Cinema Experts

Do You Know the Answer?

2007-11-20T12:16:00.002-08:00

One of Dustin Hoffman’s first starring roles was as Benjamin in the 1967 classic “The Graduate”. What was his surname in this film?
a) Robinson
b) Singlemanc

c) McGuire
d) Braddock

Did You Know That…

2007-11-20T12:16:00.001-08:00

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.

Biography of the Day: Dianne Wiest

2007-11-20T12:07:00.000-08:00

"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."
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.

Movie of the Day: Bullets Over Broadway (1994)

2007-11-20T11:46:00.000-08:00

“Suddenly I'm taking suggestions from some strong-arm man with an IQ of minus 50.”
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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

Did You Know That…

2007-11-16T14:04:00.001-08:00

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.

Studio of the Week: Paramount Pictures

2007-11-16T13:57:00.000-08:00

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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
The most successful period for Paramount in recent times was the administration of Jonathan Dolgen, chairman and Sherry Lansing, president.
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.

Do You Know the Answer?

2007-11-12T16:46:00.001-08:00

In “Ratatouille”, what is the name of the famous food critic whose bad review kills Gusteau?
a) Shelly Lam
b) Anton Ego
c) Jacques Miend

d) Diane Belleville

Did You Know That…

2007-11-12T16:45:00.000-08:00

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.

Biography of the Day: Julia Roberts

2007-11-12T16:44:00.001-08:00

"I'm just an ordinary person who has an extraordinary job.”
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.
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.
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?"
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.

Movie of the Day: Notting Hill (1999)

2007-11-12T16:43:00.000-08:00

“I'm also just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her.”
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.
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.
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.
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.
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

Did You Know That…

2007-11-10T17:32:00.000-08:00

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.

A Weekend With: Ingmar Bergman

2007-11-10T17:29:00.000-08:00

“No form of art goes beyond ordinary consciousness as film does, straight to our emotions, deep into the twilight room of the soul.”
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.
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."
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. He performed two five-month stretches of mandatory military service.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.

Do You Know the Answer?

2007-11-10T01:50:00.002-08:00

“Your middle name is Ralph-as in puke!”
a) Weird Science
b) Say Anything
c) Mask
d) The Breakfast Club

Did You Know That…

2007-11-10T01:50:00.001-08:00

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.

Biography of the Day: Brad Pitt

2007-11-10T01:48:00.001-08:00

“Success is a beast. And it actually puts the emphasis on the wrong thing. You get away with more instead of looking within.”
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
In 2005, Pitt starred in Mr. & Mrs. Smith, in which he and Angelina Jolie played husband and wife assassins.
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.
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."

Movie of the Day: Babel (2006)

2007-11-10T01:47:00.001-08:00

“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...”
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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

Did You Know That…

2007-11-08T14:06:00.001-08:00

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".

Series of the Week: My Name is Earl

2007-11-08T14:05:00.001-08:00

“Hey, Crabman!”
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.
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.
Earl's first good deed, picking up garbage, leads to him finding his lost winning lottery ticket.
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.
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").
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."
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.
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.
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

Do You Know the Answer?

2007-11-07T13:52:00.001-08:00

In “The Return of the King”, after being crowned King, who did Aragorn bow before?
a) Legolas and Gimli
b) Gandalf
c) Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin
d) Elrond and Arwen

Did You Know That…

2007-11-07T13:51:00.002-08:00

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).

Biography of the Day: John Turturro

2007-11-07T13:51:00.001-08:00

"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."
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).
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).
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.
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.
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.

Movie of the Day: Secret Window (2004)

2007-11-07T13:46:00.000-08:00

“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.”
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.
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.
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.
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.
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

Did You Know That…

2007-11-06T13:58:00.001-08:00

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).

Studio of the Week: DreamWorks

2007-11-06T13:57:00.000-08:00

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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
In 1998, DreamWorks releases their first full length animated feature, The Prince of Egypt.
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).
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.

Do You Know the Answer?

2007-11-05T13:01:00.002-08:00

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?
a) Michael Caine
b) Sean Connery
c) Roger Moore

d) Anthony Hopkins

Did You Know That…

2007-11-05T13:01:00.001-08:00

Nancy Meyers wrote the role of Erica specifically for Diane Keaton and the part of Harry with only Jack Nicholson in mind to play him. Jack Nicholson turned down starring in Bad Santa (2003) to be in this movie.

Biography of the Day: Amanda Peet

2007-11-05T13:00:00.001-08:00

"And I also definitely love glamour. I mean, I love getting dressed up, and having someone do my make-up and feeling pretty. I'm not gonna lie about that, cause that's part of what I love about what I do. But celebrity... it's like the feeling of going to the prom, the adolescent feeling of popularity. As an actor, my main focus is finding good writing and attacking a good role. I mean, I understand when you're incredibly famous that it becomes difficult to deal with the publicity aspect. But people who are like me, who go, "Oh, I'm not gonna do that. I'm just here for the work!" I find it to be a little pretentious, honestly. Cause you're not that famous. Calm down."
Peet was born in New York City to Charles Peet, a lawyer, and Penny Levy, a social worker. Peet attended Friends Seminary, then studied history at and graduated from Columbia University, where she auditioned for acting teacher Uta Hagen and decided to become an actress after taking Hagen's class. During her four-year period of study with Hagen, Peet appeared in the off-Broadway revival of Clifford Odets's Awake and Sing.
Peet's first screen performance was a television commercial for Skittles. Her early roles included a guest role on the television series Law & Order. She made her film debut in Animal Room (1995). Peet maintained a steady acting career in relatively obscure indie movies.
Her first major role was as "Jack" in the 1999 WB network series Jack & Jill (which aired for two seasons). She also appeared in the eighth-season finale of Seinfeld as a waitress whom Jerry Seinfeld meets. Her character is notable for seemingly dating two men at once: Jerry and her apparent roommate ("dude"), Lyle. Peet's first role in a widely-released feature film came in 2000, with The Whole Nine Yards, elevating her status from supporting actress to lead. That same year, she was voted one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the World by People magazine. Peet was also in the movie Saving Silverman with Jack Black and Steve Zahn. She also starred in Something's Gotta Give in 2003. Peet played Diane Keaton's daughter, and, at one point, Jack Nicholson's lover.In 2005, Peet appeared in the play This Is How It Goes, filling in for Marisa Tomei at the last minute after six days of rehearsal. In the same year, she also co-starred in the films Syriana with onscreen husband Matt Damon, and A Lot Like Love, with Ashton Kutcher. In February 2006, she was performing in Neil Simon's Broadway production of Barefoot in the Park. Peet was a member of the cast of the television series Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, which premiered on NBC on September 18, 2006. She stars with Matthew Perry, with whom she worked in The Whole Nine Yards, and Sarah Paulson, with whom she co-starred in Jack & Jill. In the show; Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip, Peet's character Jordan McDeere is the newly-appointed president of the National Broadcasting System (NBS). In 2006, she also starred along with Dermot Mulroney in a Lifetime movie, Griffin and Phoenix, in which she played a terminally-ill woman living life to the fullest. Her most recent role was in 2007's The Ex, a comedy co-starring Zach Braff in which Peet plays an attorney who stays home to raise a new baby. She will next co-star with Hilary Duff, Amanda Seyfried and Amber Tamblyn in Safety Glass, a film set around the Space Shuttle Challenger launch; filming will begin this fall.

Movie of the Day: Something's Gotta Give (2003)

2007-11-05T12:58:00.000-08:00

“This is really fascinating, what's going on at this table. Let's take you and Erica. You've been around the block a few times. What are you, around 60? 63. Fantastic! Never married, which as we know, if you were a woman, would be a curse. You'd be an old maid, a spinster. Blah, blah, blah. So instead of pitying you, they write an article about you. Celebrate your never marrying. You're elusive and ungetable, a real catch. Then, there's my gorgeous sister here. Look at her. She is so accomplished. Most successful female playwright since who? Lillian Hellmann? She's over 50, divorced, and she sits in night after night after night because available guys her age want something-forgive me, they want somebody that looks like Marin. The over-50 dating scene is geared towards men leaving older women out. And as a result, the women become more and more productive and therefore, more and more interesting. Which, in turn, makes them even less desirable because as we all know, men - especially older men - are threatened and afraid of productive, interesting women. It is just so clear! Single older women as a demographic are about as fucked a group as can ever exist.”
Something's Gotta Give is writer/director Nancy Meyers' smart and savvy take on middle-age romance. Diane Keaton plays Erica Barry, a 50-something playwright living on her own in a swanky beach house in the Hamptons. Although she has achieved enormous success in her career, her personal life leaves much to be desired. Erica, though brilliant and attractive, has pretty much shut herself off from the dating scene since her divorce a number of years ago. Erica's life runs like a well-oiled machine, with each element - both personal and professional - fitted neatly into place, with no room left over for spontaneity or passion.
One fateful day, Erica stumbles upon a strange man rummaging through her refrigerator, a 63 year-old professional bachelor named Harry Sanborn who, Erica discovers to her horror, is dating her 30 year-old daughter, Marin. Even though Erica is disgusted by the situation, she is forced to take care of Harry after he suffers a heart attack while staying at her place. Despite their diametrically opposed outlooks on love and romance, Erica and Harry spend quality time together, discover their ultimate compatibility, and eventually fall in love.
Meyers has written a witty, sophisticated screenplay that offers insights into any number of 'battle of the sexes' issues. She has outrageous fun exploring the phenomenon of middle-aged men cavorting with women half their age. Jack Nicholson, known in real life for doing just that, has a great time poking fun at his own public image while, at the same time, providing a richly textured portrait of a man who may not be quite as shallow as his persona would suggest. When he so unexpectedly finds his head turned by a vibrant, attractive and intelligent woman in her 50's, Harry, a middle-aged Lothario who finds he needs Viagra to help him keep pace with his youthful 'conquests,' is forced to re-evaluate what has hitherto been the defining philosophy of his personality and lifestyle. Nicholson is magnificent at showing us the profound confusion his character undergoes as he takes those much belated but faltering steps into adult maturity.
Nicholson is, however, only one half of this extraordinary couple. As the other half, Keaton, has never seemed so natural and self-assured on screen. She makes of the character a capable, no-nonsense woman who has allowed her passions to lie dormant far too long. Though, on the surface, she appears confident and in control of her life, Erica is, underneath it all, a woman wounded by past experience and intimidated by a culture that expects women to be put out to pasture the moment they reach middle age. It is this combination of strength and vulnerability that makes Erica such a complex, recognizable individual - and it is the very quality that Keaton captures so exquisitely in her performance. The chemistry generated between Keaton and Nicholson in this film is so glowing and palpable one wonders why no filmmaker ever saw the potential of this dynamic duo until now.
In addition to these two outstanding performers, the film boasts excellent supporting work from Frances McDormand as Erica's pragmatic, clear-headed sister; Amanda Peet as Erica's level-headed daughter; and Keanu Reeves as Harry's handsome young doctor who finds himself smitten by Erica's mature beauty and charm.'Something's Gotta Give' is that rare romantic comedy that not only acknowledges the romantic inclinations of people over forty, but also recognizes the emotional complexities of their relationships. Because both Erica and Harry have been around the block a few times, they bring a lifetime of baggage to their burgeoning attachment. Thus, unlike in the vast majority of romantic comedies, which are clearly geared to the younger generation, the lovers here have a depth not often encountered when the focus is on two inexperienced neophytes. It takes the experience that comes from living to make a person interesting, after all… 8/10

Did You Know That…

2007-11-03T17:09:00.001-07:00

Harry Potter's birthday is reported in the books as being "somewhere in July", "As the seventh month dies" and finally the day after Neville's (30/7). In the American Book, "HP & the Sorceror's Stone", Harry reads the Daily Prophet's story about the Gringott's break-in as happening "on 31 July". He then remarks it was the day he and Hagrid were there, which was his birthday. Author J.K. Rowling, and actors Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) and Richard Griffiths (Uncle Vernon) were all reported to have their birthdays on 31 July. It was later revealed that Radcliffe's birthday is, in fact, 23rd July and that the claim that his birthday was the same as Harry Potter's was merely a publicity stunt.

A Weekend With: Harry Potter

2007-11-03T17:07:00.000-07:00

“Dear Mr. Potter, we are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Soon, you and your schoolmates will join us here, and your education in the magical arts will begin.”
The Harry Potter film series are the fantasy films based on the Harry Potter heptalogy of novels by British author and writer J. K. Rowling.
The five released to-date make up the highest grossing film series (not including inflation) of all time, with USD$4.48 billion in worldwide receipts. The series consists of five motion pictures with the latest installment, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, released to cinemas on 11 July 2007. In the United States, the revenues for the midnight opening were $12 million and first day revenues beat out Spider Man 2 ($40.4 million) for highest Wednesday opening at $44.2 million.
Warner Brothers holds the film rights to produce adaptations of the two remaining novels, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
In 1999, Rowling sold the film rights to the first four Harry Potter books to Warner Bros. for a reported US$1,982,900. A demand Rowling made was that the principal cast be kept strictly British, nonetheless allowing for the inclusion of many Irish actors such as the late Richard Harris as Dumbledore, and for casting of French and Eastern European actors in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire where characters from the book are specified as such. Rowling was hesitant to sell the rights because she "didn't want to give them control over the rest of the story" by selling the rights to the characters, which would have enabled Warner Bros to make non-author-written sequels.
Although Steven Spielberg initially negotiated to direct the film, he declined the offer. Spielberg wanted the adaptation to be an animated film, with American actor Haley Joel Osment to provide Harry Potter's voice. However, Spielberg contended that, in his opinion, there was every expectation of profit in making the film. In the Rubbish Bin section of her website, Rowling maintains that she has no role in choosing directors for the films, writing "Anyone who thinks I could (or would) have 'veto-ed' him [Spielberg] needs their Quick-Quotes Quill serviced." After Spielberg left, talks began with other directors, including Chris Columbus, Terry Gilliam, Mike Newell, Tim Robbins, Brad Silberling, and Peter Weir. Rowling's first choice was Terry Gilliam. However on March 28, 2000 Columbus was appointed as director of the film, with Warner Bros. citing his work on other family films such as Home Alone and Mrs Doubtfire as influences for their decision.
Steve Kloves was selected to write the screenplay for the film. He described adapting the book as "tough", as it did not "lend itself to adaptation as well as the next two books." Kloves was sent a "raft" of synopses of books proposed as film adaptations, with Harry Potter being the only one that jumped out at him. He went out and bought the book, and became an instant fan. When speaking to Warner Bros. he stated that the film had to be British, and had to be true to the characters. David Heyman was selected to produce the film. Rowling received a large amount of creative control for the film, being made an executive producer, an arrangement that Columbus did not mind.
Chris Columbus directed the first two films, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Alfonso Cuarón directed the third, and Mike Newell directed the fourth. The fifth, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, was directed by David Yates, who will also direct the sixth, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Columbus also worked as producer on the first three films.
In 2000, the virtually unknown British actors Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint were selected from thousands of auditioning children to play the roles of Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, respectively. They have played their characters in the first five films, and on 23 March 2007, Warner Bros. confirmed that all three would return for the sixth and seventh.
The first four films were scripted by Steve Kloves with the direct assistance of Rowling, though she allowed Kloves what he described as "tremendous elbow room". Thus the plot and tone of each film and its corresponding book are virtually the same with some changes and omissions for purposes of cinematic style and time constraints. Rowling has asked Kloves to keep being faithful to the books.
The fifth film, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was released by Warner Bros. on July 11, 2007, in English-speaking countries. Ironically, Order of the Phoenix is the shortest film in the series so far, whereas its book counterpart is the longest book in the series.
The sixth, Half-Blood Prince is scheduled for a worldwide release in November, 2008. Production of Deathly Hallows is confirmed, but no date has been set. If the year-and-half gap between each of the movies is maintained, the movie will probably be released around mid-to-late 2010.

Do You Know the Answer?

2007-11-02T15:46:00.000-07:00

Who made the music to “An American in Paris”?
a) Leonard Bernstein
b) Oscar Hammerstein
c) Irving Berlind

d) George Gershwin

Did You Know That…

2007-11-02T15:44:00.000-07:00

After working in this film, Casey Affleck brought director Gus Van Sant a script by his brother Ben and Ben's friend Matt. It became Good Will Hunting (1997).

Biography of the Day: Matt Dillon

2007-11-02T15:42:00.000-07:00

“A lot of people say I've missed out on a lot because I started acting at such a young age. What's so obvious to me is that I actually was really lucky. I gained a lot and I got a head start in what I wanted to do in life. A lot of people in their late 20s, early 30s are just beginning to figure out where they want to go.”
Dillon was born in New York to second-generation Irish American Catholic parents Paul Dillon (a painter and sales manager for Union Camp, a packing material manufacturer) and Mary Ellen (a homemaker). In 1979, casting director Vic Ramos spotted Dillon while he was cutting class, and cast him in Over the Edge. The film received a regional, limited theatrical release in May 1979, and grossed only slightly over $200,000. Dillon's performance was well-received, which led to his casting in two films released the following year; the teenage sex comedy, Little Darlings, in which Kristy McNichol's character loses her virginity to a boy from the camp across the lake, played by Dillon, and the more serious teen drama, My Bodyguard, where he played a high-school bully opposite Chris Makepeace. The films, released in March and July 1980, respectively, were box office successes and raised Dillon's profile among teenage audiences. One of his best early roles was in the Jean Shephard PBS special "The Great American Fourth of July". The only available copies of this film are stored at UCLA where a legal dispute makes it unavailable to the public.
His next role was in the 1982 film, Tex, followed two months later by Liar's Moon, where he played Jack Duncan, a poor Texas boy madly in love with a rich banker's daughter. In the mid-1980s, Dillon had prominent roles in three adaptations of S.E. Hinton novels: Tex (1982) The Outsiders (1983) and Rumble Fish (1983). All three films were shot in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Hinton's hometown. The Outsiders and Rumble Fish had Dillon working with Francis Ford Coppola. He also starred in The Flamingo Kid.
In 1987, Dillon appeared briefly as a policeman in the music video for the song Fairytale of New York by The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl, a major hit in Ireland and the United Kingdom. In 1989, Dillon won critical acclaim for his performance as a drug addict in Gus Van Sant's Drugstore Cowboy.
Dillon continued to work in early 1990s with roles in movies like Singles (1992). He had somewhat of a career resurge as the role of Nicole Kidman's husband in To Die For (1995), as well as large roles in Wild Things (1998) and There's Something About Mary (1998), for which he received an MTV Movie Award for Best Villain.
In 2002, he also wrote and directed the film City of Ghosts, starring himself, James Caan and Gérard Depardieu. Two years later he appeared in Crash; Dillon received much praise for his performance, including Best Supporting Actor Golden Globe and Oscar nominations. He also co-starred in Disney's Herbie: Fully Loaded.
Dillon's most recent role is in the comedy You, Me and Dupree, opposite Kate Hudson and Owen Wilson. The film opened on July 14, 2006.
On September 29, 2006 the actor was honored with the price Premio Donostia in the San Sebastian International Film Festival.

Movie of the Day: To Die For (1995)

2007-11-02T15:36:00.000-07:00

“You're not anybody in America unless you're on TV. On TV is where we learn about who we really are. Because what's the point of doing anything worthwhile if nobody's watching? And if people are watching, it makes you a better person.”
Gus Van Sant is part of the fixture in American independent cinema and although "To Die For" was a piece of work that came from the studios, he films the story of this female go-getter ready for anything to accede glory and fame in a very personal way.
It's built on an alternation of present moments in which various characters who crossed Nicole Kidman's path talk about her and flashes-back that relate the turn of events.
Characters including her parents, her former young lover and friends express their thoughts about her without succeeding in understanding her. There, appears the first quality of Van Sant's work: the somewhat elusive personality of her main female character who especially manipulated her close relatives to go up the social ladder and to achieve her ends.
Manipulation is very present throughout the work with the conspicuous presence of TV and camera. And you have to see the contrast between the dynamic Suzanne Maretto (Nicole Kidman) and her rather listless husband Larry acted by Matt Dillon and especially the teenagers who hang around us like Jimmy Emmett (a young and good Joaquin Phoenix) or Lydia Mertz (Alison Folland). There, appears Van Sant's signature.
"To Die For" includes some of the filmmaker's obsessions revolving around an American youth who is adrift and lacks of marks for their future and security. What Jimmy and timid, hung-up Lydia need is true love, something that Suzanne can't really give them. And her plan to report on an American high school is only a means to establish a little more her galloping ambition. Van Sant will resume his set of themes about a ramshackle American youth and will hone it with his masterful "Elephant" (2003).
The choice of the scenery (Moretto's house) and the brightness of the cinematography, Nicole Kidman's make-up fuel the somewhat quirky side of the venture and Van Sant doesn't deprive himself of gently laughing at her female heroine. I dig the moments when she goes to the office held by Wayne Knight to ask for a job and ends up hosting the weather forecast on a little local area. A task she painstakingly fulfills. Nicole Kidman holds her role at arms' length and has a tremendous screen presence. It's just a shame that Van Sant doesn't emphasis enough on the madness that seizes Suzanne after the murder when she is interviewed by the journalists.
But see it anyway for Kidman and the manner Van Sant tells this story of ambition, manipulation and hypocrisy. And David Cronenberg has a surprising cameo at a well-appropriated moment in a vital step of the heroine's fate… 8/10

Did You Know That…

2007-11-01T12:17:00.001-07:00

In Nip/Tuck, each episode is named after a character undergoing plastic surgery in the episode.

Series of the Week: Nip/Tuck

2007-11-01T12:16:00.001-07:00

“Tell me what you don't like about yourself?”
Nip/Tuck is an Emmy and Golden Globe award-winning American television medical drama series created by Ryan Murphy for FX Networks. The show follows the lives of two Miami plastic surgeons, Sean McNamara (Dylan Walsh) and Christian Troy (Julian McMahon).
In its debut season, Nip/Tuck was the highest-rated new series on American basic cable, and the highest rated basic cable series of all for the 18-49 and 25-54 age demographics. The fourth season of the series premiered on September 5, 2006 on FX Networks. The latest season to be released on DVD was the fourth on September 4, 2007. The fifth season premiered on October 30, 2007, and will consist of 22 episodes, making it the longest season of the show yet, with Joely Richardson returning for 15 of those episodes.
The Parents Television Council has criticized the show. The show is, however, shown at a late hour with multiple 'Viewer Discretion Advised' warnings. A particular scene involving a foursome pushed the PTC into starting a campaign to get the show taken off the air by writing to the sponsors of the show and threatening to boycott their products. Another scene the PTC criticized depicted a funeral home worker removing and assembling body parts from dead women, including his sister's head, then sewing them together to make "the ideal woman". The PTC president described it in a decency hearing as "incestuous necrophilia”.
On "Nip/Tuck," both the good sides and the dark sides of each character are brought to the fore. Irony has a field day on this show as those who you deemed to be stupid and insensitive turn out to be just the opposite when situations change.
The main problem with this series lies in where you, the viewer, make your entrance. You will be at a great loss to figure out what is going on now if you have not followed the show from its inception. Every successive show builds upon the events of all the previous ones, straight back to the pilot episode. For example, the turmoil in Sean and Julia's marriage was there from Day One as was the competitiveness between Sean and his womanizing partner, Christian Troy.
At the core of it all is Sean's ongoing identity crisis in which he has gone from a prudish wimp to a man at war with himself and everyone around him.
Although the tagline of the show is when Drs McNamara and Troy ask patients what they do not like about themselves, the underlying theme is about all the things that these two perplexed plastic surgeons hate about their lives. In trying to make others "feel better about themselves," they confront their own inadequacies, and invariably direct their hatred of themselves towards others.
Psychobabble aside, the show is damn funny, too... 9/10

Do You Know the Answer?

2007-10-31T16:59:00.002-07:00

“Visions are worth fighting for. Why spend your life making someone else’s dreams?”
a) Ed Wood
b) Taxi Driver
c) Clueless

d) Bang the Drum Slowly

Did You Know That…

2007-10-31T16:59:00.001-07:00

The credits include Donald Kaufman as the co-writer. He is also featured as a character in the movie, and the movie is dedicated "In loving memory" of Donald (at the end of the credits). But Donald is just a fictional character himself. Donald Kaufman was nominated for a Golden Globe with Charlie Kaufman, despite being a fictional character. They were also both nominated for an Academy Award and the Academy made it known that, in the event of a victory, the two brothers would have to share one statue.

