VIZ Cinema Schedule in October

MUSE MY MUSE AND THE POWER OF INSPIRATION DRIVES OCTOBER’S THEME AT VIZ CINEMA

New Anime Racing Feature Redline, Virtual Pop Idol ‘Concert’ By Hatsune Miku, Romantic Drama Sayonara Itsuka, Taiwan Film Fest, And Two Film Retrospectives Of Classic Japanese Directors Are Announced

VIZ Cinema, the nation’s only movie theatre dedicated to Japanese film, makes October a month full of premieres, special events and mini film festivals with a compelling new roster of just-announced screenings.

The month begins with an encore screening of the acclaimed World War II documentary 442: Live With Dignity, Die With Honor, to be followed by a presentation of director John H. Lee’s (A Moment to Remember) newest romantic drama Sayonara Itsuka – Goodbye, Someday.

Anime and pop culture fans shouldn’t miss the new animated racing action of Redline, premiering at VIZ Cinema the same week of its release in Japan, as well as a one-day-only rare encore screening of Hatsune Miku U.S. Live, which presents a live film ‘concert’ by Japan’s most popular virtual idol. This event will also feature a rare personal appearance by Hatsune Miku creator Hiroyuki Ito.

Branching out to include other aspects of Asian film, VIZ Cinema is also proud to partner with the San Francisco Film Society to present Taiwan Film Days, which offers six films that includes the U.S. premiere of Let’s Fall In Love, Seven Days In Heaven and Tears. Finally, the theatre has also scheduled a pair of retrospectives celebrating the works of two of Japan’s most legendary film directors: Yasujiro Ozu and Kenji Mizoguchi.

Advance tickets, screening times and more details are available at: http://www.vizcinema.com/.

442: Live With Honor, Die With Dignity, October 1st – October 7th
(Directed by Junichi Suzuki, 2010, 100min, HD, English Language)

VIZ Cinema is pleased to announce encore screenings of 442: Live for Honor, Die with Dignity by popular demand!

In World War II, the 442nd was an infantry regiment composed mostly of Japanese Americans that fought not only the Nazis in Europe, but also battled domestic prejudice, facing severe racial discrimination at home. The film features what are likely the final interviews with surviving 442nd veterans, many of whom are now in their mid 80’s and 90’s. The soldiers were in an ironic predicament, fighting for a country that initially branded them as enemies but went on to became one of the most decorated regiments in the history of the United States military. General admission tickets for the film screening are $13.00.

Sayonara Itsuka – Goodbye Someday, October 1st – October 7th
(Directed by John H. Lee, 2010, 133min, Digital, English Subtitles)

Regarded as an ‘Asian collaborated masterpiece,’ Sayonara Itsuka - Goodbye, Someday is based on a novel by Tsuji Hitonari and directed by John H. Lee (A Moment to Remember). Known as the “good guy,” Yutaka is engaged to marry the daughter of the founder of an airline that he works for. While he is transferred abroad to the Bangkok branch, he meets Toko, a mysterious woman. They quickly develop a lustful relationship spending days in passion. For Yutaka’s wedding they choose to separate, but 25 years later they meet again and realize their love for each other remains, but reality continues to pull them apart.

General admission tickets are $10.00.

Redline, October 8th – October 14th
(Directed by Takeshi Koike, 2010, 100min, Digital, with English Subtitles)

More than 5 years in the making, Redline is a pedal to the floor anime racing film created by studio Madhouse (Paprika, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time) and was written by Katsuhito Ishii (Director of The Taste of Tea, Funky Forest, Shark Skin Man & Peach Hip Girl) and directed by Takeshi Koike, (“World Record” segment of Animatrix).

The toughest and the most destructive underground car race in the universe, REDLINE, has just begun! JP is a reckless driver oblivious to speed limits, and Sonoshee, one of his competitors with whom JP is secretly in love with, is a hot girl determined to do whatever it takes to stand on the winner’s podium. In order to win the finals, they’re up against the craziest drivers with their heavily armed and awesome road-tearing vehicles. While cars crash and burn into flames, the race course becomes a merciless hell and JP whips his ride into a dead heat. Who will survive to win in this mass-destruction race? General admission tickets are $10.00.

