THE SEARCH FOR MEANING
AND HOME WITHIN THE FILMS OF SAM MENDES
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everyt h i n g b u t o r d in a ry f i l m f est i va l Š2011 alameda c a l i fo r n i a design e d by e m i ly s h i e l ds shields . e m i ly @ g m a i l . co m all rig h ts r es e rv e d .
THE SEARCH FOR MEANING
AND HOME WITHIN THE FILMS OF SAM MENDES
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take a journey: What is this all about? What is home to you? We l c o m e t o A l a m e d a
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the main event The Festival Schedule The Films
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a director: sam mendes photos directions
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What is this all about? Welcome to California! I know that many of you have travelled long distances
deep within ourselves to find a place of comfort, a place of solitude where we
to be here for this special event and for that I thank you.
can find contentment within our current situation. Whether we lost our job, lost
I thank you all for devoting your time to an occasion that both recognizes and celebrates a commonality that so many of us here share. A commonality that consists of a journey we have all taken at some point in our lives. A journey
our house or someone close to us, it is within these times that we have had to search for a new meaning of home. We have to find a new definition of what we feel is home in our minds and in our hearts.
that has either led us towards or away from our sense of home, whether it was
This is no easy task, which is why we are celebrating this incredible journey that
physical or emotional.
has made us who we are today. Sam Mendes has a way of depicting this journey
Take a journey with me this weekend. Come with me as we dive deep into the films of Sam Mendes and witness firsthand his character’s own search for home throughout a series of varying circumstances and situations. Whether we can relate to all or none of the circumstances, the majority of us here this weekend can relate to the idea of feeling alone and isolated from those that we love and places that we called home once upon a time. We have had to search
throughout his films in various situations that evokes varying degrees of emotion and sympathy as these characters search for their own meaning of home, whether it is mental or physical.
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What is home to you?
So before we get into the details of the Festival, I would like for each and every one of you to take a moment and ponder over the question of ‘What is home?’ What does home mean for you? I am not referring to your house, with four walls and a roof. However, if your house represents your home, what is it about your house that gives it that sense of home as opposed to your next door neighbor’s house. Is it the place? The people? The feeling that you get when you step inside after a long day of work? For some of us, this concept of home is not represented by a four-wall structure with a street number. For several, the concept of home is actually somewhat transient in the sense that our identity of home has become skewed due to a specific event, or series of events, that have taken place within our lives. These events could include going away to college, moving to a new city on your own, being deported by the military services, and the list goes on. In other words, the people and the place have been taken away from us, so we have been forced to seek a different concept of home in order to adjust to the change that has been thrown our way. During these films, I would like for you to focus on the protagonist(s) of these films and how they go about handling whatever situation they are faced with. Do they turn inwards and shut themselves off from the world or do they make the most of what has been thrown at them? Can you relate to how they have dealt with these issues? Have you done the same? While focusing on this, I want you to remember to enjoy yourselves and the experience of celebrating something so close and personal to each and every one of us here.
Restaurants 1. East Ocean Seafood 1713 Webster Street 2. Marti’s Place 1905 Encinal Avenue 3. Ole’s Waffle Shop 1507 Park Street 4. Havana Cuban Cuisine 1518 Park Street 5. Toomie’s Thai 1433 Park Street
Things To Do 1. Bazaar Antiques 1534 Park Street 2. Alameda Civic Light Opera 1400 Park Street 3. Bladium Sports Club 800 W Tower Avenue 4. Meyers House Museum 2021 Alameda Avenue 5. Grand Marina 2099 Grand Street
Welcome to Alameda I am sure many of you are curious as to why we are holding this festival in an abandoned airfield. Let me explain. When it came to the location of this festival, I sought out a place that I felt best represents the idea of transience in every way possible. What better way than an abandoned airfield that was created right before World War II? As experienced travelers like most of us are, airports and air travel hold great significance to us during certain times in our lives. As a place
Places To Stay
meant only for travel, an airfield is the ideal place
1. Marina Village Inn 1151 Pacific Marina 2. Webster House 1238 Versailles Avenue 3. Boxwood House 912 San Antonio Avenue 4. Alameda Islander 2428 Central Avenue 5. Rodeway Inn 1925 Webster Street
to hold such a festival that celebrates the concept of transience. Refer to the information to the left for great places to go and see outside of the festival while you are in Alameda. Another luxury of being in Alameda is that we are driving distance from the great city of San Francisco, a place where hardly anyone is considered a true native, making it ideal for those of us in transience.
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The Festival I would like to formally welcome you to the 2011 Everything But Ordinary Film
Don’t miss reading up on the background of Mr. Mendes in his biography to learn
Festival, a festival highlighting the works of Sam Mendes while celebrating our
about the incredible journey that he has taken to get him to where he is today.
own individual lifelong journeys of our search for home.
Along with featured films there will be additional activities that you should be
Included in this book you will find your detailed agenda of events and movie
sure not to miss each day of the festival. Some of the highlights include a special
times taking place over the course of the weekend. Be sure to highlight the
film about Sam Mendes on Friday night to kick-off the weekend’s festivities as
movie times to make sure that you get to see all of the films featured.
well as several fun activities between movie showings, such as Photography
Following the weekend agenda, you will find a synopsis of each movie that is being featured. One thing that Mendes does well, amongst many other things, is cast incredible actors and actresses. From Kevin Spacey to Tom Hanks to Leonardo DiCaprio, Mendes pulls out all the stops to cast the characters of these movies. This weekend we will witness the incredible talents of these actors and actresses in their portrayals of mobsters, marines, suburbanites and 30-somethings trying to find their place in the world.
101 and a Scrapbooking workshop. Don’t miss the special photobooths located throughout the festival to capture your time here in Alameda.
schedule October 14-16 NAS Alameda CA
October 14 6:00 p.m.
introduction Film - All About Sam Mendes Official Welcome
7:00 p.m.
smile! mr. smiley’s fast food dinner Big Barn Burgers Smiley Fries Smiley Vanilla Milkshakes
8:30 p.m.
film viewing American Beauty
10:00 p.m.
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end of day
October 15
October 16
8:00 a.m.
morning jogging group
8:00 a.m.
sunrise breakfast Bagels & Donuts Black Coffee (To-go cups)
9:00 a.m.
mobster’s breakfast Englewood’s Diner-Style Eggs, Toast, Black Coffee
10:00 a.m.
10:00 a.m.
film viewing Road to Perdition
film viewing Away We Go
11:30 a.m.
car game extraordinaire Learn new car games.
