list http://www.spout.com/ Recent community activity around Auto Focus on Spout Copyright 2005-9 Spout, LLC Spout RSS http://www.spout.com/images/SpoutLogoRSS.jpg http://www.spout.com/ 136 30 http://www.spout.com/films/Auto_Focus/208621/default.aspx Title: Auto Focus
Year: 2002
Director: Paul Schrader
Plot: The life and sordid, untimely death of Hogan's Heroes star Bob Crane are explored by director Paul Schrader in this biopic, which marks one of the few times the filmmaker has not scripted his own film. Auto Focus chronologically traces the meteoric rise of Crane's show business career, beginning with his early success as a jokey deejay on Los Angeles morning radio in the early '60s. A devout family man, Crane lives in Southern Californian comfort with his wife Anne (Rita Wilson) and their young children, relishing the modicum of celebrity his job provides him. His life begins to change, however, when his agent Lenny (Ron Leibman) proposes that he take a breakthrough role on the CBS POW-camp sitcom Hogan's Heroes. Initially reluctant to take the job, Crane signs on with the production and, to his and everyone else's surprise, the show becomes a smash hit. With celebrity comes a new set of friends, and Crane falls in with audio-visual guru John Carpenter (Willem Dafoe), a Sony sales rep who spends his days setting up home entertainment systems for the Hollywood elite, and his nights cruising strip clubs for anonymous sexual encounters. Already a pornography buff, Crane starts using his fame to secure him and Carpenter an endless parade of affairs, which they videotape and then obsessively review. It isn't long before Anne demands a divorce, and Crane marries his Hogan's co-star Patti Olsen (aka Sigrid Valdis, here played by Maria Bello), who's more accepting of his escapades. When the sitcom is canceled, however, Crane has trouble securing acting jobs, and recedes further and further into his life of amateur porn with Carpenter. Auto Focus premiered at the Telluride and Toronto Film Festivals before its art-house run in the fall of 2002. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide
Times Tagged: 11
Number of Lists: 9
Number of blog posts: 3
Number of discussion threads: 2
SpoutRating: 3
]]>Thu, 30 Oct 2008 21:02:53 GMTAuto Focus2002Paul SchraderThe life and sordid, untimely death of <a href=/films/187515/default.aspx style='text-decoration:underline'>Hogan's Heroes</a> star <a href="/players/P____15609/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Bob Crane</a> are explored by director <a href="/players/P___110362/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Paul Schrader</a> in this biopic, which marks one of the few times the filmmaker has not scripted his own film. Auto Focus chronologically traces the meteoric rise of Crane's show business career, beginning with his early success as a jokey deejay on Los Angeles morning radio in the early '60s. A devout family man, Crane lives in Southern Californian comfort with his wife Anne (<a href="/players/P____76799/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Rita Wilson</a>) and their young children, relishing the modicum of celebrity his job provides him. His life begins to change, however, when his agent Lenny (<a href="/players/P____41651/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Ron Leibman</a>) proposes that he take a breakthrough role on the CBS POW-camp sitcom <a href=/films/187515/default.aspx style='text-decoration:underline'>Hogan's Heroes</a>. Initially reluctant to take the job, Crane signs on with the production and, to his and everyone else's surprise, the show becomes a smash hit. With celebrity comes a new set of friends, and Crane falls in with audio-visual guru <a href="/players/P____84225/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>John Carpenter</a> (<a href="/players/P____16547/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Willem Dafoe</a>), a Sony sales rep who spends his days setting up home entertainment systems for the Hollywood elite, and his nights cruising strip clubs for anonymous sexual encounters. Already a pornography buff, Crane starts using his fame to secure him and Carpenter an endless parade of affairs, which they videotape and then obsessively review. It isn't long before Anne demands a divorce, and Crane marries his <a href=/films/205363/default.aspx style='text-decoration:underline'>Hogan</a>'s co-star Patti Olsen (aka Sigrid Valdis, here played by <a href="/players/P___263285/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Maria Bello</a>), who's more accepting of his escapades. When the sitcom is canceled, however, Crane has trouble securing acting jobs, and recedes further and further into his life of amateur porn with Carpenter. Auto Focus premiered at the Telluride and Toronto Film Festivals before its art-house run in the fall of 2002. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide11Tag Target (>10)9323http://www.spout.com/ProductImages/t27232uht1l.jpghttp://www.spout.com/films/Auto_Focus/208621/default.aspxFilm http://www.spout.com/blogs/spoutblog/archive/2008/9/2/34640.aspx Post By: SpoutBlog
Post To: SpoutBlog on spout.com
Post Date: 9/2/2008 10:01:36 AM
Body: (Complete interview with Paul Schrader available here.) Adam Resurrected is the new movie by Paul Schrader (Affliction, Auto-Focus) premiering here at Telluride 2008. I was at the first screening which was also the first time Schrader ever watched the movie with an audience. “I realized watching it how exhausting it is, ” he told me right after the screening, “And it’s full of extremes. Literally, that old saying ‘you don’t know whether to laugh or cry’ is true here, and some scenes I think either emotion is fine with me.” It’s in the navigation of extremes that my crush on Jeff Goldblum, who plays the title character, was born. I’m not one to get into Oscar buzz, but I will with Jeff and even add easily excerpted blurbs: Jeff Goldblum is magnificent. Jeff Godlblum’s peformance is a tour de force. I want to make out with Jeff Goldblum in the back of his Toyota Prius. Like how Daniel Day-Lewis’ character, Daniel Plainview (There Will be Blood), would have seemed flat or absurd in another actor’s hands, Jeff Goldblum’s wry delivery and velvet wit take the absurdity of Adam Stein and make him believable. Based on the wildly imaginative novel by Yoram Kaniuk, Adam Resurrected begins in 1961 in Tel Aviv where an aging, witty and debonair Adam Stein has gotten a little too rough with his landlord/girlfriend and she has him committed again to the Seizling Institute out in the Negev desert. Founded by an American philanthropist, the institute is an asylum for concentration camp survivors living in Israel. It’s purpose is to somehow restore a reason to care about humanity and god when they carry the weight of being survivors to unspeakable horrors perpetrated on everyone they loved. Each patient is a walking abstraction of a type of survivor: A speechless woman carrying a babydoll, a young man who was a Nazi servant, a man who couldn’t protect his daughter. Adam Stein is a susperstar in the asylum. The head nurse (Ayelet Zurer) is his mistress, Dr. Gross (Derek Jacobi) his biggest fan. A famous performer in Berlin, Adam was a one man circus who could throw knives, read minds, play violin, do magic, impersonate animals and, strangely, cause himself to bleed on command. Through flashbacks, we see his rise from a Cabaret performer in 1924 to a celebrity in 1936. One night as he works the audience, he reads the mind of an unstable audience member–played by Willem Dafoe–and makes him the butt of a joke. In 1945 when Adam and his family enter a concentration camp, Willem Dafoe has become Commandant Klein, head of the camp. He belittles Adam by getting him to impersonate a dog and charm his German Shepherd. From that night on, Adam literally becomes the Commandant’s pet: A dog whose a man. At the asylum, he finds what he thinks to be a dog. As if lifted from some horrific parallel dimension, the dog is a boy brought to the asylum. If Adam can turn this dog into a boy again, then maybe he can put away his past as a dog, as the commandant’s pet who survived the camp where his wife and daughters were brutalized. When I asked Paul Schrader what sparked his interest i the book he said, “Just the strength of the metaphor: The man who once was a dog who meets a dog who once was a boy. I’m not jewish, I’m not as invested as some others in issues of survival guilt and Jewish identity, but that aside, these are really universal themes.” It is universal. Dense with emotion and humor, Adam Resurrected is about the complicated path back from being treated as a dog, a non-human, to becoming a full person again. It’s a powerful metaphor that could have crushed another actor, but it’s the part Jeff Goldblum has been building up to his entire career. Originally posted on:SpoutBlog
]]>Tue, 02 Sep 2008 14:01:36 GMTSpoutBlogSpoutBlog on spout.com9/2/2008 10:01:36 AM(Complete interview with Paul Schrader available here.) Adam Resurrected is the new movie by Paul Schrader (Affliction, Auto-Focus) premiering here at Telluride 2008. I was at the first screening which was also the first time Schrader ever watched the movie with an audience. “I realized watching it how exhausting it is, ” he told me right after the screening, “And it’s full of extremes. Literally, that old saying ‘you don’t know whether to laugh or cry’ is true here, and some scenes I think either emotion is fine with me.” It’s in the navigation of extremes that my crush on Jeff Goldblum, who plays the title character, was born. I’m not one to get into Oscar buzz, but I will with Jeff and even add easily excerpted blurbs: Jeff Goldblum is magnificent. Jeff Godlblum’s peformance is a tour de force. I want to make out with Jeff Goldblum in the back of his Toyota Prius. Like how Daniel Day-Lewis’ character, Daniel Plainview (There Will be Blood), would have seemed flat or absurd in another actor’s hands, Jeff Goldblum’s wry delivery and velvet wit take the absurdity of Adam Stein and make him believable. Based on the wildly imaginative novel by Yoram Kaniuk, Adam Resurrected begins in 1961 in Tel Aviv where an aging, witty and debonair Adam Stein has gotten a little too rough with his landlord/girlfriend and she has him committed again to the Seizling Institute out in the Negev desert. Founded by an American philanthropist, the institute is an asylum for concentration camp survivors living in Israel. It’s purpose is to somehow restore a reason to care about humanity and god when they carry the weight of being survivors to unspeakable horrors perpetrated on everyone they loved. Each patient is a walking abstraction of a type of survivor: A speechless woman carrying a babydoll, a young man who was a Nazi servant, a man who couldn’t protect his daughter. Adam Stein is a susperstar in the asylum. The head nurse (Ayelet Zurer) is his mistress, Dr. Gross (Derek Jacobi) his biggest fan. A famous performer in Berlin, Adam was a one man circus who could throw knives, read minds, play violin, do magic, impersonate animals and, strangely, cause himself to bleed on command. Through flashbacks, we see his rise from a Cabaret performer in 1924 to a celebrity in 1936. One night as he works the audience, he reads the mind of an unstable audience member–played by Willem Dafoe–and makes him the butt of a joke. In 1945 when Adam and his family enter a concentration camp, Willem Dafoe has become Commandant Klein, head of the camp. He belittles Adam by getting him to impersonate a dog and charm his German Shepherd. From that night on, Adam literally becomes the Commandant’s pet: A dog whose a man. At the asylum, he finds what he thinks to be a dog. As if lifted from some horrific parallel dimension, the dog is a boy brought to the asylum. If Adam can turn this dog into a boy again, then maybe he can put away his past as a dog, as the commandant’s pet who survived the camp where his wife and daughters were brutalized. When I asked Paul Schrader what sparked his interest i the book he said, “Just the strength of the metaphor: The man who once was a dog who meets a dog who once was a boy. I’m not jewish, I’m not as invested as some others in issues of survival guilt and Jewish identity, but that aside, these are really universal themes.” It is universal. Dense with emotion and humor, Adam Resurrected is about the complicated path back from being treated as a dog, a non-human, to becoming a full person again. It’s a powerful metaphor that could have crushed another actor, but it’s the part Jeff Goldblum has been building up to his entire career. Originally posted on:SpoutBlog http://www.spout.com/blogs/paul/archive/2008/9/2/34639.aspx Post By: paul
Post To: paul on spout.com
Post Date: 9/2/2008 10:01:03 AM
