list http://www.spout.com/ Recent community activity around Far from Heaven 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/Far_from_Heaven/211000/default.aspx Title: Far from Heaven
Year: 2002
Director: Todd Haynes
Plot: Maverick director Todd Haynes embraces the look and feel of classic Hollywood melodramas of the 1950s in this period drama. Cathy Whitaker (Julianne Moore) and her husband, Frank (Dennis Quaid), are a seemingly perfect couple; living in a handsome suburban neighborhood in Hartford, CT, in 1957, Cathy and Frank have a beautiful home and two happy, healthy children, while Frank pursues a successful career in sales and Cathy cares for the home. But Cathy has begun to sense something isn't quite right in her marriage, as Frank begins working late, spending less time with her, and seems cold and distant. One day, Cathy visits Frank's work and discovers something she never expected -- her husband is kissing a man. At Cathy's urging, Frank undergoes psychotherapy, but as she tries to keep up a brave face, the emotional trauma takes a great toll on her, and she finds there are very few people she can talk with. Cathy strikes up a friendship with Raymond Deagan (Dennis Haysbert), an African-American gardener who works for the Whitakers, and as she discovers how intelligent and compassionate Raymond is, she finds herself drawn to him. However, Hartford is in many ways still a small town, and when Mona (Celia Weston) sees Cathy and Raymond alone together, it sets off a wave of vicious gossip that threatens to make the Whitakers' many secrets public knowledge. Far from Heaven premiered at the 2002 Venice Film Festival, where Julianne Moore's performance won the prize for Best Actress. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Times Tagged: 11
Number of Lists: 23
Number of blog posts: 6
Number of discussion threads: 2
SpoutRating: 3
]]>Fri, 03 Apr 2009 17:47:20 GMTFar from Heaven2002Todd HaynesMaverick director <a href="/players/P____93836/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Todd Haynes</a> embraces the look and feel of classic Hollywood melodramas of the 1950s in this period drama. Cathy Whitaker (<a href="/players/P____50325/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Julianne Moore</a>) and her husband, Frank (<a href="/players/P____58161/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Dennis Quaid</a>), are a seemingly perfect couple; living in a handsome suburban neighborhood in Hartford, CT, in 1957, Cathy and Frank have a beautiful home and two happy, healthy children, while Frank pursues a successful career in sales and Cathy cares for the home. But Cathy has begun to sense something isn't quite right in her marriage, as Frank begins working late, spending less time with her, and seems cold and distant. One day, Cathy visits Frank's work and discovers something she never expected -- her husband is kissing a man. At Cathy's urging, Frank undergoes psychotherapy, but as she tries to keep up a brave face, the emotional trauma takes a great toll on her, and she finds there are very few people she can talk with. Cathy strikes up a friendship with Raymond Deagan (<a href="/players/P____31307/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Dennis Haysbert</a>), an African-American gardener who works for the Whitakers, and as she discovers how intelligent and compassionate Raymond is, she finds herself drawn to him. However, Hartford is in many ways still a small town, and when Mona (<a href="/players/P____75690/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Celia Weston</a>) sees Cathy and Raymond alone together, it sets off a wave of vicious gossip that threatens to make the Whitakers' many secrets public knowledge. Far from Heaven premiered at the 2002 Venice Film Festival, where <a href="/players/P____50325/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Julianne Moore</a>'s performance won the prize for Best Actress. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide11Tag Target (>10)23623http://www.spout.com/ProductImages/t55228oypzo.jpghttp://www.spout.com/films/Far_from_Heaven/211000/default.aspxFilm http://www.spout.com/groups/Movie_Polls/What_is_your_favorite_Independent_Spirit_Awards_Be/657/41216/1/ShowPost.aspx Post By: Risselada
Post To: Movie Polls
Post Date: 3/24/2009 1:16:32 PM
Body: Please reference this thread for the rules of this group. I received a few polls suggestions from group member tadiv. This is one of them. Thanks Tom! If anyone else has any suggestions, you can always send me a message. Please vote only once in each poll. Movies referenced in this poll:Brokeback MountainFar From HeavenJunoLittle Miss SunshineLost in TranslationMementoSidewaysThe Wrestler
]]>Tue, 24 Mar 2009 17:16:32 GMTRisseladaMovie Polls3/24/2009 1:16:32 PMPlease reference this thread for the rules of this group. I received a few polls suggestions from group member tadiv. This is one of them. Thanks Tom! If anyone else has any suggestions, you can always send me a message. Please vote only once in each poll. Movies referenced in this poll:Brokeback MountainFar From HeavenJunoLittle Miss SunshineLost in TranslationMementoSidewaysThe Wrestler http://www.spout.com/blogs/spoutblog/archive/2008/9/22/35408.aspx Post By: SpoutBlog
Post To: SpoutBlog on spout.com
Post Date: 9/22/2008 9:01:18 PM
Body: Happy autumn! Today marked the fall equinox for the Northern hemisphere, and while the season can be a depressing one for mainstream moviegoers (at least until Thanksgiving ushers in the holiday blockbusters and Oscar-bait releases), it is otherwise a wonderful time of the year. Having grown up in New England, I’ve always had a great appreciation for the changing leaves, the brisk weather, the pumpkin and apple picking and the foodie holidays (as a rather chunky kid, I really only liked Halloween for the candy and Thanksgiving for the stuffing of my face). I even looked forward to going back to school every September. But autumn can be a great season for cinephiles, too, despite the significant lack of worthwhile theatrical releases. For one thing, the colder weather, particularly the colder nights, keeps us indoors more often for DVD watching. For another thing, the season has lent itself nominally and spirtually to some great films by the likes of Ozu, Bergman and Rohmer, among others. Personally, I think movies set in the fall tend to look the most beautiful, although I recognize that part of my aesthetic appreciation comes with my general love for autumnal landscapes and activities. To get myself in the mood, and share the spirit with fellow fans of the fall, I’ve found ten scenes that will help us to welcome the season: 1. Opening sequence  - from Monster House (2006) I shouldn’t have to explain why this is on here, but I guess there are a ton of you who unfortunately skipped this animated film when it was out in theaters (when you could have seen it properly in 3-D). Hopefully, the beginning will entice you to watch the rest, although I admit the rest of the film isn’t quite as good as its opening. The falling leaf may remind you of the beginning of Forrest Gump, which could have been intentional since Robert Zemeckis was a producer on this film, but I much prefer this sequence, mostly because director Gil Kenan manages to make me believe it was shot by an actual camera and not just set up to look that way with a computer. 