tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-54588501372023697792024-03-14T02:36:22.789-07:00Cinema ExpertsYour blog about cinema...Cinema Expertshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09631696274687240993noreply@blogger.comBlogger172125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5458850137202369779.post-64327167235015317402007-11-20T12:16:00.002-08:002007-11-21T07:16:18.495-08:00Do You Know the Answer?<div align="justify">One of Dustin Hoffman’s first starring roles was as Benjamin in the 1967 classic “The Graduate”. What was his surname in this film?<br />a) Robinson<br />b) Singlemanc</div><div align="justify">c) McGuire<br />d) Braddock </div>Cinema Expertshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09631696274687240993noreply@blogger.com41tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5458850137202369779.post-24897955086164352462007-11-20T12:16:00.001-08:002007-11-20T12:16:43.352-08:00Did You Know That…Dianne Wiest said that she initially had trouble playing Helen Sinclair. She said she really struggled saying her character's signature line. She then decided to lower her voice when she said the line "Don't Speak" and that made all the difference. The lower she said it, the funnier it became.Cinema Expertshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09631696274687240993noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5458850137202369779.post-3089858824908554002007-11-20T12:07:00.000-08:002007-11-20T12:18:35.094-08:00Biography of the Day: Dianne Wiest<div align="justify"><a href="http://www.nndb.com/people/894/000024822/wiest5.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://www.nndb.com/people/894/000024822/wiest5.jpg" border="0" /></a>"My first meeting with Woody Allen lasted 30 seconds. He looked at me, said hello, asked someone to take a Polaroid, thanked me very much and I was shown the door. When I came out, the woman due after me was still doing the same thing as when I went in. She was shocked - 'What happened?' But that's how it is. My agent had warned me. Not hers. She was stunned."<br />Wiest was born in Kansas City, Missouri to a father who was a college dean and former psychiatric social worker for the U.S. Army, and a mother who worked as a nurse. Wiest's original ambition was to be a ballerina, but in late high school she switched her sights to acting in theatre. She made her film debut in 1980, but did not make a name for herself as a film actress until teaming up with Woody Allen during the 1980s.<br />Wiest's early career was in theatre. She studied theatre at the University of Maryland but left after her third term, in order to tour with a Shakespeare troupe. She worked at the Long Wharf theatre, understudied off-Broadway in Kurt Vonnegut's "Happy Birthday, Wanda June." And then made her Broadway debut in Robert Anderson's "Solitaire/Double Solitaire," taking over in the role of the daughter. She then went to work at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., and became one of their most prized leading actresses, appearing in many plays including a memorable Emily in "Our Town," Honey in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf," and leading roles in "The Dybbuk," "The Lower Depths," and "Heartbreak House." She also toured the USSR with the Arena Stage Company.<br />In 1976, Wiest went to the Eugene O'Neill National Playwrights Conference and played leading roles in Amlin Gray's "Pirates" and Christopher Durang's "A History of the American Film." Shortly after that, she left Arena Stage, and performed more in New York City. At Joe Papp's Public Theatre she took over the lead in "Ashes," and played Cassandra in "Agamemnon," directed by Andrei Şerban. She was in two plays by Tina Howe, "Museum" and then "The Art of Dining." In the latter play Wiest was deeply hilarious as the shy and awkward authoress Elizabeth Barrow Colt, and she won every off-Broadway theatre award for her performance: an Obie Award, a Theatre World Award, and the Clarence Derwent Award, given yearly for the most promising performance in New York theatre. In early 1980, she appeared on Broadway in Frankenstein, directed by Tom Moore, portrayed Desdemona in Othello opposite James Earl Jones and Christopher Plummer, and co-starred with John Lithgow in Christopher Durang's romantic screwball comedy Beyond Therapy, directed by John Madden. Also in the 80s she was acclaimed for her performances in Hedda Gabbler, directed by Lloyd Richards at Yale Repertory Theatre, and in Harold Pinter's A Kind of Alaska, Janusz Glowacki's Hunting Cockroaches, and Lanford Wilson's Serenading Louie.<br />Once her film career took off with her work in Woody Allen's films, Wiest was available to the stage less frequently, though she performed in the 1990s in "In the Summer House," "Square One," Cynthia Ozick's "The Shawl," and Naomi Wallace's "One Flea Spare." In 2003 she acted on Broadway with Al Pacino and Marisa Tomei in Oscar Wilde's "Salome." And in 2005 she starred in Kathleen Tolan's "Memory House," and then at Lincoln Center in the late Wendy Wasserstein's final play "Third," directed by Daniel Sullivan.<br />Under Allen's direction, Wiest won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, in Hannah and Her Sisters (1986). She followed her Academy Award success with performances in The Lost Boys (1987) and Bright Lights, Big City (1988) before starring with Steve Martin, Mary Steenburgen, Jason Robards, Keanu Reeves and Martha Plimpton in Ron Howard's Parenthood, for which she received her second Oscar nomination.<br />In 1990, Wiest starred in Edward Scissorhands. She returned to Woody Allen in 1994 for Bullets Over Broadway, a comedy set in 1920s New York City, winning her second Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her portrayal of Helen Sinclair, a boozy, glamorous, and neurotic star of the stage. She appeared in the film Practical Magic (1998) and the television mini-series The 10th Kingdom (2000). From 2000 to 2002, Wiest portrayed Nora Lewin in the long-running NBC crime drama Law & Order.</div>Cinema Expertshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09631696274687240993noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5458850137202369779.post-64971415023182211202007-11-20T11:46:00.000-08:002007-11-20T11:47:08.935-08:00Movie of the Day: Bullets Over Broadway (1994)<div align="justify"><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/bf/Bullets_over_Broadway_movie_poster.jpg/200px-Bullets_over_Broadway_movie_poster.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/bf/Bullets_over_Broadway_movie_poster.jpg/200px-Bullets_over_Broadway_movie_poster.jpg" border="0" /></a>“Suddenly I'm taking suggestions from some strong-arm man with an IQ of minus 50.”<br />Sadly, I've been let down by most of Woody Allen's recent comedies. So it was most rewarding indeed to see the Woodman back again true to form (after a lengthy drought) with 1994's Bullets Over Broadway. Fun, foamy, and clever, it has everything we've come to love and expect from the man.<br />While Take the Money and Run and Bananas first turned trendy audiences on to his unique brand of improvisational, hit-and-miss comedy episodes, and the more neurotic, self-examining cult hits like Annie Hall and Manhattan cemented his Oscar-winning relationship with Hollywood, the comedy genius has stumbled mightily in this last decade. Attempting to contemporize his image with the coarse, foul-mouthed antics of a Coen or Farrelly brother (Mighty Aphrodite) is simply beneath him, and has been about as productive as Stevie Wonder taking a turn at hip-hop. Moreover, casting himself as a 65-year-old romantic protagonist with love interests young enough to be his grandchildren (Curse of the Jade Scorpion) has left a noticeably bad aftertaste of late.<br />With Bullets Over Broadway, however, Allen goes back to basics and wisely avoids the pitfalls of excessive toilet humor and self-aggrandizing casting, and gives us a light, refreshing bit of whimsical escapism. Woody may not be found on screen here, but his presence is felt throughout. Though less topical and analytical than his trademark films, this vehicle brings back a purer essence of Woody and might I say an early innocence hard-pressed to find these days in his work.<br />John Cusack plays a struggling jazz-era playwright desperate for a Broadway hit who is forced to sell out to a swarthy, aging king-pin (played to perfection by Joe Viterelli) who is looking to finance a theatrical showcase for his much-younger bimbo girlfriend (Jennifer Tilly, in a tailor-made role). The writer goes through a hellish rehearsal period sacrificing his words, not to mention his moral and artistic scruples, in order to appease his mob producers who know zilch about putting on a play.<br />Aside from Allen's clever writing, brisk pace and lush, careful attention to period detail, he has assembled his richest ensemble cast yet with a host of hysterically funny characters in spontaneous banter roaming in and about the proceedings. Cusack is his usual rock-solid self in the panicky, schlemiel role normally reserved for Woody. But even he is dwarfed by the likes of this once-in-a-lifetime supporting cast. Jennifer Tilly, with her doll-like rasp, is hilariously grating as the vapid, virulent, and thoroughly untalented moll. Usually counted on to play broad, one-dimensional, sexually belligerent dames, never has Tilly been give such golden material to feast on, putting her Olive Neal right up there in the 'top 5' fun-filled film floozies of all time, alongside Jean Hagen's Lina Lamont and Lesley Ann Warren's Norma Cassady. Virile, menacing Chazz Palminteri as the fleshy-lipped Cheech, a "dees, dem and dos" guard dog, reveals great comic prowess while affording his pin-striped hit man some touching overtones.<br />Dianne Wiest, who has won bookend support Oscars in Woody Allen pictures (for this and for Hannah and Her Sisters) doesn't miss a trick as the outre theatre doyenne Helen Sinclair, whose life is as grand and exaggerated off-stage as it is on. Her comic brilliance is on full, flamboyant display, stealing every scene she's in. Tracey Ullman is a pinch-faced delight as the exceedingly anal, puppy-doting ingenue, while Jim Broadbent as a fusty stick-in-the-mud gets his shining moments when his actor's appetite for both food and women get hilariously out of hand. Mary-Louise Parker, as Cusack's cast-off mate, gets the shortest end of the laughing stick, but lends some heart and urgency to the proceedings.<br />While the play flirts with a burlesque-styled capriciousness, there is an undercoating of seriousness and additional character agendas that keeps the cast from falling into one-note caricatures. And, as always, Woody's spot-on selection of period music is nonpareil. With healthy does of flapper-era Gershwin, Rodgers & Hart, Cole Porter, Hoagy Carmichael, not to mention the flavorful vocal stylings of Al Jolson and Eddie Cantor, Allen, with customary finesse, affectionately transports us back to the glitzy, gin-peddling era of Prohibition and slick Runyonesque antics.<br />I remember the times when the opening of a new Woody Allen film was a main event. As such, Bullets Over Broadway is a comedy valentine to such days. In any respect, it's a winner all the way, especially for Woodyphiles… 8/10 </div>Cinema Expertshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09631696274687240993noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5458850137202369779.post-16433150537468083532007-11-16T14:04:00.001-08:002007-11-16T14:04:28.115-08:00Did You Know That…<div align="justify">In Tim Burton’s Big Fish, Ewan McGregor was cast as Young Ed Bloom when producers noticed the striking similarity between him and pictures of a young Albert Finney, who plays Senior Ed Bloom.</div>Cinema Expertshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09631696274687240993noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5458850137202369779.post-44817127676888729912007-11-16T13:57:00.000-08:002007-11-16T13:58:20.218-08:00Studio of the Week: Paramount Pictures<div align="justify"><a href="http://www.obsessedwithfilm.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/paramount.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://www.obsessedwithfilm.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/paramount.jpg" border="0" /></a>Paramount Pictures can trace its beginnings to the creation in May, 1912, of the Famous Players Film Company. Founder Hungarian-born Adolph Zukor, who had been an early investor in nickelodeons, saw that movies appealed mainly to working-class immigrants. With partners Daniel and Charles Frohman he planned to offer feature-length films that would appeal to the middle class by featuring the leading theatrical players of the time. By mid-1913, Famous Players had completed five films, and Zukor was on his way to success.<br />That same year, another aspiring producer, Jesse L. Lasky, opened his Lasky Feature Play Company with money borrowed from his brother-in-law, Samuel Goldfish (later to be known as Samuel Goldwyn.) As their first employee, the Lasky company hired a stage director with no film experience, Cecil B. DeMille, who would find a suitable location site in Hollywood, near Los Angeles, for his first film, The Squaw Man.<br />Beginning in 1914, both Lasky and Famous Players released their films through a start-up company, Paramount Pictures. Organized early that year by a Utah theatre owner, W. W. Hodkinson, who had bought and merged several smaller firms, Paramount was the first successful nation-wide distributor. Until this time films were sold on a state-wide or regional basis; not only was this inefficient, but it had proved costly to film producers.<br />Soon the ambitious Zukor, unused to taking a secondary role, began courting Hodkinson and Lasky. In 1916, Zukor maneuvered a three-way merger of his Famous Players, the Lasky Company, and Paramount. The new company, Famous Players-Lasky, grew quickly, with Lasky and his partners Goldfish and DeMille running the production side, Hiram Abrams in charge of distribution, and Zukor making great plans. With only the exhibitor-owned First National as a rival, Famous Players-Lasky and its "Paramount Pictures" soon dominated the business.<br />Zukor believed in stars - after all, he had begun by offering "Famous Players in Famous Plays," as his first slogan put it. He signed and developed many of the leading early stars, among them Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, Gloria Swanson, Rudolph Valentino, and Wallace Reid. With so many important players, Paramount was able to introduce "block booking," which meant that an exhibitor who wanted a particular star's films had to buy a year's worth of other Paramount productions. It was this system that gave Paramount a leading position in the 1920s and 1930s, but which led the government to pursue it on anti-trust grounds for more than twenty years.<br />The driving force behind Paramount's rise was Zukor. All through the teens and twenties, he built a mighty theatrical chain of nearly 2,000 screens, ran two production studios, and became an early investor in radio, taking a 50% interest in the new Columbia Broadcasting System in 1928. By acquiring the successful Balaban & Katz chain in 1926, he gained the services of both Barney Balaban, who became Paramount's president, and Sam Katz, who ran the Paramount-Publix theatre chain. Zukor also hired independent producer B. P. Schulberg, an unerring eye for new talent, to run the West Coast studio. In 1927, Famous Players-Lasky took on the name Paramount-Famous Lasky Corporation. Three years later, because of the importance of the Publix theater chain, it was later known as Paramount-Publix Corporation.<br />Also in 1927, Paramount began releasing Inkwell Imps animated cartoons produced by Max & Dave Fleischer's Fleischer Studios in New York City. The Fleischers, veterans in the animation industry, would prove to be among the few animation producers capable of challenging the prominence of Walt Disney.<br />Eventually Zukor shed most of his early partners; the Frohman brothers, Hodkinson and Goldfish/Goldwyn were out by 1917 while Lasky hung on until 1932, when, blamed for the near-collapse of Paramount in the depression years, he too was tossed out. Zukor's over-expansion and use of overvalued Paramount stock for purchases led the company into receivership in 1933. A bank-mandated reorganization team, led by John Hertz and Otto Kahn kept the company intact, and miraculously, kept Zukor on. In 1935, Paramount Publix went bankrupt. Immediately after this bankruptcy occurred, Zukor was bumped up to an honorary "chairman emeritus" role in 1935, while Barney Balaban became chairman. Upon becoming the "honorary chairman," Zukor reorganized the company as Paramount Pictures, Inc. and was able to successfully bring the studio out of bankruptcy.<br />As always, Paramount films continued to emphasize stars. By the 1930s, talkies brought in a range of powerful new draws: Marlene Dietrich, Mae West, Gary Cooper, Claudette Colbert, the Marx Brothers, Dorothy Lamour, Carole Lombard, Bing Crosby, and famous Argentine tango singer Carlos Gardel among them. In this period Paramount can truly be described as a movie factory, turning out sixty and seventy pictures a year. Such were the benefits of having a huge theater chain to fill, and of block booking to persuade other chains to go along.<br />Paramount cartoons produced by Fleischer Studios continued to be successful, with characters such as Betty Boop and Popeye the Sailor becoming widely successful. However, a huge blow to Fleischer Studios occurred in 1934, after the Hays Code was enforced and Betty Boop's popularity declined as she was forced to have a more tame personality and wear a longer skirt too. Fleischer Studios could however, rebound with Popeye, and in 1935, polls showed that Popeye was even more popular than Mickey Mouse. After an unsuccessful expansion into feature films, Fleischer Studios was acquired by Paramount, who renamed the operation Famous Studios and continued cartoon production until 1967.<br />In 1940, Paramount agreed to a government-instituted consent decree: block booking and "pre-selling" (the practice of collecting up-front money for films not yet in production) would end. Immediately Paramount cut back on production, from sixty-plus pictures to a more modest twenty annually in the war years. Still, with more new stars (like Bob Hope, Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake, Paulette Goddard, and Betty Hutton), and with war-time attendance at astronomical numbers, Paramount and the other integrated studio-theatre combines made more money than ever. At this, the Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department decided to reopen their case against the five integrated studios. This led to the Supreme Court decision of 1948 that broke up Adolph Zukor's amazing creation and effectively brought an end to the classic Hollywood studio system.<br />As movie attendance declined after World War II, Paramount and the others struggled to keep the audience. Hovering nearby were the Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department, still pursuing restraint-of-trade allegations. This case finally came before the Supreme Court as U.S. vs. Paramount Pictures, et al., and in May 1948, the court agreed with the government, finding restraint of competition, and calling for the separation of production and exhibition. Paramount was split in two. Paramount Pictures Corporation remained the production distribution, with the 1,500-screen theater chain handed to the new United Paramount Theaters on December 31, 1949.<br />With the loss of the theater chain, Paramount Pictures went into a decline, cutting studio-backed production, releasing its contract players, and making production deals with independents. By the mid-1950s, all the great names were gone; only C.B. DeMille, associated with Paramount since 1913, kept making pictures in the grand old style. Like some other studios, Paramount saw little value in its film library.<br />By the early 1960s Paramount's future was doubtful. The high-risk movie business was wobbly; the theater chain was long gone; investments in DuMont and in early pay-television came to nothing. Even the flagship Paramount building in Times Square was sold to raise cash, as was KTLA (sold to Gene Autry in 1964 for a then-phenomenal $12.5 million). Founding-father Adolph Zukor, born in 1873, was still chairman emeritus; he referred to chairman Barney Balaban (born 1888) as 'the boy'. Such aged leadership was incapable of keeping up with the changing times, and in 1966, a sinking Paramount was sold to the Charles Bluhdorn's industrial conglomerate Gulf and Western Industries. Bluhdorn immediately put his stamp on the studio, installing a virtually unknown producer, Robert Evans, as head of production. Despite some rough times, Evans held the job for eight years, restoring Paramount's reputation for commercial success with The Odd Couple, Love Story, Chinatown, Rosemary's Baby and The Godfather.