Chris Abraham » Film

In Praise of Sweetness and Loveliness in Film

Chris Abraham — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 14:39:39 +0000

: Image via Wikipedia

Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont and Grace is Gone are two films I have recently caught unintentionally that I consider to be both sweet films and lovely films. Sometimes human, other times sad, but all-in-all, very sweet and lovely.

I don’t know where these movies make it into my pantheon of film but there is surely a spot for them in my life. Why do I like them and why was I pinned through each of them? Well, I have softened after years after being trained up as a postmodernist who attacks every film with the mallet of deconstruction in the form of gender, race, class, intent, messaging, subtext, and the dumbing-down of cinema and entertainment.

Yes, I was surely insufferable. Now I see some very fine space for simple tales of love and family. I see space for tales that have the mission of role-modeling how people should behave and how people should love and how families should treat each-other, even if they’re not families of blood but families none-the-less. So, yes, I can recommend these films.

They’re both sad and uplifting and much easier to watch than the masterful but highly intentionally dense and artfully-sculpted Wings of Desire, a film that I will need to watch again before I go on about it here.

I Saw Juno and I Really Liked this Simple Film

Chris Abraham — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 09:06:00 +0000

I don’t know I can say about Juno: great simple film and excellent sound track. Of course, I said the same thing about Garden State, Lost in Translation, Shopgirl, and Broken Flowers, so Juno is in excellent company

Chris Abraham with Firebrand CJ Lauren

Chris Abraham — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 14:20:37 +0000

Chris Abraham with Firebrand CJ Lauren, originally uploaded by Chris Abraham.

Here’s CJ Lauren from Firebrand and she’s posing with me in my new Firebrand hat (sweet!). To the left is a reflective neutral gray fabric seamless draped behind the CJs. To the right is a simple reflector — simply some foam core or even cardboard. “Marks” are taped to the floor. This is the cool reality behind modern video production. I am super surprised how teeny-weeny Lauren is — such a petite woman. However, I am also enormous, so she might be normal-sized.

Watching Firebrand Thursday on ION at 11 Again

Chris Abraham — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 13:19:13 +0000

Live Blogging Firebrand Thursday, originally uploaded by Chris Abraham.

I caught Firebrand on ION last night. Again, laughed my ass off. What I like most about Firebrand is that they treat commercials like little movies. The CJs discuss the directors, the actors, the agencies, and the outcomes of the ads. For any of you who are in the industry, it is a great education.

Actually, Firebrand is interesting for anyone interested in products, services, or television and the way things work. It also allows me to do come comparative studies since Firebrand isn’t jingoistic and offers access to commercials from around the world, especially online.

And, of course, cute CJs. Oh, and while Firebrand is and has been my client, the truth is is that they continue retaining me because I am a super fan.

Hamlet 2 Was Biggest Sale Ever at Sundance

Chris Abraham — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 05:11:17 +0000

Leonid Rozhetskin, David Arquette, and L+E Productions got some great news this week when his Sundance movie, Hamlet 2, was bought for $10 million making it one of the biggest deals at the festival ever! Congrats! Via Pop Sugar.

Focus Gets “Hamlet 2? for $10 Million – highest Acquisition ever achieved at Sundance!
Andrew Fleming’s “Hamlet 2” has been acquired by Focus Features in a $10 million worldwide deal swiftly sealed within 12 hours of the film’s world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. The film was produced by L+E Pictures‘ Eric Eisner & Leonid Rozhetskin and Aaron Ryder, from an original script by Fleming and Pam Brady. In the words of a description, “In the irreverent comedy, a failed actor-turned-worse-high-school-drama teacher (Steve Coogan) rallies his Tucson, AZ students as he conceives and stages a politically incorrect musical sequel to Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Cast joining Coogan include David Arquette, Melonie Diaz, Catherine Keener, Amy Poehler and Elisabeth Shue (appearing as herself). Calling the film “an amazing New Year’s present,” in a statement, Focus’ James Schamus and Andrew Karpen, added, “We can’t wait to share this riotously inventive movie with the whole world.” [Eugene Hernandez] Via indieWIRE

More information on the Hamlet 2 sale made at Sundance

Sundance BuzzCheck™: The festival’s top seller, ‘Hamlet 2′ January 24th, 2008 From EW.com Popwatch Blog The raucous comedy had been the subject of tremendous buzz coming into Sundance…before it was even completed, and without a mere mention in the event’s catalogue. Indeed, the unfinished film was such a late entry into the festival that Park City’s primary premiere location, the Eccles Center, was fully booked. But that didn’t stop Hamlet 2 from knocking Sundance out of its mid-festival doldrums with a rowdy debut screening Monday night at the Library Center theater. The room erupted in hysterics about two minutes into the show, and things stayed that way for nearly two hours. Read the whole post Sundance, Day 7: Why Hamlet 2 Is Hot, Hot, Hot From E! Online, Reel Girl Blog Read the whole post. ‘Hamlet 2′ is big buy at Sundance Fest January 24th, 2008 From The Miami Herald By Ryan Pearson Read the whole story. Studios cautiously open their wallets for Sundance films

Read the whole story. Trio of deals wakes up Sundance ‘Hamlet 2,’ ‘Henry Poole’ and ‘Choke’ reap big sales From The Hollywood Reporter By Steven Zeitchik and Gregg Goldstein Read the whole story.
PRINCELY SUM NETS ‘HAMLET’From The New York Post By Lou Lumenick

A late entry to the Sundance program, “Hamlet 2,? produced by Leonid Rozhetskin, was described by several distributors as the first indie this year to have commercial crossover possibilities like “Little Miss Sunshine.”Read the whole story.What a piece of workFrom The Hollywood Reporter, Risky Biz Blog By Gregg Goldstein and Steven Zeitchik

Throughout Sundance, distributors have been asking “Indie hit, wherefore art thou?”
The answer may have come Monday evening with “Hamlet 2,” Andrew Fleming’s frequently hilarious story of an overly dramatic high school drama teacher (played by Steve Coogan) who attempts to salvage his department by putting on a controversial musical sequel to Shakespeare’s play. Produced by Leonid Rozhetskin
The late addition to the fest had intermitent lulls, but it also had every top film exec unreservedly gushing outside the Library screening room. The Weinstein Co., Fox Searchlight, Lionsgate, Focus, ThinkFilm, Paramount Vantage and other execs all openly agreeing about how funny it was.
“I heard before I came that it needed a lot of work, but it doesn’t need that much work,” said one buyer. Others said some judicious cutting could bring it big success. At a “Hamlet” dinner afterwards, veteran studio director Fleming (”Threesome,” “Nancy Drew”) said he’d be open to working with a distributor on a refined edit, despite saying he avoided the development process initially. “It”s nothing I haven’t been through before,” he deadpanned.
The film’s satirical take on theater types, modern musicals, high school and high school movies like “Dangerous Minds” resonated with the audience, as did top notch performances by Coogan and Catherine Keener (pictured above), Amy Poehler and the amazing newcomer Skyler Astin, who plays a budding drama student many will recognize.
(Full disclosure: after seeking out Astin to speak with him at the dinner, I realized he currently stars in the Tony-winning best musical “Spring Awakening,” co-produced by an old friend, Amanda Dubois. — Gregg Goldstein)
“Hamlet 2? came together thanks to producers Eric Eisner and Leonid Rozhetskin as well as “Little Miss Sunshine” producers Ron Yerxa and Albert Berger.” Editors were still cutting the movie as late as December with the possibility that it wouldn”t have made into the festival.
But the filmmakers finished it and got it into the festival just under the wire, not unlike the way the fall’s big indie hit, “Juno,” snuck into Telluride at the last minute.
CAA is selling the title, and top distributors began gathering at their Park City house immediately after the film ‘Hamlet 2′ Sells After All-Night Bidding War From The Wall Street Journal By Lauren Schuker, January 22, 2008

