Ménage à trois "A Dangerous Method"

Eeep!

Viggo Mortensen as Sigmund Freud. Put me on the couch.

Keira Knightley as Sabina and Michael Fassbender as Carl Jung.

Yes, It's VIGGO (my vote for the most consistently brilliant 50something male actor working), Keira, and the wonderful Michael Fassbender in David Cronenberg's Psychiatrists In Love. er... The Dangerous Method. I once saw a play about these three characters (not the Christopher Hampton play "Talking Cure" that this is based on) and I remember nothing about it other than that it was great subject matter but I was too drowsy to focus.

poll by twiigs.com

Cronenberg is a true original. I feel as if I have no idea what to expect from him here and I like it like that, I do. I shall psycho-analyze these new photos all day. Join me.

Never Let (This Piece of) Me Go

It's hard not to lose your heart a little to Never Let Me Go at the start. Carey Mulligan, making good on that An Education promise, stares through you with big caring soulful eyes. She even confirms that look with dialogue about being a "carer". Andrew Garfield stares back, through glass, with an uncomplicated smile on his face. He's prone on an operating table and obviously in need of her caring. Never Let Me Go uses a definitive plea as title. Not to be to cruel when faced with so much neediness but can we do some haggling first? May we keep parts of you and discard the rest? Never Let This Piece of Me Go? Consider it a deal.

Cathy H, Tommy D, and Ruth ???

I'd personally like to keep the actors. I've even written up a "Best in Show" column on Andrew Garfield for Tribeca Film. The set decoration has its moments, too. I'll even keep the screenplay so long as I can jettison at least a third of Cathy H's redundant narrated bits and a truly atrocious final speech which ruins the heartbreak of the scene preceding it. You know the type of final speech I'm talking about "Let me spell out the theme for you in case you were two hours late to the movie or took a really long bathroom break." The narration is actually a bit baffling for a film that does, in fact, trust you to fill in some of the blanks. If you're trusting the audience to infer meaning on several occasions, haven't you already decided your audience is a smart one?

More than any film this year, I want to fuss with everything. The first donation needs to be Rachel Portman's score. Give that away immediately. One can half imagine the creative meetings "This is the climax of the film. Make it important." ...only they forgot to mention which scene. The score even treats transitional bits like cars pulling up to buildings as perfect moments to remind you that this is an ominous dystopian tale that is Breaking Your Heart. For all of the inherent power in Never Let Me Go's compelling premise, clever images and nuanced performances -- that seems to be the exhausting directorial mantra for the entire creative team: 'this is the climax, make it important!' But not every scene can be a climax - just as with life, they only happen once. C+

Related Articles
"Best in Show" Andrew Garfield
A Second Look at An Education
Oscar Predictions
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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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We Can't Wait: #3 NEVER LET ME GO

The We Can't Wait series nears it's end with an adaptation of a book about events shrouded in mystery; just like the film itself...

Never Let Me Go
Directed by: Mark Romanek
Starring: Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightley, Andrew Garfield, Sally Hawkins, Charlotte Rampling, Andrea Riseborough

Synopsis: A woman reflects on her mysterious years at a private boarding school as she reunites with two friends scarred by those days.
Brought to you by: Film4 and Fox Searchlight Pictures
Expected release date: TBA

Dave: In a moment of unintentional foresight, I actually read 'Never Let Me Go' before I knew anything about it being turned into a film; it's a superb book, taking the reader to surprising, uncomfortable and devastating places, with a sci-fi aspect that never really registers as such because it's treated in so downtrodden and normalised a way. I'm not sure I thought it was a particularly cinematic novel but I also don't see why it can't work; the prose is fairly straightforward, so all that really needs doing is retaining the gripping way the mystery of the whole thing unfolds. I'm intrigued to see what Mark Romanek does visually; One Hour Photo was a solid enough film but I'd hope for at least a little bit of an infusion of his music video days, at least to liven up what could be a rote imagining of the boarding school of the first third.

But let's not fool ourselves; it's the cast here that we're all getting glinty eyes over. It might be Carey Mulligan's first big project post-breakthrough, but my eye goes straight to Andrew Garfield on the credits; although between this, Red Riding and his blindingly good performance in Boy A it's a wonder the boy can crack a smile any more. Then there's people like Keira Knightley and Charlotte Rampling hanging around too. A possible acting masterclass? Is Romanek the man to really coax greatness out of these actors?

JA: If he could coax greatness out of Robin Williams - and I think he was pretty dang great in OHP - I don't foresee him having much trouble with these lovely folks here, Dave.

I'm about as much in love with Ishiguro's book as I am with anything written in the past ten years though, so I ought to be terrified about an adaptation. But I ain't. I ain't at all! Mulligan, Garfield, Rampling, Sally Hawkins, Andrea Riseborough - just saw her on stage with Hugh Dancy and Ben Whishaw a couple of months ago in The Pride and she's become a pet project of mine to trumpet her name whenever given the chance, and she's got a good role here as Miss Lucy - and begrudgingly Knightley, who I loved in Pride & Prejudice and... I'll leave it at that.

Craig: Yes, the cast. I'm excited to see Rampling, Garfield and Hawkins here - and Mulligan has shown she can do boarding school cool already. Although with the exception of Keira Knightley, who hasn't completely convinced me in any film yet. But this one - along with her role in Cronenberg's new one - might see her expand a bit from the corsets and pirate girl area and she may surprise me. Though whenever they say Knightley, I say Rosamund Pike. She might have been a good choice here, though isn't she slightly older than the other two principle cast members? And would that matter? But yes, Jason, Andrea Riseborough - she was great in Happy-Go-Lucky (could she be the secret surprise here?).

Jose: Without knowing what the book was about, this film adaptation got my attention only by the cast (this could be the year of the great female ensembles). Keira, Carey and Sally all had wonderful breakthrough roles in the past decade and are some of the most fascinating actresses out there. I hope they will continue to prove their worth here, if not there's always the brilliance of Charlotte Rampling who can do no wrong.

Craig: Mark Romenek is such an interesting choice for director too. I'll echo the thoughts about One Hour Photo being quite the nifty film, and he's got the style factor sorted.

Jose: I'm sure Romanek will bring an interesting visual conception to the project; his One Hour Photo was clinically beautiful to watch and for a man who has confessed he wanted to become a director because of 2001: A Space Odyssey, the sci-fi angle of this tale sounds like bliss. I hope he gets inspired by his work on Madonna's Rain for this...

Keira, Carey and Andrew enjoying a moment off-camera; you can tell because they're smiling...

Craig: I never got to reading the book (mainly due to the ending being spoiled for me, darn it), so I feel I've missed out on a great piece of fiction here. I'll have to leap into this film version in the hope that it'll have a few surprises in store, which, by the sounds of it, it will have. I'm a sucker for downtempo sci-fi and everything all together does actually sound as if it could make for an extraordinary and fresh approach.

JA: I adore this book. If they can capture one tenth of the beauty and sadness therein, this will be something very very special to me.

Dave: There's a great weight of expectation there. I think that the fact, beyond the novel and the cast, this is another film we know very little about just makes the anticipation of it greater, because we just don't know. It's another film that looks so very promising on paper, but who can know if it will deliver? The fact that Fox Searchlight are on-board for American distribution suggests they've seen something of worth, though.

Are you excited, readers? Do you trust in Romanek, Carey and Keira? Or did you never want to let go of the book and let it up on that screen?

"We Can't Wait: Summer and Beyond" complete series: The "orphan" picks Nathaniel (Burlesque), JA (Love and Other Drugs), Jose (You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger), Craig (What's Wrong With Virginia?), Robert (True Grit) and Dave (Brighton Rock); Team Film Experience Countdown #12 It's Kind of a Funny Story, #11 Sex & the City 2, #10 Scott Pilgrim vs the World, #9 Somewhere, #8 The Kids Are All Right, #7 The Illusionist, #6 Toy Story 3, #5 Inception, #4 Rabbit Hole, #3 Never Let Me Go, #2 Black Swan and #1 The Tree of Life.

