While not as popular today as the Sarah Palin bikini video, the new red-band trailer for Sacha Baron Cohen’s Brunois making its way around the blogosphere this afternoon to the delight of many a film writer. I was surprised by the video for two reasons:
1. Universal didn’t really need to release this thing so soon, because the NC-17 rating story brought plenty of buzz to the film for one month, let alone one week. As Steven Zeitchik wrote at Risky Biz Blog, word of the MPAA’s initial decision was already “like a really inexpensive trailer.”
2. Following the hype of the SXSW footage and the “objectionable” material referenced by the MPAA, this trailer actually seems a bit tame compared to what I was expecting, especially from a red-band trailer. It’s a perfectly funny ad and doesn’t do anything to my high expectations for the film, but considering all the excitement this week, I couldn’t help but find it disappointing.
Of course, as usual, few others agree with my disappointment. I know, I’m a cynical curmudgeon who is called a “goon” and a “muckracker” by his friends, but I’m just being honest. Anyway, I’m certain that I’ll be laughing my ass off when I see Bruno in its entirety, so my immediate — and slight — disappointment with the marketing isn’t affecting my anticipation whatsoever. Plus, the following bloggery ballyhooing is going to make more noise than anything I have to say, right?
It’s certainly no accident that The Wrap’s Sharon Waxman found out about and reported onBrunoinitially receiving an NC-17 rating from the MPAA. After all, what raunchy docu-comedy wouldn’t want additional buzz focused on how “objectionable” some scenes were? Universal and Sacha Baron Cohen obviously pushed the envelope in order to both see how much they could get away with and to draw attention to themselves with a desired NC-17. Hasn’t anyone been following Hollywood the past 10 years? Here are a few benefits to both garnering the unacceptable rating and having news of that “unfortunate” rating leaked to all the fanboy bloggers:
Typical outrage over the MPAA’s dealings guarantee postings (including this one), which continue to give attention to the film.
Excitement over how hard the ultimate R-rating will likely be continues the interest from moviegoers interested in raunchy content. And if they’re upset that it won’t be as dirty as the original NC-17 version they can always…
…look forward to the Unrated DVD release, which will most definitely include the censored “objectionable” scenes either in the movie or as supplement material.
Of course, news of the ratings controversy does draw potentially unfair complaints regarding the MPAA’s reputation for typically having problems with homosexual themes. For once, though, the gay community can leave the ratings board alone on this one, since the studio and filmmakers most certainly wanted all of this. Of course, if you do decide to protest, make sure you mention the film title often. That will help the marketing, too.
And now some of the unnecessary complaints from my fellow internerds helping with the film’s buzz: …Read more
I’m sure there are many who are happy that Mike Figgis has essentially given up on filmmaking in order to make softcore ads for Agent Provacateur, but I kind of liked his version of Miss Julie, and sort of wish he’d make another film where the corsets are narrative-mandated and period-appropriate instead of, like, for sale. In any case, here’s his latest promo. This one is for a new line of Agent Provacateur shoes, and it’s much more of a straightforward advert than the shorts Figgis made for AP with Kate Moss last year. And–sorry boys–new AP model Maggie Gyllenhaal unfortunately does not make an appearance. Since it’s basically semi-tasteful bondage porn, it’s probably not safe for work, but considering it’s the Friday before Christmas, that’s probably not an issue. Happy Holidays!
Agnes Varnum points to a preview clip on New York Magazine’s website, from the upcoming third season of Joe Swanberg’s Nerve.com series, Young American Bodies. In a very inside-baseball bit of humor, the clip features Swanberg himself literally in bed with film festival programmer Holly Herrick. Both appear in various states of undress, so don’t watch it at work. And if you’re a Swanberg fan, keep your eyes on SpoutBlog, as we’ll have a surprise from Joe here within the next 24 hours.
Posting will be light here this afternoon–it’s a slooooooow post-holiday news day, and I’m planning to spend the better part of the afternoon at Film Forum swooning over Jean-Paul Belmondo in a new print of Jean-Pierre Melville’s Le Doulos. To get into the mood, I went to YouTube and searched for “Belmondo.” I found this trailer for A Woman is A Woman, Jean-Luc Godard’s 1961 “musical” starring Belmondo, Anna Karina, and Jean-Claude Brialy. In it, Godard explains (via wall-to-wall voice over) his Renoir-inspired approach to on-the-set improvisation. It’s semi-NSFW, but considering it’s a beautiful summer Friday afternoon, you’re probably not at work, anyway.
We’ve had a bit of trouble getting this episode to go through the iTunes feed, so we hope this re-post will fix the problem. The original post, with episode description and embedded player, is here.
filmcouch-114
It’s certainly no accident that The Wrap’s Sharon Waxman found out about and reported on Bruno initially receiving an NC-17 rating from the MPAA. After all, what raunchy docu-comedy wouldn’t want additional buzz focused on how “objectionable” some scenes were? Universal and Sacha Baron Cohen obviously pushed the envelope in order to both see how much they could get away with and to draw attention to themselves with a desired NC-17. Hasn’t anyone been following Hollywood the past 10 years? Here are a few benefits to both garnering the unacceptable rating and having news of that “unfortunate” rating leaked to all the fanboy bloggers:
