Category: Film

In Between Days

Friday, November 24th, 2006 | All Things, Film

In a new collaboration between IFP, its magazine Filmmaker, and MoMA’s Department of Film and Media, the museum screened the five nominees for the “Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You” award from November 24–27, 2006. The nominees were selected in October by the editorial staff of Filmmaker and Jytte Jensen, MoMA’s film curator. The five nominees represent the best independent films on the 2006 festival circuit that have yet to find a distributor for theatrical distribution.

The theater was also in the midst of a Roberto Rossellini retrospective, so the lobby was bursting with filmgoers. Rossellini on Paper, an accompanying exhibition of posters, family photographs, and correspondence documenting the Italian filmmaker’s career, is on display in the lobby galleries through April 7, 2007.

In Between Days is the story of Aimie (Jiseon Kim), a newly arrived Korean immigrant, who falls in love with her best and only friend, Tran (Taegu Andy Kang). The film follows the sweetly awkward friendship between the teenagers, from easy camaraderie, to petty jealousies, to tentative sexual experimentation, to heartbreak. Not much happens in this slight 82 minute film — and what does happen seems to taken an awful long time — but for those willing to approach the film as a character study, rather than a strict narrative, it has its rewards. The extended silences are more frequent, and weigh more heavily than any of the (mostly Korean) dialogue. Ponderous, lingering close-ups on the actors’ faces, and long tracking shots offered intimate and naturalistic portrayals of the characters’ emotional states. When Tran inevitably falls for a more Americanized Korean girl, Aimie’s hurt and dejection is made clear without any expositioning dialogue. The remarkably expressive performances of the two leads was all the more impressive when I learned at director So Yong Kim’s post-screening Q&A that neither Jiseon nor Taegu had ever acted in a film before.

One could hear the crunch of snow beneath Aimie’s trudging boots, and almost feel the chill and isolation cloud off the screen during the wintry shots. Despite these strengths, I imagine that a wider audience may be a little maddened by the film’s drearily slow pacing and lack of clear resolution.

The is the first feature from So Yong Kim, who emigrated from Pusan to the United States. In Between Days won a special jury prize for Independent Vision at Sundance earlier this year, and has had a healthy festival run internationally, showing in Pusan, Toronto and Hong Kong among others. So Yong wrote the film with her producer/husband Bradley Rust Gray, who was also at the MoMA that night, accompanying his now significantly pregnant wife. After the film, So Yong described the evolution of the story: how the initial draft was more autobiographical, and much, much longer, spanning decades of Aimie’s life. From there, it was a year and a half editing process to distill the film to the short period of time covered in the finished product. Similarly, editing down the film footage itself was a monumental task. Although the film was shot in just over 3 weeks in Toronto, the shoestring budget forced the director and crew to live with Jiseon, during which they filmed her constantly, often in intense close-up, resulting in about 66 hours of total coverage. Only 2% of the footage made it into the final cut.

It was most interesting to hear how production logistics shaped the finished product. So Yong originally conceived the film around a more Americanized teenage girl, with a Goth sensibility — hence the title of the film, taken from one of my favorite Cure songs. After conducting a series of casting calls in New York and Los Angeles, So Young finally discovered the young woman who would be Aimie behind a coffeeshop counter in New Jersey’s Koreatown. Jiseon Kim was then newly arrived to this country, and So Young rewrote the Aimie role to accommodate her. In addition, the story was originally set in Los Angeles in the heat of summer, but since Jiseon was only available to film during her winter break from FIT (where she’s a current student), the locale was moved to Toronto in the dead of January. The character rewrites and relocations add an entirely new dimension to the story, with outsider Aimie’s quiet alienation and the bleak, icy urban landscapes underscoring the crushing disappointment of first heartbreak.

On November 29, Filmmaker magazine selected Steve Barron’s Choking Man for the “Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You” award at the 16th Annual Gotham Awards. NYC TV will broadcast the awards show on Wednesday, December 6 at 9:00PM and Saturday, December 9 at 10:00PM.

