“You cannot capture a man’s entire life in two hours. All you can hope is to leave the impression of one.” That’s a valuable piece of screenwriting advice offered up by legendary movie writer Herman J. Mankiewicz in “Mank,” but it’s also the film lowering the bar for itself – impressions of people and incidents are all that this immaculately produced and beautifully acted film ultimately has to offer.
In telling the story of the creation of the original screenplay for what would become “Citizen Kane,” one of the true masterpieces of American cinema, director David Fincher (working from a screenplay by his late father Jack Fincher) frames the film as the story of a career-dead, alcoholic Mankiewicz (Gary Oldman) drumming out one final script partially to fulfill a contract with Orson Welles’ Mercury Theatre but mainly to settle an old grudge against former benefactor William Randolph Hearst.
In telling the story of the creation of the original screenplay for what would become “Citizen Kane,” one of the true masterpieces of American cinema, director David Fincher (working from a screenplay by his late father Jack Fincher) frames the film as the story of a career-dead, alcoholic Mankiewicz (Gary Oldman) drumming out one final script partially to fulfill a contract with Orson Welles’ Mercury Theatre but mainly to settle an old grudge against former benefactor William Randolph Hearst.
- 11/6/2020
- by Alonso Duralde
- The Wrap
When you watch a biographical movie about an artist, the drama of creativity — the writing of “In Cold Blood,” the invention of funk — tends to be front and center. But in “Mank,” David Fincher’s raptly intricate and enticing movie about Herman J. Mankiewicz, the fabled screenwriter of ’30s and ’40s Hollywood, and how he wrote the script for “Citizen Kane,” the act of creation is just one of many things that flow by. That’s part of what gives the movie its uniquely atmospheric, at times tumultuous tone of you-are-there authenticity. , and the effect is to lend it a dizzying time-machine splendor.
In the opening sequence, 1930s cars tool along a California country roadway, kicking up dust in a way that’s captured with supreme luster by Eric Messerschmidt’s exquisitely retro deep-focus black-and-white cinematography. The cars arrive at North Verde Ranch in Victorville, about 90 miles from Los Angeles,...
In the opening sequence, 1930s cars tool along a California country roadway, kicking up dust in a way that’s captured with supreme luster by Eric Messerschmidt’s exquisitely retro deep-focus black-and-white cinematography. The cars arrive at North Verde Ranch in Victorville, about 90 miles from Los Angeles,...
- 11/6/2020
- by Owen Gleiberman
- Variety Film + TV
Has there ever been a rocker more comically perpetually unsatisfied than Gordon Gano? Nearly 40 years have passed since the Violent Femmes debuted their freaky, silly hybrid of folk and rock, and these days they’ve settled comfortably into a style that’s a bit like Bob Dylan meets Monty Python (or sometimes S.J. Perelman). Frontman Gordon Gano still has a beautifully quivering bleat, and on Hotel Last Resort — the group’s 10th full-length and second since reuniting in 2013 — he flexes it hilariously on songs about how he hates choruses (“Another...
- 7/29/2019
- by Kory Grow
- Rollingstone.com
It makes sense that screenwriter and playwright Neil Simon, who pretty much defined American humor on stage, screen and TV for several decades until his death 2018 at the age of 91, knew how to turn humiliation, heartache, opposites-attract relationships, adultery, marital tensions, likable losers, glib nostalgia and modern insecurities into red, white and blue hilarity. What else would you expect from a Jewish boy from the Bronx who was born on the Fourth of July in 1927, right before the Great Depression?
SEEMel Brooks movies: 12 greatest films ranked worst to best
With parents whose marriage he would kindly describe as being “tempestuous,” Doc, as he was called, sought out books by such humorists as Mark Twain, Robert Benchley, George S. Kaufman and S.J. Perelman in order to bury his own troubles while picking up hints on how to use words to incite laughter. His work often paired humor with an undercurrent of pathos,...
SEEMel Brooks movies: 12 greatest films ranked worst to best
With parents whose marriage he would kindly describe as being “tempestuous,” Doc, as he was called, sought out books by such humorists as Mark Twain, Robert Benchley, George S. Kaufman and S.J. Perelman in order to bury his own troubles while picking up hints on how to use words to incite laughter. His work often paired humor with an undercurrent of pathos,...
