casanova Tagged Articles at Cinematical

I guess it goes to show how little I've been paying attention, but I could have sworn Narcissa Malfoy already showed up in the Harry Potter movies. Of course, it could also mean I'm easily mixing up the books and the adaptations, because I must be thinking of the character's first appearance in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire -- the novel not the film. But Narcissa, who is mother to Draco (Tom Felton), wife to Lucius (Jason Isaacs) and cousin to Sirius Black (Gary Oldman) features prominently in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince -- the novel -- and so she will be making her cinematic introduction in the movie version. And now we've got word on who will be playing the role. According to BBC, Helen McCrory will play Narcissa, who in Half-Blood Prince is dealing with her husband being a prisoner of Azkaban and her son being a teenage brat.

Audiences are likely most familiar with McCrory through her role as British first lady Cherie Blair in The Queen. She also appeared recently in Becoming Jane, as Mrs. Radcliffe (somewhat a Potter-riffic name, right?), and Casanova, in which she played mother to Heath Ledger's title character. The interesting thing now is that McCrory is actually playing the sister of the character she was originally all set to play. If you remember back to the original casting announcements of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, McCrory was first attached to play Bellatrix Lestrange, a part that went to Helena Bonham Carter when McCrory became pregnant and had to bow out. And you may recall that earlier this year, the part of Narcissa was linked to Naomi Watts, whose reps quickly denied her involvement. As much as I loved the idea of Watts playing the role, I'm intrigued to see McCrory take it on. I wonder, though, will she have to dye her hair, or am I once again revealing my lack of attention to the books? Half-Blood Prince, which is currently in production at the helm of Order of the Phoenix director David Yates, is set to hit theaters in little over a year from now (21 Nov. 2008)

• Æon Flux - This empty sci-fi flick's listing on IMDB.com is loaded with glowing user endorsements, leading everyone else who has seen it to believe that either drugs were involved in forming these opinions, the Pod People took these users over or an army of undercover PR lackeys is spinning overtime. This cinematic equivalent of a bronzed cow pie, an unimaginative Logan's Run pretender set 400 years in the future after a global plague, stars Charlize Theron as a rebel trying to take down the corrupt government of Bregna, the only city on Earth. From the way-lazy back story title cards and opening narration to the silly costumes to the cartoonish action sequences to the awful deadpan performances, this should be called Peed-On, Sux. Maybe Theron's mother needed an operation or something, but this is a very bad and brainless example of sci-fi, a puffed-up issue movie that ultimately offers nothing but regret. Instead, check out creator Peter Chung's original, pre-anime craze animated MTV series, which was released on DVD late last year.

Lasse Hallström is a filmmaker who truly excels at making minor films, and it doesn't get any more minor than his latest, Casanova. Starring boy-of-the-moment Heath Ledger as the titular pre-modern lover, it's a high-gloss romantic farce with little going on underneath. Classic Hallsstrom? Sort of, but Casanova is surprisingly un-classy in spots, which is nice – for a movie of modest aims, it does an excellent job of weaving the grit of the rabble into its bland tapestry of prestige.

The film's relationship to the actual Giacomo Casanova is negligible at best (and here it's probably worth noting the Italian accents - or, that is, the fact that the mostly-British cast makes zero effort to affect them). Hallstrom paints 18th century Venice as something like Scorsese's 70s-era New York, but with the color and pacing of modern-day Miami Beach. Casanova and his man servant wile away their days on the streets, hopping from one mark to the next, perfunctorily executing scam after scam whilst giving off the constant appearance of leisurely preening. It's a bastardization enacted to lighten the subject's load: at 21, the real Casanova saved a wealthy man's life, thus earning himself a life-long benefactor; at 30, he'd be thrown in the roughest prison in Italy for allegedly practicing witchcraft, and would stay locked up for two years or more before making what history would record as an extraordinary escape. In the strapping young body of Heath Ledger, this Jack Cas would seem to be enjoying his halcyonic twenties. Hallstrom does, however, manage to find time to put his protagonist on trial for an exceptional number of crimes for a film that barely crosses the 100 minute mark, with most of the infractions apparently related to fornication and/or heresy. Also, at the film's climax, Casanova does make an escape that could be called extraordinary – although "absurd" and "tedious" might be adjectives of better fit.

