In response to the leaked promo trailer for Werner Herzog’s Bad Lieutenant remake, some people are claiming the film doesn’t look like a Herzog work at all. This is surprising, especially since the scene with the old ladies reminds us of the Aguirre act-at-gunpoint legend. Plus, ever since we heard the news of this “reimagining” we thought it was too befitting for Herzog to rework Abel Ferrara. However, that had more to do with the idea that both filmmakers are batshit crazy, not that their films are really that similar.

Still, wouldn’t it be more exciting to see Herzog take on something even less appropriate for his style and taste? Inspired by the Twitter meme #wernerherzogremake, which began yesterday in connection with the Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans promo, we’ve selected ten films we’d love to see Herzog redo just to see what his warped perspective would bring to these stories. While most of them are slightly tied to something he’s made in the past, each is still a completely unlikely project for Herzog to take on. But hopefully he’ll only see such implausibility as a challenge and actually go with one of our suggestions.
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Porn stars can be smart; some are even PhDs. So it shouldn’t be that much of a surprise that adult film actress Sasha Grey, who currently stars (non-pornographically) in Steven Soderbergh’s The Girlfriend Experience, likes great films. In fact, Karina wrote about Grey’s cineaste tastes more than six months ago. But the movie geeks are nontheless excited this week over Grey’s recent appearance on The Rotten Tomatoes Show, where she counted down her top favorite films. They are, in downward order, Stroszek, Fat Girl, Pierrot le fou, A Woman Under the Influence and Escape from New York.

Okay, so I’m as excited as any other blogger commenting on her choices, even if I’m not as surprised by them. Why shouldn’t I be thrilled that someone has the same favorite Godard as myself? And how can I not be glad that someone else loves Stroszek, which is hardly a beloved movie, even for many Herzog fans. I’m not any bit a fan of her top pick, but that’s fine. We’re still plenty compatible…to produce a brand of pornos that parody classic art films.

Check out some other reactions from the blogosphere after the jump:

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“I have to say that the adult films have been a total pleasure. They were like getting paid to live out my greatest fantasies. The rest of the stuff … sometimes got to be a real grind.”

So sayeth the late, great Marilyn Chambers. And though porn star Sasha Grey, who makes her “mainstream” debut as a high-end call girl in Steven Soderbergh’s The Girlfriend Experience, would most likely disagree with the latter part of that sentiment, I couldn’t help but think of Chambers’ often wasted talent as Grey and I sat down to chat. This self-proclaimed “performance artist” is every bit as intelligent and articulate as Soderbergh’s latest HD fling is tedious and condescending. Here’s hoping Grey’s next experience is worthy of her wonderful lust for life.

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If you look at Steven Soderbergh’s body of work from the last dozen years or so, it seems with every film the director becomes more obsessed the way careerists lose themselves in their work. Out of Sight and Che join up thematically with the Ocean’s films, Erin Brockovich, Traffic, even the The Limey, as movies about work, in which the people who do the work are so single-mindedly focused on the tasks ahead of them that work and life become a continuum, and the identities they create to get through the former can’t get put away at the end of the day when it’s ostensibly time to attend to the latter. They’re films in which life ends up happening in sudden moments, organically, as an unexpected side effect of the job.

The Girlfriend Experience is no exception, though this is not exactly the meticulous document of process that Che was. Starring porn star Sasha Grey as a high-end escort who alternately goes by the names Chelsea and Christine, Soderbergh’s quick and cheap digital feature is not the graphically sexual verite that fans of Grey’s previous filmography might have expected/hoped for. Instead, it’s a cold (although understandably, necessarily so), hands-off portrait of a certain New York City life about a month before the 2008 presidential election. Though improvised based on a linear outline and shot in sequence, as edited Experience jumps back and forth in time somewhat frantically. At Sundance, Soderbergh cited his own The Limey as an inspiration for the new film’s construction, and though there are similarities, this seems slightly more methodical. Here Soderbergh often jumps ahead to sketch out an events or conversation, then moves on to something else, then goes back to color in the details of the sketch.  (The version available now on VOD and premiering in theaters next week felt slightly tighter to me than the rough cut shown in January, but that might have been an illusion; I might have just been more ready for its non-linearality the second time around.)

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It’s fitting that a trailer for Steven Soderbergh’s The Girlfriend Experience has finally shown up this week. Just a few days ago, the film’s star, Sasha Grey, was being compared to the late Melanie Chambers in obits for and tributes to the latter actress. Now we get a better look at Grey’s crossover into non-porn films, which in the spot is called her “mainstream debut.” That might be a poor choice of wording, especially if Grey ever continues her attempt at a mixed career by showing up in a Michael Bay movie (unless its his ’small’ project) or something similarly, actually mainstream. Sure, thanks to the sexy premise (though no promise of actual sex), The Girlfriend Experience should be more popular than Soderbergh’s previous little HD movie, Bubble, but it’s very likely to be just as dull (at least it fascinated Karina at Sundance).

Check out a roundup of what bloggers are saying about the trailer, which just made me very sleepy, after the jump:

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Marilyn Chambers was the first porn star I knew by name. My mom’s boyfriend had an autographed copy of “My Story,” her ‘erotobiography,’ which wasn’t shielded from my young eyes, and I recall being told that she lived in my neighborhood. The latter part was probably false (and/or remembered incorrectly), though she was apparently born in my hometown, so who knows?

