Thompson on Hollywood

Now and Then: The Transformation of Michael Bay to Sunday Hangover Auteur

Occasioned by the DVD release of Transformers: Dark of the Moon last week, and a few too many drinks Saturday night, Matt Brennan’s “Now and Then” column celebrates director Michael Bay, Sunday hangover auteur. Trailers below:

By Matt Brennan
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October 3, 2011 3:48 AM
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Crazy, Creepy Love: Romance is Dangerous in Rebecca, Jane Eyre

In this week's “Now and Then" column, Matt Brennan looks at two adaptations of Gothic novels: Hitchcock’s Rebecca (1940) and Cary Fukunaga’s Jane Eyre (out on DVD), see trailers below. A pair of young women, the rough men who love them, the creepy manors they live in, and the eerie forces attempting to thwart them: it’s enough to make you wish you had a fainting couch.

By Matt Brennan
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August 22, 2011 4:10 AM
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Ava Gardner Loves That Man: Show Boat

For your pleasure, here's Ava Gardner (dubbed by Annette Warren) singing Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II's "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man of Mine" from the 1951 musical Show Boat. Ella Fitzgerald, Liza Minnelli, Barbra Streisand, Lena Horne and Judy Garland all covered this, and Helen Morgan made it famous in the original 1927 Broadway show. But Gardner singing in the context of the movie is sublime. (Gardner's voice wound up on the soundtrack album of the film Show Boat, but not in the film itself.) She's playing a character passing for white who could have been played by Horne, but wasn't.

By Anne Thompson
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July 27, 2011 2:45 AM
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Amy Winehouse Still Tops Bond Composer David Arnold’s 007 Wishlist

David Arnold, who’s scored every James Bond movie since 1997’s Tomorrow Never Dies, spoke to Matt Mueller shortly before a Memorial Concert in honour of legendary franchise composer John Barry at London’s Royal Albert Hall:David Arnold knows who he’d love to sing the next 007 theme tune: Amy Winehouse. The British composer is a massive fan of her jazzy vocals and spent two days with the singer when she was being courted to sing the title track to Quantum Of Solace. Winehouse’s personal problems prevented her from taking the gig but, although recent headlines suggest the substance-abuse demons haven’t gone away, Arnold feels she’d make the perfect Bond chanteuse. “She’s absolutely the real deal and the problems she has are part of that genius,” he says. “Of course, until you read the script it’s impossible to say who would be right and you’d consider any of the current great female vocalists, like Adele, Beyonce, Lady Gaga… But if Amy was in a position to be back to full fighting strength, she would be fantastic.” UPDATE: Alas, Arnold's wishes will never be. Winehouse succumbed to her demons on July 24, found dead at her London home at age 27.

By Matt Mueller
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July 8, 2011 1:11 AM
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Silent Masterpiece Sunrise Boasts New Score: For a Single Guitar

When German director F.W. Murnau subtitled his 1927 silent film Sunrise with the phrase “a song of two humans,” he almost certainly meant those words to be understood figuratively. In a few weeks, though, Paolo Cherchi Usai, an Italian film archivist and director, and Giovanni Spinelli, an Italian-born composer based in New York City, will premiere a project they have been working on for the last two years that will change that subtitle, quite literally, to “a song of one human.”

By Jacob Combs
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July 4, 2011 5:26 AM
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John Carter Early Poster Teases, Does Not Inform

Hitfix's Drew McWeeny doesn't like the early teaser poster (below) for Pixar writer-director Andrew Stanton's long-in-the-works live-action debut, the sci-fi adventure John Carter, arguing that the Mouse House has plenty of rich visual material to work with--why go so stark?

By Anne Thompson
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June 17, 2011 4:11 AM
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Rome Film Festival Announces Dates, Ennio Morricone Heads Jury, Clips

The sixth International Rome Film Festival will take place October 27 through November 4, 2011. Oscar®-winning composer Ennio Morricone will head the jury, which also includes Italian ballet dancer Roberto Bolle, said Rome Fest president Gian Luigi Rondi and artistic director Piera Detassis.

By Anne Thompson
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May 31, 2011 1:21 AM
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Cannes Review: Tree of Life Lures Packed House, Oscar-Worthy Pitt Speaks for Missing Director Malick

In all my years coming to Cannes, I've never seen the 8:30 AM Palais press screening fill up so fast. Guards were turning people away by 8 AM, who literally ran across the grass to queue for the back-up 9 AM screening at the Soixantieme. I decided not to wrestle my way in and took the path of least resistance to settle into a center middle row seat and let Terrence Malick's fifth feature, the luminous The Tree of Life, wash over me.

By Anne Thompson
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May 16, 2011 10:30 AM
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Cannes Review: Why is Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides in Fest?

What motivates a groggy, jet-lagged scribe to crawl out of bed for an 8:30 AM press screening of Pirates of the Caribbean? Schadenfreude. The word on the Croisette was that the fourth Pirates installment was lousy. Safe to say I wasn't expecting to have a good time. (I didn't even see Number Three, even though it boasted Chow Yun-Fat.)

By Anne Thompson
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May 14, 2011 10:48 AM
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Tree of Life Debuts in Cannes After All: New Poster, Music

If it was ever in doubt, Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life (USA May 27) will in fact debut at Cannes, despite Icon UK's one-time insistence that they would open it ahead of the fest. The distributor admits that they will not be releasing the film, after wrangling with foreign sales company Summit over the deal terms. Spokesman Zak Brilliant of Icon told the Guardian: "[We] will not now be releasing Tree of Life on 4 May. There is a legal issue ongoing for the film which we hoped to resolve but were unable to do so."