Tuesday, November 11, 2008

15 Days Until Australia Opens...

Nicole Kidman as "Satine" for Moulin Rouge! (2001)

...and Baz (direction) & Catherine (costumes) have their way with the Iconography of Kidman again. *faints*

p.s. more on that Oprah special later today

25 comments:

abstew said...

nicole has never been more beautiful than in MOULIN ROGUE! its the film that took her from wonderful actress to the legendary pantheon of movie star. its due in large part to CM's amazing costumes and the way baz shot her. i can't wait to see how they have made her legend grow with AUSTRALIA.

abstew said...

but who's the genius that had AUSTRALIA and MILK open on the same day? with both films clocking in at over 2 and a half hours, that's a loooooong double feature. please, don't make me SOPHIE'S CHOICE it.

Anonymous said...

Nicole in MOULIN ROUGE! is simply amazing. She deserved the Oscar for it, not just the MTV MOVIE AWARDS...I know, I know she won also the Golden Globe, but anyway...
I wish AUSTRALIA will stop her backstab period...sinche she doesn't deserve the harsh she received in these years.
Ok, the overexposure...but it's not her fault if she receives many offers by the producers...I'm just sorry she accepted to be in BEWITHCHED, THE INVASION or THE STEPFORD WIVES...but her works in movies such as THE GOLDEN COMPASS or, most of all, MARGOT AT THE WEDDING is deeply undervalued.
People likes to say the bothox made an expressionless thespian of her...but are we really sure this people watched these two movies?
I'm not so sure...

mirko

Catherine said...

Cannot. Wait.

But my whole "avoid any plot details" plan backfired miserably when I opened yesterday's Guardian and read the big spoiler alert. My eyes began travelling down the page before my brain had the time to stop it. Drat.

Anonymous said...

i watched margot and her face never moved esp those lips and the fact at 40 she is considered an icon after lots of blah movies an oscar for a supp role one great perf in moulin rouge does not an icon make nat,yes she was good in to die for,the portrait of a lady & birth but an icon she needs to get to streep level if nicole is an icon whats streep.

Anonymous said...

Streep is 59, Kidman is 41.

You can't compare the two. At 41 Streep also had a few missteps (Death becomes her, She-devil, the house of spirit).

I agree that Kidman lost her way after Birth, but I think that since Compass she's back on track and that Australia and Nine will be good films

Anonymous said...

She has been great in TO DIE FOR, THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY, EYES WIDE SHUT, MOULIN ROUGE!, THE OTHERS, BIRTH...and she gave awesome perfs in many other flicks, such as DOGVILLE or THE HOURS. I don't think there are many actresses with a resume comparable to Kidman's...
What's the matter if she won the Best Actress Oscar for a role with limited screen time? You can say the same thing for Peter Finch or Anthony Hopkins, just to name a few. And anyway, if we're speaking about Fraud Category, it's still better when a supporting player is put on the leading category than the opposite (I'm speaking about Jennifer Connelly, Jennifer Hudson, Marcia Gay Harden...).
She's an icon because she's a great actress and a beautiful woman!

mirko

Anonymous said...

Oprah and her crowd went gaga for it. IDK if that's a good thing or a bad thing. Brad Pitt is going to be on next week so I guess they'll be seeing Benjamin Button.

Anonymous said...

Nat, I'm glad you are so excited about film - you are one of the few Oscar pundits who is.

abstew said...

yikes. i just saw nicole on yesterday's oprah. can we please have an intervention? nicole, its called aging gracefully. who do you think you're fooling with those lips?

Anonymous said...

Anonymous @ 1:05 PM

The Oprah episode with Cate Blanchett and Brad Pitt is just a conventional interview,the audience won't have seen the film. If anything Paramount probably let Oprah watch a small segment from the film.

Anonymous said...

abstew,perfect someone who doesn't put his actress blinkers on,yes i agree she is good in some films and a great actress in others and has a fantastic resume but so do others streep,weaver,pfeiffer,moore,clarkson,hunter to name a few,nicoles does inc dodgy shit proably done so she remain in the marketplace and do her little films too like birth but the 2 things that bother me with messages on here and nat you in particular- your use of the word icon to describe her she is a v good actress but icon at 40 n o no no,i was saying re the iconography statement if kidmans an icon whats streep and she cant be a legend cos she is not dead.

also i hate the complete abscence of acknowledgement that nicole kidman looks like a different person facially,i know australia is an eagaerly anticipated film but can you really take a film set in a certain period seriosly if the actress who plays the lead has surgery that freezes her face and does not belong in that period it's a bit like meg ryan starring as a 1930's housewife.

NATHANIEL R said...

yes she does too much botox -- i can't argue there -- but I don't think she looks totally different facially (it's just botox and possibly collagen for her lips)

but let's give her a break and withhold judgment till we see the actual film. Let's try and remember that most actresses would kill small children for half of her talent.

