colin firth Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Cinematical Seven: Actor-Actress Pairs Who Should Work Together More
Filed under: Angelina Jolie », Brad Pitt », Cinematical Seven », George Clooney »
Bogie and Bacall, Hepburn and Tracy, Loy and Powell. Heck, even Chase and Hawn. Cinema is full of memorable actor/actress duos who regularly worked together. Yet in recent years there hasn't been anything like these classic pairings. I've been wanting to do a list or discussion post related to this issue for awhile now, but after hearing what Catherine Zeta-Jones said on Rachel Ray about wanting to star in a remake of The War of the Roses with husband Michael Douglas, I just had to get something out there. The War of the Roses was originally a movie that reunited Douglas and Kathleen Turner (and Danny DeVito) for their third film together. And boy do I really wish they'd done more. They had great chemistry, whether they were falling in love romance-novel style or trying to kill each other in a messy divorce.
I guess it hasn't been as easy or necessary for these kinds of consistent pairs (and really, Bogart and Bacall only did four together, but their marriage makes it seem like more) since the studio system collapsed. Stars aren't contracted to studios and regularly working with the same also-contracted performers. They don't shoot as many films in a single year, either. And really, stars aren't that big a draw anymore on their own, let alone with a partner. Still, there are at least seven onscreen pairs I'd like to see reunited on a regular basis. And you probably have some of your own ideas for who could or should be a modern day Loy and Powell, who appeared in 14 films together, six of them as part of the Thin Man franchise. Basically, what actor and actress do you think had enough chemistry onscreen together to last for many more films?
My Movie Crush: Colin Firth in 'Pride and Prejudice'
Filed under: Drama », Fandom », Home Entertainment », Oscar Watch », Columns », Stars in Rewind »
This weekend at the 82nd annual Academy Awards, British thesp Colin Firth will compete for Best Actor for his performance in Tom Ford's A Single Man, in which he stars as a grieving gay professor in 1962 Los Angeles. But just fifteen years ago, Firth vied for (and won) my heart by reaching a bit farther back in the annals of time to play a wealthy 19th century bachelor with a thing for spunky heroines, a haughty but handsome gentleman whose name I will always associate with Colin Firth: Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy.
Many women have a deeply personal relationship with Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, a novel that's induced countless swoons over the years in its various pop cultural iterations. And while we can all argue over which is the very best filmic adaptation of Miss Austen's romantic-comedy of manners (Cinematical's Elisabeth Rappe prefers 2005's Oscar-nominated Keira Knightley-Matthew McFadyen film, for example), I hold tight to my beloved BBC miniseries version, which starred Firth as the quintessential Darcy and Jennifer Ehle as his foil, the strong-willed Elizabeth Bennet.
I'd read and loved Austen's novel in the years before Pride and Prejudice hit the airwaves in the U.S. (January 14, 1996), a few months after it debuted in its six-episode installments in the U.K., so I was perhaps perfectly prepared to see the deliciously drawn-out romantic longing on screen. For many young literature nerds of the female persuasion, I imagine Pride and Prejudice was a gateway drug of sorts to all kinds of historical romance; deep down, aren't we all ripe young heroines bristling against social conventions who delight in flirting with cocky, handsome bachelors who declare their undying love for us just so we can shut them down?
Continued below.
BAFTA, The West German Judge, Goes For 'Hurt Locker'
Filed under: Awards », Oscar Watch »
We all know that one judge from the Olympics. The one deciding the medal fates on sports dependent not on actual time or scored points, who tends to lean towards their home country and lowball others. That is what BAFTA has been over the years. While many eyes are on them as some kind of barometer for how the American Academy is going to vote, the British Academy have given a little nudge to those a bit closer to their side of the pond. Since 1977, only 11 of their 32 selections for Best Picture have actually gone on to win the Oscar. Choices over the years have included Howard's End (1992), Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), Sense and Sensibility (1995), The Full Monty (1997), The Queen (2006) and Atonement (2007). 2008's Slumdog Millionaire was one of the 11 and by choosing Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker, the favorite to win this year, it is further evidence that they are getting better.As a precursor, of course. You can still judge the merits of the selections by BAFTA and Oscar all you want. But The Hurt Locker, like it or not, was the big winner across the pond winning five BAFTAs including Best Director, Original Screenplay, CInematography, Editing and Sound. Other multiple victors included Avatar (winning for Visual Effects and Production Design), Up (Animated Feature & Score) and The Young Victoria (Costume & Makeup).
The Ugly Art of De-Gaying
Filed under: Movie Marketing », Trailers and Clips »
We may get shows like The L Word and love out actors like Neil Patrick Harris, but we can't seem to rid the homophobia from Hollywood's marketing system, let alone politics. Sure, there's always been a disconnect, where trailers and box covers make bad films look good and good films look like utter crap, but the marketing disconnect is absolutely rampant when it comes to gay themes, and it looks like there's no slowing of this absolutely ridiculous trend.CNN's The Frisky looked into the marketing habit of de-gaying this week, pointing out the ridiculous omissions in both Valentine's Day and A Single Man's marketing ventures, where gay themes are completely bled out of the film. For the former, you might notice that Eric Dane -- otherwise known as McSteamy -- is part of the cast, but we don't see much of him. His face isn't on the poster*, and none of his scenes get highlighted in the trailer. Why? Turns out he plays Bradley Cooper's closeted, football-playing boyfriend in the film.
