A gushing fan moment with Cate Blanchett

Everybody I know knows how much I love Cate Blanchett. They have also heard me babble incessantly about Carol for more than 3 years now. Still I thought I was a functioning human being who can get up and ask a simple question at a festival screening. Turns out that’s not the case.

My long weekend of Carol events at the New York Film Festival started Wednesday night with a talk with Ed Lachman. He was articulate and eloquent. The most interesting tidbit to me however was that he mentioned that in addition to the screenplay, Todd Haynes presents his cast and crew with a “lookbook” that illustrates how he envisions almost every frame in the movie. A storyboard of sorts I guessed.

The anecdote was on my mind all through the standby line for Friday’s premiere, even as I waited in the soaking rain. I thought about it while I watched Todd Haynes being interviewed Saturday morning. It stayed vivid in my mind because every frame of the movie drips with meticulous beauty. By the time I got to seeing the movie for the second time in less than 24 hours it was crystallized into a question for Cate about the beautiful way she posed and was framed in the movie and if these lookbooks helped her performance.

So when the time came for the Q and A, I asked her. I thought going on about Lachman and lookbooks would be too much so I decided to edit. Or maybe I just got lost in the moment and completely lost my train of thought. Here is what I think I said:

My question is for Cate. The performance is emotional and moving. Just everything. But I wanted to ask about the look and the pose. In every frame, it’s  just perfection. How did you manage that?

The moderator Amy Taubin paraphrased it as “how did you manage to be perfect in every frame?” Which let’s face it, is probably what I meant anyway. Taubin knows a fan when she sees one.

The moment became hilarious. The Alice Tully Hall audience erupted into laughter and applause. Even Haynes almost fell out of his seat laughing. Cate, I think, was a bit embarrassed by my effusing love for her performance. Still she managed to be as generous as she always is and deferred the credit to her fellow actor saying “It was all in the gaze, looking into Rooney’s eyes”. And after a beat said a very sweet and short “but thank you” to me.

If you’ve seen the movie you probably got what I meant. And look at the way she's posing in these photos. She is perfect. And that moment of utterly embarrassing myself is one I will treasure.

Swoon Time with Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara

No words needed. Just watch and swoon.

Cate Blanchett in a couple of new stills

It's Always Carol

I'm thinking of changing the name of this blog to Carol: The Most Anticipated Movie in History of Cinema.

The lovely Miss Belivet has created the swooniest Gifs ever. For those anticipating, enjoy!

These images are better than I ever imagined. Looks like the movie will have the romantic scope, lush visuals (not just the actresses but also costumes and design) that I had hoped for. Swooning.

Most Anticipated : Carol

Blanchett as Carol

When reading The Price of Salt, the Patricia Highsmith novel on which this film is based, I imagined Carol as Marlene Dietrich if she were a 50s New York housewife. That is to say Cate Blanchett is perfect casting.

Pedigree

Todd Haynes re-teams with his I'm Not There star Cate Blanchett and enlists Lisabeth Salander herself, Rooney Mara, to film Highsmith's cult lesbian romance. TV stars turned prestige supporting players Sarah Paulson and Kyle Chandler lend support. Behind the camera it's a full on Far From Heaven reunion with lenser Ed Lachman and costume designer Sandy Powell. 

What's It About

Set in New York in the early 1950s the movie will tell the story of Therese Belivet (Mara) a department store assistant and her infatuation and eventual romance with the mysterious and beautiful Carol Aird (Blanchett). We can also think of it as a love quartet since the story involves Carol's husband (Chandler) who she's trying to divorce while keeping custody of their daughter, and her best friend and ex (Paulson). 

Why I'm Excited

Any movie with Blanchett is a most anticipated event around these parts. That she is working with Haynes again for which she gave one of her most astonishing performances is reason to cheer. That Haynes is working again in the 1950s milieu that he explored so well before in Far From Heaven raises the anticipation to fever pitch. That it is an adaptation of Highsmith's beautiful and moving novel, which defied conventions and stereotypes about LGBT stories and characters early on, raises our expectations to pure joy and giddiness.

Really?

Nothing. This might be my most anticipated movie EVER!

First Pictures of Cate as Carol

My most anticipated film in a long time is Carol; based on a Patricia Highsmith novel, directed by Todd Haynes and starring Cate the Great. It's a gay man's heaven : ACTRESS, queer writer and director, an impossible forbidden love story. It also has a killer supporting cast with Rooney Mara, Sarah Paulson and Kyle Chandler. All the ingredients that make me giddy and excited.

