To begin, in not-so-Oscar-y news, Andrew O’Hehir at Salon asks “Is movie culture dead?” To this I say, “No, we all just need to stop focusing on how many superhero movies there are and how many ‘other’ movies there are that are actually worth seeing.” I include myself in this general “we”…
The problem I see is that we always seem to define movie culture by what Hollywood is churning out, which has become an admitted lost cause, but we now have more avenues for more great films than ever and we need to learn to appreciate it, even though television has certainly added a new wrinkle of quality to the fold.
Continuing on, O’Hehir’s argument stems from the kicking off of the New York Film Festival and A.O. Scott at the New York Times also delved into the subject, wondering if the NYFF has sold out to bigger budget features with the following opening paragraph:
There is talk going around these days — again — about the death of movies, and the 50th New York Film Festival, which starts Friday night, might have offered an occasion for fond, gloomy retrospect. This festival was born in what is now invoked as a heroic era of local and global film culture — a feverish atmosphere perhaps best recalled by the writer Phillip Lopate in his 1998 book, Totally Tenderly Tragically — and its home at Lincoln Center frequently seems haunted by the ghosts of golden ages past. Remember the first festival in 1963, when we were dazzled and perplexed by Luis Bunuel’s Exterminating Angel, Roman Polanski’s Knife in the Water and Alain Resnais’s Muriel?
By the way, if you want to read an excellent article about the death of cinema read Mark Harris’ February 2011 piece at GQ titled “The Day the Movies Died“. Other than that, I haven’t read David Denby’s “Has Hollywood Murdered the Movies?” piece just yet, but there certainly seems to be a common theme running around.
The Hollywood Film Awards continue to announce honorees, today announcing David O. Russell will receive the “Hollywood Director Award” for Silver Linings Playbook and Production Designer Sarah Greenwood, whose design work is vividly on display this year in Focus FilmsÂ’ Anna Karenina, will receive the Hollywood Film AwardsÂ’ Hollywood Production Designer of the Year Award at the FestivalÂ’s October 22nd awards ceremony.
A new trailer for The Master has arrived, this one featuring (more-or-less) the footage I saw in Cannes way back in May.
By the way, while we’ve discussed a few ideas on what The Master is all about around these parts, Vulture’s Bilge Ebiri offers up a five interpretations right here.
Writer/director Rian Johnson discussed Vulture and I can’t help but wonder if the film has any chance at a Makeup nominations. Thoughts?
And speaking of Johnson and Looper, the director introduced the film at a midnight showing at the Arclight in Los Angeles, but he did it posing as an usher, never revealing who he actually was. Check it out below.
Finally, click on the thumbnails below to check out four character posters from Ben Affleck‘s Argo featuring Affleck, Bryan Cranston, Alan Arkin and John Goodman.
