This week’s official pumpkin ride casts Noomi Rapace as Goth Cinderella in a dress rehearsal test-drive to the Oscar ball. The notion first took root when Nikki Finke reported that Raplace’s new agent likes her a lot. A whole lot. Her new agents at UTA and managers at Magnolia¬†are comparing her to Marion Cotillard, who appeared in a small foreign film, came out of nowhere to be nominated and then…
Craig Kennedy at Living In Cinema wins today’s scavenger hunt for Hypnotic Suspense. Not sure what to make of this clip, but it’s mesmerizing. Wait — maybe as long as the dough keeps spinning we’re still in the dream? If not, then at least it keeps us suspended in a sort of alpha state that somehow evokes the Coen brothers’ sense of rhythm without directing quoting specific shots from Blood…
This shakes up the holidays with an unexpected jolt of adrenaline, doesn’t it? Reader Sean points out that Sony has upgraded The Tourist to First Class passage with a premiere route through the very heart of Oscar season. (Previously set to embark in February 2011). Several reliable sites confirm, but I’m interested this morning in the slant from box office mojo: Sony Pictures announced this afternoon that the Johnny Depp-Angelina…
Through channels that I’m sure are greased in ways I don’t like to think about, The Wrap got their hands on an email that appears to outline all the projects in development at Paramount for the next couple of years. The Wrap is saying Paramount’s slate has been “exposed” but I’ll use a less pejorative verb instead. ‘Accidentally revealed’ in a ‘premature press release’ makes it sound less like The…
Visual storytelling. In a single shot we see Natalie Portman’s Nina seated at her dressing table framed to suggest there’s a matching compartment of her mind in a cubicle right beside her. Is that a wall of solid cinder block, or a paper thin facade? That imaginary chair in the adjoining room down this hall of mirrors seems vacant, but is it? Vying for our eyes’ attention is the fractured…
(click to supersize) Last night’s debut of the trailer for Black Swan made quite a splash. Good to see there’s an eager audience for stylish pyscho-thrillers and directors who can explore internal horrors without a workshop of bloody power tools. Compared to the baroque trailer this snowy poster has an ethereal simplicity. It’s creepiness comes from the most basic of photographic tricks — soft focus makes the tiara intangible with…
Set in 1950s Los Angeles, Passion Play involves an angel trapped in a carnival sideshow at the mercy of a ruthless gangster. The angel is saved by a down-and out trumpet player. Mickey Rourke plays the trumpeter, and it’s obvious from this shot that Megan Fox plays the angel. Bill Murray plays the gangster determined to keep them apart. The film debuts in Toronto next month and you can read…
