Friday, January 16, 2009

And Now For Something Completely Linky

IZ Reloaded animated films that inspired Hayao Miyazaki
Thompon on Hollywood hot titles at Sundance this year
BBC News Boy George is going to prison :(
Slant's annual Oscar derby rundown
Awards Daily IFCMA, a film music critics group, announces their 2008 awards
In Contention quotes a BAFTA voter. Ha!
IndieWire a great thumbs down review of Slumdog Millionaire that explains quite well why it has very vocal haters
BBC News Slumdog's backlash now has its own backlash. Ahhhh, the sweet predictability of awards season

And finally, Pfeiffer The Face tells us that period romance Chéri, a reteaming of Dangerous Liaisons' director, writer and star will compete at Berlinale next month where none other than Tilda Swinton is presiding over the Jury. So in a way the Alien Goddess of 00s Tilda gets to decide whether Ice Goddess of the 80s/90s Michelle Pfeiffer takes home a Best Actress there. Hmmm.


I've received this news from abundant sources / readers over the past two days all of whom are making it very very difficult for me. See, I'm actually trying desperately NOT to post about Chéri every day... if you're curious click on the Chéri label below for previous articles. I can't go there weekly else the blog's title must change to Waiting For Pfeiffer's New Costume Drama to Open Blog. Just so you know that that unwieldy title is more or less accurate here are pointless brief videos of Pfeiffer on the set that you should charitably pretend I haven't watched hundreds of times already.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ah, thought you might enjoy that quote, Nat.

Miles said it decades ago, but I'm sure she'd agree it's just as applicable now.

Calum Reed said...

You never know with Frears, though it does look LUSH. It's about time Michelle pulled her finger out and did something blisteringly awards-worthy.

When's it supposed to be released?

Anonymous said...

Off-topic question... I really don't mind ads on your pages, I understand the need for $$$, but must they all be gay related? THe pictures on them are a little NSFW.

NATHANIEL R said...

i'll look at it. i had expressed no nudity and it's supposed to rotate. so sorry 'bout that.

i have to make money somehow

Robert said...

Oh Slumdog. It's just mind-boggling to me that others can't see what's so silly about it.

Perhaps there's a split between what people consider to be great art. The anti-Slumdog crowd beliving the closer something comes to finding truth (not necessarily reality) the better, an the pro-Slumdog believing the more able something is to elicit emotion the greater.

I dunno. That said, I found it difficult to care about the lifeless characters in Slumdog

Anonymous said...

http://www.metacritic.com/film/awards/2008/toptens.shtml

Don't know if you've seen that- a lot of people seem to really like synecdoche, new york

NATHANIEL R said...

regarding the ads.

the ads should rotate. right now i'm seeing a film school ad.

but there will be gay ads because
a) i'm gay
b) a lot of oscar / actress fanatics are.

I'll try to reject any with NSFW stuff though.

you can always scroll down to get away from them but i can't continue much longer without more income. I'm penniless.

Anonymous said...

You know, the BAFTA voter is right. The ONLY one people really care about is the Oscar.

In spite of what the British media think. That was rather funny!

Nick M. said...

If I saw "Slumdog Millionaire" opening weekend, and hated it, please explain to me why I'm being pigeonholed as a person who was merely jumped on a "backlash" bandwagon.

This is a huge pet peeve of mine. I saw "Juno" at a press screening last year--roughly a month before its release--and spent the whole awards season asking people to justify why, exactly, my harsh criticisms were not valid beyond being contrarian "backlash."

Are these people aware that being a so-called "iconoclast" is more frustrating than actually enjoying a film that is riding a wave of applause? Argh.

Runs Like A Gay said...

What's an NSFW ad? I feel like I'm missing out.

Oh, and don't frown because Boy George has been put in goal. He beat a rent boy with a chain - surely that deserves real punishment.

Berlinale looks interesting this year. As well as Cheri there is In the Electric Mist (Bertrand Tavernier's first English language film since Round Midnight, with Tommy Lee Jones and Peter Sarsgaard) and Eden is West. All of these sound interesting.

Anonymous said...

I don't like moving Pfeiffer's film from Cannes to Berlin.

Pfeiffer has already won in Berlin for Love Field. Would they give her a second award?

It is too soon to present the film in Berlin now. When she won for Love Field the film had already opened the previous year. She could win in Cannes and hope for the Oscars.

Marcelo - Brazil.

NATHANIEL R said...

marcelo the Berlin winners tend to fare well in awardage... even though it's super early.

we'll see.

Brian Owens said...

"Backlash" to me is liking something originally, but growing to dislike it because everyone else "lurves" it (more than it should be).

So disliking something from the beginning makes you a curmudgeon, not a part of the backlash.

I've grown less fond of "Slumdog" since seeing it at Toronto; however, I think people are getting too worked up over it. People like it. It's an enjoyable fairy tale that's a pleasurable ride. Is it the best of the year? No. But since when have the Oscars been about "the best"?

And, there's nothing wrong with hating "Slumdog", but I'd rather read a better-written opinion against it that the one you link hear, Nathaniel. It just comes across as bitter and angry. But I've never been a fan of IndieWire's reviews.

Anonymous said...

I can't wait for this. I'm a fan of Colette (Is this just based on "Cheri" or did they also incorporate part of the story from "The Last of Cheri"?) & would love another good French 19th century costume drama. (Breillat gave me a fix with "The Last Mistress" at IFC this past year.) Hearing that Michelle and Kathy Bates are being directed by Stephen Frears just made this a "must see" for me.

(Actually, if they can film Piaf's & Chanel's lives, they really ought to film Colette's. Use Judith Thurman's bio as a basis for the script.)