Nosferatu, Calagari, Maria, The Blue Angel... Now Harry Goes To Berlin - and Buddy Hackett ain't nowhere in sight!

Hey folks, Harry here... I know what you're thinking... It's one week to BUTT-NUMB-A-THON 6, Harry must be tending to a million and one things for this blow-out to end cinematic blow-outs. I must be run ragged. I've got to going overthings so many times that it's just a machine. Nothing could distract my attention from literal obsession about the minutae of BNAT... but...

The phone rang - they said something about Berlin, Charlize Theron, Charlize Theron, Charlize Theron, Charlize Theron... Charlize Theron... So this Sunday I arrive in Berlin early in the afternoon and I leave late Tuesday to return back to Austin in the dead of night Wednesday. Thursday - BNATTERS begin to arrive... and I'll have fresh stories about the underground club scene of Berlin, German Film Fans, Charlize Theron and... AEON FLUX!

Somehow the idea of a totalitarian police state and an anarchistic assassin spy working to bring it down, only to find all perceptions of reality - unhinged... well - it doesn't seem 500 hundred years away, and there's a good chance that it could work... But there's a lot of obsticles for the production to leap, jump and dodge. How to put some sort of cohesive narrative together from material that essentially, for me at least, was about the desperate pursuit of freedom and life only to be met continually by death - and then subsequent rebirth and re-emersion into the same nightmarish reality. Aeon out Trinity'd Trinity years before the Wachowski's ever thought of her. Then there's the incredibly talented Karyn Kusama, who directed the amazing 2000 film GIRLFIGHT. A film with immense style, emotional character work and genuine femme machismo that didn't feel like posturing. However, what are they doing to make Aeon a real character - and not the cardboard punchouts that Lara Croft became... and more recently the fetishistic use of Jessica Biel in BLADE TRINITY - while have zero involvement, development or reason for being. Watching SPIDER-MAN 2, ROTK-EE and BOURNE SUPREMACY in the past day has really made me respect creating emotionally honest characters that are alive... in an otherwise unreal fantasy comic book styled universe. And doing it right.

Most folks seemed to react negative to that first image of Charlize as Aeon that came out, but my reaction was actually different. Making Charlize sexy is the last thing I'm worried about - however, making Aeon a character we care about and get invested in... that's far more important. CATWOMAN proved showing lots of cleavage and skin is simply ridiculous if well the rest is ridiculous.

I'll be living on the set for a day or two to observe and see what I see. Here's hoping they took the jewels of Peter Chung's magnificent character and made something even greater.

Sunday I'm not doing much of anything - other than possibly exploring a bit of Berlin hoping vainly I fear, to find a CABERET style CABERET - Joel and Liza aren't necessary - but damn if I don't love that era of music and showmanship. Also curious about any remnants of classic era UFA - where so many cinematic dreams came to be. If you're in Berlin and want to hang out a bit - drop me an email at Harry@AintItCool.Com