Fresh Air Interview:
‘Sing Sing’ offers a glimpse at life behind bars — and the journey towards redemption
Filmmaker Greg Kwedar and formerly incarcerated actor Clarence “Divine Eye” Maclin discuss their new film about the real-life Rehabilitation Through the Arts program founded at Sing Sing prison.
Tag: Film
Goodbye Esquire Theater
Say goodbye to another beloved Denver institution.
The Landmark Esquire Theatre will close after its final screenings on Thursday, July 18.
The theater is known for arthouse and independent films, as well as regular programming of the cult classics “Rocky Horror Picture Show” and “The Room.”
…
Jimenez said he wants to thank the Esquire for “all of the cool stuff that I’ve been able to see here and all of the stuff that I wasn’t able to see anywhere else.”
‘A great place for weirdos’: Who we met on closing weekend at the Esquire Theatre
Another icon of old Denver is fading into the past.
10 Ideas from Film School
TEN THINGS THEY TRIED TO TEACH ME IN FILM SCHOOL
Which took me years of humiliating mistakes to learn.1. REMEMBER TO BREATHE
You’ve worked for two years to get to this moment, and there’s no guarantee you’ll ever get to do it again. You might as well enjoy it.2. THE CAMERA IS A BUDDHA
It sees the world as it is. It doesn’t photograph your expectations or your fantasies. Try to see as the camera sees.3. NO PLAN SURVIVES CONTACT WITH THE ENEMY
Overprepare and then be ready to throw it all away when the actor feels their character wouldn’t do it that way. Or you’re behind. Or both.4. A GOOD IDEA CAN COME FROM ANYWHERE
You might as well listen to what others have to say because you’re going to get the credit (and the blame) anyway. Remember, the key grip has probably made six times as many movies as you have.5. NO MOVIE CAN BE FUNNY ENOUGH
Laughter lets the audience know they’re in good hands. They let their guard dwn and become vulnerable to the serious stuff.6. ON EVERY PRODUCTION
The director loses faith in the movie, the actors lose faith in the director, the crew hates the actors. Somehow it all works out.7. THE AUDIENCE’S ATTENTION SPAN IS EVEN SHORTER THAN YOURS
Fill every moment. Be generous. Give them gifts: jokes, secrets, surprises, truths. The minute they’re bored, they’ll check their email.8. THE ACTORS MOVE THE CAMERA, THE CAMERA DOESN’T MOVE THE ACTORS
Unless you have a style, don’t pretend you do.9. MAKE THE MOVIE FOR ONE PERSON AT A TIME
Imagine your fourth-grade teacher sitting alone in the dark.10. WHERE THERE IS NO SOLUTION, THERE IS NO PROBLEM
As Hannibal said while deciding to cross the Alps, “I will find a way or I will make one.”P.S. NONE OF THESE RULES make any difference if you don’t have a good script.
Hits, Flops, and Other Illusions: My Fortysomething Years in Hollywood
Ed Zwick
The most beautiful thing in the world to me is an empty parking lot at night – Harmony Korine Interview
Korine has always seen the world in a visual way. “It’s an affliction,” he says. “I can’t even read books or scripts because I spend the entire time imagining the room or the streets. It’s exhausting.”
Maybe so, but from the moment I first watched Gummo, I’ve been intrigued as to what it’s like living inside his head.
“I wouldn’t wish that on anybody, it’s trippy,” he says with a smile.
Is that why he finds it so hard explaining his motives? Perhaps, but towards the end of our conversation he breaks off from one of his more impenetrable passages and takes a different approach: “The most beautiful thing in the world to me is an empty parking lot at night,” he says. “You know, with the street lamps and an overturned milk crate. It’s mostly me trying to show you that. Do you know what I’m saying?”
And actually, this time, I think I sort of do.
Our time up, Korine heads off to meet the photographer inside the gallery. When I pop over to say goodbye I find him pulling on – what else? – a fluorescent green balaclava for the photoshoot. He is adamant that he shouldn’t be pictured without it. Our photographer is not so sure: “We want people to know that it’s you,” she reasons.
“This is me,” says Korine. And he’s probably right. If, that is, he even exists.
