Blu-Tuesday: February 16

Black Sheep returns this week to highlighting the most exciting BD titles to grace store shelves on Tuesday's. This first Tuesday sees the release of a 2010 Oscar nominee for Best Costume Design, the 20th anniversary release of a contemporary classic and the film the Toronto Film Critics Association called the best of 2009.

GOODFELLAS

Director Martin Scorcese has another potential hit on his hands with the upcoming SHUTTER ISLAND coming out this weekend. Twenty years ago, he made what many of his fans would consider to be his last great film, GOODFELLAS. Sure, THE DEPARTED was a strong film but it is no match for this mafia tale. Warner Bros. has packaged this edition in one of their gorgeous BD books but if it were my anniversary, I wouldn't be too happy with the party I was just thrown. There is no question as to whether the film itself, starring Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta and Joe Pesci, stands the test of time but this new BD edition is no different whatsoever, in terms of extras or transfer, than the original BD release from 2007. If you don't own it already, now is clearly the time to change that. If you do, then really the only new thing you're getting is the book.

COCO AVANT CHANEL

Audrey Tautou (AMELIE) embodies the great fashion icon, Coco Chanel, in COCO AVANT CHANEL from French director, Anne Fontaine. If a film about fashion only manages to score one Oscar nomination in the Costume Design category, then I guess it succeeded where it was supposed to. And while it may not have seen any other love from the Academy, it certainly found a great deal of admiration from North American audiences. While it wasn't exactly my cup of tea, fashion admirers will find a lot to feast their eyes on.

HUNGER

I'll make this quick because I've just realized that this amazing film is finally available to own on BD and I don't own it yet! I must get to the stores before they close so I'll just say that this Criterion collection of Steve McQueen's debut feature, HUNGER, promises to honour the film the way it most certainly deserves. This is not an easy film to watch but with Michael Fassbender leading the way through this account of I.R.A. leader, Bobby Sands's infamous hunger strike, it is a film that will find your stomach turned and yet somehow hungry for more.

ALSO AVAILABLE:

LAW ABIDING CITIZEN (2009)
(Starring Gerard Butler and Jamie Foxx)

BLACK DYNAMITE (2009)
(Modern cult favorite)

REVANCHE (2008)
(Criterion collection of Gotz Spielman film)

LOLA MONTES (1955)
(Criterion collection of Max Ophuls film)

DIRTY HARRY COLLECTION (1971-1988)
(Includes: DIRTY HARRY, MAGNUM FORCE, THE ENFORCER, SUDDEN IMPACT and THE DEAD POOL)

Black Sheep @ The Box Office: Number 1 Is Where they Are

WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE was originally slated for release in the spring of 2008. It was delayed until the fall of 2008 and then delayed again for a whole year because Warner Brothers and director, Spike Jonze, could not reach a place where they were both happy with the film. Maurice Sendak's book is considered to be one of the most popular children's books of all time and Warner Bros. was afraid that Jonze's stark interpretation was too real to appeal to kids. Once again, the little guys have been underestimated.

Warner's worries were appeased on Friday when WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE pulled in $12.1 million, a record one-day gross for a live-action picture in October. The film polled an A- grade from filmgoers and the love was spread across the weekend, allowing Jonze's third film to easily surpass its competition and become its own king. The second place was nowhere near the $32.5 million gross WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE pulled in but it was an interesting race regardless. In a tight race, the win went to LAW ABIDING CITIZEN - the one where Gerard Butler takes on the judicial system and Jamie Foxx from inside prison. Just another unbelievable premise that was seen by another unbelievable amount of people. Giving Butler and Foxx a run for their money was the third place, PARANORMAL ACTIVITY. Up another 155% this week after adding 600 more screens. That scorching $26K per screen average suggests that come next weekend, this Halloween may not be about SAW at all. The very happy people at Paramount will be bumping the theatre count up to about 1800. The only other debut this week, THE STEPFATHER, was met with about as little interest as I met my real-life stepfather with, pulling in just over $12 million for a fifth place finish.


Below the Top 10, two emerging Oscar contenders continued to perform well in limited runs. Both the Coen Brothers' A SERIOUS MAN and AN EDUCATION saw solid increases as their expansions proceeded. COCO AVANT CHANEL and THE DAMNED UNITED enjoyed solid holds on their audiences but showed no signs that a wide release would amount to anything. And NEW YORK, I LOVE YOU, a collection of short films inspired by the similar project, PARIS JE T'AIME, failed to excite anyone the same way the city itself does, pulling in an average of $3K on approximately 115 screens. New York, we love you but we see you on screen enough as it is, I think.

NEXT WEEK: SAW VI looks to get the early jump on Halloween as it slices its way onto 3000 screens. Opening with a similar theatre count, the big screen adaptation of ASTRO BOY. In case you aren't tired of vampires yet, you can catch John C. Reilly and Selma Hayek in CIRQUE DU FREAK: THE VAMPIRE'S ASSISTANT (2750 screens). And in case you aren't tired of Hilary Swank appearing in Oscar bait yet, you can catch her turn as Amelia Earhart in AMELIA (800 screens).

SOURCE: Box Office Mojo

COCO AVANT CHANEL

Written by Anne Fontaine and Camille Fontaine
Directed by Anne Fontaine
Starring: Audrey Tautou, Benoit Poelvoorde and Alessandro Nivola


Everyone loves to know who people were before they became famous. Were they serving up fries with that or were they offering towels to the well to do after they washed their hands in the rest room? We certainly enjoy these back stories as they offer a glimmer of hope that if these people made it somewhere when it seemed at one time that their lives were going nowhere, then we might one day accomplish the same. It may even give us a little insight into what made those we admire. That said, if their rise to the top is as tame as fashionista, Coco Chanel’s, as told in COCO AVANT CHANEL, it isn’t as easy to get all that excited.


It’s not that Chanel didn’t have humble beginnings to overcome, obstacles to tackle or brave paths to forge. It’s just that the manner in which French director, Anne Fontaine, tells them is not terribly compelling. Chanel, played by Audrey Tautou, was abandoned by her father as a girl after her mother died. She was placed in an orphanage with her sister and when she grew up, she longed to perform on the stage. When that didn’t pan out as she had hoped, she basically finagled her way into the home of millionaire, Etienne Balsan (Benoit Poelvoorde), and stayed there until she had figured out what she wanted to do with herself. What she wanted was to turn her hat-making hobby into a career in fashion. What she accomplished instead was the creation of an empire.


Chanel’s story is one that deserves telling but it doesn’t make for a very engaging film. She stands apart as a fashion icon because she always held true to her own vision and she stands alone as a human being because she refused to compromise herself for love and security. Fontaine paints her as a tragically unhappy figure and Tautou follows suit with a near-permanent scowl on her face. There is never any moment where her success is celebrated or where her journey is so dire that any success at all is championed by the audience. Without any visual transformation, COCO AVANT CHANEL never comes anywhere near the elegance that made Chanel what it was.