He is heartbreakingly handsome.

He died too young.

One of his final movies revealed that had he lived longer and transcended the transition from silent movie to talkies – and yes, his English was decent enough that he may have managed this – we would have seen such a fine talent.

One still looks at him and the heart quickens…the breath goes short…a woman feels what women before her did in those grand palaces or some small town cinema during the golden silent years of Hollywood.

If there was a true movie god it was Rodolfo Alfonzo Raffaele Pierre Philibert Guglielmi.

We know him as Rudolph Valentino.

Thank you Italy for sending him to us and here is my Hubba-Hubba for the day. Enjoy the photographs and the videos at: http://tiny.cc/NLcvV.

 I have had a week now to think about State of Play which is the latest Russell Crowe movie and one which is not directed by Sir Ridley Scott (a director that has his moments and is often a favorite of mine, but for every Alien, Blade Runner and Gladiator we have Hannibal, Thelma and Louise and Kingdom of Heaven).

Now forgive me for the side note:

I joke about the Crowe-Scott connection because it is starting to become as famous (or infamous) as the pairing of John Wayne-John Ford or Tim Burton-Johnny Depp, and that can be a successful collaboration or a disaster. Gladiator remains in my top three favorites of Russell’s movies and of course it just so happens, Scott directed it, but it deserved the best picture of 2000 and gave us the now iconic Maximus Decimus Meridias, a hero and a real man. It was several years before the two men came together again to make A Good Year, which had its’ moments (how can one resist Provence) and revealed that Crowe has a nice comic timing…but that Scott does not; and on top of that, there were some hints of anti-Americanism that were very unnecessary (the scene has Russell’s character, Max Skinner, waiting tables to help at the busy bistro owned by the woman he has his eyes on, and an obviously touristy American couple come in to be served. It is so incredibly stereotypical, that I nearly groaned in the theater). Then along came the more powerful American Gangster which paired Russell and Denzel Washington for the first time since Virtuosity, and was of course the true story of New York cop Richie Roberts and gangster/drug lord kingpin Frank Lucas. Better. But in 2008 we saw the painful mess that was Body of Lies, another of those in the long line of ‘America sucks and the War on Terror isn’t real’ flops that had narrow appeal. It is also the only Russell movie since Gladiator that I have not seen at the movies; and when I rented it, I watched until there were 45 minutes left and then said “Forget it!” Leonardo’s silly and often hysterical boy-agent was getting on my last nerves, and my one hope is that if he was tortured by the Al-Qaida or whatever, they made it good! Russell – who is supposed to be playing a character we should hate – actually has a few moments as the CIA supervisor who manipulates every twist and turn. He spends most of his screen time on a cell phone with DiCrapio DiCaprio, giving orders and other things. And one of my favorite lines of his Ed Hoffman is when he tells some paper pushers that the United States must continue to keep their foot on the neck of the terrorists if we’re to keep them down. (Amen). That Crowe-Scott mess was just that – a box office disaster that not even Russell’s fans turned out for. We can only hope that their Robin Hood will be better.

Back to State of Play and I'll link to some photographs from the movie right here: http://movie-girl987.livejournal.com/1209.html

State of Play is directed by Kevin Macdonald, the Scottish director who also gave us The Last King of Scotland (which earned Forest Whitaker a deserved Oscar for best actor). I am not certain if anyone will garner an Oscar from his newest movie, but if an adult is looking for a mature, well-performed, smart movie before the onslaught of the summer ‘popcorn’ fare, this may be it.

I watched the 2003 BBC miniseries – on which this movie is based – a few months ago so that I could get some ideas of what was going on, and then hope I could go to the Americanized version and not do constant comparisons. Many of the things that were done in the six (or was it eight) hour series are of course missing in Russell’s movie, and they were matters that perhaps would not have translated well as they are more predominant in English society than they are here (especially social status). The miniseries was near brilliant, although I had trouble thinking that the Cal of it (played by a smaller and slimmer John Simm) would be the source of sexually attraction of most any woman.

I’ll give credit to this new version though. What they decided on leaving out did not matter in the end, and while I had (as a woman LOL) hoped to see some hot love scenes between Russell and Robin Wright Penn (the wife of his good friend, the Congressman played by Ben Affleck), those are missing and I really did not mind. Whereas we witnessed the growing romantic relationship between Cal and Anne Collins in the miniseries, it is a thing of the past in this new movie, and I could understand why the screenwriters went with this angle. After all, we barely have time to catch our breaths with all the political intrigue let alone follow some love affair between a married – and hurt – woman and the journalist investigating all the things going on.

So what is it about in a nutshell? The movie begins with a fast paced scene in which a young man is running…but running from what? We soon discover the reason when he is literally executed by some mysterious figure, and then watch that same individual shoot a witness to his crime. We are then thrust into the madness that is Washington, D.C. at rush hour, and the camera follows an attractive young woman as she hurries to work…only to find death. This woman’s death ties into the earlier shootings…but it is only through the investigation of newspaper reporter Cal MaCaffrey (Crowe) and the paper’s lovely blogger (Rachel McAdams) that we find all the links. The woman was the assistant to rising Congressman Stephen Collins (well played by Ben Affleck – not a favorite of mine) and as you probably figured by now, he had an affair with her, but that is not all. By the time the movie is over, you not only have adultery, but a test of character, of friendships, of hiding and telling the truth, conflicts of interest, and American patriotism.

It is in the latter that I found myself occasionally rolling my eyes and shaking my head. In the BBC version, the corporations being investigated and brought to their knees was the ‘evil’ oil companies. In the American version, we have some shadow organization (of course) made up of a certain faction of individuals that would have Janet Napolitano jumping in glee – and I will say no more without giving away a load of plot points…weak and not so LOL All I can say is that – as was said by another blogger – the guys on State of Play must have had lunch with some of the folks over at 24!

We are also witness to something that is very topical: the death of the newspaper and in today’s world, one is nearly tempted to say: What’s a newspaper?! (Editorializing here: considering how poorly most are currently run; considering the biased slant that many have taken until they are the personification of the yellow journalism of the Hearst days, I will not mourn when some destroy their last tree).

We see Cal the veteran reporter at odds with the paper’s young blogger – he hates her and she doesn’t think much of him. He accuses her of jumping to conclusions at times just to get it on her blog, but she sees that Cal may be going beyond journalistic integrity with some of the tactics he takes. But they eventually work together to solve all the movie’s mysteries and become quite a couple – and although at the end, they walk away from the camera like a modern-day Bogart and Claude Rains on the tarmac at the conclusion of Casablanca, you kind of have a feeling that they won’t end up in bed together once the movie is over. Theirs relationship is not romantic. They are true colleagues, although young Della’s career will likely skyrocket in the blogosphere and Cal…well, we’re not sure. We just know that they respect one another more.

But the movie’s highlight is the performances. Russell notwithstanding, he is surrounded by some wonderful costars. Rachel McAdams is a favorite of mine – I adored her in The Notebook, and she is a nice spar for Crowe’s sloppy Cal. Ben Affleck – who I have mentioned is not among my favorite stars – is actually quite good as Congressman Stephen Collins: part “good” guy as he battles this shadow organization and part bad guy as he had an affair. Robin Wright Penn does not have a lot of screen time but is still quite good when she is, both as torn political wife and former lover to Cal. Helen Mirren – whose role was played by Bill Nighy in the miniseries – is the tough editor of the imaginary Washington newspaper that has fallen on hard modern times and she pretty much captures what Nighy managed to do, only the movie stresses more the downfall of the print media than the BBC production did. Jeff Daniels is slimy and memorable as one of the leadership of whatever political party of which Ben Affleck is a member. But the one that nearly steals the movie is Jason Bateman (whom I will always remember as longsuffering Michael Bluth of Arrested Development); his is a character you love to hate but so typical of the all-too-similar worlds of Hollywood and beltway Washington: ugly, slimy, drug addled, power hungry.

As far as politics? Well, it is set in Washington DC after all. As mentioned, we have no idea what political party Affleck’s Collins belong to, but we can sort of guess. He is an alleged crusader against an evil organization out to destroy the United States in a stealthy manner. When he has to answer to the leadership, he is informed that the party ‘takes care of its’ own.’ Hmm….Since they didn’t throw him under the bus in the first 72 hours LOL (as might have been done with Republicans) we figure he may be a Democrat – and it matters not that Jeff Daniels’ piece of crap wears a flag lapel pin! The evil organization? Oh well. I can’t say more without giving it all away, but there is a scene between Russell’s Cal and an informer that reminded me eerily of the scene between Kevin Costner and Donald Sutherland in JFK – and if you saw JFK you know exactly what I’m talking about. It is a scene which manages – in less than a few minutes – to layout everything our hero needs to make (we hope) the bad guys answerable.

Otherwise, it’s a pretty decent thriller and one that a person of any political persuasion should be able to watch and enjoy. The conclusion is a tad different from the BBC miniseries and we walk away with the satisfaction that crusading newspaper journalists still exist. But of course this is a fantasy on the silver screen, not reality.