‘I burned out – and started mowing lawns’: a reality-bending chat with Harmony Korine
He rocketed to notoriety at 19 with the shocking film Kids. Now, at 51, he’s smoking two fat cigars for breakfast – and making retina-burning work with acids and infrared cameras. Our writer gets deep with the eternal enfant terrible
Al Pacino in Dog Day Afternoon – Stanley Kauffman on
My admiration for Lumet and Pacino has had discernible limits in the past, but here, happily, I can change my tune. Lumet, at fifty much less of a show-off than Lumet at thirty-five or forty, directs with simplified technique and deepened perceptions. Pacino is not called on here to radiate quiet power, at which he failed in both Godfather films. Here he is fortune’s fool—a pawn who is being played at the same time that he thinks he’s masterminding the game. This summer I went to a racetrack for the first time in ten years, and outside the gate there was a tout selling a tip sheet for a dollar—eight sure winners. His elbows were sticking out of his ragged jacket, but he had eight sure winners. Pacino, about to lick his condition in the world and his personal troubles by being smarter than the world, has his figurative elbows sticking out. The pseudosuperiority, this pathos of self-deceived bravado, Pacino handles very well.
Before My Eyes: Film Comment And Criticism
Stanley Kauffmann
Office Space – 3 Quotes
Dom Portwood: Hi, Peter. What’s happening? We need to talk about your TPS reports.
Peter Gibbons: Yeah. The coversheet. I know, I know. Uh, Bill talked to me about it.
Dom Portwood: Yeah. Did you get that memo?
Peter Gibbons: Yeah. I got the memo. And I understand the policy. And the problem is just that I forgot the one time. And I’ve already taken care of it so it’s not even really a problem anymore.
Dom Portwood: Ah! Yeah. It’s just we’re putting new coversheets on all the TPS reports before they go out now. So if you could go ahead and try to remember to do that from now on, that’d be great. All right!
Stan, Chotchkie’s Manager: We need to talk about your flair.
Joanna: Really? I… I have fifteen pieces on. I, also…
Stan, Chotchkie’s Manager: Well, okay. Fifteen is the minimum, okay?
Joanna: Okay.
Stan, Chotchkie’s Manager: Now, you know it’s up to you whether or not you want to just do the bare minimum. Or… well, like Brian, for example, has thirty seven pieces of flair, okay. And a terrific smile.
Joanna: Okay. So you… you want me to wear more?
Stan, Chotchkie’s Manager: Look. Joanna.
Joanna: Yeah.
Stan, Chotchkie’s Manager: People can get a cheeseburger anywhere, okay? They come to Chotchkie’s for the atmosphere and the attitude. Okay? That’s what the flair’s about. It’s about fun.
Joanna: Yeah. Okay. So more then, yeah?
Stan, Chotchkie’s Manager: Look, we want you to express yourself, okay? Now if you feel that the bare minimum is enough, then okay. But some people choose to wear more and we encourage that, okay? You do want to express yourself, don’t you?
Joanna: Yeah, yeah.
Stan, Chotchkie’s Manager: Okay. Great. Great. That’s all I ask.
Peter Gibbons: Let me ask you something. When you come in on Monday and you’re not feeling real well, does anyone ever say to you, “Sounds like someone has a case of the Mondays?”
Lawrence: No. No, man. Shit, no, man. I believe you’d get your ass kicked sayin’ something like that, man.
Random Movie Details – Reddit
What’s a small detail in a movie that most people wouldn’t notice, but that you know about and are willing to share?
byu/Stuck_in_a_depo inmovies
InvasionXX
In Pulp Fiction, Vincent Vega and Mia Wallace return home with the trophy from the dance competition at Jack Rabbit Slims, suggesting they won. However, later in the movie you can barely hear in a news announcement on TV that a trophy has been stolen from a local dance competition, suggesting instead that Mia and Vincent lost and stole the trophy.
BlakeSiefken
In the first Terminator movie, “fuck you, asshole” appears near the bottom of the list of possible responses because it’s the same line that Bill Paxton says to him at the start of the film. The Terminator is a learning computer; the more interaction he has with humans, the more he learns. He learned the line from Bill Paxton’s character and added it to his list.
gurk_the_magnificent
Lots of people probably know about this one, but my favorite is Back to the Future. The mall starts as “Twin Pine Mall”, but Marty runs over a tree when he initially goes back to 1955, and when he returns to 1985 the mall is “Lone Pine Mall”.
Bourbone
This is a small music one.
We’re all familiar with the “dah dum” of the jaws theme.
Well, Williams used it masterfully to fully scare you in the last act in a way you don’t expect.
Throughout the movie, the jaws theme never lies.
When you hear it, the shark is there. When you DONT hear it, like when the main guy is overreacting about the kid on the beach day, the shark isn’t there.
