before Seth Rogan or Will Ferrell or Adam Sandler, the original funny-man, Buster Keaton, was building the foundation for slapstick.

“The Great Stone Face,” as Keaton (1895-1966) was affectionately known, created a comedic style before the advent of talkies. Born into a vaudeville family, he spent his youth on stage. Skeptical of motion pictures (as most theater-people were), Keaton took it upon himself to dissemble and reassemble a camera. With a newfound understanding and respect for the medium, Keaton began his career as a screen-actor and filmmaker.  Without dialogue, Keaton’s comedies required a highly exaggerated physicality. Through creative editing and – what was essentially – mime, the comedic genre was born. Buster Keaton will forever be regarded as the father of comedic acting and has been recognized innumerably for his achievements.  

That Just Go With It (2011) is the 11^th consecutive Adam Sandler movie to open first at the box office proves, most certainly, that audiences haven’t tired of the funny-man.   

HAPPY LOVE DAY

via: hc

Valentine's Day is notoriously pressure-filled, but Instead of getting lost in expectation or fretting over paranoid projections, let today be a celebration of love (in whatever capacity you have it).

via: nevver

This Valentine's Day, I'm in a place not unlike a movie-set: scenic semi-rural Connecticut. It's a far cry from LA, but any time life is better than the movies, you know you must be doing something right.

KISS & TELL

Collages by John Stezaker

GYPSY

Screened last night at the Aero Theater.

Gypsy (1962) is the story of a tireless stage-mother and her vicarious search for stardom through her children. Mama Rose (Rosalind Russell), arguably the most difficult female lead in all of theater, requires force and stamina only possessed by a full-fledged powerhouse. There is nothing delicate about her, or the desperate pushing of her children: baby June (Ann Jillian) and Louise (Natalie Wood). The young girls grow up in Vaudeville, never growing roots in any place or to any person. Their ages are kept secret from them, they are overworked, underfed, and never paid. One could easily vilify Mama Rose, but all her abrasiveness is coupled with an undeniable love for her children—a love so strong, it somehow manages to redeem her.

In a rare moment of vulnerability, Rose utters “why do they always walk out”—a painful recognition that she has been abandoned by everyone she’s ever loved, including her baby June—the star of her act, and her life. Left with only the clothes on her back and the child without talent, she forces Louise into June’s act. Louise falls flat, but Rose’s determination is blinding. The act is a flop, ending up in a house of burlesque. At the burlesque house, Louise somehow finds her individuality as a person and as a woman (ironically, as a stripper). For the first time, she knows herself outside the projections of her mother.

The film is full of familiar melodies (composed by Jule Styne, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim), the music alone is enough to carry you through til the end. Rosalind Russell bowls over everyone for the majority of the film, but (surprisingly) Natalie Wood steals the show. The subtlety in her performance is beautiful to watch (as is she, I might add). In Gypsy, we hear the real Natalie Wood—her voice was dubbed in West Side Story (1961) with Marni Nixon’s. Although her voice does not posses finesse or training, it certainly adds to her charm.

This film would never work today, it desperately needs editing and feels like a tape-recorded version of the stage play. Nothing new or innovative was added in its adaptation to film, but the story and the music hold-up.

I WANT TO VERB YOUR NOUN

I've withheld from posting something Valentine's Day-themed, but NO LONGER! If you have not seen this clip, it's time you did. Of course, I'd recommend you first see the film in its entirety.

 *Clip from Cinema Paradiso (1988). 
 * This clip is also a perfect example of what a wonderful score can bring to a film. The music carries the entire ending of this movie--it speaks louder than any dialogue could. 






WILL YOU BE MY VALENTINE? 
 

Before the moderately offensive term “chick flick” was coined, love stories would have simply been called romances. Of all the stories told in films, none are more wonderfully larger than life. The most significant unifying characteristic in the highest grossing films of all time (Gone with the Wind, Titanic, Avatar), is that they are love stories (or conceived by James Cameron). If that's not indication of our love of romance, I don’t know what is.

via: nevver

Whether Valentine’s Day inspires loathing or lust, movies are always a safe bet: they can relieve us from the trials and tribulations of love, or remind us just how good we have it.

Playing around Los Angeles this Valentine’s Day:

The Aero Theater: Breakfast at Tiffany’s (2/14)

The Egyption Theater: Dr. Zhivago (2/13)

Beverly Cinema: Moulin Rouge, Marie Antoinette  (2/13-15)

Downtown Independent: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2/14)

Cinefamily: (double feature) Casablanca, My Mondo Valentine. (2/14)

In the spirit of Valentine’s Day, I asked my friends for their favorite on-screen kisses. Here’s what they came up with:

Penelope Cruz & Scarlet Johanssen, Vicki Cristina Barcelona (via: vickicristinabarcelona)

Johnny Depp & Juliet Binoche, Chocolat

Johnny Depp & Winona Ryder, Edward Scissorhands (via: Michellewthonel)

Ben Affleck & Kate Beckinsale, Pearl Harbor

Rachel McAdams & Ryan Gosling, The Notebook (via: AFCAdam)

Leonardo Dicaprio & Kate Winslet, Titanic (via: Mel Tab)

Christian Slater & Patricia Arquette in True Romance (1993)

Mine? Anyone who knows me would guess: 

Carey Grant & Ingrid Bergman, Notorious