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Michael Parker's Journal
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Tuesday, January 31, 2006 |
Hello World. Oscar season is here!
The season officially started this morning, bright and early on the West coast, when the president of the Academy, Sid Ganis, and actress Mira Sorvino announced the nominations.
There were no surprises, really. Brokeback Mountain received the most nominations at 8, including nominations for the biggest six awards – Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay, and Cinematography; Brokeback also garnered nominations for Actor, Supporting Actor, and Supporting Actress.
The Academy also dished out its love for George Clooney, who came away from the early morning announcements with four nominations for two films–Picture, Director, and Screenplay for (Good Night, and Good Luck), and Supporting Actor (Syrianna).
Other than Brokeback Mountain and Good Night, and Good Luck, the other pictures nominated for Best Picture were Capote, Crash, and Munich. This core of nominations marks another year when the Academy turned its eye to the smaller, art-house films. In fact, these films are so small that not one of them grossed more than the favorite documentary of the year, March of the Penguins, which grossed $77.41 million; nor the favorite animated film of the year, Wallace & Gromit, which grossed a mere $56.07.
Out of the nominated films for Best Picture, Crash grossed the most at $53.38, followed by Brokeback Mountain ($51.02), Munich ($40.65), Good Night, and Good Luck ($25.13), and Capote ($15.13).
Add their total grosses together ($185.31), that’s only enough to be the eleventh highest grossing film of the year, just falling behind Mr & Mrs. Smith, not nominated.
The top ten grossing films of the year did see some action this morning. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe was the most recognized film by the Academy, garnering nominations Visual Effects, Sound, and Makeup. The most startling revelation, and it suits me just fine, is that George Lucas and his visual effects team of wizards were completely shut out of the technical awards category. Lucas’ farewell film Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith had to settle for a Best Makeup nomination. (Hah!)
Other nominations awarded to the top ten films of the year include: Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire (Best Art Direction); War of the Worlds (Sound, Editing, and Visual Effects); King Kong (Sound, Art Direction, and Editing); Charlie & the Chocolate Factory (Best Costume); and Batman Begins (Cinematography).
The film that garnered the most nominations without being nominated for Best Picture is Memoirs of a Geisha with six– Cinematography, Art Direction, Costume, Sound, Score, and Editing.
USATODAY has an excellent article compiling reactions from the actors and directors nominated today. One of my favorite comments is from Ang Lee, nominated for Best Director. As reported by Donna Freydkin:
He spent his morning taking his son to school and did not watch the announcement. His assistant called him with the news. "I tried to not worry about it. I tried to go back to sleep, but then the phone rang, and I heard about the results," he says.
He's not celebrating with a glass of bubbly. Instead, says Lee, he'll have two cups of a fine Taiwanese tea he opened up because it's a special occasion. And he's not worried about the competition come Oscar night. "I don't want this to be the movie to beat," he says of Brokeback. "This year, I really enjoy this group. It's a great bunch of people. We're happy for each other. There's a certain togetherness. There's a family kind of feeling. We're all small movies. Even Steven's movie is relatively small. It's issue-oriented, emotion-oriented, and when society finds it, it's a positive feeling in a frustrating time we're in. It's the most sweet and unselfish year."
Here is a complete list of the Oscar nominations.
Best Motion Picture of the Year
- Brokeback Mountain
- Capote
- Crash
- Good Night, and Good Luck
- Munich
Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role
- Philip Seymour Hoffman (Capote)
- Terrence Howard (Hustle & Flow)
- Heath Ledger (Brokeback Mountain)
- Joaquin Phoenix (Walk the Line)
- David Strathairn (Good Night, and Good Luck)
Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role
- Judi Dench (Mrs. Henderson Presents)
- Felicity Huffman (Transamerica)
- Keira Knightley (Pride & Prejudice)
- Charlize Theron (North Country)
- Reese Witherspoon (Walk the Line)
Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role
- George Clooney (Syriana)
- Matt Dillon (Crash)
- Paul Giamatti (Cinderella Man)
- Jake Gyllenhaal (Brokeback Mountain)
- William Hurt (A History of Violence)
Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role
- Amy Adams (Junebug)
- Catherine Keener (Capote)
- Frances McDormand (North Country)
- Rachel Weisz (The Constant Gardener)
- Michelle Williams (Brokeback Mountain)
Best Achievement in Directing
- George Clooney (Good Night, and Good Luck)
- Paul Haggis (Crash)
- Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain)
- Bennett Miller (Capote)
- Steven Spielberg (Munich)
Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen
- Crash - Paul Haggis, Robert Moresco
- Good Night, and Good Luck. - George Clooney, Grant Heslov
- Match Point - Woody Allen
- The Squid and the Whale - Noah Baumbach
- Syriana - Stephen Gaghan
Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published
- Brokeback Mountain - Larry McMurtry, Diana Ossana
- Capote - Dan Futterman
- The Constant Gardener - Jeffrey Caine
- A History of Violence - Josh Olson
- Munich - Tony Kushner, Eric Roth
Best Achievement in Cinematography
- Batman Begins
- Brokeback Mountain
- Good Night, and Good Luck
- Memoirs of a Geisha
- The New World
Best Achievement in Editing
- Cinderella Man
- The Constant Gardener
- Crash
- Munich
- Walk the Line
Best Achievement in Art Direction
- Good Night, and Good Luck.
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
- King Kong
- Memoirs of a Geisha
- Pride & Prejudice
Best Achievement in Costume Design
- Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
- Memoirs of a Geisha
- Mrs. Henderson Presents
- Pride & Prejudice
- Walk the Line
Best Original Score
- Brokeback Mountain
- The Constant Gardener
- Memoirs of a Geisha
- Munich
- Pride & Prejudice
Best Original Song
- Hustle & Flow - Jordan Houston, Cedric Coleman, Paul Beauregard ("It's Hard Out Here For a Pimp")
- Crash - Michael Becker, Kathleen York ("In the Deep")
- Transamerica - Dolly Parton ("Travelin' Thru")
Best Makeup
- The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
- Cinderella Man
- Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith
Best Sound
- The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
- King Kong
- Memoirs of a Geisha
- Walk the Line
- War of the Worlds
Best Sound Editing
- King Kong
- Memoirs of a Geisha
- War of the Worlds
Best Visual Effects
- The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
- King Kong
- War of the Worlds
Best Animated Film
- Corpse Bride
- Hauru no ugoku shiro
- Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
Best Foreign Language Film
- Bestia nel cuore, La - Cristina Comencini (Italy)
- Joyeux Noël - Christian Carion (France)
- Paradise Now - Hany Abu-Assad (Palestine)
- Sophie Scholl - Die letzten Tage - Marc Rothemund (Germany)
- Tsotsi - Gavin Hood (South Africa)
9:34:00 PM  | |
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Monday, January 30, 2006 |
Just when I thought there was going to be absolutely no competition in the race for Oscar's Best Picture award, here comes Paul Haggis’ film Crash. It scored a huge win at the Screen Actor’s Guild (SAG) awards Sunday night, winning the grand prize of the evening, the award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. That’s their equivalent of the Best Picture Oscar.
The entire cast of the dramatic film that highlights racism in contemporary L.A., including SANDRA BULLOCK, TERRENCE HOWARD, MATT DILLON, THANDIE NEWTON, RYAN PHILLIPPE and DON CHEADLE, came on stage to receive an award.
In other big awards:
Best Female Actor in a Leading Role = REESE WITHERSPOON (Walk the Line)
Best Male Actor in a Leading Role = PHILIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN (Capote)
Best Female Actor in a Supporting Role = RACHEL WEISZ (The Constant Gardener)
Best Male Actor in a Supporting Role = PAUL GIAMATTI (Cinderella Man)
Oscar nominations arrive tomorrow morning. Let the races begin.
8:28:19 PM | |
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Sunday, January 29, 2006 |
Only six times in history has a director won the Director's Guild Award and then failed to win the director and best picture award at the Oscars. In 2000, Ang Lee and his beautiful film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon won the DGA but lost the Oscar to Steven Soderbergh's amazing film Traffic.
This year, the Director's Guild awarded their top prize to Ang Lee for his film Brokeback Mountain. Lee bested an impressive assembly of nominees that included George Clooney (Good Night, and Good Luck), Paul Haggis (Crash), Bennett Miller (Capote), and Steven Spielberg (Munich).
The win marks yet another victory in a long line of Brokeback victories, as the film was the big winner at the recent Golden Globes (taking home four awards) and the Producers Guild of America award.
Academy Award nominations will be announced Tuesday. I think we can count on the nominees for the DGA awards to be the films and directors nominated for their respective awards at the Oscars, except for Capote. I'm thinking Walk The Line may be the fifth film.
6:23:16 PM | |
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Friday, January 27, 2006 |
Ever since the release of their first album, IL DIVO has become a notable presence on the international music scene and has created some of the most faithful and admiring core of fans you will ever get the opportunity to meet. Evidence of their success lies in the fact that they garnered a nomination at the 2005 World Music Awards for the World’s Best-Selling New Group.
With the release of their solid second album Ancora, and at the front gate of their first world tour, IL DIVO has positioned themselves to become a sensation. Featuring the talented voices of David Miller, Urs Buhler, Carlos Marin, and Sebastien Izambard, Ancora is the vehicle that will get them where they want to go – it is a highly impressive compilation of covers (translated into Italian or Spanish) and original songs that raise their repertoire to include classical as well as extremely enjoyable pop songs.
Songs such as "All By Myself (Solo Otra Vez)," "Heroe," "You Raise Me Up," and "I Believe in You (Je Crois en Toi)," a dynamic duet with Celine Dion, are surely bound to become some of their most beloved signature hits.
Following in the steps of their successful hit "Regressa a Mi," Ancora adapts some of the most celebrated pop ballads of the past decade. For example, Mariah Carey’s version of the song "Hero" won her the Grammy in 1995 for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. It also marked her eighth number 1 hit in the US.
Celine Dion’s song "All By Myself" helped win her cd Falling Into You two Grammy’s in 1996 for Best Pop Album and Album of the Year.
And Josh Groban’s version of the song "You Raise Me Up" likewise saw time at number 1 on the Adult Contemporary Charts and garnered him a Grammy nomination in 2004 for the Best Male Pop Vocal Performance.
On a personal note, one of my favorite songs on the album is Joaquín Rodrigo’s hauntingly beautiful song "En Aranjuez Con Tu Amor." Performed by such great artists as Sarah Brightman, Andrea Bocelli, Placido Domingo, and Jose Carreras, IL DIVO does a formidable job making this song one of their own.
Other equally impressive songs featured herein include "Isabel" (which uses the melody from "Elysium" by James Shearman, Simon Greenway, and Gabrial Faure); "Pour Que Tu M'aimes Encore;" "Hasta Mi Final;" "Si Tu Me Amas;" and "Esisti Dentro Me."
The operatic style is a dramatic art that employs vocals, instruments, and lyrics to convey emotion. Placido Domingo once said of singing opera that is more than just "...the mere natural charm of [the] voice... I had to constantly paint when singing, melting all the colors, expressing reds and blacks that had to be less primary but bursting with subtly colored combinations." What a wonderful way to describe the art of singing opera! In regards to IL DIVO, this description is so fitting. Their rich voices do express a depth of emotion that is colorful, utterly artistic in its presentation. I’m consistently in awe of their tone and vibratos. There exists a clarity in them, especially when they sing together, that is simply thrilling to listen to. I don’t tire of it.
In a closing note, I came across a most wonderful quote from the Rhapsody website. The reviewer (whose name was not posted) wrote that Ancora is "Pop opera straight from the Old Country featuring big, brown-eyed Italian dudes with their Armani shirts unbuttoned.... ‘All By Myself’ alone will make you wanna drown yourself in ravioli and Four Brothers tomato sauce, but the whole album is impossible to not enjoy. Classier than other groups doing this."
Classier is most definitely accurate!
Copyright© Michael Parker. Permission to reprint any portion of this review must be granted by the author, Michael Parker. Please contact him via email.
11:57:44 PM | |
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Thursday, January 26, 2006 |
In today’s Washington Post, journalist William Booth highlighted Al Gore’s documentary An Inconvenient Truth and Gore’s efforts to sound the alarm on the effects of global warming.
From Park City, Utah, home of the Sundance Film Festival, Booth opened his article with this:
Has ever a little indie film faced a greater hurdle? Imagine this sales pitch: Babe, it's a movie about global warming. Starring Al Gore. Doing a slide show. With charts. About ‘soil evaporation.’ Improbable? Perhaps. So it's all the more amazing that "An Inconvenient Truth" had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on Tuesday night before an enthusiastic audience that gave the former vice president and his movie a big standing O.
Based on a slide show Gore assembled himself, Booth adds: "Gore has traveled the globe with his bar graphs, staging event after event for small, invited audiences. Free of charge. And he's presented one version or another of this slide show, by his own estimation, a thousand times."
What is the message of Gore’s film?
Primarily, that "Earth's glaciers are melting....each year sets new heat records....The accumulation of carbon dioxide and other pollutants of the industrial age are increasing temperatures." As film-goers witnessed watching the disaster film The Day After Tomorrow, Gore’s stats argue"that global warming may soon lead to catastrophic sea level rises, which could inundate cities such as New York (flooding the former site of the World Trade Center), producing scary nonlinear runaway spasms of extreme weather (bigger, badder hurricanes and typhoons), global pandemics and, depending on where you live, torrential rains or decade-long drought."
The official Sundance Film Festival guide calls the documentary a "gripping story" with "a visually mesmerizing presentation" that is "activist cinema at its very best."
I don't know about you. But I am interested in the topic of global warming. And this film interests me. (And yes, maybe I am biased. After all, I voted for Gore in 2000.)
Photo taken by Eric Neitzel.
8:32:21 PM | |
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Wednesday, January 25, 2006 |
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe started off with great promise. The story was intriguing. The photography had a richness to it that mimicked great films. And the acting by the kids was genuine and delightful. Then they all found their way into the wardrobe and everything unraveled slowly– the story grew disjointed and non-sensical, the photography was spoiled by the seams that were visible when the kids were standing in front of a blue screen, and the kids performances fell into two-dimensional, over-rehearsed, and maudlin fits.
More than anything, however, Narnia's story suffered from some serious logic holes. For example: Why was winter suddenly leaving after it had been winter for 100 years? Was it because of the kids or because of Aslan's return? Why was the Ice Queen, the epitome of lies and tricky deeds, able to march into Aslan’s camp and convince Aslan and his followers (without any ensuing questions) that Edmund’s deeds were traitorous? How can Edmund be traitorous when it seemed that the Queen had drugged him (when he drank the hot cocoa and ate the Turkish delights) in order to get his siblings into Narnia and up to her castle? Was Edmund acting on his own free will? Compound these questions with the fact that the Lion offers himself as the sacrifice in place of Edmund and Santa Claus rides up and bestows magical gifts to the kids (notice that he didn’t even mention Edmund or have a gift for him), and I was seeing evidence of a half-baked storyline.
(Now, to be fair, I understand from my friend that all of my questions are answered in the book. My reply to this, dear friends, is that Adamson and his writing team should have made the storyline as coherent as the book. This is simply just lazy filmmaking.)
On a very positive note, however, the stunning actress, Tilda Swinton (as the cold, Ice Queen) truly gives this film its only sense of gravitas. If not for her, I fear this film might have been relegated to an after school special. If there is any reason to see this film, it is because of her.
When this film won the award for Best Family Film at the Critics Choice awards earlier this month, the producer of the film commented that he was shocked that they had even been nominated in this category, as if Narnia was deserving of the Best Picture category. Well, I’m sorry, it definitely is not. Narnia is nothing more than an LOTR-lite film. And I mean -lite in all aspects.
Swinton has made a name for herself this year, not only appearing in Narnia, but also in the dark comic book film Constantine, playing the good-gone-wicked angel Gabriel. Tilda Swinton’s territory for over a decade has been in the art-house, independent genre, appearing in the films Broken Flowers (2005), Thumbsucker (2005), Young Adam (2003), Adaptation (2002), Vanilla Sky (2001), The Deep End (2001), The Beach (2000), Female Perversions (1996), and Orlando (1992), to name a few of her most known films.
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Tuesday, January 24, 2006 |
Mary Oliver's poem "Wild Geese" is one of my favorite poems. Today, I discovered that my post on the poet Miguel de Unamuno (highlighting his incredible poem Throw Yourself Like Seed) was highlighted in the comments of a post on the political blog DailyKos.
While I was checking out the comments, I noticed someone posted Oliver's poem "In Blackwater Woods." It's another fine poem. So I thought I would post it on my site as well.
As a compliment to the poem, I chose one of my favorite Monet's. This one can be purchased from here.
In Blackwater Woods
Look, the trees
are turning
their own bodies
into pillars
of light,
are giving off the rich
fragrance of cinnamon
and fulfillment,
the long tapers
of cattails
are bursting and floating away over
the blue shoulders
of the ponds,
and every pond,
no matter what its
name is, is
nameless now.
Every year
everything
I have ever learned
in my lifetime
leads back to this: the fires
and the black river of loss
whose other side
is salvation,
whose meaning
none of us will ever know.
To live in this world
you must be able
to do three things:
to love what is mortal;
to hold it
against your bones knowing
your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes to let it go,
to let it go.
-- Mary Oliver
7:00:33 PM | |
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Saturday, January 21, 2006 |
When I consider thy heavens, the work
of thy fingers, the moon and the stars,
which thou hast ordained; What is man,
that thou art mindful of him? and the son
of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast
made him a little lower than the angels, and
hast crowned him with glory and honour.
