The European Film Awards were held yesterday in Estonia's capital Tallin (next year the ceremony will be in Malta). Roman Polanski and Ewan McGregor both appeared via the wonders of the internet (you may have heard Polanski doesn't travel much) to accept for The Ghost Writer. The mystery thriller about a politician under fire and the two sorry writers who attempt to ghost his memoirs is filled with twists. It opened way back in March 2010 but it's apparently not done surprising us. Against the odds, it's been resurfacing in the awards conversation... and not just here. It took home a record-breaking 6 prizes, only losing "people's choice".
The previous EFA record holders, according to Screen Daily, were Spain's Talk to Her (2002) and Germany's Goodbye Lenin (2003) both of which, we foreign film Oscar obsessed must note, notoriously missed out on Oscar's Foreign Film category in their years (albeit for different reasons).
The European Film Awards aren't an Oscar precursor in the traditional way of thinking about these things but could we see The Ghost Writer with a stray Oscar nod or three come January's end? And if so, which? (Adapted Screenplay? Score? Art Direction? *gulp* Pic or Director?) Discuss.
The Euro Winners
PictureThe Ghost Writer
People's Choice Jaco van Dormael's Mr Nobody
Co-Production AwardZeynep Özbatur Atakan
Achievement in World Cinema Gabriel Yared (Juliette Binoche was the surprise presenter of this award to The English Patient composer)
Lifetime Achievement Bruno Ganz
DiscoveryLebanon
Director Roman Polanski, The Ghost Writer
Actor Ewan McGregor, The Ghost Writer
Actress Sylvie Testud, Lourdes
Animated Feature Sylvain Chomet's The Illusionist
Documentary Feature Patricio Guzmán's Nostalgia for the Light
Screenwriter & Roman Polanski, The Ghost Writer
Cinematography Giora Bejach, Lebanon
Editor Luc Barnier & Marion Monnier, Carlos
Composer Alexandre Desplat, The Ghost Writer
Production Designer Albrecht Konrad, The Ghost Writer
I'm sure there will be many claims that this a "political" message given Polanski's legal troubles with the US which have been in the news again a lot this year. And though politics can truly never be extricated from any awards show (even preferring decidedly apolitical movies is in its own way, a political stance) at least some of The Ghost Writer's past and future honors out to be attributed to the fact that it's a fine movie.
Who can The Ghost trust? No one.
I shall update this post if I can find good photos since the evening held appearances from France's Binoche (love) and Denmark's Nikolaj Lie Kaas (also love) among other international film notables.
Both of whom need better movies but whatever. Ewan at least is doing okay for himself this year. The Ghost Writer is excellent and I Love You Phillip Morris opens soon. (Finally)
The European Film Award nominations have been announced and what we have this year is an interesting mix of two separate years of Oscar's Foreign Film contest alongside one English language feature: Roman Polanski's The Ghost Writer. Side note: I hadthought that the film was simply called The Ghost in Europe (?)but perhaps I misremembered.
The Ghost sizes up his competition at the European Film Awards
As faithful readers know I reject the notion that any group should be judged in accordance with how they "influence" or "predict" the Oscars as I think the only true worth of any group is whether or not they have their own identity or any sanity when it comes to proclaiming what is "best."
But, that said, I do think all awards bodies offer us interesting nuggets of ideas about the way votes reveal collective consensus thoughts that might help us in thinking about each year's Oscar race, even though ballots outside of festival jurying are usually filled out individually in secret and eligibility lists and membership rosters are much different from prize to prize.
Take, for instance, the interesting case of Mike Leigh's Another Year...
"It's all in the grind; can't be too fine, can't be too course. This, my friend, is a science." -Ewan McGregor as "Grimes" in Black Hawk Down.
Ohhh. Ewan McGregor on my French press. Want. I bet he'd be a great morning conversationalist.
I mean, you're looking at the guy that believed all the commercials, yknow, about "Be All You Can Be." I made coffee through Desert Storm. I made coffee through Panama while everyone else got to fight, got to be a ranger. Now it's 'Grimsey, black one sugar'...
On second thought...
Nothing kills a day quicker than self-pity with a side of morning whine*. Coffee is supposed to make you happy Ewan. Where's that famous smile?!
