Movie Blurt

27/10/2023

Woke film schools are now feeling the need to recontextualize classic films, judging them according to today's social norms rather than by those in place when they were made.

Don't be surprised if soon we hear that Citizen Kane wasn't much of a film because Kane's newspaper didn't publish editorials promoting the use of wind and solar energy and the HR department didn't guarantee a safe and welcoming environment for transgender staff. Welles should have known in 1941 where we'd be in 2023.

Administrators from top film schools weigh in on how to teach films with problematic legacies like "Gone With the Wind."

23/10/2023

"It's always frustrated me that many people don't consider the movie a musical, which makes me nuts--because it has more music than most musicals."
--John Landis, director of "The Blues Brothers."

16/10/2023

If you've ever wondered about how silent movies were written, this explanation by one of the silents' brightest stars will shed light on the matter. It will also exemplify what a class act and a gracious lady she was.

16/10/2023

Does anybody really believe she directed this movie? She doesn't know how to hold her phone for a selfie video.

"Renaissance: A Film By Beyonce," in theaters Dec. 1, will allow fans to attend the singer's mega-successful world tour.

08/10/2023

When the suits at Disney tell a legendary poster artist what expression a character should have.

06/10/2023

There was never a better movie poster artist than Drew Struzan.

Eddie Murphy and Richard Pryor in “Harlem Nights” (1989) Unpublished Concept Painting…

06/10/2023

Shirley Q offers this film review set to music.

Miss Liquor just finished watching that abomination known as Titanic.

29/09/2023

You don't have to like what everybody else likes. It's better that you be true to your own authentic preferences. But if you're curious about what Netflix DVD customers liked the most (and rented the most), here's the list straight from those who know.

Today Netflix ships its last DVDs after 25 years in the DVD rental business. They were a DVD-only company for 10 years before they got into streaming. And today they're the biggest streaming service of them all. They have 238 million streaming customers and only one million DVD customers. So they felt it didn't make sense to keep shipping DVDs.

Netflix has released their list of the most rented DVD's of all time. After announcing that they will end thei...

28/09/2023

A tribute from one genius stylist to another. Struzan is the best movie poster artist ever.

Remembering Jim Henson on his Birthday today 🎂

23/09/2023

The DVD side of Netflix shuts down in one week. Their catalog of movies was much bigger than on the streaming side. And a lot of their DVDs had special features with BTS featurettes--sometimes my favorite part!

I'll miss Netflix red envelopes in my mailbox. I've been with them for over 20 years. Sometime this week I'll have to download my rental history just for giggles.

21/08/2023

This clown is a film critic like I'm a professional wrestler.

Paul has some notes on Christopher Nolan's latest film

29/07/2023

An impressive trailer has been released for Ridley Scott's big Napoleon movie starring Joaquin Phoenix. I'm a big fan of both Scott and Phoenix, but this new movie is going to have to be something truly great to surpass my current favorite Napoleon movie, The Emperor's New Clothes.

Starring Ian Holm as Napoleon and Iben Hjejle as the woman who wins his heart, it's a clever tale of speculative fiction well worth your time.

What would have happened if, instead of dying in exile on the island of St Helens in 1821, defeated emperor Napoleon Bonaparte (Ian Holm) escaped and attempt...

19/07/2023

What a week for movies, huh?

Hat tip to Sean Longmore Design.

17/07/2023

I wouldn't bet against any prediction from Barry Diller.

There's a good chance we're headed for a sea change in TV and movies similar to the one that hit the music industry 20 years ago.

If you like the way things are now, enjoy it. Because the entertainment industry may be unrecognizable in just a year or two.

It's likely the transformation in cinema and television will mirror what happened in music but will be different. "Similar but different" is the key factor in many things like this when you see history repeating itself.

The changes in music made it a lot harder for bands and artists to get a recording contract but made it possible for a lot more bands and artists to find an audience through their own means. The unsigned artist became conspicuous and ubiquitous on the music landscape. A rapper with no record label who only released his material on SoundCloud won a Grammy.

If this goes the way I think it might, this will open things up for independent low-budget filmmakers. The unions will lose a lot of their power. Maybe all of it. And the marketplace will become more egalitarian. Talent will prevail more than industry stature. Studio moguls will become dinosaurs.

Or it could go a completely different way. I don't deserve any awards for fortune-telling. But I see big changes in the wind.

A failure to resolve twin strikes of the writers’ and screen actors' guilds could lead to “devastating effects" if ...

18/04/2023

Netflix DVD is closing up shop later this year. We knew it was coming, we just didn't know when. The streaming side of Netflix is going strong and will continue. But fewer people are interested in watching movies at home off physical media.

Renting DVDs through the mail was Netflix's entire business model initially; they added their streaming service only after there was enough network bandwidth to support it. At one time, Netflix streaming accounted for one-third of the bandwidth use in the United States.

Netflix will ship their last DVD on September 29, 2023.

