I just saw WALL•E the other night. It was a wonderful film with some superb animation (particularly haunting during the early Earth sequences), simple story and powerful message. I have to commend above all the very skillful voice work in this robot love story - WALL•E and EVE say almost nothing but their names to each other, but artists Ben Burtt and Elissa Knight put so many varied expressions of emotions into these words that the characters and their feelings hit you deep down.
The film has become more meaningful as I have reflected on it more, especially after I read this this passage from an interview with director Andrew Stanton:
WORLD: How does WALL•E represent your singular vision?
STANTON: Well, what really interested me was the idea of the most human thing in the universe being a machine because it has more interest in finding out what the point of living is than actual people. The greatest commandment Christ gives us is to love, but that’s not always our priority. So I came up with this premise that could demonstrate what I was trying to say—that irrational love defeats the world’s programming. You’ve got these two robots that are trying to go above their basest directives, literally their programming, to experience love.
With the human characters I wanted to show that our programming is the routines and habits that distract us to the point that we’re not really making connections to the people next to us. We’re not engaging in relationships, which are the point of living—relationship with God and relationship with other people.
Act Oners and other Christians often wonder where the great Christian film artists are - they’re alive and well and living at Pixar
You can read the rest of this wonderful interview here.
“Be not afraid of your office, you are sending me to God. . . He could not refuse one so blithe to go to Him.”
So spoke St. Thomas More to his executioner. At least he did in A Man for All Seasons. I’ve seen this film at least a dozen times, and I can’t watch the ending without crying . . . and feeling exalted. If those weren’t More’s actual last words, they should have been. And the way Paul Scofield performed that final scene with immense dignity and tranquility . . .
I wish for Mr. Scofield, who died today, the same merry meeting with his Maker as the real Thomas More must have had.
I first saw him oh, thirty years ago or so in A Man for All Seasons, and was mesmerized. He was the first (and as far as I can remember, really, the only) actor to bring fully to life on screen what a saint is — not a sanctimonious phony, or a totally out-of-it dreamer, but a fully successful human being, who realizes God’s hopes for the kind of person he should be, and lets no power on earth tear him from Him. He was a man who did his work, loved his family, and never sought the spotlight. Scofield was apparently much like that in real life. Perhaps that’s why he was able to portray that role with all the power, authority, compassion, humor and determination you could ever imagine.
This is a truly great scene from that film.
Scofield made very few films, and I wasn’t privileged to see any of his stage work, so every performance by him is a treat. I remember him in a TV production of Anna Karenina back in the 80’s where he played Anna’s cold and domineering husband — and made you forget everyone else onscreen, even the beautiful young adulterers.
He won a second Oscar nomination for Quiz Show, playing the crabby academic father of Charles van Doren. He had a couple of stupendous scenes with Ralph Fiennes, one in the kitchen with some chocolate cake and cold milk, and Charles’ first realization that his father really loves him and is proud of him. And then later in the empty classroom, where Charlie has to confess to his uncomprehending father that he is a cheat and a liar.
I just found out today that Scofield actually originated the role of Salieri in Amadeus on the London stage. For those who weren’t able to see it (I’m among them), he fortunately did a radio version for the BBC. Here’s an excerpt of his performance, that shows his magnificent range.
Truly one of the great actors of all time. A final round of applause and Bravo to you, sir. And say hello to Sir Thomas for me.
I’m trying to put some last-minute notes up here before the Oscar ceremony actually begins in just a couple of hours. Since I last wrote, quite a few things have happened: the strike did end, Hollywood has happily geared up for the Oscars, and I did see a few more nominated movies. Some good Christian film critics I know also put off seeing some of the year’s important films until January, but I think few put it off, like I did, until February. In fact, I saw two of the front runners for the first time only yesterday, when I made a day-long excursion to the movie theater with a delicious dinner out. Those films were There Will Be Blood, and No Country for Old Men. Quite a grim double bill, and for me, a mixed bag.
I was surprised how much I loved There Will Be Blood, since it I knew that it had many Christian naysayers, including Act One founder Barbara Nicolosi. But it also had many supporters among the Christian film community, including the very articulate Jeffrey Overstreet. When I saw it, I was overwhelmed. The was only the second film by director P. T. Anderson that I’ve ever seen. It had the shape of a classical tragedy and more than a few hints of a deeper Christian meaning.
