BonnieAndClyde Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Have you ever dismissed a movie as an unmitigated piece of junk, and then seen it a second time and thought, "That wasn't so bad"? Xan Brooks in The Guardian raises the question: "Who's at fault if a film fails on a first viewing and succeeds on the second? The viewer, the film-maker, or the tangled, criss-crossing dialogue between the two?"

He notes the turn-around he experienced with the Chilean drama Tony Manero, which is due for US release shortly. and admits that he is "nagged by the suspicion that there may be many other films in need of hasty reappraisal." The influential film critic Pauline Kael famously said she never watched a movie more than once, but Newsweek film critic Joe Morgenstern completed changed his mind about Bonnie and Clyde after describing it as a "squalid shoot-em-up for the moron trade." His mea culpa read in part: "I am sorry to say I consider that review grossly unfair and regrettably inaccurate."

I'm not suggesting that every bad movie will suddenly blossom into a classic with a second viewing. Our own Scott Weinberg recently watched Howard the Duck again, and that sucker is still a "$40 million dollar poop-nugget." On the other hand, my estimation of the original Friday the 13th rose with a recent reviewing, and Peter Bogdanovich's films have been rising in stock for me lately after falling through the floor for a period of my critical life.

What about you? Have repeat viewings changed your mind, perhaps after a period of years, either for good or for bad? Are you now convinced that Citizen Kane isn't so bad after all, or ready to give Watchmen a second chance when it hits DVD?

Where exactly does Bonnie and Clyde rank in the American pantheon? It's a bona-fide classic, to be sure. It placed on the American Film Institute's Top 100 in 1998 and again in 2007. It's also on the IMDB's Top 250 list. Upon closer inspection, however, it's far more than a perfect, polished gemstone. Rather, it's a bundle of contradictions. Everyone knows that it was a groundbreaking film of its day, the first to incorporate a new kind of violence and moral complexity into the mainstream. But screenwriters Robert Benton and David Newman borrowed these elements directly from French New Wave films like Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless (1959) and Francois Truffaut's Shoot the Piano Player (1960). In fact, Truffaut was the first director approached for the project. Despite this, Bonnie and Clyde somehow transcends time. More than just a moldy relic of the 1960s, it has aged much better and is far more watchable today than, say, Easy Rider (1969) or even The Graduate (1967).

Estelle Parsons makes it abundantly clear that she's a theater person, and yet she holds a place of honor in the world of movies. Not only was she in an American classic, Arthur Penn's Bonnie and Clyde (1967), but also the only member of its cast to win an Oscar (Best Supporting Actress), even though Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway, Gene Hackman and Michael J. Pollard also received nominations. (She was nominated again the following year for her role in Paul Newman's Rachel, Rachel.) This paradox isn't lost on Ms. Parsons, who spoke with Cinematical via phone recently, but she seems amused by it all. To her, it was fun, but it's just a footnote compared to her love of the stage. Today, at an imperturbable 80 years of age, she acts, directs plays, works often with Al Pacino and loves her long walks in the woods. Warner Home Video releases the new, remastered Bonnie and Clyde DVD on March 25.

Cinematical: Have you seen Bonnie and Clyde recently?

Estelle Parsons: Yes. Gee, I just loved it. I think I saw it on the 30th anniversary. And I saw it again now. It's just so intense. It was wonderful. It was like looking at something I wasn't in.

Cinematical: How did your role in the movie come about? Did Warren Beatty cast you?

EP: No! I was working for Arthur Penn at the Berkshire Drama Festival and I did "Skin of Our Teeth," which Penn had directed in an experimental way. It meant so much. I discovered a great gift with him, which I didn't even know I had. So I was high as a kite on all this good work I had been doing. I was so excited! I was riding high! I was learning all kinds of things about myself. I was going to join a repertory company in San Francisco, and then it fell through, and Arthur said: "You have to read this script." I thought, "This is one of those secondary roles." And I kept reading and it kept getting better and better. Plus I had worked with Gene Hackman before and loved him.

Two days ago it was a question; today it's a reality: Johnny Depp will indeed portray John Dillinger in Michael Mann's Public Enemies. According to Variety, the actor and director sealed the deal yesterday a few hours prior to Depp's appearance at the Sweeney Todd premiere. This is one of those rare situations in which something good came as a result of the writer's strike (not that it means the writer's strike is a good thing, of course), because Depp was only able to take this role after his Shantaram gig was postponed. Mann, too, has had other projects in his pipeline lately, including Empire with Will Smith, Frankie Machine with Robert De Niro, a Hollywood noir with Leonardo Dicaprio, Edwin A. Salt with Tom Cruise and one of two dueling biopics about ex-KGB Alexander Litvinenko (with the competing movie expected to star Depp, interestingly enough). None of those films have been reported as being passed over due to the strike, though.

Public Enemies was scripted by Mann himself, adapted from Bryan Burrough's book "Public Enemies: America's Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-34." In addition to Dillinger, the non-fiction tome goes into the stories of gangsters Baby Face Nelson, Pretty Boy Floyd, the Barker gang and Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow. There's no indication, however, that the movie will be focusing on any story except Dillinger's. Maybe the others will show up in passing, while Dillinger features as the main concentration. With a star like Depp in the guy's shoes, it's hard to imagine him sharing the screen with anyone expected to be taken as significant as he. Then again, it is called Public Enemies plural ...

