Month: October 2012

Robert Zemeckis’ new movie “Flight,” starring Denzel Washington as a somewhat Sully-like pilot closed the 48th Chicago Film Festival in style on Thursday, October 25, 2012. Zemeckis and wife Leslie came to town to accept the Founder’s Award in conjunction with the film, which opens wide on November 2, 2012.

In the action-packed mystery thriller, Denzel Washington stars as Whip Whitaker, a pilot who makes a miraculous crash landing of Flight 227 near Atlanta, Georgia, a plane bearing 102 passengers and crew.

The opening sequence is as exciting as the crash in “Castaway” but goes on much longer. It’s truly riveting. When the plane is down and Denzel (and the others) are being rescued from the wreckage, he is initially hailed as a hero. Co-star Bruce Greenwood as an old friend who represents the pilots’ union says, “Initial reports look like you saved a lot of lives.” Drug-dealer and hippie Harley Mays (John Goodman) says, “Sweet Jesus! What a stud that plot is! You will never pay for a drink again. You’re a rock star!”

The euphoric reaction to Whitaker’s calm command during the crisis quickly gives way to a variety of charges that could land him in prison if he doesn’t perform satisfactorily during the NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) review of the crash. He must testify in a public setting before Ellen Block (Oscar-winner Melissa Leo). Whip’s answers at that time will mark his future for all time.

The movie has much discussion of God or a Divine Being. One of Zemeckis’ personal quotes on the International Movie Data Base gives us a bit of insight into why that might be: “I was raised a Catholic on the South Side of Chicago (Roseland), and I felt I had to undo a lot of serious damage. But as I was getting older (Zemeckis is now 61), I began coming off my absolutely young, arrogant, agnostic beliefs. I was thinking more about coming to terms with human spirituality.”

One character in the script says, “Once you realize all the random things in your life, you realize there is a God and you have no control over that. Death gives you perspective.” Later, the line is, “I believe that God landed that plane.” Don Cheadle, who plays Denzel’s lawyer, Hugh Lange, is working on getting an Act of God inserted as a potential cause of the accident, and Denzel says, “Whose God would do this?” as he surveys the wreckage of his plane, sitting in the field where he landed it. Denzel’s old flying buddy (Bruce Greenwood) refers to the successful landing as “a miracle.” Denzel’s co-pilot, post crash, says, “That crash was pre-ordained. There’s only one judge, and he’s got a plan for you. Nothing happens in the Kingdom of the Lord by mistake.” John Gatins wrote the script, which had been kicking around Hollywood for a while.

In the Q&A following the film, Zemeckis said, “The writer wrote the first pages in 1999. I had heard that Denzel Washington was interested in it. When I read it in February of 2011, I was astounded at how beautiful the script was. So I called up Denzel to see if he was really interested in doing it.”

Q: What was it like working with Denzel Washington? And was he really naked?

A: Sure. He’s the real deal. There’s no vanity. He shows up with the goods every single day. He is very focused, very intense.

Q: Are you a tough director?

A: Only if the actors aren’t doing what I want them to. The trick is mutual respect and collaboration. I don’t like to stir things up. I like it calm. There was a lot of preparation before shooting on the day that he would show up. Every choice he (Denzel) would make was perfect.

Q: Did you do a lot of takes?

A; I do as many as it takes to get what I want.

Q: You’ve done just about every kind of film: “Romancing the Stone” (1984); “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” (1988); “1941” (1979); “Back to the Future” (1985); “Forrest Gump” (1994); “Contact” (1997); “The Polar Express” (2004). Would you do a musical?

A: Sure.

Q: What was the inspiration for the film?

A: The screenplay. I read a lot. Most screenplays aren’t very good. I just couldn’t put this one down. I just loved how complex it was.

Q: How important was the casting?

A: The tightrope that we were all on was that he (Captain Whip Whitaker) was such a morally despicable character but very good at his job. He was very flawed. Denzel Washington brings this great screen presence. Denzel has charm and great gravitas as an actor. He had everything that was needed to pull the character off. (Zemeckis had just declined to select another actor who might have played the role, in answering a question from an audience member, saying, “Once the camera turns, I can’t imagine any other cast that can do the parts.”

Q: This isn’t a film about a plane crash.

A: It’s not.

Q: Did you have any problems with the product placements in the film?

A: We spread the brands all around. We had no problems.

Q: How much change was there from the beginning of shooting to the end of shooting?

A: I always saw him (the protagonist) as a flawed character that had to get in touch with his humanness. Through changes in location, sound mixing, etc. there were changes, but the big stuff is always there…the big story beats.

Q: John Goodman is remarkable in his supporting role as drug-dealer Harley Mays.

A: I was just praying that he’d be available.

Q: Is Denzel’s character a hero?

A: I think, in movie terms, he’s an anti-hero. He’s very good at some things, but he’s very flawed. I love the moral ambiguity. No one wears a black hat. No one wears a white hat. Everybody is ambiguous and I just thought that was fascinating.

A questioner from the audience asked if Zemeckis would ever do more hand-held camera footage. His answer was, “In fact, Don Burgess, my cinematographer and I decided there would be different levels of camera style for Denzel’s state in the film. When he is sober, the camera is locked off. When he has a buzz on, the camera shots are floaty. When he is completely drunk, the shots are hand-held. All film techniques should disappear and be there to serve the characters and the story.”

Q: How did the soundtrack come about?

A: The soundtrack grew out of John Goodman’s character, who likes to listen to the Rolling Stones’ “Gimme Shelter’ in his car. Whit (Denzel) didn’t have music in his life. The Rolling Stones just felt right.

Five years ago, “Entertainment Weekly” magazine named Robert (Bob) Zemeckis Number 18 on its list of “the smartest people in Hollywood.” From his very first start (with co-writer and collaborator Bob Gale) when they sold an episode of “Kolchak: The Night Stalker, Chopper (#1.15) in 1975, Zemeckis has gone on to give us some of the best films in recent memory.

Zemeckis has returned from experimentation with digital movie-making in “The Polar Express” 8 years ago (“I just love all types of movies, but I was especially interested in digital cinema. I was interested in films that could be done in digital.”) to a more traditional film that ranks right up there with the best of this year.

Viola Davis Receives Career Achievement Award at 48th Chicago Film Festival

By Connie Wilson

On October 23, 2012

In Interviews, Movies, Pop Culture

Viola Davis in Chicago arriving to receive her Career Achievement Award on October 22nd, 2012.

Viola Davis (“The Help,” “Doubt”) was honored at the 28th Chicago Film Festival on Monday, October 22, 2012, with a Career Achievement Award during the Black Perspectives evening. She was introduced by television reporter Robin Roberts and interviewed by fellow actress Regina Taylor.

Here were some of her remarks:

Q: Tell us about background.

A: I was born in St. Matthews, South Carolina (on the former Singleton Plantation), delivered by my grandmother, but we moved to Central Falls, Rhode Island when I was 2 months old, in 1965. I have 4 sisters and a brother and I am the second from the youngest.

