LMA Clint@94!

 Today mr. Eastwood is 94 !

w.o.w !!!

 Happy Birthday Clint !

here's a pic from the set of Where Eagles Dare in 1968, received from my buddy Relu, his biggest fan (that I know of ;).

His new film !!!, Juror # 2 will be out later this year. Venice maybe ? 

Furiosa (2024) & cronica audio

 #furiosa 

cronica mea la Furiosa in engleza aici

si aici si aici cronica audio, via Rockland radio on HIT FM.

urmeaza cronica scrisa in #culturama nr. 7

RIP Doug Ingle

Doug Ingle, the founder and last surviving member of the proto-metal psychedelic group Iron Butterfly has died at 78. 

I saw them in Bucharest at the HRC in 2012 but without Ingle, with Ron Bushy on drums, who died three years ago at 79. 

Here's the review from then

https://aldmovieland.blogspot.com/2012/02/iron-butterfly-live-in-gada-da-vida.html

and here are the clips. 

Will pay my respects on Iron Butterfly on Radio Rockland # 13 on Thrursday May 30th on HitFM.

In-A-Gada-Da-Vida-all butterflies now.

Cannes 77 -The Winners !

***But the best is the Honorary Palme d'Or ceremony, Francis Coppola gives it to his "younger Brother", George Lucas. Nice speech too. 

And the Romanians got a Queer Palm now- 3 Kilometri pina la capatul lumii.

Congrats Emi Parvu & all involved !PALMares Cannes @77

Feature Films Palme d'or ANORA Sean Baker Grand Prix ALL WE IMAGINE AS LIGHT Payal Kapadia Jury Prize EMILIA PÉREZ Jacques Audiard Best Director MIGUEL GOMES for Grand Tour Special Award MOHAMMAD RASOULOF for The Seed of the Sacred Fig Best Performance by an Actor JESSE PLEMONS in Kinds of Kindness directed by Yórgos Lánthimos Best Performance by an Actress ADRIANA PAZ in Emilia Pérez directed by Jacques Audiard ZOE SALDAÑA in Emilia Pérez directed by Jacques Audiard KARLA SOFÍA GASCÓN in Emilia Pérez directed by Jacques Audiard SELENA GOMEZ in Emilia Pérez directed by Jacques Audiard Best Screenplay THE SUBSTANCE Coralie Fargeat Short Films Palme d'or THE MAN WHO COULD NOT REMAIN SILENT Nebojša Slijepčević Special Mention BAD FOR A MOMENT Daniel Soares Un Certain Regard Un Certain Regard Prize BLACK DOG by Guan Hu Jury Prize L'HISTOIRE DE SOULEYMANE by Boris Lojkine Best Director Prize ex-aequo ROBERTO MINERVINI for The Damned RUNGANO NYONI for On Becoming a Guinea Fowl Best Performance by an Actress ANASUYA SENGUPTA in The Shameless Best Performance by an Actor ABOU SANGARÉ in L’Histoire de Souleymane Youth Award HOLY COW by Louise Courvoisier 1st film Special Mention NORAH by Tawfik Alzaidi 1st film Caméra d'or ARMAND Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel Un Certain Regard Special Mention MONGREL Wei Liang Chiang & You Qiao Yin La Cinef First Prize SUNFLOWERS WERE THE FIRST ONES TO KNOW…  Chidananda S Naik Joint Second Prize OUT THE WINDOW THROUGH THE WALL Asya Segalovich THE CHAOS SHE LEFT BEHIND Nikos Kolioukos Third Prize BUNNYHOOD  Mansi Maheshwari The Higher Technical Commission for Sound and Images  The 2024 jury of the CST Artist-Technician prize awarded the prize to Daria d'Antonio, cinematographer on Paolo Sorrentino's Parthenope. Daria d'Antonio's images give Parthenope perfect cinematography with grace and beauty. The 2024 jury of the CST Young technician Prize is proud to award this year's prize to Evgenia Alexandrova, cinematographer on Noémie Merlant's The Balconettes, for the quality of her photography, with its saturated colors and assertive lighting direction that transports us from comedy to genre film.

Sugar (2024)

Sugar is described as "a genre-bending contemporary take on the private detective story set in Los Angeles".

Apple tv+ new noir series SUGAR by Mark Protosevich (The Cell) divided people because of its gimmick.  It's L.A. Noir with a Twist. And it's a show for cinephiles with a cinephile dick and lots of classic noir films quoted directly on the screen (Kiss Me Deadly, Double Indemnity, Night of the Hunter, The Big Heat, Sweet Smell of Success, Sunset Blvd. and many many more -see the whole list here.).  

Colin Farrell is great as John Sugar, a private eye roaming LA in his superb blue 1966 convertible Chevrolet Stingray Corvette, but there's more than meets the eye (sic) in this 8 parts neo-noir series (short episodes, 30 mins.) as opposed to Ripley or Fallout or The Sympathiser's 1 hour + durations-named here the series I enjoyed this year so far, plus The Gentlemen). And I was waiting for each epsidode, so I watched this every week, for a period of two months, having heard from before starting it that it had a twist, quoted by The Guardian as terrible. Well, it's quite the opposite, great and new and brave.

Well, I for one, enjoyed it very much. Maybe because I so much like Colin Farrell and his (sad) smile, and his gaze. Farrell is great whatever he's in, either being Alexander, The Way Back, In Bruges or its L.A. version,  Seven Psychopats, even a lesser London Boulevard.. arthouse: Lanthimos' The Lobster but better in The Killing of a Sacred Deer, Ondine, Triage, The Beguiled, up to the grand summit- The Banshees of Inisherin,   

in True Detective season 2 -or unrecognizable (great too!)  in the new Batman (waiting to see his turn as The Penguin in his own series), even aa a cameo (in Gilliam's Parnassus).

And Amy Ryan  (which I recentley rediscovered in Gone Baby Gone), as an old rocker (Patti Smith, Blondie, Joan Jett style- who would believe her as that? ), was great, mature, warm.

Plus the dog is fabulous (and the cat).

And mr. James Cromwell, as an old Hollywood tycoon.

Series directed by Brazilian Fernando Meirelles (which went from his Cidade de Deus to great American TV)-5 eps. & Adam Arkin (Alan Arkin's son, an expert streaming series director- Succession, The Offer) -3 eps.

Great soundtrack too, with cool songs, some known, some obscure. Whole list here. Very nice use of Iggy's The Passenger.

“I believe movies are a conspiracy. They you set up from the time you are a little kid. They set you up to believe in everything, from ideals, and strength, and good guys.”

(Minnie in Minnie & Moskowitz by John Cassavettes-1971)* 

* I mean Gena Rowlands in the film Sugar goes to see in a cinema on ep. 2

RIP Costel Constantin

Drum lin, Costel Constantin!

22 mai 2024, avea 81 de ani. Juca inca la National, in Omul care a vazut moartea :()

via premiile Gopo

Costel Constantin a jucat în zeci de spectacole de-a lungul carierei sale, printre acestea se numără și ”O scrisoare pierdută” de I.L. Caragiale, ”Cui i-e frică de Virginia Woolf?” de Edward Albee, ”Regele Lear” de William Shakespeare sau ”Alexandru Lăpuşneanu” de Virgil Stoenescu.

A fost distins cu Premiul Gopo pentru Întreaga Carieră în 2021.

iata clipul de atunci

eu l-am vazut la National in Zbor deasupra unui cuib de cuci, unde l-a jucat pe Randle McMurphy, cu Florin Piersic in rolul indianului.

In film il tin minte din Revansa, Editie speciala, De ce trag clopotele Mitica?, Balanta.

ma intilneam cu el si il salutam, avea magazinul Nic pe Batistei si unul mai mare la Amzei.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024)

 #furiosa

"Do you Think you have it in you to make it EPIC?"

