WEIRDLAND

Monday, February 21, 2011

Humphrey Bogart and the Oscar Myth

Humphrey Bogart had written an article in "Cosmopolitan" declaring 'It's about time someone stuck a pin in the Oscar Myth and let out all that hot air contained in the Academy Awards'. As he saw it, the only way performances could be weighed against one another was to have all actors play the same part -Hamlet- and for all actresses to play, for example, Mildred Pierce. Lauren Bacall squeezed her husband's hand as the winner was announced: Humphrey Bogart. 'A scream went up from the audience', Lauren remembered, 'I leapt into the air'. Humphrey kissed her, went up onstage, and proceeded to go against everything he had grumbled about to friends and in print, acknowledging the help and generosity of John Huston, Katharine Hepburn, and Sam Spliegel.

Humphrey Bogart (1899 - 1957)

"But it was “Casablanca” (1942) that made Bogart the American film actor of his time. It has been written about extensively, including Aljean Harmetz’s definitive “Round Up the Usual Suspects”, so it suffices to say here that Kanfer provides a satisfying summary of its making and importance in film history. He provides similar summaries for other films, most notably “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre” (1948), “The African Queen” (1951) and “The Caine Mutiny” (1954).
The value of this book, then, lies in Kanfer’s insights into and analysis of the way that Bogart worked and how it made him “the most perversely attractive actor in the history of cinema.” Source: www.suntimes.com

Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall with more Hollywood personalities boarding an airplane to Washington, on 28 October 1947

Two page partly printed DS, Warner Brothers' contractual letter signed clearly by Humphrey Bogart relating to a movie speculatively entitled 'Project 7' by Martin Rackin in which Bogart would play the role of Martin Ferguson, the movie would be directed by renowned New York stage director Bretaigne Windust.
The finished movie was called 'The Enforcer' (Murder Inc) and was to be Bogart's last for Warner Brothers in 1951

“Now we have fine leading men such as George Clooney and Brad Pitt but there’s something generic about them, no wounds, no despising death in the manner of Bogie in Casablanca” says Henry Allen in The Wall Street Journal. We’ve seen stars rise up in the 50 years since, but “the post-Bogart guys have so little personal identity that stage impressionists can’t even imitate them.” Even if Bogart fell prey to some vices in his later years, “his best side still drives American psyches.”

Bogart set the tone for a type of character, and actor, we often see today. “He is every bit as diffident and as gruff as any 2010 antihero, and yet his prickly dignity marks him as a timeless American icon.” Source: www.mediaite.com

Humphrey Bogart receives his "Best Actor of 1951" award from actress Greer Garson on stage of the Pantages Theater on 23rd March 1952

"He was devilish if he thought you were a phony," his friend and costar Katharine Hepburn wrote. "Like a cat with a mouse, he'd never let you off."
Still, his characters had about them an essential decency and a kind of reluctant kindness that may have seemed so authentic because it reflected the man, as well as the actor". Source: www.latimes.com

Bogart met John Huston in the legendary Warner’s “green room” named for its apple green walls, Bogart was still a stock actor and the two struck up a conversation. "The directing of a picture involves coming out of your individual loneliness and taking a controlling part in putting together a small world. A picture is made. You put a frame around it and move on. And one day you die. That is all there is to it." -John Huston

Ryan Reynolds, Jake Gyllenhaal, Anne Hathaway and James Franco in Vanity Fair (March 2011)

Inside Portraits From Vanity Fair's Stunning Hollywood Issue: "A few weeks ago we saw the star-studded cover of Vanity Fair’s 2011 Hollywood Issue, which featured Anne Hathaway, Jake Gyllenhaal, James Franco and Mila Kunis among others. Now, as we get closer and closer to the Oscars, it’s come to take a look at the Hollywood portfolio inside the magazine!" Source: www.popsugar.com.au

David Fincher, Aaron Sorkin and Jesse Eisenberg
Annette Bening
Natalie Portman
Helena Bonham Carter

"At this moment of awards-giving and back-patting, however, we can all agree to love movies again, for a little while, because we're living within a mirage that exists for only about six or eight weeks around the end of each year. Right now, we can argue that any system that allows David Fincher to plumb the invention of Facebook and the Coen brothers to visit the old West, that lets us spend the holidays gorging on new work by Darren Aronofsky and David O. Russell, has got to mean that American filmmaking is in reasonably good health. Amy Adams and Mark Wahlberg, co-stars in "The Fighter" (2010) directed by David O. Russell

But the truth is that we'll be back to summer—which seems to come sooner every year—in a heartbeat. And it's hard to hold out much hope when you hear the words that one studio executive, who could have been speaking for all her kin, is ready to chisel onto Hollywood's tombstone: "We don't tell stories anymore." Source: www.gq.com

Jane Greer and Robert Mitchum in "Out of the past" video


A video featuring stills of Jane Greer and scenes of her with Robert Mitchum and Kirk Douglas in "Out of the past"

Song Sweet Jane by Lou Reed

Jeff Bailey (Robert Mitchum) and femme fatale Kathie Moffat (Jane Greer): "I never saw her in the daytime. We seemed to live by night. What was left of the day went away like a pack of cigarettes you smoked. I didn't know where she lived. I never followed her. All I ever had to go on was a place and time to see her again. I don't know what we were waiting for. Maybe we thought the world would end".

