THE END OF POVERTY? We're not even close according to Philippe Diaz's searing new documentary.

By Terry Keefe

(This article is currently appearing in this month's Venice Magazine.)

And now we pause for some startling statistics: 20% of the planet's population uses 80% of its resources…and consumes 30% more than the planet can regenerate.

Those numbers are at the heart of filmmaker Philippe Diaz’s documentary, The End of Poverty?, which sets out to examine the actual root causes of global poverty, and the film is the antithesis of a feel-good capitalism love story. A major part of Diaz’s conclusion is that capitalism doesn’t work without free, or at least very cheap, labor. His argument follows that the conquest of poorer countries in the South, by wealthier ones in the North, began with slavery and colonization hundreds of years ago, but continues today, even though many of those countries technically now have their independence. According to the theories laid out in the film, servitude comes now in a different form, metaphorical chains and shackles, via wildly unfair debt, tax, and trade policies. And for the wealthier nations to maintain their current standards of living and consumption, the poorer ones must continue to suffer, with little hope for that changing any time soon.

Diaz frames the backbone of The End of Poverty upon a series of interviews with both economic experts and citizens of a number of impoverished countries.

How large was the crew you traveled with to do your interviews with the documentary subjects in the poorer areas?

Philippe Diaz: We were a very small team and that was for two reasons. There is the budget issue of course, but also, we knew that because we had to go into small places, where poor people live. A lot of these people live in a room which is eight by eight feet. And sometimes there is an entire family living in it. I was operating the camera as well as directing and the producer was also doing the sound, and we had two local people to help.

(Filmmaker Philippe Diaz, above.)

You did a tremendous amount of research before shooting anything, but did you still encounter a number of surprises in your actual interviews?

There are good surprises and bad ones. The bad ones were the reactions of some experts. We wanted to raise awareness of the true causes of poverty with the film, as you know. My biggest surprise is that when I went to interview some of these experts, they had nothing interesting to say. There’s the story of (American economist) Jeffery Sachs going around the world with Bono and saying if we give mosquito nets and fertilizer, it will end poverty. I went to interview the number two of Jeffery Sachs, and after an hour and a half of interview, he could only tell me about mosquito nets and fertilizer. But some of the poor people who we interviewed…we were very surprised by their understanding of world economy and world poverty. They were very aware that they are poor because we are rich.

Structurally, the film predominantly focuses on making its case about the causes of poverty. Earlier on in the production, had you considered spending more time with proponents of the other side of this debate, those who believe that unfettered capitalism will set the world free?

I started with that idea. I wanted to show both sides. We interviewed lots of experts from around the world, but what they were saying…they couldn’t even articulate their ideas. It was their idea and that was it. If you tried to dig, there was nothing there. We had so little time to explain the problem, that to show the other side was a total waste. But I didn’t want to make a leftist movie, because that isn’t the issue. The issue is, as surmised by one of the experts who said, “Today we are consuming 30 percent more than what the planet can regenerate.” So, because the world population increases every year, it means that in order for us in the north to maintain our great lifestyle, we have to plunge more and more people below the poverty line. That’s not a political issue, that’s a mathematical issue. As one other expert says, “If we could find six other planets with the same resources, it wouldn’t be a problem.” I think it’s a crisis much bigger than global warming. It’s a problem of a much bigger proportion. How many million people will we let die every year so we can keep three cars in the garage?

Read more!

Gems of the 1980's: Susan Seidelman Remembers DESPERATELY SEEKING SUSAN

(Filmmaker Susan Seidelman, above.)

by Jon Zelazny

In the early 80’s NYC cultural lull between Patti Smith’s retirement and Jay McInerney’s breakout, NYU film school graduate Susan Seidelman did the scrappy shoestring indie film thing, resulting in her acclaimed feature debut Smithereens (1982).

Best known for her hit sophomore effort, Desperately Seeking Susan (1985), Seidelman continues to direct movies and TV shows featuring female protagonists… including the pilot for “Sex and the City” and her Oscar nominated short film The Dutch Master (1994), about a shy dental technician who ventures “into” a museum painting for flights of erotic fantasy.

SUSAN SEIDELMAN: My husband Jonathan Brett—who co-wrote and produced The Dutch Master—and I had committed to living in Paris for a year because I was set to direct a feature for Polygram, a company that unfortunately went bankrupt. So we were kind of in a funk over there, and probably thinking about various ways of escaping our reality, when we went to the Louvre and saw this painting by Pieter de Hooch. A great thing about Dutch Master paintings is how they have rooms within rooms; there’s the main space, but there’s often a door suggesting something happening in the space beyond. We thought, wouldn’t it be interesting to go into that painting and through that door?

Your protagonist is a young woman, apprehensive about marriage, and yearning for experience outside her comfort zone. She’s similar to Rosanna Arquette’s unhappy housewife in Desperately Seeking Susan.

You’re right; both depict women seeking an escape from their rather mundane lives. Living a fantasy life is a theme I’ve always been interested in. I think of it in terms of Alice in Wonderland: in Susan, Madonna is kind of the White Rabbit, and this bored housewife decides to follow her down the rabbit hole… into a more exciting world where she gets to have an adventure.

As a young woman, did you have these kinds of fears about marriage?

It wasn’t so much a fear of marriage as much as a fear of living a boring existence. I grew up in suburban Philadelphia, which was a very nice place, and I certainly wasn’t miserable, but it was pretty homogeneous, and I sensed there was a more colorful world out there. And the way I got out was to go to NYU film school.

The Dutch Master was made for the European series “Erotic Tales,” and I admire how you skate close to, but never cross that line between eros and exploitation.

It probably depends on your own definition of erotic, but I never thought the film was just about people having sex, or showing nudity. But as a director, as a filmmaker—I’m kind of a voyeur. That’s part of the job. You get to look in and explore all different kinds of worlds that you don’t necessarily participate in. That’s really what movies are: we go to watch other people doing private things on the big screen. So the idea of a woman going into the world of a painting was erotic to me. For contrast, I wanted to make her “real” life as antiseptic and sterile as possible, which is why I made her a dental hygienist working in an office that was very cold and chrome, while the world inside the painting was lush, dark, and sensual. The colors, the set design, the costumes; everything was about creating a difference between her real life and fantasy life.

(The work of Pieter de Hooch, above.)

Another intriguing aspect is that while Mira Sorvino’s protagonist is not a mute, we never hear her speak. How did you come to that decision?

Since we portray her and her friends as these working class Brooklyn girls who take the train into Manhattan every day, I thought giving her a voice would make her too much like her friends. I wanted her to be kind of a romantic figure; a dreamy person, someone less based in reality. I don’t know if that was a good decision or not.

It’s very striking, partly because you don’t even notice it at first.

I was hoping you wouldn’t.

The thirty short films in the Erotic Tales series:
http://www.atlasfilm.com/product/late-night/erotic-tales-1.htm

Let’s backtrack to your post-NYU years, the late seventies. I read your recent article on the making of Smithereens; I guess there’s a new DVD edition?

Cinetic is distributing it on Video-on-Demand, and putting it out on iTunes and Amazon.com as well, so hopefully a new audience—one that probably wasn’t even born when it first came out—will get the chance to see it. What’s great is how the whole post-punk New York scene of that time seems to be of real interest to kids today.

Did you read that book Legs McNeil did? Please Kill Me. It’s an oral history of that scene, and it describes all kinds of people like Wren.

Smithereens follows the exploits of a near-destitute young hustler on the make. Wren first attempts to promote herself, and then decides to “manage” an apathetic local rock star, played by NYC punk icon Richard Hell.

I think Wren predates all these reality stars you see on the cover of People magazine these days; the ones who are “famous” although you’re not sure what it is they actually do. Wren thought if she put up posters of herself—even though she has no discernable talent—she could become famous… I guess she was right!

At the time you made it… it was really before the whole New York independent film scene began, right? There was no Spike Lee yet. No Jarmusch, no Bill Sherwood.

There were a few filmmakers working, like Amos Poe, and a guy named Eric Mitchell. John Sayles was just getting started on the east coast; I think he shot The Return of the Secaucus Seven (1980) in Hoboken. He was working in maybe the $60,000 budget range, while guys like Poe and Mitchell were making movies for under $10,000. They never got distribution, but they would show them at these independent screening rooms—small film collectives. By the end of the eighties, independent film was more organized, had much bigger budgets, and established distributors, like the early Miramax.

When we finished Smithereens in ‘82, there were very few indie film distributors. What they had was “art film” distributors: we got picked up by New Line Cinema. Bob Shaye was in New York at that time, distributing movies by Werner Herzog and Wim Wenders.

And that whole downtown scene wasn’t really on the wider cultural radar yet, was it? It was before Bright Lights, Big City and Tama Janowitz?

There was a very vibrant scene around CBGB’s and Max’s Kansas City, and it was starting to become well known; it was certainly talked about in London, for example. But it was really about music, not film… though there was some crossover, which is how I ended up working with Richard Hell, and Debbie Harry starred in an Amos Poe film called Unmade Beds (1976).

Were you an actual fan of that scene? Did you hang out at those clubs?

I did. I can’t say I was a fan of all the music, but I was interested in the culture, and I hung out at CBGB’s and Max’s Kansas City and the Mudd Club. What I think was interesting about that time is that New York was in the midst of a financial crisis, so there wasn’t a lot of money in the city… which was really good for filmmakers and musicians and painters and other creative people because they could afford to live here. Downtown was really cheap, so you had all this great street culture: bars and clubs and storefronts that were turned into very funky galleries and music spaces.

Unfortunately, these days, one of the problems with Manhattan is it’s too expensive for young artists to live in, so they’ve all moved. Ten years ago, they were all going to Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and now Williamsburg is too expensive.

How did you support yourself between NYU and Smithereens?

There were two things. I’d made a film at NYU that was nominated for the Student Academy Award, and that got me some grant money to make other short films. One grant was from AFI, and another was from the New York State Council of the Arts. Those were the days when grant money for the arts was still available. I also did office temp work. I was a secretary/receptionist. It was a choice between that or waitressing… and I was kind of klutzy.

Were there any young women who particularly inspired Wren?

There were. She was kind of a combination of a couple women I knew. The main woman she was based on died from a drug overdose. She was kind of a sad victim of those times.

I’m not surprised. Wren doesn’t strike me as someone with a brilliant future ahead of her.

I’ve shown the film to a lot of people, and some find her kind of appealing, and others think she’s obnoxious and totally unsympathetic, but there’s something about her resilience that I really like. Her tenacity. Another inspiration for her was the streetwalker Giulietta Masina played in The Nights of Cabiria (1957). That character was also kind of scrappy. She got knocked down, but had the kind of survival instinct to always pull herself back up… like a dog that keeps getting kicked away, but still follows.

But as far as making it as a rock ‘n roll manager, Wren is never going to be Sharon Osbourne. She doesn’t have the brains, or the connections.

It’s true. But I think with people who are tenacious, you always hope that if what they want doesn’t work out, they’ll be clever enough to find some other outlet for their passions. I also relate to Wren because she’s another girl from the suburbs who just wants to lead a more interesting life. Clearly, that theme is very resonant and personal for me. Thankfully, I’m not as self-destructive as Wren.

We talked about the aesthetics of The Dutch Master, and Desperately Seeking Susan has a very purposeful visual design as well. Was your ability to exert that kind of control over Smithereens more limited?

Smithereens is actually pretty stylized. If you look at the first frame: you see the lower half of a woman standing in the subway holding a pair of black and white checkered sunglasses, and then see legs in a black and white checkered miniskirt walk up behind her, you know without any dialogue why the girl in the miniskirt needs to steal those checkered sunglasses. And that’s told through fashion, and style, and design. For me, those aspects are always important, especially when they help tell the story. That probably came out of the fact that when I was younger, I wanted to be a fashion designer. I think you can use the details of clothing to tell a lot about a character.

