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Jean-Luc Godard bows to Palestinian pressure and backs out of Israeli film festival

May 31st, 2008 by Scott Marks

Jean-Luc Godard, the grandfather of modern cinema, will no longer be the guest of honor at Tel Aviv’s 12th International Student Film Festival, an event official said on Saturday.

As reported on Breitbart.com, the groundbreaking film director had been due to arrive on Sunday but said he would not be attending for “reasons beyond his control,” Morane Tal said.

Late in May, Godard announced that he would be attending the festival “as a private citizen and as an eternal film student,” and would hold a meeting with students at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque on June 4.

“We are very disappointed because he seems to have succumbed to pressure from pro-Palestinian groups who launched a campaign for people to boycott Israel,” Ms. Tal added, without elaborating.

On May 25, the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) published an open letter to Jean-Luc Godard asking “someone with (Godard’s) history, moral commitment and consistent support for the causes of justice — from Algeria, to Vietnam, to Palestine — to stand in solidarity with us against occupation and apartheid.”

Read the entire letter here.

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New Photos Added: Farrah Fawcett, The Beatles in A HARD DAY’S NIGHT, Howard Hawks, LAND OF THE PHARAOHS, THE THING, Joan Collins, Kate Smith, etc.

May 31st, 2008 by Scott Marks

Celebrity Endorsements:
Andy Devine for Scotch Cellophane Tape
Farrah Fawcett for Wella Balsam Shampoo
Jerry Lewis for A-1 Sprints Continental Slacks
Kate Smith spreading her seed for Simoniz Non-Scuff Floor Wax
Olan Soule for Ovaltine

The Beatles in Richard Lester’s A HARD DAY’S NIGHT (1964) - New Gallery with 22 Photos Added

Howard Hawks - New Gallery with 5 Photos Added

Otto Preminger’s IN HARM’S WAY (1965) - New Gallery with 32 Photos Added

John Woo’s THE KILLER (1989) - New Gallery with 10 Spanish Lobby Cards Added

Howard Hawk’s LAND OF THE PHARAOHS (1955) - New Gallery with 8 Photos Added

Allan Arkush & Joe Dante’s ROCK ‘N’ ROLL HIGH SCHOOL (1979) - 2 New Photos Added

Christian Nyby’s THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD (1953) - New Gallery with 6 Photos Added

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Filed Under Image Blog

Bill Murray heading for ugly divorce

May 31st, 2008 by Scott Marks

Adultery, pot and booze addictions, abusive behavior, physical abuse, sexual addictions and frequent abandonment. And those are just some of the generalities contained in Jennifer Butler Murray’s six-page court document filed May 12 in a Charleston, South Carolina. Wait till the Enquirer gets hold of the specifics!

Ms. Murray accuses funnyman Bill Murray of abusing her on more than one occasion during their marriage. The legal document claims Bill, “hit his wife in the face and then told her she was ‘lucky he didn’t kill her.’”

According to the complaint, Jennifer Murray moved into a Sullivan’s Island home in 2006 with the couple’s four children. She is seeking a restraining order banning her husband from her $3.65 million home and is asking the court to determine if their premarital agreement is valid and enforceable.

According to the Charleston Post and Courier, “the Murrays signed the agreement before their marriage on July 4, 1997. It stipulates that if either spouse files for divorce, both parties retain all of their separate property, waive any right to alimony or support and maintain responsibilities for their children.” If the marriage is dissolved and the premarital agreement is made a part of the order he would have to pay her $7 million.

Murray, famous for not having an agent or a publicist had his attorney talk to Entertainment Tonight: “Bill Murray is deeply saddened by the breakup of his marriage. He and his wife are loving parents and they are committed to the best interests of their children and Mr. Murray has asked that the public respect his privacy at this difficult time.”

My first question was why Charleston, South Carolina? The Courier cleared it up: “Murray makes regular public appearances in the Lowcountry as a co-owner of the Charleston RiverDogs baseball team. Murray also is a co-owner of Goldklang Group, a sports entertainment firm that represents the marketing and promotion rights for the RiverDogs and several other baseball teams.”

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DVD Review: THE THIRD WHEEL / Jordan Brady (2002)

May 30th, 2008 by Scott Marks

The Third Wheel (2002)
Directed by Jordan Brady
Written by Jay Lacopo
Starring: Luke Wilson, Denise Richards, Jay Lacopo and Ben Affleck
Running Time: 91 min.
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1

Rating: ★★☆☆☆

A friend cramped for space and too lethargic to post them on eBay gave me a stack of DVD screeners that I’ve been trying to auction off. With the exception of Charles Burnett’s The Glass Cube, which wouldn’t sell for ninety-nine cents, there wasn’t anything in the bag that I would ever again sit through or for that matter wanted to see in the first place.

