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Billy
Elliot On Friday, December 29, 2000 I saw the 2:30 show of State and Main with Jenny at the Embarcadero. I really liked it while I was watching it. This is not to say that I don't like it as much now. It's just a tiny bit light, but it's got a lot of good stuff and may be in my Best Films of the Year listing (coming soon). It was written and directed by David Mamet. It's a funny, sharp comedy, with a great cast: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Rebecca Pidgeon, William H. Macy, Sarah Jessica Parker, David Paymer, Julia Stiles, Ricky Jay, Clark Gregg, Alec Baldwin, Charles Durning, Patti LuPone, and J.J. Johnston. Half of these people are Mamet regulars... Ricky Jay is famous for his astounding ability to throw playing cards, and is listed in the Guiness of World Records for throwing a playing card a hundred and ninety feet at ninety miles an hour. From ten paces he can throw a playing card into the flesh of a watermelon. He is a serious scholar of unusual performance, and is the author of "Learned Frogs and Fireproof Women", which chronicles the bizarre performers found in Cicuses, Sideshows and other odd places. He is also the author of "Cards as Weapons". His six films for Mamet are House of Games (1987), Things Change (1988), Homicide (1991), The Spanish Prisoner (1997), State and Main and the upcoming The Heist (2001). Charles Durning is one the great, enduring fat men of cinema. I grew up with Charles Durning. This is to say that I new his name before I was 12. I always read the credits. I always loved the credits. And in these times of fallen heroes like Robards and Balsam, those old character actors who once weren't so old at all, become priceless. Of course Walter Brennan and Peter Lorre are dead -- they were always dead. But now, aged 30, people who I remeber as being simply middle aged when I was a kid are dying. Charles Durning was born on February 28, 1923, in Highland Falls, New York. He was a stage actor, and was trained in classical dance and was for a time in his early career, a dance instructor! Was an American combat infantryman during World War Two and took part in the Invasion of Normandy in June 1944. His wife, Mary Ann Amelio (married 1973), was his childhood sweetheart. Durning was an American combat infantryman during World War II and took part in the Invasion of Normandy in June 1944. He was injured in the battle of the bulge. He was awarded 3 Purple Hearts and a Silver Star. He was nominated for Supporting Actor Academy Awards for The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982), and To Be or Not to Be (1983). He won a Tony Award as Big Daddy in the 1989 Broadway revival of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Films include I Walk the Line (1970), DePalma's Hi, Mom! (1970), a real bastard in The Sting (1973), DePalma's Sisters (1973), Wilder's remake of The Front Page (1974) with Lemmon and Matthau, memorable in a key role in Dog Day Afternoon (1975), The Hindenburg (1975), Breakheart Pass (1975), Aldrich's Twilight's Last Gleaming (1977), Ibsen's An Enemy of the People (1977) needing the widescreen of film to accomodate him and an overweight Steve McQueen, The Greek Tycoon (1978), DePalma's The Fury (1978), The Muppet Movie (1979), North Dallas Forty (1979), his first film with Burt Reynolds, Starting Over (1979). Ironically in the TV movie Attica (1980) as Commissioner Russell Oswald, The Final Countdown (1980), True Confessions (1981), Sharky's Machine (1981) and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982) -- both with Reynolds. Then the first time I really noticed him in Tootsie (1982), To Be or Not to Be (1983), in the old Jimmy Cagney role in a TV version of Mister Roberts (1984), with Lemmon (from the original 1955 film of Mister Roberts) in Mass Appeal (1984), with Reynolds in Stick (1985), with Hoffman in the famous TV version of Death of a Salesman (1985). In an early Tom Hanks vehicle The Man with One Red Shoe (1985), getting a shot of septugenarians Kirk Douglas and Burt Lancaster's naked asses in Tough Guys (1986), Warren Beatty's Dick Tracy (1990), on Reynolds' "Evening Shade" (1990 - 1994) TV series as Doctor Harlan Elldridge, Mamet's The Water Engine (1992) for TV, the Coen's Hudsucker Proxy (1994), I.Q. (1994) with Matthau, The Last Supper (1995), with Lemmon and Matthau again in The Grass Harp (1995), Home for the Holidays (1995), the grotesque One Fine Day (1996), the grotesque Spy Hard (1996), with