11:30 a.m.
film viewing Revolutionary Road
1:30 p.m.
lunchbox lunch Assortment of cold sandwiches, chips, sodas
1:30 p.m.
picnic lunch Egg Salad Sandwiches on White Bread, Veggies & Cookies
3:30 p.m.
festival ends Pick up your travel goodies!
2:30 p.m.
photography 101
3:00 p.m.
scrapbooking
5:00 p.m.
happy hour (21+ only)
6:00 p.m.
tray dinner Old-fashioned Meatloaf, Mashed Potatoe & Rolls, Cherry Pie
7:30 p.m.
film viewing Jarhead
9:00 p.m.
late night activity Tag Football
9:30 p.m.
snack sacks
10:30 p.m.
end of day
american beauty
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Kevin Spacey / Annette Benning / Thora Birch
Lester Burnham (Spacey) is a 42 year old father,
enhanced form of marijuana. Jane, while grow-
over the growing relationship between Lester
husband and advertising exec who serves as the
ing distant from Angela, develops a romantic
and Ricky, roots through his son’s possessions,
film’s narrator. Lester’s relationship with his wife
relationship with Ricky, having bonded over what
finding footage of Lester working out in the nude,
Carolyn (Bening), an ambitious realtor who feels
he considers to be his most beautiful camcorder
slowly bringing him to the conclusion that his son
that she is unsuccessful at fulfilling her potential,
footage he has ever filmed, that of a plastic
is gay. Buddy and Carolyn are found out by Lester,
is strained. His 16 year old daughter Jane (Birch)
grocery bag dancing in the wind. Ricky himself
who seems to be mostly unfazed by his wife’s
is unhappy and struggling with low self-esteem
quickly befriends Lester and secretly acts as
infidelity. Carolyn is almost more devastated by
issues. Lester is a self-described loser: boring,
Lester’s marijuana supplier. Col. Fitts, concerned
Lester’s indifference than by her being exposed
faceless and easy to forget Lester is reinvigorated, however, when he meets Jane’s friend and classmate, the egotistical Angela Hayes (Suvari) at a high school basketball game. Lester develops an infatuation with Angela. Throughout the film, Lester has fantasies about a sexually aggressive Angela and red rose petals. The Burnhams’ new neighbors are Col. Frank Fitts, his distracted wife, Barbara, and his camcorder-obsessed son Ricky. When confronted with the gay couple living two doors down, Col. Fitts displays a distinctly bigoted attitude. Over the course of a few days, each one of the Burnhams makes a life changing choice. Carolyn meets real estate rival Buddy Kane for a business lunch and ends up beginning an affair with him. Lester blackmails his boss for $60,000, quits his job, and takes up low-pressure employment as a burger-flipper at a fast food chain. He continues to liberate himself by trading in his Toyota Camry for his dream car, a 1970 Pontiac Firebird, starts taking better care of himeslef by working out to impress Angela, and starts smoking a genetically
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as an adulteress. As evening falls, Ricky returns
In his final narration, Lester looks back on the
home to find his father waiting for him with fists
events of his life, intertwined with images of
and rage, having mistaken his drug rendezvous
everyone’s reactions to the sound of the sub-
with Lester for a sexual affair. Realizing this as an
sequent gunshot, including one of a bloody and
opportunity for freedom, Ricky falsely agrees that
very shaken Col. Fitts with a gun missing from
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he is gay and challenges his violent father until he
his collection. Despite his death, Lester, from his
is thrown out of the house. Ricky rushes to Jane’s
vantage point as narrator, is content as the movie
house and asks her to flee with him to New York
comes to an end.
City—which she agrees to, much to the dismay
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of Angela, who quickly protests against it. Ricky shoots her down with her deepest fear: that she is boring and completely ordinary and uses her “friends” like Jane, only to boost her public image. Broken and dismayed, Angela storms out of the room, leaving Jane and Ricky to reconcile. Lester finds an emotionally fragile Col. Fitts who standing outside in the pouring rain and attempts to comfort him, but is taken by surprise when Fitts kisses him. Lester gently rebuffs him, telling him he has the wrong idea. Fitts, shamed and broken, wanders back into the rain. Meanwhile, Carolyn sits alone in her car on the side of the road, holding her gun and becoming more and more infuriated at the day’s turn of events. Moments later, Lester finds a distraught Angela and is on the edge of consummating their relationship, but the seduction is derailed when she confesses that she is a virgin. Now viewing her only as an innocent child, Lester immediately withdraws, his affections shifting to that of a father figure, and they bond over their shared frustrations with and concern for Jane, Lester seeming to be pleased when Angela confesses that Jane’s in love. Angela asks how he’s feeling and he realizes, to his own surprise, that he feels great. After Angela excuses herself to the bathroom, Lester sits at the table, smiling at a photograph of his family in happier times, unaware of the gun being held to the back of his head.
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american beauty
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review American Beauty is a comedy because we laugh at
his 40s to lust after a teenage girl? Morally, certainly,
movie, but the kind where you prove something that
the absurdity of the hero’s problems. And a tragedy
and legally, most definitely. They can disapprove of
is important, if only to yourself. American Beauty is
because we can identify with his failure—not the
their thoughts, but they cannot stop themselves from
more about sadness and loneliness than about cruelty
specific details, but the general outline.
having them.
or inhumanity. Nobody is really bad in this movie,
The movie is about a man who fears growing older,
American Beauty is not about a Lolita relationship,
losing the hope of true love and not being respected
anyway. It’s about yearning after youth, respect, power
by those who know him best. If you never experience
and, of course, beauty. The very moment a man stops
The performances all walk the line between parody
those feelings, take out a classified ad. People want
dreaming is the moment he petrifies inside and starts
and simple realism; Thora Birch and Wes Bentley are
to take lessons from you.
writing snarfy letters disapproving of paragraphs like
the most grounded, talking in the tense, flat voices of
Lester Burnham, the hero of “American Beauty,” is
the one above. Lester’s thoughts about Angela are
kids who can’t wait to escape their homes. Bening’s
played by Kevin Spacey as a man who is unloved by his
impure, but not perverted; he wants to do what men
character, a real estate agent who chants self-help
daughter, ignored by his wife and unnecessary at work.
are programmed to do, with the most beautiful woman
mantras, confuses her happiness with success.
“I’ll be dead in a year,” he tells us in almost the first
he has ever seen.