The Link Dimension

it's sci-fi day! Though we won't restrict ourselves to other dimensions for this plus size roundup

PLAIN OL' DRAMA/COMEDY
Against the Hype omg i ♥ this. Lust, Caution's crucial mahjong game's narrative impact decoded for us Westerners.
The Awl converses about A Single Man
Scott Brothers actresses and directors, a neat photogallery
Go Fug Yourself misses Keira Knightley
Sho'Nuff Lives lets it all out before the Oscars
The Big Picture more controversies for The Hurt Locker. Weird that all of these things are happening / being aired after voting has finalized. You'd think those smear campaigns woulda hurried.
my internet... is not having Mildred Pierce remake
fourfour Crazy Heart in 3 sec/∞
BuzzSugar Kidman tries a romcoms again

GENRE 4EVAH
Vulture Avatar satire cut from Oscars? Well, if you remember James Cameron's freakout at a critic who didn't love Titanic you'll know he's very sensitive.
The New Yorker the oft hilarious Anthony Lane on the rise of 3-D
Boing Boing god bless futuristic technology. Have you heard Roger Ebert get an approximation of his voice back?
i09 "Battle Angel Alita" plot details
/Film Space Invaders movie in development. They're just paying for the title I guess. There isn't a story. Not one that I remember at least. But I was more a Robotron person in my quarter slotting days
Loyal KNG like the new Prince of Persia trailer?

And god bless futuristic technology. Have you heard beloved critic Roger Ebert get an approximation of his voice back?



OSCAR PRESENTERS LIST
Yes! Kathy Bates, Robert Downey Jr., Jake Gyllenhaal, Charlize Theron
Duh, of course Queen Latifah, Barbra Streisand (if she gets to do best picture again... i'm going to scream. I love early Babs but spread the f***in wealth, Oscar), John Travolta (no wait, it'll be Travolta. Blargh), Sam Worthington
Huh... but interesting Tom Ford, Keanu Reeves (I bet he presents Best Actress)
Really? Jason Bateman, Gerard Butler
I get it. But I feel nothing Bradley Cooper, Samuel L. Jackson, Tyler Perry, Chris Pine, Ryan Reynolds
Again? When so many people never have Ben Stiller
It's the Oscars EMMYs Steve Carell, Tina Fey
Oscar is that old man who bought a red sports car and pierced one ear trying to look young Miley Cyrus, Zac Efron, Taylor Lautner, Kristen Stewart

<-- Though I've read on several sites that last year's winners Sean Penn, Kate Winslet and Penélope Cruz will appear, the list above is on the Oscars site. Does this mean they've chucked the tradition of previous opposite sex acting winners presenting. Sniffle. I loved that. Here I was hoping for a Winslet "I love my life" Jeff Bridges moment... given that she's already expressed immense love for that movie. I thought last year's acting presentation was just a short break from one of Oscar's oldest traditions.

Vanity Fair's Hollywood ~ Episode 12 (2006)

Missed previous episodes? See: 1995 , 1996, 1997, 1998 , 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005

This Hollywood history series is nearing its end point as we approach the here and now. After two relatively safe / similar Hollywood covers: actresses + gowns = glamour. discuss, Vanity Fair shook things up to instant water cooler success in 2006.

click to enlarge for maximum blinding cheekiness

Tom Ford, 44, was ditching fashion for Hollywood (his directorial debut will supposedly emerge soon), and VF had him nuzzling Keira Knightley as Scarlett Johansson languorously lounged before them in nubile albino glory. Was the empty black space to your left...

• a compositional must?
• a place in which to photoshop oneself for an imagined ménage à quatre?
• an homage to every ethnic actor they'd ever shoved into the last fold of the covers?
  

Scarlett Johansson was 21 going on 22. You're forgiven if you assumed she was the niece of not one but all of Conde Nast's top executives. Three Hollywood covers in a row! Perhaps they should just have replaced the"Hollywood" tradition with an annual "Scarlett" issue. They could document every step of her career. They could string famous actresses across the cover each year, dressed up like Scarlett Johannson's film characters.

But who would play each Scarlett?

Keira Knightley was just turning 21 and enjoying her first Oscar nomination for Pride & Prejudice. She was also promoting her second Pirates of the Caribbean and a few months away from filming Atonement. "Come back to me!" [sniffle]
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average age: 29.
noticeably absent: Clothing. Also: Rachel McAdams, who was booked to be in Tom Ford's place but due to a "conniption of modesty" walked away leaving us forever wondering what she had planned to whisper in Keira's ear. "Come back to me!"?
collective Oscar stats before cover: 1 nomination (Keira's)
collective Oscar stats after cover: none. Keira's Atonement campaign didn't take.
fame levels in 2009, according to famousr, from most to least: Scarlett than Keira.
previous episodes: 1995 ,1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005.

don't miss the last two episodes and a possible bonus round.

I'm Still Link

PC World Dr Manhattan... is blue (hee)
YMFY Japanese poster for Maggie Gyllenhaal in Secretary. love. [thx]
/Film Helena Bonham-Carter's role in Terminator Salvation (beware spoilers. Will there be ANY secrets left about this movie by the time it comes out? I know so much about it)
Guardian on Joe Wright and Keira Knightley's jolting anti-abuse ad and its debt to Peter Greenaway


NY Post some Cannes lineup rumors
NewNowNext Sex & the City 2: Now With Actual Release Date. Once a movie has one of those you know it's actually going to happen. Weirdness.
Just Jared has the Moet & Chandon Scarlett Johansson ads. Maybe she was always meant to be seen in still photos, ever luscious. There's no chance she's ever wrong for that part.
Getty Images Stritch Style!

Remember that ABSOLUTELY NON-COMPREHENSIVE favorite film characters post I did? I tagged five people and 80% of them answered and I lurve their answers. You must go read what Adam, Dave, Fox and JA said, okay? It's totally good read. I pinky swear. Okay? Okay. Peace and out.

Red Carpet Lineup

Post Oscars the the crowds are smaller but red carpets never stopped being walked on. So here we go with this week's sampling.


Maribel Verdú would like to know what it is with French actresses and The Film Experience. How about some attention for the Spanish ladies? Rupert Friend and Keira Knightley attended the opening of his film The Young Victoria (previous post). Rupert will be the love of Michelle Pfeiffer and Emily Blunt's lives this year onscreen. Offscreen he's still Keira's. They make such a beautiful couple but they're both so angular one wonders if they keep gauze and surgical tape on their nightstands just as a precaution. Cheekbones that kill.

Breaking news: Charlize Theron still hot, still knows it. Can we please have more Carla Gugino and Miranda Richardson onscreen? Come on agents, casting directors, producers etcetera. Use them (We discussed Miranda earlier). More on Carla next week since Watchmen opens today. She's playing Silk Spectre, the first. Speaking of... Malin Akerman is smirking at me. 'You can try to shove me off to the side Nathaniel but I'm coming for you. After Watchmen, I'll be everywhere. Like Megan Fox all over again.' I'm not quite ready to say uncle. We'll see how she does as Silk Spectre II. Was it just me or did Malik sort of blow that bitchtastic opportunity she had in 27 Dresses by playing it safe? That movie needed a dose of over the top villainy to give it some flavor.

We'll end with the stars of the sibling ex-con drama I've Loved You So Long, Elsa Zylberstein and the great Kristin Scott Thomas. They're pictured left at the Cesars (France's Oscars) last week. Elsa didn't ever get real traction for the supporting race here at the Oscars but in France she won the statue. Kristin was nominated for lead actress (as were two other actresses we adore Sylvie Testud and Tilda Swinton) but lost to Yolande Moreau in Séraphine which is about the french painter Séraphine de Senlis. That biopic swept the Cesars winning seven prizes. It isn't only the American Academy that loves the epic period bios. I'd say to expect this to be France's submission for next year's Oscars but for the fact that France always has an enviable supply of dozens and dozens of valid contenders.

My interview with Kristin is now up!

I hope Keira Knightley isn't the jealous type...

Here's randy scrumptious Rupert Friend putting the moves on aging courtesan Michelle Pfeiffer in Stephen Frears costume drama Chéri


You can seem several more new stills at my friend Morrisey Bond's Gorgeous Pfeiffer fansite.

"WE CAN'T WAIT", this site's annual countdown of new movies we're lusting after begins on Wednesday, February 4th. Because I do a collective list I don't get to choose the order but if my guests don't put Chéri in their 'most wanted', I shall send them death glares to rival Pfeiffer's at her iciest.

The Abandoned Duchess

I still haven't made it to The Duchess. Have you?

Keira Knightley holds a candlelight vigil, praying for you to see her movie

Share your experience in the comments. This one slipped by me.
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Now Playing (In Only Five Words)

...from least screens to most. Just 'cuz. And because I'm in a Dogme 95 sort of mood, I've imposed a limitation on myself to describe these films in 5 words each, based on their trailers.

Choose Connor Pimply. Political. Smarmy. Tortured. Gay?
Fall of Hyperion Meteors! Cheap. Has-beens. Cable. Gay!
Good Dick Well, duh. Quirky. Independent. Ritter-ific.
Ice Blues: A Donald Strachey Mystery Again? Why? Shoestring. Gay-faced Hunk.
Nights and Weekends Soundtrack Free. Navels Observed. Heteronormative.
Saving Marriage Religious Bigots Vs. Determined Homosexuals.
Lola Montes (this is a reissue of the 1955 classic) Eye Candy! Costumes. Opulence. Bliss.
Happy-Go-Lucky Vera Drake's cheerfulness sans miserabilism?
Breakfast with Scot Gay. Gayer. Gayest. REALLY GAY.

Two Tony Leungs: Chiu-Wai and Ka Fai in the all-star cast
of Wong Kar Wai's Ashes of Time

Ashes of Time Redux Colorful contemplation. Both Tony Leungs!
RockNRolla Violence. Bare Chested Scenery Chewing.
Talento de Barrio Guns. Rap. Too Many Edits.
Billy: The Early Years of Billy Graham Vanilla. Beige. Bill Maher Puking.
Sex Drive 2,635th version of this movie
The Duchess (it's been out for 3 weeks but... expanding by a 1000 screens) Wigs. Candles. Adultery. Clenched Jaw.
City of Ember Golden Compass Complicated? Murray Miscast?
Quarantine Paranoid. Derivative "Found Footage"? Sweaty.
Body of Lies Betrayal. Ugly Haired Machismo. Syriana-esque.
The Express (adding 2000 screens) Glossy Inspirational / Interchangeable Sports Bio.

Keira Knightley in the J-Horror remake The Wig That Ate Devonshire

Which will you be seeing this weekend?
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2009 Sneak: King Lear

Nobody ever listens to me about that proposed moratorium on Shakespeare (for just 10 years people --give other ancient playwrights a chance at movie & stage adaptations!) but if they're going to make another Shakespearean movie, at least it's not Hamlet. Prepping to shoot early next year is King Lear directed by Joshua Michael Stern (whose current movie is Swing Vote. Kevin Costner to Shakespeare... er, okay Hollyweird). Sir Anthony Hopkins is set to play the self-sabotaging monarch. [src]

In concept I love all-star casts but when the property involves familial casting it always freaks me out just a little. Playing Hopkins three famous daughters and thus, sisters, are Naomi Watts (Goneril), Gwyneth Paltrow (Regan) and Keira Knightley (Cordelia). It might be exciting to see Paltrow in an evil role for a change --she no longer loves her Proof daddy -- but I don't really see these three as sisters. They're about as convincing as sisters as the last trio to war with their imperious Learing father (Jessica Lange, Michelle Pfeiffer and Jennifer Jason Leigh in A Thousand Acres)

I should keep an open mind. Maybe I'm just a little sore because if they were going to make King Lear I would've loved to have seen Sir Ian McKellen (my favorite "Sir") under that heavy crown. He's worked with this director before (on Neverwas) and he was just treading the boards a couple of years ago as Lear.