On April 18th, we announced that after 25 years of shipping DVDs, this will be our Final Season, and we'll ship our last disc on September 29th, 2023.

22/02/2023

I've watched a lot of interviews with the Coen brothers, because I want to learn everything I can about their process--they're my heroes. The biggest thing I've learned from them is, you don't have to know what you're doing. If you want to make a movie, do it. The things that stop most people from making movies who want to are trivial to the truly committed. Most people who knew these guys coming up had no reason to expect them to be successful filmmakers.

The second big thing I learned about them is that almost nobody really gets them or their movies. They and their work are so interesting that you can completely misunderstand where they're coming from and still be entertained beyond measure. The important thing to them was that THEY were entertained, and that's what kept them going when they were still making movies.

So what I'm getting so far is this:

1. Don't be afraid of making mistakes. If you catch them, you can correct them in post. If you don't catch them, at least they'll be consistent with your style--and critics will probably praise them as courageous marks of genius.

2. Be as original as possible, but don't hesitate to steal. Whatever you need to make your film interesting to you while you're making it, that's the important thing to have in your toolkit.

3. Be fearless. When you're in the edit bay trying to make the film work a year after you finished writing it, it's far more likely you'll regret not being bold enough than not being cautious enough.

4. Don't worry about what people expect of you. Nobody is going to understand what makes you go anyway. Probably even after you try to explain. Do what you like, do what ignites your passion, do what feels like an indulgence and a holiday. Because that's the kind of joy a film can give an audience, but only if you feel it first. But I'm not really sure about that last part--you may not have to feel it first for the audience to feel joy. But you should try to, because that's the best reason to make a movie.

5. Put every joke in the movie that makes you laugh, especially if nobody will get it--that will remind you who you're really making the movie for: you. Don't forget it's about process first, because that's where you live. And this is part of your life too. The best art tends to contain little pieces of yourself only you could give.

These are two intellectual Jewish brothers from the midwest who grew up watching crap movies on TV not knowing they were crap. They made Super 8 movies in their yard with neighborhood kids and somehow graduated eventually to making two of the greatest westerns of the past 50 years: True Grit (Dude, not Duke) and The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. Who saw that coming? That had nothing whatsoever to do with living up to expectations. It had to do with scratching an itch no one could see. Be true to your artistic vision, even if you can't explain it. ESPECIALLY if you can't explain it. The thing you can't explain is the only important thing. Because making the movie is its only true expression, so it drives process.

--Peter Block

A new conversation between author Dave Eggers and the Coen Brothers (Ethan Coen and Joel Coen) about the production, from inception to release, of 'Blood Sim...

22/02/2023

"It was easier directing my father than directing my daughter."
--John Huston

06/01/2023

"When I got there, Paul was in the back shooting pool, which he really enjoyed playing. We met at the bar and after we ordered, some guy came staggering over, a little smashed. 'Mr. Newman,' he said, 'I saw The Hustler three times. And I just watched you play in the other room. And I have to tell you, Mr. Newman, it's one of the great disappointments in my life.'"
--Warren Cowan

27/12/2022

Don't forget Netflix DVDs. They're not dead yet.

20/12/2022

It's too early to make predictions, but I have a good feeling about this one.

The trailer for Christopher Nolan’s latest film, “Oppenheimer” has been released by Universal Pictures. “Oppenheimer” documents the life and ethically questionable acc…

17/12/2022

If the movie isn't already scary enough, you gotta go radical.

The best way to watch ‘Jaws’ 🦈

11/09/2022

"This is the killer moment, and it comes to all of us. It came to me long ago: It will come to you soon enough. The creation of art is joyous, and it may be the closest we will all come to heaven. But the world that has been created in which art is alleged to flourish is so full of corruption and badness and absolute evil that the artist in all of us is crushed unless we are organically stupid or willfully re****ed. You must blind yourself; plug up your ears; lie and smile and shuffle. And for what? To do what you know and love to be so pure and so necessary. There is a lobotomy that is necessary to survive the narcotizing stupidity and crassness of the theatre, films, television, writing--the big circus/whorehouse that calls itself the cradle of art. Handle yourself carefully. Smile and breathe and get to where it's silent."--Marlon Brando/From “The Lake of the Mind”

30/08/2022

If you know then you know...

30/07/2022

William Powell's most memorable role in silent movies was as a sensible film director opposite Emil Jannings' Academy Award-winning performance as a fallen general in "The Last Command" (1928). This success, along with Powell's commandingly pleasant speaking voice, led to his first starring role as amateur detective Philo Vance in the talkie "The Canary Murder Case" (1929).

Powell was loved by many people in Hollywood. Actress Marion Shilling worked with him in "Shadow of the Law" (1930), and called him, "Self-effacing, deferential, exceedingly thoughtful of other people, he was one of the kindest human beings I have ever met. He sensed that I was in awe of him so, from the start, he did what he could to put me at ease."