It tells the story of an oil man of the early 1900’s, Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day Lewis), whose rise to wealth and power means the loss of his soul. Daniel has lived a harsh life, first silver mining, then working in the oil fields; he has few human relationships of any kind; there has apparently never been a woman in his life; outwardly a formidable man of drive, ambition, and a certainty that general makes everyone else cower, he is so secretive about his true motives that we can learn very little about his inmost feelings — except by observing his relationship with a little boy he adopts as a baby along the way and raises as his son, whom he names H. W. (Dillon Freasier). H. W. seems to be his only contact with human tenderness. Daniel “hates most people,” as he says, and can see no good in them, because they don’t have his drive to succeed.
When he is ready to strike out as an oil entrepreneur on his own, Daniel promotes himself and H.W. as a “family business.” He receives a tip about oil on the land of the Sunday family, who live in a frontier settlement called Little Boston, and schemes to buy their land, but runs up against the family’s baby-faced, but cagey son, Eli Sunday (Paul Dano), who is a preacher in the little religious sect most of the settlement belongs to. Daniel is immediately suspicious of Eli, because he has the same drive he has. Daniel eventually gets the land, but Eli extracts a special price: Daniel’s financial support for his church. Daniel agrees, but the battle isn’t over. Daniel reneges on the deal, and won’t allow Eli to bless his rig. But he does show compassion for the youngest Sunday child, Mary, who befriends H. W. Then Daniel’s oil begins to gush — and H.W., who is on the rig at the time, is deafened in the accompanying explosion. Daniel’s despair and his rejection of the preacher who can’t or wont heal his boy, begin his downward spiral. He begins to turn from the boy, whose condition seems to call for more love than he is able to give.
Another attempt at human communication with a long-lost brother also fails. Daniel finally turns to accept baptism in Eli’s church (for completely mercenary reasons). He is forced to confess his most secret sin, and to call out for immersion in “the blood of the Lamb” and it is one of the most extraordinary movie scenes I’ve ever seen. But the fight still isnt over, and if Daniel doesn’t really accept the blood of the Lamb, there will be blood in some other way. Some strange stylistic choices and a turn toward black comedy nearly derail the film’s tragic final scene, but it is an astonishing achievement nonetheless.
This is a very moving and even terrifying story of grace offered and rejected. Many Christians can’t see past the fact that the preacher Eli is clearly a greedy hypocrite, and so label the film anti-Christian. But for me, the complex story, along with the great direction and cinematography and Daniel Day Lewis’ towering performance, make this for me the film to beat at the Oscars.
In order for me to get this up in time, there won’t be time to write much more about the other films Ive seen. No Country for Old Men is clearly an accomplished work by the Coen brothers; it reminds me a great deal of their earlier work Fargo, but is much bleaker. It begins with a Vietnam vet with a will, Llewllyn Moss (Josh Broli) coming across the aftermath of a drug deal gone wrong in the Texas desert. There are a great many dead bodies, as well as a suitcase with $2 million cash. Moss makes away with the money, and is determined to keep it at any cost, even after he becomes aware that there’s a homing device inside of it, and the guy who is tracking it is a hired killer (Javier Bardem) as implacable as the Grim Reaper himself. The bodies pile up rapidly, including a great many innocent bystanders. Tommy Lee Jones is on hand, doing his usual superb work as the wry, melancholy sheriff who tries to make sense of all these horrible crimes. Unlike the cheerfully heroic policewoman Marge in Fargo, he eventually gives up any hope of working for justice. The hired killer himself toys with his victims, killing emotionlessly and at will, allowing a few to have at least a chance of escape on the (literal) toss of a coin. The only question is how you will face death or its possibility when it arbitrarily comes. Some are confused, some afraid, some courageous, but the reaction of Moss’ wife, Carla Jean (Kelly McDonald) is the most surprising of all. The story has some allegorical implications about fate amid all the geysers of blood (much more than in the above film named after blood), and all the black humor. The ending is about the most strange and discombobulated I’ve ever seen. Because of all these extremes, I’m afraid the film didn’t really gel for me. And you really have to have a taste for the bleak to love it.
I thought that Michael Clayton, which I saw about three weeks ago, is a good but not great film. It has a terrific literate script and very accomplished writing and directing by Tony Gilroy (son of famous playwright Frank Gilroy). Amazingly, this is his first film as a director. It also has a very good performance by George Clooney, and a completely mesmerizing one by Tom Wilkinson, right up there as my favorite with Philip Seymour Hoffman for Best Supporting Actor. The story itself is something we’ve seen before in a number of guises. Clooney plays the title character, a “fixer” for a corporate law firm who has a crisis of conscience. The matter he’s now involved in “fixing” is the fact that his firm’s top negotiator, Arthur (Wilkinson), who is bi-polar and strictly medicated, has just had a monumental breakdown, while involved in a lawsuit where he’s defending a huge corporation responsible for some industrial waste that has caused death and illnesses. Arthur has found some information against their client, and wants Clayton to join him not in working for his firm, but rather for getting justice. Meanwhile, the corporation’s star lawyer (Tilda Swinton, also great and also nominated for Best Supporting Actress), does some very bad things to stop them. I liked nearly everything about the film, except for the horrendous decision to tell a good part of it in such a non-linear style. Because it shows so much of the conclusion first, it drains nearly all suspense from the film’s ending and doesn’t let us appreciate the main character’s arc of redemption in its natural order. This makes the film unnecessarily confusing and more emotionally flat than it should be.
I also got a chance to see Marion Cotillard in La Vie in Rose, playing the tragic French singer Edith Piaf. Her performance is indeed, as everyone has been saying a revelation; not only an exhibition of burning passion but an amazing physical transformation from young girl to ravaged old woman. Unfortunately, the film itself is largely a mess - due to the same reason as Michael Clayton. The director seems to have arbitrarily written his film’s scenes on index cards, thrown them up in the air, and filmed them in the order they came down.
Now a few quick predictions: Having seen at least all the films nominated for Best Picture, I can say that after consideration, I will pick Let There Be Blood as my favorite to win. Last minute odds-layers are saying No Country. They may be right, because the Coens are so well-regarded. I’m guessing that the two films will probably split the Best Picture/ Best Director Prizes. I agree with the overwhelming consensus that Daniel Day Lewis will win Best Actor. Best Actress is going to be very tough. Julie Christie has the odds in her favor (for a performance I unfortunately haven’t seen, in Away from Her), Marion Cotillard was fantastic, and richly deserves a prize for her role (she’s already won a Golden Globe), but Ellen Page (Juno) could sneak in over both of them. It will probably be Christie, though. I’ll pick Juno to win very narrowly over Ratatouille for Best Original Screenplay, and There Will Be Blood for Best Adapted Screenplay. Javier Bardem will win for Supporting Actor, and I’ve given my favorites above. Cate Blanchett has the odds for Best Supporting Actress. but I’m hoping Saoirse Ronan may have a choice.
I’ll update if I can as the show goes on, and recap afterwards. (I actually ended up blogging live during the show).
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The show has just started . . . . Well, Keira Knightley’s green dress from Atonement didn’t win Best Costume design.
Jon Stewart has a really nimble wit; I’m enjoying him, though I didn’t particularly care for his last appearance at the Oscars, he has some good jokes here. A good enough monologue for someone whose writers have barely had time to prepare.
YAAAAAAAAAAAAY! Ratatouille wins Best Animated Feature! Brad Bird gave such a wonderful speech — he thanked his junior-high guidance counselor, who kept asking him what he wanted to do with his life. “I want to work in movies.” “Then what do you want to do?” “I want to work in movies.” “What if it isn’t possible for you to do that?” “I’ll make it possible.” “What if movies hadn’t been invented?” “I’d invent them!” Bird finished by saying, “I only realized just recently that he gave me the perfect training for the movie business.”
Well, no matter what else The Golden Compass may have been, it is now an Oscar Winner for Visual Effects. I actually didn’t have time to blog anything about this film, which was supposed to be a big thing, but flopped so badly in the U.S. that it has come close to wrecking New Line Cinema, even after the zillions of dollars it earned for the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
It’s Javier . . . the guy is really charming, quite different from his character.
Wow! A surprise win for Tilda Swinton! The White Witch rules! (seriously, the roles are kind of similar).
They are really putting in a lot of filler; this is probably mostly the show they had planned before the writers’ strike ended and they genuinely didn’t know if they would have any scripted segments at all. (Seriously, a clip montage about binoculars?).
I’m seriously mixed up about the order I’m putting things here, as I’m trying to do a translation from the French for work at the same time.
There Will Be Blood lost Best Adapted Screenplay to No Country for Old Men. A sign of things to come?
