About Schmidt
Alias Betty
Catch Me If You Can
Chicago
Die Another Day
8 Mile
Far from Heaven
Femme Fatale
Gangs of New York
Harry Potter Part 2: The Even Bigger Adventure
Lord of the Rings 2: More Sci-Fi Fantasy Stuff
Personal Velocity
Solaris
Sunshine State
Talk to Her

Marta at the Lumiere sold me a ticket to Alias Betty on 11.14.02. The 4:45pm show cost $5.75.

This is a sort-of-thriller from France, directed by Claude Miller. Miller (born February, 20, 1942, Paris, France) also directed The Accompanist (1993), The Little Thief (1989), Impudent Girl (1985) with Charlotte Gainsbourg, and an adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's This Sweet Sickness (1977).

Alias Betty (alias Betty Fisher and Other Stories) was adapted from a novel by crime writer, Ruth Rendell -- The Tree of Hands. I support the title change, although I am a fan of Ms. Rendell's.

This film is pretty good. Very engrossing. Sandrine Kiberlain plays Betty. She had a rough childhood as her mother was mentally unbalanced and, at times, abusive. Now, Betty is all growsed up, a recently successful novelist, who's mother (Nicole Garcia), now medicated, but still somewhat crazy comes to visit, complain and unnerve.

Nicole Garcia is herself a film director and made: L' Adversaire (2002) with Daniel Auteuil, François Cluzet, Emmanuelle Devos, and François Berléand; Place Vendôme (1998) with Catherine Deneuve, Emmanuelle Seigner, Jacques Dutronc, and François Berléand; The Favorite Son (1994) with Jean-Marc Barr and Karin Viard; and Every Other Weekend (1990) with the marvellous Nathalie Baye.

I don't want to give away any plot points, but there are two or three other story lines which weave in and out of the one involving Betty and her mother. They're woven very smoothly. Much like a sweater woven from cashmere.

Betty's ex-husband (Stéphane Freiss) is a petty criminal, trying to sell a house that he doesn't own; Mathilde Seigner is an abusive mother whose child disappears -- she is suspect, but even more suspect is her current boyfriend (Luck Mervil); Roschdy Zem is a charming doctor who is a fan of Betty's.

Sandrine Kiberlain was born on February 25, 1968 in Paris. Paris, France. She has been making films since 1986. They include: Everything's Fine, We're Leaving (2000), La Fausse suivante (2000), Seventh Heaven (1998), L' Appartement (1996), Milena (1991), Cyrano de Bergerac (1990).

Sandrine has always reminded me of another French actress, Natacha Régnier of The Dreamlife of Angels. Natacha Régnier was born on April 11, 1974, Brussels, Belgium -- so, I guess she's not actually a French actress? Natacha's films include: How I Killed My Father (2002), Criminal Lovers (1999), and with Sandrine in Everything's Fine, We're Leaving (2000) -- I think they played sisters!

Alias Betty. Directed by Claude Miller. Written by Claude Miller, Ruth Rendell (from her novel The Tree of Hands). Original Music by François Dompierre, Thom Yorke. Cinematography by Christophe Pollock. Film Editing by Véronique Lange. Casting by Frédérique Moidon. Production Design by Jean-Pierre Kohut-Svelko. Set Decoration by Patrick Colpaert. Costume Design by Jacqueline Bouchard. Runtime: 103 min. Also Known As: Betty Fisher and Other Stories, Betty Fisher et autres histoires.

Or the short review, which also gives away a little more of the plot: I saw a neat French thriller called Alias Betty (11.14.02, Lumiere, 4:45pm, $5.75). A young woman's child accidentally falls out of a window and dies. This woman's crazy mother goes into the ghetto and kidnaps a young, mistreated child for her. Recommended.

*** ** ***

Friday 11.15.02: Bryan at the Clay sold me a $9.25 ticket to the 4:30pm showing of Todd Haynes' Far from Heaven. Far from Heaven takes place in the 50s. Sort of an homage to, and sort of a satire of, garish 1950s Douglas Sirk/Vincente Minnelli style melodramas like Written on the Wind. Pretty good. With Julianne Moore, Dennis Quaid, Dennis Haysbert, Patricia Clarkson. It was good, but it seemed hard to mesh the two tones of the film. Like, it was sort of hard to take seriously, because of the Leave It To Beaver style backdrop of the film, where it seemed like the film was deliberately trying to get laughs at times. But I did really like it. It's currently in my Top Ten of 2002 -- but this year wasn't very good overall.

