I watched this film quite a while ago, before I got married and my posting schedule for the blog completely changed. I am just now getting around to this piece, and unfortunately we weren't missing out on much. Islands in the Stream is based on the last Hemingway novel. Really it was pieced together by his wife after he passed away and we can't really know if he would have ever had published himself, but it is said that the main character is based on who Hemingway saw himself as.
Thomas Hudson (George C. Scott) has seen a lot in his life and has retired to an island in the Caribbean where he fishes, sculpts, and drinks. He has some good buddies who don't expect much from him but would do a lot for him. When the film opens he is expecting a rare visit from his three sons from two marriages. Ranging in age from 10 to 19, the boys all have unique relationships with their father. The oldest, Tom (Hart Bochner) remembers his mom and dad having a loving and passionate relationship, while the middle child David (Michael-James Wixted) is resentful toward his father for the way he treated his mom--the second wife.
Wixted is probably the best performance from the three kids, and it is just as well because his character has the biggest arch out of the three. It is very much a coming of age tale for him, and it helps that his dad is there to gently coach him through it. Though you wouldn't expect it, especially because Thomas has been absent for much of their lives, he really does care for his children. He perhaps has more affection toward Tom because that marriage was the best, and he misses it.
The second part of the film is quite slow and is punctuated by an unexpected visit from the first wife, Audrey (Claire Bloom), who brings hard news that perhaps spurs on the third act, which is so drastically different from the first two it's a wonder it ever made it into the film. Although the first two thirds of the film moved very slowly, I was interested in the characters and their relationships. The third act completely lost me. I'm not sure if it is a part of the book--some reviews made it sound as if it was an addition to the film and I would love to know if this is true. Perhaps the production team was attempting to liven up the story, but I really wish it had not been included. There are rescued Jews (the story takes place at the beginning of World War II), smuggling, and cheap looking explosions. It is a huge disruption from the tranquility of the island life.
I'll be honest that I wasn't the biggest fan of Islands in the Stream. I was curious about Thomas, his family, and the relationships all throughout the film. I cared for them, but there were certainly moments that I won't specify (no spoilers here!) that could have been done better. The cinematography was certainly beautiful and well done, especially for a film from the seventies. The acting was acceptable, and although the pace of the film was slow it fit with the lifestyle of beach life.
I wouldn't necessarily recommend this film. I probably won't be watching it again. If you are curious about Hemingway's last book, it might be a good place to start, but I expect the actual novel would be a much better medium.
Have any of you read those famed "romance" novels? You've probably at least seen them on the shelves. The ones with the half naked men and women in a provocative embrace? That's what The Other Side of Midnight is. Full of plenty of unrequited love, nudity, sex, and passion--not to mention plots of murder--this novel based screenplay is an interesting nomination.
Noelle Page (Marie-France Pisier) is a young French girl whose piggish father tells her that her beauty and body are the only things she has to offer the world. He essentially sells her off to a shop keeper, where Noelle is expected to do more than tend the cash register. She escapes to Paris where penniless and possessionless, she is is rescued by a young American pilot named Larry Douglas (John Beck). He takes her in, feeds her, beds her, and when his orders come in he tells her to buy a wedding dress and he'll be back for her.
But he never comes back. Noelle, still pursuing fashion as a career, soon finds herself modeling and then acting. Knowing that men only want one thing, she takes her father's advice and uses her body to get the roles she wants. She rises to fame quickly and once one of the wealthiest men in the world takes an interest in her, she leaves her director beau fairly quickly for a life of luxury with the Greek Constantin Demeris (Raf Vallone).
Larry, in the meantime, has married and is finding it hard to hold down a job since in the end of the war. Noelle discovers this and offers him a job as her personal pilot in Greece. Not knowing she is the girl he once ditched, Larry and his wife Catherine (Susan Sarandon) move overseas.
Of course Larry will eventually find out who Noelle is. She has loved him ever since the beginning and no money or spouse can stand in her way.
The movie is outlandishly long. The story begins during World War II but you hardly know it. Occasionally there are swastikas, but that's as close to the action as we get. This may be because Noelle is distinctly indifferent to anyone else's suffering than her own, or it may just be an awful choice from the original author. You decide.