Q: Did any of your siblings want to act?

A: Oh, yes. My younger sister Diane went to Howard to study acting, but she eventually decided, “I need to have a steady job with insurance and that sort of thing, and gave it up.”

Q: By what route did you come to acting?

A: Well, when you grow up in abject poverty, the only black family in town, it allows you to express yourself.

Q: Who was influential in your becoming an actress?

A: Well, Cicely Tyson, when I saw her in “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman.” Watching her entertain and create a fully rounded human being. At age 6 I said, “That’s what I want to do. Plus, there was my sister’s storytelling of living in the segregated South.

Q: Education?

A: I went to college at Central Falls College in Rhode Island and graduated in 1988, but then I gave myself a year off to “find myself” before I went to Julliard Drama School for 4 years.

Q: Did you have certain mentors?

A: Yeah. Sure. Sometimes, though, you find it in moments, not in people. I always looked for the ropes. Me trying to fit into the classical very white training that Julliard has (Chekhov, Ibsen, etc.) was difficult. Sometimes, they try to pretend that you’re not black or that you’re not yourself. You go out onstage to audition and you try not to have a broad nose. You try to be the cute one. It takes imagination.

Q: You did find your voice?

A: It took me some time and it behooves me to be an observer. We don’t recognize the truth any more, sometimes. I need the truth. I need the moment when Troy (Denzel Washington in the play “Fences”) tells Rose (Viola’s part opposite Denzel as his wife) that he’s been seeing another woman and is going to have a baby with her.”

Q: Let’s go back to the beginning.

Viola Davis and her husband of 9 years, Julius Tennon, in Chicago on October 22nd, 2012.

A: I was in “City of Angels” and I kept saying of a TV part, “I’m Nurse Lynette Peeler”…”OR1! OR!” Sometimes, as the old saying goes, you have to kiss some frogs to find your prince. (Viola shared that she met her husband, Julius Tennon,whom she has been married to since 2003, she met onset during her “OR1” days). Then, I did “Antwone Fisher” in 2002.

Q: Do you think silence is an important thing in your acting?

A: Silence is just as much a part of what we do (as actors). What is happening in silence is a part of the dialogue. Silence is interior dialogue, versus exterior dialogue.

Q: But you made the mother in “Antwone Fisher” very human.

A: Yes, absolutely.

Q: You play complex roles. Was there ever a time when you thought, “I can’t do this!”

A: Every time I say, “ I can’t do it. I just can’t do it.” I said that with “The Help.” I’m anal and neurotic about the narrative. I know that sometimes the political message is what comes through rather than the execution. For instance, me being caught in the role of being a black maid with a broken dialect in the 60s…I knew it would be controversial. Anthony Hopkins can play Hannibal Lector (in “Silence of the Lambs”) and just walk into a great narrative and humanize someone. So many of the roles where you have to create it internally (not externally) don’t get the glory. They just don’t. Without you saying a word, it is a dialogue when you’re acting. You have to problem solve. It’s not always on the page.

Q: But you did (problem solve the role of Aibileen) and brilliantly. How has that role changed things for you?

A: My whole life changed because “The Help” made money. What changed after that is that I have more power to walk into a room and possibly push some buttons to get a part. But everything is in the narrative. It’s gotta’ be on the page. If it’s not on the page, I can’t create it. It’s like having a great body but only $10 to go to the store to buy clothes. You cannot show who you are without a great narrative. That’s why I’m founding a production company (with her husband). We have optioned some material on Harriet Tubman and Sam Rockwell is attached. And we have an option on something dealing with Barbara Jordan.

[At this point, a clip from the film “Solaris” with George Clooney was shown. The 2002 film, directed by Steven Soderbergh, was a bit like Ray Bradbury’s “Mars Is Heaven.” It was written, says Viola by a Polish science fiction writer. I saw the film, and it was confusing, at best, with Natascha McElhone playing Clooney’s wife who is dead, but the bizarre planet the research station is orbiting makes him think she is still alive. The film was not a commercial or critical success.]

Following the clip, Viola said:

That role definitely fits under the category of not knowing what-the-hell I was doing! My character in the book was an old white Polish guy. The only thing it was about was this planet, which was a metaphor for science. We don’t know what-the-hell we’re talking about (in that scene).

Q: How is Steven Soderbergh as a director?

A: I love him. He gets me. He is very calm. That’s why people become your friends and walk into your life. He (Soderbergh) explains things in a very simple way. I think he’s a great director.

Q: We met when you were appearing in “7 Guitars” here in town, and I came backstage to meet you.

Actresses Viola Davis (L) and Regina Taylor (R) in Chicago on the Red Carpet on October 22nd, 2012.

A: Yes…people said to me: “You look like Regina Taylor.” I remember I was freezing to death, but I’m at the Goodman doing this play, and I was so happy.

Q: What is the biggest difference between working on the stage and working on film?

A: I was such a purist that I would never look in the mirror (when doing plays). I’m so aware of what I’m projecting onscreen. Onscreen, you have to be smaller (in your gestures and facial expressions.) I’m watching myself more (for film). I find myself more aware of containment. You have to be really honest. Every once in a while, if it’s there, I can explode.

A clip of Viola’s Oscar-nominated role opposite Meryl Streep (and Philip Seymour Hoffman) in “Doubt” is shown, and she responds to the question, “What were you doing in that scene with Meryl Streep?”

A: I was watching Meryl Streep! I had seen the play. It was a really hard audition. We went from Los Angeles to New York City and I thought I was one of only a couple actresses who were being put in costume and make-up for the audition, but, when I got to New York City, there were 4 or 5 others, all of us dressed as Mrs. Miller in hair and make-up. How nerve-racking to be on a stage with 5 other Mrs. Millers and to hear them audition and to listen while people applauded and said things like, “She really knocked it out of the park! The play (“Doubt”) is not just about the Catholic Church. It’s a litmus test about how we judge others. That is the Number One issue I have. I want to play a person—not political roles or symbols. I thought it was more interesting if I played Mrs. Miller as a person with a Sophie’s choice—the lesser of two evils. She is feeling, “I really believe my son is gay.” Some suggested I should play her as colder, but I know women who will literally give their kids money for heroin rather than watch them go through the hell of withdrawal.

Q: Where were you when you learned you had been Oscar nominated as Best Supporting Actress for your 11 minutes onscreen in “Doubt?”

A: I was at the Four Seasons with a bottle of champagne.

Q: What happens when you become an Oscar nominee?

A: Well, it starts with Broadcast Film Critics’ awards. It starts about the end of October and ends at the Academy Awards. By the time you get to the Oscars, you’ve probably already won a SAG award and then you do 12 hours of interviews.

(A clip is shown of Aibileen Clark in “The Help” facing down Hilly and being fired.)

“I tried to buy the rights to ‘The Help” when I heard about the book. I thought I could throw $500 at the writer/director, but I went from trying to buy the rights to begging to be in the movie.”

Q: What was the press circuit like?

