TIFF heads Cameron Bailey and Piers Handling gave details on galas and other festival highlights taking place in Toronto this September, including its opening film. In other news from Tuesday’s round-up of briefs, Jeremy Renner and Bill Condon eye a WikiLeaks pic and Steven Spielberg set to honor Stanley Kubrick at an L.A. museum. Futuristic Action Thriller Looper to Open 2012 Toronto International Film Festival Looper is set in 2072, a mob target is sent 30 years into the past where a hired gun awaits. Rian Johnson directed the film, which stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis and Emily Blunt. This is the third year the festival has not opened with a Canadian film, which was its previous policy. “Rian Johnson is a film auteur known for combining different genres to give his projects an original spin,” Piers Handling, director and CEO of TIFF commented. “We’re thrilled to have Looper open the festival.” 3 Arrested in Separate Dark Knight Rises Incidents A Maine man was arrested with weaponry after he told authorities he was on his way to shoot a former employee after watching the movie. In California, a man was arrested after witnesses said he made threats alluding to the Aurora, CO shooting when the movie didn’t start. And in Arizona, a man who appeared intoxicated was confronted at the movie causing a “mass hysteria” leading 50 people to flea the theater, A.P. reports . Jeremy Renner, Bill Condon Eye WikiLeaks Film Renner is looking to play Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder through Dreamworks. The studio is also talking to Bill Condon to direct, Deadline reports . Warner Bros. Makes Donation to Victims of Colorado Shooting The amount was not disclosed and the studio did not make an official announcement. The studio said it was working with the state’s governor’s office and would give through givingfirst.org, Deadline reports . LACMA, Steven Spielberg to Honor Stanley Kubrick and More Leonardo DiCaprio and museum trustee Eva Chow will charm the second annual Art + Film Gala, which will also honor artist Ed Ruscha, both who will have exhibitions of their work at the museum this fall, THR reports .
In the wake of Rich Ross’s departure from Disney , former Warner Bros. chairman Alan Horn has landed the job of replacing him — and turning the studio around from its John Carter epic fail. Horn, who guided WB to hit franchises like Harry Potter and The Dark Knight (and, fun fact, was also in the Air Force!), will now head all of Disney, Pixar, and Marvel Studios films, along with Touchstone-distributed DreamWorks titles. So, best of luck. No pressure or anything! Full press release: BURBANK, Calif. – May 31, 2012 – Bob Iger, Chairman and CEO of The Walt Disney Company, announced today that Alan Horn has been named Chairman of The Walt Disney Studios effective June 11. Horn will oversee worldwide operations for The Walt Disney Studios including production, distribution and marketing for live-action and animated films from Disney, Pixar and Marvel, as well as marketing and distribution for DreamWorks Studios films released under the Touchstone Pictures banner. Disney’s music and theatrical divisions will also report to Horn. Horn has been a prominent figure in the film and television industry overseeing creative executive teams responsible for some of the world’s most successful entertainment properties including the Harry Potter film franchise and the hit television series Seinfeld among others. “Alan not only has an incredible wealth of knowledge and experience in the business, he has a true appreciation of movie making as both an art and a business,” said Iger. “He’s earned the respect of the industry for driving tremendous, sustained creative and financial success, and is also known and admired for his impeccable taste and integrity. He brings all of this to his new role leading our studio group, and I truly look forward to working with him.” “I’m incredibly excited about joining The Walt Disney Company, one of the most iconic and beloved entertainment companies in the world,” said Horn. “I love the motion picture business and look forward to making a contribution as part of Bob Iger’s team working closely with the dedicated and talented group at the studio.” Horn was most recently President and COO of Warner Bros. Entertainment where he had oversight of the Studios’ theatrical and home entertainment operations, including the Warner Bros. Pictures Group, Warner Premiere (direct-to-platform production), Warner Bros. Theatrical Ventures (live stage) and Warner Home