Father Geek here in Austin, Texas. Its good to hear from our Euro-crew again with their reports from Paris, London, Liverpool, and Rome...
Robert Bernocchi here in Rome, and
Julez has got information about Goodfellas 2 and an interview with Bond Girl Honor Blackman...
Hi, Found this wierd bit of news on icLiverpool's site. Apparently, Henry Hill (ex-Goodfella turned state snitch) has written a sequel to Godfellas. He surfaced - of all places - as guest speaker at a £50 a head sports dinner party in Liverpool and spoke briefly about the book. It appears that although he was there to talk, he was a bit reluctant to do so. Not surprising really since he still has a hefty price on his head!
Just click here for the full story.
Here's a Fun-tastic interview with Honor Blackman that's up on icLiverpool's site. She's in Liverpool tomorrow for a special 007 film music concert performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and in the interview she happily reminisces about her life as... A BOND Girl.
Regards,
Julez
Our man in Paris, Grozilla, has news about Brian De Palma's next female star Hi there,
Just thought this would interest you :
In an recent interview he gave in Ecran Total, kind of french Variety, as he's asked about his current projects, Tarak Ben Ammar, the producer of Brian de Palma's Femme fatale, mentioned shortly that he's working with him again by producing Toyer, to be shot by mid-january in Rome, city chosen by the director instead of L.A where the Gardner McKay book -about the media's fascination for serial killers- stands.
By the way it seems that the movie will be inspired not by the book but by the play.
The big news is that Ben Ammar shortly mentions that Juliette Binoche will be the main female cast as Maud Garance, a neurologist curing the victims of a mad mind injecting some drug in his victim's brains. So,after using Emmanuelle Béart in Mission Impossible, De Palma would express again his passion for a French actress...
'till next french scoop
Grozilla
Three great reviews by James Bartlett and this time about movies not released in the States yet...
In The Cut
Director: Jane Campion; Meg Ryan, Mark Ruffalo, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Sharrieff Pugh, Kevin Bacon... UK Release: October 31st, 158 mins
Opening the London Film Festival, In The Cut sees a total change of direction for romcom queen Meg Ryan: this is billed as an erotic thriller where a serial killer is on the loose!
Frannie (Meg Ryan) is a teacher and collector of slang, but when police detective Molloy (Mark Ruffalo) knocks on her door to ask a few questions about a suspected serial killer - part of his last victim had been found nearby - sparks of a kind fly between them.
Encouraged by her sister Pauline (Jennifer Jason Leigh) she goes out with him, but as their explicit and complicated relationship progresses, Frannie begins to suspect that he may be the killer.
Molloy's not the only suspect though - her ex-student and lover John (an uncredited Kevin Bacon) and current student Cornelius (Sharrieff Pugh) both seem far too obsessed with her. When another victim is found, Frannie feels that she is next on the killer's list.
In The Cut has got some great reviews and whilst it's unquestionably a major change for Ryan - a change she handles well - it also has some great stylistic elements in Jane Campion's direction; there's a real sense of darkness, plus the almost continual close-up and hand-held camerawork gives an edgy feel to the story. The subject matter - sex and violence involving a complicit female character - is also one that interests intellectually.
However, there are some flaws: despite it's running time of under two hours, the pace and direction felt incredibly over-indulgent: things were slow to get going and stayed slow. There were also large logic holes in the story and some strands got dropped without explanation - there were also too many "pretty" shots that added little - also too many of Leigh and Ryan in their underwear.
For a story that offered so much potential to be really frightening, there was really very little tension or horror and more damningly, we knew so little about the characters that we didn't really care for them that much.
The Station Agent
Director: Thomas McCarthy; Peter Dinklage, Patricia Clarkson, Bobby Cannavale... 88 mins
A huge hit at Sundance, the story centres around Finn (Peter Dinklage), a quiet guy who works in a toy train shop. When the owner dies suddenly, Finn is left a piece of land in Newfoundland, New Jersey with a train office on it.