- 7/4/2019
- by Susan Wloszczyna
- Gold Derby
It makes sense that screenwriter and playwright Neil Simon, who pretty much defined American humor on stage, screen and TV for several decades until his death 2018 at the age of 91, knew how to turn humiliation, heartache, opposites-attract relationships, adultery, marital tensions, likable losers, glib nostalgia and modern insecurities into red, white and blue hilarity. What else would you expect from a Jewish boy from the Bronx who was born on the Fourth of July in 1927, right before the Great Depression?
With parents whose marriage he would kindly describe as being “tempestuous,” Doc, as he was called, sought out books by such humorists as Mark Twain, Robert Benchley, George S. Kaufman and S.J. Perelman in order to bury his own troubles while picking up hints on how to use words to incite laughter. His work often paired humor with an undercurrent of pathos, intertwining chuckles with tears. In the ‘50s, he...
With parents whose marriage he would kindly describe as being “tempestuous,” Doc, as he was called, sought out books by such humorists as Mark Twain, Robert Benchley, George S. Kaufman and S.J. Perelman in order to bury his own troubles while picking up hints on how to use words to incite laughter. His work often paired humor with an undercurrent of pathos, intertwining chuckles with tears. In the ‘50s, he...
- 7/3/2019
- by Susan Wloszczyna, Misty Holland and Chris Beachum
- Gold Derby
“Speak low, darling speak low”, the Kurt Weill/ Ogden Nash song as sung first by himself and finally by Nelly, the protagonist of this film, played by Nina Hoss, is the thematic refrain that weaves through this deeply moving movie entitled “Phoenix”.
Kurt Weill sings “Speak Low” from 1948’s “One Touch of Venus” by Odgen Nash and S.J. Perelman starring Ava Gardne.
Arising from the ashes of Auschwitz and Berlin, a ghost of a woman returns to claim her inheritance and her husband if he is still alive. Aided by Lene, a Jewish attorney and c a kindred spirit from her past, who escaped the Shoah by fleeing to London and Nelly who experienced it to the farthest reaches of horror, together might start anew in Israel; Lene has already found the apartment for them there.
Nelly’s face, destroyed and then reconstructed after she was shot and left for dead, makes her unrecognizable. She seeks and finds her husband who tries to make this woman into the Nelly he knew. She knows but he does not. A fleeting reminiscence of Almodovar’s movie here, “ The Skin I Live In ” where a renowned plastic surgeon reconstructs the face of his wife upon someone he has abducted, so Johnny tries to remake his wife but holds back his near falling in love with what he believes to be his own creation.
This film is rife with references. If you recall “One Touch of Venus” whence cometh this Kurt Weill song, the statue of Venus comes alive when kissed. In “Phoenix” as well, the Jewish former cabaret singer returns to life when she finds the beloved husband she left behind but remembered every day as her reason for living through the camps.
However, his kiss is a Judas kiss as this dark story unfolds to the point where she sings “Speak low”. This is a complex, Hitchcockian tale of a nation’s tragedy and a woman’s search for answers which builds toward an unforgettable, heart-stopping climax. Again a reference, this time to “ Vertigo” where the switching of women strikes a chord.
See Nina Hoss singing here .
The classic, 2014 Academy Award winning “Ida” by Pawel Pawlikowski’s also pairs two women together in their search for post-war answers in Poland. Ida finds her own way as her aunt – and Lene as well – in Lene’s words “feel more drawn to our dead than to the living.”
For all these points of reference and comparison which came to my mind as I watched “Phoenix” with bated breath, this film is unique in expressing how these survivors attempt to rebuild their lives which have been horribly broken by death, suffering and loss.
Christian Petzold directed Nina Hoss previously in “Barbara” and “Jerichow” along with her screen-husband Johnny (Ronald Zehrfeld) a gorgeous actor able to charm and curse simultaneously. We hate him but we also love him. Ronald Zehrfeld says, “…when Johnny sees Nelly in front of him, you think, Ok, now he has to recognize her! But either he doesn’t trust his feelings or doesn’t allow himself to feel these emotions. Because ‘It’s impossible! She’s dead! And I won’t allow myself to fee this because my future depends on me passing her off as my wife. ‘ For him, it’s clear that, if he ever wants to breathe again, feel himself again or make music again, then he has to get out of Germany. And that’s possible only with Nell’s help – with the help of Nelly’s imposter, as he sees her. And on the other hand there are his feelings of guilt ….”