the Coen's again in the new O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000). Lately, he's been playing a lot of peoples fathers on TV in Everybody Loves Raymond, Cybill and the like. He was wonderful on an episode of "Homicide: Life on the Street" playing "Thomas Finnegan" in an episode called "Finnegan's Wake" in 1998. See what I say about reading credits? When I first noticed Mrs. Mamet, Rebecca Pidgeon (no known relation to Walter) I was taken off guard. She had this acting style I had never seen before. Some people I knew didn't like it, or understand it (not that I did, necessarily) but they charged Bad Acting! It was in Mamet's wonderful The Spanish Prisoner. She was very memorable, no matter how you looked at it. Then I saw her in the lead role in Mamet's G-rated (Mamet is known for his explicit dialog) The Winslow Boy. She wonderful in the romantic lead again in this. She was great. And she's in most of his films since 1991. I despise Alec Baldwin for obvious reasons, but he uses himself well in this film. He was also in the Mamet -scripted Glengarry Glen Ross. He plays on his own negative star image and makes it work. Baldwin and his lying, his nonsensical politics, his AWFUL brother Billy, his hairy, beefcake, chubby appearance drives me up the wall, because he takes himself so serious. Here he lampoons himself, maybe without his realizing what that means. Earlier this year I wrote (in re Almost Famous): "Philip Seymour Hoffman as the mentor had some good lines, most of them over the phone. Hoffman has set such a high water mark for himself with Happiness, Boogie Nights, Talented Mr Ripley, etc., that from now on a merely great performance won't be enough. What are you going to do about it, PSH?" Well he's done it. He's lost a little weight, and while not any kind of a knock out, he's attractive, because his character is so thoughtful and sweet and smart. He and Rebecca Pidgeon have the (darlingest -- as my mom might say) romance in this film. Hoffman also appears as the cover boy on this month's GQ. Hoffman was in Scent of a Woman (1992), Leap of Faith (1992), The Getaway (1994), Nobody's Fool (1994), When a Man Loves a Woman (1994), and Twister (1996), but I first remember noticing him in Paul Thomas Anderson's Hard Eight (1997). He then played Scotty in Anderson's Boogie Nights (1997). He was in Next Stop Wonderland, the Coen's The Big Lebowski (1998), Todd Solondz' Happiness (as the cummer), the Devil's Patch Adams (how could you Phil!?), Flawless with DeNiro, and beautiful in Anderson's Magnolia. When I heard he was cast as Freddie Miles in one of my favorite books ever -- Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley -- I was more than pleased. I felt there was no one on earth better for the part. And I was right. The movie was great, and although his role was a bit too small for it, he should have been nominated for an Academy Award. The novel was one I read about 5 or 6 years ago and then gave it to Misty, Joanna, my mom, others, even my DAD, it was so great. Anyway, everyone else is great in it too. I got to the theatre about 9 minutes early. As I got there Jenny came out the door. She had bought my ticket and was going to have a cigaret. I had one too. She got a drink and a popcorn and I got a drink and a popcorn. We are not dating. We are friends. I interviewed with a darling co-worker of hers a month or so ago (and did not get the job). Her boyfriend is a great guy. In case you were thinking that Jenny and I were an item. All of a sudden I noticed a film listed at IMDb.com in the coming soon section. Looks highly interesting! Skipped Parts is directed by Tamra Davis. The majority of her films up till now (Half Baked [1998], Best Men [1997], Billy Madison [1995], uncredited on Bad Girls [1994], CB4 [1993], Guncrazy [1992]) have been rather questionable, but she's directed a lot of interesting music videos, and is married to the Beastie Boys' Mike D (Michael Diamond). A young mother and her teenage son are banished to a remote provincial town by a domineering father. All I know is that the cast is great, and it's a comedy. I love for Jennifer Jason Leigh to turn up in comedies. Twin Peaks' Peggy Lipton co-stars with Brad Renfro, Angela Featherstone, Drew Barrymore, R. Lee Ermey and Dylan Scott. Later that night I saw Malena at the Clay at 9:20. So, this movie was cute. Sweet. I guess Weinstein thought he could pull off the same coup here as he did with Life is Beautiful. Well, maybe he did. But I didn't care that