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NEWS OF ATHENS’ CINEMA SCENE
The Latest "Old" and Newest "New": A few
months ago, I wrote about Olivier Assayas'
marathon made-for-French-TV event Carlos,
which, despite being only ambiguously cat-
egorizable as a film, wound up highly placed
on numerous "best films of 2010" lists. I
(and a few million other people) just finished
watching something that may easily be con
sidered an American analogue to it: the five-
part HBO miniseries Mildred Pierce, starring
Kate Winslet and directed by Todd Haynes.
The series—Haynes (I'm Not There, Far
from Heaven, Velvet Goldmine) regards it
as a film—adapts James M. Cain's 1941
novel, famously filmed in 1945 with Barbara
Stanwyck, about a divorced woman who must
fight to recondle her strength and ambition
with her sexual and (espedally) maternal
desires in a sodety that constantly pits those
sides of her character against each other.
It revisits its director's favorite territory:
iconic cultural expressions of the mid- and
late mid-20th century, whose sodo-political
contexts (and comments) are re-examined
through Haynes' decidedly postmodern but
Do It!: Speaking of the divide between truly
independent film and the Hollywood machine
(were we doing that?), you probably want to
attend the kickoff event to this year's Athens
Americana music festival at Little Kings at 8
p.m. Wednesday, Apr. 27 for a screening of the
documentary Do it for Johnny, which recounts
the highly dedicated efforts of a small group
of independent filmmakers to deliver a script
about the checkered life of an acclaimed
luthier to Johnny Depp—via a special com
partment on the back of an electric guitar
custom-built by the luthier himself. It's a
heedless, fun and revealing dive into the busi
ness of making movies, where those who've
made it are hermetically protected from those
who haven't. And the luthier, of course, is our
own Scott Baxendale, who co-produced and
appears in the film, and who will attend the
screening.
Y Not Just Bad—Bad-Assed: The folk" who
have brought you the monthly Bad Movie
Night at Cine for almost a year now have a
special treat in store this Wedi esday, Apr. 20:
Keith Vitali, the smiling, face-kicking star of No Retreat, No Surrender 3: Blood Brothers, will appear at a
screening of the film Apr. 20 at Cinl
quite intelligent and reasonably sober sensi
bilities. That also happens to be well-trodden
ground in cable series like "Mad Men" and
"Boardwalk Empire," whose meticulous period
design, classy production values and quality
writing mark them as arguably Mildred Pierce's
(if not Carlos') equal in "cinematic" merit.
With traditional divisions between tele
vision and film thus breaking down amid the
ongoing technological shift that is changing
the way all fixed-medium entertainment is
consumed and produced, it's nice to have the
opportunity to feel good about a particular
example of that blurring. Mildred Pierce offers
one: Haynes' co-screenwriter is Jon Raymond,
whose only film credits (he's never done tele
vision before) are for his collaborations with
director Kelly Reichardt on the scripts of her
Old Joy, Wendy and Lucy and Meek's Cutoff (the
last of which we should be welcoming to Cine
fairly soon). He's a strong but only recently
emerged voice in American independent film;
if HBO wants to hire him to write for Kate
Winslet, maybe the new paradigm won't be
so bad. Pass the soma and an iPhone.
the screening of No Retreat, No Surrender 3:
Blood Brothers will be graced by none other
than the august personage of Keith Vitali, one
of the film's stars and a true legend in the
world of competitive martial arts. You know
he was in Revenge of the Ninja and American
Kickboxer I, right? Shut up—you're going.
More at Cine: In other news, if you've been
waiting to see The King's Speech until all
instances but one of the word "fuck" have
been excised and replaced with the word
"shit" against the objections of the Oscar-
winning film's Oscar-winning director and
Oscar-winning star, then you're in luck: the
recut, PG-13-rated version is all the assholes
at The Weinstein Company are offering in
the current theatrical rerelease. If not, then
you might consider seeing Of Gods and Men
or Into Eternity at the downtown art house
instead, since those highly regarded films, as
far as I know, haven't been molested in any
such way. Google that sh!t
Dave Marr film@flagpole.com
14 FLAGPOLE.COM -APRIL 20,2011
