Once Upon a Time... in Rome

Interesting link.

This post and the one by LaraQ on Travolta's new POS are the two most illustrative differences on what movies mean now (not much for 25 years or so) and once meant (nearly everything for 50 years or so). There is no "now" equivalency and hasn't been for ages.

When actors talk about their own "brand" - a vile, disgusting, and corporate - (literally corporate) designation that reduces their artistry to a mere product - they are sadly pretending that movies matter now the way they once did. They most certainly do not - not in Oscars, or stardom, and especially not in individuals lives who watch movies. If you want to know why actor _____________ will never be looked upon like actor ___________ this is the first question to look at. When Benecio Del Toro compared himself to Bogart he's kidding himself.

What those "Italy" movies did and those actor choices did was force another page in the narrative of cinema but it's a page that no longer has any equivalent since the peak of DVD and seismic industry shifts in the early 90s - in fact if anything had that equivalency for Italy then it was in something far darker - ie legitimate actors doing illegitimate work - ie Cameron Mitchell a legit "known" actor appearing in hardcore pornography (though in a non-pornographic parts).

That happened - we never talk about it - but the fact that it happened and could be shrouded under a general umbrella of "trash similarity" to Italy genre films well it's fascinating and dead now - as the great band Squeeze once put it in a song - rather profoundly "Same words, different meaning......same heart........different feeling"