Biography of the Day: Chris Cooper

2007-10-31T16:58:00.001-07:00

“I've been around horses, but I certainly wouldn't call myself a horseman by any means. It's a combination of being very aware of them, and not trusting them.”
Cooper was born in Kansas City, Missouri to Mary Ann, a homemaker, and Charles Cooper, who served as a doctor in the United States Air Force and operated a cattle ranch. He has an older brother, Chuck, and grew up as a "blue-collar cowpoke" in Houston, Texas and Kansas City. Cooper attended Stephens College and the University of Missouri–Columbia, where he dual majored in the school of agriculture and the school of drama. After graduation, Cooper moved to New York City to pursue his career.
Cooper's early performances include Matewan, the 1987 picture by John Sayles, and the 1989 miniseries Lonesome Dove. Some of his standout performances include Money Train as a psychotic pyromaniac who terrifies toll booth operators, Lone Star in a rare leading role as a Texas sheriff charged with solving a decades old case, and American Beauty as a homophobic Colonel of the United States Marine Corps. While many felt that Cooper should have been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in that film, he eventually won an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award in 2003 for playing the role of John Laroche in Adaptation. Cooper also appeared in The Bourne Identity in 2001 as a ruthless CIA special ops director, a role he reprised (in flashbacks) in The Bourne Supremacy.
Cooper was busy in 2005, having appeared in three well-received and acclaimed films: Jarhead (reuniting him with American Beauty director Sam Mendes and October Sky actor Jake Gyllenhaal), Capote and Syriana. His most recent role is in the thriller Breach, playing real-life FBI operative and spy Robert Hanssen; Cooper has said that he believes Breach is the "first studio film where they've considered me the lead" actor.
Cooper will next appear as a government agent in dangerous territory alongside Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman in the action thriller The Kingdom.

Movie of the Day: Adaptation (2003)

2007-10-31T16:56:00.001-07:00

“I have to go right home. I know how to finish the script now. It ends with Kaufman driving home after his lunch with Amelia, thinking he knows how to finish the script. Shit, that's voice-over. McKee would not approve. How else can I show his thoughts? I don't know. Oh, who cares what McKee says? It feels right. Conclusive. I wonder who's gonna play me. Someone not too fat. I liked that Gerard Depardieu, but can he not do the accent? Anyway, it's done. And that's something. So: "Kaufman drives off from his encounter with Amelia, filled for the first time with hope. ‘I like this. This is good’.”
After the phenomenal success of Being John Malkovich in 1999, screenwriter Charlie Kaufman was commissioned to adapt Susan Orlean's non-fiction novel, "The Orchid Thief," for the screen. However, it didn't take long for him to realise that Orlean's book was basically unfilmable, its sprawling and ponderous story lacking any clear structure or coherence. After some months of struggling vainly to write a screenplay from the novel, Kaufman's script inexplicably became the story of a writer's effort to adapt an inadaptable novel. Kaufman's completed script was presented to his financial backers with some trepidation, but they reportedly loved it so much that they decided to abandon the original project and film his screenplay. Spike Jonze, who had also directed "Being John Malkovich," returned to direct "Adaptation," the quirky, twisting, self-referential film that received almost universal critical acclaim.
Much like Federico Fellini's classic 1963 film, '8½,' from which Kaufman almost certainly drew inspiration, 'Adaptation' tells the story of its own creation. Nicolas Cage plays Charlie Kaufman, the lonely, insecure and socially awkward screenwriter who is hired to adapt "The Orchid Thief," written by Susan Orlean, who is portrayed by Meryl Streep. The novel itself concerns the story of John Laroche (played by Chris Cooper), a smug plant dealer who was arrested in 1994 for poaching rare orchids in the Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve. As Kaufman struggles to write the script, his troubles are compounded by the presence of his twin brother, Donald (also played by Nicolas Cage), who is Charlie's exact opposite: reckless, carefree, over-confident and perhaps even a bit dim.
The script for 'Adaptation' darts back and forth between different moments in time, either chronicling Kaufman's screen writing exploits or Orlean's experiences in writing her novel. At several points in the story, more dramatic flashbacks take place: we see Charles Darwin first penning his theories of evolution and adaptation, a brief history of the grim activity of orchid-hunting, and, in one particularly impressive sequence, we are taken back billions of years to the beginning of life, to trace how Charlie Kaufman came to be here today. Though purportedly based on a true story, the events of the film are highly fictionalised, and the story always treads a fine line with reality, with the audience never certain of whether or not an event is real (in the context of the film) or merely a creation of Charlie's (or even Donald's) imagination.
Though Charlie Kaufman (the true-life writer, not the character) often receives most of the accolades for the film, it is director Spike Jonze who shared the vision to execute "Adaptation" on screen. His approach to film-making is always original and daring, never tentative of trying something unique for the sake of the film, even if it may offend the tastes of an audience that is unaccustomed to anything other than the mundane clichés of the modern movies that are churned out daily by Hollywood studios. If this wasn't completely obvious after the weird, twisted, fascinating 'Being John Malkovich,' then 'Adaptation' put any lingering doubts to rest. The director, who started his career directing music videos, seems to share a singular understanding with Kaufman the writer, and a mutual agreement on what the film is actually trying to say.
In addition to a clever story, 'Adaptation' contains some of the finest acting of the 2000s, presenting an excellent selection of seasoned talents at the top of their games. In arguably the greatest role(s) of his career, Nicolas Cage is phenomenal as both Charlie and Donald Kaufman, twin brothers whose complete polarity is startlingly evident in the execution of their respective film scripts. Charlie, whilst writing his adaptation, is determined to avoid the usual clichés and construct a film without any conventional plot, to write a movie "simply about flowers." Donald, however, blissfully oblivious to his own unoriginality as a writer, churns out a hackneyed psychological thriller, entitled 'The 3,' in which the serial killer, his female hostage and the cop are the very same person. In an ironic twist of fate, Donald's trite treatment is hailed as a masterpiece, adding further to the inadequacy already being felt by his disillusioned brother.
Cage is excellent, and often absolutely hilarious, as both characters, giving each brother a distinct attitude and personality, so that it is possible to tell immediately which is which even though their physical appearance is exactly the same. Meryl Streep is equally excellent as Susan Orlean, the journalist for "The New Yorker" who researches John Laroche and endeavours to catch a glimpse of the famed and very rare Ghost Orchid, if only to understand what it feels like to be passionate about something. Chris Cooper arguably steals the entire show as the charismatic and enigmatic Laroche, whose tragedy-afflicted life is dedicated to mastering numerous obscure fields (such as orchid-collecting, or fish-collecting), each of which is sporadically cast aside and permanently forgotten as soon as he feels it's time to move on, to "adapt" to another hobby. From four Academy Award nominations, only Cooper walked away with a statue. Notably, Charlie Kaufman's screenplay was also nominated for an Oscar.
In a nutshell, 'Adaptation' is all about failure. Charlie Kaufman is absolutely determined to write an original script, without cramming in "sex or guns or car chases or characters learning profound life lessons or growing or coming to like each other or overcoming obstacles to succeed in the end." However, after he eventually asks Donald to complete the script for him, it descends into exactly that. A visit to a screen-writing seminar by Robert McKee (memorably played by Brian Cox) – who is famous for warning strongly against Deus Ex Machina – is used as exactly that. Charlie Kaufman the character fails miserably in writing his script, but, ironically, Charlie Kaufman the writer succeeds ever so magnificently… 9/10

Did You Know That…

2007-10-30T14:55:00.000-07:00

In American Beauty, Lester Burnham, a middle-aged man who develops an infatuation with an adolescent girl, is an update of Humbert from the classic novel Lolita. “Lester Burnham” is an anagram for “Humbert Learns”.

Studio of the Week: Castle Rock Entertainment

2007-10-30T14:45:00.000-07:00

Castle Rock Entertainment is a film and television studio founded in 1987 by Martin Shafer, director Rob Reiner, Andy Scheinman, Glenn Padnick and Alan Horn, with Columbia Pictures as a strategic partner. Columbia invested at formation but shortly thereafter had to re-invest with a substantial change in terms when accumulated losses exhausted its initial funding. Originally an independent company, today, it is a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which in turn is a unit of Time Warner.
Reiner named the company in honor of a fictional town from the book The Dead Zone written by Stephen King, after the success of the film Stand by Me (produced by Norman Lear's Act III Communications), which was based on a novella by King. The first Castle Rock release was When Harry Met Sally…, which was co-produced with Nelson Entertainment (whose holdings were sold in part to now-corporate sibling New Line Cinema) and Columbia Pictures. Columbia handled Castle Rock films' distribution up until 1999. Despite the company's history of being sold and acquired, it never turned in a profit until its 2004 computer-animated production of The Polar Express, which is now in perpetual holiday theatrical release. Absent the films directed by Rob Reiner, which are developed by Reiner's own company, Castle Rock has never produced a successful slate of movies.
In 1994, Castle Rock was acquired by Turner Broadcasting System, which was eventually merged into Time Warner. In 1999, Warner Bros. and Universal assumed distribution rights beginning with The Green Mile (Warner Bros handled domestic distribution, while Universal handled the foreign rights). In 2003, Warner Bros assumed full distribution of all Castle Rock films worldwide.
The worldwide home video and European theatrical rights to all Castle Rock films up to 1994 (with the exception of co-productions with Columbia such as In the Line of Fire and A Few Good Men) are now owned by MGM (having inherited some holdings from Nelson Entertainment), while the remaining rights as well as post-1994 Castle Rock films (except the US rights to The Story of Us and The Last Days of Disco, along with the international rights to The American President, all of which are held by Universal) are now part of Warner Bros' library.
Castle Rock's most recent productions are the aforementioned The Polar Express (2004), Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous (2005), and Music and Lyrics (2007).

Do You Know the Answer?

2007-10-29T14:45:00.001-07:00

“The Departed” is based on which Chinese film?
a) Ordinary Heroes
b) Running Out of Time
c) Days of Being Wild
d) Infernal Affairs

Did You Know That…

2007-10-29T14:44:00.000-07:00

Gary Stevens, who plays jockey George Woolf in Seabiscuit, was awarded the George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award in 1996.

Biography of the Day: Tobey Maguire

2007-10-29T14:43:00.001-07:00

“I was pretty ambitious. I felt like I had a good imagination and vision for my life. And I had people telling me 'You are driving the vehicle of your life here. You are the master of your own destiny in a sense. Do whatever you want to do.”
Maguire was born in Santa Monica, California. His father, Vincent Maguire, was a construction worker and a cook. His mother, Wendy Brown, is a secretary turned screenwriter and producer. During his childhood, Maguire entertained the idea of becoming a chef and to that end wanted to enroll in a Home Economics class as a sixth grader. His mother offered him $100 USD to take a drama class instead, and Tobey agreed.
The nomadic nature of his school-age years began to take a toll on Maguire emotionally, and finally, after yet another relocation to yet another school, Maguire dropped out of his freshman year of high school and never returned, deciding to focus himself on his blossoming acting career. By 2000, Maguire had taken the GED to officially graduate from high school, noting that during his high school days, he'd reached a point where “I wasn't doing school. I was showing up, but...not really giving myself.”
Maguire's first appearance in a feature film was in the 1989 movie The Wizard. In that movie, he played a goon of Lucas Barton, one of three competitors at a video game competition, and had no lines. Maguire initially worked as a child actor in the early 1990s, often playing roles much younger than his chronological age; as late as 2002, Maguire was still playing teenagers while in his mid-20s. He appeared in a variety of commercials and TV and movie roles, working opposite such stars as Chuck Norris (Walker, Texas Ranger), Roseanne Barr (Roseanne), and Tracey Ullman (Tracey Takes On...). Eventually, Maguire was cast as the lead in the FOX TV series Great Scott, which was cancelled 5 weeks later.
During many of his auditions, Maguire found himself competing opposite another rising child star actor, Leonardo DiCaprio. The pair struck up a fast friendship and made an informal pact to help each other get parts in their movies/TV shows/other projects. For example, both auditioned for the same part in the 1990 TV series Parenthood; DiCaprio got the part, and Maguire later got a guest role at least partially due to DiCaprio's recommendation. The same scenario played itself out during casting for the 1993 movie This Boy's Life (featuring Robert DeNiro as the lead); DiCaprio got the main teen role (ironically, the character was named "Toby") and Maguire got a part as one of Toby's friends.
By the mid 1990s, Maguire was steadily working but becoming caught up in the hard-partying lifestyle of some of his fellow teen actors. In 1995, Maguire requested director Allan Moyle to release him from his part in the movie Empire Records. Moyle agreed, and all of Tobey's scenes were deleted from the final film. Maguire then sought help for an underaged drinking problem from Alcoholics Anonymous; he has been sober ever since.
As part of his recovery from alcohol and learning to deal with his self-described "addictive and obsessive/compulsive nature", Maguire changed his career path slightly in order to obtain roles where he and DiCaprio would not always be in competition for the same part, and the move paid off when he got the role of Paul Hood, a teenage boarding school student whose narration anchors the action in Ang Lee's 1997 film, The Ice Storm. This soon led to a variety of lead roles where he played a thoughtful boy coming of age, in films such as Pleasantville, The Cider House Rules, and Wonder Boys. In Ride with the Devil (1999), Maguire gave a virtuoso performance as Jakob Roedel, opposite Jewel Kilcher. Though it gained little notice at the time, this film represents the best treatment ever of this part of American history. Maguire also played off his youthful-sounding voice in the 2001 children's movie Cats and Dogs, playing a beagle puppy named Lou.
In 2002, Maguire shot to superstardom as the web-slinging superhero Spider-Man in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man, based on the popular Marvel comic book series. He reprised the part in Spider-Man 2 (2004) and Spider-Man 3 (2007).
Maguire's performance as Spider-Man initially earned him some glowing reviews. Towards the third part of the franchise the actor experienced some backlash in the media. "For his part Mr. Maguire needs to stop relying on those great big peepers of his: simply widening your eyes to attract attention does not cut it when you’re over 30", remarked Manohla Dargis of the New York Times in her review of Spider-Man-3.
Though Maguire has not yet signed on for another sequel, the actor has denied reports that he will not return, stating, "I feel like the stories all deserve to be told, and, you know, if... the whole team wants to get back together, and we feel like we can make a good movie that's worth making, then I'm up for it."
Maguire solidified his stardom in 2003 with a leading role as the jockey John M. "Red" Pollard in the acclaimed film Seabiscuit, about the famous United States' racehorse Seabiscuit. In 2006, Maguire starred in his first villainous role as Corporal Patrick Tully in Steven Soderbergh's The Good German based on the Joseph Kanon novel of the same name opposite George Clooney and Cate Blanchett.
Maguire has also moved into another realm of filmmaking, producing. Maguire's production credits include 25th Hour (2002), Whatever We Do (2003), and Seabiscuit (2003), for which he served as executive producer.

Movie of the Day: Seabiscuit (2003)

2007-10-29T14:35:00.000-07:00

“They called it the car for every man. Henry Ford himself called it a car for the great multitude. It was functional, and simple, like your sewing machine, or your cast-iron stove. You could learn to drive it in less than a day. And you could get any color you wanted...”
The story of Seabiscuit is actually the tale of four long shots: Charles Howard (Jeff Bridges), a wealthy self-made man and natural salesmen who's suffered both personal and financial loss through the Depression, Tom Smith (Chris Cooper), an aging horse trainer unsure of his place in the world with the ending of the frontier, Red Pollard (Tobey Maguire), a short-tempered jockey with various handicaps against him, and Seabiscuit, an undersized mustang whose been mistreated his whole life.
It's the Depression, and times are hard on everyone. The assembly line philosophy of business is starting to squelch independent spirit and people are looking for anything to help escape the dreary day-to-day of life. During this maelstrom of hopelessness, horse racing quickly gathers favoritism among those wishing to witness a spectacle in otherwise bleak times. It's under these circumstances that the film's four main parties come together. Howard, seeking a new business venture in horse racing, hires Smith as his horse trainer and Pollard as his jockey, and upon Smith's insistence, purchases the ill-tempered Seabiscuit.
It's not long before Seabiscuit becomes the “little horse who could”, gaining favor among the sporting fans on the West Coast. But despite the popularity the mustang and his team gains, they are seen as just a cheap novelty by the East Coast horse racing elite, led by Samuel Riddle, owner of the 1937 Triple Crown Winner War Admiral. This mushrooms into a media circus as Howard tries to gain public favor in order to force Riddle to put his money where his mouth is.
The story should have felt cliched and by-the-numbers, but a funny thing happened: the film makers took a nearly forgotten moment in time and managed to invest it with immediacy and suspense. The near mythic meeting of Seabiscuit and War Admiral on November 1, 1938 at Pimlico is an extension of the movie's overall theme; Seabiscuit, the representative of underdog hopes and pioneering dreams, and War Admiral, the recipient of champion breeding and training, a product of assembly line thinking.
Bridges and Maguire give spirited performances, with their characters forming a father and son bond that both men desperately needed. Cooper can give this kind of performance in his sleep, bringing a quiet, stoic depth to the Smith character. The supporting cast is top drawer as well, especially William H. Macy as “Tick Tock” McGlaughlin, the initially skeptical radio sports commentor who becomes a full blown Seabiscuit supporter.
Director Gary Ross captures the time period marvelously, with broken human beings slowly recapturing their dignity and pride against a landscape of barren ruin. The conflicts are fought not on traditional battlefields, but atop magnificent beasts along a circular track, and Ross wisely utilizes this metaphor to full effect.
Recommendable and enjoyable sports movie. Not exactly an intense and gripping drama, but worth a watch… 8/10

Did You Know That…

2007-10-27T15:23:00.001-07:00

Stanley Kubrick often uses the sequence CRM114 in serial numbers. CRM-114 is the name of the decoder in Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964), the Jupiter explorer's "licenceplatenumber" in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) is CRM114, and in A Clockwork Orange (1971) Alex is given "Serum 114" when he undergoes the Ludovicotreatment.