Mann and Depp are set to begin shooting in Chicago in March.

I live a ten minute walk from the Arclight Cinema in Los Angeles, easily one of the best movie theaters in the country. The American Film Institute hosts awesome screenings of new and classic films there weekly, and I try to see as many as I can. Just last week, I enjoyed the new Michael Douglas flick King of California, which was followed by an enlightening talk with the movie's writer and director -- Mike Cahill. Neat, right? But nothing could prepare me for the event that hit my inbox just now. Had I been a cartoon character, my bow tie would have spun around rapidly and smoke would have blasted out of my ears. Readers, if you live in Los Angeles -- KEEP OCTOBER 3RD FREE!

The AFI is celebrating its 40th anniversary with an almost unbelievably cool event. On October 3rd, they will screen eleven classic movies at the Arclight, all at the same time. But what truly sets this event apart are the people they've booked to host the screenings. Check this lineup out, and try to keep your jaw attached to your face: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, presented by Jack Nicholson. Spartacus, presented by Kirk Douglas. The Birds, presented by Tippi Hedren. The Sound of Music, presented by Julie Andrews. Bonnie and Clyde, presented by Warren Beatty. Rocky, presented by Sylvester Stallone. Star Wars, presented by George Lucas (settle down!). When Harry Met Sally, presented by Rob Reiner and Billy Crystal. Beauty and the Beast, presented by Angela Lansbury. The Shawshank Redemption, presented by Morgan Freeman. And Unforgiven, presented by Clint Eastwood. Um...wow. Just wow.

Here is the official site for the event. Tickets go on sale September 19th. which is this Wednesday. Tickets are $25, and include popcorn and soda. The first 100 people to show up for each screening get a 40th Anniversary AFI Book. Dress is "festive attire," all screenings begin at 7PM, and doors are at 5:30. For you non-Angelinos, which screening would you choose if you could go? And if you plan on attending, which one are you going to? I'll be at either Unforgiven or One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest for sure. Both movies are in my personal top ten, and where else am I going to be up close and personal with Jack Freaking Nicholson or Clint Freaking Eastwood? This is going to be a tough choice! See you there?

While most movie theater chains have been more interested in wooing audiences with material amenities like concession variety or a "Guest Response System," Landmark Theatres has been working on delivering the best picture quality to its customers. This week the art-house chain opens its latest theater in Los Angeles' Westside Pavillion, and the cinema is noteworthy because it is offering the city its first (public) taste of 4K digital projection. Landmark already has 4K projectors, specifically Sony's SXRD, in locations around the country, despite the fact that most content is only digitally available with 2K resolution.

While I'm no expert on digital projection, here is what I understand about the difference between 2K and 4K resolution (aided by Jette's post about digital restoration): 2K is the current standard for both digital cameras and digital projectors. The amount of (picture) information offered by 2K is less than the amount of information offered by film and film prints. 4K offers twice as much information as 2K and it more sufficiently represents the quality of film. While 4K cameras are currently available, most digital features are shot with 2K cameras and most features shot on film are digitally scanned using 2K scanners. So why is it so important for Landmark to have overqualified projectors?

Landmark is co-owned and co-run by Todd Wagner and Mark Cuban, the duo that also operates HDNet (and HDNet Films and HDNet Movies). Through HDNet, Wagner/Cuban is currently producing 4K content, which they will be able to distribute to their 4K projectors, as well as to non-theatrical 4K media (like Blu-Ray, HD DVD and HD television, presumably). Cuban also points out that they are simply preparing for when 4K content becomes more common. For now, though, Landmark patrons will only be able to appreciate 4K resolution in the form of pre-show materials provided by Sony. If Wagner and Cuban are smart (which they certainly are), they will also hit up Warner Bros. for newly restored 4K versions of Blade Runner, Cool Hand Luke and Bonnie and Clyde to screen as part of their midnight movies selection.

Director Arthur Penn is probably always going to be remembered for Bonnie and Clyde in 1967, but Penn had a few films under his belt before his ultimate in "glamorized gangsters". The 84-year-old director was working in films up until the late 80's and has served as an executive producer for the TV series Law & Order.

The Hollywood Reporter announced that Penn has been selected to receive the prestigious Golden Bear at this year's Berlin Film Festival. The director will be in attendance at a gala on the 15th of February to receive the lifetime achievement award. The festival is showing 10 films in total during a retrospective program at the Deutsche Kinemathek -- Museum for Film and Television that will end with the gala. Director of The Berlin Festival, Dieter Kosslick said, "Arthur Penn's films of the 1960s and early 1970s reanimated the crises-ridden American cinema. He is a great director, who deeply influenced the American cinema d'auteur". The retrospective of the director's work includes the Penn's first film The Left-Handed Gun; the film re-tells the legend of Billy the Kid as a sexually confused and psychologically tortured youth. The part was originally intended for James Dean but went to Paul Newman after Dean had passed away.

You have to admire a director who dared to present one of America's greatest folk icons as a sexually ambiguous neurotic, and in 1958 no less. For that alone the man probably deserves an award.