Werner Herzog said what plenty of us think of Kanye West’s “Famous” when he watched the video for the first time: “I’ve never seen anything like this.”
Klaus Kinski, Rondo Hatton and Shemp Howard will always be giants in my personal pantheon of great character actors. And now, I swear, they are giants. Their distinct mugs seem to have inspired the facial characteristics of a couple of the really big guys in Jack The Giant Slayer . Every time I see the poster for the movie (check out the featured photo above), I can’t help but think of Kinski in Werner Herzog’s Aguirre: The Wrath of God. The computer-generated character’s name is General Fallon. He’s voiced by Bill Nighy and appears to have a second head, which calls to mind Shemp Howard from the Three Stooges or, possibly, Lionel Standing from Frank Capra’s Mr. Deeds Goes to Town . When I gaze upon the craggy face of another giant, Fye, I get a blast of nostalgia from even farther back. That CGI character’s features recall a thinner lipped Rondo Hatton, the 1930s and ’40s character actor and B-Movie icon who turned his acromgegaly into a movie career that landed him parts in the Sherlock Holmes movie The Pearl of Death , Spider Woman Strikes Back and House of Horrors . Do you see what I see? Let me know if you agree in the comments section and whether any of the other CG giants remind you of flesh-and-blood actors. Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
Fittingly, the trailer for Happy People: A Year in the Taiga opens with Werner Herzog ‘s hypnotic voice introducing a land that is more than worth a visit — if even via the courtesy of a filmmaker’s lens. Herzog returns to nature in the ode of Cave of Forgotten Dreams and Encounters at the End of the World , which captures life in the remote village of Bakhtia along the Yenisei River in the Siberian Taiga. “It is one-and-a-half times the size of the United States,” Herzog booms out. Co-directed by Dmitry Vasyukov, Music Box Films will release the film packed full of dreamlike scrapes of tundra, ice and pristine expanses January 25th. It is “A mesmerizing Walden-like ode,” noted Variety. Escape the day for a few moments with the trailer below. Official log-line: Happy People: A Year in the Taiga, Werner Herzog takes viewers on yet another unforgettable journey into remote and extreme natural landscapes. The acclaimed filmmaker presents this visually stunning documentary about the people living in the heart of the Siberian Taiga. Deep in the wilderness, far away from civilization, 300 people inhabit the small village of Bakhtia at the river Yenisei. There are only two ways to reach this outpost: by helicopter or boat. There‘s no telephone, running water or medical aid, The locals, whose daily routines have barely changed over the last centuries, live according to their own values and cultural traditions. With insightful commentary written and narrated by Herzog, Happy People: A Year in the Taiga follows one of the Siberian trappers through all four seasons of the year to tell the story of a culture virtually untouched by modernity.
Also in Thursday morning’s round-up of news briefs, a U.S. Appeals Court upholds MGM’s rights to a classic Martin Scorsese film after a relative’s challenge. The London Film Festival chooses its closing night film. And Michael Keaton heads for a re-imagine of an ’80s classic. Lawless Opens No. 1 Wednesday with $1.1 Million R-rated Cannes début Lawless by John Hillcoat debuted in 2,565 theaters Wednesday, narrowly beating out Expendables 2 which held the top spot for two weeks, Deadline reports . Appeals Court Rejects Suit to Take Raging Bull Rights from MGM The Ninth Circuit of Appeals upholds MGM’s rights to Raging Bull . Paula Petrella, the daughter of Frank Petrella (aka Peter Savage) brought the rights challenge to court. Petrella wrote a screenplay and other works about former boxing champion Jake LaMotta, his childhood friend in 1963, THR reports . Werner Herzog to Direct the Killers Concert Video The legendary documentary filmmaker will spearhead the band’s concert video which will be broadcast live on September 18th via YouTube from New York’s Paradise Theater. “I think there’s gonna be an animal involved,” bassist Mark Stoermer told Rolling Stone. The Guardian reports . Great Expectations to Close London Film Festival The pic is an all-star film adaptation of Dickens’ classic novel. Starring Ralph Fiennes, Helena Bonham Carter and Jeremy Irvine, the screening marks the 200th anniversary of the author’s death. The BFI London Film festival, taking place October 10 – 21, will announce its full lineup September 5th, Reuters reports . Michael Keaton Joins New Robocop Keaton will play the role of Raymond Sellars, which was initially slated for Hugh Laurie. The film is a re-imagining of of the 1987 classic by Paul Verhoeven. It will be released next August, Deadline reports .