<br />Gulf and Western Industries also bought the neighboring Desilu television studio (once the lot of RKO Pictures) from Lucille Ball in 1967. Using Desilu's established shows like Star Trek, Mission: Impossible and Mannix as a foot in the door at the networks, Paramount Television eventually became known as a specialist in half-hour situation comedies.<br />In 1970, Paramount teamed with Universal Studios to form Cinema International Corporation, a new company that would distribute films by the two studios outside the United States. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer would become a partner in the mid 1970s. Both Paramount and CIC entered the video market with Paramount Home Video (now Paramount Home Entertainment) and CIC Video, respectively.<br />Robert Evans quit as head of production in 1974; his successor Richard Sylbert, was too literary and tasteful for Bluhdorn. By 1976, a new, television-trained team was in place: Barry Diller, and his 'killer-Dillers,' associates Michael Eisner, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Dawn Steel and Don Simpson. The specialty now was simpler, 'high concept' pictures like Saturday Night Fever, and Grease. With his television background, Diller kept pitching an idea of his to the board: a fourth commercial network. But the board, and Bluhdorn, wouldn't bite. Neither would Bluhdorn's successor, Martin Davis. Diller took his fourth-network idea with him when he moved to Twentieth Century-Fox in 1984, where the new proprietor, Rupert Murdoch, was a more interested listener.<br />Paramount Pictures was unconnected to Paramount Records, until it purchased the rights to use Paramount Records' name (but not its catalogue) in the late 1960s. The Paramount name was used for soundtrack albums and some pop re-issues from the Dot Records catalogue. Paramount had acquired the pop-oriented Dot in 1958, but by 1970 Dot had become an all-country label. In 1974, Paramount sold all of its record holdings to ABC Records, which in turn was sold to MCA in 1978.<br />Paramount's successful run of pictures extended into the 1980s and 1990s, generating hits like Flashdance, the Friday the 13th slasher series; Raiders of the Lost Ark and its sequels; Beverly Hills Cop and a string of films starring comedian Eddie Murphy; Footloose; Fatal Attraction; and the Star Trek series. While the emphasis was decidedly on the commercial, there were occasional less commercial efforts like Atlantic City, Terms of Endearment, and Forrest Gump. During this period responsibility for running the studio passed from Eisner and Katzenberg to Don Simpson to Stanley Jaffe and Sherry Lansing. More so than most, Paramount's slate of films included many remakes and television spinoffs; while sometimes commercially successful, there have been few compelling films of the kind that once made Paramount the industry leader.<br />In 1981, Cinema International Corporation was reorganized as United International Pictures. This was necessary because MGM had merged with United Artists which had its own international distribution unit, but MGM was not allowed to leave the venture at the time (they finally did in 2001, switching international distribution to 20th Century Fox).<br />When Charles Bluhdorn died unexpectedly, his successor Martin Davis dumped all of G+W's industrial, mining, and sugar-growing subsidiaries and refocused the company, renaming it Paramount Communications in 1989. With the influx of cash from the sale of G+W's industrial properties in the mid-1980s, Paramount bought a string of television stations and KECO Entertainment's theme park operations, renaming them Paramount Parks.<br />In 1993, Sumner Redstone's entertainment conglomerate Viacom made a bid for Paramount; this quickly escalated into a bidding war with Barry Diller. But Viacom prevailed, ultimately paying $10 billion for the Paramount holdings.<br />The most successful period for Paramount in recent times was the administration of Jonathan Dolgen, chairman and Sherry Lansing, president.<br />Under Dolgen and Lansing the studio had almost a ten year unbroken track record of success including 6 of Paramount's ten highest grossing films ever and the highest grossing film of all time, Titanic (which, along with Braveheart, was co-produced by 20th Century Fox.) The studio won Best Picture Academy Awards for the films Titanic, Braveheart and Forrest Gump, while also releasing such films as Saving Private Ryan and the hugely successful series of Mission Impossible films. </div>Cinema Expertshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09631696274687240993noreply@blogger.com50tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5458850137202369779.post-39815683959676864862007-11-12T16:46:00.001-08:002007-11-21T07:17:26.399-08:00Do You Know the Answer?<div align="justify">In “Ratatouille”, what is the name of the famous food critic whose bad review kills Gusteau?<br />a) Shelly Lam<br />b) Anton Ego<br />c) Jacques Miend</div><div align="justify">d) Diane Belleville </div>Cinema Expertshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09631696274687240993noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5458850137202369779.post-71098478173779035122007-11-12T16:45:00.000-08:002007-11-12T16:46:21.508-08:00Did You Know That…<div align="justify">During the birthday dinner scene, Anna Scott is asked how much she made on her last film, and her reply is $15 million. This is the amount she (Julia Roberts) was paid for her role in Notting Hill.</div>Cinema Expertshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09631696274687240993noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5458850137202369779.post-38589744462148665412007-11-12T16:44:00.001-08:002007-11-12T16:45:03.400-08:00Biography of the Day: Julia Roberts<div align="justify"><a href="http://www.solarnavigator.net/films_movies_actors/actors_films_images/julia_roberts_hollywood_actress_oscar_winner.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://www.solarnavigator.net/films_movies_actors/actors_films_images/julia_roberts_hollywood_actress_oscar_winner.jpg" border="0" /></a>"I'm just an ordinary person who has an extraordinary job.”<br />Julia Fiona Roberts was born on October 28, 1967. It is commonly mistaken that Julia's birth name is "Julie"; however, Roberts has said in interviews that "Julie" was a nickname given to her by classmates in elementary school, and she never took well to it. Roberts was born in Smyrna, Georgia. Her father, Walter Grady Roberts, was a vacuum cleaner salesman, and her Minneapolis, Minnesota-born mother, Betty Lou Motes, was a one-time church secretary and real estate agent. Her parents, one-time actors and playwrights, met while performing theatrical productions for the armed forces and later co-founded the Atlanta Actors and Writers Workshop in Georgia; the two divorced in 1971. Her mother later married Michael Motes and had another daughter, named Nancy Motes who was born in 1976. Roberts' father died of cancer when she was ten. Her older brother and sister, Eric Roberts and Lisa Roberts Gillan, are also actors. Roberts wanted to be a veterinarian as a child, but soon after graduating from Smyrna's Campbell High School, and after attending Georgia State University, she headed to New York to join her sister Lisa Roberts Gillan and pursue a career in acting. Once there, she signed with the Click modeling agency and enrolled in acting classes. She reverted to her original name "Julia Roberts" when she discovered that a "Julie Roberts" was already registered with the Screen Actors Guild.<br />Roberts made her film debut playing a supporting role opposite her brother, Eric, in Blood Red (she has just two words of dialogue), which, although completed in 1986, was not released until 1989. Her first television appearance was as a juvenile rape victim in the initial season of the series Crime Story with Dennis Farina, in the episode titled “The Survivor”. She also once appeared on Sesame Street opposite the character Elmo, demonstrating her ability to change emotions. Roberts first caught the attention of moviegoers with her performance in the independent film Mystic Pizza in 1988; that same year, she had a role in the last episode of season four of Miami Vice. The following year, she was featured in Steel Magnolias as a young bride battling diabetes and garnered her first Oscar nomination (as Best Supporting Actress) for her performance.<br />Roberts first catapulted to worldwide fame when she co-starred with Richard Gere in the Cinderella/Pygmalianesque story Pretty Woman in 1990. Roberts won the role after the first two choices for the part, Molly Ringwald and Meg Ryan both turned it down. The role also earned her a second Oscar nod, this time as Best Actress. Her next box office success was the thriller Sleeping with the Enemy, playing a battered wife who escapes her demented husband, Patrick Bergin, and begins a new life in Iowa. She played Tinkerbell in Steven Spielberg's Hook in 1991, which was followed by a two-year hiatus, during which she made no films other than a cameo appearance in Robert Altman's The Player (1992). In early 1993, she was the subject of a People magazine cover story asking, "What Happened to Julia Roberts?"<br />In 1993, she co-starred with Denzel Washington in the successful The Pelican Brief, based on the John Grisham novel. She also starred alongside Liam Neeson in the 1996 film Michael Collins. Over the next few years, she starred in a series of films that were critical and commercial failures, primarily because she was cast in roles that strayed too far from her film persona. She broke her losing streak with the hugely popular comedy My Best Friend's Wedding (1997), and eventually regained her earlier reputation as an actress who could open a movie and guarantee box office success. She starred with Hugh Grant in the popular 1999 film Notting Hill. That same year, she also starred in Runaway Bride, the second film with the Julia Roberts-Richard Gere duo.<br />In 2001, Roberts received the Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of Erin Brockovich, who helped wage a successful lawsuit against energy giant Pacific Gas & Electric. Roberts would team up with Erin Brockovich director Steven Soderbergh for three more films: Ocean's Eleven (2001), Full Frontal (2002), and Ocean's Twelve (2004).<br />In 2005, she was featured in the music video for the hit single "Dreamgirl" by the Dave Matthews Band. Roberts is reported to be a longtime fan of the band.<br />Julia Roberts made her Broadway debut on April 19, 2006 as Nan in a revival of Richard Greenberg's 1997 play, Three Days of Rain opposite Alias and Kitchen Confidential star Bradley Cooper, and The 40 Year Old Virgin star, Paul Rudd.<br />Although the play grossed nearly US$1 million dollars in ticket sales during its first week and was a commercial success throughout its limited run, most critics heavily criticized Roberts' performance. Three Days of Rain received two Tony Award nominations in stage design categories, but took home neither prize. Roberts did, however, receive a Broadway.com audience award (a minor theatrical prize) for her performance.<br /><a name="2006.E2.80.94present"></a>Roberts's two films released in 2006, The Ant Bully and Charlotte's Web, were both animated features for which she provided only voice acting. Her next film is Charlie Wilson's War with Tom Hanks and Phillip Seymour Hoffman, directed by Mike Nichols and based on the book by former CBS journalist George Crile; it is scheduled for wide release on December 25, 2007. Fireflies in the Garden, also starring Ryan Reynolds and Willem Dafoe is currently in post-production, with release set for 2008. It has also been announced that Roberts will star in The Friday Night Knitting Club, based on the novel of the same name by Kathleen Jacobs.</div>Cinema Expertshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09631696274687240993noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5458850137202369779.post-85122880931320082082007-11-12T16:43:00.000-08:002007-11-12T16:44:21.663-08:00Movie of the Day: Notting Hill (1999)<div align="justify"><a href="http://images.art.com/images/products/large/10048000/10048131.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://images.art.com/images/products/large/10048000/10048131.jpg" border="0" /></a>“I'm also just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her.”<br />Notting Hill is a district of west London that was built as a fashionable Victorian suburb, became very run down during the mid twentieth century and is now once again fashionable, but which retains a distinctly cosmopolitan atmosphere, with London's biggest street market and many small specialist shops. The hero of the film, William Thacker, is the owner of one of these shops, a travel bookshop. The film concerns the romance which develops between William and a young woman named Anna Scott whom he meets when she comes into his shop.<br />Notting Hill is based around a theme, love between people of unequal social standing, which has provided literature with some of its greatest works, both comic and serious, dating back at least to the tale of King Cophetua and the beggar-maid. Although many of these stories tell of a poor but honest lad who aspires to the hand of a princess or titled lady, Anna is not part of the Royal Family or the British aristocracy. She rather belongs to an even more exclusive elite, the Hollywood aristocracy. She is a hugely popular film star who earns at least $15,000,000 per film, and pops into William's shop during a brief stay in London to publicise her latest movie.<br />Although Anna is played by a real-life Hollywood superstar, Julia Roberts, the film is very typically British. William is similar to a number of other Hugh Grant characters, being a shy, diffident middle-class Englishman, probably public-school and university educated. The humour of the film, particularly the dinner-party banter between William and his friends, is mostly of the typically ironic, self-deprecating variety popular in Britain, especially in middle-class circles. Rhys Ifans's Spike, by contrast, typifies another strand of British humour, the eccentric zaniness found in the likes of 'Monty Python'. Spike's strong provincial accent suggests a more working-class background; this possibly accounts for the teasing that he has to put up with from the other characters, although he takes it all in good part.<br />William may be diffident, self-deprecating and unsuccessful, but he is probably the stronger of the two main characters. Anna is beautiful and successful, but underneath it all she is insecure, worried about losing her fame and fortune and about her inability to form lasting relationships with men. Early on in the film she has another boyfriend, Jeff, but it is clear that he is only the latest in a long string of unsatisfactory romances which have left her emotionally (and in some cases physically) bruised. The scene where Anna says to William 'I'm just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her' is the one where we see her at her most vulnerable. Although both characters are in their late twenties or thirties, it is noteworthy that Anna refers to 'girl and boy' rather than 'woman and man'. Anna's vulnerability also comes through in her reaction in the scene where hordes of paparazzi appear on William's doorstep; William tries to play down the incident, and Spike finds it hugely amusing, but Anna is horrified.<br />Important roles are also played by Tim McInnerny and Gina McKee as William's best friend Max and his disabled wife Bella; the love of this ordinary couple for each other provides a more realistic, down-to-earth counterpart to the fairy-tale romance of William and Anna, helping to anchor the film more firmly in reality. The main charm, however, lies in the relationship of the two main characters, as Anna comes to realise that the seemingly ordinary William has a kindness and decency which count for more than the monstrous egos of Jeff and his like. Like 'Four Weddings and a Funeral', which was also written by Richard Curtis and starred Hugh Grant, 'Notting Hill' is one of the warmest and most human British films of the nineties… 7/10</div>Cinema Expertshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09631696274687240993noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5458850137202369779.post-87913274379391589832007-11-10T17:32:00.000-08:002007-11-10T17:35:41.686-08:00Did You Know That…<div align="justify">His grandmother introduced Ingmar to the cinema and went with him to several shows when he was a little boy, always in secrecy since he wasn't allowed to go to the movies by his strict father.</div>Cinema Expertshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09631696274687240993noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5458850137202369779.post-35412465522432206442007-11-10T17:29:00.000-08:002007-11-10T17:30:42.910-08:00A Weekend With: Ingmar Bergman<div align="justify"><a href="http://www.mgrande.com/weblog/images/partosdepandora/Ingmar_Bergman.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://www.mgrande.com/weblog/images/partosdepandora/Ingmar_Bergman.jpg" border="0" /></a>“No form of art goes beyond ordinary consciousness as film does, straight to our emotions, deep into the twilight room of the soul.”<br />Ingmar Bergman was born in Uppsala, Sweden, to Erik Bergman, a Lutheran minister and later chaplain to the King of Sweden, and his wife, Karin. He grew up surrounded by religious imagery and discussion. His father was a rather conservative parish minister and strict family father: Ingmar was locked up in dark closets for infractions such as wetting the bed. Despite growing up in this devout Lutheran household, Bergman stated that he lost his faith at age eight and only came to terms with this fact while making Winter Light.<br />Bergman's interest in theatre and film began early: "At the age of 9, he traded a set of tin soldiers for a battered magic lantern, a possession that altered the course of his life. Within a year, he had created, by playing with this toy, a private world in which he felt completely at home, he recalled. He fashioned his own scenery, marionettes and lighting effects and gave puppet productions of Strindberg plays in which he spoke all the parts."<br />In 1934, at the age of 16, Bergman was sent to spend the summer vacation with family friends in Germany. It is believed that he attended a Nazi rally in Weimar at which he saw Adolf Hitler.<a title="" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingmar_Bergman#_note-3#_note-3"></a> He performed two five-month stretches of mandatory military service.<br />In 1937 he entered Stockholm University College, to study art and literature. He spent most of his time involved in student theatre and became a "genuine movie addict". At the same time a romantic involvement led to a break with his father that lasted several years. Although he did not graduate, he wrote a number of plays, as well as an opera, and became an assistant director at a theatre. In 1942, while working for the theatre he was given the chance to direct one of his own scripts, Caspar's Death. The play was seen by members of Svensk Filmindustri who then offered him a position working on scripts.<br />Bergman first began working in film in 1941 rewriting scripts, but his first major accomplishment was in 1944 when he wrote the screenplay for Torment/Frenzy (Hets), a film directed by Alf Sjöberg. Along with writing the screenplay he was also given a position as assistant director to the film. In his second autobiography Images: My Life in Film, Bergman describes the filming of the exteriors as his actual film directorial debut. The international success of this film led to Bergman's first opportunity to direct a year later. During the next ten years he wrote and directed more than a dozen films including The Devil's Wanton/Prison (Fängelse) in 1949 and The Naked Night/Sawdust and Tinsel (Gycklarnas afton) in 1953.<br />Bergman first achieved international success with Smiles of a Summer Night (Sommarnattens leende) (1955), which won for "Best poetic humor" and was nominated for the Golden Palm at Cannes the following year. This was followed two years later with two of Bergman's most well known films, The Seventh Seal (Det sjunde inseglet) and Wild Strawberries (Smultronstället). The Seventh Seal won a special jury prize and was nominated for the Golden Palm at Cannes and Wild Strawberries won numerous awards for Bergman and its star, Victor Sjöström.