Take Three: Danny Glover

Craig here with Take Three. Today: Danny Glover

Over the last decade Glover hasn’t seen the prolonged exposure that he once enjoyed, yet mostly still deserves. But he’s been doing good work in a vast array of projects, both mainstream and arthouse none the less. In a quintet of artful independents The Royal Tenenbaums (2001), Manderlay (2005), Bamako (2006), Honeydripper (2007) and Blindness (2008) he gave strong, varied turns. Barnyard, The Shaggy Dog (both 2006) and Alpha and Omega added family fare to his résumé. A couple of pay-the-rent Saws (first and fifth) and a thankless turn in Death at a Funeral (2010) didn’t harm his career. A couple of presidential engagements, Battle for Terra (2006) and 2012 (2009), kept him afloat. And finally some bona fide solid gold support in Dreamgirls (2006) and Shooter (2007) reminded multiplex audiences just how good he is.

Take One: Be Kind Rewind (2008)
But the most recent role in which he’s perhaps been most memorable was as the ageing, single, Fats Waller-loving video-shop owner Mr. Fletcher in Michel Gondry’s 2008 comic throwback Be Kind Rewind. He starts out like a kind of reluctant, but good-hearted curmudgeon unwilling to embrace DVD, but he ends up an accidental impresario of both old-school values and new ventures by joining the ranks of the neighbourhood “sweders” to make a community doc on Fats Waller. He typifies both the film’s antiquated side (VHS), but also its embracing of new technologies (DVD, digital) and social connection (people + cinema = growth). The scenes of him trotting off to memorialise Fats and snoop on his rivals would make an endearing film of its own. If Danny Glover could “swede” a film of himself doing just that, I’d be happy.

Two more takes after the jump including the Angry film for which we hope he will be remembered...

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Film Bitch Nominees. Final Categories

Whew that took me too long this year? I'm working on a new system for 2011, building templates already so we'll see if it pans out. I can't promise anything but I really want something smooth and daily next December/January with the medals handed out before the Oscars. I can dream. I'll wrap up with gold silver and bronze medals Monday or Tuesday but for now...

Best Sex Scenes, Best Kiss, Openings, Endings, Title Sequences, & Best Scenes...
Featuring achievements from 127 Hours, Black Swan, Somewhere, Mother, The Kids Are All Right, I Am Love and many more... all of which are now available on DVD. If you live in a city that doesn't get the movies on time, are you finally all caught up on your 2010 viewing? Was Blue Valentine your lone holdout?

Enjoy and please comment. But don't fall in love with married lesbians.

Cannes Winners: Kiki, Malick, and More

The 64th annual Cannes Film Festival wrapped up today with the jury awards.

Some awards announcements feel like deflations to robust film festivals but not this year. Major conversation pieces won big, extending the buzz if not adding much in the way of a surprise element that can sometimes send hype spinning in new directions.

First and foremost I, personally, must let out a whoop of joy at the news that Kirsten Dunst took Best Actress. I've long been a champion of her underappreciated gifts. She's one of those rare actresses who is just as skilled at both comedic and dramatic roles and her filmography will eventually have the last laugh over her many detractors.  Her "comeback", artistically speaking, probably started with All Good Things this December. She won very complimentary reviews and a last minute Oscar campaign even though the film itself didn't get much attention. [The Film Experience Interview from Kirsten Dunst if you missed it.]

Gif via Rich at FourFour

Main Jury (Robert DeNiro was Jury President)
This jury, the jury that gets all the attention, hands out the prizes for the films in the main competition roster. But Cannes has several sidebars as well.
PALME D'OR The Tree of Life by Terrence Malick.
GRAND PRIX (runner up) The Kid With The Bike by the Dardenne Brothers who seem to win something each and every year and Once Upon a Time in Anatolia by Nuri Bilge Ceylan

JURY PRIZE Polisse by Maïwenn Le Besco (we discussed her very briefly)
DIRECTOR Nicolas Winding Refn for Drive (making good on the critical excitement)
SCREENPLAY Joseph Cedar for Footnote
ACTOR Jean DuJardin for The Artist
ACTRESS Kirsten Dunst for Melancholia (see previous posts)

Camera D'Or (Jury President Bong Joon Ho, of Mother and The Host fame)
GOLDEN CAMERA (Best First Feature)  Las Acacias directed by Pablo Giorgelli [Argentina]

Un Certain Regard (Jury President Emir Kusturica of Underground and Black Cat White Cat fame)
PRIZE OF UN CERTAIN REGARD (tie) Arirang by Kim Ki-Duk and Stopped on Track by Andreas Dresen

