Margot at the Wedding (Noah Baumbach, 2007)

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Antoine Doinel · #1 Post by **Antoine Doinel** » Thu Jun 21, 2007 6:29 pm

My Mac and the AOL video player don't get along, but here's the trailer.

Cinesimilitude · #2 Post by **Cinesimilitude** » Thu Jun 21, 2007 6:38 pm

Turturro and Black in a Baumbach movie... there is a god. Can't wait to see it.

David Ehrenstein · #3 Post by **David Ehrenstein** » Thu Jun 21, 2007 6:55 pm

Does this have any relationship to Cassandra at the Wedding ?
That was a novel once earmarked as a film to star Natalie Wood. It was never made.

#4 Post by **domino harvey** » Thu Jun 21, 2007 7:25 pm

looks good, was worried about Black being in this but he seems on-game in the trailer.

pianocrash · #5 Post by **pianocrash** » Thu Jun 21, 2007 11:20 pm

Harris Savides!

Who is this Rohmer person again?

If you can't see the trailer, here's the poster.

jesus the mexican boi · Thu Jun 21, 2007 11:55 pm

while it lasts...

a bit of Entertainment Tonight promoting the movie, with clips...

Antoine Doinel · #7 Post by **Antoine Doinel** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 9:09 pm

The trailer finally hit YouTube and it's look great. I wonder what Turturro's role in the film will be.

justeleblanc · #8 Post by **justeleblanc** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 9:11 pm

This appear to be the second film of Baumbach's that directly references a Nouvelle Vaugue title. Conrad and Butler go on a Vacation would be Celine and Julie go Boating, and Margot at the Wedding would be Pauline at the Beach (considering that his wife is playing Pauline).

Cold Bishop · #9 Post by **Cold Bishop** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 10:13 pm

I do hope that The Squid and the Whale/The Mother and the Whore wasn't lost on you?

Cinesimilitude · #10 Post by **Cinesimilitude** » Tue Jun 26, 2007 2:02 am

Cold Bishop wrote:I do hope that The Squid and the Whale/The Mother and the Whore wasn't lost on you?

How could anyone miss out on that with the massive poster hanging in the father's house?

Cold Bishop · #11 Post by **Cold Bishop** » Tue Jun 26, 2007 6:55 am

SncDthMnky wrote:
Cold Bishop wrote:I do hope that The Squid and the Whale/The Mother and the Whore wasn't lost on you?
How could anyone miss out on that with the massive poster hanging in the father's house?

That is why I do hope...

Cinesimilitude · #12 Post by **Cinesimilitude** » Thu Jul 12, 2007 10:02 pm

Cold Bishop wrote:
SncDthMnky wrote:
Cold Bishop wrote:I do hope that The Squid and the Whale/The Mother and the Whore wasn't lost on you?
How could anyone miss out on that with the massive poster hanging in the father's house?
That is why I do hope...

This new one is also super obvious, what with the character of Pauline living on a beach. Trailer is up in HD and I noticed Ciaran Hinds in the credits, who was fantastic in HBO's Rome, and Munich.

justeleblanc · #13 Post by **justeleblanc** » Fri Jul 13, 2007 3:13 am

SncDthMnky wrote:This new one is also super obvious, what with the character of Pauline living on a beach. Trailer is up in HD and I noticed Ciaran Hinds in the credits, who was fantastic in HBO's Rome, and Munich.

I thought I made that observation about Pauline, maybe not. Conrad and Butler Take a Vacation was another title of his alluding to a New Wave film.

Cinesimilitude · #14 Post by **Cinesimilitude** » Fri Jul 13, 2007 7:47 am

justeleblanc wrote:
SncDthMnky wrote:This new one is also super obvious, what with the character of Pauline living on a beach. Trailer is up in HD and I noticed Ciaran Hinds in the credits, who was fantastic in HBO's Rome, and Munich.
I thought I made that observation about Pauline, maybe not. Conrad and Butler Take a Vacation was another title of his alluding to a New Wave film.

you did, I just thought it was similar in terms of the title; ______ at the ________. The fact that her name was pauline and that she lived at a beach flew right by me in the tiny AOL trailer. My attention was probably elsewhere.

tavernier · #15 Post by **tavernier** » Tue Jul 31, 2007 5:22 pm

Selected for the NY film festival.

justeleblanc · #16 Post by **justeleblanc** » Tue Jul 31, 2007 7:14 pm

SncDthMnky wrote:
justeleblanc wrote:
SncDthMnky wrote:This new one is also super obvious, what with the character of Pauline living on a beach. Trailer is up in HD and I noticed Ciaran Hinds in the credits, who was fantastic in HBO's Rome, and Munich.
I thought I made that observation about Pauline, maybe not. Conrad and Butler Take a Vacation was another title of his alluding to a New Wave film.
you did, I just thought it was similar in terms of the title; ______ at the ________. The fact that her name was pauline and that she lived at a beach flew right by me in the tiny AOL trailer. My attention was probably elsewhere.

My original thought was Zazie.

miless · #17 Post by **miless** » Wed Nov 28, 2007 8:47 am

I just saw this a few days ago and think that it is better than Squid...
More poignant and precise... and really beautifully shot in a "high-budget home movie" kind of way.
Baumbach has certainly discovered his "style"... it just took him a little while to get there.

Dylan · #18 Post by **Dylan** » Sat Dec 08, 2007 3:01 am

Nicole Kidman is enigmatic here, perhaps giving her greatest performance. But everybody is great, and I can't stop thinking about the ending.

Magic Hate Ball · #19 Post by **Magic Hate Ball** » Sat Dec 08, 2007 5:40 am

I read the script a little while ago, and liked it a lot. I really, really didn't imagine Jack Black in that role (maybe Adrien Brody or someone like that), but maybe because I hate Jack Black. Defenitely looking forward to seeing it play out onscreen.

Dylan · #20 Post by **Dylan** » Sat Dec 08, 2007 6:03 am

Magic Hate Ball wrote:I read the script a little while ago, and liked it a lot. I really, really didn't imagine Jack Black in that role (maybe Adrien Brody or someone like that), but maybe because I hate Jack Black. Defenitely looking forward to seeing it play out onscreen.

I think Black is well cast in this part, with his very distinctive look and behavior informing a great deal of his performance here. Somebody like Brody strikes me as a far more traditional romantic lead, and would feel extremely different than what Black does here.

filmnoir1 · #21 Post by **filmnoir1** » Sat Dec 08, 2007 5:08 pm

This film is more of the same from a promising director, but I would argue that he needs to break free of the clutches of the New York literary experience before all of his movies become identical and unimpressive.
The opening of this film on the train is nicely done and at times seems to demonstrate what Alfred Hitchcock believed; that is that the train is protocinematic in that it allows all people to experience the joyous sensation of watching images pass by the eyes at a rapid rate, while also demonstrating the linerating potential of the eyes to re-shape one's own reality. Thus in the film, we see Claude looking out the window as he and his mother Margot (Nicole Kidman looking as ugly and frazzled as she has ever looked) travel by train from New York to attend her sister's wedding. The trip is really a ruse for her sexual explorations (in one scene Margot is shown late at night alone masterbating after she has had a fight with her husband) outside of her marriage. Yet while with her sister Pauline, brillantly played by Jennfier Jason-Leigh, Margot gains some insight into her talented but deeply disturbed and dark soul.
Jack Black is excellent in this film as a man who wants to be a great artist but who possesses no real talent. His best scene is after a giant tree has fallen on the tent, under which he and Pauline were to be married.
Overall I would have to say that this is movie is funny, sad, moving and quite interesting but it is nowhere the caliber of The Squid and the Whale. It is a small, intimate movie.

franco · #22 Post by **franco** » Mon Dec 10, 2007 9:46 am

I love this movie, but something really bothers me at the end when

Spoiler

Nicole Kidman drops her purse and runs after the bus. Why would any woman leave her purse by the roadside? I mean, it's got her wallet in it. I think there's quite an unhealthy dose of histronics there that betrays the otherwise natural tone and performances.

#23 Post by **Matt** » Mon Dec 10, 2007 6:09 pm

franco wrote:I love this movie, but something really bothers me at the end when
Spoiler
Nicole Kidman drops her purse and runs after the bus. Why would any woman leave her purse by the roadside? I mean, it's got her wallet in it. I think there's quite an unhealthy dose of histronics there that betrays the otherwise natural tone and performances.

Margot being Margot,

Spoiler

it surely has no cash in it and her driver's license we already know is expired. The only thing of any worth in her purse is probably a joint credit card (with her husband) or two. Considering that the only thing that really means anything to her (including her family, her marriage, and money) is speeding away on a bus, her decision to leave everything else behind (dreadfully symbolic though it may be) makes sense to me.

franco · #24 Post by **franco** » Mon Dec 10, 2007 6:38 pm

That is indeed a nasty metaphor. I sort of refused to read it that way before I could find logic in Margot's rash decision. It hurt my heart and challenged my emotional integrity, seriously. I could hardly stumble out of the theatre. Thanks so much for the astute observation Matt... My appreciation of the film has thus solidified.

rs98762001 · #25 Post by **rs98762001** » Mon Dec 10, 2007 7:44 pm

Glad to see that people are appreciating this small, difficult but insightful film. It takes balls to present a group of characters that at times are so willfully unlikeable, but thankfully Baumbach's a humanist at heart. Brave and moving performances from all involved.

Overall, I preferred SQUID AND THE WHALE, perhaps because its depiction of childhood and divorce was more immediately accessible and emotional for me. Unfortunately, both films do share the tendency to sometimes be overly symbolic and literal. Margot

Spoiler

dropping her purse, as mentioned above,

is one such example;

Spoiler

the tree crashing down and crushing the wedding tent is another.

Once Baumbach works these slightly forced, student-y metaphors out of his writing, he'll get even better.

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Margot at the Wedding (Noah Baumbach, 2007)

Margot at the Wedding (Noah Baumbach, 2007)