priceless Tagged Articles at Cinematical

I had a friend once who claimed that there was no point in listening to a record or seeing a movie that was merely good, that to invest the money and time, it should be great. I later caught him listening to -- and enjoying almost to the point of tears -- a CD that would never be described by anyone as great. The point is that sometimes a good movie does wonders for the soul that a great movie could never hope to replicate. Take a look at Iron Man, still on nearly 4000 screens and still raking in the returns. It's well on its way to earning $300 million and shows no signs of stopping there. It's currently the #1 highest grossing film of the year, as well as one of the top rated films at Rotten Tomatoes, with a whopping 93%. I'm one of the movie's fans, but it seems to me that this response is based more on sheer gratitude than anything else. Everyone seems to be simultaneously chiming in: thanks for the good movie!

2008 has been a lousy year for great movies, but I have seen quite a few good ones. The documentary Young@Heart (212 screens), for example, has continued to live in my memory long after I saw it, and long after any of the award-winning Iraq documentaries I've had to sit through. I suspect that it's one of those rare, word-of-mouth docs like March of the Penguins or Grizzly Man that people actually tell their friends about. I don't want to give anything away, but before I saw the movie I didn't care much for the band Coldplay, and now I can't listen to "Fix You" without getting a lump in my throat. The key to this movie is that it looked terrible before I went in, and it turned out to be a huge and happy surprise.

"A damn fine film with a good heart and some really excellent performances" finished atop the indie weekend box office charts. The quote is from our own Scott Weinberg's review of Tom McCarthy's The Visitor (Overture), and I agree wholeheartedly. The film earned $22,000 per-screen at four theaters, according to estimates compiled by Box Office Mojo. Richard Jenkins stars as a college professor who strikes up a friendship with an immigrant couple he finds living in his NYC apartment. It's even better -- and deeper -- than that description might sound.

An elderly chorus sings a repertoire of modern pop and rock songs in Stephen Walker's documentary Young @ Heart (Fox Searchlight); audiences responded to the tune of $13,075 per screen at four locations. Cinematical's James Rocchi wrote: "Even for all its flaws and failures it still succeeds in showing us friends who -- through song and art and community and, yes, love -- are doing their best to face it with everything that they've got."

David Ayer's Street Kings (Fox Searchlight) should be included, I suppose, because it's distributed by an studio specialty division known for its indie releases, though not much about the police drama screams "indie." By the per-screen numbers, it finished third, earning an average of $4,864 at each of 2,467 engagements. "As yet another tale of dirty criminals and even dirtier cops," Scott Weinberg opined, "Street Kings works well enough, albeit strictly in a 'been there, seen that' sort of way."

Nearly a year after its international premiere at Cannes, My Brother is an Only Child (ThinkFilm) opened at the top of the indie weekend box office returns, according to Box Office Mojo. Playing at just one theater in Manhattan, the film grossed $10,500. My Brother "follows two brothers through years of Italian history, with their personal and political travails echoing down the years," Cinematical's James Rocchi wrote last year. "Even with it's merits as a light-but-sentimental story of family in 1960's Italy, it also reminded me of the soaring, sweeping, astonishing La Meglio Gioventù (The Best of Youth) -- and wound up completely winning me over." The film will roll out to other cities over the next three weeks, per the distributor's web site.

Immigration family tale Under the Same Moon (Fox Searchlight / The Weinstein Co.) continues to perform well, earning $5,771 per screen as it expanded to 390 theaters in its second week. Leonard Klady at Movie City News commented that the film is "playing in a mix of Hispanic, art and mainstream locations but with rare exception is working best in the former venues." Also in its second week, Love Songs (IFC), Christophe Honoré's French-language modern musical, held onto most of its audience, averaging $6,800 at two Manhattan theaters.

Cinematical has just received this exclusive poster for Priceless (click on the image for a larger version), starring the delightful (and delicious) Audrey Tautou as a young gold digger who mistakenly woos a bartender (Gad Elmaleh) thinking he's a millionaire. However, when she tries to back out of the scheme, he falls in love -- and these two might just be a match made in heaven. If the poster, premise and star look familiar to you, it's because Priceless is being touted as a "fresh-re-imagining of the cinema classic, Breakfast at Tiffany's." Pierre Salvadori directs off a script from Salvadori and Benoit Graffin. I'm a big fan of Tautou, and this film looks pretty cute (with the exception of the blue in that poster because it reminds me of what my wife wants for Valentine's Day). Priceless is due out in New York and LA on March 28, then wider on April 4.

The French are in love with happy endings. French cinema is classic for ending their films relating to love with disastrous, heart wrenching break ups. The lovers have passion and excitement, but never quite live happily ever after. Happily ever after is a definite go to in American cinema -- sometimes a requirement. Often times, films are rewritten or never made because they do not obtain those hopeful and uplifting endings -- especially in matters of love. Are the French following in the footsteps of America's audience-approved endings?

The answer seems to be yes. French box office charts are giving the number one slot to romantic comedies with those familiar 'love conquers all' endings. Pierre Salvadori is heading French box offices with his film Hors de prix (Priceless) starring Audrey Tautou and Gad Elmaleh -- a spin on America's Pretty Woman.

Why the change? Many changes have been happening in French cinema this year. France has been playing with war action films, 3D animation as well as relieving themselves of a snobby filmmaker attitude and connecting more with pleasing audiences. Some films are also dealing with the rising prejudices existing in France with the film Mauvaise foi (Bad Faith) -- where an Arab/Jewish couple's religions may cause the demise of their relationship. The director Roschdy Zem hopes to raise tolerance for those involved in the growing violence between the two groups using humor and film.

So are classic French love stories long gone? One of my favorites, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, is devastating yet equally yummy in its story telling. The young lovers are torn apart by war as the possible defamation of an unwed pregnant woman throws her into the arms of another man -- it's so sad but so good. For now, French audiences are approving this new found happy ending; but I'm sure there are still plenty of French elitist filmmakers ready to rebel against the 'love conquers all' fairytales.