Ask Mick LaSalle: Did “Wild Tales” inspire suicide plane crash?
Dear Mick: My sister saw “Wild Tales” and told me the story about the scene where the pilot intentionally crashed a plane. Is it possible that Andreas Lubitz got the idea from that movie? Just wondering if others thought about this.
Bill Lee, Moraga
Dear Bill: It’s possible, in the sense that it’s a Spanish-language film that played in Spain and the Germanwings mass murderer apparently was in and out of Barcelona on a regular basis. But I think it’s more likely that he got the idea to commit multiple homicides simply by flying planes while being crazy. Then again, I may just be resistant to the notion of evil people with good taste in movies, despite knowing that that sometimes happens. Hitler, for example, was a big Greta Garbo fan. I’d rather that Hitler were into, say, “The Phantom Menace,” and that he and Goebbels just loved Jar Jar Binks and would hold enormous outdoor screenings of the film in Nuremberg for the entire SS. Of course that could not have happened. However, I do kind of hope that the Nazis are being forced to watch the entire second trilogy right now in the afterlife, on an eternal loop. With their eyes taped open. And with Lubitz sitting next to them. Metaphysics aside, you’re not the first to make the “Wild Tales” connection. People were tweeting about this soon after it happened, and the producers added a disclaimer saying that “following the Germanwings flight incident,” people should be aware of a “sequence that some customers might find disturbing.”
Dear Mick: Do you have any sense of which movie had more Oscar winners prior to their Oscar wins than any other? I was watching “Charade” on TCM and realized that James Coburn, George Kennedy and Walter Matthau all subsequently won Oscars. Any movies with four?
Howard Baldwin, Sunnyvale
Dear Howard: Aside from Marlon Brando, who won for the film and therefore doesn’t count, “The Godfather” has four future Oscar winners — Al Pacino, Diane Keaton, Robert Duvall and Sofia Coppola (the baby in the baptism scene). And “Around the World in 80 Days” (1956) has five future winners: John Gielgud, Buster Keaton, Shirley MacLaine, John Mills and David Niven. Lest everyone think I’m an Oscar nerd, I read it all on the Internet.
Hi Mick: The musical “Singin’ in the Rain” is often praised as one of the best musicals ever made. While I agree that it’s good, I think that “An American in Paris” is superior.
Eric Warren, Oakland
Hi Eric: I tried rewatching “Singin’ in the Rain” recently and couldn’t get through it. I think it has dated badly, that it has a cruel streak and that the characters act like nasty children, as in sexless, mean and always smiling. Donald O’Connor’s showpiece, “Make ’Em Laugh,” falls flat. (If you don’t believe me, see it again. Don’t rely on memory. You’ll be surprised.) Yet the movie’s signature attraction — Gene Kelly’s solo, in the rain — is a masterpiece. They couldn’t have known it at the time, but that dance is one of the reasons they invented fast forward. “An American in Paris” is not a favorite of mine, but it’s an adult piece of work and an attempt to do something grand and ambitious, so yes, I agree with you. A lot of movies pass into classic status based on the appeal they held for their own generation, and then they become sacrosanct in memory, because people don’t bother to see them again — or at least don’t with fresh eyes.
Hi Mr. LaSalle: In today’s column you mention “the rule that actors should be better looking than the people they are playing.” That rule was violated when Julia Roberts was picked to portray Erin Brockovich, and the result was an Oscar!
Coby Lubliner, El Cerrito
Hi Mr. Lubliner: This is true, but it’s not exactly as though Julia Roberts is Quasimodo. That’s a fairly close call.