The rapport of the director with his actors is apparent in the patient unfolding of both characters with their traumas, their hopes, their guilt as they try to process the horrors they have survived.
Nina plays a woman who is vulnerable and fragile at the same time as she is defiant and stubborn. In the throes still of trauma of surviving the concentration camp and being shot in the face which must be reconstructed, without a vocabulary to describe all she has experienced, she seeks her husband in the burnt-out city of Berlin. She feels that only he can bring her back to life. In her search to find him, she finds herself again and tells her only friend Lene, ‘Johnny made me back into Nelly. Sometimes I get really jealous of myself – of how happy I was.
Interview with Christian Petzold and Nina Hoss by Nikolay Nikitin, hosted by the Goethe Institut in Toronto during its international debut at Tiff 2014 is here.
Aside from “The Third Man” which takes place in postwar Vienna and the 2012 film by Australian Cate Shortland, “ Lore”, and “Ida” which actually takes place in the 60s, there are not many outstanding films about what happened in Germany (and Austria) after the war.
“Phoenix” is an instant classic which will withstand the judgement of time. We’ll see if it is the German submission for Academy Award nomination, a well-deserved accolade. It could well win the Oscar for this year’s Best Foreign Language Film.
The film has played in the 2014 film festivals of Toronto, Vancouver, London, Romeand Seattle.
Sundance Selects opened “Phoenix” on July 24 in New York. It will open in L.A. on Friday, July 31 and then rolls out nationwide. International sales agent, The Match Factory, has licensed the film
Argentina - Alfa Films S.A
Australia - Madman Entertai
Austria - Stadtkino-Filmv
Benelux - A-Film Benelux
Brazil - Imovision
Canada - Films We Like
Canada - Eyesteelfilm
Denmark - Camera Film A/S
Finland - Future Film Oy/
France - Diaphana
Germany - Piffl Medien Gm
Germany - The Match Facto
Greece - Seven Films
Hungary - Cirko Film Kft.
Italy - Bim Distribuzio
Japan - New Select Co.
Latin Ameri- Palmera Interna
Norway - Arthaus
Poland - Aurora Films
Portugal - Leopardo Filmes
Slovenia - Demiurg
Spain - Golem Distribuc
Sweden - Folkets Bio
Switzerlan - Look Now! Filmd
Taiwan - Swallow Wings F
Turkey - Calinos Films
U.K. - Soda Pictures
U.S. - IFCFilms/ Sundance Selects...
Kurt Weill sings “Speak Low” from 1948’s “One Touch of Venus” by Odgen Nash and S.J. Perelman starring Ava Gardne.
Arising from the ashes of Auschwitz and Berlin, a ghost of a woman returns to claim her inheritance and her husband if he is still alive. Aided by Lene, a Jewish attorney and c a kindred spirit from her past, who escaped the Shoah by fleeing to London and Nelly who experienced it to the farthest reaches of horror, together might start anew in Israel; Lene has already found the apartment for them there.
Nelly’s face, destroyed and then reconstructed after she was shot and left for dead, makes her unrecognizable. She seeks and finds her husband who tries to make this woman into the Nelly he knew. She knows but he does not. A fleeting reminiscence of Almodovar’s movie here, “ The Skin I Live In ” where a renowned plastic surgeon reconstructs the face of his wife upon someone he has abducted, so Johnny tries to remake his wife but holds back his near falling in love with what he believes to be his own creation.
This film is rife with references. If you recall “One Touch of Venus” whence cometh this Kurt Weill song, the statue of Venus comes alive when kissed. In “Phoenix” as well, the Jewish former cabaret singer returns to life when she finds the beloved husband she left behind but remembered every day as her reason for living through the camps.
However, his kiss is a Judas kiss as this dark story unfolds to the point where she sings “Speak low”. This is a complex, Hitchcockian tale of a nation’s tragedy and a woman’s search for answers which builds toward an unforgettable, heart-stopping climax. Again a reference, this time to “ Vertigo” where the switching of women strikes a chord.
See Nina Hoss singing here .
The classic, 2014 Academy Award winning “Ida” by Pawel Pawlikowski’s also pairs two women together in their search for post-war answers in Poland. Ida finds her own way as her aunt – and Lene as well – in Lene’s words “feel more drawn to our dead than to the living.”
For all these points of reference and comparison which came to my mind as I watched “Phoenix” with bated breath, this film is unique in expressing how these survivors attempt to rebuild their lives which have been horribly broken by death, suffering and loss.
Christian Petzold directed Nina Hoss previously in “Barbara” and “Jerichow” along with her screen-husband Johnny (Ronald Zehrfeld) a gorgeous actor able to charm and curse simultaneously. We hate him but we also love him. Ronald Zehrfeld says, “…when Johnny sees Nelly in front of him, you think, Ok, now he has to recognize her! But either he doesn’t trust his feelings or doesn’t allow himself to feel these emotions. Because ‘It’s impossible! She’s dead! And I won’t allow myself to fee this because my future depends on me passing her off as my wife. ‘ For him, it’s clear that, if he ever wants to breathe again, feel himself again or make music again, then he has to get out of Germany. And that’s possible only with Nell’s help – with the help of Nelly’s imposter, as he sees her. And on the other hand there are his feelings of guilt ….”
The rapport of the director with his actors is apparent in the patient unfolding of both characters with their traumas, their hopes, their guilt as they try to process the horrors they have survived.
Nina plays a woman who is vulnerable and fragile at the same time as she is defiant and stubborn. In the throes still of trauma of surviving the concentration camp and being shot in the face which must be reconstructed, without a vocabulary to describe all she has experienced, she seeks her husband in the burnt-out city of Berlin. She feels that only he can bring her back to life. In her search to find him, she finds herself again and tells her only friend Lene, ‘Johnny made me back into Nelly. Sometimes I get really jealous of myself – of how happy I was.
Interview with Christian Petzold and Nina Hoss by Nikolay Nikitin, hosted by the Goethe Institut in Toronto during its international debut at Tiff 2014 is here.
Aside from “The Third Man” which takes place in postwar Vienna and the 2012 film by Australian Cate Shortland, “ Lore”, and “Ida” which actually takes place in the 60s, there are not many outstanding films about what happened in Germany (and Austria) after the war.
“Phoenix” is an instant classic which will withstand the judgement of time. We’ll see if it is the German submission for Academy Award nomination, a well-deserved accolade. It could well win the Oscar for this year’s Best Foreign Language Film.
The film has played in the 2014 film festivals of Toronto, Vancouver, London, Romeand Seattle.
Sundance Selects opened “Phoenix” on July 24 in New York. It will open in L.A. on Friday, July 31 and then rolls out nationwide. International sales agent, The Match Factory, has licensed the film
Argentina - Alfa Films S.A
Australia - Madman Entertai
Austria - Stadtkino-Filmv
Benelux - A-Film Benelux
Brazil - Imovision
Canada - Films We Like
Canada - Eyesteelfilm
Denmark - Camera Film A/S
Finland - Future Film Oy/
France - Diaphana
Germany - Piffl Medien Gm
Germany - The Match Facto
Greece - Seven Films
Hungary - Cirko Film Kft.
Italy - Bim Distribuzio
Japan - New Select Co.
Latin Ameri- Palmera Interna
Norway - Arthaus
Poland - Aurora Films
Portugal - Leopardo Filmes
Slovenia - Demiurg
Spain - Golem Distribuc
Sweden - Folkets Bio
Switzerlan - Look Now! Filmd
Taiwan - Swallow Wings F
Turkey - Calinos Films
U.K. - Soda Pictures
U.S. - IFCFilms/ Sundance Selects...
- 7/27/2015
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
So far, Rob Zombie directorial career has resulted in either terrible movies (House of 1,000 Corpses), movies that start strong than devolve into crap (2007's Halloween) or something of a mixed bag (The Devil's Rejects, The Lords of Salem). Or he makes The Haunted World of El Superbeasto, a nasty little bugger of a film where you'll want to stand in the shower for nine days after watching. How, then, this qualifies him to bring Groucho Marx's life story to the screen is anyone's guess, but stranger things have happened in Hollywood. As a matter of fact, looking into the details, Zombie's involvement begins makes a little more sense. amz asin="1593936524" size="small"The biopic, based on Steve Stolair's memoir "Raised Eyebrows: My Years Inside Groucho's House", will not span the comedic actor's whole career but rather his bizarre final ones as seen from his personal secretary/archivist and young fan's perspective.