*I'm not judging. I've killed many a day like this. Resolution: All morning conversations from henceforth must contain positivity! Say something cheerful. *
EW Linda Hamilton, our favorite Terminator, joins Showtime's Weeds. Does this mean we need to start watching again? Black Book "The sort of return of Mark Hamill" OMG the next time someone wants to reshoot Psycho, how about puppets in the lead roles? THRThree Musketeers (3D) cast getting bigger. Juno Temple (newly in demand, apparently) may play queen. MTV Somebody cast Adam Rosenberg in a Willow (1988) reboot, like now First Showing Will Smith rejected the role. It now looks like Terrence Howard may get 'Sexual Healing' ♫ is something that's good for me ♪ as Marvin Gaye for Cameron Crowe's upcoming biopic Filmofilia Ewan McGregor for Terry Gilliam's The Man Who Killed Don Quixote
Did you get a chance to see Chris Klein's Mamma Mia! audition before it got pulled? It's resurfaced for the moment at Crushable. I almost didn't mention it out of pity but it is such a train wreck but the Videogum writeup was so funny
...there isn’t any cocaine left, because Chris Klein did it all.
And it only pushes all my buttons for Hollywood's carelessness with musicals as well as the blink and you miss it stardom of so many young actors. I was discussing this with Joe Reid yesterday and marvelling that anything went for Mamma Mia!'s casting team. They would obviously let anyone audition, given that on the evidence of the film, they didn't care about the vocal quality. Quoth Joe "like, cast people who can't sing, fine, but cast people who can't sing and are also not box-office draws? WTF?" Streep & Seyfried excepted, of course. *
I was watching the Sticky & Sweet Tour DVD the other day (it came out this week in almost every country and it's soooooo good, even the live album thing works this time, so go buy it!) and couldn't help but think how unfair we are to Madonna when it comes to movies.
For all I know, that tour is every bit as epic as Avatar, so bear with me and hold that thought as I enter the controversial thing that is W.E.
Madge's second try at the director's chair will have her tell the story of American socialite Wallis Simpson and her involvement with King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom, as we all know.
What the movie will be like is still unclear, first she was starring in it, then she handed Wallis to Vera Farmiga (causing an outrage about how the Oscar nominee would lose her "cred" if she worked with Madge), later she cast Abbie Cornish as well (as I understand it, Cornish will be the Julie to Farmiga's Julia), then Ewan McGregor came on board and now Madge has cast none other than her daughter Lourdes...
...(here in all her Taylor Momsen in Gossip Girl glory) who will be playing a mystery part. After taking her daughter everywhere and even have her appear in her latest music video, it's obvious that Madge is trying to take her daughter places.
This move made people react viciously again (how can you be so mean to those two?) who cried "nepotism" at the first mention of little Lola.
My question now is, why?
Being a Madonna fan and all I still have trouble understanding why did she get on people's bad graces so much? Like Nicole Kidman, she rarely can do good for the media. I am actually very critical of her but I don't think we're being fair to W.E.
Wisdom and Filth wasn't a tragedy, if not a masterpiece it showed us that Madge loves what she does and I wonder why have people began to wish this project bad from the beginning instead of at least wondering what Cornish, Farmiga and McGregor can bring to it.
Moulin Rouge! may have showcased his vocal abilities to best and most acclaimed effect so far, but back in 1993 when he was starting out Ewan forswore the Suez Crisis for girls and guitars in Dennis Potter’s musical-drama TV throwback Lipstick on Your Collar. The first time I saw him in anything he was shrugging off clerk work and leaping on his desk in gold Elvis get-up miming to ‘Don’t Be Cruel’. And of course four years later the karaoke resurfaced in A Life Less Ordinary, where Ewan’s spontaneous serenading of Cameron Diaz was the only thing that wasn’t lifeless and ordinary. Belting out the tunes came second to his lascivious Iggy Pop-meets-Kurt Cobain routines in Velvet Goldmine, but he gamely sang every song himself. He’s an under-praised cinematic crooner – it’s one of his most dependable attributes.
Come What May, Ewan is always glad to flex his vocal chords on celluloid.
As much as Ewan seems to frequently like getting his tackle out, he also seems equally unafraid to take on gay roles. He likes setting his characters’ sexuality free on screen. Four gay roles in a forty-feature career isn’t that many, but it’s more than what most of his peers seem willing to take on. And how venturous and open he is with it, too: he was an open bi book for both Yoshi Oida and Vivian Wu in The Pillow Book; there was the Wild and roughed-up rooftop nookie with Christian Bale in Velvet Goldmine; in Scenes of a Sexual Nature he cruised one long, sunny day away on Hampstead Heath; and in the recent drama-comedy anomaly I Love You Phillip Morris he bunked with Jim Carrey. Ewan is au fait with playing gay. He not only doesn’t seem fazed by it as a factor in choosing parts, he also carries it out with aplomb. In fact he does it in an unabashedly liberating manner: for each of these characters the closet door was flung wide open (check his levity levels on being reunited with Carrey in a crowded jail in Phillip Morris or the flippant way he disregards the social strictures of the ‘70s in Goldmine).
