Monday, September 13, 2021

TIFF: Bergman Island (2021)

 


Filmmaking couple Chris (Vicky Krieps) and Tony (Tim Roth) head to Fårö Island, Sweden to take up residency while Chris works on her latest screenplay. Fårö (i.e. Bergman Island) is where Swedish director Ingmar Bergman lived and worked. The house the couple are staying at was used in the making of Scenes from a Marriage (1973). They talk to locals about Bergman, watch Cries and Whispers (1972) on 35 mm and explore the island to find different spots important to Bergman and his work. The hope is that being in this space will inspire Chris to write her screenplay. The movie shifts then to a movie within a movie where Chris is dictating her script to Tony. In that story, Amy (Mia Wasikowska) and her former lover Joseph (Anders Danielsen Lie) reunite on Fårö Island to attend a mutual friends wedding where they rekindle their secret affair.

Directed by Mia Hansen-Løve, Bergman Island is steeped in appreciation for Ingmar Bergman. It is also a tad pretentious. While the film-within-a-film format works quite well, the stories get muddled. There is also a plot point in the screenplay that is never revealed leaving the audience hanging. And it's unclear what truly motivates these characters. Chris and Tony are both supposed to be Bergman fans but don't really demonstrate much knowledge about the filmmaker. However, that actually works in their favor because their curiosity helps deliver a lot of information to the viewer about Fårö and Bergman. Krieps and Roth are terrific in the story and the film boasts plenty of shots of Fårö Island including a peek inside Bergman's home, shots of various filming locations and a visit to Bergman's grave. The quiet, bucolic nature of Fårö really comes through.

A must for Ingmar Bergman fans or anyone who enjoys stories about the creative process. If you don't fit into either category, you may want to skip this one.



Bergman Island is part of the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival Gala Presentation slate. It also screened at the Cannes Film Festival. It's distributed by IFC Films.

Sunday, September 12, 2021

TIFF: Last Night in Soho (2021)


Eloise, or Ellie, (Thomasin McKenzie) is obsessed with the 1960s. Growing up with her granny (Rita Tushingham) meant she was exposed to the era in all sorts of ways, particularly music and fashion. Ellie is particularly good at the latter, crafting all sorts of vintage style pieces. When she gets accepted to a fashion program in London, she's thrilled. Heading off to London, the home of the swinging '60s, is the dream. But there is something unusual about Ellie. She sees ghosts. Particularly her deceased mother who appears in mirrors when something good is about to happen to Ellie. 

Ellie's transition to life as a fashion student is brutal. She encounters sexual harassment and peer bullying. She eventually moves out of the dorm and rents a room in an old London flat run by one Miss Collins (Diana Rigg). And when she sleeps at night in her new space she sees visions of Sandy (Anya Taylor-Joy), a gorgeous blonde entertainer trying to make it in the London nightclub scene. Sandy meets with Jack (Matt Smith) who promises her a career but ends up being her pimp instead. By night, Ellie is transported back to the 1960s and into Sandy's tumultuous life. By day she's struggling to make it as a student in an expensive city. Ellie becomes more invested in Sandy and even changes her own hairstyle and adopts Sandy's fashions to embody her even more. Her makeover catches the eye of the mysterious regular (Terence Stamp) at the pub Ellie works at. Could he be Jack? What ensues is a living nightmare journey for Ellie and Sandy's trauma envelops her into a world where the visions bleed into her reality.




Okay there's much more to that story but if I were to tell you I'd be giving up some delicious spoilers and I don't want to do that to you. Let's just say real life 1960s icons, Terence Stamp and Diana Rigg, have some of the most important roles in the film.

Directed by Edgar Wright, Last Night in Soho is a complex psychological horror film that tries to do a bit too much and often at the expense of its characters. I was particularly horrified by the depiction of John (Michael Ajao), the sole black character and Ellie's love interest. His sole purpose is to assist Ellie and it's a shame because they put him in pretty terrifying circumstances and do not give his character any nuance or agency. (Read Robert Daniels review of the film to find out why this character is problematic.) And overall, the second half is a big mess with Ellie just running around London in a panic.

With that said, I think there is a lot of appeal here for classic movie fans, particularly ones who also enjoy horror and zombie movies. There isn't a lot of gore but there are some spooks. The swinging '60s London scenes are fantastic. It really transports you to another time. And for anyone who loves vintage fashion, especially of this era, you'll love to see what Sandy is wearing, Ellie's shopping trip to a vintage store and Ellie's makeover and fashion show. The film also pays tribute to the music of the 1960s. Taylor-Joy performs "Downtown", Ellie is constantly listening to '60s music and Cilla Black is a character in the story.

