The film was "received" last May by Fox Searchlight, which partially funded filming. Bertolucci said that it was initially greeted with great enthusiasm by Fox Searchlight execs, but "then in July something odd happened, like lightning out of the blue. They told [me and Thomas] that Fox could not release the film as it was."

All right, too bad...but what are well-meaning journalists like myself supposed to do with this story?

Thomas apparently isn't allowed to show an uncut version of THE DREAMERS at the Toronto Film Festival, and there's apparently no other way to see the un-messed-with version, so there's nothing to get into here. If you want to make a case in the press about your film being "mutilated," the usual strategy is to show an unsullied cut to journalists and let them carry the ball, if they're so persuaded.

Bertolucci and Thomas's contract calls for an R rating, and that's the bottom line. We all know the cuts will be made and that we won't get to see the trims until the DVD comes out, and so, as Jon Voight's pipe-smoking suburbanite said to the hillbillies in DELIVERANCE, "What is it, gentleman, that you require of us?"

I called Thomas's office in London but it was too late in the day. I also called Fox Searchlight publicity and got a "no comment." The cuts are about needing an R rating, but the determination to make them is apparently coming from executives at 20th Century Fox, and not Fox Searchlight executives. But no one wanted to say anything so what do I know?

THE DREAMERS is about a young American (Michael Pitt) and a pair of brother-sister French twins (Louis Garell, Eva Green) who, for a good part of the film, hang out in the Paris apartment belonging to the twins' parents playing role-playing and sex games.

There's some full-frontal nudity and a scene with the three taking a bath together. The scene that seemed to get most journalists' attention in Venice was one in which Pitt does Green on the kitchen floor while Garrell stands nearby and fries some eggs.

The informed betting is that THE DREAMERS, which is apparently set for release in March '04, will have its first big U.S. showing at the Sundance Film Festival in January.

Things Set Right

I paid to see Kevin Costner's OPEN RANGE last weekend at the Arclight, which charges 28 dollars for two adult tickets for an evening show. I felt punched in the gut and bent-over as I walked away from the ticket window, but ten minutes into this near-great western the pain of forking over the cost of a good dinner at a nice restaurant was gone.

It opened two weeks ago and I'm late to the table, but let's be clear about this: OPEN RANGE isn't in the same calibre as Clint Eastwood's Oscar-winning UNFORGIVEN, but it's easily the best western to hit theatres since. It's not as good as SHANE either, but it's good enough to be regarded in the same heaven-bathed light as that classic 1953 western.

If you ask me, Robert Duvall's performance as "Boss" looks like a lock for a Best Supporting Actor nomination. The movie itself might become a Best Picture finalist...who knows? It's a better film than SEABISCUIT for sure, so you tell me.

The reason it's become a modest hit, I suspect, is mainly that it seems to capture the old ways in what feels like a fairly authentic way. Audiences are savoring the feeling of novelistic detail and old-fashioned pacing Costner has chosen to tell his story with, along with the near-perfect acting and the 19th Century saddle-sore dialogue, which, to my ears, sounds just right.

(A friend who saw and didn't like OPEN RANGE at the Cannes Film Festival last May strongly disagrees, and it's not that he's wrong -- he's just not hearing it.)

If nothing else, OPEN RANGE signals the end of the get-Kevin era. Journalist snipers (myself included) have been taking aim since the WATERWORLD days, and with justification, but the guy's earned a reprieve.

For me, the beginning of the easing-up process was listening to Costner's commentary track on the BULL DURHAM DVD that came out last year. He's charming as hell all through it -- quick, insightful, self-effacing, relaxed. It reminded me why Costner was so well-liked in the mid to late '80s.

OPEN RANGE has managed a 78% positive critical rating on Rotten Tomatoes. What were those 22% bitching about? Some thought it was too slow, but that's partly the idea here -- the paying attention to the minor details, pauses, landscapes, unverbalized thoughts. Some thought the dialogue was too preachy or cowpokey pretentious, but that's like complaining the dialogue in HIS GIRL FRIDAY is too cynical and fast-paced. And some complained about the ending, which I agree doesn't work.

If only Costner had ended OPEN RANGE a bit sooner -- two or three minutes after the gunfight, say -- and hadn't tacked on the budding-romance-with-Annette-Bening stuff, it would have been 5% to 10% better. I say 5% to 10% because there's only so much room for improvement.

Costner keeps RANGE going an extra ten or twelve minutes with Bening at the end because he wants his character, Charley Waite, to find some inner peace. Charlie feels guilty about having done some bad things in the Civil War and such, and so Costner has Bening talk him out of this by repeating her faith in his kindnesses and then accepting his marriage proposal.

Fuck all that. Charlie should have just walked up to Bening after the shootin' and embraced her without a word. And then she should have said, "You're a good man. Don't you try and think different 'cause I won't stand for it if you do. Don't you even try."