<br />Bergman continued to be productive for the next 20 years. In the early 60's he directed a trilogy that explored the theme of faith and doubt in God, Through a Glass Darkly (i en Spegel - 1961), Winter Light (Nattvardsgasterna - 1962), and The Silence (Tystnaden - 1963). In 1966 he directed Persona, a film that he himself considered one of his most important films. While the film won few awards many consider it his masterpiece and one of the best films ever produced. Bergman himself considers this film along with Cries and Whispers (Viskningar och rop - 1972) to be his two most important films. Other notable films of the period include The Virgin Spring (Jungfrukällan - 1960), Hour of the Wolf (Vargtimmen - 1968), Shame (Skammen - 1968) and A Passion/The Passion of Anna (En Passion - 1969). Bergman also produced extensively for Swedish TV at this time. Two works of note were Scenes from a Marriage (Scener ur ett äktenskap - 1973) and The Magic Flute (Trollflöjten - 1975).<br />1976 was one of the most traumatic years in the life of Ingmar Bergman. On January 30, 1976, while rehearsing August Strindberg's Dance of Death at the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm, he was arrested by two plainclothes police officers and charged with income-tax evasion. The impact of the event on Bergman was devastating. He suffered a nervous breakdown as a result of the humiliation and was hospitalized in a state of deep depression. The investigation was focused on an alleged 1970 transaction of SEK 500,000 between Bergman's Swedish company Cinematograf and its Swiss subsidiary Persona, an entity that was mainly used for the paying of salaries to foreign actors. Bergman dissolved Persona in 1974 after having been notified by the Swedish Central Bank and subsequently reported the income. On March 23, 1976, the special prosecutor Anders Nordenadler dropped the charges against Bergman, saying that the alleged "crime" had no legal basis, comparing the case to the bringing of "charges against a person who is stealing his own car". Director General Gösta Ekman, chief of the Swedish Internal Revenue Service, defended the failed investigation, saying that the investigation was dealing with important legal material and that Bergman was treated just like any other suspect. He offered some regret that Bergman had left the country, hoping that Bergman was a "stronger" person now when the investigation had shown that he had not done anything wrong.<br />Even though the charges were dropped, Bergman was for a while disconsolate, fearing he would never again return to directing. He eventually recovered from the shock, but despite pleas by the Swedish prime minister Olof Palme, high public figures, and leaders of the film industry, he vowed never to work again in Sweden. He closed down his studio on the barren Baltic island of Fårö, suspended two announced film projects and went into self-imposed exile in Munich, Germany. Harry Schein, director of the Swedish Film Institute, estimated the immediate damage caused by Bergman's exile to SEK 10 million and hundreds of jobs lost.<br />He briefly considered the possibility of working in America and his next film, The Serpent's Egg (1977) was a German-American production and his first and only English language film. This was followed a year later with a British-Norwegian co-production of Autumn Sonata (Höstsonaten - 1978). The film starred Ingrid Bergman and was the one notable film of this period. The one other film he directed was From the Life of the Marionettes (Aus dem Leben der Marionetten - 1980) a British-German co-production.<br />In 1982, he temporarily returned to his homeland to direct Fanny and Alexander (Fanny och Alexander), a film that, unlike his previous productions, was aimed at a broader audience, but also critizised within the profession for being shallow and commercial. Bergman stated that the film would be his last, and that afterwards he would focus on directing theatre. Since then, he wrote several film scripts and directed a number of television specials. As with previous work for TV some of these productions were later released in theatres. The last such work was Saraband (2003), a sequel to Scenes from a Marriage and directed by Bergman when he was 84 years old.<br />Although he continued to operate from Munich, by mid-1978, Ingmar Bergman seemed to have overcome some of his bitterness toward his motherland. In July of that year he was back in Sweden, celebrating his 60th birthday at Fårö and partly resumed his work as a director at Royal Dramatic Theatre. To honor his return, the Swedish Film Institute launched a new Ingmar Bergman Prize to be awarded annually for excellence in film making.<br />Bergman developed a personal "repertory company" of Swedish actors whom he repeatedly cast in his films, including Max von Sydow, Bibi Andersson, Harriet Andersson, Erland Josephson, Ingrid Thulin, and Gunnar Björnstrand, each of whom appeared in at least five Bergman features. Norwegian actress Liv Ullmann, who appeared in nine of Bergman's films and one TV movie (Saraband), was the last to join this group (in the 1966 film Persona), and ultimately became most closely associated with Bergman, both artistically and personally. They had a daughter together, Linn Ullmann (b. 1966).<br />Bergman began working with Sven Nykvist, his cinematographer, in 1953. The two of them developed and maintained a working relationship of sufficient rapport to allow Bergman not to worry about the composition of a shot until the day before it was filmed. On the morning of the shoot, he would briefly speak to Nykvist about the mood and composition he hoped for, and then leave Nykvist to work without interruption or comment until post-production discussion of the next day's work.<br />Bergman usually wrote his own screenplays, thinking about them for months or years before starting the actual process of writing, which he viewed as somewhat tedious. His earlier films are carefully structured, and are either based on his plays or written in collaboration with other authors. Bergman stated that in his later works, when on occasion his actors would want to do things differently from his own intentions, he would let them, noting that the results were often "disastrous" when he did not do so. As his career progressed, Bergman increasingly let his actors improvise their dialogue. In his latest films, he wrote just the ideas informing the scene and allowed his actors to determine the exact dialogue.<br />When viewing daily rushes, Bergman stressed the importance of being critical but unemotional, claiming that he asked himself not if the work is great or terrible, but if it is sufficient or if it needs to be reshot.<br />Bergman's films usually deal with existential questions of mortality, loneliness, and faith; they also tend to be direct and not overtly stylized. Persona, one of Bergman's most famous films, is unusual among Bergman's work in being both existentialist and avant-garde.<br />In one of the last major interviews with Bergman, done in 2005 at Fårö Island, Bergman said that despite being active during the exile, he had effectively lost eight years of his professional life. Bergman retired from film making in December 2003. He had hip surgery in October 2006 and was having a difficult recovery. He died peacefully in his sleep, at his home on Fårö, on July 30, 2007, age 89, the same day that another renowned film director, Michelangelo Antonioni, also died. He was buried August 18, 2007 on the island in a private ceremony.</div>Cinema Expertshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09631696274687240993noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5458850137202369779.post-86064731339503610192007-11-10T01:50:00.002-08:002007-11-21T07:17:44.299-08:00Do You Know the Answer?<div align="justify">“Your middle name is Ralph-as in puke!”<br />a) Weird Science<br />b) Say Anything<br />c) Mask<br />d) The Breakfast Club</div>Cinema Expertshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09631696274687240993noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5458850137202369779.post-14611897791754361352007-11-10T01:50:00.001-08:002007-11-10T01:50:25.366-08:00Did You Know That…<div align="justify">17 days before shooting was to commence in Morocco, none of the characters had been cast. The production crew made an announcement in the nearest town via television and radio and in the mosques that actors were needed. Within the next 24 hours, over 200 people showed up hoping to participate. Almost all of them are in the final cut of the film, both as principal characters and as extras.</div>Cinema Expertshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09631696274687240993noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5458850137202369779.post-79336202327106635752007-11-10T01:48:00.001-08:002007-11-10T01:49:48.276-08:00Biography of the Day: Brad Pitt<div align="justify"><a href="http://images.eonline.com/eol_images/Profiles/20060912/244.pitt.brad.091906.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://images.eonline.com/eol_images/Profiles/20060912/244.pitt.brad.091906.jpg" border="0" /></a>“Success is a beast. And it actually puts the emphasis on the wrong thing. You get away with more instead of looking within.”<br />Pitt was born in Shawnee, Oklahoma, the son of Jane Etta, a high school counselor, and William Alvin Pitt, a truck company owner. Along with his brother Doug and sister Julie Neal, he grew up in Springfield, Missouri, where the family moved soon after his birth. He attended Kickapoo High School, where he was involved in sports, debating, student government, and acting. He attended the Missouri School of Journalism at the University of Missouri - Columbia where he was a member of Sigma Chi fraternity.<br />In 1987, Pitt arrived in Beverly Hills, California. He studied under coach Roy London for six years. He first appeared in the sitcom Head Of The Class, for a while dating the show's star Robin Givens. He also guest starred in two episodes of Growing Pains. Pitt appeared as Chris in the long-running soap Another World. While auditioning for the show Our House, he was asked to read for another part, and found himself playing Shalane McCall's boyfriend Charles on the daytime soap Dallas. He also had a number of roles in prime-time series, such as thirtysomething, 21 Jump Street, and Freddy's Nightmares.