After a brief glamour break post-Oscar it's time to walk the red again as 2012 heats up. To kick off a new season of Red Carpet Convos, I nabbed Guy Lodge for a moment before we were both due to jet off to previous appointments. Let's discuss the Hunger Games premiere looks and other recent premiere looks.
Nathaniel: Hi Guy, we haven't talked since I don't know when ... Oscars? And Jennifer Lawrence is already Best Actress campaigning at the premiere for Hunger Games. What else can a gold dress mean?
Guy: I was about to say -- she's clearly taken a leaf from Meryl. Are those figures all in proportion? Looks like you've given Lil' Josh Hutcherson a boost.
Cato, Effie, Peeta, Katniss and Gale
Nathaniel: Hee. I didn't meant to give Josh a boost as remove the high heels from Katniss and Effie but I think I did push it a little. You know on set they'll give him boxes to stand on or some such.
Guy: Aha! Either way, he still ends up as his own pocketable action figure.
Nathaniel: He comes from a long proud tradition of short leading men. Although it's trending away from the pocket-sized hunks with people like the Hemsworth boys and Alexander Ludwig (far left) and so on.
Guy: Which Hemsworth boy is this? I can't keep up. I only learned to distinguish Thor Hemsworth from the other Chrisses last year.
Nathaniel: This is Liam to the far right. Who also auditioned for Thor if I recall.
Guy: Looking very junior copywriter at Sterling Cooper, which is always a good thing
Nathaniel: Mmmm Sterling Cooper. If I didn't love Hiddlesloki so much i would suggest that maybe it would have been cool to cast actual brothers as Loki and Thor.
Guy: I'm amazed they resisted!
Nathaniel: but wait. WRONG FRANCHISE. back to Hunger Games. Have you read it? (Guy's answer and more conversation after the jump)
Guy: I'm about to start this weekend, as it happens -- homework for seeing the movie on Monday.
Nathaniel: I will be incensed if these four (minus evil Elizabeth) are the last survivors. More genre fiction that kills all the people of color off first?
Guy: Oh dear. That said, they're all pretty enough that I'd hate to see any of them go. Can't everyone live somehow?
Nathaniel: Not according to the laws of Dystopian Fiction! although from what i hear, blood splatters are being removed so as not to offend the sensibilities of ratings board who would hate violent deaths to be, you know, painful and such.
Guy: I feel we're being obtuse not talking about J.Law's dress, since it was so clearly machine-tooled to be talked about. (Is J.Law a thing yet? Or is it too soon after Jude's heyday?)
Nathaniel: Too soon. I refuse to let the original JLaw go. Still a favorite! I was so pissed that Scorsese incinerated him (Hugo)! Everyone is always try to do away with my JLaw.
Guy: I'm with you there. Anyway, JenLaw looks pretty amazing, however calculatedly so. I like how she and my Twitter follower Elizabeth Banks (what's the point of famous followers if you can't shamelessly namedrop them?) have taken opposite approaches to the LOOK AT ME! school of red-carpet dressing, and somehow both emerged victorious.
Nathaniel: I can't top the WOW report comments on Banks's fire dress (apparently Katniss wears a fire dress in Hunger Games opening ceremony?) but yes. amazing both. I wish Jennifer's men had
pushed the envelope a bit more fashionwise but as a box set this is quite a handsome gray collection
Oh and: I need to lose 20 lbs immediately if vested suits are the thing again.
Guy: I quite like how they've all all taken slightly different angles to the same suited look -- as a lifelong cardigan wearer, the one on the left gets my vote. And cardigans are much more midriff-forgiving than waistcoats -- this needs to take off! We salute you, Handsome Man Whose Name I Can't Recall Right Now
Nathaniel: Alexander Ludwig thanks you. Okay, one more lineup culled from various premieres this past week (French Cinema Now in NYC, Jeff Who Lives At Home, Killer Joe, Game Change, Marilyn in Japan) before we wrap.
First things first (and far left)... Do you think Audrey Tautou weeps copiously every time a new Marion Cotillard movie is released?
Tautou, Sarandon, Gershon, Moore and Williams
Guy: Poor Audrey. There's only room for one winsome French gal in this town. Still, she does look VERY winsome were, so points for that.
"We'll always have The Da Vinci Code!"
Nathaniel: Or will we? You know George Lucas is trying to talk Ron Howard into inserting Marion Cotillard with CGI for a special edition.
Guy: Meanwhile, you know I love you, Susan -- but don't you have a dress to go with that slip?
Nathaniel: Susan is not required to wear dresses because all undergarments can immediately be reinterpreted as Susan keeping it real. Back to her Pretty Baby/Rocky Horror roots.
Guy: I like that interpretation -- but it feels as if she lost her nerve at the last minute before going out, and threw on a sofa throw to pull the look together. And only tore it further apart. That said, if I looked like her at 65 (!!!), I'd walk around in my nightie too.
Nathaniel: She and Dame Helen Mirren just give each other a wink at events. Sisters in Sexeganarian Sexy.
Guy: Indeed. And you know Julianne Moore is going that way too. I like how she's still in character as Palin -- power shoulders! -- but in party-neutral green
Nathaniel: It's a smart move though the makeup is quite severe.... i was hoping she'd do something soft to counteract the hard role. I have nothing to say about Gina (just that I'm happy to see her again)...
Guy: Gina looks like she's piling on the layers to make up for the, er, absence of them in Killer Joe. She makes the most of that NC-17 rating, y'all!
Nathaniel: I'm dying to see that. As for Michelle I know i'm supposed to find her a style icon but her wardrobe rarely interests me.
Guy: Julianne can always be relied upon to bring the colour. Unlike Michelle, who's like, "What, I brought color at the Oscars! That entitles me to at least another year of my favourite wispy neutrals!" But I love her, and she'd look gorgeous swaddled in toilet paper, so I'll let it go.
Nathaniel: Julianne has really been laying it out beauty wise and I'm loving it. Check out this casual shopping look! Juli just picking up dishwashing detergent, maybe a can of cat food...
Guy: Wow, I'm only doing groceries with a black mink handbag from now on. She's positively channeling Tilda Swinton in I Am Love -- and because it's Julianne, she probably literally is.
Nathaniel: She's a vessel! If I were an auteur I'd salivate every time her name was mentioned.
Oh wait. I already do!
Previously on Red Carpet Convos
The Year in Jessica Chastain, Oscar Night, SAG, Globes Part 1, Globes Part 2