film reactor

FILM REACTORThe Tree of Life Issue

Featuring:

Todd Haynes’ Mildred Pierce

Catherine Deneuve

The Best of 2011 SXSW Film

King Vidor’s masterpiece ‘The Crowd’

The 10 Most Exoting Filmakets Working Today

the Films of

jean vigo

Available on DVD and Blu-ray August 2ndIncludes L’Atlante and Zero For Conduct

Available on DVD and Blu-ray August 2ndIncludes L’Atlante and Zero For Conduct

Tabl

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Con

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s ACT I

ACT IVACT IIIACT II

ACT I

ACT IVACT IIIACT II

Terrence Malick and ‘The Tree of Life’ pg. 8

King Vidor’s ‘The Crowd’ pg.38Catherine Deneuve pg. 42

Mildred Pierce and the Cable Revolution pg. 32Most Exciting Filmmakers Working today pg. 25SXSW Film: 9 Must-see Films pg. 14

Roll Credits pg. 52

Movie Poster of the Week pg. 50Great Film Composers pg. 48Alain Delon pg.46

THE FILMS OF NICOLAS ROEG:

PERFORMANCEWALKABOUTDON’T LOOK NOWTHE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH

BAD TIMINGINSIGNIFICANCE

The Nicolas Roeg Collection on DVD July 29th

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ACT A look at Terrence Malick’s Upcoming film ‘The Tree of Life’

ITHE FILMS OF NICOLAS ROEG:

PERFORMANCEWALKABOUTDON’T LOOK NOWTHE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH

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By Taylor McKee and Anthony Nicholas

The Making of Terrence Malick’s

No other living director has quite the same mythic status at Terrence Malick. He has only made 5 films in 40 years. Each one of them has its own legend around it. Be-fore ever seeing a Malick film there was an aura around them. Each one has been described as an indisputable masterpiece. Even 2005’s The New World, which opened to mixed reviews and lost out on the Oscar race, has recieved an up tick in popularity. It was listed in most critics top 10 of the de-cade lists.

There is certainly an afterglow. After watch-ing his films they hold a certain glow. The memories of watching his films are prob-ably more ravishing that actually viewing them. Which is the point i think.All of malick films are about not What is happening abut about what has happened.

The Tree of Life

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No other living director has quite the same mythic status at Terrence Malick. He has only made 5 films in 40 years. Each one of them has its own legend around it. Before ever seeing a malick film there was an aura around them. Each one has been described as an indisputable masterpiece. Even 2005’s The New World, which opened to mixed re-views and lost out on the Oscar race, has received an up tick in popularity. It was listed in most critics top 10 of the decade lists. There is certainly an afterglow. After watch-ing his films they hold a certain glow. The memories of watching his films are probably more ravishing that actu-ally viewing them. Which is the point I think. All of malick films are about not What is happening but about what is happening.Out of all the revolutionary new filmmaking in the 1970, no one wasquite like Malick. Great films left their mark on cinema almost instantly: The Last Picture Show, Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, Nashville all come to mind. But Malick’s ascension into a film icon was a slow burn. His debut feature ‘Badlands’ made a modest impact upon its release in 1973.But ‘Badlands’ Malick established his style early on. A gor-geous almost free form collage of images. Much of the sto-ry is told in voice over. While the tale is the most straight-forward in his flilmography is it still feels like a collage of images.

The story was compared to the more sensational ‘Bonne and Clyde’ but the films feel worlds apart. Instead of cre-ating characters who’s style is but front and center for the audience to admire and imitate, his creations were flesh and blood. Their behavior is inspired by what they see in the movies. They are the imitators. Kit (Martin Sheen) seems to have adopted all his behavior from James Dean movies.He is a twenty-something with no direction until he meets 15 year-old Holly (Sissy Spacek). They become lovers and Kit kills her disapproving father in a fight. And a couple weeks later their summer road trip leaves nearly a dozen people dead. All of these murders are films in the most detached un-sensational way one can imagine. Everything is so messy and confusing. Kit seems to relish his newtitle as a serial killer.Days of Heaven is one of the most highly praised films of the 70s. This is where Malick’s style took an epic form. The story of a traveling family of vagabonds during the depres-sionTree of life What makes Malick next film so exciting is the fact that it looks like a crazy leap of faith even for him. This director is tackling a subject so expansive, our place in the universe it looks like, only few filmmakers (Herzog, Ku-brick) ever dare touch the subject withoutfalling on their face.

