Noir City Hollywood turns 20! Fest begins Friday

April 13, 2018 by

Tough smart wise-cracking private eyes in Bogey-style raincoats and crisp fedoras. Sleek sexy ladies with Bacall-type husky voices. Murderous gangsters and villains. Nosey cops. Dangerous thugs. Beautiful dames in slinky gowns who could eat you for lunch. Shadows draping over a rain-slickened midnight street. Booze. Guns. Jazz. And, over it all, the machinery of fate.

For 20 years, audiences in Hollywood and in other cities have thrilled to Noir City, the premier cinema festival devoted to what we call film noir – the movie genre that introduced us to a lot of the images above, and many more.

“The Blue Dahlia” (starring Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake) is Raymond Chandler’s only original screenplay.

Now, with the advent of the 20th annual Los Angeles Festival of Film Noir, they’ll be lining up again for the suspense-racked programs at Grauman’s/American Cinematheque Egyptian Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard, a classic venue for classic cinema and all the tricks, treats and tragedies of noir. Hosts Eddie Muller (the founder of Noir City, the film noir festival and the Film Noir Foundation) and Alan Rode (author of a splendid recent critical biography of noir master Michael Curtiz), with be there to guide us down the dark streets.

The fest runs for 10 days – April 13-April 22 – and features 20 films. Each program starts at 7:30 p.m. Here’s a look at highlights for the first part of the festival; stay tuned for more recommendations. You may have seen some of these gems before. So see them one more time. (At least) They’ll catch your breath and tingle your spine all over again.

FRIDAY, April 13 (Opening Night)
“The Blue Dahlia” (1946, George Marshall) An essential: Raymond Chandler’s only original screenplay, a tense look at three returning WWW2 vets (Alan Ladd, William Bendix and Hugh Beaumont), who fall into a post-war swamp of murder, infidelity, a “wrong man” and Veronica Lake’s peek-a-boo hairdo . Chandler, king of the noir writers (James Ellroy would disagree), was forced to use an ending here – and to finger a killer – that he hadn’t written and didn’t want. (You’ll be able to guess the killer that should have been almost instantly.) But the movie works anyway.

“I Love Trouble” (1948, S. Sylvan Simon)
A kind of Chandler pastiche: A smart-ass private-eye thriller, with detective Franchot Tone cracking wise amid the likes of Raymond Burr and John Ireland. The writer, Roy Huggins, later came up with TV’s “Rockford Files,” “77 Sunset Strip,” “The Fugitive” and (my favorite TV Western) “Maverick.”

SATURDAY, April 14
“L. A. Confidential” (1997, Curtis Hanson)
Three savvy L. A. cops (Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce and Kevin Spacey), their tyrannical chief (James Cromwell), a sleazy scandal magi publisher (Danny De Vito) and a gorgeous hooker who’s been cut to resemble Veronica Lake (Kim Besieger) are all enmeshed in L. A. ’50s police and governmental super-corruption. Maybe the greatest of the (fairly) contemporary post-war neo-noirs, stunningly executed by director Hanson and scriptwriter Brian Helgoland. James Ellroy wrote the book and he’ll be there to talk about it and the movie, with Eddie.

SUNDAY, April 15
“Kiss Me Deadly” (1956, Robert Aldrich)
Mickey Spillane was the most popular American crime novel writer (for a while, the most popular American writer period) when director Robert Aldrich and writer A. I. Bestrides did this brilliant demolition job on the pop and political culture that fed one of the Mick’s most brutal and misogynistic and cold-blooded thrillers. Ralph Meeker is a perfect, vicious Mike Hammer, Albert Becker, Jack Elam, Jack Lambert and Strother Martin are perfectly nasty heavies, and yeah, that’s Cloris Leachman in the first scene, flagging down Hammer’s car in the nude. And that’s Nat King Cole crooning the romantic ballad under the reverse credit crawl.

“City of Fear” (1959, Irving Lerner)
Vince Edwards is a con on the loose, with a suitcase full of deadly radioactive poison. One of the best of the cheapo arty B’s, from one of Marty Scorsese’s favorite low-budget helmers, Irving Lerner.

MONDAY, April 16
“Dark City” (1950, William Dieterle)
A gang of bickering grifters, led by Charlton Heston (in his off-type movie star debut) get in hot water after a crooked card game. Stylish Dieterle direction and a great cast (Lizabeth Scott, Viveca Lindfors, Ed Begley, Dean Jagger, Jack Webb and Henry Morgan) make this one a winner.

“Armored Car Robbery” (1950, Richard Fleischer)
One of the best of the cheapo non-arty B’s, by crime thriller ace Richard Fleischer. Charles McGraw is the good bad guy, William Talman is the bad bad guy, Adele Jergens is the bad girl.

TUESDAY, April 17
“He Walked by Night” (1948, Alfred Werker)
Richard Basehart plays a brainy heist guy pursued by the LAPD (and Steve Brodie) in this stunningly shot (by John Alton) crime thriller. I’ve always thought Jack Webb (who plays a tech cop) got a lot of ideas for “Dragnet” from this movie – some of which was directed by the uncredited noir expert Anthony Mann.

“Down Three Dark Streets” (1954, Arnold Laven)
FBI agent Broderick Crawford opens three case files (about Ruth Roman, Martha Hyer and Marisa Pavan) on his late friend’s desk and proceeds to unravel the past.
Sounds interesting.

WEDNESDAY, April 18
“Dragnet” (1954, Jack Webb)
Jack Webb again, with his Joe Friday magnum opus … dum-da-dum-dum! The names were changed to protect the innocent – but some of the names they kept were Ben Alexander (Friday’s Man Friday) and the underrated Richard Boone as their superior. “Hill Street Blues” and “Law and Order” it ain’t, but in a way, it paved the way for them.

“Loophole” (1954, Harold D. Schuster)
The powers that “B.” Barry Sullivan is a bank worker wrongly accused of filching the assets with relentless investigator Charley McGraw on his trail. Dorothy Malone too.
See the rest of the Noir City schedule next week.

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The anti-Valentine: Happy birthday to the divine Miss N!

February 13, 2018 by

Vertigo/ 1958/Paramount Pictures /127 min.

Kim Novak turns 85 today – wow!

Kim Novak plays two parts, elegant Madeleine and brassy Judy.

On a cold morning several years ago, my colleague Joe from the art department bumped into me at Starbucks and said: “You look like Kim Novak in ‘Vertigo’ in that suit,” referring to my fitted gray jacket and skirt. I’d twisted my hair into the best chignon I could manage pre-coffee using the three hairpins I was able to find on my cluttered bathroom shelf.

I was relieved to put off a shampoo for another day, but never thought my impromptu bun had the added effect of contributing to a Hitchcock-blonde vibe.

Alfred Hitchcock was always extremely fastidious about his leading ladies’ wardrobes and for 1958’s “Vertigo” he and costume designer Edith Head agreed that a gray suit would lend a particularly eerie air to Novak’s character, Madeleine Elster. Though stylish, sophisticated and perfectly appointed, Madeleine seems to be struggling to hold onto her sanity.

Her worried husband Gavin Elster (Tom Helmore) taps an old acquaintance and former police detective John “Scottie” Ferguson (James Stewart) to keep an eye on her. Gavin tells Scottie that Madeleine is tormented by family ghosts and that he’s afraid she’ll commit suicide.

Like Madeline, Scottie is a little delicate too, having recently been treated for his fear of heights, brought on by a nasty bout of vertigo. So, he’s taking it easy and hanging out with his upbeat buddy Midge (Barbara Bel Geddes). Reluctant at first, Scottie accepts Gavin’s assignment and, over time, becomes obsessed with saving Madeline, then falls in love with her.

But alas, Scottie can’t provide foolproof protection against her demons because he hasn’t completely conquered his vertigo. After Madeleine takes a fatal tumble, Scottie is inconsolable, until he encounters a shop clerk named Judy Barton (also played by Novak).

Judy bears an uncanny resemblance to his lost love, even if she’s less refined and has the wrong hair color. Scottie decides that’s where hair dye and haute couture come in and he sets his sights on transforming this new object of his affection into the spitting image of Madeleine. “It can’t mean that much to you,” Scottie growls at Judy when she balks at bleaching her hair. But the déjà vu does not go according to plan.

“Vertigo”’s surreal, sometimes unsettling exploration of two troubled minds bears Hitchcock’s distinctive stamps: intense but masked emotion, exquisite suspense, altered identity and disguises, and technical innovation – in this case, the use of forward zoom and reverse tracking to depict Scottie’s vertigo. Intense color and meticulous composition heighten our sense of Scottie’s anguish and frustration. Robert Burks, a longtime Hitchcock collaborator, was director of photography.

Though reviews were mixed upon its initial release (critics complained that the plot was far-fetched), “Vertigo” has since been acknowledged as a crowning cinematic achievement. In 2002, “Vertigo” landed the No. 2 spot on the Sight and Sound critics’ top 10 poll, second only to “Citizen Kane.” Leonard Maltin calls it: “A genuinely great motion picture that demands multiple viewings.”

Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novak convey intense but masked emotion.

Stewart is captivating as the off-balance would-be lover, playing against his aw-shucks, all-American type. Scottie is relaxed and jovial one minute, desperate and disconnected the next.

Novak was at the peak of her stardom when she played this role. Though it’s easy to accuse her of being a little wooden, that was likely the exact effect, i.e. sexy sleepwalker, that Hitchcock intended.

Novak snagged the role because Hitch’s first choice, Vera Miles, was pregnant and in those days, that meant losing the part. Looking at her performance today, Novak kills it.

Bel Geddes turns in an outstanding performance as Scottie’s eminently likeable galpal Midge. (Twenty years later, Bel Geddes would play the matriarch Mrs. Ewing on the hit series “Dallas.”) Midge and Scottie are comfortable enough with each other to discuss a “cantilevered” bra, perhaps a riff on Howard Hughes’ real-life attempt to design a special bra for actress Jane Russell. Midge loves Scottie, but knows the feeling is not reciprocated.

Bernard Herrmann’s haunting score, according to imdb.com, was inspired by Richard Wagner’s “Tristan and Isolde,” which is also about doomed love. The script, by Samuel Taylor and Alec Coppel, is based on the book “d’Entre les Morts” by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac, writers of the French noir novel “Diabolique.”

Although Hitchcock generally preferred studio shooting to filming on location, he also appreciated San Fran’s beauty and the city features prominently in “Vertigo” as he lets us linger near landmarks and enjoy the scenery. Hitchcock shows up as a pedestrian about 10 minutes into the flick.

For me, the only downside in “Vertigo” is that Novak’s character is much more of a damsel in distress than a cunning enchantress. Foster Hirsch, author of “Detours and Lost Highways: A Map of Neo-Noir” puts it this way: “While the protagonist is conceived securely within a noir tradition, the film rewrites the femme fatale as a victim rather than a manipulator of male desire.”

That’s not a good thing in my book. Still, I’m so fond of Novak’s lovely suits and dresses that if I could find a “Vertigo”-esque cream-colored coat and black gloves and scarf, I’d be willing to look the other way on this one.

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‘Film Stars’ offers fine performances, but doesn’t do full justice to the multidimensional Gloria Grahame

December 15, 2017 by

“Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool,” is Paul McGuigan’s film based on Peter Turner’s memoir of his relationship with actress Gloria Grahame, near the end of her life. (She died in New York City on Oct. 5, 1981; she was 57.)

Annette Bening gives a nuanced, highly sympathetic performance as the aging Grahame. Jamie Bell beautifully plays her young lover, Turner, a working-class actor from Liverpool. Julie Walters (as his mother) and Vanessa Redgrave (as Grahame’s mother) also shine in this often-moving, if somewhat predictable, story, scripted by Matt Greenhalgh.

The problem with the movie is that it ultimately becomes a fairly generic yarn about a May-December romance involving a Faded Film Star. The writer and director made the choice to film Turner’s book – rather than to use it as a starting point to illuminate the complicated person and happy-sad-doomed glamour girl that was Gloria Grahame. As a result, her unique identity is lost in the shuffle as we learn more of Turner’s life than we do of hers.

Grahame was a talented stage and film actress of the 1940s and ’50s, who is now often forgotten. For someone unfamiliar with the name, you are left with the impression that she was a Marilyn Monroe wannabe – sexy and blonde, zaftig and sweet. (Of course, that clichéd interpretation sells both women short.)