A Weekend With: Stanley Kubrick

2007-10-27T15:18:00.000-07:00

“A film is - or should be - more like music than like fiction. It should be a progression of moods and feelings. The theme, what's behind the emotion, the meaning, all that comes later.”
Stanley Kubrick was born on July 26, 1928 at the Lying-In Hospital in Manhattan, the first of two children born to Jacques Leonard Kubrick and his wife Gertrude. At Stanley's birth, the Kubricks lived in an apartment at 2160 Clinton Avenue in The Bronx. Kubrick's father taught him chess at age twelve; the game remained a life-long obsession. When Stanley was thirteen years old, Jacques Kubrick bought him a Graflex camera, triggering Kubrick's fascination with still photography. He was also interested in jazz, attempting a brief career as a drummer. Kubrick was a poor student with a meager 67 grade average. On graduation from high school in 1945, when soldiers returning from the Second World War crowded colleges, his poor grades eliminated hopes of higher education. Later in life, Kubrick spoke disdainfully of his education and of education in general, maintaining that nothing about school interested him.
In high school, he was chosen official school photographer for a year. Eventually, he sought jobs on his own, and by graduation time had sold a photographic series to Look magazine in NYC. Kubrick supplemented his income playing “chess for quarters” in Washington Square Park and in various Manhattan chess clubs. He registered for night school at the City College to improve his grade-point average. He worked as a freelance photographer for Look, becoming an apprentice photographer in 1946, and later a full-time staff photographer.
During his Look magazine years, on May 29, 1948, Kubrick married Toba Metz and they lived in Greenwich Village, divorcing in 1951. It was then that Kubrick began frequenting film screenings at the Museum of Modern Art and in the cinemas of New York City. He was particularly inspired by the complex, fluid camera movement of Max Ophüls, whose films influenced Kubrick's later visual style.
Many early-period (1945–1950) photographs by Kubrick were published in the book “Drama and Shadows” (2005, Phaidon Press). In 1951, Kubrick's friend, Alex Singer, persuaded him to start making short documentaries for the March of Time, a provider of newsreels to cinemas. Kubrick agreed, and independently financed Day of the Fight (1951). Although the distributor went out of business that year, Kubrick sold Day of the Fight to RKO Pictures for a profit of one hundred dollars. Kubrick quit his job at Look magazine and began working on his second short documentary, Flying Padre (1951), funded by RKO. A third film, The Seafarers (1953), Kubrick's first color film, was a 30-minute promotional short film for the Seafarers' International Union. These three films constitute Kubrick's only surviving work in the documentary genre.
Kubrick's focus on narrative feature films began with Fear and Desire (1953). Fear and Desire is about a team of soldiers behind enemy lines in a fictional war. In the finale, the men see that the faces of their enemy are identical to their own (the same cast play all the characters). Kubrick and wife Toba Metz were the only crew on the film, which was written by Kubrick's friend Howard Sackler, later a successful playwright. Fear and Desire garnered respectable reviews, but failed commercially. In later life, Kubrick was embarrassed by the film, dismissing it as amateur, refusing Fear and Desire's projection in retrospectives and public screenings on establishing himself as a major filmmaker. It is often said that Kubrick bought every print of the film which he could, to keep people from seeing it.
Kubrick's marriage to high school sweetheart Toba ended during the making of Fear and Desire. He met his second wife, Austrian-born dancer and theatrical designer, Ruth Sobotka, in 1952. They lived together in from 1952–1955 until their marriage on January 15, 1955; the couple later moved to Hollywood during the summer of 1955. Sobotka, who made a cameo appearance in Kubrick's next film, Killer's Kiss (1954), also served as art director on The Killing (1956). Like Fear and Desire, Killer's Kiss is a short feature film, with a running time of slightly more than an hour, of limited commercial and critical success. The film is about a young, heavyweight boxer at the end of his career who is involved with organized crime. Both Fear and Desire and Killer's Kiss were privately funded by Kubrick's family and friends.
Alex Singer introduced Kubrick to a producer named James B. Harris, and the two became lifelong friends. Their business partnership, Harris-Kubrick Productions, financed Kubrick's next three films. They bought the rights to the Lionel White novel Clean Break, which Kubrick and co-screenwriter Jim Thompson turned into a story about a race track robbery gone wrong. Starring Sterling Hayden, The Killing was Kubrick's first film with a professional cast and crew. The film made impressive use of non-linear time, unusual in 1950s cinema, and, though financially unsuccessful, was Kubrick's first critically successful film. The widespread admiration for The Killing brought Harris-Kubrick Productions to the attention of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The studio offered them its massive collection of copyrighted stories from which to choose their next project. Eventually, they chose The Burning Secret by Austrian writer Stefan Zweig. Kubrick wrote a screenplay with Calder Willingham, but the deal collapsed before the film got properly underway.
On returning to the United States, Kubrick worked for six months on the Marlon Brando vehicle One-Eyed Jacks (1961). Later, Kubrick claimed Brando forced him from the film, because Brando wanted to direct it himself. Kubrick languished working on unproduced screenplays until Kirk Douglas asked him to assume direction of Spartacus (1960) from Anthony Mann who, two weeks into shooting, was fired by the studio because he lacked. Based upon the true story of a doomed uprising of Roman slaves, Spartacus established Stanley Kubrick as a major director. The production, however, was difficult; creative differences arose between Kubrick and Douglas, the star and producer of the film. Frustrated by lack of creative control, Kubrick later largely disowned its authorship. The Douglas-Kubrick creative control battles destroyed their work relationship from Paths of Glory. Years later, Kirk Douglas referred to Stanley Kubrick as “a talented shit”. Spartacus was a major critical and commercial success, but its embattled production convinced Kubrick to find ways of working with Hollywood financing while remaining independent of its production system. Kubrick referred to Hollywood production as “film by fiat, film by frenzy”, and this reasoning was behind Kubrick's moving to England in 1962.
In 1962, Kubrick moved to England to film Lolita, and resided there for the rest of his life. Unsurprisingly, Lolita was Kubrick's first major controversy. The book by Vladimir Nabokov, dealing with an affair between a middle-aged pedophile and a twelve-year-old girl, already was notorious when Kubrick embarked on the project, however it was also steadily achieving popularity; eventually, the difficult subject matter was mocked in the film's tagline, perhaps to gain attention: “How did they ever make a film of Lolita?” Nabokov wrote a three-hundred page screenplay for Kubrick, which the director abandoned; a second draft by Nabokov, roughly half the length of its first, was revamped by Kubrick into the final screenplay. Despite changing Lolita's age from twelve years to fourteen years, which was a more acceptable age for commercial appeal at the time, several scenes in the final film had to be re-edited to allow the film's release. The resulting film toned down what were considered the novel's more perverse aspects, leaving much to the viewer's imagination, some viewers have even wondered whether Humbert and Lolita actually embarked on a sexual affair, as most of their relationship, sexually, is implied and suggested. Later, Kubrick commented that, had he known the severity of the censorship, he probably would not have made the film. However, Kubrick always spoke highly of James Mason, who portrayed Humbert in the film, identifying him as one of the actors with whom he most enjoyed working. Lolita's release in 1962 was surrounded by immense hype, which was responsible for the box office success at the time; it was also given an "Adults Only" rating, since ratings for film and literature were not applicable at the time of Lolita's release. Critical reception for the film was mixed, many praising it for its daring subject, others surprised by the lack of intimacy between Lolita and Humbert. The film received an Academy Award nomination for Best Writing of an Adapted Screenplay, and Sue Lyon, who played the title role, won a Golden Globe for Best Newcomer Actress.
Kubrick's next film, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964), became a cult film. The screenplay - based upon the novel Red Alert, by ex-RAF flight lieutenant Peter George - was co-written by Kubrick, George, and American satirist Terry Southern. Dr. Strangelove is often considered a masterpiece of black humor. While Red Alert is a serious, cautionary tale of accidental atomic war for Cold War-era readers, Dr. Strangelove accidentally evolved into what Kubrick called a "nightmare comedy." Originally intended as a thriller, Kubrick found the conditions leading to nuclear war so absurd that the story became dark and funny rather than thrilling; Kubrick reconceived it as comedy, recruiting Terry Southern for the required anarchic irony. Peter Sellers, memorable as 'Clare Quilty' in Lolita, was hired to simultaneously play four roles in Dr. Strangelove. Eventually, Sellers played three, due to an injured leg and difficulty in mastering the Texan accent of bomber pilot Major "King" Kong. Later, Kubrick called Sellers "amazing," but lamented that his energy rarely lasted beyond two or three takes. To capture the actor's limited energy, Kubrick set up two cameras to film Sellers's improvisation. Strangelove often is cited as one of Sellers's best films, and proof of his comic genius. Kubrick's decision to film a Cold War thriller as a black comedy was a daring artistic risk that paid off for him and Columbia Pictures. Coincidentally, that same year, Columbia Studios released the dramatic nuclear war thriller Fail-Safe. Its close similarity with Dr Strangelove prompted Kubrick to consider suing the makers of that film, but he decided against it. In belittling the sacrosanct norms of the political culture of mutually assured destruction as the squabbling of intellectual children, Dr. Strangelove foreshadowed the cultural upheavals of the late 1960s and was enormously successful with the nascent American counter-culture. Dr. Strangelove earned four Academy Award nominations (including Best Picture and Best Director) and the New York Film Critics' Best Director award. Kubrick's successful Dr. Strangelove persuaded the studios that he was an auteur who could be trusted to deliver popular films despite his unusual ideas.
Kubrick spent five years developing his next film, 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), which was photographed in Super Panavision 70. Kubrick co-wrote the screenplay with science fiction writer Sir Arthur C. Clarke, expanding on Clarke's short story "The Sentinel". The screenplay and the novel were written simultaneously. The screenplay is credited to Kubrick and Clarke, while the novel, published in tandem with the film's release, is credited only to Clarke. The novel and the film deviate substantially from each other, with the novel explaining a great deal of what the film leaves deliberately ambiguous. Clarke and Kubrick later spoke highly of one another. Incidentally, Clarke's follow up, 2010: Odyssey Two, follows the events of the movie version of 2001, as opposed to the novel version. This is likely due to the cultural impact of Kubrick's film. The film's special effects, overseen by Kubrick and engineered by special effects pioneer Douglas Trumbull, proved ground-breaking and inspired many of the special effects-driven films which were to follow the success of 2001. Manufacturing companies were consulted as to what the design of both special-purpose and everyday objects would look like in the future. At the time of the movie's release, Arthur C. Clarke predicted that a generation of engineers would design real spacecraft based upon 2001 "even if it isn't the best way to do it". Despite nominations in the directing, writing, and producing categories, the only Academy Award Kubrick ever received was for supervising the special effects of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Artistically, 2001: A Space Odyssey was a radical departure from Kubrick's previous films. It contains only 45 minutes of dialogue, over a running time of over two and a half hours (150 minutes). The dialogue is largely superfluous to the images and music. Nevertheless it outlines the 'story' while presenting mankind as dissociated from itself and its surroundings. After this film, Kubrick would never experiment so radically with special effects or narrative form, but the calculated ambiguity of his films remained a trademark for the rest of his career. Despite being an unorthodox science fiction film, 2001 was an enormous commercial success and became a pop culture phenomenon. However, the film was not an immediate smash. Were it not for a six-week exhibition contract, the film might not have had enough time in cinemas to have benefited from building word-of-mouth popularity. The film's ticket sales were low during the first two weeks of its release, and it was nearly withdrawn from theaters. Actor Jack Nicholson claims that Kubrick told him that 217 people walked out of the exhibitor's screening, including the studio head. Arthur C. Clarke has said that an MGM executive commented on the screening by saying: "Well, that's the end of Stanley Kubrick." Initial critical reaction was also extremely hostile, with critics attacking the film's lack of dialogue, its slow pacing, and seemingly impenetrable storyline. The film's only initial defender was Penelope Gilliat, who called it "some kind of a great film". Following the film's success, however, many critics later revised their opinions. Audiences slowly embraced the film, especially the 1960s counterculture audience, who loved the movie's "Star Gate" sequence, a seemingly psychedelic journey to the infinite reaches of the cosmos. Younger moviegoers often saw the film many times over, resulting in a cult following of repeat viewers. Supposedly, if one were to ingest LSD at the beginning of the movie, the "Star Gate" sequence would start at roughly the same time that the drug was in full effect. This phenomenon prompted the film's distributors to add an LSD-allusive tagline ("The Ultimate Trip") to the movie's advertising poster. Paradoxically, Kubrick won total creative control from Hollywood by succeeding with one of the most thematically "difficult" films ever to win wide commercial release. 2001: A Space Odyssey is likely Kubrick's most famous and influential film. Steven Spielberg called it his generation's big bang, focusing its attention upon the Soviet-American space race. The special effects techniques Kubrick pioneered were later developed by Ridley Scott and George Lucas for films such as Alien and Star Wars. 2001 is particularly notable as one of the few films realistically presenting travel in outer space: the scenes in outer space are silent; weightlessness is constant, with characters strapped in place; when characters wear pressure suits, only their breathing is audible.
After 2001, Kubrick sought a project which he could quickly film with a small budget. He found it in A Clockwork Orange (1971). His film version is a dark, shocking exploration of violence in human society. Based upon the famous novel by Anthony Burgess, the film is the story of a teenage hooligan, Alex, (Malcolm McDowell), who gleefully torments, beats, robs, and rapes without conscience or remorse. Finally imprisoned, Alex undergoes psychiatric aversion treatment to be cured of his instinctively reflexive violence. This conditions him physically unable to act violently, yet also renders him helpless and incapable of moral choice, resulting in a consequently brutal come-uppance at the hands of his victims. Kubrick photographed A Clockwork Orange quickly and almost entirely on location in and around London. Despite the low-tech nature of the film, when compared to 2001: A Space Odyssey, Kubrick was highly innovative, like throwing a camera from a rooftop to achieve the desired viewer disorientation. For the score, Kubrick had electronic music composer Wendy Carlos adapt famous classical works such as Beethoven's Ninth Symphony for the Moog synthesizer. The film was extremely controversial because of its explicitly depicted teenage gang-rape and violence. Released the same year as Sam Peckinpah's Straw Dogs and Don Siegel's Dirty Harry, the three films sparked ferocious debate in the media about the social effects of cinematic violence. The controversy was exacerbated when copycat violence was committed in England, by criminals wearing the same costumes as characters in A Clockwork Orange. When Kubrick and family were threatened with death, resulting from the social controversy, he took the unusual step of removing the film from circulation in Britain. The film was not released again in the United Kingdom until its re-release in 2000, a year after Stanley Kubrick's death. In banning his film in Britain, he showed the unprecedented power he held over his distributor, Warner Brothers. For the remainder of his career he held total control of every aspect of his films, including the marketing and the advertising; such was Warner Brothers' faith in his projects.
Kubrick's next film, released in 1975, was an adaptation of William Makepeace Thackeray's The Luck of Barry Lyndon, also known as Barry Lyndon, a picaresque novel about an 18th century gambler and social climber who slowly insinuates himself to English high society. It would be Kubrick's least-appreciated post-Strangelove film, despite strong acting and Kubrick's innovative cinematography and attention to period detail. Some critics, especially Pauline Kael, one of Kubrick's greatest detractors, found Barry Lyndon a cold, slow-moving, and lifeless film. Its measured pace and length - more than three hours - put off many American critics and audiences. As with most of his films, Barry Lyndon's reputation has grown through the years, particularly among other filmmakers. Director Martin Scorsese cited it as his favorite Kubrick film. Steven Spielberg has praised its "impeccable technique," though, when younger, he famously described it "like going through the Prado without lunch". As in his other films, Kubrick's cinematography and lighting techniques are innovative. Most famously, interior scenes were photographed with a specially-adapted, high-speed still camera lens (originally invented for NASA) allowing many scenes to be lit only with candlelight, creating two-dimensional, diffused light images reminiscent of 18th century painting. Kubrick's blending of music, mise en scene, costume and action set standards for period drama that few other films have matched. The film was nominated for seven Academy Awards and won four, more than any other Kubrick film. Despite this, Barry Lyndon was not a box office success in the US, however, the film found a great audience in Europe, particularly in France.
Kubrick's work pace slowed considerably after Barry Lyndon; he did not make another film until The Shining. Released in 1980, it is an adaptation of Stephen King's popular horror novel. It stars Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall in the story of a failed writer who takes a job as an off-season caretaker of the Overlook Hotel, a high-class resort deep in the Colorado mountains. The job demands spending the winter in the isolated hotel. His son, Danny, is gifted with telepathy, called "shining," and has visions of the past and the future. To Danny, the hotel displays increasingly horrible, phantasmagoric images, notably the apparition of two girls murdered years before by their father, the hotel's caretaker. Jack is slowly driven mad by the haunted Overlook Hotel until collapsing into homicidal psychosis, then trying to kill his family with an axe. It was originally thought that the film was shot at The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado, however, it was at the Elstree and the Pinewood studios, near London, where the film sets were built. The Overlook Hotel exterior is that of the Timberline Lodge ski resort on Mount Hood, Oregon, U.S.A. Kubrick extensively used the newly-invented Steadicam (a spring-mounted camera support) for smooth movement in enclosed spaces, to convey the haunted hotel's claustrophobic oppression of the family. More than any other of his films, The Shining gave rise to the legend of Kubrick-as-megalomanic-perfectionist. Reportedly, he demanded hundreds of takes of certain scenes, particularly plaguing actress Shelley Duvall. His daughter, Vivian Kubrick, shot a short documentary film of the production. The film opened to mostly negative reviews, but did very well, commercially, with audiences and made Warner Brothers a profit. As with most Kubrick films, subsequent critical reaction reviews the film more favorably. Stephen King was dissatisfied with the movie, calling Kubrick "a man who thinks too much and feels too little". Later, in 1997, King collaborated with Mick Garris to create a television mini-series version of the novel. However, in a later interview on the Bravo channel King admitted that the first time he watched Kubrick's adaptation he found it to be "dreadfully upsetting." Among horror movie fans, The Shining is a classic cult film, often appearing with The Exorcist (1974) and Halloween (1978) at the top of best horror film lists. Some of its images, such as an antique elevator disgorging a tidal wave of blood, are among the most recognizable, widely-known images from any Stanley Kubrick film. The Shining renewed Warner Brothers faith in Kubrick's ability to make artistically satisfying and profitable films after the commercial failure that was Barry Lyndon in the United States.
It was seven years until Kubrick's next film, Full Metal Jacket (1987), an adaptation of Gustav Hasford's Vietnam War novel, The Short-Timers. The film begins at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, South Carolina, U.S.A., where Senior Drill Sgt Hartman relentlessly pushes his new men through basic training to transform them from worthless "maggots" to Marine killers. Pvt Pyle, a fat, slow-witted recruit, is unable to cope with the program and slowly cracks under the strain, resulting, on the eve of graduation, in Pvt Pyle's shooting and killing Sgt Hartman before killing himself as he repeats the by-then-familiar Marine mantra: "This is my rifle. There are many like it, but this one is mine…" The scene ends the boot-camp portion of the story. The second half of the film follows Joker, since promoted to sergeant, as he tries to stay sane in Vietnam. As a reporter for the United States Military's newspaper the Stars and Stripes, Joker occupies war's middle ground, using wit and sarcasm to detach himself from the war. Though an American and a member of the United States Marine Corps, he also is a reporter and so is compelled to abide the ethics of the profession. The film then follows an infantry platoon's advance on and through Hue City, decimated by the street fighting of the Tet Offensive. The film climaxes in a battle between Joker's platoon and a sniper hiding in the rubble; she almost kills Joker until his reporter partner shoots and severely injures her. Joker then kills her to put her out of her misery. Filming a Vietnam War film in England was a considerable challenge for Stanley Kubrick and team. Much filming was in the Docklands area of London, with the ruined-city set created by production designer Anton Furst. This helped make the film visually very different from the other, contemporary Vietnam War films Platoon and Hamburger Hill. Instead of being set in the tropical, Southeast-Asian jungle, the second half of the story unfolds in a city, illuminating the urban warfare aspect of a war otherwise perceived as fought exclusively in a jungle. Full Metal Jacket received mixed critical review, but found a reasonably large audience, despite being over-shadowed by Oliver Stone's Platoon.
Stanley Kubrick was a mute presence in Hollywood in the ten-odd years after the release of Full Metal Jacket (1987); many believed that he had retired from film-making. Occasionally, rumours surfaced about possible, new Kubrick projects, including Aryan Papers and A.I. (eventually produced after Kubrick's death, directed by Steven Spielberg). Stanley Kubrick's final film would be Eyes Wide Shut, starring then-married actors Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman as an upper middle class Manhattan couple on a sexual odyssey. The story of Eyes Wide Shut is based on Arthur Schnitzler's novella Traumnovelle, and follows Dr. William Harford's journey to the sexual underworld of New York City, after his wife, Alice, shatters his faith in her fidelity when she confesses to nearly giving him, and their daughter, up for one night with another man. After trespassing upon the rituals of a sinister, mysterious sexual cult, Dr. Harford thinks twice before seeking sexual revenge against his wife, and learns he and his family might be in danger. The film was in production for more than two years, and two of the main members of the cast, Harvey Keitel and Jennifer Jason Leigh, were replaced in the course of the filming. Although set in New York City, the film was mostly shot in London soundstages, with little location shooting. Because of Kubrick's secrecy about the film, mostly inaccurate rumors abounded about its plot and content.
The film did smashing box-office business, which considerably slowed down in the weeks after the film's release. Eyes Wide Shut, like Lolita and A Clockwork Orange before it, faced censorship before release. In the United States and Canada, digitally manufactured silhouette figures were strategically placed to mask explicit copulation scenes.In 1999, four days after screening a final cut of Eyes Wide Shut for his family, the lead actor and actress, and Warner Brothers executives, the seventy-year-old director Stanley Kubrick died of a heart attack in his sleep. He was buried next to his favorite tree in Childwickbury Manor, Hertfordshire, England, U.K.

Do You Know the Answer?

2007-10-26T15:30:00.001-07:00

I’ve starred in several of Woody Allen’s movies, including “Bananas” in 1971 and “Stardust Memories” in 1980. One more thing, I was marry to Woody in real life. Who am I?
a) Diane Keaton
b) Dianne Wiest
c) Louise Lasser
d) Diane Lane

Did You Know That…

2007-10-26T15:28:00.000-07:00

At his request, the screenplay of Ray was translated into Braille for Ray Charles to read.

Biography of the Day: Jamie Foxx

2007-10-26T15:27:00.001-07:00

“After six hours of being blind, you lose the sense of how a person is physically. It was amazing to hear the little buzzing voices all around you.”
Foxx was born Eric Marlon Bishop in Dallas, Texas, the son of Louise Annette Talley Dixon and Darrell Bishop, who sometimes worked as a stockbroker and changed his name to Shahid Abdula after converting to Islam. Shortly after his birth, Foxx was adopted and raised by his mother's adoptive parents, Esther Marie, a domestic worker and nursery operator, and Mark Talley, a yard worker. He has had little contact with his birth parents, who were not part of his upbringing. Foxx was raised in the black quarter of Terrell, at the time a racially segregated community. He had a strict Baptist upbringing. He has frequently cited his adoptive grandmother's influence on his life. Foxx changed his name while doing stand up once he found out that female comedians were often called first to perform. He felt Jamie Foxx was an ambiguous enough name to disallow any biases. His last name was chosen as a tribute to Redd Foxx.
After a small part on the TV series Roc, Foxx joined the cast of In Living Color in 1991. Here he won over viewers with many unusual characters and impressions, which included: ugly girl Wanda; fictitious boxer Carl "The Tooth" Williams; and The Dirty Dozens champion T-Dog Jenkins. His impersonation of Garrett Morris would eventually find him starring against the former Saturday Night Live cast member in his sitcom, The Jamie Foxx Show.
His first dramatic role came in Oliver Stone's 1999 film Any Given Sunday, where Foxx played a heavy-partying football player. He was cast in the role in part because of his background as a football player. He has since evolved into a respected dramatic actor. Following Any Given Sunday, Foxx was featured as taxi driver Max Durocher in the film Collateral alongside Tom Cruise, for which he received outstanding reviews and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. His real standout performance, however, was his portrayal of Ray Charles in the biopic Ray (2004), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor.
Foxx was only the second male, and the first African American, in history to receive two acting Oscar nominations in the same year for two different movies, Collateral and Ray. The only other male actor to achieve this was Al Pacino. In 2005, Foxx was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
In 2005-06 Foxx appeared in three more movies: Jarhead, Miami Vice, and Dreamgirls which were hits at the box office and lifted Foxx even higher as a bankable star in Hollywood.
In September 2007, Foxx was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He said, upon receiving the honor, "[it was] One of the most amazing days of my life".
Foxx is also a Grammy-nominated singer and accomplished musician. He started playing piano at a young age, and later took classical piano lessons while attending college. In 1994, Foxx released an album (on the FOX record label) entitled Peep This. In 2001, he hosted the MTV Video Music Awards.
His music career went into a higher gear when, in 2004, he was featured on rapper Twista's song, "Slow Jamz", which also featured Kanye West. The song reached number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart, as well as number three on the UK singles chart. Foxx's second collaboration with Kanye West, "Gold Digger", in which he sang the "I Got a Woman" Ray Charles-influenced hook, went straight to #1 on the Billboard Top 100, and remained there for 10 weeks straight. In 2005, Foxx was featured on the hit single "Georgia" by Atlanta rappers Ludacris and Field Mob. The song sampled Ray Charles' hit "Georgia on My Mind". Unpredictable is Jamie Foxx's second studio release. It sold over 598,000 copies in its first week but reached the U.S. number one spot in its 2nd week.
After debuting in the first week at number two, Unpredictable rose to the top of the Billboard pop album chart, with 2nd-week sales of 200,000 copies in the United States. The album also charted in the UK top 10 album chart, peaking at number nine. It has since been certified Platinum. Foxx became the fourth artist to have won an Academy Award for acting and to have achieved a number-one record album in the US. (The other three to accomplish this feat were Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, and Barbra Streisand.) At the 2006 BET Awards, Foxx won two awards: Best Duet/ Collaboration with Kanye West for "Gold Digger" and Video of the Year for the same video. Kanye's video tied with Mary J. Blige's (Be Without You) for Video of the year. On December 8, 2006, Foxx also received four Grammy nominations.

Movie of the Day: Ray (2004)

2007-10-26T15:24:00.000-07:00

“Always remember your promise to me. Never let nobody or nothing turn you into no cripple.”
It is sad that Ray Charles had passed away shortly after filming for Ray had ended. He did, however, approve the script itself with comfort that the filmmakers really understood his life. The film could have been made years ago, but if it had, it would probably not be as outstanding and breathtaking as this version, simply because nobody besides Jamie Foxx could portray the singer so convincingly. He is the reason that this film works. Whether it is Ray's walking, talking, or even smiling, Foxx covers every detail and sinks into Ray's persona.
The film is not entirely structured as any traditional biographical film. Instead of starting with the events of Ray's childhood, we see him at age 18 as he heads off to Seattle to start his career as a musician. The childhood scenes, especially those related to witnessing his younger brother accidentally drown and the guilt that follows, appear throughout the film as flashbacks. This is an effective method of telling the story, because it is these memories that continue to haunt him as an adult. It would be a major factor in his downhill spiral towards heroin addiction. The childhood scenes also document Ray's blindness from glaucoma and him going off to a school for the blind.
The story in Ray mainly takes place from 1948 to 1965 with one more scene set in 1979. One can easily agree that he was a real musical sensation, and the film nicely shows the record deals made and the friendships with band members along with the problems he had: drug addiction and extramarital affairs. It is an honest look at how Ray Charles had lived. The ups and downs he experienced are effectively presented on screen that one can easily feel Ray's emotions as if we were there with him. What we also see is how it all influences the music he performs.
Jamie Foxx is not the only cast member who deserves credit. I honestly think that every single member of the cast, whether in a major or minor role, has done a great job. Every character, including Ray's mother, his wife Della Bea, the record executives, and the women whom Ray had affairs with, is vivid and full of personality. Kudos especially go to C.J. Sanders, whose role as Ray as a child is both heartbreaking and memorable. This, along with the way the story is told, makes the film shine.The biopic does not cover the last 40 years of Ray's life, but there is no need to. Those last four decades are all years of joy and success. It is the story of the years before that matters since this is when Ray triumphs over his problems. Taylor Hackford and everyone else involved in the making of Ray have done a great job with it. The result is a movie that is a masterpiece and wonderful tribute to the late Ray Charles… 10/10

Did You Know That…

2007-10-25T15:08:00.000-07:00

In Dharma and Greg, not only did the producer added a vanity card at the end of episode one, but at the end of every episode (visible for about 2 seconds, readable when freeze-framed). The main tests included various "beliefs" of the producer, as well as various outlooks on life. One in particular simply read "All work and no play makes Chuck a dull boy" over and over, except for the very middle of the screen, where it says "If you have stuck with this and read this far you are an exceptional person". Another said "the meaning of life might be "Sit, UBU, sit"".