Williams gets you to subconsciously trust that shark theme by proving that it works in every case.
This makes it scary AF, when in the final scene on the Orca, the shark appears out of nowhere without the music warning you first. It just comes up and chomps the boat.
Williams spent ~2 hours setting up that moment perfectly.
my_simple-review
In Goodfellas, when Ray Liotta is applying for witness protection, the prosecutor who is speaking with him is Ed McDonald, who was the real federal prosecutor in Henry Hill’s court case.
ImaginaryNemesis
The final scene with Ray Liotta in witness protection is a great wardrobe joke if you’ve been paying attention.
Through the whole movie, clothes are used to show people’s status. The members of the mob are generally shown in darker earth tones, and the ‘normies’ are in bright colors.
There’s a gag around the start where mobsters have stolen a truck of clothes and they all look out of place trying on brightly colored sweaters.
You can track Karen’s descent into crime from the changes in the color of her clothes.
Having Henry open the door at the end in a poorly fitting pastel blue bath robe is hilarious.
Pizzazzinator
The naked people at the end of Hereditary were all the same people at Annie’s support group, so it was a long con to get to Paimon.
TLMoss
In Finding Nemo, in the fish tank in the Dentist’s office, the fish use proper dental terminology when they discuss the procedures.
RadLibRaphaelWarnock
In Baby Driver, there is a scene towards the end where the protagonist steals an old lady’s car. He turns the radio to 97.1, where “Radar Love” by Golden Earring starts playing. The film takes place in Atlanta, and there is only one radio station in the city that would play music like that – 97.1 The River.
A cool little detail in a movie full of them.
ridd666
I shared it in another thread, but in the movie Frailty, when the father kills Demons, there is blood on the demon, but never shown on the dad or sons, or the weapons.
But when he kills an innocent, in this see the sheriff gets killed, the blood is everywhere. On the weapon, the dad, his hands, the kids clothes and even his face.
A small but awesome detail.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind – Quotes from
Clementine: This is it, Joel. It’s going to be gone soon.
Joel: I know.
Clementine: What do we do?
Joel: Enjoy it.
[Mary reads to Dr. Mierzwiak out of “Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations”; the lines are from Alexander Pope’s poem “Eloisa to Abelard”]
Mary: How happy is the blameless vestal’s lot! / The world forgetting, by the world forgot / Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind! / Each pray’r accepted, and each wish resign’d.
Joel: Constantly talking isn’t necessarily communicating.
[last lines]
Joel: I can’t see anything that I don’t like about you.
Clementine: But you will! But you will. You know, you will think of things. And I’ll get bored with you and feel trapped because that’s what happens with me.
Joel: Okay.
Clementine: [pauses] Okay.
Mary: Blessed are the forgetful, for they get the better even of their blunders.
[they click glasses]
Mary: Nietzsche. Beyond Good and Evil. Found it in my Bartlett’s.
5 Best Movies of 2023
No order. Selections mine, summary via IMDB
Beau is Afraid
Following the sudden death of his mother, a mild-mannered but anxiety-ridden man confronts his darkest fears as he embarks on an epic, Kafkaesque odyssey back home.
The Holdovers
A cranky history teacher at a remote prep school is forced to remain on campus over the holidays with a troubled student who has no place to go.
Talk to Me
When a group of friends discover how to conjure spirits using an embalmed hand, they become hooked on the new thrill, until one of them goes too far and unleashes terrifying supernatural forces.
Little Richard: I am Everything
The life and career of Little Richard, the one-of-a-kind rock ‘n’ roll icon who shaped the world of music.
Barbie
Barbie suffers a crisis that leads her to question her world and her existence.
Meet Cute – Examples of, ChatGpt on
In romantic comedies the meet cute is a common scene. Can you give me 5 memorable instances of these?
Certainly! The “meet cute” is a classic trope in romantic comedies where the main characters have a memorable, adorable, or unexpected first encounter. Here are five memorable instances of the “meet cute” from various romantic comedies:
“Notting Hill” (1999): In this film, the bookstore owner William Thacker (Hugh Grant) spills orange juice on the famous actress Anna Scott (Julia Roberts) in his shop. Their awkward and charming interaction sets the tone for their budding romance.
“When Harry Met Sally” (1989): Harry Burns (Billy Crystal) and Sally Albright (Meg Ryan) meet when they share a car ride from Chicago to New York. Their initial conversation is filled with witty banter and differences in their perspectives on relationships, making it a classic and memorable “meet cute” moment.