A: The press circuit taught me to find my voice. I knew it was going to happen that this would be controversial. I was smart enough to figure that out ahead of time. I had never experienced having to defend any of my role choices. It’s like wigs. I like wigs, and I have a lot of them and will probably wear them again, but every time I put one on, I felt like I was doing “Jay Leno” again. I was forcing people to see me differently. There comes a time in your life when you can’t force people to see you. You have to be yourself and like yourself, and that’s when people like you.

Q: People don’t understand the fights that we have to have during the creative process.

A: True. It gave me power in knowing that. There are a lot of actors I admired in the past who had the narratives and made them work. I’m not gonna’ throw the baby out with the bathwater. I can’t do that. I’m here to humanize it, not to judge it. I had to constantly reiterate that throughout my journey with “The Help.”

Q: What was it like to be nominated alongside Meryl Streep?

A: Listen, I’ve been doing this for 25 years. I am humble, but at some time I have to step into the experienced artist that I am. I think that confidence and humility can exist alongside each other. But, after the Oscar nomination, the thing that came to my mind was, “Now what?” Is this a destination or is it a key to opening the door to great roles for women who look like me. I think it was Kathy Bates who called it “the Oscar curse.” She said that after she won for “Misery” her phone didn’t ring for 2 years. Does this mean more work? All of these things are up in the air. I want what Meryl Streep and Diane Lane and other actresses want. There’s room for all types of narratives. I stand in solidarity with them. I want expansive storylines for you, for me, for Gabourey Sidibe, for Monique.

Viola shared with Chicago “Tribune” critic Michael Phillips in an interview (October 19, 2012) that she and her husband are forming their own production company, as Tom Cruise and others have done.

(To Michael Phillips): “Onscreen, I have had so many great experiences, but, like a lot of people, I feel I haven’t yet had the role that reflects all I can do. I look at that young actress from ‘Beasts of the Southern Wild’ (Quvenzhasne Wallis) and I think to myself: Okay, let’s fantasize. Let’s say she gets an Academy Award nomination. Let’s imagine then that she wins the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. What’s next? What’s out there for her? What’s going to carry her throughout her career—through her teens and her 40’s and 60s?”

This is why Viola Davis and husband Julius Tennon have established their own production company. But it substantially represents a bigger issue.

It occurred to me at this point that Viola was articulating the age-old quest for roles for mature female actresses in Hollywood. The problem is that there doesn’t seem to be as wide an audience for mature films as once existed.

With the price of movie tickets skyrocketing and home theaters becoming more popular with video-on-demand and Netflix and streaming movies and the competition from HBO and Showtime and other diversions, only the young who are going out on a date flock to theaters. And even the young often have to be lured there by promises of 3D or some other gimmick.

This is apt to get worse, not better, as audiences age and stay at home more for their movie viewing experience. No longer is the shared audience experience desired, especially if the person next to you is texting or talking on his cell phone throughout the film.

At a recent commercial film I attended in a small town (the latest of the Bourne films), all 4 of the previews that preceded the showing were for horror films aimed at a young audience. Almost none of my friends in the older demographic are film buffs. The film that lures the middle-aged (or older) consumer who is not in the big city is rare. Add to the cost of a ticket the parking fee(s) incurred at places like the AMC parking lot ($36 if you go over 4 hours is the norm, although the festival has managed to negotiate a discount down to $18) and you have a ticket price (forget the overpriced snacks) that is high, a parking fee (in Chicago) that is astronomical, and a very expensive evening at a time when the economy—(in case the politicians haven’t mentioned it in the past 30 seconds)—is not going well.

Normally, I attend films in the Illinois/Iowa Quad Cities, where we park for free and have $3 Wednesday matinees, but the best films that Viola Davis may make would possibly never play there. So the cities like Chicago are where Viola’s movies will need to be seen, and, (although the Icon on Roosevelt hasn’t started charging for parking—yet) I wonder if audiences that genuinely want to see quality film performances will patronize the films that Viola Davis’ production company will make, overcoming all the obstacles in their way to do so.

I hope so, because Viola Davis is a genuine artist. Her performance onstage in “Fences” on Broadway opposite Denzel Washington as Rose (which I saw from the front row) was a true revelation.

“Cloud Atlas:” Read What the Directors Had to Say About It

By Connie Wilson

On October 22, 2012

In Books, Interviews, Movies, Pop Culture, Reviews

The trans-gender Lana (previously Larry) Wachowski pictured on the Red Carpet with Chicago Film Festival founder and director Michael Kutza on October 16th, 2012.

The Brothers Wachowski— (who are now brother and sister, as the 47-year-old Larry has become Lana)—allied with Director/Composer Tom Tykwer (“Run, Lola, Run”) and friends since 1999 when “The Matrix” and “Run, Lola, Run” came out, visited the Chicago Film Festival to screen the festival’s centerpiece film, “Cloud Atlas.” The movie opens wide on October 26, 2012.

Tom Hanks (wearing what looked like a woman’s shawl) and Halle Berry in “Cloud Atlas.”

A sweeping tale based on an equally ambitious 2004 book by David Mitchell, the movie has attracted critical praise tempered with some criticism of its execution. Executing it at all required the trio to travel to Costa Rica and lay out index cards on the floor, in an attempt to reconfigure the way the novel is written.

When Mitchell wrote the sweeping epic, it was puzzle-like. It takes 6 interwoven storylines and spans 500 years and several genres. The novel recounts the 6 interrelated story lines chronologically until the middle of the book. In the middle of the book, the sequence reverses.

Lana Wachowski makes a point during the Q&A that followed the screening of “Cloud Atlas.” (Oct. 16, 2012).

Lana Wachowski read the book and felt it would be a good project for the 3 filmmakers who had been looking for a joint project. Ultimately, filming took place in Germany, Scotland and the Spanish island of Majorca, beginning in September 2011.

Among the pluses for the film: its stellar cast, which includes Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Hugh Grant, and Korean star Doona Bae playing multiple roles. The minuses? Cohesion of the story line and financing. As Andy Wachowski told the Chicago “Tribune” in an October 14th interview, “People were blown away by the concept and blown away by the cast, but they wouldn’t give us any money.” Ultimately, the directors had to ante up 10% of the $102 million-dollar budget.

Brother and sister Lana (47) and Andy (44) Wachowski appear during the Q&A after “Cloud Atlas.”

The division of labor for the interwoven story lines broke down to Tykwer directing the early 20th century composer plot line, the 1973 thriller, and the contemporary caper about an aging book publisher, which provides the comic relief in the film. (When the elderly gentleman, who is intent on escaping from a nursing home his brother—played by Hugh Grant— has committed him to passes the window, he shouts, “Soylent Green is people!” from the Charlton Heston film; one of the many previous sci-fi films whose ideas are recycled, along with “Logan’s Run”.) The Wachowskis handled the 1849 sea story and two stories set in a futuristic world of 2144, which uses “Logan’s Run” Carousel concept of the doomed thinking they are going to their great reward, when they are really scheduled for death. The aerial shot of the look-alike Korean clones reminded of “Metropolis” cinematically.

