By “Cinema” Dave

http://cinemadave.livejournal.com

As I slowly awoke Thanksgiving Day morning, I watched NBC’s broadcast of the Macy’s Day Parade, but grew weary of the Peacock network’s self promotion. Feeling nostalgic, I said, “March of the Wooden Soldiers,” and this Christmas classic appeared on my television screen. I was thrilled. As Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy and Mickey Mouse prepared to overthrow the villainous Barnaby Silas and the Boogey Men, the CW Channel saw fit to interrupt Victor Herbert’s soaring climatic musical score for viewers to stay tuned for five hours of a Friends marathon … nostalgia interruptus …

With a smaller marketing mix than last week’s champion, Coco, The Star is another animated motion picture that opened. This film is a religious movie that is not preachy. It is the story about Mary’s pregnancy and how she was guided by a bright star. The story of Mary’s nine months is seen through the eyes of a donkey named Bo and a mouse who is a witnesses.

The story is simple, but entertaining. Traditional Christmas carols are given modern update without sounding intrusive. Despite having a light touch, The Star has many tender moments about faith, hope, redemption, forgiveness and salvation. Patricia Heaton, Kris Kristofferson and Oprah Winfrey voice a cow, a mule and a camel, respectively; as Herod, Christopher Plummer’s voice is perfectly typecast.

Plummer is also delightfully typecast as Scrooge in The Man Who Invented Christmas. Plummer does not actually portray Ebenezer Scrooge, as the character is a figment of Charles Dickens (Dan Stevens). Based on the book written by Les Standiford, The Man Who Invented Christmas details Dickens’ personal demons and inspirations that inspired his classic work, A Christmas Carol: Being a Ghost Story of Christmas.

The film opens with Dickens on a successful world-wide tour to promote his acclaimed book, The Adventures of Oliver Twist. The film fast forwards three years and Dickens has written three bombs. While outwardly being optimistic, Dickens sees creeping debt with his housing expenditures.

With his back against the wall, Dickens strikes a deal with his publisher to produce a Christmas/ghost story in a mere six weeks. Holing up in his office and play acting each role, Dickens works feverishly on his novella. Unfortunately, family interruptions keep impinging on his craft, especially from his father (Jonathan Pryce), who unwittingly becomes the personification of Ebenezer Scrooge.

The Star, The Man Who Invented Christmas and Coco are three good family movies on the big screen these days. While The Star and Coco may induce the most tears and laughter, The Man Who Invented Christmas is thought-provoking about family, craft and charitable inspiration.

By “Cinema” Dave

http://cinemadave.livejournal.com

“Was he a good boy?” David Eller asked my mother while lunching at Duffy’s. Fortunately for me, Mom answered in the affirmative.

This exchange symbolizes my almost two decade professional relationship with my publisher and boss. Like my Grandfather, Dave G. Watson, Mr. Eller held positions of responsibility, yet he made a point of reaching out to his employees and celebrating their accomplishments. David Eller’s southern charm, loyalty to his employees and commitment to community philanthropy will be his legacy for many years. [See story about Mr. Eller on Pg. 1].

Opening this Thanksgiving weekend, Coco is a family friendly movie about memory and mourning. Despite what the mass marketing has revealed about a kid playing a cool looking guitar, this Disney/Pixar animated movie has much heart with an emotional roller coaster ride from tears to laughter.

When the opening credits roll, we learn about a man who runs away from his wife and child to pursue a musical career. For many generations, the family bans music from the household. As the generations pass through time, the great grandson Miguel feels the lure of music and keeps a guitar hidden.

When El Dia de Muertos approaches, Miguel is expected to participate in the annual family rituals. Instead Miguel tries to sneak off and enter a talent contest. The matriarch gets upset and smashes Miguel’s guitar. Angered, Miguel runs away from home and tries to enter the talent contest without his guitar. Told that he needs an instrument, Miguel sneaks into the tomb of the musical legend Ernesto de la Cruz and borrows his unique guitar. This theft causes a shift in the fabric of the universe and Miguel enters the land of the dead.

While this transition to the land of the dead provides the scariest portion of Coco, this film is full of beautiful amber, orange and gold imagery, which enhances this excellent story. The conflicts which drive the character motivation follow a logical progression, though with many surprises and character revelations. The character of Coco has limited screen time, but is the heart and soul of the movie.

Being a Disney/Pixar movie, Coco is filled with many visual details reminiscent of the award-winning Up. As Brave promoted Scottish folklore, Coco celebrates Mexican culture. The song, “Remember Me,” will be heard frequently during the awards season. The holiday cinema season is off to a fine start with the opening of Coco this season.

Based on Les Standiford’s book, The Man who Invented Christmas also opens this weekend. Starring Beauty and the Beast’s Dan Stevens as Charles Dickens, the story details the author’s inspiration to write A Christmas Carol. Christopher Plummer portrays the curmudgeon who inspired Ebenezer Scrooge. The buzz is good for this film and if you cannot get a ticket for Coco, then The Man who Invented Christmas could be a fine substitute. Happy Thanksgiving!

By “Cinema” Dave

http://cinemadave.livejournal.com

After You’re Gone is an appropriate title for the closing night film of the Ft. Lauderdale International Film Festival (FLIFF) because the 32nd annual event will soon be a mere memory. From the Russian Federation, After You’re Gone features the story of a ballet dancer with a bad back who tries to understand the end of his career. Writer/director Anna Matison will be in attendance with a wrap-up party at Bailey Hall [at Broward College in Davie] featuring grilled wings, pizza and paninis.

Paninis and pasta sounds like appropriate food for the much-anticipated TOGA Party at the Villa Di Palma. FLIFF Executive Board Member Steve Savor is presenting live entertainment featuring Otis Day & The Knights from the 1978 classic comedy Animal House, starring the late John Belushi, the late John Vernon, Kevin Bacon, Peter Riegert and Karen Allen, who is in town to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Best known for her blockbuster body of work from the 1980s, Karen Allen is truly a renaissance woman. Besides owning her own fiber arts business in Barrington, Massachusetts, Allen teaches Yoga and acting. Born in southern Illinois and raised in Washington D.C., Karen was a camp counselor for special needs children during her teens. A natural writer, Allen was bitten by the acting bug after seeing a tour of the Polish Laboratory Theater in 1972. As an actress, Allen [perhaps best known for her role in Indiana Jones films] balanced her acting career between film and theater.

In theater, she found diversity of roles in classics written by William Shakespeare, August Strindberg and Tennessee Williams. Besides Patty Duke, Allen has portrayed both Helen Keller and her teacher Anne Sullivan in stage productions of Monday After the Miracle and The Miracle Worker, respectively. In the past eight years, Allen has directed theater productions in the Berkshires.

This Saturday evening, at 6:30 p.m., Allen’s cinematic directorial debut will be screened at the Savor Cinema before the TOGA party. Based on a short story by Carson McCullers, A Tree. A Rock. A Cloud is a quiet story about an old man who meets a boy at a roadside cafe. Usually published as part of Carson McCuller’s novella Ballad of the Sad Cafe, A Tree. A Rock. A Cloud. was a story Allen wanted to visualize since reading it in her early 20s.

While they never worked together, both Burt Reynolds [who received his Lifetime Achievement Award opening night of FLIFF] and Karen Allen have much in common.

Besides successful acting careers on the big screen, both have made a point of passing on their knowledge to the next generation. The Burt Reynolds Institute for Film & Theater, located in Jupiter, has been in existence for 40 years. Karen Allen is a Lifetime Member of the Actor’s Studio and is on the board of the Berkshire International Film Festival.

