Blog Directory CineVerse: August 2015

There's no place like CineVerse

Sunday, August 30, 2015

On September 2, CineVerse will continue its "Our Favorite Films" series with “The Wizard of Oz” (1939; 102 minutes), directed by Victor Fleming, chosen by Carole Bogaard. Plus, stick around for : “The Legacy of Oz,” a brief documentary exploring the cultural impact of this film.

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Unlocking the gates to Shawshank

Thursday, August 27, 2015

Some films are just born crowdpleasers. Case in point: The Shawshank Redemption, which is about as good a prison movie as you can get. But this flick uses more than colorful characters, suspenseful situations, and subjective you-are-there point of view to tell a riveting story. Many layers are waiting to be unraveled, which CineVerse attempted to do last night. Here's what we discovered:

HOW IS THIS FILM DIFFERENT FROM OTHER PRISON MOVIES THAT CAME BEFORE IT?
It features a voiceover narration throughout that guides the viewer along, with a likable, homespun voice and vernacular that helps weave a wholly absorbing tale and which creates a more personal, emotional story.
Interestingly, the narrator is arguably not the central character – Red is a third-party witness to the story of Andy Dufresne, the character whom we most identify and sympathize with, especially considering that Andy, we know, is innocent. We get the story from Red’s point of view, which makes it more interesting because Red is more credible as a grizzled, weathered, experienced inmate.
Unlike other films about incarceration, which usually concern themselves from the start with an elaborate escape plan plot, this picture doesn’t try to tip its hat that the later payoff will be an escape; we see many years and even decades go by in which Andy and his friends are imprisoned, presumably without hope. Therefore, the main meat of this story concerns both psychologically and physically coping with an interminable life in prison. There’s enough action and interesting subplots and characters here to make for a fascinating two hours, but, unlike The Great Escape, Papillon, Escape From Alcatraz, or Stalag 17, this film isn’t necessarily tightly woven around a suspenseful plot concerned from the start with escape.
Additionally, although many of those aforementioned prison movies do contain colorful characters, the main and even supporting roles in The Shawshank Redemption are finely chiseled with interesting details and backstories that create a chromatic tapestry of personalities: it could be the film’s greatest strength.
That being said, however, the misdirection employed here that keeps you from prematurely guessing that Andy will eventually escape, and the clever details related to how he does it, make for an incredibly satisfying third act in which the audience feels Andy’s uplifting sense of release, freedom and vindication. This is one of the best revenge/comeuppance films ever made, and you don’t have to have been a former inmate or wrongly accused individual to appreciate these emotions.

HOW ARE ANDY AND RED PERFECTLY JUXTAPOSED CHARACTERS BASED ON THEIR DIFFERENCES?
Andy is white, Red is African-American.
Andy truly is innocent and wrongfully convicted of a crime he didn’t commit, while Red, as crowd-pleasing as he is, is a criminal who knows he has to pay his debt to society (in the original story, he cut the brakes on his wife’s car, leading to her death).
Andy is younger, more sensitive and attuned to cultural sensibilities, more naïve and idealistic, book smart, and hopeful; Red is older, hardened and jaded, street smart, and more pessimistically realistic, which makes him dubious of hope.
Red is a man who can get things in from the outside for others; Andy is a man who can get things out from the inside (his intelligence and hope) for others.
Therein lies the crux of the film’s message: making Red, a doubting Thomas, see the light of hope, as exemplified in his savior, Andy. Andy redeems Red, not by helping him escape from the prison, but by making him believe in a life worth living outside the prison walls.

WHAT’S SIGNIFICANT ABOUT THE FACT THAT THE LAST SCENE TAKES PLACE IN MEXICO BETWEEN JUST THE TWO MAIN CHARACTERS?
The fact that their reunion takes place outside of the boundaries of the familiar (the United States) and within a paradise-like setting is important: it suggests that they’ve graduated to a metaphorical “heaven,” an afterlife-of-sorts on earth far removed from their familiar place of incarceration.
It’s also wise to only show the two of them on the beach, as if this is their own private paradise that they’ve earned.
In the original story, Red is following Andy’s hidden trail and is hopeful that he will rendezvous with his friend eventually some day. This ending was changed for the film because viewers responded more enthusiastically to a visible reunion between the two that was conclusive.

Other films and works directed by Frank Darabont
The Green Mile
The Majestic
The Mist

OTHER NOTABLE FILMS BASED ON STEPHEN KING STORIES
Carrie
The Shining
Misery
Dolores Claiborne
Stand by Me
The Dead Zone
Salem’s Lot
1408

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Either get busy watching Shawshank or get busy dying...

Sunday, August 23, 2015

Our Favorite Films--an ongoing series spotlighting CineVerse members top-ranked movies--returns with Part 9 on August 26 with “The Shawshank Redemption” (1994; 142 minutes), directed by Frank Darabont, chosen by Len Gornik.

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CineVerse September/October schedule ready for viewing

Friday, August 21, 2015

Curious to learn what's on the docket for CineVerse in September and October? Visit http://1drv.ms/1MIM2N3 to access the new calendar for the next two months.

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Time and time again

Thursday, August 20, 2015

For some, it's hard not to be both cynical and sentimental while watching an old-fashioned romantic drama like "Somewhere in Time." The film has obvious appeal to hopeless romantics everywhere, yet can be as repellent as kryptonite is to Superman to others. Still, it represents a fascinating experiment as a pop culture phenomenon and female-friendly cult movie. CineVerse examined the picture last night and came away with these conclusions:


WHAT IS INTERESTING ABOUT THIS FILM AS A CULTURAL PHENOMENON?
It bombed when originally released in theaters in 1980, but it enjoyed a strong second life after a cable company bought the rights to air it and it was later released on home video; repeated viewings generated a strong cult film -like following.
Consider that the movie was released during a period when this type of old-fashioned love stories and romantic dramas were decidedly out of fashion with audiences, as demonstrated by low box office revenue for this genre – yet, its underground appeal made it rise like a phoenix from the ashes.
10 years after its original release, a die-hard fan club was created – one that continues to meet yearly at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island, where it was filmed. This same club pressured the powers that be to put Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
It’s also impressive that this film subsequently succeeded in finding an audience, despite the fact that it is actually a science fiction film that vastly differs from other time travel films featuring glitzy special effects and action-packed plots.

HOW IS THIS STORY DIFFERENT FROM OTHER TIME TRAVEL STORIES AND FILMS?
Many other films related to time travel, including the Back to the Future movies, The Time Machine, and others, concern themselves with the technology required to achieve time travel, time paradox problems, and altered destiny possibilities, asking questions like what if someone forever alters the future or the past?
This film, instead, isn’t concerned with technology or metaphysical paradoxes. It’s strictly focused on a love story that spans time and space, without getting bogged down in scientific detail and rational explanations. For some, the film’s deceit that you can go back in time simply by meditating, practicing self-hypnosis, or using your concentrated mind, is a ridiculous notion; but for fans of this film, it’s actually a more romantic, organic explanation.
Blogger John Kenneth Muir wrote: “This film asks us to ponder a love so powerful, so out of the ordinary, that it goes beyond the veil of our reality. This element imbues Somewhere in Time with some sense of the spiritual, of the longing for the impossible in our everyday lives.” Muir also posited: “Stories of the heart are always more difficult to dramatize… And downright chancy. Love is a deeply personal thing, isn’t it? In a motion shared between two – not one easily transmitted between the masses via a technological medium.”

DID THIS MOVIE LEAVE YOU WITH ANY UNANSWERED QUESTIONS OR AMBIGUITIES?
Is it possible that Robinson is a time traveler like Collier?
Where did the gold watch come from?
How is it even remotely possible to travel through time merely via self-hypnosis?

OTHER FILMS OR BOOKS THIS MOVIE REMINDS YOU OF:
Titanic
The Notebook
Time and Again (novel)
The Time Traveler’s Wife
The Two Worlds of Jenny Logan
Peggy Sue Got Married
The Lake House
Time After Time

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Superman meets Back to the Future meets Harlequin romance novels

Sunday, August 16, 2015

Part 8 of CineVerse's Our Favorite Films--an ongoing series spotlighting CineVerse members top-ranked movies--is slated for August 19; “Somewhere in Time” (1980; 103 minutes), directed by Jeannot Szwarco, chosen by Marce Demski. Plus: A trailer reel preview of the September/October CineVerse schedule.

