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Showing posts with label Gael García Bernal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gael García Bernal. Show all posts

Foreign Film Oscars: International Beauty Pageant.

If you'd like to read about the now official Oscar submissions for Best Foreign Language Film,  click away. But because you -- make that we -- can't see most of the films, due to the hideous state of international distribution, let us use this Academy press release as an excuse to take a different view, a sexytime view... a Beauty Break if you will. Let's gawk at the actors and actresses who are in the submitted films. We'll pretend it's like a Miss Universe pageant (how do you say "shallow" in Finnish?). Randomly selected hotties follow (it's not easy to find info/photos.) whether you're into the men, the women or other. Don't judge!


Beauty Knows No Borders
I presume you'll let me know your very favorites in the comments. Do I presume too much?

Handsome Guys...

Left:  Bill Skarsgård a.k.a. Alexander's lil brö (20) for Sweden's Simple Simon.
Right: Oscar Guerrero (age unknown) for Puerto Rico's Miente / Lie.
Oh the imperfections of the web: Guerrero is obviously famous having been in several films and soap operas and yet he has neither a wikipedia page nor any personal information on the IMDb. Weirder still, the IMDb does not even list him as appearing in Miente, a film in which he plays the lead role!


Left: Mark Chao -- or Zhao depending on your info source -- (26) for Taiwan's Monga (see previous post). He also sings.
Right: George Pistereanu (19) for Romania. Some people think he looks like...


Left: Gael García Bernal (31) for Spain in Even the Rain. He's from Mexico and the most familiar face in this year's submission list outside of Javier Bardem, who is from Spain representing Mexico with Biutiful. They've flip-flopped countries, submission-wise. I sat two rows behind them -- they were together so I assume they're friends -- in Toronto for The Sea Inside premiere back in 2004. Memories ♫
Right: Boris Ler (25) for Bosnia Hersegovina in Danis Tanovic's Cirkus Columbia.


Left: Coco Martin (26) who stars in Noy for The Philippines. (see previous post)
Right: Santiago Cabrera (32), who you'll remember from the TV show Heroes (first season only -- the tortured artist) who is the romantic lead of Chile's The Life of Fish. The Chilean actor was born in Venezuela, speaks four languages and lives in London. International!


Left: Pablo Derqui (34) for Costa Rica's Of Love and Other Demons. He was born in Barcelona and is a TV star in Spain.
Right: Asser Yassin (29) for Egypt in Messages From the Sea.


Left: Aarif Lee (23) for Hong Kong's Echoes of the Rainbow. He won the Best Newcomer Award in the Hong Kong Film Awards for this role. He's starring in a Bruce Lee biopic next. Here's more info on the Lee picture.
Right: Mateusz Kościukiewicz (24) for Poland. He stars in the punk rock drama All That I Love. At least one website names him the Polish Robert Pattison !

Gorg' Ladies...


Left: Maria Bonnevie (37) for Norway in Engelen (Angel). See previous post for more on Maria.
Right: Lubna Azabal (age unknown) for Canada in Incendies (it's one to watch for the finalist list, I think). She's from Belgium and of Moroccan descent.


Left: Sibel Kekilli (30) for Germany's award winning When We Leave. We are fond of her.
Right: Blanca Lewin (36) for Chile in the romantic drama The Life of Fish. She's a television star there.


Left: Takako Matsu (33) for Japan in Confessions (see previous post for exciting trailer). She won several best actress awards recently for the melodrama Villon's Wife.
Right: Micaela Ramazzotti (31) for Italy in The First Beautiful Thing. She plays the young mother of two kids in this nostalgic memoir. (The role is shared with award-winning Stefania Sandrelli when the mother gets older). Lotsa photos of Micaela... she currently has darker hair.


Left: Jana Zupančič (age unknown) for Slovenia's 9:06. Like Guerrero up top she's also not listed on the IMDb as part of her submitted film, but she's one of only three actors on the poster. You may remember her from last year's submission Landscape No. 2 (previously reviewed right here).
Right: Mariana Santángelo (34) for Puerto Rico's Miente / Lie. She's from Argentina.


