Slumdog Millionaire

Bob Browne pointed out to me a Derek Weller quip in the National Post about Slumdog Millionaire's ingratiating charms: 'It's Frank Capra goes to Mumbai,' Weller wrote. Bingo! A shimmering five word review.

Che

Tuesday night, listening to President Barak Obama’s Non-State-of-the-Union, State-of-the-Union enunciation of his priorities – self-sufficiency, health and education – fired other synapses, in the context of this Sunday’s my-pov.ca screening of Che. Before the joint sessions of the American congress, Obama waxed eloquent: ‘Now is the time to jumpstart … areas like energy, health care, and education that will grow our economy, even as we make hard choices to bring our deficit down.’ Hmmm, I thought. I remember those words from before.

Fifty years ago – 1959 to be precise – Fidel Castro was identifying in speeches for Cubans the self-same self-sufficiency, health and education links. When Castro came to power in 1959, only 8% of the farmers had access to health care. Same with schools, so Castro mobilized teachers, workers, and high school kids to teach more than 700,000 peasants how to read, reducing the illiteracy from 23% to 4% in one year. Fifty years before Obama, he connected Cuba’s economic transformation to equally transforming publicly supported health and education. And for his troubles, was denounced, boycotted, invaded. The most recent Cuban figures I came across were now comparable to Canada’s: life expectancy at birth (75.7 years), adult literacy rate (95.9%), combined enrollment in school (72%).

Today no demonologist’s denouncing President Obama as a dirty Commie bastard for focusing on improving his country's health, education and self-sufficiency (although inevitably I’m sure some nutbar will). Watching Che Sunday, may stir other similar connectors in you as well.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr. Steven Soderbergh

As promised, an introduction to Steven Soderbergh's many talents:

• Woody Allen, Martin Scorsese and Peter Jackson may be more celebrated filmmakers, but my argument here, is that Steven Soderbergh is much more important than them now and for many reasons. He is also a chameleon, blending into several landscapes.

• Director Steven Gaghan (Traffic) refers to Soderbergh as ‘the Michael Jordan of filmmaking.’Here’s why: he’s one of the first to shoot his movies on tape, later he shot with digital technology; he’s released one movie directly on the Internet. For his upcoming movie, Catherine Zeta-Jones will start in a 3-D live action rock musical based on Cleopatra.

• Che, for reasons I’ve outlined in my blog (http://peterspovblog.blogspot.com/), is one of those epics that only comes along every generation or so: two different movies: both stylistically and from a narrative point of view. (A reminder: another great movie featuring Che is on DVD: Motorcycle Diaries. If u get a chance, screen it before watching Che.)

• Soderbergh, as a director, is responsible for several significant movies, notably The Good German (2006), Traffic (2000) and Erin Brockovich (2000) For both 2000 movies, he was nominated as Best Director for two different films, the only time in the history of the Oscars.

• Images and music scoring dominate in his movies. You’ll see in Che, where the subtitles are for the most part unnecessary. He loves style, and at time at the cost of story. But be patient. This is great filmmaking craft at work.

• Soderbergh, as producer/executive producer, has got several other directors’ gutsy movies made: Todd Haynes’ experimental Bob Dylan portrait: I’m Not There; Tony Gilroy’s Michael Clayton; Steven Gaghan’s Syriana; George Clooney’s two interesting outings as a director: Good Night and Good Luck (2005) and Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002), Gary Ross’s Pleasantville.

• Soderbergh, as a cinematographer has shot many of his own and others’ movies: Che, The Good German, Ocean Thirteen, Traffic. The list is endless and for me, difficult to imagine. As well as handling the set, he has a monumental physical job of handling all that camera + lighting gear as well. When shooting, he’s credited as Peter Andrews (his father’s given names.)

• Soderbergh, as an editor, has cut a lot of his own stuff too: The Good German etc. As an editor, he works under the pseudonym of Mary Ann Bernard (his mother’s maiden name.) This techie wizardry both impresses me, and tells much of why Soderbergh succeeds. He understands digitalized filmmaking, has mastered the below-the-line skill sets able to make movies more cheaply and quicker.

