Joseph L. Mankiewicz: The Essential Iconoclast at the New York Film Festival

Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in Cleopatra.

Starting today, the New York Film Festival honors director Joseph L. Mankiewicz with a retrospective of 21 of his movies, including his strychnine-laced love letter to the theater, All About Eve.

"I wanted to do something from Hollywood that was very important to me," says Festival Director and Selection Committee Chair Kent Jones.  "But we need these retrospectives in general, they help you see new films in a different light.  Last year we did Jean-Luc Godard, and in a weird way Mankiewicz sort of talks to that series because Godard really loved his work."

The revivals are important on another level because they are the only opportunity in the Festival to see film projected.  The print for People Will Talk was struck from the original negative.  The Barefoot Contessa (screening October 6) was restored by The Film Foundation, and the Festival is showing a release print of Sleuth (October 6).

Known today primarily for Eve and for Cleopatra (October 13), a big-budget blockbuster that almost ruined Twentieth Century-Fox, at the height of his career Mankiewicz was one of the most honored artists in Hollywood.  But what many film fans don't realize is that his career stretches back to the silent era.

Mankiewicz was the younger brother of Herman J. Mankiewicz, who shared a writing Oscar for Citizen Kane.  In the late 1920s, on the cusp of the transition to sound, the elder Mankiewicz got his brother a job writing titles for the silent versions of films like The Virginian and The Man I Love. 

Mankiewicz graduated to writing screenplays at Paramount, tackling Westerns, Broadway adaptions, musicals, sports films, and comedies.  He moved from screenwriting to producing at MGM, taking charge of Joan Crawford's career and handling prestige projects like The Philadelphia Story and Woman of the Year.

Like his brother, he adopted a cynical attitude toward the industry, calling himself "the oldest whore on the beat."  But his work writing and producing gave him a grounding in every genre and format, as well as experience dealing with creative egos.

Mankiewicz's first film as a director was 1946's Dragonwyck (October 6), a Gothic mystery set in upstate New York during the Colonial era.  Originally planned for an ailing Ernst Lubitsch, the movie resembles a period film noir, a genre Mankiewicz would explore again in Somewhere in the Night (October 2).

"I am essentially a writer who directs," Mankiewicz wrote in a 1967 Life article.  It took time for his directorial style to emerge, but with two adaptations of novels—The Late George Apley (October 6) and The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (October 3)—Mankiewicz began to find visual equivalents for his sparkling, nuanced dialogue, like a 360-degree pan around a dinner table in Apley. 

Mankiewicz's three best films came during an astonishing burst of creativity, starting with A Letter to Three Wives (October 7 and 10) in 1949.  Ostensibly a romantic whodunit, Three Wives is a dauntingly witty survey of upper-class life, shown in three troubled marriages.  The film debuts for Thelma Ritter and Paul Douglas, the movie also includes excellent performances from Linda Darnell, Ann Sothern, and Kirk Douglas.  Mankiewicz won Oscars for Directing and Screenwriting.

All About Eve (October 1 and 2) arrived in 1950, again winning Mankiewicz Directing and Screenwriting Oscars.  Its quips and insults have become part of our culture, but as Jones points out, the movie itself bears repeated viewings.  "Like all great movies, you think you know it, but when you revisit it you see something that you haven't seen before," he says.

Cary Grant and Jeanne Crain in People Will Talk.

Released in 1951, People Will Talk (October 2) may be Mankiewicz's most personal film.  Based on a Curt Goetz play, it stars Cary Grant as a doctor and university professor whose unorthodox methods bring him before a disciplinary board.  It's a movie that is bursting with brilliant talk, idiosyncratic characters, and unexpected plot twists.  Mankiewicz offers spirited debates about abortion, euthanasia, model railroad trains, and choral music, all within a moving and romantic mainstream comedy.

Critics accused Mankiewicz of elitism, and his subsequent films could seem sour and impatient.  He called The Quiet American (October 8) "the very bad film I made during a very unhappy time in my life," even though Jean-Luc Godard named it the best picture of 1958.  (Graham Greene complained that Mankiewicz changed his novel's ending, writing that the resulting film was "laughable.")  The director also judged his Guys and Dolls (October 5), his second collaboration with Marlon Brando, a failure.

Even Mankiewicz's weaker movies are worth seeing, like Escape (October 14), a thriller starring Rex Harrison that Jones said was the most difficult print to track down. 

Jones also praised the archivists and Twentieth Century-Fox, especially Jim Gianopulos, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Fox Filmed Entertainment, who waived print fees for the series.  "They really made the retrospective possible," he said.

