In Contention

Tag: Eyes Wide Shut

  • Remembering 1999, the movie year that was

    Brad Pitt in Fight ClubLast year I dedicated one of the first formal installments of The Lists to the films of 1999, one of the most electrifying slate of films to come along since Hollywood’s epic 1939 peak 60 years prior.  There was an embarrassment of riches, truly, great work from the classic masters, eye-opening new work from future masters and everything in between.

    There was exceptional independent filmmaking on display as well as impressive studio offerings.  Envelope-pushing was the norm while formulaic studies also seemed curiously refined.  As the century drew to a close, it seemed, in some ways, that 1999 would come to represent everything that made the medium so special for its first 100 hundred years.

    Over at Movie City News, Noah Forrest has dedicated a new column to the discussion.  He can be forgiven, I think, for twisting in the winds of indecision when it comes to pegging a personal best film from 1999, but he also offers a number of other superlatives to honor the films and performances from the year.

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  • WEEKLY WRAP: Toronto looming, ‘Education’ rising

    Carey Mulligan in An Education• Lots of buzz over “An Education” this week, with a new trailer and poster unveiled … and the talk isn’t only about Carey Mulligan.

    • We kicked off a new season of Tech Support with a look at the runners and riders for Best Cinematography.

    • Darwin biopic “Creation” will open this year’s Toronto fest, while “Bright Star” and “Precious” are also in the lineup.

    • Speaking of “Precious,” this week’s edition of Page to Screen examined the novel behind the Sundance sensation.

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  • Kubrick interview

    Yesterday we celebrated the 10th anniversary of “Eyes Wide Shut.”  I wanted to put the ole’ Blu-ray in for another look.  Maybe I’ll get around to it today.  Anyway, I came across this YouTubed audio interview with Kubrick (in three parts) and thought it was worth posting.  Great insights into the man.  I feel like I’ve heard it before, but can’t place it.  Here’s part one.  Parts two, three and four after the jump:

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  • 7/17 Web Round-up

    Joseph Gordon-Levitt• Judd Apatow’s risky departure from formula with “Funny People.” [Wall Street Journal]

    • Denise Martin talks to “(500) Days of Summer” star Joseph Gordon-Levitt. [Los Angeles Times]

    • PODCAST: Yours truly talks the Oscar’s move to 10, the “Let the Right One In” remake and more with John Campea et al. [The Movie Blog]

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  • Kubrick’s ‘Eyes Wide Shut,’ 10 years on

    Eyes Wide ShutToday marks the 10th anniversary of the US theatrical release of Stanley Kubrick’s “Eyes Wide Shut.”  It was, of course, to be his final film, the last statement from what so many agree to be the finest filmmaker to ever try his hand at the trade.  It was daring, it was unique…it was a Kubrick film through and through.  It was a 20-month-long shoot that had film enthusiasts chomping at the bit for nearly two years, and when it finally landed, the reaction was, again, classic Kubrick: divisiveness.

    I touched upon the film and its impact back in March on the anniversary of Kubrick’s untimely passing, so I’ll leave it at that from my end.  But Jamie Stuart over at The Mutiny Company has re-published his 2002 essay on the film to mark the occasion.  It is a thorough, passionate, committed dissection of the film, paying particular attention to aesthetic choices and the director’s color palette.  It’s fascinating stuff for Kubrick and film buffs the world over and deserves a glance.

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  • Kubrick, a decade later

    Stanley KubrickSomehow the 10-year anniversary of director Stanely Kubrick’s death completely flew under my radar over the weekend (the day was Saturday).  Between painting a bedroom, dealing with server issues and the usual day-to-day, I guess forgetfulness can get the best of us.  But Kubrick was (and remains), to my mind, the greatest filmmaker to ever try his hand at the cinematic form.  I’m a bit ashamed to be coming to the table two days later.

    In any case, Jeffrey Wells saw the anniversary as a nice time to run a Kubrick trash piece that is itself nine years old.  Classy.  Noah Forrest over at Movie City News, meanwhile, has put together a more appropriate remembrance.  Here’s a taste:

    By watching his films, I got to understand what an “auteur” is and how filmmakers can have themes that stretch over the course of their filmographies like Kubrick’s ongoing analysis of dehumanization. I got to see how music can be used to wonderful effect in everything from 2001’s spaceship ballet to Barry Lyndon’s final duel to Full Metal Jacket’s end credits to the haunting and heartbreaking finale of Paths of Glory and to, of course, his use of “Singin in the Rain” in A Clockwork Orange. I saw how lighting could effect mood and how important camera placement could be to how the audience feels about a scene, like when Jack Nicholson is locked in the pantry in The Shining and he’s shot from below. Basically, watching Kubrick films helped to give me a baseline for which I would judge not just all great films, but all great works of art in general.

    Ray Pride also has a mess of links up for your Kubrick perusing pleasure, including lots of interesting stuff at Jamie Stuart’s Mutiny Company site.