For Specialized Tastes...


Left: Jenny Larrue & Cindy Scrash who play rival transsexual cabaret stars in Portugal's To Die Like a Man.
Right: Various for Hungary in what must be the oddest Oscar submission this side of Uncle Boonmee. It's called Bibliotheque Pascal.
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If you'd like to read more uh... professional and totally official info on the Best Foreign Language Film Submissions, click for whichever country you're interested in. On the charts you'll see posters, official site links for further exploration, distribution status (US based only, sorry) and basic trivia. As always the best way to see any of them is to pay close attention to festival schedules in cities closest to you.
  • Albania to France
    23 films: East West East, Outside the Law, Carancho, La Pivellina, The Precinct, Third Person Singular Number, Illégal, Cirkus Columbia, Lula the Son of Brazil, Eastern Plays, Incendies, The Life of Fish, Aftershock, Crab Trap, Of Love and Other Demons, The Blacks, Kawasaki's Rose, In a Better World, Messages From the Sea, The Temptation of St Tony, The Athlete, Steam of Life, and Of Gods and Men.
  • Georgia to Nicaragua
    21 films: Street Days, When We Leave, Dogtooth, Nuummioq, Echoes of the Rainbow, Bibliotheque Pascal, Mamma Gogo, Peepli Live, How Funny This Country Is, Farewell Baghdad, Son of Babylon, The Human Resources Manager, The First Beautiful Thing, Confessions, Strayed, The Light Thief, Hong Kong Confidential, Mothers, Biutiful, Tirza and La Yuma.
  • Norway to Venezuela
    21 films: Angel, Undertow, Noy, All That I Love, To Die Like a Man, Lie, If I Want to Whistle I Whistle, The Edge, Besa, The Border, 9:06, Life Above All, A Barefoot Dream, Even the Rain, Simple Simon, La Petit Chambre, Monga, Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, Honey, A Useful Life, and Hermano.

Cannes Tweets & Treats #3: Ring Bearing, Butt Patting, and Web Brawling

more miscellania from the South of France

On a scale of one to ten, exactly how jealous is director Alejandro González Iñárritu trying to make you with his touchy feely ways?


Eleven?

He's in Cannes with his Babel follow up Biutiful starring Javier Bardem. Gael García Bernal (also being manhandled above) is not in that forthcoming motion picture but he's a jury president this year. He'll be influential in deciding which director wins the Camera D'Or which is given for first features. (Here's a pic of Gael with his jury.)

<-- Meg Ryan hits the parties & premieres with producer Lawrence Bender

But on to the tweeting. Before you read these you should read this humorous USA Today article that stars many of these critics -- Jeffrey Wells gets a lot of play because he likes to rumble -- in the rarified atmosphere of this world event fest. It's a shame that Wells has to resort to calling IndieWire writers "effete" though when he is usually so talented at creative descriptives like "hot dog eating humans". heh.

@mattnoller "BIUTIFUL sucks, but I'm not gonna punch anyone to get that point across. Weak arms, is the thing."
@ICSFilm Buitiful makes Precious look like a Disney princess movie. Unrelenting misery porn, to be sure, but committed brutal performances by all.
@AwardsDaily "
The five hour CARLOS looms. Not sure I can deal."
@Laremy "My festival is a wrap. Final rankings: 1. Another Year 2. Certified Copy 3. The Housemaid"
@ebertchicago "
Werner Herzog: 'For me Godard is like intellectual counterfeit money when compared to a good kung-fu film.' "
@benkenisberg "I bet Godard is a fiend for magnet poetry."
@jamesrocchi "I'm less interested in seeing Godard 2010 than finding Godard's 2010 equivalent."
@phillipstribune "At Cannes, you go from the new Godard to writing about Jennifer Hudson in a controversial biopic she hasn't made yet." [link]

Other than the catfights over Biutiful and the Godard business it's Abbas Kiarostami's enigmatic Certified Copy starring Juliette Binoche and William Shimell that seems to be stimulating the most excitable pronouncements since Mike Leigh's new picture hit the croissette.