If you thought you were getting any work done during the second part of the day, think again. The good people at Vulture have apparently teamed up with the RAND Corporation and NASA to devise a series of charts with endless permutations that rank today’s most valuable movie stars . But, we ask: Who are today’s Most Valuable Indie Stars? How does one determine who is most valuable? Vulture is more than willing to pull back the curtain on their methodology . (Oh, if only the folks at Diebold could learn a thing or two from celeb-obsessed journalists!) They may have their nifty algorithms, but we’ve got our gut instincts. Using those and those only, we’d like to devise a highly unscientific list of the most valuable indie actors working today. 6. Michael Shannon He’s got many more credits than you might think ( Kangaroo Jack! ) but he first came to our attention as an unusual leading man in Jeff Nichols’ Shotgun Stories . His turn in Werner Herzog’s My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done? secured him a lifetime of indie cred, and this was before Boardwalk Empire and Take Shelter . By my algorithm, he can appear in Man of Steel and two sequels and still be considered an indie star. 5. Mathieu Amalric It isn’t crazy to call this French import a next gen Steve Buscemi. Amalric’s worked with a number of top level international directors like Julian Schnabel, Alain Resnais and Arnaud Desplechin. When he works in Hollywood it’s in top tier material like Munich and Quantum of Solace , which, you must remember, looked like it was going to be good on paper. 4. Michelle Williams From Dawson’s Creek to Synechdoche, NY , Michelle Williams is such a beloved indie star we’ll put up with her breaking our hearts ( Blue Valentine ), forgive her, then let her do it again ( Take This Waltz .) No trip to the Park Slope Food Co-op is complete without thinking you see her in the loose tea aisle. 3. Michael Fassbender From his indistinguishable accent to the phallic puns about his last name, it’s impossible not to give this guy a high ranking. I was hesitant to see Hunger because we’d already seen the Bobby Sands story in Some Mother’s Son , but when I realized it was one of the shirtless dudes from 300 we got curious. Since then he’s put in remarkable turns in Inglourious Basterds , A Dangerous Method , Jane Eyre and Haywire . Even when he does a major studio picture it is with an provocateur in the director’s chair like Matthew Vaughn or Ridley Scott. Fassbender is one of the few actors out there that elite moviegoers will follow from project-to-project indiscriminately. 2. Tilda Swinton …and in that regard, he’s right alongside Tilda Swinton. Who else out there has punk rock cred from her early Derek Jarman years and is also the descendant of medieval landed gentry? From the films of the Coen Brothers to Jim Jarmusch to Lynne Ramsay to Wes Anderson to oddball gems like Julia and I Am Love , Swinton strikes me as someone who doesn’t need to work, to the point that she’s very selective about what she does. As such, anything she’s involved in is very much worth your time. 1. Paul Giamatti If you’ve missed Michelle Williams in Brooklyn, maybe you’ve seen Paulie G around. A gifted comic, and uncannily sympathetic, Giamatti brings a level of excellence to everything he does. Barney’s Version is, I hate to say it, not a good movie. Yet Giamatti’s performance made me literally laugh and cry – oftentimes in the same moment. What’s more, Giamatti is quick to use his Hollywood clout to champion far-flung indie films, which was made abundantly clear during this year’s Sundance with the ultra-niche John Dies at the End . Those are our indie-world MVPs. Have more to add? Make your case below!
