This week’s film is Jim Jarmusch’s Permanent Vacation. Shot in 1980, this is the director’s debut film, marking the birth of his signature style.

The story takes place in 2 and a half days, following an unemployed young man who wonders around New York, meeting intriguing characters and searching for the meaning of life.

To be honest I had high expectations for this film, having seen the other Jarmusch masterpieces. Permanent Vacation is not Down By Law, but it’s a great debut film. You can distinguish the later on Jarmusch characteristics: music plays a great role (in fact Jarmusch co-wrote the film’s music), the characters are quite unique and corky and the story is being through monologues and random encounters, all in an urban set. 

Casting wise, Chris Parker as Allie Parker stands out and the rest of the cast might not be that impressive, yet is supporting the story and the main character in an effective way.

After this first experiment with film, Jarmusch gained acceptance with films such as Stranger than Paradise, Down By Law, Dead Man, Coffee & Cigarettes and Broken Flowers and became one of the most influential artists of the last 30 years.

My Film Club

After studying Jarmusch’s debut, next week it's time for another great American filmmaker: David Lynch

Next week’s film: Inland Empire (2006)

Happy St. Patrick's Day little leprechauns!! Today we celebrate everything Irish: Bono, Liam Neeson, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Colin Farrell, even Jack Gleeson (a.k.a. Joffrey..)!
In celebration of this great day, we take a look at some of the most famous and beloved Irish/Irish themed films! 

In the name of the Father (1993)
The true story of  the Guildford Four, four people falsely convicted of the 1974 IRA's Guildford pub bombings which killed four off-duty British soldiers and a civilian. Seven Academy Awards nominations, including Best Actor for the superb Daniel Day-Lewis.

Gangs of New York (2002)
The Scorsese masterpiece, is set in the mid-19th century in the Five Points district of Lower Manhattan, where we witness the battle between the Irish immigrants and the "true" Americans, as well as the  break out of the New York City draft riots. An eye opening view of the story "the hands that built America"...

The Departed (2006)
The film that gave Scorsese (finally) the Oscar, is the story of an undercover cop who has infiltrated an Irish gang and a mole in the police force working for the same mob, and how they both try to track down and identify each other before being exposed to the enemy, after both realizing that there is a rat. Amazing cast, amazing direction, amazing music! 

Hunger (2008)
Before 12 years a slave and Shame, Steve McQueen had directed Michael Fassbender in this film, that narrates the story of the 1981 Irish hunger strike. A powerful film with great performances!

Good Will Hunting (1997)
Set in Boston (where most of the Irish American films are set), the 1997 film written by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck (unknown at the time), came out of the blue and gained very positive critical acceptance.
The story of the film is more or less known: a janitor at the MIT, has a special gift with numbers and mathematics and struggles between taking the opportunity and chaising his future or staying at his confort zone and continue his normal life... 

Bloody Sunday (2002)
This film shows one of the most important parts of Irish history: The events of the 1972 "Bloody Sunday" shootings in Derry, Nothern Ireland, through the eyes of of Ivan Cooper, a SDLP Member of the Parliament of Northern Ireland who was a central organiser of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association march in Derry on 30 January 1972. The march ended when British Army paratroopers fired on the demonstrators, killing thirteen instantly and wounding another person who died 4½ months later.

Michael Collins (1996)
This film is the historic biopic of the life and action of Michael Collins, an Irish patriot that contributed great to the foundation of the modern Irish state. Liam Neeson and Alan Rickman give amazing performances! 

The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2006)
The story of both the  Irish War of Independence (1919–1922) and the Irish Civil War (1922–1923), through the eyes of two brothers who join the Irish Republican Army to fight for the Irish independence. The film won the Palme d'Or at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival.

Albert Nobbs (2011)
The film that gave an Academy nomination to Glenn Close, is based on a novella by Irish novelist George Moore. It's the tale of a woman posing as a man so she can work as a butler in Dublin's most posh hotel and her struggle for survival at the 19th century Ireland. A feminist story that received mixed reviews from the audience. No one can deny though the incredible performance by Glenn Close.

In America (2002)
Finally, a beloved film by Jim Sheridan. In America is the modern immigrant tale, of an Irish family arriving in the United States. Emotional and full of powerful performances, especially by the two sisters, who are also sisters in real life! Fun fact: 11 year old at the time Sarah Bolger (playing Christie), is now a regular in ABC's Once Upon A Time!  

And tons of other Irish films or Irish themed films, worth discovering.... Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

Before the Walking Dead, 28 Days After and Zombieland, there was the film that started it all: The night of the living dead. 
Released in 1968, it is considered one of the most influential horror films of its time. This film defined the horror genre and became an inspiration and influence for many horror film directors.

