by Sandy | Nov 10, 2011 | Art, Blogroll, Books, Movies
At the beginning of the last century, posters that hung in the lobby of the old neighborhood movie palace were simple black and white drawings. Very quickly, theater owners realized that by changing to big, colorful cardboard advertisements, placed both outside and inside, they got attention and drew in customers. These posters then became more artful and sophisticated – pretty, or dramatic (Valentino), or scary (“King Kong”, 1932), or, just high style (Gloria Swanson rendered in Art Deco), to the lurid “Noir” films of the 50’s.
Some examples of movie poster art have been collected into a nice coffee table book: “Now Playing: Hand Painted Poster Art from the 1910s Through the 1950s”
(Academy of Motion Pictures/Angel City Press – hardcover, 14″ x 11″, 160 pages)
by Bob Martin | Nov 1, 2011 | Actors, Art, Film, Movies
Michael Caine has had one of the most consistent acting careers, having been featured in over 100 films and more if you include TV, walk ons etc. He has been working his craft for sixty plus years and we might expect that he would be tiring, or wanting to phone in his performance. That has not been the case. His are always consistent and good, at times “great”- he is a good hire for any director
Michael Caine in The Quiet American-photo by Phil Bray
This weekend, catching up on the many films that I had never seen, I took a look at Harry Brown, which recalled for me Michael Caine as Harry Palmer in the Ipcress Files, both reluctant warriors.
Harry Brown co-stars Michael Caine and Emily Mortimer in what might be considered your standard revenge thriller or even “let’s” take back our neighborhood story, which it is sort of, but what makes this movie different is Michael Caine’s performance and the soundtrack. So a hand should be given to the director Daniel Barber, for taking a classical theme and making it more interesting.
Two of Michael Caine’s movies that stand out for me are Hannah and Her Sisters the perfect movie and the Quiet American. Others that I am still fixated with and will watch over and over are “The Hand” and “Dress to Kill”. There are probably another 40 films that he has made that I enjoy watching and find something new and different about his performance, Michael Caine, good guy.
by Sandy | Oct 1, 2011 | Actors, Arts, Entertainment and Music, Blogroll, Dance, Dancers, dvd, Film, Movies
If you like the theater and/or you dance sing, act – you know about the audition process and how nerve wracking it can be.
“Every Little Step” is a very entertaining documentary about that very same weeding out process – whittling from thousands, down to the very few special people who were chosen for the final tryouts to be in the 2006 revival of “A Chorus Line”. This legendary 1975 Broadway musical about dancers and their lives was conceived and directed by the late Michael Bennett. (Although in order to make the final cut, these young hopefuls had to be triple threat material – dancer/singer/actor.)
The film gets the viewer involved and invested early on so that you start to root for them all to win the few prized spots in the show.Their passion and hard work is awe inspiring.These performers love what they do regardless of the disappointments. As one young lady said, “If you don’t have something to ‘fall back on’ you won’t fall back – you just keep going.”
“Every Little Step” – Excellent!
“What I did For Love” (by Marvin Hamlisch, Edward Lawrence Kleban):
“Kiss the day goodbye
Point me t’ward tomorrow
We did what we had to do.
Won’t forget, can’t regret
What I did for love…”
by Sandy | Sep 26, 2011 | Arts, Entertainment and Music, Blogroll, Film, Movies
This movie was on broadcast TV over the weekend – couldn’t resist watching – and I noticed all the cuts. Between the commercials and the deleted scenes, a lot of the momentum, and energy was lost. Watch it on DVD for the full experience.
The brothers Affleck – Ben directs, and Casey stars – are responsible for this turbulent film. Based on a Dennis Lehane book, “Gone Baby Gone” starts as a child abduction case – a little girl goes missing in Boston, can she be found in enough time? (The longer a child is missing, the higher the possibility that the situation will end badly: child never found or child deceased.)