Anonymous said...

i know that i will receive a lot of protests for this, but to me nicole kidman is quite overrated. sure she was good in some of her films, like "to die for" and "the others", but she is not one who will be remembered as one of the best in her generation. how she won an oscar for "the hours" still puzzle me. just my opinion.
am i excited to see "australia"? no. it seemed to have been made with thoughts of winning oscars.

Anonymous said...

ok nat fair enough now can you please explain the icon tag you freely band about for her,if she is an icon to u whats moore,pfeiffer,streep,winslet & weaver.

Janice said...

The term Nat used was "iconography" (not "icon") and is defined by the dictionary thusly:

1. symbolic representation, esp. the conventional meanings attached to an image or images.
2. subject matter in the visual arts, esp. with reference to the conventions regarding the treatment of a subject in artistic representation.
3. the study or analysis of subject matter and its meaning in the visual arts; iconology.
4. a representation or a group of representations of a person, place, or thing, as a portrait or a collection of portraits.

So dudes - lighten up. As far as I'm concerned, there is NO A-list actress (Besides Winslet and Streep) who isn't overrated - and even they have made their share of stinkers and forgettables (The River Wild? She Devil? Music from the Heart? Holiday? And as I recall, "Quills" wasn't warmly received either.)

Billy D said...

I have the horrible, if not entirely unexpected, feeling that Australia will bomb (in America). That, of course, speaks not at all to its merits as a film--I'm sure it will be great, although the weight of it's status as MR-follow-up is insurmountable methinks. I just don't think the country is really too excited about sweeping (Australian) romantic epics. Hopefully Jackman will get an Oscar nod (as well as costumes, art direction, etc.) but I don't think Kidman has climbed out of the career trench she's been in since about '02. And as much as we would all like to dismiss it, her physical transformation and its effect on her acting abilities (more rightly, perceived effect) is to blame.

That being said, I swoon at that picture. Kidman in corsets is like Streep in accents. Gimme!

Michael B. said...

I read that Oprah saw the original ending to Australia...They also said that Baz is a final say director which means if he thought the ending shouldn't have been fixed he wouldn't have done it.

I still think that how bad or good it is, it's still not going tog get less than 5 Oscar nominations.

Anonymous said...

^^That's not a good sign.

Anonymous said...

As a devoted fan of Moulin Rogue, I can't wait to see this movie.

NATHANIEL R said...

mrripley i really don't get your thing with Kidman

I stand by everything i've said about her. If you look back through film history many of the actresses that are legendary and indeed, iconic, did not have super long runs at the top of the actress ladder. It's not actually required to work for decades and decades as an A lister to be remembered. It helps sure, but not required. Just ask Norma Shearer or Greta Garbo or Louise Brooks who all quit early or the other option... work intermittently after your peak and still be remembered for your peak: Faye Dunaway, Greer Garson, and numerous others

What's required is some combination of a) longevity b) classic films c) unique star persona d) memorable performances e) stories told about you f) beauty

the way i see it Kidman has nearly all of that and the battle to be remembered is already over. Even if she did nothing else for the rest of her life she'd still be a legend 50 years from now because she's got Moulin Rouge! (not to mention several other well regarded pictures some of which may last too)

billy d it's a good point you make. I admit I don't like the new lips. Hopefully she won't become a surgery addict but even if she does and begins to look weirder and weirder (a la faye dunaway) at least we'll always have moulin rouge, birth, dogville, to die for, the others etcetera...

Anonymous said...

Yesterday I watched 2 scenes from the movie here: http://www.bigpondmovies.com/australiamovie/

I think Nicole looks terrific in the film. She has a timeless look that really suits Baz's style. I too hate the lips and it doesn't help when she puts bright red lippy on but she seems so relaxed and natural otherwise in the Oprah interview that I'm thinking it's only some collagen in the lips and if she stops now(please Nic) then all will be well.(I know that sounds so wishful...)

As for the movie I've always been confident that I will love it but now I'm thinking so will many others. I will be in THE city(Sydney)next Tuesday for other reosons but I'm thinking I might just wander on down to George St...

Glenn Dunks said...

I have my tickets for opening night and cannot wait. In exactly two weeks and two hours the lights will go down in the cinema and IT WILL BEGIN.

Anonymous said...

17 year old blogger I read that Oprah's audience saw the same ending that we will see. Or at least that's what I inferred from Anne Thompson's Variety blog. *shrug*

Either way, I can't wait.

Michael B. said...

Tom O'Neil says that Sasha Stone says that Oprah and her audience saw the original ending. But I guess we need to get over that. Anyways, here is an awesome LA times interview with Luhrman...

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/files/2008/11/baz-luhrmann.html

My favorite quote is "I am inviting all of America to "Australia" for Thanksgiving, and we're gonna serve a cinematic banquet."