Week of January 29 to February 4 (Mann)

What's on at the Tropic
by Phil Mann

Three new movies, two great holdovers, an opera and a classic. What are you waiting for?

We haven't had a big musical film in a while, so fans of that genre will welcome NINE, the new film from Rob Marshall, director/choreographer of Chicago. If ever a Broadway musical was destined for the screen, this 1982 Tony Award winner is it. The story is based -- very loosely -- on Frederico Fellini's struggles with life, love and filmmaking, depicted in his famed film 8 1/2, the period between his eighth and ninth movies.

Daniel Day-Lewis is Guido Contini, a filmmaker who, in addition to dealing with his creative block, must contend with an array of women -- his muse (Nicole Kidman), his mistress (Penelope Cruz), his wife (Marion Cotillard), and a stalking journalist (Kate Hudson), while a couple more females try to help him out -- his costume designer (Judi Dench), and, in flashback, his mother (Sophia Loren). They all have songs, and being a Rob Marshall movie, all are supported by big, bold production values. The roots of Nine may be in Italian cinema, but this is unquestionably a Hollywood musical with spectacles that Busby Berkeley might be smiling down upon.

Nine is "loud, brash, brassy, sexy and sometimes tacky or silly, but always entertaining," says the Wall St. Journal. It won the Satellite Award for Best Musical of 2009, and was nominated for Golden Globes and Broadcast Film Critics Awards in that category.

NO IMPACT MAN, is another of those movies about people who undertake offbeat challenges. Remember Supersize Me, in which Morgan Spurlock ate nothing but fast food for a month? Or Julie Powell who cooked her way through Julia Child? Well, No Impact Man is the opposite. Colin Beavan persuaded his wife to join him in living for year without impacting the economy. Living off the grid, so to speak (no electricity, no heat or AC), eating only local produce, and using no transport, not even buses. And, oh yes, no toilet paper. Tough, eh. Well they really did it, and in Manhattan, with a two-year-old child. Seeing is believing... all this week at the Tropic.

THE BEACHES OF AGNÈS is also a documentary, about the well-known director Agnès Varda. Made by Varda herself, the film is more of a cinematic poem than a routine life narrative. We see marvelous scenes like Varda setting up a shot on a beach with vertical mirrors. It doesn't make any sense until the final visual appears, and then we understand. That's the essence of filmmaking: it starts with the director's vision. She is one of the founders of the French New Wave, a friend and colleague of Godard and Belmondo, and was married to Umbrellas of Cherbourg director Jacques Demy. The Beaches, winner of the French Cesar award, is a Valentine to her late husband, and to the art of film.

Speaking of the art of film, Tom Ford's A SINGLE MAN, held over for another week, is one of the most beautiful movies ever made. Not because of the scenery but because it is the work of a master designer. That is enough reason to see it. But more than that, it is a moving story of the love between two men, based on an iconic, devastating Isherwood novel that speaks to anyone who has lost a lover. The Tropic's film programmer had his eye on this Venice Film Festival Queer Lion winner from the moment it was announced. Word to the wise: this will probably be its last week here.

This week's opera is Verdi's comic opera FALSTAFF, performed at the Royal Opera House in Liège, Belgium. That's Tuesday night.

And the Monday Night Classic is Carole Lombard and Federic March in NOTHING SACRED, a 1937 screwball comedy written by Ben Hecht, with a score by Oscar Levant.

Comments, please, to pmann99@gmail.com
[from Key West, the newspaper - kwtn.com]

No Impact Man (Rhoades)

“No Impact Man” Makes Impact
Reviewed by Shirrel Rhoades

If you’re a fan of the Ed Begley Jr. TV series on Discovery’s Planet Green channel, this documentary may seem a tad familiar. While unrelated, “No Impact Man” also tells the story of a guy who decides to go green to the consternation of his less-than-committed wife.
Author Colin Beavan decides to live for one year in a way that makes zero impact on the environment. “I’m trying to live a life in line with my values,” he says in the beginning of the film.

A daunting task, for he vows to give up automated transportation, electricity, toilet paper, disposable razors, plastic bags, non-local food, magazines, and materialistic consumption. However, the challenge increases when he factors in his “espresso-guzzling, Prada-worshipping wife Michelle, and their young toddler.”

Directors Laura Gabbert and Justin Schein capture the good intentions, family strain, and angst as Beavan turns his family’s life upside down in this one-man attempt to save the planet.
“No Impact Man” – the documentary of Beavan’s do-good experiment – is currently playing at the Tropic Cinema.

What makes this film interesting is the comedy that infuses this environmental viewpoint. Not preachy, no arm-twisting. But despite Beavan’s good intentions being challenged by his spouse, you’ll get the message that every individual can do his or her part.

“We’re just cutting down too many trees,” he says. “We need the trees to save the planet. And the polar bears.”

