Love and glory - Brokeback in Venice and Zodiac in the charts [Update: New pics]

Happy New Year to all of you and welcome to the first post of 2008!

Brokeback in Venice

It's not often you can pinpoint a life-changing event, but I can - on Sunday 29 January 2006 I saw Brokeback Mountain for the first time and nothing has been the same since. It was bad at first, then it got better and now it's wonderful. A rare chance to see the film on the big screen is coming up in London. It is showing at the BFI on the Southbank from Thursday 10 January until Sunday 13 January, at 8.20pm. I believe that there are some organised trips going on, which I'll look into, but if anyone is interested, please email me.



So, as it's the first day of the year and Brokeback isn't far from my mind, I thought I'd focus briefly on Brokeback Mountain's success at the Venice Film Festival in 2005. In this beautiful city, Ang Lee won the Golden Lion for Best Film. Interestingly, other films in contention included Jake's Proof and Heath's Casanova and Brothers Grimm. What a year!


Here is a video interview that Jake recorded in Venice, a day after his arrival and still battling with the constant companion to film festivals - jetlag. Should you be unable to get any or all of this to play, you can have a go at reading Jake's answers below in German. I do love to hear and watch Jake talk about what drew him to this film after his initial fear of the project, having first read the script as a boy (aged only 17). Here Jake says that, once Ang was on board, he had to do it: 'Then when Ang came on to it I read it years later and, with the idea that Ang was going to direct it and knowing his films, and knowing that he tackles universal topics, it's not just, you know, the specific topic of, in this case, sexuality. It was more the idea of love. Just thinking that way when I read it, I was so moved by it and I just had to do it. I met with Ang and just said I had to do it and a few weeks later he let me! It was that simple!'



Here are a couple of videos from that amazing Film Festival. The first is of the press conference, in which we can enjoy watching Heath and Jake interact, and the second covers all of Heath's films in Venice, including film of Jake and Heath on the Brokeback red carpet.





Zodiac in the charts

Looking at the end of year critics' lists, one would be forgiven for assuming that Zodiac will be the film to sweep the board at the Oscars in February. However, all fans of Jake Gyllenhaal and Brokeback Mountain have learnt the hard way, that this will most likely not be the case. But there is some satisfaction to be had by reading through the acclamations. I can never hear enough that Zodiac is one of the best films of the year, or indeed IS the best film of the year. I may be biased but I know a good film when I see it.


The American Scene places Zodiac at No 3: 'David Fincher’s most meticulous film, and his most maddening. Technically flawless, in Fincher’s usual way, it’s a slick, Hollywood masterpiece that turns the conventions of the crime story inside out, offering elusive clues at best and frustrating both its characters and viewers at every turn. A chaotic and slow-burning antidote to CSI’s cult of easy evidence, Fincher’s movie takes the framework of the detective tale and remakes it into a vast epistemological quandary.'


Likewise, a Cinematical critic and Ohio's Toledo Blade also put Zodiac at No 3. Cinematical: 'David Fincher's film about the Zodiac killer was one of the most under-appreciated films of the year. This film is riveting and flawlessly put together, with a set that was an exact reproduction of the real San Francisco Chronicle during the time of the story and outstanding performances by a great cast including Jake Gyllenhaal and Robert Downey Jr., and I was deeply disappointed that it pretty much tanked at the box office. It was well-received critically, though, and perhaps its appearance on several end-of-year lists will compel folks to check it out on DVD.' Toledo Blade: 'A remarkably obsessive meditation on obsession itself, David Fincher's chilling police procedural was not the serial-killer movie audiences were led to expect. Which is why so many hated it. But what they got if they stayed was All the President's Men stretched into an epic, a film so entrenched with details, its subjects (hypnotized with purpose) lose all focus on their own lives.'


