Movies – Page 364 – We Are Movie Geeks

The Rats and People Motion Picture Orchestra Accompany THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC March 19th

THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC (1928) Screens at 7:30 Saturday March 19th at Winifred Moore Auditorium on the campus of Webster University with live accompaniment by the Rats & People Motion Picture Orchestra and an introduction and post-film discussion by Andrew Wyatt, film critic for St. Louis Magazine’s Look/Listen arts-and-entertainment blog and the Gateway Cinephile film blog.

Silent films with live music! There’s nothing like it and St. Louis is lucky to have The Rats and People Motion Picture Orchestra here. For the past several years, The Rats and People have actively defined both the local music and film cultures of our city. In addition to its prolific composition and live performance of new scores for films of the silent era, the ensemble – equal parts indie/punk-stalwart and classically trained composers/musicians – have provided the soundtrack for many of St. Louis’ most vital and acclaimed locally-produced contemporary films.

Next Saturday, March 19^th at 7:30pm, The Rats and People Motion Picture Orchestra will premiere their new score for the 1928 silent classic THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC. It’s part of the eighth annual Robert Classic French Film Festival — co-produced by Cinema St. Louis and the Webster University Film Series, which celebrates St. Louis’ Gallic heritage and France’s cinematic legacy. The featured films span the decades from the 1920s through the early 1990s, offering a comprehensive overview of French cinema. The event takes place at Winifred Moore Auditorium on the campus of Webster University. A complete guide to the fest can be found HERE

Jeanne d’Arc (1412-1431), who was granted sainthood by the Roman Catholic Church in 1920, has become a mythic figure in world culture. Key elements of this myth include her humble peasant origins, the “celestial voices” that inspired her to action; her controversial donning of men’s clothes; her courageous military leadership, and finally her capture by the English, her trial for heresy and her execution at Rouens in 1431. She has since been made the subject of innumerable books, paintings, poems, plays and films. Carl Theodor Dreyer’s THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC (1928), one of the most celebrated of all silent films, focuses on the last period of her brief life. The narrative compresses the twenty-nine sessions of the trial into a single day, encompassing Jeanne’s examination before the judges, the torments by the guards, her physical torture, her coercion into signing a confession that she later retracted, and finally her burning at the stake.

With its stunning camerawork and striking compositions, THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC convinced the world that movies could be art. Renée Falconetti gives one of the greatest performances ever recorded on film, as the young maiden who died for God and France. Long thought to have been lost to fire, the original version was miraculously found in perfect condition in 1981 — in a Norwegian mental institution. In the 2012 edition of Sight & Sound’s once-a-decade poll of film critics, “The Passion of Joan of Arc” was ranked No. 9 on the list of cinema’s greatest works.

Time Out London writes of THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC:

“Dreyer’s most universally acclaimed masterpiece remains one of the most staggeringly intense films ever made. It deals only with the final stages of Joan’s trial and her execution, and is composed almost exclusively of close-ups: hands, robes, crosses, metal bars, and (most of all) faces. The face we see most is, naturally, Falconetti’s as Joan, and it’s hard to imagine a performer evincing physical anguish and spiritual exaltation more palpably. Dreyer encloses this stark, infinitely expressive face with other characters and sets that are equally devoid of decoration and equally direct in conveying both material and metaphysical essences. The entire film is less moulded in light than carved in stone: it’s magisterial cinema, and almost unbearably moving.”

John Monaghan of Detroit Free Press wrote about THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC:

“Few films have earned classic status more than Carl Dreyer’s 1928 silent study of the 15th-Century teenager who helped lead French troops against the British only to be tried as a heretic.”

Mordaunt Hall at New York Times wrote of the film:

“It is the gifted performance of Maria Falconetti as the Maid of Orleans that rises above everything in this artistic achievement.”

Ken Hanke at Mountain Xpress wrote:

“Dreyer’s film remains among the most strikingly unusual cinema you’re ever likely to see.”

Don’t miss this event! Tickets are $12 general admission; $10 for students, Cinema St. Louis members, and Alliance Française members; free for Webster U. students. Advance tickets can be purchased through Brown Paper Tickets. A service charge will apply, and only full-price $12 tickets are available in advance.

REWIND THIS! – The Review: A Look Back at the Days of VHS

I admit it, I’m a sentimental old fart. I get choked up and maudlin very often, when I think of family and friends, a moment in time when I realized the tragedy life can bring to us, or the joy. I tear up at the movies regularly, or reading certain passages in books. But I never thought I would weep at the loss of a video system. If you read We Are Movie Geeks regularly you must be aware of the video revolution of the 1980s, when VHS players and recorders found a place in almost every home in America. I hope you recall the early days when VHS was neck and neck with Betamax, a technically better system. Remember the days of Mom and Pop video rental stores when almost anyone could open a store front, and with a collection of VHS tapes start making money? As one of the many, many on camera speakers in Rewind This! a terrific documentary on the history and impact of VHS tapes points out, your tapes didn’t even have to be good. Half the fun of renting VHS tapes was looking for absolute trash!

