Pictures of Zaragoza City

CHECK OUT MY PHOTOS OF ZARAGOZA CITY IN MY PICASSA PHOTO ALBUM:

PICS OF BRUILGIRL

Wristcutters: a suicide fantasy

"WRISTCUTTERS: A LOVE STORY is the next great American cult movie. At least, it should be; I've been wrong about such things before. I thought BRICK would take off even more than it did, and maybe it still will in years to come, but perhaps I can be more objective about WRISTCUTTERS since I don't personally know anyone involved with it.

You just can't go wrong with teenage suicide, road trips, and Tom Waits". Source: www.Lytrules.com
"Donnie imagines himself a superhero: "What makes you think I'm not?" he teases Gretchen when she comments on his supernatural-sounding name. And in his English class he reads a composition about how he is destined to save "the children"... "because I am Donnie Darko." (Donnie definitely still identifies with kids, even as he tries to set himself apart from them, no matter how much he pines to be a grown up where hormones are concerned.) In the final part of the movie, Donnie the melodramatic, solipsistic teenager (not in a bad way -- he's just a teen) imagines a texbook teen-suicide fantasy in which he saves the world and everybody feels terrible, even though they don't even know of his heroic sacrifice on their behalf. The whole movie becomes a feature-film version of Elton John's quintessential 1970s teen-suicide anthem "I Think I'm Gonna Kill Myself," in which the protagonist relishes the idea of sticking around afterwards to see how his death affects others (and the moral flipside of John’s "Ticking," in which the hell-bent protagonist becomes a killer of others as well) -- a classic death-wish delusion of grandeur".
Source: Roberebert.suntimes.com
And "Wristcutters" is definitely something different, a dark comic fantasy about suicide victims who awake to find themselves in an afterlife that is far grungier and more depressing than the existence they departed. Fugit stars as twentysomething Ziya, who kills himself after breaking up with his girlfriend.
"It's pretty dark," Fugit said with a laugh," but it's not overwhelmingly dark."

"Wristcutters" is one of 16 films in the festival's dramatic competition and had its premiere on Monday in the Park City Racquet Club. "I hear people really liked it and responded well to it," Fugit said.

His co-workers have nothing but praise for Fugit. "Ziya is such a tricky part. He's the most important person in the movie," said Shea Whigham, who plays his constant companion Eugene, and who originally read for Fugit's role. "He's the one character you relate to and really like, but that's not an easy thing to do with this material.

"Patrick couldn't smile a lot, because his character isn't supposed to. So he had to act with his eyes."

Director Goran Dukic calls Fugit a natural. "It's unbelievable how talented and how centered Patrick is. He could have it all but chooses not to."Fugit also plays guitar in the band Mushman, fronted by his best friend, David Fetzer. The band's name refers to late actor Steve McQueen, who used it as an alias. "He would check into hotels under the name Harvey Mushman," Fugit said. "(McQueen) was pretty cool, and we couldn't think of anything better. So it stuck."

Given his musical aspirations, Fugit was thrilled to see one of his "Wristcutters" co-stars was Tom Waits. "Yeah, that was definitely a perk." Source: Deseretnews.com

PATRICK FUGIT VIDEO


Shannyn Sossamom (the offbeat beautiful Mikal in "Wristcutters") and
A VIDEO FROM WARPAINT, THE BAND WHICH SHANNYN SOSSAMOM PLAYS THE DRUMS IN:

No clues

October 15 - Arriving At The Ed Sullivan Theatre In NYC
At Wednesday's Rendition premiere, Reese Witherspoon and Jake Gyllenhaal offered no clues as to their current status: Friends? Lovers? Former either?
The two did not share eye contact on the red carpet and came together only briefly at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences theater to flank their director, Gavin Hood, for a quick photo before once again going their separate ways.

The two share no scenes in the political thriller, which opens Oct. 19. Witherspoon plays a pregnant Chicago woman who travels to Washington to investigate the disappearance of her Egyptian husband, who is being tortured in the Middle East under Gyllenhaal's supervision.

"It's interesting how our stories intersect even though we don't talk to each other in the film," said Witherspoon, who arrived in a teal Nina Ricci gown. "You're anxious to see what other people do with their side of the movie."Witherspoon's own children never got to meet Knight because "they were in school." The actress, whose divorce from Ryan Phillippe became final last Friday, is trying to convince her kids — daughter Ava, 8, and son Deacon, almost 4 — to dress up like a rock band for Halloween, "but they're not into that."

Because of the various locales, much of the cast did not even meet during the shoot, though they shared other connections. "This is increasingly the way it is with complicated interwoven plotlines," said Meryl Streep, whose ice-cold politician never crosses paths with Gyllenhaal. But Streep has her own personal memories of Jake as a boy. "He was a friend of my son (Henry) in grammar school and would come over to my house to play. I remember … his sister, Maggie, was having a '20s speakeasy party, and the boys were bartenders."

J.K. Simmons' character also shares no scenes with Gyllenhaal, but was nearly his editor (J. Jonah Jameson) when Gyllenhaal was lined up to take over for Tobey Maguire in Spider-Man 2. "Tobey is Spider-Man, hopefully forever more in Spider-Man 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8, but Jake would have been great," said Simmons, who has heard more Spidey films are in the works.

Gyllenhaal was sporting a beard for his new role in Brothers, playing Maguire's sibling. Both men dated Kirsten Dunst, but that topic, along with their Spider-Man connection, is off-limits.

As for not working with half his Rendition cast, Gyllenhaal admitted, "It's a little awkward not knowing them. I was pretty confident that the film would all come together when you're dealing with Meryl, Reese, Peter (Sarsgaard) and Alan Arkin."
Source: www.Usatoday.com

Some prom stills of "Rendition"

and two Jake's candids:

"I told you so"

Do you remember my recent depressing rant the other day? about an uncaring ruthless world which devours us slowly while we wink to our future friends? Well, I hate to be right, but one small proof of that: my account on Youtube has been suspended, I don't know what to say, so I wont's say anything, we live in a PC wonderful world anyway, and as my husband said to me "I told you, your videos were too good for Youtube".
Another gross day in paradise, dear weirdos.

Jake and Patrick with Jena

"IN THE SUN" VIDEO

"LEAVE IT ALONE" VIDEO

Weekend's reflections

Today I couldn't sleep the full night, a conversation in the bus was going on rewinding in my brain, like an impression on motion: this girl was gossiping and her friend, a teenage pink-haired student looked at her with a bored expression, the gossiping girl said that she wished one boy both seemed to know from college was gay, because "it would be cute he was gay", of course her girl friend smiled pretending she was on the joke, although probably she had stopped listening to her talkative friend. Today I went to the pharmacy and they didn't understand why some orders never arrive at time. I walked through a new lane they have asphalted and I felt happy for the first time of being weak in a dark brutal world. Then I came back home, and I drank a glass of danish beer, I think I needed it.

My crush on Patrick Fugit

I realized I had a crush on almost every partenaire whom Patrick Fugit shared a movie with: Kate Hudson, Zooey Deschanel, Mena Suvari, Jena Malone, Shannyn Sossamum, so I collected all of them and I made a video dedicated to Patrick, because in addition to having this baby doe-eyed face, he's a very good actor and musician.

At the "Rendition" premiere

Jake Gyllenhaal and Reese Witherspoon at the ‘Rendition’ Premiere, Thursday, 11 October 2007.
Source 1: JustJared.buzznet.com
Source 2: JustJared.buzznet.com

Fox Interview

Here you can wach and listen to a small interview about "Rendition" for Fox6 channel:
Source: www.fox6.com/mediacenter

Untitled Moon Project

"Jake Gyllenhaal will team with helmer Doug Liman for DreamWorks' "Untitled Moon Project."

Actioner revolves around a private expedition to the moon and the race for lunar colonization.

Screenplay was originally penned by Liman and John Hamburg. Author-screenwriter Mark Bowden ("Black Hawk Down") did a complete reconception of the story and will pen the screenplay.

The project marks the return of Alli Shearmur, former Paramount co-president of production, who ankled the studio earlier this year. She will produce alongside Simon Kinberg and Liman.

Liman and one-time Universal exec Shearmur developed a strong relationship back when Liman directed "The Bourne Identity" for the studio. Shearmur also worked with Gyllenhaal when she oversaw production on "Zodiac."

DreamWorks has targeted the project for the fast track.

Gyllenhaal will next shoot the Jim Sheridan-helmed "Brothers" opposite Tobey Maguire.

