The Film Experience™ was created by Nathaniel R. All material herein is written by our team. (This site is not for profit but for an expression of love for cinema & adjacent artforms.)
Our look at 2005's Best Cinematography Oscar nominees continues. First, we explored the filmography of Australian wonder Dion Beebe, and now it's time to shine a light on another master cineaste, this one from Mexico.
Throughout his career, Rodrigo Prieto has worked with a variety of artists and projects, spanning from independent shorts to internationally acclaimed auteur cinema, from pictures full of Oscar buzz to Taylor Swift video clips. His big breakthrough came in 2000 with Alejandro G. Iñárritu's Amores Perros and, since then, he's become a name known to any cinephile worth their mettle. In those early projects, Prieto's style was mostly identifiable by a passion for high-contrast imagery with coarse, grainy textures, but, over the years, he's evolved into a creator of sober imagery that's more interested in evoking a severe elegance than dazzling with aggressive stylings.
Here are 10 highlights from Prieto's enviable filmography…
Rain Perry interesting and fun article comparing Crazy, Stupid, Love. with... Biutiful. (via AD) Tom Shone on the elitism of magic and power in modern entertainment. It's a curious question really. THR Nobody can quite let go of Sex and the City Movie 3. It still might happen. Corduroy (via JJ) talks to Josh Hartnett about his career (post acting hiatus). I thought I'd share this since we were just talking in that Taylor Lautner post -- I realize they're not exactly interchangeable ;) -- about the limited shelf life of young male actors who get hired for a lot of big roles and big projects before they've truly proven themselves. Isn't that essentially what happened to Hartnett?
Hartnett photographed by Peter Ash Lee for Corduroy
When you first start really young and you have some success, they want to take away your edges and make you into this proto-typical movie star... people don’t like to be boxed in and actors are no different.”
He also says:
I started when I was 17 and when you’re that age, you’re a bag full of nerves. I was a little bit freaked out by the whole industry. But now I’m actively looking for things that scare me; things that push me outside my comfort zone. As an actor, that’s the only way you grow and the only way you create something truly interesting for yourself and the audience as well.”
...which is code for rebuilding his once bright career through the indie film circuit, isn't it?
"Would you like one of my flowers" (Illustration by Scott C)The Great Showdowns simple concept movie illustration tumblr that yields very cute results. I love that the references are from several decades, not just the overplayed 80s ...though there's quite a lot of that as there always is online. Check it out. ioncinema talks about the next project from I Am Love's brilliant director Luca Guadagnino which looks like it may star the ubiquitous duo of Mia Wasikowska and Jeremy Renner who plan to be in every movie of the next 5 years (along with Fassbender & Mulligan)
The Awl asks "what makes a great critic?" IndieWire Michael Fassbender offered the lead role in Prisoners. But his docket is so full now, who knows.
"Avengers Assemble" at D23
God, I hope people didn't wait in line hours and hours for this. So short. It's cute how Jeremy Renner bounces out at 1:05ish though.
I guess they only really showed a teensy tiny clip between Samuel L Jackson's Nick Fury and Tom Hiddleston's Loki which i09 loved. I'd hoped to post a counter opinion from someone who was not at all impressed (it's important to maintain some balance in our fanboy ruled world) but have misplaced the link. Drat.
P.S. Totally eager to see how Tom Hiddleston's career develops. He was great to look at as F Scott Fitzgerald in Midnight in Paris and I suspect he did about as fine a job as anyone could have done making sense of his confusingly written character in Thor. Eager to see what's next for him?
Sunday February 13th was quite the awards jam. Nicole Kidman was jamming to Katy Perry at the Grammys, Helena Bonham Carter was being crowned at BAFTA, and Javier Bardem was in Madrid winning The Goya to add to his huge statue haul.
Does Penélope Cruz know where his lips have been? He loves to kiss his trophies.
Javiin 2011 with his Goya; Javi in 2008 with his Oscar
'Oh to be a slab of stone / gold plating!' shriek millions of fans in unison.
Javier has won plentiful awards over the years for his in arguable screen presence and acting gift: one Oscar, one BAFTA, one Golden Globe, one Spirit Award, one "actor" from SAG, one NBR, two Volpi cups from Venice, two European Film Awards, two Gothams, two ADIRCAEs (no, I don't know what that is either) and numerous critics prizes. But it's at the Goyas, the Spanish Oscars, where he reigns supreme. His performance in Biutiful marks his fifth win. Fifth! He's won Best Actor thrice previously (Boca a Boca, Mondays in the Sun, and the Oscar winning The Sea Inside) and Best Supporting Actor once (Días Contados, 1994). His latest win is so fresh that IMDb hasn't even updated his awards page. How to keep up with him?