Yes, they do. Und they did;) And what an Epic. Oh, what a lovely day continues...

Here are my previous two posts on FURIOSA, 1st one when the trailer came out on Dec. 1st last year, then when on 21st March 2024 was announced to be in Cannes (as I surely expected). Six to seven minutes of standing ovation, depending on who you read ;)

Now, I just saw it and not only IT ROCKS, it also ROLLS. As a in a Rolls Royce of a film. Well, more like a Harley ;)

Film of the year and one of the best of this decade, scout's honor (film scout that is ;)

*

Furiosa Is ‘David Lean, But With Motorbikes Instead Of Camels’ 

Says New Immortan Joe, Lachy Hulme who took over from Hugh Keays-Byne (d. 2020-Vale)

Mithologically this is also based on the Word Burgers of the History Men and eyewitness accounts of those who survived."
Actually The History Man also appears in this one. Played by George Shevtov. And it's his voiceover. 

The film is told in Five epic chapters, very different than all the other films. And it's basically about a Peach ;) Also it has an epic length, 2h28 min, which went so fast, I personally wished to be longer. 

Fifth installment of the Mad Max Universe, born 45 years ago in Oz (Australia). As Mad Max: Fury Road happened in sequence, in 3 days and nights, this one happens over the timeline of 18 years.  

Also Fury Road took over 20 years to be made and 15 years of changes in the script, this one took 9 years in the Max Universe, but much less in terms of development and production (Miller did his Three Thousand Years of Longing in the meanwhile). George Miller is 79 now, so even for his terrific shape, I would hold my fingers crossed for a Sixth film, as I guess both Furiosa and Max have ended their character arcs). Heard in a Miller interview he has also the story of Max's year before the events in Fury Road. I would love to see that, with Tom Hardy. There's even a page and a title for this (The Wasteland). Surely WB would milk this cow forever and there's comic books and so on, but this is Miller's verse and vision, and I don't think anyone can follow up. But this is not the issue at hand. Haters and detractors will go on about sloppy CGI (really????), 'Woman Power' concessions and length, but it's their loss (as it always is and will B.)

*

The casting of Anya Taylor Joy came into the production of Three Thousand and the pandemic and is due to Edgar Wright who showed Miller a rough cut of Last Night in Soho (playing now on netflix, stream it now !). It worried me at first but now, seeing the film I think she's great !  Great eyes, also very few lines, physical acting (she's got to drive a lot and the actrees didn't drive at all!)

Also it worried me a bit that Chris Hemsworth is given such a heavy burden, being a villain, a nemesis and a mad father figure (Dementus, aptly named). And he's great too. The Teddy Bear surely helps. And the makeup, Oh, what a nose (Charlton Heston's Ben Hur?). He plays like a cross between Peter O'Toole in Lawrence, a mad messianic biker in a chariot of bikes in a Roman swords & sandals epic, and every Mad Gary Oldman performance of your choice. "oh what a day, what a deal, what a day"...

And then there's Brit Tom Burke as Praetorian Jack, who played Orson Welles in Mank (my faved film of 2020), looking like a young Stacy Keach. 

And a fabulous child Furiosa, played by Aussie Alyla Browne. 

And Angus Sampson returns as The Organic Mechanic as John Howard does as The People Eater.

Plus Rictus Erectus is here again (Nathan Jones) ;) - and so is his bro, Scabrous Scrotus (Josh Helman), who played a different part in 2015's MM: FR.

More infos on Mad Max Fandom wiki.

**

"There were 264 women and men on that stunt department. One of the sequences took 79 days to shoot. Every day, you're subjected to bad weather, covid, and exhaustion. Our one priority, led by George, is not to injure anybody. The second is to make the film that we enjoyed" (producer Doug Mitchell)

***

The music score is a revision on Fury Road score, done also by Tom Holkenborg (formerly Junkie XL), more emotion and drama and a diggeridou. And a duduk (which gets it closer to the sound of Gladiator).