Goodbye Charlie

Charles Bronson died last weekend, the poor guy. He was apparently a good man to know. The obits all reported there was a huge disconnect between the violent tone of his films and Bronson himself. A playwright of some distinction once wrote this about a character, and it seems to fit again: "His life was gentle, and the elements so mixed in him that nature might stand up and say to all the world, 'This was a man.'"

But everything I wrote a couple of weeks ago about Bronson's career peaking in the late 50s to early 70s and also about DEATH WISH, his biggest hit ever, precipitating a long slow creative downturn, still goes. (I may have been wrong about the quality of FROM NOON 'TIL THREE, which I haven't seen in ages.)

At least Bronson experienced an extended mid-life period when he was in a really good groove. That's no small achievement. Most people tend to peak in high school, and it doesn't get much lamer than that.

When someone dies people always say, "May God rest his soul." But if I were to die after 81 years of life, I wouldn't want rest. I'd want to take a big swan dive into the cosmic stream and split apart into a thousand energy pulses so I could be everywhere and feel everything, all at the same time.

All my life I've been torn between thinking death is the Big Nowhere and the most dazzling and incandescent time-out there is. And now Charles Bronson knows what I can't know until I go there, which I'm figuring will be about 40 or 45 years from now. Fuck me. The clock is ticking.

If I were God and Charlie Bronson had just come to the end of his mortality and was about to embrace eternity, I would greet him with a big hug and a back slap. I would say to him, "What do you want to do, man? It's your call. Well, it's really mine but it's my treat, is what I'm saying. The basic plan kicks in when you're done, so...whatever. Relax and go to town.

"You wanna do that Stanley Kubrick star-child thing for a couple of thousand years? Buzz around the cosmos at light speed in a placenta membrane and just take it all in? Wanna live all the best parts of your life again, either through your own recollections or the perspective of your friends? Or re-experience your life as the greatest PBS documentary ever made? Wanna share my space and be everyone and everything on your home planet simultaneously? Right now, I mean...?

"Or....you know, you can dive into that big swimming pool over there, and a few seconds later you'll be a baby again. Odds are you won't remember a thing about working with John Sturges, Robert Aldrich, Sergio Leone, Sydney Pollack and Michael Winner...well, you'll probably want to forget about Winner, I'm guessing...but unless you're given the ability to remember past lives your memory will be wiped clean and you'll be starting out fresh, but there's the adventure of it."

Walking Distance

I'm flying out to Toronto this morning (Wed., 9.3) in preparation for the film festival which starts there the next day. I explained the rundown earlier -- I want to see 70 films, or at least something close to 60, but I'll be lucky if I wind up bagging more than 30 or 32. Here's a link to a summary I wrote a while back.

I'll be filing on Friday with an early report, but don't expect much. I'll also be tapping out three columns the following week -- on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

One factor that seems likely to reduce the number of films I'll be seeing is the new location of the press headquarters at the Delta Chelsea Hotel. Located at 33 Gerard Street in the downtown area, it's about a mile and a half south of the Bloor and Yonge Street intersection, where most of the theatres are either located or fairly close to.

The press headquarters used to be at the Park Hyatt, right in the center of things, but the festival needed more space. Spokespersons are trying to spin the Delta Chelsea thing as an inspired move, but everyone knows the Gerard Street location will make things harder for journalists to do their job. More travelling time, more taxi fares. Longer, slower, sweatier.

The move "makes a ton of sense for us now as we start to shift our center of gravity further south in the city," the festival's managing director Michèle Maheux told a Toronto news reporter.

"Our office is at 2 Carlton St. -- Yonge and College -- our box office is at College Park, and the industry centre is at Sutton Place [at Bay and Wellesley streets]," said Maheux, "so we've created a bit of a Bermuda Triangle. And for us, frankly, we are deeply thrilled because we are within walking distance of all of our colleagues."

And I'm deeply thrilled also because now I'll be able to do some cardiovascular and lose a little weight between screenings.

One article I read about the Delta Chelsea noted it was located "a minute away from a strip of Yonge Street that rivals Sunset Blvd for seedy cheesiness: A sex shop, tattoo parlor and not one but two strip clubs: Zanzibar and Remington's, a male revue which also features a She-Male show in the basement, are just down the street.

Surprise Deaths

"The most recent second-act surprise deaths that come to my mind are Robert De Niro in 15 MINUTES (I expected him to die, but not so soon) and Samuel L. Jackson in DEP BLUE SEA, in a scene that brilliantly undercuts expectations by offing him the exact second he's finished his big inspirational speech with soaring music. Renny Harlin's never made a huge impression on me as a director, but that one scene was glorious cinema, and I don't care who mocks me for saying so.

"Two resurrections that initially pissed me off were Edward Norton in FIGHT CLUB and Joaquin Phoenix in BUFALO SOLDIERS, but in hindsight and with repeated viewings, I think they both work. But yeah, Russell Crowe should've died in L.A. CONFDIDENTIAL. Disney cartoons, however, may be the most egregious offenders when it comes to fake deaths. And let's not forget E.T. I hear some character ludicrously cheats death in THE PASSION as well. That damn Gibson -- what is he thinking?" -- Luke Thompson, Film Critic, NEW TIMES.

