TOP 100 ACTOR SITES
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| Film trailer: Ponyo A five-year-old boy finds a beautiful goldfish. But unbeknownst to him, she is really the daughter of a wizard guardian.co.uk |
Super Bowl ad prices fall; still cost millions The economic slump has prices for Super Bowl commercial time falling for only the second time in its history, but it is still the most expensive on television.... hosted.ap.org |
First sight: Warwick Thornton An Australian Aboriginal director who picked up the Camera d'Or for best first feature at Cannes last yearWho is he?An Australian Aboriginal director who left school at 13 and spent a few years kicking around on the streets of Alice Springs, getting into scrapes with the police. "A lost kid," he says.I feel an epiphany Âcoming on.You bet. "Cinema saved my life," ÂThornton declared at Cannes last year. We'll give him that, since he was picking up the Camera d'Or prize for best first feature at the time. Samson and Delilah, his teenage love story, is now Australia's entry for best foreign language film at the Oscars. It will go on release here in April.Foreign language? I thought you said it was Australian?Yes, but mostly in the Aboriginal Warlpiri language. Set in a poor rural community, Samson (Rowan ÂMcNamara), a cheeky-faced petrol Âsniffing kid, falls for no-nonsense ÂDelilah (Marissa Gibson). Not that you get much talking between these two. The film is more or less silent – Samson says just one word. Bashful teenagers, they communicate by chucking stones at each other at the start.Sounds delightfulIt is rather. "A hard love," says the Âdirector. Poor Samson and Delilah have each other, but not much of a place the world – neglected by their community, treated brutally when they leave. It's unsentimental, intimate; Thornton even put his brother Scott through rehab to play a homeless alcoholic.What next?A period drama set in an orphanage run by Benedictine monks, he says. And who knows, maybe an Oscar. If Samson and Delilah makes it to the nominations, Thornton will most likely be up against big beasts Michael Haneke and Jacques Audiard. But the foreign language award is famously unpredictable.OscarsCannes film festivalCath Clarkeguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Globes all gold under the brollies FORGET Bvlgari and Balenciaga - the most sought-after accessory at the Golden Globes was an umbrella. news.com.au |
Mesrine Parts 1 and 2, Fish Tank, Thirst, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs | DVD reviews Mesrine and Fish Tank boast mesmerising central performances, with blood and meatballs on the menu among the week's other DVD releasesThere are few screen presences more mercurial than the mighty Vincent Cassel.In Mesrine Pts 1&2 (2008, 15, Momentum), he portrays the notorious French outlaw with an admirable ambiguity which undercuts any crass glamorisation of his violent lifestyle. Intelligently handled by director Jean-François Richet, this complex two-parter is a meditation upon a troubled society. It picked up a handful of Césars and confirmed Cassel as the premier firebrand of European cinema.Newcomer Katie Jarvis similarly dominates Fish Tank (2009, 15, Artificial Eye), Andrea Arnold's utterly believable portrait of a young woman finding her feet and practising her moves against a backdrop of concrete – physical and emotional. It's a tough watch at times but there's a bold sense of humanity which transcends the socioeconomic setting and engages our sympathies and interest.Those unimpressed by the alleged "abstinence porn" of the Twilight series can sink their vampiric teeth into Thirst (2009, 18, Palisades Tartan). The censors' report cites "strong bloody violence, horror, sex and nudity", all of which are indeed on offer as an altruistic priest is ironically resurrected as a carnal demon, albeit a troubled one. Korean maestro Park Chan-wook infuses the action with a familiar sense of the operatic, juggling satire, sensuality and rank sensationalism with vigour. It's not on a par with Old Boy, but the stylishly theological grand guignol of Lady Vengeance is entertainingly evidenced throughout.In its more exotic moments, the family animation Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs (2009, U, Sony) resembles nothing so much as a David Lynch movie for kids. How else can one explain the weirdly threatening appearance of perambulating, headless, cooked chickens which torment our heroes in an Eraserhead-style stand-off? It really is unusual stuff, which proves that children are often far keener to embrace weirdness than their elders.DVD and video reviewsKatie JarvisAndrea ArnoldPark Chan-wookTwilightMark Kermodeguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |