Where Dreaming Is Believing
Continue reading “Review: ‘Damsel’ Is A Western of the Highest Order”
The story, penned by Bruce Wagner (Wild Palms, I’m Losing You), features Moore as Havana Segrand, a has been actress who finds herself working withing the shadows of her legendary mother Clarice (Sarah Gadon). John Cusack is a TV self-help therapist whose emotionally scarred daughter Agatha (Mia Waskikowska) serves as Havana’s personal assistant. Robert Pattinson, who previously worked with David Cronenberg in Maps to the Stars, plays a limo driver who becomes fast friends with Agatha.
Moore won the Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival for Map to the Stars, and one would assume Focus World will give the film a limited run in December for Oscar consideration.
Whatever the case may be, Moore has always been a professional, and although her career is filled with excellent work, she remains a humble and hardworking actress.
In the clip below, Julianne Moore explains why, when push comes to shove, it’s really all about the work:
Today in Los Angeles, Dane DeHaan sat down with reporters to talk about his latest film Life After Beth, a project that’s now available on DirecTV and opens in limited release August 15. A romantic comedy/zombie hybrid, Life After Beth centers on Zach (Dane DeHaan), a lovelorn young man who is heartbroken over the death of his girlfriend Beth (Aubrey Plaza). When Beth digs herself out of the grave and returns back to her parents (Molly Shannon, John C. Reilly), Zach is more than happy to see her – even if she’s a zombie.
I’ll be posting much more material on Life After Beth in the coming days, but for now I wanted to share DeHaan’s recent comments on Life, a movie which has him playing James Dean, with Robert Pattinson starring as photographer Dennis Stock. A Most Wanted Man filmmaker Anton Corbijn is the man behind the camera, and the project is slated for release next year.
Below is a full transcription of DeHaan’s comments on Life:
***plot summary
“Well, the movie’s called Life and Anton Corbijn is directing it. It’s about two weeks of James Dean’s life right before East of Eden comes out. And Dennis Stock played by Robert Pattinson gets permission from Life magazine to do the first ever photo essay of James Dean and they go back from L.A. to New York and then from New York back to James Dean’s hometown (Fairmount, Indiana). Some of the most iconic images of James Dean. Images of him from Times Square, the images of him with the cattle. Just a lot of the ones that make him look the most human – because in a lot of ways he was. He wasn’t famous yet.”
***on the themes of Life:
“It’s about a lot of things. The photographer’s journey and the influence James Dean has on him and what it means to be a professional but also to still have a place that you want to call home. It’s a pretty deep exploration of a movie.”
***on preparing for the film:
“I had tons of time for that. I had probably four months to prepare. I was about 20 pounds heavier at the time and it was great to have that much time. It was a real luxury to be able to prepare, to read as much as I could. He’s my favorite actor and I was really. . . I didn’t know if I wanted to do that movie at first but when I decided to do it, it was something I wanted to make sure I had a lot of time to prepare and honor as much as I could.”
To hear the edited audio comments from Dane DeHaan, click on the SoundCloud bar below (Aubrey Plaza is also heard in the clip):
The trailer for Life After Beth is below:
Whether he continues his journey into thematically rich, lower budgeted films or if he will sign on for a huge epic isn’t really part of Robert Pattinson’s though process. For him, picking a role isn’t driven by what’s trending in Hollywood or what film would take him higher atop the A-list ladder.
“I don’t really have any particular preconceived plan, I mean each of the Twilight movies I kind of approached them all as individual movies,” said Pattinson. “I never really saw it as (I’m) going back to work or whatever. You can’t really predict what audiences will like or want or even if they’re going to follow you. I think if you try to make challenging stuff (and) you put your heart into it, hopefully at least one person’s going to like it.”
To hear the audio version Robert Pattinson’s thoughts on not having a preconceived plan, check out the Soundcloud bar below:
The Rover, starring Guy Pearce, is now playing in select theaters.
Robert Pattinson, who previously worked with Cronenberg in Cosmopolis, plays a limo driver/actor in the picture, and Julianne Moore joins in on the fun as an aging, overwrought actress whose career is overshadowed by the work of her iconic mother. Although the story is set in Tinselton, Cronenberg believes the narrative’s themes are universal.
“It’s not only about Hollywood and about the movie business,” said the filmmaker. “You could set it in Silicon Valley. You could set it in Wall Street. Any place where people are desperate, ambitious, greedy, (and) fearful. You could really set it anywhere and have that same tone and same ring of truth.”
During the Cannes Film Festival press conference for Maps to the Stars, Cronenberg talked about the creative process and motivations he carries before each project. “I don’t really feel I’m inventing myself,” said the director. “But I’m entertaining myself. I’m amusing myself. For me a project is kind of an exploration. I really am asking myself many questions on what it is to be a human being. What is the essence of the human condition, and there are many ways of approaching that.”
Click on the media bar below to hear Cronenberg talk about his filmmaking process:
