Sixty years young

Carol Reed's The Third Man.

"The most famous collaboration of the director Carol Reed and the screenwriter Graham Greene has the structure of a good suspense thriller and an atmosphere of baroque, macabre decadence. The simple American, Joseph Cotten, arrives in postwar Vienna to meet an old friend, only to be told that the friend has been killed in an accident. In trying to discover the facts, Cotten learns so much about his friend that when he finally finds him alive, he wants him dead. Orson Welles' portrait of the friend, Harry Lime, is a study of corruption--evil, witty, unreachable. It's balanced against Trevor Howard's quietly elegant underplaying of the Army officer who teaches the simple American some of the uglier facts of life. There is an ambiguity about our relation to the Cotten character: he is alone against the forces of the city and, in a final devastating stroke, he is even robbed of the illusion that the girl (Alida Valli) is interested in him, yet his illusions are so commonplace that his disillusion does not strike us deeply. Greene has made him a shallow, ineffectual, well-meaning American. Robert Krasker's cinematography won the Academy Award. The zither music is by Anton Karas." — Pauline Kael

Stuff I read today

Wired says goodbye to 100 Bullets.

The New York Times on MOMA's Mike Nichols retrospective.

Great news for John Carter Of Mars.

Lost channels Ancient Egyptian Legend to explain Smoke Monster.

Brett Ratner launches his own publishing company.

Simon Channing Williams, 1945-2009

I never met Simon Channing Williams but he had the reputation of being one of the good guys. Channing Williams, who died of cancer this past weekend aged 63, began his career at the BBC where he worked with Stephen Frears, James MacTaggart, Mike Newell, Michael Apted and Mike Leigh with whom he went on to produce 11 films, including Secrets & Lies, Topsy-Turvy, Vera Drake and Happy-Go-Lucky. He also produced Nick Love’s debut, Goodbye Charlie Bright, Brothers Of The Head, and Fernando Meirelles' The Constant Gardener, working again with Meirelles on Blindness.

"He was a natural-born producer," said Leigh, "a great leader, always an enabler, a protector; never a dictator or an interferer. Infinitely generous, his life was all about doing things for people, and bringing out the best in everybody. He was the ultimate fixer, and a phenomenal organiser. He relished the impossible challenge, and loved the cut-and-thrust of negotiations, at which he was a genius."

Happy Birthday Julie Christie

I've had the good fortune to interview Julie Christie twice. Once for Premiere, to coincide with the release of Afterglow, and once for a documentary. For the former I drove to Oxford where she was starring in a play and spent a very lovely couple of hours with her. Back then, she didn't give very many interviews (not that she's Mrs Ubiquitous now), and I had spent the previous week watching every film of hers I could get my hands on — Darling, Billy Liar, Dr Zhivago, Shampoo etc — as part of my research, as well as the best part of a day at the BFI library reading every article I could find on her dating back to the 1960s, virtually every one of which talked about her not having married (although she is now) or having children. And so when I met her, the first thing I told her was I wasn't going to ask her about either subject and that seemed to break the ice. I remember asking her about the aging process and how she felt about it, and she offered up that she'd had a little surgery, on her chin. (I hadn't been fishing, I assumed she'd had nothing done.) For years after, every time there was a piece of plastic surgery in a British newspaper, that Christie quote would be trotted out.

This is the end

Not for reel world matters.

But for Brian Azzarello's and Eduardo Risso's Eisner Award-winning crime comic 100 Bullets, the final issue of which — number 100, no less — is out tomorrow.

If you haven't been reading this stellar series, then might I suggest you visit amazon or your local comic retailer and start picking up the trade paperbacks. You won't regret it.

File under "stuff"

This is hilarious. And, ahem, dangerous.

"I can only show you the door. You're the one that has to walk through it."

Can it really be ten years since Keanu Reeves' Neo was offered the choice of the red and blue pills with the promise that, "Unfortunately, no one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself."

