Festival recap

A wrap-up of additional Ebertfest coverage (featured in Smile Politely).

Ebertfest Day 1: Groovy, man
Ebertfest Day 2
Ebertfest Day 3: of poignancy, rumbles, and tattoo imposters
Ebertfest Day 4: Vishnu and vampires and reporters, oh my!
Ebertfest Day 5: Noncommittal filmmakers and one fan’s overview
Escapism of the finest sort at Ebertfest
Rod Lurie chats with Chuck Koplinski
Exclusive interview with Karen Gehres’, director of Begging Naked
Saturday night at Ebertfest: What kept you so long?

Ebertfest 11, day, what day is it again? 4?

The movies begin to swirl together in my brain by the end of Saturday.

The Fall and Sita Sing the Blues both incorporate fantastical stories told via voice-over that change as the storytellers correct each other, to hilarious effect. They are both set in ancient India and modern America. Sita and My Winnipeg both speak of legends that may not be literally true, but are melodramatically true. Both have dreamlike sequences and are deeply autobiographical. Frozen River and Chop Shop both touch on the lives of immigrants, and are about scraping out survival in places where no one gives you a helping hand. Nothing But the Truth and Trouble the Water touch on events from the Bush administration, and let the audience express its inner Michael Moore (much to the annoyance of my Republican aunt, who I enjoy attending Ebertfest with). Let the Right One In is in a class by itself as the best vampire movie ever shown at Ebertfest. Yes, it’s the only vampire movie ever shown, but it was mesmerizing throughout. Sorrow, loss and survival pervade all the movies this year.

The Fall was enchanting. I got the impression it was a guilty pleasure for Roger, because of the way he reviewed it and because so many other reviewers panned it. My expectations were low, and they were far exceeded. This was far better than last year’s The Cell, also by Tarsem. It's about a paralyzed man telling a child a story as a way to get morphine from her, and as a way for Tarsem to film some of the most exotic and interesting imagery in the world. It's delicious eye candy and had me laughing consistently for the first two reels and teary-eyed for the last one. Any movie that makes me laugh and cry is a good one.

Sita was hilarious. I loved the voice over by the three contemporary Indians, who each remembered different things about the Indian epic Ramyana. The story was a bit two-dimensional in the way that musicals often are, but perhaps that was fitting with the two-dimensional animation. Nina was entertaining in her interview: “This is the coolest way to visit your hometown. I’m so glad you all came and are giving me so much love. I’m too small to contain it all.”

I was annoyed at first that Nothing But the Truth had Judith Miller as the hero. In real life, Judith Miller was fighting to protect the identity of someone who revealed classified information in order to undermine the credibility of someone who was challenging the government's war rationale. She also printed information that was false about WMD from Dick Cheney that provided justification for the war via the New York Times. She was one of the stooges of the Iraq War debacle.

In the movie, things are changed around so that she is protecting the identity of a source who is challenging the powers of the government, so it’s a lot more complicated. The movie worked at many levels, but I think I knew too much about the actual case, because I had to keep remembering what the differences were in the context of the movie, and how that would change the ideals that are being fought for in the movie.

Alan Alda of Nothing But the Truth gets in the best movie line at Ebertfest this year:

“Sometimes a mistake is like wearing white after Labor Day. And sometimes a mistake is like invading Russia in winter.”

--Dan Schreiber

More Coverage

Wrap up of Friday, by Jamie Newell: Ebertfest Day 3: of poignancy, rumbles, and tattoo imposters

And some splog posts:
What really happens in Ebertfest lines

Waiting in line at Ebertfest, Saturday edition



And, a video of Roger Ebert, Rod Lurie, and Matt Dillon:

Nina Paley Picture and Rod Lurie Interview

Here's the lovely Nina Paley, director of Sita Sings the Blues, outside the Virginia.

Here's an interview with Rod Lurie by Chuck Koplinski for Smile Politely.

And, official blogger Lisa Rosman is back again this year, over at the official Ebertfest blog.

Day 2 Journal

Dan's Day 2 journal is now available at Smile Politely: EbertFest 11, Day 2

Day 1 Journal

Dan's journal on day one of Ebertfest 11 is available over at Smile Politely: Ebertfest Day 1: Groovy, man

Also, Chuck Koplinski did an interview with Karen Gehres of Begging Naked, and is available here.

WOODSTOCK

Opening night. Virginia is packed. Woodstock is rocking. People are eating popcorn. They should be dancing. Sound is great. No fear of cell phones interrupting. Director Michael Wadleigh time-warped an appearance from 1969.

DAY ONE Michael Wadleigh brings director's cut of WOODSTOCK.  Live or relive the Sixties. Avoid brown tabs. Orange Sunshine, OK.

NIGHT BEFORE FESTIVAL

'WILD BOYS OF THE ROAD' Wellman's pre-code Depression pic. Great way to ease into tomorrows fest & socially conscious cinema.

Twittering Ebertfest

Tuesday.  Putting in Frost/Nixon and Notorious, just out on DVD.  Flexing up for Day One tomorrow.

EBERTFEST 2009, APRIL 22-26

Watch for daily posts.

The Schedule is Announced

FESTIVAL SCHEDULE 2009

Special Events »

FILMS, SCREENING SCHEDULE & GUESTS*

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 22 7:00 pm Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace and Music, The Director's Cut (184 min) Michael Wadleigh, Director THURSDAY, APRIL 23 1:30 pm My Winnipeg (80 min) Guy Maddin, Director 4:00 pm Chop Shop (84 min) Ramin Bahrani, Director 8:30 pm Trouble The Water (NR; 96 min) Tia Lessin, Director, Producer Carl Deal, Director, Producer Kimberly & Scott Roberts FRIDAY, APRIL 24 1:30 pm Begging Naked (80 min) Karen Gehres, Director 4:00 pm The Last Command (88 min) Alloy Orchestra 8:30 pm Frozen River (R; 97 min) Courtney Hunt, Director Misty Upham, Actor SATURDAY, APRIL 25 11:00 am The Fall (R; 117 min) Catinca Untaru, Actor 2:30 pm Sita Sings The Blues (82 min) Nina Paley, Director, Animator, etc. 6:30 pm Nothing But The Truth (R; 108 min) Rod Lurie, Director Matt Dillon, Actor 9:30 pm Let The Right One In (R; 114 min) SUNDAY, APRIL 26 Noon Baraka (NR; 96 min) Mark Magidson, Producer Ron Fricke, Director

