Free Republic

(Note: This posting is for educational purposes only.) I’m assuming the phrase “staging” came out of the theatre world, but it’s equally at home (and useful) in the movie world, since the term (roughly defined) refers to how all the various elements of a given scene or piece are aligned, arranged, and coordinated. In movies the role of editing adds something unique: the opportunity to extend and/or expand a visual (or narrative) idea to the limits of one’s imagination—a crazy idea that works today is tomorrow’s normal... So I want you to watch this movie and think only about staging,...

What is a revolutionary? A man with ideas? A man with a gun? An inspirational leader? Judging from Che, Steven Soderbergh's four-hour biopic on the life of Cuban revolutionary Che Guevera, the answer is none of the above; instead, it's just a guy who talks your ear off about being a revolutionary. In fact, the impression you'd get from Che is that he hardly talks about anything else — including the guiding philosophy that drove him to revolution. Che seems to be an attempt to understand the revolutionary mindset while ignoring revolutionary ideas. Sure, it's offhandedly mentioned that Che is...

IF there was any question as to whether Steven Soderbergh's "Che" portrays the Marxist revolutionary as a hero, the four-hour movie will be shown next month in Cuba at Havana's New Latin American Film Festival. Event president Alfredo Guevara said in July that "Che" would not be shown if it included any "attacks" on Fidel Castro, who was Che's comrade in arms. But the film, starring Benicio Del Toro as the T-shirt icon, evidently passed muster with the dictator's regime. The stars and filmmakers will have to get US permission to attend the screenings, unless they sneak in like most...

Matt Damon and George Clooney come back together for political thriller Matt Damon and George Clooney, who are currently working together on Steven Soder-bergh's Ocean's Eleven sequel - Ocean's Twelve, will reteam for the Stephen Gaghan-helmed political thriller Syriana. In addition, Amanda Peet is in final negotiations to join the project. Set up at Warner Bros., Clooney and Soderbergh's studio-based Section Eight will produce the project with shooting slated to begin during the summer. Gaghan adapted the script, which is loosely based on the Robert Baer non-fiction novel See No Evil: The True Story of a Foot Soldier in the...

Unhappy EndingsBig Studios Find Quality Films Too Often Are a Losing Proposition By Sharon Waxman Washington Post Staff WriterWednesday, May 7, 2003; Page C01 LOS ANGELESWhen Amy Pascal, chairman of Columbia Pictures, gave director Spike Jonze a green light two years ago to make his offbeat film "Adaptation," she also gave him a warning: Don't go over budget, she said, or she'd have to get involved in the production. Jonze didn't exceed the $20 million budget, and the studio didn't tinker with his vision. But "Adaptation" still ended up costing a small fortune, because Sony (Columbia's parent company) spent another...