Showing posts with label Heroes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Heroes. Show all posts

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Foreign Film Oscars: International Beauty Pageant.

If you'd like to read about the now official Oscar submissions for Best Foreign Language Film,  click away. But because you -- make that we -- can't see most of the films, due to the hideous state of international distribution, let us use this Academy press release as an excuse to take a different view, a sexytime view... a Beauty Break if you will. Let's gawk at the actors and actresses who are in the submitted films. We'll pretend it's like a Miss Universe pageant (how do you say "shallow" in Finnish?). Randomly selected hotties follow (it's not easy to find info/photos.) whether you're into the men, the women or other. Don't judge!


Beauty Knows No Borders
I presume you'll let me know your very favorites in the comments. Do I presume too much?

Handsome Guys...

Left:  Bill Skarsgård a.k.a. Alexander's lil brö (20) for Sweden's Simple Simon.
Right: Oscar Guerrero (age unknown) for Puerto Rico's Miente / Lie.
Oh the imperfections of the web: Guerrero is obviously famous having been in several films and soap operas and yet he has neither a wikipedia page nor any personal information on the IMDb. Weirder still, the IMDb does not even list him as appearing in Miente, a film in which he plays the lead role!


Left: Mark Chao -- or Zhao depending on your info source -- (26) for Taiwan's Monga (see previous post). He also sings.
Right: George Pistereanu (19) for Romania. Some people think he looks like...


Left: Gael García Bernal (31) for Spain in Even the Rain. He's from Mexico and the most familiar face in this year's submission list outside of Javier Bardem, who is from Spain representing Mexico with Biutiful. They've flip-flopped countries, submission-wise. I sat two rows behind them -- they were together so I assume they're friends -- in Toronto for The Sea Inside premiere back in 2004. Memories
Right: Boris Ler (25) for Bosnia Hersegovina in Danis Tanovic's Cirkus Columbia.


Left: Coco Martin (26) who stars in Noy for The Philippines. (see previous post)
Right: Santiago Cabrera (32), who you'll remember from the TV show Heroes (first season only -- the tortured artist) who is the romantic lead of Chile's The Life of Fish. The Chilean actor was born in Venezuela, speaks four languages and lives in London. International!


Left: Pablo Derqui (34) for Costa Rica's Of Love and Other Demons. He was born in Barcelona and is a TV star in Spain.
Right: Asser Yassin (29) for Egypt in Messages From the Sea.


Left: Aarif Lee (23) for Hong Kong's Echoes of the Rainbow. He won the Best Newcomer Award in the Hong Kong Film Awards for this role. He's starring in a Bruce Lee biopic next. Here's more info on the Lee picture.
Right: Mateusz Kościukiewicz (24) for Poland. He stars in the punk rock drama All That I Love. At least one website names him the Polish Robert Pattison !

Gorg' Ladies...


Left: Maria Bonnevie (37) for Norway in Engelen (Angel). See previous post for more on Maria.
Right: Lubna Azabal (age unknown) for Canada in Incendies (it's one to watch for the finalist list, I think). She's from Belgium and of Moroccan descent.


Left: Sibel Kekilli (30) for Germany's award winning When We Leave. We are fond of her.
Right: Blanca Lewin (36) for Chile in the romantic drama The Life of Fish. She's a television star there.


Left: Takako Matsu (33) for Japan in Confessions (see previous post for exciting trailer). She won several best actress awards recently for the melodrama Villon's Wife.
Right: Micaela Ramazzotti (31) for Italy in The First Beautiful Thing. She plays the young mother of two kids in this nostalgic memoir. (The role is shared with award-winning Stefania Sandrelli when the mother gets older). Lotsa photos of Micaela... she currently has darker hair.


Left: Jana Zupančič (age unknown) for Slovenia's 9:06. Like Guerrero up top she's also not listed on the IMDb as part of her submitted film, but she's one of only three actors on the poster. You may remember her from last year's submission Landscape No. 2 (previously reviewed right here).
Right: Mariana Santángelo (34) for Puerto Rico's Miente / Lie. She's from Argentina.


For Specialized Tastes...


Left: Jenny Larrue & Cindy Scrash who play rival transsexual cabaret stars in Portugal's To Die Like a Man.
Right: Various for Hungary in what must be the oddest Oscar submission this side of Uncle Boonmee. It's called Bibliotheque Pascal.
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If you'd like to read more uh... professional and totally official info on the Best Foreign Language Film Submissions, click for whichever country you're interested in. On the charts you'll see posters, official site links for further exploration, distribution status (US based only, sorry) and basic trivia. As always the best way to see any of them is to pay close attention to festival schedules in cities closest to you.
  • Albania to France
    23 films: East West East, Outside the Law, Carancho, La Pivellina, The Precinct, Third Person Singular Number, Illégal, Cirkus Columbia, Lula the Son of Brazil, Eastern Plays, Incendies, The Life of Fish, Aftershock, Crab Trap, Of Love and Other Demons, The Blacks, Kawasaki's Rose, In a Better World, Messages From the Sea, The Temptation of St Tony, The Athlete, Steam of Life, and Of Gods and Men.
  • Georgia to Nicaragua
    21 films: Street Days, When We Leave, Dogtooth, Nuummioq, Echoes of the Rainbow, Bibliotheque Pascal, Mamma Gogo, Peepli Live, How Funny This Country Is, Farewell Baghdad, Son of Babylon, The Human Resources Manager, The First Beautiful Thing, Confessions, Strayed, The Light Thief, Hong Kong Confidential, Mothers, Biutiful, Tirza and La Yuma.
  • Norway to Venezuela
    21 films: Angel, Undertow, Noy, All That I Love, To Die Like a Man, Lie, If I Want to Whistle I Whistle, The Edge, Besa, The Border, 9:06, Life Above All, A Barefoot Dream, Even the Rain, Simple Simon, La Petit Chambre, Monga, Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, Honey, A Useful Life, and Hermano.