William Shimell, Abbas Kiarostami, and the divine Juliette Binoche

@benkenisberg "Never thought Kiarostami would be the one to defibrillate the competition. Breathed a huge sigh of relief when the actors got out of the car"
@gemko "Kiarostami's CERTIFIED COPY is the first film I've seen get booed this year. Perhaps not coincidentally, it's the best film so far"
@awardsdaily "The Kiarostami was enjoyable enough - laughs here and there. But surreal - you see what you want to see, as deep as u want it 2 be. I would have loved it twenty years ago. Now it feels a bit like a waste of time, something I am running out of fast."
@guylodge "Juliette Binoche just walked past. Now THAT, as they say, is a star."

Let's end with fashion. Here are four fab foreign ladies we like to look at.


from left to right: Sandrine Bonnaire (France) I don't think I've seen Bonnaire headlining a movie since the Oscar nominated Est - Ouest (which I recommend if you like epic sweep to your woman-as-survivor dramas) and that was a decade back. She's always good; Do-yeon Jeon (South Korea) who I fell so hard for in Secret Sunshine (still unreleased in the USA). I'm eager to see her Cannes entry The Housemaid... even though people didn't love it; Rossy de Palma (Spain) is blessed with one of cinema's most impossible-to-believe faces; and superstar/jury member Aishwarya Rai (India) is blessed with... everything.

I frequent Zimbio for many of the red carpet photos I use and one of the things I find hilarious about paparazzi coverage is the random insert shots that focus on someone's body parts (look at Meg Ryan's calf!) or hands (jewelry alert!). Aishwarya, for example, is much bejewelled but I'm not sure why this is a big zero-in-on-it detail since she married fellow Bollywood star Abhishek Bachchan three years ago.

Do we really need to focus on a three year old ring when Fan Bingbing is holding her own wedding on the red carpet of the Biutiful premiere?


It's unclear who Bingbing plans on marrying. The world?

'Shut up about this sound effect woman I've never heard of' you say. But I cannot, testy reader. Even actresses with whom I am largely unfamiliar can sometimes bewitch me into transitory super fandom obsessiveness. I shall recover... for all Cannes-induced fevers break on May 23rd.

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Cannes Tweets & Treats: Bernal, Bingbing and Brolin

I woke up with a serious case of Cannes Envy this morning. There's no way around unwanted feelings so you plunge in them to get to the other side. That's the way to do it, right? Or that's the way Nathaniel (c'est moi) does it. Maybe that's the masochist's way? So herewith... random thoughts on Cannes photos, fashions, and tweets from people I was exceptionally jealous of all day. Cuz they're... you know... there. In the thick of it.

Please note: If y'all don't start commenting soon, we're likely to take a long summer hiatus and see you ungrateful beyootches in October when Oscar buzz heats up. Comments are like food. Feed the insatiable Film Experience Beast!

We begin with two questions starring Gael García Bernal.


1. Is he, like, inviting us to pose with him here? Won't he be crushed in the mass forward rush of crazed lustful exhibitionist fans?

2. Wouldn't he be super easy to lose at a black tie party?
He's so tiny.
You'd never find him again.


And now some funny or interesting movie tweeting...

on Mike Leigh's Another Year which is garnering awards buzz for both the film and Leigh regular Lesley Manville

@erickohn "Finally, a top-notch competition film. Mike Leigh's ANOTHER YEAR is a startlingly honest and understated character study."
@ebertchicago "Imbecilic Cannes question of the day (to Mike Leigh): "Why did you make Sally so sad?"
@totalfilm Mike Leigh's Another Year: kind of a greatest hits movie; pleasure to watch scene to scene if a little familiar.
@guylodge "Mike Leigh's "Another Year" is the best thing I've seen at Cannes so far: and Lesley Manville is stunning

on You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, Woody Allen's annual sweet and sour cinematic dish. Sweet and sour because well... you know. You never know if it's going to be a Vicky Cristina Barcelona or a Hollywood Ending.

