Showing posts with label Health. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Health. Show all posts

Cellar victim Kampusch raped, starved in film of ordeal






VIENNA (Reuters) – A new film based on the story of Austrian kidnap victim Natascha Kampusch shows her being repeatedly raped by the captor who beat and starved her during the eight-and-a-half years that he kept her in a cellar beneath his house.


Kampusch was snatched on her way to school at the age of 10 by Wolfgang Priklopil and held in a windowless cell under his garage near Vienna until she escaped in 2006, causing a sensation in Austria and abroad. Priklopil committed suicide.






Kampusch had always refused to respond to claims that she had had sex with Priklopil, but in a German television interview on her 25th birthday last week said she had decided to reveal the truth because it had leaked out from police files.


The film, “3,096 Days” – based on Kampusch’s autobiography of the same name – soberly portrays her captivity in a windowless cellar less than 6 square metres (65 square feet) in area, often deprived of food for days at a time.


The emaciated Kampusch – who weighed just 38 kg (84 pounds) at one point in 2004 – keeps a diary written on toilet paper concealed in a box.


One entry reads: “At least 60 blows in the face. Ten to 15 nausea-inducing fist blows to the head. One strike with the fist with full weight to my right ear.”


The movie shows occasional moments that approach tenderness, such as when Priklopil presents her with a cake for her 18th birthday or buys her a dress as a gift – but then immediately goes on to chide her for not knowing how to waltz with him.


GREY AREAS


Antonia Campbell-Hughes, who plays the teenaged Kampusch, said she had tried to portray “the strength of someone’s soul, the ability of people to survive… but also the grey areas within a relationship that people don’t necessarily understand.”


The British actress said she had not met Kampusch during the making of the film or since. “It was a very isolated time, it was a bubble of time, and I wanted to keep that very focused,” she told journalists as she arrived for the Vienna premiere.


Kampusch herself attended the premiere, looking composed as she posed for pictures but declining to give interviews.


In an interview with Germany’s Bild Zeitung last week, she said: “Yes, I did recognize myself, although the reality was even worse. But one can’t really show that in the cinema, since it wasn’t supposed to be a horror film.”


The movie, made at the Constantin Film studios in Bavaria, Germany, also stars Amy Pidgeon as the 10-year-old Kampusch and Danish actor Thure Lindhardt as Priklopil.


“I focused mainly on playing the human being because… we have to remember it was a human being. Monsters do not exist, they’re only in cartoons,” Lindhart said.


“It became clear to me that it’s a story about survival, and it’s a story about surviving eight years of hell. If that story can be told then I can also play the bad guy.”


The director was German-American Sherry Hormann, who made her English-language debut with the 2009 move “Desert Flower”, an adaptation of the autobiography of Somali-born model and anti-female circumcision activist Waris Dirie.


“I’m a mother and I wonder at the strength of this child, and it was important for me to tell this story from a different perspective, to tell how this child using her own strength could survive this atrocious martyrdom,” Hormann said.


The Kampusch case was followed two years later by that of Josef Fritzl, an Austrian who held his daughter captive in a cellar for 24 years and fathered seven children with her.


The crimes prompted soul-searching about the Austrian psyche, and questions as to how the authorities and neighbors could have let such crimes go undetected for so long.


The film goes on general release on Thursday.


(Reporting by Georgina Prodhan, Editing by Paul Casciato)


Movies News Headlines – Yahoo! News





Title Post: Cellar victim Kampusch raped, starved in film of ordeal
Url Post: http://www.news.fluser.com/cellar-victim-kampusch-raped-starved-in-film-of-ordeal/
Link To Post : Cellar victim Kampusch raped, starved in film of ordeal
Rating:
100%

based on 99998 ratings.
5 user reviews.
Author: Fluser SeoLink
Thanks for visiting the blog, If any criticism and suggestions please leave a comment




Read More..

Cellar victim Kampusch raped, starved in film of ordeal






VIENNA (Reuters) – A new film based on the story of Austrian kidnap victim Natascha Kampusch shows her being repeatedly raped by the captor who beat and starved her during the eight-and-a-half years that he kept her in a cellar beneath his house.


Kampusch was snatched on her way to school at the age of 10 by Wolfgang Priklopil and held in a windowless cell under his garage near Vienna until she escaped in 2006, causing a sensation in Austria and abroad. Priklopil committed suicide.






Kampusch had always refused to respond to claims that she had had sex with Priklopil, but in a German television interview on her 25th birthday last week said she had decided to reveal the truth because it had leaked out from police files.


The film, “3,096 Days” – based on Kampusch’s autobiography of the same name – soberly portrays her captivity in a windowless cellar less than 6 square metres (65 square feet) in area, often deprived of food for days at a time.


The emaciated Kampusch – who weighed just 38 kg (84 pounds) at one point in 2004 – keeps a diary written on toilet paper concealed in a box.


One entry reads: “At least 60 blows in the face. Ten to 15 nausea-inducing fist blows to the head. One strike with the fist with full weight to my right ear.”


The movie shows occasional moments that approach tenderness, such as when Priklopil presents her with a cake for her 18th birthday or buys her a dress as a gift – but then immediately goes on to chide her for not knowing how to waltz with him.


GREY AREAS


Antonia Campbell-Hughes, who plays the teenaged Kampusch, said she had tried to portray “the strength of someone’s soul, the ability of people to survive… but also the grey areas within a relationship that people don’t necessarily understand.”


The British actress said she had not met Kampusch during the making of the film or since. “It was a very isolated time, it was a bubble of time, and I wanted to keep that very focused,” she told journalists as she arrived for the Vienna premiere.


Kampusch herself attended the premiere, looking composed as she posed for pictures but declining to give interviews.


In an interview with Germany’s Bild Zeitung last week, she said: “Yes, I did recognize myself, although the reality was even worse. But one can’t really show that in the cinema, since it wasn’t supposed to be a horror film.”


The movie, made at the Constantin Film studios in Bavaria, Germany, also stars Amy Pidgeon as the 10-year-old Kampusch and Danish actor Thure Lindhardt as Priklopil.


“I focused mainly on playing the human being because… we have to remember it was a human being. Monsters do not exist, they’re only in cartoons,” Lindhart said.


“It became clear to me that it’s a story about survival, and it’s a story about surviving eight years of hell. If that story can be told then I can also play the bad guy.”


The director was German-American Sherry Hormann, who made her English-language debut with the 2009 move “Desert Flower”, an adaptation of the autobiography of Somali-born model and anti-female circumcision activist Waris Dirie.


“I’m a mother and I wonder at the strength of this child, and it was important for me to tell this story from a different perspective, to tell how this child using her own strength could survive this atrocious martyrdom,” Hormann said.


The Kampusch case was followed two years later by that of Josef Fritzl, an Austrian who held his daughter captive in a cellar for 24 years and fathered seven children with her.


The crimes prompted soul-searching about the Austrian psyche, and questions as to how the authorities and neighbors could have let such crimes go undetected for so long.


The film goes on general release on Thursday.


(Reporting by Georgina Prodhan, Editing by Paul Casciato)


Movies News Headlines – Yahoo! News





Title Post: Cellar victim Kampusch raped, starved in film of ordeal
Url Post: http://www.news.fluser.com/cellar-victim-kampusch-raped-starved-in-film-of-ordeal/
Link To Post : Cellar victim Kampusch raped, starved in film of ordeal
Rating:
100%

based on 99998 ratings.
5 user reviews.
Author: Fluser SeoLink
Thanks for visiting the blog, If any criticism and suggestions please leave a comment




Read More..

Cellar victim Kampusch raped, starved in film of ordeal






VIENNA (Reuters) – A new film based on the story of Austrian kidnap victim Natascha Kampusch shows her being repeatedly raped by the captor who beat and starved her during the eight-and-a-half years that he kept her in a cellar beneath his house.


Kampusch was snatched on her way to school at the age of 10 by Wolfgang Priklopil and held in a windowless cell under his garage near Vienna until she escaped in 2006, causing a sensation in Austria and abroad. Priklopil committed suicide.






Kampusch had always refused to respond to claims that she had had sex with Priklopil, but in a German television interview on her 25th birthday last week said she had decided to reveal the truth because it had leaked out from police files.


The film, “3,096 Days” – based on Kampusch’s autobiography of the same name – soberly portrays her captivity in a windowless cellar less than 6 square metres (65 square feet) in area, often deprived of food for days at a time.


The emaciated Kampusch – who weighed just 38 kg (84 pounds) at one point in 2004 – keeps a diary written on toilet paper concealed in a box.


One entry reads: “At least 60 blows in the face. Ten to 15 nausea-inducing fist blows to the head. One strike with the fist with full weight to my right ear.”


