Here’s your first look at the brand new trailer for director David Gordon Green’s OUR BRAND IS CRISIS, starring Oscar winners Sandra Bullock (THE BLIND SIDE) and Billy Bob Thornton (SLING BLADE).
The film will debut this coming weekend at the Toronto International Film Festival and then in theaters on October 30th.
In the film, a Bolivian presidential candidate failing badly in the polls enlists the firepower of an elite American management team, led by the deeply damaged but still brilliant strategist “Calamity” Jane Bodine (Bullock). In self-imposed retirement following a scandal that earned her nickname and rocked her to her core, Jane is coaxed back into the game for the chance to beat her professional nemesis, the loathsome Pat Candy (Thornton), now coaching the opposition.
But as Candy zeroes in on every vulnerability – both on and off the campaign trail – Jane is plunged into a personal crisis as intense as the one her team exploits nationally to boost their numbers. Dramatic, rapid-fire and laced with satire, OUR BRAND IS CRISIS reveals the cynical machinations and private battles of world-class political consultants for whom nothing is sacred and winning is all that matters.
The drama also stars Anthony Mackie, Joaquim de Almeida, Ann Dowd, Scoot McNairy and Zoe Kazan.
Green directs from a screenplay by Oscar nominee Peter Straughan (“Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”), suggested by the documentary by Rachel Boynton, which outlined the American political campaign marketing tactics employed in the real-life 2002 Bolivian presidential election.
The film is produced by Oscar-winning Smokehouse Pictures’ principals Grant Heslov and George Clooney (ARGO), with Bullock, Stuart Besser, and Participant Media’s Jeff Skoll and Jonathan King serving as executive producers.
Green’s behind-the-scenes creative team includes frequent collaborators director of photography Tim Orr, editor Colin Patton, production designer Richard A. Wright and composer David Wingo (MANGLEHORN,), as well as costume designer Jenny Eagan (NOW YOU SEE ME).
A night of laughs at The Book House! It’s The Super-8 Comedy Show! The fun takes place Sunday, September 13th from 7pm to 10pm. The Book House is located at 7352 Manchester Rd St. Louis, MO, 63143. We’ll be projecting, on Super-8 sound film, condensed versions of films starring Abbott and Costello, The Marx Brothers, Shirley Temple, W.C. Fields. The Little Rascals, Mel Brooks, Monty Python, and More! Admission is FREE and this is part of The Book House’s Comedy Festival, which runs September 9th through the 16th. For more information, visit The Book House’s site HERE
A Facebook invite for this event can be found HERE https://www.facebook.com/events/390366521162227/
ELECTRIC BOOGALOO was the name of the wacky 1985 sequel to the break dance epic BREAKIN’ – which I don’t know was worthy of a follow-up but if there was one studio up to the effort in the mid-‘80s, it was Cannon Films. ELECTRIC BOOGALOO: THE WILD UNTOLD STORY OF CANNON FILMS is the title of a new documentary that plays for one night only in St. Louis at Landmark’s The Tivoli Theater Thursday, September 17th at 7pm.
Israeli cousins Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus, prolific salesmen with little regard for quality, bought Cannon Films for half million dollars in 1979 (it was founded in ’67) and turned it into an efficient assembly line of high-concept, action, and exploitation. Lovers of low-brow cinema could always count on a good time when that Cannon Films logo appeared on-screen. THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE PT 2, the Sly Stallone arm wrestling opus OVER THE TOP, Chuck Norris actioners such as MISSING IN ACTION, INVASION USA, and DELTA FORCE, Bronson in DEATH WISH 2 (and 3 and 4), Tobe Hooper’s LIFEFORCE, THE EXTERMINATOR 2, and THE LAST AMERICAN VIRGIN were all part of Cannon’s dependably entertaining output. Cannon gave the likes of Jean Claude Van Damme (CYBORG) and Dolph Lundgren (MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE and I COME IN PEACE) their start and even created their own action hero with Michael Dudikoff (AMERICAN NINJA and AVENGING FORCE). Cannon flirted with arthouse fare with LADY CHATTERLY’S LOVER, THE COMPANY OF WOLVES, BARFLY, John Cassavette’s LOVE STREAMS, and Franco Zefferelli’s OTTELO, and even received some Oscar love when the two stars of its 1984 hit RUNAWAY TRAIN (Jon Voight and Eric Roberts) were nominated for acting awards. But its films like COBRA and NINJA III DOMINATION, with their low-brow scripts rushed into production, that has made the Cannon studio (which folded in ’94), the stuff of legend. With ELECTRIC BOOGALOO: THE WILD UNTOLD STORY OF CANNON FILMS , filmmaker Mark Hartley, the man behind the wildly entertaining documentaries about B-grade films and filmmakers, NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD (about the Australian exploitation scene from 2008) and MACHETE MAIDENS UNLEASHED (about the Philippine film industry from 2010) has set his sights on Cannon. Full of clips from the films and interviews with such Cannon luminaries as Dolph Lundgren, Luigi Cozzi, Sybil Danning, Tobe Hooper, Diane Franklin, Franco Nero, Bo Derek, and Lucinda Dickey, the doc is said to be (I have not seen it) a colorful look at the video dustbins of exploitation movie history.
Landmark Theaters will be presenting a special one-night only screening of ELECTRIC BOOGALOO: THE WILD UNTOLD STORY OF CANNON FILMS September 17th at 7pm. (The Tivoli is located at 6350 Delmar Boulevard, in The Loop, St. Louis, MO, 63130)
THE VISIT, opening this Friday, is the terrifying story of a brother and sister who are sent to their grandparents’ remote Pennsylvania farm for a weeklong trip. Once the children discover that the elderly couple is involved in something deeply disturbing, they see their chances of getting back home are growing smaller every day. It’s the newest film from director M. Night Shyamalan, whose career path has been rocky of late. Shyamalan had been at the top of heap with movies like THE SIXTH SENSE and SIGNS, but he’s fallen so far from grace that the promotion for his last movie AFTER EARTH went to great lengths to avoid mentioning his involvement (but the director has always been a hit with WAMG’s Michelle McCue, who once penned some ‘Geek Crush’ Happy Birthday wishes that can be found HERE). Will THE VISIT be a return to form for the director, or another AFTER EARTH-sized disaster? We Are Movie Geeks has faith! We were thinking about our favorite ‘M Nighters’ (listen to this week’s podcast, where we discuss his career at length HERE) and decided that since he’s only directed 8 movies since his 1999 breakthrough THE SIXTH SENSE, it would make more sense to honor the characters he created instead of the films he made, so here is a list of the Top Ten Characters from films by M. Night Shyamalan:
Honorable Mention: STUART LITTLE
STUART LITTLE is a movie Shyamalan is rarely remembered for, but as a kid’s flick, it was quite enjoyable both for children and adults that may get stuck watching it with them. For that matter, its not a half bad movie to watch as an adult just for fun… as a way to escape in a light-hearted humorous way. Now, the tiny talking mouse Stuart Little may not have only been written by M. Night – the film was directed by Rob Minkoff – but he’s got a big personality. Voiced by Michael J. Fox, the little white, furry dude has a subtle streak of Ferris Bueller in him, combined with the smart and funny writing, the character provides a family-friendly character that’s entertaining and not dumbed down.
