debor009

Lucky Money Toad Another Year and, no, not the Mike Leigh kind I hope, although it was probably the most profound film of 2010.  Actually I was thinking about that film the other day and how – despite the synopsis – it was really about Lesley Manville’s character, Mary. Another year older. Another year alone. Another year of desperately looking for Mr. Ideal (and with her options becoming less and less ideal.) Profound, and heartbreaking. For an actor, however, the arrival of another year is about staying positive. On New Year’s Day we rush to read our astrology forecast, seek out messages in fortune cookies, tarot cards, runes, hold onto our lucky numbers, lucky jewelry, lucky audition outfits, lucky Chinese Money Toads….anything to keep our energy up and our attitude optimistic. Because no profession brings more rejection and uncertainty than acting. It takes, on average, about 10 years of hard slogging to support yourself as an actor.   Sure, some are seemingly ov...

Viewing good films is not only a way to study acting technique but also to see ways to handle a big genre on a small budget. Lonely Are the Brave , for example - a film of which Kirk Douglas was immensely proud - is an example of how to make a Western with one horse, one jeep, one star (Douglas), a handful of fine actors who were relative unknowns at the time ( Carroll O'Connor , Walter Matthau , Gena Rowlands , George Kennedy ), one jail set, one house, and lots of open (and free) desert. Directed by Volker Schlondorff Another example is now in theatres: Diplomacy , a riveting French-German film about the faceoff between Raoul Nordling , the Swedish consul general in Paris during World War II (played by Andre Dussollier ) and Dietrich von Choltitz , the German general charged with destroying Paris before the German infantry retreated across the Rhine (played by Niels Arestrup , a favorite of mine). The acting is superb, it is wonderfully directed by German filmmaker Volker Schlon...

You have to have a touch of the wanderlust in you to be an actor - travel is frequently part of the job, after all - but if as part of your travels you happen to wander into an old film location, so much the better. I often seek them out: the LA river bed where the giant ants hole up in Them! , the old train depot in New Jersey where they filmed The Station Agent . The Caribbean island of Dominica Last week my dear husband and I went farther afield to Dominica (pronounced Doh-meh-nee'-kah), the volcanic island near Barbados where many of the scenes from the Pirates of the Caribbean films are shot. What an unbelievably gorgeous island. It rises from its black sand beaches more than 4,000 feet, all tropical rainforest with streams and waterfalls at every turn. Breathtaking. The next in the Pirates series - Dead Men Tell No Tales - is now in preproduction. Lucky the actors who get to leave gray skies and brown trees and work there. The beach is indeed black

I'm drawing up my grocery list in preparation for a day of cooking turkey, but I just saw that Shawn Christensen's film Before I Disappear is opening this week and I had to say a few words. I saw his short film Curfew , which won more than 40 film festival awards before taking the Oscar for short film in 2012. It was very funny and clever and an example of what a writer can come up with if his take on life is prefaced with "What if....?" Before I Disappear is Curfew taken to feature length. Here's the gist: "At the lowest point in his life, Ritchie gets a call from his estranged sister, asking him to look after his 11-year-old niece, Sophia, for a few hours." (The film actually opens with Ritchie in the bathtub cutting his wrists. I will say no more.) Christensen has added a few name actors to the feature, like Ron Perlman , but he still stars himself as Ritchie and has retained Fatima Ptacek as Sophie. I actually thought Ptacek was the weakest link...

I haven't watched a vampire film since Count Yorga, Vampire scared the bejeesus out of me as a kid by letting the vampire win. (What fun is that?) But what I've read about A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night , written and directed by Ana Lily Amirpour , has me intrigued. This sounds like a brilliant twist. More later when I actually get a chance to see it.  As I said, lots of good films out, and women filmmakers!

After starting off the year with the usual over-the-top CGI Superhero flicks designed to attract the easily amused, this has become a phenomenal year for small, funky, creative, inspiring films. My husband and I would rather eat popcorn in a movie theatre than dinner in a French restaurant, but over the summer there were weeks when we stayed home. Now there are so many choices! The 2014 Oscars are shaping up to be a real horserace, although if Michael Keaton doesn't win the Best Actor Oscar for Birdman I'd like to see the performance that does! (More on Birdman in a separate post below.) Check out Naomi Watts both in Birdman and St. Vincent , where she does a brilliant comic turn as a pregnant Russian prostitute. Has Filmdom discovered that a fine small film can turn a tidy profit with much less financial risk?

Arlan Godthaab, Vampire Hunter A Los Angeles actor friend, Arlan Godthaab , posted photos yesterday on Facebook from "I Had a Bloody Good Time at House Harker," a horror-comedy now shooting in snowy Wisconsin, with a cast that includes Jacob Givens , Derek Haugen , Noel Carroll , and Keely Gelineau. These were interesting shots that not only made me want to learn more about the film but also got me thinking about how actors and production companies use social media to publicize their product. His is one way, and it’s a good one. Yet most production companies, even the big ones, don’t yet get social media. Filmmakers trying to break into the business have enough on their plate just trying to figure out funding, casting, logistics, lighting, shooting, and editing. Marketing is rarely in the budget, so they don’t even think about it. They should. They have a whole team on set that can help get the word out about their production, but often the best most young filmmakers can d...