As an actor – and in his own small way – he’s making an affirmative impact from the outside in.
Drug happy, love happy, dance happy; happy high, happy heart, happy Feet. Ewan has one of the happiest faces in cinema (check out his IMDb photo for proof). And directors love capturing it on screen: Danny Boyle framed Ewan’s drug-placated grin during his heroin highs in the flophouses of Trainspotting; thanks to the magical sheen Baz Luhrmann sprinkled over the Moulin Rouge, Ewan’s face literally lit up upon entering Nicole Kidman’s Paris of 1899; and it may have been Down with Love but he was Up with Joy for Renée Zellweger in ‘60s New York. The places change, but the face remains the same: blissed out with glee. Despite furrowing his brow in a generous handful of the more serious roles that have peppered his filmography – in sci-fi-fantasy (Star Wars prequels, The Island), gritty Brit flicks (Young Adam, Incendiary) and action-drama vehicles (Black Hawk Down, Angels & Demons) – it’s the lighter, cheerier fare in which he endears the most. He works an audience well when he throws a smile down from the silver screen.
So, say ‘cheese’ Mr. Ewan McGregor, it’s your (birthday) party – you’ll smile if you want to. *
Out Ewan McGregor is still acting. Just to make sure you're still paying attention, he claims he loves kissing boys (onscreen at least). Mmmmmm... Go Fug Yourself Has words for Tilda's electric blue Berlinale gown Moviezzz details the massive Clint Eastwood box set. Just to make sure you're actually reading Moviezzz announces that Flags of Our Fathers is better than Letters From Iwo Jima. Unnhhh... Movie|Line explains how the last season of Lost is just like the last season of Buffy. Conveniently forgets about the Slayerettes. In Contention the annual "top 10 shots" cinematography article. Just to make sure you're actually reading IC tries to claim worth in both Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and The Lovely Bones. Errrr... Esquire the much discussed profile "Roger Ebert: The Essential Man" My Internet is Where I Want You To Touch Me shares a horrific famous video. Just to make sure you're really sure about this Sandra Bullock thing. Ewwww. Antagony & Ecstasy (a palate cleanser for you after the last link) Timothy's top ten movies of the Aughts
Dave here, lowering the tone slightly as he chimes in on 2003. But we all have our pets, don't we? Those films that we know aren't masterpieces, or perfect, or are going to appeal to everyone, but are besotted with regardless. Down With Love is one of those for me. It's become one of my favourite comedies of the 2000s, and, not to be sacrilegious, but I find it infinitely preferable to the Doris Day/Rock Hudson sex comedies it's based on. I think maybe that's because Down With Love has those films as an extra base to riff on; it mines the same territory while also lovingly mocking Pillow Talk et al. It may also be the last time Renee Zellweger was charming, funny, attractive and altogether a very pleasing presence in her movie. I'd quote her remarkable expositionary monologue, but that's really something you should see (spoilers, however), so instead, enjoy this brilliantly basic wordplay. ('Know' and 'Now' are, rather hilariously, magazine titles.)
Barbara Novak: Another ruse, Catcher? You know I have no interest in seeing you. Catcher Block: But you know you have to, and you know I know you have to. I'm sure you know how things are at KNOW ever since your new NOW. Barbara Novak: I have no way of knowing how things are now at KNOW. I knew how things were at KNOW before NOW. Catcher Block: Then you should know now at KNOW things are a lot like they are at NOW, we have to interview every applicant for every job, and so do you or you'd be going against NOW's definition of discrimination and you wouldn't want the readers of NOW or KNOW to know that, now would you?
I'm not sure how it well it works on the page. So go and watch it now, won't you? There's good readers.
Fin de Cinema appreciates Tilda in Julia. More people need to Spiegel Online "we make lists because we don't want to die" Good point. But also because they're fun In Contention the animated shorts finalist list Movie|Line interviews Hal Holbrook for That Evening Sun. The performance of his career?
