Screenwriter Angus MacLachlan's (Junebug) top 10 Criterion films, has Antonioni's brilliant L'avventura as #1.. click for the post at Criterion
His list includes Michael Powell's beautiful Black Narcissus [photos above and below]
Friday, November 5, 2010
Angus MacLachlan's Top 10
Screenwriter Angus MacLachlan's (Junebug) top 10 Criterion films, has Antonioni's brilliant L'avventura as #1.. click for the post at Criterion
His list includes Michael Powell's beautiful Black Narcissus [photos above and below]
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Marion Cotillard: The Actress of the Century
Marion Cotillard (b Sept 30, 1975, Paris; 5-6 ½" tall) Marion is the daughter of French mime, playwright, and theater director Jean-Claude Cotillard, and the actress and drama teacher Niseema Theillaud. I think she is already one of the best five actresses of all time (up there with Davis, Hepburn, Jackson, Streep, Burstyn) and certainly the best actress of the new millenium.
Given that she can sing, dance, act, and model, she is more versatile than any other actress in history. She is the only actress other than Sophia Loren to win a best actress Oscar® for a performance not in English. Her role as Edith Piaf in "La Vie En Rose" [photo rt] won her an Oscar®, a César (French academy award), a BAFTA (British), and a Golden Globe, and many others (19
in all for that performance). At the Berlin International Film Festival, where the film premiered, Cotillard was given a 15-minute standing ovation. To date, she has won 27 awards for acting. [Her awards page at IMDB] Luc Besson cast her in her first big commercial role as "Lili" in the French box-office hit Taxi (1998). Due to the success of the movie, three sequels followed and Cotillard reprised the role of "Lili" in two of them.
She received positive reviews from critics for her performances in Pretty Things (2001), Lisa (2001) and A Private Affair (2002). In 2003, Tim Burton introduced her to English-speaking audiences with her role in Big Fish (2003). In 2004, she won a César Award as Best Supporting Actress for Jean-Pierre Jeunet's A Very Long Engagement (2004) in which she played the murderous "Tina", only appearing for about ten minutes overall in the movie, but was unforgettable.
Marion is the first French actress to win Best Leading Actress at BAFTA Film Awards, and the first to win an Oscar®. She was considered for the role of Hanna Schmitz in The Reader (2008) after Nicole Kidman dropped out due to pregnancy.
If she had not been an actress, she would have liked to become a singer. She had to learn how to sing in one month to play Marie in Pretty Things (2001).
She's an ecologist and a spokesperson for Greenpeace. She grew up in Orléans, France.
"I don't think you learn how to act. You learn how to use your emotions and feelings, and my first teacher was my mother [Niseema Theillaud] and then I worked with my father [Jean-Claude Cotillard], who helped me to find in myself all those emotions and how to play with the emotions." "I have a tendency to often share the point of view of the conspiracy theory."
She's been romantically linked to actor Gaspard Ulliel (A Very Long Engagement) and the singer Sinclair, whom I assume is a distant relative and that gives me a glimmer of hope ("As If!")
[Left: Based on her personality and eco-awareness, I'm hoping this is a doobie and not a hand rolled cigarette!] Here is her performance in the film NINE, the song "Take It All" - I like this video best, which intersperses the film scene with Marion recording the audio track in the studio
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Tony Curtis (1925-2010)
TONY CURTIS (Born Bernard Schwartz in the Bronx, 1925-2010) He first used the names James Curtis and Anthony Curtis, settling on Tony in 1949. He later fathered actress Jamie Lee Curtis (Trading Places, True Lies, Freaky Friday) with Janet Leigh (of Psycho fame, as she's the victim in the shower).
Billy Wilder's comic farce Some Like It Hot will remain his best loved film (as people love straight men in drag, go figure!), but his best dramatic acting was in The Boston Strangler. He somehow captured both the concerned family man and the homicidal schizo, and was surprisingly bypassed for an Oscar nomination.
My personal critical favorite was The Sweet Smell of Success, with ruthless news columnist Burt Lancaster (see photo) in total control of his world, in a searing indictment of real life columnist Walter Winchell. Curtis plays a willing lacky as press agent to Lancaster (and suitor to his sister), who has no qualms destroying anyone who crosses him. This is a must-see film for those interested in cinematic art, with classic b&w photography by James Wong Howe.
Top 20 Oscar Surprises Since 1980
There is a very interesting list at IMDB, their highlighted list, that is the top 20 most surprising Oscar winners since 1980, posted by Mark Englehart. 
Mark has done a pretty good job, I agree with many of them.
He has The Pianist with two surprises, Adrien Brody for actor and Roman Polanski for director. I'm sure most felt that Polanski had been slighted for Chinatown in 1974.
At least two were responsible for exposing to the world two of the best actresses to come along in generations: Marion Cotillard of France and Hilary Swank of the U.S., who later added a 2nd Oscar for Million Dollar Baby (photo rt), certainly one of the top 10 acting performances of all time, and perhaps (along with Raging Bull) the best boxing film as well. This is a film I can watch anytime I see it on just to see Hilary's knockout acting (pun intended). Ironically, both are based on the lives of real boxers. Hilary joined Vivien Leigh (Gone With the Wind, Streetcar Named Desire) in film history as winners in 2 of 2 best actress chances. (Ironically, in Streecar, Marlon Brando was the only actor of the four to not win an academy award, as Karl Malden and Kim Hunter also won)
For my money, the German film The Lives of Others is an all-time classic foreign film; it's one of just five to win both the US and British academy awards in that category. For me that Oscar was no surprise, but is 19th on his list since it won over the tedious and overblown Pan's Labryinth - it's a much better film and belongs on the top shelf of espionage films with Coppola's The Conversation, a Palm d'Or winner at Cannes over his own Godfather Part II, which was considered by many to be superior to the first, and was rewarded with 7 academy awards vs just 3 for the first. Many would argue that these are perhaps Coppola's finest two films, which places Lives in some fairly elite company. 
Another of my favorites scored a surprise, Traffic, which won all the Oscars it was nominated for (five) except picture, losing to Gladiator, with the equally artistic Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon likely a close third - this was arguably the toughest year ever for best picture voters, as any of the three deserved to win. Personally I'd have voted for Traffic, but secretly wished Crouching Tiger had won.
Ironically, after seeing Gladiator at the theater at its opening, I told friends "look for about five Oscars for this one", and was laughed at by everyone. It ended up with six, the best pic win for that was more surprising to me along with the only loss for Traffic than Steven Soderbergh's win for director that year over Ridley Scott and Ang Lee (Crouching Tiger, though he had another Chinese director for all the martial arts so it was really directed by two).
I agree with Mark that Crash for picture belongs at the top. For me, that wasn't even the best film with that title - I prefer David Cronenberg's earlier film of the J.G. Ballard science fiction novel that is about people turned on by car crashes and scarred survivors. What can compare to James Spader's sexual liaisons with Holly Hunter, Debra Kara Unger, and Roseanne Arquette, two of which occurred in cars? It also had a re-enactment of the crash in which James Dean died. This later Crash pales in comparison, looking more like a tv movie of the week.
Mark has done a pretty good job, I agree with many of them. He has The Pianist with two surprises, Adrien Brody for actor and Roman Polanski for director. I'm sure most felt that Polanski had been slighted for Chinatown in 1974.
At least two were responsible for exposing to the world two of the best actresses to come along in generations: Marion Cotillard of France and Hilary Swank of the U.S., who later added a 2nd Oscar for Million Dollar Baby (photo rt), certainly one of the top 10 acting performances of all time, and perhaps (along with Raging Bull) the best boxing film as well. This is a film I can watch anytime I see it on just to see Hilary's knockout acting (pun intended). Ironically, both are based on the lives of real boxers. Hilary joined Vivien Leigh (Gone With the Wind, Streetcar Named Desire) in film history as winners in 2 of 2 best actress chances. (Ironically, in Streecar, Marlon Brando was the only actor of the four to not win an academy award, as Karl Malden and Kim Hunter also won) 
For my money, the German film The Lives of Others is an all-time classic foreign film; it's one of just five to win both the US and British academy awards in that category. For me that Oscar was no surprise, but is 19th on his list since it won over the tedious and overblown Pan's Labryinth - it's a much better film and belongs on the top shelf of espionage films with Coppola's The Conversation, a Palm d'Or winner at Cannes over his own Godfather Part II, which was considered by many to be superior to the first, and was rewarded with 7 academy awards vs just 3 for the first. Many would argue that these are perhaps Coppola's finest two films, which places Lives in some fairly elite company. 
Another of my favorites scored a surprise, Traffic, which won all the Oscars it was nominated for (five) except picture, losing to Gladiator, with the equally artistic Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon likely a close third - this was arguably the toughest year ever for best picture voters, as any of the three deserved to win. Personally I'd have voted for Traffic, but secretly wished Crouching Tiger had won.
Ironically, after seeing Gladiator at the theater at its opening, I told friends "look for about five Oscars for this one", and was laughed at by everyone. It ended up with six, the best pic win for that was more surprising to me along with the only loss for Traffic than Steven Soderbergh's win for director that year over Ridley Scott and Ang Lee (Crouching Tiger, though he had another Chinese director for all the martial arts so it was really directed by two).
I agree with Mark that Crash for picture belongs at the top. For me, that wasn't even the best film with that title - I prefer David Cronenberg's earlier film of the J.G. Ballard science fiction novel that is about people turned on by car crashes and scarred survivors. What can compare to James Spader's sexual liaisons with Holly Hunter, Debra Kara Unger, and Roseanne Arquette, two of which occurred in cars? It also had a re-enactment of the crash in which James Dean died. This later Crash pales in comparison, looking more like a tv movie of the week.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Films That Shaped My Life
This was done in response to Iain Stott's (One Line Film Review) list, who limited his to 15. I increased this a little, why limit yourself when it comes to great films? In no particular order, though I attempted a chronological order of when I viewed them, starting around age 10.. films in gold were best picture Oscar winners TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD
LAWRENCE OF ARABIA [photo rt]
DR. STRANGELOVE
2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY [photo top]
WALKABOUT (Australia) [photo bottom]
WOODSTOCK
DUCK SOUP
THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES
ALL ABOUT EVE
TAXI DRIVER
CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND
APOCALYPSE NOW
GANDHI
THE ROAD WARRIOR (Australia)
CINEMA PARADISO (Italy)
BABE (Australia)
CHUNGKING EXPRESS (Hong Kong) [photo rt]
CITY OF GOD (Brazil)
HERO (Zhang Yimou, China)
GOODNIGHT MISTER TOM
REQUIEM FOR A DREAM
SALAAM BOMBAY (India)
UMBERTO D. (Italy) [bw photo rt, a friend catches Umberto using his little Jack Russell dog Flike to beg for money]
AFTER THE WEDDING (Denmark)
TURTLES CAN FLY (Iraq-Iran)
Glenn Shadix of Beetlejuice Dies
William G. Scott, aka "Glenn Shadix", the portly comic actor who played the interior designer Otho in the comic fantasy Beetlejuice, died in his Alabama home, apparently from a fall out of his wheelchair. The actor, a favorite of director Tim Burton, was 58 years old.
The news story at IMDB
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