In the decade since Larry and Andy Wachowski unleashed their manga-influenced fantasy The Matrix upon an unsuspecting public, and in doing so pushed the boundaries of both mainstream action movies and special effects, very little has come close to achieving the same level of energy, excitement and cutting edge cool. Much like the character of Neo himself, The Matrix took us to a place that we, the audience, never knew existed. It wasn't just bullet-time, it was an attitude and style and a manner of filmmaking that hit a nerve with a world on the brink of a new millennium.

I remember seeing the trailer for it before a press screening at the old Warner Brothers' offices in London and felt my mind actually being blown. I saw the film itself a week or so later and didn't come down from it for an absolute age.

A couple of years later I found myself on a plane to Sydney, Australia to visit the set of the sequels, Reloaded and Revolutions, and I can't even begin to explain quite how excited I was. And while I never got to meet, much less speak to the Wachowskis despite spending four days on set, I felt incredibly privileged just to be there.

Alas the films themselves proved to be something of a disappointment — although I do like most of Reloaded — and it would be a while before I could revisit The Matrix again without thinking of the hideous dance sequence in part two or the majority of part three.

That said, The Matrix remains a modern classic and a favourite film of mine. I have so many "best bits", but here are just two.

Tim Burton at MOMA

New York's Museum Of Modern Art is hosting a five month-long retrospective of the work of Tim Burton beginning on November 22 and running through until April 26, 2010.

According to MOMA's website: "This major career retrospective on Tim Burton, consisting of a gallery exhibition and a film series, considers Burton's career as a director, producer, writer, and concept artist for live-action and animated films, along with his work as a fiction writer, photographer and illustrator. Following the current of his visual imagination from his earliest childhood drawing through his mature work, the exhibition presents artwork generated during the conception and production of his films, and highlights a number of unrealized projects and never-before-seen pieces, as well as student art, his earliest non-professional films, and examples of his work as a storyteller and graphic artist for non-film projects. The opposing themes of adolescence and adulthood, and the elements of sentiment, cynicism, and humor inform his work in a variety of mediums—drawings, paintings, storyboards, digital and moving-image formats, puppets and maquettes, props, costumes, ephemera, sketchbooks, and cartoons. Taking inspiration from sources in pop culture, Burton has reinvented Hollywood genre filmmaking as a spiritual experience, influencing a generation of young artists working in film, video, and graphics."

Messing with Adam Sandler

Prior to watching Don't Mess With The Zohan last night I had only seen one Adam Sandler movie in its entirety. That was Paul Thomas Anderson's Punch Drunk Love, which can scarcely be called typical Sandler fare. I don't quite know why I'd avoided him before now, but I thought I'd rectify that by giving the Blu-ray of Zohan a spin. And you know what? I laughed loads. Sure it's borderline offensive, puerile, sloppily scripted and poorly crafted (some of the HiDef cinematography looks pretty ropey in 1080i) but this ridiculous tale of a Israeli agent (Sandler) with aspirations of becoming a hairdresser in New York kept me reasonably entertained, although I doubt it'll have me scouring the comedy shelf at my local Blockbuster for the rest of Sandler's oeuvre.

Moonstruck

I'm a sucker for all things Moon-related, with one of my best ever junkets a trip to Houston for Apollo 13 where we got to go behind the scenes at NASA and visit the original command centre where they presided over the Apollo missions. All of which is my way of saying that I'm very much looking forward to Duncan Jones' Moon. I've steadfastly tried to avoid reading too much about the film because I hear there are a number of twists involved, although this is another one of those trailers that gives a little too much away for my liking.

