A Lion in the House
, the devastating, cleansing documentary that Reverse Shot helped to secure theatrical distribution in 2006, has won the Exceptional Merit in Nonfiction Filmmaking award at the Emmys. Congratulations to filmmakers Steve Bognar (fourth from the left) and Julia Reichert (fifth from the right) for their hugely deserved prize.
And as if to sweeten the deal, their toughest competitor, Spike Lee, didn’t go home empty-handed either, tying with them for his immensely worthy epic
When the Levees Broke.
Congratulations to all, from Reverse Shot.
From today’s story announcing that Ang Lee’s Lust, Caution is getting slapped with the “dreaded” NC-17:
”Sources who have seen the film said it contains at least three scenes—one a long montage—featuring multiple acts of aggressive sexual activity in different positions. There’s no full-frontal male nudity (the source of some NC-17 rulings when shown in sex scenes), but male-on-female oral sex, non-S&M restraints and several nontraditional sexual positions are depicted, conveying the aggression and emotional conflict between the main characters.”
Whew. Sounds more like Mr. Skin than Wolf Blitzer. Though this kind of story reeks of a certain familiarity, the bigger question now becomes: where do we turn for news if CNN is no longer safe for work?
The experts at the American Film Institute have issued a 10th anniversary edition of their 100 years…100 movies poll of the best American movies ever made. This year’s list is a significant improvement. Making the cut for the first time: F.W. Murnau’s Sunrise at 82. A solid showing, just a bit behind such equally accomplished masterworks as Rocky (57), American Graffiti (62), and Forrest Gump (62). Did I mention this list is better than the last one? See the list (as an animated poster gallery!) here.
If you’ve seen even one frame of The Innocents, you know that it’s one of the best shot films in Hollywood history…screen so wide it seems to go on forever, every nook and cranny expressively crammed or drained, always reflective of its characters’ inner torments and external fears. The film’s brilliant director of photography, Freddie Francis, Academy Award winner for 1960’s DH Lawrence adaptation Sons and Lovers and 1989’s Glory, has died this week at age ninety. With a distinctive and varied career as both a cinematographer of some of the world’s best loved, most visually memorable films of the British New Wave (Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, Room at the Top) and beyond (The Elephant Man, The French Lieutenant’s Woman), and as a director in his own right for Hammer Films and then at the Hammer-esque horror production company Amicus (Torture Garden, Tales from the Crypt), Francis proved himself one of our most adept film stylists. I’m unlikely to ever forget those shattering final moments in the The Innocents’ gothic statue garden, the opening drift down from the tree brances of The Straight Story, or even Robert DeNiro’s lightning and fire-streaked face as he blathers in tongues at the end of Cape Fear.
Some images to remember.
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