Now they’re just about to announce the Best Actress, really early in the program, barely an hour and a half in. Will this be a short show? Would love to see Blanchett in Elizabeth the Golden Age. Marion is singing Edith Piaf’s songs in the clips - it’s really Piaf singing though. There’s Laura Linney’s clip . . . and Ellen Page. The winner is . . . . Marion Cotillard! She’s gorgeous in real life. And so much taller than the character she played! Why did she seem so small in the film? That’s acting! She gave a charming speech, in tears.
Once won for best song (”Falling Slowly” by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova); I’ve long wanted to see this film. From the applause, this seemed to be a very popular win.
There Will Be Blood just won for Best Cinematography!
The “obits” for the year included Heath Ledger, though he actually died not in 2007 but in 2008. He got huge applause.
Some of the soldiers in Iraq just gave a documentary award. That was a wonderful touch.
It’s JUNO for Best Original Screenplay!! (I got something right!) Diablo Cody is probably the most photographed screenwriter in history - mostly because she’s a former stripper and really pretty, but who cares! She began her speech by saying “This is for the writers!”
They’re about to do Best Actor. . . Helen Mirren is presenting. . . she’s a good actress here too . . . this is it. . . . the clips. . . Daniel Day Lewis is saying “I’ve abandoned my child . . . give me the blood, Lord, and let me get away!” George Clooeny, Viggo, Johnny. . . It’s Daniel Day Lewis!! He’s been nominated four times in all and won for another of my favorite films, My Left Foot, he mentioned “the mighty Dillon Freasier”; he gives a great speech!
Martin Scorsese has now come out to present Best Director — or as he reminds us there might be, Best Directors. The winner is . . .The Coen Brothers! This is their second, as they’ve already won for the screenplay.
Denzel Washington is going to name the 80th Best Picture. My heart is sinking, as I don’t think my film will win. It’s . . No Country for Old Men. Oh well. The picture in the race I liked least just won! That’s a wrap for now, because I’ve still got work to do.
“It is not all that we hoped for, and not all that we deserved,” Writer’s Guild of America West President Patric Verrone admitted in a press conference yesterday (Sunday,
February 10). But he still counts the tentative deal that the Guild has worked out with Hollywood’s producers (the AMPTP) as a victory. Why?
For starters, WGA members did at least gain some of what they wanted, that is acknowledgment that writers do deserve compensation for the use of their work in “new media” such as downloads and streamed content from the Internet. Though not as much as they had hoped — and the producers get a 17-day free “promotional” window for content. But, as Verrone says, “this strike was about the future, and this deal assures for us and for future generations of writers a share in the future…”
He is right to be happy. The Guild, by clever shows of strength — including getting most of the Hollywood acting community, represented by SAG (the Screen Actors’ Guild), to rally around their cause and boycott the Golden Globes and the Oscars — put fear into the moguls’ hearts. The separate deals the WGA made with companies such as David Letterman’s World Wide Pants, the Weinstein Company and United Artists was also a bold move – a move worthy of creative, business savvy and powerful artists – which is not what the AMPTP wants them to be. No, the AMTPT clearly would have preferred writers to be meek, submissive and obedient wage-slaves.
Which is what writers were when the Guild was first founded back in the 1930’s. In the fight to get writers a chance at better working conditions, fair contracts, and health benefits, the Guild acted as a real labor union. But somehow in the process, their creative independence went by the wayside. One important sign of this is that the writers agreed to give up copyright of their works to the studios. Yes, that’s right: all work done by writers for the WGA is work for hire, and when aspiring screenwriters finally sign that Hollywood deal, they give up ownership of their work; this means that the studio can drop the original writer at any time and have the whole script rewritten by someone else – or five or ten other people. And the writer has no legal recourse.
This is very unlike the theater, where playwrights always own their own work, can make sure that not a single line of it is changed, have the final say on when, where and how it is performed, and are in full control of the royalties they receive. Hollywood producers have long claimed, of course, that the enormous expense of motion pictures makes the studios’ ownership of content necessary – but then Broadway plays are about as expensive as most top-level independent films nowadays (I’m not an expert, but I would say that this would be those in the $1-2 million range). And if playwrights can maintain control of these all-important creative rights, why not film writers? In the many online comments by WGA writers I’ve read over the last few months, several indicated regret that writers ever gave up this and so much else to the studios.
In short, while the Guild has won a temporary victory, not much has changed. The war is still not over. And the writers are finally realizing some of their true power. And this, is no doubt causing the moguls to shake in their boots. After all, in a world where anyone with an Internet account and a URL has a potential media empire of their own at their fingertips – with their own radio station and TV network available through online podcasting and videocasting, YouTube, and hundreds of other outlets – is clearly a world where writers “don’t need no stinking moguls.” Writers can be their own producers and distributors, at the fraction of the cost of a $100 million (or even $1 million) Hollywood film. The many clever “Speechless” videos developed by Hollywood actors and writers in support of the strike over the past three months, and available to the public on the Internet, are proof enough of that.
