RIP John Mayall

 Just back from the Brezoi Open Blues Fest when this came as a sad closure...John Mayall has gone on July 22nd.  He was 90.

John Mayall is/was Mr White in the Blues. Groundgreaker. Bluesbreaker. As in John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers.

Saw him twice in Bucharest, in the 90's and in the new millennium, in 2012, same venue, Sala Palatului. In 1995 his guitarist sidekick was the sensational heavy Texan Buddy Whittington. It mesmerized me that second time he was selling his own CD's, first artist I saw doing that...(setlist and pictures here!)

Jeff Beck gone, Only Clapton remains. His homage to Mayall here:

BBC obit here.

RIP Shelley Duvall

Shelley Duvall was 75 just for three days (born July 7th 1949).

Shelley is Wendy, Jack Nicholson's victimized wife in Kubrick's The Shining (1980) and that is the part she will remembered most. She lived a personal ordeal through that shoot, got a Razzie for it and meanwhile Razzies rescinded her prize (interesting article here).  After that film her career and personal life never fully recovered.

But she worked for Robert Altman too, in seven films with highlights on Three Women (for which she won best actress in Cannes!), Nashville and Popeye !

She was also in Woody Allen's Annie Hall. 

RIP...

a nice article on her from El Pais

Love Lies Bleeding (2024)

Love Lies Bleeding (2024) is a mesmerizing little film that has it all, bodybuilding, crime, gun nuts, lesbian love, revenge, rednecks, and Bronski Beat's "Small Town Boy". Just that here there's Small Town girls. 

Love Lies Bleeding is also a cascading Red flower, but the title could come from a Don De Lillo novel. Or not. Just learned that the film was originally set in Scotland but moved in the USA for "scale".

Set in 1989's New Mexico.  Kristen Stewart's performance as Lou is so intense, but I've seen her before in Spencer, Seberg, Personal Shopper, Clouds of Sils Maria doing arthouse, here she does the perfect Indie performance, with a high note of her real sexuality. But the revelation of the film, with a background of real body building, is Katy O'Brian as Jackie. Also Anna Baryshnikov, the daughter of maestro ballerino Mikhail Baryshnikov, stands out as blonde Daisy. Dave Franco as JJ is good too. And man, Ed Harris as Lou senior, is in super evil bad mode. Which is perfect. His hair extensions are a standalone highlight.

LLB opened at Sundance Film Fest to rave, then it went to Berlinale.

Rose Glass writes and directs stylishly and with a certain peculiarity, it's her second film after Saint Maud (2019, which I'm gonna check), shades of Wild at Heart but with an LBGT, Flashdance, Thelma & Louise, Near Dark and even Rust and Bones. She brought with her from Europe (Brexited England that is) her Saint Maud cinematographer, Ben Fordesman, who does a great widescreen job (2.39.1) in Americana scope. 

Great atmospheric music score by Clint Mansell (known better as Darren Aronofski's composer), plus songs of the period. Discovered some cool obscure or cultish tunes, that work perfectly in the film-Nona Hendryx-"Transformation", Gina X "Nice Mover", & "Kaddish" included.

LLB it's now in Romanian cinemas (as Dragoste, minciuni și sânge), limited release, see it there !!!

IM 18 !!! Restricted to all Minors ! In the US it's Rated R. 

7 out of 10 / 3 1/2 out of 5 !!!

RIP Ion Rițiu

Ion Rițiu enchanted my childhood. He was Rică Păsărin, the lead in Duelul (1981) by Sergiu Nicolaescu,Sergiu Nicolaescu, his last "comisar" film in Ceaușescu's times. Up to Supravietuitorul (2008), in which he gave Rițiu a part too, 30 odd years later. 

He was the rich bad boy gone mad in Sergiu s Ciuleandra (1985), Puiu Faranga,on the Liviu Rebreanuțs book adaptation. 

Next on an officier in Noi, cei din linia întâi (1985).

He was also the ottoman boss, Baiazid in Mircea (1988). 

Last film, Poker (2010), also by Le Serge. Actually Sergiu NicoleascuSergiu Nicoleascu was the only one who gave him film parts. Why? :(

I saw him as a kid on a theatre play in Oradea or Cluj. Hollywood type of charisma, nice diction, ultra photogenic old style (30s). I was charmed.  He worked as a theatre actor in Târgu-Mureș. Dan Alecsandrescu, my mom's youth friend, the theatre director there put him in many plays.