The 6 story lines were:

1) Dr. Goose (Tom Hanks) administering medicine onboard ship to naïve traveler Adam Ewing (Jim Sturgess) in 1849 in the South Pacific. The slave trade flourishes at this time and a stowaway slave figures in the plot. Not my favorite of the plots

2) 1936 Scotland where Robert Frobisher (Ben Whishaw), a poor musician, reads Ewing’s journals from aboard ship while working for a noted composer. The “Cloud Atlas” composition that Frobisher composes (and the elderly composer attempts to steal) is quite lovely and was actually composed by Tom Tykwer and his regular musical collaborators, Johnny Klimek and Reinhold Heil. Among my favorites of the sub-plots.

3) Luisa Rey (Halle Berry) is a journalist investigating a nuclear reactor and becomes the object of an assassination attempt by Bill Smoke (Hugo Weaving). She hears “Cloud Atlas” in a record store in California in 1973. An interesting plot.

4) Timothy Cavendish (Jim Broadbent), a vanity publisher trying to escape the nursing home his brother (Hugh Grant) has consigned him to in 2012 Scotland. He is considering publishing Rey’s story. The film’s only humorous character.

5) Sonmi-451 (Doona Bae), a Korean clone who toils in Papa Song’s diner in 2144. She sees a TV movie on the life of Cavendish and, from there, goes on to become a revolutionary and, in the primitive island on which one version of Tom Hanks lives, worshipped as a Divine Being.

6) Meronym (Berry) and Zachry (Hanks) on an island in 4th century Hawaii where civilization is primitive, cannibals roam, and Sonmi is worshipped as a Goddess. Needs subtitles.

If comparisons to other films are made, among those mentioned is “Babel” by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, which was critically acclaimed for its complicated storylines that intersect (Brad Pitt and Gwynneth Paltrow starred), but only earned $35 million in profits. Others might mention Daren Aronofsky’s “The Fountain,” which earned $10 million. On the positive side, Christopher Nolan’s “Inception” earned $292 million, so perhaps there is hope for the film to earn more than just plaudits. Another film I would compare this one to is “Magnolia,” that had seemingly random events contributing to plot developments and earned Tom Cruise an Oscar nomination. Others might include last year’s Terrance Malick film “Tree of Life” in the category “artistic films that took on big themes and tried to translate them to the big screen, with mixed results.” [While a critical success, the film was not a commercial success.] As the moderator of the Q&A put it, “An uncompromising work of artistic integrity.” (They probably also said that about “Holy Motors,” one of the worst films ever, but winner of some big awards.)

In the Q&A following the film, here is what the directors shared:

Q: What convinced you to put in 4 and ½ years making this film?

A: (from Lana) We wanted to spend time with one another, so it was actually fun! (She went on to say that the trio had been searching for a vehicle for the 3 of them since 1999). Andy Wachowski interrupted his sister with, “We wanted a movie that tested the most stalwart bladder.” (The film is 164 minutes long).

Added Lana: The book—there was something about it that took my breath away, that was so delicious, that we wanted to savor it. The book touched us because we kept trying to connect. This book speaks to the implied desire to connect and to speak to the future and to be in dialogue with the past…David Mitchell loves literary forms so much. He has this post-modern energy. There’s this way to love storytelling. He has energy and a narrative drive, but he is still trying to explore the human condition in a philosophical way. But you can also make it a thinking and entertaining movie. These don’t have to be separated. You don’t have to say, “This is a thinking movie; this is for people who don’t like to think.” As Lana Wachowski told Rebecca Keegan of the Chicago “Tribune” in the December 14, 2012 interview: “There was a time when movies were funny and sad and dramatic and slapsticky and challenging and thought-provoking all at the same time. That would be one movie. Now you break that all up into a comedy, a romance, and a drama. With ‘Cloud Atlas’ we were thinking: It could be everything.”

Tom Tykwer, the co-director said: We felt very attracted to it because there were a multitude of voices. It was an experiment. If we failed, then we failed. If we can write together, we feel we can do anything together. Identifying ways to get into the novel was a step-by-step process.

This led Lana Wachowski to describe the Costa Rica index card method, (with the cards on the floor.) She said, “We had to re-arrange the way the novel is written. The novel is in bigger chunks. It will have 60 pages with one character and then jump to another character. We felt that would not work in the movie.”

Andy Wachowski: “The whole process was this act of love for the book and our love for each other and that carried us all the way to the end.”

The moderator commented on the line from the film, “Isn’t an ocean a multitude of drops? “ He referenced the many acts of kindness in the film.

Lana: If something so horrific as the Second World War and the Holocaust can’t kill kindness, you will never kill kindness. Extend yourself. This idea is what has really propelled us. Still, as pessimistic as we can be, we don’t think of Pollyanna endings. You believe that there is someone that is going to be affected. It’s a great reason to believe in the future.

The first question from the audience was from a woman who had a good friend who underwent sex change surgery. She asked Lana Wachowski: “Is there a certain significance in your gender change affecting your artistic choices?”

Lana: “This is getting very personal right away.” She went on to say, “David Mitchell is not transgender. The novel is not about transgender identities. But we have always been interested in material that transcends convention. And I was probably the first one to say, ‘Hey! That male character can actually play this female role over here.’ (Which occurs when Hugh Grant plays a Nurse Ratched sort in a nursing home). I may have had an attraction to specifically transcending the idea of gender in this film.”

Q: How did you pick who directed what?

A: (Lana) “ In the deconstruction of the stories, the experience is not the same. During that time, your mind is making all these connections. We would find all this interconnectivity in the stories.”

(Andy) “Our feeling is we all directed it together. (Lana made a joking comment about the Directors’ Guild not being quite as flexible, at this point.) It was a four-year process. We shot it together. We wrote it together. We edited it together. We were only apart for 3 months.”

(Tom): “You’re playing a genetic stream, a string in the film.” (There is much talk of déjà vu and the idea of reincarnation would certainly play into the film’s themes.)

Q: Do you experience emotion watching your movie again?

A: (Lana) “It’s a P.R. situation. I would have been crying and my make-up would run.” (She pantomimed crying at the movie “Fried Green Tomatoes”). Lana digressed to point out the Wachowskis’ parents in the theater (the duo is from Chicago) and say, “We’d cut school and go to triple features.”

A: (Tom) “It’s considered to be embarrassing to still like your own movie. There are moments where I think, ‘That’s my—or our—influence.’ The last 1/3 of the film Doona Bae was so unbelievable in the last 20 minutes. There’s this weird way of being touched. I feel like we sort of set the stage. I can still watch it as though I’ve never done it. There were things that the actors offered to us that were really beyond our expectations. I’m still touched.”

Q: What was most daunting: making the book into a screenplay or making the screenplay into a movie?

A: (Lana) “Showing it to David Mitchell.”