• If u want to hear him thinking out loud, he did a terrific audio commentary for The Third Man that I recently listened to, in connection with Orson Welles. Or go on Youtube:
• http://www.youtube.com/results?search_type=&search_query=soderbergh&aq=f

• There are 509 hits on YouTube. Listen to an intelligent moviemaker defending his movie in a roiling, hostile Q & A on Che: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_dhBaPD7wQ where he’s accused of making a movie about a mass murderer. Clearly Che will have a hard time iat the box office in America. In Latin America, I suspect it will make a fortune.

• The Soderbergh posse includes movie people I have a lot of time for: George Clooney (his partner and star in 6 Soderbergh movies); Benicio del Toro (who also starred in Traffic); Catherine Zeta Jones (also in Traffic); Julia Roberts (5 movies); Don Cheadle.

• Soderbergh tackles hardedge subjects: with Erin Brockovich, Julia Roberts, takes on big business; Traffic deal with the complexities of the drug trade; two other completed movies await release: The Informant stars Matt Damon, as Mark Whiteacre, the price-fixing snitch who ratted out Archer Daniels Midland.(Damon has a miniscule walk-on in Che). The Girlfriend Experience is about an Elliott Spitzer callgirl, starring porn star, Sasha Grey.
  

• Like Spielberg, Soderbergh’s one of the few, able to manoeuvre in Hollywood on his own terms: for the studios, he turns out big-budget profitable schlock: he’s directed all the Ocean Eleven franchises. And in return gets the studios to finance the movies, he insists on making.

• Soderbergh‘s always been on the cutting edge of new technology. I first noticed him when in 1989 he made Sex, Lies and Videotape (which won in Cannes in 1989). Full Frontal, an improvisational shoot, was also shot on digital. Che was shot with the red camera.

• He seems to love Montreal: has shot here several times.

Hope this helps you all enjoy Soderbergh’s Che.

peter

A Consensus of Sorts – Che This Sunday

Mavens:

I knew from the beginning, this my-pov.ca movie club would have to be quick on its feet. I just did not imagine how quick.We now have yet another fresh information subset.

Che has done so well as a roadshow at the AMC that it's being extended for a 2nd week. There will be no Part I, Part II tickets sold. Che, Part I runs 2:08, Part II runs 2:09. If you include a 15 minute intermission, an event that starts at 1:30 p.m. Sunday will not end until almost 6 p.m.Yesterday, I emailed all my-pov.ca movieclub members, canvassing for various options.

Below are the responses I received [slightly abridged]. My comments are in Italics.

Farla weighs in:

i like the idea of seeing the whole of che on sunday and saving the discussion for the next week...
farla

this probably is the best way to see it, if you can endure the length. But we really only have two choices, either the 4:35 hour version, or not screening CHE at all, since the AMC will not be offering Che, broken into Part I and Part II.

peter
***
Bob has views…

Hi Peter,

...and you thought directing a film was hard work!! hahahaha! Your proposal sounds good to me just as long as we get two beers the following week. I have a donut seat cushion, so no problem.

That was a great session last Sunday. Just wanted to ask you two directors what it must have been like for Laurent Cantet, director of Entre les murs, to direct the screenwriter/source author as lead actor! Must have been fun.

bob

I put in calls to the Comedy Nest yesterday morning, and will try again to get to them today. Bob is right, everyone will get two drink tickets when we have the session on March 8th.

peter
***
krayna golfman

hi peter

I'm confused.

Are tickets not available for Sat? I'd like to do do part 1 then and part 2 with you Sun.

krayna

This permutation unfortunately is not available to you. AMC is selling one 4:35 hour movie, starting at 1:30 pm, and running to 6 pm approx.

Peter
***

Peter Measroch, one of montreal’s more eminent movie people:

Peter M here.... did you see yesterday's Globe and Mail article on the film? Talking about if it weren't for the political ideology, Che would be just another serial killer....good article!

I will be blogging a long piece this morning on things to watch for in Che. It is a breakthrough movie on all sorts of levels

peter


***
Evelyn is okay with the idea

Hi Peter!

Thank you for doing all this homework. I was just thinking this aft that I might try to catch the 4 1/2 hour presentation on Thursday evening but getting home around 11:30 and getting up at 6:00 a.m. didn't really tempt me - and now you have solved my problem! Will see it all in one big swoop on Sunday aft. Suits me. Am leaving for Mexico on the 8th but not until later in the evening so would be delighted to discuss the film the following Sunday as long as we meet around 1:30ish or 2 - is that what you had in mind?

Entre deux Murs was very enjoyable - a little long. Think that many who were watching it are not French speaking and therefore missed a great deal...I didn't follow the subtitles as my first language is French so found some of the remarks made about Francois very harsh. My only comment.

I look forward to seeing Che and hearing the discussion the following week. Is anyone going out for dinner afterwards? That could be fun - the lonely lives of "merry widows" we just don't like to eat alone.

Hmmm – there’s another good idea! Who would be interested in joining Evelyn for dinner after the 4:35 hour screening? That would make for animated discussion. We could meet upstairs at the Atrium. Any suggestions for a quiet nearby place, where people can talk?

***

Marie-Claire dissents:

I am now reevaluating your Che-suggestion email. I now disagree with that approach.

I strongly encourage you to keep the 10 consecutive Sunday format: one movie and and the meeting at the Comedy Nest for a drink and learning….if people want to see part 2 of Che, let it be on their own time. Have one Che movie version from 12:30 PM and then have one drink and invited guests on March 1st 2009.

There is absolutely no need to get caught up in the frenzy of the 2 part series of Che.

While in theory Marie-Claire is proposing what I first thought was the best-possible case, in fact if we only wanted to watch Part I, we would have to pay for the Roadticket (double) price. Then when we went back to see the 2nd half, again we would have to buy a second Roadticket double.

peter
***
So here’s the deal:

• The my-pov.ca screening for this week will be Che, starting at 1:30 p.m. at the AMC. It will run for 4:35 hours, and get out at approximately 6:00 p.m.
• Joanne, Vanessa, Farla and I will be in the Pepsi Forum atrium from 12:00 pm on, with our people to distribute supplementary vouchers, to be redeemed.
• Everyone attending Che, will need a supplementary voucher.
• Those who can't make the Sunday screening, can make their own arrangments, still use their vouchers for another day/ another time. Che will be playing daily at 1:30 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.
  
• We are hoping that AMC in Kansas City will be supplying us all our vouchers as of March 3rd.
• For those attending McGill’s MILR, I will bring and distribute supplemental AMC vouchers this Thursday, February 27th, before the 9:30 a.m. class, and after the 11:45 am study group.
• The Comedy Nest discussion session for Che will take place on Sunday, March 8th (time tba), and it will be a protracted discussion of the importance of Che as a movie, as an historical figure – and so on. We plan to have guests who will talk about some of the things that makes this movie so 21st century.
• Since we will effectively be screening two movies on March 1st, Che Part I and Che, Part II, we will not be screening a movie on March 8th.
• I will, by noon today, post a blog about the importance of Steven Soderbergh, the filmmaker. He may be the most interesting director working in Hollywood today. I will attempt to explain why.
• Those who disagree with this decision to screen Che as a roadshow, of course are entitled to their money back. But remember, your vouchers are good for any AMC movie at any time, so you can go to another movie of your choice, and then join us on the 8th in the Comedy Nest.
• Hope all of this is clear. Pls keep those cards and letters coming. I need to read what you’re thinking.

peter


ps:

Those who attend the Metropolitan Opera screenings know the advantage of arriving early to save your seat. I suspect Che is a socko boffo megahit in the making. At the Saturday night screening I attended, in one of the AMC humungous facilities, it was almost sold out. Therefore we will need to get your vouchers/tickets/seats to you early, so as not to have your nose pressed against the AMC screen.

So come early, save your seat with your coat. With your stub, AMC will allow you to enter and leave its premises. Then get a coffee.

A 2nd tip: bring a snack. AMC has no issue with you eating your own food in the theatre. I hope this is all clear.

peter

Che

Che will be our movie discussion on Sunday March 1st.

Che is in honourable line with D.W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation, David O. Selznick’s Gone With the Wind, David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia, Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now, Claude Lanzman’s Shoah: one of those massive epics that comes along every twenty years or so, that insists on perspicacity and so we sit, hour after hour, watching a previously-unknown history wash over us.

