Blogging Fusion Blog Directory is a premiere blog directory on the internet. There are (2,577 blogs) submitted and we are growing very rapidly. We help bloggers get more exposure. Whether you're looking to promote your own blog to increase revenue, backlinks, readership or improve your search engine visibility, this blog directory is for you. Submit your blog today and increase your traffic & exposure. Blogging Fusion Blog Directory is search engine friendly and updated often.
No blog reviews yet! Be the first to write a review. Click the Review Blog icon above.
Add the Review Me Button to your Blog!
<a href="http://www.bloggingfusion.com/review-blog-3323.html"><img src="http://www.bloggingfusion.com/images/linkware/review-me-at-blogging-fusion.png" alt="Review Film for the Soul at Blogging Fusion Blog Directory" style="border:0px;" /></a>
Put simply, a picture can say a 1000 words; which is rather apt for my 1000 Greatest Film project and in a new weekly feature, as part of 'The Soul Focus', The Soul Picture will attempt to say what mere words can't. Enjoy the visual feast.
In one of the more infamous cases of studio interference, the treatment of Terry Gilliam's Brazil, a nightmarish vision of a dystopian society, overrun by bureaucracy , ruled by technology and state terror, still takes some beating.
Delivered to Universal studios in 1985, Gilliam's original 142 minute cut was completed on time and on budget, and having secured an international deal with Fox Pictures, who accepted the film as is, Gilliam wasn't wrong in thinking that Universal would do likewise for the release in America. However, Gilliam couldn't have accounted for Sid Sheinberg, then President of Universal studios.
Having taken a decided interest in Brazil, Sheinberg, although liking several components of the film, it's superlative set design and the hallmarks of"bravura film making" for instance, felt it lacked, in his eyes, "commercial potential". Believing Gilliam's edit didn't equal box-office success, Sheinberg, along with studio editors Bill Gordean and Steve Lovejoy, decided to re-edit the film in a more 'commercially viable' light, removing Gilliam's original downbeat ending, Michael Kamen's score and any overtone of totalitarian government rule, in the process.
Totally undermining Gilliam's vision of a future society gone wrong, dominated and dehumanised by technology, Sheinberg turned Brazil into a futuristic love story, where if you do your job well, you'll be rewarded with your dream girl. Astonishingly this edit, of 132 minutes, was again edited down for syndication on American TV, this time to a lean and restrictive 92 minutes and is known as the ' love conquers all' edit; this edit is the one that pleases Gilliam the most as "it showed how bad the studio cut actually was".
Understandably furious, Gilliam fought back by re-editing his original version, to match that of the studio's; thereby filling his contractual obligations to present an edit 132 minutes to Universal. Locked in a bizarre fight with the studio and with 3 edits now in existence; the original and the two subsequent versions, Gilliam's newest creation was, once again, refused by Sheinberg. Despite a strong reception by critics, who by now could see his original version in England, Sheinberg refused to budge and went ahead with his plans to release the studios version in America.
Desperate, frustrated and locked in his own epic battle with the "mechanisms of power" and bureaucracy, Gilliam decided to take out an advert in Variety. Amongst the glossy pages of movie news, gossip and box-office takings, lay a rather plain, but stark in comparison, white page with a black trim, with the following message printed boldly in the centre.
Dear Sid Sheinberg, when are you going to release my film 'BRAZIL'? Terry Gilliam.
Causing ripples in LA, word of mouth spread and critics began to screen the film in each other's home's, by the time the annual LA Film Critics Association awards came round, Brazil was voted their film of the year, despite it not even securing a release date in America. Eventually the studio relinquished and released Gilliam's 132 minute version - to only two cinemas in L.A, on Christmas Day 1985, with minimal advertising and support they slowly released it nationwide with little success at the box-0ffice .
In total, there have been 5 edits of Brazil released; culminating with Gilliam's 142 minute director's cut finally becoming available thanks to Criterion. The experience with Brazil; Gilliam's first Hollywood picture, forever tarnished the director's reputation and marked him out as something of a L'Enfant Terrible in the eyes of the studios. For Gilliam the whole experience was as ghastly as it was eye-opening and his love/hate relationship with the Hollywood studios remains to this day. For more information on Gilliam's infamous battle with Universal I recommend 'The Battle of Brazil', a documentary focusing solely on the whole sordid incident, which is available with the Criterion release. For your amusement I have added a sneak peak of the documentary below. Enjoy.
