WHO SAID THAT?
Let’s have some fun with some famous movie lines. See how many you can correctly identify which movie they come from. For bonus points, the character that said the line. Answers at the bottom. No cheating!
1. “Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn”
2. “Who are those guys?”
3. “The stuff that dreams are made of”
4. “I’ll have what she’s having”
5. “It’s alive!”
6. “There’s no crying in baseball”
7. “Play it again, Sam”
8. “Carpe diem; seize the day, boys!”
9. “Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re going to get”
10. “Fasten your seatbelts! It’s gonna be a bumpy night.”
12. “Rosebud”
13. “You’ve got to ask yourself one question- do I feel lucky? Well, do you, punk?”
14. “Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore”
15. “Here’s looking at you, kid”
ANSWERS:
1. Rhett Butler as he leaves a tearful Scarett O’Hara in Gone With The Wind.
2. Paul Newman to Robert Redford when they can’t shake their pursuers in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
3. Humphrey Bogart to the room at large, describing The Maltese Falcon
4. Nearby diner, played by Carl Reiner’s mom, on hearing Meg Ryan describe faking an orgasm to Billy Crystal in When Harry Met Sally
5. Dr. Frankenstein (Carl Clive) on seeing the monster (Boris Karlof) move in Frankenstein
6. Tom Hanks to Geena Davis when something goes wrong in A League Of Their Own
7. Humphrey Bogart to pianist Dooley Wilson in Casablanca, though the actual quote is “Play it, Sam. Play As Time Goes By”.
8. Robin Williams to his Prep School English class in Dead Poets’ Society
9. Tom Hanks to lady on a park bench in Forest Gump
10. Bette Davis to partygoers in All About Eve
11. Tom Hanks to Mission Control in Apollo 13.
12. Orson Welles as a dying Charles Foster Cane remembering his boyhood in Citizen Kane
13. Clint Eastwood glowering down at a captured street punk in Dirty Harry
14. Judy Garland to her little dog in The Wizard Of Oz
15. Humphrey Bogart to Ingrid Bergman in Casablanca
12-15 Cinephile
9-11 Fair
Sunday, July 30, 2017
Sunday, July 23, 2017
WINE
In my short (okay, pretty long) lifetime, North Carolina has gone from zero wineries to around 145. Who woulda thought it? Maybe some day we’ll have our own wine movie. For right now, wine movies are about other places, and some are quite good.
Sideways (2004) is the film that made pinot noir famous. Paul Giamatti plays a wine buff who is somewhat sticky about it. He takes good old boy Thomas Hayden Church on a tour of wineries in the Napa Valley. This is to be a last bachelor outing before Church’s wedding. Hijinks ensue. And Virginia Madsden’s (as Maya) two minute monlogue on the romance of wine is a highlight. Funny and charming, Sideways did well at the box office and with the critics, and sold many cases of pinot noir.
The Secret of Santa Vittoria (1969) is that the tiny village’s only product is wine, and that it must be kept out of the hands of the occupying Nazis. Anthony Quinn and Anna Magnani head a fine cast, and Hardy Kruger is good as a civilized German officer. How do you hide a million cases of wine? Watch and see!
Keanu Reeves agrees to pretend he is married to the gorgeous Aitana Sanchez-Gijon, so that her winemaker father won’t freak out when he learns she is pregnant. A Walk In the Clouds (1995) is pure romantic nonsense, and I liked it a lot. The Napa settings are beautiful and so are the people. Do the main characters fall in love? Is this a Hollywood movie?
A Good Year (2006) is based on Peter Mayle’s very popular memoir, A Year In Provence. Russell Crowe is the high stakes London financier who inherits a battered chateau and aging vineyard in Southern France. After he goes there to check out his inheritance, he gradually comes to realize the quiet charm of this place. Ridley Scott (Alien, Gladiator, Blade Runner) is the unlikely director. And yet, I think it works pretty well. Marion Cotillard is ideal as the love interest. The two principals had a brief, but delightful, meeting as children.
