2002: Isabelle Huppert and the "8 Women"

As we march towards the Smackdown, we're also checking in with great supporting performances that weren't nominated. Here's Nick Taylor...

We've already discussed how Viola Davis had a spectacular 2002. But truth be told, it’s incredible how many actresses turned out multiple great performances in that film year: Samantha Morton headlined one of the best films of the past 20 years with intoxicating subtlety in Morvern Callar while delivering the most visceral, unsettling element of Minority Report. Maggie Gyllenhaal announced herself with a bang in Secretary and folded beautifully into the ensemble of Adaptation. Multiple cast members of The Hours gave equally memorable characterizations in other films - Meryl in Adaptation, Julianne in Far From Heaven, Miranda in Spider, Toni in About a Boy, and Claire in Igby Goes Down. (Side note: how wild is it that Nicole Kidman is the one who only made one movie that year?).

I’d argue Isabelle Huppert had the strongest one-two punch of any actress in 2002. Her ferocious, perverse, achingly lonely turn in The Piano Teacher ranks among the best acting feats of the ‘00s all by itself, and the fizzy, entertaining work she contributes to 8 Women is one of the funniest performances of a year defined by great comedic work...

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Cesar Winners: "Les Misérables" is tops... but now we're curious about "La Belle Epoque"

Yes yes, we were supposed to be taking the weekend off. But we forgot about the Césars held yeseterday in France. So...

Cast & Crew of "Les Miserables" at the Cesars

While Roman Polanski's "J'Accuse!" led the César nominations in the end it lost "Best Film" to France's Oscar nominated Les Misérables. Both films won multiple prizes. Curiously considering two prizes for Polanski himself, two films which center on the sexual abuse of kids (By the Grace of God and "M") also won Césars. The dramedy La Belle Epoque, starring longtime gallic icons Daniel Auteuil and Fanny Ardant, also made a strong showing with 3 wins. A complete list of winners, some stats, and the trailer to La Belle Epoque are after the jump...

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Tribeca: Women Behaving Badly

Coverage of the Tribeca Film Festival continues with abstew's thoughts on 'Lucky Them' and 'Bright Days Ahead'

Film is packed with male anti-heroes, men with arrested development, or the classic older man / younger woman love affair that at this point you'd have to do something completely out of the box for it to feel different or unique. While those storylines more often than not seem to carry a male sensibility about them, that hasn't stopped a couple of new films attempting to take those tried and true scenarios and mix them up with a feminine point of view. The latest films to do so (Lucky Them and Bright Days Ahead) have a couple of female directors (Megan Griffiths and Marion Vernoux) giving their leading ladies (Toni Collette and Fanny Ardant) a chance to indulge in their inner (wo)man-child. Unfortunately, in both cases, the gender swap doesn't bring any new insight. 

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'said everybody's gonna link today, link today, link today'

Pop & Hiss Reeve Carney, who previously appeared in Julie Taymor's Tempest and Julie Taymor's Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark, has signed on to play Jeff Buckley in a biopic. Sure he looks right enough for the part, but sadly, at least thus far, he doesn't seem to be much of an actor. 
In Contention loves the motion picture soundtrack cover for Drive more than the movie posters. Fair enough... but omg what's inside!!!. I'm buying the crap out of that CD when it becomes available. I kept wishing the songs were originals so that I could be incensed when Oscar ignored them.

Reeve Carney as himself. Ryan Gosling in fetishized scorpion jacket.

Time Out HK has a good lengthy interview with Hong Kong actor Daniel Wu of Bishonen fame. He's starring opposite fighting Russell Crowe (literally) soon in The Man With the Iron Fists
Cinema Blend has a funny thought. What if Channing Tatum's stripper movie Magic Mike is the first film wherein Matthew McConaughey (who just signed on as the boss man) doesn't take his shirt off? 
Cineuropa Lars Von Trier's next picture Nymphomaniac will detail a woman's sexual life from birth til she's 50. Good luck with the, uh, casting of that one Lars. 
Playbill Cyndi Lauper & Harvey Fierstein's stage musical adaptation of the drag movie Kinky Boots (yes you read that sentence right) will get a big workshop in September. I didn't even like the movie and I'm so excited for it.
Via Twitter omg. Enver Gjokaj (Dollhouse) is in The Avengers. Yay! I have no idea how this photo is supposed to prove it but it is.
Hollywood Reporter Oscar buzzing Viola Davis (The Help) may star in a new HBO series. First Julianne... now Viola? Pretty soon no actresses will be left for the movies ;) 
The Cut the cast of Glee is in Vogue. Why no Mercedes or Santana?  

Music Video Break
Do you like Mika? I do muchly. Here's his latest music video "Elle Me Dit" but I only share it on this film blog because he's moved on from Grace Kelly to... Frenchsuperstar Fanny Ardant (8 Women, Ridicule, Roman de Gare). The video seems vaguely inspired by Wes Anderson (does Fanny then equal Anjelica Huston?) divided by François Ozon because if he was going for Wes, there's not enough center frame closeup.

What'cha think?