And Spacey, an actor who embodies intelligence in his
words of the movie. “In a way, I’m dead already.” The
Angela is not Lester’s highway to bliss, but she is at
eyes and voice, is the right choice for Lester Burnham.
movie is the story of his rebellion.
least a catalyst for his freedom. His thoughts, and the
He does reckless and foolish things in this movie, but
We meet his wife, Carolyn (Bening), so perfect her
discontent they engender, blast him free from years
he doesn’t deceive himself; he knows he’s running
garden shears are coordinated with her footwear. We
of emotional paralysis, and soon he makes a cheerful
wild—and chooses to, burning up the future years of
meet his daughter Jane (Birch), who is saving up for
announcement at the funereal dinner table: “I quit my
an empty lifetime for a few flashes of freedom. He may
breast implants even though augmentation is clearly
job, told my boss to—himself and blackmailed him for
have lost everything by the end of the film, but he’s no
unnecessary; perhaps her motivation is not to become
$60,000.” Has he lost his mind? Not at all. The first
longer a loser.
more desirable to men, but to make them miserable
thing he spends money on is perfectly reasonable: a
about what they can’t have.
bright red 1970 Pontiac Firebird.
“Both my wife and daughter think I’m this chronic
Carolyn and Jane are going through their own issues.
loser,” Lester complains. He is right. But they are not
Lester finds out Carolyn is cheating when he sees her
without their reasons. At an agonizing family dinner,
with her lover in the drive-through lane of a fast-food
Carolyn plays Mantovanian music that mocks every
restaurant (where he has a job he likes). Jane is being
mouthful; the music is lush and reassuring, and the
videotaped by Ricky (Bentley), the boy next door, who
family is angry and silent. When Lester criticizes his
has a strange light in his eyes. Ricky’s dad (Cooper)
daughter’s attitude, she points out correctly that he
is a former Marine who tests him for drugs, taking a
has hardly spoken to her in months.
urine sample every six months; Ricky plays along to
themselves, or feel joy.
—Roger Ebert, rogerebert.com
keep the peace until he can leave home.
along by his wife to see their daughter perform as a
All of these emotional threads come together during
cheerleader. There on the floor, during a pompon
one dark and stormy night, when there is a series of
routine, he sees his angel: Angela (Suvari), one of his
misunderstandings. And at the end, somehow, the film
daughter’s high-school classmates who he quickly
snatches victory from the jaws of defeat for Lester, its
develops an infatuation with. Is it wrong for a man in
hero. Not the kind of victory you’d get in a feel-good
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Everything changes for Lester the night he is dragged
just shaped by society in such a way they can’t be
road to perdition
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Tom Hanks / Tyler Hoechlin / Jude Law / Paul Newman
Michael Sullivan, Sr. (Hanks), is an enforcer to John Rooney (Newman), an
Sullivan requests assistance from a Lt. in Al Capone’s crime syndicate, Frank
Irish American crime boss in Illinois during the Great Depression. Sullivan,
Nitti, in order to get revenge on Connor, but when he is rejected, Sullivan
an orphan raised by Rooney, worked for the crime boss for most of his life.
and his son begin a string of mob owned bank robberies in order to steal the
Sullivan and Rooney’s son, Connor (Craig), are sent by Rooney to talk to Finn
syndicate’s laundered money. Sullivan hopes to coerce Capone into giving
McGovern, a disgruntled employee. Sullivan’s son, twelve-year-old Michael
Connor up for the money, but instead Capone dispatches assassin Harlen
Sullivan, Jr., stows away in his father’s car, attempting to learn more about his
Maguire (Law) to kill Sullivan and his son. Maguire sets up a trap for Sullivan
enigmatic father’s ambiguous profession. He witnesses Connor’s impulsive
with the aid of Rooney’s accountant, Alexander Rance. Sullivan arrives at
killing of McGovern, and is soon after discovered by Connor and his father. Although Sullivan Sr. swears that his son will tell no one, Connor attempts to ensure his own protection by attempting to have Sullivan Sr. killed, while murdering the rest of Sullivan’s family himself. Connor kills Sullivan’s wife,
Rance’s hotel room, seeking assistance, and Rance stalls him long enough for Maguire to arrive at his room. Rance is killed in the crossfire of the gunfight, but Sullivan escapes with only a bullet wound in his left arm. Maguire escapes as well, though his face is left disfigured from a debris wound.
Annie, and younger son, Peter; Sullivan Sr. and his son, Michael Sullivan Jr.,
During his recuperation, Sullivan finds in ledgers taken from Rance’s hotel
escape with their lives and flee to Chicago.
room that Connor had been embezzling money from his father under the names of gang members that he had murdered. 12
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There are only murderers in this room, Michael. Open your eyes. This is the life we chose. The life we lead. And there is only one guarantee—none of us will see heaven. —John Rooney (Paul Newman)
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When Sullivan Sr. recovers, he secretly meets with John Rooney during Mass
Apparently free from pursuit, Sullivan and his son make their way to the town
and shares his discovery about Connor. Rooney not only reveals that he had
of Perdition, Michigan. A disfigured Maguire surprises Michael Sullivan Sr.
been aware of Connor’s treachery all along, but remains adamant in his
in the summer house of Sarah. Maguire shoots Sullivan Sr. from behind. He
refusal to let his son be harmed. Sullivan Sr. ambushes John Rooney and his
sets his gun on a table behind him and begins setting up his camera to take a
bodyguards in the street, picking them off with his Thompson submachine
picture of the dying Sullivan Sr., in accordance to his MO. Maguire soon finds
gun from an alley before approaching Rooney face to face. Rooney says,
himself at gunpoint by Sullivan’s son with his own weapon. Maguire attempts
“I am glad it’s you” before Sullivan Sr. tearfully unloads the last of his ammuni-
to convince Sullivan Jr. to discard the weapon, and Sullivan Sr. pleads with
tion into him. With Rooney dead, Capone is bereft of any reason to protect
his son not to fire, thereby following his father’s path, which had always been
Connor. Capone uses Frank Nitti as a middleman as he gives Sullivan Sr.
his greatest fear. Sullivan Sr. shoots Maguire from behind before his son can
Connor’s exact location, on the condition that Sullivan Sr. gives his word that
pull the trigger, then dies in Sullivan Jr.’s arms. Sullivan Jr. mourns his father’s
his spree will end with Connor’s death. Sullivan Sr. leaves a letter for his son
death and finds his way to the same elderly couple that had helped him and
before going to the hotel at which Connor is staying. Connor’s bodyguards
his father, assuming the life of a farmer’s son.
allow him straight, unhindered passage to Connor, who is bathing in his room. Sullivan Sr., saying nothing, draws his pistol and fires three rounds into Connor’s head.
