Day: January 27, 2004

Bright Nights, Big Mountains

A different and amusing look at the Sundance Film Festival from Dallas writer Sarah Hepola.

What Park City has, however, is Save the Children volunteers.

‘Can I talk to you for a minute?’ asks a bright-eyed blond, smiling politely and holding a clipboard to her chest.

Dammit. They always get me.

I sign up for Save the Children. I request a child from Africa, preferably a very cute one.

‘Twenty dollars a month?’ L. says when we walk away. ‘That’s sorta steep.’

I point out that we just spent $12 on fudge….

The D.P. is nice. He comes to Sundance whenever he has a film in the festival, and he spends all day in the theatre. He saw five movies yesterday. The Woodsman, with Kyra Sedgwick and Kevin Bacon, is terrific, he says. Everyday People, about a black-friendly, Jewish-owned restaurant in Brooklyn, is really good. In fact, everything he’s seen has been worthwhile, and I feel a twinge of guilt for letting half our trip slip by without catching one single film. Long before I cared about celebrity, before I crushed on actors or read Us Weekly (helplessly, ridiculously), I just loved movies. I watched them over and over again — often in one sitting — just to have access to another life, just to see someone else’s sky for a while.

The whole essay is fun to read.

Bush 2004 Campaign Pledges To Restore Honor And Dignity To White House

From The Onion, America’s Finest News Source —

Addressing guests at a $2,000-a-plate fundraiser, George W. Bush pledged Monday that, if re-elected in November, he and running mate Dick Cheney will “restore honor and dignity to the White House.”

“After years of false statements and empty promises, it’s time for big changes in Washington,” Bush said. “We need a president who will finally stand up and fight against the lies and corruption. It’s time to renew the faith the people once had in the White House. If elected, I pledge to usher in a new era of integrity inside the Oval Office.”

Bush told the crowd that, if given the opportunity, he would work to reestablish the goodwill of the American people “from the very first hour of the very first day” of his second term.

“The people have spoken,” Bush said. “They said they want change. They said it’s time to clean up Washington. They’re tired of politics as usual. They’re tired of the pursuit of self-interest that has gripped Washington. They want to see an end to partisan bickering and closed-door decision-making. If I’m elected, I’ll make sure that the American people can once again place their trust in the White House.”

Bush said the soaring national debt and the lengthy war in Iraq have shaken Americans’ faith in the highest levels of government.

Bad boys, What ‘ya gonna do?

From AP via the Santa Fe New Mexican

Mayor Martin Chavez says the television show Cops presents a bad picture of Albuquerque, and he’s banned it from filming in the city.

“The city’s police officers are portrayed in a good light, but the rest of the city looks horrible,” he said. “That has a real impact. That’s all people see, and that’s not who we are.”

Albuquerque has been featured on more than 40 episodes of the Fox series — more than any other city except Fort Worth, Texas, and the county around Tacoma, Wash. The series began in 1989.

How old we can all feel…

when an individual nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress was born in 1990.

Keisha Castle-Hughes was born in 1990 in New Zealand. She is a half-Maori and half-Pakeha (European New Zealander). She was 11 years old at the time Whale Rider was filmed. It was her first acting role.

Oscar

Complete list of this year’s Oscar nominations announced today by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The awards are to be presented February 29th.

Best Picture
“The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King”
“Lost in Translation”
“Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World”
“Mystic River”
“Seabiscuit”

Actor
Johnny Depp, “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl”
Ben Kingsley, “House of Sand and Fog”
Jude Law, “Cold Mountain”
Bill Murray, “Lost in Translation”
Sean Penn, “Mystic River”

Actress
Keisha Castle-Hughes, “Whale Rider”
Diane Keaton, “Something’s Gotta Give”
Samantha Morton, “In America”
Charlize Theron, “Monster”
Naomi Watts, “21 Grams.”

Supporting Actor
Alec Baldwin, “The Cooler”
Benicio Del Toro, “21 Grams”
Djimon Hounsou, “In America”
Tim Robbins, “Mystic River”
Ken Watanabe, “The Last Samurai”

Supporting Actress
Shohreh Aghdashloo, “House of Sand and Fog”
Patricia Clarkson, “Pieces of April”
Marcia Gay Harden, “Mystic River”
Holly Hunter, “thirteen”
Renee Zellweger, “Cold Mountain”

Director
Fernando Meirelles, “City of God”
Peter Jackson, “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King”
Sofia Coppola, “Lost in Translation”
Peter Weir, “Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World”
Clint Eastwood, “Mystic River”

Foreign Film
“The Barbarian Invasions,” Canada
“Zelary,” Czech Republic
“The Twilight Samurai,” Japan
“Twin Sisters,” The Netherlands
“Evil,” Sweden

Adapted Screenplay
Robert Pulcini & Shari Springer Berman, “American Splendor”
Braulio Mantovani, “City of God”
Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens & Peter Jackson, “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King”
Brian Helgeland, “Mystic River”
Gary Ross, “Seabiscuit”

Original Screenplay
Denys Arcand, “The Barbarian Invasions”
Steven Knight, “Dirty Pretty Things”
Andrew Stanton, Bob Peterson and David Reynolds, “Finding Nemo”
Jim Sheridan & Naomi Sheridan & Kirsten Sheridan, “In America”
Sofia Coppola, “Lost in Translation”

