Tag: 2.01

The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story – The Man Who Would Be Vogue – Review

A new season with a brand new story, American Crime Story is back! This time the story centers on the death of Gianni Versace. This installment is pretty different from its predecessor as it actually shows the crime happening and the events leading up to it. This installment moves out of the courtroom and actually focuses on the major characters at play there were involved in the crime.

This installment has a lot of hype to live up to. First of all there is a whole new cast and it has been highly publicized that the story is not supported by the real Versace family. Whoever is the casting director for this show needs a major round applause because the resemblances between the actors and the real life people they are portraying is uncanny. The series stars Edgar Ramirez in the title role and Ryan Murphy protégé Darren Criss as murder Andrew Cunanan. Then we have Ricky Martin playing Versace’s boyfriend and Penelope Cruz portraying Donatella Versace, which I’m sure, will be a major player in future episodes.

The series opens up with the actual murder taking place and then flashes back to how Andrew and Versace met. Criss’s portrayal of Cunanan is so creepy and a major departure from his Glee days. Did he give anyone else nightmares or was I the only one? He is the definition of a pathological liar and it seems like the person he is lying to most is himself. After bothering Versace at the club, Versace invites Cunanan as his guest at the opera. Versace seems to have some sort of admiration for Cunanan and it seems that they are teasing that two were involved in some sort of relationship. Maybe he was one of the men that police were referring to when talking to Martin’s character? I know he denied it but hey anything is possible.

The episode then returns to the present and we get to see how Cunnan escaped. It turns out that he was wanted for five murders and the FBI was really doing nothing about it. That is until now he is the most wanted man in America and I’m sure he won’t be able to hide for much longer.

The press circus at the Versace mansion is insane, no one is doing damage control. That’s where Donatella comes into the fold, as she arrives at the mansion and goes into full on girlboss mode. She is more concerned about the fashion company than actually morning her brothers death. They are presenting a pretty stone cold Donatella if you ask me. No wonder the family wasn’t happy with the series, I wouldn’t be either if showed me more concerned about the company going public than being upset over my brother’s murder!

Overall the series looks promising and the performances have been pretty spectacular (especially from Criss). I was not really aware of this story, as I was only a year old at the time, so I am deciding to let this show inform me. After this installment wraps I’m going to do my research and see if the series was accurate as they say.

Side Notes:
-I wonder which gleek Murphy will bring into the franchise next? Lea Micheles show just got canceled so maybe we’ll be seeing her soon?
-How weird was it not seeing Sarah Paulson in this season? She’s usually in all Murphy’s FX shows.
-I wonder if Criss will be competing in lead or supporting actor when it comes to the award show season? I say he deserves lead.

What were your thoughts on the first episode? Who do think gave the best performance? Do you miss any of the previous actors and actresses from the last installment? Comment below!

The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story – The Man Who Would Be Vogue – Review

American Crime Story reminds us why we need period dramas

In the opening scenes of American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace, we are greeted with a sense of foreboding. We see the late fashion designer (Edgar Ramirez) beginning his day, leaving his mansion, greeting friends on the street. The sun is bright, the day looks warm, his life seems lovely. And it is in stark contrast to images of his killer Andrew Cunanan (Darren Criss) who’s preparing to gun him down on the steps of his home; scenes in which Cunanan walks into the ocean and screams before vomiting in a public restroom. It is a juxtaposition that is unnerving, upsetting, and inescapably pulls you in. And then, with the sound of a gunshot and Versace’s quiet “no,” it comes to an end. And we’re transported to another time, another place, and a year even further back in time.

Period dramas are nothing new. Between PBS and the BBC, most of us have sought refuge in the comforts of Jane Austen adaptations and the trials and tribulations of Lord Grantham and his family. 11 years ago, AMC debuted Mad Men, and with it, an over-romanticization of the society and decade it was criticizing. From that sprung series like The Playboy Club, Masters of Sex, and Pan Am (only one of which surviving more than one season), as well as HBO series like Vinyl and Boardwalk Empire (again, only one of which earning critical acclaim). Our zest for the past has always existed, but our current cultural climate has seen an even deeper dive into history. Likely because it feels safer there.