Moore is married to Quaid who she walks in on making out with some guy. So they try to deal with this "disease," but meanwhile Moore starts having a sort-of relationship with the "colored" gardener, the soft-spoken Haysbert. Patricia Clarkson plays Moore's friend who lives happily by the 50s mores.

The wonderful score was composed by Elmer Bernstein at age 80. Bernstein did a similar score, a great score, for one of my favorite films, Minnelli's Some Came Running (1958).

Bernstein's first film score was for Saturday's Hero in 1951. He's done nearly 250 since then, here are some highlights: Sudden Fear (1952), The Man with the Golden Arm (1955), Storm Fear (1956), The Ten Commandments (1956), Fear Strikes Out (1957), The Tin Star (1957), Sweet Smell of Success (1957), Men in War (1957), God's Little Acre (1958), Kings Go Forth (1958) , The Magnificent Seven (1960), The Comancheros (1961), To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), Birdman of Alcatraz (1962), Walk on the Wild Side (1962), Love with the Proper Stranger (1963), The Great Escape (1963), Hud (1963), The Sons of Katie Elder (1965), Baby the Rain Must Fall (1965), The Carpetbaggers (1964), Cast a Giant Shadow (1966), I Love You, Alice B. Toklas! (1968), "Julia" (1968) TV Series (theme), True Grit (1969), Doctors' Wives (1971), Big Jake (1971), "The Rookies" (1972) TV Series, Cahill U.S. Marshal (1973), The Trial of Billy Jack (1974), Gold (1974), McQ (1974), "Ellery Queen" (1975) TV Series, The Shootist (1976), Billy Jack Goes to Washington (1977), Animal House (1978), The Great Santini (1979), Meatballs (1979), Airplane! (1980), The Blues Brothers (1980) (God music), Saturn 3 (1980), Honky Tonk Freeway (1981), An American Werewolf in London (1981), Heavy Metal (1981), Stripes (1981), Going Ape! (1981), Airplane II: The Sequel (1982), Trading Places (1983), Ghost Busters (1984), Spies Like Us (1985), Legal Eagles (1986), My Left Foot (1989), The Field (1990), The Grifters (1990), Cape Fear (1991) (adaptation and arrangement), Rambling Rose (1991), A Rage in Harlem (1991), The Age of Innocence (1993), Mad Dog and Glory (1993), Devil in a Blue Dress (1995), The Rainmaker (1997), Twilight (1998), and Bringing Out the Dead (1999).

Of 13 Oscar nominations for Best Score and/or Best Song, he's only one once! Strangely, for Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967) for Best Music, Original Music Score. Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967) is a rather obscure and bloated (all musicals of the 60s were bloated) film featured Julie Andrews as the thoroughly modern Millie Dillmount, James Fox, Mary Tyler Moore, Carol Channing, John Gavin, the great Jack Soo from "Barney Miller" as "Oriental #1" and Pat Morita as "Oriental #2", and Philip Ahn as Tea (it is unknown why his character isn't called "Oriental 3"). This film was directed by the recently deceased George Roy Hill.

Nominations were for: The Age of Innocence (1993), Trading Places (1983), Gold (1974), True Grit (1969), Hawaii (1966), Return of the Seven (1966), To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), Walk on the Wild Side (1962), Summer and Smoke (1961), The Magnificent Seven (1960), The Man with the Golden Arm (1955).

*** ** ***

Femme Fatale is a Brian DePalma thriller, that, despite a plot that is a little trivial and full of holes, is fascinating to watch -- it kind of sucks you into it's surreal, sensuous film world. It is one of the most cinematically watchable films this year. Very sumptuous camera work. It's not just beautiful to look at, it's almost hypnotizing. The plot is a bit messy and sort of non-existent, but it really doesn't seem to matter. Just go in to the theater and sit down and watch. De Palma at his most De Palma.

With Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, Antonio Banderas, Peter Coyote, Eriq Ebouaney, Edouard Montoute, Rie Rasmussen, Thierry Frémont, Gregg Henry, Sandrine Bonnaire. Written and directed by Brian De Palma. Cinematography by Thierry Arbogast. Film Editing by Bill Pankow.

*** ** ***

Frida is Salma Hayek as the painter Frida Kahlo. I have not seen this film.

*** ** ***

I liked Solaris. I saw it at the Metro with a friend who was visiting from Colorado. Let's call her "Julie." This is a remake of a 1973-ish epic Russian sci-fi film. And that film itself was made from a novel. Solaris is Steven Soderbergh. George Clooney goes into space and his dead wife turns up there, and so he doesn't want to leave. It's like he knows she's not real, but she seems so real. One interesting thing was that I was really tired when I saw this and the film was really dreamy, and I think being sleepy worked to my advantage. I felt like I was in Soderbergh's dreamworld...

*** ** ***

Around this time my friend Jenny and I tried to see Jerry Seinfeld's Comedian two different times, on two different days in two different cities -- and missed it both times. Once the website listed shows that didn't exist and the other time I got caught in traffic (1 hour for a normally 15 min drive to Berkeley) -- although as it turns out we were looking at sunday's showtimes for this one and so even if I hadn't been so late, there was no show.

*** ** ***

Dr. Dre and Brian Grazer at the premiere of 8 Mile.

When: Monday 11.18.02, 4:50pm (ticket bought at 4:49pm)
What: 8 Mile
Where: Empire 3 (one of my secret favorite theatres out by SFSU, near 19th)
How much: $6.00
Who: James, ticketseller

While playing a character not too different from the character he's been playing for years, Eminem is quite good in Curtis Hanson's how-to-get-outta-the-streets drama. Eminem is poor as are all his friends -- but -- he has a talent. A talent that could get him a one way ticket outta the hood.

Only he's got stage fright, and his talent is rappin'. Luckily he's got a good buddy (well played by Mekhi Phifer) who's pushing him to take advantage of his talents.

Brittany Murphy is his slutty two-timing girl-friend, Kim Basinger is his white trash mom, and Chloe Greenfield is his little sister, around whom the most affecting and disturbing scenes revolve around.

A few really good Eminem songs on the soundtrack, which I bought after seeing the movie. I hadn't really been a big Eminem fan up until then, but I do like a couple of these songs a lot, i.e. "Lose Yourself", "Love Me", "8 Mile" and "Rabbit, Run".

*** ** ***

Bao Le, of the Presidio on Chestnut, sold me a 7:00pm show ticket (bought at 6:55pm) to Die Another Day on Friday 11.22.02. In case you didn't know, a year or so ago, on the same street, the great old theatre Cinema 21 closed down. Without meaning to I always called it Century 21, hopefully that had nothing to do with it's closing down.

Desmond Llewelyn's Q, in the Bond films from 1963 to 1999, is not in the new film, due to being killed in a car wreck at the age of 85, in Firle, East Sussex, England, on December 19, 1999 very shortly after The World Is Not Enough was released. Here is a page I put up on Des/Q -- one of the first pages I ever put up at tedstrong.com. It may need some updating.

Here's a bit of a news item: Die Another Day smashed the first-day records for the James Bond canon in each of its initial offshore markets!

Halle Berry in a coral-colored bikini in the 20th James Bond film, Die Another Day. Of course, an homage to the very famous white bikini scene featuring Ursula Andress from the first Bond film, Dr. No.

The Pierce Brosnan/Halle Berry starrer notched $2.07 million (who talks like that?) in the U.K., including advance screenings, beating the combined first-day tallies of 1999's The World Is Not Enough (which made $1.07 million with sneaks), 1997's Tomorrow Never Dies ($606,000) and 1995's GoldenEye ($213,000). The earlier Bonds bowed on a Thursday.

From another news item: Appearing as a Bond girl has proven to be no jinx for Halle Berry, who may be in a spinoff movie featuring the character she plays in the latest 007 outing, Die Another Day.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer is seriously considering featuring Berry's tough-talking, gadget-toting female spy character "Jinx" in a film of her own. It would mark the first time a Bond movie has generated a spinoff.