Psalms 8:3-5
While searching for a poem to use with my painting "Fallen Angel," I discovered the Austrian poet and playwright George Trakl (1887-1914). Trakl was a tortured soul who suffered from depression and drug abuse even from a young age. His poetry is known for its "dark vision... that [is] dense, jagged, forceful and heavy with symbolism of life and decay."
Trakl is known for his first play, All Souls Days; his first successful poems "Decline", "The Beautiful City" and "The Stormy Evening"; his collection, Sebastian in Dream, shortly after his death, and three other posthumous collections--Aus Goldenem Kelch (the early poems), Die Dichtungen (the later poems), and Errinnerung An Georg Trakl (letters and reminiscences).
Trakl enlisted in the military in 1910 but became a reservist when he had a confrontation with his superior. However, when the first world war engulfed his country, he was re-enlisted. His experiences in the war zone quickly brought about his demise.
According to his biography on the poetry website "Little Blue Light," after his regiment encountered several defeats by the Russians, Trakl was singled-out to care for 90 wounded men in a barn near Grodek, Poland by himself. Because some of the injuries were so grave, and the soldier’s pain so great, Trakl could not adequately care for them. He witnessed one of the soldiers shoot himself in the head. After which, Trakl left the confines of the barn, only to see some of the locals hanging from the nearby trees. He suffered a mental breakdown and was soon taken to Cracow. While being hospitalized, he received a fatal dose of cocaine.
In 1915, Kurt Wolff (publisher of Kafka) published a collection of Trakl's poems titled Sebastian in Dream. This garnered a loyal following in Germany.
The philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein would later say of Trakl’s poetry: "I do not understand them; but their tone pleases me. It is the tone of true genius."
More recently, James Wright and Robert Bly translated a collection of Trakl’s poetry and published them in the collection Dreamsongs.
In the introduction to the collection, Robert Bly wrote about a fascinating aspect of Trakl’s style– it’s silence:
The poems of Georg Trakl have a magnificent silence in them. It is very rare that he himself talks—for the most part he allows the images to speak for him. Most of the images, anyway, are images of silent things.
In a good poem made by Trakl images follow one another in a way that is somehow stately. The images have a mysterious connection with each other. The rhythm is slow and heavy, like the mood of someone in a dream. Wings of dragonflies, toads, the gravestones of cemeteries, leaves, and war helmets give off strange colors, brilliant and sombre colors—they live in too deep a joy to be gay. At the same time they live surrounded by a darkness without roads. Everywhere there is the suggestion of this dark silence...
The other translator, James Wright, in his introduction, spoke about an experience of sitting in on a university class in which the professor opened the class reading Trakl’s poem "Verfall." Wright explains:
It was as though the sea had entered the class at the last moment. For this poem was not like any poem I had ever recognized: the poet, at a sign from the evening bells, followed the wings of birds that became a train of pious pilgrims who were continually vanishing into the clear autumn of distances; beyond the distances there were black horses leaping in red maple trees, in a world where seeing and hearing are not two actions, but one.
I returned to that darkening room every afternoon for months, through autumn and winter, while Professor Susini summoned every poem out of Trakl’s three volumes. I always went back to that strange room of twilight, where Susini peered for long silences into the darkness until he discovered the poem he sought; and then he spoke it with the voice of a resurrected blackbird.
His entire manner was one of enormous patience, and he read Trakl’s poems very slowly. I believe that patience is the clue to the understanding of Trakl’s poems. One does not so much read them as explore them. They are not objects which he constructed, but quiet places at the edge of a dark forest where one has to sit still for a long time and listen very carefully. Then, after all one’s patience is exhausted, and it seems as though nothing inside the poem will ever make sense in the ways to which one has become accustomed by previous reading, all sorts of images and sounds come out of the trees, or the ponds, or the meadows, or the lonely roads—those places of awful stillness that seem at the centre of nearly every poem Trakl ever wrote.
I've selected Georg Trakl's poem "Birth" from the collection Dreamcatcher to represent my painting "Fallen Angel." I hope you enjoy it.
Birth
These mountains: blackness, silence, and snow.
The red hunter climbs down from the forest;
Oh the mossy gaze of the wild thing.
The peace of the mother: under black firs
The sleeping hands open by themselves
When the cold moon seems ready to fall.
The birth of man. Each night
Blue water washes over the rockbase of the cliff;
The fallen angel stares at his reflection with sighs,
Something pale wakes up in a suffocating room.
The eyes
Of the stony old woman shine, two moons.
The cry of the woman in labor. The night troubles
The boy’s sleep with black wings,
With snow, which falls with ease out of the purple
clouds.