The little-known but utterly winning Bottle Shock (2008) is the fascinating story of how the American vintners soundly whipped the snooty French at a blind tasting on France’s home court. Alan Rickman is perfect as a British wineshop owner who devises the plan after a trip to California to taste the local products. Before this event, the world at large viewed American wines as little better than soda pop. After this, the playing field was never the same. The movie does a good job portraying what happened.
All of the movies in this article are available on DVD. All are for grown-ups.
###
In my short (okay, pretty long) lifetime, North Carolina has gone from zero wineries to around 145. Who woulda thought it? Maybe some day we’ll have our own wine movie. For right now, wine movies are about other places, and some are quite good.
Sideways (2004) is the film that made pinot noir famous. Paul Giamatti plays a wine buff who is somewhat sticky about it. He takes good old boy Thomas Hayden Church on a tour of wineries in the Napa Valley. This is to be a last bachelor outing before Church’s wedding. Hijinks ensue. And Virginia Madsden’s (as Maya) two minute monlogue on the romance of wine is a highlight. Funny and charming, Sideways did well at the box office and with the critics, and sold many cases of pinot noir.
The Secret of Santa Vittoria (1969) is that the tiny village’s only product is wine, and that it must be kept out of the hands of the occupying Nazis. Anthony Quinn and Anna Magnani head a fine cast, and Hardy Kruger is good as a civilized German officer. How do you hide a million cases of wine? Watch and see!
Keanu Reeves agrees to pretend he is married to the gorgeous Aitana Sanchez-Gijon, so that her winemaker father won’t freak out when he learns she is pregnant. A Walk In the Clouds (1995) is pure romantic nonsense, and I liked it a lot. The Napa settings are beautiful and so are the people. Do the main characters fall in love? Is this a Hollywood movie?
A Good Year (2006) is based on Peter Mayle’s very popular memoir, A Year In Provence. Russell Crowe is the high stakes London financier who inherits a battered chateau and aging vineyard in Southern France. After he goes there to check out his inheritance, he gradually comes to realize the quiet charm of this place. Ridley Scott (Alien, Gladiator, Blade Runner) is the unlikely director. And yet, I think it works pretty well. Marion Cotillard is ideal as the love interest. The two principals had a brief, but delightful, meeting as children.
The little-known but utterly winning Bottle Shock (2008) is the fascinating story of how the American vintners soundly whipped the snooty French at a blind tasting on France’s home court. Alan Rickman is perfect as a British wineshop owner who devises the plan after a trip to California to taste the local products. Before this event, the world at large viewed American wines as little better than soda pop. After this, the playing field was never the same. The movie does a good job portraying what happened.
All of the movies in this article are available on DVD. All are for grown-ups.
###
Sunday, July 16, 2017
WHAT WENT RIGHT?
When I heard these movies were coming, my expectations weren’t great. And yet each of them turned out to be a home run, delighting all those (ok, most of those) who thought the enterprise was doomed from birth.
Judith Guest’s Ordinary People (1980) is an incredible first novel that astonishes with its depth and feeling. So when I heard the movie was to feature comedienne Mary Tyler Moore as the mother, and that it was to be directed (in his first effort) by matinee idol Robert Redford, I despaired. Wrong. Ms. Moore, Donald Sutherland, Judd Hirsch and Timothy Hutton are all absolutely on the mark. Mr. Redford won an Oscar, as did the screen writer, Mr. Hutton, and the picture, itself.
Forrest Gump (1984) is a rather hateful book about a mentally deficient clown from the deep south. I was wondering why they even made it. And it only won six Oscars and deserved every one. The performances director Robert Zemekis gets from his talented cast makes this film both a critical hit and an audience delight. Tom Hanks is perfect as Forrest, and is ably backed up by Sally Field and Gary Sinise. Forrest is present at practically every important event of the 60s, and doesn’t understand any of them.