Video. During his 12 year tenure, Warner Bros. Studios was the global box office leader seven times. Among the numerous critically acclaimed films and box office hits released during his tenure are all eight films in the Harry Potter series, The Dark Knight, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Happy Feet, Sherlock Holmes, The Departed, Batman Begins, Million Dollar Baby, the second and third Matrix films and the Ocean’s Eleven trilogy. Horn is also an executive producer of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Before joining Warner Bros., Horn co-founded Castle Rock Entertainment where he served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. He oversaw the creation of many critically acclaimed and beloved films including Best Picture Oscar nominees A Few Good Men, The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile as well as When Harry Met Sally, City Slickers, In the Line of Fire and the most successful show in television history, Seinfeld. Horn has also served as President and Chief Operating Officer of Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation and was Chairman and CEO of Embassy Communications. He is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, the American Film Institute and the Museum of Broadcasting. He serves on the Board of Directors of the American Film Institute; as a Vice Chairman of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC); is a co-founder of the Environmental Media Association (EMA); on the Board of Trustees for the Autry National Center in Los Angeles; and on the board of Harvard-Westlake School. Horn received his MBA from Harvard Business School and served as a captain in the U.S. Air Force. [ Deadline ]
On May 3, 2012 I was blessed with the wonderful opportunity to go MTV’s premiere of Justin’s Video for ‘Boyfriend’ at the Peterson Auto Museum in LA. We got there around 1pm and it was a lot of waiting around and just hanging out until about 3:30 when we got brought inside the actual room where the interview was going to take place. The MTV people assigned questions to a few fans who were close and up front (I was originally assigned a question but I gave it to a friend) but it was okay because I still got to be super close. We practiced with Sway and a stand-in Justin from MTV (@GeoffMcCarthy) for about 45 mins to an hour. THEN it was SHOWTIME! Justin and Sway roll up to the interview in this fancy car and they both get out and Justin literally hugged EVERYONE, he was so sweet. Then him and Sway did a little back and forth convo, then he introduced the video. One thing that people didn’t see on TV was that the transition from the original video from the teaser and new video with the cars wasn’t as smooth as it seemed on TV. I felt like for a minute we just stood there looking around trying to figure out what was going on and then Justin was like, “oooohhh… I switched it up on you guys… I bet you guys weren’t expecting this” It was kind of funny but then the real video came on and we were dancing and singing along, I occasionally looked at Justin and he had the BIGGEST smile on his face as he watched the video. I could tell he was really happy and proud of it. It was really cool to see Justin that way. But after the video he talked about how everything sounds better in a whisper because if he just rapped that part regularly, it doesn’t sound as swag or sexy. I said “Yea like the whisper song” and he laughed. But then we came back from commercial and we taped the interview for about 45 minutes. After the interview was over there was like an awkward silence then someone asked for a picture. Justin said that he would take pics with everyone as long as we made a line which at the time was really nice of him considering he had somewhere to be. But that just shows how much Justin cares about his fans. When it was my turn for a picture he asked if I liked the video and I obvs told him that I LOVED it and he said that he likes when he makes us fans proud. Then we took the picture and I thanked him and then he said No thank you, I couldn’t do any of this without you guys. Basically May 3 rd was an amazing day and it was really cool to see Justin in his element and so happy and grateful to us fans… it was definitely a day I will never forget. – @eboneyxo Read the rest here: On May 3, 2012 I was blessed with the wonderful opportunity to…
