Movie Magazine International Blog

  By Moira Sullivan The 64th Cannes Film Festiva l ended last Sunday night with the awards ceremony. The Mistress of Ceremonies who both opened and closed the festival Mélanie Laurent who starred in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds brought out the official jury again to announce the winning films. Robert De Niro was "Mr Presidente" of a jury composed of writers, actors, directors and producers. Among them, Uma Thurman, Jude Law and the daughter of Liv Ullmann and Ingmar Bergman   - Lin Ullmann .  It was fun to hear De Niro call his jury companions - compagnons   - mushrooms ( champignons ) in French. Some years ago when Michael Moore won the Palme d’Or for Fahrenheit 9/11 there was some controversy over the jury decision headed by Quentin Tarantino . So the jury met with the press to discuss their choice.  This had never been done before. The jury process had always been private. The tradition has continued since then.  This tim...

By Moira Sullivan  Polish director Pawel Pawlikowski did post graduate studies in German literature before turning to film direction. In 2001 he received a BAFTA for being the most promising newcomer in British film and My Summer of Love won another special BAFTA in 2004 for best British film. My Summer of Love stars Emily Blunt as Tamsin and Natalie Press as Mona, and is the story of two teenagers who meet during one summer.  The class difference is striking since Tamsin lives in a mansion and Mona lives in a pub called "The Swan" that her brother Phil ( Paddy Considine ) has converted into a prayer center.  Fresh out of prison he has found Jesus and decides to save himself, his community and his sister from temptation. The emphasis of the film is on the relationship between Tamsin and Mona who have an adventurous summer exploring nature and human relationships including a special one that they embark on with each other. Mona hasn’t been very wise i...

By Moira Sullivan French Canadian Xavier Dolan’s narrative with a documentary edge, Heartbeats , begins with a quote by the 19th century French poet Alfred Musset:  there is a real world that reasons about love. (Il n’ya a de vrai au monde que d´raissoner d’amour). The original French title is Amours Imaginaires - Imaginary Lovers. The English title has no meaning for the premise of the film, as we shall see. Heartbeats is an interesting film with an inventive and imaginative use of the camera. In the opening minutes, three young people speak about love while the camera changes focal lengths with abrupt close-ups and pull backs. It is not the last time this will happen. The camera work in itself is worthy of investigation and the way Dolan frames his subjects. The film is made from a rich HD color film stock. It cost 7 million dollars to make and was selected for last years Cannes Film Festival fortnight section and last fall’s Mill Valley Film Festival. And it is now opening...

By Monica Sullivan James Edwards had angry eyes at a time in Hollywood history when many black actors made their livings singing, dancing and making people laugh. When a black actor (Sidney Poitier) finally made it into the top 10 Box Office, his characters were practically saints: over qualified, over achieving, and always, always, controlling their anger. James Edwards had the talent, drive and charisma to become a major movie star. Although he worked steadily as an actor for many years and every single one of his performances was raw, real and memorable, he mainly stole scenes in other people’s star vehicles. One of the pleasures of reading Pamela S. Deane’s new McFarland book, “James Edwards African American Hollywood Icon” is learning about the work I haven’t previously seen: much of it on television. Take “The Sound Of Darkness”, which aired on “Mannix” the month before Edwards died in early 1970. His job is to teach a temporarily sightless Mannix how to protect himself from ...

By Monica Sullivan I was thrilled to read that the multi-talented Ingrid Pitt was receiving the McFarland book treatment in the form of Robert Michael Cotter’s new volume, “Ingrid Pitt, Queen of Horror, with a forward and commentary by Miss Pitt. Soon I was learning all about her days at Hammer films making “The Vampire Lovers”, and “Countess Dracula”, as well as one of my favorites, “The House That Dripped Blood” opposite Jon Pertwee. After reading about “The Sound Of Horror”, I had to see that one, too, although it is a very low budget Spanish film from 1964 and Ingrid Pitt was none too pleased with either the picture or her performance. It was a real treat finding out about “The Asylum”, a 2000 movie Ingrid made with her daughter Steffanie Pitt plus Patrick Mower, Robin Askwith and Colin Baker. Ingrid at 63 was still a vibrant and bewitching presence and Steffanie is quite affecting as a young woman haunted by her horrifying childhood. In the midst of all this enjoyable film rese...

By Monica Sullivan When you fall in love with Dana Andrews, it’s forever. Never mind that he was born over a century ago, or that his swan song was over 25 years ago. Today’s audiences know him as Detective Mark McPeherson from 1945’s “Laura”, naturally, but two years later, he was the centerpiece of “The Best Years Of Our Lives”. As Fred Derry, a traumatized and disillusioned WWII veteran, he should have won an Oscar. Instead, the Academy gave Frederic March his second Oscar as Al Stevenson and Harold Russell received two Oscars (one competition, the other honorary) as Homer Parish. Andrews’ naturalistic, so-real-it-doesn’t-look-like-acting performance was overlooked as the picture was heaped with Oscars, nine in all. Of the major performances, Dana Andrews’ is the most keenly felt and carefully sustained. Unlike Al and Homer, Fred is not returning to a loving home, or to a secure future. No one else captured the heartache of the returning veteran as he did: the excruciating ...

By Monica Sullivan The movie career of Evelyn Brent spanned 36 years (from 1914 to 1950), a good stretch for any actress, but particularly for a trouper who adjusted to every industry change long after many of her contemporaries had fled the business. One of her best films was 1927’s “Underworld” directed by Josef Von Sternberg. Evelyn Brent was “Feathers”, torn between George Bancroft as Bull Weed and Clive Brook as Rolls Royce. Outwardly tough as nails, but inwardly filled with passion and conflict, Evelyn Brent was made for film noir before it even had a name. With such a triumph, she could and should have gone on to roles with ever more greater depth and complexity. That she did not is the old, sad story of Hollywood. For the rest of her career Brent made movies of steadily diminishing prestige and importance. For every gem like “The Last Command”, there were poverty row quickies like “Mr. Wong, Detective” or “The Payoff” or “The Golden Eye”. B-Movie buffs treasure unpreten...

KUSF 90.3 FM I will miss you! I really will, your great collection of music that I listened to at all hours, when traveling abroad, and while in my City by the Bay. Your airwaves went dead on January 18, 2011 after broadcasting every day since 1977. I listened to Movie Magazine International so many times on your frequency and am ever so grateful that you carried this program in San Francisco. Yes, you were "zapped" from the air without any advance warning. So thank you KUSF for many years of wonderful radio enchantment.  Moira Sullivan San Francisco

By Moira Sullivan Black Swan by film director Darren Aronofsky made its international film debut at the Venice Film Festival this summer and opened to mixed reviews by critics. Most definitely actress Natalie Portman is a strong contender for an Oscar this year, in what may be one of the defining roles of her career. She is absolutely brilliant in the film. Her role requires her to be the Swan Queen in a new ballet. Amidst stiff competition Nina Sayers is chosen to do the part convincing ballet director Thomas Leroy played by Vincent Cassel that she can play the more difficult black swan by biting him on the lip as he tries to kiss her.  The screenplay of Black Swan is the major problem of the film written by Mark Heyman and Andres Heinz with only a couple of film credits to their names.  One needs to question why Aronofsky would want to put his name to a story in which women are still living at home in their bedrooms filled with white and pink stuffed animals and ...

By Moira Sullivan  The Wachowskis' Bound (USA 1996) is a cult noir thriller that is so technically well made that years later, the timing and precision of the film is still captivating. The story about two women who dupe the mob and make off with 2 million dollars has gone down in history as a classic positive lesbian film where the girl gets the girl. Caesar played by Joe Pantoliano is Violet's creepy boyfriend prone to rage attacks, and she wants out. Along comes Corky ( Gina Gershon ) and it’s all over. Corky and Violet ( Jennifer Tilly) still have a cult following today for being the coolest lesbians in cinema history. Of course these two women operate outside of the law, as the mob operates outside of the law. When someone steals or murders the mob takes care of it. So when Corky and Violent screw over the mob they have not really stood up to the way lesbians are conditioned in society, they just make up the rules as they go along. Which is why th...