I have stared at a chicken’s eyes and seen and felt this stupidity Herzog is talking about… Werner Herzog on Chickens from Tom Streithorst on Vimeo . Chicken stupidity is so profound it’s philosophical. I’ve also seen a chicken run about without its head—legs, feathers, blood spurting from where the head should be. It run perfectly well without its head. It even ran across a narrow bridge that was… Broadcasting platform : Vimeo Source : Slog Discovery Date : 09/02/2012 19:13 Number of articles : 2
When Lars von Trier’s latest masterpiece Melancholia last had any real time in the awards spotlight, Kirsten Dunst was accepting the Best Actress hardware at Cannes . News came over the weekend that their drought is over: The National Society of Film Critics voted Melancholia its Best Picture of 2011, with Dunst again earning Best Actress for her role as a depressed bride coming to grips with the end of the world. Other honorees included Terrence Malick, Brad Pitt, Albert Brooks and Jessica Chastain; read on for the full list of winners, runners-up and voting totals. BEST PICTURE *1. Melancholia – 29 (Lars von Trier) 2. The Tree of Life – 28 (Terrence Malick) 3. A Separation – 20 (Asghar Farhadi) BEST DIRECTOR *1. Terrence Malick – 31 ( The Tree of Life ) 2. Martin Scorsese – 29 ( Hugo ) 3. Lars von Trier – 23 ( Melancholia ) BEST ACTOR *1. Brad Pitt – 35 ( Moneyball, The Tree of Life ) 2. Gary Oldman – 22 ( Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy ) 3. Jean Dujardin – 19 ( The Artist ) BEST ACTRESS *1. Kirsten Dunst – 39 ( Melancholia ) 2. Yun Jung-hee – 25 ( Poetry ) 3. Meryl Streep – 20 ( The Iron Lady ) BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR *1. Albert Brooks – 38 ( Drive ) 2. Christopher Plummer – 24 ( Beginners ) 3. Patton Oswalt – 19 ( Young Adult ) BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS *1. Jessica Chastain – 30 ( The Tree of Life, Take Shelter, The Help ) 2. Jeannie Berlin – 19 ( Margaret ) 3. Shailene Woodley – 17 ( The Descendants ) BEST NONFICTION *1. Cave of Forgotten Dreams – 35 (Werner Herzog) 2. The Interrupters – 26 (Steve James) 3. Into the Abyss – 18 (Werner Herzog) BEST SCREENPLAY *1. A Separation – 39 (Asghar Farhadi) 2. Moneyball – 22 (Steven Zaillian, Aaron Sorkin) 3. Midnight in Paris – 16 (Woody Allen) BEST FOREIGN-LANGUAGE FILM *1. A Separation – 67 (Asghar Farhadi) 2. Mysteries of Lisbon – 28 (Raoul Ruiz) 3. Le Havre – 22 (Aki Kaurismäki) BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY *1. The Tree of Life – 76 ( Emanuel Lubezki ) 2. Melancholia – 41 ( Manuel Alberto Claro ) 3. Hugo – 33 ( Robert Richardson ) EXPERIMENTAL Ken Jacobs, for Seeking the Monkey King . FILM HERITAGE 1. BAM Cinématek for its complete Vincente Minnelli retrospective with all titles shown on 16 mm. or 35 mm. film. 2. Lobster Films, Groupama Gan Foundation for Cinema and the Technicolor Foundation for Cinema for the restoration of the color version of George Méliès’s A Trip to the Moon . 3. New York’s Museum of Modern Art for its extensive retrospective of Weimar Cinema. 4. Flicker Alley for their box set Landmarks of Early Soviet Film . 5. Criterion Collecton for its 2-disc DVD package The Complete Jean Vigo .
Another year, another ruthless paring down of the Oscar-caliber documentary feature crop, with the acclaimed likes of Werner Herzog’s Into the Abyss , Steve James’s The Interrupters , Asif Kapadia’s Senna and others falling by the wayside as the Academy whittled its 125 submissions to 15 shortlist contenders.
Movieline is pleased today to bring you your first look at the new poster for Into the Abyss , director Werner Herzog’s acclaimed documentary foray into the intellectual, spiritual, emotional and legal wilds of capital punishment in America. Or Texas, more specifically, where Herzog digs into the case of convicted murderer and condemned inmate Michael Perry.
Renowned for his prolific, fearless filmmaking, Werner Herzog is in fact nothing if not a polymath: Opera director , guerrilla film-school proprietor , diarist and author , septi-continental gadabout , and actor for hire (among other interests). It’s this latter quality that he and I discussed briefly today as he made the rounds for his new capital-punishment doc Into the Abyss — a diametric opposite to the biggest onscreen gig he’s taken to date.
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