In any event, I never did see any of her films (I swear!), not even her early non-porn titles, which include Herbert Ross’ The Owl and the Pussycat and David Cronenberg’s Rabid. According to her Wikipedia page, she might have pursued more of a mainstream acting career if Hollywood hadn’t been so nervous, and she had even recently appeared in some more non-pornographic films, such as 2008’s Solitaire. Now, on the day after her death, I’m wondering if she could have had another life in the movies had she not been convinced to star in Behind the Green Door.

I also wonder if today it’s any easier for a woman to find a balance between the two film industries. For instance, will it be possible for Sasha Grey to continue finding dramatic roles after starring in Steven Soderbergh’s The Girlfriend Experience?

Here are some quotes from the blogs that are paying respect — or at least some sort of notice — today:

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The advantage of seeing the Ashton Kutcher-starring Spread at Sundance, as opposed to in theaters down the road, isn’t just the fact that director David Mackenzie hasn’t yet been forced to neuter the film’s skintastic sex scenes (his 2003 Young Adam was shaved down for far less to get an R rating here in the States), but also the way it so nicely compliments a film that screened a few days later, Steven Soderbergh’s The Girlfriend Experience. Neither movie quite works on its own, but as a pair, they are the yin to one another’s yang — portraits of a Hollywood hustler and high-class escort that, taken together, give a well-rounded picture of that world.

That’s the beauty of film festivals: Cramming thirty-odd films into a week’s time has a way of illuminating thematic connections between stories you’d almost certainly miss when screening them months apart at the megaplex. Autism, genocide, un-reciprocated love, sex-for-pay — all big themes at this year’s Sundance. And while neither Spread nor The Girlfriend Experience has much to say about those first few categories, they prove plenty revealing when it comes to understanding the realm of sex work.

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Steven Soderbergh was on hand at the Eccles Theater in Park City tonight to screen a “work-in-progress” cut of his latest low-budget digital picture for HDNet Films, The Girlfriend Experience. Starring porn star Sasha Grey as a high-end escort who alternately goes by the names Chelsea and Christine, the film is not the salacious, graphically sexual verite that fans of Grey’s previous filmography might have expected/hoped for. Instead, it’s a cold (although understandably, necessarily so), hands-off portrait of a certain New York City life about a month before the 2008 presidential election.

With panic over the economic crisis inescapable even in the extremely moneyed circles in which she does business, our heroine sees clients, argues with her live-in personal trainer boyfriend, brunches with a call girl friend, lunches with a journalist (played by real-life prostitution expose writer Mark Jacobson) and meets with a variety of men who can stand to help her “expand [her] business.” Through it all, she maintains an impenetrable (no pun intended) facade, until a “connection” with a new client and the manipulations of an online hooker review writer (played by none other than film critic/blogger Glenn Kenny, apparently typecast for his talent at cracking even the toughest girl’s shell via his written word) combine to damage her armor.

It’s probably not fair to offer a full review of a work-in-progress, but Experience fascinated me enough that I do want to throw out a few comments.

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I have a confession to make: I am really not up to date on the newest latest trends in contemporary porn. When I used to work in a video store, the culture of AVN and Vivid Video was impossible to ignore, but I guess I’ve gone respectable. So when I saw Chris’ post earlier today about the casting of Sasha Grey in Steven Soderbergh’s prostitute drama The Girlfriend Experience, I wondered if the part about Grey being a fan of “Godard, Bertolucci and Breillat” was a joke.

But then I discovered Grey’s Wikipedia profile, which offers evidence that the 20 year-old (recently the youngest actress to be named AVN’s Female Performer of the Year) has actually made attempts to position herself as The Porn Star Who Likes Art Films. Some choice excerpts:

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• Dimension Films has “quietly” pushed back its highly anticipated adaptation of The Road from November to December, and there’s speculation that the film may be taken completely off the 2008 calendar because the film might not be ready in time.

• Meanwhile, Dimension head Bob Weinstein admitted at the Media and Money conference yesterday that he and Harvey would pretty much be shit out of luck if they were trying to fund The Weinstein Co. today. Fortunately for them, they borrowed enough when they could and will continue to make it last for awhile. He also fueled the Weinstein vs. Rudin fire by taking a shot at Rudin’s Oscar chances now that he’s off The Reader.
• 20-year-old porn star Sasha Grey (Pirates II: Stagnetti’s Revenge) has been cast as the lead in Steven Soderbergh’s prostitute pic, The Girlfriend Experience. A fan of the films of Godard, Bertolucci and Breillat, she reportedly told Adult Video News that she’s honored to get to work for an “auteur” like Soderbergh.
• Steve Carell has been typecast into another “clueless-man” role, this time as the titular French soldier in Brigadier Gerard, based on the Arthur Conan Doyle stories set during the Napoleonic wars.
• Da film! Da film! Sacha Gervasi, who scripted Spielberg’s The Terminal, is set to write and direct a biopic about diminutive actor Herve Villechaize, who starred as Tattoo on TV’s Fantasy Island.