1997, the year in which Gianni Versace was murdered by Andrew Cunanan, feels much closer than the two decades that exists between us and that fateful morning. But we still use those twenty years to fuel an odd sense of comfort. As Versace begins his day, it’s easy to break from the anticipation of tragedy to notice his era-appropriate outfit (white shorts and flip-flops), as well as one bystander’s instinct to grab a Polaroid camera so he could document the crime scene. The wardrobes stand out, the lack of technology, the way the public learned of his death through TV anchors, not smartphones. ACS becomes less a dramatization than a case study, giving us a false sense of wisdom we use to comb through an event that happened long ago. And then believe that through understanding it, we’re in control of … something.

Because that’s the merit of a period drama. We get to watch under the guise that we’re advanced, we see what they didn’t. During series like The Crown, we pat ourselves on the back for knowing better; for living through the Meghan Markle era (a wonderful era!) instead of watching a young woman be denied her true love. In The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel we watch as a woman navigates the hurdles that accompany the world of stand-up, as though comedians (and women in general) today aren’t dealing with as much sexism and scrutiny (just while outfitted differently). Meanwhile, Halt and Catch Fire took us through a journey of technological evolution, that was mesmerized, even if we were fully aware of how history would turn out. Period dramas give us the illusion of superiority, of being certified (armchair) sociologists. We tell ourselves that they didn’t know, but now we do, while escaping a reality that will fuel period dramas for years and years, decades down the line.

Why wouldn’t we escape someplace that feels comforting because it’s familiar (regardless of how problematic that time and era was)? Why would we willingly plunge into the present?

And who can blame us? Everything feels bad. The news is a tire fire. The American presidency gets worse by the day, and our weather’s proving how little control we have over our own planet and futures. Why would we want to spend our free time delving into more of the same? Why wouldn’t we want to escape into the arms of Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks and The Washington Post during the Nixon administration, where for a fleeting second we can remember what it feels to be motivated and inspired instead of wanting to curl up and nap all the time. Why wouldn’t we want to seek refuge in The Crown which is beautiful to look at and played out in a way that makes you feel equal parts angry, empathetic, and comforted? Why wouldn’t we tune into American Crime Story to lose ourselves in the late 1990s when everything felt so futuristic but was still so stuck and so limited and so small? Why wouldn’t we escape someplace that feels comforting because it’s familiar (regardless of how problematic that time and era was)? Why would we willingly plunge into the present?

So bring on the period dramas. Give me 1997, give me late fifties New York. Let me forget about the present by examining a very contained section of history and with it, the notion that with perspective comes a better understanding (or an end) to specific frustrations and pain. Let me tell myself that it’s different now, and that many of the same problems don’t exist in the same way — or better still, that we’re not regressing and ushering even more damage. Let me treat my TV like an escape vessel or a type of virtual reality. Let me think I’m at least slightly in control because it is 2018 and I don’t think anyone would use a Polaroid camera to document a crime scene.

American Crime Story reminds us why we need period dramas

Stands_on-21: Sure. It was filmed at the Avalon theatre/nightclub last June. About 200-250 extras. I estimate 80% of the guys were actually gay (I’m straight). They provide us with a general idea of what to wear and then, once on set, they dressed us up a little bit more (or in some cases, dressed us down). A few guys would come in a couple of weeks before to get dressed in specific costumes. The guys on the stage were in pretty crazy outfits. They were like wearing gas mSks and stuff. I, personally enjoyed the first couple hours of filming because, as a married/straight guy, this was a whole new world to me. We started filming around 8:00 am and worked straight through til about 6:00 pm. Crazy considering the whole scene only lasted a couple of minutes. The opening scene (of Andrew walking through the dance floor) was literally like the last thing we filmed. We could pretty much could’ve stood/danced wherever we wanted (as long as we weren’t blocking any specific camera angles). I chose to stand at the bar with my empty glass. When shooting starts, they play the music for the first 15-20 seconds so guys get the beat/rhythm down, then they shut it off so they can hear/record the dialogue. Everyone has to keep dancing but AlSO remain absolutely quiet. Very interesting sight. Although we were downstairs, we could still easily hear the dialogue between Andrew and Versace (I dont know the actors names but everyone said Andrew was on Glee). I don’t get star struck but sometimes I’ll see an actor and there is just something different/special about them. This guy from Glee was real good. However, hands down, the best actor who I ever “worked” with was the blond dude from American Horror Story. He played Kai this season. I was part of the political rally when he gave his “Trump-like” speech. Dude was fucking on fire! He had an iPod on between takes and you could tell he was practicing his lines to himself. Fucking professional all the way (plus he seemed like a cool dude). On the Versace shoot, everyone was pretty pissed the last few hours cause we hadn’t got any breaks. Those who are Union (SAG) made BANK that day because of overtime and stuff.

‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace’ is flashy but empty

Season one of FX’s “American Crime Story” capitalized on last year’s O.J. craze with a gripping, well-acted depiction of one of the most significant events in American cultural history. Although the assassination of legendary fashion designer Gianni Versace is not quite as ingrained in the country’s mind as the Simpson saga, “American Crime Story” tells its story in an ornate, operatic and elegant way, much like the man himself.

The story starts with the titular murder, as Andrew Cunanan (University alum Darren Criss, “Glee”) shoots Versace (Édgar Ramirez, “Zero Dark Thirty”) in front of his Miami mansion. Through a series of flashbacks interlaced with the subsequent FBI investigation, the show pieces together the life of the enigmatic, troubled Cunanan and what led him to commit a crime of passion.

While the stories themselves are intriguing, much like season one, the acting breathes life into characters who have been endlessly analyzed, making the show less of a criminal investigation and more of a deep, powerful drama. Criss’s portrayal of Cunanan paints the picture of a man who lacks any sort of human empathy yet seems to also have a complex set of emotions bubbling at the surface. He is an enthusiastic and effective liar, able to draw the audience into the web of fiction he creates in his mind. Ramirez, on the other hand, portrays Versace as an intensely charismatic man with a true zeal for life, as well as the courage to live as openly gay during a much less progressive time. Even Ricky Martin’s portrayal of Versace’s boyfriend Antonio D’Amico is believable and effective, albeit a one note performance since he displays the same anguished expression every time he appears onscreen. Versace’s sister and eventual ruler of the Versace empire Donatella (Penelope Cruz, “Murder on the Orient Express”), arrives towards the end of the first episode, stylishly clad in black and more ruthlessly pragmatic than her romantic brother.

The opening scene is the episode’s most memorable, with stunning shots of Miami and Versace’s grand, opulent mansion and little dialogue. Strings play in the background, growing more and more tense as Cunanan prepares himself for the deed. Everything, from the details of the mansion to Versace’s dead body, is presented as channeling beauty — ranging from traditional to morbid. Yet one can’t help feeling that unlike season one, the show is choosing to sacrifice substance for style. While some scenes such as Cunanan and Versace’s conversation after an opera viewing are strong, the dialogue at several points feels stilted and cliché, failing to convey the true emotions the characters are feeling. Because of this, quite a few of Criss’s strongest moments come from entirely non-verbal actions, whether it is swimming fully clothed into the sea to let out a primordial scream or painfully trying to imitate human emotion.

The show also does a solid job of contrasting Versace’s unique romanticism and how his vision interacts with the capitalistic nature of the society he lives in. In one scene, he explains that he makes his clothes to make his subjects happy and how every dress he makes follows the first he made for his sister.

“American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace” is visually gorgeous and shaping up to be an intriguing character study. Hopefully, the series manages to truly analyze the crime and its impact on society, rather than exploit a set of dramatic clichés.

‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace’ is flashy but empty

American Camp Story: Did Versace’s Murderer Really Kill That Dove, Too?

“The world of the heterosexual,” Aunt Ida shudders in John Waters’s justifiably straight-hating magnum opus, Female Trouble, “is a sick and boring life.” American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace is not heterosexual programming, thank God, which means it’s neither sick nor boring—only deeply stylized, so that it succeeds in making murder look like the narrative focal point of a perfume commercial. Like all good stories, it begins with a location card reading “Miami Beach, Florida.” Like a number of good films, it has the beach’s signature electric lushness, its too-lurid color: red lights, blue skies, green palms, a candy-pink silk-satin robe.