10. Merrill Hess (Joaquin Phoenix) in SIGNS
SIGNS is another example of Shyamalan’s motto: “There are no coincidences.” Since leaving his former life as a record-setting baseball player, Merrill Hess has been staying with his recently widowed brother Graham and his family. “It felt wrong not to swing,” he says of being let go by the team and has been wandering aimlessly through life until crop circles appear in the fields of their Pennsylvania farm. After the beginning of an apparent alien invasion, Merrill truly believes that they will not be harmed by these hand-over-your-mouth scary events because a higher power will take care of them in the end. Joaquin Phoenix’s dramatic facial expression during SIGNS are what give the film its human quality and amusingly helps turn down the stress level. In one of the funnier parts of the movie, Graham discovers that his son and daughter, along with Merrill, have fashioned goofy, cone-head hats out of tin-foil to protect them against alien mind probing. In the thrilling finale to SIGNS, Merrill realizes that his inner passion with a baseball bat was warranted when he’s told by Graham to “swing away” at the alien whose invaded their living room and is holding one of the kids hostage. It’s a battle for the ages. This mantra of “Everything happens for a reason” was the underlying theme throughout SIGNS making Merrill Hess the embodiment of Night’s running idea.
09. Elliot Moore (Mark Wahlberg) in THE HAPPENING
THE HAPPENING is easily the worst movie I’ve seen in the past decade and I mean that as high praise. It’s the type of delirious masterpiece where every star aligned to form the perfect terrible movie and I can’t get enough of it. Shyamalan claimed (after the nasty reviews started pouring in) that Mark Wahlberg’s overly mannered performance was a deliberate throwback to the B-movies movies of yesteryear; to everyone else it just felt like bad acting. I wish I could have been on the set when M Night directed Marky Mark singing The Doobie Brother ‘Black Water’ through a door to show that he was normal (!). And as for Walhberg’s scene talking to a plastic houseplant: “Hello? My name is Elliot Moore. Just want to talk in a very positive manner, giving off good vibes. We’re just here to use the bathroom, and then we’re just going to leave. I hope that’s OK.” – God save us! THE HAPPENING rules!
08. Rev. Graham Hess (Mel Gibson) in SIGNS
Reverend Graham Hess… What a fitting role for everyone’s favorite controversial Aussie actor, Mel Gibson. The “man of the cloth” has his doubts, but that’s not gonna stop him from protecting his family from whatever mysterious, lurking danger awaits them outside their home. Terrorized by unknown intruders on their family farm, Graham Hess struggles to protect his family as he toils internally with his faith and what “it” all means. What’s outside? Where’d “they” come from? Do the events that unfold in Shyamalan’s SIGNS have a greater meaning, a double entendre of science and religion? Gibson’s performance is riveting, as much as it is thought-provoking and even a bit humorous at times, despite the subject matter. As always, audiences were split 50/50 with SIGNS, but one thing Shyamalan always does is offer viewers an array of interesting characters full of quirks and conundrums.
07. Reggie (Freddy Rodriguez) in LADY IN THE WATER
Freddy Rodriguez plays Reggie in Shyamalan’s under-appreciated, fairy tale LADY IN THE WATER. He’s just another unassuming tenant at the apartment complex, ‘The Cove,’ introduced to the audience by custodian Mr. Heep. Reggie’s a guy whose strict regimen consists of an science experiment of working on only the right side of his body. He proudly claims, “there’s is a 4 1/2 inch difference” between his left and right biceps. Reggie’s harmless and, like so many others, simply wants to find his special place in the universe and boy does he ever when he unexpectedly finds himself “The Guardian” of Story, the lady in the water. Unaware of it at the time, there’s a hidden reason for all that working out that wouldn’t be realized until the exciting climax of the film. James Newton Howard’s rousing score adds to Reggie’s edge-of-your-seat mano y mano battle with LITW’s nemesis, the “scrunt,” and helps him to protect and save the Narf. Turns out his daily idiosyncracy was no coincidence and makes Reggie one of Night’s most relatable characters.
06. Dr. Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis) in THE SIXTH SENSE
In 1999 M. Night Shyamalan coaxed from Bruce Willis one of his very best performances in THE SIXTH SENSE. Willis played Malcolm Crowe, a child psychiatrist who’s lost faith in his talents due to a failure to help a long-ago patient. Willis was (and still is) primarily a physical actor and he at first seemed miscast in the role, but he let the child star, Haley Joel Osment, play off his quiet charisma in a way a more emotive actor couldn’t and the result was perfection. When Shyamalan made the cover of Newsweek magazine in 2002, underneath his picture the caption read; “The Next Spielberg”. Several creatively questionable films later, that caption could not be further from the truth, but at least we’ll always have THE SIXTH SENSE.
05. Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment) in THE SIXTH SENSE
Cole Sear (Hayley Joel Osment) … Imagine being a child that can “see dead people.” Cole Sear is one of those children. He is a psychic who can both see and talk to the dead. Cole’s psychologist, Dr. Malcolm Crowe, has a responsibility to help Cole, especially after he failed a child much like him years before. This role was a huge building block in Osment’s career, earning him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
04. Cleveland Heep (Paul Giamatti) in LADY IN THE WATER
At first glance we see an unassuming shlub of a man that manages the apartment building in LADY IN THE WATER. But upon closer inspection, we realize that Mr. Heep is a very kind and sensitive, but sad man. Unable to save his wife and children from an assailant years before, he is primed for redemption when he meets Story, a mythical creature from another world that needs to be saved. Something deep inside tells him that he must rally the other residents of the apartment complex to save Story, having no idea the profound effects this will not only have on his own life, but the on the future of mankind.
03. Lynn Sear (Toni Collette) in THE SIXTH SENSE
Lynn Sear (Toni Collette): Lynn Sear is the mother of Cole Sear (See his listing on our top 10). He confesses to her that he can see and talk to dead people. He then goes on to tell her her own mother once went to view her dance recital as a child, but she stood in the back so that Lynn couldn’t see her. He also gives her an answer to a question that she asks alone at her mothers grave. SPOOKY! Sear is a crucial role because she not only has to find help for her son, but has to pretend not to be creeped out by him!
02. David Dunn (Bruce Willis) in UNBREAKABLE
While David is the hero of UNBREAKABLE, he enters the film as a melancholy middle-aged man staring vacantly ahead on a commuter train. Soon he catches the sight of a young woman’s bare tattooed torso and quickly removes his wedding band. After being rebuffed by the woman after a clumsy pass he earns the disapproving look of a tot in a seat nearby (and probably most of the audience). All in all, not very heroic behavior. David is soon jolted out his stupor when he becomes the sole survivor of a horrific train crash. In the aftermath of the accident, David is confused when he wakes up in a hospital. His good health should be cause for celebration for his family, but we see David and his wife, Audrey, unclasping hands after they are brought together by their young son. We learn that David wakes every day with a heavy sadness which may contribute to the strain on the marriage. Shortly his mind is opened up to new possibilities after a talk with Elijah Price. David realizes he may be meant for things beyond his job as a college football stadium security guard.