Body: (Complete interview with Paul Schrader available here.) Adam Resurrected is the new movie by Paul Schrader (Affliction, Auto-Focus) premiering here at Telluride 2008. I was at the first screening which was also the first time Schrader ever watched the movie with an audience. “I realized watching it how exhausting it is, ” he told me right after the screening, “And it’s full of extremes. Literally, that old saying ‘you don’t know whether to laugh or cry’ is true here, and some scenes I think either emotion is fine with me.” It’s in the navigation of extremes that my crush on Jeff Goldblum, who plays the title character, was born. I’m not one to get into Oscar buzz, but I will with Jeff and even add easily excerpted blurbs: Jeff Goldblum is magnificent. Jeff Godlblum’s peformance is a tour de force. I want to make out with Jeff Goldblum in the back of his Toyota Prius. Like how Daniel Day-Lewis’ character, Daniel Plainview (There Will be Blood), would have seemed flat or absurd in another actor’s hands, Jeff Goldblum’s wry delivery and velvet wit take the absurdity of Adam Stein and make him believable. Based on the wildly imaginative novel by Yoram Kaniuk, Adam Resurrected begins in 1961 in Tel Aviv where an aging, witty and debonair Adam Stein has gotten a little too rough with his landlord/girlfriend and she has him committed again to the Seizling Institute out in the Negev desert. Founded by an American philanthropist, the institute is an asylum for concentration camp survivors living in Israel. It’s purpose is to somehow restore a reason to care about humanity and god when they carry the weight of being survivors to unspeakable horrors perpetrated on everyone they loved. Each patient is a walking abstraction of a type of survivor: A speechless woman carrying a babydoll, a young man who was a Nazi servant, a man who couldn’t protect his daughter. Adam Stein is a susperstar in the asylum. The head nurse (Ayelet Zurer) is his mistress, Dr. Gross (Derek Jacobi) his biggest fan. A famous performer in Berlin, Adam was a one man circus who could throw knives, read minds, play violin, do magic, impersonate animals and, strangely, cause himself to bleed on command. Through flashbacks, we see his rise from a Cabaret performer in 1924 to a celebrity in 1936. One night as he works the audience, he reads the mind of an unstable audience member–played by Willem Dafoe–and makes him the butt of a joke. In 1945 when Adam and his family enter a concentration camp, Willem Dafoe has become Commandant Klein, head of the camp. He belittles Adam by getting him to impersonate a dog and charm his German Shepherd. From that night on, Adam literally becomes the Commandant’s pet: A dog whose a man. At the asylum, he finds what he thinks to be a dog. As if lifted from some horrific parallel dimension, the dog is a boy brought to the asylum. If Adam can turn this dog into a boy again, then maybe he can put away his past as a dog, as the commandant’s pet who survived the camp where his wife and daughters were brutalized. When I asked Paul Schrader what sparked his interest i the book he said, “Just the strength of the metaphor: The man who once was a dog who meets a dog who once was a boy. I’m not jewish, I’m not as invested as some others in issues of survival guilt and Jewish identity, but that aside, these are really universal themes.” It is universal. Dense with emotion and humor, Adam Resurrected is about the complicated path back from being treated as a dog, a non-human, to becoming a full person again. It’s a powerful metaphor that could have crushed another actor, but it’s the part Jeff Goldblum has been building up to his entire career. Originally posted on:SpoutBlog » Paul Moore
]]>Tue, 02 Sep 2008 14:01:03 GMTpaulpaul on spout.com9/2/2008 10:01:03 AM(Complete interview with Paul Schrader available here.) Adam Resurrected is the new movie by Paul Schrader (Affliction, Auto-Focus) premiering here at Telluride 2008. I was at the first screening which was also the first time Schrader ever watched the movie with an audience. “I realized watching it how exhausting it is, ” he told me right after the screening, “And it’s full of extremes. Literally, that old saying ‘you don’t know whether to laugh or cry’ is true here, and some scenes I think either emotion is fine with me.” It’s in the navigation of extremes that my crush on Jeff Goldblum, who plays the title character, was born. I’m not one to get into Oscar buzz, but I will with Jeff and even add easily excerpted blurbs: Jeff Goldblum is magnificent. Jeff Godlblum’s peformance is a tour de force. I want to make out with Jeff Goldblum in the back of his Toyota Prius. Like how Daniel Day-Lewis’ character, Daniel Plainview (There Will be Blood), would have seemed flat or absurd in another actor’s hands, Jeff Goldblum’s wry delivery and velvet wit take the absurdity of Adam Stein and make him believable. Based on the wildly imaginative novel by Yoram Kaniuk, Adam Resurrected begins in 1961 in Tel Aviv where an aging, witty and