Ryan Murphy’s latest season of his pop procedural anthology, American Crime Story, covers the 1997 shooting of Versace in nine fifty-minute episodes; and yet so un-boring is the pilot that we see the murder seven minutes in. The twinky killer, Andrew Cunanan, is a fantasist played with a cold and twitchily unreal demeanor by the android-perfect Darren Criss. Introduced as an unreliable narrator, then a Ripley-esque savant at social climbing, he creates two big impressions: one in a scene that shows him covering his mouth in a pantomime of horror when he’s really smiling, and another that’s a bona fide showcase for his ass. He’s closeted around his straight friends, gay around his gay friends, and completely unashamed to say out loud that his objective is to “tell people whatever they need to hear”—a primo marker for a sociopath. By July of 1997, he has killed five people in a span of six months, one of whom is Gianni Versace, and he is a very wanted man.

The timeline leaps from the murder scene to 1990, and the killer’s would-be-courtship of Versace—whom he tells about his plan to write a book, provoking one of the all-time greatest burns on the laziness of writers ever televised: “I wish I had the patience to write a novel, but my mind is always moving"—and then back again. (Whether the two men actually met at all before the shooting has, I ought to say, been subject to debate: last week the writer Maureen Orth, whose book about the killing, Vulgar Favours, is the inspiration for the show, insisted: “There is no doubt in my mind that those two met.” What we see here is that lack of doubt played out for the very best angle; so that what might be erotic, a seduction at the opera, only ratchets up the audience’s dread.) We’re introduced to Penelope Cruz as Donatella circa 1997, stepping off a jet in mourning leather and affecting a faultless accent, less Italian than idiosyncratic Donatella-ese.

Because the Versaces are a family represented by an image drawn from the myths of ancient Greece, it’s fitting that they’re rendered at an also-mythic scale for television: murder, feuds and three-or-more-ways figure heavily immediately. That famed Medusa branding, says Gianni in the pilot, came to pass because as children, he and Donatella “used to play in ancient ruins where we grew up, and one day I saw the Medusa’s head…. I know that many people call it pretentious, but I don’t care. How could my childhood be pretentious?” Versace’s use of the Medusa head has always seemed to me deliciously ironic, since the myth of the Medusa is that she began her life as a beautiful woman, and was turned into a monster to repel men. No Versace woman ever knowingly repelled a man; where fashion in its highest form is these days happy to perform like a Medusa spell—to make the wearer into something hard to see for heterosexual male suitors—Versace is a brand where simple sexuality, the nakedly extrinsic, rules.

The show so far is likewise fascinated with both architectural interiors and personal exteriors, equally baroque. It’s fascinated with Versace’s Greco branding as a visual signifier: of the dead man’s love of glamour, his association with locales that, culturally, read as sultry and as torrid with both words as synonyms for “hot” and “scandalous.” By minute fifty, we know where we’re going but are unsure as to how we’re getting there, except in style.

A final note on certain accuracies and inaccuracies: when Gianni’s shot, we see a dove shot alongside him, so that the white and pretty bird—a single punctuation mark of red, a single flaw—ends up as evidence. How could a death be pretentious? Evidently, far more easily than one might think: the dove was real, a casualty of Cunanan’s first bullet. Less real is the woman who is seen to soak a print Versace ad in blood from the crime scene, making something both so chic and so immoral, so completely ghoulish and indebted to the capitalist status quo, that it can only be completely perfect; there could not be a more elegant or necessary lie.

American Camp Story: Did Versace’s Murderer Really Kill That Dove, Too?

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DR190: Black Mirror and The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story

In this week’s episode David, John and Kyle discuss David Harbour’s Twitter promises (3:40), Spike TV’s rogue Twitter account (11:45) and the chaos surrounding the accidental Hawaii missile alert text (17:20). We also review all of season four of Black Mirror (28:00). Finally, we review the premiere of The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story entitled “The Man Who Would Be Vogue” (46:20).

