Showing posts with label Sally Hawkins. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sally Hawkins. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 01, 2010

Actors on Actors: SAG Buzz

Have you read the Variety feature where SAG card holders are essentially campaigning for other actors for awards season? Sometimes the admiration is surely talent-based and not about who they're friends with or have worked with and sometimes it's clearly a mixture of the two.

Nicole Kidman, marvelous again in Rabbit Hole.
Marion Cotillard worked with Nicole Kidman on Nine, for example, but her tribute has one very insightful observation. She's talking about how, in the first moments of Rabbit Hole you know nothing about Becca's (Kidman) story but you're instantly drawn in despite her abrasiveness.
"Becca" is so far and yet so close at the same time. The space that is created between her and the audience is simultaneously delicate, strong, violent and full of life. A part of her is gone and will always be gone, yet you feel nothing but life.
Marion & Nic' last year
And when Marion concludes her tribute with...
She is simply one of the world's best actresses.
You have to say "amen." That's too true and a half, whether or not the actresses hit it off on musical soundstages.

Reading all the articles is a pain since Variety takes such measures to hide their content but read we must. Helen Mirren loves the theatricality and imagination of Lesley Manville in Another Year, Alec Baldwin was wowed by the authenticity of the duet in Blue Valentine. And a few actors cite the cast of The Kids Are All Right. Laura Dern calls Mark Ruffalo one of her acting heroes and delivers an astute read on why he's so magical in that very difficult part (which, alas, probably won't look difficult enough to voters less discerning than Dern). Amy Ryan gives props to The Bening, particular in the Joni Mitchell scene (her obvious Oscar clip, yes?) and Colin Firth's ode to Julianne Moore (his co-star last year in A Single Man) is wonderfully expressed. His conclusion gives me hope that The Kids Are All Right will get that "Ensemble" nomination it so richly deserves at the SAG Awards.
All of the actors in this film are on the same formidable level. I kept thinking what a joy it must have been for them to all play off of each other.
Colin & Sally. She moves him.
But my favorite might be Colin Farrell's ode to Sally Hawkins in Made in Dagenham since he admits their offscreen friendship right up front but is clearly bowled over by the talent of the friend in question. Here's the fun intro.
Sometimes I see a film. Sometimes I see a film that moves me. Sometimes I see a film that has a friend in it. Sometimes that friend's name is Sally. When I see a film with a friend in it and that friend's name is Sally, that film moves me.
I can't say that I know the feeling exactly as I have few close friends that I regularly just happen to catch on the silver screen. But I can say that I know the feeling; when I see a film with a stranger in it and that strangers name is Sally, that film moves me.

Related Posts: 
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Friday, November 19, 2010

Sally "I Beat Meryl" Hawkins

This video is part of the See Africa Differently campaign. It devolves pretty quickly into sly inside showbiz comedy courtesy of Sally Hawkins (Happy-Go-Lucky).



My apologies if you've seen already but it was new to me. I was in Iceland. (Shhhh. That's my new excuse for every error I make for the next two weeks).

I'm quite excited for more of you to get a look at Made in Dagenham soon. It's quite sweet and easy to enjoy and it's aging well for me. I blame all those actresses in cute underthings and working girl frocks. But mostly I blame Sally who is really more terrific in it than she needs to be. I also think she has fine chemistry with her onscreen husband Daniel Mays, another Mike Leigh alum (think Vera Drake).

Related Posts
Golden Globe Night (When Sally Won)

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

The Eyre Above

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JA from MNPP here. If Nat were around he'd perhaps do one of his "Yes No Maybe So" posts for this, but I've got nothing but yes for this, the first trailer for Cary Fukunaga's adaptation of Jane Eyre, which isn't out until March. (via)
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Fukunaga's Sin Nombre - and I know Nat agrees with me on this - is a wonderful film. Thrilling and moving and gorgeously shot. So no matter what he did next I'd have been paying attention, but an adaptation of Jane Eyre was not at all what I was expecting and that makes me even happier. Love it when a director throws a curve-ball. And the cast... the cast! Michael Fassbender, Mia Wasikowska, Michael Fassbender, Judi Dench, Jamie Bell, Sally Hawkins and Michael Fassbender... drool.


And that trailer is just stunning. I posted a slew of screencaps over at MNPP in case you want to ogle it that way. What do we think?
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Monday, October 18, 2010

Oscar Prediction Revisions: Costume Design, Documentary Shorts

The Oscar Prediction Pages are all finally revised and updated.

Costumes
This morning I was thinking about the costume designers who may be in play. Like many of the Academy's branches, costume designers can be a bit insular about who they nominate (though no group is anywhere near as "final club" elitist as the composers) but one previously unnominated designer I hope they consider is Louise Stjernsward who did the costuming for Made in Dagenham.

The period work in the film (late 60s England) doesn't seem unduly fussed over, which is a plus for a film that's aiming for a light touch on a serious topic. And it's one of those movies where the costumes actually play an important plot role once or twice, as in this red number we see Sally Hawkins wearing below. She's on her way to a very important meeting and she's borrowed the dress to look higher class. It's a touch too big on her.


The film also has quite a broad range of costumes on display since we have businessmen, factory workers at work and on their days off, politicians (Miranda Richardson, left), a swimsuit photoshoot (center) and even lots of undergarment on ever shape and size of woman since the women in the Dagenham factory regularly strip down to work, given the heat.

It seems like it must have been a big project for Stjernswad, but a hugely enjoyable one.

See the new costume design page now with animated gallery.

Documentary Shorts
Here is the trailer for one of eight Documentary Short finalists, Sun Come Up, which looks at the refugees of climate change. It looks gorgeous and sad.


Sun Come Up Trailer from Sun Come Up on Vimeo.

Oscar Prediction Pages: Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress, Foreign Films, Costume Design, Animation & Documentaries, Visual Categories and Aural Categories

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Never Let That Go

I like the way Film Experience reader Kenn thinks. He made this for image for his tumblr and it's reprinted here with his permission.


Though this reminds me of those dread horizontal slice posters, I approve of the first panel 150%. I'll never let that go... for shame, Academy, for shame. I can't wait to see what good ol' Sally does with this new opportunity in Never Let Me Go.

Meanwhile... Wouldn't it be hilarious if movie trailers used "shoulda's" in their advertisements. Which shoulda would you add to new trailers?
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Sally Hawkins

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Yes, No, Maybe So: Never Let Me Go

I guess June is when the OscarBait trailers begin their stampede? I always forget summertime occurences as I have already melted. I hate summer. Yesterday we performed our patented three pronged expectation-management on Somewhere. Today Mark Romanek's adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro's best seller Never Let Me Go.



You might not want to read this if you're worried about subject/thematic spoilers. I still need to read the book but I feel like this would have been great to go into blind. I'm glad that the trailer is hinting rather than telling, as all trailers should.

The cast is a big draw: Carey Mulligan, Andrew Garfield, Keira Knightley, Sally Hawkins (looks like a good part), Charlotte Rampling... it just keeps on giving people that are a) fine actors and b) interesting to look at in one way or another. And they're all in the service of sober non-f/x driven sci-fi which is all too rare at the movies. [SPOILER] This one has to do with a school for clones though this trailer doesn't make that too specific. [/SPOILER] The last such sci-fi flick that comes to mind was Children of Men and those three words strung together should prompt fine cinematic memories.

This is an entirely personal thing. I don't tend to respond well to bifurcated structures where we get used to one actor playing a role and have to switch to another or switch back and forth. I like it when movies cover a short frame of time in their character's lives. Movies are most equatable with short stories, if you ask me. The television miniseries is the ideal home for novel adaptations but nobody in Hollywood agrees with this assessment. That said, that's the only "no" I could come up with which is a great sign. And those young girls do seem well cast to evoke Mulligan & Knightley.

Blade Runner (1982) is one of the greats and when an image like the one to your left explicitly calls it mind, it's both exciting and worrying. It seems likely that the movie will similarly examine entirely human concerns about the purpose of life, the mystery of the soul, and the fear of death through the distancing protection of a genre lens. Can Mark Romanek do all this justice? He's got a great eye and makes absolutely incredible music videos. But I didn't get much apart from aesthetic value from his previous feature, One Hour Photo. There's so much rich thematic possibility here: Do I have a soul? Is my life not even mine? Will loving someone save me? There's not enough time. All these moments will be lost like tears in the rain.

In short, I'm a yes. But I do think I should read the book first since it's supposed to be incredible. I'd rather know the real thing before experiencing its copy, even though the copy looks to have plenty of soul.

You?
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Thursday, January 22, 2009

Sally, Meryl, Michelle, Emma, Holly, Helen... and Sally!?