Kathie Moffat: I don't want to die.
Jeff Bailey: Neither do I, Baby, but if I have to, I'm going to die last.
Robert Mitchum and Jane Greer in Out of the Past (1947)

Kathie Moffat: Did you miss me?
Jeff Bailey: No more than I would my eyes.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Reese Witherspoon to present at Oscars 2011

US Weekly scan: He didn't win Best Actor but Jake Gyllenhaal took up the top prize for flirting the night of the January 16 Golden Globe Awards. "He was talking to so many girls!" The star who brought ex Jenny Lewis to the show (he dated the singer in 2001) also chatted up Mila Kunis, 27, that night.
Says the source "Jake seemed interested, but he's not her type".

Reese Witherspoon at the 78th Annual Academy Awards, March 2006

"Academy Award®-winning actress Reese Witherspoon will be a presenter at the 83rd Academy Awards ceremony, telecast producers Bruce Cohen and Don Mischer announced today.
In 2005 Witherspoon received her first Oscar® nomination and took home the award for her leading performance as June Carter in “Walk the Line.” She’ll be seen next in “Water for Elephants” and “This Means War.”Reese Witherspoon and Jake Gyllenhaal at 'Rendition' - Rome Film Festival Photocall, October 21, 2007

Her other film credits include “Monsters vs Aliens”, “Four Christmases”, “Penelope”, “Rendition”, “Sweet Home Alabama” and the “Legally Blonde” films". Source: www.oscars.org

OSCARS 2011 | Updated List of Academy Award Presenters: The 83rd Academy Awards - produced by Bruce Cohen and Don Mischer - will be hosted by James Franco and Anne Hathaway.
So far, the list is far from complete, with last year’s quartet of acting winners - Jeff Bridges, Sandra Bullock, Mo’Nique, and Christoph Waltz - Oscars traditionally have the previous year’s winners announce the corresponding category of the opposite sex. “Within the body of the show, we are not doing any film montage sequences,” Cohen tells The Hollywood Reporter in an interview. Gone too will be the relatively new tradition, established just two years ago, of using five presenters to offer tribute testimonials about each of the best actor and actress nominees.
The awards will be presented on Sunday, February 27, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center, and televised live by the ABC Television Network beginning at 5 p.m. PT/ 8 p.m. ET. The Oscar presentation also will be televised live in more than 200 countries worldwide. Some of the announced presenters are listed below:

Annette Bening
Cate Blanchett
Robert Downey Jr.
Tom Hanks
Nicole Kidman
Hugh Jackman
Jude Law
Reese Witherspoon
Scarlett Johansson
Russell Brand
Hilary Swank
Josh Brolin
Robert Downey Jr.
Jeff Bridges
Sandra Bullock
Halle Berry
Marisa Tomei

Grace Kelly and William Holden attending the 27th Annual Academy Awards in 1954

Faye Dunaway (photographed by Terry O’Neill) won in 1977 an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role in "Network" (1976)

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Scans of Jake Gyllenhaal in Tu Style (Italy) and Cinemania (Spain)

Scans of Jake Gyllenhaal in Tu Style (Italy)

Scans of Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway in "Love and other drugs" Cinemania (Spain)

Hesher Trailer video - Natalie Portman plays object of fantasies

"It’s been a difficult road for Spencer Susser‘s “Hesher.” The film, which stars Natalie Portman, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Rainn Wilson, seemed custom built to be an indie hit. The film debuted at last year’s Sundance Film Festival to mixed reviews, was bought up days later by Newmarket Films, and has languished for over a year without hitting theaters because of what appears to be internal politics. Newmarket chief Chris Ball left the company to form his own shingle, and at one point there were plans for the release to be a joint venture between Newmarket and Ball’s Wrekin Hill Entertainment. This deal would never come to pass, but Wrekin Hill has now independently acquired the rights to the drama and will release the film later this year.A trailer for “Hesher” has now landed, giving us our first real glimpse at the film and we have to say, we’re definitely intrigued. The film centers on a teenager (newcomer Devin Brochu) and his father (Wilson) who are forced to move in with the boy’s grandmother (Piper Laurie) after the sudden and tragic death of their mother/wife.
Natalie Portman and Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Nicole and Hesher in "Hesher" (2010)

A young man with a troubled past named Hesher (Gordon-Levitt) assumes the role as both mentor and tormentor, while a young grocery clerk (Portman) steps in to protect the teenager, and becomes the object of his fantasies". Source: blogs.indiewire.com

Natalie Portman stars as Nicole in Newmarket Films' Hesher (2011)


Hesher Trailer featuring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Natalie Portman, Rainn Wilson, Piper Laurie, John Carroll Lynch, etc.