“In the Director’s Chair” Archive
Irv Slifkin | In the Director's Chair, Movie Buzz
Although he is only 32 years old, writer-director Ti West has five horror films under his belt and more in the planning stages. And while he is too old, perhaps, to be called a “wunderkind,” the amount of projects he has realized at his age is certainly nothing to sneeze at.
West, a native of Wilmington, Delaware, has a new film about to open in theaters called The Innkeepers. The movie was actually shot and is set in the Yankee Pedlar Inn, an aging hostelry in Torrington,Connecticut, that( in the movie) is about to close. Clerks Claire (Sara Paxton) and Luke (Pat Healy) tend to the place in its final days. A woman and her young child are the sole guests, until an aging actress turned New Age psychic (Kelly McGillis) checks in. Is the place haunted…or not? Luke’s website devoted to the Inn, with live webcam feeds, may prove it is.
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Irv Slifkin | In the Director's Chair, Movie Buzz
Simon Curtis has some impressive British TV directing and producing credentials behind him: The award-winning BBC miniseries Cranford, a 1999 adaptation of David Copperfield with Maggie Smith, Ian McKellen and Daniel Radcliffe, adaptations of Uncle Vanya, Twelfth Night and Edward II, and even episodes of Tracey Ullman’s Tracey Takes Off and the American legal drama The Practice .
So, the director wanted to get things right when he set out to make his first feature film. One couldn’t imagine things going any better than My Week with Marilyn, the entertaining, eye-opening account of the making of The Prince and the Showgirl. That 1956 film starred Marilyn Monroe, who executive produced, and Laurence Olivier, who directed. Here, Michelle Williams and Kenneth Branagh step into the roles of those iconic performers.
“It was a gamble,” confesses the 51-year-old filmmaker about his project. ”There were other things I had talked about doing. I decided to hold out for this because it was the project I loved.”
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Irv Slifkin | In the Director's Chair, Movie Buzz
The rumbling on this Tuesday in late August came out of nowhere, shaking the hotel like a wooden paint stirrer in a blender. Writer-director Sean Durkin, attending a press day for to promote his film Martha Marcy May Marlene, darted out of a hotel suite and into the hallway, wondering what the disruptive movement was.
“Did anyone else feel that?” he asked a couple of journalists and some of the hotel help stunned by the occurrence, as he gingerly walked to the window to examine what was going on in the streets of Philadelphia a few floors below.
There was seemingly no reaction below as people went about their business with nary an interruption.
Durkin got on his cell phone to try to figure out the mystery. The journalists and attendees at a convention across the hotel hallway followed suit.
There was no service on the cells, prompting the confused minions to log onto their Facebook home pages to see what information could be ascertained. Within seconds it was determined that the rumbling was, in fact, an earthquake.
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Irv Slifkin | In the Director's Chair, Movie Buzz
At the memorable end of 1969’s Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Yankee bank robbers Butch (Paul Newman) and Sundance (Robert Redford) face off against scores of sharp-shooting lawmen and soldiers in Bolivia. After Butch informs Sundance that the bandit duo should consider Australia with its beautiful beaches and easy banks their next stop, they run out of the alcove where they are hiding, pistols in hand, where they are greeted by hails of bullets as the picture freeze-frames on the outlaws. The color fades to sepia tone as the gunfire continues. The End.
Or is it? Not according to Blackthorn, a new film that proposes that Butch Cassidy survived the ordeal, and lived a good 20-plus years beyond that altercation in the guise of Bolivian farmer James Blackthorn.
The film is an old fashioned western, actually shot in Bolivia, filled with wide open spaces, gorgeous, rugged scenery, and an interesting take on the Butch and Sundance legend. In many ways, it is the opposite of George Roy Hill’s box-office smash. The pace is leisurely, the film has a solemn tone and there are no raindrops falling on anybody’s head to keep the non-western fans entertained. Instead, we get a meditative work, more in tune with such elegiac sagebrushers of the Butch Cassidy era as Peter Fonda’s The Hired Hand or Frank Perry’s Doc.
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Irv Slifkin | In the Director's Chair, Movie Buzz
Nicolas Winding Refn is tired. He’s been up since 5 AM, working on a TV commercial via Skype from his Philadelphia hotel room.
No rest for the weary, even if the weary is a serious multitasker.