@JustinCChang "Odd, really, to go straight from the bracing humanity of Mike Leigh to the cardboard inhumanity of Woody Allen"
@eug "Clearly they love Woody Allen in Cannes: Serious pushing, shoving & yelling at the entrance to screening now. Survived."
@jamesrocchi "Light, slight Woody Allen with an unexpectedly vicious streak hidden beneath the farce and ruptured romances."
@awardsdaily ""Cannes - funny rapport between Woody Allen and Josh Brolin at press conference. Woody killed, of course. CANNES Woody Allen press conference - Woody says of death, 'I do not recommend it.' And of aging, 'try to avoid it if possible.'"

Josh Brolin and Woody Allen meet the press

on Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, which also stars Josh Brolin. He busy busy... like 2007 busy again in 2010.

@onthecroisette Wall Street moved me immensely, despite it's happy-ending. Is there something wrong with me? That's what my friends say.THEY ARE WRONG!
@cobblehillis WALL STREET: THE QUICKENING (Stone): 2.5 hrs of bullet-point speeches about $$$. Mulligan cries, Langella hams, Sheen cameos, Shia lebeoufs.
@gemko Wall Street: Let Me Be Clear This Time, Greed Is In Fact Bad ('10 Stone): 43. Not a train wreck, sadly, just didactic-bombastic.

Best Dressed!
You have to have a huge international profile to win "Best Dressed" kudos in the media so Fan Bingbing (or Bingbing Fan, whichever you'd prefer) won't get enough credit for that deep groove she wore into the Cannes carpet.


ShareThe Chinese beauty was there to promote Chongqing Blues (previous credits include: Bodyguards and Assassins and The Matrimony) and she was working way more diverse looks in the first few days of Cannes than any of the high profile American stars or oft-photographed jury beauties Kate Beckinsale or Aishwarya Rai. Well done, Bingbing!
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Beauty Break: Cinco De Mayo

Are you celebrating Mexico today?

Happy Cinco De Mayo!

I'm eating tacos for dinner because it's the least I can do. And I'm also perusing amazing photos of Mexican film stars of yore like the deliriously sexy Lupe Vélez and one star of the right now... Señor Bernal of course. Also deliriously sexy. Especially in closeups.

So I thought we'd drool on six of the earliest crossover sensations tonight with a few films of note (for one reason or another) for each of their careers. If you'd like to investigate further, click on the links. Enjoy!


Lupe Vélez The Gaucho, 1927 | Hot Pepper, 1933 | The Girl From Mexico, 1939
Ramon Novarro Scaramouche 1923 | Ben-Hur 1925 | The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg, 1927
These silent stars had volatile lives and careers, both ending with tragic deaths. Vélez career was a series of ups and downs and some say she was bipolar. She had several movie star affairs (some say her relationship with Gary Cooper drove him to a nervous breakdown) and committed suicide in the 1940s while pregnant with a younger actor's child. Novarro's career was a more typical rise and fall but began to lose its heat after the success of Mata Hari (1931). He was killed by two brothers who had been invited to his home for sexual purposes but decided to rob him.


Gilbert Roland Camille, 1927 | The Sea Hawk, 1940 | The Gay Cavalier, 1946
Dolores del Rio
Ramona, 1928 | Bird of Paradise, 1932 | Maria Candellaria, 1943
Del Rio was Hollywood's first superstar Mexican actress, world reknowned for her beauty and though her career declined with the talkies, she became involved with Orson Welles and stayed a prominent Hollywood figure. Gilbert Roland was a romantic leading man and he was one of the rare silent stars who transferred with ease to talkies. The great voice helped. He was steadily employed as a screen actor from 1923 through 1982!!! That's quite a run.


Katy Jurado Nosotros Los Pobres, 1948 | High Noon, 1952 | Broken Lance, 1954
Anthony Quinn Viva Zapata, 1952 | La Strada, 1954 | Zorba The Greek, 1964

These last two were both "first!" in terms of Oscar recognition. Quinn is the only Mexican-born actor ever nominated (still) but he achieved that four times, even winning twice.

<--- Katy and Brando... a 1950s Hollywood moment

Katy was the first Mexican actress recognized by the Academy (for the western Broken Lance) trailblazing the way for Salma Hayek (Frida) and Adriana Barazza (Babel) in our time.