2. Cathy and Raymond walk in the woods - from Far From Heaven (2002) The opening shot from Monster House initially reminded me of the opening shot from this Todd Haynes film (yes, I have since become aware that it goes back to Douglas Sirk’s All That Heaven Allows opening). But I can’t find that sequence online, plus it would possibly be redundant to include it, so here’s another scene displaying the gorgeous fall colors as shot by cinematographer Edward Lachman. Perfectly evoking Sirk’s films, there isn’t another modern film that better recreates the Connecticut autumn foliage as well as I know it. 3. Opening sequence - from Written on the Wind (1956) More blowing leaves. With much less grace than the one from Monster House, of course. But as much as I love the falling leaves that come with this time of year, I do get frustrated with all the dry, brown ones that slip through your door later on in the season. In any event, I had to include something from Sirk, despite an apparent lack of clips from his films available on YouTube. 4. Moon vs. Flying Snow - from Hero (2002) If you want evidence that YouTube isn’t the proper format with which to watch film clips, check out the above sequence from Zhang Yimou’s historical spectacle. Still, you should be able to tell that those colorful blurs are leaves. If there’s anything I’d like to do more than jumping into a pile of leaves right now, it’s flying through a flurry of blowing leaves, with or without a blade. 5. Paul Rudd scares a little kid - from Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995) Enough blowing leaves. Let’s move on to the first big holiday of the season: Halloween. But to make things interesting, I’m not including any favorite scenes from It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown or even from the original Halloween. Save those for another month or so. Instead, take a look some scenes from one of the Halloween movies you probably haven’t seen, or at least don’t like as much. Why? Because Paul Rudd is in it. I don’t know about you, but I find no better way to celebrate the beginning of autumn than to ritually put my copy of Wet Hot American Summer back on the shelf and then rent Halloween 6 and let Rudd link the seasons together. He’s not as funny here as in WHAS, but he still unintentionally has me laughing in the scene where he explains the origin of Michael Myers’ powers and in an earlier bit where he inadvertently makes a kid drop his pumpkin (fast forward the above clip to 8:01). 6. Cary Grant gets horny in a graveyard - from Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) Here’s another great Halloween movie that isn’t too Halloweeny, so it’ll hopefully get you more in the mood for the fall than for trick or treating. Though it’s clearly a set, I’ll always love the autumnal outdoor scenes from this adaptation of the high school drama staple. In particular, I like the bit above (fast forward to 6:00), where Cary Grant lecherously chases his new bride around a tree. I so wish autumn in Brooklyn still looked so quaint. And I so wish I could have married Priscilla Lane. 7. Jim Morrison ruins another Thanksgiving - from The Doors (1991) And now we move on to the other big holiday with a look at my favorite Thanksgiving scene in all of cinema. Maybe it’s because I’ve had many a dysfunctional turkey day myself, and watching Pam throw the sweet potatoes and Jim stomp on the duck, let alone the other awkward moments involving sex partners and murder attempts, always makes me realize that I could have experienced worse. By the way, The Doors are also a good band to think of in terms of the transition from summer to autumn because of their songs “Summer’s Almost Gone” and “Indian Summer.” 8. Sam Raimi evokes Buster Keaton - from Indian Summer (1993) Speaking of Indian Summer, that wonderfully warm spell that comes later in the season following the first frost and before it really starts to get cold, here is one of its many cinematic namesakes. It may not even be the best of the films with this title, but some of the visuals are good for celebrating the seasonal cusp. Also, Sam Raimi is hilariously memorable as the camp maintenance man. In one great scene in the above montage, he reminds me of Buster Keaton as he attempts to pull fallen luggage out of the lake. 9. India-shaped harvest - from Mother India (1957) No list of autumn-themed movies would be complete without something related to a harvest, though I’m certain that I’m veering off season a bit by using Mother India as my choice of such a film. I’m pretty sure the harvesting of wheat in India occurs in the Spring. Regardless, it’s the film that first pops into mind when I think of harvest, likely because of the incredible India-shaped crop set piece seen above. (Click on the image to get the un-embeddable clip). 10. “Skunk” invades Oktoberfest - from Strange Brew (1983) Another great thing that happens in autumn, specifically the beginning of autumn, is Oktoberfest. And sure, I probably could have included a clip from Broken Lizard’s Beerfest, which actually takes place in Munich. However, nobody can deny that Strange Brew is a funnier film, and there’s no better Oktoberfest-set scene than the one in which Hosehead the dog flies into a Canadian celebration, is mistaken for a skunk and successfully saves hundreds of people from drinking contaminated beer. Hosehead is a true hero. Yet for some reason nobody has honored the beer-loving canine by putting a clip of the scene up on YouTube. So, we’ll have to make due with a montage from the film set to a song about beer, which has a few minimal flashes of the Oktoberfest part. Enjoy, eh? Originally posted on:SpoutBlog
]]>Tue, 23 Sep 2008 01:01:18 GMTSpoutBlogSpoutBlog on spout.com9/22/2008 9:01:18 PMHappy autumn! Today marked the fall equinox for the Northern hemisphere, and while the season can be a depressing one for mainstream moviegoers (at least until Thanksgiving ushers in the holiday blockbusters and Oscar-bait releases), it is otherwise a wonderful time of the year. Having grown up in New England, I’ve always had a great appreciation for the changing leaves, the brisk weather, the pumpkin and apple picking and the foodie holidays (as a rather chunky kid, I really only liked Halloween for the candy and Thanksgiving for the stuffing of my face). I even looked forward to going back to school every September. But autumn can be a great season for cinephiles, too, despite the significant lack of worthwhile theatrical releases. For one thing, the colder weather, particularly the colder nights, keeps us indoors more often for DVD watching. For another thing, the season has lent itself nominally and spirtually to some great films by the likes of Ozu, Bergman and Rohmer, among others. Personally, I think movies set in the fall tend to look the most beautiful, although I recognize that part of my aesthetic appreciation comes with my general love for autumnal landscapes and activities. To get myself in the mood, and share the spirit with fellow fans of the fall, I’ve found ten scenes that will help us to welcome the season: 1. Opening sequence  - from Monster House (2006) I shouldn’t have to explain why this is on here, but I guess there are a ton of you who unfortunately skipped this animated film when it was out in theaters (when you could have seen it properly in 3-D). Hopefully, the beginning will entice you to watch the rest, although I admit the rest of the film isn’t quite as good as its opening. The falling leaf may remind you of the beginning of Forrest Gump, which could have been intentional since Robert Zemeckis was a producer on this film, but I much prefer this sequence, mostly because director Gil Kenan manages to make me believe it was shot by an actual camera and not just set up to look that way with a computer. 