tMF | The Movie-Fanatic

Our previous article putting the spotlight on Carey Mulligan says it all. But there are those who still wonder: Who is Carey Mulligan? That's completely understandable since many have not seen Mulligan act on the big screen. To those who attended this year's Sundance, they already have a very good idea of what she's capable of - in terms of acting, that is.

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This film, An Education, will give Mulligan or any up and coming young actress the best introduction they could ever dream of...

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It's 1961 and attractive, bright 16-year-old schoolgirl, Jenny (Carey Mulligan) is poised on the brink of womanhood, dreaming of a rarefied, Gauloise-scented existence as she sings along to Juliette Greco in her Twickenham bedroom. Stifled by the tedium of adolescent routine, Jenny can't wait for adult life to begin. Meanwhile, she's a diligent student, excelling in every subject except the Latin that her father is convinced will land her the place she dreams of at Oxford University.

One rainy day, her suburban life is upended by the arrival of an unsuitable suitor, 30-ish David (Peter Sarsgaard). Urbane and witty, David instantly unseats Jenny's stammering schoolboy admirer, Graham (Matthew Beard). To her frank amazement, he even manages to charm her conservative parents Jack (Alfred Molina) and Marjorie (Cara Seymour), and effortlessly overcomes any instinctive objections to their daughter's older, Jewish suitor.

I will always remember Michelle Pfeiffer in Dangerous Liaisons because she acted so vulnerable and so fragile, and that death scene was simply hearthbreaking, then there was The Age of Innocence. I don't know why I specifically like watching her on period films, but she seems so at ease acting a character that lived in the past, even if it's only a fictional one. Then of course, I have to laugh watching her turn into an ugly witch in Stardust! So, her return to the screen, via the period film Cheri, and with Dangerous Liaisons director Sthepen Frears on the helm is such a refreshing news!

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Of course, the fact that her co-star happens to be Rupert Friend, adds more to the excitement! Says Friend:

I do not have a concern to make the character likable. I have a concern to play him truthfully. I believe that if you can discover something of the truth of a person, then you will start to understand, and to understand is to move towards, if not like, then at least an empathy of some kind. My concern was certainly not to try and smooth out his bad bits. Colette wrote a very complicated young man, and I don’t think he was a standard, square-jawed hero—quite the reverse in many ways. And when you start to look at why that might have been—What has kept him a child for so long? Was it Léa’s fault? Could you put it at her feet? Is it his mother’s fault? Is it society’s fault? Or was he just born that way?—it’s  more interesting than trying to paint a sympathetic picture every time. [ read more ]

With such an attitude, I would certainly look forward to Cheri! I just think Mr. Friend's acting abilities has been overshadowed by his relationship with Keira Knightley, but having seen him in Pride and Prejudice, though only playing a supporting part, I find him to be quite a good actor. Given a fantastic role, perhaps would enable Rupert to finally convince audiences (and those in the industry) that he has what it takes to become one of cinema's top leading men. I think this film will give him that chance!

The Economy maybe sick, wars maybe raging all over the planet, someone maybe infected by the N1H1 virus, but all these "negatives" cannot outshine or dampen Twilight fans as they impatiently wait for the next sequel in the Twilight Saga - New Moon.

The Twilight Saga is here to stay, whether you like it or not. So, what do we know so far and what can we expect in the near future? tMF takes another serious look at Stephenie Meyer's vision of vampires and warewolves, of love and romance and desire, of revenge and danger and death, of continuity and of nothingness...

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New cast, new director, new media blitz...

New Moon: In Search for the 'Perfect' Lover? If that is not a valid query, then let me know what is....

In the meantime, let's take a look at what the movie is all about:

At Bella's 18th birthday party at the Cullens' house, she gets a paper cut, and Jasper attempts to attack her. The Cullens decide it would be better for Bella's safety if they left, so they get away from Forks, leaving Bella heartbroken. She finds solace in family friend Jacob Black, who incidentally is a werewolf. But before Edward left, he made Bella promise she wouldn't do anything reckless or stupid but, as he'd already broken his promise to 'be there for as long as she wanted him', she decides to break her promise. She goes cliff-diving, which makes Edward think she has killed herself, although it was purely for recreational purposes. So Edward travels to Italy, to provoke the Volturi so they will kill him. Alice finds Bella, and they begin a race to the Italian city of Volterra to stop him.

Let's speculate shall we?

Can warewolves create enough 'extravaganza' to make this another box office attraction? Can the Volturi entice (and enchant) the audience with their unique take of the vampiric world? Chris Weitz needs to gather all his skills to keep Twilight fans glued on the big screen when the series' biggest attraction (Robert Pattinson) has less screen time than its second lead (Taylor Lautner).

Niki Caro's upcoming The Vintner's Luck, based on the novel of Elizabeth Knox, remains tMF's most anticipated movie of 2009. We're finalizing the draft of Part 3 of this series, and due to insistent demand from our viewers, we're once again putting the spotlight on the movie's two major characters- the angel Xas (played by Gaspard Ulliel) and Sobran, the winemaker (portrayed by Jeremie Renier).

Choosing the Actors: We were ecstatic when we heard that Gaspard Ulliel was to play Xas, an interesting and very controversial character. With the much-hyped casting news about Twilight's Edward Cullen (Ulliel was rumoured to have been shortlisted...) being 'over and out', it's nice to know that the French actor has captured a highly interesting role, and one that many of his fans will be excited about.

Equally awesome news is that Jeremie Renier will be playing Sobran Jodeau, the other lead character.

