Titanic

Admittedly I have never watched this film before in its entirety, just snippets here and there, and have absorbed all the pop culture references the entertainment industry have made about the Celine Dion theme song, or Leo DiCaprio’s proclamation that he’s “king of the world!”

This year the film is being re-released, in 3D, I assume for both the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, as well as production company Paramount, who made this film. The 3D is most readily visible in shots of the underwater wreck and the modern day story, and the early scenes on the ship, but disappointingly, during the spectacular hour long section when the ship slowly sinks, there were not many 3D elements that I could make out at all. (This portion of the film does not need 3D to make it any more exciting and believable, so I would suggest you skip the upgrade to 3D if possible.)

Do we all know this film by now? The modern day story that frames the historic love story is about a treasure hunter (Bill Paxton) who has found the long-wrecked Titanic, and hopes to find a noted blue diamond that he believes sunk with the ship. An old woman (Gloria Stuart) sees a news report and contacts him. She is Rose, who was a young woman when her fiancé gave her that diamond while they were on board the Titanic. Her story brings us back over 80 years to when she was 17 (played by the perfectly casted Kate Winslet), betrothed much against her wishes to the dastardly Cal (Billy Zane, figuratively twirling his mustaches in every scene). Due to the death of Rose’s father, her mother Ruth (Frances Fisher) hopes to make this lucrative match so that she and her daughter will be set up financially and remain in high society.

Meanwhile, Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio), a young, poor American adventurer and artist, is on his way back home from Paris. He gambles for and wins two tickets for the Titanic in a poker game, allowing him and his Italian friend Fabrizio (Danny Nucci) to gain entrance to the doomed ship bound for America.

Free event: Operation Casablanca

Taking a serious premise that normal citizens face all too often, and putting a comedy spin on it. Saadi is an illegal Arab immigrant, but is mistaken to be an Islamist terrorist.

Operation Casablanca
Thursday, March 29, 2012
6:30 p.m.
Alliance Francaise
54 W. Chicago

Past seven days

Caught up with some DVDs!  Not mentioned below was a re-watch of Mad Men Season 4, and most of Community Season 2.

21 Jump Street
The Birds
Cape of Good Hope
Casablanca
Jeff, Who Lives at Home
A Life Less Ordinary
Melancholia
Park Benches
Queen of Hearts
Tamara Drewe
Watership Down

Free event: My Week With Marilyn

Did you know the Northbrook Public Library has a film club? My Week With Marilyn is their latest offering. The film is based on a memoir of a young man who lucked into a job working as an assistant on the film The Prince and the Showgirl, which was being directed by Laurence Olivier and starred Marilyn Monroe, played here by Michelle Williams. Although Williams did a good job channeling the tragic actress, I think Marilyn is a very difficult figure to interpret. There will always be some criticism about how she is portrayed physically or emotionally.


My Week With Marilyn
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
1:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
Northbrook Public Library
1201 Cedar Lane, Northbrook, IL

The Informant!

Steven Soderbergh directs Matt Damon as Mark Whitacre, the Archer Daniels Midland executive who worked with the FBI to expose price-fixing within the company. Based on true events.

Whitacre points out that corn products, a staple at ADM, is in everything we eat and use. He's proud of this fact, and is stunned to find out there is a mole in the company who is sabotaging their latest chemical, allowing a Japanese rival to get ahead. He reports this to company heads, who call in the FBI (Scott Bakula, Joel McHale), to whom later Whitacre confides the real and bigger crime--price fixing among ADM and its competitors.

For several years, he tapes secret conversations with the ADM executives while his wife (Melanie Lynskey) lovingly looks on. What ADM, nor the FBI, nor even Whitacre's lawyer and wife know, is that Whitacre is hiding an even bigger secret.

House of Sleeping Beauties

An elderly man (Vadim Glowna, who also directed and wrote the script), still despondent after his wife apparently committed suicide many years ago, is told by his friend (Maximilian Schell) of an intriguing house. Beautiful young women, naked and sleeping, are his for the night to do with almost anything he wishes. The woman who checks him in (Angela Winkler) tells him little, other than his privacy will be respected and they request the same of him. At first he is nervous and unsure. He goes several times and each time sees a new girl, whom he at first looks at, then is emboldened to fondle and kiss. He even tries waking them up to no avail.

Shall We Kiss?

Two strangers meet when Emilie can't find a taxi during a business trip and Gabriel offers to drive her back to the hotel. There is some attraction, so much so that they share a dinner at the end of which Gabriel leans over to kiss Emilie good night. But she shies away, claiming a "no strings attached" kiss could have big consequences. She tells a story to support her claim.

Married Judith and her platonic single friend Nicolas get together on occasion. One time he admits that he is unable to feel physically/intimately connected to any woman. They have a frank talk and she suggests certain things, all of which Nicolas has tried. Then, she suggests he kiss her to get his juices flowing, so to speak, as since she is a platonic friend there should be no strings attached. Of course, he does so, and there are strings, and that one kiss escalates into a clinical but satisfying sexual encounter.

Past seven days

This week was retro week I guess, watching many things I've seen in the past: Robin Hood, Pee-Wee and some Harvey Girls.

The Adventures of Robin Hood
The Call of Cthulhu
The Harvey Girls
Open Hearts
The Pee-wee Herman Show on Broadway
Seeking Justice
World's Greatest Dad

Free event: Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport

Oscars month at Transistor continues with a free documentary screening. Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport tells the stories of children affected by World War 2, Jewish children who were sent out of European cities to London for their safety. 


Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport
Monday, March 19 , 2012
8:00 p.m.
Transistor
3819 N. Lincoln Avenue, Chicago

Eat, Pray, Love

Gag, Pray for a quick death, and Hated this movie! Another self-indulgent American is dissatisfied with her life, and thinks the answer lies in things outside of herself.

This movie, based on a book, stars Julia Roberts as a woman searching for meaning in her life, and who decides to globetrot the world to find it.

Past seven days

I don't think John Carter of Mars is as bad as the critics are saying.  It does have some faults due to the nature of this type of fantasy/action film often working harder on the cooler aspects of the visuals and action instead of story and acting, but I think it does an able job of bringing to life Edgar Rice Burroughs' imaginings and making a story out of the Princess of Mars story (which I admittedly have not read).  The CGI work is pretty good.  It has a great cast of mostly British actors as both the human and alien creatures, as well as rising stars Taylor Kitsch and Lynn Collins as the heroic leads.

Casa de mi Padre
Death Note
Frankenstein (1931)
Grave of the Fireflies
John Carter
The Man Without a Past
Matrix
Midnight Run
Road to Nowhere

Meet: Cartoon Movie

I chanced upon this organization via a news release. Cartoon Movie helps European animators to find funding through a meeting of the minds in March (this year it was March 7-9 in Lyon).  They bring together animators and their projects with potential investors and producers.

Obviously animated films have moved beyond just being "cartoons" and this site shows the wide range of animation in today's world, which includes stop motion, CGI, and hand drawn animation.  The website doesn’t offer a lot of information about these projects other than a photo of selected projects and some company names, but I thought these sounded interesting and hope they can find funding.  I look forward to seeing them on the big screen in the coming years.

Free event: The Secret in Their Eyes

Oscars month continues at Transistor, the vinyl record store. Their second Oscar selection is one I have seen and can recommend. The Secret in Their Eyes involves an Argentinian investigator trying to solve an old murder. Ricardo Darin plays the lead and I have found I liked almost everything I’ve seen him in.

The Secret in Their Eyes
Monday, March 12 , 2012
8:00 p.m.
Transistor
3819 N. Lincoln Avenue, Chicago

Game Change

This is a new HBO cable movie about the 2008 presidential contest, focusing most on Sarah Palin, played by Julianne Moore. It is based on a book. Ed Harris is John McCain, and Woody Harrelson is Steven Schmidt, their campaign manager.

The story shows how McCain's team hoped to advance his appeal with women voters by choosing a female running mate. After going through the political records of some female politicians, many whose views do not support those of McCain's, the team comes upon a fairly unknown Alaskan politician, Sarah Palin. On paper she seems to reflect all the values McCain's campaign needs--a mother, a conservative, a Christian, and better yet, she says she is willing to support some of McCain's views which do not entirely agree with her own.