Series of the Week: Dharma and Greg

2007-10-25T15:07:00.001-07:00

“I wouldn't want our marriage to get in the way of your dating.”
Dharma & Greg is an American television situation comedy co-produced by Chuck Lorre Productions, More-Medavoy Productions and 4 to 6 Foot Productions in association with 20th Century Fox Television for ABC. It first aired September 24, 1997, and starred Jenna Elfman and Thomas Gibson as Dharma and Greg Montgomery, a couple who marry instantly on their first date despite being complete opposites. The series also starred television veteran actress and Falcon Crest alumna, Susan Sullivan as Greg's snobbish mother, Kitty. The show's theme song was written and performed by composer Dennis C. Brown.
Created and executive produced by Dottie Dartland and Chuck Lorre, the comedy incorporated in Dharma & Greg took much of its inspiration from so-called culture-clashy "fish out of water" situations. The show earned Elfman a Golden Globe for Best Actress, out of a total of eight nominations, and moreover garnered six Emmy and Satellite Awards nominations respectively. In 2004, the plot loosely inspired Jay Roach's comedy sequel Meet the Fockers, starring Ben Stiller and Robert DeNiro.
Jenna Elfman plays Dharma Freedom Montgomery, Greg's wife and a flower child. She is extremely peppy and ditzy, but she also seems to be more compassionate and forgiving than most people. Dharma encourages Greg to seek happiness, rather than fret about practical issues like money. Due to being home schooled by Abby and Larry, she has a limited understanding of Western culture and is very naïve when it comes to trusting strangers. She is named after the concept of dharma in Indian philosophy. Once, a Native American friend of her father's gave her the name "Crazy Man's Daughter".
Thomas Gibson plays lawyer Gregory "Greg" Clifford Montgomery, Dharma's husband. He is an upright, uptight, decent, though sometimes surprisingly open-minded, man. Greg's life was hopelessly banal before he met Dharma and married her on their first date. Since then, he has played straight man to the antics of his eccentric wife. Though his and Dharma's relationship has been rocky at times, Greg has never been shown to regret their marriage. He is shown to be an alumnus of the famous Phillips Exeter Academy, Harvard University, and Stanford Law.
Susan Sullivan plays Katherine "Kitty" Montgomery, Greg's snobbish mother. She highly disapproves of Dharma and is often successful in making her feel guilty. This often has the unintended result of making Dharma try to make it up to her in a "special" way, which everyone tries (unsuccessfully) to talk her out of and which then leads to Dharma having another fiasco to make up for. Kitty is generally represented as a manipulative, controlling woman and the other characters tend to consult her when they wish to do something evil. As an elite socialite, Kitty was initially quite displeased to have Dharma and her parents join the family, since they aren't exactly the kind of family she can present to her country club friends. However, she comes to accept Dharma somewhat over the course of the show and has even gone to her for condolence on rare occasions. She has also tried, unsuccessfully, to make Dharma come around to her way of thinking, especially involving the "responsibilities" of being the wife of a Montgomery.
Mitch Ryan plays Edward Montgomery, Greg's eccentric father. His philosophy for dealing with women involves remaining as uninvolved as possible. Head of Montgomery Industries (though he keeps going to work only because he can see little tugboats out the window) and at odds with Dharma's father, who calls him "Ed" and whom he calls "Finkelstein." Ed is often seen drinking martinis and Scotch.
Mimi Kennedy plays Abigail "Abby" Kathleen O'Neil, Dharma's caring mother, who encourages her daughter and son-in-law to produce children; "Feel free to have sex anywhere." Although they have a grown daughter and later a son, she and Larry are not married. Unlike her "lifemate" Larry, she immediately accepted Greg, though she still constantly annoys and conflicts with his parents. She is a militant vegan, which is a never-ending source of trouble.
Alan Rachins plays Myron Lawrence "Larry" Finkelstein, Dharma's father. He is a stereotypical sixties radical who frequently rants about various conspiracies. Despite this, he manages to get along with Edward, often when both are sick of dealing with Kitty. It is often alluded to that Larry is a chronic user of marijuana, though never proven. In the pilot episode Abby explains his usual cluelessness with "he blew out his short term memory back in 1972".
Shae D'Lyn plays Jane Deaux, Dharma's friend. She considers all men more or less evil; over the course of the show, her hair went from black, to red, to blonde. She and Dharma met when Dharma was calling strangers to meet new friends. D'Lyn left at the end of the fourth season, though she had one "guest appearance" in season five.
Joel Murray plays Peter "Pete" James Cavanaugh, one of Greg's fellow lawyers and a graduate of the Bob Marley School of Law. He's a particularly bad, lazy lawyer and was married to Jane for a time. His entire life can be summed up by the interior of his apartment: a massage chair surrounded by empty take-out containers, next to this is a small refrigerator and a stack of porno tapes. A high-class entertainment center is in front of this. It is said he wears adult diapers to football games. Greg once said of his friend; "Pete went to Law School in Barbados, he failed the Bar seven times. The last time because he threw up on the exam."
The show is great, plain and simple. Absolutely funny, mixing a nice balance of silliness and humor, with wit and drama. The show at times can really pull at you and make you think. The culture clash - social clash is more accurate - is eye opening and brings out real ideas and social issues. But never strays from the comedy. Plain and simple… 9/10

Do You Know the Answer?

2007-10-24T14:12:00.001-07:00

Stellan Skarskård has what profession in Good Will Hunting?
a) Psychologist
b) Physician
c) Chemistd
d) Mathematician

Did You Know That…

2007-10-24T14:11:00.000-07:00

Hans Zimmer was originally attached as the Kingdom of Heaven composer but was replaced by Harry Gregson-Williams. A few weeks after this, the opposite occurred for another film: Zimmer replaced Gregson-Williams for the scoring duties of Madagascar (2005).

Biography of the Day: Orlando Bloom

2007-10-24T14:10:00.000-07:00

“I know how lucky I am. I've no complaints about the work.”
Bloom was born in Canterbury, Kent, United Kingdom. Bloom had thought that his father was South African-born Jewish anti-Apartheid novelist Harry Saul Bloom, but when he was thirteen (nine years after Harry's death), Bloom's mother revealed to him that his biological father was actually Colin Stone, his mother's partner and family friend, and the principal of the Concorde International language school.
Bloom was not academic or athletic as a child, and managed to struggle through St Edmund's School in Canterbury despite his dyslexia. He was encouraged by his mother to take art and drama classes. In 1993, he moved to London and joined the National Youth Theatre, spending two seasons there and earning a scholarship to train at the British American Drama Academy. Bloom began acting professionally with television roles in episodes of Casualty and Midsomer Murders, and subsequently made his film debut in Wilde (1997), opposite Stephen Fry, before entering the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, where he studied acting, sculpture and photography. In 1998, he fell three stories while trying to reach the roof of terrace of a friend's house, and was told he would not regain the ability to walk. However, he made a recovery and was able to walk out of the hospital on crutches within twelve days. Bloom had steel plates inserted into his backbone to support it, which have since been removed, except for a single screw. He regularly practices yoga and Pilates to strengthen his back.
Bloom's first appearance on the screen was a small role as a rent boy in the 1997 film Wilde. Two days after graduating from Guildhall in 1999, he was cast in his first major role, playing Legolas in The Lord of the Rings (2001–2003). He had originally tried out for the part of Faramir, who doesn't appear until the second movie but the director, Peter Jackson, cast him as Legolas instead. While shooting a scene, he broke a rib after falling off a horse, but eventually recovered and continued shooting. The success of the trilogy transformed Bloom from an unknown actor into one of world's best-known celebrities.
In 2002, he was chosen as one of the Teen People "25 Hottest Stars Under 25" and was named People's hottest Hollywood bachelor in the magazine's 2004 list. All members of the cast of the Rings films were nominated for Best Ensemble Acting at the Screen Actors Guild Awards for three years in a row, finally winning in 2003 for the third film, The Return of the King. Bloom has also won other awards, including European Film Awards, Hollywood Festival Award, Empire Awards and Teen Choice Awards, and has been nominated for many others. Most of Bloom's box office successes have been as part of an ensemble cast.
Bloom next starred opposite Keira Knightley and Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, which was a blockbuster hit during the summer of 2003. He subsequently played the lead roles in Kingdom of Heaven and Elizabethtown (both 2005). In 2006, Bloom starred in sequel Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, the independently made Haven, and was one of the guest stars in the sitcom Extras, in which he portrayed an arrogant, narcissistic version of himself who had a great loathing for Johnny Depp (his co-star in Pirates of the Caribbean); Bloom pushed for Extras to go further with making his part unlikeable and contributed to the gag about him loathing Depp. Also in 2006, Bloom was the most searched for male on Google News. As of May 2007, Bloom's films had grossed a combined $2.4 billion at the United States box office, and he has appeared in four of the top 15 highest grossing films of all time.
Bloom's most recent film role is in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, released on May 25, 2007. Bloom, who had intended to become a stage actor after graduating from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, has stated that he would like leave films for a time and instead appear in stage roles, and is "avidly looking for the right sort of material that [he] can do something with" and go "back to basics". Bloom is currently appearing in a London revival of In Celebration, a play by David Storey. His character is one of three brothers returning home for their parents' 40th wedding anniversary. On August 24th 2007, he makes his first ever TV commercial appearance, on late-night Japanese TV promoting the Uno brand of cosmetics maker Shiseido.

Movie of the Day: Kingdom of Heaven (2005)

2007-10-24T14:09:00.001-07:00

“I have given Jerusalem my whole life. First, I thought we were fighting for God. Then I realized we were fighting for wealth and land. I was ashamed...”
In 1935, Cecil B. DeMille made his famous epic "The Crusades" on one of the backlots of Hollywood. What a change in the Ridley Scott film "Kingdom of Heaven" of 2005 with the technical wizardry of a new era!
In "Kingdom of Heaven", wars and battles are fuelled by an assortment of motivations including land, money, political consideration, natural desire for violence, lust for fame, love of the common people, among others. Even more importantly, this "idea" thing does not prevent leaders from practicing tolerance, reaching compromises and even recognizing equality with alien faiths, as the movie tries to show us.
Recognizing that this movie is a mix of historical fact and dramatized fiction, let me focus on one rather unusual aspect of the hero Balian (Orlando Bloom), a blacksmith inheriting knighthood and an estate from a father appearing out of the blues. As Balian takes over the barren desert estate after the untimely death of the recently-discovered father, he does something that the father apparently has failed to do in all these years – dig into the earth to find a reliable source of water and proceed to make the estate productive. Later, the resilient defence of Jerusalem owes just as much to Balian's knowledge of practical laws of mechanics as to his military skills. In the end, he turns away from the inherited knighthood and goes back to be a blacksmith, taking with him a queen. Triumph of the working class...
Depiction of the arch adversary Saladin follows very much the line taken in the novels of Sir Walter Scott, particularly "The Talisman", as someone mysterious (to the extent of being almost omnipresent - in the novel) but wise and benevolent, a breed of political leader that is sadly in short supply today. The hero Balian, as mentioned, has little interest in divinity and every interest in the welfare of the people. These two leaders, put in today's context, could qualify "Kingdom of Heaven" for a fairy tale.
It's difficult to refrain from comparing the attack of Jerusalem with the attack of Minas Tirith, and this very comparison can be construed as an unreserved compliment on Kingdom of Heaven. Another comparison that can be made is the depiction of a mighty army, done so unimaginatively in two similar movies last year. In Kingdom of Heaven, we see first a solitary figure on horseback at a distant mountain gap. "Saladin's army of 200 thousand is here" says Balian. "There's only one person", comes the reply from a follower. "No, they're all here" Balian quietly responses, at which point the angle of the camera starts to rise, first revealing the patch behind the mountain gap, filled with soldiers. Then, as the horizon of our vision continues to extend, layers of mountains and vales continue to appear, together with Saladin's mighty army deployed in an apparently haphazard, but ultimately strategic fashion. This must be seen to appreciate.
Of the cast, I must first mention Edward Norton. As the leper king of Jerusalem, he appears all the time behind a mask which covers his entire face, showing only his eyes with disfigured corners. But it's the voice that is so mesmerizing. Ever since Fight Club, Norton's voice has such a timbre that soft as he sounds, there are lurking behind tantalizing hints of subtlety, intrigue, compassion, power, and twenty other different and conflicting emotions all at once.
Bloom grows into his role, starting rather expressionless (which may not be totally unreasonable considering that the character has just lost a wife and a child) but gradually gaining in confidence. Liam Neeson and Jeremy Irons, playing father and mentor respectively, do not exactly have the most challenging parts in their careers. Eva Green retains the girlish defiance in The Dreamer, but adds to it the maturity and allure required for the role of Sibylla (as portrayed by the script, but not necessarily as recorded in history). And there is good old Brendan Gleeson, in the customary role of big bully fighter which he has perfected in Gangs of New York and Troy. It is clear no one owned Jerusalem in the Middle Ages, and no one owns it now, Palestinian protests notwithstanding. For a history lesson with modern relevances, see this epic… 8/10

Did You Know That…

2007-10-23T14:45:00.001-07:00

In Million Dollar Baby, Morgan Freeman was originally approached to play the role of Frankie Dunn. But even before Clint Eastwood took on directing and starring roles, he decided to take the part of Eddie "Scrap-Iron" Dupris.

Studio of the Week: Miramax Films

2007-10-23T14:43:00.001-07:00

Founded by the brothers Harvey and Bob Weinstein in Buffalo, New York in 1979, and named by combining the first names of their parents Max and Miriam, the company was originally created in order to distribute independent films which were deemed commercially unfeasible by the major studios.
The company's first major success came when the Weinsteins teamed up with British producer Martin Lewis and acquired US rights to two concert films Lewis had produced of benefit shows for human rights organization Amnesty International. The Weinsteins worked with Lewis to distill the two films into one film for the US marketplace and the resulting film The Secret Policeman's Other Ball (US Version) was a successful release for Miramax in the summer of 1982. It also presaged a modus operandi that the company would undertake later in the 1980s of acquiring films from international filmmakers and reworking them to suit US sensibilities.
Among the company's other breakthrough films as distributors later in the 1980s were The Crying Game, Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! and Scandal. The company also made films such as Pulp Fiction, Heavenly Creatures and Shakespeare in Love.
In addition to those successes, Miramax acquired and/or produced many films which did extraordinarily well financially and the company became one of the leaders of the independent film revolution of the 1990s. It produced or distributed seven films with box office grosses totalling more than $100 million and its most successful title, Chicago, earned more than $300 million worldwide. The company was also exceptionally successful in securing Academy Award nominations for its releases and a large number of the nominations resulted in Oscar wins.
In 1993 Miramax was purchased for $70 million by The Walt Disney Company. Harvey and Bob Weinstein ran Miramax until they left the company on September 30, 2005. During their tenure, the Weinstein brothers ran Miramax independently of other Disney companies. However, Disney had the final say on what Miramax could release. Disney's Buena Vista Home Entertainment division releases Miramax output.
After extensive negotiations and much media and industry speculation, on March 30, 2005, Disney and the Weinsteins announced that they would not renew their contractual relationship when their existing agreements expired at the end of September 2005. The company's film studio consortium, Buena Vista Motion Pictures Group assumed control of Miramax, which will have a smaller annual production budget. The Weinsteins have started a new film production company simply titled The Weinstein Company and took the Dimension Films label with them, but the Miramax name will remain with the film studio owned by Disney. It is currently run by Daniel Battsek.
Miramax has come under criticism for its editing, dubbing, and replacing the soundtracks of various foreign films it releases. One notable example is Iron Monkey, which though released subtitled, had its subtitles altered to remove the political context of the story, had scenes trimmed and changed for violence and pacing, and had the soundtrack changed, removing the famous Wong Fei Hung theme. Other films that they have altered in this way include Shaolin Soccer, Farewell My Concubine (theatrical release) and Jet Li's Fist of Legend.
Peter Biskind's book Down and Dirty details many of Weintein's dishonest dealings with filmmakers. Under the Weinsteins, Miramax had a history of buying the rights to Asian films, only to sit on them without releasing them for some years. One example of this is Hero, a 2002 Chinese martial arts film. It languished in Miramax's vaults for two years before it was salvaged with the intervention of Quentin Tarantino. And sometimes Miramax purchased films only to never release them. An example of this is Tears of the Black Tiger, a Thai film. After changing the ending of the film, Tears of the Black Tiger sat in Miramax's vaults for five years until its rights were purchased by Magnolia Pictures in 2006.
One reason for the delays and non-releases of films was an accounting scheme the Weinsteins used to shift potential money-losing films to future fiscal years and ensure they would receive annual bonuses from Disney. Many North American fans, wanting to see the films held up by Miramax, would seek out DVD versions of the films on the Internet from overseas dealers. MonkeyPeaches, a website about Chinese movies, accuses both its ISP and Miramax of "backstabbing" their site by threatening, without giving the site any warning, a lawsuit unless it immediately stopped selling Hero, which was still in US theaters. The ISP responded by shutting down the site.
As a result of the Weinsteins' actions, a number of Asian producers who sold their distribution rights to the company refuse to do so for their subsequent films.
Defenders of the company point out that prior to Miramax most of the films purchased by the company would have had little to no chance of achieving US distribution other than by very small distributors with minimal marketing expertise and funds. They also state that the purpose of the company's aggressive re-editing technique was always to try help the films find a broader American audience than they might otherwise find.
"I'm not cutting for fun," Harvey Weinstein said in an interview. "I'm cutting for the shit to work. All my life I served one master: the film. I love movies."

Do You Know the Answer?

2007-10-22T16:49:00.000-07:00

He says: “I was wondering if you were free today?”
She says: “Yeah. I am free every day, it’s in the constitution.”
a) West Side Story
b) Coming to America
c) Newsies
d) Grease 2

New Section: Do You Know the Answer?

2007-10-22T16:31:00.000-07:00

Hi again cinema fans...
I am glad to say we are going to open a new section on Cinema Experts, called Do You Know the Answer?
So let me explain how this works...
Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays we publish a post where there is a question and four options to answer that question. The questions will be posted before midnight of each day. Then, if you know the answer, you can put it on a comment of the post or send an email to cinemaexperts@hotmail.com
When writing the comment (or the email) make sure you write this way (copy paste if you want):
Name or nick (I will explain why is it for)
The answer (for example: d) George Clooney)
So, why do I need your name or nick? Well it is simple really... I will create a ranking (Top 5), based on the readers that answer (correct, of course!) the most: you get one point for guessing it right or three points if you are the first one to answer it... The ranking will be updated every two days and you can easily find it in the right column of the blog...
The answers will be published the day after the question (Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays). Keep in mind that after I reveal the answer I won't count any more ranking points. When we think it is appropriate we will announce the last question and the prizes for the five lucky (but dedicated) ones...
So today we will post the first question... And ah! Good luck!

P.S. Got it all? If not write a comment or send an email to cinemaexperts@hotmail.com

Did You Know That…

2007-10-22T16:22:00.000-07:00

The plot of Proofs’ original play was based on the life of John Nash, professor at Princeton, who won the Nobel Prize for his work in game theory and also spent many years suffering from schizophrenia. His story was later adapted into A Beautiful Mind (2001).

Biography of the Day: Gwyneth Paltrow

2007-10-22T16:20:00.001-07:00

“The work gets more difficult as you get older. You learn more and you gather more experiences, there is deeper pain and higher highs.”
Paltrow was born in Los Angeles, California to the late film and television director, writer, and producer Bruce Paltrow and actress Blythe Danner. Raised in Santa Monica, she attended Crossroads School before moving and attending Spence School, a private girls' school in New York City. Later she briefly studied art history at the University of California, Santa Barbara, before discontinuing her degree and committing herself to acting. She is an "adopted daughter" of Talavera de la Reina (Spain), where she lived as an exchange student and learned Spanish.
Paltrow made her professional stage debut in 1990. Her most recent stage appearance was in Proof at London's Donmar Warehouse. Her debut film was Shout (1991). Later that year, she had a small role as the young Wendy in family friend Steven Spielberg's Hook (1991). She also appeared in Malice and Flesh and Bone.
Paltrow starred in Se7en (1995), opposite Brad Pitt, and Morgan Freeman. The film was hugely successful commercially and critically. Then in 1996 she starred in Emma, where she received strong positive critical acclaim, particularly in Europe, and Asia.
Two years later, Paltrow starred in Shakespeare in Love, an imagining of how William Shakespeare might have written Romeo and Juliet. The film received critical acclaim, earned more than $100 million in domestic box office receipts, and received numerous awards. Shakespeare in Love won the Golden Globes for Best Motion Picture-Musical or Comedy and Best Screenplay, as well as the Academy Award for Best Picture. Paltrow also won the award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role from the Screen Actors Guild. Later that year, Paltrow won the Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role. After her Oscar win Paltrow starred in other movie roles such as A Perfect Murder. In 2000 Paltrow starred in The Talented Mr. Ripley which earned over $80 million domestically, and received positive reviews. She then starred in Bounce with Shakespeare in Love costar Ben Affleck, which was moderately successful, both critically and commercially.
Since then, she has had a relatively low-profile, yet steady, film career with a few critically acclaimed film roles, including Proof (2005) and The Royal Tenenbaums (2001). Audiences got their first taste of Paltrow's singing ability with the 2000 release of Duets, in which she co-starred with singer Huey Lewis, who played her karaoke-hustling estranged father. Towards the end of the film, their characters resolve their differences and perform a cover version of Smokey Robinson's Cruisin'. The song, which surprised many of Paltrow's fans, was well-received and was eventually released as a single, getting heavy airplay from Top 40 and adult contemporary-formatted radio stations.
In an interview with The Guardian on 27 January 2006, Paltrow admitted that she divided her career into those movies she did for love and those films she did for money.
The Royal Tenenbaums, Proof, and Sylvia fell into the former category, whilst View From the Top and Shallow Hal were in the latter. In interviews for Shallow Hal, she reported did some research for the role by wearing the fat suit she used during filming, and going to a local bar to gauge the public perception of obese people. She said that people refused to make eye contact with her, and she was treated quite rudely on multiple occasions, and the experience saddened her greatly, with regards to how people treat those who are overweight.Since winning the Academy Award for Best Actress for Shakespeare in Love, Paltrow's box-office profile has declined considerably, with her most recent smash being 1999's The Talented Mr. Ripley.

Movie of the Day: Proof (2005)

2007-10-22T16:19:00.000-07:00

“If I go back to the beginning, I could start it over again. I could go line by line; try and find a shorter way. I could try to make it... better.”
"Proof", the excellent play by David Auburn, was one of the best things in the New York stage in recent memory. Part of the attraction was the intelligent subject matter, math science, and how it connected the four characters one got to meet. The casting was an ideal one, Mary Louise Parker, Larry Briggman, Johanna Day and Ben Shenkman, playing Cahterine, Robert, Claire and Hal, respectively.
Mr. Auburn and Rebecca Miller, a movie director, herself, took the task of adapting "Proof" for the screen. The result, directed by John Madden, opens the play in cinematic terms, no small undertaking in presenting the movie to a wider audience who might not be interested in science, and much less in the advanced math that plays an important role in the proceedings.
Catherine, the 27 year old, at the center of the film, is a woman who has stayed behind to take care of her aging father, a man much esteemed in academic circles, who is suffering from, perhaps, a neurological illness that is killing him slowly. Catherine has, in a way, sacrificed her life in order to see that Robert spends his last days at home instead of at an institution.
The death of the father brings Claire home. This woman, who lives in New York, wants to get rid of everything connected with her father. She even has made plans for Catherine to move from Chicago to be near each other in New York, where things are much better. To complicate things, Harold, the nerdy math student, finds a hidden notebook that might contain a discovery that will revolutionize math. The only problem is the proof might not have been the dead man's own creation.
"Proof" works as a film because of Mr. Madden's direction. We are kept involved in what is going on because we have been won by Catherine, the wounded woman trying to live her life without having to tend to a sick man. Catherine love for math, in a way, makes her realize her place is in the same institution where her father made mathematical discoveries as she will be following his steps.
Gwyneth Paltrow makes an excellent Catherine, a role she had played on the London stage. Paltrow is a welcome presence in the movie because of the intelligence she projects when working with a good director like John Madden. Hope Davis, another excellent actress, plays Claire, the materialistic sister who has arrived and who wants to transform the frumpy Catherine and mold her to her own taste.
Davis has accustomed us to expect a valuable contribution to any film in which she plays. As Claire, she clearly understand who this character she is portraying really is.
Anthony Hopkins has only a few good moments on the screen. But it's Jake Gyllenhaal who deserves special compliment for taking on a role with nothing to hang on to, not even a stereotype, and turning it into a real person with passion, warmth and weakness. Finally, the script is just great as the characters talk just the way people talk, rather than deliver smart-Alex punchlines every five minutes. Maybe for some movies, that's alright. But "Proof" demands and deserves a lot more… 9/10

New Blog Schedule…

2007-10-21T15:16:00.000-07:00

Hi cinema fans…

We are going to change the schedule of the posts of my blog a little.
First: no post on Sundays. Sundays will be the only day that we will not post, and will take Sunday to plan the week posts in advance…
Second: three Movie of the Day and Biography of the Day posts: Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
Third: We will continue with Thursday’s Series of the Week and Saturday’s A Weekend With.
Fourth: New things! We will introduce a post called Studio of the Week, on Tuesdays, a little “biography” of Movie Studios, and we will also add a Did You Know That? Post every day (except Sundays), containing trivia from a movie, actor, producer, studio, series…
So it will be three movie and three biographies a week, one series a week, one studio biography a week and also a special A Weekend With post.
To help you understand our new schedule, here’s a simple scheme with the days of the weeks and the posts for that day:
Monday: Movie of the Day, Biography of the Day, Did You Know That?
Tuesday: Studio of the Week, Did You Know That?
Wednesday: Movie of the Day, Biography of the Day, Did You Know That?
Thursday: Series of the Week, Did You Know That?
Friday: Movie of the Day, Biography of the Day, Did You Know That?
Saturday: A Weekend With, Did You Know That?
Sunday: No posts.