What follows is a note I received from a reader (thx Scott!) about the rather shocking Sally Hawkins omission this morning from Oscar's Best Actress list. As you may or may not know, Ms. Hawkins, who is a hundred kinds of terrific in the latest Mike Leigh picture Happy-Go-Lucky, has received the most Best Actress prizes this year (she went into the double digits of precursor prizes). I think the enormity of her snub should be understood. Here's the note and statistics:
This whole Sally Hawkins debacle is totally unprecedented. In the last 34 years, since the National Society of Film Critics, The Los Angeles Film Critics Association, The New York Film Critics Circle and the Golden Globes have co-existed (kind of the big 4 non-Oscar events for me and for everyone else I'm sure), only 7 women have won all 4:


Sally Field (Norma Rae, 1979), Meryl Streep (Sophie's Choice, 1982), Michelle Pfeiffer (The Fabulous Baker Boys, 1989), Emma Thompson (Howard's End, 1992), Holly Hunter (The Piano, 1993), Helen Mirren (The Queen, 2006) and Sally Hawkins (Happy-Go-Lucky, 2008). Five of them won the Oscar and the other, Pfeiffer, should have (as we all know). So for Hawkins to miss a nomination altogether, even though we knew it was a possibility (and I grant you that the 6 other women won the Golden Globe Drama so she's not a perfect comparator), is still a massively surprising and altogether unusual, not to mention unjust, outcome
First Michelle and now Sally?! It's official: Being loved by Nathaniel R. means certain doom for your Oscar prospects. Movie goddesses beware! If you hear Nathaniel's heart quicken from the wonder of your actressing run far away from him --far far away... run like the wind. He's a Cooler.

If you missed my interview with Sally Hawkins, it's here. She was so humble about this Lucky success and all of the attention. Hopefully her awards haul up until this point will mean that we'll see more of her onscreen soon. Perhaps that political biopic (The Roaring Girl) will help. The Academy likes those.

Monday, January 19, 2009

My Best Actress Ballot (and the Awards Race)

Some prominent 2008's Actress wins in roughly chronological order: Sally Hawkins, Sandra Corveloni, Dominique Blanc, Melissa Leo, Hawkins (twice more), Anne Hathaway (twice), Kate Winslet and Hawkins

Many awards groups have come and gone eager to have their say and loudly proclaim their opinions on the "best" of film acting for 2008. That these diverse opinions, once you get past festival season, are often barely distinguishable from one another is neither here nor there for this discussion since this time it's all about me!me!me! or, rather, mine!mine!mine! (I get so territorial with my beloved actresses, you know).

If you value awards consensus, which is often an interesting curio for each film year, there's roughly only 7 great performances by a leading actress given this year (so far ... Oscar speaks on Thursday morning and could surprise). Those are, alphabetically:
Aside from perhaps two performances I find either problematic with definite high points (Streep) or perplexingly limited (Jolie), I think it a super list. Well done, consensus!

Still and all: I always wish we saw more variety in awards season. Where was the hoopla for Julianne Moore's return to form (twice over)? Where were the kudos for career stretches from two continually undervalued actresses Famke Janssen and Emily Mortimer? Oh, riiiight, "continually undervalued" ... I answered my own question.

Click For My Ballot
I'd love to hear yours in the comments


And, just for fun, since I'm always eager to share my actress affliction with all of you, here are the 16 lead performances I considered noteworthy in some way (from the 100+ films I saw) and that I shuffled around in rank throughout this annual Sophie's Choice ordeal of choosing "the best"

Saturday, January 03, 2009

National Society of Film Critics & More...

We're coming to the last wave -- make that trickle -- of critics awards for 2008 (thank god almighty we're free at last!) but this is an important one. The National Society of Film Critics have spoken and they're practically bouncing on trampolines with "Poppy" herself, they loved Happy-Go-Lucky so much...

Best Picture: Waltz With Bashir
Best Director: Mike Leigh, Happy-Go-Lucky
Best Actress: Sally Hawkins, Happy-Go-Lucky
Best Actor: Sean Penn, Milk
Best Supporting Actress: Hanna Schygulla, The Edge of Heaven
Best Supporting Actor: Eddie Marsan, Happy-Go-Lucky
Best Screenplay: Happy-Go-Lucky

