piper laurie Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Retro Cinema: Carrie
Filed under: Horror », United Artists », Retro Cinema »
In the spring of 1999, I had a unique experience. The Roxie Cinema (in San Francisco) was opening a brand-new print of Brian De Palma's Carrie (1976), which I suspect had been struck as a sort of apology for the now-forgotten The Rage: Carrie 2, released just a week before. I attended their press screening -- the very first unfurling of the new print -- but oddly enough, I was the only one to show up. Had the other critics already seen it? Or was there something else? The Roxie guys shrugged, asked if I'd like to go ahead, and I said yes. I sat in the middle, all by myself.
I've seen it again since then, and have become doubly convinced of its excellence. Along with The Untouchables (1987) and Mission: Impossible (1996) it was De Palma's biggest success and yet it's usually left out of diatribes calling De Palma a ripoff artist and a misogynist. Based on the first novel by Stephen King, Carrie uses virtually no Hitchcockian elements, and, actually, only about a half a dozen of De Palma's 28 feature films to date, do. Likewise, it's a fairly perceptive view, not of female sexuality in itself, but of the male fear of it. (And, more importantly, an awareness of this fear.) Moreover, both Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie received Oscar nominations for their performances, a justification for two strong female roles.
Connie Stevens Jumps Behind the Camera
Filed under: Drama », Casting », Scripts »
We always hear about big actors and actresses jumping behind the camera to whet their other cinematic appetites, but how often does it happen with a highly-recognizable television guest-stinter, movie actress, and singer who is one year away from 70? The Hollywood Reporter has posted that Connie Stevens is currently directing and producing a film called Saving Grace, which she also wrote; the story is influenced by a personal experience Stevens had years ago in Boonville, Mo., during severe floods. This is her first fictional feature, although ten years ago, she did write and direct a documentary about women in Vietnam called A Healing. And, to make things sweeter -- she's got a pretty solid cast.Penelope Ann Miller (Blonde Ambition) and Michael Biehn (The Terminator) play a couple named Bea and Landy Bretthorse, who live in a Missouri town during the 1950s. Their lives are "thrown into chaos when Landy's sister Grace (Tatum O'Neal) is released from the local asylum and comes to live with the family." Joel Gretsch (The Emperor's Club) will play Grace's ex-husband, who was married to her for one whopping day, and Piper Laurie (Hounddog) is the administrator who runs the asylum. Apparently, the floods play a pivotal role in the story, but I imagine the insanity is where the fiction comes in. The film is currently on location in Missouri.
Review: The Dead Girl
Filed under: Drama », Independent », Thrillers », New Releases », Theatrical Reviews », Cinematical Indie »
We hear it on the news twice a week, it seems: A young dead woman has been found on the road, in a ditch, back behind someone's barn, etc. We give the news a casual listen, perhaps offer a brief bit of sympathy to the girl's family, and then throw our focus back into our own lives. The world can be an ugly place; best not to dwell on the more horrific aspects of it ... until we have to.
Karen Moncrieff's follow-up to 2002's Blue Car is a decidedly unique take on the "serial killer movie." The Dead Girl is not a mystery, nor is it really a thriller. It's more of an anthology piece that introduces us to a collection of people on the periphery of a horrible murder. It's not a movie about the killer, per se, nor is it a character study of the victim ... except when it is. It's a tough movie to describe, a tougher movie to "enjoy," but an easy one to recommend -- provided you don't mind a little darkness, gloom and sobriety mixed in with your indie-style ensemble pieces.
Jeremy Renner Wants To Be An Avenger
Directors We Love: Jim Jarmusch
Indie Roundup: 'Sweetgrass,' 'Clarkworld,' 'Broken Embraces'
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Watch: Famous 'Matrix' Scene Re-Created with LEGOs
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