The main problem with filming Apollo 13 (1985) isn’t the lack of a good story- the problem is everyone already knows there is a happy ending and the astronauts safely complete the flight. But director Ron Howard and screenwriters William Broyles and Al Reinert turn this into a wonderfully suspenseful film full of drama, excitement and unusually good special effects. And it doesn’t hurt to have Bill Paxton, Kevin Bacon, Tom Hanks and Gary Sinise in a fine cast.
J.R.R. Tolkien’s monumental trilogy about Middle Earth, The Lord of the Rings, is unbeatable cinematic material. But could it satisfy the legion of cult followers and the casual movie-goer? Yes. Peter Jackson has pulled together incredible special effects, a fantastic story, and absolutely breath-taking scenery into one of the truly unforgettable movie experiences. Released in 2001, 2002 and 2003, these are movie movies! And yet, they could not leave well enough alone and the Hobbitt sequels are at best so-so.
Cold Mountain (2003) is a justly-praised first novel by Tar Heel Charles Frazier and perhaps the best civil war novel ever written. So when I heard it was to feature Jude Law (a Brit), Nicole Kidman (an Aussie) and Rene Zelwegger ( a comedienne) , and that it was to be shot in Romania (!), I was all set for it to crash and burn. Instead it soars, bringing the story perfectly to the screen.
All of the films in this column are available on DVD. All are fine for 8 and up.
###
When I heard these movies were coming, my expectations weren’t great. And yet each of them turned out to be a home run, delighting all those (ok, most of those) who thought the enterprise was doomed from birth.
Judith Guest’s Ordinary People (1980) is an incredible first novel that astonishes with its depth and feeling. So when I heard the movie was to feature comedienne Mary Tyler Moore as the mother, and that it was to be directed (in his first effort) by matinee idol Robert Redford, I despaired. Wrong. Ms. Moore, Donald Sutherland, Judd Hirsch and Timothy Hutton are all absolutely on the mark. Mr. Redford won an Oscar, as did the screen writer, Mr. Hutton, and the picture, itself.
Forrest Gump (1984) is a rather hateful book about a mentally deficient clown from the deep south. I was wondering why they even made it. And it only won six Oscars and deserved every one. The performances director Robert Zemekis gets from his talented cast makes this film both a critical hit and an audience delight. Tom Hanks is perfect as Forrest, and is ably backed up by Sally Field and Gary Sinise. Forrest is present at practically every important event of the 60s, and doesn’t understand any of them.
The main problem with filming Apollo 13 (1985) isn’t the lack of a good story- the problem is everyone already knows there is a happy ending and the astronauts safely complete the flight. But director Ron Howard and screenwriters William Broyles and Al Reinert turn this into a wonderfully suspenseful film full of drama, excitement and unusually good special effects. And it doesn’t hurt to have Bill Paxton, Kevin Bacon, Tom Hanks and Gary Sinise in a fine cast.
J.R.R. Tolkien’s monumental trilogy about Middle Earth, The Lord of the Rings, is unbeatable cinematic material. But could it satisfy the legion of cult followers and the casual movie-goer? Yes. Peter Jackson has pulled together incredible special effects, a fantastic story, and absolutely breath-taking scenery into one of the truly unforgettable movie experiences. Released in 2001, 2002 and 2003, these are movie movies! And yet, they could not leave well enough alone and the Hobbitt sequels are at best so-so.
Cold Mountain (2003) is a justly-praised first novel by Tar Heel Charles Frazier and perhaps the best civil war novel ever written. So when I heard it was to feature Jude Law (a Brit), Nicole Kidman (an Aussie) and Rene Zelwegger ( a comedienne) , and that it was to be shot in Romania (!), I was all set for it to crash and burn. Instead it soars, bringing the story perfectly to the screen.
All of the films in this column are available on DVD. All are fine for 8 and up.
###
Sunday, July 2, 2017
WHAT WENT WRONG?
When you’d read the book, or just heard they were making the movie, you were excited. You couldn’t wait to see this story brought to the silver screen. Then it was. And it was terribly disappointing. What went wrong?