Meet 21-year-old Valeria Lukyanova, a Ukrainian model who says she is the real-life Barbie . Valeria has sparked an online debate over how the Mattel toy may really be pushing youth to have a warped sense of reality about beauty and what a healthy female should look like. While Valeria claims on her blog that she’s the most famous woman on the Russian internet because of her doll-like appeal, the debate rages on about whether her image has been photoshopped or if she used plastic surgery to achieve her look, or even whether she’s a real woman at all: Hundreds of photos on her Facebook page show a wide-eyed, nearly fake-looking Lukyanova posing in a variety of scanty outfits. But with nearly 8,000 subscribers to her Facebook page, it’s unclear whether Lukyanova exists at all, or whether it’s all a hoax thanks to the world of photo editing. The model did not return requests for comment. If photoshop is not a factor in getting Lukyanova’s look, she likely underwent a barrage plastic surgery. Dr. Malcolm Roth, president of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, said plastic surgery should never be used to transform oneself into a favorite celebrity or, in this case, a play toy. “We believe evaluating any and all issues that may affect our patients’ well-being, including psychological factors, is part of providing total patient care,” Roth said in a statement. “Additionally, Valeria is also only 21, so certain milestones in growth and physical maturity ought to be considered before plastic surgery is performed. ASPS cautions patients to keep in mind that plastic surgery is real surgery with real risks, just as with any operation, so the decision should not be taken lightly.” Whether Lukyanova is real or fake, photoshopped or plastic surgery, Diane Levin, professor of education at Wheelock College in Boston, said the mystery of her existence is not the issue. The problem is that her flaunted image epitomizes and exemplifies the issue of objectification of women in today’s society. “Barbie has always been controversial and really changed the discussion on how girls play,” said Levin, author of the book, “The Next Sexualized Childhood and How Parents Can Protect Their Kids.” ”When Barbie came around, play suddenly became about dressing up and looking right and it eventually played a role in how women wanted to look in real life.” While Lukyanova is an extreme example of societal expectations of perfect beauty, Levin said, “If society expects women to look like that, it is harder for almost any woman to totally resist it. “This just feeds into our media screen culture, where being involved with real things are becoming more and more removed for children,” Levin said. “Even if she’s totally photoshopped, the fact that her body is being changed to one that no one actually can attain epitomizes what is happening in our society.” Levin encouraged parents to have an open discussion with their children about sexualization and objectification in the media. “Rather than just writing it off as someone or something that is ridiculous, allow your child to share your thoughts and have an open discussion about healthy self-image and expectations for themselves and others,” she said. Remember when they told us that if Barbie was real she’d just topple over because her proportions are so out of whack? Yea, well, what now? Is this chick even real or is this some kind of internet hoax? Source Facebook
This lady has some nerve!!! Mother Pulls Her Son Out Of School After Sending Him To Class In Blackface A second grader was removed from school by his parents after the principal objected to him showing up in black face to do a presentation on the late civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. Sean King had a vision for his project, part of “Wax Museum Day” at Meridian Ranch Elementary School in Peyton, Colo., said his mother Michelle King-Roca. “He said, ‘Mom, I want to wear a black suit because that’s what he wore, a black tie, a white shirt and also I want to do my face black and wear a mustache,” she told ABC affiliate KRDO. As parents and their pint-sized historical figures waited to file into a classroom on Wednesday, the principal asked King-Roca to remove her son’s make-up, she said. Instead, she ignored the request and waited for Sean’s presentation. King-Roca said she was then called to the principal’s office where she, her husband and Sean had a discussion with three school officials. Unsatisfied with the situation, King-Roca pulled her son out of school for the day. School officials could not be reached for comment, but blackface has historically been used by minstrel shows and burlesque for offensive caricatures of black people. This lady ain’t ISHT! She should be embarrassed, what part of “Blackface” is supposed to be cute or endearing??? SMH Image via KRDO/ABC News Source