(Seidelman during the production of Desperately Seeking Susan, above.)

I noticed that watching Susan again this weekend. Being a guy, I generally don’t pay much attention to those kinds of details unless it’s some period epic where you’re supposed to ooh and ahh over the costumes. Before we get deeper into Susan, how did it first come together?

Well, my friends from film school and I never anticipated what would become of Smithereens after we finished it, but after it was accepted into the Cannes Film Festival, it got a commercial release from New Line, and suddenly I found myself with an agent. So I started to get scripts sent to me—the studios are kind of interested in who’s up and coming—but most of the scripts were really bad. A lot of them were female teen comedies, and just very silly. I was very aware that because there were so few women directors to begin with, if a woman got some attention for making an independent film and landed a Hollywood movie—and it didn’t succeed at the box office—you never heard from her again. (Guys seemed to get more chances.) I knew I’d better pick my first piece wisely, so I waited and waited, and one day my agent sent me this script called Desperately Seeking Susan… and being superstitious, the title certainly caught my eye.

Did they change it just to entice you?

No, that was the actual title; I assumed they were desperately seeking me! So I read it and found it really resonated with some of my own personal obsessions. I also liked that part of the story was set in the same East Village areas where Smithereens took place. That was a world I felt I knew… and I could certainly relate to the lead character’s suburban existence; had I not moved to New York that probably could have been the life I had. So while Susan would have a bigger budget, and be my first “studio” movie, it didn’t feel like it would be an overwhelming experience.

The script seems very reminiscent of all those great 1930’s “sparkling” Hollywood romantic comedies. Did it read that way on the page?

It did. It is kind of screwball, like those great movies with Carole Lombard, or the Preston Sturges comedies. Another one of my favorite films that it reminded me of was Jacques Rivette’s Celine and Julie Go Boating (1974), which has a similar kind of magical realism, and involves people changing places, and stage magic. I thought if I could pull off obvious story contrivances like amnesia—but do it in a clever way and with a bit of a wink—I could get the audience to go along with it instead of being turned off by those clichés.

Were you a student of early Hollywood comedy?

I’d say so. I really loved all those 1930s actresses because they were so feisty, colorful, and strong. By the 1950s female characters had become too domestic. Wives and mothers—along and the occasional “bad girl”—were the only options.

A lot of directors who excelled at that style—Capra, Lubitsch, Cukor, Mitchell Leisen—came from a theater background. Did you?

I didn’t. Another thing about a lot of those guys—or when you get to some later people, like Billy Wilder—they were transplanted Europeans, which I think gave them a slightly ironic look at American culture; they could put a twist on those story clichés, and that always appealed to me.

Two faults I often find with screwball comedies is they either amp up the character interplay to the point where everybody’s hysterical, or the characters are too cartoon-y. Susan avoids both of those traps; were you always consciously thinking about not letting things get too silly or too shrill?

If you can make the characters very real and recognizable; if the essence of the character is truthful in some way… I was hoping that would keep me from crossing that line. I didn’t want the characters to come across like corny stereotypes, or clichéd, or too broad. Screwball and romantic comedy definitely requires a light touch.

I think that’s why it holds up so well. The story and situations are absurd, but all the characters are very natural and likable... and nobody looks like they’re trying to outdo each other. Even Madonna. What she gives you—that punk side of her personality—is exactly what’s needed, and it’s just the right amount. I love some of her throwaway moments—drying her armpits with the blower in the ladies’ room—that’s more “rock star” than anything Richard Hell gave you!

Well, some of that I can take credit for, and some of it was just being able to catch Madonna-isms on film. We cast her hoping her persona would lend itself to the story, and that wasn’t necessarily an easy thing to do. A lot of rock stars have tried to be on film, but for whatever reason, the film can end up actually diminishing their power.

(Madonna makes innovative use of the hand dryer in Desperately Seeking Susan, above.)

Susan is one of the only roles I can think of that lets Madonna be who she is without demanding more than she’s capable of. Another amazing thing about the cast is the number of recognizable actors in small roles: Steven Wright, Anne Magnuson, Giancarlo Esposito, John Turturro, Richard Edson, Laurie Metcalf, Michael Badalucco; it’s like a Who’s Who of indie film.

I don’t want to say it was just luck and timing, but there was certainly a number of great actors who were just sort of coming up the ranks at that time, and I was fortunate enough to get them. For many of them, it was their first film… and being that it was my first studio film, I think we all just wanted to do the absolute best we could.

It reminded me of an essay I read on Albert Brooks, which noted that in most movies, every effort goes into making the star shine at every moment, while Brooks will often give a bit player a real zinger, or somehow allow them to make an impression… and Susan has that quality in spades. What inspired your instinct for that?

It goes back to that Alice in Wonderland metaphor. I wanted Roberta to constantly be encountering all these vivid characters, so in every scene, I wanted the people opposite her to give her something to react to, or play against, or be amazed by.

Some of that wasn’t even scripted. That taxi driver who takes Madonna to the pier: his name was Rockets Redglare; he was this fairly well known downtown character, and we just let him say whatever he wanted. One take he said this, the next he said that…

The one you used is hilarious, his riff on sushi. You even have great extras… like the scene where Madonna walks past those three grinning male triplets.

Those guys weren’t even cast. We were just getting a shot of Madonna going into the newspaper office… and I saw those triplets walking down the street. We said, “Hey, you wanna be in this movie?” You know, even though it was a studio picture, it still had this kind of funky atmosphere.

Let’s talk a bit about the lighting, costumes, and sets. Every element of the visual design looks like a lot of thought went into it.

One of the great things was that I got to work with Santo Loquasto. I think prior to Susan, he’d just done the costumes for some Woody Allen movies, and a lot of theater, but this was either his first or second movie as both costume designer and production designer… which is fairly unusual, that one person handles both departments. But it allowed him to really coordinate all those elements, and create a complete world. So Roberta—when she’s a housewife—her outfits have a lot of cream, and beige, and pastels… and that’s how her house is decorated too. Very neutral colors.

Which was the time period, right? The "Miami Vice" look. Then in the New York scenes, you contrast that with very solid primary colors.

Exactly. We wanted New York to be very crisp and vivid. A lot of credit goes to the director of photography, Ed Lachman. To get that fairy tale/magical—but still gritty look for those nighttime street scenes, he used a lot of colored gels on the lights—like fluorescent green or purple—and this was before that look became a staple of music videos.

It was Ed’s first real studio movie as well. And the producers, Sarah Pillsbury and Midge Sanford, had never produced a movie before… so a lot of us were pretty fresh. No one was jaded, or saying, “This is the way it’s supposed to be done.” We were all sort of figuring it out at the same time.

I asked Walter Hill if he ever wanted to do a chick movie, so I’ll close here with the reverse: have you ever thought of doing a guy movie?

Oh… I prefer making films about characters I think I have a unique point of view about. And because there are so few women directors working, even today, that’s an area where I feel like I still have a lot to say. I’m afraid if ever did a real “guy” movie, there’d be no way I could compete, or have something more interesting to say, that Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino—or any of those great male directors—couldn’t say better.

I did do one movie with a male lead—Making Mr. Right (1987). It starred John Malkovich, but he was playing an android. I’m not sure if that counts?
####
This article originally appeared at EightMillionStories.com on October 23, 2009

Read more!

Ross McCall: The Everyday Guy Amidst the L.A. Insanity of "Crash"

(Ross McCall and Eric Roberts, left, in "Crash.")

By Terry Keefe

(This article is currently appearing in this month's Venice Magazine.)

It isn’t necessarily great news for an actor to hear that the television series they’ve been starring in is going to be “retooled” in its second season. Your character can be retooled right out the door. Or, it can develop significantly. The latter has fortunately been the case for actor Ross McCall, who has been playing Kenny Battalgia on “Crash” for both of its two seasons. Earlier in the year, veteran producer and writer Ira Steven Behr (“Deep Space Nine”) was brought on as the new show runner, and he merged Kenny’s storyline with that of billionaire Seth Blanchard, the billionaire played by Eric Roberts in the new season, and the major plot focus. Blanchard has a spiritual reawakening which causes him to forgo the building of a new L.A. football stadium in favor of putting his significant backing behind a major philanthropy project. Kenny, who was previously a somewhat wild young cop with the LAPD, is hired by Blanchard as his new head of security, and becomes his right-hand man to some degree. Kenny has to learn a much greater sense of responsibility, as he now knows he can actually help make a huge difference in the world via this project with Blanchard, if he can hold it all together.

Born in Scotland, McCall was appearing on London’s West End by the age of 11, in productions of “Oliver!”, “The King and I,” “The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe,” and “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.” He received a major career break as an adult when he landed a starring role in the HBO mini-series “Band of Brothers,” and has since gone on to starring roles in Green Street Hooligans, Waterland, and The Polar Express, which reunited him with “Band” producer Tom Hanks. We spoke to McCall when he was shooting a guest spot in New York on the series “White Collar.”

Not every character, and the actors that played them, made it back for the second season of the retooled “Crash.” How much did you know what was going to happen for you and your character of Kenny during the hiatus?

Ross McCall: I knew some of what was happening. I had spoken to the network and they were complimentary. A lot of people liked the character and they wanted to keep following him and the storyline. I didn’t know an awful lot though until I sat down with the producers. I knew we were going in a different direction, and I thought it would be cool if I could become a bodyguard for someone, like Kevin Costner (in The Bodyguard), and that’s sort of where it went. At first, I thought I was going to be playing a strip mall security guard the whole season, and I thought, “That wouldn’t be too heroic.” [laughs] But it worked out.

Last month, we spoke with Eric Roberts, who plays your billionaire boss, Seth Blanchard, on the show this season. At what point did you know that Eric was cast as Blanchard?

This business is a funny one sometimes, because it was already a week into shooting, when Ira [Steven Behr] and I were texting and we found out that we would get him. I knew he was on the list and that an offer had been made. I was so excited, and now he’s my new best friend. He was coming off another movie (The Expendables) and was kind of thrown into it. I felt for him, because I was doing the same type of thing in the first season. Shooting a movie along with the series, and having to keep two characters straight. He wasn’t sleeping that well, and I took him under my wing. There aren’t many scenes we don’t have together.

That‘s true. “Crash” is a unique series in the sense that it has a large, ensemble-sized cast, but with characters who are largely in their own, separate storylines, until some of them slowly start to intersect. Do you get to know many of the other cast members?

Yes, and kind of the beauty of this show is that you can have all these characters, but not have them all together at first. They run into each other sporadically and that keeps it exciting to work on. On those days, it’s nice to work with someone new.

To what degree do you keep up on the other storylines, prior to them intersecting with yours? You could probably get by with just reading your own scenes.

There’s a lot of people who would just do that [laughs]. But I read the entire first draft of every script, to see who’s talking about you. There are sometimes so many drafts after that in television that I would probably want to shoot myself in the head if I read all of them. But I do read the first one entirely, just to get a gist.

With so many characters on the show who are larger-than-life L.A. characters - music executives, billionaires, and the like - Kenny is sort of the everyman of the show this season.

Absolutely. With some of the crazy shit that’s going on, I dare say he’s the most normal [laughs]. I do think he’s the audience’s eyes and the only sane person. Kenny is also someone who we can continue to follow. He can go into new storylines from here, and I’m very grateful for that.

I was surprised to learn that you are originally from Scotland. I was trying to guess whether you, the actor, grew up in either Boston or Long Island, based on your accent on the show.

