Posts tagged Xavier Laurent
“The Monuments of Men” Hitler’s Museum
Feb 12th
“Hitler’s Museum”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
THE MONUMENTS MEN is based on the men of the Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives section of the United States Army during World War II, as depicted in a fine new movie by George Clooney.
Based on the 2009 book by Robert Edsel, the men with special knowledge about art were recruited by the Army and charged with finding and retrieving works of fine art that had been looted and stolen by the Germany Army and to try to return the pieces to their rightful owners.
Clooney plays Frank Stokes, tasked with assembling the experienced men, and in 1944 we see him meeting James Granger, an art restorer and museum director played by Matt Damon, and asking him, “You want to get in the war?”
Also on the team are Bill Murray as an architect, John Goodman as a sculptor, Bob Balaban as a curator, Jean Dujardin as a Frenchman, and Hugh Bonneville as an Englishman, all with interesting back stories.
So, the men all go through rudimentary basic training, because they will be close to the front lines and in the midst of the fighting, even as the war is winding down.
They are told that they are fighting for their culture and their way of life, and they learn that Hitler has ordered that all the stolen art is to be destroyed by the Nazis if he dies or if Germany loses the war.
A running joke has Granger believing that his ability to speak French is much better than it really is, and he is sent to Paris, where he meets Claire Simone, played by Cate Blanchett, a Frenchwoman who was forced to help the Nazis catalogue all the pieces of art that they had stolen in and around Paris.
The team has enough trouble on their hands with fighting the Germans and discovering where they have hidden much of the artwork, but now the Russian Army is moving in from the east, and the Russians want to take whatever art they can find as reparation for all the losses that they have suffered at the hands of the Nazis.
The story has both comic elements and tragic elements as the team tries to retrieve the artwork that Hitler wanted in order to supply his own personal museum.
THE MONUMENTS MEN resonates to this day.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
The Monuments of Men – Movie Trailer
Feb 6th
Based on the true story of the greatest treasure hunt in history, The Monuments Men is an action drama focusing on an unlikely World War II platoon, tasked by FDR with going into Germany to rescue artistic masterpieces from Nazi thieves and returning them to their rightful owners. It would be an impossible mission: with the art trapped behind enemy lines, and with the German army under orders to destroy everything as the Reich fell, how could these guys – seven museum directors, curators, and art historians, all more familiar with Michelangelo than the M-1 – possibly hope to succeed? But as the Monuments Men, as they were called, found themselves in a race against time to avoid the destruction of 1000 years of culture, they would risk their lives to protect and defend mankind’s greatest achievements. From director George Clooney, the film stars George Clooney, Matt Damon, Bill Murray, John Goodman, Jean Dujardin, Bob Balaban, Hugh Bonneville, and Cate Blanchett. The screenplay is by George Clooney & Grant Heslov, based on the book by Robert M. Edsel with Bret Witter. Produced by Grant Heslov and George Clooney.
“Rush” about Two Beautiful Drivers
Oct 6th
“Two Beautiful Drivers”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
Rush is the latest film from Ron Howard, maker of many successful films, and it is about the 1976 Formula 1 championship race, which was notable because of the closeness of the race and the rivalry between the two competing drivers on different teams, James Hunt and Niki Lauda.
The races lasted all year long, and the championship that year came down to the final race held in Japan.
However, that year the intense race for the championship was unique in what happened in August to Lauda, the 1975 world champion.
Chris Hemsworth plays Hunt, the flamboyant playboy driver from England, and Daniel Bruhl plays Lauda, the methodical brilliant technician from Austria, who was a genius at setting up his car for a race.
The two drivers met in 1970 when they were both driving Formula 3 races, and Hunt tells his current girlfriend, “The closer you are to death, the more alive you feel.”
However, they both want to move up and drive the more prestigious, more glamorous, and more dangerous Formula 1 race cars, and because of his family background, Lauda gets a ride first with the successful Ferrari team.
Then Hunt quickly follows by signing with the McLaren team, and the race to the top of their sport is on.
Then the movie starts following each race in 1976, and with beautiful cinematography and excellent camera work we get a terrific feel for how tight, how dangerous, and how exciting Formula 1 racing is.
In the meantime, we meet the love interests of the two drivers, Suzy, played by Olivia Wilde, whom Hunt beds and weds, and Marlene, who eventually becomes Lauda’s wife.
Incidentally, there is a hitchhiking scene with Lauda and Marlene that is reminiscent of the hitchhiking scene in the 1934 It Happened One Night, but with a much funnier ending.
Hunt begins to have trouble at home as well as on the racetracks, and Lauda is affected by marriage, because he believes that “happiness is the enemy” and now he has something to lose, which is a distraction while he is racing.
And then comes the race in August in Germany which changes everything for both drivers.
By the way, you don’t have to be a racing fan to enjoy this tremendous film.
Rush is about not one, but two beautiful drivers.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