Ion Rițiu was 73 (born 4 Dec. 1950).

Obit from Gândul

RIP Robert Towne

Considered the greatest American script, Chinatown (1974) was Robert Towne's masterpiece. He won an Oscar for it but Roman Polanski, the director, helped shaped the script and especially the downbeat ending.

Too bad they didn't do the third movie (Cloverleaf), but with the failure and fights over the sequel, The Two Jakes (2000), Towne and Jack Nicholson's friendship (who offered to direct!) had a huge fallout. They got over it eventually.

His great script of the early 70's were The Last Detail and Shampoo for Hal Ashby. He wrote uncredited scenes for Bonnie and Clyde and The Godfather, The Missouri Breaks, Warren Beatty's films (he was also great friends with Beatty and later on with Tom Cruise, who hold him in high esteem). 

When they messed up his script for Greystoke, the Legend of Tarzan (directed by  Hugh Hudson), so he signed the screen credit with the name of his dog (P.T. Vazak), and that name got nominated for an Oscar !!!!

He was considered the best script doctor in town and did great rewriting work on A list films for Big Bucks, and got to (co)write humdrum big budget High concept bonanzas like Mission: Impossible and Mission: Impossible 2 (The Chimera gimmick)  or troubled productions like Days of Thunder. for Simpson/Bruckheimer and Tony Scott. Also on Crimson Tide for Scott and the same producers  (dictated famously over the phone !!!). 

Towne also directed four films, with mixed results, from the sports-themed Personal Best (1982) to Tequila Sunrise (1988, what that menage a trois was about?), Without Limits (1998, another sports-themed flick) and Ask the Dust (2006, based on the John Fante novel, which he wanted to do since the early Seventies !), that was also his last work.

He started in Hollywood working for  Roger Corman. He wrote the Tomb of Ligia for Corman, on his series of Poe adaptations.

Bob Towne was 89. He was more like a Rock star in Hollywood than the reclusive screenwriter type. There won't be guys like him anymore, that's for sure...

Bastarden (2023)

Easily the best Danish film in years and a Career Top for Mads Mikkelsen.

Bastarden in original Danish, Promised Land in English, and Bastardul now in Romanian theaters.

It was proposed by Danmark for the Oscars but The Zone of Interest happened...

It opened in Venice last fall in the competition but won only a SIGNUS award.

Nikolaj Arcel's return to filmmaking in his own home after the disastruous Dark Tower (why?..). His previous films in his homeland and Scandinavia were all very good (Royal Affair, Kongsgame and the original Girl with the Dragon Tattoo). 

Based on the book "The Captain and Ann Barbara" by Ida Jessen. And loosely on a true story. In 1780 and so. In Jutland, the windy wasteland of the Danish kingdom. Captain Ludwig Kahlen is on a mission, to colonize and fertilize the empty fields of Jutland.

It plays like a classic western, epic drama, but done with a very felt naturalism.

Something that got to do with potatos. cartofeln ("decât cartofi" ;).  Fistful of potatos. With a cold shiver of Danske cinema realism. 

Great atmospheric score by Dan Romer.

Brilliant and exquisite widescreen cinematography by Rasmus Videbaek (Arcel's aquired DOP).

Strong performances all over, esp. by Amanda Collin ('Mother' in Raised by Wolves) as Ann Barbara.

About Mikkelsen, I know him (as an actor) from his first film Pusher (in which he was Tony-he was also in Pusher 2), which I saw in Prague in 2000 from the Terminal Bar Video Collection. Saw him in Refn's follow-up Bleeder,Bleeder, in Valhalla Rising, in the cannibal comedy The Green Butchers, in TIFF in Flame and Citron, in B-EST in The Hunt,  showed at Cinemateca Patria A Royal Affair (his 1st film with Arcel), enjoyed at home during the "pandemic" Another Round / Druk. He was impeccable in all his American/Hollywood fares, from King Arthur on to the Hannibal series, in Casino Royale-a brilliant Le Chiffre,  SW-Rogue One, up to his latest baddie, in Indiana Jones V.

soft spots for Riders of Justice, Arctic, even Polar. 

Even high-end commercials like Le Fantome.

He won best actor on Danish Oscars (Robert prize) for this, and best European Actor of the Year 2023.

To be seen in theaters !

9 out of 10/ 4 1/2 out of 5