Apple has posted a beautiful looking Benjamin Button trailer, chock full o’ great shots of Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett.
Last year it seemed like Pitt and Angelina Jolie were headed for the Oscars, didn’t it? It again seems like it this year, with Pitt very likely up against, oh, say Benicio Del Toro in Che (should that movie ever get released here), and Angelina Jolie in the lead for Best Actress. Or so it seems at this early, too early, date.
No Response for "Pretty Benjamin Button Trailer"
I’m ready to disregard traditional concepts of what a Best Picture Oscar nominee should look like. Toss out the old checklists. The contenders and winners of last 3 or 4 years have shown us that the standard formulas and once reliable recipes for Best Picture taste pretty bland when served alongside thrilling concoctions like The Return of the King, The Departed, and No Country for Old Men.
Visually, this looks like a culmination of the perfectionist technical skills David Fincher has been honing over the past decade. I was already hugely amped for this movie — months ago — and now after watching the trailer a few times I’m knocked back by its potential.
Best of all I’m feeling an emotional connection with a bite that deftly avoids maudlin sentimentality. Fincher has cleared the Forrest and drained the Gump.
I was a fan of the short story growing up, so I hope the movie can capture the essence of it. It looks stunning.
I hope both Angelina and Brad are considered for their work this year. Despite their real world affairs, they are two of the better actors. They take their craft seriously, and they’ve been able to give us great performances. I hope Pitt gets some recgonition this year. He has been real solid the last two years, and maybe three times is the charm. Maybe?
“Fincher has cleared the Forrest and drained the Gump.” Hilarious. Ryan, have you read the script yet? If yes, what did you think?
I’ve only read the first 55 pages, sartre, and really like it so far.
I usually have a lot more appreciation and respect for adaptations that expand on slender short stories, rather than those scripts that are forced to prune beloved scenes and characters from epic novels. Both equally tough jobs, but a short story adaptation is not as apt to piss me off
This is why Brokeback Mountain seemed like such a polished gem to me.
So, to the extent that it enhances the source material, I’m happy. But I know I should curb my enthusiasm until I see how the ending is handled.
Brad Pitt looks like Gollum from LOTR.
Everything looks incredible. Can’t wait to watch it.
ha! dela, you’re so right.
And yet… still disturbingly hot…
Hooker #1: Well, the little guy, he was kinda funny-looking.
Marge: In what way?
Hooker #1: I dunno, just funny-lookin’.
Marge: Can you be any more specific?
Hooker #1: I couldn’t really say. He wasn’t circumcised.
Marge: Was he funny lookin’ apart from that?
Hooker #1: Yeah.
Marge: So – you were having sex with the little fella, then?
Hooker #1: Uh-huh.
Marge: Is there anything else you can tell me about him?
Hooker #1: No. Like I say, he was funny lookin’. More n’ most people even.
I just finished the short story this morning. It’s beautiful. Pure Fitzgerald brilliance brought to an unusual story. It’s such a poignant story. Whimsical, yes. But it’s not like “Big Fish” with sentimentality. Shortly, there’s such a deep, sophisticated sadness to the story.
From the trailer, the story seems altered and expanded upon. I’m fine with that. I just hope Fincher is able to retain the poignancy and sophistication that Fitzgerald bestowed.
This looks wonderful. I’m really looking forward to it.
Yes, yes, Brad n all, but I’m disappointed in the lack of Blanchett Buzz… His role is more showy, but her’s will be crucial to the effective emotional impact of the film, yes?
Fincher has drawn great performances from Brad before…
Its good to see Cate in a less ’showy’ part, actually…
Cate’s role is central, Friedl, you’re quite right. A closeup of her eyes are the first image the script describes. Her character Daisy spans the same number of years in a parallel path to Benjamin’s — the only difference, naturally, is the her aging happens going forward through the years (as the rest of have to), while Benjamine’s march of time rewinds and ticks backwards. Tje relationship is extraordinarily delicately handled and the range of emotions Cate gets to unfurl are every bit as poignant as those Brad lives through.
Fair enough to credit you with beginning the Blanchette buzz, Friedl, and I’m glad you’re on record. Your comment is your stake and you can rightfully claim it. (Depend on that; we won’t forget.) But nobody wants to repeat the same mistakes made last year when Cate’s buzz peaked too early and fizzled out too soon. So we’ll get the buzz humming but keep the volume low, ok? This post is part of the archives now, and I think you’ll be happy in a few months to see how well your early intuition pans out. It’s a great role, there’s absolutely no doubt about that. Lead? That’ll depend on the politics, but I think more likely Supporting.
It’s no secret around here that, personally, I think Cate deserved the Oscar last year for I’m Not There. But I like Tilda Swinton a lot too, and I’m finally getting over her winning for a role I thought was too histrionic. (I don’t know if I was the first person to coin “Tilda Sweatin” but I sure wore it out before it was over.
)
What’s most interesting and should be very fun to witness: Benjamin Button gives us a chance to see them side by side in the same movie.
“Cate’s buzz peaked too early and fizzled out too soon. So we’ll get the buzz humming but keep the volume low”
Well put.
“Tilda Sweatin” – I hadn’t heard that before: Ha Ha Ha! I know…
I… I really liked Tilda Swinton’s performance. I thought she brought so much to the role that could’ve been overlooked. & creating such a sympathetic, kind of pathetic, villain is pretty genius. & She’s a very interesting actor… but Cate Blanchett was phenomenal. There’s no question who deserved it, but overlooking Cate just heightens her chances of winning in another year for a phenomenal lead role.
You make a good point – we’ll get to see them side by side in Benjamin Button. do they share any scenes? Thought Tilda was pretty amazing in Stephanie Daley, too. She’s so fiercely interesting. & strange. People raving her minuscule cameo in Prince Caspian are really over-reaching, tho.. Seriously now, people, be your own band wagon!
Well, lead or support, we’ll keep softly humming Cate’s name in passing here and there, until the film opens and the critics fall all over themselves. Then we’ll point people in the direction of the archives. I guess it depends on how the film is received, tho…
But Cate will surely be lead on my lists.
I’m at the same spot in the script as I was when sartre asked earlier, Friedl — page 55. So far no overlap of Tilda and Cate in any scenes together.
The structure of the screenplay feels like paging through a photo album, focusing on brief key events for a good 45 minutes.
That’s what’s cool about the trailer too. (I’ve watched it about 12 time already.
) The montage flow of the editing is very much like major passages of the script in the way it frames and crystallizes vignettes.
I can see how this could have a very Orson Wellesian effect onscreen, especially like the snapshot introduction montage, and fast-forward historical transitions in The Magnificent Ambersons.
One of editors on Benjamin Button, Angus Wall, has worked with Fincher on just about every one of his movies since Fight Club — but never yet received much awards recognition. The structure of the script has potential to be an editor’s tour de force.
(Googling the exact phrase “”Tilda Sweatin” I get no results. So maybe I was the only one anywhere rude enough to actually say that. I’m so ashamed now. ha!)
“…until the film opens and the critics fall all over themselves. Then we’ll point people in the direction of the archives. ”
hey, and don’t forget, Friedl, at this stage nobody’s paying attention, especially to things being murmured in comment threads — so if for some reason our expectations are not fulfilled, then we’ll just forget this conversation ever happened, and never bring it up again, ha. But if it scores, you’re on record.
Unfortunately, Cate and Tilda do not share any scenes in Ben Button.
I feel as you do Ryan, Cate’ buzz will be coming as soon as the movie is released. We all know Cate shines in these types of roles (well, all roles really).
I see her going lead, her character is so pivitol to the story. And I don’t see this as an Atonement thing wherein three actors portrayed one character. To have Cate, Tilda and Taraji competing for the same statue would be madness.
I don’t know if I feel the same about her buzz peaked too soon, I think it was more of the case – she just won. And lets face it, ‘I’m Not There’ only made 4+ million dollars at the box office as opposed to 50+ million for ‘Michael Clayton.’ Tilda is a fabulous actress, but yes that Oscar belongs to Cate.
Sad to know Ben Button will be the last movie we see Cate in for awhile, she is building up her theatre schedule. Her next movie from what I have read won’t be until 2010 with Martin Scorsese.
You know folks, you’re forgetting something significant about BENJAMIN BUTTON.
It may very well be the last time that madman genius David Fincher can do whatever the fuck he wants, because I’m pretty sure BUTTON will flop like ZODIAC did.
Fincher is a pain in the ass for studios for the massive amount of time he takes, and the amount of money he burns through….but he’s usually worth it, almost unique with whatever he cooks for us.
He’s probably the closest thing we have to a Stanley Kubrick for our time….an auteur in the theory’s traditional interpretation, one that divides people fans and non-fans, and one worth waiting years for a new movie from.
RRA Said It Well.
But I think quite a few genuine auteurs can be found out there – P.T. Anderson, Wes Anderson, Coppola, Scorsese, The Coens, Haynes, Van Sant, Bertolucci to name only a few – capable of attracting reasonable financing.
Satre, hell how about WOODY ALLEN? God knows he had quite a stretch of flops, years and years in a row, yet he still got financing until he had to resort to the French pocketbooks, like David Lynch.
As for Scorsese, I hate how nobody will gave hin the $$$ for his SILENCE. Much rather have that than his SHUTTER ISLAND.
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