Bytowne Cinema July & August 2008, Inglorious Bastards

The new bytowne schedule came out today and it looks like we will have a good two more months. A great two months if you take into account the Jacques Tati retrospective at the archieves and the films the national art gallery will be playing. The bytowne will be getting new 35mm prints of Ingmar Bergman`s Monika and Francois Truffauts Les Quatre Cents Coups (it was worth getting the film guide for Jacques Rivette original review of the film). The must see cinema include Almodovar`s All About My Mother, Kurosawa`s Ran, Kazan`s A Streetcar Named Desire, Kubrick`s 2001 and Wilder`s Some Like It Hot. For new features there will be Hou Hsiao Hsien Flight of the Red Balloon and Herzogs Encounters at the End of the World. The IFCO (Independent Filmmakers Co-operative of Ottawa) will hold their 16th annual gala premiere with new films by Ottawa filmmakers.

Monday July 7th, 9:10, All About my Mother
Monday July 21st, 8:50, Kurosawa`s Ran
Friday July 25th, 9:00, Flight of the Red Balloon
Monday July 28th, 9:10, A Streetcar Named Desire
Friday August 1st, 6:55, Les Quatre Cents Coup
Thursday August 7th, 9:30, IFCO Gala
Friday August 22nd, 7:00, Monika
Monday August 25th, 8:50, 2001: A Space Odyssey
Monday September 1st, 8:40, Some Like It Hot

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Quentin Tarantino confirmed finishing the screenplay for his long-awaited new film Inglorious Bastards. The film will be a Modern World War II epic. The film is scheduled to be ready for Cannes 2009.

"Do you want me to drive you home or do you want to come back to my apartment and watch me aphabetize my videotapes?"
- Tarantino to his girlfriend at the time (1992)

Belle de jour

Belle de jour (1967)
Luis Buñuel

Luis Buñuel was a Spanish filmmaker who started making films at the age of 29. His first project was a surrealist short that he co-wrote with Salvador Dali Un chien andalou (1929). His next film was L'Âge d'or (1930). L'Âge d'or was his first full lenght feature and with this film he set a precedence for what surrealism meant to cinema by filling the film with symbolism, juxtapositions of images, attacks against catholicism and the bourgeois class.

I want to note that André Breton, the leader of the original surrealist movement in the 1920s, wrote this manifesto to describe surrealism.

Surrealism as,
Psychic automatism in its pure state, by which one proposes to express -- verbally, by means of the written word, or in any other manner -- the actual functioning of thought. Dictated by the thought, in the absence of any control exercised by reason, exempt from any aesthetic or moral concern.

Bunuel who started out with the antiplot structure to his films changed towards a miniplot narrative in his later years. His earlier work was full of symbolism which gave it its surreal quality while tith Belle de Jour he shows the surrealism of realism with Séverine consciousness as its primary source. The whole film revolves not so much on the life of Séverine (Played by Catherine Deneuve) but on her thoughts and feelings. She is the typical bourgeoise that Bunuel mocks and when she gets bored with her husband, she decides to go work in brothel during the day, that is where the name of the film comes from, she calls herself Belle de Jour.

Catherine Deneuve who recently won the Prize of the 61st Festival de Cannes ex-aequo was 24 when she took on this role. She plays a great Séverine, she is thrilling and looks great. Bunuel shots of her included close up of her feet, nude and in chic outfits. Its worth noting that she is dressed in Yves Saint Laurent. Yves Saint Laurent (August 1, 1936 – June 1, 2008) is one of the best known french fashion designer and he has jus recently passed away and Catherine Deneuve was one of his muses.

What I find really makes this film great is how it interweaves dream sequences, thoughts, conciousness and reality all into one without any explanation. an openness to explore Séverine subconcious appreciation of ringing bells and cat noises, a exploration of her childhood experience and her desire for adventure. The ending i thought was superb. Her husband has just come to terms with what Séverine has been doing and we see him crying in his wheelchair. She sits down and watches him cry then he gets up and tells her that everything will be ok. There is a subtle transition from reality to thought. The movie ends, Séverine is happy.

New undergraduate programs, Film Studies

The University of Ottawa is starting a new undergraduate program, Film Studies, in the Department of Communications. The program will focus on trends in cinema that shaped it to become what it is today. There will be explorations on the works of the worlds great directors. I believe this program is an important step to help shape the student community on the art of film.

