james gray made a cognac ad
http://blog.cognac-expert.com/james-gray-rise-above-commercial-cognac-martell-xo/
― johnny crunch, Friday, 12 April 2013 21:08 (eleven years ago) link
Not the first in memoriam profile of Ric Menello, Gray's co-writer on Two Lovers and the upcoming film, but maybe the most amazing. Gray:
Well, what happened was… It’s sort of a sad story, actually. What happened was, he was very reliant on his mother. And she died. And I would talk to him and he would say things like, [in Menello’s voice] “I have macular degeneration. I’m going blind.” I said, “Menello, you’re going blind?” “Yes, I look at the Amsler Grid on the Internet.” I was like, “What are you talking about? The Amsler Grid? What is that?” “I looked at it and I’m going blind!” So I would say, “Menello, you know, you’re not going blind.” I had a car come get him and take him to the ophthalmologist. The ophthalmologist called me and said, “Mr. Gray, his eyes are completely fine.” He obviously was having a kind of mental breakdown, and then it became sort of official that he had this mental breakdown after his mother’s death, and he was institutionalized for a while.
And then, Rick Rubin and, I believe, Owen Wilson, and I sort of split three ways his rent for a year—and this guy, Adam Dubin, who was also very helpful, from N.Y.U. We split his rent and moved him into an apartment in Brooklyn after he was released from the hospital. And I felt that I needed to do something to help him. So when I started doing “Two Lovers,” I found myself calling him and just reading him scenes. And he would make suggestions, and sometimes I didn’t like them but sometimes I did, and then I would say, “Well, what movie is this like?” and he would say, “I saw this once in a movie.” Or, better yet, if he’d say “I’ve never seen it in a movie,” you knew you were doing really well.
And I thought, at the end of the process, Well, if I put this guy on as the co-writer, he gets half the money and he gets into the W.G.A. and he gets health benefits, which would really help him, because he was in bad shape. So I did that, and he got half the money, and the benefits, and the residuals, and all that stuff. So when the new movie that I did, “Lowlife,” came around, for me it was a no-brainer to split the credit and to keep the health benefits rolling, and he was very helpful. I’d read him stuff over the phone and he would comment, and, again, direct me to other movies I should look at and works of art that I should know about.
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/movies/2013/03/in-memory-of-ric-menello.html
― Pope Rusty I (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 24 April 2013 01:42 (eleven years ago) link
!
And he said, “Do you remember when I first saw Two Lovers and I said I thought it came out way better than I thought, I really was proud of it?” I said, “Yeah.” And he said, “This grinds it into the dust. If I ever get remembered for one thing, I'd be happy if it was this. It was great. It looks like an epic, it moves, everything works. I'm so happy about it.”
― johnny crunch, Wednesday, 24 April 2013 02:26 (eleven years ago) link
re: lowlife
now apparently retitled The Immigrant
― Pope Rusty I (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 24 April 2013 02:29 (eleven years ago) link
o right
― johnny crunch, Wednesday, 24 April 2013 02:30 (eleven years ago) link
yeah that's a lovely piece. two lovers blows though.
― daft on the causes of punk (schlump), Wednesday, 24 April 2013 03:16 (eleven years ago) link
The Immigrant, formerly Lowlife, has much to admire in it but is ultimately too artificial to move me. Cotillard as Falconetti, Phoenix as Brando, Jeremy Renner as Richard Basehart in La Strada.
Gray is a very funny guy in Q&A tho.
― eclectic husbandry (Dr Morbius), Monday, 7 October 2013 00:41 (ten years ago) link
long interview:
http://mubi.com/notebook/posts/love-sincerity-a-conversation-with-james-gray
― eclectic husbandry (Dr Morbius), Monday, 7 October 2013 01:56 (ten years ago) link
such a smart guy
― the objections to Drake from non-REAL HIPHOP people (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 7 October 2013 02:12 (ten years ago) link
btw unless my eyes deceived me, Lincoln Center digitally projected this even tho it was shot on 35mm.
"I have three young children, and I kind of stopped going to movies in 2006. I go to see some, but I'm a little bit out of touch, and I didn't know who Marion Cotillard was," said Gray. "I had become friendly with her boyfriend, and we went out to dinner in Paris and I met her, and she and I started arguing about an actor that she thought was overrated, and she threw a piece of bread at my head and she mentioned that she thought I was a jerk. I thought she had a great face, and not just physically beautiful because she is, but a haunted quality, almost like a silent film actress…"
― eclectic husbandry (Dr Morbius), Monday, 7 October 2013 14:37 (ten years ago) link
]The Yards holds up. He should work with Phoenix and Wahlberg in perpetuity.
― the objections to Drake from non-REAL HIPHOP people (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 9 October 2013 21:52 (ten years ago) link
Really want The Lost City of Z to happen. http://dlvr.it/46P6fx
― Insane Prince of False Binaries (Gukbe), Wednesday, 9 October 2013 22:19 (ten years ago) link
ooh Cumberbatch
― Number None, Wednesday, 9 October 2013 22:28 (ten years ago) link
new movie playing at Miami International Film Festival this afternoon.