M. Night does a great job in showing how this character reacts to these new ideas. After initially dismissing and denying his discovered abilities, David decides to embrace them and take action. Even after learning of his weakness (or as Elijah puts it, his “kryptonite”) David becomes a fighter for justice. Like Tony Stark, he overcomes his flaws and triumphs. But as the ending reveals, his awakening has come at a terrible price. I hope that perhaps one day an enterprising publisher can bring us more tales of David Dunn. It would be interesting to see what’s become of David (or, is he now The Protector or Sentry-Man?).
01. Elijah Price/Mr. Glass (Samuel L. Jackson) in UNBREAKABLE
Every good story of a hero needs a great villain and M. Night provides us with a memorable one in UNBREAKABLE’s Elijah Price (aka, Mr. Glass). As with the later Spider-Man films, this villain has a personal connection to the hero, David Dunn, and a back story full of tragedy. The film opens with a flashback to the birth of Price at a department store. There we learn of his condition (brittle bones that break on the slightest impact). Flash ahead a few years and we see a lonely boy sitting alone in front of a blank TV screen, his arm in a sling. He tells his mother of the schoolyard taunts (“They call me Mister Glass!”). His mother is finally able to coax him outside with the promise of a gift… the newest issue of Active Comics. We jump ahead to adulthood and Price has found a way to make a living with his love of heroic fantasy as the owner of a comic book art gallery called Limited Edition. This is where he meets David Dunn after leaving a note on his car during a church service for the train crash victims. It’s then that we finally see him happy at the possibility of discovering a real life super-hero.
What could have been a one note villain becomes a very sympathetic character as we witness his frustrations in dealing with his medical condition. A climb down subway stairs becomes a frightening trek down a mountain top. UNBREAKABLE is one of the few DVD’s that has a terrific deleted scene. We see Elijah again as a pre-teen sneaking away from Mom to a street fair and a ride on a Tilt-A-Whirl. It’s a shame M. Night had to leave it out of the final film, the scene shocks you then tears your heart out. It really shows us what a sad life he’s lived and adds to the horror of that final scene. Elijah Price also benefits from a great restrained performance from Samuel L. Jackson.
This week’s episode of our podcast WE ARE MOVIE GEEKS The Show is up! Hear WAMG’s Jim Batts, Michelle McCue, and Tom Stockman discuss the weekend box office, and next weekend’s releases. We’ll review TRANSPORTER REFUELED, PAWN SACRIFICE and GRANDMA. We’ll also preview THE VISIT and CAPTIVE. We’ll discuss the exciting news out of the Telluride and Venice Film Festivals and we’ll take an in-depth look at the films of writer/director M. Night Shyamalan. WE ARE MOVIE GEEKS The Show is a weekly podcast and we will soon be streaming at ONStl.com Online Radio.
FRANKENSTEIN, starring Boris Karloff and directed by James Whale in 1931, is usually referred to as the ‘original’ movie version of Mary Shelly’s 1818 novel, but, as any real horror movie buff knows, the Karloff/Whale version of FRANKENSTEIN was not the first time Shelly’s story was filmed. Inventor Thomas Edison filmed his own 14-minute take 21 years earlier.
The story behind the first FRANKENSTEIN is a fascinating one. Thomas Edison had been the leading pioneer of the first kinetoscopes, an early motion picture viewing device, and then projected motion pictures. His FRANKENSTEIN was filmed in 1910 at Edison Motion Picture Studios located in the Bronx, New York, one of several dozen movies the studio produced that year. The studio was built between 1906 and 1907 in response to the growing demand for films.
Here’s how the March 15, 1910 edition of The Edison Kinetogram, the catalog that the Edison Company would send to distributors to hype their new films, described FRANKENSTEIN:
“To those familiar with Mrs. Shelly’s story it will be evident that we have carefully omitted anything which might be any possibility shock any portion of the audience. In making the film the Edison Co. has carefully tried to eliminate all actual repulsive situations and to concentrate its endeavors upon the mystic and psychological problems that are to be found in this weird tale. Wherever, therefore, the film differs from the original story it is purely with the idea of eliminating what would be repulsive to a moving picture audience. To those familiar with Mrs. Shelly’s story it will be evident that we have carefully omitted anything which might be any possibility shock any portion of the audience. In making the film the Edison Co. has carefully tried to eliminate all actual repulsive situations and to concentrate its endeavors upon the mystic and psychological problems that are to be found in this weird tale. Wherever, therefore, the film differs from the original story it is purely with the idea of eliminating what would be repulsive to a moving picture audience.”
The part of the monster in the 1910 FRANKENSTEIN was played by actor Charles Ogle. He joined the Edison Stock Company Players in 1909 and had portrayed Scrooge in a 1910 Edison production of A CHRISTMAS CAROL and George Washington in a series of films on the history of the United States. Since actors at the time were responsible for their own wardrobe and makeup, it was likely Ogle one who developed the monster’s wild-eyed, nightmarish appearance, with its shrieking grimace, straw-like hair and clawed hands. FRANKENSTEIN premiered on Friday, March 18, 1910, a mere two months after it had finished shooting (such a quick turnaround was not uncommon at the time). The film was well-received by critics.
The New York Dramatic Mirror wrote:
“This deeply impressive story makes a powerful film subject, and the Edison players have handled it with effective expression and skill.”
However, FRANKENSTEIN did not find an audience in 1910. There are several possible reasons that may have contributed to its box-office failure. FRANKENSTEIN was the first horror movie and audiences unaccustomed to such a weird story may not have known what to make of it. Also, movies were already becoming more sophisticated. Directors were using close-ups and editing within scenes so it’s possible that audiences found director James Dawley’s stagey wide shots to be old fashioned. Or perhaps audiences were offended by the blasphemous content of the film with its theme of man creating man, especially during the creation scene, one where Dr. Frankenstein’s success is more through alchemy than science. Whatever the reason, FRANKENSTEIN quickly faded from the public’s minds. In those days, Edison Studios would only strike a few dozen prints of each of their films, which would then be sent out for distribution. After the films had circulated for a few months, they were returned where they were stripped for their silver content. It’s hard to comprehend today but films in the early silent days were considered a quickly disposable medium and no thought was given to preserving them after their initial money making run. Film then was made with a chemically unstable silver nitrate that deteriorated and even spontaneously combusted if not stored correctly. It is for these reasons that it is estimated between eighty and ninety percent of all silent films are irretrievably lost.
Film preservationist Robert A. Harris has said: “Most of the early films did not survive because of wholesale junking by the studios. There was no thought of ever saving these films. They simply needed vault space and the materials were expensive to house.”
Edison’s 1910 FRANKENSTEIN was for many decades though lost with not as much as a single still of its production surviving. In1963 a film historian discovered the March 15, 1910 edition of the aforementioned The Edison Kinetogram with its picture of Charles Ogle in full Frankenstein make up on its cover in the Edison archives in New Jersey. That photo was published in numerous books and magazines, including Famous Monsters of Filmland, sparking a renewed interest among horror film buffs. In 1980, the American Film Institute declared the 1910 production of FRANKENSTEIN to be one of the top ten most “Culturally and historically significant lost films.”
