#they accidentally have the perfect cabaret cast and we didnt see enough!

[my-nameless-bliss]

the one true tragedy of schitts creek is that we didnt get to see ronnie and bob sing "it couldnt please me more"

[mmxvi-iii-iv-blog]

Written By Her Husband, Joe.

Sally and Joe, we discover over the course of the evening, have had a rough year together; or more accurately, theyve had a rough year being apart as their marriage has been strained. Joe has been working out of London, Sally prefers her home in Los Angeles. As an actress, shes aging and less desirable for casting, even when the movie she wants to star in is based on a book inspired by her life. Written by her husband, Joe. Directed by her husband, Joe. Joe, who doesnt even like movies that much, even though her film career has enabled his expensive trans-Atlantic lifestyle and paid for their Runyon Canyon-adjacent, mid-century modern home atop of the Hollywood Hills. A coffee table picture book of a house in which only the most fabulous of parties are held and only the most fabulous of friends should be invited. (All the better to impress the little people who happen to live next door into submission over their complaints about a noisy Otis. Fabulous people dont complain about dogs barking at 4 A.M. and who wouldnt want to be fabulous enough to attend their party?) And what a party it shall be, what with guests like Kevin Kline, Phoebe Cates (who came out of retirement for the film at the behest of her best friend Leigh), Jane Adams, John C. Reilly, John Benjamin Hickey, Parker Posey, Jennifer Beals, Denis O'Hare, Mina Badie and Gwyneth Paltrow among others. With the exception of Posey who was a last-minute replacement, Leigh and Cummingwrote each character for The Anniversary Party with their real-life friends in mind, creating characters who are not exactly their pals, but could possibly be the person just to the left or right of them on any scale. If anything, it is seeing their worldview through the friends they cast that feels raw, even more voyeuristic than the subject matter itself; a couple celebrating their love surrounded by the people closest to them who know it might be too soon to pop the cork on their unending happiness. There is always an element of having to feel safe on a set, between actors and the material, and directors trusting their performers enough deliver what film needs, a relationship that has tried and destroyed many a Hollywood relationship. Watching The Anniversary Party it is hard not to feel the warmth Leigh and Cummingfeel for each one of their actors and the respect and faith they receive in turn from their cast. (In a somewhat meta moment, John C. Reilly, playing director Mac Forsyth, is discovered by Sally watching dailies of his current movie in which she happens to star in a back room shaking his head in worried disbelief at how poor her performance is in the film and how his career is going to be over if the movie flops.) Its the trust established by actors-turned-directors working with actors that helps make The Anniversary Party feel just as intimate as the setting, and when paired with the early use of digital to pull in as tight as possible when quite literally and figuratively someone is in the closet, the viewer almost feels dirty seeing the ugliness hiding in some quarters, much like a party guest who opens a medicine cabinet only to discover a truth about a friend they did not want to know. It is because of this, just as it is hard to unravel the bits that are Leigh and the bits that are Cumming, it is also impossible to separate the film from being one of the first digital success stories without acknowledging how poorly digital filmmaking was regarded at the time. (And it is a film; the great John Bailey who was behind the lens for The Accidental Tourist, Ordinary Peopledid not shoot a wedding tape, nor did his wife, esteemed editor Carol Littleton, put together a movie that was any less cinematic despite the Avid use.) It is a shame when you go back and revisit reviews and interviews from 2001, the nearly apologetic tone in which JJL and Cummingtalk about using DV and the reviews that focused on where they felt DV had supposedly faltered or was distracting without fully embracing the story and the acting, because as a viewer in 2017 those issues are so incredibly minor you barely notice them, your modern eye is willing to smooth over the difference and allowthe movie to exist on its own merits. Combined together working with their friends, deftly shooting on video you can see the direct linage back to Leighs original inspiration, the early Dogme films of the 1990s. Leigh herself sung the praises of the first Dogme film, The Celebration, and would later star in the fourth Dogme film, 2000s The King Is Alive. Attracted to the idea that making a movie didnt have to be an overblown affair, one could work digitally and save yourself hours of setup (not to mention millions of dollars off the budget), Leigh, coming off a bad breakup and a Broadway revival of Cabaret, suggested to her stage co-star Cummingthey make a movie together, keeping the intimacy of the digital part of Dogme and working with friends on reasonably paced days as not to make everyone crazy. In 2001 making a small budget indie for a mere few million bucks in less than three weeks felt revolutionary. Even the short shooting time was lambasted by Craig Kilborn for only being 19 days because such brevity in production was looked down upon as unworthy and worse, untrustworthy. And they went for it, selling the pitch to Fine Line, and spending the next year writing and storyboarding knowing they needed to go into production as prepared as they possibly could be with such a limited amount of time and coverage, discovering what would work for not only their movie but allowtheir friends to shine. Leigh herself was involved for the entirety of the editing process, making sure the movie she and Cummingbirthed together got as much room to breathe as possible, purposely lingering over moments too long as to make viewers feel as if theyre as uncomfortable as everyone in scenes. The effort more than paid off. Jane Adams as Clair Forsyth, Macs actress wife who is starving herself back to pre-pregnancy weight and completely out of her mind with worry over both her child and her career, is a frenetic delight and you find yourself watching even the most subtle things she is doing in the background as she brings such a joy and lightness to every shot she is in. You genuinely miss seeing Cates on the screen, especially as the night wears on and her character Sophia Gold lets her guard down enough to have nothing but the most brutally honest conversation about not only what she thinks her best friend Sally should do but admitting to the failures in her own perfect life. John C. Reillys Mac is identifiable with anyone who has had to deal with professional jealousy, as well as his characters inability to show any sort of weakness, even in front of his friends. While much of the story isnt exactly new or groundbreaking, nor is the mechanism for truth (everyone gets high) original, the trials and tribulations feel timeless enough that The Anniversary Party could be happening in Los Angeles at this very moment, but instead of Gwyneth Paltrow being the young ingenue honored to be playing the role of her favorite living actress, she would be the one looking across the room reminding everyone shes still the it girl of the moment who could easily play 28 no wait, 25. Make no mistake, Leighs Sally is a fighter throughout the movie, and is every woman over age 35 still proving her worth, even when shes unconsciously trying to please everyone. This is especially true as the night grows long and she is forced to remind everyone this is her house, her rules and her marriage; no one else can lay claim to intimacy that only she and Joe share, the type of confidence that only comes with age, the confidence an ingenue shrinks away from. Ultimately The Anniversary Party should be considered just as vital to Leighs career as Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Single White Female, Georgia, Miami Blues or The Hateful Eight as it offers a complete expression of her as an artist. While we cant completely untangle the film from being a joint production, there are enough beats you can see as being uniquely Leigh throughout the movie and moments one can tell Cummingis bringing out the best in her, and vice versa.

Source: http://birthmoviesdeath.com/2017/04/17/truth-and-intimacy-in-the-anniversary-party