Across the Universe Podcast: Episode 18

Episode 18: Sell Me This Movie

Guess who thought that she had published this post? Exams I tell ya'!!!!!!

Anyways, in this episode, Sofia, Mette and I basically fangirled over Martin Scorsese's newest, The Wolf of Wall Street.

Note: People who a) do not like the sound of my voice, b) do not like Leonardo DiCaprio, c) or aren't really fond of listening to three adult women freak out about Leonardo DiCaprio, this episode *might* not be for you. Everyone else, enjoy!

Content:

0:23- Chick-chatter (and mini-rant. People can forward to the next bit if they don't want to listen)

3:35- Trailer

4:13- Interesting Movie of the Fortnight

20:19- Main discussion on WoWS

1:11:28- Plugs and Goodbyes

Songs:

Smokestack Lightnin' "Howlin' Wolf"
Jimmy Castor "Hey Leroy, Your Mama's Callin' You"
Fiona Apple "Across The Universe"

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Thoughts

       Another late Thoughts post and I have nothing to say for myself except that I have been lazing around in my house ever since my summer vacations began last week. I haven't even started preparing for the exams that will start once the holidays are over. Sorry folks!

1) The Across the Universe Podcast that I have started with Mette and Sofia released its first episode and the feedback has been excellent so far. We are also on iTunes now where you can subscribe to the podcast and download and listen to the episodes, which are all free.

2) Andrew Garfield and Ken Watanabe will starring in Martin Scorsese's next, Silence. The film will follow Garfield's character, a 17th century priest who goes to Japan to find his mentor, but is instead faced with religious persecution. Watanabe will play his interpreter. Scorsese has been working on its script since 1988 when he read the novel of the same name by late Japanese author Shusako Endo, but has had trouble filming it due to its sensitive nature. I think this sounds excellent and so does the cast.

3) Charlie Kaufman is set to co-direct a stop-motion animated film Anomalisa which is, as its Kickstarter page reads "about a man crippled by the mundanity of his life". It will follow a character named Michael who is a celebrated motivational speaker who has, so as to speak, lost the motivation in his life, but all that changes when he meets a girl called Lisa. Sounds quite Kaufman-ish, and hence awesome. Voice cast so far includes David Thewlis and Jennifer Jason Leigh. Cannot wait.

4) Scarlett Johansson is going to direct her first film. Summer Crossing is based on the lost first novel of Truman Capote. It's a film that has been close to her for a long time now and it will be out in 2015. The story follows a 17 year old girl who falls in love with a Jewish parking attendant in 1945 New York.

5) Speaking of directorial debuts, my favourite one is well into its shooting now. How to Catch a Monster better be good, especially seeing how Matt Smith has shaved off his gorgeous, gorgeous hair for it. It is an interesting look overall though, and it doesn't hurt that he's shirtless throughout most of it. He is playing the antagonist Bully in the movie, and after the last Doctor Who episode "Nightmare in Silver" where he got to be a villain and was extremely effective at it, I cannot wait to see what he does.

6) Cannes Film Festival is also in full swing now. I did not know that Vidya Balan is in the jury. She is easily the best working Indian actress right now and I couldn't be happier. Plus I love her outfits. She and Christoph Waltz need to come in a film together. Also movie-wise, Asghar Farhadi's The Past is getting rave reviews so far, which is great because his A Separation is one of the most flawless films I have ever seen.

7) Jesse Eisenberg, Isabelle Huppert and Gabriel Byrne are going to star in Joachim Trier's Louder than Bombs. I have seen one film by Trier and it was Oslo, August 31st, which was a very well-made and affecting film, so I have high hopes for this. The official synopsis says that it is a Rashomon-style drama that "revolves around the character of a famous, late war photographer played by Huppert. On the eve of a retrospective of work, some three years after her untimely death, her husband and two sons discover an unsettling secret from her past." It sounds intriguing to say the least.

8) Johnny Depp, Meryl Streep and the ADORABLE James Corden are slated to star in Rob Marshall's adaptation of the musical Into the Woods. Joining them is the lovely Emily Blunt and also, scruffy gods Chris Pine and Jake Gyllenhaal are said to appear as princes. The last two are small parts but it feels like Hollywood is hacking my brain because good lord, aren't they like princes already? I am getting excited about this.

9) Reese Witherspoon is going to join her Walk the Line co-star, the great-faced Joaquin Phoenix in Paul Thomas Anderson's Inherent Vice. I really need to watch Walk the Line, but I guess this is a good choice. I have faith in PTA.

10) Nymphomiac is going to be some film. The first cast photo has been released and everyone's doing weird shit in it, as one would expect from a Lars von Trier movie. He is in the photo too with duct tape over his mouth. Read the text he sent to Nicolas Winding Refn. Read the entire interview while you're at it. It's hilarious.

11) Btw, the Doctor Who series finale is today and I am going CRAY CRAYYYYYYYYYY!!!

12) LOADS of trailers- August Osage County which looks fairly typical but I do like the idea of seeing Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts as a bickering mother-daughter pair. Also, what is up with Benedict Cumberbatch's hair? The Butler has that annoying uplifting music playing throughout which really distracts me from the trailer. Although that can be a blessing in disguise because who really wants to see John Cusack playing Nixon... sober? Still, I kind of want to watch it for Oprah. Pacific Rim has another fucking awesome trailer out. Jean-Pierre Jeunet has a delightful new movie out called The Young and Prodigious Spivet which has a lot of his characteristic elements in it. Jim Jarmusch's vampire flick Only Lovers Left Alive has two clips out (both of which are in that video). I think it looks amazing and Hiddles and Tilda Swinton have insane chemistry together. Richard Curtis is back with another awesome-looking romcom About Time which has time travel in it so huzzah! It stars Domnhall Gleeson, who looks adorbs in it, and Rachel McAdams and Curtis-regular Bill Nighy. I already wrote a whole post on the trailer of my most anticipated film of 2013, The World's End. Finally, the king of trailers this week is the one and only Gravity. It looks mindblowingly spectacular and I really hope they don't release anymore trailers because this is perfect. I want this film. Give it to me!!