Boyfriend? But what about the trailer?
The Movieman's Oscar Nomination Predictions: Actor/Actress
Filed under: Awards », Oscar Watch »
The supporting actors and actresses have been broken down. Percentages are pretty high on at least eight of the ten predicted to be announced next Tuesday morning. With ten more available acting slots, there are potentially 17 performances in the running to grab them. Good luck to all of them since it has practically been decided who the winners will be already.
THE LOCKS
Since 1998, every winner of the Screen Actors Guild Awards have been nominated for an Oscar. That makes things pretty easy, don't it? Congratulations to Jeff Bridges (Crazy Heart) and Sandra Bullock (The Blind Side) on their impending nominations. As with all, we will examine their chances to win the Oscar at a later date. Plenty of time for that. Since 2001, there have been 33 leading men and women who have been nominated from the following five groups: The BFCA, the Golden Globes, the Chicago Film Critics Association, the Screen Actors Guild and the BAFTAs. All 33 were nominated for an Oscar. This year there are five that fall into that illustrious category. One of them being Bridges. The other four are George Clooney (Up In The Air), Carey Mulligan (An Education), Gabourey Sidibe (Precious) and Meryl Streep (Julie & Julia)
THE LOCKS
Since 1998, every winner of the Screen Actors Guild Awards have been nominated for an Oscar. That makes things pretty easy, don't it? Congratulations to Jeff Bridges (Crazy Heart) and Sandra Bullock (The Blind Side) on their impending nominations. As with all, we will examine their chances to win the Oscar at a later date. Plenty of time for that. Since 2001, there have been 33 leading men and women who have been nominated from the following five groups: The BFCA, the Golden Globes, the Chicago Film Critics Association, the Screen Actors Guild and the BAFTAs. All 33 were nominated for an Oscar. This year there are five that fall into that illustrious category. One of them being Bridges. The other four are George Clooney (Up In The Air), Carey Mulligan (An Education), Gabourey Sidibe (Precious) and Meryl Streep (Julie & Julia)
Review: A Single Man
Filed under: Drama », Gay & Lesbian », New Releases », Theatrical Reviews », The Weinstein Co. »
A Single Man is based on a novel by Christopher Isherwood, which is written as the internal monologue of a man who has made up his mind to commit suicide. If you know this, the first few minutes of the movie are a bit unnerving. Colin Firth, playing the title character -- a handsome, low-key college professor named George -- narrates the opening scenes by essentially reading lengthy passages from the book: the laziest possible approach to a challenging adaptation. There's little that does more to try my patience than this sort of extended "literary" voiceover. Not to be melodramatic, but in its worst incarnations, it's an affront to cinema. At the very least it misses the point.
Within a few minutes, though, first-time director Tom Ford finds his groove. Ford is a fashion designer by trade, a fact to which early reviewers have done their darnedest to ascribe significance -- a bit of a contrived exercise, it seems to me, since one certainly could not guess his prior occupation just from watching the film. In fact, despite the shaky start, Ford finds an elegant, striking way of bringing this material to the screen. Much of A Single Man is an elegiac tone poem, rendered haunting by Ford's beautifully composed images, and propelled by a gorgeous, somewhat Philip Glass-like musical score by little-known Polish composer Abel Korzeniowski. If you want a reference point, I'd name The Hours, which may send some readers screaming from the room -- but Ford's film has the same sort of nimble flow and sorrowful beauty.
Cinematical Seven: Most Fashionable Men on Film
Filed under: Fandom », Cinematical Seven », Lists »
Tom Ford's directorial debut, A Single Man, is opening in limited release this weekend, and even though the movie is strictly speaking the story of a man grappling with the sudden death of his young lover, there's no mistaking that a fashion icon is behind the camera. While period pieces usually get the most fashion love and attention, like Marie Antoinette's dizzy hair styles and gowns, there are plenty of other places to find your haute eye candy. In honor of Ford's dazzling new film, which stars Colin Firth, Julianne Moore, Nicholas Hoult, and Matthew Goode, here are my favorite men dressed to kill.
1. Colin Firth as George in A Single Man
The inspiration for the list, this buttoned-up English professor in the 1962 is veddy proper down to his cuff links, even as the gals start to get loose with Twiggy's straight hair, impressive eye makeup, and ever-present cigarettes. George's stubborn elegance, from his careful Windsor-knotted ties to his sharply shined shoes, offers him a daily ritual in the face of his heartbreaking grief, a lecture hall of uncaring students, and the turbulence of the times.
