(Update: this post was on top of the page for most of the day, but it won’t be any longer as all pictures have been guessed already!)
 
Frankly, I don’t know who Mr. deMille is and I don’t know what this whole quiz thing is about.
All I know is that any excuse to re-post the picture on the left is a good one.
 
Seriously though, I like seeing Zhao Wei and not just for the most obvious (visible) reason. I think she happens to be a good actress and has terrific comedic timing. But yes, she’s hot, although seeing her face in a movie will in general make me smile rather than drool.
 
Funnily enough I haven’t heard her sing yet, even though that was the thing which started her career (well, that and the pin-up modeling…).
Zhao Wei, or rather Vicky Zhao for us English-speakers, is soon to be seen in the title-role of the Chinese epic “Mulan” and next year she stars opposite Donnie Yen in Daniel Lee’s “14 Blades”.
 
Yes, you can rest assured I’ll be watching both…
 
So once again I’m going to use a turn in the Twitch-O-Meter to do a gallery of 5 close-ups of one of my favorite thespians. Guess which 5 movies they’re from.
No competition, no prizes, just for fun, try to see how far you get without using IMDB.

As a Twitch-O-Meter, this post will remain up on top of the page for most of the day (or, being a “Mr. DeMille” article, until it gets fully guessed).  Gaze upon the lovely visage Ms. Cheung, but do not forget to scroll down for additional news and articles!
 

“No matter where I’m going, I feel like I’m leaving something behind. Every time I get on a plane, I cry. The flight attendants on Cathay Pacific must think I’m mad.”

Cosmopolitan, gorgeous, multi-lingual, and one of cinemas great ladies, Maggie Cheung went from Hong Kong model to European festival juror with many accolades and prizes in between.  Whether she is posing beside Jackie Chan or for Wong Kar Wai she has a presence on the screen.  She can can be icy cold and distant or warm and generous.  Sometimes, as in the case of several films with her ex-Husband, director Olivier Assayas, both extremes in the same picture.  At her prime, she worked with a great many of the top HK directors, Tsui Hark, Johnnie To, wkw, Zhang Yimou, Stanley Kwan and Ching Siu-Tung.  With her British upbringing and cultural fluency, she has worked for a number of directors in Europe and America.  Over the past half-decade, she has slowed down her voluminous output, doing only two nearly-cropped-entirely-from-the-film cameos (That would be Inglorious Basterds and 2046).  They say always keep ‘em wanting more, but please Maggie, a few more films would make us happy, happy folks.
 
How well do you know the faces of Maggie Cheung?  This is not a competition, there are no prizes, bragging rights in the comment section.  Friends don’t let friends use the IMDB as a crutch.
I will post the answers just before this post drops off the main page, that is, if all you smart folks out there do not get them first!  Extra points for the cropped ‘cover-image at the top of the post.
 
Good luck!

Continue Reading "Maggie Cheung is ready for her close-up, Mr. DeMille!"...

For this edition of the Twitch-o-Meter I tread somewhat similar ground to what I did last time out.  Back at the beginning of May I looked at a group of supposed golden children - the can’t miss prospects - who somehow managed to mess things up and slide back into obscurity.  They were the one hit wonders, as it were, or those who achieved stardom in one area but now appear unlikely to ever gain traction anywhere else.  This time out I’m doing something slightly different, I’m looking at people who are definitely successes but who seem to be locked in the world of the character player, destined to forever be that guy in that movie.  They work a lot and do good work but for whatever reason seem to have become pigeonholed at a certain level.  Which leads me to ask:  In a world where mediocrity so often rises to the top, why aren’t these guys - who are actually really, really good - famous?

Continue Reading "Why Aren’t These Guys Famous?"...

As a Twitch-O-Meter, this post will remain up on top of the page for nearly one day. There might be newer posts below this, so don’t forget to take a look!
 
