Cinemascope

This is Henry Gibson, who died two days ago, from the hilarious “Kentucky Fried Movie” (1977):

“Inglourious Basterds” is, in my opinion, a better movie then “Pulp Fiction”, and second only to “Reservoir Dogs” as Quentin Tarantino’s best. It’s a cinematic whirlwind of images and meta-texts, that turns WWII not only into a Spaghetti Western but also unto a movie-movie about cinema itself.
Granted, as an Israeli Jew, some of Tarantino’s choices seemed to go overboard from the irreverant to the rude, as far as Holocaust representations go (he seems like he’s actually rooting for the Nazis!). But in his press conference today in Tel Aviv, Tarantino was quite eloquent in explaining what he was trying to do, and some of his rhetoric was brilliant.

Here is 34 minutes of the press conference (that lasted 40 minutes). It has some great Tarantino bits, and Cristoph Waltz had a chance to shine once or twice as well:

After having its world premiere at the Jerusalem Film Festival, where it won a special mention from the jury, Israeli war film “Lebanon” will start its world tour this fall. Samuel Maoz’s film - based on his personal experience as a tank driver in the 1982 Lebanon war - will have its international premiere in the official competition at the Venice film festival. It’s the first Israeli film at the Venice film fest since Amos Gitai’s 2003 “Alila” (coincidentally, the last Israeli film competing in Venice before that was Eran Riklis’ “Cup Final” in 1992, which also recreated the 1982 Lebanon war).

After Venice “Lebanon” will screen in the US, first in Telluride before getting its official North American premiere at the Toronto Film Festival and then at the New York Film Festival (which, by the way, is the exact same North American festival route “Waltz With Bashir” did last year).

No US distribution is set yet.

“Lebanon”, a visually striking film set entirely within one tank in the first few hours of the war, is nominated for Best Picture at the upcoming Ophir Awards, handed out by the Israeli Motion Picture and Television Academy. The winner will represent Israel at the Oscars. “Lebanon” faces a stiff competition from crime-drama “Ajami” (which played Cannes) and popular light-comedy “A Matter of Size”.
Should “Lebanon” win, it will be the 3rd consecutive movie, in as many years, dealing with the first Lebanon war to represent Israel at the Oscars. The previous two, 2007’s “Beaufort” and 2008’s “Waltz With Bashir”, were nominated for a Foreign Language Oscar (but lost).

So Steven Spielberg is remaking “Harvey”. I guess he’s looking to direct something “unplugged”, after the high-tech heavy “Tin Tin”. And what could be more anti-tech then a story of an invisible rabbit that doesn’t exist.
Although I think “Harvey” is too small scale for Spierlberg, I do believe he’ll make it a charmer. Spielberg likes to tap into the Capra within himself and tell the tales of a heartfelt Americana. “Harvey”, I believe, will be in the vein of “Terminal” (and I loved “Terminal”. I’m alone in this, right?).
Which also makes sense that “Harvey” will reteam Spielberg and Tom Hanks in the Jimmy Stewart role, no? Hanks and Spielberg share the yearning for old-fashion movie-making, and there has to be said that Henry Koster, the director of 1950 film (adapted from Mary Chase’s play) under-directed the movie, which still plays fine, due to Stewart’s charm and the power of the writing.
If not Hanks, who’ll play Elwood P. Dowd, the sweet natured eccentric who believes he’s best friend is a 6 foot invisible rabbit? I nominate Steve Carrel. You?

I loved “Up”, but felt cheated when the Israeli theater I saw it in didn’t play “Partly Cloudy” in front of the film. After I saw the 6 minute short I felt doubly disappointed: the clouds/babies motif that runs through “Up” makes “Partly Cloudy” the perfect warm-up show. Luckily, this thing called the internet makes catching up (and getting even with clueless distributors/exhibitors that didn’t bother showing the short, or apologizing for its absence) all the more easier. So, here it is: sweet, fuzzy, moving, and sans-dialogue: “Partly Cloudy”. Enjoy.

By the time summer 2009 will be over, I estimate that the films of Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci will have earned over 500 million dollars. Maybe more. They are credited as the writers as both “Star Trek” and “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen”, and they are co-creators of Fox’s “Fringe”, not bad for two guys who started out writing “Hercules”, and still share one desk. In this Time.com video they are amusingly silly.

A fourth Israeli entry to the Cannes film festival: After “The Time That Remains” in the competition, “Jaffa” in the official selection but out-of-competition, and “Eyes Wide Open” in the Un Certain Regard side bar, it was just announced that the Directors’ Fortnight sidebar’s closing film will be “Ajami”, a long gestating project co-directed by an Israeli and a Palestinian.
Interestingly, the titles for both “Jaffa” and “Ajami” are the names of the south side territories of Tel-Aviv, were Jews and Arabs live side by side in a tense poverty and crime-ridden environment (Jaffa is actually a city onto itself - and an ancient one at that - that was annexed to Tel Aviv, and Ajami is a neighborhood inside Jaffa. Tel Aviv - which is where I live - is celebrating its centennial this very month). So expect to see the exact same locations in both “Jaffa” and “Ajami”.

Oh, yeah: Francis Ford Coppola’s film will open the sidebar, and is it me or does this edition of the Directors’ Fortnight look like a Sundance spin-off?

