Must Watch: Lola Montes

If you have an art-house film theater in your ‘hood, look out for the re-release of Lola Montes. For New Yorkers, run to Film Forum where it’s playing on the big screen through October 30th. It’s actually inspiration for a stylish iconic Halloween outfit this year.

(Lola Montes: A Stylists Wet Dream)

This new cut (which was received with huge praise at Cannes this year) is Director Max Ophüls’ original vision. Lola was a total dud upon its first release in 1955. The producers panicked, butchered it further, hacking the negatives. Then they went bankrupt. In 1969, the New Wave producer Pierre Braunberger acquired the rights.

(”This is the most intelligent and precise dialogue heard in French film since Jean Vigo’s Zero de Conduite” – François Truffaut)

Luckily, restoration technology has advanced crazily in the last 40 years. Finally in 2006, Braunberger’s daughter (Laurence) and Ophüls’ son (Marcel) along with Foundation money set out to restore the picture, fix the 35 mm scratches, tighten the original sound mix, etc, etc — real CINEMASCOPE in its full potential! Sometimes it takes more than 1 lifetime for a Director to complete his vision. But alas, it came full circle. The masterpiece is ready to blow away a new generation, and the topic couldn’t be any more timely…

Lola is the 50’s sexually liberated woman who dreams big — with a hell of a body to boot — Madonna’s man-eating ambitions meets Eva Peron’s social climber status — all minus the philanthropy. You want to hate her. But you end loving her. She weeps when she’s alone, yet she marches to her own drum. After living like a queen, Lola, eventually falls from glory. She becomes a poster child of a sex freak in her later years — a circus side-show where others can witness, behold, and scorn the harlot. Just like a saucy “E! True Hollywood Story”, the circus narrative breaks down every chapter of her social-climbing life step by step. The blood-thirsty audience finds satisfaction in judging her.

The films final shot speaks volumes. As the camera slowly pans back to reveal a wider shot in the circus, we see an endless ocean of fans waiting in line willing to pay $1 dollar just to touch Lola. It’s a movie made for the TMZ culture — worshiping celebrity while demonizing it at the same time.

(There is another version found on Netflix if you don’t have a theater near you)

Watch Lola Montes Trailer Here.
J

Best Life guys

(Tom Hardy)

The Starworks editorial department is happy to present the Best Life issue which our Marni so diligently celebrity casted. Here’s her 3 guys bookings worth paying attention to now…

(Dave Annable)

(Anderson Cooper)

Go to BestLifeOnline.com for further homework on what these men are up to.
J

RIP Paul Newman

In honor of Paul Newman, and in honor of Paris Fashion week, I thought I’d recommend a film that has both. What more can I say about Paul Newman except he was so cool, so compassionate, and so handsome. He was so much, that he almost didn’t know how cool, compassionate, or handsome he really was. Instead he was always raising the bar — always stepping it up, never resting on his laurels.

The Wall Street Journal said that “Paul Newman gave growing old a good name”. Paul also went to his grave with a pool of work any actor wished they can simply a dip a toe in — Cool Hand Luke, The Sting, Slap Shot, The Towering Inferno, Hud, Hombre, The Hustler, The Young Philadelphians, and Cat On a Hot Tin Roof.

He starred with his wife, Joanne Woodward in several pics: The Long, Hot Summer (1958) which is “long and hot”, Rally ‘Round the Flag, Boys! (1958) about a protest movement against a missile (Dynasty’s Joan Collins is foxy in this). Then there’s From the Terrace (1960) about Wall Street soul-sucking, and Paris Blues (1961) with Jazz-head Louis Armstrong. It was so awesome to see Paul and Joanne act together… like ballet, it was a dance where they fed off each other, and inspired each other. Seeing them do their thing onscreen together was almost a voyeuristic violation into something so intimate.

On acting Paul said: “Study your craft and know who you are and what’s special about you. Find out what everyone does on a film set, ask questions and listen. Make sure you live life, which means don’t do things where you court celebrity, and give something positive back to our society.”