Enter Wisconsin-based film collector Alois Dettlaff. When Detlaff heard the of the film’s placement on the AFI’s list, he announced, to the shock of the film world, that he indeed was in possession of a print of the 1910 FRANKENSTEIN. The sole surviving print had originally belonged to his wife’s grandmother who used to screen the film and other silent shorts as part of a stage show. The film was passed down and eventually landed in the hands of Detlaff. However, Detlaff was originally stingy with his treasure. In the early ‘80s he had allowed a few minutes to be shown as part of a BBC documentary, later released to home video. These snippets would later wind up in various silent cinema video compilations without attribution or payment made to Dettlaff. Feeling slighted, Dettlaff became guarded in allowing the film to be screened. In 1986, he donated a “copyright protected” version of the film, with a copyright notice that scrolled across the center of the film making viewing difficult, to the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. Dettlaff died in 2005 and finally, in 2010, exactly 100 years after its production, BearManor Media released the film on DVD without the scrolling copyright.
So what can one expect when finally seeing Edison’s FRANKENSTEIN? Detlaff ‘s print was in somewhat deteriorated condition, especially the first few minutes. But it is viewable and complete with intertitles and the color tints as seen in 1910. The film is accompanied by a decent synthesized music score. With a running-time of only fourteen minutes, FRANKENSTEIN is necessarily a much abbreviated version of Mary Shelley’s story, yet what remains is a lively and efficient condensation of the novel’s plot.There are some fascinating elements in the film. The special effects of the monster gradually forming before our eyes are extremely primitive by today’s standards but were unprecedented for 1910. The monster is created through chemicals in a large cauldron in a long sequence that employs puppetry and reverse motion and it is both eerie and effective.The use of mirrors is also interesting, with the monster visible in several scenes through the door-sized looking glass in Frankenstein’s bedroom, implying that the creature may be simply a reflection of its own creator.
Watch the 1910 FRANKENSTEIN in it’s entirety Here:
For some, Labor Day signals a Monday off from school and work, the final hurrah of the summer and college football games galore.
But for Oscar watchers, the three day break heralds the beginning of the Awards Season with film festivals being held at Venice (Sept. 2 – 12) and Telluride (Sept. 4 – 7).
Getting a shot in the arm from the weekend festivals were SPOTLIGHT, STEVE JOBS, BLACK MASS and THE DANISH GIRL. Below is a sampling of the films in play this awards season that screened over the busy holiday weekend.
THE DANISH GIRL (Nov. 27)
Synopsis:
Based on the book by David Ebershoff, The Danish Girl is the remarkable love story inspired by the lives of Lili Elbe and Gerda Wegener (portrayed by Academy Award winner Eddie Redmayne [The Theory of Everything] and Alicia Vikander [Ex Machina]), and directed by Academy Award winner Tom Hooper (The King’s Speech, Les Misérables). Lili and Gerda’s marriage and work evolve as they navigate Lili’s groundbreaking journey as a transgender pioneer. Trailer
From Venice, Guy Lodge (Variety) says of Alicia Vikander performance in THE DANISH GIRL, “Toggling sensuality and sensitivity, with a latent streak of anger throughout, Vikander plays her half beautifully: It’s not as tonally exciting as her “Ex Machina” turn, and a little more limpid than her current career peak of “Testament of Youth,” but with a fair wind for the film itself, it’s the stuff that best actress campaigns are built upon.
Jessica Kiang (Indiewire) says, “Tom Hooper’s “The Danish Girl” is so inarguably Oscar-ready.”
Alonso Duralde (The Wrap) writes, “Redmayne fully inhabits the character, and it’s interesting to watch an actor going through his processes as part of the work; Einar himself must learn to navigate the world as a woman, and when we see him duplicating a lady’s subtle hand gestures, or learning how to walk in her shoes, it provides a glimpse into what must have been Redmayne’s own preparation for the role. For her part, Vikander adds smoke and shading to a character who could have easily veered into being just one thing, or at least just one thing at a time; she juggles pride and anguish, affection and disappointment, and longing and empathy with great skill.”
SUFFRAGETTE (Oct 23)
Synopsis:
Inspired by the true story of the women who inspired the world. Starring Carey Mulligan, Helena Bonham Carter, Brendan Gleeson, Anne-Marie Duff, Ben Whishaw and Meryl Streep as Emmeline Pankhurst. SUFFRAGETTE is the first ever feature film to tell the inspirational story of the foot soldiers of the early feminist movement who risked everything in the fight for equality.
Sasha Stone (Awards Daily) says in her review, “Produced, written, directed by and starring women, this isn’t one the Oscars can pass by and sleep easy at night. The direction is unpredictable, moody and never goes for the easy emotional cheat.”
Stephen Farber (The Hollywood Reporter) proclaims, “Gavron has directed a couple of small British films, but this picture should take her career to a new level.”
As to its overall Oscar hopes, Scott Feinberg (THR) adds, “My suspicion is that Academy members will receive Suffragette like other recent British period piece social dramas, such as 2010’s Made in Dagenham and 2014’s Pride: with applause for having been made, but no major awards recognition, with the possible exception of some support for Mulligan.”
HE NAMED ME MALALA (Oct 2)
Synopsis: HE NAMED ME MALALA is an intimate portrait of Malala Yousafzai, who was wounded when Taliban gunmen opened fire on her and her friends’ school bus in Pakistan’s Swat Valley.
The then 15-year-old teenager, who had been targeted for speaking out on behalf of girls’ education in her region of Swat Valley in Pakistan, was shot in the head, sparking international media outrage. An educational activist in Pakistan, Yousafzai has since emerged as a leading campaigner for the rights of children worldwide and in December 2014, became the youngest-ever Nobel Peace Prize Laureate.
Stephen Farber (The Hollywood Reporter) writes HE NAMED ME MALALA is “a gripping story, eloquently told.”
Sasha Stone (Awards Daily) says Davis Guggenheim’s documentary is, “a film made not for masterpiece-hungry critics but rather for everyone else, particularly teachers and students who know that learning more about Malala can inspire us in immeasurable ways, perhaps most importantly in awaking American school children and their parents to the idea that education is to be prioritized, valued, and made more easily accessible.”
BLACK MASS (Sept 18)
Synopsis:
Three-time Oscar nominee Johnny Depp (“Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street,” “Finding Neverland,” the “Pirates of the Caribbean” films) stars as notorious mobster Whitey Bulger in the drama “Black Mass,” directed by Scott Cooper (“Crazy Heart”).
The film also stars Joel Edgerton (“The Great Gatsby,” “Zero Dark Thirty”) as FBI Agent John Connolly; Oscar nominee Benedict Cumberbatch (“The Imitation Game”) as Whitey’s brother, Billy Bulger; Rory Cochrane (“Argo”) as Steve Flemmi, another member of the Irish mob; Jesse Plemons (TV’s “Fargo”) as Whitey’s longtime partner in crime, Kevin Weeks; and Kevin Bacon (“Crazy, Stupid, Love.” TV’s “The Following”) as FBI Agent Charles McGuire.
In 1970s South Boston, FBI Agent John Connolly (Edgerton) persuades Irish mobster James “Whitey” Bulger (Depp) to collaborate with the FBI and eliminate a common enemy: the Italian mob. The drama tells the story of this unholy alliance, which spiraled out of control, allowing Whitey to evade law enforcement, consolidate power, and become one of the most ruthless and powerful gangsters in Boston history.