Berry has already agreed to reprising her role and the film's producers, who tightly control the Bond pictures, have given their blessings, according to the trade newspaper Variety.

Berry is already signed for a trio of films for MGM, including a remake of 1974's Foxy Brown. The 34-year-old won a best-actress Oscar this year for Monster's Ball.

Die Another Day (2002). Tagline? He's Never Been Cooler... Plot Summary? The story begins in the demilitarised zone between North and South Korea with a spectacular high-speed hovercraft chase, etc, etc...

Pierce Brosnan continues his reign as the second greatest James Bond; Halle Berry is gorgeous as Jinx; Rick Yune is Zao, arch-criminal; John Cleese, last seen as R, has now officially taken over the role of Q; Judi Dench as M is great -- most of the best scenes of the last four Bond pics are the ones between Brosnan and Dench.

Michael Madsen is a grumpy American version of M, Damian Falco; Madonna is seen fleetingly as Verity, and gives one of her best performances; Samantha Bond returns as Miss Moneypenny; Colin Salmon returns as Charles Robinson; and newcomer Rosamund Pike steals every scene she's in as the strangely enthralling government agent, Miranda Frost. We do miss Michael Kitchen and Geoffrey Palmer as recent member's of Her Majesty's Secret Service.

Directed by Lee Tamahori (Along Came a Spider [2001], The Edge [1997], Mulholland Falls [1996]). Screenplay by Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, based on characters created by Ian Fleming. Produced by Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson. Music: David Arnold, Madonna (theme song), Monty Norman (original James Bond theme), Paul Oakenfold (James Bond theme remix). Rated PG-13 for action violence and sexuality. Runtime:123 min.

Previous Bond films:

Not part of the "official" series:

For more on the James Bond series, here at tedstrong.com, click here.

*** ** ***

I saw Harry Potter Part 2: The Even Bigger Adventure at the Coronet. I kept falling asleep and then, jolting awake. I started to get very self-conscious. I left after an hour and a half. I think that still counts as seeing it? It's not so much that it was bad, just that I was tired and it was pretty routine, although I'm sure it's harmless and enjoyable for little kids, and maybe even better than that; it could get their imaginations working.

*** ** ***

Lord of the Rings 2: More Sci-Fi Fantasy Stuff was about as good as the first one, only I didn't really care about either film.

I mean it was fine. I just don't get all the praise this film series is getting from the critics and public alike. My feelings about Lord of the Rings 2 is just: who cares. WHO CARES I was thinking as I was sitting there. It's just pretty routine story lines, battles, romances, adventure, but plugged in to the Dungeons & Dragons subgenre, which apparently is what these people love. This film has nothing to offer (that I can see, at least), technically it's fine, and it's not bad at all. It's just not great.

So you're all like, "you don't like scifi, that's all, your prejudiced against scifi!" You're all like, "you don't like scifi/horror/fantasy." But that's not true, I protest. For instance, I like the idea of vampires in stories. Like, Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a great show; it has vampires and witches and demons and stuff. But that's just a setting for the story which has great characters and relationships and dialogue and humor.

And there's great sci-fi/horror/fantasy/etc films, tons! Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956 and 1979) and The Thing (1951 and 1982) and the Val Lewton thrillers: Cat People, Curse of the Cat People, The 7th Victim (what a great title!), The Leopard Man, I Walked with a Zombie. And Frankenstein, The Old Dark House, Bride of Frankenstein, The Invisible Man -- all James Whale films -- and all fun. And Alien. And Aliens. And The Last Starfighter. Okay, I'm kidding about Last Starfighter. But you know what I mean. Right!?!?

I don't know what it is with LOTR, I think some people are happy with just the fact that it's set in fantasy camp with all these goofy beings and droids and stuff.

Both Potter 2 and Rings 2 I fell asleep through parts of and left early. Both were at the Coronet, but I don't think that had anything to do with it.

*** ** ***

Catch Me If You Can was good. I saw this film in December, alone, at the Empire 3.

Catch Me If You Can was good. Maybe a little too long, maybe they tried to make the story a little too poignant when they should have gone for more fun, less Spielberg poignancy? DiCaprio, who I have gone on record saying is girlish and cannot carry a film playing a hero (ie Titanic), is quite good in this. Playing a teenager, a liar, a bit of a weasel. That's him. Tom Hanks is also good as a Joe Friday-esque FBI agent tracking DiCaprio.

