And the best movie is...

Well, the nominations are out and the LA Times carries it's usual Entertainment segment that's larger than all the other segments put together. Everybody will have their opinions, who should have gotten a nomination, who shouldn't have and who deserves it the most.

For the most part, it's a pretty average group of nominees, once again Meryl Streep is nominated for once again doing what she does better than any other actor in the world, and yet makes it look easy.

And she seems to live a real life as well, not the high maintenance actors who are either in re-hab or soon to be in re-hab.

But about the movies, they're still doing the 10 best for some odd reason, my favorites are two; Woody Allan's Midnight in Paris and Martin Scorceses Hugo. Both have that element that good feature movies should have; that being a genuine feeling of the story and an element that takes you into another world of fantasy where all things can happen.

On the other side is The Descendants, a favorite no doubt of George Clooney fans, of which I dare say are mostly women. I do like Clooney as well, Syriana was great, as was Good Night, Good Luck.

But The Descendants is a Hallmark TV movie, a nice movie, even admirable, but not a feature movie, more like a TV movie. Only difference is a few curse words.

So what's the difference between a TV movie and a feature. These days it's harder to tell because so many feature movies look more like episodes of Law and Order than The Verdict. But the main element is that thing that takes you into the story with powerful performances and a feeling you don't get by watching a TV movie.

And by the way, I like TV movies, in fact most of the movies I've written and re-written were TV movies, so I am not knocking them. The biggest problem for TV movies is that you are catering to specific audiences and thus, the writing tends to lower the bar for the lowest common denominator -- the least intelligent person watching.

Hallmark's credo is that anyone can enter a living room and watch a Hallmark movie without feeling awkward or uncomfortable. A few F-bombs would certainly not qualify there.

And then there's The Artist. A silent movie. A brand new silent movie. Made by a Frenchman too. I haven't seen it but my friends who did either liked it or didn't. It went from brilliant to boring. Hollywood has taken to it because it's about... us. Movie makers. Hollywood likes to slap itself on it's back, how wonderful "we" are.


I'll hold my opinion until I see it later this week.

How does one compare movies? My friend Marilyn, a film historian,  has a great bar:

How does it stand up to Bridge on The River Kwai?

Bridge on The River Kwai was movie entertainment and spectacle at the same time with some of the best performances you'll ever see. In 1958, it won 7 Oscars and a few dozen other awards.

Paris at Midnight and Hugo almost stand up to that standard, and they really are two different movies, although the element of a dreamlike fantasy runs through both. Hugo is more of a movie fan's movie while Paris is more of an intellectual movie (try watching it with an audience in a blue-collar town -- I did, my 2nd hometown).

Spielberg's War Horse is a good movie in an old fashioned way, even at his worst, Spielberg can still bring out emotion. You know, that element that doesn't include car crashes and CGI monsters.

I haven't mentioned The Help because I feel a little divided by it. Being Canadian, I have what most Canadians feel, a genuine dislike of the south. Blame it on all the movies we've seen set in the south. Remember, Canada did not have slavery, in fact England banned slavery 50 years before American wrote it's Declaration of Independence.

What would you think if your impression of the south was In The Heat Of The Night, ironically directed by Canadian Norman Jewison. And an Oscar winner with 5 wins. (Not for the director, but I have this theory that Canadian directors and actors never win Oscars).

On that note, George Lucas just released Red Tails, an action story about the legendary Tuskagee Airmen, which consisted of black fighter pilots in WW11. Lucas couldn't find any studio who would take it on, he eventually paid for it himself.

Even when he had screenings for studios, some never showed up.

This is George Lucas. How much has he made for the studios? Billions of dollars. And they wouldn't come to a screening of what is essentially an all-black cast. Lucas put in a total of $100 million dollars in both production and advertising, all of it his own money. It opened with $19 million, respectable, but not block buster.

Back to the awards. The lead actors aren't anything special, rarely are, but the supporting male actors this year are exceptional, all of them at their prime and all good. Naturally I'm hoping for Christopher Plummer, another Canadian boy in his early 80's.

And come Oscar, I will sit in front of the TV with potato chips and french-onion dip as I have for at least 40 years and watch the return of Billy Crystal.

Yeah, I know, get a life.

Meanwhile Shirley wins awards and travels the world with her latest Short Film 'Roxy'.

Those of who who started with this blog detailing the funding of Travel Day have often read about Shirley Petchprapa, the filmmaker and director who partnered with me on the project. We met when she was looking for screenplays and read one of mine, a drama called Secrets of the Salmon.

We almost instantly got along, the young, smart New Yorker and the Canadian writer and director. It wasn't long before we decided to make a feature film together with me producing one of my screenplays that she would direct.

One of the things that impressed me, besides her talent (and I rarely use that word) was that I don't know many filmmakers who can actually grind a lens, you know special glass and "sand" to make an optical lens. Shirley did that and she has designed and created several other camera accessories.

Shirley comes from Graphic Design and Art Directing eventually editing a documentary and producing, shooting and editing several documentary pieces as well as a narrative television short that was pitched to the SyFy channel in 2006.  It was around then that she decided to pursue filmmaking exclusively.

Earlier this year she received the Best Soundscape award for her short film 'Tuesday' (http://www.issara.net/tuesday) from the Dresden Filmfest in Germany. She is currently traveling around the globe with her newest short, 'Roxy' (http://www.issara.net/roxy), which had it's World Premiere at the prestigious Festival del film Locarno in Switzerland. 'Roxy' is headed to the Mill Valley Film Festival in October as well as in competition at the Lucca Film Festival in Italy and the Marbella Film Festival in Spain. 

Iain Stott of 'The One-Line Review' says "There are echoes of J.D. Salinger’s A Perfect Day for Bananafish (1948) in Shirley Petchprapa’s intensely sensual and ethereally beautiful self-financed short film…" (Full review: http://1linereview.blogspot.com/2010/09/roxy-2010.html). You can also read some insights about her experience making 'Roxy'.

You can read some other recent press at the following:

http://www.aarising.com/content.php?49-Filmmaker-Shirley-Petchprapa-A-Profiled&s=37eda3faa58aed75f88f8f469adfe111

http://www.jimhalterman.com/interviews/reel-time-short-film-roxy-and-shirley-petchprapa-will-wow-you/

Our first project was Travel Day and after a few disagreements, one of which I blogged about that nearly ended the project. Since TD went down (at least for now), we continued to talk about other projects.

We both come from different worlds and yet can agree on particular films and themes even though I'm a lot more commercial in the sense that I have done primarily TV movies and several of my screenplays are pretty offbeat and shall I say, artsy?

It wasn't long before we both agreed that The Last Station (previous title was slightly wrong) would be a good choice as I had done a workshop with it years ago and it got a glowing review at Sundance with the reader calling it a combination of Robert Altman, George Lucas and Horton Foote.

You don't get better than that.

We both agreed that the singular location would be greatly helpful in funding the project which will be dependent on cast; better actors cost more, although SAG has low budget programs that will definitely help us.

For now, I'm working on  both projects, Casualties of Love and Last Station to film in late fall or early winter.

So, for now, have a look at her short films and demo real (http://www.issara.net) and read the reviews on Roxy, all under Materials.


(Thurs: The Christmas Movie has wrapped)

My Top Ten

Okay, you know it's a slow week when I post a blog about my top 10 movies that people should watch. I'm also working on a rewrite for that person I mentioned in an earlier blog and am doing quite well on it.

Shirley's gone to Lone Pine and Death Valley for a few days and I'm also working on a budget for Chaser as well as a potential investor for Travel Day. Just when you think it's gone, it comes back in the form of some oil people who might, just might decide to finance a movie.

Notice I didn't say "best movies of all time". No, these are the movies that influenced me and I'll tell you how and why. And as expected, they're pretty much old movies as very few influence me anymore. 

These movies were the ones I would  have wanted to write or make. They influenced me in terms of dialog, character, story and so many other things. They made me want to be in this business.

Here goes. 

The Searchers (1956) probably made the biggest impact on me and has continued to be a major influence on my wanting to make movies. It's a western made in 1956 by John Ford, a director who won 6 Academy awards. Still a record.

It's an epic story set against the magnificent landscape of Monument Valley with John Wayne playing his best role, that of a bigoted, war-torn veteran of the Civil War who goes on a classic 5-year journey to find his niece, taken by Commanche Indians.

Ford had a way with story; he would add character to even the smallest role by using metaphors and leaving some aspects unrevealed, which made the characters only stronger. My brother Dave and I often quote dialog from the movie in emails.

Ironically, in the 1970's, I learned that a lot of other filmmakers chose The Searchers as one of their major influences. These included Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorceses, Peter Bogdonovich, Francis Coppola and George Lucas (who actually shot a scene in his last Star Wars movie that was a copy of a scene in The Searchers). 
Best line: "That''ll be the day". (rumored to have inspired Buddy Holly's song)

Two For The Road (1967) is arguably the best film on marriage ever made. It stars Audrey Hepburn and Albert Finney as a married couple on the verge of breakup. The story happens in 3 different times, the present when they are bitter and unhappy, in the recent past when they are beginning to get bitter, the past when they were married and the long gone past when they met.

The transitions are seamless as the story uses road trips to show their falling in and out of love. The scenery, shot in Europe is an added bonus. The screenplay by Frederic Raphael is minimalist at best, some scenes have only one or two lines of dialog.  Best line: Marc: What kind of people just sit in a restaurant and don't say one word to each other? Joanna: Married people."

The Deerhunter (1978) brings a world I know into focus. The Vietnam era film follows 3 Eastern European young men as they leave their factory town to go to Vietnam. With Robert DeNiro and first-timer Meryl Streep and a great cast, this movie reflects very much the people I knew in Detroit, my cousin and his friends and my own Eastern European background. 
Best line: Stanley, see this, this is this".

The Parallax View(1974) is probably the most paranoid movie I've ever seen. Starring Warren Beatty at his prime, it offers a well-constructed conspiracy theory to the assassination of a political figure. Beatty, a reporter begins to notice people he knows are dying in strange but seemingly believable accidents. What connects them is the fact they were all at the scene of the JFK-like assassination.

The movie never really explains much, which makes it that much more frightening. Dialog is minimal and the feeling that someone is watching you even followed me after I left the theater. A great political thriller, similar to All The President's Men but goes further. 
Best line: "I'm dead, Bill, I just want to stay that way for awhile."

My Darling Clementine (1946) is another western from John Ford and almost equals the epic theme that The Searchers did. It's based on the real life Wyatt Earp and the gunfight at the OK Corral in Tombstone. While it takes liberty with the true story, it creates a mythology that goes way beyond a simple cowboy movie.

With Henry Fonda, Walter Brennan and Ward Bond, it's a story of revenge and the contradiction of those who fight for the law and those who fight against it. Again shot in Monument Valley and in fantastic black & white film, it transcends it's genre.Best line: "Wide awake, wide open town, Tombstone, you can get anything you want there."

Bullit (1968) is another great example of a film transcending it's genre. While on the surface a regular cop movie, it had Steve McQueen who brought a quiet yet intense quality to the role. And of course the famous chase scene in which McQueen did at a major part of the driving.

This was the first really amazing car chase scene and, filmed on the winding and hilly streets of San Francisco, with no CGI effects. What you see is real. You lose yourself in the story, it's as confusing as Chinatown, but it doesn't matter because McQueen, nicknamed "the King of Cool" is leading you.

So inspired by the movie, I bought a green 1968 Mustang fastback of my own. Best line: Frank, we must all compromise".

The Candidate(1972) is another, almost forgotten film of the late 1960's dealing with the trade-off of political candidates. With handsome Robert Redford at his height, it tells the story of a JFK-ish son of a politician who is cajoled into running for the US Senate against a conservative candidate.

Interestingly the movie is timeless in it's portrayal of politicians, nothing has changed today,except for cell phones. And the ending is frighteningly accurate now as it was then. Best line: "Ed: You're the democratic nominee? Bill: "you make it sound like a death sentence."

The Wind and the Lion (1975)is another period piece, set in early 1900's and deals with an American woman held hostage by a Moroccan tribal leader. While based on a true story it was wildly enhanced by its writer/director John Milius who also wrote at least a few versions of the screenplay for Apocolypse Now.

With Sean Connery as the tribal leader and the beautiful Candice Bergen as the hostage, the movie is a sweeping epic (as they say) set in the North African desert and Washington DC where Brian Keith does the best Teddy Roosevelt ever on film. Best line: (to Theodore Roosevelt... "you are like the wind and I like the lion."

Mean Streets (1973) which is one of Martin Scorceses earlier features, his most accomplished up to that date. It's a great study of what would evolve to his other films later on. With a very young Robert DeNiro and Harvey Keitel, it tells the story of 20's wannabe gangsters who live in New York's Italian section. Shot for very little, the characters take the lead in their motivation and dialog and it often rambles but still has an energy that Scorceses never lost. best line: Johnny: We don't pay mooks". Pool player: What's a mook?"

Husbands (1970) is, to my mind, John Cassavetes's best film. It's a study of 3 friends who lose a 4th friend and decide to go on a week-long binge of drinking, fighting and trying to figure out what is left in their own lives. Shot in a documentary style and supposedly improvised (although there was a screenplay), it's a totally revealing study of people as only Cassavettes could do.

Cassavetes directed and also played one roll and Ben Gazarra and Peter Falk played the other two. There are scenes that feel like they are real, that we're watching real people and not actors. At times it's you almost feel voyeuristic in watching these men strip away the safety nets of their lives as they look for answers to their own lives. Some scenes go on forever, but the intensity never leaves the screen. Best line: "Don't believe truth, Archie, just don't believe truth."

There you go.


Next week: More about making our movie.