It’s a bit of both. The east coast thing is something I can do without having to think of it. Kenny was LAPD the first season, and he was very loosely based on the brother of the show’s creator, who was a New York cop. I really wanted that kind of street boy thing about him.

You’ve also managed to score the best love scenes of the season again, it seems.

It’s in my contract [laughs]. It doesn’t suck. Last year, I don’t think it was gratuitous. It was kind of angry sex. But this year, I wanted him to have a real relationship and I mentioned that to the writers - if he’s going to have sex, give him a relationship. With the hooker [that Seth Blanchard sent to his apartment at the beginning of the season]…last season Kenny would have been all over that. But now, he has a girlfriend.

You were one of the cast of the “Band of Brothers” series, which helped to launch the careers of a lot of fine actors. While researching the role, did you meet Cpl. Joseph Liepgott, the real-life soldier you were playing?

I was one of the few in the cast who didn’t get to do that, as he had died years before. We only had pictures and stories and the book. I did discuss him with some of the other guys. But we only couldn’t get a hold of the family for the longest time. Some of the family came forward after the show screened. A lot of the actors, the“Band” boys, are still pals. It really connected a group of us. Frank John Hughes and I just sold a show together, entitled “Golgatha.” And I’m actually staying at Matthew Settle’s right now (while shooting “White Collar” in New York). We all have rooms open for each other when we’re traveling.

When you were 12 years old, you played a young version of Freddie Mercury in the Queen video for the song “The Miracle.” I just watched it. You really had his moves down!

[laughs] It gets a lot of views. Someone will always find out about it when I’m working on a set and bring it out. I’ve made my peace with it now, but at 13-14 years old, you try to hide from it. You know, none of that was choreographed. As a kid, you can really pick stuff up. They just sent me a bunch of videos, and I was bouncing around like a crazy kid with a broomstick [laughs].

Read more!

Werner Herzog: The Hollywood Interview

WERNER HERZOG BRINGS THE MUSIC BACK
By
Alex Simon


Academy Award-nominated German film director, screenwriter, actor and opera director Werner Herzog was born Werner H. Stipetić on 5 September 1942 in Munich. His family moved to the remote Bavarian village of Sachrang in the Chiemgau Alps after the house next to theirs was destroyed during bombing towards the close of World War II. When he was twelve, he and his family moved back to Munich. The same year, Herzog was told to sing in front of his class at school and adamantly refused. He was almost expelled for this and until the age of eighteen listened to no music, sang no songs and studied no instruments. He would later say that he would easily give ten years from his life to be able to play an instrument. At fourteen, he was inspired by an encyclopedia entry about film-making which he says provided him with "everything I needed to get myself started" as a film-maker. He studied at the University of Munich, despite earning a scholarship to Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

In the early 1960s, Herzog worked nightshifts as a welder in a steel factory to help fund his first films. He hasn’t put down the camera since. He is often associated with the German New Wave movement along with Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Margarethe von Trotta, Volker Schlöndorff, Hans-Jürgen Syberberg and Wim Wenders His films often feature heroes with impossible dreams, people with unique talents in obscure fields, or individuals who find themselves in conflict with nature.

Herzog’s films have won and been nominated for many awards. His first important award was the Silver Bear for his first feature, Signs of Life. Nosferatu the Vampyre was also nominated for Golden Bear in 1979. Most notably, Herzog won the best director award for Fitzcarraldo at the 1982 Cannes Film Festival where, in 1975 his The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser won The Special Jury Prize (also known as the 'Silver Palm'). Other Herzog films nominated for Golden Palm are: Woyzeck and Where The Green Ants Dream. His films have also been nominated at many other important festivals around the world: César Awards (Aguirre, The Wrath of God), Emmy Awards (Little Dieter Needs to Fly), European Film Awards (My Best Fiend, a documentary about his legendarily tumultuous relationship with actor Klaus Kinski) and Venice Film Festival (Scream of Stone and The Wild Blue Yonder).
In 1987 he and his half-brother Lucki Stipetic won the Bavarian Film Awards for Best Producing, for Cobra Verde and in 2002 he won the Dragon of Dragons Honorary Award at the Kraków Film Festival.

Herzog was honored at the 49th San Francisco International Film Festival, receiving the 2006 Film Society Directing Award. Grizzly Man, his documentary of the life and death of Timothy Treadwell, won the Alfred P. Sloan Prize at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. Encounters at the End of the World won the award for Best Documentary at the 2008 Edinburgh International Film Festival and was nominated for the Academy Award for Documentary Feature.

Herzog’s latest might seem to be a departure from his usual fare, but if you look closer, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans bears many of the master’s signatures. Nicolas Cage stars as a drug-addicted New Orleans cop whose life is slowly coming apart in the changing world of the post-Katrina Big Easy. Although it shares half a title with Abel Ferrara’s 1992 cult classic Bad Lieutenant, the similarity begins and ends there, with Port of Call being every bit as much of a Werner Herzog original as Bad Lieutenant was all Ferrara. The First Look Features release, which co-stars Eva Mendes, Val Kilmer and Alvin "Xzibit" Joiner hits U.S. screens November 20.

Werner Herzog sat down with The Hollywood Interview in Los Angeles, where he has lived since 1995. Here’s what transpired:

When I first heard you were doing this film, I thought ‘What an unlikely marriage of subject and filmmaker.’

Werner Herzog: (laughs) What’s your thought now?

I loved it. I think it’s your funniest film.

It is, yes. There’s such an instant rapport with the audience in terms of the sort of wild, hilarious side of it. It’s humor that you cannot easily name, however, like when you look at slapstick, you know immediately what it is that’s so funny. You know where the jokes are. But here it’s very hard to figure that out, yet audiences have responded very strongly to it.

So there was no hesitation on your part in doing a sequel, or remake of sorts?

It does not bespeak great wisdom to call the film The Bad Lieutenant, and I only agreed to make the film after William Finkelstein, the screenwriter, who had seen a film of the same name from the early nineties, had given me a solemn oath that this was not a remake at all. But the film industry has its own rationale, which in this case was the speculation of starting some sort of a franchise. I have no problem with this. What the producers accepted was my suggestion to make the title more specific—Port of Call: New Orleans, and now the film’s title combines both elements. Originally, the screenplay was written with New York as a backdrop, and again the rationale of the producers set in by moving it to New Orleans, since shooting there would mean a substantial tax benefit. It was a move I immediately welcomed. In New Orleans it was not only the levees that breeched, but it was civility itself: there was a highly visible breakdown of good citizenship and order. Looting was rampant, and quite a number of policemen did not report for duty; some of them took brand new Cadillacs from their abandoned dealerships and vanished onto dry ground in neighboring states. Less fancy cars disappeared only a few days later. This collapse of morality was matched by the neglect of the government in Washington, and it is hard to figure out whether this was just a form of stupidity or outright cynicism. So we tried to incorporate those elements into the story.

Herzog with Nicolas Cage and Eva Mendes.

I thought it was a satire.

A satire, I think, is something else. I can’t explain it…there’s something more mysterious to it, something much darker and more subversive. A satire would be, it would try to imitate something and try to ridicule something, and here it doesn’t do it, so I don’t feel comfortable labeling it as a satire. Let’s be content with saying it’s hilarious. (laughs)

Okay, but tonally, it reminded me a great deal of David Lynch’s work.

It’s hard to imagine where you’d see that context. I think in David Lynch’s films you do not have that kind of humor. They’re much bleaker, and much stranger in a way…

I don’t know, a lot of this is pretty strange…

(both laugh) Yes, okay. We’ve got the demented iguanas…

And the dead guy’s spirit break-dancing in the middle of the floor…

(laughs) Yes, yes…

A lot of that, to me, is very Lynchian and while I’ve always found a lot of humor in the subtext of your films, you certainly aren’t known as a filmmaker who specializes in, or even utilizes, a lot of humor. Quite the opposite.

Well, over the decades people have laughed during films of mine, but the difference is, they weren’t sure whether they should be laughing or not. Grizzly Man, for example, has these very hilarious moments.

Well…uncomfortably funny, at least for me.

Yes, you feel uncomfortable, but for example when Timothy Treadwell is in the tent and he’s cursing all sorts of gods because of the rain, and then an hour later he’s flooded with rain, and his tent is crushed, and he continues recording from his crushed tent. He knew this was a hilarious moment, and he plays it dead-pan as a star in his own movie. So of course, there are very hilarious moments.

I understand, and I don’t disagree. I guess what I was referring to was the community of the so-called “film intelligentsia” that tend to label your work as very dark, very brooding…

It’s not the film intelligentsia that I object to. It’s more the kind of post-structuralist, post-modernists, vapid, academic babble that you hear quite often.

Most of the film professors in the world.

Yes, they’re all losers.

Herzog in the police station set, with Nicolas Cage in background.

Yeah, they tend to be people who never made it in the business and then take their anger out on working filmmakers.

I do not postulate that they have to make a living in the film industry, but it’s an unhealthy attitude with which to watch films, because I think films should be viewed with an element of wonder, of surprise, of marveling at something, and they take all the notion of wonder away from you. They stifle it. That’s why I don’t like it.

I won’t use the word “satire,” but I saw your Bad Lieutenant as a commentary on American consumerism.

I became aware of how broken the American system of finance was when I realized you got punished for not owing money. What finally woke me up was a banality: when attempting to lease a car I was confronted by the dealership with the unpleasant news that my credit score was abysmal, and hence I had to pay a much higher monthly rate. Why is that, I asked — I had always paid my bills, I had never owed money to anyone. That was exactly my problem: I had never borrowed money, had hardly ever used a credit card, and my bank account was not in the red. But the system punished you for not owing money, and rewarded those who did. I realized that the entire system was sick, that this could not go well, and I instantly withdrew money I had invested in stock of Lehman Brothers while a bank manager, ecstatic, with shuddering urgency, was trying to persuade me to buy even more of it. So it’s not so much consumerism, as a system that couldn’t sustain itself in the long run. I see this as a noir film, really. We’re living through a great time of insecurity right now. Film noir always is a consequence of the Climate of Time; it needs a growing sense of insecurity, of depression. The literature of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett is a child of the Great Depression, with film noir as its sibling. I sensed something coming in the months leading up to the making of the film: a breakdown which was so obvious in New Orleans, and half a year before finances and the economy collapsed, the signs were written on the wall.

Is that feeling of depression that you sense what attracted you to this material?

I think so, yes. In a way, I was totally astonished by The Dark Knight because, on the one hand, it’s a huge, mainstream movie. But it also astonished me at how dark it was, as though it was a premonition of something coming at us. I went to see the film, and ran into Christian Bale, which was the only reason I saw the film: I wanted to see how Christian was doing, because I so love that man, as an actor. I ran into Christian and (director) Christopher Nolan, and said to Nolan ‘Congratulations, this is the most significant film of the whole year.’ He thought I was kind of making it up, or joking. And I said ‘No, no, no! This is a film of real substance. It doesn’t matter if it’s mainstream or not.’ And it’s wonderful that he made the film the way he did.

And you were seeking to bring that same flavor to Bad Lieutenant?

Yeah, but in a different way. I mean, The Dark Knight isn’t funny at all…

I have to disagree with you there: I thought Heath Ledger was hilarious—the same way Malcolm McDowell was in A Clockwork Orange.

Yeah, but scarier, really deeply scary, as was Malcolm McDowell. Whereas Nicolas Cage is more joyful. You see the bliss of evil with Nicolas in this film. As vile and as debased as he gets, you have to enjoy it because it’s these qualities that connect him and the film deeply to the audience.

Cage and Herzog confer on the set.

Yes, because in a way, he was the purest character in the film.