― Bryan Fairy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 8 March 2014 13:24 (ten years ago) link
he calls the scene in vertigo where kim novak is left alone in her apt and looks @ the camera the greatest moment in the history cinema
Interesting. My favorite thing about Two Lovers are the 2 separate-- but connected- moments in which a character (different character each time) fleetingly, piercingly, enigmatically looks into the camera. Those fourth-wall breaks were a surprise in an otherwise 'realist' film; I found them resonant and moving.
I think of Summer with Monika and, especially, Nights of Cabiria (that look into the camera is for me one of the greatest cinematic moments ever). But what I liked & found original about the 2 Lovers instances (IIRC) is how fleeting they are (one is so fleeting one might well not catch it), and that it's two moments (one midway, one at the end), two characters-- the film leaves one pondering the links and parallels between those two separate instances-- between those two particular moments as experienced by those two characters.
Spoiler: one look is given by Paltrow's character, during or after the clinch on the roof, IIRC as Phoenix is declaring his love to her; the other is given by Phoenix's character at the end, settled on the couch beside his loving new girlfriend.
I usually dislike Paltrow, but I've got to give her credit here, she was very good (especially in that moment/ look).
― drash, Saturday, 8 March 2014 14:25 (ten years ago) link
James Gay
― AIDS (Hungry4Ass), Saturday, 8 March 2014 14:50 (ten years ago) link
watched the 1st ep of the sundance thing 'the red road' that he directed - it really painfully pales in comparison 2 true detective
― johnny crunch, Saturday, 8 March 2014 16:57 (ten years ago) link
obv that really had nothing to do w him
― johnny crunch, Saturday, 8 March 2014 16:58 (ten years ago) link
http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/interview-james-gray-discusses-harvey-weinstein-his-cinematic-influences-his-career-much-more-20140515
― johnny crunch, Thursday, 15 May 2014 19:26 (ten years ago) link
whither Gray's The Immigrant at the box office?
http://filmcomment.com/entry/bombast-the-punishment-continues
― images of war violence and historical smoking (Dr Morbius), Friday, 6 June 2014 20:02 (ten years ago) link
I thought I started a thread on The Immigrant or if I stuck thoughts on the current movies thread.
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 6 June 2014 20:08 (ten years ago) link
essay kind of leaves promotion (or the lack thereof) out of the "whither" question. it's not like weinstein's putting much muscle behind the movie.
― da croupier, Friday, 6 June 2014 21:18 (ten years ago) link
gratuitous swipe at Pitchfork's Soundgarden review too.
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 6 June 2014 21:23 (ten years ago) link
Traditionally, the hidden “cost” of releasing a film, beyond initial outlay of budget or acquisition, was Prints & Advertising (P & A), so one would think that the much-ballyhooed switch to DCP projection would reduce this overhead considerably, now that the cost of striking prints and shipping them in huge metal canisters that you could club a bull elephant to death with has been cut out of the equation, and movies are shipped on detachable hard drives or ZIP discs or Google Glass or whatever it is.
the key word is ADVERTISING in p&a, and the weinsteins are notoriously thrifty for films they're not planning to storm the oscars with
― da croupier, Friday, 6 June 2014 21:24 (ten years ago) link
if someone's to be bitched out for this movie underwhelming at the box office it's not critics or audiences but the company that's supposed to tell audiences that THE CRITICS HAVE SPOKEN in big full-page ads, especially if they're going to put the movie out in may.
― da croupier, Friday, 6 June 2014 21:31 (ten years ago) link
they def couldve prob gotten more buzz releasing it in dec or w/e and releasing it more broadly but idk its p flawed, its not gonna do great word of mouth imo; at least this time of year the elderly (~95% of the audience when i saw it) can get out of their assisted living complex w/o slipping on ice and breaking a hip
― johnny crunch, Friday, 6 June 2014 21:38 (ten years ago) link
The Weinsteins have done it before with far worse movies (and I think it's close to a great movie, big flaw notwithstanding).
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 6 June 2014 21:39 (ten years ago) link
honestly was surprised this was a weinstein release, considering how badly they screwed gray on the yards (at least this got a big opening week in new-york-old-folks-land and wasn't held on the shelf for two years). this film is so aggressively a potential best actress contender, harv & co must have zero faith in it if they're putting it out now, with like an eighth of the hype they're giving Once 2: Electric Ruffalo.
― da croupier, Friday, 6 June 2014 21:43 (ten years ago) link
this is true, it seems v unlikely weinstein dislikes jim gray more than he likes oscar noms but idk
― johnny crunch, Friday, 6 June 2014 21:49 (ten years ago) link
they prob just have movies they see getting them closer to said noms - there's like two keira knightley things and a tim burton biopic of a painter and maybe they'll still put out nicole kidman's princess grace horseshit...
― da croupier, Friday, 6 June 2014 21:51 (ten years ago) link
there's also an irony in a critic doing a "sigh, what can we do" thinkpiece about an indie that's been out for less than a month. Like, gee, maybe continue to tell people to see it, and not drink the kool-aid about this shit being decided even for art films in the first three weeks?
― da croupier, Friday, 6 June 2014 21:56 (ten years ago) link
not sure what the budget was, but.. this shit is decided before 'art films' open. Americans don't go and the screens aren't there for the most part.
― images of war violence and historical smoking (Dr Morbius), Friday, 6 June 2014 22:02 (ten years ago) link
weinsteins are exactly the kind of company that would re-release a film come oscar season if the drums kept beating and some of their other contenders fizzled.
but again, my point is just that its absurd to write a piece about critics and audiences and art films and leave out the distributor
― da croupier, Friday, 6 June 2014 22:04 (ten years ago) link
Yeah. If Weinstein and co. gave this thing The King's Speech treatment in December they might've had a decent ROI and maybe Oscar buzz for Cotillard and Phoenix (the dude's on a roll).
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 6 June 2014 22:26 (ten years ago) link
this movie is nowhere near dumb enough to benefit from such treatment
― images of war violence and historical smoking (Dr Morbius), Friday, 6 June 2014 23:43 (ten years ago) link
Dumb's got nothing to do with it and you know it
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 6 June 2014 23:47 (ten years ago) link
The Immigrant finally out on Blu & DVD last week
― the increasing costive borborygmi (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 16 April 2015 12:00 (nine years ago) link
James Gray on The Cinephiliacs: http://www.thecinephiliacs.net/2015/07/episode-61-james-gray-nights-of-cabiria.html
― Insane Prince of False Binaries (Gukbe), Monday, 6 July 2015 17:16 (eight years ago) link
he is always so good in interviews
― johnny crunch, Wednesday, 8 July 2015 01:05 (eight years ago) link
Lengthy profile/feature in new Film Comment on his imminent The Lost City of Z (April 14, US). Shot on 35mm, hoping I get to see it that way...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWba-ZuXlkY
― Supercreditor (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 15 March 2017 19:22 (seven years ago) link
David Ehrlich last fall:
If not for the ineffably modern hollowness of Charlie Hunnam’s speaking voice, or the distinct rind of 21st century celebrity that still clings to co-star Robert Pattinson like the dying traces of yesterday’s cologne, someone could easily be fooled into thinking that “The Lost City of Z” was shot 40 years ago. In fact, that might be the greatest compliment a viewer could pay writer-director James Gray (“The Immigrant”), a man who seems increasingly determined to revive the glory days of our national cinema, when movies were pictures and auteurs were mavericks. Gray pulls from the past as liberally as Quentin Tarantino, but without the ego — he doesn’t try to process his influences through the slaughterhouse of his own fetishes, he simply wants to Make American Movies Great Again.
http://www.indiewire.com/2016/10/the-lost-city-of-z-review-robert-pattinson-james-gray-nyff-2016-1201737045/
― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 15 March 2017 20:10 (seven years ago) link
oh hey, 35mm sneak in NYC, JG attending (Apr 12)
http://metrograph.com/series/series/81/james-gray
― Supercreditor (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 16 March 2017 16:20 (seven years ago) link
The film is opening the MSPIFF, and I'm torqued.
― insidious assymetrical weapons (Eric H.), Thursday, 16 March 2017 16:21 (seven years ago) link
shd prob start a general Gray thread
― Supercreditor (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 16 March 2017 16:22 (seven years ago) link
NYC "event" tix for Lost City 35mm now on sale
http://metrograph.com/events/
― Supercreditor (Dr Morbius), Friday, 24 March 2017 17:55 (seven years ago) link
I liked this one pretty well, maybe second to Two Lovers or even better -- very different films. He suggested he was trying to make a 'woke' David Lean film, and he succeeded at least partly. My chief gripe might be i couldn't understand 20-30% of what Hunnam and Pattinson were saying. Has one of the best WWI trench warfare sequences i can recall, at least since Kubrick.
Gray was characteristically hilarious in the Q&A, doing impressions of everyone from Darius Khondji to stars-that got-away Cumberbatch and Pitt (the latter: "Jimmy Jam! I can't wait anymore") to a woman on the MPAA appeal panel ("This REEEalistic violence worries us as PEERents").
― Supercreditor (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 13 April 2017 20:44 (seven years ago) link
https://thefilmstage.com/features/james-gray-on-ad-astra-cannes-woes-harvey-weinstein-and-the-only-way-cinema-can-be-reinvented/
― johnny crunch, Sunday, 9 December 2018 21:47 (five years ago) link
He seems like a nice fellow. I like his refusal to state the merits of his own movies.
― resident hack (Simon H.), Sunday, 9 December 2018 22:16 (five years ago) link