The Third Wheel was another title that wouldn’t sell for a buck if it came with a five-dollar bill wrapped around it. There are eighty-one new and used copies on Amazon starting at thirty-cents, plus two dollars for shipping. You can currently purchase one of the thirty-seven copies available on eBay. Not one of the twenty copies put up for auction last month sold.

Looks like I won myself a DVD.

Before she was eternally dirtied by Charlie Sheen, Denise Richards was the bomb. She appeared to me on The Last Weekend episode of Saved by the Bell…alone, out of the open sewer. They cannot…touch…her…beauty…

She received Joe Dante’s dispensation on an episode of Erie, Indiana as well as appearing in Starship Troopers by Paul Verhoeven’s decree. And if you haven’t seen Tammy and the T-Rex, go ahead. I dare you. You can plant corn in her eyebrows!

Her nude menage in Wild Things will go down in smut history as one of the great R rated sex scenes ever filmed. Before Charlie and a network sitcom muddied the waters, she was poised to become her genrations’ Linda Blair. Denise’s unnatural delivery is easily the most enjoyable aspect of The World is Not Enough, but Valentine is deadly dull.

In The Third Wheel, Luke Wilson plays a shy office worker who spends months admiring Denise from afar. He finally gets the nerve to ask her out and, of course, she accepts. Their idyllic first date is constantly interrupted by a homeless con man (Jay Lacopo) who likes to hurl himself in front of their moving auto.

Lacopo, who also wrote the script, received a thanks in Good Will Hunting’s closing crawl. Two of The Third Wheel’s ten producers are Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, both of who play roles in the film. So much for how the film got financed.

The Third Wheel never received a theatrical release in the States and for the life of me, I can’t honestly say this is any worse than half of the jack Black or Adam Sandler vehicles lining video store shelves. It makes Nacho Libre look like Sherlock, Jr. And Miss Richards is surprisingly good, dare I say naturalistic, as the object of desire. Not quite a performance, but better than anything before or since.

You probably sense from my tone that I am not into giving The Third Wheel a flat tire. Every now and then I come across a film that was worth the effort for one single shot. It’s not enough to entirely redeem the film: if anything a moment of grace emerging in the most unlikely of places can only slightly soften the memories of clumsy execution that came before it.

The last shot in the film is worthy of Frank Borzage. Boy and girl have fallen in love and are seated at an outdoor table enjoying a first kiss while the audience waits for the obligatory spielberg pan-up to the moon. The camera begins to dolly and for a moment appears to want to tilt skyward. Suddenly, the table and its two occupants begin moving with the camera as a hydraulic lift gracefully elevates them through the tree branches and out of sight. It is a lush, beautifully executed bit of movie magic that caps an otherwise routine romantic comedy.

Years from now, after time further blurs a memory already overloaded with statistics, I’ll stumble across The Third Wheel and think for a moment whether or not I had seen it. “I don’t remember seeing it in a theater,” I’ll mutter aloud to the nurse. Once all the pieces fall into place, I guarantee you that whatever remains of my mind will immediately race to the curtain shot. Hey, I know where you can get a copy for $2.30!

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Filed Under DVD, Image Blog, Reviews, Video Mashups

Movie Review: THE STRANGERS / Brian Bertino (2008)

May 30th, 2008 by Scott Marks

The Strangers (2008)
Written & Directed by Brian Bertino
Starring: Liv Tyler & Scott Speedman
Running Time: 90 mins.
Aspect Ratio:

Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆

After attending a wedding, Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman plan on spending the night at his families’ remote vacation home. She didn’t foresee a marriage proposal, he didn’t anticipate her rejection and neither of them expected to be terrorized by Mr. Potato Sack Head from The Orphanage and two of Sugar and Spice’s masked cheerleaders.

The Strangers is no stranger to horror film clichés and first time director Brian Bertino doesn’t miss a one. Banality has long since become a trademark of Hollywood horror films, but what’s truly terrifying about The Strangers is its utter lack of originality.

The narrator’s emotionless reading of the opening “based on a true story” crawl showed promise. If only Bertino had his tongue firmly planted in his cheek when he decided to include it. There’s not one intentional laugh line in the entire picture.