Do you have a favorite Mexican actor and film? I mean other than GGB and Y Tu Mama Tambien? That goes without saying!

Birthday Suits, Well Directed

Lights. Cameras. Birthday Action (for this, the 30th of November). Only one month left to go and it's 2010. How crazy is that?

Ridley, Terrence (in the 70s) and Marc

1835 Mark Twain's books have been adapted into movies ever since the movies began. Most notably The Prince and the Pauper and any tale of Huck Finn or Tom Sawyer
1920 Virginia Mayo 40s and 50s star, frequent Danny Kaye foil
1926 Richard Crenna, character actor
1927 Robert Guillaume, "Benson"
1929 Dick Clark, seemingly immortal creature who may finally be destroyed by the rise of his spiritual offspring Ryan Seacrest. It's all very Cronos vs. Zeus, only without the thunderbolts
1937 Ridley Scott, manly director whose movies are usually way better when they're shot through with a strong female presence. Consider the three classics: Blade Runner, Thelma & Louise, Alien. The rest of the filmography surely has its moments but that's the trinity right there.
1943 Terence Malick, mysterious director, nature lover. He's only directed 4 features but what a quartet: Badlands, Days of Heaven, The Thin Red Line, The New World. His fifth classic (I'm guessing) Tree of Life will arrive next year.
1950 Margaret Whitton potent 80s supporting actress (Secret of My Succe$s, Ironweed) who made her last movie Trial By Jury way back in 1994. I guess Hollywood didn't meet her needs. They certainly didn't capitalize well on her gifts.
1950 Chris Claremont wrote the X-Men, owned my childhood
1951 Bo Welch frequent Art Direction Oscar nominee. The filmography includes The Color Purple, Edward Scissorhands, Men in Black, Batman Returns, The Birdcage and The Little Princess
1952 Mandy Patinkin, singer, Inigo Montaya, broadway star, actor, continually wasted on TV series. I loved Yentl (1983) as a kid but I still can't quite forgive Babs for putting Mandy in a film musical (his only) and not letting him sing. That ain't right. I mean Warren Beatty even let him sing (with Madonna) in Dick Tracy and that wasn't even a musical



1952 Henry Selick director, stop motion miracle worker (Coraline, James and the Giant Peach, The Nightmare Before Christmas. See previous post)
1955 Billy Idol rocks, sneers, acts once in a blue moon (The Doors)
1956 Stephen Dillane actor of stage, screen, tv. Has played husband to two of TFE's favorite actresses: Kidman in The Hours and Moore in Savage Grace
1959 Cherie Currie, about to be portrayed by Dakota Fanning in The Runaways (see previous posts)
1969 Marc Forster hot bald director (Quantum of Solace, Finding Neverland, Monster's Ball)
1969 David Lindsey-Abaire playwright and screenwriter (Rabbit Hole)
1969 Amy Ryan, Oscar nominated actress (Gone Baby Gone)
1973 Nimród Antal the unusual named Hungarian American director (Kontroll) is currently directing Adrien Brody and Topher Grace in a reboot of the Predator franchise imaginatively titled Predators (2010)
1982 Clémence Poésy, French actress, known to millions as "Fleur Delacour"
1985 Aoi Miyazaki, Japanese actress

Finally today is the 31st birthday of diminutive screen god Gael García Bernal, one of the best and most important actors working. My wish for his next decade onscreen is that he reunite with either Alfonso Cuarón (Y Tu Mama Tambien) or Pedro Almodóvar (Bad Education) but preferrably both. Maybe even a reteam with Alejandro González Iñárritu so long as the director hands him an Amores Perros quality role rather than the thankless one he got in Babel.

