Luca's Body
Tuesday, January 29, 2013 at 11:45AM 
JA from MNPP here. You know it's an excellent bit of movie news when you can fill in the BLANK in the sentence "I'd been desperately waiting to hear what BLANK was going to do next" with at least five different names involved in said bit of movie news. So... this is an excellent piece of movie news. Variety is reporting that the director of the Tilda-fetish-object I Am Love Luca Guadagnino (first name) is turning Don Delillo's book (second name) The Body Artist into a movie that will star Isabelle Huppert (third name), Denis Lavant (fourth name) and... David Cronenberg (numero cinco). The book was adapted by Guadagnino, and the movie will be called Body Art.
A couple of weird cinephile overlaps to appreciate here - Cronenberg just adapted a Delillo book (and quite well if you ask me) last year with Cosmopolis, which was about a man riding around in a white limosuine and encountering lots of people over the course of a single day, which was also the plot of Holy Motors (though to much different effect), which of course starred... Denis Lavant. And Isabelle Huppert... is Isabelle Huppert. Nuff said. If this will top my favorite David Cronenberg performance (that would be as the doctor who gets impaled upon a giant steel rod in Jason X) we'll have to wait and see.
Reader Comments (11)
I am beyond excited to read about this one. I really really love that book. I understand some people think it's "difficult" but it really got to me. And lord knows the team assembled is promising if you're adapting tricky material.
I meant to ask about the book - I haven't read it. I'll add it to the pile, then!
this is beyond exciting! Since the story is set in NY i'm assuming it is going to be in English, no? Or we don't know yet? Not that it matters...
I'm only vaguely interested in Huppert because Chastain speaks her name.
I'm currently high on Julie Christie.
Apparently Sigourney Weaver has a part in this too, so do add a fifth name to the list! Whenever I've thought about who I would like to see go up against Huppert, I've never thought of Weaver. The more I think about it, the more I love it. Can't wait for this film.
OH MY GOD SIGOURNEY! Seriously??? Whee!
Yes Sigourney Weaver is in the film, she and Huppert went to the Dior Haute Couture show last week together becuase the costumes for Body Art will be designed by designer Raf Simons who created Swinton's wardrobe in I Am Love. Here is the youtube link, she appears at 0.20 onwards:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvoJjILGTzI
I've been desperately waiting on Katie Jarvis. Yeah, desperate hope on a snowball's chance in the Sahara. (atheist)
i dont remember this many characters in the novel!
Kill me now because I am gonna DIE waiting for this GENIUS to reach my eyes and ears. Huppert doing The Body Artist is one of my most cherished actress/literature fantasies - I can barely believe this news is real! Guadagnino seems like a good fit for the material too. Weaver. Cronenberg. Lavant. This has officially become the film I am most excited about anywhere in the world.
"i dont remember this many characters in the novel!"
I know! I'm betting Cronenberg plays the husband: small, but obviously significant role.
Huppert is older than the character in the novel, but she's a perfect choice for dealing with the psychological dimensions at play here.
Levant is likely the...mysterious stranger (keeping it vague).