Congratulations Mr. Corman!

by Kimberly Lindbergs | September 11, 2009

Categories | News, Directors, American Cinema, Oscars

One of my favorite filmmakers will be getting an Honorary Oscar this year! Surprising news came out of Hollywood this morning when the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced that Roger Corman, along with actress Lauren Bacall and cinematographer Gordon Willis will all be recipients of a much deserved Lifetime Achievement Award.

Disappointingly, the Academy has decided not to televise the event and viewers will no longer be able to see these people receive their Lifetime Achievement Awards. Since my main motivation to watch the Oscars every year is to see the Lifetime Achievement Awards handed out to previously neglected artists I find this turn of events extremely disappointing. I guess the Academy plans to fill airtime with more terrible musical numbers? Who knows. But I suspect that they’ll be loosing lots of viewers like myself who get the most enjoyment from the montage sequences and hope for an opportunity to see old Hollywood mix with new Hollywood. Sadly it seems that old Hollywood isn’t worthy of television time anymore.

Corman is no stranger to getting Awards. He has his own star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame and in 1996 he was honored by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association with a Career Achievement Award just to name a few of his career accomplishments, but this will be Roger Corman’s first Oscar.

Congratulations Mr. Corman!

News Links:
- Offical Press Release from the Academy
- The Los Angeles Times Story
- The New York Times Story

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Twittering the Oscars

by Kimberly Lindbergs | February 22, 2009

Categories | News, Japanese Cinema, Oscars

In my last post I mentioned that I had recently started “Twittering” so I’ve decided to try and “Live Tweet” the Oscars tonight starting at 5 pm Pacific time. Feel free to join in the fun! You can find my latest Tweets posted on my Cinebeats Twitter Profile. Expect to read lots of off-the-cuff remarks that I’ll probably regret sharing later.

Some Links:
- The Official Academy of Motion Picture Arts Site
- The Official 81st Oscar Site
- David Hudson’s Collection of Award Related Links for IFC Daily

Feb. 23 Update:
As is often the case, the Oscars were rather dull and most of the musical numbers dreadful. I thought Hugh Jackman was an awful host and the worst moment came when Queen Latifah sang a song through the “dead people” montage that happens every year. It seems that lots of people were left out of it as well. I was also really disappointed that Mickey Rourke didn’t win Best Actor. But besides all the typos, I did enjoy my experiment with “Twittering Live.”

The best surprise of the evening for me was when the Japanese actor Masahiro Motoki appeared on stage with director Yojiro Takita to except the award for Best Foreign Film. Masahiro Motoki is one of my favorite Japanese actors and he’s appeared in many of my favorite Japanese films made in the last 15 years such as Gonin (1995), The Mystery of Rampo (1994), The Bird People in China (1998), Gemini (1999) and even the Black Jack (2000-2001) live action television series based on Osamu Tezuka’s classic manga. I haven’t seen the Oscar winning film Departures yet, but it wasn’t expected to win last nights award for Best Foreign Film and before last night I had no idea that Masahiro Motoki was one of the film’s stars. When he took the stage I was shocked and extremely happy to see him there.

Masahiro Motoki at the 81st Oscars with one of his costars from Departures.

By request - a few more photos of Masahiro Motoki at this years Oscars ceremony. Plus a couple of bonus pics!

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The Award Season

by Kimberly Lindbergs | February 21, 2009

Categories | News, Bollywood, Oscars, Amitabh Bachchan

2009 is shaping up to be an unusual year and for the past couple of months I’ve been on a roller coaster ride that shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon. Between job losses, car accidents, births, deaths, watching my neighborhood disintegrate due to the crumbling economy and doing battle with some mysterious illness, I haven’t had much free time for blogging. With Cinebeats 3 year anniversary on the horizon, I’m also reevaluating how I blog and you can expect some big changes here in the coming weeks and hopefully a few more updates. Please stay tuned! And now for a few thoughts on the current Award Season…

I’ve been Dardosed!

I want to say a big THANK YOU to all the bloggers who recently rewarded Cinebeats with the Premio Dardos Award! Those bloggers include Jonathan at Cinema Styles, Walrus at Film Walrus Reviews, Kate at Love Train for the Tenebrous Empire, Howard and Kevin at Destructible Man, Brian at Bubblegum Aesthetics and last but certainly not least, Colin, Jesse and Michael at Popcorn and Sticky Floors. If I’ve managed to forgot anyone, please let me know. Many of these fine folks wrote really nice things about Cinebeats and I’m super grateful for their kind words of support. I really can’t thank them all enough!

So what is the Premio Dardos Award? According to my fellow bloggers: “The Dardos Award is given for recognition of cultural, ethical, literary, and personal values transmitted in the form of creative and original writing. These stamps were created with the intention of promoting fraternization between bloggers, a way of showing affection and gratitude for work that adds value to the Web.”

While I find the “recognition of cultural, ethical, literary, and personal values transmitted in the form of creative and original writing” a little odd, I do truly appreciate “the intention of promoting fraternization between bloggers, a way of showing affection and gratitude for work that adds value to the Web” that this award represents. Unfortunately I think that every blogger I know has received this award already, so I don’t know of anyone off-hand that I can pass it on to. Instead, I highly recommend just visiting the fellow bloggers linked above who were kind enough to share their Dardos Award with Cinebeats. They’re all worthy recipients and I promise that you’ll discover some fine film writing and a few surprises when you visit their blogs. I’m proud to share my Dardos Award with them all!

Oscar Hopes

Like a lot of movie geeks, I look forward to the Oscars every year, even when I hate every movie that the Academy has nominated for a gold statue. The pomp, circumstance, movie montages and occasional unguarded moments of the stars and filmmakers keep me glued to the television. For the past two years I’ve written a little bit about the Oscars during the Award seaason so I didn’t want to let this year’s ceremony pass by without some mention of it. Frankly, I’ve been fairly annoyed by all the negative stuff I’ve been reading about this year’s nominees. Critic after critic has come out and announced this year to be one of the worst Academy Award races in years or even decades. Really? What rock have these critics been living under for the past 20-25 years? Where were these people when the Academy handed out Best Picture statues to Chicago in 2003? Shakespeare in Love in 1999? Forrest Gump in 1994? Dances with Wolves in 1990? and Driving Miss Daisy in 1989? Just to name a few Oscar winning films that I wish I could forget. I could go on and on, but I won’t. I will say that I’ve always been disappointed with most of the Academy’s choices, but to call 2008 the worst Oscar year in decades is just ludicrous to me.

I’m very happy to see that three modern director’s I admire - Danny Boyle, Gus Van Sant and David Fincher - were nominated for Best Director this year. None of them has ever won an Oscar, which is just plain bizarre when you look at the history of who has been gifted with this award in the past. And while I don’t personally have much desire to see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and I happen to prefer Van Sant’s recent “Death Trilogy” to Milk, I am rooting for Danny Boyle’s heartfelt Bollywood homage to take home the gold on Sunday. How can any self-respecting film fan not get some enjoyment from a movie that includes a scene where a young Bollywood fan crawls through shit - literally and figuratively - to get Amitabh Bachchan’s autograph? I feel sorry for anyone who can’t appreciate that spectacular movie moment. Slumdog Millionaire is not Boyle’s best film. That would be Shallow Grave, Trainspotting or 28 Day’s Later. I even enjoyed Boyle’s vastly under appreciated Sunshine more than Slumdog, but I do think Danny Boyle’s made some of the best and most influential British films of the last 20 years and I’m happy that he’s finally being noticed by the Academy. Slumdog Millionaire is a movie with no big-name Hollywood stars that was destined to go straight to DVD, but it managed to escape that fate and become an Oscar contender. Cheers to you, Mr. Boyle! May you and your cast and crew go home with a truckload of Oscar gold on Sunday night.

And like every year, I’m also eager to see some Hollywood legends get their long awaited moments in the sun. I really hope Mickey Rourke walks away with the Best Actor award this year even if I haven’t had the opportunity to see The Wrestler yet. I was also happy to discover that Jerry Lewis will be given this year’s Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. I’ve been fond of Jerry Lewis since I was a kid. Movies like The Nutty Professor, Artists and Models, The Bellboy and Cinderfella always got watched in my home whenever they played on television and I spent a lot of hours trying to mimic Jerry’s goofy expressions in my bathroom mirror. The adults around me and the other kids my age thought I was crazy for liking Jerry Lewis. It wasn’t until someone mentioned that “the French also like Jerry Lewis” that I finally felt like I wasn’t alone in my admiration for the funny man and his movies. Speaking of the French….