The movie shows occasional moments that approach tenderness, such as when Priklopil presents her with a cake for her 18th birthday or buys her a dress as a gift – but then immediately goes on to chide her for not knowing how to waltz with him.


GREY AREAS


Antonia Campbell-Hughes, who plays the teenaged Kampusch, said she had tried to portray “the strength of someone’s soul, the ability of people to survive… but also the grey areas within a relationship that people don’t necessarily understand.”


The British actress said she had not met Kampusch during the making of the film or since. “It was a very isolated time, it was a bubble of time, and I wanted to keep that very focused,” she told journalists as she arrived for the Vienna premiere.


Kampusch herself attended the premiere, looking composed as she posed for pictures but declining to give interviews.


In an interview with Germany’s Bild Zeitung last week, she said: “Yes, I did recognize myself, although the reality was even worse. But one can’t really show that in the cinema, since it wasn’t supposed to be a horror film.”


The movie, made at the Constantin Film studios in Bavaria, Germany, also stars Amy Pidgeon as the 10-year-old Kampusch and Danish actor Thure Lindhardt as Priklopil.


“I focused mainly on playing the human being because… we have to remember it was a human being. Monsters do not exist, they’re only in cartoons,” Lindhart said.


“It became clear to me that it’s a story about survival, and it’s a story about surviving eight years of hell. If that story can be told then I can also play the bad guy.”


The director was German-American Sherry Hormann, who made her English-language debut with the 2009 move “Desert Flower”, an adaptation of the autobiography of Somali-born model and anti-female circumcision activist Waris Dirie.


“I’m a mother and I wonder at the strength of this child, and it was important for me to tell this story from a different perspective, to tell how this child using her own strength could survive this atrocious martyrdom,” Hormann said.


The Kampusch case was followed two years later by that of Josef Fritzl, an Austrian who held his daughter captive in a cellar for 24 years and fathered seven children with her.


The crimes prompted soul-searching about the Austrian psyche, and questions as to how the authorities and neighbors could have let such crimes go undetected for so long.


The film goes on general release on Thursday.


(Reporting by Georgina Prodhan, Editing by Paul Casciato)


Movies News Headlines – Yahoo! News





Title Post: Cellar victim Kampusch raped, starved in film of ordeal
Url Post: http://www.news.fluser.com/cellar-victim-kampusch-raped-starved-in-film-of-ordeal/
Link To Post : Cellar victim Kampusch raped, starved in film of ordeal
Rating:
100%

based on 99998 ratings.
5 user reviews.
Author: Fluser SeoLink
Thanks for visiting the blog, If any criticism and suggestions please leave a comment




Read More..

Cellar victim Kampusch raped, starved in film of ordeal






VIENNA (Reuters) – A new film based on the story of Austrian kidnap victim Natascha Kampusch shows her being repeatedly raped by the captor who beat and starved her during the eight-and-a-half years that he kept her in a cellar beneath his house.


Kampusch was snatched on her way to school at the age of 10 by Wolfgang Priklopil and held in a windowless cell under his garage near Vienna until she escaped in 2006, causing a sensation in Austria and abroad. Priklopil committed suicide.






Kampusch had always refused to respond to claims that she had had sex with Priklopil, but in a German television interview on her 25th birthday last week said she had decided to reveal the truth because it had leaked out from police files.


The film, “3,096 Days” – based on Kampusch’s autobiography of the same name – soberly portrays her captivity in a windowless cellar less than 6 square metres (65 square feet) in area, often deprived of food for days at a time.


The emaciated Kampusch – who weighed just 38 kg (84 pounds) at one point in 2004 – keeps a diary written on toilet paper concealed in a box.


One entry reads: “At least 60 blows in the face. Ten to 15 nausea-inducing fist blows to the head. One strike with the fist with full weight to my right ear.”


The movie shows occasional moments that approach tenderness, such as when Priklopil presents her with a cake for her 18th birthday or buys her a dress as a gift – but then immediately goes on to chide her for not knowing how to waltz with him.


GREY AREAS


Antonia Campbell-Hughes, who plays the teenaged Kampusch, said she had tried to portray “the strength of someone’s soul, the ability of people to survive… but also the grey areas within a relationship that people don’t necessarily understand.”


The British actress said she had not met Kampusch during the making of the film or since. “It was a very isolated time, it was a bubble of time, and I wanted to keep that very focused,” she told journalists as she arrived for the Vienna premiere.


Kampusch herself attended the premiere, looking composed as she posed for pictures but declining to give interviews.


In an interview with Germany’s Bild Zeitung last week, she said: “Yes, I did recognize myself, although the reality was even worse. But one can’t really show that in the cinema, since it wasn’t supposed to be a horror film.”


The movie, made at the Constantin Film studios in Bavaria, Germany, also stars Amy Pidgeon as the 10-year-old Kampusch and Danish actor Thure Lindhardt as Priklopil.


“I focused mainly on playing the human being because… we have to remember it was a human being. Monsters do not exist, they’re only in cartoons,” Lindhart said.


“It became clear to me that it’s a story about survival, and it’s a story about surviving eight years of hell. If that story can be told then I can also play the bad guy.”


The director was German-American Sherry Hormann, who made her English-language debut with the 2009 move “Desert Flower”, an adaptation of the autobiography of Somali-born model and anti-female circumcision activist Waris Dirie.


“I’m a mother and I wonder at the strength of this child, and it was important for me to tell this story from a different perspective, to tell how this child using her own strength could survive this atrocious martyrdom,” Hormann said.


The Kampusch case was followed two years later by that of Josef Fritzl, an Austrian who held his daughter captive in a cellar for 24 years and fathered seven children with her.


The crimes prompted soul-searching about the Austrian psyche, and questions as to how the authorities and neighbors could have let such crimes go undetected for so long.


The film goes on general release on Thursday.


(Reporting by Georgina Prodhan, Editing by Paul Casciato)


Movies News Headlines – Yahoo! News





Title Post: Cellar victim Kampusch raped, starved in film of ordeal
Url Post: http://www.news.fluser.com/cellar-victim-kampusch-raped-starved-in-film-of-ordeal/
Link To Post : Cellar victim Kampusch raped, starved in film of ordeal
Rating:
100%

based on 99998 ratings.
5 user reviews.
Author: Fluser SeoLink
Thanks for visiting the blog, If any criticism and suggestions please leave a comment




Read More..

Cellar victim Kampusch raped, starved in film of ordeal






VIENNA (Reuters) – A new film based on the story of Austrian kidnap victim Natascha Kampusch shows her being repeatedly raped by the captor who beat and starved her during the eight-and-a-half years that he kept her in a cellar beneath his house.


Kampusch was snatched on her way to school at the age of 10 by Wolfgang Priklopil and held in a windowless cell under his garage near Vienna until she escaped in 2006, causing a sensation in Austria and abroad. Priklopil committed suicide.






Kampusch had always refused to respond to claims that she had had sex with Priklopil, but in a German television interview on her 25th birthday last week said she had decided to reveal the truth because it had leaked out from police files.


The film, “3,096 Days” – based on Kampusch’s autobiography of the same name – soberly portrays her captivity in a windowless cellar less than 6 square metres (65 square feet) in area, often deprived of food for days at a time.


The emaciated Kampusch – who weighed just 38 kg (84 pounds) at one point in 2004 – keeps a diary written on toilet paper concealed in a box.


One entry reads: “At least 60 blows in the face. Ten to 15 nausea-inducing fist blows to the head. One strike with the fist with full weight to my right ear.”


The movie shows occasional moments that approach tenderness, such as when Priklopil presents her with a cake for her 18th birthday or buys her a dress as a gift – but then immediately goes on to chide her for not knowing how to waltz with him.


GREY AREAS


Antonia Campbell-Hughes, who plays the teenaged Kampusch, said she had tried to portray “the strength of someone’s soul, the ability of people to survive… but also the grey areas within a relationship that people don’t necessarily understand.”


The British actress said she had not met Kampusch during the making of the film or since. “It was a very isolated time, it was a bubble of time, and I wanted to keep that very focused,” she told journalists as she arrived for the Vienna premiere.


Kampusch herself attended the premiere, looking composed as she posed for pictures but declining to give interviews.


In an interview with Germany’s Bild Zeitung last week, she said: “Yes, I did recognize myself, although the reality was even worse. But one can’t really show that in the cinema, since it wasn’t supposed to be a horror film.”


The movie, made at the Constantin Film studios in Bavaria, Germany, also stars Amy Pidgeon as the 10-year-old Kampusch and Danish actor Thure Lindhardt as Priklopil.


“I focused mainly on playing the human being because… we have to remember it was a human being. Monsters do not exist, they’re only in cartoons,” Lindhart said.


“It became clear to me that it’s a story about survival, and it’s a story about surviving eight years of hell. If that story can be told then I can also play the bad guy.”


