The Most Totally American Movies Ever: Our Top 9
Happy 232nd birthday, America! Along with baseball, Britney and oh so many flavors of Doritos, you’ve given the world an uncountable wealth of movies to enjoy. On this momentous holiday weekend, let’s focus on nine films that most fully embody the American spirit, plus a 10th to be determined by Online readers. (See, that’s some freedom of choice right there!)
O say can you see…our list:
1. Die Hard: Our boy Bruce Willis leaps across five decades of American Westerns in a single “yippee-ki-yay, motherf–ker.” The lone hero, the Twinkie-gobbling cop, the terrorist Eurotrash…it’s all there.
2. The Godfather: Part II: As if crafting the best-ever American crime drama weren’t enough, Coppola ups the ante?and anoints the blockbuster sequel?with an immigrant backstory, drugs, gambling and primo De Niro.
3. South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut: Crude, lowbrow Internet vid grows up to become crude, lowbrow animated epic. Saddam Hussein canoodles with Satan. “Blame Canada” earns an Oscar nod. U-S-A!
4. Do the Right Thing: Vibrant New York streets, simmering racial tension and a huge friggin’ radio. As complicated as America’s real-life race relations and as effective as a pummeling Public Enemy track.
5. E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial: Spielberg spun a Disney-style parable into a sci-fi classic with kickass effects, intrepid suburban kids and a killer product placement for Reese’s. America cried in its popcorn.
6. Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle: Postmodern stoner epic puts the “bud” back in buddy pic. Slider-seeking antiheroes shirk the dull expectations of a morally bankrupt society and party with Doogie Howser.
7. Titanic: How much to turn a harrowing maritime disaster into a three-hour Celine Dion video starring Billy Zane? Only $200 million? Sold! Only the planet’s hottest capitalist democracy could produce this so-bad-it’s-Best-Picture masterwork.
8. Friday Night Lights: If this emotionally charged ode to high school football in western Texas doesn’t get your Yankee heart pumping, you’re probably already on a Homeland Security watch list.
9. Forrest Gump: This much is true: Tom Hanks is America. Gump crystallizes U.S. propensity to put oneself at the center of every important cultural moment. Also the film that launched a thousand real-life shrimp restaurants.
10. [YOUR CHOICE HERE]: What, no Terminator? No Tom Cruise? Do Girls Gone Wild videos count?! Cast your vote in the comments for the red-white-and-bluest movie you’ve ever seen.
SAG Gets the Indie Spirit
Actors are used to working for scale on indies. Now they're just glad they'll be working.
The Screen Actors Guild sealed an interim deal with independent film producers on Wednesday that ensures its members will be able to finish some upcoming features even if the union authorizes a walkout.
According to Daily Variety, the pact doesn't apply to major Hollywood studios represented by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, with whom the guild launched contract talks on Tuesday. Instead, the new deal is with those indie producers employed at the Film Department, which is not an AMPTP signatory.
The "guaranteed completion contracts" means thesps will be allowed to fulfill the terms of their employment even if the Screen Actors Guild calls for an industry-wide strike when its contract with the studios expires on June 30.
Such a work stoppage, like the one authorized by the Writers Guild of America earlier this year, could paralyze film and television production and cost Tinseltown untold millions.
SAG hopes the interim accord will pressure the majors, giving actors a chance to draw an income outside the studio system. It also suggests the guild may be preparing to dig in for the long haul until its demands are met.
The strategy follows the WGA's game plan; writers made side deals with indie producers while fighting the AMPTP for better working conditions and a larger share of the new media pie.
The big five studiosDisney, Warner Bros., Sony, Paramount and Universaland their affiliated production companies have opted not to greenlight principal photography on upcoming films until both sides agree on a new contract.
Among the nine films which the Film Department have in the pipeline over the next several months: The Rebound, a romantic comedy starring Catherine Zeta-Jones and directed by Bart Freundlich set to shoot in New York next week; The Other Side of Paradise, a drama chronicling the love affair between F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife, Zelda, set to roll in late summer or early fall; Law-Abiding Citizen, a thriller headlining Gerard Butler beginning Aug. 11; and Brothers in Arms, helmer Marcel Langenegger's World War II drama slated to start production by mid-August.