Johnny Depp likely has a lock on the weekend’s new releases with Tim Burton’s Dark Shadows . The movie is set for 3,700 screens. No other new release comes close, but there are nevertheless plenty of other limited roll-outs that may make their way in a theater near you. Check a few of them out in this weekend’s new-release roundup. Dark Shadows (Opening Wide) Director Tim Burton Writers: Seth Grahame-Smith (screenplay), John August & Seth Grahame-Smith (story), Dan Curtis (television series) Cast: Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Eva Green, Helena Bonham Carter, Chloe Grace Moretz, Bella Heathcote Comedy/Fantasy/Thriller Distributor: Warner Bros In 1750 parents Joshua and Naomi Collins set sail to start a new life in America from England with their young son Barnabas. There they build a fishing empire in coastal Maine. Two decades later, Barnabas (Johnny Depp) is a rich, powerful playboy with the world at his feet. But things unravel when he falls for Josette DuPress (Bella Heathcote) and breaks the heart of Angelique Bouchard (Eva Green) – a witch who dooms him to become a vampire and then buries him alive. Two centuries later, Barnabas is freed from his tomb and emerges in 1972 to meet his descendants. The Cup (Limited Release) Director: Simon Wincer Writers: Simon Wincer, Eric O’Keefe Cast: Bryan Martin, Stephen Curry, Jodi Gordon Drama Distributor: Myriad Pictures The film centers on horse race, the Melbourne Cup, described as a “race that stops a nation.” Held the first Tuesday in November, no other Melbourne Cup had as much significance as the 2002 edition. Australians sought refuge in the race held three weeks after terrorist bombings in Bali killed scores of their countrymen. And a grieving jockey’s courage in the face of his own loss gave Australians a lot more than a race. (Based on a true story). Girl in Progress (Limited Release) Director: Patricia Riggen Writer: Hiram Martinez Cast: Eva Mendes, Cierra Ramirez Comedy/Drama Distributor: Lionsgate, Pantelion Films A single mom, Grace is busy juggling work, bills and a certain Dr. Hartford to give her daughter Ansiedad enough attention. The young girl gets introduced to classic coming-of-age stories by her English teacher and she decides to forget adolescence and get on with life without her mother. While mom is consumed by the affections of her co-worker, Ansiedad gets help from her friend to segue her to ‘adulthood.’ God Bless America (Limited Release) Director: Bobcat Goldthwait Writer: Bobcat Goldthwait Cast: Joel Murray, Tara Lynne Barr, Mackenzie Brooke Smith Comedy/Thriller Distributor: Magnolia Pictures/Magnet On a mission to rid society of its most repellent citizens, terminally ill Frank makes an unlikely accomplice in 16-year-old Roxy. ” It’s wild and over the top but has a big heart as well,” Magnet releasing exec Matt Cowal commented about the film. “There’s a lot of viewers that are going to have a really good time indulging in their own pet peeves which [director] Bobcat revels in.” Viewers will get a better look at actor Joel Murray said Cowell who noted, “One of the strong aspects of the movie is Joel Murray. He’s a strong actor and I think he’s under-utilized. He’s what gives the film grounded. He gives it heart as he’s on a killing spree.” In Alison Wilmore’s Movieline review of the film , however, she notes: “Goldthwait’s latest effort, an overly bleak film ready to write off the world and go down in a blaze of gunfire, both middle fingers raised.” Nobody Else But You (Limited Release) Director: Gérald Hustache-Mathieu Writers: Gérald Hustache-Mathieu, Juliette Sales Cast: Jean-Paul Rouve, Sophie Quinton, Guillaume Gouix Foreign Distributor: First Run Features The film centers on a crime novelist who travels to the countryside to investigate the mysterious “suicide” of a woman who thought she was the reincarnation of Marilyn Monroe. “It’s not a thriller, but I would describe in in the vein of a Coen Bros. film in that it’s offbeat and clever,” said First Run exec Marc Mauceri. “It’s not rocket science. [The film] harkens back to Marilyn Monroe and [its promotional material] is reminiscent of Marilyn calendars of the ’50s.” Portrait of Wally (Limited Release) Director: Andrew Shea Documentary Distributor: Seventh Art Releasing Director Andrew Shea relays the tortured history of Egon Schiele’s celebrated painting (pictured at top), which was stolen by the Nazis in 1939 and spent more than