Rewind This! begins with collectors looking through piles of tapes at flea markets and garage sales. We hear from so many people it would be tough to list them all. In addition to collectors and personalities listed above we also hear from Charles Band of Full Moon Video, David Schmoeller writer and director of Tourist Trap, Kevin Tenney writer and director of Night of the Demons, and the always ready to talk Lloyd Kaufman of Troma! These are people who carved a niche for themselves in film making, almost exclusively through home video. Missing in action is Fred Olen Ray who, to my knowledge never got any of his product into theaters. As it stands Rewind This! is a terrific piece of work that reawakened so many fond memories for me. Part memory piece, but also a step by step history of how home video came about almost by accident.

Several companies experimented with different home video systems. There was a reel to reel half inch system that was available in the 1970s. My high school invested in a couple of those players to tape documentaries for class room use. Cartrivision was a square cassette that played very much like an 8 track tape. I can recall an issue of Popular Mechanics from about 1974 that detailed several systems that were in development, most of which probably never made it to the market. Originally both VHS and Betamax were intended just for time shift recording, tape your favorite television shows off air for watching later.

One of the most important people in the history of VHS was Andre Blay owner of Magnetic Video a production company that specialized in making industrial videos on 1” reel to reel tape. Blay saw an opportunity when the VHS and Betamax machines first hit the market. He wrote letters to all the major studios seeking permission to release their back catalogs of films on VHS tape cassettes. He offered a generous profit sharing deal with any studio that would work with him and no money down to start, just permission to use the films. And none of the studios were interested, they didn’t see much profit or need for their product on any home video format. Finally 20th Century Fox went in with Blay and the first VHS movies were officially released including 20th Century Fox movies such as Patton and Beyond the Valley of the Dolls ( a real collector’s item nowadays!).

Those early tapes were very expensive, I can recall Nostalgia Merchants VHS version of King Kong sold for $150. Sales were not that great, then someone realized the potential of renting tapes. Almost overnight a new medium broke like a tidal wave all over North America. Companies sprang up, some of them in just days to release and sell titles to what became known as Mom and Pop video stores. As one of the interview subjects in Rewind This points out, you didn’t even need good titles to make a profit, indeed renting and enjoying utter trash became one of the selling points for home video. As more than one interview subject points out no one ever really sat down and said “I wish I had some way to tape shows off the air and maybe rent movies to watch on my tv.” But once the machines and the rental tapes were available everybody wanted one.

VHS and somewhat Betamax, filled a need that nobody really knew existed. The VHS revolution was empowering, viewers could now take almost complete control of their television viewing. It was a heady experience to walk into any rental shop and find several dozen titles of movies you always wanted to see again, or had heard of and never had the opportunity to watch. We relive all that and so much more in Rewind This! We hear from Frank Henenlotter the director of Basket Case which became one of the first run a way hits on home video earning millions and allowing Frank to buy his condo. In a discussion of the importance of VHS box art Henenlotter states he despises “art films” that Criterion has the most boring box art of any dvd company. I like Henenlotter, I loved Basket Case and all his other movies, but there is a place for Criterion in the market. It was Criterion that released excellent versions of Island of Lost Souls, Vampyr and Equinox among other titles. But I digress.

Rewind This has so much extra footage the special features run longer than the actual documentary. We visit a VHS seller in Texas who has thousands of tapes for sale. Follow along with collectors visiting flea markets and view their different ways of housing their collections. We hear from Jason Eisener and Rob Cotterill the Director and Producer of Hobo With a Shotgun a movie deliberately made to look like an 80s direct to VHS release. Which segues to the phenomenon of another offshoot of the VHS revolution, the shot on video direct to stores feature. We see clips from Blood Cult and other titles. I did not see a clip from Boarding House, one of my favorite direct to video films but it may be in there somewhere.

Cassandra Peterson aka Elvira admits her career would not have gone as far or lasted as long without the VHS release of her titles. I had heard of David the Rock Nelson but had never seen any of his stuff, I wouldn’t bother if I were you. We also find out that the Alamo Draft House in Austin, Texas, and other venues, have VHS night, where in the VHS decks are brought out on stage and a roomful of people sit and watch titles that are only available on VHS. We also hear from the late Mike Vraney the owner and operator of Something Weird Video who managed to release hundreds of titles that no one else thought to even find. I bought a great many Something Weird VHS tapes in the 1990s. The films of Dave Friedman and Dan Sonney are available now thanks to Mike Vraney, Something Weird was also the first company to release Coffin Joe movies in North America.