Hatsune Miku U.S. Live, October 11th One Night Only!!!
(Directed by Takeshi Koike, 2010, 100min, Digital, with English Subtitles)

Following a sold-out performance at NEW PEOPLE at the J-Pop Summit Festival 2010, Hatsune Miku returns to VIZ Cinema for one night only! By extremely popular demand, the virtual idol comes back, this time with a special guest, Hiroyuki Ito, the man behind the creation of Hatsune Miku! Don't miss this rare chance to see this virtual phenomenon on the big screen and purchase one of a very limited supply of Japanese First Edition Blu-ray disc sets in the New People Store!

Miku Hatsune is a virtual pop idol that has taken Japan by storm. She was born as the premiere product in the Vocaloid2 Character Vocal Series developed by Crypton Future Media. Originally designed for musicians, Vocaloid enables users to synthesize singing by inputting lyrics and a melody. In Japan, Vocaloid singers have become the hottest new trend in the pop culture landscape The filmed concert features Miku Hatsune backed by a “live” band called the 39S Members. For the concert performance, she sang 39 songs while being projected on a transparent screen set up on the stage, making her look like a living-sized hologram playing with a live band. General admission tickets for the film screening are $20.00.

OZU AND HIS MUSE: SETSUKO HARA October 15th – October 21st

Yasujiro Ozu is one of the most influential film directors of the 20th Century and his classic film, Tokyo Story, is consistently is ranked among the Top 10 films of all time. Now catch an opportunity to screen four more of the director’s groundbreaking works in a special series. General admission tickets for each film screening are $10.00.

Late Spring
(1949, 108min, 35mm, Japanese with English Subtitles)

One of the most powerful of Ozu’s family portraits, Late Spring tells the story of a widowed father who feels compelled to marry off his beloved only daughter. Ozu's muse, actress Setsuko Hara, commands this poignant tale of love and loss in postwar Japan

Tokyo Twilight
(1947, 141min, 35mm, Japanese with English Subtitles)

One of Ozu’s most piercing portraits of family strife, Tokyo Twilight follows the parallel paths of two sisters contending with an absent mother, unwanted pregnancy, and marital discord.

Late Autumn
(1960, 128min, 35mm, Japanese with English Subtitles)

Setsuko Hara plays a mother gently trying to persuade her daughter to marry in this glowing portrait of family love and conflict – a re-working of Ozu’s 1949 masterpiece Late Spring.

Early Summer
(1954, 125min, 35mm, Japanese with English Subtitles)

The Mamiya family is seeking a husband for their daughter, Noriko (played by Setsuko Hara), but she impulsively chooses her childhood friend, at once fulfilling her family’s desires while also tearing them apart.

TAIWAN FILM DAYS October 22nd – October 24th

Celebrate Opening Night for Taiwan Film Days, a new film series at NEW PEOPLE! A limited number of tickets are also available for an exclusive reception directly after the first screening of Monga on October 22nd, with sponsored drinks and delicious hors d’oeuvres.

Tickets are only available at www.sffs.org and are $15.00 per screening for SFFS members and $20.00 per screening for non-members.

Monga, Friday, October 22nd at 6:15pm & 9:40 pm
(Directed by Niu Doze, 2010,141min, Digital, Chinese with English Subtitles)
Niu Doze’s uncompromising gangster epic fictionalizes the real-life ascension of organized crime in Taipei’s rough-and-tumble Wanhua district during the 1980s.

Let's Fall in Love, North American Premiere
Saturday, October 23rd at 1:30 pm; Sunday, October 24th at 4:10 pm

(Directed by Wuna Wu, 2009, 90 min, Digital, Chinese with English Subtitles)

Welcome to the tragicomic world of matchmaking in modern Taipei, where one documentarian chronicles her frustrating search for Mr. Right.

Seven Days In Heaven, North American Premiere
Saturday, October 23rd at 4:00 pm; Sunday October 24th at 9:10 pm
(Directed by Essay Liu, Wang Yu-lin, 2009, 93min, Digital, Chinese with English Subtitles)

In the wake of her father's death, a resolutely urban woman returns to her backward hometown where she confronts the turbulent spectrum of emotions associated with the passing of a loved one.