After a hasty vetting of her record and past, Palin is revealed to the world publicly in a splashy convention. Her downhome sentiments and "hockey mom" image at first play right into the sort of voter McCain wants. But as the team tries to mold her into the potential vice president they hope she will be, her faults come to light and in a big way. Palin's knowledge of world events, nay, even those outside Alaska, are dim or non-existent. Fairly basic government terms are unheard of in her vocabulary. Soon she becomes too big for her britches, claiming she is the one bringing in the donors, and not McCain.  Her choice has been a big risk, and although it could have worked, the film shows she was the component that derailed the campaign and most likely the one who brought McCain's presidential hopes to an end.

Past seven days

A little something for everyone this week, a kids' film, a documentary, a couple romances, a nuclear drama, a mystery and even a wacky puppet satire.

Civilian Conservation Corps
Dead Again
Jackboots on Whitehall
The Lorax
PU-239
A Room With a View
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen

This new romantic comedy with elements of drama is based on a book and directed by Lasse Hallstrom.

During the war with Afghanistan, Patricia Maxwell (Kristin Scott Thomas), the British prime minister's press secretary, has to find a feel good story involving the Middle East to deflect negative news reports from the area. She tries to find a fluffy story and comes upon one where a Sheik (Amr Waked) wants to import salmon to put into Yemen waters, since he is avid fly fisher with many estates, including one in Scotland near a river. He is forward-thinking and hopes this Yemeni project will make his country be viewed as more modern and a business prospect for other countries.

Harriet (Emily Blunt), who works at a consulting firm, is in charge of the Sheik's account and so compels government fish expert Fred (Ewan McGregor) to lend his talents and help plan and stock a fishery downstream from a dam the Sheik has built on the Yemen. Fred finds this a wholly useless enterprise, but is strongarmed by his boss and government people to do the project. This further strains his marriage, especially when his wife (Rachel Stirling) makes a business decision without him, and she goes away for a time. This leaves Fred with the opportunity to do the same, so he takes on the fish project.  He gives outrageous demands to Harriet and the government, thinking this will derail the project, but every demand is met and Fred can't help but be impressed.

Meanwhile, Harriet has just met a new guy, a soldier (Tom Mison) who is soon deployed to Afghanistan just when her project is underway. When he is reported MIA, Fred convinces her to join him in the Middle East to help her get her mind off her troubles.

Guarding Tess

Guarding Tess is one of those films I find myself re-watching now and again, or stopping on when I see it on TV. It’s a pretty sentimental film by two actors whom I don’t think would normally be paired with each other, but it works for me.

The story takes place in the Maryland home of a former first lady, Tess Carlisle, played by Shirley MacLaine. In public, Tess is beloved by the common people, but in private, she is a demanding woman. She is now an aging widow, and her security is provided reluctantly by Secret Service agent (“SPECIAL agent,” he makes a point to say) Douglas Chesnic (Nicolas Cage) and his staff, who worked for her President husband when he was alive. The plot details the change in attitude of both Tess and Doug, and how they come to see each other in a different light after a long-term prickly relationship.

Take Out

This is a documentary style but fictional film about the hardships of a chinese immigrant who works as a Chinese restaurant delivery boy. Although Ming Ding (Charles Jang) came illegally to make money, he is having difficulty saving due to his desire to pay back his family for paying his way over, and thus he has borrowed from a loan shark. But the loan has high interest, leaving him weary and depressed. Since he's fallen behind, the shark has given him until end of day to find the money, or suffer the consequences of two bruisers sent to find him.

You Were Never Lovelier

This is one of the minor (pretty minor I think) musical comedies made by Fred Astaire in the later part of his musical film career. The story takes place in Buenos Aires, where he plays Bob Davis, a performer who needs money since he has lost his by gambling at the track. He hopes to get a job at the club owned by Mr. Acuna (Adolphe Menjou) but Acuna could care less about him. Currently Acuna is involved with marrying off his eldest daughter. He has three others, and insists on marrying them off in order, with Maria (Rita Hayworth) next on the list. This dismays his younger daughters who already have beaus and are anxious because Maria has no desire to be married. She apparently has romantic ideals and want a knight to carry her away.

Acuna hatches a plan with Maria’s namesake godmother, and writes his daughter anonymous love letters so that his daughter might be in the right frame of mind to accept a suitor. By chance Bob gets one of these letters and delivers it, and Maria mistakenly believes him to be her secret admirer. Acuna, seeing an opportunity, offers Bob a job at his club in exchange for Bob breaking his daughter’s heart, so that she will start looking elsewhere (Acuna doesn't consider Bob a suitable match), but his plan backfires.