jane campion Tagged Articles at Cinematical

I guess we won't be seeing the first female President of the United States in 2009, but we could at least see the first female cinematographer nominated for an Academy Award (in the cinematography category, that is). In the 80 years of the Oscars there hasn't been one female nominee for Best Cinematography. Shocking, isn't it? But fortunately there's a chance for next year's ceremony: Mandy Walker, who shot Baz Luhrman's war epic Australia, could be a shoo-in for one of the five nomination slots if the film is Oscar-worthy in general.

The Oscar blog In Contention points out the possibility in a recent post celebrating Walker's reception Tuesday evening of the Kodak Vision Award at the Women in Film's Crystal + Lucy Awards (other honorees included Salma Hayek, Sherry Lansing, Ginnifer Goodwin, Jeffrey Katzenberg and Diane English and the ensemble of The Women). Clearly we only need to look at the trailer to see that Walker's work on the film is gorgeous and might have a shot. In Contention also notes Walker's previous achievements, such as her Independent Spirit Award nomination for Shattered Glass.

Bright star, would I were steadfast as thou art ... Awake for ever in a sweet unrest, Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath, And so live ever -- or else swoon to death. John Keats

Yes, we've finally got more news about the John Keats film, Bright Star, that has been brewing since 2006, and I'm happy to say that this isn't just some casting notice that might, or might not, come to fruition. Jane Campion's film about the famous poet has finally begun production in the UK, and has got two more cast members. Variety reports that Paul Schneider and Kerry Fox will be joining Ben Whishaw, who already signed on to play Keats, and Abbie Cornish, who is taking on the role of the poet's muse -- Fanny Brawne.

Every once in a while, a follow-up news piece pops up that makes me wonder where I've been. In case you missed it as well -- there's a new anthology hitting screens this year called 8, and it's got a bunch of interesting directors attached. There are the likes of Jane Campion, Gael Garcia Bernal, Mira Nair, Gus Van Sant, and Wim Wenders, plus Gaspar Noe, Abderrahmane Sissako, and Jan Kounen.

Unlike the "I Love You" odes to famous cities, the film will tackle 8 themes and 8 films from famous directors that focus on the progress, set-backs, and challenges that face our planet. It's not just an environmental picture, but rather, it focuses on themes of poverty/hunger (Sissako's Tiya's Dream), education (Garcia Bernal's The Letter), gender equality (Nair's How Can It Be), child mortality (Van Sant's Mansion on the Hill), maternal health (Kounen's The Story of Panshin Beka), HIV/AIDS and other diseases (Noe's SIDA), environmental sustainability (Campion's The Water Diary) and development (Wenders' Person to Person).

It's sort of like Invisibles, which Kim reviewed from SIFF last year, and which also had a short from Wim Wenders. Now Variety reports that Marta McGonagle (iCarly) has signed on for a role in his segment -- although there is no word on what his segment, titled Person to Person, will be specifically about. For now, you can get a bunch of information from the film's website.

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.

You probably aren't familiar with him just yet, but Ben Whishaw is an actor worth taking note of. He was nominated recently for the BAFTA Rising Star award (Eva Green won it), mostly for his starring role in Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, which was one of my favorite films of last year. He's also been racking up roles in which he plays famous people (one day he could even catch up to Val Kilmer and Gary Oldman). Last year he was Keith Richards in Stoned, this year he can be seen as one of many Bob Dylans in I'm Not There and now he's in negotiations to portray the poet John Keats in Jane Campion's Bright Star.

The period romance takes place in the early 19th century, focusing on Keats' romance with Fanny Brawne, who has already been cast with Australian actress Abbie Cornish (who is rumored to also be in talks for the next Bond film.) The couple's romance only lasted a couple years before Keats' health deteriorated due to his suffering from tuberculosis. He died a year after they separated, at the age of 25. As much as we could do without another tragic, tear-jerking romance film, with Campion behind the camera this could be one of the better ones. And in addition to further boosting the careers of both Whishaw and Cornish, it could, as many Campion films are good for, garner some acting nominations for the pair as well. Next up for Whishaw is a new adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited.

Although Jane Campion's latest project seemed to have been forgotten, much like her career, it's finally making some headway. In May of last year, Martha Fischer posted that the director's latest project, Bright Star, would deal with John Keats and his relationship with Fanny Brawne, which stretched three years until his death at the age of 25. They had met when he had moved next door to the girl, and it is said that their relationship was not a big bowl of bright peaches. By the end, all that she could write in her diary was: "Mr. Keats has left Hampstead." (That is when he left for Italy in an attempt to get well, which, obviously, didn't happen.)

Finally, the casting is starting to come together for the film, and The Hollywood Reporter has released that Abbie Cornish, the star of last year's Candy with Heath Ledger, is in talks to take on the lead role as Ms. Brawne. If the talks are successful, this will bring the actress one step closer to a solid career as a professional love interest. She's got a thing for pulling hearts, with each of her most recent features dealing with romance -- Somersault, Candy and A Good Year. From there, she can take on the world! That's the way it works right? Most big-name celebrity actresses seem to start out that way -- Julia Roberts, Sandra Bullock... Considering the rumors that Cornish might be the next Bond girl, it seems to be working already! Me, I'll just be happy to finally see another Campion movie, even if it will make me feel like I should have accomplished a lot more by the age of 25. On a side note: I wonder if they'll end the movie like Brawne ended the Keats relationship in her journal? That would be amusing.

Earlier this month, I posted about a secret film debuting at the Cannes Film Festival. All that was known at the time was that it would be a compilation of 30 shorts, each about three minutes long and directed by an internationally respected filmmaker, and that it wouldn't be shown to the public. Now, thanks to an official press release, we learn that there are in fact 33 shorts from 35 filmmakers (including two pairs of brothers) and that the film, titled To Each his Own Cinema, will air on French television on May 20 following its premiere at the festival. So now I don't have to wish I could attend Cannes; I have to wish I got Canal +.

Also revealed are the names of the 35 participants, all of whom were supposed to be kept secret until the film's unveiling, and a few details about the project. Each director was assigned the task of filming, "their current state of mind as inspired by the motion-picture theater." The only individual specifics mentioned in the press release, which was written by festival head Giles Jacob, are that Wim Wenders shot in the Congo, Tsai Ming Liang shot in Kuala Lumpur and David Cronenberg shot "in the ... toilet!" (probably meaning the bathroom, not the bowl). But anyone familiar with the directors involved can imagine the kind of diversity that will be seen in the film.

See the names of the 35 collaborators after the jump.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Jane Campion, of whom I accidentally lost track after The Piano, is not dead. (Ok sure, I know NOW that she for some reason makes a movie only every three years, but I really hadn't heard her name in like a decade until now.) In fact, she's at Cannes, showing people The Water Diary, a new short, and talking about her upcoming project, a film about John Keats entitled Bright Star. The movie, which has yet to be cast, will explore "the three-year romance between Keats and Fanny Brawne, which was cut short by Keats' untimely death at age 25 in 1821." Boy, that sounds depressing. Well, I guess it could be sad-but-funny ala Impromptu, though that doesn't really seem like Campion's style. The director is finishing up the screenplay now, and hopes to have it to her producers in London in just a few weeks; no production schedule is in place.

Interestingly, Campion turns out to be a bit of a Cannes darling -- don't get me wrong, she's no Pedro Almodovar, but she's had some success at the festival in the past, winning not one but two Palme D'Or awards. The first was awarded in 1982, for a short entitled Peel, and the latter came more than a decade later, when The Piano (at the hands of which I'm pretty sure I suffered permanent emotional scarring) took the prize.