As a fan of film and of reggae music, I say goodbye to an important figure. Perry Henzell, who directed The Harder They Come, died of cancer Thursday at the age of 70. Henzell wasn't a prolific filmmaker, but his 1972 classic helped popularize reggae music throughout the world. It is one of those films where the soundtrack is just as important as the actual picture.

Henzell shot a second film thirty years ago, but it wasn't finished until just recently. No Place Like Home premiered in September at the Toronto International Film Festival and is opening in Jamaica this weekend, screening at the Flashpoint Film Festival.

Having grown up listening to Jamaican music and performing in a ska/reggae band, I have to wonder if my life would have been different had The Harder They Come never been made. Sure, reggae would have likely been exposed to the world without the film, but that isn't important. What is important is that Henzell was able to showcase the music and its locale with such a raw, realistic portrayal. Outsiders were able to not only grab hold of the sound, but also its roots and its environment, as they were introduced to a music in its context, something rarely displayed so definitively.

With all the hubbub and furor of the holidays I know a lot of people are thinking the same thing I am: "I could sure use a vacation." Am I the only one who finds it ironic that we're all too busy with a holiday to take a vacation? One of film's greatest appeals (though, certainly not the only one) is its ability to function as a vacation of the mind, to let the viewer sit in a darkened theater and check out for ninety minutes or so. This week, Trailer Park takes a holiday.

Mr. Bean's Holiday
The Youtube version of this trailer that Erik Davis mentioned the other day has been taken down, but Movie Box has a much less muddy copy right here. I best remember Rowan Atkinson, not as the mute goofball Mr. Bean, but as Black Adder which he played through four series on the BBC. I suppose the Bean character is more accessible to U.S. audiences, but Black Adder had some of the smartest comedy I've ever seen on television, and I find myself hoping that show will make it to the big screen. Anyway, Bean can be a pretty funny character as well, and the trailer shows him on vacation in France being baffled by French cuisine and competing in the Tour de France, seemingly without knowing it.

Off the Black
Indie dramedy with Nick Nolte as an unhappy man approaching senior citizen status. He is without family, so to take a vacation from reality (and bring his former classmates along for the ride) he arranges to have a young man (Trevor Morgan from The Sixth Sense) pose as his son at his 40 year high school reunion. Timothy Hutton also stars. Like the films they promote, trailers like this are a breath of fresh air. No explosions, no special effects, and no over enthusiastic voice over. I want to see this one.

I constantly complain about modern special effects, how CGI creatures don't look realistic enough, but I have to admit this is pretty hypocritical of me. I love the work of effects legend Ray Harryhausen, and his models were never believable. There was a lot more inventiveness and craftsmanship in his effects, though, and there's no denying that the films he worked on have a creative spark that many modern fantasy films lack. Sometimes I think that my preference for model work over CGI has to do with their tangible appearance, but then that doesn't explain my forgiveness for the composite shots in Harryhausen films, which typically appeared as flat as today's worst CGI.

Anyway, despite our now having films with great computer effects like Jurassic Park and Peter Jackson's King Kong, Harryhausen will never be forgotten. Earlier this year, the 86-year-old received a well-deserved George Pal Memorial Award at the Saturn Awards and he was celebrated in the documentary The Sci-Fi Boys, which screened at Tribeca. Now, thanks to YouTube, someone is presenting all of Harryhausen's creatures and spaceships in a chronologically edited montage. Check it out below:

Beginning this weekend, Cinematical contributor Martha Fischer and myself will begin to bring you highlights from the long-anticipated Pre-Code festival at Manhattan's Film Forum. The festival, which runs from December 1 through December 21, will showcase a large sampling of films released prior to 1934, the year when Hollywood adopted the infamous Hays Code. The code was a strict set of industry guidelines on what could and could not be shown in an industry film, and was rigorously followed for the next 30-odd years. The code forbade such things as nudity, revenge killings, depiction of drug use, interracial coupling, crime methodology (you can't demonstrate to the audience how to crack a safe), child-birth scenes, and depiction of priests as criminals, among many other things.

