In 1990, Spielberg-Lucas-Scorsese Talked About The Future Of The Movies

The Tribeca Film Festival email alerted me to a fascinating video on YouTube; a one-hour special interview, done by Siskel and Ebert, of Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Martin Scorsese back in 1990 about the future of film. 

The thoughtful, intercut discussion with all three directors touches on many topics, including the role of technology in film (Lucas has a few things to say) and also the preservation of the movies, which is a cause these three have brought to prominence since then. Spielberg notably talks about looking into the original elements for JAWS and finding them in a shambles. Cut to last year, when a definitive Blu-Ray restoration of JAWS was released. Spielberg also promises that there will never ever be an ET sequel...and he's actually kept that promise. Lucas, on the other hand, promises three new STAR WARS films and most of us wish he didn't keep that promise. :) 

Late in the show, they all talk about the future of HDTV which was just making it's first impression with some experimental sets. There is even a widely expressed concern that people will stop going to the movies with the home movie experience being the same as at home. But Lucas aptly predicts that the movie theatres will be home to more spectacles and personal films will gravitate towards the home screen.

A Summer of Big Budget Bombs--6 And Counting

A little over a month ago, Steven Spielberg aptly predicted the arc of the summer movies of 2013, saying that "maybe half a dozen mega budget movies are going to come crashing to the ground." Well, half way through the summer, six 100M-plus studio films (including the 250M LONE RANGER) have done exactly that as reported in today's NY TIMES.  You would have thought studios got the audience memo two years ago when INCEPTION, an original screenplay, was the big hit and must-see film of the summer. However, the sequels and quasi-sequels keep coming. 

The article makes an interesting point of how so-called original films like PACIFIC RIM feel a little too familiar (see TRANSFORMERS) and thus audiences are staying away. Of course, some of the summers biggest surprise hits were movies with modest budgets like NOW YOU SEE ME which broke out into true blockbuster-style grosses themselves and, nearly 2 months later, are still playing around the country. 

In Spielberg's widely reported remarks, he also predicted that the pileup of big-budget losses will change the paradigm of how studios make movies. Many have predicted this for some time but maybe with losses that could approach maybe a billion dollars by the end of the summer, the studios may actually change their game this time and look for new movies. One of my favorite memories growing up was the landmark summer of 1982, with so many amazing films (and yes, a couple sequels too). It was a fun filmgoing feast that has not been matched in recent years. Maybe 2014 (or more likely 2015) will be different.

A Different Opening For LINCOLN's International Version

LINCOLN, the Spielberg film about the President who ended slavery, is a historical drama which involves some knowledge of the Civil War. For most American audiences, that knowledge is a given as it's part of the history curriculum in schools.  However, for audiences abroad, this is often not the case. So the filmmakers created a different opening of the film for its international release, involving the use of black and white photos and some title cards.

The Hollywood Reporter wrote about this in an interesting item on their website about how some famous films were altered for their international rollouts. Not surprisingly China is the most censorious, eliminating scenes and Chinese characters in a number of major American films for scenes which they deem "offensive". The most recent film to hit the Chinese chopping block was SKYFALL and some of it's scenes set in Shanghai.

SAVING LINCOLN, The Other Lincoln Film And Its Digital Creation

I read about this film over at IndieWire this weekend. It's a bio pic about Lincoln told from the perspective of his colorful Southern bodyguard Ward Hill Lamon.  Smartly capitalizing on the current Lincoln-mania and piggybacking on Spielberg's Oscar front-runner LINCOLN, this low budget indie has taken a very different approach toward telling the period story.

Using green screen technology, the film was shot on stages and the backgrounds were created from old Civil War-era photos scanned from the Library of Congress' archive. It makes for some stunning backdrops for sure (especially a birds eye view of the White House that opens the film's trailer below) but it also creates a highly stylized look that seems like an uneasy cross between a music video and a video game. Some of the effects are a little rough too, which might be due to uncompleted process shots in the trailer--a situation that often happens with big budget movies.