The real question in this war is: how long can the Guild and the studios themselves keep going with the present structure, which is quickly becoming antiquated? The producers and moguls, now feeling threatened, will grab onto all the power they can. They will still want to give writers as little as possible, and still want to treat them like labor, while the writers themselves are potentially tomorrow’s powerful self-producers. This whole structure is going to have to give somehow.
Verrone hinted at this coming change when he said at yesterday’s press conference:
“The legacy of the ‘88 strike was the ability of the companies to develop content without writers and creators. The legacy of this strike will be the ability of writers and creators to develop content without the companies. We are making deals, and we will continue to make deals, with Google, Yahoo, and others beyond just the 7 conglomerates.”
It’s the wave of the future. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out. For my part, as a potential film writer, it will be especially important for my own future. And somehow I feel it will be a bright one.
(You can read more on the strike news of the last few days at Deadline Hollywood Daily (a really killer blog with hundreds of comments by writers) and at screenwriter and Act One screenwriter Janet Batchler’s blog. And don’t forget the WGA blog, United Hollywood)
Well I was right about a couple of things: Ratatouille did get a Best Original Screenplay nod, as did Juno. and I was right about exactly where the Academy would put Philip Seymour Hoffman –- Best Supporting Actor. His being left out in he Best Actor race is all the more noticeable, since his co-star in The Savages, Laura Linney, was nominated for Best Actress. But an excellent strategy on the part of Academy members, because it gives him a better chance to win – though Javier Bardem is gathering a lot of steam.
Hoffman was Charlie Wilson’s only nomination. Tommy Lee Jones as Best Actor for In the Valley of Elah ended up being the Academy’s nod to the political situation in the fiction feature category. On the other hand, three of the five nominations for Best Documentary feature were about the U.S. involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan: No End in Sight: Taxi to the Dark Side, and Operation Homecoming: Writing the War Experience. Hollywood is determined to make movies about the war, but definitely has trouble making a fiction film on the subject that people want to see.
Ratatouille ended up with five nominations: not only the Best Animated Feature but Best Original Screenplay, Best Original Score, Best Sound, Best Sound Editing. No Best Picture nomination. But most of all, it’s a shame Peter O’Toole wasn’t nominated.
Juno was also a big contender: Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay. To make this even sweeter, the nominations for the very popular film that informs its audiences that yes, an unborn baby has fingernails, came on the 35th anniversary of the Supreme Court decisions legalizing abortion, just as hundreds of thousands of people were beginning to march in Washington, D. C. The tide, at least in popular culture, is turning.
There was a very surprising strong show for Michael Clayton – Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Original Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor and Actress, which many people probably didn’t see coming. As my screenwriting teacher at Act One, Janet Batchler, always says, “Actors vote for actors.” The Academy loves Clooney, and this film is seen as his passion project: he’s the film’s executive producer. I guess I’m really going to have to watch it now.
No clear front runner at all. It could be a wide open race. A very strange mood right now in Hollywood, grim stories onscreen (all the main contenders except Juno are on the very serious side) and glitz withdrawal from the writers’ strike offscreen. It will be interesting to see how it all plays out.
But the writers and producers seem to be talking again, so there is renewed hope we’ll actually see an Oscar ceremony this year. I’m really ready, since I missed last ceremony while I was in Italy filming the St. Elizabeth documentary.
A final note: I spent a lot of time yesterday working, and as I was listening to the Oscar news, I learned from TV about the death of actor Heath Ledger, who was only 28. His sorrowing fans over on imdb.com are calling him “the James Dean of our generation.” I didn’t think Brokeback Mountain was at all as good a film as critics were saying, but Ledger was clearly a very talented young actor. May God welcome him to heaven and bless his family.
Pausing to look at all the sights on our way to Jerusalem. . . Mainly about faith, the Church, film, writing, famous Christian authors, and anything else I'm interested in at the moment.
Quote of the Month
"Anxiety cannot be cured by a surrender to passions and instincts; the basic cause of our anxiety is a restlessness within time, which comes because we are made for eternity. If there were anywhere on earth a resting place other than God, we may be very sure that the human soul in its long history would have found it before this."