The director was German-American Sherry Hormann, who made her English-language debut with the 2009 move “Desert Flower”, an adaptation of the autobiography of Somali-born model and anti-female circumcision activist Waris Dirie.


“I’m a mother and I wonder at the strength of this child, and it was important for me to tell this story from a different perspective, to tell how this child using her own strength could survive this atrocious martyrdom,” Hormann said.


The Kampusch case was followed two years later by that of Josef Fritzl, an Austrian who held his daughter captive in a cellar for 24 years and fathered seven children with her.


The crimes prompted soul-searching about the Austrian psyche, and questions as to how the authorities and neighbors could have let such crimes go undetected for so long.


The film goes on general release on Thursday.


(Reporting by Georgina Prodhan, Editing by Paul Casciato)


Movies News Headlines – Yahoo! News





Title Post: Cellar victim Kampusch raped, starved in film of ordeal
Url Post: http://www.news.fluser.com/cellar-victim-kampusch-raped-starved-in-film-of-ordeal/
Link To Post : Cellar victim Kampusch raped, starved in film of ordeal
Rating:
100%

based on 99998 ratings.
5 user reviews.
Author: Fluser SeoLink
Thanks for visiting the blog, If any criticism and suggestions please leave a comment




Read More..

Hollywood’s elite mingle at glitzy post -Oscar parties






LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Hollywood‘s elite headed into the night to celebrate or commiserate at a list of glitzy parties in Tinseltown after walking the red carpet and watching the year’s Academy Awards presented.


The party of all parties on Hollywood’s biggest night is the strictly invite-only Governors Ball, thrown by The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences which hosts the Oscars, a lavish affair attended by about 1,500 guests.






This is the party that draws most of the stars and is the first stop for the winners with their prized, gold statuettes, as well as for other nominees who missed out this year and the performers and presenters of the three-hour Oscars show.


Winner of the Best Actor award for “Lincoln”, Daniel Day-Lewis mixed with George Clooney, who produced the Best Picture winner “Argo”, as guests sipped champagne and grazed on food by celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck.


Filmmaker Ang Lee, who won his second Best Director award for “Life of Pi”, was celebrating with fellow movie industry bigwigs in the shadows of a 120-foot chandelier sparkling in the evening’s chosen colors of aubergine, chartreuse, and champagne.


“There’s no pressure, the movie is doing well around the world, it’s all good,” he beamed.


“Life of Pi” lead actor Suraj Sharma, a newcomer from New Delhi, India, who was attending the Oscars for the first time this year, said he was “ecstatic” with Lee’s win.


“Ang worked really hard on this. I feel like Ang won, we all won,” the actor told Reuters.


As guests air-kissed and back-slapped their way around the crowded ballroom at the top level of the Hollywood & Highland complex, singers Judith Hill and Michael Feinstein were to entertain the celebrity crowd.


British actor Daniel Radcliffe, who performed his own musical number with actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt and the evening’s host Seth MacFarlane on the Oscars stage, greeted Feinstein with awe.


“This is amazing. I’ve grown up listening to you,” said the “Harry Potter” star.


Radcliffe, who made his Oscars debut this year, praised the “exemplary” way that rookie Oscar host MacFarlane handled the ceremony that is watched by up to one billion people globally.


“His level of involvement in every aspect of the show is admirable,” Radcliffe told Reuters.


MacFarlane, 39, a comedian, actor and singer who made his mark as creator of the animated TV series “Family Guy”, also won praise from other stars.


“Very good, very funny and offhand, nonchalant and Dean Martin-style,” actor John Travolta said.


The stars of “Les Miserables” swooped down on Best Supporting Actress winner Anne Hathaway as she posed with her statuette.


“I’m so thrilled. It’s so well deserved. I’m so happy for Anne,” said the director of the blockbuster musical, Tom Hooper.


Co-star Amanda Seyfried added: “I’m super, super excited but I kind of knew she was going to win.”


(Reporting by Piya Singh-Roy, Editing by Belinda Goldsmith)


Movies News Headlines – Yahoo! News





Title Post: Hollywood’s elite mingle at glitzy post -Oscar parties
Url Post: http://www.news.fluser.com/hollywoods-elite-mingle-at-glitzy-post-oscar-parties/
Link To Post : Hollywood’s elite mingle at glitzy post -Oscar parties
Rating:
100%

based on 99998 ratings.
5 user reviews.
Author: Fluser SeoLink
Thanks for visiting the blog, If any criticism and suggestions please leave a comment




Read More..

The Staple Singers’ Cleotha Staples dies at age 78






(Reuters) – Cleotha Staples, a founding member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame R&B and gospel group The Staple Singers, has died after a decade-long battle with Alzheimer’s disease, the group said on Friday. She was 78.


Staples, who died on Thursday at her Chicago home, is best known for singing on the group’s 1970s hits, including “I’ll Take You There,” “Respect Yourself” and “Let’s Do It Again.”






“We will keep on,” Mavis Staples, the group’s lead singer, said in a statement. “Yvonne and I will continue singing to keep our father’s legacy and our sister’s legacy alive.”


Mavis, who is known for her raspy voice that gave the group its distinct personality, said she would dedicate her forthcoming album to Cleotha’s memory.


The oldest of five children, Staples was born in Drew, Mississippi, to Roebuck “Pops” Staples and Oceola Staples. The family moved to Chicago when Staples was 2 years old in 1936, where sisters Mavis and Yvonne were born.


The Staple Singers, known as “God’s greatest hitmakers,” were formed in 1948 with Pops on guitar and siblings Mavis, Cleotha, Pervis and Yvonne singing.


The group first played churches in the Midwest and put out their first recording in 1953. Their gospel hits included “On My Way to Heaven,” “With the Circle Be Unbroken” and “Pray On.”


The family became active in the civil rights movement in 1962 after hearing Martin Luther King Jr. speak while the family was on tour. They are thought to be the first black group to cover Bob Dylan’s song “Blowin’ in the Wind” in 1963.


The Staples Singers were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999 and were honored with a lifetime achievement Grammy in 2005.


Cleotha Staples is survived by her sisters Mavis and Yvonne and brother Pervis.


(Reporting by Eric Kelsey, editing by Jill Serjeant and Lisa Shumaker)


Celebrity News Headlines – Yahoo! News





Title Post: The Staple Singers’ Cleotha Staples dies at age 78
Url Post: http://www.news.fluser.com/the-staple-singers-cleotha-staples-dies-at-age-78/
Link To Post : The Staple Singers’ Cleotha Staples dies at age 78
Rating:
100%

based on 99998 ratings.
5 user reviews.
Author: Fluser SeoLink
Thanks for visiting the blog, If any criticism and suggestions please leave a comment




Read More..

It’s Indie Vets Vs. Upstarts at a Varied Independent Spirit Awards






LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – After finding the Oscars encroaching on their territory for a number of years, have the Film Independent Spirit Awards finally gotten a little space from their bigger, flashier weekend neighbor?


You’d think so, given that six of the Oscars’ nine Best Picture nominees have grossed more than $ 100 million, and the roster of represented companies includes Warner Bros., Universal, 20th Century Fox, DreamWorks, Disney and Sony.






But one of those $ 100 million films, David O. Russell‘s “Silver Linings Playbook,” will be competing for five Indie Spirit Awards on Saturday, the day before it takes its eight nominations to the Oscars.


Another Oscar Best Picture nominee, Benh Zeitlin’s “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” will also be in the running for the top Spirit Award at the ceremony, which as usual takes place in a tent on Santa Monica beach.


Oscar best-pic nominee “Amour,” meanwhile, is nominated in the foreign-film category at the Spirits, while Wes Anderson‘s best-film Spirit Awards contender “Moonrise Kingdom” is up for an Oscar for its screenplay.


The Oscars are still honoring independent film, even in a year of unexpectedly big box office and surprising participation by the major studios. And the Spirit Awards’ definition of indie is still broad enough to encompass a wide range of movies, from the small-budgeted “Keep the Lights On” to the Weinstein Company release “Silver Linings Playbook,” which skirted the $ 20 million budget limit to qualify for the Spirit Awards but was let in on a judgment call by the jury assembled by Film Independent.


“The Spirit Awards are a celebration of independent film, and one of the things I love is that there’s a lot of diversity in there this year,” said Josh Welsh, co-president of Film Independent with Sean McManus.


“We have first-time directors and new filmmaking talent like Benh Zeitlin, but we also have directors that we go way back with, like Wes Anderson and David O. Russell. This year is a combination of discovery and bringing back people who are a part of what we’ve been doing for years.”


Russell first came to the Spirit Awards in 1995 with “Spanking the Monkey,” for which he won the Best First Feature award; he returned two years later as a Best Director nominee for “Flirting With Disaster.” Anderson won the Spirit Award as Best Director for “Rushmore” in 2000.