- 6/18/2015
- by Will Ashton
- Rope of Silicon
Rob Zombie will direct a new biopic about the final years of legendary comedian Groucho Marx, based on Steve Stoliar's memoir, Raised Eyebrows, which chronicled his time as Marx's personal secretary and archivist, Deadline reports.
The screenplay will be written by Oren Moverman, who co-wrote the new Brian Wilson biopic, Love and Mercy, and earned an Oscar nomination for 2009's The Messenger, which he wrote with Alessandro Camon. Zombie will also produce the film, along with Cold Iron Pictures' Miranda Bailey, Amanda Marshall and Andy Gould.
Raised Eyebrows...
The screenplay will be written by Oren Moverman, who co-wrote the new Brian Wilson biopic, Love and Mercy, and earned an Oscar nomination for 2009's The Messenger, which he wrote with Alessandro Camon. Zombie will also produce the film, along with Cold Iron Pictures' Miranda Bailey, Amanda Marshall and Andy Gould.
Raised Eyebrows...
- 6/18/2015
- Rollingstone.com
Rob Zombie is stretching out beyond the horror genre with he and producer Miranda Bailey acquiring the rights to Steve Stoliar's memoir "Raised Eyebrows".
The book deals with the last years in the life of Groucho Marx, told by a young Marx Brothers fan who spent those years as his personal secretary and archivist and getting close to his idol as the curtain was coming down.
Other famous figures that feature in the story include Groucho's brothers Zeppo and Gummo, along with Mae West, George Burns, Bob Hope, Jack Lemmon, S.J. Perelman, and Steve Allen.
Oren Moverman ("Love & Mercy") will write the screenplay and Zombie is attached to direct the project which he, Bailey, Andy Gould and Amanda Marshall will produce.
Source: Deadline...
The book deals with the last years in the life of Groucho Marx, told by a young Marx Brothers fan who spent those years as his personal secretary and archivist and getting close to his idol as the curtain was coming down.
Other famous figures that feature in the story include Groucho's brothers Zeppo and Gummo, along with Mae West, George Burns, Bob Hope, Jack Lemmon, S.J. Perelman, and Steve Allen.
Oren Moverman ("Love & Mercy") will write the screenplay and Zombie is attached to direct the project which he, Bailey, Andy Gould and Amanda Marshall will produce.
Source: Deadline...
- 6/18/2015
- by Garth Franklin
- Dark Horizons
Jacki Weaver is a major star in her native Australia but has never performed on screen or stage in the States. That's odd, she says, in light of her love for everything Americana. She grew up with Mickey Mouse; her son was weaned on "Sesame Street." And during this interview—taking place after 11:30 p.m. in Adelaide, Australia—Weaver's husband, South African actor Sean Taylor, is sitting in front of the television watching "Late Night With David Letterman." Weaver has performed in dozens of American plays Down Under—from "Death of a Salesman" and "The Last of the Red Hot Lovers" to "A Streetcar Named Desire," "They're Playing Our Song," and "Steel Magnolias"—and has had no trouble mastering American accents, as long as the character is not from the South. New York speech is second nature to her; indeed, she says, "At heart I'm a New Yorker." The veteran actor,...
- 8/9/2010
- backstage.com
Between 1981 and 2002, few TV seasons passed without Susan Sullivan appearing in the opening credits of a popular program. First she logged more than 200 episodes of the CBS prime-time soap Falcon Crest, playing Maggie Gioberti, a long-suffering, do-gooder wife forever caught in the crosshairs of a diabolical clan of vintners. Then a new generation of tube watchers came to know Sullivan as Kitty Montgomery, the comic personification of nose-turned-upward snobbishness, on more than 100 episodes of ABC's Dharma & Greg. Few actors enjoy more than one hit TV show; fewer still get the chance to shift genres so profoundly. That Sullivan also kept busy between series-regular gigs — playing Cameron Diaz's mother in My Best Friend's Wedding; a 12-year run as Tylenol spokeswoman — proves her not just industrious but keen at getting cast. As it is for so many actors, her overnight success was nearly 20 years in the making. A Long Island native,...
- 7/25/2008
- by Leonard Jacobs
- backstage.com
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