    Of course, a moment such as this should give everyone a chance to reassess their feelings of Kubrick’s swansong, “Eyes Wide Shut,” which hit theaters 10 years ago this July.  When I walked away from it (I was freshly graduated from high school and set to enter film school in the fall — this was the movie event of the year), I knew I needed more time to turn it over, but I also knew that somewhere, deep down, I truly loved it, even if it wasn’t what I expected or wanted.  It was something else, something deeper, something with more nuance than the beefiest of reviews could begin to address.  It was also one of the first films I found myself defending in the face of consistent disapproval (and there was plenty vitriol), but I never wavered.  I still love the film, love the man, love the legacy.

  • THE LISTS: Top 10 films of 1999

    (from left) Joe Pantoliano, Laurence Fishburne, Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss in The MatrixRemember that Entertainment Weekly cover from November of 1999?  The headline boldly proclaimed: “The year that changed movies.”  Indeed, it has become nearly a cliche to harp on and on about those 12 months of solid product as a time not equaled since the glory year that was, 1939, but to many, the truth was the truth.  1999 was the best year for films in a long, long time.

    And it wasn’t a microscopic view of “quality” either.  A broad net was cast, from genre successes aplenty to art house sensations, both finding equal play in the film awards circuit that year.  And so it is that hammering out a list of the 10 best constitutes to be a pastime of sorts for the movie lover, especially those like me who were experiencing an awakening of sorts around that time.

    1999 was my first year of film school — the dark ages, as I like to call them (because I’ve come to know film school as a fool’s errand of sorts, an education not easily passed from one person to the next but better learned through trial and tribulation).  But I was still an eager, unjaded soul and took a trip to the local theater one day with a troupe of friends for our own double feature: Sam Mendes’s “American Beauty” and David O. Russell’s “Three Kings.”  It was our first real understanding of the year that had been unfolding right before our eyes.

    “American Beauty” has, of course, aged quite poorly, though Russell’s Iraq war film remains a staple of sorts, a unique blip in a consistently uneven genre.  This was already the year that had seen the release of the first “Star Wars” installment in over 20 years (however disappointing), the last great exhibit from the portfolio of the cinema’s greatest artist (Stanley Kubrick’s “Eyes Wide Shut”) and a science fiction masterpiece that owed as much to William Gibson as anything else (at least those ideas were making it to the screen).

    Moreover, this was a cinematic year that would see releases from more top-tier directors than any other year: Kubrick, Scorsese, Lucas, Lynch, Allen, Fincher, Burton, Leigh, Minghella, Anderson, Almodóvar, Mann, Lee, Stone, Jordan, Sayles, Soderbergh, Forman, Burton, Pollack, Darabont and Howard, while simultaneously launching the exciting careers of untold newbies.  The range of quality, as expected, was certainly wide, but that all of these guys were in neck deep in their work during the same stretch of time had plenty to do with the perception of 1999, then and now.

    So with that, I felt that this week’s top 10 list (a Tuesday regularity now, if you haven’t been keeping score) would address 1999, the year that was.  Here are my picks:

    (from left) Mark Wahlberg, George Clooney and Ice Cube in Three Kings10. “Three Kings” (David O. Russell)
    David O. Russell is a visionary of sorts, but he seems to always be right at the surface, just about to break through with an unyielding brilliance, never fully harnessing the wicked talent he clearly has.  But for a brief moment in the fall of 1999, he discovered an outlet in this Iraq War dramedy that became more famous for its off-screen drama than what unfolded on-screen.  Pity, because I would rank “Three Kings” in a list of the 10 greatest war films ever made without flinching.  George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, Spike Jonze and Ice Cube headlined a sprawling cast that probably deserved some ensemble attention.

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  • Polish movie posters rock!

    I came across this site showcasing a top 50 Polish movie posters via /Film and couldn’t stop scrolling.  Some of them are positively terrifying for various reasons, but all of them are wonderfully creative.

    My favorite has to be this “Eyes Wide Shut” art work.  I would hang it on my wall in a heartbeat:

    Eyes Wide Shut

  • Why I will miss Sydney Pollack

    It has now been nearly four days since filmmaker Sydney Pollack passed away. The loss was not crippling for me, however, because of equal parts expectancy and, strangely, indifference.

    As fine a filmmaker as Pollack was, he was always something of an afterthought in my cinema-going experience.

    I want to be measured here, because the last thing I mean is disrespect. In fact, I’m aiming more toward appreciation of a sort of confident casualness that has been eradicated in this fresh new world of cock-sure filmmaking youths and the veterans who, at times, struggle to keep up, and at others, tap into their own former risk-taking ways to establish a new vision of the “old school.”

    Pollack was never about that. He seemed to make his way from film to film with grace and a willingness to take stock of the lessons that came. I never knew him — can’t offer any first hand accounts of exchange — but if anything about his May 26 death strikes a profound chord with me, it is to know that an ever agreeable constant has been removed from this business, this art form. Sometimes the disconnect of casual dependency can sting as much as the loss of the closest of comrades.

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