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A-List: Keira Knightley and GimmicksBy Jason DeanJuly 24, 2003
I've just met a girl named Keira,
Say it loud and there's music playing, (Sincere apologies to Stephen Sondheim and any West Side Story fans) Perhaps the above is going just a bit too far, but since the release of Pirates of the Caribbean, Keira Knightly has definitely been the subject of many discussions. One of the interesting things I’ve noted is that there seem to be quite a number of comparisons being made as to who she resembles. Even more notably, they don’t always jibe with each other even if they might have validity taken on their own. I’ll start with what I feel are the most obvious comparisons. George Lucas saw Knightley’s resemblance to Natalie Portman well before American movie goers were even aware of her when he cast her as the double for Queen Amidala in Episode I. She also has a lot of commonalities with Winona Ryder in facial appearance, particularly around the eyes. She could also be a younger, prettier Liz Hurley, with the comparison even stretching as far as the way the two actresses speak and carry themselves. The whole being English as opposed to yet another American thing-in-common-theme. One of the Box Office Prophets has noted that Knightley looks just like Morgan Webb, pre-breast augmentation. For those wondering, “looks like who?”, Webb does X-Play, a video game show on TechTV. Of course, the same person also threw in the crack that he thought she looked like David Bowie in her role in Bend It Like Beckham. Finally, there was the mention that she looked liked Jennifer Garner, which I had trouble buying until I saw a review that used the comparison of Winona Ryder’s face on Jennifer Garner’s body. Ok, now for this week’s real column, since the above is really just a showy but ultimately hollow stunt. Since this week brings us the release of Spy Kids 3: Game Over, a movie that has 3D segments, this week’s topic is movie gimmicks.
Fantasia and FantasoundActually a device of substance, Fantasound was the first multi-track soundtrack with the sound being recorded on a separate 35 mm piece of film as three optical soundtracks and a fourth track that was used to control the overall sound. This was fed to a huge set of special amplifiers and crossovers that fed several speakers situated around the audience and the more traditional behind-the-screen positions. The incredible expense and difficulty in setting up the equipment for a single movie meant that Fantasound was only seen at a few select auditoriums around the country, which definitely earns it a place on this list.
Clue and Multiple EndingsMultiple endings are truly a gimmick, and a profit driven one at that (like all good movie gimmicks are). Clue was released across the country with three different endings (A,B,C). Most locations were willing to divulge which ending they had and I’m sure it was Paramount’s intention that people would seek out the different endings and see the movie multiple times. Given the $14.6 million total gross, it would seem that Paramount was lucky to get people into the theater the first time. Personally, this is one of my favorite movies to watch if I happen across it while channel surfing. The multiple endings may not have attracted multiple ticket buyers, but they are quite fun to watch in a back-to-back-to-back way due to the frenetic pace of the solving of the mystery. Actually, this gimmick has a current tie-in as an additional ending has been sent out to be appended to the 28 Days Later prints that are in theaters. The alternate ending plays after the credits and is supposed to be a grimmer ending that is truer to director Danny Boyle’s original intentions.
Polyester and OdoramaIf you haven’t seen John Waters’ Polyester, there’s really no way justifiable way to explain it. Starring the completely unique Divine, this film took jabs at society while managing to not quite go to the bad taste extremes of some of his other work. It also featured scratch-and-sniff cards that the audience was prompted to use by color dot cues displayed on the screen.
3-DOne of the original theatrical gimmicks designed to combat TV from making inroads on cinema, by using special camera rigs that used two lenses set at approximately the distance that our eyes are separated, it was possible to capture two slightly off set images of the action. When these images were displayed in a fashion so that each eye could only see the appropriate image, an illusion of depth was created, since our brains perceive depth by taking into the slightly different views that each eye sees. Try covering one eye and see how much flatter the world looks. The effect has been used for sheer gimmick value in movies with no redeeming value as well enhancing films that hold up quite well even when viewed in just 2-D.
William CastleNot a film, not a gimmick, but instead a man, William Castle is perhaps the greatest showman that Hollywood has ever known. Castle embraced the idea that it wasn’t necessarily the movie, but was instead about the marketing of the product.Highlights (or lowlights?) of his promotions include:
Macabre
House on Haunted Hill
The Tingler
13 Ghosts
Mr. Sardonicus The movie Matinee starring John Goodman is a solidly entertaining film that honors William Castle and his marketing spirit. Looking into the mailbox, we find a couple of suggestions for last week’s Anti-Drug list. First, though, I’d like to observe that when I write a relatively straight up, informative column on music video directors, I hear nary a peep. On the other hand, I do a list on drugs or cars wrecking, and the comments start to flow. My type of crowd… Andrew offers: How, oh how, could you forget The Boost? 1988, James Woods, good lord, if you still look at white lines the same way after that, you are one stone crab... I’m guessing that being a stone crab refers to short memory or being unaffected or something like that. I didn’t forget The Boost, but rather, I didn’t see it. However, I have seen plenty of movies with Jimmy Woods being over-the-top, so I can imagine the final product. Zima wrote in: I would also add to the list Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction. Uma Thurman and the syringe to the heart kinda makes you NOT do drugs. People vs. Larry Flynt and Go also raise the issue somewhat. Plus, of course, the little-known Kazakh film Needle has to be one of the most effective anti-drug propagandas. Actually, I think I had the whole Uma sequence in mind when I was forming the idea for the list. However, it fell by the wayside due to the impact involving that single scene. That one scene is certainly impacting, though. I’d actually disagree on Go as I think it seems take to a teasing approach to drug use. (“Oh, so he’s the good drug dealer.”) Sure, it shows the problems with the sale and distribution and the legal consequences, but if the worst that’s gonna happen is that you end up spending the night behind trash cans in exchange for being fascinated by a scanner…it’s just not quite the same as one bucket for feces, one bucket for vomitous, in my book. I’ll have to take your word on Needle as again the audience proves more than up to task of referencing films I haven’t seen or as Zima correctly points out, didn’t even know about.
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