 

After all, Movie Girl never intended to be another Michelle Malkin, a great blogger of note who gets the news out there to us on a daily basis, and I have – as of the last few days – become a fan of Atlas Shrugs (I came a long way around from reading a post on HotAir and then finding Ace of Spades – whom I knew from having read in the past, and then…well…it gets complicated from there and loop seems to go on and on…or round and round at least LOL). Where was I?

Oh right…I always figured that if I could post at least once a week, I would be doing a good thing. If you go back through my earlier posts, you will see that the only reason this blog was started was because I went way over the maximum when it came to commenting on the newly discovered footage of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis. The last thing I was thinking about was another blog – I have blogs everywhere, well, nearly everywhere.

But at least this is the one place where I might be able to express my love for movies…offer regrets for the obvious decline…attempt to introduce old and new movie fans to the way things once were…to opine now and then on little things – perhaps a new discovery or recalling old favorites. Oh! Possibly offer a political opinion here and there, and then hope that people would accept it in the spirit in which it was given (oh right – as if that will happen when it comes to some). In the back of my mind, I may have also wanted to break a stereotype that when one is of a certain race, one can only have certain interests – that is something that has bothered me since I was a kid. If I fall in love with a movie or a particular actor, I am not going to start some bloody count of how many people of a race are in it, or explain to the race-conscious why I like this actor or that actress and am possibly accused of being a ‘traitor to my race.’

I love movies because they have made me happy, sad, thoughtful, and romantic; they have made me laugh and cry; they have often uplifted me, stunned me, and haunted me. Nothing more; nothing less. There you go.

Anyway, I apologize for not posting more, but as I mentioned in the beginning, it has been a long few months. Regrettably since January 21^st of this year, my mantra has become ‘Is it 2012 yet?’ but that is another story for another time or perhaps not at all, and for a little while, I would like to try to escape the constant bombardment from all sides as I watch the progress (or is that regression) of the current administration. It also does not help that in my personal affairs, I have had so-called friends turn on me in a way usually reserved for the treatment of many conservatives (you should know what I mean: we want all sorts of opinions, but then the conservative offers a completely legitimate one and is slammed and pilloried and mocked; or the conservative offers a defense because they themselves have been slammed, and instead of having others understand their side at last, find that the ones that wanted an opinion, actually wanted none at all. People can be SOB’s at times).

Let me instead offer a few posts to play a little catch-up while I enjoy a cup of Boca Java Boca Sunrise (I get nothing for that plug – it is simply a coffee I love *g*). It is 82 degrees where I am…a beautiful day that guarantees that if I go outside, my allergies will assault me (thank God for Alavert and Claritin)…and I’m being smart by writing this on Word Document so that I can then copy and paste it to my blog. (I learned that lesson after writing the longest post one day directly into the Townhall dashboard, and then – when one side of my hand accidentally touched some key – watching it all vanish with no ability to retrieve it, or at least none that I could find. Sometimes this stuff is not user-friendly LOL).

So it’s catch-up time! Enjoy! And sorry for the long absence. I promise to do better.

A belated Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to each and every one of you!

 

And it is again my great pleasure to bring you my answer to Dirty Harry’s Place Daily Hubba-Hubba. The other week (and thanks to all who gave props) I was thrilled to present my all favorite actor/movie star, Russell Crowe, in the role that made him a star in the United States: Bud White of LA Confidential.

 

He was the original Tasmanian Devil, years before his studio, Warner Brothers, created the hyperactive animated one. He was the original sexy Australian bad boy, decades before the tabloids christened Kiwi Russell Crowe with that moniker, and he was born over fifty years before New Zealand gave the world the future Gladiator.

 

He was right. I literally ate up every camera movie, each bit of lighting, the way Murnau wove a story; was so caught up in the story of The Man and His Wife that I watched it a second time when I was done...and then regrettably returned it to the video store. The only other silent movie that affected me in such a powerful manner was Von Stroheim's 'Greed,' which I saw shortly afterwards, a two hour version on VHS. And again I was stunned that moviemaking was ever, ever the way it was represented by 'Greed' and 'Sunrise.' But 'Sunrise' most of all.