While we don't yet have an exact list of what films we will be reviewing for you, a quick consultation with Martha earlier today has given me a good idea of which films are more likely than not to be written up. You can almost certainly count on us to cover 1932's Call Her Savage, staring Clara Bow as an incurable wild woman who brains her husband with a stool one day and heads down to the local gay bar. Hoopla, another Clara Bow sizzler in which she educates a dizzy farm boy about the ways of the world, is also on our list. 1933's Blood Money, a heist film condemned by the Legion of Decency for inciting "law abiding citizens to crime" will not be missed. Nor, in all likelihood, will the Joan Blondell vehicle Broadway Bad or the Spencer Tracy film Bottoms Up, about a scam involving the movie business.

Other films being screened that we hope to cover, time permitting, include The Bowery, Now I'll Tell, The Yellow Ticket, The Tria of Vivianne Ware and Sailor's Luck. Stay tuned to Cinematical for all the coverage, and if you're in the Manhattan area, check out more information about the festival on Film Forum's Web site.

SPOILER ALERT: If you've never read Bridge to Terabithia, and you don't want to know anything about it before seeing the movie, stop reading. Now. Then drive to the nearest bookstore, buy a copy, and read it. Laugh. Cry. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Bridge to Terabithia, Katherine Paterson's classic novel about two kids who form an unlikely friendship, is one of my favorite books ever, so when I heard a new movie was in the works earlier this year, I was filled with both excitement and trepidation. On the one hand, I just introduced my nine-year-old daughter to the book over the summer, and I knew she'd be excited about the film. On the other hand, though, what if "they" screwed it up? I know, I know, it's just a movie, right? I shouldn't get so worked up. But seriously, this book was one of the literary bedrocks of my childhood; I read my first copy to pieces, and have read it countless times since. I still cry every time.

If you grew up in the 80's then the chances are pretty good that you've seen a lot of John Hughes movies. Hughes' schedule was packed back then when he directed his teen masterpieces Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Weird Science and Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Hughes still works as a writer, but hasn't directed a film since 1991 (Curly Sue).

Don't You Forget About Me, a new documentary by Matt Austin, interviews fans of the films and people who worked with the now somewhat reclusive director on those famous angst-filled flicks. Austin has interviews with Ally Sheedy, Judd Nelson, Kelly LeBrock, and even Kevin Smith, whose love of Hughes is pretty well documented. Hughes hasn't given an interview since the 80's, but Austin is still trying to get one with him before finishing the film; it's still up in the air. Austin has compiled a tape to send to Hughes in an attempt to convince him to take part, and seems confident: "Right now, I'm very hopeful that we're going to get him. My genuine feeling is we'll get a call."

Maybe when it comes down to it, since I'm not a teen anymore, I don't get most teen movies lately. Don't You Forget About Me credits Hughes with creating some of the most realistic portrayals of how teens really behave. I don't know if that's true, but I do know he managed to make teen movies that had more to offer than sex with baked goods.

Movie tourism is nothing new; there have been tours of studios for years, and recently tours have sprung up in New Zealand for Lord of The Rings and Harrow, England for Harry Potter aficionados. The Folklore Society of Stode Sweden is on the hunt for an Ingrid Bergman look-alike to re-enact the actresses' first marriage to Petter Aron Lindstrom 70 years ago. The Society intends to officially marry a couple in name and deed, providing the dress and a reception for free to the lucky winner. In a somewhat humiliating side note, the event organizers aren't bothered about finding a look-alike for Lindstrom for the event. Bergman's most famous romance was with Italian Neo-realist director Roberto Rossellini, not Lindstrom -- who was from Stode and the inspiration for the event. Bergman's daughter, Pia Lindstrom, will be in attendance and guests will get to dine on the original wedding china at the reception. Stode's event sounds a little obscure even for a die-hard fan, and with Bergman's daughter in attendance, it all sounds just the slightest bit creepy.

Nostalgia is one thing, but this is taking it a little far don't you think? Although, if you happen to have a relative in Sweden that bears an uncanny resemblance to Ingrid Bergman with a mounting wedding bill, this might be her lucky day.