13) Finally, my ultimate girl-crush Emma Watson is wowing everyone at Cannes. Her W Magazine shoot, entitled "The Prime of Miss Emma Watson" is stunning-

Just... wow.

Toodles!

"Come and dream with me"

         So I started on my Hugo review on 12th December. Of last year. If you think anyone is better at procrastination... think again. I have been slagging on with this review for nearly a month now. I even asked my friend Pragya, who has not seen the film, to write it. This was her review-

HUGO.
Spelt with 4 letters.
Shares name with HUGO BOSS.
Can be rearranged to spell GOHU, OHUG, HOUG, HUOG, GHOU, GUHO.
Very good movie.
Good perfume.
Sxc sxc men.


        I think she has a future, ouie? Anyways, after two viewings, here is my review. Hopefull it will be marginally better than Pragya's masterpiece.

             Hugo revolves around an orphaned boy Hugo Cabret, who lives inside a train station in Paris, winding up the clocks there as he had learned from his now deceased father, who was a clockmaker. Right before his death, Hugo's father brought home a broken automaton, which is a metal man designed to write, in hopes that they would fix it together, but he dies. Hugo, bent on making it work as a sort of tribute to his father, has to constantly steal bits of food and also broken parts from the toy store at the station, all while trying not catch the attention of the inspector Gustav who would send him to the dreaded orphanage. One day the owner of the toy shop catches him and takes away his father's book with all the instructions for the automaton. In desperation Hugo befriends the toy maker Papa Georges's ward Isabelle and he also starts working for him so that he may earn the book back. But what Hugo doesn't realise is that his quest to solve the mystery of the automaton is completely intermingled with Papa Georges' absolutely wondrous past.

        As everyone knows by now, Papa Georges is in fact the famous, prolific and creative film maker of early cinema, Georges Méliès. This film is Martin Scorsese's tribute to the man, and probably to all of cinema for making him what he is today. 

         Asa Butterfield plays Hugo. He's a wonderful child actor because he has the ability to portray the naivety and mischief of a kid, as well as capture those truly sad moments of when he's alone, and his big blue eyes are so perfect for this sort of dreamer-role. For me he is somewhat in the league of Daniel Radcliffe in terms of the total wonder and joy that comes in his face when he sees something unexpected, and also Haley Joel Osment when he's supposed to show hurt and sadness. He truly was the standout actor in the film. The others- Sir Ben Kingsley, Chloë Moretz, Helen McCrory, Sacha Baron Cohen, Michael Stuhlbarg are all very good in their roles also. I especially liked McCrory for the emotions she was able to bring into the film with her really limited screen time. While we see young Hugo and Isabelle getting introduced to the enchantment of films, McCrory’s Jeane was there from the beginning and she gets to rediscover her love for them. This film also showcases the best performance from Cohen that I have seen. We first think his role is that of a humorous villain, but there is much more to him.

          However the real star of the film is Scorsese. He has made a really beautiful film- both aesthetically and emotionally. In today’s world, when 3D gets an automatic disapproving look by any “real” film enthusiast, Hugo embraces the technology and makes it part of the story itself. The idea that the first film ever shown was about a train arriving at the station made the viewers gasp and duck as though it was coming out of the screen, and that is exactly what 3D does, just left me gobsmacked. Also, and this will sound lame I promise, the snow in it made me really happy because I’ve never seen snow. Even outside of 3D, the film is just beautiful to look at with the Parisian train station from the 30s and the rooms inside of clocks and obviously, Méliès' sets.

          On an emotional level, first the film is the story of an orphaned boy who has a gift for fixing things finding a secret and eventually happiness. It is a sweet tale but the real magic of the film is the story of cinema within it- its birth and its glory. This part really got to me. I mean honestly these two parts of the film do not go together completely, which can be considered as the main flaw of the film, but the creation of cinema is so magnificent and touching; I cannot help but overlook all flaws. I had multiple epiphanies while watching it both times (yes I do know how deranged that sounds, but I did) and it helped me in ways I cannot explain here. I mean I have always written extremely subjective reviews, and it cannot get more personal than this film. I think that a film like Hugo is almost custom-made for people like me. I am someone who loves to watch children’s films, and there is nothing I love more than films. Hugo is both of these, and despite its imperfect mixture and unequal amounts screen-time given to all the characters, I have fallen in love with this movie.

             Going with the theme of nostalgia that is prevalent in many films of this year, Hugo is a breathtaking film about the start of cinema that was as marvelous then as it is now. Scorcese, ever the master that he is, presents us with a story that will strike a chord with lovers of cinema of all ages. It must have been wonderful being there when it all started, with the technologies developing and people discovering films for the first time. They were like dreams, and that is what Hugo really is: a film about dreams- of Hugo Cabret's, of his dad's, of Georges Méliès', of Martin Scorsese's, and well, somewhat of mine too.

       Please watch it! Especially in 3D if you can and if you don't mind so much. It really is one of the best films of the year, the closest to my heart, and I promise you won't be disappointed.