SPECIAL JURY PRIZE Elena by Andrey Zvyaginstev
DIRECTING PRIZE Mohammad Rasoulof for Bé Omid é Didar

Critics Week  (Jury President Chang-dong Lee of Poetry and Secret Sunshine fame)
This jury concentrates on new directors (meaning first or second timers)
FEATURE Take Shelter (which played at Sundance) starring Michael Shannon & Jessica Chastain.
SPECIAL MENTION Snowtown (a controversial choice)
CID/CCAS and the OFAJ Las Acacias (which also won the Camera D'Or)

The Skin I Live In wins a Cinematography Prize. Notice the poster on the wall is the one they've been using for the film's teaser poster

C.S.T
VULCAN PRIZE (for an artist technician) went to cinematographer José Luis Alcaine for Pedro Almodóvar's The Skin I Live In (previous posts)
SPECIAL DISTINCTION went to Sound Designer Paul Davies and Editor Joe Bini for Lynne Ramsay's We Need To Talk About Kevin

Cross-CountryCinefondation and Short Films (Jury President Michel Gondry)
SHORT FILMS
PALME D'OR Cross-Country by Maryna Vroda
JURY PRIZE Swimsuit 46 by Wannes Destoop

CINEFONDATION
1ST PRIZE Der Brief (The Letter) by Dorotyea Droumeva
2ND PRIZE Drari by Kamal Lazraq
3RD PRIZE Fly By Night by Son Tae-gyum

In terms of the Oscar race, which rarely correlates with Cannes and doesn't need to, this still adds a helpful sheen of prestige to The Tree of Life, Melancholia and Take Shelter which will all see the US marketplace. Given the multiple prizes for the Argentinian debut film Las Acacias one also wonders if it will be Argentina's Oscar submission?

What do you make of all this? Did anything surprise you?

Cannes Glamour Finale ~ 23 Talents To Ogle

*Sniffle* Take one long last longing look. You might not see this much glittery movie talent assembled again until the Golden Globes. Today there is no red carpet conversation for the lineup -- all of my blogging friends have vanished (was it The Rapture?) -- other than what you bring to the comments.

Twenty-three more to wrap up.

Left to right: Audrey Dana who was so awesome in Roman de Gare - remember that?, Ultimate being Milla Jovovich, statuesque jury queen Uma Thurman, and sexy French bitches Ludivine Sagnier & Raphaël Personnaz.

Left to right: Antonio Banderas had a good fortnight, didn't he? Ryan Gosling went blue but Drive was red hot, Jude Law juried (winners coming at'cha tomorrow), and Saïd Tagmaoui walked the red carpet (he'll finally be back on the big screen in Conan the Barbarian but given that he speaks four languages and is a very good actor he should be in like 5 or 6 big movies a year, don't you think?)

Left to right: Jessica Chastain (Tree of Life), Slumdog lovers Dev Patel & Freida Pinto, leaning tower of Gwen Stefani, and Goldie Hawn who hasn't changed her hairstyle, sleeve or neckline preference in about 26-27 years now.

Left to right: Zhang Ziyi is still alive, Zoe Saldana is the most delicious candy cane we've seen in years, the hilarious Missi Pyle is in The Artist (Yay!), Courtney Love is still alive and Linda Cardellini is looking more like a movie star than we remember her ever looking before.

Left to right: Janet Jackson, our favorite constantly absent filmmaker (female division) Jane Campion and her 17 year old (?) actress daughter Alice Englert, and the incomparable Tilda Swinton who might possibly win Best Actress tomorrow for We Need To Talk About Kevin. 

FINIS

Mix Tape: "In Dreams" in Blue Velvet

Andreas from Pussy Goes Grrr here, with one of the most disturbing cinematic uses of pop music.

From his controlled demolition of the nuclear family in Eraserhead to his grotesque send-up of Hollywood in Mulholland Drive, David Lynch has always delighted in savaging American institutions. Through the S&M-tinged surrealism of Blue Velvet, he pried the bland surface off of suburbia and illuminated the perverse secrets underneath.

The darkest of those secrets is Frank Booth (Dennis Hopper), an abusive, foul-mouthed gangster who holds sultry chanteuse Dorothy Vallens (Isabella Rossellini) in his thrall. Hopper is a villain unlike any other, snapping from relative calm to strung-out psychosis without warning. But Frank's most terrifying tendency isn't his hair-trigger temper or his torrents of profanity: it's the unexpected well of emotion festering inside him.

Read more about Dennis Hopper in David Lynch's America after the jump.

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