A couple of Christmases ago, I opened a package and found a note -- dictated by my 'baby' sister -- and saying "this was on your Amazon wish list and I hope it's what I want. They say this version comes from South Korea, but it's the only thing I could find on Marketplace." It was 'Sunrise,' the Fox special edition released a few years ago on DVD; one of those deals where you get a movie for free or little or nothing if you buy 100  movies on their list. The packaging was out of South Korea, (my sister found the copy domestically, and they said it was from a supplier in SK but one of the Fox special releases), but the movie was pristine, and once again, I drank it all in the way I would a favorite wine, savoring every single moment as if the movie didn't belong to me and would have to be returned. I think there were times I honestly imagined I had seen it all those years before. Boy was I wrong.

And unlike some movies that affect you once or twice, and then you see it again some time later and wonder 'What the heck was I thinking?' thankfully it wasn't the same with 'Sunrise.' I had the same emotional slam to my mind and especially my soul. I think it is one of the most beautifully romantic movies ever put on film, and my one fear is that modern Hollywood will rediscover it and have some hack director hire a bunch of hack writers and hack actors, and destroy everything that made it what it was.

Sorry to have gone on so long, but thanks DH for bringing this to everyone's attention and for letting me write my own memories. I have already told a friend of mine that she MUST put this on her Netflix queue! (I hope she's listening LOL). I suppose if I had to list my all-time favorite, top 5 silent movies they would be pretty much in order:

1) Sunrise (F.W. Murnau)

2) Greed (Erich von Stroheim)

3) Metropolis (Fritz Lang)

4) City Lights (Charles Chaplin)

Good morning and welcome to my first entry. I had not intended to start a blog, but once my comments on this lovely article
 went over 2000 characters, I didn't have a choice! So here we go.

I was born decades after the end of the silent era, but because movies became my passion, I discovered silent movies...and I fell in love (and am still falling love) with quite a few.

When I was a kid, I owned a little paperback book -- with a title I know longer remember -- which detailed what were considered the greatest and/or most famous horror and science-fiction movies. I knew a lot of them of course: Bride of Frankenstein, Lugosi's Dracula, Lon Chaney, Jr. in The Wolfman, and science-fiction classics like The Thing.

But then I read about three movies I'd never heard of before, all German. One was The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Another was Nosferatu. The last was called the "first" science-fiction movie: Metropolis, and the chapter was set up by telling the legendary story of director Fritz Lang coming to America and seeing the glowing lights of the New York City skyline. It was allegedly his inspiration for Metropolis (I have always loved that story and keep hoping that it won't turn out to be another of those tales with little basis). I later saw all three as I was growing up: mangled versions, poorly edited ones, and some with footage so badly deteriorated, you could barely see the action, which was already almost indecipherable. Of all of them, I liked Metropolis best, even if it didn't make sense. All I knew was there were two worlds -- the workers and the aristocracy; a girl named Maria, and some mad scientist that made an Evil Maria Robot. At some point I probably saw all of those same plots in a couple of Star Trek episodes LOL (Good Kirk, Evil Kirk in The Enemy Within; a bad Robot Kirk in What Are Little Girls Made Of?, and a third-season episode with a workers' world and an aristocracy that lived in the clouds and paid little mind to the workers and their needs.

And yes, Metropolis sounds very capitalist  vs. worker when you look back on it and analyze it in greater detail, but I just knew it was something special. I had no idea of course that this is the movie that set the path for Star Trek and Star Wars, for Blade Runner and the original The Matrix. This is one of those "granddaddy of them all" that honestly was the granddaddy of them all!

Over the years I saw other Fritz Lang movies on VHS (his first of the Dr. Mabuse films, M), then DVD came along and you started seeing many of these old flicks appearing in that format, but most of them simply poor transfers of what was on tape. Metropolis was regrettably one of them as it was -- sad to say -- pretty much in public domain, meaning that anyone and their grandmother could pump out their version of it, poor versions and all. Finally, in the early part of this decade, along came what was considered the most definitive version of the movie, but when I saw this news Thursday night, I was so excited I could barely see straight.

THIS is a real find and that's an understatement. Discovering a silent movie always heard of but thought lost is a major coup in itself. To discover what appears to be the complete "final" version of any silent movie after 80+ years -- especially when it has undergone major edits, most of those by a movie studio dissatisfied with the film -- is the Holy Grail of movie history. And I realize this has absolutely nothing to do with politics and all, but to someone who has loved movies all my life, and has watched them turn into little more than CGI-obsessed, unoriginal, oversexed pieces of trash, this news has had me walking on air for two days now.

I won't come down to Earth until this is released on DVD...which according to reports will be in 2009 in both standard DVD and Blu-Ray formats. More on that a little later.

Happy Independence Day weekend everyone. This Movie Girl is off for a mini-spa day.