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The Duke meets The Duchess

Thursday, August 13, 2015

The original "True Grit" features a more portly and slightly mellowed John Wayne in his signature rugged individualist type Western role. But the grizzled old veteran is still able to evoke a distinctive and memorable performance as Rooster Cogburn – a man who meets his match in a sprightly tomboy who seeks justice for her father's murder. Observations offered on this film, collected from last evening's CineVerse discussion, include the following:

A MOTIF IS DEFINED AS A DOMINANT THEME OR REPEATED DESIGN OR IMAGE. A GENRE IS DEFINED AS A CATEGORY, TYPE OR CLASS. WHAT ARE SOME OF THE COMMON MOTIFS OF TYPICAL WESTERN GENRE FILMS THAT ARE USED IN TRUE GRIT? FOR EXAMPLE, HORSES ARE A COMMON MOTIF IN TRUE GRIT AND OTHER WESTERNS. CAN YOU GIVE OTHER EXAMPLES?
Homesteader community/frontier town
Gunslingers
Wide open spaces
Desert landscapes
The rough, dirty, darkly clothed and unkempt vs the cleaner, lighter-colored townspeople

HOW DOES ROOSTER COGBURN REPRESENT A SORT OF MYTHIC FIGURE – THE KIND WE’VE SEEN IN OTHER GENRES AND WORKS OF FICTION?
He’s an outsider who wanders into an established town, not exactly trusted on either the good or bad side
He lives by his own code of honor, bravery, dignity, like the samurai and the medieval knights
He isnt’ afraid to take the law into his own hands; he merits own swift vigilante justice
And yet, while he’s rugged and macho, he’s not a sexy, young stud of a gunslinger like we’ve seen in other westerns, and he isn’t self-conscious about his appearance or style

WHAT DOES COGBURN REPRESENT TO THE BAD GUYS?
A caricature of the western hero: a one-eyed fat, old has-been who probably isn’t much of a threat

WHAT DOES COGBURN REPRESENT TO MATTIE?
A father and grandfather figure in one, a bigger than life mythic hero

TRUE GRIT HAS BEEN DESCRIBED AS A FILM THAT ECHOED JOHN WAYNE’S CONSERVATIVE POLITICAL VIEWPOINT. DO YOU SEE ANY EVIDENCE OF THIS IN THE MOVIE?
“You can’t serve papers on a rat”—his form of justice is the way of the gun
The movie seems to favor stricter laws and tougher treatment of criminals

WHAT DOES JOHN WAYNE BRING TO THIS ROLE AND WHY WAS HE ULTIMATELY THE RIGHT CASTING CHOICE?
He’s played other loner, rugged, morally ambiguous heroes in the past, so we’re already emotionally invested in the values and archetypal traits he brings to a western hero character.

1969 WAS A BIG YEAR FOR WESTERNS:

Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid
The Wild Bunch
McKenna’s Gold
Support Your Local Sherrif
Paint Your Wagon

JOHN WAYNE WON THE BEST ACTOR OSCAR FOR THIS ROLE; THE ACADEMY SEEMS TO LIKE TO REWARD ACTORS WHO EITHER SIGNFICANTLY CHANGE THEIR APPEARANCE OR HAVE A DISABILITY OF SOME KIND. CAN YOU NAME SOME EXAMPLES?

DeNiro in Raging Bull (from thin and buff to overweight and washed up)
Daniel Day Lewis, my left foot (cerebral palsy)
Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man (autism)
William Hurt in Kiss of the Spider Woman (flamboyant homosexual)
Charlize Theron in Monster
Jamie Foxx as Ray Charles in Ray and Al Pacino in Scent of a Woman (blind man)
Tom Hanks as Forrest Gump (developmentally disabled)
Jon Voight as a disabled Vietnam Vet in Coming Home
Hillary Swank, masquerading as a boy in Boys don’t cry
Frances McDormand as a pregnant Sherrif in Fargo
Marlee Matlin as a deaf woman in Children of a Lesser God

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The Duke as elder statesman

Sunday, August 9, 2015

On August 12, Our Favorite Films--an ongoing series spotlighting CineVerse members top-ranked movies--reconvenes with Part 7: “True Grit” (1969; 128 minutes), directed by Henry Hathaway, chosen by Ken Demski.

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A southern belle meets the black knight

Thursday, August 6, 2015

"A Streetcar Named Desire" likely proved to be a revelation to audiences in 1951, with its bold and frank adult themes and downbeat dénouement. CineVerse examined this classic adaptation of the play last night, and came away with these conclusions:


HOW WOULD THIS FILM HAVE BEEN CONTROVERSIAL IN 1951?
There is a strong sexual undercurrent throughout the play that would’ve been difficult to get past the sensors.
There is an implied rape of Blanche by Stanley, which viewers would have found disturbing.
There are hints of female lust and nymphomania; Stella seems to have a sexual longing for her husband, while there is sexual tension between Blanche and Stanley and repressed sexual desires within Blanche.
Stella is a battered woman who endures physical and verbal abuse from her husband.
It is suggested that Blanche’s husband was homosexual, which, combined with Blanche’s taunting of him perhaps contributed to his suicide.
Additionally, the picture offers a bleak and tragic ending that could have limited its commercial appeal: Blanche has been raped and taken away to a mental institution, and Stella will presumably take Stanley back.

WHAT ARE SOME IMPORTANT THEMES EXPLORED IN THIS MOVIE?
Illusion versus reality – consider how Blanche wrote misleading letters, uses a purple shade over the light, recalls her years in Belle Reve, and pines for a bygone era of Southern manners and gentility.
Old values versus new values – much of this play is concerned with the clash between the Old South and the New South and the end of Southern chivalry, hospitality and nobility. Blanche is futilely trying to maintain these romanticized values in a world that has decidedly changed.
The gentility she seeks is only met with brutality, indifference and ignorance, as exemplified by Stanley.
Different kinds of desire – including sexual desire, power desire, and respect desire.
A search for identity.
The power of sexuality to either destroy or redeem.

WHAT DO THE THREE MAIN CHARACTERS – BLANCHE, STELLA AND STANLEY – REPRESENT INDIVIDUALLY AND TO EACH OTHER?
Blanche symbolizes the old South; she’s a pretender who is living in denial – a pseudo-southern belle yearning for a time that has passed.
Stanley represents the new South, with new values exemplified in capitalist, industrial America; he embodies a primal force and serves as an antithesis to the classic white knight who rescues damsels in distress.
Stella, meanwhile, exudes fertility – she stands for a new Southern attitude (consider that she has lost her Southern drawl) where women sadly tolerate the brutality of men.

HOW DOES BLANCHE POSE A THREAT TO STANLEY?
They are two opposing forces.
Blanche is trying to “save Stella from the brutes” and may end up turning Stella away from Stanley.
Blanche is attempting to revitalize a bygone Southern culture that stands in direct contrast to Stanley’s new culture.
As several critics and film scholars have suggested, the fight between Blanche and Stanley over Stella is a Darwinian struggle for survival of each species – Stanley wins (as evidenced by the birth of his son, which suggests that his species will continue), while Stella has lost (she does not convince her sister to leave the brute and she is extricated from the environment completely, insinuating extinction).
Ultimately, Stella will have to choose between the flesh (Stanley) and the spirit (Blanche). She chooses the former.

WHY WAS CASTING SO IMPORTANT TO THIS FILM, AND YOU FEEL IT WAS WELL CAST?
Vivien Leigh is arguably the perfect choice for this role because we identify her with Scarlett and the old South from her performance in Gone With the Wind. Also, she was starting to exhibit signs of her developing bipolar disorder, which could have informed the part and the way she played it.
Marlon Brando serves as a veritable force of nature who uses a physically imposing presence and emotive body language, yet handsome and alluring appearance, to make Stanley a completely believable and complex character. Many historians contend that his performance in this film represented a sea change in film acting, one in which future actors would pay closer attention to nuance, detail, and method acting.
o On this topic, Roger Ebert wrote: “Before this role, there was usually a certain restraint in American movie performances. Actors would portray violent emotions, but you could always sense to some degree a certain modesty that prevented them from displaying their feelings in raw nakedness. Brando held nothing back, and within a few years his was the style that dominated Hollywood movie acting. This movie led directly to work by Brando’s heirs such as Montgomery Clift, James Dean, Jack Nicholson, and Sean Penn.”
Kim Hunter is also well placed in this role, considering that she appears common and plain, yet emanates an earthy sensuality.

HOW DO THE FILM’S CINEMATOGRAPHY, SET DESIGN AND MUSIC HELP SET THE TONE AND MOOD FOR THE STORY?
The filmmakers create a claustrophobic feel with tight quarters and cramped interiors, which tightens the conflict between the characters.
We see and feel the sweat, heat and grime – there’s no romanticizing of New Orleans or its characters here; this is a seething sauna of sexuality and conflict.
The film is also imbued with short sets of music that reflect each character’s psychological dynamics; it employs jazz elements in a New Orleans style to conjure up a brooding sexual atmosphere.

OTHER FILMS BY ELIA KAZAN
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Gentlemen’s Agreement
East of Eden
Baby Doll
A Face in the Crowd
On the Waterfront
Splendor in the Grass
Viva Zapata

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I have always depended on the kindness of CineVerse

Sunday, August 2, 2015

Our Favorite Films--an ongoing series spotlighting CineVerse members top-ranked movies--continues at CineVerse on August 5 with Part 6: “A Streetcar Named Desire” (1951; 122 minutes), directed by Elia Kazan, chosen by Dan Quenzel.

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