This episode was originally recorded and released on January 18th on our YouTube channel. You can listen to this show there in a much higher audio quality. To get in touch with us and find out when we are recording follow us on Twitter!

“ACS: The Assassination of Gianni Versace”, Episode 1 – Blog – The Film Experience

The first installment of American Crime Story made such a deep dent in culture by taking the O.J. Simpson murder trial, a case that was heavily imprinted in popular consciousness, and used it to analyze issues of race, sexism, and tabloid culture that still resonate today.

The second season focuses on, as the title establishes, the assassination of famed designer Gianni Versace in 1997 (shortly after the O.J. case) by serial killer Andrew Cunanan. And if the first episode is any indication of what the season as a whole will attempt, it will both broaden and narrow the cultural conversations that the first season tackled.

On the premiere episode, we get a first look into the mind of a murderer, the house of an icon, and the jet of a queen…

Episode 1 “The Man Who Would Be Vogue”
The premiere opens with Gianni Versace’s morning routine on the day of his murder. We follow him through the halls and patios of an overbearingly sumptuous mansion, in an exquisite tracking shot that indicates that excess is an everyday part of this man.

Then we see Andrew Cunanan played by a never-better Darren Criss who will inevitably and deservedly going to be showered with awards on the fall. He’s contemplating, executing, and ultimately relishing the act of murdering Versace right on his front porch.

Opening with the murder is an indication that the series, much like in its first season, will not be focusing on the act itself, but rather on the players around it, and the culture that allowed it to happen. Gianni Versace was not the first murder Andrew Cunanan committed, and it was not the final chapter of his story. The series will delve both into the events that led him to commit that murder, and what happened afterwards.

This will be an exploration of Andrew Cunanan, who Darren Criss embodies with overbearing charisma, ambition, wide-eyed naiveté, and the right amount of flickering darkness to make us raise an eyebrow. We see that all throughout his life he has looked from the outside longing to belong, and that his magnetic personality and natural ability to lie through his teeth have carried him through.

In another superbly executed tracking shot, Andrew walks through a gay club with a friend, lusting not only after the boys around him, but this style of life. He meets Versace and insinuates himself into his life, landing a date at the opera he’s producing. He’s a serial liar, and to us it is evident, but you desperately want to believe him.

But this is also about the other players around him: the cops that are investigating Versace’s murder and are full of prejudices around his lifestyle. His lover and partner, Antonio D’Amico (played with impressive grace by Ricky Martin), who has to pick him up from the steps and spend the entire evening covered in his blood.

And it’s also about Gianni’s sister, Donatella, who is given perhaps the greatest television entrance in years: out of a jet into a limousine through the mansion, where, without a word, she’s swallowing her grief. And the moment Penelope Cruz finally speaks with that perfect accent, a couple of octaves down, we know Donatella means business.

She needs to keep the family company a family company, and will do whatever it takes to keep her brother’s legacy alive. It doesn’t seem Donatella will be much in the spotlight throughout the show, but Penelope iz making the best with her time, chewing every single piece of gold-coated scenery.

Whereas The People vs. OJ explored issues of racism and misogyny that reverberated in the present more than ever, Gianni Versace seems to be wanting to tackle both the homophobia and the celebration of gay culture that allowed these murders to happen. The majority of the players were gay themselves, and their relationship with that identity deeply influenced the case, either emotionally (with Ricky Martin’s character), strategically (all of Cunanan’s victims followed a very specific pattern), or legally (the Miami PD relationship with the local gay community was complicated, to say the least)

We’ll see exactly what statement the show frames around the murder as it develops, but the pilot doesn’t shy away from letting us know that identity politics will play a huge role in this; and that, yes, they are also still relevant.

The Assassination of Gianni Versace is perhaps a bit more scattered than its predecessor, but it also seems to enjoy itself a bit more. The show could develop into a lavish drama about passion and murder, or be an intricate exploration of broken minds and gay culture, or a combination of both. But wherever it takes us, I was in from the first moment Edgar Ramirez descended his spiral case in a silk bathrobe.

