Readers Guessed the Movie Quote

Congratulations to Walter and Andrew for guessing the origin of Tuesday's quote:

"You kill your film several times, mostly by talking about it. A film is a dream. You kill it writing it down, you kill it with a camera; the film might come to life for a moment or two when your actors breathe life back into it - but then it dies again, buried in film cans.

"Mysteriously, sometimes, in the editing room, a miracle happens when you place one image next to another so that when, finally, an audience sits in the dark, if you’re lucky -- very lucky - and sometimes I’ve been lucky - the dream flickers back to life again..."

These were, of course, the opening lines of the 2009 musical "Nine".

(I watched "Nine" again the other night, and unlike most reviewers who found much to dislike, I actually liked it more... Perhaps just having returned from Rome, I felt, among other things, that "Nine" captured a certain Italian mindset.... And the spirit of Fellini was most strong.  "Nine" holds a musical prism to Fellini, and Fellini's humor and visual generosity show brightly. 

See "8-1/2" and then watch "Nine".  I think "Nine" is a worthy contemporary rendering of [and companion-piece to] a masterwork of one of my cinematic idols.)

The quote sets up the central crisis in the film; creative malaise. In the character Guido's case, he is blocked by his conflicting cultural expectations, experiences, and fantasies.  "Nine" is a concoction borne of Guido's psyche and mind.  It is Guido's ninth film, an ambitious exploration of the country itself titled "Italia". Guido cannot articulate his dream, which is fully formed inside his mind.

"Nine" is actually the film Guido will succeed in creating at the end of the film.

The idea of creative panic does not seem to trouble the creators of much current popular cinema.

This tendency for today's popular filmmakers to plumb old ideas, and their assumption that the "magic demographic" of moviegoers will keep buying tickets, is just one of the elements that are troubling today's movies, and disappointing those who believe there is a place on the local multiplex screens for stories that reflect what's happening today, in this world,  something more closely approaching the pleasures of art and literature.

The quote from "Nine" is a good place to begin my discussion, over the next week or so, about what role film criticism plays in today's movie landscape.

I hope you'll be back to discuss this with me.

Chicago is "Transformed"...While A Few Feet Away, an Old Masterpiece Unfolds

It was too good to pass up:  vintage Fellini back on the big screen in a new 35mm print, at the Gene Siskel Film Center, one of the city's best screening rooms.  We had to go...

So, while walking through Downtown Chicago yesterday, there was a huge mob of people gathered at Wabash Ave. Then I saw the rubble...the street "torn up", and also the cameras and lights.....Oh yes.."Transformers 3".

Behind these people, some of the most beautiful architecture in the world loomed, ignored....Director Michael Bay promised to make the city look beautiful in his film.....which is ironic, and laughable. Even if he manages to capture a few seconds of the Wrigley Building, Tribune Tower...few in the audience will notice, or care, just like that Sunday crowd.

"Transformers 3" would have been a good candidate CGI instead of location shooting; it doesn't strike me as substantial enough to deserve the awesome locations Chicago can offer a truly monumental motion picture. 

And just two blocks away, in a quiet 200-seat screening room on State Street, one of the most unusual and interesting films was on display....and I would bet that 90% of those in that mob never heard of it...

"8-1/2". 


In my fantasy, there would be a sellout crowd lining up to see this masterpiece of cinematic invention, while the mindless labor-intensive exercise on Wabash went virtually ignored.


Although Fellini did not pack the house, thank goodness the Siskel Center at least had a respectable showing.....


I assumed that the Transformer toys lost their "coolness" a while ago.  Were young adults being courted by movie companies to play on their nostalgia for their toys?   I now know that Transformers never really went out of fashion. 

I, too, am susceptible to the allure of a location shoot in my home town, of the awesomeness of seeing the streets and bridges you cross every day being blown up, courtesy of the relative safety of the Special Effects and Art departments. 


Not every movie can be (or should be) as rich as this by Fellini;  I only want there to be something in between to capture undernourished modern filmgoers  and to prepare them for the artistic feast of an "8-1/2", a film which offers so much that it's disappearance from popular culture is almost obscene.