2. Cathy and Raymond walk in the woods - from Far From Heaven (2002) The opening shot from Monster House initially reminded me of the opening shot from this Todd Haynes film (yes, I have since become aware that it goes back to Douglas Sirk’s All That Heaven Allows opening). But I can’t find that sequence online, plus it would possibly be redundant to include it, so here’s another scene displaying the gorgeous fall colors as shot by cinematographer Edward Lachman. Perfectly evoking Sirk’s films, there isn’t another modern film that better recreates the Connecticut autumn foliage as well as I know it. 3. Opening sequence - from Written on the Wind (1956) More blowing leaves. With much less grace than the one from Monster House, of course. But as much as I love the falling leaves that come with this time of year, I do get frustrated with all the dry, brown ones that slip through your door later on in the season. In any event, I had to include something from Sirk, despite an apparent lack of clips from his films available on YouTube. 4. Moon vs. Flying Snow - from Hero (2002) If you want evidence that YouTube isn’t the proper format with which to watch film clips, check out the above sequence from Zhang Yimou’s historical spectacle. Still, you should be able to tell that those colorful blurs are leaves. If there’s anything I’d like to do more than jumping into a pile of leaves right now, it’s flying through a flurry of blowing leaves, with or without a blade. 5. Paul Rudd scares a little kid - from Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995) Enough blowing leaves. Let’s move on to the first big holiday of the season: Halloween. But to make things interesting, I’m not including any favorite scenes from It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown or even from the original Halloween. Save those for another month or so. Instead, take a look some scenes from one of the Halloween movies you probably haven’t seen, or at least don’t like as much. Why? Because Paul Rudd is in it. I don’t know about you, but I find no better way to celebrate the beginning of autumn than to ritually put my copy of Wet Hot American Summer back on the shelf and then rent Halloween 6 and let Rudd link the seasons together. He’s not as funny here as in WHAS, but he still unintentionally has me laughing in the scene where he explains the origin of Michael Myers’ powers and in an earlier bit where he inadvertently makes a kid drop his pumpkin (fast forward the above clip to 8:01). 6. Cary Grant gets horny in a graveyard - from Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) Here’s another great Halloween movie that isn’t too Halloweeny, so it’ll hopefully get you more in the mood for the fall than for trick or treating. Though it’s clearly a set, I’ll always love the autumnal outdoor scenes from this adaptation of the high school drama staple. In particular, I like the bit above (fast forward to 6:00), where Cary Grant lecherously chases his new bride around a tree. I so wish autumn in Brooklyn still looked so quaint. And I so wish I could have married Priscilla Lane. 7. Jim Morrison ruins another Thanksgiving - from The Doors (1991) And now we move on to the other big holiday with a look at my favorite Thanksgiving scene in all of cinema. Maybe it’s because I’ve had many a dysfunctional turkey day myself, and watching Pam throw the sweet potatoes and Jim stomp on the duck, let alone the other awkward moments involving sex partners and murder attempts, always makes me realize that I could have experienced worse. By the way, The Doors are also a good band to think of in terms of the transition from summer to autumn because of their songs “Summer’s Almost Gone” and “Indian Summer.” 8. Sam Raimi evokes Buster Keaton - from Indian Summer (1993) Speaking of Indian Summer, that wonderfully warm spell that comes later in the season following the first frost and before it really starts to get cold, here is one of its many cinematic namesakes. It may not even be the best of the films with this title, but some of the visuals are good for celebrating the seasonal cusp. Also, Sam Raimi is hilariously memorable as the camp maintenance man. In one great scene in the above montage, he reminds me of Buster Keaton as he attempts to pull fallen luggage out of the lake. 9. India-shaped harvest - from Mother India (1957) No list of autumn-themed movies would be complete without something related to a harvest, though I’m certain that I’m veering off season a bit by using Mother India as my choice of such a film. I’m pretty sure the harvesting of wheat in India occurs in the Spring. Regardless, it’s the film that first pops into mind when I think of harvest, likely because of the incredible India-shaped crop set piece seen above. (Click on the image to get the un-embeddable clip). 10. “Skunk” invades Oktoberfest - from Strange Brew (1983) Another great thing that happens in autumn, specifically the beginning of autumn, is Oktoberfest. And sure, I probably could have included a clip from Broken Lizard’s Beerfest, which actually takes place in Munich. However, nobody can deny that Strange Brew is a funnier film, and there’s no better Oktoberfest-set scene than the one in which Hosehead the dog flies into a Canadian celebration, is mistaken for a skunk and successfully saves hundreds of people from drinking contaminated beer. Hosehead is a true hero. Yet for some reason nobody has honored the beer-loving canine by putting a clip of the scene up on YouTube. So, we’ll have to make due with a montage from the film set to a song about beer, which has a few minimal flashes of the Oktoberfest part. Enjoy, eh? Originally posted on:SpoutBlog http://www.spout.com/blogs/thefilmpanelnotetaker/archive/2008/6/28/31823.aspx Post By: thefilmpanelnotetaker
Post To: thefilmpanelnotetaker Blog
Post Date: 6/28/2008 10:01:15 AM
Body: The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York began a celebration this week of the distributor Zeitgeist Films 20th anniversary with a retrospective of some of their best releases from over the years. Friday night, Todd Haynes presented two of his earlier films from the Zeitgeist collection, the short Dottie Gets Spanked and the controversial feature Poison , both shot by the great indie cinematographer Maryse Alberti, who most recently lensed Alex Gibney's documentary Taxi to the Darkside and whom I've had the personal privilege to work with on two short films in my own early days of independent film, a mere eight years ago compared to Zeitgeist's, Haynes' and Alberti's longevity. As an aside, Dottie Gets Spanked stars two former One Life to Live castmates, J. Evan Bonifant (ex-Al Holden) and Barbara Garrick (Alison Perkins). I state this because a few weeks ago, I posted notes from from the OLTL 40th anniversary panel discussion (speaking of anniversaries) at the Paley Center. Haynes also cast Garrick in his 2002 film Far From Heaven. She is a great character actress and I hope to see her in more of Haynes' films. Where is this aside going, you might ask? I suppose it just shows the point I addressed in my intro to the OLTL notes where I said "both genres (that being soaps and independent film) when done right, are often bold, risky, and deal with thought-provoking socially