Queen LaLinkah

Defamer Pretend to look surprised. Is Queen Latifah really about to come out?
"Of Interest" Draco Malfoy and Nicole Kidman
The Hot Blog Poland hates to be a dick -- but y'ar Blanche, y'ar. Why else would you imply that you can recommend a certain movie only to girls and "some boys" and then say it's not all that. The implications... oy
Dennis Cozzalio's "faces I love" column. Interesting look at actors
Empire Ridley Scott to take on the Gucci empire? What a glitzy art directed biopic that could be
NewNowNext Katharine Heigl thinks Knocked Up is "a little sexist" ... maybe I should reconsider a little Katharine Heigl

Yahoo has the first five minutes of The Golden Compass online. The "first (however many) minutes" movement in web sneaks is a good one I think, but it's not for every film. I'm not sure this will help this particular movie, since there's lots of exposition you have to get through early on. I remember when Dune came out in the 80s (god I'm old. sigh) and when I arrived at the theater (I had never read the book) they actually passed out a glossary sheet of terms you should know from the books. I was worried immediately... "I have to study before it starts?!?" The Golden Compass, I fear, might be impenetrable to newbies.

20:07 (The Sultan's Feast)

Screenshots from the 20th minute and 7th second of a movie
I can't guarantee the same results at home. I use a VLC

Sultan: Is that not Sadi, your waiting woman?
Princess: Yes, Papa. She has offered herself as the magician's subject.
Sultan: If he can turn her into a contented woman, he is indeed a great magician.
Princess: Papa!

Marit Allen (RIP)

Sad news. Australian costumer designer Marit Allen died this week. She's the woman who brought you those shirts hanging famously, one inside the other, in Brokeback Mountain as well as that black sheath that the nude backside of Nicole Kidman slipped into in Eyes Wide Shut. I haven't updated my costume design shrines in a long while but I did do a Marit Allen tribute page in 2005, my tiny way of honoring a fine designer that AMPAS never recognized. This year Marit designed the costumes in both Love in the Time of Cholera (now playing) and La Vie En Rose (now on DVD)

related: Oscar 2007 Costume Design page

Holly Hunter "It's Great To Play the Lead"

Tonight Susan P and I had the pleasure of listening to Holly Hunter talk for 45 minutes. Mmmm, that deliciously tart southern twang. Hunter was speaking at the Paley Center for Media in a promotional effort for her television series Saving Grace. In the Q & A after the episode screening --I've just added the series to my DVR-- the subject swung often and naturally to her rather awesome gallery of characters (Raising Arizona, Broadcast News, The Piano, thirteen, The Incredibles, Living Out Loud, The Firm, Crash, etcetera). Here's a part I thought y'all would love. She was asked about thirteen and transitioning to supporting roles.

Audience member: When you did thirteen did you actually think when that part came up that "oh crap i'm not playing the daughter anymore. They're asking me to play the mother"?

Holly Hunter: That's a great question. Yeah yeah--of course I wanted to play the part. You know, it's great to play the lead. It's really great to play the lead. I hate to go home when my scenes are over. But, yeah, the thing is it's also really exciting to be part of another character i.e. when I play the lead in some ways I feel that every other character is a facet of me. When I play a supporting character I feel that I'm a facet of the lead. You know, in that case, my daughter. So in some ways I am just an externalized person --another element of who she is. Because that's who we're talking about in this movie was the role played by Evan Rachel Wood. I mean she was --she was the persona. And we are all different kind of problems of who she is. That's exciting for me to think about drama that way.

Susan remarked to me afterwards that maybe Oscar voters should think about the annual category conundrums from that perspective. Maybe they do: it's certainly the best rationale for claiming that a co-lead is actually a supporting character that I've heard.

I can't transcribe the whole night for you but here's another thing she spoke passionately about: expressing the sexuality of her characters.

Holly Hunter: Well, it's very fulfilling to do the part [she had just been talking about Saving Grace] because, I think. You know, when I --when I had the experience of doing The Piano I thought 'wow, what a great opportunity it is to explore someone's sexuality, to explore their own sexual appetite.' And there has not been a lot of opportunities for me to have that conversation with an audience, with a character. I especially got to have that with David Cronenberg in Crash that I did several years ago. And a few other things that I've done... Living Out Loud also, I thought was --it had a certain privacy about it. It was a real inside look at a woman. But, you know, those conversations with myself, those explorations have not been as plentiful as I would have liked.