Yes, it’s a wonderful part and the way Nicolas crafted it, it’s like he put his whole existence into it, somehow. You don’t see something like that often.

Did the screenplay have that same spirit when you initially read it, and did it change much during the course of the shoot?

Yes, it did. It is still (writer) William Finkelstein’s text, but as usual during my work as a director it kept shifting, demanding its own life, and I invented new scenes such as a new beginning and a new end, the iguanas, the “dancing” soul—and actually this is Finkelstein’s, who plays a very convincing gangster in the film—the childhood story of pirate’s treasure, and a spoon of sterling silver. I also deleted quite a number of scenes where the protagonist takes drugs, simply because I personally dislike the culture of drugs. Sometimes changes entered to everyone’s surprise. To give one example: Nicolas knew that sometimes after a scene was shot I would not shut down the camera if I sensed there was more to it, a gesture, an odd laughter, or an “afterthought” from a man left alone with all the weight of a rolling camera, the lights, the sound recording, the expectant eyes of a crew upon him. I simply would not call “cut” and leave him exposed and suspended under the pressure of the moment. He, the Bad Lieutenant, after restless deeds of evil, takes refuge in a cheap hotel room, and has an unexpected encounter with the former prisoner whom he had rescued from drowning in a flooded prison tract at the beginning of the film. The young man, now a waiter delivering room service, notices there is something wrong with the Lieutenant, and offers to get him out of there. I kept the camera rolling, but nothing more came from Nicolas. “What, for Heaven’s sake, could I have added,” he asked. And without thinking for a second I said, “Do fish have dreams?” We shot the scene once more with this line, and it looked good and strange and dark. But it required being anchored in yet an additional scene at the very end of the film, with both men, distant in dreams leaning against the glass of a huge aquarium where sharks and rays and large fish move slowly as if they indeed were caught in the dreams of a distant and incomprehensible world. I love cinema for moments like this.

Tell us about your impressions of post-Katrina New Orleans.

Well, I hadn’t seen New Orleans ever before, so I don’t know the pre-Katrina New Orleans, although I had a basic idea what it was about. I think it was the right location for the film. This was fertile ground to stage a film noir, or rather a new form of film noir where evil was not just the most natural occurrence. It was the bliss of evil which pervades everything in this film. Also, the people of the city understand that bringing people and life back into the city would come through music and culture, and would attract movie-making that would, in its wake, bring people back. I think it’s a wonderful concept. You wouldn’t find that if, let’s say, Omaha, Nebraska had been hit by a terrifying tornado, they would probably do something else to bring people back. In New Orleans, it’s about music. Bring the music back. Even the police department really supported the film, and I really admire the police in New Orleans for their sense of poetry.
How do you mean?

They knew it was movies. It was a beautiful figment of movie fantasy, the whole film. They had the nerve to go ahead with it after they had read the screenplay. They came back to me and said “You know what? We’re going to support you. We’re going to block streets for you. We want this filmed in our city.” And I bowed my head and said ‘This is unexpected and marvelous.’ You see, the city needs a police department of that caliber.

I was in New Orleans last exactly a month, to the day, before Katrina hit, and had been there several times prior as an adult. I always had the feeling that bad things were around you, but were being held back, both literally and metaphorically.

That’s a very good observation, yes.

Many people have compared post-Katrina New Orleans to Europe after WW II, which you grew up in. Did you see any parallels?

No, that was a different sort of thing. Germany was not hit by a natural disaster. Its wound was self-inflicted and a consequence of systematic barbarism during the Nazi regime.

Sure, but one could argue that Katrina’s causing the levees to fail was a consequence on institutional incompetence and indifference to those from a lower socio-economic status.

Yes, but it was not a criminal plot and industrialization of mass murder, of genocide, which you found in Germany during the Nazi time, so I have hesitation to compare it. The comeback for Germany was different than that of New Orleans. It was mostly the women. You see 1945-46 was the year of women in Germany. Most of the men were either dead, or in captivity. The women rolled up their sleeves, cleared the rubble and started the rebuilding. It was the women who instantly acted. So in that respect it is a different destruction and a different recovery. However for children, it was marvelous to grow up in the ruins! Those were our kingdoms and forts. We had whole cleared-out blocks to play in, that still had guns and live ammunition buried in the rubble. I found a sub-machine gun once and tried to shoot a bird with it. The recoil knocked me to the ground. My mother, to my surprise, was not angry. She knew how to shoot a gun and taught my brothers and I how to secure, unload and shoot the gun. She took us into the forest and shot a single round through this big, thick log. The bullet went straight through and all these splinters flew out the other side. She said “This is what you must expect from a gun, so you must never point even a wooden or plastic gun at anybody.” I was cured from that moment on with any preoccupation of guns or weapons, and I’ve never so much as pointed my finger at someone since that day.

It’s interesting you mention that because your attitude toward presenting violence in your films has been almost reverent, in a way. In this film, for example, the violence is certainly there, but you never linger on it.

Yes, and we never really show it happening, just its aftermath. There’s only one real shoot-out, and it’s completely stylized. I do not like violence, graphic violence on the screen, in particular when it is violence against the defenseless. So I do not want to see in graphic detail the murder of a child. I do not want to see in graphic detail the rape of a woman. That’s what I do not want to see, and in our film you don’t see the murder of the Senegalese family.

Tell us about working with Nicolas Cage.

A great joy. This relentless, high level of professionalism he has is really joyous. The work itself was actually very quiet, very focused, almost like open-heart surgery. You don’t rush it, but you focus on the essentials. This is how I like to work, and Nicolas Cage followed me in this regard with blind faith. We had met only once at Francis Ford Coppola’s, his uncle’s, winery in Napa Valley almost three decades ago when Nicolas was an adolescent, and I was about to set out for the Peruvian jungle in order to move a ship over a mountain, for Fitzcarraldo. Now, we wondered why and how we had eluded each other ever since, why we had never worked together, and it became instantly clear that we would do this film together, or neither one of us would do it. There was an urge in both of us to join forces.

Read more!

John Woo Unbound: The RED CLIFF Interviews

(John Woo, above.)

By Terry Keefe

Director John Woo tells a story in the interview below about one major difference between his experience working on Hollywood blockbusters, and making Red Cliff (Chi Bi), his blockbuster-sized film which he shot in China with strong support from the Chinese government: he never had to sit through endless development meetings. He simply said he wanted to make the film, came up with a budget, received financing, and shot it. As someone who actually was a [very junior level] studio development executive at one time, I loved hearing this. The process by which films are created today at the studios, as it has been for a few decades now, is ridiculously time-consuming and both financially and creatively wasteful. Practically every script “fast“-tracked for production goes through a gauntlet of seemingly endless story notes in which not only the director, but also the studio, the producer, the stars, and sometimes the producer’s wife and mistress have input. I took part in more meetings of this type than I can count, or care to. The thought of someone like John Woo, who came to Hollywood as an established brand name in most of the world, having to go through this process to get a movie made is simply depressing. Understandably, the studios are concerned about rolling the dice on a blockbuster-sized budget and then getting Heaven’s Gate, but within a certain genre, in Woo’s case that would be action, and within a certain budget….someone like Woo has earned the right to a certain level of free reign. If he were making a musical, okay, then bring on the studio notes by the box. But action? And on budget? Just be glad you have him and get out of the way.

Despite their huge budgets, Woo’s Hollywood studio films often felt like he was directing with shackles on. There were bright spots certainly - Face/Off and Broken Arrow were both big hits and highly enjoyable - but even in those two films, you could also feel the weight of all the machinery and corporate structure that Woo had to navigate through. Obviously, his famed run of Hong Kong films (including A Better Tomorrow I & II, The Killer, Bullet in the Head, and Hard Boiled) were done on lower budgets and there is a kinetic energy that goes into the production of a film done by the seat of one’s pants. But rarely did he feel like he was cutting loose in his Hollywood work, and cutting loose is the definition of what made John Woo a legend long before he ever had to prove himself to Hollywood by directing Jean-Claude Van Damme in Hard Target in 1993. Yikes.

Happily, Red Cliff is both a return to form for Woo, and a significant evolution in production scale for him, as this is a massive period war epic, the most expensive Asian-financed film to date, in fact. The basic story behind Red Cliff goes back to 208 AD and the legendary Battle of Red Cliff, which has sort of evolved through the ages into a combination of actual history and mythology, reminding at times of an Asian version of the Battle of Troy. A novel called Romance of the Three Kingdoms helped to immortalize the story over seven hundred years ago, and there have been countless retellings and reinterpretations of it in the centuries since, including numerous video games, novels, and comic books.

(Woo at work on Red Cliff, above.)

The story of Red Cliff kicks off with the feared General Cao Cao (Zhang Fengyi) seeking to finally consolidate the Han dynasty by conquering two warlords who have stood in his path, Liu Bei (You Yong) and Sun Quan (Chang Chen). On the run after a ruinous battle with Cao Cao, Liu Bei seeks to form a military alliance with Sun Quan, but first must win the trust of Sun Quan’s viceroy, Zhou Yu (Tony Leung, reuniting with Woo for the first time since 1992’s Hard Boiled). Zhou Yu is a mighty warrior, whose wife Xiao Qiao (Chiling Lin) is regarded as the most beautiful woman in China, the Helen of Troy of her land and time. The two kingdoms do join together, but still face seemingly insurmountable odds against Cao Cao, requiring innovative military strategies, one after another. Woo has designed these battle sequences with great thought, rather than just overwhelming the senses with CGI-generated sound and fury. The strategy of each side in the battles is revealed, thrown against each other, and then we see how little tweeks in those strategies make the difference between victory and slaughter. Not to make Red Cliff sound like a dry exercise in medieval military planning - when Woo does cut loose in the countless action flourishes throughout Red Cliff, it is all the more exhilarating because he has earned it by slowly building the tension of the battle scenes, along with the storylines of both the lead and supporting characters. The version of Red Cliff that is being released theatrically in the United States is a two and half-hour cut, as opposed to the two-part, five-hour version released in most of Asia.

Note that there are plenty of SPOILERS ahead in terms of plot, as Woo discusses how various sequences were filmed.

You’ve done big movies before, but I don’t think anything quite on this scale. Were there moments where you looked out on the vast numbers of people and sets and extras and were daunted by what you had at your command?

John Woo: [laughs] Yes. We had over 2000 people working on the set. We even had real soldiers working with us. 700-1500 at times, almost every day. Playing warriors and fighters. But this was a movie I had wanted to make for many years. Also, I had been working in Hollywood for over 16 years with so many good people here, and I thought it was about time to bring what I had learned in Hollywood, to Asia. There are so many young filmmakers in China, who are all eager to learn. They have such a passion about movies, and they all want to work on big-budget Hollywood type movies. So, I thought this was a great opportunity for them also. They have the same type of working style as Hollywood, but all they need is the opportunity.

(Chiling Lin, above.)

You created some physically impossible shots, such as the when the carrier pigeon is released and we fly along with the pigeon (In a scene in which the bird travels across the battlefields and opposing camps, laying out the topography of the land.). I thought that was an interesting contrast, because so much of what you have in this film is so obviously physically there. But you must have had to use computer images to create those otherwise impossible shots. How do you find the balance between what you are able to do on the computer and what you want to have physically in front of the camera?

