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This is not the first film to be made about Philippe Petit, the eccentric Frenchman who illegally and audaciously walked a tightrope between New York’s twin towers in 1974. But Man on Wire is created with the kind of realism and intensity that has you biting your nails, clenching your teeth and holding your breath in anticipation. So why would anyone in their right mind want to walk on a high wire 1,350 feet above the ground without a safety net? Petit tells us that it was just something he had to do. OK, so this might seem either completely crazy or pointlessly obsessive to you and me. But when you watch the interviews with the man himself, more than 30 years later, his undying passion, and even slight arrogance, are totally infectious. But Petit was no fool either. He used his cable crossing of the Notre Dame rooftops several years before his New York coup as a dress rehearsal, and even tipped off the French press to get himself on film. He then upped the ante by traversing Sydney Harbour Bridge by wire too. So for him, the world’s tallest structures were the next logical step. Man on Wire also reveals the months and months of planning and preparation that went into ‘Operation World Trader Center’; the level of practical and emotional support that Petit relied on; and the loss of faith of some of his conspirators. But what makes British director James Marsh’s docu-drama a stand out success is its hybrid style. The ‘docu’ side gives us a range of lucid interviews from many of Petit’s crew at the time, as well as insightful photos and archive video footage that he had shrewdly gathered over the years. But the real drama also comes from using actors to recreate crucial scenes from the actual event, and interweaving these reconstructions into the account. This adds an exciting edge to the structure of the film, maintains its momentum and nicely blends in with the different story-telling elements. Writer and composer J. Ralph’s (Lucky Number Slevin) pumping soundtrack also heightens the tension. With a running time of 102 minutes, Man on Wire is a little long; especially for a film that’s essentially about one event. Yet because of its iron-filings-to-magnet effect on the viewer, you don’t really notice the time passing. And even though you do notice that the long-awaited high wire walk wasn’t actually filmed, the photos, eyewitness accounts and the graphic revelations of the heavy-accented but articulate Petit definitely make the climax hugely satisfying. When you’re watching Man on Wire you can’t avoid thinking about 9/11, but there’s no mention of it in this documentary and I understand why. The two events are completely separate. This film is ultimately the retelling of a tale that made history. The fact that history may have altered how it is viewed, is secondary. Many of us will never be able to understand Petit’s reasons for tackling this highly illegal and highly dangerous stunt, or for staying on the wire for a full 45 minutes! But most of us will still want to watch and gasp at this self-taught daredevil who achieved the impossible, and actually enjoyed it. Man on Wire is out now at UK cinemas.
Director Andrew Stanton, sound designer Ben Burtt, producer Jim Morris and actress Segourney Weaver, took time out to talk to John Miller about this cute and captivating robot movie. Question: Jim, can we discuss the look of the film, which is clearly crucial for letting the whole audience enter into the world of WALL.E, and convincing them about its futuristic setting? Jim Morris: We wanted WALL.E to have a ‘filmed’ look, and Andrew [Stanton] wanted to give it a heightened sense of believability so the audience felt they were watching a real movie with a cameraman shooting it. Question: Andrew, take us through the germ of the idea to actually having the Eureka moment, when you knew you’d hit the jackpot and made a film regarded as a masterpiece. Andrew Stanton: Well, it was at a lunch in 1994 and we were in the middle of making Toy Story. We said: “What if mankind left earth and somebody forgot to turn the last robot off?” The idea of something doing the same thing forever to me was like the ultimate definition in futility and I just thought it was the saddest character I have ever heard of. We also thought it should speak the way it was built, much like R2-D2. But we hadn’t even finished Toy Story or proved we could make a movie. So it took another five or six more movies for me to get more confident as a filmmaker and for technology to improve. So seven years later, in the middle of Finding Nemo, I found my brain drifting to this little lonely robot. I realised it was the loneliness that appealed to me, and the opposite of loneliness is love, so I thought it should be a love story. Then the idea combined with the sci-fi genre and I finally had confidence in