[via topix.net]

Nothing like a weird double-bill on Turkey-Picking Friday (this holiday needs a proper name, doesn't it?) and my double bill was as weird as they come: Scorsese's The Departed with the late Robert Altman's 1974 Thieves Like Us. It would have been smarter to have hooked up Thieves Like Us with a movie it resembles, O Brother Where Art Thou? As in Altman's earlier film, the Coens start their story with the a break from a Mississippi chain gang. The Coens seem to have also based Michael Badalucco's Baby Face Nelson on John Schuck's Chickamaw from the Altman: Chickamaw being the most dangerous component of a trio of dashing, successful and generally non-violent bankrobber. Schuck has the same unstable exuberance that George Clooney's Everett diagnoses, in his cornpone way, as Nelson's bi-polar syndrome. (The line, from imdb.com: "Well ya know Delmar, they say that with a thrill-seekin' personality, what goes up must come down. Top of the world one minute, haunted by megrims the next.") Schuck's hearty killer is just as moody, because he's a hard drinker. Worse, at one point Chickamaw is drinking bootleg "jake" -- a patent medicine adulterated with neurotoxins, and here's a link to that bizarre piece of toxic Americana.

I'll admit right up front that I'm a sucker for The Wizard of Oz. Well, maybe "sucker" isn't the right word because that sounds negative. Ok, let's go with "fan." Yeah, that's better. Anyway, The Wizard of Oz is a classic film for the ages. It's a great story, complete with fantastic worlds, terrific characters, fun songs and even one or two important lessons learned along the way. Through the years, I've watched the movie over and over, enjoying it each and every time, secure in the knowledge (for the most part) that there weren't too many attempts at sequels or, worse yet, reimaginings to ruin the experience.

Of course, there have been a few attempts -- most notably the "official" animated sequel Journey Back to Oz , the much darker Return to Oz featuring Nicol Williamson and Fairuza Balk as Dorothy and the ill-conceived urban musical The Wiz. But for the most part, these attempts were few and far between, have been met with minimal success and can pretty much be forgotten. But now, for some reason, it seems the Sci-Fi Channel is trying to get into the act with its own version of the classic story -- and yes, they've even used the dreaded word "reimagining" to describe their show. According to Sci-Fi Wire, the channel has given a green light to a mini-series called Tin Man, exec. produced by Robert Halmi Sr. and Jr. and described in the article as "a wild Sci-Fi reimagining of The Wizard of Oz." Mmmm, yeah.

The plot of this version, written by Steven Long Mitchell and Craig Van Sickle, tells the story of a young woman named D.G. who is plucked from her boring life and transported to The Outer Zone (aka the O.Z.), a fantastic realm oppressed by dark magic. Once there, she must take a perilous journey along the fabled Old Road to a wizard known as the Mystic Man. Along the way, she's joined by Glitch, a man missing half his brain, Raw, a quiet but powerful wolverine-like creature who's lost his courage and Cain, a former policeman known as Tin Man who seeks revenge for his damaged heart. Ultimately, D.G.'s journey will lead her to an ultimate showdown with an evil sorceress called Azkadellia, whose ties to D.G. go deeper than anyone realizes.

This is the part where I say how much I think this thing is going to suck and how disappointed I am that anyone would even attempt to make this. In the world where I run the studios and control everything, this kind of thing would never happen. You just shouldn't mess with a classic like The Wizard of Oz. Period. Unfortunately, that's not the world we live in and instead, we're going to be subjected to this travesty. My only consolation is that this show will ultimately blow and then fade away into oblivion where it belongs. However, if you, for some reason, have any interest in this project, production is slated to begin in early 2007 in Vancouver (where else?) with an eye toward a December 2007 premiere. I don't know about you, but this is not something I want for Christmas.

How many filmed adaptations of Little Women are there, anyway? At least a dozen, if you count made-for-TV movies and TV series based on the Louisa May Alcott novel. The best known are the 1933 adaptation, directed by George Cukor and starring Katharine Hepburn as Jo; the 1949 Technicolor version with a showy all-star cast, including June Allyson as Jo; and the 1994 version starring Winona Ryder as Jo, which I also consider the only version with an attractive Professor Bhaer (Gabriel Byrne). Some of the TV movies and series have such unbelievable casting that I wish I had the chance to see them; I am thinking particularly of the 1978 TV movie starring Susan Dey as Jo, Eve Plumb as Beth, Meredith Baxter Birney as Meg, and -- wait for it -- William Shatner as Prof. Bhaer. I'm sorry, I can't read that last sentence without bursting into giggles, every single time.

