Monthly Archives: September 2010
Sofia Coppola’s “Somewhere” wins top Venice prize
Here’s the story off of AP:
Sofia Coppola’s Somewhere, a story about an actor dealing with the emptiness of his life thanks to his child, won the top Golden Lion prize at the Venice film festival Saturday.
Director Quentin Tarantino headed the jury which unanimously chose Coppola’s film as the best movie at the 11-day annual festival.
“This film enchanted us from its first screening,” Tarantino said.
Coppola has described the film as a “portrait of today’s L.A.” Somewhere tells the story of a movie star, played by Stephen Dorff, who comes to see the emptiness of his existence through the eyes of his 11-year-old daughter, played by Elle Fanning.
With Somewhere, Coppola, who herself grew up in the world of film thanks to her father, director Francis Ford Coppola, lampoons Hollywood’s star treatment.
I so cannot wait to see this film. It’s set to open on December 22nd.
Movie Quote of the Day – Back To The Future, 1985 (dir. Robert Zemeckis)
George McFly: Hey, you! Get your damn hands off her!
Movie Quote of the Day – Clerks., 1994 (dir. Kevin Smith)
Randal: This job would be great if it wasn’t for the fucking customers.
Movie Quote of the Day – Kindergarten Cop, 1990 (dir. Ivan Reitman)
Joyce: You know, kindergarten is like the ocean. You don’t want to turn your back on it.
Off The Radar – Robert Redford’s “The Conspirator”
Somehow this film has stayed completely off my radar but thanks to this post by Scott Feinberg, it is now not only on my radar, but quickly jumping to the top of my list of films I cannot wait to see. I’ve seen several of the other films Robert Redford has directed (not to mention acted in) and I love his style. The cast list reads like a dream: Robin Wright, James McAvoy, Justin Long, Evan Rachel Wood, Jonathan Groff, Tom Wilkinson, Alexis Bledel, Johnny Simmons, Kevin Kline and Toby Kebbell.
Synopsis and more pictures after the cut.
New Poster For Edward Zwick’s “Love and Other Drugs”
I really cannot wait for this film. The international trailer is more true to the plot of the film from what I’ve read than the domestic trailer.
It’s set to open during Thanksgiving weekend and Anne Hathaway has already drummed up some major Oscar buzz for her performance (she was nominated in 2008 for Best Actress for Rachel Getting Married). I really love Jake Gyllenhaal and I hope this is a grown-up enough performance to get the Academy’s attention again (he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for Brokeback Mountain in 2005). I also really love Oliver Platt. He seems to be showing up in little supporting roles all over the place lately. I’m so glad. If you haven’t seen it, you should see the 90s road-trip/rom-com Michael, it’s one of Platt’s best performances.
54th Annual BFI London Film Festival Announces Line-up
We already knew that Never Let Me Go would open on October 13th and 127 Hours would close the festival on October 28th, but now we’ve got the whole line-up!
Notable films include:
- Let Me In
- Blue Valentine
- Conviction
- The American
- Miral
- Meek’s Cutoff
- It’s Kind of a Funny Story
- Another Year
- The King’s Speech
- Black Swan
- Biutiful
- Howl
- The Kids Are All Right
You can read more about the festival and the films that will be featured here. If any of you lovely readers gets a chance to go to the festival, please do drop us a line!
Movie Quote of the Day – As Good As It Gets, 1997 (dir. James L. Brooks)
Carol Connelly: OK, we all have these terrible stories to get over, and you-…
Melvin Udall: It’s not true. Some have great stories, pretty stories that take place at lakes with boats and friends and noodle salad. Just no one in this car. But, a lot of people, that’s their story. Good times, noodle salad. What makes it so hard is not that you had it bad, but that you’re that pissed that so many others had it good.
Auteur of the Week – Anton Corbijn
I first discovered Anton Corbijn, or at least put a name to his work, in the summer of 2005 when The Killers released their video for All The Things I’ve Done. It was directed by Corbijn and was most definitely an homage to Russ Meyers’ cult classic Faster Pussy Cat Kill Kill. I decided I had to watch everything he’d ever done, which is an impressive amount of really fantastic music videos starting as early as late 80s. I also discovered that he was the photographer responsible for some of the most iconic rock photographs of the last 35 years. About two years later I discovered the band Joy Division, a band that has subsequently become my all time favorite band. Corbijn is responsible for some of the most haunting photographs taken of that short-lived post-punk band, so it was a natural choice, I think, to have Corbijn helm the 2007 biopic of Joy Division’s ill-fated lead singer Ian Curtis. I actually was working for The Daily Californian at the time and reviewed the film at that time, which you can read here. Corbijn has directed two extremely solid films in the last three years and I absolutely cannot wait for him to make another film.
Movie Quote of the Day – Adventures in Babysitting, 1987 (dir. Chris Columbus)
Gang Leader: Don’t fuck with the Lords of Hell.
[grabs his knife]
Chris: Don’t fuck with the babysitter.
the diary of a film history fanatic 