Google
 

New Photos Added: Bela Lugosi & Boris Karloff, THE BIG SLEEP, BLOW-UP, GENTLE BEN, Jamie Lee Curtis, Marilyn Monroe & Jane Russell, Frank Sinatra, Smokey the Bear, etc.

May 17th, 2008 by Scott Marks

Bela Lugosi & Boris Karloff in Edgar G. Ulmer\'s THE BLACK CAT (1934)

Bogie & Bacall in Howard Hawks’ THE BIG SLEEP (1946) - 18 Photo

Bela Lugosi & Boris Karloff in THE BLACK CAT (1934) - 4 Photos

Michelangelo Antonioni’s BLOW-UP (1966) - 15 Photos

Vanessa Redgrave & David Hemmings in BLOW-UP (1966)

BOB & CAROL & TED & ALICE (1969) - 6 Photos

CARTOON ALL-STARS
Yogi Bear - 3 Photos

Jamie Lee Curtis - 29 Photos

Jamie Lee Curtis in TRADING PLACES (1984).

Clint Howard and GENTLE BEN (1967) - 3 Photos

CLINT HOWARD & GENTLE BEN

Marilyn Monroe & Jane Russell in Howard Hawks’ GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES (1953) - 59 Photos

Martin Scorsese’s SHINE A LIGHT (2008) - 15 Photos

Frank Sinatra - 51 Photos

Smokey the Bear - 3 Photos

Smoking Is Sexy
Asia Argento - 1 Photo

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Filed Under Image Blog

Martin Scorsese on Michelangelo Antonioni

August 14th, 2007 by Scott Marks

marty.jpg

Marty shares his thoughts on Michelangelo Antonioni’s passing in this New York Times remembrance:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/12/movies/12scor.html

Tags: , ,

Filed Under News

Dig Two Holes: Michelangelo Antonioni & Ingmar Bergman

August 1st, 2007 by Scott Marks

Michelangelo Antonioni

Ingmar Bergman

Up until yesterday, when people asked me to name the single greatest living filmmaker my instant response was “Jean-Luc Godard and Michelangelo Antonioni.” Even more than my personal deities Jerry and Marty, these two forever changed the shape and texture of cinema. Every frame of a Michelangelo Antonioni film oozed love and respect for both cinema and his camera. There is something unique about the way Italians move their cameras. Think of the slow, lateral dollies of Storaro/Bertolucci, Tonino/Sergio, Fellini/Rotunno, etc. As I write I’m running the opening credits from La Notte and The Passenger’s 360 degree pan though my head.

Bergman filmed actors talking, Antonioni vast cinematic landscapes. Antonioni’s fascination with architecture is much more compelling than Ingmar Bergman contemplating the “death of God.” And Name another director who employed architecture, or color for that matter, as a “third character” better than Antonioni.

Bergman was also indirectly responsible for many of Woody Allen’s worst films (Interiors, Shadows and Fog, September).

If Antonioni was a bolt of silk, Bergman was a bowl of silt. Cold, visceral silt at that. It is a shame that these two had to die on the same day for the Swede is bound to grab the lion’s share of the splashy obits.

Bergman was theater, Antonioni pure cinema. Long live cinema!

Tags: , , , , , ,

Filed Under Obituaries

EROS / Wong Kar Wai, Steven Soderbergh & Michelangelo Antonioni (2004)

March 25th, 2005 by Scott Marks

Steven Soderbergh, Michelangelo Antonioni & Wong Kar Wai

EROS / Wong Kar Wai, Steven Soderbergh & Michelangelo Antonioni (2004)

Running Time: 108 min.

THE HAND

Written & Directed by: Wong Kar Wai

Photographed by: Christopher Doyle

Running Time: 43 min.

Rating: ★★★★½

EQUILIBRIUM

Written & Directed by: Steven Soderbergh

Photographed by: Peter Andrews

Running Time: 27 min.

Rating: ★☆☆☆☆

THE DANGEROUS THREAD OF THINGS

Directed by: Michelangelo Antonioni

Screenplay by: Michelangelo Antonioni & Tonino Guerra

Photographed by: Marco Pontecorvo

Running Time: 32 min.