By the time Paul checked out of this planet, he and Joanne raised $250 million for charity. He was a speed-freak and raced cars. By the time he was 70, he became the oldest driver of a team competing in a major sanctioned race in 1995. Can you say “suck the marrow out of life”?

(Eva Gabor, George Tobias, Joanne Woodward, and the awesome Thelma Ritter)

But back to my film recommendation this week, and back to the Paris Fashion shows. In A New Kind of Love, Joanne Woodward plays a head-strong independent career-minded woman named Sam Blake (a masculine name to match her toughness). Sam is a “coolhunter”, if you will, complete with her little spy camera. Her job is to be on top of the latest in Luxury designers (Lanvin, Dior, Balenciaga), only so she can create affordable “knock-offs” for her high-end department store.

(Paris Fashion shows)

(Joanne as Sam in her studio)

Paul Newman plays Steve Sherman, a sports journalist who sees life as one big game. He’s a total “playah” with the ladies, opting for 1 dimensional women whom he can charm and get into bed within 24 hours. Love ‘em and leave ‘em. Not very deep.

Soon he meets Sam Blake played by fiesty Joanne. She calls him on his shit. He hates her. He loves her. He can’t stop thinking about her. She hates him. She loves him. She can’t stop thinking about him. Stir in 1 week of 2 Americans in Paris. Spontaneous combustion.

(Costume Designer Edith Head did the clothes for this movie — SSSSICK stuff)

New Kind of Love is a good “door-opener” if you’ve never seen these two bounce off eachother onscreen. Long Hot Summer is the steamiest though. When asked about his long marriage and the concept of infidelity, Paul responded, “Why go out for hamburger when you have steak at home?”. God, I hope this kind of love can still exist today…

(Paul and Joanne holdin’ it down 50 years)

RIP
Paul Newman
1925-2008

J

Che to Liberace

(Che is finally bought by IFC at Toronto Film Fest. To open wide on January 2009)

Now that Steven Sodenberg has given birth to Che after almost a decade of blood, sweat, and tears — one would imagine that Entourage’s Medellin was a loose parallel of the “money pit” film — a story of a conflicted Spanish speaking icon — loved and hated by the people. The only difference is, Sodenberg’s biopic is 4 and 1/2 hours long. At least both film productions are behind us now.

The crazy news is how far the pendulum has swung! After consuming the tale of a hard-core-alpha-male-testosterone hetero, Steven is swinging, um, the other way. He is now exploring the biopic for Liberace.

(Liberace. Michael “Greed is Good” Douglas)

Sodenberg is said to be in talks with Michael Douglas to play the part. Imagine Douglas saying Liberace’s famous line during live shows — “Why don’t I slip out and get into something more spectacular!”

(Liberace’s bling outfits from the Vegas Museum)

(Liberace Show Outfit, Vegas Museum)

Steven, we cannot wait….. Hurry up.
J

Greg @ Toronto: Pt 2

Toronto Day 2

This morning I was greeted with the gem, Easy Virtue starring a breathtakingly gorgeous Jessica Biel as the American ‘floozy’ who invades a posh English family led by an icy matriarch Kristen Scott Thomas. It’s a campy face-off between the two wits — and in the middle, Ben Barnes plays the son/husband who sings his way through the fun. He will have a bright career post-Narnia!

(Easy Virtue)

Next up was another Kristen Scott Thomas starring film, I’ve Loved You So Long, a French redemptive tale of a woman who goes to jail, and then returns to her hometown to live with her estranged sister carrying the mysterious secret that forever changed the course of her life. Kristen is a lock for Best Actress.

(I’ve Loved You So Long)

Finally Uncertainty, directed by the Bee Season team, David Siegel and Scott McGehee starring Joseph Gordon Levitt and Lynn Collins. The film begins with a flip of a coin and then traces 2 different realities of the characters united by an underlying question referring to the title. One storyline revolved around a cell phone found in a taxi with the couple being chased around New York city by its criminal owners. The other story revolves around a 4th of July family dinner. In this one, the plot point sets off the film. It’s a disappointing film, though my hopes were not that high as the directors prior films also missed their mark.

(Uncertainty)

–Greg Krelenstein