Notes from Under (the) Ground

I don't
usually
take not-
es at press
screenings, because I find it easier to watch the screen—
especially when subtitles are involved—than to watch, listen, and/or read while trying to guide my pen across paper in the
dark (and I'm not about to use a lighted implement and irritate
everyone around me). That said, I make an exception every on-
ce in awhile, and I've always found these chicken stratches al-
most as amusing as enlightening. Here are a few examples.

CITY OF GOD / Cidade de Deus
(Museum of History and Industry, 2/03)

It was all about the influences.

Amores Perros, The Harder They Come, Pulp Fiction,
Black Orpheus...Otário, sucker...Walter Salles...Run
Lola Run...James Brown...A Clockwork Orange...
crazy names...Traffic, Blow, Mean Streets, Oliver!

Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund's City of God was my third favorite film of the year after The Good Thief and Lost in Translation. Click here for my reviews of the soundtrack and City of Men, the nominal sequel.



CHERI
(Seven Gables, 6/09)

I was on a roll, when...

Iben Hjejle, Harriet Walter, Kathy Bates as Charlotte...
"Art lovers are a more reliable source of income than art"...
"I can't criticize his character, mainly because he doesn't
seem to have one"...[like a] sybaritic rock star, Marc Bo-
lan...cast is invested but...[and then my pen ran out].

COLD SOULS
(Pacific Place, 6/09)

I went to town with this one.

Ennui...style in which real-
ity is heightened...article
in The New Yorker...Da-
vid Strathairn...Eternal
Sunshine...[Paul] Giamat-
ti..."Shipped to New Jer-
sey to save on sales tax"...Chekhov, Uncle Vanya...Russian patient...self-pity...can't separate self from
character...dark tones, mostly greys...Lauren Ambrose..."5%
keeps you animated"...hollow, light, empty, bored...drug
mule, black market...loses empathy, self-control...does-
n't tell his wife..."Who wants to have an American soul?"

Click here for my review.

And here are notes from a few filmmaker appearances:

GEORGE HICKENLOOPER
(Mayor of the Sunset Strip, Lincoln Center, 10/03)

"As dark as Kim [Fowley] is, he's one of the more honest
people in the whole picture...[he's] the Darth Vader to Rod-
ney [Bingenheimer's] Luke Skywalker...Going to the record-
ing session for the Beach Boys' Smile album...24 months in
the cutting room...I'm a big Henry Mancini fan...I have a
huge collection...Second highest-selling documentary of
all time...1.3 million...March of 2004 in New York and
LA...[Bingenheimer was a] Davy Jones stand-in.

Mayor of the Sunset Strip was my 11th favorite film of the year.



AARON KATZ
(Dance Party USA and Quiet City, NWFF, 9/07)

"We did multiple takes of almost everything...I had a full script,
but all the words were the actors' own...We usually did four or
five takes...120-page script...There were a lot of surprises, that's
why I wanted to give it structure. I tried to be open to what was
really happening...I would be interested in shooting with two [us-
ed one camera]...For the most part, I found it fairly easy to cut
from the film/material that we had...Tin Men, Diner, Ozu, still
shots...People that I knew from life, that I thought were interes-
ting people...I wrote it with her in mind. Whatever is happening
to her, she makes the best of it. Spontaneous, interesting qual-
ities in real life, funny...A little bit of scene-reading and acting
exercises...All the people in the film are people I would like to
work with again...DVD coming out in January [on] Benten."

THELMA SCHOONMAKER
(Editor, The Last Temptation of Christ, SAM, 1/08)

"Extremely arduous...Six million dollars...Flood, wild dogs...
Italian...Morocco...Dailies flown out once every two weeks...
[She] cried during the dailies, burst into tears...He [Martin Scor-
sese] got very alarmed...I started to cry again...When he was
shooting the crucifixion, had very little time...Beautiful red earth
of Morocco...Exhilarating...Peter Gabriel spent three months with
us...Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's beautiful voice...The Episcopalian Bish-
op of New York was one of our greatest supporters...Universal was
supportive...Michael Powell was with us during this difficult time."

Click here for part two.



Endnote: Images from This Is an Adventure and Collider.