SAG and AMPTP kicked off formal contract negotiations Tuesday and so far both have remained tightlipped about the progress, if any, that's been made at the bargaining table.
Talks are scheduled to continue six days a week (no Sundays) until April 26. At that point the studios will turn their attention to sitting down with rival union the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, whose leaders voted to withdraw from a 27-year-old agreement to negotiate jointly with SAG.
Sony Pictures Classics to Buy/Bury The Wackness?!
Please someone tell me this isn’t true. THR is reporting that Sony Pictures Classics has closed a deal for Jonathan Levine’s The Wackness. The deal is said to be in the low seven figures.
The Wackness is one of my favorite films of the festival. The buzz around Park City on shuttles and in lines, is that this is THE film of Sundance 2008. I’ve found it very strange that no studio deal has yet been announced. And while I’m very happy to finally hear that The Wackness has a deal possibly in sight, I’m torn over the mention of the potential buyer. Why? Well because Sony Pictures Classics sucks. Don’t get me wrong, they have some great films in their catalog. But it seems to me that many of these films are buried at the box office with lackluster promotion. If only every mini-major could be more like Fox Searchlight!
Let’s take a look at some of the recent Sony Pictures Classics releases, and how well they faired at the box office:
Youth Without Youth - $196,000: I don’t care how experimental or how badly reviewed this film was, Sony could have slapped ads up touting “Francis Ford Coppola’s First Film in Ten Years” or “From the Director of The Godfather”.
Persepolis - $913,000: Nominated for an academy award, but dumped in to art houses with little to no press and advertising.
My Kid Could Paint That - $229,000: One of the best documentaries of 2007 with huge free marketing appeal (in news shows, newspapers…etc)
Junebug - $2,680,000: Amy Adam’s oscar nominated break-out performance dumped.
Layer Cake - $2,340,000: A lighting quick gangster film with major cult appeal starring announced Bond replacement Daniel Craig.
In fact, the nine films which were released theatrically last year [From January 1st 2007 to December 31st 2007] by Sony Pictures Classics, made a grand total of $6.5 million in the 2007 calendar year. That’s an average of $725,000 per picture. The fact that their highest box office take was The Jane Austen Book Club, which took in $3.5 million, yet cost over $6 million to produce. Compare this to Fox Searchlight, which made almost twice that of the total SPC with The Darjeeling Limited alone, which never played on more than 700 screens. Actually, only one of the eight films that Searchlight released in 2007, made less than the combined sum of Sony Pictures Classic’s 2007 catalog.
I understand that the sex and drugs themes inherent within The Wackness might pose a challenge to market, which explains why The Wackness probably settled with Sony Pictures Classics. But Levine would have had a better chance by selling the film to Fox Searchlight for $1 and taking a back-end deal. At least then maybe the film would have a chance.
I hope that Sony pictures Classics proves me wrong. I hope they market the hell out of this film. The Wackness has huge generational cult classic potential on the level of Zack Braff’s Garden State, which took in $26.8 million in the U.S. One thing is for sure, as much as I dislike Sony Pictures Classics, I will be giving this film an abundance of free marketing.
More from our Friends:
Neil at FSR: “This is probably one of the worst things that could have happened for the film.” “They are a studio that wouldn’t know what to do with a great film even if it came with a set of instructions.”
Alex from FS.net: “Sony Pictures Classics really needs to learn from Fox Searchlight if they’re going to market The Wackness and Baghead correctly, and I wish them the best of luck, because both of these need to be huge hits”
Edward Douglas of CS.net: “It’s a fun movie and could find a big audience, though it’s not the kind of movie Sony Classics usually releases, though it would be a huge turnaround for the company if they’re able to learn something from the Fox Searchlight marketing model”
Josh Tyler from CinemaBlend: “With the right marketing campaign and the right people promoting it, The Wackness could have easily opened in 1000 theaters and made millions. With Sony Pictures Classics behind it, we’ll be lucky if it ever plays anywhere outside of New York or LA, and forget about Oscar consideration.”