Laist judged Zodiac as its second favourite film of 2007: 'Roger Ebert once said something along the lines of, "A good movie is never too long and a bad movie is never short enough." I could have kept watching Zodiac for hours. Though Jake Gyllenhaal is nominally the star, the movie really belongs to Robert Downey, Jr. Many will say that Fight Club is David Fincher's best film, but my vote would go to Zodiac.' News-Leader put Zodiac at No 2; the Orlando Sentinal put Zodiac at No 5, as did New Zealand's TV3; Playback placed Zodiac at No 9.


The Huffington Post listed its favourite films in no particular order, but Zodiac went first: 'Based on his fiendishly artistic, misanthropic and influential necro-fetish classic Se7en, we already knew David Fincher could craft the perfect serial killer movie. And yet Fincher, a subversive, substance-soaked stylist, chartered new territory with the stunningly ambitious Zodiac, a movie that goes above and beyond the perceived limitations of the serial killer genre by becoming not only an intricate study of obsession, but a moody explication of one of our darkest eras - the 1970's. Taken from the real life case of The Zodiac Killer -- a mysterious, black hooded assassin who terrified the San Francisco Bay area just as the '60s were coming to a close -- the picture boasts horrifying, unnervingly tense sequences of random yet bizarrely ritualistic acts of violence.'


'But the picture's not simply content with its startling death throttles, and instead narrows its focus on three men (Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo and an extraordinary Robert Downey Jr.) so consumed by capturing the elusive killer, that their fervency borders on madness - a madness they (and consequently the viewer) cannot shake. Part police procedural, part journalistic drama, a la All The Presidents Men, Zodiac deftly and densely splits narrative, making for a multifaceted and unexpectedly mordant examination of the era's pessimism and unease, particularly since the crime may never be solved. Like a true '70s movie, one leaves the picture haunted; riddled with unanswered questions and an enveloping sense of dread that just clings to you. And seriously, if the song wasn't creepy enough, you'll never hear Donovan's "Hurdy Gurdy Man" without visions of a faceless fiend stalking you in a black car on a dark night.' Very true, these songs will never be nor sound the same.


FILMdetail had this to say about Zodiac: 'Major studios are often berated for churning out soulless dreck and whilst that’s often true, they do also make some great films from time to time. The problem is that sometimes no audiences end up going to see them. Zodiac is just such a film - when people look back in years to come I think this will be seen as something of a classic. Based on the case files of the unsolved Zodiac killing that plagued California in the 60s and 70s this was a thriller cut from the finest cloth. Director David Fincher demonstrated his marvellous visual skills whilst conveying many complex layers of information wrapped up in a beguiling procedural drama. The acting from Mark Ruffalo, Jake Gyllenhall and Robert Downey Jnr as three different characters haunted by the case deserved higher praise than it got. Plus, the production design and the brilliant HD camerawork by Harry Savides merit the highest praise. For me this was Seven crossed with All the Presidents Men and that is high praise indeed.'


I'm delighted that Zodiac was the clear winner of the year for UK site DVD Times. In Ioncinema, Zodiac also earned top spot: 'Yes, I feel that Zodiac was the best film I saw this year. Why? Because it took risks, toyed with genre conventions, broke through technological boundaries and gave us the most complete understanding of the entire Zodiac incident that were ever going to get. The passage of time is a destructive force and it was really only Zodiac that really used that theme to it's full potential this year. Unfortunately, everyone went to see Wild Hogs opening weekend.'


And there are other lists featuring Zodiac... But there were also other films out in 2007. Rendition has hardly a look in, and we've discussed possible reasons for that. SherryBaby was another movie we watched out for in 2007 and The Sun placed that as it's 9th favourite film of the year: 'Maggie Gyllenhaal deserves an Oscar for her edgy Sherry Swanson, who wants her daughter back after leaving prison. Uncompromising viewing with no easy answers.'


New pictures from 31 December

Jake's done it again - I finish a post and what happens... new pics! Always the way. Here is Jake out for a walk in LA with Reese and her children yesterday. Source Flynetonline.





Includes pictures from IHJ and Associated Press.