Hollywood Elsewhere asks an understandable question regarding The Twilight Saga: New Moon's box office numbers Awards Daily wonders whether Sandra Bullock is a safer bet than previously thought for The Blind Side Vanity Fair handicaps the Oscar race and makes a case for Fantastic Mr Fox costumes (hmmm) but falls into the age old lazy schpiel about "not enough best actresses to fill a category". I swear to god that people say this every f***ing year and it is never ever true. You just have to be willing to look at performances that people aren't talking about for various reasons: Tilda Swinton in Julia, Abbie Cornish in Bright Star, Michelle Pfeiffer in Chéri, Saoirse Ronan The Lovely Bones, Melanie Laurent in Inglourious Basterds, etcetera... and that's just off the top of my head beyond the contenders that people are talking about at the moment (Bullock/Cotillard/Mirren/Mulligan/Sidibe/Streep) which already equals more than an entire shortlist can hold. The lists are always at least twice as deep as most pundits are ever willing to admit. Why is that? Why won't these blinders ever come off?
Finally, you've probably seen Forbes' list of Hollywood's most overpaid stars by now. This isn't something I think about a lot given that my favorites tend to be people whose salaries aren't reported. But I do think lists like this are problematic. They underline obvious truths (no star is foolproof... even when they stick to formula and some people are just lucky / some people are grossly overpaid because they happen to star in franchises that would be hits without them) and often obscure some real truths.
Ewan McGregor's diminishing filmography
Ewan McGregor comes in at #2. Is he grossly overpaid or is he just making films that his core audience isn't remotely interested in? I'd guess the latter or somewhere inbetween. I'm hardly an accurate judge of box office appeal -- in my world Tilda Swinton is a way bigger name/draw than Tom Cruise or Adam Sandler and the name "Pedro Almodóvar" would put more asses in seats than "Michael Bay" on opening weekend -- but I am a huge fan of McGregor's and frankly, he hasn't made a movie that I've been excited about since the twofer of Big Fish and Young Adam back in 2003. I really love him but I have little interest in seeing him play second fiddle to Renée Zellweger (Miss Potter) or Hilary Swank (Amelia) in stale prestige biographies or do ensemble work in lame Tom Hanks franchises (Angels & Demons). Ewan came to fame doing edgy, boisterous and inventive cinema (Trainspotting, Moulin Rouge!, Velvet Goldmine, The Pillow Book) and might that not still be what his base is hoping to watch him do? That won't keep him in the lap of luxury or anything but it might be more artistically satisfying. *
If you’re going to make a film about an aviatrix, it better soar. Mira Nair's AMELIA seems to understand this with reverent voiceovers about flight sprinkled throughout. It even begins by prepping for liftoff as we see Amelia Earhart (Hilary Swank) waving from her plane’s wing, about to embark on a historic flight. Unfortunately it's the historic flight, as in her last. Argh! The movie has opted for that musty old biopic framing device: Start at the famous end, jump backwards in time to see how it all began, count down with us to the famous celebrity death! When a biopic begins this way, you have to worry that it has nothing fresh to say, being closer in spirit to a Wikipedia entry than a movie.
From that initial take off, complete with an overzealous score that assumes every moment's a climactic one, Amelia the film zooms through Amelia the person's rise to fame as if we all know every detail and can't wait to get to that doomed flight. Though clearly in a rush to get there, it feels like it's crawling rather than flying toward its final destination...
In that weekly column at Towleroad (for those of you who don't read it, it's a popular news site "with homosexual tendencies") I'm expected to cover new releases but the content and focus is of my choosing. I knew I had to write about "Amelia" since she's a lesbian icon although the movie Amelia won't be a hit with the ladies who love ladies. [Tangent: I'm unsurprised by the immediate regurgitated arguments about Earhart's orientation popping up in the comments at Amelia's official site. This always happens with historical figures who are either rumored to have been gay or are of particular fascination to the gays. It's the way of things.]
One thing I didn't mention in this review is how absolutely crazy the sanctification of Saint Amelia made me. I understand that the rarity and vast achievements of iconic historical figures practically insures that they will be viewed through a distorted lens (color, rose). They're our cultural heroes, after all. But it's anti-dramatic to sanctify your lead... not to mention historically suspect. If you're going to make a movie about a hero, allow them to have edges or curves. We know them two-dimensionally already! The casting of Hilary Swank (though she looks nearly perfect for the role) adds to this problem since she loves to be martyred and sanctified as an actress. Oh shush, you know she does!
"Sorry, haters. I got two! No takebacks allowed."
Oscar hopes? Two longshot possibilities only I think: Swank for Best Actress (they sometimes lose their minds for this sort of stiff biographical posing. See... well, see a lot of nominees) and the cinematography by the great Stuart Dryburgh (The Piano, The Painted Veil). His work is part of the sanctification problem but hot damn it's pretty.
