Le sage prévisible et le fou prévoyant

Dans sa recherche lexicographique du jour William Safire s'attaque au little guy. Apparement le concept est récent même si pas très éloigné du common man, ce héros central des films Hollywoodiens, emblème du peuple américain tel qu'il veut se voir : honnête et droit, naïvement optimiste et qui ne demande rien de plus qu'on le laisse tranquille sur son lopin de terre (à partir de là les théories de l'espace vital divergent : lopin de terre perdu dans le Vieux Sud ? les 50 Etats ? Tous le continent américain ? l'espace intergalactique avec les planètes Tatooine et Alderaan ?). Au passage remarquons qu'en France ce n'est pas très valorisant de parler de M. Dupont ou de Mme Michu, c'est à dire, au mieux, l'individu lambda (pas intéressant) ou au pire la ménagère de moins de 50 ans (intéressante uniquement pour les annonceurs). Hé oui nous ne sommes pas un pays de consensus national et c'est mieux comme ça !
La différence entre le common man/man in the street et le little guy c'est que pour être politiquement correct il faut inclure les femmes. Sans les vexer.

The populist metaphorical cause was saved, however, by the recent neutering of the formerly male guy; "you guys" is now sexless, or at least partly gender free, a grammatical manifestation of the new inclusiveness. I use the qualifier "partly" because the feminist magazine Bitch complains in its mission statement that "Hollywood continues to churn out movies where women's only lines are 'Help me,' 'C'mere, Big Guy' and 'Oh, honey, I missed you so much while you were out saving humanity."' In current usage, women are part of the army of the little guy, but are never included in the capitalized Big Guy.

Ce message vous a été offert par le comité de lutte contre les clichés au cinéma.

Papy amorti cherche blockbuster

Mentionné par Leloup cet article du Wall Street Journal nous propose un énième épisode de la série "My cinema is poor but my financier is richly creative". Ce qui est drôle au moins dans l'histoire c'est que les ventes de gadgets Harry Prouter peuvent contribuer à payer le grasse retraite d'un vieux qui a jeté l'ancre quelque part entre la Floride et Saint Barth.

Legendary, which built up a $600 million war chest over the past two years, highlights the tortured path that investors who pick their own films can face. Messrs. Tull and Mednick spent more than a year on the road trying to raise capital. The group of debt and equity participants they ultimately signed included a wide array of institutional investors including the pension fund of the technology and manufacturing giant Honeywell International Corp.
The Legendary dealmakers argued that sophisticated computer software could help make smart selections among a pool of upcoming films offered by Warner Bros. They put their faith in a statistical approach, employing a computer-driven odds assessment technique called a Monte Carlo simulation.
By feeding factors like budget and box-office results into the model, Legendary came up with a set of cost parameters and movie genres that appeared more likely to make money.
In its five-year, 25-movie co-financing deal with Warner Bros., Legendary will put up 50% of the production costs for those films. In exchange, Legendary will receive 50% of the revenue after certain costs and adjustments.

Also Sprach Fritz -- Théorie

I believe that when one has a theory about something, one is already dead. I don't have time to think about theories. One should create emotions, not create under rules. To work with rules is to work with one's experience, is to fall into routine. I know a man named Kracauer who wrote a book called From Caligari to Hitler. His theory is absolutely false. He used all his arguments to prove a false theory. I therefore feel forced to dissuade today's youth from believing in a book that is full of idiocies. I told him. He was very angry. [Laughs] You know I have a language, I simply use it and I can prove anything. But it isn't necessary for my truth. A theory is nothing for an artist, it serves only for people who are already dead.

Concours de plots

Et si on laissait libre cours à notre imagination pour anticiper toute sorte d'attaque terroriste ? C'est en gros l'idée derrière ce concours de scénario catastrophe lancé par un spécialiste la sécurité nationale (sous le patronage pas trop fier des autorités US). Gaspiller de l'énergie sur une idée pareille en tout cas c'est vraiment réfléchir à l'envers.
Malheureusement pour les ricains ils sous-estiment encore leurs adversaires : leurs pires ennemis savent bien qu'ils arriveront plus facilement et plus efficacement à frapper l'oncle Sam hors de ses bases après l'avoir fait sortir de ses gonds le 11 septembre. Quelque part entre Baghdad et Téhéran se prépare une gifle magistrale, inéluctable, quelque chose comme un remake de Saigon'75 ou Téhéran'79 avec beaucoup plus d'effets spéciaux secondaires.
L'administration Bush tient de moins en moins bien le monde arabe, à commencer par les saoudiens, et celui-ci n'attend qu'un signal pour arrêter de se faire payer leur pétrole en dollars. Et comme l'économie américaine est plus que jamais surendettée il suffit que le monde ne veuille plus de ses dollars pour qu'elle s'effondre.
C'est un scénario catastrophe comme un autre, mais il ne s'agit pas là de se faire une petite peur avec une attaque chimique extraterrestre très originale, donc forcément rassurante, mais de voir la réalité en face.
Comme dans Docteur Folamour il suffirait d'un rien pour que tout explose, un officier supérieur américain un peu fatigué, un malentendu dans le golfe persique, un navire US qui viole les eaux iraniennes...