the audience’s trust of Pixar. Question: Ben, legend has it that you use everything in your life, even your wife during childbirth, as part of the sounds you create for the screen. Will you share that intimate moment with the world’s press? Ben Burtt: When you are trying to create illusions with sound, pulling sounds from the world around us is a great way to help cement those illusions. You can record an elevator in George Lucas’s house and it will have that motor sound, like an elevator. But if you use it in a movie people will believe it is a force field or a space ship door opening. On Invasion of the Body Snatchers, my wife and I went to listen to a sonogram of my daughter, Alice, and there was a great throbbing sound. At the time I was looking for sounds of alien pods germinating and it sounded exactly like that. It worked because it was a heartbeat from the womb and in the film the alien characters come alive. Question: Sigourney, you joined this production quite late after Andrew [Stanton] plucked up the courage to ask you to be the voice of the ship’s computer. But I believe you are such a fan of Pixar that you almost did it for no money? Segourney Weaver: Yes, I was absolutely delighted. I was a stalwart fan of Pixar and was delighted even when I found out why I was cast – it was not for my talent but because I was in Alien. It’s funny because all of the robot entities have so much character, soul and heart, but being a computer, I start as the voice of a rather evil corporation that’s got us into this mess. But by the end, I want to go back to earth and find out what a ‘hoe down’ is. So it was a wonderful world to enter, even as a computer, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Question: Sigourney, these guys are way too shy and full of humility to repeat what you said today about what you think about the quality of this film… Segourney Weaver: Well, I think it’s a perfect movie actually. To me, a movie that succeeds is a movie that’s about much more than the characters. This is a totally captivating story – Question: Are you interested, after all the years spent making this film, to see audience and critics’ interpretation put on it, be it the obesity crisis or environmental issues? Andrew Stanton: Well, I’ve been accused of making certain statements and then at the same time accused of making the opposite, so it’s almost more a reflection of the beholder than anything else. What I’ll stand behind is that I picked everything in order to reinforce the premise I had; that it takes a random act of kindness or love to get you out of your habits or routines. I happened to pick retail therapy, electronics and literal technology, but you can put anything in there that distracts from the real point of living, which is relationships. I initially started with the plan, which was environmental. I loved the idea that WALL.E was a manmade machine with something inside him that had been lost on the rest of the world. I wanted him to meet something that was real, but also surrounded by manmade stuff, which was an organic plant. Question: So, it wasn’t an elaborate way to let us all into the secret of your high school fascination for Hello, Dolly!? Andrew Stanton: No, but it does reveal my background in high school theatre! I’m not saying I’m a Hello, Dolly! fan, I’m just saying that WALL.E has bad taste in musicals and I can’t do anything about that. Well, I was in the show. I played Barnaby – yes isn’t that funny? Question: Ben, when you were experimenting with sounds before you came up with your genius idea for WALL.E’s voice, were the issues of the film pertinent? Ben Burtt: No. Not really. It came out as the film grew. I accepted from the start the premise of the story. My first concern was what does a toxic wasteland sound like? I tried to accomplish sounds that were very lonely, and tones that reflected WALL.E’s isolation. But that agenda was not at the forefront. The reaction to the story coming at this time is a coincidence in that sense. Often issues are in films for legitimate reasons and, as entertainers, they give us an added dimension. Segourney Weaver: Can I ask how you came up with WALL.E’s voice? It’s so sweet and there’s something like a baby calf about it. It goes straight to your heart like you are its mother. Ben Burtt: Well, I was guided by Andrew [Stanton] and would audition sounds such as motors, beeps and tones. When Andrew first showed me 10 minutes of the film and the storyboards, it was the Hello, Dolly! vocal that connected me to WALL.E. There was a feeling I had of innocence. We had lots of experiments trying WALL.E as motor sounds only, and some that were beeps and whistles like R2-D2. But there was something very charming about that song. Anytime you’re asked to come on board a project like this you try to pick up from the visuals, from the script, gather those elements