Volume 39, Number 04

Movies

Movie News
By Bill Hersey

Close to some 500 of the most important people in the film business gathered at The Westin Hotel for the launch party celebrating the establishment of Paramount Pictures on Jan 31. It was really nice seeing longtime friend Andrew Cripps. He lived here for 20 years and now lives in London where he is President of Paramount Pictures International.

In his truly interesting and informative speech he said how happy he was to be here for the opening of Paramount Pictures Japan. It emphasized how important it was for their first new office to be opened here, one of the biggest, if not biggest markets in which Paramount acts as a film distributor.

I am lucky to have several good friends in high places in the new office. These include General Manager and President the highly professional and knowledgeable Ichiro Okazaki, Sales Director Takaya san, Marketing Director Kinomoto san, Finance Director Yoshida san and Film Operation Director Iwakawa san.

Box office biggies that Paramount will be bringing here this year include No Country For Old Men, which has eight Oscar nominations including “Best Picture”, Spiderwick Chronicles, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and Cloverfield. With their staff and know how, these, plus other big films, are sure to make the new Paramount office in Japan a busy and successful distributor. Our sincerest congratulations to Andrew, and the many others who worked so hard to make it all happen. Kudos as well to the food and beverage department at The Westin. The buffet, as well as the service, was excellent.

Watch out for:

It was really nice visiting Sumo champ/top entertainer Konishiki and his beautiful and talented wife of almost five years Chie at their huge beach house near Honolulu. Chie's a super nice and very talented lady. She was at the top of her class when she graduated from art school, and is fast gaining recognition in the entertainment world as a singer and a dancer. In addition to doing a broadway show she does concerts, not only with Konishiki, but solo as well, and she has even put out a CD that she sings in Hawaiian. I'm sure you'll be seeing more about Chie in the future.

Movie Reviews - Annie Leibovitz: Life Through a Lens / Mister Lonely
by William Casper

Annie Leibovitz: Life Through a Lens

Even if you are not familiar with the name, chances are you have seen her images. From John and Yoko to Richard Nixon, Calvin Klein to Arnold Schwarzenegger, Annie Leibovitz has photographed the great and the good, and is probably the most famous photographer alive today.

Leibovitz became Rolling Stone magazine’s chief photographer in the 60s and stayed with them for 20 wild years before moving onto Vanity Fair. Along the way, as well as photographing just about everyone, she developed a drug problem (cleared up in rehab) and had three children in her 50s (reportedly through a surrogate mother, though the film doesn’t explain this). Her story appears far more interesting than the film that tells it here. Clues that could have given an insight into why she is so driven and able to fashion the career she has, are skirted over. An infamous tour, as official photographer with the Rolling Stones in the 70s, is talked of by her editor and others as a big turning point in her life and career, but isn’t put in any context; the ramblings of Keith Richards and Mick Jagger, coming over more like a couple of aging antique dealer’s than the Princes of Darkness the film wants us to believe they were, tell us nothing.

The film was made as a part of the American Master’s documentary series, and the subject cries out for a less nepotistic and more talented eye, Barbara Kopple for example, than Leibovitz’s sister Barbara. For a documentary about photography In 1995, at 19, Harmony Korine scripted Larry Clark’s overrated movie Kids. Since then, he has directed a couple of films himself (Gummo and Julien Donkey-Boy). Mister Lonely is his latest effort, and for the most part, the film is exactly the kind of independent feature that keeps mainstream audiences flocking to see the likes of Transformers or Disney Pirate extravaganzas. Mister Lonely is slow, pretentious and packed with the worst kind of calculated quirkiness. Something is being said about the nature of celebrity and alienation in modern life (we are ultimately alone? God has a wicked sense of humor?) But, by the end of the film’s very long 111 minutes, I was none the wiser, and cared less.

The main plot involves a Marilyn Monroe impersonator (Samantha Morton—much too good for this) meeting a Michael Jackson impersonator (Diego Luna) in Paris, and inviting him to a castle by a Loch in Scotland, of all places. Here similar nutters, sorry, impersonators live, in character, as a commune. What may, at a stretch, have been an unforgivably some of the images were out of focus though this may have been a fault at the screening. A better editor would have helped too; Yoko Ono is clumsily cut off a second after talking about the iconic shot, taken only five hours before his death, of a naked John Lennon clinging to ‘his woman’; Leibovitz’s photographs of the war in Bosnia are covered in a few short moments while scenes showing photo shoots of lightweights Kirsten Dunst and Keira Knightley go on forever.

The interviews with the woman herself reveal very little. The film seems oddly coy, especially when discussing the nature of Leibovitz’s relationship with the writer/philosopher Susan Sontag, yet shows harrowing images of the last few moments of Sontag’s life, and a deeply moved Leibovitz viewing them.

There is no doubting the power of some of the images. The Nixon leaving office shots, and how she got them, are particularly interesting and there is a lovely 60s and 70s feel to much of her Rolling Stone work. The Vanity Fair work, like the subjects themselves, is less impressive. The Demi Moore’s pregnant cover shot is clearly strong and had far reaching consequences, (incredibly some areas of the States banned the magazine) but, it is Moore who deserves much of the credit for posing; at the other end of the scale the pictures of George Clooney giving direction to a dozen female models, in their underwear, up to their knees in water (Sirens, I guess) is about as naff as you can imagine.

Mister Lonely

In 1995, at 19, Harmony Korine scripted Larry Clark’s overrated movie Kids. Since then, he has directed a couple of films himself (Gummo and Julien Donkey-Boy). Mister Lonely is his latest effort, and for the most part, the film is exactly the kind of independent feature that keeps mainstream audiences flocking to see the likes of Transformers or Disney Pirate extravaganzas. Mister Lonely is slow, pretentious and packed with the worst kind of calculated quirkiness. Something is being said about the nature of celebrity and alienation in modern life (we are ultimately alone? God has a wicked sense of humor?) But, by the end of the film’s very long 111 minutes, I was none the wiser, and cared less.

There is an entirely separate—apparently unrelated, but, who knows?—storyline that involves nuns in Panama falling and/or jumping out of airplanes. This section ‘stars’ the German director Werner Herzog as a Priest and at least, includes some spectacular aerial photography.

Among the actors doing themselves no favors— Edward Fox (The Pope), 60s icon Anita Pallenberg (Queen Elizabeth 2nd), and Richard Strange (Abraham Lincoln). Bright spots? The brief ‘Sammy Davis, Jr.’ tap dance, Samantha Morton’s Monroe and the Scottish scenery, but mostly I sat there wishing I were one of the commune’s sheep. You’ll know what I mean if you have the misfortune to see Mister Lonely. What Korine’s commune really lacked was someone impersonating an Emperor; he would of course be naked and constantly urging the others to admire his fine clothing.

On DVD

The Wicker Man—Remake of the Robert Hardy classic adds nothing, while losing much of the earlier films charm. Ellen Burstyn almost saves the day. Nicolas Cage 'stars’.

Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan—Guessing what is real and what isn’t is half the fun in Sacha Baron Cohen’s must see mockumentary.

Little Children—Deeply impressive, multi-layered story of American suburbia. Superbly acted. Like a great John Cheever story; excellent.

Rome (Series 1)—Another home run for the home box office organization, this time set in ancient Rome. Combines complete authenticity with a wicked contemporary sensibility.

Taxi 4 and Rush hour 3—Unsurprisingly, this pair prove the rule: the higher the numbers after the title, the lower the quality of the film. Less of the same.