Their two films, “Silver Linings Playbook” and “Moonrise Kingdom,” lead the pack with five nominations each. “Beasts of the Southern Wild” has four – and, crucially, the Spirit Awards jury opted to nominate it and its director in the Best Feature and Best Director categories rather than putting them in the Best First Feature category, where they would almost unquestionably have won.


“Keep the Lights On” and “Middle of Nowhere” also received four nominations each, though the latter film did not crack the Best Feature category.


Despite the presence of “Bernie” and “Keep the Lights On” in the top category, this year’s awards do seem to be a shootout between “Silver Linings,” “Beasts” and “Moonrise,” perhaps with a slight edge to the first two – the first a crowd-pleasing film with real awards momentum, the second the clear indie breakout of the year.


Last year’s winner, “The Artist,” was the first film to win both the Spirit Award and the Best Picture Oscar.


Of the 21 Spirit acting nominees, the only ones to also be in the running at the Oscars are Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence from “Silver Linings,” Quvenzhane Wallis from “Beasts” and Helen Hunt from “The Sessions.” Chances are that Cooper and Lawrence have the edge, with more than 80 percent of Spirit Awards winners since 2000 coming from the ranks of Oscar nominees.


The awards are voted on by the 4,000 members of Film Independent, which is made up of professionals in the indie world but also of film fans who pay the yearly dues. Voting is done online, and Film Independent holds free member screenings in Los Angeles and New York to allow voters to see the films.


MacManus told TheWrap that Film Independent also made a deal with iTunes this year to make some of the nominated films available online, while members also received a 14-film DVD collection containing all the nominees that had chosen to participate. (Members had to sign restrictive use agreements to receive the package, added Welsh.)


This year’s show will be hosted by comic and actor Andy Samberg, whose film “Celeste and Jesse Forever” is in the running in the Best First Screenplay category.


“He brings a very new vibe and personality to the show,” MacManus said. “We wanted to look at this year’s show with fresh eyes. There’s a new look to the room, we’re doing something different with the food – everything is a new take.”


Last year’s host was Seth Rogen, who took the stage and immediately labeled the show “inconsequential.”


“Winning one will get you absolutely nothing,” he said, drawing a big laugh. “It won’t even raise your price, because it proves that you’ll work for nothing.”


If Samberg takes similar shots at the show, both MacManus and Welsh said they won’t mind.


“The awards are incredibly meaningful,” MacManus said. “We believe in independent film and we take it seriously, but we don’t take ourselves seriously. We are okay with poking fun at ourselves.”


Added Welsh, “We’re not all puffed up or self-important. But all joking aside, these awards are significant. It’s a genuine act of honoring the independent film of the last 12 months.”


Movies News Headlines – Yahoo! News





Title Post: It’s Indie Vets Vs. Upstarts at a Varied Independent Spirit Awards
Url Post: http://www.news.fluser.com/its-indie-vets-vs-upstarts-at-a-varied-independent-spirit-awards/
Link To Post : It’s Indie Vets Vs. Upstarts at a Varied Independent Spirit Awards
Rating:
100%

based on 99998 ratings.
5 user reviews.
Author: Fluser SeoLink
Thanks for visiting the blog, If any criticism and suggestions please leave a comment




Read More..

Mira Sorvino cast in Jim Gaffigan’s CBS pilot






LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Mira Sorvino and Jim Gaffigan are getting hitched. At least on the small screen.


“The Replacement Killers” star Sorvino has signed on for Gaffigan‘s CBS comedy pilot. as the comedian’s wife.






The as-yet-untitled, single-camera pilot stars comedian Gaffigan as a happily married and harried New York City father of five (as, perhaps not coincidentally, he is in real life). Sorvino will play Jeannie, a super-wife and super-mom of five who has a sixth child in the form of her husband, Jim.


Gaffigan and “Rescue Me” creator Peter Tolan are writing and executive producing the pilot, which comes from Sony Television in association with Fedora Entertainment. Michael Wimer and Alex Murray are also executive producing.


Sorvino had previously been cast in the TNT pilot “Trooper” from Jerry Bruckheimer, a procedural drama about a recently divorced mother of three and state trooper who takes an unconventional approach to her work.


TV News Headlines – Yahoo! News





Title Post: Mira Sorvino cast in Jim Gaffigan’s CBS pilot
Url Post: http://www.news.fluser.com/mira-sorvino-cast-in-jim-gaffigans-cbs-pilot/
Link To Post : Mira Sorvino cast in Jim Gaffigan’s CBS pilot
Rating:
100%

based on 99998 ratings.
5 user reviews.
Author: Fluser SeoLink
Thanks for visiting the blog, If any criticism and suggestions please leave a comment




Read More..

Actresses walking Oscar’s red carpet to exude sophistication, not sex






LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – When actresses sashay down the red carpet before the Oscars ceremony on Sunday, they are expected to be wearing gowns exuding glamour and sophistication, not flesh-exposing jaw-droppers.


Performers at this month’s Grammys were issued a “wardrobe advisory” ahead of the big music awards show, telling them to cover up and keep buttocks, nipples and genitals under wraps. The advisory appeared to work, as no one bared too much skin.






But fashion experts do not expect guests at the 85th Academy Awards at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles on Sunday night to shock, instead forecasting original fashions inspired by last month’s Paris haute couture week where made-to-order gowns worth tens of thousands of dollars are hand-crafted.


Top designers are keen to dress the hottest Hollywood stars, loaning them creations and jewelry for the awards ceremony that is watched by an estimated one billion people worldwide, with many as interested in the fashions as the films.


The importance of looking good on the film industry’s biggest night is critical for up-and-coming actresses wanting to be noticed and for designers and cosmetic and jewelry companies seeking global recognition and the next big contract.


The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which hands out the Oscars, says on its award show tickets that attire for the event is “formal.” An Academy spokeswoman declined to elaborate on whether more detailed advisories are given to nominees and presenters, saying only that “the Oscars and the Governors Ball are black-tie events.”


With the red carpet televised live, there is no room for wardrobe malfunctions. And attendees know that the critics are ready to pounce on anyone whose frock does not live up to the event.


LEGBOMBING


Designer Marc Bouwer, who is dressing three Oscar attendees this year, called the Oscars red carpet “the greatest, biggest runway show on earth,” pointing out that the right outfit can take someone’s career “from zero to a hundred.”


Bouwer would know. His creations are regularly featured on best-dressed lists, with the white satin gown worn by Angelina Jolie wowing the audience at the 2004 Oscars.


Jolie is a pro of the red carpet. She again stole the spotlight last year when she thrust her right leg out of her high-slit Versace dress, setting off a global copying craze and leading to the adoption of a new word, “legbombing.” Her right leg even got its own Twitter account.


The value of red carpet exposure is hard to pinpoint, but a vintage Christian Dior dress worn by actress Natalie Portman at the 84th Academy Awards later sold for $ 50,000.


The photographs of the actress who takes home the Best Actress statuette becomes part of Oscar lore.


It’s a night when images of beautiful women in spectacular gowns become Hollywood history, such as pictures of Grace Kelly in a blue satin gown by Edith Head in 1955, Julia Roberts in a black vintage Valentino in 2001, and Halle Berry in an Elie Saab gown with a sheer upper bodice and burgundy satin bottom in 2002.


One actress in the spotlight this year is 22-year-old Jennifer Lawrence, who is a favorite for the Best Actress award for her role in the quirky romance “Silver Linings Playbook.”


Lawrence has built a relationship with Christian Dior’s creative director, Belgian fashion designer Raf Simons, and wore Dior gowns to the recent Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild Awards and the BAFTA awards in London.


It remains to be seen if she will don Dior for the Oscars, but style expert Sam Saboura, a fashion host on the cable channel TLC, said he expected the copious amounts of black and white used by Dior and Chanel in Paris last month to appear at the Oscars.


He said the full skirts used by Dior in Paris are also likely to influence gowns on Oscar night, while spring and fall colors like cobalt blue, poppy red and yellow, as seen at the Golden Globes, could emerge.


“The Oscars carpet is the grand dame of all red carpets,” Saboura told Reuters. “It’s a world stage and what’s worn on that night will set the tone and trend of what everyone else will be wearing … and other designers will follow suit.”


Bouwer expects prints to make a big return to the red carpet as designers use computer software like photoshopping and art applications to add prints easily.


“Prints have been on day dresses for years, but now it’s moving into haute couture and ballgowns,” Bouwer told Reuters. “It’s something different. It’s pushing the envelope and there’s no reason it shouldn’t be on an evening gown.”


No matter what color, pattern or designer is chosen for the Oscar red carpet, hair stylist Jose Eber said the underlying theme will be, as always, a celebration of the golden years of Hollywood and a bygone era of timeless elegance.