Also Sprach Fritz -- Expressionisme

In what way were you influenced by or have you worked against the Expressionism current?

I was very influenced by it. One cannot live through a period without taking some of it in.

Die Nibelungen seems expressionist in the sense of the term, whereas Caligari seems expressionist in the very worst sense.

You are wrong. Because Caligari is an interesting attempt, it was the first attempt. When Wiene tried again with Genuine, that didn't work. The cinema is a living art. It is necessary to take all that is new, not without examination, but all that is good for you, all that enriches you.

What seems to you to be good in the Expressionist movement, what did you use in your films?

That is a very difficult to tell you; that which I take is my emotion. I try to create something. In this type of interview, one asks me to explain what I would like to have done. One day, in America, some admirers showed me what I thought when I made M. I said to them, "That's very interesting, but that's the very first time I realized it." I can't really answer you, these are emotions. When young directors come to ask me, "Could you givbe us the rules of directing," I tell them "There are no rules." Today I see that something is good, I should go in that direction, tomorrow I say it isn't right, I should take a different direction. I used the train and now I use a plane, nut it is impossible to pretend that the train is bad. I can't say what I found in Expressionism. I used it, I tried to absorb it.

Box-office Pp WE 17

1. OSS 117 LE CAIRE NID D'ESPIONS . 170 091 =40x850
2. L'AGE DE GLACE 2 ............... 125 198 =50x501
3. V POUR VENDETTA ................. 82 942 =39x425
4. INSIDE MAN ...................... 78 330 =40x392
5. ASTERIX ET LES VIKINGS .......... 48 960 =36x272
6. LA DOUBLURE ..................... 40 845 =39x209
7. LES BRIGADES DU TIGRE ........... 35 644 =47x152
8. JEAN-PHILIPPE ................... 31 453 =42x150
9. ENFERMES DEHORS ................. 17 630 =29x122
10 THE WILD ........................ 16 900 =29x117

(source : ciné-chiffres)

Le paraître et le hi-han

Mentionné par Emmanuelle cet article du Wall-Street Journal (le canard ultra-libéral par excellence) ne loupe pas cette vielle coquille vide de July. Ça commence comme ça :

Serge July, a former Maoist and a veteran of France's 1968 student-led revolt, says he supports France's new generation of rebellious kids. But he says he was "too busy" to join the recent rash of street marches against a new youth job contract.

A la lecture de ce papier sans concessions, qui prend un malin plaisir à détailler et redétailler l'histoire de Libé mais sans exagérer les faits, je me disais qu'un personnage aussi pitoyable aurait bien eu sa place dans un Citizen Kane réalisé par Fellini. Mais se serait faire trop d'honneur à cette caricature ambulante du protozoaire politique qui s'accroche à son petit pouvoir et aux idées du jour.
(le lien vers l'article complet est dans le titre du post)

Box-office Pp WE 16

1. L'AGE DE GLACE 2 ............ 198 158 = 50 x 793
2. INSIDE MAN .................. 127 512 = 39 x 654
3. ASTERIX ET LES VIKINGS ....... 73 748 = 36 x 410
4. LES BRIGADES DU TIGRE ........ 71 585 = 46 x 311
5. LA DOUBLURE .................. 66 314 = 48 x 276
6. JEAN-PHILIPPE ................ 56 339 = 49 x 230
7. ENFERMES DEHORS .............. 33 687 = 35 x 192
8. THE WILD ..................... 26 538 = 32 x 166
9. 16 BLOCS ..................... 23 831 = 26 x 183
10 FOG .......................... 18 180 = 20 x 182

(source : ciné-chiffres)

Also Sprach Fritz -- Critique et cinéma

It's not up to me to critique critics. I make a film, it's a child I put out to the world. Everyone has the right to critique it. That's all. Permit me to have the only vanity that makes me happy: public approbation. I don't work for the critics but for audiences whom I hope are young. I don't work for the people of my age because they should already be dead, mee too. I don't want to come to Paris. This cocktail, these few words in front of the public at the Cinémathèque, I told Mme Lotte Eisner, this remind me of a monument for an unhappy man who is'nt dead yet. She is right. A young public has really responded. I was moved, very moved, because that proved that I hadn't worked for nothing.

You told us earlier that the director's goal was to critique. Couldn't that be the definition of mise-en-scène?

All art, I believe, should critique something. It isn't enough to say it's good, it's enticing, it's marvellous. In any case, what can one say of a woman who is good? She's a good mother, a good wife. But what can one recount of a bad woman? One ca n speak for hours about her, she is interesting [Laughs]. Yes or no? You say about one that she is good, but the other... The question is "Is she really bad?" "Was right has she?", "What were the circumstances?", "Weren't men responsible?" One could talk all night. And we could talk all night with her. [Laughs] I saw, here in Paris, an English film called Room at the top. There were two women, one very frank, the other very bad. Simone Signoret was the most interesting, not because she was the better actress, but because her sentiments were the more passionate.