So… ten years ago we Star Wars fans were picking up the pieces of what had been a close-knit community a scant few weeks earlier. “Episode One: The Phantom Menace” had arrived and had split the fanbase into more different factions than “Return of the Jedi” had ever managed. Forget whether or not you liked Ewoks, now we had Jar-Jar Binks to worry about…
 
Today, we have groups of fans being “Lucas Apologists” , or “Prequel Deniers”, and even the dreaded “Lucas-Raped-My-Childhood Victims” (although these can again be split into “Prequel Caused”,  “Special-Edition Caused” and “DVD-Release Caused”...).
 
Me, I’m a staunch fan of the holy trilogy. The original first one from the Seventies and Eighties. Han shot first, dammit!
And while I like bits and pieces of the prequels and am glad to have seen them all in the cinema, I do also think they are staggering disappointments that don’t hold a candle to what had come before.
 
There are many reasons for this, but I’ll run with a fun one today and do a what-if concerning the director’s side. What if George Lucas had concentrated on the look of the film as much as he did, but had allowed someone else to direct? Someone who is a better so-called “actor’s director” than Lucas?
 
After the break is my list of directors who I’d have liked to tackle the prequels… and feel free to join in with your own choices!

Continue Reading "The prequels: what if Lucas hadn’t directed them himself?"...

A little while back, yours truly posted a ToM dealing with remakes that I felt, at the very least, equaled their inspiration for one reason or another.  It shouldn’t surprise that reader response was pretty divided, with some people decrying the institution of remaking films as a whole while others brought up great examples I had boneheadedly missed.  I thought we’d give this another go-round but change things up a little in that this ToM will focus on remakes that, in my mind’s eye anyway, sullied the good name of their source material.  Here are five that get my fanboy blood boiling…

Continue Reading "Remakes Done Wrong"...

This post will remain at the top of the page for a single day.

There are countless films about obsessive relationships but one of the very best is Nicolas Roeg’s 1980 film Bad Timing. Roeg’s film is an absolutely beautiful work about the complex dynamics of an absolutely wretched relationship. Bad Timing is fiction, but like most great art, the film uses the tools of the medium to artfully probe the dark side of human behavior.

Continue Reading "Nicholas Roeg’s BAD TIMING and the Art of the Bad Relationship"...

I know the Twitch reader base knows a fair few fans of genrefilms, so I assume the following situation will sound pretty familiar. You have just watched a very good film. Maybe it wasn’t truly original, maybe it carried its influences a little too boldly, but nevertheless it was good and made a couple of worthwhile efforts at being different. So you set out to tell the world about this film. It takes about 2 or 3 replies before the word influence enters the discussion, about 3 more before someone start shouting rip-off. Ah yes, how quickly your enthusiasm fades in the light of these remarks.

And so I figured this week’s Twitch-O-Meter could be about directors or films that have been referenced one time too many. Not that I will deny any of the influences mentioned further along my list, but even influences have their limits. When a director like Tsukamoto says he is influenced by Kurosawa’s lighting techniques I won’t doubt his sincerity. Still, I fail to recognize any of it in his films, let alone find enough common ground to compare the two. Anyway, as any Ritchie fan will know, sometimes enough is enough, and you just can’t bear to hear any more Tarantino rip-off arguments. So after the break I’m presenting a list of 5 films/directors that are rather overused when discussing influences.

Continue Reading "Say no more!"...

The con, the flim flam, the gaffle, the grift, the hustle, the scam, the confidence swindle or (for lovers of lost language) bunco.  All of these terms describe the art of getting someone to do something on the promise of only the confidence you give them to do so (of course playing to their vanity, greed and own desires never hurts).  Having enjoyed a sit down with The Brothers Bloom director Rian Johnson some time ago (transcription of that chat is coming later this week), we certainly bonded in our love of Ricky Jay.  Card artiste, illusionist and showman extraordinaire, Jay knows how to command an audience with a simple monologue, which is as much (often more!) compelling than the supple movements of his hands.  It is not surprising in the least when one considers number of films the illusionist/actor/consultant has performed voice over narration, a clever contraption, or plied his card and illusion trade in.  It is often the simple communication or confounding thereof that makes for the best entertainment.  The nature of a good con man flick is such that you need compelling characters, smart schemes and you have to structure plot, pacing and interaction with even more attention to detail than a straight up drama, just to get your foot in the door.  Go through the history of cinema and you will find that there are simply not enough of these films because they are so hard to make.  A hybrid (perhaps even the logical evolution) of the noir picture and the character study (Stephen Frears The Grifters, leans towards the former, Steven Spielberg‘s Catch Me If You Can toward the latter), but there is enough wiggle room in the genre for it to go into deep dark places, or be flat out fun.  Either way, when all the plates are balanced and spinning, I personally am in cinematic nirvana.

With that here are five modern scrappy scam capers worth looking for, they dazzle not with special effects, but rather crafted and honed narrative and interesting lowlifes on screen - you know, the best special effect.

Continue Reading "Confidence"...

With the arrival of summer movie season there are two things that can be counted on.  First, every major newspaper will run their summer blockbuster guide, a quick cheat-sheet of all the major movies coming down the line with just enough salient info included that you can use them to make your friends believe you know what you’re talking about when the films come up in conversation.  And, second, most of those papers will also run articles dedicated to the current crop of can’t miss hot young stars - this year’s leading candidates apparently being Channing Tatum and Megan Fox - who are going to lead the film world in the years to come.  Except that most of them don’t.  Some will be exposed as untalented flavors of the week, some will undermine their own success thanks to poor choices in their personal lives, some will simply fail to catch on with audiences through no fault of their own.  And here I present five of the biggest can’t miss prospects who nevertheless somehow managed to miss.

Continue Reading "Can’t Miss Prospects Who Missed."...

1. In a Lonely Place (1950; d. Nicholas Ray)

“I was born when she kissed me.
I died when she left me.
I lived a few weeks while she loved me.”

Not just the title, but the entire picture is suffused with loneliness. Dixon Steele, played by Humphrey Bogart with a thin sheet of icy reserve over a deep reservoir of roiling anger, is filled with contempt toward himsef, for the compromises he has made as a Hollywood screenwriter, and toward everyone else, because they are so clearly beneath even him in their feeble attempts to make lasting contributions to society.

Continue Reading "I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry (Five Films About Loneliness)"...

As a Twitch-O-Meter, this post will remain up on top of the page for one day. There might be newer posts below this, so don’t forget to take a look!
 
We all know the phenomenon: there are movies out there that we’d love to see, but do not get their financing sorted. Some directors are just not lucky enough, some seem to be cursed (cough-Gilliam-cough), but sometimes directors just aren’t considered to be “hot” or “marketable” enough to place a big financial risk on.
 
So what I’d want to explore in this Twitch-O-Meter is the following.
What if some bored billionaire philanthropist just phones someone and says:
 
“I like what you’re doing. Here is 100.000.000 USD, no questions asked.
Spend it all on your movie.
Have fun, no further interference from me, but make it a good one!” 
 
Which directors would I want this to happen to? 
 
Well, me of course, if my holiday home-movies count…
 
But here are five others, after the break…. Some are experienced, some are as yet unproven, some actually have worked with similar budgets before (but under restraints…), some probably do not even know what a big pile of money LOOKS like.
 

Continue Reading "Which directors would I like to get a cool 100 million US-dollars to play around with?"...

As usual, this ToM will remain at the top of the page for the better part of the day.  New stories will appear below!

Sorry folks – I’m not intro-ing a betting function here at Twitch but tackling another ToM, this one focused on films other folks love that I hate, and vice-versa - the classic overrated, underrated debate.  We all have movies we just can’t convince our friends to get behind, and we all have films we’re maybe a little ashamed to admit we don’t quite “get” or just can’t stand.  Here are six of mine – three each (of course there are plenty more, both ways).  What are some of yours?

Continue Reading "Over / Under"...

[Do not expect any wacky pranks or hijinks here at Twitch today; instead we offer this.  According to the law around these here parts, the Twitch-O-Meter article will be at the top of the page for the next 12 hours.  Scroll down for news - it is up to you to believe if any of it is real, on this particular day.]

From F.W. Murnau skirting the rights to Bram Stoker’s Dracula to come up with the fabulous Nosferatu, to Charlie Kaufmann folding Susan Orlean’s The Orchid Thief into a meta-digression on the art of creating something, out of…well…something, to Uwe Boll’s daisy chain of video game stinkers, the adaptation of books, comics, games, television programs, etc. has been around since the creation of the the feature film.  Movies have always been an amalgamation of other art-forms (music, image, theatre) so it goes without saying that the would be inspired by and created out of other media.  Mars Attacks went so far as to be an adaption (of sorts) from trading card series, and a certain Johnny Depp headlined franchise built from a theme park ride.  Yet things as non-narrative as cards or rides allow for the writers to do essentially what they want.  Recently, the film version of Watchmen has been raked over the coals for being ‘too faithful’ - a veritable shooting of the individual panels from the graphic novel which strangles the actors.  Yet, explain No Country For Old Men, Nineteen Eighty-Four or Sin City:  Three films that is fair to say are rigorously faithful adaptations their source novels.  For those of the school that the different mediums (print and cinema) require radically different approaches, there is the situation when a novel is turned on its ear, then flipped through the air and pulled inside out.  Is this a recipe for disaster?  And I am not talking Shakespeare adaptations which play with setting more than the story or thematic elements, but leave the basic drama and overall meaning in place.  No, these five films below were big fat April Fools Day surprises to fans of the source material.  Love ‘em or hate ‘em they are all aging very well.

Continue Reading "Adapt That!  Five Grossly Unfaithful Book to Film Adaptations…That worked"...

The world’s financial institutions are crumbling. Energy resources are dwindling. War and poverty plague many countries. Some say that the nations of Earth are in need of a massive change, perhaps even a revolution. The truth is that what the world needs right now is a RanXerox movie.

RanXerox (Ranx) is a comic book character created by Stefano Tamburini and Tanino Liberator. The Ranx character is a punky, post-apocalyptic android built from spare Xerox machine parts. All RanXerox stories were luxuriously illustrated with bizarre, violent and, to put it lightly, unchaste story lines. RanXerox first appeared in Cannibal magazine in 1978. After the disappearance of Cannibal, RanXerox was transitioned to Frigidaire magazine, where the comic strip appeared until 1985. Most English speakers first caught wind of RanXerox when Heavy Metal magazine began serializing translated strips in July 1983. There have been no new Ranx stories since the 1980s.

One would have thought that somebody like Alejandro Jodorowsky would have made a RanXerox movie. However, Chris Cunningham, who is best known for directing videos for Aphex Twin and Squarepusher, picked up the mantle early in this young century. Cunningham publicly stated that he was going to adapt Ranxerox 2 for Warp Films. The UK Film Council even provided some funds but after years of talking, the production collapsed.

So, the point of this post comes down to this: who will be so bold as to pick up the torch and make a RanXerox movie? Who should direct? Who should play RanXerox?

When we first came up with the idea of doing these regular Twitch-O-Meter posts the only limitations given were that the posts had to be some sort of list.  At the time I thought that would lead to a pretty broad range of approaches, which is has in a way, but there is one overwhelming similarity between the huge majority of them:  Almost all are lists of favorites of one sort or another.  So today I’m doing something different.

With this edition of the Twitch-O-Meter we look at the fallen masters, a list of five film makers who at their peaks were considered the very best at what they did.  They have all changed the way films are made and at one point were among the most sought after film makers in the world, their names in the credits a virtual guarantee of quality.  And then all of them - for some reason or another - descended into mediocrity or worse. The goal here isn’t to mock or to poke fun but instead to remember what made them great in the first place, to wonder aloud what went wrong and, maybe, to serve as a hopeful note that they can somehow find their way back to their creative peaks.

You’ll find all five below the break, organized alphabetically.

Continue Reading "Masters In Decline"...