The actors, led by the thin, wavery voiced Casey Affleck as the private eye,Morgan Freeman, and Ed Harris as the cops and Amy Ryan as the mother of the missing child, are terrific.
The movie unfolds with the unfortunately familiar process – a massive search for the 4 year old involving police, family members, tons of press camped outside the home, etc. Then, one of the relatives of the missing child hires a private detective to question neighbors, thinking that those who would rather not talk to the police may talk to him. The drama escalates, the mystery widens and becomes complex as the layers are peeled and we are introduced to the over the top, out of control characters who may or may not be involved in what happened, including the little girl’s foul mouthed mother.
The plot thickens and morphs into a compound mystery. The “who” changes to “what” and back again to “who dunnit” like a pin ball careening around. So many twists and turns that at times I did have to ask “Hunh? What just happened here?” Certain events may have been added and made obscure on purpose (“Red Herrings”) just to heighten the mystery, but it works. I was entertained thru all the surprises until the sad ending. (“Sad”, but not for the reasons you might expect.)
“Doing the right thing” – what it is/what it isn’t – is such a personal thing, as it should be, since we have to live with our choices. But, the results of our choices/ decisions often radiate outward and cause repercussions for others.
by Sandy | Sep 21, 2011 | Arts, Entertainment and Music, Blogroll, Books, dvd, Film, Movies
I kept noticing this “Tattoo” book that stayed on the Bay Area paperback best seller list last year forever. I got curiouser and curiouser. Rather than read it, I cheated and watched “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” on DVD first and then bought the books – yes, plural. I was so hooked on the main characters and their adventures that reading the whole trilogy by Swedish writer Stieg Larson was the only option. I had such a great time! 
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
The Girl Who Played with Fire
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest
The books are cleverly dense with detail, suspense, intrigue and double dealing. The screen writer was selective in what was included in the 3 subsequent movies, but they are well done (I think “Tattoo” was the best). I love a mystery – who disappeared, who was betrayed, who covered up. The 2 main characters, fearless, antisocial “Lisbeth Salander”, fiercely brought to life by Noomi Rapace and investigative journalist “Michael Blomkvist”, played by Michael Nyqvist, were great, but I must say that everyone was. Directed by Niels Arden Oplev, they did a super job.
The action takes place in Sweden – I marvel at the similarities and the differences to American life. A conspiracy is a conspiracy, politics is politics, muckraking is muckraking regardless of the language. The methods to uncover evil machinations are now global with the blanket use of the internet. Hacking has never seemed so exciting. A warming – some scenes are violent, but, they do give insight as to why our “Girl” behaves as she does.
Of course I’m sorry Mr. Larson passed away in 2004, especially since after reading the final book and watching the DVD (“The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest” ), I got the distinct impression that our non-heroine/heroine, Ms Salander, was not finished – there was more to do, more to reveal and dig up, more people to disturb. Sigh… (Hope that didn’t sound too callous?)
I don’t know why, but there is an American remake due out this Fall – David Fincher as Director (He did Social Network), David Craig (the most recent actor to play James Bond) and relative newcomer Rooney Mara as the tattooed girl. It better be good!
by Bob Martin | Aug 5, 2011 | Art, Culture, Directors, Movies
Awkward love stories are not unusual, however they are seldom about African Americans or as elegantly told as this film. The normalcy of the main characters existence, in one of the world’s most beautiful cities, sets the stage for the complexity of racial transformation. The juxtaposition, that some of us want to keep what we’ve got and others want to move on to something new and that reconciliation is both difficult and necessary.
Medicine for Melancholy is a small film which tries to tell a lot and succeeds for the most part. It goes to show that you don’t need a huge budget to make a movie that tells a good story and enlightens its audience.
I am hopeful that the Director, Barry Jenkins, is still working his craft and will get the opportunity to continue to do insightful movie making.
Wyatt Cenac, Tracy Heggins and Barry Jenkins