Other new things include the creation of a list called “25 Movies to Offer This Christmas…” The creation of this list will be done by YOU. Send an email to cinemaexperts@hotmail.com with the 25 movies you prefer the most, ordered. The counting will be done by points: the first movie of your list will count 25 points, and then decreasing so that the 25th of your list will count 1 point. On December 1st we will release the list, a help for those who want to offer movies this Christmas… But remember, this list will only be possible if you send your picks to cinemaexperts@hotmail.com

You can also contact through our email if your have suggestions, critics, comments or anything else regarding our blog… Got a new idea for a post? Don’t like the layout? You think we gave 10 to a movie that really didn’t deserve it? Well, contact us though our email, at

cinemaexperts@hotmail.com

A Weekend With: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios

2007-10-20T16:19:00.001-07:00

In 1924, theater magnate Marcus Loew had a problem. He'd bought Metro Pictures (founded in 1916) and Goldwyn Pictures (founded in 1917) to provide a steady supply of films for his large theater chain, Loews, Inc. However, these purchases created a need for someone to oversee his new Hollywood operations, since longtime assistant Nicholas Schenck was needed in New York to oversee the theaters.
Loew addressed the situation by buying Mayer Pictures on April 16, 1924. Because of his decade-long success as a producer, Louis B. Mayer was made a vice-president of Loews and head of studio operations in California, with Harry Rapf and the twenty-five year old "boy wonder" Irving Thalberg as heads of production. For decades, MGM's legal name was "Loews, Inc." Originally, the new studio's films were presented in the following manner: Louis B. Mayer presents a Metro-Goldwyn picture, but Mayer soon added his name to the studio. Though Loew's Metro was the dominant partner.
Also inherited from Goldwyn was a runaway production, Ben-Hur, which had been filming in Rome for months without producing much usable film. Mayer took charge of the situation by scrapping most of what had been shot and bringing production back to Culver City. Though Ben-Hur was the most costly film made up to its time, it became MGM's first great public-relations triumph, establishing an image for the company that persisted for years. Also in 1925, MGM passed Universal Studios as the largest studio in Hollywood—a lead it kept for most of the next quarter-century.
Marcus Loew died in 1927, and control of Loews passed to his longtime associate, Nicholas Schenck. Rival mogul William Fox saw an opportunity to expand his empire, and in 1929, with Schenck's assent, bought the Loew family's holdings. However, Mayer and Thalberg were outraged. Despite their high posts in the company, they were not shareholders. Mayer in particular used his political connections to persuade the Justice Department to sue Fox for violating federal antitrust law. During this time, Fox was badly hurt in an automobile accident. By the time he recovered, the stock market crash had virtually wiped out his financial holdings, ending any chance of the Loews merger going through even if the Justice Department had given its blessing. Schenck and Mayer had never gotten along; in fact, Mayer reportedly called his boss "Mr. Skunk" in private. The abortive Fox merger only increased the animosity between them. Schenck blamed Mayer rather than the stock market crash for costing him an instant fortune. The animosity between the two men led to a heated rivalry between the New York and Hollywood sides of the company that lasted over 30 years.
From the outset, MGM tapped into the audience's need for glamour and sophistication. Having inherited few big names from their predecessor companies, Mayer and Thalberg began at once to create and publicize a host of new stars, among them Greta Garbo, John Gilbert and Joan Crawford. The arrival of talking pictures in 1928–29 gave opportunities to other new stars, many of whom would carry MGM through the 1930s: Clark Gable, Jean Harlow, Robert Montgomery and Nelson Eddy among them.
MGM was one of the first studios to experiment with filming in Technicolor. Using the two-color Technicolor process then available, MGM filmed portions of The Uninvited Guest (1924), The Big Parade (1925), and Ben-Hur (1926), among others, in the process. In 1928 MGM released The Viking, the first complete Technicolor feature with sound. MGM's first all-color, "all-talking" sound feature with dialogue was the 1930 musical The Rogue Song. In 1934 MGM introduced the first live-action film made in Technicolor's superior new three-color process, a musical number in the otherwise black and white The Cat and the Fiddle. In animation, MGM purchased the rights in 1930 to distribute a series of cartoons that starred a character named Flip the Frog. The first cartoon in this series (entitled Fiddlesticks) was the first sound cartoon to be produced in two-color Technicolor.
Like its rivals, MGM produced fifty pictures a year. Loew's theaters were mostly located in New York and the northeast, so MGM made films that were sophisticated and polished to cater to an urban audience. As the Depression deepened, MGM could make a claim its rivals could not: it never lost money. It was the only Hollywood studio that continued to pay dividends during the 1930s. MGM stars dominated the box office in the 30's. Norma Shearer (the top star and money maker for the studio), Joan Crawford, and Greta Garbo all reigned as not only the top three figures at the studio but in Hollywood itself. By 1943 all three had left the studio.
Mayer and Irving Thalberg's relationship was lukewarm at best; Thalberg preferred literary works to the crowd-pleasers Mayer wanted. Thalberg, always physically frail, was removed as head of production in 1932. Mayer encouraged other staff producers, among them his son-in-law David O. Selznick, but no one seemed to have the sure touch of Thalberg. As Thalberg fell increasingly ill in 1936, Louis Mayer could now serve as his temporary replacement also. Rumors flew that Thalberg was leaving to set up his own independent company; his early death in 1936, at age thirty-seven, cost MGM dearly. As a result of Thalberg's death, Mayer became head of production as well as studio chief, becoming the first million-dollar executive in American history.
In 1933, MGM began to distribute its second series of cartoons, starring a character named Willie Whopper. MGM's biggest cartoon stars came in the form of the cat-and-mouse duo Tom and Jerry, created by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera in 1940. The Tom and Jerry cartoons won seven Academy Awards between 1943 and 1953.
Increasingly, before and during World War II, Mayer came to rely on his "College of Cardinals" - senior producers who controlled the studio's output. This management-by-committee may explain why MGM seemed to lose its momentum, developing few new stars and relying on the safety of sequels and bland material. After 1940, production was cut from fifty pictures a year to a more manageable twenty-five features per year. It was during this time that MGM released very successful musicals with newly-acquired contract players such as Judy Garland, Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, and Frank Sinatra, to name just a few. As audiences drifted away after the war, MGM found it difficult to attract audiences. By the late forties, as MGM's profit margins decreased, word came from Schenck in New York: find "a new Thalberg" who could improve quality while paring costs. Mayer thought he had found this savior in Dore Schary, a writer and producer who had had a couple of successful years running RKO.
Gradually cutting loose expensive contract, Schary managed to keep the studio running much as it had through the early 1950s. Under Schary, MGM produced some well-regarded musicals, among them An American in Paris, Singin' in the Rain and The Band Wagon. However, it was a losing fight, as the mass audience preferred to stay home and watch television. In 1954, as a settlement of the government's restraint-of-trade action, U.S. vs. Paramount Pictures, et al., Loews, Inc. gave up control of MGM. It would take another five years before the interlocking arrangements were completely undone, by which time both Loews and MGM were sinking.
As the studio system faded in the late 1950s and 1960s, MGM's prestige faded with it. In 1957 (by coincidence, the year L.B. Mayer died) the studio lost money for the first time in its 34-year history. Cost overruns and the failure of the 1957 big-budget epic Raintree County prompted the studio to release Schary from his contract. Schary's reign at MGM had been marked with few bona-fide hits, but his departure (along with the retirement of Schenck in 1955) left a power vacuum that would prove difficult to fill. By 1960, MGM had released all of its contract players, with many either retiring or moving onto television.
1957 also marked the end of the cartoon era at MGM, as the animation unit was closed due to budget issues. However, there were several major exceptions to this downslide and loss of prestige. In 1956, MGM sold what is now one of its most beloved movies, The Wizard of Oz, to CBS, which scheduled it to be shown in November of that year. In a landmark event, ‘’Oz’’ became the first theatrical film to be shown complete in one evening on prime time television over a major American commercial network. With its second showing on CBS in 1959, The Wizard of Oz became an annual tradition, drawing huge audiences in homes all over the U.S. and earning additional profits for the studio. The studio was all too happy to see Oz become, through television, one of the two or three most famous films MGM has ever made, and one of the few films that nearly everybody in the U.S. has seen at least once.
In 1958, MGM released what is generally considered their last great musical, Arthur Freed's widescreen, color production of Gigi. The film was a box office and critical smash, won nine Academy Awards including Best Picture, and from it came several hit songs. The film was the last MGM musical to win a Best Picture Oscar, an honor that had previously gone to The Broadway Melody (1929), The Great Ziegfeld (1936), and An American in Paris (1951).
In 1959, MGM enjoyed one of its most spectacular successes of later years, with the release of its nearly four hour Technicolor version of Ben-Hur. The film would go on to win 11 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, a record that held until Titanic matched it in 1997 along with "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" in 2003. Ben-Hur was also an immense success both critically and at the box office.
In 1961, MGM resumed releasing new Tom and Jerry shorts, and production moved to Rembrandt Films in Czechoslovakia. In 1963, the production of Tom and Jerry returned to Hollywood under Chuck Jones and his Sib Tower 12 Productions studio. Tom and Jerry folded in 1967. MGM fell into a habit in this period that would eventually sink the studio: an entire year's production schedule relied on the success of one big-budget epic each year. This policy began in 1959, when Ben-Hur was profitable enough to carry the studio through 1960. However, later attempts at big-budget epics failed, among them Cimarron (1960), King of Kings (1961), Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1961), and most notoriously, the 1962 remake of Mutiny on the Bounty. One other epic that was a success, however, was the MGM-Cinerama co-production How the West Was Won, with a huge all-star cast. King of Kings, while a commercial and critical flop at the time, has since come to be regarded as a film classic.
As MGM sank (along with the other main-line studios), a series of studio heads came and went, along with a succession of corporate managers, all hoping to bring back the studio's glory days. In 1967, MGM was sold to the Canadian investor Edgar Bronfman. Two years later, an increasingly unprofitable MGM was bought by Nevada millionaire Kirk Kerkorian. What appealed to Kerkorian was MGM's Culver City real estate, and the value of 45 years' worth of glamour associated with the name, which he attached to a Las Vegas hotel and casino. As for film-making, that part of the company was quickly and severely downsized under the supervision of James T. Aubrey, Jr. Aubrey sold off the studio's accumulation of props, furnishings and historical memorabilia, including Dorothy's red slippers from The Wizard of Oz. Through the 1970s studio output slowed considerably - Aubrey preferred four or five medium-budget pictures each year, along with a smattering of low-budget fare. With output cut back so severely, Kerkorian closed MGM's sales and distribution offices in 1973, handing that duty to United Artists. Kerkorian now distanced himself from the operations of the studio, focusing on his casino properties. Another chunk of the back lot was sold in 1974; the last shooting done on the backlot was the introductory material for That's Entertainment! a retrospective documentary that became a surprise hit for the studio. The shoddy look of the famous MGM exteriors and back lots, shown in That's Entertainment! (for instance, the "New York" street), was startling; a studio that had previously had so much glamour and expertise in making big-budget films looked as if it had been reduced to nothing more than the average, low-budget studio. In addition to MGM's fast declining image, the MGM Recording Studios were sold in 1975.
The "Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer" lettering on the studio's logo was changed to reflect their acquisition of UA, now reading "MGM/UA Entertainment Co." - the new name for the company. Following a failed attempt to take over CBS in 1985, the ambitious Georgia-based media entrepreneur Ted Turner bought MGM/UA. But his bankers, concerned about the already heavy debt-load his companies carried, refused to back him, and exactly seventy-four days later, Turner announced he was re-selling most of MGM/UA to Kirk Kerkorian. Turner retained the one MGM asset he really craved, the MGM film library, as well as the United Artists Television package. Kerkorian got United Artists and the rights to the MGM name and trademark. The venerable Culver City lot, home to MGM and its predecessor since 1918, was sold to Lorimar-Telepictures, a television production company. How much of MGM's back catalog Turner actually obtained was a point of conflict for a time; eventually it was determined that Turner owned all of the MGM library, dating back to pre-merger days, as well as the pre-1948 Warner Bros. catalog, the entire RKO library, and a good share of United Artists's own backlist.
In 1990, an obscure Italian promoter, Giancarlo Parretti, announced that he had taken control of France's Pathé Frères, and was about to buy MGM/UA. Despite a cloudy past Parretti got backing from Credit Lyonnais and took control of MGM/UA through a leveraged buyout. The well respected executive, Alan Ladd, Jr., a former President of MGM/UA, was brought on board to Chair Pathe, then ultimately as CEO of MGM in 1991. However the same year Parretti's ownership dissolved in a flurry of lawsuits and a default by Crédit Lyonnais, and Parretti faced securities fraud charges in the United States and Europe. Pathé was purchased by Chargeurs in 1992.
Despite a few commercial successes, Credit Lyonnais was unable to stem the tide of red ink during the mid-1990s; putting the studio up for sale, it found only one willing bidder: Kirk Kerkorian. Now the owner of MGM for the third time, Kerkorian at last conceded that a solid business plan was the studio's only hope. Credit Lyonnais then ordered Kerkorian and the Board of Directors of MGM to fire Alan Ladd, Jr. as CEO of the company and was replaced by former Paramount executive, Frank Mancuso Sr. By committing to more and better pictures, selling a portion of the studio to Australia's Seven Network, and installing a professional management team, Kerkorian was able to convince Wall Street that a revived MGM was worthy of a place on the stock market. However, despite a few successful pictures and a re-built film library, it was clear that MGM could not compete in a business that required hundreds of millions in capital for even the most ordinary picture.
Until 2001, MGM severed ties with UIP (United International Pictures) a joint venture between MGM, Universal Pictures and Paramount Pictures. In January 2001, MGM began distributing films internationally through 20th Century Fox.
Many of MGM's competitors started to make bids to purchase the studio, beginning with Time Warner. It was not unexpected that Time Warner would bid, since the largest shareholder in the company was Ted Turner. His Turner Entertainment group had risen to success in part through its ownership of the pre-1986 MGM library. After a short period of negotiation with MGM, Time Warner was unsuccessful. The leading bidder, though, proved to be Sony Corporation of America. Sony's primary goal was to ensure Blu-Ray support at MGM; cost synergies with Sony Pictures Entertainment were secondary. MGM and Sony agreed on a purchase price of nearly $5 billion, of which about $2 billion was to pay off MGM debt. Since 2005, the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group has domestically distributed films by MGM and UA
MGM announced that it would return as a theatrical distribution company. MGM negotiated and struck deals with The Weinstein Company, Lakeshore Entertainment, Bauer Martinez, and many other independent studios, and then announced its plans to release 14 feature films for 2006 and early 2007. MGM also hoped to increase the amount to over 20 by 2007.
Lucky Number Slevin, released April 7, is the first film to be released under the new MGM era. Other recent films under the MGM/Weinstein deal include Clerks II and Bobby. On May 31, MGM announced that it would transfer home video output (MGM Home Entertainment) from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment to 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. MGM also announced plans to restructure its worldwide television distribution operation. In addition MGM signed a deal with New Line Television in which MGM would handle New Line's U.S. film and series television syndication packages. MGM will also serve as New Line's barter sales rep in the television arena for the next two years.
In April, it was announced that MGM movies will be able to be downloaded through iTunes. MGM is bringing an estimated 100 of its existing movies to Apple’s iTunes service, the California-based computer company revealed. And those movies will include the likes of modern classics such as Rocky, Ronin, Mad Max, and Dances with Wolves, along with more golden classics such as Lilies of the Field and The Great Train Robbery.
MGM continues to produce and fund its own products, most of which will be distributed by MGM domestically and 20th Century Fox internationally, while others will be distributed via Columbia TriStar or Sony. Current films include Casino Royale and Rocky Balboa. The studio owns the distribution rights to a live-action film version of The Hobbit, which is being planned for production with New Line Cinema. MGM has also announced that it will continue to work on sequels for Casino Royale, The Pink Panther and The Thomas Crown Affair.

Biography of the Day: Jude Law

2007-10-20T16:18:00.001-07:00

"I think it's a bigger risk following a part that plays up your looks than it is to try and carve out a career as an actor."
Jude Law was born in Lewisham, South London, England to teachers Peter and Maggie Law, who now run their own drama school in France. He was educated at 'John Ball' Primary school in Blackheath and Kidbrooke School in Kidbrooke, before attending the Alleyn's School in Dulwich. In 1987 he started acting with the National Youth Music Theatre.
Law's first major stage role was as Foxtrot Darling, the sexually ambiguous and manipulative teenager in Philip Ridley's multi-award-winning The Fastest Clock in the Universe. Law went on to appear as Michael in the West End production of Jean Cocteau's tragicomedy Les parents Terribles directed by Sean Mathias. This role saw Jude nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award as Best Newcomer. Following a title change to Indiscretions, the play transferred as an imaginative re-working to Broadway in 1995, and he played opposite Kathleen Turner, Roger Rees and Cynthia Nixon. This role earned him a Tony Award nomination and the Theatre World Award.
In 1989 he got his first TV role in a movie based on a Beatrix Potter book, The Tailor of Gloucester. After minor roles in British television, including a two year stint in the Granada TV soap opera Families and the leading role in the BFI /Channel 4 short The Crane, Law had his breakthrough with the British ram-raiding drama Shopping which also featured his future wife Sadie Frost. He shot to fame in Britain upon the release of the biopic Wilde, in which he played Lord Alfred "Bosie" Douglas, the glamorous lover of Stephen Fry's Oscar Wilde.
He subsequently moved to Hollywood; his performances include Andrew Niccol's Gattaca, as a frustrated Olympic medalist bound by a wheelchair, in Clint Eastwood's Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil as the ill-fated lover of Kevin Spacey's character, and in Sam Mendes's Road to Perdition as a sadistic hitman in a critically-praised performance. He has been nominated for an Academy Award twice; once as Best Supporting Actor for his performance in The Talented Mr. Ripley in 2000, and then again as Best Actor in a Leading Role for Cold Mountain in 2003, both directed by Anthony Minghella. For the film The Talented Mr. Ripley he learned to play saxophon and earned a MTV Movie Award nomination together with Matt Damon and Fiorello for performing the song Tu Vuo' Fa L'Americano by Renato Carosone and Nicola Salerno, so he learned ballet dancing for the film Artificial Intelligence: AI (2001).
He portrayed the lead character in Alfie, the remake of Bill Naughton's 1966 drama. He also acted opposite Michael Caine in the 2007 film Sleuth. In both films, he plays the role originally played by Caine. In Sleuth Michael Caine played Sir Laurence Olivier's original role. Law is an admirer of Olivier, it was his idea to use the famous actors image in the 2004 film Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, so he could, in a way act opposite the deceased actor.
Jude Law is on the latest Top Ten List from the 2006 A-list of the most bankable movie stars in Hollywood. The list was created by James Ulmer, he calls his method The Ulmer Scale. He was honored with the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government on March 1, 2007 in recognition of his contribution to World Cinema Arts. He was named a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres.
In 2005, he was one of many actors rumored to be a possible choice to assume the role of James Bond, as MGM decided not to renew Irish actor Pierce Brosnan's contract. The role would eventually go to fellow Englishman Daniel Craig.
In 1997 he set up a film company, Natural Nylon, with Sadie Frost and fellow friends and thespians Jonny Lee Miller, Ewan McGregor, Sean Pertwee, Damon Bryant and Bradley Adams.

Movie of the Day: The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)

2007-10-20T16:15:00.000-07:00

“Good things about Mr. Ripley? Could take some time… Tom is talented. Tom is tender... Tom is beautiful... Tom is a mystery. Tom is not a nobody. Tom has secrets he doesn't want to tell me, and I wish he would. Tom has nightmares. That's not a good thing. Tom has someone to love him. That is a good thing. Tom is crushing me. Tom is crushing me... Tom, you're crushing me!”
When it comes to naming the best films of the 1990's, The Talented Mr. Ripley hardly ever gets a mention. This is one of cinema's greatest mysteries; how can a film as well made, constantly intriguing and brilliantly conceived as this one constantly get passed over? And in favour of many under deserving films as well? Really strange. Almost as big a mystery as the one I've just mentioned is the web of intrigue created here. Through deep, complex characters and situations rich with double meaning, Anthony Minghella has turned Patricia Highsmith's original novel into a cinematic masterpiece. The talented Matt Damon stars as the talented man of the title that is offered $1000 to travel to Italy to try and return Dickie; the rich and spoilt son of a millionaire. What follows is a complex, disturbing and fascinating expose of a man ingratiating himself into the lives of Dickie, his girlfriend Marge and high society on the whole...
The main reason why The Talented Mr. Ripley works so well is that it's central characters are deep labyrinths that beg to explored and analysed. Every scene is rich with double meaning and character interactions that exist under the surface of the drama we are seeing on screen. The character of Tom Ripley is a true masterpiece of characterisation indeed. This sociopath, that would rather be "a pretend somebody than a real nobody" is a myriad of contradictions and muddled personalities. His actions are always amoral and through his lies and deception, it is obvious that he doesn't care at all for anyone around him. However, despite this; we are still able to feel for him through his tribulations. The story is told in such a way that it is difficult to feel for any of the other characters and all of our sympathies lie with the talented Tom Ripley. This puts the audience in a strange situation, as we're used to hating the antagonist and feeling for the protagonist, but this film turns that on it's head, and to great effect.
The film is helped implicitly by the fact that it's one of the most professionally made films ever to make it onto the screen. Every scene, every action, every line uttered is done with the greatest assurance and nothing at all in the film appears to be there by accident or out of place. The way that the characters interact with each other and their surroundings is always believable and we never question anything that is shown on screen. Anthony Minghella's direction is more than solid, and this is helped by the stunning photography, courtesy of 1950's Italy. Many times a film has benefited from Italy's landscape, and this is one of them. This is all great, but it's the performances that put the final finishing touch on this amazing masterclass of film-making. As mentioned, the talented Mr Damon takes the lead role and completely makes it his own. He often gets coupled with his friend, Ben Afleck, when it comes to acting; but this is very unfair as Damon is one of today's brightest stars. Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow make up the other two leads. I'm not the biggest fan of either of these two stars, but both, like Damon, give performances here that will always be associated with their personalities. Cate Blanchett has a small role, but the real plaudits for the smaller performances go to the brilliant Phillip Seymour Hoffman, who steals every scene he's in.The Talented Mr. Ripley is one stunning piece of film. Ignore the people that don't consider this one of the 1990's greatest achievements; they are wrong. The film is a masterpiece of tense situations, great characterisation and professional film-making. And I refuse to hear otherwise... 9/10

Series of the Week: Fawlty Towers

2007-10-18T14:52:00.001-07:00

“You'll have to forgive him. He's from Barcelona.”
Fawlty Towers was inspired by the Monty Python team's stay in the Gleneagles Hotel in Torquay in May 1970. Cleese and Booth stayed on at the hotel after filming for the Python show had finished. The owner, Donald Sinclair, was very rude, throwing a bus timetable at a guest who asked when the next bus to town would arrive, and placing Eric Idle's suitcase behind a wall in the garden on the suspicion that it contained a bomb (it actually contained a ticking alarm clock). He also criticised the American-born Terry Gilliam's table manners for being too American (he had the fork in "the wrong hand" while eating), possibly inspiring Basil's treatment of an American visitor in the episode "Waldorf Salad."
Until the 1970s, the proprietors of English seaside boarding houses had a reputation for firmness and intransigence. Cleese had also parodied the contrast between organisational dogma and sensitive customer service in many personnel training videotapes issued with a serious purpose by his company, Video Arts.
Bill Cotton, the BBC's Head of Light Entertainment in the mid-1970s, said after the first series was produced that the show was a prime example of the BBC's relaxed attitude to trying out new entertainment formats and encouraging new ideas. He said that when he read the first scripts he could see nothing funny in them, but trusting that Cleese knew what he was doing, he gave the go-ahead for the series. He said that the commercial channels, with their emphasis on audience ratings, would never have let the show get to the production stage on the basis of the scripts.
The episodes typically revolve around Basil Fawlty's efforts to succeed and his frustration at mistakes, both his own and those of others, which prevent him from doing so. Much of the humour comes from Basil's insulting and sometimes aggressive manner, engaging in angry but witty arguments with guests, staff and in particular his frightful wife, whom he addresses with insults such as "that golfing puff adder", "my little piranha fish," and "my little nest of vipers". Despite this, he frequently feels intimidated as she is able to insult him with equal venom. At the end of some episodes, Basil succeeds in annoying the guests and sometimes gets this thrown back in his face.
The plots are intricate and farcical, involving coincidences, misunderstandings, cross-purposes, missed meetings, and accidental meetings. The sex of the bedroom farce is sometimes present, often to the disgust of conservative Basil, but it is Basil Fawlty's eccentricity, not his lust, that drives the plots.
The guests at the hotel are typically comic foils to Basil's anger and outbursts, with requests both reasonable and impossible testing Basil's temper. The show also uses mild black humour at times, notably when Basil is forced to hide a dead body, and some of the comments made by Basil both about Sybil ("Did you ever see that film, How to Murder Your Wife? ...Awfully good") and about the guests ("May I suggest that you consider moving to a hotel closer to the sea? Or preferably in it.") border on the psychopathic.
Basil behaves violently towards Manuel (an emotional and largely inept Spanish waiter who cannot understand English) for innocent mistakes, exacting on some occasions physical violence, including beating Manuel with a frying pan and hitting him over the head, despite Manuel's piteous pleading. The violence directed at Manuel has been one of the very few reasons for negative criticisms leveled at Fawlty Towers over the years. In this, and in other exaggerated physical mannerisms of Basil, Fawlty Towers employs physical comedy.
Basil displays blatant snobbishness, expressing disdain for the "riff-raff" that he believes currently stay at the hotel, in order to climb the social ladder. His desperation is apparent, as he makes increasingly hopeless manoeuvres and painful faux pas in trying to gain favour with the wealthy, yet finds himself forced to serve and help people he sees as beneath him. As such, Basil's efforts tend to be counter-productive, with guests leaving the hotel in disgust and his marriage stretching further and further towards breaking point.
This series is hysterical. Cleese is the master of his trade while proving that he can manage any task thrown in front of him. The comedy that they provide cannot be found on television today. Still funny after all these years… 9/10

Biography of the Day: Anthony Hopkins

2007-10-18T14:40:00.001-07:00

“I am able to play monsters well. I understand monsters. I understand madmen.”
Hopkins was born in Margam, Port Talbot in Wales to Muriel Anne and Richard Arthur Hopkins, a baker. His schooldays were unproductive. A loner with dyslexia, he found that he would rather immerse himself in art, such as painting and drawing or playing the piano, than attend to his studies. In 1949, to instill some discipline, his parents insisted he attend Jones' West Monmouth Boys' School in Pontypool. He remained there for five terms, of which Hopkins does not have fond memories. He was then educated at Cowbridge Grammar School.
Hopkins was influenced and encouraged to become an actor by compatriot Richard Burton, whom he met briefly at the age of 15. To that end, he enrolled at the College of Music and Drama in Cardiff, from which he graduated in 1957. After a two-year spell in the Army, he moved to London where he trained at RADA, at the suggestion of Roy Marsden.
In 1965, after several years in repertory, he was spotted by Sir Laurence Olivier, who invited him to join the Royal National Theatre. Hopkins became Olivier's understudy, and filled in when Olivier was struck with appendicitis during a production of August Strindberg's The Dance of Death. Olivier later noted in his memoir, Confessions of an Actor, that, "A new young actor in the company of exceptional promise named Anthony Hopkins was understudying me and walked away with the part of Edgar like a cat with a mouse between its teeth".
Despite his success at the National, Hopkins tired of repeating the same roles nightly and yearned to be in movies. In 1968, he got his break in The Lion in Winter playing Richard I, along with future James Bond star Timothy Dalton, who played Philip II of France.
Although Hopkins continued in theatre (most notably in the Broadway production of Peter Shaffer's Equus, directed by John Dexter) he gradually moved away from it to become more established as a television and film actor. He made his small-screen debut in a 1967 BBC broadcast of A Flea in Her Ear. He has since gone on to enjoy a long career, winning many plaudits and awards for his performances. Hopkins was made a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in 1987, and a Knight Bachelor in 1993. In 1996, Hopkins was awarded an honorary fellowship from the University of Wales, Lampeter.
Hopkins has stated that his role as Burt Munro, whom he portrayed in his 2005 film The World's Fastest Indian, was his favourite. He also asserted that Munro was the easiest role that he had ever played because both men have a similar outlook on life.
In 2006, Hopkins was the recipient of the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement.
Hopkins is renowned for his firm preparation for roles. He has confessed in interviews that once he has committed to a project, he will go over his lines as many times as is needed (sometimes upwards of 200) until the lines sound natural to him, so that he can "do it without thinking". This leads to an almost casual style of delivery that belies the amount of groundwork done beforehand. While it can allow for some careful improvisation, it has also brought him into conflict with the occasional director who departs from the script, or demands what the actor views as an excessive number of takes. Hopkins has also stated that after he's finished with a scene, he simply discards the lines, not remembering them later on. This is unlike other actors that usually remember their lines from a film even years later.
Richard Attenborough, who has directed Hopkins on five occasions, found himself going to great lengths during the filming of Shadowlands (1993) to accommodate the differing approaches of his two stars (Hopkins and Debra Winger), who shared many scenes. Whereas Hopkins liked to keep rehearsals to a minimum, preferring the spontaneity of a fresh take, Winger rehearsed continuously. To allow for this, Attenborough stood in for Hopkins during Winger's rehearsals, only bringing him in for the last one before a take. The director praised Hopkins for "this extraordinary ability to make you believe when you hear him that it is the very first time he has ever said that line. It's an incredible gift."
In addition, Hopkins is a gifted mimic, adept at turning his native Welsh accent into whatever is required by a character. He duplicated the voice of his late mentor, Laurence Olivier, for additional scenes in Spartacus in its 1991 restoration. His interview on the 1998 relaunch edition of the British TV chat show Parkinson featured an entertaining impersonation of comedian Tommy Cooper.
Hopkins' most famous role is the cannibalistic serial killer Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs (for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1992) opposite Jodie Foster as Clarice Starling. It is the shortest lead performance to win an Oscar, with Hopkins onscreen only about 17 minutes total. Hopkins went on to reprise his role as Lecter twice (Hannibal in 2001 and Red Dragon in 2002). His original portrayal of the character in The Silence of the Lambs has been labelled by the American Film Institute as the number-one film villain. Director Jonathan Demme offered Hopkins the role of Lecter in 1989 after it had been turned down by Robert Duvall, Robert De Niro, Gene Hackman, and John Lithgow. At the time, the actor was making a return to the London stage, performing in M. Butterfly. He had come back to Britain after living for a number of years in Hollywood, having all but given up on a career there, saying, "Well that part of my life's over; it's a chapter closed. I suppose I'll just have to settle for being a respectable actor poncing around the West End and doing respectable BBC work for the rest of my life."
Hopkins soon learned, however, that Demme had thought of him for The Silence of the Lambs after remembering his performance as Dr Frederick Treves in The Elephant Man (1980). The character first appeared in the film Manhunter, which was loosely based on Red Dragon. Lecter (spelled "Lektor" in the film) was played by British actor Brian Cox. Since Red Dragon was considered a remake of Manhunter, it allowed Hopkins to play the iconic villain in adaptations of all three of the best-selling Lecter novels by Thomas Harris. The author was reportedly very pleased with Hopkins' portrayal of his antagonist. However, Hopkins stated that Red Dragon would feature his last performance as the character, and that he would not reprise even a narrative role in the latest addition to the series, Hannibal Rising.

Movie of the Day: The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

2007-10-18T14:39:00.001-07:00

“Well, Clarice - have the lambs stopped screaming?”
There are characters who make their entrance in the movie world in such a spectacular way that the actor or actress which played that character risks to be associated with him/her for the rest of his/her career. It's notably the case for Clarice Starling, but especially for Hannibal Lecter. From the moment they appeared for the first time, it became evident that Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins would forever be remembered for their iconic roles.
I have to say that it's Hannibal Lecter who impressed me the most. And that's not only the case for me. I allow myself to tell you that anecdote which happened to me. A friend of mine is some kind of horror buff and I decided to test him by showing him "The Silence of the Lambs". He passed the test successfully but I'll always remember his reaction during the famous ambulance scene. When Lecter puts off his mask to reveal his face, my friend instantly gasped. This demonstrates without any doubt the formidable power of Dr. Lecter. His only very presence is frightening. We see him and we are afraid, period.
"The Silence of the Lambs" is the first horror movie in history to be rewarded with the Academy Award for Best Picture. And believe me that it deserves that prize. The Oscars for Foster and Hopkins' acting roles also are. We often associate horror films with ghosts, demons, monsters and other creatures which come from the imaginary and the supernatural. But nothing is more horrifying than what appears real and very plausible. Alfred Hitchcock has already shown that in "Psycho" and director Jonathan Demme raises the bar with this adaptation of Thomas Harris' novel.
The story involves Clarice Starling (played by Foster), a student at the FBI Academy who is also a specialist in serial killers. One of her superiors, Jack Crawford (Scott Glenn), asks Clarice to interview the terrifying psychopath Hannibal "The Cannibal" Lecter (immaculately played by Hopkins) who is also a brilliant psychiatrist, so he could deliver clues which would lead to the capture of Buffalo Bill (Ted Levine), another serial killer actively searched by the FBI.
Lecter accepts to help Clarice, but only to the condition that she feed Lecter's sordid curiosity by confessing herself about her childhood's worst souvenirs. Why is Lecter interesting himself to Clarice's worst days? Does he want to weaken her? Does he want the bad guy to win? Or is he only a sadist and a pervert? I would go with the latter affirmation.
I think that it is useless to specify that, of all the characters, Hannibal Lecter is by far the best and the most fascinating. The other characters describe him in such a frightening and horrible way that we fear him well before we see him for the first time. And when we see him for the first time, we instantly remark his cold and menacing eyes, as well as his disturbing grin. Himself a serial killer, we can consider Lecter as one of the worst (or best, depending on how you read it) villains in the history of cinema, even if we see him killing only once. And precisely, his attack is very stylish. He kills both policemen on the strains of Johann Sebastian Bach's "The Goldberg Variations" and once he accomplished his work, we see him stained with blood, just like a painted how has just finished from making a new painting. That scene establishes a shocking parallel between murder and art.
But Lecter is only one side of this story. In fact, he's only a sub-plot. The true story involves Buffalo Bill's actions. Bill, brilliantly played by Levine, acts in nearly the whole Midwest, but his victims always are rather fat young women. Unlike many movies which hide their killer until the very end, we often see Bill in this film, even if we don't know his true identity, nor the frightening motives of his crimes until the end. The only thing we can discover about Bill is his appearing mental problems which push him to kill.
The horrors of the film aren't limited to the killers themselves. The movie is strewn with blood-chilling naturalistic images, especially the images of corpses who got parts of their skin removed. And how could we forget this unbearable image of the dead policeman with an open abdomen posing like an angel who is about to take off?
There's also a good dose of suspense, especially at the end when Clarice is chasing Bill in his labyrinthine basement. The climax of the pitch-black room while Bill is wearing his night goggles to see in the absolute darkness is breathtaking and holds suspense until the conclusion. At this moment, we're totally absorbed in that cat-and-mouse game at the point that we totally forget Lecter's existence.
"The Silence of the Lambs" is an excellent example of the horrors of the criminal acts and of psychological horror aroused by childhood traumas. Overall, the film is an immense metaphor about the horror of modern world and wants to get sure that the viewer leaves weakened and less in security than before he got inside the theater. The sinister soundtrack of Howard Shore adds to the already sordid atmosphere and the Q. Lazzarus song "Goodbye Horses" adds even more with its broken notes which resonate and give goosebumps. Personnaly, each time that I hear that song, I start thinking about Buffalo Bill who cross-dresses in front of the camera with that song playing in the background.
"The Silence of the Lambs" is a grandiose spooky symphony well-carried by Foster and Hopkins whose roles are already a part of the legend. The numerous references of the movie in the popular culture keep it well alive more than fifteen years after its release. Everybody, at least those who are able to stand horror images, should watch this movie at least once in their life… 10/10

Biography of the Day: Sienna Miller

2007-10-17T15:04:00.001-07:00

"I've wanted to be an actress for as long as I can remember, and I can say I was almost born in the theatre. My mum went into labour while she was watching the Nut-Cracker Suite in New York - apparently I was kicking like mad"
Miller was born in New York City on December 28, 1981 and moved to England with her family as a child, where she attended the Heathfield school in Ascot, Berkshire and later studied for a year at the Lee Strasberg Institute with luminaries such as Will Lee and Koni Summer in New York City.
Her father, Edward Miller, is an American banker born in Meadville, Pennsylvania. Her mother, Josephine Miller, who is South African, ran Lee Strasberg's acting academy in London. Her parents parted when she was six years old.
Prior to her professional acting career, Miller worked as a photographic model. She signed with Tandy Anderson, and modeled for Coca-Cola, Italian Vogue, Prada and the 2003 Pirelli Calendar.
Miller signed a two-year contract with Pepe Jeans London; the jeans ad campaign first appeared in magazines March 2006. Miller posed for Vanity Fair magazine's 2006 "Hollywood Issue" topless and smoking a cigarette.
She appeared on the December 2004 and the February 2006 cover of British Vogue, and will appear on the September 2007 cover of U.S. Vogue
In her early career, Miller performed in several New York City plays including The Striker, Independence, and Oscar-winning director Anthony Minghella's Cigarettes & Chocolate. Miller had a recurring role in Simon West's television action drama series Keen Eddie (2003-4).
In 2005, Miller made her West End debut as Celia in Shakespeare's As You Like It alongside Helen McCrory, Dominic West and Reece Shearsmith. She played the role of Rosalind for one performance, when McCrory, the actress playing the lead, fell ill.
In 2001 she made her film debut with South Kensington, with Rupert Everett and Elle Macpherson. Her next projects, in 2003, were High Speed and The Ride (aka Joy-Rider). In 2004 Miller had supporting roles in the remake of the 1966 movie Alfie starring Jude Law. In the same year, she made Layer Cake. The next year she played the female lead opposite Heath Ledger in the period drama, Casanova. In 2006 she starred in Factory Girl, a film about 1960s socialite and Andy Warhol's muse Edie Sedgwick that opened December 29, 2006. Although the film has been deemed controversial, her performance has received acclaim. Works opposite James Franco in the horror comedy Camille In 2007 she stars in Interview directed by Steve Buscemi. Also stars opposite Michelle Pfeiffer and Robert De Niro in the fantasy epic Stardust. Appears in the film version of writer Michael Chabon's novel, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, also starring Peter Sarsgaard. Works on The Edge of Love, a biopic of Dylan Thomas in which she plays his wife Caitlin; Hippie Hippie Shake a new Working Title production directed by Beeban Kidron; and Importance, a contemporary re-working of Oscar Wilde's A Woman of No Importance.

Movie of the Day: Stardust (2007)

2007-10-17T15:02:00.001-07:00

“A philosopher once asked, "Are we human because we gaze at the stars, or do we gaze at them because we are human?" Pointless, really...”Do the stars gaze back?" Now *that's* a question.”
I went into Stardust today expecting a decent, entertaining movie, but if I am very honest I wasn't expecting a masterpiece. The trailers looks fun, the storyline sounded interesting and the big names in the case obviously made me a bit more excited. But as I sat down, I was expecting just a light, easy movie. And that is what I got, a light, easygoing movie. Its a nice movie, its a movie with magic, evil villains, dashing heroes, heroins in need of rescue and all that other traditional stuff. This is a fantasy movie that is just so enchanting that I guarantee you cannot help but leave the cinema with a huge smile on your face. Sure there is a bit at the three quarter mark the quality sags slightly, but the ending more than redeems things and the rest of the movie beforehand is as perfect as you could ever hope for. The movie works so well because its a perfect blend of fantasy, romance, action and comedy all into one. In many ways I can see this as a new Pirates of the Caribbean, it has the exact same mode, and believe it or not there is a new pirate threatening to steals Johnny Depp's thunder. And that man is Robert DeNiro, in his best performance in ages! The effects might not be to the big Hollywood standards, but they are passable, and besides the scenery is so beautiful you don't actually care. I never though that England could look as good as New Zealand until today!
So first on with the cast, and there are some big names to mention here. But first there is the newcomer, Charlie Cox taking on leading man duties. I expected Cox to flounder to be honest, most newcomers when put on the screen with the likes of Michelle Pfeiffer and Robert DeNiro are shunned aside and just there to propel the plot. However, Cox actually proves he has a huge amount of talent and is a very likable person. Of course he's overshadowed when the greats are on the screen, but he more than holds his own for the majority of the time. Also he does comedy with great aplomb, and in general he seems just a great talent that I hope to see in more movies. Claire Danes does a pretty decent job as the actual Star from the title. At first she doesn't seem to be that great, her character seems a little bit irritating to be honest, but towards the end she does really grow on you, and its surprising to find that you actually care for her. However, the real star of the movie for me has to be Michelle Pfeiffer as the evil witch Lania. I thought she was impressive in Hairspray, however her villain performance in that seems more preparation for Stardust than anything else. She literally chews the scenery and spits out her lines with a real venom. This is one of her best performances and she is a true joy to watch. Another big surprise is just how good Robert DeNiro is in this movie, and what's better is just how surprising his character is. I don't want to ruin his character as its just too much fun, and he definitely has the best scene in the movie. Mark Strong plays the role of Prince Septimus very well and has a few great moments, especially a very good bit near the end. Special mentions must go the Ian Mckellen who narrates, Sienna Miller and Peter O'Toole.
The key however to Stardust's perfection is the storyline and comedy really. The storyline itself is a bit more multi-layered than I expected. In many ways it follows three plots at once. Firstly there is Tristan and Yvaine's story to get back to The Wall, secondly there is the princes story and finally there is Larnia's quest to find the star to restore her eternal youth. Along the way their stories coincide and they meet interesting and bizarre characters. This storyline, while pretty simplistic and kid friendly, just works because of its simplicity, its just nice and easy to follow. The nice blend of comedy to lighten proceedings makes things all the better, in fact there are many surprisingly funny moments in the movie. Also, to be honest I am amazed this got a PG rating, there are some pretty violent moments for kids, especially towards the ending, and also some of the jokes might be a bit raunchy for the little kids. But that's a mere quibble. There are a couple of pretty impressive action set pieces to balance the humour. A very impressive sequence involves Larnia's trap in an inn, that scene is superbly executed, and the final big battle there are various parts to the battle, all of which are perfect.
So any flaws? As I've mentions the movie does sag a bit at the three quarters bit, unsurprisingly enough its the bit when we see the least of Larnia. But when the movie threatens to drag thankfully the ending comes in sight and the superb ending arrives to save the movie. In terms of entertainment this is the best movie I have seen all year. Funny, action packed and entertaining. This is about as perfect a movie for Half Term you could ever wish for. Do you like fantasy movies? Then you must to see this movie as it truly is a magical experience... 9/10