“Every nominee and presenter gets inspired by that era, and you will see them paying homage to stars like Rita Hayworth, Veronica Lake, Audrey Hepburn and others,” Eber told Reuters. “But they will all have their own new twist” on elegance.


(Editing by Belinda Goldsmith and Philip Barbara)


TV News Headlines – Yahoo! News





Title Post: Actresses walking Oscar’s red carpet to exude sophistication, not sex
Url Post: http://www.news.fluser.com/actresses-walking-oscars-red-carpet-to-exude-sophistication-not-sex/
Link To Post : Actresses walking Oscar’s red carpet to exude sophistication, not sex
Rating:
100%

based on 99998 ratings.
5 user reviews.
Author: Fluser SeoLink
Thanks for visiting the blog, If any criticism and suggestions please leave a comment




Read More..

Oscars in Hollywood cliffhanger over Best Picture, Director






LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Sunday’s Oscar ceremony is set for a cliffhanger ending after a topsy-turvy awards season that has left the two top prizes – Best Picture and Best Director – too close to call.


With just days to go before the movie industry’s highest honors are handed out on February 24, awards watchers are keyed up for one of the most exciting nights in recent Academy Awards history.






Despite entering the Oscar race with a leading 12 nominations in January, the front-runner Best Picture status of Steven Spielberg‘s presidential drama “Lincoln” has been undermined by a slew of awards picked up Ben Affleck‘s Iran hostage thriller “Argo.”


But an “Argo” win despite Affleck’s omission from the Best Director shortlist would defy the conventional wisdom that says the Oscar for Best Film usually brings a trophy for its director.


“Argo” would be the first movie to take home the statuette for Best Picture without its director winning even a nomination since “Driving Miss Daisy” in 1990.


“Everything is kind of haywire, so those of us in the (awards prediction) business are all left scratching our heads and saying what does it mean?” said Matt Atchity, editor in chief of movie review website Rotten Tomatoes.


After beating “Lincoln” at the Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild, directors, producers and writers guilds, “Argo” now has the edge in the Best Picture race.


“Even if ‘Argo’ wins for Best Picture, which is kind of a foregone conclusion at this point, it still feels exciting because ‘Argo’ has managed to keep this underdog status even though it has been winning every award,” Dave Karger, chief correspondent for Fandango.com told Reuters.


“If ‘Lincoln’ wins, ironically it will be considered an upset even though it has the most nominations. That’s what’s strange about this year – all the rules seems to be turned on their heads,” Karger added.


A Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Wednesday underlined the stiff competition. Some 17 percent of the 1,443 people questioned in the United States between February 15 and 19 thought that “Lincoln” was most likely to win Best Picture, but the same percentage gave their backing to musical “Les Miserables.”


“Argo” was thought most likely to take home the Oscar by 8 percent of those questioned, while “Django Unchained” and “Life of Pi” tied with 4 percent. Some 41 percent of those asked in the Reuters/Ipsos poll were unsure which movie would win on Sunday.


JOCKEYING FOR POSITION FOR MONTHS


Unlike last year when silent film “The Artist” had the race sewn up weeks ahead of the Academy Awards ceremony, four films have moved in and out of the front position six times since September, according to movie pundits at Goldderby.com.


They include quirky comedy “Silver Linings Playbook” which won the top prize at the Toronto film festival, and “Les Miserables” the screen version of hit French Revolutionary stage show which has a strong fan following but which got mixed reviews.


“The fact the front-runner has changed so many times has made it exasperating, but almost more fun,” said Karger.


“Argo” is thought to have come through less because of a sympathy vote for the snub to Affleck and more because of its deft blend of thriller with a satire on Hollywood movie making. The movie is based on the true story of the CIA rescue from Islamic revolutionary Tehran of six U.S. diplomats who pretended to be producing a fake film.


“I think people genuinely love that movie and it’s very inclusive to the Hollywood professionals who are voting on these awards. It allows people in Hollywood to say, we helped get those hostages out, and there is an appeal there,” Atchity said.


“The critical reaction to ‘Lincoln’ tended to be that it was a very educational and really impressive film but it didn’t grab you emotionally the way some of the other nominees did.”


Directors Tom Hooper (“Les Miserables”), Kathryn Bigelow (“Zero Dark Thirty”) and Quentin Tarantino (“Django Unchained”) were also left off the Oscars short-list although their movies earned nominations.


That leaves Spielberg as presumed favorite for a third Best Director Oscar after victories with 1990s films “Schindler’s List” and “Saving Private Ryan.”


But don’t count out David O. Russell for “Silver Linings Playbook,” and Ang Lee, the self-effacing Taiwanese director who brought Yann Martel’s mythological shipwreck survival novel “Life of Pi” to the big screen.


“No one thought that book was filmable, and yet Ang Lee was able to pull it off. When you think this was the same man that made ‘Brokeback Mountain,’ ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’ and ‘Sense and Sensibility,’ he is so versatile it’s astonishing,” said Karger.


“Lincoln” is distributed by Walt Disney Co. and 20th Century Fox, a unit of News Corp; “Argo” is distributed by Warner Bros., a unit of Time Warner; “Les Miserables” is distributed by Universal Pictures, a unit of Comcast Corp; “Life of Pi” is distributed by 20th Century Fox; “Zero Dark Thirty” is released by Sony Corp’s movie studio arm; “Silver Linings Playbook” and “Django Unchained” are distributed by privately held Weinstein Co.


(Editing by Mohammad Zargham)


TV News Headlines – Yahoo! News





Title Post: Oscars in Hollywood cliffhanger over Best Picture, Director
Url Post: http://www.news.fluser.com/oscars-in-hollywood-cliffhanger-over-best-picture-director/
Link To Post : Oscars in Hollywood cliffhanger over Best Picture, Director
Rating:
100%

based on 99998 ratings.
5 user reviews.
Author: Fluser SeoLink
Thanks for visiting the blog, If any criticism and suggestions please leave a comment




Read More..

Daniel Day-Lewis as Abe Lincoln makes unstoppable Oscar force






LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – If there is one sure bet in this roller coaster movie awards season, it is that Daniel Day-Lewis will take home the Best Actor statuette at the Oscars on Sunday.


Day-Lewis, known for his meticulous preparation, would become the first man to win three Best Actor Oscars, and awards pundits say it’s not hard to see why.






The tall, intellectual actor has swept every prize in the long Hollywood awards calendar for his thoughtful, intense portrayal of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln in Steven Spielberg‘s movie “Lincoln.”


“No-one has emerged to take him on. I don’t think he has lost a single (pre-Oscar) race. We have 25 experts and every single one is betting on Daniel Day-Lewis,” said Tom O’Neil of awards website Goldderby.com.


More surprising perhaps is that Day-Lewis will also be the first person to win an Oscar for playing a U.S. president. And it has taken a Briton with dual Irish citizenship, portraying one of America’s most revered leaders, to do it.


Although “Lincoln” started the Oscar race with a leading 12 nominations, its Best Picture front-runner status has dimmed in recent weeks with the ascendance of Iran hostage drama “Argo.”


But Day-Lewis’s star has only risen with Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild and British BAFTA trophies, along with a slew of honors from film critics.


LINCOLN FOR A NEW GENERATION


Day-Lewis, 55, plays Lincoln in the last few months of a life cut short by his 1865 assassination in a film that focuses on the president’s personal commitment to abolish slavery and end the bloody four-year U.S. Civil War.


He’s not the first actor to play Lincoln on screen. Yet his quiet assurance, his adoption of a high-pitch voice rather than the booming tones associated with Lincoln, and the movie’s focus on complex political debates have shone new light on a man that many Americans thought they already knew well.


“It’s a performance that is subtle. It’s not the Lincoln you expect. It’s a different interpretation of Lincoln than we have seen and we feel, wow! This could be the way Lincoln was,” said Pete Hammond, awards columnist at Deadline.com.


“We are seeing a real human being played out here for the first time and that is extraordinary. Day-Lewis is bringing the character to life in a way we haven’t seen in years,” Hammond told Reuters.


It took Spielberg three attempts to convince Day-Lewis to play the role. Explaining his decision last month to take the part, Day-Lewis noted that “it was an actor that murdered Abraham Lincoln. Therefore, somehow it’s only fitting that every now and then, an actor tries to bring him back to life again.”


The London-born actor threw himself into the role with the same devotion that marked his Best Actor Oscar-winning performance as quadriplegic Irish writer Christy Brown in “My Left Foot” in 1989, when he spent weeks living in a wheelchair.


In “Gangs of New York,” he sharpened knives on sets between takes to capture the menace of Bill “The Butcher” Cutting, earning another Oscar nomination, and in 2008 he won his second Best Actor Award at the Oscars for his turn as a greedy oil baron in “There Will Be Blood.”