Here is the website: Film Studies

The 1930s the making of the new man, theater screenings worth going to

Starting June 6th at the National Gallery of Canada, there is going to be a new exhibit opening The 1930s The Making of The New Man. The works will be dealing with themes of Genesis, Convulsive Beauty, The Will to Power, The Making of The New Man, Mother Earth, The Appeal of Classicism, Faces of our Time, Crowds and Power, The Charnel House.

There will be a film series as well. Here the films

July 10th, 7:00, The Pictures of Dorian Gray, Albert Lewin, 1945
July 17th, 7:00, Frankenstein, James Whale, 1931
July 24th, 7:00, Le Chagrin et la pitie ( The Sorrow and the pity), Marcel Ophüls, 1969
July 31st, 7:00, La belle et la bete, (beauty and the beast),Jean Cocteau, 1946
August 7th, 7:00, Amarcord, Federico Fellini, 1973
August 14th, 7:00, The Great Dictator, Charles Chaplin, 1940

Now thats exciting, and dont forget in June theres:

Monday June 2nd, 9:05 Belle De Jour, Luis Buñuel 1967, Bytowne Cinema
Wednesday June 4th, 9:05 Standard Operating Procedure, Errol Morris, Bytowne Cinema
Monday June 9th, 9:15 Touch of Evil, Orson Welles 1958, Bytowne Cinema
Friday June 13th, 7:05 My Blueberry Nights, Kar Wai Wong 2007, Bytowne Cinema
Monday June 16th, 9:00 Taxi Driver, Martin Scorsese 1976, Bytowne Cinema

and a reminder that the Canadian Film Institute are playing five of Jacques Tati`s films in July at the National Archives Auditorium.

JOUR DE FETE, 1947, Saturday July 5th, 7:00 pm
LES VACANCES DE MONSIEUR HULOT, 1953, Saturday July 12th, 7:00 pm
MON ONCLE, 1958, Saturday July 19th, 7:00 pm
PLAYTIME, 1967, Saturday July 26th, 7:00 pm
TRAFIC, 1971, Saturday August 9th, 7:00 pm

Paranoid Park

Paranoid Park 2007
Gus van Sant

The film is a story about a high school skateboarder Alex (Gabe Nevins, Gus van Sant found the actor through myspace)in Portland, Oregon who one day decides with his friend Jared to visit the tougher Paranoid Park (O'Bryant Square). There one night something happens to Alex and the film is an uncovering of what that was. The film was based off of Blake Nelson novel of the same name and the adaptation was done by Gus van Sant. Blake Nelson has said the book is like Dostoevsky Crime and Punishment in a young adult setting. The chronology of the film is shuffled with the present day Alex moving on with his life as we are discovering what happened to him that night at Paranoid Park through his letter he is writting to Macy.

Alex becomes larger then life and the center of everything that is going on. The cinematographer for this film was Christopher Doyle (Wong Kar Wai cinematographer) and he combined shots filmed in 35 mm, Super 8 and videotape. His focus was on Alex while everything else seemed to be blured in a soft focus, there were also full body shots that makes alex feel almost trapped within the frame similar to his experience was trapped within unable to communicate it with anyone. The film was full of long takes with no dialogue witch let Leslie Shatz layered sound design shine through mixing together Nino Rota, Beethoven, Elliot Smith, obscure whispering and a pop ballad. The music was everything but clithe and created an angelic melody to the skateboarding scenes, the most frightening ticking when Alex is wondering what he should do, and is defiant of cliches when there is the romantic pop ballad playing over the breakup of Alex and Jennifer.

The film is also about adolescent alienation, where after the traumatic event, the pure youthful Alex starts to have doubts about the things that matter to him in life and that all he can think of is the guilt he has boiling inside of him as well as a good aliby to where he was that night. At the start of the film there is an interogation between Alex and Detective Lu and only later on do you find out the legitimacy of the claims. That scene and part of the story have elements that can be traced back to Truffauts The 400 Blows. But that is where the similarity stops this film is Gus van Sant return to a smaller budget, adoslecent conciousness, high school life and brings a new freshness of youth in cinema.

Sydney Pollack (1934-2008), 61st Cannes

Sydney Pollack; producer, director and actor, died May 26th. His film They Shoot Horses, Don't They? was part of the catalyst for the new hollywood generation. He directed Paul and Leonard Schrader The Yakuza in 1974, Starred in Woody Allens Husbands and Wives, he won 10 oscars for Tootsie with Dustin Hoffman, He was in Bob Atlmans The Player, he did many films with Robert Redford, He worked alongside Tom Cruise in Stanley Kubrick last movie Eyes Wide Shut and most recently he was in Michael Clayton.

