Ang Lee and Zhang Ziyi with ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,’ plus the best films in L.A.
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Hello! I’m Mark Olsen. Welcome to another edition of your regular field guide to a world of Only Good Movies.
Hollywood was shocked last weekend with the announcement by President Trump of a plan to impose a new 100% tariff on films produced outside the United States. The exact logistics of the plan were unclear; determining which projects would be subject to the tariff would itself be extremely complicated.
As one film executive said in a story by Meg James and Samantha Masunaga, “Nobody knows, and I don’t suspect we will for awhile. Is it on domestically funded foreign productions? Is it on foreign-funded ones? Is the tariff on film revenues or film costs on those projects, or both?”
Though many seemed to disagree that a tariff was the solution to Hollywood’s problems concerning runaway production, as the week went on there was a turn toward hoping that this could nevertheless be the start of something positive.
“It’s great that the president is starting to pay attention,” producer Jeffrey Greenstein said to Ryan Faughnder. “So let’s have a real conversation about it and figure out the best way to start bringing movies back.”
One thought is that perhaps some kind of federal tax incentive could get things moving in the right direction. In a separate story, Masunaga and James looked at California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s efforts to create such a program.
“Right now the industry is teetering,” UCLA professor George Huang said. “This would go a long way in helping right the ship and putting us back on course to being the capital of the entertainment world.”
‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’ in 35mm
Tonight the Academy Museum will host a 35mm screening of “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” with director Ang Lee and star Zhang Ziyi present for a conversation with Academy president Janet Yang.
Released in 2000, the film still holds the distinction of being the highest-grossing, non-English-language film of all time in the U.S. and also won four Oscars. Set in 19th century China, the movie kicks off with a warrior (Chow Yun-Fat) giving his sword to his lover (Michelle Yeoh) but it is soon stolen, setting them on a journey to retrieve it.
In his original review of the film, Kenneth Turan wrote, “Films we can categorize, that’s what we’re used to. Good or bad, fiascoes or masterpieces, we put them in their place, every one. What we’re not used to, what we haven’t had much of at all, are films that transcend categorization, that remind us — simply, powerfully, indelibly — what we go to the movies for. Ang Lee’s ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’ is that kind of a picture.
“A delightful one-of-a-kind martial arts romance where astounding fight sequences alternate with passionate yet idealistic love duets, ‘Crouching Tiger’ is a fusion film from top to bottom,” Turan added. “By joining emotional sophistication to the most thrilling kind of Hong Kong-style acrobatic action, by having classical cellist Yo-Yo Ma and preeminent fight choreographer Yuen Woo-ping in the same film, ‘Crouching Tiger’ brings a specific national cinema fully into the world spotlight. It can do all this so successfully because Lee reconciles these opposites in his own life and work.”
Scarlet Cheng spent time on the set of the film as it was shooting in China, capturing the scene as Chow was prepped to perform one of the film’s dazzling wire-work stunts. Action choreographer Yuen Woo-ping explained why it was worth the extra effort to do the stunts for real rather than assisted by computer effects, saying, “It never looks quite right. It still requires people doing it.”
Writing about the film in 2023, Justin Chang said, “If you were among those who saw the movie on its initial release, lured by reports that Lee had made the most kick-ass action picture in years, you might have felt a twinge of impatience at those first 15 minutes of dialogue-rich, action-free scene-setting. Or perhaps you were drawn in by the classical refinement of the filmmaking, the understated gravity of the performances, the realistic sense of grounding in an utterly fantastical world. Operating by his own laws of cinematic physics, Lee must first establish gravity before he can defy it.”
Ted Kotcheff tribute
The American Cinematheque is paying tribute to versatile genre director Ted Kotcheff, who died recently at age 94.
Though “First Blood,” the film that introduced Sylvester Stallone’s character of John Rambo, has already screened in the series, there are still some delights to come. Tonight and tomorrow, the Los Feliz 3 will screen 35mm showings of 1989’s “Weekend at Bernie’s,” starring Jonathan Silverman and Andrew McCarthy as two low-level salesmen who get invited for the weekend to the luxury house of their shady boss, Bernie (Terry Kiser). When Bernie winds up dead, they concoct a scheme to convince people he is still alive, in part to keep the party rolling. (Kotcheff has a cameo as father to one of the boys.)
In his original review of the film, Kevin Thomas wrote, “It can’t in fact be accused of possessing so much as a shred of subtlety, but as a broad farce its not only cleverly sustained but frequently hilarious. What’s more, a weekend among the rich, the jaded and the corrupt is just the right cup of tea for an acid social satirist as Kotcheff.”