Cloverfield Gets Its Due

I was starting to think that I was the only person in the world who considered Cloverfield to be one of the best movies released in 2008, but I was wrong. The nice folks over at Bright Lights After Dark informed me that the respected French critics at Cashiers du Cinema agreed with me and placed Cloverfield on their “10 Best Films of 2008″ list, so kudos to them! Unfortunately you’ll have to pay money if you want to read about all their selections this year, but you can find more info about subscriptions at the Cashiers website.

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Lastly, I thought I’d let anyone who might be interested in my random movie related babble that I recently signed up to Twitter after I received a few invites from other users. If you’re really bored you can find me there under “user name” Cinebeats.

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Goodbye Mr. Widmark!

by Kimberly Lindbergs | March 26, 2008

Categories | News, Actors, American Cinema, Oscars

Richard Widmark 1914 - 2008

I was sad to learn of Richard Widmark’s death this morning after returning from my vacation. He lived a long and productive life, but Widmark has long been one of my favorite actors and since I share my birthday with the man I’ve always felt a sort of camaraderie with him. Widmark was a truly talented actor who could play incredibly nasty bad guy such as the iconic Tommy Udo in Kiss of Death (1947) or a heroic doctor in Panic in the Streets (1950) with an equal measure of skill. He might not be “typically” attractive by Hollywood standards, but in his younger years he was a great looking man with a wicked grin and he was just lot of fun to watch. In recent years actors and directors such as Jane Fonda, Robert De Niro and Peter Bogdonavich had been trying to get him awarded with an Honorary Oscar since he had never received one, but sadly that won’t happen now and it’s a shame.

Besides Kiss of Death and Panic in the Streets, some of my favorite Widmark performances can be found in a lot of the early noir films he made and stylish crime thrillers such as The Street with No Name (1948), Night and the City (1950), No Way Out (1950), Don’t Bother to Knock (1952) and Pickup on South Street (1953), which all come with my highest recommendation, but he was also terrific in the influential sixties era police drama Madigan (1968) and he appeared in some entertaining horror films and thrillers in the seventies such as Murder on the Orient Express (1974), To the Devil a Daughter (1976), Rollercoaster (1977), The Swarm (1978) and Coma (1978). He often made sub par films more watchable just with his presence. These days’ actors with Widmark’s kind of charisma and versatility are few and far between in my opinion and he’ll be missed.

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Rebels Artists Superstars

by Kimberly Lindbergs | February 24, 2008

Categories | News, Actors, Oscars, Tadanobu Asano, Viggo Mortensen

Viggo Mortensen and Tadanobu Asano

I’ve only had the opportunity to see a few of the films nominated for Academy Awards this year and besides David Cronenberg’s Eastern Promises, I haven’t been all that impressed with what I’ve seen. Since I don’t write about modern film that often I wasn’t going to mention the Oscars this year, but I will be watching the award show tonight and I hope to catch a glimpse of two of my favorite modern actors; Viggo Mortensen and Tadanobu Asano.

I’ve been following Viggo Mortensen’s acting career closely since I first saw him in the entertaining horror film Prison back in 1988. Viggo really stood out and it was clear to me back then that he had the good looks and acting abilities to become a major star so I’m not sure why it took so long for everyone else to notice him. Besides acting Mortensen is an accomplished poet and artist, and he’s also recorded multiple albums. He’s a truly talented individual and an American original who’s not afraid to speak his mind and stand up for what he believes in.

After enjoying Mortensen in somewhat lackluster films like Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III (1990) and Young Guns II (1990), he went on make some of his best films in the early 1990s such as The Reflecting Skin (1990), The Indian Runner (1991) and The Passion of Darkly Noon (1995). By the late 1990s, I had sort of lost track of him and stopped paying attention to the films he appeared in until his name was suddenly everywhere following the success of the Lord of the Rings movies. I naively assumed he would continue making blockbuster action films in Hollywood after that so I was completely caught off guard by his incredible performance in David Cronenberg’s A History of Violence (2005) and I’m really happy that the director and actor seem to have forged an interesting creative bond that I hope will continue to evolve over time. I’d like to see Viggo Mortensen take home the Oscar for Best Actor tonight, but the odds are not in his favor.

