carmen Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Indies on DVD: 'My Best Friend,' 'Darryl Hunt,' 'Crazy Love'
Filed under: Comedy », Documentary », Drama », Foreign Language », Independent », New on DVD », Cinematical Indie »
My latest starting point is DVD Talk; their list is not comprehensive, but I appreciate the simplicity. Looking over what's out this week, I realized I need to watch more movies in theaters! I haven't seen any of these releases yet, but I plan to do some catching up. My rental picks begin with Patrice Leconte's My Best Friend. Monika Bartyzel called it "an entertaining, solid comedy." Daniel Auteuil plays "a completely conceited art dealer who is stunned to learn that none of his so-called friends like him" and is inspired to gamble on himself. The DVD from IFC includes a "making of" feature and the trailer.The Trials of Darryl Hunt "tells the story of ... a black man who was tried and convicted for the rape and murder of [a] white newspaper reporter," according to Christopher Campbell. "Hunt was sentenced despite there being no physical evidence, simply off a testimonial given by a former Ku Klux Klan member." ThinkFilm's DVD includes bonus interviews and an "exclusive HBO featurette."
Another doc, Crazy Love, about a long-term relationship with, shall we say, questionable elements, made James Rocchi wonder: "What movie didn't get in to Sundance because this horrible, clammy, grim and pathetic tale of co-dependent madness did?" But Kim Voynar had a very different view, describing it as "an engaging, intelligent" film. Magnolia's DVD features an audio commentary by co-director Dan Klores and the couple, deleted scenes and other extras.
Other titles that sound intriguing include documentary Girl 27 (a woman hired as a movie extra in the 1930s is instead raped at an MGM party) and the box set Carlos Saura's Flamenco Trilogy (including Blood Wedding, Carmen and El Amor Brujo) from Criterion.
J. Lo goes Bridge and Tunnel
Filed under: Comedy », Romance », Casting », Celebrities and Controversy »
Just yesterday, James and I were
talking about how ... interesting it is that Wayne Wang can go from directing a lo-fi sexual psychodrama like
The Center of the World, and straight into fluffy quasi-empowerment rom coms, like Last Holiday, and
the "J. Lo plus Ralph Fiennes equals Sabrina on Zoloft" shrug that was Maid in Manhattan.
Wang's career um, arc? can be rationalized, James said, as a clear effort to balance art and commerce. Okay, but then
what can we say of his Manhattan star, Jennifer Lopez? J. Lo famously broke out as Selena in Selena,
and then built a reputation on strong work in left-of-center projects such as U-Turn and Steven Soderbergh's
flawless Out of Sight. Then came the pop stardom, and the husbands, and a series of worthless films that
failed to appeal to either film snobs or consumers. When you're failing to make either art OR commerce, shouldn't some
kind of career re-evaluation take place?Maybe, but acording to Variety, it's not going to happen any time soon. Greg Berlanti, creator of Everwood and former executive producer of Dawson's Creek, will direct Mrs. Mark Anthony in Bridge and Tunnel. Yet another deception-fueled romantic comedy, this one figures Lopez as a stocktrader who gets all of her moves from a teenager day trading from his home in the 'burbs. Though Variety doesn't specify much about the plot, I think it's safe to say that through this kid, J to the Lo finds both love, and the courage and confidence to do her job by her lonesome. From kick-ass Federal Marshall to waiting-to-exhale corporate fraud in just nine years? C'mon, Jenny – just give Taylor Hackford a couple mil and make the Carmen movie. For you, and for us.
Wait - we *don't* want J. Lo to die?
Filed under: Drama », Music & Musicals », RumorMonger », Celebrities and Controversy », Newsstand », Remakes and Sequels »
Every studio in Hollywood has
apparently refused to finance Ray director Taylor Hackford's latest pet project, a feature based on Georges
Bizet's classic opera Carmen, starring Jennifer Lopez. Bizet's opera is a dark, tragic tale of a gypsy whose
daliances with a soldier and a bullfighter bring down both men, and bring their respective political struggles to a
head. Hackford says the suits are afraid of putting Lopez, whose fan base is largely comprised of teenage girls, into a
serious, potentially R-rated project in which the heroine is eventually killed. "There is a great deal of fear in
Hollywood," Hackford tells the NY Daily News, based on the fact that "many of the films are not
working," with moviegoers. "We want to do a tough, hard version, but Hollywood thinks [Lopez'] audience is
13-year-old girls." The suits couldn't really be trying to get Hackford to make his project adolescent-friendly – and if they are, it's only because they've never seen that MTV version of Carmen, starring Beyonce and subtitled, "A Hip-Hopera". The 12-21 year old audience has, I think, been served an adequete helping of Bizet. It makes perfect sense that no one would back a serious, expensive, drama (and it's not even clear whether or not Hackford plans to make it a musical) starring Jennifer Lopez, who has proven bankable only in romantic comedies and as an actress, has by most accounts never lived up to promise she showed in Out of Sight. The real question is: why doesn't Hackford just go get himself another ingenue? Last I heard, there were one or two other Latina actresses in the world...
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