Last year's musical film "Nine", which was inspired by "8-1/2", was so reviled and misunderstood, that it did not help expose a new generation of filmgoers to Fellini; rather, the critics succeeded in alienating potential Fellini-philes.



In "8-1/2", Guido Anselmi, a world-famous director, is poised to create his next film...and despite the skeptical scrutiny of his public, the urging of his cast and crew, the prodding of his co-writer, and his ever-present fantasies he seeks for inspiration, he finds that he has nothing to say.

That was Fellini's own dilemma as he struggled to create his "eight-and-a-half" film (Fellini had already made something like seven full-length movies and one short film, hence the title.)

I can't do justice to Fellini's accomplishment here, his successful self-reflexive soul-searching through his protagonist, the specific set pieces he stages for  the women in his life who are his muses, his reflection on family and religious guilt and the pain and confusion of true creativity.....

I will review the film soon....

In the final sequence, I found Fellini's generosity toward his kindred creative spirits, his acceptance of "seeking and not knowing", and the desire to integrate one's past with the total artist (where the past can inspire, or paralyze, an artist), was a comfort....It was an overpowering emotion.  In a similar way, I found that I was striving to accomplish the same thing with this blog....especially in my nostalgic previous post.....Fellini's final image, just like my own, is of himself as a little boy....

"8-1/2" (and "Nine") inspired me....

Movies: "Nine"-- Brilliant

If Federico Fellini had directed Bob Fosse’s 1979 autobiographical musical extravaganza “All That Jazz”, it might have resulted in something very much like “Nine”, Rob Marshall’s smashing, exhilarating homage to Fellini and Fosse. “Nine” is based on the 1982 Tony-winning Broadway musical, which in turn derives its source from Fellini’s 1963 visionary film, “8-1/2”.



Like the Fellini film, Marshall’s “Nine” is a fantasy, a romantic dream-world, a portrait of an artist in creative crisis, a film about a director not sure what to say in his ninth motion picture, and it is also Guido's ninth picture, as creatively free and brilliant as anything on screen this year. Unlike” 8-1/2”, it uses brilliantly staged musical sequences to explore the creative malaise of its protagonist. Well-designed, impeccably photographed and staged, with pulsating sound and score, and astonishing performances , “Nine” made this reviewer glad to “be Italian”.

At the start of the film, Guido (the world-famous director played by Daniel Day Lewis with wiry charm , always in motion, always cool, always holding himself close to the vest) speaks during a press conference to introduce his ninth film, saying that “to discuss one’s creation is to kill it. You kill your movie…by talking about it”. It exists in the dream-life of its creator, and once it goes into production, the dream dies. For an occasional brief moment, a performer plays a scene and brings the dream perfectly to life, but then it fades again. In a way, that is how I feel about talking about this movie…it unfolds like a dream, it is tightly focused on this character, his creative agony, his attempts to cure his block through the validation that sex with beautiful women gives him.  It enters one’s senses and excites and inspires one in mysterious ways; it's like a musical Rorschach test.  I worry that I will kill the experience by speaking about it.

(But a writer must write…and I will do so gently, so as not to destroy the delicate object of my admiration!)

This could be the most intimate big-movie-musical ever made, and I suspect many viewers will not willingly enter the psyche of this self-absorbed character, nor wholly adjust to the movement from reality to fantasy and back. Yet even for those who do not identify with creative process, or who are uncomfortable with the personal revelations this character makes, there’s still the energy, the humor, the emotion, and the skill and the care that have produced an elevating, entertaining work. Of course, if you bring to it some knowledge of Fellini or his works (or have just seen “8-1/2”, which I recommend) the film might be even more satisfying.


The films of Fellini captured my young attention, and I am sorry to admit that his is no longer a household name. That may hurt this film’s reception with modern audiences. In Fellini’s heyday, the 1960’s and ‘70’s, college students and film-lovers worldwide regarded the work of Fellini with the same artistic appreciation as they did works by Antonioni and Bergman (neither of whom, I am afraid, are pop culture icons today, either). He was a generous artist, voluptuous with his imagery and unbridled in his imagination. After “8-1/2”, he moved away from sophisticated realism and turned to magical imagery, fantasy, dreams.