Discounting Shakespeare in Love (not a Shakespearean play, you know, but a play on Shakespeare as it were) the last time a Shakespearean feature was up for Oscar's Best Picture was 40 years ago (Franco Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet) though Shakespearean plays did have a brief Oscar comeback in the 1980s. Akira Kurosawa's Ran (1985, a King Lear adaptation) was a major event and Henry V in 1989, which established the shortlived but endearing Kenneth Branagh & Emma Thompson screen craze. Most of the time film versions of the Bard are ignored by Oscar as they often are by audiences. Perhaps they're too plentiful or there's too much competition to win "definitive" raves. Nevertheless, the allure for filmmakers and actors never goes away.

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.

Shut Yer Gob About That Green Dress

Dear Legions,
I'm absolutely knackered hearing about my Atonement dress. That was 2007! Catch me in green again? Not bloody likely.
This one's a bit of alright... Rupert was chuffed to bits when he saw it. I plan on owning every colour in the universe. Quite!
Cheers, K.K.

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BAFTA "Live" Blogging

Once again, "live" blogging because it sounds better than "tape delay blogging". REFRESH your screen throughout the night for more.Yes, I already know who won Best Actress. Shut Up! Why must everyone spread spoilers around the net?

Instant gratification takes too long
-Meryl Streep as Suzanne Vale in Postcards From the Edge

I'm convinced that if someone leaked the Oscar winners the day in advance everyone would spread the good and bad news instantly. No one would care about suspense. It's like how the movie trailers give us all the surprises. Nobody likes surprises, except me. I like to open my presents on Christmas morning. Sue me. So this tape-delay blogging is dedicated to all people who hate spoilers. xoxo. You're my people.

7:52 PM The Boyfriend is watching the Grammys. I have no idea why. His type of music (Björk, Vampire Weekend, The Cure) isn't really Grammyish. Grammy is Beyonce hit the floor wit it. He won't mind when I change the channel.

8:00 PM James McAvoy didn't shave. Keep him away from Johnny Depp.

8:03 PM They are Sparta. Wait. Where is Stephen Fry? Isn't he always the host? I can't understand a word the host is saying (there's some strange echo on BBC America). Keira Knightley is in a very good mood. And it almost sounds like they've added a laugh track to the event, given how appreciative this audience is of every inaudible punchline.

8:11 PM I gues I really need to see this This is England movie. I was happy just watching Paddy Considine (great actor) get happy about the win. I don't even know if he's in it.

8:16 PM Commercials should be outlawed during awards shows.

8:18 Eva Green is pretty. Live blogging leads to astounding revelations like that. You would have never known otherwise. You know who else is pretty? Sam Riley (to your right) who just lost this award. He was so good in Control. Shia Labeouf wins the Rising Star awards. I was sad for Tang Wei who has been robbed -- grand larceny -- all season long. Ah well, ten years from now people will still talk about that performance with Awe, Respect

8:24 I always forget that Thandie Newton is British. The Lives of Others wins Best Foreign Language Film.

8:35 Adapted Screenplay goes to The Diving Bell and Butterfly. Harwood thanks Janusz Kaminski for his cinematography. Remember when Kaminski was married to Holly Hunter? Good times.

8:39 There are more commercials than actual program. It's like watching Saturday Night Live. Which I haven't done in many years (largely because of that program/sponsor ratio problem)

8:49 Marion Cotillard was brought out to present Best Supporting Actor which went to Javier Bardem picking up his 100th (or so) of the season. She is wearing a silver version of the gold thing Nicole Kidman wore in Golden Compass only with a shimmering cape over it. It rather reminds me of the WWF costumes that they were designing on Project Runway last week. The nearly losing outfit by Sweet P. There's no reveal if the cape is open. Duh!

I love the way Marion pronounced "pivotal" when she was talking about their roles (pi-voh-tl) --accents are so cute! Javier Bardem has done a really terrific job all season of varying his speeches within the same basic emotional range. He always very genuinely acknowledges his competitors and stays humble about it. How you look that way and stay humble I shall never know. Europeans are so pretty.