We shot a lot of real live action on the set, and we also used computer technology to add more people and more battleships. I think the team did a very job, and were very clever, in combining the real, live action and the CG. It’s usually hard for the audience to tell which is which. There are some obvious fake moments where the camera follows the pigeon over the enemy’s sides and across the river. That shot was trying to show the geography of both sides. It was if Red Cliff were in Los Angeles and the enemy was in New York, and we had to use this pigeon to connect them together. It became one of the most expensive CG shots in film history, because it was so long and there was so much movement. The other biggest movement was the ship sequence, in which the hero sets their boats on fire, a entire enemy navy of 2000 ships. Because of the direction of the wind, the entire enemy navy is set on fire. It was a brilliant strategy, and it was done with CG. A lot of detail. (In the final Battle of Red Cliff, the Navy of Cao Cao interlock their boats together, forming a blockade, but the Allied armies wait until the wind changes in their favor, and then ram the much larger Navy with “fire boats,” which set the entire Navy ablaze.)

In terms of getting the details right, there are different countries that know of this story, and there are also different comic book versions of it. But what was most important to you in terms of the details when you were writing it yourself?

There were a lot of characters, and I had to make a lot of changes. Actually, I didn’t do that much to follow the book and history. Originally, all those characters in history, they were pretty much like gods, or legends. Always serious. People admired them and no one would want to make a joke of them, because people would find it so offensive. But I wanted to make the film more international, and that’s why I made the characters more human, instead of super heroes. I wanted the modern audience to be able to relate to them. And also, I increased the female role, which didn’t exist in the book. The movie is all about team work, and I thought the women should have their contributions. I also wanted to show that the classic Chinese women were known for their beauty, but they were also had very strong personalities. Just like women nowadays. They are very brave, and smart, and can take on all sorts of challenges. They can sometimes do a much better job than men [laughs]. I didn’t much follow the book. I realized that I wasn’t making a television series for the History Channel. I am making a movie. A movie should have its own message.

Is it controversial in China to see the story changed so much?

It has some controversy about it, the way it was changed. Some people didn’t feel comfortable with it. And some people were expecting to watch a historical film. But it was a small group of people who didn’t feel comfortable with it, and in general, the younger audience…they love it. Especially the European audience. They love the idea of increasing the female part. It’s very important for the movie.

I wanted to ask you about the scene with the interlocking boats. I’ve never seen anything like that before. Was that historically accurate?

Yes, that was from history, and also from the book. It was fascinating and a very clever strategy.

(The burning boats sequence, above.)

The elements played a big role in the strategies as well.

The elements were a major issue in the movie, like in the burning ship scene, where the enemy navy was set on fire because of the wind. That’s all because of the weather. That’s something I learned from [studying] Napoleon and Hitler. They lost wars because of the weather. That’s something that is also [different] from the book. With the boats. [In the book] one of the major characters says “Call the wind!” to win the war. It was kind of like he had super-powers. I wanted to do something different from the book [with that action]. Something more natural. More believable.

Are there significant differences between the versions released in different parts of the world?

Yes, the Asian people are so familiar with this part of history, and the characters, that we have much more time for developing the characters. In the Asian version, there are two love stories. However, the American audience, they aren’t as familiar with the history and characters…we decided to focus on the main story. We took out the love story with the Princess and the young soldier, and also trimmed down the side characters, and focused on one story. But it’s still the same story, the same excitement. Some people even feel that the American version is more exciting, and tighter. So, I’m very enthused with both versions.

Is it easier for you to make a film in the Hollywood system, or in Asia?

Let me put it this way - it’s always easier to make a movie like Red Cliff in Asia. In China, everything was so simple. I just went into the office and let them know I wanted to make a movie called Red Cliff, and they said, “Okay, let’s do it.” [laughs] It was that simple. And I didn’t have to take notes from anyone. I didn’t have to take any advice from anyone. I didn’t have to take any meetings. I just closed my door and worked with my team and did my own thing and made my own film. And also, we had great support from the government. We had soldiers, and all kinds of help from the local people. They also have the biggest studio in Asia. The size of Universal Studios with big sound stages, all types of facilities. Of course, one thing I miss about Hollywood is that everything is so professional. I love to work with the crew and I love to work with the actors. They’re so dedicated. The people in Hollywood have an open mind and they give a warm welcome to talents from all over the world. I learned so much. Of course, I never get used to all the meetings [laughs] and that there are so many people involved in the project [laughs] and how long it takes to make a decision. But there are great things in both places.

You say that there was no interference from the Chinese government, but they are well-known for not wanting certain things in movies. Did you have to trim anything down for the Chinese version, such as the lovemaking scene?

No, I didn’t have to trim anything down for the movie. Actually, they’re getting more open. They’re not that tough. They’re very reasonable. The only concern was the violence - I think it’s the same as other countries - because they really didn’t want to give any bad influence for the young people. They don’t have a ratings system. There’s a movie board, and any kind of movies are for all kinds of audiences. So, we just needed to pay a little attention to that. I didn’t want to show a guy chopping a head off, or something like that.

We live in a war-torn globe today. Since the movie broke box office records in China, and did well in Europe, do you think people are relating this story to what is going on in the world today?

I think so, and I hope so. Before I made this movie, I realized that the economy is getting worse, and affecting so many people. And I overheard some young people in Asia...they were so frustrated. They were all in a deep depression. Some young people didn’t know what to do, didn’t see much hope, didn’t see the future, and some people even gave up their life. It happened in Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, and other Asian countries. I felt so sad. I feel the young people need someone to care about them and they need encouraging. That’s why I hoped this might change their ideas. The movie was about a smaller army that could defeat a larger, more powerful enemy through a combination of teamwork, intelligence, and courage. I think it’s an encouraging movie. I just try to let young people know that they are not alone. There is always a friend. Just work together with your friends and family and take charge. There are always good people. The movie was such a success in China, and Japan, especially in Japan…some of these young people would cry in the movie, they were so moved by the story. And I would ask them “Why?” They would say that they were watching Tony Leung in the film, and they wished they could have a friend like him. Another important thing was that it was also a war movie, and I had wanted to stress that in war…there are no winners. Before, my kinds of movies, they were usually all about the tragic hero. Now, I’m more personal, as I’m getting in age [laughs], I care more about what people really think, and what people really want, when I make a movie.

Which version of the film will we see on the DVD in the U.S.?

I think they will release the 5-hour version in the States. They should.

There was a special section recently in The Hollywood Reporter that was presenting China as a real emerging filmmaking partner. Do you think that it’s finally happening that are real bridges of connection between Hollywood and China, and China is going to open up as a real force in the global industry?

I think so. The Chinese government is open to all kinds of foreign production. They have the biggest sound stage in Asia. A fine mixing room and visual effects team. The business is growing. Since Red Cliff was such a success in China, and also, other fantastic Chinese films…the audience wants to see all types of movies. They keep building theaters, and a lot more of the 3-D cinema [laughs].

The instant philosophical connection to this film is to Sun Tzu’s Art of War. I’m wondering if there was any formal association to that. If you had immersed yourself in that text at all, or if it had come about naturally as a way of telling the story?

It’s a little of both, actually. After studying Sun Tzu’s Art of War, I had gotten some ideas, for designing the battle scenes, like the “turtle formation.” (During the Battle of San Jiang Kou, Sun Quan’s tough young sister, Sun Shangxiang [Zhao Wei] ambushes Cao Cao’s forces and leads them through a dust storm into a trap, the turtle/tortoise formation, in which the horseback soldiers of Cao Cao ride inside of the Allied Army, who have arranged themselves in a formation resembling that of a turtle.)

How had your working relationship with Tony Leung changed, or not, from when you last worked together years ago?

I was so happy to work with him again. He had become more mature, and even more charming [laughs]. He has the same kind of charisma, but this time, he feels more calm, more stable, and he cares more about the others. He’s a man with a big heart. We’ve known each other for such a long time, that we don’t need to say much. We sort of just look at each other and do it.

(Below, Tony Leung in 1992's Hard Boiled, and then in Red Cliff.)

Would you ever want to return to Hong Kong cinema?

I don’t think so. I prefer to make more movies in China, because Hong Kong is so limited. It’s hard to do anything else. There aren’t much in locations, or much in history. All you can do is keep repeating the same thing, but in China, there is so much interesting history and culture and so many different things. I’m still learning. I like to work in different countries and different cultures, and make new friends. In the future, I will maybe make a French, or German, or Turkish movie [laughs]. I want to make films in different places.

You’ve mentioned that your next project is going to be Flying Tigers.

It’s a World War II movie. It’s about an American volunteer team, who are working with the Chinese Air Force, to fight the Japanese during wartime, and they worked together so well, and they gave a lot of contributions, and they won the war. The main story is about friendship, the friendship between the Chinese and the Americans. It’s going to be a very challenging project. Just like Red Cliff [laughs]. There are going to be huge air battle scenes, a lot extra people, but also a lot of human moments.

Red Cliff will be released theatrically in the United States via Magnet on November 20th and is currently available via VOD. The official website is here, and the trailer is below:

Read more!

The Beat of DJ Ickarus: Hannes Stohr's BERLIN CALLING

(Paul Kalkbrenner, above, in Hannes Stohr's Berlin Calling.)

By Terry Keefe

Martin, aka DJ Ickarus, is a star created from the very DNA of the DIY - that’s Do-It-Yourself - ethos. The character, as played by real-life electronic music composer Paul Kalkbrenner in the feature film Berlin Calling, travels the world with his laptop computer as his only musical instrument and an entourage consisting of himself and his girlfriend Mathilde (played by Rita Lengyel) . He has a record company who are about to put out what is expected to be his biggest recording yet, but he is also able to maintain a real degree of independence from them as he makes a lot of his income as a star DJ at clubs and large-scale raves. But he flies too close to the sun during one gig, via some chemically-induced wings, and finds himself locked into a psychiatric ward…where he eventually tries to keep recording.


Many films about techno music, DJs, and night clubs tend to fall flat in capturing the energy that drives those scenes, possibly because it's far more interesting to be part of a rave than it is to watch people on-screen at a rave. Berlin Calling wisely chooses to focus on the character of DJ Ickarus, showing how he puts the chaos of his life into his music. The scene at large is focused through one main character, and it captures far more about the culture than five hours of documentary-style footage of ravers ever could.

Berlin Calling is the third feature film of German director Hannes Stohr, who we spoke to during German Film Week in Los Angeles last month. Berlin Calling is currently available for watching right now, worldwide, on the Eurocinema channel.

Did your inspiration for Berlin Calling come from your own involvement in the rave and club scene?

Hannes Stohr: Well, of course. I lived in Berlin since 1992, and the 90s, that was our Woodstock. I was 22 at that time, the Wall had just come down, and you were there and it was like, “What’s going on?” [laughs] It was purely coincidental that the sound from acid house to techno was right at the time when the Wall came down. Suddenly, you were there at a strange place in East Berlin, where you had all this free space, with this strange music - which was new anyway, and then with these guys from the East. We were all dancing like mad, and it was like, “Wow!” [laughs] At that time, we also had Americans [performing there], like Underground Resistance. We were so proud that the Americans came

(Stoher directs Kalkbrenner and Lengyel, above.)

Was there any particular DJ from the 90s who inspired the character of Ickarus?

My main techno and party times were in the 90s. That said, I’d always been looking for the right angle for how to tell this scene, how to tell this world. You have to think like a filmmaker. You have Oliver Stone and Jim Morrison. You have Clint Eastwood and his film about Charlie Parker. You have Bette Midler playing a sort of Janis Joplin in The Rose. Biopics about musicians are usually about Americans, or British, and they are often dead. The musicians are famous, but they are also a product of their time…that’s why you make the movie. Musicians merge with their time. Because every artist is a product of their time, it tells something about the time they are living. So, I was thinking…why not make a portrait of a German musician who is alive today, and not so famous? The difference between the 90s and now is that this guy is not a DJ - he’s producing live on his laptop. That’s producing. He’s part of what they call the YouTube or Facebook Generation. Now, you have your laptop and your program, and you don’t need a big studio. They sell their tracks by download. Not just the stars are traveling now, but the B List of stars are also traveling. So, I wanted to make a film about an electronic musician of today, not of the 90s, and use it like the film directors did in the past to show him as a symbol of their time. If a musician with a laptop is not an image for today [laughs], you know? The laptop is really the guitar of today.

