the 941

Austrian director Michael Haneke creates a dark mood with the use of stark black and white photography. The pre-WWI story is set in Eichwald, a tiny village in northern Germany. Haneke — who also wrote this bleak film in German, shown in America with English subtitles — presents a dim view of German life decades prior to Hitler’s rise to power. The director’s intention is to explain the dark side of the Prussian personality and why perhaps so many young Germans were lured to the Nazi movement.

The village school teacher narrates the tale of strange incidents marring the tranquility of a tiny rural hamlet. In the opening scene, a doctor falls from his horse and is seriously injured. Someone tied a trip wire between two trees on his property causing the accident. More terible events follow. For example, a farmer’s wife crashes through the floorboards of the baron’s barn while she’s working and perishes. The baron’s son is beaten and tied upside down in the same barn. The teacher suspects his students are guilty of committing the numerous crimes that continue unabated in the village.

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— He does it so you don’t have to: The Sarasota Herald-Tribune’s Jeremy Wallace combs through the new, surely abysmal memoir of Karl Rove and recaps what Rove has to say about his time in Sarasota on Sept. 11, 2001. “Throughout most of the section on Sept. 11, he paints the picture of a steely-nerved George W. Bush being resolute and calm amid the chaos of the day.” Shocking!

— Mysteeerious doings up on Longboat Key: “Longboat’s 7-Eleven could vanish.”

— Parrish’s 2010 Dick Coles Memorial Fly-In attracts model airplane enthusiasts of all ages: The event “included a model bomber dropping a pound of candy in the middle of the airfield, prompting the youngsters who were present Sunday to make a mad dash.”

— Details about the Sarasota Film Festival are on the verge of being announced. We’ll be tweeting and updating our Facebook page live from the SFF press preview event this evening, so hit up those accounts between say 5:30 and 8 for the absolute latest. The Herald-Tribune landed a tease already, though: Steve Buscemi will return, and will lead a stage reading of a script based on a William S. Burroughs novel.

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Big Blu House: “Music Mistress”

(Big Blu House: “Music Mistress”)

Since forming early last year, Big Blu House has developed a reputation for putting on Sarasota’s must-see live hip-hop show, teaming up with a diverse coalition of local indie rockers and solo artists. On stages all over the Suncoast, the four-piece — comprised of “Big” Leon, J-Blu, Jeph “House” and David “Double D” — delivers P.A.-rattling jams that get asses moving, but also put your brain to work, the latter thanks to MC J-Blu’s crafty wordplay. If you’ve caught them live, you know they’re a powerful force — so strong they were selected to close out last month’s epic Noise Ordinance CD release party.

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Like Richard Baratta from earlier this week, Carol Cuddy came to Sarasota as part of an event organized by Sarasota Film Commissioner Jeanne Corcoran to show big league producers all that Sarasota has to offer.

Carol has a big movie opening today — Remember Me, starring Rob Pattinson from Twilight. So without further ado, here we go!

THE INSIDER: Tell us about your trip to Sarasota!

CAROL CUDDY: That trip was very special. I would love to return to Sarasota and make a movie! What a great place. I think that if any one of us (who was part of that event) reads or hears of anything that is the least tiniest bit right for Sarasota, we’d be down there in a second!

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First, I encourage you to watch a recent SNN news report, Ringling Sound Stage, to catch up with the debate over the future of the Sarasota Municipal Auditorium.

Second, read my email to the Sarasota City Commissioners:

3/11/09

Dear City Commissioners,

Hello, my name is Adrien Lucas and I have held an annual indie craft show called Atomic Holiday Bazaar for the past four years at the Municipal Auditorium. I am asking you to please consider withholding your support regarding changing the auditorium into a sound stage for the Ringling College of Art and Design.

I am appalled that Ringling’s President, Larry Thompson, has the gall to offer the city $1 to lease the building for 99 years. The auditorium was not in the red in 2009 and was fully booked by people like me who actually do feel privileged to run their shows at this historical facility.

Mr. Thompson suggests that by changing this facility into a sound stage that jobs will be created for our community, perhaps. However, his presentation to the city appears to be rooted in “fear-based” rhetoric, and his proposal feels more like carpet bagging. How many people do you know in Sarasota who work in the film industry, who are out of work and have been pining away for a sound stage to come in and save the day? He already has obtained the old high school, a huge facility with a gymnasium that could be built into a sound stage as easily as the auditorium.

The auditorium is one of Sarasota’s rare architectural gems that has not been torn down, is easily accessible to the public and of historical significance to the city. That door shuts for the public once it is turned over to Ringling.