much for that film. You can take Benigni and shove him up your ass so far that you have to vomit him up. And then I'd like to see what clownish heroics he has for us. But, I'm drunk , so don't listen to me. Monica Bellucci is a knock-out, and only "new" if you're an American. She's older than me, and quite the Italian bombshell. Well, the movie is a comedy (I guess) about this kid who falls for her during Il Duce's reign in WWII. Trouble and hardship and heartbreak ensue. Lots of masturbation gags. I had a popcorn and Pepsi. A cute girl tried to bring in a cup of tea but was apprehended by the theatre police. Not that I don't see their point. The surviving one-screeners in the city make their money on concessions. But it was a weird scene, baby. A weird scene. On, um, like, today is the 24th of December, so this was not last Wednesday, but the Wednesday before that. And today is Saturday, so the 17th was last Saturday, and so Wednesday, December 14th I went to the Coronet on Geary to see Vertical Limit with my friend Jamie. VL was not bad. It was well-paced, entertaining light action adventure. Tunney, Paxton, O'Donnell and Glenn were fine, but the gorge Izabella Scorupco (one of our own Person's of the Week) was back in English speaking movie making for the first time since being one of the most beautiful Bond women ever in Goldeneye (also, like this film, directed by Scorupco pal Martin Campbell). I also missed the final two parts of Kieslowski's Dekalog at the Castro. Parts 9 and 10. They were shown on Vertical Limit night and the next night (when I was in New York). So, the UC Berkeley is showing them now, and if I don't see it there, I will rent it and then finally let you know my opinions on the overall series. But, they are great. That was quite a sentence. What I was trying to say was that Goldeneye and Vertical Limit were both directed by Martin Campbell. And Izabella Scorupco was in both films. Plus, Izabella is on friendly terms with him. She praised him in an article I read recently. Next up, I was in New York City and saw Juliette Binoche in a play and in a film, well, here is an exerpt from the New York City page: "Randall can't go to the play, has to work. In which case was going to go with Carolyn, Randall's sister. But, she hurt her back and is in great pain! No one else can go either. I go alone... NEVER GO TO A MATINEE PLAY. It's all old people. Decrepit, coughing, oblivious, loud, old people. An old man who's hearing aid made this horrible piercing noise and the ushers had to keep coming over to tell him to turn it off. When they left he turns it back up! Old fat women behind me talking (NOT whispering) and jingle-jangling their jewelry, up and down up and down to the restroom or lobby. I was so upset. I almost walked out because I didn't want to be part of this tragedy; it was so wrong and unfair to our star Juliette Binoche. It's like eating a really good meal at a really fancy dinner -- but in Nazi Germany in 1944! You know? It's like I was standing for that kind of behavior! So, what happened in the play? That's what happened. I did manage to admire the sets and lighting a great deal and Liev Schrieber was good and John Slattery was great and Juliette was, well, it's like asking a Christian how they feel about Jesus. She is the god of actresses, of women. Unfortunately I was unable to make any real emotional, or spiritual, or vibrational contact with Mlle. Binoche. I was too busy dealing with the fucking children in the audience. 80-year-old children. More Joe's Pizza. Pastries at a pastry place. Posters at a poster place. To salvage my relationship with the ravishing, brilliant Mlle. Binoche I went to an 11 o'clock showing of her new film Chocolat. Great. Better than I even hoped. Important for Juliette because she's been doing so much downbeat stuff (I am not complaining). This film widens her range. She is red cheeked and wonderful in moments that bring to mind her blushing 12 years ago in The Unbearable Lightness of Being (Chocolat also stars Unbearable co-star Lena Olin). There is also a beautiful moment where Juliette laughs with Judi Dench and you laugh too, not because what they are laughing about is all that funny, but because you are swept up in what these two great actresses are playing. The great cast also includes Johnny Depp, Carrie-Anne Moss (The Matrix), John Wood (War Games), Victoire Thivisol, Alfred Molina (great), Hugh O'Conor, Peter Stormare (from Dancer in the Dark, Fargo and as Slippery Pete in the "Frogger" episode