The Batman legend ends in “THE DARK KNIGHT RISES”

“Batman is the hero Gotham deserves...but not the one it needs right now.”

Those words, spoken by Commissioner Gordon at the end of 2008’s “The Dark Knight,” set in motion a fateful conspiracy that labeled Batman a murderer and Harvey Dent—who died, unbeknownst to the public, as the vengeful Two-Face—a crime-fighting crusader who paid the ultimate price. Predicated on that lie, Gotham City enacted tough new laws that put criminals behind bars or drove them beyond Gotham’s borders.

Now, Warner Bros. Pictures’ and Legendary Pictures brings to the screen “The Dark Knight Rises,” the epic conclusion to filmmaker Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy.

Christopher Nolan says, “Our story picks up eight years later, when it seems that Batman and Commissioner Gordon have succeeded—the Dark Knight is no longer needed in Gotham. In that regard, Bruce Wayne has won the battle, but he is traumatized by what happened and doesn’t know how to move on from being the figure of Batman. ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ very much deals with the consequences of his and other characters’ actions in the previous films.”

Leading an all-star international cast, Oscar® winner Christian Bale again plays the dual role of Bruce Wayne/Batman. Also starring are Anne Hathaway, as Selina Kyle; Tom Hardy, as Bane; Oscar® winner Marion Cotillard as Miranda Tate; and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, as John Blake.

Returning to the main cast, Oscar® winner Michael Caine plays Alfred; Gary Oldman is Commissioner Gordon; and Oscar® winner Morgan Freeman reprises the role of Lucius Fox.

With “The Dark Knight Rises,” Nolan completes the story arc he commenced with 2005’s “Batman Begins.” He recalls, “We were all very excited to bring this tale full circle; that was our chief inspiration for returning to Gotham. We also felt a tremendous sense of responsibility to fulfill expectations based on the first two movies while giving the audience something they hadn’t seen before. It was a tricky balance.”

The filmmakers and cast were also intent on maintaining a balance between heart-pounding action and intimate emotion. Producer Emma Thomas affirms, “Right from the start, Chris set out to make each of these films something that could not be categorized into any one genre. ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ has all of the excitement and fun that a big summer movie ought to have. The action is huge, but the story and characters are equally, if not more, important, because it’s hard to care about all the bells and whistles if there isn’t something to engage you in an emotional way.”

Producer Charles Roven adds, “We all want to be wowed, but we also want to be invested. Regardless of the scope, Chris has never lost his focus on the story and relationships, which goes back through all of his movies.”

The director also raised the bar for “The Dark Knight Rises” in expanding on his use of IMAX cameras. Nearly half of the movie was shot with the large-format cameras, utilizing ultra resolution 15 perf/65-millimeter film. Nolan states, “We got great results with the IMAX cameras on the last film. I appreciate what it offers from the technical side, but I’m most interested in what it can give me as a storytelling tool. How can it help me pull the audience deeper into this world? IMAX provides the broadest possible canvas, creating the most immersive experience.”

“The Dark Knight Rises” will be presented on 70-millimeter film in 102 IMAX 15/70mm locations worldwide. “Having shot almost half the picture with large-format IMAX film cameras, it is very important to me that we show ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ in the IMAX film format wherever possible,” Nolan shares. “Audiences everywhere should be assured that every presentation of the film will be of the highest standard—having benefited from the clarity and depth IMAX cameras offer. However, these 102 screens will showcase the original IMAX film photography in its optimum form, and I hope anyone who has an opportunity to experience the film in these theatres will seek it out.”

Nolan concludes, “When you look back on the Dark Knight films, you can see the world we’re living in reflected, but we don’t want to be specific about it. We just come at the stories from the point of view of what concerns us. What gives us fear? What gives us hope? What would require a hero of Batman’s stature to rise up in our world?”

Opening across the Philippines on July 19 in IMAX, 2D and regular theaters, “The Dark Knight Rises” is distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.

THE DARK KNIGHT RISES director CHRISTOPHER NOLAN, to be honored at Grauman's Chinese Theater

In celebration of the upcoming release of “The Dark Knight Rises,” the film’s director/writer/producer, Christopher Nolan, will be accorded a rare industry honor: Nolan will have his hand and footprints cemented into the famed forecourt of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.

The hand-and-footprint ceremony will take place on Saturday, July 7, at 10:00 a.m.