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road to perdition
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review Road to Perdition is like a Greek tragedy, dealing out
movie’s plot asks whether it is possible for fathers to
murderers in this room, Michael. Open your eyes. This
remorseless fates for all of the characters. It has been
spare their sons from the costs of their sins. It also
is the life we chose. The life we lead. And there is only
compared to The Godfather, but The Godfather was
involves sons who feel they are not the favorite. “Did
one guarantee—none of us will see heaven.” Sullivan
about characters with free will, and here the characters
you like Peter better than me?” Michael Jr. asks his
wants his son to see heaven, and that sets up their
seem to be performing actions already long since
father, after his little brother has been killed. And later
flight from Rooney justice. Father and son flee, pursued
inscribed in the books of their lives.
Sullivan goes to see Mr. Rooney, and can’t understand
by a hit man (Law) who supplements his income by
why Rooney would protect his son Connor, who has
selling photographs of the people he has killed.
Yet the movie has other strengths to compensate for the implacable progress of its plot. It is wonderfully acted. He creates a limbo of darkness, shadow, night, fearful faces half-seen, cold and snow. His characters stand in downpours, the rain running off the brims of their fedoras and soaking the shoulders of their thick wool overcoats. Their feet must always be cold. The photography creates a visceral chill.
betrayed and stole from him, to his loyal employee who is “like a son.” The movie is from a graphic novel by Max Allan Collins and Richard Piers Rayner, much revised by screenwriter David Self. This is only Mendes’ second film, but recall that his first, “American Beauty,” won Oscars in 1999 for best picture, director, actor, screenplay and cinematography, by Conrad Hall. Both films involve men in family situations of unbearable
The story involves three sets of fathers and sons—two
pain, although the first is a comedy (of sorts) and
biological, the third emotional—and shows how the
this one certainly is not. Both involve a father who, by
lives they lead make the ordinary love between them
leading the life he chooses, betrays his family and even
impossible. Tom Hanks plays Michael Sullivan, an
endangers them. Both involve men who hate their
enforcer for the Rock Island branch of the Chicago
choice of work.
mob, circa 1931. Tyler Hoechlin plays his son Michael Jr., a solemn-eyed 12 year-old. After his brother Peter asks “What does dad do for a job?” Michael Jr. decides to find out for himself. One night he hides in a car, goes along for the ride, and sees a man killed. Not by his father, but what difference does it make? Sullivan works for John Rooney (Newman), the mob boss, who is trim and focused and uses few words. John’s son Connor (Craig) is a member of the mob. Sullivan finds out that Connor has been stealing from his father, and that sets up the movie’s emotional showdown, because Sullivan thinks of John like his own father, and John
The key relationships to focus on are between Hanks and Newman, and Hanks and Hoechlin, the newcomer who plays his son. Newman plays Rooney as a man who would prefer that as few people be harmed as necessary, but he has an implacable definition of “necessary.” He is capable of colorful Corleone-style sayings, as when he declares that his mob will not get involved in labor unions. Against this benevolence we must set his trade in booze, gambling and women, and his willingness to amputate any associate who is causing trouble.
I mentioned the rain. This is a water-soaked picture, with melting snow on the streets and dampness in every room. That gives Conrad Hall the opportunity to develop and extend one of his most famous shots. In the film, In Cold Blood (1967), he has a closeup of Robert Blake, as a convicted killer on the night of his death. He puts Blake near a window, and lights his face through the windowpane, as raindrops slide down the glass. The effect is of tears on his face. In Road to Perdition, the light shines through a rain swept window onto a whole room that seems to weep. After I saw Road to Perdition, I knew I admired it, but I didn’t know if I liked it. I am still not sure. It is cold and holds us outside. Yes, there is the love of Hanks for his son, but how sadly he is forced to express it. The troubles of the mob seem caused because Rooney prefers family to good management, but Michael’s tragedy surely comes because he has put it the other way around—placing Rooney above his family. The movie shares with The Godfather the useful tactic of keeping the actual victims out of view. There are no civilians here, destroyed by mob activities. All of the characters, good and bad, are supplied from within the mob. But there is never the sense that any of these
speaks of Sullivan as a son. Men who name their sons
The Hank’s character sees the good side of Rooney so
characters will tear loose, think laterally, break the
after themselves presumably hope the child will turn
willfully that he almost cannot see the bad. Even after
chains of their fate. Choice, a luxury of the Corleones,
out a little like them. This is not the case with Michael
he discovers the worst, he feels wounded more than
is denied to the Sullivans and Rooneys, and choice or
Sr., who has made a pact with evil in order to support
betrayed. He’s a little naive, and it takes Rooney, in a
its absence is the difference between Sophocles and
his wife (Leigh) and two boys in comfort. Unlike
speech Newman delivers with harsh clarity, to disabuse
Shakespeare. I prefer Shakespeare.
Rooney, he doesn’t want his son in the business. The
him. Called a murderer, Rooney says: “There are only
—Roger Ebert, rogerebert.com
revolutionary road
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Leonardo DiCaprio / Kate Winslet / Christopher Fitzgerald
In suburban Connecticut in the 1950s, Frank
Frank she floats the idea of an abortion. April is
pregnant specifically to destroy the idea of mov-
Wheeler (DiCaprio) meets April (Winslet) at a
desperate to move to Paris, but Frank is disgusted
ing to Paris, and that April allowed him to do it so
party. He is a longshoreman, hoping to be a
by the thought of abortion, causing him to feel
that she would feel her husband was “a real man”.
cashier; she wants to be an actress. When April
that moving to Paris is an unrealistic dream.
Frank nearly attacks John and the Givings hurry
becomes pregnant, the Wheelers move to 115
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Revolutionary Road. Frank and April settle into the normalcy of their life while raising their children, Michael and Jennifer. The couple become close friends with their realtor Helen Givings and her husband Howard, and neighbor Milly Campbell and her husband Shep. To their friends the Wheelers are the perfect couple, but their relationship is troubled. April fails to make a career out of acting, while Frank hates the tedium of his work. April wants new scenery and a chance to support the family so that Frank can find his passion.