After one of the strangers first bangs on their door in the middle of the night, Speedman still deems it safe enough to leave his bride-not-to-be alone in the desolate house as he drives to an all night convenience store to fetch her a pack of cigarettes. (The film earned its R rating: We get to see lovely Liv light up a couple of times.)

For 90 minutes Ms. Tyler is systematic brutalized and degraded at the hands of three masked assailants whose motivation is simply, “because you were home.”

What’s most distressing is watching Liv Tyler’s career trajectory. I adore her. She has an approachable beauty and her coltish behavior perfectly compliments her elongated pout. She smokes, has no tattoos and judging by her baby boy Milo, is good breeding stock. And she’s not just another pretty Hollywood horse-face. In her early films (Heavy, Stealing Beauty. even Empire Records), Liv displayed a tremendous amount of acting talent.

Normally, if I like an actor I’m in it for the long haul. (Hell, I saw S*P*Y*S, W.H.I.F.F.S. and Matilda in memory of Elliott Gould in The Long Goodbye!) Her terrible choice of projects made her a very wealthy movie star and actually kept me away from two-and-three-quarters of her films. (I walked out after two reels of Lord of the Rings and never ventured into either of the sequels.)

I don’t begrudge her work in a franchise picture, but when the cycle ends at least have the decency to turn to someone other than Kevin Smith or Adam Sandler! She hasn’t been in a good movie since Cookie’s Fortune.

That was ten years ago and the statute of limitation is quickly running out. Picking up Jamie Lee Curtis’ rejects is not the answer.

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Filed Under Reviews, Theatrical

Dig A Hole: Harvey Korman

May 29th, 2008 by Scott Marks

“That’s Hedley…”

As far as Emulsion Compulsion is concerned, Harvey Korman’s career can be summed up with one name: Hedley Lamarr.

As Blazing Saddles’ ruthless land baron bent on keeping avarice alive in the the small town of Rock Ridge, Harvey Korman distilled every movement, every gesture, every facial contortion, every everything that ever got him a laugh into one nasty comic character. Although he appeared in three more movies for Mel (High Anxiety, The History of the World Part 1 and Dracula: Dead and Loving It), nothing the actor did either before or after came close to matching Hedley’s depth of Hedley’s satirical silliness.

Korman died today Korman died at the UCLA Medical Center four months after suffering complications from the rupture of an abdominal aortic aneurysm. He was 81.

Harvey Herschel Korman was born in Chicago on February 15, 1925. The lanky TV comedy had a couple of unbilled spots in Gypsy and Son of Flubber before quickly realizing that his broad comic characterizations were better suited for the small screen. Korman’s first big break was a stint as a featured performer on Danny Kaye’s 1963 musical variety show.

On The Danny Kaye Show Korman began working in a format that would eventually bring him everlasting fame on The Carol Burnett Show. Over the years, Korman garnered four Emmy Awards for his work on Carol Burnett. I was never able to last more than 5 minutes watching this show. Broad comic antics with characters frequently breaking up at their own brilliance. This was the type of show that was for my parents and their generation. To my folks’ credit, neither one of them could stand it.

Korman’s distinct voice also led him to work as a vocal performer in cartoons. In recent years he contributed his vocal talents to Garfield and Friends, Hey Arnold, The Wild Thornberrys, but when it comes to animation Korman is best remembered as the snooty spaceman The Great Gazoo on The Flintstones.

In 1977, after the success of both Blazing and Burnett, Korman decided to strike out on his own. The Carol Burnett Show nosedived in his absence. Korman never learned the joy of being a second banana. No matter how much fame and recognition Mel and Carol gave him, Korman would never again find showbiz success.

As with all second-rate comics, Korman felt that he had at least one great dramatic role screaming to get out. The comic played straight man Bud Abbott in the terrible TV biopic Bud and Lou. As a dramatic actor, Korman gave one of his funniest performances. And his post-Carol shtick with Tim Conway wasn’t much better. I stepped into The Longshot based on the stellar reputations of director Paul Bartel and cinematographer Robby Muller. The colors were dazzling, the closest Chicago’s Plaza Theater ever came to dye transfer Technicolor.  Everything else about the production was ashen.

Korman was twice married, first to Donna Ehlert in 1960. It ended in divorce in 1974. He married Deborah Fritze in 1982. In addition to his wife, Korman is survived by four other adult children — Kate, Laura, Maria and Chris — and three grandchildren.

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