debonair Adam Stein has gotten a little too rough with his landlord/girlfriend and she has him committed again to the Seizling Institute out in the Negev desert. Founded by an American philanthropist, the institute is an asylum for concentration camp survivors living in Israel. It’s purpose is to somehow restore a reason to care about humanity and god when they carry the weight of being survivors to unspeakable horrors perpetrated on everyone they loved. Each patient is a walking abstraction of a type of survivor: A speechless woman carrying a babydoll, a young man who was a Nazi servant, a man who couldn’t protect his daughter. Adam Stein is a susperstar in the asylum. The head nurse (Ayelet Zurer) is his mistress, Dr. Gross (Derek Jacobi) his biggest fan. A famous performer in Berlin, Adam was a one man circus who could throw knives, read minds, play violin, do magic, impersonate animals and, strangely, cause himself to bleed on command. Through flashbacks, we see his rise from a Cabaret performer in 1924 to a celebrity in 1936. One night as he works the audience, he reads the mind of an unstable audience member–played by Willem Dafoe–and makes him the butt of a joke. In 1945 when Adam and his family enter a concentration camp, Willem Dafoe has become Commandant Klein, head of the camp. He belittles Adam by getting him to impersonate a dog and charm his German Shepherd. From that night on, Adam literally becomes the Commandant’s pet: A dog whose a man. At the asylum, he finds what he thinks to be a dog. As if lifted from some horrific parallel dimension, the dog is a boy brought to the asylum. If Adam can turn this dog into a boy again, then maybe he can put away his past as a dog, as the commandant’s pet who survived the camp where his wife and daughters were brutalized. When I asked Paul Schrader what sparked his interest i the book he said, “Just the strength of the metaphor: The man who once was a dog who meets a dog who once was a boy. I’m not jewish, I’m not as invested as some others in issues of survival guilt and Jewish identity, but that aside, these are really universal themes.” It is universal. Dense with emotion and humor, Adam Resurrected is about the complicated path back from being treated as a dog, a non-human, to becoming a full person again. It’s a powerful metaphor that could have crushed another actor, but it’s the part Jeff Goldblum has been building up to his entire career. Originally posted on:SpoutBlog » Paul Moore http://www.spout.com/groups/HORROR_MOVIES_101/Re_Italian_Horror/222/29303/1/ShowPost.aspx Post By: Macabre_FilmNut
Post To: HORROR MOVIES 101
Post Date: 5/16/2008 4:22:31 PM
Body: [quote user="Risselada"] [quote user="Macabre_FilmNut"]William Desmond Taylor, from the Fatty Arbuckle scenario. I hate to say this and I am hoping not to sound rude but there is a huge difference between drug addicted deaths or narcs and politically motivated deaths! They are saying Pasolini was talking about death before he died and this movie Salo, drove him nuts. He also pissed off alot of Fascit pople and even maybe the mafia. If you are going to go down the William Desmond Taylor ave, then we should throw in Bob crane! And I honestly dont think this has anything to do with horror italian.[/quote] Well I honestly don't know much about it. I am just saying they are both directors whose deaths are debated or unsolved. I don't think there's necessarily any other similarity than that. I was just trying to come up with a list of other directors who have mysterious deaths. I like coming up with lists. Anyways, thanks for the info. I've heard about Bob Crane. I've been curious to see that movie about him, Auto Focus, but largely becuase it was directed by Paul Shrader. As far as I can tell though Bob Crane was not a director. I think he was just an actor. I bet there are a lot more mysterious deaths surrounding actors than directors. They seem to get themselves into more trouble. At least the public is more interested in the trouble they get in. I know this isn't about Italian horror, but I don't mind straying from the topic if you don't. [/quote] Take a look at Jerrys stahl, who is very much alive, for some odd reason!Well I tagged some of his shows and movies that he has written for on Spout. If you are looking for an interesting read pick up Stahs book called I, Fatty. Its about Fatty Arbuckle and Bob Crane is about as creepy as you can get! But they say that about me and my tatses!
]]>Fri, 16 May 2008 20:22:31 GMTMacabre_FilmNutHORROR MOVIES 1015/16/2008 4:22:31 PM[quote user="Risselada"] [quote user="Macabre_FilmNut"]William Desmond Taylor, from the Fatty Arbuckle scenario. I hate to say this and I am hoping not to sound rude but there is a huge difference between drug addicted deaths or narcs and politically motivated deaths! They are saying Pasolini was talking about death before he died and this movie Salo, drove him nuts. He also pissed off alot of Fascit pople and even maybe the mafia. If you are going to go down the William Desmond Taylor ave, then we should throw in Bob crane! And I honestly dont think this has anything to do with horror italian.[/quote] Well I honestly don't know much about it. I am just saying they are both directors whose deaths are debated or unsolved. I don't think there's necessarily any other similarity than that. I was just trying to come up with a list of other directors who have mysterious deaths. I like coming up with lists. Anyways, thanks for the info. I've heard about Bob Crane. I've been curious to see that movie about him, Auto Focus, but largely becuase it was directed by Paul Shrader. As far as I can tell though Bob Crane was not a director. I think he was just an actor. I bet there are a lot more mysterious deaths surrounding actors than directors. They seem to get themselves into more trouble. At least the public is more interested in the trouble they get in. I know this isn't about Italian horror, but I don't mind straying from the topic if you don't. [/quote] Take a look at Jerrys stahl, who is very much alive, for some odd reason!Well I tagged some of his shows and movies that he has written for on Spout. If you are looking for an interesting read pick up Stahs book called I, Fatty. Its about Fatty Arbuckle and Bob Crane is about as creepy as you can get! But they say that about me and my tatses! http://www.spout.com/groups/HORROR_MOVIES_101/Re_Italian_Horror/222/29279/1/ShowPost.aspx Post By: Risselada
Post To: HORROR MOVIES 101
Post Date: 5/16/2008 10:49:30 AM
Body: [quote user="Macabre_FilmNut"]William Desmond Taylor, from the Fatty Arbuckle scenario. I hate to say this and I am hoping not to sound rude but there is a huge difference between drug addicted deaths or narcs and politically motivated deaths! They are saying Pasolini was talking about death before he died and this movie Salo, drove him nuts. He also pissed off alot of Fascit pople and even maybe the mafia. If you are going to go down the William Desmond Taylor ave, then we should throw in Bob crane! And I honestly dont think this has anything to do with horror italian.[/quote] Well I honestly don't know much about it. I am just saying they are both directors whose deaths are debated or unsolved. I don't think there's necessarily any other similarity than that. I was just trying to come up with a list of other directors who have mysterious deaths. I like coming up with lists. Anyways, thanks for the info. I've heard about Bob Crane. I've been curious to see that movie about him, Auto Focus, but largely becuase it was directed by Paul Shrader. As far as I can tell though Bob Crane was not a director. I think he was just an actor. I bet there are a lot more mysterious deaths surrounding actors than directors. They seem to get themselves into more trouble. At least the public is more interested in the trouble they get in. I know this isn't about Italian horror, but I don't mind straying from the topic if you don't.
]]>Fri, 16 May 2008 14:49:30 GMTRisseladaHORROR MOVIES 1015/16/2008 10:49:30 AM[quote user="Macabre_FilmNut"]William Desmond Taylor, from the Fatty Arbuckle scenario. I hate to say this and I am hoping not to sound rude but there is a huge difference between drug addicted deaths or narcs and politically motivated deaths! They are saying Pasolini was talking about death before he died and this movie Salo, drove him nuts. He also pissed off alot of Fascit pople and even maybe the mafia. If you are going to go down the William Desmond Taylor ave, then we should throw in Bob crane! And I honestly dont think this has anything to do with horror italian.[/quote] Well I honestly don't know much about it. I am just saying they are both directors whose deaths are debated or unsolved. I don't think there's necessarily any other similarity than that. I was just trying to come up with a list of other directors who have mysterious deaths. I like coming up with lists. Anyways, thanks for the info. I've heard about Bob Crane. I've been curious to see that movie about him, Auto Focus, but largely becuase it was directed by Paul Shrader. As far as I can tell though Bob Crane was not a director. I think he was just an actor. I bet there are a lot more mysterious deaths surrounding actors than directors. They seem to get themselves into more trouble. At least the public is more interested in the trouble they get in. I know this isn't about Italian horror, but I don't mind straying from the topic if you don't. http://www.spout.com/blogs/cinemarian/archive/2008/5/13/28890.aspx Post By: CinemaRian
Post To: CinemaRian Blog
Post Date: 5/13/2008 5:01:40 AM