Cormac McCarthy’s All The Pretty Horses (2000) was a wonderful book, winning popular and critical acclaim. It was incredibly cinematic. But the film, with Matt Damon and Henry Thomas (of ET fame) just never gels. First time director Billy Bob Thornton’s tracks are painfully obvious- bad editing, uneven pace. It’s not that it is a bad movie- it just could have been so much better.
On the other hand, there is Beloved (1998). Toni Morrison’s densely ethereal novel would be a stretch for anyone to put on the screen. And the film is a total mess. It singlehandedly sidetracked the career of Thandie Newton (who isn’t that bad), and proved that even Oprah Winfrey can be very wrong. Full of pseudo spiritualism and hocus pocus, it requires a leap of faith not worth making.
Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil (1997) is a quirky but quite entertaining book about Savannah, murder, voodoo and the best stripping male impersonator ever. Clint Eastwood directed. Kevin Spacey is always good, as is John Cusak. But the movie doesn’t get it. Perhaps Eastwood tried to include too much of the book, but it is wandering and very disappointing.
In Tom Wolfe’s wickedly funny book there are really no heroes. And that is just one of the problems in Bonfire of the Vanities (1990), one of the worst movies of the 90's. There is talent to burn (and it is burned in this movie). It was directed by Brian DePalma and featured Tom Hanks, Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman and Melanie Griffith. But the characters are turned to pasteboard and the story jumps the tracks and we are left not with satire but mean-spirited hatefulness.
Chaplin (1992) wastes a sterling performance by Robert Downey Jr. in the title role and an incredible career story by never deciding what it wants to be about. Chaplin’s life is interesting, but his films are the thing, and the writers and director just don’t seem to get it.
Some other near and far misses include Ali (2001), a strangely emotionless film about the heavyweight champ, and two Broadway musicals with all the stage magic drained out- A Chorus Line (1985) and Annie (1982) and (2014).
All of the films in this article are available on DVD. All are for grown-ups.
I was asked recently why I stopped saying movies were available for streaming. That’s because I don’t know if they are or not, and there are so many streaming outlets I can’t keep up. For a while, I was blithely saying films were available for streaming just because the DVD was out. But one doesn’t necessarily follow the other.
When you’d read the book, or just heard they were making the movie, you were excited. You couldn’t wait to see this story brought to the silver screen. Then it was. And it was terribly disappointing. What went wrong?
Cormac McCarthy’s All The Pretty Horses (2000) was a wonderful book, winning popular and critical acclaim. It was incredibly cinematic. But the film, with Matt Damon and Henry Thomas (of ET fame) just never gels. First time director Billy Bob Thornton’s tracks are painfully obvious- bad editing, uneven pace. It’s not that it is a bad movie- it just could have been so much better.
On the other hand, there is Beloved (1998). Toni Morrison’s densely ethereal novel would be a stretch for anyone to put on the screen. And the film is a total mess. It singlehandedly sidetracked the career of Thandie Newton (who isn’t that bad), and proved that even Oprah Winfrey can be very wrong. Full of pseudo spiritualism and hocus pocus, it requires a leap of faith not worth making.
Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil (1997) is a quirky but quite entertaining book about Savannah, murder, voodoo and the best stripping male impersonator ever. Clint Eastwood directed. Kevin Spacey is always good, as is John Cusak. But the movie doesn’t get it. Perhaps Eastwood tried to include too much of the book, but it is wandering and very disappointing.
In Tom Wolfe’s wickedly funny book there are really no heroes. And that is just one of the problems in Bonfire of the Vanities (1990), one of the worst movies of the 90's. There is talent to burn (and it is burned in this movie). It was directed by Brian DePalma and featured Tom Hanks, Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman and Melanie Griffith. But the characters are turned to pasteboard and the story jumps the tracks and we are left not with satire but mean-spirited hatefulness.
Chaplin (1992) wastes a sterling performance by Robert Downey Jr. in the title role and an incredible career story by never deciding what it wants to be about. Chaplin’s life is interesting, but his films are the thing, and the writers and director just don’t seem to get it.