Hot dog vendor in front of the MoMA theaters:

MoMA Hot Dogs

Walking home, past Carnegie Hall.

Carnegie Hall

Yesterday I got so old
I felt like I could die
Yesterday I got so old
It made me want to cry

In Between Days,” The Cure (1985)

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10 Items or Fewer

Monday, November 20th, 2006 | All Things, Classes, Film

I started my Feature Film Series at Town Hall. Tonight’s class was the first of two “bonus screenings” before we settle into the bi-weekly schedule in 2007. The class is hosted by Scott Siegel, renowned film critic and author of dozens of books, who introduces the films and then leads invited guests through a Q&A session following the screening.

Tonight: 10 Items or Less — no relation to the TBS show of the same name — directed by Brad Silberling (Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events), who was also that night’s guest interviewee.

Siberling and Siegel

10 Items or Less stars Morgan Freeman as a literally nameless commitment-phobic actor, venturing out to the ethnic fringes of Los Angeles to research a potential role in an indie project, after a four year hiatus from Hollywood. His co-star is fetching Spanish actress Paz Vega, whom the Sean Hayes character on Will and Grace once described to Bobby Cannavale (who coincidentally has a bit part in this film) as “Spanish for Ashley Judd.” One of the recurring jokes in the film involves Freeman’s character, billed only as “Him,” constantly finding dusty VHS copies of his last blockbuster with Judd in discount bins around town. Would that be High Crimes ? Kiss the Girls ? It’s all so meta.

In reality, Vega made her fame on the Iberian peninsula on television and in movies (Sex and Lucia, Pedro Almodovar’s Talk to Her) before making her American debut in Spanglish. Her subtle performance, as the express checkout line cashier aspiring to be something more, was the thing I enjoyed most about the film.

Not much to say about the slight 82 minute film, which was modest in feel and ambition: a cast of two, plus a couple of other actors and a dozen or so colorful non-acting locals. Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman make a drive-by cameo appearance, which director Siberling told us was filmed in less than half an hour at a traffic stop on their way to their real life Brentwood home. That anecdote was indicative of the film’s minimalist production. Siberling informed the audience that night that 10 Items or Less was shot over 15 days for a budget of $2 million; compare that to his Lemony Snicket, which cost $125 million and filmed for 132 days. To keep costs down, Freeman (who was also an executive producer), Vega and some key crew members agreed to be paid on S.A.G. scale in exchange for gross points, or shares, in the finished film.

The financing model is one Siberling believes could be viable for independent film; in addition, 10 Items or Less will debut an experimental bifurcated distribution plan through digital entertainment venture Clickstar, Inc. Clickstar, which was founded by Freeman’s production company, Revelations Entertainment with an investment from Intel Corporation, will launch this film as the first through its broadband entertainment service, two weeks after the national theatrical release on December 1. The company seeks to become an online resource for first-run, pre-DVD-release films and artist-created entertainment channels, designed to give film makers a vehicle to reach broader geographical markets in an affordable and flexible way.

About that grammatically problematic movie title…

According to The American Heritage Book of English Usage, “[t]he traditional rule says that you should use fewer for things that can be counted (fewer than four players) but less with mass terms for things of measurable extent (less paper, less than a gallon of paint),” but makes allowances for using less with plural nouns in the expressions “no less than” and “or less.” The Columbia Guide to Standard American English makes the same distinction: “less with mass nouns and fewer with plural count nouns,” also acknowledging the exceptions of “a few idiomatic locutions,” noting that “[e]dited English prefers fewer, and for many conservatives, the use of less where fewer is expected remains a strong shibboleth.”

Count me among those grammar “conservatives.” And kudos to places like Whole Foods Market — the only chain I know to use the technically proper “…or fewer” in their express checkout signage.

Passing through Times Square on the way home:

Times Square Tourists

Times Square

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Books and Bond

Sunday, November 19th, 2006 | All Things, Arts, Books, Film

Is there anybody out there?