Body: This is the ultimate Edwin movie. While I was watching it, I realized that it is not only the kind of thing that my pal would enjoy, it's the kind of movie that he would write, which makes it harder to beleive that it's based on true events. The events (as portrayed in the film): Bob Crane (Greg Kinnear) was a c-list actor who briefly rose to fame as the star of Hogan's Hero's, a 60's sticom set in a German prison camp. Crane appeared to have it all- a good marridge, children, and a lucritive carreer. But then he meets a perverted video technician named John Carptenter (the ultimate Willem Dafoe performance). Together, Crane and Carpenter begin videotaping themselves having sex with lots and lots of women (though Crane insists that it's all heterosexual). After Hogan's Hero's is cancelled, Crane's carreer takes a nose dive due to an "image problem" - people can't see the sex addict playing the wholesome character he usual does (although his only lead after the show, ironically, is a Disney film). His wife leaves him and all he is left with is his friend Carpenter and his cameras. The pair try to live life like their motto- "a day without sex is a day wasted." Auto Focus is in a way like A Clockwork Orange- you could watch it straight through and find it complelty distburing, and then watch it again and find it hilarious. At the end of the film, I found Crane's last line to be troubling, but thinking about it later, I burst out laughing. Crane is perfectly played by light comic actor Greg Kinnear, who would seem to be an odd choice, but Kinnear's non-threating precense is what makes the move work. It's disconcerting to see this average Joe sink into depravity. Personally, I think the downfall of Crane was caused not so much by the sex but by his completly non-introspective attitude towards life-he never thinks about his motivations or takes his life into account. His character is so good natured that he can easily be manipulated by anything- his wife, Carpenter, his own impulses. This is also Paul Schrader's best film. A director who is most famous as a writer for Martin Scorsese, Schrader has made a wide number of films of variang quality, from excellent drama (Affliction), to the interesting prolitaritait poltical advocacy (Blue Collar), to the trashy horror remake Cat People, one of the worst films I have ever seen. Auto Focus is a work of considerable depth. I considered it excellent on a first veiwing, after a second, I may consider it great. Auto Focus (2002)
]]>Tue, 13 May 2008 09:01:40 GMTCinemaRianCinemaRian Blog5/13/2008 5:01:40 AMThis is the ultimate Edwin movie. While I was watching it, I realized that it is not only the kind of thing that my pal would enjoy, it's the kind of movie that he would write, which makes it harder to beleive that it's based on true events. The events (as portrayed in the film): Bob Crane (Greg Kinnear) was a c-list actor who briefly rose to fame as the star of Hogan's Hero's, a 60's sticom set in a German prison camp. Crane appeared to have it all- a good marridge, children, and a lucritive carreer. But then he meets a perverted video technician named John Carptenter (the ultimate Willem Dafoe performance). Together, Crane and Carpenter begin videotaping themselves having sex with lots and lots of women (though Crane insists that it's all heterosexual). After Hogan's Hero's is cancelled, Crane's carreer takes a nose dive due to an "image problem" - people can't see the sex addict playing the wholesome character he usual does (although his only lead after the show, ironically, is a Disney film). His wife leaves him and all he is left with is his friend Carpenter and his cameras. The pair try to live life like their motto- "a day without sex is a day wasted." Auto Focus is in a way like A Clockwork Orange- you could watch it straight through and find it complelty distburing, and then watch it again and find it hilarious. At the end of the film, I found Crane's last line to be troubling, but thinking about it later, I burst out laughing. Crane is perfectly played by light comic actor Greg Kinnear, who would seem to be an odd choice, but Kinnear's non-threating precense is what makes the move work. It's disconcerting to see this average Joe sink into depravity. Personally, I think the downfall of Crane was caused not so much by the sex but by his completly non-introspective attitude towards life-he never thinks about his motivations or takes his life into account. His character is so good natured that he can easily be manipulated by anything- his wife, Carpenter, his own impulses. This is also Paul Schrader's best film. A director who is most famous as a writer for Martin Scorsese, Schrader has made a wide number of films of variang quality, from excellent drama (Affliction), to the interesting prolitaritait poltical advocacy (Blue Collar), to the trashy horror remake Cat People, one of the worst films I have ever seen. Auto Focus is a work of considerable depth. I considered it excellent on a first veiwing, after a second, I may consider it great. Auto Focus (2002) http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/death/MemberTagFilms.aspxdeath
Number of films tagged: 4306

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]]>Mon, 16 Nov 2009 17:27:13 GMT4306140526Tag http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/obsession/MemberTagFilms.aspxobsession
Number of films tagged: 1134

Number of people who tagged: 64

Number of times used: 136

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