Cloud Atlas -- D: The Wachowskis S: Hanks, Grant, Berry, Weaving -- Fall 2012
09-10-12 | 08:32 AM
#76
DVD Talk Hero
Re: Cloud Atlas -- D: The Wachowskis S: Hanks, Grant, Berry, Weaving -- Fall 2012
I never put much into those standing ovation comments, but at least it wasn't straight up booing.
It's sitting at 50% at RT, Ebert's first impressions stated something along the lines of "It's astonishing, but I'm not sure what it's about.", but then he compares it to 2001:ASO and that's pretty high praise.
It's sitting at 50% at RT, Ebert's first impressions stated something along the lines of "It's astonishing, but I'm not sure what it's about.", but then he compares it to 2001:ASO and that's pretty high praise.
09-10-12 | 09:35 AM
#77
DVD Talk Godfather
09-10-12 | 10:04 AM
#78
Re: Cloud Atlas -- D: The Wachowskis S: Hanks, Grant, Berry, Weaving -- Fall 2012
One should take standing ovations at TIFF "premium" screenings -- which CLOUD ATLAS was with its doubled ticket prices — or regular-priced-but-borderline-premium screenings in key Toronto venues with a huge grain of salt.
Such pictures almost always debut in one of the festival's three most opulent venues: Roy Thompson Hall, The Princess of Wales Theatre, and the Elgin/Wintergarden, overwhelming sights unto themselves. Roy Thompson is a cavernous opera/orchestra-style theatre, while the latter two are more often used throughout the year for the staging of Broadway-style musicals, and both retain their original 1920's opulence after restorative work many years ago.
As such, for A-list screenings at which A-List stars will be in attendance, these posh venues routinely attract a disproportionately large segment of the city's hoi-polloi and wannabe hoi-polloi — dressed-up people desperate to be "seen" almost as badly as the celebrities they'll claim to have "attended with" when they tell of the evenings festivities the next day -- alongside the average-Joe moviegoers who comprise the vast majority of the festival audience at nearly all other screenings. They're usually the first ones to stand up and applaud as the credits roll, which starts the ball rolling whether or not everyone else in the theatre is of a similar opinion.
By way of example, most "premium" (double ticket price) screenings-with-Big-Stars®-in-tow that I've attended in 15 years of fest-going have ended with a standing ovation (particularly the ones at Roy Thompson Hall, where the celebs occupy a very central, very visible seating box where the rest of the house can turn to them and applaud while they bask in a spotlight aimed directly at them), as have several non-premium-screenings-with-big-stars-in-attendance that have been held in these three "upscale" venues. Films in both categories have included: ACROSS THE UNIVERSE (the "Beatles musical" that ultimately became critical anathema and a box-office dud), THE MYTH (a Jackie Chan movie, and far from one of his best), THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE WEIRD (a Korean movie I personally loved but which garnered little theatrical play before heading to DVD in North America, despite modest critical acclaim and impressive box-office back home), CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY (a Michael Moore documentary that triggered the usual love-hate reactions, only not that night in the theatre).
This isn't to say any of these films were inherently "bad" and therefore undeserving of applause or standing ovations (well, applause, at least, which is customary at the majority of TIFF screenings) — I enjoyed them all — it's just to say that a specific combination of venue and the presence of major stars and/or directors to "intro" the film can be overwhelming to many of those in attendance and is a frequently reliable predictor of a standing ovation. Only later does critical reaction, box-office reception and individual viewer reflection reveal the overall worthiness of a picture. I'm sure CLOUD ATLAS will be no exception, but it's telling that its PR-laden TIFF debut was at the Princess of Wales Theatre and many of its powerhouse stars were in attendance.
I'm trying to remember if THE ARTIST evoked a standing ovation last year. It wasn't a double-price premium screening, but it was held at the majestic Elgin/Wintergarden venue. It would be rather amusing if it didn't, all things considered, but then Jean Dujardin was no Tom Hanks or Halle Berry in terms of recognition over here, nor was the director.
