GoNola.com has published Edward Branley's "NOLA History: Movies Set and Shot in New Orleans" which offers interesting tidbits on EASY RIDER, THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON, and THE CINCINNATI KID.
All the Grisham films mentioned in the piece will be discussed in this space soon, but next up is INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE, mysteriously unavailable from Netflix for a long time but today a brand new blu-ray appeared in my mailbox. Was this the film that made Brad Pitt fall in love with New Orleans? Does it make you feel old to realize the film is nearly 25 years old? (Yes!)
Thursday, July 31, 2014
Saturday, July 12, 2014
Some thoughts on this blog…
Hello, Randy here.
I started this because I wanted other filmmakers to have a resource that'd let them peruse the history of NOLA-made films pre-Hollywood South, and quickly be able to identify the films with the most relevance to whatever they're working on. In other words, the resource that I wish I had!
You could say I'm watching all these films so you don't have to.
However, I never wanted to do film reviews, and I'm afraid maybe that's what this is turning into. I won my first journalism awards for film criticism, it's a form I really love, but others do it better. This blog is supposed to break down with I think certain films did right or wrong in how they used New Orleans on screen.
It's supposed to have actionable insight for filmmakers to consider regarding their own projects.
It's supposed to discuss precedents for various storytelling techniques.
It's supposed to examine how to mount a local film production that uses NOLA's energy and chaos to its advantage, instead of trying to lock it down and control it like Hollywood prefers.
I think maybe it's gotten too far away from that. Fortunately, I'm almost done with all the major features shot and/or set here. I think. I discover more all the time. Keep 'em coming!
Anyway, regarding the content of this blog, what say you? Please leave a Comment about what you liked and/or didn't about the blog so far, and what you'd like to see in terms of laying out a blueprint for independent film production using Essential NOLA Films (those lists on the right) as role models.
Thanx!
_R
I started this because I wanted other filmmakers to have a resource that'd let them peruse the history of NOLA-made films pre-Hollywood South, and quickly be able to identify the films with the most relevance to whatever they're working on. In other words, the resource that I wish I had!
You could say I'm watching all these films so you don't have to.
However, I never wanted to do film reviews, and I'm afraid maybe that's what this is turning into. I won my first journalism awards for film criticism, it's a form I really love, but others do it better. This blog is supposed to break down with I think certain films did right or wrong in how they used New Orleans on screen.
It's supposed to have actionable insight for filmmakers to consider regarding their own projects.
It's supposed to discuss precedents for various storytelling techniques.
It's supposed to examine how to mount a local film production that uses NOLA's energy and chaos to its advantage, instead of trying to lock it down and control it like Hollywood prefers.
I think maybe it's gotten too far away from that. Fortunately, I'm almost done with all the major features shot and/or set here. I think. I discover more all the time. Keep 'em coming!
Anyway, regarding the content of this blog, what say you? Please leave a Comment about what you liked and/or didn't about the blog so far, and what you'd like to see in terms of laying out a blueprint for independent film production using Essential NOLA Films (those lists on the right) as role models.
Thanx!
_R
PRETTY BABY is one for the creepers, uh I mean, ages
Louis Malle's PRETTY BABY (1978) is set largely in an uptown brothel around the turn of the century; Brooke Shields plays the 12-year-old lead character. If this set-up suggests troubling possibilities to you, well, you've read the film's mind, because it dives right into all of them and then some. Child prostitution, auctioning off virgins, you name it, it happens. Most shockingly, this stuff is often celebrated by the characters, as people of that world did in that time and place. The film's depiction is so deadpan that when it was released people accused it of promoting child pornography (spoiler alert: it doesn't).
The great Polly Platt wrote the script and produced it. Platt should be considered a towering figure in 70s cinema, having been a major player on dozens of timeless classics, and rarely making a misstep. However, institutionalized sexism, ahoy.
The film's New Orleans content is pretty thin in terms of geography and exteriors, seeing as how it's largely set inside. But PRETTY BABY truly nails the New Orleans personality types, especially among the women in the brothel, a colorful set of ne'er-do-wells spanning four generations. The madame in particular stands out as the apotheosis of every bar owner I've ever met in NOLA, male or female.
PRETTY BABY: excellent film, but not Essential NOLA Cinema.
NEXT: IINTERVIEW WITH A VAMPIRE which I've been avoiding successfully for 24 years. Sigh.
The great Polly Platt wrote the script and produced it. Platt should be considered a towering figure in 70s cinema, having been a major player on dozens of timeless classics, and rarely making a misstep. However, institutionalized sexism, ahoy.
The film's New Orleans content is pretty thin in terms of geography and exteriors, seeing as how it's largely set inside. But PRETTY BABY truly nails the New Orleans personality types, especially among the women in the brothel, a colorful set of ne'er-do-wells spanning four generations. The madame in particular stands out as the apotheosis of every bar owner I've ever met in NOLA, male or female.
PRETTY BABY: excellent film, but not Essential NOLA Cinema.
NEXT: IINTERVIEW WITH A VAMPIRE which I've been avoiding successfully for 24 years. Sigh.
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