Che tells of a Caribbean/Latin America I had never absorbed before: a continental ticking timebomb of resentment and hostility that we’ve occasionally glimpsed with Castro in Cuba, with Allende in Chile, Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua, and now with Hugo Chavez Frias in Venezuela.
For our my-pov.ca crowd, we have two spectacular options: from now through Thursday, Feb. 22nd of this week, AMC is offering what it calls Che in roadshow version – the two parts sold as one ticket (with an accompanying programme).
Starting Friday, it will be broken into Che: Part I (Cuba) and Che Part II (Bolivia): two completely different films, two different story lines, two different filmtelling styles, nd inevitably two different outcomes.
I would recommend those who can find the time to see it as a single 4:35 hour movie. Yeah, it takes time to unfurl. Yeah, it requires tuchas endurance. So what? These movies only roll round once in a generation. Bring sandwiches and a bottle of water. There’s a 15 minute intermission after 2:10 minutes.
Of course you can use your AMC vouchers, that my-pov.ca provided. But here’s the rub: AMC Kansas City ran short, so we only got 200 vouchers in toto (the rest will arrive March 3rd). Still I have enough extras for this week. Since you will need two vouchers to get in, anyone wanting extra vouchers, please get in touch with me asap, and we’ll finess how to get them to you. I live only five minutes from the AMC, so if you’re driving, you can pick them up here. If you’re going as a crowd, I can meet you at the theatre.
For those attending Sunday, if the times on March 1st are the same as yesterday, Part I will start at 1:00 p.m. We would then initiate our Comedy Nest discussion at 3:30 pm. But don’t take that as gospel truth. I will know more, and subsequently post start times tomorrow.

A Very Fragile Cinemecology

A principal reason I undertook this movieclub was an awareness that great movies flit through this town, with the stealth of a spring breeze. They arrive. They disappear. Few notice. Il y a longtemps que je t’aime, The Visitor and Edge of Heaven were three recent ones. Nevertheless, it’s hard to believe that Caos Calmo has now disappeared from the AMC slate after only 3 ½ weeks, before we got to look at it, despite being on the city’s Top Ten List, despite great word-of-mouth.

Alas, Caos Calmo is off to its Shangri-la of digital immortality: to be reincarnated , reshaped as digital data: dvd, bittorrent download; to be up-loaded cheaply onto iPods without the interception of distributors or exhibitors. One more reminder we now all dwell in cyberstan.

We are witnessing our era disappear: a movie era that’s been disintegrating most of our lifetimes, the moviehouse becoming as inevitably extinct as the vaudeville and burlesque houses of that of our folks. Even in their time, two Golden Age classics, Citizen Kane and Casablanca were substantial but not spectacular box-office success. Despite raves, when first released, each struggled to cover its budget. Mass television in the fifties nearly killed movies. The palatial movie houses closed. colour TV in the Sixties persuaded millions to stop going altogether. Goodbye the neighborhood moviehouse.

Our generation has borne witness to this titanic clash in many arenas – LPs v. napster, love letters v Facebook, musical halls v iPods, mailmen v. iMessenger. Cybergadgetry now rules – zines, evites, cybersurfing. Videos and DVDs have pretty much wiped out movie theaters in Asia and Eastern Europe. Excentris, as magnifient a movie house as has ever bee ndesigned, is about to close. The multiplexes are boarding up in suburbia. While it’s difficult to conceive of great movies, such as Caos Calmo, divorced from movie theatres, the fact is the studios' Shangri-la is digital , not the AMC.

I find myself, in spite of myself, a big zip.ca subscriber with its library of about 70,000 titles. Much of zip.ca business comes from cinephiles like us, screening semi-obscure, not otherwise easy to find movies - on our computers, our iPods, our dvds.

We must face up to the prospect, within what remains of our lifetimes, that if we want to watch Caos Calmo, we will have to stay home, watch the Caos Calmo HD version, transferred onto Blueray, each frame containing 490,000 colour pixels, providing more detail, nuance, and depth than the AMC. And more than likely we will be alone. No popcorn machine. No one to laugh (or cry) with. In the meantime, before they (and we) are forever extinct, we should celebrate both the moviehouses and their movies. Ergo, my-pov.ca.