relevant issues." Nuff said. For more reading on Haynes, check out The Film Panel Notetaker's notes (here and here) from last year's New York Film Festival. And here are my notes from Friday night's discussion featuring highlights from the opening remarks and audience Q&A: Zeitgeist: The Films of Our Time Todd Haynes' Dottie Gets Spanked and Poison MoMA New York, NY June 27, 2008 Haynes opened by thanking MoMA for bringing him to New York from Portland, Oregon. "This was a once in a lifetime opportunity to pay tribute to these two unbelievably talented, brilliant, smart and innovative distributors." Haynes is speaking of course of Zeitgeist co-founders Emily Russo and Nancy Gerstman, who were also present. "They are without a doubt the best distributors and best people I've ever worked with in distributing any of my films," Haynes said. On his films, Haynes said Poison was conceived, financed and approached at the time as an art project, outside the realm of traditional film financing and production. Russo and Gerstman were so committed to what Haynes was doing (along with Apparatus Productions partners Christine Vachon, producer of many of Haynes' films, and Barry Ellsworth, who shot the black and white scenes in Poison) that they wanted to distribute Poison even before it was completed."We had distribution of this art film at a time when that isn't something that filmmakers in their right mind should ever expect," he said. The film became the subject of great discourse and debate. It was one of the early films that sort of "branded with the new queer cinema mantle" that fell into a lot of controversy from the far right. On Dottie, which Haynes said was sort of the most autobiographical film he ever made, came three years after Poison and was made for ITVS , then was picked up for distribution by Zeitgeist. Haynes also dedicated the screening of Poison to Jim Lyons who both stars in and edited the film, and passed away last year. Immediately following the screenings of Dottie and Poison, Haynes took some questions from the audience. Here are some of the highlights: Q: Which of the Jean Genet stories (in Poison) were related to which of the stories you wrote? Haynes: The clearest source for the film was Miracle of the Rose. It's sort of encapsulated in the prison story. I felt in a more general sense that I was interpreting aspects of Genet in all of the stories and I was very clearly interpreting the two more American genres...the horror film and the tabloid documentary story...into a vernacular that I felt I could speak in which is an American one. A lot of the same kinds of questions about transgression, about issues of the outsider, about issues of disease and the monster and so forth were things that I had encountered in Genet's writing. I felt this interest in bringing to a discussion that related to what was happening at the time, which is very much in the height of the AIDS scare. I was living in New York. It was sort of the center for a lot of political activity and activism and a lot of struggling that went on around those issues. I was also very much aware as we all were of how the media was beginning to depict AIDS and creating this sort of comfortable us versus them boundary. Those were the kinds of things I wanted to challenge, but I think even more than that, I felt that the gay community, which at that point was in a state of shock, where it wasn't being expressed through activism and through political activity. There was a retreat. There was an almost sense of culpability following the experimentation of the 70s and sexual experimentation that characterized that decade that people sort of felt that they had brought this on themselves. Genet had only recently died around that time and I felt like he was somebody that I could try in my own humble way to apply to some of these questions and embolden some of the issues that I felt might have been getting lost in the public assault around HIV. Q: Genet did a film (Un Chant D'Amour) in the late 1940s or early 1950s which had a prison sequence in it. Was that an inspiration? Haynes: I knew the film well when I made Poison and I love that film. Un Chant D'Amour is an exquisite work on film by this playwright and fiction writer and poet Jean Genet. I didn't want to literally re-produce those scenes. They're too specific to that film. There are some proverbially erotic scenes in that film that were shocking for it's time. Maybe the most provocative is the one you described where one inmate sticks a little piece of straw through a hole in the granite wall and smokes a cigarette and exhales the smoke into his neighboring inmates cell who inhales it and blows it back out. So simple and so minimalist...so powerful. Q: What was it about the early 1990s that allowed you to push the envelope and make the kind of films you wanted to make? Why did you decide to make a feature after making so many shorts? Haynes: I don't know if anyone would do that today. I bet it would have even been easier in the 60s and 70s to conceive of and get support for and get interest behind a film like this possibly. For me, and I think this is true for many ways Christine Vachon and Barry Ellsworth, were interested in aspects of experimental filmmaking...had all gone to Brown University where there was this very interesting theoretical program where any film classes were taughtwhich was called at the time semiotics. It has since expanded in a full-fledged department called Modern Culture & Media. We've seen these kind of departments of critical theory expand at universities throughout the country and the world. We were being exposed to critical theory, post-Freud and feminist, that looked at Hollywood classical cinema from the critical perspective. We were also witnesses the end of that purist era of American experimental film...the Stan Brakhage era, let's say, which was amazing work, but very anti-narrative. That period was beginning to be re-examined by some experimental filmmakers like Sally Potter whose film Thriller we had all seen in college. It was these filmmakers who were beginning to take genre and references to Hollywood film and references to narrative formulas and formats and applying them to experimental strategy. I think that excited all three of us in different ways. For me, in a weird way, my education was even more in Hollywood traditions and classic genre traditions than even experimental traditions. This melding of the two opened up our eyes. At the same time, Blue Velvet came out in theaters. You sort of saw in a sort commercial venue or parallel platform, something very similar where in a narrative film, experimental strategies...and playing around the idea of artifice and pushing the boundaries was being played out in commercial cinemas with great critical response and great potential for a lot of filmmakers. Probably gave birth to a whole generation of filmmakers. With all of that in mind, I think we sort of informed what Apparatus was about, a non-profit organization aimed at what we call the experimental narrative where narrative was being accepted from a critical perspective. It was something that was very much a part of that time and a real sense of necessity...some political response to the climate of HIV. And yet all of those films approached their narrative strategies with a sense of innovation and different from one to next. Originally posted on:The Film Panel Notetaker - Miss a panel discussion? Don't worry! We took notes for you.
