MichaelLesch
http://www.flixster.com/user/michaellesch
| Name | Michael Lesch |
|---|---|
| Gender | Male |
| I'm From | Los Angeles |
| Member For | 507 days |
| Last Login | Fri. Jul 18 |
| Profile Views | 974 |
| Age | 49 |
| MCT Score |
| Movie: | Citizen Kane |
|---|---|
| Actor: | Laurence Olivier |
| Director: | Orson Welles |
| Quote: | "There no trick to making a lot of money - if all you want to do... is a make a lot of money". From Citizen Kane - Bernstein reflecting on Mr. Thatcher to reporter. |
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Bronx born, raised and primarily educated in the northwest suburbs of NYC, Michael is currently in Hollywood after studying Film/Television in San Francisco at the Academy of Art University in the early part of the new Millennium with an dual emphasis on editing & acting. In addition he studied the Art of Film at the University of California Berkeley which prompted him to further his interests and explore/experience various opportunities in the film/televison industry.
While being quite fortunate in having the opportunity to participate on many film and TV productions, he also continues to develop his own projects (actor's reels, music video montages & documentary shorts) in addition to lending editing and production expertise to those he has networked and made contact within the industry. |
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Come see this movie with me...
The Incredible 2-Headed Transplant (The Incredible Transplant)
by Kevinposted 11 hours ago -
I recommend you see...
A Thousand Clowns
by KevinYou know those little movies that you absolutely LOVE but hardly anyone else has ever heard of? Those movies that you watch and wonder why no one ever talks about them or praises them or includes them in their list of favorites? Do you know those movies? Well this is one of those movies.
Jason Robards is a middle-aged, unemployed bachelor who is raising his 12-year-old nephew (Barry Gordon) in the heart of New York City. When confronted by representatives from NY social services, Robards is faced with the choice of either conforming to "acceptable" standards (getting a job) or risk losing his nephew to the bureaucracy of the child welfare system.
I have an affinity for cerebral comedies and this is definitely one of the best I've ever seen. It stimulates the mind, tickles the funny bone and touches the heart.
*Thank you Audrey and Stella for bringing this wonderful, wonderful film to my attention!This film is so deeply entrenched in New York City it almost drips big-apple juice, but it still has a French New Wave feel about it. Oscar nominated for best picture, losing out to "The Sound of Music" - I had never even heard of it until a couple of my Flixster friends brought it to my attention, a favor for which I'm forever grateful!
posted 1 day ago -
I recommend you see...
Dementia 13 (The Haunted and the Hunted)
by Stellafrancis ford coppola's first film, produced by roger corman; a kind of gothic homage to psycho. cheesy but fun! and u can watch it here: http://www.archive.org/details/Dementia_13
very, very low budget
posted 1 day ago -
I recommend you see...
The Good Earth
by Veronique"the good earth" is the earliest massive hollywood productions for oriental epic in exclusion of fu manchu series. it has great ambition to interpret the national spirit of china, its farming business under a bunch of stagy performances from caucasion yellow-face. and the issue has no relevance of its chinese authenticness but how old america views china.
it is a story about wang lung the farmer(paul muni), who marries a slavegirl in the big house named o-lan. and together they strive for their rocky future with mettle with their conventional chinese virtues. they've been thru harvest prosperity, drought, famine and the revolution of republic china as well as wang's illict affair with courtesan lotus.
mostly it depicts the condescending perspect of man's derogatory viewpoint on women which is actually true in ancient china, and women are merely usable products who help men to plow the rice fields and bring them extensions. without that, a woman could be considered worthless, and the dichotomy of benevolent saint and malevolent siren reflects on the two major female characters: o-lan, the slavegirl turning to the farmer's wife; lotus, the insidious temptress who drains men's wealth. eventually the conclusion would be good woman is like earth which provides everything with endless flourishments.
the earliest chinese star then anna may wong was keen to obtain the role of virtuous o-lan to alter her dreary image of malicious sirens in a bunch of negative orient-themed movies where she has to die "a thousand times" in the end. but the studio refuses to grant her that becuz of the racial segregation principle then: a caucasion male cannot make love or pair licitly with a oriental female on screen (so asian women are neither mistresses or villainy on screen), even as roles of yellow face. even the temptress lotus goes down to another actress with approved ethnicity despite the role lotus is literarily inspired by the oriental femme fatale image in wong's early silent pictures.