a decade in legal limbo after it turned up “on loan” to the Museum of Modern Art in 1997. ” Portrait of Wally isn’t just about stolen art,” wrote critic John Anderson in Variety . “It’s about cultural skulduggery, political sleaze, institutional hypocrisy and the virtues of persistence.” Wally recently premiered to a sold-out crowd as a special presentation at the Tribeca Film Festival . The Road (Limited Release) Director: Yam Laranas Writers: Aloy Adlawan, Yam Laranas Foreign/Horror Distributor: Freestyle Releasing A 12 year-old case is re-opened when three teens become missing somewhere on an abandoned road. During the course of the investigation, more and more gruesome stories of abduction and murder are unearthed. And after 20 years, the secret of the haunted road may finally be revealed. Tonight You’re Mine (Limited Release) Tonight You’re Mine Director: David Mackenzie Writers: Thomas Leveritt Cast: Luke Treadaway, Natalia Tena, Mathew Baynton Comedy Distributor: Roadside Attractions (theatrical) Set at Scotland’s music festival “T in the Park,” two feuding rock stars get handcuffed together for 24 hours where they’re supposed to perform. Originally titled You Instead , U.S. distributor Roadside Attractions head Howard Cohen called the film actually a “love story set against the Coachella of Scotland.” Cohen said the film is ripe for both cinephile and music fans in the 20s to 30s range. The film opens in New York and Los Angeles. Where Do We Go Now? (Limited Release) Director: Nadine Labaki Writers: Thomas Bidegain, Nadine Labaki, Jihad Hojeily, Sam Mounier Cast: Claude Baz Moussawbaa, Leyla Hakim, Nadine Labaki Foreign Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics The feature revolves around a group of Lebanese women determined to protect their isolated mine-encircled community from outside forces that threaten to destroy it from within. United by a common cause, the women unite across religious lines against the religious fault lines that have torn apart their society and hatch some inventive and even comical plans to keep the men in their village from tearing along religious lines. “Nadine Labaki is a force of nature,” Sony Classics head Michael Barker said about the film’s director and star. “Women of all ages will adore this film. It’s one of those well-made films that’s also so vastly entertaining.” In her Movieline review , Stephanie Zacherek notes: “…its occasional entertainment value aside, the picture is also blithe to the point of being flimsy.” [Comments and other portions of this article were previously published in Brian Brooks’ weekly specialty preview article on Deadline .]
From the people who brought you 16 & Pregnant , Date My Mom , A Shot at Love With Tila Tequila and Jersey Shore where once you found proud, pioneering music videos roaming free on the TV plains: Five new categories for this year’s MTV Movie Awards! Including “Best Music”! This should turn out great . And there’s more . From the official MTV press release just over the transom, which doesn’t even read like English after a while: “The Movie Awards will be a re-imagined celebration of the most popular films and performances from the past year,” said Stephen Friedman, President of MTV. “This year, we’ve overhauled categories and added a Breakthrough Performance award that will be chosen by some of the best directors in the world. We’re also making music a more central experience to the overall show creative, and are thrilled to announce fun. – a band that has already imprinted a new anthem on a generation – as our first musical moment.” Once again, MTV fans will hold the “Power of the Popcorn” awards in their hands. This year’s brand new “Best Music” category will allow fans to vote for a specific movie moment when the perfect song played during the perfect scene. In returning category favorites like “Movie of the Year,” will the final installment of Harry Potter bring home the crown or will the record-shattering The Hunger Games shake things up? Last year, Emma Stone took home the prize for “Best Comedic Performance” but could she receive a nomination for “Best Female Performance” for her role in The Help ? One thing is for certain, it’s Hollywood’s wildest awards ceremony and anything can happen. Categories for the “2012 MTV Movie Awards” include: “Movie of the Year” “Best Female Performance” “Best Male Performance” “Breakthrough Performance” “Best Comedic Performance” “Best Music”* “Best On-Screen Transformation”* “Best Gut-Wrenching Performance”* “Best Kiss” “Best Fight” “Best Cast”* “Best On-Screen Dirt Bag”* * New category The “2012 MTV Movie Awards” nominees will be elected by a special voting Academy, including members of the MTV audience. In addition, the winner of “Breakthrough Performance” will be decided on solely by a special Academy of Directors who will lend their expertise for spotting and developing new talent. What could go wrong, etc. etc. Find out June 3! [ MTV ]
Actor George Clooney once confessed to Oscar-winner Michael Moore that he used the filmmaker’s debut Roger & Me as a dating litmus test. Or so Moore told an audience at the Walter Reade Theater in New York, where the hit 1989 documentary had a special screening Tuesday night. Moore laughed when recalling the story at an event hosted by the Film Society of Lincoln Center, which screened the documentary as part of its lead-up to the 50th anniversary edition of the New York Film Festival in September. The director explained how Clooney shared with him years back that, “I use Roger & Me for dating. By the first or second date, they have to watch [your film]. If they get it, they get a [follow-up] date. If they don’t… they don’t.” Then Moore added rhetorically: “This story will only stay in this room, right?” Moore gave insight and, not surprisingly, his opinion about Roger & Me and how it figures in the present economic times Tuesday night, and didn’t hold back. “We’re in some deep shit,” Moore said about the condition of the country today compared to when he made Roger & Me for $150K back in ’89. “I had hoped that what we have now wouldn’t have happened.” Moore, who sat through the screening with his wife, said that he hadn’t seen the film in years because doing so is personally difficult. He noted today there are only 4,000 GM workers left in Flint, Michigan where Roger is mostly set, compared to 50,000 at the time he made the film. “Five minutes into the film, my wife started crying,” he said. FSLC program director Richard Peña praised Moore — dressed in a brown hoodie and Tribeca Film Festival baseball cap — for ushering in a “golden age” of documentary beginning with Roger & Me which screened at the New York Film Festival in 1989. “I was nobody in the business then,” Moore responded. “I was unemployed at the time. We screened it around the same time as Sex, Lies and Videotape was showing. The Warner Bros. people were in the audience that night and saw it receive a standing ovation and they bought it.” Roger & Me was the first documentary to hit multiplexes, eventually grossing nearly $8 million worldwide. “I never liked documentaries growing up, they felt like medicine,” Moore said. “I wanted this film to be structured in a way that can be enjoyed with popcorn in a theater, but at the same time, making sure all the facts are in fact — true.” Moore added that he takes pride in helping to “kick the door open” for doc filmmakers that have also had success with theatrical releases. But when it comes to making his movies including his blockbuster Fahrenheit 9/11 and Oscar-winner Bowling for Columbine , he said that he finds the root-cause of his films depressing. “I dread making these movies,” he said. “When we solicited stories from people for Sicko , it was very emotional. We couldn’t help crying.” Now, more than two decades after making his debut, Moore gave himself a pat on the back for Roger & Me , noting the film stood above the rest for him personally. “I wouldn’t change a frame of this film,” Moore said. “It’s probably the favorite of all my films. I was learning how to make a film as I was doing it.” Follow Brian Brooks on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter . [Photo: Julie Cunnah/Film Society of Lincoln Center]
Just when you think you might have had enough of James Franco , along comes Francophrenia to either whet your appetite for more of the actor-director’s avant-garde pursuits — or officially turn you off to them forever. I might be overdramatizing a bit, but not by much, judging by the walkouts sporadically punctuating the experimental doc/pseudo-soap opera’s recent North American premiere at Tribeca. And with the skies pissing cold rain on Manhattan that evening, you really had to want to leave Franco’s tongue-in-cheek exploration of identity as cast through the prism of his infamous guest stint on General Hospital , reshaped into a sort of leering emo-psychodrama by co-director and editor Ian Olds. Not that Franco didn’t anticipate this. “I’m sure there’ll be different kinds of reactions to it,” he said before the screening, introducing the film with Olds. “But I’m just very glad it’s