Hear Me, Saturday, October 23rd at 6:40 pm
(Directed by Cheng Fen-fen, 2009, 109min, Digital, Chinese with English Subtitles)

Director Cheng Fen-fen has crafted a winning tale of budding romance among the hearing impaired that became Taiwan’s most popular movie of 2009.

Tears North American Premiere
Saturday, October 23rd at 9:30 pm; Sunday, October 24th at 6:40 pm
(Directed by Chen Wen-tang, 2009, 111min, Digital, Chinese with English Subtitles)

A powerful drama about a policeman with a troubled past, Tears represents Director Cheng Wen-tang’s complex and passionate commitment to unearthing Taiwan’s repressive history.

No Puedo Vivir sin Ti, Sunday, October 24th at 2:00 pm
(Directed by Leon Dai, 2009, 92min, Digital, Chinese with English Subtitles)

A widower struggles to reclaim his only daughter in this sharp, emotional feature which casts a magnifying glass on the gray areas of Taiwanese society.

MIZOGUCHI AND HIS MUSE: KINUYO TANAKA October 25th – November 2nd

Director Kenji Mizoguchi’s signature is the expression of strength, sorrow, and fragility of women, and his mastery of the long take and mise-en-scène are legendary. General admission tickets for each screening are $10.00.

Life Of Oharu
(1952, 124min, 35mm, Japanese with English Subtitles)

A 1952 historical fiction starring Kinuyo Tanaka as Oharu, a one-time concubine of a daimyō lord who struggles to escape the stigma of having been sold into prostitution by her father.

Women Of The Night
(1948, 74min, Digital, Japanese with English Subtitles)

Two sisters – Fusako, a war widow, and Natsuko, who is having an affair with a narcotics smuggler – along with their friend Kumiko, descend into moral chaos amid the postwar devastation.

Sansho The Bailiff
(1954, 124min, 35mm, Japanese with English Subtitles)

When an idealistic governor disobeys the reigning feudal lord, he is cast into exile, his wife and children left to fend for themselves and eventually are wrenched apart by vicious slave traders.

Miss Oyu
(1951, 94min, 35mm, Japanese with English Subtitles)

The story concerns a young man who falls in love with the beloved older sister of his intended bride, Miss Oyu played by Kinuyo Tanaka. The three-way relationship takes some tragic turns.

VIZ Cinema is the nation’s only movie theatre devoted exclusively to Japanese film and anime. The 143-seat subterranean theatre is located in the basement of the NEW PEOPLE building and features plush seating, digital as well as 35mm projection, and a THX®-certified sound system.


About NEW PEOPLE
NEW PEOPLE offers the latest films, art, fashion and retail brands from Japan and is the creative vision of the J-Pop Center Project and VIZ Pictures, a distributor and producer of Japanese live action film. Located at 1746 Post Street, the 20,000 square foot structure features a striking 3-floor transparent glass façade that frames a fun and exotic new environment to engage the imagination into the 21st Century. A dedicated web site is also now available at: http://www.newpeopleworld.com/.

Zodiac Refuses to Be Ordinary Serial Killer Flick

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 110 (of 2007) by Leroy Douresseaux

Zodiac (2007)
Running time: 158 minutes (2 hours, 38 minutes)
MPAA - R for some strong killings, language, drug material, and brief sexual images
DIRECTOR: David Fincher
WRITER: James Vanderbilt (based upon the book by Robert Graysmith)
PRODUCERS: Mike Medavoy, Arnold W. Messer, Bradley J. Fischer, James Vanderbilt, and Ceán Chaffin
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Harris Savides, A.S.C.
EDITOR: Angus Wall

DRAMA/CRIME/MYSTERY/THRILLER

Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, Robert Downey, Jr., Anthony Edwards, Brian Cox, Elias Koteas, Donal Logue, John Carroll Lynch, and Dermot Mulroney, Chloe Sevigny, Philip Baker Hall, Charles Fleischer, and Clea DuVall

In the 1960’s and 70’s, a serial killer terrified the San Francisco Bay Area and taunted police with his ciphers and letters. As the cryptic killer, sometimes clad in an executioner’s hood, stalked the streets and the countryside, investigators from four jurisdictions search for the murderer. Zodiac, the recent film from director David Fincher (Se7en), is a chilling recount of the murders. The film is based on the actual case files of one of the most infamous unsolved killing sprees in U.S. history, and its characters are also based on real people.

Shy editorial cartoonist Robert Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhaal) has taken an interest in the new case his cynical colleague, the San Francisco Chronicle's star crime reporter, Paul Avery (Robert Downey, Jr.) is investigating. A murderer who calls himself, Zodiac, is hunting humans, and he sends letters to the press, including the Chronicle, and the police investigating the homicides. Homicide Inspector Dave Toschi (Mark Ruffalo) and his partner Inspector William Armstrong (Anthony Edwards) are feeling the pressure to discover who Zodiac is, especially with Avery often getting in the way of their investigation.

The case becomes an obsession for these four men as an endless trail of clues builds some careers and destroys others. As the years pass and they haven’t solved the case, Toschi finds himself dealing with too much department politics and too many false leads, and Armstrong grows weary of being away from his young family. Avery is drinking and drugging his career away. Meanwhile, Graysmith has quietly amassed piles of information on the Zodiac case. He thinks he may be able to solve the case, but will it cost him his family and his life?

Zodiac is a character drama dressed as a Film-Noir mystery/thriller. Although both director and writer (James Vanderbilt) are fascinated by the mystery of Zodiac’s identity, they seem more fascinated that the case would so alter the lives of the men who became obsessed with unscrambling the case’s codes and secrets. To that end, David Fincher gets some high quality performances from his cast, especially Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, and Robert Downey, Jr.

Although seemingly relegated to the background early in the story, Gyllenhaal’s Robert Graysmith (The real Graysmith wrote two books on the Zodiac killer, including the one upon which this film is based.) gradually comes to the forefront. Quietly and subtly, Graysmith is the one who maneuvers the film’s central theme – that obsession can take over a man’s life and then redefine him, which is to say make him something else and thereby destroy him. It’s a soft performance by Gyllenhaal that nevertheless drives Zodiac, and Fincher has the good sense to accept that, especially as his films tend to feature intense and charismatic characters. Gyllenhaal’s Graysmith is much more approachable than the other characters, and the one to which the audience will attach itself to in order to navigate the story.

With so many high expectations for Zodiac, it is no surprise that Fincher didn’t meet some of them, but few directors could make so beautiful a neo-noir crime film that is as equally beautiful as a character drama. From Mark Ruffalo’s frustrated cop who refuses to let frustration beat him to Downey’s slick reporter – the charming rogue who burns so brightly that he burns out too soon – Fincher uses nuanced performances to build Zodiac. The performances remind us that sometimes the murder victim isn’t the only victim of the crime.

8 of 10
A

Monday, July 30, 2007

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Howard Chaykin Covers December "Star Wars Insider"

STAR WARS INSIDER ANNOUNCES EXCLUSIVE HOWARD CHAYKIN COVER AND POSTER

 

To mark the 30th anniversary of The Empire Strikes Back, Titan’s December edition of Star Wars Insider magazine includes an exclusive limited edition collector's cover and large size pull-out poster drawn by original Star Wars comic book artist, Howard Chaykin.

 

Chaykin, who drew the first limited-edition Star Wars poster in 1976, has now created a special Empire Strikes Back image exclusively for Star Wars Insider, the official magazine of the Star Wars saga. This limited edition collector's cover of Insider is only available through comic stores and the large size pull-out poster comes free with the regular Insider newsstand edition.

This issue of Insider explores the making of the original Star Wars comic book by Chaykin and writer Roy Thomas and includes a never before published transcript of a meeting between George Lucas and Chaykin regarding the adaptation of Star Wars for a Marvel comic series.

Chaykin on the Star Wars characters: “I feel that kid who plays Luke is a little soft in the face so I'm going to harden him up a little bit. He's got a great cleft and that's fine, but he looks like he’s 16. It'll make him more heroic in the picture. Han Solo is perfect. He looks like I drew him. He looks my cliché mercenary hero. He looks like [classic comic book hero] Cody Starbuck. Chewbacca will be no problem. Same thing is true of Darth Vader…. He looks like a comic book character—Doctor Doom.“

The magazine also features interviews with the team behind The Clone Wars series, remarks from the Mark Hamill panel at Star Wars Celebration V and an Endor location guide. Plus, there’s much more must-have material for all Star Wars fans.