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Malick fell into the trap that most big filmakers get into. After the critical success of Days of Heaven, a big follow-up was anticipated. A project named Q went into pre-production. The project was so big and expansive Malick decided to abandon the production in the mid 80’s. The budget for the film would have been astronomical. Its not know how much of a toll this took on Malick, but he quit filmmaking for nearly 20 years. But in 1997 he released his comeback film The Thin Red Line. It was a war film unlike any other. It featured no main storyline, simply the toughts of soldiers while in combat. It was haunting and tracelike at the same time. But the most surprising aspect of the film was that it was a box office success grossing nearly $50 million in the U.S. The film recieved seven Acadamy Award nominations including Best Picture and a much deserved Best Director nomina-tion for Malick. His next film was a re-telling of the Pocahontas sto-ry. The New World was groundbreaking in that it told the story in the point of view of the natives. When John Smith’s ship landed in Virginia it was a bizzare and awe-inspiring sight. The film captures the strange relations between natives and the English conquerors more ac-curately than any other film. It was filled with tension, misunderstanding and fear. The film recouped its $35

million budget but wast a success. Malick then was able to get the right financial back-ing for his long delayed film Q. He retitled it The Tree of Life and after a year of pre-production began filming with Brad Pitt and Sean Penn in early 2008. Filmming went on for months and ended in early summer. Malick had shot over one milliofeet of film. Malick was notorious for his long post pro-duction but Tree of Life’s was unprecidented. It took nearly two and a half years of post-production. It was fi-nally screened to Fox Searchlight executives in December of 2010 and they gave it a summer blockbuster release at the end of May. They alos gave it a pricy advartising campagn to boot. It may be the first time ever that a Ma-lick film is getting a big release. Its unusual since no one can really say what the film is about. All the advartising has been deliberately vague. Thats something that hardly ever happens. When studios release a film they want the audience to know as much about it as possible.

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Ad

In cinemas July 29th

ACT A breif look at important works / figures in film history

II

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AttenbergAfter the cult success of the Oscar nominated Dogtooth, Greek cinema is looking to have the same kind of cultural renaissance like Romania has been having for the past few years. Hopefully there will be a new crop of film-makers that will take the reigns and make some daringwork. The film follows a young twenty something who is coming of age a little too late. The film follows her pain-fully awkward sexual awakening in a fragmented post modern world.

SXSW Film 20119 films you should be looking out for.

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Directed by Athina Rachel Tsangari

SXSW Film 2011

The FutureDirected by Miranda July

After the cult success of the Oscar nominated Dogtooth, Greek cinema is looking to have the same kind of cultur-al renaissance like Romania has been having for the past few years. Hopefully there will be a new crop of film-makers that will take the reigns and make some daringwork. The film follows a young twenty something who is coming of age a little too late. The film follows her pain-fully awkward sexual awakening in a fragmented post modern world.

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Another EarthThis is the kind of Sci-Fi I long for. Why does every science fiction film have to feature explosions and guns and battles. I would love to see an alien invasion or imminent apocalypse have a family or a personreexamine their lives We follow a young student who crosses paths with an accomplished composer on the night that a duplicate planet in the solar system is discovered.

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Directed by Mike Cahill

Attack The Block

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You know your film is a success when just days after the premiere screening studios are already talking about an American remake. This British sci-fi film has the halmarks of Edgar Wright’s genre spoofing com-edies like Hot fuzz and Shawn of the Dead. Stste of the art special effects and classic deadoan British humor.A group of kids decide to go to war with in anvading alien race.

Directed by Joe Cornish

Weekend

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Perhaps the most talked about film at SXSW was Andrew Haigh's intimate and melancholic film Weekend. It won Haigh the Emerging Visions award at the fest. Here's the SXSW synopses: "On a Friday night after hanging out with his straight mates, Russell heads out to a gay club, alone and on the pull. Just before closing time he picks up Glen and that weekend, in bars and in bedrooms, getting drunk and taking drugs, telling stories and having sex, the two men get to know each other. It is an encounter that will resonate throughout their lives."

Directed by Andrew Haigh

Bellflower

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The film that has been dubbed the hipster Apocalypse film. The imdb plot synopsis: Two friends spend all their free time buildingflame-throwers and weapons of mass destruction in hopes that a global apocalypse will occur and clear the runway for their imagi-nary gang "Mother Medusa".

Directed by Evan Glodell

BridesmaidsIn theaters everywhere May 19th

BridesmaidsIn theaters everywhere May 19th

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Our Day Will Come

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Romain Gravais has been a wildly success-ful and controversial music video director. His videos for Justice’s ‘Stress’ and M.I.A.’s ‘Born Free’ caused a stir for their violent imagery and political undertones. His debut film doesn’t stray from those themes one bit. it’s a surreal and truly frightning road movie.

Directed by Romain Gravais

The Sound of My Voice

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The debut film of Zal Batmanglij follows a young couple as they enter a mysterious cult. The psycho-logical thriller wowed at Sundance. Co-star and co-writer Brit Marling shows command on the screen and behind

Directed by Zal Batmanglij

DOG DAY AFTERNOON

One Night Only:

Al Pacino at Ruth Eckerd HallMay 31st, 2011 $99 - $295

DOG DAY AFTERNOON The

Ten

Most ExcitingFilmmakers

Working

25$99 - $295

Today

An immense talent that push-es the envelope when he so chooses. He’s made stars out of Mads Mikkelsen and Tom Hardy. and seems to have found a new muse in Ryan Gosling. The pair are set to de-but Drive at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

Bleeder (1999)

Fear X (2001)

Bron

son

(200

9)

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Nicholas Winding Refn

Valh

alla

Ris

ing

(200

8)

Valhalla Rising (2008)

Drive (2011)

Drive (2001)

Quentin DupieuxH

unge

r (20

08)

Rubber (2010)

Steak (2005)

An artist before a filmamker, mcqueen has a lot to love up to with a name like that. But His debut Hunger impressed and now he is set to helm another dreary yet impactful film in this year’s shame.

(201

1)

Nonfilm (2002)

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Steve McQueen

Drive (2011)


Andrew Dominik

Chopper (2000)

Alfonso Cauron

Great Expectations (1998)

Y Tu

Mam

a Tam

bien

(200

0)

Harry Potter& the Prisonerof Azkaban (2005)

Children of Men (2006)

The Assassinationof Jesse Jamesby the CowardRobert Ford (2009)

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The Assassinationof Jesse Jamesby the CowardRobert Ford (2009)

Lars Von Trier

Melancholia (2011)

Melancholia (2011)

Dancer in the Dark (2000)

Antic

hris

t (20

09)

Dogv

ille (2

003)

Europa (1991)

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Brad Bird

The Incredibles (2007)

The Simpsons (1996)

The Iron Giant (1998)

Rataoullie (2007)

Jacques Audiard

A Prophet (2009)

Read

My L

ips (2

001)

The B

eat

That

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rt

Skipp

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998)

After making a name for himself in the world of animation through a slew of Pixar hits, Brad Bird will make his live-action directorial debut next sum-mer with “Mission Impossible 4: Ghost Protocol”. A funky franchise, with a new director at the helm of each in-stallment, along with an aging star in Tom Cruise, stack the chips against Bird, but he may strike gold.