Movies watched by P. Gregory Springer in 2009

JANUARY
1. HAPPY DAYS (nothing like starting the year with Samuel Beckett)
2. TRAIN MAN (overly dorky Japanese man in romance; sweet, but attenuated)
3. IN BRUGES (Colin Ferrell is fine actor; people never expect McDonagh’s dark humor)
4. THE GREAT DEBATERS (by the numbers drama of true Texas black team)
5. BOYS IN THE BAND (classic; “I never understood it at all.”)
6. HAMLET 2 (teacher reminded me of myself too much)
7. COOL HAND LUKE (Christ on a cross, including final crossroads)
8. TORN CURTAIN (for anti-auteurists, there are two words: Al Hitchcock)
9. THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR (all about oil, invading middle east)
10. FORGIVING THE FRANKLINS (religious sketch parody stretched, w/ full nudity)
11. RIGHTEOUS KILL (dismal, predictable waste of time)
12. REPRISE (Jules and Jim reprised in Norway; but it is about writers)
13. THE BAND'S VISIT (repeat viewing; still sweet and strong and winning; good acting)
14. WOMAN ON THE BEACH (Hong Sang-soo; not as inscrutable as some; mundane; long shots)
15. KAMAKAZI GIRLS (Manga like florid pop girl at odds with motorcyclers)
16. DUTCHMAN (still pretty intense filmed version of Leroi Jones play)
17. PINEAPPLE EXPRESS (made me laugh, but it's just a new generation Cheech and Chong, with blood and chases)
18. TROPIC THUNDER (just the Tom Cruise parts again)
19. THE OUTSIDER (early Bela Tarr, long haired violinist nurse worker; Hungary is weird; worst rock band ever singing "House of Rising Sun")
20. PARANOID PARK (oblique narrative structure; absence of cliche; visual style; Nino Rota music; so much to like)
21. HANNAH TAKES THE STAIRS (over 30s acting like 20s improvising wishing they were creative; mumblecore sucks)
22. BAGHEAD (all mumblecore movies look like auditions for Hollywood; at least there was a vague semblance of story, but even it was stolen from Blair Witch; embarrassing)
23. TAKING OF POWER BY LOUIS XIV (Rossellini costumer from '66; pretty much inert, but fascinating)
24. WHY DID I GET MARRIED? (finally assessing Tyler Perry; why?; like romance novels)
25. GONE BABY GONE (Casey and Ben and Amy Ryan work great; Lahane story I prefer to Mystic River)
26. SAVAGE GRACE (Julianne Moore as rich wife of Bakalite heir; incest, madness, murder)
27. HEARTBEAT DETECTOR (tres French office intrigue, with weird veers into raves and Nazis)
28. MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION (Rock Hudson callow womanizer; is Tyler Perry the Douglas Sirk of today? Nah.)
29. APPALOOSA (Renee Zellwiger looks like Agnes Moorehead; pretty standard oater; male equivalent of romance novel)
30. DREAM OF LIFE (impressionistic documentary of Patti Smith; surprisingly banal)
31. OUR DAILY BREAD (wordless German docu on food production; beauty and horror)
32. CHOP SHOP (Bronx pre-adolescent Rican works and scams to buy food van; dreary)
33. MON ONCLE ANTOINE (classic Canadian Claude Jutra memory piece, charming)
34. THE LUCKY ONES (returning Iraq soldiers drive cross country; Tim Robbins in sensitive and comic and understated look at warriors' reasons)
35. BABY MAMA (I read New Yorker while Lee watched)
36. PRAYERS FOR BOBBY (story of Mary Griffith evangelical turned gay rights activist)
37. SAVE ME (couple in ex-gay rehab house fall in love; similar to above )
38. TRIALS OF TED HAGGARD (almost feel sorry for the guy)
FEBRUARY
39. TALE OF TWO SISTERS (Japanese horror film basis for The Uninvited)
40. ROME ADVENTURE (Donahue and Pleshette, Italian romancer/travelogue, sexual politics of early 60s, bizarre)
41. A SUMMER PLACE (another Delmer Daves 50/60s romance; Dee and Donahue)
42. XXY (Argentine movie; hermaphrodite must choose path at 15; romance with visiting guy)
43. LA LEON (Another Argentine movie; gay logger at odds with boss; b/w)
44. SYNDROMES AND A CENTURY (rewatching this Thai film)
45. NICK AND NORAH'S INFINITE PLAYLIST (ah, to be young and in NYC)
46. GODFATHER III (everyone miscast EXCEPT Sophia; would have worked with unknowns)
47. HENRY POOLE IS HERE (Jesus on stucco wall; Luke Wilson healed)
48. SNOW CAKE (Siggy Weaver autistic; Alan Rickman housekeeps her; Canadian)
49. MILK (took Lee; still good)
50. THE EDGE OF HEAVEN (Turkish German son father hooker daughter lover mother coincidences passing by never resolved; a great movie)
51. THE HITCH-HIKER (Ida Lupino noir, much set in Mexico)
52. W. (surreal; like a reinactment; familiar; but rare as artifact of period)
53. LE PLAISIR (Max Ophuls /Maupassant triptych; old man mask; whores in church; artist; swirling nonstop camera)
54. LOVE SONGS (way French menage a mucho, with songs)
55. SNOW ANGELS (David Gordon Green marching band naturalism; downer)
56. ROMANCE OF ASTREA AND CELADON (Rohmer 6th century love fascinating)
57. MAMMA MIA! (way, way too camp for me)
58. SEX AND THE SINGLE GIRL (scandal when released -- for wrong reasons)
59. THE YELLOW ROLLS ROYCE (triptych all star, nice color, travelogue)
60. KISS ME DEADLY (Aldrich 55 Spillane atomic noir; Ralph Meeker, bit Cloris Leachman)
61. TOKYO GORE POLICE (whatever happened to simple Godzilla?)
62. BLINDNESS (Saramago adaptation; white-out; questionable parable in film form)
63. RELIGULOUS (bad theology, but laugh out loud funny)
64. BODY OF LIES (not that thrilling; Leo speaks Arabic; Russell speaks crude American)
65. THE AIR I BREATHE (b-star cast, low rent Crash)
66. MIRRORS (laughable script; not scary)
67. BRIDESHEAD REVISITED (stiff upper lip bi affair; Catholic vs. agnostic morality)
68. SWING VOTE (too many conservatives in the cast; Costner watchable)
65. QUARANTINE (mockumentary hand-held ala cloverfield; early Cronenberg better)
66. CHANGELING (excruciating and creaky; Jolie has good lipstick)
67. CHOKE (sex addicts and historical interpreters; unexpectedly kinky humor)
68. THE SILVER CHALICE (Paul Newman debut; togas and cool sets; Jesus as magic)
69. BLIND MOUNTAIN (rural Chinese kidnap women for wives; colorful but bleak)
70. I'LL NEVER FORGET YOU ('51 Tyrone Power, time travel, b/w to color, a curio)
71. THE TIMES OF HARVEY MILK (surprising how much dialogue in MILK was taken from real life; still powerful)
72. ZACK AND MIRI MAKE A PORNO (surprisingly romantic; occasionally hilarious; numbs one to f-bombs and sex)
73. CHRIS AND DON: A LOVE STORY (Isherwood's 35-year, life-long relationship)
74. THE WACKNESS (94 Giuliani NYC, Ben Kingsley pothead shrink, rapfan dealer, odd)
MARCH
75. SKINS (Brit TV series about teens, with Dev Patel)
76. WRITTEN ON THE WIND (56 Sirk, Bacall, Hudson, Malone, Stack; degenerate oil barons; wonderful and bizarre; my wedding movie...)
77. EMPIRE FALLS (Russo novel adapted for HBO; great cast; faithful to book)
78. MAKE 'EM LAUGH (history of cinema and tv comedy doc series, PBS)
79. FROZEN RIVER (poor single moms on US/Canada border, Mohawk rez, smuggling)
80. I'VE LOVED YOU SO LONG (Kristin Scott Thomas, mother & murderer, French)
81. SEX DRIVE (almost redeemed by Amish Seth Green sequences)
82. THE ROCKER (depends upon your tolerance for Rainn Wilson)
83. FIREPROOF (nice three car garage and suburban lifestyle, once you accept Christ)
84. ROLE MODELS (S.W.Scott, Paul Rudd bromance with medieval reinactments, big brother community service, w/ mcLovin)
85. RACHEL GETTING MARRIED (Altmanesque wedding, ethnic and religious mix, daughter AA rehab comes)
86. HAPPY-GO-LUCKY (joyful Mike Leigh film, driving instruction, school teacher, dating social worker, boating, dancing)
87. MIRACLE AT ST. ANNA (bizarre, maybe camp, half Fuller and half Micheaux)
88. STRANGE WILDERNESS (a weary surrealism for potheads)
89. CADILLAC RECORDS (Muddy Waters to the Rolling Stones; how rock happened)
90. ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS (brilliant Sirk; TV vs. younger man Rock Hudson)
91. SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK (dizzyingly bleak hall of mirrors and mortality)
92. THE PIANIST (Polanski; best Holocaust movie)
93. DUPLICITY (reversals, but not compelling corporate espionage; Julia Roberts aging)
94. BOLT (made a dog lover out of me)
95. BOTTLE SHOCK (Napa goes French; Alan Rickman)
96. QUANTUM OF SOLACE (Bond made real; no gimmicks or sci-fi stuff; existential)
97. EYES WIDE SHUT (visually excellent; Kubrick controlled)
98. IN THE ELECTRIC MIST (Tavernier-made bayou cop, JLBurke w/TLJones )
99. AMERICAN AVANT-GARDE VOL. 4 (1940s-1990s, Warhol, O'Neall, Baille, etc.)
100. LET THE RIGHT ONE IN (effective Swedish vampire love story w/ pre-teens)
101. BATTLE IN SEATTLE (didactic WTO re-creation drama, with Theron, Harrelson)
102. MURDER, MY SWEET (Dick Powell as Chandler's Marlowe; still pungent)
103. SEVEN POUNDS (creepy and dismal; ethically askew, to say the least)
APRIL
104. MARLEY AND ME (dog lovers fluff; journalists )
105. SIMON OF THE DESERT (classic Buñuel)
106. THE DEFIANT ONES (Poitier and Curtis chained together, 1958 racial Kramer)
107. TELL NO ONE (satisfying, if implausible, Hitchcockian French mystery and love story)
108. THE IT CROWD (Brit comedy series)
109. FREAKS AND GEEKS (US comedy series)
110. THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL (klattu keanu)
111. THEY LIVE BY NIGHT (Nicholas Ray soft lit his obvious heartthrob Farley Granger)
112. SIDE STREET (more Granger with Cathy O'Donnell)
113. DOUBT (clearly Viola Davis deserved the Oscar; the ambiguity makes it all work)
114. SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE (more visually rich than I expected; good music)
115. TROLL (everyone from June Lockhart to Julia Louis-Dreyfuss and Sonny Bono?!)
116. TROLL 2 (cult pick worst movie ever -- NILBOG vegetarian goblins)
117. THE 39 STEPS (just passing by on TV)
118. MARIE AND BRUCE (Shawn adaptation with Moore and Broderick, NYC sites)
119. HEART OF GLASS (Herzog hypnotized cast)
120. TWILIGHT (abstinence only)
121. GUN CRAZY (relevant in an NRA world)