Top: Viggo Mortensen in Eastern Promises
Bottom: Tadanobu Asano in Mongol

Much like Viggo Mortensen, Tadanobu Asano is a true “Renaissance Man” and besides being one of Japan’s most accomplished modern actors, he’s also a talented artist and musician.

I first discovered Asano’s talent back in 1998 (exactly 10 years after I came across Viggo Mortensen in Prison) when he starred in the excellent Japanese crime thriller and dark satire Shark Skin Man and Peach Hip Girl (Samehada otoko to momojiri onna) followed by his impressive role in the samurai drama Taboo (Gohatto, 1999). I lost track of Asano for a few years until I caught him starring in Takashi Miike’s Ichi the Killer (Koroshiya 1, 2001), but he was hard to recognize at first. His hair was bleached bright blond and it took me awhile to figure out that he was the same handsome actor that I had been impressed with in earlier films. From that moment on I was determined to know more about Asano and I’ve made an effort to see many of his early films as well as his newest efforts whenever I can. Some of his best movies in recent years include Bright Future (Akarui mirai, 2003), Last Life in the Universe (Ruang rak noi nid mahasan, 2003), Zatoichi (2003), Vital (2004), Survive Style 5+ (2004) and Rampo Noir (2005).

Unfortunately I haven’t had the opportunity to see Tadanobu Asano’s new Oscar nominated film Mongol (Sergei Bodrov; 2007) yet, but it’s up for Best Picture in the much-contested Foreign Film category. I hope Asano will be able to attend the award show tonight on the off chance that the film he starred in might win.

Countless Oscars have been handed out as consolatory prizes for overlooked work and Viggo Mortensen and Tadanobu Asano’s ongoing and impressive acting careers have been overlooked by Hollywood and American film audiences for far too long. The odds might be stacked against them both tonight, but I’ll be rooting for them!

Related Links:
- Offical Website for Eastern Promises
- Official Site for Mongol
- Tadanobu Asano’s Offical Website
- Informative Viggo Mortensen Fan Site

Update (2.25.08)
- Unfortunately my guys didn’t win anything and I thought the Award show was dull as dishwater this year (my favorite moment was when the Coen brothers won best director and Joel’s wife Frances McDormand couldn’t contain her happiness!). Oh well, there’s always next year. In the meantime, here are some pics of the most interesting actors who attended last nights red carpet affair. For my money, Asano was the best looking and best dressed man there. Even Viggo looked terrific with his bushy beard.

Viggo Mortensen and Tadanobu Asano at the 80th Academy Awards

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The Music of Ennio Morricone

by Kimberly Lindbergs | February 25, 2007

Categories | News, Soundtracks, Composers, Giallo, Westerns, Oscars, Ennio Morricone, Klaus Kinski, Clint Eastwood, Sergio Leone

On Sunday (Feb. 25th) Ennio Morricone will receiving an Honorary “Lifetime Achievement” Oscar at this years’ Academy Awards ceremony to celebrate his contribution to the art of film music. It’s unbelievable that it’s taken the Academy so long to recognize Morricone’s incredible contribution to cinema, but thankfully they’re going to try and make up for past mistakes on Sunday night.

Unfortunately it seems that during the Oscar show Celine Dion will be performing a tribute to Morricone, which I can’t understand. The talented Edda Dell’Orso, who has contributed amazing vocals to countless Morricone tunes is still alive and performing, so it seems really strange to me that Dion will be performing at the Oscars to honor Morricone instead of Dell’Orso. I also think Celine Dion’s vocal abilities pale in comparison to Edda Dell’Orso’s.

Ennio Morricone has long been one of my favorite film composers. I grew up in a household where Hugo Montenegro’s Music From ‘The Good, The Bad And The Ugly’ & ‘A Fistful Of Dollars’ & ‘For A Few Dollars More’ got a lot of play and even though it wasn’t exactly Morricone’s original score, that record definitely made a huge impression on me and helped shape my deep appreciation of film scores. When I started collecting soundtracks in the 1980s, Morricone’s original score for The Good, The Bad And The Ugly was one of the first ones I bought and it’s still my favorite Morricone-Leone score.