‘The Equalizer’ testifies to the power of Denzel

The latest successful bow for a Denzel Washington feature proved, once again, the actor is one of Hollywood’s most bankable stars. The Equalizer raked in $35 million this weekend, enjoying the fourth strongest opening ever for the month of September, behind Hotel Transylvania, Insidious Chapter 2 and Sweet Home Alabama. Washington’s faithful fans, 65 percent of whom were over the age of 30, were pleased with this latest offering from the popular, dependably entertaining action star: They awarded the film an A- CinemaScore grade. Their positive word-of-mouth should help buoy the film to a tally north of $100 million or so.

It was a close race for second place, but ultimately, The Maze Runner finished victorious. This most recent YA adaptation earned $17.5 million, bumping its 10-day total to a very nice $58 million. The film dipped 46 percent from last weekend, a hold that was nonetheless stronger than that which Divergent managed over the same period: Divergent dropped 53 percent its second weekend in theatres. Like The Equalizer, The Maze Runner should end its theatrical run with roughly $100 million to its name.

In third place, The Boxtrolls grossed $17.25 million. Although reviews for the animated kids’ film were not as positive as those for past Laika Animation offerings Coraline and ParaNorman, The Boxtrolls nonetheless opened the strongest of the three titles. (ParaNorman bowed to $14.1 million, while Coraline grossed $16.8 million over its opening weekend.) The Boxtrolls also enjoyed the strongest opening for a stop-motion animated movie since Tim Burton’s 2005 The Corpse Bride. Audiences were more or less pleased with the film, awarding it a B+ CinemaScore grade. Look for The Boxtrolls to total out to roughly $60 million.

Holdovers This Is Where I Leave You and Dolphin Tale 2 claimed the fourth and fifth-place slots, respectively. The film with a great cast but less than compelling plotline, Leave You, added an additional $7 million to a total that now stands at $22.6 million. Dolphin Tale 2’s current cume is $33.7 million, $4.8 million of which it earned this weekend.

‘The Equalizer’ likely to win by wide margin

Remarkably, each one of the 11 Denzel Washington films exhibited as a major release (bowing in over 1,800 theatres) over the past decade opened to $20 million or more. The popular star is one of Hollywood’s biggest draws, and there’s little evidence to suggest his latest, The Equalizer, will fall short of past successes.

The vigilante thriller co-starring Chloe Grace Moretz bows in 3,234 locations beginning today.  It’s squarely in the vein of previous Washington vehicles The Book of Eli and Man on Fire. More importantly, it sees the actor re-teaming with director Antoine Fuqua. The last time the two worked together, on 2001’s Training Day, Washington walked away with an Academy Award. Marketing surrounding the film has been strong and targeted; there’s been a push to reach fans of Eminem, for instance, as the rapper’s “Guts over Fear” plays during the film’s end credits. Fandango has the actioner out-selling Washington’s Safe House (which bowed to a little over $40 million) and Fuqua’s Olympus Has Fallen ($30.4 million). The Equalizer could well gross $30 million or more this weekend.

That leaves animated family offering The Boxtrolls and last week’s box-office champion, The Maze Runner, to duke it out for second place. The Boxtrolls is the latest release from Laika Animation, the studio behind the well-received Coraline and ParaNorman. Boxtrolls has been receiving mostly positive reviews (it’s 70 percent fresh on Rotten Tomatoes), although it hasn’t been as warmly embraced as Coraline (90 percent fresh) and ParaNorman (87 percent fresh). It has been the subject of a strong marketing campaign; however, it remains to be seen whether audiences will respond favorably to the American Laika’s take on a British sensibility (the movie is set in Victorian England) and material, for all that the titular trolls look rather gruesome, that seems to be lighter than benchmarks Coraline and ParaNorman. Still, The Boxtrolls should match ParaNorman’s $14.1 million opening.

Assuming a drop of roughly 50 percent or so, The Maze Runner should also rake in returns in the mid-teens.

This weekend also sees the release of another faith-based film, The Song. Like The Identical, and as its title would suggest, the flick has a musical bent, focusing on a musician who finds redemption from his sinner ways via his faith in God. Hopefully, the film opens stronger than Identical, which grossed only $1.59 million from 2,000 theatres.

Finally, specialty British film Pride bows in six locations. Critics love the historical dramedy about gay-rights and labor activists working together in Thatcher-era England (it’s 92 percent fresh), a positive reception that should translate to solid art-house returns.

Revivals and Special Events at the 52nd New York Film Festival

Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in America

Opening September 26, the 52nd edition of the New York Film Festival features its usual full slate of must-see titles.  But true movie fans will be just as excited by the revivals being screened at the Festival.  They run the gamut from a 30th anniversary celebration of This Is Spinal Tap to Oidhche Sheanchais, the first Irish talking film, and one thought to be lost for decades.

