300

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Tomorrow, I will resume my exploration of King George, and Colin Firth.  For tonight, a few unrelated short takes: everything from a nice shelter adoption, to a birthday commemoration, to the passage of a law, to this year's film awards calendar.

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Lulu Found a Home! 

One of my favorite new arrivals at the Buddy Foundation has found a home. This adoption was meant to be.  The five-month old beagle was chosen by an older, widowed gentleman.  The man is retired and will be able to spend lots of time with Lulu.  He's had beagles his whole life.  When it came time to pay for the adoption, he took out his credit card....and on it was a picture of a beagle!  




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A Special Birthday Commemoration

Sam, my maternal grandfather, would have celebrated his 100th birthday yesterday, November 29.  (My grandmother Lucy commemorated her 100th on May 6th this year.)  Faithful visitors here recall that their centennial was my inspiration to study Italian.  Seems like they are still with us, in some way.  I can still hear their laughter, and good-natured teasing and banter. I can still taste the pizza, and the sauce.  This is their wedding picture, taken in August of 1928.

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Illinois House Passes Civil Unions Bill, Senate Expected to Pass, Quinn To Sign

Illinois took a step in a "good" direction today by passing a same-sex civil unions bill in the House.  The bill goes to the Senate and on to the governor for signature, if all goes as expected.  Chicago Mayoral Candidate Gery Chico organized supporters to urge their representatives in the Illinois congress to pass the bill.  I admire Mr. Chico for his support of equal rights for all citizens.  And yet, I bristle when I am told that "we must not let perfect be the enemy of good".  Good thing the architects of this bill are not designing our buildings and bridges.  Because what I hear is "good enough", and a silent order to take what we're given and stay in our place. 

To be sure, civil unions will provide some rights to same-sex couples that now are only available through costly estate planning.  But they do not provide all of the rights of marriage.  Separate but equal?  Not even equal.  Go to the back of the bus and enjoy the ride.  Throw a few rights to the gays and they will calm down..they may not even continue to fight for actual marriage.

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"All they do is give out awards!" (Woody Allen, "Annie Hall", 1977)

Movie fans still take great interest in the outcome of the Academy Awards, which will be handed out on February 27, about three months from now.  In the meantime, a different industry or critic's group will be announcing their award nominees or winners evey few days for three months.  Take a look at the following list and you will understand why, by the time the Big Night arrives, I'm practically wrung out by predictions. It's anticlimactic, and I feel sort of numb by Oscar night, as though I have consumed too much junk food for weeks.

And we miss the forest for the trees; we look at all the new films in terms of how they will be positioned for awards, rather than for the pure artistry or entertainment each work provides.

I wonder how possible it would be to avoid the outcomes of the interminable list of minor awards, and bring back the suspense and fun of the Academy Awards?

Well, anyway, here's the Awards calendar for those who follow all of it, on our way to spending Oscar Night with our talented and charismatic hosts, Anne Hathaway and James Franco:



 November
Nov. 30 Film Independent Spirit Award nominations announced


December
Dec. 2 National Board of Review announces winners
Dec. 3 British Independent Film Awards
Dec. 3 International Documentary Association Awards
Dec. 11 Boston Film Critics announces winners
Dec. 12 AFI honorees announced
Dec. 12 Los Angeles Film Critics Association announces winners
Dec. 13 New York Film Critics Circle announces winners
Dec. 13 Broadcast Film Critics Association nominations announced
Dec. 14 Golden Globe nominations announced
Dec. 14 San Diego Critics Association announces winners
Dec. 15 Toronto Critics Association announces winners
Dec. 16 Screen Actors Guild Award nominations announced
Dec. 18 Houston Critics Association winners announced
Dec. 19 Satellite Awards
Dec. 20 Chicago Critics Association winners announced

January
Jan. 3 Online Film Critics Society winners announced
Jan. 4 Producers Guild of America nominations
Jan. 4 Writers Guild of America nominations
Jan. 8 Palm Springs International Film Festival
Jan. 10 Directors Guild of America nominations announced
Jan. 11 National Board of Review ceremony
Jan. 14 BFCA Critics’ Choice Awards winners announced
Jan. 14 AFI Awards
Jan. 15 L.A. Film Critics Association Awards ceremony
Jan. 16 Golden Globe Awards
Jan. 18 BAFTA nominations announced
Jan. 22 Producers Guild Awards
Jan. 25 Oscar nominations announced
Jan. 27 Santa Barbara International Film Festival
Jan. 28 Visual Effects Society Awards
Jan. 29 Directors Guild of America Awards
Jan. 30 Screen Actors Guild Awards