“I wish I could get more commercial work,” says the 40-year-old filmmaker, who has a handful of films in various stages of pre-production. “I welcome that.”
A publicity stop for Drive has brought Refn to Philly. The movie stars Ryan Gosling as a mysterious auto mechanic known only as “the Driver,” who uses his skill behind the wheel by day for stunts in movies, and by night in getaways for criminals. The sleek action film, which co-stars Carey Mulligan, Bryan Cranston, Ron Perlman, Christina Hendricks and Albert Brooks, won Refn the award for Best Director at the most recent Cannes Film Festival.
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Irv Slifkin | In the Director's Chair, Movie Buzz
Many people know about Serge Gainsbourg from his scandalous recording he did with girlfriend Jane Birkin in 1969 called “Je t’aime…moi non plus,” in which the then-couple sang and writhed on vinyl and got banned in many countries for their efforts.
For years (and even now in many ways), Gainsbourg was France’s leading celebrity, an all-media king proficient in singing, songwriting, novel writing, acting and directing. Then, of course, there were the high-profile women—scores of them, ooo-la-la!—including Birkin, Brigitte Bardot and “chanson” singer Juliette Greco among them. And let’s not forget the heavy drinking, the thorny TV talk show appearances and the chain smoking, which eventually led to his death at the age of 53 in 1991.
Joann Sfar, the French comic illustrator behind the acclaimed graphic novels The Rabbi’s Cat, Klezmer: Tales from the Wild East and the Dungeon fantasy series, makes his directorial debut with Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life, a look at the Franco-Jewish entertainer from a childhood during the Nazi occupation of France to his attention-getting stunts and artistic world to his death.
But this is not your typical biopic. Here, Gainsbourg (Eric Elmosnino) confers with an imaginary big-nosed, large-fingered creation that looks like a sports mascot version of Gainsbourg himself (played, oddly enough, by Doug Bradley, “Pinhead” of Hellraiser fame). The film is anecdotal, filled with flights of fancy like musical interludes and an animated sequence that exists more to delve into his subject’s psyche than to get the facts right in his story.
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Irv Slifkin | In the Director's Chair, Movie Buzz
Apocalypse...POW!
You know that any movie that starts with a quote from Lord Humongous, the monstrous goalie mask-wearing bad guy from The Road Warrior, isn’t going to be a quaint rom-com.
Bellflower isn’t.
The film has been buzzed about in the blogosphere since its Sundance debut earlier this year. And the buzz is warranted.
Evan Glodell wrote, directed and stars in this low, low, low budget (how low? –how about $17,000 low) saga about twentysomething friends Woodrow and Aiden (played by Glodell and his real-life compadre Tyler Dawson) who tool around cruddy Ventura, California in a custom tooled muscle car, drinking and talking about the apocalypse. The shy Woodrow meets the sharp blonde Milly (Jessie Wiseman) cute (at a cricket eating contest in a local bar), falls for her and begin spending time with her. The relationship spurs bad vibes from Aidan and Milly’s friends, which leads to some nasty complications and ugly repercussions and in which reality and fantasy may or may not blend.
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Irv Slifkin | In the Director's Chair, Movie Buzz
For 20 years, documentarian Kenneth Bowser had wanted to make a film about seminal protest singer-songwriter Phil Ochs. But he was continually greeted with apathy on many fronts.
“I knew it was a great story,” says Bowser during a phone call from New York City. “He lived in interesting times and affected the time. People kept saying: ‘Why did you want to make a movie about a dead folk singer?’ They liked my take on the story. I always felt there was lots of interest in the story.”
Ochs’ story, however, was a tragic one, the saga of an immensely talented, politically committed artist who took his own life in 1976 at the age of 35 after struggling with alcoholism and being diagnosed with depression and bi-polar disorder.
As in the case in many aspects of independent filmmaking, Bowser learned that good things come from those who wait, especially those who wait for funding. He kept in contact with Michael Ochs, Phil’s brother, known for his rock archives collection, and the songwriter’s widow, Megan.
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Irv Slifkin | In the Director's Chair, Movie Buzz
Danish filmmaker Lone Scherfig has been directing films and TV shows for 25 years. But after work on such acclaimed efforts as Italian for Beginners and Wilbur (Wants to Kill Himself), she moved into the limelight with 2009’s An Education, the critically applauded dramedy set in the 1950s about a working class British teen’s decision to forgo studying at Oxford in order to carry on a relationship with a wealthy older man. Unknown Carey Mulligan’s tour-de-force lead performance helped the film to become an international hit and also catapulted the actress onto the list of much-coveted young leads.
As a follow-up, Scherfig, 52, headed back to Great Britain for One Day. The film is based on a best-selling book by David Nicholls, who also adapted it for the big screen. It centers on the ongoing relationship between Emma and Dexter, who meet while attending college in Edinburgh and find their lives intertwined over the decades. She grows out of her awkwardness, gets a job as a waitress and aspires to write a book; he uses his outgoing personality (and busy sex life) to take him to TV success, then faces tough times. One Day centers on what goes on during a given particular day throughout their young lives.
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Irv Slifkin | In the Director's Chair, Movie Buzz
Poor Paw Paw.
Paw Paw, a cat, is at the vet’s office with an injured paw. Paw Paw now has to wait 30 days to be moved into the apartment of his new human owners.
Sophie and Jason are the pussy’s new parents to be. Until the month is over, Paw Paw will narrate a movie in its feline voice.
Such is the premise of Miranda July’s new film The Future. Besides writing and directing the film, July provides the voice of Paw Paw. She also takes the lead as Sophie, a thirtysomething kids’ dance instructor who quits her teaching gig to perform moves on YouTube like some of her associates. Hamish Linklater (The New Adventures of Old Christine and much stage work) is a tech support specialist for a computer company who quits his job to sell trees door-to-door. The couple figures they have 30 days until their lives are changed forever when a recovered Paw Paw becomes part of their family.
And what exactly can happen in a month’s time? According to The Future, a lot.
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Irv Slifkin | In the Director's Chair, Movie Buzz
It was at Georgetown University where Brit Marling, Mike Cahill and Zal Batmanglij met. Marling and Cahill were studying economics; Batmanglij archeology. But all three were drawn to the performing arts, with Brit eventually taking on theater arts as a second major and the men exploring different aspects of filmmaking.
Flash forward about ten years. After several short films, an acclaimed documentary (Boxers and Ballerinas) and work for National Geographic Films, the trio has two films on their way to theaters, both distributed by Fox Searchlight, home to such successful indies as Slumdog Millionaire and Juno.
Down the road in the fall will be Sound of My Voice, directed and co-written by Batmanglij, and starring (and co-written by) Marling as an alleged time traveler who starts a cult in Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley that attracts the attention of two documentary filmmakers.
But first up is Another Earth, directed and co-written by Cahill and again starring (and co-written by) Marling who plays Rhoda Williams, a high school student involved in a tragic accident that occurs at the same time another planet—the spitting image of Earth—is discovered in the solar system. The two events eventually align, as Rhoda attempts to change her life and that of John Burroughs (William Mapother), a composer and music professor whose life has been greatly impacted by the accident.
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Irv Slifkin | In the Director's Chair, Movie Buzz
One of the most highly anticipated documentaries of the year, Page One: Inside the New York Times delivers exactly what its title promises, offering a revealing, fly-on-the-wall look within “The Gray Lady” during a tumultuous 365 days. Falling circulation and ad revenues, major layoffs, reporter scandals, mass media turmoil, the threat of free news on the Internet, Wikileaks and more—that’s a lot for a documentary to cover. But director Andrew Rossi (along with writer/producer Karen Novack) does an expert job delving into the drama, by capturing the activities in and around the newsroom with the editors and reporters who work in the paper’s bustling media department.
Hot-shot blogger-turned-journalist Brian Stelter and levelheaded editor Bruce Headlam are featured, but the film’s main focus is on David Carr, the Times’ sarcastic, whip-smart media reporter, a former crack addict, tireless crusader and best-selling author who finds himself in the middle of many of the major stories facing the paper—and the rest of the media—during the year.
Rossi, who previously worked on Control Room, a documentary about Arab news channel Al-Jazeera, and directed the documentaries Eat This New York and La Cirque: A Table in Heaven, recently made a stop in Philadelphia, where he talked to MovieFanFare about Page One: Inside the New York Times and other things of interest to movie fans and media followers.
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Tags: horror movies