Some other near and far misses include Ali (2001), a strangely emotionless film about the heavyweight champ, and two Broadway musicals with all the stage magic drained out- A Chorus Line (1985) and Annie (1982) and (2014).
All of the films in this article are available on DVD. All are for grown-ups.
I was asked recently why I stopped saying movies were available for streaming. That’s because I don’t know if they are or not, and there are so many streaming outlets I can’t keep up. For a while, I was blithely saying films were available for streaming just because the DVD was out. But one doesn’t necessarily follow the other.
Sunday, June 25, 2017
UNJUSTLY ACCUSED
There have been many excellent movies about defendants who were unjustly accused and convicted. In 2012 the peerless Ken Burns weighed in with his take on The Central Park Five. A horrific rape and assault of a female jogger in New York’s Central Park captured the attention of a nation. Five young men in the wrong place at the wrong time are brought in and grilled. Believing they will be allowed to go home if they tell the cops what they want to hear, several confess. Their trials are swift and merciless and they are sentenced to long prison terms. Then, years later, a convicted rapist admits that in fact he was the culprit. This is a fascinating story, made more so by the fact that the prosecutors still maintain their belief in the guilt of these young men in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
You don’t have to go far to find a similar case. The Trials Of Darryl Hunt (2006) is about a wrongly accused North Carolina man who spent 19 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. A young reporter for the Winston-Salem Journal was brutally raped and murdered leaving her workplace. Hunt was convicted on shaky eyewitness testimony placing him near the scene. DNA evidence exonerated Hunt. Another person, linked to the crime by his own DNA, confessed.
The Thin Blue Line (1988) is directed by esteemed documentarian Errol Morris (Gates Of Heaven, Mr. Death, A Brief History Of Time). A policeman is murdered in a drive-by shooting, and a juvenile implicates Randall Dale Adams as the killer. Morris carefully re-enacts the crime from various angles and pretty much proves that Adams is innocent. A year later Adams was exonerated and released.
Jessica Sanders’ After Innocence (2005) covers not one but seven defendants who were sentenced to prison and later exonerated by DNA evidence. While not as intensive as the films about a single case, Sanders’ method is very convincing and very troubling. This film won several awards and is a real eye-opener.
Conviction (2010) is not a documentary, but is based on a true story. Hillary Swank plays Betty Ann Waters, a high school dropout who put herself through law school so she could take up the case of her brother Kenny, serving a life sentence for murder.
West Of Memphis (2012) represents the conclusion of a bunch of films about the same incident. HBO shot three films about the West Memphis Three who were jailed on extremely shaky evidence and slipshod police work. Those are all titled Paradise Lost and were released in 1996, 2000 and 2012. They are just fine but perhaps more than most of you will want to know about this incident. West Of Memphis tells the story quite well in about two hours.
All of the movies in this article are available on DVD. All are for mature audiences.
There have been many excellent movies about defendants who were unjustly accused and convicted. In 2012 the peerless Ken Burns weighed in with his take on The Central Park Five. A horrific rape and assault of a female jogger in New York’s Central Park captured the attention of a nation. Five young men in the wrong place at the wrong time are brought in and grilled. Believing they will be allowed to go home if they tell the cops what they want to hear, several confess. Their trials are swift and merciless and they are sentenced to long prison terms. Then, years later, a convicted rapist admits that in fact he was the culprit. This is a fascinating story, made more so by the fact that the prosecutors still maintain their belief in the guilt of these young men in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
You don’t have to go far to find a similar case. The Trials Of Darryl Hunt (2006) is about a wrongly accused North Carolina man who spent 19 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. A young reporter for the Winston-Salem Journal was brutally raped and murdered leaving her workplace. Hunt was convicted on shaky eyewitness testimony placing him near the scene. DNA evidence exonerated Hunt. Another person, linked to the crime by his own DNA, confessed.
The Thin Blue Line (1988) is directed by esteemed documentarian Errol Morris (Gates Of Heaven, Mr. Death, A Brief History Of Time). A policeman is murdered in a drive-by shooting, and a juvenile implicates Randall Dale Adams as the killer. Morris carefully re-enacts the crime from various angles and pretty much proves that Adams is innocent. A year later Adams was exonerated and released.
Jessica Sanders’ After Innocence (2005) covers not one but seven defendants who were sentenced to prison and later exonerated by DNA evidence. While not as intensive as the films about a single case, Sanders’ method is very convincing and very troubling. This film won several awards and is a real eye-opener.
Conviction (2010) is not a documentary, but is based on a true story. Hillary Swank plays Betty Ann Waters, a high school dropout who put herself through law school so she could take up the case of her brother Kenny, serving a life sentence for murder.
West Of Memphis (2012) represents the conclusion of a bunch of films about the same incident. HBO shot three films about the West Memphis Three who were jailed on extremely shaky evidence and slipshod police work. Those are all titled Paradise Lost and were released in 1996, 2000 and 2012. They are just fine but perhaps more than most of you will want to know about this incident. West Of Memphis tells the story quite well in about two hours.
All of the movies in this article are available on DVD. All are for mature audiences.
Sunday, June 18, 2017
GLENNE HEADLY
Glenne Headly died recently at the too-young age of 62 in her home in Santa Monica, California. While many show biz types blather on and on about family, Ms. Headly walked the walk. After becoming a mom, she continued to work, but only in productions close to her home or during school breaks. Her impressive film resume’ is bunched into the 80's and 90's. After that period most of her work was in TV and on the stage.
Glenne Headly’s break-out role came in 1988. She landed the juicy part of Janet Colgate in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and she definitely made the most of it. Steve Martin and Michael Caine are sleazy con men fleecing innocent rich people on the Riviera. Their attempt to con Janet is turned on its head by her cleverness. She manages to seem both clueless and intelligent in a difficult part that makes the movie a good one. She came up with the surprise ending that director Frank Oz readily put into his film. Oz credited Ms. Headly with the idea and praised her intelligence and savvy.
The 1990's had a bunch of movies based on comic strips, some good, some not so good. One of the best was Dick Tracy (1990) with Warren Beatty as the square-jawed gung ho detective and Glenne Headly as Tess Trueheart, his girlfriend. Today’s audiences may find this film a bit simple-minded, but the colors are garish and wonderful and the acting spot-on. Do you remember that this strip gave us the famous two-way wrist radios? Everyone now has an even better one! And Tracy’s enemies were famously unique: Flattop, Pruneface, The Mole, Measles, etc.
Ordinary Magic (1993) features newcomer Ryan Reynolds as a young man raised in India by a very idealistic and activist father. When the father dies, the young man is sent to live with an aunt, played by Glenne Headly, in Canada. When she is faced with an unfair eviction, her nephew motivates the community against this wrongful situation. The cruel landlord is played by, of all people, Paul Anka! Those of you under 60 may not remember him as a popular singer.
Mr. Holland’s Opus (1995) stars Richard Dreyfuss as a talented musician and composer who accepts a high school teaching position in order to spend more time with his young wife, Iris, played by Glenne Headly, and his infant son. The bureaucrats are after him from day one, contending that music education is not important and a frill to be cut from an already strained budget. They finally get the music budget cut and Mr. Holland is on his way out. But on his last day at the school something wonderful happens, crafted by his wife and son and many former students. There’s not a dry eye in the house!
After this part, Ms. Headly voiced Zootie the chimpanzee in the gleeful Babe: Pig In The City (1998) and that’s the last of the good stuff, movie-wise.
Glenne Headly can be glimpsed as Joan, a minor part in Eleni (1985) and as Olive in Saul Bellow’s Seize The Day (1986).
All of the films in this article are suitable for all ages, factoring in the boredom quotient for littlies.
Glenne Headly died recently at the too-young age of 62 in her home in Santa Monica, California. While many show biz types blather on and on about family, Ms. Headly walked the walk. After becoming a mom, she continued to work, but only in productions close to her home or during school breaks. Her impressive film resume’ is bunched into the 80's and 90's. After that period most of her work was in TV and on the stage.
