Summit Cinema Film Festival Finale! Grandmaster splinters the competition!

Dear Ladies and Gentleman, representatives from Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Beijing, Moscow, London, Mumbai,  Sydney, Vienna, Paris, Charleston, Los Angeles, and New York.  Thank you all for attending the Summit Film Festival this summer!  As the Festival comes to a close I wanted to thank all of you personally for not giving up on the art of film.

The final entry for the summer of 2013 competition is the done by none other than the jazz auteur himself.  A man whom pays attention to every cinematic detail the way a conductor guides a symphony.  The one the only MR. WONG KAR WAI.  In watching the opening of his latest feature "The Grandmaster" from the classical music and the swirl of colors of a painters palette a viewer gets transported to a cinematic Milky Way galaxy instantly.  The visuals by Wong are the best of any living director.  The initial rain sequence in which Tony Leung in his Panama hat and black Kung Fu outfit takes on a group of many is amazing.  Rickshaws are splintered and rain hits the actors like carpet bombs.  He is the Ip man and the last man standing.  His silhouette outlined like Indiana Jones as the fighters all reel in pain on the ground is stoic.

In looking at the sets for the film they were astounding.  Cheers to Martin Scorsese, Samuel Jackson, and the French for financing this movie.  Without their help I am sure the decadent Golden Pavilion that looks fashioned after the Forbidden City couldn't be created.  The train depot and snow house locations were magnificent.  The snow at the house Ziyi Zhang has never been executed in exactly the same way as how Wong utilized it for Zhang's childhood training.  There are parallels to this and Wong's other Kung Fu movie "Ashes of Time" although much of that takes place in the desert.  The way the natural environments and elements  add another dimensions to Kung Fu in general is enjoyable, but in Wong Kar Wai's hands it is taken to another level.

Favorite scenes from the film are watching Tony Leung and Ziyi Zhang fight in a romantic dance sequence.  In some ways the Kung Fu in this film feels like a dance like West Side Story or Michael Jackson's "Bad".  Another scene is the Ziyi Zhang's fight sequence at the train depot.  In  this scene bricks are surreally  moved and bars are unhinged in slow motion.  Tony Leung practicing on the wooden block in stutter step slow motion looks amazing.

In terms of story and dialogue the romance between Leung and Zhang is mysterious and noir.  A button becomes a romantic symbol of everything.  As in most Wong Kar Wai film it's the mystery of love and desire that are most intriguing and not the actual dialogue.  In "In the Mood for Love" "2046" "Chungking Express" and "My Blueberry Nights" this is true.  The actors and actresses read the majority of the range of their emotions on their faces.  A reoccurring theme is the one that got away.

Thanks to those that support the Grandmaster especially the Weinstein Company.  Thanks for attending the Summit Cinema film festival this summer!  We appreciate the hits from Latvia, Russia, France, and India or wherever you may be.  Jump in the ocean one time before the summer's over.  Keep on grooving cinephiles and stay tuned!

Summit Cinema Part III: Woody Allen's master stroke "Blue Jasmine" and Cate Blanchett to the Rescue!

Dear Cinephiles, academics, Australia, Indonesia, and Papa New Guinea, fine arts enthusiasts, donors and high society/ in addition with just as much respect the working class labor oriented American people, fellas with grit under their nails and paint stuck to the hair on their arms,  the library movers, painters, construction crews, the flower shop owners, independent movie theater workers, volunteers for big screen cinema, clerks for independent music stores and freight movers.  Well ladies and gentleman from top to bottom what Mr. Woody Allen's latest opus deals with is the topic of CLASS!

The muse for this brush stroke is none other than the fabulous show stopping Cate Blanchett.  I have waited a long time for Allen to find a muse that could rival Diane Keaton in "Annie Hall."  Mrs. Blanchett who hails from Australia has done just that.  She is a welcome change from Allen's constant use of Scarlett Johansson and a ten times better actress.  Scarlett is talented, but compared to Cate no one comes close.  In a similar debate I wonder if Scorsese chose not to use Leonardo DiCaprio so much  that perhaps he would get better performances.  Perhaps an actor and a muse can get too comfortable together in the creative process when they work together so frequently.  Leo and Scarlett are both extremely talented, but perhaps they know the exact styles of Allen and Scorsese.

Cate Blanchett delivers a character from opening sequence on the airplane that is totally unique.  She is talking to a fellow passenger whom is considerably older and who at first thinks she is talking to herself.  Cate nails a crazy disheveled down and out woman seamlessly.  On the other hand she is so grounded and stoic at being a regal debutant.  She can be hosting a fancy dinner party, at a polo ground, or in the Hampton's and it fit's  like a glass slipper.  In the following scene she can be literally at her wit's end in a small disgusting apartment clinging to her dignity as her mind is unraveling in her reversal of fortune.  Blanche Dubois's ghost is definitely hiding in the beams of the ceiling.  Andrew Dice Clay is amazing as a working class guy in Allen's world.  In the climax of film he is a perfect juxtaposition to Blanchett.  Blanchett could dine with the Queen of England, while Dice could easily be tailgating at a Jet's game.  Neither could do the other in reality.  In the scene where she loses it in Sarsgaard's car after the climax of the film.  The mascara is running down her face and she is screaming at Peter Sarsgaard.  Cate hit's so many levels on this film of being on top of the world, to sitting with wet hair on a park bench talking to herself.   She is truly a marvel to watch how did she do this?

San Francisco is a new terrific location for Allen.    The Golden Gate Bridge hasn't been utilized so effectively since Vertigo.  When Sarsgaard and Blanchett meet at the party the bridge is in the distance.  Alcatraz can be seen in the background when Cate's sister and the two men are on top a hill for a selfie picture.  The Marina is a great backdrop as well as Chinatown.  "Dirty Harry" and  David Fincher's "Zodiac" are some of only a handful of films to truly capture the flavor and the look of this location.
San Francisco is very photogenic if done correctly.

Well I thought "Midnight in Paris" was Allen's best film in 10 years.  I have to admit that I like "Blue Jasmine" even more because of the splendid Blanchett, she makes going to movies worth while and fortunately has gotten the right part.

Sweet dreams to all the people that have hit the Summit Cinema post!  From Mumbai, India, to Caracas Venezuela keep on grooving and keeping big screen cinema ALIVE!