Retailers can order this special Star Wars Insider with exclusive Howard Chaykin cover and large size pull-out poster from October's Diamond Previews.  The Star Wars Insider is a “Featured Item” listing within the Books & Magazines section in Previews .

Star Wars Insider #122 - On-sale December 14, 2010

Readers can keep up to date with more news and announcements from Star Wars Insider at the official Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/StarWarsInsider

Review: "Panic Room" is a Sweet Thriller

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 25 (of 2002) by Leroy Douresseaux

Panic Room (2002)
Running time:  112 minutes (1 hour, 52 minutes)
MPAA - R for violence and language
DIRECTOR: David Fincher
WRITER: David Koepp
PRODUCERS: Ceán Chaffin, Judy Hofflund, David Koepp, and Gavin Polone
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Conrad W. Hall (D.o.P.) and Darius Khondji (D.o.P.)
EDITORS: James Haygood and Angus Wall
COMPOSER: Howard Shore

THRILLER

Starring: Jodie Foster, Kristen Stewart, Forest Whitaker, Dwight Yoakum, Jared Leto, and Patrick Bauchau

Meg Altman (Jodie Foster) has left a messy divorce and is looking for a new home for her and her daughter Sarah (Kristen Stewart). She finds a beautiful mansion style brownstone/townhouse with a panic room, a sort of safe room or medieval keep with cameras, monitors, and supplies in which one can hide from and hold up against intruders. When three men (Forest Whitaker, Jared Leto, and Dwight Yoakum) break in her home, Meg and Sarah barely escape into the panic room only to learn that what the three men want is inside room with them.

Directed by David Fincher (Seven, The Fight Club), Panic Room is the kind of adult thriller of a quality that is truly scarce. It is the kind of movie that relies on the skill of a capable and talented director, which Fincher continually proves himself to be with each film. He begins to build levels of intensity, layer upon layer, from the film’s opening shots (with a beautiful and evocative opening credit reel over the New York City skyline) to the closing shots that only barely lets up as the film fades.

Fincher puts the actors through the paces, but they are up to whatever the task at hand. Jodie Foster in insanely intense and intensely dramatic. Of all the cast, she has to not only sell this movie, but a successful execution of the premise relies on her. From fear to bravery, from delirium to determination, Ms. Foster is the face of Fincher’s dramatic exercise. The rest of the cast is also quite good. Ms. Stewart plays Sarah as definitely being her mother’s daughter, mirroring a range of emotions similar to her mother’s. Although Leto’s Junior is the criminal mastermind of the operation, Whitaker’s Burnham and Yoakum’s Raoul carry the show, both quietly mixing a sense of dread and fear that makes their characters more desperate and more dangerous.

Fincher also puts his camera through the paces. It weaves, dodges, and chases, making surprising discovers in a mad dash to create intensity. However, the film itself isn’t a reckless, mad dash. It is evenly paced, and though Fincher uses some of his pictorial and stylistic quirks needlessly, he creates a drama with a sense of terror in the tradition of Rear Window. That, in an era of hyped up SFX films, in refreshing. The genre elements of a thriller: terror and suspense are but beautiful window dressing to the drama.

In Panic Room, every character has a story that makes them more than stock characters. This is a testament to veteran screenwriter David Koepp’s skill in making three-dimensional characters. Whatever fate a thriller has in store for its characters holds more thrill if the characters are more than paper cutouts. If we care for them, we don’t want them in danger. If the villains have real motivation, there are more dangerous.

Kudos to Fincher above all else. Panic Room is that proverbial edge of your seat thriller, but he doesn’t eschew the meat of the story to serve his style. He remains visionary because he can turn the story into powerful visual images. He’s patient and allows the camera, our eyes to survey the scene of the brilliant cat and mouse game. Instead of choppy and quick editing, Panic Room is deliberate, almost sexy in the suspense that it unveils before us. This is the kind of special film that you know you want to see.

