'Kill Bill 3' Ooohh

If you can handle all the translating!!!

Exciting news indeed, but wouldn't it be called 'Kill The Bride'?

Seymour can make it better

Can you think of another good way to start the weekend?

Soul destroying

So I was at work flipping through Vice Magazine and came across an interview with Lars Von Trier. He was of course being interviewed about his movies (mostly focusing on ‘Antichrist’).

What interested me was these questions about Björk in ‘Dancer in the Dark’

"Vice: In an interview some years back you described the presence of a black president in 24 as sickeningly politically correct. PWND!

Lars Von Trier: Yeah, I didn’t see that one coming, but I think it’s a very nice development. As long as they don’t go and elect a woman.

V: Right on.

LVT: I’m joking, of course.

V: Of course you are, but you do seem to like bullying women and you broke Björk. For God’s sake, man, what’s wrong with you?

LVT: Maybe it’s because I was never much good at talking to women, but when they work for me they have a contract and they have to listen to me and do what I say.

V: A revenge-of–the-nerd kind of thing?

LVT: Seriously, it’s true that I pushed Björk a lot, maybe too far, but I was also very happy with her performance. She gave everything she had. As a director you do what you can to get the performance you want, that’s your job, and sometimes you have tap into people’s past experiences and memories to bring that out. I usually have very good relationships with my actresses, but Björk and I didn’t get along.

V: And now she’ll never act again.

LVT: Yeah, and that’s not all, she even wrote Nicole Kidman a letter telling her not to do Dogville.

V: Really? What did she say?

LVT: She said I had destroyed her soul.”

Sure she cried a lot, and had to dance and sing (get up and do her thing) but I wonder what Nicole’s reply would have been after the ordeal of being abused, raped and shackled?

“Bitch…are you serious”

Now I must watch ‘Antichrist’. I get the feeling Charlotte has been but through more. Does he torture his actresses more and more as his film’o’graphy grows?

OH HAPPY DAY!

My delicious and handsome blank (I am nearly 34…I cannot say boy friend anymore) has booked me tickets to see ‘Precious’ at the London Film Festival.

I am elated beyond belief. He knows I am dying to see this film, but it is not like I have talked about it THAT much.

So I skipped on over to the BFI site to see what else was showing. Basically all the big Oscar contenders.

Then I noticed something horrific. All films like ‘A Serious Man’, ‘A Single Man’, ‘Up in the Air’ and ‘An Education’ are all ‘FULLY BOOKED’. SO I went over to the critics darling, Sundance triple winner and Toronto winner and saw this:


Do the British not want to see it?
Why on earth not?
I thought they would be throwing on their freshly hunted fox fur, jumping into their Bently’s and bombing down Bond Street to get to the nearest cinema to see the film about a 16 year old black, poor and obese illiterate girl pregnant for the second time by her father.
Do they not want to know about black people unless they wining sports, getting elected for president or singing ‘Old Man River’?

Even my bibles, Empire and Total Film have no mention of the film. Sure, beyond the film festival, it does not have a UK release date, but scheesh, report on it. I really do not want to read yet another piece on ‘Avatar’.

Am I the only ‘white’ person in the UK who is dying to see this movie?

Mini Review – ‘The Black Balloon’

Although this film came out last year, I am finally getting around to seeing it.

‘The Black Balloon’ centres around a family trying to raise an autistic teenager, Charlie (play impressively and believably by Luke Ford)

The film mainly concerns itself with Thomas (a wonderful Rhys Wakefield) who has moved to a new town in Australia due to being an army brat and must go to a new school and make friends all while trying to hide his brother who his is ashamed of.
The boys in the school throw rock at the ‘special bus’ and make constant jokes about retards and spastics. On film it seems unnecessarily cruel, but if memory serves, kids are bastards.
Thomas’s one beackon of light comes in the form of Jackie (model Gemma Ward) who takes a liking to him, and accepts Charlie.

Although the movie never tries to pull at your heart strings, or make judgement on anyone, you cannot help but feel for Thomas. Being a teenage is hard enough, without having a brother who cannot speak, he cannot control his rages, he can have instant, violent mood changes. He runs through the neighborhood in his underpants. He throws a tantrum in a supermarket and he rubs his feces into the carpet.

When Thomas screams that he hates Charlie, you understand his frustration. He wants a normal life.

It is Maggie, (Toni Collette) the mother who lets you understand the family dynamic and how after all these years they have managed to stay together.
Of course, Toni Collette's performance as the mother of an autistic son, is a remarkable thing. She has created a mother who is emotionally and physically worn out, but she keeps on going for her son. She has to remain strong because the other men in her life are at breaking point.
Also noteworthy is Gemma Ward who creates a spontaneously warm young woman who cares for Thomas, sympathized with him, accepts Charlie without question.
Not the type of film that is major awards fodder, but still one worth seeking out.

Grade B

Terrified

I am sh*t scared to see this movie. I do not do well with gore and blood. I am ok if it is a slasher movie, but this is cerebral.
I am not sure my poor fragile little mind can take it.

Where the Wild Things Are - Featurette.

Mini Review ‘The September Issue’

What with the DVD release of the film last week, I was able to cozy up at home with my guapo and watch this highly entertaining doc.
People going into this wanting any of the following:

An Expose of Editor in Chief – Anna Wintour
An all out bitch fest ala ‘The Devil Wears Prada’
An insight in Haute Couture

You will be disappointed.
Instead you get a behind the scenes look at how the mega influential, annual fashion bible, the September issue of Vogue, gets put together. Sure, you do not get into the articles or advertising, but you do get to enjoy a lot of fashion.
Wintour is not the ice queen Meryl Streep had you believe. She is quick to laugh with the designers and advertisers (buttering them up perhaps), but in the office she is focused and, yes, cold. Photo shoots get scrapped and clothing gets discarded with a simple quiet ‘no’, sometimes a reason is given and they all serve her vision for the magazine.
You feel for the people under her at times, but you understand her point of view. This is the Editor in Chief of Vogue – come prepared with the best you can offer, and be able to back it up – she is a busy woman.
Getting under the skin of Wintour is going to take a lot more focus than director RJ Cutler has time for. You get a few insights into her life (her daughter respects her, but does not think much of fashion) but nothing to give you that “Eureeka!” moment. Is that needed? Not really. The cast of entertaining characters are more than enough to make up for lack of depth. André Leon Tally is Editor-at Large is bitchy camp at it’s best. Most of the people at Vogue are in fact highly entertaining (or rather annoying – depending on how you look at it)

In fact, the true star of the film is Creative Director, Grace Coddington. Former model for Vogue became an assistant editor after a car accident prevented her from modelling. She worked her way up to her current position and is responsible for creating the photo spreads. Her vision for clothing, hair, make-up, accessories, and location make for some of the most beautiful photo’s in fashion.
With her frizzy red hair, pale skin and dedication to black clothing one would think her plain. She is extremely witty and opinionated. After 20 years of working at Vogue, it is a sight to behold to see someone so in love with what they do, that they are reduced to tears when their hard work is rejected.

Wintour may be the brains behind the magazine, but Coddington is the beauty. What she does can only be described as art (see below).

Grade: A-