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Thursday, January 19, 2006 |
I woke up today with this in my email. Ha! I nearly fell off my chair laughing. Loved it! Thanks C.
Yes, my brothers and I love to tease one another. They're great. My whole family is.
Go to churchsigngenerator.com to create your own church sign.
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Tuesday, January 17, 2006 |
Last night, the Hollywood Foreign Press honored films about cowboys and country-western singers, handing out the biggest awards to Brokeback Mountain and Walk the Line. Nominated for a total of seven awards, Brokeback, the movie about two cowboys who fall in love, won Best Motion Picture - Drama, Best Screenplay, Best Original Song, and Best Director, Ang Lee.
The Johnny Cash biopic, Walk the Line, won the awards for Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy, Best Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy (Reese Witherspoon), and Best Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy (JOAQUIN PHOENIX).
In other awards, Felicity Huffman of Desperate Housewives came away with the Best Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama award for her performance in Transamerica. Philip Seymour Hoffman won the Best Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama for his performance as Truman Capote in the film Capote.
Rachel Weisz won the Best Supporting Actress award for her performance in The Constant Gardener. And GEORGE CLOONEY picked up the Best Supporting Actor award for his role in Syriana.
Ang Lee has been recognized by the Golden Globes and the Oscars numerous times, receiving nominations for films that include some of my all-time favorites: Eat Drink Man Woman (Taiwan), Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; The Ice Storm; and Sense & Sensibility.
Yes. If you want to talk about momentum heading into this month's Oscar nominations, then look no further than Ang Lee and his film Brokeback Mountain.
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Wednesday, January 11, 2006 |
Many of you may or may not know that I enjoy painting. For over a year now, the banner you see at the top of this blog is an excerpt from my first, and most favorite, angel painting, titled The Departure.
In the photo here, I'm sitting in front of a painting I did for my brother's massive house. Their living room has Greek columns and I wanted to paint something from the Mediterranean.
Because our ancestors are Italian, I chose to paint one of my favorite villas by the sea--Costiera Amalfitana. I painted it from a picture. I've never visited there. You may have seen this picturesque villa in Diane Lane's film Under the Tuscan Sun and in the incredible film The Talented Mr. Ripley, starring Jude Law, Matt Damon, and the beautiful Gwenyth Paltrow.
I took some liberties with the painting. For example: All of the pictures and films I had seen, never showed the tops of the mountains. So I had to make that up. (And I did have to place a sky in the painting because without it, your eye would go up and out of the painting.)
With all of its imperfections and geographical inaccuracies, I like it.
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Monday, January 09, 2006 |
The first film awards show of the season, the Critics Choice Awards, honored Ang Lee and his film Brokeback Mountain with the two biggest awards of the night-- Best Director and Best Picture, beating out an impressive list of nominees including George Clooney, Stephen Spielberg, Ron Howard, and Paul Haggis.
Lee’s film, Brokeback Mountain is a story about two sheep-herders, played by Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhal, who fall in love while herding sheep one winter in the back country of Montana.
At the beginning of the show, it seemed like Crash was going to take home everything, as it won the Best Ensemble Cast and Best Writer (Paul Haggis & Bobby Moresco) awards in the first hour of the show. But it lost its momentum during the acting awards.
Not surprising was the win in the Best Family Film category– Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. The producer of the film, however, mentioned that he was surprised that they were categorized as a family film. He figured they had made a movie for all sorts of people who love the books.
Highlights of the evening were Dakota Fannings award for Best Young Actress, for her excellent performance in War of the Worlds; Julia Robert’s speech to award the Freedom Award to George Clooney; and George Clooney’s acceptance speech. All of these speeches were thoughtful; articulate; poignant; and showed very gracious winners. Finally, Paul Giamatti’s win for Best Supporting Actor (Cinderella Man) was likewise a treat.
(I highlight Dakota Fanning because she seemed to receive some of the loudest cheers up to this point in the show, most likely because she’s worked with everyone in the room. She’s one of our most busy actors in show business, and I must admit, very believable in most everything she is in.)
Best Documentary was awarded to the fabulous French film March of the Penguins. In an acceptance speech, the representative for the film makers said "This award proves that France and America can get along." He also thanked Morgan Freeman and his voice, stating that it helps your film when you "[have] the voice of God."
Freddie Highmore of Charlie & the Chocolate Factory won Best Young Actor.
Best Supporting Actress was a tie, going to Michelle Williams (Brokeback Mountain) and Amy Adams (Junebug).
