Happy August and welcome to the dog days of summer! 6 Degrees blog and 6 Degrees magazine are both gearing up for the Fall Movie Season. The August films have some likely suspects including Wind River with Jeremy Renner and the long-awaited Dark Tower with Idris Elba. Our 6 Degrees Fall Newsletter is coming soon so stay tuned.
This week in film, there’s been a look back at two significant actors in the history of cinema. One is Jeanne Moreau, the French actress who came to prominence during the French “New Wave” era of filmmaking in the sixties. The other is playwright and actor Sam Shephard, notable for his performance in The Right Stuff as well as some lesser known films that were personal favorites, Thunderheart and Shephard’s own quirky film adapted from the play he wrote, Fool for Love, as well as Frances with his long-time companion Jessica Lange
The Turner Classic Movie blog, Streamline, has an article on the films of Ingrid Bergman. The other films featured on their blog are The River from 1951 and Heaven Can Wait with Warren Beatty, made in 1978.
Of Note: The Macguffin movie site features an interview with Matthew Heineman, who directed the documentary City of Ghosts, about a group of citizen journalists determined to operate undercover in the war torn city of Raqqa. Also on the Macguffin site is an interview with the director of A Ghost Story starring Casey Affleck. Both films have been well reviewed. You can find both reviews in 6 Degrees magazine this week.
Another film with good reviews from the Macguffin site, Detroit, directed by Academy-Award winner Kathryn Bigelow, is about the events surrounding an unfolding race riot that occurred in the summer of 1967 in Detroit. A recent release that has had some lukewarm reviews is The Dark Tower, with Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey. The expectations were huge for this Stephen King adaptation, so nothing likely could have met the high bar for success with this one.
Film Comment has a post by Mark Harris from his 2008 book, Pictures at a Revolution, about the films that helped us along as we changed our movie tastes as well as our culture during the Revolutionary period of the sixties. He writes, “Moviegoers who were flocking to films like Bergman’s Through a Glass Darkly didn’t mind unanswered questions.” Which is true when the thread tells you that foreign films, and art house films, have always led moviegoers in a different direction. You don’t go into an art house and expect neatly chronological plot lines and endings where the story is wrapped up and tied in a bow. This was the dawning of the age of the independent film and the birth of the Sundance and Telluride Film Festivals.
Another great film blog site is the Self-styled siren blog. Finally, she has a new post entitled, “Bad Movie Double Feature” which is always a good fit at this time of year. (See “The Bad-B’s of Summer re-post).
The scuttlebutt around Hollywood is that this has been a weak summer. There are growing concerns about movie attendance rates, with more people tuning in to the small screen and just waiting for On Demand or Netflix and its ilk. One problem was that 2016 resulted in record box-office numbers of over 11 billion dollars.
One solution discussed is a shorter window between the film’s theatrical debut and its release for home viewing. But the slump may be countered with one startlingly brazen suggestion: High quality films and better casts with exceptional screenplays. Just a thought. The final analysis: “Being down 4 percent from an all-time record box office is just not a big deal.”
And with the reminder that the Sound and the Fury signifies Much Ado about Nothing, I will remember to watch the Shakespeare films I recorded last month. Until next week, we will try and stay cool and I’ll see you at the movies!-ML
Six Degrees of Film 