DIRECTORS’ FORTNIGHT LINEUP
“La Pivellina,” Austria, Tizza Covi, Rainer Frimmel
“The Alasness of Things,” Belgium-Netherlands, Felix van Groeningen
“Eastern Plays,” Bulgaria-Sweden, Kamen Kalev
“Carcasses,” Canada, Denis Cote
“J’ai tue ma mere,” Canada, Xavier Dolan
“Polytechnique,” Canada, Denis Villeneuve
“Navidad,” Chile, Sebastian Lelio
“Oxhide II,” China, Liu Jia Yin
“La famille Wolberg,” France-Belgium, Axelle Ropert
“Land of Madness,” France, Luc Moullet
“Le roi de l’evasion,” France, Alain Guiraudie
“Les beaux gosses,” France, Riad Sattouf
“Yuki & Nina,” France-Japan, Nobuhiro Suwa, Hippolyte Girardot
“Ajami,” Israel-Germany, Scandar Copti, Yaron Shani (closer)
“Daniel & Ana,” Mexico-Spain, Michel Franco
“Karaoke,” Malaysia, Chan Fui (Chris) Chong
“Ne change rien,” Portugal-France, Pedro Costa
“Here,” Singapore-Canada, Tzu-Nyen Ho
“Like You Know It All,” South Korea, Hong Sang-soo
“Amreeka,” U.S., Cherien Dabis
“Go Get Some Rosemary,” U.S.-France, Benny Safdie, Josh Safdie
“Humpday,” U.S., Lynn Shelton
“I Love You Phillip Morris,” U.S.-France, Glenn Ficarra, John Requa
“Tetro,” Argentina-Spain-Italy, Francis Ford Coppola (opener)

We’re 16 days away from Depeche Mode kicking off their 2009 world tour right here in Israel, and I’m glad to see they’re doing some warm-up shows ahead of time. Here, from yesterday’s free concert at Hollywood and Vine, is “Wrong”:

The official line up of the Cannes film festival, announced an hour ago, contains perhaps the list of the best directors alive today, and whose works I’m aching to see. Here’s the complete list. Analysis below:

CANNES FILM FESTIVAL

OPENER
“Up,” U.S., Pete Docter, Bob Peterson

CLOSER
“Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky,” France, Jan Kounen

IN COMPETITION
“Bright Star,” Australia-U.K.-France, Jane Campion
“Spring Fever,” China-France, Lou Ye
“Antichrist,” Denmark-Sweden-France-Italy, Lars von Trier
“Enter the Void,” France, Gaspar Noe
“Face,” France-Taiwan-Netherlands-Belgium, Tsai Ming-liang
“Les Herbes folles,” France-Italy, Alain Resnais
“In the Beginning,” France, Xavier Giannoli
“A Prophet,” France, Jacques Audiard
“The White Ribbon,” Germany-Austria-France, Michael Haneke
“Vengeance,” Hong Kong-France-U.S., Johnnie To
“The Time That Remains,” Israel-France-Belgium-Italy, Elia Suleiman
“Vincere,” Italy-France, Marco Bellocchio
“Kinatay,” Philippines, Brillante Mendoza
“Thirst,” South Korea-U.S., Park Chan-wook
“Broken Embraces,” Spain, Pedro Almodovar
“Map of the Sounds of Tokyo,” Spain, Isabel Coixet
“Fish Tank,” U.K.-Netherlands, Andrea Arnold
“Looking for Eric,” U.K.-France-Belgium-Italy, Ken Loach
“Inglourious Basterds,” U.S., Quentin Tarantino
“Taking Woodstock,” U.S., Ang Lee

OUT OF COMPETITION
“The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus,” Canada-France, Terry Gilliam
“The Army of Crime,” France, Robert Guediguian
“Agora,” Spain, Alejandro Amenabar

MIDNIGHT SCREENINGS
“A Town Called Panic,” Belgium, Stephane Aubier, Vincent Patar
“Ne te retourne pas,” France-Belgium-Luxembourg-Italy, Marina de Van
“Drag Me to Hell,” U.S., Sam Raimi

SPECIAL SCREENINGS
“Petition,” China, Zhao Liang
“L’epine dans le coeur,” France, Michel Gondry
“Min ye,” France-Mali, Souleyumane Cisse
“Jaffa,” Israel-France-Germany, Keren Yedaya
“Manila,” Philippines, Adolfo Alix Jr., Raya Martin
“My Neighbor, My Killer,” U.S., Anne Aghion

Is it me, or on the basis of the names alone this could be the most violent and bloodiest Cannes festival ever? Park Chan-Wook, Tarantino, Raimi, Haneke, Noe, Mendoza and Campion together? There will Be Blood!

First off: a rather poor showing for Israeli films. Only one sort-of Israeli co-production in competition: Elia Suleiman’s The Time That Remains. I loved Sulieman’s two previous features, the magnificent “Chronicle of a Disappearance” and the more blunt “Divine Intervention”, and although I’m looking forward to seeing his latest effort, It’ll be hard for me to tag his film “Israeli”‘ as Sulieman himself tries to distance himself from this country: as a Gallilee born Israeli-Citizen-Christian-Arab he prefers to be identified as a Palestinian and live and work abroad. Frankly, I don’t care, as long as he continues making great angry movies.
The second is the out-of-competition screening of “Jaffa”, the second feature by Keren Yedaya, whose previous effort, “Or”, won Cannes’ Camera D’or.
And in the Spanish “Agora”, set in ancient Egypt, several Israeli actors are featured.

But, the rest of the crop is truly mouth watering. The Cannes line-up features some of my favorite living directors: Jane Campion, Lars von Trier, Gaspar Noe, Tsai Ming-liang, Jacques Audiard, Park Chan-wook, Pedro Almodovar, Quentin Tarantino, Ang Lee, Sam Raimi, Terry Gilliam, Alejandro Amenabar.

And I definitely appreciate - on a film-by-film basis, also: Alain Resnais, Michael Haneke, Robert Guediguian, Johnnie To, Isabel Coixet, Marco Bellocchio, Ken Loach.

Great names. I hope their movies don’t suck.