Best Actor was awarded to Phillip Seymour Hoffman, for his role as the effeminate journalist Truman Capote in Capote. And Best Actress was given to Reese Witherspoon, for Walk the Line.
In other awards, Kung Fu Hustle (China) won Best Foreign Language Film; Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the WereRabbit won for Best Animated Feature; and The 40-Year-Old Virgin won for Best Comedy, the first time the critics choice awards honored this genre.
Freedom Award was awarded to George Clooney. Speech delivered by Julia Roberts. Clooney’s speech was exceptional. He spoke of his dad. He was a newsman. Said that his job was to tell the truth.
The Critics Choice Awards also featured highlights of the films they nominated as their top ten movies of last year. It was from this list that they voted an overall Best Picture:
Brokeback Mountain
Capote
Cinderella Man
The Constant Gardener
Crash
Good Night, and Good Luck
King Kong
Memoirs of a Geisha
Munich
Walk the Line
The Golden Globe Awards are this coming Monday evening. I said that this year seemed to be George Clooney's year. But right now, luck is riding with Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain and Crash.
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Saturday, January 07, 2006 |
This week, the Screen Actor's Guild and the Director's Guild released their nominations for the best of acting and directing for 2005. And these nominations, especially the Director's Guild nominations, give insight to how directors and actors are voting. In recent history, the nominees of the Director's Guild award go on to be nominated for Best Director and Best Picture nominations at the Oscar. If you didn't catch the news, here are the nominees for this year's Director's Guild award:
Ang Lee, Brokeback Mountain
George Clooney, Good Night, and Good Luck
Paul Haggis, Crash
Bennett Miller, Capote
Steven Spielberg, Munich
Here are the nominations for the SAG Awards:
Best Actor: Russell Crowe, “Cinderella Man”; Philip Seymour Hoffman, “Capote”; Heath Ledger, “Brokeback Mountain”; Joaquin Phoenix, “Walk the Line”; David Strathairn, “Good Night, and Good Luck.”
Best Actress: Judi Dench, “Mrs. Henderson Presents”; Felicity Huffman, “Transamerica”; Charlize Theron, “North Country”; Reese Witherspoon, “Walk the Line”; Ziyi Zhang, “Memoirs of a Geisha.”
Best Supporting Actor: Don Cheadle, “Crash”; George Clooney, “Syriana”; Matt Dillon, “Crash”; Paul Giamatti, “Cinderella Man”; Jake Gyllenhaal, “Brokeback Mountain.”
Best Supporting Actress: Amy Adams, “Junebug”; Catherine Keener, “Capote”; Frances McDormand, “North Country”; Rachel Weisz, “The Constant Gardener”; Michelle Williams, “Brokeback Mountain.”
Best Ensemble Cast (which equates to Best Picture): Brokeback Mountain, Capote, Crash, Good Night, and Good Luck, Hustle & Flow.
In my opinion, I don't think Hustle & Flow has as much of a chance as Munich for Oscar Best Picture or Director. But I think it is great that it was honored by the SAG.
Tomorrow night, turn your flat screen TVs on and watch the Golden Globes. Prediction: I can't help but think that this is George Clooney's year. If he comes away empty handed, I'll be surprised. Other than this, I feel all of the nominated films are excellent. I'll be happy with any one of them as the winner.
After all the awards are handed out, we can start talking Oscar nominations. The envelopes please!
10:24:27 PM | |
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I read all of the poetry sections this morning, including the best of CafeCafe 2005. Being a member of the CafeCafe poetry forum, my opinion of the poems will obviously seem biased. So what! I LOVE every single poem listed there! And they should impress everyone because they represent the best the forum offered in 2005.
The poets chosen as the best of the forum for 2005 include close friends and poets I have highlighted on my blog: Pris Campbell, Lee Herrick and Diego Quiros. Other poets include: Lyle Daggett, David Ayers, Ryan Wilson, Annmarie Eldon, Sharon Brogan, and Jill Chan (from New Zealand, my second home).
In the main poetry section of the issue, I am likewise impressed with the poets and poetry selected for this issue. Every poem is excellent in its own way. And I hope by saying that, you don't get the impression that I'm just being nice. But, I do have my absolute favorites. Here they are:
"A Sky That Looked Make-Believe; Buildings That Looked Real" by Jenny Boully (Winner of the best title!)
"School Days" by Gianmarc Manzione
"Let Us Consider" by Ron Androla
"What Has Been Lost" by George Lober
"Last Lines" by Richard Blanco
All three poems by Reb Livingstone
Also, Birdie's short story Gateway is also a highlight of this issue.