together and start weaving it. And that was one of them. Question: Segourney, are you able to watch this movie completely relaxed and entertained – as you haven’t got the biggest part and no one is going to say that movie starring SW? Segourney Weaver: I’m like a really happy hitchhiker. That’s why it’s so easy for me to talk about the movie. I don’t have any stake in it. I’ve seen it twice and fell in love with every moment. Question: Andrew how much pressure was there from the studio to anthropomorphise WALL.E and EVE? Andrew Stanton: We don’t have any men in suits in-house at Pixar, and fortunately when I came up with this idea it was during the near-divorce years between Pixar and Disney, so there was nobody checking in. And a lot of the design decisions were made in the year that you are most under the radar – right after you finish a film. I decided to jump right into developing this idea, so I got almost the entire design up, the whole of the first act and the characters in private. The pure artistic decisions about the look of the film also came from me. Question: Does Michael Crawford know that, thanks to you, he’s in the biggest movie of his career? Andrew Stanton: Jerry Herman, who wrote the music for Hello, Dolly!, called him [Michael Crawford] and said you’ve got to see this film, and apparently he was just moved to tears. Michael knew the songs were going to be used but thought it was just a snippet here and there. When he found out he felt very good about it. Those things make you feel like a million bucks. Question: Segourney, you mentioned how warm the voice of WALL.E makes you feel. But in real life, what are the voices that drive you absolutely nuts? Segourney Weaver: It’s always that very polite voice at the end of the phone that never hears what you are trying to do, as there’s no correct button to push. That would be the one. Andrew Stanton: That’s a good one. I don’t like when my GPS tells me I’ve taken the wrong route when I’ve taken the shorter route. I don’t like when it can’t update and smarten itself. Ben Burtt: I’m too much the day and night of voices to filter out and pick out one, and I’ll go home, have nightmares and hear Darth Vader breathing. But I think it might be the opening line to the sound of the movie. As much as I love it, it won’t go away! Jim Morris: A spin on Andrew’s response: if anybody knows where you can get that John Cleese GPS that I’ve heard about, but never actually heard, let me know. It’s the one that calls you an imbecile when you take the wrong turn. That would at least be a fun way to experience it. Question: WALL.E has come out in the US and has been called a masterpiece. Can you share with us your favourite moments from the film, perhaps ones that you’re particularly proud of? Segourney Weaver: I think my favourite moment is when you see EVE destroy that ship. She’s so like my dream action woman figure; she’s so emotionally destructive and you don’t really understand her until she giggles and her eyes do that funny thing. Then you fall in love with her too. And the fact that WALL.E’s not intimidated by this gorgeous, sleek, destructive woman, just gives us hope. Andrew Stanton: He is incredibly intimidated but willing to go past that because he is so enamored with her, which is how most men feel. Question: Ben, what’s your favourite? You don’t have to be modest, you can pick one of your moments? Ben Burtt: I really love the moment when they are in outer space together with the fire extinguisher. I think it’s the lyrical nature of that, the calm in the middle of the storm. There’s something about putting those two characters out there dancing in space that really takes me back to Peter Pan. That wonderful ability to be transformed into a magical place where you feel warm and completely secure. Jim Morris: Mine is the first time you see WALL.E go back to the truck he lives in. You haven’t seen any other characters and you don’t really know what’s going on. You’ve had some clues about what may have happened, and then you suddenly see things about his personality and the articles he’s collected. The fact that he’s watching Hello, Dolly!, does this a lot and is even starting to dance a little, is sad and bittersweet. He’s charming but it’s lonely and desolate. Question: Andrew, you can’t say the whole film is you’re favourite – although you would be entitled to make that claim. Andrew Stanton: The sequence that’s special to me – a very small moment, but one of the most powerful – is when EVE is in the truck with WALL.E and she discovers his lighter. You catch him privately staring at her whilst she is staring at the lighter. To me there was a level of maturity in using the camera to tell so much from his emotion, and I felt that we tapped into that. John Miller: I hope you have space at the Pixar offices for all the awards. Get your Oscars® speech ready!
