Monthly Archives: November 2012

Filmmakers

2012 Young Hollywood — Part 1: The Filmmakers

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(Re-posted from LimitéMagazine.com)

For our third year, Limité presents our annual, two-part “Young Hollywood” feature. Mixing a combination of established and up-and-coming filmmakers under the age of 40 (Part 1) and actors under the age of 30 (Part 2), we seek to highlight some of Hollywood’s freshest talent.

In Part 1, we focus on the filmmakers. This list includes both male and female talents who are creating exciting works that, at times, push the boundaries of traditional Hollywood. This year’s class includes one-third of a female writing collective known as the “Fempire,” as well as the director behind one of 2012′s biggest little films: the festival darling and Oscar favorite, Beasts of the Southern Wild.

Check out Part 2: The Actors here.

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Classic Film, Narrative, On My DVR

On My DVR: My Dinner with Andre (1981)

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Synopsis (courtesy of IMDb):
Wallace Shawn and Andre Gregory, apparently playing themselves, share their lives over the course of an evening meal at a restaurant. Gregory, a theater director from New York, is the more talkative of the pair. He relates to Shawn his tales of dropping out, traveling around the world, and experiencing the variety of ways people live, such as a monk who could balance his entire weight on his fingertips. Shawn listens avidly, but questions the value of Gregory’s seeming abandonment of the pragmatic aspects of life.

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I first heard of this film, which takes place entirely at a dinner table, while watching a parody of it on the brilliant NBC sitcom Community, a scripted TV show that honors cinema unlike any other I’ve seen. The film’s Criterion trailer and a clip from that episode of Community follow the jump.

Director: Louis Malle
Screenwriters: Andre Gregory, Wallace Shawn
Cast: Andre Gregory, Wallace Shawn
Distributor: New Yorker Films
Runtime: 110 min.

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Classic Film, Drama, Narrative

My Favorite Movie of All Time: Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

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“You’re not gonna have a country that can make these kind of rules work, if you haven’t got men that have learned to tell human rights from a punch in the nose.”

With the US presidential election just three days away, there’s been talk on TV and in social media about the best political films of all time. Seeing as my favorite movie of all time is a political film, it’s worth giving it its due now (though it’s always worthy of much-deserved consideration).

After a US senator from an unnamed state dies, the governor chooses an unlikely replacement to fill his seat. At his young sons’ urging, the spineless governor appoints Jefferson Smith (James Stewart), leader of the Boy Rangers (a sort of Boy Scouts), to take the position. Wide-eyed and naive, Smith ventures to the nation’s capital for the first time, where he meets and is mentored by fellow senator Joseph Paine (Claude Rains). When Smith learns of his mentor’s involvement in a crooked political scheme, the green senator is forced to face the reality of American politics head on. With the help of his secretary, Clarissa Saunders (Jean Arthur), Smith learns to take a stand against corruption and in favor of true democracy.

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