Lost & Satisfied

On September 22, 2004, for two breathless and mesmerizing hours, I sat, along with 18.65 million others, utterly gripped and completely astonished in front of a television set. For it was on that day that the passengers of Oceanic Flight 815 crashed onto a mysterious island somewhere between Sydney, Australia and Los Angeles, California and effectively made television history.

A couple days prior to this, I had chanced upon an article in some magazine or other that strongly encouraged me and anyone else who might be reading to tune into ABC on that early fall night in order to watch the series premier of a new show called Lost. An early review promised that it was going to be the most exciting two hours of television ever. Strong words to be sure that most likely couldn’t live up to their own grandiose enthusiasm (readers of this blog no doubt know something about grandiose enthusiasm), but intriguing enough to ensure my presence in front of the TV at 8:00 pm on the night of my 23^rd birthday.

The experience is one that I will never forget. For during those two hours, I watched what I every day since then have considered the two most exciting hours of television ever. The pilot episode of Lost didn’t merely live up to the superlative description that I had read in the days leading up to its premier, but soared past it. I had simply never experienced anything like it. For one thing, as soon as Matthew Fox woke up in the jungle and ran out to the beach to discover the wreckage of the plane in which he had minutes before been flying, I completely forgot that I was watching something created for television. The stunning production values, JJ Abrams incredible direction, and the terrific acting across the board all came together to create a thrilling piece of grade-A filmmaking.

For the next six years, Lost provided for its loyal fans a show that was consistently intelligent and endlessly entertaining. This past Sunday, on May 23, 2010, the show that had reestablished the dramatic serial as a successful primetime alternative to the mind-numbingly popular reality TV came to a dramatic conclusion during a two-and-a-half hour series finale. Divisive to the end, Lost’s finale has already inspired millions of written words from tear-wiping, whole-heartedly in love fans alongside their poison-spitting, sick-to-the-stomach with anger counterparts. As the final credits rolled, and I then knew the fate of the characters that I had come to love and root for over the past six years, I found myself faithfully encamped within the former of the two. This was a show that always earned the emotional reaction of its viewers, and the heart-tugging finale was no different. I was and am completely satisfied with the ending.

I will miss the water cooler conversations I had from week to week, season to season, with my coworkers, each of us trying to sway the other with our most recent theories and prognostications. I will miss the anticipation I felt for each new episode, each new season, encouraged by the perfectly constructed and often shocking cliffhangers as well as the show’s enduring mysteries. But most of all I will miss the many wonderful characters, who entered my life for one hour each week and left me happier for their intrusion. Like departing friends, it’s difficult to say goodbye. So instead of that, for the time being, I think I’ll just have to say “See you in another life, brotha.”

Until then, here is my hope that we all find our Shangri-La. Good night.

Festival de Cannes

Forget Sundance. Forget Toronto. Forget New York. For the past 63 years, no other film festival in the world has surpassed the venerable grandeur and prestige that is Cannes. For ten days each May, the greatest filmmakers from across the globe gather in the small seaside town in southern France to promote their latest films and to watch them in competition for the celebrated Palme d’Or. Today, May 12, 2010, the 63^rd annual Cannes Film Festival commences with a glitzy, star-studded red carpet event at the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès. This year’s President of the Jury is American film director, Tim Burton. It is not uncommon to discover that a number of the films throughout the year to experience the greatest critical or popular successes during their regular theatrical runs also were part of the officially selected films to premier at Cannes.

Toward the end of the 1930’s, the powerful fascist dictatorships of Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini were both so heavily involved in the enactment of control through the complete utilization of rhetoric and propaganda that the majority of the arts in Germany and Italy, especially film, were being specifically selected for censorship of content. In direct response to this censorship, the French Minister of National Education, Jean Zay, decided to establish an international film festival in France. Vichy, Biarritz, and Algiers were all at some point considered as host towns, but Cannes was eventually named the official home of the proposed festival.

September 1 through September 30, 1939 were declared the dates for the inaugural Festival International de Cannes. And then on September 1, 1939, Hitler’s troops invaded Poland, the world went to war, and the festival went dormant for the next seven years. Eventually making its premier in 1946 following the conclusion of World War II, the Cannes Film Festival has now lived on to become the longest running film festival of all time.

The festival is divided into various parts, the most exciting of which, “The Official Selection,” includes juried competitions. The world’s filmmakers must submit their entries to the festival’s board of directors who then decide which films will be a part of “The Official Selection.” There are then two main competitions: the first known simply as “Competition,” the second known as “Un Certain Regard.” The twenty films selected to compete for the esteemed Palme d’Or are viewed in the Théâtre Lumière as part of “Competition.” The films are judged by an annually selected jury and president, comprised each year of international artists based on their respective bodies of work and respect from their peers.

Notable past winners include Billy Wilder’s The Lost Weekend (1946), Carol Reed’s incredible masterpiece The Third Man (1949), Robert Altman’s M*A*S*H (1970), and Roman Polanski’s The Pianist (2002). One of the most famous Palme d’Or wins was the year Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction (1994) took home the prestigious award. Tarantino’s most recent film, the Academy Award-winning Inglourious Basterds (2009), also was selected to premier at Cannes. Last year’s Palme d’Or winner was Michael Haneke’s much praised The White Ribbon.