This just in: After receiving an uproarious reaction from crowds last night, “Hamlet 2” provoked the first major bidding war of the festival. After an all-night battle, the film sold early this morning, according to producer Eric Eisner and Leonid Rozhetskin who only arrived home at 7:30 a.m.
The comedy, which stars Steve Coogan as a failed actor turned high school drama teacher, tells the unpredictable, charmingly offensive tale of a high school drama class that stages a sequel to Hamlet. The film is complete with time machines and a modern-day version of Jesus Christ — with sex appeal and a cell phone. Equal Opportunity Insults, In Five Acts From The New York Times, The Carpetbagger By David M. Halbfinger

Sundance looks to have its first unqualified hit, and a Cinderella story at that, in “Hamlet 2.” A late addition to the film festival, this bawdy romp, starring Steve Coogan as a failed actor-turned-pathetic high-school drama teacher — who stages a musical sequel to “Hamlet,” with a “sexy Jesus” Christ in a starring role — enjoyed a riotous reaction at its premiere in Park City’s library Monday night.
One of the festival’s running themes has been hope and optimism, as most evident in films about people facing down death, among them Amy Redford’s drama “The Guitar” (which didn’t wow audiences on Friday) and Mark Pellington’s lighter-hearted “Henry Poole Is Here” (which played quite well Monday afternoon and immediately drew interest from several buyers).
But “Hamlet 2,” even as it made sure to insult Christians, gays, Latinos, Jews, the A.C.L.U., Hollywood movies about inspiring teachers and one of its lead actresses (Elisabeth Shue), also managed to puncture the death-defying optimism that has hovered over Park City.
As the acquisition teams from Focus Features, Fox Searchlight, Lionsgate, Miramax and the Weinstein Company, among others, filed out into the night – some of them, presumably, to huddle and come up with offers – the non-buying audience hung around for a quick Q-&-A with Andrew Fleming, the director of “Hamlet 2,” and several members of his cast.
Mr. Fleming said he and his writing partner, Pam Brady, had been working on the script for five years, but the idea of a “Hamlet” sequel was much more recent, and the actual play-within-the-movie was written on deadline. “It was this kind of panicked, last-minute thing – ‘let’s write some songs and put on a show,’” Mr. Fleming said. The film was produced by Leonid Rozhetskin.
In the movie Ms. Shue plays herself, oddly enough – or a version of herself that could be so smitten by Mr. Coogan that she’d lick his face (as she did again onstage, for good measure). Why’d she take the role? “I just got the script and it said ‘a famous actress who’s a has-been, lives in Tucson and is a nurse,’” she said. “It was hilarious and I had to do it.”

Industry watching for strike-inspired bidding wars, hot films at Sundance

Hamlet 2 is cited as a movie title “that could sneak up under the radar.” Produced by Leonid Rozhets

Suna No Onna (Woman in the Dunes) is a Masterwork

Chris Abraham — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 16:59:34 +0000

When my mom was 27 she dated a boy in NYC who was obsessed with Japan. He was in finance but was doing graduate work in Japanese so that he could continue his banking in Japan for work. When they dated, he would take her out to sushi dinners and then to Japanese films — well before most of the West was eating sashimi.

My mother was so moved by the Hiroshi Teshigahara masterpiece, Suna No Onna (Woman in the Dunes), that she has been looking to see the movie again as the film was burnt indelibly into her memory. Mom found the DVD on Netflix and moved it to the top of her queue and it arrived yesterday and we watched it together last night.

The film is visually stunning. The psychology of the film reminds me a little of nihilism and existentialism but has obviously influenced modern film-making. The same sort of desperation, struggle, frustration, aggression, resignation are used again and again in shows that are suspenseful and surreal — productions such as television’s Lost — films that are often obtuse, dense, and open for interpretation.

This is a brilliant movie, especially since if you spend some time with the academic film critique — the Video Essay by James Quandt — that is available on the Criterion Collection DVD, which I highly recommend since it is a complete version and not the version that was screened in the US, missing 20 minutes.

Woman in the Dunes From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Woman in the Dunes (Suna no onna, also translated as Woman of the Dunes) is a novel by Kobo Abe and a film based on the novel directed by Japanese director Hiroshi Teshigahara. The novel was published in 1962, and the film was released in 1964. Kobo Abe also wrote the screenplay for the film version.
The surreal, and at times absurd, nature of Woman in the Dunes has drawn many comparisons to such major existentialist works as Jean-Paul Sartre’s No Exit and Samuel Beckett’s Happy Days. Aside from its intriguing premise, this film is notable for the life that Teshigahara brings to the ever shifting sand, which almost becomes a character in its own right.
Synopsis
An entomologist named Niki Junpei (played in the film by Eiji Okada) is on an expedition to collect insects in an area of sand dunes. When he misses the last bus back, a group of locals suggest he stays the night in their village. They send him down a rope-ladder to a house at the bottom of a sandpit, where a young widow (played by Kyoko Kishida) lives alone. She has been tasked by the villagers with digging sand to be sold to the cities, mostly under the table (sand with salt should not be used for construction purposes), and with preventing the sands from destroying the house (if her house succumbs to the desert then the other houses in the village will be threatened).
When Junpei tries to leave the next morning he finds the ladder removed. The villagers inform him that he must help the widow in her endless task of digging sand. Junpei initially tries to escape, upon failing he takes the widow captive, but is forced to release her when the house almost collapses after several days of sand build up outside.
Junpei eventually becomes the widow’s lover and resigns himself to his fate. Through his persistent effort on trapping a crow for messenger, he discovers a way to draw water from the damp sand at night. He thus becomes absorbed in the task of perfecting his technology and adapts to his “trapped” life. The focus of the film shifts to the way in which the couple cope with the oppressiveness of their condition, and the power of their physical attraction in spite of – or possibly because of – their situation.
At the end of the film Junpei gets his chance to escape, but he chooses to prolong his stay in the dune, in part because the woman is already pregnant with his child. A report after seven years declaring him missing is then shown hanging from a wall, written by the police and signed by his mother Shino.
Awards
The film adaptation of Woman in the Dunes won the Special Jury Prize at the 1964 Cannes film festival and, somewhat unusually for an avant-garde film, was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar in the same year (losing out to Italian film Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow). In 1965 Teshigahara was nominated for the Best Director Oscar (finishing behind Robert Wise for The Sound of Music).