Coming tomorrow: "Antichrist" and by that I mean the movie and not Hilary Swank. *
Thursday's report from the LONDON FILM FESTIVAL with Dave, sitting in the very nice National Film Theatre as he awaits yet another screening. You may find him propping his eyes open with cocktail sticks this time next week. The Men Who Stare at Goats is the worst type of film you can get out of mainstream Hollywood - yes, worse even than nude women being chased by knife-wielding maniacs, because at least those films are working to provide pleasure to their audience, no matter how immature and gross that may be. (Alright, so maybe not. But almost!) No, what we have in The Men Who Stare at Goats, aside from an irritatingly long title I'll get fed up of typing out soon, is a smug, idiotic film, so convinced it's hilarious in its ironic absurdity and 'look at all this oddness; it's great they can be odd, of course, but hahahaha, isn't their oddness funny!' attitude. I'm sure the writer would argue he's all for oddness and love not war, but it portrays all these attitudes so ludicrously that it seems to be screaming for straight-laced normality under all the madness. It all relies heavily on stupidity, most notably the paranoid superiority-complex of the American army; as they say, "We can't afford to let the Russians lead the way in paranormal research!" I can probably sum up the film's failure in one repeated joke it uses: Lynn Cassidy's (George Clooney) pyschological army troupe are known as "Jedis", and he repeatedly emphasizes that Ewan McGregor's reporter Bob Wilton doesn't have these Jedi powers. If such jokes might amuse you enough to overlook an unbearable plucky score, no apparent aptitude for using sound or image in an inventive fashion, and McGregor's ever-terrible American accent, maybe this one's for you. D
The frequently abstract and painful Wolfy is as icy and cold and devastated in appearance as you might expect from a Russian film. The subject - a little girl hopelessly desperate to hold onto her wandering, loose, volatile mother - is dealt with in a similarly detached way, what with the emotionless retrospective narration, but the artistic aesthetics embue the film with bountiful emotion. Take the first scene, for example - spots of blood on the crisp white snow as the pregnant mother runs from police across the cold expanse. Or a spellbinding, languid zoom out as the mother spins her daughter a story. It's an unsettling, powerful sit, ultimately uncompromising in its grim attitude towards this 'family', but it's also beautiful in its use of perspective, camerawork and particularly the soundscape, from the eerie sound of the spinning top to the harsh, halting Russian language. B+
Balibo is another accomplished Australian film at this year's fest, even if it does contain the niggling question (explicitly asked within the film): why does this story have to be centered on Australians when they are the tiniest fraction of those murdered in Indonesia's invasion of East Timor? Nevertheless, the tale - one of thousands recounted years later once the country was liberated - is an absorbing one, complimented by the loose, observational camerawork and some strong work from Anthony LaPaglia (as the journalist investigating the deaths of five Australasian reporters sent to the country ahead of the invasion). While the sharp editing keeps things tense and gripping for much of the film, the continual flirtation with the greater storyline proves distracting, as the film acknowledges the entire tragedy but defiantly sticks to this one story. B
I did this once for the actresses but I'm always giving the ladies their due. So, here's to the silver screen men that have enriched my movie-life. I admit up front that I haven't investigated Classic Hollywood actors to the extent I've investigated their leading ladies, so this list is highly subject to change the more old movies I see in my life.
Nathaniel's 25 all time favorite leading men In no particular order and extremely subject to change
Gene Kelly | Tony Leung Chiu-Wai | Montgomery Clift | Jeff Bridges | Paul Newman
Jude Law | James Dean | William Holden | Gene Hackman | Rock Hudson Jack Lemmon | Gael García Bernal | Ewan McGregor | James Stewart | Gregory Peck Steve Martin | Marlon Brando | Jack Nicholson | Burt Lancaster | Richard Burton Brad Pitt | Johnny Depp | Cary Grant | Warren Beatty | William Hurt
Because sometimes you just want to name names
The list is not comprehensive, not set in stone, not entirely defendable. But they're the ones I love best. The ones I somehow feel are mine. Not that you can't share them.
Post your top 20 at your personal web home -- no explanations necessary, just photos -- and I'll link up!
P.S. 1 I'm already pretty sure I forgot someone important P.S. 2 Your lists go here... send me your links.
