Cursed Movies

Atuk was supposed to be a comedy about an Eskimo hunter trying to adapt to life in the big city. John Belushi wanted the role, but died of an overdose. Role taken over by Sam Kinison who then died in a car accident. John Candy offered the role, but died of a heart failure. Chris Farley offered the role - died of an overdose.
Hopefully no one else will be offered the script. The list is long enough...
The Misfits (filmed in Reno desert) starring Marilyn Monroe (died of an overdose), Montgomery Clift (died of a heart failure) and Clarke Gable (died of a heart attack) - all shortly after filming the movie.
The Conqueror - filmed in Utah (near Nevada's nuclear testing grounds) was destined to have all director Dick Powell, stars John Wayne and Susan Hayward along with 91 cast and crew members contracting a cancer (46 of them died).
The Passion of the Christ - a crew member Jan Michelini died of a thunder strike. Later on, Jim Caviezel was hit once but was unharmed.
James Bond movies left a sea of corpses behind. While filming the latest Quantum of Solace, one stunt man drove Aston Martin into the lake and died, another one later hit a truck and then a wall with Alfa Romeo barely surviving. A by-stander had a heart attack and died, one of technicians got stabbed by a stranger...
The Man who killed Don Quixote : Terry Gilliam had been trying for 10 years to collect a budget for the movie. He even got Johnny Depp to star in it and all, but was sick the entire time of filming it, and then there was a big flood that destroyed the set and the entire area... In Gilliam's last movie the starring role was to be played by Heath Ledger (!)...

Always So Good

As a big fan of Jeremy Irons, I really wish I could see this play and hope they will eventually televise it.
It has been said Irons gave a masterful performance as an old-school politician, Harold Macmillan who was the British prime minister from 1957-63 when the Beatles and Swinging London were starting to change the world in "Never So Good" at London's National Theatre.
Macmillan was wounded five times in World War I, survived a plane crash in World War II, connived with U.S. President Eisenhower to end the 1956 Middle East War over the Suez Canal, and was there when Kennedy faced the Cuban missile crisis.
But he is best known for having to resign from office following what became tagged as the Profumo Affair when the U.K. minister of war became embroiled in sexual shenanigans with a woman named Christine Keeler, who also was sleeping with a Russian spy(!).

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Javier and Marion

Neopisivo mi je drago za ovo dvoje. Cestitke Javieru i Marion na Oscarima!
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Soo glad these guys have won! (earlier about No country)

Another interesting documentary

Kevin Macdonald's film, The Last King of Scotland, was a fictionalised account of Idi Amin. Now, Macdonald has raised the intriguing possibility that Che Guevara's capture by the CIA in the forests of Bolivia 40 years ago was orchestrated by Klaus Barbie, the Nazi war criminal called the 'Butcher of Lyon'. Barbie was the Gestapo chief in Lyon whose crimes included the murder of 44 Jewish children, taken from an orphanage and sent to Auschwitz. Improbably, the men's paths crossed in Bolivia. My Enemy's Enemy, a documentary directed by Macdonald, examines how Barbie's record was disregarded when he was recruited by US intelligence after the Second World War as a useful tool against communism. He evaded French justice by fleeing to Bolivia where, living under the alias Klaus Altmann, he was welcomed by fascist sympathisers. In 1966 a disguised Guevara arrived in Bolivia to organise the overthrow of its military dictatorship.
The Americans had been hunting Guevara and turned to Barbie for his first-hand knowledge of counter-guerrilla warfare: he had attempted to crush the French Resistance and was responsible for the death of its celebrated leader, Jean Moulin. Barbie met Major Shelton, the commander of the unit from the US, and gave him advice on how to fight this guerrilla war. Barbie had little respect for Che Guevara. He said once, "This poor man wouldn't have survived at all if he fought in the Second World War. He was a pitiful adventurer, nothing like his popular image. The people have turned him into a myth, a great figure. But what has he actually achieved? Absolutely nothing".' I suppose Barbie himself thought he had achieved a whole lot...
The Che claim came from several sources. In October 1967 the Bolivian army, with CIA help, captured the 39-year-old Guevara and killed him.
Barbie was involved in torture again in Bolivia and dreamed of establishing a Fourth Reich in the Andes. But he was tracked down by Nazi hunters and eventually extradited to France, where he was sentenced to life imprisonment and died in jail in Lyon in September 1991.