How did you select the musician for the film?

I had to find an electronic composer, and I had to find the right musician, of course. So, I had some choices, but Paul Kalkbrenner had an album in 2004 called “Self.” A really great album, which I highly recommend to you. It’s emotional, electronic, and he’s just… a classic composer. There is such energy with his music, and I was really fascinated by this album. So, I sent him the script, which was maybe 80 percent of what you see in the movie. He liked it and liked the character. He knew my movies, and I knew his music, but it wasn’t like we were friends. And the more I got to know him and the more we talked about the script, the more I realized that he was really clever. Jim Jarmusch was sort of inspiring me a lot., and helped me to convince other people [in casting]. When Jarmusch was starting and shooting Stranger Than Paradise, with John Lurie of the Lounge Lizards, and he was shooting with Joe Strummer and others…. Jarmusch said, “Good musicians are often good actors. They have a great sense of timing.” And that’s what I found out with Paul. He’s also someone who had great respect for the profession of the actor. He was never there just to play the “Cool Guy.”

(Stohr and Kalkbrenner, above.)

How big a crew did you work with?

It was approximately 40 people. It was the first time I was a co-producer on a movie. With Berlin Calling, I started to realize that it’s becoming our era. I’m 39 now, and this was my third feature movie, and you realize that the other people look at you and say, “Now it's your turn.”

Was the soundtrack a hit in Germany?

Yeah, and we have to say that Paul Kalkbrenner is a bigger star than the guy he plays in the movie [laughs]. Paul is a guy who’s living in five-star hotels, and flying business. But Paul said, “This guy is like I was two years ago.” And Paul said that he had to learn his lesson [as Ickarus does] to get where he is today.

Do you know what you’re working on next?

There’s something that I’d like to take to America, which is a German western, about German immigrants to the United States. In fact, I was living in Los Angeles in 2006 in Pacific Palisades. I had researched the script about the Germans who had come to American in the 19th Century. They played a big part in the Civil War. On the Yankee side. After Hitler, all of the world was really thinking that Germans are the most racist of all, but you don’t find that…in the 19th Century, for example, do you know what they called the Germans? “Nigger Lovers.” The Yankee side! Missouri at that time was really 1/3rd German. We’re talking about, of 2 million soldiers on the Northern side, the Yankee side, there were 200,000 Germans. Abraham Lincoln was depending on the German vote. The name of the film is 48ers. The German immigrants in the second part of the 19th Century were called 48ers, because we had a revolution in Germany in 1848 that failed, and hundreds of thousands of political Germans were coming to America. They were fleeing from feudalism, and suddenly they came to America and they were meeting this slaveholder society, where the British - who called themselves Americans but in the end they were British….the Germans spoke up [against slavery], along with the Irish, and things got started. It will be a very expensive film, and that’s what I’m here for.

Some Berlin Calling-related links:

Berlin Calling Facebook Page

The Hannes Stohr Website

Eurocinema (where Berlin Calling may be viewed)

The Berlin Calling trailer, below:

Read more!

DVD Playhouse--November 2009

DVD PLAYHOUSE—NOVEMBER 2009
By
Allen Gardner

WATCHMEN—THE ULTIMATE CUT (Warner Bros.) Director Zack Snyder’s film of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ landmark graphic novel is as worthy an adaptation of a great book that has ever been filmed. In an alternative version of the year 1985, Richard Nixon is serving his third term as President and super heroes have been outlawed by a congressional act, in spite of the fact that two of the most high-profile “masks,” Dr. Manhattan (Billy Cruddup) and The Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) helped the U.S. win the Vietnam War. When The Comedian is found murdered, many former heroes become concerned that a conspiracy is afoot to assassinate retired costumed crime fighters. Former masks Nite Owl (Patrick Wilson), Silk Spectre (Malin Akerman) and still-operating Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley, in an Oscar-worthy turn) launch an investigation of their own, all while the Pentagon’s “Doomsday Clock” slowly moves toward the time of Armageddon between the U.S. and Russia. All of the novel’s brilliant re-thinking of super hero mythos is intact in this dynamite film. Although it wasn’t the runaway hit many were expecting at the box office, it will undoubtedly become a classic in retrospect, just as films like 2001 and Blade Runner were. Director’s Cut features approximately 25 minutes of footage not seen in theaters, and this “ultimate edition,” also features the animated Tales of the Black Freighter integrated into the story. 5-disc set. Bonuses: 2 all-new commentaries by Snyder and graphic novel co-creator and illustrator Dave Gibbons; Entire Watchmen graphic novel; Documentaries and featurettes; 11 video journals; Music video. Widescreen. Dolby and DTS 5.1 surround.
BRUNO (Universal) More cringe-inducing hilarity from Sacha Baron Cohen (Borat), this time in character as gay Austrian fashion critic Bruno, traveling the globe in search of the best way to become a celebrity, and offending nearly every category of human demographic (celebrities, politicians, Hasidic Jews, terrorists and cage fighters, to name but a few) along the way. Even more outrageous and scatological (yes) than Borat, but also wears out its welcome more quickly, as well. At 1 hr. 22 min., it could’ve been trimmed a bit. Also available on Blu-ray disc. Bonuses: Over an hour of deleted, alternate, and extended scenes; Bonus interviews. Widescreen. Dolby and DTS 5.1 surround.
THE UGLY TRUTH (Sony) Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler star in this romantic comedy about a successful morning show producer (Heigl) who locks horns with her misogynistic star (Butler) when he offers her love advice for a new beau who’s entered her life that appears too good to be true. Trite, tired and stale, this is a sit-com made with an A-list cast and budget. With all these resources, this is the best you lot could do? Bonuses: Deleted and extended scenes; Gag reel; Trailers. Widescreen. Dolby 5.1 surround.
THE LIMITS OF CONTROL (Universal/Focus) Jim Jarmusch’s latest is a deadpan thriller about a mysterious loner (Isaach De Bankole) who arrives in Spain with instructions to meet with a disparate group of strangers, each of whom make up one part of his top secret, and deadly, mission. Eclectic cast includes Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton, Gael Garcia Bernal and John Hurt. Fans of Jarmusch are sure to be delighted by this film’s deliberate pace and offbeat charm. Others, beware! Bonuses: Featurettes; Interviews with cast and crew. Widescreen. Dolby 5.1 surround.
THIRST (Universal/Focus) When a young priest finds his life saved by a blood transfusion, he also finds himself turning into a vampire! As he struggles to keep his undead impulses under wraps, a seductive young woman soon unleashes his primal forces in deadly and bloody fashion. Director Park Chan-Wook, who dazzled international audiences with Old Boy and Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, creates a film that’s swimming in mood, style and eye candy—but lacks a soul to bring it to life. It’s also painfully pretentious at times, particularly as it nears its denouement. Winner of the Cannes Film Festival Jury Prize, 2009. Widescreen. Dolby 5.1 surround.
I LOVE YOU, BETH COOPER (20th Century Fox) When the biggest geek in school (Paul Rust) professes his love for the most popular girl (Hayden Panettiere) in school during his valedictory speech at graduation, he soon finds his dream girl becoming a reality, but not in the way that he’d hoped. Chris Columbus tries his best at the helm of this too-squeaky clean adaptation (by the book’s author Larry Boyle) of the best-selling book. The film version has the heart, guts (and yes, even the lungs) ripped from it. Too bad. John Hughes did it better in the ‘80s guys. Maybe it’s time to let this genre sleep with the big hair and Reganomics. Also available on Blu-ray disc. Bonuses: Alternate ending; Deleted scenes; Featurettes. Widescreen. Dolby and DTS 5.1 surround.
THE TAKING OF PELHAM 1-2-3 (Sony) A group of armed robbers, helmed by an uber-psycho John Travolta, highjack a NYC subway train and demand ten million dollars for the release of its passengers. It’s up to subway dispatcher and regular guy Walter Garber (Denzel Washington) to keep the situation in check until the money can be raised, and the troops rallied. Director Tony Scott incorporates his trademark visual razzle-dazzle (and over-direction) of this very disappointing remake of Joseph Sargent’s 1974 classic that had beauty in its simplicity. Washington is superb, as always, but Travolta might as well be in a Bullwinkle cartoon with his over-the-top histrionics. We miss Robert Shaw, Walter Matthau, and Martin Balsam. Also available on Blu-ray disc. Bonuses: Four featurettes; Commentary by Scott, screenwriter Brian Helgeland, producer Todd Black. BD bonuses: Cinechat; MovieIQ; Digital copy of the film. Widescreen. Dolby and DTS 5.1 surround.
THE GOLDEN AGE OF TELEVISION (Criterion) Beautifully-restored Kinescopes of original live TV dramas from the 1950s: "Marty" (1953), "No Time for Sergeants" (1955), "A Wind From the South" (1955), "Bang the Drum Slowly" (1956), "Requiem for a Heavyweight" (1956), "The Comedian" (1957) and "Days of Wine and Roses" (1958). Conceived by up-and-comers like Rod Serling, Reginald Rose and John Frankenheimer, and starring then-neophyte actors such as Paul Newman, Rod Steiger, Cliff Robertson, Julie Harris, and Piper Laurie. Not only do they not make ‘em like this anymore, but today’s television execs could take a page from these fine programs. Bonuses: Commentary by directors Frankenheimer, Delbert Mann, Ralph Nelson, Daniel Petrie; Interviews with cast and crew. Full screen. Dolby 1.0 mono.
DOWNHILL RACER (Criterion) Michael Ritchie’s cinema-verite look at a narcissistic competitive skier (Robert Redford, excellent in a rare unsympathetic turn) and his quest for glory. Gene Hackman also scores in an early turn as the no-nonsense coach who tries to keep Redford’s ego in check, often to little avail. Contains some of the best skiing footage every committed to celluloid. Bonuses: New interviews with Redford, screenwriter James Salter, editor Robert Harris; Audio excerpts from AFI seminar with Ritchie; Featurette; Trailer. Widescreen. Dolby 1.0 mono.
GOMORRAH (Criterion) Director Matteo Garrone’s shocking, repellent and magnificent portrait of modern-day organized crime in northern Italy is a cinematic tour-de-force, based on journalist Roberto Saviano’s best-selling expose of the Naples’ mob. We see how the modern mafia infects the lives of every strata of Italian society, from the peasants, to the immigrants, to the middle and upper classes. Garrone paints a unique celluloid tapestry with his nimble camera and fine cast (many of whom are non-pros). Also available on Blu-ray disc. Two disc set bonuses include: Documentary on the film; Interviews with cast and crew; Deleted scenes; Trailer. BD edition features DTS-HD master audio. Widescreen. Dolby 5.1 surround.
NORTH BY NORTHWEST: 50th ANNIVERSARY EDITION (Warner Bros.) Beautiful restoration of Alfred Hitchcock’s suspense masterpiece. Cary Grant stars as a Madison Avenue exec who suddenly finds himself plunged into a world of dangerous blondes (Eva Marie Saint), foreign spies and top secret microfilm. Some of the screen’s greatest set pieces (the crop duster scene is sure to give you goosebumps, still) as well as one of cinema’s greatest love stories, an authentic American classic. Two-disc set bonuses include: Commentary by screenwriter Ernest Lehman; Music-only audio track; New 2009 documentary on Hitchcock; Featurettes; Photo gallery; Trailers and TV spot. Widescreen. Dolby and DTS 5.1 surround.
THE DEAD (Lionsgate) John Huston’s final film, an epic treatment of James Joyce’s short story, is a rich and exquisite study of a time long past. Angelica Huston and Donal McCann star as a young couple in early 20th century Dublin who converge with family and friends over a holiday feast, where grievances are aired, stories told, and memories of unrequited love stirred as the evening progresses. A fine coda to the career of a remarkable artist. Screenplay by Tony Huston (son and brother of aforementioned Hustons). Widescreen. Dolby 2.0 mono.
WINGS OF DESIRE (Criterion) Wim Wenders’ elegant fantasy about an angel (Bruno Ganz) in modern (1987) Berlin who falls in love with a very living trapeze artist and must decide whether to give up his immortality so he can come down to earth and be with her. Shot in gorgeous black & white (and some color, too) by Henri Alekan, Wings remains Wenders’ greatest cinematic achievement, and boasts a charming cameo from the great Peter Falk, playing himself. 2 disc set bonuses include: Commentary by Wenders and Falk; Trailers; Documentary on the film’s production; Featurettes; Deleted scenes and outtakes; Notes and photos by art directors Heidi and Tom Ludi. Widescreen. Dolby 5.1 surround.
WHO IS KK DOWNEY? (IndiePix) Funny examination of ambition, fame and celebrity follows the story of two wannabes (Darren Curtis and Matt Silver) who decide they are sick and tired of trying to make a name for themselves the old-fashioned way. Terrance is trying to make it as a rock star, while Theo dreams of getting his first book published: ‘Truck Stop Hustler,’ a racy look at life on the streets as a junkie prostitute. After a string of humiliations by both publishers and music critics, the two hatch a plan to turn Theo’s fictional book into an autobiography by having Terrance dress up as the story’s protagonist, KK Downey, and claim all the events as having happened to him. All of a sudden the book nobody wanted becomes an overnight literary sensation, and Terrance has realized his dream of becoming famous. But at what price? Great stuff from Montreal comedy group Kidnapper Films. Bonuses: Trailer; Deleted scenes; Outtakes; Commentary by Kidnapper Films; Photo gallery. Widescreen. Dolby 2.0 mono.
COLLECTIBLE COLLECTIONS Several box sets of films hit DVD this month. Here’s a few of note: Sony releases THE THREE STOOGES COLLECTION, VOLUME SEVEN (1952-1954), featuring Moe Howard, Larry Fine and Shemp Howard as everyone’s favorite physically-abusive “knuckleheads.” 22 digitally-remastered shorts feature the boys at the height of their slapstick highjinks. Full and widescreen. Dolby 1.0 mono. Universal releases THE CLAUDETTE COLBERT COLLECTION, six films from the popular and versatile actress of the ‘30s and ‘40s: Three Cornered Moon (1933), a comedy featuring Claudette as a resourceful gal who must help make ends meet after her family’s fortune is lost; Maid of Salem (1937) based on the infamous Salem witch trials; I Met Him in Paris (1937), a love story with Claudette and Melvyn Douglas; Bluebeard’s Eighth Wife (1938) pairs Claudette with Gary Cooper; No Time for Love (1943) is an offbeat love story starring Fred MacMurray opposite Claudette; The Egg and I (1947), pairs Claudette with MacMurray once again, this time as newlyweds who decide to uproot from the city to the rural confines of a farm. Bonuses: Documentary on Colbert. All are full screen. Dolby 2.0 mono. MGM/Fox release six different collections of films by some of today’s most popular actors: THE REEESE WITHERSPOON COLLECTION features the hit comedies Legally Blonde and Legally Blonde 2; Reese’s debut in the coming of age drama The Man in the Moon; and S.F.W., a satire on the media and the nature of celebrity, co-starring Stephen Dorff. THE WINONA RYDER COLLECTION features the period drama 1969, with Winona growing up during the nation’s most pivotal year; Autumn in New York is a May-December romance pairing Ryder with Richard Gere; Great Balls of Fire stars Ryder as the teenage bride of rocker Jerry Lee Lewis (Dennis Quaid); Mermaids features Ryder and Christina Ricci as the daughters of a very eccentric mother (Cher). THE SUSAN SARANDON COLLECTION features Igby Goes Down, starring Sarandon as the loathsome mother of a 17 year-old trust fund baby (Kieran Culkin); The January Man stars Sarandon opposite Oscar-winner Kevin Kline in John Patrick Shanley’s comedy/thriller about a serial killer on the loose in Manhattan; Something Short of Paradise is an early (1979) turn for Sarandon, here playing an ambitious reporter who finds herself reluctantly falling for David Steinberg’s neurotic theater manager. Think Woody Allen lite. Finally, Thelma & Louise earned Sarandon an Oscar nomination, in the now-classic story of two fugitive women on the lam across the southwest. Helmed by Ridley Scott, and featuring a star-making turn by Brad Pitt. THE MICHELLE PFEIFFER COLLECTION offers up The Fabulous Baker Boys, with Michelle playing a sexy chanteuse for brother act Beau and Jeff Bridges; Love Field stars Pfeiffer as a Dallas housewife who befriends an African-American man (Dennis Haysbert, excellent) the day that JFK is killed; Married to the Mob is a zany comedy with Michelle as a mobster’s widow who must enlist an inept FBI agent (Matthew Modine) to protect her from lecherous godfather Dean Stockwell. The Russia House is a so-so adaptation of John Le Carre’s novel (by Tom Stoppard) with Pfeiffer oddly cast as a Russian woman acting as an emissary between her volatile friend and a British publisher (Sean Connery). THE MICKEY ROURKE COLLECTION features Desperate Hours, an over-the-top remake of the Humphrey Bogart classic, with Rourke as an escaped con who holds a suburban family (led by pater familas Anthony Hopkins) hostage; Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man didn’t help Rourke’s dwindling career spiral in the ‘90s, in this lame action flick that teams him with Don Johnson; The Pope of Greenwich Village is a terrific take (and the best film here) on modern-day losers with big dreams on the fringes in New York City. Great work from Rourke and co-star Eric Roberts. Finally, A Prayer for the Dying should have been a great thriller about an IRA hitman (Rourke) whose latest mission is witnessed by a priest (Bob Hoskins) who grants the assassin sanctuary in his church. All the right elements are there, but it never quite gels. THE ROBERT DOWNEY, JR. COLLECTION features Back to School, one of the ‘80s' best comedies starring Rodney Dangerfield as a middle-aged millionaire who decides to finish college. Downey is a hoot as Rodney’s son (Keith Gordon)’s best pal. Charlie Bartlett features Downey as a slightly clueless high school principal who finds new pupil Charlie Bartlett (Anton Yelchin) appropriately puzzling. Home for the Holidays, directed by Jodie Foster, features Downey as the eccentric brother of a woman dangerously on the brink, offering a combustible mix during a Christmas gathering. Finally, Richard Loncrane’s film of Shakespeare’s Richard III, a modern re-imagining of the story with Sir Ian McKellan in the title role, with Richard as a WW II-era Fascist dictator, is nothing short of brilliant, with Downey offering a fine turn as Lord Rivers, the queen’s brother. All films are widescreen. Dolby 2.0 mono, 2.0 surround, 5.1 surround.