Jeff Robinov, President, Warner Bros. Pictures Group, stated, “Everyone at Warner Bros. joins me in congratulating Christopher Nolan, who has been such an integral part of our family for the past 12 years. We are extremely proud of the cinematic legacy he has given us through his films. At only 41, Christopher takes his place alongside other industry giants featured at Grauman’s, and generations of fans will remember the extraordinary impression he left on their imaginations.”

Opening in the Philippines July 19, 2012, “The Dark Knight Rises” is Nolan’s hugely anticipated conclusion to his Dark Knight trilogy, which began in 2005 with “Batman Begins.” In 2008, he followed with “The Dark Knight,” which broke multiple records on its way to earning more than a billion dollars at the worldwide box office.

Apart from the blockbuster franchise, Nolan earned widespread praise, and two Academy Award® nominations, for his hit thriller “Inception,” which remains one of the most talked about films in recent years. He earned his first Academy Award® nomination for his screenplay for the thought-provoking 2000 release “Memento,” which he also directed. His other directing credits include “Insomnia” and “The Prestige.”

THE DARK KNIGHT RISES footage unveiled at MTV Movie Awards!

The Dark Knight Rises and its cast were the focus of the evening for the 2012 MTV Movie Awards!

Christian Bale, Gary Oldman and Joseph Gordon-Levitt went up on stage and shared some thoughts on the monumental impact Batman has made in the movie world. There was also a moment spent in memoriam to Heath Ledger and finished with director Christopher Nolan sharing never-before-seen teaser clip from the final Batman film. 

Dark Knight Rises opens in theaters July 20.

THE DARK KNIGHT RISES | TV Spot 3 & more set photos!

And the updates just keep on coming don't it? After American Idol, I guess we can now pay attention to the other exciting things happening like the release of huge blockbuster films and this is on top of the list. And so, here's the latest on The Dark Knight Rises! 

In this version of the TV spot and photos, the viewers are given a glimpse at some as yet unrevealed aspects of the Christopher Nolan film and one of its most important characters. The third The Dark Knight Rises TVspot is the best one so far. The “Rise” theme is prominent throughout it. 

The Dark Knight Rises‘ plot synopsis: “Details about the film’s storyline are scarce, but it has already been established that one of villains set to take on the Batman (Christian Bale) will be the powerhouse known as Bane (Tom Hardy). Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway), better known to comics fans as Catwoman, will also have a central role in the movie.”

The Dark Knight Rises‘ cast includes Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway, Christian Bale, Marion Cotillard, Michael Caine, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Josh Stewart, Daniel Sunjata, Burn Gorman, Diego Klattenhoff, Josh Pence, Matthew Modine, Tom Conti, Joey King, Alon Aboutboul,Nestor Carbonell, Brett Cullen, and Juno Temple.

  

The Dark Knight Rises opens in US theaters through Warner Bros. Pictures on July 20, 2012.

BATMAN updte | New Snow-Series “DARK KNIGHT RISES” banners

After the debut of the “Rain” banners last week, Warner Bros. now shares three character banners for Christopher Nolan's “The Dark Knight Rises.”

The banners again individually feature Batman, Catwoman and Bane in what the studio calls “Snow” series.

Leading an all-star international cast, Oscar® winner Christian Bale again plays the dual role of Bruce Wayne/Batman. The film also stars Anne Hathaway, as Selina Kyle; Tom Hardy, as Bane; Oscar® winner Marion Cotillard as Miranda Tate; and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, as John Blake.

Returning to the main cast, Oscar® winner Michael Caine plays Alfred; Gary Oldman is Commissioner Gordon; and Oscar® winner Morgan Freeman reprises the role of Lucius Fox.

The screenplay is written by Christopher Nolan and Jonathan Nolan, story by Christopher Nolan & David S. Goyer.

“The Dark Knight Rises” is a presentation of Warner Bros. Pictures, in association with Legendary Pictures. Slated for release beginning July 19, 2012, the film will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.

  

Batman fans! Look!!! The DARK KNIGHT RISES banners are here!

Warner Bros. has just unleashed three character banners for Christopher Nolan's “The Dark Knight Rises.”

The banners individually feature Batman, Catwoman and Bane in what the studio calls “Rain” series. Another series dubbed as “Snow” is set to follow.

Leading an all-star international cast, Oscar® winner Christian Bale again plays the dual role of Bruce Wayne/Batman. The film also stars Anne Hathaway, as Selina Kyle; Tom Hardy, as Bane; Oscar® winner Marion Cotillard as Miranda Tate; and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, as John Blake.