Metropia - Our Future?

Swedish animated feature film for adults is taking place in a near future in Europe. The world is running out of oil and the net of undergrounds has been connected, creating an enormous web underneath Europe. Roger from a Stockholm suburb tries to stay away from the underground, however one day he finds out that his life is controlled in every detail (Matrix?). He tries to break free, and in order to succeed he needs super-model Nina to help him...
It is a mix of animated and non-animated scenes. Voices by Juliette Lewis (Natural Born Killers) and Vincent Gallo (Buffalo '66). Sounds like a good one.

Kurosawa's Films

A part of a cult director Akira Kurosawa's opus can be downloaded for free (films like Rashomon, To Live, Stray Dog, They Who Step on Tiger's Tail,...
HERE

Ed Norton

Edward Norton's acting career has thrown him into a number of roles over the years, from scary skinheads to his most recent role, a man who turns green and busts everything up. But now he's onto something else, courtesy of Hulk co-star Tim Blake Nelson. Variety reports that Norton will play dual roles in the upcoming comedic thriller, Leaves of Grass - a project Nelson wrote and will act in. Plot details haven't been released yet, but: "Norton will play identical twins - one an Ivy League classics professor, and the other a hedonistic, pot-smoking career criminal." Nelson has got to be relieved. He said that if Norton had declined, "there would have been no second choice."

My favourite Norton's movies: Primal Fear, American History X, Fight Club, The Illusionist

Fantastic actor, this fella! He knows how to pick his movies, too.

How 'bout tasting a snake?

The 33-year-old Christian Bale (Empire of the Sun, American Psycho, The Prestige, Batman Begins) who stars as Dieter Dengler in new movie Rescue Dawn, agreed to the movie after being challenged to eat several live animals by the film's director Werner Herzog. Christian said: "Werner said to me, 'How do you feel about swimming through a snake-infested river?' so I said, 'How do you feel about it Werner?' He said, 'I will do this if you will.' Then he asked, 'How do you feel about eating a live snake?'"It was a curious conversation, with more and more crazy questions. I thought, 'This sounds like an interesting endeavour.'" In one scene, Christian - who lost 55lbs for the role - also had to eat live maggots, after the director insisted he wanted the scene to look real. Herzog said: "There are too many computer effects in movies these days. I wanted audiences to start believing their own eyes again."
Rescue Dawn tells the real-life story of American Navy pilot Lt Dieter Dengler, who was captured by Laotian soldiers during the Vietnam War. Dengler was one of two survivors to have escaped from a Pathet Lao prison camp in Laos. He was rescued by the US military after 23 days on the run in the jungle, in which he watched his close friend being decapitated. The film was shot in remote parts of Thailand's North and South. It was shot backwards, meaning the final scenes of the movie where Bale had to look his thinnest after surviving the ordeal were shot first.

Who wants to watch?

It is well known that war films make up for poor reporting.

Brian De Palma's Redacted, arguably the most shocking feature yet about events in Iraq (about to hit theatres) is using a documentary style to tell the true story of the gang rape and murder of an Iraqi girl by U.S. troops in 2006. Paul Haggis also based In The Valley Of Elah on true events linked to the war, although, unlike De Palma's cast of unknown actors, he employed major stars Tommy Lee Jones, Charlize Theron and Susan Sarandon.
Both film makers have attacked mainstream media for their coverage of the Iraq war and events leading to it. During the Vietnam war there were terrific journalists doing their job, reporting on things that no one wanted to hear.
Many in the U.S. media admit that reporting of the war, and particularly the failure to question the reasons given for it, left much to be desired. Many recent films dealing with wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and the repercussions of the September 11 attacks have failed to find an audience, including those who feature top talent. In The Valley Of Elah earned just $9 million at the box office worldwide. Rendition, a film about detaining terrorism suspects and starring Reese Witherspoon, earned $15 million globally, while audiences for Lions For Lambs, with Tom Cruise in an Afghan war-themed plot, have been disappointing, according to reports.