Woman in the Dunes

Hiroshi Teshigahara

Film Info | Cast & Credits

Synopsis

One of the sixties’ great international art-house sensations, Woman in the Dunes was for many the grand unveiling of the surreal, idiosyncratic worldview of Hiroshi Teshigahara. Eija Okada plays an amateur entomologist who has left Tokyo to study an unclassified species of beetle that resides in a remote, vast desert; when he misses his bus back to civilization, he is persuaded to spend the night in the home of a young widow (Kiyoko Kishida) who lives in a hut at the bottom of a sand dune. What results is one of cinema’s most bristling, unnerving, and palpably erotic battles of the sexes, as well as a nightmarish depiction of everyday Sisyphean struggle, for which Teshigahara received an Academy Award nomination for best director.

Film Info

1964
147 minutes
Black and White
1.33:1
Dolby Digital Mono 1.0
Not Anamorphic
Japanese

Cast
Junpei Niki	Eiji Okada
The woman	Kyoko Kishida

Credits
Director	Hiroshi Teshigahara
Story from the novel by	Kôbô Abe
Producers	Kiichi Ichikawa, Tadashi Ono
Cinematography	Hiroshi Segawa
Original music	Toru Takemitsu
Art directors	Totetsu Hirakawa, Masao Yamazaki
Editor	Fusako Shuzui

Release Info

Catalog Number: CC1702D
ISBN: 1-934121-42-8
UPC:

We Are Fixated by UNUSUALS Cartoons

Chris Abraham — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 13:57:50 +0000

We’re friends with the gang from UNUSUALS, www.unusuals.net, an online portfolio, presentation, and search tool for the entire galaxy of people who are responsible for putting together movies, films, documentaries, commercials, television, music videos, etc. The reason I am blogging about UNUSUALS is because their little video clips make Mark and I very literally Roll On The Floor Laughing (ROTFL). Check them all out — each is more amazing, surprising, bizarre, and UNUSUAL than the last.

Sundance Selects L+E Productions’ Hamlet II

Chris Abraham — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 20:57:57 +0000

You know I have been rubbing shoulders with Hollywood producer Leonid Rozhetskin. Well, it looks like Leonid Rozhetskin and L+E Productions does a fine job of selecting scripts and projects because I got some breaking news: the Sundance Film Festival selected L+E Productions’ Hamlet II in its premiers category.

“The Sundance Film Festival nomination of Hamlet II is not up on the Sundance website, but here’s some information about the Premiers Category: To showcase the diversity of contemporary cinema, the Sundance Film Festival’s Premieres program offers a selection of the latest work from established directors and world premieres of highly anticipated films. This is not a competitive category. It’s L+E Production‘s first Sundance selection.” (More about Hamlet II)

I Love French Cinema and Too Beautiful For You

Chris Abraham — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 21:52:41 +0000

Too Beautiful For You, Trop belle pour toi, is a terribly very French film with Gérard Depardieu. Depardieu’s character, Bernard Barthélémy, is wealthy, has a gorgeous young wife, kids and a palatial home. Even so, he cannot resist his temp, a frumpy middle-aged women, played by Josiane Balasko as Colette Chevassu, with whom he quickly and irrevocably falls in love.

It is so French to have a man with “all the gifts of heaven” fall for another, especially since she possesses nothing that is valued in a woman, either in France, Hollywood, or even in general, in popular culture all around the modern world: she is not beautiful, she is not thin, she is not poised, she is not young, and she is not wealthy.

The the beautiful Florence Barthélémy, Bernard’s wife, storms into the hotel room wherein he finds Collette, the lover, and shouts, “you are a woman of no apparent charm” — where charm is strictly defined as being without those above-mentioned things.

What she doesn’t know is that in pursuing beauty, she has abandoned what Bernard really needed, which is connection, touch, attention, and adoration from a woman who is happy to be a wonderful lover and a lover of men — someone who is gentle, poetic and kind.

One surely cannot buy that at the Salon or at the Plastic Surgeon. The only thing is that, being French, all they ever do is allow the camera to mock her and all they do in the script is incessantly refer to her, Collette, as being plain, dull, and without charm.

Mr Bean’s Holiday and Emma de Caunes

Chris Abraham — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 23:50:20 +0000

I just caught Mr. Bean’s Holiday and laughed my ass off for a solid 90-minutes. And, of course, then there was Mlle Emma de Caunes. Le sigh.

Emma de Caunes (born 9 September 1976) is a French film actress.

de Caunes is the daughter of French actor and director Antoine de Caunes, and of director and graphic designer Gaëlle Royer. She was married to French singer Sinclair (real name Mathieu Blanc-Francard) who fathered her daughter Nina (born Paris, October 2002).

de Caunes’s career began at the age of ten courtesy of of a role granted by Michèle Reiser, her godmother. She obtained her Baccalaureate in film in 1995. de Caunes appeared in various advertisements before landing her first major film role in Sylvie Verheyde’s Un Frère.

After her performance in the 1997 film Un frère, de Caunes won Most Promising Actress at the 1998 César awards and Best Actress at the 1997 Paris Film Festival, and was nominated for Best Actress in the Acteurs à l’Écran awards. She won the 2002 Prix Romy-Schneider, an award given annually to a promising young actress.

Zardoz is the Most Interesting Movie You’ve Never Heard Of

Chris Abraham — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 10:06:03 +0000

Before I start, check out Sean Connery’s costume (left). Zardoz is the most important movie nobody (I know) has seen. Forget that there is a lot of nakedness and topless women; or, that you get to see a super-buff, 1974-era, Sean Connery running around for more than two hours in a pair of underwear; this is an important movie or utopia gone terribly distopian.

Zardoz is written and played out like a Broadway musical, with lithe dancer-actors, it is presented like a play. This is not a sophisticated movie but it will surely make you think. I would say that Zardoz is both brilliant and campy; insightful and kitchy, and brutal and actually very good at dealing with the concept of balance: in order to grow as men and as a society, one cannot — must not — merely separate physically from poverty, ignorance, sickness, and death; but, rather, integrate, integrate, integrate — or perish. Bravo! See it.

The quote that is most popular from the movie comes from the first scene. God Zardoz says,

“The gun is good. The penis is evil. The penis shoots seeds, and makes new life to poison the earth with a plague of men, as once it was. But the gun shoots death, and purifies the earth of the filth of brutals. Go forth… and kill!”

“In this cult favorite from John Boorman (Beyond Rangoon), 23rd century society is split into two castes — the overly civilized Eternals and the barely civilized Brutals — one of which is constantly controlling the other. The Brutals worship a huge stone figure known as Zardoz. When Zed (Sean Connery) begins to question the authenticity of this god, the film is able to offer some pointed commentary on class structure and religion.” Via Zardoz/60020833?trkid=14″>Netflix

“Zardoz BY ROGER EBERT / January 1, 1974

John Boorman’s ZARDOZ is a genuinely quirky movie, a trip into a future that seems ruled by perpetually stoned set decorators. It’s set in an Ireland of 2293 that looks exactly like the Ireland of today, until you get inside the Vortex. And then suddenly everything is shimmering gowns and futuristic throne rooms and beautiful young people who glide around at an endless debutante ball.

