Hello! My call is Mark Olsen. Welcome to the edition of the usual consultant in a global of Only Good Movies.
I recently contacted Michael Mann and the youngest of his four daughters, Becca Mann, to talk to them about an assignment they worked on together that aimed to showcase the filmmaker’s vast archive. The Michael Mann Archive came online this week with a staggering amount. about the making of Mann’s recent “Ferrari,” starring Adam Driver, Penélope Cruz and Shailene Woodley.
The site (access costs $65) offers exclusive video pieces, as well as script pages, commented notes, never-before-seen footage, and much more. As for why he was looking to share all this material, the notoriously sexy Mann said, “Directors I have no idea how other managers make a movie. And so, each of us expands on our own specific process. It’s an opportunity to convey that, to convey anything that I’m very passionate about. I think it’s the most productive task. A guy or a woman can do it, period. And I’ve been thinking about it since I was in my 20s and my enthusiasm for it is surely unwavering and unwavering.
Mann also talked about completing the script for the adaptation of his own novel, “Heat 2,” and that filming is expected to run until later this year or early 2025. As for the rumors about Driver and Austin Butler being cast in the project, Mann simply said, “I can’t communicate about that. “
The Academy Museum has introduced a series called “Storytellers: The Films of Powell and Pressburger” to celebrate the paintings of the director-writer-producer duo of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. The series began last night with a 35mm nitrate screening of 1947’s “Black Narcissus,” followed by a Q&A with Powell’s widow, editor Thelma Schoonmaker.
Schoonmaker, a three-time Academy Award winner known for her collaborations with Martin Scorsese, has overseen the recovery of many of Powell and Pressburger’s films. The Academy Series includes 4K recoveries of “I Know Where I’m Going!,” “A Matter” of Life and Death,” “The Tales of Hoffmann,” “The Small Back Room” and Powell’s solo “Peeping Tom. “”Gone to Earth” and “The Elusive Pimpernel” will be screened in 35mm, as well as “The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp” and “The Red Shoes. “
“Made in England,” a documentary about Powell and Pressburger directed by David Hinton and narrated by Scorsese, will premiere in Los Angeles next week.
Schoonmaker married Powell from 1984 until his death in 1990, and met through Scorsese. He called this week from New York to talk about the movies and his life with Powell.
How did your paintings transmit these restorations?
Well, it’s heaven because I love movies and I have to watch them over and over again when they’re restored. The thing about those Powell/Pressburger movies is that you never get tired of them. Plus, you never know what it’s going to take you in. They don’t have a place in movies either. So there are surprises and little bombs that they plant. Emeric [Pressburger] called them little bombs that they put in the film and then they explode. A detail that is not really noticed, but that later plays an important role. big role. So I enjoyed restoring those films. It is exciting. And seeing them come to life as if they were originally released is simply fantastic.
For you, what is special about their collaboration? What do you think made the paintings come together in such a glorious way?
I think Michael’s admiration for the charming wit of Emeric, as he called him, was so wonderful that that’s why he accepted the name “written, produced and directed by” from his logo [the Archers]. Because after all, he had made 23 films. , I think, before he met Emeric. And he never felt any of them come out of his heart. He didn’t think those were strong, glorious concepts to give to the world. So when he met Emeric, he found out what he needed, which was someone who could help him get there. Emeric was European, Michael had spent a lot of time in France, so they shared a preference to make films for the world, not just the United Kingdom. I just think it was the magical marriage between a lovely brain and someone who knew how to make movies. Both were very brave and unusual.
How has your relationship with Michael deepened your appreciation for his work?
Well, I didn’t want to delve deeper into appreciating his work, but knowing what he was like opened my eyes. He asked me to put on his tombstone, “Director and Optimist. ” He never gave up. He wrote scripts all the time. He wrote about a hundred ideas, perhaps not entirely written but sketched; he was never able to perform any of them for 20 years. He never missed a moment of the day.
And when he died, I honestly didn’t need to live on, yet he left a little furnace burning inside me, his legacy. And so I was able to share that, fortunately with Marty, we continued his legacy. And so, receiving this inheritance made the rest of my life after wasting Michael simply amazing. I had the most productive life with the most productive task anyone could have for 50 years, then 10 years with Michael. So they gave me everything.
And I love traveling around the world and seeing how this explosion of interest in Powell and Pressburger is waning right now. This is declining around the world. It’s just fantastic to see this outpouring of love for those movies. It turns out that we fell at the right time. And other young people flock to these Powell/Pressburger retrospectives. When I was applying to the British Film Institute at the end of last year last year they organised a great retrospective. And when I did Q&A on stage, I looked outside and saw that part of the audience was made up of young people. And that’s nothing new. They are on the hunt for anything and locate it in those films.
And do you have any idea what it is? Why do you think young people react to these films?