In one of the early scenes, Ellie/Sandy walk by a marquis promoting Thunderball (1965). 1960s actresses Margaret Nolan and Rita Tushingham appear in the film. However the biggest throwbacks to that era, besides the setting and the fashion, are two of the film's most important characters played by Terence Stamp and Diana Rigg. Production took place in 2019 and Diana Rigg passed away in 2020. In fact the movie premiered at TIFF on the one year anniversary of Rigg's passing on September 10th, 2021. And what a role for Rigg. It's one of the best swan songs I've ever had the privilege of watching. These kinds of roles are just not available to older actors, with a few exceptions. And while Rigg had been working into her later years but this role just really stands out to me. I found myself tearing up because what a fantastic role for this icon! That's not to diminish Terence Stamp who does a fantastic job as the mysterious pub regular who knows a bit too much about what happened to Sandy. He's terrifying and menacing. I know this movie is really an opportunity for McKenzie and Taylor-Joy to shine, but for me Stamp and Rigg steal the show.




I encourage you to check out the trailer and let me know what you think! As a classic movie fan, would you watch this one?



Last Night in Soho premiered at the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival. It hits theaters October 29th.

Wednesday, August 25, 2021

New & Upcoming Classic Film Books (17)


I'm back with another doozy of a list! There are so many great titles especially from some of my favorite publishers like University Press of Kentucky and TCM/Running Press. And lots of reissues of previously out of print books. This is probably my favorite list so far that I've compiled!

Are you new to my list? Here are the details. The books include biographies, memoirs, scholarly texts, coffee table books and more from a variety of publishers. Publication dates range from August to December 2021 and these are subject to change. (The publishing industry is feeling the effects of the current shipping crisis so think of on sale dates as moving targets!).

Links go to Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Powell's (and Larry Edmunds Bookshop if available there). I receive a small commission if you shop through some (not all) of my buy links. 




**Reissue**
by Robert S. Birchard
Foreword by Cecilia DeMille Presley
University Press of Kentucky
494 pages — July 2021




**Reissue**
Marilyn & Me
by Lawrence Schiller
Taschen
200 pages – August 2021




Classical Hollywood Revisited
edited by Philippa Gates and Katherine Spring
Wayne State University Press
356 pages – August 2021




Darryl F. Zanuck and the Creation of the Modern Film Studio
by Scott Eyman
TCM and Running Press
304 pages – September 2021




50th Anniversary Edition with the Complete Screenplay, Commentary on Every Scene, Interviews, and Little-Known Facts 
by Jenny M. Jones
Foreword by Francis Ford Coppola
Black Dog and Leventhal
272 pages – September 2021




Dancing on the Edge
by Joseph McBride
Columbia University Press
680 pages – September 2021




by Jennifer Porst
Rutgers University Press
250 pages – September 2021




**Reissue**
Portrait of a Studio
edited by Bernard F. Dick
University Press of Kentucky
298 pages – October 2021




Herman and Joe Mankiewicz: A Dual Portrait
by Nick Davis
Knopf
384 pages – September 2021




**Reissue**
The Death of Paramount Pictures and the Birth of Corporate Hollywood
by Bernard F. Dick
University Press of Kentucky
280 pages — September 2021 




Audrey Hepburn, Breakfast at Tiffany's, and the Dawn of the Modern Woman 
Sam Wasson
Harper Perennial
288 pages – September 2021




A Memoir
by Hayley Mills
Grand Central Publishing
394 pages – September 2021




The Holocaust and the Courtroom in American Fictive Film
by James Jordan
Vallentine Mitchell
254 pages – September 2021




The Rise and Fall of Hollywood's Dracula
by Koren Shadmi
Humanoids, Inc.
160 pages – September 2021




by Phil Rosenzweig
Empire State Editions
314 pages – September 2021




My Dad and Me
by Karen Knotts with Betty Lynn
Chicago Review Press
288 pages – September 2021




A Legacy of Horror
by Michael Mallory and Jason Blum
Universe
268 pages – September 2021




Audrey Hepburn
by Robert Matzen
Foreword by Luca Dotti
GoodKnight Books
368 pages – September 2021




**Reissue**
The Legacy of Victorianism
by Paula Marantz Cohen
University Press of Kentucky
216 pages — October 2021




A Memoir of Hollywood and Family
by Ron Howard and Clint Howard
William Morrow
416 pages – October 2021




One Hundred Years of Black Films in a White World 
by Wil Haygood
Knopf
464 pages – October 2021




**Reissue**
A Biography
by Donald Bogle
Amistad
752 pages — October 2021




BFI Film Classics
by J. Hoberman
Bloomsbury Academic
104 pages – October 2021







New York City and the Movies that Made It
by Jason Bailey
Abrams
 352 pages — October 2021




110 Years of Western Movie Posters, 1911-2020 
by Mark Fertig
Fantagraphics
340 pages – October 2021




**Reissue**
BFI Film Classics
by Pam Cook
Bloomsbury Academic
104 pages – October 2021




The Complete James Bond Dictionary
by Nigel Cawthorne
Gibson Square 
480 pages – October 2021




