Join us every week for a trip into the weird and wonderful world of trailers. Whether it’s the first teaser for the latest instalment in your favourite franchise, an obscure preview for a strange indie darling, whether it’s good, bad, ugly or just plain weird – your favourite pop culture baristas are there to tell you what they think.
What better way to start the end-of-the-week post than with that most loveable of odd couples, Werner Herzog and Klaus Kinski? Definitely the guys you want to have with you if you need to build an opera house in the Amazon. Make sure not to miss Alan’s Six Damn Fine Degrees post on Fitzcarraldo!
Another of the week’s posts about an unmissable film is Matt’s latest in his series on Federico Fellini. If you haven’t seen it already, do put Nights of Cabiria on your list!
And what else is there on offer in trailer land?
Mege: Why? Why? Why does Jonathan Glazer‘s Sexy Beast need a prequel? Characters, when they are well-written, spring to life within minutes. And Jonathan Glazer may have a limited output, but has not yet made even a mediocre movie. So why did they think a series with second-tier actors would be the way to go? What does the series have to add to the story or to the atmosphere?
Sam: My anticipation of Ripley has sharply increased since talking to Matt just recently about all Tom Ripley film adaptations, from Plein Soleil to Ripley’s Game, and now this teaser trailer dropping: Andrew Scott is taking over Patricia Highsmith’a famous character in this belated miniseries, now to be released on Netflix, with Johnny Flynn playing first victim Dickie Greenleaf and Dakota Fanning starring as Marge Sherwood, the woman who becomes increasingly suspicious of Tom’s doings. Director Steven Zaillian (screenwriter of Moneyball and The Irishman) present a starkly black-and-white vision of Ripley scheming, imitating and sleuthing in the dark corners and alleys of Venice, Rome and Naples, only to make the Italian sun-kissed shores look all the more blinding and delirious. How far will Ripley’s tale go? Hopefully far beyond the first novel and to his later cold professionalism between France, West Germany and England — Andrew Scott would certainly be perfect casting then!
Matt: Whether backward or forward, I bounced right off of Tenet when it came out. Is this perhaps the time to give it a second chance? (I hear we do these regularly here at A Damn Fine Cup of Culture.) I know that regular guest and damn fine friend of the site, Dan Thron (of Martini Giant) didn’t like it all that much at first and now loves it – and there are definitely worse recommendations for a film than that.
A Damn Fine Cup of Culture 