Anne Thompson of Variety: “Some folks seem to have an issue with SPC distributing Wackness.”
Peter Martin of Cinematical: “The complaint is that Sony Classics has had a poor track record over the past couple of years and someone like Fox Searchlight would do a better job with marketing a film that critics think needs to be seen.”
Sophia Loren Biography
Extraordinarily beautiful actor who managed against formidable odds to rise from extreme poverty and obscurity in post-war Italy while struggling against typecasting and thankless roles that have been the fate of similarly endowed performers. The illegitimate daughter of a frustrated actress, the young Loren was so thin as a child she was nicknamed “the Stick”. With American film production companies arriving in post-war Rome, her mother took Loren north from Naples where they were then living. She managed to get irregular work as a print model, entered beauty contests and took extra work in such films as “Quo Vadis” (made in 1949 but released in 1951). In 1951 alone she had bits in nine films, the same year she met producer and future husband Carlo Ponti, one of a panel of judges presiding over a beauty contest in which she was competing. Under Ponti’s guidance she became one of Italy’s leading stars of the 1950s, an earthy, voluptuous figure.
By 1954 she was an established name, and vying with the well-established Gina Lollobrigida for roles and fans on both sides of the Atlantic. After appearing in several American productions shot overseas, Loren arrived in Hollywood in the mid-1950s, preceded by a huge press campaign. Her natural sensuousness was vulgarized by the artificial glamour treatment and with few exceptions like “Houseboat” (1958) with Cary Grant, Sidney Lumet’s “That Kind of Woman” (1959), and “The Black Orchid” (1958) for which she received a Best Actress Award at Cannes, she was woefully miscast. Nonetheless, over the next two decades, Loren occasionally demonstrated the talent and range needed to transcend her pin-up status. She once again won an award at Cannes as well as a Best Actress Oscar for her memorable performance in Vittorio De Sica’s “Two Women” (1960), giving the performance of her career in the portrayal of a mother protecting her daughter in war-torn Italy.
Loren worked steadily throughout the 60s in forgettable projects with some of the industry’s most celebrated directors, most of whom were unfortunately past their prime: Michael Curtiz (”A Breath of Scandal”, 1960) Anatole Litvak (”Five Miles to Midnight”, 1963), and Charles Chaplin (”A Countess From Hong Kong”, 1967). Some of her better vehicles were George Cukor’s off-beat “Heller in Pink Tights” (1960), the Vittorio De Sica section of the episodic “Boccaccio 70″ (1962) and Stanley Donen’s stylish thriller “Arabesque” (1966) which co-starred Gregory Peck. Her only true standout roles of the period, however, were in “Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow” (1963) with Loren doing the famous bedroom striptease scene, and “Marriage Italian-Style” (1964), both under the direction of De Sica and co-starring Marcello Mastroianni, a leading man with whom she appeared in 14 films during her career. Loren also made several autobiographical specials for US TV including “The World of Sophia Loren” (ABC, 1962) and “Sophia!” (ABC, 1968).
In the 70s, Loren continued to get work offers but performed primarily in Europe. Other than Ettore Scola’s “A Special Day” (1977), which featured fine performances by her and Mastroianni in distinctly unglamorous roles, she appeared mostly in uneven productions including the disastrous adaptation of the stage musical “Man of la Mancha” (1972) directed by Arthur Hiller. Loren also worked with Italy’s celebrated female director Lina Wertmuller in two films, “Blood Feud” (1978), with Mastroianni again, and “Saturday, Sunday and Monday” (1990).
During the 80s Loren made only a few feature films while she raised her teenaged sons by Ponti, but she did perform in several American TV-movies including “Courage” (1986), “Aurora” (1984), which also featured her son Eduardo, and the autobiographical “Sophia Loren: Her Own Story” (1980) in which she played both herself and her own mother. By then each appearance she made was promoted as an event and her gracious presence as an acceptor of affection became more important than any other role she played. Having worked hard for many years, her status as a “legend” and a “survivor” was unshakably secure, even to the point where, somewhat unexpectedly, she was awarded a second, honorary Oscar in 1990. In 1994 Loren returned to US films in Robert Altman’s much ballyhooed but disappointing take on the French fashion scene, “Ready to Wear (Pret-a-Porter)”. The film’s major highlight was the recreation of the famous striptease that Loren performed once again for Mastroianni, who also co-starred. She subsequently brought a warm, friendly presence and her sensuous, distinctive beauty to the middle-aged antics of the popular and unassuming if derivative sequel film, “Grumpier Old Men” (1995).
- Also Credited As:
Sofia Lazzaro, Sofia Villani Scicolone - Born:
on 09/20/1934 in Rome, Italy - Job Titles:
Actor, Model
Family
- Father: Riccardo Scicolone.
- Mother: Romilda Villani. born c. 1910; died May 9, 1991 in Rome at age 81 after long illness
- Niece: Alessandra Mussolini. born c. 1962; appeared in Israeli film “The Road to Einharold”, in Ettore Scola’s “Una Giornata Partibato” and Lina Wertmuller’s “Saturday, Sunday and Monday” (1992); also acted on Italian TV and later became a physician in training; won a seat in the Italian Parliament running on the neo-Fascist ticket (1992); married to Capt. Mauro Floriani, a customs police officer
- Sister: Anna Maria Scicolone. formerly married to Romano Mussolini, third son of Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, who ruled Italy in the 1930s and during WWII
- Son: Carlo Ponti. born in 1969; graduated from Pepperdine University (majored in music) in 1991; went on to graduate work at USC in conducting
- Son: Eduardo Ponti. born c. 1973; studied at USC majoring in film; made first film “Liv” (1998)
Significant Others
- Husband: Carlo Ponti. met in 1951; married in 1957; marriage annulled in 1962 due to charges by Italian government that Ponti’s divorce from previous wife was not valid and therefore he was a bigamist; legally married in France in 1966
Milestones
- 1950 Feature acting debut, “Variety Lights”; played a bit part in film directed by Federico Fellini
- 1950 First film in which she and Marcello Mastroianna both appeared, “Cuori sul mare”
- 1952 Given the name “Sophia Loren”, which had been thought up by a producer
- 1953 Signed contract with Carlo Ponti
- 1954 First of eight collaborations with director Vittorio DeSica, “Gold of Naples”, an anthology film in which Loren acted in the segment, “Pizza on Credit”
- 1955 First film in which she and Marcello Mastroianni played leading roles opposite each other, “Peccato che sia una canaglia/Too Bad She’s Bad”, directed by Alessandro Blasetti
- 1957 Moved to Hollywood under contract to Paramount; first feature in Hollywood, “The Pride and the Passion”
- 1962 TV debut in America as hostess of own special, “The World of Sophia Loren”
- 1966 Served as president of Cannes Film Festival Jury
- 1974 Acted in last film directed by Vittorio DeSica, “Il viaggio/The Voyage”
- 1974 American TV acting debut, “Brief Encounter” (for “Hallmark Hall of Fame”), a remake of the 1945 classic film directed by David Lean; co-starred opposite Richard Burton
- 1978 Last American-made film for over 15 years, “Brass Target”
- 1980 Played both herself and her mother in an NBC TV-movie biopic, “Sophia Loren: Her Own Story”
- 1984 Acted opposite her son Eduardo (then age 11, in his acting debut) in the American-made TV-movie, “Aurora”
- 1994 First American-made film since 1978, “Ready to Wear (Pret-a-Porter)”, directed by Robert Altman
- 1994 Received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
- 1998 Hospitalized in NYC with a heart arrhythmia
- 2002 Returned to the Venice Film Festival after years away to support her 29-year-old son, director Edoardo Ponti, whose film “Between Strangers” Loren starred in
- Moved to Rome with her mother at age 14 and a half to pursue modeling and acting career; met Carlo Ponti at age 15 (he was a judge in beauty contest she had entered)