Biography of the Day: Martin Scorsese

2007-10-16T15:04:00.000-07:00

"Because of the movies I make, people get nervous, because they think of me as difficult and angry. I am difficult and angry, but they don't expect a sense of humor. And the only thing that gets me through is a sense of humor."
Scorsese attended New York University's film making the short films What's a Nice Girl Like You Doing in a Place Like This? (1963) and It's Not Just You, Murray! (1964). His most famous short of the period is the darkly comic The Big Shave (1967), which featured an unnamed man who shaves himself until profusely bleeding, ultimately slitting his own throat with his razor. The film is an indictment of America's involvement in Vietnam, suggested by its alternative title Viet '67.
Also in 1967, Scorsese made his first feature-length film, the black and white Who's That Knocking at My Door with fellow student, actor Harvey Keitel, and editor Thelma Schoonmaker both of whom were to become long-term collaborators. This film was a precursor to his later Mean Streets. Even in embryonic form, the "Scorsese style" was already evident: a feel for New York Italian American street-life, rapid editing, an eclectic rock soundtrack and a troubled male protagonist.
From there he became a friend and acquaintance of the so-called "movie brats" of the 1970s: Francis Ford Coppola, Brian De Palma, George Lucas, and Steven Spielberg. It was De Palma who introduced actor Robert DeNiro to Scorsese, and the two figures became close friends, working together on many projects. During this period the director worked as one of the editors on the movie In 1972 Scorsese made the Depression-era gangster film Boxcar Bertha for B-movie producer Roger Corman, who had also helped directors such as Francis Ford Coppola, James Cameron and John Sayles launch their careers. While it is widely considered a minor work, Boxcar Bertha nonetheless taught Scorsese how to make films cheaply and quickly, preparing him for his first film with De Niro, Mean Streets.
Championed by influential movie critic Pauline Kael, Mean Streets was a breakthrough for Scorsese, De Niro and Keitel. Although the film was innovative, its wired atmosphere, edgy documentary style and gritty street-level direction owed a debt to directors Cassavetes and early Jean-Luc Godard. In 1974 actress Ellen Burstyn chose Scorsese to direct her in Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, for which she won an Academy Award for Best Actress. Although well regarded, the film remains an anomaly in the director’s early career, as it focuses on a central female character.
In 1976, Scorsese sent shockwaves through the cinema world when he directed the iconic Taxi Driver, an unrelentingly grim and violent portrayal of one man's slow descent into insanity in a hellishly conceived Manhattan. Scorsese's direction by now was highly accomplished, using jump cuts, expressionist lighting, point of view shots and slow motion to reflect the protagonist's heightened psychological awareness. However Taxi Driver's immense power was due in part to Robert De Niro's intense lead performance. The film co-starred Jodie Foster in a highly controversial role as an underage prostitute, and Harvey Keitel as her pimp, "Sport" Matthew.
Taxi Driver also marked the start of a series of collaborations with writer Paul Schrader. Already controversial upon its release, Taxi Driver hit the headlines again five years later, when John Hinckley, Jr. made an assassination attempt on then-President Ronald Reagan. He subsequently blamed his act on his obsession with Jodie Foster's Taxi Driver character (in the film, De Niro’s character, Travis Bickle, makes an assassination attempt on a senator). Taxi Driver won the Palme d'Or at the 1976 Cannes film festival, also receiving four Oscar nominations, including Best Picture.
The critical success of Taxi Driver encouraged Scorsese to move ahead with his first big-budget project: the highly stylized musical New York, New York. This tribute to Scorsese's home town and the classic Hollywood musical was a box-office and critical failure. New York, New York was the director's third collaboration with Robert De Niro, co-starring with Liza Minnelli. Although possessing Scorsese's usual visual panache and stylistic bravura, many critics felt its enclosed studio-bound atmosphere left it leaden in comparison to his earlier work. The disappointing reception New York, New York received drove Scorsese into depression. By this stage the director had also developed a serious cocaine addiction. However, he did find the creative drive to make the highly regarded The Last Waltz, documenting the final concert by The Band.
By many accounts (Scorsese's included), Robert De Niro practically saved his life when he persuaded him to kick his cocaine addiction to make what many consider his greatest film, Raging Bull (1980). Convinced that he would never make another movie, he poured his energies into making this violent biopic of middleweight boxing champion Jake La Motta, calling it a Kamikaze method of film-making. The film is widely viewed as a masterpiece and was voted the greatest film of the 1980s by Britain's Sight & Sound magazine. It received eight Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Best Actor for Robert De Niro, and Scorsese's first for Best Director. De Niro won, as did Thelma Schoonmaker for editing, but best director went to Robert Redford for Ordinary People. Raging Bull, filmed in high contrast black and white, is where the director's style reached its zenith: Taxi Driver and New York, New York had used elements of expressionism to replicate psychological point of view, but here the style was taken to new extremes, employing extensive slow-motion, complex tracking shots, and extravagant distortion of perspective (for example, the size of boxing rings would change from fight to fight). Thematically too, the concerns carried on from Mean Streets and Taxi Driver: insecure males, violence, guilt, and redemption.
Although the screenplay for Raging Bull was credited to Paul Schrader and Mardik Martin, the finished script differed extensively from Schrader’s original draft. It was re-written several times by various writers including Jay Cocks. The final draft was largely written by Scorsese and Robert De Niro.
Scorsese’s next project was his fifth collaboration with Robert De Niro, The King of Comedy (1983). An absurdist satire on the world of media and celebrity, it was an obvious departure from the more emotionally committed films he had become associated with. Visually too it was far less kinetic than the style the director had developed up until this point, often using a static camera and long takes. However it was still an obvious Scorsese work, and apart from the New York locale, it bore many similarities to Taxi Driver, not least of which was its focus on an obsessed troubled loner who ironically achieves iconic status through a criminal act (murder and kidnapping, respectively). The King of Comedy failed at the box office but has become increasingly well regarded by critics in the years since its release. It is arguable that its themes of vacuous show business and celebrity obsession are more pertinent today than when the film was originally released.
After the collapse of “The Last Temptation of Christ “ project, Scorsese again saw his career at a critical point. He saw that in the increasingly commercial world of 1980s Hollywood the highly stylized and personal 1970s films he and others had built their careers on would not continue to enjoy the same status, and decided on an almost totally new approach to his work. With After Hours (1985) he made an aesthetic shift back to a pared-down, almost "underground" film-making style — his way of staying viable. Filmed on an extremely low budget, on location, and at night in the SoHo neighborhood of Manhattan, the film is a black comedy about one increasingly misfortunate night for a mild New York word processor. A bit of a stylistic anomaly for Scorsese, After Hours fits in well with popular low-budget "cult" films of the 1980s.
Along with the iconic 1987 Michael Jackson music video Bad, in 1986 Scorsese made The Color of Money, a sequel to the much admired Paul Newman film The Hustler (1960). Although typically visually assured, The Color of Money was the director's first foray into mainstream commercial film-making. It won actor Paul Newman a belated Oscar and gave Scorsese the clout to finally secure backing for a project that had been a long time goal for him: The Last Temptation of Christ.
After his mid-80s flirtation with commercial Hollywood, Scorsese made a major return to personal film-making with the Paul Schrader-scripted The Last Temptation of Christ in 1988. Based on Nikos Kazantzakis's controversial 1951 book, it retold the life of Christ in human rather than divine terms. Looking past the controversy, The Last Temptation of Christ gained critical acclaim and remains an important work in Scorsese's canon: an explicit attempt to wrestle with the spirituality which had under-pinned his films up until that point. The director went on to receive his second nomination for a Best Director Academy Award (again unsuccessfully, this time losing to Barry Levinson for Rain Man).
After a decade of mostly mixed results, gangster epic Goodfellas (1990) was a return to form for Scorsese and his most confident and fully realized film since Raging Bull. A return to Little Italy, De Niro, and Joe Pesci, Goodfellas offered a virtuoso display of the director's bravura cinematic technique and re-established, enhanced, and consolidated his reputation. The film is widely considered one of the director's greatest achievements. However, Goodfellas also signified an important shift in tone in the director's work, inaugurating an era in his career which was technically accomplished but some have argued emotionally detached. Despite this, many view Goodfellas as a Scorsese archetype — the apogee of his cinematic technique. Scorsese earned his third Best Director nomination for Goodfellas but again lost to a first-time director, Kevin Costner (Dances with Wolves). The film also earned Joe Pesci an Academy Award (Best Supporting Actor)
1991 brought Cape Fear, a remake of a cult 1962 movie of the same name, and the director's seventh collaboration with De Niro. Another foray in to the mainstream, the film was a stylized Grand Guignol thriller taking its cues heavily from Alfred Hitchcock and Charles Laughton's The Night of the Hunter (1955). Cape Fear received a mixed critical reception and was lambasted in many quarters for its scenes depicting misogynistic violence. However, the lurid subject matter did give Scorsese a chance to experiment with a dazzling array of visual tricks and effects.
The opulent and handsomely mounted The Age of Innocence (1993) was on the surface a huge departure for Scorsese, a period adaptation of Edith Wharton's novel about the constrictive high society of late-19th Century New York. It was highly lauded by critics upon original release, but was a box office bomb. However, it is much closer to Scorsese's other films than one would expect with underlying themes of guilt discernible in his other films being evident, as well as the theme of a young man trying to lead a good life amid obstacles and temptations, which is evident in almost all his films. In fact Scorsese claimed that not only does he consider this his most "violent" film, but his most personal, the one that came closest to his original personal vision, and considers this his highest achievement, along with the severely underrated Kundun. The film earned five Academy Award nominations (including for Scorsese for Best Adapted Screenplay), winning the Costume Design Oscar.
1995's expansive Casino, like The Age of Innocence before it, focused on a tightly wound male whose well-ordered life is disrupted by the arrival of unpredictable forces. The fact that it was a violent gangster film made it more palatable to fans of the director who perhaps were baffled by the apparent departure of the earlier film. Critically, however, Casino received mixed notices. In large part this was due to its huge stylistic similarities to his earlier Goodfellas. Indeed many of the tropes and tricks of the earlier film resurfaced more or less intact, most obviously the casting of Joe Pesci as an unbridled psychopath. Casino was by some considerable distance perhaps Scorsese’s most violent and detached film, its early establishing scenes verging on documentary. Sharon Stone was nominated for the Best Actress Academy Award for her performance.
If The Age of Innocence alienated and confused some fans, then Kundun (1997) went several steps further, offering an account of the early life of the Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama, the invasion of Tibet by China, and the Dalai Lama's subsequent exile to India. Not least a departure in subject matter, Kundun also saw Scorsese employing a fresh narrative and visual approach. In the short term, the sheer eclecticism in evidence enhanced the director’s reputation. In the long term however, it generally appears Kundun has been sidelined in most critical appraisals of the director, mostly noted as a stylistic and thematic detour.
Bringing Out the Dead (1999) was a return to familiar territory, with the director and writer Paul Schrader constructing a pitch-black comic take on their own earlier Taxi Driver. Like previous Scorsese-Schrader collaborations, its final scenes of spiritual redemption explicitly recalled the films of Robert Bresson. It received generally positive reviews, although not the universal critical acclaim of some of his other films.
With a production budget said to be in excess of $100 million, Gangs of New York was Scorsese's biggest and arguably most mainstream venture to date. Like The Age of Innocence, it was a 19th century-set New York movie, although focusing on the other end of the social scale (and like that film, also starring Daniel Day-Lewis). The production was highly troubled with many rumors referring to the director’s conflict with Miramax boss Harvey Weinstein. Despite denials of artistic compromise, Gangs of New York revealed itself to be the director's most conventional film: standard film tropes which the director had traditionally avoided, such as characters existing purely for exposition purposes and explanatory flashbacks, here surfaced in abundance. The original score composed by regular Scorsese collaborator Elmer Bernstein was rejected at a late stage for a more conventional score by Howard Shore and mainstream rock artists U2 and Peter Gabriel. The final cut of the movie ran to 168 minutes, while the director's original cut was over three hours in length. Nonetheless, the themes central to the film were consistent with the director's established concerns: New York, violence as culturally endemic, and sub-cultural divisions down ethnic lines. Originally filmed for a release in the winter of 2001 (to qualify for Academy Award nominations), Scorsese delayed the final production of the film until after the beginning of 2002; the studio consequently delayed the film for nearly a year until its release in the Oscar season of late 2002. Gangs of New York earned Scorsese his first Golden Globe for Best Director. In February of 2003, Gangs of New York received ten Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor for Daniel Day-Lewis. This was Scorsese's fourth Best Director nomination, and many thought it was finally his year to win. Ultimately, however, the film took home not a single Academy Award, and Scorsese lost his category to Roman Polanski for The Pianist.
Scorsese's film The Aviator (2004), was a lavish, large-scale biopic of director, producer, legendary eccentric, multi-millionaire, and aviation pioneer Howard Hughes. The film received highly positive reviews. The film also met with widespread box office success and gained Academy recognition. The Aviator was nominated for six Golden Globe awards, including Best Picture - Drama, Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Actor - Drama for Leonardo DiCaprio. It won three, including Best Picture & Actor - Drama. In January of 2005, The Aviator became the most-nominated film of the 77th Academy Award nominations, nominated in 11 categories including Best Picture. The film also garnered nominations in nearly all of the other major categories, including a fifth Best Director nomination for Scorsese, Best Actor (Leonardo DiCaprio), Best Supporting Actress (Cate Blanchett), and Alan Alda for Best Supporting Actor. Despite having a leading tally, the film ended up with only five Oscars: Best Supporting Actress, Art Direction, Costume Design, Film Editing and Cinematography. Scorsese lost again, this time to director Clint Eastwood for Million Dollar Baby (which also won Best Picture).
Scorsese returned to the crime genre with the Boston-set thriller The Departed, based on the Hong Kong police drama Infernal Affairs. The film reunited the director with Leonardo DiCaprio, an actor he has worked with for three consecutive projects. The Departed also brought Scorsese together with Jack Nicholson. The Departed opened to widespread critical acclaim with some proclaiming it as one of the best efforts Scorsese had brought to the screen since 1990s Goodfellas, and still others putting it at the same level as Scorsese's most celebrated classics Taxi Driver, and Raging Bull. With domestic box office receipts surpassing $129,402,536, The Departed is Scorsese's highest grossing film (not accounting for inflation). Martin Scorsese's direction of The Departed earned him his second Golden Globe for Best Director, as well as a Critic's Choice Award, his first Director's Guild of America Award, and the Academy Award for Best Director. The award was thought to be long overdue, and some entertainment critics subsequently referred to it as Scorsese's "Lifetime Achievement" Oscar, or the "Taxi Driver/Raging Bull/Goodfellas" Oscar. It was presented to him by his longtime friends and colleagues Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola, and George Lucas, all fellow members of the New Hollywood generation. The Departed also received the Academy Award for the Best Motion Picture of 2006, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Film Editing by longtime Scorsese editor Thelma Schoonmaker, her third win for a Scorsese film.

Movie of the Day: Taxi Driver (1976)

2007-10-16T15:01:00.001-07:00

“You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me? Then who the hell else are you talking... you talking to me? Well I'm the only one here. Who the fuck do you think you're talking to? Oh yeah? OK.”
If a picture is worth a thousand words then this movie (moving picture) is worth a million words, which is why it has probably generated at least a million words.
What can one say… The obvious: that "Taxi Driver" is great, it is. That it is a masterpiece, it is. What sets this film apart from so many other films, including great films, is that it is an enigma. Every time I watch this film I see something else, I notice something else, I feel something else, I wonder something else. And I am, clearly, not the only one who reacts to the film this way that is why it lends itself to endless speculation and discussion.
Travis Bickle is the sort of person you wouldn't even see if you encountered him on the street - and if you did take note of him, you would make a point to ignore him. He is a non-entity. In his role as a cabbie, you would be aware of him only in the same way you would notice the color of the upholstery or be aware of a strange smell inside the cab.
On the rare occasion that Travis might make his presence felt, you would tolerate his existence - maybe even graciously acknowledge him with a smile or a noncommittal comment. You would only remember Travis if he said or did something particularly rude or offensive or bizarre; and then only as long as you might remember what you had for lunch or what your horoscope said.
There is no reason to remember, or to feel bad about not remembering, a Travis Bickle because he has no real effect on your life. He does a job, he fills a space; just like millions of other anonymous everyday workers. But the sad thing about Travis is that he has no real effect on anyone. Most people have a life - family, friends, interests, a purpose beyond being part of the machinery. Travis only has a job. You would not notice Travis, but Travis might notice you. And judge you: He might decide that you are part of what makes life worth tolerating, but more likely he might see you as part of what makes the world an unbearable hell.
It is the nature of film that when it casts an eye toward the "little guy," the attempt is to show that the ordinary man has something extraordinary about him that society is missing - even if that is just an everyday niceness. This being a Martin Scorsese film, written by Paul Schrader, filmmakers with a near-suicidal view of mankind, the point of Taxi Driver is just the opposite. If Travis Bickle is a remarkable person in any sense, it is in a negative way. Travis is not a good man; he is petty and mean-spirited and bigoted and self-absorbed and judgmental. He views the world with contempt; he has to, he has to have more hate for the world than he has for himself.
Taxi Driver is the story of a man living the proverbial life of quite desperation. In self-imposed isolation, Travis is mentally unstable, and probably was long before the film starts. Travis, like Norman Bates hides his insanity behind a facade of banality and nurses it with his loneliness. Insignificant men with a significant amount of pent up anger. The main difference - and it is a telling difference - is that we don't see Norman's rage until the end, it takes us by surprise; while we never doubt that Travis has inner demons. What Travis does is a foregone conclusion.
Paul Schrader's dark, oppressive script pointedly refers to Travis as a walking contradiction, often at the cost of the story's credibility. He's not particularly bright and at times almost shockingly slow, but his journal entries are surprisingly articulate. He declares a woman to be "an angel," but is dismayed that she is offended by being taken to a porno film. He claims to have an honorable discharge from the marines, yet he seems to have been born yesterday, not even knowing the meaning of a common phrase like "moonlighting." Schrader's superficial screenplay is long on obscenities and racial slurs, but short on simple logic.
The shortcomings of the script are offset to a great degree by solid performances and Scorsese's stylish direction. As Travis, Robert DeNiro is in virtually every scene and even though the screenplay falters at various times, DeNiro holds the film together with a consistency of tone and insight. Forgoing his usual bombastic method posturing (during most of the film), DeNiro plays Travis with a compassion that makes this otherwise horrid little man pitiable, if not sympathetic. He makes us care for Travis, even though the story offers us no real reason to. Jodie Foster, playing the child prostitute to whom Travis hopes to play savior, still has the youthful freshness and wise innocence that made her a treasure as a child actress.
Scorsese sees in Travis' New York City a teeming cesspool, but with cinematographer Michael Chapman, he makes it the most photogenic cesspool imaginable. He doesn't romanticize New York, but he does romanticize Travis' seething hatred of the city. However, he does wisely counterpoint Travis grubby view of the world with a sense of a real world, where friends and co-workers joke and talk and, well, exist. Unlike Raging Bull, Goodfellas and Casino, Scorsese films where psychotic characters exist in closed worlds where their lunatic behavior seems the norm, Taxi Driver underscores Travis' outsider status by giving us a realistic world that he is isolated from. As such, Taxi Driver has an honesty that his other violent epics lack.
But Scorsese provides us with at least two scenes that ring utterly false. His own gratuitous cameo as a passenger graphically boasting of his plans to murder his wife seems to be Scorsese's way of showing that there are people who are even crazier than Travis. Why? To suggest that Travis is justified in his paranoia? Also the final climatic bloodbath provided only a cheap shock at the time and now seems like a tiresome cliché of special effects gore. Such over the top mayhem doesn't underscore the brutality of the violence, it trivializes the rest of the film. Taxi Driver, like DeNiro's performances, is best in its still moments of quiet desperation.
The irony of the violence is that it eventually makes Travis famous, though it could have just as easily have made him infamous. The bullets that kill the pimp could have killed the politician. In Travis' mind they are pretty much the same. Unfortunately, I don't think some people get that. Travis, in the end, is not a hero, he is a murder. He is not purged of his demons; they are just temporarily placated. The famed "you talking' to me?" scene has reached iconic status, symbolic of tough-guy cool - not unlike Dirty Harry's "Make my day." But both Travis and Harry are dangerous icons; filmgoers delude themselves into accepting their insane displays of violence because the right make-believe characters get killed. They are protected by the fantasy of film; in the real world they would eventually be revealed to be the monsters. To his credit, Scorsese at least suggests that in the end Travis Bickle is still insane, and armed and dangerous.

Even so, the ending is uncomfortably ambiguous: I don't think that Scorsese is as afraid of Travis' insanity as he is in awe of it… 10/10

Biography of the Day: Dustin Hoffman

2007-10-15T15:35:00.001-07:00

“You go to the cinema and you realize you're watching the third act. There is no first or second act. There is this massive film-making where you spend this incredible amount of money and play right to the demographic. You can tell how much money the film is going to make by how it does on the first weekend. The whole culture is in the crap house. It's not just true in the movies, it's also true in the theater.”
Hoffman performed at the Pasadena Playhouse for two years with fellow actor Gene Hackman, who were both voted notoriously by their class as "Least Likely To Succeed", as both actors didn't fit in with the traditional norms of the blonde, surf tanned performers in demand at the time. Determined to prove his classmates wrong, Hackman headed for New York City and told Hoffman to call him if he were to come to New York City. Hoffman took Hackman up on his offer and soon after followed his friend to New York, where he worked a series of odd jobs, such as coat checking at restaurants, working in the typing department of the city Yellow Pages directory, or stringing Hawaiian leis, while getting the occasional bit television role. To support himself, he left acting briefly to teach. He also worked as a professional fragrance tester for Maxwell House. In 1960, Hoffman landed a role in an off-Broadway production and followed with a walk-on role in a Broadway production in 1961.
Hoffman then studied at the famed Actors Studio and became a dedicated method actor.
Through the early and mid-1960s, Hoffman made appearances early in his career on many television shows and movies, including Naked City, The Defenders and Hallmark Hall of Fame. Hoffman made his theatrical film debut in The Tiger Makes Out in 1967, alongside Eli Wallach.
In 1966, young up-and-coming director Mike Nichols, fresh off a Best Director Oscar- nomination for his film Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, began casting his next film The Graduate. The first choice for the role of Benjamin Braddock, Warren Beatty, soon dropped out. The second choice was Robert Redford, who also wanted the role, but agreed with Nichols that he was too charming and popular to play the role of a sweaty-palmed, sexually uncomfortable virgin.
Hoffman had been set to play the role of Nazi playwright Franz Liebkind in Mel Brooks' 1968 movie The Producers. He awoke Brooks late one evening by throwing small rocks at his apartment window. Hoffman said his agent had gotten him an audition with Mike Nichols for the lead in The Graduate. Thinking he would never get the part because they would be looking for someone who was actually attractive, Brooks allowed Hoffman to go to Los Angeles. Hungry for a role, Hoffman auditioned for the film and, luckily, he came through with the exact amount of awkwardness necessary for the role. A day or two later, Brooks was informed of the news and Kenneth Mars was cast in the role of Liebkind instead. Hoffman was cast, and the film began production in March 1967. Hoffman received an Academy Award nomination for his performance in The Graduate. The film was nominated for the Best Picture Oscar and Nichols took home the award for Best Director. The Graduate was also subsequently voted as the #7 Greatest American Movie of All-Time by the AFI.
After the success of this film, another Hoffman film, Madigan's Millions - shot before The Graduate - was released on the tail of the actor's newfound success. It was considered a failure at the box office.
Hoffman was considered for the role of Ratso Rizzo in the film version of James Leo Herlihy's novel Midnight Cowboy after producer Jerome Hellman saw Hoffman in his one-man-show "Eh!". According to Hoffman, he thought he had proactively kinked the Ratso Rizzo chain by appearing in The Graduate, by now an international smash hit. He found his Strasberg training taking over when, to prove his dedication to the role, he asked the producer to meet him on a street corner in Manhattan. Without the producer's knowledge, Hoffman dressed up as a homeless man and begged for money on the streets. When the producer arrived, he took the man for an everyday beggar and paid no attention. Hoffman walked up to him several minutes later and introduced himself. Shocked, the producer questioned no further whether Hoffman could play Rizzo or not.
In one scene Rizzo and Joe Buck (Jon Voight) are walking a street crossing in New York City when a car almost hits the two of them. "Hey, I'm walkin' here! I'm walkin' here!" Rizzo exclaims, feverishly smacking the hood of the car. The quote has become one of the most famous in film history, recently voted #27 on AFI's Top 100 Movie Quotes Of All Time. Hoffman claims that the incident with the car was totally unscripted and ad-libbed. Hoffman received his second Academy Award nomination for Midnight Cowboy. Ironically, both Hoffman and Jon Voight lost the award to John Wayne, for playing an actual cowboy character in True Grit.
Hoffman could now get the parts he dreamed of ten years earlier. Instead of making large Hollywood films, however, Hoffman more often opted to take roles in smaller-scale, character-driven films.
Under Arthur Penn's direction, Hoffman plays the character Jack Crabb from teenager to the age of 121 years in the film Little Big Man (1970). Crabb is a man who, on his death bed, recalls his life of struggle and adventure. A precursor to films like Forrest Gump, the film found Crabb in the middle of historical events, such as the battle at Little Big Horn alongside General Custer. Mostly comedic, the film was widely praised by critics, but was overlooked for an award except for a supporting nomination for Chief Dan George.
Next was Straw Dogs. In his second film since The Wild Bunch, director Sam Peckinpah created one of the most startling depictions of societal violence ever on film. Hoffman (against his will, committed by contract) portrayed David, an American who moves with his wife (Susan George) to her home village in rural England, surrounded by violent men with lustful intentions. The film depicts graphically the primality of physical and sexual violence to a shocking degree, a quality that polarized audiences and critics alike. The film has found a cult audience since the acceptance of Peckinpah as a revolutionary of film directing.
Alongside Steve McQueen and under the direction of Patton director Franklin J. Schaffner, Hoffman made his largest film to date. Papillon told the story of inmates on an island prison who plot their escape. Domestically, the film brought in more than four times its budget. In director Bob Fosse's highly experimental Lenny, Hoffman portrayed pioneering stand-up comedian Lenny Bruce in a jarring performance, covering Bruce's onstage charisma and his tragic fall from grace. The film was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor (Hoffman). This would mark Hoffman's third nomination in seven years.
Less than two years after Watergate ended with the resignation of Richard Nixon, director Alan J. Pakula put to celluloid the story of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein's investigation and ultimate unveiling of the truth behind the Watergate scandal, All the President's Men. Hoffman portrayed Carl Bernstein and Robert Redford portrayed Bob Woodward in the film, which garnered eight Oscar nominations, though none for Hoffman or Redford.
Reteaming with John Schlesinger, the director of Midnight Cowboy, Hoffman starred in Marathon Man, a film about the human psyche under the stress of confusion, torment and torture. The film was based on William Goldman's novel of the same name, which he adapted into a screenplay himself. Marathon Man found Hoffman re-facing the themes of distress and anger that he encountered on Straw Dogs, though this film was more conventional.
In the film's most famous scene, Olivier tortures Hoffman while repeating the seemingly non-sequitur question: "Is it safe?" The quote was voted as the 70th greatest quote in the history of film by AFI. To achieve his character's exhausted look in this scene, Hoffman deprived himself of sleep for two days. During the filming Olivier famously said to Hoffman "Try acting. . . It's much easier!" For scenes in which Hoffman was to appear breathless, he would run a half mile until the moment Schlesinger called "action". After this film, Hoffman said that he would no longer play "young" roles like being a college student in Marathon Man (he was 40 at the time of its release).
In his first true failure, Hoffman found himself in Michael Apted's Agatha. The film tagline describes it as "a fictional solution to the real mystery of Agatha Christie's disappearance." Vanessa Redgrave starred as Agatha Christie. Controversy arose when the script was adjusted to accommodate Dustin Hoffman's starpower. Agatha producer David Puttnam left the production and swore he would never again work with Dustin Hoffman.
Directed by Robert Benton, Kramer Vs. Kramer featured Hoffman as workaholic Ted Kramer whose wife unexpectedly leaves him, and he has to raise their son alone. Hurt and stunned, Ted is forced to juggle his priorities: success in advertising and single parenthood. In traditional feel-good fashion, he comes to see what's truly important and finds himself growing up far too late. When his ex-wife returns to reclaim their child, he finds everything he's fixed breaking all over again. Hoffman starred alongside Meryl Streep in the film, which earned Hoffman his first Academy Award. The film also received the Best Picture honor, as well as Supporting Actress (Streep) and Director.
In Sydney Pollack's Tootsie, Hoffman portrays Michael Dorsey, a struggling actor who finds himself unable to land a job due to his stigma of being a "difficult actor" (a title to which Hoffman wasn't a stranger). Amidst the threat of ultimate failure and poverty, Michael comes up with a plan: Dress up as a woman (Dorothy Michaels) and land a role on a soap opera. Not only does he get the job, he also becomes an extremely popular character on the show. To make things worse, he develops a crush on a co-worker (Jessica Lange) who unfortunately doesn't know that Dorothy Michaels is Michael Dorsey.
Hoffman then turned to television in the role of Willy Lohman in Death of a Salesman, for which he was awarded the 1985 Emmy Award for Outstanding lead actor in a TV movie or miniseries. He would also go on to win a Golden Globe for the same performance.
Director Barry Levinson's Rain Man chronicles the reunion of two brothers after the death of their estranged father. One, Charlie Babbitt (Tom Cruise), is an indebted car salesman while the other, Raymond Babbitt (Hoffman), is an institutionalized autistic savant. Never knowing of any brother, and upon finding out that Raymond is to receive his father's fortune, Charlie takes Raymond away from the institution. Because Raymond refuses to fly, they are forced to drive back to California. During the course of this trip, Charlie finds himself forever transformed.
Because Hoffman shows no emotion throughout the entire film, it took careful crafting to make sure that Cruise's transformation was noticeable to audiences. So Levinson, Hoffman and Cruise worked for two years on this film. In that time, they decided that Hoffman's role in the film was simply Cruise's divine intervention. Because Hoffman's blankness is so strong, the audience shapes him into whatever they want him to be, and feel sympathy. Hoffman's nuanced performance has been hailed by many as the greatest of all time. The performance earned Hoffman his second Oscar. Upon accepting his second Oscar, Hoffman stated softly to his fellow nominees that it was okay if they didn't vote for him because "I didn't vote for you guys either."
Throughout the 1990s, Hoffman would appear in many large, studio films. Warren Beatty directed and starred as the title character in the film adaptation of Dick Tracy. Hoffman would do his Ishtar co-star a friendly favor by playing a small role in the film under heavy make-up. He played Mumbles, a hesitant squealer who speaks extremely fast. The character of Mumbles was supposedly based on producer Robert Evans. The film flopped at the box office and was critically panned, though has recently reached cult status.
In his biggest film yet, Hoffman played the title role of Captain Hook in Steven Spielberg's Hook. Robin Williams co-starred in the film as the grown-up Peter Pan, who ends up back in Neverland after his kids are kidnapped by the Captain. At $70 million, Hook was easily the most expensive film Spielberg had made up to that point, and was a huge success at the box office. The film earned Hoffman a Golden Globe nomination.
Fresh off his smash hit In the Line of Fire, director Wolfgang Petersen decided to make a film fictionalizing the then-threatening Ebola virus. Starring alongside Rene Russo, Kevin Spacey, Morgan Freeman, Cuba Gooding Jr. and Donald Sutherland, Hoffman plays the ignored whistle blower in the film. Outbreak went on to recoup its budget, but made very little profit.
In Rain Man director Barry Levinson's period drama Sleepers, four childhood friends find themselves reunited after bloody revenge is committed against their childhood abuser. Hoffman played bumbling defense attorney Danny Snider in the film. Good reviews and decent box office led the film to cult status.
Hoffman starred opposite John Travolta in popular Greek director Costa Gavras' Mad City, a film about a man who takes a history museum hostage after losing his job. In the movie, Hoffman portrayed Max Brackett, a washed up reporter already in the museum when the event takes place and takes advantage of the situation as a way of reviving his career. Amongst negative reviews and terrible receipts, the film quickly left theatres and plunged into obscurity.
Working with Barry Levinson for the third time, Hoffman played the role of the fiendishly clever movie producer-turned-war producer Stanley Motes in Wag The Dog. The film found Robert DeNiro playing Washington spin-doctor Conrad Brean, a man hired to invent a war in order to cover up a presidential sex scandal. When De Niro approaches Hoffman, he finds the solution slowly becoming just another big, fat problem. The film was shot in just under a month. Hoffman's Robert Evans-inspired performance in Wag The Dog earned him some of the best reviews of his career and also brought him his 7th Academy Award nomination.
Once again, Hoffman would work with Barry Levinson on the Michael Crichton adaptation Sphere. It tells the story of a team of scientists sent to the bottom of South Pacific to investigate a mysterious vessel, which turns out to be a spaceship, crashed in the middle in the ocean centuries before.
Hoffman's work has primarily been supporting roles in studio films. As Ben Floss in Moonlight Mile (2002), Hoffman played the father of a recently deceased woman, while Jake Gyllenhaal portrays the fiance of the girl and Susan Sarandon plays her grieving, free-spirit mother. Moonlight Mile, written and directed by Brad Silberling, primarily focuses on Gyllenhaal's character as the three work together to get through their grief.
Hoffman would finally have a chance to work with his friend of fifty years, Gene Hackman, in Gary Fleder's Runaway Jury, an adaptation of John Grisham's bestselling novel. In the film, John Cusack and Rachel Weisz portray two important factors in a large murder trial, one on the jury, working on the inside, and the other playing the outside. Hoffman portrays the plaintiff's attorney, while Hackman plays the jury consultant for the defense. In a pivotal and dramatic scene, Hoffman's and Hackman's characters have an argument in the court bathroom. The two friends rehearsed this scene for days. Receiving good reviews all round, the film performed somewhat poorly at the box office, failing to recoup its $60 million budget domestically.
Hoffman played the small role of theatre owner Charles Frohman in Marc Forster's dream-like J.M. Barrie biopic Finding Neverland. The film, costarring Johnny Depp, Kate Winslet, Julie Christie and Freddie Highmore, received rave reviews, was a hit at the box office and earned the film seven Academy Award nominations - including Best Picture and Best Actor (Depp).
Meet the Fockers (2004) is a comedy film and a sequel to Meet the Parents which saw Hoffman co-starring with Robert De Niro and Ben Stiller. The film went on to become one of the highest grossing comedies in history, and Hoffman won the 2005 MTV Movie Award for Best Comedic Performance. Also, Hoffman recently was featured in cameo roles in Andy Garcia's The Lost City and on the final episode of HBO sitcom "Curb Your Enthusiasm"'s fifth season.
His role in 2006's Stranger Than Fiction pushed further into the comedic vein than Hoffman's performances have in recent years. He gave an interview to stv's Grant Lauchlan in December 2006 and discussed the importance of comedy in life and work. In 2006 Hoffman played the perfumier Giuseppe Baldini in Tom Tykwer's film Perfume: The Story of a Murderer. He also had a small cameo in the 2006 film, The Holiday.