Although Noelle was indeed slighted, once she begins to see herself as little more than sex, she loses all strength and is no longer a powerhouse woman. She is presented as someone intelligent who only takes care of herself, however she comes across as easily used and lacking in a lot of things, most importantly self respect.
Catherine is everything that Noelle should have been. She is strong, intelligent, supportive. She has an amazing job in the city but moves to Greece to support her husband. Although she will do anything to keep their relationship strong, I do not see this as a weakness. She has a drinking problem but leaves it before she would leave Larry.
Larry is the most unattractive, weak, and grating character the movie can produce. He is amazing in the beginning, but he seems to lose everything with the war, and in my opinion he never gets it back.
The movie is too long, the ending makes the entire film pointless, and the third act is so different from the first two that I almost stopped watching entirely. The cinematography is boring, the editing isn't much, and the story line is far from special. I do not recommend it.
The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) 50th Academy Awards 1978 2/5 Stars Nominated for 3 awards. Nominated for Art Direction (Ken Adam, Peter Lamont, Hugh Scaife), Music-Original Score (Marvin Hamlisch), and Music-Original Song "Nobody Does It Better" (Marvin Hamlisch, Carole Bayer Sager). Watched November 4, 2012
The reviews are positive, but my views are different. Granted I have not paid much attention to the 007 franchise prior to Daniel Craig and thus my opinions will be incredibly jaded, I was not a huge fan of The Spy Who Loved Me. I find that I am having trouble looking past the dated 70s styles. However, it has been pointed out by many reviewers that the film did exactly what it was supposed to--it was never created to be film noir but a mindless entertaining film that all one must do to enjoy it is sit back and relax while James Bond does all of the hard work. I will admit that, for the most part, The Spy Who Loved Me does that successfully.
This generation's Bond is played by Roger Moore, whose following of Sean Connery seems a tough blow, but he apparently does much better in this film than the previous Bond flicks he had starred in. He is smarmy, with a classically good looking smirk, and a hidden pain of lost love that makes him attractive. Not to mention his mad skiing skills that are said to be one of the best openings to a Bond film--ever.
In this storyline, the bad guy, Karl Stromberg (Curt Jürgens) has been tracking and trapping nuclear submarines from all sides, which is why 007 and the Russian Agent XXX (Barbara Bach) suddenly find themselves working together. Bond and Major Anya Amasova have significantly different feelings about working with one another. Bond is of course attracted to the feisty female agent, while she resents his typical pig headed manliness and pushes against him in an attempt to not be overshadowed by a man. Through their adventures she begins to soften toward him, until she finds out that he killed her love just weeks before, which of course means that she has to kill him once they save the world from nuclear destruction.
Complete with excessive explosions and gunfire, underwater cities, and women in bikinis, it is a true Bond film. In comparison with today's franchise, the cinematography has zero creativity. There is a serious lack of angles. The editing is a bit slow, and the sound design was perplexing. The lack of a sound track fails to disguise the terrible foley art during the fight scenes, not to mention how very choreographed every punch felt. Somehow, Amasova did not come off as intelligently as she was supposed to be, probably because she kept making dumb decisions and relying on Bond to save her.
The acclaimed villain who everyone loves--Jaws (Richard Kiel)--would have been a lot more intimidating had the editor not had a preoccupation with dwelling on his metal-mouth grimace.
All in all, I would consider it another TV movie entertainment date, but not necessarily for the main Friday night event. In my mother's words, it's quite "campy" and outdated, but I did enjoy the last half hour that is spent completely devoted on freeing the submarine crews and saving the world. Many reviewers disliked this part, but to me it was my favourite because it embodies Bond so well. There is very little attempt at serious story telling and just straight, entertaining, unrealistic action. Perfect.
I have heard tales of these films, the popular series that began with a study of the chaos at airports and gradually made its way to basic blockbuster adventure stories involving airplanes. If any of you have seen the popular comedy Airplane and did not know, it is a parody of the Airportmovies of the seventies. After watching Airport '77, I want to watch the rest, not because it was a brilliant feat, but because of the hilarious parodies of Airplane that I noticed while watching the film.