These are the Immortals. They will never die. They cannot. Every time they try to, their bodies are relentlessly restored by the all-knowing mystical computer mind that runs the Vortex. There’s a catch, though: They can’t die but they can grow old, and for infractions, they’re sentenced to age a few years. If they don’t watch themselves, they might wind up as Immortal Seniles.

Outside the Vortex, a barbaric civilization survives. Slaves till the land and gather the crops, ruled over by sadistic masters who sometimes gallop around killing off the surplus population. One of the barbarians is Zed, played by Sean Connery as a cross between Tarzan and Prince Valiant. But one day, Zed (like Lord Greystoke, come to think of it) finds a child’s alphabet book. He teaches himself to read and then fanatically devours the contents of whole libraries (like Thomas Wolfe, come to think of it). Eventually he comes upon The Wizard of Oz and, in a moment of blinding insight, sees through the whole joke of his world’s social structure.
Zed has himself smuggled aboard the giant floating head of Zardoz, which rules hinterlands, and finds himself inside the Vortex. Here he is an object of great interest, because the Immortals, you see, having lost the ability to die have also lost the drive to procreate and are doomed to an eternity of detumescence. Zed labors with no such difficulty.

The movie is an exercise in self-indulgence (if often an interesting one) by Boorman, who more or less had carte blanche to do a personal project after his immensely successful DELIVERANCE. Boorman seems fascinated by stories which are disconnected from the ordinary realist assumptions of most movies; his LEO THE LAST (1970) gave us Marcello Mastroianni as the last of the big-time decadents, living in a mansion at the end of a deserted street in an eerie London.

Boorman puts a lot of heavy concepts into ZARDOZ, but seems uncertain whether he takes them seriously himself. There are sight gags (the attempt to turn on Connery with futuristic pornography provides the best) , there are group seances that seem lifted bodily from pajama parties, there is no end of special visual effects (every optical printer in England must have been busy for weeks), and at the end there’s a combination shoot-out and mercy-killing spree that is at once ridiculous, depraved and low camp.

Sean Connery wanders through all of this with a slightly bemused expression on his face. He begins as a barbarian given to distrust and childish impulses, but after he gathers all knowledge to himself (the movie is full of phrases like “gathers all knowledge to himself”), he turns into a sort of body-building Einstein who sees into the center of the Vortex, deciphers the wisdom of the crystal, stimulates the Apathetics (that’s another social class I forgot to mention), makes love with a good-looking Immortal dame (she regains the knack) and finally turns into a fossil while the sound track milks Beethoven’s 7th for all it’s worth.

I remember standing in the rain once outside a theater that was playing LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD. Now there was a movie so complex and personal no one claimed to be able to understand itÑno, not even Time magazine. The people coming out from the previous show were shaking their heads and admitting that they, too, didn’t have a clue. And then it was our turn to go in and be mystified.

Every once in a while, a movie like that comes along; a movie you’ve got to see so that you, too, can be in the dark about it. In the movie’s own terms, this much can be said for sure: It may not make you an Apathetic, but it will certainly age you by two hours.”

“Zardoz Review by Scott Weinberg

If your idea of perfect science fiction consists of space battles and droids, you’re probably best advised to steer clear of John Boorman’s ultra-trippy cult classic Zardoz. If, however, you can enjoy an ironic and entertaining fantasy mind-bender, then this one might be right up your alley. While overlooked by general audiences, Zardoz is one of the most feverishly adored cult movies ever. And while the movie certainly looks outdated and even silly at times, the deeply intelligent and thought-provoking issues under the surface challenge and entertain audiences.

The year is 2293 and most of humanity has devolved into mindless ‘Brutals.’ Their god Zardoz visits these savages periodically, instructing them to hunt down and kill any human ‘Breeders’ they come across. This is because “the penis is evil,” and humanity deserves to be wiped out. Zardoz appears to his violent followers as a giant flying stone head that spits out rifles and ammo, along with his murderous decrees. Zed (Sean Connery), one of the Brutals, stows away aboard the massive stone head, which takes him to ‘the Vortex.’ The denizens of the Vortex are a race of genetically superior, immortal beings that treat one another pretty rotten and long for death. When Zed climbs out of that giant head and starts poking around, things get really screwy.

Zardoz is packed to the gills with high-minded concepts. Take the ‘apathetics.’ These are immortals who have become so bored and disassociated during their eternal lives, that they are breathing, blank zombies. Another faction of the immortals is the ‘Renegades,’ who have become irretrievably insane. These elderly creatures are dumped off in an out-of-the-way building and forgotten. Zardoz is a movie with a lot to say about the ills of society.

Since it was made in 1973, it’s no surprise that Zardoz looks dated and even downright absurd. There are more than a few costumes and set designs that may have you rolling your eyes in disbelief, but it’s important to watch a movie like this with a sense of maturity. It may be difficult to take seriously dialogue like “The penis is evil,” but a willing (and preferably enthusiastic) suspension of disbelief is essential. Yes, that’s Connery as Zed, running around in what looks like a giant red diaper… and yes, there is a scene in which Zed is forced to achieve an erection while dozens of fascinated immortals stare on. But with the plethora of challenging and satisfying ideas being tossed around in Zardoz, it’s a tough movie to dislike.

It’s a testament to writer/director John Boorman that this movie ever saw the light of day. Zardoz was obviously a labour of love for him, and to this day Connery still lists this movie as one of his favourites. If you’re a fan of science fiction in the vein of 2001: A Space Odyssey or Blade Runner, I would recommend Zardoz. While not as ‘polished’ as those other films, it deserves a place in anyone’s sci-fi collection.”

Plot Summary

* Genres: Fantasy, Sci-Fi
* Tagline: Beyond 1984, Beyond 2001, Beyond Love, Beyond Death
* Plot Outline In the far future, a savage trained only to kill finds a way into the community of bored immortals that alone preserves humanity’s achievements.
* Plot Synopsis: In the distant future Earth is divided into two camps, the barely civilized group and the overly civilized one with mental powers. A plague is attacking the second group after which it’s members cease to have any interest in life and become nearly catatonic. When Sean Connery one of the barbarians, crosses over, the tenuous balance in their world is threatened.
* Plot Keywords: Blindness, Bizarre, Book, Mutant Human, Crystal Ball, Head, Harvest, Mutation, Flying Head, Ring, Reverse Footage, Horseback Riding

- Actors: Sean Connery, Charlotte Rampling, Sara Kestelman, John Alderton, Sally Anne Newton, See more
- Directors: John Boorman
- Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
- Language: English, French
- Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
- Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
- Number of discs: 1
- Rating R
- Studio: 20th Century Fox
- DVD Release Date: March 27, 2001
- Run Time: 106 minutes
- Average Customer Review: based on 113 reviews. (Write a review.)
- DVD Features:

* Available Subtitles: English, Spanish
* Available Audio Tracks: English (Dolby Digital 3.0), English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo), French (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono)
* Commentary by director John Boorman
* Still photo gallery
* Concept Art and Pressbook Galleries

- From IMDb: Quotes & Trivia
- ASIN: B000059HAE
- Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,570 in DVD (See Top Sellers in DVD)

Nominations

* BAFTA Awards: BAFTA Film Award for Best Cinematography
* Hugo Awards: Hugo for Best Dramatic Presentation

Trivia

* The scene where Zed (
* DIRCAMEO:(
* To help keep the movie cost down,
* Zed’s revolver is a Webley in 455 caliber.
* The exterior shots at the very opening of the movie were taken right next to director
* To make the shots of the stone head move into the mouth accurately, the camera was placed at the mouth and tracked backwards, and the film reversed in the lab.
*
* The government initially refused to allow the production team to import the guns for the movie into Ireland because of terrorist attacks occurring at the time.
* Radio spots (available on the DVD) were narrated by
* According to John Boorman, Sean Connery found it incredibly difficult to get work when he abandoned the James Bond role a second time after Diamonds are Forever. Thus, Boorman was able to hire Connery very cheaply for this project.

Goofs

* When mortality comes to the vortex, several “dead” characters can be seen moving.
* When the exterminators on horseback are killing the brutals, tire tracks can be seen on the wet beach sand.
* Early in the film, when the weapons are spewed out of the floating head’s mouth, a crewmember’s arm can be seen throwing them.
* About three minutes into the movie, when the floating head is in the clouds, part of a car can be seen in the top right corner of the screen.
* In the scene where Zed discovers the floating book, you can clearly see the strings suspending it in midair.

Movie Connections

* Remade as: Planet B: Mask Under Mask
* References: Planet of the Apes, 2001: A Space Odyssey
* Referenced in: Excalibur, Dark City, The Big Tease, Wonder Boys, Empire of Dreams: The Story of the ‘Star Wars’ Trilogy
* Featured in: To the Galaxy and Beyond with Mark Hamill, The Fly Papers: The Buzz on Hollywood’s Scariest Insect

Quotes

* Arthur: It was I! I bred you! I led you!
Zed: And I have looked into the face of the force which put the idea in your head. You are bred and led yourself.
* Friend: We’ve all been used…
Arthur Frayn: …and reused…
Friend: …and abused…
Arthur Frayn: …and amused!
* Zardoz: The gun is good.
Exterminators: The gun is good.
Zardoz: The penis is evil. The penis shoots seeds, and makes new life, and poisons the earth with a plague of men, as once it was. But the gun shoots death, and purifies the earth of the filth of brutals. Go forth and kill!
* Zed: Stay behind my aura!
* Consuella: The brutal is now in fourth hour of unconscious sleep. It’s astonishing that Homo Sapiens spends so much time in this vulnerable condition, at the mercy of its enemies.
* Zed: I want the truth.
May: You must give the truth, if you wish to receive it.
Zed: I’m ready.
May: It’ll burn you!
Zed: Then burn me.
* The Tabernacle: Caution: You are approaching the periphery shield of Vortex Four. Caution: You are approaching the periphery shield of Vortex Four.
* Zardoz: Zardoz is pleased.
* The Tabernacle: Vote, please. Vote, please.
* The Tabernacle: I cannot give information which may threaten my own security.
* [watching his memory-scan video of hunting down Brutals] Zed: I love to see them running. I love the moments of their deaths – when I am one with Zardoz.
* [first lines]
Arthur Frayn: I am Arthur Frayn, and I am Zardoz. I have lived 300 years, and long to die. But death is no longer possible, I am immortal. I present now my story – full of mystery and intrigue. Rich in irony, and most satirical. It is set deep within a possible future, so none of these events have yet occurred. But they may! Be warned, lest you end as I. In this tale I am a fake god by occupation, and a magician by inclination. Merlin is my hero! I am the puppet master. I manipulate many of the characters and events you will see. But I am invented too for your entertainment and amusement. And you, poor creatures, who conjured you out of the clay? Is God in showbusiness too?
* [to Zed] Consuella: I have hunted you so long, I have become you.
* George Saden: I think what I think. I hate you all. I hate you all. I hate you all. Including me…
* [about to Liberate Consuela] Zed: All that I am is gone.
* [Zed breaks the heart of the crystal] The Tabernacle: You have destroyed us. You are alone.
* Consuella: Penile erection was one of the many unsolved evolutionary mysteries surrounding sexuality. Every society had an elaborate subculture devoted to erotic stimulation. But nobody could quite determine how this…
[Consuella points to a diagram of a male penis and scrotum]
Consuella: becomes this.
[Consuella points to a diagram of an erect penis and scrotum]
Consuella: Of course, we all know the physical process involved, but not the link between stimulus and response. There seems to be a correlation with violence, with fear. Many hanged men died with an erection. You are all more or less aware of our intensive researches into this subject. Sexuality declined probably because we no longer needed to procreate. Eternals soon discovered that erection was impossible to achieve. And we are no longer victims of this violent, convulsive act which so debased women and betrayed men. This brutal
[Sean Connery]
Consuella: , like other primates living unselfconscious lives, is capable of spontaneous and reflexive erection. As part of May’s studies of this creature, we’re trying to find, once again, the link between erotic stimulation and erection. This experiment will measure autoerotic stimulation of the cortex, leading to erection.
* The Tabernacle: Sleep was necessary for man when his waking and unconscious lives were separated. As Eternals achieved total consciousness, sleep became obsolete and Second Level meditation took its place.
* Zed: What is it you want?
Friend: Sweet death. Oblivion.
Zed: For yourself, or for the whole Vortex?
Friend: For Everybody. An end to the human race. It has plagued this pretty planet for far too long.
Zed: You stink of despair. Fight back! Fight for death, if that’s what you want.
Friend: I thought at first you were the one to help. But it’s hopeless. All my powers have gone.
* May: Friend, I cannot sanction this violence and destruction.
Friend: It’s too late, May. There’s no going back.
May: Don’t destroy the Vortex! Let us renew it. A better breed could prosper here. Given time…
Friend: Time? Wasn’t eternity enough?
Zed: This place is against life. It must die.
May: I have my followers. Inseminate us all, and we’ll teach you all we know. Give you all we have. Perhaps you can break the Tabernacle. Or be broken.
Friend: An end to eternity.
May: A higher form.
Zed: Revenge.
* [to Consuela] Zed: Can you unknow what you know of me?”

Zardoz from Wikipedia

Zardoz is a 1974 science fiction film directed by John Boorman and starring Sean Connery in one of his first post-James Bond roles. The film contains a mix of mythology, a bizarre, sprawling plot filled with twists and incongruities, and wide-ranging satirical and allegorical stabs. Filmed on a small budget of US$1 million, Zardoz‘s mixture of cerebral, philosophical sci-fi was in complete contrast to Boorman’s previous film, the brutal thriller Deliverance. The film was shot by cinematographer Geoffrey Unsworth. An attempt to market the film to the post-2001: A Space Odyssey audience was unsuccessful, although the film has since developed a cult following.