When I think about my favorite westerns, Ennio Morricone’s music immediately comes to mind. It’s hard not to be moved by the somber sounds of wailing harmonicas, Spanish horns, echoing whistles and Edda Dell’Orso’s haunting vocals that manage to perfectly bring to life the dirty, dusty and violent west that lives in my imagination. It’s tough to pick a favorite when it comes to Morricone’s soundtracks for spaghetti westerns because he composed so many great ones, including the scores for A Fistful of Dollars (1964), For A Few Dollars More (1965), Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), Death Rides A Horse (1967), My Name Is Nobody (1973), and A Bullet for the General (1966). Besides his amazing score for The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966), I’m also really fond of Morricone’s score for The Great Silence (aka Il Grande silenzio) which he recorded in 1968.

The Great Silence is one of my favorite westerns directed by Sergio Corbucci and it stars Klaus Kinski in one of his most memorable roles as a vicious bounty hunter who’s being tracked down by a gunman out for revenge called Silence (Jean-Louis Trintignant). Morricone’s score for The Great Silence perfectly captures the mood of Corbucci’s film, which is set in a small dirty town as well as the snow-covered mountains of Utah. The main character of the film is called Silence because he can not speak due to having his tongue violently cut out when he was a young boy, so the film has very little dialogue compared to some other westerns. The “silence” in the film gives Morricone’s score room to really breath and come alive in ways that are extremely powerful and often very moving. It’s an incredible score for a really exceptional western that is filled with many beautiful as well as brutal moments.

Besides Italian westerns, Ennio Morricone has created some incredible scores for some of my favorite Italian horror films and thrillers including Nightmare Castle (1965),The Bird With the Crystal Plumage (1970), The Fifth Cord (1971), My Dear Killer (1972), Who Saw Her Die? (1972), Bluebeard (1972) A Lizard in a Woman’s Skin (1971) and Mario Bava’s action-packed Danger: Diabolik (1968).

I think Morricone’s giallo scores are among the best film scores he ever recorded and I find myself listening to them more then any other soundtracks that I own. These scores really show off his diversity as a composer since they often include a wide variety of musical styles. From jazzy beats to haunting melodies, Morricone’s giallo soundtracks are filled with memorable music that is often complemented by the vocal stylings of the great Edda Dell’Orso.

One of Morricone’s best giallo scores was composed for Massimo Dallamano’s film What Have They Done to Solange? (aka Cosa Avete Fatto a Solange?) recorded in 1972. This complex soundtrack features moody instrumentals, unusual rhythms and sharp horns. It also includes some surprisingly playful pieces of music as well. His score for What Have They Done to Solange? is one of Morricone’s most experimental and it’s also one of his darkest, which makes it extremely complimentary to Dallamano’s disturbing giallo.

Another one of Ennio Morricone’s best giallo scores was created for Luciano Ercoli’s Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion (aka Le Foto proibite di una signora per bene) recorded in 1970. Ercoli’s fascinating film is more mystery then horror and has lots of bare skin and very little bloodshed. Morricone’s score for the film is fantastic and includes lots of Bossa influences and pop beats. The music highlights the sexier aspects of Ercoli’s giallo, but still manages to be extremely suspenseful at all the right moments.

I have a lot of favorite Morricone scores and this post only highlights a few of them. Hopefully it has introduced a couple of people to scores they haven’t heard or at least encouraged someone to seek out Morricone’s more obscure soundtracks. He’s composed hundreds of amazing scores for films and I’ve only heard about 30 or 40 myself, so I’m looking forward to discovering a lot more gems hidden away in Ennio Morricone’s incredible discography. I’m also looking forward to seeing Clint Eastwood (I hope!) present Morricone with his long overdue Oscar on Sunday night.

Ennio Morricone’s Offical Website - EnnioMorricone.com

Fan Run Music Blog - Morricone Lover

For lots more Oscar talk and links to more Morricone related articles stop by Dennis Cozzalio’s great film blog Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule

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