The cinema doesn't always do right by its most talented partisans but thankfully GGB is in demand. Next up is a romantic drama with Amanda Seyfried called Letters to Juliet. After that he's starring in the period drama También La Lluvia for actress turned director Icíar Bollaín followed by (gulp) a romantic comedy with Kate Hudson called Earthbound. Finally, that Oscar nomination that he's deserved but that's proved elusive could arrive. He has another starring role in a biopic (he's done that before with Motorcycle Diaries) called Gardel and then there's (maybe) Martin Scorsese's Silence, a historical drama about Jesuit priests. The latter, where he'd supposedly partner with the other recent screen "Che", Benicio Del Toro, sounds promising. Wouldn't it be nice to see Scorsese try his hand at directing a young and very talented actor whose name isn't Leonardo DiCaprio for a change?
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60 Spectacular Almodóvariffic Years

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JA from MNPP here, briefly wishing the director Pedro Almodóvar a happy 60th birthday today. His latest film, Broken Embraces starring Penny Cruz, opens here in NYC in 57 days! Coincidence? Well that'd be a lousy coincidence if so since there's nothing much coincidental about it besides the vaguest proximity of numbers. Anyway! Embraces opens here on November 11th, in Los Angeles on December 11th, and presumably trickles inward from there. Not that we Americans are precisely on the winning end of its release schedule - it's been out in Spain since March! But at least we're not Australia or heaven forbid Japan! Heaven forbid.

I know that Almodóvar is an actressexual's dream director and lavishes his female muses with the juiciest of roles and story-lines and outfits (oh those outfits), but I am going to take this moment to give a little affection towards something a little different that's integral to my appreciation of the Almodóvar Cinematic Experience - mainly, these three somethings-a-little-different:

Gael Garcia Bernal in Bad Education

Liberto Rabal in Live Flesh
Oh yes. Liberto Rabal in Live Flesh was especially important to my conversion as that was the first Almodóvar film I saw and looking at Rabal I knew straight away that in Almodóvar I had found someone that shared my... interests. So thanks for these and the many other pleasures your films have given us, Pedro! And here's to many, many more to come.
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Foreign Film Oscar Submissions. The Story So Far

In roughly one month's time Oscar's sharpest double edged sword falls. That would be the announcement of the official submission list for the Best Foreign Language Film competition. Why the double edge? On the one hand it's always a mouthwatering list of sixty-plus film titles from newbie directors and masters alike, starring actors from all over the globe and covering virtually every film genre. They're not all masterpieces but there's true gold in there. On the other hand, the majority of these possibly awesome titles will remain unavailable to all but the most dedicated and wealthy of cinephiles who can travel 'round the world chasing film festivals.

It's time for The Film Experience to dive in to the possibilities ahead. We've been bringing you the web's most comprehensive foreign chart for 9 years now.


Israel. Third Time Lucky?
Israel is an 8 time nominee in the foreign film race but they've never won. Israeli films were most popular with Oscar in the 1970s when The Policeman, I Love You Rosa, The House on Chelouche Street and Operation Thunderbolt were all nominated. After the dispiriting snub of Late Marriage in 2001 (one of the best films of the Aughts. Rent it now) Oscar suddenly started responding to Israel again. If they're nominated again this year, it'll be their 3rd consecutive competitor after 2007's Beaufort and 2008's trophy-magnet Waltz With Bashir (which had to have come close to winning last year) which would make the Aughts their second biggest Oscar decade ever. Last week Samuel Maoz's autobiographical Lebanon, a soldier's story set in a tank, won the Golden Lion at Venice. It seems likely that Israel will select it as their representative film. But it's only one of five Ophir nominees (Israel's Best Picture prize) so maybe not...

Officially Announced
Twenty-one titles have been announced thus far (unless I missed something which is possible. More news arrives each day) which means we're just under a third of the way through the list of possibilities. The titles include: Cannes Palme D'Or winner Das weiße Band from Germany, a likely nominee given the hoopla and the upcoming stateside release, historical drama Prince of Tears from Hong Kong (which is actually set in Taiwan), Kazakshtan's intriguingly dialogue free (!!!) drama Kelin, African rescue mission drama Wit Lict from The Netherlands and father/daughter tearjerker No Puedo Vivir Sin Ti from Taiwan (poster to your left).