]]>Sat, 28 Jun 2008 14:01:15 GMTthefilmpanelnotetakerthefilmpanelnotetaker Blog6/28/2008 10:01:15 AMThe Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York began a celebration this week of the distributor Zeitgeist Films 20th anniversary with a retrospective of some of their best releases from over the years. Friday night, Todd Haynes presented two of his earlier films from the Zeitgeist collection, the short Dottie Gets Spanked and the controversial feature Poison , both shot by the great indie cinematographer Maryse Alberti, who most recently lensed Alex Gibney's documentary Taxi to the Darkside and whom I've had the personal privilege to work with on two short films in my own early days of independent film, a mere eight years ago compared to Zeitgeist's, Haynes' and Alberti's longevity. As an aside, Dottie Gets Spanked stars two former One Life to Live castmates, J. Evan Bonifant (ex-Al Holden) and Barbara Garrick (Alison Perkins). I state this because a few weeks ago, I posted notes from from the OLTL 40th anniversary panel discussion (speaking of anniversaries) at the Paley Center. Haynes also cast Garrick in his 2002 film Far From Heaven. She is a great character actress and I hope to see her in more of Haynes' films. Where is this aside going, you might ask? I suppose it just shows the point I addressed in my intro to the OLTL notes where I said "both genres (that being soaps and independent film) when done right, are often bold, risky, and deal with thought-provoking socially relevant issues." Nuff said. For more reading on Haynes, check out The Film Panel Notetaker's notes (here and here) from last year's New York Film Festival. And here are my notes from Friday night's discussion featuring highlights from the opening remarks and audience Q&A: Zeitgeist: The Films of Our Time Todd Haynes' Dottie Gets Spanked and Poison MoMA New York, NY June 27, 2008 Haynes opened by thanking MoMA for bringing him to New York from Portland, Oregon. "This was a once in a lifetime opportunity to pay tribute to these two unbelievably talented, brilliant, smart and innovative distributors." Haynes is speaking of course of Zeitgeist co-founders Emily Russo and Nancy Gerstman, who were also present. "They are without a doubt the best distributors and best people I've ever worked with in distributing any of my films," Haynes said. On his films, Haynes said Poison was conceived, financed and approached at the time as an art project, outside the realm of traditional film financing and production. Russo and Gerstman were so committed to what Haynes was doing (along with Apparatus Productions partners Christine Vachon, producer of many of Haynes' films, and Barry Ellsworth, who shot the black and white scenes in Poison) that they wanted to distribute Poison even before it was completed."We had distribution of this art film at a time when that isn't something that filmmakers in their right mind should ever expect," he said. The film became the subject of great discourse and debate. It was one of the early films that sort of "branded with the new queer cinema mantle" that fell into a lot of controversy from the far right. On Dottie, which Haynes said was sort of the most autobiographical film he ever made, came three years after Poison and was made for ITVS , then was picked up for distribution by Zeitgeist. Haynes also dedicated the screening of Poison to Jim Lyons who both stars in and edited the film, and passed away last year. Immediately following the screenings of Dottie and Poison, Haynes took some questions from the audience. Here are some of the highlights: Q: Which of the Jean Genet stories (in Poison) were related to which of the stories you wrote? Haynes: The clearest source for the film was Miracle of the Rose. It's sort of encapsulated in the prison story. I felt in a more general sense that I was interpreting aspects of Genet in all of the stories and I was very clearly interpreting the two more American genres...the horror film and the tabloid documentary story...into a vernacular that I felt I could speak in which is an American one. A lot of the same kinds of questions about transgression, about issues of the outsider, about issues of disease and the monster and so forth were things that I had encountered in Genet's writing. I felt this interest in bringing to a discussion that related to what was happening at the time, which is very much in the height of the AIDS scare. I was living in New York. It was sort of the center for a lot of political activity and activism and a lot of struggling that went on around those issues. I was also very much aware as we all were of how the media was beginning to depict AIDS and creating this sort of comfortable us versus them boundary. Those were the kinds of things I wanted to challenge, but I think even more than that, I felt that the gay community, which at that point was in a state of shock, where it wasn't being expressed through activism and through political activity. There was a retreat. There was an almost sense of culpability following the experimentation of the 70s and sexual experimentation that characterized that decade that people sort of felt that they had brought this on themselves. Genet had only recently died around that time and I felt like he was somebody that I could try in my own humble way to apply to some of these questions and embolden some of the issues that I felt might have been getting lost in the public assault around HIV. Q: Genet did a film (Un Chant D'Amour) in the late 1940s or early 1950s which had a prison sequence in it. Was that an inspiration? Haynes: I knew the film well when I made Poison and I love that film. Un Chant D'Amour is an exquisite work on film by this playwright and fiction writer and poet Jean Genet. I didn't want to literally re-produce those scenes. They're too specific to that film. There are some proverbially erotic scenes in that film that were shocking for it's time. Maybe the most provocative is the one you described where one inmate sticks a little piece of straw through a hole in the granite wall and smokes a cigarette and exhales the smoke into his neighboring inmates cell who inhales it and blows it back out. So simple and so minimalist...so powerful. Q: What was it about the early 1990s that allowed you to push the envelope and make the kind of films you wanted to make? Why did you decide to make a feature after making so many shorts? Haynes: I don't know if anyone would do that today. I bet it would have even been easier in the 60s and 70s to conceive of and get support for and get interest behind a film like this possibly. For me, and I think this is true for many ways Christine Vachon and Barry Ellsworth, were interested in aspects of experimental filmmaking...had all gone to Brown University where there was this very interesting theoretical program where any film classes were taughtwhich was called at the time semiotics. It has since expanded in a full-fledged department called Modern Culture & Media. We've seen these kind of departments of critical theory expand at universities throughout the country and the world. We were being exposed to critical theory, post-Freud and feminist, that looked at Hollywood classical cinema from the critical perspective. We were also witnesses the end of that purist era of American experimental film...the Stan Brakhage era, let's say, which was amazing work, but very anti-narrative. That period was beginning to be re-examined by some experimental filmmakers like Sally Potter whose film Thriller we had all seen in college. It was these filmmakers who were beginning to take genre and references to Hollywood film and references to narrative formulas and formats and applying them to experimental strategy. I think that excited all three of us in different ways. For me, in a weird way, my education was even more in Hollywood traditions and classic genre traditions than even experimental traditions. This melding of the two opened up our eyes. At the same time, Blue Velvet came out in theaters. You sort of saw in a sort commercial venue or parallel platform, something very similar where in a narrative film, experimental strategies...and playing around the idea of artifice and pushing the boundaries was being played out in commercial cinemas with great critical response and great potential for a lot of filmmakers. Probably gave birth to a whole generation of filmmakers. With all of that in mind, I think we sort of informed what Apparatus was about, a non-profit organization aimed at what we call the experimental narrative where narrative was being accepted from a critical perspective. It was something that was very much a part of that time and a real sense of necessity...some political response to the climate of HIV. And yet all of those films approached their narrative strategies with a sense of innovation and different from one to next. Originally posted on:The Film Panel Notetaker - Miss a panel discussion? Don't worry! We took notes for you. http://www.spout.com/blogs/thefilmpanelnotetaker/archive/2007/10/24/21147.aspx Post By: thefilmpanelnotetaker
Post To: thefilmpanelnotetaker Blog
Post Date: 10/24/2007 4:01:12 PM
Body: 45th New York Film FestivalHBO Directors Dialogue: Todd HaynesOctober 6, 2007Todd Haynes in New York Film Fesival's Green Room for I'm Not There. Photo Credit: C.J.ContinoSaturday at the New York Film Festival, Village Voice film critic J. Hoberman conducted an HBO Directors Dialogues with filmmaker Todd Haynes whose new film, I???m Not There, premiered at the festival a few days earlier. I was at the premiere and took notes at the Q&A, and thought it would be a good complement to take additional notes at the Directors Dialogue to get further insights from Haynes on his directing styles and choices for I???m Not There and his other bodies of work. What follows are highlights of the discussion and questions and answers from the audience.Hoberman opened by saying ???the greatest pleasure a film journalist can have is to come across a movie you never heard of from someone unknown and to have the privilege to write about it first 20 years ago.??? The film refers to was Haynes??? 1987 super 8mm movie Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story. Hoberman called it a completely brilliant and original movie. He then went through the laundry list of Haynes??? other film including Poison (1991), Safe (1995), Velvet Goldmine (1998), Far From Heaven (2002), and finally I???m Not There (2007). Hoberman pointed out that most of these films have multiple stories and address certain pop culture text. In each case, there is a certainty of irony. He asks Haynes if these films were made with love, and what he???s a fan of.Haynes responded that he???s an intense, wild fan of movies, music, and even of Hoberman???s work, referring back to Hoberman???s original review of Superstar, a film that would never have been shown commercially. This review launched Haynes??? career. Many theatrical venues wanted to show the film.Hoberman moves the discussion over to Haynes interest in Bob Dylan.Haynes recollected his high school days. He attended Oakwood, an artsy school in Los Angeles that had a radical, mythical history founded by progressive actors in the 1950s. It was in this environment, he first encountered Dylan???s music. After graduating in 1979, he moved to the East Coast for college at Brown University, where he studied semiotics, and became interested in glam and punk rock. It was not till the end of his 30s (he had begun his film career already) when he got back into Dylan. He finished making Velvet Goldmine and took a few years off. Most of his friends were starting their lives already, having families. He didn???t have any of those things in his life. Something was missing. He wanted to enrich himself. Since he was a creative person, he had the opportunity to externalize his troubles, and was very grateful for it. At the time, he was interested in 1950s melodramas (ala Douglas Sirk) and wanted to work again with Julianne Moore (who he worked previously with on Safe).At the end of the 1990s, Haynes drove across country to Portland, Oregon, to live with his sister. He listened to tapes of Dylan in the car. Half way there, he bought some more folk music to listen to . When he got to Portland, he read a bunch of Dylan biographies. It became inevitable that his obsession would result in making something creative.Hoberman mentions that Haynes started writing the screenplay for I???m Not There in 2000. During this time, Dylan published an anthology, ???s documentary, No Direction Home: Bob Dylan came out, and Twyla Tharp???s ballet based on Dylan???s songs, The Times They Are A-Changin???, played on Broadway. But Haynes focuses most of the film on Dylan???s life in the 1960s up until the 70s, the end of the Vietnam War.Haynes said he couldn???t commit to Dylan???s entire life. He wanted to focus on the core elements and roots of his origins in the 60s era. That was enough. Dylan ultimately created his own escape at the end of the 60s until he had his motorcycle accident in 1966. Then he went to Woodstock and raised a family. In many ways, he never really came back. Dylan???s access and visibility have been under his own terms ever since. That???s what the whole last story with Richard Gere???s Dylan character, Billy, is all about. Billy is the most metaphorical character.Given how protective Dylan is, Hoberman asked Haynes how he got permission to use Dylan???s music in the film and what Dylan thought of the film.Haynes said he???s not sure Dylan has seen it yet. He sent the DVD to Dylan???s son Jesse, because he knew that Dylan didn???t want to come to any public screenings. Before even making the film, Haynes called up producer Christine Vachon. He was very bashful about it, because he knew it would be hard to get Dylan???s permission to use the songs. There was no way he could make the movie without the music. Prior to making the film, Haynes met with Jesse, who is also a filmmaker, in Los Angeles. It???s so hard to be the kid of a famous person. One thing Dylan has been able to do all along is keep his family protected.At that point in the script (which was then titled I???m Not There: Suppositions On a Film Concerning Dylan), Haynes had seven Dylan characters, one of which eventually got absorbed into the Woody character, making the final amount six. Dylan had been opposed to every dramatic version of his life before, until that moment. If there was ever something Dylan wanted done about his life, it would have to be something this open and unconventional.Audience Q&AQ: Do you see parallels between I???m Not There and Velvet Goldmine? Did you get David Bowie???s blessing for Velvet Goldmine?TH: Artists are always changing themselves. The first person you might think of is David Bowie. I wanted the rights to Bowie???s songs, but he wasn???t interested in having his story on film. Bowie???s version of self-transformation was about dressing up and applying make up. Androgyny. I???m Not There and Velvet Goldmine are very different films. Different music genres and traditions. Velvet Goldmine is a British story, whereas I???m Not There is American story.Q: Why do you choose Cate Blanchett for the role of Jude in I???m Not There?TH: I was obsessed about different actresses in their age range. I looked at pictures of actresses and put them in Dylan???s hair. Saw Cate on stage in Heda Gabler in Brooklyn. Saw her scale and proportions. She???s beautiful. On a physical level, I was stunned by her proportions.Q: How do you work with such a large body of music?TH: It was an embarrassment of riches. The selection of cinematic references started in the script stage. Music would be telling the story, built into the film???s concept. For example, the song ???Ballad of a Thin Man??? had such an important historical meaning. It expressed the inside/outside dichotomy. Another song, ???Goin??? to Acapulco,??? was a personal favorite. It???s absurdly melodramatic.Q: You started the script in 2000 with seven Dylan characters. What are other changes were made?TH: I did stop everything on the script when going into production on Far From Heaven in 2001, which occupied me completely till about 2003, but at that point, I had gotten the rights from Dylan to use the music. Then started researching and starting over from scratch. The process of being a pure fan was changed. The missing seventh character was called Charlie, a Chaplin-esque figure.Q: Did you study of semiotics at Brown influence your filmmaking?TH: It has. The semiotics courses are now part of the modern culture and media departments. Semiotics studies post-culturalism. It???s a post-humanist look at pop culture and media. Originally posted on:The Film Panel Notetaker - Miss a panel discussion? Don't worry! We took notes for you.
