He's In CONTROL

Talking with producer Orian Williams about the film Control, one thing becomes immediately apparent. We have a lot in common. Williams grew up in Houston, attended high school in Alief, read Public News and attended concerts as a teen at Numbers.
"I was working as an extra on the movie Tiger's Tale (shot in Houston in the mid-80s)," Williams tells Free Press Houston during a phoner. "I was talking with C. Thomas Howell at lunch and decided I wanted to work in movies." Subsequently Williams attended Baylor University in Waco then moved to the West Coast. Williams talks about his admiration for 80s rock groups like New Order and the Pixies, a crush that has come full circle with Control bringing the real life story of Ian Curtis, lead singer of Joy Division, to the screen.
Williams produced Shadow of the Vampire in 2000 and had also acquired the rights to Touching From A Distance, the biography of Ian Curtis as written by his wife Deborah.
Stories abound about how exactly Curtis offed himself. In the movie The Living End (1992) by Gregg Araki the lead characters describe Curtis death as suicide by hanging while standing on a melting block of ice. That was an early attempt at myth, while Control succeeds in putting a realistic spin on the film. Williams points out; "Curtis watched the Werner Herzog film Stroszek, which ends in suicide, and then listened to Iggy Pop's The Idiot before he hung himself in his apartment." Control uses the actual exterior of the flat and the street outside where Ian and Deborah lived in Macclesfield, a small village on the periphery of Manchester. When Curtis committed suicide in May of 1980 the remaining members formed New Order.
Director Anton Corbijn started as a rock photographer and in fact had taken a now famous picture of Joy Division descending a staircase to the subway.
"We met for a two-hour lunch, and he told me his story, about him relocating from Holland to London because of Joy Division," recalls Williams. "Then he took the iconic image of them descending down the tube station. A few months later, Ian killed himself. That photo suddenly became very important." Corbijn since established a reputation as a music vid helmer shooting videos for U2 and Depeche Mode.
"Secretly, I wanted him to direct it, as it would have been so cool with his connection to the band," offers Williams. "I didn't realize it was such a complete connection, until he told me his story of moving to the UK because of them. He soon echoed my realization and told me: You know what, I might be the only person to direct this movie. He didn't say it in an arrogant way, but in a manner that suggested he wanted to be the protector of the story," Williams explained.
Control was shot in color but digitally transferred to black and white. "We never even watched dailies in color, it was black and white from the beginning," says Williams. For the scene on Tony Wilson's show they considered switching to color. When they began to assemble edit that sequence they looked at it in color, and never went any further with that idea. As a finished film Control's black and white photography projects a tone and an attitude totally unlike current films or biopics. Control has been picked for North American distribution by the Weinstein Company who also has the other distinguished music biopic (also with some parts in black and white) I'm Not There.
Williams will attend and conduct a Q&A at the Angelika Film Center in Houston on Monday, November 12 at the 7:30 pm screening.

Lions For Lambs

While watching Lions For Lambs my first thought was how suited the film would be to the stage. There's a didactic spine that runs through its short running time that would make more sense coming out of the mouths of stage characters, in and of themselves never as real as film characters.
What the film has to say rings true, makes sense, and in the long run provies the main reason to see the film. But the lasting impact is less than a typical newscast filled with opposing talking heads.
Different story strands are woven into the overall film: A senator pitching a pro-war story to a female cable news reporter; a professor trying to politically inspire what he feels is a gifted student, two soldiers confront a Taliban regiment in the mountains of Afghanistan.
There's a momentum to watching all these events unfold but it's hardly any suprises when the final cards are dealt. A tony cast includes Tom Cruise, Meryl Streep and Robert Redford (who also directed).

Fred Claus

Very much on the level of a Jingle All the Way, Fred Claus provides mindless holiday entertainment for kids. Adults weaned on the kind of antics Vince Vaughn displayed in Wedding Crashers will not find a present under the tree.
The oddest thing is the level of Warner Brothers cross promotion that lies hidden in the film. Much of the set design and character games resembles a reassembled Polar Express. And Kevin Spacey, slumming it seems, delievers some eloquent lines about Superman. WB has both a sequel to Superman (in which Spacey was the villain) and a film about the Justice League on the boards.
There are two or three chuckles but nothing on the level of the previsouly mentioned Wedding Crashers. Both Fred Claus and Wedding Crashers were helmed by Davidf Dobkin. It's likely Dobkin just got lucky with the former as there's only one scene in Fred Claus that hints (a big Vaughn / Elf dance number) at any kind of quality comic touch.

What up with Oscar?

Pay little to no attention to Oscar hype. Just as sure as the sun sets daily the weeks will pass with a new film heaped with accocades accordinly. So when you hear talk of Oscars for Lions For Lambs or No Country For Old Men, just hold your breath. Because then the talk with center on The Kite Runner or Atonement. Only to give way to similar talk about Sweeney Todd or There Will Be Blood the following week. One thing is certain: Alien versus Predator the sequel due out in December will garner no Oscars.

Sleuth

Sleuth is a remake of a film made in the glorious 70s, when wordy dialogue and clever plot twists weren't jaded. The original starred Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine and paid off quite nicely under the astute direction of Joseph Mankiewicz (All About Eve), with the screenplay written by the play's author Anthony Shaffer (Frenzy). All in all it's the ultimate one-on-one thriller, a two person who-will-do-it that charms in spite of its trickster attitude.Fast forard to the present day and the mindset that states that updated sequels or reimagining an old story suits modern taste. Nothing could be further from the truth. As helmed by Kenneth Branagh (script by Harold Pinter) and feauring Caine (in the Olivier role) and Jude Law this Sleuth is one mistep after another. The film definitely doesn't work in the manner of the original. If you like the stars you may find it a guilty pleasure. Suffice it to say that the part where Law disguises himself as a padded detective from Scotland Yard looks fake to the audience so how is it supposed to fool the other character in the film.