8 of 10
A

NOTES:
2003 Black Reel Awards: 1 nomination: “Theatrical - Best Supporting Actor” (Forest Whitaker)

 

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IMDb Celebrates 20 Years with the Stars

Press release:

20 A-List Actors, Writers, Directors and Producers Count Down to 20 Years of IMDb

IMDb’s 20th Anniversary Celebration Features Kevin Spacey, Will Ferrell, Josh Brolin, Susan Sarandon, Tim Roth, Oliver Stone and many more

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--IMDb.com, Inc. (http://www.imdb.com/), the authoritative source of information on movies, TV and celebrities, and part of the Amazon.com, Inc. group of companies, today announced and launched IMDb20, the company’s 20-year anniversary campaign. Beginning today, IMDb will treat fans to an original video interview with a different A-list artist each day, culminating on Oct. 17, 2010, (the date of IMDb’s 20th anniversary). The goal of the online countdown and companion editorial section is to celebrate the films of the past 20 years.

"We are humbled by the fan and industry support we have received over the past 20 years," said Col Needham, IMDb’s founder and CEO. "With our first-ever foray into original video content, we’re celebrating our collective love of film and bringing fans even closer to their favorite artists."

"IMDb saved me an insane amount of time in my life," said director Kevin Smith. "I think of every fight I ever got in with somebody who just didn’t have a crucial piece of movie information at their fingertips. I said one thing. They said another. Loggerheads. Relationships destroyed. IMDb comes along and just immediately solves that. It’s an insanely useful tool. I hit it everyday. It’s my homepage. Because that’s my stock-in-trade. That’s my currency. What I speak is movies."

"I go to IMDb more than you should," said Danny DeVito. "I go at least a couple of times a day. Sometimes many more than that. It’s because of the things I talk about with folks. I’m always dealing with actors, movies and what not. And I want to find out things about people and projects. It’s my go-to place to find out all kinds of information."

Original Celebrity Content and Online Countdown
Participating celebrities sat down for an exclusive video interview with IMDb in which they discussed personal topics pertaining to film, including: Favorite films, performances and lines of movie dialogue; who makes them starstruck; roles they would have liked to play; and much more.

Each day, an exclusive celebrity interview will premiere on IMDb’s homepage and at www.imdb.com/20.

User-Generated List-Making Tool & Special Editorial Section
Fans can tune in each day at www.imdb.com/20 to watch the IMDb Star of the Day video interview. Users will be invited to create their own Top 20 film lists via IMDb’s just-launched list-making tool. Fans can also conveniently share lists and the original celebrity video interview of the day on a variety of social networks.

IMDb’s expert editorial team has created a year-by-year retrospective featuring the following for each year that IMDb has been in operation: Box Office Returns; The Year in Movies; Trivia; Trailers, Top 20 Lists, Photo Galleries; Editorial Lists; Notable and Influential Films; Award-Winners; The Year in IMDb History; and In Memoriam.

To discover and share exclusive IMDb20 content and watch today’s Star of the Day interview, go to: www.imdb.com/20


About IMDb.com
IMDb (http://www.imdb.com/) is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 57 million unique visitors each month. IMDb offers a searchable database of over 1.5 million movies, TV and entertainment programs and over 3.2 million cast and crew members, making it the Web's most comprehensive and authoritative source of information on movies, TV and celebrities. IMDb features include cast lists, photographs, quotes, trivia, reviews, box-office data, celebrity biographies, coverage of film festivals and major events, and the ability for users to watch trailers, clips and thousands of full-length TV episodes and movies for free. IMDb also offers IMDbPro (http://www.imdbpro.com/), a site designed specifically for entertainment industry professionals, and IMDb Resume (www.imdbresume.com), a service that enables actors and crew members to promote themselves directly to IMDb's audience of movie lovers and movie professionals. Subscribers to IMDbPro now also get all of the benefits of Resume as well. IMDb.com is operated by IMDb.com, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) (http://www.amazon.com/).

Fight Club: David Fincher's Best Movie? Brad Pitt's Best Performance?

