That's not your place

A few weeks ago, I headed off to the AFI Silver to see the movie The Artist.  The movie is about the transition from silent movies to talkies with a silent film star (named George Valentin) resisting the move.  Therefore, the majority of the movie is silent with interstitial cards used occasionally throughout the movie.  As a result, the score is a very important part in conveying emotions since there is no audible dialogue.  And the score is really amazing and includes a little bit  the score from Vertigo written by Bernard Hermann.  The score (rightly so in my opinion) is getting strong Oscar buzz (as long as the score is 80% original material, it can be nominated).  So I was surprised to read last week that Kim Novak (who starred in Vertigo), took out a full page add stating that she felt like a rape had been committed against her by the use of Bernard Hermann's score.  Ignoring the extremely poor choice of words ( which seems to belittle the violence of an actually sexual assault),  I don't think that it is really Kim Novak's place to make this argument.  The composer got permission from Bernard Hermann's estate to use some of the score and furthermore Kim Novak didn't write the score.  Also, she claims that she is the only one left to defend Vertigo because Alfred Hitchcock and James Stewart are dead.  Vertigo is arguably one of Hitchcock's most famous movies (though not one of my favorites) and I'm not sure that the credit is due to Kim Novak.  I think most of the credit goes to Hitchcock and the crew that worked on the film. So to me, this arguemnt came off as a slap in the face of anyone else who worked on that film.  She totally overreacted to the situation and I think that she comes out in a poorer light than the composer or the director of The Artist (the director released a statement along the lines of Bernard Hermann was a great composer and we were lucky that were we able to pay our respect to him by using some of his work in this film).  But besides this Kim Novak rant, I highly recommend The Artist, especially for people who enjoy old movies.  The costumers, set directors, and make-up artists really capture the era beautifully and there is a great scene that feature some amazing sound design and sound editing.  And I have to hand it to the actors, they did a great job adapting to a medium that I'm sure was foreign to all of the them.  The cast is really great too, with nice supporting roles from James Cromwell, Missi Pyle, and John Goodman (who I usually forget that I like).

The Apprentice has become the master

I have proof that I have seen too many film noir movies.  I was watching The Killing today which is a film noir movie by Stanley Kubrick.  And during the entire buildup to the heist, I was trying to identify which characters was going to get killed (there were about 2 characters I was sure were going to bite it, but they lived) and how the heist was going to go awry (I was pretty close on this one).  I will still watch more film noir films, some for the titles alone( there is one called Hell's Half Acre!) and because during a certain period in the late 40s/early 50s, there were are lot of actors and actress that I really like in film noir pictures (not to mention one of my favorite old studios, RKO Pictures, is known at The House Noir Built). 

Rich man, Poor man, Beggar, Thief

Last Saturday, I went to my beloved AFI Silver Theater in Silver Spring to see the new movie adaptation of John Le Carre's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.  This adaptation was chock full of British actors that I know and like including Colin Firth, Mark Strong, Gary Oldman, Cirian Hinds, Toby Jones, John Hurt, Tom Hardy, and Benedict Cumberbatch (which means Sirius Black starred in a spy thriller with Sherlock Holmes, Mr. Knightley, Captain Wentworth, and Mr. Darcy).  So I really liked the movie. Beyond the great casting, the director did a great job with establishing the fear and paranoia of the Cold War.  And the set design and costuming was really good.  But I have to say this is a movie that will benefit from repeat viewing.  Once you know the basic plot, you will probably notice/understand more of the subtle plot points and will make the movie more enjoyable (this is how I feel about the movie Gosford Park, by the 3rdv viewing I figured out what the familial relationship and who the couples were).  All in all, it was a good way to spend an afternoon.  However, there was one guy at the movie who both did not turn off his phone (and then didn't seem to understand that his ring tone was ruining the movie, seriously someone had to tell him to turn off his phone) and then fell asleep during the movie (I could hear his snoring, he was only a few rows in front of me).