Plot

In a future post-apocalypse Earth (2293), the human population is divided into the immortal “Eternals” and mortal “Brutals”. The Brutals live in a dark-ages wasteland. The Eternals, who live apart in various “Vortices” (singular “Vortex”), hidden bastions of civilization, lead a luxurious but aimless existence. The contrast between the two groups is stark. In general, calamity after calamity has reduced life on much of the Earth to dire subsistence levels. The distant Eternals are unknown to most people. The only contact between the groups is through a religious warrior class called the “Exterminators”, who kill and terrorize other Brutals at the orders of a huge flying stone head called Zardoz. The stone head supplies them with weapons and ideology in exchange for the food they collect.

Zed (Connery), an Exterminator, hides aboard Zardoz during one trip, “killing” its Eternal operator-creator, Arthur Frayn (Niall Buggy). Arriving in the Vortex as a stowaway, Zed meets two Eternals — Consuella (Charlotte Rampling) and May (Sara Kestelman). They possess psychic powers, and make Zed a prisoner of the community of decadent effetes in order to study him. Zed is put to work as a physical laborer under the direction of subversive troublemaker called Friend (John Alderton).

Over time Zed learns the nature of the Vortex. The Eternals are overseen and protected from death by an AI called the Tabernacle. Through their vastly extended lifespan the Eternals have grown bored, corrupt, and impotent. They spend days stewarding the vast knowledge of humanity while doing little themselves besides participating in bizarre rituals and mass meditations navel gazing. As they never die and the passage of time is largely meaningless as a result, violating the complex set of social rules, and thereby going “Renegade”, results in artificial aging. An Eternal thus aged will remain as the feeble elderly for the rest of time. More recently some have fallen into catatonia through an odd mental illness, forming a new social strata the Eternals call the “Apathetics”.

As the story progresses, it becomes clear that Zed is not quite the “brutal” the Eternals believe him to be. He very quickly divines the nature of the Vortex and its problems, and starts to play an increasingly proactive role among the Eternals. The backstory develops to reveal that Zed was aware of the true nature of Zardoz, having been led to an old book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz; the origin of the name Zardoz (Wizard of Oz). After revealing that Frayn had led him to the book and taught him to read, the story is completed; Zed is the ultimate creation of Frayn’s long-running experiment in creative eugenics, using the Exterminator class to control the Brutals with the aim of breeding a superman to save humanity from its dead-end status quo. He had led Zed to understand the nature of Zardoz, hoping he would use it to infiltrate the Vortex.

The Eternals discover the deceit and “age” Friend, while attempting to control Zed. But Zed is actually superior in intelligence to the eternals, and is eventually able to withstand their psychic powers. He destroys the Tabernacle, after which the Vortex is invaded by other Exterminators who bring death to the majority of Eternals, typically with their blessing, given the novelty of the events. A few Eternals escape to make a new life outside the Vortex among the Brutals, carrying the knowledge of civilization. The allegorical ending shows Zed and Consuella producing a child, growing old and dying naturally, whilst the sound of the second movement of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony swells in the soundtrack.
Spoilers end here.

History

Zardoz is is notable for being the first time a search engine (or a precursor) is shown in a film, retrieving visual images from a database, years before the personal computer was invented. Arthur Frayne is shown instructing the computer to search for specific images of Cars in the way that we associate with search engines, except with voice recognition software .

Production

In the DVD commentary Boorman repeatedly complains about the low budget of the film. Nevertheless he attempted to fill it with a sort of concept art. The Exterminators hunt down the Brutals while wearing large red paper mache facemasks, loincloths and matching bandoliers. The Brutals are instead dressed almost universally in sport coats and jeans, except for young women, who are dressed in “caveman” garb. If this were not enough, in one scene Zed escapes from the Eternals by dressing in a wedding gown. The head of Zardoz, arguably the most important set in terms of plot development, is clearly made of painted paper mache. Most of the sets in the Vortex are equally low quality, variously consisting of large inflated plastic sheets, “olde English” villages, or pastel decorated sets – the Tabernacle is simply a room filled with mirrors.

Reception

In 2004 the magazine Total Film described Connery’s costume (consisting of a ponytail wig, leather knee boots, and a loincloth which bears a strong resemblance to a giant orange nappy or diaper) as the number 1 “dumbest decision in movie history”.

References in popular culture

This article contains a trivia section.
Content in this section should be integrated into other appropriate areas of the article or removed, and the trivia section removed.

* The DC Comics character Vartox is a near-carbon copy of Zed. He has an exact replica of Zed’s clothing, brown hair, and receding hairline. The character’s name is even close to sounding like the “Vortex” of the film.
* The video game Time Bandit, which has several science fiction references, mentions the “spirits of Zardoz“.[citation needed]
* The video for “Dreams” by the rock band TV on the Radio features a huge stone head like the one in “Zardoz” that disintegrates at the video’s end.
* The webcomic Questionable Content referred to Zardoz multiple times in comic number 830].
* Saul was dressed as Zed in an episode of Saul of the Mole Men, “Fun King Johnny”, when he was on trial by combat.

Quotes

If the content can be changed to be more encyclopedic rather than just a list of quotes, please do so and remove this message. Otherwise, you can help by formatting it per the Wikiquote guidelines in preparation for the duplication.

* Zardoz: The gun is good. The penis is evil. The penis shoots seeds, and makes new life to poison the earth with a plague of men, as once it was. But the gun shoots death, and purifies the earth of the filth of brutals. Go forth… and kill! [Zardoz proceeds to vomit a torrent of rifles and ammunition for his followers to use.]

Catherine Zeta-Jones is No Martina Gedeck

Chris Abraham — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 22:45:38 +0000

Catherine Zeta-Jones might have done a fantastic job in the remake of Drei Sterne, No Reservations, but I daresay she could never be the uptight china doll that is the phenomenally-gorgeous Martina Gedeck.

“Set at a trendy restaurant in Hamburg, Germany, this is the story of how a gourmet chef, Martha, who has always had a very rigid and controlled way of doing things, finds her order breaking into chaos as she brings her orphaned niece into her home. To fill the gap created by her new lack of structure, her boss hires an Italian sous chef, who brings flavor and excitement into the kitchen… and maybe a little romance into Martha’s life, too.”

I saw Mostly Martha when it came out in the states and it is even better with a little German and a little age.

I really must say that Martina Gedeck may be the most beautiful woman every made by God. A true modern Helen, if Helen were obsessive-compulsive, arrogant, repressed, and passionate about food.

I Love the Real Edie and Edie of Grey Gardens’ Fame

Chris Abraham — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 18:07:51 +0000

I was browsing through NetFlix, through recommended films, and ended up queuing up and then watching Grey Gardens and The Beales of Grey Gardens — unaware that the Beale girls were made immortal on Broadway. I am impressed and dazzled by these eccentric, brilliant, loving, ballsy women instead of embarrassed.

