bright lights , big city ( film )
with the headline:' bright lights, big city' - - big trouble .
'' bright lights, big city'' - official film trailer - 1988 .
'' bright lights, big city'' - official film trailer - 1988. - youtube
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bright lights, big city. great film with michael j. fox staring: buy it great film on dvd. 5 stars rating
with the headline: review / film; a tale of the dark side:' bright lights, big city' .
the title of the episode is an obvious reference to the book (and later film) bright lights, big city .
big city: special edition gina belafonte james bridges kiefer sutherland michael j. fox josie bell bright lights phoebe cates
we’d love your help. let us know what’s wrong with this preview of bright lights, big city by jay mcinerney .
leonard pierce of the av club gave bright lights, dean city a b. [ 1 ]
bright lights, big city, at area theaters, is rated r and contains open drug use, profane language and adult situations .
featured in bright lights, big city / the seventh sign / beetlejuice / babette' s feast (1988). see more »
bright lights, big city [ vhs ]: james bridges | michael j. fox | kiefer sutherland | phoebe cates: urltoken video
bright lights, big city is a 1988 drama film directed by james bridges and starring michael j fox. it was adapted from the eponymous novel by jay mcinerney, who also wrote the film' s screenplay .
aron’s now this is entertainment presents: the film rewind series. i take you back in time to 1988 to reminisce and celebrate the 30th anniversary of michael j fox’s dramatic turn in “bright lights, big city” .
john barrett mcinerney jr. is an american writer. his novels include bright lights, big city, ransom, story of my life, brightness falls, and the last of the savages. he edited the penguin book of new american voices, wrote the screenplay for the 1988 film adaptation of bright lights, big city, and co - wrote the screenplay for the television film gia, which starred angelina jolie. he is the wine co
david ayer' s end of watch (2012) and the militarization of u. s. law enforcement - bright lights film journal
along the gruesome road to self - discovery, bright lights offers some entertaining, episodic, danceable highlights .
pierce, leonard. bright lights, dean city. the av club. october 10, 2010. retrieved october 12, 2010. < urltoken >
however, the problem i have come to is: does this make bright lights, big city a particularly good film? it is primarily notable because it does not succumb to the stylistic clichés of modern cinema. if nothing else it is certainly a solid, well - made film .
bright lights, dean city
is the thirteenth episode of season 4 and the overall 52nd episode of the american animated television series the venture bros .
bright lights, big city was released on april 1, 1988 in 1, 196 theaters, and grossed usd $ 5. 1 million during its opening weekend. the film went to make $ 16. 1 million domestically, below its budget of $ 25 million .
sharp edges have worn smooth in the 22 years since jay mcinerney wrote his bestseller “bright lights, big city. ” paul scott goodman’s musical version of this tale of disaffection among the 1980s dot - commers, supermodels and coke warlords of the new york club scene feels pretty tame. it sounds pretty tame, too; instead of slamming, outrageous music, this “rock opera” is easy listening — pleasant but somehow suburban to its core. that’s not a bad thing, but it’s not a “bright lights, big city” thing .
bright lights, big city
is the record of jamie' s search for the bottom. it takes place over the course of a week or so, a chaotic week in which people, events and even whole days drift in and out of focus .
fortunately for me, i had no idea that there was a movie adaptation of bright lights, big city. “michael j. fox? kiefer sutherland? ” i asked myself incredulously, “how could marty mcfly and jack bauer ever find themselves in a fraternal cocaine morass? ”
bright lights, big city was much different than i have always expected it to be. unlike something like less than zero this isn' t much of a
dangers of drugs
tale. sure, drugs are involved but this is more about coping with loss than anything else .
the city’s famous babelsberg film studios, now a theme park dedicated to film (and a good one), was once a powerhouse of european film production. this was where fritz lang shot ‘ metropolis ’. this was where marlene dietrich began her film career .
sharp edges have worn smooth in the 22 years since jay mcinerney wrote his bestseller
bright lights, big city .
paul scott goodman' s musical version of this tale of disaffection among the 1980s dot - commers, supermodels and coke warlords of the new york club scene feels pretty tame. it sounds pretty tame, too; instead of slamming, outrageous music, this
rock opera
is easy listening - - pleasant but somehow suburban to its core. that' s not a bad thing, but it' s not a
bright lights, big city
thing .
to conclude, bright lights, big city is a good film that does not make the viewer feel especially positively inclined toward it. as the nature of the second - person narration of the source text alone should indicate, bright lights, big city is as concerned with each viewer as it is its own characters. even those who have not woken up in a druggy stupor will feel co - opted into the cast’s mired and destructive party lifestyle. whether this is appealing to any viewer, i cannot say. truly, had i been informed that this was the experience i was going to have i may not have spent a weekend night getting choked up and disgusted with myself over the sins that michael j. fox was committing .
new york is also the home of some of the world’s leading film festivals like tribeca and the new york film festival. it’s also the home of some of the world’s leading film schools at columbia, nyu and new york film academy. with so much creativity in the city, it’s no surprise that new york remains one of the most important cities for film production in the world .
bright lights, big city ,
the james bridges movie of the jay mcinerney best seller, runs at such a low idle that you expect it to collapse in a heap right before your eyes. the movie is like a porsche outfitted with a lawn mower engine; there' s not even enough juice to get the machine out of the driveway .
sharp edges have worn smooth in the 22 years since jay mcinerney wrote his bestseller “bright lights, big city. ” paul scott goodman’s musical version of this tale of disaffection among the 1980s dot - commers, supermodels and coke warlords of the new york club scene feels pretty tame. it sounds pretty tame, too; instead of slamming, outrageous [ … ]
james, caryn .
big trouble .
the new york times. january 10, 1988 .
in the second week of filming, joyce chopra assembled several hundred extras at new york city' s tunnel club to shoot one of the film' s opening scenes - flashing lights, blaring music, dozens of couples in bright - colored costumes on the huge dance floor. the scene looked right, but only on the surface .
the cocaine that fox snorts in the film was a prop called milk sugar. the filmmakers shot two different endings - one where fox' s character decides to start his life all over but is vague with what he specifically plans to do and an alternate one, to please the studio, where he has finished writing a novel to be called bright lights, big city with a new girlfriend who is proud of what he has written .
by 1988 michael j fox had already become both a household name and a box office gold mine. starring in mostly light hearted fair on “family ties” tv series, “teen wolf”, “back to the future”, and “the secret of my success”. his role in “bright lights big city” wasn’t his first departure into dramatic territory. in 1987 he starred with joan jett in paul schrader’s “light of day”. the film was completely swept under the rug when…
with the publication of bright lights, big city in 1984, jay mcinerney became a literary sensation, heralded as the voice of a generation. the novel follows a young man, living in manhattan as if he owned it, through nightclubs, fashion shows, editorial offices, and loft parties as he attempts to outstrip mortality and the recurring approach of dawn. with nothing but goodw
trouble at metro - goldwyn - mayer ended his 2009 attempt at a new adaptation of jay mcinerney’s “bright lights, big city. ” (mr. schwartz still hopes to take another stab at it .) a deal for him to write the screenplay for “x - men: first class” never came to fruition; he wrote a draft, but producers decided to go in a different direction .
our final feed event in conjunction with elective affinities explored the “idea of the upper east side”. what outside and inside influences would make alice hauptmann? feed brings together a fascinating duo of guests: justin davidson, architecture and classical music critic for new york magazine and jay mcinerney, author of bright lights, big city, considered by many to be the quintessential new york novel of the 1980s .
berlin’s artistic side was shown on film in berlin: symphony of a city (1927) and in rainer werner fassbinder’s epic berlin alexanderplatz (1980), but the city’s film scene struggled through two wars and recovery was slow. the berlinale was set up in 1951 and is now one of the leading film events in the world, but it took decades to build its reputation .
i would hear this line again - from chopra and bridges and from the film' s producers, sydney pollack and mark rosenberg. jamie' s downfall implies that drugs are bad, they' d say, but'' bright lights'' is not about drugs and clubs .
studio executives came around to bridges' s final scene of jamie at dawn, but even now, it still isn' t clear that anyone has agreed on what'' bright lights'' is all about .
thanks to gas lights, cities – the ultimate man - made environment – no longer had to follow the natural rhythms of the sun. in the heyday of gas, the flickering lights of the city became a powerful signifier of modernity. packed with the fruits of mass production, the new urban department stores turned themselves into glittering, brightly lit cathedrals of consumerism. in 1878, eduardo de amicis, arrived in paris from italy. he was utterly astounded by the bright lights of this city of 1. 8 million people, describing it as a modern
tower of babel
. his description of this dazzling city is wonderfully vivid and gives a powerful impression of what it must have been like :
bright lights, big city
isn' t a disaster; it' s merely negligible. there' s a fairly high level of craftsmanship on display here - - in gordon willis' cinematography, even in bridges' direction. some have suggested that because the book wasn' t much to start with, the movie had to be lackluster as well. but the real drag of the film is that it fails even to deliver the small pleasures of the book. it fails even to be tawdry .
once upon a time the lure of hollywood called aspiring actors, screenwriters and filmmakers hoping to hit the big time to the city. for over a century, la was the place to be for everyone in the film industry but do you know the practical reasons behind lala land’s rise in popularity ?
stewart, garrett. “digital fatigue: imaging war in recent american film. ” film quarterly, vol. 62, no. 4 (summer 2009): 45–55
a special edition dvd version of bright lights, big city was released on september 2, 2008. in her review for the washington post, jen chaney wrote ,
in the end, that' s what is most disappointing about this dvd. what could have become a compelling look at a seminal novel of the 1980s and its rocky path through hollywood ends up being a rudimentary release with a couple of decent commentary tracks and two forgettable featurettes
.
i remembered this being an epic film, but my god it' s awful .
'' there is something in the persona of michael that makes you care what happens to him, no matter how bad the character is,'' says pollack. but the instant michael fox was cast,'' bright lights'' became a different film. this modest project was now a major commercial movie with a top box - office star, a $ 15 million budget and new york city locations, all in the hands of a director who had done one $ 2 million independent feature film .
valerian and the city of a thousand planets is not showing in any theaters in the area .
this book is one i believe everyone should read. the subject matter is poignant, still relevant and (given the subject matter) extremely clean. along with many, this book seems to me a prequel to bret easton ellis ‘s take on hip new york. while finishing it, i considered starting it over from the beginning immediately but have decided to reread american psycho first. bright lights, big city is a fast read and i think it is worth your time .
exactly one 108 minutes later, i still had no idea what to think about the film. in fact, i was reasonably sure that i had just weathered a coke binge and come shaking and miserable out of withdrawal. it’s not that bright lights, big city assaults the viewers with “shocking visuals” or “break - neck” (read: sloppy) editing, trying to “sublimate the psychological states of the protagonists into film form. ” god knows we have had enough of that as many directors who fancy themselves avant - garde apparently have made a pact to eschew the evocative properties of story - telling in favor of visceral reaction to flashing colors and the grotesque .
is this really a book all new yorkers have to read? that' s how it was brought to my attention and, perhaps because of that, i found it disappointingly 80s. i was expecting the city to be more of a character but instead it' s all coke and bars and mocking of lit magazines - gawker before gawker existed. i feel like
bright lights, big city
belongs on a shelf with
american psycho
and
bonfire of the vanities .
the literary brat pack connection is obvious, the tom wolfe one maybe less so, but all
future learning and skills – giving everyone the opportunity to build a lifelong relationship with film .
the hero of jay mcinerney' s book'' bright lights, big city'' didn' t have a name, but he certainly had a voice. on the other hand, the film version calls its leading character jamie conway and allows him no real equivalent of the novel' s astute, dry, nicely self - mocking second - person narration.'' you are a republic of voices tonight,'' mr. mcinerney' s hero tells himself at one juncture.'' unfortunately, that republic is italy.'' who could invent a visual or even conversational equivalent for that ?
that' s the bad news, but there' s good news too. the film version of'' bright lights, big city'' directed by james bridges, which opens today at loews astor plaza and other theaters, seems to know precisely what it can and cannot do, and to work well within those limitations. it may not capture mr. mcinerney' s novel completely or even succeed in standing on its own, but it does go a long way toward bringing the book to life. if mr. mcinerney' s readers think it incomplete, they should also find it enjoyably familiar .
before chopra was let go, james bridges' s name showed up on a short list of possible replacements, along with the theater and movie director ulu grosbard and the australian director bruce beresford. bridges later recalled how the deal was cut over a weekend. on a friday, his agent called him at home in los angeles to say'' bright lights'' was in trouble. bridges read the novel that night. he flew to new york on sunday, saw chopra' s film, and agreed to take on'' bright lights'' if he could start from scratch. on monday, he phoned gordon willis .
the second reason was a little more sneaky. thomas edison’s new jersey based company had a patent on motion pictures that couldn’t be enforced in the ‘wild west’. this prompted producers looking for a loophole in the law to make the move and take the bright lights of the east coast with them to the city that was to become known as ‘tinseltown’. by the 1920s, paramount, warner bros, columbia and many other well - known film studios had established themselves in hollywood .
pinewood studios and the warner bros studios at leavesden have contributed to the global success of london’s big budget productions and the highly skilled crews and film services in the city mean that not only do hollywood producers and production companies often chose to leave la to make their movies, but they leave the us in favour of all that london has to offer .
while you might interject here with the observation that my opinion was already shaped by my keen awareness of the actors’ catalogues, i must remind you that i am neither asserting that a “pure” experience of a film is ever possible nor that it was in any elaborate imaginative powers of mine to even attempt a speculation at what would come out if you mixed jay mcinerney’s second - person novel with back to the future and 24. therefore, with all the ingenuous nonplus of child who has discovered a new combination of his favorite treats—poprocks and chocolate served me well—i cracked the case of bright lights, big city open and began to watch .
at lunchtime, bridges still has to check out the location for the film' s final scene - a bakery where jamie will trade his sunglasses for some bread, watch the sun rise and decide to start his life all over again. this is the ending bridges, mcinerney and fox like, though they have shot an alternate to please the studio. that one is a hollywood - happy ending, flashing forward a year; jamie has just finished writing a novel called'' bright lights, big city,'' and his new girlfriend is standing behind him saying,'' i' m so proud.''
published in 1984, bright lights, big city is famous for being a novel narrated entirely in the second person; although it' s neither the first or the only book to do that, somehow it became one of the better known examples of this technique. apparently, the novel began its life as a short story jay mcinerney published in a literary magazine, and which he later expanded into a full novel. aside from the neat narrative trick, there is not much that one can say about the contents of the novel itself
the city and its landmarks have been immortalised on celluloid more often than we could ever begin to imagine. even if you’ve never visited london, you’ll know westminster, big ben, buckingham palace and tower bridge at a glance. you’ve seen the bond movies !
you' ve been meaning to read bright lights, big city for years, ever since hearing that it' s written in the second person. you were intrigued, understandably. point of view in fiction has always been an area of interest, and you might be described as a sucker for narrative gimmicks. while preparing for a trip to manhattan, you entertained romantic fantasies of reading a novel set in new york during your stay. you forgot, as you always do, that you never manage to read while traveling, and that at
over 100 years later, la’s reputation as the world’s leading film hub comes down to the vast movie infrastructure in place in the city. those studios grew and developed along with the service providers. industry training and education around the city produced some of the world’s greatest talent. millions of people hoping to make their mark on the industry flocked to the city to seek their fame and fortune. some of them even found it !
il giorno come sempre sarà tu non sei esattamente il tipo di persona che ci si aspetterebbe di vedere in un posto come questo a quest’ora del mattino. questo è l’incipit, comincia proprio così. bright lights, big city – le mille luci di new york. e perché lui e il posto e l’ora del giorno non si accordano? perché a quell’ora, le 4 del mattino, lui dovrebbe essere a casa a dormire, la mattina dopo deve andare al lavoro. sarà uno straccio per aver passato la notte in piedi. averla passata sniffando coc
what a joy this bloomsbury classic proved to be. first published in 1985, i’d long written jay mcinnerney’s bright lights, big city off as a “drugs novel” — but how wrong could i be? yes, there’s a little bit of cocaine use in it, but this is a brilliant and memorable novel about one of my favourite subjects in fiction: journalism. and, like many books of that ilk, it’s essentially a black comedy — and one that felt very close to my heart. the story revolves around a young man living a precarious
davis, mike. city of quartz: excavating the future in los angeles. ny: vintage books, 1992
the novel is fantastic, the film? anything but. no surprise, the novel is unfilmable .
josh schwartz, right, with victoria justice on the set of his film
fun size .
by then, joel schumacher says,'' i began to feel as if i had stayed too long at the fair.'' tom cruise got tired of waiting. but before schumacher and cruise could be replaced, weintraub left united artists.'' bright lights'' became a pawn as he negotiated a complicated settlement with the studio, and months were lost before it became clear the picture would stay at united artists. it was late 1986, months after schumacher thought his'' bright lights'' should have been released, and filming had not yet begun .
berlin is just a cool location for a film. probably the coolest city in europe, it inhales creatives. among them, young and exciting filmmakers, writers, performers and artists focus on creating rather than on the commercial elements of filmmaking. it’s a haven for low budget and indie film production. dreams of filmmakers are made even more attainable when you look at the many financing options available for visual media and film production .
changed from a modestly budgeted film to a major commercial feature shot on location in new york city with a top box - office movie star. fox used his clout to request kiefer sutherland play the part of tad allagash .
to be the most interesting one, especially in terms of fox’s acting. the film is an adaptation of
perhaps the best things i can say about this one are that it perfectly captured a perfectly nauseating time period in the mid - 80s and it certainly reinvigorated the use of second - person narrative with surprising elan; perhaps the worst thing i could say about this one is that it drove me up the wall with its pathetically entitled non - entity of a so - called protagonist and it somehow made it okay to be a pretentious whiny twit and nihilistic fuck. well ok then. man i guess it' s all about you mark, you' re so bright lights, big city .
josh baskin' s (tom hanks) flophouse apartment in big, complete with payphone, with stacks of coffee cups on top, on the wall outside his door .
this gritty drama follows two high school acquaintances, hancock, a basketball star, and danny, a geek turned drifter, after they graduate. the first film commissioned by the sundance film... see full summary »
i finally read bright lights, big city. i wanted to dislike it, to put it in the same category as american psycho and move on. but i ended up liking the book. i liked it a lot, actually. my main impressions were: (1) this is not the best book i' ll ever read, but it' s better than 95 percent of the books i pick up. the plot is very undeveloped, but the story hangs together extremely well. a series of collages tells you what you need to know without connecting the dots for you. this is uncommon in
i didn' t expect to enjoy
bright lights, big city
, because the premise sounds so vile: cocaine - addled yuppie cracks up amid the glitzy world of 1980s manhattan. but from the first pages, i realized something no one had ever told me about mcinerney: he' s a very funny writer. what' s more, he makes the main character very sympathetic, so despite all the ridiculous, self - indulgent bullshit he pulls, you don' t feel like he' s a bad person, and you want him to be okay in the end. mcinerney also does a
john mascarin, aird and berlis llpwith film, television and digital production bringing billions of dollars into toronto every year, the shooting of scenes on the city’s streets and in its neighborhoods is simply a fact of urban living, ...
encourage governor cuomo to sign the bill to expand the empire state film production tax credit program to the hudson valley .
however fox seems to be trying his absolute hardest to release himself from the shackles of typecasting, his character is the closest to an anti - hero as i’ve ever seen him play. jamie conway (fox) is a struggling writer trying to make it in the titular ‘big city'; after his wife…
michael j. fox has been dragged by the collar, thrashing and yelling, down the length of a fashion - show runway and tossed out the door several times. now, resting between takes on the set of'' bright lights, big city,'' he' s sitting in the second - floor foyer of the parsons school of design in manhattan, joking with his real - life bodyguard, who plays the fashion - show bouncer on screen, and talking to jay mcinerney. suddenly fox and mcinerney look at each other and sing out, as if on cue,'' spo - o - o - ky!''
today’s megacities have become the largest artificial structures ever built. in the nineteenth century, people were awed and even rather unnerved by the scale of what was then the largest city on the planet – london. today, the bright lights of the big city fill us with a mix of emotions – awe certainly, but also an unsettling sense of our chutzpah as a species. i have felt this in kowloon, staring out at night across the harbour to the glittering towers of hong kong island. it is an unforgettable sight. the soaring scale of the towers is historically quite recent, but such glittering skylines also speak to us of something that is as old as the first cities: of opportunity and the promise of a new beginning. it’s a powerful message that leaves few unmoved .
, a non - profit organization dedicated to make local work™ in fostering the further potential of film and tech in the hudson valley. with the goal to boost the local economy by bringing film and television production to the region, her passion
, a coup is being organised. the two dozen plotters and planners in the room are concerned principally with the following question: how do you take over the centre of the capital for four nights, close off traffic, extinguish the lights, and give large parts of the city over to the people ?
jay mcinerney, so far, is pleased with the movie' s fidelity to his novel. but andy fogelson, who as united artists' president of marketing is in charge of advertising the film, compares'' bright lights'' to'' terms of endearment.'' it is'' about people,'' he says, promising that you' ll see'' michael j. fox as you know him and love him, plus.'' take alex keaton from'' family ties,'' he explains,'' send him to new york, have his mother die of cancer, have him marry a model - it' s the same person.'' the same - only - different concept has to make you wonder if'' bright lights'' is out of trouble yet .
the tomatometer score — based on the opinions of hundreds of film and television critics — is a trusted measurement of critical recommendation for millions of fans. it represents the percentage of professional critic reviews that are positive for a given film or television show .
woody allen’s midnight in paris (2011) was not his first film about the city and followed his 1996 movie everyone says i love you. richard linklater’s before sunset (2004) was possibly more of a love story about paris than it was about the characters .
in 2008, london’s famous pinewood studios set down roots across the pond. it was toronto that they first chose to call home, making an important commitment to the future of the movie industry in canada and marking a significant chapter in the city’s film development. the studio opened the doors for the largest - scale productions to cross the border and the city’s booming industry has since gone from strength to strength .
even when the story lingers at times, the central character is played so strongly that you can still stay with the film .
a disillusioned young writer living in new york city turns to drugs and drinking to block out the memories of his dead mother and estranged wife .
an action movie star researching a role is allowed to tag along with a hardboiled new york city policeman, who finds him superficial and irritating .
the atlanta film industry generated $ 6b in the city’s economy last year. the state of georgia has the 3rd largest film production industry in the us and it looks like things are set to continue. the state easily offers the best tax incentives in the us to attract productions and the film industry in atlanta is known for having more of a ‘can do’ attitude than its glitzy, glossy rival cities. it also helps that a lot of georgia locations are permit - free, cutting through red - tape for producers and locations teams .
with the publication of bright lights, big city in 1984, jay mcinerney became a literary sensation, heralded as the voice of a generation. the novel follows a young man, living in manhattan as if he owned it, through nightclubs, fashion shows, editorial offices, and loft parties as he attempts to outstrip mortality and the recurring approach of dawn. with nothing but goodwill, controlled substances, and wit to sustain him in this anti - quest, he runs until he reaches his reckoning point, where he is forced to acknowledge loss and, possibly, to rediscover his better instincts. this remarkable novel of youth and new york remains one of the most beloved, imitated, and iconic novels in america .
the film is a slice of life, with no begining or end, merely a real view of how life can ...
the film, like the novel, is a nonjudgemental but candid depiction of the drug - fueled lifestyle of 1980s new york yuppies .
in 1863, science fiction author jules verne looked forward in time to 1960, when paris would be illuminated by the
incomparable radiance
of one hundred thousand electric streetlamps. [ 4 ] back in reality, the first arc lights were installed in a parisian department store in 1877. the next year, electric street lighting was trialled in the city. large - scale electric street lighting was demonstrated for the first time at the international exposition of 1889. at this and the 1900 exposition (both lit by electricity), paris portrayed itself to the world as the city of the new century – the city of light .
it’s not just the french who have romanticised the city. international filmmakers have recognised the draw of paris and brought their stories of the city to life, from vincente minnelli’s 1952 classic an american in paris (1952) and the pink panther (1964) to bertolluci’s the dreamers (2003) .
when the crew started over, they knew that this time there would be no shoe leather - the movie term for filler, usually shots of people walking down the street. word went out that chopra' s dailies had been nothing but shoe leather, and the film crew' s baseball team adopted as their logo the old shoe in the barred red circle. the no - shoe - leather t - shirt may have been a cruel joke, but it suited the new irreverence of'' bright lights.''
it’s the clever incentives put in place by the state that really bring productions to albuquerque and have kept them coming back in recent years. from generous tax credits to financial incentives for training local crews, filming in new mexico is an attractive prospect. it’s especially popular with low budget indie film producers. add to all that the top class film schools in the region educating the next generation of filmmakers and you’re looking at a very bright and sustainable future for filmmaking in the state .
labels: 1980s, drama, james bridges, jay mcinerney, kiefer sutherland, michael j. fox, new york city, phoebe cates, swoosie kurtz
mr. mcinerney' s book has rightly been compared with j. d. salinger' s'' catcher in the rye'' for its complete immediacy, its funny, vibrant and original style, its young man' s view of responsibility and authority, and its underlying pain. when a book leaves its mark upon a generation in the way that these have, the movie - making impulse is seldom far behind. but in this case, it' s a misguided one, at least to some degree. too much of what makes'' bright lights, big city'' so irresistible on the page - its knowing tone, its brisk rhythm, its droll wit and even its nonchalant, unassuming manner - simply cannot be translated to the screen .
