by Lidia Paulinska | Apr 6, 2017
Fathom events, March – On the evening of Sunday, April 2nd, thousands of delighted moviegoers were treated in hundreds of movie theaters to the classic thriller North by Northwest, directed by the incomparable Alfred Hitchcock. A hapless advertising executive named Roger Thornhill, played by Cary Grant, is mistaken for a fictional government agent by a gang of spies head by Vandamm, their ruthless ringleader played by James Mason. Thornhill is kidnapped and then framed for the murder of a United Nations diplomat. He escapes his sinister captors and goes on a run across America in his attempt to clear his name. Eva Marie Saint plays Vandamm’s mistress Eve, but with a twist. Martin Landau has his film debut as Vandamm’s creepy right-hand man.
Thornhill has two memorable and iconic encounters that have become part of our rich film lore. The first is the encounter he has with a sinister crop-duster, a scene filmed in the San Joaquin Valley nears Bakersfield, California, about two hours north (by northwest?!) of L.A. (For devoted fans, it took place on Garces Highway). Originally, Hitchcock envisioned a tornado threatening him, but for tech reasons, settled on the bi-plane and an exploding oil tanker. It works beautifully, a fact to which film history attests.
The next harrowing scene in which the bad guys pursue Thornhill takes place in the Black Hills of South Dakota on the massive sculpture of four presidents carved into Mount Rushmore which depicts Washington, Jefferson, T. Roosevelt, and Lincoln. Thornhill along with Eva, find themselves clawing across the face of Lincoln, and in fact, Hitchcock had even thought of naming the film “The Man on Lincoln’s Nose” after a short story he had read by that name which inspired the scene.
Some actors who had aspired to roles in the film included James Stewart and Gregory Peck for the role of Thornhill and Grace Kelly and elizabeth Taylor as Eve.
The Production Code Administration had difficulties with the sexual content of the film, but Hitchcock prevailed. Martin Landau’s character was scripted as a homosexual jealous of Vandamm’s mistress, but Hitchcock agreed to have him be more subtle than the script demanded.
And incidentally, if you think you heard hints of the music from Psycho or Vertigo, you’re right. The music North by Northwest was composed by Bernard Herrmann who wrote the score for all Hitchcock films and is considered to be one of Hollywood’s greatest composers of all time.
North by Northwest is a classy thriller and an iconic American treasure, and it’s Hitchcock at his very best which is pretty good, indeed.
by Lidia Paulinska and Hugh McMahon
by Lidia Paulinska | Oct 12, 2016
Fathom events, October – Offered for a single-evening engagement at select US theaters on Wednesday, October 5, 2016, Fathom Events presented Mel Brooks’ 1974 horror movie parody Young Frankenstein, starring Gene Wilder in the title role. The wonderful supporting cast included Teri Garr as the doctor’s fetching (very) personal Inga, Cloris Leachman as the evil Frau Blucher (at the very mention of her name, horses become hysterical), Marty Feldman as the devious bug-eyed hunchback, Peter Boyle as the Creature (IT’S ALIVE!!), Madeline Kahn as the horny up-tight socialite, and Kenneth Mars as the one-eyed, one-armed police inspector. Gene Hackman makes a brief cameo appearance as Harold, the blind old recluse.
This delightful film is a hilarious parody of the flood of classic horror film adaptations of Mary Shelly’s novel Frankenstein that were produced by Universal in the 1930’s. Shot in black and white to evoke the proper atmosphere, Brooks even employs the original lab equipment props used in the 1931 Frankenstein starring Boris Karloff and features 1930’s style opening credits and period scene transitions such as iris outs, wipes, and fades to black. Young Frankenstein was a box-office smash and critically considered be one of the greatest film comedies of all time, ranking number 13 on the American Film Institute’s list of the 100 funniest American movies.
The story involves the respectable Dr. Frankenstein, a physician played by Wilder, who inherits his infamous mad-scientist great-grandfather’s castle in Transylvania and of course that’s where the fun begins. Dr. Frankenstein decides to follow in his mad great-grandfather’s footsteps and re-animate the dead. He ultimately succeeds. “IT’S ALIVE!!”
Arriving at the Transylvania train station, Dr. Frankenstein is met by a hunchbacked, bug-eyed servant named Igor (Marty Feldman). Frankenstein insists his name be pronounced “Fronken-steen,” so Igor insists his name be pronounced “Eye-gor.” A beautiful young assistant by the name of Inga (Teri Garr) is assigned to Frankenstein and when they arrive at the castle, the doctor comments favorably about the size of the door knockers and Inga thanks him, thinking he’s complimenting her anatomy. The movie is full of visual and word gags like this. When Igor asks the Doctor to follow him, he says “Walk this way,” and Frankenstein obediently limps along behind him. The doctor at one point suggests to Igor he can do something about his hump to which Igor replies “What hump.” And much to the doctor’s astonishment, Igor’s hump also seems to inexplicably switch from one side of back to the other. More hilarious moments include the top hat and tails song and dance routine performed to “Puttin on the Ritz” reminiscent of Fred Astaire with Dr. Frankenstein and the Creature singing and dancing in perfectly synchronized vaudeville style.
“Dressed up like a million dollar trouper
Trying hard to look like Gary Cooper
Super-duper.”
Mel Brooks addressed the Fathom Event audience at the conclusion of the screening and it was a delight to listen to him share aspects of his professional career with us. He considered Young Frankenstein to be his finest (though not his funniest) film as a writer-director. Interestingly, he felt his funniest film was Blazing Saddles (1974), followed by The Producers (1968) and then Young Frankenstein. However, as far as most audiences are concerned, they are all equally hilarious and our lives are richer because of them. We may have personal favorites, but thankfully we have a rich comic heritage from which to choose.
Aristotle wrote much in an attempt to define tragedy, but claimed he didn’t write about comedy because no one took it seriously. (Drum roll please: da da bum). Without realizing it, he was our first stand-up comic!
If someone tells us they don’t take us seriously, we should consider it a compliment. Mel Brooks would.
by Lidia Paulinska and Hugh McMahon
by Lidia Paulinska | Sep 25, 2016
September, Fathom events – On Wednesday, September 14, Fathom Events presented “Snowden,” an expertly directed docu-drama by the incomparable Oliver Stone followed by a Live conversation with Edward Snowden (via the internet) and Oliver Stone and the two main actors: Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Shailene Woodley (live from NYC).
“Snowden” is the story of an idealistic young man by the name of Edward J. Snowden, probably the world’s most famous, or infamous, depending on your point of view, whistle-blower, who worked for National Security Agency and the C.I.A. as a data analyst, and whose experiences with those organizations lead him to question some accepted truths about patriotism, one’s responsibility to one’s country, and to ultimately challenge the very essence of authority.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Snowden does a remarkably empathetic representation of a shy, intelligent idealist, drawn to government intelligence work out of a sincere desire to serve his country and the gradual and cinemagraphically nuanced transition he experiences at those agencies from an unquestioning data analyst to either a patriotic whistle-blower or traitor depending on one’s point of view. Stone’s interpretation of the events clearly supports the former.
In contrast to many of Stone’s earlier efforts, “Snowden” is a remarkably restrained and intelligent film in both cinematic and political terms…no rage against the system or beating the drum of justified revolution. Snowden is represented as a sincere and thoroughly rational idealist whom Stone frames within a world of divided loyalties, secrecy, and indications of astonishing world-altering power. We witness his ethical angst within a very effective restrained cinematic context. It’s a world of data, codes, and algorithms, a context within which Stone may in fact not be able to choose a course of unrestrained anger and leftist polemic as is typical in many of his earlier works.
