Hey everyone! (If there is any still left out there...) This is an announcement that Popcorn and Cigarettes is coming out of semi-retirement in order to participate in StinkyLulu's Supporting Actress Blog-a-thon. If you have a blog of your own (it doesn't matter what the usual subject of your blog is) you can find out all of the details on how to submit your own entry right here!
So if you are as excited as I am, come back to the blog tomorrow and read who I picked for my Supporting Actress of 2010!
You can also find my past entries for 2009 (here) and 2008 (here). Whoever my choice is tomorrow, she will definitely be in good company.
On a sidenote, I thought that this was an interesting tidbit, both Rinko Kikuchi and Julianne Moore, my two choices for previous Supporting Actress Blog-a-thons were both muses to Tom Ford and both walked the catwalk in his latest women's wear collection. The video is below if you are interested!
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Supporting Actress Blog-a-thon 2010!
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Julianne Moore in A Single Man
Julianne Moore's Charley from Tom Ford's A Single Man is my choice for StinkyLulu's annual Supporting Actress Blog-a-thon. Now I realize that the goal is to paint a portrait of the supporting actresses of 2009 that is both broad and diverse, but I couldn't help myself and I ended up choosing a rather popular choice. I contemplated many actresses who could have taken this spot, but I found myself always coming back to this performance as my favourite supporting actress of the past year.
One of the reasons I picked Julianne's performance is because her character Charley has no idea what movie she is in. Now, I realize that sounds like a terrible reason to chose a supporting actress but hear me out. Normally, I would think that a performance that plays on another level than any of the other characters would be terrible and totally detrimental to a film. However, this is a special circumstance because not only is Charley in the hands of Julianne Moore, but also because Charley also doesn't fit in with the world around her. She is loud, boisterous, and absolutely charming. As far as Charley is concerned, the world revolves around HER.
A Single Man (if you couldn't already figure it out by the title) is a story centered around Colin Firth's character George, and Charley is George's best friend. Charley does get some minor screen time during the first half of the film; her reaction to George sobbing at her door, or a phone call to George asking him to bring gin to her dinner party, but it is during the second half of the film (more specifically the aforementioned dinner party scene) that Charley really gets her chance to shine.
As the scene unfolds in front of you, it is obvious that these two friends have been comforting each other for a long time. George because of his lover's death, and Charley because of her failed marriage. What separates this party from all of the others these two must have shared over the many years they have known each other, is that Charley reveals how lonely and desperate she truly is, she reveals a hidden part of herself to George. Charley is not one to be dismissed easily, being the center of attention is where she is the most comfortable. However, the years of being ignored by both her ex-husband and her children, have created a deep desire to be loved and noticed. When George does not reciprocate the feelings that Charley lays down, Charley lets loose.
This whole dinner sequence is Moore's to chew, and she does just that. Between the laughs, the smoke, the booze, and the hair, Moore creates a window into the life of Charley in just mere moments. It is amazing that Moore can tap into this woman's loneliness and sadness, but also into her magnetic charisma and natural good humor. It is during these moments that I forgot that the film was about George, because when Moore was onscreen it was ALL about Charley (and to be honest I wouldn't have it any other way).
I don't want to spoil any more of the film than I have to, so that's all I am going to say about this performance. Hopefully reading this entry gives some incentive to those of you reading this post who have yet to watch A Single Man, to get out there and support this film.
-Cigarettes
[This post is part of the Supporting Actress Class of 2009 blog-a-thon happening over at StinkyLulu. You should head on over there if you haven't already and check out more of the entries from all the other bloggers.]
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Queen of Hearts
Julianne Moore is the queen of tears. She is also the queen on choosing the wrong movie as a vehicle for herself (The Forgotten).
However, her greatness outweighs any shadows that may be cast over her presence, and for that I salute her. Happy 48th Birthday Julianne Moore!
P.S. I personally do not believe this woman is a day over 40.
-Cigarettes
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
The Blind Hating on Blindness
(Just a note before reading this post, I have tried to remove as many of the spoilers as possible from this post. If you want to read them, just highlight the words in between the brackets.)
The National Federation of the Blind decided to go out of their way to protest Fernando Meirelles' new film Blindness, opening on October 3rd. The press release was sent out yesterday and it can be found here. Originally I was not going to write a post about this news until I actually read the press release that was sent out.
In their defense, Cinematical informs me that seven staff members of the National Federation of the Blind have actually seen the film, three of them being sighted and four of them being blind. It's a good thing that they actually watched the film before they started to blast it for portraying the blind as "incompetent, filthy, vicious, and depraved." I saw this film at the Toronto International Film Festival, and now I am just wondering if we all saw the same film.
Their major argument is that the film portrays the blind in a disgusting manner that will further harm the image of blind people in the real world. First of all let me just say that I personally do not believe it matters if you are blind or not, and that people are defined by who they are, what actions they take, what they think and not by physical traits, disability or otherwise.
This is a film about an epidemic of blindness that sweeps the whole world. It is not really about blind people at all, but rather about people who can see and then lose their sight after coming into contact from others who have contracted the disease. This is important because many choices of the characters and many of the circumstances are based on this fact, not that they are blind but because they have become blind so suddenly and without warning.
[SPOILERS] In the film that I recall seeing, some of the "deplorable" acts in the film occur while the population is still sighted. At the beginning of the film Don McKeller plays a character only known as "Thief". He steals the car of a man who has just gone blind, and while he can still see. Of course, this event doesn't really compare to the terrible things that happen once the characters are placed inside an abandoned asylum, but I do believe it does go to show that everyone has the capability to do evil or vicious things, sighted or not. Even once inside the asylum there are vicious acts that occur. There are some scenes that are sure to make some audience members walk out in disgust. However, even with these scenes on cannot say that there are good or evil characters. The blindness that affects the population acts as an equalizer between all people. Societal structure falls apart once we all become the same. Their is lawlessness and rampant abuse of human rights. Why? Because we no longer have to follow those rules now that there is no one left to enforce them. Some of the people who were hit with the disease at the beginning of the film slowly begin to show their true natures once they realize that there is no order inside the asylum. [/SPOILERS]
While continuing their argument, the N.F.B. states, "Only one woman, played in the film by Julianne Moore, remains able to see, feigning blindness to remain with her husband. She is portrayed as physically, mentally, and morally superior to the others because she still has her sight." While it is true that she might be superior to some of the other characters in these ways, but this would have also have been true before the epidemic of blindness had hit anyone. This is another reason why I feel that this argument is a little foolish. The film never portrays anyone as a saint, everyone does horrible things, some much worse than others.
[SPOILERS] There is a sequence in which the women of the asylum are forced to have sex with the men of Ward Three in exchange for food. If they do not give up their bodies the people in their wards will starve. While the women of Ward One are having sex with the men of Ward Three, one of then men kills one of the women. In one of the most moving and beautiful scenes in the film, the rest of the women of Ward One carry the body of the dead woman back, clean her, and wrap her. Later, Julianne Moore's character murders a man in Ward Three with a pair of scissors and arguably causes the death of many more people, does that put her morally above others in the film? This is why I say the argument of the N.F.B. is a little foolish. There is no one side to this story, no good guy and no bad guy. [/SPOILERS]
In closing I would just like to reiterate that this film is about society as it falls apart due to an epidemic of blindness that sweeps through the world. It is not an attack on the blind but an exploration of the capabilities of human beings when placed under extreme circumstances. I highly doubt such intelligent people and artists would make a film that would only act to metaphorically lambast the blind.
-Cigarettes
[Source Cinematical]