You can see more about these entries and more (cast, length, posters, miscellania) on the super comprehensive in progress charts at The Film Experience

Spain vs Almodóvar
Maybe the Spanish Academy resents Pedro's global success? Maybe they (justly) feel like other Spanish filmmakers can't get out from under his shadow if they don't promote them in this way, but whatever the reason, it's never entirely safe to bet on Pedro Almodóvar films being submitted for the Best Foreign Language Film race. This year they've passed on Broken Embraces starring Penelope Cruz. The most famous Spain/Pedro submission snub was Talk To Her and that snub probably helped the beloved auteur snag that extremely gratifying Best Director nomination and Screenplay win for the same film back in 2002. Instead of Broken Embraces, Spain will be represented by either Isabel Coixet's Map of the Sounds of Tokyo, Daniel Sánchez Arévalo's Fats or (my prediction) Fernando Trueba's The Dancer and the Thief. Trueba won the 1993 Oscar for Spain with Belle Epoque.

Mexico?
One of the joys of following the Foreign Film category each year is seeing which international film stars pop up frequently in their country's theoretical "best". How often is, say, Catherine Deneuve in the French submission? Does Gael García Bernal, everyone's favorite Mexican movie star, appear often in the Mexican submissions? The answer to the latter is a surprising no. Only two of his pictures have been submitted by Mexico, Amores Perros and The Crime of Father Amoro, and both were nominated. His biggest international Mexican hit, Y Tu Mamá También, was not submitted though it did win an Oscar nomination for Screenplay. This year he has another shot with Rudo Y Cursi. But that's one of only seven finalists competing for Mexico's submission. Read more on the submission chart...

And speak up in the comments if you love these charts and the foreign film race.
What do you see happening this year? Have you seen any of the films?
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Where My Heart Lies: My Favorite Actors. And Yours?

instead of a tues top 10, a 25.

I did this once for the actresses but I'm always giving the ladies their due. So, here's to the silver screen men that have enriched my movie-life. I admit up front that I haven't investigated Classic Hollywood actors to the extent I've investigated their leading ladies, so this list is highly subject to change the more old movies I see in my life.

Nathaniel's 25 all time favorite leading men
In no particular order and extremely subject to change

Gene Kelly | Tony Leung Chiu-Wai |
Montgomery Clift | Jeff Bridges | Paul Newman


Jude Law | James Dean | William Holden | Gene Hackman | Rock Hudson
Jack Lemmon | Gael García Bernal | Ewan McGregor | James Stewart | Gregory Peck
Steve Martin | Marlon Brando | Jack Nicholson | Burt Lancaster | Richard Burton
Brad Pitt | Johnny Depp | Cary Grant | Warren Beatty | William Hurt

Because sometimes you just want to name names

The list is not comprehensive, not set in stone, not entirely defendable. But they're the ones I love best. The ones I somehow feel are mine. Not that you can't share them.

Post your top 20 at your personal web home -- no explanations necessary, just photos -- and I'll link up!


P.S. 1 I'm already pretty sure I forgot someone important
P.S. 2 Your lists go here... send me your links.


A Blogwork Orange
mixes icons like Bogie with modern tastes like Buscemi
Award Talk likes the formal gentlemen Ralph Fiennes, Sir Laurence Olivier and Leslie Howard. and other staples like Clark Gable and Cary Grant
Encore Entertainment gives props to greats that just missed my list like Ed Harris, Albert Finney and Dustin Hoffman
Runs Like a Gay goes retro with James Mason, Spencer Tracy and Alec Guinness
All That Film classics Astaire & O'Toole /modern giants Penn & DiCaprio


Cheerful Cynicism has a quirky mix including Yul Brynner (love!), Clark Gable (I didn't use to like him... but I'm slowly converting I must say), Hugh Jackman and more...
A Cinema Neophyte mostly modern with inspired choices and good pics
Journalistic Skepticism Penn, Hanks, Brando, Stewart and Jack lead
Many Rantings of John ranks his list. Douglas places. Welles and Brando rule
For Your Speculation gives a shout out to some typically supporting guys: Delroy Lindo, Chris Cooper and Peter Sarsgaard. Well played


