brideshead revisited Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Appaloosa
Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen are unlikely cowboys, Jeremy Irons is an even more unlikely villain, and Renée Zellweger is the least likely "proper widow" the Old West has ever seen. Appaloosa is a fitfully entertaining, post, post-modern Western; Eric D. described it well as "a buddy movie, a rough-and-tumble, no-girls-allowed, steak-and-potatoes romp that happens to be set in the Old West." The DVD includes an audio commentary by Harris (director/co-writer) and Robert Knott (co-writer/producer), four behind the scenes mini-features, and deleted scenes. Also on Blu-ray. Rent it.

Swing Vote
Like Appaloosa, Swing Vote was pretty much ignored during its theatrical run, but deserves to find its audience on home video. Kevin Costner is in his everyman, blue collar mode here, which means the film is immensely likable and funny. He plays a small town loser, with a way too precocious daughter, who must cast the deciding vote in a presidential election. Of course it's contrived and silly and obvious and non-partisan, but I loved the election videos made by the suddenly too-eager-to-please candidates (Dennis Hopper and Kelsey Grammer). The DVD includes an audio commentary with Joshua Michael Stern (director/co-writer) and Jason Richman (co-writer), a "making of" mini-feature, deleted scenes, an extended scene, and a music video. Also on Blu-ray. Rent it.

Tokyo Gore Police
For extreme horror fans only: everything your splatter-loving heart could desire. Buy it.

More new releases: Balls Out: Gary the Tennis Coach, Mirrors (also on Blu-ray), My Best Friend's Girl (also on Blu-ray), Tyler Perry's The Family That Preys, and Without a Paddle: Nature's Calling (also on Blu-ray). Plus the great, faux-Kennedy TV mini-series Captains and the Kings, which enthralled me when it first aired way back in the Mesozaic Era (Richard Jordan! Richard Jordan! Richard Jordan!).

The French are at it again! After last month's unexpected breakout success of French thriller Tell No One, surely it's no surprise that French thriller A Girl Cut in Two opened on top, grossing $9,750 per screens at the two theaters in New York where it opened, according to Box Office Mojo. Claude Chabrol's latest (and perhaps last) has delighted critics, including our own Jeffrey M. Anderson ("superbly made ... highly enjoyable").

Amidst a hailstorm of reviews, interviews, and offers of threesomes, Woody Allen's Vicky Christina Barcelona debuted to $5,361 per-screen at 692 engagements, while would-be inspirational drama Henry Poole is Here failed to inspire much box office, drawing just $1,518 per screen at 527 theaters. People were evidently more interested in sin than salvation this weekend.

Two films in their second week of release continued to draw well, with literary adaptation Elegy scoring $9,000 per screen at six locations and music doc Patti Smith: Dream of Life drawing $7,000 at its sole Manhattan engagement. Meanwhile, the quiet thriller Frozen River saw an uptick in business as it expanded to 15 theaters in its third week of release, earning $4,086 per screen.

American Teen withered on the vine in its fourth week, its per-screen average shrinking to $980 as it further expanded into 105 theaters, with a cumulative total of $656,000. Brideshead Revisited slowed to $1,489 per screen during its expansion into 501 theaters, though its total has passed $4.6 million.

Was it good acting, literary source material, or the prospect of a naked beauty that lured people to this weekend's top box office draw? With a $17,000 per-screen average, Isabel Coixet's drama Elegy easily led all comers, according to estimates compiled by Box Office Mojo. Despite Christopher Campbell's negative review, the combination of Ben Kingsley, Penélope Cruz, and a Philip Roth novel evidently proved to be irresistible. We'll see what happens when the film expands to 25 markets in two weeks.

Another film that resonated well in New York, Steven Sebring's doc Patti Smith: Dream of Life, took home $8,080 from its sole Gotham engagement, while wine lovers pushed period comedy / drama Bottle Shock to a per-screen average of $6,145 at 48 locations. The presence of Toby Keith did not scare up very many beer drinkers to come see his comedy / adventure Beer for My Horses, which opened at 91 locales to the tune of $2,483 per screen.

Among the holdovers, immigration drama Frozen River ($8,071 per screen, 7 theaters, 2nd week of release) and adult thriller Transsiberian ($5,192 per screen, 14 theaters, 4th week) did well.

