GeneWilder Tagged Articles at Cinematical

This week, Spike Jonze's long-awaited adaptation of Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are finally arrives in theaters, rewarding us for years and years of devoted attention to the production's twists and turns. But as exciting as the saga of its making has been, we've been bummed out that there are so few stopgap releases offering a similar kind of creepy, beautiful melancholy for kid audiences (and especially, audiences that are kids at heart).

Then again, looking back at the legacy of so-called family films that truly offer something transgressive, much less a little bit trippy, there aren't a whole lot of titles that come to mind as consummate entries in that rewarding, rarified canon. All of which brings us to Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. No, not Tim Burton's 2005 film about a dentist's son who overcomes his obsession with Michael Jackson impersonation with the help of an adorable street urchin; the 1971 Mel Stuart film that turned the stuff of kids' dreams into a palpable reality, while offering a few future nightmares along the way.

Whether by accident or design, Warner Home Video released Willy Wonka on Blu-ray last week as a home-video supplement to Wild Things, and both because of our affection for borderline-creepy kid stories and of course our appetite for all things high definition, Stuart's film is the subject of this week's "Shelf Life."

There's nothing like palpable chemistry on the big screen -- and I'm not talking about only the passionate kind, that je ne sais quoi that makes Mullholland Drive a go-to for steamy interludes. I'm also referring to the platonic manifestation: cinematic friendships. Grab two actors with great camaraderie, and almost nothing can defeat them -- not a bad script, shoddy co-stars, or mediocre directors.

In praise of film friendships in the wake of Rudo & Cursi, The Guardian wonders which friends should be reunited on the big screen. The piece intermingles romantic connections with platonic friendships, and I can't say I blame them. For the most part, the duos we love seem to have a close friendship as much as a fiery romance -- think couples from Tracy and Hepburn to Delpy and Hawke. These duos wouldn't be half as loved if not for that spark of admiration and true interest the radiates between them.

But who else has captured your movie-going heart? More than anyone else, I'd love more Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor interludes, and never completely stop mourning the fact that we'll never get another See No Evil, Hear No Evil or Silver Streak. But Gene and Richard are only the tip of a large iceberg. What about Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen, Uma Thurman and Maria De Maderos, Eric Roberts and Mickey Rourke, Matthew Broderick and Alan Ruck, or ... ? What friendly cinematic reunion are you waiting for?

So it looks like Vanity Fair is back playing in their creative sandbox as they've launched a new set of photos called Comedy's New Legends, featuring some of today's favorite comedic actors and actresses dressed up (and down) to resemble their favorite big-screen legends. There's Seth Rogen as Frida Kahlo, Danny McBride as Jack Nicholson in The Shining, Will Arnett as Han Solo, Russell Brand as Charlie Chaplin, Paul Rudd as Gene Wilder in Young Frankenstein (my personal favorite), and Bill Hader, Anna Faris, Jason Bateman and Leslie Mann as The Honeymooners, among others.

Above you will find the image that kicks off VF's latest series, which is a throwback to another (much sexier) Vanity Fair cover featuring the naked bodies of women like Scarlett Johansson and Keira Knightley. Instead, this time around, we get Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill and Jason Segel in skin-toned body suits. (Thank you Vanity Fair for not allowing them to get naked, because one imagines they totally wanted to go that route.) Check out some of our favorites in the gallery below, and the rest over at Vanity Fair.



Other popular Vanity Fair photo collections:
Something Just Clicked
2008 Hollywood Portfolio (featuring Alfred Hitchock recreations)
Disney recreations

Asking me to choose my favorite scene from Young Frankenstein is like asking a parent to pick their favorite child -- it can't be done. Instead, I chose to share one of the many scenes that can reduce me to giggles in five seconds flat. When I first saw Mel Brooks' and Gene Wilder's masterpiece, I might have only been a kid with a limited knowledge of dirty jokes and references to classic Hollywood, but I was in love. Thanks to this classic, Wilder, Madeleine Kahn, Peter Boyle, and Marty Feldman have become some of my most lasting examples of comic genius.

It has been 35 years since Young Frankenstein first hit theaters, but I still can't think of a movie that makes me laugh louder and harder every time I see it.

Young Frankenstein Fun Facts (via IMDB)

• When the film was released, Aerosmith was hard at work on their album, Toys in the Attic, and when the band were suffering from writers block for the lyrics to a particular song, the group took a break and went to the movies to see Frankenstein. As the legend goes, Igor's "walk this way" gag was the basis (or phrase) for the hit song of the same name.
• Madeleine Kahn was originally slated to play the sexy lab assistant Inga, but at the last minute decided to play Wilder's fiancée, Elizabeth, instead.

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).

It's only a couple seconds long, but above you get a glimpse of the ongoing Frau Blücher joke from Young Frankenstein. I had always seen it as just a funny joke in that quirky Cloris Leachman and Mel Brooks way, but a story from the San Jose Mercury News has added background to the whole character who brings fear to gentle horses everywhere.