It's hard to come up with a Top Ten list, especially if you have more than 60 movies to chose from, so I though: "What the heck, I find most of them so amazing anyway - great storyline, fantastic cast, awesome directors - why not do a Top Ten list thrice?" That's why this is just Part I.

... and if you want, you may vote for the one movie you look forward to the most this year and the next... [ we'll have the poll ready in a jiffy! ]

More from tMF! We have two articles coming up which  feature today's emerging talents. One is appropriately entitled 'On the Verge', and we're counting down the 30 most promising young actors right this minute. Also, there's a more serious article on how Hollywood seems to prefer casting foreign actors instead of 'home-grown' talent...

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Top Movie List by Jed Medina, featuring tMF's favorites, part I

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Here's the first Top 10:

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Written by the award-winning New-Zealand born author Elizabeth Knox, The Vintner's Luck is one of her most popular and acclaimed novels. Hailed by critics worldwide for its originality and vision, The Vintner's Luck is now a movie directed by fellow New Zealander Niki Caro, and scheduled for release next year. Top European stars Gaspard Ulliel and Jeremie Renier play the two lead characters. The angel Xas is played by rising French star Ulliel while Renier tackles the ambitious and troubled vintner Sobran. The film also marks the return to the screen of Keisha Castle-Hughes (who plays Sobran's wife Celeste) with her mentor, Caro, who filmed her in the much-celebrated Whale Rider.

In this special series, tMF begins with an introduction to the book, The Vintner's Luck, plus a detailed look at some of Elizabeth Knox's most acclaimed works apart from the upcoming movie.

Chapter One
1808

Vin Bourru (new wine)

Sobran slid the blade of his knife between the bottleneck and the cork and slowly eased it free. He took a swig of the friand, tasted fruit and freshness, a flavor that turned briefly and looked back over its shoulder at the summer before last, but didn't pause, even to shade its eyes. The wine turned thus for the first few mouthfuls, then seemed simply a "beverage," as Father Lesy would say, the spinsterish priest from whom Sobran and his brother, Leon, had their letters. The wine's now pure chemical power poured from Sobran's gut into his blood. His balls began to ache again as his prick started to press, stupidly, for its chances. Sobran ignored it--he was miserable, overripe, well past any easy relief.

Celeste was the daughter of a poor widow. She worked for Sobran's mother's aunt, fetched between the kitchen and the parlor, was quicker than the crippled maid, yet was "dear": "Run upstairs, dear ..." Celeste kept the old lady company, sat with her hands just so, idle and attentive, while Aunt Agnes talked and wound yarn. At sixteen Sobran might have been ready to fall in love with her--now, at eighteen, it seemed his body had rushed between them. When he looked at Celeste's mouth, her shawled breasts, the pink fingertips of her hand curled over the top of the embroidery frame as she sat stitching a hunting-scene fire screen, Sobran's prick would puff up like a loaf left to prove, and curve in his breeches as tense as a bent bow. Like his friend Baptiste, Sobran began to go unconfessed for months. His brother, Leon, looked at him with distaste and envy; their mother shrugged, sighed, seemed to give him tip. Then Sobran told his father he meant to marry Celeste--and his father refused him permission.

So what gives? Is there a chance for a connection here? Aside from their huge fan bases, a possible question here is - is there a chance for Archuleta and Cook perhaps to render a song as part of the Twilight soundtrack? Is that so far-fetched? Remember, the Twilight fandom can do something about it.

I would think Stephenie Meyer, who prefers rock music, might perhaps choose David Cook...but how about Archuleta with his legions of teen fans? (I'm a huge David A. fan myself!)

What do you think? Is there a chance to join these two massive fandoms and make this upcoming movie even more awesome???

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Indiana Jones may be the hottest movie ticket on the planet today, but The Dark Knight beats the Spielberg movie in my list of this year's most anticipated films! Aside from the awesome direction (which is a given) from Christopher Nolan and the amazing special effects, we'll also get to see Heath Ledger in one of the last roles he played before his tragic death.

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The Joker is definitely one of the most popular and also the most hated of Batman's nemeses. While Jack Nicholson gave it his best shot when he portrayed this villain, I look forward to having the chance to see how Heath Ledger approached the role and made it his own.

Now that we've seen the new poster featuring Heath as The Joker, one of the questions that seems to bother a number of movie bloggers is the issue of exploitation. Is Heath being exploited once again? Matte Havoc has this to say:

There is a new poster that will be released soon for the upcoming Warner Brothers release The Dark Knight (2008). The question that I would want to throw out there is the validity of exploitation. Do you think the publicity of Heath Ledger's character Joker that Warner Brothers is trying to exploit his death to promote the release date for the film?

There are two ways of answering this question. One is that it's a way of honoring and remembering Heath Ledger. This was certainly one of the most challenging roles of his short movie career, and there has been much talk about how the role affected his health, whether it made him think about the character more than he should have. We all know how dedicated Heath was in doing justice to his roles...

[A Movie-fanatic’s take on Stephenie Meyer’s book, Twilight- Exclusive article for the Twilight Guy Day, launched by the Twilight Lexicon ]

I hope I don’t sound like Daniel, the interviewer in Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire, or appear to mimic the famous ‘centuries-old’ vampire who wants to be a rock star. I’m much simpler and more common than that.

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I love reading books. That’s particularly obvious since tMF has already featured 50 books-to- movie adaptations. But here I have a confession…. While Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose, Mary Renault’s The Last of the Wine and Alexandre Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo are my all-time favorites, there is something so appealing and so heart-warming about Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight, that it is now fast becoming a favorite of mine.

But my becoming a Twilight fanatic did not happen overnight. I used to be a skeptic too…