Airport '77 is about a group of privileged people who are taking the first flight ever on a new luxury 747. The owner has invited them all to his place in Florida to view his art collection. Among the passengers are his daughter and grandson, whom he has not seen in years. The adventure and suspense in this film starts from almost the very beginning, when we are introduced to men wearing disguises and sneaking suspiciously through the airplane. Really what they are doing is hijacking the plane.
The copilot and his fellow theifs are stealing the art pieces in the cargo. They knock everyone out with gas and are intending on getting the pieces off the plane before anyone knows what has gone down, but inevitably, during the copilot's maneuvers to stay below the radar in the Bermuda Triangle, they hit an oil rig and crash land in the ocean, sinking beneath the surface and landing on top of a ledge. There is plenty of panic, death, and cut away shots to the Navy's control room where they orchestrate the search and rescue. There is, of course, a doctor on board the plane (isn't there always in the movies?), but they at least add a little twist in that he is a veterinarian. The film even ends in an epic attempt to raise the plane in the same manner that the Navy would raise a distressed submarine.
Apparently they had a stacked cast for this film, among them Jack Lemmon, Lee Grant, Olivia de Havilland, and Christopher Lee to name a few. Despite their talent pool, the demand of the characters was limited and there was very little study of how individuals might react if they suddenly awoke to find their plane at the bottom of the ocean. The storytelling was typical and predictable. How many times can you show water leaking into the plane and expect the suspense to build? There are a few sequences that are exciting and interesting, although it reminded me drastically of other unlikely stories such as Poseidon.
To be honest I am curious how the film earned itself its nominations. Looking at the art direction and costume design by themselves I am thoroughly unimpressed by their mediocrity. This may be a matter of societal distance, as the criteria of films in the 70s and films in the 21st century are quite different.
Airport '77 has become one of those bad movies you might watch part of on TV, but beyond that it is nothing impressive. If you like unrealistic disaster movies like Poseidon you might want to look up this film, but otherwise it is not something I would advise for your list.
Close Encounters of the Third Kind, like Star Wars, is another sci-fi film released in 1977 that was nominated and won awards for its achievements. It was also the second-highest grossing film of the year and held records for a good while. This is, of course, thanks to Steven Spielberg, his incredible understanding of the craft, and his abilities as a story teller. I, for one, will forever be a fan of Spielberg, not necessarily for his out-of-this-world artistic abilities, but for his all encompassing domination of filmmaking as a whole. Although certain aspects of Close Encounters are dated, the majority of it withstands the test of time far more than its counterpart, Star Wars.
If you have guessed correctly, like I did, Close Encounters is a film about aliens. Similarly to other such films where extra terrestrial life visits Earth, you don't actually see the aliens themselves until the end of the film, although you see a good amount of their ships. Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss) is your average blue collar worker with a wife Ronnie (Teri Garr) and three children. When there is a huge power outage one night, he is called into the field, but once he has a unique encounter with one of the ships, he turns off his radio and decides to chase down the aliens. He is completely obsessed, even once they have gone, preoccupied with a pyramid shape that he can't place. A woman he met the same night, Jillian Guiler (Melinda Dillon) is just as preoccupied, but when her son Barry (Cary Guffey) is taken, her terror leads her to chase down her visions of the mountain. Roy's obsession eventually makes him so crazy that his wife leaves with the children.
Meanwhile, a group of scientists have been tracking and communicating with the aliens and have discovered that the lifeforms have been sending them direct coordinates to Devils Tower in Wyoming. They immediately evacuate the area, and it is the television coverage of the panic that clues Roy and Jillian in on what their visions have been of. They both rush to the area, of course meeting up and driving recklessly into the military protected national park.
Unlike many alien movies of our day, Steven Spielberg's aliens are friendly and curious. Although they have taken many people over the years, as well as accepted voluntary travelers, they seem like they too are merely scientists wishing to understand, explore, and experience. This also differs from the films in the 70s and before. The typical storyline is, of course, that their world is dying, they are feeding, or they simply want to terrorize the planet. Spielberg's creation, although also suspenseful, is much different with much better special effects, which are perhaps two of its best traits.
