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2009 | 2008

8 articles from 2009

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Jennifer Jones, 1919 - 2009

21 December 2009 1:46 PM, PST | The Auteurs | See recent The Auteurs news »

"Jennifer Jones, 90, an actress who won an Academy Award for playing a saint in The Song of Bernadette and became a popular sinner in Hollywood melodramas including Duel in the Sun and Love is a Many-Splendored Thing, died Thursday at her home in Malibu, Calif," reports Adam Bernstein in the Washington Post.

"Jennifer Jones remains one of the more controversial actresses in the Hollywood cinema," writes Richard Lippe in Film Reference. "In general, her professional and personal involvement with David O Selznick has been given a prominence that has colored assessments of Jones's distinctive contribution to 1940s cinema. Interestingly, the central issue is not that Jones lacked talent or screen presence. The longstanding criticism is that Selznick, because of his commitment to Jones, had no critical distance and, with King Vidor's Duel in the Sun, tried to fashion an erotic identity for her, making Jones into a ridiculous creation." Still, »

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Jennifer Jones, a Hollywood life

21 December 2009 8:30 AM, PST | The Guardian - Film News | See recent The Guardian - Film News news »

The late Jennifer Jones experienced the classic Tinseltown story of discovery and stardom, but also endured depression and death. Brittany Murphy was just the latest to follow in her footsteps

Mrs Simon, Mrs Selznick, Mrs Walker, Phylis Isley, Jennifer Jones – all of those names were offered her, like landlines in the storm, and she gazed on all of them with insufficient belief or conviction. There was a time, in the 80s and the 90s, when I did everything I could to get Jennifer Jones to speak to me, or just to see me so that she might decide she could speak to me. And all the time I was asking her, or her lawyers, I had another Mrs Selznick crowing in my ear in her best Pierre Hotel witch act, "She doesn't have anything to say. She won't remember. She doesn't care to remember."

Well, she's dead now, at 90. Gore Vidal »

- David Thomson

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Mia Wasikowski is the New Jane Eyre?

20 November 2009 11:08 AM, PST | FilmSchoolRejects.com | See recent FilmSchoolRejects news »

I was looking forward to seeing Ellen Page as Jane Eyre, wondering how she would handle the role of the poor governess from the wrong side of the moors. The star of Juno might have been able to bring a new twist to a character that has been filmed at least nineteen times. Or could be a thousand. IMDb isn't always accurate.  My favorite  Jane is Andrea Martin in the Second City TV "Jane Airhead". Her work in the role stands alone. As for serious Jane's the role has been played by Charlotte Gainsborough, Joan Fontaine, Samantha Morton.  Anna Paquin played the young version of Jane to Morton's grown up Jane. My apologies to the multitude of Janes unnamed but that would go on for too many paragraphs. So many Jane Eyres, so little time. Now according to Variety, Mia Wasikowski, Alice in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland is in talks to step into the role »

- Robin Ruinsky

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Oscar... Now With More Spirit Fingers

23 October 2009 8:36 PM, PDT | FilmExperience | See recent FilmExperience news »

Shankman's got spirit!

Do you follow the Oscar show news in the way you follow the Oscars? I don't so much, despite this life I lead constantly writin' about the awards themselves. I care who hosts to some degree but I tend to ignore the rest. But I found it interesting this week when director Adam Shankman (Hairspray) was named as one of the producers and his choreography skills were noted as a reason to be enthused about this assignment. At least he has a sense of humor about his, um, limited history with the big event I was one of Paula Abdul's 'Under the Sea' pirates," Shankman said. "The last time I was at the Oscars, I was in Lycra, with a pirate hat on. Shankman's presence must mean more musical numbers. I'm all for musical numbers provided they rehire Hugh Jackman as host. He was so fine last year. »

- NATHANIEL R

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Cary Fukunaga Courts Jane Eyre

21 October 2009 12:54 AM, PDT | EmpireOnline | See recent EmpireOnline news »

Cary Joji Fukunaga, the director of this year's brutal Spanish language drama Sin Nombre is close to signing on to Ruby Films' new Jane Eyre adaptation.The script for the blood and thunder romance is by Moira Buffini, who has just adapted Posy Simmonds' comic strip Tamara Drew (itself based on Thomas Hardy's Far From the Madding Crowd) for Stephen Frears to direct.Charlotte Bronte's classic novel has been filmed many times before of course. Best of all was the 1944 version with Orson Welles and Joan Fontaine, but Franco Zeffirelli's 1994 version with Charlotte Gainsbourg is also worth a look. The Ruby Films' is a co-production with the BBC, who produced an award-winning TV adaptation as recently as 2007.Fukunaga is a left-field choice for the material, but that should be A Good Thing if the familiar story of tyrannical aunts, Byronic heroes, imposing halls, head-pounding loves, covered-up histories and (spoiler! »

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The Best of the Obsessed

4 September 2009 12:26 PM, PDT | SoundOnSight | See recent SoundOnSight news »

The Best of the Obsessed Sandra Bullock's new film All About Steve is hitting theaters today. In the film, Bullock plays Mary Horowitz, a woman who is set up on a blind date with Steve (Bradley Cooper) and instantly believes that they are soul mates. Obsessively, Mary decides to follow Steve anywhere he goes and will stop at nothing to be with him. This got me thinking about how Hollywood often produces movies centering the domineering, aggressive and downright crazy, on-the-edge female character. Today, the majority of them are stereotypes, cliched personas of other characters (such as Bullock's Mary in Steve) and are, honestly, annoying. Here are what I believe to be some of the best of the obsessed female characters to grace the silver screen. 10.Cameron Diaz in Vanilla Sky (2001) I remember seeing this film in theaters and saying to myself “Cameron Diaz better be nominated for an Oscar. »

- Eric

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Culture Warrior: The ‘Limits’ of Directorial Self-Indulgence

4 May 2009 6:00 AM, PDT | FilmSchoolRejects.com | See recent FilmSchoolRejects news »

If you watch the trailer for Jim Jarmusch’s new film, The Limits of Control, there’s one point where Tilda Swinton—donning a snow-white wig, cowboy hat, and trenchcoat accompanied by a clear plastic umbrella on a sunny day for seemingly no other reason than the wardrobe’s photogenic appeal, like Swinton herself—states the following over footage from various parts of the film: “It’s like a game…deception…[loud whisper] suspicion!” When one hears these words in the trailer, they are likely misled into thinking Swinton is referring to whatever “game” the unnamed hitman protagonist (Isaach de Bankolé) is involved in that makes up the plot of the film. However, Swinton is instead referring to Suspicion (1941), the Hitchcock film starring Cary Grant and Joan Fontaine. This discrepancy between the film’s marketing and what the film actually is—its placement over extra-textual, self-reflexive cinematic winking over a plot sustaining itself on its own terms—accurately sums »

- Landon Palmer

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Faintheart (Best Pictures From the Outside In #13)

20 January 2009 11:24 AM, PST | FilmExperience | See recent FilmExperience news »

Since we've got a whole slew of new readers (thanks for joining us!) a little explanation. This is the 13th episode of the series "Best Pictures From the Outside In" in which Mike (GoatDog's Movies), Nathaniel (The Film Experience) and Nick (Nick's Flick Picks) compare Best Picture winners from either end of Oscar's timeline. We started by pitting the first (Wings, 1927) and the last (No Country For Old Men, 2007) against each other. In each subsequent episode we move one step forward in time and one step backward. We might throw in an extra episode pitting this year's winner (will it be The Curious Case of Benjamin Button or Slumdog Millionaire?) against... something. Eventually the series will end in the middle in the 1960s arguing about the comparative merits of In the Heat of the Night (1967) and Oliver! (1968). By the time that episode rolls around maybe nobody will be asking for »

- NATHANIEL R

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2009 | 2008

8 articles from 2009

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