wild target

Friday Flick:

Another Bill Nighy film for Friday Flicks this week, but this time with Emily Blunt, Rupert Everett and Rupert Grint and in a very different tone.  A ridiculous and energetic one.  The IMDB one line description: "A hitman tries to retire but a beautiful thief may change his plans." It's lightweight with several interesting and amusing turns.

Sixty Six

friday flick:

A British comedy by Paul Weiland based on his own life story, Sixty Six is a solid movie. One of the best I've seen in a while.  12-year-old Bernie struggles with coming of age and feeling forgotten by his family in 1966 U.K. when the big event of his childhood is overshadowed by England's shot at the World Cup.  Helena Bonham Carter, and Eddie Marsan play the parents to newcomer Gregg Sulkin. Released in 2006.  

 

Midnight in Paris

Friday Flick:

I wanted to see Midnight in Paris when I read the director's own bit about it in the New York Times (click to read it).  Titled, This Germ of an Idea Calls for an Antibiotic, Woody Allen tells a brief behind-the-scenes story about how he came up with the idea for his latest film. And it's a funny story. I avoided previews, so when the movie came to town, I wasn't sure what to expect except Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Marion Cotillard, and Carla Bruni somehow linked to each other by Woody Allen's pen.  Oh, and in Paris.  It was enough for me.  

The film is like a nostalgia-filled cocktail of Paris with an American kick of the Now.  A modest, uncomplicated douse of idealist dreaming served straight up  with a chaser of light believability.  I preferred the nostalgic parts over the others, but that probably reveals more about me than the film.  

Highlights: Kathy Bates as Gertrude Stein, Adrian Brody as Salvador Dali, Alison Pill as Zelda Fitzgerald and Corey Stoll  steals  scenes as Ernest Hemingway.  Listen to an interview with him on NPR's All Things Considered.  See it and let me know what you think.

For a compilation of reviews on Midnight in Paris,  see David Hudson's post on MUBI.

surprise visitors

Last Thursday I got a text from someone in my family (who will remain unnamed to protect them) saying that my parents were getting on the road  Saturday to drive two thousand miles from Indiana to Montana and 'surprise' me.  I waited until Saturday and called Dick and Mabel, "Hey!  Sooo, what's up?"  They must have left Friday cause they were already on the border of Iowa and Illinois.  They giggled calculating their ETA to me.  

I had told them earlier in the spring that they shouldn't visit in July because it would conflict with other visitors and work projects.  Mom's been sick so  they missed June, I thought, and was now looking to August.  As soon as Mom was feeling better, they decided to hop in the car and get out to Montana before June ends! In three days. What goofy parents!  

I'm not really ready for them.  I had intended to shoot another interview with them for the Dick&Mabel project when they visited next, but I haven't prepped enough questions yet. I cleaned up a bit around the house - especially my studio/office -  and we'll see if I can scrap together an improvised interview.  They should be here tonight. I'm looking forward to it.

"Who've you been talking to today?" Dad dug for information over the phone.  

"Forget it, I'm not giving up my blood," I teased back. 

Thank you mysterious family member for the warning!  What if we left town to hike Glacier or something!?

cold & flu remedies

I've been under the weather - it's been awhile since I've caught something so I consider myself lucky and I'm not complaining.  Besides, that means extra movie time to me.  In addition to all the tinctures, decongestants, chicken soup and rest, I recommend some feel-good movie time. 

Anything with Cary Grant is a good idea.  This time I started with Frank Capra's  dark comedy Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) which is apparently Grant's least favorite of his own film performances for it being so over the top but I think it suits the script and does the trick. His Girl Friday is also a good one home remedy movie.  Relax and watch all the silliness and quippy dialogue unfold. 

Grant with Rosalind Russell in His Girl Friday, 1940

For more current fare (2009), I found a zippy little art heist film, The Maiden Heist, starring Christopher Walken, Morgan Freeman, William H. Macy and Marcia Gay Harden.  The story is good but it's really the character details in the actors' performances that makes it enjoyable.   I also really like all of the cast members, so I'm willing to watch them play together with a slightly goofy script with a few twists. I'm embedding the trailer to watch even though I think it shows too many jokes and storyline. 

selling Sellers

I've been on a mini Peter Sellers binge.  I never connected with the The Pink Panther series, but I loved Dr. Strangelove.  I've also been particularly into films from the 60s lately, so his work comes up a lot.  I decided to give more detailed study to his work.  Though he's considered to be a dark comedian, I have been discovering and rediscovering  his exceptional range and steady and often unassuming brilliance. It's like watching a fearlessly inventive and uninhibited child sometimes. Trite as it sounds, the man was ahead of his time.

One fun tidbit discovery I made is the BBC radio show, Crazy People (aka The Goon Show), where he established himself as a master impressionist doing a variety of goofy characters, and is credited as a precursor to Monty Python's Flying Circus.

In the past I have posted about his films and said that I believe he is under -recognized.  That might not be true or at least be changing. When we were traveling recently, I was watching television (which we don't have at home) and I learned that TCM is running blocks of his films.  Go TCM.  If you have cable, keep an eye out for them. If you are interested in more about the improvisational genius (and I don't toss that word around lightly), see the Official Peter Sellers site and follow links to even more Sellers tribute sites.  

See below a lengthy, relaxed Michael Parkinson interview with Peter Sellers in 1974 from BBC where Parkinson really let's Sellers cut loose and give a show.  (If only talk show hosts could do more of this today.) It starts with a slightly scary impersonation then shifts to a sweet one, but the interview is loaded with them. and with diversity.  Each part of the interview is about 10 minutes.  Be sure to watch all the way through part 2 at least, for his story of breaking into show business plus a variety of voices he did with The Goons. And part 3 for a behind-the-scenes reenactment of O'Toole and Guinness in Lawrence of Arabia. And part 4 because he speaks to creative collaboration and professional fulfillment.  Then he ends the whole bit playing his uke and singing a song.

Enjoy.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

After The Fox

Watch Peter Sellers in Vittorio de Sica's comedy, After the Fox (1966).  

It's Neil Simon's first screenplay which satirically combines a caper plot with a humorous movie-inside-a-movie commentary on the pursuit of money and fame, with great pokes at neo-realism (which means de Sica, the director himself), Fellini, Antonioni, Godard, and others.  If you are a filmie, you'll catch them and they are delightful touches to an already fun movie.  


Sellers is outstanding, plus Victor Mature came out of retirement to play his supporting role which parodies an actor's vanity. Bravo! Seller's wife does alright as his sister, too. Oh, and Burt Bacharach scored the film. 


On a side note, thinking simply about how things 'get done' in the world, the production is an interesting and successful American/Italian collaboration in that the people working on it depended on translators while making it.  Reportedly Simon and de Sica and other players had their different views about how the film would be better, but in the end, it works.

saying it out loud

It's so important for a person to speak their mind, don't you think?  

For the times when you can't find the real someone to direct your voice or when it just isn't polite,  the website Dear Blank Please Blank offers a refreshing way for people to speak up without (hopefully) hurting anyone's feelings.  In fact, the site helps turn grievances into a humorous note.  Literally.  

When you go there, be sure to go to the Moderator section and weigh in on what entries make it to their front page.  Oh, and write your own!  (Let me know if you do!)