Less known films worth mentioning this year

No Country for Old Men





Director: Joel Coen
Cast: Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin, Javier Bardem, Woody Harrelson
Plot: The story begins when Llewelyn Moss (BROLIN) finds a pickup truck surrounded by a sentry of dead men. A load of heroin and two million dollars in cash are still in the back. When Moss takes the money, he sets off a chain reaction of catastrophic violence that not even the law - in the person of aging, disillusioned Sheriff Bell (JONES) - can contain. As Moss tries to evade his pursuers - in particular a mysterious mastermind who flips coins for human lives (BARDEM) - the film simultaneously strips down the American crime drama and broadens its concerns to encompass themes as ancient as the Bible and as bloodily contemporary as newspapers' headlines.


Eastern Promises




Director: David Cronenberg
Cast: Viggo Mortensen, Naomi Watts, Vincent Cassel, Armin Mueller-Stahl
Plot: The film follows the mysterious and ruthless Nikolai (Viggo Mortensen), who is tied to one of London's most notorious organized crime families. His carefully maintained existence is jarred when he crosses paths with Anna (Naomi Watts), an innocent midwife trying to right a wrong, who accidentally uncovers potential evidence against the family. Now Nikolai must put into motion a harrowing chain of murder, deceit, and retribution.

Watch for this one!

Mexican actor Gael Garcia Bernal (Y Tu Mama Tambien (Alfonso Cuaron), Bad Education (Pedro Almodovar), Babel (Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu), The Motorcycle Diaries (Walter Salles)...) said he is not tempted to work in Hollywood, despite receiving many invitations. "The closest I got to Hollywood was a movie I did in Tijuana. And it is really close, about three hours,". He said when he selects a project he thinks about the industry it represents. Bernal is working mostly with Latin American directors. In the latest movie, Past (Hector Babenco), he plays a father whose son is kidnapped (set in Buenos Aires, which Gael considers his second home). His directorial debut, Deficit, depicts the clash of different social classes in Mexico. Bernal is now working on Blindness, with a Brazilian director, Fernando Meirelles (City of God, The Constant Gardener) inspired by a Jose Saramago novel about a blindness epidemic that results in the collapse of society.

Jimmy Dean

The annual James Dean memorial service brings people from all around the world to Back Creek Friends Church. During the service, more than 100 motorcycles passes by the church and cemetery where Dean is buried to visit his grave. The legendary Nicky Bazooka said he drives around on his 1950s motorcycle while dressed in a 1943 Harley-Davidson jacket, a scarf signed by Dean, black aviator sunglasses with a picture of Dean in the lenses and a black-and-white cap. Bazooka said he only celebrates two holidays: Elvis' birthday on Jan. 8, and the day Dean died, Sept. 30, 1955 in a car wreck in Cholame, Calif., at age 24. Dean did a road traffic commercial where they asked him if he had any advice for kids, and he said drive safely because the life you save could be mine. Then he died in a car crash.

Heart Of SA

This year's Sarajevo Film Festival had shown 157 films, and cevapi and cheep cabs were enjoyed by the stars such as Jeremy Irons (president of the Competition Features Jury), Michael Moore ('Sicko'), Juliette Binoche ('Breaking and Entering', 'Flight of the Red Balloon'), Steve Buscemi ('Delirious, 'Interview')...

US were presented by 18 movies, UK 1, Sweden 2, Spain 3, Norway 3, Ireland 3, Germany 18, France 24, Denmark 4... Canada 0.

The reputation of the Festival is growing exponentially. Plan your next visit to ex-Yu in mid-August so you can enjoy it, too!

A "Dylan" Movie

I'm Not There is the title of an experimental movie inspired by life of Bob Dylan, and is starring the likes of Christian Bale /The Freewheelin’ phase/, Cate Blanchett (?) /Blonde on Blonde phase/, Richard Gere, Heath Ledger /John Wesley Harding phase/, Ben Whishaw all playing Dylan in particular stages of his life. Watch for it at the Toronto Festival...
VIDEO