122. WATERLOO BRIDGE (abstinence never, WWI James Whale soldier and whore)
123. ELEGY (convincing Kingsley, lit crit, enraptured with student Cruz; great closeups)
124. I-BE AREA (Ryan Trecartin; adoption; queer studies; Whitney Biennial)
125. A FAMILY FINDS ENTERTAINMENT (Ryan Trecartin)
126. AUSTRALIA (still think Nicole is good actor; nice kangaroos)
127. SPLINTER (rote suspenseless predictable horror of... splinters)
128. SMILEY FACE (best pot movie ever, if there can be such a thing)
129. THE SPIRIT (not real, not cartoon, didn't finish)
130. NOTORIOUS (BIG from Brooklyn, fairly interesting, maybe because no moralizing, flawed people)
131. WILD BOYS ON THE ROAD (Wellman Depression gang hit the rails; fascinating)
132. KABLUEY (indy Kudrow kids and blue mascot costume)
133. HOUSE OF THE SLEEPING BEAUTIES (kinky German old man and nude women)
134. THE WRESTLER (too close to home? Ernie says no. But my back aches.)
135. FROST/NIXON (not all that riveting; today's POTUS crimes are much worse)
136. THE DUCHESS (women's rights; classic idea of romance being adulterous affair)
137. STUCK (banal news item did not merit making into movie)
138. STOP MAKING SENSE (still great concert film; had forgotten Tom Tom Club cameo)
139. NIGHTS OF RODANTHE (or whatever it was called; loved those horses riding on the beach???)
140. THE MALTESE FALCON (1931 pre-code; Spade grins too much and loves ladies)
141. HOTEL FOR DOGS (for Lee; better than Nights of Rodanthe though; Nickelodeon movie)
142. THE UNINVITED (sisters with murderous stepmom; slight riff on Sixth Sense)
143. NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH (mixing Plamegate with Whitewater; ignoble heroine)
144. SATAN WAS A WOMAN (1936 Maltese Falcon redo; comic; Bette Davis blonde)
MAY
145. HEROES FOR SALE (Wellman pre-code Depression post-war trauma; drugs; joblessness )
146. ALEXANDRIA (Sukurov g'dma visits Russian soldier camp in Ukraine)
147. PULLING (Brit anti-Friends sitcom series; quite extreme for TV)
148. WENDY AND LUCY (how similar to Wild Boys of the Road 1933! Neorealism)
149. THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON (Fincher makes meditations more than movies, in this case on mortality; some Magnolia, some Forrest Gump)
150. MAMMA'S MAN (Azazel Jacobs, son of Ken, NYC artists parents house son who won't leave)
151. NIGHT NURSE (Wellman 1930s pre-code starving kids, milk bath, drunken moms, gangsters)
152. THOU SHALT NOT (docu of "sex, sin, censorship in pre-code hollywood; w/ camille paglia, etc.)
153. SKINS (season 2)
154. LOST (season 5)
155. VINYAN (ending saved it, Emmanuel Beart groped by wild jungle boys; obviously French though)
156. YES MAN (just watchable IMO; too obviously conceived and predictable)
157. MI-5 (Lee and I doing the Brit series, now that Lost has ended for the year)
158. PAUL BLART, MALL COP (I just enjoy watching people ride the Segway)
159. PROFIT MOTIVE AND THE WHISPERING WIND (historical landmarks; US labor relations)
160. TAKEN (watchable only because of utter preposterousness)
161. VALKYRIE (from the first frames, it seemed a disguised metaphor for the Bush administration)
162. JUST ANOTHER LOVE STORY (Danish noir; cop photographer pretends to be coma girl's boyfriend; kinky bizarre; not very satisfying)
163. BTK (Kansas serial killer biopic; ff'ed through gore; pointless)
164. NEW IN TOWN (watched out of synch, with Sp. subtitles; Fargo accents, tapioca production)
165. THE READER (Screenplay, David Hare; dir. Stephen Daldry of The Hours, Billy Elliott; sexy, poignant, peculiar, haunting )
166. THE BLACK BOOK (REIGN OF TERROR) (good narrative flow and staging of French Revolution, Robert Cummings as foil to Robespierre; dir. Anthony Mann)
JUNE
167. KADA KIEN SU KARMA (comic obnoxious Mex chick flick; for Spanish practice)
168. STAR TREK (nicely reimagined the story, with clear Lost elements of time travel and dualism)
169. THE POPE'S TOILET (South American accents; nice family aspect of smalltown Uruguay)
170. REVOLUTIONARY ROAD (book was better by far; pale version of Mad Men)
171. BORDER INCIDENT (Anthony Mann, Ricardo Montalban; saw at age 14, never forgot; noir mex smugglers, grisly quicksand and farm equipment)
172. THE PRIVATE LIFE OF HENRY VIII (Alex Korda, Laughton&Lanchester overacting well; all Henry's wives and excesses, nicely done)
173. ALEXANDRIA...WHY? (Egypt; history; multiple characters; WWII; stage plays; goes to NYC)
174. THE PRIVATE LIFE OF DON JUAN (more Korda; Douglas Fairbanks; aging playboy; funny)
175. THE SKY CRAWLERS (Jap animation; teen pilots entertain and don't grow up)
176. THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL (even better than I'd remembered; no clean metaphor; class and church and society slam; only the sheep at the end seem a bit much)
177. THREE ON A MATCH (pre-code fallen woman, drug use, kidnapping, bette davis, bogart)
178. FEMALE (pre-code Curtiz; car CEO woman seduces employees one after another; really surprised by this one, that feminism dates back so far)
179. DRAG ME TO HELL (jumped once, mostly funny, unnecessary, bottle imp idea)
180. UP 3-d (good, but really is it Cannes material?)
181. THE PURCHASE PRICE (Wellman/Stanwyck chorus girl flees to Canada wheat farm pre-code)
182. WERE THE WORLD MINE (gay "teen" Midsummer Night's Dream fantasy; had to be from L.A.)
183. THE INTERNATIONAL (globehopping Naomi Watts/Clive Owen stop bankers/assassins from arms deals; fantastic, but not really; video art in Guggenheim)
184. GRAN TORINO (swan song atonement of Clint Eastwood; nice Catholic touches)
185. BUNNY LAKE IS MISSING (Preminger, but... bad acting mostly, BW London)
186. 10,000 B.C. (just felt like watching dumb, fur clad people fighting mastodons, OK?)
187. THE DEAD POOL ('88, last Dirty Harry movie, Patricia Clarkson, Jim Carrey, Niam Leeson, on movie sets)
188. THE BUCKET LIST (catching up with the dreck)
189. MEN AT WORK (Iranian rock; middle class; trying to move boulder after ski trip)
190. PIGS AND BATTLESHIPS (1961 Imamura kid gangsters and prostitutes in postwar Japan)
191. STRANGE DAYS (kind of dated Bigelow actioner, overlong, not up to Matrix ideawise, too violent)
192. THE HANGOVER (needed the laughs, went with Henry and Lee, we were amused)
193. MADEA GOES TO JAIL (soap and nonsense)
194. IN THE REALM OF THE SENSES (Oshima; I'd forgotten how sexy this really was)
JULY
195. LOOKING TO GET OUT (Odd Ashby 82; Altman like; mad gamblers in Vegas; Voight with baby Jolie, Ann-Margret; Burt Young good)
196. LOS BASTARDOS (Reygadas-influenced; minimalist Mex workers take woman hostage; power)
197. FIRED UP (reference rich comic script, male cheerleaders on the make... but, a sure cure for heterosexuality)
198. TWO LOVERS (J. Phoenix and Gwen Paltrow; sometimes you fall in love with the wrong person)
199. PUBLIC ENEMIES (HD video handheld Michael Mann, visual, not emotional or psychological)
200. LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD (i remember, we met once before, in The Shining perhaps; everybody FREEZE; cue organ music; vampire movie drained of teeth; play that game with cards and matchsticks; black and white dress up ball; eternal eternal eternal)
201. NENETTE ET BONI (bro and sis; abusive father; pregancy; '96 Claire Denis, with Jacques Nolot and Vincent Gallo; Denis world class even then)
202. MR. HULOT'S HOLIDAY (unmistakeably Tati)
203. LE DOULOS (62 Melville/Belmondo, snitches; visually noir, ambiguous, classic)
204. HOLD ON (66 Herman's Hermits and Dennis Menace's dad)
205. HE'S JUST NOT THAT INTO YOU (big cast chick flick; multiple romances)
206. THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE (73 character driven betrayals, no honor among thieves, not easy endings; Peter Yates and Robert Mitchum)
207. KNOWING (good fx subway crash; Cage sci numbers forsee apocalypse; quasi religious)
208. DEFIANCE (Nazi resistance fighters in forest)
209. LOLITA (TCM)
210. AUTUMN LEAVES ('56 Aldrich, Joan Crawford falls for younger mental problem Cliff Robertson)
211. HAROLD AND MAUDE (TCM)
212. THE CODE (Banderas and Morgan Freeman safecrackers, twists, doesn't work, Mimi Lederer director)
213. REPULSION (Polanski's first English language, with Deneuve; quaint and common today)
214. VENUS IN FURS (TCM belated hipster Eurotrash)
215. WATCHMEN (not quite incomprehensible enough; naked blue Billy Crudup; curious soundtrack choices; odd dystopian tone)
216. THE MIGHTY BOOSH (Brit flight of conchords surrealism and tweaky humor)
217. NIGHT TRAIN (Lee Lee Sob. and Steve Zahn, Maltese Falcon noir weird box glow desire Gutman )
218. SIMON SAYS (Crispin Glover twin hillbilly farm equipment slasher )
219. THE GREAT BUCK HOWARD (Malkovich typically wacky, comic time waster)
220. CORALINE (very effective and imaginative and dreamlike )
221. GREY GARDENS (nicely done, weaving Maysles through story; both principals shine)
AUGUST
222. [REC] (Spanish quarantine; better; can see the jolt coming and still jump )
223. THE THREE BURIALS OF MELQUIADES ESTRADA (TLJones directed western worth the second viewing; surprising how compares to Valley of Elah and No Country for Old Men)
224. CROSSING OVER (immigration Crash with Harrison Ford)
225. NICOTINA (with Diego Luna)
226. WEEDS (complete third season)
227. THE GLEANERS AND I (in honor of Varda, watched again)
228. LAKE TAHOE (same Mexican director as Duck Season; teen with car trouble seeks help, gets non-adventures)
229. I LOVE YOU MAN (tired of it quickly, these men acting embarrassingly, Rudd's insistent adorableness)
230. THE CLASS (French Cannes winner; the thanklessness of teaching; looks like Wiseman doc)
231. ONE DAY YOU'LL UNDERSTAND (French Jeanne Moreau fascinating to watch; rediscovering Jewish roots and holocaust heritage; many long takes)
232. QUEENS (Spanish divas and gay son couples getting married happily ever after; not Almadovar)
