Monday, March 12, 2007
Noir Stories
Noir is premised on the audience's need to see failure risked, courted, and sometimes won; the American Dream becomes a nightmare, one strangely more seductive and euphoric than the optimism it repudiates. "He'd had everything", the novelist and screenwriter Jim Thompson remarks of a character in "The Killer Inside Me" (1952), "and somehow nothing was better".
Noir provided losing with a mystique.
But cynicism is not all noir's protagonists offer. Many of them are in the grip of an intoxicating metaphysics of utterness that creates signature moments of total theatrics. A suicidal Burt Lancaster, dressed in pants and an undershirt, abandoned by Ava Gardner in Siodmak's "The Killers" (1946), smashes a chair through the window of his Atlantic City hotel room and starts to jump, all in one seamless rush of magnificent, amour fou movement. A cleaning lady stops him, saying, "You'll never see the face of God!", an intervention, though it only postpones his destruction, he will never forget -he makes her, years later, the sole beneficiary of his life-insurance policy.
In Fritz Lang's "Clash by Night" (1952), Robert Ryan, wary to the point of paranoia and transparently defenseless, his face beautiful, frightening, and worn with the wrong kind of waiting, begs Barbara Stanwyck, "Help me -I'm dying of loneliness", Ryan, one of the finest actors of his day, was noir's theologian, mixing purity and guilt into lethal new combinations, poisons he administered, despite the corpses often mounting around him, solely to himself. The protagonists of this vein of noir were among those Amiri Baraka would describe a few years later as "the last romantics of our age". They may not believe in the American pieties, but they believe in something. "So you're unhappy", the tough-minded moll played by Mary Astor tells a distraught Van Heflin in Fred Zinnemann's "Act of Violence" (1949), "Relax. No law says you got to be happy". In noir, and only in noir, it's possible to be both archetypically American and irremediably unhappy"
-Ann Douglas for "Vanity Fair" Magazine, March 2007.
Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck in "Double Indemnity" (1944). "It was a hot afternoon, and I can still remember the smell of honeysuckle all along that street. How could I have known that murder can sometimes smell like honeysuckle? Maybe you would have known, Keyes, the minute she mentioned accident insurance, but I didn't. I felt like a million."
"They've committed a murder and it's not like taking a trolley ride together where they can get off at different stops. They're stuck with each other and they've got to ride all the way to the end of the line and it's a one-way trip and the last stop is the cemetery." -Barton Keyes ("Double Indemnity", by Billy Wilder).
Humphrey Bogart and Mary Astor in "The Maltese Falcon" (1941, by John Huston).
Sam Spade: "All we've got is that maybe you love me and maybe I love you."
Brigid O'Shaughnessy: "You know whether you love me or not."
Sam Spade: "Maybe I do. I'll have some rotten nights after I've sent you over, but that'll pass."
Joe Pantoliano and Jennifer Tilly in "Bound" (1996, by Andy & Larry Wachowski).
Violet: "Caesar, I'm leaving."
Caesar: "What? Oh, come on, I didn't use one of the good towels."
The Noir Protagonist
Here the narrative is fixed in a progressive timeline of Zodiac activity, yet the timeline is developed through the use of three connected films.
The first is the story of a newspaper, the San Francisco Chronicle, that receives Zodiac's first encoded letter explaining the details of his first murders.
The second is the detective story. Here are two partnered cops rabidly attempting to track down Zodiac, much like in Se7en. Yet despite their obsession over the case, he seemingly falls through their fingers multiple times. And again, in this film, this happens from the lack of physical evidence.
The third is the noir story. Jake Gyllenhaal becomes the noir protagonist, leading the viewer back through the multiple case files that the detectives never knew about or never clued the audience in on. He becomes, as all noir protagonists do, increasingly obsessed about the resolution of the Zodiac crimes.
Noir, simply put, encompasses the genre where the protagonist is thrown into an unusual situation and must sort his way out. And the audience simply follows the protagonist through all his breakthroughs and breakdowns." -By Daniel Griffin, Staff Writer. Source: www.Nique.net
Best Body
Which guy has he best body, Brad Pitt, Jake or Patrick Dempsey? You can vote him at the Instyle.com/Poll
Reese shopping
Reese Witherspoon shopping in Beverly Hills (on 6th March) and chatting on her cell phone (on 8th March).
Source: http://Celebutopia.net
Sunday, March 11, 2007
"Zodiac" surprises Graysmith
"Graysmith, played by Jake Gyllenhaal, began doing his own legwork on the case after it had dragged on for years. He wrote the best-selling nonfiction books, "Zodiac" and "Zodiac Unmasked," about the maddening story.
Meeting Graysmith in person during his publicity tour for the movie, I was struck by how right Gyllenhaal had gotten him. Friendly and talkative, Graysmith nevertheless had a touch of the genial obsessive about him. We talked about his theories on the killer and his relationship with tough director David ("Seven") Fincher. Graysmith watched the filming, but he hadn't seen the movie yet - he promised his best friend, David Toschi, he'd wait to see it with him. Toschi investigated the case for years for the San Francisco Police Department.
Question: How did you get along with David Fincher?
Graysmith: I'll tell you the absolute truth, I think David Fincher's about the brightest guy I ever met. He just simply has the kind of mind where he would make a great detective. I never thought I'd see a director who would sit down and discuss the ethical questions about "Dirty Harry" and the thirst for blood by the public and what this case really means. Things that don't even end up in the movie. ... He had Inspector (David) Toschi come by, and Toschi's my best friend, he lives very close to me near Golden Gate Park. I've heard people asking questions for 10, 15 years, and Fincher asked questions nobody ever thought of. ... The movie's done, and they're still calling me with questions.
The thing about Fincher is he loves the technical, but unlike a lot of people that came out of MTV and commercials, it isn't soulless. He always has a passion for the thing.
Question: Fincher has a reputation as a taskmaster.
Graysmith: He could be caustic, and yet he's always polite. He's very polite on the set - it's like, "Shut up! ... please."
He does multiple takes. I had a friend of mine who had a line in the movie: "Jack, there's a call for you on line four." Did it 37 times.
Question: It seems as though you would relate to that, since the movie portrays you as following out your own obsession.
Graysmith: That's me. I'm one of these guys, I simply get hooked on something and I go nonstop. I like getting to know everything and you just keep doing it, and eventually you get it. ... I've got this little flat, and as I gradually work on books, it's like "The Pit and the Pendulum." One entire wall is boxes to the ceiling on "Zodiac." One entire wall is another book, and now I'm working on another one. And at night it's like global warming, you can hear the books and the papers shifting.
Question: When you were on the set, was it strange to see yourself, and people you knew, portrayed by actors?
Graysmith: Mark Ruffalo actually came to San Francisco and stayed with Inspector Toschi for a long time. Came back, he was Toschi. He had the hair, the mannerisms. He just re-created the entire character. But Jake (Gyllenhaal), when he sat with me, he told me things I never even realized. Somehow he knew I was a Boy Scout - I guess they have it in the movie, but I never said a word. He captured the deferential thing. He's got the same clothes I wore, he uses the same drawing board that I had at the paper. And then I didn't really grasp the obsession thing until I saw what they were doing with it. You sorta don't realize it, you know, that you're doing it.
Question: Was there concern about making a big movie in which the whodunit doesn't have a definitive answer?
Graysmith: Fincher said he wasn't doing this like "JFK," trying to convince the audience (about the guilt of the prime suspect). He doesn't care about convincing the audience. [...]
But if somebody we never heard of straggles in at intermission in the movie and confesses and proves it, heck, I'll write a last chapter." Source: www.Heraldnet.com/stories
Anne's Weight
"Anne Hathaway has spoken out against movie industry execs for perpetuating the myth that actresses should be thin, insisting no one should be forced into a size zero.
The "Devil Wears Prada" star says she has turned down roles because of pressure from directors to lose weight. [...] I'm not a size zero, and I've had directors say to me, 'You're the best actress for the role, but you've put on weight recently.' If people can't understand you've put on five pounds, I don't want to deal with them."
Source: http://Celebritynation.blogspot.com
Saturday, March 10, 2007
My Brick "Outtake"
"Jerr's girlfriend got a peep at Brendan at "Coffee Pie" while he visibly fluttered uncomfortable on his seat, until she decides going straight to him for a chat.
-Hi, Brendan, you look tired... -He shrugs bored staring at his table- More than usual...
Brendan breaks his silent mood and his lips curl forming a grimace that she mistakes for a smile.
-Hello, Becky. Do you come to pick your bunk coffee?
She nods and sits in front of him.
-I won't take coffee. It's bad for my diet. When I called you the other night, Brendan, I told you the truth about Jerr. I never suspected that he was such a tweaker.
Brendan orders the waiter a pair of colas and tries to look Becky in the eye, firmly.
-He was just a ripped sneak, your darling. I had to block his poison on time.
She wovens nervously her hands. Her nails are coloured in red, but their polish lacquer is chipped.
-I never -she continues- suspected of his adventure with Emily. Not until I found her photo inside his wallet.
-And have you brought the snap?
She nods mechanically and takes out of a notebook's pages a small picture.
-So she had a flirt with Jerr -her lips are distended now.
-No duh! -almost hissing.
-But some pieces don't fit -trying to verbalize her anger.
The waiter serves them two glasses of Cola. Brendan takes a first sip feeling a pleasant caffeine boost.
She grabs her glass as if suddenly she was dehydrating and drinks half of her cola.
-But you never stopped loving her...
-No -distant.
-Even after her death...
-What do you want?
-Nothing. Just giving you this picture... -she passes the snapshot to him.
Brendan picks it delicately, holds it close to his face, looking at her lovely mysterious features.
-It's sad -Becky mumbles- She was so beautiful.
Brendan keeps the picture in his pocket carefully and then stands up, broody.
-Are you bailing out on me? Not even are you going to thank me?
-Thank you, Becky, but I'm not the running-drag type.
And he accelerates his way out of the local, while she, hastily, walks after him, a little clumsy on her high-heel shoes.
-I never understood what made Em so special.
Brendan turns around and hesitates before replying her.
-Why are you interested? Jerr didn't sell me out. Simply bad luck.
-I'm not a bimbo, please, convince me that all has been a bad dream... -she maunders at this point.
Brendan's attitude is brittle and aloof.
-Emily met me here the first time -pointing at the sprightly grass
She got lost on her way and got late to our first date -he mussitates- But I didn't mind. She came running, with sweat ruining her makeup, so when she held me in her arms, she was worn out, breathless.
-Did you kiss her, in that day?
-When she held me in that way, it was me who stopped breathing.
-I see... -she inclines her head down, ashamed.
-Don't feel moded, Becky.
-Listen, when I met Jerr, he wasn't riding the white horse, then he changed, he was always searching for something, what were they searching, Brendan? -her eyes widen, afraid of finding out the answer.
-Don't you know it? -he gives her a sphinx look.
-No. Maybe... her brick? -slowly spelling the words.
-Maybe -answers Brendan- Or maybe it all was a fraud -he pauses- And she isn't dead, and it was me biting the big one.
-And she ran away to hide in another place -Becky follows his talk entranced as if bespoken.
She approaches to Brendan and whispers to him:
-Lie to me.
-She's not dead -he repeats squeezing Becky.
-She's not dead -negates with her head -She's with you, at your side (starts to cry silently).
The pieces of his brain shatter, Brendan quivers while her voice is loading.
-Kiss me, Brendan.
His heart explodes inwards, like a faulty cheap Cola can at the moment her lips press his mouth. And Brendan knows the girl of the picture inside his pocket is Becky."