Shot in black and white in just seven months and with a really small budget, George Romero’s iconic film, managed to become a huge box office hit and start a whole new era in horror film making. Apart from the apparent shock that the film brought to the audience, it stood out for another reason: It was one of the first films where an African American actor was casted for the leading part, without that being a prerequisite on the script. Quite revolutionary for the time, especially given that the civil rights movement was at its peak.

The Plot

The story starts with two siblings, Johnny and Barbra visiting their father’s grave. There, the attacks of the living dead begin. After Barbra is attacked and her brother is killed by the “ghoul”, she finds refuge in a farmhouse, where she meets Ben, also hiding from the creatures and another 5 people. They all hide there and try to defeat the mortal creatures.

The film’s effects might seem childish today, but the direction, montage and music of the film helps enhance the sense of danger, fear and agony.

Fun Facts
It is very interesting, that despite the fact that the term “zombie” had already been introduced in cinema, Romero decides to refer to the creatures as "ghouls" or "living dead" or "those things".

In their previous appearances in cinema history (I Walked with a Zombie, 1943), zombies were never defined as flesh eating. It was this film that first established human flesh being the primary diet of zombies.

George A. Romero saw very little profit from the film when thanks to his lack of knowledge regarding distribution deals, the distributors walked away with practically all of the profits.

My Film Club

While this week we discovered a classic horror film, next week it's all about the American Independent Cinema and the great Jim Jarmusch

Next Week's film: Permanent Vacation (1980)

The Grand Budapest Hotel, is Wes Anderson's latest film and truly one of his best! The film features an all star cast with performances and cameos by: Ralph Fiennes, Jude Law, Mathieu Amalric, Willem Dafoe, Adrien Brody, Jeff Goldblum, Harvey Keitel, Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Saoirse Ronan, Jason Schwartzman, Léa Seydoux, Tilda Swinton to name (truly) a few.

The story revolves in the late 30s and is the tale of the owner of the Grand Budapest Hotel and how he became from a simple lobby boy, to the millionaire hotel owner.
The tale involves various murder, conspiracy, a painting, lots of perfume and the various members of the society of the crossed keys...

Fiennes' performance is by doubt the best thing in the film: Gustave's H (Fiennes' character) witty lines, describing his sexual encounters with his 80 something lady friends (“I’ve had older”) or cutting short his own reverie on humanity (“Oh, fuck it”),  and his overall cool preformance, are to die for! It is nice to see him in a such a (different) role!

Of course the classic direction and photography that Anderson films share, seems to really work in the whole nostalgia that the Grand Budapest Hotel brings out.

The ensemble cast and their corky characters complete the Wes Anderson world and deliver a film that definitelly stands out and can be a very good opportunity for a younger audience to get to know his films! 

Definitely a must-see! 

This week’s film selection is Ingmar Bergman’s 1966 film Persona.

Let’s be honest: Bergman is not an easy director. I will be frank and say that apart from The Seventh Seal, I hadn’t really watched any of his other films. Until Persona.

It’s not easy to review such a film. The story, the direction, the cinematography, all of this film’s elements have a story of their own. Even from the opening credits – which are to my opinion homage to Bunuel’s cinematic Surrealism- you are sucked into Bergman’s world…

The Plot

The story is about a young nurse named Alma (Bibi Andersson) and her patient, a famous actress named Elisabet Vogler (Liv Ullman), who has suffered a mental crisis and refuses to speak. The nurse takes care of the actress and develops a strange relationship with her that is between dream and reality and seems to merge her identity with Elisabeth’s.

It seems though that there is more to than just their identities merging. As I interpreted the film, Alma and Elisabet are two versions of the same character and the film captures this mental straggle. Of course one can interpret the story in many ways. Apart from the complex story and its many meanings, Bergman offers an amazing cinematography that is enhanced by the lack of colors, the intense editing and the overall direction, that seem to match the mental alterations of the two leading ladies. 

Persona is considered one of the major works of the 20th century by essayists and critics. In Sight and Sound’s 2012 Greatest Films Poll it comes in at 17th in the critics poll (tied with Akira Kurosawa's "Seven Samurai") and 13th in the directors poll. It won the award for Best Film at the 4th Guldbagge Awards and it was Sweden's entry to the 39th Academy Award category for Best Foreign Film. 

My Film Club

Week #8’s film was a bit… heavy, so next week we are going to keep it simple with the film that started a whole genre of horror films…

Next week’s film: Night of the Living Dead (1968)

That’s a wrap! The 86th Academy awards just ended with 12 years a slave winning Best Picture. But it was Gravity the one that was the big winner with 7 Oscars!

This year’s awards might have been long and without any impressive dance routines or video edits, but it was one of the most fun Academy Awards I’ve watched in years! I guess Ellen had a lot to do with it! She nailed it and took the awards to a completely different level, involving social media, breaking twitter and ordering pizza for everyone!

Lupita’s touching speech, Jared’s inspiring words and the references to the lates Sarah Jones and Harold Ramis, were some of the highlights of this evening. Such an interactive show! How awesome as Lupita, Meryl & Amy Adams dancing to Pharrell’s Happy? And Brad serving Pizza? 

Other highlights: Cate Blanchett telling Julia Roberts to suck it, Ellen selfies (again) and Kevin Spacey photobombing them! 

Here is the full list of winners

BEST PICTURE

12 Years a Slave

BEST ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE

Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club)

BEST ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE

Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine)

BEST ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club)

BEST ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Lupita Nyong'o (12 Years a Slave)

BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN DIRECTING

Gravity  - Alfonso Cuarón

CINEMATOGRAPHY

Gravity  - Emmanuel Lubezki

COSTUME DESIGN

The Great Gatsby - Catherine Martin

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

20 Feet from Stardom-Morgan Neville, Gil Friesen and Caitrin Rogers

DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT

The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life - Malcolm Clarke and Nicholas Reed

FILM EDITING

Gravity - Alfonso Cuarón and Mark Sanger

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

The Great Beauty - Italy

MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING

Dallas Buyers Club - Adruitha Lee and Robin Mathews

MUSIC

Original Score

Gravity - Steven Price

MUSIC

"Let It Go" from FROZEN Music and Lyric by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez

PRODUCTION DESIGN

The Great Gatsby - Catherine Martin (Production Design); Beverley Dunn (Set Decoration)

SHORT FILM

Animated

Mr. Hublot - Laurent Witz and Alexandre Espigares

SHORT FILM

Live Action

Helium-Anders Walter and Kim Magnusson

SOUND EDITING

Gravity-Glenn Freemantle

SOUND MIXING

Gravity-Skip Lievsay, Niv Adiri, Christopher Benstead and Chris Munro

VISUAL EFFECTS

Gravity-Tim Webber, Chris Lawrence, David Shirk and Neil Corbould

WRITING Adapted Screenplay

12 Years a Slave Screenplay by John Ridley

WRITING Original Screenplay

Her Written by Spike Jonze

ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

Frozen

Tonight’s the big night and hours before we find out together (I will be live posting at Her Dudeness Facebook page) who this year’s big winnesr will be, let’s see again the nominations and my predictions/hopes/fears:

BEST PICTURE 

American Hustle
Captain Phillips
Dallas Buyers Club
Gravity
Her
Nebraska
Philomena
12 Years a Slave
The Wolf of Wall Street

Well, all the signs show that 12 Years a Slave is going to be the big winner. The film has already gained lots of awards, including Golden Globe, BAFTA & the Independent Spirit Award for Best Film. If it was up to me, I would award Alexander Payne’s Nebraska, but unfortunately, the competition is really hard, and if 12 years a slave will not get the award, I think American Hustle, Dallas Buyers Club or Gravity will get it. In that order.

BEST ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE

Christian Bale (American Hustle)

Bruce Dern (Nebraska)

Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave)

Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club)

Leonardo DiCaprio (The Wolf of Wall Street)

Well, do I really need to say it? I bet that the first thing we are going to hear in this acceptance speech is: “Alright, alright..” McConaughey has a certain win, unless the Academy finally acknowledges the magnitude that is Leonardo DiCaprio. Yes, my mind says McConaughey but my heart screams DiCaprio, not only for his amazing word in The Wolf of Wall Street, but for Gatsby, Aviator, The Blood Diamond, Inception, The Departed, The Gangs of New York… well, every single movie he has played in.

BEST ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE

Amy Adams (American Hustle)

Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine)

Sandra Bullock (Gravity)

Judi Dench (Philomena)

Meryl Streep (August: Osage County)

Seriously they need to rename this category to: the one that Meryl Streep is in. I have seriously lost count of her nominations! Hasn’t she? Anyway, this is not Meryl’s year, although I am pretty sure that Cate Blanchett is going to mention her in her acceptance speech (this award seems as certain as McConaughey’s) along with Phillip Seymour Hoffman. The only one that’s a threat to her, is Amy Adams for her brilliant work at the American Hustle, but to my opinion Blanchett’s role in Blue Jasmine screamed OSCAR and she totally nailed it, so sorry Amy, better luck next year.

BEST ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Barkhad Abdi (Captain Phillips)

Bradley Cooper (American Hustle)

Michael Fassbender (12 Years a Slave)

Jonah Hill (The Wolf of Wall Street)

Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club)

Again, do I really need to say it? Jared Leto, end of story. The best performance in this category by far. I rest my case.

