Ralfs Fainss vakardien, 22. decembrī svinēja savu 47. jubileju. Apsveicam godāto angļu džentelmeni. Bet ne jubileja ir tas galvenais, ko vēlējos atzīmēt. Gribēju atzīmēt debiju kā režisoram, jo nākamajā gadā gaidāma tieši Ralfa Fainsa gan režisētā, gan producētā filma Coriolanus, kurā pats ar spēlēs galveno lomu. Filmā vēl atvēlētas lomas tādiem ievērojamiem aktieriem kā Viljams Harts, Vanessa Redgreiva un Džeraldam Batleram, kas pašreiz ir slavas zenītā, gada laikā paspējot nofilmēties vismaz trīs dažāda veida filmās.

Ralfs Fainss – dzimis Ipsvikā, Anglijā aristokrātiskā ģimenē. Radu raksti sniedzas lidz pat Velsas prinču statusiem, audzis septiņu bērnu ģimenē, kur lielākā daļa mūsdienās saistīta ar kino, brālis Džozefs Fainss – aktieris (ievērojamākā lomas: Shakespeare in Love, Luther), māsa Marta Fainsa – režisore (filma Onegin, kur R.Fainss galvenajā lomā), Sofija Fainsa – režisore producente, Magnuss Fainss – mūzikas komponists, kā arī divi brāļi kas nav saistīti ar kino – Džeikobs Fainss un Maikls Emerijs. Talantīgajā ģimenē tomēr lielākos slavas laurus izbauda tieši Ralfs Fainss. Aktiermākslas aizsākumi meklējami teātrī, pirmā kinoloma 1991. gadā filmā Prime Suspect, kur galveno lomu atveido Helēna Mirrena. Karjera ātri attīstījās un jau 1993. gadā par otrā plāna lomu filmā Schindler’s List oskara nominācija, filma kopumā ieguva septiņus, loma 1994. gadā četriem Oskariem nominētajā roberta Redforda filmā Quiz Show, un 1996. gadā galvenā loma filmā The English Patient – filmai deviņi Oskari, un Ralfs Fainss atkal paliek tikai pie nominācijas. Pēdējās ievērojamākās lomas filmās: In Bruges, The Duchess – lieliski nospelēta hercoga loma cietsirdīgums un vienaldzība atainojas jebkurā kustībā vai acu skatienā, kā arī The Reader kopā ar Keitu Vinsletu.

Ralfa Fainsa filmai Coriolanus scenāriju pēc Viljama Šekspīra lugas ekrānam adaptējis Džons Logans. Šis fakts jau vien šķiet ieintriģējošs. Visi zinām kas ir Šekspīrs, par Loganu atgādināšu – scenārijs filmām Gladiator, The Aviator. Tātad mums atliek vien gaidīt rezultātu, lai izdodas.

Inrervija – 2008. gads, The Reader.

WORD

chutzpah [KHoot-spuh, hoot-] n. SLANG 1. unmitigated effrontery or impudence; gall 2. unmitigated effrontery or impudence; gall

BIRTHDAY

James Oglethorpe (1696), Connie Mack (1862), Kenneth Rexroth (1905), Lady Bird Johnson (1912), Barbara Billingsley (1915), Hector Elizondo (1936), Steve Carlton (1944), Diane Sawyer (1945), Maurice Gibb (1949), Robin Gibb (1949), Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960), Luther Campbell (1970), Ralph Fiennes (1962)

STANDPOINT

I’m mostly certain being a weatherman is an anxious occupation.

We’re a news driven society.

Local news programming is the main source for everything we supposedly need to know. And, unlike the lead anchors who report on all of the awful shit that happened that day, or the sports guy who recaps the results of daily sporting events, the weatherman’s job is different. Most days, most everyone went outside and experienced the weather first hand. So the weatherman’s main purpose is not to tell us what already happened.

He’s asked to predict what’ll happen tomorrow. And the four days after that.

And that fucking sucks for the weatherman because when he predicts inclimate weather and he’s right, everyone point the finger at him as if he weaved some sort of spell and conjured up a brutal snowstorm, just because he could somehow. But when he’s wrong about the weather in any way, people throw up their hands, and curse the guy because, hey, he said it was going to rain and it didn’t and so I needlessly carried this umbrella around all day long.