Marshall not only pays homage to the director, but also acknowledges Fosse, his primary inspiration, quoting from “Jazz” and “Cabaret” and even, in black and white sequences, “Lenny”. He is true to Fellini’s vision and stages his numbers in an effective and convincing representation of the inner world of his Guido/Fellini. If anything, I would have liked Marshall to do more within a shot instead of cutting too rapidly within a sequence; his precision here occasionally works against the imaginative dream-logic of his “director”. This is a minor quibble, however. Marshall is masterful in his handling of movement, either with his camera, or from his performers.


The highest praise I can give Marshall is that despite the amount of incredibly fertile material from which to borrow, and the influences available to be plundered, he makes this vision his own. Marshall’s emerging signature-style of confining his musical numbers to brilliantly lit, marvelously designed sets (a-la “Chicago”) is perfectly suited to the material here; and Day-Lewis is so convincing that Marshall manages to also convince us that what he has staged is coming from within the psyche of his protagonist. I would love to see Marshall attempt a musical version of “Fellini Satyricon!”


But enough analysis… this movie is fun. Day-Lewis can sing, too, and finds the perfect tone of irony to play reality and fantasy easily. Everything is about Guido--the name Guido is perhaps the most-repeated word in “Nine”--but Day Lewis plays up the charm of his character’s egotism. In “Guido’s Song,” his desire to be everywhere and retain his youthful energy spoke to me very personally.  With “I Can’t Make This Movie”,  Day-Lewis convincingly speaks to many who feel defeated by their own vision.


As the women in Guido’s life, each one is terrific, and most of them have excellent material to play. Penelope Cruz takes her spitfire image as Guido’s naïve mistress to new levels, and lets a sweet vulnerability shine through. Judi Dench, as Guido’s costume designer and confidante, has a surprisingly bravura turn belting out her memory of the “Folies Bergeres”. As Claudia, Guido’s long-suffering wife, I thought Marion Cotillard is more heartbreaking and more natural here than she was in “La Vie en Rose”. There, she proved her vocal prowess; here she is beautiful and strong, and when she confronts Guido after a painful screen test that recalls their falling in love, you may have a visceral response. She is a ferocious stage presence as well in her big dance number.

Kate Hudson is fine as the American journalist, but her number is superfluous .  Nicole Kidman has surprisingly little screen time, and her voice is the least strong of the cast, but she is required to look good, which she does, brilliantly.


Sophia Loren brings an incomparable authenticity to her role as Guido’s mother. No matter what she had to do for this film, I was supremely happy to see her on the big screen again, her presence as comforting as an Old Italian relative.

Last, and best…I am least familiar with contemporary performer Fergie, but I will start to pay more attention to her career. She is a blooming natural in her turn as Saraghina, the whore who fed little Guido’s boyhood fantasies. “Be Italian” is a showstopper, the best thing in the film, and Marshall works it like a visual and aural goldmine.


I enjoyed Marshall’s painstaking attention to period detail and his faithfulness to Fellini’s work. I was especially warmed during Kidman’s and Day-Lewis’ romantic scene by a fountain, reminiscent of “La Dolce Vita”, and like “La Dolce Vita”, includes a stray cat wandering the streets of Rome. (This was a small detail, and I was very happy they remembered to include it.)


I cannot understand the criticisms that have been leveled at this tremendously entertaining and satisfying movie. “Nine” requires an intensity of focus from a viewer, which the film rewards with a tightly moving observation of a complex and self-absorbed artist, one who must exercise his fantasies in order to recharge his creative energy.  The songs are not chart-topper material, but they never were, even when the Broadway show was universally praised.  "Nine" presents itself as big and brassy and accessible to the world, but it has complexities buried within it that many do not wish to see revealed. It is self-reflexive, much like Guido…and much like the Fellini of “8-1/2”.


I admired the film’s graceful final image. Rather than a Felliniesque parade, Marshall arranges all of the persons in Guido’s life in a silent tableaux on a scaffold behind Guido, where they will always be. Through his work, Guido has found his way to reconcile with his wife, thus freeing himself to create again; and as the dolly carries Guido, adult and child, up to the heaven of the studio floodlight, we hear the final word, the word Guido yearned to say all along: “Action!”


Bellissima! My favorite film so far this year.