My favorite Little Women is the 1933 film (although I like the 1994 one too, and will have to dig up a suitable photo to post so I can tell you why). Hepburn is truly the best Jo of them all, and the most believably tomboyish. True, Laurie (Douglass Montgomery) is a bit too wimpy for my taste, and Paul Lukas isn't the most handsome Prof. Bhaer (but then he's not supposed to be, in the book), but Joan Bennett is an appropriately pert and lively Amy, and Edna May Oliver is a top-notch Aunt March.

I was reminded of the 1933 film because today is actress Frances Dee's birthday; she played the virtuous and sweet oldest sister Meg. Dee took supporting roles in a number of successful 1930s dramas, such as Of Human Bondage and Becky Sharp. She also had the Jane Eyre-ish lead role in the 1943 film I Walked with a Zombie. Dee was married to Joel McCrea and retired from acting in the 1950s to raise their children. She died in 2004. Dee is at the far right in the above photo; the other actresses portraying the March sisters in that photo are Joan Bennett, Jean Parker, and Katharine Hepburn.

Normally I might post an image from Singin' in the Rain as we get closer to Christmas; for some inexplicable reason, it's one of my favorite holiday-season movies. However, I was instead moved to post something by news of the death on Thursday of Betty Comden, one of the film's co-writers. Comden and Adolph Green teamed up to write a number of stage musicals and films, such as On the Town, The Band Wagon and Bells are Ringing. Comden and Green also adapted the play Auntie Mame into the 1958 film -- another holiday favorite of mine. For Singin' in the Rain, Comden and Green were engaged to write a movie musical around a catalog of existing songs from the 1920s and 1930s by Arthur Freed and Nacio Herb Brown. A few original songs were later added as well to the 1952 movie, such as Donald O'Connor's "Make 'Em Laugh" number.

I think one reason why I like Singin' in the Rain so much is that it is well written, with clever dialogue and lots of amusing moments. The musical numbers are impressive, and of course everyone remembers Gene Kelly performing the title song. But I love all the details about the transition from the silent era to talkies. I'm particularly fond of Jean Hagen as Lina Lamont, the gorgeous silent-film star with the horrible speaking voice. The scene in which Hagen and Kelly are shooting a silent love scene and murmuring sweet nothings like "Why, you rattlesnake!" and "I'd like to break every bone in your body" is one of my favorites. I also like the opening sequence, shown above -- I recall reading that Comden and Green wrote three different opening scenes for Singin' in the Rain, and ended up incorporating elements from all of them in the final script.

A few years ago, I finally saw The Band Wagon, which Comden and Green adapted from their stage musical a year after Singin' in the Rain, and hoped for the same delightful combination of humor and music. It felt terribly flat and dull in comparison (and I know I'm in the minority on this opinion, so feel free to defend the film). I'm not fond of most 1950s musicals, but Singin' in the Rain is a glorious exception. I actually found two great photos from the film last night; perhaps I'll post the other one around Christmastime.

When a movie is as awesome, celebrated and profitable as Jonathan Demme's The Silence of the Lambs is, it shouldn't come as a shock when the thing gets a "double-dip" on DVD. (Hell, even flicks like American Pie 2 have been re-released on DVD a half-dozen times!) If you're a hardcore fan of the multiple-Oscar winning horror thriller, then you almost certainly own a copy of the DVD already. But which one? Maybe you have the (now out-of-print and rather valuable) Criterion Collection edition, which offers a phenomenal audio commentary but a non-anamorphic transfer), the Image DVD version (bare-bones, bleachy and mercifully out-of-print as well) or MGM's really solid Special Edition from a few years back. (That's the one I own.)

But since MGM recently signed a home video deal with Fox, you can expect a bunch of their high-end A-list titles to get a digital re-issue some time soon. Case in point: On January 27 you'll be able to purchase an all-new Collector's Edition of The Silence of the Lambs, which, don't forget, was the first film to win the "Top 5" Oscars since 1975's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. (The only other film to accomplish this feat was 1934's It Happened One Night.) I remember being absolutely thrilled when Lambs mopped up that Oscar tele-cast, just like I was elated when Sigourney Weaver earned a nomination for her work in Aliens, basically because I like it when horror films are treated like, y'know, legitimate movies.