“ACS: The Assassination of Gianni Versace”, Episode 1 – Blog – The Film Experience

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The Shifting Tides of Culture

T & Lo discuss the ongoing cultural shift in Hollywood, examining the reactions to the Aziz Ansari story and how the wider #MeToo movement is changing the conversation. Plus, the “Heathers” remake and how it demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of the original film, which leads to a wider discussion on remakes, reboots and sequels, with thoughts on “Blade Runner 2049” thrown in. Finally, they review the 1st episode of “The Assassination of Gianni Versace” and how it depicts the assault on gay culture that followed his death.

*Starts at 37:45 on full podcast

The Assassination of Gianni Versace first impression: After People v OJ, this show is another feather in Ryan Murphy’s hat

The Assassination of Gianni Versace has been long awaited and fans were more than ecstatic when creator Ryan Murphy preponed this to be the second season of American Crime Story instead of the third. The story has elements that capture the voyeuristic nature of the audience. What happens behind closed doors of celebrities and how a failed FBI manhunt led to the murder of the fashion icon Versace make for a compelling TV series.

While in the first season, The People v. O. J. Simpson, we never saw the crime happen but witnessed the aftermath, the speculation and the court case, here we witness the gruesome murder in the first 7 minutes of the premiere episode.

The show starts off by displaying the grandeur of Versace’s Miami mansion, the immense wealth and the innumerable servants showcase the king-like lifestyle that Gianni enjoyed. In his pink bathrobe and servants who are ready with a glass of juice as he descends from the steps of his palatial home, we get a glimpse of the life he led, fearlessly.

While we are getting an introduction of the murder victim, we are also introduced to the murderer, Andrew Cunanan, played by Darren Criss. The closet gay guy, who tells people what they want to hear, admires Versace, just like he admired other powerful men and isn’t shy about lying in order to get what he wants. He makes up stories about his family in the Philippines, his father running off with a farm boy and him writing a book and he tells them without blinking an eye. Darren, also has a striking resemblance to the real Cunanan, which makes the story look more authentic.

The first episode explores the social standing of the LGBT society, the homophobia, the assumption that a gay partner would be a pimp; all these questions come up in the police investigation which only goes out to show that a common man just wasn’t aware of what a same sex relationship looks like.

Cunanan’s motives to murder aren’t pronounced out loud in the first episode but all hints point to the fact that it was the social stigma and his inability to deal with his sexual orientation that led him to commit the heinous act. After the audience is shown the murder scene, the show moves to flashback where we see the apparent first encounter between the murderer and the victim in a San Francisco nightclub. The encounter is awkward at first when Versace tries to brush him off but soon the conversation progresses with heavy sexual undertones. This is where you realise that the murder wasn’t as volatile as it first looked like.

In long sequences without any dialogues and with some classic opera music playing in the background, the series sets the tone, they aren’t going for cheap tricks but instead taking the fancier route. Certain scenes have Ryan Murphy’s signature and those compel you to stick to the series. There’s one where a passerby is auctioning off the only polaroid of Versace’s dead body and one where a fan runs towards the bloodied steps, dips a magazine paper in it and saves it like a souvenir in a plastic bag. This, also heavily focuses on the crazy celebrity fandom that has engrossed America for several years, where even the dead man’s blood is a prized possession.

The show is based on Maureen Orth’s book Vulgar Favors but the Versace family has declared this as a piece of fiction. Ryan Murphy believes this to be a piece of docu-drama based on real events.

Penelope Cruz comes in the later part of the first episode and plays Versace’s sister, Donatella. Her strong headed attitude makes her look like an ice queen but that is the need of the hour. The emphasis on family and not trusting strangers is repeated many times with suspicious glances to Versace’s long-time partner Antonio D’Amico, played by Ricky Martin. Ricky is stiff and until now hasn’t contributed much to the show, even though he had enough opportunity. Edgar Ramirez’s Versace is fabulous. He’s flamboyant but also sincere, his enigma is believable and enchanting and his scenes with Criss’ Cunanan keep you hooked enough that you don’t want to miss out on a single moment.

The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story is engrossing and we’re looking forward to the remaining eight episodes but we wonder how they will explain the ‘assassination’ in the title.

The Assassination of Gianni Versace first impression: After People v OJ, this show is another feather in Ryan Murphy’s hat