Knowing

I want to talk about the ending of Alex Proyas' Knowing so if you haven't seen it already and are planning to, then look away now. If you have, well, maybe you had the same thought as I did. But first, I have to admit that for the first hour or so I was pretty gripped. The trailer had me intrigued and the central conceit of a piece of paper written 50 years ago and then put inside a time capsule, a piece of paper filled with numbers that seemingly predict every global catastrophe from the last half century, and with a few still to come, is strong and creepy. Throw in the spooky Herrmann-esque score, the strange, blond, whispering men, and two spectacular action set pieces (the airplane crash and the subway disaster) and you've got a solid, suspenseful, well-directed, apocalyptic movie. But then the plot throws a curveball, and shoehorns some mystic melodrama as well as aliens into the heady mix and you've lost me. Especially the inclusion of the aliens which, to my mind, negate everything that's gone before. I mean, what was the actual point of the numbers in the first place if "they" were here all along? What purpose did they ultimate serve in terms of the overall story? And why did the aliens wait until mere moments before the end of the world before asking the kids to join them on a distant planet in order to continue mankind? Or did I miss something?

Splinter

Wearing its influences very much on its bloody sleeve, this low-budget monster movie borrows from the very best — Night Of The Living Dead and John Carpenter’s The Thing — and yet emerges as something altogether fresh and frightening. Biology PhD major Seth (Paulo Costanzo) and his spunky girlfriend Polly (Scarlett Johannson-lookalike Jill Wagner) find their anniversary camping trip interrupted by escaped convict Farrell (Shea Whigham) and his junkie girlfriend who hijack their car and hold them hostage.

Worse is still to come as they stop at an isolated gas station and are trapped inside by a parasitic organism that infects its victims via nasty black splinters before mutating into a hideous (though barely glimpsed) creature made up of its previous victims’ body parts. Adroitly balancing characterisation and gore, this sensational debut from FX veteran Toby Wilkins — a Brit no less — wrings maximum suspense from the spare, deceptively simple set up. Terrific stuff.

Red Dax and Sweet Georgia Brown

I've known Mark Kermode for more years than I care to remember, and can still vividly recall late night discussions with him about — yes, you guessed it — The Exorcist in the days before the film was legally available on video in the UK. But even I learned stuff about the Good Doctor from this particular piece in today's Guardian. Not least the wax he uses on his quiff. Two, in fact. Red Dax and Sweet Georgia Brown.

Broccoli And Beyond

Spent a very enjoyable evening at the BFI Southbank for the launch of the Broccoli And Beyond season which is celebrating the career of Bond producer Albert "Cubby" Broccoli. Former 007 Roger Moore was on hand to introduce a digitally remastered print of Dr No but, alas, didn't stay for the party. In attendance, however, were Bond director Lewis Gilbert, composer David Arnold, legendary stuntman Vic Armstrong, actors Colin Salmon, Samantha Bond, and Goldfinger's Shirley Eaton, plus current holders of the Bond flame, producers Michael Wilson and Barbara Broccoli. I even spotted Star Wars sound effects wizard Ben Burtt in the crowd.

The Broccoli season runs from tomorrow until the end of May and includes a special weekend-long Bond celebration over the May Bank Holiday, as well as masterclasses and on-stage interviews with the likes of producer designer Ken Adam, Roger Moore, directors John Glen and Lewis Gilbert, and Bond baddie Richard Kiel.

For further details click here.

Occasionally I wish I lived in Austin, Texas

This is one of those occasions.

Wired UK

It is not, it must be said, the most propitious time to be launching a new magazine, but Conde Nast have recently launched two. Fashion doorstopper Love and the UK version of Wired. I was a regular consumer of the US edition when it launched but haven't bought a copy for years, although I do visit its website regularly. I also remember the first attempt to launch a UK Wired in the mid 90s and that didn't last long. But I wish them luck with this incarnation. (Call me old-fashioned but I still like magazines, even if I find myself buying fewer and fewer of them nowadays.) I've already got my launch issue (though yet to do more than flick through it) and a 32-page digital sampler can be viewed here.

State Of Play

I was a huge fan of the Paul Abbott-scripted BBC miniseries State Of Play which, along with Channel's 4 Sex Traffic, helped usher David Yates into Hogwarts. And so I've been anxiously regarding the big screen remake which opens this month. Just because cramming six hours of excellent television into two hours was always going to be problematic. Having said that, if anyone was going to do the material justice it was going to be BAFTA and Oscar-winning director Kevin Macdonald, brother of producer Andrew and my editor on the original edition of Burton On Burton.

In yesterday's Observer, Macdonald told Amy Raphael that the film developed from Abbott's political thriller into a dramatic exposé of the declining state of print journalism.

"The original State of Play wasn't set in any recognisably real journalistic world. It's not what really interested Paul Abbott; in fact, he'll tell you proudly that he didn't even do any research with journalists, whereas we spent a lot of time getting advice from the Washington Post. I thought the crisis in newspapers was something to be explored; I love All the President's Men and, in fact, all films about journalism. I thought we could make the last film about newspapers before they die."

Here's Macdonald and Russell Crowe talking to The Times.

Monday musing

I know the world's going to pot (financially, environmentally, et al) but did Fast & Furious really make more than $100 million this past weekend?

Apparently so.

Timecrimes

Finally caught up with Timecrimes the other day on DVD — it's out May in the UK and I'll be reviewing it in greater detail nearer release — and have to report it's as good as I'd hoped it would be having read the Sundance reviews. Don't think much of this trailer, though, which gives a little too much away for my liking. But that's me. It some ways it reminded me of Primer — another low budget, big imagination, Sundance time twister.

Waiting for the Wild Things

If, like me, you're counting the days until Spike Jonze's movie version of Maurice Sendak's classic Where The Wild Things Are finally arrives, here's something to tide you over.



And here's the trailer for Jonze's movie.

Magician With A Movie Camera: Nicolas Roeg

Yesterday's BAFTA tribute to Nicolas Roeg was a fitting reward for one of the two greatest directors that Britain has ever produced. (The other being Michael Powell, in case you're wondering.)

The evening was the brainchild of Danny Boyle and was designed to celebrate Roeg's illustrious career not through the contributions of those who have worked with him, but those filmmakers whom Roeg has inspired and influenced. On stage to talk about their love and admiration for a filmmaker who Boyle equates to Picasso were three Oscar-winning directors — Boyle, Kevin Macdonald, and James Marsh — as well as Stephen Frears and novelist Richard T Kelly.

There were also filmed contributions from Todd Haynes, Guillermo Del Toro, Terry Gilliam, Chris Nolan, Paul Greengrass, Mike Figgis, and cinematographer Seamus McGarvey, as well as the world premiere of a Roeg-inspired short from Steven Soderbergh.

In the audience were Julie Christie, James Fox, Amanda Donohue, Jeremy Thomas, Sandy Lieberson and Allan Scott who joined Roeg, assorted family members, and the various presenters on stage at the end for a group photo.

Everyone talked about Roeg's remarkable skill as as cinematographer, director and all round cinematic artist, his masterful and experimental editing technique, his use of montage, of sound, and his movies' fractured timelines which laid the groundwork for so much of what we take for granted in movies today. Without Roeg, claimed Nolan, there wouldn't be a Memento. What he produced, Boyle, Del Toro and others insisted, was Pure Cinema, plain and simple.

Boyle had his editor Chris Dickens cut together a four minute condensed version of Don't Look Now which was brilliant; Marsh showed a clip from the same film in which Donald Sutherland falls from the platform in the church he's renovating in Venice that was an inspiration for him during the making of Man On Wire; Madonald said the third shot in Touching The Void was of a lizard, in homage to Walkabout; Frears, who lives down the road from Roeg, wanted him to come on stage to explain how he created the astonishing opening sequence of Don't Look Now. Roeg declined.

The event culminated in Roeg being presented with a BAFTA ("the first award I've ever won," Roeg quipped) from Walkabout stars Jenny Agutter and Roeg's producer son Luc.

All in all it was a splendid evening. Congratulations to everyone involved. And to Nic, of course.

Funday

Off to a screening. Followed by a tribute to the genius that is Nic Roeg at BAFTA this evening.

What I've been watching...