Returning to the main cast, Oscar® winner Michael Caine plays Alfred; Gary Oldman is Commissioner Gordon; and Oscar® winner Morgan Freeman reprises the role of Lucius Fox.

The screenplay is written by Christopher Nolan and Jonathan Nolan, story by Christopher Nolan & David S. Goyer.

“The Dark Knight Rises” is a presentation of Warner Bros. Pictures, in association with Legendary Pictures. Slated for release beginning July 19, 2012, the film will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.

 

THE DARK KNIGHT RISES new trailer released by Warner!

Warner Bros. has just revealed the full trailer of its upcoming blockbuster “The Dark Knight Rises,” the epic conclusion to filmmaker Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy.

Leading an all-star international cast, Oscar® winner Christian Bale (“The Fighter”) again plays the dual role of Bruce Wayne/Batman. The film also stars Anne Hathaway, as Selina Kyle; Tom Hardy, as Bane; Oscar® winner Marion Cotillard (“La Vie en Rose”), as Miranda Tate; and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, as John Blake.

Returning to the main cast, Oscar® winner Michael Caine (“The Cider House Rules”) plays Alfred; Gary Oldman is Commissioner Gordon; and Oscar® winner Morgan Freeman (“Million Dollar Baby”) reprises the role of Lucius Fox.

The screenplay is written by Christopher Nolan and Jonathan Nolan, story by Christopher Nolan & David S. Goyer. The film is produced by Emma Thomas, Christopher Nolan and Charles Roven, who previously teamed on “Batman Begins” and the record-breaking blockbuster “The Dark Knight.” The executive producers are Benjamin Melniker, Michael E. Uslan, Kevin De La Noy and Thomas Tull, with Jordan Goldberg serving as co-producer. The film is based upon characters appearing in comic books published by DC Comics. Batman was created by Bob Kane.

In helming the film, Christopher Nolan is utilizing IMAX® cameras even more extensively than he did on “The Dark Knight,” which had marked the first time ever that a major feature film was partially shot with IMAX cameras.

The locations span three continents and include the American cities of Pittsburgh, New York and Los Angeles, as well as sites in India, England and Scotland.

“The Dark Knight Rises” is a presentation of Warner Bros. Pictures, in association with Legendary Pictures. Slated for release beginning July 20, 2012, the film will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.

DARK KNIGHT RISES | 7 new photos from Entertainment Weekly!

EW exclusive! A Bane tribute to Harvey Dent. A BatPad? Cat burglar! See 'em all and more here; pick up our Summer Movie Preview issue for the full story on Batman's newest (and final) adventure. 

HIGH-TECH HERO

Batman (Christian Bale) palms a piece of Bat technology (the BatPad?) in front of a mass of police cars in the street. Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman) may have ostensibly closed up shop eight years ago (in the movie's timeline), but Batman can never go toolong without his gadgets.

CAT BURGLAR

Anne Hathaway may look at home in Selina Kyle's high-society thief get-up (for today's modern anti-heroine on the go!), but when director Nolan first asked to meet her, Hathaway assumed she would be going in for the role of Harley Quinn, the Joker's villainess sidekick. ''About an hour into the meeting he said, 'It's Catwoman,' and I went, 'Oh, no, I played this wrong,''' she says. ''I didn't think they would revisit that character, because Michelle's performance had been so iconic. But Chris just does his own thing.''

WHO'S THAT LADY?

The always debonair Bruce Wayne dances with Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway) at a lavish masquerade ball. Director Christopher Nolan's interpretation of Kyle is an enigma, perhaps even to Hathaway herself. ''Who is Selina Kyle?'' asks Hathaway cryptically. ''She's someone who wants you to think you can answer that question.''

BANE, THE BUSINESSMAN

Bane's secretly motivated reign of terror extends throughout Gotham's financial district, as evidenced by his visit to what looks like a stock exchange on what has to be the worst Monday morning ever. Says Hardy: ''There is a very meticulous and calculated way about Bane. There is a huge orchestration of organization to his ambition.''

GOTHAM 911

After proving in Nolan's Inception that he can kick ass in zero gravity, Joseph Gordon-Levitt joins the madness in Gotham City as beat cop John Blake, who works for Commissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman). ''I felt like I was jumping in during senior year,'' says Gordon-Levitt of joining the trilogy. ''There was a big sense of completion, as well as a sense of confidence.''

