The rigors of performing are surprisingly underrepresented in film. Then again, maybe not; I suspect that people don’t become actors and dancers and comedians just so they can dwell inside themselves all day. They crave attention and approval, sure, but it’s their job to take the stage. Art is subjugated in the interest of self, not the other way around.

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Darren Aronofsky’s “Black Swan” inhabits the mind of such a performer, one whose psyche has at some point suffered a crippling blow. Its heroine seeks perfection of ballet, her craft, but proves ill-suited to the character creation process. Performers have all sorts of methods and philosophies on the subject, but most seem to say that any performance is in some way grounded to the self. But what about one who has very little self to ground their performance to?

Natalie Portman stars as Nina, the aforementioned ballerina. It’s her best screen performance, one that conveys the distress of a tortured soul coupled with roiling psychological repression. That’s apart from the physicality of portraying a top-tier ballerina, for which she reportedly trained for 10 months. Those only accustomed to her popular image as either, a) the Effervescent Love Interest, or b) the Deeply Concerned Love Interest, are in for a surprise. (more…)

When we go to a movie, we know we’re watching entertainment, but are we watching art?  Big Hollywood readers should take a look at Abraham Kaplan’s 1966 essay, “The Aesthetics of Popular Art” if they are interested in a set of criteria that distinguishes popular art from what some might call “high art.”

Kaplan’s essay is too detailed to summarize here, but there are a few criteria that crystallize exactly why most films don’t resonate with audiences.  So if you’ve ever wondered why it is that a movie just didn’t do it for you, even if it was entertaining, this may help explain it.

By the way, Kaplan is quick to point out that this is not an exercise in snobbery.  “Popular art” does not necessarily mean “bad art,” and “high art” doesn’t have to be boring and pretentious.

Shape vs. Form

When we watch a movie, we are usually focused on the movie itself, and not on our experience of the movie.  We are interested in outcomes as opposed to the unfolding of events.  We are engaged by curiosity, but not by suspense.  It’s like looking at a sketch of Michelangelo’s David as opposed to beholding the sculpture in all its glory.  We have traced a shape but not experienced a form.  In other words, we don’t have to do any work as a viewer.  It’s all predigested.

Think about the difference between Little Miss Sunshine and Mulholland Dr. I enjoyed the former, curious about how it would end, and let it happen to me.  With the latter, the experience of the mystery unfolding is itself the purpose of the film.  I was engaged entirely by suspense.  We impose ourselves and our perception onto Mulholland Dr., whereas we merely recognize and acknowledge Little Miss Sunshine. (more…)

One day last summer, I had the good fortune to stumble across a unique Internet documentary series, presented by acclaimed artist and director, David Lynch: Interview Project. 

The series, which began in June 2009, is now winding its way towards the home stretch and I wanted to bring your attention to this first-rate piece of work before it comes to an end.

IP, a 20,000 mile road trip without a plan. A sort of Zen and the art of free spirit wanderlust.

Co-directed by Austin Lynch, along with his friend Jason S., IP continues to mine some of the rich terrain and wonderful characters which David Lynch brought to the screen in the satisfyingly moving 1999 film, “The Straight Story.” (God bless Richard Farnsworth.) (more…)

Ever since the advent of the modern motion picture industry, critics have praised directors as the key to great film.  The auteur theory of cinema is idiotic, since writing is truly the key – no director could make a masterpiece out of “The Ugly Truth.”  It is one of the great travesties of artistic justice that no one remembers the writers of great movies – nobody knows Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, for example, but everyone remembers Frank Capra.  Together, those three wrote It’s a Wonderful Life.  (Together, Goodrich and Hackett also worked on The Diary of Anne Frank, The Thin Man, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, and Father of the Bride.) 

Directors get too much credit when a movie goes right, and too little blame when a movie goes wrong.  There are certain directors, however, who get credit even when movies go wrong.  Here, then, are my top ten overrated directors of all time… 

10.  Ridley Scott:  Ridley Scott has, for some odd reason, received accolades that far outpace his actual accomplishments.  He’s made one entertaining film, Gladiator, and a host of second rate films masquerading as masterpieces.  Blade Runner is a bizarre and massively overpraised mess.  Thelma and Louise is liberal tripe, although it does provide the best imagistic summary of modern feminism: two irritating “independent” women driving themselves off a cliff.  White Squall is the single most depressing film ever made.  Black Hawk Down is loved by conservatives because it isn’t anti-military, but that’s about the only praiseworthy element to a film that is an endless series of quick cuts between white guys who look alike in their helmets.  Who’s been killed?  Who’s still alive?  You have no way of knowing.  Then there’s Kingdom of Heaven, which is an homage to the “religion of peace” and a slap at Christianity through and through.  Alien is slow.  GI Jane is hysterically terrible.  Plus, it’s got Orlando Bloom, who has about as much charisma and credibility as Al Gore.  Scott is a key player in the rise of the infernal shaky-cam, which is not only biologically inaccurate (the human eye adjusts for bodily movements), but incredibly annoying.  For that alone, he should be exiled to a land without cameras.  (more…)

Harvey Weinstein

Members of the Hollywood community have signed a petition to have Roman Polanski released from jail. When is the Hollywood community also going to demand the release of 58 year old rapist Bruno Vece?

On January 31st 2009 the past finally came back to haunt Bruno Vece who has been jailed for 20 years for sexual crimes he committed decades ago. Bruno Vece, of Loram Way, Alphington, had been found guilty of raping an underage girl in the late 1970s.

What Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen, David Lynch and other Hollywood elites need to know about Bruno Vece is that he has built a new life since he committed these crimes over 20 years ago; he’s a new man with a new family and now it has been destroyed. (more…)

And please do take a moment to give to the Hollywood Fund For Moral Illiteracy…

Source:

Woody Allen
Wes Anderson
Darren Aronofsky
Jonatham Demme
Stephen Frears
David Lynch
Martin Scorsese

Full list: (it might have been quicker to name who didn’t sign the petition) (more…)

The Left told us all the change we needed would come when Sen. Barack Obama got our vote Nov. 4. Now, a new change is coming our way – courtesy of Obama supporter Sheryl Crow and some of her famous friends.

On April 4, Sir Paul McCartney will headline the “Change Begins Within” benefit concert at Radio City Music Hall, with proceeds going to the David Lynch Foundation. Among those filling out the roster include Ringo Starr, Donovan, Eddie Vedder, Ben Harper, Moby, Paul Horn, Bettye LaVette and Crow. (more…)