Word: hollywoodizations
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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There comes a point when, for health reasons, one has to cease getting furious at Hollywood for mangling great novels and instead allow a movie version to stand on its own. This season's Austen fare, "Emma," adapted and directed by Douglas McGrath, borrows the book's social satire, but unwisely replaces its canny ironic bite with what in comparison resembles absurd slapstick. We can enjoy the product of this limited adaptation--funny, outrageously decorated--but it's anything but great Austen...
...acts effectively enough as a kind of debutante ball for her talents. She's certainly elegant and has a handle on the refined wit necessary. While sometimes resorting to irritating little mannerisms (eyebrows and the like), she performs well the intelligent heroine setting up intrigue, the character into which Hollywood has pigeonholed many other such period roles...
...HOLLYWOOD...
When the Olympic torch was lit earlier this month, Hollywood watched its box office go up in flames. Moviegoing dropped more than 20% as four new films--Disney's Kazaam, MGM's Fled, Universal's The Frighteners and Columbia's Multiplicity--withered in a dreadful midsummer conflagration...
...with the closing ceremonies. "The movie business isn't bleeding to death, but it's bleeding," says Herbert Allen Jr., the entertainment industry's eminent investment banker. It wouldn't appear that way from the resounding success of such megahits as Independence Day and Twister, but Hollywood's economics are a mess. Last year the industry brought in $5.5 billion, and through the first half of this year ticket sales are up 14% compared with 1995, according to the Exhibitor Relations Co. Inc. Trouble is, the number of films in wide release has risen 13% over last year even...