On the set of“Mission Impossible 4:Ghost Protocol”

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Jacques Audiard

Julian Schnabel

Basquiat (1997)Before Night Falls (2000)

Miral (2011)

The Diving Bell& the Butterfly (2006)

Gaspar Noe

I Stand Alone (1997)Irreversible (2004)

Carne (1996)

Enter the Void (2010)

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Mildred Pierce & The Cable Television Renassance By Anthony Nicholas

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Mildred Peirce and the Cable Television renais-sance. For the past few years there has been “sky is falling” kind of fuss over sharply declining ticket sales. If you have already invested thousands on a media center there isn’t much incentive to go out to the movies. But the real worries should be for Adult atten-dance. It has significantly shrunk. Compare with 10 or 20 years ago the market has shrunk for adult-minded fare. Movies like Frost/Nixon and were box office flops when one could see them being big hits back in the 90s. That’s manly due to their audi-ence focusing their attention to tv shows like Mad Men and Breaking Bad. They are inherently cin-ematic (each has the structure of a film) and at the same time they are perfect serials. But Cable television is not destroying independent filmmaking but rather becoming the independent filmmaker’s dream. The audience is already there

data shows that the same demographics are watch-ing Justified and Boardwalk Empire and Treme. It doesn’t matter the subject, it’s the quality that mat-ters. And if the subject doesn’t find an audience it will eventually attain cult status and find a new life on DVD. Just ask fans of cancelled glories Rubicon and Lights Out. Risktaking is not only encouraged but essential for survival.Mildred Peirce:What makes Todd Haynes 5 hour adaptation of Cain’s novel so daring (in a market that thrives on taking chances) is that it takes its time telling its sto-ry. It is fleshing out every detail of the original nov-el. There were complaints about pace of the film. This runs contrary to most other cable programs, while risk taking, haven’t crossed the boundary of being slowly paced and

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Mildred Peirce and the Cable Television renais-sance. For the past few years there has been “sky is falling” kind of fuss over sharply declining ticket sales. If you have already invested thousands on a media center there isn’t much incentive to go out to the movies. But the real worries should be for Adult atten-dance. It has significantly shrunk. Compare with 10 or 20 years ago the market has shrunk for adult-minded fare. Movies like Frost/Nixon and were box office flops when one could see them being big hits back in the 90s. That’s manly due to their audi-ence focusing their attention to tv shows like Mad Men and Breaking Bad. They are inherently cin-ematic (each has the structure of a film) and at the same time they are perfect serials. But Cable television is not destroying independent filmmaking but rather becoming the independent filmmaker’s dream. The audience is already there

data shows that the same demographics are watch-ing Justified and Boardwalk Empire and Treme. It doesn’t matter the subject, it’s the quality that mat-ters. And if the subject doesn’t find an audience it will eventually attain cult status and find a new life on DVD. Just ask fans of cancelled glories Rubicon and Lights Out. Risktaking is not only encouraged but essential for survival.Mildred Peirce What makes Todd Haynes 5 hour adaptation of Cain’s novel so daring (in a market that thrives on taking chances) is that it takes its time telling its sto-ry. It is fleshing out every detail of the original nov-el. There were complaints about pace of the film. This runs contrary to most other cable programs, while risk taking, haven’t crossed the boundary of being slowly paced and

ACTA breif look at important works / figures in film history

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King Vidor’s

The Crowd King Vidor remains one of the most talked about filmmakers of the silent era. He personified the im-mense risk taking of Hollywood’s early days. Each new film was a leap of faith. He was one of the first directors to film entirely outdoors, he experimented with visual effects and set design. His career was one of the longest and most prosperous in Holly-wood History, spanning seven decades.