Liman, whose helming credits include "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" and "Swingers," directed the upcoming futuristic "Jumper," which 20th Century Fox will release early next year".
Source: Variety.com

Movie Review: "Disturbia"

"D.J. Caruso, the director of Disturbia and previously of The Salton Sea (2002), proves to us the importance of developing characters to make the viewers feel the discomfort of the world the characters have made for themselves. The story's screenplay is penned by Christopher Landon and Carl Ellsworth, screenwriter of Red Eye (2005). Ellsworth also wrote the remarkable "Halloween" episode of the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

The casting is solid as a rock, featuring Matt Craven, who plays Kale's father Daniel Bretch in a brief but warming initial scene, with echoes of a Spielberg-type father-son dyanamic. The sensitive protagonist Kale Bretch (Shia LaBeouf) is confined to move in a limited 100-foot circle around his home wearing an electronic monitoring device attached to his ankle after having an altercation with his Spanish teacher, whom Kale punched in the face.

"He's like a modem. He gets a constant signal from Mr. Bracelet that he sends through your phone line to the monitoring station downtown. So they know where you are, where you've been and what you're thinkin' 25/7," Detective Parker (Viola Davis) tells us.

Kale is deprived of his Internet connection and is frequently told off by his strict mom Julie (Carrie-Anne Moss), so the boy finds a new hobby, spying on the people around him by using huge binoculars and high-tech wireless equipment that includes a camcorder he's checking constantly behind his mother's back. When Kale spies a newcomer to the neighbourhood he thinks it's the ideal option to relieve the stress of his boredom.

This newcomer, Ashley Carlson (Sarah Roemer) is a gorgeous, blonde, long-legged girl who also has a controlling dysfunctional family, Kale soon notices, including a mother whose irritating tone is even worse than that of his own mother. Ronnie (Aaron Yoo) is the zany bro in this triangle of detached youngsters enslaved by their cell phones, portable monitors, tripods, walkie talkies, iPods, and the loud pop soundtracks beloved by the Generation Y.
Kale and Ashley share a notable lack of parental bonding which creates a point of immediate intimacy between them, since Kale discovers she needs her own bracelet, too: "The bright green bracelet is from The Place. The red one is from The Komodo Club, and yellow is from Razors." Shia LaBeouf and Sarah Roemer complement each other in these post-modern Hitchcockian dynamics, with LaBeouf assuming the role of the man obsessing over a statuesque and unpredictable woman.

Kale's hyperactive imagination as a result of being under arrest leads him to focus excessively on the lives of his closest neighbours, very particularly on the mysterious and apparently laid back Mr. Robert Turner (David Morse), watching his garage doors, and his black Mustang convertible. Every time Mr. Turner's garage opens up Kale's heart accelerates, as if he received negative energy from Turner shattering the peaceful scenario of suburbia.

Kale begins to spy on Ashley in a voyeuristic way that could annoy some female viewers, because by doing this, he is turning Ashley from a fleshed-out woman into a shallow sexual object who becomes more and more idealized in his view. The hormones raging in Kale makes this behavior somehow tolerable whenever Ashley appears, especially when she is dressed provocatively in a bikini.
But Ashley isn't going to conform to the role of the airhead hottie and instead she assumes control over their relationship, subtly and progressively, undermining Kale's self-confidence, despite her inability to differentiate if the neighbour who broke into her car was doing it in a "nice" way or if the apologies from Kale are "either the creepiest... or the sweetest thing" she's ever heard. Most of time she's a passive eyewitness to Kale's increasing anguish.

Hence, Disturbia isn't only a tale of the latent phsychopathia who lies beyond the white fences and green lawns, but also of the spectator who willingly participates in this process, confusing normalcy with deviancy, a perpetual vigilance that will ultimately carry us away from the safety we thought we had, trapped in our cozy environments.
The camera could stand in for our collective libidinous conscience in an era when virtual games are quickly gaining new players. No wonder Kale and Ashley base their relationship in playing each other, often hiding their insecurities. Comparing Disturbia to Hitchcock's Rear Window, we only see the voyeurism factor and the suspenseful floating atmosphere in common, but DJ Caruso avoids making a carbon copy of a typical Hitchcock battle between the sexes, as Kale and Ashley's characters are far from those of the victimized male protagonist and the gelid high society queen played by James Stewart and Grace Kelly.

The film builds to a thrilling conclusion after a long, suspenseful journey, one of the film's messages being that there's no reason to shrug carelessly and look the other way.