Both Grahame and Monroe were able to channel an assumed innocence and girlishness that made their characters memorable. Grahame’s breakthrough role was the flirtatious, small-town hottie Violet Bick in “It’s a Wonderful Life” (1946, Frank Capra).

Grahame was less otherworldly than the goddess Monroe (both women endured plastic surgery to perfect their faces) but she had a feline beauty, sharp-featured and streetwise, the ideal look for many a femme fatale in some of the finest film noir titles ever produced.

She earned a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nom for “Crossfire” (1947, Edward Dmytryk), held her own with Bogart in the exquisite “In a Lonely Place” (1950, Nicholas Ray, her husband at the time), gave Joan Crawford a run for her money in “Sudden Fear” (1952, David Miller) and tangled with Lee Marvin’s coffee-hurling sociopath in “The Big Heat” (1953, Fritz Lang).

Gloria Grahame was uniquely talented.

She had the vamps down cold and yet she won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar playing a well bred Southern socialite/housewife in 1952’s “The Bad and the Beautiful,” directed by Vincente Minnelli.

Grahame had an unusually expressive face and a natural effervescence that is exciting to watch. She also had a slight lisp that renders her a bit goofy – less a celluloid confection and more a real person with flaws.

She was willing to take risks – but sometimes they backfired. Lacking singing and dancing chops, she struggled in “Oklahoma!” (1955, Fred Zinnemann). Oddly miscast in this classic musical, she was insecure; said to be difficult on set and uncooperative with the press.

And Grahame was eccentric, even by Hollywood standards, obstinate and scandalous in a singular way. Her fourth husband was her stepson, Anthony Ray, son of Nicholas Ray. (Jean Luc Godard once said of the famed but tortured director: “The cinema is Nicholas Ray.”)

Though she didn’t marry Anthony Ray until 1960 (he was in his early 20s, she was 36), there is some dispute about when exactly their sexual relationship started. Of her four marriages, theirs was the longest – they divorced in 1974.

To say the least, the unconventional marriage raised eyebrows, lowered her status as a bankable star, gave her ex-husbands grounds for custody disputes and made excellent fodder for the tabloid journalists and gossip columnists she’d already alienated. Grahame suffered a nervous breakdown but after her recovery she continued to work, turning to the stage and TV when movie offers became fewer and far between.

And, to the end, she craved male companionship, as evidenced by Turner’s account of her time in England. She always enjoyed the attention. As she said of her appeal: “It wasn’t the way I looked at a man, it was the thought behind it.”

Grahame is still much loved by movie buffs. And if the cinema is Nicholas Ray, then the cinema, especially film noir, is Gloria Grahame as well.

“Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool” opens today in Los Angeles.

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Long-awaited Curtiz book hits Hollywood; Egyptian Theatre hosts signing and screening

December 7, 2017 by

Alan K. Rode

Film noir expert Alan K. Rode has released “Michael Curtiz: A Life in Film,” published by the University Press of Kentucky. To mark the book’s launch, the American Cinematheque is hosting a book signing and screening of two Curtiz gems on Thursday night in Hollywood at the Egyptian Theatre.

“The Sea Wolf” (1941) stars Edward G. Robinson, John Garfield, Ida Lupino, Gene Lockhart and Barry Fitzgerald in a tense and moody adaption of Jack London’s anti-fascist adventure novel. Robert Rossen (“The Hustler”) wrote the screenplay.

“The Breaking Point” (1950) takes Ernest Hemingway’s tragic novel “To Have and Have Not” as its source material. Though the setting is changed from Key West to Newport Beach, Calif., Curtiz delivers a more faithful version of the book than the famous Howard Hawks vehicle starring Bogart and Bacall.

Here, John Garfield expertly plays Skipper Harry Morgan. Gravel-voiced Patricia Neal is the alluring vamp; Phyllis Thaxter, Wallace Ford and Juano Hernandez round out the cast.

Rode set himself quite the task when he decided to write about this master director. Uncommonly prolific across many genres (including Westerns, swashbucklers and musicals), Hungarian-born Curtiz made more than 60 movies in Europe and more than 100 in Hollywood, arriving in 1926 at the behest of Warner Bros. Studio.

He won the Best Director Oscar for 1942’s noir-tinged “Casablanca” and for a short called “Sons of Liberty” from 1939. He was nominated for Oscars five times and directed 10 actors to Oscar nominations. James Cagney and Joan Crawford received their only Academy Awards under Curtiz’s direction.

Crawford won for her comeback role, “Mildred Pierce,” a domestic film noir from 1945. With a screenplay by Ranald MacDougall, the movie improves and heightens the drama of James M. Cain’s novel.

Co-starring Ann Blyth, Zachary Scott, Jack Carson, Eve Arden and Bruce Bennett, “Mildred Pierce” ranks as one of our all-time favorite films.

For tonight, however, we’ll just have to swoon over John Garfield. Life’s rough.

Rode will sign his book in the lobby at 6:30 p.m. He will also introduce the films, slated to start at 7:30 p.m.

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As AFI turns 50, this year’s fest looks set to be one of the best

November 7, 2017 by

We are very excited that AFI FEST presented by Audi starts in Hollywood on Thursday, Nov. 9, and ends Thursday, Nov. 16. This great fest is open to the public so check it out.

Load the app and pack some snacks – there are more than 100 movies showing!

Opening the festival on Thursday night is Dee Rees’ “Mudbound,” a drama set in post-World War II Mississippi, starring Carey Mulligan, Garrett Hedlund, Jason Mitchell, Jason Clarke, Mary J. Blige and Rob Morgan.

To mark the 50th anniversary of the American Film Institute, several 1967 titles will screen, such as: “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,” “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” “Barefoot in the Park,” “Blow-Up,” and “Red Desert.”

On Saturday, Nov. 11, documentary filmmaker Errol Morris will be honored with a tribute following a 3 p.m. screening of “Wormwood,” about one man’s 60-year quest to illuminate the circumstances of his father’s mysterious death. Peter Sarsgaard stars. Morris’ credits include the Oscar®-winning “The Fog of War” (2003) as well as “Gates of Heaven” (1978), “The Thin Blue Line” (1988), “Tabloid” (2010) and “The Unknown Known” (2013).

The world premiere of Ridley Scott’s “All the Money in the World” was scheduled to close the festival. On Monday, however, Sony pulled the film from the fest because of the sexual misconduct allegations against Kevin Spacey. In this thriller based on real events, Spacey initially played billionaire J. Paul Getty in 1973, as he refuses to give in to kidnappers who demand $17 million in ransom for the release of Getty’s grandson. The movie is still scheduled for theatrical release later this year but has been reshot, cutting Spacey and replacing him with Christopher Plummer.

Here at FNB, of course, we are super stoked about the neo-noir slate of programming, in particular:

Writer/director Aaron Katz’s “Gemini,” a thriller set in Hollywood starring Lola Kirke and Zoë Kravitz.

“Have a Nice Day,” a Chinese animated noir about greed and ruthlessness amid China’s new economy, is generating buzz. Jian Liu writes and directs.

Gloria Grahame

“Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool,” is Paul McGuigan’s film based on Peter Turner’s memoir of his relationship with actress Gloria Grahame, near the end of her life. Annette Bening plays Grahame, an icon of film noir. Jamie Bell plays her young lover, Peter. Julie Walters and Vanessa Redgrave round out the cast.

In “Molly’s Game,” Jessica Chastain is Molly Bloom, a former athlete targeted by the FBI after she gets involved in running high-stakes poker games. Based on a true story; directed by writing giant Aaron Sorkin.

“In the Fade” is Germany’s contender this year for Best Foreign Film Oscar. Diane Kruger plays a wife and mother who turns vigilante after violence rips her life apart. Fatih Akin directs and co-writes. This is one of 14 Foreign Language Oscar entries in the fest lineup.

An athlete with an unscrupulous agenda – figure skater Tonya Harding – is the subject of “I, Tonya,” from director Craig Gillespie. Margot Robbie stars. Our friend Bob Strauss of the LA Daily News describes this as “hilarious and hard-hitting.”

“Spoor” is a new crime thriller by the great Agnieszka Holland and is Poland’s Best Foreign Film Oscar entry.