Like Marty said, he loves characters. And I think the explanation is that Marty and Michael never sought to deal with heroes and villains. They sought to deal with the gray dominance between the two, which we all experienced. We are fascinated by confusing characters. And they are also made with a lot of love those films by Powell and Pressburger, this loving way of approaching humanity. I think that’s what other young people are discovering.
And they also love color. When we do those technicolor restorations, the color is amazing and they’re not used to seeing that color anymore. Many young people came up to me and told me how much they liked it. The films are very rich. You never know what’s going to happen inside them. They challenge you, they open you up to new ideas.
On Tuesday, Acropolis Cinema will host an evening with critic Jonathan Rosenbaum for his new book “In Dreams Begin Responsibilities: A Jonathan Rosenbaum Reader,” published through Los Angeles-based Hat & Beard Press. The evening will come with a screening of Radu Jude’s 2021 “Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn,” followed by a Q&A session with Rosenbaum. The film will be preceded by a video of the advent of Judas.
The e-book covers roughly six decades of writing by Rosenbaum, the Chicago Reader’s film critic from 1987 to 2008, whose other e-books include “Moving Places: A Life at the Movies” and “Midnight Movies,” co-authored with J Hoberman. The new e-book includes pieces that have never been the subject of an anthology, combining Rosenbaum’s influential film criticism with his literary criticism and his writings on jazz.
Rosenbaum called this week from Chicago to report on the state of film complaints and film culture in general.
Do you think that denunciation as a form of art and crafts is in decline?How do you see the cultural industry at the moment?
There are many other people my age who think it’s a bad time, but I don’t agree with them. What replaced everything was, of course, the Internet. And there’s more of everything. There are more bad things and there are also more smart things. I think it’s just that you may be a little beaten up by the amount of cash out there and the amount that’s worth nothing. It becomes simple to see it as something negative because if you have to see it from a positive perspective, you have to look for what is intelligent.
But I think one thing that’s also evolved in my position is, this is all I say at the beginning and at the end of the book, when I interviewed Godard, he said to me, “I need to be noticed as an airplane. ” , not an airport. And that means other people take you where they need to go. In other words, you are part of what they are interested in, not what you are interested in. Last word, one or the other. I think this is a mistake. I think what a spokesperson does is participate in a public debate that began before he arrived and continues after he leaves. However, it’s not just about telling other people what movies they should stop watching.
What do you look for in new movies like “Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn”?
That’s not what I’m looking for. In fact, I need others to guide me. It’s not that he’s looking to impose an agenda. I think the biggest challenge facing other people today is that there are so many options, more than ever before. And in a lot of tactics that’s good, but in a lot of tactics it’s bad because it makes other people even more passive and they don’t need to shape their own reviews or look for things that they might find interesting.
“Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn” is something I recommend because the penultimate part of the book is a part about that topic and a part about a movie made 50 years earlier, “W. R. : Mysteries of the Organism. “new state of affairs. In fact, there are many tactics where politics sneaks into the e-book, and in some tactics I critique “Bad Luck Banging” while enjoying it. It’s an intelligent index, almost like movies about the state of the planet. . One of the things I do with complaints about movies, and also with my other types of complaints, is that I use them as a way to address other topics. Like when I was writing for the Reader, I chose to write about a movie. Not because I found it appealing, but because I thought it was worth thinking about and writing about.
Do you think your Hollywood dates have evolved over the years?
But on the other hand, part of the reason for this might be the fact that I grew up in a circle of exhibitors’ relatives and that’s why I watched all those videos on my own and grew up almost, like, in Hollywood. So there is a part of me that needs to analyze that aspect, but I have said it, and I am satisfied to answer it if you ask me: What is the greatest national cinema in the world that I am aware of?I would say it would be American cinema, which is mainly Hollywood. The scenario for making videos now is very different from what it was when I was a child. And in that sense, Hollywood seems less beautiful to me than it used to be. That could also be partly a reflection of my age.
Much of what happens in criticism, in evaluation, is based on economic considerations and the control that the industry largely has over what is written about it. When I worked for the Reader, it didn’t matter what he wrote each week, he had to make it seem important, because otherwise there would be no value in writing or reading. But when you give importance to that week, then you have to do it to leave room for what was going to happen the following week, which is supposed to be of comparable importance. So there’s a kind of fraud inherent in the way movie reviews work, which has a lot to do with dating the film industry. People rarely criticized me in the Reader, saying, “Why do you always write about videos I’ve never heard of?” And I thought, well, what you’re really saying is: why do you only write about videos that don’t have multimillion-dollar ad campaigns? And of course, those are the movies that want the most attention.
“The Terminator” on Vidiots
On Wednesday, Vidiots will screen James Cameron’s 1984 cyberpunk action classic, “The Terminator,” beginning on National Art House Theater Day. Cameron and producer and co-writer Gale Anne Hurd participated in a pre-recorded Q&A with Vidiots programming director Amanda Salazar, which will also screen in theaters nationwide.