Right or wrong, everyone complains about the weatherman.

QUOTATION

Oh look, yet another Christmas TV special!  How touching to have the meaning of Christmas brought to us by cola, fast food, and beer…. Who’d have ever guessed that product consumption, popular entertainment, and spirituality would mix so harmoniously? → Bill Watterson

TUNE

Sometimes a band can have a solid song going on but they make a video to go along with it that’s kind of bad judgement. Case in point, Wheat’s “Don’t I Hold You.”

GALLIMAUFRY

→ It’s sort of nuts when a basketball player, who went into the stands to assault fans during a game, makes a strong argument for Tiger Woods. But that’s exactly what Ron Artest did on his blog a few days ago.

→ Want to understand my problem with supposedly indie-rock websites? Check out Pitchfork’s Top 50 albums of 2009. I agree with about four of its choices. Apparently, even those who are supposed to be in possession of a discerning ear now have an agenda. Sad. Truly.

→ I’m about 94% sure I’ve never read any of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s works about the legendary Sherlock Holmes. I’m equally certain the upcoming movie Sherlock Holmes, starring an alarmingly buff Robert Downey Jr., isn’t going to be completely accurate to Doyle’s original vision of the character. But I don’t care. It looks kind of bad-ass. Despite the fact Jude Law is in it.

December 22, 2009

 We are watching the movie The Duchess which is a sad movie about arranged marriage and love.  The duke lives with his wife and his mistress for many years.  The whole thing looks miserable.  Keira Knightly has no future once she marries the duke, at least no future that includes joy.  I think of my marriage to my man with zero money and how much fun we have without money.  We can revel without it.  The filming of this movie must have been fabulous.  The castles, the costumes, the candles, all of it is extremely beautiful.   Exquisite.  The great scenes at the table where Ralph Fiennes who plays the Duke sits with his mistress on one side and his wife at the other end of the table.  You see the power men had over women. 

 Some women would say not enough has changed, but much has.  I know there are women who feel that once married, they are trapped, they cannot get out of the marriage, the husband has the money, and they therefore cannot leave.  That’s a sad thing.  As the woman said to me, I can’t leave.  We have a Lear Jet, and I said, I know what you mean, We have a Honda, I’d hate to leave that Honda.

 We had a great dinner of enchiladas at Tracy’s, and I gave the kids special nerf weapons with laser beams.  I am not such a fan of fighting, but the squeals of joy they made as the shot each other were wonderful.  They also quote Scarface to each other, apparently this is a movie that at eight and four, they are allowed to see.  I never allowed my kids to see it, but maybe I was too strict.  Scarface has some great lines, maybe their minds are learning something from it. 

 Parenting is an evolving sport.  Those kids are great, they’re noisy partiers and they get to stay up until 11.  I think they’re having a great life.  Some people would say that they should have a schedule, a bedtime, that sort of thing, but they’re really fun kids, I bet they turn out to be  amazing. 

 The Christmas shopping is about done and tomorrow is the day for wrapping.  I’m not a good wrapper.  I’m extremely sloppy.  I try to be neater, but I just can’t seem to get my act together, Mark does a fairly professional job, but I am terribly sloppy.  I throw the paper around the presents and kind of slap the tape on, and then stick the ribbon on in a sort of haphazard manner. 

 We resolved the issued of my mother-in-law on the day before Christmas.   These things do resolve at times.  She’ll come over in the afternoon to have coffee with my husband and the rest of us will all have Christmas eve as planned.  Mark and she will have a good time chatting I’m sure.  Families are like rare china, best to keep in the cupboard, take out on special occasions, but not overuse, or you might cut yourself.  I’m not going to worry about her blowing us off for Christmas eve, hey, blow away… we’ll be just fine.  There are certain words you can’t use around the grandma, so we’ll polish up those words, take them out of the junk drawer and use them.

Roman Bust Totally Looks Like Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes)

» Think you can do better? Make your own!