The cinematography in magnificent scope is by new zeelander Simon Duggan (Live Free or Die Hard, The Great Gatsby, Hacksaw Ridge), who took over from Aussie Johan Seale, who came out of retirement to make Fury Road (& then Longing).

Should I say something about the set design, costumes, art, the VFX, the stunts, the amazing craft. No. Just Kudos. Exceptional. 

Miller wrote this with Nick Lathouris (same as Fury Road), but there are seven story contributors, including Action designer and 2nd unit director Guy Norris.

****

-The best prequel ever (Godfather 2 included !), no s*it...

As Mad Max: Fury Road (whose prequel to the key this is), is one of the best films ever made-and surely I have seen in this century and millennium !

Also helps it's Rated R.

*****

5 stars+=Eleven out of Ten -yes,this one goes to Eleven ;)

Empire 5 star review here.

RIP Dabney Coleman

Dabney Coleman was 92. He was in tons of films, 9 to 5. WarGames, Tootsie. TV: Boardwalk Empire's Commandore. Last bit in Yellowstone as Kevin Costner's father. 

Sleeping Dogs (2024) & cronica audio

prost film Sleeping Dogs, si preposterous...

inteleg ca cartea e mult mai buna.

de Eugen Chirovici, nascut la Fagaras. Asa s-a promovat in Romania...

imi pare rau de Russell Crowe, e un actor impecabil, one of the last greats, a heavyweight (acum la propriu) si joaca in acest film, sau anterior in The Pope's Exorcist, a regizat o chiftea acasa la el, Poker Face si va juca next in ceva nou (sic), The Exorcism...il astept ca Herman Goering in Nurenberg.  

cronica de la radio Hit Fm aici

si aici: 

Trei kilometri până la capătul lumii acum la Cannes-live- !!!

Emi Pârvu și echipa filmului său Trei kilometri până la capătul lumii, urcă acum în Palais Lumiere !

Proiecția oficială a singurului film românesc din Competitia Oficială a Festivalului de la Cannes de anul acesta !

Merde !!!

The Last Stop in Yuma County (2023)

The Last Stop in Yuma County is a cool little movie, debut (written & directed & edited by Francis Galluppi), film noir,  B style, happening in the early 70's (my guess), in a Yuma desert station with no gas. The idea of fatality reigns.

Cast: Jim Cummings, Jocelin Donahue Faizon Love, Gene Jones and baddie Richard Brake

Blood Simple, Bad Times at El Royale 

& now I heard about LaRoy, Texas, also 2023.

Great title song, Love is Blue the 1968 Paul Mauriat version, sounds like a Morricone song and I realised I knew it from childhood from a Richard Clayderman record (!)

Megalopolis @Cannes 77

World Event du jour (16 mai 2024) -the world premiere of Francis Ford Coppola's MEGALOPOLIS (over 40 years in the making, and finally produced on his own dime-and 120 million $ of it !!!), at the 77th Festival de Cannes. Coppola is 85 now and won double time -deux fois la Palme d'Or, for The Conversation in 1974 and for Apocalypse Now in 1979 (ex aqueo with Schlondorff's Blechtrommel/The Tin Drum). Now he's nominated for a Third Palme (third time's a charm syndrome, well, Merde! :)

I have a feeling it might win !!!

Great teaser for the film (or First Look clip) shattered the internet views 12 days ago, and then the trailer is on now, 2 days before the Cannes screening. French distributor is Le Pacte and I know for fact il will be distributed in Thaeters in Romania. Interesting enough, no US distributor yet, but surely this will be of passé composé demain ;)

Cannes TV du 1er rang just showed the end of the screening, the applause and the ending photo call of Coppola and his family & Team. Adam Driver, the lead of the film, Talia Shire (Francis' sister), Aubrey Plaza, Nathalie Emmanuel, Laurence Fishburne, Giancarlo Esposito, Jon Voight (85 as well !!!) and a bearded almost unrecognizable Shia LaBeuf in Palais Lumiere and on the Red Carpet (here's the Red Carpet before the seance). 