Met SYB at Bouchon Bakery for a last minute pre-date pep talk. So much nervous excitement! I was disappointed to find that quality lemonade is only offered at Bouchon during the summer; their cold weather offering is apple cider, which I suppose makes sense. Though I, for one, find lemonade agreeable any time of the year.

Changing colors of the Time Warner Center Holiday Stars:

TWC Stars

TWC Stars

Hit the inaugural New York Art Book Fair, the city’s first-ever fair devoted to contemporary art books and artists’ books, with 2 floors showcasing 70+ exhibitors from around the world: from mainstream and overseas distributors to antiquarian dealers to a section called “Friendly Fire” devoted to zines, artists and other independent publishers. The event was held at a gallery in West Chelsea, in the former Dia Art Foundation space. Judging from the very healthy turnout, independent book publishing is alive and well. The event was organized by Printed Matter, the world’s largest non-profit organization dedicated to the promotion of publications made by artists.

NY Art Book Fair

NY Art Book Fair

NY Art Book Fair

So much to see: from free, photocopied pamphlets piled up on milk crates to precious antique tomes, housed in glass cases.

By the time I made it back to my neighborhood theater, all the afternoon showings of Casino Royale were sold out. Grrr. I generally try to avoid blockbusters on opening weekend for precisely this reason — the crowds, the inordinate amount of planning required… not to mention that AMC just raised ticket prices to $11(!) — but I was intrigued to see Daniel Craig reinvent the James Bond role. Could he really be “the best Bond since Connery?”

B was game to join me, so after loading up on reinforcements (i.e., chocolate Twizzlers and Hershey kisses), we hit the theater the recommended hour in advance to queue up outside the theater entrance. There was the usual jockeying for line position, and sneaky shenanigans, but we secured our prime seats and sat back to enjoy the show.

I’d managed until then to avoid most of the film reviews, so knew very little about the plot going in. Does it matter, really? There are international terrorists and beautiful women involved, and one squirm-inducing torture scene, that made the men in the theater very, very uncomfortable. When I first heard that Craig was selected to take up the mantle left by Pierce Brosnan, I was skeptical, but Craig admirably filled the bill. Casino Royale, being an “origins” picture like Batman Begins, introduces a young, hungry Bond, ambivalent about his chosen profession. It sets the scene for the character’s evolution from cocky thug to suave spy. In that sense Craig was perfect as Bond 1.0: he pulled off the action sequences with ease, humor, and a good deal of raw charisma, while still emoting a certain emotional vulnerability. And when he preened before the mirror for the first time in his new tuxedo, Craig looked as dashing as Connery or Brosnan ever did.

The film sets up the intriguing idea that the people most responsible for defining Bond — his steely-eyed dispassion, his ruthlessness, his misogyny, his drink, his dinner jacket — were women: M (Judi Dench) and Bond girl exemplar Vesper Lynd (Eva Green). I first saw Green in her film debut in Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Dreamers (2003). Actually, far more of Green than was on display in Casino Royale; Fox Searchlight released the film in its original NC-17 form.

Casino Royale maintained a tight rein on the double entendres, super high-tech gadgets and over-the-top action sequences. Even the opening black-and-white scene, showing Bond earning his 00-agent status, was a bit of a departure from the usual: not a single fiery explosion, speeding plane, train, or automobile in sight, which made the violence, and ensuing body count, much more personal. My favorite set-piece was also remarkably-free of CGI special effects: an extended foot chase through the streets of Madagascar between Bond and Parkour promoter Sébastien Foucan, playing an African bombmaker with super-human agility.

Craig’s 007 opened at No. 1 in 49 of the 50 countries where it’s showing; Americans gave a slight edge to the tap-dancing penguin. Still, with many major foreign territories yet to go, including Japan, Korea, Italy and Australia, the movie is on course to surpass 2002’s Die Another Day to become the top-grossing Bond installment. Bring on more Blond Bond.

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