“500 Days of Summer” (2009): Tom Hansen (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and Summer Finn (Zooey Deschanel) first meet at work, where Tom is instantly captivated by Summer’s unique personality. Their quirky and lighthearted conversations, coupled with a shared love for The Smiths, make their initial encounters stand out.
“The Princess Diaries” (2001): In this film, Mia Thermopolis (Anne Hathaway) meets her crush, Josh Bryant (Erik von Detten), in a memorable “meet cute” scene at the beach. Clumsy and unassuming, Mia’s quirky personality shines through, and it marks the beginning of her journey to self-discovery.
“La La Land” (2016): Mia Dolan (Emma Stone) and Sebastian Wilder (Ryan Gosling) meet in a Los Angeles traffic jam. Their first encounter is marked by a series of glances and smiles before a spontaneous song-and-dance number breaks out on the highway, showcasing the film’s musical charm and setting the stage for their romantic relationship.
These moments capture the essence of the “meet cute” trope, adding charm and humor to the romantic comedies they belong to.
Secondary Character Stories Might be the More Interesting Stories
twitter – Seconday stories
@mattzollerseitz
My entire life, I have been afflicted with a chronic moviegoing condition: finding subplots and/or minor characters more interesting than whatever the movie chose to focus on instead.
@StephenWhitty
There are very few modern romcoms that would not be improved by cutting out the hero and heroine entirely, and concentrating instead on his cynical best bud and her snarky girlfriend.
@Gunjanx
I know I am in the distinct minority on this but I remember feeling something similar about Paris, Texas where I wanted to see more of Stanton’s brother’s perspective in the latter half too
@ptchat
Ah, you’ve got Rosencrantzandguildensternitis, I see.
@SorenStancliff
Miller’s Crossing would probably kill you, that’s like the whole shtick
@JohnPDrew1
I wonder if Fabienne had pancakes at the same restaurant where Jules and Vincent faced down Pumpkin and Honey Bunny. Like perhaps the day after the incident, with police still conducting interviews. Meanwhile Jules has resigned, and Vincent & Marsellus are staking out Butch.
@groveJCgal
Chronic Fanfic-osis
@Illegitim
Ah, the Revolutionary Road Syndrome
@rapoportmike
This is true of many of the movies that Michael Shannon has been in, but especially Revolutionary Road, where I was *much* more interested in his character than in the marital travails of Leonardo diCaprio and Kate Winslet.
@TheOysterSlayer
This is know as Bobcat Goldthwait Syndrome. The movies he makes are all just extended strange snippets turned into full films and characters.
@GFu3
Travis Bickle mentions Vietnam once. That’s all that was needed. Your imagination fills in the whole backstory and explains why he is who he his.
Is this Satire or Propaganda? – A. O. Scott on The Wolf of Wall Street
This brings me back to the question I started with, which perhaps should be posed another way: Is this movie satire or propaganda? Its treatment of women is the strongest evidence for the second option. On his way up, Jordan trades in his first wife, a sweet hometown girl named Teresa (Cristin Milioti), for a blonder, bustier new model named Naomi (Margot Robbie), whose nakedness is offered to the audience as a special bonus. (Mr. DiCaprio never shows as much as she does.) The movie’s misogyny is not the sole property of its characters, nor is the humiliation and objectification of women — an insistent, almost compulsive motif — something it merely depicts. Mr. Scorsese, never an especially objective sociologist, is at least a participant-observer.
…
Does “The Wolf of Wall Street” condemn or celebrate? Is it meant to provoke disgust or envy? These may be, in the present phase of American civilization, distinctions without a meaningful difference behind them. If you walk away feeling empty and demoralized, worn down by the tackiness and aggression of the spectacle you have just witnessed, perhaps you truly appreciate the film’s critical ambitions. If, on the other hand, you ride out of the theater on a surge of adrenaline, intoxicated by its visual delights and visceral thrills, it’s possible you missed the point. The reverse could also be true. To quote another one of Mr. Scorsese’s magnetic, monstrous heroes, Jake LaMotta, that’s entertainment.