Clandestine screenings of Brazil from the documentary 'The Battle of Brazil'
Anyone fancy a slice of Americana? A nice, juicy slab of Mom's apple pie perhaps?
Honing in on small town America, Lynch delivers his own, unique, take on the white picket fence ideal, scratching away the thin veneer to reveal a dark, brooding, evil lying beneath.
In perfect pastiche, Lynch's opening sequence pays homage to the melodramatic, technicolor, films of the 1950'. A fireman waves to the camera from his truck, a crossing guard helps some children across a road and flowers shine brightly against the white picket fences, all played out to the wonderful nostalgic tones of 'Bobby Vinton's 'Blue Velvet'. And then it all goes very Lynch.
Argento's 1977 horror classic 'Suspiria' bookended a golden era of Italian Gothic horror and rode the crest of a wave for 'giallo' film-making. For nigh on 30 years Italian cinema produced, with unmitigated style and panache, a series of horror films, ranging from the chilling supernatural Gothic classic to the exploitative 'giallo' films, that led the way for horror film-making.
The son of director, and later a producer, Salvatore Argento, Dario spent his formative years as a film critic, writing for the newspaper 'Paese Sera', which in turn led him in to the world of cinema, initially as a script and screenplay writer. His writing credit alongside the renowned directors, Sergio Leone and Bernardo Bertolucci for Leone's 1968 film 'Once Upon a Time in the West', made way for his directorial début the following year. Influenced by Mario Bava, often regarded as 'the king' of Italian horror with Argento the crown prince, Dario Argento directorial début, 'The Bird with the Crystal Plumage', noted the beginning of the directors association with 'giallo' and became a key figure in bringing the genre to wider audience recognition. Argento's visual flair, tight conception of set-pieces, his composition of sound and cinematography marked him out as one of the real talents burgeoning on the scene and cemented his 'auteur' status.
Argento put 'giallo', which literally translates from Italian for 'yellow'; named after the lurid yellow covers of Italian pulp fiction, mystery tales and detective novels, on the map. Giallo doesn't so much as denote a genre, not in the classical sense, but more of an essence. There's a general aesthetic that spans several genres; from the classic Gothic horror to the police procedural, from the lurid slasher picture to melodramatic crime caper.
Primal in content, giallo film-making is stark, full of violence, sex and fear, the atmospherics are pushed to the maximum, leaving the audience in perpetual state of terror and exultation. Although Suspiria is seen as a move away from his giallo films, more into the realms of the fantastical and supernatural, it still carries many of the elements recognisable with giallo; the outsider on foreign turf, investigation, suspense and grisly deaths and, essentially, every component heightened and exaggerated with the atmospherics pushed to breaking point.
The first in a planned trilogy titled 'The Three Mothers'; Inferno (1980) and Mother of Tears(2007) concluding the epic tome, Suspiria owes everything to Argento's grounding in the murky world of giallo. Shamefully ignored for the majority of his career by film critics, Argento has obtained something of a 'cult' status, highly regarded amongst his peers and a major influence on some of the main players in Hollywood today; Tarantino, Rodriguez, Roth, to name but a few.
Next year should see the release of Argento's eagerly awaited, and aptly titled, forthcoming film 'Giallo', in which the director pays homage to his roots and to a fondly revered genre. It's also a return to the genre that, not only made his name, but forged and nurtured him as a director. Here's hoping that Argento will finally find the world wide accolade and adulation that has often been missing in his long and remarkable career.
Thanks to a computer breakdown of epic proportions (has anyone ever encountered the marvel of watching their home PC spontaneously combusting?) my remaining posts on Suspiria have been delayed. I'm now in the possession of a new computer, and super-duper fast it is too, so as of tomorrow it'll be business as usual.