Finally, Rewind This! is so dense and has so much information and opinions it begs to be watched more than once. One of the interviewees mentions the sheer joy of getting together with friends and having pizza and beer and watching whatever looked good at the local rental shop. What memories that brings back. In the 1980s when we all lived in St. Louis I used to get together with different friends including Eric Schaefer, Tom Stockman, Tony Laurent, Doug Hart, Paul Cunard, Don and Sandy Cooper, Kathy O’Connell, Mike Gunter, Steve Fears, Bill Winter, Joe and Lisa Heisler and several other friends (not all at the same time mind you) and do exactly that, pizza, beer and VHS rentals. Precious memories now.

I particularly recall one video store in St. Louis, Tele Video that at one time had three stores. The main store was close to my neighborhood near Grand and Gravois. Run by Filipinos Tele Video had the best selection of VHS I have ever see, I made every effort to watch every title that looked interesting. Being run by Asians they had an incredible amount of kung fu and ninja movies, especially the now long gone Ocean Shores VHS company releases. I never did get around to watching Three Hit Men in the Hand of Buddha but I did watch 7 Drunk Bastards versus the King Monkey Boxer! Some of us used to go in there and rent what looked to be the worst titles we could find and then, yes, pizza and beer. I clearly recall Doug Hart picked out something called Goremet, The Zombie Chef From Hell, that appeared to have been shot on Super 8MM film, in Jacksonville, Florida by some people who decided “hey, let’s make a movie!” All I recall is most of the movie was shot in somebody’s tavern and somebody got killed. Which describes most of the stuff that sat on the shelves at TeleVideo.

One of my favorite VHS memories: we had a farewell to John Carradine night after he passed away. I think I picked out The Mummy and the Curse of the Jackals, Eric picked out Mary, Mary, Bloody Mary (I believe, a lot of beer was drunk that night) and Tom brought the only real classic, House of Dracula. By myself, after Sergio Leone passed I rented Once Upon a Time in the West and watched that as a farewell to a master film maker, it was pan and scanned, that fuzzy VHS image, but I rented it when I needed it and wept all the way through (I always cry at that movie, just ask my girlfriend Radah.)

I also used to visit my Mom in Redford, Missouri and would take VHS tapes of older movies I thought she would enjoy including Hope and Crosby Road movies, MGM musicals and such. I also had memberships at Rental Entertainment on Delmar Blvd, Movie Club on Jefferson, Bijou Movies on Delmar, A to Z video on Lindbergh, National Supermarkets (good at all stores but I used to shop at the one on Gravois) IPI Photo and Video on Brentwood, Pages Video on North Euclid, Southside Movies on Cherokee, Movies to Go on South Broadway, Premier Video on Lindbergh, Movies Unlimited on South Grand (the one I used most frequently as they were within walking distance and for quite a while I did not have a car), Video Movie Outlet on Louisiana, Schnucks on Grand, Classic Movie Rentals on Virginia, Title Wave Video on Brown Road in St. John, and several others. I also had memberships at stores in Springfield, Missouri, Jays Movie Rentals in Ellington, Missouri and several Blockbuster stores (the chain that ruined the Mom and Pop stores and then went under themselves). I also had several memberships here in St. Petersburg including Hollywood Video, West Coast and Sun Coast Video. How I do remember all these places? Easy I still have the member ship cards! In fact I have several “rent a certain number of tapes and get a free rental” punch or stamp cards that either were never completed or never redeemed, guess I can forget those free rentals!

And amazingly enough my introduction to home video was with Betamax. My time in the Navy from 1976 to 1979 one of my jobs was running the ships tv station on an aircraft carrier, USS AMERICA. Our shows were mostly 16mm film and some 1” reel to reel video tapes. We had two ¾” Sony Umatics decks to tape our newscasts and we also made a nice library of movies off 16mm. My last Mediterranean cruise we were issued two Betamax decks and the last film units I broadcast were on Betamax, I was quite impressed. I recall one title was an Eddie Cantor musical from the 1930s Palmy Days, I had never seen such clarity on an older movie. To this day I think Betamax was superior to VHS and in 1979 after I got off active duty I told anybody who cared to hear my opinion to get Betamax, only one friend of mine did, Steve Fears. He liked the deck well enough and kept using it for years to tape off air but was sorely distressed when Betamax rentals disappeared. Which I don’t think is addressed on Rewind This!, there are collectors who are still devoted to Betamax and who sell and trade what few rental tapes in that format were produced. And just to add to the mix I actually resisted VHS for a while in the early 1980s. I bought a good used 16mm projector and checked out 16mm movies from the St. Louis City and County libraries. The features were mostly public domain but you could check out documentaries, cartoons, Three Stooges and Little Rascals shorts. Finally I did get my first VHS deck in 1983, with the wire remote and wore it out in just a few years.

All these memories and so many more were awakened by watching Rewind This! One of the people interviewed makes the comment that VHS would collect a history, much like a film print would get wear marks, scratches and splices VHS would collect dirt and get drop outs, especially if the movies had nude scenes. Renters would rewind the tape again and again to see Tanya Roberts or Phyllis Davis nude scenes and thus cause a noticeable drop out, a clear signal to other renters that “a good scene” was coming up.

