cinema reflections
Kristen Stewart and Jesse Eisenberg: American Ultra. Kristen Stewart, Jesse Eisenberg to join Woody Allen movie cast? American Ultra stars Kristen Stewart and Jesse Eisenberg will reportedly be reunited later this year in another project: Woody Allen's next as-yet-untitled feature. Bruce Willis is the third cast member whose name has been publicly announced. The source for this information is an “exclusive” report via Deadline.com's Mike […]
Luise Rainer: MGM star in the mid-'30s. Luise Rainer dead at 104: MGM actress was first two-time and first consecutive Oscar winner in acting categories, and oldest surviving winner The first two-time and first consecutive Academy Award winner in the acting categories, and, at age 104, the oldest surviving Oscar winner, Luise Rainer – Best Actress for The Great Ziegfeld (1936) and The Good Earth […]
Golden Globes telecast hosts Tina Fey and Amy Poehler (photo © HFPA) Tina Fey and Amy Poehler funny enough at the 2014 Golden Globes telecast? Acting as a lighter version of Ricky Gervais, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler took a series of (mostly) mild jabs at the rich and famous sitting in the audience at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills on Sunday evening, […]
Golden Globes: Amy Adams & Jennifer Lawrence are 'American Hustle' winners Scroll down to check out the full list of Golden Globes 2014 winners. This year's Golden Globes ceremony took place earlier this evening, January 12, with Amy Poehler and Tina Fey back as hosts. (See further below the full list of Golden Globe winners and nominees.) The 2014 Golden Globe nominations were announced by […]
Cate Blanchett and Woody Allen on the 'Blue Jasmine' set. WGA Awards 2014 nominations: Woody Allen, 'American Hustle' in; '12 Years a Slave,' 'Blue Is the Warmest Color' ineligible The Writers Guild of America has announced the nominees for the 2014 WGA Awards. The lists – adapted and original screenplay, documentary screenplay – mostly feature the expected titles, in addition to a handful of surprises […]
'Blue Jasmine' review: Woody Allen is pissed (image: Cate Blanchett in 'Blue Jasmine') Years ago, the venerable and prolific writer-director and comedian Woody Allen was quick to remind people that he was not one of the Upper East Side elite he had often mocked in his stand-up work and light comedic novels. Eventually, these characters also came to populate his movies following his slapstick-and-shtick period […]
Magic Mike: the “male stripper movie" Shirtless Channing Tatum, Matt Bomer, Alex Pettyfer, and Matthew McConaughey are featured in the red-band Magic Mike trailer. (Please scroll down.) Oscar winner Steven Soderbergh (Traffic) directed this (romantic?) comedy about strippers. Yeah, male strippers. But is the “male” qualifier really necessary? Talk about (anti-male) sexism… Now, the red-band Magic Mike trailer shows more chest and ass than its […]
Kathleen Turner Actress Kathleen Turner, perhaps best remembered for seducing William Hurt in Lawrence Kasdan's Body Heat and for romping about with Michael Douglas in Robert Zemeckis' Romancing the Stone, will be present on May 7 at the Toronto International Film Festival's Bell Lightbox to discuss her career in films and on stage. Turner will be making her Toronto stage debut in spring 2012: Matthew […]
Roberto Benigni, To Rome with Love According to English-language reports, Italian critics have given a mixed reception to Woody Allen's To Rome with Love (formerly known as Nero Fiddled and Bop Decameron, and currently known as A Roma con amore in Rome itself). They've reportedly complained that writer-director Allen presents a view of Rome and Italians that is both idealized and stereotyped. At the To […]
Penélope Cruz, Alessandro Tiberi, Woody Allen's To Rome with Love Cannes movies at the 2012 festival The 2012 Cannes Film Festival buzz keeps getting stronger for a variety of movies. So far, the only confirmed screening is that of Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom, which will open this year's festival on May 16. What else? Well, according to Premiere there are a number of strong possibilities […]
Best Picture * The Artist – Thomas Langmann. The Descendants – Jim Burke, Jim Taylor & Alexander Payne. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close – Scott Rudin. The Help – Brunson Green, Chris Columbus & Michael Barnathan. Hugo – Graham King & Martin Scorsese. Midnight in Paris – Letty Aronson & Stephen Tenenbaum. Moneyball – Michael De Luca, Rachael Horovitz & Brad Pitt. The Tree of Life – Dede Gardner, Sarah Green, Grant Hill & Bill Pohlad. War Horse – Steven Spielberg & Kathleen Kennedy. Best Foreign Language Film […]
No Rest for the Wicked with José Coronado Pedro Almodóvar didn't have much luck at the Spanish Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Goya Awards this evening in Madrid: Almodóvar's The Skin I Live In won a total of four Goyas, but none for its director/writer. Starring Antonio Banderas as a plastic surgeon, Elena Anaya as his captive woman, and Jan Cornet as the […]
Rick Santorum puts choir kids to sleep. Mia Farrow: 'Gem' picture of Rick Santorum boring whole choir to sleep Mia Farrow is a frequent Twitter twitterer. Earlier today (Feb. 4, '12), for instance, Farrow expressed her disgust at the Chinese and Russian governments' decision to veto United Nations sanctions against Syria, where the Bashar al-Assad regime reportedly massacred hundreds of people in the city of […]
Jessica Chastain, The Help The list of potential Best Supporting Actress Academy Award nominees is nearly as long as the list of female cast members in Tate Taylor's socially conscious comedy-drama The Help. In fact, several The Help actresses are either likely or possible Oscar contenders. Much like in the Best Supporting Actor category, in which only Christopher Plummer is a true shoo-in for his […]
The Artist's Michel Hazanavicius is the only first-timer among the five nominated directors for the 2012 Directors Guild of America Awards. Hazanavicius' competition consists of Woody Allen for Midnight in Paris, David Fincher for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Alexander Payne for The Descendants and Martin Scorsese for Hugo. This marks Woody Allen's fifth DGA Award nomination, following Annie Hall (1977), Manhattan (1979), Hannah […]
Michelle Williams, Luke Kirby, Take This Waltz With four nominations, Michel Hazanavicius' silent comedy-drama The Artist is the top nominee in the international categories of the Vancouver Film Critics Circle's 2011 Awards. (See further below the full list of Vancouver Film Critics nominations.) Starring Jean Dujardin and Bérénice Bejo, The Artist is set at the dawn of the talkie era, as screen icon George Valentin […]
Vanessa Redgrave in Coriolanus, with Harry Fenn as the young Caius Martius, later known as Coriolanus. In actor-turned-director Ralph Fiennes' modern-day film version of William Shakespeare's Coriolanus, veteran Vanessa Redgrave plays Volumnia, the mother of the title character (played by Fiennes), a Roman general who, thanks to the encouragement of his mother and the people's blind worship of his many military victories, earns a seat […]
Shia LaBeouf, Tyrese Gibson, Transformers 3 July 10, '11, update: Michael Bay's Transformers: Dark of the Moon topped the North American box office for the second consecutive weekend (July 8-10), grossing $47.02 million, down 52 percent from a week ago, according to studio estimates found at Box Office Mojo. Featuring Shia LaBeouf, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Josh Duhamel, Patrick Dempsey, John Turturro, and Frances McDormand, Transformers 3 […]
Alison Pill as Zelda Fitzgerald, Owen Wilson in Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris June 19 update: Following the addition of 94 theaters, Woody Allen's 2011 effort Midnight in Paris was down only 10 percent from last weekend according to studio estimates found at Box Office Mojo. Starring Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, and Marion Cotillard, among others, Midnight in Paris brought in $5.23 million at 1,038 […]
Kevin McNally and Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides May 26: Featuring Johnny Depp, Penélope Cruz, Geoffrey Rush, Sam Claflin, Ian McShane, and Astrid Bergès-Frisbey, Rob Marshall's Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides added $4.7 million at the North American box office on Wednesday, May 25, according to Box Office Mojo. In all likelihood, On Stranger Tides had its last […]
Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Midnight in Paris Woody Allen's cinematic love letter to Paris kicked off the 2011 Cannes Film Festival and is already playing on French screens. Starring Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, and Marion Cotillard, Midnight in Paris has received a number of positive English-language reviews. Oscar buzz, in fact, has already begun – though how far-reaching that will be remains to be seen. […]
Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Midnight in Paris Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris, the director's 41st film, opened the Cannes Film Festival today. Starring unlikely Allen hero Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Marion Cotillard, Michael Sheen, Kathy Bates, Adrien Brody, Léa Seydoux, Alison Pill, and Gad Elmaleh, and featuring Carla Bruni in a cameo as a museum tour guide, Midnight in Paris has been greeted by mostly […]
Javier Bardem, Penélope Cruz, Scarlett Johansson, Woody Allen, Vicky Cristina Barcelona I saw Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona at its Canadian premiere at the 32nd Montreal World Film Festival to a sold-out crowd in the beautiful Italian Renaissance-styled Imperial Theatre. The audience – people of all ages and types – had been there for nearly an hour before the show started. Now, one thing I […]
Match Point with Jonathan Rhys Meyers If Alfred Hitchcock were to direct a screenplay written by Nietzsche, Dostoevsky, and Stanislaw Lem, and based on Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy, the result would be something like Woody Allen's latest opus, Match Point. A dark fable about the vagaries of chance in a godless world, Allen's straightforward, aesthetically old-fashioned crime drama belies a hauntingly complex turn-of-the-millennium sensibility. […]
Another Year movie with Lesley Manville and Jim Broadbent. 'Another Year' movie: Cannes highlight or…? Mike Leigh's latest movie, Another Year, which revolves around old age, death, and family ties, is in the running for the 2010 Cannes Film Festival Palme d'Or. For some, Leigh's drama is one of the festival highlights; for others, it's anything but. But whether or not they've actually liked the […]
Juliette Binoche, the star of Abbas Kiarostami's The Certified Copy, also stars on the Cannes 2010 poster (Courtesy Cannes Film Festival / © Brigitte Lacombe. Graphic design Annick Durban) The films in the running for Palme d'Or and other awards at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival were announced Thursday morning at a press conference at the Grand Hotel in Paris. As expected, Alejandro González Iñárritu […]
Christmas cheer: Love Finds Andy Hardy with Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland. George B. Seitz's Love Finds Andy Hardy (1938) reunited Thoroughbreds Don't Cry (1937) co-stars Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland; unlike their first pairing, this slice of what's often referred to as “Americana” was a major box office hit for MGM, especially, as to be expected, in the U.S. Garland, it should be noted, […]
Douglas Fairbanks Jr. in The Prisoner of Zenda 1937. The son of silent screen superstar Douglas Fairbanks and a middle-league – and generally lackluster – leading man in the first half of the 1930s, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. was at his very best as the villainous Rupert of Hentzau in John Cromwell's 1937 classic The Prisoner of Zenda, based on Anthony Hope's 1894 Ruritania-set novel. Unfortunately, […]
Woody Allen, David Lynch, Martin Scorsese, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, and Terry Gilliam have added their names to the petition, organized by France's Société des Auteurs et Compositeurs Dramatiques (SACD), demanding the release of Palme d'Or and Academy Award-winning filmmaker Roman Polanski, currently in the custody of Swiss authorities. In 1978, Polanski pleaded guilty to a charge of statutory rape (sex with a minor) of […]
Peter Shaffer and Milos Forman. Milos Forman and Peter Shaffer: 'Amadeus' 25th anniversary screening Pictured above are playwright and Oscar-winning screenwriter Peter Shaffer and two-time Oscar-winning director Milos Forman at the reception preceding the 25th anniversary screening of the 1984 classic Amadeus. Hosted by author and interviewer Christopher Frayling, the evening was presented by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences at the Soho […]
Larry David, Evan Rachel Wood Woody Allen's return to NYC has resulted in one of his best comedies in years. Of course, he hasn't been making comedic films of late, but whatever. “Hello, I Must Be Going” by Groucho Marx plays during the opening credits of Whatever Works. The song is perfect for setting the film's contradictory tone. At the start, Boris (Larry David) speaks […]
In Emmanuel Mouret's quietly observant Un baiser s'il vous plaît / Shall We Kiss? (literally, “A Kiss, If You Please”), which opens today in Los Angeles, a young, good-looking couple, Émilie and Gabriel (Julie Gayet and Michaël Cohen), meet accidentally and are just about ready to go for some physical intimacy when Judith decides to tell Gabriel a story. See, she's in a relationship. But […]
Woody Allen's latest, Whatever Works, will open the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival on April 22. Whatever Works is Allen's first film shot in New York City since 2004: Match Point, Cassandra's Dream, and Scoop were filmed in Britain, while Vicky Cristina Barcelona was filmed in Spain. Thus far, the Whatever Works plot remains murky – something to do with an upper-class New Yorker who decides […]
Sept. 28, '08, update: D.J. Caruso's action blockbuster Eagle Eye stormed to the top of the North American box office this weekend with US$29.2 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday. DreamWorks' Shia LaBeouf vehicle easily knocked out its competition after opening in 3,510 theaters and securing the top spot early on Friday. Co-starring Michelle Monaghan, the flick centers on a slacker and […]
William Castle and the Rosemary's Baby 'curse.' William Castle was a director of B movie thrillers such as those in two popular franchises of the 1940s starring faded stars of the previous decades: The Whistler, with Richard Dix (Best Actor Oscar nominee for Cimarron, 1930-31), and The Crime Doctor, with Warner Baxter (Best Actor Oscar winner for In Old Arizona, in the 1928–29 period). In […]
One of the interesting things about a great work of art is how, upon re-experience a) it holds up and/or b) deepens into something even better. From the first time I saw Woody Allen's 88-minute black-and-white 1980 effort Stardust Memories (made early on in Woody's Golden Era of 1977-1992) on a VHS tape, I knew I was watching one of the greatest films ever made. […]
According to press reports, among the favorites to win the several Venice 2007 Lions tomorrow are: Best Film/Director: Grain of Life / The Grain and the Mullet / La Graine et le mulet (top) by Abdel Kechiche, the tale of a Tunisian immigrant who, at the rist of losing his job in a French fishing town, tries to stave off financial ruin by opening a floating couscous restaurant. Redacted, Brian […]
Helen Mirren young: Hot future Queen back in the 1960s. Helen Mirren young: Hot future Queen Helen Mirren, the odds-on favorite to take home this year's Best Actress Academy Award for her performance in Stephen Frears' The Queen, is among the more than 100 Oscar 2007 nominees – including 16 of the 20 shortlisted performers in the acting categories – expected to attend the Academy […]
Scoop movie with Woody Allen and Scarlett Johansson. 'Scoop' Movie: Woody Allen fluffy comedy works – as a fluffy comedy Though hardly one of Woody Allen's best comedies, the light-as-air Scoop is a perfectly enjoyable romp. The film's basic storyline has already been told countless times: investigator (here a journalist wanna-be named Sondra Pransky and played by Scarlett Johansson) falls for a suspected murderer who […]
Il Caimano with Toni Servillo. The Alligator / Il Caimano, described by the Roman daily La Repubblica as a “dark portrait of Berlusconian Italy,” won four of the top awards at the 2006 David di Donatello ceremony: best film, best director (Nani Moretti), best actor (Silvio Orlando), and best producer (Moretti and Angelo Barbagallo). The night's top winner, however, at least in sheer number of […]
Woody Allen movie 'Melinda and Melinda' with Will Ferrell and Radha Mitchell. Woody Allen 'Melinda and Melinda': San Sebastian Film Festival opening night film Woody Allen, whose Melinda and Melinda will have its world premiere as the opening night gala at the 2004 San Sebastian Film Festival, is the subject of a career retrospective at the festival held on Spain's Basque coast. Besides, four-time Academy […]