Disney tales have often dealt with the dark side of human life – parental death, evil stepfamilies, the dangers of the sea. But WALL.E brings these issues bang up to date by looking at those facing the 21st century. The obesity situation; the growing isolation of individuals in society; the increasing power of brands over governments; the problems of consumerism and the effects on the planet of our throw-away mentality. All of these issues are rolled into a heart-melting love story of two robots. WALL.E is the last robot left on earth. He’s been alone for 700 years bar his little cockroach friend Hal, and whilst tidying up all of the rubbish left behind when mankind flew off into space, he has developed human qualities. Watching and re-watching the musical ‘Hello Dolly’ and collecting nicknacks, WALL.E longs for company. When EVE is sent to earth from the spaceship (Axiom), where humans now live, to find out if Earth is habitable, WALL.E falls head over heels in love. After spending time with EVE, he can’t let her return without him, so manages to clamber onto her shuttle and steal himself into the Axiom. Inspired by 1970s sci-fi movies, WALL.E is a grim vision of what the world might look like if the piles of waste we dispose of everyday eventually overspill from our landfills to our cities. Director Andrew Stanton achieves an incredibly stark look to his film that gives us food for thought. Rubbish heaps tower so high that they literally mimic skyscrapers, and the world is dull, murky and exposed to regular dust storms. The fact that WALL.E doesn’t talk adds to the sense of emptiness and loneliness on earth, but also makes the film more effective. Rather than using a celebrity voiceover, Oscar®-winning sound designer Ben Burtt creates a series of sounds which, coupled with WALL.E’s actions, make him easy to understand, touchingly human-like and really endearing. As he goes about his business, dutifully clearing away rubbish, passing all of the other robots that have long since ceased to work, WALL.E is clearly pining for company, making us empathise with his solitude. One of the striking ironies of WALL.E is that Disney / Pixar have portrayed humans as mollycoddled, overweight creatures that never get any exercise and are kept entertained 24/7 in floating chairs. They spend all day eating, communicate by chatting into screens and float past each other blindly. It is a scathing but highly amusing comment on modern life and the marketers capable of creating the futuristic couch potato. Despite venturing out into the unchartered territory of space, WALL.E, who by the way looks quite similar to ET, still has a great joy for life. Scenes showing him re-enacting romantic gestures and dances from his favourite musical, and getting entranced when EVE talks to him, all add humorous touches that give the film its extra sparkle and make WALL.E an animation well worth watching. WALL.E is out now at UK cinemas.
Mamma Mia! The Movie opened at the weekend on £6.59 million, including nationwide Thursday previews plus takings from its one-week platform release at London’s Leicester Square Odeon. Stripping out the previews, the three-day figure is £5.21 million. This result is very similar to that of Sex and the City, which posted a three-day weekend of £5.12 million (plus whopping previews from Wednesday and Thursday). Sex and the City has gone on to gross nearly £26 million, and there is every chance that Mamma Mia! will match or exceed that total. Since it plays to a very broad demographic, including older cinemagoers, this kind of audience does not traditionally rush out to see films on opening weekend; it often takes its time. This all augurs well for Mamma Mia! and backers Universal. The opening weekends for recent musicals are as follows: Chicago, £1.98 million (first weekend of wide play); The Producers, £1.31 million; Rent, £25,000 from 61 screens; Across the Universe, £27,000 from 76 screens; Dreamgirls debuted with £1.33million; and Hairspray with £2.05million. Two other wide releases opened against Mamma Mia! Family adventure Journey to the Center of the Earth, playing in both 2D and 3D, took £954,000. Martial arts time-travel adventure The Forbidden Kingdom picked up £676,000, including previews of £148,000. Eddie Murphy comedy Meet Dave previewed on Saturday and Sunday, grossing an anaemic £100,000. Of the specialist releases, edgy US indie flick Savage Grace, starring Julianne Moore, landed top of the pack, with £22,000 from six screens. Bollywood picture Mehbooba was next, with £18,000 from 13 cinemas. The rerelease of Billy Wilder’s The Apartment came in third, with £7,000 from nine sites. Cuban film Memories of Underdevelopment, made in 1968, picked up £1,700 from a single theatre. Japanese animation Origin: Spirit of the Past managed £530, also from a single venue. So far, this summer has failed to produce many major arthouse hits, especially in foreign language. The only film currently in the top 15 not in the English