Black girls rock, in every country in the world! Mbathio Beye has been crowned the first Miss Black France France has a new queen–beauty queen that is. Mbathio Beye has been crowned the first “Miss Black France” But there was a lot of hoopla surrounding the pageant, so we’re surprised it even took place. According to the pageant’s organizer Frédéric Royer, the goal of the event was to “celebrate black beauty,” and “to shine a light on the many Black women in this country who are rarely given any media attention.” Yet the last time woman of color to took home the “Miss France” title was only three years ago in 2009 when Chloé Mortaud won—a biracial woman of African American and French descent. Protesters have called the “Miss Black France” pageant “stupid,” “dangerous” and “hostile.” Even the founder and president of the French Representative Council of Black Associations (CRAN), Patrick Lozes, said the pageant is hardly “progressive.” But despite these strong sentiments the pageant commenced and crowned it’s queen. Beye was officially named the first “Miss Black France” Saturday night in Paris, after being selected from a pool of 1,000 applicants and ultimately competing amongst 17 other finalists. Beye, 21, hails from Senegal and is a marketing student. Damn, where is the love??? You would think that an event celebrating Black beauty that there would a little more support from a group like CRAN. Source More On Bossip! Secret Loooovers! Secret Relationships We Didn’t Know About Until Years Later Instagram Greatness! Wayne Gretzky’s Freaky A$$ Daughter Releases Vacation Pics That Make Rihanna Look Like A Nun! Let’s Be Honest: The Craziest Celebrity Lesbian Rumors Of All Time Not Sayin’ She’s A Gold Digger, But…NFL #2 Draft Pick RGIII’s Fiance Buys A New Bentley And He Hasn’t Even Signed A Contract!
It’s not often that we get to see the most powerful man in the world tell jokes about eating dogs, craving cigarettes and imposing his rumored “radical socialist agenda” on the country. And yet, last night in Washington, D.C., we were treated to just that. Wait, let’s not forget the toilet flush. Did we really… Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : The Blaze Discovery Date : 29/04/2012 06:57 Number of articles : 2
Dear Bossip , Preface: I’ve been with my boyfriend for almost two years now. He’s my first love. Now, he’s one of my best friends, if not my very best friend. We spent this past Christmas together, which was the first time either of us had ever spent it away from our families. He invited me to go on his family’s reunion cruise. He got a job as a counselor at the same sleep away summer camp as me for this July and August. We go to college in different states now, and he used some of the inheritance money he received from his recently deceased grandmother to come down here and visit me. He’s been nothing but a wonderful, loving boyfriend, and I can’t imagine not marrying this kid one day and having all his babies. He frequently talks about when we’re going to get married. We even almost went to city hall one day last summer on a whim. He has this whole little plan about how he’s going to get the money to buy me a ring and a house for us and how we will effectively live happily ever after. He gets me in a way I’ve yet to experience with anyone else, and I honestly feel like we truly love each other. Problem: We’re both 22. We both drink. Sometimes we drink a lot. Sometimes when we both drink a lot, we argue. But sometimes, when he drinks too much, the night ends in him choking me. It’s not every time he gets too drunk, but it’s happened more than once. Maybe 7 times in the entirety of our relationship. The last time he blacked out, he punched me repeatedly in the head, and my hearing is still recovering. He woke up in the morning completely unaware. He’s admitted to having a drinking problem for years now. I proposed a break after the last time he hurt me for him to decide if he’s really ready to make the changes necessary to ensure that blacking out and choking me never happens again. Question: How big of a mistake am I making? I’m not stupid. I’m a college senior at one of the most prestigious universities in the country. I am well aware of the statistics in this country about domestic violence in this country, specifically in the Black community, and I know that logically, I should have left after the very first time. Even if we were both drunk. It doesn’t matter. And, I know that the popular opinion is that if I stay with him, he could potentially kill me one day. But am I so wrong in thinking that an abusive alcoholic can become a recovering abusive alcoholic? Or am I too first love drunk to objectively view the situation? I think it’s the fact that it has only happened when he or both of us have been obliterated that I’ve given him the benefit of the doubt. Plus, we have literally never fight sober. We don’t argue sober. We either agree or compromise through communication. The drunken nights, though severe, are my only qualm about the relationship. And he’s seen me through some dark times in my life. I don’t want to give up on him. I know in my heart that he’s not this guy. So, I guess, what do you think? I’ve never told anyone that before. I can’t tell anyone, honestly. I guess I’m just hoping for some sort of outside opinion. – Punch Drunk Love Dear Ms. Punch Drunk Love , This is Breaking News! This just came in! You say that you are not stupid, well, according to my bull-ish calculator, YES YOU ARE! The hell you trying to justify or reason this damn boy beating on you??!!! No, this is not cool. No, this is not okay. And, hell to the MF’ing naw you shouldn’t stay a minute longer. Get your –ish, and get the hell out!!!! He is not going to change, won’t change, and isn’t interested in changing. And, if you’re so damn smart and intelligent, and you attend one of the most prestigious universities in the country, then how come you can’t use your intelligence and deduce that a boy who beats a woman repeatedly, a boy who admits to being an alcoholic, and a boy who refuses to get treatment for said disease will only continue to beat you, remain an alcoholic, and remain in denial about his illness? Don’t they teach something like that during your core classes at prestigious universities? Don’t you intelligent high-siddity know-it-all women use your brains for common sense, or y’all are too smart for your own damn good, and you figure you’re too intelligent to allow yourself to be beaten by a man because you attend a prestigious university? And, I’m curious as to what prestigious university you attend, or has his punching you in the head rattled your brain and caused delusions of grandeur and you have misconstrued your community college as a prestigious university? Chile, puhlease! Miss me already. And, he didn’t choke your ass “Maybe” 7 times. He did choke your ass 7 TIMES! Then, this fool punched you repeatedly in the head, and you’re recovering from the hearing loss, and you’re asking me what you should do? Really! REEEEEAAAAAALLY????? Here’s what you do: The next time he drinks himself to the point of blackening out, then I want you to boil you some grits, and when they are piping hot I want you to stand over him and pour them over his genitals. And, while he’s recovering in the hospital you tell him that you don’t remember anything at all because you were so drunk that you are unaware of what happened because you blacked out. It’s interesting that you referred to your boyfriend as a “kid” early on in your letter. So, I am only left to surmise that you are correct in your assertion, and that he is not a man, because a real man does not put his hands on a woman. A real man does not drink himself into a stupor and beats his woman, and then awakens the next day with no recollection of what happened. Oh, yeah, those gifts he gives you, and those promises of making you his wife and loving you are only a ploy and his lame sorry ass excuses to you so that you won’t leave him. Because quite frankly no woman with any amount of common sense, or half a brain, and definitely someone who is college educated from a prestigious university would not allow herself to be used as a punching bag for ANY MAN! And, sweetie, if you can’t tell anyone. And, you’ve never told anyone. Then what does that make you….hmmm…I think the correct word is ENABLER! If he knows he has a drinking problem, but he won’t get help for it, then guess what, Ms. Oh-So-Smarty-Pants, he isn’t interested in getting help. They say the first sign of someone who is an addict is the fact that they know they have a problem. If he knows this and he doesn’t do anything about it, then he isn’t interested in healing, and getting treatment. He will forever, and will always be an alcoholic. And, you are enabling him by drinking with him. You are enabling him by allowing him to use you as a punching bag, and then act as if nothing happened. There are no repercussions for his behavior. HE NEEDS TO BE IN AN ALCOHOL TREATMENT PROGRAM. He needs to find out what is they source of his drinking and why he is doing it, and especially getting to the point of blacking out, and beating you in the process. Hold up, hold up, let me take that back….HIS ASS NEEDS TO BE LOCKED THE HELL UP!!!! I’m sorry, but it wouldn’t be me sitting there letting some man punch me and choke me out, and he’s still walking on two legs. No ma’am! As he is blacked out from his drunken stupor, I would be all the black off his ass and then call the police and tell them where to come pick his narrow ass up! And, I want you to know this, and listen to me good, you hear me damn it!!!! You can’t fix him. You can’t change him. You can’t make him be who he isn’t. He is an alcoholic. He is an abuser. He is a monster and like most people when they see a monster, YOU RUN! And, love is not beating on someone. It’s not abusing the person you’re with in any fashion. It’s not hurting them physically, mentally, or emotionally. That is not love, and he doesn’t love you! You’re 22-years old and he is already using you as his target of frustration and anger, and beating you to a pulp, but somehow and some where in your small ass brain you are trying to outweigh the bad with what good again? There is nothing you can say to me, or anyone who is a battered person and has survived an abusive relationship that will make us agree with you and tell you that you should stay. I don’t and will not ever condone or support any man who puts his hands on a woman for any damn reason. Hell, I don’t support any persons putting their hands on their mates, or the person they claim they love. And, here your silly young dumbass is sitting up here trying to justify a man CHOKING YOU and PUNCHING YOU IN THE HEAD! Whew, girl, you gon’ get my blood pressure up! If you feel you can’t talk to anyone, or you are too embarrassed to say something, then have your parents write me. Better yet, I want to sit down with them. I will tell them what’s going on, and let’s see how your father handles the situation. As a matter of fact, let’s have a family meeting, and I pray to GOD that you have a Bubba, Ray Ray, and June Bug in your family. I want them to hear the sordid details of how this boy beats you until he blacks out, and how he doesn’t remember anything the next day. I bet his ass will remember the ass whooping they put on him when I finish telling them what he does to you! So, in the meantime, refer him to an alcohol treatment program. That is all you can do for him. You can’t save him, fix him, or make him be in treatment. That is not your job. If he refuses or doesn’t want to get help, then that should be your ticket and answer to GET THE HELL OUT OF THE RELATIONSHIP! And, then I want you to get into some counseling and speak with someone about your emotional and mental state, as well as being a victim of domestic assault. Please, please, please do not try to justify his niceness, and goodness when he’s sober for when he’s drunk and pummeling you. That doesn’t make sense. There is no justification or reasoning for his behavior. It’ wrong. Pure and simple. And, if you don’t get out just know that this is a prelude to what your life will be like with him forever, if you make it to forever, because one night after he’s drunk and going upside your head he may actually strangle you and kill you. And, that’s some real bull-ish right there. – Terrance Dean Hey Bossip Fam, what do you think? Share your opinions and thoughts below! Also, e-mail all your questions Terrance Dean : loveandrelationships@bossip.com Follow Terrance Dean on Twitter : @terrancedean “LIKE” Terrance Dean on Facebook , click HERE! Make sure to order my books Mogul: A Novel (Atria Books – June 2011; $15), and Straight From Your Gay Best Friend – The Straight Up Truth About Relationships, Love, And Having A Fabulous Life (Agate/Bolden Books – November 2010; $15). They are available in bookstores everywhere, and on Amazon, click HERE!
Dolla dolla bills ya’ll!!! A homeless man named Eddie saw Oprah Winfrey eating dinner on the patio of Scarpetta in Beverly Hills recently. Eddie asked her for a bowl of soup, and according to the New York Post’s spies, the media mogul did him one better: “Please, can we get him some money, get him a meal?” asked Oprah. As Scarpetta staff brought him a “feast,” one of Oprah’s dinner companions handed over a bunch of cash. Chef (and owner) Scott Conant posted the New York Post article on his Facebook page earlier that day. His only comment? “Wow!!” Scarpetta is a fine dining Italian restaurant where a plain (but delicious) tomato sauce spaghetti goes for $24. The restaurant has multiple locations across the country, and People points out that when Jay-Z ate at the Miami outpost in 2011, he left a $50,000 tip on a $250,000 bottle of champagne. Oprah’s generosity is legendary. In 2007, she founded the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls school in South Africa, which provides educational and leadership opportunities in a luxurious setting to underprivileged girls in the area. Throughout her talkshow, which ended in 2011, she emphasized charity and “paying it forward” as a sure-fire way to live the best life possible. It’s nice to know that this is how Oprah acts in her private life too. Source More On Bossip! Stop The Violence: A List Of The 10 Most Dangerous States In America! Where’d Our Childhoods Go? A Gallery Of All Our 90s R&B Stars That Fell Off…Super Hard Eff A Criminal Record: A Gallery Of Mugshots From Women That Could Still Get The Business…Or Can They? Making It Rain On Them Hoes: People Magazine Names Mommy Banger BeyBey “World’s Most Beautiful Woman”
North American jaunt kicks off in June and wraps up at the beginning of September. By Jocelyn Vena Demi Lovato Photo: Timothy Hiatt/Getty Images Demi Lovato is ready to give your heart a break on her just-announced summer tour. The Unbroken singer will take her act on the road beginning in June. The trek will kick off on June 12 in California, before circling around the country for 21 dates with stops in Phoenix, Las Vegas, Boston and one stop in Toronto, Canada. The tour will run through the summer, wrapping up on September 1 in Salem, Oregon. Lovato hit the road last fall to promote the album. That smaller Stateside tour was featured in her MTV documentary, “Stay Strong.” She also recently completed a tour in South America. This time around, Lovato is expected to bring Hot Chelle Rae and Owl City with her. Unbroken just went platinum, celebrating sales of more than one million since its September release. She recently dropped the album’s second single, “Give Your Heart a Break,” as well as the music video earlier this month. While Lovato has been open about her personal struggles, she didn’t want this album to be exclusively about them. “I didn’t want to come out with this depressing album. I think it’s important that I kept a lot of my heart open on the album because I talked about my personal issues,” she told MTV News. “But I also had some fun dance songs on there for people to enjoy.” Demi’s summer tour dates, according to her label:
Actor George Clooney once confessed to Oscar-winner Michael Moore that he used the filmmaker’s debut Roger & Me as a dating litmus test. Or so Moore told an audience at the Walter Reade Theater in New York, where the hit 1989 documentary had a special screening Tuesday night. Moore laughed when recalling the story at an event hosted by the Film Society of Lincoln Center, which screened the documentary as part of its lead-up to the 50th anniversary edition of the New York Film Festival in September. The director explained how Clooney shared with him years back that, “I use Roger & Me for dating. By the first or second date, they have to watch [your film]. If they get it, they get a [follow-up] date. If they don’t… they don’t.” Then Moore added rhetorically: “This story will only stay in this room, right?” Moore gave insight and, not surprisingly, his opinion about Roger & Me and how it figures in the present economic times Tuesday night, and didn’t hold back. “We’re in some deep shit,” Moore said about the condition of the country today compared to when he made Roger & Me for $150K back in ’89. “I had hoped that what we have now wouldn’t have happened.” Moore, who sat through the screening with his wife, said that he hadn’t seen the film in years because doing so is personally difficult. He noted today there are only 4,000 GM workers left in Flint, Michigan where Roger is mostly set, compared to 50,000 at the time he made the film. “Five minutes into the film, my wife started crying,” he said. FSLC program director Richard Peña praised Moore — dressed in a brown hoodie and Tribeca Film Festival baseball cap — for ushering in a “golden age” of documentary beginning with Roger & Me which screened at the New York Film Festival in 1989. “I was nobody in the business then,” Moore responded. “I was unemployed at the time. We screened it around the same time as Sex, Lies and Videotape was showing. The Warner Bros. people were in the audience that night and saw it receive a standing ovation and they bought it.” Roger & Me was the first documentary to hit multiplexes, eventually grossing nearly $8 million worldwide. “I never liked documentaries growing up, they felt like medicine,” Moore said. “I wanted this film to be structured in a way that can be enjoyed with popcorn in a theater, but at the same time, making sure all the facts are in fact — true.” Moore added that he takes pride in helping to “kick the door open” for doc filmmakers that have also had success with theatrical releases. But when it comes to making his movies including his blockbuster Fahrenheit 9/11 and Oscar-winner Bowling for Columbine , he said that he finds the root-cause of his films depressing. “I dread making these movies,” he said. “When we solicited stories from people for Sicko , it was very emotional. We couldn’t help crying.” Now, more than two decades after making his debut, Moore gave himself a pat on the back for Roger & Me , noting the film stood above the rest for him personally. “I wouldn’t change a frame of this film,” Moore said. “It’s probably the favorite of all my films. I was learning how to make a film as I was doing it.” Follow Brian Brooks on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter . [Photo: Julie Cunnah/Film Society of Lincoln Center]
Filmmaker Boaz Yakin has taken a circuitous route through the years tackling indie dramas ( Fresh , A Price Above Rubies , Death in Love ) and studio gigs ( Remember the Titans , Uptown Girls ) alike, not to mention his writing stints on films like Prince of Persia and producing duties on the Hostel films. But this week’s Safe , a frenetic throwback actioner starring Jason Statham , marks a return to his roots — both to the streets of New York he grew up loving and to the genre beginnings that gave him his start. Safe follows Luke Wright (Statham), a disgraced NYPD officer-turned-cage fighter who hits rock bottom and then becomes the protector of a 12-year-old Chinese girl (newcomer Catherine Chan) who’s being pursued by an entire city filled with Triads, Russian mob, corrupt city officials, and dirty cops. As Yakin told Movieline, writing and directing Safe gave him liberty to craft a kind of homage to his favorite ‘70s New York action pics while adding his own flair to the well-worn genre, and the result is an authentically gritty, ultraviolent action romp filled with flying bullets, twisty machinations, and – yes – the glory that is the sight of a single tear rolling down Jason Statham’s steely face. Yakin spoke with Movieline about shooting on his beloved New York City streets, the “beautiful decrepitude” of a bygone NYC that he hoped to capture, how filming limitations gave way to the film’s most inventive and impressive sequences, and how he almost learned the hard way why you shouldn’t cut before Jason Statham has turned on the waterworks. Even though you partially shot Philadelphia for New York, you manage to capture so many authentic-feeling New York locations in the film. How much did you split filming, and how much were you able to shoot in the city itself? We shot in Philly but the thing I made sure of was that we shot the lion’s share of our exterior work, the New York subways – that was all done in New York. And then we went to Philadelphia and did some night shots, night exteriors, and basically all of our interior stuff was done in Philadelphia, and some key things that would have been very difficult to do, like some street car chases and things like that. New York is an amazing city to shoot because it looks so great and you get so much of its energy and texture on film, but it’s also really hard to shoot there just physically. People don’t really give a damn that you’re there and move you around, and it’s so grueling to shoot there. In Philly it was a lot easier and people were a lot more accommodating, and you’re able to get away with shooting things there at all hours of the night, making noise and things like that, which they’d never let you get away with in New York. So it worked out for us. Which were your favorite New York locations, the ones that were most gratifying to get that really nailed that texture? I have to say that even though it was so incredibly difficult to shoot there, I’ve never directed an action film but I’ve written a bunch of them [ The Punisher , The Rookie ] and one of the things that really gives New York its flavor is the subway system and the way the subway feels. In the classic New York action film it’s always there — there’s the classic French Connection subway chase, and all that – and for me it was really important to do a memorable subway sequence that could stand up there with some of the best ones that have been done in the past. None of them will ever touch the French Connection one, but I wanted to sort of add my entry. So for me, the location I got to shoot in that just really defines the film is the subway scene. Which stops did you film at? It was between two stops — one of them, we sort of made a stop on Wall St. look like a stop in Brooklyn and then there was the 14th Street L that goes cross-town on the East Side. You mention The French Connection , and the film conjures that meaty throwback, ‘70s and ‘80s action feel reminiscent of that film and many others. That’s what I was going for – seeing the movie as sort of a double throwback movie, both to the films that I was writing when I broke into the business in the late ’80s and more so to movies about the city that I grew up in. I grew up in New York in the 1970s, when it was sort of in a state of decay, a kind of a colorful, crazy lawlessness; you felt like anything could happen at any time. There was a kind of a beautiful decrepitude about it, like it hadn’t gotten Starbucks-ized. It still had this kind of gritty texture and an “anything goes” improvisational feeling and even as a kid there was a part of you that sensed that this was never going to be this way again. This is crazy! Someday I’m going to miss