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Young Linkywood

Don't trust anyone over 30!

Topless Robot thinks Channing Tatum looks nothing like G.I. Joe
<--- WIMB Yummy Amanda Seyfried in Vogue
Bad and the Ugly
Milo and Hayden on the set of Heroes 3rd season. I hate to be a jerk but the producers know that just giving them new hairdos won't make that show any better, right? Right?
Miami Herald Anne Hathaway is learning to play the banjo (?!)
Towleroad Josh Hartnett is now hawking cologne. Will Scarjo make Ryan wear it?
ModFab celebrates Jay Brannan (Shortbus)'s CD

NewNowNext Provincetown Film Festival swoons over Gael Garcia Bernal
---> Pop Seoul Seems that Rain (Speed Racer ...and currently filming Ninja Assassin) has to make nice with his hometown fans after deserting them for Hollywood.
Gossip Girls Kirsten Dunst hits the Coldplay concert in NYC. She's also been speaking out about her depression battles. Get well soon. (y'all know I love her and I need more crazy/beautifuls, Marie-Antoinettes and Virgin Suicies)
Guardian examines the public hostility often directed at Keira Knightley. Interesting piece.

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Tuesday Top Ten Tantrum

I'm not playing today. You can't make me! 10 things I'm doing instead of writing the top ten...

01 Giggling to myself about Beowulf
02 Eating an apple
03 Wishing someone could do "performance capture" on me. If Ray Winstone can go from this... (left) to this (right) why can't I? Where is Robert Zemeckis when I need him.


04 Cancelling my DVR subscriptions to Bionic Woman and Heroes
05 Bitching to the Boyfriend about how dramatically inert Heroes is and how much it continually promises not to be. Hate it

<--- 06 Petting the kitty
07 Staring at a bill I don't want to open
08 Laughing at Jennifer Coolidge on Nip/Tuck
09 Knowing that I really have to do laundry tomorrow
10 Wishing it were Wednesday so I could be watching Pushing Daisies

Just cuz I won't play Tues Top Ten doesn't mean you can't. Share whatever top ten you'd like in the comments. Or maybe the top ten lists you'd most like to see... What ten things are you doing right now?

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Heroes in Hiding

I recently noticed that The House Next Door was pushing an article from the Guardian from a former TV hater who had seen the light: TV shows were better than movies was the basic claim. The writer conveniently passed on reality television, game shows or the like. I don't know how one can make grand pronouncements about the quality of an artform if you're ignoring huge swaths of it. That's like claiming that movies are generally filled with nuance are slow moving and deeply political whilst on your way back from a film festival (Try the multiplex and then get back to us). Anyway... though I've been guilty of it before I think it's silly to compare TV and Film. They are different mediums with separate weaknesses, strengths and goals.

So... I thought I'd stick a pinky toe into the TV water (more on pinky toes later) here and there. Not too much --this is still a film site. So, let's start with Heroes. I watched it on and off last season and found it plagued by the curse of Buffy Season 7. In the final season of Buffy the characters were always engaged in Dramatic Acts of Worrying™ and the dialogue often featured ominous chestnuts like 'something's coming' or 'things are bad... really really bad' as if the concerned faces and inchoate fear would convince us that something was indeed worrisome. and happening (!!!) If something was it was definitely happening offscreen. Like many a bad movie, some TV series forget the #1 rule of visual medium: show don't tell.

It's too early to state with certainty that Heroes second season is treading water until they think of some story to tell but it sorta feels that way. Still, the show works on the pop level. It continues to be a kick that they've embraced comic book aesthetics for so many of their visual choices be it the fonts used for credits or the camera angles chosen. And we should also thank the Heroes team for getting their men wet with some regularity. I'm for that.

Elsewhere things were less scrumptious. Hiro (the Japanese time stopper) is still in the past ---zzzzzzz time travel stories are a pet peeve of mine but this one is particularly tedious. Claire (the indestructable cheerleader) and family are still arguing about hiding their true selves. That exciting discussion was also featured in the last episode and i'm guessing we'll hear it a few more times, too. Wheee.

Northstar and Aurora. er... the Wonder Twins um, the Latino twin characters are still accidentally killing people with their black oozing eyeballs (sometimes when I watch this show I retroactively wish that Buffy the Vampire Slayer had been blessed with a budget this big). Their involuntary manslaughter bodycount was also featured in the last episode and i'm guessing we'll see that at least once more --maybe they'll get to their destination in episode 4 or 5.

Just as I was getting really annoyed with the placeholding narrative, the show finally got to the good stuff: an appearance by the show's best character: MR. MUGGLES (pictured, left)! I'm not the only viewer that thinks Heroes is overcrowded. The problem with huge ensembles like this is that you get so little time with the characters you love the most. And since Heroes is allergic to death (even the murdered people come back) there's no way to prune the cast. It's only going to get more crowded as new heroes emerge. Poor Mr. Muggles. This little guy is cuter than cheerleaders and politician's brothers put together. He also has the show's best comic timing. He's so underused. His superpower is that he makes me want a dog and I am a devout cat person.

Oh and yes. Just after Mr. Muggles made my night, this episode topped itself with its extro. Earlier in the episode Claire got curious about the regenerative abilities of lizards and whether they're a match with hers. She gets another one of her brilliant ideas...


Claire wants to test her limits and the healing process. I get that. But did it have to be with scissors? Ewwww. But then, the prettiest girl is always paired with the grossest images on Heroes --that incongruous marriage is still the show's best running gag.