"Also, you look out the window all the time, like I do, only you're looking at the world, you know. Trying to figure it out. Trying to understand the world. Trying to figure out why it's not in order, like your books. I'm only looking at you". -Kate to Ashley. Published on 6th October in Blogcritics.org

Michelle Trachtenberg Video

Wyzard, the host of www.aroseasred.com liked my video montage of Michelle Trachtenberg and linked to it in his fansite of Michelle. Check it out!

Reese in "S.F.W."

"(The release of S.F.W. was postponed until 1995, some say because of thematic similarities to "Natural Born Killers". Whatever the real reason, the delay didn't help at the box office. The film grossed less than $100,000.)
[...] Ironically, the very same quality which made Spab a total loser in society makes him a hero in a hostage crisis. Just as he defied his teachers, parents, and employers and made himself a nobody without a future, he now defies the abductors, and makes himself a hero! Mimicking his nihilism becomes trendy. His catch-phrase of "So Fuckin' What?" is on everyone's lips as well as their t-shirts.

Imagine his surprise and confusion when the hostage crisis ends and he finds out that the people who used to ridicule him now hold him up as an icon because they admire the very same attitude they used to despise. Seeing this hypocrisy makes him have even less respect for people than he used to, but that in turn makes the people he despises love him even more! Attitude, man! He wants to escape from the people who want to apotheosize him, but he also needs to ward off the vultures and profiteers who want to help him cash in on his fifteen minutes of apotheosis". Source: www.scoopy.com

"I really think that Reese Witherspoon was great in the small bits we got to see her in, and it is too bad they did not focus more on that character". Source: www1.epinions.com

Let's watch a younger Reese Witherspoon in this failed but "bizarro" film "S.F.W." ("So Fucking What" - 1994) directed by Jefery Levery in a video montage I've made with scenes of the film: (and don't miss Tobey Maguire playing a slacker teenager).

Official Rendition Movie Video Clip

New affiliate: Joseph Gordon-Levitt

It's an honour for me to be an affiliate with the official fansite of Joseph Gordon-Levitt: Joseph Gordon-Levitt.org.
Some screencaps that I've taken from the deleted scenes of the "Brick" DVD extra-disc have been added to the "Brick" gallery, courtesy of Lee.

A test for Reese

"Witherspoon plays the wife of an American-Egyptian chemical engineer who disappears after boarding a flight from Cape Town. She gradually learns that her husband is suspected of being a terrorist, and has been “rendered” by the CIA to a North African country, evidently Morocco. Jake Gyllenhaal plays the CIA analyst charged with overseeing her husband’s interrogation, who becomes troubled by the morality of what he and the US government are doing.
[...] According to the most recent survey by the film-trade paper The Hollywood Reporter, Witherspoon, who is 31, is now America’s highest-paid actress, outstripping Julia Roberts and Angelina Jolie. She has been able to command a salary of $15m a movie for the past four years, since the twin successes of the first Legally Blonde film and the romantic comedy Sweet Home Alabama. Her status was cemented when she won a best-actress Oscar in March2006 for her spirited performance as June Carter Cash, singer and long-suffering wife of the country legend Johnny, in Walk the Line.

Today, on the stage, she seems distant and distracted. Of course, everyone in the room knows there have been tabloid rumours, in the past few weeks, that Witherspoon and Gyllenhaal, who have been discreetly placed some distance apart on the stage, have been seeing each other.Everyone also knows that she filed for divorce from her actor husband, Ryan Phillippe, at the end of last year.

Whatever I may be reading into her demeanour, Witherspoon certainly gives off almost nothing of the super-perky, relentlessly optimistic effervescence that she has imprinted on the public mind through her spot-on performances as the upwardly mobile Southern debutante Elle Woods in the Legally Blonde movies. That Southern-belle pedigree is no Hollywood fabrication: Witherspoon comes from a wealthy Tennessee family (her father is a surgeon) that is descended from one of the signatories of the American Declaration of Independence.
[...]One of the things I’m keen to explore with her is the fact that she has built her astonishingly successful career mainly by playing women, such as Elle Woods in Legally Blonde, who seem to have an absolute sense of their own destiny, a dead-on certainty about who they are and who they want to be. That seems to be very much who Witherspoon is herself, incredibly focused and goal-orientated, with a very Southern, and conservative, sense of the life she has always wanted – a life she quickly made for herself after she arrived in Hollywood, becoming wealthy beyond anyone’s dreams, married to a Hollywood dreamboat, with whom she has two adorable children.