<br />In 1988, Pitt had his first starring role, in Dark Side Of The Sun, where he played a young American taken by his family to the Adriatic to find a remedy for a skin condition. The movie was shot in Yugoslavia in the summer of '88 with Pitt being paid $1,523 a week for seven weeks. However, with editing nearly complete, war broke out and much of the film was lost. The film was released years later. Pitt won a part in the TV movie Too Young to Die?, about an abused teenager given the death penalty for murder. Pitt played the part of a drug addict, Silly Canton, who took advantage of runaway Juliette Lewis, who Pitt began dating in real life. The pair would be together for three years.<br />In 1991, Pitt starred as Joe Maloney in Across the Tracks in which he portrayed a high school runner with a difficult criminal brother played by Ricky Schroder. Pitt attracted broader public attention from a supporting role in Thelma & Louise where he played a small time criminal drifter in a love scene with Geena Davis.<br />After Thelma and Louise, Pitt starred in the low budget 1991 film Johnny Suede as an awkward dreamer who aspired to be a big-haired rock star alongside Catherine Keener and Nick Cave, directed by Tom DiCillo. Pitt had agreed to play the part before Thelma & Louise was released. After appearing in Cool World, Pitt starred in Robert Redford's A River Runs Through It in 1992, for which Pitt learned fly fishing by casting off of Hollywood buildings. Then came Kalifornia in 1993, a road movie in which he played a scruffy serial killer alongside his then girlfriend Juliette Lewis and X-Files actor David Duchovny.<br />In 1994, Pitt played vampire Louis de Pointe du Lac in the movie adaptation of Anne Rice's novel Interview With The Vampire. Pitt played the eighteenth century vampire which required several hours work in make-up on set to achieve the white skin of the character and he had to wear a pair of luminous green eyes, vampire fangs and a shoulder-length hairpiece to complete the appearance. Pitt worked with the eleven-year-old Kirsten Dunst, as well as Tom Cruise, Christian Slater and Antonio Banderas. He then starred in Legends of the Fall and Se7en.<br />Pitt was then nominated for an Academy Award as Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Jeffrey Goines in the 1995 film Twelve Monkeys in which he acted alongside Bruce Willis. In 1997 Pitt played the IRA terrorist Rory Devany in The Devil's Own alongside Harrison Ford, the first of several films where he has acted using an Irish accent.<br />That same year he played the main role of Austrian mountaineer Heinrich Harrer in the Jean Jacques Annaud film Seven Years in Tibet. Pitt trained for months for the role which demanded a great deal of trekking and mountain climbing. Due to the themes of Tibetan nationalism in the film, the Chinese government banned Pitt and Thewlis from China for life. In 1998, Pitt starred as the main character in the film Meet Joe Black. Pitt starred as a personification of Death inhabiting the body of a young man in order to learn what it is like to be human while informing a billionaire tycoon that his life on Earth is nearly over. The film gave Pitt another chance to work alongside Welsh actor Sir Anthony Hopkins whom he had previously worked with in Legends of the Fall.<br />In 1999, Pitt starred in Fight Club, based on the novel by Chuck Palahniuk. Working with his previous director whom he had worked with on Se7en Pitt portrayed the character of Tyler Durden, a highly colorful and complex character.<br />In 2000 Pitt played the role of Mickey, a gypsy Irish boxer in the gangster movie Snatch alongside Vinnie Jones and Benicio del Toro. The film was a wild caper involving a diamond heist, Russian and American mafia and the shady underground world , that saw Pitt brought in as a ringer by two failing promoters. The movie saw him moving on from his attempt at the conventional Devil's Own Northern Irish accent, and perhaps inspired by his co-star Benicio del Toro's recent performance in The Usual Suspects, Pitt created a just-barely-intelligible accent suggesting the Irish Gypsies, referred to as Pikeys in the movie. Pitt continued to train for the role, and honed his boxing skills at Ricky English's gym in Watford.<br />After his wedding to Friends actress Jennifer Aniston on July 29, 2000, he immediately began filming for Spy Game, a Cold War thriller in which he starred alongside veteran actor and look-alike Robert Redford playing the role of his mentor. In 2001 Pitt worked with long-term friend and actress Julia Roberts in the comical road movie The Mexican. At the end of the year, Pitt finished filming Ocean's Eleven with George Clooney and Matt Damon, a remake of the 1960s version which starred Frank Sinatra.<br />Since then, he has starred in numerous films, including Ocean's Twelve and the epic Troy, based on the Iliad, in which he portrayed the legendary hero Achilles. Ironically, during the production of Troy, Pitt tore his Achilles tendon, delaying production for several weeks.<br />In 2005, Pitt starred in Mr. & Mrs. Smith, in which he and Angelina Jolie played husband and wife assassins.<br />In March 2006, it was announced that Paramount had purchased the rights to The Sparrow for Pitt's production company, Plan B, and that Pitt would be playing the lead role of Sandoz. In June 2006 it was announced that Paramount and Plan B will be working on a new zombie film called World War Z, based on the book of the same name by Max Brooks.<br />Pitt made his return to Hollywood in late 2006, with Alejandro González Iñárritu's critically acclaimed Babel, starring alongside Cate Blanchett. The movie garnered a total of seven Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations, one of which was a Golden Globe nomination for Pitt as Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture. The movie has since become Pitt's highest grossing drama. That same year, he also produced the eventual Best Picture winner, The Departed.In 2007, Pitt was listed among Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People in The World. He was listed among artists and entertainers, and was credited with using "his star power to get people to look at places and stories that cameras don't usually catch." </div>Cinema Expertshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09631696274687240993noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5458850137202369779.post-4073743388717657932007-11-10T01:47:00.001-08:002007-11-10T01:48:37.034-08:00Movie of the Day: Babel (2006)<div align="justify"><a href="http://asminhasimagens.no.sapo.pt/BabelPoster.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://asminhasimagens.no.sapo.pt/BabelPoster.jpg" border="0" /></a>“Susan Jones, who was wounded in a terrorist attack in Morocco, was discharged from a Casablanca hospital this morning, local time. The American people finally have a happy ending, after five days of frantic phone calls and hand wringing. In other news...”<br />Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's Babel weaves four disparate and seemingly unrelated tales into a distinct, gritty narrative about the importance of communication - and what can happen when it goes awry. The movie is oftentimes difficult to watch, with ultra realistic cinematography and gutsy, honest performances from its entire cast, particularly Oscar-nominated actresses Adriana Barraza (Amelia) and Rinko Kikuchi (Chieko).Told nonlinearly, the movie describes the travails of a troubled married couple with a tour group in Morocco, played by Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett. Something in their past has driven them apart, and to help deal with the problem they have taken a trip together. Meanwhile, the sons of a shepherd fight over who's the better shot with their new rifle and fire a blast at the couple's tour bus, critically wounding Susan (Blanchett).<br />Richard (Pitt) calls home in San Diego to notify the nanny of their children, Amelia; Amelia is in a bit of a bind, because she expected the parents’ home so she could attend the wedding of her son in Mexico. With Richard and Susan not returning soon and with no one else available to watch the children, she takes them with her to the wedding.<br />In Japan, a deaf-mute Japanese girl acts out in reaction to her mother's suicide, which she discovered; the virginal Chieko becomes a huge sexual flirt, even removing her panties in a crowded restaurant to flash older boys. Chieko craves human contact but feels that the world is even more shut off to her now than ever before, and she sullenly shuns even her father's attentions.<br />It should go without saying that this film really isn't for everyone. It's gut-wrenchingly tough to watch at times, especially when Susan's wound is being treated. You can readily imagine how it'd be if you, an unworldly American, were suddenly in dire need of expert medical attention in a part of the world that wasn't really famed for it. That's enough to strike terror in me already, and I haven't even mentioned how Richard and Susan are awaiting help to arrive in a small, impoverished village with no running water or electricity - and only one person who can speak English to them.<br />How exactly these stories are commingled becomes evident as the movie progresses, but it's not all elegantly laid out for the viewer to immediately grasp; this is accomplished in part by the nonlinear storytelling. We see a scene near the end of the movie that is a mirror image of one from the beginning, except told from a different character's perspective. That's a tribute to the wonderful camera-work and editing by, respectively, Rodrigo Prieto and the team of Douglas Crise and Stephen Mirrone.<br />Barraza turns in a powerful, heart-breaking performance; at one point, she's stranded in the middle of the Sonoran desert with her two young charges clad in her dress from the wedding. Dazed by the blistering heat, Amelia cannot gain her bearings in the blazing heat, and she despairs. Then she makes a critical decision with devastating consequences.