BRUCE + LUCIUS = BRUCIUS?

In his casual monogrammed dressing gown, Bruce Wayne consults technology guru Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman), the man behind Batman's toy chest of utility goodies. Fox is one of Wayne's only real allies and tries to revive Wayne's spirits as he physically and emotionally recovers from his face-offs with the Joker and Harvey Dent.

SHAKE IT LIKE A POLAROID PICTURE

Bane (Tom Hardy) holds aloft a photo of former D.A. Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart), whose death was blamed on Batman at the end of The Dark Knight. Could Bane be using the photo to inflame the crowd's fury against Batman? ''There is nothing vague about Bane,'' says Hardy. ''He's a very clean, clear villain.''

Source: Entertainment Weekly | Jeff Jensen, Marc Snetiker | Apr 12, 2012

THE DARK KNIGHT RISES | 14 Minutes of Super Slow Motion - Movie Trailer HD

Following the death of District Attorney Harvey Dent, Batman assumes responsibility for Dent's crimes to protect Dent's reputation and is subsequently hunted by the Gotham City Police Department. Eight years after the events of The Dark Knight, Batman returns to Gotham, where he encounters the mysterious Selina Kyle while stopping the villain Bane's plans to destroy the city.

The Dark Knight Rises is an upcoming superhero film directed by Christopher Nolan, who co-wrote the screenplay with his brother Jonathan Nolan and the story with David S. Goyer. Based on the DC Comics character Batman, the film will be the third installment in Nolan's Batman film series, and is a sequel to Batman Begins (2005) and The Dark Knight (2008). The Dark Knight Rises is intended to be the conclusion of the series. It stars Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, and Morgan Freeman. The film will take place eight years after the events of The Dark Knight and will introduce the characters of Selina Kyle and Bane—portrayed by Anne Hathaway and Tom Hardy, respectively—two villains from the Batman mythology.

DARK KNIGHT RISES: Bane Empire Magazine Cover January 2012, Plot Details

The Bane Limited Edition Subscriber-only Cover and The Dark Knight Rises plot details for the January 2012 edition of Empire Magazine brings into focus many rumors that have swirled around about the storyline for the upcoming Batman film. Christopher Nolan and others from the production of The Dark Knight Rises recently spoke in a interview with Empire Magazine about the film and certain characters in the film.

When The Dark Knight Rises takes place:

“Our story picks up EIGHT years after The Dark Knight”.

In terms of finishing our story and increasing its scope, we were trying to craft an epic”

“It’s really all about finishing Batman and Bruce Wayne’s story. We left him in a very precarious place. Perhaps surprisingly for some people, our story picks up quite a bit later, eight years after The Dark Knight. So he’s an older Bruce Wayne; he’s not in a great state. With our choice of villain and with our choice of story we are testing Batman both physically as well as mentally. Also, in terms of finishing the our story and increasing its scope, we were trying to craft epic so the physicality of the film became very important.”

The eight year gap sounds great. It clears the slate. With Harvey Dent’s prosecution still in place, Gotham City should have endured a period low crime, a least for the first of those eight years.

“The Prologue is basically the first six, seven minutes of the film. Its the introduction to Bane and a taste of the rest of the film. With Bane we are looking to give Batman a physical challenge that he hasn’t had before. He’s a great sort of movie monster, but with an incredible brain, and that was a side of him that hand’t been taped before. Because the stories from the comics are very epic and very evocative—very much in the way that Bruce Wayne’s origin story is epic and evocative. We were looking to really parallel that with our choice of villain. So he’s a worthy adversary. I felt that if I could get somebody as talented as Tom to agree to hide himself in the character I would get something very special. What I really feel with a great actor is every movement, every hand gesture, every step, has performance in it. Tom completely got it. It’s an incredible challenge to remove motion of the face so that you can’t put things across in the usual way, and you just have the eyes and a bit of the scalp and the arms and legs. What I knew is that from Tom I would get something where you get a total character and everything has incredible thought applied to it. And a lot of what he’s doing is very counterintuitive. He has this incredible disjunct between the expressiveness of the voice and the stillness of the movement of his body. He’s found a way to play a character who is enormous and powerful with a sort of calm to it, but also is able to incredibly fast at times. Unpredictable. He just has a raw threat to him that’s extraordinary. It’s a very powerful thing when you see it come together, beyond what I have ever imagined. That’s what you get from working with great actors.”

