Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: Pleasantville (1998) - Ross lays out Hollywood liberal ideas in original classic

8/14/2023

Pleasantville (1998) - Ross lays out Hollywood liberal ideas in original classic

♥♥♥♥♥

A fabulous rainbow drives through this classy and supremely elegant poster for Gary Ross' Pleasantville

A quarrel over a remote control gets two teenagers sucked into the boy's favorite 1950s sitcom Pleasantville, where everything is black and white, and neither fire, sex, toilets, art nor death exists.

Pleasantville is written, co-produced and directed by great Californian filmmaker, debuting Gary Ross (Ocean's Eight (2018)).

It is a really good film based on an exciting and original idea. The plot moves fast, seemingly because Ross wants to cover many points. The conservative proprieties have no qualities; the advent of sins and unrest after the fall of the residents of Pleasantville are also casually leaped over: The present time (and colors) are simply preferable to repression (whatever the costs, apparently.) Liberal emancipation is for the good in absolute terms in this anti-conservative, liberal fantasy that's also interesting as an ideological time machine. Ross' somewhat complacent point is also carried through with the preachy lines from Tobey Maguire (Labor Day (2013)) at the film's end. Before this, however, Pleasantville is fantastically sweet, funny, attractively photographed (by John Lindley (Castle Rock (2019, TV-series))) and produced in a staggering scheme of black and white and colors.

The turns from especially William H. Macy (Sahara (2005)) and Joan Allen (Room (2015)) have moving high points, but the performances are good all over. Pleasantville has cinematic qualities, thought-provoking themes - and great hair and makeup work! It is a modern Hollywood classic, an inventive and original work from Tinseltown.

Gary Ross: Ocean's Eight (2018) - Commercially mandated spin-off sinks

The Hunger Games (2012) - A global, teen-centered sci-fi smash

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 60 mil. $

Box office: 49.8 mil. $

= Huge flop (returned 0.83 times its cost)

[Pleasantville premiered 17 September (Toronto International Film Festival) and runs 124 minutes. Shooting took place from March - July 1997 in California. The laborious camera work on the film cost the life of camera operator Brent Hershman, who fell asleep behind the wheel driving home one night after a 19-hour work day on the film. The film opened #1 to an 8.8 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another 2 weekends in the top 5 (#2-#3), grossing 40.5 mil. $ (81.3 % of the total gross). The film was nominated for 3 Oscars, winning none: Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, lost to Shakespeare in Love, Costumes, also lost to Shakespeare in Love, and Score (Randy Newman (Toy Story 4 (2019))), lost to Nicola Piovani for Life Is Beautiful. Roger Ebert gave it a 4/4 star review, translating to a notch over this one. Ross returned with Seabiscuit (2003). Maguire returned in The Cider House Rules (1999); Reese Witherspoon (Just Like Heaven (2005)) in Cruel Intentions (1999). Pleasantville is certified fresh at 86 % with a 7.70/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Pleasantville?

No comments:

William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

William Hurt has passed away

Born in Washington D.C., Hurt's first film role was the lead in Altered States (1980). Later credits include Body Heat (1981), The Big Chill (1983), Gorky Park (1983), Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985), for which he earned his only Oscar as Best Actor; Chilrdren of a Lesser God (1986), for which he was also Oscar-nominated; Broadcast News (1987), for which he was again Oscar-nominated; Smoke (1995), A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), A History of Violence (2005), for which he was again Oscar-nominated; The Good Shepherd (2006), Into the Wild (2007), Robin Hood (2010) and many more. Hurt passed away at age 71. R.I.P.

Ivan Reitman has passed away

Born in Chechoslovakia, now Slovakia, Reitman's family fled the Soviet regime to Austria, then Toronto, when he was 4 years old. Reitman broke into movies as a director with Foxy Lady (1971). Later credits include Cannibal Girls (1973), Meatballs (1979), Stripes (1981), Ghostbusters (1984), Twins (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Kindergarten Cop (1990), Junior (1994), Father's Day (1997), Evolution (1998), No Strings Attached (2011), Draft Day (2014) and more. Reitman's son Jason Reitman is also a great filmmaker. Reitman passed away at age 75. R.I.P.

Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

Eagerly anticipating this week ... (6-24)

8/14/2023

Pleasantville (1998) - Ross lays out Hollywood liberal ideas in original classic

No comments:

Post a Comment

Eagerly anticipating this week ... (5-24)

My Blog List