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courseyoulovemeyoudontknowme · 7 months

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Fargo (1996, Coen brothers)

12/02/2024

Fargo is a 1996 film written and directed by Coen brothers. Presented at the 49th Cannes Film Festival, where it won the award for best director, it also won two Oscars, for best original screenplay and for best leading actress, Frances McDormand. The other protagonists of the film are William H. Macy, Steve Buscemi and Peter Stormare.

In 2006 it was chosen to be preserved in the National Film Registry of the United States Library of Congress, an archive of films considered culturally, historically or aesthetically representative. In 2014 it inspired the production of the television series of the same name Fargo, for which the Coen brothers appear as co-executive producers.

Minnesota, winter of 1987. Jerry Lundegaard is a business-minded Oldsmobile salesman from Minneapolis, but with several financial problems. Thanks to the suggestion of the Indian mechanic Shep Proudfoot (who in the past has had some problems with the law), Jerry goes to a bar in Fargo, in neighboring North Dakota, to hire two hitmen, Gaear Grimsrud and Carl Showalter, to whom he promised a car and half of the ransom of 80 000 dollars.

Gaear and Carl, traveling with the hostage in the car provided by Jerry (secretly disappeared, without license plates, from the dealership), are stopped by a police patrol near Brainerd.

Marge decides to go to Minneapolis to meet Shep and also manages to talk to Jerry, who asks him if a car has disappeared from the dealership, but for the moment she doesn't get any information. Carl then buries most of the money near a back road, marking the spot with an ice scraper for recognition, and returns to Moose Lake, where Gaear remains with the hostage.

On the way home, Marge recognizes the offending car without license plates and, determined to take a look, discovers Gaear disposing of Carl's body with a wood chipper. Meanwhile Jerry is also arrested, in a motel near Bismarck.

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violence-infatuation · 6 months

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David Cronenberg photographed by Eric Robert, photo call for Crash at the Cannes Film Festival, 1996

#d #need to post other photos from the photo call some other time bc deborah kara unger's yellow suit!!!!! and the hat!!!!

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velveys · 6 months

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Eva Herzigova at Cannes Film Festival (1996)

#eva herzigova #cannes film festival #1996 #1990s

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potteresque-ire · 2 years

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A very young Stanley Kwan 關錦鵬 (right) directing Leslie Cheung 張國榮 (left) and Anita Mui 梅艷芳 (middle) for Rouge 胭脂扣 (1987). Kwan would win the Best Director title for the film at the Hong Kong Film Awards.

Stanley Kwan 關錦鵬 is not only a famous director from Hong Kong, but also the first well-known openly gay figure in Hong Kong entertainment. He came out of the closet in 1996 (before Leslie Cheung, who did so in 1997), in the documentary he directed for the British Film Institute named Yang ± Yin: Gender in Chinese Cinema 男生女相：華語電影之性別. His works had garnered accolades for their in-depth portrayal of female characters, at the time when women in local movies often did little more than being pretty and screaming a lot.

(Under the cut: Director Kwan's own words on one of his most famous works and a gay film classic in Chinese-language cinema, Lan Yu (2001), in 2022 after BL culture has entered mainstream)

Most BL fans know Director Kwan via his gay-themed film Lan Yu 藍宇 (2001), about the eponymous Bejing university student falling in love with a wealthy, closeted businessman, Chen Handong. The film, based on a popular online novel Beijing Story 北京故事, has remained censored in mainland China for its queer content and its mentions of the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre. Its fate of being perennially censored was never a surprise—the film was shot in Beijing in secret, with the crew pretending to be shooting commercials around the capital. Digital filming also didn't exist then, and so the 100,000 ft + of film had to be smuggled out of China later to be developed.

Lan Yu was a project about love. Of love.

The poster of Lan Yu in Cannes Film Festival (left), Hong Kong (center), Taiwan (right), at the time of its original release.

In 2022, Lan Yu celebrated its 20th anniversary with a 4K remastered version. Among the interviews of Director Kwan made for the celebration was one by The Initium 端傳媒, during which Kwan shared some of his views on Lan Yu, in the context of how public reception of queer media has changed over the years after the film's release.

These views may deviate from what some fans, especially those in BL circles, would expect. Precisely because of that, however, I'm posting them here. After all, maybe, hopefully, Kwan will collaborate with Dd (and Gg) one day. Maybe, fans like ourselves will interact with Kwan on social media spaces one day.

