Lady In The Water - That Clown Shyamalan Is Back
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Big Magilla
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OscarGuy
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You know. I never saw The Sixth Sense after the surprise was ruined for me. I never saw Unbreakable. I did see Signs (ugh) and The Village (lame) and I can't see myself wanting to see the story that we've all heard is she's a mermaid though the previews only give hints. If that's the surprise, there's really no desire for me to see it.
Though, a song does pop into my head "She comes from the land down under..."
Anyway, the only reason we saw Signs and The Village is because a) my friends wanted to see Signs because of the alien theme and b) I wanted to see The Village because I love horror films. Suffice it to say we were all let down by both films. And I also find it very interesting that not a single one of my friends this time find the preview entertaining and after the last two Shyamalan films, none of my friends seem to want to see anything he's done.
Remember, these are friends who like Fantastic Four.
Though, a song does pop into my head "She comes from the land down under..."
Anyway, the only reason we saw Signs and The Village is because a) my friends wanted to see Signs because of the alien theme and b) I wanted to see The Village because I love horror films. Suffice it to say we were all let down by both films. And I also find it very interesting that not a single one of my friends this time find the preview entertaining and after the last two Shyamalan films, none of my friends seem to want to see anything he's done.
Remember, these are friends who like Fantastic Four.
Wesley Lovell
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both." - Benjamin Franklin
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both." - Benjamin Franklin
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Big Magilla
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The Sixth Sense was a well-constructed ghost story with fine production values and a near perfect cast for the material. Shymalan's subsequent films have been as over-inflated as his ego. The trailer for Lady in the Water is dreadful.
One thing about Janet Maslin's review of the book puzzles me, though. Every time I've heard Paul Giamatti speak he drives me nuts calling everyone "sir" with every utterance. It's hard to imagine him calling the self-important Shymalan "dude".
One thing about Janet Maslin's review of the book puzzles me, though. Every time I've heard Paul Giamatti speak he drives me nuts calling everyone "sir" with every utterance. It's hard to imagine him calling the self-important Shymalan "dude".
Dear God, I almost feel embarrassed and ashamed for liking The Sixth Sense. But then I remember that everything else he's done has been crap.
"...it is the weak who are cruel, and...gentleness is only to be expected from the strong." - Leo Reston
"Cruelty might be very human, and it might be cultural, but it's not acceptable." - Jodie Foster
"Cruelty might be very human, and it might be cultural, but it's not acceptable." - Jodie Foster
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VanHelsing
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This might be the first movie where I get to see Bryce Dallas Howard in action. But I think I will be disappointed with the film, just like all of Shyamalan's previous works (yes, including Sixth Sense).
With a Southern accent...
"Don't you dare lie to me!" and...
"You threaten my congeniality, you threaten me!"
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"You shouldn't be doing what you're doing. The truth is enough!"
"Are you and Perry?" ... "Please, Nelle."
"Don't you dare lie to me!" and...
"You threaten my congeniality, you threaten me!"
-------
"You shouldn't be doing what you're doing. The truth is enough!"
"Are you and Perry?" ... "Please, Nelle."
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The Original BJ
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Ugh. I liked The Sixth Sense, but Shyamalan has become one of the most arrogant filmmakers on the planet. Every time I hear him talk about how original a filmmaker he is (what was the word he used, "iconoclast?") I want to vomit, especially considering that he basically remakes the same movie every time out.
The trailer for Lady in the Water looks simply awful. I have a feeling that movie is going to be a huge laugh-riot.
The trailer for Lady in the Water looks simply awful. I have a feeling that movie is going to be a huge laugh-riot.
From the New York Times:
BOOKS OF THE TIMES | 'THE MAN WHO HEARD VOICES'
Snubbed by Disney, What's Shyamalan to Do? Walk (and Diss)
By JANET MASLIN
Published: July 10, 2006
New work by important filmmakers is always hyped by early publicity, some of it flattering enough to have been written at gunpoint. Now M. Night Shyamalan has set a new high-water mark for this sort of sycophancy. He has deigned to allow Michael Bamberger, a senior writer for Sports Illustrated, to follow him adoringly through every stage of the filmmaking process. The upshot is not just a puff article but a full-length, unintentionally riotous puff book.
Who is M. Night Shyamalan? The point is that you're supposed to know already. By some lights (namely his own and Mr. Bamberger's) he is an A-list Hollywood legend whose work is ablaze with beauty and wisdom. By others, he's the guy who made a mint with "The Sixth Sense," starred in an American Express ad and has now directed "Lady in the Water." The book makes landfall on July 20, a day before the movie does.
"The Man Who Heard Voices" isn't really the filmmaker's fault. His only serious misstep was allowing it to happen. It was Mr. Bamberger who met the auteur at a dinner party ("Night's shirt was half open — Tom Jones in his prime"), became awestruck ("What kind of power could he have over me?") and started taking deeply embarrassing notes.
How could Mr. Shyamalan have known that his Boswell would place him in a biblical light? The book finds some relevance for Night (as Mr. Bamberger calls him) in the fact that the word night, like the word day, shows up early in the Book of Genesis. It also describes an actress in Night's presence as "like Moses before the burning bush."
As is the case anytime Hollywood lets its hair down, this account exposes deep fault lines of privilege, power and class. Consider the story of Paula, who was Night's assistant when he was ready to spring his "Lady in the Water" screenplay upon the Walt Disney Company. Among Paula's virtues were the ability to make hot chocolate exactly the way Night likes it and to fly cross-country without going to the bathroom. The screenplay was far too important to be left unattended.
Paula "never confused her workaday world with the lives of the rich and superrich with whom she was in daily contact," Mr. Bamberger writes approvingly. He himself has more problems in this area, as he vicariously appreciates Night's home outside Philadelphia ("it was maybe the grandest of all the horse-country estates"), Night's staff, Night's fresh fruit and Night's "chicken with perfect grill lines." The last two were shared by Night's cast and crew, and the book takes note of his generosity.
But back to Paula: in a story that will live in legend, Mr. Bamberger reveals how she was not welcomed with sufficient deference at the home of the powerful Disney executive Nina Jacobson. Ms. Jacobson is blasted for having taken her son to a birthday party instead of dedicating her Sunday to Night's precise timetable for script-reading. "What could Nina be doing that's more important than getting Night's new script?" Mr. Bamberger asks. (The italics are his.) Then the coup de grâce: Paula was offered "low-carb soup from the refrigerator." The implications are clear: it may have come from a can.
The book describes Night's sustained petulance over this snubbing in terms that are, by any standards known on Planet Earth, astounding. So is Mr. Bamberger's ability to pipe-cleaner any anecdote until it twists into a lesson about Night. Night reminds himself of Bob Dylan — and Mr. Dylan's ability to affect a wide and diverse audience is very like Night's, according to the book. When the film's leading lady, Bryce Dallas Howard, is covered with welts after having been dragged across grass and twigs, Night is the injured party. "I can't have a reputation as a director who doesn't protect his actors," he is quoted as saying.
There's a howler on every page for a while. But eventually there's also something real. If only because he had to finish this book so hurriedly (it has a final section dated April 18, 2006), Mr. Bamberger stops genuflecting long enough to capture a Wizard of Oz poignancy about his subject. This happens despite the fact that Night is "devastated" when not enough cast and crew members show up for his "Wizard of Oz" screening.
"Beneath Night's zeal were great reserves of sadness and desperation," the book finally acknowledges. Its overall sense of the filmmaker's self-importance certainly jibes with that impression. There are glimpses of a childhood full of parental pressure, with an emphasis on whopping accomplishments. When Mr. Shyamalan appeared on the cover of Newsweek, his father told him that Time had a bigger circulation. His mother is an obstetrician who once removed a record-breaking 80-pound ovarian cyst. "No wonder Night was such a stat man," Mr. Bamberger says.
There are actually other people who figure in "The Man Who Heard Voices." Eventually the book shifts its emphasis and finds time for them. The boozy antics of the cinematographer Christopher Doyle stand out, as does the personal style of Paul Giamatti, the new film's leading man. "Dude, I am so 'Lady,' " he told Mr. Shyamalan as he accepted the role.
Although Mr. Bamberger treats this film set as if it were the only one that has ever been made, he does a decent job of explaining the function of each cast and crew member. Then there are the executives' roles. "Lady in the Water" was made by Warner Brothers, but the book expresses some kind of backhanded gratitude from Mr. Shyamalan to Disney, because what hurt him eventually made him stronger. By that standard, "The Man Who Heard Voices" will do him a world of good.
BOOKS OF THE TIMES | 'THE MAN WHO HEARD VOICES'
Snubbed by Disney, What's Shyamalan to Do? Walk (and Diss)
By JANET MASLIN
Published: July 10, 2006
New work by important filmmakers is always hyped by early publicity, some of it flattering enough to have been written at gunpoint. Now M. Night Shyamalan has set a new high-water mark for this sort of sycophancy. He has deigned to allow Michael Bamberger, a senior writer for Sports Illustrated, to follow him adoringly through every stage of the filmmaking process. The upshot is not just a puff article but a full-length, unintentionally riotous puff book.