TEXTING LIKE LINCOLN


Sally Field, who plays his screen wife Mary Todd Lincoln, said Day-Lewis sent her text messages that were completely in character and in 19th century vernacular over a seven-month period prior to shooting “Lincoln.”


Joseph Gordon-Levitt who plays Lincoln’s son Robert, said he didn’t get to know Day-Lewis until after production wrapped.


“I never met Daniel in person,” Gordon-Levitt told reporters. “I only ever met the president, only ever heard the president’s voice. I called him sir, and he called me Robert.”


With four Academy Award nominations and two wins before “Lincoln,” Day-Lewis appears to have barely set a foot wrong in his 30-year career. Yet there have been missteps, including the box-office flop of star-laden musical “Nine” in 2009.


“He was sorely miscast as Guido, the adorable gigolo, and he was not convincing at all. He brought the whole film down,” recalled O’Neil. “‘Lincoln’ is a spectacular career rally for him after that disaster.”


While others are betting on Day-Lewis to take home a third Academy Award on Sunday, the actor has been modest about his chances.


“Members of the Academy love surprises, so about the worst thing that can happen to you is if you’ve built up an expectation. I think they’d probably be delighted if it was anybody else,” he told reporters after winning the Screen Actors Guild trophy in January.


Those “anybody elses” in the running are Bradley Cooper for “Silver Linings Playbook,” Denzel Washington’s alcoholic pilot in “Flight,” Joaquin Phoenix for “The Master” and Hugh Jackman in musical “Le Miserables.”


(Reporting By Jill Serjeant; Editing by Todd Eastham)


Movies News Headlines – Yahoo! News





Title Post: Daniel Day-Lewis as Abe Lincoln makes unstoppable Oscar force
Url Post: http://www.news.fluser.com/daniel-day-lewis-as-abe-lincoln-makes-unstoppable-oscar-force/
Link To Post : Daniel Day-Lewis as Abe Lincoln makes unstoppable Oscar force
Rating:
100%

based on 99998 ratings.
5 user reviews.
Author: Fluser SeoLink
Thanks for visiting the blog, If any criticism and suggestions please leave a comment




Read More..

Hollywood actors face new worry as reality commercials rise






LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – For a recent TV commercial, H&R Block’s advertising agency passed on using actors and instead chose Riley Holmes, who works at the tax preparer’s Chicago office, to pitch the company’s free “second look service” that claims it can find new deductions from prior returns.


“People bring in old tax returns and I’m like, ‘Who did this to you?’” says Holmes in the 30-second TV commercial.






With hit reality shows luring viewers to just about every channel, H&R Block is among a growing number of companies, including Bayer, Best Buy Co Inc and Ford Motor Co, which are jumping on the trend and casting their own “real housewives” and other folks who don’t act for a living in spots.


Advertisers’ growing use of “real” folks in commercials is among a growing list of challenges facing actors as the union representing 165,000 actors and media professionals, begins bargaining on Thursday on a new three-year-contract. Industry negotiators are expected to resist efforts to raise actors’ rates for the increasing number of commercials that appear online.


“People want the real cancer survivor, the real doctor, real fire eater,” said Carol Lynn Sher, who works for the CESD Talent Agency in Los Angeles. “Fewer actors being used for those roles and its taking away jobs.”


Many already chafe as they watch a growing number of A-List actors – Robin Williams in a Snickers bar commercial or Sofia Vergara for Pepsi – take jobs that used to go to them.


“My 13-year-old daughter Francesca has been auditioning for commercials for five years, and it’s harder than ever because now they want kids to be real ballerinas, real violinists or real gymnasts,” said Toni Farina, mother of a Los Angeles-based young actress.


The issue of real life people taking actors jobs isn’t likely to be formally addressed in the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) advertising negotiations.


Those talks, the first since the two guilds merged, will be focused mostly on higher pay for ads shown online and larger contributions to the union’s health and pension funds.


SAG-AFTRA declined to comment on the negotiations.


Still, the trickle of real folks in commercials has intensified, since actors signed their last contract in 2009.


In better days, actors used to get as much as $ 50,000 in residuals for a commercial that played nationally for a year, said Mike Abrams, partner with AKA Talent Agency in Los Angeles.


The appeal – not to mention price tag – of some actors are driving ad agencies elsewhere, especially as reality stars like Bethenny Frankel from “The Real Housewives of New York City” or “Jersey Shore” star Nicole Elizabeth “Snooki” Polizzi start showing up on magazine covers and hawking products.


Walt Disney Co’s ESPN went even one step further and searched for real “dead” people for a campaign last summer of 15 to 30 second commercials titled, “It’s Not Crazy, It’s Sports” featuring real-life stories about fans who took their love of their sports teams with them to the grave.


“We did a nationwide search of funeral parlors for sports fan stories and how people took their love of their teams to the grave with them,” said Dan Bell, a Los Angeles casting director who specializes in real people casting.


Chuck Kaczorowski, chairman of Kaczorowski Funeral Home in Dundalk, Maryland, was among the stars in the ad campaign, in which he talks about a Baltimore Orioles casket his funeral home offers.


Many companies now even want “real life” couples and families to make their ads authentic, said Bell. The downside is that sometimes they clam up. Other times, they catch the acting bug, and start performing for the cameras.


Bell said he also helped find a real mother and her special needs child for a Mass Mutual ad that aired last summer as part of its campaign to drive awareness of challenges facing families with children with special needs.


As negotiators for actors and advertisers gather around the table for talks, LA actors likely have their attentions divided.


“I don’t think anyone’s worried about a strike at this point, but they are worried about this trend to more reality commercials,” said Sher, the talent agent from CESD, which is a major talent agency for young television and commercial actors.


(Reporting By Susan Zeidler and Frank Simons in Los Angeles; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)


TV News Headlines – Yahoo! News





Title Post: Hollywood actors face new worry as reality commercials rise
Url Post: http://www.news.fluser.com/hollywood-actors-face-new-worry-as-reality-commercials-rise/
Link To Post : Hollywood actors face new worry as reality commercials rise
Rating:
100%

based on 99998 ratings.
5 user reviews.
Author: Fluser SeoLink
Thanks for visiting the blog, If any criticism and suggestions please leave a comment




Read More..

Romanian film “Child’s Pose” wins Berlin Golden Bear






BERLIN (Reuters) – “Child’s Pose”, a Romanian drama about a domineering mother using her social position to try to save her son from jail, won the Golden Bear for best picture at the Berlin film festival on Saturday.


The movie, directed by Calin Peter Netzer and starring Luminita Gheorghiu in the central role, had been among the favorites for the coveted prize, which extends the remarkable success of Romanian filmmakers on the European festival circuit.






The awards ceremony brought to a close the 11-day cinema showcase, where hundreds of movies were screened across Berlin and stars including Matt Damon, Nicolas Cage, Anne Hathaway, Jude Law and Catherine Deneuve walked the red carpet.


In “Child’s Pose”, Gheorghiu shines as the wealthy 60-year-old Cornelia, who attempts to buy off the poor family of a boy killed by her son in a road accident.


The veteran actress also appeared in Cristian Mungiu’s “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days”, a grisly abortion drama that put Romanian cinema firmly on the international map when it won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes film festival in 2007.


“I’m still shell-shocked,” Netzer told reporters after the ceremony. “I haven’t quite woken up to this new reality. It will probably take a couple of days for it to sink in.”


The big surprise on the night was the best actor award for Nazif Mujic, a Bosnian Roma who had to be convinced to play himself in “An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker” about his own experiences on the fringes of society.


The movie, a docu-drama directed by Danis Tanovic and made for 30,000 euros ($ 40,100), captured hearts in Berlin for its straightforward storytelling and moving account of the impoverished Mujic’s desperate attempts to pay for his wife’s emergency operation.


“FEELS LIKE NEIL ARMSTRONG”


Tanovic, an Oscar winner for his 2001 war movie “No Man’s Land”, read about the story in a local newspaper in 2011 and was so angry at Bosnian society’s apparent lack of humanity that he determined to make a film about it.


“I think he (Mujic) feels like Neil Armstrong when he went to the moon, seriously,” Tanovic said of his star. “And I really do hope it is going to change his life for the better.”


Arguably the most popular winner at the 63rd Berlin film festival was Paulina Garcia, the Chilean actress whose portrayal in “Gloria” of a 58-year-old divorcee in Santiago was the highlight for many festival-goers and won her best actress.


Refusing to retire quietly into the background, Gloria drinks, smokes, parties and enjoys sex, all the while holding down a full time job and keeping in touch with her children.


The powerful older woman was a constant theme throughout the main competition of 19 films eligible for prizes, and Garcia was up against Gheorghiu and French actresses Catherine Deneuve and Juliette Binoche for the acting Silver Bear.