the point of making "the good earth" itself is a campy articce, so why bother to use a real chinese or not since the story won't present the real china anyway? as for anna may wong, she is thorough america-nourished american except her ethnicity, and she doesn't even conform to the corny chinese virtues of obediency or dependency on man anyway, further more she has never been with a chinese man for all her life at all. so in exclusion of her chinese outlook, there's not really any that much of traditional chineseness in her. so it won't be really a shame or a pity for her abscence as o-lan in this piece, but she would probably make an adequate lotus.
the title song for "the good earth" would be "the jasmine song" which has nothing to do with farming but a common folk song praising the beauty of jasmine flower in spite of its melodius smoothness. and in the scene of new infant birth, it's accompanied with the song celebrating the feng-yang drum which is my father's regional folk song in old china. so it would be highly phony to deem "the good earth" as a chinese epic, and even pearl s. buck who writes the original novel might have some bias for china. but it does bare some worthwhile process of collecting crops from the rice fields which i have never paid attention before. and the photography has its contived oriental aesthetism under the helm of four directors, including victor fleming from "gone with the wind".
so allow me to put it this way, the pleasure of "good earth" would be the brass flatulency of vintage caucasion hollywood's eccentric perception on "the inscrutable orient". ABSOLUTE CAMP!for me, watching "good earth" might be like watching charlie chen, sometimes you just have a deviant curiosity to watch how others perceive chinese as if you were an outsider without relevance. perhaps this outsider spirit is totally against zen which is to view things from the inward toward the outward, but i'm doing the opposite as an escapic fun.
in a nutshell, worth watching for its apparent FAKENESS. a A CAMP.posted 2 days ago -
I recommend you see...
Hot Fuzz
by AudreyA 400% arrest rate-Britain's own lethal weapon. This is a most excellent movie-cracked me up!
Hey, you should really see this!
posted 2 days ago -
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I recommend you see...
The Dark Knight
by Veroniquechristopher nolan's batman franchise obviously overwhelms audience internationally with his straight-to-arrow realistic representation of batman legend, also with the extreme dose of irreconciled masculine grittiness and bitter solemnity. besides the unexpected demise of heath ledger also heatens up the waves of box office as well. what contributes to its success would be the contempory cynicism with a secret iconclastic wish.
what is the point to embody batman and its villians down to every single detail, even enhanced with more effect of realistic grimness? the concept of batman is merely the IMAGINARY INTERPRETATIONS OF HUMAN PSYCHE, so WHY SO SERIOUS? there's no probablity for a character like bruce wayne/batman to truthfully exist in this universe, and neither are the mythical batman villains which are designed as the counterparts of batman to accomplish his halo of heroism and also a perverse reflection of bruce wayne's irreversible dark shadow. in a brief, a distinctive compensation as the symbols of human mentality. so batman is only an ideological mindset, an idea to flaunt, taunt with. but director nolan depicts them with impressive laborous efforts, including the course of bruce wayne's re-incarnation in his batman debut. and in "dark knight", joker and two-face join together to introduce you into a morbid show with similiarity of plastic surgery nightmares in their defying stance to provoke your mental and moral tolerance, total deprival of the un-worrisome childhood when the preteen youth flee to the theater only to get disillusioned. it's like you have hardship coping with your belief in the right course, you wanna drag down others to frown with you, and you resent anyone who could embrace an escapic fun of innocence.
to a degree, "the dark knight" ceases to be a superhero tale glorifying the righteous course of choosing justice as bruce wayne does, and it demonstrates us how unworthy and fatiguing to select the correct choice, would it inspire or encourage you to be a hero after witnessing all these torments? i don't think so. superhero tales are supposed to boast men's mettle and magnify their vain pride of heroism so men could still possess some fancy of his manhood with a self-aggrandizing wish to sacrifice for the right course. but "dark knight" is an intimidating disservice to manhood.
most of all, "the dark knight" has become a SUPERHERE HORROR, and two-face's disfiguration could emulate horror legend freddy in "a nightmare on elm street", and the joker is literily the copycat of silent horror "the man who laughs" or another comic avenging angel "the crow". but the purpose of horror is the mass relief of having surrogates suffering from their subliminal fears, such as disfigurations or castrastions, and usually this subliminal phobia is described with the ease of aethetism, so the audience could have some fanciful platform to soothe the actual tension. but the harsh realism of dark knight also demolishes this well-built platform, remember the jack nicholson's joker and tommy lee jones' two-face? their outlook set still reserves a certain twisted aesthetism without intimidation.