Given their participation at this year’s edition of FLIFF, both of their appearances have raised the cultural standards of our local community. Tickets & info: www.FLIFF.com

By “Cinema” Dave

http://cinemadave.livejournal.com

With genuine emotion, Florida history and the traditional glamour that goes along with it, this edition of Ft. Lauderdale International Film Festival (FLIFF2017) is shaping up to be one of the best ever. The regular venues, Savor Cinema & Cinema Paradiso Hollywood, are hosting unique themed parties that are supporting the international flavor of the film being screened. Yet, it will be the opening night gala at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel that will be talked about for many years to come.

Executive Producer Stevie Salas’ Rumble: The Indians who Rocked the World delivered. This intriguing documentary provided an entertaining history about the roots of the Blues and the birth of rock ‘n roll overturning much mainstream education taught in public schools and academic institutions.

Salas had played guitar for the Rod Stewart Tour, which became the first concert at Joe Robbie Stadium on July 3, 1988.

While posing on the red carpet with actor Graham Greene [who showed off his Lifetime Achievement Award], Burt Reynolds and Chris Osceola, Salas acknowledged the moment, saying, “I performed with Rod Stewart in the first concert in the stadium. Now, the Hard Rock owns the stadium!”

With a chorus of reporters humming “Hail to the Chief,” Burt Reynolds arrived on the Red Carpet in an oversized golf cart, referred to as a “mini TransAm.” It was a fun and light moment as the gregarious Reynolds posed with the “Rumble” crew, students from his acting school in Jupiter, and cast & crew from Dog Years, the opening night film, including Nikki Blonsky (known best from Hairspray) and local actors Todd Vittum and Amy Hoerler.

It was after the screening of his film Dog Years, when a weepy Burt Reynolds took center stage to accept his second Lifetime Achievement Award. The silence was deafening as Mr. Reynolds apologized for mistakes in his life. He talked about working with great people through the years and how many of them are no longer around. He talked about Heaven and Hell, Florida State University and his childhood friend who ended up dying in Vietnam. You can find Burt’s speech on the Cinema Dave YouTube Channel – www.youtube.com/cinemadave. For all the facets of fame and fortune, Burt stressed the importance of family, friends and coming home to Florida.

Burt’s message that had an impact on Blanche Baker, whose mom, Carroll, was the recipient of the 2012 Lifetime Achievement Award. Blanche was in town to support a short film she directed, STREETWRITE, a 24-minute musical about free speech that encompasses all forms of Broadway musicals, operetta, rock, contemporary and hip-hop.

Baker utilized the students at New York Film Academy, where she teaches.

There will be more fun this Veterans Day weekend when writer/director Ken Webb’s comedy, Serious Laundry, screens at the Sunrise Civic Center as the featured centerpiece film. ArtServe President & CEO Jaye Abbate and I will introduce the documentary, Cries From Syria this Friday, Nov. 10 at 6:15 p.m. (location TBA), which may be one of the most important films released in 2017. For schedule and showtimes for all FLIFF films, visit www.fliff.com.

By “Cinema” Dave

http://cinemadave.livejournal.com

The Querulous Nights of Athena Minerva is the most disturbing book that I have written; it is also my least profitable. Dark themes are a tough sell; but, if one balances the fine line between horror with humor and humanity, a story can be profitable as It and Annabelle Creation can attest. Mother! was released last weekend and was a box office disappointment.

With award winning credits like The Wrestler and Black Swan, writer/director Darren Aronofsky’s Mother! was highly praised by urban elitist critics on RottenTomatoes.com. Yet, the same site also revealed a far lower audience score. When old time New York film critic Rex Reed named Mother! the worst film of the year — perhaps the century, ratings from the urban elitist critics dropped.

Part of the attraction of Mother! are the deep Biblical themes that Aronofsky (who also did the much-panned Noah) claims he attempted, with an emphasis upon the Book of Genesis. The film begins in flames and transposes into a jeweled crystal that Javier Bardem places on the mantel. Once set, the scenery expands to reveal Jennifer Lawrence sleeping on the bed. Lawrence (revealed to be the title character) goes looking for “Him” (Bardem’s character name).

After the first jump scare, Aronofsky keeps the focus on Jennifer Lawrence’s face. Sometimes Aronofsky pulls the camera lens back to reveal that Lawrence does construction inside the house, while barefoot. A Man (Ed Harris) knocks on the door and says he is Bardem’s No. 1 fan and that he needs a place to sleep. After a night of drinking, it is revealed that the “Man” is missing a rib. The next day, a “Woman” (Michelle Pfiefer) arrives and reconnects with the “Man.” Mother is not amused.

During these expository scenes, Aronofsky directs with minimalist restraint. The cinematography invokes the paintings of Andrew Wyeth. Yet, as more characters enter the house (Mother never steps off the porch), the set becomes claustrophobic and invokes the dark visions of Francisco Goya and Caravaggio.

As the old saying goes, “Half of Art is knowing where to stop.” Such is the case for this film, which becomes as ponderous as a house waiting for electricity.

The story lacks coherence and one tires of Jennifer Lawrence’s cries for help, for she is not a real person but merely a dramatic symbol of Aronofsky’s fevered mind. Like Stanley Kubrick’s overrated The Shining, Mother! may be the darling of the urban elitist critic circle in a few decades. For the time being, there are better movies on the big screen besides this one.

For something more life affirming and more personal, Stronger opens this weekend. Starring Jake Gyllenhaal as Jeff Bauman, the man who lost both of his legs at the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013, Stronger looks far more inspiring than some Hollywood elitist interpretation of the Bible.

By Dave Montalbano

http://cinemadave.livejournal.com

With the 150th anniversary of “The Gettysburg Address” and the 50th anniversary of the last presidential assassination this week, both Abraham Lincoln & John F. Kennedy (see more pg. 6) will be forever linked by the ironies of history.

Both men held a love for the written word. The celebration of the written word continues with the 30th Anniversary of the Miami Book Fair International, held Nov. 17-24.

Dan Brown, author of books like The DaVinci Code and Inferno, opened the festival Sunday evening with a lecture about how family life inspired him to becomeaninternationalbest-selling author. His dad was a math teacher, his mother a church organist. Filled with self deprecating humor, he also talked about working with Tom Hanks and Ron Howard on the set of the movie The DaVinci Code at the Louvre Museum, home of Leonardo DaVinci’s “Mona Lisa.” (See more, pg14)

With the production of cinematic classics like The Maltese Falcon, and Treasure of the Sierra Madre, director John Huston also carried a love for the written word. Beginning his career as a screenwriter, Huston’s coterie of houseguests included authors like Carson McCullers, Ernest Hemingway and John Steinbeck, who influenced his daughter, Oscar-winning actress Anjelica Huston.

Anjelica Huston’s body of work stands on its own with Prizzi’s Honor (directed by her father) earning her an academy award, and with movie roles as diverse as The Big Year, The Royal Tenenbaums andTheGrifters. For young people, she is best known as Morticia Addams in The Addams Family films. Recently, she added credibility to the TV show Smash with her role as Eileen Rand.

Huston will be discussing her memoir, “A Story Lately Told, Coming of Age in Ireland, London and New York,” on Friday evening. Besides acting and growing up with an eccentric father, Anjelica will discuss being a teenager and living in London during the swinging ‘60s, her forays into modeling and her earlier attempts at acting.

The beauty of the Miami Book Fair International is the opportunity for unknown authors to be discovered. It is covered by major news networks, and C-Span spends the weekend in their book mobile. This is why Cinema Dave will be setting up his first booth tomorrow in Section D – Writer’sRowwithmytwobooks, “The Adventures of Cinema Dave in the Florida Motion Picture World” and “Davy Jones & the Heart of Darkness.” With each book sale, customers will receive an artifact from “the Cave of Cinema Dave.”

By Dave Montalbano

AdventuresOfCinemaDave.com

Located on the Florida Atlantic University campus on 777 Glades Rd. in Boca Raton, Living Room Theater celebrates their one-year university next month. Given these rough economic times, The Living Room has managed to negotiate a unique partnership between the bureaucracy of education and the demands of private industry. It has triumphed by supplying culturally-diverse motion pictures to our community.

