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| June 18 Premiere Online May 2001 An Officer and a Hooligan By Mark Salisbury Lying flat on his stomach, held aloft by a pole extending 20 feet from the ground below, Joaquin Phoenix is giving it his best Superman impression, right arm held straight out in front of him and all. It�s the final day of main-unit shooting on Buffalo Soldiers, and Phoenix, wearing a gray U.S. Army T-shirt and shorts�no cape�is goofing off in front of the green screen for the benefit of his director, Gregor Jordan (Two Hands), who is trying to film the movie�s opening dream sequence. Actually, Phoenix has done this shtick before. �I was in a TV show where I dreamt I was Superboy,� he says later, speaking about his part in The Adventures of Superboy. �I had on the costume and flew on wires. I was, like, ten years old.� Now 26 and a major star thanks to Gladiator and Quills, Phoenix has spent the past few months on an abandoned U.S. Army base in Germany, playing soldier�a Sgt. Bilko type, who�s out to make a fast buck in any way possible. Only the arrival of the psychotic Sgt. Lee (Scott Glenn) and his daughter (Anna Paquin), for whom Phoenix�s character inevitably falls, can deter him from his illicit money-making operations�drug manufacturing, arms dealing, floor cleaner sales�which continually confound his strict Army camp director (Ed Harris). �He�s just a total shit,� says Phoenix, down from his perch and drawing on a Marlboro Light. �But it�s not really out of malice. If anything, he�s just selfish. I love that he has ruined and saved lives throughout the course of the story, all kind of unintentionally.� A subversive comedy in the tradition of such antiwar classics as M*A*S*H and Catch-22, Buffalo Soldiers (a name that refers to the African-American soldiers who served in the Old West) is based on a 1993 novel by Robert O�Connor. The $15 million film focuses on a fictitious handful of the tens of thousands of U.S. troops who were stationed in the former West Germany just prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall, in 1989. Some of the soldiers, Jordan learned, experimented with drugs to stave off boredom, and they even shot heroin while driving tanks on maneuvers. �A lot of the stories didn�t make it home to America,� says the director, whose father and grandfather were in the military, and who was raised on air force bases in Australia. �A lot of the research we had was from European newspapers, stuff like �19 people die in the latest NATO war games exercises, including six civilians.� One woman was run over by a tank as she was walking across the road.� Such atrocities aside, Phoenix found the soldier�s life remarkably easy to grasp. �There were 20 guys [staying] in this little hotel in this small town in Germany, and there was that genuine sense of frustration and boredom.� He smiles. �Our hotel became the barracks.� |
| Aug 1 ''Novocaine'' injected into Toronto lineup Tuesday July 31 11:37 PM ET By Brendan Kelly MONTREAL (Variety) - ``Novocaine,'' an offbeat crime thriller starring Steve Martin, will have its world premiere during the Toronto Film Festival (Sept. 6-15).Organizers of the Canadian festival announced the lineup Tuesday for the prestigious Special Presentations series, which will include world premieres of ``Buffalo Soldiers,'' starring Joaquin Phoenix and Ed Harris; Mike Figgis' latest Dititally shot feature, ``Hotel''; and ``Joy Ride,'' a noirish thriller from director John Dahl (``Red Rock West'').``Novocaine'' features Martin, Helena Bonham Carter, Laura Dern, Scott Caan and Elias Koteas in the tale of a dentist (Martin) whose well-ordered life is thrown for a loop when he meets a mysterious, seductive patient (Bonham Carter) with a taste for painkillers. It is the feature directorial debut of scribe David Atkins, who penned the screenplay for the Emir Kusturica picture ``Arizona Dream.''``Novocaine,'' an Artisan Entertainment (news - external web site) release, has nabbed one of the choice slots at the Toronto fest, the gala screening on the first Saturday night, Sept. 8.``Buffalo Soldiers,'' from Good Machine, toplines Phoenix, Harris, Scott Glenn and Anna Paquin and is directed by Gregor Jordan. It is a drama about American soldiers, stationed in Germany in 1989, running a black market that hawks everything from drugs to Army supplies.Also in Special Presentations, ``Hotel'' is another experiment with digital video from Figgis following his ``Time Code.'' Sleazy politicos, trophy wives and killers meet up in unusual ways in the Venice-set film. The ensemble cast includes Salma Hayek, David Schwimmer, Burt Reynolds, Lucy Liu and Alan Rickman.``Joy Ride,'' a 20th Century Fox picture, stars Paul Walker, Leelee Sobieski and Steve Zahn in a thriller about three young people on a summer road trip who cross paths with a wacko trucker.``Focus,'' the directorial debut from well-known photographer Neal Slavin, also will have its world premiere in Special Presentations. The Paramount Classics release stars William H. Macy, Laura Dern and David Paymer, and is adapted from the Arthur Miller novel. Set in World War II-era New York, ``Focus'' is a story of how anti-Semitism can pull apart a community.Canuck helmer Bruce McDonald's ``Picturing Claire'' (formerly known as ``Claire's Hat'') also will unspool at Toronto as a global premiere. The caper picture stars Juliette Lewis as a young French-Canadian who moves from Montreal to Toronto and becomes entangled in a murder case. Gina Gershon co-stars.Special Presentations will also include the North American premiere of ``Thirteen Conversations About One Thing,'' a drama set in Gotham and directed by Jill Sprecher (``Clockwatchers''). The cast includes Alan Arkin, Matthew McConaughey, John Turturro and Amy Irving.Reuters/Variety REUTERS |