Hey folks, Harry here... I desperately wanted to go to CODE 46 last night, but due to being invited to host a table at the Texas Filmmaker's Hall of Fame... well, I had to go. It's not like it is a terrible event... quite the contrary. This event has great Bar-B-Que, cocktails and everyone is in Texas Cocktail Attire... which basically means - you're required to look your most eclectic cool. So I broke out my Shaft coat and a groovy silk shirt and joined the Pops Geek at the Austin Studios...
The night started going down the red carpet with photographers on every which side. They erected this huge tent - where the pre-event is held... There's areas where a blind auction is set up for various expensive, but for a good cause, things are previewed for bidding. The ceiling had 4 projected films going on, all old George Melies flicks that he shot while he was in San Antonio actually he ran into me. You know you occupy cool breathing room when you run into Crispin and we briefly chatted about the WILLARD screening I had set up at the Drafthouse. Very cool.
Upon heading into the event - I found the table named "30-HARRY KNOWLES" which just felt bizarre given Table Sponsorship starts around $5000 and heads up to $10,000. Me? Well, I was gifted the honor of hosting a table, but personally felt that honor should have fallen upon Tim McCanlies (Director of SECONDHAND LIONS, DANCER,TEXAS) or Charles Ramirez Berg (The Grand PooBah of the University of Texas' Film Program) or Joe Berlinger (Director of PARADISE LOST and the vastly unappreciated BLAIR WITCH PROJECT 2 - which I still love).
Right after taking my spot at the table, Crispin Glover comes over with a whole cast of folks all filming a movie in the area called DROP DEAD SEXY. The director Michael Phillip is helming his first feature, though he has worked on everything from STROKER ACE to CANNONBALL RUN 2 and now he's the man in charge on this. Crispin introduced me to this lovely actress who will be playing the dead corpse that his character has intercourse with... That's how she was introduced, and instantly my interest in DROP DEAD SEXY soars. By the time, Crispin introduces me to Jason Lee... I'm like... How the living fuck did I not know that Crispin Glover and Jason Lee weren't shooting a film around Austin, Texas!?!?! That's too fucking cool! Then I meet the producer, Richard Middleton, who also produced Lucky McKee's brilliant film MAY! Now, Crispin had never seen MAY - and I insisted that he must. I mean... Crispin's WILLARD and Angela Bettis' MAY were born for matrimony! That would be the greatest film ever. Can you imagine the sex scene? Utterly wild!
After that, many awards were presented to folks - I mean - ya had Dennis Hopper on stage presenting an award to Bud Shrake - the amazing screenwriter of films like KID BLUE, NIGHTWING, TOM HORN and the amazing flick SONGWRITER. We had Treat Williams induct Judith Ivey, who I fell in love with in THE WOMAN IN RED which I've seen perhaps a billion times as a kid when it showed as every 3rd film on HBO. Then we had Richard Linklater inducting Ethan Hawke into the Hall of Fame... His clip reel started with EXPLORERS - and I think I was the only one clapping - sad audience, albeit one with Christina Ricci in it... pant pant pant... Ya know, it's easy to overlook how good Hawke can be, but watching his birth of poetry scene in DEAD POET'S SOCIETY, his work in GATTACA and TRAINING DAY... and of course his brilliance in BEFORE SUNRISE... I found myself quite happy to be seeing him getting his deserved award. Then we had Jonathan Demme inducting Forest Whitaker into the Hall of Fame and man... I loved Forest's reel. From him telling that punk in FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH, "Don't Fuck With it!" to his work in PLATOON to that amazing scene before he runs between him and Stephen Rea in THE CRYING GAME to his cooler than cool work in GHOST DOG and much more. Very cool. Btw - to everyone that was there last night, the program said Stanley Kubrick directed Forest in PLATOON - just so you don't happen to stick that in your head... it was OLIVER STONE! Heh, sorry, had to mention that. Then Ann Richards honored the film THE GETAWAY by presenting the award to Ali MacGraw. She looks utterly fantastic. God I love Ali MacGraw! She's so great in THE GETAWAY - and as she talked about where she was in her life when she made this film - the crazy journey she took with men like Dub Taylor and Slim Pickens... then she went through this fantastic string of adjectives to describe Peckinpah that had me in tears - then she said, "And then there was a man, Steve McQueen..." and she walked off the stage with the award, and it devastated me. Anyone that knows her love story with Steve... how she stayed with him through his battle with cancer... it is perhaps one of the greatest screen/off-screen romances there have ever been. Right there with Spencer Tracy and Hepburn... Bogart and Bacall... McQueen and MacGraw were magic cut short. Lastly, film critic Elvis Mitchell inducted Robert Duvall who is a tall glass of class. Watching his scene in THE GODFATHER about how Don Corleone wants bad news as quickly as possible... or his "Charlie doesn't surf" moment from APOCALYPSE NOW all the way through moment after moment of classic film scenes... Too Cool!
It was a great night of memories, great speeches, great atmosphere and a great company to enjoy it with, though I still regret not seeing CODE 46, especially with Quint's review below...
Ahoy, squirts! Quint here, fresh off of the opening night film at the 11th Annual South By Southwest Film Festival here in Austin. The film I saw was Michael Winterbottom's (24 HOUR PARTY PEOPLE) newest flick, CODE 46.
Boy, this was a weird bird. Tim Robbins plays a sort of investigator with medically induced nearly psychic abilities... I know this already sounds like a far out sci-fi thing, but Winterbottom goes out of his way to keep this grounded in reality. While the film is set in the future, it's the very near future where the world becomes more and more integrated to the point where Spanish, English, Arabic and all sorts of languages are combined to, seemingly, one language. Obviously English is the most prominent language... they kinda have to do that to avoid subtitles... but you understand what they're going for?
Tim Robbins's character is in charge of rooting out people who work for the giant evil Corporation, SPHINX, that sneak out "Papels," which act like limited passports. You can't go anywhere without having a current papel for exactly the time and place specified. Of course you can apply for one if you want one, but it's all up to the SPHINX. If they deny you, then you're just S.O.L.
The person Tim Robbins ends up ferreting out is Samantha Morton (Pre-Cog chick in MINORITY REPORT). She has a system worked out of sneaking out papels and sells them to people who really desire them, need them on some low-down level. Although in the film we are only fully introduced to one person who buys a papel and that's because he wants to see bats... Alright... The two of them fall for each other, shit happens and off we go.
The film is a bit of a wash. It's one of those flicks where at the end I was glad I had seen the movie... I like the movie... But I know that I will never watch it again. The performances are good, but nothing to write home about. Tim Robbins is reserved and very comfortable with the character, but he was still just acting Tim Robbins. Samantha Morton was alright, the supporting cast was alright... The cinematography was pretty good... the world that is set up is very much a realistic view of where our society could end up, if the wrong paths are taken...
To be honest, if I hadn't read all that depressing reports from the victims of Guantanamo Bay in the hours before the screening, I don't know if the film's cynical look at a future "Big Brother" state would have worked so well for me. We're living in scary times. Our (Americans) freedoms are being slowly stripped away and the masses don't seem to notice or care... I don't want to make this a political rant, but in all honesty this is the shit that was running through my head while watching this movie.
At any rate, the film is better than just mediocre, just too cynical and depressing without having any great triumph in acting/directing/cinematography/originality/effects to make me look forward to revisiting it ever again.
That's my take at least. I'll be back soon with more SXSW reviews and my opinions on Tarantino's latest batch of exploitation-y goodness. 'Til that day, this is Quint bidding you all a fond farewell and adieu.
-Quint
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