joi, 28 septembrie 2023

Zelig by Woody Allen, auteur of Husbands and Wives http://realini.blogspot.com/2019/09/husbands-and-wives-written-and-directed.html and quite a number of other remarkable motion pictures, comedies mostly - 9 out of 10

 

Zelig by Woody Allen, auteur of Husbands and Wives http://realini.blogspot.com/2019/09/husbands-and-wives-written-and-directed.html and quite a number of other remarkable motion pictures, comedies mostly

9 out of 10

 

 

I have read in Variety that Woody Allen is launching what he says will be his last movie, one which seems to have a raving review from Variety – it was something like ‘the best film since Match Point or Aphrodite’- but a production that had also attracted protests in Venice, where it opened at the festival…

 

There were some minutes of standing ovation - maybe six – and there have been other long anticipated creations there, The Killer, with Michael Fassbender in the title role, a Roman Polanski film, talking of controversial, even reneged film makers, Maestro, which has Bradley Cooper at the helm, directing the biopic.

Maestro has had its share of adversity, mainly because there is this new idea now that performers should stick to their own lanes – there is a very interesting in The Economist (where else) on the subject – and if the age of white men painting white on their faces is gone, the plan to have all doing only their race, segment looks flawed.

 

It was said that this would limit those that the plan is supposed to support – people with disabilities will then be forced to stay with the rare opportunities they are presented with – and some of the virulent protesters have been placed on the spot themselves…John Leguizamo was infuriated by a situation…

Only he is not from some place which gave a film the character he was playing and thus he has a history of acting in roles that do ‘not fit his profile’, and this would create a world where you have what used to be called (still is actually) typecasting…I saw a Brian De Palma http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/05/note-on-mission-impossible-directed-by.html documentary a few weeks ago

 

The fabulous director was talking about his movies, Scarface, Mission Impossible (the first one), and the screen trade in general, including one of his best, The Untouchables, how he came to use Kevin Costner, who came highly recommended by Steven Spielberg and others, and his interaction with some of the other stars

Robert De Niro was first reluctant to join, then he came in -I think De Palma says he would not learn his lines for some reason, but there may be some confusion here, Marlon Brando is of course a legend and a titan, but he is also the subject of many anecdotes, some told by Robert Duvall, available on YouTube, because he would not know his lines and they have had to put them everywhere, on the ceiling, on placards, so that he could read them http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/08/the-godfather-written-by-francis-ford.html - the Godfather and Robert Evans are in the recent megahit Barbie, though I could not make what they are saying in the Kendom…

 

Robert Evans has a book, The Kid Stays in The Picture http://realini.blogspot.com/2015/09/the-kid-stays-in-picture-by-robert.html in which he talks about his time as actor, producer and head of Paramount…he was the producer of some of the best 100 movies ever made, Chinatown, Rosemary’s Baby, Love Story and Godfather is argued by some to be The Best Ever, not just one a multitude…you find it in his book

Coming back to De Niro – it looks like I will not write a single sentence about Zelig, but who is to blame- he was wearing silk underpants for his part as the vicious Al Capone, who takes a baseball bat (by this time, I generally assume there is nobody still following, so I sometimes think to put in a spoiler alert could even be pretentious, pompous, as in I know you are still around and here’s taking care of you kid, but then somebody protested about a spoiler once, so what the hell, there is some kind of spoiler coming) and smashes the head of one of the mobsters that sit at a large, round table listening…

 

Type casting was the point lost some paragraphs back, and Sean Connery wanted to join this project – for which he would win a well-deserved Oscar, for Best Actor in a Supporting Role – because he had had enough with the roles of James Bond (he had the part at that époque, for quite a few of 007, and some of the best indeed) and so he was in for Something Completely Different, only it did not go down so well

Another spoiler alert, his character is attracted in a trap, with a supposed killer in his apartment, which he chases down the corridor, laughing at him, you come in with a knife, but then at the door, there is another ruffian, the latter with a machine gun and he sprays bullets that murder the personage…

 

However, Sean Connery himself has had inconveniences on the scene, he had had to crawl, and then something happened, I forgot what, but you could look for De Palma, which a fabulous gem, and you find about tis and so much more, besides, the director is such a phenomenal storyteller and a mesmerizing presence…

Sydney Lumet, another spectacular director, also wrote a book, Making Movies http://realini.blogspot.com/2015/05/making-movies-by-sydney-lumet.html in which he talks about Sean Connery and the difficulty of putting someone like Connery in the same frame with say Al Pacino, the difference in height between the two is enormous…incidentally, De Palma and Lumet clashed on two projects, Lumet was supposed to do Scarface, which landed with De Palma, but the former ‘stole’ another script, plus project from the latter, so we could maybe say they are even, worked hard for pictures they would not make

 

 

Now for a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world   – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se

 

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html  

 

 

Niciun comentariu:

Trimiteți un comentariu