Archive: May, 2011
Carrie Rickey, Film Critic
City Hall is no stranger to movie stardom. It has enjoyed featured roles in Nasty Habits, Winter Kills, Blow Out and Twelve Monkeys, among others. Come Monday, Billy Penn's Beaux-Arts perch will do double-duty as movie star and movie theater when Philadelphia, Jonathan Demme's Oscar-winning film starring Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington, will show at 5:30 pm in the Mayor's Screening Room as part of the Philadelphia Film Festival's "FilmadelphiaCLASSICS" series screening locally-shot movies at the locations where they were filmed.
For ticket information, call 267.239.2941 or filmadelphia.org.
Carrie Rickey, Film Critic
It was an evening of musical and humanitarian inspiration Tuesday when at a Kimmel Center gala Mia Farrow accepted the Marian Anderson Award in the name of the vulnerable people of conflict-affected Africa she has advocated for both as UNICEF ambassador and private citizen.
In accepting the award from Lisa Nutter, Farrow recalled listening to Anderson recordings with her then-husband, Frank Sinatra. She told an anecdote about Anderson, who in the 1930s was not invited to play certain venues because she was African-American. Anderson travelled to Finland at the invitation of composer Jean Sibelius, who wept when he heard her. In awe of Anderson's soaring tones, he said, "My ceiling is too low for your voice."
High as it is, the Kimmel ceiling was too low to accommodate the elevating music of The Philadelphia Orchestra, soprano Angela Brown, singer Carly Simon (a Farrow chum accompanied by the Keystone Boychoir and Pennsylvania Girlchoir) and the celestial sound of jazz singer Esperanza Spalding. Spalding thanked Farrow for being the kind of person who makes a difference in the lives of kids "like me."
Carrie Rickey, Film Critic
As every movie geek knows, Dashiell Hammett's "The Thin Man" spawned a swoony series of 1930s comedies starring William Powell and Myrna Loy as a swellegant, Martini-swilling pair of married sleuths. Apart from the fact that this property doesn't need updating, Anne Thompson reports that Johnny Depp has been cast in an update. Who should be his Nora? (Hammett based the bickering, snickering, schnockered couple on himself and girlfriend Lillian Hellman).
Lovers of the Thin Man books and movies know that the attempt to adapt it to Broadway about 20 years ago was a fiasco. Still, because it's a property where the male and female characters are in an imperfectly perfect marriage, it would be fun to watch Depp play verbal tennis with his equal.
My first thought was Emma Stone, droll comedienne of Easy A, who was born with tongue in cheek. Alas, at 22, she's less than half the age of Depp, 47. Kristen Wiig, 37, is a possibility. As are Drew Barrymore (36) and Paula Patton (35).
Carrie Rickey, Film Critic
Once upon a Mother's Day, my late mom wanted me to take her to the movies. I winced. I told her, "The only two films we haven't seen are Violette, the one about the notorious French brat who poisons her parents, and Autumn Sonata, the one about the glacial Swedish concert pianist who frosts her daughter when they see each other for the first time in seven years. I don't think either is suitable to the occasion."
Without missing a beat she said, "Let's go see Violette. I wouldn't want Daddy to feel left out." Buying tickets felt like the moral equivalent of parricide. Watching it together was...complicated. For me, it was like poisoning Mom and having her, too. For Mom, it was vindication that daughters are ungrateful creatures.
We had a perfectly lovely afternoon. (What better way than spending an afternoon with a mother or daughter who will make you really grateful for the one you have?)
- A List of Things Thrown Five Minutes Ago
- American Women Film Journalists
- Anne Thompson on Film
- Dave Kehr on Film
- David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson
- David Edelstein's The Projectionist
- Dennis Cozzallo on Film
- Edward Copeland on Film
- Flickgrrl posts 2/07 through 5/08
- Glenn Kenny's Some Came Running
- Green Cine Daily
