Most Anticipated Next Film

[Jeff Wrangler]

Robert Pattinson to Play Lawrence of Arabia

By Raphael Chestang | ET Online

Variety reports that the actor, whose latest film Cosmopolis opens in limited release on Friday, is now attached to play British Army officer T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) in the upcoming indie flick, Queen of the Desert.

Naomi Watts stars in the movie as English writer Gertrude Bell, who helped define the borders of Iraq, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. The film chronicles Bell's life as an archaeologist, explorer, cartographer and political attache for Great Britain.

Lawrence and Bell became close friends as they worked in the Middle East, establishing the Hashemite dynasties in Jordan and Iraq.

T.E. Lawrence was famously played by Peter O'Toole in David Lean's 1962 classic based on the life of the man whose writing made him a household name.

Robert Pattinson. Queen of the Desert. 

[brokebacktom]

Robert Pattinson. Queen of the Desert. 

I agree. He can't act either.

[Cally]

The film I thought he was best in was Little Ashes (2008), playing a young Salvador Dali who was bisexual and in love with Lorca, but just couldn't quite commit to gay sex with him.

[oilgun]

The film I thought he was best in was Little Ashes (2008), playing a young Salvador Dali who was bisexual and in love with Lorca, but just couldn't quite commit to gay sex with him.

I loved that movie! the actor who played Lorca, Javier Beltrán, was especially good.  I also liked the uber sexy Matthew McNulty as the homophobic Bunuel.
Although I seem to be in the minority I though Pattinson was pretty good in Cronenberg's Cosmopolis.  Cronenberg also liked him in Little Ashes , it was because of that performance that he cast him in Cosmopolis.

[Jeff Wrangler]

I make fun of Robert Pattinson because I totally do not get him (maybe I would if I were a tween-age girl, but even then I doubt it  ).

But I've never heard of Gertrude Bell, so I will say that the concept of that film actually does sound interesting to me.

[oilgun]

I make fun of Robert Pattinson because I totally do not get him (maybe I would if I were a tween-age girl, but even then I doubt it   ).

But I've never heard of Gertrude Bell, so I will say that the concept of that film actually does sound interesting to me.

I've been reading the July-August issue of the French film magazine Cahiers du Cinéma and the theme is Eroticism.  There's a short piece on Pattinson called Pattinson, Chimera by Sophia Collet:  

"His smooth physiognomy prevents us from grasping him, his roughness made ever so remote by the thickness and darkness of his flattened features.  What he projects, so to speak, is sublimation. It is precisely because Pattinson's beauty is so radiant, from the magical contrasts between darkness and light, that it threatens to extinguish itself.  His eroticism is oxymoronic, a chimera.  It is characteristic of chimerical beautiy to extinguish the opposites, to make them live together." [excuse my clumsy translation]

Does that help?  

A Salon interview with David Cronenberg:
http://www.salon.com/2012/08/18/david_cronenberg_how_i_seduced_rob_pattinson/
[...]
In a way, “Cosmopolis” is a lot closer to his heart than “Twilight,” you know. When he read it, he told me that he was also struck by the dialogue. He thought it was incredibly fresh and new and surprising and engaging, and he immediately wanted to do it. He was afraid, because I think he still hasn’t come to terms with the fact that he’s actually an actor! He didn’t grow up thinking he wanted to be an actor. As with many actors, and not just young, inexperienced ones, he wasn’t sure he was good enough! He wasn’t sure he was the right guy, and he didn’t want to be the guy who would bring down this terrific project. So my job, at that point, was to convince him that he was indeed the right guy. That took me about 10 days, I suppose.
[...]

[doodler]

I think he's sallow and creepy.
I've never seen him in anything, so I don't know if he can act. Doesn't matter to me. I think he's sallow and creepy.

[Jeff Wrangler]

(Re: Robert Pattinson)

Does that help?  

Not really, but thanks anyway. 

I think he's sallow and creepy.
I've never seen him in anything, so I don't know if he can act. Doesn't matter to me. I think he's sallow and creepy.

Over dinner this evening I read David Denby's review of Cosmopolis in the August 27 issue of The New Yorker (he also reviewed Compliance, and, incidentally, the title of the review was "Creep Shows"  ). I must say that I totally see Pattinson in the role of a character who gets a prostate exam every day. And you know how they do those exams! 

[oilgun]

I think he's sallow and creepy.
I've never seen him in anything, so I don't know if he can act. Doesn't matter to me. I think he's sallow and creepy.

You often make me laugh with sound. Thanks for that!  

_____________________


I just posted in the Gay Film Thread about the movie Keep the Lights On starring the amazing Danish actor Thure Lindhardt.  Well he's also starring in the upcoming Canadian-Danish co-production Eddie, the Sleepwalking Cannibal:

With a title that screams "campy fun ahead," Eddie -The Sleepwalking Cannibal both telegraphs its pleasures and sells them short. Yes, this Danish-Canadian co-production is pure fun from its first moment to its last (and beyond: stay for the credits), but it's not relying solely on winking, tongue-in-cheekiness. Not even close. Combining a winning fish-out-of-water tale ("Denmark, where's that? Europe?") with, believe it or not, elements of a classic screwball comedy, director Boris Rodriguez does a terrific job of entertaining us even without all the ghoulishly well-done horror. So when that stuff hits the screen, yeah, the movie officially enters overload territory.

The screwball component comes from the basic plot contrivance. Renowned but apparently burnt-out painter Lars Olafssen (Thure Lindhardt) joins the faculty of a Canadian art school. There's one catch, though: for the institution to stay afloat financially he must become a kind of big brother guardian for the title character (Dylan Smith). Traumatized at an early age and now no longer able to speak, he's allowed to hang out on campus since he's the nephew of a wealthy benefactor.

So a quick question for you: would I be spoiling anything by revealing that Eddie is a somnambulist... who also happens to munch on people?

Nah, I didn't think so.

But rather than simply leveraging this premise to indulge in some random blood-letting and facile black comedy, the screenplay by Jonathan Rannells and Rodriguez goes a lot deeper (although not heavier, somehow). The web of interdependence--the school, and by implication the wider community, relies on Eddie, and thus Lars as well--creates a series of moral, if humorously presented, conundrums. Can Lars really control Eddie? If he can't, then what--should he tell someone? What about his potential love interest, played appealingly by Pontypool's Georgina Reilly? Should he confide in her, or just revel in how two somewhat marginalized outsiders get repositioned as "heroes."

I'm trying not to give away too much here, especially as regards Lars' creative rebirth, but let's just say that as a film about art, alienation, and madness, Eddie is not so much Color Me Blood Red as it is John Brahm's unforgettable Hangover Square. I'd even suggest that it has a quiet grandeur that sneaks up on you. That's because Eddie starts to represent a psychological extension of Lars--they function as a single entity in a lot of ways--and so Eddie's monstrousness becomes directly tied to Lars' increasingly visionary states of mind.

In this respect one of things that the film does so well is play to star Lindhardt's strengths. There's a darkness to him just below the surface, one that's hard to pick up on since he's so likable. For much of the time he plays the straight man and, as I've always felt, proves that the straight man is the role that really makes comedy work--his reactions to the oddballs around him is superb. Yet he's funny, too, taking lines like "I think he ate a rabbit in the forest last night" and delivering them with a brand of deadpan elegance that seems to work every time.

The rest of the cast is equally strong. In supporting roles Paul Braunstein, Alain Goulem, Peter Michael Dillon are all hilarious. To cap things, Stephen McHattie--whose appearance along with Reilly's makes Eddie a kind of Pontypool reunion--spouts several scene-stealing one-liners in his role as Lars' agent. All of which makes me think that Eddie has "future cult film" written all over it. Because what is a cult film, really? Isn't it a film that you want to revisit repeatedly because you just want to spend time with its characters again, even if you know what happens to them?

I could go on--the wonderful score by David Burns, the brisk pacing, and so on. I'm sure if I really try there's something negative I could find to say about Eddie - The Sleepwalking Cannibal. But I guess I'll just have to watch it again to find out what that is.

http://twitchfilm.com/reviews/2012/04/tribeca-2012-review-eddie-the-sleepwalking-cannibal.php

[bubba]

I think he's sallow and creepy.
I've never seen him in anything, so I don't know if he can act. Doesn't matter to me. I think he's sallow and creepy.

Worked for the vampire role!

 


I haven't seen him in anything but Twilight movies and Harry Potter.  I like him though, he's cute when he smiles.


Speaking of the next Twilight.........   coming soon!

[doodler]

HOW many of those Twilights are there? Don't know why I care... I don't go to the movies even to see what I want to!

[bubba]

Four, but the last one was done in two parts - money grab I guess!

[oilgun]

This dark comedy by Ben Wheatley looks awesome!  I haven't seen his previous film Kill List which got great reviews last year.

When introverted dog-lover Tina (Alice Lowe) meets would-be author Chris (Steve Oram), she dares to dream of an escape from her sheltered life and suffocating mother. In spite of mum's protests, the pair packs an RV with all the comforts of home and sets out on the open road. With a meticulously plotted journey to such destinations as the Keswick Pencil Museum and the Ribblehead Viaduct, Chris and Tina are ready for an endearingly humble adventure. But it doesn't take long for their dream of a quiet romantic getaway to fade, as rude tourists, noisy teens and crowded campsites conspire to shatter their peace.

When Chris backs their caravan over a litterbug who carelessly tosses an ice cream wrapper on the ground, the demure Tina seems surprisingly unfazed by her partner's barely concealed bloodlust. As Chris becomes increasingly emboldened in his mission to rid the world of offensive people, something is unleashed within Tina, and her wide-eyed enthusiasm for seeing the countryside transforms into a hilariously coldblooded fascination with murder. Wheatley's charmingly frumpy Bonnie and Clyde become progressively more unhinged as their erotic odyssey turns into a killing spree, testing both their relationship and their faith in each other.

http://twitchfilm.com/news/2012/08/sightseers-trailer.php

The full trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIh-LlbtFks

[canmark]

A few of the movies I hope to see at the upcoming Toronto International Film Festival.

Cloud Atlas looks like a big ole epic film.

http://cloudatlas.warnerbros.com/
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWnAqFyaQ5s

The Sapphires looks like a wonderful feel-good movie. Out in the Dark, Detroit Unleaded and Kinshasa Kids look interesting, for various different reasons.

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wl1wsBb_kFs
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0p-Jj7Djc0
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFsMXzq1nIA
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOhcgq8cNSY

[bubba]

http://www.buzzsugar.com/Fall-Movies-2012-24642346?slide=1

Lots to look forward to in the fall!