of Seinfeld) and Leslie Caron (who starred with Binoche in Damage in 1992)." Back to SF. Nothing in theatres! Out to the East Bay to see Chocolat again with Mom, Grandma and Joanna. Great, grand stuff. Not an Important Film, but for what it is, really well done in all fields. I would toss out Oscar noms to Juliette for Actress and Molina for Supporting Actor. Then Joanna, and my brother Steve and our dear friend Hillary went to see the lame new Nic Cage movie (The Family Man) at Blackhawk. Steve had to get up and leave the theatre a few times, and he laughed inappropriately at several parts. Joanna and Hillary enjoyed it. I found it to be rather awful, when you get right down to thinking about what it is saying. Like, don't do anything, or live, or have a career, or move to Paris; no no. You must get married and have children and make career sacrifices and live in the suburbs and all that. Well, first of all it's rather ridiculous for people like Nicolas Cage and Tea Leoni to preach to the stupid masses about how to live when they don't have to live that way. Second, they try to sugar coat the hell that is suburbia, middle class, emptiness, unhappiness, failure. Quite a disturbing film, actually. 12.09.00: I saw Panic at the Roxie the night before last. It was good, interesting, different. I guess it played already on Cinemax, as it was having trouble getting a release, then some people fought for it... "A sharp-edged and wicked comedy. It's for you and me, and you and other moviegoers who like films that don't fit into safe and predictable focus group mentalities. We deserve to see PANIC on the big screen !" -- Roger Ebert The Dekalog series
is still going strong for me at the Castro, 1&2, 3&4, 5&6,
three medium popcorns. Will comment on the series after seeing them
all. But I will say that I'm very positive. Tonight I saw Requiem for a Dream with Andrea. I should hug more. I don't instinctively hug. I used to never hug. Now, I'm open to hugging. Sometimes I use the comic-hug of me sort of opening my arms and saying "should we hug?". That almost always ends in a hug. Man-hugs. On manhugs: Frankly, I think it's ridiculous. Men do it. "Man" men, and any men over 45. For some reason, I remember discussing hugging with my father, many years ago. I seem to remember (for whatever reason) calling him, or men, on not hugging. He then pointed out (pure Ed) that when a friend of his' son died, he hugged him at the funeral. Nice work dad. Anyway, my Dad's like 77, so I don't even know what generation we're in here. But let's take for instance a couple of friends of mine. Randy (now Randall) and Deren. I am using their real names, because I don't think they'd really be offended if I did*. On to Randall and Deren's "man-hugs". What happens is the two large "men" lean towards each other, with their right hands clasping each other, in some sort of manner. Then their shoulders sort of touch a little, and then they sort of slap each other's back. *Christ, it's late and I'm tired: Note to Randall and Deren, if you're offended please contact me via tedstrong@tedstrong.com and things will be corrected. Anyway, then I saw Quills and wrote this review for it, which I emailed out to a bunch of people (most of the people thought it was a serious review, which, of course, if you've seen the film, or heard anything about it, you know it isn't. I just returned from the theatre! Drunk from the excitement expressed therein! The film was Philip Kaufman's latest, "Quills". It tells the true story of American architect, John Quills and his fight for decent tenement housing in the late 1800s. Quills was a genius, but also, of course, a womanizer, drunkard -- and madman! The film was RIPE with witty dialogue and double entendre! Here's a sample:
The cast was exquisite! Geoffrey Rush fascinates as Quills, showing the man as both brilliant and damned! Rush, quite impressively, plays out half of his scenes in the nude! Maggie Smith stars as Quills' lesbian mother; winsome Kate Winslet as Dorita, the winsome young bride of Quills; Michael Caine is Sir Goff the local magistrate with one eye on the young girls in the village -- and one eye on the young boys in the village. But it's time to dust off the Oscar for Liam Neeson as Boss Jim, the sadistic ex-slave-owner. I have never before seen Neeson so immersed in the character he portrays. I really forgot that I was watching the same man who played Oskar Schindler only 8 years ago! He's pot-bellied and very realistically aged. I've seen nothing like it since the days of young Robert "Bobby" DeNiro's work in Scorcese's Raging Bull, in 1973. "Quills" is the best film this year -- by a quill feather! By a quill feather. People thought I was serious? Anyway, I actually did see Quills and thought it was pretty good. And there's this latest update: Baker's Dozen Best
Films of 2000 as of December 3, 2000. Aimee & Jaguar
- Ger. And, now I am in
the middle of watching all ten hour long episodes of Dekalog! at the
Castro! More on that later! Late November: Wonderwall at the Roxie (weak) and Venus Beauty Salon at the Opera Plaza (good). I actually saw Wonderwall a couple of weeks ago, but forgot to tell you about it. The sixties' ultimate European sex-kitten -- to me, anyway -- was Jane Birkin. My goodli-god-goodness, but was she something. There were nice moments of Birkin unclothed in this film. I'd done a Birkin search on video a year or so ago and this was unavailable. So, the Roxie got it for a couple days. Psychadelic 60s sex flick. I'm ecstatic. Only problem is the movie sucks. They crapped it up with a lot of dumb English slapstick "comedy". This befuddled, stumbling elderly scientist starts peeping on his neighbor -- free, young, sexy girl, Jane B. He falls down a lot, lots of things go bang. He looks like Clouseau when Clouseau is dressed up to look like an old man in The Pink Panther Strikes Again. I had to leave before it was over. So disappointing. Jane was nude, and there were some exciting nipular close-ups, but not near enough to keep me in the theatre. Jane Birkin... Like most people my age, they first saw Jane Birkin in Agatha Christie's all-star extravaganza, Evil Under the Sun (1982). I will now give away the ending to that movie, so skip ahead if you don't want to read it. The film's stars include Peter Ustinov, James Mason, Roddy McDowall, Diana Rigg, Maggie Smith, Sylvia Miles, etc. Until the end of the movie, Jane is playing old frumpy, because she is one of the killers -- and it's a long story. But my brother and sister and I have seen the film about, ohhhh, 20 times. There was also Death on the Nile, another Christie star picture. Next time I really noticed Jane Birkin she was an old lady. This was just a few years ago, in films like: Daddy Nostalgia (1990) and La Belle noiseuse (1991), and then more recently in A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries (1998) and The Last September (1999). And then there was the recent re-discovery of her 1960s sex kitten prominence. This discovery was made largely through the availability of erotic/nude photos of her available on the internet. And some renting of her old films, hence my original interest in Wonderwall. Jane was born on the 14th of December 1946, in London, England. From 1966 to 1968 she was married to James Bond music composer John Barry. From 1968 through 1980 she was married to France's premiere rock star, Serge Gainsbourg (who is buried in the exclusive Montparnasse cemetery Paris, France). She is the mother of Charlotte Gainsbourg. Currently living together with Jacques Doillon. Mother of Lou Doillon. Father: David Birkin, Mother: Judy Campbell, Brother: Andrew Birkin. With Venus Beauty Institute and An Affair of Love (both this year) Nathalie Baye was catapulted into favorite actress status. In Venus Beauty Institute, Nathalie plays a hair dresser at a salon. She likes quick, meaningless sex, and when some guy falls in love with her, she's very reluctant to get emotional. Comedy and romance and drama. We see Nathalie (in a part written especially for her) with co-workers (including America's first taste of Amelie, Audrey Tautou), relatives, friends, etc. A delightful film. Baye was nominated for a Cesar for her work in the role of Angele in Venus Beauty Institute. It was written for Baye by Tonie Marshall, after the two worked together on Marshall's third film as director, Enfants de salaud. When Baye learned that the role was written just for her, she was thrilled but a little nervous. "At times like that," she has said in interviews, "you think to yourself "Oh my God! She wrote it for me! What if I don't like it?'" She continues, "When a director knows you, there's an element of trust but it doesn't necessarily make the work any easier. It was actually a very difficult shoot for Tonie, having so many actors to direct and for me, having so many partners to act with. Deep down, it's always nice to feel wanted by a director." You Can Count On Me (Really Good) & Red Planet (Not Bad + Carrie-Anne Moss)!