Anyway, the film stars mainly unknowns (like any true indie) with the exception of Penelope Anne Miller as Mary Todd Lincoln. You can judge for yourself whether this is an exercise in digital filmmaking or a worthy biopic in it's own right when the film comes out next month...on Lincoln's birthday of course.

Witness To Lincoln's Assassination Appeared On 1950s TV

This is one of those things that makes you realize that the past is often not as far away as it seems. Over at the Atlantic, earlier this week they posted a YouTube clip from the TV show I'VE GOT A SECRET showing a 96 year old man from Maryland who was a 5 year old boy in Ford's Theatre the night Abraham Lincoln was shot. He vividly remembers John Wilkes Booth jumping to the stage from the Presidential box and was more worried about Booth's condition from the fall than the President, as it was all a bit confusing what was going on. It's amazing that his lifetime spanned the end of the Civil War and the beginning of the civil rights movement.

In a personal vein, I remember a neighbor of ours, an older woman who sometimes babysat me as a kid, who had a painting of a Civil War drummer boy above her fire place. It was actually a painting of her grandfather who was on the field at Gettysburg. Incredible, right? And let's not forget the well-documented stories of the last 3 Civil War widows who were alive until the mid-2000s (one was even collecting a pension from the Department of Veterans Affairs).

Though it's easy to think of the Civil War as ancient history, it was a mere 150 years ago that the conflict raged and nearly tore apart the country. Coming next month--Steven Spielberg's LINCOLN, which will look at the president's struggle to end slavery as the war, and his own life, came to an end. Here's the trailer below, with a script by Tony Kushner.

Was The Summer of '82 The Best Summer Ever For Movies?

There was a piece online this week from CBS This Morning where film critic David Edelstein of New York magazine called the summer of '82 Hollywood's Best Summer Ever for movies.  If you look at the lineup, you just might agree; E.T., POLTERGEIST, STAR TREK II: WRATH OF KAHN, CONAN THE BARBARIAN, ROCKY III and even TRON.  He says it was the last summer of big movies with personal themes before the marketeers took over. He is not alone in his assessment.

In fact, down in Texas at one of my favorite local movie houses The Alamo (where I've had a few films play myself!), they are doing a summer retrospective of the summer of '82.  They have these movies playing on their original release dates even.  What a fun idea!  Anyway, you can watch the segment below and post your comments about whether you agree with Edelstein.

A Tribute To Producer Steven Spielberg

Most of us think of Steven Spielberg as a director.  However, while he has helmed nearly 40 feature films  in his 40 plus year career, he has produced more than 130 features (not to mention a new TV show.) Over the weekend, the Producers Guild of America honored Spielberg with its 2012 David O. Selznick achievement award.

Before receiving the award, they played a clip reel of film that Spielberg served on as a producer. And while you'll certainly recognize some of these classic Spielberg titles, there are many other films iconic (BACK THE FUTURE) and otherwise (BATTERIES NOT INCLUDED) included in this sharply edited homage to his body of work as a producer.  [As a sidenote, Todd Sandler, who edited this tribute, is also editor of The Devotion Project shorts that I've feature here.]  It's a striking look at this modern day mogul's effect on the film industry over the last four decades.

An Animated RAIDERS Opening That Took Six Months

Here's a fun Friday clip to end the week with. In honor of the 30th anniversary of RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, one serious fanboy by the name of Jeff Gurwood created a stop-motion redo of the first 6 minutes of the film.  It took him six months of painstaking frame by frame animation to (I'm guessing that torch in the beginning took a lot of time!). He used real Indiana Jones action figures but what is most impressive is that he created the sets and props himself.

As a follow-up, think it would be great if Jeff gave the crazy opening sequence of TEMPLE OF DOOM the same treatment.  However, that could possibly take somewhat more time than six months given all the insane action going on in that nightclub and ensuing chase. That is definitely one my favorite Spielberg set pieces...maybe due to all the dancing girls!