Which Rewind This! also addresses, pornography was a major selling point for home video, in fact that was one of the main reasons many people got a VHS deck, to watch “mature” movies in the privacy of their own home. Forgive me, I could ramble on like this for pages, Rewind This! had that kind of effect on me. I still have some VHS tapes, titles that either are still not available or that I feel are very special to me, Rhino Videos 3D tapes of The Bubble “Paper Mister? Paper Mister?” and The Mask “Put the mask on now!!”. And Creepy Classics, a collection of horror movie clips and trailers hosted by Vincent Price which was sold for $2.99 at Hallmark Stores around Halloween 1988.

I also kept all the off air tapes I made and transferred them to dvd-r and I’m glad I did, within those discs are many David Letterman shows when he was on NBC and other treasures, but also many local St. Louis commercials including The Slyman Brothers, Hi Fi Fo Fum, Becky Queen of Carpets, The Tick Tock Shop and …..wait for it……Steve Mizerany!!!! Right next to the Bevo Mill!

I do wish I had kept some other VHS tapes, I was one of the naïve movie geeks who assumed everything that was ever released on VHS would be out on DVD, au contraire! I really wish I had kept my tape of Patti Rocks! That has never had a DVD release that I am aware of. Many of the titles that were released in the 1980s not only may never get to DVD, VHS copies may be the only way they will survive at all.

The point is made that film preservation itself is an illusion, no movie can ever be completely restored and preserved, film decays, even if it’s not the old nitrate stock, and video tape degrades and decays. As Woody Allen pointed out in Annie Hall the universe itself is decaying, all matter eventually disappears. But while it lasts movies are one of the most fun things I know of, and VHS was a major, major way to see a whole lot of movies in the comfort of your own home. Then of course I get nostalgic about the loss of drive in movies and inner city grind houses, which I helped to hurry along by staying home and watching VHS!

VHS could be enjoyed solo, I rented Jerry Warren’s Frankenstein Island at Tele Video one night and watched it all by myself and had 90 minutes of WTF!!! Seriously, check it out sometime, it is on DVD, or maybe Bluray too, I forget. I had the same experience the first time I saw Horror of the Blood Monsters on VHS.

The one thing missing from Rewind This! that I would love to see, a montage of VHS releasing companies opening logos. I particularly loved Vestron Videos cheesy logo, also Media, Nostalgia Merchant, Embassy Home Video, Something Weird Video “All you kids make me sick!”, Key Video, Academy Home Entertainment and most especially Paragon Video who always had a group of trailers before every title. You can see a lot of those logos, and some are companies I never heard of, on Youtube. Even when a tape just would not play, I could enjoy it. For example one night in St. Louis, (let me just say I was feeling no pain, and not from anything that was legal at the time) I attempted to watch a Paragon Video called Kiss Me, Kill Me with Carol Baker. That tape just would not track, I had to constantly adjust the tracking, but I still enjoyed it. The real name of the movie is Baba Yaga and Blue Underground released it on DVD and Bluray, beautifully restored, immaculate, just gorgeous. But somehow that VHS tape was more fun, I can’t explain it, I can only report what I see and feel.

Maybe I’ll visit some thrift shops this weekend and see what VHS tapes they might have.

John Goodman, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Amy Schumer And J.J. Abrams On The Red Carpet For Dan Trachtenberg’s 10 CLOVERFIELD LANE

It’s time to discover the “Cloververse”. Check out the photos of the cast of 10 CLOVERFIELD LANE as they walked the red carpet in New York along with director Dan Trachtenberg, producer J.J. Abrams and comedian Amy Schumer.

PICTURED: John Goodman and Mary Elizabeth Winstead .-PHOTO by: Dave Allocca/Starpix.

PICTURED: Mary Elizabeth Winstead.-PHOTO by: Dave Allocca/Starpix.

PICTURED: J.J. Abrams .-PHOTO by: Dave Allocca/Starpix.

PICTURED: Amy Schumer and J.J. Abrams.-PHOTO by: Dave Allocca/Starpix.

PICTURED: Dan Trachtenberg, director.-PHOTO by: Dave Allocca/Starpix.

Hollywood first recognized Trachtenberg’s talents with his Black Box TV short “More Than You Can Chew.” But in 2011 his short film “Portal: No Escape” (based on the popular Valve video game) debuted on YouTube to over 1 million hits in 24 hours. At this time, the short has over 17 million views on YouTube.

Currently, Trachtenberg is hard at work developing his original “Crime of the Century” for Chris Morgan Productions (Fast Five/Wanted) at Universal Studios, a pitch he developed with Dan Kunka. He also developed New Line Cinema’s adaptation of the award-winning comic book series “Y the Last Man.” And is sworn to secrecy on various other projects…

Sparks & Shadows, in association with Bad Robot and Paramount Pictures, announces the release of the soundtrack for 10 CLOVERFIELD LANE, featuring music by Bear McCreary (THE BOY, TV’s MARVEL’S AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D.). The film is the ‘spiritual successor’ to 2008’s CLOVERFIELD, the beloved science fiction/monster horror film.