A: (Andy) “Making the film was staggering. It was an independent film, with money coming in from all over the world.”

A: (Lana): “Four days before we were to start, another financier went under, and we all had to put up our own personal money. Ten percent of the contingency was our money.”

A: (Andy): “Four days in Halle Berry broke her foot.”

A: (Lana): “It was daunting, but we couldn’t NOT make the movie. It was such an act of love for the material and the actors. It was strangely joyful, even in the midst of everything falling apart.”

A: (Andy) “For every bad thing that happened, a good thing would happen.”

There was some discussion of how excited David Mitchell was to be involved in helping design the futuristic spaceships in the film’s futuristic sequence.

My take:

I enjoyed the film, but I also found it difficult to follow and often confusing. The weakest performances, overall, for me, were from Tom Hanks. His Dr. Goose played like broad farce, and his native on the island seemed to be wearing a woman’s knitted shawl. His gangster (Hanks unleashed the “F-bomb” on live TV on ABC while supposedly speaking in character) was unconvincing. The language created for Hanks and the island natives was also difficult to decipher without subtitles. (I did better with the movie from Iceland that had subtitles.)

The parts I enjoyed most seem to have been supervised by Tom Tykwer (“Run, Lola, Run”) whose “Cloud Atlas” music—so central to the plot— was lush and lovely. His portions of the story were, for me, the best. (I especially enjoyed the comic relief of the nursing home escape featuring Jim Broadbent).

Having said that, the sets and spaceships and futuristic touches that the Wachowski Brothers gave us in “The Matrix” (back when they were still two brothers) were matched here by the visual effects portraying clones in the year 2144 (Method Studios Visual Effects, Vancouver, B.C.)

It will be interesting to see if the film makes back its investment, but at least the Wachowskis —who have been notoriously loathe to promote films at festivals in the past—can now say that their film played the Chicago Film Festival, because they revealed during the Q&A that they submitted student films many years ago that didn’t make the cut.

“The Sessions” Screens at Chicago Film Festival with Helen Hunt in Attendance

By Connie Wilson

On October 21, 2012

In Movies, Pop Culture, Reviews

I’m of the generation that remembers polio. My best friend’s mother died of polio when she was only 33 years old. Pam (my best friend) was just old enough—not even yet of school age— to remember seeing her mother for the last time, inside an iron lung.

Helen Hunt at the screening of “The Sessions” on October 20th in Chicago.

Pam and her older sister Sally peeked through the basement window of the hospital isolation area to see their mother imprisoned in the grim cylinder. It was the last time they would ever see their mother alive. We both remember that people were so afraid of the disease that, when funerals were held, food for the grieving family was often left on the porch step. Friends and neighbors were afraid to hand it to the survivors in person. Swimming pools closed, for fear of “catching” the disease.

I remember visiting Anne Marie, my twenty-something music teacher, who spent the rest of her life in an iron lung with a mirror-like attachment above it. The visits to her were awkward as the noisy metal cylinder filled the entire living room. As far as I knew, she rarely was removed from the metallic cylinder that pumped air into her lungs at 15 pounds per square inch. If a patient were committed to a nursing home for care, the average life expectancy was only 18 months. Patients like Mark O’Brien of this film, who were kept at home by their families, lived longer.

The above is by way of introduction to the film “The Sessions” about a real poet named Mark O’Brien who lived in an iron lung in Berkeley, California, until he died at age 49. The disease paralyzed him at the age of 34. The film is set in the year 1988. I remember thinking, “It has to be set at least 20 years ago, because the last time I saw an iron lung, it was in a museum.” (Right next to it in the 60’s display was my electric typewriter, which I was still using in my office to fill out forms.)

The plot of “The Sessions” focuses on Mark O’Brien’s (John Hawkes of “Winter’s Bone”) hiring a sex surrogate to have sex with him, and the sex surrogate is played by a very fit (and often nude) Helen Hunt, who appeared before the film to accept a Lifetime Achievement Award. Said Hunt, “I hope this is an award for the halfway point in a person’s career, and I will be very happy to leave this movie behind.”

Despite the nudity and frank sexual discussions, it is not a lascivious film. Far from it. It is a film that testifies to the will and endurance of the human spirit. “Today,” says Mark, “I ask if I’ve found a place among the rest.” Mark was able to leave his metal tomb for 3 to 4 hours a day. It was during those 3 to 4 hours that the married sex surrogate Cheryl Cohen Green (Helen Hunt) tried to turn Mark into “a made man” because, as he says, “I think I’m getting close to my ‘use by’ date.”

William Macy (looking much as he looks in his television series “Shameless”) plays a priest, Father Brendan, in whom Mark confides. When asked by the devout O’Brien, a church-attending Catholic, whether having sex out of marriage will be a sin, the priest says, “In my heart, I feel that He’ll give you a free pass on this one.”

Mark (Hawkes) explains to Cheryl (Hunt) that, “I’m not paralyzed, but my muscles don’t work so well.” In other words, he can feel and experience and maintain an erection, although, at first, with many instances of premature ejaculation, Mark says, “God wasn’t actually denying my sexuality. It was just as though He were pointing out how useless it is.” Deep down, Cheryl feels, Mark doesn’t feel he deserves sex. His sister Karen died young, at age 7. Mark feels that maybe it is his fault. His parents spent too much time taking care of him and his sister died. (Ah, good old Catholic guilt: the gift that keeps on giving!) He also says, “Maybe intercourse would prove I’m an adult.”

Mark is essentially “a dynamo voice in a paralyzed body,” as the script by Writer/Director Ben Lewin puts it. Despite what O’Brien referenced as “years of unendurable crap,” his poetry and writing (the movie was based on O’Brien’s article “On Seeing A Sex Surrogate”), including “Love Poem for No One in Particular” which is read at his funeral (“Let me touch you with my words, because my hands are empty gloves.”) are part of what made Mark O’Brien’s life journey so remarkable.

While the topic sounds grim, there are humorous moments. One comes when the paralyzed man and his therapist are in a rented motel room and Mark’s caregiver (played by Moon Bloodgood as Vera) is waiting in the lobby, chatting with the hotel clerk. He has asked her what the “guy on the gurney” was doing. Vera told him, honestly, that the guy on the gurney was seeing a sex therapist and they were now having sex. She adds, “Today, they’re working on simultaneous orgasm.” The male clerk (who has just asked Vera out on a date) says, “What’s that?”

Helen Hunt accepted a Silver Cleo Career Achievement Award from Chicago Film Festival founder Michael Kutza on October 20th, 2012, at the 48th annual Chicago Film Festival screening of “The Sessions.”

The acting by John Hawkes (“Winter’s Bone”) has been praised as Oscar-worthy. Helen Hunt’s performance is equally gutsy, especially since she appears in much of the film in the buff.

As a sex therapist with a husband (played by Adam Arkin) and a teenaged son, Cheryl does not continue to see patients beyond 6 visits. It is obvious that she is emotionally affected by Mark’s plight when they conclude their sessions, however, and she has dictated into her tape recorder that, “Mark has deeper emotional needs that are beyond the scope of my capability to help him.”