this, you know? And it’s true; I still love New York, but I miss its texture and its crazy kind of falling apart quality, and I wanted to capture that in the film. I wanted to capture the New York movies that I love, like The Seven-Ups , Death Wish , The Warriors , just the kind of movies that soaked up the streets of the city in their DNA, but really also a tribute to the way I felt about New York when I was younger. In terms of filmmakers, were you inspired by a shot here or a technique there or an archetype from the genre staples? I thought a lot about the classic John Woo and Hong Kong cop movies, for example. I think having seen so many of those films over the years, you sort of just absorb them and I just know them really well at this point. I would say that whenever you’re going to do an action scene you study the stuff in Better Tomorrow Part II and so on but there were a lot of other films that I looked at too. And one thing I kind of didn’t want to do that John Woo does, actually, is that he slows things down for the action scenes — like, kind of sexualizes and glamorizes every gunshot, and makes it into this slow-motion ballet of violence which is just fantastic and he’s a master of it post-Peckinpah. But for me, there are maybe two slow-motion shots in the film. I wanted things to feel hectic and in your face and jumping around and very present; I didn’t want to treat the action like, ‘Aha! Here’s the action scene!’ I wanted the action to spring out of what was happening in the moment and for you to feel like you were catching up with it while it was going on. So in that sense I tried to find a different approach to it. Your shooting and editing style really jump out throughout Safe , and there are a number of action sequences that are really impressive to watch. You wonder, ‘How did he pull that off in just one shot or one staged sequence?’ And more to the point, why go to so much trouble to pull off these deceptively complex scenes? I think you want to bring something interesting and add to it when you’re doing a genre film — you want to appreciate the genre and do what you can to add to it. I think that part of it, by the way, is the creativity that comes from having limited time and money. For instance, the scene where the girl gets kidnapped from the car and they get driven into, you see everything through the windows and the rearview mirrors of the car, and it’s like, okay — I’m going to have one day to shoot a scene that if I was really going to cover every guy killing every guy and all that stuff it would take me three or four days. Okay, what’s the emotional grounding of the scene? It’s this girl’s experience. And it’s sort of like putting you into the shoes of the people in the car. So I go, okay — I can do this all with three kind of complicated shots, but that’s three shots — when you look at that sequence it’s something like three or four — for something that you could shoot in fifty shots if you were really covering it. So it’s complex, but it has a point of view and it’s specific. Sometimes being limited enables you to think in a way that’s more creative. You could never replicate it in this film, but Alfonso Cuaron did Children of Men and he did like three or four sequences, there’s this one in a car, and he’s shooting these fabulous long takes… That’s actually something that there was no way I could try to get to that in this film; we just didn’t have the time or the wherewithal. But there were a few places where I wanted to recreate a little bit of that feeling. That totally works, because you do get swept up in the chaotic feeling of being there in scenes like the kidnapping and the memorable unbroken shot in which a fight is witnessed via a rearview mirror. You have a shot of Reggie Lee shooting someone randomly in the middle of a hotel exodus that most directors might cut around, but instead it draws attention to the execution of the scene itself and the power of the chaos in that moment. In a way, the less you cut the more you feel like you’re in a situation. And by the way, how great was Reggie Lee in the film? He’s such a great actor. For me I thought there were a lot of really terrific character actors in the film and it was important to me to create that tapestry of characters, the way they did in those New York films that I loved so much. But Reggie Lee just constantly surprised me. Every time he showed up onscreen there was something authentic and genuine and nuanced. His part doesn’t have a lot of dialogue to convey his mixed feelings about what he’s doing. You’ve just got to feel it all from his performance and his looks. And you give him a scene in the car where he unexpectedly reveals some measure of a fatherly impulse toward Mei, which dimensionalizes him. Which brings me to my next question: Here you have Asian Triads and Russian baddies with a capital B, so to speak — why make the ethnic villains so larger than life? Look, when you make an action movie and a thriller, someone’s got to be the bad guy! And in this film, the main bad cop is a Jewish cop called Captain Wolf, you’ve got a sort of evil gay Italian mayor and his lover… Everyone in this film is bad, there’s nobody good. And I think at this point the Italian mafia has become a little played out. After The Sopranos , they’re just cute; when you see the Italian mafia in movies anymore it’s just like Robert De Niro in Analyze This , you want to send them to a therapist and have a few laughs. It’s a little played out, so I think that dealing with the Russians and the Chinese is a little fresher for me — not that it hasn’t been done. But frankly, the heroine of the film is a little Chinese girl, and she’s in a way almost as big a part as Jason. But to answer your question — I don’t care, you know what I mean? It’s an action movie, and there are tons of bad guys in it of all ethnicities. Equal opportunity villainy. It’s equal opportunity! And it’s like everyone should be able to be bad, and everyone should be able to be good. I can’t think that way and start limiting myself that way. Let’s talk about Jason in this film; the character he plays is at once very much in his action wheelhouse but also much more vulnerable at times than we’ve ever seen Jason Statham in the movies — he loses everything, he’s wracked with guilt, he’s suicidal… You know, it’s interesting. The way the part was written, and especially having Jason, who has developed this reputation and made so many films where he is in many ways not vulnerable, it was important to me to emphasize those aspects of his character. I think that when you put, say, Matt Damon in a Bourne film or something like that, the work that you have in those films is that everyone knows Matt is a really wonderful actor and nuanced and your challenge in a Bourne movie is to make people believe that he’s also a bad-ass, right? With Jason it’s the reverse, where you know he’s a bad-ass, you know he can do all this stuff — how can we bring these other elements and colors to his persona? That was something I really tried to emphasize and bring to the table. There’s a scene when he’s at a very, very low point where you orchestrate a surprising emotional moment for him — his entire world is collapsing and as the camera moves in, he conjures a single tear. Yes, that long take moving in on Jason. Look, I think Jason is a much, much better actor than people give him credit for, and that even he gives himself credit for. I think that there are a lot of people who are more highly regarded as actors who could not have held that close-up and that kind of shot, moving in on him, for the amount of time and the level of intensity that Jason did. When he commits himself to something, he’s very, very good. And there is a funny little story about that one shot; I’m a terrible one for cutting as soon as the scene is over. I think a lot of smart people, when the scene is over you just kind of let it sit a little to see what’s going to happen — like, if there’s anything extra that happens that’s good. I tend to try to keep the set moving, so as soon as it’s over I’m like, ‘Cut! Okay!’ We did a few takes of this shot with Jason and he was good in all of them, but then we were doing that one more take to see what would happen — and this is the one that was in the film — and as it was getting to the end, the dialogue was finished and I was about to call cut, the DP [Stefan Czapsky] and my friend, the producer, Lawrence [Bender] , literally picked me up and moved me away from the monitor so that I wouldn’t say ‘Cut.’ I was surprised – they didn’t tell me they were going to do that – and three seconds after that happened, the tear came down Jason’s face! [Laughs] I was about to say ‘Cut’ and they literally tackled me and pulled me away and I was like, ‘What the fuck?’ Then the tear came down Jason’s face and they were like, ‘You see?’ I’m like, okay – lesson learned. Safe also stars Chris Sarandon, Robert John Burke, James Hong and Anson Mount and is in theaters Friday. Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Movieline spotlighted filmmakers and trailers from the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival over the weekend and last week . The festival is still underway all this week, so it’s certainly not too late to catch a little Tribeca action. If you’re in New York and want to see some films at the festival (or if you are looking for a taste of Tribeca from afar), here is a sneak glimpse of more of this year’s offerings from the festival’s World Narrative Competition and World Documentary Competition . Tuesday’s spotlights include World Narrative Competition features Nancy, Please and War Witch as well as World Doc Competition contenders The Flat and The List . And in Tribeca’s genre-centered Cinemania section is Rat King . Nancy, Please by director Andrew Semans – U.S. [World Narrative Competition] Synopsis : Paul’s life is good. He is a gifted graduate student at Yale, completing a PhD in English literature, and has finally moved in with his longtime girlfriend, Jen. A bright and promising future seems assured. There’s just one thing. Paul has left an item of great importance at his old apartment: a tattered, personally annotated copy of Dickens’ Little Dorrit, the subject of his dissertation, and he simply must have it back. Doing so will mean recovering it from his casually sinister and inexplicably vindictive former roommate, Nancy, who blithely thwarts Paul’s increasingly frantic attempts at retrieval. His annoyance turns to rage and then to obsession, until his life begins to come undone. Things will get much, much worse before they get better. [Courtesy of Tribeca Film Festival] Comments by Andrew Semans … Nancy, Please quick pitch : Paul has recently moved in with his girlfriend. In the process, he has left something of great personal importance behind in his old apartment. Nancy, his casually sinister former roommate, refuses to give it back for reasons unknown. Paul is confused; Paul is frustrated; Paul is doomed. Nancy, Please is a black comedy that explores obsession, self-righteousness, and the perverse allure of victimhood in New Haven, CT. …and why it’s worth seeing at Tribeca : It’s a funny and occasionally ghoulish story that tracks the process by which a seemingly mundane conflict can evolve into something truly absurd and truly destructive. Thoughts about the clip : In this clip, our protagonist (Paul) confronts his former roommate (Nancy) on her doorstep in an effort to retrieve a cherished book that she’s been inexplicably withholding from him. The Flat , by director Arnon Goldfinger – Israel, Germany [World Documentary Competition] Comments by Arnon Goldfinger … The Flat quick pitch : After my grandmother passed away at the age of 98, my family and I went to empty out the flat and soon discover hints to a mysterious and painful past. …and why it’s worth seeing at Tribeca : [It is] an unbelievable story, the secrets that are revealed, the moving characters – and the deep feelings that the film brings up with viewers. Thoughts about the trailer … The trailer is taken from the beginning of the film and is the starting point for a complicated journey that is about to unfold on screen. The flat is still filled with objects, photos and letters that accumulated over a lifetime. Soon this will all disappear, but along the way, secrets that were hidden, will begin to emerge. The List by director Beth Murphy – U.S. [World Documentary Competition] Synopsis : After working for an aid group tasked with improving infrastructure in war-torn cities in Iraq, young American Kirk Johnson returns home to news that his Iraqi co-workers are being killed, kidnapped or forced into exile by radical militias who perceived them as traitors because of their involvement with the U.S. Frustrated by his government’s inability to safeguard its endangered allies, Johnson begins compiling a list of Iraqis seeking refuge and a new life in America — all of them desperately in need of an advocate. [Courtesy of Tribeca Film Festival] Comments by Beth Murphy … The List quick pitch : The List is a modern-day Oskar Schindler story about a young American who is working to save Iraqis who are being targeted for death because they worked for the United States government and military to rebuild their country. …and why it’s worth seeing at Tribeca : [The film] shows the human face of the Iraq War, an example of the aftermath of war. And I believe the aftermath of war is something that is all too often forgotten. America has moved on from Iraq, but for Iraqis who worked with our government and military, there is no moving on from the life-threatening reality they and their families face. And in this big picture is a very personal and emotional story of a former U.S. government employee who is single-handedly trying to redeem a nation. Thoughts about the clip : In this scene from The List , Kirk Johnson meets in a cramped Baghdad hotel room with desperate Iraqis who are being hunted down as “traitors” and “collaborators with the enemy.” All of these Iraqis are among the thousands on Kirk’s list. They are all in danger because of their affiliation with America, and they have all been waiting for years for help from the U.S. War Witch by director Kim Nguyen – Canada [World Narrative Competition] Synopsis : Montreal-based filmmaker Kim Nguyen paints a poignant and harrowing portrait of Komona, a 14-year-old girl (wonderfully played by nonprofessional actress Rachel Mwanza) who has been kidnapped from her African village by rebels to become a child soldier. She escapes from the camp with an older albino soldier and experiences for the very first time the joys of a peaceful and loving life, but a fresh tragedy will force her to confront and fight the ghosts haunting her mind. [Courtesy of Tribeca Film Festival] Brief comments by Kim Nguyen … The War Witch quick pitch : It’s a love story at a time of war, and it’s also a story of resilience in a world filled with magic, violence and poetry. …and why it’s worth seeing at Tribeca : Definitely, first and foremost, to see Rachel Mwanza, one of the most powerful actresses we have seen on the screen in the last decade. A thought about the trailer : Hope in troubled times! Rat King by director Petri Kotwica – Finland [Cinemania section] (non-English) Synopsis : Eighteen-year-old Juri spends his days absorbed in his computer gaming world, to the exclusion of school, friends, and his exasperated girlfriend. One night his Internet ally “Modred,” actually another student named Niki, turns up at his door, fearing for his life. Niki is caught in the grasp of a mysterious new online game, and Juri, warned of the dangers but with nothing to lose, eagerly follows him down the rabbit hole. Initially unimpressed with a game that seems to be nothing but a series of banal tasks, Juri soon finds himself immersed in an all-consuming race against the clock for his very life. [Courtesy of Tribeca Film Festival] Comments by Petri Kotwica … The Rat King quick pitch : [It is] the story of Juri, 18, who is looking for a way out of his online gaming addiction only to find himself drawn into a deadly psychotic real-life nightmare by net-mate Niki. …and why it’s worth seeing at Tribeca : Cleverly constructed and with outstanding cinematography, Rat King manages to combine contemporary issues, such as the relative dangers of gaming addiction, with a fast paced and entertaining storyline. Thoughts about the trailer : I wanted to show the topic and style of the film. Rat King is a thriller spiced up with horror elements about a high school kid who enters a deadly online game. Read all of Movieline’s Tribeca 2012 coverage here .
