Hello! I'm Mark Olsen. Welcome to another edition of your regular field guide to a world of Only Good Movies.
Here's why it pays to leave the house: Last week I went to Whammy Analogue Media's screening of Jean-Luc Godard's "King Lear' and was greeted by a surprise appearance by the film's star and co-writer, theater director Peter Sellars. He gave an insightful introduction to the movie, which really elevated and at least in part explained what we were about to see, and then came back for a Q&A afterward. Simply seeing the movie was exciting enough, but Sellars' unexpected input made it a very memorable night.
"Jean-Luc is not worried about whether you understand the film," said Sellars. "It's like looking at a painting by Picasso — it's not a story, it's not a plot, it's not a movie. Just keep looking. Just take it all in. Of course you don't understand it. Who do you think you are? Why would you understand it? And why is that a thing to do even? Just have another kind of experience."
Beyond Fest returns
Idris Elba, left, and Charlie Hunnam in the movie "Pacific Rim." (Kerry Hayes / For Time Community News)
L.A.'s beloved Beyond Fest is already underway and by the time this week's newsletter comes out, will have already put on events such as James Cameron appearing with "The Abyss," Michael Mann discussing "Manhunter" and screenings of "The Creator," "Kill," "The Royal Hotel" and David Cronenberg's "Crash."
Jen Yamato was there for James Cameron's "Abyss" event, where he spoke about how contemporary reality is now catching up to what once seemed only the stuff of dystopian fiction.
"We're in the age of Skynet for real," Cameron said. "It's getting very hard to write science fiction these days because it's happening for real."
Beyond Fest fits all sorts of filmmaking under its umbrella of wild enthusiasm. And there is still much to come: Even though many events are sold out, there will be stand-by lines. Additional tickets are often released on the day of certain events.
One highlight will be Saturday's salute to legendary producer Roger Corman, now 97 years old. There will be a movie marathon, with 35mm screenings of Corman's "Rock 'n' Roll High School," "Piranha," "Grand Theft Auto" and "The Raven," followed by a conversation with former collaborators Allan Arkush, Joe Dante, Jon Davidson, Amy Holden Jones and Ron Howard on their mentor's unique influence and legacy.
Guillermo del Toro will appear with a screening of 2013's "Pacific Rim" as will screenwriter Jeffrey Reddick with "Final Destination." There will be 4K restorations of "Cemetery Man" and "The Raid: Redemption," and actor Britt Ekland will appear with a 50th anniversary 4K restoration of "The Wicker Man."
Also coming up will be the West Coast premieres of Macon Blair's remake of "The Toxic Avenger," Demián Rugna's "When Evil Lurks," Justine Triet's Palme d'Or winner "Anatomy of a Fall," Nahnatchka Khan's "Totally Killer," Andrew Haigh's "All of Us Strangers" and the Nicolas Cage-starring "Dream Scenario."
Beyond Fest audiences are among the best this city has to offer, bringing a delirious energy to every show. It's an infectious dose of deep movie love that always makes you happy to be in the room.
'The Storms of Jeremy Thomas'
Film producer Jeremy Thomas, subject of the documentary "The Storms of Jeremy Thomas." (Cohen Media Group)
A new documentary opening at the Laemmle Royal, "The Storms of Jeremy Thomas" is an impressionistic portrait of the prolific film producer, who won an Oscar for Bernardo Bertolucci's "The Last Emperor" and has also worked on projects such as Nicolas Roeg's "Bad Timing," Jonathan Glazer's "Sexy Beast" and Jim Jarmusch's "Only Lovers Left Alive."
Thomas specializes in the kind or idiosyncratic and provocative films that have always been difficult to get made. In an era of streaming-service algorithms and corporate consolidation, that's become even more of a challenge.
"I'm still doing it and I love to make films, but it's always been difficult," said Thomas in an interview this week from Los Angeles. "Maybe it's more difficult now to make these sort of films that I've made in the past, but I'm continuing and I want to be optimistic for the new way and I want to cherish the old way."
The documentary profile follows Thomas and the film's director, Mark Cousins, as Thomas drives them from England to the South of France for the 2019 Cannes Film Festival. Thomas says he has been driving to Cannes since the 1970s, when he took a Mini to hand-deliver the print of one of his earliest productions, "Mad Dog Morgan," starring Dennis Hopper.