For New York Film Festival Director and Selection Committee Chair Kent Jones, the revivals are an opportunity to revisit familiar movies in new contexts.  "It's important to fit these retrospectives into the Festival," he said.  "The series allow you to look at new films in light of older films and older films in light of newer films."

The narrative strategies in Hiroshima Mon Amour (screening October 10) are just as startling today as when the movie was released in 1959.  But it has not been shown in theaters for almost twenty years.  The NYFF is screening a new 4K restoration from the Cineteca di Bologna, overseen by director Alain Resnais' longtime cinematographer Renato Berta.  (Resnais passed away in March at the age of 91.)

Director Sergio Leone meant Once Upon a Time in America (September 27) to be an homage to crime films, but his vision never reached theaters in the US intact.  Studio executives cut the movie from four hours to two, rearranging the plot and eliminating entire passages.  Material was added back in over the years, but the version screening at the NYFF includes material never seen here before.

"For years people talked about material that was missing," Jones said.  "It got to the point where we were starting to think that Louise Fletcher's scenes were lost, but it turns out that they still exist."
 
Jones also pointed out The Tales of Hoffmann (October 3), a 1951 movie directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger.  "This was a restoration done with great love and care over a long period of time," he said.

From The King and the Mockingbird. Courtesy Rialto Pictures.

Bruce Goldstein, the founder of Rialto Pictures, is especially excited about The King and the Mockingbird (October 5), an animated film that was "thirty years in the making."  Directed by Paul Grimault and written by Grimault and Jacques Prévert from a Hans Christian Andersen story, the movie was originally released in 1953. 

But Grimault was unhappy with that version, and after obtaining the rights in 1967, spent another 12 years working back to the way he thought the movie should look.  Rialto's new translation and subtitles will give viewers a better sense of the film's satire and whimsy.

Two films by Robert Flaherty also deserve attention.  Released in 1926, Moana (September 30) is an extraordinary and intimate look at life on Samoa, at the time one of the more isolated islands in the South Pacific.  Along with his wife and children, Flaherty spent more than a year on Samoa, capturing images of indelible beauty.

Almost forty years later, Monica Flaherty returned to Samoa to add a soundtrack to her father's work.  She recorded the sounds of leaves rustling, waves lapping, of birds and wildlife.  She also had Samoans repeat lines of dialogue to match up with the actors on screen.

Archivist Bruce Posner worked from 35mm elements to restore Moana, syncing Monica Flaherty's soundtrack as well as ensuring the best possible quality for Robert Flaherty's cinematography.  Critic John Grierson coined the term "documentary" when reviewing Moana, but the movie is more than just an ethnographic record.  Flaherty was a singular artist, and Moana may be the best expression of his vision.

Flaherty traveled to Ireland in the early 1930s to make Man of Aran, a study of life on the beautiful but bleak islands in the Galway Bay.  During post-production for the movie he made Oidhche Sheanchais, or A Night of Storytelling, the first sound film in the Irish language.

Title frame from Oidhche Sheanchais. Harvard Film Archive.

It was commissioned by the Irish Free State to commemorate and preserve a vanishing cultural heritage.  The film was distributed to Irish theaters, but a fire in 1943 destroyed the only known copies. However, the Harvard College Library had purchased a copy in 1935, and this nitrate print resurfaced in 2012 during a cataloging update at the school's Houghton Library.

The short will be shown with Moana on September 30.

As Jones points out, this is not the only recent rediscovery.  Upstream, a 1927 backstage drama directed by John Ford, was found in a New Zealand archive after being thought lost.  Who knows how many other "lost" films are waiting to be discovered in libraries and archives?

‘The Maze Runner’ finishes first

It doesn’t look as if Hollywood will forgo churning out young adult adaptations anytime soon. The latest hit to enter the ranks of adolescent-targeted features is The Maze Runner, which opened stronger than expected. The flick raked in $32.5 million from 3,604 locations, earning back nearly the entirety of its $34 million budget over a single weekend. Twentieth Century Fox is certainly pleased with the film’s performance: The studio has already greenlit a sequel, The Maze Runner: Scorch Trials, which is slated for a September 18, 2015 release.

Thanks to its male protagonist and a marketing campaign that focused on Runner’s action sequences, the movie skewed more male (49 percent) than previous YA adaptations. The guys and their female counterparts awarded The Maze Runner a CinemaScore grade of an A-, which bodes well for the rest of the film’s time in theatres. If Runner’s hold does prove relatively secure, it could wind up with a total several million shy of $100 million.