Glenne Headly’s break-out role came in 1988. She landed the juicy part of Janet Colgate in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and she definitely made the most of it. Steve Martin and Michael Caine are sleazy con men fleecing innocent rich people on the Riviera. Their attempt to con Janet is turned on its head by her cleverness. She manages to seem both clueless and intelligent in a difficult part that makes the movie a good one. She came up with the surprise ending that director Frank Oz readily put into his film. Oz credited Ms. Headly with the idea and praised her intelligence and savvy.
The 1990's had a bunch of movies based on comic strips, some good, some not so good. One of the best was Dick Tracy (1990) with Warren Beatty as the square-jawed gung ho detective and Glenne Headly as Tess Trueheart, his girlfriend. Today’s audiences may find this film a bit simple-minded, but the colors are garish and wonderful and the acting spot-on. Do you remember that this strip gave us the famous two-way wrist radios? Everyone now has an even better one! And Tracy’s enemies were famously unique: Flattop, Pruneface, The Mole, Measles, etc.
Ordinary Magic (1993) features newcomer Ryan Reynolds as a young man raised in India by a very idealistic and activist father. When the father dies, the young man is sent to live with an aunt, played by Glenne Headly, in Canada. When she is faced with an unfair eviction, her nephew motivates the community against this wrongful situation. The cruel landlord is played by, of all people, Paul Anka! Those of you under 60 may not remember him as a popular singer.
Mr. Holland’s Opus (1995) stars Richard Dreyfuss as a talented musician and composer who accepts a high school teaching position in order to spend more time with his young wife, Iris, played by Glenne Headly, and his infant son. The bureaucrats are after him from day one, contending that music education is not important and a frill to be cut from an already strained budget. They finally get the music budget cut and Mr. Holland is on his way out. But on his last day at the school something wonderful happens, crafted by his wife and son and many former students. There’s not a dry eye in the house!
After this part, Ms. Headly voiced Zootie the chimpanzee in the gleeful Babe: Pig In The City (1998) and that’s the last of the good stuff, movie-wise.
Glenne Headly can be glimpsed as Joan, a minor part in Eleni (1985) and as Olive in Saul Bellow’s Seize The Day (1986).
All of the films in this article are suitable for all ages, factoring in the boredom quotient for littlies.
Sunday, June 11, 2017
INSPIRED BY THE BARD
Here’s an interesting bunch of films that are loosely (some of them tightly) based on Shakespeare’s plays.
Anyone who has the slightest interest in Shakespeare will be intrigued by Al Pacino’s Looking For Richard (1996). It features selected scenes from Richard III (played by Pacino), with Alec Baldwin, Winona Ryder, Aidan Quinn and Kevin Spacey. It also features these actors discussing their roles, background on the play itself, and some insightful points from scholars, as well as actors who have trod the boards in Shakespeare plays.
Rosencranz And Guildenstern Are Dead (1990) is loosely based on the lives of two fairly minor characters in Hamlet. Unaware that their fates are sealed by their parts in the play, they blindly stumble around trying to deviate from those roles. Gary Oldman, Tim Roth and Richard Dreyfuss star in this comical absurdist film scripted by the talented Tom Stoppard. Though perhaps an acquired taste, this film rewards attentive viewers with solid entertainment.
For a hundred years after Shakespeare’s plays were written and first performed, women were by law banned from acting on stage. This meant that every part, male and female, was played by men. In Stage Beauty (2004), Billy Crudup is an actor famous for portraying women. Claire Danes wants to act, so gets started by playing a woman in a minor league play. This attracts so much attention that King Charles II is persuaded to change the ban around 1650. How this is accomplished will not be revealed here.
A Double Life (1947) is 70 years old, but holds up well. Ronald Coleman is a Shakespearean actor best known for his portrayal of Othello. He becomes more and more unable to separate his stage life from real life, with increasingly tragic results. Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin penned this excellent screenplay, and they contend that actors getting too much into their characters is a fairly common problem.