<br />Kikuchi is absolutely mesmerizing as the silent Chieko. Without uttering one word, she's able to convey a vast array of emotions, from loneliness to hostility to love to lust to affection. She's alternately serene and violent, in charge of and captured by her impediment. Chieko resents her father, her volleyball teammates, and most of all every so-called normal person who looks at deaf-mutes as monsters, creatures to be scorned and taken advantage of. Like Barraza, Kikuchi's role called for a difficult sacrifice: plenty of nudity.Babel is a spellbinding, multifaceted story with towering, passionate performances by all of the leads. It's full of moxie and stark realism, and despite some minor plot implausibilities, it's a true feather in the cap for Iñarritu… 10/10</div>Cinema Expertshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09631696274687240993noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5458850137202369779.post-4471302196371896242007-11-08T14:06:00.001-08:002007-11-08T14:06:58.587-08:00Did You Know That…<div align="justify">Part of the show's ad campaign before the series aired included billboard ads with Earl's picture and one of the items from his list printed on the billboard (i.e. "Cheated my way through the seventh grade...twice", "Stole a car from a one-legged girl", "Faked my death to break up with a girl" etc.), with the tag line "...I'm sorry".</div>Cinema Expertshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09631696274687240993noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5458850137202369779.post-69325964328033903772007-11-08T14:05:00.001-08:002007-11-08T14:06:31.685-08:00Series of the Week: My Name is Earl<div align="justify"><a href="http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B000F7NPA0.02.LZZZZZZZ.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B000F7NPA0.02.LZZZZZZZ.jpg" border="0" /></a>“Hey, Crabman!”<br />My Name Is Earl is an Emmy Award-winning American sitcom created by Greg Garcia. It is produced by 20th Century Fox Television. It is currently in its third season and is broadcast on the NBC television network.<br />The series stars Jason Lee, Ethan Suplee, Jaime Pressly, Eddie Steeples, and Nadine Velazquez. Lee stars as Earl J. Hickey, a petty crook with occasional run-ins with the law, whose newly won $100,000 lottery ticket is lost when he is hit by a car. While hospitalized and under the influence of morphine, Earl hears Carson Daly talk about karma on TV and comes to the conclusion that his bad luck has been caused by his lifestyle. (It is typical of Earl that he believes Carson Daly invented the concept of karma.) He decides to make a list of everything bad he has ever done, with the intention of making up for all of his mistakes and crossing the items off the list as he goes.<br />Earl's first good deed, picking up garbage, leads to him finding his lost winning lottery ticket.<br />Karma is a recurring theme throughout the show, and its effects are shown not just on Earl, but also on other characters, such as Earl's ex-con friend Ralph, who ends up wanted by the police again after refusing Earl's offer to help him change his ways and trying to steal Earl's money.<br />In some instances, Karma exists not only as a theme, but also a character that dictates Earl's actions. Earl will occasionally address Karma directly as if it were a deity or an otherwise omniscient and powerful being, and will (almost) always yield to whatever he perceives as its will. Earl proclaims in one episode, "I am Karma's bitch." The List is portrayed as the physical manifestation of Karma. Karma is also portrayed in the final episode of the first season as the old woman who hit Earl with her car after he scratched off his winning lottery ticket ("I saw Lady Karma again").<br />Earl's behavior raises an interesting question of morality: Is he motivated only by his desire to gain good 'karma', thus acting only in his own self-interest, or is he truly sorry for everything he has done, and has turned his life around? The show is somewhat ambiguous on this matter, with different episodes suggesting different answers, and some implying that it could be both. For example, in episode 1.04 Earl intends to confess to his ex-girlfriend that he faked his death to get away from her because she was too clingy. When Catalina points out that this will hurt her feelings and asks him what's more important, his list or someone's feelings, Earl responds, "I dunno. My list?" On the other hand, Earl shows true empathy in episode 2.02 when Joy is arrested. He eventually passes out from worrying about Joy. When he asks Catalina why he may have passed out, she responds, "Because you're a good person, Earl."<br />Creator, Greg Garcia wrote the pilot while working on another sitcom, Yes, Dear. He initially pitched the series to Fox, which passed on the series. He then approached NBC, which optioned the pilot on a cast-contingent basis, meaning they would order the pilot provided a suitable cast could be assembled.<br />Jason Lee was approached for the lead role, but was uninterested in working in television and passed on the series twice before finally agreeing to read the pilot script. Though he liked the pilot, he was hesitant to commit until after meeting with Garcia.<br />The series premiere on September 20, 2005, drew in 15.2 million viewers in the United States, earning a 6.6 rating. By the airing of the third episode it was apparent that My Name Is Earl was the most popular of NBC's new fall offerings, and a full season (22 episodes) was ordered. In its first month, it was also the most popular new sitcom of the season to air on any network and was the most popular sitcom on any network in the coveted 18–49-year-old demographic. The show was renewed for a second season, which although has seen a dip in average viewers (around 10 million or so in Season 2 compared to 12 million for Season 1) is still a critics' juggernaut and has recently been renewed for another season.Ever thought about changing the world but thought that one man is not enough to do that?! I think this TV-series will make you to change your mind. It's about a guy who was a nobody, just an ordinary burglar and bang he wins a 100 000$ and wants to make his life better and to right all the wrongs from his past. The idea is really catchy, something new and seems to be funny. wouldn't you like to see a burglar bringing you back your wallet and talking about a some kind of list? Or making up for the day he long time ago ruined... I would definitely like to see that.it's really funny, everything: Earl, with his "fancy" haircut and nice moustache his dumb brother Randy who sometimes says something no one can understand but they realize it makes sense or something like that Lets not forget Catalina, the ex-striper but now she's a house maid and good friend of Earl and Randy.. Joy, Crab man, they are all funny and the actors where chosen perfectly. It's one of those show which makes you to think about your life, what can you do to make the world a better place to live: “do good things and good things will happen to you, do bad, bad will happen”. My Name is Earl it is 30 minutes of deep subtext served with irony and humor… 8/10</div>Cinema Expertshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09631696274687240993noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5458850137202369779.post-56470365809760224682007-11-07T13:52:00.001-08:002007-11-21T07:18:10.161-08:00Do You Know the Answer?<div align="justify">In “The Return of the King”, after being crowned King, who did Aragorn bow before?<br />a) Legolas and Gimli<br />b) Gandalf<br />c) Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin<br />d) Elrond and Arwen</div>Cinema Expertshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09631696274687240993noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5458850137202369779.post-15567080388497797312007-11-07T13:51:00.002-08:002007-11-07T13:52:09.237-08:00Did You Know That…<div align="justify">While Johnny Depp is looking to a mirror, you faintly hear him whisper, "When Sister Veronica found out about the windows she withdrew the school from the competition". This is a line from Rosemary Woodhouse's first dream in Rosemary's Baby (1968).</div>Cinema Expertshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09631696274687240993noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5458850137202369779.post-2389729180768631692007-11-07T13:51:00.001-08:002007-11-07T13:51:25.023-08:00Biography of the Day: John Turturro<div align="justify"><img style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://entimg.msn.com/i/150/Movies/Actors3/Turturo_AG013341_150x200.jpg" border="0" />"I mean usually with movies, if you're dark, you're a bad guy. That's it. I turned down a million bad guy things."<br />Turturro was born in Brooklyn, New York to Katherine, an amateur jazz singer who worked in a Navy yard during World War II and Nicholas Turturro, a carpenter and construction worker who immigrated from Giovinazzo, Italy at the age of six and fought as a Navy serviceman in D-Day. He was raised as a Roman Catholic and moved to the Rosedale section of Queens, New York with his family when he was six. He majored in drama at the State University of New York at New Paltz, and completed his MFA at the Yale School of Drama. He worked as an extra in Raging Bull (1980).<br />Turturro created the title role of John Patrick Shanley's Danny and the Deep Blue Sea at the Playwrights Conference at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center in 1983. He repeated it the following year off-Broadway and won an Obie Award. Spike Lee liked Turturro's performance in Five Corners so much that he chose to cast him in Do the Right Thing. This movie was the first of a long-standing collaboration between the famous director and John Turturro, which also includes Mo' Better Blues (1990), Jungle Fever (1991), Clockers (1995), Girl 6 (1996), He Got Game (1998), Summer of Sam (1999), and She Hate Me (2004).