this is NOT a review to demean the greatness of dark knight but an ideological ruminations on its perception of batman. but i'd like to mention roger ebert's condemnation on tim burton's "batman returns" for its acid metaphor of "dysfunctional romeo and juliet" as batman's relation to catwoman. but ebert gives complete praise on "the dark knight" while it diverges its cynicism to the visceral level of mental explosion. wouldn't ebert do "batman returns" injustuce?this is NOT a mindlessly repeated chattering on how great the dark knight is.
i do wanna give half a star less to it for my disagreement on its over-realism but i cannot help but do it justice since its laborious dedication overwhelms me, from actings to each single technical detail.
BUT, the concept of batman is merely the IMAGINARY INTERPRETATIONS OF HUMAN PSYCHE, so WHY SO SERIOUS?posted 2 days ago -
Come see this movie with me...
You can thank my friend Cindy (webalina) for this little gem. No really, you gotta send her a thank you msg. She'll totally freak! (lol)
http://www.flixster.com/user/webalinaposted 4 days ago -
Come see this movie with me...
Okay all you Shirley Pimple fans, we have a poster!
posted 4 days ago -
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I recommend you see...
The Fugitive Kind
by Veronique"thr fugitive kind" is another terrific piece scripted by tennesse williams, and it is adequately casted with marlon brando and ann magnani as williams' two archetyped characters in his plays: sexually dissatisfied female with great willpower vs luscious male with stormy sex antagonism. the harsher extreme exemplification would "streatcar named desire" as brando's stanley is the central object of desire, perhaps williams' personal inclination does contribute to his various creations of "homme fatale" which is men who are the seductors casting or catalyzing doom to women.
by this time, brando is the alluring drifter with snakeskin jacket and guitar by his side, a symbol of his uninhibited nature, an aloof poise which fascinates women with masochistic tendency. and two women become the prey under his charm: one lewd exhibitionist and one shrew with tangled past. somehow he's employed by the latter whom he also falls in love with. but the malice of the woman's invalid spouse brings forth catastrophe to everyone, nothing left but a snakeskin jacket remained from a fire disaster, another symbol of williams' poetric tragedy, and one fugitive kind seeks another to compensate.
brando's male beauty has not been in the prime blossom as he was in 1951 "streetcar named desire", by 1959, he starts to bare some rugged ripeness. anna magnani, who makes her fame in "the rose tattoo", is perfect casting choice as the elder woman whose vigor of life is mighty enough to lure brando without being perished into pieces by him.
"the fugitive kind" is one good example of the significance of the scriptor, and the movie's functionality all relies upon the pearly lines of tennesse williams and his metaphoric usage of lust and death which are frequent themes in his plays as well as the occasional dialogues of existential futility which are too lengthy to be mentioned here. "fugitive kind" requires your thorough attention to chew over the clever words of pessismistic wisdom, far from a mindless pleasure you could squander over.as one of the great rebel/method actors in the beat generation, brando showcases another charm due to sexual antagonism in "fugutive kind", also scripted by tennesse williams, and this time he meets his female counterpart, anna magnani whose individuality is sharp enough to emulate his. if you like great plays as you enjoy "streetcar name desire" as well as "rose tattoo"..."fugitive kind" is also a great choice for your food of thoughts.
posted 6 days ago -
I recommend you see...
The Dark Knight
by kevinmichaelhow long has it been since a movie villian truly chilled? like when ol' darth vader used the force to choke that guy for talking just a little innocent smack to him...that was some chilly, wasn't it? you betcha. or remember when misunderstood hannibal lector sniffed poor ol'clarice starling...right thru that uberthick plastiglass cage he was in, and then told her what she smelled like...brrrrr! mucho chilly. well, seems like it's been a long time since there was a real creep at work...and heath ledger is him, brother, the joker, a real dirty piece of walking filth, an open sore, just beggin' for an nonstop, bigtime, face-in-the-dirt, asswhuppin...only...only HE DOES BEG FOR IT. pretty please. arctic frost time. now the writing is exemplary here and there ain't no doubt about that and i'll always tell ya that that's what a good film is about, and i'm not backing down from that now. and good actors, you need them and this film's got plenty. heck, the friggen butler's better (michael caine) here than 95% of what's out there now and even maggie gyllenhaal, who i wasn't expecting much from, delivered the goods in style. and lotsa action here. and enough twists and turns to keep any philip marlowe fan happy(superhero film noir!)...but this one is all about the joker, the new kid, the new standard of villiany in town. watch out for his disappearing pencil trick...brrrrrrrrrrr! "accepting the oscar for best supporting actor in a dramatic film..." yeah. it's like that.