Hopeless emptiness. Now you’ve said it. Plenty of people are onto the emptiness, but it takes real guts to see the hopelessness. —John Givings (Michael Shannon)
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Frank discovers that April is contemplating not
out. April and Frank have another fight, which
having the baby. He is furious and starts scream-
causes April to flee the house.
ing at April, leading to a serious altercation.
Frank spends the night in a drunken stupor, but
The next day Frank takes the promotion and tries to accept his uneventful life. At the end of an evening at a jazz bar with Milly and Shep, a car blocks in one of the cars the couples came in. April suggests that Frank and Milly go home
is shocked to find April in the kitchen calmly making breakfast the next morning. The couple have a pleasant breakfast, with April asking Frank about work and Frank seeming enthusiastic as he describes how the large computer purchase
April recalls how Frank talked about moving back
to release the babysitters at each house while
to Paris. With a failed career, she believes that
she and Shep wait for the blocking car’s driver
Paris is the solution to their problems. She sug-
to return. They re-enter the jazz bar, eventually
gests they relocate. Frank laughs off the idea, but
dancing feverishly with each other, then making
then begins considering it. The only person who
love in the car. Shep professes his long-held love
confronts the Wheelers’ decision is John, the
for April, but she rejects his interest.
troubled son of Helen.
The following morning, Frank cheerfully admits
April’s demise. The house is acquired by a new
As the couple prepares to move, they are forced
to having an affair with an assistant at his office,
couple, and we hear Milly telling the story of the
to reconsider. Frank, propelled by a carefree
hoping to reconcile with April. April responds
Wheelers to the new owners. Shep blames him-
attitude brought on by the thought of Paris, turns
apathetically and tells him it does not matter and
self in part for April’s death and quietly asks Milly
in a sarcastic piece of work to his boss. To his sur-
her love for him has gone. The Givings come over
if they could not discuss the Wheelers again. A
prise, his work is considered brilliant by company
for dinner, and John lambasts Frank for crushing
shattered Frank moves to the city, devoting his
executives and he is offered a promotion. April
April’s hope, as well as his acceptance of his
life to his children.
becomes pregnant again. When she reveals it to
circumstances, implying that Frank got April
he is making will help many businesses. April’s mood seems to have improved, but after bidding good-bye to Frank she breaks down and prepares to perform her own instillation abortion, which proves fatal. Shep goes to the hospital to support Frank, but is grief-stricken when he hears of
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revolutionary road
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review Revolutionary Road shows the American Dream
Helen makes a tentative request. Can she and her
the Wrigley Bar at lunchtime to prove the maxim:
awakened by a nightmare. It takes place in the 1950s,
husband bring their son John over for a meal? He’s in a
One martini is just right, two are too many, three are
the decade not only of Elvis but of The Man in the Gray
mental institution, and perhaps some time with a nice
not enough.
Flannel Suit. It shows a young couple who meet at a
normal couple like the Wheelers would be good for him.
party, get married and create a suburban life with a nice
John comes for dinner, and we discover his real handicap
house, a manicured lawn, “modern” furniture, two kids,
is telling the truth. With cruel words and merciless
a job in the city for him, housework for her, and martinis,
observations, he chops through their facade and mocks
cigarettes, boredom and desperation for both of them.
their delusions. The character John is not insane, just a
fantasies. Their problem is, they have no fantasies. Instead, they have yearnings—a hunger for something more than a weary slog into middle age. Frank (DiCaprio) and April (Winslet) can’t see inviting futures for themselves. Frank joins the morning march of men in suits and hats out of Grand Central and into jobs where they are “executives” doing meaningless work— in Frank’s case, he’s “in office machines.” He might as well be one. April suggests he just quit, so they can move to Paris, she can support them as a translator at the American Embassy and he can figure out what he really wants to do. Translating will not support their current
the 1960s, which would sweep over suburbia and create a generation its parents did not comprehend. What he does for the Wheelers is strip away all of their denials and see them for what they truly are.
seems merciful. The screenplay by Justin Haythe is drawn from the famous 1961 novel by Richard Yates, who has been called the voice of the postwar Age of Anxiety. This film is so good it is devastating. A lot of people believe their parents didn’t understand them. What if they didn’t understand themselves?
55 —Roger Ebert, rogerebert.com
Frank and April are played by DiCaprio and Winslet as the sad ending to the romance in “Titanic,” and all other romances that are founded on nothing more than... 40
believing life together will allow them to fulfill their
little ahead of schedule. He’s an early assault wave from
desperation in American Beauty, a film that after this one
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The Wheelers, Frank and April, are blinded by love into
The director is Sam Mendes, who dissected suburban
romance. They are so good, they stop being actors and become the people I grew up around. Don’t think they smoke too much in this movie. In the 1950s everybody smoked everywhere all the time. Life was a disease, and smoking held it temporarily in remission. And drinking? Every ad executive in the neighborhood would head for
lifestyle, but...Paris! What about their children? Their children are like a car you never think about when you’re not driving somewhere.
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Frank agrees, and they think they’re poised to take flight, when suddenly he’s offered a promotion and a raise. He has no choice, right? He’ll be just as miserable, but better paid. In today’s hard times, that sounds necessary, but maybe all times are hard when you hate your life. Frank and April have ferocious fights about his decision, and we realize that April was largely motivated by her own needs. Better to support the neutered Frank in Paris with a job at the embassy, where she might meet someone more interesting than their carbon-copy neighbors and the “real estate lady,” Helen Givings (Bates).
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jarhead
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Jake Gyllenhal / Jamie Foxx / Lucas Black / Peter Sarsgaard
The film begins with voice-over narration by
home will be unfaithful. A public board displays
cries in the darkness frighten them, and as they
Anthony Swofford (Gyllenhaal) on a black screen,
the photos of women who have ended their
begin to sense that the sounds are coming from
as he speaks philosophically about a soldier
relationships with members of the unit. Swofford
beyond a ridge, they ready their weapons and
whose hands forever remember the grip of a rifle,
himself begins to suspect that his girlfriend is, or
prepare to descend. They see an encampment in
no matter whatever else they do in life. Swofford
will soon be, unfaithful.
the distance, but on closer look they recognize
is then shown in a U.S. Marine Corps boot camp,
After the long stand in the desert, Operation
it as their base camp, and the sounds as Marine
being brutalized by a drill sgt. After finishing boot,
Desert Storm, the Marines are dispatched to the
voices. They learn at once that the war is over as
“Swoff” is dispatched to Camp Pendleton in 1989,
Saudi-Kuwaiti border. The troops march through
scores of Marines celebrate this amidst a bonfire.