Scott Foundas (Variety) writes in his BLACK MASS Venice review, Johnny “Depp hasn’t been this tamped down in a movie since he played second fiddle to Al Pacino in “Donnie Brasco”; even his Oscar-nominated J.M. Barrie in “Finding Neverland” seems a whirl of outsized tics and mannerisms by comparison. Even great actors (Nicholson and Pacino being among the perfect test cases) can fall back on indulgences and bad habits when they feel they’re giving the audience what it wants to see. But Depp is fully restored here to the daring, inspired performer of his early Tim Burton collaborations and “Dead Man,” knowing he is so deep inside the role that, whatever he does, we will come to him.”
Alonso Duralde (The Wrap) says, “Ultimately, this is Depp’s show all the way, featuring his best dramatic performance since another organized-crime movie, 1997’s “Donnie Brasco.” If this is the milieu we need to keep him this focused as a thespian, then get out those pinky rings, Hollywood, and make Depp more offers he can’t refuse.”
Depp “oozes a cadaverous anti-charisma,” writes Robbie Collin (Telegraph), although “you long for him to roll his sleeves up and grasp the character’s shape and soul himself, ideally without the aid of those distracting prosthetics.”
ROOM (A24 will open ROOM in New York and Los Angeles on October 16th. Nationwide November 6th)
Director: Lenny Abrahamson, Based on the novel by Emma Donoghue
Stars Brie Larson, Jacob Tremblay, Joan Allen, Sean Bridgers, William H. Macy
Synopsis: Both highly suspenseful and deeply emotional, ROOM is a unique and unexpectedly tender exploration of the boundless love between a mother and her child under the most harrowing of circumstances. Teaser
Kris Tapley’s (In Contention, Variety) look at ROOM, he says, “Tremblay takes the character from a feral understanding of the outside world through a stage of slowly absorbing it. The impact, particularly seen through the eyes of his mother, is immense, and the arc of this character is incredibly profound as a result. Dare I say he should be part of any idle supporting actor chatter this season.”
STEVE JOBS (Oct 9)
Synopsis:
Set backstage at three iconic product launches and ending in 1998 with the unveiling of the iMac, Steve Jobs takes us behind the scenes of the digital revolution to paint an intimate portrait of the brilliant man at its epicenter.
The film was shown as a “work in progress” at the Telluride Festival, according to BBC News.
British director Danny Boyle is expected to premiere the completed version at the New York Film Festival on October 3. The film will also close the London Film Festival on October 18.
Todd McCarthy (THR) writes, “hardly any of this would matter without a dynamic actor at the center of things nailing the part of Jobs, and while Fassbender doesn’t closely physically resemble the man, he fully delivers the essentials of how we have come to perceive the man: Along with intellectual brilliance and force of personality, the actor also taps into the man’s frequently unreachability, power to inspire, unswerving faith in his own instincts, attention to the smallest detail, utter lack of sentimentality and the certitude that can come from occupying a different, loftier realm. Most of all, you get the strong sense from Fassbender of a mind that is always several steps beyond everyone else’s, one that allows him to shift gears without taking a breath.”
“This is not a story that sugar coats his past,” notes Sasha Stone (The Wrap). “Jobs suffered no fools. He is, in many ways, a monster who feeds on ego.”
SPOTLIGHT (Nov. 6)
Synopsis: SPOTLIGHT tells the riveting true story of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Boston Globe investigation that would rock the city and cause a crisis in one of the world’s oldest and most trusted institutions. When the newspaper’s tenacious “Spotlight” team of reporters delve into allegations of abuse in the Catholic Church, their year-long investigation uncovers a decades-long cover-up at the highest levels of Boston’s religious, legal, and government establishment, touching off a wave of revelations around the world. Directed by Academy Award-nominee Thomas McCarthy.
In her SPOTLIGHT review, Sasha Stone (Awards Daily) says, “This is a film that has no big Oscar-y scenes. There is humility before these unforgivable crimes. It is a carefully written screenplay, honored by a harmonious ensemble of actors at the top of their game. The standouts are Michael Keaton, of course, as the longtime Globe editor and Pulitzer Prize winning reporter Walter Robinson. Mark Ruffalo as Michael Rezendes has perhaps the most notable scenes. Liev Schreiber shows once again that he is yet another great actor Hollywood has not figured out what to do with yet. Rachel MacAdams gives an authentic portrayal as Sacha Pfeiffer.”
Dave Calhoun (Time Out London) says, “Mark Ruffalo is perhaps the loudest presence: nervy, energetic and prone to the odd outburst in a film otherwise mercifully lacking those moments.” He adds, “It’s that all-too-rare beast: a movie that’s both important and engrossing.”
Justin Chang (Variety) writes,“As he demonstrated in films like “The Station Agent” and “The Visitor,” McCarthy has always had a nicely understated touch with actors, and his ensemble here is a model of low-key excellence. The heftiest roles go to Keaton, who presents Robinson as a flawed but strong, soul-searching leader, and Ruffalo, whose passionately committed Rezendes gets to display the most energy and emotional range (including one of the film’s few excessively histrionic moments). McAdams imbues Pfeiffer with sensitivity and grit, while D’Arcy James brings understated shadings to Carroll, a hard-working family man who’s alarmed to learn that a suspected perpetrator is living in his neighborhood.”
Scott Feinberg (THR) poses Oscar viability for actor Michael Keaton in his analysis. “From an awards perspective, that may make it difficult for any individual to receive an Oscar nom — for point of reference, neither of All the President’s Men’s leads, Dustin Hoffman nor Robert Redford, were nominated for that film, but Jason Robards, Jr. won and Jane Alexander was nominated in their respective supporting categories. Keaton, a bridesmaid last year for Birdman, has the strongest chance of being Spotlight’s Robards.”
Other films in the mix from over the weekend were CAROL and 45 YEARS.
CAROL (Nov. 20)
Synopsis: From the author of The Talented Mr. Ripley and acclaimed director Todd Haynes (Far From Heaven, I’m Not There, Mildred Pierce) comes a powerful drama about a married woman who risks everything when she embarks on a romance with a younger department store worker. Starring Academy Award-winner Cate Blanchett and Academy Award-nominee Rooney Mara & set against the glamourous backdrop of 1950s New York, Carol is an achingly beautiful depiction of love against the odds.
Having screened in May at the Cannes Film Festival (in competition), CAROL received rave reviews, thus prompting the Oscar talk. Todd Haynes’ film had its North American premiere on Friday and prior to the start of Telluride, star Rooney Mara was among three (the other two – director Danny Boyle and documentarian Adam Curtis) to receive tributes at the festival.
Rebecca Keegan (LA Times) reports, “Mara said she initially wasn’t interested in “Carol,” which was in development for over a decade, but became persuaded when Haynes came aboard the project. “I didn’t see myself in it at all,” Mara said. “Sometimes if you can’t see yourself in it, it means you shouldn’t do it, and sometimes it means you’re afraid of it.”
Kate Mercer (Charlotte Rampling) is planning a party to celebrate her 45th wedding anniversary. One week before the celebration, however, a letter arrives for her husband, Geoff (Tom Courtenay), containing news that reawakens troubling and long-hidden memories.
Though Kate continues to prepare for the anniversary, she becomes increasingly concerned by Geoff’s preoccupation with the letter and the ensuing revelations about his past. By the time the party comes round, there may not be a marriage left to celebrate.
Anchored by sensational performances from Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay, 45 Years is an intimate, moving and beautifully restrained portrait of a marriage shaken to its core by things left unspoken. Winning Best Actor and Best Actress awards at this year’s Berlinale Film Festival, Andrew Haigh’s (Weekend, Looking) 45 Years is British filmmaking at its very best.
Kris Tapley (In Contention, Variety) interviews 45 YEARS director Andrew Haigh. “The film’s stars, Tom Courtenay and Charlotte Rampling, won Silver Bear honors for their performances — beautiful, naturalistic turns that deserve even more accolades as we charge into the season.”
Tim Robey (Telegraph) says in his recent review, “Charlotte Rampling has never been better.”
In Charles Gant’s (Variety) Berlin Film Festival review, “Haigh’s casting choices for the two lead roles pay rich dividends: Courtenay is so apt as the soft-spoken and rather private Geoff that even modest changes in his aspect, including his discombobulated return to cigarette smoking, register vividly. A wiry Rampling, youthful in her trim physique and sleek wardrobe choices, brings Kate’s whirling emotions to the screen with similar economy.”
The Toronto International Film Festival, another harbinger of the upcoming awards season, will begin on September 10 with Jean-Marc Vallée’s DEMOLITION, followed by Ridley Scott’s highly anticipated THE MARTIAN on Sept. 11.
DEMOLITION:
Academy Award nominees Jake Gyllenhaal and Naomi Watts star in this headlong plunge into the depths of human emotion from Dallas Buyers Club director Jean-Marc Vallée. Audaciously offbeat yet profoundly heartfelt, Demolition is a film about the need to take apart everything in one’s life in order to build it anew.
New York investment banker Davis Mitchell (Gyllenhaal) is sleepwalking through a life of easy success when a horrible car crash wakes him with a start. His lovely wife, Julia, is killed. Friends and family gather round to console him, but Davis seems to feel nothing. Seemingly unfazed by his loss yet preoccupied by his inability to retrieve a candy bar from a hospital vending machine, Davis takes to writing absurdly protracted — and increasingly confessional — letters of complaint to the Champion Vending Machine Company. Those letters are answered by Karen (Watts), a mysterious, eccentric Champion employee. Davis’ letters somehow resonate with Karen. As Davis finds himself undertaking a campaign of random acts of destruction, dismantling everything from household appliances to an office washroom stall, he and Karen forge a strange and beautiful alliance. Both put their own interests at risk — but what they discover in the aftermath may prove far more valuable.
THE MARTIAN (Oct 2):
During a manned mission to Mars, Astronaut Mark Watney (Matt Damon) is presumed dead after a fierce storm and left behind by his crew. But Watney has survived and finds himself stranded and alone on the hostile planet. With only meager supplies, he must draw upon his ingenuity, wit and spirit to subsist and find a way to signal to Earth that he is alive. Millions of miles away, NASA and a team of international scientists work tirelessly to bring “the Martian” home, while his crewmates concurrently plot a daring, if not impossible rescue mission. As these stories of incredible bravery unfold, the world comes together to root for Watney’s safe return. Based on a best-selling novel, and helmed by master director Ridley Scott, THE MARTIAN features a star studded cast that includes Jessica Chastain, Kristen Wiig, Kate Mara, Michael Peña, Jeff Daniels, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Donald Glover.
Being the first is not always a good thing. Many ground breaking artists who introduce something new into the cultural mix do not always fare well after they have changed the rules and the game. Take, just as one example, Orson Welles who changed forever how movies were made as well as radio drama and stage productions. Although Welles made out better than Maila Nurmi, also known as Vampira, the subject of the incredible and unforgettable documentary Vampira and Me.
H Greene first got to know Maila Nurmi when he interviewed her for a documentary called Schlock! The Secret History of Hollywood, (a good documentary in its own right.) Nurmi had grown distrustful of just about everyone, and with good reason. Yet for reasons Greene doesn’t even speculate on she trusted Greene and gave him almost two hours of interview time and discussed every last moment of her bizarre, glorious, hypnotic and finally tragic and horrifying career. If in fact you could say Maila Nurmi had a normal “career” at all.
Maila Nurmi created Vampira, the first horror movie show host, the first ever “Gothic” personality, one of the first major television stars and may very well have been the first performance artist. Vampira became a character onto herself who may or may not have actually been Maila Nurmi!
Despite the lack of any major amount of footage of Maila Nurmi in character Greene has fashioned a wonderful and in depth look at a major personality who never, ever got the credit due her, and certainly never made any money despite being a major television personality, and a LOCAL personality at that, who never the less became a worldwide phenomenon! Something unheard of in 1954 or any time since.
Greene, using found footage of all types to illustrate the story of Maila Nurmi and her descent into the Hollywood maelstrom, takes us step by step on the journey to Vampira and the shocking aftermath.
Like many young women of the 1940s and 1950s (and to this day for that matter) Maila Nurmi had dreams of Hollywood stardom, but on her own terms. Always a rebel, always outside the main stream, Maila embraced the “Beat” generation early on. In fact, in the only film clip with Maila playing a part other than Vampira we see her in the movie The Beat Generation (appropriately enough) reciting vintage beat poetry in a coffeehouse, to the accompaniment of bongo drums, while caressing a white rat and smoking a cigarette! In the audience are Jackie Coogan and Steve Cochran who both admit, they don’t get it! And the Beats are NOT the good guys in this movie!
Maila taped herself for a possible autobiography or memoir which she never finished and in one of several fascinating audio clips stated that as a teenager she declared “that man on the radio is a genius and he is my friend!” Her Mother cautioned her that “of course he is a genius he is Orson Welles! Everybody knows he is a genius but he is not your friend, you work in a canning factory and will never know anybody like Orson Welles!” Maila states that she did meet Orson Welles who advised her to tell her Mother that he was in fact “her friend and her Mother should have more faith in people!”
AS we follow the arc of Maila’s strange and frustrating career, we find out she was actually under contract to Howard Hawks! She got a weekly paycheck from Hawk’s production company but rarely got in front of the cameras for any acting. She declares that she thought Hawk’s was “stupid!” Don’t get me wrong, I love Maila and Vampira but find the idea that the man who directed Red River and Bringing Up Baby and Rio Bravo might be a bit thick in the head a little hard to accept… but I digress.
Maila tore up her contract with Hawks, which may have sealed her fate right then, before the 1950s even began. She became a top “cheesecake” model, she even has to explain to Greene what cheesecake actually was. These photos show just what a staggeringly beautiful young woman Maila really was. We learn that East Coast modeling was dominated by no less than Betty Page,(herself the subject of an excellent documentary) the girl next door who just happened to be tied up and strapped in with black leather. West coast cheesecake was all about the beach, surfing, and the then new bikini bathing suits. Pretty tame stuff by today’s standards.