<br />A versatile actor comfortable with both comedy and drama, Turturro also had an extended collaboration with the Coen Brothers, appearing in their films Miller's Crossing (1990), Barton Fink (1991), The Big Lebowski (1998), and most recently O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000). He also appeared as a severely disturbed patient of Jack Nicholson's in the comedy Anger Management and played Johnny Depp's antagonist in Secret Window. Turturro is also an occasional guest star on Monk as Adrian's eccentric brother, Ambrose Monk. Before becoming a household name, Turturro made a cameo in the Woody Allen film Hannah and Her Sisters. One of his comedy performances has attracted a cult following: his breezy take on Groucho Marx in the neglected 1992 comedy Brain Donors, an update of A Night at the Opera starring Turturro as an ambulance-chasing lawyer.<br />He won an Emmy award for his portrayal of Adrian Monk's brother Ambrose Monk in the USA Network series Monk. He has also been nominated and won many awards from many film organizations such as SAG, Cannes Film Festival, Golden Globes, and others. Despite his many acclaimed performances, Turturro has never been nominated for an Academy Award.<br />Turturro produced and directed, as well as acted in, the film Illuminata (1999), which also starred his wife Katherine Borowitz. He also wrote and directed the film Romance and Cigarettes (2005). He recently appeared in Robert De Niro's The Good Shepherd as the right hand man of C.I.A. man Edward Wilson (Matt Damon), and as the insidious Sector 7 agent Simmons in Michael Bay's Transformers. </div>Cinema Expertshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09631696274687240993noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5458850137202369779.post-3381215040200654172007-11-07T13:46:00.000-08:002007-11-07T13:47:31.173-08:00Movie of the Day: Secret Window (2004)<div align="justify"><a href="http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/153/810277.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/153/810277.jpg" border="0" /></a>“The only thing that matters is the ending. It's the most important part of the story. And this one, is very good. This one is perfect.”<br />Johnny Depp, who is indeed a great actor (remember Edward Scissorhands?), never really got noticed or credit before Box Office Smash Hit Pirates of the Caribbean. Well this is technically Depp's first film since Pirates so he has reeled in a new audience for his films. Secret Window was based on a Stephen King book entitled Secret Window, Secret Garden. The movie was drafted into a screenplay by writer/director David Koepp who wrote many great films including Panic Room, Stir of Echoes, and even the original Jurassic Park.<br />Secret Window is about a divorced writer named Mort Rainey (Johnny Depp). The movie begins on a depressing note where Mort finds out that his wife Amy (Maria Bello) is cheating on him. The movie than flashes forward a few months when Mr. Rainey is living all alone in the woods. A weird man named Mr. Shooter (John Turturro) shows up and accuses him of plagiarism. Mr. Rainey believes the allegations to be false but is now being stalked by this Mr. Shooter. Then things start to occur and it's up the Mr. Rainey to stop this before him and his ex-wife become harmed.<br />Another terrific performance by Johnny Depp is the main reason to see the film. His acting is flawless; he delivers yet again another terrific character. What I like about Depp is that he always plays a different weird character in every film he is in and to top it off every character he portrays is likable. I also liked John Turturro who nailed the southern stalker role. He was very creepy and his character was very believable. You don't want to mess with Mr. Shooter, believe me. Maria Bello does another good job and can add this good film to her resume along with her great performance in The Cooler. The cast of this film was right on target.<br />David Koepp did a good job on the film, there are some really great locations in which this film was shot. The cabin in the woods was very creepy and I liked that the main character lived in this small town. There were also some pretty cool camera angles in the film along with some really suspenseful scenes.<br />The ending was a improvement on King's story. Lets face King some hearts is two nice a guy to kill off certain characters he admitted his anguish over killing the child in pet cemetery. Koepp had more at stake making this film than king would writing another novella, so it stands to reason he would feel more compelled to get it right.I wonder if King is happy. I think he should be… 8/10</div>Cinema Expertshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09631696274687240993noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5458850137202369779.post-58447754199385508042007-11-06T13:58:00.001-08:002007-11-06T13:58:54.214-08:00Did You Know That…<div align="justify">The initials "SKG" (below the logo DreamWorks) stand for the company's co-founders, Spielberg (film director and founder of Amblin Entertainment), Katzenberg (former head of The Walt Disney Company's film studios), and Geffen (founder of Geffen Records).</div>Cinema Expertshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09631696274687240993noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5458850137202369779.post-2483483884802955912007-11-06T13:57:00.000-08:002007-11-06T13:58:17.057-08:00Studio of the Week: DreamWorks<div align="justify"><a href="http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/f/f3/Dreamworks.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/f/f3/Dreamworks.jpg" border="0" /></a>DreamWorks, LLC, also known as DreamWorks Pictures, DreamWorks SKG, or DreamWorks Studios is a major American film studio which develops, produces, and distributes films, video games, and television programming. It has produced or distributed more than ten films with box-office grosses totalling more than $100 million each. Its most successful title to date is Shrek 3.<br />DreamWorks began as an ambitious attempt by media moguls Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and David Geffen to create a new Hollywood studio. But in December 2005, the founders agreed to sell the studio to Viacom, the parent company of Paramount Pictures. The sale was completed in February 2006.<br />DreamWorks' animation arm was spun-off in 2004, into DreamWorks Animation SKG. Its films are distributed worldwide by Paramount, but the animation studio remains independent of Paramount/Viacom.<br />The company was founded following Katzenberg's forced resignation from The Walt Disney Company in 1994. At the suggestion of Spielberg's friend, the two made an agreement with long-time Katzenberg collaborator Geffen to start their own studio. The studio was officially founded on October 12, 1994 with financial backing of $33 million from each of the three main partners and $500 million from Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.<br />The first feature length DreamWorks film to be released was The Peacemaker, in 1997, although a failed TV pilot called Dear Diary was put into limited theatrical release in 1996. It went on to win an Oscar for Best Short Film.<br />In 1998, DreamWorks releases their first full length animated feature, The Prince of Egypt.<br />In 1999, 2000 and 2001, DreamWorks won three consecutive best picture Oscars for American Beauty, Gladiator and A Beautiful Mind (the later two with Universal).<br />In 2000, Electronic Arts acquired DreamWorks Interactive from DreamWorks and merged it with EA Pacific and Westwood Studios. DreamWorks Interactive became EA Los Angeles (EALA).<br />DreamWorks Records, the company's record label (the first project of which was George Michael's Older), never lived up to expectations, and was sold in October 2003 to Universal Music Group, which operated the label as DreamWorks Nashville. That label was shut down in 2005 when its flagship artist, Toby Keith, departed to form his own label.<br />The studio has had its greatest financial success with movies, specifically animated movies. DreamWorks Animation teamed up with Pacific Data Images (now known as PDI/DreamWorks) in 1996 to create some of the highest grossing animated hits of all time, such as Antz (1998), The Prince of Egypt (1998), Shrek (2001), its sequels Shrek 2 (2004) and Shrek the Third (2007); Shark Tale (2004), Madagascar (2005), Over the Hedge (2006), and Flushed Away (2006). Based on their success, DreamWorks Animation has spun off as its own publicly traded company. In fact, PDI/DreamWorks has emerged as the main competitor to Pixar in the age of computer-generated animation, and is based in Redwood City, California.<br />In recent years DreamWorks has scaled back. It stopped plans to build a high-tech studio, sold its music division, and only produces one television series, Las Vegas.<br />Recently, David Geffen admitted that DreamWorks had come close to bankruptcy twice. Under Katzenberg's watch, the studio suffered a $125 million loss on Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, and also overestimated the DVD demand for Shrek 2. In 2005, out of their two large budget pictures, The Island bombed at the domestic box office, while War of the Worlds was produced as a joint effort with Paramount which was the first to reap the profits.<br />In December 2005, Viacom's Paramount Pictures agreed to purchase the live-action studio. The deal was valued at approximately $1.6 billion, an amount that included about $400 million in debt assumptions. The company completed its acquisition on February 1, 2006.On March 17, 2006 Paramount agreed to sell the DreamWorks live-action library to a group led by George Soros for $900 million. Paramount retained the worldwide distribution rights to these films, as well as various auxiliary rights, including music publishing, sequels, and merchandising - this includes films that had been made by Paramount and DreamWorks. The sale was completed on May 8, 2006.</div>Cinema Expertshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09631696274687240993noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5458850137202369779.post-46218538268924553372007-11-05T13:01:00.002-08:002007-11-05T13:05:07.067-08:00Do You Know the Answer?<div align="justify">Call me “Sir”. I won an Oscar for “Hannah and Her Sisters” in 1986. I was born in London and have appeared in over one hundred films. Who am I?<br />a) Michael Caine<br />b) Sean Connery<br />c) Roger Moore</div><div align="justify">d) Anthony Hopkins</div>Cinema Expertshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09631696274687240993noreply@blogger.com0