where he is subjected to a cruel joke played on
the Highway of Death, strewn with burnt vehicles
In a climactic scene Swofford tells Troy he never
him by senior Marines. This involves branding
and remains of charred bodies, a product of the
fired his rifle, getting a response of “You can do
onto him USMC, the initials of the United States
bombing campaign. Later, the Marines encounter
it now.” He then fires a round in the air from his
Marine Corps, with a hot iron. This is a popular
burning oil wells, lit by the retreating Iraqis, and
sniper rifle and the other Marines, who also never
tattoo amongst Marines. He faints upon the sight
they attempt to dig sleeping holes as a rain of
had a chance to fire their weapons, follow suit,
of the iron. After regaining consciousness, he
crude oil falls from the sky. Before they can finish
emptying magazines into the night sky.
realizes that the senior Marines had switched the
them Sykes orders the squad to move to where
hot iron with another room temperature iron. He
Soon after their return home, Swofford and his
the wind prevents the oil from raining on them.
comrades are discharged and go on with their
Swofford and Troy are finally given a combat
separate lives. Swofford returns home to his
mission. Their order is to shoot two Iraqi officers,
girlfriend, but discovers her with a new boyfriend.
Swofford comes across the charismatic Staff
supposedly located in a control tower at a battle-
Fowler (Jones) is seen to be spending time with a
Sergeant Sykes (Foxx), a55Marine lifer who invites
damaged airport. The two take up positions in a
girl at a bar, Kruger (Black) is seen in a corporate
Swofford to his Scout Sniper course. After
deserted building, but moments after Swofford
boardroom, Escobar (Alonso) as a supermarket
arduous training sessions that claim the life of
pinpoints one of the officers in his sights, another
employee, Cortez (Vargas) as a father of three
one recruit, he becomes a sniper and is paired
team of Marines appears and calls in an air strike.
kids, and Sykes continuing his service as a Master
with Troy as his spotter. Shortly after, Kuwait is
Troy, desperate to make a kill, pleads with the
Sergeant in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Some time
invaded by Iraq and Swofford’s unit is dispatched
officer in charge to let them take the shot. When
later, Swofford learns of Troy’s death during a
to the Persian Gulf as a part of Operation Desert
his pleas are denied, Troy breaks down in a fit of
surprise visit from Fergus. He attends the funeral,
Shield. Although the Marines are very eager to
despair and weeps. Moments later the airport
meets some of his old friends, and afterwards
is bombed by U.S. warplanes. Swofford and Troy
reminisces about the effects of the war.
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is greeted coolly by Troy (Sarsgaard), who says to him, “Welcome to the Suck.”
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65 see combat action, they are forced to hydrate,
patrol the nearby area and orient themselves to
linger at the site in a daze, losing track of time
the arid environment. During the long wait, some of the Marines fear their wives and girlfriends at
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and missing their pick-up. With night falling, they 65
try to navigate the desert but get lost. Distant
“
jarhead
2
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review Jarhead is a war movie that rises above the war and tells
psychos and screw-ups but mostly just average young
Jarhead was directed by Sam Mendes, and it is the other
a soldier’s story. It tells it with the urgency and somewhat
Americans who have decided the only thing worse than
side of the coin of David O. Russell’s, Three Kings, also
pointlessness that all men’s stories have, because if some-
fighting a war is waiting to fight one—in the desert, when
about the Gulf War. If Russell had Catch-22 as his guide,
thing has happened to us, then it is important to us no
the temperature is 112 and it would be great for the TV
it is instructive that the book Swofford is reading is The
matter how indifferent the world may be.
cameras if they played a football game while wearing
Stranger by Camus. The movie captures the tone of
their anti-gas suits.
Camus’ narrator, who knows what has happened but not
The movie is uncanny in its effect. It contains no heroism, little action, and no easy laughs. It is about men who are
Jarhead is a story like Robert Graves’ Goodbye to All
exhausted, bored, lonely, trained to the point of obsession
That, in the way it sees the big picture entirely in terms
and given no opportunity to use their training. The most
of the small details. Sykes briefs them about Saddam
dramatic scene in the movie comes when Swofford has
Hussein’s invasion of the Kuwait oil fields, but says their
an enemy officer in the crosshairs of his gunsight and is
immediate task is to guard the oil of “our friends, the
forbidden to fire because his shot may give advance
Sauds.” This they do by killing time. The narration
warning of an air strike.
includes one passage that sounds lifted straight from the
His spotter, Troy, goes berserk: “Let him take the shot!” Let him, that is, kill one enemy as his payback for the hell of basic training, the limbo of the desert, the sand and heat, the torture of months of waiting, the sight of a
book, in which Swofford lists the ways they get through the days: They train, they sleep, they watch TV and videos, they get in pointless fights, they read letters from home and write letters to home.
highway traffic jam made of burned vehicles and crisp charred corpses. Let him take the shot to erase for a
their poker games, or the druggies in Apocalypse Now.
second the cloud of oil drops he lives in, the absence
They have no wisecracks, we see no drugs, they get drunk
of the sun, the horizon lined with the plumes of burning
when they can, and there is a Wall of Shame plastered
oil wells. Let him take the goddamn shot.
with the photos of the girls back home who have dumped
Jarhead by Anthony Swofford, who served in the first Gulf War. It is unlike most war movies in that it focuses entirely on the personal experience of a young man
them. They go on patrols in the desert, looking for
obsolete by air power. Territory that took three months to
woman who asks him why he serves. He has already
occupy in WWI and three weeks in Vietnam now takes 10
given two routine answers. She persists, and finally he
minutes. Sykes warns them to expect 70,000 casualties
says: “I’m 20 years old, and I was dumb enough to sign
in the first days of the war, but as we recall, the Iraqis
a contract.”
caved in and the war was over. Now we are involved in a
ready. They have been trained into a frenzy of readiness, and all they find on every side, beautifully visualized by the film, is a vastness—first sand, then sand covered with a black rain, then skies red with unchanging flames 24 hours a day.
like to be this person in this place at this time, but Jarhead does. They say a story can be defined by how its characters change. For the rest of his life, Swofford tells us, whether he holds it or not, his rifle will always be a part of his body. It wasn’t like that when the story began.
