December, 2000.

Trailer Art (not the double-wide kind)
Coming Attractions Trailer Program

by Michael Kyrioglou

We saw everything from The Grinch to the Marquis de Sade in Quills, from The Gift to The Pledge, from Dude, Where's My Car to Pearl Harbor. No, not the full films, but a wide spectrum of trailers for (mostly) upcoming winter films were shown November 20 at the Film Society's Fall 2000 Coming Attractions trailer program. Visions Cinema/Bistro/Lounge was our new location for this twice annual program that gives us the chance to see "what's up" in the upcoming cinematic crop.

Local critics (and Film Society friends) Joe Barber and Bill Henry hosted a great audience of about 100 film-lovers to examine the art of the movie preview. They offered up a lot of background and inside buzz on some of the films and fielded many a comment from the always vocal trailer-program crowd.

What'd We Say?

The crowd surprisingly loved the short, witty and enticing trailer for Valentine (a Scream-like February release), thought the Castaway, The Pledge and Proof of Life trailers gave away too much of the stories, strongly booed Sylvester Stallone's race car film Driven, are getting tired of the MTV-style of editing used in selling many films and actually laughed a lot at Mel Gibson spoofing himself in What Women Want.

If you weren't there for the honest opinions and the free posters and film giveaways, you must be sure to join us in the spring (date to be announced) for the next installment of Coming Attractions. Thanks to Cate Nielan for acquiring the trailers and organizing the evening with the help of many coordinating committee members. It was a blast!

The Cinema Lounge Discussion Group

By Brian Niemiec

On November 13, the Cinema Lounge met to discuss the Golden Age of Foreign Films, roughly between 1940 and 1960. Before our meeting, I suggested attendees view seven films indicative of that period: The Grand Illusion (Jean Renoir, 1938), The Bicycle Thief (Vittorio De Sica, 1948), Rashomon (Akira Kurosawa, 1950), The Seventh Seal (Ingmar Bergman, 1957), 400 Blows (Francois Truffaut, 1959), La Dolce Vita (Federico Fellini, 1959) and Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard, 1960). Our discussion focused around the different movements of film such as Italian Neorealism, The French New Wave and Asian Films. We discussed how these films influenced filmmakers such as George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese. Then we talked about the state of foreign films today. Many members lamented the lack of foreign movies and chalked it up to these factors:
1. Subtitles - People just don't like them and dubbing movies makes them seem laughable and cheap.
2. Money - Many foreign film companies and filmmakers don't have the financial resources to pay for the production.
3. Popularity of Hollywood films abroad - Even foreign audiences would rather plop down money to see a Hollywood film than a stuffy, cheap-looking domestic film.

We all agreed that we long for the resurgence of thoughtful foreign films to complement the eye-candy produced by Hollywood.

Join us for our next Cinema Lounge on Monday, December 11th and be prepared to bear your soul as we reveal our guilty pleasures. I plan on setting the high-bar for an evening of gut-wrenching admissions of the films we are ashamed to love.

Coming on January 8: Washington has seen its share of theaters come and go. With the recent opening of Visions, we will talk about the past, present and future of DC theaters. Have DC theaters seen better days? Are DC theaters on the rebound? As always, Cinema Lounge meets the second Monday of every month at Borders Books, 5333 Wisconsin Ave. NW at 7:30 p.m. in the Cafe‚ Espresso on the 2nd floor. Can't wait to see you there.

An Interview With Andrucha Waddington

By Jim McCaskill

This interview with Andrucha Waddington, director of Eu, Tu, Eles (Me, You, Them), took place at the Edinburgh Film Festival in August. The film is scheduled for release in late December and is Brazil's nomination for the Foreign Language Academy Award. Also present were Leonardo M. Barros, a producer, and Toni Vanzolini, production designer. All took part in the Q&A.

Q. Where did you get the idea for this film?
A. In 1995 I was watching a TV interview with a woman who had three husbands. Her strength was fascinating and so I flew up to interview her. The interview lasted four hours and I did not see her again until after the film was finished. This is based upon her story but it is not a bio-pic. I deliberately used stereotypes to depict her husbands. The first is very strong and spends most of his time lying in a hammock. The second is the sensitive type and the third is a sexual archetype. So the tale is based on fact. Darlene Linhares actually lives in the backlands of Brazil with her three husbands in the same house.

Q. What was the shooting schedule for Me, You, Them?
A. We had two months of rehearsal and seven weeks of shooting. But we did not shoot seven weeks consecutively. It was shot in Super 35mm. I wanted the colors of that part of Brazil during the dry season. Especially that crystal blue sky, the vibrant colors. Actually it was filmed over two dry seasons. We shot the first part, came back and worked on the script, then returned to finish it during the next dry season. We had to film the ending twice. The original ending was violent but this is a film about love not violence so I changed the ending. We wanted a gentle film with a feeling of family. Like an Italian family.

The house was built for the film. I found the location two years earlier but the homes there are too small. We needed a house with movable walls but we did not want the look of a new house so we brought in new doors, windows, tiles and traded with the local people for their old ones.

Q. Where did the financing come from?
A. It took three years to put the budget together. Central Station paved the way as it proved that there was a market for Brazilian films. We ended up with 19 partners. Much of it came as a result of Brazil's tax policy that allows a deduction for film investment. Columbia Brazil financed the completion of the film.

Q. Has the original woman seen the film?
A. When it was completed we took it to her village. This is a very small place. 15,000 people showed up. We estimate that 60% had never seen a film before. The crowd cheered. Darlene was ecstatic. She identified with the heroine even though it is mostly fiction. Her only complaint was that she never yells that loud during childbirth.

Q. Where did you find the star?
A. Regina Case is the anchor of a talk show. She had been away from drama for 15 years but when she read the script she knew she had to do it. She was perfect in the part.

Q. What do the husbands feel about the film?
A. The older man has not seen the film. He hates the press and wants nothing to do with it. The second husband loved it. The third could not stand the pressure and ran away. She says she is now looking for a replacement for him. Their actual house is very remote. They live 5 or 6 kilometers from the village. She really has nine children not four as in the film. Giving children over to other relatives to raise is done in this area as it is a very poor. The people are poor but not miserable. The town is in a desert region that crosses five states. It could be anywhere in this area.

Q. There are two scenes of men shaving each other. Where did that idea come from?
A. The two older men are connected while shaving. I saw this happen on my first visit to the area.

Q. Why would the men take part in a polyandric family?
A. One husband said it best. They would rather share her than lose her.

Andrucha Waddington was born in 1970 and has worked on a number of films including Carlos Diegues' Better Days Ahead (1989), Hector Babenco's At Play in the Fields of the Lord (1991) and Walter Salles' Central Station (1998). He directed Twins (1999) and Me, You, Them (2000).

Read Jim McCaskill's earlier review on the Edinburgh Film Festival at the Storyboard online archives.

Previous Storyboards

November, 2000
October, 2000
July, 2000