Here are the first pictures from the first day of shooting. And we will give the movie the "most anticipated" treatment soon.

Cate

Sandy Powell is serving some 50s coat realness

Even her back looks alluring.......

Mara and Paulson

Her or All about the High Waist Pants

Phoenix with all those pants behind him

Spike Jonze's Her is unique. It is unlike any other movie I've seen this year - or any year for that matter. It is aesthetically beautiful, succeeding in building a complete "new" world. Architecture, clothes and above all how people communicate with each other. And it doesn't feel the need to fill you in on this world with tiring exposition. The viewer just discovers it as the movie goes along.

Set in Los Angeles sometime in the near future, it tells  the story of a lonely divorced man, Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoenix) who falls in love with his "computer" or as it's called in the movie operating system that calls itself Samantha, played by the disembodied voice of Scarlett Johannson. The story features Theodore's interactions with his best friend Amy (Amy Adams), his ex wife (Rooney Mara) and one disastrous date with a unhinged woman (Olivia Wilde).

The movie is funny, sad, lyrical, honest, gorgeous, all at once. It works on so many levels and is compulsively watchable and enchanting at all times. What I loved about it is that it worked as a reflection of dating in this age where we interact online and meet people virtually first. Online chemistry doesn't always translate to real life, to state the obvious. We project huge fantasies into others, setting ourselves up for huge disappointments. Her riffs brilliantly on this theme. From the phone sex encounter that goes wrong - "Choke me with the dead cat" must be the funniest line in a 2013 movie - to the date with Wilde's character to the love story Theodore and Samantha .

Phoenix and Mara in happier times

The film also flashes back brilliantly to Theodore's past marriage. In a few very economical scenes it gives us that relationship and what it means to fall in love young and grow up together but grow apart as a result of growing up. It illuminates how every time you fall in love you carry baggage from previous relationships and that that is not a bad thing. The juxtaposition between the old relationship and the new one with Samantha is what I loved most. Theodore is able to understand what happened in the past and his ex - played brilliantly by Mara in an obvious homage to Jonze's ex Sofia Coppola - has a strong reaction to the implausible love between a man and his OS. She is angry, hurt and of course bewildered but mostly understands why Theodore loves Samantha. While it's very brief this is most realistic relationship in the movie. Theodore talks about it so eloquently and I couldn't help but wonder if this is an olive branch from Jonze to Coppola.

All the actors are impeccable. I wasn't a huge fan of Phoenix's "look at me" big acting in The Master despite admiring the commitment. He's very different here, introspective, quite, funny and definitely more affecting. Adams is lovely as a woman discovering more about herself and Mara is giving possibly her most recognizably honest performance. Johansson does all she can to create a character with her voice and succeeds. Although part of me wishes we didn't get such a recognizable voice to play this part.

Production design, cinematography and costumes are all top notch. I particularly liked the costumes, very beautiful and fit the world the movie was trying to create. All hail high waist pants!

While I think it's a beautiful unique world and story that I know I will visit many more times, I don't think it's an unqualified success. While part of the resolution is fantastic I couldn't relate to some aspects of the sci-fi love story. I admired Jonze's attempt to create Theodore and Samantha on equal footing but didn't entirely relate to the latter's arc. It works best as a story about growing up and discovering more about ourselves and what that does to our relationships. Theodore, his ex, Samantha and Amy all grow up resulting in them reevaluating their relationships.

Oscar Season Chat : Best Supporting Actress

Jose and I talk about Best Supporting Actress, as we do at this time of the year.

Oprah in The Butler

Murtada: So Jose our favorite time of the year, Awards Season is almost here. Can’t wait to see all the couture gowns but let’s start with who we think is going to be invited. I think most prognosticators agree on Oprah Winfrey (The Butler) and Lupita Nyong’o (12 Years a Slave) for best supporting actress. I loved Oprah and thought she was the best thing in her movie. She was surprisingly subtle and gave a fun flirty – dare I say it – even sexy performance. While it’s hard to suppress her larger than life persona and the baggage that brings with, I thought she was convincing as an everyday woman. She even gets a big Oscar clip moment – you know the slap heard around all the movie screens “everything you are and everything you have is because of that butler”. Lee Daniels is really a fantastic actress director – Monique, Gabby, Nicole and now Oprah, who knew?

As for Lupita a she is what everybody wants to talk about the minute her movie ends. It’s a great part – sympathetic, soulful and very touching – but her performance is fantastic too. And let’s not forget the Cinderella factor – everybody loves a newcomer who just hits it out of the park. I think she can go all the way, and if she starts winning early there is no stopping her.

So what are your thoughts on Oprah and Lupita? Who else do you think will be nominated?

Jose: Unlike the rest of the world I simply don’t get Oprah. I never got her as a celebrity and I certainly don’t get her as an actress. Other than respecting her for being a powerful woman, I don’t see what’s so special about her and I was once again scratching my head about what was so special about her in this movie. My major problem is that to me she never stopped being Oprah (it didn’t help that at one point a woman screamed “show that ratchet bitch, Oprah!” to the screen while everyone else cheered) and therefore, if everyone in the theater was thinking the same, I can’t consider it good acting. She distracted me from the story more than anything.

Lupita is perfect and there’s nothing more I can say about her without gushing.  I guess the most surprising thing about her performance is that it’s her first film! Apparently Yale trains great actors…I have never liked predicting who will be nominated, there are people who do this much better (and care more about it too) so I’ll have to plead the fifth for that one. Now if you asked me who were my favorites that would be a game I’d like even more…

Nyong'o and Woodard in 12 Years a Slave

Murtada: I like predicting so I’ll predict one more: June Squibb in Nebraska. I personally didn’t care much for the performance and found it one note. However she gets the best lines and wrings genuine hearty laughs out of them so she’s in. And another Cinderella story albeit a different one – the veteran toiling away on the sidelines for too long until she finally gets a big part.

But let’s talk favorites; we both loved Sally Hawkins in Blue Jasmine – her “curtsie” moment when introduced to Alec Baldwin is an example of a gem of a performance full of such quirky, lovely moments. She managed to be noticed against the full force of Cate’s dominating Jasmine. Lea Seydoux – sex on a stick in Blue is the Warmest Color and Alfre Woodard providing the only bit of levity in 12 Years and nailing her one scene with a funny and lived in performance. 12 Years is chock full of fantastic performances including Adepero Oduye who I thought was a bit too hysterical the first time I saw it. However by my second viewing I was impressed by the honesty she brought to her deep despair. Also Julianne Moore finally waking up from her long nap of a decade of uninspiring performances to bring heart and soul to Don Jon. Clearly JGL inspires her.

Your turn to gush about some lovely ladies……..

Jennifer Lawrence in American Hustle

Jose: I’ve yet to see Nebraska so I’ll hold my thoughts on June for now. I see your Alfre and raise you a Sarah Paulson. Her performance was absolutely chilling and she’s been on such a roll lately with Game Change and all those awful American Horror Story-s where she’s the only one worried in seeing beyond camp and delivering performances with any real human traits.

In terms of awards, I don’t think any of my favorites in anything (other than Queen Cate) will be nominated for anything this year, so indulge me as I stray from awards specific talk, into favorites of the year talk...I loved, loved, loved Kristin Scott Thomas in Only God Forgives (the scene in the restaurant!), Jennifer Garner in Dallas Buyers Club (the only one who wasn’t “ACTING!” in that movie), Amy Adams in Her, Joanna Scanlan in The Invisible Woman (weeks later I can’t stop thinking about her character), Michaela Watkins in In a World..., Vera Farmiga in The Conjuring (my go-to exorcist from now on), Janet McTeer in Hannah Arendt, Emma Watson in The Bling Ring and Octavia Spencer in Fruitvale Station (talk about someone who can do a lot with a small part) with my absolute favorite so far this year being Cameron Diaz in The Counselor.

But yeah, the number of nominees coming out of that pool will be minus all of them, except for Octavia maybe...Granted, I’ve yet to see Julia and J.Law in their movies and I’m expecting them to impress me as usual.

Murtada : I'm excited for American Hustle and August Osage County too. Although I’m more about Margo Martindale maybe finally finding a fantastic big screen role. Also Naomie Harris got a lot of raves in Toronto but I can’t say I’m looking forward to Mandela as that trailer is dullsville but I hope it leads to bigger things for her.  And how could you not mention your girl Rooney Mara in Her , her Sofia Coppola was dead on. I think it’s a great year for this category.

Any final thoughts?

Jose: I love Rooney but even I am objective sometimes. I did forget to mention how impressed I was by Eva Mendes in “The Place Beyond the Pines” though.  I can’t think of anything other than that...