As far as performances and characters, I thought everyone was phenomenal. Dreyfuss is very convincing--his crazy is very realistic and because we know his experience was legitimate it is probably less weird to the audience than his wife, although at the climax of his meltdown it is easy to understand and sympathize with Ronnie. She begins as very loving and supportive, although clearly worried. At first I was surprised that she might actually be so loving that she completely upholds her "in sickness and in health" vows without question, but she eventually cracks and opts to protect her children by removing them from the situation.
I would definitely recommend this film. It is more lighthearted than recently viewed films, but certainly has more depth than Star Wars. Even if you have seen Close Encounters of the Third Kind before, it would definitely be a good choice for this Halloween evening!
Looking For Mr. Goodbar (1977) 50th Academy Awards 1978 1/5 Stars Nominated for 2 awards. Nominated for Supporting Actress (Tuesday Weld) and Cinematography (William A. Fraker). Watched October 20, 2012.
Looking For Mr. Goodbar is so far off from what I was expecting. If I know nothing about the film, I don't look at any descriptions before I watch it, and therefore the title threw me completely off. It is based on a true story of a woman named Rosanne Quinn who was murdered in New York. Her story inspired a novel, and then this film. Richard Books, who both wrote the screenplay and directed the film, decided to change the character of Quinn in order to make her more likable, but her end is still the same.
Reportedly, Quinn was a woman living in the time of women's lib and got her fixes not just from drugs but from increasingly violent sexual encounters. She was a school teacher by day and a bar hopper by night. The character in the film, Theresa Dunn (Diane Keaton) is the same in this regard. She teaches deaf and mute children during the day, but at night she frequents singles bars, snorts coke, and tries desperately to rebel against her strictly Catholic upbringing. Theresa differs from Quinn in that she is not a masochist. She generally would like to avoid violence and abuse and her attraction to lesser men is simply because she can abuse them with her eloquence. Ironically, the man who is the craziest of all seems like one of the sweetest in her first encounters, although we as an audience know he is not. This is another difference from the true story and the screen adaption--she brings home what she thinks is a sweet guy, maybe someone more who she would be looking for, but in Quinn's instance, he was probably the worst of the worst from the beginning.
Theresa's story is somewhat intriguing. She starts as a school girl with wild fantasies of her professor. He becomes her first lover--the first chauvinistic man to bed her. After her experience with him, she moves out of her father's house and into an apartment her sister, Katherine (Tuesday Weld), offered her. Katherine is a wreck when it comes to men--she marries them without knowing them and often wakes up in the midst of naked people and doesn't remember how she got there. But even Katherine would never let a man treat her the way Theresa eventually finds herself being treated.
When she begins her bar life, she finds a man named Tony (Richard Gere) who is an attractive, jealous player. He is unpredictable, excitable, and very alluring to her, and although he pictures her as his 'girl,' he shows very little commitment. His unpredictability and also physical abuse eventually end their "relationship," but her security precautions against him eventually lead to her demise.
What is intended to be a cautionary tale is something I will never watch again. It is much longer than it needed to be and seems to fall off point many times just so that it can show just how troubled and "liberated" Theresa has become. Her home life reads as a soap opera, her one legitimate boy toy turns into a creepy stalker, and her near innocent forays into an unknowable world are very misjudged and under appreciated. Tuesday Weld was pretty deserving of her nomination as the troubled sister, and the cinematography was very interesting.
I wouldn't recommend the film. Many people and critics alike love the film, but would not necessarily advise it for multiple viewings. I can understand its nominations, and consider Diane Keaton's performance to be something of note, but Looking For Mr. Goodbar was not my flavor.
Julia (1977) 50th Academy Awards 1978 1/5 Stars Nominated for 10 awards, of which it won 2. Nominated for Supporting Actor (Maximilian Schell), Best Actress (Jane Fonda), Cinematography (Douglas Slocombe), Costume Design (Anthea Sylbert), Directing (Fred Zinnemann), Film Editing (Walter Murch), Music-Original (Georges Delerue), and Best Picture (Richard Roth). Won Supporting Actor (Jason Robarbs) and Writing-Screenplay based on material from another medium (Alvin Sargent). Watched October 12, 2012.