8:56 Somebody just won something for Control but I didn't understand what it was for. Samantha Morton is clapping. I am always surprised at how young she really is (30) since she is not a fashion plate and has never presented herself in a "Hollywood" way. Definitely an actress rather than a celebrity. And what an actress! Seriously: I know some of you haven't seen Morvern Callar and you really must (FB nominee, 2002)

9:04 Saoirse's intro on the Atonement clip is hilarious... "She sees them in the library. She sees them doing things she's never seen done before."
______________________________________That's one way to put it.

9:10 The visual effects goes to The Golden Compass. And a whole parade of bad tuxes crosses the stage.


9:26 SORRY. I got swept away into Dior couture with the pale and hypnotic Tilda Swinton. Big Red. I heart her. She won Best Supporting Actress for Michael Clayton. That's been the most volatile category all season. Her acceptance speech was choice as well, funny heartfelt and the right amount of appreciation and is this for real? awards show kookiness. Plus her date was wearing nail polish. Love. I wish I had transcribed her speech since we won't see an Oscar repeat. It's Ryan vs. Dee vs. Blanchett I think for the Oscar.

9:30 The Coens won Best Director for No Country For Old Men. The clip they showed (the hotel room face/off) is the only scene that's shared --and just barely at that --between any of the leads... in this case Josh Brolin & Javier Bardem. Good choice. So tense. I felt like grabbing the armrest and a handful of popcorn when I'm actually at my computer and blogging with the lights on. For a moment there I was back in the theater.

9:32 Screenplay...

9:35 Nodded off there. So many nominees. Three minutes of nominees. So Juno fever has also hit England, huh? Juno wins Best Original Screenplay.

9:44 Somebody got a tribute award. Somebody who worked on Harry Potter movies. And somebody who loves horses on stage...I mean really loves them... gave him the prize. I don't really get the appeal of Mr. Radcliffe. I'll just say it.

9:50 They're talking about No Country For Old Men. The amount of time they spend discussing the Best Picture nominees reminds me of that one (and one only) AFI ceremony when they had nominees and they did little tiny documentaries on each. It really felt like it was about filmmaking. Though that said, I'm a little bored. Probably because BBC America does the tape delay and therefore nobody cares tonight since they already know who wins. This is probably why none of the usual commenting chaos is going on. Where is everyone? Now is not the time to desert the Film Experience! Not when the Film Experience needs you to make it through this long long season. Not when the Film Experience needs you to help him through the annual process of watching his favorites lose.

9:54 Very nice acceptance speech from a clearly moved Marion Cotillard who just* won Best Actress for La Vie En Rose. *"just" being many many hours ago. Ah, the magic of "live" television. Congratulations Marion. She looks a little like Emily Blunt here, doesn't she?

While they were showing the clips and Cate was hollering away in Elizabeth 2: Full Throttle all I could think was: This is EXACTLY like that clip of Phillip Seymour Hoffman in Charlie Wilson's War. I think they even swing their arms the same way. I guess that's why I don't like either performance. Showboating = stinky. To me. The only shouty performance I love this year is Daniel Day-Lewis's because there is a reason "I've abandoned my child" goes to a fever pitch. A good strong valid reason. I can't figure out why Hoffman is always at fever pitch. Tone it down buddy.

10:05 Daniel Day-Lewis's acceptance speech is great. Best Actor for DDL in There Will Be Blood. He always seems so genuine.

From the mine shaft to the bowling alley this came from and belongs to Paul Thomas Anderson

Lovely, right?

10:10 FASHIONS. I totally forgot.

I'm more intrigued by the hair since it's hard to see the fashions unless they're presenters. Samantha Morton's hair line (pictured, left) is so far up there you'd think she just finished filming the Elizabeth movie. But her boyfriend (?) is also working the straight up look. Only his is more Lindsay Buckingham circa 1988. Boy is that hair flying up to heaven.