Theme For Great Cities Bardem, Crudup and Strathairn... oh my
City of Angels ooh, Anthony Perkins and Claude Rains. Yay.
Sorta That Guy covers his favorites: Bernal, Gosling, Franco, Cheadle
Nick's Flick Picks tiered favorites. Chaplin. Fredric March & Sean Penn
Douglas Racso a wondrously international grab bag: Coco Martin, Max von Sydow, Daniel Auteuil, Gael García Bernal, Sir Ian McKellen


Film Away recently went mad for movies: Depp, Foxx, Clooney, Pacino
Reel Artsy Joaquin, Josh, Takeshi (sigh), Tobey
Rants of a Diva did his list ages ago. What took me so long?
A Blog Next Door calls his list "hodgepodge"... Caine, Broadbent, Owen, Marsden
Ferdy on Films is magnetized by Rudolph Valentino's eyes among others: Keir Dullea, Eduardo Noriega, Charles Durning


StinkyLulu is, like me, a dedicated actressexual. But we manage to find room for a few screen gods in our devotions all the same. Can you name the actor and the role?
Situated Laundry makes a vanilla bingo board and adds stage actors. I approve
Gratia Artis Peter Lorre, Charles Laughton, Robert Mitchum
The Sheila Variations ranks them. Mickey Rourke is back on top. Stockwell, Widmark, Duvall and Cooper also place.
new BookeyWookey Oleg Menshikov, Matthieu Kassovitz and Romain Duris. Mmmm x 3
newest Goatdog Penn and Cagney reign
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Vintage Isabelle

This photo of French goddess Isabelle Adjani (pictured left with Muriel Cathra) was taken 36 years ago... today! She was 3 months shy of her 18th birthday.


She seems quite pleased to be photographed... and why not? The future was bright. At the time she was doing television but her Oscar-nominated breakthrough The Story of Adele H was only two years away. That French film made her the youngest Best Actress nominee ever (a record she held until Keisha Castle-Hughes teared up in Whale Rider in 2003).

<-- Isabelle with Gael Garcia Bernal in 2003 @ Cannes

That's not her only claim to the history books. She is tied with Juliette Binoche and Simone Signoret for most Oscar nominations for a French actress (only two each --but that's more than Catherine Deneuve, Julie Delpy, Isabelle Huppert, Emmanuelle Devos, Ludivine Sagnier, Sylvie Testud, Jeanne Moreau and Emmanuelle Béart put together. sniffle). Another tie for the history books: Adjani is one of only four actresses (Sophia Loren, Liv Ullman, Penélope Cruz are the others) to have multiple nominations for performances IN a foreign language.

Highlights of Isabelle's career are many but these are the ones I think of first: She offered up the most exquisitely inviting neck in any vampire film (Nosferatu, 1979). She survived Ishtar ('87) and won an Oscar nomination for her very next film Camille Claudel ('89) and she gave birth to the first heir of Daniel Day-Lewis (Gabriel Kane Day-Lewis). On a more personal note... she also starred in one of only a handful of movies that yours truly has ever paid to see twice on opening weekend due to total in-the-moment euphoria (Queen Margot, 1994).


Rent one of her movies this week and drink up her beauty as hungrily as Nosferatu slurped from her alabaster neck.
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Link

Awards Daily the OFCS winners
/Film continuing the anticipation for Where the Wild Things Are
StinkyLulu the 2008 "Lulus", nominations in 4 supporting actress categories. Fun fun
Defamer Gael García Bernal "may very well fit in one's front pocket."


Nick's Flick Picks the 2008 Honorees in full swing. Woot
NY Times on the new twin DVD of Magnificent Obsession. (sigh) don't you love that movie? I mean, the Sirk version
MNPP intriguing quotes on I Love You Phillip Morris
MTV Cher is returning to the movies. Yay!

And two more to send you on your way...

For Martin Luther King Day i09 has a cool post on the great man's influences in science fiction comics, film and television. And finally, here's further proof that Dev Patel (Slumdog Millionaire) is not really in 5th place for Oscar's Supporting Actor race anymore... (the exchange starts at about the 36 second mark)



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I'm flabbergastedhathawayed.

(thx to John for pointing this out)
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