By fate, coincidence or the stars being in alignment Maila made a costume for herself based on Charles Addam’s cartoons and went to a combination costume contest and beauty pageant called the Bal Caribe. She was spotted by a television producer named Hunt Stromberg, who signed her almost immediately and put together what became Vampira’s Midnight Madness.
Maila’s original idea in creating Vampira was to get an Addam’s Family tv show off the ground, with herself as Morticia. I love The Addam’s Family show as it became, with Carolyn Jones in the role, but if Vampira had actually succeeded and played that part The Addam’s Family would have been something else entirely!
1954 became the year of Vampira, Maila Nurmi put together a character that sent shock waves through American culture that is still being felt to this day. In what can only be described as a perfect media storm Vampira became a household word, all over the world, while only being seen on a local Los Angeles television station! The tip of the iceberg was an article in Life magazine complete with wonderful photographs and a text describing what the Vampira Show was like. I used to have that issue of Life! Hate to tell you what happened to it!
Maila states that KABC, the station that aired Vampira, never paid one nickel for marketing or promotion, they got all the free publicity they wanted, every photographer and journalist in the country wanted to cover the Vampira phenomenon. And we see dozens of these photos and articles. The station did hire a classic, convertible car to drive Vampira around Los Angeles, which created chaos and pandemonium where ever Vampira stopped to talk to her fans, resulting in true street theater.
Maila Nurmi was part of a new wave in Hollywood, it seemed predestined that she would be linked with another Hollywood icon, and tragic figure, none other than James Dean. Maila was a very spiritual, metaphysical person. She tells us that she and James Dean knew each other in a previous life, and I see no reason to doubt that. They were good friends and kindred spirits, not lovers. In the tragic aftermath of his death Maila was blamed. No less a voice than Hedda Hopper told the world that James Dean collided with dark forces unleashed by Vampira, which led to his doom. Maila attempted suicide after that column saw the light of day.
It gets worse. KABC tried another female movie host, Voluptua, also known as Gloria Pall, who hosted romantic movies from her boudoir while clad in lingerie. She lasted only 7 weeks and did not have Maila’s sense of post modern irony and bohemian intellect. Running less than a year Vampira’s show was canceled at the height of its popularity. Maila descended into dire poverty and has-been status from which she never really recovered. The rest of the story is quite frankly, horrifying. But while she was on top Vampira was all over television, most of which is now lost. She appeared on game shows and variety shows. On a special Halloween show of Red Skelton’s she appeared in a comedy sketch…with Bela Lugosi! Of course the footage is lost but some tantalizing stills remain, how I would love to see that kinescope!
There does remain a promotional film of Vampira doing a very basic intro for the show, and a recently unearthed piece of footage has a Vampira appearance on the George Gobel Show. Which leads to some interesting information about Vampira, Maila Nurmi herself always referred to Vampira in the third person, either by name or as “she.” Performers who appeared on the same shows with Vampira admit they liked Vampira, but never really met Maila Nurmi! Vampira was always Vampira, Maila never stepped out of character when making any appearance, including the street theater she became a part of. Greene advises us that this is “dangerously close to performance art!” Do you think?
The George Gobel Show footage is especially precious. Vampira owns the sketch from the moment she opens a door, Gobel seems genuinely unnerved by the whole experience. But then Gobel always did strike me as something of a sniveling weasel. Gobel ends the sketch by literally running away from it and closing the stage curtain himself!
Vampira was famous for her 17 inch waist, we learn that did not come easy. Maila would not eat for 48 hours before every broadcast, and then cinch herself into a semi-rigid corset on show night. She also tenderized her own flesh with papaya powder! She put herself through a weekly ordeal that would make Lon Chaney wince!
That hunger artist routine would come back to haunt her, Maila ended up in such a dire financial predicament friends would leave bags of food on her doorstep, knowing she was too proud to answer the door to receive a handout.
In the aftermath of Vampira’s cancellation she took a few acting jobs, most famously her appearance in Ed Wood’s now legendary Plan Nine From Outer Space. Even though she was billed as Vampira, Maila herself does not consider that character, (The Ghoul Woman) to actually be Vampira. She calls that role “Maila in an alpha state!” Robbed of that great voice Maila did not speak in Plan Nine because she utterly rejected Wood’s entire inane dialog. I will always be curious as to what words Ed Wood attempted to put into Vampira’s mouth! Could they have been worse than “Inspector Clay is dead, murdered, and someone’s responsible?!”
There is no mention of Maila’s brief appearance in Bert Gordon’s The Magic Sword. Any acting jobs were few and Maila opened an arts and crafts store which failed. She cleaned houses, laid linoleum and worked in restaurants just for something to eat. As if poverty were not bad enough Maila was repeatedly hounded and assaulted by James Dean fans who blamed her for Dean’s death! In the worst of these incidents, while living in New York, she was beaten, dragged up and down stairs by the hair of her head and threatened with mutilation and death! A shocking photo has Maila sitting on a desk pointing to her bruises. Don’t get me wrong, I like James Dean as much as any movie geek, I’ve seen all three of his movies in theaters, some of them more than once. But rabid James Dean fans are among the scariest I have ever encountered. That kind of behavior is despicable, for any fan.
Even worse still, these assaults were treated like a joke by the police, the media and the general public. Maila Nurmi endured crap that would have driven a lesser soul to suicide.
Late in life she was finally embraced by the Goths, and the punk bands who specialized in horror themed music, such as the Misfits, who got her into a studio to record her own songs and managed to get her some paychecks. She found kindred spirits in all sorts of marginalized groups, especially movie geeks like myself who grew up as monster kids in the 60s and 70s.
I said this before and I’ll reiterate. Maila Nurmi and Vampira never got the credit they were due, Vampira was the first horror movie show host. To illustrate how ahead of the curve she really was, the official date for the beginning of the Monster Craze was 1957, the year Screen Gems released a package of Universal Horror movies called Shock Theater to television stations. Local stations were encouraged to use Horror Hosts to introduce the movies on late night tv. Zacherley, Svengoolie and many, many others followed. In St. Louis we had Zone 2 hosted by Jack Murdock as “Cronos,” in 1965. And in 1958 the first issue of Famous Monsters was published by James Warren and Forry Ackerman. Vampira premiered in 1954, three years ahead of the first wave, and she did not have access to the classic Universal horror movies! Her show made do with movies that were probably already in public domain, White Zombie, 13th Guest, King of the Zombies. Not mentioned in the documentary Forry Ackerman never did respond to accusations that Vampirella was based on Vampira.
Vampira was the first horror show host but also the first Goth, one of the first icons of the Beat Generation, as important as William S Burroughs or Jack Kerouac, and the first performance artist. Most importantly she presented an image of strong, even dangerous female empowerment, sexual, provocative, predatory, in the most famously chauvinist era in American History. We see throughout the documentary clips from tv shows, commercials, educational and promotional films of the submissive, dish washing, cooking and cleaning stay at home woman, contrasted with the outrageous behavior of Vampira! Quite a comparison!
If you’ve seen the movie Ed Wood you have seen Lisa Marie attempt a Vampira impersonation. Again, I like Lisa Marie, but she can’t even come close to Vampira’s charisma. While Vampira was still a going concern imitators began cropping up. We see a clip from another Red Skelton show with a blatant Vampira imitator in a Honeymooners sketch with Skelton and Peter Lorre.