John N. Smith

After the February 22nd Entre Les Murs screening, director John N. Smith will moderate the Comedy Nest discussion of the film. We are delighted to have him. Over a career which spans five decades, John has created unique oeuvre of Canadian documentaries and dramas. Often controversial, always enlightening and forever entertaining, his work has inquisitively explored darker nooks and crannies of this nation. At the National Film Board, his films garnered dozens of awards including a best short drama nomination for a 1980 Academy Award.

In 1994, he directed, co-wrote and co-produced The Boys of St. Vincent, aired to worldwide acclaim. In Hollywood, he directed Dangerous Minds with Michelle Pfeiffer; A Cool Dry Place for 20th Century Fox and Sugartime for HBO. In 2006, he directed Tommy Douglas – Prairie Giant again to political controversy. In 2007, he directed The Englishman's Boy based on Guy Vanderhaege novel. His most recent productions include Dieppe and Revenge of the Land, both 4-hour mini-series; Random Passage, an 8-hour chronicling early Irish settlers in Newfoundland. His most recent movie, due out this spring is Love & Savagery.

Smith, born in Montreal, graduated from McGill in Political Science. In July 2008 he was appointed to the Order of Canada, honoured as a filmmaker whose contributions have touched audiences across Canada and around the world.

A Foodies Reminder

After some deliberation, we decided not to provide food at the Comedy Nest. Why? Too complicated: Movie mavens, after all, have their own lifetime-formed foodie addictions for the dark. So bring your own snackies: trail mix, sandwiches, tangerines. Or within the Pepsi Centre are three take-out venues + the AMC concessions. Across the street, Alexis Nihon has a vast food court.

Neither the AMC nor Comedy Nest have any issue with you snacking on their facilities. They just ask that you be tidy. As to drinks, the Comedy Nest will be providing a free one drink minimum: soda pop, wine, beer, booze and we’re talking with them about the possibility of serving coffee.

Caos Calmo

The vastly multi-talented actor-writer-director Nanni Moretti is at times compared to Woody Allen for justifiable reasons, his wry whimsical movies, like Woody’s, generous gentle satires, observing on the human condition. In his films, he’s a character, playing different versions of himself. His La stanza del figlio (The Son's Room) won the 2001 Palme d'Or at Cannes. Caos Calmo in 2008 was up for 14 Italian Oscars.

In Caos Calmo (which he also co-wrote), his character idles days away on a park bench within a Roman square, trying to move on, numbly iterating lists of airlines companies I’ve flown, things I didn’t know about my wife, places I’ll never return to….as the chaos of several lives swirls round the chaos enveloping him.

A heads-up: in what is otherwise a totally accessible film for all ages, a sex scene between two actors whose combined age must be almost 100, steams up the screen. Rufus Wainwright and Radiohead adorn the soundtrack..

Our Comedy Nest discussion, after the screening of Caos Calmo will be moderated by Afra Botteri, one of MILR’s most perceptive movie mavens. Anyone privileged enough to have sat in on her analyses of Scorsese’s Raging Bull and Godard’s Le Mépris will know we’re in for a treat. The movie runs 1:45, and so discussion should start at about 2 pm.

Vouchers - Vouchers - Vouchers

How the AMC vouchers will (hopefully) work:

• my-pov.ca will sell you AMC vouchers in packages of ten, one voucher per POV screening. With vouchers in hand, you then have several options;

• You can attend all ten Sunday brunch screenings;
• OR: you can partner with two or more pals, buy the 10 voucher package together, and then divvy them up amongst yourselves any way you wish;
• OR: you and your partner/significant other/conjoint(e) can come together for five of the ten movies;
• OR: you can sell/give them to friends;
• OR: you go see the my-pov designated movie days before (or after) the Sunday Comedy Nest session;
• OR: you can opt to see another AMC movie, then still attend the Comedy Nest.
• AND: you can always buy extra per occasion vouchers, prior to each screening, should you wish to invite friends or family - as many as you need;
• ONE LAST POINT: should you choose not to join my-pov.ca, you're still welcome on the my-pov.ca website. to participate in online discussion and debate.