DON’T TOUCH THAT DIAL! The TV-to-DVD event of the month is the arrival of A&E's THE PRISONER—THE COMPLETE SERIES on Blu-ray, timed in conjunction with the series’ remake premiering on AMC November 15. The original 1967 series, starring Patrick McGoohan, is one of television’s finest hours. McGoohan plays an intelligence agent who, for reasons known only to himself, abruptly resigns, and soon finds himself kidnapped to a remote seaside enclave called “The Village.” He is assigned a number, 6, as opposed to a name, and in each episode must match wits with a new Number 2, who tries to get 6 to confess his reasons for resigning. Brilliant blend of metaphor, satire and pure Kafkaesque horror. 5 disc set bonuses include: Feature-length documentary, Don’t Knock Yourself Out, on the series’ production; Featurettes; Original edits of episodes “The Arrival” and “The Chimes of Big Ben”; Crew commentary on select episodes; Archival film clips; Commercial break bumpers; Photo archive; DVD-ROM features. Full screen. Dolby 5.1 surround. Sony releases DAWSON’S CREEK—THE COMPLETE SERIES, a massive 24-disc set featuring all 127 episodes of the groundbreaking series about a film crazed teen (James Van Der Beek) and his friends (Katie Holmes, Michelle Williams, Joshua Jackson, Kerr Smith, Busy Philipps, to name a few of the actors who began the show as neophytes and quickly became household names) who populate a coastal New England town. Bonuses: Interview with creator Kevin Williamson; Trivia game; Collectible book packaging; Soundtrack CD. Widescreen. Dolby 5.1 surround. NATALEE HOLLOWAY is based on the true story of the Alabama teen who disappeared during her senior trip to Aruba in 2005. Not bad of its type, helped by a strong cast, especially Tracy Pollan as Natalie’s determined mother. Widescreen. Dolby 5.1 surround. Disney releases ZORRO: THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON and ZORRO: THE COMPLETE SECOND SEASON, both 6 disc sets containing all episodes aired from 1957-1959, beautifully restored from original vault elements. Holds up beautifully, thanks in large part to terrific production values and a star-making turn by Guy Williams in the title role. Bonuses: Introductions by Leonard Maltin; Featurettes; Interviews with cast and crew; Collectible pin, lithograph, and certificate of authenticity. Full screen. Dolby 2.0 mono. Universal releases BATTLESTAR GALACTICA: THE PLAN, a feature-length Galactica movie, helmed by star Edward James Olmos, about two powerful leaders of the Cylons who are working separately to destroy the human race, with only the denizens of the battlestar to bring them down. Great fun, loaded with the series’ signature political and social subtext. Also available on Blu-ray disc. Bonuses: Commentary by Olmos, exec producer/writer Jane Espenson; Deleted scenes; Featurettes. Widescreen. Dolby and DTS 5.1 surround. THE ROCKFORD FILES MOVIE COLLECTION VOLUME 1 features four TV-movies featuring a latter-day Jim Rockford (James Garner, still in fine form): “I Still Love L.A.,” “A Blessing in Disguise,” “If the Frame Fits,” and “Godfather Knows Best.” The first, which takes place during the L.A. riots, is the best of the bunch, although Stuart Margolin is a sight for sore eyes as inept conman Angel in “Blessing.” All are full screen, Dolby 2.0 mono. E1 Entertainment releases THE BARBARA STANWYCK SHOW VOLUME 1 features 15 hour-long dramas from Stanwyck’s acclaimed anthology series, co-starring stars such as Lee Marvin, Vic Morrow, Julie London, Ralph Bellamy and Milton Berle. Bonuses: Unaired pilot episode; Stanwyck’s 1961 Emmy acceptance speech; 20-page booklet with commentary by Robert Osborne. Full screen. Dolby 1.0 mono. HEARTLAND SEASON 1, PART 2 continues the adventures of a 15 year-old horse whisperer (Michelle Morgan) and her grandfather (Shaun Johnston) through the highs and lows of their family-owned ranch that rehabilitates neglected horses. 2 disc set. Bonuses: Featurettes; Interviews with cast and crew. Widescreen. Dolby 5.1 surround. SHOW ME YOURS THE COMPLETE SERIES follows the adventures of a shrink-turned-sex expert (Rachael Crawford) who is living her dream until her publisher pairs her up with an arrogant, yet irresistible PhD (Adam Harrington) for her next book. Full screen. Dolby 2.0 mono. 20th Century Fox releases BONES SEASON FOUR BODY BAG EDITION, featuring more police procedural adventures from stars David Boreanaz and Emily Deschanel. 26 episodes on 5 discs. Also available on Blu-ray disc. Bonuses: Deleted scenes; Gag reel; Featurettes. Widescreen. Dolby and DTS 5.1 surround. THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW THE COMPLETE FIFTH SEASON features more smart newsroom shenanigans from liberated newswoman Mary Richards (Moore) and her surrogate family of co-workers (Ed Asner, Valerie Harper, Gavin MacLeod, Ted Knight, Betty White, and Cloris Leachman. One of TV’s finest hours, which inspired several spin-offs. Full screen. Dolby 1.0 mono. HBO releases Will Ferrell’s one-man comedy special YOU’RE WELCOME AMERICA: A FINAL NIGHT WITH GEORGE W. BUSH, a hilarious, often scatological and sometimes sad look at our last president, whom Ferrell interprets with both honesty and pure glee. Bonuses: Featurettes; True or false game. Widescreen. Dolby 2.0 mono.