Hey, you should really see this!
posted 6 days ago -
I recommend you see...
The Dark Knight
by EdMy first 5-star review of 2008 goes to Christopher Nolan's masterpiece The Dark Knight. I can't think of anything original to say other than what's already been said: Believe the hype this time around!!
First off, Heath Ledger, you are a genius. From here on now, when I think of The Joker, I will no longer think of Jack Nicholson, but of your brilliant, menacing, and deepy disturbing portrayal. You easily have the most memorable performance of the year, and you deserve an Oscar win! RIP.
The Dark Knight isn't so much a comic book movie as it is a crime thriller along the vein of Heat. In that sense, it redefines both the rules of a crime movie and a summer comic book film, and it ranks with the very best of them. Best film of 2008! Best Batman movie ever! Best comic book movie ever! I wanna see it again!Hey, you should really see this! See it ASAP! Then see it again!
posted 7 days ago -
I recommend you see...
In This Our Life
by Veronique"in this our life" is bette davis' cooperation with director john huston, backsetted in the old south reputed for its insolent southern belle while racial bigotry still exists then. olivia de havilland's casted as davis' virtuous sister with the capacity and benevolence to make the best of everything, even the men disposed by davis. it might be a reminder of de havilland's miss goody goody image in "gone with the wind" but this time her counterpart devoids the glamourous polish and de havilland herself begins to show some hardened edge rather than her sweet pie lad image alongside errol flynn in swashbuckler pieces.
davis is the wildly arbitrary sister of the reputed timberlake family with an uncle who has a drolling incestuous crush on her. with the uncle's financial backup,davis struts around, stealing her sister's beau then destroys him willfully, eventually her irresponsiblity deteriorates into framing a diligent black janitor after she accidentally runs over a woman. davis plays that kind of malicious bitch who could only be gratified by someone else's unhappiness, and once she obtains and devours something, she tramps it and tosses aside, absolutely guiltless and unwilling to take the blame with a pretentious victimized facade.
unevitably "in this our life" is melodramatic with the archetypes of selfless gentle woman like de havilland and bitch-perfect bette davis, but at least it has enough relish to make a watchable picture, and john huston's noirish strokes add gritty seasoning to it.
like "jezebel" and "little foxes", davis gets into the skin of another abrasive southern stereotype, malevolent egoist who is vain enough to disregard the welfare of others. "gone with the wind" glamour star vivien leigh also thrives in such southern belle role, such as her scarlet o'hara and "streetcar named desire", but the main difference between leigh's and davis' interpretations would be the relentless brass and spunk. leigh's performing style is more feminine and laid-back in the niche of shakespian thespian while miss davis shamelessly smirks and growls. maybe that's what defines davis' feminist poise, watching a woman who doesn't hesitate to galope full throttle being a bitch even she appears in a light of coquettish wardrobe by orry-kelly.is the notion of feminity defined by the subtlety of your emotional expressiveness? would any unbashful expressionism be tagged as feminist poise? observe bette davis and vivien leigh.
posted 7 days ago -
Come see this movie with me...
In the sequel he meets a Bronx Giraffe.
posted 8 days ago -
I recommend you see...
Boogie Nights
by Veronique"boogie nights" is mark walhberg's breakthru into the caliber of a actors, and it might be paul thomas anderson's best work by far as well as a good enclosure among the 90s. walhberg used to be the calvin klein model for underwear so the size of his private thing has been nicely anchored before,and his "marky marky" white rapper image is highly helpful for the audience to lead into the imaginary ground of dirk diggler.
walhberg palys eddie, an astray teenager who gets one special talent, his 13 inches phallis, then he gets spoted by the porn director, john horner(burt reynolds), so he re-incarnates into the legendary stud in porn cinema, dirk diggler. but the movie centers not merely on dirk but also the people around this pornography circle, such as roller girl (heather gramham) and the maternal porn actress(julianne moore) as well as various sub-cast like philip hoffman and don cheadle..etc. you may view these people frivolously wasted as social scums, but they do sincerely deem porn flicks as a form of cinema with sincere enthusiasm.