That Variety review posted above is promising, but his fear that critics might "kill it in the cradle" seems well-founded.
Such pictures almost always debut in one of the festival's three most opulent venues: Roy Thompson Hall, The Princess of Wales Theatre, and the Elgin/Wintergarden, overwhelming sights unto themselves. Roy Thompson is a cavernous opera/orchestra-style theatre, while the latter two are more often used throughout the year for the staging of Broadway-style musicals, and both retain their original 1920's opulence after restorative work many years ago.
As such, for A-list screenings at which A-List stars will be in attendance, these posh venues routinely attract a disproportionately large segment of the city's hoi-polloi and wannabe hoi-polloi — dressed-up people desperate to be "seen" almost as badly as the celebrities they'll claim to have "attended with" when they tell of the evenings festivities the next day -- alongside the average-Joe moviegoers who comprise the vast majority of the festival audience at nearly all other screenings. They're usually the first ones to stand up and applaud as the credits roll, which starts the ball rolling whether or not everyone else in the theatre is of a similar opinion.
By way of example, most "premium" (double ticket price) screenings-with-Big-Stars®-in-tow that I've attended in 15 years of fest-going have ended with a standing ovation (particularly the ones at Roy Thompson Hall, where the celebs occupy a very central, very visible seating box where the rest of the house can turn to them and applaud while they bask in a spotlight aimed directly at them), as have several non-premium-screenings-with-big-stars-in-attendance that have been held in these three "upscale" venues. Films in both categories have included: ACROSS THE UNIVERSE (the "Beatles musical" that ultimately became critical anathema and a box-office dud), THE MYTH (a Jackie Chan movie, and far from one of his best), THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE WEIRD (a Korean movie I personally loved but which garnered little theatrical play before heading to DVD in North America, despite modest critical acclaim and impressive box-office back home), CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY (a Michael Moore documentary that triggered the usual love-hate reactions, only not that night in the theatre).
This isn't to say any of these films were inherently "bad" and therefore undeserving of applause or standing ovations (well, applause, at least, which is customary at the majority of TIFF screenings) — I enjoyed them all — it's just to say that a specific combination of venue and the presence of major stars and/or directors to "intro" the film can be overwhelming to many of those in attendance and is a frequently reliable predictor of a standing ovation. Only later does critical reaction, box-office reception and individual viewer reflection reveal the overall worthiness of a picture. I'm sure CLOUD ATLAS will be no exception, but it's telling that its PR-laden TIFF debut was at the Princess of Wales Theatre and many of its powerhouse stars were in attendance.
I'm trying to remember if THE ARTIST evoked a standing ovation last year. It wasn't a double-price premium screening, but it was held at the majestic Elgin/Wintergarden venue. It would be rather amusing if it didn't, all things considered, but then Jean Dujardin was no Tom Hanks or Halle Berry in terms of recognition over here, nor was the director.
That Variety review posted above is promising, but his fear that critics might "kill it in the cradle" seems well-founded.
This has all got me to wondering if I've ever experienced a standing ovation at a film, festival or not, and I have to confess I don't recall any instance of it. Not that I would ever bother to do that--even if I loved the movie. You're supposed to stand for people who are actually there and can appreciate the ovation.
I can recall standing ovations for surprise guests, like when Hayao Miyazaki showed up--unannounced--to introduce MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO at the Museum of Modern Art in 1999. (He was in town to promote PRINCESS MONONOKE at the New York Film Festival and MOMA was running a series of his films concurrently.) And when they announced a surprise guest to award Sammo Hung his Life Achievement Award at the 2010 New York Asian Film Festival and out came Angela Mao, I leaped up and shouted with glee and led a rather sparse standing ovation. (Half the crowd didn't know who she was. The young adults behind me asked who she was and I had to explain that she played Bruce Lee's sister in ENTER THE DRAGON.)