233. TO SIR WITH LOVE (TCM; never saw it before; how curious our race history is)
234. THE TIGER'S TAIL (Brendan Gleeson w. son, Boorman directed doppleganger tycoon/bum twins odd)
235. REMBRANDT (Laughton in Alex Korda biopic; several long speeches; tres odd, too; seems very inauthentic)
236. PARRISH Troy Donahue, Delmer Daves, Claudette Colbert, Karl Malden splashy sexy soapy, CT tobacco farm)
237. MOTHRA (Japanese anti-US version)
238. NATHALIE GRANGER ('72 Duras, with Jeanne Moreau and Depardieu as washer salesman BW minimal very Akerman "no discernible story")
239. DUETS (karoake Paltrow Huey Lewis et. al.)
240. ZABRISKIE POINT (compositionally sound, no acting at all, riveting, desert orgy, billboards)
241. SURVEILLANCE (Jennifer Lynch Rashomon-like cops and crackheads corrupt in desert; as nasty and perverse as her dad's work, if less poetic; Bill Pullman; dad David sings closing credits, badly)
242. SUNSHINE CLEANING (Amy Adams, Alan Arkin, Steve Zahn, cute kid, seen this quirk before)
243. ADVENTURELAND (Jesse Eisenberg does Woody Allen again; script has literary merit somewhat, especially Melville reference; if you can tolerate another losing virginity movie, this one's OK)
244. TOKYO (Gondry, Carax, Bong; woman becomes chair; underground Merde monster; agoraphobics in love)
245. JEANNE DIELMAN, 23 RUE DE COMMERCE 1800 BRUXELLES (still stunning, all 3.5 hours of it, potatoes, shopping, meatloaf, buttons, scissors)
246. GOODBYE SOLO (could see Dardenne Bros. -- and Taste of Cherry -- in this NC cabbie w/ suicidal fare story, best movie so far by Ramin Bahrani of Man Push Cart Man and Chop Shop; should double bill with The Visitor)
247. RUDO Y CURSI ( Luna and Bernal reunited, ranchero soccer players, sings I Want You to Want Me, def chemistry, Cuaron bro directs, soft Mex macho, good Spanish lesson)
248. ALIEN TRESPASS (hommage to 50s sci-fi, better period detail would have helped)
249. ABSURDISTAN (Turkish fable, water shortage, men vs. women, Chris Martin look-alike)
250. TROUBLE THE WATER (katrina outrage continues)
251. RIP! A REMIX MANIFESTO (Larry Lessig, Girl Talk, copyleft)
SEPTEMBER
252. HIGH HOPES (siblings and spouses with aging mother in London, giggles, motorcycles, Marx's grave, Mike Leigh)
253. STATE OF PLAY (nice political thriller with Afleck, Crowe, many; newspapers confront Blackwater, with sex scandals in Congress; very timely and taut)
254. EARTH (polar bears and leopards, waterfalls and savannahs)
255. INSECT WOMAN ('63 Imamura fallen women, from 40s to 60s, union worker and prostitute)
256. SIN NOMBRE (well made, honduran gangs and train riding immigrants in conflict, bleak, 35mm)
257. DARK MATTER (chinese cosmology students in U.S., with Meryl Streep)
258. DODES'KA-DEN (visually arresting, survey of community, challenged man believes he is train, still a heart-tugger, haven't seen in 30 years)
259. LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT ('09 version; critics liked it; I prefer Haneke's Funny Games)
260. THE MIGHTY BOOSH (2nd Season)
261. CONFESSIONS OF A SHOPAHOLIC (appealing performers)
262. MAD MEN (Season two, repeat)
263. SILENT LIGHT (Carlos Reygados, mennonites in mexico)
264. SUGAR (neorealist; how US recruits baseball players and then discards; non-sensational and not your typical sports movie)
265. ANITA O'DAY - LIFE OF A JAZZ SINGER (nicely done portrait of seminal jazz vocalist)
266. GRACE (slick Sundance horror flick; lesbians, motherhood, all characters creepy, breastfeeding, Cronenberg was way first with this stuff, back when it may have meant something)
267. X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE (too much violence, but I liked in way I liked Spidey 3 and couldn't like Iron Man; not sure why)
268. OBSERVE AND REPORT (Travis Bickle, Mall Cop)
269. THE HOUSE BUNNY (OK, so it's Anna Faris week)
270. THE KNACK (Richard Lester's '64 prelude to Hard Day's Night; I know this by heart)
271. THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS ('70 Robert Mulligan; gentle bittersweet 60s generation conflict, can't take lies; flees to Mexico)
272. ALBINO FARM (no)
273. DANCE FLICK (typical)
274. THE MONKS (fairly pedestrian doc on Ger/Am. proto-art punk band)
275. ADAM RESURRECTED (P. Shrader's pic of Jewish clown/dog post Nazism; in a way, a Sophie's choice movie about the impossibility of ethics, fate, humanity)
276. THE MATRIX (it's on TV; can't turn it off)
277. SINS OF THE FLESHAPOIDS (M. Kuchar's elemental sci-fi SF art school camp )
278. DIARIES SKETCHES NOTEBOOKS: WALDEN (J. Mekas home movies, with Brakhage, Sitney, Dreyer; fascinating for the cogniscenti)
279. THE BROTHERS BLOOM (Brody, Ruffalo, Weisz cons within cons; literate, witty; Melville ref)
280. LYMELIFE (not untypical suburb indy w/ name cast; lots of Culkins)
281. LE AMICHE (Antonioni pre-Avventura; artists, pills, ocean, women in angst)
282. KATYN (Wajda exploration of forbidden story of massacre in forest of Soviets vs. Nazis; well made)
OCTOBER
283. I AM WAITING (Nikkatsu films noir from 50s Japan; brother seeks sibling, gangsters, night clubs; dir Koreyoshi Kurahara)
284. THE COUNTRY TEACHER (Czech gay teacher in country; birthing cows; great last shot; strange culture, but sensitive and surprising)
285. FROWNLAND (woody allen meets eraserhead; the downside of nyc living; true mumblecore; a little bit astonishing)
286. SLEEP DEALER (mex sci-fi; appealing actors; nodes; selling memories; water capitalism; nice mex countryside)
287. THE GIRLFRIEND EXPERIENCE (soderbergh's non-actor escort service movie; improvised; no exposition, nicely told story without usual narrative devices at all; money bottom line another bad side of nyc)
288. EASY VIRTUE (noel coward play; amusing performances; american / brit conflicts on country estate)
289. LIES AND ILLUSIONS (Christian Slater and Cuba Gooding; writer tricked by woman over jewels; just dreadful)
290. THE SHORTCUT (stupid horror movie; dog killer in woods)
291. MANAGEMENT (much sweet/cute Zahn/Aniston motel meet; turns too much w/ Harrelson)
292. ANVIL! THE STORY OF ANVIL (what i did for love)
293. AWAY WE GO (loved the first scene; love story comedy that lets actors stretch; terrific all around)
294. THE MODEL SHOP (Demy's 60s take, with Gary Lockwood and Anouk Aimee, LA period scenes)
295. TULPAN (birthing sheep on Kazak steppe; wife hunting; big ears; fine sensibility in image and idea)
296. YEAR ONE (OT parables revised with cavemen, Cera and Black and cutup cast, esp. Oliver Pratt)
297. ANG LALAKE SA PAROLA (Brokeback Pinoy, lighthouse, softcore gay affair)
298. PERSONAL EFFECTS (Kutcher+Pfeiffer, murder support group, deaf kid, wrestling, chicken suit, interesting on many levels, Kathy Bates, Kutcher acts well enough.)
299. WAGON MASTER (Ford '50 western, with Ben Johnson. 2 horse traders lead Mormon train)
300. FRISCO JENNY (pre-code, post-quake SF madame aids son unknown to DA, gets hung, Wellman)
301. FROM THE EAST (Akerman doc through France, no commentary, travel-like)
302. VEERENA: VENGEANCE OF THE VAMPIRE ('88 Bollywood horror, Exorcist hodgepodge)
303. CINEMAD (exp. shorts, inc. Bruce Connor "Valse Triste")
304. THE PROPOSAL (Reynolds/Bullock in Sitka, just what you expect)
305. DRAG ME TO HELL (uncut, Raimi comedy)
306. ADORATION (Atom Egoyan cutup terrorist love story boy discovers parents plane/car play teacher)
307. LOVE OF SIAM (popular Thai gay love story of missing sister reappears, boy band August)
308. ASSASSINATION OF A HIGH SCHOOL PRESIDENT (Brick was better; B Willis amuses)
309. STATE OF PLAY (Brit TV series, same plot as US movie, press and politics)
310. EVIL DEAD II (tired cult gore)
311. AMAZING GRACE (William Wilberforce (d. 1833), social activist)
312. MAN IS NOT A BIRD (early Makaveyev; gypsy songs, hypnotism )
313. LAND OF THE LOST (Will Ferrell daft scientist dinosaurs aliens poop jokes)
314. THE WALKING DEAD ('35 Curtiz and Karloff, revived from execution, gets pols who framed him)
315. FRANKENSTEIN 1970 (Karloff rebuilds buckethead monster for US movie crew, '58)
316. AGE OF CONSENT (Great Barrier Reef, James Mason artist, lush, Michael Powell helmed)
317. HASTA EL VIENTO TIENE MIEDO (girls school, Mexican classic horror, the remake)
318. TWO OR THREE THINGS I KNOW ABOUT HER (other than Pierrot Le Fou, I don't care)
319. LOVE AFFAIR, OR THE CASE OF THE MISSING SWITCHBOARD OPERATOR (Makaveyev is great, always sexy, jump cuts, truly a radical)
320. INNOCENCE UNPROTECTED (again, Makaveyev, first talkie in Yugo, turned into colorized docu, strong man, acrobat, fascinating and bizarre)
321. WHATEVER WORKS (Allen and David, curmudgeon, very funny, surprisingly so)
322. HOMICIDE (Mamet, Mantegna, cop embroiled in Jewish plot, black panther shooting)
NOVEMBER
323. O'HORTEN (Scandinavian railroad engineer retires, odd adventures with child, drunk, blind driving)
324. EVERY LITTLE STEP (so, total bway musical queen me, i cried. doc of casting revival of chorus line.)
325. EL ASALANTE (middle aged business man in buenos aires stages school robberies; long takes; tres curious)
326. WILL FARRELL: YOU'RE WELCOME, AMERICA; A FINAL NIGHT WITH GEORGE W. BUSH (very funny)
327. FOOD INC. (i may never eat food again; more politically devastating than above film)
328. THE HURT LOCKER (suspense sublimely crafted; why men love war, chaos, adrenalin shock, apolitical and apt' really sticks with you)
329. SUMMER TREE (Michael Douglas '70 draft dodger guitar player, but not hippy, big bro to black kid, lame but a curio)
330. LOVE AND PAIN AND THE WHOLE DAMN THING (tim bottoms, maggie smith, in spain, finding themselves, a la harold and maude sort of)
331. AUDIENCE OF ONE (SF pentacostals finance star wars joseph movie; flops; talking to god)
332. HIGH AND LOW (epic contemporary Kurosawa kidnapped shoe manufacturer, crime drama, social drama, scene of 60s Japan)