Duke goes early and so does London in the brand-new trailer for ‘G.I. Joe: Retaliation,’ from ‘Never Say Never’ director Jon Chu. By Josh Wigler Dwayne Johnson in “G.I. Joe: Retaliation” Photo: Paramount Crashing through the sky comes the fearful cry of Cobra, but I feel no fear at the laser-blasting terrorist organization’s coming arrival. For one, we all know the Joes have this battle in the bag. For another, there’s a second “G.I. Joe” movie heading our way in just two short months, and by the looks of it, it’s the movie that fans have always wanted. Bring on Zartan, Firefly and the rest of them, I say! Cobra Commander and his minions are out in full force in the brand-new “G.I. Joe: Retaliation” trailer that arrived Tuesday (April 24) courtesy of Machinima . Featuring an introduction from leading man Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, the two-and-a-half minute trailer embraces everything we loved about that first “Retaliation” spot and ups the ante considerably. Keep reading for the five scenes from the trailer we were most excited to see. The Duke Of Hazard “Just don’t kill Duke. That’s really my only request,” MTV.com reader Adam wrote in response to the arrival of the first “Retaliation” trailer some months ago. Unfortunately, Adam, I don’t think your wish will be granted: Rumors have long been swirling about the early exit of Channing Tatum’s “Rise of Cobra” hero, and his limited appearance in the “Retaliation” trailer only fuels that fire further. If there’s a silver lining, it’s that Duke appears to have grown among the Joe crowd quite a bit since last we saw him. He’s got a strong relationship with Roadblock, so much so that he happily volunteers to babysit his fellow Joe’s little girls for a weekend. Duke might not last long in “Retaliation,” but expect his departure — however it comes — to weigh heavily on Roadblock as the film unfolds. The Country Is At War There’s only one man who could destroy G.I. Joe in one crushing move, and The Rock voted for him. Viewers well know that the president of the United States is Zartan in disguise, using his influence to push Cobra into the public eye and assert its dominance over the globe. If you thought the rise of Cobra meant the death of the former president, however, you’d be mistaken: The trailer reveals that the real president (played by “Pirates of the Caribbean” veteran Jonathan Pryce) is still alive, if not exactly well. Two Cases of Thin Mints With few allies left to turn to, Roadblock takes his surviving Joes — Flint and Lady Jaye — and teams up with the reclusive General Joe Colton, the man who started it all. The hero, played by action legend Bruce Willis, has gone from complaining about his high cholesterol to demanding Girl Scout cookies in this newest trailer. And he wonders why his blood pressure is all out of whack! London Bridge Is Falling Down “Rise of Cobra” saw the destruction of the Eiffel Tower. It looks like London’s going to undergo a similar “everything must go” sale when “Retaliation” rolls around. What, you really thought that President Zartan wanted world peace? He and the Cobra gang are behind the massive terrorist assault on the United Kingdom, and it’s going to be up to Roadblock and his pals to prevent further destruction from happening. Ninja Wrap So. Many. Ninjas. But never enough ninjas. There is no such thing, as Snake Eyes and Jinx battling an army of sword-wielding Cobra loyalists on the side of a mountain will surely tell you. Recently, Chu revealed that a nine- to ten-minute, dialogue-free ninja battle would occur in “Retaliation,” and going by the previous trailer and this latest one, it looks like this snow-covered mountain is where it’s all going down. Awesome. What do you think of the new “G.I. Joe” trailer? Sound off in the comments below! Check out everything we’ve got on ” G.I. Joe: Retaliation .” For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com . Related Photos “G.I. Joe: Retaliation” Character Photos Cast of G.I. Joe: Retaliation | Toy Fair 2012
Se fueron y no regresar… Cuban Actors From “Una Noche” Disappear Prior To Tribeca Film Festival In a case of life imitating art, a pair of young Cuban actors who were expected at the New York premiere of their film about defecting to the U.S. have disappeared after landing in Miami. The film “Una Noche” is about three young Cubans who decide to flee the country on a raft after one of them is accused of assault. The film follows the day they attempt to make it 90 miles across the ocean to Florida. All three of the film’s stars — Anailin de la Rua de la Torre, Javier Nunez Florian and Dariel Arrechaga — were expected to appear at New York’s Tribeca Film Festival for the premiere. But Torre and Florian, both 19, were nowhere to be found the night of the event. “Only Dariel Arrechada attended the Tribeca Film Festival premiere screening of ‘Una Noche’ on Thursday, April 19,” a spokeswoman for the Tribeca Film Festival said in a statement. “We have not had any contact with Anailin de la Rua de la Torre or with Javier Nunez Florian.” Tammie Rosen, spokeswoman for the festival, confirmed to ABCNews.com that all of the actors were invited to the festival. “We can’t say for sure what the status of these guys are,” Katie Tichacek Kaplan, spokeswoman for the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), told ABCNews.com. “There are a number of things they could be thinking. We just don’t know what their plans are.” Ohhhhh we can tell you EXACTLY what their plans are, they got the HELL outta Dodge! Comin’ from Cuba? Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeit, good luck finding them! More On Bossip! Coupled Up In NYC: Kim Kardashian And Kanye West Spotted Cheesin’ & Swirlin’ In The Big Apple [Photos] Celebrity Cribs: Which Legendary Actor is Selling This La Quinta Cali Mansion For $4.5M?? [Photos] Some Instagram Preciousness Courtesy Of C-Milli, Swizzy And Slim Thug For The Ladies: 10 Men That Have Admitted To Enjoying Taking Their Oral Talents Down South