Animated feature film
“Brother Bear”
“Finding Nemo”
“The Triplets of Belleville”

Art Direction
“Girl with a Pearl Earring”
“The Last Samurai”
“The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King”
“Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World”
“Seabiscuit”

Cinematography
“City of God”
“Cold Mountain”
“Girl with a Pearl Earring”
“Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World”
“Seabiscuit”

Sound Mixing
“The Last Samurai”
“The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King”
“Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World”
“Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl”
“Seabiscuit”

Sound Editing
“Finding Nemo”
“Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World”
“Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl”

Original Score
“Big Fish,” Danny Elfman
“Cold Mountain,” Gabriel Yared
“Finding Nemo,” Thomas Newman
“House of Sand and Fog,” James Horner
“The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King,” Howard Shore

Original Song
“Into the West” from “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King,” Fran Walsh, Howard Shore and Annie Lennox
“A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow” from “A Mighty Wind,” Michael McKean and Annette O’Toole
“Scarlet Tide” from “Cold Mountain,” T Bone Burnett and Elvis Costello
“The Triplets of Belleville” from “The Triplets of Belleville,” Benoit Charest and Sylvain Chomet
“You Will Be My Ain True Love” from “Cold Mountain,” Sting

Costume
“Girl with a Pearl Earring”
“The Last Samurai”
“The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King”
“Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World”
“Seabiscuit”

Documentary Feature
“Balseros”
“Capturing the Friedmans”
“The Fog of War”
“My Architect”
“The Weather Underground”

Documentary (short subject)
“Asylum”
“Chernobyl Heart”
“Ferry Tales”

Film Editing
“City of God”
“Cold Mountain”
“The Lord of the Rings: The Return of The King”
“Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World”
“Seabiscuit”

Makeup
“The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King”
“Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World”
“Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl”

Animated Short Film
“Boundin'”
“Destino”
“Gone Nutty”
“Harvie Krumpet”
“Nibbles”

Live Action Short Film
“Die Rote Jacke (The Red Jacket)”
“Most (The Bridge)”
“Squash”
“(A) Torzija ([A] Torsion)”
“Two Soldiers”

Visual Effects
“The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King”
“Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World”
“Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl”

The feud that never was

NewMexiKen shouldn’t I suppose attempt to ressurect Antonio Salieri on this, Mozart’s birthday, but it seems he—Salieri—is making a bit of a comeback. According to a December article at Guardian Unlimited, “Next year the renovated La Scala in Milan is to reopen its doors with the work Salieri wrote for its very first performance back in 1778. And now Cecilia Bartoli has recorded an album devoted to his music.”

This article and other sources seem persuasive in saying that while there was competition between the upstart Mozart and the established artist Salieri in Vienna, there was cooperation, too; that is, what transpired between them was typical office politics.

As the Guardian Unlimited article notes:

…Mozart’s death, as one respected musical journal wrote, was almost certainly caused not by poison but by “arduous work and fast living among ill-chosen company”.

It was only after Mozart’s demise that Salieri began to have any real reason to hate him. Unlike that of any before him, Mozart’s music kept on being performed. Cut down at the peak of his powers – and with the added frisson of whispered rumours that he might have been murdered – he became the first composer whose cult of celebrity actually flourished after his death.

Salieri, however, had outlived his talent. He wrote almost no music for the last two decades of his life. Instead he spent time revising his previous works. He did have an impressive roster of pupils: Beethoven, Schubert, Meyerbeer and Liszt – not to mention Franz Xaver Mozart, his supposed adversary’s young son. But the composer who had once been at the vanguard of new operatic ideas was not necessarily teaching his students to be similarly innovative…

Of Mozart’s death, the story is more complicated:

So how did this respected musician become the rumoured murderer of the great Mozart? Nobody knows for certain. But in his final weeks Mozart is reported to have believed he had been poisoned, and had gone so far as to blame hostile Italian factions at the Viennese court. People put two and two together and pointed the finger at Salieri. And who could resist a story this good? Certainly not his fellow composers. There are mentions of it in Beethoven’s Conversation Books. Weber, Mozart’s father-in-law, had heard it by 1803, and cold-shouldered Salieri ever after. And 20 years later it was still doing the rounds; Rossini joked about it when he met Salieri in 1822.

As the rumour gathered strength, all denials only served to reinforce it. Then, in 1823, Salieri – hospitalised, terminally ill and deranged – is said to have accused himself of poisoning Mozart. In more lucid moments he took it back. But the damage was done. Even if few believed the ramblings of a confused old man, the fact that Salieri had “confessed” to Mozart’s murder gave the rumour some semblance of validity.

Another interesting assessment of the Mozart found in the film Amadeus can be found in an essay entitled The Amadeus Mozart: Man or Myth?

Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart…

was born in Salzburg on this date in 1756. Theophilus—or Gottlieb—or Amadé means “loved by God” As an adult Mozart signed Wolfgang Amadé Mozart or simply Mozart. In the family he was known as Wolfgangerl or Woferl.

A delightful Mozart web site is Wolfgang Amadé Mozart, complete with music while you browse. Among other things, the site has an analysis of the truth and fiction in the wonderful film Amadeus. (It’s “Amadeus, an apologia” when you open the Biography section. The site is structured in a way that prevents a direct link.)

Fiction or not, watching Amadeus seems like a wonderful way to celebrate Mozart’s birthday.