La Link en Rose

I'm feeling uninspired right now, so here are some links to occupy your time.

Indiewire looks at this year's Foreign Language Film Oscar race. There's not much there that we don't already know, but you should read it for the offensive, insulting and downright pathetic grovelling of La Vie en Rose producer Alain Goldman:

"It's so bizarre," says "La Vie en rose" producer Alain Goldman. "Obviously, they did not think let's get the one that has the most chance to win, because then they would have picked 'La Vie en rose.' It was such a good contender to win this year, and they knew that, so I would really like to understand why," he wonders. "What was their goal?"

He goes on further to discuss how Persepolis should be religated to it's own Animated Feature category and leave Foreign Language Film to the hystrionic time-shifting weird ritilin-deficient musical biopics.

Nat at Film Experience has a (surprisingly) long list of GLBT directors and actors working in today's film and television business. It's not exactly the number of gay performers, but more that so many of them seem stuck in the indie/gay ghetto. That's a shame.

On a similar not SameSame has a list of the 25 most influential Gay and Lesbian Australians. On the list is Neil Armfield who has worked in stage and film, including last year's Heath Ledger-Abbie Cornish drug drama Candy. There's Darren Hayes whose album This Delicate Thing We Made was all kinds of excellent, and iOTA who portrayed Hedwig in this year's production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch.

Awards Daily has some stuff on Control, the Ian Curtis biopic that is a) out soon, b) better than La Vie en Rose and c) actually quite good period. I saw Control at MIFF and it went on to win the Audience Awards or somesuch. I still can't help but feel in the back of my Oscar-guessing mind that Samantha Morton is gonna make a play for Best Supporting Actress. She doesn't get much to do but what she does is very noticable. She got nominated for lead for In America (as implausable as that sounded then and now) so all she needs is some buzz and some plaudits before making a move.

The new Golden Compass poster at My New Plaid Pants is much much better than that awful crap they gave us earlier. And Movie Marketing Madness has the new I Am Legend poster. It too is better than the first. So, huzzah's all 'round.

Dear Go Fug Yourself, I think I can speak for the 18.5 million Australians who don't watch McLeod's Daughters that truck stops and psychics named "Mystic Miranda" do not make a good show.

Lastly, TimesOnline is reporting that Al Gore is the favourite to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Oy...

Four Movies in One Day

(I'm listening to Crowded House's "Four Seasons in One Day", which is bizarre symmetry, non?)

So, between 9pm on Tuesday night and 9pm on Wednesday night I saw four movies in the cinema. Isn't that crazy? I saw Inland Empire at 9pm Tuesday as part of MIFF, then on Wednesday I saw Black Snake Moan, La Vie en Rose (because I was bored in the city) and then Syndromes and a Century, also as part of MIFF. I discussed Syndromes and a Century in my MIFF Experience entry (I vaguely alluded to my thoughts on Inland Empire but I'm not ready to write anything substantial about it. It's just too much of a mindfuck). So I thought I'd briefly discuss the other two movies. Fun Fun Fun.

Black Snake Moan is an incredibly strange film, but not as incredibly strange as I had anticipated. In fact, it was downright tame compared to what I was expecting. What I wasn't expecting was actually charm(!) and sweetness(!) to go alongside all the nymphomania, blues music and scenes of Christina Ricci showing off her tits (shock! celebrity nudity - have the stars gone mad!?!) No, I really liked this. I liked it more than Craig Brewer's last film Hustle & Flow. Brewer, I've decided, must be really good with actors. He got great performances out of people like Terrence Howard (of whom I am most definitely not a fan) and Taryn Manning in H&F, and now he's gotten Christina Ricci back into the groove, and for that I will be eternally grateful.

I adored the music, particularly Samuel L Jackson's moments (I know he played all the guitar, but was that him singing? Sure did sound like him). The look of the film was great and the absurdity (chained to a radiator) was well balanced. Overall, I just really got into the groove of Black Snake Moan - although I can guarantee it's not for everyone. B+

With La Vie en Rose on the other hand is complete and utter shit. Really. I can't believe the makers of this movie thought this was the best way to represent Edith Piaf's life. I actually found it quite insulting. Now Edith's a baby! Now she's old! Now she's a child! Now she's popular! Now everyone hates her! Now everyone loves her! Now she's married! Now she's a child! Now she's dying! Now she's dying again! Now she's never been married! Now she's got a baby! Now she's old! Now she's not! PICK SOMETHING AND STICK WITH IT!

And if the constant ridiculous shifts in time weren't bad enough, we have to put up with Marion Cotillard's weird performance. I'm sure Piaf wasn't the most... well, normal of characters, but was she this bizarre? Cotillard seems to always be pulling silly faces or slouching around or sticking her teeth out and contorting her body. Strange.

I liked the parts that were set in New York City, the interview at the beach and the final performance of "Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien" is amazing, but other than that the movie is awful. I just have no idea what anybody was thinking or doing any of the time. It's a perplexing movie because I can't imagine why they though (of all people) Edith Piaf was the one to give this off biopic to. I guess they thought that her life was just too cliche that they had to mix it up, but in the mean time they royally screwed it up.

I briefly discussed the movie with a nice old lady who was seated down from me. She was confused about Gerard Depardiue's character, which was at the time that everyone suddenly hated Piaf and then in the next scene they all love her again? I was mightily confused as well. The old lady commented "It sure was a lifetime and a half wasn't it?" I nodded dutifully. It sure was! D+

Glenn Sez: Kylie, Idol Singers, La Vie En Rose

Hi y'all! Glenn here. I got some shit to say so sit down and listen... or, casually glance over it?

Kylieomg! Everyone who has their toes wading in the pool of pop knows that the worst-kept secret for many many years is that Kylie Minogue is greedy. And I don't mean that in the dirty money grubbing way, no. I mean that Kylie is sort of notorious for recording way too many tracks for albums. Way too many that she (and us, natch) could ever hope to put onto an album plus singles and b-sides. Word is that Minogue, for her comeback album with the working title of Kylie X (which I hope they keep. It's fabulously retro and futuristic), has recorded something like 70 tracks... and rejected them all. Of course, some of the tracks are (suspiciously, if you believe the rumours) leaking out of Kylie HQ and onto the net. I can confirm that "In My Arms" is pop brilliance and if this is what she's recording, listening to and going "Hmmm, no" about then Kylie X is going to be THE GREATEST ALBUM OF ALL TIME!!! I keed you not, if "In My Arms" were the first track to be released people would be shoutin', hootin' and hollerin' claiming it as nothing but amazing. "Stars" is also quite addictively amazing with a slightly more guitar-lead chorus. "Fall For You" and "Lose Control" are quite good too and would make perfectly adaquate album tracks.

Alas, they will not be on the album. They may not even be b-sides (and her b-sides can be quite good sometimes, hello "Made of Glass"). Man, I don't think rejected material has ever made me so jazzed about an upcoming project. Of course, the sneaky leaking of this material means nobody else can record it and release it (or, most likely not) and so those song writers who wrote them aren't gonna make a pittance. Oh well. If you can search these tracks out on the net (the place where music matters is always a good place to start I guess) then do so. They're better than Madonna's "Hey You"!

Likeomgdeangeyeromg!!!! Did you, like, totally watch Australian Idol Last year? Because, like, omigod, right? Dean Geyer is sooooo hot omigod. Like, I totally had to listen to his album, Rush for work and, oh. my. god. Guess what! Guess what! GUESS WHAT!! You'll never guess! Omigod.

...it's not that good. BUT, and this is entirely worthy of going into fits of "omigod!"s. He has a song called "She Comes in Waves", with the following chorus:

She comes in waves/
And then slips away/
And I wish she'd stay/
But you can't always get what you want/
And she comes in waves/
Here she comes.

...omigod, right?!

I must say though, I have mentioned many times before about my dislike for celebrity men to be all waxed and preened (or, obviously so I should say) so I commend Geyer for embracing his chest hair inside the album sleeve (open shirt, gents/ladies. but if you want the rest you can lookie over here or modfab did a collage last year). I didn't expect that from him. I know it's strange that I'm even discussing this, but his album is so incredible same-same throughout it's 12 tracks that pretty boy ogling was something to pass the time. Still, though, could the album cover be more bland?

Speaking of Australian Idol contestants, it came to my attention (and to my ears attention, unfortunately) that first season contestant and failed chart act Cosima DeVito is releasing a new single. It's titled "Keep It Natural" and it's quite ridiculous. When I saw the CD sitting on the desk at work me and The Boss joked about her not getting the message the first time around, naturally though, I had to take it so I could pay her out and get paid for it whereas here I just get the smug satisfaction of criticising it purely for the fun of it.

Oh! But it was totally worth is, actually, because now I've gotten the chance to here Cosima's desperate (and way too late) try at becoming some sort of gay icon. The dance remixes are utterly shite. So if they play this in the clubs and you see people dancing to it you know they have shite taste in music and you need to find someone else to pash.

Edith Piaf! Is she going to have the biopic-fueled chart resurgance that greeted the likes of Ray Charles and Johnny Cash in recent years? Perhaps. Perhaps not. But I must say I'm not exactly a fan of french music (outside of film scores I guess) but I figured I should take the La Vie En Rose soundtrack and educate myself before the film's release (which is?)

Things I can assume after listening to the soundtrack:

1. Marion Cotillard mimes the songs in the film because all the tracks are credited to Piaf. It's more Ray than Walk the Line on that account.

2. There is up to 11 songs in the movie. Out of the 27 tracks on the soundtrack, 11 are Piaf songs, 9 are score tracks (which are nice, but a bit samish) and 7 "additional" tracks, for some reason. Are these original songs? The album sleeve states they're just 2007 tracks (whereas the others said "1950/2007"), but there is singing on them? So... original songs?

3. Marion Cotillard is probably going to be able to pull a lot of cutesy faces.

4. Marion Cotillard is probably going to be the "exotic" choice in this Oscar season if early word is correct. Is Julie Christie going to be the Helen Mirren? Oh, it's too early for that...

...my in depth analysis is totally scientific doncha know.