Based on the Best-selling memoir Retter in der nacht, by Marga Spiegel,  Saviors in the Night is a film that will find an audience within our community.  Directed by Ludi Boeken, Saviors in the Night is a 100-minute film about German farmers who hid Jews targeted for extinction by Adolph Hitler from 1943 thru 1945.

It opens in the trenches of World War I, in which young Jewish soldier Menne Spiegel earns the German Cross of Iron for his heroics in the trenches of battle. The film flash forwards and Menne is hunted by the German government that honored him 25 years prio.

Now with a wife Marga (Veronica Ferres) and child, Menne (Armin Rohde) has knowledge of family members being sent to concentration camps. For safety’s sake, the mother and child split from the father. After making a simple request for sanctuary, Menne leaves his wife and child with Herr Aschoff (Martin Horn), a German patriot whose son is fighting for the Nazis.

Up to this point, Saviors in the Night is a gritty war film with echoes of Schindler’s List, The Pianist and The Diary of Anne Frank. Yet it provides a different perspective of German individuals who are not Nazis.  Despite their political leanings, the Aschoff family has the humanity treat Menne’s family with dignity and respect. While the Nazi threat never dissipates, Saviors in the Night celebrates the domestic joys that enrich our lives.

One particular scene stands out for its cultural symbolism. As Frau Aschoff bathes in a bathtub, she invites Marga to join her. While modern audiences might interpret it as lesbianism, the scene represents the subtle baptism of two women washing away the ghosts of the cultural past.

This film is a triumph of individual actions over entrenched ideology. Given political current events and news, boy, do we need more stories about Aschoff, Pentrop, Sudfield, Silkenbohmer and Sickmann families to remind us how to be Saviors in our community.

By Dave Montalbano

AdventuresOfCinemaDave.com

Earlier this year, Superman talked about renouncing his U.S. citizenship, claiming to be a citizen of the world. A product of the DC Comic book universe, Superman seemed to forget that he was fighting for “Truth, Justice and the American Way.”

Perhaps seeking public relations leverage, Marvel Comics has unleashed Captain America: The First Avenger,  one of the most patriotic movies to be released in a decade. The American public rewarded Captain America with an impressive non-holiday box office gross of $65 million.

While this film is a stand-alone motion picture, it is part of the series of Marvel Comics movies released since 2008, (Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Thor) that will lead to next Summer’s first blockbuster, in May 2012, The Avengers. Of all of the recent Marvel motion picture heroes, Captain America is easily the most likable.

Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) is the runt of Brooklyn, who wants to serve America during World War II. Despite the protests of Colonel Chester Philips (Tommy Lee Jones), research Professor Erskine (Stanley Tucci) sees a good heart in Steve Rogers and recruits the scrappy Dodgers fan for a special scientific experiment. With Howard Stark’s (Dominic Cooper) technical influence, the experiment is a success and Steve Rogers becomes known as Captain America.

First used as a propaganda tool, Captain America comes under the radar of the Red Skull (Hugo Weaving), a villain who takes up where Adolph Hitler left off. As the Red Skull plots the destruction of America, Captain America recruits the Howling Commandos and kicks some “Nazi” butt.

Given his work with The Rocketeer, October Sky and Jurassic Park III, director Joe Johnson is perfect to bring both the spectacle and sensitivity to this picture.

The acting ensemble has fun with this film. Jones’s fast-talking delivery has audiences howling with laughter. As Iron Man’s daddy, Cooper does a good impression of his fictional son (played by Robert Downey Jr.)

Yet, this film belongs to Chris Evans and thrives because of his sincere performance. Captain America is what a summer Saturday matinee blockbuster should be.

For those who cannot get into Harry Potter, Captain America or Cowboys & Aliens this weekend,  the Ft. Lauderdale International Film Festival presents the 10th Annual French Film Festival at Cinema Paradiso July 28-31. 954-525–FILM or www.fliff.com.