Stone makes his case uncharacteristically a-political case with enormous skill, discretion, and restraint without the need to dazzle or enrage his audience. “Snowden” is a clear and honest dramatization of one of the more outstanding news events of the past several years and worthy of our attention.
by Lidia Paulinska | Sep 13, 2016
Biotechnology, September 2016 – The opening keynote for Biotechnology conference in San Francisco this past June was a brilliant pairing of two speakers – Forensic pathologist Dr Bennet Omalu and famous actor Will Smith.
What brought them together? The answer is – cinema.
Both of them are the characters of the movie “Concussion” that was released at the end of 2015 and many claimed that it deserved an Oscar nomination. It is the story of Dr Bennet Omalu (portrayed by Will Smith in the movie) who discovered and described a disease called CTE – Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy after a few dramatic accidents resulted in the early deaths of football players in Pittsburgh. For those who haven’t seen the movie I save writing a review, because it is worth going to see.
Dr Bennet Omalu talked on the stage about science for the sake of knowledge and the interrelationship of pure science and its faith. Will Smith talked about his reaction to the film. How he suddenly got concern about his son that likes to play football. Both men are very colorful characters. Omalu’s sense of humor and unstoppable laugh was dominating on the stage. Will Smith was talking about challenges in that role including Omalu’s accent and the laugh.
The film opened the public eyes at the challenges that players facing and shake the NFL world. Omalu who is dedicated to the science as investigating how the world works, and to this end, used his own money to investigate why the admired Steeler team football player Mike Webster, ended up his life alone, homeless and in unbearable pain. Omalu kept asking why that happened and why at so early an age. The road to acceptance of the discovery wasn’t easy but Omala believed and searched for truth no matter what.
As many attendees came being attracted by Will Smith presence they were taken by surprise and found Dr Bennet Omalu very interesting and compiling person.
by Lidia Paulinska | Aug 21, 2016
Siggraph, July 2016 – Due to the complexities of scheduling a large cast of actors and crew it is difficult to move the production to locations around the world. Due to tax rebates and incentives many movies are often shot in just a few locations. What is the solution for a production that is supposed to span the world? That was the situation that was presented to the production of Captain America Civil War which was primarily shot in Atlanta Georgia.
At the Siggraph this year the lead production session was dedicated to “The Making of Marvel’s Captain America: Civil War” movie. Victoria Alonso, Executive Vice President of Physical Production from Marvel Studios, Dan Delleeuw, VFX Supervisor and Swen Gillberg, Associate VFX Supervisor from Marvel Studios, Jean Lapointe, Compositing Supervisor from ILM, and Greg Steele, VFX Supervisor from Method Studios were discussing the production process of the movie.
As we already know the film was primarily shot in Atlanta Georgia and filmmakers utilize VFX to bring locations from around the world to Atlanta digitally. The presenters were detailing the stats for this film. The numbers for the 135 minutes film Captain America: Civil War were as follow: 2,782 finals were created; 2,745 finals were used in the movie, 415 shared shots between multiple VFX teams, 194,608 frames. The production team created description of total 12 characters that play in the movie including: Captain America, Falcon, Scarlet Witch, Winter Soldier, Hawkeye, Ant Man, Iron Man, Black Widow, War Machine, Vision, Black Panther and Spider Man. Every character was evaluated under the criteria such as: Fighting, Agility, Strength, Endurance, Intuition or Psyche. For example the Winter Soldier: Fighting – Incredible, Agility, Strength and Endurance – Remarkable, Intuition – Excellent, Psyche – Typical.
For those who think that the developing story of the film like Captain America is a linear process: Script > Look Development > Story Boards > Previs, they are mistaken. The panelists showed that is more like a matrix of those elements and multiple teams working and a lot of material needed to be shot. Many times short post schedules sometimes required that they started on the assets before the foreground was shot or the sequence was fully realized. They don’t always stick to what was originally planned with pre-vis or story board. As a result a lot additional material was shot to cover all options such as time of day, weather, and any camera angle.
The production of Captain America Civil War was collaborating work of 18 teams worldwide working on a single project.