                       Here are the whole 22 mins of this Historical Event (yep, wish i was there...)

                                                                 c'est Cannes, c'est beau...c'est vieux ;)

Challengers (2024) & cronica audio

Luca Guadagnino's tennis threesome Challengers starring Zendaya (les Dunes), Josh O'Connor (La Chimera) & Mike Feist (Spielberg's 2021 West Side Story)

Great score by Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross, my main reason to see this flick. 2nd collaboartion of TR & AR with Sicilian director after 2022's Bones and All (see in my top of the year here, on soundtracks too).

Absolutely overlong (130 mins !!!), over stylish, slick editing and sound design.

...this is no Jules and Jim, more like Punch & Judy ;)

and if you wanna see Tennis, see Nasty ;) 

cronica audio de la Hit FM aici & aici

RIP Roger Corman

 The (B) King is gone, but not forgotten !!!

I met him in Grossmann in 2008 ! Oh, what a Lovely Day !:) and the Night of too...

see here in the funny papers ;)

https://aldmovieland.blogspot.com/2009/09/roger-corman-o-sa-ia-oscarul-omagial.html

Roger Corman just made it to 98 on April 5th, he was gone on May 9th....

autobiography: which I had and read-How I made a hundred movies in Hollywood and never lost a dime (1990)

great doc on him: Corman's World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel (2011), which I saw then in Cannes 

                                                                        Cormanesque

Dune part Two cronica audio

 am scris de el aici (in ingles)

https://aldmovieland.blogspot.com/2024/03/dune-part-two-2024.html

acum am pus cronica audio de la Hit FM aici (thx, Doc!)

The Fall Guy (2024) & cronica audio

 am sa ii fac cronica pe radio si o voi publica aici si aici. 

The Fall Guy ruleaza la cinema in Ro  sub titlul Cascadorul.

Este despre un cascador (Colt Seavers, interpretat de Ryan Gosling) si regizat de un fost cascador, David Leitch, care a facut si primul John Wick (dar acum e creditat doar ca producer), Atomic Blonde si Bullet Train (Atomic mi-a placut, Trenul nu).

in productia australiana (Sydney galore) a filmului Metalstorm, un "High Noon la capatul galaxiei", povestea de iubire dintre Space Cowboy si Aliena !!!

Mi s-a parut zero chimie intre Gosling si Emily Blunt (acre este total Necredibila ca regizoare de film de buget A si serie B SF). La fel straul filmului, Tom Ryder, un zero Aaron Taylor-Johnson si producatoara malefica (Hannah Waddingham, cunoscuta din serialul Ted Lasso).

Muzica insa exclenta, de Dominic Lewis (The King's Man, Bullet Train), face tot filmul si il ridica mult. Muzica e in sine un omagiu adus lui Michael Kamen, in stilul score -urilor de action gen Lethal Weapon.

Intreg filmul se bazeaza pe piesa I was made for Loving You a grupului Kiss din 1979, compusa de Desmond Child cu Dominic Portia si Paul Stanley Acum interpretata de englezul YUNGBLOD. 

Un fel de Last Action Hero pentru anii 2020, filmul e meta-meta, cu un umor quirky al carui rtm (hit and more miss) il prinzi cam greu. Isi revine insa in actul 3. Bazat pe serialul cu acelasi nume din anii '80 cu Lee Majors, cu care insa nu are nicio legatura (Majors are un cameo la final).

Civil War (2024) & cronica audio

 cronica radio despre noul film a lui Alex Garland, Civil War ! 

acum in cinema

Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura & co sunt o echipa de juranlisti de razboi ca in filmele din anii ț70, de la Vietnam la Beirut

Soundtrack interesant, Suicide (Alan Vega), Silver Apples, De La Soul.