FILM COMMENT’S END-OF-YEAR CRITICS’ POLL

BEST FILMS OF 2008
(Released theatrically in the U.S.)

1. Wendy and Lucy Kelly Reichardt, U.S. 580 points
2. Flight of the Red Balloon Hou Hsiao-hsien, Taiwan/France 564
3. A Christmas Tale Arnaud Desplechin, France 557
4. Happy-Go-Lucky Mike Leigh, U.K. 538
5. WALL·E Andrew Stanton, U.S. 534
6. Still Life Jia Zhang-ke, Hong Kong/China 521
7. Paranoid Park Gus Van Sant, France/U.S. 465
8. Waltz with Bashir Ari Folman, Israel/France/Germany 424
9. My Winnipeg Guy Maddin, Canada 406
10. Milk Gus Van Sant, U.S. 356
11. Let the Right One In Tomas Alfredson, Sweden 351
12. The Duchess of Langeais Jacques Rivette, France/Italy 335
13. The Class Laurent Cantet, France 334
14. Synecdoche, New York Charlie Kaufman, U.S. 297
15. Hunger Steve McQueen, U.K. 289
16. Silent Light Carlos Reygadas, Mexico/France/Netherlands 286
17. Ballast Lance Hammer, U.S. 283
18. Man on Wire James Marsh, U.K. 282
19. The Exiles Kent Mackenzie, U.S. 257
20. Gomorrah Matteo Garrone, Italy 253
21. The Dark Knight Christopher Nolan, U.S. 252
22. Che Steven Soderbergh, Spain/France/U.S. 237
23. The Wrestler Darren Aronofsky, U.S. 233
24. The Last Mistress Catherine Breillat, France/Italy 229
25. Rachel Getting Married Jonathan Demme, U.S. 215
26. Trouble the Water Carl Deal & Tia Lessin, U.S. 203
27. Momma’s Man Azazel Jacobs, U.S. 202
28. Ashes of Time Redux Wong Kar Wai, Hong Kong/China 201
29. In the City of Sylvia José Luis Guerín, Spain/France 200
30. Alexandra Alexander Sokurov, Russia/France 196
31. Encounters at the End of the World Werner Herzog, U.S. 195
32. Gran Torino Clint Eastwood, U.S. 189
33. The Romance of Astrea and Celadon Eric Rohmer, France/Spain/Italy 178
34. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button David Fincher, U.S. 172
35. La France Serge Bozon, France 167
36. Taxi to the Dark Side Alex Gibney, U.S. 163
37. The Edge of Heaven Fatih Akin, Germany/Turkey/Italy 161
38. Slumdog Millionaire Danny Boyle, U.S./U.K. 157
39. Vicky Cristina Barcelona Woody Allen, Spain 154
40. The Silence Before Bach Pere Portabella, Spain 141
41. Frost/Nixon Ron Howard, U.S. 140
42. Woman on the Beach Hong Sang-soo, South Korea 138
43. Before I Forget Jacques Nolot, France 137
44. Frozen River Courtney Hunt, U.S. 126
45. The Order of Myths Margaret Brown, U.S. 123
46. Heartbeat Detector (La Question Humaine) Nicolas Klotz, France 112
47. Tell No One Guillaume Canet, France 110
48. Chop Shop Ramin Bahrani, U.S. 108
49. Profit motive and the whispering wind John Gianvito, U.S. 106
50. Fengming: A Chinese Memoir Bing Wang, China 103

Sam Fuller, Athens Film Festival interview

In conclusion: a poem

I emailed Nate sometime mid-March.

“The natives are getting restless,” I wrote. “Any Apichatpong Weerasethakul on the roster? Tropical Malady? Blissfully Yours?”

No, Nate wrote back. Not your Thai guy. Mostly American independents. Wait and see.

Not even any non-English movies, as it turned out. Mishima was narrated in English; The Band’s Visit was so much in English, it got turned down for a foreign language Oscar nomination. Does Kate Winslet’s accent in Romance and Cigarettes count as a foreign language? Does Hamlet?

The most exotic movie in Ebertfest X turned out to be the most American: Shotgun Stories. Boy, Kid, and Son – the generically named Southern brothers – should be recognized as the descendants of the Beats, the Kerouacs and Moriaritys, the Dharma Bums of the 21st century, using the car’s cigarette lighter to power the margarita mixer, living in a van down by the river, learning to count cards as a plan for prosperity.

“It’s like early retirement,” Kid or Son says from his van.

“Or like being a bum,” replies Son or Boy.

These are the poets of America, the performance artists, the ordinary in unconscious solidarity with the third world. If aspiring independent filmmakers are season of the witch beatniks out to make it rich, the Southern boys improvising a lifestyle are the true bohemians.

I may live in a cornfield in Urbana, but I actually live in Manhattan, taking my cue from Verushka in Antonioni’s Blowup.

You remember that scene. They’re at a London party in the Swinging Sixties, walking through a haze of marijuana smoke. “What are you doing here?” David Hemmings asks the skyscraper tall model. “I thought you were in Paris.”

“I am in Paris,” Verushka replies, gazing at him with dilated pupils.

That’s me. I am in Manhattan. Minus the pot.

And Ebertfest is a flashback of Cannes, the Virginia Theatre a reminder of the Palais des Festivals.

I fought the crowds to see The Band’s Visit, the only movie I watched at the Virginia from start to finish this year, preferring to hang out in the tent in my backyard.

After jostling elbows with Chaz Ebert downstairs, and then trying to take a seat by myself, only to be told it was the VIP section, I hastened upstairs to find a largely empty row in the balcony. I prefer movies in solitude. I prefer DVD. I am tired of celebrity. I am tired of consumer reports posing as art criticism. I am tired of movie panels discussing funding and distribution.

At first, I was even cynical about Mary Corliss introducing the movie and revealing the movie’s entire narrative structure before the screening. But, as it turns out, it didn't matter. Or maybe it was because I didn’t listen closely as she described the characters, provided the analysis, even announce the moral of the story as “the audacity of hope,” consciously plugging Obama along the way.

On the screen were faces. The face of an Egyptian band leader with a sorrowful past. The face of a tall puppy of a trumpet player with an eye for women. The face of the Israeli woman, generous and experienced, her sarcasm barely passing the language barrier. The face of the virgin guy who hears the sea when he talks to girls and cannot speak.

And the world grows wider and smaller, a beautiful place. I forgive the over-applauding audience and embrace and join in their laughter. I want to see Arabs and Israelis making music in the same land, to drown out the sound of bombs around the world.

Like the movie about monks, Into Great Silence, there are faces, human faces, unknown faces, the camera capturing the most beautiful thing in the world, without apologies or artifice, without awards or prestige, their language stripped of inference, a minimal moment of peace, hope for the world and the sound of people laughing together, transported, gazing into the camera or gazing at the screen.

Mishima

The movie "Delirious" scoffs at the idea of purity in art. (It's all commerce.) Paul Schrader's biopic "Mishima," on the other hand, seems to reveal how the quest for purity in art and life can be disastrous.




Yukio Mishima wrote his first notable novel in 1948, "Confessions of a Mask." It was translated into English ten years later and the title (I seem to have a thing about titles this year) always struck me as a perfect one to convey the pre-liberation, closeted years of gay life.

While I respected Mishima's openness about his ambiguous sexuality, his conservative nationalism and militarism remains alien to me. His search for purity in those areas drove him to commit ritual suicide, seppuku, self-disembowelment, in 1970.

Schrader's movie is beautifully conceived. Divided into life segments and chapters from his novels, the movie blurs Mishima's life and art, probably just as Mishima himself saw little distinction between the two.

Viewing it this time around, I much more appreciated the soundtrack by Philip Glass. Mostly engrossing, the film loses some momentum after about an hour, but picks up by the end, when Mishima exhorts the Japanese military and the soldiers shout at him, "You're not even logical."

Mishima giving his final speech on the balcony, November 25, 1970.