“Fun With Dick and Jane,” the director’s 1977 film starring George Segal and Jane Fonda as a middle-class couple who turn to crime when they find themselves out of work, will screen on Thursday and May 17 at the Los Feliz 3.
Points of interest
‘The Magnificent Ambersons’ in 35mm
On Sunday afternoon, the American Cinematheque will screen Orson Welles’ 1942 “The Magnificent Ambersons” in 35mm. Adapted from a novel by Booth Tarkington, the film concerns a wealthy Midwestern family who see their family’s fortunes diminish as time passes them by. The cast included Joseph Cotton, Dolores Costello, Anne Baxter, Tim Holt and Agnes Moorehead.
On July 8, 1942, Edwin Schallert wrote in the paper, “Whatever Hollywood powers-that-be have in mind about the future of Mr. Orson Welles as a picture-maker, there could be no outcome more ghastly, to my way of thinking, than to let him slip away from these purlieus and back to the confines of the stage. ‘The Magnificent Ambersons’ is proof positive that he should be retained in active service. Whatever values it might lack in humanness — and I’m sure I don’t know what they are — it is a splendid technical achievement — indeed, one all but justifying the re-use of the ‘magnificent’ of its title.”
However, on Aug. 24, 1942, Norbert Lusk wrote, “Apparently there is a desire on the part of some to hail Mr. Welles as the savior of the screen or at least one of its most brilliant trailblazers, but he refuses to come through quite. Actually, his picture is a dull, pretentious bore which in essence states nothing except the folly of scoffing at new inventions like the automobile and that if one is arrogant to one’s fellow man one is bound to get his ‘come-uppance.’”
‘Vox Lux’
Now might be a good moment to revisit the early works of Brady Corbet, with his recent “The Brutalist” having won three Oscars. On Wednesday, Brain Dead Studios will be screening Corbet’s 2018 film “Vox Lux.” Natalie Portman gives a wickedly unhinged performance as an aging pop star trying to navigate her faltering career while also raising her teenage daughter in a world increasingly marked by senseless violence.
I spoke to Corbet and Portman, along with actors Jude Law and Raffey Cassidy, for a story about the film when it was initially released.
Perhaps hinting at the even grander ambitions to come in “The Brutalist,” Corbet said at the time, “And I think that we actually have to reach for bigger ideas in order to move anyone, because we’re all just so accustomed to seeing the same thing over and over and over again. It’s rare that something really shoots for the moon. And since things are so tough right now, we should really attempt to try and make stories better and be bolder.”
Keep an eye out for a tribute to Corbet and his partner Mona Fastvold as part of the upcoming “Bleak Week,” including another screening of “Vox Lux” on Thursday, June 5.
In other news
‘Pavements’ at the Nuart
The new documentary “Pavements” is opening in Los Angeles this weekend. Directed by Alex Ross Perry, the film captures the spirit of the ’90s indie rock pioneers Pavement by including documentary footage of their 2022 reunion tour along with a stage musical, a museum and a biopic all created just for the project. The result is genuinely unique, all the parts of the film coalescing into a vibe that a more straightforward telling of the band’s story could never approach.
There will be Q&As at multiple weekend shows at the Nuart with Perry, band member Scott Kannberg, actors Jason Schwartzman, Tim Heidecker and Logan Miller. John C. Reilly will moderate a Saturday night Q&A.
I wrote about the film and its unconventional approach to the rock doc. In explaining the film’s overall strategy, Perry said, “I wanted to make a movie from the perspective of Pavement [being] — as we say onscreen in the film — the world’s most important and influential band, because that is literally true to 100,000 white Gen-X nerds. So what if the movie takes that not as a premise but as a fact? And builds a fictional world where this music has inspired these other things people build as shrines to their favorite musicians — a museum, a Broadway show, a crappy biopic? Let’s just do that and presume that is the cultural footprint of Pavement.”
The film plays well to longtime fans and newcomers alike. But for anyone hung up on what is true or not from the film, band member Bob Nastanovich offers, “If it confuses people, then I’m pretty easy to contact. I can tell them what’s real and not real.”
Reviewing the movie for The Times, Scott Tobias wrote, “At a little over two hours long, ‘Pavements’ can feel a little like the band’s notoriously misshapen 1995 opus ‘Wowee Zowee,’ a double album with only three sides. Yet the perfectly imperfect shape of ‘Pavements’ is similarly tailored to those who appreciate the band’s creative unruliness. It also feels like an apt companion to Perry’s last fiction feature, 2018’s ‘Her Smell,’ which strongly alludes to the life of Hole lead singer Courtney Love and pays off a chaotic two-hour drama with a breathtakingly lovely final act.”
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