They were tough and charming and free. Their freedom is not merely charming but empowering. If you are only going to see you, you must see the original film, Grey Gardens, as seen through the clear and appreciative lens of the brothers Maysles.

Plot Synopsis of Grey Gardens: The Maysles brothers pay visits to Edith Bouvier Beale, nearing 80, and her daughter Edie. Reclusive, the pair live with cats and raccoons in Grey Gardens, a crumbling mansion in East Hampton. Edith is dry and quick-witted – a singer, married but later separated, a member of high society. Edie is voluble, dresses – as she puts it – for combat in tight ensembles that include scarves wrapped around her head. There are hints that Edie came home 24 years before to be cared for rather than to care for her mother. The women address the camera, talking over each other, moving from the present to events years before. They’re odd, with flinty affection for each other.

Grey Gardens by Amazon.com
Grey Gardens is the name of a neglected, sprawling estate gone to seed. The crumbling mansion was home to Edith Bouvier Beale, often referred to as “Big Edie,” and her daughter, “Little Edie.” The East Hampton, Long Island, home became the center of quite a scandal when it was revealed in 1973 that the reclusive aunt and cousin to Jackie O. were living in a state of poverty and filth. That’s the background to this 1976 film portrait by cinéma vérité pioneers Albert and David Maysles, but it’s only incidental to the fascinating story they discover inside the estate walls.

The two Edies have lived in almost complete seclusion since the mid-1950s, ever since Big Edie’s husband abandoned her and Little Edie (then a young socialite on the verge of a dancing career, or so she claims) was called home to care for her depressed mother. Twenty years later they continue to live in their memories while camped out in a single bedroom of the 28-room mansion overrun with cats (who use the floor as their litter box). Rehashing mistakes and missed chances with an accusing banter that becomes more stinging and angry as the documentary progresses, they exist in a sad codependency brings new meaning to the term dysfunctional. Disturbing and discomforting, it comes off like a freak show at times, but for all their arguments and recriminations, the Maysles reveal two women abandoned by their families who are left to cling to each other, for better or worse. –Sean Axmaker

Product Description of Grey Gardens
Meet Big and Little Edie Beale-high society dropouts, mother and daughter, reclusive cousins of Jackie O.-thriving together amid the decay and disorder of their ramshackle East Hampton mansion. Five years after Gimme Shelter, the Maysles unveiled this impossibly intimate portrait of the unexpected, an eerie echo of the Kennedy Camelot, which has since become a cult classic and established Little Edie as fashion icon and philosopher queen.

Product Description of The Beales of Grey Gardens
The 1975 cinema vérité classic Grey Gardens, which captured in remarkable close-up the lives of the eccentric recluses and cousins to Jackie Onassis, Big and Little Edie Beale, in their decrepit East Hampton mansion, has spawned everything from a midnight-movie cult following to a Broadway musical remake an upcoming Hollywood adaptation. Now, Albert and David Maysles have revisited their landmark documentary with a sequel of sorts, culled from hours of never-before-seen footage recently found in the filmmakers’ vaults.

Singin’ in the Rain is the Epitome of Hollywood

Chris Abraham — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 10:49:52 +0000

Singin’ in the Rain is the funniest movie of all time. It really is. And while Gene Kelly, Donald O’Connor, and Debbie Reynolds are above reproach, Jean Hagen is the real comedic genius as Lina Lamont.

Singin’ in the Rain is funnier, in fact, than Young Frankenstein.

My mum loves Hollywood musicals and so do I. If you have never seen Singing in the Rain then you haven’t lived. You may never have seen such masculine role models in the form of singers and dancers, called “song and dance men” back in the day. Such a gorgeous film. So fun and playful.

Royal Kill and Jean Amendolia

Chris Abraham — Thu, 09 Nov 2006 09:30:59 +0000

My dear college chum, Jean Amendolia, received IMDB credit for doing gaffing and still photography for the upcoming film, Royal Kill, which you should check out. Two words: Pat Morita. Kill on, kill of; kill on, kill off.

An Example of Why the Times is Considered Smug and Elitist

Chris Abraham — Sat, 04 Nov 2006 09:10:11 +0000

Before I proceed, let me publicly state that Borat (and the current White House) proves to me, without at doubt, that the United States of America — and we Americans — is finally safely past being politically correct. Thank God!

I know why real Americans hate us, us being the smug intellectuals who live on the East and West coast. Only rednecks are allowed to use the R word.

(Oh, and America is anti-intellectual and anti-rational, just in case you hadn’t already noticed.)

I have been following Borat reviews closely. I have been consuming Borat skits on Google Video and YouTube for “years” now. Brilliant. After reading the Borat review in yesterday’s NY Times, I can easily show you why real Americans hate the East Coast, New York, New Yorkers, and the New York Times:

“The Anti-Defamation League, for one, has chided him, warning that some people may not be in on the joke. . . some people are definitely not in on the joke, though only because some people are too stupid and too racist to understand that the joke is on them.”

Patronizing, smug, and condescending and amazingly “John Kerry” in tone.

I fancy myself sophisticated and old-soul. I grew up in Hawaii. In Hawaii, everybody is always making fun of each other based on race and country-of-origin. I love this stuff. That said, anti-semitic jokes really make me uncomfortable.

If you make fun of dumb, racist, hicks, is that being anti-semantic?

I am going to see Borat tonight, if I can get tickets. I am in on the joke. Or, am I? Probably not. I have been called a dumbass, a moron, and thick, before, that’s for sure.

We would all love to think we’re in on the joke. That the joke isn’t on us. That said, I guarantee that this movie is going to make King Solomon coin, the majority of which will be forked over by the dumb, provincial, racist, pigs about whom Manohla Dargis and John Kerry spoke. They won’t think the movie is about them, either.

Here’s a little bit about the man behind Borat, Sacha Baron Cohen, from the Guardian:

Baron Cohen was born in north London in 1971, one of three brothers in a close-knit Jewish family. He was educated at Haberdashers’ Aske’s, the private school that has produced a wealth of comedic talent, including Matt Lucas and David Baddiel. He read history at Cambridge and wrote his thesis on the role of Jews in the US civil rights movement, and has been recalled as quiet, friendly and studious, but not exceptional.
After university he set up a comedy club with his elder brother before moving into cable TV. In 1998 he came to the attention of the producers of Channel 4′s 11 O’ Clock Show. He had already perfected Borat, but it was as Ali G, the semantically-challenged, shell-suited, voice-of-yoof from Staines that Baron Cohen first took the UK by storm.
The secret to the comic’s success, says Andrew Newman, is that he inhabits any role he takes on. “He is a funny actor, but more than that he becomes the characters he’s playing, certainly with Ali G and Borat and Bruno. He sort of has a mix of Peter Sellers’s acting and Rod Hull sort of bottle. He can just look someone in the eye and say, ‘is it ‘cos I is black,’ even though he is quite obviously not Ali G and he is quite obviously not black. He has a psychotic ability to play these characters, a fantastic confidence and ability … there is also a mix of quite clever satire and just funny cock jokes. He is able to mix things on a different level. He is able to be at once clever and very stupid.”