Movie of the Day: Kramer Vs. Kramer (1979)

2007-10-15T15:34:00.001-07:00

“How much courage does it take to walk out on your kid?”
Sometimes, simplicity wins over the rest. In a book, a simple story might be favored. In a meal, something simple may be what you crave. But in a movie, most people do not want simplicity. They want the whole shebang. They want a spectacle. Mostly, they aren't right. Simplicity has made many movies. Kramer Vs. Kramer is one of them.
Life was going great for New York City advertising artist Ted Kramer. He had a great job and a loving wife. No, actually, his wife wasn't so loving, for when Ted returned home late from work that night his wife, Joanna, had a suit case packed and was heading out the door. He tried to stop her, but she just got into the elevator and out of Ted's life. Well, now in addition to his job he's now got to mind the house as well as their 6-year-old son, Billy; Ted assured his boss that his wife's leaving would not affect his job performance in any way. It did however affect his performance as a father. He blew up when Billy spilled punch on his client artwork! Well, some time later Ted and Billy receive a letter from Joanna, and it was obvious from her letter that she wasn't coming back. Ted was distraught. Well, he was late coming home from work on Billy's birthday, which made Billy sore at him.
Ted was late to work one day and his boss yelled at him because he had missed a very important client meeting. When he got home, he yelled at Billy for sneaking ice cream during dinner. Then later he truthfully told Billy that the break-up between he and Joanna may have been his fault, not Billy's; Ted invited a good friend, Phyllis Bernard over that night, and well, Billy got his first look at a naked woman. When Ted took Billy to the park the following day, he fell off the jungle gym and landed face-first onto his toy plane. Ted literally ran him to the hospital where they had to administer stitches. After that, life began taking a downward spiral for Ted. Then one day out of the blue he received a phone call from none other than Joanna! They met in a corner café. At first they have a pleasant conversation but then Joanna informs him that she has returned to collect her son and take him with her. Ted would have none of it and stormed out. Well life got even worse for Ted when his boss, Jim O'Connor, took him out to lunch and abruptly fired him. Not only that but Joanna was choosing to sue for custody of Billy, and without a job, Ted didn't stand a chance in hell for winning. He hired himself a lawyer, John Shaunessy, who charged a pretty penny: $15,000 exact change. And that's if they win.
Ted was also able to find a new job. It was actually a step down from what he used to do with a considerable cut in salary but he accepted with great determination. Finally the court date, January 9, 1980, arrived. Judge Atkins presiding. Joanna took the stand and Shaunessy proceeded to question her about why she left Ted and about her other relationships and how they were failures. The next day, Ted took the stand and Joanna's lawyer really grilled him like a cheeseburger. Ted's good friend Margaret took the stand as well and she really didn't help matters. Well, the judge took some time to think it over and sure enough, one day Shaunessy informs Ted that he lost. Joanna got sole custody of Billy. How typical! Always ruling in favor of the mother. Well, Ted and Billy were just devastated about parting ways. They had a tearful goodbye when suddenly Joanna stopped by. She and Ted have a little talk and well, rather than just give away the ending, let me assure everybody that everything turns out alright for everybody!
Dustin Hoffman was very good. He earned that Academy Award. Meryl Streep was good. She also got an Oscar. Justin Henry was good too, so where was his nomination?. This movie has great drama, light comedy, and is very subtle. It does a good job of holding your attention. If you like Dustin Hoffman or Meryl Streep or movies of this genre, then I recommend Kramer vs. Kramer! A gripping film about the pangs of two divorced parents fighting over their child. I liked Ted's little speech about ruling in favor of mothers all the time. What was it about sex that makes a good parents? Why always rule in favor of the mother because she's a woman?
Kramer vs. Kramer" is a great film from start to finish. Writer-director Robert Benton has made a film that's absolutely unforgettable… 10/10

Biography of the Day: Jeremy Irons

2007-10-12T16:34:00.001-07:00

“Anyway, I'm never satisfied. I think were I ever satisfied with my work, I'd be in trouble.”
Irons was born in Cowes, Isle of Wight to Paul Dugan Irons, an accountant, and Barbara Anne Brereton Brymer Sharpe, a homemaker. He was educated at Sherborne School in Dorset, (c. 1962-1966). He achieved some fame as the drummer and harmonica player (most memorably for his rendition of "Moon River" on harmonica) in a four-man school band called the Four Pillars of Wisdom. They performed, in a classroom normally used as a physics lab, for the entertainment of boys compulsorily exiled from their houses for two hours on Sunday afternoons. He was also known within Abbey House as half of a comic duo performing skits on Halloween and at end-of-term House Suppers.
Irons trained as an actor at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and is now president of its fundraising appeal. He performed a number of plays and supported himself by busking on the streets of Bristol, before appearing on the London stage as John the Baptist opposite David Essex in Godspell. After several appearances on British television, including the children's television series Playaway, and an adaptation of the H.E. Bates novel Love for Lydia in 1977, his film debut came in 1980 in Nijinsky. The role which brought him fame was that of Charles Ryder in the television adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited in 1981. Brideshead reunited him with Anthony Andrews, with whom he had appeared in The Pallisers seven years earlier. Also in 1981, he starred in the film The French Lieutenant's Woman opposite Meryl Streep.
In 1985, Irons directed a music video for Carly Simon and her heavily promoted single, "Tired of Being Blonde". Although the song was not a hit, the video - featuring the fast cutting, parallel narratives and heavy use of stylized visual effects that were a staple of pop videos at the time - received ample attention on MTV and other outlets. Irons has contributed to other musical performances, recording William Walton's Façade with Dame Peggy Ashcroft, and the songs from My Fair Lady with Dame Kiri Te Kanawa. He is also known for playing the evil wizard Profion, along with Bruce Payne as Damodor, in the 2000 film, Dungeons and Dragons, from Time Warner studio New Line Cinema. The film was also based on the Tabletop role-playing game, Dungeons and Dragons.
In 1984 Irons won a Tony Award for his Broadway performance opposite Glenn Close in The Real Thing. He appeared sporadically in films during the 1980s, including the Cannes Palme d'Or winner The Mission in 1986, and in the dual role of twin physicians in David Cronenberg's Dead Ringers in 1988. Other films include Reversal of Fortune (1990), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor, Kafka (1991), Damage (1993), The House of the Spirits (1993) appearing again with Glenn Close and Meryl Streep, Die Hard With a Vengeance (1995), Bernardo Bertolucci's Stealing Beauty (1996), the 1997 remake of Lolita and as the musketeer Aramis opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in the 1998 film version of The Man in the Iron Mask (1998). In 2004, Irons played Severus Snape in Comic Relief's Harry Potter parody, "Harry Potter and the Secret Chamberpot of Azerbaijan". He has co-starred with John Malkovich in two movies; The Man in the Iron Mask (1998) and Eragon (2006), though they did not have any scenes together in Eragon. Irons read the audio book recording of Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist.
One of his best known film roles has turned out to be the voice of Scar in The Lion King (1994). Irons has since provided voiceovers for two Disney World attractions. He narrated the Spaceship Earth ride, housed in the large geodesic globe at Epcot, and voiced H.G. Wells in the English version of the former Disney attraction The Timekeeper. In 2005, he appeared in the films Casanova opposite Heath Ledger, and Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven. Also in 2005, Irons won both an Emmy award and a Golden Globe award for his supporting role in the TV mini-series, Elizabeth I. He is appearing on the West End stage in the play Embers.Irons was one of the participants in the third series of their documentary series Who Do You Think You Are?. He also played the storyteller Brom in the 2006 film version of Eragon. He will be the narrator for Val Kilmer and Bill Pullman's brand-new Lewis and Clark movie from Revolution Studios.

Movie of the Day: Lolita (1997)

2007-10-12T16:31:00.001-07:00

“She was Lo, plain Lo, in the morning, standing four feet ten in one sock. She was Lola in slacks. She was Dolly at school. She was Dolores on the dotted line. But in my arms she was always Lolita. Light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo... Lee... Ta.”
This is an excellent adaptation of Vladimir Nabokov's brilliant book about the sordid relationship between a grown man and a teenage girl. Although still disconcerting, the subject of pedophilia is far less shocking today than when the book was published almost 50 years ago. Yet, despite the subject matter, the book was wildly popular because it was a literary work of art, beautifully written with some of the most splendid metaphors and descriptive narrative in American literature. This was all the more amazing when one considers that English was Nabokov's second language.
Director Adrian Lynn (Fatal Attraction, 9 ½ weeks, Indecent Proposal) is no stranger to stories with perverse sexual content. His presentation of the story does the book justice although certain interpretations may not have been what Nabokov had in mind. Lynn gives us a presentation that is very sympathetic to Humbert. Nabokov's Humbert was very complex, partly a victim of his fixation on young girls, partly a sexual predator and partly a hopeless romantic. Nabokov's Lolita was extremely innocent, just approaching the threshold of sexual curiosity and urges, more playful than consciously provocative.
While Nabokov hints at a mutual seduction, he leans far more heavily towards Humbert as the cause of the events even though Humbert is clearly helpless in the face of his obsession. Lolita entered into the sexual relationship more as a result of longings burgeoning from her blossoming sexuality than a desire to seduce Humbert in particular, who was not even her first lover.
Lynn's presentation transforms Humbert from the seducer into the seduced, whose weakness for young girls is manipulated by a sexually precocious siren tempting him to dash himself on the shoals of pedophilia. Lynn portrays Lolita as the aggressor, an adolescent temptress who knows she is desired and simultaneously teases and entices him to do her lustful bidding, knowing he is powerless to resist. Lynn's Humbert is more of a hapless romantic than a fiend, ennobling him as a victim of love rather than the confounded sociopath he really is. In Lynn's version, Humbert becomes the fly to Lolita's spider.
However, after the initial seduction when they take to the road, the film is very true to the book in chronicling the decay of the relationship, Humbert's further plunge into feelings of romantic desperation and Lolita's shrewish exploitation of him as she increasingly uses sex as a weapon. The book was very effective at portraying the relationship as a symbiosis of two deficient beings, each selfishly taking from the other what was needed. Lynn does an excellent job of portraying that here. As the relationship degenerates, Lynn is effectual at portraying the ugly side of both characters. The bitterness and rancor that results is compelling. To his credit, he understands that Nabokov's story was more of a character study than a sex story and Lynn avoids the temptation of becoming too lurid, focusing instead on solid character development of two very flawed beings.
I must take a moment to give Lynn the highest praise for his period renderings. This is one of the finest portrayals of 1940's Americana I can remember. The costumes, hairstyles, cars, furniture, locations and sets create a 40's reality that is like being hurtled back in a time machine. The music is not just precise for the period, but it is perfectly integrated with the story. As the two travel, the music changes to reflect the region. Having Lolita dance and sing to period music on the radio is a nice touch because that is exactly what teenage girls of any era are apt to do.
The acting is first rate all around. When the film was made, Dominique Swain was 17, and although she looked young for her age, she could never pass for 12. So for the first part of the film before Charlotte's demise, she is simply too mature. However, for the road trip she is ideal. Though I don't agree with Lynn's early interpretation of Lolita as the teenage temptress, I can't imagine it being done any better than the performance Swain delivers. She is playful and provocative in a childlike manner, part pixie and part vamp. Once they get on the road, Swain hits stride with a performance that is almost a force of nature. She is powerful and intense, effortlessly moving back and forth between sweet innocence and the emotional torrent typified by the `murder me' scene. It is an outstanding performance with depth and breadth that is very unusual for an actor so young.
Jeremy Irons is wonderful as Humbert, giving him as amiable a personality as one could possibly imagine for a character with such vile intentions. Irons injects a good deal of wry humor into the part in addition to giving Humbert an almost quixotic romantic quality. Frank Langella (Dracula) is more obnoxious than mysterious as Quilty, making the audience want to exhort Humbert to pull the trigger as he confronts Quilty with the revolver. Again, I think this is probably Lynn's doing since his vision is clearly that of a Humbert sympathizer.
This is a fine film with great production values, terrific performances and a classic story. I feel that it surpasses Kubrik's adaptation in its ability to capture many of the finer points of Nabokov's book, even though Nabokov collaborated on the Kubrik film… 9/10

Series of the Week: Friends

2007-10-11T15:02:00.001-07:00

“We were on a break!”
Friends was created in 1994 by David Crane and Marta Kauffman as a followup to their cable series Dream On. Friends was aimed at young adults who, during the early 1990s, were identified by their café culture, dating scene and modern independence.
Originally to be named Across the Hall, Six of One, Insomnia Cafe, or Friends Like Us, Friends was produced by Bright/Kauffman/Crane Productions, in association with Warner Bros. Television, for NBC in the U.S., and was first broadcast on that network. The show was a huge success throughout its ten year run and was a staple of the NBC Thursday night line-up. The finale was one of the most-watched series finales in television history, behind only M*A*S*H, Cheers, and Seinfeld.
Two of the series' stars, Matthew Perry and Jennifer Aniston, had already appeared in several unsuccessful sitcom pilots. Another, Lisa Kudrow, was also familiar with working on sitcoms, having played Ursula Buffay on Mad About You. Courteney Cox was already an accomplished TV and film actress when she was cast in 'Friends', having appeared in the likes of Ace Ventura: Pet Detective and with several minor roles on sitcoms such as Seinfeld and Family Ties. The character of Ross was written with David Schwimmer in mind; having auditioned for Crane and Kauffman in the past, Schwimmer was said to have a memorable voice and was most known for his Broadway work. Matt LeBlanc appeared as Vinnie Verducci in Married... with Children in the early 1990s and starred in that sitcom's short-lived spin-off, Top of the Heap, as well as in the unrelated Vinnie & Bobby, but before that had mainly been focusing on advertising and modeling work when he was cast as Joey Tribbiani.
During the show's run, the cast all achieved household name celebrity status, and all pursued careers in the movies, with varied success. Aniston's movie career is predominantly populated with light rom-coms. Cox made several lightweight films, though achieved her greatest success with the Scream series. Kudrow fared best in low budget indie films - a far cry from the role of Phoebe, most notably The Opposite of Sex. The male cast fared less well in the movie world.
During the 1994-2004 run, four of the cast married. Kudrow was first to marry in 1995 to advertising executive Michel Stern. Cox married next in 1999, wedding Scream co-star David Arquette. Aniston married film star Brad Pitt in 2000 and Le Blanc married long-term girlfriend Melissa McKnight in 2003.
Behind the scenes, the show was known for its unusually cohesive and unified cast. The six main actors made deliberate efforts, from early on, to keep the show's ensemble format and not allow one member to dominate. This included requesting that all actors on the show be nominated either for the same category of award ("Supporting Actor" until 2001, then "Lead Actor" from 2002 onwards) or not at all, and entering collective instead of individual salary negotiations. The actors became such close friends that one guest star, Tom Selleck, reported sometimes feeling left out. The cast remained good friends after the show's run, most notably Courteney Cox and Jennifer Aniston, with Aniston being godmother to Courtney's daughter, Coco.

It is smart, snappy, colourful and brimming with funny lines and excellent plots. Friends really shines with it's amazing cast. Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer are the friends you wish were your own. You can empathise with all of them in some way, and still laugh with them every week. It really is fantastic.
It also scores with it's realistic progression over the last six years. Season One and Season Ten are totally different, and show how much the characters have grown.
In short, Friends is the show of shows. A sitcom where no episode is a disappointment. How many sitcom's can say that? 10/10

Biography of the Day: Julianne Moore

2007-10-11T14:36:00.001-07:00

"Only five people got nominated in that category, and that's not very many people. So I did all right."
Moore was born Julie Anne Smith in Fort Bragg, near Fayetteville, North Carolina, to Anne, a psychiatric social worker who emigrated from Dunoon, Scotland, and Peter Moore Smith, a military lawyer, judge, helicopter pilot and army colonel. Growing up as an "army brat" she lived in several places across the United States and Germany. Moore attended Frankfurt American High School in Frankfurt, Germany, graduating in 1979. She received her Bachelor's degree at the College of Fine Arts in Boston University.
Moore moved to New York City in 1983, working as a waitress before being cast in the dual roles of Frannie and Sabrina Hughes on the soap opera As the World Turns, for which she won a Daytime Emmy Award; she played the roles from 1985 to 1988. Because of Screen Actors Guild rules, she had to change her name, since there were already actresses named "Julie Smith" and "Julianne Smith." She chose her father's middle name, "Moore." But because there was already another actress named "Julie Moore," she finally settled on "Julianne Moore."
Moore began starring in feature films in the early 1990s, mostly appearing in supporting roles in films like The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, Benny and Joon, and The Fugitive. Her part in 1993's Short Cuts gained her critical acclaim and recognition, and she was cast in several high-profile Hollywood films, including 1995's romantic comedy Nine Months, and 1997's summer blockbuster The Lost World: Jurassic Park. Her role in the well-reviewed independent film Safe also attracted critical attention.
During the late 1990s and early 2000s, Moore appeared in a series of films that received Oscar recognition, including her roles in Boogie Nights ("Best Supporting Actress" nomination), The End of the Affair ("Best Actress" nomination) and her two 2002 films, Far From Heaven ("Best Actress" nomination) and The Hours ("Best Supporting Actress" nomination). During this period, she also appeared in the commercial successes Hannibal (controversially replacing Jodie Foster as Clarice Starling), The Forgotten and in Paul Thomas Anderson's follow-up to Boogie Nights, Magnolia.
Her film Freedomland opened in February 2006 to mixed reviews. Another film, Trust the Man, is directed by her husband, Bart Freundlich, and also features her son, Caleb.
In March 2006, it was announced Moore would make her Broadway debut in the world premiere of David Hare's new play The Vertical Hour. The play opened in November 2006 and was directed by Sam Mendes. She most recently appeared opposite Nicolas Cage and Jessica Biel in Next, a science fiction action film based on The Golden Man, a short story by noted author Philip K. Dick.