Alongside the Suspiria posts expect my continuing feature, 'The Soul Focus'; a week long series of posts dedicated to a film from 'The 1000 Greatest Films' list, to delve into Terry Gilliam's epic, surreal, dystopian, mish-mash of a movie 'Brazil'.
Yet another meme doing the rounds but one I finally have time to complete; there have been a few over the past couple of months which I didn't get around to, so if you were one of those taggers please accept this as my apology.
Anyway,I've been tagged by The Film Doctor and Norma Desmond of The Flick Chick; two great blogs that I read religiously that I highly recommend to any lover of film; go and check them out.
Right, the rules. For it must have rules. Are as follows: 1. Pick one film to represent each letter of the alphabet.
2. The letter "A" and the word "The" do not count as the beginning of a film's title, unless the film is simply titled A or The, and I don't know of any films with those titles.
3.Return of the Jedi belongs under "R," not "S" as in Star Wars Episode IV: Return of the Jedi. This rule applies to all films in the original Star Wars trilogy; all that followed start with "S." Similarly, Raiders of the Lost Ark belongs under "R," not "I" as in Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. Conversely, all films in the LOTR series belong under "L" and all films in the Chronicles of Narnia series belong under "C," as that's what those filmmakers called their films from the start. In other words, movies are stuck with the titles their owners gave them at the time of their theatrical release. Use your better judgement to apply the above rule to any series/films not mentioned.
4. Films that start with a number are filed under the first letter of their number's word. 12 Monkeys would be filed under "T."
5. Link back to Blog Cabins in your post so that I can eventually type "alphabet meme" into Google and come up #1, then make a post where I declare that I am the King of Google.
6. If you're selected, you have to then select 5 more people.
Simple Enough. You think? Right, here goes...
Ais for Alice in the Cities (WimWenders, 1974)
Bis for Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard, 1960)
Cis for The Conversation (Francis Ford Coppola, 1974)
Dis for Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder, 1944)
Eis for Eyes Without a Face (Georges Franju, 1960)
F is for Full Metal Jacket (Stanley Kubrick, 1987)
G is for The Grand Illusion (Jean Renoir, 1937)
His for Harold and Maude (Hal Ashby, 1971)
Iis forIkiru (AkiraKurosawa, 1952)
Jis for Juliet of the Spirits (Federico Fellini, 1965)
K is forKes (Ken Loach, 1969)
Lis for The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (Michael Powell, 1943)
Mis for M (Fritz Lang, 1931)
Nis for Naked (Mike Leigh, 1993)
Ois for Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, 1968)
Pis for Punch-Drunk Love (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2002
Qis forLes Quatre cents coups (Francois Truffaut, 1959) R is forRashomon (Akira Kurosawa, 1950)
Sis forSanshoDayu (KenjiMizoguchi, 1954)
Tis for Touch of Evil (Orson Welles, 1958)
U is for Umberto D (Vittorio De Sica, 1952)
Vis for Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958)
W is for The Wild Bunch (Sam Peckinpah, 1969)
Xis for X-Men 2 (Bryan Singer, 2003) Better than the original but I still don't like it that much. What other choices do I have for X?
Yis for Young Frankenstein (Mel Brooks, 1974)
Zis for Zelig (Woody Allen, 1983)
Phew. Not the greatest representation of my movie habits but I think I nailed the meme pretty well enough. Thanks to Fletch at Blog Cabins for intiating this meme, kudos to him.
Right, I pass this meme on to: I've greatly exceeded the 5 blogger limit but I couldn't just choose 5, that seemed mean.
Blog Directory ID: 3323
Blog URL: http://filmforthesoul.blogspot.com
Google Pagerank: N/A
Blog Description: A simple to honest personal blog about one man's attempt to understand his love of cinema.
Blog Tags: Cinema - Personal - Classics - Reviews - Film - Cult - Movies 
Blog Category: Classic Movie Blogs
Blog Owner: Ibetolis
Blog Added: July 04, 2008 10:12:09 PM
Audience Rating: General Audience
Blogger/BlogSpot
Blog Country: United Kingdom
My Yahoo! 
Report Blog Listing - 
Refer Blog Listing - 
Print Listing
Total Visits: 12
Blog Rating: 0.00
Rate Blog: 