]]>Wed, 24 Oct 2007 20:01:12 GMTthefilmpanelnotetakerthefilmpanelnotetaker Blog10/24/2007 4:01:12 PM45th New York Film FestivalHBO Directors Dialogue: Todd HaynesOctober 6, 2007Todd Haynes in New York Film Fesival's Green Room for I'm Not There. Photo Credit: C.J.ContinoSaturday at the New York Film Festival, Village Voice film critic J. Hoberman conducted an HBO Directors Dialogues with filmmaker Todd Haynes whose new film, I???m Not There, premiered at the festival a few days earlier. I was at the premiere and took notes at the Q&A, and thought it would be a good complement to take additional notes at the Directors Dialogue to get further insights from Haynes on his directing styles and choices for I???m Not There and his other bodies of work. What follows are highlights of the discussion and questions and answers from the audience.Hoberman opened by saying ???the greatest pleasure a film journalist can have is to come across a movie you never heard of from someone unknown and to have the privilege to write about it first 20 years ago.??? The film refers to was Haynes??? 1987 super 8mm movie Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story. Hoberman called it a completely brilliant and original movie. He then went through the laundry list of Haynes??? other film including Poison (1991), Safe (1995), Velvet Goldmine (1998), Far From Heaven (2002), and finally I???m Not There (2007). Hoberman pointed out that most of these films have multiple stories and address certain pop culture text. In each case, there is a certainty of irony. He asks Haynes if these films were made with love, and what he???s a fan of.Haynes responded that he???s an intense, wild fan of movies, music, and even of Hoberman???s work, referring back to Hoberman???s original review of Superstar, a film that would never have been shown commercially. This review launched Haynes??? career. Many theatrical venues wanted to show the film.Hoberman moves the discussion over to Haynes interest in Bob Dylan.Haynes recollected his high school days. He attended Oakwood, an artsy school in Los Angeles that had a radical, mythical history founded by progressive actors in the 1950s. It was in this environment, he first encountered Dylan???s music. After graduating in 1979, he moved to the East Coast for college at Brown University, where he studied semiotics, and became interested in glam and punk rock. It was not till the end of his 30s (he had begun his film career already) when he got back into Dylan. He finished making Velvet Goldmine and took a few years off. Most of his friends were starting their lives already, having families. He didn???t have any of those things in his life. Something was missing. He wanted to enrich himself. Since he was a creative person, he had the opportunity to externalize his troubles, and was very grateful for it. At the time, he was interested in 1950s melodramas (ala Douglas Sirk) and wanted to work again with Julianne Moore (who he worked previously with on Safe).At the end of the 1990s, Haynes drove across country to Portland, Oregon, to live with his sister. He listened to tapes of Dylan in the car. Half way there, he bought some more folk music to listen to . When he got to Portland, he read a bunch of Dylan biographies. It became inevitable that his obsession would result in making something creative.Hoberman mentions that Haynes started writing the screenplay for I???m Not There in 2000. During this time, Dylan published an anthology, ???s documentary, No Direction Home: Bob Dylan came out, and Twyla Tharp???s ballet based on Dylan???s songs, The Times They Are A-Changin???, played on Broadway. But Haynes focuses most of the film on Dylan???s life in the 1960s up until the 70s, the end of the Vietnam War.Haynes said he couldn???t commit to Dylan???s entire life. He wanted to focus on the core elements and roots of his origins in the 60s era. That was enough. Dylan ultimately created his own escape at the end of the 60s until he had his motorcycle accident in 1966. Then he went to Woodstock and raised a family. In many ways, he never really came back. Dylan???s access and visibility have been under his own terms ever since. That???s what the whole last story with Richard Gere???s Dylan character, Billy, is all about. Billy is the most metaphorical character.Given how protective Dylan is, Hoberman asked Haynes how he got permission to use Dylan???s music in the film and what Dylan thought of the film.Haynes said he???s not sure Dylan has seen it yet. He sent the DVD to Dylan???s son Jesse, because he knew that Dylan didn???t want to come to any public screenings. Before even making the film, Haynes called up producer Christine Vachon. He was very bashful about it, because he knew it would be hard to get Dylan???s permission to use the songs. There was no way he could make the movie without the music. Prior to making the film, Haynes met with Jesse, who is also a filmmaker, in Los Angeles. It???s so hard to be the kid of a famous person. One thing Dylan has been able to do all along is keep his family protected.At that point in the script (which was then titled I???m Not There: Suppositions On a Film Concerning Dylan), Haynes had seven Dylan characters, one of which eventually got absorbed into the Woody character, making the final amount six. Dylan had been opposed to every dramatic version of his life before, until that moment. If there was ever something Dylan wanted done about his life, it would have to be something this open and unconventional.Audience Q&AQ: Do you see parallels between I???m Not There and Velvet Goldmine? Did you get David Bowie???s blessing for Velvet Goldmine?TH: Artists are always changing themselves. The first person you might think of is David Bowie. I wanted the rights to Bowie???s songs, but he wasn???t interested in having his story on film. Bowie???s version of self-transformation was about dressing up and applying make up. Androgyny. I???m Not There and Velvet Goldmine are very different films. Different music genres and traditions. Velvet Goldmine is a British story, whereas I???m Not There is American story.Q: Why do you choose Cate Blanchett for the role of Jude in I???m Not There?TH: I was obsessed about different actresses in their age range. I looked at pictures of actresses and put them in Dylan???s hair. Saw Cate on stage in Heda Gabler in Brooklyn. Saw her scale and proportions. She???s beautiful. On a