Congratulations on a masterful issue, D!
10:07:02 PM | |
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Friday, January 06, 2006 |
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Wednesday, January 04, 2006 |
I'm busy painting tonight but I wanted to post something. So, because I love the sea, I have picked a poem a dear friend sent me years ago. "Seafarer," by Archibald MacLeish. Enjoy.
Seafarer
And learn O voyager to walk
The roll of earth, the pitch and fall
That swings across these trees those stars:
That swings the sunlight up the wall.
And learn upon these narrow beds
To sleep in spite of sea, in spite
Of sound the rushing planet makes:
And learn to sleep against this ground.
7:40:42 PM | |
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Tuesday, January 03, 2006 |
Hear ye! Hear ye! This whole year, we have heard the death knell from the media that going to the theaters was a dead form of entertainment, primarily because box office grosses were recording the worst receipts since box office grosses were tracked, around '85. Well, it has always been my perspective that this type of talk was highly premature, especially regarding the line-up of holiday films. And hello, I was right. 2005 will still fall approximately 7% behind last year's overall grosses, but in the end, this year will rank as one of the top five grossing years. (I'm still trying to track down the article I read that backs me up on this fact.)
How did 2005 compare to 2004?
Last year, 23 films crossed the $100 million mark at the box office. This year, only seventeen films met this milestone. However, 7 films in 2005 grossed over $200 million, compared to only 6 films in 2004.
"To read some reporting on the film industry over the past six months, you'd think the sky was falling," wrote Dan Glickman of The Wall Street Journal. "[A]nd the ‘H’ on the ‘HOLLYWOOD’ sign was about to fall off and crash down onto Mulholland Drive....but...reports of the death of our industry have been greatly exaggerated."
Over the past several weeks, millions of people have lined up at theaters around the world to see a boy wizard, a magical lion, a beautiful geisha, an American music legend, the greatest ape of all time, and many others. According to reports last week, this holiday period has shown promising box-office take--an 8% increase compared with the same holiday period last year, in fact. Just two weekends before Christmas, box-office receipts were up 18% compared with the same weekend last year--a clear indication that film companies are answering consumer demand for good movies. Internationally, taken together the three top grossing motion pictures in the box office made more than $110 million, almost double what the three top-grossing pictures in the same weekend of 2004 managed to pull in.
The opening weekend of "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" was the biggest debut ever for the comparable weekend and the second highest December opening of all time. "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" was the 20th film to cross the $700 million mark in world-wide box office.
Here are the films that grossed over $100 million dollars domestically:
1 Revenge of the Sith ($380.26)
2 Harry Potter 4 ($263.14)
3 War of the Worlds * ($234.28)
4 Wedding Crashers ($209.22)
5 Charlie & the Chocolate Factory ($206.46)
6 Batman Begins ($205.34)
7 The Chronicles of Narnia ($200.00+)
8 Madagascar * ($193.14)
9 Mr. & Mrs. Smith ($186.34)
10 Hitch ($177.58)
11 The Longest Yard *( $158.12)
12 Fantastic Four ($154.70)
13 King Kong ($150.00+)
14 Chicken Little ($130.27)
15 Robots $128.20)
16 The Pacifier($113.01)
17 The 40 Year-Old Virgin ($109.24)
11:06:06 PM | |
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Monday, January 02, 2006 |
Happy New Year!
This holiday, I was able to catch up on my favorite past time of movie-watching. Since Christmas weekend, I’ve seen the films Crash, Layer Cake, Yes, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, March of the Penguins, King Kong, The Producers, Stealth, and Shark Boy & Lava Girl. Obviously, some of these films were much better than others.
If you are curious what films I’m considering for my top ten, here is a shortlist of all the possibilities (not in any order):
Crash
Munich
Yes
A History of Violence
Sin City
Good Night, and Good Luck
Brokeback Mountain
A History of Violence
The Squid and the Whale
Capote
The Upside of Anger
Bee Season
Me and You and Everyone We Know
Pride & Prejudice
The Constant Gardner
Syriana
King Kong
War of the Worlds
Batman Begins
Cinderella Man
Millions (U.K.)
Cache (France)
Kung Fu Hustle (China)
The Best of Youth (Italy)
Oldboy (S. Korea)
2046 (Hong Kong)
For Family Films, I’m eyeing these films:
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Corpse Bride
Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
Howl’s Moving Castle
Millions (UK)
Sky High
The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe
March of the Penguins
Duma
To read my top ten list for 2004, click here (1-5) and here (6-10 and honorable mentions). For the Best in Family Films, click here.
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