Cinematical

I am counting seven movies on Julie Delpy's 2006-2007 to-do list, but one got lost in the fray -- The Legend of Lucy Keyes. I don't remember this ever being released (limited or otherwise), but it's now available on DVD. Production of the movie caught my attention a while ago, because writer/director John Stimpson, a proud new Englander, gave an interview awhile back saying how awesome it was that Delpy, Justin Theroux and Brooke Adams (aka Richard Gere's sister in Days of Heaven) all signed on to do this limited-budget indie film, and live in a little Wachusetts ski lodge during the filming.

The story focuses on true Princeton, MA history, the disappearance of Lucy Keyes into the woods and the long-enduring local legend that Keyes' mother can still be heard late at night howling Lu-cy, Lu-cy! The movie is set in the present day -- Delpy plays a mother whose little girl disappears in a manner chillingly similar to Keyes' vanishing hundreds of years earlier, and there are flashbacks to the original disappearance and search. Yes, it truly does sounds a little Blair-Witchy, but it has a reliable cast and a whole lot of New England in it ... plus Halloween is coming up soon, too.

Corporate interests have been protected, thank God, from the threat of an actual issue being presented in the form of a message at Willie Nelson's Farm Aid this coming Saturday. Richard Linklater's Fast Food Nation will not be shown, because the film does not fit in among performances by Dave Matthews, John Mellencamp, Neil Young and Jerry Lee Lewis.

Is Farm Aid's, uh, beef with the film an aesthetic one? Our own Mr. Rocchi found the movie incomplete-feeling, a somewhat unstructured work. Or could it be that a quick scroll down the Farm Aid page reveals that Chipotle is a sponsor, and Chipotle is 90% owned by McDonald's? I've been unable to track down any comment on the decision beyond an incompatibility of 'messages,' but this feels as lame to you as it does to me, right? I mean, family farmers care about the quality of beef and improving the consumer's perception of the American beef insdustry, right? (And I acknowledge that the point of Farm Aid is to bring aid to poor family farmers, so one has to respect the sponsors, but that doesn't mean this is a good decision. Blech.)

Let me confess -- I get Google news alerts all day long on my favorite actors in the vain hopes of scooping the other, more ingenious cinematical correspondants. I pick weird, quirky actors who bring something more to the picture than just their celebrity-status, and my favorite quirky actors almost always tend to be foreign, more often than not British (with the exception of Dianne Wiest, Ellen Burstyn, and, well ... Donald Sutherland is Canadian).

So I'm amazed that the word on Keeping Mum is, er ... mum, despite its flagrantly awesome cast. From my list of people to watch: Maggie Smith and Rowan Atkinson, as well as Kristin Scott Thomas (who was almost kicked off the list for making out with Harrison Ford, and Up at the Villa, both of which were astoundingly lame movies I will not link to for our collective benefit). Atkinson plays a pastor so preoccupied with penning the perfect sermon that he fails to realize his family's up to no good. At some point The Swayze (I prefer to leave the 'e' silent, because it sounds cool to say The Swayze) shows up, either to distract the family or alert Atkinson.

After seeing Breaking the Waves and Festen, I cared about Dogme 95; in fact, I deeply cared (despite the improbable ringing at the end of Waves, which I simply ignored while caring deeply about the rest). But after seeing Dancer in the Dark and then It's All About Love, Dogme was basically dead to me, as I found myself feeling mistreated by its principal auteurs - this, despite friends trying to persuade me every so often to see the latest Dogme movie trolling the festival circuit.

You may have read our own Chris Campbell's recent article about Von Trier's latest, The Boss of it All, ironically titled "Von Trier Stays Home." He stayed home from Cannes, sure, but did you know he literally could have just... stayed home? Boss made the lineup of the London Film Festival, whose site indicates that the film was shot using automatic randomized cameras. It's a new process for which Mr. Von Trier has coined the phrase Automavision. Boss is supposed to be a dark comedy, begging the obvious question - do automatic cameras know comedic timing? How does one program Automavision to capture the subtleties of Scandinavian dark comedy? I know one of Dogme's goals is to reduce the amount of intervention and translation between the story and the audience's reception of it, but isn't this somewhat extreme? I think I liked Waves and Festen as much as I did because I could feel the intelligence and ambition of the directors shimmering behind the screen. I suspect this new automatic camera thing is a bit more, er ... mechanical than visceral ... but then, I haven't seen the movie.

Automavision! Isn't this how Cartman tried to trick Butters into revealing his innermost secrets?

There's a whole lot of World War showing up onscreen these days, what with Flyboys coming out today, The Magic Flute soon to be released and retooled to suit a WWI look, Peter Jackson about to start working on a British WWII flick, Toronto-screened Verhoeven madness, and the eagerly anticipated Franco-era Pan's Labyrinth coming soon. I'm thinking this upsurge of interest has something to do with a certain president constantly referring his citizens back to a time when good and evil were clearly identifiable, but ... whatever.

In that vein, Viggo Mortensen has signed on to star in Good, with Jason Isaacs, and Gemma Jones - a supposedly semi-satirical movie about the 'good' people stuck in a Germany spiraling out of control during the rise of the National Socialist movement. In his Empire interview a little while ago, Isaacs indicated that the universalizing theme making this period movie relevant today is the question - "it's about what am I doing when civil rights around me are being suspended? Because they are. What do Americans do when they ignore the patriot act? ... This is a film about how good people got swept up and ended up bring at the heart of that repulsive regime."

My suggestion to the powers that be out there - a movie about the Hollywood Canteen in the 40's, when all the studio movie stars cooked, served, swept, danced with and entertained servicemen home on leave. [Yes, yes, I know there was an official Hollywood Canteen movie, but I'm talking about a movie about the Canteen!]

Tonight, the Icon Awards will be distributed to five sensational women in Hollywood by Premiere Magazine. Specifically, the awards will go to Cate Blanchett, Sofia Coppola, Sally Field, Annette Bening and Evan Rachel Wood. In the interests of cinematic justice, I'd like to provide a little fair and balanced context for each recipient:

Ms. Blanchett -- Obviously, the high point of her career at this moment is her dead-on portrayal of Katherine Hepburn in The Aviator, for which she deservedly won an Oscar. I reluctantly cite The Missing for balance, not because she was bad in it, but because the movie can only be described as desperately cheesy, and I wonder what convinced her to do the project after reading the script.

Ms. Coppola -- I think we're all in agreement regarding the high point of her career so far, but I'd like you to note I have high hopes for Marie Antoinette (confessing I've yet to see it), because the trailer is so ebullient. To balance the context, I direct you to her bit part as Kathleen Turner's little sister in the otherwise delightful, infinitely re-watchable Peggy Sue Got Married. (She was a drag in another of daddy's projects a few years later -- one that doesn't count, and is not the third film of a trilogy, but rather a tragic epilogue to two masterpieces).

She of perfect skin, cool composure and elegantly dark eye-circles shall be yukking it up next year in Dan in Real Life (as we previously reported), a movie set in Rhode Island about a widower who falls for his brother's (French, ya think?) girlfriend. The brothers competing for Ms. Binoche's affection will be played by Steve Carell, Norbert Butz (who's been big this past year on broadway) and Dane effing Cook (who has suddenly become the next Jim Carrey, though I predict he will be a comedian for five more years before some unexpected, deftly-handled dramatic role catapaults him to Oscar glory).

Several names below Dane Cook's, one discovers that Dianne Wiest and John Mahoney will join the fun, and bolster the established talents of Ms. Binoche and Mr. Carell. I went trolling through the records to find some context for a Juliette Binoche funny-ha-ha role, but found only funny-troubling roles, such as The Unbearable Lightness of Being (funny relationship with monogamy), Damage (funny relationship with fiance's hot-looking father), or The English Patient (funny how everybody she loves dies).