La Vie En Rose – Edith Piaf

Francuski biografski film sa Marion Cotillard u glavnoj ulozi (A Good Year, sa Russel Croweom) ce svakako da izbaci ovu glumicu u zvjezdanu orbitu.
Edith Piaf, kci barske pjevacice i ulicnog akrobata dio djetinjstva je provela u bordelu sa svojom bakom. Sa 16 godina dobila je djevojcicu koja je umrla od meningitisa. Pocela je da nastupa sa 20 godina u nocnom klubu Louisa Lepléea (Gerard Depardieu), za cije ubistvo je poslije bila i optuzena. U ratu je krijumcarila lazirane pasose i pomogla nekoliko francuskih vojnih zatvorenika da pobjegnu...Najveca ljubav, bokser Marcel Cerdan (Jean-Pierre Martins) je poginuo u avionskoj nesreći. Udavala se jos dva puta. Zivjela je na morfiju, da bi umrla u 47. godini zivota na isti dan kada i njen prijatelj Jean Cocteau.(!)
Trailer

Medjunarodni dokumentarci - Toronto

Međunarodni filmski festival u Torontu 6.-15. septembra ce prikazati, izmedju ostalog:

Algerie, Histoires A Ne Pas Dire (o četvorici muslimanskih Alžiraca koji se prisjećaju svoga rata za nezavisnost i odnose sa jevrejskim i hrišćanskim susjedima).

Body of War (rata se prisjeća i 25-godišnji Tomas Young, kojeg je metak u kicmi zauvijek paralizovao, a ostatak života posvetio je borbi protiv rata u Iraku, u kojem je i bio kobno ranjen. Eddie Vedder iz Pearl Jama je komponovao i originalnu muziku za film).

Man of Cinema: Pierre Rissient (o čovjeku koji je stajao iza kulisa Cannesa čitavih 40 godina).
Trumbo (portret scenarista Daltona Trumba -Spartak, Papillon, koji je bio na crnoj listi, ali se hrabro borio protiv represije. U filmu nastupaju i Donald Sutherland, Michael Douglas i Liam Neeson).
Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts (odsječak iz života i karijere Philipa Glassa, filmskog kompozitora koji je radio s raznim velikanima - pojavljuju se i Ravi Shankar i Woody Allen).

The Dictator Hunter (o aktivisti Human Rights Watcha, koji pokušava sprovesti pravdu za žrtve bivšeg čadskog diktatora, Hissenea Habrea).

Terror’s Advocate (advokat Jacques Verges umjesto trofeja skuplja "ozloglasene" klijente – branio je šefa Gestapa u Lyonu Klausa Barbieja, te Saddama Husseina i Slobodana Miloševića).

Encounters at the End of the World (o Antarktiku i njegovim sirovim prirodnim ljepotama).

Festival otvara kanadska drama Fugitive Pieces, sa Radetom Serbedzijom u glavnoj ulozi (glumi grckog arheologa Athosa koji spasava zivot djecaka vodeci ga u novu domovinu...)

(T)ko bi to mogao biti?

Krenuo je sa Antonom Vrdoljakom - 'U gori raste zelen bor' (1971) igra manju ulogu da bi se kasnije proslavio ulogama u filmovima i TV serijama 'Kiklop', 'Mirisi, zlato i tamjan'. Glumio je lukavog prosjaka Matana u 'Prosjacima i sinovima' koji su 1971. zabranjeni. Iste godine zabranjena je i drama 'Crveno klasje' Živojina Pavlovića, sa kojim je jos saradjivao na 'Hajka' i 'Dezerter'. Potom slijede istorijski film 'Banović Strahinja' Vatroslava Mimice, krimić Zorana Tadića 'San o ruži' i 'Čovjek koji je volio sprovode', prvi jugoslavenski horor 'Variola Vera' Gorana Markovića. Početkom devedesetih, nakon antiratnih nastupa u Sarajevu i Beogradu odlazi za suprugom Lenkom u Ljubljanu, a zadnji predratni film u Zagrebu mu je 'Kontesa Dora' Zvonimira Berkovića. Glumi po pozoristima u Sloveniji, pa sa svojom predstavom gostuje i u Londonu gdje upoznaje Milča Mančevskog, koji mu nudi prelomnu ulogu makedonskog fotografa koji bježi od rata u Before the rain(1994). Film dobiva Zlatnog lava u Veneciji, a on i posebnu nagradu kritičara. Vrata Hollywooda otvara mu Oscar kojeg je film dobio kao najbolje strano ostvarenje. 1997. zajedno sa kćerkom Lucijom glumi u The Saint(1997.) Philipa Noycea, kod kojega će glumiti i u The Quiet American(2002), a uloga ruskog magnata jedna je od prvih uloga Rusa koje će kasnije često igrati. Najveći holivudski nastup mu je sporedna uloga u Kubrickovom Eyes Wide Shut(1999.). Upoznaje Toma Cruisea što će mu osigurati i honorar za nastup u Mission:Impossible II(2000). Ostali holivudski filmovi: Snatch(2000) Guya Ritchiea, Space Cowboys(2000) Clinta Eastwooda, remake The Fog(2005) i kratko pojavljivanje u Batman Begins(2005). TV: musical South Pacific, spijunski triler Spooks, naucno-fantasticna serija Surface, adaptacija romana Fugitive Pieces (Anne Michaels), serija "24" - glumio ruskog generala, naravno. Od domaćih filmova snimio je u Hrvatskoj 'Je li jasno, prijatelju?' (2000) i u Bosni 'Go West' (2005). Izdao je razne zbirke pjesama ('Prijatelj me kaže više ne poznaje'), autobiografiju 'Do posljednjeg daha', 'Ne daj se, Ines' citirajuci/pjevajuci stihove Arsena Dedića... Prvi komsija mu je Benicio Del Toro.
Niko drugi do, naravno, Rade Serbedzija.
Kompletna filmografija