Best director went to U.S. filmmaker David Gordon Green for his touching road movie “Prince Avalanche”, in which Paul Rudd and Emile Hirsch play a pair of misfits who go to work in a remote forest where they embark on a journey of self-discovery.


Iranian entry “Closed Curtain” picked up the best script prize for directors Kamboziya Partovi and Jafar Panahi. Panahi made the movie in secret in defiance of a 20-year filmmaking ban and was not allowed to travel to Berlin to collect his award.


“Tradition and culture remain, politicians come and go,” Partovi told reporters after receiving the honor.


Kazakh cinematographer Aziz Zhambakiyev was honored for outstanding artistic achievement for his painterly work on “Harmony Lessons”, set on the harsh steppes of Kazakhstan.


($ 1 = 0.7490 euros)


(Reporting by Mike Collett-White, editing by Paul Casciato)


Movies News Headlines – Yahoo! News





Title Post: Romanian film “Child’s Pose” wins Berlin Golden Bear
Url Post: http://www.news.fluser.com/romanian-film-childs-pose-wins-berlin-golden-bear/
Link To Post : Romanian film “Child’s Pose” wins Berlin Golden Bear
Rating:
100%

based on 99998 ratings.
5 user reviews.
Author: Fluser SeoLink
Thanks for visiting the blog, If any criticism and suggestions please leave a comment




Read More..

Nora Ephron to be honored at Writers Guild East Awards






LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Nora Ephron helped craft the modern romantic comedy, leaving an indelible mark on the genre by chronicling love-lorn, mildly neurotic urbanites in hits like “When Harry Met Sally” and “Sleepless in Seattle.”


The director and screenwriter was hailed as a latter-day Ernst Lubitsch for her sparkling dialogue when she died last June after battling cancer. Now the Writers Guild of America, East will add its own tribute.






The guild will honor Ephron, a member of its union, at its 2013 awards ceremony February 17 in New York City.


Author Meg Wolitzer, whose novel, “This Is My Life,” was adapted and directed by Ephron in 1992 will head up the tribute, which will include of Ephron’s work and interviews, the guild said.


“Nora Ephron’s life and body of work were those of a quintessential New Yorker, but not only did she embody the sophistication, wit and energy of our city, she was also a loyal union member who walked the picket line and talked the talk on behalf of all her fellow writers,” Michael Winship, president of the Writers Guild of America, East, said in a statement.


In addition to her films, Ephron was a journalist and memoirist. Her novel “Heartburn” was a thinly disguised roman a clef about the dissolution of her marriage to reporter Carl Bernstein; her play, “Lucky Guy,” stars actor Tom Hanks and debuts on Broadway in March 2013.


Ephron received the union’s Ian McClellan Hunter Award honoring her body of work as a writer in motion pictures in 2003.


Movies News Headlines – Yahoo! News





Title Post: Nora Ephron to be honored at Writers Guild East Awards
Url Post: http://www.news.fluser.com/nora-ephron-to-be-honored-at-writers-guild-east-awards/
Link To Post : Nora Ephron to be honored at Writers Guild East Awards
Rating:
100%

based on 99998 ratings.
5 user reviews.
Author: Fluser SeoLink
Thanks for visiting the blog, If any criticism and suggestions please leave a comment




Read More..

Peter Sarsgaard booked for “The Killing” season three






LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Now that “The Killing” has landed a new season, the AMC drama has also added a notable new cast member.


Kinsey” star Peter Sarsgaard has joined the series in a recurring role, a spokeswoman for the network told TheWrap on Tuesday.






Sarsgaard will play Tom Seward, a death row inmate and lifelong convict who’s been in and out of the justice system for violent crimes since he was 10. Born into poverty and crime, Seward never wants to appear weak, and views every interaction as a challenge that he must dominate.


Last month, AMC renewed the series for a third season, saying that Veena Sud would return as showrunner, writer and executive producer for the 12-episode season.


Actors Mireille Enos and Joel Kinnaman are also returning for the third season, which begins production February 25 in Vancouver.


This will mark Sarsgaard’s first recurring role on a television series.


TV News Headlines – Yahoo! News





Title Post: Peter Sarsgaard booked for “The Killing” season three
Url Post: http://www.news.fluser.com/peter-sarsgaard-booked-for-the-killing-season-three/
Link To Post : Peter Sarsgaard booked for “The Killing” season three
Rating:
100%

based on 99998 ratings.
5 user reviews.
Author: Fluser SeoLink
Thanks for visiting the blog, If any criticism and suggestions please leave a comment




Read More..

In newly released love letters, LBJ’s sweet side comes to life






AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) – Lyndon B. Johnson was so smitten when he met Claudia Alta “Lady Bird” Taylor in 1934 that he took her on a first date the very next day — and asked for her hand in marriage.


Taylor adored her suitor but was worried about rushing into marriage, according to dozens of love letters between the two set to be released for the first time by the LBJ Presidential Library on Thursday, Valentine’s Day.






In the pages of about 90 letters that the newly renovated library plans to post on its website, Johnson seems lonely and impatient, persistently urging Taylor to make up her mind. She says she wants to wait until they know each other better, though she also writes that she is afraid of losing him.


“All I can say, in absolute honesty, is — I love you, I don’t know how everlastingly I love you, — so I can’t answer you yet,” Taylor wrote him shortly after they met that September.


Johnson, then 26 and working in Washington, D.C., as a secretary to Congressman Richard Kleberg, met Taylor, 21, through a friend while visiting Texas and asked her for a date the next morning. They had breakfast at the Driskill Hotel in Austin and spent the day sightseeing. That same day, he popped the question, asking her to become his wife.


After he returned to Washington, they spent two and a half months exchanging a flurry of letters and phone calls before going to San Antonio on November 17 to, as she later put it, “commit matrimony.”


In the letters, Johnson implores her to write to him frequently.


“Give me lots of letters next week,” he wrote to her. “I’m going to need them. Mix some ‘I love you’ in the lines and not between them.”


Johnson’s letters begin “My dear” or “Dear Bird.” She addresses him as “My Dearest Lyndon” and signs “Devotedly, Bird.” They sent each other photos. He sent her books.


“I wish you were here this minute because I feel silly and gay and I want to ruffle up your hair and kiss you and say silly things!” wrote Taylor, who had recently graduated from the University of Texas and was living with her father in Karnack, in East Texas.


A few of the letters had been released before, but this is the first time that all of the letters are being made public.


People probably won’t be shocked to see a sweet side of Lady Bird Johnson, but reading tender sentiments from her husband, the hard-charging politician, is a different matter, said granddaughter Catherine Robb.


Johnson, who served in the U.S. House and Senate and as vice president, ascended to the presidency in 1963 as the nation grieved over the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Johnson closed out his administration in 1969 under the cloud of Vietnam. He died in 1973.


He was known for giving the “Johnson Treatment” — he’d lean in close, push people’s buttons and get under their skin.


“I don’t think people think of him as being terribly vulnerable,” Robb, an Austin lawyer, told Reuters. In the letters, “you see a much more personal side of him, much more unguarded.”


For example, he writes to his future wife that he carries a little orange comb in his billfold.


“It is the only thing I have from my little girl at Karnack and when I get lonesome and blue or happy and ambitious I always get pleasure when I look at the little comb and think … just think,” Johnson wrote.


Robb, who had weekly dinners with her grandmother for years before she died in 2007, recalled one meal at the Driskill Hotel – the site of her grandparents’ first date.


“I asked her what she thought about this brash, impatient young man who proposed almost immediately and who she put off for a whopping two and a half months,” Robb said. “She thought it was reasonable to wait an appropriate period of time, but she realized that she didn’t want to be without him – he was something so special and this was an extraordinary adventure she was going to enjoy if she said yes.”


Lyndon and Lady Bird Johnson honeymooned in Mexico and were married for 39 years. They had two daughters, Luci Baines Johnson and Lynda Johnson Robb.


(Reporting by Corrie MacLaggan; Editing by Leslie Adler)


Celebrity News Headlines – Yahoo! News





Title Post: In newly released love letters, LBJ’s sweet side comes to life
Url Post: http://www.news.fluser.com/in-newly-released-love-letters-lbjs-sweet-side-comes-to-life/
Link To Post : In newly released love letters, LBJ’s sweet side comes to life
Rating:
100%

based on 99998 ratings.
5 user reviews.
Author: Fluser SeoLink
Thanks for visiting the blog, If any criticism and suggestions please leave a comment




Read More..

A Minute With: Michael Haneke and the story behind “Amour”






LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Austrian director Michael Haneke said his stark drama “Amour,” which has scored a surprising five Oscar nominations including for Best Picture, was inspired by his own experiences dealing with an aged aunt facing death.