Ingmar Bergman – Woody Allen on
”The Seventh Seal” was always my favorite film, and I remember seeing it with a small audience at the old New Yorker Theater. Who would have thought that that subject matter could yield such a pleasurable experience? If I described the story and tried to persuade a friend to watch it with me, how far would I get? ”Well,” I’d say, ”it takes place in plague-ridden medieval Sweden and explores the limits of faith and reason based on Danish – and some German – philosophical concepts.” Now this is hardly anyone’s idea of a good time, and yet it’s all dealt off with such stupendous imagination, suspense and flair that one sits riveted like a child at a harrowing fairy tale. Suddenly the black figure of Death appears on the seashore to claim his victim, and the Knight of Reason challenges him to a chess game, trying to stall for time and discover some meaning to life. The tale engages and stalks forward with sinister inevitability. Again, the images are breathtaking! The flagellants, the burning of the witch (worthy of Carl Dreyer) and the finale, as Death dances off with all the doomed people to the nether lands in one of the most memorable shots in all movies.
…
A digression here about style. The predominant arena for conflict in motion pictures has usually been the external, physical world. Certainly that was true for many years. Witness the staples of slapstick and westerns, war films and chases and gangster movies and musicals. As the Freudian revolution sank in, however, the most fascinating arena of conflict shifted to the interior, and films were faced with a problem. The psyche is not visible. If the most interesting fights are being waged in the heart and mind, what to do? Bergman evolved a style to deal with the human interior, and he alone among directors has explored the soul’s battlefield to the fullest. With impunity he put his camera on faces for unconscionable periods of time while actors and actresses wrestled with their anguish. One saw great performers in extreme close-ups that lingered beyond where the textbooks say is good movie form. Faces were everything for him. Close-ups. More close-ups. Extreme close-ups. He created dreams and fantasies and so deftly mingled them with reality that gradually a sense of the human interior emerged. He used huge silences with tremendous effectiveness. The terrain of Bergman films is different from his contemporaries’. It matches the bleak beaches of the rocky island he lives on. He has found a way to show the soul’s landscape. (He said he viewed the soul as a membrane, a red membrane, and showed it as such in ”Cries and Whispers.”) By rejecting cinema’s standard demand for conventional action, he has allowed wars to rage inside characters that are as acutely visual as the movement of armies. See ”Persona.”
Through a Life Darkly
Woody Allen reviewing The Magic Lantern by Ingmar Bergman
Trainspotting – Desultory Quotes
Mark “Rent-boy” Renton: [narrating] Choose Life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a fucking big television, choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players and electrical tin openers. Choose good health, low cholesterol, and dental insurance. Choose fixed interest mortgage repayments. Choose a starter home. Choose your friends. Choose leisurewear and matching luggage. Choose a three-piece suit on hire purchase in a range of fucking fabrics. Choose DIY and wondering who the fuck you are on Sunday morning. Choose sitting on that couch watching mind-numbing, spirit-crushing game shows, stuffing fucking junk food into your mouth. Choose rotting away at the end of it all, pissing your last in a miserable home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish, fucked up brats you spawned to replace yourselves. Choose your future. Choose life… But why would I want to do a thing like that? I chose not to choose life. I chose somethin’ else. And the reasons? There are no reasons. Who needs reasons when you’ve got heroin?
Mark “Rent-boy” Renton: [narrates] When you’re on junk you have only one worry: scoring. When you’re off it you are suddenly obliged to worry about all sorts of other shite. Got no money: can’t get pissed. Got money: drinking too much. Can’t get a bird: no chance of a ride. Got a bird: too much hassle. You have to worry about bills, about food, about some football team that never fucking wins, about human relationships and all the things that really don’t matter when you’ve got a sincere and truthful junk habit.
Diane: You’re not getting any younger, Mark. The world’s changing. Music’s changing. Even drugs are changing. You can’t stay in here all day dreaming about heroin and Ziggy Pop.
Mark “Rent-boy” Renton: It’s Iggy Pop.
Diane: Whatever. I mean, the guy’s dead anyway.
Mark “Rent-boy” Renton: Iggy Pop’s not dead. He toured last year! Tommy went to see him.
Diane: The point is, you’ve got to find something new.
Loss of WWI Youth – Chariots of Fire Speech
Master of Caius: I take the war list, and I run down it. Name after name which I cannot read, and which we – who are older than you – cannot hear without emotion. Names which will be only names to you, the new college, but which to us summon up face after face, full of honesty and goodness, zeal and vigor, and intellectual promise. The flower of a generation, the glory of England – and they died for England, and all that England stands for. And now, by tragic necessity, their dreams have become yours. Let me exhort you: Examine yourselves. Let each of you discover where your true chance of greatness lies. For their sakes – for the sake of your college, and your country – seize this chance. Rejoice in it, and let no power or persuasion deter you in your task.