Box-office Pp WE 15

1. L'AGE DE GLACE 2 ...... 325 422 = 50 x 1302
2. JEAN-PHILIPPE .......... 99 428 = 49 x 406
3. LA DOUBLURE ............ 91 237 = 52 x 351
4. ENFERMES DEHORS ........ 57 925 = 35 x 331
5. 16 BLOCS ............... 39 228 = 32 x 245
6. FIREWALL ............... 27 535 = 31 x 178
7. BASIC INSTINCT 2 ....... 24 047 = 45 x 107
8. DESTINATION FINALE 3 ... 19 769 = 27 x 146
9. BIG MAMMA 2 ............ 17 990 = 24 x 150
10 ROMANZO CRIMINALE ...... 17 491 = 27 x 130

(source : ciné-chiffres)

Cine-o-logismes : Huey, Dewey and Louie

L'anecdote racontée par William Goldman ne vaut pas tant pour sa définition du dialogue saupoudré sur plusieurs personnages que pour celle du drame humain qui se joue derrière. Soit dit en passant le bouquin où j'ai trouvé cette anecdote n'est que très marginalement intéressant, l'auteur ayant surtout besoin de se parler à lui-même l'année de son divorce après 27 ans de marriage et accessoirement (c'est le pitch de Hype and Glory) année où il s'est retrouvé à la fois juré à Cannes puis à Atlantic City pour Miss America...

One of the unhappiest men I ever met Out There was a very nice fellow who, for his sins, was directing segments of Charlie's Angels. There was, as all of us who like to dish are well aware, a remarkable amount of tension on the set. One of the trio of yummies was always called, by the crew and when she was out of earshot, Hate Jackson.
I'm having dinner with the director and some friends of his, and he had once wanted to do theater. Had done theater. Off-Broadway, etc. But mouths to feed are not without import, so Here he was, Suffering. His friends would ask him zapping questions, just to get him started. Like, "Well, was it Chekhovian today?" "I'm writing a paper on Symbolism in Female Detective Agencies, can I interview you?" And he would say, "You're not funny. That is not a funny question. Not to me. Not anymore."
Anyway let's say this was a line of dialogue for a Charlie's Angels episode:

                  ANGEL
I think it's about time for us to split up, go downtown, see what we can see.

Well, no go. It would end up like this:

                  FARRAH
I think it's about time for us to split up--

                  KATE
--go downtown--

                  JACLYN
--see what we can see.

Bring the cattle in and ship them out

Nora Ephron offre un petit aperçu saisissant de ce que la logique de multiplexe, poussée à bout (logique de rentabilité financière) peut donner. Aller au cinéma devrait être une expérience valorisée, malheureusement il ne s'agit pour beaucoup que de remplir le plus de fauteuils en faisant payer le plus cher et en dépensant le moins possible.
Avec ça comment ne pas comprendre que les gens préfèrent attendre que les films arrivent chez eux ? Pour beaucoup aller au ciné est une sortie qui coûte cher : suffit de penser quel prix un spectateur occasionnel doit payer s'il lui prend l'envie, en passant devant une salle, de se faire une toile.

We passed the shuttered refreshment counter, went into the theater and sat down. The ads were already playing. There were quite a few of them, including a diet cola ad involving trucks and motorcycles that was so in love with itself that it actually recommended going to a special Web site that explained how the ad had been made.
Then, suddenly, the sound turned off and the screen went completely dark. Several minutes passed. The theater was three-quarters full, but no one moved. In some strange and inexplicable way, I felt responsible. I stood up and went two flights upstairs. A ticket taker had materialized and was now taking tickets. I told her that the system in Theater 7 had shut down. She looked at me blankly. I asked her if she would tell someone about it. She said she would and went on taking tickets. I stood there waiting. After a couple of minutes, when the customers had all passed through, she yelled out, "Projection, is there something wrong in Theater 7?" I went back downstairs.

The Last Picture Show - NYT Apr. 7th

Box-office Pp WE 14

1. LA DOUBLURE .............. 206 804 = 795 x 52
2. BASIC INSTINCT 2 .......... 64 111 = 262 x 49
3. DESTINATION FINALE 3 ...... 41 658 = 260 x 32
4. BIG MAMMA 2 ............... 38 775 = 298 x 26
5. ROMANZO CRIMINALE ......... 31 391 = 170 x 37
6. LA PLANETE BLANCHE ........ 24 744 = 121 x 41
7. TRUMAN CAPOTE ............. 17 749 = 169 x 21
8. FAUTEUILS D'ORCHESTRE ..... 15 431 = 154 x 20
9. RENAISSANCE ............... 13 730 = 137 x 20
10 ESSAYE-MOI ................ 11 652 = 80 x 29
11 SEPARATE LIES ............. 11 549 = 462 x 5
12 DU JOUR AU LENDEMAIN ...... 10 382 = 74 x 28

(source : ciné-chiffres)