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Cast: Li Gong, Chen Chang, Feng Tien, Luk Auntie, Jianjun Zhou, Wing Tong Sheung, Kim Tak Wong, Siu Man Ting, Lai Fu Yim, Cheng You Shin, Wing Kong Siu, Kar Fai Lee, Chi Keong Un, Robert Downey Jr., Alan Arkin

Aspect Ratio: 1.85 : 1

Genres: Drama

The problem with omnibus films, in which several directors contribute a segment to a common cause, is inevitably one outshines the others and you are forced to make a choice. Here are three of today prominent directors given thirty to forty minutes to expound on the linking themes of eroticism and desire. It is difficult to absorb the vision of one artist let alone three cinemasters, especially when two are not performing on all cylinders.

The project was initiated by Stephane Tchal Gadjieff, producer of Michelangelo Antonioni’s last feature, Beyond the Clouds. Partially paralyzed from a stroke, the legendary director was still eager to continue making films. Inspired by his devotion, Gadjieff devised a trilogy focusing on the subject of “eros.” According to the press notes, “The concept was to have two major young directors, who have been on record to say that they have been influenced by his filmmaking, accompany him. Each would do a segment on the erotic subject of their choice…Also, we wanted Antonioni to tell us near the end of his life what ‘eros’ was to him.”

After considering numerous candidates, Antonioni settled on a pair of diverse talents. His admirers of choice were Wong Kar Wai, Hong Kong’s master of mood and unrequited romance (In the Mood for Love, Days of Being Wild) and Indie-darling-turned Hollywood-heavyweight Steven Soderbergh (King of the Hill, Ocean’s 12).

When assembling a trilogy film, rule of thumb generally centers the weaker of the three passages while saving the best for last. Equilibrium received proper placement. In terms of everything from concept to execution, Soderbergh’s segment is far outclassed by his colleagues’. With a patient’s back to him, how does a bored shrink pass the fifty minutes? The director took great delight in building a tale of eroticism around Alan Arkin and Robert Downey, Jr., but the yuk stops there. Arkin is very amusing as the scoptophiliac psychiatrist who sneaks peeps in-between Downey’s catharses, but it’s a one-joke concept that at 27 minutes goes on far too long. Animation guru Tex Avery’s paranoid masterpiece S-h-h-h-h! made better use of similar material, plus adding a mood paranoia, at one-seventh the length.

Although built around him, for the sake of structure and pacing, the film should have opened with Anotonioni’s segment. Co-scripted by lifelong collaborator Tonino Guerra (L’Avventura, Blowup), The Dangerous Thread of Things has been described as a “mental adventure.” Carlo di Carlo, curator of Italy’s Antonioni museum, says, “Antonioni wonders: is a film born first in response to an intimate need of its author or are the images destined to have a value - ontologically - for what they are?” A brilliant notion (would one expect anything less of the director?), but given the allotted time, were it not for Mr. Carlo’s guidance, I never would have been aware of this concept.

An American and his Italian wife are so bored with each other that they barely notice the beauty of Antonioni’s surrounding landscapes. He doesn’t seem to care that she strolls through town in see-through attire. A beautiful young girl enters the picture, the plot vanishes and we spend the rest of the time focusing on textures both man-made and of the flesh.

Wong Kar Wai’s opening salvo is so powerful that it dwarfs everything that follows. Inspired by the SARS epidemic, the director fashioned his segment around “the act of ‘touch.’” Once again Kar Wai’s scorching, rain-soaked summers are painstakingly brought to life through cinematographer Christopher Doyle’s unforgettable lensing. Chang Chen plays a nervous tailor’s apprentice sent on his first solo fitting. Miss Hua (Gong Li) is a legendary concubine who strips the boy down, gives him hand release and instructs, “Remember this feeling and you’ll make beautiful clothes.”

Years pass and even after countless fittings, the subject of their first encounter is never breached. The shame of listening to Miss Hua’s sexual encounters each time he waits for their appointment only adds to his excitement. When sick and sponsor-less, she finally mentions the unmentionable, but her body is no good anymore. “All that’s left is this pair of hands. You don’t mind, do you?”

When it comes to suppressing emotion and establishing mood through style, no one at work today can top Wong Kar Wai.Anyone who saw In the Mood for Love knows that these characters don’t stand a chance at happiness, but plot is not the point. This is a film where style is not only subject, but substance as well. What he shows you is never as important as how he shows it. His approach is pure cinema, transcending and redeeming even the slightest of stories with the lens of his camera.

It may be premature, but I doubt that we are likely to see anything this year that will top The Hand.

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Filed Under Reviews, Theatrical