There Will Be Blood - now with child/partner forum we call H.W.

[tpfkabi]

Saw it today. I was sweating. It fucked me.

tell me more...

btw, Film Comment has Blood on the cover and an article by Kent Jones on the film.

[MacGuffin]

Smaller screen, bigger potential
There are certain stories and characters who now belong to television -- and the movies can't have them back.
By Kate Aurthur, Los Angeles Times


**SPOILERS**


NO sane person with a bladder would argue that "There Will Be Blood," which runs for 2 hours and 38 minutes, should be longer.

But what if it were, in fact, 62 hours and 22 minutes longer, because instead of being a movie, "There Will Be Blood" was a television show on HBO or Showtime or some cable outlet with a bazillion dollars and a liberal language policy?

That was what I thought as I watched it at the ArcLight recently, dehydrating and too scared to drink more water.

We all know that the quality of television has spiked in the last 10 years, as cable channels such as HBO arose to lead the whole industry, networks included, through a creative, competitive boom. And how did it get to this apex? Through stealing from movies, of course. The best dramatic television of recent years, the shows that cause critics to write that we are in a golden age of drama -- "Dexter," "The Shield," "The Sopranos," "Mad Men," "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "Friday Night Lights," "The Wire," "Battlestar Galactica," "Lost" and others -- have lifted storytelling, cinematography, character development and, often, actors from movies. Before the writers strike, it was physically impossible to keep up.

Duh, you might say.

But there's a certain kind of story, and in particular a certain kind of antihero -- one who is profane and morally compromised, yet righteous and magnetic -- who now belongs to television. Daniel Day-Lewis' Daniel Plainview, with his rage-filled ambition and tiny cracks of humanity and love, is exactly that guy. And "There Will Be Blood" proved to me that movies can't have him back.

I think that, by the way, because I very much liked "There Will Be Blood." Paul Thomas Anderson and Day-Lewis created a heart-attack-inducing world in its opening minutes, and I wanted to know everything about it.

I mean, where have you gone, Paul Sunday? (Warning: The crazy "There Will Be Blood" spoilers start here.) Paul, the character who sets the story in motion, who tells Plainview about the oil in Little Boston, is a mystery to us. Not only do we never see him again, but we barely hear his name until Plainview calls him "chosen" and "the prophet" in the movie's final moments to Paul's twin, Eli -- words that hit Eli nearly as hard as the blows from Plainview that end his life.

On "There Will Be Blood" the TV show, boy, would we have found out all about Paul Sunday. We would also know why Fletcher Hamilton, Plainview's assistant -- played by Ciarán Hinds, who was given so much to do as Julius Caesar in HBO's "Rome" and did it artfully -- is so loyal and stoic and, well, flat. We would also find out the back story of Plainview's actual brother, and more about the impostor he kills.

And if "Deadwood's" Al Swearengen said to another character, as Plainview says to the Standard Oil executive who tries to buy him out, "One night, I'm gonna come inside your house, wherever you're sleeping, and I'm gonna cut your throat," you can bet that throat would be cut.

Most important, we would see the apparently sinful breakdown of Eli Sunday's life that causes him to come to the now wholly vicious Plainview, causing both of their (final) ruin. What a gift it would be for viewers to see Day-Lewis play Plainview's descent in more intricate detail than the rich-crazy-guy-in-a-mansion-shooting-at-stuff vignette. This is a man who can literally act with his foot!

Sunday and Plainview's last confrontation, however, would have made a great series finale. If "The Sopranos" had ended with Tony berating, torturing and beating A.J. to death -- the kind of violent, decisive conclusion most viewers expected -- critics and fans might have been far happier.

Perhaps this back seat carping is why fan fiction exists -- to imagine the whereabouts of Paul Sunday and the other things I wish I knew about the expanded universe of "There Will Be Blood." And maybe somewhere on the interweb Daniel Plainview and Al Swearengen are engaged in an "Alien vs. Predator"-like blood bath. It would be greasy-haired and heavily accented, and it could go on forever, or until one of them said, "I'm finished."

[©brad]

i guess it's safe to say that this is the most publicity DDL has ever done for a movie, no? it's kinda surprising for someone who is usually so reserved and media-shy. 

[Pozer]

stoic as fuck.

The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic, and a killer.

so loyal and stoic

i guess it's safe to say that page 100 was a stoic one.

[MacGuffin]

'Blood' running over rivals at Berlin film fest

An anaemic lineup at the Berlin Film Festival has left critics searching for a challenger to the runaway favourite for the coveted Golden Bear award, Paul Thomas Anderson's "There Will be Blood".

Halfway through the 11-day festival, which started on a high note with the world premiere of "Shine a Light," Martin Scorsese's concert film of the Rolling Stones, the warmest praise has gone to individual performances rather than the movies themselves.

The main exception is Anderson's sweeping epic about a tyrannical oil prospector that has dominated a running ratings poll of international critics by the trade magazine Screen International.

"There Will Be Blood" came into the Berlinale with eight Oscar nominations under its belt and a clutch of top awards for British-born Daniel Day-Lewis, whose towering lead performance has made him a clear frontrunner for a best actor prize here.

"There Will Be Gold" predicted the German daily Der Tagesspiegel after the film screened on Friday.

Anderson knows what it is to triumph in Berlin, having won the Golden Bear in 2000 for "Magnolia".

A total of 21 films are in the official competition for the top prize to be announced by an all-star jury led by Greek-French director Costa-Gavras at a gala ceremony February 16.

With 11 films screened so far, the most memorable reviews have been the harshest at the 58th Berlinale, which ranks among Europe's top three festivals.

"A B-movie for a C-list festival," was Der Tagesspiegel film critic Jan Schulz-Ojala's scathing verdict on "Black Ice," a lukewarm Finnish thriller about a love triangle.

Scott Roxborough, covering his eighth Berlinale for the cinema industry magazine The Hollywood Reporter, acknowledged the prevalent mood that the films in competition had failed to deliver.

"On paper it looked pretty good, with some old established directors and new ones, but so far there's been nothing that has really set people alight," Roxborough said.

"It seems they haven't taken any big risks this year -- no new, cutting-edge or really different films like in the past," he added. "I'll give the festival a C-plus at the moment, but it can still turn in some written work and up its grade before the end."

While the critical consensus has favoured "There Will Be Blood," Berlinale veterans say the Oscar nominations and other plaudits already showered on the film elsewhere might tempt the jury to spotlight one of the smaller efforts that would benefit hugely from the exposure that comes with a Golden Bear.

Possible candidates include Mexican director Fernando Eimbcke's "Lake Tahoe," an understated, touching drama of a teenaged boy coming to terms with his father's death.

Chinese director Wang Xiaoshuai's film, "In Love We Trust," -- a contemporary tale of love, responsibility and deceit among China's new middle class, was also well received at press screenings.

Best actress speculation has focused on Britain's Tilda Swinton and Spanish star Penelope Cruz.

Swinton, who has developed a reputation as a risk-taker, won praise for her portrayal of an alcoholic who kidnaps a boy in French director Erick Zonca's "Julia".

Cruz was picked out for her performance as a student who embarks on an affair with a much older professor, played by Ben Kingsley, in the otherwise unfavoured "Elegy".

While Day-Lewis would seem a shoo-in for the men's honours, German actor Elmar Wepper is a possible dark-horse challenger for his lead role in "Cherry Blossoms" as a man who begins to understand the passions of his late wife on a visit to Tokyo.

And with 10 more competition films to be screened, there is still time for other favourites to emerge.

Tuesday sees the premiere of "Standard Operating Procedure," Errol Morris's documentary on the treatment of prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, as well as veteran British director Mike Leigh's light drama, "Happy-Go-Lucky," about a young schoolteacher navigating her way through life in London.