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All of his best instincts came together in his master-piece The Crowd. The film features some of the most stunning visual effects of the era. Yet it is also one of the great humanist films of the era. Vidor, inspired by German Expressionist directors Fritz Lang and F.W. Murnau, created the iconic images of a bustling New York City in the mist of the Roaring 20s. The most famous shot includes the seemingly endless ex-panse of workers at their desk. Each is dehumanized drone. But as we zero in on John Sims we see that he is different. He believes he is destined for great-ness and works harder than anyone else. But when he gets married and starts a family he is burdened with one setback after another. As the film goes on we stop

wondering if he will ever rise above the crowds of New York. We wonder if he will even survive it. The way Vidor tells this story of a hardworking family is so naturalistic and tender. It must have been jarring to see such subtlety in the silent era, where making gigantic gestures was commonplace. The films style was so revolutionary that the godfather of Italian Neo-realism Vittorio De Sica cites The Crowd as an inspi-ration for his landmark 1945 film The Bicycle Thief. Many critics even cite the similarities in Jean Vigo’s controversial L’Atlante. It has influenced filmmak-ers in all corners of the globe with its simple story of struggle the modern world.

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Catherine Deneuve:

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Catherine Deneuve: There are very few people that meet the defi-nition of legend. Lauren Bacall perhaps, Eliza-beth Taylor is no longer with us. But Catherine Denueve is not only a living legend by she is still hard at work playing lead roles and still working with challenging young directors with no signs of slowing down.

Watching her on the press tour for her latest film Potiche is almost a pleasure to watch. She can handle run of the mill entertainment press questions with class and a sense of humor and yet reveal nothing about herself at all. That’s a hard tool to master. Also most every interview also be-comes a retrospective of her career. She has been a super star since age 19 when she landed the lea ng role in 1964’s ‘Umbrellas of Cherbourg‘. The film was a crossover success in the states and is still well known.

A Retrospective

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There are very few people that meet the definition of legend. Lauren Bacall per-haps, Elizabeth Taylor is no longer with us. But Catherine Denueve is not only a living legend by she is still hard at work playing lead roles and still working with challenging young directors with no signs of slowing down.Watching her on the press tour for her latest film Potiche is almost a pleasure to watch. She can handle run of the mill en-tertainment press questions with class and a sense of humor and yet reveal nothing about herself at all. That’s a hard tool to master. Also most every interview also be-comes a retrospective of her career. She has been a super star since age 19 when she landed the lea ng role in 1964’s ‘Umbrellas

There are very few people that meet the definition of legend. Lauren Bacall per-haps, Elizabeth Taylor is no longer with us. But Catherine Denueve is not only a living legend by she is still hard at work playing lead roles and still working with challeng-ing young directors with no signs of slowing down.Watching her on the press tour for her latest film Potiche is almost a pleasure to watch. She can handle run of the mill entertain-ment press questions with class and a sense of humor and yet reveal nothing about her-self at all. That’s a hard tool to master. Also most every interview also becomes a retro-spective of her career. She has been a super star since age 19 when she landed the lea ng role in 1964’s ‘Umbrellas of Cherbourg‘.

AlianDelon

“I do very well three things: my job, stupidities, and children.”

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A tough guy with a pretty face. There are few stars who can em-body both the look and the grit like Alain can. A tough guy with a pretty face. There are few stars who can embody both the look and the grit like Alain can. tough guy with a pretty face. There are few stars who can embody both the look and the grit like Alain can. tough guy with a pretty face. Tre are few stars who can em-body both the look and the grit like Alain can. A tough guy with a pretty face. There are few stars who can embody both the look and the grit like Alain can. tough guy with a pretty face. There are few stars who can embody both the look and the grit like Alain can. tough guy with a pretty face. Tre are few stars who can embody

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Bern

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Ennio Morricone

Courtesy of: MGM

Courtesy of: 20th Century Fox

Courtesy of: United Artists

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Courtesy of: Universal Pictures

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Courtesy of: Columbia Pictures

Courtesy of: Paramount Pictures

Film Composers That MADE Movies

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Film Composers That MADE Movies

Henry

Mancin

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JohnWilliams

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Movie Poster of the Week


Movie Poster of the WeekMovie Poster of the Week



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Ala

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III

Roll Credits

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ACT IV

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Design and Tex t

AnthoNy nicholas

Taylor McKeeny

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