Two years ago McCreary opened an envelope that contained a script with a red cover and a robot staring at him. He knew this might mean his first chance to work with J.J. Abrams and the team at Bad Robot. “I was riveted by the taut storytelling, kept guessing at every turn. I immediately saw the potential for a fantastic film, and was so excited I couldn’t sleep,” said McCreary.

A young woman wakes up after a terrible accident to find that she’s locked in a cellar with a doomsday prepper, who insists that he saved her life and that the world outside is uninhabitable following an apocalyptic catastrophe.

“Bear has written an incredible score for [director] Dan Trachtenberg’s 10 CLOVERFIELD LANE,” said producer J.J. Abrams. “It is tense, emotional music that gives the film scope and heart, augments the surprise and horror. It’s an homage to Herrmann, but wholly original at the same time. I’m deeply grateful to Bear for his contribution to this movie.”

“Walking out of our first meeting, I had the sensation that J.J. had just given me permission to write the score I’d always wanted to write,” McCreary described. “And Dan knew intuitively that the music could help provide an emotional core to the story, support the tension coming from threats both inside and outside the bunker, and give an epic sense of scale,” said McCreary.

Bear McCreary.-PHOTO by: Dave Allocca/Starpix.

With their blessing, McCreary went full steam ahead, assembling four different ensembles for the score: a traditional 90-piece orchestra, a smaller 45-piece string ensemble, a grouping of 30 celli and 8 bass, and a string quartet (The Calder Quartet). He combined these performances with two unusual instruments, the Yayli tanbur (played by Malachai Bandy) and the Blaster Beam.

The Blaster Beam is an experimental instrument built and played by Craig Huxley, best known for its use in Jerry Goldsmith’s score for STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE. McCreary reached out to Huxley and was invited to explore the instrument. “When I first saw the Blaster Beam, I could barely believe my eyes! I was giddy! It can best be described as a 15-foot-long pedal steel guitar, resembling an alien spaceship that lumbered off the pages of Heavy Metal magazine in the 1970’s. As soon as Craig played it, my imagination went into overdrive.”

Bad Robot and Paramount Pictures present 10 CLOVERFIELD LANE in theaters on March 11, 2016. Sparks & Shadows will release the 10 CLOVERFIELD LANE soundtrack digitally the same day, and on CD shortly thereafter.

(L-R) John Goodman and director Dan Trachtenberg on the set of 10 CLOVERFIELD LANE, by Paramount Pictures

Film Website: http://www.10cloverfieldlane.com/

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THE TEN COMMANDMENTS Back on the Big Screen March 20th & 23rd

Sixty years after its initial release, THE TEN COMMANDMENTS remains one of the highest-grossing and most popular titles of all time, and on Sunday, March 20, and Wednesday, March 23, Fathom Events and Turner Classic Movies (TCM) offer a rare chance to see the monumental epic on the big screen.

For four screenings only – two each day – the TCM Big Screen Classics series presents this fully restored Vista Vision production, which reveals every vibrant detail of the stunning landscapes, costumes and visual effects, digitally projected in its original 1.78:1 widescreen aspect ratio. This special presentation of THE TEN COMMANDMENTS will play at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. (local time) each day in more than 650 theaters nationwide.

Filmed in Egypt and the Sinai Peninsula with one of the biggest sets ever constructed for a motion picture, THE TEN COMMANDMENTS remains a cinematic triumph and perennial fan-favorite. Directed by renowned filmmaker Cecil B. DeMille, THE TEN COMMANDMENTS grossed more than $65 million at the U.S. box office in 1956—equal to more than $1.1 billion today—ranking it below only Gone With the Wind, Star Wars, The Sound of Music, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and Titanic on the list of highest-grossing titles. In its initial release, THE TEN COMMANDMENTS played in many theaters around the country for more than a year.

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS tells the epic story of the life of Moses (Charlton Heston), once favored in the household of the Pharaoh (Yul Brynner), who turns his back on a privileged life to lead his people to freedom.
The all-star cast also includes Anne Baxter, Edward G. Robinson, Yvonne De Carlo, Debra Paget, John Derek, Cedric Harwicke, Nina Foch, Judith Anderson, Martha Scott, Vincent Price and John Carradine.
TCM host Ben Mankiewicz will present all-new commentary for THE TEN COMMANDMENTS both before and after the feature.
Tickets to TCM Big Screen Classics: THE TEN COMMANDMENTS can be purchased online from Fathom Events.

Check out the trailer for this classic:

Long Live the New Flesh! VIDEODROME Midnights This Weekend at The Moolah!

“The television screen is the retina of the mind’s eye.”

VIDEODROME Screens Midnights this weekend (March 11th and 12th) at The Moolah Theater and Lounge (3821 Lindell Blvd, St. Louis, MO 63108) as part of Destroy the Brain’s monthly Late Night Grindhouse film series.

Have you ever woken up in front of the TV and found yourself watching some really bizzare show? Take that premise a few steps further and you end up in David Cronenberg’s 1983 shocker VIDEODROME. A strong statement about the influence of mass media on human conscience, VIDEODROME is one of the weirdest films ever made, even by Cronenberg standards. And although its outdated gore effects may seem a bit cheesy today, the underlying message Cronenberg wanted to convey through its over-the-top depiction of violence and gore hasn’t aged one bit.

The film tells the story of Max Renn; the CEO of a small television station who, while searching for a better content for his channel through pirate satellite dish comes across Videodrome; a broadcast signal depicting brutal torture & murder, which intrigues him and he bets on it as the next big thing. But while trying to uncover the signal’s source, Renn’s life slowly starts spinning out of control in a very bizarre manner. There is a great deal of social commentary in VIDEODROME criticizing the gruesome effects mass media can have on society. The body horror depiction carries the Cronenberg trademark and the performance by James Woods stands tall amongst the cast with fine contributions from Sonja Smits and a young and thin Deborah Harry.

Now you can relive the new flesh when VIDEODROME plays on the big screen this weekend as art of Destroy the Brain’s monthly Late Night Grindhouse. This is the kick-off show at their new location: The Moolah Theater and Lounge – 3821 Lindell Blvd, St. Louis, MO 63108. The bar there is open until 3am! (you’ll need a drink after VIDEODROME) -The preshow starts at 11:30. See ya there! Admission is $7

Natalie Portman’s Directorial Debut A TALE OF LOVE AND DARKNESS Picked Up By Focus World

Focus World, the multiplatform distribution initiative owned and operated by Focus Features, has acquired U.S. rights to Academy Award winner Natalie Portman’s feature directorial debut A TALE OF LOVE AND DARKNESS. Focus World will open the movie in a platform theatrical release later this year.

A TALE OF LOVE AND DARKNESS is based on the acclaimed and award-winning memoir of the same name by Amos Oz, one of Israel’s most celebrated writers. Ms. Portman wrote the screenplay adaptation, and stars in the film with Amir Tessler and Gilad Kahana.

A TALE OF LOVE AND DARKNESS is an intimate family drama set against the backdrop of war-torn Jerusalem just a few years after World War II. The story is told through the eyes of a young boy whose coming-of-age is shaped by a devastating family tragedy, and by a turbulent and changing world as the state of Israel is born.

The feature was produced by Ram Bergman and David Mandil; and executive-produced by Nicolas Chartier, whose Voltage Pictures was a financier on the film, and Allison Shearmur. The film world-premiered at the 2015 Cannes International Film Festival.

The deal was negotiated by Anjay Nagpal, SVP of Focus World, with Beth Lemberger, Focus Features’ EVP of Business Affairs, on behalf of Focus; and by CAA on behalf of the filmmakers.

“A Tale of Love and Darkness has been my passion for almost a decade now since I read Amos Oz’s masterful book and knew I wanted to adapt it into a film,” said Ms. Portman. “I’m so proud, and feel so lucky, that the film we made will be distributed by Focus World. It is a great honor to have their brand of thoughtful distribution delivering the film into the world.”

Mr. Nagpal said, “A true labor of love for Natalie Portman, A Tale of Love and Darkness will resonate with audiences as a moving story about personal and world history intertwining.”

Mr. Chartier added, “Voltage is incredibly proud to have been part of Natalie’s directorial debut and is extremely excited that Focus World will be bringing this great film to U.S. audiences.”

THE GOOD DINOSAUR : Interview with Director Peter Sohn

A few weeks ago, WAMG was invited to the in-home global junket for Disney & Pixar’s THE GOOD DINOSAUR, which is available now on Blu-Ray, DVD, and digital download. While there, they had a band ready to play us a few songs from the film, and I sat down with director Peter Sohn to talk about the film. Check it out below!

“The Good Dinosaur” asks the question: What if the asteroid that forever changed life on Earth missed theplanet completely and giant dinosaurs never became extinct? Pixar Animation Studios takes you on an epic journey into the world of dinosaurs where an Apatosaurus named Arlo (voice of Raymond Ochoa) makes an unlikely human friend. While traveling through a harsh and mysterious landscape, Arlo learns the power of confronting his fears and discovers what he is truly capable of.

The composers were talking about their role in conveying your vision. You were talking earlier about navigating through that without knowing the lingo. So how did you go about conveying your vision to them and what initial sound were you going for?

Peter Sohn: One of the pieces that I loved from what Michael had written was from Life of Pi. There was a real kind of…there are moments in that movie where you are just looking at a character looking at an animal stuck in a boat with a lot of silence. But the music underneath it was not overbearing, but it was also very internal. Like, it was kind of projecting what the characters were thinking about. That was something that I really was looking for in this film, because Arlo and Spot, they don’t speak the same language. And so, that was an element: could we find someone that could really project that internal kind of thought process in the music for Arlo? He was that guy. And he found all these themes that helped us out with that. That was one of the first things we started talking about.

That’s awesome. Disney and Pixar are known for how much research they put into things before they start with location. I would assume you did quite a bit with dinosaurs. What kind of preparation did you take before even getting off the ground with this?

Peter Sohn: Preparation research. It really was a lot of movie love going on. Like, I love The Black Stallion. That was a movie that was really quiet. ET. And so, I started watching these kind of boring dog movies. Even Rain Man was kind of a boring dog movie. There was that and then the great westerns, the great landscape movies like Lawrence of Arabia. That was some of the early prep work I had done before we’d even go on research trips.

Bu it would also kind of teach me what I needed for the movie. For example, the cliché of the cowboy versus the real thing was something that I didn’t realize until we went out to the research trip. But I knew I wanted to go in that world.

Yeah, you can definitely feel the spaghetti western influence on certain parts. Were there any films in particular that you looked for to that?

Peter Sohn: Shane was a huge one, Jeremiah Johnson, The Searchers, Red River, even some of the modern day ones, like Silverado had some aspects that we looked at. But then trying to make landscape or nature a character, there were a lot of other movies that kind of hit that core.

This just popped into my head. One topic that’s been really prominent as of late is cultural appropriation. I’m just curious… Is that something that you focus on? You are dealing with the cave people and landscapes and everything like that. Is that something that you focus on and think about avoiding conflict when you are making a film?

Peter Sohn: Yeah. It’s not the first thing that you think about. But for me, I don’t want to just take a culture completely. I honor it and respect it, but also trying to make it work within the story, what the story needs are. And so, the culture of a cowboy was something that, like, when I first jumped into, I didn’t really understand until we did the research. And once we did the research, it was like, “OK. You know what? I’m literally making fun of the cowboy in that other version. I do not want to do that in terms of the culture of the people that survive in the west and live out there. Let’s honor it by finding something truthful in the way they live.”

So that was as close as we got to that type of thing. In terms of the humans, it was always kind of a made up culture, like we were trying to create our own traditions, create our own rules because of the evolutionary kind of setup that we had.

What is it about the buddy pic that speaks to you? The one that that I love about this is that Disney and Pixar are venturing out from the traditional love story, and on to subjects such as friendship.v

Peter Sohn: What’s funny about this film is that it’s slightly different from the classic buddy film. The classic buddy film was always like, “I don’t like you.” “I don’t like you!” “Well, I’m stuck with you.” “I’m stuck with you, too.” “I’m beginning to understand you.” “I’m beginning to understand you. Now we’re friends.”

This is like, “I don’t like you.” “I’m a dog.” “I still don’t like you.” “I’m just a dog living my life.” “You are teaching me everything. I’m still living my life. You have changed me. I have grown from you because of this relationship.”

So that’s something that was slightly different but something that spoke to me in terms of that kind of miscommunication. Like, again, I was talking about growing up with immigrant families, you are just trying to find ways to communicate without language. And this relationship and the way they connect was very much rooted in that.

Another thing about the classic Disney and Pixar films is a lot do have some sort of tragedy in their story. I think part of that is in order to allow your character to grow from that. How important is the tragedy to a Disney film? Did you have that in mind right away when you started writing this?

Peter Sohn: Yeah. It was there because it was in a lot of films about growing up. We tried to find a new take on it so we could still have that hole in Arlo’s life that happens when you lose someone. We did a lot of research into that type of loss and how children heal from that.

Then we started shying away from it and pulling back away from that concept. Then we met some families how had recently lost a husband or a loved one and they were like, “Please do not shy away from it. It’s such an important thing to continue to talk about with families.” There’s always a kid that still is gripping with it. So, so what if it’s an older thing. It’s a story that’s there for a reason. It made us even stronger in that concept.

What was the biggest lesson that you took from art department to director? It’s quite the leap.

Peter Sohn: You know what? Your title; that was a big deal for me, that you are a part of a family that everyone is trying to make the best film possible. Some people as the supervisors…I’m a supervisor, so I’m supposed to tell people what to do. In my years I’ve never seen that make anything positive. For me it was always like, “What can we do to make this film better, whatever problem that’s in front of us?” How do you answer that in a way that benefits the film?

I loved the nature backgrounds in this, such as the rain. All the nature elements are so vibrant and really detailed. But when you look at the design of Arlo and the T-Rex’s, it’s a little more simplified. How did you find that balance between those?

Peter Sohn: It was a tough balance. We did a lot of experiments early on where the nature was more cartoony or graphic. And it’s the danger that we needed out. All of a sudden, the world felt so safe when it was just kind of a cartoony premise. So we kept those elements of realism in it.

