AVE, CESARE!

HOME BACK	AVE, CESARE! (2016)	EMM#: 251 Added: 19/05/2017
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AVE, CESARE! Movie

2016

(6,3 out of 10)
Commedia (Giallo)
15 min - 15 min
Directed by Ethan Coen, Joel Coen

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	Josh Brolin
	George Clooney
	Alden Ehrenreich
	Ralph Fiennes

Plot | Cast | Goofs | Synopsis

Mentre sull'atollo di Bikini gli Stati Uniti sono impegnati con gli esperimenti sulla bomba H, a Hollywood Eddie Mannix si deve occupare di trovare una soluzione ad un altro tipo di problemi. Eddie è un fixer, cioè colui che deve tenere lontani dagli scandali in cui si vanno a ficcare le star che stanno lavorando ai film di un grande Studio. Deve quindi far sparire foto osé e cercare di camuffare gravidanze fuori dal matrimonio. Quando poi accade che scompaia il protagonista di un film su Gesù, nei panni di un centurione romano, la situazione si complica. Anche perché costui è stato rapito da un gruppo di ferventi comunisti.  Sono davvero pochi i registi in attività forniti di una solida conoscenza di tutti i generi cinematografici e della loro evoluzione nel corso della storia del cinema. I fratelli Coen fanno di diritto parte di questa ristretta cerchia. Il loro pregio ulteriore è quello di saperli declinare secondo letture che vanno dal dramma di impianto intellettuale alla commedia più brillante.  Nell'ormai lontano 1991 (datazione che ci offre la misura della loro tenuta) la vicenda hollywodiana dello sceneggiatore Barton Fink finiva tra fiamme allucinatorie. Oggi il fil rouge di critica allo star system si è affinato grazie ad un'ironia che non nasconde l'amore per il cinema del passato ma lo depura da qualsiasi sospetto di nostalgia rétro. Le vicende del cattolicissimo Eddie Mannix (che confessa anche quante sigarette fuma di nascosto) ci fanno entrare in un mondo che ci ricorda ciò che affermava un vero sceneggiatore, Ben Hetch: "Io odio gli attori!". Qui sono tutti adatti a un ruolo ma goffi e incapaci di vivere o di accettare possibili mutamenti di caratterizzazione. Su tutti emerge il Baird Whitlock di George Clooney tanto abile sul set (anche se con qualche fondamentale defaillance) quanto capace di farsi incantare da abili mistificatori.  Tra fondali finti e improbabili farm del West, i Coen ci ricordano anche come la fabbrica della finzione si nutra di un pubblico che ha fame di affabulazioni che stanno dentro e fuori dallo schermo. A quelle 'fuori' pensano le due gemelle giornaliste, interpretate da Tilda Swinton, sempre a caccia di quegli scandali che Eddie deve coprire per contratto. Così i due fratelli ci spingono a considerare quanto siano cambiati i costumi: oggi gli scandali delle star del mondo dello spettacolo non si nascondono, si creano ad arte. Sanno però fare anche molto di più: chi pensava di non poter assistere nella vita a un dibattito teologico e/o a uno sul materialismo dialettico senza annoiarsi profondamente sarà costretto a ricredersi. Anche perché se nel film precedente (A proposito di Davis) il gatto la faceva da padrone qui, davanti a un cane che si chiama Engels, non si può fare a meno di divertirsi sapendo che, come sempre con i Coen, non si sta smettendo di pensare.