Brand New Wednesday (11.15.00) at the Roxie!I was watching John Huston War Stories. A documentary. Some people interviewing Huston with a video camera in the early 80s (I'm guessing; he's not on the respirator yet, but is all white hair and stuttery -- around the time of Annie) and interspersing that with footage from his WWII documentary footage. Back in WWII all those directors went to war with their cameras and saw all the men die and all the pain of war and all that shit: Jack Ford, Huston, Willy Wyler and his Memphis Belle, etc. Anyway, half way through this thing I was seriously considering walking out. They had just started showing scenes from a Bob Flaherty doc about the depression. Like a family (with nine kids between the ages of 1 and 9, of course) living in a broken down trailer in the middle of a desert somewhere. Dumb Okies. But then they started showing Huston's footage of shell shocked, battle fatigued, jumpy, crying, mumbling, psyched-out vets from '46. That stuff was good and interesting. Playing at the Roxie through tomorrow I think. Ring-a-ding-ding. I just saw one of the best films of the year! The sadness of this statement is that the film is the rerelease of the 1955 French gangster classic Rififi. Jean Servais plays Tony le Stephanois. He gets out of a five year stretch in prison and sets up a new heist with his brother and two other guys (one of them played by Jules Dassin who directed this film). The actual heist scene runs at least 20 minutes, maybe 30, there is no dialog and it is probably the best scene of its type I have ever scene. Great gangster stuff a la Truffaut's Shoot the Piano Player and, dare I say, Le Samourai. Dassin directed, among others, Brute Force (1947), The Naked City (1948), Thieves' Highway (1949), and Night and the City (1950) before being blacklisted by HUAC in the early 50s. He went and made movies in Europe including this one and Topkapi. Good stories in re: Rififi and/or Dassin: I ran into Tim's friend Erica again at the Castro last week at Requiem for a Heavyweight (Gleason is fine, Quinn is ridiculous, Rooney is good, great music). She was working the box office today and let me in free! As I was leaving I saw the girl with the freckles who looks like Gwyneth Paltrow come in. I hadn't seen her in a while and was glad to see she's still there. Then I thought that next time I see Erica I'll ask her about this Gwyneth Paltrow girl. Eh? I saw Billy Elliot today at the Clay with some popcorn and a coke and a bunch of old people who often populate that theatre. Very well made. Touching. Time to laugh and time to cry and time to be touched. Very good cast Julie Walters, Gary Lewis, Jamie Draven, Jamie Bell as Billy, Jean Heywood, Stuart Wells, Zoë Ball and Nicola Blackwell. Julie Walters was in Educating Rita in 1983 with Michael Caine. Zoe Ball is a hot little number known to all British men who hang out in pubs and call each other wankers and like to talk about big tittied women. Nicola Blackwell played Julie Walters' young daughter who has a crush on Billy. She's very good, but sort of disappears halfway through the film. You know, it's tough for the poor, alcoholic, poor blokes in the UK who have only to work as coal miners and be out of work and strike. I know this from seeing all the British/Scottish/Irish films of the last decade. I think I'm just getting tired of movies, period. Movies are becoming like paper. It's just paper. That's all it is. It's not money, or gold, or love. It's just movies. I may have to go back to books. Anyway, I also saw something else... Charlie's Angels. It was fun. Cameron Diaz is special. Large supporting cast includes: Drew Barrymore, Lucy Liu, Bill Murray as Bosley, Sam Rockwell, Kelly Lynch and Crispin Glover very good as the villains, Tim Curry, Matt LeBlanc, LL Cool J, Tom Green, Luke Wilson, Andrew Wilson, and as the only original cast member appearing, John Forsyth as the voice of Charlie Townsend.
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