A Blogwork Orange mixes icons like Bogie with modern tastes like Buscemi Award Talk likes the formal gentlemen Ralph Fiennes, Sir Laurence Olivier and Leslie Howard. and other staples like Clark Gable and Cary Grant Encore Entertainment gives props to greats that just missed my list like Ed Harris, Albert Finney and Dustin Hoffman Runs Like a Gay goes retro with James Mason, Spencer Tracy and Alec Guinness All That Film classics Astaire & O'Toole /modern giants Penn & DiCaprio
Cheerful Cynicism has a quirky mix including Yul Brynner (love!), Clark Gable (I didn't use to like him... but I'm slowly converting I must say), Hugh Jackman and more... A Cinema Neophyte mostly modern with inspired choices and good pics Journalistic Skepticism Penn, Hanks, Brando, Stewart and Jack lead Many Rantings of John ranks his list. Douglas places. Welles and Brando rule For Your Speculation gives a shout out to some typically supporting guys: Delroy Lindo, Chris Cooper and Peter Sarsgaard. Well played
Theme For Great Cities Bardem, Crudup and Strathairn... oh my City of Angels ooh, Anthony Perkins and Claude Rains. Yay. Sorta That Guycovers his favorites: Bernal, Gosling, Franco, Cheadle Nick's Flick Picks tiered favorites. Chaplin. Fredric March & Sean Penn Douglas Racso a wondrously international grab bag: Coco Martin, Max von Sydow, Daniel Auteuil, Gael García Bernal, Sir Ian McKellen
Film Away recently went mad for movies: Depp, Foxx, Clooney, Pacino Reel Artsy Joaquin, Josh, Takeshi (sigh), Tobey Rants of a Diva did his list ages ago. What took me so long? A Blog Next Door calls his list "hodgepodge"... Caine, Broadbent, Owen, Marsden Ferdy on Films is magnetized by Rudolph Valentino's eyes among others: Keir Dullea, Eduardo Noriega, Charles Durning
StinkyLulu is, like me, a dedicated actressexual. But we manage to find room for a few screen gods in our devotions all the same. Can you name the actor and the role? Situated Laundry makes a vanilla bingo board and adds stage actors. I approve Gratia Artis Peter Lorre, Charles Laughton, Robert Mitchum The Sheila Variations ranks them. Mickey Rourke is back on top. Stockwell, Widmark, Duvall and Cooper also place. newBookeyWookey Oleg Menshikov, Matthieu Kassovitz and Romain Duris. Mmmm x 3 newestGoatdog Penn and Cagney reign *
GawkerHarry Potter pr strategy: well behaved role model stars TransGriot excerpts from Kerry Washington interviews. She's on the circuit for her transsexual role in Life is Hot in Cracktown. SLatIFR 'The Kings of Cinematic Schlong' ...and yes Ewan McGregor is accounted for Cinematical a certain heiress is being sued for not promoting a movie that paid her a cool million. Serves the filmmakers right, really. Roles in movies are meant to be played by actresses. Old Hollywood a classic quippy moment with Shelley Winters, also known as Shirley JoBlo first still for Fantastic Mr. Fox The Playlist is tired of Henry Cavill missing out on every A-List role he's been considered for (The Green Lantern being the latest). They have a point. He does look like this...
I Need My Fix yet another product endorsement for Scarlett Johansson. You know, I wouldn't be at all surprised if she retires at 30 to raise children with her gazillions of dollars In Contention yet another Oscar contender from within An Education? I'm feeling good about predicting it in several places since April I am. But this is the first I'm hearing about supporting actress. Probably should add Rosamund Pike to the list. Risky Business doesn't get where Entourage is going with their latest fake movie, The Great Gatsby directed by Martin Scorsese.
off cinema Getty Images Cat Island! Somebody book me a ticket Towleroad has a great lengthy interview with military hero Daniel Choi (he's one of the guys being kicked out because Obama is so fond of inaction on "Don't Ask Don't Tell") Movie|Line looks at the new contestants on Project Runway. This show has been gone so long that I almost don't care. Which is really weird for me. Finally... Fin de Cinema shares a list of the 'Best films of the 90s' from the Criterion Forum. It's somewhat bizarre. On first glance it skews difficult, hipster, art film, cinephile with Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man and Wong Kar Wai's Chungking Express up top.
But if this is the type of films they're going for why the hell is [safe] not in the top ten? It's better than either of those. Beau Travail's low ranking #63 -- on an art film list no less -- is also completely unacceptable (though I count that as a 2000 film since that's when it arrived in both France and America after 1999 festival showings) *
Hilary Swank is flying right at her third Oscar nomination.
I fear she'll use the red carpet as her landing strip and slice me to bits with her propellor. On purpose!
While I think the Ameliatrailer is trying a little too desperately to make this seem action-packed -- the music and the sound mix in particular are screaming "it's not just a stuffy period biopic. We swear!" -- it looks right up Oscar's alley all told:
Inspirational. Check!
True story. Check!
Tragic ending. Check!
Iconic Historical Figure Everyone Is Duty Bound To Love. Check!
I wouldn't put this on Oscar's best picture list just yet but who knows. People are already getting carried away claiming locks for dozens of pictures that haven't opened yet. I remind once again: 10 nominees, not 50 ;)
I like the timbre of Swank's voice in the trailer. I must admit. I've clearly underestimated her in my Best Actress predictions (my excuse: previously she'd been less than convincing in period pieces) for she manages just fine for these 113 seconds. Oscar prediction updates coming on Sunday.
Earlier this year when I was watching Night at the Museum ... Resurrection, Salvation, 2 (?) ... I was giggling to myself about how Amy Adams was practically starting Hilary Swank's Oscar campaign for her. Like "See how important and strong this woman was, Americans who always fail history tests ?!? Now that I've reminded you who she is, won't it be awesome to see her biopic this fall?!?"
The happiest moment of the trailer for me was seeing EWAN MCGREGOR again.
I'm always pleased to watch him. But I'm sad that his only "prestige" films these days seem to be biopics which pair him with my least favorite actresses in thankless roles wherein he helps their character achieve greatness (see also: Miss Potter). I'm even sadder that now he's asked to do this without so much as a title card in the trailer. Sigh. He needs another Moulin Rouge! sized hit quickly. *
<--- Last week Rope of Silicon shared the creepy teaser poster for Shutter Island (previously discussed here) and now JA is all hyped up. Has Scorsese made a picture as brutal and scary as Cape Fear since? I'm not thinking "Whatever Happened to Patient 67?" So much as "Is Emily Mortimer Patient 67? And if so, will people finally realize how versatile and quite awesome she is?" I know that's not quite how the marketing folks wanted me to react but I'm a special case. I think only of actresses whenever possible. I guess I really need to read Dennis Lehane's novel before this picture opens.
links Tapeworthy shares the news that Friday Night Lights has been renewed for two more seasons. Grand news for any fans of quality television. The Big Picture wonders about the idealogical inconsistencies of snubbing movies because of an actor's politics. Empire on the girlpower casting of Zach Snyder's Sucker Punch. I was going to say Snyder doing a movie with female leads? ... but then I remembered the wonderful Sarah Polley and she sure as hell anchored and powered Dawn of the Dead. May one of his new actresses can do the same for this film.
Boy Culture points us to an inspiring new site inspired by Harvey Milk's activism. MightyGodKing finds the difference between Pixar and Dreamworks Animation My New Plaid Pants wishes Ewan McGregor a sweet birthday. I miss Ewan. Please make lots of good movies very soon. Extra Criticum offers some excellent DVD rental ideas on that "10 Characters" meme I struggled through earlier today. Cinemavistaramascope enthuses about the trailer to Taking Woodstock. He worked on the film. The Exploding Kinetoscope RIP Andy Hallett, Angel's colorful demon host "Lorne". MTV NewsEastern Promises sequel? I am totally willing to go back for seconds although I can't imagine what plot point could get Viggo Mortensen completely starkers again. Bummer.
screenshots from the 20th minute and 8th second of movies. I use a VLC but diff' players come up w/ slightly different shots. It's an inexact exercize.
Hey, how's London?
Poor Ewan MacGregor's Penis. It's only had four women. Which is why it's such easy prey for deviled Huge Jackman in Deception. Unfortunately, given the sex club plot device, Jackman's "foreplay" with MacGregor (his word, not mine... would that the movie would have taken him literally) and Michelle Williams' randy promises of a 'frenzy of f***ing and sucking' the movie is surprisingly sexless. Jackman and McGregor both actually penetrate women with their pants still on in the grand tradition of 80s movies. I've never actually understood the mechanics of that but I'm no anatomy expert. I guess Hollywood knows best.
For a short while (a very short while) the movie had me going since the actors, particularly Williams, are much better than their increasingly laughable material. The cinematography is also quite pleasant to look at, a clear case of putting lipstick on a pig or a Skinemax made-for-cable movie vying for the Cinematography Oscar.
Have you seen it? If you haven't your better off imagining the whole movie in your head (Jackman, MacGregor, Williams, Charlotte Rampling and Maggie Q all belong to the same sex club. Go!) I'm guessing you won't squander the premise, the way Deception does. D
Velvet Goldmine, auteur Todd Haynes' marvelous, sexy, agitated tribute to glam rock celebrates its 10th anniversary this month. A decade later it's still quite the queer jewel. It remains one of the sparkliest bits in the filmographies of all involved.
