ITALIANO wrote:I didn't even know who this John Hughes was, and had to check on Wikipedia. Never seen any of his movies. Was he so famous in the US?
Italiano has a habit of dismissing things he doesn't appreciate as "American", but for once, he's right. Until recently, few people in continental Europe had ever heard of John Hughes. I'm a bit too young to belong to the age bracket Damien mentioned, but I never saw any of his films as teenager, except for Home Alone. The first time I ever heard of him was by reading Roger Ebert's webpage.
A lot of people, who thought they knew about films, will be scratching their heads when Hughes' memorial segment will be played.
anonymous wrote:
Now if only they could get Rob Lowe to sing and dance again with Snow White.
You took the words right out of my mouth Big.
"Young men make wars and the virtues of war are the virtues of young men: courage and hope for the future. Then old men make the peace, and the vices of peace are the vices of old men: mistrust and caution." -- Alec Guinness (Lawrence of Arabia)
Beverly Hills, CA — Open dance auditions for the 82nd Academy Awards® telecast will be held on Friday, January 22, and Saturday, January 23, at CenterStaging in Burbank, California, telecast producers Adam Shankman and Bill Mechanic announced today. Cast dancers will perform live during the Academy Awards show on Sunday, March 7, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center®.
The auditions are open to professional-level male and female dancers in the contemporary and hip-hop styles who are between the ages of 18 and 30. Shankman, who began his career as a dancer and once performed on the Oscar show, will be choreographing the audition numbers with associate choreographers Anne Fletcher and Jamal Sims.
CenterStaging is located at 3407 Winona Avenue in Burbank. Interested dancers should note that parking is not available at CenterStaging. Individuals will need to find parking in the vicinity and pay any associated costs. Only qualified dancers will be admitted; there is no access for watching the auditions.
More fuel for the fire, the Academy's official facebook page just announced that Adam Shankman is doing a call out to all professional dancers from around the country to contact him...
Wesley Lovell
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both." - Benjamin Franklin
Damien wrote:I fear we might instead get a reunion of The Breakfast Club because that seems so obvious. And anyone who remembers Ally Sheedy's Spirit award speech (which derailed her "comeback") knows to be very afraid.
What did she do and, more importantly, is there a video of it?
She rambled on and on incoherently for an eternity, certainly longer than Greer Garson at the 1942 Oscars. Even her husband was trying to get her off the stage. It must be on You Tube somewhere.
"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
Damien wrote:I fear we might instead get a reunion of The Breakfast Club because that seems so obvious. And anyone who remembers Ally Sheedy's Spirit award speech (which derailed her "comeback") knows to be very afraid.
What did she do and, more importantly, is there a video of it?
"The mantle of spinsterhood was definitely in her shoulders. She was twenty five and looked it."
Alot of Hughes' "reputation" came from, as Magilla says, Siskbert overpraising him as a hometown boy, and also because it was clear by the mid-80s that the Hollywood of the 70s was long-gone, and, among the standard dreck, Hughes movies like 16 Candles were seen as a slight cut above. (I remember a friend of mine even saying "I finally saw a teen movie that didn't totally suck")
I saw this piece yesterday and meant to post it here, with pretty much the same reactions everyone has had. The set of ideas reeks of Allan Carr -- not a one of them doesn't send a shiver up my spine.
Damien wrote:It's much more meaningful when words of praise come from an objective source
Tell me it isn't so. There is no way you set were ever you did and typed these words with straight face. No fucking way. For my own mental stability, please reassure me your tongue was in your cheek, at least a little bit.
Well I love PLANES, TRAINS, AND AUTOMOBILES and enjoy THE BREAKFAST CLUB. SIXTEEN CANDLES and PRETTY IN PINK are good for their genre. I have never liked FERRIS BUELLER'S DAY OFF, but probably because I saw it last of his most famous films and had higher expectations.
My problem is not with the Oscars recognizing his work, but with them singling him out for recognition. They are only doing it for ratings, and that is truly sick.
I certainly hope when Michael Bay dies we do not have to sit through some ten minute "In Memoriam" montage of all his best explosions.
"When it comes to the subject of torture, I trust a woman who was married to James Cameron for three years."
-- Amy Poehler in praise of Zero Dark Thirty director Kathryn Bigelow
John Hughes name, if not his person, was very well known in the 80s. Teenagers back then who knew nothing else about filmmakers knew the phrase "A John Hughes film" very well. For awhile, it was a selling point.
I've always enjoyed "National Lampoon's Vacation" (which he wrote, but didn't produce, direct, or cater... apologies to Magilla), but that was made before anyone knew who John Hughes was. The humor's also more dark and vulgar than the typical Hughes movie.
I saw Only the Lonely and Home Alone, but none of the movies he actually directed. Certainly not a major filmmaker (though commercially successful), and as far as I know he was never even Oscar nominated. But of course the tribute to him (an unbelievable choice; they really want me to miss Bill Condon!) doesnt have anything to do with movies and everything to do with tv.
ITALIANO wrote:I didn't even know who this John Hughes was, and had to check on Wikipedia. Never seen any of his movies. Was he so famous in the US?
People born in the late 60s/early 70s related to John Hughes's teen angst comedies in the 80s, and apparently had a resonance for them that was lost on the rest of us and critics who had little patience for them. Adam Shankman, born in 1964, would seemed to have been a little old to have been affected by these movies, but judging from his own filmography, he suffers from a bad case of arrested development.
"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
ITALIANO wrote:I didn't even know who this John Hughes was, and had to check on Wikipedia. Never seen any of his movies. Was he so famous in the US?
Famous is a relative word. He wasn't necessarily famous in his own right, but his movies were popular, most of them beyond their worth.
His films were extravagantly over-praised by the Chicago duo of Siskel & Ebert, particularly Ferris Bueller's Day Off and Planes, Trains and Automobiles (both of which he wrote, produced and directed), I've always thought because they were usually filmed in part or in whole in Chicago.
Most of his 80s films were crap, although Sixcteen Candles (which he wrote, produced and directed); Pretty in Pink (which he wrote and produced but didn't direct) and Some Kind of Wonderful (which he also wrote and produced, but didn't direct) had their moments.
Some of his 90s films had a bit more style. Home Alone (which he wrote and produced but didn't direct) had that loquacious child performance by Macaulay Culkin; Only the Lonely (which he produced only) featured excellent performances by John Candy, Ally Sheedy and especially Maureen O'Hara and the 1994 version of Miracle on 34th Street (which he wrote and produced but didn't direct) was an unnecessary remake but was nevertheless a pleasant experience with a decent star performance by Richard Attenborough as Kris Kringle.
John Hughes is popular with a hipster '80s fringe culture that celebrates films like The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles and the like. They are decent films, but they are a far cry from being more than cult classics.
It's especially sad when you consider the Oscar nominees and winners that have died this year that aren't getting their own separate day in the sun: Robert Anderson, Ken Annakin, Claude Berri, Betsy Blair, Jack Cardiff, Simon Channing-Williams, Willy DeVille, Horton Foote, Larry Gelbart, Maurice Jarre, Millard Kaufman, Karl Malden, Angela Morley, Tullio Pinelli, Jorge Preloran, Budd Schulberg, James Whitmore.
And the two I highlighted I thought would have been more likely to have separate celebrations in the ceremony as they might have in past years.
Wesley Lovell
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both." - Benjamin Franklin