In Laurent Cantet’s “The Workshop,” set in a declining town near Marseille, the vibe of a writers’ group goes from soothing to sinister.

An estranged couple must join forces to find their missing son in Andrey Zvyagintsev’s “Loveless,” which is Russia’s Best Foreign Film Oscar hopeful.

Other highlights include:

The 12-film Robert Altman retrospective will screen “M*A*S*H” (1970), “McCabe & Mrs. Miller” (1971), “The Long Goodbye” (1972), “California Split” (1973), “Nashville” (1975), “3 Women” (1977), “Vincent & Theo” (1990), “The Player” (1992), “Short Cuts” (1993), “Kansas City” (1996), “Gosford Park” (2001) and “A Prairie Home Companion” (2006). Talent in attendance at screenings will be announced closer to the festival.

“Call Me By Your Name” is a coming-of-age bisexual love story set in Italy in 1983, directed by Luca Guadagnino, based on André Aciman’s novel and starring Armie Hammer, Timothée Chalamet and Michael Stuhlbarg.

“Hostiles,” a highly anticipated Western by Scott Cooper, starring Christian Bale.

Guillermo del Toro’s “The Shape of Water,” a sci-fi love story set during the Cold War.

“Let the Sun Shine In” a comedy/romance with the always-wonderful Juliette Binoche; directed by Claire Denis.

Isabelle Huppert

Isabelle Huppert fans, take note. The inimitable actress stars in two dramas: Michael Haneke’s “Happy End” and “Claire’s Camera” by Hong Sang-soo. (“Happy End” is Austria’s Best Foreign Film Oscar contender.)

Another coveted ticket: “The Other Side of Hope” by Finland’s Aki Kaurismäki, a critics’ darling.

Talent scheduled to appear at AFI FEST presented by Audi includes: Christopher Nolan, Angelina Jolie, Sofia Coppola, Martin McDonagh, Agnes Varda and Jordan Peele (“Get Out”).

Enjoy!

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Romero honored at special screening of ‘Creepshow’

October 23, 2017 by

An indie director before the term was widely used, George Romero carved his own niche in the horror genre by brilliantly marrying over-the-top blood and guts with sharp social satire.

He broke new ground with his first effort, 1968’s “Night of the Living Dead.” Dismissed by critics, his low-budget film was a huge hit with audiences and grossed more than $50 million. Romero went on to direct these sequels: 1978’s “Dawn of the Dead,” 1985’s “Day of the Dead,” 2005’s “Land of the Dead,” 2007’s “Diary of the Dead” and 2009’s “George A. Romero’s Survival of the Dead.”

The Bronx-born maverick moviemaker died on July 16, 2017; he was 77.

Comic book fans will no doubt appreciate Romero’s “Creepshow,” a 1982 black comedy shot in Pittsburgh, as were many of his other flicks. (Romero graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh in 1960.)

Starring Hal Holbrook, Adrienne Barbeau, Fritz Weaver, Leslie Nielsen, Ted Danson and E.G. Marshall, the film was Stephen King’s first script. King also plays a part in one of the five stories, which are inspired by the EC and DC comics of the 1950s.

You can see “Creepshow” on the big screen on Wednesday, October 25, at the Alex Theatre in Glendale. The Alex is hosting a tribute to Romero with a preshow reception and Q&A.

Happy Halloween, zombie people!

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‘Jane’ documentary is a joy to watch

October 20, 2017 by

A review of “Jane” might seem an odd choice for a site that focuses on film noir. But here at FNB we also celebrate strong, independent women and anthropologist Jane Goodall, the topic of Brett Morgen’s National Geographic documentary, is certainly that.

Goodall and Morgen appeared on-stage at a lovely screening Oct. 9 at the Hollywood Bowl with live orchestral accompaniment by Philip Glass. The event, which was open to the public, drew celebrities such as Angelina Jolie, Judd Apatow, Jamie Lee Curtis, Jane Lynch, Kate Bosworth and Ty Burrell.

Goodall received hearty applause when she said we humans need to do a better job of taking care of the Earth. Morgen gave a shoutout to his mother because the screening date is also her birthday.

