Monsters' Ball
A comic-book avatar and a maverick filmmaker team up for the delightfully depraved 'Sin City.'


Newsweek
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/724178.../newsweek/

March 28 issue -

The first dozen times Frank Miller got called about turning his legendary, and legendarily violent, "Sin City" graphic novels into a movie, he didn't flinch. He turned them all down cold. "This was my baby," says Miller, 48, nursing a beer at his favorite pub in New York City's Hell's Kitchen. "And I know what they do. They turn everything into a bromide with a happy ending." Director Robert Rodriguez ("Spy Kids") was the 12th "no." The Austin, Texas-based auteur had been an early fan of the comic, often purchasing the same issue twice because, in his excitement, he'd forget he already had a copy at home. In late 2003 he chased down Miller at the very same pub to make his pitch. Miller was impressed—and said no.


Weeks later Rodriguez, a broad-chested, 36-year-old perpetual-motion machine, called again with a proposition: "Fly to Austin and we'll shoot a test. If you don't like it, we've still got a cool little DVD." Miller caved. When he arrived, he found actor Josh Hartnett and a fully rigged set waiting for him. "This was no damn test," Miller says. "This was the first day of principal photography." Rodriguez gleefully owns up. "Hey," he says, "that's what would convince me to do it." Miller was in.


The film version of "Sin City"—starring Bruce Willis, Clive Owen, Benicio Del Toro, Mickey Rourke and what seems like the past six cover models of Maxim magazine—could inspire a sadistic drinking game: one sip for every severed hand, two for an arm or leg, three for each decapitation. Weaving together three of Miller's underworld fantasias, the movie seeks out the line between an R rating and an NC-17, then toe-tickles it for 135 minutes. It's gory stuff, but it's also a visually arresting blitzkrieg with action so bare-knuckled you'll leave the theater spitting out teeth. The entire film is a digital painting in stark black and white with dashes of color, like a hyperreal film noir. Frame for frame, it doesn't merely resemble the comic book. It is the comic book. "I didn't want to make Robert Rodriguez's 'Sin City'," says the director. "I wanted to make Frank Miller's 'Sin City'."

source:
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