The cast awaits the completion of Evan Almighty, as Mr. Carell is busy finishing up with that.

I've been reading a lot of chatter on films screening at the Toronto International Film Festival and, before I started reading said chatter, I chattered about it with a Toronto resident/attendee, in order to gain a better understanding of what was being shown this year, as well to guide my friend into seeing and reporting on films that particularly interest me.

Though I can't say I recommend seeing it, I was quite intrigued to read an article regarding Manoel de Oliveira's sequel to Bunuel's Belle de Jour, titled Belle Toujours (Beautiful Every Day). At first, I thought, does this movie actually exist? How come nobody's mentioned it? Actually, Oliveira himself has mentioned it - he wrote his own summary of the film on IMDb. For those interested, it premieres in Toronto on September 13, and then again on the 15th.

Basically, the film revisits the life of one of Severine's friends, Henri (Deneuve is no longer Severine, but Henri is played, again, by Michel Piccoli, who has aged into a kind of soft, grandfatherly-looking sadist). In the original, Henri relentlessly stalked Severine -- looking to consummate some adulterous rendevous, until he discovered her secret life as a whore. Years later, Henri runs into Severine by chance at a Dvorak concert, and the pursuit begins anew. I'm intrigued to know the purpose of this pursuit, as I always thought he gave up on her in Belle de Jour because the power he'd hold over her is the power to reveal her secret. But it's been a while since I've seen the original.

It's time to celebrate Helen Mirren's win for best actress over at the Venice Film festival for her latest role as the title character in Steven Frears' The Queen. She has long been one my top five favorite actresses for her ingenious work in roles like The Queen and The Madness of King George, for which she was nominated, and overlooked, for the best supporting actress Academy Award. I also loved her playing opposite Fionnula Flannagan in the IRA political drama Some Mother's Son. She flashed her comedy chops (and so much more than that) as Chris Harper in Calendar Girls. Oh, and you best believe I own and revere the entire Prime Suspect library.

But I think my favorite role of hers has to be as Mrs. Wilson in the brilliant, yet underappreciated Robert Altman masterpiece (and utter Britfest) Gosford Park. She plays a very on-task head-servant in this old-fashioned murder mystery, wearing little to no makeup, and facial expressions varying only slightly from determined concentration throughout the entire movie. Also one cannot ignore the mysterious inner depths she manages to channel (and so subtly reveal) while doing so little. Folks, this is what makes an actress great.

Lots of interesting news is starting to surface about a reunion between Richard Linklater, Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy for another installment in what could soon be referred to as a trilogy - a part three of the series containing Before Sunrise (1995) and Before Sunset (2004). Is it too soon? Are they married? What are they talking about? Kids? Suri Cruise? I'd be happy if Linklater, Hawke and Delpy committed to revisit Jesse and Celine in a fixed increment of years, a'la Michael Apted's 7-Up documentary series that's been tracking the lives of a class of British 7-year-olds through 42 years of their lives.

Let me see if I can describe the plot: Jesse and Celine discuss important personal issues in real time. As slim as that plot description sounds, I found both films in the Sunrise/Sunset series to be completely riveting. I know I'm not alone when I confess to falling in love with both of them as they fell in love with one another. My cold little heart raced faster and more optimistically than ever before when Jesse replied "I know," to Celine's "Baby, you're going to miss that plane." I mean, how could you not find that thrilling?

I read this other, slightly less awesome rumor that Delpy was directing her own romantic comedy, about a neurotic couple spending two hours roaming around Paris. Heck, if she writes and directs movies as well as she invents impromptu songs about one-night-stands, I'll happily support that. While we're discussing this, I shall put a question out: Do you prefer to watch Sunrise/Sunset back to back? Or, like me, do you prefer to wait it out a little bit between the two movies, so that your memory's a bit blurred and closer to the state Jesse and Celine are in when they reunite 10 years later? Or, if you've watched these movies as many times as I do, does waiting between watching the two no longer make sense, since you know pretty much every nuance by heart?