Charlotte Sometimes, The Machinist and other films

Charlotte Sometimes and The Machinist -

There are many films that I watch at least once a year. Then there are some that I don’t watch for many years. One such film is Total Recall which stars Arnold Schwarzenagger. Since there had been a lot of talk about the remake I decided to watch the original. I’m not a big fan of remakes. I don’t get the reasoning behind it. Are you trying to prove you can do a better job than another director? That you are trying to improve the writing? Why not create something original? I never understood why Gus Van Sant remade Psycho. Was it to prove to himself that he was just as good as Hitchcock?

Now there are some times when I will sit down and watch a remake. When I had no idea there was another version or if I never saw the original. That will be the case with the film The Great Gatsby. I never saw the original and so I will probably see the remake which stars Leonardo DiCaprio. I will probably pass on seeing the remake of Sparkle on the big screen, but I’ll probably check it out when it is on DVD. I just don’t see why they don’t tell a new story about a young shy girl that becomes a lead vocalist. Sparkle came before Dream Girls, but as long as there is something different stories about the music business are interesting.

Over the last few months I’ve seen many films, but I watched Charlotte Sometimes which I thought was a foreign film. I usually have to be in a certain mood to read subtitles, but when I put the film in the DVD player is was in English. That was a surprise. It’s quite the artsy film with not a lot of dialogue and there’s a little intrigue as we watch the characters come to life.

The story centers on a guy who likes his female best friend who is sleeping with one of his tenants. She finds comfort in his apartment after she is intimate with the tenant. She feels she’s like to set him up with someone, but he isn’t interested.
By accident the plan gets set into motion and a lot of dirty laundry seems to come out.
We have to be careful what we wish for because we never know how it will effect the people around us.

The Machinist was never on my list of films to see. I’ve seen Christian Bale in quite a few films, but I wouldn’t say I’m a big fan. He is a great actor I will say that. I thought Harsh Times was a good film and he was interesting in American Psycho. In The Fighter is was really good. In The Machinist Christian Bale goes where many actors fear to go. Talk about method acting. Christian Bale looked like death. It was hard to watch at times. The film was told in somewhat of a flashback. The opening was somewhat funny, but then the film becomes gritty as we watch as a man deals with his paranoia, brought on by his insomnia which was brought on by a traumatic event. It was good to see Jenifer Jason Leigh back on the big screen, but Christian Bale was this movie.

I don’t know if the scripts character was thin and of course there are many thin actors in Hollywood, who could have played the part. Christian Bale wanted the role and went for it.
He’s not the first actor to go after something that may have not called for his type.
(I don’t know if the script called for the character to be thin, but I’m guessing that was the case.)

In the film Carmen, Dorothy Dandridge was not the first choice for Carmen, but she wanted the role and was willing to prove she had what it took. In the film, Fort Apache The Bronx, Pam Grier was not Paul Newman’s first choice for the serial killer prostitute. Miss Grier proved she was right for the role and gave herself over embodying the character.

Whoopi Goldberg and Louis Gossette, Jr. both went out for roles that were originally written for white actors. The medium in Ghost and the sergeant in An Officer and a Gentleman. This role also won him an Oscar.

When it comes to acting I feel if you can play it why not be given a chance. When Natalie Wood played Maria in the musical film, West Side Story there was a lot of stink about a white actress playing a latina. If you’ve got what it takes, go for it.

Lena Horn would tell this story in her one woman show about trying for the role of Night of the Iguana. Because of her skin color they didn’t think she was black enough and they came up with a make up so she could look darker and once they did that they realized they could use it on Ava Gardener and she got the role.

Sometimes things work and sometimes it doesn’t. We have to learn not to give up on something we believe in. If it doesn’t work out it just wasn’t meant to be.

Thanks for stopping by; keep an open mind.


http://artbydlonzo.blogspot.com

http://vimeo.com/27482821

http://dlonzo-OpenYourMind.blogspot.com

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=54325957

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=54365247