Monthly Archives: October 2008

Written and directed by Sofia Coppola, Lost in Translation is about an encounter between a washed-up actor going through a mid-life crisis and a 20-something woman struggling to find fulfillment in her life and marriage.

While I enjoyed this movie well enough, it’s certainly not for your average moviegoer. It is essentially a character study and not much more. Nothing really happens; lives are not radically changed. And yet, it’s those very things that make this film feel very real.

One gets the feeling while watching that Lost in Translation would have been a complete and utter failure without the casting of Bill Murray as actor Bob Harris. His dry delivery and nuanced expression are key in a film with such little dialog. The subtle humor he manages to bring to an otherwise bleak film without overwhelming it is its saving grace.

I would have enjoyed more interaction between Scarlett Johansson’s bordering-on-brooding Charlotte and Anna Faris’ bubbleheaded actress, Kelly. Throw Bob into the mix, and I think there was some missed potential there.

Overall, I’m a little surprised this movie won the Best Original Screenplay Oscar. Then again, looking at the competition for 2003, nothing else jumps out at me as something that should have beat it. Either way, it’s a good study in how to put together a story about nothing more than two people struggling in life without making it boring.

Favorite line: During a phone call between Bob and his wife, Lydia, that dissolves into a marital spat.
Lydia: Do I need to worry about you, Bob?
Bob: Only if you want to.

Sunset Boulevard is the story struggling screenwriter who is hired to edit a screenplay by a silent film star trying to make her grand return to film after years of obscurity.

Penned by D.M. Marshman Jr., Charles Brackett (who produced), and Billy Wilder (who directed), Sunset Boulevard is a deservedly classic film noir that paints a brutally honest picture of the film industry’s transition from silent to talkies.

Some of silent film’s most popular stars make cameos in the movie, including Buster Keaton, Anna Q. Nillson, and H.B. Warner. Gloria Swanson herself, who plays the deluded Norma Desmond, hadn’t had a feature film release in nine years when Sunset Boulevard was released. Erich von Stroheim, who plays the butler, Max, who had discovered Norma, directed many of her films and had been her first husband, had directed Swanson in real life in one of her last silent film flops, Queen Kelly (which happens to be the film screened in Norma’s private movie theatre in the film).

I particularly enjoyed the parallels between Norma’s derailment and the story of Salomé, which was the film she was hoping to make with Cecil B. deMille, who also cameos in the movie as himself. While Norma is in many ways the antagonist of the film, she’s also its most tragic character. Put on a pedestal as a young woman and then having that pedestal yanked from beneath her once silent film gave way to talkies, it’s hard not to feel for this forgotten star.

At the same time, you can’t help but feel she’s being a bit melodramatic about the whole thing. As Joe tells Norma toward the end, “There’s nothing tragic about being fifty. Not unless you’re trying to be twenty-five.” But with the knowledge that her butler Max has been feeding her delusions, convincing her that the audience still thirsts for her by writing fake fan mail, hiding the industry’s lack of interest from her, you come to the conclusion that Norma stood little chance in a place as brutal and crazy as Hollywood.

And yet, Sunset Boulevard, while indicting some of the tactics, also shines light on the heart of Hollywood in the form of young Betty Schaefer, played by Nancy Olson, as an aspiring screenwriter who reminds Joe what it’s like to work on something that’s about more than just a paycheck.

There are a number of good bits of dialog in this movie, but I’m going to have to go with perhaps the most famous as my favorite.

Favorite Line: “You see, this is my life! It always will be! Nothing else! Just us, the cameras, and those wonderful people out there in the dark! All right, Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my close-up.”

Tom Schulman’s screenplay for Dead Poets Society won the 1989 Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. Starring Robin Williams, Robert Sean Leonard and Ethan Hawke, among others, Dead Poets Society tells the story of a group of students at a staunch prep school and the effect a non-traditional teacher has on their approach to life.

I first saw this movie the summer before my junior year of high school, and I was completely affected by it. This was the first time I’d seen it since that summer, and I was just as captivated and moved by it, if not more so, the second time around.

Robin Williams as Professor John Keating is spot on, and it’s movies like this that remind me what a treasure he actually is when he chooses quality projects. Robert Sean Leonard looks practically the same as he does now as Dr. Wilson on House, minus about twenty-five pounds of muscle. He is funny, charming and heartbreaking, much like he is in his current role, come to think of it.

One thing that struck me this time around was the cinematography. There are some simply beautiful shots in this film. The dialog is so entrancing and the characters so deftly developed that it’s easy to forget to pay attention to the visually artistic elements of the film, but they’re there to observe if you can remember. Perhaps it speaks to the artistry that the cinematography doesn’t distract but adds another layer to an already brilliant film.

Honestly, I could gush about this film for hours. Many of the lines are entrenched in my brain, and the themes of the movie have goaded me to escape my comfort zone on more than one occasion. In fact, the movie was the catalyst for one of the most defining moments in my life. So, it’s possible I’m a little bit biased simply because I attach so much in my life to this film. But the fact that I can do that means something, I think.

I’d just copy and paste the entire screenplay for my favorite line if I could, but instead I’ll leave you with the one I come back to again and again.

Favorite Line: “Carpe diem! Seize the day, boys. Make your lives extraordinary.”

Courtesy of Wordle

1948′s Oscar winner for Best Original Screenplay comes in the form of The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer, written by Sidney Sheldon.

Starring Cary Grant, Myrna Loy and Shirley Temple, the movie follows Margaret and Susan Turner, sisters living together with a mother-daughter sort of relationship. Margaret is an uptight, emotion-avoiding judge, while Susan is an emotion-driven, precocious 17-year-old high-school student. Their relationship is summed up well in the first five minutes when Margaret says to Susan, “You know I’d die for you, but sometimes it’s very hard living with you.”

We have two meet-cutes right away, when Margaret lets Richard Nugent, a playboy artist, off the hook for a brawl in which he played a part. That one is quickly followed by Susan falling for Richard as he gives a speech on art at her high school. Susan quickly decides Richard is her knight in shining armor, and she schemes herself into his apartment unbeknownst to him. Chaos, of course, ensues. Richard is arrested, but they decide to drop the charges if he agrees to pretend to date Susan in order to let her outgrow her little fantasy without scarring her for life.

Got all that? OK. What follows is an enjoyable if predictable romantic comedy with amusing performances from all parties. I believe this may have been my first Cary Grant film, and I understood Margaret’s point when she told Richard, “I’ve never been subjected to such charm before.”

The dinner scene where the strings of everyone’s schemes unravel is very well-done, and it’s always fun to see refined men doing unrefined things like the potato sack race, three-legged race and obstacle course during the picnic sequence. Additionally, the last scene went for a great bit of bookend dialog instead of the typical rom-com cheese ending, which I appreciated.

The movie’s not phenomenal, but, thanks for the clever and sharply delivered dialog, it’s the first chronologically in the project that’s been consistently enjoyable.

Favorite Line:
Set-up: Richard has just complimented Margaret on her dress.
Margaret: “You said that gracefully. Perhaps the result of practice?”
Richard: “You said that ungraciously. Perhaps the result of practice, hm?”