Summing it all up

These are some funny movie poster that summarize the career of some very iconic stars. They are very funny and for some of the actors, very true.

And the nominees are …

At 5:30 am, the Academy announced its nominees. The best surprise was that Dreamgirls was snubbed for Best Picture and received the lionshare of its nomination in the Best Original Song category. The film was not deserving of all its accolades and praise. Borat managed a nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay, rather than The Painted Veil. And Leonardo DiCapirio got a nod for Best Actor but instead of for The Departed, it was for the Blood Diamond. The nominations offered a few surprises but the majority were as expected. Let the games begin.

Best Picture

Babel
The Departed
Letters From Iwo Jima
Little Miss Sunshine
The Queen

Best Actor

Leonardo DiCaprio, Blood Diamond
Ryan Gosling, Half Nelson
Peter O’Toole, Venus
Will Smith, The Pursuit of Happyness
Forest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland

Best Actress

Penélope Cruz, Volver
Judi Dench, Notes on a Scandal
Helen Mirren, The Queen
Meryl Streep, The Devil Wears Prada
Kate Winslet, Little Children

Best Supporting Actor

Alan Arkin, Little Miss Sunshine
Jackie Earle Haley, Little Children
Djimon Hounsou, Blood Diamond
Eddie Murphy, Dreamgirls
Mark Wahlberg, The Departed

Best Supporting Actress

Adriana Barraza, Babel
Cate Blanchett, Notes on a Scandal
Abigail Breslin, Little Miss Sunshine
Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls
Rinko Kikuchi, Babel

Best Director

Clint Eastwood, Letters From Iwo Jima
Stephen Frears, The Queen
Alejandro González Iñárritu, Babel
Paul Greengrass, United 93
Martin Scorsese, The Departed

Best Adapted Screenplay

Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
Children of Men
The Departed
Little Children
Notes on a Scandal

Best Original Screenplay

Babel
Letters From Iwo Jima
Little Miss Sunshine
Pan’s Labyrinth
The Queen

Best Animated Film

Cars
Happy Feet
Monster House

Best Art Direction

Dreamgirls
The Good Shepherd
Pan’s Labyrinth
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest
The Prestige

Best Cinematography

The Black Dahlia
Children of Men
The Illusionist
Pan’s Labyrinth
The Prestige

Best Costume Design

Curse of the Golden Flower
The Devil Wears Prada
Dreamgirls
Marie Antoinette
The Queen

Best Documentary Feature

Deliver Us From Evil
An Inconvenient Truth
Iraq In Fragments
Jesus Camp
My Country, My Country

Best Documentary Short

The Blood of Yingzhou District
Recycled Life
Rehearsing a Dream
Two Hands

Best Film Editing

Babel
Blood Diamond
Children of Men
The Departed
United 93

Best Foreign Language Film

After the Wedding, Denmark
Days of Glory (Indigènes), Algeria
The Lives of Others, Germany
Pan’s Labyrinth, Mexico
Water, Canada

Best Makeup

Apocalypto
Click
Pan’s Labyrinth

Best Original Score

Babel
The Good German
Notes on a Scandal
Pan’s Labyrinth
The Queen

Best Original Song

”I Need to Wake Up,” from An Inconvenient Truth
”Listen,” from Dreamgirls
”Love You I Do,” from Dreamgirls
”Our Town,” from Cars
”Patience,” from Dreamgirls

Best Short, Animated

The Danish Poet
Lifted
The Little Matchgirl
Maestro
No Time for Nuts

Best Short, Live Action

Binta and the Great Idea (Binta Y La Gran Idea)
Eramos Pocos (One Too Many)
Helmer & Son
The Saviour
West Bank Story

Best Sound Editing

Apocalypto
Blood Diamond
Flags of Our Fathers
Letters From Iwo Jima
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest

Best Sound Mixing

Apocalypto
Blood Diamond
Dreamgirls
Flags of Our Fathers
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest

Best Visual Effects

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest
Poseidon
Superman Returns

Veiled passion

So often we see stories that focus on love at first sight, unrequited love or forbidden love. Very few books — and especially films — deal with the kind of love that was very common in previous eras: The love that evolved, that grew and blossomed, sometimes long after a couple were officially wed.
In the days of arranged marriages, oftentimes a couple barely knew one another before they walked down the aisle. That unfamiliarity was certainly the case in ”The Painted Veil,” the new and truly remarkable film based on the Somerset Maugham novel. In this instance the ”evolved” love comes at great expense, enormous pain and with an unusual twist.
Naomi Watts again tackles a period role, proving that she is indeed one of the few actresses of her generation who can easily assume the mantle of those graceful screen queens of the 1930s. There is something almost mystical about Watts’ performance in this film — capturing the true essence of a 1920s woman who, though somewhat rebellious, still hints at the manners of the Edwardian era her character has recently exited.
Watts plays Kitty, a London socialite who impulsively marries the attractive, but reserved Walter Fane (Edward Norton), a fellow who instantly decides the beautiful Kitty is the love of his life, even if she barely knows his name. For Kitty, their sudden marriage is all about escaping the stifling environment of her mother’s household — a move more about dysfunctional family politics than anything remotely resembling passion or love for her intended.
Walter is a doctor and a respected scientist, working as a bacteriologist in Shanghai — half a world away.
It is only after the newlyweds arrive in China that things begin to go awry. Kitty quickly realizes she has traveled to the far side of the globe with a man she does not love, thrust into a colonial social order she finds tedious and totally boring. Suddenly, the impressionable and very beautiful Kitty is swept off her feet by the suave British vice consul, played with appropriate smooth smarminess by Liev Schreiber.
Their affair is discovered by Walter, who proves to be far more impassioned in his understated emotions than Kitty would have ever realized. He presents her with a simple proposition: An immediate divorce or the ”opportunity” to join him on a journey to the interior of China, where he plans to do battle with a virulent outbreak of cholera in a remote province. Given that a divorce on the grounds of adultery in the 1920s would have turned Kitty into a social pariah, she has no choice but to follow Walter to his hell hole.
Thus begins the most fascinating and most beautifully structured part of director John Curran’s spectacular film. Though terrific from start to finish, it is in this second two-thirds of ”The Painted Veil” where Norton and Watts truly shine — delivering Oscar-worthy performances as two angry people trapped by their circumstances. Kitty tries so hard to seek Walter’sforgiveness — something his anger, wounded pride and unrelenting silent fury won’t allow him to address for quite a long time.

Curran has crafted a film that accomplishes so much. It not only draws us into this personal drama between his two principal actors, but also sets it all against a vibrant background of an ancient civilization struggling to become modern. Along with the cholera epidemic, we are witness to the winds of political change in China in the years before World War II and the rise of communist rule. The film is strongly bolstered by a terrific supporting cast — especially Toby Jones as a wayward, but engaging British colonial official, and veteran British actress Diana Rigg as the mother superior of the local orphanage/work house. Virtually unrecognizable in her habit and without makeup, Rigg gives one of the best supporting performances seen on film this year.
In the final analysis, Kitty and Walter do find a way to bridge a seemingly unbreachable chasm — but in a way and with ultimate consequences that cannot be revealed here.
This is easily one of the finest films of the year.

A retrospective (2000-2005)

I’m a huge movie geek. I love good films. I love to discuss film. And since 2000 I have kept my top 10 films for each year. I also acknowledge what in my mind was some of each year’s highlights from the best performances to the worst flicks. Since I haven’t really seen many new films lately (I missed Alpha Dogs, The Hitcher, Stomp the Yard and whatever else has come out since the end of 2006. Here is a retrospective of the best of the previous five years.

2000
1. Almost Famous
2. Requiem for a Dream
3. You Can Count on Me
4. Chicken Run
5. Traffic
6. Shadow of a Vampire
7. Chuck & Buck
8. Cast Away
9. Erin Brockovich
10. Best in Show

2001
1. Mulholland Dr.
2. In the Bedroom
3. Donnie Darko
4. Shrek
5. Memento
6. Amelie
7. Snatch
8. Gosford Park
9. Ghost World
10. Amorres Perros

2002
1. The Kids Stay in the Picture
2. Bloody Sunday
3. Adaptation
4. The Pianist
5. Chicago
6. The Good Girl
7. Lovely & Amazing
8. Bowling for Columbine
9. Talk to Her
10. Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

2003
1. 21 Grams
2. Raising Victor Vargas
3. City of God
4. Shattered Glass
5. Thirteen
6. American Splendor
7. In America
8. Dirty Pretty Things
9. Finding Nemo
10. The Fog of War

2004
1. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
2. Before Sunset
3. Control Room
4. Garden State
5. The Sea Inside
6. Goodbye, Lenin
7. Mean Creek
8. Kinsey
9. We Don’t Live Here Anymore
10. The Woodsman

2005
1. The Squid and the Whale
2. Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room
3. Downfall
4. Match Point
5. King Kong
6. The Beat That My Heart Skipped
7. Good Night, and Good Luck
8. The Constant Gardener
9. Capote
10. My Summer of Love