This can't be legal

Okay, so I can honestly say that when I showed this DVD cover to Cate in the video store it was the first time that I've ever seen anyone's breath be physically taken away by beauty. I don't think that I'll ever forget that sound.



Well, maybe the first time Xine saw Loch walk by the pub, but I don't remember the sound exactly so it was probably just a normal gasp.

Cheers

300

Here is a portion of my favorite review of the current blockbuster 300. It's from Richard Roeper's review in the Chicago Sun Times.

"This is a film that never, not for one second, considers taking its foot off the accelerator. Once the battle is joined, it pretty much keeps going until the final frame, with only a few dialogue-driven scenes placed here and there to allow you to catch your breath, turn to your buddy and say, "Are you #%!#$!* kidding me!""

Yeah.

Breakfast at TIffany's

I was watching Dragon earlier this evening. It's not entirely unpleasant, but don't rush out to rent it unless you are already a Bruce Lee fan. What hooked my mind was the scene where he and his future wife are watching Breakfast at Tiffany's and as code for her love for him/cultural awakening she suggests that they leave half-way through. Whether or not this actually happened in Bruce Lee's life, it does highlight one of the low points in depictions of Asians in the cinema. Not only is the Chinese neighbour in Breakfast at Tiffany's only there for comic relief he's played by... Mickey Rooney. Yep, complete with over-sized dental prosthesis.

But you know, otherwise, I liked the movie and loved the book. So I was thinking that this is a movie that really deserves to be remade. The Chinese comic relief isn't necessary except when you are trying to turn a low-key social study into a romantic comedy. I'd rather see the relationship between these friends develop than yet another love-affair blossom. And really, they aren't even close friends -- she doesn't tell him about... Oh, you haven't seen it? Okay...

There are a lot of movies that have benefited from going back to the source material and starting over. (cf. Jude the Obscure/Jude, or West Side Story/Romeo and Julliet) Not that it would have to be slavishly bound to the book, but a remake doesn't need to hide the fact that in Breakfast at Tiffany's "Fred"/Truman is gay. So the love story is out. Er, so to speak.

So I was trying to think about who I would cast as Holly Golightly and "Fred" Varjak -- Yes, the quotation marks are in the credits. And as mainstreamish as it sounds, I think that Scarlett Johansson would be perfect as Miss Golighly. Audrey Hepburn was great and all (even a milquetoast version of Ingrid Bergman is a classic) but no one ever really bought her story of being from Texas -- she was just too comfortable in the smart set. When her... Oh yeah. Would you just go out and rent it already! But Scarlet Johansson is probably able to pull off all three aspects of the character: socialite, bohemian and yokel. The yokel part has to be just under the surface, though, so you don't notice it until just the right time.

The tougher part is casting "Fred". He has to be gay, as in the book, but not Truman Capote. That would be an interesting movie on its own merits. Probably a better documentary, though. Capote chose a more neutral character for his body-double. But the actor has to be able to communicate his own sense of lost youth and his envy of youthfulness while at the same time realizing more and more concretely that he doesn't want to be young again. Sort of like Bill Murray in "Lost in Translation".

Waitaminute.

Okay, Bill's too old for the part but it does sort of fit. Yeah, the character isn't gay either, but he's unavailable through being married and being a lot older than Scarlet Johansson. That does create the right distance though. He isn't after sex, he's after vibrance and that needs to be clear. It takes two social taboos to roughly equal one pheremonal inevitability, but details aside I can really understand Lost in Translation as a variation on the theme of Breakfast at Tiffany's.

I would still set my remake in the 1950s, though. The past is much better at suggesting timelessness than Japan is. Er, again, maybe not.

I should quit while I'm ahead.

Cheers

PS As great as he is, Johnny Depp should never, ever play "Fred". Chime in with any suggestions if you have 'em.

Anyone... C'mon, someone's got to have seen it.