Discuss: Should Gay Actors Stay in the Closet?
Filed under: Celebrities and Controversy »
A few days before Meredith Baxter (the mom from Family Ties) came out of the closet, the always-outspoken Rupert Everett had some choice words for gay actors: get comfy in the closet. Coincidentally, Everett's new movie St. Trinian's 2: The Legend of Fritton's Gold, has him playing Camilla Fritton, an eccentric headmistress who looks like a cross between the Queen Mum and Madame the puppet. In the previous St. Trinians, which I couldn't sit through, he also played her brother, Carnaby. The openly gay actor blames coming out of the closet for the state of his career, telling The Guardian, "The fact is that you could not be, and still cannot be, a 25-year-old homosexual trying to make it in the British film business or the American film business or even the Italian film business. It just doesn't work and you're going to hit a brick wall at some point. You're going to manage to make it roll for a certain amount of time, but at the first sign of failure they'll cut you right off. And I'm sick of saying, 'Yes, it's probably my own fault.' Because I've always tried to make it work and when it stops working somewhere, I try to make it work somewhere else. But the fact of the matter is, and I don't care who disagrees, it doesn't work if you're gay." (I really recommend reading the whole interview; it's very interesting.)
I'm a heterosexual woman who's also not an actor and can't speak to the true experience of being a gay man in the film industry. I first saw Everett in Cemetery Man and was later somewhat disappointed to find out the handsome star was gay, but I was more turned off by his later choice of roles than anything else. I know I am the minority when it comes to my reaction, unfortunately.
Bah, Humbug. It's Too Early For 'A Christmas Carol'!
Filed under: Animation », New Releases », Disney », Fan Rant »
We've all lamented the way that Christmas decorations, candies, and wrapping paper start appearing on store shelves between fake pumpkins and cheesecloth ghosts. In some stores, the Christmas stuff appears as early as July or August. But when it comes to our local multiplex, we're generally safe from holly and plum pudding until it's actually cold outside. Not this year.Being entertainment fiends, I'm sure that the last week found most of you were tuning into AMC, IFC, and other assorted channels to check out their horror selections. You were also undoubtedly watching your favorite television shows, football teams, and following the World Series. I'll bet that you saw the tv spots for A Christmas Carol around ten times a day. Possibly more than that given all the games. Did you feel a cold chill run down your spine?
I did, and it wasn't caused by a pocky Jim Carrey or the possibility of Robert Zemeckis' mo-cap dead eyes. It was the fact that my jack o'lantern was flickering on my kitchen counter, bell jars of bones were decorating the top of my television, and Shadow of the Vampire was beckoning from my DVR. It was Halloween weekend. Even after October ticked down to its last gasp and we fell back, it was still autumn. It's harvest time. It's heartwrenching drama time, the real start of the Oscar race. It's time for The Road, The Men Who Stare At Goats and the Coens. It is not Christmastime. I don't care what the Three Spirits try to tell me, or whether Tiny Tim wants God to bless us, every one. I'm not going to listen until December 1. Perhaps I'll miss a great 3D thrill ride and the velvet voice of Colin Firth, but I'm not ready for snow and Dickensian morality just yet. Are you?
Indie Roundup: 'Single Man' Sells, 'Crude' Sizzles
Filed under: Comedy », Documentary », Drama », Independent », Box Office », Cinematical Indie »
Indie Roundup reviews the past week of news from the independent film community and provides a peek at what's coming soon.
Deals. Both Eugene Hernandez at indieWIRE and Anne Thompson at Thompson on Hollywood described the sale of Tom Ford's A Single Man as an electrifying event at the Toronto International Film Festival. Riding a wave of good buzz from the Venice festival, the debut feature from the famed fashion designer stars Colin Firth "at a turning moment in his life after the death of his longtime lover," Eugene wrote. "Despite a distinctly gay storyline, there was little doubt that this universal story of middle-aged lonliness and isolation in the 1960s would quickly find a home." Anne notes that it's "gorgeously designed ... it's an idealized L.A. shot like an Italian movie of the period, plus a stunning digitally-enhanced color palette." The Weinstein Company won the bidding war, as Monika Bartyzel noted this morning.
Festivals. Speaking of Toronto, be sure to check out all the great coverage from our team of writers on the scene to find out what's been hot -- and not so hot -- during the first half of the fest.
News. Not much news has been happening outside Toronto during the past week. In fact, in my usual rounds of news sites and search engines, I have found ... nothing much of interest! (Sorry if you made some news that you thought was notable and either I don't agree or don't know about it.) Come back next week, and I'm sure something interesting will have happened by then. In the meantime, did I mention our great coverage from Toronto?
How do you make crude oil sizzle? Find out in Indie Weekend Box Office -- after the jump!
Exclusive Sneak Peek at the 15th Annual Gen Art Film Festival
The Greatest Scenes Ever Shot?
Conan O'Brien Heads for the Big Screen
The Geek Beat: These Too Shall Cast
Insert Caption: The Runaways
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