Aussie Posters

I'm just posting these so they exist on the Internet somewhere. A google search shows that they're not out there. First is the poster for The Bet starring Matthew Newton and Aden Young, a sort of Aussie Boiler Room that was quite good. And then there's In the Company of Actors, a documentary with Cate Blanchett and Hugo Weaving about their production of Hedder Gabler (or whatever it's called).

Like a Rolling Stone

Slow and steady wins the race? A rolling stone gathers no moss? Perhaps. NY Times reports on the distribution of I'm Not There, the new Bob Dylan biopic (of sorts) directed by one of cinemas greatest artists Todd Haynes and starring the likes of Richard Gere, Christian Bale, Heath Ledger and even Cate Blanchett as the iconic musical artist. It's debuting in four cinemas on November 21 (in America, folks - Australia gets it Dec 26). Apparently it's a way of letting the non-linear and, let's face it, non-sensical movie create a buzz and roll on to Oscar nominations. I personally enjoyed this statement by distributor/evil sorcerer Harvey Weinstein:

“I may be jumping the gun,” Mr. Weinstein said, “but if Cate Blanchett doesn’t get nominated [for the Oscar], I’ll shoot myself.”

Because on one hand, if Blanchett gets nominated for playing a man that's pretty darn awesome (and would give her duel nominations for she will surely be getting nominated for Elizabeth: The Golden Age, right?)... but on the other hand, if she doesn't Harvey Weinstein will shoot himself and perhaps all these movies he picks up and then never distributes could have a fighting chance.

Perhaps... Perhaps... Perhaps...

Cate's Not Here

Holy crap! I have no idea what is going on in this scene from (genius/mad scientist/brilliant) Todd Haynes' new Bob Dylan "biopic" I'm Not There, but it's mesmerising and I'm reminded of that episode of The Simpsons where Homer watches Twin Peaks and says "Brilliant! ...I have absolutely no idea what's going on."

Hurrican Elizabeth

I don't know about you, but when Cate Blanchett's Queen Elizabeth says "I too can command the wind, Sir. I have a hurricane in me that will strip Spain bare if you dare betray me", I just get chills up my spine. This is why I think Cate will win her second Oscar, and will rank alongside the legendary Paul Newman as only the second actor to ever win an Academy Award for a sequel (right?) - Newman won for The Color of Money after losing for the original The Hustler, if my memory serves me well.

Other than Blanchett's sure-to-be-astonishing performance there looks to be plenty of other things in Elizabeth: The Golden Age such as Geoffrey Rush and amazing cinematography, art direction and make-up - all of which were evident in the original. But The Golden Age also has Clive Owen (I love seeing "Academy Award Nominee" next to his name), Samantha Morton (who doesn't get a credit in the trailer, interestingly enough) and Abbie Cornish (who gets enough screentime to put justification to those Best Supporting Actress ideas).

While I'm not sure if using an Enyesque song for the second half of the trailer was the best movie possible (except at the very end), and I'm sure that Cate's horseback cliff-side speech will remind people of both Braveheart and The Lord of the Rings, this movie looks very amazing indeed and I can't wait. I was a fan of Elizabeth and I am actually a fan of solid adult fare getting sequels - I mean, look at how The Godfather Part II turned out!

My favourite part of the trailer is at the very very end with that shot of Cate wearing that massive white outfit (whatever it is) with the light reflecting through it. Sublime. Watch the trailer below and decide for yourself.

Here I Am!

So, my day has been interesting. Here's an equally interesting (...) rundown.

I woke up at 10 and went to the shops to buy a paper. There was a funny article about Germaine Greer. Doesn't she ever shup up? Don't newspapers get sick of writing about how she never shuts up?