09-10-12 | 10:24 AM
#79
DVD Talk Hero
Re: Cloud Atlas -- D: The Wachowskis S: Hanks, Grant, Berry, Weaving -- Fall 2012
What I don't buy is the "10 minute standing ovation" - 10 minutes is a LONG time to stand and applaud. That's almost half of an episode of a sitcom...just standing there and clapping.
It was probably more like 2 minutes.
It was probably more like 2 minutes.
09-10-12 | 11:14 AM
#80
Re: Cloud Atlas -- D: The Wachowskis S: Hanks, Grant, Berry, Weaving -- Fall 2012
Meredith Brody gives CLOUD ATLAS a mixed-to-negative review on Anne Thompson's blog:
http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsono...takes-too-long
This sentence had me scratching my head:
This is Lana Wachowski:
What must Larry Wachowski have looked like?
http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsono...takes-too-long
This sentence had me scratching my head:
Oddly, since Lana Wachowski, after gender re-assignment, is considerably more attractive as a woman than she was as a man, none of the drag characters (notably Hugo Weaving as a Nurse Ratched type) are at all fetching.
What must Larry Wachowski have looked like?
09-12-12 | 02:49 PM
#82
Thread Starter
DVD Talk Legend
Re: Cloud Atlas -- D: The Wachowskis S: Hanks, Grant, Berry, Weaving -- Fall 2012
Ebert saw this at TIFF and had this to say:
"I know I've seen something atonishing, and I know I'm not ready to review it. "Cloud Atlas," by the Wachowski siblings and Tom Tykwer, is a film of limitless imagination, breathtaking visuals and fearless scope. I have no idea what it's about. It interweaves six principal stories spanning centuries--three for sure, maybe four. It uses the same actors in most of those stories. Assigning multiple roles to actors is described as an inspiration by the filmmakers to help us follow threads through the different stories. But the makeup is so painstaking and effective that much of the time we may not realize we're seeing the same actors. Nor did I sense the threads.
The actors Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Jim Broadbent, Hugo Weaving, Hugh Grant and Jim Sturgess together portray 14 different characters, and not even sex is a clue because some of their roles cross gender categories. The end credits, which go by a little too fast, will surprise a lot of audience members. Sat what? Hugo Weaving plays Nurse Noakes? "Cloud Atlas" has locks on Oscar nominations for best makeup and costume design.
The stories, much adapted and retold from a David Mitchell novel, include characters, times and locations as diverse as a 19th century sailing ship, a futuristic Korea, Aboriginals, young gay intellectuals at Cambridge, a nuclear scientist, a slave, a classical composer and others. There is a good deal of narration, most of it about the nature of human life (and some of it about lives of fabricants). There are chase and action scenes as good or better than the best work by the Wachowskis (the "Matrix" films) and their friend and collaborator Tykwer ("Run, Lola Run"). Moment by moment, scene by scene, story by story, I was enthralled.
What did it sum up to? What is the through line? I can't say. Not today, anyway. Not yet. Maybe there isn't one. What will its first audiences get out of it? My mind travels back to the first public screening of "2001: A Space Odyssey," the film the Wachowskis says made them filmmakers, and inspired this one."
"I know I've seen something atonishing, and I know I'm not ready to review it. "Cloud Atlas," by the Wachowski siblings and Tom Tykwer, is a film of limitless imagination, breathtaking visuals and fearless scope. I have no idea what it's about. It interweaves six principal stories spanning centuries--three for sure, maybe four. It uses the same actors in most of those stories. Assigning multiple roles to actors is described as an inspiration by the filmmakers to help us follow threads through the different stories. But the makeup is so painstaking and effective that much of the time we may not realize we're seeing the same actors. Nor did I sense the threads.
The actors Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Jim Broadbent, Hugo Weaving, Hugh Grant and Jim Sturgess together portray 14 different characters, and not even sex is a clue because some of their roles cross gender categories. The end credits, which go by a little too fast, will surprise a lot of audience members. Sat what? Hugo Weaving plays Nurse Noakes? "Cloud Atlas" has locks on Oscar nominations for best makeup and costume design.