So this [Saving Grace again] allows me a great opportunity --for me to explore what this woman is like behind closed doors. I mean we can go behind closed doors and see her. I think that that --It's important you know. It's important. It's a huge part of our lives. Our sexuality is a huge part of our lives. Whether we fantasize about it or we're not getting what we want. You know, I mean... it's what people go to therapy about! [audience laughter] It's what people look at porn sites for. It's what people, you know, buy magazines for. Nine out of ten [unintelligible] are about sexuality in some way. We are obsessed with it as a culture but yet there's not a lot conversation about it, you know, on the screen. And so this is fantastic that on the small screen I get to do it.

A woman who name checks Living Out Loud, David Cronenberg, sexual expression and The Piano in one train of thought? This is the kind of woman I seriously love.

20:07 (Architecture)

Screenshots from the 20th minute and 7th second of a movie
I can't guarantee the same results at home. I use a VLC

April: It-it has an organic quality, you know.

Holly: Right

April: It's almost... almost, uhhh, entirely wholly interdependent, if you know what I mean. I--I... I can't put it into words. The important thing is--is--is it breathes.

David: You know, April, people pass by vital structures in this city all the time, and they never take the time to appreciate them. I get the feeling you tune in to your environment.

Holly: (interrupting) Oh, it's really important.

April: What are your favorite buildings, David?

I hate April. I don't think she knows what she's talking about.

The Legendary Max Von Sydow (Part 2)

In part one of The Film Experience interview with Max von Sydow we discussed The Diving Bell and Butterfly and his early days as an actor on the stage and screen in Sweden. Here's part two...

Nathaniel: Ingmar Bergman's films are still very much alive in public and critical discussion. What do you think is something about him, either as a filmmaker or as a person, that you think people misunderstand?

Max von Sydow: I don't know what people understand or misunderstand. But I presume that most people think that he was an awfully serious and difficult person as a director. Which he was not. On the contrary, he was—he was a man of great charm and great intelligence of course. Great charm with a very kind of fresh, direct sense of humor, creating a lot of fun and enthusiasm around the project whether it was a film production or on stage. He had the ability to really, how should I say this, make people feel that they were very important for his—for his art… and make them give their uttermost to together achieve something extraordinary. He was very inspirational in that respect.

Nathaniel: So in person there was humor there. That's actually one of the critiques people have of his films –not one I share, I think he's brilliant –that… that they're so serious that there is no…

Max von Sydow: Well, some of them are, most of them are. But making them was rarely a serious --of course making the serious scenes that was done with great seriousness and with enormous concentration. But inbetween there was a lot of joking.

Nathaniel: Interesting. Now, we always hear that Woody Allen doesn't communicate much with his actors. But I imagine with you when you did Hannah and Her Sisters… did he barrage you with questions about Bergman?

READ THE REST...
for more on Hannah and Her Sisters, the mysterious art of acting, religious characters, how typecasting happens and more...

The Legendary Max Von Sydow (Part 1)

I had intended for this interview to be in podcast format but had some audio problems in the noisy Pierre Hotel. Have transcribed for your listening reading pleasure.

I have shaken hands with one or two major stars in my time writing for The Film Experience but never before have I shared a banquette with a cinematic legend whose films have already survived the passage of time. If you think of actors as the characters they play --and the great Max Von Sydow suggests that you don't -- then you will note that I survived a chat with Jesus himself, the devil, Emperor Ming, Pelle the Conqueror and many more luminaries this Friday past.


As an icebreaker I greeted Mr. von Sydow and his wife, both of who were fantastically friendly and talkative, in my broken Norwegian and we discussed Sweden a bit. Much to my Nordic pleasure Mr. von Sydow actually said the word "uff" (one of my favorite Scandinavian words) within seconds. I can't possibly think of an intro that would do one of Ingmar Bergman's most important muses justice so let's proceed directly to the interview...

Nathaniel: Well, it's a pleasure to meet you. You're a legendary figure in cinema –I'm sure you've heard that over and over...

Max Von Sydow: Uff.

Nathaniel: I want to talk about Bergman –well, are you tired of talking about Bergman at this point?

Max Von Sydow: Noooo. I'm not tired of --I'm tired about talking about myself! [laughter]

N: All right. Well, let's start with Diving Bell and then we'll go back to some earlier work. First of all with The Diving Bell and Butterfly I wanted to say that I completely loved your performance. I'm not a big cryer in the movies...

MVS: No?

N: ...but you totally got to me. Lately I've been really fascinated with actors who can project backstory with family members –fictional family members-- onscreen. So I was wondering how you prepare for something like that? You only had a couple of scenes with Mathieu Amalric.

MVS: Two scenes.

N: So how do you project father/son?

MVS: Well, it's... it—it just happens to be a very good screenplay. And the scenes –my scene-- is wonderfully written. I get screenplays and I'm rarely happy reading them but this one was... it was a sheer pleasure. I was so excited after having read it, I wrote a letter to Ron Harwood. I've never done that. I met him later in Los Angeles and he told me 'I've never got a letter like this before!' [Laughter]

N: He's a fine writer.

