January, 2008
TIME TO TAKE A BOW
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Yes, award season has begun, but in the midst of the hype, the hoopla, and the dogged campaigning there are a few moments of calm, when people have a quiet moment to reflect on the reason for all of this: the fact that they made good movies.
One such oasis occurred on January 11 when the American Film Institute hosted its annual luncheon to celebrate the “most significant” movies and television shows of 2007. I was asked to be a member of the jury this year, the third time I’ve served in the eight-year history of the ceremony. I said yes because the jury process is so stimulating: on a Sunday in December, twelve people gather, with a foreperson, to debate the merits of that year’s output—and try to come to a consensus. Our mandate is to provide a list of ten American fiction films. The reason it’s fun is that the group is so diverse: three critics, three filmmakers, three academics, and three people affiliated with AFI (who are, for the most part, also involved with the industry).
But the best part of the process is getting to attend the lunch in January. There is no tension or suspense, because the winners have been announced in advance; what’s more, there are no television cameras inside so people relax and let their guard down. Whenever I’m lucky enough to go I get to chat with actors and filmmakers I’ve never met before; this time I had a chance to meet Tilda Swinton, Javier Bardem, Judd Apatow and his wife Leslee Mann, and the creator of that remarkable television series Mad Men, Matthew Weiner, among others.
The chairman of this year’s film jury, Oscar-winner (and former Academy and Writers Guild of America president) Frank Pierson, delivered closing remarks that sounded a perfect note for the occasion. He spoke about the old days of Hollywood when it was a smaller town and people lunched together at studio commissaries, and hoped that AFI had provided a modern equivalent in that day’s congenial get-together.
The following night the Los Angeles Film Critics Association held its annual awards dinner, which our president Lael Loewenstein asked me to host. (Lael is charming and articulate but a little audience-shy.) I had fun acting as master of ceremonies, and at one point—realizing how many Hollywood movers and shakers were in the audience—put in a plea for good movies to be released in months like February and April, and not in a logjam at the end of the year.
I’m always proud of my fellow LAFCA members because in bestowing our awards we offer speeches that explain why our winners are deserving of these honors. Their words are eloquent and insightful, and give meaning to the awards.
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Some online pundits insist on pursuing conspiracy theories about the way our group votes every year. In fact, our voting process is open and above-board; individual members may have agendas but there is no mass mindset to what happens at our December meetings. In fact, some films and filmmakers win or lose by one vote.
This year we had a bona fide tie for Best Animated Feature, which couldn’t have made me happier. I’m a great admirer of Persepolis, the remarkable hand-drawn film by Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Parronoud, but I despaired over the fact that if it won it would shut out Brad Bird’s Ratatouille. Instead, both films won. Perfect!
Paul Thomas Anderson was in especially high spirits, having won both Best Picture and Best Director awards for There Will Be Blood. He got the biggest laugh when, at the end of a somewhat lengthy evening, he threatened us for having the nerve to criticize his movies for being too long!
To see more of my snapshots from both events, click HERE.
HOME VIDEO’S BRAVE NEW WORLD
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I’ve always said that it’s lonely being a low-tech person in a high-tech world, but sometimes ignorance has its benefits. I was recently asked to host a presentation at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas by the folks at Sony to introduce their new interactive Blu-ray Disc.
Naturally, I had seen demonstrations of Blu-ray before, and couldn’t help but be impressed by the exceptional picture quality it offers. I had also seen some interactive game features that make use of applications unavailable on a standard-definition DVD, but I had no idea how enormous the capabilities of this medium really were until I became involved with the Sony presentation.
Blu-ray discs not only have a huge capacity for audio and video, far beyond a regular DVD, but also allow network connectivity. This means that one can play competitive games, involving footage or characters from a major movie, with anyone in the world—in real time. It also enables filmmakers to blog directly to the home audience, taking the concept of commentary tracks to a whole new level. Users can select and save their favorite moments from the film, re-edit sequences, and potentially participate in live chat rooms or press conferences, then save the results to watch again at a later time.
Oh yes–-the Blu-ray discs can also provide a variety of ring tones derived from movies. Filmmaker Dean Devlin participated in the CES panel and was amused to hear a Godzilla growl being transferred to someone’s cell phone in the audience!
A representative from 20th Century Fox demonstrated how one could photograph oneself and become an avatar in a game inspired by Alien vs. Predator, while an executive from Lionsgate showed us an example of a streaming commentary by the director of Saw IV. Fox also owns MySpace, so naturally that company has a vested interest in tying up this connectivity with its popular network of “friends.”
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I teased the various studio reps about applications I’d prefer to see, like making myself a suspect in an old Charlie Chan mystery or possibly dancing with Betty Grable in a 1940s Fox musical. I also wondered what kind of interactive tie-ins might be derived from prestige films like The Diving Bell and the Butterfly or No Country for Old Men. That’s because I don’t play video games or participate in a “friends” network online. But I would be foolish not to recognize the enormous new canvas on which creative people can now invent ideas that go hand in hand with home video releases of their films.
As always, my concern is for the quality of moviemaking itself. All these bells and whistles are impressive and fun to watch, but they seem best suited to the kind of genre pictures that fuel Hollywood’s blockbuster mentality. I hope there will be ways this enormous connectivity can give opportunities to smart filmmakers, both old and young, and help bring their work to a wider audience. That would be as exciting to me as any of the technical innovations I saw at the Consumer Electronics Show.
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Turning from the future to the past, I was jealous of my friends in Northern California who got to enjoy a day-long Celebration of Silent Film presented by the San Francisco Silent Film Festival in December. The program included a Library of Congress print of Flesh and the Devil with both of its endings, and a new 35mm restoration of Intolerance. As Stacey Wisnia wrote in an e-mail update, “We were honored to have Patrick Stanbury of Photoplay Productions as our special guest for Intolerance. He explained that the film had been shot at multiple speeds over the 18 months of its production, and that any attempt to accurately exhibit the film today would require changing the speed during its projection–-which Patrick did himself! Russell Merritt then enlightened the audience with tales of D.W. Griffith's editing obsession and how he accompanied the film to each city during its original theatrical release. "One consequence was that no two cities saw that same film. Griffith spent another ten years fiddling with it, playing with it, revising it and adjusting it.’ ” If you’re not already a member of SFSFF, you should be; at the very least, you’ll enjoy being on their mailing list. In either case, be sure to visit the festival website.
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As a hopelessly addicted collector of Disneyana, I’ve admired the ingenious collectibles created for the Disney company in recent years by Kevin Kidney and Jody Daily—from a three-dimensional Alice in Wonderland door-knocker to a Craftsman-style Bambi wall plaque. They even produced a vintage-style Oswald the Lucky Rabbit soft suede sculpture which has yet to be released. Now they’ve been commissioned to devise new merchandise for Disneyland, which is reason enough to visit Anaheim or Orlando during 2008. To take a look at their work, here is an animated gallery.
