Cynical Cinema

Roman Holiday was the movie that introduced Audrey Hepburn to the world in 1953. With any luck, Paramount Home Entertainment’s new edition of Roman Holiday on DVD, out November 11th, will be the film that re-introduces her to a whole new generation of movie watchers. Because everyone should see Audrey Hepburn do her thing. And her thing is at its best in Roman Holiday. Hepburn plays a princess, Princess Anne, who gets tired of protocol and royal customs and propriety and so forth, and runs off on her handlers during a diplomatic trip to Rome. She meets American journalist Joe Bradley, played by Gregory Peck, and he recognizes her. Of course, being the conniving journalist that he is, he pretends not to know who she is, in the hopes of getting an exclusive interview. But he gets more…a lot more…da-da-daaaaaaa. Of course, the two of them fall in love. It’s Audrey Hepburn, and it’s the 1950s.

Audrey Hepburn existed in movies in the 50s mainly to be the woman with whom charming men could fall in love. Sometimes inexplicably, like in Breakfast At Tiffany’s, where she plays one of the most irritatingly flaky screen characters in history. But in Roman Holiday, it does actually make sense. Not only is she the most gorgeous woman ever to appear on a movie screen, she is also charming and innocent in that princess-sheltered-from-the-world sort of way. This character had appeared in movies before, and today this character shows up in at least forty movies a year, but she has never been better than Audrey Hepburn. And rarely in a movie has her male love interest made more sense than the incredibly charming Gregory Peck does here. Think about My Fair Lady, where Hepburn ends up totally in love with the cruel, capricious, self-obsessed tyrant played by Rex Harrison, and for the life of me I can’t imagine why. In Roman Holiday, the central romance makes sense. Perhaps only Sabrina sees Audrey Hepburn make an equally sensible choice in a man, while still being an appealing female love interest. More on Sabrina later today.

The impact of Roman Holiday is extensive. First of all, it made a star of Audrey Hepburn, who remains one of the best-known actresses in history. Secondly, it created what would now be known as the Audrey Hepburn “look” - which, my girlfriend the hairdresser assures me, is basically “simple yet slick”. It is an extension of her own personality, in this movie and in many others - wide-eyed, and yet sophisticated. It also changed the way people saw settings in movies, as it serves in more ways than one as a travel brochure for Rome. Movies like even In Bruges today owe, in a small way at least, a debt to Roman Holiday. It was nominated for ten Oscars, and won two - Best Actress for Audrey Hepburn, and Best Screenplay for Ian McLellan Hunter. Although it should be noted that although Hunter was given the credit for the screenplay, it was co-written by the wonderful Dalton Trumbo, a man who was blacklisted in Hollywood at the time. Roman Holiday lost out on the Best Picture award in 1953, but deservedly so. From Here To Eternity WAS a better picture. In point of fact, the REAL best picture of 1953 was Shane, but it’s a little late to quibble.

The Paramount Centennial Collection edition DVD of this wonderful film has a second disc crammed full of special features. There is a featurette called Paramount in the 50s, an interesting little look back at the classic Paramount films of that era, and this same special feature is included on the Centennial Collection DVDs of Sabrina and Sunset Boulevard, also released today. There is a 15-minute feature called Remembering Audrey, which is a little bit interesting and features interviews with her adult son and her boyfriend from later in her life. There is also a more in-depth, half-hour look at Hepburn in Audrey Hepburn: The Paramount Years, which focuses, like so many others, on her relationships with designers like Givenchy and her husband, Mel Ferrer. And there is a featurette on the costumes of Paramount in the 50s.

But the best special feature on the disc is a fifteen-minute look at a forgotten man. Dalton Trumbo: From A-List To Blacklist is a look at Trumbo, the writer of Roman Holiday, who was shunned by the Hollywood establishment during the communist witch-hunt of the 1950s. Of course, there were many others who suffered the same fate. Trumbo basically won the Oscar for his screenplay for Roman Holiday, but that Oscar was presented to, and accepted by, Ian McLellan Hunter, a man who had never written a word and existed only as a front for Trumbo. This is as fascinating as a documentary can be in fifteen minutes, and it’s a great look back at a dark period in American history. For people who are really interested in this man and the House Un-American Activities Committee, there are some solid full-length documentaries out there which are of course more complete. But one of the best is The Hollywood Ten, another 15-minute documentary available as a special feature on the Criterion Collection DVD of Spartacus.

Also incredible in Roman Holiday is Rome itself. As Peck takes Hepburn on a tour around Rome, the city is shot in an incredibly vivid style that makes the rest of the movie as visually appealing as Hepburn herself. Well, almost. Rarely, in 1953, were movies actually shot on location. Just about anyone else would have shot this film on a Hollywood sound stage. Director William Wyler chose not to do so, and it was the third-best decision he made in the film. Next to, of course, the casting choices of Hepburn and Peck. Although the impact of the film has been the main reason it is remembered today, it stands the test of time simply for being a great film. Although it was the first Audrey Hepburn starring vehicle, it was also one of her best.