[tpfkabi]

i guess it's safe to say that this is the most publicity DDL has ever done for a movie, no? it's kinda surprising for someone who is usually so reserved and media-shy. 

i finally watched the Charlie Rose interview and you can tell they have really become close and Daniel loved being a part of the film and playing the part.

[polkablues]

There Will Be Bell

Trailer mashup with Saved By The Bell.  Only moderately amusing, but worth posting.

[Fernando]

You know there's already a porn film parody of this.

There Will Be Blondes.

I didn't see it.

[JG]

There Will Be Blood.

[FrunLg]

http://youtube.com/watch?v=7HW6xHlFvPQ
http://youtube.com/watch?v=_ek3sPaJGuE
http://youtube.com/watch?v=kSkg6Ne6VJU&feature=related

[JG]

http://youtube.com/watch?v=kSkg6Ne6VJU&feature=related

oh my goodness, this exchange is too much. also, i do not think he combed his hair on this day.

[squints]

http://youtube.com/watch?v=kSkg6Ne6VJU&feature=related

oh my goodness, this exchange is too much. also, i do not think he combed his hair on this day.

he makes this face and this head-tilt/neckfat thing toward the end like vincent d'onofrio in men in black asking for sugar water.

[MacGuffin]

Directors step up to take their shot
Less experience may prove to be a good thing as this year's nominees ply their craft with an eccentric eye.
By Dennis Lim, Special to The Times

THE six nominees for this year's best director Academy Award have made a total of 23 feature films. To put that meager number into perspective, consider this: "The Departed," which finally won Martin Scorsese his directing Oscar last year (on his sixth nomination), was his 21st theatrically released feature. As with the acting categories, the best director Oscar often goes to overdue candidates -- which is to say, it's awarded for bodies of work as much as for the film under consideration -- but this year, instead of the usual lineup of establishment old-timers, voters are picking from a pool of career mavericks and comparative neophytes.

It's ill-advised to make big-picture pronouncements based on a single year, but the slender résumés and below-average age of the class of '08 -- Julian Schnabel, at 56, is the oldest nominee -- could signal an important changing of the guard.
 
Jason Reitman, director of "Juno," has made only one other feature, the 2005 satire "Thank You for Smoking," and is the youngest of the group, at 30. (John Singleton, 23 at the time of "Boyz N the Hood," holds the record for the youngest nominated director. Norman Taurog, who won for "Skippy" in 1931, when he was 32, remains the youngest winner.)

Two other nominees, although relatively new to directing, have considerable track records in other areas. "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" is only Schnabel's third movie, but the Neo-Expressionist painter has enjoyed a reputation as an art-world enfant terrible since the early '80s. "Michael Clayton" is Tony Gilroy's first feature, but he has worked as a Hollywood screenwriter (on all three "Bourne" movies, notably) for more than a dozen years. (The last director who won for his debut effort was Sam Mendes, for "American Beauty" in 2000, and he was already an established theater director.)

Which leaves the maverick auteurs, Paul Thomas Anderson and the Coen brothers. Anderson is only 37, a wildly talented and ambitious, self-taught filmmaker who received the best reviews of his career for his fifth movie, "There Will Be Blood." Joel Coen, 53, and Ethan, 50, are this year's elder statesmen -- "No Country for Old Men" is their 12th feature -- but despite being longtime critics' favorites, this is only their second movie to register during awards season. "Fargo" was nominated for seven Oscars and won for best actress and screenplay. (The Coen brothers and Anderson, incidentally, have taken home the top prize for directing in the much artier context of the Cannes Film Festival -- the Coens for "The Man Who Wasn't There" in 2001 and Anderson for "Punch-Drunk Love" the following year.)