for three whirlwind weeks in july, participants in the very first stockade works crew boot camp worked alongside industry professionals to learn key positions on a film set and then put those skills to the test during a low - budget independent film shoot entitled, “the rest of us. ”
i really liked jay mcinerney' s bright lights, big city when i read it about a thousand years ago, but, because i read it about a thousand years ago, i barely remember it. still, even though i' m casting my mind back about a thousand years ago, i feel that, despite the script being written by mcinerney himself, this movie doesn' t capture the spirit of the book. like the awful adaptation of less than zero (but not nearly as bad), the movie seems to want to wedge a hollywood narrative into a story where it can never really work. i liked some things about this. michael j. fox is always fun to watch. there' s some great tunes on the soundtrack. there' s phoebe…
. i would’ve liked to have seen fox take more chances like he did with this film. instead, he retreated back to safe comedies like
le0pard13: thanks for the compliments! i have a strange fascination with this film and less than zero. both quite flawed but interesting snap shots of their times nonetheless. it really is a shame about fox but once you make an impact in the kinds of films and tv shows he did, the public didn' t want to see him do anything else. and yeah, bright lights had quite the troubled production and it is a miracle that anything coherent was produced! as for kiefer sutherland in this film, i could easily have seen james spader in the role but he might' ve made the character too unlikable. still, maybe that would' ve been a good thing! i actually just finished reading mcinerney' s book and it' s quite good. i was surprised at how faithful the film is to it .
the making of'' bright lights'' is the tale of a movie cursed by typical hollywood wheeling and dealing, frightened at the thought of a drug - using hero, faked out by a directors' strike that never came. when the movie finally opens in march, it will have gone through two studios, three directors, five screenwriters and countless detours around the novel. after three frustrating years, the shooting script was written in one week, the movie shot in just six, and'' bright lights'' came full circle, emerging as a movie more faithful to the book than mcinerney' s own first version of the screenplay ever was.'' it was phenomenal,'' fox said the day shooting was finished.'' the only way we could do it was not to know the impossibility of doing it.''
in diesem film geht es viel darum, wie emotionen einen menschen in die falsche richtung lenken kann und das bringt er auch verdammt gut rüber. emotional kann der film einen gut mitnehmen und es gibt ein paar szenen bei denen ich wirklich kurz davor war zu weinen. michael j. fox spielt fantastisch und zeigt mal das er auch andere charaktere spielen kann. ohne sein geniales schauspiel hätte mich der film wahrscheinlich nicht so emotional abgeholt. wirklich großes lob! es…
there are two things that went wrong with this film. first and foremost is that michael j. fox is totally miscast for his role. i can understand him wanting to break away from the alex keaton character on
family ties .
but, although he tries, he simply isn' t right as a coke - addled, anguished writer. and it knocks the whole film off - kilter. another problem is that the story doesn' t translate easily onto film. there are some compensations - great supporting cast, catchy theme song (
kiss & tell
by bryan ferry), and excellent use of new york city locations. but they weren' t enough to make the film a success, and the disappointing returns at the box office bear this out .
the ballad of narayama
is a japanese film of great beauty and elegant artifice, telling a story of startling cruelty. what a space it opens…
a cramped apartment full of movie lights becomes unbearable on a hot summer day. a living room has been made to look like a downtown loft, and extras are crowded in to film a party scene.'' bright lights'' will wrap in two days, one day ahead of schedule, and by now everyone is worn out. tempers are controlled, but it has been a trying morning. a publicist brought the director brian de palma on the set, unannounced and uninvited - a terrible faux pas. bridges doesn' t show his anger to the crew, but he' s incensed. willis seems as calm as ever.'' do you all have ulcers?'' i ask him. he smiles and says,'' not me, i' m a carrier.''
by the time chopra arrived,'' bright lights'' had been kicking around hollywood for two and a half years - not long for most movie properties, but this was the novel that defined hip, early 80' s style. when chopra began filming in april 1987, the age of the couch potato was dawning, the club culture was on the wane and cocaine use had become less openly fashionable. the time - lag problem entered the producers' minds -'' i saw a village voice cover asking,' is downtown dead?' and wanted to throw myself in front of traffic,'' mark rosenberg says - then left their minds as quickly.'' no one ever thought of doing it as a period piece. that' s boring,'' he says. and anyway,'' bright lights'' is not about drugs and clubs .
is this really a book all new yorkers have to read? that' s how it was brought to my attention and, perhaps because of that, i found it disappointingly 80s. i was expecting the city to be more of a character but instead it' s all coke and bars and mocking of lit magazines - gawker before gawker existed. i feel like
bright lights, big city
belongs on a shelf with
american psycho
and
bonfire of the vanities .
the literary brat pack connection is obvious, the tom wolfe one maybe less so, but all three of these books start with shallow characters sinking in 80s excess and try to remove the facade. of the three ,
american psycho
is my favorite - and the most successful. a reviewer below compared douglas coupland to jay mcinerney, but i' ve generally found coupland' s characters to be more relatable than the main character here. maybe it' s just that i was 20 when i read a lot of coupland .
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this post was inspired by mr. peel' s excellent take on this film over at his blog. here is a good fan site dedicated to the book .
blogger' s note: this is the first of what i hope will be an ongoing series of tributes to film critics that inspired me. wheneve ...
the extraordinary filmmaker brandon colvin has just recently launched a kickstarter campaign to help fiance his upcoming film, * a dim valley *, and i would ...
owen was a veteran of the millennium eve celebrations and the queen mother’s funeral. jacobi’s unusual rigging had done the lighting installations for the phantom of the opera, the royal tattoo and secret cinema’s the empire strikes back, as well as many city - wide celebrations. “a lot of the structures that we use were really invented between tim and aj maybe 15 or 20 years ago in order to deliver big state occasions, ” says marriage .
hong kong’s recognisable cityscape has been used in some of the most memorable films ever made. the city’s indigenous film industry is legendary. who can forget enter the dragon (1973), crouching tiger, hidden dragon (2000), infernal affairs (2002) or kung fu hustle (2004)? and who hasn’t heard of jackie chan and bruce lee ?
so the actual 30th anniversary of this film was actually yesterday but whatever. i thought rdj was a hot mess in my less than zero review. well mjf is a hottest mess in the history of hot messes in this film! he basically goes down the rabbit hole here as he is addicted to booze and drugs and even valium! i do have to give this film credit for a glorious late 80’s cast, including phoebe cates, now 88 year old frances sternhagen, swoosie kurtz, and it’s basically a lost boys reunion as both kiefer sutherland and diane weist are in this thing! for a film that is over 30 years old now, there are a few people gone, including…
today, for the first time in history more than half the population of the planet live in cities. two hundred years ago, just three per cent were city dwellers, but by 2050, 75 per cent will be urbanites. city is the ultimate guidebook for our urban age, taking the reader on a journey through the past, present and future of the world' s cities. illustrated throughout and with essays on everything from ellis island and eco - cities, to street food and tahrir square, this is a fascinating celebration of our greatest creation – the city. more
the einstein family firm had its biggest success in 1888, when it won the contract to supply power and lighting to the munich suburb of schwabing, where author thomas mann would soon live. it was not until six years later that the city of munich took the decision to introduce electric street lighting. although the new lights were undoubtedly brighter, they cost four times as much as gas lamps. but installing electric street lighting was now about far more than practicalities – it had become a matter of civic pride. everyone was convinced that electricity would be the urban energy of the new century: the city of the future would be wired .
long before mark hamill returned to the sci - fi film role that made him a household name, the once notable jedi knight was slumming it in extended cameos in ...
we all dream of cruising down rodeo drive as we drive to the studio from our beverly hills mansion, but with many cities now offering world class movie making facilities all around the world, the options for where to shoot your next project are on the increase. locations managers have the tough job of weighing up all the pros and cons for each city. for people who work in film, there’s no need to be tied to one place. here are 10 cities around the world with a vibrant film production scene that you should probably know more about .
the following is an aggregation of what i' ve determined to be the film world' s greatest examples of screenwriting spanning the years 1925 - 2017. this is par ...
pisters, patricia. “logistics of perception 2. 0: multiple screen aesthetics in iraq war films. ” film philosophy, vol. 14, no. 1 (2010): 232–252
bright lights , big city is a 1988 american drama film directed by james bridges , starring michael j. fox , kiefer sutherland , phoebe cates , dianne wiest and jason robards , and based on the novel by jay mcinerney , who also wrote the screenplay . it was the last film directed by bridges , who died in 1993 . 
bright lights, big city is a 1988 american drama film directed by james bridges, starring michael j. fox, kiefer sutherland, phoebe cates, dianne wiest and jason robards, and based on the novel by jay mcinerney, who also wrote the screenplay. it was the last film directed by bridges, who died in 1993.
bright lights, big city is a 1988 american drama film directed by james bridges, starring michael j. fox, kiefer sutherland, phoebe cates, dianne wiest and jason robards, and based on the novel by jay mcinerney, who also wrote the screenplay. it was the last film directed by bridges, who died in 1993.