Powell's most famous role was that of Nick Charles in six Thin Man films, beginning with "The Thin Man" in 1934, based upon Dashiell Hammett's novel. The role provided a perfect opportunity for Powell, with his resonant speaking voice, to showcase his sophisticated charm and witty sense of humor, and he received his first Academy Award nomination for "The Thin Man." Myrna Loy played his wife, Nora, in each of the "Thin Man" films. Their on-screen partnership, beginning alongside Clark Gable in 1934 with "Manhattan Melodrama," was one of Hollywood's most prolific, and they appeared in 14 films together.

Powell had difficulties retaining his lines during the filming of "Mister Roberts" (1955), something that had not happened to him in earlier films, and this was one of the reasons why this was his final film appearance. Frail health, including bouts with cancer, plus a difficult Hawaii location shoot ultimately led to the actor's retirement decision. Speaking in the late 1970s on post retirement film offers, Powell said, "When an offer comes, I ask myself, why would I do it? For the glory? The ham in me burned out years ago. For the money? I'd just be in a higher tax bracket. So I've said no for almost twenty-five years." (Wikipedia/IMDb)

Happy Birthday, William Powell!

28/06/2022

Considering how poorly Asian men are portrayed in Hollywood, I was genuinely surprised to learn about Sessue Hayakawa, a Japanese actor who became one of the biggest stars during the American silent era of the 1910s.

He became one of Hollywood’s first s*x symbols after starring in the film, The Cheat (1915) in which he plays a cruel villain (there’s a scene in which he literally brands a woman). Despite his portrayal, Hayakawa became extremely popular with American women for his “broodingly handsome” good looks. At one point, he was the highest paid actor in Hollywood (making over $3,500 a week), and his fame was on par with that of Charlie Chaplin.

Although, Hayakawa was highly sought after during the 1910s and early 1920s, he became disillusioned by constantly being typecast for the same roles. He decided to start his own production company to fight Asian stereotypes and ended up producing 23 films in a span of three years. However, he had to scrap his company after getting into an argument with a distributor who called him a racial slur.

By the 1930s, Hollywood had set strict moral guidelines called the Hays Code which prohibited in*******al love to be portrayed on screen. As a result, Hayakawa continued to be cast as either a villain or a “forbidden lover” since most of his costars were white women.

In 1937, Hayakawa went to France to star in a French film, but ended up being trapped in the country when World War 2 broke out. He sold watercolor paintings to financially support himself and joined the French resistance to help fight the Germans.

In 1949, Hayakawa—upon reflecting on his career—mentioned, "My one ambition is to play a hero".

He never really got that chance but did end up being nominated for best supporting actor for his role in The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) in which he plays an “honorable villain” in charge of a Japanese prison camp in Thailand.

Upon retirement, Hayakawa became a Zen master and dedicated his life to Zen Buddhism. He died at the age of 87 in 1973.

09/06/2022

Spelling matters.

18/05/2022

We forget that in 1972 Marlon Brando was only 48 and still a charismatic leading man. His next movie after The Godfather was Last Tango in Paris.

Marlon Brando before and after getting his make up done to be Don Vito Corleone in The Godfather, 197

18/05/2022

I imagine the conversation went something like this. A film director sits in the office of a studio executive. The executive studies him from behind his enormous desk.

Exec: Nice to see you, Chris. What are you doing currently?
Chris: I'm writing a film about J. Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb.
Exec: That sounds wonderful. Will you be doing it at Warner Brothers?
Chris: Well, Bob, I make my movies for people to see in theaters. I'm afraid Warners is committed to releasing their movies simultaneously online. I'm not really comfortable with that.
Exec: Sounds like you might be open to working with another studio.
Chris: Well, I suppose I would be if the studio committed to making the release of my movie an important event with no distractions.
Exec: We'd be happy to have you here at Universal.
Chris: I'm asking for a lot, Bob.
Exec: What do you need?
Chris: I need a $100 million production budget, complete creative control, 20 percent of the first dollar gross, a $100 million marketing budget, and you can't release another film three weeks before and three weeks after the release of my film.
Exec: Welcome to Universal Studios, Chris. I'll have a contract for you in a few days.

Christopher Nolan's "Oppenheimer" is currently shooting, starring Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr., Florence Pugh, and Rami Malek. It's scheduled for release in summer 2023.

12/04/2022

This was back before Lemmon was the movie star he became in Billy Wilder movies.

James Cagney, William Powell, Henry Fonda, Ward Bond andJack Lemmon having a little fun on the set of Mister Roberts...

21/03/2022

It must have taken a lot of confidence for Brando to ask an actor like Duvall to wear his lines for him. Sometimes geniuses devise their own unusual creative process. Sometimes they feel they're entitled to everyone's cooperation. Sometimes they are.

Marlon Brando did not memorize the majority of his lines for his role in the 1972 film, The Godfather. Actor Robert Duvall is wearing a large cue card placard for Brando.