Bane as seen through Tom Hardy‘s eyes:

“He’s brutal. Brutal. He’s a big dude who’s incredibly clinical, in the fact that he has a result-based and oriented fighting style. It’s not about fighting. It’s about carnage. The style is heavy-handed, heavy-footed, it’s nasty. Anything from small-joint manipulation to crushing skulls, crushing rib cages, stamping on shins and knees and necks and collarbones and snapping heads off and tearing his fists through chests, ripping out spinal columns. He is a terrorist in mentality as well as brutal action. He’s a smashing machine. He’s a wrecking ball. If we’re going to shoot somebody, shoot the pregnant woman or the old lady first. Make sure everybody stands up. He’s a terrorist in his mentality as well as brutal actions. He’s horrible piece of work.”

Here is one of the most intreresting parts of the Empire Magazine interview and a spoiler for purist of the comic book incarnation of Bane. The quote is from costume designer Lindy Hemming about Bane’s Mask:

“He was injured early in his story. Hes suffering from pain and he needs gas to survive. He cannot survive the pain without the mask. The pipes from the mask go back along his jawline and feed into the thing at the back where there are two cannisters of what ever it is.. the anasthetic”

Christopher Nolan discusses finishing his Batman trilogy, his Batman story:

"It’s really all about finishing Batman’s and Bruce Wayne’s story. We left him in a very precarious place at the end of The Dark Knight. His reputation in tatters, on the run. And I think perhaps surprisingly for some people, out story picks up quite a bit later. He’s not in great state. He’s frozen in time, he’s hit a brick wall. Batman Begins was very much about the explaining the logic of the suit, and how it belonged in the shadows, in a position of stealth where he’s able to intimidate people with it as his new entity. And then through The Dark Knight we would him out during the magic hour and we changed the suit accordingly so he withstood that kind of exposure. But also the character himself has the reputation now, so he;s able to expose himself more and still intimidate people. And with the third film we’re pushing that further… but plenty of it takes place in the dark too.”

On ibnlive, Christian Bale spoke about Bruce Wayne and his journey through all three Christopher Nolan-directed Batman films:

How long will you let the pain and loss define your life? Walking around chasing bad guys is very heroic and attracts attention, but at the end it all accounts for, as a means to deal with the pain of a huge loss. We agreed that Bruce Wayne is absolutely sincere as Bruce Wayne, and as Batman utterly sincere but Bruce Wayne, the playboy, is a pure facade, it’s a lie he has, somehow, to control one side of your soul that’s not really under control.

In fact, only Alfred knows who he is. It’s time for Bruce Wayne to face the pain, that has always stirred his life.

About The Dark Knight Rises production:

The Dark Knight Rises is the highly anticipated final installment of Warner Bros and DC Entertainment’s new Batman film franchise. Christopher Nolan has returned to direct the film from a screenplay he wrote with Jonathan Nolan, from a story by himself and David S. Goyer. Details about the film’s storyline are scarce, but it has already been established that one of villains set to take on the Batman (Christian Bale) will be the powerhouse known as Bane (Tom Hardy). Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway), better known to comics fans as Catwoman, will also have a central role in the movie. The will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.

The Dark Knight Rises‘ cast also includes Marion Cotillard, Michael Caine, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Josh Stewart, Daniel Sunjata, Burn Gorman, Diego Klattenhoff, Josh Pence, Matthew Modine, Tom Conti, Joey King, Alon Aboutboul, Nestor Carbonell, Brett Cullen, and Juno Temple.

The Dark Knight Rises opens in US theaters on July 20, 2012.

Source: Film Book

THE DARK KNIGHT RISES | Christian Bale, Joseph Gordon-Levitt NYC set photos

Christian Bale, Joseph Gordon-Levitt The Dark Knight Rises (2012) NYC set photos are from a Christopher Nolan directed film. The photos feature Christian Bale and Joseph Gordon-Levitt on the streets of New York City, Gordon-Levitt in a Gotham City police uniform and Bale with a grey streak in his hair.

About The Dark Knight Rises production:

The Dark Knight Rises is the highly anticipated final installment of Warner Bros and DC Entertainment’s new Batman film franchise. Christopher Nolan has returned to direct the film from a screenplay he wrote with Jonathan Nolan, from a story by himself and David S. Goyer. Details about the film’s storyline are scarce, but it has already been established that one of villains set to take on the Batman (Christian Bale) will be the powerhouse known as Bane (Tom Hardy). Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway), better known to comics fans as Catwoman, will also have a central role in the movie. The will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.

The Dark Knight Rises‘ cast also includes Anna Hathaway, Marion Cotillard, Michael Caine,Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Josh Stewart, Daniel Sunjata, Burn Gorman, Diego Klattenhoff, Josh Pence, Matthew Modine, Tom Conti, Joey King, Alon Aboutboul, Nestor Carbonell, Brett Cullen, and Juno Temple.

Leave your thoughts on The Dark Knight Rises Christian Bale, Joseph Gordon-Levitt NYC set photos below in the comments section. The Dark Knight Rises opens in US theaters on July 20, 2012.

Source: Film Book

Contagion (Steven Soderbergh, 2011)

For about 45-50 minutes, Contagion had me ready to run home, duct-tape the seals of my house and never come into contact with a human being again. Steven Soderbergh's detached, "so this is how the world ends" direction and and crisp, clinical cinematography effectively built fear through a steady profession of paranoia escalating from backdoor, classified whispers over vague data to full-on societal panic. Soderbergh's classical style makes even his transcontinental montage intelligible, and his experiments with asynchronous sound and image separates the aesthetic from the action even more, giving it a paradoxically compelling flatness that reminded me of the purportedly meek delivery Jonathan Edwards gave to the fiery words of his "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," a mild intellectual remove that only makes the impact that much more powerful.

Then, cracks started to form. Contagion boasts the largest, most geographically disconnected cast of any of his films since Traffic, a film that shares more than a few stylistic and structural traits with Contagion and even seems the thematic inverse of this movie. But like Traffic, Contagion spreads itself too thin, across too many people and too many locations without being reliant upon any of them. The emotional distance of such incessant cross-cutting gives way to a belated, almost arbitrary stab at sentimentality that burdens Soderbergh's film with calculated schmaltz that clashes garishly with the studious, medical examiner feel of the rest of the movie. Funnily enough, this is the rare film that actually suffers for its attempts at humanity.


Much more gripping is the methodical progression of the disease from the first seconds. Soderbergh does not even get past the opening black screen before the film without inserting the ragged cough of Beth Emhoff (Gwyneth Paltrow). When the image starts, we see Paltrow looking like hell, a decidedly unglamorous view of an A-lister that kicks off the eerie feel of the impersonality of a disease spread. Anyone susceptible, regardless of notoriety, can get sick, and this new strain works with horrific speed. In only a few minutes of screen time, not only is Beth dead but her young son, leaving her apparently immune husband, Mitch (Matt Damon), bewildered, quarantined for testing and inconsequential to the rapid spread of the virus as it hops continents in the span of hours.

Paltrow and Damon are merely the tip of the iceberg for Contagion's loaded all-star cast. Marion Cotillard, Laurence Fishburne, Kate Winslet, Bryan Cranston, Elliott Gould, John Hawkes and more fill the screen in various roles as members of the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control monitor the outbreak and head out into the field to study and contain the outbreaks. Where did Soderbergh hold auditions, Spago? That so many would line up for a film that is truly about an invisible presence, making them secondary forces and pawns for the true "protagonist," is a testament to Soderbergh's drawing power, and for a time he keeps us guessing as to who will survive.

Soderbergh gave the Red digital camera a major demonstration in the form of his two-part Che, and he further demonstrates its range and clarity here. Che was a film of natural colors used to thematic effect, the bright sunlight of The Argentine and the overcast, muted tones of Guerrilla communicating the shifting dynamic of the separate revolutionary campaigns. Here, Soderbergh crafts a half-sick, half-sterile aesthetic of grimy artificial light captured in unflattering realism, clarifying every pore, every clammy hand and spittle flecked mouth until the extreme close-ups of human contact and pulled back shots of the isolation of the survivors ensures we feel equally uncomfortable in crowded areas of potential hosts and alone as society crumbles. Woozy camera movement and quick cuts to hands grasping bus poles or passing around food make the implications even more nauseating, while the icy blue pall that hangs over funereal shots of mass graves and tattered masses lining up for anything even suspected of being a cure emphasizes the distancing horror of death on an epic scale.

Also worth a mention is the electronic score from longtime Soderbergh collaborator Cliff Martinez. Not as dynamic as some recent electronic scores (say, the ones for The Social Network and Hanna), Martinez's soundtrack nevertheless proves a driving element of the film, particularly given the lack of true character propulsion. If repetitive, the score works well for finding the perfect aural balance of scuzzy, frantic buzz and quarantined sterility that fits both the clinical official response and growing sickness and collapse on the streets. The sound mix of many of Soderbergh's connecting montages rely almost exclusively on Martinez's cold burbles and hums, and they keep the movie going well after the visual juxtapositions start to grow thin.

But grow thin they do, and eventually the film tries to eke emotional responses out of characters heretofore represented as only as impersonal reactors to the spread of the disease. A subplot involving Jude Law as a firebrand blogger whose anti-Establishment crowing perhaps hides a keen willingness to exploit capitalism to the fullest seeks to show the profiteering and misinformation that befall and propel mass panics. However, as everyone in the cast is so cut off from one another that Law's effects are felt only in the background and the extent to which he makes things worse is never made clear. We're also made to care about Fishburne as the CDC director who makes an all-too-human mistake at a time when complete classification is necessary to keep the peace. Worst of all is Mitch's plotline, which not only saddles the poor man with the deaths of his wife and stepchild but deals with infidelity and adds the useless subplot of his surviving daughter, who regards the 21st century equivalent of the Black Death as, like, a total drag.

My wavering support nearly collapsed in the final half-hour, at which point plotlines began to sag and cease without any pretense at resolution, late-stage sentimental dross like Mitch's daughter pining for her boyfriend suddenly blossomed and a montage coda clarified that which did not truly require clarification. Furthermore, the initial vulnerability of the A-listers eventually gives way to a pat immortality that ensures as many famous people as possible stay on til the end. I still enjoyed Contagion; watching Soderbergh do his thing was more entertaining than most of this summer's offerings, and occasionally he found ways to ground his epic scope into something gripping. The end, however, turns a chilly take on a grimy genre film into a wannabe prestige picture with what I could swear was an environmentalist message the one time such a message just does not apply. In fairness, I can't think of any way that Contagion might have ended in wholly satisfactory fashion, but the perfunctory optimism of Hollywood undermines a daring, unsettling and initially unsparing view of humanity's mass reduction. In retrospect, the awkward late-film shift in tone is less surprising than anyone allowing the first hour and 20 minutes.

Midnight in Paris (Woody Allen, 2011)

The opening shots of Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris show the titular city from the perspective of a tourist, focusing on landmarks as tour groups walk and ride ferries around town. Occasionally, he spares brief glimpses of back alleys occupied by locals who know how to avoid the shuffling guests. Meanwhile, Allen lays French-flavored jazz, a Parisien take on American music, over such shots. He even literalizes the other part of the title by spreading the montage over the course of a day from sunrise to starless night, watching the blossom of the City of Light as dim interior lights grow into the full dazzle of Paris after dark. Despite the simplicity of Allen's static montage, he conveys a number of important ideas with the first moments: we do not see the Paris of those who live there but of tourists who visit it, and the sight of centuries-old landmarks looming over modern urban bustle shows the past mingling with the present.

That juxtaposition magnifies as Allen follows Gil (Owen Wilson), a successful hack screenwriter who looks to Paris for inspiration for his novel. Drunkenly wandering Paris one night while his fiancée (Rachel McAdams) dances with friends, Gil suddenly finds himself sucked into an old car after midnight, ending up amongst flappers, ex-pats and, most importantly, a host of legendary artists who dwelt in the city in the 1920s.

It's the dream of any creatively aspiring person, the chance to hang out with Hemingway or the Fitzgeralds, to get a book proofread by Gertrude Stein or judge a painting by Picasso. For Gil, whose book concerns a man running a nostalgia shop, the chance to walk around the past and interact with it is so wonderful only someone as capable of pure glee as Owen Wilson could pull it off.

Wilson gets a lot of flak, but I like him and can think of few other actors better suited to the role of Gil. Wilson has a voice that manages to convey simultaneous doe-eyed innocence and arrogant smarm, perfect for the insecure but ambitious writer. Gil walks around Paris, in both the modern day and the '20s, with a look of childlike wonder and joy on his face, but he's also cynical about his talents and bitterly antagonistic to Paul (Michael Sheen), Inez's uncomfortably close male friend and an officious fool who impresses others with his pontifications even after someone points out he's actually wrong about Rodin's mistress or the names of artists who designed and decorated Versailles.

Paul's insufferable lectures, all of which revolve around obvious tourist traps despite his image of being at one with French culture, sap all the fun from Paris, and even if Gil didn't get to walk around with the Lost Generation, one can hardly blame him for ducking away to the streets to avoid the man.

In a summer already marked by nostalgia in the form of Super 8 and, indirectly, the historical appropriations of X-Men: First Class and, soon, Captain America*, Allen's film is bizarrely attuned to the current mood. To be sure, it's undeniable he has his own fun with past literary and artistic figures. Ernest Hemingway (Corey Stoll) speaks the way the author's prose reads: brutal, aggressive, restless. Stoll looks like he dabbed absinthe on his neck as makeshift cologne, and when he screams, "WHO WANTS TO FIGHT?!" I can't imagine what clueless fool would take him up on it. Kathy Bates amusingly plays Gertrude Stein as a sort of Mother Goose for the artistic community in Paris, coaching the artists but also comforting them when mistresses leave.

After a time, I started registering the historical figure before the actor. Before Adrien Brody even said a word, before I even recognized him, I thought "There's Dali!" Tom Hiddleston and Alison Pill nail F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Hiddleston conveying the pain of his wife's tumult vying with his undying love for her and Pill communicating Zelda's schizophrenia long before it manifests. I kept waiting for the terrible impression to come along, the inevitable clunker of a performance that befalls all films where a cast has to deal with a huge number of real and significant figures. I kept waiting for the Condoleeza Rice from W. or the Churchill from The King's Speech. But Allen cast this movie impeccably: not only does everyone fit the part (almost uncannily so) but they all try to genuinely sound and act like some aspect of that person.

Yet the most catching character in the film is a mistress by the name of Adriana, forgotten by time but inspiring to a number of painters who changed that medium's landscape. From the moment the camera first settles on Marion Cotillard, she feels more like a muse than anyone to appear in a Woody Allen film, even Diane Keaton. That's not to say she's better, of course, but the camera almost physically reacts whenever she's on-screen. The frame seems to stop cold when she comes into it, frozen in first-sight love and intimidation of her beauty. It's like Allen is constantly surprised to run into her, conveying his trademark fluster through the lens as the camera tries to breathlessly apologize for stumbling upon her. And when she good-naturedly smiles at this flushed infatuation, the camera nearly swoons as if about to pass out. Cotillard could almost get away with saying nothing at all, but thank God she does, and her performance mingles so well with her presence that when the film begins to turn around her axis, the shift does not feel so seismic.

Adriana's own infatuation with a past time, La Belle Époque, brings out a more serious idea for Allen's whimsical tour of Paris past and present. He delights in roaming among artistic figures and even has fun with them—Gil pitches Luis Buñuel on The Exterminating Angel, only for the surrealist to be wholly unable to grasp why people couldn't leave a room—but he slowly brings out the idea that everyone pines for a Golden Age that is hardly considered such by those who lived in that time. One of the few insightful things Paul says, albeit condescendingly, is "Nostalgia is denial, denial of the painful present." Gil gradually comes to realize this, remarking to Adriana, "Maybe the present is a little unsatisfying because life is a little unsatisfying."

As such, Midnight in Paris ultimately critiques the wave of nostalgia floating through recent films, and even Allen's own The Purple Rose of Cairo. Gags of the past bleeding into present and vice-versa (would things have been different for Scott and Zelda if she'd been able to procure Valium?) offer visible comedy to go with the bouncing, witty script. At last, however, Allen comes to the conclusion that choosing to live in an idealized vision of someone else's existence is a hollow alternative to making one's own present into the best it can possibly be. There are suggestions of Allen identifying with Gil, who feels screenwriting is a lesser talent and yearns to be considered a literary talent, but Allen at last seems to be lightening up about his lot, and it shows in this film. Inez and her family are thinly written Republican caricatures, but Allen just wants an uncomplicated laugh. (Besides, who can afford to vacation in France these days except Hollywood liberals and conservative businessmen insulated against the economy?) I would still have liked more dimension in Inez and her family, however; at a certain point, the caricatures border on the sexist.

Nevertheless, it's the sober, positive conclusion the dour Allen comes to through the comedy and whimsy that makes Midnight in Paris truly deserving of the hype it's received. While this line may be tossed out with each new Allen feature, the film may rank someday among the director's finest. How strange it is that Allen, once one of those directors synonymous with a city, has achieved his greatest success in old age as a transient, his finest late-career work always forcing him out of his comfort zone. But then, at times he seems a better fit for Europe than even his dear Manhattan.


*Even, to an extent, The Tree of Life operates through nostalgia for a time period and setting that is not that of most of its audience.