"It's better than flying if you've got the time," Thomas says. "Like I said in the film, I'm on my own schedule."
The peripatetic lifestyle of the movie business, traveling the world to make and promote movies, suits Thomas just fine.
"That's my personality — that's me," says Thomas. "My work and my life are intertwined in as much as I'm always working and I'm always on holiday. I'm always doing what I enjoy doing because I like reading things, literature, and I like going to foreign places as a traveler, not a tourist, with a mission."
The experience of promoting the documentary has caused Thomas some self-reflection on his own work and legacy. Not that he has come to any profound realizations beyond the desire to simply keep going.
"When I look at how many films I made over the decades with so many varied people, I don't know how it happened," he says. "No idea."
Other points of interest
"Ishtar" at Brain Dead On Friday night, Brain Dead Studios will have a screening of Elaine May's 1987 comic masterwork "Ishtar," starring Warren Beatty and Dustin Hoffman. The film has long since put behind it the unfair reputation as an artistic failure following the brutal coverage of its production and initial underperformance at the box office. The film can now be seen as a marvel of comedic structure and performance, satirical sensibility, political savagery, emotional intensity and all-around madcapness. The idea that May, now 91, has never directed a narrative film since is the only real lingering failure from the film's aftermath.
Hoffman and Beatty star as Chuck Clarke and Lyle Rogers, two aspiring songwriters and performers in New York City who take a booking in Morocco and find themselves inadvertently caught up in political intrigue in the neighboring country of Ishtar, becoming unwitting pawns of the CIA. As the lyric goes to one of Chuck and Lyle's songs — actually written by master tunesmith Paul Williams — "Telling the truth can be dangerous business, honest and popular don't go hand in hand. If you admit that you can play the accordion, no one'll hire you in a rock 'n' roll band."
"Fair Play" One of the most exciting films at this year's Sundance was the psychosexual thriller "Fair Play," the feature debut of writer-director Chloe Domont. The film follows Emily and Luke (Phoebe Dynevor and Alden Ehrenreich), who work at the same New York financial firm and have to keep their personal relationship a secret. When Emily gets a promotion Luke thought was coming his way, things between them quickly unravel. The film is in theaters now before launching on Netflix on Oct. 6 and it is a very fun audience movie, so it's worth making the effort to see it in a room with other people.
In his review of the film, Justin Chang wrote, "Things clearly aren't going to end well. But if 'Fair Play' spends the better part of two hours tracing this newly lopsided romance to its logical, unhappy conclusion, the blow-by-blow machinations are still a chilly wonder to behold. What gives the movie its driving tension isn't just the glaring imbalance between Emily and Luke as employees, but a deeper incompatibility between the personal and professional imperatives they've chosen. Modern romance insists on projecting at least the illusion of equality, but the cutthroat capitalist world in which Emily thrives (and where Luke struggles to maintain a foothold) has no real use for appearances. You've either got it or you don't."
I spoke to Domont around the time of her Sundance debut. She said the film is designed to keep audiences a little off-balance.
"I hope that this film starts conversations," she added. "I hope it starts debates. And it would be great if people are fighting about this movie in the parking lot. I'm not here to make safe movies. I'm here to stir the pot. And I'm interested in why people are angry about it, why people get upset about it."
"Cinema Paradiso" at the Academy The museum will be playing Cinecittà's 4K restoration of "Cinema Paradiso," winner of the 1990 Oscar for foreign-language film, with writer-director Giuseppe Tornatore in person. Set in a small Sicilian village, the film follows a young boy who becomes friends with the local film projectionist, sparking a love of movies that will lead him to becoming a film director himself.
In his original Times review, Michael Wilmington called the film "a shining valentine to the movies," adding, "It gets right at the messy, impure, wondrous way they capture and enrapture us. It's a film about why people love movies, how they can both break our hearts and lift them up again."
The film began a long collaboration between Tornatore and composer Ennio Morricone, whose work here radiates emotion even amid a career of so many landmark scores. Tornatore will also be appearing on Wednesday for a screening of his 2021 documentary "Ennio," his celebration of the Academy Award-winning composer.
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