I hope Kwan's views will be kept in mind, considered and respected. Due to the length of the full interview **, I'm only translating the two parts that are relevant (lazy turtle here 😊):

《藍宇》雖為華語電影同志片的經典，但過去廿年，關錦鵬卻在不少訪談中提過，電影改編自當年於大陸風行一時的網絡同志小說《北京故事》，而最初他其實並不喜歡那篇小說。

「原著基本上是用偷窺角度去看一段同志關係，特別是集中描寫男體的情色關係，有很多露骨的性愛場面。作者本身是知道這些描寫會令小說受歡迎。」關錦鵬接著說：「但在拍這部電影前，我在 1996 年已經出櫃。而我覺得作為一名同志導演，就更不應該去消費這個題材，所以當我看到原著小說將情色描寫，譬如肛交、口交的過程放大，當時我便跟製片人說，如果要原封不動將小說內容拍出來，我就不做了。」

Although Lan Yu is a classic Chinese-language gay film, in many interviews in the past 20 years, Kwan has mentioned that the film was adapted from the online gay novel Beijing Story, popular in mainland China at the time, and that he actually didn't like the novel at first. "The original novel basically looks at a gay relationship from a voyeuristic point of view, especially the erotic relationship between male bodies, and there are many explicit sex scenes. The author (of the novel) himself knows that these descriptions will make the novel popular."

Kwan continued, "But before making this movie, I had been out of the closet since 1996. And I thought, as a gay director, I shouldn't exploit this subject, so when I saw the original novel expanding, zooming in on the eroticism -- the processes of anal sex and oral sex, for example -- I told the producer at the time that if the novel's content is to be filmed without changes, I won't do it.”

2. 在《藍宇》面世的年代，電影確實意識大膽。但二十年後，當電影得以重新修復，社會氛圍其實亦有了翻天覆地的轉變。近年不但多了同志題材的作品，甚至大行其道，人人消費，成為一種時令的商業元素。譬如人氣男團會拍 BL 電視劇，而過去幾年的華語電影節，最快售罄的場次，都一定是同志電影。此情此景，在《藍宇》剛上映的年代簡直不可思議，電影當年在香港的票房談不上亮眼，普羅大眾對同性戀故事有所抗拒，而本身就是同志的觀眾，想看卻不敢購票入場，怕被旁人標籤。二十年後世界變了樣，甚至總會看到「腐女」在 BL 電影的宣傳海報前打卡拍照。關錦鵬笑說：「是呀，前陣子的確有朋友跟我說，她其實是一名腐女。腐女族群喜歡看男同志電影，但到底喜歡看什麼呢？她某程度上都承認，想看的就是身體，是兩個好看的男人身體如何做愛。」然而，這恰恰就是他當初對執導《藍宇》有所卻步的顧慮。當同志題材今日已走入主流，變成一種受歡迎的商業元素，關錦鵬則仍然有所警惕，跟潮流保持距離：「可能有些腐女都會喜歡《藍宇》，但我想未必完全是她們那杯茶。它真正要說的是兩個男人從色情買賣演變成一段感情關係，尤其是魏紹恩替我改編劇本之後，陳捍東這個角色，在我看來不一定是男同志，而是他在藍宇身上找到一些連自己都不知道的感覺。」但關錦鵬也承認，從好的方向去看，在 BL 作品蔚然成風的助力之下，至少令同志以及 LGBT 性少數族群，相對容易被今日的大眾主流接受：「這是令人開心的。近幾年，特別是年輕人，確實會用比較開放的態度去對待 LGBT 族群。」稍頓，關錦鵬解釋道：「換個說法，關於 LGBT 議題的重點，現在就不再放在色情之上，而更多是感情關係，甚至是性少數族群認清自己身份之後，於生活上如何面對社會。那起碼是朝著一個正確的方向。」 In the era when Lan Yu was released, the film was indeed bold in its ideology. Twenty years later, however, at the time when the film gets its restoration, the social atmosphere has actually undergone earth-shaking changes. In recent years, not only have there been more gay-themed works, they have even become very popular and consumed by all, becoming a kind of fashionable commercial element. For example, popular boyband members are willing to make BL TV dramas, and in the past few years of Chinese-speaking film festivals, the fastest sold-out shows have all been gay movies.

[Pie note: The reporter was unlikely to be referring to Gg and Dd with their mention of "popular boyband members". Instead, they were probably thinking of Edan Lo and Anson Lo from Hong Kong's local boyband MIRROR, who starred in the BL drama Ossan's Love.]

This phenomenon is unbelievable in the era when Lan Yu was first released. The box office of the film in Hong Kong couldn't be said to be impressive. The general public resisted gay stories [Pie note: Hong Kong hadn't decriminalised homosexual relationships until 1991, 10 years before], and the audience who were gay wanted to watch it but didn't dare to purchase tickets, for fear of being labeled by others. Twenty years later, the world has changed -- BL fans can be seen photographing themselves in front of the promotional posters of BL movies.

Kwan smiled and said, "Yes, a friend told me a while ago that she's actually a "rotten woman" (Pie note: = woman BL fan, translated from the Japanese term fujoshi). The "rotten women" group likes to watch gay movies, but what do they like to watch? She admitted, to a certain extent, that it's the body. It's the body, how two good-looking men's bodies make love."

And yet, this was precisely the concern that made Kwan hesitant to direct Lan Yu at the beginning. As gay themes enter the mainstream and become a popular commercial element, Kwan has remained vigilant, and has kept his distance from the trend: "Maybe some "rotten women" enjoy Lan Yu, but I don't think (the film) is entirely their cup of tea. What the film really wanted to express was how two men evolved from a transactional sex relationship to an emotional relationship, especially after Wei Shaoen adapted the script for me. The character of Chen Handong, in my opinion, didn't necessarily have to be a gay man; instead, he found on Lan Yu a feeling that even he himself couldn't understand.”

But Kwan also admitted that, from a better perspective, with the aid of popular BL works, it has become relatively easy for gays and LGBT sexual minorities to find acceptance in today's mainstream: "This is a happy thing to see. In recent years, especially young people have indeed treated the LGBT community with a more open attitude.” After a short pause, Kwan explained: “In other words, the focus of LGBT issues is now no longer on salacity, but more on emotional relationships, and even, on how sexual minorities face society in their daily lives after recognising their (sexual) identities. At least it's moving in the right direction.”

** None of you see this footnote, but a copy of the interview without a paywall can be found here. 😊

#pie metas

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scotianostra · 13 days

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Happy Birthday filmmaker Gillian Berrie, born on September 8th 1967 in Glasgow.

In 1996 Gillian co-founded Sigma Films with director David Mackenzie, writing and producing serial award-winning shorts, 'California Sunshine' and 'Somersault'.

Alongside, Gillian gained experience in numerous film and television roles, ie Casting Director on Ken Loach's 'My Name is Joe' (for which Peter Mullan won the Palme D'or in Cannes) and Lynne Ramsay's legendary 'Ratcatcher'.

Casting experience on the aforementioned led Gillian to create the charity, 'Starfish' which then became 'Jumpcut', which morphed into 'Short Circuit', and 'Big Fish Casting' which segued into Kahleen Crawford Casting

Gillian then produced many of David Mackenzie's films including: Last Great Wilderness, Hallam Foe, Young Adam, You Instead (aka Tonight You're Mine), Perfect Sense, Starred Up and the biggest film ever to be make in Scotland, Outlaw King. She was also heavily involved in the post-production, festival, UK/US theatrical release and Oscar campaign for Academy Award Nominee 'Hell or High Water'.

Sigma's films regularly premiere at A-List festivals and have received over 150 awards internationally, including the Prix de Jury in Cannes for Red Road, and the Silver Bear in Berlin for Hallam Foe, as well as numerous BIFA and BAFTA nominations and awards.

At the Scottish BAFTA New Talent Awards in 2002 Gillian won the BAFTA for Outstanding Achievement.

In order to create a vibrant hub for the film community in Scotland, Gillian founded the 65,000 square ft state of the art, Film City Glasgow in 2004. Since then it has been a full house of productions and film-makers.

In 2012 she founded 'Jumpcut', the UK's one and only, intensive, mentor-led Summer School to provide a fast-track for youngsters into working in the film industry. This project was a runaway success. Over 75% of the participants went onto working in the industry. It ran for two years and won several awards.

She also co-produced the multi-prize winner 'Dear Frankie' and Jonathan's Glazer's 'Under the Skin' (which won 23 awards and received 110 nominations).

Gillian also produced several features for first time feature film directors, including David Mackenzie, Colin Kennedy, Andrea Arnold, Morag MacKinnon and Ciaran Foy, as well as numerous additional shorts including the lauded I Love Luci.

Gillian continues to contribute to the next generation of Scottish film-makers through Short Circuit, which is in its 3rd year and has so far given the first opportunities in film-making to hundreds of new-comers and produced dozens of short films and is developing a number of feature films.

Short Circuit is Scotland's hub for filmmaking talent, supporting the creative and professional development of new and emerging writers, directors, and producers.

Over three years, Short Circuit's film commissioning strand ‘Sharp Shorts’ will award over £400,000 in funding across 27 filmmaking teams, creating opportunities for Scotland's most exciting emerging new screen talent.

‘Sharp Shorts’ has become one of Scotland's most diverse creative initiatives, with an overwhelming majority of female filmmakers as well as significant representation across the LGBTQ+, non-white and disabled communities.

The first batch of short films are screening internationally at festivals such as SXSW, BFI Flare, EIFF, Dinard, LSFF, Berlin, with multiple awards. In particular, Sean Lionadh's short Too Rough has won 11 awards to date.

The ‘First Features’ strand, with a fund of over £300,000, will support 30 new writers, directors, and producers, enabling Scotland-based filmmakers to take a career-defining step towards making their debut feature.

In 2022, Berrie exec-produced the critically acclaimed Pilot and 2nd episode of the Disney/ FX series Under the Banner of Heaven for which Andrew Garfield was nominated for an Emmy .She also produced Taron Egerton's feature, Tetris, which I was impressed with.

Relay, about a broker of lucrative payoffs between corrupt corporations and the individuals who threaten them breaks his own rules when a new client seeks his protection to stay alive. is the latest film she has produced, it actually premieres today at the Toronto International Film Festival. Next up is a thrilled called Fuze where construction workers in London unearth an unexploded WWII bomb, forcing evacuation. Opportunistic thieves use the chaos as cover for an elaborate heist.

#scotland #scottish #glasgow #glaswegian #filmaker #happy birthday

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