Speaking of mothers, Goodall probably would not have achieved as much as she did had it not been for the steady support of her mom. In the film, Goodall explains that, as a young girl, when she expressed her desire to study animals in their natural habitats, her mother didn’t flinch; she encouraged Jane to pursue her goal. Later, she joined her daughter in Africa and helped out in their day-to-day living.

The world’s top expert on chimpanzees, Goodall spent more than 50 years observing and documenting social interactions of wild chimps in Tanzania, starting under the guidance of Louis Leakey in the late 1950s.

In the early 1960s, Dutch filmmaker Hugo van Lawick shot more than 140 hours of footage of Goodall’s work, documenting it for National Geographic. From this filmic record and original interviews, Morgen weaves together his subject’s fascinating life story, both public and private.

With no college degree, Goodall tells us, her job qualifications were a love for animals and an open mind. (She later earned a PhD at Cambridge University.) As a leggy young blonde, she also courted a fair amount of media attention and not surprisingly caught van Lawick’s eye. They eventually married and had a child.

“A lot of people have extraordinary lives, but not a lot of people can articulate those lives, and even fewer have had that entire life photographed on 16mm by one of the world’s greatest photographers,” Morgen told The Hollywood Reporter.

Morgen, whose other credits include “The Kid Stays in the Picture,” “Crossfire Hurricane,” and “Cobain: Montage of Heck,” seamlessly captures Goodall’s passion and commitment, her gentle pragmatism, her quick wit and warm humor.

“I wish I could embrace every single one of you. I want to thank you for being here,” Goodall said at the Hollywood Bowl. “I hope you had a wonderful time.”

We did, indeed. This wonderful film is a joy to watch.

‘Jane’ opens in Los Angeles on Oct. 20.

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Highly anticipated ‘Snowman’ turns out to be mostly slush

October 20, 2017 by

Looking at the billboard posters for “The Snowman” (2017, Tomas Alfredson), I had the feeling that if I paid close attention while watching the movie, I might see a red flag or perhaps spot a clue that the police miss in a complex and carefully constructed story of a serial killer on the loose.

And since it’s set in Norway (haunting snowscapes, frozen lakes and austere mountains abound), I figured this tipoff to patient viewers would likely be a visual one – the Scandinavians being a tight-lipped crowd for the most part.

But about 45 minutes into this film, in which Michael Fassbender plays Detective Harry Hole, I realized that hanging in there was not going to pay off – that this was a complex and sloppily constructed story that was probably going to leave me feeling disappointed and frustrated.

Despite Alfredson’s success in 2011 with the multilayered “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy,” he seems out of his depth and overwhelmed with “The Snowman.” The narrative is confusing, the flashbacks don’t connect well with the present, the characterizations are haphazard. A case in point: Early on, we see Harry lying on a park bench shivering. There’s no explanation and the rest of the time he seems calm, measured, decisive and compassionate. Eventually, we learn he is an alcoholic. Oh, OK.

Similarly, his colleague Katrine Bratt (Rebecca Ferguson), despite showing ingenuity and fierce determination, in the end, must resort to time-worn feminine wiles to land her suspect. Good thing she’s gorgeous!

Charlotte Gainsbourg’s character doesn’t have a last name but at least she’s elegantly dressed. Whatever.

Most vacant of all: Chloë Sevigny’s two characters (she plays twins) – one of whom is a dour-faced chicken slaughterer. ’Nuff said.

Considering, too, that the film was based on Jo Nesbø’s best-selling series of novels, there was reason to hope for a well made, intelligent, engrossing movie. Maybe there were too many screenwriters? (Peter Straughan and Hossein Amini lead the list.)

Or maybe this would have been better off as a TV series, where the serpentine storylines could play out and the characters could have more time to develop. Unfortunately, “The Snowman” we ended up with is mostly slush.

“The Snowman” opened Oct. 19 in Los Angeles and is now on general release.

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COLCOA keeps ’em coming: 3 more great period dramas

May 12, 2017 by

In addition to “A Woman’s Life” (see earlier post), there were three other outstanding period dramas we enjoyed at COLCOA that are well worth seeing if you get the chance.