Yes, DiCaprio plays Frank Abagnale Jr, a successful con artist who managed to pass himself off as several identities and the FBI agent hot on his trail. As the tagline says, "The true story of a real fake."

Chris Walken is DiCaprio's dad and the lovely Nathalie Baye is DiCaprio's mom.

Nathalie Baye as Paula Abagnale. Click on photo for larger version.

I love Nathalie Baye -- born Judith Mesnil, July 6, 1948, Mainneville, France. A former dancer who studied at the Paris Conservatoire. First film, 1972. She is still gorgeous and she's past 50. French actresses are really, really good at that. For instance, Sharon Stone's ass was the size of a small European sports car before she was 40.

But Baye and Isabelle Huppert (who is just a few years younger) and Catherine Deneuve (nearing 60) have all had recent nude scenes. This means a couple of things. One, they keep their looks. Two, in France, they make movies about older people, older women, where they aren't just someone's mother, or grandmother, but they are the lead, in a film where a woman has romantic/sexual relationships.

Look at this, Baye makes her first ever American feature film (I think), and she plays a mom. Now, she's been playing characters who have children for years -- but she was the star, like the credits didn't list her as Jean-Luc's Mom.

Anyway, in his much too brief Movie Encyclopedia entry on Nathalie, Leonard Maltin uses the words attractive, sensual, French, lithe, and expressive in describing her. And I, to quote Robert Vaughn in Bullitt, can't find a flaw in that statement.

Nathalie Baye's films include (listed backwards chronologically): France boutique (2003), Les Sentiments (2003), La Fleur du mal (2003), the Joanna Lumley role in a French film version of Absolutely Fabulous, Absolument fabuleux (2001), Barnie's Minor Annoyances (2001), Ça ira mieux demain/Tomorrow's Another Day (2000), Selon Matthieu/To Mathieu (2000), An Affair of Love (2000), Venus Beauty Salon (1999), Beware of My Love (1998), Paparazzi (1998), Food of Love (1997), The Machine (1994), And the Band Played On (1993) (TV), The Man Inside (1990), Un week-end sur deux/Every Other Weekend (1990), C'est la vie (1990), Honeymoon (1985), Godard's Détective (1985), Beethoven's Nephew (1985), I Married a Dead Man (1982), The Return of Martin Guerre (1983), La Balance (1982), Beau-père/ Stepfather (1981), A Week's Vacation (1980), with Isabelle Huppert in Godard's Slow Motion/Sauve qui peut (la vie) (1979), Truffaut's The Green Room (1978), Truffaut's The Man Who Loved Women (1977), Mado (1976), Truffaut's La Nuit américaine/Day for Night (1973), and Faustine (1972).

Nathalie has been nominated for 7 Cesars (the so-called French Oscar) and won 3 of those. She was nominated for a European Film Award for Best Actress for An Affair of Love. She won a Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival for An Affair of Love (1999). She won a Golden Space Needle Award for Best Actress at the Seattle Int'l Film Festival for her double shot of brilliance: Venus Beauty Salon (1999) and An Affair of Love (1999). It was seeing these two films around the same time, which led me to making her a Person of the Week here at tedstrong.com.

Amy Adams with Leonardo DiCaprio. Click on photo for larger version.

Meanwhile -- still talking about Catch Me If You Can -- Amy Adams plays a girl that Abagnale is engaged to at one point. I don't know what it is, but there is definitely some thing about this girl that makes me really want to have sex with her. Is that a dumb thing to say? Is it immature? Hmmmm. If she's actually reading this now, I don't mean to offend you or anything, I mean it is a compliment, right? Even if I wasn't brilliant, gorgeous, and funny. But really, it's a bit of a mystery as to just what it is about Ms. Adams that is so appealing/mesmerizing. Sometimes she can appear very young and naive and then very sensuous/dangerous/in control a moment later. She may have great seductive powers. Could that be it?

Amy Adams' Complete Filmography

4. Catch Me If You Can (2002) .... Brenda Strong