Ballots, box office in sync

AS many reviewers have noted, 2008 was a banner year for American movies, and the unmissable vitality of the field seems to have given the academy a chance to catch up with critical opinion. It is not getting any easier to make adventurous, personal movies in Hollywood, but a notable cluster of filmmakers -- working in Indiewood or on the fringes of Hollywood, many of them in their 30s and 40s -- have figured out a way to do so. More than any previous Oscar roster, this year's nominees -- heavy on idiosyncratic fare, light on the bloated prestige pictures that typically dominate the night -- seem to reflect that reality.

It could also be argued that "There Will Be Blood" and "No Country for Old Men," both neo-westerns centered on murderous and perversely charismatic sociopaths (Daniel Day-Lewis and Javier Bardem are favorites to win their respective categories), are the American films of the year that best reflect the darkening national mood.

Whether or not Anderson wins the award, his elevation from film-geek hero to Oscar-sanctioned heavyweight is a victory for what you might call the new New Hollywood. Younger, indie-minded directors have had sporadic success in the last decade. Steven Soderbergh, who paved the way for the American indie film as we know it with "Sex, Lies, and Videotape," won an Oscar for "Traffic" in 2001, when he was also nominated for "Erin Brockovich." Quentin Tarantino, Sofia Coppola and Alexander Payne have all earned directing nominations and won original screenplay Oscars the first time they were nominated (for "Pulp Fiction," "Lost in Translation" and "Sideways," respectively). Indeed, the original screenplay category has been notably friendly to writer-director types, including Richard Linklater, Todd Haynes, Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach.

With the Coens and Paul Thomas Anderson the clear front-runners, the 2008 directing Oscar will likely go to a writer-director. Of the last 10 winners, only Peter Jackson (who co-wrote "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King") and James Cameron ("Titanic") had screenplay credits on their films. The fact that writer-directors have not done too well gives a clue as to what voters are normally looking for in a category that has always been somewhat murky.

Swept up by their style

IT can be hard to pinpoint what exactly a director does on a film, given that he or she in theory oversees every aspect of the production and that the job description in practice varies from film to film and from director to director. The redundancy of having best picture and director awards has often been noted -- why would the best film not also be the best-directed, and vice versa? The distinction dates to the beginning of the Academy Awards, when producers were dominant creative forces (the best picture Oscar goes to a film's producers) and directors were often hired hands.

Recent winners (Jackson, Cameron, Ron Howard, Anthony Minghella) indicate that voters are drawn not necessarily to a distinctive directorial vision but above all to grandeur: an imposing or showy visual style, a skillful marshaling of resources on a large scale. This year, at least with the Coens and Anderson (and arguably Schnabel too), the category seems more in line with what French film critics of the '50s meant when they spoke of auteurs: directors whose films were an expression of authorial personality.

Anderson best fits that bill -- "There Will Be Blood," the most eccentric of epics, is nothing if not a film with personality, as well as the boldest American movie of the last year -- but the Coens, given the momentum of "No Country" and the sense that they are overdue, are probably the favorites. (They also won the Directors Guild award, a reliable predictor.) None of the other three could be considered strong contenders. Screenwriter Diablo Cody deserves much of the credit -- or blame, depending on how you see it -- for "Juno." "Michael Clayton" is solidly directed but not flashy enough for a win in this category, against this competition. "The Diving Bell" missed out on a best picture nomination, making Schnabel that much more of a long shot.

If it's any comfort to the losers, the roster of Oscar-winning directors, even more than the acting categories, is a notoriously incomplete one. The list of filmmakers who have never won a director Oscar -- Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick, Howard Hawks, Orson Welles, Ernst Lubitsch and Robert Altman, just to name the most egregious half-dozen -- amounts to a veritable hall of fame.

[idk]

Tonight! Tuesday, Feburary 19 2008 On Charlie Rose: A discussion about the films There Will be Blood & No Country for Old Men... link

hopefully this wont just be replays of the already broadcast conversations

[noyes]

hopefully this wont just be replays of the already broadcast conversations

unfortunately, it is.