IndieWire has more details if you're interested. I'm pleased to see all the support for Mike Leigh's film since I love it, too. The ads for Slumdog Millionaire describe it as a "buoyant hymn to life" but if that blurby phrase describes any movie this year, surely it's Happy-Go-Lucky?! Four things about this latest batch of awards spring out immediately:
  1. Between WALL•E taking the Los Angeles prize and Waltz With Bashir taking this one, it's been a banner year for critical support of the animated form.
  2. I've underestimated the possible Academy support of Happy-Go-Lucky (they've embraced three previous Mike Leigh efforts). Could Eddie Marsan actually have a shot at the fifth spot in Supporting Actor? Right now it seems like a toss-up between James Franco & Dev Patel with Michael Shannon siphoning off crucial votes but could we get an actual surprise nominee? Big surprises don't happen often but you never know.
  3. The season-long critical backing of Sally Hawkins (my interview with the actress here) should cement her place in the Oscar Actress line-up... and yet... and yet... that category is still very difficult to measure for a number of reasons. In any year when there's a lot of contestants in play this late in the game, you can sometimes end up with big surprises. Think 2003's Best Actress lineup which confounded every pundit and probably surprised the nominated and the snubbed, too, once the names were read.
  4. Since most Oscar ballots are returned to the Academy in the first week and they were mailed out 9 days ago this doesn't have much direct influencing power beyond underlining the critical mood, which is very pro-Happy...
In minor critical news the Oklahoma group announced just before Christmas so we forgot to mention it (who has time to think about what's going on in Oklahoma while wrapping presents? Unless that's where one purchased them). They went crazy for Slumdog as many critics organizations had before them. They gave it Director, Picture and Adapted Screenplay. Expect it to continue to fight it out with Benjamin Button for winning the most Best Picture momentum. Heath Ledger won his billionth posthumous supporting actor prize for The Dark Knight. Sally Hawkins (her name gets ever more familiar) took Best Actress. And, like most critics groups who chose Mickey Rourke over Sean Penn for Best Actor they threw Marisa Tomei their Best Supporting Actress prize for The Wrestler. It seems to be a two-for-one deal with those two for prizes which leads me to believe that Marisa Tomei is safer for an Oscar Supporting Actress nod than we'd previously imagined.

If you think you're free from awardage, think again. The Guilds start announcing in full force on Monday. They're the best indicator we'll get of the Academy's mood this year.
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Wednesday, December 10, 2008

NYFCC Gets Happy Drinking Milk

Here we go. The New York Film Critics Circle announcements are made.

Picture: Milk
Director:
Mike Leigh, Happy-Go-Lucky
<--- Actress:
Sally Hawkins, Happy-Go-Lucky
NY & LA combined is powerful leverage for Oscar nods. Maybe that BFCA snub won't hurt her at all since she was losing Best Actress buzz
Actor: Sean Penn, Milk
Supporting Actress:
Penélope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Supporting Actor:
Josh Brolin, Milk
Screenplay: Jenny Lumet, Rachel Getting Married
Animated Film:
WALL•E
Foreign Film: 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (Romania)
Best First Film:
Courtney Hunt, Frozen River
Documentary:
Man on Wire
Cinematography:
Anthony Dod Mantle, Slumdog Millionaire

The clear boosts here, Oscar-wise, are Gus Van Sant's sure to be nominated Milk biopic and Mike Leigh's less buzzy but winning Happy-Go-Lucky. Overall it's a nice continuation of LAFCA's spreading of the wealth. Cruz is really gunning for that Oscar. If she pulls it off for Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Woody Allen becomes the third most successful director of all time in terms of getting actors to the podium. He's currently tied for fourth place with Clint Eastwood, Martin Scorsese, John Ford and George Cukor. They've each directed five actors to the shiny statuette. The all time leader is William Wyler (Ben-Hur, Roman Holiday, Funny Girl, etcetera) who in all likelihood will never be dethroned in this regard: He's directed 13 acting winners.
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Sunday, November 16, 2008

Sally Hawkins, Interviewed

Ascending British actress / Oscar hopeful Sally Hawkins and I got all bicoastal by phone a fortnight ago. I apologize profusely for the irritable sound but I blame the luxury hotel she was ensconced in whilst promoting Mike Leigh's new charmer Happy-Go-Lucky.

<-- Poppy Talk!

Nevertheless I thought I couldn't not share the lovely conversation we had about her character "Poppy". We ponder Oscar buzz. We get into the nitty-gritty of Mike Leigh's famous production process. We gush about costume designer Jacqueline Durran (Atonement. green dress -- discuss). We wrap up with biopic talk. We even share a P.J. Harvey moment. Uh huh, her.

Once Sally and I are done chatting, there's a few listener calls to be answered on Doubt, Rachel Getting Married, Slumdog Millionaire and Kate Winslet's double dipping December.

Those with iTunes can get the enhanced podcast here.
If you're without, bless you, there's a standard mp3 for your listening pleasure.