—Roger Ebert, rogerebert.com
war that does require soldiers on the ground, against an enemy that no longer helpfully wears uniforms. Yet many of its frustrations are the same, they are brave, they are skilled, and death comes unexpectedly from invisible foes in the midst of routine. 55 12
loves his job. Others in the group include borderline
he wants to prepare them to save their lives. They are
with five camels whom they make peace with. In a war like this, the ground soldier has been made
by Staff Sgt. Sykes (Foxx), who knows why he serves: He
hard-ass, but not because he is pathological but because
tension comes when they meet eight (harmless) Arabs
(Gyllenhaal) is being interviewed by a network news
small unit of scout-snipers has been led through training
unit shore up friendships and rituals. Their sergeant is a
nothing in the middle of nowhere, their only moment of
caught up in the military process. At one point, Swofford
His best friend is his spotter, Troy (Sarsgaard). Their
him. Against this existential void, the men of the sniper
It is not often that a movie catches exactly what it was
These are not the colorful dogfaces of WWII movies with
The movie is based on the best-selling 2003 memoir
why, nor what it means to him, nor why it happens to
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away we go
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John Krasinski / Maya Rudolph / Allison Janney
Verona (Rudolph) and Burt (Krasinski) are in their early 30’s and struggling to make ends meet and build fulfilling lives as an anatomy artist and a salesman of insurance futures. When they learn they will soon become parents, they are quickly confronted with the challenge of how and where to raise a child and build a happy family and a happy life. Six months into Verona’s pregnancy, she and Burt visit their only family in the area, Burt’s parents, Gloria and Jerry, only to find that they have decided to move to Antwerp, Belgium, for two
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years. Frustrated with Burt’s parents’ selfishness, he and Verona see this as an opportunity to find somewhere else to raise their family.
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They first visit Phoenix, Arizona, meeting up with Verona’s old boss, Lily, her husband, Lowell, and
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their two children. Burt is disturbed by Lily and Lowell’s crass and mean-spirited behavior toward one another and their children. Burt and Verona next visit Verona’s sister, Grace, in Tucson. Burt and Verona try to persuade Grace to stay with her boring boyfriend. When Burt takes a call and displays his trademark humor, Grace tells Verona that she is lucky to have him
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and Verona agrees. Later on, Grace tries to get Verona to talk about their deceased parents. On their way to Wisconsin, they are told they cannot fly by airline employees who believe Verona is in her eighth month. The couple insists
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that she is only six months in but ultimately take
Verona and Burt are happy to have found a loving
ing to love each other and their daughter and have
a train. In Madison, Wisconsin, the couple visits
family and a nice town and decide to move to
a happy home.
Burt’s childhood friend and pseudo-cousin, “LN,”
Montreal. After dinner they wind up at a bar dur-
a college professor with inherited money and
ing “amateur dance night” in which Munch is an
radical views about parenting. Burt and Verona
active participant. During Munch’s performance,
bring a stroller as a gift, greatly angering LN as
Tom confesses to Burt that Munch has recently
she and her husband Roderick are a “continuum
suffered her fifth miscarriage and that they are
home.” When Roderick’s condescension and LN’s
unable to have their own “ children.
backhanded compliments to Verona get to be too much for Burt, he tells them they are horrible people and he and Verona leave but not before letting their kid take a ride in the stroller, which he enjoys. Burt and Verona then visit old college friends in Montreal, Tom and Munch Garnett, and their diverse family of adopted children.
In the morning, Burt receives an emergency call from his brother, Courtney, in Miami, whose wife has just left him. Burt and Verona fly to Miami, where Courtney worries about his young daughter and the potential effects of a divorce on her. Burt tries to comfort Courtney while Verona spends time with his daughter. Burt and Verona spend the night outside on a trampoline, promis-
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The next day, Verona tells Burt a story about her childhood and her parents. Moved by her memory, they travel to Verona’s old family home. Realizing it is the place for them, they sit together happily, overlooking the water.
“
It’s all those good things you have in you. The love, the wisdom, the generosity, the selflessness, the patience. —Tom (Chris Messina)
”
away we go
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review 65
Burt and Verona are two characters rarely seen in the
After the parents vote for Belgium, Burt and Verona head
movies: thirtysomething, healthy, self-employed, gentle,
for Phoenix and a visit with her onetime boss Lily and her
educated, thoughtful, whimsical, not neurotic and truly
husband Lowell. Lily is a monster, a daytime alcoholic 17
in love. Their great concern is finding the best place and
whose speech is grossly offensive, and her husband and
way to raise their child, who is a bun still in the oven. For
children in shock. They flee to Madison, where Burt’s
every character like this I’ve seen in the last 12 months,
childhood friend Ellen has changed her name to “LN” and
I’ve seen 20, maybe 30, mass murderers.
become one of those rigid campus feminists who have
Sam Mendes’ Away We Go is a film for nice people to
banned human nature from their rule book.
see. Away We Go opened last week in New York and
Then it’s off to Montreal for friends from college, Tom
Los Angeles, and now rolls out after lukewarm reviews
and Munch, who are unhappily convinced they’re happy.
accusing Verona and Burt of being smug, superior and
And next down to Miami and Burt’s brother, whose wife
condescending. These are not sins if you have something
has abandoned her family. There’s not a single example
to be smug about and much reason to condescend.
of healthy parenting in the lot of them.
Burt (Krasinski) and Verona (Rudolph) live not far from
The almost perfect relationship of the unmarried Verona
his parents, in an underheated, shabby home with a
and Burt seems to survive inside a bubble of their own
cardboard-covered window. “We don’t live like grown
devising, and since they can blow that bubble anywhere,
ups,” Verona observes. It’s not that they can’t afford a
they of course find the perfect home for it, in a scene
better home, as much that they are stalled in an
of uncommon sunniness. They have been described as
low-income student lifestyle. Now that they’re about to
implausibly ideal, but you know what? So are their
become parents, they can’t keep adult life on hold.
authors, Eggers and Vida. They are thirtysomethings
Away We Go is about an unplanned odyssey they take around North America to visit friends and family, and essentially do some comparison shopping among the different lifestyles. Her parents are dead, so they begin with his: Gloria (O’Hara) and Jerry (Daniels). The parents truly are self-absorbed, and have no wish to wait around to welcome their first grandchild.
with two children. Novelists and essayists. He publishes McSweeney’s, she edits the Believer. They are playful but also socially committed. Consider his wonderful project “826 Valencia,” a nonprofit storefront operation in San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Seattle, Boston and Ann Arbor, Mich. It runs free tutoring and writing workshops for young people from ages 6 to 18. The playful part can be seen in San Francisco, where the
Verona is of mixed race, and Gloria asks her conversation-
front of the ground floor is devoted to a Pirate Store. Yes.
ally, “Will the baby be black?” Is this insensitive? Why?
