Monthly Archives: September 2012
New Poster and Featurette For Tom Hooper’s “Les Misérables”
After first trailer I was excited for Anne Hathaway, but that was about it as far as Academy Award winner Tom Hooper (The King’s Speech) and his new version of Les Mis was concerned. But then last week they released a behind the scene featurette (posted below) that had interviews with the cast discussing how they recorded the music live as they were filming. They were so excited, that I became excited. Now we’ve got this poster, which is a take on the classic artwork for the musical. I can dig it.
Oscar Vault Monday – Good Will Hunting, 1997 (dir. Gus Van Sant)
This was one of my favorite films when it first came out and it remains one of my favorite films to date. Actually, 1997 is one of my favorite years for film and I would be hard-pressed to pick a favorite of the five films that were up for Oscar’s top prize that year. Good Will Hunting was nominated for nine Academy Awards, winning two: Best Original Score Danny Elfman, Best Original Song “Miss Misery” by Elliott Smith, Best Film Editing, Best Supporting Actress Minnie Driver, Best Supporting Actor Robin Williams (won), Best Actor Matt Damon, Best Original Screenplay Matt Damon and Ben Affleck (won), Best Director Gus Van Sant and Best Picture. The other films up for Best Picture that year were As Good As It Gets, The Full Monty, L.A. Confidential and winner Titanic.
What A Character! – Lew Ayres as Ned Seton in “Holiday”
As part of the What a Character! Blogathon, I decided to take an extended look at Lew Ayres as Ned Seton in George Cukor’s Holiday because not only is Lew Ayres one of my favorite actors, but this is the film that made me fall so hard for him. I also thought I would take this time to remind y’all that Lew Ayres: Hollywood’s Conscientious Objector goes on sale on November 1st. If you will remember, I contributed the foreword to that book and it would mean the world to me if you pre-ordered it; you won’t regret it, I swear.
I am going to go through Lew’s performance as Ned almost scene-by-scene, so if you haven’t seen the film yet, there will be spoilers.