Gene Wilder recently told the publication that the film is his favorite, that it is the "most perfectly realized," and described the creation of Frau Blücher. "When I was writing the first draft, I said, 'I wonder if anybody would get it when someone said "Frau Blücher" and the horses neigh.' Mel (Brooks) said, 'Keep it in.' Well, the audience loved it in the previews. Actually, I chose the name because I wanted an authentic German name. I took out some of the books I had of the letters to and from Sigmund Freud. I saw someone named Blücher had written to him, and I said well that's the name. Later on, I heard from about two or three sources, who said Blücher refers to a horse going to a factory and being turned to glue. I just thought it was a funny name."

So, now you know why those scared horses neigh. Sure, Frau Blücher is a scary old woman, but her name also brings thoughts of factories and glue.

[via Film Stew]

My grandfather was a very sick man. You are talking about the nonsensical ravings of a lunatic mind. Dead is dead. Hearts and kidneys are tinker toys! I'm talking about the central nervous system! I am a scientist, not a philosopher! There's more chance of reanimating this scalpel, then you have of mending a broken nervous system. My grandfather's work was doodoo! I am not interested in death! The only thing that concerns me is the preservation of life! Dr. Frederick Frankenstein

For years, Dr. Frederick Frankenstein (Gene Wilder) has tried to distance himself from the mad science of his grandfather, the original Dr. Frankenstein. He is so desperate not to be linked to it that he swears his name is pronounced "Frankensteen," not "Frankenstein." Yet he is still drawn to the science that his grandfather was enveloped in. The young Frankenstein is also a doctor, and he touts the importance of the central nervous system to fresh medical minds whilst damning the name of the first Dr. Frankenstein. But then he is presented with an ornate box, his grandfather's will, and given the key to understanding his relative's madness.

And this is the brilliance of Mel Brooks' stylish, black and white Young Frankenstein. Based on Mary Shelley's novel, and co-written with star Wilder, the comedy was part of a duo with Blazing Saddles that made 1974 a wonder year for the relatively new director -- one that garnered him five Oscar nominations between the two. The solid source material and stellar writing were only part of the film's success. It boasted one of the best comedic casts to ever hit the screen -- Wilder, Cloris Leachman, and Teri Garr, as well as some of the best faces of comedy who are no longer with us -- the purring and wonderful Madeline Kahn, the world's best monster, Peter Boyle, and the scene-stealing Marty Feldman.

As I pointed out in my Poltergeist review, I didn't watch much horror as a boy. That's probably a good thing, as even the non-horror flicks I enjoyed often scared the bejesus out of me. You kids today don't know how lucky you have it with your wussy Shreks and your lamewad Pikachus! Children of the 1980s are still in therapy over what Hollywood deemed "family films" back then. The following non-horror mind-screws should prove my point.

Return to Oz (1985)

In high school, I brought Return to Oz to a Halloween movie marathon. I hadn't seen it since I was a kid. Everyone scoffed. "A Wizard of Oz sequel? That's supposed to scare us?" I didn't hear a lot of mockery after the movie started. In fact, nobody said a word until about halfway through, when a friend of mine whispered "Can we please turn this off?" I'm not sure who thought this movie was appropriate for children. It gave me nightmares for nearly a decade.

Dorothy finds a key with an Oz symbol on it, shows it to Auntie Em and Uncle Henry as proof that Oz exists, and is sent to an insane asylum! An evil insane asylum where they give our young heroine electro-shock therapy! That's how this "childrens' film" starts! Once Dorothy gets to Oz, it's a speeding night train of horrors. How about that Nome King? Good LORD! Winged monkeys aren't scary enough anymore, let's give the kids The Wheelers -- sadistic shrieking psychopaths with roller skates instead of hands and feet! Kids today won't be satisfied with just a standard wicked witch, let's really ramp that up too, and ruin their lives! The sequence with the witch's cabinets full of human heads easily rivals anything in the Nightmare on Elm Street series for sheer terror. "Dorothy Gaaaaaale!!!!"

Even the heroes are horrifying! Jack Pumpkinhead? A hybrid stick n' pumpkin creature who calls Dorothy "Mother"? That's your good guy? Not cool, Return to Oz. Not cool.

The Neverending Story (1984)

Along the same lines as Return to Oz, The Neverending Story feels way too dark, weird, and just...wrong to be a kids' movie. I feel my eyes welling up now remembering Atreyu's horse slowly sinking into quicksand and dying. I can't even talk about the Gmork, that big wolfy vampire thing. And a storm called "The Nothing?" Sweet fancy Moses! Also, again, the heroes should not be scarier than the villains! The racing snail? The Rockbiter? That bat-dude? And Falkor? A big flying dog/dragon mutation with disgusting scaly eggs on his skin? We were supposed to root for this hellacious beast?

Another scream-inducing aspect -- one of the worst theme songs in all of 80's film. And that's saying a whole lot!