heavenly creatures.

"Cheer up! All the best people have bad chests and bone diseases! It's all frightfully romantic!"

Tomorrow is the Academy Awards, and as many of you know, I want Kate Winslet to win best actress. I just watched a short interview that shows how great she is not only as an actress, but as a person too. Btw, sorry for the lack of posts this week, but I've been really sick with the flu pneumonia. I hope I'll be back soon. Have a nice weekend, and for those of you in Brazil, bom carnaval! ^.^

Kate

Photo: Paolo Pellegrin/Magnum for The New York Times

"Winslet’s apparently universal appeal isn’t unique, but it is mysterious. After all, everybody loves Tom Hanks and Will Smith, too, but that’s by design — those guys want us to love them. Everything they do, on-screen and off, cements their reputations as likable everymen, latter-day Jimmy Stewarts. They play war heroes and superheroes and selfless dads and little boys trapped in the bodies of grown men. Winslet, on the other hand, gravitates toward troubling roles in smaller films — a teenage murderer (“Heavenly Creatures”), a prickly novelist who succumbs to Alzheimer’s (“Iris”), the Marquis de Sade’s chambermaid (“Quills”). If we love Hanks and Smith because of the characters they play, we love Winslet in spite of them. Some of her choices may be dictated by necessity — there aren’t a whole lot of heroic parts available to women in Hollywood — but it’s hard to ignore a certain perverse streak in her decision making. Who else would have followed a breakout role in America’s biggest blockbuster ever with a starring turn in a tiny film called “Hideous Kinky”?" (Tom Perrotta, for The NY Times magazine).

I warn those of you who haven't yet seen Rev. Road to not read the entire text on the link above. It might contain spoilers.

Revolutionary Road

"Look at us. We're just like everyone else. We've bought into the same, ridiculous delusion."

About a year ago I discussed contemporary cinema with a blogger who no longer blogs and who described today's movies as "boring to death". Although critical, but still hopeful, I couldn't disagree more with her observation, naming filmmakers and movies that were definitely worth the visit in the dark room. The list was very limited, which later made me think: she's gotten a point. I'm not going further in this complex matter, but were the movies that turned worse or perhaps was it me who became more demanding? I have no answer, but the fact is, along the entire year I go through movie festivals, summer blockbusters and a bunch of different films, which rarely make me feel the urge to hold my breath and later sigh in relief: Wow. Until this moment.

"Plenty of people are onto the emptiness, but it takes real guts to see the hopelessness."

Revolutionary Road is a triumph of form and content, an universal and timeless cinematic tale of human angst, hopes and expectations, an astonishing experience! And I could go on forever with countless adjectives because (excuse me) I can't be objective while being so passionate about it... But, let me try it. A triumph of form and content because no camera move, no unexpected editing cut and no musical sound acts without a purpose. Every little technical bit is there to serve the narrative's purpose, in fact, every little detail in the film speaks to the audience somehow, nothing is there for granted, everything has a defined role. And the best of all, these signs are transparent. I'm so tired of films that try so hard to be intellectual by making them hard to be understood, or by being pretentious while playing with "sophisticated" editing, and worse, those filmmakers who add a shaking effect or endless close-ups while filming, but narratively speaking, they're communicating pretty much nothing!

"No one forgets the truth, they just get better at lying."

Sam Mendes is simple and minimalistic, but what he achieves, is nevertheless majestic. It's timeless because the story could be told in 2009, over 30 years after the first birth control pill hit the pharmacies or in the nostalgic 1950s, when families with five or more children were perfectly normal. The decade issue and all the cliches commonly associated with it are nothing but a macguffin in the center of the story. Films with a similar theme have been done before, but the question is not how original a film is, since you can be original and lack substance, it's about adding new layers and giving a different approach to a subject visited in the past. It's universal, because the story could take place in the quietness of a north american suburb, in a neo-yuppie metropolitan city surrounding, in your hometown: you pick it. All these elements, however, wouldn't be complete without consistent and genuine acting, and fortunately in this case, every single performance, from the leading couple to those with the smallest parts, helps to instil a sense of reality.

Revolutionary Road (USA, UK, 2008). Directed by Sam Mendes. Written by Justin Haythe. Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Michael Shannon, Kathy Bates, Richard Easton, David Harbour, Kathryn Hahn.

Will Kate finally win an academy award?

:-)

Photo: UOL

Isn't Kate Deneuvely?

You can read the article, see the cover and the rest of the photo shoot in which she channels Catherine Deneuve's character from Belle de Jour on Vanity Fair's website. Kate = wonderful.

It could even be a dream - part 1

Heavenly Creatures (1994) - Juliet & Pauline

This scene is so brilliantly directed, acted and edited, as it shows how the two teenage girls bonded "in a matter of minutes", becoming devoted best friends as the song is over, and we believe it! Based on a real life story, the movie is as dreamy as it's dark. 13 years later I watched it again, and how funny it was to see small bits that reminded me a lot of Sofia's The Virgin Suicides. Here is for you, who think Peter Jackson is only the guy behind The Lord of the Rings. He's sooo much cooler than that.

Leo & Kate - Now and Then

Titanic (1997)

Revolutionary Road (opening december 2008)