11 October 2012 – the Day The Perks of Being a Wallflower opens in cinemas island wide in Singapore!!! It’s time to grab your close pals/chill-buddies and book them for an 11th Oct movie and popcorn night, because you sure don’t want to miss out on this:
The singing voice is simply one of the most valuable gifts a person has. When used correctly, it has the ability to be a powerful emotive element that mesmerizes and entrances. The beauty of having songs in a play or film is that it adds layers to the story and characters through meaningful lyrics and the connection with the raw emotional mood of the singer belting out haunting and soulful melodies. Singing for me conveys in a way more sensually than normal speech can due to the augmentation of tone and rhythm used in the singing voice; the result for me is often magical.
Thus unsurprisingly, musicals are something that I adore. The collections of songs in musicals are usually very compelling and powerful complements to the storyline and feel of the characters’ state of mind. The element of live singing is the most exciting part for me as it really brings across a state of fragility and realism that is endearing. It is this live element that makes me skeptical of film adapted musical theatre productions, as I always felt that they can never capture the feel of a live performance. But then again, I am comparing two different forms of performances. No doubt films can also deliver more on other elements that stage performances have limitations too, such as special effects, location and revised takes.
But the upcoming film adaptation of Les Miserables seems to be an exception, and I am caught up in the fanfare leading up to its release because of
1) The incredible talents signed onboard – Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried, Helena Bonham Carter, Hugh Jackman, Russel Crowe, Eddie Redmayne
2) There’s Eddie Redmayne (Pillars of the Earth, Burberry Model, My Week With Marilyn) in there and Helena Bonham Carter (Bellatrix Lestrange in Harry Potter) ! And more importantly….
3) The film uses LIVE SINGING to accompany the acting instead of the usual pre recordings!
Les Miserables Movie Live Featurette
The use of live singing while filming is truly exciting news for me! Though I have no idea what the outcome is going to be like, the snippets of behind the scenes production and cast interviews on the subject as seen above all sounds and looks pretty good. I’ll leave the talking and selling of the movie to the cast in the video, if they fail to raise your adrenaline and set your heart fluttery then well… my “starpower” sure ain’t gonna do zilch either!
Les Miserables Poster
This film adaptation of the successful and beloved stage production Les Miserables, comes from director Tom Hooper who last brought us the award winning title The King’s Speech (2010). The first poster of the film is out and it looks amazing! I loved how the studio kept it simple and just tried to stay as true to the poster art of the original stage production as possible. By doing so it really connected with original fans of the musical – like meee – and made it that more relatable. Am loving the choice of the child actress in the poster, just love her blue eyes and resemblance to the girl in the original musical poster🙂 Looking forward to seeing this one on the big screen come Christmas this December!
Lastly, catch Anne Hathaway’s singing voice in the movie’s official trailer below.
THE STORY:
Set against the backdrop of 19th-century France, Les Misérables tells an enthralling story of broken dreams and unrequited love, passion, sacrifice and redemption—a timeless testament to the survival of the human spirit. Jackman plays ex-prisoner Jean Valjean, hunted for decades by the ruthless policeman Javert (Crowe) after he breaks parole. When Valjean agrees to care for factory worker Fantine’s (Hathaway) young daughter, Cosette, their lives change forever. (Taken from the movie’s FB Page)
In my earlier post weeks ago, I posted a VMA exclusive Twilight Breaking Dawn Part 2 trailer that premiered during the VMA show. But now, that youtube video has since been taken down. So, I have found another video of the VMA exclusive trailer. This one is slightly different, it is a full length version of the new trailer which includes the contents of the video in my previous post as well as extra new footage. Enjoy!
Following the end of Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man films, I started to have Tobey Maguire withdrawal symptoms. I really loved Maguire’s portrayal of Peter Parker’s geeky and awkward side. Despite having a boyish face and a small frame, Tobey is able to deliver a chilling dark amount of intensity whenever the scene called for it as seen in Brothers and Spider-Man 3; thus there was always something about his demeanor that me and my sister found bookish yet suave. I guess others must have shared our sentiments about his suave-ness because Prada unveiled Tobey Maguire as the face of their 2011 autumn/winter ad campaign last year.
Following a period of void on the silver screen, I was all psyched up to finally catch Tobey Maguire in The Great Gatsby later this year, but alas that film has been delayed all the way till May of 2013! Nonetheless, I did not panic. I told myself that there is still the chance to see him on screen this year in Ang Lee’s Life of Pi. But to my horror, it was announced that Tobey’s part was deleted from the final cut of the film and his role replaced by Rafe Spall. According to a statement by Ang Lee – “to be consistent with the other casting choices made for the film, I decided to go with an entirely international cast” – I think the director wanted a consistency to his choice of casting, as he might have been afraid of Tobey’s famous name overshadowing the other cast and hence the essence of the film itself. Tough luck for Mr Spider-Man this 2012!