Here is a list of a few of the films chosen to compete as part of “The Official Selection” this year at Cannes that I think belong on your radar screens. I have only included the English translations of the titles. I encourage you to seek these films out upon their release into theaters. Some of them may be harder to find outside of New York City or Los Angeles, so be sure to add them to your Netflix queues:

Another Year directed by Mike Leigh (England)

Biutiful directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu (Spain)

Certified Copy directed by Abbas Kiarostami (France)

Fair Game directed by Doug Liman (USA)

There is also a section at Cannes reserved for films selected to premier outside of competition. Three are from the United States this year:

Robin Hood directed by Ridley Scott

Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps directed by Oliver Stone

…and the terrifically-titled You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger directed by Woody Allen. That is one that I am anxiously looking forward to seeing. I only hope that it lives up to its great title.

Until next week, here is my hope that we all find our Shangri-La. Good night.

Preview of Coming Attractions: or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Movies

Every year right around this time, I start getting excited about new movies again. Up until this point in the year, the studios, with a few notable exceptions, have been releasing their backlog of unimpressive filler films deemed not worthy for fan-fared release during one of the more platinum movie seasons: namely the summer “blockbuster” and fall “awards magnet” seasons. Therefore, with little to wet my insatiable appetite for new cinema beyond titles such as Tooth Fairy, Dear John, and The Bounty Hunter, I have, for less of a better means of description, been going hungry for the past four months.

Except for Shutter Island, which was moved from its originally scheduled release date of October 3, 2009 in order for Paramount Pictures to ensure the release of at least one predicted money-maker during a season usually known for its slim pickin’s, no other film released in 2010 thus far has remotely enticed me to leave the comfort of my rather significant Netflix queue or my rather modest home theater system and to venture out to the dreaded multiplexes. I say dreaded for, to quote Obi-Wan, “nowhere will you find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.”

All right, that’s overstating it a bit. However, they are upheavals of excess and extortion. Sorry readers. Apparently I’m incapable of anything less than hyperbole tonight. But movie theaters have lost their charm. They just aren’t what they used to be. If you’ll allow me a bit of waxing poetic through nostalgia, going to the movies used to be a magical experience of romantic proportions, even if you weren’t on a date. Of course, people also used to put on a hat and gloves to go into town, so…so much for nostalgia. Nowadays, you can go broke even before you get to the popcorn line. And with everyone and his Aunt Lillian jumping on the fast train to 3D town, we are currently looking at ticket prices averaging between $15 and $20 per person. My particular Netflix package costs me less than $10 per month, and my DVD player comes with a pause button in case I have to throw somebody out of the house when his cell phone goes off in the middle of the movie.

When I went to see The Dark Knight for the second time (because I just had to see it a second time), the movie had barely begun to roll when a woman pushing a stroller and leading two bouncing monkeys, who, judging by the vertical diameter of their eyeballs and inability not to twitch, had finished their three gallons of Pepsi before entering the room, took the seat directly next to mine. That’s right. The singular seat. The kids apparently were given free reign to utilize the running space directly in front of my chair. That movie theater was more like a daycare center, and I was the free babysitter paying for the privilege of watching the kids. I kept waiting for the mother to lean over and say, “Do you mind keeping an eye on them? I’m trying to watch this movie.” Terrible.

Anyways, long story a little less long, movie theaters, in my opinion, are the worst way to see a movie these days, especially considering the extremely reasonably short amount of time it takes for new movies to come out on DVD, and the quality of home entertainment centers. That is unless something comes along that sparks my interest enough to encourage my willing ignorance of the above-stated grievances. And this is the time of year when studios start releasing movies with the power to encourage that very willing ignorance.

Looking ahead at the coming months’ release schedules, there are a number of movies coming out that I am either extremely excited about or intrigued enough by to risk a repeat of my Dark Knight fiasco. Here is a handful on my radar that I think you might like to have on yours.

On May 14, the director and lead actor of the 2000 Academy Award-winning Gladiator are re-teaming to bring us a brand new Robin Hood that this time doesn’t include Kevin Costner sometimes attempting a mediocre British accent. The trailer looks incredible. Cate Blanchett is Maid Marion. This one has been getting a lot of buzz for quite awhile.

On June 18, Pixar returns to the ongoing and endlessly entertaining saga of Woody and Buzz Lightyear in Toy Story 3. A new Pixar movie is always worthy of a trip to the theater.

On July 16, Christopher Nolan releases his first originally conceived idea since his monumentally mind-binding Memento (2000). Starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Juno’s Ellen Page, Inception, based on the trailers, looks to be as equally mind-binding and original. I will now see anything brought to us by the director of The Dark Knight.

Finally, on August 13, Julia Roberts returns to the big screen in one of her first leading roles since she won the Academy Award for 2000’s Erin Brockovich. I don’t know about you, but personally I’ve missed Julia ever since she decided to live happily ever after as Mrs. Danny Moder and family. Eat Pray Love may seem to be aimed more at the 40-year-old female lobby, and not the 28-year-old male district. But it is the sophomore directorial effort of Glee co-creator Ryan Murphy, and costars the always-terrific Javier Bardem, so I’m willing to give it a try. And…Julia Roberts.

So there you have it. We’ll have to wait and see if they can live up to the hype. I’m looking forward to seeing if they do.

Until next week, here is my hope that we all find our Shangri-La. Good night.