by Sandy | Feb 10, 2009 | Actors, Arts, Entertainment and Music, Directors, Film, Movies
Award season is here – SAG, Directors Guild, Golden Globes and of course the Academy Awards in 2 weeks. Was just thinking over past winners and there are many multi-taskers among them.
They say that everyone has at least one good book in them (The rules: “write what you know”. “Write about what is real for you”, etc). To paraphrase a little, every good actor has at least one great directing job in them. Quite a few of them have won Academy Awards for their efforts. These actor/directors don’t always put together a movie about what they themselves have experienced, but they do direct films with subjects that you can tell they are passionate about:
*Warren Beatty* Beatty was nominated for 4 academy awards, best Director/Picture/Actor/Screenplay for “Reds” 1981 – a film about John Reed who went to Russia in 1917 to report about the revolution. At one time, many thought Communism to be the utopia of the people and Beatty was able to bring a lot of that era to life. He won for Best Director.
*Robert Redford * “Ordinary People”, 1980, Best Director for this dysfunctional family drama. (Also gave us a good movie called, “Quiz Show” 1994 – I’m dating myself, but I remember that scandal from the early days of television)
*Kevin Costner* Early in his career, Costner was cast as the dead friend in “The Big Chill”. I’m sure realizing there was no where to go but up, he gave us “Dances with Wolves” 1990, Best Director, Best Picture.
*Clint Eastwood* Much more than just a squint eyed cowboy with no name and a cigarillo, he has won critical acclaim for tons of films and was nominated several times, same film, for Best Actor/Director/Picture. Eastwood won Academy Awards for “Unforgiven” 1992 and ”Million Dollar Baby” 2004. (“Mystic River”, 2003 did not win, but it is still brilliant, brilliant, brilliant.)
*Ron Howard* And, of course, can’t forget “Opie” (Andy Griffith Show) /” Richie Cunningham” (Happy Days). He won Best Director in 2001 for “Beautiful Mind”. He has been nominated again, Director/Picture this year for “Frost/Nixon”. (I thought another of his movies, “Apollo 13” was awesome. I remembered how the space flight ended, but I was still totally wrapped up in the drama of it all.)
I know there are other terrific movies directed by actors, but these are just some of my Academy Award winning favorites.
by Bob Martin | Feb 2, 2009 | Actors, Art, Film
Julianne Moore
There are some actors who are able to communicate incredible sadness in there faces and when given a role that requires a sense of sorrow or rage, they deliver. One of my favorite criers is Julianne Moore, who I expect will cry in every movie she in. (not always, but often)
Next comes Marisa Tomei, who has a face that is ready for sadness or outrageous giddiness. I guess this supports the notion that laughing and crying are just two sides of the same coin.
Lastly, Halle Berry who is cast often as the beauty, is for me, most convincing in the roles that demand more from her then looking good. In “What We Lost In the Fire”, she seems to be relating to something very personal. Her sorrow seems to over power her joy.
Halle Berry
This brings me to an interesting view. Critics, mainly movie critics are not necessary. They don’t seem to understand that our lives are situational, meaning we seek out entertainment that fills our current need. We don’t pay ten bucks or more to see a movie in the hope that we will like it the 2nd and 3rd time we see it. We paid the ten bucks so that we could enjoy it the first time, anything else is a bonus. So there is this one expert who says that this years hot movies don’t stand up to a second viewing as if this should mean something. What does mean something is that the critics panned “It’s a Wonderful Life” and most people have seen it at least ten times.
Marisa Tomei
I am not a critic, so here is my list of movies I liked the first time I saw them.
- In the Bedroom
- What we lost in the Fire
- Husbands and Wives
- To Die For
- No Country for Old Men
- Fargo
- Deer Hunter
- Shrek 1 & 2
- The Godfather
- There will be Blood.
These are not my top ten and there is no significance to the order. They’re just movies that I enjoyed, that served my needs at the time.
by Bob Martin | Jan 26, 2009 | Actors, Film, Movies
Albert Finney as John Newton
Keri Russell - The Waitress
Seems this is the time of the year to get caught up with all the movies you said you would see and didn’t. This habit is related to the Academy Awards, basically because I have difficulty in being judgemental (a sin, but like chocolate a necessity) if I’ve not seen any of the movies. What always happens is that I find older movies that I overlooked like the The Waitress a film that filled my need for a lighthearted, cynical and comical conclusion to this past week. I also came across Amazing Grace, which brought me back to the significance of inauguration of President Obama this past Tuesday. Albert Finning who portrays John Newton a man who is personally tormented by his contribution to slavery. Newton is not the main character but maybe the most important as it relates present day history.
by Sandy | Jan 17, 2009 | Art, Artist, Blogroll, Culture, Exhibits, Film, Movies, Museums
Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese: Rivals in Renaissance Venice
Sixty paintings by 16th century “Venetian style” artists will be on view beginning March 15:
Titian (1485–1576), Tintoretto (1518-1594) and Veronese (1528–1588)
Venetian Style – “painters from Venice were not as concerned with sculptural form and hard edges of lines as they were with brilliant color and the sensitive use of light”
Mar 15, 2009 – Aug 16, 2009
MFA – Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Avenue of the Arts
465 Huntington Avenue
Boston, Massachusetts
617-267-9300
Image: St Mark’s Body Brought to Venice (1548), Tintoretto
[ad#review-2a]
by Bob Martin | Jan 14, 2009 | Film, Movies
I revisited the Steven Soderbergh movie “Traffic” this week and still enjoyed it. I was not surprised.
I had originally followed the TV mini series “Traffik” which was about 6 hours long and wondered how the movie would do. Besides the texture, plot, direction and performances in this movie, there is this notion that we are what we want to defeat. This seems to be a battle that we can’t win.
Still a very good movie.