even in the degenerated role like that, mark walhberg does emite some lovable boyish innocence in this character, for example, dirk often inquires his co-woman-star's feelings in the sex scenes, for instance, he askes julianne moore in the firse scene of their intercourse, "where you want me to shoot? are you all right?" and she also shows some affectionate encouragements back in return. there's no misogynism in its female characters, and men do show some respect of equality to women even in a seemingly rotten bussiness like porn cinema. they consider lovemaking an exhibitionistic enjoyment, and they do care about the works they've done. and also, there's some strange ethics among this group of people, burt reynold's like a proper paternal figure, in the scene he kisses moore on the shoulder then remark "i stare at the foxiest bitch in the world". vice versa, julianne moore is the maternal figure who is a gentle nuturer while joanna gleason is the opposite as dirk's judgementally harsh mother who deems him as forever loser and dirk's father is a meek quiet man without opinions. and dirk's life is like an elongated adolescence while he's eternally obsessed with oriental kung-fu, various subcultural items and flashy roadsters. but i must say, walhberg really gets the poise and the moves!
the course of american dream would be the earnest naivete of its dreamers, and even sex workers also have their american dream in spite of the outrageous notoriety they receive from drug abuse and promiscuity. "boogie nights" has the capacity of humanity and pathos for its characters, but it also bares the price these people have to pay for such self-abandoned lifestyle. they're bittersweet tales of porn industry's idealistic narcissism and its sour mistreatment from social prejudices. it's like an obscene american dream awaken in the end with corrosive disillusion while walhberg demonstrates kung-fu to his 13 inches dildo."boogie nights" is the pornogrphic version of american dream, and dirk diggler is a dazed youth who builds his self-assurance upon his 13 inches thing, but who's wrong with that? ha. everyone has his one specialty. "boogie nights" is gleefully obscene but also sardonically humanistic with its deep sympathy to the characters. everyone gives a good performance and the music is tasteful, same as the wardrobe, jullian moore and heather gramham never look sexier than this, the porn sirens. i feel comfortable watching it becuz it shows no misogynism even in an erotic material like that.
maybe the harshest part would be the photographer with a sex-addict wife who could get laid on literarily everywhere. but it's some sort of profane humor.posted 9 days ago -
I recommend you see...
All This, and Heaven Too
by Veroniqueall this, and heaven too" is a tear-jerking over sentimentalized vehicle of miss bette davis, intended to showcase miss davis' caliber of benevolent characters instead of her trademarked roles as malevolent shrews like "little foxes", "jazebel" and "whatever happened to baby jane."..except the acting, everything about "all this, and heaven too" flops into a hygienized version of "jane eyre" without a bit of gothic allure, a tale of a prim governess' suppressed crush on her empolyer.
davis plays an idealistic young woman who comes to france serving an aristocratic family led by charles boyer, and she spreads warmth of love to his children that draws the bitter jealousy of the loveless wife(babara o'nell) who goes insane at any moment when the aristocrat endears the governess. then the fanatic wife gets rid of the governess then revenges her by not granting a letter of reference. eventually the aristocrat slaughters his wife in a fit of enormous rage.
the simmering romance between boyer and davis is like a smoldered stewed dish without emanation so it just stales with exceeding melodramaticity. the best moment in the flick would probably be the second charles boyer strikes barbara o'nell. and the children seem unpleasant with their galling sweetness, escpecially their pretentious french accent."
"all this, and heaven too" is a so-called woman's movie(or chic flick), but it all depends on whether you term womanhood as oppressive passion sealed under the conduction of puritanical virtues. perhaps an explosion would be more aggreeable than masochistic feminity.maybe n this gendre, jan eyre would be a better choice with its gothic allure, and orson welles' abrasive master with a dark secret is far more interesting. joan fountain seems to be more adequate to timid roles like this in her early collaborations with hitchcock like "rebecca" and "suspicion".
posted 9 days ago -
I recommend you see...
Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
by AudreyI watched this movie last night and was blown away! Amazing screenwriting and brilliant direction from Lumet,as well as excellent editing. A masterpiece.
I've always been somewhat neutral about Ethan Hawke but he demonstrated a range of ability that gives me a whole new respect for his acting. Hoffman also was excellent-but I knew he would be LOL.Hey, you should really see this!
posted 9 days ago -
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