"You asked about surprise deaths of a major character in the first or second act, like Janet Leigh's in PSYCHO? What about Steven Seagal's character in EXECUTIVE DECISION? I can't admit to actually having seen the movie, but I remember a lot of people making a fuss about going to see the movie because of Steven Seagal (oh, how things change) and being upset that he died so early into the movie.

"And while it's not quite the same situation, it seemed like the audience at the opening night showing of JACKIE BROWN that I was at consisted predominantly of Chris Tucker fans, who were quite enraged to find out that he didn't survive for more than five minutes of screen time." -- Bart Smith

Wells to Smith: You're telling me people were upset when Chris Tucker died? Did they give a reason?

"You had said that you couldn't think of any deaths of a major character midway through the movie, like that of Janet Leigh in Psycho, I agree that it doesn't happen often, but it did happen to Heath Ledgers character in MONSTER'S BALL, I was quite surprised by that, there were audible gasps from the audience when he killed himself. " -- Morris Crisp

"Appreciate your comments regarding the lack of honesty in Hollywood's portrayals of death. It's something that bothers me a bit as well, not just in film, but in all sorts of media.

"I'm glad you're not a comic book fiend, as it's refreshing to read a column on MPS that rarely mentions them...but a quick point about comics here: Nobody ever dies for 'real' in them. Superman died, but no...he's really not dead. Jean Grey dies, but no, they need a new X-Series a few years after that story, so she returns to life...

"Superman's death in particular was poorly handled. It wasn't even Lex Luthor that finally kills him, right? Instead it was some never before seen Hulk-like monster that beats him to death. Even in a super-hero comic, and even back then, that was disappointing to me. Because you can't change the static nature of the characters...they're doomed to forever being exactly the same.

"The reason I mention Superman's comic book death to you is this: Even though I was still in high school at the time, it was utterly obvious that the entire storyline was made specifically to jack up sales on the waning title, and for no other reason. I know that in the end comics/movies/ books get published to make money, but still...

"It was obvious that they weren't going to have Supie dead forever. And you know, that isn't even what ticked me off about it. It was that the story didn't have any genuine emotional pull to it. Since they didn't even bother trying to have emotional resonance in any part of the tale it ended up being a simple sales ploy. Hated it.

"What's been going on in Hollywood is exactly the same to me. Cheapening death by using it as nothing more than an expedient emotional hook. Formula death + unsuspected return. Save us from such weak devices.

"The more fake-outs there are when a character dies, the less impact there will be. But, I suppose that doesn't matter to the suits in charge...death = big bucks, right?" -- Saturn 2012

"The only death in the past 25 or so years of movie history that caught me unaware was Samuel L. Jackson getting eaten by the shark in DEEP BLUE SEA." -- Shawn Mangrum

Wells to Mangrum: Of all the ways to go, having your bones snapped and chomped on and turned into crunchy, bloody mulch by a two-ton fish with smelly breath has to be one of the worst. Just imagine trying to scream from the unimaginable pain but your mouth and lungs filling with seawater instead, and being yanked under the surface and whipped around in the churning pink sea water...yeesh. I'd rather shoot myself.

"There was a pretty good death scene in this movie with Denis Leary where he's institutionalized. In a flashback, Leary's character remembers his father's last day. He gets a call from the hospital that his dad, suffering from cancer, is fading fast, but he is in no big hurry to get to his dad's side.

"In the meantime, dad is talking to a woman from his bed, telling her to tell his son to paint the fence, clean the garage, etc...before he fades away. Leary then arrives and curses himself for missing his dad's last moments. It was a poignantly played scene. I don't know the name of the flick because I wasn't particularly interested in the rest of the movie." -- William J. (Paz) Haynes, III, Nashville, TN.

"I thought of a couple other movies in which we are surprised by the death of a major character. Brian DePalma killed off Angie Dickinson in the first, what, half hour or so of Dressed to Kill. And in Rennie Harlan's Deep Blue Sea, Samuel L. Jackson gets it early on -- it was a pretty shocking moment but it featured some of the most awful CGI I've ever seen." -- Ray Garton

Fool for Glory

"Charging straight into a line of battle like tin soldiers is exactly how the Civil War was fought. GOD AND GENERALS was a terrible movie, but it did depict the battle of Fredricksburg very accurately. The Union soldiers stood on high ground on one side of the river, and watched as one enemy regiment after regiment was fed into a meat grinder. Then when it was their turn to cross the river, line up in formation like tin soldiers, and charge up to the Confederate line, they did so.

"I don't understand it, but I guess it had to do with the honor of the times, and not showing cowardice in battle. So GLORY would have been unfaithful to its historically based story if the charge had been shown in any other way." -- Larry Brown

Wells to Brown: Yeah, I get that. What I'm saying is that I found this spectacle at the end of GLORY profoundly unmoving.