Pete Postlethwaite (1946-2011)

The death of Pete Postlethwaite yesterday at 64 of cancer will undoubtedly be felt at the movies. He's been a regular key ensemble player for a solid two decades now. 2010 was another big year for him: He played the corpse in Inception -- the one causing all those daddy issues -- and he also appeared in Clash of the Titans. One more film is coming in 2011 (the British comedy Killing Bono) but for many moviegoers his last showcase on the screen will be as the flower shop owner in Ben Affleck's The Town (pictured left). The starry cast of that movie, Postlethwaite included, won the NBR Best Ensemble prize and a BFCA Ensemble nomination.

His odd but memorable features probably insured that he'd play his fare share of criminals. But despite his recent bloody role in The Town, Postlethwaite being the thorns in the rose bush, I personally associate him with more noble turns.  I first became aware of Who He Was when he was Oscar nominated as the title character in the Daniel Day-Lewis drama In the Name of the Father (1993) though I then realized I had already enjoyed him in Alien3 and Hamlet (the one with Mel Gibson); it's hard to forget that face. I was so in love with Baz Luhrmann's dizzyingly erratic Romeo + Juliet (1996) that Father Laurence, who sets all the fake death in motion to unfortunately disastrous effect, is still my favorite of his roles.

Shakespearean drug pusher.

Other key roles include: Amistad, The Usual Suspects and Brassed Off. What's your favorite Postlethwaite performance or movie?
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What's Your Poison?

As you may have guessed from earlier posts, I've had "Telephone" by Lady Gaga stuck in my head for over a week and though I don't like the video short film as much as her last -- I think it's trying a tiny smidgeon too hard whereas "Bad Romance" is just so controlled and escalating in its impact -- I do find it amusing how much Gaga loves to poison people, for laughs (and provocation) in her music videos. What is it about poison exactly that is so cinematic?

Cary Grant in Suspicion

It's as if its malevolence is both scarier, sicker and sexier than regular kinds of violence. [If violence could ever be called sexy that is ... and given the ample evidence, most filmmakers find it a major turn on.] Perhaps the terror / eroticism of poison comes from it being something that happens internally, something that's connected to inescapable human needs (eating, drinking) and something that capitalizes on our fear of the unknown. You can see a fist or an arrow or a rampaging beast hurtling towards you, but you can never see poison coming.

Michelle Pfeiffer in White Oleander

What's your favorite poisonous scene in the movies? My mind lept immediately to Ingrid Magnussen's complete toxicity (literal and figurative) in the underrated White Oleander and to Elle Driver's educational lecture on the Black Mamba in Kill Bill, Vol. 2 and to that classic pair Romeo + Juliet who guzzle faux poison but are poisoned instead by their rash youth and noxious environment. Where did your mind go?

Happy Inauguration Day!

I was so giddy last night that I spent hours goofing on Obamicon.Me creating these.

Enjoy...






images from Fight Club (1999), Doubt (2008), Alfred Hitchcock, Romeo + Juliet (1996), The Hours (2002), Scarlett Johansson and Isaac Mizrahi, Far From Heaven (2002) and Hilary Swank's second Oscar win.

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Revolutionary Romeo + Juliet

Adam from Club Silencio here. I'm pretty excited about the impending reunion between Kate and Leo in Revolutionary Road, even though their suburban serenade looks to go south faster than you can say Don and Betty Draper.

But once upon a time they truly had stars in their eyes as the ultimate in star-crossed lovers. Long before they sailed the open seas as King and Queen of the world, they were Romeo and Juliet...


Not to each other, however. (Sorry to ruin the moment.) Icebergs, snooty class politics, powerful families... It seems the ever-cruel hand of fate has done nothing to keep Kate and Leo together. In this case they were divided by being in completely different movies!

Both actor's careers gained infinite momentum after these startling turns. By the time of Romeo + Juliet, Leo DiCaprio was already about to board that doomed (but oh so profitable) ship, and was prepping for that tragic romance by starring in THE ultimate. My wishes that Leo play the role of Romeo by reprising his character of Arnie Grape were quickly vanquished, but I can't say it didn't work out in his favor. Young girls (and me) were swooning over his every hyper-articulated word.


Kate Winslet's career began with her turn as the ever-imaginative Juliet in Peter Jackson's divine Heavenly Creatures. She'd already mastered her ravishing blend of comedy and dramatic poignancy by her debut film! And talk about star-crossed lovers, Juliet's lesbian love affair with Pauline is forced apart by their families and doctors. Big mistake. This generation's couples are a bit more proactive. They takes drastic measures with a meddling mom in order to assure their dreamlife continue.

Kate as Juliet puts it best, "All the best people have bad chests and bone diseases. It's all frightfully romantic!" That's a good way to describe Kate and Leo actually: frightfully romantic. The pairing looks so perfect on the surface, but we all know better. If Revolutionary Road doesn't end in a double suicide or matricide, we can consider it their happy ending.

Lauren Ambrose, Get Thee To a Nunnery!

"dear maid, kind sister, sweet Ophelia"

<--- This photo is from Shakespeare in the Park's Romeo & Juliet last year (which I loved) but I'm pretending it's from the 2008 Shakespeare in the Park season which is offering up Hamlet. Lauren Ambrose is featured for the second year in a row and this photo is still appropriate because, as you know, Ophelia does get all tragically water-logged by play's end.

My short take on Hamlet as a play: It's an impossibility to find a perfect Hamlet. The role has too many problems or, too be more specific, there are too many ways to play it, none of which turn out hugely satisfying unless the performer is dexterous enough to allude to the several other ways of playing it whilst also making it his own. So I didn't like this Hamlet (Michael Stuhlbarg last seen by moi in the superb Broadway play Pillow Man) who started the mammoth play with his performance turned up to 11. How could be possibly sustain it? (pssst. he didn't. Why not build rather than start out all thunderous?)

The play had other problems. Margaret Colin was an odd or insufficient Gertrud... or maybe it's the way this thing was directed. The Gertrud bedroom scene (the one where Hamlet stabs Polonius) was just terrible. His dead body lays on the bed and Gertrud acts like she isn't even freaked out by her murdered subject and Hamlet never once seems guilty about the stabbing, even mocking Polonius in his death... and isn't Hamlet always second guessing himself? Shouldn't there be guilt?

This free Hamlet, which also stars Sam Waterston, David Harbour and Andre Braugher runs until June 29th in Central Park. Good luck getting tickets.

Anyway. Lauren Ambrose continues to be as delicious onstage as she was for the entirety of Six Feet Under on television. Perhaps this was no revelatory Juliet but she made a fine Ophelia which leads me to my other insurmountable problem with productions of Hamlet: There's just never enough Ophelia ... sweet sweet Ophelia. That's Shakespeare's fault!

Do you have a favorite Hamlet? How many productions / movie versions have you seen?
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