At 11.30 I went into town with my friend Hannah. I had to film her getting her ear pierced for, like, the tenth time. She got one done and I was all "Is that it?" and then the piercer (Clare, she's really nice) brought out a big motha of a needle and said there was a second one. It was huge. I wasn't too crash hot on the filming thing in the first place, and then I saw what I was filming (my friend likes to keep the... memories) I closed my eyes. I have a big thing against medical stuff. Like, I could watch countless ultra-gory horror movies, but once there's things that are like surgery I just can't handle it. Needles being injected? Ugh. Hell, even the piano wire sequence in Audition was unbearable (other than that movie just being woeful in general). I can't watch any medical shows on TV like ER or RPA (well, except Grey's Anatomy, strangely). I couldn't even listen to my friends discuss disecting a frog in High School. And it's not because I have a history with hospitals. I've never actually been a patient in one. It just makes me queasy.

Anyway.

After that we ran into our friend Agi and we went to lunch at this organic restaurant and met up with Emma. It was nice, I suppose. Why are organic restaurants always so tiny? The focaccia I got was good, but had too much beetroot. Like, hold the freakin' beetroot! Some of it is nice but not an entire garden.

After that we saw Notes on a Scandal (2006, dir. Eyre), which was sort of hilarious. Judi Dench was brilliant. Cate, not so much. I just loved the completely over-the-top melodramatic lunacy that ensued. You know what else there was a lot of? Lots of shots of stairs! Upwards, downwards, sideways, under, over, any which way. Richard Eyre really liked filming characters walking up, down, sitting on, looking up at and standing underneath stairs! They were everywhere! Turn around and, oh look! Another flight of stairs! Turn around again. Ta-dah! More stairs. It was frightening the amount of stairs there were! Still, it was enjoyable. By the last half hour I was laughing my arse off. "HERE I AM!! HERE I AAAAMMM!!!!!" What a hoot. "You're not young!" Talk about LOL. Shame that Phillip Glass' score was ridiculously omnipresent. It was like the stairs. I almost can see them saying "No scene shall not include the score turned up to 11!" Anyway. I think I'm gonna scream "HERE I AM!!" everytime I enter a room now for the next few days. B.

While we were at the cinema we saw all these posters for Pan's Labyrinth!!!! Hannah and I were going to head up to Melbourne just to see it (before the oscars), but it's out as of tomorrow. All the posters had big signs attached reading "STARTS FEB 22" which is tomorrow! OMG. So, naturally, we're seeing it tomorrow. Can't wait. Agi was totally pumped to. She and her boyfriend were also going to go to Melbourne just to see it.

Anyway.

Then I came home and Blogger finally asked me to swap over to the new thing. Everytime I tried it told me I couldn't, but now it did. So... yay? I dunno. Am I gonna have to go through and add labels to every post? Oy...

IMDb for Best Actress in a Supporting Role

Check out today's IMDb poll (or just look at the screengrab below). It follows on the theme of Nat's entry about category fraud.


Let us forecast our minds to Oscar nomination morning and hearing the old dude announce the follow:

"Best performance by an actress in a lead role, the nominees are... Cate Blanchett for Babel"

LOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOL

Y'all did good + Miranda Priestly SEX SCANDAL

Ya did good folks. Ya did good! I'm not even American and I feel a bit giddy. Democracy does exist. FANCY THAT?!

So, I woke up from a nap about 15 minutes ago (gimme a break, I was majorly tired and naps are the greatest luxury ever) but in it I had a dream that Miranda Priestly had a mental breakdown and went stumbling through Melbourne and then hooked up with, of all people, Cate Blanchett in a supermarket before collapsing. Then I woke up in a mansion and randomly had a catfight with a bunch of people I didn't know before going downstairs to watch the Grammys - who knows why. Then New Order appeared and they started to play "Age of Consent" and then a lunatic started bashing his guitar everywhere and then I woke up. When I did wake up though I had Donna Summer's "This Time I Know It's For Real" stuck in my head so that must've showed up at some point. That, or those pesky Young Divas were there and I don't remember it.

I have the most screwed up dreams.