Tuesday, October 24, 2017

Let Us Not Forget Lady Bird

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Loving that there new Lady Bird poster! In case you missed my review of the movie, read that right here. Call Me By Your Name might be eating up the conversation when it comes to Timothée Chalamet Movies, and under that rubric it probably should since his role in Lady Bird is pretty small. But he is in Lady Bird and he is good in the part, which is not at all like Elio, so let's share this pair of just-dropped pictures of him in the film:


Can't wait for you guys to see this wonderful film. But wait, let's talk about Call Me By Your Name, as long as we're here. (Thought I'd let you go once the subject's been raised? HA!) The movie is out this weekend in the UK (lucky bastards) and so some new interviews have been making the rounds - talking to The Independent Luca Guadagnino has expounded on PenislessGate a little:

"I am the least prudish director you can meet. I’ve been very precise in using the female and male body on screen to convey all kind of emotions. I thought that the display of nudity in this specific movie was absolutely irrelevant and I understand that for James it would have been relevant but that is his vision, what is clear is that we had no limitations on what we wanted to do.

 ... Did you miss penises in this movie? I’m happy to hear any kind of criticism if it comes from a place of intelligence and listening."

I appreciate his insinuation there in the last part; it's been hard having this argument with folks on Twitter because I've found about 98% of the criticism aimed at the film for its supposed "lack of eroticism" (an insane case to make, to my mind) under-argued and reactionary. "Pan out the window" automatically equals a cop-out to a lot of folks, instead of the thoughtful, meaningful choice I took it as.

Yadda yadda I do realize that all of this is too impossible to argue before the movie has even come out - we are still a month (an exact month today!) away from the movie's US release. So I need to shut up about it. Anyway tickets are on sale for the movie's opening weekend in New York and Los Angeles right now, so start preparing your peach lunches! And in summation let me leave you with this quote from Luca in that same interview regarding his next movie:

“I was thinking how would Rainer Fassbinder make Suspiria.”
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3 comments:

1971 said...

No limitations? But both Armie and Timothee had contracts specifying no frontal nudity. That's a limitation. And Armie's cringeworthy remarks about his teenage daughters friends googling his penis 10 years hence. Sad when an actor can't fully commit and it does seem to be mainly American male actors who have a problem with nudity.

Leon said...

I think people would feel differently if there was never going to be full frontal nudity in the movie. But the original script did have nudity and was only changed because the lead actor requested it. The director is trying to rewrite history. But I'm going to reserve my own judgement until I actually see the film.

Jason Adams said...

Honestly I just think it's lame to even care - a dick is great! I love a dick! And I cherish those movie star dicks I have been given access to. But it's just a dick. It's a nice bonus but it adds nothing to the quality of a movie.

I mean I suppose you could come up with exceptions where a dick is integral to the plot, or those times where it feels like the AUSTIN POWERS gag where they're doing crazy camera and prop gymnastics to hide genitals and it becomes distracting.

This is not that.

And I get that a lot of the complaints are NOT specifically about body parts - that it's not about seeing a dick, it's about the film copping out on a moment of intimacy between Elio & Oliver.

I just think that's horseshit, and the movie couldn't possibly feel more intimate.