MVS: He's a good writer, yes. What is beautiful with my character -- the things is, although it's a small part, I get a chance to show two things: The relationship between the characters under normal circumstances when he shaves me but then also after the catastrophe and the confusion and bewilderment --this awkward strange situation...

And how do I prepare? It's a matter of finding out: who is this character?

READ THE REST...
for more on his acting process, working with Sjöberg and Ingmar Bergman and acting styles in the 50s. Part 2 is now up as well. We go deeper into Bergman, Woody Allen and von Sydow's feelings about why acting is mysterious to the public and how actors get typecast.
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Shangri Link

<-- Electronic Cerebrectomy has an ode to delicious Carla Gugino
Slant Ed Gonzalez has apparently been saving up the funny bile for year-end Oscar contenders. Stand clear
European Film Awards The Winners!
NewNowNext is excited to see Savage Grace @ Sundance
Towleroad rumor about Tom Ford's Hollywood takeover plans

NY Times I think I have to read this book Zeroville. The first paragraph name drops Liz Taylor & Montgomery Clift. And tattoos them on the protagonist for good measure. Yummy
Reports from the Edge loves Paul Rudd... and apparently Julia Roberts does, too

short but sweet
Merlin Mann speaks a truth about The Bening & Sharon Stone
The Fabulon offers divine advice for any weekend [nsfw]

someone I don't give enough love to...

Boyd @ European Films is always doing a great job. But there's so much to cover, where to begin with the linkage. Tons of great reviews and coverage of foreign language offerings

I'm just asking...

Has Jake Shears (of Scissor Sisters fame) been reading my 'Naked Gold Man' columns, or something?

As soon as the upcoming Oscars are over, they'll release...
A period comey with Amy Adams (doing Marilyn Monroe... sorta???) & Frances McDormand called Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day. If Amy Adams can make this type of thing a hit, we'll know she's the next Julia Roberts or whatever the hell people are desperately wanting her to be...

Thoughts?

*

Please Calm Down

<--- Melania (who you met a few posts ago) and I are off to see The Golden Compass. Less than three hours to go. Wheeee. I am really trying to contain my excitement in order to prevent hopping up and down and other sudden movements. Melania is very skittish. If you're attending the sneak preview please enter and exit the theater in an orderly fashion so as not to startle her.

In other news: Some updates to the Oscar prediction pages and tomorrow I'll try to have that Max Von Sydow interview up --am experiencing some technical difficulties.

Affleckology

So I finally watched Gone Baby Gone. A decent film but, for me, too lacking in that something "extra"...some specialness required to push it from crime film into the realm of engaging human drama. There were a lot of questionable directorial choices made and needlessly confusing editing. Strangely, even when the film is trying to hold your hand with voiceover recalls of things you've just barely heard, it doesn't always make a lot of sense. 

But let's talk about the Brothers Affleck for a moment. After Baby and especially The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford you have to recognize (if you haven't already --and why haven't you?) that Casey Affleck is bonafide... a true actor. That scene that you've already seen in the trailer (even if you haven't seen the picture) you know the one where he says "...and I know a lot of people". I love that. How can you be so menacing when you weigh 98 lbs and you look like you're about to doze off? Casey the Sleeping Menace. There's a whole lot of heavy lidded angst going on with that one (even moreso in Jesse James). I think he's a fine actor but I don't think he should ever co-star with Kirsten Dunst and Tobey Maguire. That'd be way too much somnabulistic angst. Narcolepsy: The Movie!

Ben Affleck is a generous guy. He's a better actor than he's gotten credit for (though I suppose the universe got balance there by making him a bigger movie star than he had any right to be) and he's also just giving giving giving to others. Matt Damon gets eternal love and support. Ben gifted his career to Jennifer Lopez (not really her fault that she had no real use for it) in what is now ancient history. Presently he allows the actors to rule Gone Baby Gone even when he should probably take more charge. And now, when he's been down and out, he gives us his little brother as his lead player... Here, take this younger more talented version of me. Nice guy to a fault, huh?

I know the reviews were rapturous for him as a director but I'm chalking that up to one of those weird groupthink things that happen when celebrities 

a) defy expectations 

b) earn our sympathy or 

c) deserve second chances... 

all three of which unarguably apply to Ben Affleck, whether or not one thinks of Gone Baby Gone as a mediocre effort or a great one. I do hope he makes another picture though. I assume it'll be much stronger. Look at the superman-style leap that George Clooney made from  messy indulgent first film (Confessions of a Dangerous Mind) to controlled terrific sophomore effort (Good Night, and Good Luck).