BLU-RAY TITLES Sony releases a terrific edition of EASY RIDER 40th ANNIVERSARY, the groundbreaking story of two hippie bikers (Peter Fonda and director Dennis Hopper) who sell a major score of coke, stuff the cash in their gastanks, and drive cross-country to Mardis Gras. Jack Nicholson became a star with his turn as a boozed-out Southern lawyer. A classic that is still sadly relevant today. Bonuses: Commentary by Hopper; Documentary on film’s production; Movie IQ via BD-LIVE. Widescreen. Dolby TrueHD 5.1 surround. NIGHT OF THE CREEPS is a cult classic horror cheesfest about fraternity pledges who unthaw a circa 1959 college experiment as a prank, then find out too late that the body is infected by an alien creature, which proceeds to overrun the entire campus. Shot at USC in the ‘80s, film is a terrific blend of satire (the college and all the leading characters are named after famous horror movie directors), sci-fi, and full-throttle horror. Bonuses: Commentary by writer/director Fred Dekker and cast; Deleted scenes and alternate ending; Featurettes; Trivia track; Trailer. Widescreen. DTS 5.1 surround. Blue Underground releases THE LIVING DEAD AT MANCHESTER MORGUE, a 1974 cult favorite, which tells the ghoulish tale of two friends (Ray Lovelock and Christine Galbo) who stumble into a small English town that’s been overrun by zombies! Veteran actor Arthur Kennedy plays a relentless detective who is convinced that the two hippy kids are responsible for all the carnage in their wake. Beautifully shot and helmed by renowned Spanish horror maestro Jorge Grau. Bonuses: Featurettes; Interviews with cast and crew; Trailers, radio and TV spots; Poster and photo gallery. Widescreen. DTS 7.1 surround, Dolby 5.1 surround. MY BRILLIANT CAREER was one of the first films of the “Aussie New Wave” to gain international attention. Judy Davis stars as a free-spirited young woman in early 20th century Australia whose notions of feminism and equality drive her apart from her peers and suitors (Sam Neill) alike. Gillian Armstrong directed this Oscar-nominated classic. Bonuses: Commentary by Armstrong; Interviews with cast and crew; Cannes Film Festival premiere footage; Trailers. Widescreen. Dolby 5.1 and DTS 7.1 surround. Lionsgate releases FRAILTY, actor Bill Paxton’s directing debut, about an FBI agent who returns to a small Texas town where a long-dormant serial killer seems to be in action once again. Terrific cast includes Matthew McConaughy, Powers Boothe, Luke Askew and Jeremy Sumpter. Strong, atmospheric thriller, not for the squeamish! Bonuses: Commentary by Paxton, writer Brent Hanley, crew members; Featurettes; Deleted scenes; Storyboards; Photo gallery. Widescreen. DTS 7.1 surround. RED HEAT is a lame 48 Hrs.-style retread from its director, Walter Hill (who should’ve known better), teaming wisecracking Chicago cop Jim Belushi with hardnosed Moscow officer Arnold Schwarzenegger, who join forces to take down a psychotic Russian mobster who is terrorizing the windy city. Gratuitously violent, not at all funny, and just plain boring. Bonuses: Featurettes; Trailer and TV spots. Widescreen. DTS 5.1 surround. Universal releases LOVE ACTUALLY, a mostly-successful romantic comedy from the UK about a disparate group of Londoners (Hugh Grant, Liam Neeson, Colin Firth, Laura Linney, Keira Knightley, Emma Thompson, to name a few) and their adventures in and out of love. Written and directed by Richard Curtis. Bonuses: Deleted scenes; Featurettes; Music videos; Commentary by Curtis, Grant, Bill Nighy, Thomas Sangster. Widescreen. DTS 5.1 surround. 20th Century Fox releases SAY ANYTHING…20th ANNIVERSARY EDITION, Cameron Crowe’s directing debut is the smart, funny and sometimes painful story of a hopelessly average, but big-hearted guy (John Cusack) who falls for his class’ beautiful valedictorian (Ione Skye), beginning an unlikely romance that puzzles everyone, particularly the girl’s father (John Mahoney, excellent). Holds up beautifully. Bonuses: Commentary by Crowe, Skye, and Cusack; Retrospective documentary; Featurettes; Alternate, extended and deleted scenes; Trivia track; Trailers and TV spots; Photo gallery. Widescreen. DTS 5.1 surround. James Toback’s TWO GIRLS AND A GUY stars Robert Downey, Jr. as a philanderer who finds himself confronted by the two women in his life (Natasha Gregson Wagner and Heather Graham). Tough, funny and downright dirty at times, a real mixture of acting and filmmaking that cooks with gas and scenes that fall flat on their face. Worth a look for the good stuff, though. Downey is terrific. Bonuses: NC-17 and R-rated versions of the film; Interview with Toback; Commentary by Toback, Downey and Wagner; Trailer. Widescreen. DTS 5.1 surround. Miramax releases THE KEVIN SMITH COLLECTION, featuring his hits Clerks, about New Jersey convenience story employees who battle their ennui with ribald conversation; Chasing Amy, Smith’s best film, a modern take on the battle of the sexes with star Ben Affleck falling for committed lesbian Joey Lauren Adams; and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, a less-than-stellar tale of Smith’s slacker heroes Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob (Smith) who journey to Hollywood to stop a movie about them from being made. Skip this one. Bonuses: Commentary by Smith, cast and crew; Featurettes; Alternate cuts on Clerks; Interviews with cast and crew; Outtakes and deleted scenes; Trailers. Widescreen. Dolby and DTS 5.1 surround.



ANIMATION NATION Disney/Pixar releases UP, the delightful tale of a pensioner (voiced by Ed Asner) who attaches thousands of helium balloons to his tiny house to travel across the globe to the exotic land of his boyhood dreams. Little does he know, a pint-sized Wilderness Explorer (think Cub Scout) has stowed away on his front porch, adding more drama to his adventurous journey. Possibly Pixar’s finest hour: a delightful blend of humor, visual splendor and pathos. 4 disc set bonuses include: Blu-ray and regular DVD versions of the film; Theatrical shorts; Featurettes; Alternate scenes; Games; 8 documentaries; Trailers and TV spots; DVD-ROM features. Widescreen. Dolby and DTS 5.1 surround. TINKER BELL’S LOST TREASURE is sure to please the little people in your house, with Tink starring in an all-new adventure, finding herself in deep trouble when she accidentally puts all of her hometown of Pixie Hollow in jeopardy, and must travel across the sea on a secret quest to put things right. 2 disc set. Bonuses: Blu-ray and DVD versions of the film; Featurettes; Games; Music videos; Deleted scenes. Widescreen. Dolby and DTS 5.1 surround. MICKEY’S MAGICAL CHRISTMAS has Mickey Mouse and pals (Winnie the Pooh, Belle, Snow White, Cinderella, Ariel, and others from the Disney world) gathering for four holiday tales, including The Nutcracker and Mickey’s Christmas Carol. Again, sure to please the little folks in your house. Bonuses: Premiere episode of “House of Mouse”; Sing-along songs; Featurette. Widescreen. Dolby and DTS 5.1 surround. 20th Century Fox releases ICE AGE DAWN OF THE DINOSAURS, with Manny and the herd discovering a lost world of dinosaurs, including a foul-tempered T-rex who runs afoul of Sid. Nice animated feature, with gags designed for young and old alike. Also available on Blu-ray disc. Bonuses: Filmmaker commentary; Featurettes; Deleted scenes; BD-LIVE features; Digital copy of film. Widescreen. Dolby and DTS 5.1 surround. CHOP SOCKY CHOOKS VOLUME ONE offer the first thirteen episodes of this acclaimed animated series, which serves up eye-popping visuals and inventive storylines. 2 disc set. Widescreen. Dolby 2.0 surround. Warner Bros. releases RUBY-SPEARS SUPERMAN, 13 episodes of the’80s-era Saturday morning series produced by Ruby-Spears Productions, with the Man of Steel doing battle with arch-nemesis Lex Luthor. Bonuses: Featurette. Full screen. Dolby 2.0 mono. BATMAN: THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD, features 4 episodes of the Saturday morning animated series, with the Dark Knight joining forces with other heroes such as The Green Arrow, Wildcat, Deadman and Blue Beetle. Widescreen. Dolby 2.0 surround. Lionsgate releases TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES THE COMPLETE SEASON 7 SET, a 4 disc set featuring 27 episodes of the pizza-munching, kung-fu fighting reptiles and their “gnarly” adventures. Bonuses: Retrospective featurettes; Interviews with cast and creators; Full screen. Dolby 2.0 mono.



DOCUMENTARY DAYS IndiePix releases THE ART STAR AND THE SUDANESE TWINS a look at conceptual artist Vanessa Beecroft and her attempt to adopt Sudanese twins she used in a photo shoot, whether her husband, the government of Sudan, or the local orphanage likes it or not. Fascinating film by award-winning documentarian Pietra Brettkelly. Bonuses: Commentary by Brettkelly; Deleted and extended scenes; Trailer. Widescreen. Dolby 2.0 stereo. Brave New Films releases MOVEON: THE MOVIE, which focuses on the history of the biggest progressive grassroots movement in the U.S. since the 1960s, MoveOn.org. Created from years of behind-the-scenes footage with MoveOn staff and members, writer/directors Alex Jordanov and Scott Stevenson offer a fascinating look into what might be the future of American politics. Bonuses: Extended interviews with Al Gore and John Kerry; Trailer. Widescreen. Dolby 2.0 mono. RETHINK AFGHANISTAN is acclaimed filmmaker Robert Greenwald’s look at the U.S. policy in Afghanistan, interviewing soldiers, policy-makers on Capitol Hill and Afghani citizens on their views. Not to be missed for anyone with a political conscience. Bonuses: Featurettes; Extended interviews; Commentary by Greenwald. Widescreen. Dolby 2.0 mono. Medici Arts releases portraits of four acclaimed jazz artists from the Masters of American Music series: LADY DAY: THE MANY FACES OF BILLIE HOLIDAY, takes an intimate look at the doomed chanteuse through archival footage and interviews with friends and colleagues; CELEBRATING BIRD: THE TRIUMPH OF CHARLIE PARKER, looks at the famed saxophonist’s invaluable contribution to modern music, and how his addiction to heroin destroyed him; THELONIUS MONK: AMERICAN COMPOSER offers the first fully-rounded look at the tragically-misunderstood pianist, ringleader of the bebop revolution, and early jazz pioneer; Finally, THE STORY OF JAZZ puts a crown on the Masters of American Music series, blending footage of performances, commentary and interviews to offer rare historic insight into the music of jazz and the culture that it spawned (and vice-versa). Wynton Marsalis, Tony Bennett, Dizzy Gillespie, Dave Brubeck and a host of other legendary names contribute to the mix. All are full screen, PCM mono 2.0.

Read more!