Pride isn't logical, he shouts back. Which doesn't make that much sense either. Perhaps it is a stretch, but I found myself thinking of another biopic, "Into the Wild," while watching "Mishima." Several people I know refused to watch "Into the Wild" because they believed that the idealistic young man Chris McCandless was mentally ill. True, he rejected society and died of starvation in the Alaska wilderness, but he was no more insane than Mishima, and also literary, and also on a spiritual search for purity, also with disastrous results. They're both fascinating, tragic stories.

The Cell

I remember trying hard to like The Cell when it was first released in 2000. Visually, it has the look of a caffeinated art designer, an El Topo-esque surrealism on landscapes of nightmares.

Jennifer Lopez is exotic and that weird Twizzlers costume she wears is definitely from the Kinky Store. As a horror movie, The Cell deals with the idea of a universal mind, that minds can be entered and shared, an idea that puts fear into the repressed but that all self-respecting paranoics experience as just another day at the office.

A horse gets sliced into segments and preserved in one fell swoop, and if the idea is a direct steal from the contemporary Warhol, Damien Hirst, it's still very cool to see it done.

So, the good parts of The Cell, the mind blowing imaginativeness and visual extravagance, a little Matrix here, a little Fountain there, would have been enough on their own. But then someone decided there had to be a story.

Narrativity is often the bane of Ebertfest. There are some exceptions this year, notably The Band's Visit. Canvas died under the weight of predictable narrativity. Mishima admirably dissects and fragments and mingles story lines. But The Cell, in order to sell, had to pitch itself as Silence of the Lambs meets J-Lo, or Se7en meets Saw (I know the chronology isn't right, but I'm just saying), and the torture and serial killer tropes, not to mention the child abuse and evangelical baptism/drowning (waterboarding?) elements, the woman locked and tortured in a room fantasy, the last minute rescue, please. Spare me.

One should take The Cell and cut out all the story entirely. It would be a much better movie, one I could even watch.

EbertFest 2008 Wrapup

Rather than try to do full reviews of everything I haven’t yet mentioned, I’ll just sum it all up here in one big omnibus post.

This was a good year for the films – a lot of strong entries, and very close to 2005 and 2006, which I think had the best crops. The festival continues to suffer from a lack of Roger’s voice on stage, as post-film interviews remain choppy. And yet, it is far better than having no interviews at all.

The audience was large and enthusiastic, as usual, and the Virginia remains the majestic place it has always been. I especially enjoyed Ang Lee say with fondness that he was glad to return to the theater where he saw Rambo II. And, I was sorry John Torturro could not be here to enjoy Romance & Cigarettes in a venue where it was meant to be played.

[As a side note, the Virginia was still owned by a movie chain when I moved here in 1990. I was seriously bummed when they abandoned it, because I was convinced that they were going to tear it down and I would be stuck with My Blue Heaven as the last movie I saw there. Now, if it gets blown up by terrorists or I get hit by a bus, I can say Romance and Cigarettes was the last film I saw there, which makes for a better story, even if it reveals what a pathetically small life I lead.]

The themes this year seemed to be outsiders, stigma and really, really bad parents. We had a crazy prince of Denmark, a mentally ill mom and aunt, adulterous spouses, lost Egyptians and Arkansas boys, comic book heroes, paparazzi and serial murderers all raised by terrible parents. The only parent who did an unquestionably great job was the hippie farmer’s.

My favorite entry remains Shotgun Stories, closely followed by The Real Dirt on Farmer John. My favorite scene is from Romance & Cigarettes, with Susan Sarandon’s ex-boyfriend peeing on James Gandolfini’s grave, which reads, “Husband, Father, Adulterer.” Or maybe James Gandolfini singing. Or any scene with Farmer John’s “I didn’t say anything about orgies” neighbor.

Finally, random spillage from my notebook, in no particular order:

- I disagree with apparently everyone about Housekeeping’s Aunt Sylvie. I don’t believe she is simply quirky or doesn’t want to play by the rules. I think she has a mild case of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). The issue isn’t whether she is mentally ill (she is), but whether her mental illness makes her unsuitable to raise kids. I was touched at the end at how hard she tried to make it work, and how much she really did love her niece, and think she would have succeeded had everyone else not been so rigid. But, I do think her issues went beyond mere quirkiness.

- The Cell reminded me of a Rube Goldberg contraption. Fascinating to watch, as long as you don't ask the question of why the ball has to do all these things to get from one point to another. The word “unnecessary” springs to mind. But there are lots of things in life that are unnecessary and interesting. I did agree with one of the commenters that the serial murder torture scenes were extremely gratuitous. Of course, there’s a lot about serial murdering itself that seems unnecessary to me.

- I loved that one of the writers of The Cell included a grotesquely pumped up woman bodybuilder as one of the nightmare images in the serial killer’s brain.

- I liked Richard Corliss’ description of Romance & Cigarettes: “If you wind your way through film history DNA, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls eventually leads to Romance & Cigarettes.” An EbertFest audience at the Virginia is probably the only way to properly see films like these.

- Hadjii was really funny for 2 or 3 minutes with his schtick about humility to get people to buy his book and watch his TV show. Then it was annoying for the next 5 minutes. There’s apparently an internal time limit for jokes about humility, and that time limit is two minutes.

- “You trusted me to do what I think is right, not what you think you want.” As a father, I cringed at these words from General Ross in Hulk. Not all things fathers think are right are good, nor are all things daughters think they want. I just wish he wasn’t such an ass about it.

- Ang Lee, at 11:05: “It’s unnatural to be watching a movie so early in the day.”

- I loved the idea of “Shampoo” (a character in Shotgun Stories) as the devil. He’s always innocuously relaying incendiary information between the sides of the feud, and by the end, is teaching someone how to load and shoot a shotgun. All because he just needs a place to park his car.

- From Shotgun Stories: “This shit his hard - a lifetime is a long time for just two people.”

“You just gotta decide she’s the one you’re going to love and then do it.”

Rejoinder from Romance & Cigarettes, which is much less satisfying, but far more funny: “I hate you with all the hate there is to hate with.”

- Christopher Walken is a national treasure. Looking at Susan Sarandon’s tiny butter knife as she is about to threaten her husband’s lover, he says “Maybe we should get something bigger” in a way that only he can make so damn funny. As Corliss said, nobody does a better Christopher Walken impression than Christopher Walken.

- We got double-doses of Steve Buscemi and Kate Winslet, in Hamlet/Delirious/Romance & Cigarettes. That should be a festival tradition and one that I would wholeheartedly support.

That's it for this year's festival from me. PG and I will likely be doing occasional posts throughout the year. I'm looking forward to Joe vs the Volcano next year, which would make for a good Thursday evening slot.

-Dan Schreiber

Shakespearean verse at the Station

After Hamlet and Yes at Ebertfest, if iambic pentameter is still ringing in your ears, or not, I have to put a plug here for The Bomb-itty of Errors! at the Station Theatre.

You haven't quite lived until you've seen A Comedy of Errors performed in hip-hop by a phenomenal crew of four (plus DJ), playing multiple parts. Give your ears a good workout. It's 90 minutes of big fun and a rare chance to wave your arms in the air like you just don't care.

I just got back from the Sunday night performance and am going to try to see it again before it closes on Saturday night. Go!

Reservations: 384-4000

EbertFest 10 Ends with a Sigh

Like Romance & Cigarettes, EbertFest 10 started with a bang and ended with a sigh. Chaz left a bit early to be with Roger, Nate Cohn returned to jeans, and although the audience never lost interest, by the end we had run out of questions. There is plenty to write about over the next few days, but it will have to wait for a long nap and some quantity time with the wife and kids.

Hulk Not Hulk

Ang Lee spoke of his dealings with the military during the making of "Hulk" around the time of the Iraq wars. The military didn't care how they were portrayed in the film so much, he said. They just wanted their weapons to look right. And they wanted to win.

"The military can't win," Lee told them. "It's the Incredible Hulk. No one would come see it."

Hulk is yet another movie in this festival hinging on a highly problematic father-son relationship, following Delirious and Shotgun Stories. And the comic book panels, the dark mood, the use of split screen (like Hulk's split personality), the abstract blobs of color in the lab, all work as well as I'd remembered.

I'll let others dissect the movie. I'm sure there are military parallels and war metaphors and ego/id/superego analyses that can be employed. But if you'll forgive and indulge me, I'd like to take the opportunity to see a war metaphor in a different recent sci-fi movie, a monster movie, The Mist, just out on DVD last month.



Based on the Stephen King novella, The Mist was written for the screen and directed by Frank Darabont, who did other excellent King adaptations, The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile. The Mist is to the Bush years as the horror movies of the 1950s were to the Bomb and McCarthyism. Not many people recognized those genre movies at the time as having political relevance. Today, almost everybody recognizes Invasion of the Body Snatchers, for example, as the metaphor for the ticky-tacky conformity of the Eisenhower years.

The public today has largely ignored and rejected all the movies about Iraq, including the best of the lot, In the Valley of Elah. Frank Rich wrote, Iraq is to moviegoers as garlic is to vampires.

Reviewers in general didn't perceive The Mist as a parallel to the mood of America during the current Iraq war, but about half-way through the movie, I couldn't help but see it that way: the military unleashing new weaponry and self-destructive chaos on the world, soldiers committing suicide in guilt, a U.S. religious fundamentalist population eager to be swept away in mob fervor, young undereducated recruits eager to show bravado and courage and getting sucked up by the tentacles of horror in the process, and so forth.

(Last year's excellent Korean monster movie, The Host, is even more pointed -- as well as entertaining and funny -- in making a U.S. war metaphor.)