Julia (Vanessa Redgrave) is an eccentric, intelligent activist who was tragically and fortunately born and lived in the time of Hitler. She was doomed from the beginning, and so it seems was her friend and eventual famous playwright Lillian Hellman (Jane Fonda). They had a deep, loving friendship all through their childhood until Julia went away to Oxford to study. It is here that a distance was created between them, not just in miles. Lillian reflects romantically on her memories of her friend later in life as she attempts to write her first play, holed up in a beach house with her on-again-off-again lover Dash Hammett (Jason Robards). It is the tragedy and unconditional love and devotion of Lillian's relationship with Julia that preoccupies her writing, but also fuels her greatness. It is also this that is constantly driving her to visit Europe in hopes of tempting Julia out of hiding to spend time with her.
The movie is a mess, unfortunately. It is supposedly about Julia, but is actually more halfheartedly about Lillian. It is about their relationship, and yet we rarely see them together except for in Lillian's romanticized memories. We very rarely see or know anything of depth about Julia, just that she is a shadow that haunts Lilly. The affection in the relationship is primarily on Lilly's side, although Julia does eventually name her child after her friend. All that we know about Julia is that she is daring, brave, and an activist first in Vienna and then in Berlin during the rise and dominance of Hitler and Mussolini.
What should be the climax of the film is infact the worst part. On one of Lillian's inevitable tragic visits to Europe, she is approached by a "friend" of Julia's who asks her to help them smuggle money into Berlin. This again begs the question of who actually loves who in the relationship--Lillian who is so willing to put her life on the line for her friend, or Julia who would willingly put her friend's life on the line for the cause? Instead of an exciting point in the film, it is slow, seemingly pointless, and unfortunately feels like padding to fill screen time.
The acting is wonderful and the imagery is good. If the film had only been about Lillian with a little bit of Dash it would have been a hit, but because it could not decide who it was really about, it fell drastically short. I enjoyed the darkness of the setting--rarely was it sunny and cheerful. I found Lillian herself very interesting, with her chain smoking, writers block, and utter transparity with her emotions. Jane Fonda did a very good job with her. Vanessa Redgrave, on the other hand, wasn't given much to deal with in terms of Julia and therefor she did fairly well. I'm not sure why Jason Robards won supporting actor, though. Not to say that he didn't do well, but his character didn't feel very demanding.
All in all, I wouldn't recommend the film. If you are looking for something about the anti-fascist movement it might be of interest to you, although again, it is almost entirely about Lillian and her memories and not very much about what was happening in Germany at the time. The writing, however, was interesting enough to possibly warrant a viewing.
Star Wars (1977) 50th Academy Awards 1978 5/5 Stars Nominated for 11 awards, of which it won 7. Nominated for Supporting Actor (Alec Guinness), Directing (George Lucas), Best Picture (Gary Kurtz), and Writing-Original (George Lucas). Won Art Direction (John Barry, Norman Reynolds, Leslie Dilley, Roger Christian), Costume Design (John Mollo), Film Editing (Paul Hirsch, Marcia Lucas, Richard Chew), Music-Original Score (John Williams), Sound (Don MacDougall, Ray West, Bob Minkler, Derek Ball), Visual Effects (John Stears, John Dykstra, Richard Edlund, Grant McCune, Robert Blalack), and a Special Achievement Award (to Benjamin Burtt, Jr. for the creation of the alien, creature and robot voices featured in the film). Watched October 5, 2012.
The first science fiction film to be nominated for an Academy Award, the cult classic, the household names, and the instant launch into stardom all began at one unbelievable place on the set of a film with a tiny budget comprised of a crew who didn't believe in the project. Star Wars came into our lives at the precise moment that our culture was able see its greatness and make it such a huge success.
The original owners of the movie studios were all retiring and selling them to inexperienced corporations. At a time when our American heroes and leaders were a part of the Watergate scandal or engaged in the Vietnam War, George Lucas was exploring mythology and religion, trying to piece them together into a simple coming of age story where good and evil are clearly defined. Only because of the technology of the time, the simple story turned into a monumental, nearly impossible task.
The science fiction culture, as well as the other genres of the time, were preoccupied with death and destruction, taking lead from the world that surrounded it. In the end, it took a very special man at 20th Century Fox, Alan Ladd, Jr., who believed in the man but not in the project, to get Lucas his 8.25 million dollar budget and launch the film. Lucas, an independent filmmaker who had recently stepped away from experimental films and was still determined to stay out of Hollywood, wanted to do everything his way without the studio's suffocating tampering he had experienced in his other projects. He took six months to cast the film and did his best to choose no-names for the three key characters. While he was still elbow deep in preproduction, his big hit American Graffiti was finally released and the studio gained a little confidence in him.
The story line is simple. A young farm boy named Luke who longs for adventure outside of his home crosses paths with two wanted droids that lead him to the doorstep of Obi-Wan Kenobi, an old Jedi Master. The Jedi are apart of a religion almost forgotten to the past. One of the droids contains important information for the rebellion against the evil Empire, and seeing that they are the only hope, Luke and Obi-Wan enlist the help of the smuggler Han Solo to fly them to the rebel base. It doesn't take long before they are caught up in something much bigger than they had anticipated--rescuing a princess and piloting X-Wing fighters among them. As the story progresses, Luke slowly begins to discover his skills with The Force, and ultimately uses them to deal the Empire a crushing blow.
Initially, Lucas refused to consider Harrison Ford for the role of Han Solo because he had worked with him before (remember his goal of casting no-names), but recognizing his talent, Lucas asked Ford to help him in casting by reading with the auditions. Eventually, inevitably, Ford's connection to the character and spot-on interpretation of his mannerisms won him the role, and he was joined by recent TV phenomenon Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker (originally named Luke Skykiller), and the not so common damsel in distress Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia.
The shooting of the film was plagued with misfortunes, mostly with unpredictable desert weather, malfunctioning robots, and differing styles between director and cinematographer. No one on set really understood Lucas' vision or the story and therefore there was not a lot of belief in its success. The studio was constantly breathing down his neck, and when the shoot went over schedule by three weeks, there was the threat of pulling the plug.
Meanwhile, the special effects department had been working for a year, spent half their budget, and had only filmed four shots, none of which Lucas liked. His stress level reached an all time high and he had to go the hospital with complaints of chest pains. Immediately, he stepped in and took control of the special effects department, setting deadlines and making regular trips to visit, insisting that they do a year’s worth of work in six months. Their hippy mentality finally got into gear, and although Lucas was never truly satisfied with the results, the immense progress they made completely changed the department and the art of filmmaking from then on out.
It wasn't until Lucas made some drastic changes and brought in some brilliant artisans that his film finally began to come together as he wanted it. His initial editor completely lost his vision and he brought in two men for whom winning an Oscar was the last thing on their minds, Paul Hirsch and Richard Chew. He was also lucky enough to enlist the help of composer John Williams, who already had an Oscar under his belt and was well known for his work on Steven Spielberg's ‘Jaws.’
But before the music was complete, Lucas showed one of his first cuts to a group of friends, almost all of whom gave him fairly negative reviews. Only Steven Spielberg recognized it for the genius that it was. To Lucas' astonishment, the studio loved it, and several of them actually left in tears, knowing they would always remember the day they had witnessed such a film.
When the film was released on May 25, 1977, it was pandemonium. Only around 40 theaters had agreed to show the film and in its first weekend it made over 35 million dollars, breaking all sorts of records, and not just for science fiction films. It became one of Fox's highest grossing films at the time. And the real kicker is that they had no interest in merchandising when they created Lucas' contract, which means that he was set up to make an incredible amount of money from the inevitable cult following that began even before the film was released, thanks in part to the marketing department and their use of the famed Comic Con convention in San Diego and their release of a novel just six months prior to the film's release.
The film itself was a great feat for the time of its release. The acting is not the best, and the special effects certainly aren't up to today's standards, but its incredible and genius utilization of story, characterization, and imagination, are what help it stand the test of time. George Lucas' vision was much too grand for the time in which he was born, but it is because of this that he pushed the boundaries of cinema and created the first ever science fiction blockbuster, thus changing the whole idea of film.
If you have somehow never seen Star Wars (you know who you are), drop what you are doing right now and please enjoy this incredible film that changed the tides of filmmaking for the better.