The unflinching take on devotion, growing old and illness has also picked up Oscar nominations for Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Foreign Film and Best Actress for Emmanuelle Riva‘s performance as bed-ridden Anne.






Haneke, who is also known for 2001′s “The Piano Teacher” and 1997′s “Funny Games” and its 2007 Hollywood remake, is the favorite to win the Best Foreign Film award for which he was nominated in 2010 for “The White Ribbon.”


Haneke, 70, spoke to Reuters from Madrid, where he is directing the Mozart opera “Cosi Fan Tutte,” about the film, what it would mean to win an Oscar, and his future plans.


Q: What do you make of some of the critics who, in their praise, have called the drama a horror film for its graphic portrayal of the end of life?


A: I believe that it has been a bit exaggerated how the film has been portrayed. The film is shocking, but the truth is always shocking. It’s no walk in the park, but it’s difficult and serious, and that makes it contemplative. I assume that I have an adult audience and that they’ll understand the situation. The film shouldn’t be a distraction (from life) – as many films are – but the film is also not meant to shock.


Q: What intentions did you set out with?


A: I wanted to make a film about how we deal with the suffering of the people that we love. I could’ve certainly made a film about a couple married for 40 years with a child who dies of cancer. That would only be a tragic, singular case and less representative. But we all grow old and nearly all of us get sick and that subject matter is more general and concerns nearly everyone one of us.


I’ve also heard in the reception to the film from people that have said it’s just like what happened to me and my family. Indeed, that crosses generations as young people live through how their grandparents die or become ill or simply suffer, and now their parents are in the same situation. It’s a matter that affects everyone.


Q: Did you have an inspiration for the film?


A: The story arose out of my family. My aunt killed herself at the age of 93 and before she did it she asked me whether or not I could help her. I loved her very much and to watch her suffer was very difficult, but I certainly couldn’t help her (kill herself) because I’d be thrown in jail. Personally, I don’t believe I could’ve done it anyway.


Q: Did you expect “Amour” to receive five Oscar nominations?


A: No, certainly not. I had hoped and figured … that one or another nomination would come our way but I was naturally, like many, pleasantly surprised.


Q: How will it be to be a star of sorts at the Oscars?


A: Star? Those who are invited are of course stars (laughs) … I certainly find it delightful to get dressed up with these people that the entire world knows and to compete alongside them. It’s quite enjoyable.


Q: What will it be like if “Amour” wins?


A: I’ll be happy. We’re happy about any prize but you don’t make films to win awards. Nonetheless, you’re certainly quite happy about the recognition. For the film, it also makes it possible for many more to see it. And each prize piques the interest of more people to watch the film.


Q: How much longer do you intend to keep making films?


A: As long as I can. I don’t know that answer. I could drop dead tomorrow or fall seriously ill. I’m no longer 25 years old but I don’t plan on calling it quits anytime soon, and perhaps that annoys someone somewhere.


(Reporting by Eric Kelsey, Editing by Belinda Goldsmith)


Movies News Headlines – Yahoo! News





Title Post: A Minute With: Michael Haneke and the story behind “Amour”
Url Post: http://www.news.fluser.com/a-minute-with-michael-haneke-and-the-story-behind-amour/
Link To Post : A Minute With: Michael Haneke and the story behind “Amour”
Rating:
100%

based on 99998 ratings.
5 user reviews.
Author: Fluser SeoLink
Thanks for visiting the blog, If any criticism and suggestions please leave a comment




Read More..

“Good Day to Die Hard” takes $10 million in Asian box office






LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – “Good Day to Die Hard” is off and running overseas. The Bruce Willis action film took in more than $ 10 million in its debut in seven Asian markets for Fox.


Django Unchained” was the top international moneymaker for the fourth consecutive week, adding $ 18.7 million from 66 markets. Quentin Tarantino‘s slave saga has now brought in $ 187 million overseas.






“Good Day to Die Hard” opens Thursday in North America. The leading market was Korea, where it made $ 4.2 million. It broke a Fox record in Indonesia with $ 1.4 million and was the biggest of the franchise openings in Hong Kong with $ 1.2 million.


Fox is counting on big things from “Good Day to Die Hard.” Starting with the original film in 1988, which made $ 148 million worldwide, each successive movie has made more money at the global box office.


The last one, “Live Free Or Die Hard,” made $ 383 million in 2007. In all, the “Die Hard” franchise has taken in $ 1.13 billion.


Fox also opened “Lincoln” in seven new markets, contributing to the DreamWorks’ historical drama’s roughly $ 10 million weekend overseas, in which it played in 51 territories. Australia was the top new market with $ 1.8 million for “Lincoln,” which has brought in $ 47.6 million from foreign markets overall.


“Les Miserables,” like “Lincoln” and “Django” a Best Picture Oscar nominee, also brought in roughly $ 10 million over the weekend, from 46 markets. The musical’s international gross now stands at $ 215 million.


Paramount’s 3D action fantasy “Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters” added $ 11.6 million from 46 regions and has now brought in $ 84 million at the foreign box office.


Disney’s video game-inspired animated film “Wreck-it Ralph” raised its overall international total to $ 207 million by adding another $ 11.7 million from 66 foreign markets.


Movies News Headlines – Yahoo! News





Title Post: “Good Day to Die Hard” takes $10 million in Asian box office
Url Post: http://www.news.fluser.com/good-day-to-die-hard-takes-10-million-in-asian-box-office/
Link To Post : “Good Day to Die Hard” takes $10 million in Asian box office
Rating:
100%

based on 99998 ratings.
5 user reviews.
Author: Fluser SeoLink
Thanks for visiting the blog, If any criticism and suggestions please leave a comment




Read More..

After Whitney death, Clive Davis gala presses on






BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) — A year after Whitney Houston‘s death, music executive Clive Davis remembered her in words — and video.


Houston died last year just hours before the annual Clive Davis Gala was to start. On Saturday, Davis said his world continues “to be so shattered by her passing” and that Houston‘s death still feels “unreal.”






Then Davis played what he called a rare performance of Houston belting “All The Man That I Need” on Saturday the Beverly Hilton Hotel.


Houston‘s brother and sister-in-law, Gary and Pat Houston, attended the gala, where Davis thanked them “for being here tonight.” He also called Houston the “greatest, greatest singer of our lifetime.”


Dutch electronic artist Afrojack kicked off the performances with a DJ set, but it was Gladys Knight who got the crowd up out of their seats with a closing number.


Her voice — still crisp and loud — felt at ease on “Neither One of Us” and “Midnight Train to Georgia.”


“You’ve been waiting here for a while and we all have to go, and I’m catching a train,” the 68-year-old singer said before going into her popular hit that had Verdine White of Earth, Wind & Fire dancing around his chair.


And Knight wasn’t the only performer to leave an impression during Davis’ nearly four-hour event.


Scottish singer Emeli Sande was well-received when hitting the right notes on “Heaven.” Miguel, who is nominated for five awards at Sunday’s Grammys, was energetic when he performed his R&B hit “Adorn.” He danced in the middle of the tables in the audience, and at one point sang to Taylor Hawkins’ wife Alison — as the Foo Fighters drummer watched on.


Usher, too, brought R&B flavor to the stage when he performed in honor of music executive Antonio “L.A.” Reid, who received the president’s merit award. Usher sang some of “Burn” and “Climax,” which featured the acoustic guitar.


The event was full of A-listers there to enjoy the live music: Johnny Depp, Quincy Jones, Sting, Joni Mitchell, Diddy, Miley Cyrus, Frank Ocean, Dave Grohl, Magic Johnson and San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick were in the crowd.


“I’ve read the papers and I know you’ve been spending time with,” Davis said when announcing that Katy Perry and John Mayer were in the audience.


Usher also drew laughs when he told an old story about Reid signing the then teen to his record label.


“If I never can thank you for anything, it would be for not letting me go with the name Cha Cha,” Usher said of his previous stage name.


The pre-Grammy event also featured performances by Patti Smith, best new artist nominees the Lumineers and Jennifer Hudson, who paid tribute to Knight and performed with the singing veteran.


Ne-Yo, Carly Rae Jepsen, Brandy, David Guetta, Babyface, Wiz Khalifa, Jordin Sparks, Tyra Banks and dozens of others attended Davis’ gala.


___


Follow Mesfin Fekadu on Twitter at http://twitter.com/MusicMesfin


Entertainment News Headlines – Yahoo! News





Title Post: After Whitney death, Clive Davis gala presses on
Url Post: http://www.news.fluser.com/after-whitney-death-clive-davis-gala-presses-on/
Link To Post : After Whitney death, Clive Davis gala presses on
Rating:
100%

based on 99998 ratings.
5 user reviews.
Author: Fluser SeoLink
Thanks for visiting the blog, If any criticism and suggestions please leave a comment




Read More..