The film is based on Colin Beavan’s book, “No Impact Man: The Adventures of a Guilty Liberal Who Attempts to Save the Planet, and the Discoveries He Makes About Himself and Our Way of Life in the Process.” Too bad trees were cut down to make the paper used to publish Beavan’s book. Life isn’t perfect.

srhoades@aol.com
[from Solares Hill]

No Impact Man (comments)

Would you consider becoming a No Impact Man (or woman)?

Beaches of Agnes (Rhoades)

“Beaches of Agnes” Beachheads at Tropic
Reviewed by Shirrel Rhoades

Filmmaker Agnès Varda opens her autobiographical film by saying, “I’m playing the role of a little old lady, pleasantly plumb and talkative, telling her life story.” Yet, she professes, it is other people that she’s really interested in, others who intrigue her.

She says looking at others is like looking at landscapes. But when she looks within herself, she sees beaches. Thus, the title of this documentary, “The Beaches of Agnès” (“Les plages d’Agnès”). It’s playing at the Tropic Cinema.

Agnès toddles around a sandy beach, setting up mirrors and frames facing the sea. The mirrors symbolize a camera reflecting what they see. She walks backward to signal going back in time. She invites circus acrobats onto this beach that represents her life. She sails a boat from Sete to Paris as an allegory of the journey of her career.

She wants this portrait to show her as if reflected in an old mirror, showing that familiar bowl-shaped haircut, her scarf blowing in the wind. She says the mirrors remind her of her parents’ bedroom in Brussels where she grew up.

If you’re a cinephile, you probably know Agnès Varda from her films. “Cleo from 5 to 7,” “Le Bonheur,” and “Vagabond” are among her classics.

She was married to a famous French director (Jacques Demy), covered the Chinese and Cuban revolutions, and supported feminism when it wasn’t fashionable to do so. Her first film, 1954’s “La Pointe Courte,” is considered a stylistic precursor to the French New Wave films.

This is not her first foray into biographical films. She created an excellent documentary about her late husband, “The Universe of Jacques Demy.” And her documentary “The Gleaners and I” offered a tantalizing glimpse into her then-life.

She says of her early days as a filmmaker, “I had seen very few films, which, in a way, gave me both the naivety and the daring to do what I did.” So it’s not surprising that her films have a distinct experimental style about them.

“The Beaches of Agnès” typifies that experimentation. A most unusual – and fascinating – approach to a self-portrait.

srhoades@aol.com
[from Solares Hill]

Beaches of Agnes (comments)

What did you think of Agnes Varda's "autobiography?"

Nine (Rhoades)

“Nine” Counts on Fellini-esque Tale
Reviewed by Shirrel Rhoades

If you were doing Federico Fellini’s classic film “8 1/2” one better, what would you call the result? In this case, “Nine.”

“8 1/2” was a surrealistic autobiography of the Italian film director.

“Nine” tells us about Guido Contini, a famous director who is struggling to find harmony between his professional and personal lives. Or at least the women in his life.

You can catch this kick-up-its-heels pseudo-biography at the Tropic Cinema.

Daniel Day-Lewis, complete with black hat, portrays the ersatz Fellini.

And, ah, the women!

We meet his wife (Marion Cotillard), his mistress (Penelope Cruz), his film star muse (Nicole Kidman), his confidant and costume designer (Judi Dench), an American fashion journalist (Kate Hudson), the whore from his youth (Fergie), and his mother (Sophia Loren).

Guido wrestles with a maddening midlife crises while at the same time struggling to produce his next movie.

“Nine” is based on a Broadway musical. The 1982 production, with music and lyrics by Maury Yeston, won five Tony Awards (including Best Musical).

This film version is director Rob Marshall’s latest foray into Hollywood musicals. As you’ll recall, his “Chicago” won 6 Academy Awards.

“Nine” succeeds in transforming reality into fantasy. The musical numbers have been called “magical.” A seamless production, you never ask yourself why the people are suddenly bursting into song or dance.

Casting the film was as big a challenge for Marshall as it is for fictional Guido: Antonio Banderas (who had starred in the Broadway production) was disappointed when he didn’t get the film role. Javaier Bardem had won the lead, but dropped out due to exhaustion. Intense actor Daniel Day-Lewis was a long shot, until he sent producers a video of him singing (who woulda thought?).

Penelope Cruz auditioned for the part of the muse but was cast as the mistress. Marion Cotillard auditioned for the confidant but wound up as the wife. Demi Moore auditioned but didn’t make the cut. Gwyneth Paltrow, Uma Thurman, Anne Hathaway, Amy Adams, and Katie Holmes were considered for roles but lost out.

Looks like Rob Marshall could wind up with as many women problems as Guido. Or Fellini himself.

srhoades@aol.com

Nine (comments)

Check out Nine, and let us have your thoughts.