Look-alike by: JNMGibbs via Totally Looks Like Builder

Clash of the Titans

The first movie was a huge deal at least in the cereal isle way back meny years ago. It was impressive, stop motion and all. This should be should be even more so. the tone as would be expected is dark and gritty sorry Harry no pretty boys need apply Sam will take it from here

Now that’s better.  The first teaser for this movie all special effects and terrible taglines.  This one has one moderately bad tagline and a lot more story.  It’s looking very good.  The effects are obviously very good, but it’s nice to see that the acting isn’t going to be terrible.  Although I was disappointed when I realized that the girl in the intro wasn’t Lucy Lawless, for a few seconds there I was getting a Xena vibe from that girl.  You really can’t ask for better stars for the roles of Zeus and Hades, Liam Neesan is getting to be the go to guy for god, and Ralph Fiennes is an excellent villain.

March is going to be a pretty great month for movies.

Now if only the people who came up with “Titans Will Clash”, and “Damn the Gods” could get fired then perhaps we could enjoy these trailers more.

Click on the poster to watch the trailer.

From Apple.

- izi

Just in case the “Iron Man 2″ trailer wasn’t enough, apple.com also released the second “Clash of the Titans” trailer, starring Sam Worthington (Avatar), Liam Neeson (Taken) and Ralph Fiennes (Harry Potter).

Which one do you think is better?

Lukas Eggen

With the first decade of this century almost at an end and most people looking back, we at On Celluloid look forward to the UK film releases worth anticipating in 2010:

1. Up In The Air (due for release: 15 January 2010) - A film which is likely to figure large come Oscar sees Juno director Jason Reitman helming a film starring George Clooney as a consultant who lives the jetset life helping corporates to restructure and shed staff whilst trying to rack up 10 million air miles forced to contemplate being grounded.  Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick co-star.

2. Un Prophete (due for release: 22 January 2010) – One of the most praised films from the Cannes and London film festivals this year, Jacques Audiard’s prison film should become a breakout foreign language hit as an Arab prisoner gets sent to a French jail.

3. Edge of Darkness (due for release: 29 January 2010) – Mel Gibson stars in a film for the first time for several years in this revenge thriller directed by Casino Royale helmer Martin Campbell in which Gibson plays a detective hunting for the killer of his activist daughter.

4. The Princess and the Frog (due for release: 5 February 2010) – Much has been made of this film having the first black heroine in a Disney film but the film also sees a return to hand-drawn 2D animation for the House of Mouse which when the trend is to stick any old animation in 3D, this must be applauded.

5. Youth in Revolt (due for release: 5 February 2010) – Michael Cera stars in the dual roles of Nick Twisp and Francois Dillinger in this adaptation of C.D. Payne’s novel in which Twisp hopes for Portia Doubleday’s Sheeni will be the girl to take his virginity.  Talented helmer Miguel Arteta directs.

6. Shutter Island (due for release: 19 February 2010) – This film featured in my second half of 2009 anticipated movies but was unfortunately delayed.  Martin Scorsese adapts the novel from Denis Lehane (of Mystic River and Gone Baby Gone fame) in which Leonardo diCaprio stars as a detective.  Mark Ruffalo, Emily Mortimer and Michelle Williams co-star.

7. Everybody’s Fine (due for release: 19 February 2010) – It’s a been while since Robert de Niro appeared in a decent film but he is getting rave reviews for his performance as a widower who takes a road-trip to re-unite with his grown-up children.

8. A Couple of Dicks (due for release: 26 February 2010) – Kevin Smith returns directing Bruce Willis in a comedy about a pair of cops.  Expect more laughs as Seann William Scott, Adam Brody and Jason Lee co-star.

9. Green Zone (due for release: 12 March 2010) – Paul Greengrass and Matt Damon re-team for this adaptation of the best-selling book Imperial Life in the Emerald City in which a US army officer goes rogue in Baghdad.  Jason Isaacs and Brendan Gleeson co-star.

10. Season of the Witch (due for release: 19 March 2010) – I know very little about this but it stars Nicolas Cage who was mental in Werner Herzog’s Bad Lieutenant in a story based in the 14th century about knights transporting a witch to a monastry.  Promises to be mad as a box of frogs.