Of course Vampira and Me deals with the still controversial (to my mind) creation of Elvira. Maila was attempting to revive the show in the 1980s, and walked away due to creative differences. The producers then brought in Cassandra Peterson. Maila introduced a lawsuit claiming copyright infringement, which sounds right to me. In a heartbreaking moment we see the actual handwritten note from Maila dropping the suit due to lack of legal representation and money to pursue the claim.
Again, don’t get me wrong, I love Elvira, have enjoyed her for years. I got her autograph at a car show in Springfield, Missouri in 1992. In Vampira and Me we get side by side comparisons of the two, uncanny, like seeing a gothic Mother and Daughter carry on the same routine.
Elvira has always been more like a fan girl herself, poking fun at the movies, herself and her fans. Elvira always seemed accessible, friendly, she could be a friend, or even a girlfriend, to fan boys like us.
Vampira on the other hand had chunks of guys like you and me (and George Gobel) in her morning stool! Vampira, to quote Jimi Hendrix “drank the blood from a jagged edge!” Maila herself admits that she may have tapped into something truly dark and powerful when she created Vampira, something she could not control, and which back fired on her and led to her miserable situation. Which may put her in the same arena as yet another Jim: Morrison. The Lizard King had a Gothic sensibility and deliberately turned Doors concerts into ceremonial Magik rituals and may very well have unleashed occult forces he could not begin to deal with.
One incredible bit of information, Maila informs us that Vampira’s trademark scream at the beginning of every show was meant to be autoerotic! Vampira would scream bloody murder and then do a fake orgasm! I cannot imagine any other actress, especially on 1950s faking an orgasm on live television and getting away with it! Lucy and Ethel? Audrey Meadows? Molly Goldberg? Then again, the orgasm may not have been faked!
It’s entirely appropriate that Vampira would be linked with other Hollywood tragedies like James Dean, Bela Lugosi and Orson Welles (although I doubt Welles considered his life a tragedy, I’ll have more to say about Welles in another review.)
H Greene has put together an amazing documentary, I have watched Vampira and Me three times and have not got to the bottom of it yet. Vampira and Me belongs in every movie geeks collection. There have been many good show business documentaries recently, subjects as varied as Roger Corman, Stanley Kubrick, Tab Hunter, George Takei. Add Vampira and Me to the list.
In a better world than the one we live in Vampira would have stayed on KABC, gone into syndication, been preserved on kinescope and video tape for future generations to enjoy, and the release of the Shock theater package would have ramped the show up to a whole new level. Vampira and Maila Nurmi would have gotten much more work in acting, and most importantly Maila Nurmi would have made a whole lot of money and been idolized at fan conventions and poetry readings.
In the end Vampira and Me is many things all at once, cultural history, a meditation on identity, the trap of fame and the grind of poverty. But I think any feeling person can gather a lot of inspiration from Vampira and Me. Maila Nurmi was a survivor, she endured and she lived and she got to a place where she could talk about her misfortunes and laugh about them. Throughout the interview footage shot by Greene I never saw one moment of self pity or sadness or lingering anger. Only when talking about James Dean does her heart grow sad. Maila Nurmi is gone but Vampira will live forever.
So let us celebrate what we do have, the few minutes of precious Vampira footage and the long interview that make up Vampira and Me are truly a cause to celebrate. With another Halloween fast approaching let’s all light some black candles on All Hallow’s Eve, turn the lights down low and watch Vampira and Me. You’ll be glad you did!
“Who sends dead flowers to a funeral? It’s absurd!”
HAROLD AND MAUDE screens midnights this weekend (September 11th and 12th) at The Tivoli Theater as part of their Reel Late at The Tivoli midnight series.
The Tivoli is going old-school this weekend with its Reel Late at The Tivoli midnight series. It’s HAROLD AND MAUDE, which I saw at the Tiv back in the late ‘70s, one of the very first films I ever saw there. HAROLD AND MAUDE was a midnight perennial in my youth, but seems to have fallen off the cult movie radar (KING OF HEARTS, which I saw double-billed with HAROLD AND MAUDE in my youth, has suffered a similar fate).
HAROLD AND MAUDE is a funny and quirky May-December romance from 1971 between 20-something morbid rich kid Harold with a holocaust-survivor Maude who is approaching her 80th. Both are enthusiastic funeral-crashers Harold is a pasty boy obsessed with death; frequently playing suicide pranks at home so much so that his mother (Vivian Pickles) doesn’t take it seriously at all. This happens in the opening scene which sets the black comedy tone of the film directed by Hal Ashby and featuring a famous song score by Cat Stevens.
Maude is a loud, aggressive, live-for-the-moment type. Her interests (besides crashing funerals) include stealing cars and she’s never afraid to speak her mind. She makes Harold’s life exciting and he soon finds himself falling in love with her. Needless to say, his mom doesn’t approve of the relationship. Harold is played by the odd-looking but talented Bud Cort and Maude by Ruth Gordon whose every line in the film is memorable and amusing. There are some funny moments in the film involving Maude and the police and although the movie is silly and far-fetched at times, it does encourage you to live life to the fullest. It’s a funny script and well-acted and although not a success upon its first release, it has found a deserved cult following through the years. Good for the Tivoli for bring back HAROLD AND MAUDE. I’ll be there Friday night with some custom HAROLD AND MAUDE trivia with prizes.
A facebook invite for this event can be found HERE
Anyone who has ever used a personal computer, Mac Book Pro, iPhone, iMac or any other special form of interactive communication device (Um…everyone), will enjoy this quality film: STEVE JOBS: THE MAN IN THE MACHINE shall completely enthrall a hell of a lot of souls in the world. I know, it’s just a documentary, but it captivated me.
Very few people in the late 20th/21st Century have transformed the way we live, work, create and think to the extent that Steve Jobs did. He had an amazing life. Some documentaries, although compelling in many unique and special ways, are not essential viewing for everyone. This is. It’s definitely a dynamic work, a first-rate compendium of both the genius of Jobs and the far-reaching power and beauty of the Personal Computer.
Along with his brilliance, his genius in changing the world through his incredible ‘iSuccess’, he could also be a monster with co-workers and family. Many mavericks that change the world have this sad quality; perhaps it makes them able to obsessively focus on their dreams and goals without having to deal with more sweet and humanistic traits. It also makes the film more dramatic. The filmmakers, while pointing out his charisma as a salesman, visionary, with an ability to “think differently,” also brought forth interesting questions: They were slightly perplexed: they—as well as people interviewed, wonder why so many people in America and throughout the world were so emotionally moved by his death, as if he were John Lennon. Well…they loved him for what he brought magically to their lives!
This film is powerful and unflinching, detailing how Jobs and Apple became a massive global phenomenon. Easily one of the best documentaries that I’ve seen in at least a few years, this highly entertaining film is essential viewing for every human that lives, inhales oxygen and dreams of changing the world.
4 of 5 Stars
STEVE JOBS: THE MAN IN THE MACHINE is playing in ST. Louis exclusively at Landmark’s The Tivoli Theater