If anyone still has queries, don't be a stranger. Post your comments below.

peter

The Golden Age of Movies is Here and Now

My basic underlying premise for initiating my-pov.ca – effectively it’s sole rationale – is that the Golden Age of Movies is here and now, smack in the 21st century. And my sole supporting argument for such a position is the following:

A Mighty Heart; Across the Universe; After the Wedding; Atonement; Away from Her; Babel; Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead; Death At A Funeral; Eastern Promises; Edge of Heaven; Il y a longtemps que je t’aime; In Bruges; La Sconosciutta; Le Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain; La Vie en Rose; Lives of Others; Non Ti Muovere; Once; Pan’s Labyrinth; Persepolis; Rachel Getting Married; Slumdog Millionaire; Syriana; Tell No One; There Will Be Blood; The Counterfeiters; The Diving Bell and the Butterfly; The Visitor; Two Days in Paris; Va, Vis et Deviens; Wall-E; Waltz With Bashir.

All these movies – and many more – have come out in the last few years. All tell me more about the planet I inhabit than the New York Times, the Globe & Mail, the CBC, the BBC, NPR, the New Yorker combined. Moreover I depend upon these movies. I trust them. They don’t hector or berate me. They transport me into worlds I would never otherwise visit. They introduce me to peoples I would never otherwise meet. They provide me insights that I would never acquire, left to my own devises.

I know that cognoscenti look back with fondness to the 1950s, that many believe 1962 to have been the vintage year of vintage cinephile years: David Lean brought out Lawrence of Arabia; Akira Kurosawa, Yojimbo; Stanley Kubrick, Lolita. In Italy, Fellini (Otto e Mezzo), Antonioni (La Notte) and Visconti (Il Gattopardo) were at the top of their game. In France, Truffaut (Shoot the Piano Player and Jules and Jim), Alain Renais (Last Year at Marienbad) Jean-Luc Godard (Le Mépris) and Jacques Demy (Umbrellas of Cherbourg) were reinventing film with audacity Ingmar Bergman (Through a Glass Darkly) was the profession’s resident mystic. That was then.

And this is now. Looking at these classics now, those treasures that transported me in their time, no matter how much I adore them, rescreen them, rock and roll back and forth across their classic scenes, I live in the here and now and plan to continue doing so for some time. The greatest movie, is the one I plan to see next.

Hold the Date

For the start-up of my-pov.ca two treats await us.

Caos Calmo (Quiet Chaos) Unless someone can persuade me to the contrary (and I’m eminently persuadable,) I propose Caos Calmo, an Italian movie, as our my-pov.ca opener. It’s a film that quests after meaning in love and loss, in spontaneous kindness and abiding care; it’s about fundamentally decent beings sorting through lives. Not only that, the Roman Catholic Church denounced its eroticism as ‘vulgar and destructive.’ As a teen, no denouncement was more enticing. Plus, it has cinematic pedigrees scribbled all over it: the great director/producer/actor Nanni Moretti stars. Alessandro Gassman, son of the hunk, Vittorio Gassman, plays a hunk. Roman Polanski makes a cameo. No wonder it was nominated for 18 Italian Oscars. So circle your February 22nd calendar.

And for Sunday March 1st, Entre Les Murs, winner of the Palme d’Or at Cannes last spring. I’ve read about this one for some time, but just saw it this afternoon. Last year, two striking movies, The Visitor and Edge of Heaven explored lives thrown into turmoil when an illegal immigrant is deported. With Entre Les Murs, pasty-pink Parisian professeurs are thrown into turmoil, schooling frisky African, Asian and Arabic immigrant teens, eternal French values. In the end, they learn more than they teach. Novelist François Bégaudeau plays a fictionalized version of himself from his own autobiographical novel. Skilled future-tech moviemaking abounds as well. While director Laurent Cantet used three HD cameras to conjure a documentary-inflection, this one was well under control.

A bounty of others are playing the AMC as well: Waltz With Bashir, Slumdog Millionaire, Gran Torino (how did this one miss a nomination?), Rachel Getting Married, but I suspect that many of you will have seen these. But hold back on Caos Calmo and Entre Les Murs. With both we’ll have lots to both talk and write about.

A caveat: our scheduling is as always, dependent on AMC’s scheduling. But both of the above movies performed well their first weekends, and so will likely hold. If not, we’ll schedule others.