In The Mist, Marcia Gay Harden plays a loony evangelical who rallies the small town populace into a religious fervor, in love with the idea of apocalypse. It was hard to watch her play a schizophrenic in Canvas without thinking that the two roles weren't cut from the same cloth, so to speak.

The Hulk is less subversive and more psychological, but maybe in twenty years (if we survive) movies like these seemingly tacky, pop culture genre films may, in retrospect, be the artifacts that define the times better than we recognize right now.

Deliriousness

The word “bobo” popped up in a restaurant review in the New Yorker this week. That’s the name of a fashionable West Village eatery, just blocks from my pied-a-terre, where the likes of Adrian Brody hang out. The name is a portmanteau of “bourgeois” and “bohemian” for what used to be called “yuppie,” I guess. Bobos are the rich pretending to be struggling artistes. Look at CBGB’s. It’s now a fashion boutique for punk-posing millionaires.

Some people seem to want to have it both ways, to be sincere and struggling artists and to be rich-as-sin celebrities at the same time.

It’s not clear how sympathetic or how sneering director Tom DeCillo means to be toward his loser paparazzo Les (Steve Buscemi) in “Delirious,” or towards anyone else for that matter. While the film mocks the superficiality and foolishness of the celebs and their hangers-on, it just as often seems to celebrate their status, as the homeless and good-hearted hunk Toby (Michael Pitt) wants to be an actor and to enter their ranks, which, by the end of the film, he does, surrounded by falling flowers, a romanticized wonderment that would seem to make his ambitions toward superficiality desirable. He reaches across the sea of paparazzi to touch the hand of the poor schmuck who gave him a place to sleep.

Let’s just call the movie a satire and be done with it, a satire of everyone caught up in celebrity and movie culture (in other words, everyone, including the director and the audience, too).

The visual design and neon flurry of colors are appealing, the look of downtown NYC streets is accurate and captivating, and the decor (graffiti and trash art design) of Les’s tiny apartment completely familiar to anyone with real struggling artists/actors/writers/waiters in Manhattan. Les’s story could have been an outtake in “Rent.”

At the same time Les and Toby celebrate the $700 sale of a photo they snapped of a star with his new penile implant, the rock star K’Harma (Alison Lohman) has to fend with her parents’ demand for $7 million as their dues for raising her.

Apparently Buscemi wanted DeCillo to cut the scene when Les tries to get his father’s approval for his big photo sale to a tabloid. The cruelty of this parental rejection does change the tone of the movie, adding a weightier psychology that mostly encumbers things. DeCillo wants us to feel sorry for Les, but at the same time he equates everything about Les’s life with the vermin that fills the screen: stuffed rats, squirrels, a mouse in a toilet, and a close-up of a fly stuck in syrup.

There are many funny lines. A personal manager touts K’Harma’s new fragrance, Instant K’Harma, as “sui generis.” A soap star at a benefit combating STDs emotes with sincerity, “The first time I got gonorrhea, I thought I was going to die!”

Several people have commented that they didn't buy the romance between K'Harma and Toby. It seemed natural enough to me. Michael Pitt's physicality and innocence holds allure for both men and women. He's played this part before, including another bathtub scene in Hedwig and the Angry Inch. He's got the role down pat.

Ultimately, the film doesn’t seem to have much respect for people who fawn over the famous. As Les tells Toby, “You’re just a good looking nobody with his nose against the glass.” He doesn't seem to realize he's also describing himself.

I'd also listen to an argument for the movie being about friends and friendship. Les sees friends as who hang around waiting for the chance to talk about themselves, but by the end he seems to have overcome this, although the distance between himself and Toby has become a great divide, separated by the celebrity worshipers.

DeCillo is an interesting filmmaker who in the past has taken on his own occupation and industry. “Living in Oblivion” was about making an indie film. I liked the crazy eccentrics in “Box of Moonlight,” although it, like “Delirious,” didn’t get the kind of distribution treatment that the film likely deserved.

But when Bobos cry boo-hoo about the struggles of their glamorous business, I find it hard to be very sympathetic. I stopped going to the festival panels this year because they always seem to be about the business, more than the art, of making movies.

The Clapping

I’ve always considered it endearing when people clap at EbertFest when a guest’s name or face appears on screen during the movie. It shows respect and support for their presence here, and that's a good thing. However, this year is the first time I’ve felt it as a distraction. It works well when someone’s name appears in credits at the beginning, but this year we all haltingly clapped when Timothy Spall appeared in Hamlet, and then even more haltingly when Rufus Sewell appeared the 2nd or 3rd time (looking angry or upset, as directed). Since then, it seems like the clapping has gotten in the way a bit. Maybe it’s just because I had a hard enough time understanding Hamlet without the extra clapping.

I had always assumed it was an EbertFest phenomenon, because we are all so nice and welcoming and unpretentious, as all the out-of-towners keep saying. As the old joke goes, we have good reasons to be unpretentious, and take pride in it. However, since this is the only movie festival I’ve ever attended, I don’t know what’s normal and what isn’t.

Then during one of the movies, I noticed that the halting clapping came mostly from the VIP section, which I always assume is filled with out-of-towners and film industry veterans. Then I wondered if this was a common thing in other festivals. Then I wondered why I think the important people are all from out of town, and worried that my inner Les is showing.

So, I’m curious: For those of you who attend other festivals, is clapping for guests during the film a common thing? Anyone care to weigh in on its use at EbertFest?

Shotgun Stories

Shotgun Stories is easily my favorite film of the festival so far. It’s good for lots of reasons, but the most poignant in this time of war and terror is how it slices through the myth of redemptive violence that so permeates American culture.

So often in movies the hero tries to hold back and be peaceful when confronted with some unreasonable bad guy, but is inevitably “forced” to unleash some righteous violence that solves everything and brings everything back into balance. Shotgun Stories reveals the basic truth about violence – even though it seems justified and gives short term satisfaction, its natural consequence is more and worse violence. It especially spins out of control when everyone thinks they are righteous about it, and can only stop when enough people decide to simply stop retaliating.

The story centers on two families of one man – the one that he left behind as a drunk, and the one that he was a good Christian father to. We mostly see the story through the eyes of the three sons he left behind, which is a smart choice, because it allows us to gain sympathy for men who could have easily been dismissed as simple lowlifes. Yet despite having a drunk for a dad and a “hateful woman” for a mom, these three men, named Son, Kid and Boy, have turned around a lifetime of abuse and are scratching out reasonable lives, despite their quirks.

From the first frame of the movie, we see Son is a damaged man, with shotgun pockmarks on his back. But we also see his desire to reconcile with his wife, and his care for his son, despite his gambling problem. We see Kid being tender with his girlfriend, despite his life of sleeping in tents. And we see Boy’s “job” of coaching kids’ basketball, despite his preference to live in a van instead of working at a real job. These are good guys, and we want life to have treated them better.

And yet, when their dad dies, they show up at the funeral and say hateful things about him in front of his other family, which starts a long and slow process of retaliation. What I liked about this scene is that afterward we learn the words were completely spontaneous. Son didn’t intend to ruin the funeral. It’s just what came out. And that’s how animosity often starts – not as an intentional deed, but as a spontaneous outburst of emotion.

Nonetheless, there are consequences - the boys on the other side of the family are not going to take this lying down. Little scuffles lead to bigger ones and the logic of honor and revenge leads to the dread of knowing this is somehow going to get worse, but not knowing who will suffer for it.

What the film gets right is that violence doesn’t usually erupt out of nowhere, without a context. “You started this!” one guy eventually yells at another, but the other replies “No, this started a long time ago.” He eventually challenges his mom: “You raised us to hate those boys. And now we do. And it’s come to this.” Which finally leads back to the father.

Last year Joey Lauren Adams was here with Come Early Morning and talked about how the sins of the father are paid by multiple generations. Shotgun Stories is a great illustration of that Biblical description. Of course, all the men in this film need to take responsibility for their own actions, but their actions come out of a context and a history that, if understood, help to provide some grace. And it leads to bigger questions to us all: Who is teaching us to hate? Who do we feel justified towards raining violence down upon, and what long-term effects is that likely to produce?

Jeff Nichols wrote and directed the movie and talked about it afterward. He had a great antidote about leaving out the story of why Son has shotgun marks on his back. Throughout the movie, various people wonder why the pockmarks are there, ranging from cheating on his wife to robbing a store, but it’s eventually only vaguely explained as something to do with protecting his brothers from his dad. He said he had written a long expository scene to Explain All, but he cut it because it felt contrived – there’s no reason for the brothers to explain it to people who already knew what happened. Then he realized that he had taken the shotgun story out of Shotgun Stories. Ironic perhaps, but it was the right choice.

This is Nichols first feature, which makes it all the more of a gem. It means we get to look forward to (hopefully) a whole career of movies with the intelligence, craft and truth-telling of this one.

-Dan Schreiber

Technical updates

I'd been telling people that "Delirious" was coming out on DVD in May, because that's what my Netflix queue told me. But Blockbuster has an "exclusive" early release of it, so it's in the stores right now. I'm going to rent it tonight and catch up with the festival.

I also found Mishima at Blockbuster, although Netflix doesn't yet have it available.

That leaves Housekeeping and today's Shotgun Stories as the only titles in Ebertfest 2008 unavailable on DVD.

What I saw today of Shotgun Stories, I liked, and I'll say more in my next post.

The woman sitting next to me at Shotgun Stories this morning talked a bit before the film began, complaining about the sound throughout the festival. As Dan and the Crockhead both had noted, she also reported having a difficult time understanding Hamlet and other movies. And, once the film today began, I realized that there is a considerable sound difference in seeing the movies at the Virginia versus watching them on DVD. There's also a visual difference.