The stories, much adapted and retold from a David Mitchell novel, include characters, times and locations as diverse as a 19th century sailing ship, a futuristic Korea, Aboriginals, young gay intellectuals at Cambridge, a nuclear scientist, a slave, a classical composer and others. There is a good deal of narration, most of it about the nature of human life (and some of it about lives of fabricants). There are chase and action scenes as good or better than the best work by the Wachowskis (the "Matrix" films) and their friend and collaborator Tykwer ("Run, Lola Run"). Moment by moment, scene by scene, story by story, I was enthralled.
What did it sum up to? What is the through line? I can't say. Not today, anyway. Not yet. Maybe there isn't one. What will its first audiences get out of it? My mind travels back to the first public screening of "2001: A Space Odyssey," the film the Wachowskis says made them filmmakers, and inspired this one."
09-25-12 | 11:57 PM
#84
Thread Starter
DVD Talk Legend
Re: Cloud Atlas -- D: The Wachowskis S: Hanks, Grant, Berry, Weaving -- Fall 2012
09-26-12 | 12:04 AM
#85
DVD Talk Hero
Re: Cloud Atlas -- D: The Wachowskis S: Hanks, Grant, Berry, Weaving -- Fall 2012
Just started to read the book today.
09-26-12 | 12:36 AM
#87
DVD Talk Legend
09-26-12 | 09:21 AM
#89
09-26-12 | 12:27 PM
#91
Re: Cloud Atlas -- D: The Wachowskis S: Hanks, Grant, Berry, Weaving -- Fall 2012
I'm getting a Matrix Reloaded/Matrix Revolutions vibe from this whole thing. As counterintuitive as it may be: I'm in.
09-26-12 | 01:31 PM
#93
DVD Talk Hero
09-26-12 | 01:44 PM
#94
Re: Cloud Atlas -- D: The Wachowskis S: Hanks, Grant, Berry, Weaving -- Fall 2012
09-26-12 | 01:47 PM
#95
DVD Talk Hero
Re: Cloud Atlas -- D: The Wachowskis S: Hanks, Grant, Berry, Weaving -- Fall 2012
All that was missing was a trailer featuring Dave Matthew's Crash Into Me. That movie destroyed so many potential careers, I can't think of a single movie Tony Danza has been in since then.
09-26-12 | 02:55 PM
#96
Re: Cloud Atlas -- D: The Wachowskis S: Hanks, Grant, Berry, Weaving -- Fall 2012
I was there. It really was 10 minutes. The bulk of the cast was there so it took them awhile to assemble on stage at the end. I agree with Brian T's statement that being at a glamorous venue with such massive starpower present basically forced the audience into a standing ovation.
09-26-12 | 04:00 PM
#97
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Re: Cloud Atlas -- D: The Wachowskis S: Hanks, Grant, Berry, Weaving -- Fall 2012
09-29-12 | 11:48 PM
#98
Thread Starter
DVD Talk Legend
Re: Cloud Atlas -- D: The Wachowskis S: Hanks, Grant, Berry, Weaving -- Fall 2012
Clip from the film. Contains the Wachowskis signature philosophical dialogue.
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/piMHrV19E8g" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/piMHrV19E8g" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
09-30-12 | 12:07 AM
#99
DVD Talk Legend
Re: Cloud Atlas -- D: The Wachowskis S: Hanks, Grant, Berry, Weaving -- Fall 2012
Dear God...that tagline is so pretentious. Just embarrassing.
Brokeback Mountain got fucking robbed.
09-30-12 | 02:49 PM
#100
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From: Formerly known as "Solid Snake PAC"/Denton, Tx
Re: Cloud Atlas -- D: The Wachowskis S: Hanks, Grant, Berry, Weaving -- Fall 2012
The only thing I like out of Crash is those bits w/ Micheal Peña. The rest of it is just pretentious self masturbation.