Gross Behavior Column By Leonard KladyKlady@moviecitynews.com
GROSS BEHAVIOR: Sound and Fury…
Movie going is unquestionably destined to become the opera of the future. By that I mean that the 18th century’s favorite form of entertainment still exists but it long ago ceded its vaunted position. The movies today cannot compete with television and that diversion abetted by home entertainment has had the biggest impact on the Seventh Art since its debut circa 1896.
Read the full article »Gross Behavior: Leonard On Bingham
Bingham had a number of virtues few of us can claim. He didn’t hold many grudges and wasn’t someone prone to gotcha politics. When we talked it was a true discussion whether it was one-on-one or in a group. He wasn’t diplomatic, not that he was abusive or dogmatic. Bing simply spoke his mind and that was fine, mostly, when he was running October Films with Jeff Lipsky and problematic when he worked for others.
Read the full article »Guillaume Canet’s Series of Most Fortunate Events
Considered one of the most versatile leading actors of contemporary French cinema, Guillaume Canet self-confesses that stardom –even the prospect of becoming a working performer — was a series of accidents. Canet, 37, is ostensibly in Los Angeles for a few days to promote the film Farewell, a fact-based thriller about a French functionary in…
Read the full article »If You Build It, Will They Come?
The Los Angeles Film Festival kicks off Thursday night with a curtain raiser of The Kids Are All Right, which won awards and commercial distribution following its premiere at Sundance in January. And despite its relative nascence, LAFF is attempting to do a bit of re-imagining. The most obvious change is its location. Following home bases in Hollywood and Westwood,…
Read the full article »Let’s Be Perfectly Franque
With Cannes and COLCOA in the wings, I was reminded of an encounter with the actor Philippe Leotard (now deceased) in the streets of the French festival town. He was walking in the street with actress Nathalie Baye and I stopped him just to say how much I admired his performance in Le Gueule Ouverte, a searing family…
Read the full article »Reap What You Til
Til Schweiger is probably the biggest star in the German film industry today. He recalls the rugged masculinity of the likes of William Holden. Schweiger became a star with the release of the social comedy Der Bewegte Mann (Maybe … Maybe Not in the U.S.) in 1994 and has managed a career that has encompassed high and low brow…
Read the full article »It’s an (Organic) Wrap
Las Vegas – There was a lot to digest at the recently concluded Showest convention, ranging from matters of life and death (digital conversion, access to diverse movies) to the frankly frivolous (healthier snack foods). On balance, one left with the sense that at least the distribution sector was 1) on relatively stable economic ground and 2)…
Read the full article »It Was the Showest of Times, It Was the Showorst of Times
The film industry ought to be giddy. Box office is booming thanks to a pair of 3D movies; namely Avatar and Alice in Wonderland. Attendance is up; people, according to industry statistics, are going more often and rate the experience with four stars. Yet, apart from the rare instance of hyperbole, you’d have to characterize the mood…
Read the full article »Confessions of a Festival Junkie …
Despite avid research I’ve been stumped. The wag who observed that when one receives something for free, the value is commensurate with the cost (or words to that effect) appears to have been lost to time. I’ve certainly employed that theorem over the years and it’s something I’ve believed/experienced without exception. So, the first blush…
Read the full article »Festival in …
They don’t have car shows in Detroit. But in Los Angeles — a once near-moribund venue for alternative cinema — the landscape is rife with celebrations of the seventh art. The unprepossessing-sounding Los Angeles Film Festival is one of two annual events (the other, AFI Fest, unspools in November) that at least on paper strive…
Read the full article »The Eye of the Navel 2008
(Something Like a Top 10 List) Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. Compiling a “best of” list reflects one’s mood on the day of doing the deed. The films most recently seen are advantaged because one’s had less time to ruminate about their qualities. Today I’m feeling more magnanimous than usual and have…
Read the full article »Last One Out Turns Off the Lights
The traditional glib article about the American Film Market will talk about the parade of Troma characters parading in front of the Loew’s Santa Monica Hotel. Or, it will highlight the weird exploitation titles being sold (I Ate His Liver with Fava Beans) or the busty women handing out pamphlets and trade papers. Regardless, there’s…
Read the full article »Que la Fete Commence 2
The expression goes “that if I had a nickel for every time I (fill in the blank), I’d be a millionaire.” What crosses my mind at this particular point in time is the number of articles and words I’ve committed to film festivals. In a broad sense it can be boiled down to: the role…
Read the full article »Paul Newman
You knew something was wrong when Paul Newman announced that he was retiring from acting a couple of years ago. Oh, there had been others that had made it “official” in the past. Cary Grant stuck to his guns and Cagney stayed out of the picture for two decades until his doctor ordered him back to work. Grace…
Read the full article »Will That be Poppyseed?
The question most asked about living in Los Angeles is: why can’t you get a good bagel in the city? Some would argue otherwise and then there’s the whole explanation that involves water and yeast. With the Los Angeles Film Festival beginning full screenings Friday, this is one of those times of year when there’s…
Read the full article »Vadim Perelman
Vadim Perelman had the sort of feature film debut most filmmakers dream about but rarely are able to realize. An acclaimed director of commercials, he optioned the novel House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III, adapted it for the screen with Shawn Lawrence Otto and co-produced the film with Michael London. The tale of a young woman…
Read the full article »Charlton Heston
Charlton Heston was the sort of movie icon that received either grudging respect or abject derision rather than the praise or affection extended such contemporaries as William Holden and Burt Lancaster. The caricature is one of a face permanently cemented in some tense fashion with teeth clenched. The verity of his filmography contradicts such easy comic illustrations….
Read the full article »So What!?
Wednesday morning Motion Picture Association of America president Dan Glickman got on the phone with (by my count) 15 or so entertainment business journalists. He told them a few things they probably knew, a lot they could have guessed and a panoply of things of no great significance. The seeming important news was that the domestic…
Read the full article »Eye of the Navel 2007 …
The thing about top 10 lists is they tend to be relevant only at the moment they are compiled. A couple of weeks ago I sent in such a list to a poll conducted by the Village Voice/L.A. Weekly and in the brief time that’s followed it has gone AWOL. While nothing catastrophic has occurred in…
Read the full article »Help Me Rwanda …
There weren’t a lot of films to be had at the Toronto International Film Festival, and for acquisition executives that was a bit of a relief. You see, there’s a glut of product in the pipeline and for most companies that fall somewhere between niche and mainstream their release schedules are sewn up through at…
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