As expected, A Walk Among the Tombstones took second place, although its second-string haul was less than predicted. The latest Liam Neeson crime vehicle grossed $13.1 million, or more than 50 percent less than the actor’s recent Non-Stop. The mostly older crowd (77 percent over 25) that did turn out for the film left feeling lukewarm – audiences awarded the movie a CinemaScore grade of a B-. With upcoming, stiff competition from The Equalizer starring Denzel Washington, Tombstones is poised to fade rather quickly. In total, it may wind up grossing around $40 million.

This Is Where I Leave You also failed to meet already modest expectations. The dramedy with a marquee cast only did $11.9 million worth of business for a third-place standing. The film, unsurprisingly, skewed older (86 percent over 25) and female (63 percent). Viewers deemed the feature worthy of a B+. Look for Leave You to tally out to a total in the $30 to $40 million range.

Fourth and fifth place went to last weekend’s No. 1 and No. 2, respectively. No Good Deed dropped 58 percent to earn $10.2 million, while Dolphin Tale 2 took a dip of 43 percent to rake in $9 million for the weekend.

‘The Maze Runner’ guns for first place

This weekend, we may finally see a break in the fog of doom-and-gloom surrounding the domestic box office these past several months. With The Maze Runner, A Walk Among the Tombstones and This is Where I Leave You, the industry should enjoy a return to healthier tallies.

Bowing at 3,604 locations, The Maze Runner is poised to claim the No. 1 spot. Yet another film based on a popular young-adult book series, the latest from 20th Century Fox is looking, like so many of its YA-adaptation predecessors, to follow in the footsteps of megahits The Hunger Games and Divergent. On the one hand, it does have the all-important built-in fan-base, those who are avid readers of the books. On the other, the recent spate of YA movies – and dystopian YA films at that – will likely make it that much more difficult for The Maze Runner to appeal to viewers unfamiliar with the novels, combating as it must a pervasive sense of genre fatigue. (Just look at the ill-fated and timed The Giver.) While it’s unlikely to match the high bows of Games and Divergent, The Maze Runner may nonetheless open in the mid-to-high $20 millions.

A Walk Among the Tombstones should clock in at No. 2, while This is Where I Leave You will likely take third place. Liam Neeson has built a successful action-star brand around himself, with such films as Taken, The Grey, and the recent Non-Stop. Tombstones seems a bit more dour than these titles, but the prospect of watching Neeson in take-charge and take-names-later mode should still lure a substantial crowd into theatres. Universal thinks their film has enough appeal to warrant a bow in the mid-to-high-teens.

This is Where I Leave You has an extraordinarily appealing cast, including Tina Fey, Jason Bateman, and the buzzy Adam Driver. Unfortunately, the film has received poor reviews, and its dramedy premise, that of estranged siblings returning to the family homestead for their father’s funeral, doesn’t seem all that novel or interesting. In all likelihood, Leave You will enjoy a solid opening, thanks to interest in its cast, but then fall rather quickly in the weeks ahead. Look for an opening in the low-to-mid-teens.

‘No Good Deed’ does solid business

Thriller No Good Deed clocked in at No. 1 this weekend, raking in $24.5 million from 2,175 locations. Its opening-weekend figure was a bit larger than expected; many pundits had pegged the film for a bow in the mid to high-teens. Chalk Deed’s neat success up to stars Taraji P. Henson and, most especially, Idris Elba. Sixty percent of the film’s viewers were female, and 59 percent were over the age of 30 – in other words, “The Wire” and Mandela actor’s target fan base. Interestingly (perhaps depressingly), No Good Deed is the first film to open over $20 million since Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles bowed to a much stronger $65 million a month ago.

In second place, Dolphin Tale 2 earned an O.K. $16.5 million. Though its opening-weekend gross was down 14 percent from that of its predecessor, unlike the first Dolphin Tale, D2 didn’t have 3D ticket sales to help boost returns. Taking this into account, the film’s debut haul is roughly on par with 2011’s Dolphin Tale. Audiences enjoyed their second outing with Winter the dolphin, awarding the movie an A CinemaScore grade. Lacking little family-friendly competition, Dolphin Tale 2 should hold well enough to tally out to $50 or $55 million by the end of its theatrical run.

Third, fourth and fifth places were each occupied by a familiar holdover: Guardians of the Galaxy, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Let’s Be Cops, respectively. Galaxy officially crossed the $300 million mark on Saturday, the first film to do so since Frozen skated past the benchmark in January. The Marvel flick grossed a little over $8 million this weekend, while the Turtles raked in a little under $5 million and the Cops a little north of $4 million.

Specialty film The Drop rounded out the top 5 with a $4.2 million haul. That’s a strong beginning for the limited release set to expand this coming weekend, to roughly 1,000 theatres.

Finally, The Skeleton Twins, starring fan favorites Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader, impressed with a $411,000 tally from 15 locations. The film’s $27,400 per-theatre average bodes well for its nationwide release September 26.