It’s being reported that “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” may have made as much as $25 million last night from MIDNIGHT SHOWINGS. That beats “Harry Potter 5”‘s record, and is a good $7 million more than “The Dark Knight” took in.
It’s all of a sudden shockingly possible (though still not probable) that “New Moon” could overtake “The Dark Knight”‘s record $67 million opening day gross. I’m sure a massive Friday->Saturday drop will keep it far away from “Knight”‘s weekend record of $158 million, but for a astronomically hyped film like “New Moon” to exceed expectations like this is quite something. I might have intense negative interest in the film, but I am pleased to see this kind of girl power shock the industry.
I attended a lecture by artists Jeanne-Claude and Christo during grad school, and it’s always stuck with me. I remember walking out of the hall feeling so inspired by the way Jeanne-Claude in particular - with her fiery, unforgettable hair - articulated her creative spirit and drive. Sadly, she passed away last night… If you’re unfamiliar with her work with her husband Christo, I greatly suggest spending the next few free hours of your life doing some serious googling.
Just as a little supplement to this article on indieWIRE today chronicling the 25 things the Oscars did right in the 2000s, check out this clip coinciding with one example on the list: Roman Polanski winning for “The Pianist” back in 2003. It’s such a strange thing to think back to after the crazy culture war that went down after his arrest this fall. While I obviously don’t agree with what Polanski did, it’s hard to argue that the man didn’t deserve this honor for his career efforts (he’d never won) if not for “The Pianist” itself… Though I find it really incredible to watch him win here, with the majority of the audience rising to their feet (including Meryl Streep!) in appreciation. I can’t imagine that happening if he theoretically won today, even though we know exactly the same now as we did then (if not, thanks to “Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired,” more).
Excuse the strange voiceovers and on aside, note these nominees are 60% homo:
This past summer, both Pages Books and the Cumberland Theater (which is actually still open, but not for long) announced their pending closures, now it seems the Carlton Cinema is joining the club. That leaves downtown Toronto - Canada’s alleged culture center - with a gaping hole in its cinema exhibition (in addition to its gaping holes in fun bars, nice parks, cheap rent, bookstores, real grocery stores, and affordable and efficient transit). The Carlton was really the only place you could see smaller scale independent and foreign films that the Varsity or Cumberland wouldn’t program, or if you missed a film’s three week run at one of those cinemas, you could see it on one of the Carlton’s screens basically until it comes out on DVD. It’s a great shame that effective December 6th, it will be converted into office space after a 28 year run.
On my first ever big gay date, I saw “Far From Heaven” there just after I’d moved to the city. Since, I could go on for half page with what I’ve seen… “Lost in Translation,” “Vera Drake,” “Before Sunset”, “4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days”... Before this whole film journalism thing started working out, it was basically my primary source for non-Hollywood cinema outside of TIFF or Hot Docs. While there’s still the Varsity (which usually has 2 or 3 usually rather major indies or foreign films running), and the pending hope of whatever the year-round programming TIFF’s Bell Lightbox provides… I fear this is just one more tiny nail in the nearly shut coffin of hope I have for Toronto as a city.
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