(I've added a bit about Marion's cape above when she announces supporting actor)

Otherwise best dressed might be Emily Blunt. She had a nice assymetrical shimmery blue number that's probably the evening's best so far. But as she stood there presenting I kept thinking: are these Norma Shearer's cross eyes I see before me? I love the Blunt but I'd never noticed that before. peeperssoclosetogether

10:11 You know how we're always hearing "so and so is Big in Japan"? And it's always like, "really?" And Jeff Goldblum is now onstage presenting Best Picture and the camera has been showing him as often as Keira Knightley. Is he unusually Big in England and I just don't know it. Atonement wins Best Picture. Joe Wright accepting to your left. I always forget who his girlfriend is and I had left myself to believe it was Romola Garai but it's the other three syllable "Ro". Rosamund somebody, Keira's other film sister in the other Joe Wright movie (Pride & Prejudice)

10:18 Anthony Hopkins is getting some tribute action now. But I'm still thinking about Atonement's win.

I've always loved James McAvoy but Atonement made me love Keira Knightley and her super-speed clipped 30s cadences so much more than I ever had before. I almost want to pin her up against the books myself. Provided she wears the green dress. Otherwise, no deal. But yes... I'm excited for the next few years of Robbie & Cecilia ...albeit in separate movies.

10:29 It's starting all over again. What is this, SAG on TBS?

Good night!
*

Random Troubling Fashion Thought of the Night

if Hollywood & the WGA work it out
__if actors do show up to the Oscars and
______if Keira Knightley attends

...what on god's green earth will she wear? Fashion usually isn't a problem for that one but how can she possibly top Cecilia's emerald dress? And don't we kind of expect her to?

Final Oscar Nomination Predictions

Oh, Keira...

"oh please let this envelope contain my name!"

Sweet glamour puss in your emerald dress. It probably won't happen for you or Atonement this year. But who knows? There's only five names for each category and there's been seven names refusing to fall out of the race in almost every category. It's been a fascinating and rewarding film year but a confounding one for Oscar Predictions. Which is pretty fun if you stop to really consider the point of predicting. If it's too easy, why bother? Just wait for the news.

Usually by this time there is often a clear shortlist in each category with maybe one person or film here or there threatening to "spoil" suddenly ... like say supporting actor this year. That's typically "settled" with one or two upsets-in-waiting if the voters are feeling frisky. But this year: Best Picture itself has but one lock. Crazy. Anything could fall out.

I blame this rather upset-possible lineup on distribution patterns (as I am prone to do) and on the weird fact that it was NOT a year that cried wolf. The December films turned out to be strong. Yet they all got off to such a late start that it's been very difficult to separate manufactured hype from honest to god great buzz.

Read the rest...
for final thoughts and predictions and projected nomination tallies

Atonement and EW's Oscar Predictions

Prestige epic Atonement (my review and on my top ten list) just got much easier to see. It added hundreds of screens today just as its Oscar buzz began to dwindle. There's definitely evidence of a backlash brewing (already boiling?) but hopefully you'll see it and decide for yourself. Whether the sudden "so what?" greeting it is another example of a typical long buzz/late release combo problem (Memoirs of a Geisha, Dreamgirls, also suffered that way, though Atonement is a better film than either of those recent glitzy December stumblers) or something else (a challenging film dismissed due to its distinctly romantic bent) is for each person to decide for themselves. One wonders exactly why some movies wait so long to come out. Timing... 'tis a tricky thing.

It's just one man's opinion (mine, duh) but I think the December release, while favored by virtually all studios for Oscar campaigns, only works in the way they intend it to when the film is not considered a front runner and is more of a surprise movie --we didn't hear much about Million Dollar Baby before it was released and There Will Be Blood, which has a lot of heat right now, was never an "Oscar Front runner" though it was heavily anticipated in cinephile circles.

Anyway, Sports Illustrated's Swimsuit Issue Entertainment Weekly chose Keira & James to sell their famous Oscar issue (pictured left). Yum. and Ummmm, unless they know something we don't... those Atonement Oscar bids are looking really unlikely now. FWIW, I think both Keira and James are super in the movie. It's just that both leading categories are overflowing with strong candidates this year.

On a personal note: I'm shocked but also delighted to see that a publication as big as Entertainment Weekly went for the same 'big surprise' Actress prediction as I did in my predictions. Cross your fingers if you also enjoy the work of Laura Linney. She needs all the psychic goodwill she can muster, given the way the precursors have treated her.