Who is M. Night Shyamalan? The point is that you're supposed to know already. By some lights (namely his own and Mr. Bamberger's) he is an A-list Hollywood legend whose work is ablaze with beauty and wisdom. By others, he's the guy who made a mint with "The Sixth Sense," starred in an American Express ad and has now directed "Lady in the Water." The book makes landfall on July 20, a day before the movie does.
"The Man Who Heard Voices" isn't really the filmmaker's fault. His only serious misstep was allowing it to happen. It was Mr. Bamberger who met the auteur at a dinner party ("Night's shirt was half open — Tom Jones in his prime"), became awestruck ("What kind of power could he have over me?") and started taking deeply embarrassing notes.
How could Mr. Shyamalan have known that his Boswell would place him in a biblical light? The book finds some relevance for Night (as Mr. Bamberger calls him) in the fact that the word night, like the word day, shows up early in the Book of Genesis. It also describes an actress in Night's presence as "like Moses before the burning bush."
As is the case anytime Hollywood lets its hair down, this account exposes deep fault lines of privilege, power and class. Consider the story of Paula, who was Night's assistant when he was ready to spring his "Lady in the Water" screenplay upon the Walt Disney Company. Among Paula's virtues were the ability to make hot chocolate exactly the way Night likes it and to fly cross-country without going to the bathroom. The screenplay was far too important to be left unattended.
Paula "never confused her workaday world with the lives of the rich and superrich with whom she was in daily contact," Mr. Bamberger writes approvingly. He himself has more problems in this area, as he vicariously appreciates Night's home outside Philadelphia ("it was maybe the grandest of all the horse-country estates"), Night's staff, Night's fresh fruit and Night's "chicken with perfect grill lines." The last two were shared by Night's cast and crew, and the book takes note of his generosity.
But back to Paula: in a story that will live in legend, Mr. Bamberger reveals how she was not welcomed with sufficient deference at the home of the powerful Disney executive Nina Jacobson. Ms. Jacobson is blasted for having taken her son to a birthday party instead of dedicating her Sunday to Night's precise timetable for script-reading. "What could Nina be doing that's more important than getting Night's new script?" Mr. Bamberger asks. (The italics are his.) Then the coup de grâce: Paula was offered "low-carb soup from the refrigerator." The implications are clear: it may have come from a can.
The book describes Night's sustained petulance over this snubbing in terms that are, by any standards known on Planet Earth, astounding. So is Mr. Bamberger's ability to pipe-cleaner any anecdote until it twists into a lesson about Night. Night reminds himself of Bob Dylan — and Mr. Dylan's ability to affect a wide and diverse audience is very like Night's, according to the book. When the film's leading lady, Bryce Dallas Howard, is covered with welts after having been dragged across grass and twigs, Night is the injured party. "I can't have a reputation as a director who doesn't protect his actors," he is quoted as saying.
There's a howler on every page for a while. But eventually there's also something real. If only because he had to finish this book so hurriedly (it has a final section dated April 18, 2006), Mr. Bamberger stops genuflecting long enough to capture a Wizard of Oz poignancy about his subject. This happens despite the fact that Night is "devastated" when not enough cast and crew members show up for his "Wizard of Oz" screening.
"Beneath Night's zeal were great reserves of sadness and desperation," the book finally acknowledges. Its overall sense of the filmmaker's self-importance certainly jibes with that impression. There are glimpses of a childhood full of parental pressure, with an emphasis on whopping accomplishments. When Mr. Shyamalan appeared on the cover of Newsweek, his father told him that Time had a bigger circulation. His mother is an obstetrician who once removed a record-breaking 80-pound ovarian cyst. "No wonder Night was such a stat man," Mr. Bamberger says.
There are actually other people who figure in "The Man Who Heard Voices." Eventually the book shifts its emphasis and finds time for them. The boozy antics of the cinematographer Christopher Doyle stand out, as does the personal style of Paul Giamatti, the new film's leading man. "Dude, I am so 'Lady,' " he told Mr. Shyamalan as he accepted the role.
Although Mr. Bamberger treats this film set as if it were the only one that has ever been made, he does a decent job of explaining the function of each cast and crew member. Then there are the executives' roles. "Lady in the Water" was made by Warner Brothers, but the book expresses some kind of backhanded gratitude from Mr. Shyamalan to Disney, because what hurt him eventually made him stronger. By that standard, "The Man Who Heard Voices" will do him a world of good.
"Y'know, that's one of the things I like about Mitt Romney. He's been consistent since he changed his mind." -- Christine O'Donnell