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First up, let me say that I am really looking forward to next week. Why? Because then I will be able to tell you all about the amazing films and events making up SFF 2010!

In the meantime, here’s a little something on an interesting trend in upcoming films this year. Please note, this is not a blog entry about SFF 2010 movies. This is just something to chat about regarding films in general. Here we go!

Hollywood can never have just one of anything. Asteroid movies, outbreak movies, 3D movies… It’s all about trends. This year we have a bunch of movies in the vein of Gladiator, 300, Troy and so on. More than I can remember ever seeing announced in one year. The flicks that usually make money in this genre have gory action scenes for the guys, and ripped shirtless dudes for their dates. Let’s check this year’s crop!

ROBIN HOOD: Ridley Scott’s at it again, this time pairing with his Gladiator star Russell Crowe. How’s it look? We get what might be some bloody beach action à la Troy, we get an arrow-cam trick a lot like King Arthur and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves used, hmmm on that, and we get Cate Blanchett (Elizabeth: The Queen) firing flaming arrows and riding into battle in full armor. And kissing Crowe. The trailers feel like they’re trying to have it every which way, but their Super Bowl spot highlights action-action-action. It’ll be interesting to see how it does. The release date is May 14.
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If you have never seen Adrienne Shelly’s absolutely lovely final film, Waitress, then you are in for a wonderful and bittersweet treat. The film is wonderful; the fate of this rising star of a filmmaker is heartbreaking and bitter. (She was tragically slain by an illegal immigrant she found stealing from her purse in her house.)

Shelly made a magical film about a waitress trapped in an abusive marriage who gets unexpected news and decides to pour all her hopes, dreams, fury and desire into the pies she makes. Not quite the magical realism allegory Like Water for Chocolate, this is instead a slice of pure small town heaven with wise and witty performances from Keri Russell, Nathan Fillion and even Andy Griffith! Watch this trailer and celebrate the life and work of a director who was with us long enough to leave a sumptuous meal for lovers of film to devour:

You can qualify to win a free rental of this movie from our friends at Video Renaissance on Bee Ridge Road in Sarasota by answering this crazy-easy trivia question: In what action film directed by J.J. Abrams (Star Trek) did Keri Russell share the screen with Tom Cruise?

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KHALIL MUHAMMED AS FORTUNE: One of Ruined’s splendid performances

Ruined
4.5 stars
Runs through April 3. 8 p.m. Tues.-Sun., 2 p.m. Sat., 3 p.m. Sun. Florida Studio Theatre, Sarasota, 366-9000 or floridastudiotheatre.org, $19-$32.

Lynn Nottage’s Ruined, winner of the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, is that rare thing among American plays, an intelligent and passionate examination of personal and political life in a foreign country, in this case the war-torn Democratic Republic of the Congo. The many characters Nottage puts on the stage, from bar- and brothel-keeper Mama Nadi to prostitute Josephine to army commander Osembenga, are motivated not by the usual family troubles or search for authenticity but by brutal civil war, rampant misogyny, desperation to survive and terrible memories of horrific violence. In the brilliantly acted and directed production currently playing at Sarasota’s Florida Studio Theatre, Nottage’s vision of a nation in extremis is rendered with an astonishing and sometimes frightening verisimilitude.

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Click here to download your free PDF of Merl Reagle’s latest Puzzler, “‘Idle’ Thoughts”

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Cliff Roles interviews Graeme Edge of the Moody Blues

From our boy Cliff Roles:

I enjoyed a lovely interview with Graeme Edge, drummer of the legendary “Moody Blues”. The band is playing a concert on Thursday, March 11 at Sarasota’s Van Wezel PAC. Tickets at the Box Office: tel. no. is 953-3368 or go to vanwezel.org.

“The Moody Blues are still the Sistine Chapel of popular music.” – Rolling Stone

In an endless sea of rock and pop formats, The Moody Blues have distinguished themselves through four decades as that shimmering jewel vindicating rock music as a substantial artistic contribution to Western culture. Since the 60’s, as a part of the historic original British invasion of Supergroups, The Moody Blues have lit up the hearts and minds of millions of rock fans with inspiring anthems like “Nights in White Satin,” “Tuesday Afternoon” and “I’m Just A Singer (In A Rock And Roll Band),” that express universal themes of love, compassion and peace. The band’s unique style of music consistently finds airplay on radio stations globally and continues to illuminate concert arenas around the world. From being immortalized on The Simpsons to having their music featured in movies, television and in such national advertisement campaigns as this year’s TV ad for VISA featuring “Tuesday Afternoon,” The Moody Blues are embedded in not only music history but in pop culture.

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