I am getting pretty sick of reviewing Madagascar. I reviewed it when it first came out on DVD, and I said it was “meh”. It then came out on Blu-Ray September 23rd, and I said it was “meh” with nicer pictures and a few more special features. And now, Madagascar, Holiday Edition is coming out November 4th, from Paramount Home Entertainment. What makes it a “holiday edition”? Well…there is a cardboard sleeve over the DVD with a red border, and what look to be Christmas lights. There is also a special feature called The Penguins In A Christmas Caper. So…Christmas edition, then?

No. Here’s the deal - that Christmas Caper short? It’s on the original DVD. And on the Blu-Ray. In fact, there are no new special features at all. Everything on this DVD was on the original DVD. Except for that red border and the Christmas lights. That’s the only new thing in this entire package. So why bother? Well, it puts it in a better location on store shelves in time for Christmas, and people might pick it up, but more than that - it calls attention to Madagascar 2: Escape To Africa, which hits theatres this Friday. So consider this a success, Paramount - Madaagascar 2: Escape From Africa is in theatres Friday. Tell your kids!

Clerks (********8/10):  Alliance Films is releasing a three-DVD set of Kevin Smith movies on October 21st, and it’s a set well worth revisiting. While Smith is still best known for his movie Clerks in 1994, he has done many other good films. Clerks was a tiny little indie movie, shot by Smith and starring his friends, in black-and-white and for a minuscule budget, that managed to become a hit, and a cult sensation in future years. It remains a slacker classic, one that will still set off a spark of painful recognition in anyone who has worked a retail job. The eight hours at a time of standing around doing nothing. (Actually, the retail jobs I’ve had have involved eight hour shifts full of busy work. Like “cleaning” things that are already clean, so it doesn’t look like you have nothing to do but stand around for eight hours.) The dialogue is crisp, fresh, filthy and hilarious, and the actors are all considerably better than one would expect for a film that cost $27,000 to make.

Clerks II (****4/10):  That being said, Clerks is substantially over-rated. It gets high marks for being very good for a $27,000 movie, and it is. But the dialogue is what carries it, and it is basically just as good as watching an hour and a half of really good, funny stand-up. And it’s influence has mostly extended to other Kevin Smith movies. With mixed results. For example, Clerks II, which was very disappointing. Clerks II is not as good as Clerks, but there are some fantastic moments of nerd dialogue. The best is a scene where Lord of the Rings nerds battle Star Wars nerds for the title of One Trilogy To Rule Them All. But the movie culminates in a scene involving a man, a donkey, and sexual intercourse. Kevin Smith seems to think this is very funny, and he’s right to a point. The characters seem to think watching a woman having sex with the donkey will be an interesting thrill. But when they find out it’s a man and a donkey, apparently that’s just gross. Either way, it’s SEX WITH A DONKEY! Who cares if it’s a woman, a man or an octopus? The joke runs out of steam after three minutes, but goes on for thirty.

Chasing Amy (**********10/10):  But where Clerks has become over-rated in the past 14 years, other Smith movies have been under-rated. And one of those movies is Chasing Amy. Ben Affleck stars as a comic book writer who falls in love with Joey Lauren Adams, who is a lesbian. Some brilliant dialogue comes from Jason Lee, who plays Affleck’s best friend and illustrator. His Jaws-style comparison of scars received during oral sex with Adams is fantastic, and his dissection of Jughead and Archie’s homosexual relationship is magnificent. In fact, this entire film is magnificent, in the way it approaches young people in relationships. Jealousy, homosexuality and sexual experience are all given a brand-new, totally refreshing treatment, and the results are both intelligent and hilarious. Chasing Amy deserves to be considered one of the all-time greatest angst-and-relationships movies.

All three of these films are featured on the new Threesome With Kevin Smith set. Clerks is a must-have, a classic that while it doesn’t hold up over time remains hilarious and must be watched by those who haven’t yet seen it. Chasing Amy is a classic, a movie that will stand the test of time and then some. The DVD of that movie included in this set is from the Criterion Collection, a series of classic films released with incredible restoration and the best picture imaginable from a regular DVD. And the third movie is Clerks II, a disappointing effort that has decent moments. I suppose it is included in this set because it is the logical companion to the first film. But I would have much rather seen Clerks, Chasing Amy and Dogma included together, since Dogma is also a very under-rated Kevin Smith movie. But as it stands, two out of three isn’t bad.

Alliance Films is releasing a three-disc special edition of Rob Zombie’s remake of the horror classic Hallowe’en on October 7th. While I wasn’t a big fan of the movie the first time around, I know there are a lot of rabid Rob Zombie fanatics out there who may want to check this out. The first two discs are the exact same as the two discs that were released the first time around. The movie, and then the special features disc with deleted scenes, commentary, alternate ending, bloopers, and the featurette “The Many Masks Of Michael Myers”. The third disc is the only thing here that is new, and that is what might make this worthwhile. But only to the most hardcore Rob Zombie fanatic.

You see, the third disc is a four-and-a-half-hour documentary about the making of the movie. It’s fairly interesting, for the first half hour or forty minutes, as Rob Zombie really is an interesting guy with interesting ideas and views. But come on. Four and a half hours? Who, really, would sit through that? Like I said before, only the most rabid, obsessive Rob Zombie fans.