Almost as enduring as James Bond himself, Ernst Stavro Blofeld was a supervillain caricature even before Mike Myers turned him into Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels with a skull cap as Dr. Evil in the Austin Powers franchise. In his first two Bond film appearances, From Russia with Love and Thunderball, t he nefarious head of SPECTRE was shown only from the chest down as he stroked his white cat and, like Darth Vader, required two — at the time, uncredited — actors to play him: Anthony Dawson handled the body portion of Blofeld while Eric Pohlmann provided the voice. That changed in the 1967 Bond film You Only Live Twice when, in a dramatic reveal, Donald Pleasance became the initial face of Blofeld, although not for long. The appropriately fiendish looking Telly Savalas played the villain in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service ; then Charles Gray took over in Diamonds Are Forever to play multiple Blofelds thanks to a plotline involving the creation of dastardly doppelgangers through plastic surgery. (Cloning was not yet in vogue in the movies.) In the opening sequence of For Your Eyes Only , an uncredited character who is presumably Blofeld — the cat and the clothes certainly leave that impression — is finally dispatched by being dropped into a smokestack by Agent 007. As was the case with Blofeld’s first two cinematic appearances, he is portrayed by two actors: John Hollis (body) and Robert Rietty (voice). And yet, the baddie manages to make one more appearance in the independently produced Never Say Never Again, where he is played by Max Von Sydow. While you’re taking a break from trolling Bond chat rooms to see if Blofeld will return during the Daniel Craig era , vote for your favorite Blofeld. We’ve included even the minimal performances because we are completists at heart, and we know you are, too. If you haven’t voted for you favorite Bond movie, that poll is still open, too , and Craig’s debut turn in Casino Royale is currently winning. Take Our Poll Vote For Your Favorite Bond Movie Here . Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
It’s hard to say who really won, or if nobody won, or if everyone won last night when filmmaker Joe Swanberg ( LOL , Hannah Takes The Stairs ) and Badass Digest critic Devin Faraci took their creative differences to the boxing ring at the Fantastic Debates, an annual Fantastic Fest highlight that combines traditional debate with actual fisticuffs. Technically, their topic of debate was “Mumblecore is catshit and is giving a bad name to independent films,” though given Swanberg’s position as the micro-indie movement’s poster child, the fight got personal as soon as it began. Faraci had the audience going early with opening remarks (full transcript below) laced with pointed barbs that had the capacity crowd cheering. “[Mumblecore] is a bunch of middle class white kids whining about their ennui, about their middle class white lives in front of a camera, without a script, without good actors,” he proclaimed. “Here’s what you need to make a mumblecore movie: A sense of entitlement, white skin, and Greta Gerwig.” It’s safe to say Faraci’s anti-mumblecore attack/not-so-friendly roast had the support of the audience, but to his credit, Swanberg (who had no films in the fest and flew in for the debate) deftly countered. “True to form I haven’t prepared notes like Devin,” he began, turning the focus back on Faraci. “Maybe us mumblecore filmmakers are making movies from the heart that are connecting with you in a way that makes you a little bit uncomfortable.” Faraci nailed exactly what so many film-watchers dislike about mumblecore films — the unscripted, self-obsessed feeling of privileged white hipsterism that dominates them — but while he had the audience’s minds, Swanberg captured their hearts with the best counter-argument he could have used. “When you use your voice to try and squash people who are young, who are just coming up, who are figuring out the kind of filmmaker they want to be and the kinds of films they want to make,” said Swanberg, “all you’re doing is discouraging creative people from becoming who they are.” It was a passionate, personal, highly entertaining exchange of ideas and philosophies about film and filmmaking filled with complexities of the critic-artist relationship as old as time. And then they entered the ring. Although Faraci and Swanberg were preceded by dueling twin sister filmmakers Jen and Sylvia Soska ( American Mary ) who kicked each other while dressed as Mortal Kombat characters, and were followed by the night’s title card between Fantastic Fest founder Tim League and actual Tae Kwan Do Grandmaster/motivational speaker/ Miami Connection star Y.K. Kim, the critic-filmmaker bout was the best, and most alarming, of the night. Punches landed hard. Contact lenses were lost. In an event traditionally more tongue-in-cheek sideshow than serious fight, Faraci hit the mat but kept going for two rounds with Swanberg, who had director Ti West as his cornerman and wore a shirt that read “The Silver Bullet,” a nod to one of his own films and a symbolic weapon for taking down certain hirsute mythological creatures. What started out as a wildly entertaining exchange of barbs turned harrowing as the physical match wore on. But neither contender pulled any punches, at the podium or in the ring, Fantastic Fest got its best Debate in memory, and this morning Faraci and Swanberg’s intellectual bout is as much the talk of the fest as their knock-down rumble. In any case, the two bruisers made up after hours, somewhat , in true Fantastic Fest fashion. I guess that’s a win-win for everyone? Read the full transcript below. Devin Faraci: Joe, I really want to thank you for coming down to Austin, Texas to talk. I understand that last night you and your wife wanted to have some Chinese food, and Magnolia is now releasing that into 100 theaters next weekend. I’m here not because I hate Joe Swanberg – that’s just a plus – but because I love independent cinema. I love indie movies! They’re the beating heart of film. This is the best, the brightest, our greatest directors from Oscar Micheaux to Roger Corman to Dennis Hopper to Katherine Bigelow, Richard Linklater, Paul Thomas Anderson’s independent cinema. These are people without big means, these are people with big dreams, big visions – and usually, take note, a script. Even Cassavetes who didn’t have the scripts had these amazing actors, incredibly trained naturalistic actors whose qualifications were much more than just being willing to simulate sex onscreen with the director. You are the opposite of everything that’s great about indie film. It’s the laziest form of filmmaking. It’s a bunch of middle class white kids whining about their ennui, about their middle class white lives in front of a camera, without a script, without good actors. Here’s what you need to make a mumblecore movie: A sense of entitlement, white skin, and Greta Gerwig. To me, the word “core” at the end of mumblecore sounds like it should be something punk rock, something amazing, something edgy, instead of the blandest, most self-indulgent bullshit and only at the narcissists who make it. Your audience, pretty much, is you. Joe Swanberg: Well, true to form I haven’t prepared notes like Devin. I heard you use the word “lazy” just now yet also it seems to be the case that I’ve made more movies than almost any American filmmaker so that seems to be a contradiction. Additionally, if my audience is just me why do I make a living as a filmmaker and why do you seem to have seen so many of my films? Maybe you recognize yourself in those movies, Devin. Maybe us mumblecore filmmakers are making movies from the heart that are connecting with you in a way that makes you a little bit uncomfortable, possibly in your underpants area. Maybe they’re a little too familiar. Maybe the awkward fumblings of the sexual scenes hit a little too close to home, so rather than embrace these films you put up a wall of defense. I also heard you mention Roger Corman, another filmmaker who in his time was accused of being lazy, amateurish, sloppy, all these things – now he’s a hero of yours. Maybe you’ve got to give these mumblecore movies another 25 years before you see the true impact they make. Mostly, I’m out there doing it, Devin. I’m making movies. I’m getting my friends together with no money, we’re going out there and doing it, we’re putting ourselves on the line for shitheads like you to take cheap shots from behind your computer! There wouldn’t be a you without a me, Devin. Faraci: You’re right, you have made more films than most American filmmakers. Hitler killed more Jews than most other people. True, your early films were full of your heart, and your soul, and your dick, and then you moved past short subjects into longer movies. It is important that people keep making movies. I do agree that having no money should never be a roadblock for any filmmaker out there. Having no talent, that’s a whole other matter entirely. Swanberg: I’m going to ignore the cheap shots. You know, we both came of age in a really amazing time when the technology has allowed me to have a voice and the technology has allowed you to have a voice. And I think that, unfortunately, when you use your voice to try and squash people who are young, who are just coming up, who are figuring out the kind of filmmaker they want to be and the kinds of films they want to make, all you’re doing is discouraging creative people from becoming who they are. I think the next time you see a movie that you really hate, you might want to reflect on it for more than 25 minutes before you write a review. You write reviews faster than I make movies. Faraci: I do agree, I think that young filmmakers out there who are working hard should be supported, they should have places like Fantastic Fest to come and show the work they’re doing. It doesn’t mean that every single thought that they ever had has to become a 65-minute motion picture. At the end of the day I think making movies isn’t just about getting your friends together and turning a camera on. It’s about creating something that speaks to people, something that has a soul, something that has narrative. I think you need to have one of these things: amazing craft, amazing script, amazing actors. At this point, when Kevin Smith is beating you in all three of those, I don’t know what to say. But I do want to say, Joe, I do respect that you came down here. This is not easy, this is not your crowd. I think this was very big of you. And I look forward to punching you right in the face in a couple minutes. Swanberg: I don’t have much to say Devin, except that I’m going to be making a lot more films for the rest of my life, most of them you’ll be watching. I’ll never read another word you write. I think you’ve demonstrated an incredibly close-minded view of what cinema can be, by referencing just script, or just narrative, or just those things. I think you have a lot to learn. I’m excited for you to learn it. Mostly I’m excited to put the gloves on and beat the shit out of you. Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
My name is Melanie and I live in Israel. I’ve been a Belieber ever since I can remember and my biggest wish has always been to meet him. When I heard Justin was going to be performing at the Teen Choice Awards 2012 , I freaked out and did all I could to obtain tickets. After bugging my dad about it everyday, he finally managed to get tickets. I just couldn’t contain my excitement!! However, I was on summer vacation in Paris. Being so addicted to Justin, I found really cheap plane tickets to go to LA to be able to go to the TCA’s on July 22nd . When I landed on the 20th, all I thought about was how I was breathing Justin’s air. After the long wait, I finally got to the Gibson Amphitheater in LA. Sadly, I wasn’t able to go to the red carpet before the actual show but when Justin finally got inside the Amphitheater, tons of girls ran to him. I wasn’t able to go take a picture with him because the security wouldn’t let me get through to him. I was already crying since I knew we were in the same room. An hour later, Justin went backstage to get ready for his performance and walked really close to me so I pushed through security and finally managed to get within reach of him. I couldn’t control myself and was shaking. Even though I didn’t get to talk to him because he was surrounded by security, I still managed to touch his arm and to take a few pictures of him as he walked by me. Later when he went up on stage, his performance was flawless as usual. For the rest of the night, I couldn’t stop staring at him from my seat . This was the best experience of my life. I hope one day I’ll actually get to talk and take a picture with him, never say never. -@melanieassous Continued here: My name is Melanie and I live in Israel. I’ve been a…
Also in Friday afternoon’s round-up of mostly movie-related news briefs, Pakistan faces the deadliest day yet over riots stemming from anti-Islam video The Innocence of Muslims . The Napa Valley Film Festival unveils details for its upcoming event. And two new features are headed to theaters. Here Comes The Devil Headed to Theaters The thriller had its U.S. premiere Thursday at Fantastic Fest. Francisco Barreiro and Lura Caro star in the film by Bogliano as parents whose preteen son and daughter inexplicably reappear after being lost overnight on a desolate, cave-riddled mountainside after a casual hike became every parent’s nightmare. The good luck and good fortune of their return soon changes, as the children’s behavior suggests ominous and unspeakable events the night the children were lost that continue even now. Magnet Releasing picked up the film and announced it at the premiere. The filmmakers, cast and audience toasted the news with champagne at the screening. Napa Valley Film Festival Sets Slate Ten narratives and nine documentaries will screen in the festival’s competition lineup at the second annual event taking place in California’s famed wine country. The festival runs November 7 – 11. For details on its roster, visit their website . Any Day Now Heads to U.S. and Canadian Theaters Music Box Films picked up the film directed by Travis Fine. Inspired by a true story, the feature centers on a gay couple in the 1970s who take in an abandoned mentally handicapped teen. The film will have a theatrical releases in December. Around the ‘net… Make a Doritos Ad, Get a Part in Transformers 4 Hollywood director Michael Bay is partnering with Doritos on a competition that invites would-be filmmakers to shoot their own home-made chips advertisement. Two selected adverts will air during the Super Bowl in January and the final winner will get the chance to appear in Bay’s next project, Transformers 4 , The Guaridan reports . Deadliest Day of Violence Over Innocence of Muslims Despite calls for peaceful protest, violence raged in Pakistan where between 12 and 19 people were killed in the worst day of rioting over the anti-Islam video. Movie theaters were also burned in the Pakistani cities of Peshawar and Karachi, Deadline reports . Homer Simpson Votes for Romney It’s not exactly film news, but animation’s favorite dad is voting for Mitt Romney. In the season premiere of The Simpsons set for September 30th, Homer Simpson said he’ll vote for the GOP hopeful because “he did invent Obamacare,” THR reports .
Woman Finds Out Her Late Husband Was Her Father This is some really disgusting isht, y’all. Here’s the story: Valerie Spruill was raised in Ohio by her grandparents because her mother was a “woman of the night.” It wasn’t until she was nine that she learned that her grandparents weren’t her parents and the woman that would come visit was actually her mother. But she never knew who her father was. The Beacon Journal report s that after her mother died in in 1984, Spruill met the man she would marry. This man, of course, was her father who was only 15 when Valerie was born. After he died in 1998, Valerie started exploring rumors that the man she married was actually her father. She grabbed one of his hairs from an old comb and did a DNA test to find that she’d been married to her own damn daddy! Get this, they have three children together! And in an even nastier turn of events, she’s unsure if the father knew he was her dad or not, but was scared to tell his daughter/wife the truth. She hopes her story will help her reach her six long lost siblings and to prove a point that people need to know their history. We get that and that’s all well and noble. But maybe she should have just kept quiet because this is the nastiest, most unreal isht we’ve ever heard. Source
Odd Future singer kept busy with John Mayer-assisted ‘SNL’ performance and video premiere for Channel Orange ‘s ‘Pyramids.’ By Rob Markman Frank Ocean performs on “Saturday Night Live” Photo: NBC
My name is Talisa and I live in Brisbane QLD Australia . I love Justin and I have ever since the beginning. When I found out he was coming to Australia on 15th of July, I just knew where ever he went in Australia, I had to go and try to meet him. Soon enough I found out he was going to Melbourne and Sydney, and my mum said I couldn’t fly to either places because we don’t have the money. I entered every competition day after day trying to win one so I could go, unfortunately I didn’t win any. Once Sunrise announced that they would have tickets I just hoped that I would get the chance to get tickets. I didn’t win the tickets to Sunrise but luckily me and my friend got some from someone else. After a lot of begging, my mum let me go down to Sydney for the concert and maybe even meet him. On 17th of July me and my friend go to leave for Sydney. We get to the airport to find out that our 11am flight has been cancelled and we won’t get another one until at least 2 maybe later. At about 4 we got told we can catch a plane right then, we ran from one side of the airport to just get on our plane. We got there and got ready for the Sunrise performance and started camping out at 8pm the night before, and even going that early there was at least 100 people there . At about 4.30am they told us to start getting packed up for the gates opening at 5. We got in and waited for hours for Justin to come. About 4 songs into the performance, I started to have a panic attack so I got taken out of the audience. Scrappy came over and got photos with a few people and we said hello to Alfredo, Kenny, Allison. After the concert we went to what we thought was Justin’s hotel and waited for hours. It was like a dream my inspiration was standing right there. Security wouldn’t let us in and would sue us if we got our cameras/phones out so we couldn’t get any photos with them. Justin came over and signed my phone case. I said I love you and he said I love you too. That was the most amazing moment of my life ever. 18th July 2012, at 1:30pm I met Justin Drew Bieber. Just a little bit after we went into the food court in the hotel and saw Scrappy and Dan. We got photos and talked to them for a bit. I couldn’t stop crying, it was the most amazing time of my life, thank you to Justin and his crew. Justin I love you so much you are my inspiration. Never say never and dream big. View original post here: My name is Talisa and I live in Brisbane QLD Australia. I love…
A trailer for a little-known anti-Muslim film that went viral on YouTube sparked outrage and violent attacks overnight at the U.S. Embassy in Libya that left over a dozen wounded and four Americans dead, including U.S. ambassador to Libya J. Christopher Stevens. In a press conference today President Obama condemned the acts and promised justice to those responsible, said to be Muslim protesters angry over insults against the Prophet Muhammad made in a film called Innocence of Muslims . Innocence of Muslims , purportedly made for $5 million in California by an Israeli-American real estate developer named Sam Bacile, satirizes the life of Muhammad, according to Reuters , “as a fool, a philanderer and a religious fake.” The film, which features amateurish performances and cheap-looking sets, depicts the Prophet as a fraud and also includes scenes in which he engages in sexual acts. A 14-minute trailer for the (fairly terrible-looking) film, filled with green-screen CG and painfully wooden performances, hit YouTube in July and was subsequently picked up by news media in Egypt and the Arabic-speaking world. Associations with Koran-burning Florida pastor Terry Jones didn’t help; he endorses the film and screened the trailer Tuesday. Following the attacks in Libya and at the U.S. Consulate in Cairo, Egypt, Bacile went into hiding. Speaking by phone with the Associated Press , he was remorseful about the fatal attacks but stood behind his film as a political statement, saying “Islam is a cancer, period.” In a bizarre twist, The Atlantic spoke with a “militant Christian activist” who consulted on the film who claims that “Sam Bacile” is a pseudonym, calling into question Bacile’s actual identity and background. Meanwhile, President Obama is increasing diplomatic security details at U.S. embassies around the world. Read more via NYT’s The Lede . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
