Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: Being John Malkovich (1999) - Jonze, Kaufman and Malkovich's great triumph

12/12/2013

Being John Malkovich (1999) - Jonze, Kaufman and Malkovich's great triumph

♥♥♥♥♥♥

+ Best Movie of the Year

+ Best American Movie of the Year + Best Actress' Breakthrough of the Year: Catherine Keener + Best Dramedy of the Year + Best Fantasy Comedy of the Year + Most Undeserved Flop of the Year

How would you like to be a world-renowned actor? That is the possibility that presents itself on this praise-filled poster for Spike Jonze's Being John Malkovich

We meet a very nerdy couple: The man works at the 7½th floor of a building as an archive clerk, even though he really is a puppeteer. Here he locates a portal into the brain of famous actor John Malkovich. This amazing discovery leads to a whole bunch of things.

Being John Malkovich is written by Charlie Kaufman's (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)) and directed by debuting Marylander master filmmaker Spike Jonze (Her (2013)).

Kaufman's writing style blends Kafkaesque absurdism and American cinematic virtues such as neurotic, full and original characters with the concept of celebrity in what arguably remains his and Jonze's best work to date. The many eccentric, original and often funny or thought-provoking ideas that are somehow garbled coherently together in Being John Malkovich is the film's strongest triumph.
Former music video maverick Jonze captures the dark humor, drama and developments of the story excellently and relays them with visually creative exuberance (cinematography by Lance Acord (Marie Antoinette (2006))) that matches the soaring script.
Co-starring in the film, Catherine Keener (The 40 Year-Old Virgin (2005)), Cameron Diaz (There's Something About Mary (1998)), John Cusack (High Fidelity (2000)) and John Malkovich (In the Line of Fire (1993)) himself are all four just wonderful.
Especially the idea of desire as a living thing in itself was very interesting to me, but watch this movie for yourself and you'll likely catch things from it that the person/s next to you might not even think about. It is a rich experience. Being John Malkovich is totally unusual, extraordinarily conceived and carried out; full of weighty ideas and laughs, a true masterpiece.

Spike Jonze: The day after ... The Oscars 2014

Her (2013) - Jonze's disheartening hipster sci-fi romance

2002 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Top 10: Best films about filmmaking

2002 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

Adaptation (2002) or, Charlie Kaufman's Fictional Life

1999 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

Top 10: Best fantasy movies reviewed by Film Excess to date

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 13 mil. $
Box office: 32.3 mil. $
= Minor flop (returned 2.48 times its cost)

[Being John Malkovich premiered 2 September (Venice Film Festival) and runs 113 minutes. The script was written in 1994 and got to Jonze through his father-in-law Francis Ford Coppola. Malkovich reportedly liked the script but tried to have it focus on another star actor than himself, with him instead producing the film, until he eventually accepted to star in it. Kaufman and Jonze reportedly wanted Malkovich due to his mystic quality, and because there is a humorous effect in repeating his name over and over again. Shooting took place from July - September 1998 in England, New Jersey and California, including in Los Angeles. The film opened #17 to a 637k $ first weekend in 25 theaters in North America, grossing 22.8 mil. $ (70.6 % of the total gross). The film was nominated for 3 Oscars, winning none. It lost Best Supporting Actress (Keener) to Angelina Jolie in Girl, Interrupted, Director to Sam Mendes for American Beauty and Original Script to Alan Ball for American Beauty. It won 1/3 BAFTA nominations, was nominated for a César award, 4 Golden Globes, won 2/3 Independent Spirit award nominations and won a National Board of Review award, among many other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 4/4 star review, equal in rating to this one. Jonze returned with 10 videos, mainly music videos, prior to his theatrical return with Adaptation. (2002). Cusack returned in High Fidelity (2000); Diaz in Any Given Sunday (1999); Keener in Simpatico (1999); and Malkovich in The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (1999). Being John Malkovich is certified fresh at 94 % with an 8.10/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

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Donald Sutherland has passed away

Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Roger Corman has passed away

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Corman had a sprawling, intellectually hungry life as a youth and young man before arriving with his first film in 1955, Five Guns West. He would follow that with titles such as Apache Woman, It Conquered the World, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Teenage Cave Man, A Bucket of Blood, House of Usher, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Intruder, The Raven, The Terror, The Masque of Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, The Wild Angels, The Trip, Bloody Mama and many more. As a producer he was behind almost 500 films. Arguably among the most important filmmakers of the 20th century, Corman passed away at age 98. R.I.P.

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.

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

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12/12/2013

Being John Malkovich (1999) - Jonze, Kaufman and Malkovich's great triumph

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