BEST ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Sally Hawkins (Blue Jasmine)

Jennifer Lawrence (American Hustle)

Lupita Nyong'o (12 Years a Slave)

Julia Roberts (August: Osage County)

June Squibb (Nebraska)

Well, everyone is saying Jennifer Lawrence, but I have a feeling that Lupita Nyong’o is going to win this one. And frankly I would like her to win it, just for Lawrence to lose something for a change…

BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN DIRECTING

American Hustle - David O. Russell

Gravity  - Alfonso Cuarón

Nebraska  - Alexander Payne

The Wolf of Wall Street - Martin Scorsese

12 Years a Slave - Steve McQueen

Finally as regards who’s the Best Director this year, well, let’s put it this way: it is highly unlikely that David O. Russell will get it, Alfonso Cuarón seems to be a threat the last weeks, but will not get it,  Alexander Payne should get it (to my opinion), Martin Scorsese is not likely to get it this year (with this competition and with the editing he did for the Wolf…) and as you guessed it, Steve McQueen is the front runner.

About the rest of the categories, the best original screenplay, will be either Dallas Buyers Club or The American Hustle (although I think that Her should win this one) and the Adapted Screenplay will go to 12 years a Slave (I am not sure who else would beat that), the Best Animated Film will be awarded 99% to Disney’s Frozen, Best Foreign Film to La Grande Bellezza and Best Original Song, most likely to U2, although I have a feeling that Pharrell might be a surprise…

Well, in a couple of hours we will know the winners! 
Enjoy the awards everybody! 

The story behind the film

One flew over the cuckoo’s nest is based on a Broadway play, which is based on the same titled book. The story about making this film starts 12 years before it was shot, in 1963 when Kirk Douglas was starring at the Broadway play. Douglas bought the film rights and intended to also star in the film. While touring in Eastern European countries on behalf of the state department, he met Milos Forman who he found ideal to direct the film. He gained Forman’s attention to the project and promised to send him the book, once returning to the States, which he did. But the director never received the novel. Ten years passed and the two men met again. Meanwhile, Forman had become famous worldwide with films such as “Black Peter”, “Loves of a Blonde” and “The Firemen’s Ball” and Douglas had continued his efforts to produce the film, but with no luck. As Douglas was no longer young enough to play the part, in 1971 he turned over the project to his eldest son, Michael.  Without Michael knowing that his father had shown interest to Milos Forman directing the film, he later on approached him to take over the job. So, the project was back on and one of the greatest American films went into production.

The cast

Apart from Nicholson, who had already made a name in Hollywood and had already gained an Academy Award nomination and William Redfield who had already an active career, most of the cast are actors first appearing on the screen. Also, many of the extras are actual mental patients. In this film, we get to see Danny DeVito in his first major feature role, Christopher Lloyd and Brad Dourif in their first ever feature roles. Louise Fletcher might have had a series of roles before this film, but it was One flew over the cuckoo’s nest that built her career.

The plot

The film follows the admittance of R.P. McMurphy (Jack Nicholson), a small time criminal to a mental institution, and his influence to the patients’ daily life, as well as the relationship with the oppressive head nurse (Louise Fletcher).

One flew over the cuckoo’s nest deals with issues such as mental health, the health system, power and authority and human relationships. The actors’ magnificent performances and the director’s focus on detail make this film a historical treasure worthy of being studied in film schools.

Things you might not know

Things were not so great though during shooting. Legend has it that Nicholson and Forman had completely opposite opinions on how the narrative should play out and during production, they spoke to each other through the cinematographer, but faked a friendly relationship when the media and studio personnel would show up to the set.

Author Ken Kesey was so bitter about the way the filmmakers were "butchering" his story that he vowed never to watch the completed film and even sued the movie's producers because it wasn't shown from Chief Bromden's perspective (as the novel is). Years later, he claimed to be lying in bed flipping through TV channels when he settled onto a late-night movie that looked sort of interesting, only to realize after a few minutes that it was this film. He then changed channels.

Awards

The film won 5 Academy Awards in all 5 major categories: Best Film, Best Direction, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Adopted Screenplay. It broke a record that Capra’s film “It Happened one night” was holding since 1934. It also received 6 Golden Globes, 6 BAFTAs and another 13 awards.

My Film Club

Next week we will look into a film by one of the greatest directors: Ingmar Bergman’s Persona (1966)

 
Sources: IMDb, Universal (DVD extras) & HerDudeness-pedia 

The Academy can (and does) make mistakes sometimes… Especially when they have failed to award the best film of all times: Citizen Kane.

And the list goes on and on…

As for directors, well, let's say that everytime that Hitchcock, Scorsese, Kubrick or Tarantino lost, well.. the Academy must have been blind! 

Finally, there have been times that brilliant films, actors or directors were not even nominated.
Here's a video that sums up the Academy's snubby choices over the years.....