Tony's Corner: A Fan's Notes
"LIST-O-MANIA"
As the ending of one year unfolds unto a new one, it's a perfect time to look back and
reflect. With writers and critics everywhere preparing their various best and worst
lists of 2000, I thought it appropriate to compile a few lists of my own. Not your garden
variety ten best this, that or the other, but more of a personal accounting of various and
sundry issues and events that came my way during the past 12 months:
Top Ten Reasons why MISSION TO MARS Really was the Best Movie of 2000:
10. De Palma's joke of the toy rocket lift-off,
followed by yet another of those patented unbroken takes to open the proceedings.
9. Gary Sinise's footprint in the sand. Avoiding every cliche in the book about rocket
launches and Mars landings, in one split-second jump cut De Palma says everything that
needs to be said about the spirit of space exploration and the monumental ambitions at the
heart of the NASA program.
8. The amazing art work and set designs of Tom Verreaux and company.
7. The Antonioni meets CGI moment when the camera floats through the window of the
capsule.
6. Ennio Morricone's brilliant score was emotionally majestic at every appropriate moment,
and just as creepily, eerily suspenseful when needed.
5. The steely beauty and fierce intelligence of Connie Nielsen's Terri Fisher. The first
true De Palma heroine in a long, long time.
4. Three classic De Palma setpieces: "Dancing the Night Away" in zero gravity;
The attempted repair job on the space module; and Woody's sacrifice, all rank with the
very best work he has ever done.
3. Floating blood!
2. Stephen H. Burum's cinematography, which managed to be achingly beautiful,
fundamentally straightforward, and all the while graced with a poetic mobility that would
do Max Ophuls proud.
1. Brian De Palma's ambitions to create a pop space opera for our times was fully
realized. Some of the science may not have been 100% accurate. Some of the acting and
dialogue may have appeared wooden or stilted to modern audiences. The ending is either a
howler of embarrassment or a transcendent moment of visual splendor, depending on one's
willingness to go along for the ride. The lucky few of us who did catch on to what De
Palma was going after, got all we could ever ask of any movie.
Top Ten De Palma/Movie Related Websites:
1. This one. For obvious reasons I'm a bit impartial on this topic, but what Carl has
created, and what together we have refined somewhat, is the perfect example of a fan based
website. We make no pretenses at being anything but that, yet there is information and
graphical artwork here that cannot be found anywhere else. Everything about the site is a
tribute to the wonderfully obsessive nature of fandom. The fact that it's rendered with
such a caring hand and dedicated craftmanship, is what separates it from other similar
sites around the web.
2. Bill Fentum's Directed by Brian
De Palma is unquestionably the most authoritative, informative, and downright
entertaining De Palma site on the web. In an amazingly brief period his page has gone from
a fledgling fansite, to being the closest thing to an official Brian De Palma webpage that
we have. Interviews with the man himself, and those he's worked with throughout his
career, his stunningly insightful and thoroughly researched essays, the heralding of his
work by various sources, on and off the net, and most of all the invaluable and ever
evolving forum, all contribute to the credibilty and integrity at the heart of Fentum's
remarkable achievement. Did I mention the pictures?
3. Geoff Beran's De Palma A La Mod,
aside from having the best title of any De Palma website, is still The best place to go to
for breaking news, and for the most exaustive digging into the details of the latest
doings of Brian De Palma. His yeoman work on the background information surrounding
MISSION TO MARS, is marked by some of the best fact gathering and sheer journalistic
energy that I've ever encountered. Here's looking forward to learning all we can about
FEMME FATALE through Geoff's tireless efforts.
4. I don't know how he does it, assuming that English is not even his first language,
Giuseppe's Italian based website Brian De Palma's Split World, has some of the best, most complex,
intricately detailed, and damned elegant writing on De Palma's films past and present that
there is to be found anywhere, and I mean anywhere. I've learned more from reading his
essays than I have from any other previously published book on De Palma.
5. The Internet Movie
Database (IMDB) is an invaluable tool for research, fact gathering, or for just
wasting four or five hours getting lost in this dense storehouse of movie related
information.
6. The Movie Review Query Engine (MRQE)
is still my favorite place to go to find reviews of just about every movie ever made.
Using a truly broad cross section of print and web critics, directly accessed by the user.
No filters, no middleman, no nonesense.
7/8. Jeem's Cinepad & The Art of Amy Irving are
just two of the many amazing sites that are linked to Geoff's. Both are informative and
well written pages by individuals who share an obvious love of the cinema, as well as an
ability to share that love through some very intelligent and passionate, if slightly, and
wonderfully idiosyncratic, writing.
9. Rough Cut's David Poland is the one net-based movie columnist that I
read on a regular basis. He's opinionated, insightful, obsessive, and seemingly tireless.
Having done this sort of thing, even on this small a scale, for a while now, I can truly
appreciate how hard someone like Poland works to come up with stuff the way he does on an
almost daily basis. He's a big time De Palma fan to boot.
10. Senses of Cinema
is an Australian site that is linked (like many of the other sites mentioned) to this very
page, it's a fine example of a movie webzine, edited by Fiona A. Villella, that shames
most of it's competion in the print world, through the sheer richness and variety of it's
offerings. Contributions from leading critics from around the world such as Adrian Martin
and Nicole Brenez, as well as De Palma forum alum Dmetri Kalkmi, are supplemented with an
ongoing survey of top ten film lists, a set of links that can't be beat, and straight
forward yet boldly elegant graphics.
