Across the Pond
Also the new book "Original Sin" and the success of "Lilo & Stitch"
Greetings all,
I had a great time in London. I was here for a successful screening of Quin Mathews' “City of Hate” at the Romford Film Festival. Here is a link to the Q&A.
We spent a few days in London before the start, and I had a chance to visit the British Film Institute (BFI). They had an extensive library with many excellent film books, and I saw a restored old, sexy, campy, and fun film called “Sleeping Car,” featuring an academic yet fun introduction. However, the highlight for me was a room with kiosks called Mediatheque, which had many histories of British cinema, both classic and trashy.
There was a video of Alfred Hitchcock discussing the early documentary work of John Grierson, which I had never seen before. Additionally, there were some fantastic Beatles interviews that I had never encountered. A whole section was dedicated to David Bowie video portraits and interviews, one of which included discussions about the making of some of his classic music videos, including “Ashes to Ashes.”
My only regret was that I did not have much time to watch; there was so much media history.
The next day, Quin and I went to the Tate Modern, which I had never been to but had heard so much about. Anthony McCall's inspiring installation of projected light was on display.
We also saw the video installation “Lungenflügel” by Pipilotti Rist, whose work we had shown at the VideoFest.
There were two standout films from the fest, aside from City of Hate. The first was “Stampila,” a narrative about a revolution in Moldavia, where a corrupt government attempted to squash dissidents using an American plan. However, it backfired, and the bad guys lost. The film had much to say about our current moment, but what struck me was that to get anything done in this corrupt government, you had to pay off a bureaucrat to get a form stamped. To move forward, you didn’t need to do anything right, just pay someone off. I hope this film gets seen here in the US.
The other film “Exorcismo,” was an example of an excellent documentary that is only good because it was 30 minutes too long. This film is about how Spain’s filmmakers went overboard with sex and horror after Franco.
As I mentioned last week, Sandi DuBowski will be in Dallas on Thursday, May 29, to show his film “Sabbath Queen” at the Texas Theatre at 7pm/
-Bart
News media mea culpas, whether full-throated or half-hearted, share a common trait of repeatedly failing smell tests. Lamentably, that’s because they’re invariably rinsed and repeated in one form or another.
The latest correction course, “Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, And His Disastrous Choice to Run Again,” has a self-explanatory title. Its authors, CNN anchor Jake Tapper and Axios correspondent Alex Thompson, have made the standard admissions in interviews about the book. Yes, they covered Biden’s frailties to a degree. But yes, they also should have done much more.
If this sounds like a pattern, it is, whether the coverage is too excessive or too minimal. During the key early stages of Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, nearly his every utterance was aired out on CNN, MNBC and Fox News Channel. His opponents were comparatively ignored. Why? Because he was deemed “good TV” and therefore a ratings magnet. CNN in particular later conceded it had gone overboard. But only after it was too late.
Over-coverage of “Russian collusion” and under-coverage of Hunter Biden’s laptop were later deemed journalistic missteps while FNC of course all but ignored the former while flogging the latter. Michael Avenatti, the now jailed former lead attorney for Trump accuser Stormy Daniels, appeared on CNN and MSNBC so much that he might as well have pitched a tent in their lobbies. His razor-like tongue likewise made him “good TV” until his conviction on client fraud. Avenatti then became a non-person.
FNC happily parroted Trump’s phony allegations of a “rigged” 2020 election until the network was ordered to pay $787.5 million in reparations as part of a settlement with Dominion voting machines. Its previously vocal news personalities then went mum while never apologizing on the air.
Even “Original Sin,” which I recently finished reading, seems to notably underplay the role of Biden’s chief enabler, his wife, Jill. No one was closer to the President. Had she told him it was time to go, would he have capitulated? Did she enjoy the trappings of First Lady too much to intercede? “Original Sin” instead blames a “Politburo” of Biden’s closest White House advisors for both shielding him from negative polling while increasingly keeping him sequestered as much as possible. Interviewers of both Tapper and Thompson likewise have kept Jill Biden out of it.
And the beat goes on.
-Ed
Howdy,
I have not paid much attention to the box office this year because there hasn't been very much interesting happening. The only notable films have been the outsized performance of both "Minecraft" and "Sinners." Luckily for the studios, this Memorial Day weekend saw the best opening of all time with the "Lilo & Stitch" live-action remake at Disney. Worldwide, the film has already made over $340 million, more than the original animated film did in its entire run.
The movie is the pinnacle of why Disney continues to release these somewhat hokey recreations. Stitch, the little blue alien pet, is one of the most popular characters they have right after Mickey. In Asia especially, he sells almost as much merchandise as the mouse and a stuffed teddy bear called "Duffy." Even after the animated TV show ended in the US, both China and Japan had their own animated shows set in their respective countries.
Aside from the merch, the wider awareness and marketing blitz is the perfect funnel into their streaming service. On Disney+, the extended Lilo and Stitch franchise has completely taken over the top 10, a new listing that just showed up this week. Canonically, the animated timeline is the original "Lilo & Stitch," "Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch," "Stitch! The Movie," "Lilo & Stitch: The Series," and "Leroy & Stitch." Also in the Top 10 is "The Devil Wears Prada," which also has a sequel coming out next year and was trending this past week.
Later in the summer, DreamWorks is taking a Disney approach to remakes with a live-action version of their popular "How to Train Your Dragon" series. The titular dragon Toothless was also created by Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois, the minds behind the original "Lilo & Stitch." So far, this looks like a shot-for-shot recreation of the animated film but will serve the marketing machine, probably increasing streams of the animated films and series on Peacock and enticing families to visit the newly opened Epic Universe, a new Universal Studios theme park with an entire area devoted to the franchise.
On streaming this Saturday over on HBO Max is a new film from Succession creator Jesse Armstrong called "Mountainhead." The cast includes Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman, Cory Michael Smith, and Ramy Youssef, who just finished filming last month in Utah. The talent and May 31 release date—literally the last day of eligibility for the Emmys—is setting it up for awards, and the reviews so far have been great. This is going to hopefully fill in the gap of rich people up to no good that we've been missing on HBO since Succession ended and Industry is on hiatus.
This weekend at the Modern for the regular Magnolia series, we are showing the new French film "The President's Wife" based on the real life of former first lady Bernadette Chirac. The trailer (below) has been getting big laughs, so I am sure this will be popular. Catherine Deneuve, who you may know from "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg" or "Dancer in the Dark" or one of her other 200 films, stars in this. She seems to be doing multiple films every year as she gets older, and I overheard some of our theater-goers talking about how much they like her.
-Elijah