physical level, I was stunned by her proportions.Q: How do you work with such a large body of music?TH: It was an embarrassment of riches. The selection of cinematic references started in the script stage. Music would be telling the story, built into the film???s concept. For example, the song ???Ballad of a Thin Man??? had such an important historical meaning. It expressed the inside/outside dichotomy. Another song, ???Goin??? to Acapulco,??? was a personal favorite. It???s absurdly melodramatic.Q: You started the script in 2000 with seven Dylan characters. What are other changes were made?TH: I did stop everything on the script when going into production on Far From Heaven in 2001, which occupied me completely till about 2003, but at that point, I had gotten the rights from Dylan to use the music. Then started researching and starting over from scratch. The process of being a pure fan was changed. The missing seventh character was called Charlie, a Chaplin-esque figure.Q: Did you study of semiotics at Brown influence your filmmaking?TH: It has. The semiotics courses are now part of the modern culture and media departments. Semiotics studies post-culturalism. It???s a post-humanist look at pop culture and media. Originally posted on:The Film Panel Notetaker - Miss a panel discussion? Don't worry! We took notes for you. http://www.spout.com/blogs/shaunhuston/archive/2007/8/27/18885.aspx Post By: ShaunHuston
Post To: ShaunHuston filmblog
Post Date: 8/27/2007 1:00:43 PM
Body: One thing, maybe the thing, that makes The Good German perplexing is that its best quality, the meticulous recreation of a 40s international noir ala Casablanca (1942) or The Third Man (1949), is also its biggest weakness.There are some beautiful and authentic images in the film, but there are others that verge on parody (mostly those involving rear projection; sorry no stills or screen grabs available - I popped the film back into the mail before thinking I might want it). By itself, that wouldn't be a problem except that director Steven Soderbergh and writer Paul Attanasio haven't rethought the films they reference so much as attempted to reproduce them, but with the jarring addition of language, violence, and sex that wouldn't have been allowed in the 1940s. Unlike, say, homosexuality (and, really, race) in Far From Heaven (2002) or the disappearing blandness of Ed (Billy Bob Thornton) in The Man Who Wasn't There (2001), the updating and revisioning of genre in The Good German is trivial at best, and clumsily tacked on at worse. Arguably, what the film does that could not have been done in 40s is the presentation of sympathetic, or at least other than venal, German characters, but, for whatever reason, I did not find myself even thinking about that possibility until the hour or so after having seen it. Ultimately, the film ends up feeling more like an aesthetic exercise than anything else and that detracts from its thematic elements, and also turns its actors into living wax museum pieces (which is not to suggest that the cast is anything but game, just that they, more often than not, come across as parts of the mise-en-scene more than people). Originally posted on:Short-Circuit Signs
]]>Mon, 27 Aug 2007 17:00:43 GMTShaunHustonShaunHuston filmblog8/27/2007 1:00:43 PMOne thing, maybe the thing, that makes The Good German perplexing is that its best quality, the meticulous recreation of a 40s international noir ala Casablanca (1942) or The Third Man (1949), is also its biggest weakness.There are some beautiful and authentic images in the film, but there are others that verge on parody (mostly those involving rear projection; sorry no stills or screen grabs available - I popped the film back into the mail before thinking I might want it). By itself, that wouldn't be a problem except that director Steven Soderbergh and writer Paul Attanasio haven't rethought the films they reference so much as attempted to reproduce them, but with the jarring addition of language, violence, and sex that wouldn't have been allowed in the 1940s. Unlike, say, homosexuality (and, really, race) in Far From Heaven (2002) or the disappearing blandness of Ed (Billy Bob Thornton) in The Man Who Wasn't There (2001), the updating and revisioning of genre in The Good German is trivial at best, and clumsily tacked on at worse. Arguably, what the film does that could not have been done in 40s is the presentation of sympathetic, or at least other than venal, German characters, but, for whatever reason, I did not find myself even thinking about that possibility until the hour or so after having seen it. Ultimately, the film ends up feeling more like an aesthetic exercise than anything else and that detracts from its thematic elements, and also turns its actors into living wax museum pieces (which is not to suggest that the cast is anything but game, just that they, more often than not, come across as parts of the mise-en-scene more than people). Originally posted on:Short-Circuit Signs http://www.spout.com/blogs/chesterfilms/archive/2007/6/23/11786.aspx Post By: chesterfilms
Post To: chesterfilms Blog
Post Date: 6/23/2007 1:49:35 AM
Body: It's not just a Douglas Sirk ripoff, Far From Heaven works completely on it's own. Beautiful & truly powerful it hits harder than it's predecessors. One of my favorite films from the past few years.
]]>Sat, 23 Jun 2007 05:49:35 GMTchesterfilmschesterfilms Blog6/23/2007 1:49:35 AMIt&#39;s not just a Douglas Sirk ripoff, Far From Heaven works completely on it&#39;s own. Beautiful &amp; truly powerful it hits harder than it&#39;s predecessors. One of my favorite films from the past few years. http://www.spout.com/blogs/chesterfilms/archive/2007/6/23/11785.aspx Post By: chesterfilms
Post To: chesterfilms Blog
Post Date: 6/23/2007 1:48:18 AM
Body: It's not just a Douglas Sirk ripoff, Far From Heaven works completely on it's own. Beautiful & truly powerful it hits harder than it's predecessors. One of my favorite films from the past few years.
]]>Sat, 23 Jun 2007 05:48:18 GMTchesterfilmschesterfilms Blog6/23/2007 1:48:18 AMIt&#39;s not just a Douglas Sirk ripoff, Far From Heaven works completely on it&#39;s own. Beautiful &amp; truly powerful it hits harder than it&#39;s predecessors. One of my favorite films from the past few years. http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/comingofage/MemberTagFilms.aspxcomingofage
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