Given the heavyweight of 1991’s “Terminator 2: Judgment Day,” it’s easy to see just how masterful the first “Terminator” still is, as well as the project’s roots as a standalone film. Guerrilla of the future, Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn) is sent back in time to protect a waitress named Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) from the probably unstoppable killer device known as the Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger).
In his original review of the film, Patrick Goldstein wrote, “Directed by James Cameron in the brash and enthusiastic culture of 1950s pulp fiction, the film has a sublime and economical pictorial style. . . This sinister fantasy will prick up to your ears: it feels unsettling as a scary story that only sends shivers down your spine, but deftly collides with your imagination.
‘Family photo’
Tonight and tomorrow, the Now Instant Image Hall will screen Lucy Kerr’s “Family Portrait,” which won the directing prize at last year’s Locarno Festival. Kerr will be present in the evenings, in a verbal exchange with writer-director Courtney Stephens on Friday and with filmmaker Kersti Jan Werdal on Saturday.
Deragh Campbell (“Anne at 13,000 feet”) plays a young woman who has joined her extended family for a company photo. And as the film begins as a traditional standalone family drama, it slowly becomes somewhat enigmatic, taking on an unsettling air: it turns out that no one needs to acknowledge what’s visibly happening in front of them.
Ingmar Bergman in the New Beverly
As part of the New Beverly’s tribute to Roger Corman’s deep legacy, next Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday there will be a double series of films directed by Ingmar Bergman with which Corman distributed his New World banner in the United States.
With a deeply stylized use of color, 1972’s “Cries and Whispers” tells the story of two sisters (Liv Ullmann, Ingrid Thulin) who wait for their other sister (Harriet Andersson) to die after a long illness. Nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay for Bergman, it won for Sven Nykvist’s cinematography and one of the author’s iconic films.
In his original Times review, Charles Champlin wrote: “I’m stingy with superlatives, coins degrade too quickly. Still, I have no doubt that “Cries and Whispers” is a notable example of the filmmaker’s craft, the film that Bergman has made in many years, and a masterpiece that will be seen for years to come. It is, and above all, a brave film in its uncompromising exploration of the dark furniture of the dark red afternoon of the soul, that of Bergman and the our.
The 1978 “Autumn Sonata” stars Ingrid Bergman as a concert pianist who reunites with her ex-daughter, played by Ullmann, for a prolonged confrontation.
In her original Times review, Champlin wrote, “In the twilight of her career, Ms. Bergman returned to her local language to make what would possibly be her most impressive functionality of all, a masterpiece. “»
Nicole Kidman in “Eyes Wide Shut”
This week marked the 25th anniversary of the release of Stanley Kubrick’s latest film, “Eyes Wide Shut. “It was not well won over by most audiences or critics when it was first released, even though its reputation has changed over the years and it is now much admired and even appreciated. I don’t vividly forget seeing the film at a delayed screening in its opening weekend at New York’s Astor Plaza Theater, near Times Square (long closed) and the palpable sense of discontent. as the audience became more and more bewildered by what they were seeing.
Glenn Whipp sat down with one of the film’s stars, Nicole Kidman, for a wildly candid and engaging verbal exchange about her reports on filming the film with her then-husband Tom Cruise. The film is a portrait of marriage and jealousy (with some tantalizing conspiracy theories), and Kidman was aware that Kubrick used the real-life partner of her choice to expand the material.
“I guess he was exploiting [our marriage],” Kidman said. “There were concepts that interested him. He asked many questions. But he had a strong sense of the story he was telling. I don’t forget him saying: “Triangles are difficult. ” Caution should be used when dealing with a triangle. » Because only a user can feel attacked. But he was aware of it and he knew how to take care of us.
‘Long legs’
“Longlegs,” Osgood Perkins’ wildly creepy serial killer thriller, was one of the biggest hits of the summer when it far topped the box office, grossing more than $22 million. Christi Carras took a look at the clever marketing crusade that made the film possible. the largest opening ever made for the Neon distributor.
Barry Levitt spoke with Perkins, who was very open about how the film’s story includes elements of his confusing trysts with his famous parents, actor Anthony Perkins, and the styled Berry Berenson.
“From the beginning I took steps to have the characters update me in some way,” Perkins told The Times.
Free screening of “Kneecap”
This Wednesday we will have a series of Indie Focus screenings with the film “Kneecap”, followed by a Q&A with screenwriters and actors Móglaí Bap, Mo Chara and DJ Próvaí, as well as director Rich Peppiatt. This colorful and lively comedy is the semi-fictional story of an Irish-language rap organization in Belfast whose members are unlikely political figureheads.
Tickets for the event, at Regal L. A. Live downtown, they are free. You can confirm your attendance here.
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Mark Olsen writes about all types of movies for the Los Angeles Times as a screenwriter and critic.
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