His strength was in acting and getting the actors to stay fresh and truthful through each scene. He was taught under the famed teacher Sandy Meisner. As his roles in different films varied he was always able to renew himself. He will live on in cinephile for his powerful performances and in the great films he directed.

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The 61st Cannes film festival finished and the film that won the Palme D`or Laurent Cantet’s “Entre les murs”. This is the first French film to win the prize in 21 years. Benicio Del Toro Won the best actor award for his role as Che Guevara in Steven Soderberg Biopic on the revolutionary. Since I could not have made it this summer due to prior engaments I will have to see the films in theaters when they come to town. Some other note worthy films to look out for that premiered at Cannes are Woody Allens Vicky Cristina Barcelona (they were saying it is going to be his next big hit), Charlie Kaufmans Synecdoche, New York (Anything Charlie Kaufman) , Wim Wenders Palermo Shooting (from the films i have seen, i have to say that Wenders makes some of the most touching and moving films i have ever seen), and Atom Egoyan Adoration (who i have alot a great things about and is Canadian).

ps.. on a other note, WOODY ALLEN AND HIS NEW ORLEANS JAZZ BAND are going to be at the montreal jazz festival Sunday, June 29, 2008 at 7:30 PM and Monday, June 30, 2008 at 7:30 PM, it looks like alot of fun.

Indiana flop Jones, and Charlie my new favorite Kaufman

If you liked the other Indiana Jones, I am sure you will most likely enjoy this movie. All i can say about it is that the there were maybe two great scenes, a nuclear explosion of a small abandoned town (I am sure with how ever much just that one scene cost a dozen much better films could have been made) and the beautiful ending scene that was ruined by the characters talking. There were alot of one liners that were funny to laugh at but it was all to unrealistic and kitschy. You can tell that George Lucas was writing this stuff for his total disrepect for his audience inteligence. The film also had an older generation stench, there was no spirit or youth in this movie. There was not one thing i liked about Cate Blanchett playing the Stalin secret agent Irina Spalko and the youngest actor on the set Shia LaBeouf who plays the greaser seemed contrived. By the end of the movie i was getting really drowsy and was happy it was over.

I found out yesterday that at the world exchange, empire 7 there is a new student promotion where for 11.49 you get your movie ticket and a medium soda and popcorn. All you have to do is showthem your student card at the ticket booth. At this theater here the usual third row seat was to close so we sat in the 5th row, but i would be careful since the drink holder in the middle seat there is broken. The screening was alot of fun I went to the movies with Kat, Pete, Ira, Sara, Leah and Andrew. Ira was bringing forth a more objective view on the film, commenting on the audience a film like this has, the films only qualities is its constant one liners (Russians, they werent you...) and Kat was just thouroughly enjoying the picture laughing and being scared at the right moments, by the end i was resting my eyes a few times to be caught by her telling me to wake up and for myself to say i wasnt sleeping.

On to something more interesting... Charlie Kaufman. A genius. I think this guy so cool!
He is the screenwriter behind Spike Jonze Films being john malkovitch and adaption as well as michel gondry eternal sunshine and human nature.
I watched Adaptation a few days ago and it really got to me. I thought it was tragic Donald Kaufman died. I could not have believed it. On the cover of the dvd at the bottom it says written by Charlie Kaufman and Donald Kaufman, at the End of the film there is a message dedicating the film in his loving memory, Donald Kaufman even shared and Oscar for best screenplay and in his filmography it says he wrote an other movie 3. I was convinced and sad to see how he tragically was shot and then flew out of the car window to his death. It ruined my night. But it turns out that Donald was just a fictional character Charlie created to help him finish his film. Once charlie decides he does not know how to finish his film, he brings him in to help him finish the adaptation of the orchid thief. There the movie gets its big ending that Robert McKee the big screenplay Guru was telling him the movie needed. It works perfectly.
The film is compared with Fellinis 8½, Godards Contempt and Truffauts Day for Night for being one the best films about film making. At the beggining he talks about how he beleives a film should be and it is just inspiring. Speaking about how films should be character and motivationaly driven instead of the traditional plot driven. He aims for a free flowing, fragmented narrative and at the same time there is a very formal structure to his film.
His newest film Synecdoche, New York has just premiered at Cannes yesterday and It looks great. From the clips it feels like a New York Woody Allen tale of romanticism and fear of death. Kaufman has cited Woody Allen as an influence on his work, Kaufman being brought up in a Jewish home saw Woody Allen as a person he could aspire to become. I cant wait for his film to come to town.