Round two, special for those of you whose family holiday traditions involve movie-going. To sum up: Rumor Has It... is awful, Wolf Creek is gruesome, Casanova is fluff, and The New World is murky. Details follow.

• Rumor Has It...: Rob Reiner directing a semi-sequel to The Graduate sounded so promising. It's too bad the movie is just not very good.  Most critics are disappointed, not only by the movie itself but also by the decline of Reiner, who has gone from genius to guy who directs bad romances (he is, after all, to blame for The Story of Us) in a depressingly short time. If you want to read a review that's at least sympathetic, check out our friend Roger Ebert's take - he thought it was "watchable." Is that a good thing?

• Wolf Creek: Remember the various reactions we covered a while back involving Roger Ebert's review of Chaos? Well, as soon as I read the essay of a critic who had walked out of a Wolf Creek screening, I immediately went over to see what Ebert had to say - and yep, he was equally disgusted. Though internet-based horror junkies are predictably wild about the movie, mainstream critics, for the most part, are repelled by its sadism and pointless violence.

• The New World: So, critical reactions to a Terrence Malick movie are split! Who could have guessed? Though the guy only puts out a movie every eight years are so, no one is ever sure what to make of them - and reactions to The New World are no exception. Either Colin Farrell is "stiff and uncomfortable" or he's "very good." The film is either "an incandescent brume of wonder, dread and awe" or "As an epic...monumentally slight." You get the idea. While it's impossible to summarize the incredibly broad range of opinions on the film, it's probably safe to say that if you're looking for a)a hot Colin Farrell romance, or b)a history lesson, you should go elsewhere.

• Casanova: It's never a good sign when a review's first non-Gay Cowboy-related line describes a movie as "utterly trivial." And, sadly for Lasse Hallström and the rest of the crew behind Casanova, that reviewer isn't alone in his sentiments. With the lonely exception of A. O. Scott of the New York Times, no one is very impressed by the movie, unless it's by a supporting figure (like Jeremy Irons, say, or the magnificent Oliver Platt).

On the Filmmaker blog, Scott Macaulay ponders how the now-ending transit strike might have thus far impacted New York producers trying to hustle their features through post in time for Sundance. "Fortunately," he writes, "the project I'm working on is picture-locked and all elements are to the appropriate vendors. My worry is with the vendors and their employees, hoping that the strike doesn't slow them down." He goes on to ask others involved with NY productions, Sundance or otherwise, to shar their horror stories. The major catastrophe for us is that I missed two press screenings on the first day of the strike - Casanova and Rumor Has It – and will be able to write a straight review of neither. How should I handle this conundrum? What would you like to see instead? And if you have other movie-related strike stories, do tell. Now that it's all over it's time to take stock – and take the L train into city for the first time this week.

I don't know about anyone else, but the trailer for Casanova really had me concerned - it was too short to get a sense of if the humor really worked or not, and succeeded only in making Heath Ledger look like a dolt. Happily for both Heath and the movie, however, Apple is now hosting a very reassuring five minute clip from the movie.

For people (such as myself) who had been wondering, if the clip is anything to go on, Casanova really is funny. Also very silly, but in a good way. For the Rowan Atkinson fans out there, the clip actually gives off a very strong Blackadder the Third vibe, it's that sort of joyful, costumed absurdity. In addition, these five minutes make clear once again that Oliver Platt is a complete comic genius who can bring pathos to the most absurd character on earth. Click below and check it out for yourselves - the movie comes out in the US on Christmas.

[via Movies Online]

Awards season is inarguably well under way, and Movie City News is, as usual, doing just about the best job out there of compiling statistics. Their 2006 Awards Scorecard is kept alarmingly up-to-date, and provides an easy system through which to cross-reference both the underdogs and the obvious favorites. It shouldn't be any surprise that brokeback mountain is in the lead, for now, with 16 prizes and 11 additional nominations. A minor quibble: who would rank Lasse Hallstrom's Casanova above twin political slogs Syriana and The Constant Gardner in terms of relevance?