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 86 (of 2003) by Leroy Douresseaux

Fight Club (1999)
DIRECTOR: David Fincher
WRITER: Jim Uhls (based upon the novel of the same title by Chuck Palahniuk)
PRODUCERS: Ross Grayson Bell, Ceán Chaffin, and Art Linson
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Jeff Cronenweth
EDITOR: James Haygood
COMPOSERS: Dust Brothers (John King and Michael Simpson)
Academy Awards nominee

DRAMA/THRILLER with elements of action

Starring: Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, Helena Bonham Carter, Meat Loaf, Zach Grenier, and Jared Leto

Some films fans believe that the glamour of old Hollywood, or of the so-called Golden Age, is gone. True or not, there are young actors today that the camera loves as much as it did Humphrey Bogart or Greta Garb, such as Keanu Reeves, Tom Cruise, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Johnny Depp among others. Another star that the camera definitely loves is the talented and ambitious Brad Pitt.

In David Fincher’s (Se7en) Fight Club, Pitt plays the alluring stranger Tyler Durden who introduces a disillusioned spiritual brother Jack, who is also the film Narrator, (Edward Norton, American History X) to the living. Jack has a white color job, suffers from insomnia, and consumes expensive, brand name items to fill in the hole in himself and his life. Jack becomes Durden’s first convert to Fight Club, which rapidly grows into an underground cabal of restless, directionless GenX’ers and late Baby Boomers. The club meets in hidee-holes, and the members pummel each other to a bloody mess. Perhaps, it is because pain is life and life is pain. Perhaps, these young men, who never knew the Great Depression or life as a soldier/combatant in an international war, need to know pain and suffering. Maybe, through beating each other they get to be men with each other etc. blah, blah, blah.

During his career as a music video director, Fincher showed enormous promise as a filmmaker with his videos for Madonna: Express Yourself, Oh Father, and Vogue. The politics of studio filmmaking crushed his debut Alien3, but with Se7en and The Game, his potential to be one of the best visualists since Ridley Scott (Blade Runner) and David Lynch (Blue Velvet) was again show to audiences around the world.

This film by Fincher is as much visual and symbolic as it is literal. For all its notions of male empowerment and of cutting away the material trappings of a corrupted civilization, Fight Club really delineates spiritual conundrums and the struggles with identity. It is the visual equivalent of a novel, but the novel as art and literature. With all that camera weaving and dodging, Fincher is essentially writing a novel. What words do for a book, his camera makes images do for a film. The film digs deeper than just angry white boys. Why are they angry? When are they angry? How are they angry? What else is going on in the world of Fight Club? Fincher answers those questions and builds a complex structure of story and environment that becomes a film. While it is eye candy for the male in the vein of Pulp Fiction, Fight Club has visual layers and subtexts awaiting the ambitious viewer. Does it take music video directors and directors of commercial advertisements to realize that the story, the characters, and the setting are best conveyed visually in film because a movie is all about what’s on the screen?

Norton is very good; a talented actor he can play the gamut of human emotions, from extreme to subtle. Helena Bonham Carter (Wings of the Dove) is a very talented actress, but she’s often lost in supporting roles. Here, as love interest/sex partner, Marla Singer, her part is extraneous, but the camera loves her. Whatever should could have brought to enrich the story is lost. The true gift of this movie is Pitt as the puckish phantasm, Durden. Whenever he gets a good role, Pitt lights up the screen, and the movie surges with energy and vitality. Many filmmakers have wasted his good looks and great talent; Fincher takes full advantage of having him.

The film does have its flaws, notably Jack’s narration, (in addition to the short shrift of Marla), which is sometimes redundant when the visuals serve the same purpose. Some interesting characters end up as ciphers and aimlessly fill up screen time when they could have served a definite purpose. However, Fincher and screenwriter Jim Uhls have created a beautiful and surrealistic film that is, like successful artistic efforts in other mediums, a statement about the time in which it appears. And heck, Fight Club is just plain fun to experience.

8 of 10
A

NOTES:
2000 Academy Awards: 1 nomination: “Best Effects, Sound Effects Editing” (Ren Klyce and Richard Hymns)

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The November Adventures of Negromancer

Welcome to Negromancer, the rebirth of my former movie review website as a movie review and movie news blog. I’m Leroy Douresseaux, and I also blog at http://ireadsyou.blogspot.com/ and write for the Comic Book Bin (which has smart phones apps).

All images appearing on this blog are © copyright and/or trademark their respective owners.