The Cinematic Phenomenon of the "Spielberg Face"

This week, two Steven Spielberg movies will hit theaters; THE ADVENTURES OF TIN-TIN and WARHORSE.  So it seems a fitting time to consider what is it about Ameria's auteur that makes him such a master of the movies.  Well, one answer could be the "Spielberg face."

A video essay has been making in Internet rounds in the last couple weeks which dissects the "emotional closeup" which is a common thread in Spielberg's blockbusters over the last 30 years.  The creator of the video is Kevin B. Lee and he acknowledges his inspiration was an article by Matt Patches earlier this year about the "Spielberg face".  

If you can get past the semi-funny sounding name of this phenomenon, it's a truly fascinating look at Spielberg's signature move and even how it has even evolved in his films post-9/11.  The piece also offer a spirited argument in favor of the director's much-maligned A.I., a film which I also would argue is the director's misunderstood masterwork.  

NetPix: Close Encounters of the Third Kind

OK--so even though I'm posting this as a NetPix, I have to be honest and tell you that I actually saw this on the big screen. It was the movie at Bryant Park on Monday night. It was also the first time I'd seen the film in some 20-odd years. I remember being fascinated by CEOTTK when I first saw it as a kid so I was curious to see what I'd think of it now as an adult and also a filmmaker.

In some ways, even though I know what happens in the end, I found CEOTTK even more fascinating this time around for a number of reasons. First off, I didn't know who Francois Truffaut was in the 70's and seeing one of the true geniuses of cinema in a Spielberg movie playing a French scientist is borderline bizarre. Then there's the fact that CEOTTK boasts not just one but two Spielberg moms, Melinda Dillon (who was nominated for an Oscar for her role) and Terri Garr (who is the more traditional of the two, harried and unintentionally funny). The film features some gorgeous cinematography by Vilmos Zsigmond (DELIVERANCE, MCCABE & MRS. MILLER), not to mention Laszlo Kovacs who shot some of the pickups.

As if that isn't enough to keep a film geek occupied, the movie also serves as something of a rough draft for two two future Spielberg classics; RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK and, of course, ET. The discovery of the WWII planes in the desert and the scene of Indian's chanting the famous alien call play like outtakes from RAIDERS. However, the similarities to ET are more obvious in that CEOTTK shares a similar story but tells it from the adult's perspective. In some ways, this is a much more adult film than ET in terms of its intensity and darkness. The famous abduction scene of Melinda Dillon's child (one of Spielberg's personal favorites) is both beautiful and horrific at the same time, much more scary than I recall the first time around. Also, watching Richard Dreyfuss become increasingly obsessed with his encounter of the second kind to the point that his marriage starts to fall apart is actually painful to watch. His wife and kids eventually move out when he starts building a replica of Devil's Tower in the living room. If there is any flaw in this movie, it's that this sequence goes on a little too long. We sorta get it after the first couple of shrubs go flying through the kitchen window.

What was groundbreaking about this film at the time of its release is that, up to that point, mainstream Hollywood movies about alien visitation usually did not end so well. Spielberg was one of the first to posit that maybe visitors from outer space would not arrive with their guns blazing or harboring some secretive plot to take over the planet and/or destroy mankind. This is a theme which gets an even more thorough working out in ET as the alien actually serves as the romantic lead in a boy-meets-alien, boy-loses-alien love story. And it makes the Spielberg's later super-violent WAR OF THE WORLDS look like an even more mystifying mess.

There are three versions of the CEOTTK available on DVD...from 1977, 1980 and 1997. All of these are part of the "Ultimate Edition" which is on Netflix. I would recommend watching the most recent cut, which is the one screened at Byrant Park. Even Spielberg himself has admitted that the special edition from 1980, with footage inside the mother ship, was a mistake. Finally, an interesting fact to consider when watching this sci-fi classic: Spielberg's inspiration for the film was the song "When You Wish Upon A Star" and he desperately wanted to use it somewhere in the film but was denied by Disney. Strangely enough, the aliens' call, written by John Williams, has a similar tonal progression to that song...not exactly a rip-off but clearly a homage of sorts.