February
Feb. 2 Costume Designers Guild Awards
Feb. 5 Writers Guild Awards
Feb. 5 Art Directors Guild Awards
Feb. 5 Annie Awards
Feb. 12 Scientific and Technical Awards Presentation
Feb. 13 BAFTAs
Feb. 26 Independent Spirit Awards
Feb. 26 NAACP Image Awards
Feb. 27 Academy Awards

Goodbye, Billy--Monday Journal

It was like seeing a friend move away.  You think maybe you will see him again one day, but you know in your heart that you never will.


Yesterday (Sunday), "Billy Elliot", the smash Tony-winning Broadway musical, had its last performance at Chicago's Oriental Theater.  It was an early departure.  It was bittersweet.  It seemed like an invincible show, that might extend its run past the original January end date. 


When I heard in October that the show was ending sooner due to disappointing ticket sales, I knew I needed to experience this breathtaking show once more.  So, this past Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, we attended the matinee among a large and appreciative crowd.


"Billy" still soared.  I liked it even more in my second viewing than the first time, and I raved about it then. 

According to the Chicago Tribune Theater Critic Chris Jones' article "Hello 'Wicked,' Farewell and Thanks to 'Billy Elliot the Musical' ", the show suffered from a number of external issues and internal challenges.  The weak economy guaranteed that it would not find its audience among a blue-collar crowd that might have embraced it.  Many community groups that often do large bookings and blocs for schools,  found the material (especially the language) too adult for children; and yet the abundance of children in the cast gave those wishing for more serious fare the impression that it was a kid's show.  And the show was expensive, precisely because of the number of children, and their handlers.

And still, according to Jones, "...this Chicago “Billy Elliot” was, on opening night, far superior to the one on Broadway. It introduced discriminating Chicagoans to a group of the most amazing young dancers the city has ever seen. And it was produced and maintained here, with hand and loving care, by a group of international artists for whom quality trumped profitability at every turn. No expense was spared to bring us the best that these artists could manage."

Being in the theater on Friday, I felt like I had entered a world that was very real to me, one that I would gladly visit regularly: Billy's house, with his father, brother and grandmother hamming it up at the kitchen table, and his little bedroom upstairs; the Miner's Association Hall; the boxing gym that doubled nicely as the dancing school; the snowy street on Christmas Eve...

This show affected me like few others have.  I will always remember the intimacy of the duet between Billy and his older self; I felt like I was up on that stage with a mentor who loved me.  I will remember Grandmother's ribald recollection of her late husband as they danced; Billy's mother come back from beyond to tell Billy how proud of him she is; the rousing and masculine choreography of the miners and the police; the joyous humor of the dancing school; the somber plight of the miners on strike, and how well the play incorporates that history while managing to be entertaining, and honestly emotional.

Goodbye, Billy...good luck on your next stop in Toronto!

Honorable Mention to Ben, Who Identified The Quote!

Ben, one of my Fellow Bloggers and frequent visitors, and creator of Runs Like a Gay, successfully identified the quote I used in my recent piece about "Valley of the Dolls". As promised, here is Ben's Honorable Mention!

In my post last week (A Great Time in the "Valley"), in order to explain why a review of "Dolls" was futile in the face of its camp appeal, I cited a quote from another film from  20th Century Fox, made in 1943: "For those who believe, no explanation is necessary; for those who do not believe, no explanation is possible".


That's the post-credit title card that precedes the start of "The Song of Bernadette", a multi-Oscar winner, including Best Actress for Jennifer Jones in her screen debut.  Good job, Ben!



I now officially retire "Dolls" from this blog....until it resurfaces in the news again to delight (and corrupt) another group of excited fans.  To the many readers who will see this movie for the first time after reading this Journal, I don't know whether to say "I'm Sorry" or "You're Welcome"!  I am fairly confident, though, that most of you will have a guilty good time, and for that, I am happy.


And I am also quite certain that no other publication but this Journal has mentioned both "Valley of the Dolls" and "The Song of Bernadette" in the same article!

David Seidler's Screenplay for "The King's Speech" Written from Experience

This is a wonderful story about life becoming art...about how one can use painful life experience to reinvent one's self....

"The King's Speech" is winning Audience Awards at festivals like Toronto and Aspen, and for screenwriter David Seidler, it is a happy ending to the heartbreak and struggle that inspired this film.

Seidler, now 73, was born in England but was raised in Long Island after his family fled the German bombings during World War II.  He recalls being inspired by the wartime radio addresses of King George VI (played in the film by Colin Firth), with whom Seidler shared the problem of stuttering.  After years of therapy, Seidler "found his voice", turning his self-pity into rage at his condition, and eventually brought the stuttering under control by age 16.

Seidler began his writing career doing TV scripts, as well as propaganda-writing for the Prime Minister of Fiji, before his old college friend Francis Coppola asked him to create a screenplay for what would eventually become "Tucker: A Man and his Dream". The film was finally produced, but released to indifference.  So he continued cranking out a variety of scripts, ranging from the biographies of Aristotle Onassis and The Partridge Family to animated films (The Quest for Camelot).

It was during the 1980's that Seidler began his dream project about King George and his Australian speech therapist Lionel Logue (played by Geoffrey Rush).   While developing the project, he located Logue's last surviving son Valentine, who agreed to lend his father's notebooks on the condition that Seidler obtain permission form the Queen Mother (played by Helena Bonham-Carter) to tell the story.  She refused immediate permission explaining that the story was still too painful.  She granted permission to complete the work upon her death-- at age 101, 28 years later!

Seidler, under guidance from Director Tom Hooper, created about 50 drafts of the screenplay, in an effort to eliminate any sense of theatricality or inauthenticity. 


During his research of the notebooks, Seidler learned that the "cure" was effected through Logue's amateur Freudian-style analysis, which he practiced successfully on traumatized Australian soldiers.  In a coincidental development, which strengthened Seidler's connection to Logue and the King's story, he found out that his own uncle, also a stutterer, took the cure from Logue as well. 


At the Toronto festival this past September, as an audience of two thousand rose to their feet to applaud the film at a gala performance, Seidler "was overwhelmed.....there I was blubbering, the mucus and the tears coming down! This has been a very cathartic experience!"

David Seidler is, to his amazement, a hot property.  After channeling the frustration and difficulty he experienced in his early life into the creation of screen characters, based on actual historic figures, with which he shared an intimate understanding, it now looks as though Seidler has, shall we say, written his own ticket.  At 73 years old, he has a newly-invented career ahead of him.


The movie has since received 8 nominations for the British Independent Film Awards.


In an upcoming post, I'll look at the actual speech the King delivered that moved the world, along with a look at an early Colin Firth performance in a delicious 1988 thriller.


Check out the trailer for "The King's Speech" below. 

Colin Firth and King George VI--Coming Soon

Of all of the new films coming to theaters in the next month to qualify for Academy Awards, one which I anticipate with great excitement is "The King's Speech".


Period costume dramas about actual historical figures, who overcome personal obstacles and achieve greatness, are no longer favored, and are rarely produced for the big screen any more.  When a movie like "The King's Speech" emerges with excellent notices, achieves popularity with audiences at festivals such as Toronto, and boasts top-notch writing delivered by actors of proven excellence (also including Geoffrey Rush and Helena Bonham Carter), it feels like a winner. 


Maybe it's the Colin Firth factor. As his career matures, the films he makes carry an aura of importance.  I thought "A Single Man" was the best film I saw last year, and Firth's performance was brilliant, the best work he had ever done.  Now, his attachment to a film makes me pay attention.  Firth's involvement in a film has become something like the Meryl Streep stamp of quality.


To prepare for my eventual review, I will offer a short series of posts here about King George VI: the stammer that caused him embarrassment, and difficulty addressing the public; the therapy which forms the central drama of the film; his heroic speech to England on the eve of war; and the special identification the screenwriter had with the King.


I hope the film lives up to its early praise; it would be great to have a "prestige" costume drama become a crowd-pleaser that has a fighting chance against pre-packaged blockbusters at the Oscar derby.