There’s a scene in the Paul Thomas Anderson’ s enthralling new film The Master where Lancaster Dodd ( Philip Seymour Hoffman ) — founder and leader of a cult-like movement called The Cause — instructs his “guinea pig and protege,” the aptly named Freddie Quell ( Joaquin Phoenix ) to face another man hurling taunts and insults at him without losing his hair-trigger temper. I felt like I was being put through a similar test on Tuesday night when, after being invited to a hastily arranged 70-millimeter advance screening of The Master at the wonderful Ziegfeld Theater in Manhattan, I arrived at the will-call table to find a crowd that, had they been carrying torches, would have been at home in the angry villagers scene of Frankenstein . The reason for their anger became apparent shortly after I joined the throng: A woman with bold eyeglass frames and a nervous look on her face announced to the mob that there were simply no more tickets left to hand out. Those who did not make the cut were instructed to sign up for a Thursday screening of the film. I managed to get Eyeglasses’ attention and explained that, as instructed on Monday, I had confirmed my attendance. She shrugged her shoulders and replied that the screening had been overbooked and my tickets had simply been given away. To add insult to injury, just a few seconds before Eyeglasses’ you’re-shit-out-of-luck announcement, one of Arianna Huffington’s minions slunk up behind me, invoked the HuffPo priestess’ name, and received an envelope with tickets. As a longtime observer of the Harvey Weinstein school of stealth marketing, I found the scenario more fascinating than infuriating because in New York preventing a large group of culture addicts from seeing a movie that everyone’s been talking about is actually a sneakily smart way of building interest in the all-important New York market. Now, I’m not saying the Weinstein Company hosed all those people on purpose, but New York is all about access, and last night, getting into The Master became a bit like getting into Studio 54 in the late 1970s. For most Gothamites, rejection is a tonic: When someone tells us we can’t do, see or experience something, we redouble our efforts and, better yet for people like Weinstein, in our quest to succeed, we recruit our friends and infect them with the same passion. Without going into details, that’s exactly what I did, and after seeing The Master , I’m glad I didn’t take no for an answer. (And, by the way, for a screening in which all of the tickets had been given out, I didn’t have any trouble finding a primo aisle seat at the front of the balcony.) To use a term from the film, I am still processing The Master. It’s an intelligent and emotionally complex film that doesn’t provide any easy answers the way that so many films do today. But if I can’t quite commit to saying it’s a great film, I can say that it has more than a few moments of greatness — and those usually occur when Joaquin Phoenix is onscreen. Phoenix gives the performance of his career so far as the feral Freddie Quell, a naval veteran, who can make moonshine out of torpedo fuel and anything else on hand. (“You can’t take this life straight, can you?” Dodd’s wife, played by Amy Adams, tells Quell at one point.) Freddie is the product of an alcoholic father, an institutionalized mother and a traumatizing war, and Phoenix literally embodies these psychic wounds while portraying a lost soul who is menacing, heart-breaking and darkly comic — sometimes all at once. The New York Times reported that Phoenix studied films of animals in captivity to prepare for his role, but his performance, which is pure id, brought to mind other references. The hunched, arms-akimbo way in which Quell stands recalled Martin Short’s Ed Grimley character from Saturday Night Live , and Groucho Marx. His squinting, sneering tomahawk-like face made me think of Hammerhead from The Amazing Spider-Man comics. When I wasn’t marveling at Phoenix’s performance, I found myself thinking that all of this talk about The Master taking on Scientology is a marketing MacGuffin. Yes, Philip Seymour Hoffman plays a L. Ron Hubbard-like character, but this movie is really about the relationship between two kindred spirits who, in some respects, are Freudian polar opposites. Quell is pure id, while Dodd is mostly superego, and each seems to yearn for some of what the other man has. For me, one of the key lines of the movie comes near the end when Dodd tells Freddie that if he can find a way “to live without serving a master –any master,” he should report back. Like I said, I’m still processing The Master , and I plan to see it again as soon as I’m able. Thanks to Harvey Weinstein, I suspect I’ll be waiting in a long line. Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter
We recently said Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively may be the hottest couple ever. Ryan Lochte and Olivia Culpo (Miss USA!) might give them a run for their money. If they’re even a couple, of course. The Olympic swimming stud and reigning beauty queen were spotted at New York’s Fashion Week together. #JEAH! Ryan Lochte and Olivia Culpo continued the night together at NYC hotspot 1Oak where they were seen sitting and chatting at a table around 1 a.m. According to news reports, the not-unattractive duo met last Wednesday at shoe designer Brian Atwood’s party at the Four Seasons restaurant. Hopefully Ryan’s not just rebounding now that his crush Blake – who he wanted to cameo on Gossip Girl just to meet – is off the market for good. Either way, Olivia’s hardly a consolation prize. She’s Miss USA, people! What do you think … do they make a cute couple? Lochtulpo? Rylivia? [Photos: WENN.com]