Leonard Bernstein traded warring families for warring New York gangs for the marvelous West Side Story (1961). It’s Romeo and Juliet with music and dancing, and its charm is still evident after more than 50 years.
King Lear’s terrible daughters (well, two out of three) are the basis for several good films. Japanese master Akira Kurosawa’s Ran (1985) is a colorful take. And A Thousand Acres (1997) is based on Jane Smiley’s novel of family troubles on an Iowa farm.
Here are two movies based on The Tempest. 1948's Yellow Sky with Gregory Peck as an outlaw seems a bit of a stretch to me. But in1956 came Forbidden Planet with Walter Pigeon, Anne Francis and one of the first screen robots. This one is really close to the Shakespeare plot.
The crown jewel of this group of films is the marvelous Shakespeare In Love (1998). It is an almost completely fictional account of the life of William Shakespeare at the time he was writing Romeo and Juliet. The Bard is played winningly by Ralph Fiennes and Gwyneth Paltrow is his Juliet-like love interest. This movie won a truckload of Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Actress (Paltrow) and Best Supporting Actress (the iconic Judy Dench). It is also a barrel of fun!
All of the films in this column are available on DVD.
Here’s an interesting bunch of films that are loosely (some of them tightly) based on Shakespeare’s plays.
Anyone who has the slightest interest in Shakespeare will be intrigued by Al Pacino’s Looking For Richard (1996). It features selected scenes from Richard III (played by Pacino), with Alec Baldwin, Winona Ryder, Aidan Quinn and Kevin Spacey. It also features these actors discussing their roles, background on the play itself, and some insightful points from scholars, as well as actors who have trod the boards in Shakespeare plays.
Rosencranz And Guildenstern Are Dead (1990) is loosely based on the lives of two fairly minor characters in Hamlet. Unaware that their fates are sealed by their parts in the play, they blindly stumble around trying to deviate from those roles. Gary Oldman, Tim Roth and Richard Dreyfuss star in this comical absurdist film scripted by the talented Tom Stoppard. Though perhaps an acquired taste, this film rewards attentive viewers with solid entertainment.
For a hundred years after Shakespeare’s plays were written and first performed, women were by law banned from acting on stage. This meant that every part, male and female, was played by men. In Stage Beauty (2004), Billy Crudup is an actor famous for portraying women. Claire Danes wants to act, so gets started by playing a woman in a minor league play. This attracts so much attention that King Charles II is persuaded to change the ban around 1650. How this is accomplished will not be revealed here.
A Double Life (1947) is 70 years old, but holds up well. Ronald Coleman is a Shakespearean actor best known for his portrayal of Othello. He becomes more and more unable to separate his stage life from real life, with increasingly tragic results. Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin penned this excellent screenplay, and they contend that actors getting too much into their characters is a fairly common problem.
Leonard Bernstein traded warring families for warring New York gangs for the marvelous West Side Story (1961). It’s Romeo and Juliet with music and dancing, and its charm is still evident after more than 50 years.
King Lear’s terrible daughters (well, two out of three) are the basis for several good films. Japanese master Akira Kurosawa’s Ran (1985) is a colorful take. And A Thousand Acres (1997) is based on Jane Smiley’s novel of family troubles on an Iowa farm.
Here are two movies based on The Tempest. 1948's Yellow Sky with Gregory Peck as an outlaw seems a bit of a stretch to me. But in1956 came Forbidden Planet with Walter Pigeon, Anne Francis and one of the first screen robots. This one is really close to the Shakespeare plot.
The crown jewel of this group of films is the marvelous Shakespeare In Love (1998). It is an almost completely fictional account of the life of William Shakespeare at the time he was writing Romeo and Juliet. The Bard is played winningly by Ralph Fiennes and Gwyneth Paltrow is his Juliet-like love interest. This movie won a truckload of Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Actress (Paltrow) and Best Supporting Actress (the iconic Judy Dench). It is also a barrel of fun!
All of the films in this column are available on DVD.
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