When I first announced this Velvet celebration I dropped the argumentative note that I think it's a better film than Haynes's recent and more acclaimed picture I'm Not There. The latter has a bolder attention-grabbing actorly gambit (multiple performers for one role ... sort of) but the films are close spiritual siblings in many other ways. They're like aggressively eccentric visual historians who share the same pet topics: fluid persona, rock star egotism and cultural youthquakes. So why do I think Velvet is better?
Ten Reasons Why Velvet Goldmine Trumps I'm Not There
10Christian Bale appears in both of these Todd Haynes extravaganzas. In only one of them does he masturbate to a fold out album cover and newspaper clippings.
"It's a shameful fithy thing you're doing!"
09 Todd Haynes detractors point to his intellectualism as a fault. They say it renders his movies into theses. Mostly I say "what's wrong with that?" ... better to have something meaty to discuss than the alternative. And though I've often chalked this reaction up to lazy anti-intellectualism I see where they're coming from a bit with I'm Not There. Advantage Velvet Goldmine: It funnels its big ticket ideas through the painted lips of characters as unintellectual in nature as Mandy (Toni Collete --I kind of live for her "speeding up" monologue) as awkward as Arthur (Christian Bale) as silent as Jack Fairy (Micko Westmoreland) or as stoned as Curt Wild (Ewan McGregor) or as smugly pontificating as Brian (Jonathan Rhys Meyers). This filter makes it less 'thinky' somehow.
08 Put another way: Velvet Goldmine lives in its body as well as its head. I'm Not There stays entirely cerebral even though rock n' roll is often located in the groin. The sex scene between Mandy & Brian in particular is incisively shot through distorting glass, incisively echoing their fluidity and even the confusion of who is/will be doing what to whom in the long run. And that's not to mention the crude guitar fellatio or the orgy sequence.
"It's funny how people look when they're walking out the door"
07 Unlike many rock and roll films, Goldmine's reach is generous. It focuses not just on a performer (as I'm Not There and most traditional rock pictures do) but it allows for further contextualization by adding an equally weighted audience surrogate (Arthur). We end up experiencing the larger cultural shifts through both performers and audiences. As a result it far exceeds the familiar rise and fall narrative of famous movie musicians and paints an unusual portrait of the death of a particular peculiar moment in both the large and intimate sense and from both directions (performer/voyeur) at once. You have to love it.
06 The flights of fancy in I'm Not There: whale, giraffes, balloons, etcetera... are all (presumably) esoterica. Only Dylan fans might understand them. Velvet Goldmine's most fanciful flourishes such as spaceships, magic amulets, barbie doll kisses and Oscar Wilde, are more accessible. I knew precious little about the glam rock era before watching the movie and I never felt like I wasn't in on any joke.
"Baby's On Fire" and "the curve of your lips rewrite history"
05Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Ewan McGregor are both way more believable as rock stars than anyone in I'm Not There... and more believeable as rock stars than many other people in many other rock movies. There are many people who think JRM is not much of an actor and to them I say 'ignore the other things you've seen him in an marvel at how perfectly he's cast and shot here and how well he embodies autoerotic androgynous callow celebrity.' He'll never top it but so what? If you have to peak early due it in service of a great film. As for McGregor... "TV Eye" has to be one of the most authentically live & dangerous rock numbers captured on film, doesn't it?
04 The Citizen Kane structure is endearing in its chutzpah. Not that I'm Not There doesn't have balls. But there's more film-appropriate youthful bravado in Goldmine. In short: it's more fun.
03 No sequence within Velvet Goldmine --not even the slightly mistifying Jack Fairy throughline -- is as headscratching or unsatisfying as one sixth of I'm Not There, the sixth being the Richard Gere section. Please note: This is not to take away from that lovely haunting musical bit "Goin' to Acapulco" even if it still makes no sense to me whatsoever.
02Toni Collette does not appear in I'm Not There. Filmmakers take note: this is an automatic point deduction.
01 Velvet Goldmine gives the world's greatest costume designer Sandy Powell (absent from I'm Not There though she often works with Todd Haynes) a lot to do. When you give Sandy Powell room to play she returns to you entire playgrounds.
I know what you're saying I'm Not There lovers... You're saying... ...............okay okay I don't know what you're saying. I don't get you.
If you're on Team Dylan(s) speak up in the comments. Why were the reviews stronger? If you're on Team Goldmine rally 'round.
More Velvet Readings? Try my Musical of the Month Pals Movies Kick Ass "Citizen Slade" Cinemavistaramascope "the curve of your lips..." StinkyBits "an enthralling confounding fabulation" Haiku'ed Viper Tetsu pays tribute in Japanese Meter
Next Musical The classic Meet Me in St. Louis(1944) on December 6th. 'Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas' a little early. *
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