The Small Back Room (1949)

Seven Pounds (2008)

Martyrs (2008)

Fellowship Of The Rid

Last night I had the good fortune to be present at the BFI Southbank for a Conversation With Sir Ridley Scott that marked the conclusion of a special Blade Runner Day (which included discussions, documentaries and a Q&A with Rutger Hauer).

The BFI used the occasion to bestow upon Scott a BFI Fellowship which was handed to him on stage by BFI Governor Stephen Frears who revealed that Scott had asked him to direct Thelma & Louise back in the day but, of course, he'd turned it down.

During the hour-long celebration of his career, Scott discussed his first film, Boy And Bicycle, which he made for £65 while a student at the Royal College of Art (he shot it over one summer with his younger brother Tony as star and crew), his time at the BBC working as art director and director, and his years in advertising, before breaking into Hollywood.

Scott said that he starts shooting Robin Hood a week tomorrow and has his next three films already planned, following Robin Hood with Gucci, before moving on to an adaptation of Tom Rob Smith's novel Child 44 and then his version of Joe Haldeman's science fiction book The Forever War. Scott also revealed that James Cameron had shown him some footage from Avatar and it was so amazing he was probably going to have to film Forever War in 3D.

Wherefore art thou?

Answer: I'm still here.

Sort of. I'm juggling several deadlines at the moment, meaning my attention is elsewhere. Sorry.

Alice In Wonderland

I have article in the premier issue of new Disney publication D23 (Disney twenty-three) regarding a film you might interested in — Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland. It's the first article anywhere on Alice and features an interview with Tim as well as the first official look at the movie, with concept art and a photo of Mia Wasikowska's Alice. Scans of the feature and the art have already appeared online.


Disney twenty-three subscriptions are only available by becoming a member of D23: The Official Community for Disney Fans. Individual issues retail for $15.95 and are exclusively available at all U.S. Barnes & Noble booksellers, Disneyshopping.com, all domestic Disney Stores, Disneyland Resort and Walt Disney World Resort. Back issues will be available at Disneyshopping.com.

The French Action Hero

Back in the 80s and 90s I was a big fan of Luc Besson. Le Dernier Battle, Nikita, The Big Blue, Leon (aka The Professional) all rocked my world to varying degrees and I even liked The Fifth Element. But then Besson decided he wanted to be a producer instead of director and run his own studio to boot. He's been very successful at it, churning out a series of internationally successful movies, among them the Transporter series and Taken which has been a sleeper hit in the US this year. Here's how he did it, in the words of screenwriter Robert Mark Kamen who's written most of them.

Tony Gilroy

The New Yorker has a great interview with Tony Gilroy, writer-director of Michael Clayton and the forthcoming Duplicity.

Monday musing

So Watchmen made in excess of $55 million at the US box office at the weekend, plus an additional $27 million internationally, and yet it's been pegged as a disappointment by certain sections of the media. I know Watchmen cost a sizeable amount and the marketing budget in the US was said to be $50 million. But still people. Come on. Then again, maybe I shouldn't be surprised after seeing some of the harsh reviews that the film generated from some quarters. I know it's flawed, I know it's not wholly successful and, just to repeat myself, they might have helped themselves but not being so reverential, so slavishly faithful to the source material. Maybe they should have "adapted" it a little bit more. But it's not the worst film of all time, as I read one critic call it. Snyder's no idiot. And he's no hack. The man's talented and I really do believe he tried to do right by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' creation. And did. Sure, I'd like to have felt a bit more emotional connection to the characters but did you notice the decor in Dr Manhattan's bedroom? It was straight out of 2001. Personally, I loved that. And I, for one, can't wait for Snyder's promised Director's Cut. I think it was Devin from chud.com who likened Watchmen the movie to Blade Runner, in that it will find both fans and acceptance on DVD and Blu-ray. Let's hope so. But it would be great if it made even more money theatrically first. If only so that big Hollywood studios will continue to make dark, decidedly unmainstream material, then promoting the hell out of it.

And speaking of Stanley Kubrick as I was, tangentially, it was the tenth anniversary of his death on Saturday. Shame on me for not mentioning earlier...

Looking good