The Life and Films
by Gavin Schmitt
McFarland
October 2021 — 174 pages




The Making of the Conqueror
by Ryan Uytdewilligen
Lyons Press
264 pages – October 2021




One Family's Century of Adventures in the Movie Business 
by Jonathan Kay and Charles Moss Jr.
Sutherland House
380 pages – October 2021




**Reissue**
Harry Cohn of Columbia Pictures
edited by Bernard F. Dick
University Press of Kentucky
242 pages – October 2021




Movie Theaters
by Yves Marchand, Romaine Meffre, Ross Melnick
Prestel
304 pages – October 2021




by Michel Chion
Columbia University Press
416 pages – October 2021




296 Must-See Shows That Changed the Way We Watch TV
by the Editors of Rotten Tomatoes
Running Press Adult
224 pages – October 2021




My Unlikely Road to Hollywood
by Leonard Maltin
GoodKnight Books
40  pages – October 2021




A History of the Classic American Film Noir
by Andrew Dickos
University Press of Kentucky
330 pages – October 2021




American Film in the 1950s 
by Robert P. Kolker
Rutgers University Press
232 pages – October 2021




BFI Film Classics
by David Weir
Bloomsbury Academic
112 pages – October 2021




Turner Classic Movies Ultimate Movie Trivia Challenge
400+ Questions to Test Your Knowledge
by Frank Miller
TCM and Running Press
105 pages – October 2021




My Remarkable Life in Show Business 
by Mel Brooks
Ballantine Books
400 pages – November 2021




**Reissue**
by Myrna Loy
Dean Street Press
310 pages – November 2021




by Julia A. Stern
University of Chicago Press
256 pages – November 2021 




The French Lover
by John Baxter
University Press of Kentucky
298 pages – November 2021 




**Reissue**
The Making and Remaking of Universal Pictures
by Bernard F. Dick
University Press of Kentucky
pages – November 2021 




The Art and Impact of Cinema’s Most influential Filmmakers
by Sloan De Forest
foreword by Peter Bogdanovich and Jacqueline Stewart
TCM and Running Press
344 pages – November 2021




The Life and Career of David Tomlinson
by Nathan Morley
The History Press
256 pages – November 2021




The Singer as Actor and Filmmaker
by James L. Neibaur and Gary Schneeberger
McFarland
200 pages – November 2021





The Movies, Stars, and Stories of World War II
by Christian Blauvelt
Foreword by Dr. Robert M. Citino
TCM and Running Press
240 pages – November 2021




The Ultimate John Wayne Quote Book
by Mark Orwoll
St. Martin’s Griffin
304 pages – November 2021




**Reissue**
by Lana Turner
Dean Street Press
252 pages – November 2021




My Investigation into the Mysterious Death of Natalie Wood
by Lana Wood
Del Street Books
272 pages – November 2021




**Reissue**
BFI Film Classics
by Ian Christie
Bloomsbury Academic
112 pages – November 2021




The History of Cinema from the Origins to the Present 
by Richard Dacre
White Star Publishers
240 pages – November 2021 



**Reissue**
A Life
by Gavin Lambert
University Press of Kentucky
384 pages – November 2021 




**Reissue**
A Biography
by Gavin Lambert
University Press of Kentucky
420 pages – November 2021 




The Complete History
by Sean Egan
Applause Books
264 pages – November 2021




How Garbo Conquered Hollywood
by Robert Dance
University Press of Mississippi
288 pages – November 2021




John W. Bubbles, An American Classic
by Brian Harker
Oxford University Press
320 pages – November 2021




From Emmanuelle to Chabrol
by Jeremy Richey with Sylvia Kristel
edited by Nico B.
Cult Epics
352 pages – November 2021




The Life and Words of James Coburn
by Robyn L. Coburn
Potomac Books
432 pages – December 2021




Her Life, Her Films
by Robert Gottlieb
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
464 pages – December 2021




The Beauty of Hedy Lamarr
by Stephen Michael Shearer
Lyons Press
328 pages – December 2021




Movies of the 60s
edited by Jürgen Müller
TASCHEN
736 pages – December 2021




Movies of the 70s
edited by Jürgen Müller
TASCHEN
736 pages – December 2021




Conversations with Filmmakers Series
edited by Gary Bettinson
University Press of Mississippi
240 pages – December 2021





**Reissue**
The Life and Times of a Hollywood Screenwriter
by Ian Scott
University Press of Kentucky
304 pages — December 2021





One Dime at a Time
by Susan Delson
Indiana University Press
418 pages – December 2021




The Temptation of Identity
by Andrea Cavalletti
Fordham University Press
224 pages – December 2021


Do any of these titles pique your interest? Let me know in the comment section. 

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