Day: August 8, 2012

Talking With Director Benh Zeitlin About Beasts of the Southern Wild

By Govindini Murty. Benh Zeitlin’s Beasts of the Southern Wild has garnered much acclaim on the film festival circuit and is one of the top indie films in theatrical release right now, having already earned $5.9 million at the box office. The story of a little girl and her father struggling to survive in the flooded bayou of southern Louisiana, Beasts of the Southern Wild won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, the Camera D’Or at Cannes, and the Audience Favorite Award at the LA Film Festival. There is already talk that it may be nominated for an Oscar for Best Film, and that Quvenzhané Wallis, the film’s remarkable eight-year old lead, may be nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress.

We had the opportunity to attend the premiere of Beasts of the Southern Wild at the LA Film Festival this summer and enjoyed the Q & A conducted afterward by John Singleton with director Benh Zeitlin and the film’s stars, the irrepressible Quvenzhané Wallis (who utterly stole the show) and the charming baker-turned-actor Dwight Henry.

We spoke briefly with Benh Zeitlin after the screening and also met John Singleton, who expressed repeatedly what a fan he was of the film. Here’s the conversation I had with Zeitlin, followed by excerpts from the Q & A that Singleton held with Zeitlin, Wallis, and Henry.  While there were a variety of topics discussed in the Q & A, my focus here is on the comments that Zeitlin made about the creative and practical aspects of translating his vision to the big screen.

Director Benh Zeitlin at the LA Film Festival.

GM: I was curious about your influences. Were you quoting anyone specific in the film? What inspired you – either in classic or contemporary film?

BZ: The big one for me is this film called Underground by Kusturica. That’s the one that made me most want to make films when I was growing up … the way that the fantasy and reality worked in that film I think was a big deal. And then we watched a lot of documentaries – we watched a lot of Les Blank documentaries. This one called Dry Wood – and all those ‘70s films that he made – were kind of how we came up with the cinematography. But you know, I studied the way that Cassavetes directs actors and Mike Leigh directs actors – and looking at narrative from Disney movies, like Bambi [Zeitlin himself has a background in animation and his parents are folklorists]. So, really, it was from all over the place, from all eras – from high-brow to low-brow – sort of a broad world.

GM: That’s interesting. You mention Les Blank – did you see Burden of Dreams, about Werner Herzog making Fitzcarraldo?

BZ: Oh yeah, of course. Werner Herzog, absolutely.

GM: Because [Beasts of the Southern Wild] just reminded me – the atmosphere – the organic feeling of being in the mud with the animals and the wilderness all around –

BZ: Definitely, yeah. He was a huge inspiration for me. The first time I saw that film I was like “This is what I want to do.”

GM: I interviewed Werner Herzog a few months ago and there’s some great footage from that film [Les Blank’s Burden of Dreams] that’s online. But you know, I was curious, because the film has that blend [of reality and fantasy] that you were mentioning. But I didn’t know about Bambi, that’s going to be interesting to throw in there –

BZ: [Laughs.] You got to go back to Bambi, always got to go back to Bambi.

GM: Well thanks so much, that was fun to see.

BZ: Thanks very much, nice to meet you.

Beasts of the Southern Wild tells the story of Hushpuppy (Quvenzhané Wallis), a six-year old girl growing up on an island off the coast of Louisiana known as “The Bathtub.” The story follows Hushpuppy and her widower father, Wink (Dwight Henry), as they eke out a living on their small plot of land – with the little girl caring for their farm animals and living in tune with the rhythms of the natural world. Her father, who has a mysterious illness, almost like a latter-day Fisher King, teaches Hushpuppy how to fish and emphasizes that she needs to learn how to take care of herself so she can succeed in the world and climb to the “top of the ladder.”

The island community of the Bathtub might lie in the shadow of New Orleans and Lake Pontchartrain, but its rural lifestyle feels a world away. To emphasize this, Beasts was shot in a documentary-verité style on 16mm film, which, when blown up on a large screen, creates a grainy, mysterious image that paradoxically heightens the mythological and poetic themes of the film. Hushpuppy’s view of the world is thus depicted in an alternately realistic and fantastical manner that Benh Zeitlin called “a heightened world built out of very real parts.” For example, Zeitlin noted that though there is no place called the Bathtub in Louisiana, it was based on the real Isle de Jean Charles, an island that is slowly falling into the Gulf and that has gone from 200 families to 20 families in recent years. As Zeitlin explains, “we took elements of things and swirled them together – almost like a folk tale.” Continue reading Talking With Director Benh Zeitlin About Beasts of the Southern Wild

LFM Reviews It is No Dream: The Life of Theodor Herzl

By Joe Bendel. Theodor Herzl once advocated mass Jewish conversion to Christianity, but would nonetheless become a unifying leader for the Jewish Diaspora. Profoundly concerned about the rise of anti-Semitism, his fears would be dreadfully justified in the years soon following his death. Yet, they provided the early impetus for the Zionist movement that ultimately led to the founding of the State of Israel. His life and mission are documented in Richard Trank’s It is No Dream: The Life of Theodor Herzl, which opens this Friday in New York.

Herzl believed that if an anti-Semitic wave could sweep across France, the cultural capitol of Europe in the 1890’s—and it was—it could happen anywhere. Never particularly religious, covering the Dreyfus Affair as a journalist forced Herzl to take stock of his own Jewish heritage and seriously address the increasing volume of European anti-Semitism. His early ideas proved impractical on further reflection, but the notion of a sovereign Jewish state (not original to Herzl) remained a viable option.

For the remaining years of his life, Herzl became the preeminent leader of the movement to forge a Jewish homeland, making his case to some of Europe’s most influential power brokers, including the Kaiser. For Herzl, the only question was where. Eventually, the colonial territory entrusted to England by a League of Nations mandate, known at the time as “Palestine,” became the obvious choice, given the Jewish people’s deep roots to the region. However, Herzl was appalled by the backwardness and poverty of the British Mandate during his first visit. Still, this did not disqualify the small tract of land from consideration. Arguably, it made even more sense on several levels.

Produced by Moriah Films, the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s film production subsidiary, Dream is a welcome and necessary antidote to malicious attempts to make “Zionism” a dirty word in the media. Trank and co-writer-co-producer Rabbi Marvin Hier clearly illustrate the alarming nature of anti-Semitism during Herzl’s lifetime, largely leaving unspoken (but ever-present in viewer’s minds) the enormity of the Holocaust, which would tragically vindicate all his fears.

Narrated by Academy Award winner Sir Ben Kingsley, with fellow Oscar winner Christoph Waltz giving voice to Herzl’s letters and writings, Dream has a fair amount of star power for a serious historical documentary. With an elegant score composed and conducted by the Emmy winning Lee Holdridge (whose credits including Moonlighting), Dream is a pretty prestigious package, but the real attraction is Herzl’s short but epic life-story, which will probably come as a revelation to many viewers outside the Jewish faith. Though perhaps not the target market, it is those viewers of good will not especially schooled in Jewish history who would get the most out of the film.

Consistently fascinating and never dry, Dream tells a compelling story that remains only too timely for the world today. Well paced and informative, It is No Dream is recommended for general audiences, regardless of religion or political affiliation, when it opens this Friday (8/10) in New York at the Quad Cinema.

LFM GRADE: B+

Posted on August 8th, 2012 at 1:05pm.

Bring Your iPad: LFM Reviews Spike Lee’s Red Hook Summer

By Joe Bendel. For the final cut of Pulp Fiction, Quentin Tarantino deleted a scene of Uma Thurman talking to John Travolta through the lens of a camcorder. It was already too clichéd. That was nearly twenty years ago. In his latest film, Spike Lee heavily relies on a similar device, hoping the upgrade to an Apple iPad makes it seem fresher. Such a strategy perfectly represents the tired blood of Red Hook Summer, which opens this Friday in New York.

Colleen Royale can hardly stand her father, Enoch Rouse, introduced to viewers as “Da Good Bishop” of the Little Piece of Heaven church, or his old time religion. Nonetheless, she deposits her anti-social suburban son Flik in her father’s Red Hook housing project apartment for the summer. Like a little Spike Lee, Flik has a compulsive need to film the world around him, but no faith. Thus begins a generational cold war, with the minister determined to bring the young cuss to Jesus.

Frankly, Hook’s first two sluggish acts are downright laborious, but grandfather and grandson seem to be building a relationship by meeting each other halfway. That would be a worthy enough lesson we could all stand to be reminded of again, if the film followed through on it. Instead, Lee foists one of the laziest, most obvious third act revelations on viewers, completely undermining any good will he might have built up thus far. Remember Enoch Rouse is a man of the cloth. Anyone who has seen a Hollywood film in the last twenty years should be able to guess the rest.

Yet, since Hook clearly implies Rouse’s daughter has a good idea what her father’s deep dark secret is, it is absolutely baffling why she would send her son to stay with him unsupervised, with only his annoying sense of entitlement for protection, unless she is just understandably sick of the sullen brat. No matter, Lee is determined to pull Rouse through the gauntlet, which he does in punishing, Grand Guignol style.

To be fair, Clarke Peters does his best to maintain Rouse’s basic humanity, working like his soul depends on it, but Lee stacks the deck against him. Nonetheless, his performance stands head and shoulders above the rest of the cast. That includes Lee himself, briefly appearing in the guise of Do the Right Thing’s Mr. Mookie, clearly hoping viewer enthusiasm for his defining film will rub off on this wan return to the County of Kings.

Hook is a bad movie, but it is not the fault of the musicians. New Orleans’ Jonathan Batiste performs some stirring Hammond B-3 solos and brings some refreshing energy to film when appearing in character as “Da Organist” TK Hazelton. Likewise, Bruce Hornsby draws on his jazz chops for a pleasing gospel influenced instrumental soundtrack.

Yes, Hook sounds great, but the paucity of originality is honestly depressing. Perhaps it is time for Lee to follow Woody Allen’s lead and leave his beloved New York to make a psychological thriller with social climbing Londoners. At least then he would not have the overpowering temptation to fall back on his predictable Spikisms. Not recommended, Red Hook Summer will disappoint even Lee’s most dogged champions when it opens this Friday (8/10) in New York at the AMC Empire.

LFM GRADE: D-

Posted on August 8th, 2012 at 1:04pm.