Valentine's - The Painted Veil

Team Experience is sharing favorite love scenes for Valentine's. Here's Josh...

It's a familiar and tested recipe to throw a beautiful period frock on an actress worth their weight in Oscars, and set her literary romantic troubles against a luscious location. Actressexuals and their mums will be clutching their pearls in the cinema on the first night it opens, and rewatching on DVD instead of reading the book for years to come. But let this not detract from The Painted Veil, the underrated and oscarless (not even nominations!) gem from 2006. 

That divine poster image of Edward Norton and Naomi Watts drifting along the river is plucked from the films most beautiful scene. The scenes beauty is due in no small part to Alexander Desplat's score that rides the romance of the film perfectly. His 'River Waltz' which accompanies the scene echoes the films romantic arc, its gentle chords and progressive structure mirrors the very real struggle of Kitty and Walter as they have 'waltzed' around one another in a tricky marriage, peppered with early acts of deliberate cruelty. As they ease into the relationship, and let the rhythms of their new life together guide them, they become entwined and supportive partners. The score also playfully references Gnossienne No 1 by Erik Satie, a piece used in the film first diegetically playing in the party that Walter first swoons over Kitty passing him in the hallway, and then again as Kitty plays the tune on a rickety piano in the orphanage as he watches on. A moment of projected love, and a moment of genuine discovery of love.

And the scene is lusciously visual. Much credit to the location scouts for finding this location in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in China. Wide blue eyed Naomi and her gorgeous lace parasol, and swoon worthy Ed Norton in a crisp linen shirt, set against those towering rock faces and sprawling bamboo. It's a smorgasbord of romanticism and a perfect antithesis from their first gruelling journey, one that Walter made them make on foot, to punish Kitty. This is a rare romance that let's us fall in love the same time the characters do.

Our Valentine's Series
A Room With a View (1986)
Shakespeare in Love (1998)
Before Sunset (2004)
Love Songs (2007)
(500) Days of Summer (2009)
Beyond the Lights (2014)

On the Set with Nicole and Naomi

Murtada with a bit of news about BFFs Nic and Naomi.

Remember when Nicole Kidman worked with John Cameron Mitchell (Hedwig and the Angry Inch) in Rabbit Hole (2010)? Of course you do. It was the last time she put her considerable talent in a movie that completely worked. Yes Oscar noticed but more importantly she won the Film Bitch best actress award.

They're working together again right now. The movie is called How to Talk to Girls at Parties and is about an alien who visits Earth, landing in the London suburb of Croydon during 1970s punk era. And what has excited us most about this picture of Kidman is the costume, of course. Nicole looks like a character from Velvet Goldmine! It's not a coincidence. The costumes are by Haynes favorite Sandy Powell and this marks the first time ever she’s designed for Kidman. Can you believe it?

Also starring are Elle Fanning - obviously an actressexual since she’s just finished working with The Bening - Ruth Wilson, the wonderful Joanna Scanlan and last year Tony’s winner for best actor Alex Sharp in the lead role.

Meanwhile Nicole’s best friend is working with her baby daddy (her term not ours, we assume jokingly) Liev Schreiber on his passion project The Bleeder. This is a biopic of boxer Chuck Wepner who is the real life  inspiration behind Sylvester Stallone's Rocky Balboa. Apparently Schreiber has been trying to get this story to the screen for years, so naturally he enlisted his Oscar nominated partner. 

Watts is playing Wepner’s wife, Linda. Let’s hope it is more than the usual stock female part in sports movies. The director is Philippe Falaradeau (Monsieur Lazhar, The Big Lie) and the cast includes Elisabeth Moss and Ron Perlman. Schreiber has been hiding his hair in recent public appearances --- we suspect an altered hairline. Just google Chuck Wepner and you’ll know why.

Don't you wish Watts & Kidman were working together?  Let's fantasy cast them in the comments!

TIFF: Jake Gyllenhaal in "Demolition"

This review originally appeared in abridged version in Nathaniel's column at Towleroad

All throughout Demolition, which opened the 40th annual Toronto International Film Festival which closes this coming Sunday, new widower Davis Mitchell (Jake Gyllenhaal) is putting the title into action. His wife has just died, he is convinced he feels nothing about it, and he begins to tear things down and scatter their parts about. The general idea is ‘take something apart to see how it all fits together’ but he doesn’t bother with the fitting back together part.

He’s also demolitioning his own life, of course, in the process. This peculiar destructive streak starts out small with his morning routine. At first, in montage, this includes lots of preening and shaving (including his chest. *sniffle*) to turn him into a smooth starched and well dressed executive but it’s quickly abandoned. Cue: sexy scruff and increasingly erratic behavior. (Unfortunately we are not shown the return of the chest hair. Stingy move, movie!)

Everything has become a metaphor…”

…Davis intones in the middle of the picture to his confused and impatient boss and father-in-law (Chris Cooper), as an attempt to explain his new and frankly worrisome headspace. But he’s right. Everything is a metaphor in Demolition and thus, apart from Gyllenhaal’s work, the movie sparked polarized reactions. More...

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TIFF's Red Carpet, Much Improved

Jose here, with a new life mission: make someone as happy as Kate Winslet looked at the premiere of The Dressmaker.

 The Oscar winner was the epitome of radiance as she walked the red carpet in a stunning Badgley Mischka design. Official reports say she was blowing kisses to the crowd, signing autographs and putting on her best face for her fans, however I choose to believe she was smiling because she saw how improved the looks were at the festival by the time she arrived. See the looks after the jump. 

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Remember When... (via Australia)

...Heath Ledger (sniffle) and Naomi Watts were a thing? 

at the premiere of The Ring (2002)

Aussie movie stars really have been ubiquitous for a long time. Though there were important actors before our contemporary time that hailed from the land down under (Erroll Flynn, Judith Anderson, Coral Browne to name a few), the Australian takeover really began in the mid-80s when, in the space of just a few years (1983-1986), Mel Gibson ascended, Bryan Brown had a mega TV hit, Judy Davis snagged a surprise Oscar nomination and Paul Hogan wrote and starred in his own blockbuster. Australian actors have only become more ubiquitous since with more of them coming to prominence each decade.

*Oscar nominated (or winner)

1980s: Mel Gibson*, Paul Hogan*, Judy Davis*, Bryan Brown
1990s: Nicole Kidman*, Toni Collette*, Russell Crowe*, Rachel Griffiths*, Geoffrey Rush*, Hugo Weaving, Guy Pearce, Anthony LaPaglia
2000s: Cate Blanchett*, Hugh Jackman*, Naomi Watts*, Heath Ledger*, Eric Bana, Abbie Cornish, Ryan Kwanten, Isla Fisher, Simon Baker
2010s: Jacki Weaver*, Margot Robbie, Jai Courtney, Rose Byrne, Jason Clarke, Chris Hemsworth, Joel Edgerton, Sam Worthington, Ben Mendelsohn, Mia Wasikowska, Liam Hemsworth. If you include New Zealanders in the mix (Lynskey, Neill, Paquin, Lawless, Urban) it's even more crowded! 

Sigourney Weaver and Mel Gibson on the set of The Year of Living Dangerously -released in 1983, the year the Aussie invasion truly began

Who is next? Besides Elizabeth Debicki (The Great Gatsby) and Sarah Snook (The Dressmaker)... anyone have any suspicions about the next wave?