So yeah: One of the finest and creepiest serial killer thrillers ever made is about to hit DVD for the fourth time. The new 2-disc set looks to be a Lecter fan's new obsession: Three documentaries, several featurettes, 22 deleted scenes, outtakes, trailers, a booklet and some Hannibal Lecter recipe cards. (Yep, recipe cards.) Unfortunately, Criterion still owns the rights to their superlative old commentary track, which means it won't be appearing on this new release. Darnit.

It's inevitable, over the Thanksgiving weekend: At some point, you're going to be full. And I mean full -- loaded up with happy memories and a whole bunch of pie. What better time to throw on a long, long movie? I always wind up watching something huge during Thanksgiving weekend -- I particularly recall a carb-coma afternoon with Spartacus washing over me like a river of gravy, rich and flavorful -- and this year is no exception. I don't think I'm going to have enough time to watch The Best of Youth again -- I don't think I have that much time -- but I have been circling my copy of Nashville with a certain avaricious eye towards re-enjoying it. (Oh, and to the commenter yesterday who noted that A Prairie Home Companion is a film more worthy of Best Picture consideration than Crash, well, I have film on my teeth more worthy of Best Picture consideration than Crash. And maybe it's just my hatred of Garrison Keillor, but Prarie Home Companion drove me mad. ...) Then again, I might throw on Boogie Nights for the umpteenth time -- or even the Criterion disc of Dazed and Confused. Much like Nashville, they're both American stories, too. ...

What are you planning to watch over the Thanksgiving weekend? And what's your secret for pumpkin pie?

J.

I posted earlier today on Joystiq that a new TV commercial for the role-playing game World of Warcraft hit the airwaves on Monday, which of course means it hit YouTube about .0815 seconds later. I'm waiting for the day that things come out on YouTube before they reach TV or the big screen. YouTube will become self-aware and telepathic and rule the world one day. You think Terminator was just a movie? SkyNet is YouTube, silly rabbit.

Oh, look ... we've veered back on-topic. This commercial features footage from Office Space with everyone's favorite cubicle-slacker Peter Gibbons (Ron Livingston) playing WoW while Bill Lundbergh (Gary Cole) tries to talk to him about TPS reports. Originally in the scene, Peter was playing Tetris, but they've stuck this footage in pretty seamlessly. Look how they've even littered his desk with the Warcraft box and game discs.

The ad works here because Office Space isn't generally considered a "classic", but how long until companies really screw up something that Cinemaniacs will cry sacrilege over? Come to think of it, it's already happened several times. We've had Gene Kelly selling Volkswagens, Steve McQueen pushing Mustangs, and Elton John plugging Diet Coke with Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney, and Louis Armstrong. The recent Gap commercial starring Audrey Hepburn was funky and fun, but I found myself wondering what she'd think about it. It's hard to imagine that she would be thrilled. Will Apple use Citizen Kane to sell iPods? Matthew Broderick hawking new computers in WarGames? Okay, that last one probably wouldn't really bother me, but when does it end? At what point is too much just too much?


Check out these ads after the jump and let us know what you think.

The great master filmmaker Robert Altman died last night at a Los Angeles hospital. The writer-director pretty much pioneered a new style of movies using multiple characters and storylines with overlapping dialogue and plots, and he continued making movies well through a time when those he influenced were attempting to copy him. Last year, while shooting A Prairie Home Companion, Altman was assisted by Paul Thomas Anderson, whose Magnolia was almost like a remake of Altman's Short Cuts, just in case the elder filmmaker was to pass on. He didn't.

I guess I took it for granted that he might just continue making movies forever, but at 81, Altman had given us so many classic films, that I can't be too selfishly upset to see him go. I'm going to spend the rest of the day celebrating his life and work rather than sulking in mourning. Many of my favorite films were directed by Altman. He made my favorite western (McCabe & Mrs. Miller), my favorite movie about Hollywood (The Player), my favorite movie about the Korean War (MASH), my favorite wedding movie (A Wedding) and my favorite movie about country music (Nashville). I'm even a big fan of Popeye.

Altman was nominated for five directing Oscars, but never won an Academy Award until he was given an honorary award at this year's ceremony.