11. Cemetery Junction (due for release: 7 April 2010) – After the disappointing The Invention of Lying, Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant re-team for a comedy starring Ralph Fiennes in a story about three men working in an insurance company.  Lets be optimistic!

12. Lebanon (due for release: 9 April 2010) – Israeli director Samuel Moaz’s film is a claustrophobic take on the Israeli-Lebanon war of 1982 showing the war through the experiences of paratroopers in a lone tank searching a hostile town.

13. City of Life and Death (due for relase: 16 April 2010) – The “rape of Nanjing” remains a controversial event in the histories of China and Japan which still causes tension between the two countries.  Chuan Lu’s epic won the Golden Seashell at the San Sebastian film festival for its dramatisation of this 1937 event.

14. Robin Hood (due for release: 14 May 2010) – Sir Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe re-team for another take on the mythology of the Nottinghamshire outlaw as Crowe plays the titular character with Cate Blanchett as his Maid Marian.

15. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (due for release: 28 May 2010) – Can Jerry Bruckheimer do for the video game adaptation what he did for the theme park ride adaptation with the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise?  Jake Gyllenhaal will certainly hope so as he stars as the title character in this franchise starter.  Gemma Arterton co-stars as the English heroine.

Set in Iraq in a post-invasion time The Hurt Locker follows a group of American Soldiers who spend most of their time trying to locate and dissuse bombs or IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices). It seems also to be another film with a terrible title, but then maybe you’ve got to be down with the military lingo to get it.

It starts with a quote: “The rush of battle is a potent and often lethal addiction, for war is a drug” which sets the tone for the whole film. It’s about the psychological affects on the individuals in the situation and as characters come and go for various reasons the focus shifts to Sgt. William James (Jeremy Renner) who is the most gung-ho and ballsy in terms of actions (but in a calm and collected manner) of all the soldiers. He also displays all the symptoms of an addict – ignoring the people around him and seeking out greater hits.

The film sucks you into the warzone and ratchets up the tension and for the most part I was completely there. One scene in particular where the Americans come across a British team of soldiers and are attacked from afar out in the desert is fantastic and very Western-esque with long drawn out shots and an almost unseen enemy. It’s an ideal film for a Cinema setting, with a big screen and dark surroundings adding to the atmosphere.

The only parts where I drew back were the needlessly macho ‘Hell yeah!’ chest-thumping ‘U-S-A’ scenes of the soldiers bonding between the battles which for me were a bit too American, but then it is film about Americans by an American director. And a lady-director at that since you mention it.

4 on 5

Info:

Director – Kathryn Begelow
Starring – Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Brian Geraghty, Guy Pearce, Ralph Fiennes
UK Release – 28 August 2009

VIEW THE TRAILER HERE

Watch this hilarious rap battle between The Chosen One, and He who must not be named with some amazing special effects! Also, if you really enjoy the rap and would like to download the mp3, now, you can! Just click right here.

Here is the second trailer for director Louis Letterier’s (The Incredible Hulk) Clash of the Titans, starring Sam Worthington, Liam Neeson, and Ralph Fiennes (Harry Potter).

What do you think?

Lukas Eggen

In this one we get to see Zeus (Liam Neeson) and Hades (Ralph Fiennes) plus lots of monsters including a very Rancor looking Kraken near the end.

Sam Worthington as Perseus is looking very bad ass and there are giant scorpions and harpies aplenty.

Looking very good indeed.

I posted many Clash of the Titans posters a while back when they showed up at one of those Film business shows. Now the first one has been officially released and the good folks of Total Film posted it. If you didn’t already know Medusa is in it and Perseus kills her!

What do you think Perseus is screaming? Is it “Thundercats….Ho!”?

In “Clash of the Titans,” the ultimate struggle for power pits men against kings and kings against gods. But the war between the gods themselves could destroy the world. Born of a god but raised as a man, Perseus (Sam Worthington) is helpless to save his family from Hades (Ralph Fiennes), vengeful god of the underworld. With nothing left to lose, Perseus volunteers to lead a dangerous mission to defeat Hades before he can seize power from Zeus (Liam Neeson) and unleash hell on earth. Leading a daring band of warriors, Perseus sets off on a perilous journey deep into forbidden worlds. Battling unholy demons and fearsome beasts, he will only survive if he can accept his power as a god, defy his fate and create his own destiny.