here at Tribeca. It’s my third film here (after Good Time Max [2007] and Saturday Night [2010]); we love the Tribeca Film Festival. We kind of knew that this film would be not…” Franco paused. “We’ve had mixed reactions. We sort of enjoy that now. I’m sure some of you will be very into it and some won’t. It does take a little bit of… engagement , that’s all. Otherwise, it’s very, very fun.” That’s fair. Francophrenia doesn’t take much of anything seriously, least of all the spectacle around the June 2010 GH episode that brought Franco’s eponymous, homicidal artist to a massive outdoor installation filmed at L.A.’s Museum of Contemporary Art. There, the killer continued his torment of Port Charles’s finest before — spoiler alert? — a protracted gun battle and, finally, his fatal, tuxedoed tumble from the roof. (The sequence provides the film’s subtitle, Don’t Kill Me, I Know Where the Baby Is .) Fans and casual observers alike had both privately and publicly reckoned with the performance-art nature of Franco’s character to that point; “Who is this guy playing, if anybody?” we asked ourselves, to the extent we cared at all. And in 2010, with the then-32-year-old actor at the seeming height of his creative (and, uh, academic) powers — and well before co-hosting the 2011 Oscars in another performance-art torpedo to his A-list celebrity goodwill — we did care a bit. Which, as Francophrenia asserts in its long, deconstructing takes of hair sessions, set-roaming and other behind-the-scenes banality, was really kind of foolish of us. But in daring to sniff at the inviolable absurdity of fame, the spirit of actor/director Franco’s enterprise equivocates. Is his grinning mask while signing autographs and taking photos with fans just garden-variety, all-in-a-day’s-work magnanimity? Or is it a vulgar showcase for Franco’s cynicism, his “art” shielding him from the plebes? Who’s taking the piss here? It’s not as open a question as it seems, especially as drops of whispery voice-over (written by Olds and Paul Felten) trickle into the sound design before flooding it with equal parts self-aggrandizement and self-effacement. On the one hand, Franco can’t trust the GH director, has to find his way “back to the world,” and asks, “What am I doing here?” as he glowers over the scene, reassuring himself with Marxist polymath Guy Debord’s observation that “Separation is the alpha and omega of the spectacle.” But Olds and Felten leaven all the high-minded paranoia with riffs on Franco’s mythology: “I went to graduate school for a reason, people,” he reminds the viewer at one point — when he’s not, say, craving a cookie or calling his producer Vince Jolivette a “prophet of lies and false consciousness.” Mostly, though, Franco — the character hovering somewhere between the real man and the GH hyperparody — is constantly undermined by the camera itself and even a torrent of gossip promulgated by the icons on the sign outside the men’s bathroom. They chirp about how high and/or pretentious Franco is, deflating his airier platitudes with such brusque dismissals as, “Transcendent my ass!” Conceptually, anyhow, Francophrenia is nothing if not inspired — half-Malick, half- Mystery Science Theater 3000 , a postmodern meltdown superimposed on one of TV’s longest-running melodramas. “It’s easy to see the film as a kind of a gimmick if it’s just riffing on all this culture surrounding James’s celebrity,” Olds said following Sunday’s Tribeca premiere. “It’s a lot of fun to do, but there’s something that interested…” He paused. “The idea is: How can you sort of bend the documentary footage so it serves this artificial narrative, but at the same time, how can you reframe the documentary footage so you can see it with new life? So you can say, ‘What they hell are they doing here? What is all this energy going into? What are they building?’ In a sense, the clearest thing I could think about is that in some ways, it’s maybe like a deranged portrait of the labor behind the spectacle.” But here’s the thing: Franco and Olds have been here before. Francophrenia perhaps works most interestingly as a companion piece to their previous collaboration Saturday Night , another backstage opus also framing what Olds on Sunday called “this sort of mundane human labor.” In that case, it was an all-access glimpse at what goes into producing one episode of Saturday Night Live : the pitch meetings, the grueling all-nighters, the set designs and musical arrangements, the ruthless slashing of material and the general stresses that accompany creating in Studio 