20th Annual Philadelphia Film Festival Coverage 2011 Part 3 of 3

Wikipedia: Colin Clark (9 October 1932 – 17 December 2002) was a British writer and filmmaker who specialized in films for cinema and television about the arts. He was the son of the art historian Lord Clark of Saltwood (Sir Kenneth Clark), and the younger brother of the Conservative politician and military historian Alan Clark, with whom he was not always on good terms.[1]
Born in London, he was educated at Eton College and Christ Church, Oxford. From 1951 to 1953 he did National Service as a pilot officer in the Royal Air Force.[2]
Colin Clark’s first job on leaving university was as an assistant director on the film The Prince and the Showgirl (1957), directed by Laurence Olivier and starring Olivier and Marilyn Monroe, an experience Clark later turned into two books, one a set of diaries[3] (a TV documentary version of which was also made in 2004)[4] and the other a memoir of his relationship with Monroe.[5] Clark’s time with Monroe is the basis of the 2011 film My Week with Marilyn.

I had never heard of Colin Clark before viewing this film, but now I really wish he had lived long enough to see this movie come to fruition and to have been present at the screening during the Philly Film Fest. What man (or perhaps woman) wouldn’t want to have had a brief affair of the heart with Marilyn Monroe? What a gift to have spent one on one time in her presence. The film is magical for this fact alone. I so enjoyed watching Colin (Eddie Redmayne) a kind-hearted, eager kid, not even 25 years-old, land his first job in the industry and find himself being an integral part of the movie. Not just any movie, but one that continues to be a big part of Hollywood history.  No wonder this experience made a lasting impact on his life.

Michelle Williams finds all of the sides of Marilyn Monroe.  At first I felt she was an odd choice to play the role.  I like her as an actress, but I never think of Williams as bombshell sexy. I don’t even think of her as pretty.  However, she succeeds in not only pulling off these aspects of Monroe; but more importantly, you come to know the vulnerable, sad, child-like Monroe as well, through William’s stellar performance.

Here’s an interview with Michelle Willams from Mail Online talking about taking on this role:

Michelle admitted that initially she was terrified of taking on Monroe, so her first answer to director Simon Curtis and producer David Parfitt was a resounding No.

But Michelle told me: ‘I knew I wouldn’t be able to resist, eventually. Physically and vocally, everything about her is different from me. I’ve kind of gone to school and had teachers to help me understand Marilyn, so I could project an essence of her.’

‘When I first approached the part, I thought that there were three, even four parts to -Marilyn,’ she continued. There was the public Marilyn — the one Norma Jean would refer to as ‘her’, ‘as in the voluptuous, strike-a-pose “her” ’.But there was also the private Norma Jean; and Elsie Marina, the song-and-dance performer Monroe was playing in The Prince And The Showgirl. All of which can throw a thespian off balance. ‘It rearranges you, it shifts your molecules, lifts you up, spins you around, puts you back down and you’re not quite the same, for better or for worse,’ she said.

‘Later, when I viewed some footage shot by cinematographer Ben Smithard I was knocked out by her performance. One moment there’s the lightness of touch required by the high comedy of being showgirl Elsie, the next there’s the poignancy of Norma Jean’.

The only other documentary I saw during the festival other than “I am Carolyn Parker” was a Philly produced doc called Race to the Bottom of the Earth.  It features Philadelphia-based explorer, Todd Carmichael’s attempt to not only be the first American to solo trek the seven hundred miles across Antarctica to the South Pole, but to set the record for fastest trek at the same time.

Surprisingly compelling considering it’s basically one man talking into a video camera about frost bite, broken camping stoves, broken skies, whiteout conditions, and calling his wife each night with sometimes incoherent reports of the day.

Partly what keeps you hanging in there is the fact that Carmichael is very likable and rather sexy, in a non-traditional sense of the word. And just like the movies, Cast Away, 127 Hours and Buried , one person’s confined plight and strength of will to carry on, can really make for great storytelling.

On a side note: I didn’t know there was really a barbershop pole at the South Pole, I thought that was just made up for Santa Claus!

Unfortunately, Todd Carmichael wasn’t able to attend the Q & A after the screening. Producer Nancy Glass & filmmaker Michele Loschiavo answered the questions from the audience; allowing the Q & A to be about the filmmaking process of turning all that raw footage into a good, tense documentary.

Below is the video:

Congrats to everyone associated with “Race” in winning Greater Filmadelphia Award for Best Local Film.

The Closing night film, featured George Clooney in The Descendants. Basically, it’s hard not to like this film set in Hawaii, although, I don’t feel it’s as good as writer/director Alexander Payne’s film Sideways. Still, I was very impressed with the balancing act of threading laugh out loud humor into really tough situations. The timing of which, is nothing short of brilliant.

Here’s what other reviewers are saying about the film:

With The Descendants, Payne has once again found an eccentric realm for us to explore, though with less caustic wit, presenting a Hawaii set tale of another off-kilter character…Our preconceptions about Hawaii as a paradise are arrested in George Clooney’s opening narration; his wife, seen enjoying the adrenaline rush from water skiing behind a power boat, lies in a coma, the victim of an accident that followed soon afterwards. People from the islands experience tragedy and work stress and strife like everyone else, we’re told, and we’re about to experience it. Matt King, Clooney’s sole trustee to an inherited family plot of unspoilt land with a Pacific aspect, is engaged, on behalf of his enormous brood, in selling it to developers, while his daughters, hitherto the domain of the mother, are now his sole responsibility –LFF Film Review: by Ed Whitfield

Brilliantly scripted and superbly well acted (there’s a cracking turn from newcomer Nick Krause as Alexandra’s teenage stoner ‘friend’ Sid) this film is more than the sum of its constituent parts. As a reflection of values, family and honor it’s not only unimpeachable but downright hilarious. Clooney describes it as ‘a coming of age tale for a 50 year old man.” – Redbull.com’s movie critic, Chris Sullivan

Payne’s first theatrical film in seven years (why is he so slow?), “The Descendants” navigates smoothly, delicately, and gracefully a turf that has become Payne’s specialty, an emotionally affective and effective hybrid of tragedy and comedy, melodrama and satire, tear-jerker and enlightening exploration of nothing short of the meaning of life, what’s important, what’s trivial, and so on. –Emanuel Levy Cinema

Alexander Payne sent along his long-time producer, George Parra to handle the Q & A after the screening. Below is the video: