Lola Montès
May 14th, 2007
Old-fashioned in its morals but offering up-to-date commentary on contemporary celebrity culture, Max Ophüls’ last film tells the tragic story of femme fatale Lola Montès (Martine Carol), lover to famous artists, aristocrats, and kings the world over. When we meet her at the end of her career, she has taken the humiliating role of reenacting her own life in a circus under the cracking whip of ringmaster Peter Ustinov. Directed with extraordinary grace, this is real eye candy, which makes it all the more troublesome that the DVD transfer is seriously lacking. If you ever have a chance to see this in a theater, don’t hesitate.
Lola Montès. Max Ophüls, 1955. ****
L’Effrontée
March 23rd, 2007
In 1985, Charlotte Gainsbourg (Lemming, The Science of Sleep) was just thirteen and cute as a button. L’Effrontée is only her third movie, and she owns it. The French vacation coming-of-age tale is a venerable subgenre (we’re fans of Girls Can’t Swim and Pauline at the Beach but not Fat Girl)–and this is a very fine addition. Charlotte plays the motherless daughter of a handyman who can’t afford to go out of town. Stranded, she enters the world of a perfect piano prodigy (Clothilde Baudon) while a creepy sailor twice her age (Jean-Philippe Écoffey) tries to buy her beer and her sickly friend Lulu (Julie Glenn) gets sicker. Like in many French films (Safe Conduct always comes to mind), drama is implied without having to be carried to some over-the-top climax. L’Effrontee is a lovely evocation of how much it can stink to be a teenager.
L’effrontée. Claude Miller, 1985. ****
After the jump, Europop madness, Serge Gainsbourg vs. Whitney Houston, and Jane Birkin singing Di Doo Dah.
Color Me Kubrick
March 19th, 2007
Some movie premises sound like they were drawn out of a hat, so nobody should be surprised when the random results don’t work. “Let’s see here… we’ll get… John Malkovich! to play… a homosexual! who… impersonates… Stanley Kubrick!” I couldn’t stand more than twenty minutes of Color Me Kubrick because I found the whole mess incredibly painful and unfunny, especially poor Malkovich. Nothing, absolutely nothing about him says “Stanley Kubrick” — except the Blue Danube on the soundtrack. Is that supposed to be the joke? How would anybody fall for this scam? How could anybody stand to watch this movie? Opens March 23.
Colour Me Kubrick. Brian W. Cook, 2005. *
Backstage
November 28th, 2006
The amazing Isild Le Besco plays the smitten fan of a pop diva (Emmanuelle Seigner) who stalks the star after a misbegotten reality TV encounter and ends up as her maniac mascot in the hotel room where Seigner is gobbling pills and hiding from the cruel, cruel world. Hothouse passions & overripe desire make this slightly silly but very watchable. Le Besco and Seigner are both fascinating. Currently playing at Film Forum. Trailer. RT.
Backstage. Emmanuelle Bercot, 2005. ***
[tags]french, film, 3 stars, emmanuelle bercot, emmanuelle seigner, isild le besco, stalkers, obsession, celebrity[/tags]
Almost Famous
September 28th, 2006
You gotta pay attention to coincidences, so here are three recent moments that put me in proximity to celebrity: during a pee break at the screening of The Queen yesterday, I bumped into everybody’s favorite pig farmer James Cromwell, who plays Prince Philip in the movie. His handler/girlfriend/pr person asked me where the press conference was going to be, so I guess it wasn’t much of a sighting, but it was pleasantly disorienting to run into James on the way to the John. He was wearing a beanie hat, perhaps to hide the scars from the electro shock treatment he had to undergo as George on Six Feet Under.
This morning, I walked out of Paprika (more on that later) just in time to run into Cindy Sheehan on Sixth Avenue. She saw me recognizing her, we smiled at each other and mouthed hello, and kept on going. It wasn’t much, but it felt warm and genuine and made me like her even more than I already did. You know those magnets that say “Freedom isn’t free?” Cindy Sheehan is one of the few true contemporary American heroes.
And finally, Entertainment Weekly mentioned me in the same sentence with Anthony Hopkins and Dan Aykroyd. Another lifetime ambition checked off!
[tags]celebrity, jurgen, james cromwell, nixon, ultrachrist, cindy sheehan, anthony hopkins, dan aykroyd, nyc, nyff[/tags]