language is Indian release Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na, propping up the chart with £28,000 this weekend, and a total of £81,000. Other non-Hollywood films in the top 15 are British urban youth drama Adulthood, which has grossed an impressive £3.25 million to date; 1940s romantic drama The Edge of Love, starring Keira Knightley and Sienna Miller, with just over £1 million after four weeks; and US indie flick The Visitor, with £136,000 in the bank after 10 days of play. The Visitor’s slim decline of just 6% from its opening weekend suggests it may have decent legs. Other indie hits so far this summer include gritty French family drama Couscous, with £166,000 so far; French WWII picture Female Agents, with £198,000 to date; French romantic comedy Priceless, with a total of £383,000; and US indie flick In Search of a Midnight Kiss, with £195,000. This compares with last summer, when French films Tell No One and La Vie En Rose both cleared £1 million. This summer, we’ve yet to see foreign-language hits at that level. Closest is historical actioner Mongol: The Rise to Power of Genghis Khan, with £723,000. Overall, the top 15 films were 17% down from last weekend, which was boosted by Hancock’s whopping opening, and 24% down from the equivalent weekend from 2007, which benefited from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix’s £16 million-plus debut (including previews). Compared with a typical weekend from the last 52, takings were an encouraging 61% up. Cinema chains are happy with the way the summer has panned out so far, with takings buoyant despite a lack of surefire sequels equivalent to 2007’s quadruple whammy of Shrek the Third, Spider-Man 3, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. And WALL-E and The Dark Knight are on their way…
Hancock confirms Will Smith’s status as the world’s biggest movie star. One of the few summer blockbusters not based on an existing property such as a previous hit film (Indiana Jones & The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull), comic-book (Iron Man) or TV show (Sex and the City), Hancock relied solely on Smith’s star power, so its UK opening of £9.59 million, including Wednesday/Thursday previews of £2.96 million, is highly impressive. DreamWorks animation Kung Fu Panda picked up a tasty £6.07 million, including previous-weekend previews of £1.69 million. The two titles helped power the top 15 films to a collective £20.38 million, a nifty 78% up on the previous weekend, and 65% up on the same weekend from 2007, when Die Hard 4.0 and Shrek the Third managed just over £5 million apiece. Frank Darabont’s The Mist earned mostly encouraging reviews, and boasted a strong pedigree in its source material (Stephen King story) and cast (including respected character actors such as Toby Jones and Marcia Gay Harden, as well as action hero Thomas Jane), but failed to connect with a wide audience. Opening on 188 screens, it took disappointing £157,000. Well-reviewed US indie flick The Visitor took a decent £49,000 from 19 screens, just behind Bollywood new release Love Story 2050, which managed £49,000 from exactly twice as many cinemas. Another Indian release, Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na, landed a few places below, with £29,000 from 13 theatres. Canadian film-maker Guy Maddin earned a strong screen average with his documentary hybrid My Winnipeg, picking up nearly £10,000 from just four screens. Tamil picture Muniyandi: Vilangiyal Moondraamaandu opened with just under £5,000 from three sites. French film Mes Amis, Mes Amours, largely targeting the London-based French expatriates depicted in it, picked up £2,300 from a single cinema. Japanese manga adaptation sequel Death Note: The Last Name took £1,100 from two venues. Among the newcomers, Bruce Weber documentary Chop Suey brought up the rear with less than £800 from its single location. Among films previously released – “holdovers”, in cinema speak – most suffered steep drops: understandable, given the arrival of Hancock and Kung Fu Panda. Wanted declined 67%, although if previews are discounted from the previous weekend’s takings, as they should be for purposes of comparison, the fall is in fact 54%. Sex and the City, Indiana Jones & The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and Adulthood all fell more than 50%. The Incredible Hulk dived by a whopping 82%, and will presumably struggle to hold on to screens and showtimes from this Friday, when Mamma Mia: The Movie arrives. Talking of which, the ABBA musical picked up nearly £120,000 just from London’s Odeon Leicester Square. For reasons best known to the data compilers, the film didn’t appear in the official chart, and all the takings from this platform release will be added into its upcoming first weekend of wide play. Cinema chains are reporting buoyant advance ticket sales on the title, and forecasts for total UK box office are optimistic.
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