The film has a happy ending of sorts, involving Susan Fernbach, the volunteer Mark meets in the hospital 5 years before his death with whom he forges a relationship. Both women are thanked in the credits.

I stayed to find out where, in heaven’s name, did they FIND an iron lung in this day and age? The answer? Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center. I’m so glad that iron lungs are nearly impossible to find in 2012 because the scourge of polio has been vanquished

Helen Hunt and John Hawkes in “The Sessions.”

. A film like this makes you grateful for the Salk vaccine and for the ability to enjoy life in good health.

Silver Cleo Award Presented to Actress Joan Allen on October 14th, 2012 at Chicago Film Festival

By Connie Wilson

On October 15, 2012

In Interviews, Movies, Pop Culture

Actress Joan Allen receives her Silver Cleo Career Achievement Award from Chicago Film Festival founder and director Michael Kutza at the 48th Chicago Film Festival on Sunday, October 14, 2012.

Actress Joan Allen was given a Career Achievement Award on Sunday, October 14, 2012, at the 48th Annual Chicago Film Festival. Interviewed by Chicago “Tribune” film critic Michael Phillips, Allen recounted how it was “4 or 5 years before the penny really dropped for me in film. It took me a while.”
Allen was born in Rochelle, Illinois, in August of 1956 and was voted “most likely to succeed” of the girls in her high school class. She was one of four children and her mother is still alive at 95. Asked by Phillips whether it was true that she got into acting because she didn’t make the cheerleading squad her freshman year, Allen acknowledged that it was.

“I was a cheerleader in middle school, but didn’t make it in my freshman year. So, I tried out for the competitions for one-act plays. As soon as I competed, I said, ‘That’s what I’ve been looking for!’” After high school, she attended both Northern Illinois University and Easter Illinois University, where she met fellow Steppenwolf Theater founding member John Malkovich. Her first role was as Nurse Ratched in “One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest” and she went on to play Laura Wingfield in “The Glass Menagerie” and Linda Loman in “Death of a Salesman” at age 18 or 19. Describing the theater department as “a small drama department to train drama teachers” Allen noted, “College is about being in over your head.” Among other Steppenwolf actors she met in 1977 were Laurie Metcalfe and Gary Sinise.

Her first role was a small part in “Compromising Positions” in 1985. Then, she played the blind girl in “Manhunter” in 1986, followed by successful stage work on Broadway in such films as “Burn This” opposite Malkovich (for which she won a Tony in 1988) and “The Heidi Chronicles” in 1989.
One of Allen’s most memorable roles, and one for which she received her first Oscar nomination, was her portrayal of Pat Nixon in Oliver Stone’s 1995 film “Nixon.” (Allen has been nominated for Oscars 3 times). In 1996, she starred opposite Daniel Day Lewis in “The Crucible” and in 1997 opposite Kevin Kline in “The Ice Storm,” while also the lead actress in the John Travolta vehicle “Face/Off.” “Pleasantville” with Toby Maguire followed in 1998.

Asked if she had ever equivocated about a role
, Allen said: “Pleasantville. I thought I was getting into a rut of playing the wronged wife. Am I getting into the not-good-wife thing? It felt like somewhat familiar territory for me, after my previous roles, but Gary Ross irected it, and he said, ‘No, this one is FUNNY!’”

Q: “By ‘Manhunter’, did you feel you could do both films and stage?”

A: “I did not go thinking it would happen. It just happened. My interest in film developed because it was a bit more lucrative. It wasn’t a goal, but it evolved over time.” (Allen has been in 3 of the highly successful “Bourne” films.)

Q: “What is it like working with Francis Ford Coppola, as you did in ‘Peggy Sue Got Married’?”

A: “Francis likes to rehearse and use videotape. He likes having people improvise. He wants that laid in place before you start. Coppola may have been one of the first to use a monitor. We’d all be looking around and saying, ‘Where’s Francis?’”

At this point, Phillips joked, “Maybe he’s still finishing up ‘Apocalypse Now?’”

Q: “By ‘Peggy Sue Got Married’ were you worried about being typecast?”

A: “I felt I was getting to do the size of the roles I was prepared for. Coming from Broadway, I didn’t understand the lingo.”

Q: “By this point, you’d already done ‘The Heidi Chronicles’ on Broadway, Wendy Wasserstein’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play.”

A: “It was a big deal for me. The year before I had worked with John Malkovich on Broadway for about a year and a half. I was pretty honored to be doing a Wendy Wasserstein play. There’s a lot of work that goes on before. Quite a long preview period.”

Phillips mentioned most of Allen’s roles after clips were shown of many of them and said, “It’s a shame you’ve had to work with so many hacks,” with a laugh.

Q: “What was it like to work with Ang Lee on ‘The Ice Storm’?”

A: “He has a very clear vision of what he wants. I trusted his judgment implicitly. I really trusted his eye. Many actors are from the dailies era, when you could see some of the day’s shooting, but Ang would not allow actors to go. Jeff Bridges (she worked with Bridges on “Tucker” and “The Contender”) really wanted to go to dailies. Now, it’s instant replay on the monitor.”

Q: “Were there any surprises for you in the radical jump cuts and film vision that Oliver Stone brought to ‘Nixon?’”

A: “I usually don’t watch any of my movies again after they’ve come out. Oliver Stone likes the visual assault style, but he was a little more restrained in ‘Nixon.’”

Q: “Were you able to find a way to empathize with Pat Nixon?”

A: “Oh, yes. She had a very difficult life. She took care of her father and brothers by the age of 13. She was poor. There was a tremendous amount of responsibility for her at a very young age. They worked it out in the family so that all the children could go to college, but at different times. She did very well and was very well-liked. She drove an elderly woman cross country in order to get to New York to go to college. I really felt for her. Having grown up in the Midwest, you don’t complain. You pull yourself up by the bootstraps and you just keep moving on. One state department worker saw her dancing by herself, through a window of the White House, one night after a state dinner. She had a lot of loneliness, so I felt for her.”

Q: “What’s the first thing that strikes you after seeing that clip from ‘Yes?’?”

A: “Sally Potter directed it. It was all written in iambic pentameter, so it all rhymed. It was her response to 9/11. You go years before you get a part that gives you those kinds of opportunities.”

Q: “What about ‘The Contender,’ for which you were nominated for an Oscar in 2000?”

A: “Rod Laurie wrote ‘The Contender’ for me. He had been a film critic for a long time in Los Angeles. I was there getting an award and Rod Laurie said to me, in January, ‘I’m going to write a movie for you.’ We were shooting it by August. I think some of this business is luck, and a lot of it is hard work.”

Q: “What about shooting the ‘Bourne’ films?”

A: “I think Paul Greengrass does that breathless, almost incoherent but not quite cutting better than anyone. Shooting a Bourne film is a very long shoot…8, 9, 10 months, versus 28 days for others. I was in Berlin for the ‘Bourne Ultimatum’ and flew back and forth a few times. For ‘The Bourne Supremacy,’ we shot in London. I called and asked Paul, ‘Should I bring my script?’ He said, ‘Oh, darling, of course not. We don’t know what’s going to happen!”

Q: “So, the scripts are kind of loosey-goosey?”

A: “Well, there were writers shuffling in and out, but that’s normal for film. In ‘The Bourne Ultimatum’ where she meets Bourne (Matt Damon) for the first time, we shot that scene 4 times. It’s been a very, very successful franchise, so sometimes I think there are disagreements between the producer, director, and others that I am not privy to.”

Q: “Is it freeing to not have to carry an entire project?”

A: “I consider myself more of a character actor than anything. ‘The Contender’ is an extremely ensemble film. I was raised on ensemble.”

Phillips commented, “It’s nice to see an actor who’s a very good listener on camera.”

Allen: “If there’s anything that’s key, it is that the story is paramount. The better the actors you work with, the better you’ll be.”

Joan Allen is now divorced, but has an 18-year-old daughter from her 13-year marriage. She has been nominated for the Oscar three times and also has 30 other wins and 38 nominations for her stage and screen work.

VIRTUAL TOUR SCHEDULE for “Hellfire & Damnation II”

By Connie Wilson

On October 14, 2012

In Books, Local, Reviews

“Hellfire & Damnation II” short story collection; cover art by Vincent Chong of the UK.

Hellfire and Damnation II Web Schedule

Little Black Marks Oct 11 Review
Little Black Marks Oct 12 Interview
The Wormhole Oct 12 Review
The Bookworm Oct 15 Review
Rhodes Review Oct 16 Review
J.A. Beard’s Unnecessary Musings Oct16 Interview
Joystory Oct 17 Review
Joystory Oct 18 Giveaway & Interview
Turning the Pages Oct 18 Review
Turning the Pages Oct 19 Interview
Over Cups of Coffee Oct 22 Review
Over Cups of Coffee Oct 23 Giveaway & Interview
Mom in Love with Fiction Oct 23 Review
Books & More Books Oct 24 Review & Giveaway
Celticlady’s Reviews Oct 25 Review
Em Sun Oct 25 Review
Peaceful Wishing Oct 26 Review
Butterfly-o-Meter Books Oct 26 Giveaway & Guest Post
Sweeps for Bloggers Oct 30 Review & Giveaway
Alexia’s Books and Such… Oct 31 Review

The tour has begun. Remember: “H&D II” will be FREE as an E-book on October 27, 28, 29, 30 and 31, 2012, as a Book Tour Launch. Please download it, so it moves higher on the list of Kindle offerings.

Here is what the 1st Tour Stop blogger had to say:

“I love scary books. Among the first adult books I ever read were Stephen King and Dean Koontz. However, these days I find it hard to find good scary books—ones that don’t make me feel like I’ve read this before–and then I was asked to read ‘Hellfire & Damnation II.’ Connie Corcoran Wilson takes us by the hand and leads us through the 9 Circles of Hell, whispering to us the tales of those we find there and the events that have led them to this nightmarish place. From the first story set in Limbo (“Cold Corpse Carnival”)—giving me yet another reason to not want to be bured—to the final circle of the treacherous and “The Bureau,” the reader will be checking behind doors, under the bed, and sleeping with the lights on.” (Bev at “The Wormhole”)

Second blog stop: Kylie at “Little Black Marks”: “To begin this short review of the book ‘Hellfire & Damnation II,’ I just to state that I have never before been so affected by the Introduction in a book. I was struck by the very first phrase and by the time I had finished reading the Introduction, there was absolutely NO way that I would not read this book. I actually went online and bought a copy of ‘Hellfire & Damnation’as I had not read Book #1 yet. The Introduction was so well written that I just knew the book would be even better.
I was not disappointed. This collection of short stories is fabulous. The writing is wonderful; the word selection, the pacing, the structure, everything just works. Her writing draws you in emotionally and you feel as if you are a part of it all. The charactrrs are first-rate in all of the stories. She mixes humor with the horror in just the right dosage.”

Check out the next tour stop on October 15th and remember to download a FREE Kindle copy in the 5 days leading up to Halloween.

Janesville, Wisconsin Documentary Plays Chicago Film Festival

By Connie Wilson

On October 14, 2012

In Movies, Pop Culture, Reviews

Director Brad Lichtenstein talks about his documentary “As Janesville Goes” at the 48th Chicago Film Festival on Saturday, October 13, 2012.

The documentary “As Janesville Goes” by Director Brad Lichtenstein took a measured view of the demise of the Janesville GM plant, which, in closing in 2008, took down 7,000 good jobs in that city of 63,575 people. Eighty percent of the homes in one neighborhood were inhabited by General Motors workers, who made a good middle-class living with jobs that averaged $28 or $29 an hour.

With the closing of the plant by Detroit during the 2008 economic collapse, at least eleven thousand workers at the plant or related industries lost their jobs and only 750 employees were offered transfers to plants in Fort Wayne, Indiana or elsewhere. In 2005 there were 308 foreclosures in Janesville. By 2009, that number jumped to 487 with 1300 pending.

The film opens with the words of President Barack Obama: “The promise of Janesville has been the promise of America.” The film goes on from there to document Governor Scott Walker’s union-busting tactics, complete with the protesters bearing signs with messages like, “I never thought I’d miss Nixon” and “We will not go gently into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”
The light, in this case, would be the gains won by unions over the years, which Walker and the Republican Tea Party members set out to destroy.

Director Brad Lichtenstein takes us into the lives of both veteran Democratic Senator Tim Cullen (24 years in office), one of the few legislators who seemed to make much sense and/or be willing to compromise, and that of workers and business people in the community. Of his fellow Republican legislators, Cullen said, “Every vote is 19 to 14. It’s sheer partisanship. There’s no interest in compromise. They’re not conservatives; they’re radicals.”

Among the workers profiled was Gayle Listenbee, a black single mother with 24 years of seniority at GM, who accepted employment in Fort Wayne, leaving her 18-year-old son behind and relatively unsupervised. When her son, D.J., an admirer of Detroit muscle cars, was involved in a serious car accident, Gayle blamed herself and was plagued by guilt over her decision to take the transfer. She was (also) initially fired by her new employers. However, her union representative, managed to get her reinstated, pointing out that she had never pulled against her sick leave in 24 prior years of employment.

Another African-American mother of two girls, aged 9 and 12, whose husband retired from G.M. on disability, took the transfer as well and is heard saying that her only hope is retirement or the lottery, and that she thinks winning the lottery is more likely than early retirement.

Cynthia Deegan, who had spent 11 years in the military and had worked for Frito-Lay prior to taking her General Motors job, has a health scare that almost drives her from the federally-financed retraining program, which eventually lands her a job at $10 or $11 an hour at a hospital, part-time, for a 20-hour week at Beloit Memorial Hospital. Cynthia says of her seemingly never-ending job search, “I didn’t think it’d be this hard to find a good job.”