But also the same thing with Arlo where Arlo is more realistic. He just felt like an animal, like a cow sitting out there. And a cow has no problems. A cow can just eat grass and survive. But because this is a growth movie about survival, we needed you to feel when Arlo’s thrust out into the wilderness for the first time to be like, “[breaths heavy] I’m going to die out here!” To really feel that kid that was lost. So we pushed that graphic element to feel that youthful quality and the human quality of what a dinosaur could be.

That’s amazing. One more question. How was your first test screening? I’ve heard some brutal stories about how those go!

Peter Sohn: It’s rough. I remember hearing about this audience, and there were really great positive reactions were people were cheering at the end, but then there were questions that were harder. And that can throw you for a loop in both good ways and bad ways because you need those to just keep yourself in check just because you’ve been watching the movie over and over again so many times. So getting fresh eyes are always good.

But if taken the wrong way, it can be very destructive. For me it was always the spirit of the note, trying to understand the reasoning behind some of the notes.

What’s the strangest note you got?

Peter Sohn: “Why dinosaurs?”

[laughs] Well it’s called The Good Dinosaur…

Peter Sohn: Yeah. A dinosaur is a cool metaphor for being stuck. It’s about a kid trying to grow and move forward.

THE GOOD DINOSAUR is available on Blu-Ray, DVD, and Digital Download now

Watch The First TV Spot For THE PURGE: ELECTION YEAR

Ready for another “12 hours of annual lawlessness sanctioned by the New Founders of America to keep this country great?”

Universal Pictures has released an unnerving new TV spot for THE PURGE: ELECTION YEAR.

It’s been two years since Leo Barnes (Frank Grillo) stopped himself from a regrettable act of revenge on Purge Night. Now serving as head of security for Senator Charlie Roan (Elizabeth Mitchell), his mission is to protect her in a run for president and survive the annual ritual that targets the poor and innocent. But when a betrayal forces them onto the streets of D.C. on the one night when no help is available, they must stay alive until dawn…or both be sacrificed for their sins against the state.

The hit franchise electrified the culture and earned $200 million at the worldwide box office.

THE PURGE: ELECTION YEAR opens in theaters on July 1.

Visit the official site: www.thepurgeelectionyear.com

Principal Photography Begins On BAYWATCH Starring Dwayne Johnson And Zac Efron

Paramount Pictures today announced that principal photography has commenced on “BAYWATCH,” starring Dwayne Johnson (“CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE,” “SAN ANDREAS,” “FAST & FURIOUS” franchise) and Zac Efron (“NEIGHBORS,” “MIKE AND DAVE NEED WEDDING DATES”). Production will take place in Miami and Savannah.

The film will be released on May 19, 2017.

Seth Gordon (“HORRIBLE BOSSES,” “IDENTITY THIEF”) is directing the film from a screenplay most recently written by Damian Shannon & Mark Swift and Barry Schwartz. Beau Flynn (“SAN ANDREAS,” “HERCULES”), Ivan Reitman (“GHOSTBUSTERS,” “UP IN THE AIR”), and Michael Berk, Doug Schwartz (“SOUL SURFER”) & Greg Bonann, creators of the iconic “Baywatch” television series, are producing. The executive producers are Michele Berk (“BANDITS,” “KILL THE SPARROWS”), Louise Rosner (“THE BIG SHORT, “THE HUNGER GAMES” franchise), Tom Pollock (“UP IN THE AIR,” “OLD SCHOOL”), and Ali Bell (“HITCHCOCK”). Eli Roth is a co-producer.

“BAYWATCH” follows devoted lifeguard Mitch Buchannon (Johnson) as he butts heads with a brash new recruit (Efron). Together, they uncover a local criminal plot that threatens the future of the Bay.

Joining Johnson and Efron are Alexandra Daddario (“SAN ANDREAS,” “True Detective”), Priyanka Chopra (“Quantico”), Jon Bass (“Big Time in Hollywood, FL,” “The Newsroom”), Kelly Rohrbach (“UNTITLED WOODY ALLEN PROJECT”), Ilfenesh Hadera (“Billions,” “CHI-RAQ”), and
Hannibal Buress (“DADDY’S HOME,” “NEIGHBORS”).

ZOOTOPIA Day at the Saint Louis Zoo This Saturday

I’ve seen ZOOTOPIA, Disney’s latest animated comedy which opens March 4th. Check out my review which will be posted Thursday evening March 3rd. You can get in the ZOOTOPIA spirit this weekend when the St. Louis Zoo presents ZOOTOPIA DAY! It’s this Saturday, February 27th from 11am to 4pm. The kid-friendly fun will include activities, coloring sheets and giveaways for kids and families.

The excitement happens at The Saint Louis Zoo – Lakeside Crossing in the center of the Zoo. Don’t miss out on the fun and check out this trailer for ZOOTOPIA:

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THE GOOD DINOSAUR is available on Blu-Ray, DVD, and Digital Download now

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