Visually and aurally, Shotgun Stories came across as warmer, fuzzier, and murkier than the digital DVD experience. I had no trouble understanding anything in Hamlet on DVD.

So there is clearly a trade-off in going to Ebertfest. What you gain in buzz and bigness and event camaraderie at the Virginia, you lose in technical crispness and the repeatability of watching the movies at home.

-- PG

Day Two

PG hated Canvas, I loved it. Such is the fun of EbertFest. You are either swept away with a storyline and don’t look back, or you don’t buy it and are annoyed and wish robots or subtitles would make running wisecracks at the bottom of the screen to break up the boredom. You say tomato, I say tomata, and if we can avoid throwing them at each other, we are allowed to remain upstanding citizens of civilization for at least one more day.

Canvas was kind of a mirror of Delirious: a serious movie about ordinary people dealing with real-life problems vs. a fun but flawed movie about fame and people living on the fringes of society.

What drew me into Canvas was the kid. His occasional outbursts reminded me just enough of my own kids that I naturally felt for him, and so I willingly jumped headlong into the sentimentality of the story. How damaged would my own kids be to see their mom dragged away by the police for the crime of being schizophrenic? That scene sealed the deal for me.

I also liked that most of the characters had good intentions and were trying hard to honorably deal with their predicament. The antagonist was schizophrenia, with a little jerk-boss thrown in for good measure. The ending was very satisfying, not filled with unearned tripe about everything being fine, but finding a nice little moment of hope and acceptance.

Joey Pantoliano was a ball of energy during the interview. He said he has ADD and dyslexia and a friend had committed suicide before filming and the film allowed him to channel his grief and that he originally saw it as a way to “wash the stench of Ralphy out” plus a whole lot of other things. He left us with a great quote: “When you talk to God, it’s called prayer. When God talks to you, it’s called schizophrenia.” I knew there was a simpler explanation for George W. Bush.

-------

Delirious had a lot going for it, but was ultimately undone by the love story between the pop star and the homeless guy, which I just didn’t buy. But there was a lot to like. I was immediately drawn into the opening sequence, which was a day in the life of homeless Toby (Michael Pitt), who turns out to be a sweet, honest kid. He is played against Steve Buscemi’s Les, paparazzi with deep emotional problems, but who does help the kid, despite himself.

The movie has a lot to say about the culture of fame, and the complications and limits of helping others in desperate times.

Time pressure prevents a fuller review, but I liked Lisa Rosman's assessement in the after-movie interview, where the whole movie could be the scene when Les is freaked out in the bathroom after trying to actually interact with truly famous people. Despite trying to convince himself he is the same and equal, he simply can’t do it, and comes out snapping pictures at them, which is the only way he knows how to deal with them.

So, I'm now off to go see how people use shotguns instead of cameras to deal with each other...

-Dan Schreiber

CANVAS

1. Some people say, “If you can’t say something good about someone, don’t say anything at all.”

2. Other people say, “If you can’t say something good about someone, come sit next to me.”

3. Some people have schizophrenia. Some people fear and stigmatize those people who have schizophrenia. Some movies stereotype the people with schizophrenia and the people who fear and stigmatize them.

4. “Canvas” is a movie about schizophrenia, or rather it is a movie about the stigma of mental illness. Let’s say something good for schizophrenia. Those were the days. I remember them well.

5. The director of “Canvas” and the producers (including Joey Pants of the Sopranos) had a personal stake in the creation of this movie. I think making it must have been therapy for them, not unlike the therapy-slash-creativity that the characters in the movie use to find release. Marcia Gay Harden paints in the hospital on canvas; her long-suffering husband (Joey Pantoliano) builds a sailboat in the driveway (with canvas sails); their young son uses his sewing machine to make designer t-shirts for his girlfriends, but he’s not gay.

6. If I can’t find anything good to say about “Canvas,” will Joey Pants of the Sopranos kill my horse? Wait a minute, I don’t have a horse.

7. David Mamet wrote in his book “Bambi vs. Godzilla” about, what he calls “affliction drama,” entertainment that “enlists the human capacity for sympathy and asks the sympathetic to weep.” He calls this a “hijacking of the dramatic transaction,” the theatrical equivalent of “bringing a gun to a knife fight.” It is intellectual blackmail. You can’t express criticism or dislike of certain plays or movies without looking like you are insensitive, as best.

8. It took me a while, but I finally found a way to appreciate “Canvas.” I decided that one should imagine silhouettes of robots at the bottom of the screen, throwing out wisecracks at every telescoped turn of event and easily predictable line of dialogue. And then laugh gleefully like a sophomore. Or an insane person.

9. Did you really miss the return of “Lost” on Thursday night to go see “Canvas” at the Virginia?

10. Augusten Burroughs has a new book about his mad and callous father, a sequel to his book about his mad mother, “Running with Scissors.” People say he makes up his memoirs, or at least exaggerates wildly. So be it. It is preferable to be so artful in one’s memories. “Canvas” has no subtext, nothing beneath its surfaces, no sense of inner experience for mother, father, or son. It is superficial and obvious. One learns nothing. One feels nothing.

11. Why is this movie in a film festival again?

12. Another way to watch “Canvas” is to listen to the sentimental music cues, tinkly piano, warm guitar, syrupy violin, cued by clockwork. Don’t listen to the voices. Don’t listen to the voices.

13. Was it Bette Davis who said, “I adore cheap sentiment”? Or maybe Mae West. Maybe I said it last week. Never mind.

14. People said Charlie Chaplin was too sentimental. Those people didn’t see “Canvas.”

15. Watching “Canvas,” I knew everything was going to go wrong – the mother would refuse to take her medication, the boy would get bullied and then end up in the principal’s office when he fights back, the father would lose his job. “Canvas” is a movie of inevitability. One doesn’t dread so much as anticipate every step. Well, maybe dread isn’t so far off, either.

16. Pretty good title, though.

17. Nice final scene, sailing with schizophrenia through the streets in surreal acceptance.

18. There, I said something nice. Don’t come to my house, Joey Pants.

-- PG

Best Golden Thumb Quote Ever

"I know just where I'm going to stick this thumb the next time I see my distributor."


- Tom DiCillo, director of Delirious

Infinite Text

Last week, I briefly toyed with the idea of reading David Foster Wallace's doorstop novel, Infinite Jest, and then just as quickly discarded the idea. "Maybe when I'm old... er," I thought. "Good title, though."

But then, luxuriating in Kenneth Branaugh's Hamlet again after waiting for more than a decade for it to be released on DVD, there was the famous scene in the graveyard, with Billy Crystal as the gravedigger, Branaugh as a really petulant and rude young snot Hamlet holding the skull of Yorick, the court jester. And Hamlet recalls his clown Yorick as being a man of "infinite jest."

I should have known. The title was from Shakespeare, not David Foster Wallace.

Branaugh's Hamlet is the unadulterated text, four hours worth, rarely performed so completely, and a treasure trove of lines, quotes, comments, sayings, wisdom, phrases, and even apparently postmodern book titles. My copy of Bartlett's lists 268 sayings attributed to the play, which calculates as more than one per minute in Branaugh's version. Even people who have never seen the play are going to recognize it and respond.

I don't know how many Hamlets I've seen, either on film or on the stage. The Internet Movie Database lists 64 film versions. Mel Gibson played Hamlet, with Glenn Close as his mother Gertrude, in Franco Zeffirelli's 1991 film version. (That one clocks in at about two hours.) In 1976, a rather experimental version was released, with Quentin Crisp as Polonius and Helen Mirren playing both Ophelia and Gertrude. A black and white Russian version, Gemlet, was made in the 1960s and just recently was released on DVD. There was a naked version (starring twins, maybe) sometime in the 1970s as I recall, although Joseph Papp's respected production with Kevin Kline and Diane Venora (165 minutes) is sometimes referred to as the naked Hamlet. And I'm pretty sure Venora once performed the title role on stage in New York. Other women have played Hamlet as well.

Venora (as Gertrude) also appears in the 90-minute, postmodern video version starring Ethan Hawke from a few years back. Bill Murray makes a memorable Polonius, Julia Stiles does Ophelia, and even Steve Zahn and Casey Affleck have roles. Set in contemporary New York, ambitious Wall Street types and downtown village artists populate the story, with Hawke's Hamlet shooting digital video to document his betrayal as a young prince of the city. It sounds strained, but it's exceptionally cool and, I venture to say, has its own authenticity and style well worth the effort.




The most memorable stage production of Hamlet I ever saw was the 1985 Wisdom Bridge production in Chicago, directed by Robert Falls. These days people refer to it as "legendary," and Falls – like Branaugh – used the entire text. It too was a postmodern collection. Scenes were represented in various different historical moments in time, from Nazis to Delta blues artists. Claudius held a televised press conference, Gertrude clearly seemed to be channeling Nancy Reagan, Talking Heads music filled the air during crucial moments, Polonius came across as Henry Kissinger, the stage overflowed with blood from a coffin, and a young Aidan Quinn turned Hamlet into a punk, spray-painting the words "to be or not to be" as graffiti. OK, it sounds awful. It wasn't.

Clearly, Hamlet can withstand a lot of adaptation. Branaugh sought to make a definitive version and perhaps he has, a definitive cinema rendering. The lavish visual quality translates well into the newly released DVD, but to have seen it in 70mm projection is certainly something to tell your grandkids, even though they'll probably be making their own YouTube three-minute versions and ignore you.

Ebertfest 2008 may be all downhill from here, but that's OK, because it started at a true pinnacle.

-- PG