Zbogom Antonioni!

Italijanski avangardni reziser Michelangelo Antonioni pokopan je u četvrtak u svom rodnom gradu Ferrari na sjeveru Italije. Smatrali su ga majstorom i čarobnjakom svjetla. Preminuo je u 94. godini. Svjetsku slavu stekao je 60-tih godina filmovima kao što su "Blow Up" i "Zabriskie Point". Nakon moždanog udara 1985. godine, kretao se uz pomoć invalidskih kolica i teško je govorio. Vazni filmovi: L'Avventura, La Notte, Le Amiche, The Passenger, Beyond the Clouds

Javier Bardem

Fantasticni spanski glumac Javier Bardem, svjetsku slavu je dozivio u ulozi homoseksualnog kubanskog pjesnika i disidenta Reinaldoa Arenasa u Before Night Falls, i do danas mu niko ne moze reci da se upusta u komercijalne projekte koji mu obezbjedjuju slavu. On često odbija uloge i pazi da se u nekoj tipskoj ne pojavi više puta, a sam ima gotovo kameleonsku sposobnost mentalne i fizičke transformacije. Jedna od ranijih uloga koja mu je osigurala popularnost mu je ona u crnoj komediji Ham, Ham, (1992) gdje se pojavljuje kao seksi frajer. Zatim je saradjivao sa velikim Almodovarom – High Heels(1991) i Live flesh (1997). Za Numbered days(1994) i Mouth to Mouth(1995) dodijeljena mu je najveća španska počast. John Malkovich mu je u svom rediteljskom debiju The Dancer Upstairs ponudio glavno mjesto. Najveće počasti i hvale (venecijanski Grand Prix, Goya i nominacije za najboljeg evropskog glumca), dodijeljene su mu za ulogu u njegovom zadnjem filmu – Mar Adentro (2004). Sada sprema Che za Soderbergha i Killing Pablo za Joe Carnahana.
Obavezno pogledajte Goya`s Ghosts, Perdita Durango, Before Night Falls, Golden Balls, Jamón, jamón (sunka, sunka), Carne trémula (zivo meso) i The Sea Inside.

Isabelle Adjani

Prelijepa Isabelle Yasmine Adjani jedna je od meni najdrazih glumica. Nagradjena je sa 4 Cesara, a posebno je poznata po filmovima Possession, Diabolique, Hotel Splendide, The Bronte Sisters, The Tenant i moj omiljeni Queen Margot.
Poredili su je sa Jeanne Moreau. Snimila je i album sa hit singlom Pull Marine koji je prodat u milion primjeraka. Ima sina sa reziserom Bruno Nuyttenom, drugog sina sa Daniel Day-Lewisom. Borac je protiv francuskog rasizma prema sjevernoafričkim emigrantima, kojima je pripadao i njen otac (majka Njemica, otac Alzirac turskoga porijekla).