Father Geek here with several reports from our man in the Dublin Penthouse that he sent to Euro-AICN, but there was soooooo much I decided to give him his own column for it today instead...
Gentlemen,
Take this one with a huge pinch of salt in your tea!!! (Although anything is possible!!!?!?!?)
Empire Online has pics at their site of the first days filming on the new Neil Labute pic with Gwyneth Paltrow, "Possession" Just Click Here and tells us:
Boyzone singer Stephen Gately is the first, of presumably many, to announce a role in the Harry Potter movie The Philosopher's Stone. Hard on the heels of last week's news that Richard Blackwood had turned down roles in both Tomb Raider and Harry Potter (yeah, right) comes the no-less-disturbing rumour that Gately has been signed to the Harry Potter movie.
'I've got a cameo role,' Gately told worldpop.com. 'I love the books so it's a dream come true.' But that being said, the singer's spokesperson intimated that the job offer wasn't finalised.
Whether Gately is jumping the gun on Harry remains to be seen, but he clearly has his heart set on an acting career - in the same interview he also reveals that he has been approached for the lead role in Billy Liar - a move that will set up against Boyzone colleague Ronan Keating who is also keen on the part.
Hey guys,
Two flicks came across my desk this week. One is a modern classic of French cinema, the other an indie from right here on the mean streets of Dublin......
La Veuve De Sainte-Pierre
The equation with La Veuve De Saint-Pierre is a simple one - French language, historical, slow moving and intelligent. Haven't flicked back to the main page yet? Excellent, then you're in for a treat.
It's premise is a simple one - Emir Kusturica's character is an unsavoury one who gets condemned to death on a small French island near Canada in the 1850's for a murder he (strangely for the movies!) did commit. The crux of the film is the law; he must be executed by guillotine but the island doesn't have one and takes many months to acquire one from the motherland. In the intervening time he's taken under the wing of Juliette Binoche (wife of the captain of police Daniel Auteil) and she slowly but surely sets about proving that there's a decent, honourable human being in the convicted murderer.
Straight up I loved this movie but then again I have a predilection for French cinema of any kind that I'm sure I'll take to my grave. This one really is holding four aces in it's particular hand of cards though - director Patrice Leconte (he of the excellent Ridicule from a few years back), stars of the highest calibre in the impossibly talented Auteil & Binoche (the star already of three of my fave French flicks of all time in Mauvais Sang, Les Amants De Pont-Neuf & Three Colours Blue), and a revelatory performance from Kusturica, a man usually behind the camera who here acts both of his more experienced counterparts right off the screen.
The visuals are excellent too (Eduardo Serra gives us his best cinematography since his stunning work on Michael Winterbottom's highly underrated Jude) - vast vivid snowscapes and burnished interiors that could have stepped straight out of a Rembrandt.
Ultimately though it's triumph is that we engage with these characters; they are portrayed as complex, noble, likeable individuals from curtain up to the final shot, one that emphasises the sad, poignant double entendre at the heart of the film's title. Eat your heart out Green Mile!
Flick
Flick has all the standard trappings of the vast majority of modern Irish drama - drugs, guns, crooked cops, nightclubs and, most fatally, patchy, dodgy dialogue. It tells the story of Jack Flinter (the eponymous Flick) a minor league (and highly respectable for some reason) drug dealer who makes a big score with a mate and then, while trying to offload the haul to some bigger dealers...... Well that's where I got lost actually, but you get the idea.
If Flick survives at all as an entertainment (and it just does by the skin of its teeth) it's through the strength of presence of its two improbable leads. David Murray who plays Jack was a relative theatrical unknown at the time of casting and this is lead actress Isabelle Menke's first role in English - one she pulls off with consummate ease. Thankfully for Flick, they click.
There should be kudos too for Niall Byrne's atmospheric score and director Fintan Connolly's fresh and vivid framing of Dublin; there are many familiar locations here but he shows them to us in impressively unclichéd style. Thanks also to him for what must rank as most sensual and least hackneyed sex scene ever in an Irish movie - it all really does show that with the right material and given a slightly bigger budget he is a talent to watch.
Flick is an interesting piece but it pales in comparison to for the best of new Irish cinema, Saltwater, which I'll be reviewing for AICN at the end of the month.
Here's where to findout more about Flick: Just Click Here
Jurassic Park 3
Hey guys,
DOn't ask me how but this one popped into my mailbox from an Aussie AICNer!!!!
Sam Neill, who reprises his Jurassic Park role of Alan Grant in the upcoming sequel Jurassic Park 3, told the Melbourne, Australia, Herald Sun newspaper that the movie will fit in the time frame between the first and second films, according to Dan's JP3 Page. "The movie is actually based before The Lost World, but after Jurassic Park," Neill said. "What they seem to call a prequel, I believe."
Neill will join Tea Leoni and William H. Macy in JP3. "I like movies with soul, which is actually the reason I accepted the role of Alan Grant in Jurassic Park," Neill said. "I declined to star in Jurassic Park 3 [at first] because the script was bad. After they went back to work on it some more, I got a new and improved script, and I signed on. I loved working on the first film, and look forward to doing it all again."
From Sneakers.
