Week 10- Chills and Thrills: Horror Films

Can't you feel it? It's alive ... watching.

-Julie Harris as Eleanor in The Haunting

M 4.20/W 4.22

Lecture: Introduction to Horror

Screening: The Haunting (Wise, 1863 USA)

Due: OSR 6 (Documentary Film)

Week 9- Out of the Celluloid Closet: Gay Cinema

My body may be a work-in-progress, but there is nothing wrong with my soul.

-Felicity Huffman as Bree in Transamerica

M 3.30/W 4.1
Lecture: History of Gay Cinema, Pt. 2
Screening: Transamerica (Tucker, 2005 USA)
Due: OSR 5 (Foreign Film)

"Twilight" dawns on DVD with big bow

By Carl DiOrio, Reuters

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - "Twilight" is off to a bright start on shiny disc.

Summit Entertainment said more than 3 million DVDs of its teen vampire-romance title jumped off store shelves during its first day on sale. The first-day haul for "Twilight" came via an unusual Saturday launch as discs generally debut on Tuesdays.

The "Twilight" sales rank among the top five best-selling DVD titles of the past two years, executives at the closely held studio said. The big DVD tally follows an outsized theatrical run for the first in a planned trio of pictures based on the "Twilight" book series.

"Twilight" has earned $373 million at the worldwide box office since its debut last November.

Two "Twilight" sequels have been announced: "New Moon," set to premiere November 20, and "Eclipse," recently scheduled for a June 30, 2010, opening.

Sacha Baron Cohen's Guerilla Tactics

How shell companies, web sites help trick rubes for new film "Bruno"

MARCH 19, TheSmokingGun.com

As he travels the country searching for Americans to dupe into appearing in his next film, comedian Sacha Baron Cohen is operating behind a series of dummy companies and web sites intended to mask his involvement in the follow-up to the hit "Borat" movie. Claiming to be preparing a documentary for German television, Cohen and his production team have recently approached interview subjects (ballroom dancers, Alabama National Guard officials, and a white supremacist) claiming to be affiliated with Amesbury Chase, a Los Angeles-based production company. In his new film, Cohen appears as "Bruno," a gay Austrian journalist who asks embarrassing (and sexually charged) questions. Prospective interviewees have been directed to the Amesbury Chase web site, which describes the firm as having "world class facilities, and state-of-the art equipment to help you create dynamic and compelling content." The firm's address is actually a box at Sunset Blvd. Mailboxes. And the company and its web site were both created within the last 18 months. Three other Cohen front companies--Chromium Films, Cold Stream Productions, and Coral Blue Productions--use the same mailbox drop and phone number as Amesbury Chase. The four firms have nearly identical web sites, all of which originate from the same web hosting firm (on the following pages you'll find screen grabs from Cohen's Amesbury Chase site). In a brief interview, Stephen Strick, a Los Angeles lawyer who formed Cohen's straw firms, told TSG that, "I'm no longer involved in those" and said he would see if "the production's lawyer" would get back to a reporter. Last year, Cohen as "Bruno" interviewed Glenn Miller, a 68-year-old Missouri man who describes himself as a Nazi who hates "filthy Jews." Miller, who told TSG that he was paid $2000 in cash for an on-camera interview, claimed that he knew the interview was a set-up and that his interviewer was "a faggot." Before meeting with "Bruno," Miller crowed on a bulletin board that a German TV station would be paying him for an interview in which he could "air my racist and anti-semitic 'ravings' far and wide." In follow-up posts, Miller, a convicted felon who spent three years in prison for weapons possession and mailing a "declaration of war" to fellow white supremacists, noted that he had met with two female production coordinators who told him that "a German fellow will do the actual interview." He also reported that, according to the two "gorgeous young chicks," the "interviewer is not a jew." In two posts, Miller included the phone number he was given by Cohen's deputies. The number is listed on the contact page of each of Cohen's four front companies.

Week 8- Out of the Celluloid Closet: Gay Cinema

It's not you, Billy. It's me.

-Brad Row as Gabriel in Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss

M 3.23/W 3.25
Lecture: History of Gay Cinema, Pt. 1
Screening: Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss (O’Haver, 1998 USA)

Male bonding: Hollywood’s hottest bromances

By Dorothy Pomerantz, Forbes
Updated 5:09 p.m. PT, Thurs., March. 19, 2009

Laurel and Hardy never discussed their feelings. Martin and Lewis didn’t worry about having enough male friends. Lemmon and Matthau were more interested in bickering than hugging.

That was the old model for buddy movies, where men goofed around with each other, made audiences laugh, but never discussed the deeper meaning of their friendships. By contrast, today’s men are more enlightened (and less homophobic) when it comes to their relationships with one another. They confide their worries, they act vulnerable, they hug. Hence the new model for the buddy comedy: the bromance.

The word “bromance” reportedly dates back to the early 1990s, when it appeared in Big Brother, a skating magazine, to describe the relationship between skateboarders who spent lots of time together. Brother plus romance equals bromance.

Today, the bromance can be a ticket to big box-office revenues. Audiences love seeing George Clooney and Brad Pitt in the “Ocean’s” movies, not just because of their good looks but because they know the two men are close friends in real life. Director Judd Apatow has based his career on the concept. His movies feature man-boys who often learn about themselves by bonding with other men. One of the last scenes in the movie “Superbad” features Jonah Hill and Michael Cera cuddling.

The bromance trend is at the center of DreamWorks’ latest movie, “I Love You, Man,” opening March 20. The film tells the story of Peter Klaven, a guy who is about to get married but doesn’t have any pals who can serve as his best man. So he starts going on man dates to try to find a best friend.

The movie stars Paul Rudd and Jason Segel, making this their third film together. In the spirit of the bromance we decided to look at the most profitable male couplings of the last five years. We picked the teams and then added up the worldwide box-office sales for all of the films each pairing appeared in together.

Topping the list are Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson. Their eight films together have earned a total of $1.8 billion at the box office. “Night at the Museum” was the highest grossing at $574 million. A sequel is in the works for this year. Their lowest-grossing film was Permanent “Midnight,” in which Stiller played drug addict Jerry Stahl. The movie earned only $2 million.

In second place: George Clooney and Brad Pitt. The four movies they have appeared in together earned a total of $1.3 billion at the box office. The “Ocean’s” trilogy accounts for most of that money. Last year they both starred in the Coen brothers’ movie “Burn After Reading” (but never appeared onscreen together).

Apatow’s gang takes up two of the spots on our list. Seth Rogan and his younger doppelgänger, Jonah Hill, along with Rudd and Segel, all appeared in 2007’s “Knocked Up.” Rogan and Hill’s movies have grossed $863 million in total, ranking them third on our list. Rudd and Segel’s films have earned $324 million (not including “I Love You, Man”).

At the bottom of our list are Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes. The pair appeared in six of Smith’s movies as dope-loving Jay and Silent Bob, and starred together in “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back,” their highest-grossing film, which earned $34 million at the box office. But all together their films have earned only $109 million.

Week 7- Point and Shoot: Documentary Film

"And I hope that the telling of this story turns out to be more than just simple catharsis for the friends of Andrew Begby or the friends of his family. I hope that it can help affect actual change in the way the system works, and if so, then maybe this goes from being a senseless tragedy to an unfortunate step towards necessary reform."

-Drew McWeeny's (AKA Moriety) review of
Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father for AICN

M 3.16/W 3.18
Point and Shoot: Documentary
Film Lecture: Introduction to Documentary Film, Pt. 2
Screening: Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son about His Father (Kuenne, 2008 USA)
Due: OSR 4 (1980-Present)