Top Ten Highly Subjective, Deeply Personal, and Nakedly Revealing Choices of Actresses
I'd Love to see Star in FEMME FATALE:
1. Juliette Binoche
2. Connie Nielsen
3. Uma Thurman
4. Cate Blanchett
5. Julianne Moore
6. Vanessa Paradis
7. Maggie Cheung
8. Deborah Kara Unger
9. Minnie Driver
10.Kristin Scott Thomas
Top Ten Favorite Posters to the Brian De Palma Forum:
A note to start off with. This was not an easy task, and it was especially difficult to
eliminate some folks from the final cut. I think my appreciation of people like Carl and
Giuseppe has as much to do with their work on their respective websites, rather than on
the forum itself, and as much as I've enjoyed reading the contributions of John M, Steve,
Kim Thompson, Richardstevens73 and others too numerous to mention, for reasons somewhat
unexplainable even to me, the names below are the ones that most readily spring to mind.
To further avoid any hurt feelings the order is in reverse alphabetical and otherwise
random.
10. SPACE ACE - The fact that he was among the first contributors to the forum, and has
been the most prolific, is one thing. The fact that his passion for movies (and video
games!) comes through in nearly everything he writes is another. The fact that he,
initially at least, does all of this from a university computer located somewhere in
Sofia, Bulgaria in the Balkans, is testament both to his love of De Palma and to the
far-reaching importance of the forum itself.
9. MADCRITIC - Ah, where to begin? While he and I rarely saw eye to eye; when you think of
it, he didn't really see eye to eye with very many of us, but Madcritic's role in the
early stages of the forum cannot be overstated. He was contentious, at times downright
rude, hence the moniker, right? But his passion for De Palma's films could not be denied,
and his insightful and illuminating posts were always entertaining to say the very least.
I maintained at the time of his angry departure, that the forum would always need, for
lack of a better term, shit disturbers. By that I don't mean numbskulls like Caribou, but
earnest and sincere people who have a dissenting voice, and are not afraid to express it.
If he was nothing else, Madcritic was certainly that for us.
8. JMJM - He doesn't post as often as he used to, but when he does, it's always with an
intelligent and thought-provoking contribution, imbued with a genuine love for the cinema,
that never fails to be anything less than courteous.
7. HARRISONJOHN1 - Another member whose posts have unfortunately gotten more and more
infrequent of late. As a student, he (and several others) offer an American counterpart to
the university guys in Europe. His hilarious accounts of his frustrating encounters with
the public as a video store clerk were some of the highlights of the forum for me this
past Spring and Summer. Here's hoping whatever he up to now will afford him the time to
return to more regular contributions. His voice is one we need to hear from.
6. GEOFF - How many querys, questions, and confusions have been answered by Geoff, in his
direct but unfailingly polite, efficient, and generous manner? Forget Roger Ebert, he's
our "Movie Answer Man." His posts are always measured and informed with a
guiding intelligence, and in many ways he's been as much the unseen conscience of the De
Palma forum as Bill Fentum himself.
5. Speaking of whom, FENTUM, as he prefers to be known to us, is of course the mystery man
responsible for the forums very existence. The fact that he is also the author of some of
the best, most consistent, and purely enjoyable posts is illustrative of his admirable
dedication to the cause. How he does what he does, is his secret, I just hope he keeps on
doing it.
4. COSTT8KO - Or Tim Costello to family and friends, is a burgeoning young film critic
with an growing webpage of his own, on which you'll find excellent reviews of movies by,
and not by, Brian De Palma. His extensive analysis of BLOW OUT is as cogently written and
impassioned as any I've ever read. His frequent posts are marked with the obsessive love
of a fan coupled with the thoughtful smarts of an academic. I look forward to following
his writing both on the forum and in the world at large.
3. CHRISTIAN G - Another of our young European friends, whose unique perspective has
proven to be invaluable, and whose unflagging energy infectious enthusiasm, and good
heartedness is reflected in his many, many, many posts!
2. BWL - Our man on the inside. A guy who's actually worked on the production of
independent films. His posts amount to some of the best writing on De Palma you're likely
to find. Like the true fan that he is, he sometimes wears his passion on his sleeve, and
his willingness to defend De Palma, as evidenced in his now classic confrontation with
internet movie bozo Jeff Wells, is as admirable as it is just.
1. ANN - I don't know where she's gone off to, or what she's doing now, but in the two
periods during which she contributed to the forum in a nearly obsessive flurry of
activity, we exchanged a series of enthusiastic posts, both on the forum and in private
e-mail. I don't believe I've ever met a more kindred spirit. While we had virtually
nothing in common outside of our shared concerns, I found in Ann someone with whom I felt
free enough to discuss my innermost thoughts and feelings on a variety of issues, not
least of which, were the not unimportant topics of movies, art and Brian De Palma. I still
miss those days, and I miss my friend Ann. My fervent wish, first of all is that she's
alright, and also, that if she somehow comes across this, she'll consider re-entering the
forum, and our lives.
Ten Reasons why MISSION:IMPOSSIBLE is Superior to MISSION:IMPOSSIBLE 2:
10. Government issue brush cut vs. long flowing movie star locks.
9. Slow motion is great, but Jeez, Mr. Woo, there's a limit!
8. When did Ethan Hunt become such an expert marksman?
7. Exploding gum: cool. Exploding shades? C'mon!
6. Latex facial disguises are great, but Jeez, Mr. Woo, there's a limit!
5. When did Ethan Hunt become such an expert mountain climber?
4. Ving Rhames and Jean Reno: cool. Ving Rhames and that goddamn annoying Aussie pilot?
c'mon!
3. There are no, repeat NO doves flapping their wings in slow motion to announce Mr.
Hunt's entrance, at any time, in the first film.
2. When did Ethan Hunt become such an expert motorcyclist?
1. We all know that copping scenes from Hitchcock is great, but Jeez, Mr. Woo, there's a
limit!
T o n y
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