However to my delight, I recently came across the trailer for Tobey’s new film The Details. It is rated as a comedy but the trailer shows that the film is more than that with a rather dark and grim tone infused in the storyline. Infidelity, murder and tension looks like the underlying theme so those who love dark twisted stories might want to take note of this movie. The vibe from the trailer tells me to expect something unorthodox and quirky so I am certainly curiously piqued by this film. The casting looks pretty decent comprising the likes of Elizabeth Banks (The Hunger Games), Laura Linney, Kerry Washington and Ray Liotta; thus the acting shouldn’t be a worry. All in all, this definitely looks like one intriguing film choice!
(But honestly, the first scene of the trailer with the falling piano was really what sold it for me haha.)
A new international trailer for the Ang Lee film adaptation of Life Of Pi has been released. It is just as enchanting and beautiful as the original trailer, with a little more insight into the story before the shipwreck.
I just have to reiterate what I’ve said in previous posts about how enchanting this film looks! I simply cannot wait to catch this movie and I sure hope it is as breath-taking as it looks.
A one time sensational hit novelist when he was a young lad of 19, Calvin Weir-Fields is now a 29-year-old struggling writer trying to find inspiration for his next piece of work to follow up his previous success; so far he is not having any luck. Literary genius aside, Calvin is a shy and socially less adept individual who counts his dog, brother and therapist as his close friends.
One day, Calvin has a dream of a girl silhouetted against the glare of the sun. When he awakes, he is filled with inspiration and this dream girl – which he names Ruby Sparks – becomes the source of his material for his new piece of writing. As he writes, Calvin begins falling for his dream girl and he himself knows this is absurd since she is just a figment of his imagination. But things take a magical turn when the next day, Calvin comes face to face with Ruby in person in his apartment! This sets off fears that he is going crazy!
What comes next is a whimsical tale of a whirlwind relationship between two quirky individuals and the struggles that comes attached with this “impossible” phenomenon. The interaction between the characters is endearing yet witty, with both hilarious and also solemn consequences.
CAST:
MY RANT:
What sealed the deal for RUBY SPARKS was the delicate yet thoughtful writing of the screenplay, as well as the talents who played the main leads. The characters in the story were really appealing in terms of their quirky personas as well as the uncanny circumstances that they were set in.
Paul Dano did well playing Calvin, a character who is a socially inept geek with a somewhat self-absorbed and arrogant disposition. And I got to say, he does look the part;] For the female role, Zoe Kazan (who also wrote the screenplay) gave a pretty delightful performance as the quirky and bubbly Ruby. The scene near the end where she had to go “haywire” as a puppet was pretty intense and connectable.
Overall,RUBY SPARKS felt like it had a Woody Allen inspired vibe to it both within the characters and the story, and that is something I am a fan of. The tone is funny and witty with scenes that are a little hysterical, but the hysterics do not cross over the boundaries of “too much” where the story becomes hard to connect with. It delivers just the right amount of quirks and hysteria to add to the fantasy feel of the movie, while retaining the simple formula of “funny” needed to make this the light hearted romantic comedy that it is. I really loved the concept of the movie, how it combined fantasy and humour to explore the creative process of a writer. Through the manifestation of a character, the story managed to highlight the infinite realities of the imagination and the intensity of not just effort but soul that is poured into each word by the writer.
One complaint I might have though is the final ending scene of the movie. It wasn’t bad, some people might love the direction taken. But for me, it seemed a little too effortless and predictable. Something with more ooomph and bang would have been nice! But overall, I really enjoyed this delightful movie and would definitely recommend it! Though I should add that it might require some exquisite taste, some might find it a little too fantastical and quirky.
Smartwater has done it again and I’m loving it! Following their successful viral ad video starring Jennifer Aniston last year, Smartwater has come up with yet another (and one which I deem even more hilarious) wacky video ad with Jennifer Aniston once again pulling off her great comedic chops. This great piece of storyboard and fun antics is just too good to keep to myself so I’m sharing it around.
Enjoy!:)
For those yet to see it, here is last year’s Smartwater viral video
At the recent 2012 VMA show on Thursday, an exclusive trailer of The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2was screened. It features a more detailed look of Bella as a vampire and audiences get to see more of Bella’s new found powers when she tackles a mountain cat! There is also a closer look into the new family of three (Bella, Edward and Renesmee) and the plot of the film is more clearly revealed in the trailer. Here we get to see fuller visuals of the epic war that is to come and the thrills and excitement of some fight scenes, including a few seconds of Bella and Edward fighting together:) All in all it looks like the finale of the Twilight films has got some SIZZLING good stuff lying in wait for us come November!!
I have not read the books but I have heard that the film’s script does not follow the book’s script down to a tee, so I’m pretty curious to see what the book fans’ reaction towards the finale of the film series will be.