Meanwhile, across town, we see the Republican moneyed CEOs and bankers trying to mount pitches for more jobs in Janesville (“Ambassadors of Optimism”) and welcoming Republican Governor Scott Walker (especially CEO Dianne Hendricks, whom Walker hugs while not affording her less slender female counterpart a similar warm welcome.) Hendricks would go on to make the single largest political contribution to Walker’s campaign ever made in the state: $510,000.)

We hear Scott Walker saying, “You have an ally in the Governor’s office,” but causing what is referenced as “a point of change” with his attacks on unions representing teachers, firefighters, and policemen. As a result of Walker’s budget cuts, 200 teachers are laid off. Walker’s
Budget Repair Bill is referred to as “a watershed moment.” (Hence the film’s title). When the president of the teachers’ union sits down to plead the case for education, he is told that he should just be grateful that Janesville isn’t Providence, Rhode Island because Providence lay off 2,800 teachers. The glee with which the Ambassadors of Optimism regard the low wages that prospective incoming businesses will be able to pay, cannot be concealed. Gone are the days of good salaries. As the film says, “We’re not an auto town any more.”

Time and time again we hear the “us against them” theme repeated. The phrase is used, “Who shall govern us: the people or the money?” in reference to the tremendous amount of money spent by the millionaire Koch brothers to keep Governor Walker in power. ($45.6 million by the Republican incumbent versus $20.8 on the Democratic side, in July, 2012).

At the end of the film, the City Council votes to give 20% of the city budget to a new business (Shine Medical Technology) which has no hope of returning on the investment prior to 2015.

“As Wisconsin goes,” so goes the nation.

Three Films from the 48th Chicago Film Festival

By Connie Wilson

On October 13, 2012

In France, Movies, Pop Culture, Reviews

Three films I’ve seen since Opening Night: “Benji,” the story of the tragic death of Benjamin Wilson, a young black Chicago basketball player senselessly shot and killed. Very good documentary, which I will speak about at greater legngth later.

“The Sapphires:” An Australian film with a Killer Soundtrack and featuring Chris O’Dowd (“Bridesmaids”) as the manager of a Supremes-like group of Aborigine girls who tour Vietnam during the Vietnam War and battle racism at home. Great performers. Great music. Great film.

“Holy Motors:” a joint French and German film (with subtitles) that represents all that is bad and pretentious about art. Incoherent. Boring. OVerlong.

Opening Night of 48th Chicago Film Festival Features Film with Al Pacino, Christopher Walken, Alan Arkin, Julianna Margolies

By Connie Wilson

On October 13, 2012

In Movies, Pop Culture, Reviews

Al Pacino at the 48th Chicago Film Festival, Thursday, Oct, 22th, 2012.

The Opening Night of the Chicago Film Festival—the oldest film festival in North America—was Thursday, October 11, at the Harris Theater, with Al Pacino, Christopher Walken, Alan Arkin and Chicago native and Director Fisher Stevens present. Also present onstage was Bon Jovi, who wrote two original songs for the film.

Appearing in the film, but not present on Opening Night, was Julianna Margulies, better-known for her roles on television’s “E.R.” and “The Good Wife.” Newcomers who graced the stage with the legends were Addison Timlin, (who played Alex, Walken’s granddaughter, in the film), and Vanessa Ferlito, (who plays a girl found nude in the trunk of a car.)

If I had to compare Pacino’s lead role here with his previous performances, I’d place it on a par with 2008’s “Righteous Kill,” where Pacino played Rooster, running around in track suits with an over-the-hill Robert DeNiro. If you want to talk previous comic roles (not Pacino’s forte) there is 1985’s “Revolution,” in which Pacino played Tom Dobb. Also not his finest hour.

The film was quite similar to the plot of last year’s opening night film, “The Last Rites of Joe May,” which co-starred Dennis Farina and Gary Cole. That film, even if it had less well-known stars, was better. Each film’s plot involves old guys getting out of prison (a la Michael Douglas in “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps”) and wanting to get the old gang together one more time.

As scripted by first-time script writer Noah Haidle, there just wasn’t much to cheer for at this World Premiere. With actors as fine as Pacino, Margulies , Walken and Arkin, it could have been a good film, if the words they were given to speak were good. They weren’t.

It’s sad to watch actors try to play parts that they are too old to play. [“The Expendables” are expendable, in my movie-going life.] Watching Pacino visit a whorehouse known as Miss Dee’s after his release from prison wasn’t a good idea. When he can’t get it up, he takes too many Viagra (and other substances) and ends up in the emergency room with Julianna Margulies (playing Alan Arkin’s daughter) treating his chemically-induced priapism.

The entire fixation with the Miss Dee scenes comes off as though it were written by a male fixated, sexually, at about the age of sixteen. And why must all the hookers be in their twenties, when the male members (pun intended) are in their seventies? There are no prostitutes in their forties or older? Is that the message? Does not sound plausible.

For me, watching one of the greatest serious actors of our time play comedy was just uncomfortable. The lines weren’t funny. The humor was strained and juvenile and the vehicle, overall, was not worthy of the talents of the cast. The “best” role probably belonged to Alan Arkin as Hirsch, but even Arkin’s time onscreen ended up making me feel embarrassed for him, when considered next to his great comic turn alongside Peter Falk in the (original) film “The In-Laws.”

Perhaps it’s just me, but I pray that Al Pacino sticks to more appropriate role(s) (he’ll be 73 in April) in films like his brilliant turn as Jack Kevorkian in that recent made-for-television movie (“You Don’t Know Jack”), rather than having an Opening Night audience watching him squander his considerable talents on drivel with lines like “You still got it, buddy,” and “Those were the days, my friend.” (Christopher Walken).

The added tension—which is very low-key—comes because Walken was hired by Claphands (Mark Margolis) to kill Pacino for the accidental murder of Claphands’ son 28 years earlier. The denouement (when it limps into view) seems as though it would have occurred to the duo as a course of action much earlier in the film.

Okay. Time to hang up the action pictures, Mr. Pacino. Time to portray the intense King Lear-type roles that have always suited an actor like Pacino . No more “Expendables” or “Space Cowboys” or other drivel casting aging stars as guys who can still hang with the younger crowd. It’s sad to no longer be in your “Glory Days.” But there are still age-appropriate roles for actors as talented as these three, and I hope I see them in some soon. I don’t want to see more miscasting like Michael Caine playing a soccer star in “Victory” (1981). And I want to hear better lines than the ones I heard in this vehicle, because the script really does matter.

One line (repeated twice) is supposed to be clever: “We’re either going to kick ass or chew gum..and I’m fresh out of gum.” (Groan) Another line: “Claphands is the kind of guy who would take your kidneys out and not even sell ‘em.” [Ha, ha…not.]

Even “more cow bell” would have been stronger scripting than was heard on October 11, 2012, in “Stand Up Guys’” World Premiere at the Chicago Film Festival.