Finn's first day in Newfoundland starts with a bang: first off, a coffee/hot dog van parks nearby and he gets 20 questions from Joe (Bobby Cannavale) the chatterbox owner. Soon after that, he is forced off the road - twice - by a careless driver called Olivia (Patricia Clarkson).
This unlikely threesome slowly but surely become friends and their stories begin to emerge; Olivia is getting over her son's death, Joe's father is ill and Finn has a situation to deal with again as the new guy in town - the fact that he is a dwarf.
An unlikely concept, this film actually works so well that it resonates long after the final credits roll. It's simple and clean, but it's the performances that really make the story work - Dinklage in particular is outstanding as Finn: he seems so dignified and thoughtful that you utterly believe why virtual strangers feel drawn to talk to him.
The film is also shot beautifully; the trains - moving and static - add such atmosphere and Finn's habit of walking the tracks (firstly alone, then with Joe and finally with Joe and Olivia), really gives the story a chance to breathe and take on a life of it's own.
The Station Agent is a charming and engaging tale of three people, but it also has the magic ingredient - it could take place anywhere and still work, which means writer/director Thomas McCarthy can take his fully deserved credit.
The Singing Detective
Director: Keith Gordon; Robert Downey Jr, Robin Wright Penn, Jeremy Northam, Mel Gibson... 109 mins, Released: 14 November
The Singing Detective is the story of Dan Dark (Robert Downey Jr), a pulp fiction crime novelist who is currently in hospital suffering from a psoriasis disease so severe that he can barely move and is a frightening sight to the other patients.
So deep is his suffering - both mental and physical - that he sees people around him burst into song as he drifts between the world of the hospital, memories of his childhood and his parents' break-up and the film-noir world of his most famous novel, The Singing Detective, where his alter-ego is a detective cum night club singer hired by Binney (Jeremy Northam) to investigate the death of a prostitute, Nina (Robin Wright Penn).
Dark's wife Nicola (Wright Penn again) finally visits the hospital and tells him that he has had an offer for the film rights to the novel, but he starts to imagine her as a betrayer; writing the screenplay up herself and about to sell it to her lover and the proposed film producer Binney (Northam again).
As the worlds begin to collide, Dark is taken to see a psychiatrist (Mel Gibson) who gradually starts to unravel Dark's mind and affords him the potential to no longer be "a prisoner in his own skin" - but then two of the Thugs from the novel come across into the hospital: they want to know how their story ends.
Based on the original BBC TV series by Dennis Potter and with a screenplay also by Potter (though he died almost 10 years ago), the film version of this 6 hour series was always going to be ambitious task, not only because it needs to cut the running time by two thirds, but also because it weaves between three worlds and features the same actors playing different characters in these worlds.
It was a story mainly based around Potter's own upbringing and the skin disease he himself suffered, so by definition it's going to be an internal journey that in order to be made accessible to others is going to be hard work.
I remember the original TV series as compelling, explicit and pretty raw and to be fair, this film keeps many of the same sequences and ideas. The translation to a US setting doesn't utterly damage the story either, but the fact remains that to adapt a TV series into a film was always going be difficult.
Unfortunately, time has not been kind to Potter's material - it was amazing at the time, but we are nigh on 20 years from the TV series and to Potter fans (for it is hard to see who the audience is for this film other than they) the techniques and style of this series was used in virtually all his following ones, so this offers nothing new, nor has a unique spin for a modern audience.
Consequently, it's an endlessly long, confusing and uninvolving story. It's a shame really, but then the producers should maybe have known better. It seems that the Potter family were heavily involved in this film, though the screenplay was clearly updated and changed, but overall this is an adaptation that shouldn't have been attempted and this film is best forgotten
Downey Jr works very hard and Mel Gibson goes against type as an old, bald doctor, but ultimately you are checking your watch pretty soon and are glad when it's all over.
James Bartlett