“Clash of the Titans” is being directed by Louis Leterrier (“The Incredible Hulk”). Leading the international cast is Australian actor Sam Worthington (“Terminator Salvation,” the upcoming “Avatar”) as Perseus, the mortal son of Zeus, king of the gods. Academy Award® nominee Liam Neeson (“Taken,” “Schindler’s List”) takes on the role of the mighty Zeus, and Academy Award® nominee Ralph Fiennes (the “Harry Potter” films, “The English Patient”) plays the role of Hades, god of the underworld, who feeds on human fear. Rounding out the cast is Gemma Arterton (“Quantum of Solace”) as Io, Perseus’ mysterious spiritual guide throughout his journey; Mads Mikkelsen (“Casino Royale”) as Draco, who takes up his sword to join Perseus’ quest; Jason Flemyng (“Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels”, “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen”, TV’s “Primeval”) as Acrisius, a one-time king turned hideous beast; and Alexa Davalos (“Defiance”) as Andromeda, a princess doomed to lose her life if Perseus does not succeed.

The Clash begins (that’s a dreadful tagline isn’t it and what is with the terrible font they’ve used for it?) on 26th March 2010.

As I said before, I realised after posting the first installment of this list that I had missed off some films, and decided to pay homage to those movies in the intros. I’m annoyed at not including Christopher McQuarrie’s Way of the Gun as it’s a very impressive directorial debut that vanished after release and is only now starting to attract any attention years later.

Not enough attention, though. If you’ve not seen it and feel like watching a really uncompromising crime thriller that occupies a middle ground between Walter Hill’s  Johnny Handsome and Sam Peckinpah’s Bring Me The Head of Alfredo Garcia, then this is the movie for you. Benicio Del Toro and Ryan Phillippe play two scumbag criminals who kidnap a pregnant woman and end up bringing down a world of pain on themselves. It’s a gratifyingly dark movie, one of those movies made with the input of some well trained combat veterans (like Mamet’s Spartan and Michael Mann’s Heat) which is reflected in some tight and well-thought-out setpieces. It also features some superbly choreographed gunfights and one of the best opening scenes of the decade. I like this movie well enough to really regret missing it out, but if I were to include it now I would have to remove another movie from the list and I can’t really do that. If I were doing it over again, Way of the Gun would be definitely be included, and quite high up too.

Okay, remember the rules. Nothing from 2009 because blah blah and yes, some movies are a little lower than you would expect but I only saw them once and don’t feel familiar enough with them to assess them correctly, so I’m going with first impressions. Got that? Good.

75. Red Road

The feature debut of Andrea Arnold is one of the smartest thrillers to come out of Britain in decades. A sly commentary on the UK’s obsession with CCTV as well as being a gripping tale of revenge, the movie comes into its own with a surprising redemptive finale. Kudos also to Kate Dickie, who plays haunted protagonist Jackie with equal parts sensitivity and menace.

74. Speed Racer

Widely loathed by audiences and critics everywhere, the Wachowski’s put their reputations on the line with the boldest cross-format adaptation ever. Making the visual conventions and storytelling shortcuts of anime into vividly coloured flesh, Speed Racer offers the most consistently mindblowing visual assault of recent times, while the enthusiastic cast provide the heart. A pure triumph. Shut it, haters.

73. Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story

It might be an impossibility to make a starring vehicle for John C. Reilly — complete with songs — that could fail. Certainly this was not a financial success, but in time a cult will gather around Jake Kasdan and Judd Apatow’s faux-biopic, and it will get its due for its perfect use of the genre’s conventions against itself. (Check out John Michael Higgins’ expression at 3:02. Genius.)

72. A Scanner Darkly

Perhaps the definitive Philip K. Dick adaptation, perfectly capturing his absurdist prose and paranoid, reality-denying worldview. Richard Linklater found the ideal vehicle for the unworldly rotoscoping animation that Bob Sabiston utilised so brilliantly in the also-impressive Waking Life (another contender for this list). Perfectly cast and beautifully animated, A Scanner Darkly humanises Dick’s abstract musings, something that his other interpreters have struggled with.