Sources: The Rush, Movies and Mayhem, Rotten Tomatoes, IMDB, A look inside of the Star Wars Trilogy (A New Hope / The Empire Strikes Back / Return of the Jedi) (Widescreen Edition with Bonus Disc) DVD
The Turning Point (1977) 50th Academy Awards 1978 3/5 Stars Nominated for 11 awards. Nominated for Supporting Actor (Mikhail Baryshnikov), Best Actress (Anne Bancroft), Best Actress (Shirley MacLaine), Best Supporting Actress (Leslie Browne), Art Direction (Albert Brenner, Marvin March), Cinematography (Robert Surtees), Directing (Herbert Ross), Film Editing (William Reynolds), Best Picture (Herbert Ross, Arthur Laurents), Sound (Theodore Soderberg, Paul Wells, Douglas O. Williams, Jerry Jost), and Writing--Original (Arthur Laurents). Watched September 28, 2012.
The Turning Point would today be considered a Lifetime movie, Oscars-style. To have been nominated for eleven Oscars and win none of them has only happened twice in the Academy's history. To be honest, a few of the nominations seemed a bit excessive--namely the supporting cast. The film was apparently a big hit when it came out, and should certainly be on the favorite list of today's dancers, but it is another prime example of a film not standing the test of time.
Despite its flaws, this film is very relatable. For anyone who once had a dream, and ended up taking a different path, or outgrew it, the story line will strike a chord with you. It is about a woman named Deedee (Shirley MacLaine) who gave up the opportunity of being a prima ballerina to get married and have a family. One day when her old company comes into town, her oldest daughter is invited to join. Deedee accompanies Emilia (Leslie Browne) to New York, just for the summer, and immediately feels out of place. It is not her time anymore, and it seems the light is dimming on her old friend and rival, Emma (Anne Bancroft), who might just be nearing her last dance.
To see the ins and outs of a dance company is something we are familiar with in films these days, but to see such exquisite dancing, we are not as accustomed. Granted, as the Step Up films certainly highlight their genres very well, The Turning Point does the same with ballet. Its consistency with the story is a bit lacking, but unlike many critics I enjoyed this. I found it more realistic and consistent than, say, a musical. The characters themselves are in fact dancers, and when they practice and perform the dance consumes them, but in their outside lives they are not as likely to break into song and dance.
Considering the fact that neither MacLaine or Bancroft were dancers, they did a very good job assimilating themselves into their environment. Their relationship is strained, almost fake, because of long-harbored resentment toward each other. They both long after the life the other person has and are filled with regrets. The film is preoccupied by the life decision between career and family, which doesn't give the actors too much range to work with. The climactic confrontation between the two main characters inevitably comes, and after a lot of harsh words and a drink thrown in MacLaine's face (which was unplanned and thus her reaction is of genuine surprise), turns into a full-out cat fight that was quite hilarious.
Overall, unless you are a lover of dance or a fan of Lifetime movies, I would not recommend this movie for you. However, if you have any appreciation for ballet, I suspect this is already one of your favourite films!
Surprise! A short film that is not being posted on Short Movie Monday! What is this?! Don't feel gypped, this is a great little five minute short that I think you should all go watch right now! It is stop motion animation, which is one of my absolute favorites. It started out a little slowly and immediately I was rash and foolhardy and said, "Oh this is very simple, I could do this. This might be a long five minutes." Don't worry, though, I was quickly humbled and in awe of this colorful, intricate, statement piece.
The reviews for The Bread Game seem to be in short supply. It begins with small organisms, but you aren't exactly sure what they are, only that they seem to be chasing each other around and morphing together, then separating into something different, and so on. Suddenly the organisms become something more--small crustaceans and other ocean life that continue to chase each other and devour one another. It quickly becomes apparent that this is a type of "circle of life" piece. The animals progressively get larger and eventually become monkeys and then man. Once man is introduced, it is no longer about consuming another animal, but about killing other men. From Cane and Able, to Romans, and onward, it is a statement piece on war and men and humanity. Animals, for the most part (unless you are a Velociraptor), kill for food and to sustain themselves. Humans do not.
Ishu Patel's use of color pallet and movement are amazing. There is always motion and a stark contrast between the black background and the light, frolicking movements that represent death as well as life. The music choice is also very fitting--very tribal and a bit chaotic.
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