In Rendition, on the other hand, she plays a woman who is having to deal with events that are out of her control. However determined she may be, there’s nothing she can do to persuade the US government, which won’t even acknowledge that it has kidnapped her husband, to let him go. I ask Witherspoon how she found it to play a character swimming helplessly in a world she couldn’t control. “It was difficult,” she admits. “It was really challenging playing that bewilderment and confusion and isolation. She doesn’t know what she is dealing with. She is so disorientated, and she also has the burden of being pregnant, which is limiting in itself, and the inherent vulnerability in that. It was hard, sad, alienating and isolating.”

Witherspoon acknowledges that she has always been incredibly driven, and has felt a deep need to prove herself to other people. Even now, after rising to the top of the pay charts, with an Oscar under her belt, she says she feels that she is “underestimated”. “I honestly don’t know where that comes from. As a child, I made great grades in school and had some friends – not a lot of friends, but a significant number – and, I don’t know, I’ve always felt this need to accomplish and push myself further. And I don’t feel like people really have any idea what I am capable of.” It’s a sad answer, but it makes me realise how hard it must have been for her, especially as a woman in Hollywood, to achieve what she has. She agrees. “I don’t ever rest on anyone’s ideas of what they’re going to do for me – I never have,” she says. “My mother impressed that on me at a very early age. If you want something done, do it yourself. I have operated under that sensibility for a very long time.” Of course, it wouldn’t be surprising if Witherspoon were depressed, as most people are when coping with divorce. I thought she had been brave to acknowledge, in a recent interview in an American magazine, that about a month after her marriage ended, she found herself sitting in her car in a car park, unable to get out. And, as I say goodbye, I can’t help looking back at a young woman who does seem trapped, like a beautiful, sad princess, in the tower of a magnificent dream castle she has built for herself. But perhaps I just caught her on a bad day". Source: Entertainment.timesonline.co.uk

Rendition's Q & A

"[...] "So, Reese and Jake, you didn't meet making the movie?"

Before either star can respond, their exasperated director, Gavin Hood, dramatically yells, "No!"

A master of comic timing during the entire hour, Gyllenhaal waits for the laughs to subside before adding the obvious, "Wow, that was rough."
Meanwhile, Witherspoon points out, "I've actually known Jake for years," but her voice is lost in the giggles.

And that was that on the subject.
As Witherspoon's first major film since her Oscar-winning performance in "Walk the Line" the actress admitted it was the story structure of "Rendition" that she found most intriguing.

"I think the challenge of doing an ensemble piece is that your story line is so short that every scene you are doing is sort of a pivotal moment in that character's journey," Witherspoon says. "So, everything was sort of heightened and very dramatic."

More daunting, though, was an in-your-face scene with the Laurence Olivier of American film, Meryl Streep.

"Definitely, the ride to work that day was nerve-racking," Witherspoon says. "But, she was wonderful. She's completely intimidating, completely professional, had a thousand ideas. She definitely makes the film, um, I dunno, what am I trying to say, Peter?"

"She makes the film better," Saarsgard deadpans as the crowd chuckles.

Exactly. And while Witherspoon was dealing with the specter of Streep, Gyllenhaal's role as a young CIA analyst trying to justify the torture of a man under his watch became increasingly hard to research. Most CIA agents he spoke to off the record would only give technical information and not the emotional background he needed for his character. So, in a way, the Oscar-nominated actor from "Brokeback Mountain" went the Cliffs Notes route -- he watched other movies on CIA agents.
"'The Spy Who Came in From the Cold,' which is a merging of the alcoholic and the spy," Gyllenhaal recalls. "And then also, 'The Good Shepherd,' actually. Which I think, just a little shout-out to Matt Damon, that's a pretty incredible performance. More about, the less he does then the more he does -- and that's the kind of performance that I look up to. So, I just tried to copy it."

And once again, the "serious" movie's press conference is filled with laughter at the brazen honesty of Gyllenhaal's comment. The whole day is recapped with Sarsgaard's sarcastic zinger to his co-star, "Nice."

"Rendition" opens nationwide Oct. 19".
Source: Movies.msn.com

"Rendition" press photoshoot

"Rendition" Press Conference Jake's photoshoot, courtesy of http://iheartjake.com