A wrote about some of my favorite feature-length flicks about bands and songwriting in today’s newsletter.
Rovelli and Mann
The physicist Carlo Rovelli and the filmmaker Michael Mann have become entangled in my mind.
When I was reading The Order of Time I couldn’t help but think of Heat.
And after I finished Helgoland, we happened to re-watch Collateral.
Every man needs this speech from Olympia Dukakis
Ever since I first saw Moonstruck, a movie I’ve watched at least a dozen times, I’ve believed that the world would be a better place if every man received a good dressing-down and talking-to from Olympia Dukakis playing Rose Castorini.
Hers is one of my favorite performances on film (it won her an Academy Award), and I’ve very sad to hear that she died this week, at the age of 89.
One of the best lines in Moonstruck wasn’t even in the script. While improvising, Dukakis quoted something her mother said to her:
It is rare and delightful to discover that an artist seemed to be as great off-screen as on, so I will end with this Tweet thread from Sarah Polley:
7 things to watch if you liked Derek DelGaudio’s In and Of Itself
I really liked Derek DelGaudio’s new film directed by Frank Oz, In and Of Itself. (If you haven’t seen it, don’t read anything else about it, just go watch it.) I asked my friend, filmmaker and screenwriter James Francis Flynn, to make me a list of stuff to watch related to magic, illusion, and con artistry. Below is what he sent me.
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The Prestige
DelGaudio was a consultant on this 2006 Christopher Nolan film about rival stage magicians in turn of the century London.
Deceptive Practice: The Mysteries and Mentors of Ricky Jay
A 2012 documentary about Ricky Jay, the famed magician, author, and historian, and those who inspired him to take up those trades.
Ricky Jay and His 52 Assistants
A filmed stage show of Jay’s incredible sleight-of-hand work, directed by David Mamet.
House of Games
David Mamet’s directorial debut, which follows a successful author who becomes drawn into the underground world of card cheats and con artists.
The Sting
During The Great Depression, two professional grifters, played by Paul Newman and Robert Redford, plot to rip off a Chicago mob boss.
An Honest Liar
2014 documentary about James Randi, magician and professional skeptic who made it his life’s work to expose pseudoscientists, psychics, and fakes of all kinds.
Penn & Teller: Bullshit!
Showtime series wherein the magic duo often exposed cold readers, quacks, and scammers. As Penn said in the first episode, “Sure, we lie, cheat, and swindle; we’ve been known to deal in a bit of bullshit ourselves…One important difference: We tell you we’re lying.”
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James Francis Flynn was born and raised in Oxford, Ohio. I met him when we were students at the Western College Program at Miami University. James currently works in TV and film and lives in Los Angeles with his wife and kids. Check out his latest short film, Social Distancing in Los Angeles, and his website: jamesfrancisflynn.com.
How they shot Elf with forced perspective
I’ve seen Elf probably a dozen times — it’s one of my favorite Christmas movies to watch with the kids — but I never bothered to watch the behind-the-scenes featurettes, so I was delighted by this clip from Netflix’s The Holiday Movies That Made Us that shows how they used forced perspective to make Will Ferrell seem gigantic:
I love practical effects like this. (Director Jon Favreau wanted the movie to look timeless, so he stayed away from too much CGI that might date the movie.) The forced perspective technique is also how they got Hagrid to look so huge in the Harry Potter movies and the hobbits so small in The Lord of the Rings.