Three other films expanded notably, with predictably mixed results. Wildly acclaimed doc Man on Wire stretched beyond Manhattan into 59 theaters and earned a healthy $4,576 per screen average. In its third week of release, the slick doc American Teen pushed into 76 theaters but could muster only $1,802 at each location. Its expansion will still continue into the Top 60 markets this Friday, per Variety. Period romantic drama Brideshead Revisited unwound into 349 theaters and made $3,034 per screen, giving it a total of $3.3 million in three weeks.

While The Dark Knight battled The Mummy on the mainstream charts, indie fans enjoyed much cooler movies. In its third week of release, Brad Anderson's Transsiberian continued its strong run, raking in $15,100 per-screen at the two locations where it's playing, according to estimates compiled by Box Office Mojo. The film has grossed $125,000 so far. Also set in a cold clime, Frozen River, Courtney Hunt's "single mother smuggles illegal immigrants" drama, took in $10,471 per screen at seven locations on its opening weekend.

Two other debuting indies had decent results: black and white romantic comedy In Search of a Midnight Kiss made $7,300 at the two theaters where it opened and British comedy Sixty-Six scored $5,700 per-screen at its two engagements. No figures were reported to Box Office Mojo for documentary America the Beautiful or for Japanese melodrama Love and Honor.

indieWIRE highlights the success of holdover Man on Wire, James Marsh's completely charming and suspenseful doc, which earned $12,500 per screen at four locations. They also point to the returns of two films in their second week of release: period drama Brideshead Revisited ($5,284 per screen at 94 theaters) and high school doc American Teen ("a rather disappointing" $4,487 per screen at 39 locations). I saw the former on Sunday afternoon (packed, people lined up for the next screening) and the latter on Saturday afternoon (maybe 15-20 people). Different crowds, definitely, but Brideshead Revisited is much more likely to gain as it opens further.

Some might question whether Brideshead Revisited, the classic novel by Evelyn Waugh, needed to be revisited in a film adaptation; the novel, after all, has been adapted once before in a lengthy and well-beloved British television serial. Fortunately for fans of Waugh's work, this film version of Brideshead, directed by Julian Jarrold (Kinky Boots, Becoming Jane) off a screenplay written by Jeremy Brock and Andrew Davies, is beautifully shot, painstakingly directed, and well worth watching. For the most part, the filmmakers avoid mutilating Waugh's work, although the end result does place a greater emphasis on certain aspects (romance) and limit or eliminate others altogether (the brilliantly written discourses on religion and love that permeate the book).

The film is shot in Castle Howard, also the setting for the miniseries version, and Brideshead itself is a majestic, imposing character that looms over all who encounter it. The screenplay is rather a masterful adaptation; the film handles the compression of years through the storyline with a bit of book-ended time-jumping to both introduce us to the lead characters and close out the story, and Brock and Davies do an able job of whittling the story down to meet the needs of a cinematic experience without losing the feel of Waugh's novel in the process.

If you caught Kim's recent post about revisiting Brideshead Revisited, you'll remember that we're about to get more Emma Thompson in theaters as Lady Marchmain. As the film's July 26 release date zooms closer, buzz for the film is increasing, but it's not all run-of-the-mill Q&A's and that typical PR chatter. Vanity Fair just threw up a great discussion with the actress, one that took an appropriate, literary angle. Instead of the usual, they had her answer the classic Proust Questionnaire.

I could do without a lead-in that lists "ponders her thighs" as the first mention of what Thompson discussed, but the actual answers are a fun read. Thompson covers a number of areas, from her loving women with the "ability to laugh in the face of disaster," to discussions of those she admires, and her love of wine. It's amazing how much information can be jam-packed into one word answers that provide a quick and fun interview. I'm surprised that in this modern day, where brevity is adored, more people aren't getting Proustian.

*They've also put one up for the late and great George Carlin, from 2001.

[via Anne Thompson]

One of my favorite classic novels, Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited, is coming your way in a new adaptation starring what looks to be a perfectly suited cast. Matthew Goode, (Match Point, The Lookout) stars as Charles Ryder, the tale's protagonist and narrator, who befriends the wealthy Sebastian Flyte (Ben Whishaw). When Sebastian brings Charles for a visit to his family's estate, Brideshead Castle, Charles meets Sebastian's sister, Lady Julia Flyte (Hayley Atwell, Cassandra's Dream).

Emma Thompson plays Lady Marchmain, Sebastian and Julia's aristocratic mother, a Roman Catholic for whom her husband, Lord Marchmain, converted his faith from Anglican; in the book, at least, Catholicism is an influence on both the lives and conversations of the characters, especially Lady Marchmain, who uses the duel thumbscrews of guilt and manipulation to control others ... this is a character Thompson can really sink her teeth into, and I look forward to seeing her take on the role.

I loved Tom Tykwer's Perfurme: The Story of a Murderer, starring Ben Whishaw as a sociopathic serial killer. Whishaw's performance in that film -- in which he had very little dialog and had to convey almost everything through facial expression and body language -- was just outstanding. In poking around IMDb a bit while writing some Sundance reviews, I found out that Whishaw (most recently seen in Todd Hayne's I'm Not There) has three new projects lined up, and I'm excited about all of them.

First up is The Restraint of Beasts (currently in post-prod), an adaptation of Magnus Mills's first novel. The film is being directed by Polish director Pawel Pawlikowski, whose film My Summer of Love back in 2004 first brought Emily Blunt to notice.The darkly comedic story is about an unnamed supervisor (presumably Whishaw) working with two Scottish high-tensile fence builders in the countryside and "accidentally" killing people along the way by day and hitting the local pub at night. I have the book on reserve to read before the film comes out -- I like Mills's work but I've not read this one yet. If this film does well, perhaps it will be the beginning of a series of adaptations of Mills's books.

Chew on this:

• I've more casting news to bring you for the remake of Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited, which I posted about here and here. Matthew Goode and Ben Whishaw will be joined by relatively new actress, Hayley Atwell. Her most notable role to date is in Woody Allen's upcoming film, Cassandra's Dream, which will be released in October. In Brideshead, Atwell will play Julia Flyte, the sister to Whishaw's Sebastian and the lover of Goode's Charles Ryder. Being paired with Goode should make for some steamy scenes. The film is set to shoot this May.
• If there is something better than Bill Cosby's Julia Child impression, it might be the news coming out of ShoWest today. It seems that Ratatouille director Brad Bird has divulged that Peter O'Toole will be one of the voices in the upcoming ratty film, that opens June 29. The epic actor's voice is bringing life to a food critic character named Anton Ego. That's enough to make me curious about the film. Basically, the movie is about a rat who wants to become a French chef, but obviously, rats aren't desirable in a kitchen, so craziness ensues.
• The director of Assault on Precinct 13, Jean-François Richet, is setting up a double-feature project based on an infamous gangster named Jacques Mesrine, who is known in France as "the man with 1,000 faces." The first, Death Instinct, has added Gérard Depardieu to the cast as Mesrine's mentor and fellow gangster. Vincent Cassel, who was François Toulour in Ocean's Twelve, has already signed on to play Mesrine. Gerard is probably not the man I'd think of first for the role, but maybe the addage should be: take as much Depardieu as you can get. No?
  

Casting bites for this past weekend:

• Earlier this month, Erik brought news of Lindsay Lohan backing out of her role in the upcoming Oscar Wilde adaptation, A Woman of No Importance. Now, according to a slew of sources, Lohan has been replaced with none other than Jessica Biel. A few years ago this might have seen like a strange replacement, when La Lindsay wasn't boozing it up, and Biel was more known for screams and underwear dancing. However, after a surprising stint in The Illusionist, this could very well be a blessing for Importance. At the very least, it should have much less production drama and gossip.
• I'm sorry fans of the original miniseries, but Brideshead Revisited is getting definitely getting made, and the film has found its leading men. As I previously reported, Julian Jarrold was looking to bring the Evelyn Waugh novel to the big screen. Now The Hollywood Reporter has shared the stars of the film -- Matthew Goode (Heck from Imagine Me & You) and Ben Whishaw (Stoned, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer). Goode will be Charles Ryder (previously played by Jeremy Irons), and Whishaw will be Sebastian Flyte (previously played by Anthony Andrews).
• A whole slew of names and roles have been added to the international film, Adam Resurrected. In December, we brought you news of the upcoming film, which had already signed Jeff Goldblum in the lead, and Willem Dafoe as a co-star (his role has since been released -- that of a concentration camp commandant). German actress Veronica Ferres, who has been added to the cast, says of the film: "There have been many movies about the Holocaust, but this is the first one where Americans, Israelis and Germans have worked together." And she's right -- the rest of the international cast include: Hana Laszlo, Evgenia Dudina, Joachim Król, Juliane Köhler, Ayelet Zurer and Moritz Bliebtreu from Run Lola Run.