First: In writer/director Nicolas Boukhrief’s “The Confession,” which is based on Béatrix Beck’s 1952 novel “Léon Morin, prêtre,” Marine Vacth plays a fiery, fiercely free-thinking woman who develops an unconventional friendship with a charming priest (Romain Duris) in a small French town during World War II. Their intellectual debates and emotional vicissitudes as well as their growing depth of feeling and personal peril are handled with subtlety and tenderness.

The book previously came to the big screen in 1961 in a film adapted and directed by Jean-Pierre Melville, starring Jean-Paul Belmondo and Emmanuelle Riva.

Second: A true story you’ll never forget. “A Bag of Marbles,” co-written and directed by Christian Duguay, recounts the harrowing experiences of a Jewish family desperately trying to evade the Nazis in 1941 Paris.

After their parents decide it would be safer to split up temporarily, the youngest sons, 10 and 12, head to France’s “free zone” on their own and must fend for themselves along the way.

The atmosphere is pitch-perfect and the performances all around (especially the boys, as played by Dorian Le Clech and Batyste Fleurial) are authentic and fresh in addition to being uncommonly moving. Based on the memoir by Joseph Joffo and Claude Klotz.

Third: “Mr. & Mrs. Adelman” is a portrait of a relationship over the course of 50 years. Highly engaging, original and often delightfully acerbic, the film was made by Nicolas Bedos and Doria Tiller, who also play the leads and are themselves a couple.

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Italian-French ‘Like Crazy’ is crazy good

May 11, 2017 by

“Like Crazy” (Folles de Joie in French and originally titled La pazza gioia), an Italian-French production, had its Los Angeles premiere at the COLCOA French Film Festival. The film won the Audience Special Mention Award at the fest.

There’s an Italian proverb: “Chi trova un amico, trova un tesoro,” which means “whoever finds a friend finds a treasure.”

The leads of “Like Crazy,” directed and co-written by Paolo Virzi, bear this out on-screen in a uniquely dysfunctional and hilariously messed-up way.

You may remember Valeria Bruni Tedeschi from the 2013 films “Human Capital” or “A Castle in Italy” (she directed, co-wrote and starred in the latter). After seeing this film, you won’t soon forget her. In “Like Crazy,” she plays Beatrice, a chic, snobby, well-to-do party girl a bit past her prime who never stops talking and namedropping.

It’s a little hard, though, to be a social butterfly as a resident of a group-home facility for people suffering from mental and emotional disorders. (“Facility” doesn’t quite do the place justice – it’s an enchanting villa that Beatrice’s family once owned.)

Sure that she does not belong there, Beatrice decides that her fellow residents are freaks with the exception of a withdrawn, depressive 20something named Donatella (Micaela Ramazzotti), who also happens to be drop-dead gorgeous, extremely expressive and endlessly watchable as an actress. She too will remain in your memory long after the credits roll.

Beatrice insists that she and Donatella will be pals and sets about grooming her as a sidekick. Donatella doesn’t have the strength to resist her overtures and when Beatrice finds a way to break free from the group home, Donatella doesn’t need much convincing.

Thus begins a spree of sweet-talking and stealing, boozing and barhopping, haute hustling and hightailing it from the cops and the admin staff at the home.

Smart, funny and deeply touching, thanks to Virzi’s deft and soulful directing, “Like Crazy,” is a stellar addition to the commedia all’Italiana tradition. It also reminds us of classic road-trip movies, such as 1991’s “Thelma and Louise” (directed by Ridley Scott and written by Callie Khouri), and is reminiscent of the days when American movies featured authentic, fleshed-out characters with human flaws and quirky peccadilloes.

(That’s not something we much these days, unfortunately. A case in point: “You Choose,” which closed the COLCOA festival. Amusing and innocuous, it’s a by-the-numbers, superficial comedy.)

Having a woman’s input (Virzi co-wrote the script with Francesca Archibugi) lends “Like Crazy” a special nuance and sensitivity.

Granted, the film follows a fairly conventional structure but all of the filmmaking elements – in particular the writing and acting – are presented so honestly, so movingly and with such consummate skill that we are swept along for one hell of a ride.

“Like Crazy” opens Friday in Los Angeles at the Laemmle Royal Theatre and the Laemmle Playhouse 7.

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