With eye patches, parrot’s perches, beard dye, peg legs,
Parents on both sides of an interracial couple would
planks for walking—all your needs.
naturally wonder, and the film’s ability to ask the question is not racist, but matter of fact in a America that is slowly growing tolerant. In moments like that, the married screenwriters, Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida (both novelists and magazine publishers), reflect a society in which race is no longer a primary defining characteristic.
I submit that Eggers and Vida are admirable people. If their characters find they are superior to many people, well, maybe they are. “This movie does not like you,” sniffs Tony Scott of the New York Times. Perhaps with good reason.
—Roger Ebert, rogerebert.com
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The Biography of Sam Mendes Sam Mendes was born in Reading, England to a mother who was an author
changing its title to American Beauty. Despite winning five Academy Awards,
of children’s books and a father who was a university professor. He majored
including Best Picture and Best Director for American Beauty, Mendes returned
in English at Cambridge University, where he began directing theatrical
to the stage as the theatrical director of the Donmar Warehouse located in
productions, which he then pursued after graduation. At the start of his
London. Mendes has won many awards for stage including two Laurence
career, Mendes worked for the Chichester Festival Theater where he won a
Olivier Awards for his London stage productions of The Glass Menagerie,
Critic Circle Award for Best Newcomer when he directed The Cherry Orchard.
Twelfth Night and Uncle Vanya as well as Tony Award nominations.
Following thereafter, Mendes became the artistic director of the Donmar Warehouse in London where he staged a provocative production of The Blue Room, starring Nicole Kidman, that gained him international recognition and attention. After the debut of The Blue Room, Mendes was pursued by Steven
Between theatrical productions, Mendes continues to work in film, directing such well knowns as Road to Perdition (2002), Jarhead (2005), Revolutionary Road (2008) and the most recent, Away We Go (2009).
Spielberg to direct a new film recently purchased by DreamWorks, by an
As for his personal life, Mendes married Kate Winslet in 2003 and they have
author that had never written a film in fact. American Rose, it’s original name,
one son, Joe . Mendes’ look and manner is described as shaggy-chic: a regular
was actually intended for stage. With absolutely no film experience, Mendes
uniform of jeans and navy blue jumper, silvery hair, a scruffy beard shades
took on this script and created the entire storyboard of this film, eventually
darker. His sense of ease and self-confidence are legendary.
When it comes to style, Mendes varies greatly between film and stage. On
Mendes is also known for his highly acclaimed production of John Kander and
stage, Mendes’ work is characterized by a quickness and a clarity that is
Fred Ebb’s Cabaret. In this version, Alan Cumming played Emcee and Natasha
always interesting but never crazy. As for his film style, Mendes is all over
Richardson played Sally Bowles. Once again, he decided to approach a classic
the place due to his desire to possess a film career that challenges him in
piece of theatre with a fresh look, revisiting the character of Emcee amongst
new directions with each new film. From an intermittently surreal take on
others. This production opened at the Donmar, moving promptly to Broadway.
American suburbia to the gangsters of Road to Perdition, Mendes’ settings
Cumming and Richardson both won Tony Awards for their work.
vary greatly.However, it is his theme of the continued search of both the emotional and physical concept of home that unifies his portfolio of films.
Mendes has also directed Tennessee Williams’s The Glass Menagerie, Stephen Sondheim’s Company, Alan Bennett’s Habeas Corpus and his farewell duo of
Mendes’ list of influences include a variety of directors that have obtained
Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya and Twelfth Night, which transferred to the Brooklyn
very definitive styles such as Lynch, Kubrick and Polanski. In his own words,
Academy of Music.
Mendes explains his reasoning behind his aversion to possession just one particular style of film: “I
don’t want to have an adjective based around my name. Lynchian, I know what that is, I know what Kubrickian is, and I know what Bergmanesque means. However, there will not be—and I don’t want there to be—a Mendesian.” In 1992 Mendes was appointed artistic director of the Donmar Warehouse, an intimate studio space in London’s Covent Garden which he quickly transformed into one of the most exciting venues in the city. His opening production was Stephen Sondheim’s Assassins which reveled in the show’s dark, comic brilliance and rescued it from the critical opprobrium it had suffered on its American opening. He followed this with a series of excellent classic revivals, many of which attracted some of the finest actors and biggest stars of the decade. In 1994, Mendes tackled Lionel Bart’s Oliver! which is based on Charles Dickens’ novel Oliver Twist. Mendes, a fan of the work, worked in close collaboration with Bart and other production team members, William David Brohn, Martin Koch and Anthony Ward, to create a brand new staging of the well known classic. Bart added new lyrics and music as well as refreshed dialogue. Brohn and Koch worked with the composer on new music material as well as revising the orchestrations. Mendes brought Jonathan Pryce on board to play Fagin. Pryce starred alongside Sally Dexter as Nancy. Both Pryce and Dexter were well known for their classical work and were widely acknowledged for their work on Oliver!. This production is the longest running show ever to play at the London Palladium closing in 1998. This version recently re-opened at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London’s West End to great acclaim, with Rowan Atkinson as Fagin. Rupert Goold has adapted Mendes’ original direction for this production, and it has been extremely well received.
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directions There are many ways to reach Alameda California, by car, by ferry or by bart. Below are directions for whichever means of transportation you choose. For more information, please refer the website: www. evrythngbtrdnry.com for additional information with regard to location.
bart
BART from SF to Alameda is $5.80 round trip from the Powell street station. The bus to the BART station costs $2.00 round trip. So total cost is going to be $7.80 round-trip without parking.
ferry
The San Francisco to Alameda ferry is $8.50 round -trip when you buy a commute book of tickets, and includes a transfer to the bus to and from the ferry in both San Francisco and Alameda, or you can park free at the Alameda terminal.
car
Head north on Van Ness Avenue toward Market Street. Take the 1st right onto Fell Street. Slight right at 10th Street. Turn left at Bryant Street. Slight left to merge onto I-80 E toward Oakland. Take exit 8A to merge onto I-880 S toward Alameda/San Jose.Take exit 42 toward Broadway/Alameda. Turn right at 5th Street. Take the 1st left onto Adeline Street. Take the 1st right onto 7th Street. Turn right at Webster Street. Keep right at the fork. Continue onto CA-260 S/CA-61 S/Webster Street Tube. Continue to follow CA-260 S/CA-61 S. Your destination will be on the right side.