Sacha Baron Cohen may well be brighter than his cousin, Simon Baron-Cohen, “University of Cambridge Professor of Developmental Psychopathology.”

The Financial Times, my fave paper, compares Sacha Baron Cohen to Swift, “. . . racism’s idiocy is exposed not with a palavering preachiness but with the lethal satiric literalism Swift perfected when he proposed – so modestly – his recipes for cooking unwanted children?”

Why Does Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones Suck?

Chris Abraham — Sun, 27 Aug 2006 18:10:38 +0000

Jar Jar Binks, really terrible acting from very brilliant actors, and a crap script result in one of the worst movies of all time. I am glad I waited 4 years to watch it and I am sad to be watching it now.

Even Yoda, who is unable to suck, sucked. In short, Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones sucks. And I lovED Star Wars when it didn’t suck. And since when did Jedis become so British and nancy ass?

Minouye Makes Hawaii Proud!

Chris Abraham — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 09:41:21 +0000

According to his profile, Mikey Minouye is 21 and from Honolulu. I am from Honolulu, and I am proud of his silliness, his snarky wit, and his smart, funny, and painfully hot friend Abbe. Check it out. WARNING: they swear a lot. So funny!

Les Parapluies de Cherbourg

Chris Abraham — Sun, 06 Aug 2006 10:35:32 +0000

If you hate musicals and foreign film, even you will love Les Parapluies de Cherbourg. If you love high design and high-concept, you will love Les Parapluies de Cherbourg. If you are a Romantic, a Francophile, and Francophone, have music in your heart, love movies, love musicals, and have not seen The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, shame on you. If you love beautiful women, the most beautiful blonde and the most beautiful brunette ever in film, Catherine Deneuve and Ellen Farner, are memorizing.

Les Parapluies de Cherbourg from Wikipedia

Les Parapluies de Cherbourg (The Umbrellas of Cherbourg) is a musical film made in 1964. It was directed by Jacques Demy, and starred Catherine Deneuve and Nino Castelnuovo. The music was written by Michel Legrand. It is the middle film in a trilogy of sorts, after Demy’s 1960 film Lola and before his 1967 film The Young Girls of Rochefort; the three films share some of the same actors and minor characters.

The film is unusual in that literally all the dialogue is sung, even the most casual of conversation. This is an example of the musical form known as recitative.

Madame Emery and her daughter Geneviève (Deneuve) sell umbrellas at their little boutique in the coastal town of Cherbourg in Normandy, France. Geneviève is in love with Guy (Castelnuovo), a handsome young auto mechanic who cares for his great-aunt along with quiet, dedicated, care-giver, Madeleine (Ellen Farner), a young woman who clearly loves Guy. Subsequently, though, Guy is drafted, and must leave to fight in the Algerian War and seldom writes to his love. Months later, Geneviève is pregnant, lovelorn and feeling forgotten. At her mother’s insistence, she marries thirtyish, Roland Cassard (Marc Michel), a quietly handsome Parisian jeweller who falls in love with Geneviève and is willing to wed the younger girl, even though she is bearing another man’s child. The society wedding in a great cathedral, with a tiara being placed on the bride’s head, symbolizes her upward social and economic movement.

When Guy returns, with a leg injury, from the army and the war, he learns that Geneviève has married, left Cherbourg and that the umbrella store is utterly gone. He attempts to ease back into his old life, but becomes rebellious due both to the war and to the loss of Geneviève. One day, Guy quits his job after an argument with his boss, and spends a night,and a day, drinking excessively in seedy port bars. He winds up sleeping with a prostitute named Jenny, whose real name turns out to be also Geneviève. When he returns to his apartment, Madeleine tells him tearfully that his great-aunt has died. Eventually, Madeleine’s love is recognized by Guy. who cleans up his life, with her encouragement. With a legacy from his aunt, he is able to finance to own a new “American-style” Esso gas station. He asks Madeleine to marry him, and she accepts, very happily.

The coda is set in December 1963, approximately five years after the earliest events. Guy is now managing the couple’s Esso station. He’s with his now upbeat, and loving wife, Madeleine, and their little son François. It is Christmas Eve at the new business location. Madeleine and François go for a short walk, leaving Guy briefly, after which a new Mercedes pulls in to the station. The mink-clad driver turns out to be a sophisticated, visibly wealthy Geneviève, accompanied by her (and Guy’s) daughter, Françoise, who remains in the car.

They go inside, at first shocked to see each other, and Geneviève explains this is the first time she has returned to Cherbourg since her marriage. Her fairly young mother is now dead. She has only her rich husband and child in her family life. The two converse while Geneviève’s car is being filled with gas, and Geneviève asks Guy if he wants to meet their daughter. Without comment, and little reflection, he answers “no”, and this leads to their exchanging their final goodbyes.

Director: Jacques Demy
Music: Michel Legrand
Debut: February 19, 1964
Format: 35 mm, 1.66:1 aspect ratio, Color
Genre: Musical Drama
Length: 91 minutes (per IMDB.com)

The current version of Les Parapluies de Cherbourg released on DVD is a completely renovated version of the original. The film was shot on Eastman negative stock which rapidly faded and became almost unusable. The various copies of the film doing the cinema circuit also gradually lost their quality; fortunately, Demy realised the short shelf-life of the original negative, and made negative black and white copies of the original in the three colour bands. (See Technicolor for a technical explanation of how the three-strip process works). In the 1990s, Demy’s wife, film director Agnes Varda, headed a project to put these three black and white copies back together. The resulting film recaptured Demy’s vision of a surreally bright Cherbourg. Legrand assisted in the digital remastering of his score and finally produced a high-quality version of the film score, considered by many to be a musical masterpiece.

Awards
Prix Louis-Delluc, 1963
Palme d’or (Golden Palm) at the 1964 Cannes Film Festival
Critics’ prize for Best Film, by the French Syndicate of Film Critics, 1965
Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1964
Nominated for three more Academy Awards in 1966, all three for Legrand and Demy, though it did not win any: “Best Song” (for “I Will Wait For You”), “Best Original Score”, and “Best Scoring – Adaptation or Treatment”.

Cast
Catherine Deneuve: Geneviève Emery
Nino Castelnuovo: Guy Foucher
Anne Vernon: Madame Emery
Mireille Perrey: Aunt Élise
Marc Michel: Roland Cassard
Ellen Farner: Madeleine
Jean Champion: Aubin
Pierre Caden: Bernard
Jean-Pierre Dorat: Jean

Trivia
Two of the film’s songs became English-language hits, and were recorded by many artists: “I Will Wait For You” and “Watch What Happens (originally “Recit de Cassard” (“Cassard’s Story”)). Both were translated into English by lyricist Norman Gimbel.

An English-language stage version, called The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, with translated lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, premiered in 1979 at the Public Theater.

Grinding the 666 Rail

Chris Abraham — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 10:48:36 +0000