8H. Yet where Saturday Night glimpsed those phenomena with a kind of meandering introspection, Francophrenia sends them up with abandon. It’s as though one show is good enough for Franco’s guileless intellect, while the other can only withstand a lengthy frisk before the actor sends it on its way. A viewer Sunday asked Franco about his intentions here, hinting at the double standard that you could just as easily apply to his recent work as Very Serious Artists like Allen Ginsberg ( Howl ) and Hart Crane ( The Broken Tower ). “I really enjoyed working with those people,” he said of the GH crew. “Some of the people I worked with have sadly been fired from General Hospital ; daytime is having a hard time right now. But they’ve gone on to other shows, and I’m going to work with them. Part of my initial impulse to go on General Hospital before this project was even conceived of was to try and examine and break down this kind of hierarchy people have in their minds about levels of entertainment — that movies are better than soaps, or that kind of thing. So I just wanted to insert myself there and experience it and see what it was all about, and I found that there are many things you can do in daytime that movies can’t do, and I really loved it. “I think maybe what you’re reading is because the soap opera is our subject,” Franco continued. “We’re using it as material to examine certain things. But I don’t think the project was ever to make fun of soap operas. It’s just using it like they use me and my image as material to examine certain ideas.” He later elaborated on the ultimate spirit of the project, citing the evaluation of James Franco’s identity by those other than James Franco as his reason for handing the 40-plus hours of GH footage off to Olds. “All along the way, it’s been about turning myself over to these different entities and letting them do what they will with my image,” Franco said. “I look at the film and I see the slicked-back hair and you’ve got all the shots where I’m looking crazy. And that’s exactly how it needs to be! It’s slightly embarrassing. It can’t ever be something where I’m trying to look cool or make you like James Franco or something. It needed to have somebody else manipulating the material and not me, since that’s one of the subjects of the movie.” Again, though: Do we care? I mean, Joaquin Phoenix has demonstrated how much more cynical this could all be, so Franco has at least a little further to go before his whims fall in a forest with nobody around to hear. But to paraphrase Paul Sunday’s admonition in There Will Be Blood , I would like it better if Franco didn’t think I was stupid — or at least if the variation of Franco that appears in Francophrenia didn’t think I was stupid, or that the protean puppeteer above it all didn’t think we can’t spot the hypocrisy calling out from earlier acts of this same show. It’s certainly a show worth watching, an adventure too funny, too playful, too thought-provoking to write off for its cheap shots and rectitude. Still, I hope the curtain comes down soon — and that its mastermind has better ideas ahead. Francophrenia screens again at Tribeca this Saturday, April 28, at noon. Read all of Movieline’s Tribeca 2012 coverage here . Follow S.T. VanAirsdale on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter . [Photo credits: Doug Chamberlain / Tribeca Film Festival ]
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie may star in a new movie together , as talk in Hollywood centers around the parents teaming up for Ridley Scott’s The Counselor . But that’s nothing compared to the following scoop: a new source claims this famous couple will also be starring together in life! Forever! Marriage style! A rep for Robert Procop – a Beverly Hills jeweler and former CEO of Asprey & Garrard – tells The Hollywood Reporter that his client has designed an engagement ring for Jolie “in collaboration” with Pitt. The actress reportedly wore the ring on April 11 at a private viewing of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s Chinese Galleries. Talk of marriage and another pregnancy for Angelina have dominated the tabloids for months, of course. Last May, Pitt acknowledged that his children often ask about the subject and the couple will have to “look at” the possibility soon. Might that time have finally arrived?!? If so, someone get Jennifer Aniston a drink. Stat! UPDATE: It’s been confirmed! Says Pitt’s manager Cynthia Pett-Dante: “It is a promise for the future and their kids are very happy. There’s no date set at this time.”
