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If you have something to say...
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The Blog
Jean Dujardin, who won nearly every Best Actor award around the world for his portrayal of fading star George Valentin, prepared for his role by watching classic silent films and by studying silent era actors, notably Douglas Fairbanks.
Based on a true story, The Intouchables is a movie that already has been tarred with the condescending brush of American critics who mischaracterize it as patronizing to the character of Driss.
It's beautiful, all these people from around the world who loved this film in which the French are silent. It's like a message sent to everyone: just shut up.
There are no more movie stars. I blame TMZ and its reality show brethren, who have taken all the mystery out of celebrity. In movie-making, like pretty much every other business, the paradigm has changed, and we must respond accordingly.
Suffice to say, with Jean Dujardin winning the Oscar for his role in The Artist, all eyes are on France now; will they be able to repeat that success with films crossing the pond this year, like Cloclo and The Intouchables
Prayer comes from the world of our ancestors, who both had less information and knowledge of the universe than we have today, and more time to focus on the inner workings of the soul and spirit.
Did you know that The Artist wasn't the only silent film to take home an Academy Award at this year's Oscars?
I just watced the movie The Artist and was so happy it won Best Picture even though who gives a crap about The Academy and its lame-ass opinions which...
If I learned anything from the 3D trend, it's that every big movie deserves a second rodeo if it comes back in a different form. But further pondering led me to realize that not every film would be quite so successful sans dialogue.
As The Artist suggests, art can help us understand the dilemmas presented by technological change, just as technology can help unleash the creative possibilities of art.
For us decrepit folks over 55, the age of AARP eligibility, we have endured the long reign of movies pointed primarily to kiddies, teenagers, and dating couples and a starvation diet of films addressed to mature audiences.
This is a moving tale of love and (job) loss, but it's also one that is very deeply rooted in gender ideologies. Imagine, for a second, that the story were reversed.
So which is it? Did The Artist win because it was the safe, least-challenging, most-reassuring choice? Was it chosen because it was a nostalgic gimmick?
Borchert took me to a residential area with unexploded bombs still in the ground. One 550-lb. and two 1,100-lb. US monsters had already been found and detonated.
In years when we can't afford to travel, we can still journey for a couple of hours for the price of a movie ticket. We can go to Paris, England, New York, Los Angeles, Sweden -- anywhere we please and enjoy a story, the scenery, and the music. All this without the cost, hassle and jet lag of a trip.
What this whole crowd had in common was relentlessness and an unwillingness to give up despite tragedy. During my St. Tropez days Thomas Langmann was an infant, but he was raised with this mad hatter kind of joie de vivre which carried him.