71. Spirited Away

Hayao Miyazaki’s hallucinatory childrens’ tale has the nightmarish morality lessons of Disney’s Pinocchio, and the matter-of-fact oddness of Lewis Carroll. By turning the real world upside down and creating a dreamland governed by rules and laws that have only a distorted relation to our own, Miyazaki has created a hazy fable for the ages.

70. The Wrestler

For much of its running time Darren Aronofsky’s adaptation of Robert D. Siegel’s tight screenplay looks like a standard comeback tale, but by the end we see what it really is: a tragedy about a man whose inability to adapt to the world around him dooms him. The final image is heartbreaking, iconic, and unforgettable. It also features what might be the comeback performance of the decade from a never-better Mickey Rourke.

69. Sideways

Alexander Payne’s delicate tale of friendship took critics by storm but in the most memorable Academy Award snub in recent memory, Paul Giamatti’s performance was not even nominated for an honour. For shame. His depiction of a man attempting to fend off the pain of life through booze and defensive snobbery is heartbreaking, his redemption quiet but moving.

68. Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence

One of the most underrated SF movies of the decade, Mamoru Oshii’s meditation on transhumanity may have fewer wow moments than his original adaptation of Shirow Masamune’s manga, but it follows the same themes into deeper holes. It’s easy to get happily lost in them.

67. Spider

Funding problems almost shut production down on this adaptation of Patrick McGrath’s novel, but it made it to cinemas, to an indifferent audience. Ralph Fiennes gives the performance of a lifetime in an exaggerated nightmare world of poverty, insanity, murder and grime. Cronenberg’s emotionally claustrophobic vision lingers long after the credits roll.

66. Iron Man

Possibly the most ambitious film project since Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, Marvel Studios’ attempt to create a complete onscreen universe a la the 616 got off to a terrific start last year. The Incredible Hulk was fun, but Iron Man was a near-total success. Light, exciting, and endlessly entertaining, it also propelled Robert Downey Jr. to the superstardom he has always deserved.

65. The King of Kong

Forget superhero movies. One of the decades greatest showdowns was between gaming enthusiasts Billy Mitchell and Steve Weibe. The roles of hero and villain were delineated so completely that Seth Gordon didn’t even need to meddle with the events through editing. We instantly knew who to root for, and who to hiss. I’d feel sorry for Billy Mitchell after news leaked of booing and hissing during convention screenings, but I don’t think he cares. He’s very successful, after all.

64. Spider-Man 2

Sam Raimi made a great origin film for Spidey, and then built upon that success to deliver a crowd-pleasing action epic, skillfully constructed for maximum emotional impact. For such a hectic film, praise is due to Raimi for making the quiet character revelations as memorable as the incredible setpieces. And when I say incredible setpieces, I’m thinking of the best superhero/supervillain fight yet committed to film:

63. Lantana

Ray Lawrence again, adapting Andrew Bovell’s play about the emotional turmoil affecting a policeman and the people around him. I’m ashamed to admit that my favourite part of this unmissable movie is not the sensitive direction, the thought-provoking screenplay, or the uniformly brilliant performances, but that Anthony LaPaglia’s character is called Leon Zat. What a name.

62. Redbelt

David Mamet’s best work is often about men and their self-aggrandising hostility towards each other. That gruffness is greatly softened here by the casting of Chiwetel Ejiofor as Mike Terry, a man whose reflective stillness and sense of honour sets him apart. Mamet expertly tightens the screws on his hero until he explodes with righteous fury in a finale of enormous emotional power.

61. Lost in Translation

After the inevitable backlash against Sofia Coppola’s semi-autobiographical tale of connection in a strange land, it’s easy to forget everything that made it work so well. It occupies a kind of netherworld between comedy and tragedy, reality and movie exaggeration, at once dreamlike and bluntly mundane. And oh my, that glorious soundtrack…

Ah, that worked out a lot better. WordPress worked fine. It was just Microsoft and their insistent Windows updates that nearly ruined it all. More tomorrow…