Directors We Love: Buster Keaton
When I went off to college, I had yet to see a Buster Keaton movie, though I was already a huge Charlie Chaplin fan. A hallmate of mine found this out and we made arrangements to see The General (1927) at the library. We arrived and discovered that we needed to squeeze into a tiny viewing booth. There were headphones, but the film -- shown, I think, on a 16mm print -- did not have any soundtrack, so we discarded the headphones. Goodness only knows if it was shown at the correct speed; I tend to doubt it. But even under those lowly conditions, I remember being as blown away as if I were sitting in a huge, air-conditioned movie house watching a state-of-the-art summer blockbuster.
Now Kino Video has released two new Keaton titles. One is a remastered DVD and Blu-Ray of Steamboat Bill Jr. (1928), and the other is Lost Keaton, a DVD with sixteen short films from the 1930s. Of the four great Silent Clowns, which included Chaplin, Harold Lloyd and Harry Langdon, Keaton was perhaps the best director. He seemed to have an innate understanding of the possibilities of the medium, including its rhythms and spaces. He grasped how a lone figure, juxtaposed against a huge train or a huge, bizarre house, or a huge ship, could result in untold comic possibilities. He was also perhaps the unluckiest of the four in terms of his career.Continue reading Directors We Love: Buster Keaton
Hey, I see that eye roll. I know. I'm as sick of rumors about The Hobbit as you are. At this point, all I want to see is some smallish dude cast as Bilbo Baggins, and the first image of Smaug. Nevertheless, the Ring continues to flicker with life as Mordor MGM desperately holds onto it. Peter Jackson continues to work in good faith. According to THR's Heat Vision, he's even meeting with actors despite that the film still hasn't gotten the green light. Money is still an issue.
Apparently, even Jackson's directorial status isn't finalized. He has nearly signed, but not quite, and Warner Bros is continuing to negotiate with MGM over money and their half of the rights. All MGM decisions are being made by shareholders and creditors which makes things extra problematic. THR describes the studio as "rudderless" and notes that Warner Bros can't even fund the film themselves because it would require MGM to sign off on it. Currently, there's not really any authority or ability to do that.Continue reading 'The Hobbit' Has No Money, But Peter Jackson is Auditioning 
Today's Motion History is going to center on a historical setting over a historical story. So far, all but one of the films I've picked have had some historical figure or story at the core, even if the stories ended up largely fictional. I don't intend to just stick to real people and real stories, because I think historical fiction is worth examining too. It can be just as powerful as a true story, and it can be just as illuminating about the time and place in which it was made. It can also be quite damaging to people's perceptions of history, culture, race, and politics.
Also, I just really wanted to write an piece about Gone With the Wind. I love this film, even as I understand what's grievously wrong with it. There's a tendency now to politely ignore this film, as with so many other troubling racial stories, because we've "evolved" passed it. Well, we haven't. Not as moviegoers, and certainly not as a country. Some of the recent fanboy casting flaps indicate that much, and the root of the Tea Party movement is inherently the political belief that's at the heart of Gone with the Wind: Give us our country back. This country that, to quote the opening crawl, can be found "only in books, for it is no more than a dream remembered."
You see, this isn't a movie about the Civil War. It's about America's perception of the Civil War, particularly down South. And it's all about the 1930s.
Continue reading Motion History: Gone with the Wind 
Our readers seem mixed as to whether 20th Century Fox's Planet of the Apes prequel, Rise of the Apes is a good idea or not. I'm not a huge POTA fan, but I think there's plenty of good social fodder in the series that deserves to be reexamined in this day and age. Even if political commentary isn't your cup of tea, the cast might be. According to THR's Heat Vision, Freida Pinto and John Lithgow have joined James Franco for Rupert Wyatt's Rise of the Apes.
As Peter Hall reported last month, Franco is playing the young scientist who is trying to discover a cure for Alzheimer's, and is part of a team who experiment on apes. One ape evolves, and Franco becomes attached to him, and takes him home to prevent him from further exploitation. Lithgow will play Franco's father, who has been stricken with Alzheimer's Disease. You and I both know Lithgow will knock this out of the park, so his addition alone is probably worth the price of admission.
Pinto will be playing the female lead, "a primatologist." Presumably she'll also be a love interest for Franco. Someone is bound to make remarks that primatologists aren't as lovely as Pinto, and all I have to say to that is Jane Goodall. Journalists complained she should have been a fashion model. So there you go.
Apes begins shooting this summer. It may be a "reboot", but like Logan's Run, it has some potential. I think it's going to be one of the more promising things on pop culture's radar. 
As promised yesterday, The Green Hornet had its trailer debut tonight on Yahoo! Movies. This is the first footage we've seen of the long awaited, much discussed, and fervently argued return of Britt Reid. The trailer is undoubtedly going to fuel the flames. I'm going to hazard a guess that it might be negative.
Seth Rogen isn't showing a great depth of range here. He's not dapper and he's not particularly badass. This is essentially his usual slacker character, albeit with a bit more money, and whose decision to become a crime fighter just comes off kind of corny. If you told me Judd Apatow had directed The Green Hornet over Michel Gondry, I would say "Yeah. That makes a lot of sense." I don't expect a major character arc in the course of a trailer, naturally, but this should feel a little more like Iron Man or Batman Begins, even if it is supposed to be a more comedic take on the hero.
But perhaps my expectations were too high! Maybe I picture the Hornet differently, or elevated him to heights not even George Clooney (one of the rumored Reids for a long time) could achieve. But it looks so standard, so cookie-cutter, and so silly.
My thoughts exactly. Now what are yours? The trailer is embedded below for your masked pleasure.
Continue reading 'The Green Hornet' Trailer Buzzes Online