My favorite red carpet look at the Goyas (I'd do a lineup but good full body photos are hard to come by) is this one to your left. Dressing your doggie up in a tux for your big night? Brilliant. The night's big winner was the post civil war family drama Pa Negre (Black Bread). Some art house distrib really ought to snatch it up if it's this good.
Goya Winners Film: Black Bread Director: Agusti Villaronga (Black Bread) Original Screenplay: (Buried) Adapted Screenplay: Agusti Villaronga (Black Bread) Actor: Javier Bardem (Biutiful) Actress: Nora Navas (Black Bread) Supporting Actor: Karra Elejalde (Also the Rain) Supporting Actress: Laia Marull (Black Bread) Promising Actor: Francesc Colomer (Black Bread) Promising Actress: Marina Comas (Black Bread) European Film: The King's Speech full list of winners
Some art house distributor really ought to snatch Black Bread up if it's this good. Here's the trailer. Warning: contains both brief nudity and less brief very disturbing animal death.
And here's Javier being interviewed on the Red Carpet. I didn't understand a word except that the reporter obviously brings up the fact that he chose to come to the Goyas instead of going to the BAFTAs. And Bardem is all smiles about it. Film Experience contributor Jose and others on Twitter (thanks guys) tell me that Javier made a bet with the reporter that if he wins the Oscar, he'll do a weather report as a musical number. Quick Oscar voters, switch your votes to Bardem! ;)
Have any Spanish readers seen this one yet? Do tell if you have. Would you take your dog to the Oscars? They do love long walks and some red carpets are interminable treks.
A brief snapshot of new releases (links go to trailers) because even though I always pretend the cinematic year doesn't begin until after the Oscars, the studios don't agree.
WIDE
The Rite ~ is there any legendary name actor more in need of a career makeover than Sir Anthony Hopkins these days? Another character who the marketing department can pretend is Hannibal Lecter for the ads. That was 20 YEARS AGO! Move on. This one is about demonic possession because that horror trope never gets old. True story: during the trailer I was like "cat alert!" as I love my cats in the movie but then the trailer implies that cats are of the devil so I can't be having this movie.
The Mechanic- In which Jason Statham is too cool to look at explosions (twice in the trailer alone!) and Ben Foster tags along for the assassin-laced ride. Ben actually does look at an explosion in the trailer; Jason has much to teach him.
LIMITED
Biutiful - You can now see what all the fuss is about. This film is nominated for Best Actor and Best Foreign Film and Bardem plays a Job... I mean Uxbal. He has cancer but what else can go wrong in his life? Alejandro González Iñárritu, Master of Miserabilism™, needs more than disease to bring a man down! He is a merciless god.
Kaboom -Indie auteur Gregg Araki returns with another pansexual trippy oddity. Will Thomas Dekker be Araki's new James Duval or Jonathan Schaech? Araki hasn't settled on new muses in quite some time. He's been muse-hopping for the past few efforts (Mysterious Skin, Smiley Face and now this.)
When We Leave - Germany's Oscar submission from this past fall is also getting a micro release. The fine actress Sibel Kekilli (Head On) returns to US theaters in this story of a Turkish Muslim woman who breaks from tradition, leaving her abusive husband, to raise their child alone. Quite horrifically, her own family sides with the husband. Much heartbreak ensues. Sibel is predictably strong and won the German Oscar but my god this movie is sad.
Sibel Kekilli loves her family in When We Leave. They don't love her back.
OSCAR-SEEKING EXPANSIONS 127 Hours rehydrated by those six Oscar nominations adds over 800 theaters, in its last ditch attempt to be the breakout hit people initially thought it might be. The King's Speech, gaining confidence from a very impressive gross and a very impressive nomination tally, adds over 800 screens too. Blue Valentine, which is better than either of those films but only managed a Best Actress nod, adds 400 screens. A warning to those who are eager to see it: you will be very angry that Ryan Gosling wasn't nominated for Best Actor.
LAST CHANCE! The Season of the Witch and Another Narnia Movie lost about half their screens this week so... if you've been dying to see the latest scraggly Cage weave or the latest in leonine CGI, have at it.
What will you be seeing this weekend? Besides the SAG Awards on Sunday. Yes, we'll live blog it.
Tuesday, August 11, 2020 at 11:58PM 