When Hobie is picking up Carlotta for their date, a car turning right onto the avenue down the hill is briefly visible. It is white and a modern vehicle, a small SUV make. <br>------------------------<br><br>A modern-day skyscraper is visible behind some trees in the first scene where Thora Thacker speaks with Eddie Mannix in the studio courtyard. The skyscraper is "The Tower" at 3900 W Alameda Ave, Burbank, CA 91505, constructed in 1989. <br>------------------------<br><br>The soy sauce bottle on the table in the Chinese restaurant was not designed by Kenji Ekuan until 1961, ten years after Hail, Caesar! takes place. <br>------------------------<br><br>Hobie Doyle's Western movie called "Lazy Ol' Moon" has a copyright date of 1951, but claims to have been made in VistaVision, which has yet to be invented. In 1954 Paramount Pictures engineers created VistaVision which is a higher resolution widescreen variant of the 35mm motion picture film format, which allowed the same cinema print of the film to be shown in either the normal Academy ratio of 1:37 or could be soft matted into widescreen aspect ratios between 1.66 to 2.00:1. <br>------------------------<br><br>The movie is set in 1951. In Eddie Mannix's kitchen, there are two sets of incorrect electricity receptacle outlets that take three-prong (grounded) plugs, that for the year 1951 should have been the (2-prong) non-grounding electricity receptacle outlets. Homes built before 1962 had most of their original 125 VOLT electricity receptacle outlets of the (2-prong) non-grounding type. In 1947, the NEC (USA) code first required grounding type (3-prong) receptacles for the laundry. In 1956 the required use of grounding type receptacles was extended to basements, garages, outdoors and other areas where a person might be standing on ground. From 1962 grounded outlets became required in American homes, because the NEC (USA) code was revised to require all branch circuits to include a grounding conductor or ground path to which the grounding contacts of the receptacle must be connected. <br>------------------------<br><br>The letter from Lockheed that Eddie Mannix reads is from "Human Resources." At the time of the events in the movie (and for several decades afterward), that department would be called Personnel. <br>------------------------<br><br>The Romans speak of a "Frankish road", but the Franks did not become part of the Roman world until centuries later. <br>------------------------<br><br>At one point, the narrator refers to the area depicted during the Roman legion marches as "Palestine". It was known as "Judea" in the First Century C.E. It didn't acquire the name "Palestina" until the Second Century C.E., under the Roman emperor Hadrian. This may be intentional on the part of the Coen Brothers, to show how sloppy the film-making *in* the film was. <br>------------------------<br><br>In 1951, Chinese restaurants that catered to Westerners did not set chopsticks out on the table as part of the standard place setting. <br>------------------------<br><br>The opening credits to Hobie's Western movie-within-a-movie that he attends with Carlotta state that it is filmed in VistaVision. But VistaVision was not introduced until 1954, and the events in "Hail, Caesar" itself apparently take place in 1951, according to the date listed on some literature shown at the secret Communist meeting, and according to the comment made by a studio executive that television was just beginning to catch on with the American public (true in 1951, already an established fact in 1954). <br>------------------------<br><br>Most of the film clips are presented in the correct-for-1951 aspect ratio of 1.37:1; however, when Mannix screens dailies of "Hail, Caesar!", they're being projected at 1.66:1, which did not come along until 1953. (The Hobie Doyle western is, as noted by others, also incorrectly projected at roughly 2:1.) <br>------------------------<br><br>The Lockheed recruiter showed Eddie Mannix a photograph of the first H-Bomb detonation which took place on 1 November 1952 but the copyright date for Hobie Doyle's newly released B-western was 1951. <br>------------------------<br><br>Baird Whitlock's Roman soldier says he is going to bathe at Caracalla. The baths at Caracalla were not built until the Third Century C.E.; the film being made takes place in the early First Century C.E. This may be intentional on the part of the Coen Brothers, to show how sloppy the film-making *in* the film was. <br>------------------------<br><br>St. Paul on the road to Damascus is represented as an old man. But at the time of his conversion St. Paul was about thirty years old, being born in 5 after Christ. <br>------------------------<br><br>Baird Whitlock's Roman soldier uses the term "godforsaken"--it should have been something like "forsaken by the gods" (plural). This may be intentional on the part of the Coen Brothers, to show how sloppy the film-making *in* the film was. <br>------------------------<br><br>One of the Romans refers to the Hebrews as a "far-flung" people. The Diaspora that made them far-flung did not occur until 70 C.E., well after the events of the film that was being made. This may be intentional on the part of the Coen Brothers, to show how sloppy the film-making *in* the film was. <br>------------------------<br><br>As Eddie Mannix and his Secretary converse in the studio courtyard near the beginning and end of the film, a modern day surveillance camera is visible on the corner of one of the buildings. <br>------------------------<br><br>In one scene one of the communist writers, the film-Charakter Dutch Zweistrong (Greg Baldwin), in the cast "coummunist writer # 5" lies asleep on a camp bed in the beach-side house. On his lap you see an item of the magazine "Soviet Life". This magazine was founded in 1956. But the events in the film play in the beginning of the fifties. The Magazin is now published under the title "Russian Life". <br>------------------------<br><br>The Lockheed recruiter shows Eddie a picture of the March, 1954 Bikini Atoll nuclear test. The HUAC "blacklisting" hearings had started in 1947-48, so the "study group" seems rather blasè  about the "naming names" threat. <br>------------------------<br><br>Assuming the Communist Party USA was not backdating its membership cards, the year this film's story takes place is 1951. In a couple of scenes, Eddie meets Arthur Cuddahy at the Imperial Gardens restaurant. However, that business did not open until 1953. Before then, it was The Players restaurant. <br>------------------------<br><br>Documents in this movie imply the year is 1951, but the edition of "The Old Woman and Her Pig" seen near the bed of Darlene Mannix was published in 1952. <br>------------------------<br><br>When Gurney is about to leave on the Soviet sub, the head writer tells him to take the ransom money as their "modest gift to the Comintern." The Comintern had been dissolved in 1943, something that party members would have known. <br>------------------------<br><br>During the crucifixion the centurion says that the day before he saw Christ distributing water to the Roman soldiers and to the slaves in the desert. The day before the crucifixion Jesus was in Jerusalem. <br>------------------------<br><br>In Baird Whitlock's final speech, his ruffled collar is alternately tucked into his armor from one angle and standing straight up from other angles. <br>------------------------<br><br>Mannix's much-loved wristwatch is often-looked upon and is octagon-shaped in close-ups, but in long shots, the actor is wearing a rectangle-shaped watch. <br>------------------------<br><br>The wristwatch Josh Brolin's character wears changes between close-up shots, when it is hexagonal, and long shots, when it is rectangular. <br>------------------------<br><br>When CC turns to see Eddie entering the cutting room, her cigarette disappears and then reappears in successive shots. <br>------------------------<br><br>During the "No Dames" dance number, there's a drunken sailor passed out at the bar. When Burt Gurney does a slide along the bar, and other dance moves, the drunken sailor is no longer there. Later, when Gurney leaves the bar, the sailor is back at his spot, still passed out. <br>------------------------<br><br>When the cucumber sandwiches are being prepared in the kitchen for the communist study group, they are shown as having the crusts cut off in thin slices. When they are served to Baird Whitlock, they are cut into squares, without crusts. <br>------------------------<br><br>When Burt Gurney puts a bar rag on the bartender's head, then slides along the bar, the bartender can be seen starting to remove the bar rag. In the next shot, a close-up of the bartender, the bar rag is still on his head, with him not trying to remove it. <br>------------------------<br><br>In the opening scene where Eddie Mannix (played by Josh Brolin) comes to interrupt the photo shoot it rains. Mannix walks through the rain to the front door of the building, but when we see him enter the building his trench coat does not show any signs of rain on it. When the police shows up moments later, their coats are covered in rain. <br>------------------------<br><br>The beach-side house where Baird is being held for ransom has a close-up view of Anacapa and Santa Cruz Islands. The film alludes that it is in Malibu, but that is too far from these Channel Islands to have such a view. <br>------------------------<br><br>The driveway for the beach-side house is shown as being just east of Mugu Rock, currently part of Point Mugu State Park. The bay there is far broader than the narrow bay depicted in the film. In addition, the profile of Mugu Rock is far pointier than in reality; obviously a matte painting. <br>------------------------<br><br>When Mannix is viewing the rushes (or dailies), they are being shown in color. Rushes would have been printed on inexpensive black-and-white stock as they were used only for cursory approval purposes. <br>------------------------<br><br>When the scarf gets stuck in the editing deck, stopping the film, the lamp melts the frame on the screen. The lamps in editing decks are much lower intensity than those used in projectors and do not produce the heat necessary to melt stuck film. <br>------------------------<br><br>When Eddie is having lunch with the Lockheed headhunter, he is shown a photo of a nuclear test. He's told it's a Hydrogen Bomb test in Bikini Atoll. It was an Atomic Bomb test at Bikini Atoll in July 1946; the hydrogen bomb hadn't been invented yet, much less tested, in 1951. The first hydrogen bomb test (Ivy Mike) took place on Enewetak Atoll, not Bikini Atoll, on November 1, 1952. <br>------------------------<br><br>When the communists' phone call to Eddie Mannix is disconnected on the first attempt we hear a burst of "precise dial tone," the same as today. This was not used until more than 10 years later. At that time the standard dial tone was 600 Hz modulated at 120 Hz. <br>------------------------<br><br>Baird says he knew Dave Chasen (of Chasen's Restaurant) when he was a busboy. Dave Chase was never a busboy. I knew the man personally. He started as a tap dancer in Vaudeville. He came to Hollywood to get into the movies but Hollywood wasn't casting men with Uncle Dave's plain looks as a dancer. So he work on his personal chili recipe in his kitchen and borrowed some money (partly from my grandfather Nate Blumberg) from friends and opened a chili stand on Beverly Blvd. The rest is history. <br>------------------------<br><br>In the editing suite scene, the female editor is seen smoking as she operates the editing machine. Since the film is set in the early 50's, the film would have been nitrate which was highly inflammable. Potentially, the whole studio could have burnt down.In 1951, film production was transitioning away from nitrate to safety (non-flammable) film stock. The fact that only one frame is burns indicates that the editor was working with safety film. Had it been nitrate, the entire reel would probably have caught fire. <br>------------------------<br><br>Movies did not have sync sound back then. <br>------------------------<br><br>The movie is set in the early 1950s. Some of the money in the briefcase is signed by C. Douglas Dillon as Secretary of the Treasury. Dillon didn't become secretary until 1961. <br>------------------------<br><br>When Eddie's secretary tells Eddie that he has a call on line 2, Eddie picks up the telephone handset but does not press the line 2 button. The last call Eddie had on that telephone was on line 1, so he still would have been using line 1 on that line 2 call. <br>------------------------<br><br>When Channing Tatum's character leaves on the Russian sub, it is clearly a nuclear powered sub. Russia did not commission its first nuclear powered sub until 1961, a full 10 years after this movie takes place. As a matter of fact, the USS Nautilus wasn't commissioned until 1954, 3 years after this movie takes place. <br>------------------------<br><br>