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Posts Tagged ‘werner herzog’

Movie Trailers :: Robert Downey Jr, Mo’Nique, Nic Cage, Penelope Cruz…

Posted by Dana Kaminski on 23rd October 2009 in Ooooh! Movie Trailers!

Sherlock Holmes with Robert Downey Jr., Playing Lead Title Role

Directed by Madonna’s Ex, Guy Ritchie; this movie also has leading actors, Rachel McAdams, and Jude Law.

For full list of the supporting players, go to this link at IMDB.

(Sorry, to my iPhone users, about the trailers being in ‘flash’…it was just a bit easier this time.)

Precious Trailer, With Mo’Nique Who May Get An Academy Award Nom For Acting In This Film

Directed by Lee Daniels, this movie has a newcomer-actor in the lead title role, Gabourey ‘Gabby’ Sidibe.  Some well-known musical names are also acting in Precious, such as Lenny Kravitz, and Mariah Carey.  Full cast list at IMDB.

Doesn’t Every Actress Wish To Work With Pedro Almodovar? ...Broken Embraces

Here’s a trailer with one of his usual actor-hires, and acting-Oscar winner as well, Penelope Cruz.

Bad Lieutenant: Port Of  Call New Orleans, Directed By The Esteemed Werner Herzog

Yet, this film is a remake and Harvey Keitel was the actor in the original, and it’s one of his most famous roles. So there’s a little murmur of complaint inside the artistic film community,  where great acting performances are regarded as sacred.

Negating the murmurs, somewhat, is the fact that Werner Herzog directed this one.  He’s solidly in the master league of directors; and you can’t get any more artistic, as a definition, than Mr. Herzog;  whether he’s doing documentaries, or narrative films.

Besides  Nicolas Cage, this Bad Lieutenant also has an exciting cast list. Here are just a few actor names to throw: Val Kilmer, Eva Mendez, Michael Shannon, Fairuza Balk, Brad Dourif, Vondie Curtis-Hall…See the full list of actors at this IMDB page link.

Enjoy!

;~Dana

Please share this forward on your Facebook,  or Twitter, by using the icons above.  Thank you.

Werner Herzog :: On Truth

Posted by Dana Kaminski on 11th December 2008 in Real Actor Truths

 

If you have only truth, in acting; you have everything.

That sounds so pat.

It’s not.

 

 

Excerpt From “Thompson On Hollywood”:

The winners of this year’s International Documentary Awards were announced Friday [12-5-2008] night at a ceremony at the DGA.  

…But the highlight of the night was director Werner Herzog’s tribute. After showing stellar clips from ‘Little Dieter Learns to Fly’, ‘Grizzly Man’ and his most recent doc, ‘Encounters at the End of the World’ (which is short-listed for Oscar consideration), Herzog got a standing ovation and gave a speech.

“There are deeper strata of truth in cinema and there’s such a thing as poetic ecstatic truth,” said the director… “In being a filmmaker I really tried to find an answer about what constitutes reality…we have to individually find our own ways. I have tried to find something much deeper, something that constitutes truth, which is hard to grasp. In my filmmaking I have tried to find some sort of ecstasy where you are deeply moved and illuminated. If you leave pure facts behind…truth can create illumination.”

Directors Werner Herzog + Jonathan Demme

Directors Werner Herzog + Jonathan Demme

 

What is your response to what you just read?

How do you think the notion of “truth” relates to acting?

                                                                              ******* 

You may have noticed something new, in the navigation bar, above.  I added a new page, “Guestbook”. 

It’s for you, and this Hollywood Actor Prep community.  To write on… you can answer the above question/s.  Or, leave a comment there.

Please do.

The first ten blog-users, to leave a comment, will be asked to participate in a chat with me…about acting, and this site…

 

Here’s a portion of a letter, from Roger Ebert, to Werner Herzog. You can read the rest of letter, at Mr. Herzog’s official site.

 

 

A letter to Werner Herzog:

In praise of rapturous truth

 

           November 17, 2007

 

 

Dear Werner,

 

You have done me the astonishing honor of dedicating your new film, “Encounters at the End of the World,” to me. Since I have admired your work beyond measure for the almost 40 years since we first met, I do not need to explain how much this kindness means to me. When I saw the film at the Toronto Film Festival and wrote to thank you, I said I wondered if it would be a conflict of interest for me to review the film, even though of course you have made a film I could not possibly dislike. I said I thought perhaps the solution was to simply write you a letter.

 

But I will review the film, my friend, when it arrives in theaters on its way to airing on the Discovery Channel. I will review it, and I will challenge anyone to describe my praise as inaccurate.

 

I will review it because I love great films and must share my enthusiasm.

 

This is not that review. It is the letter. It is a letter to a man whose life and career have embodied a vision of the cinema that challenges moviegoers to ask themselves questions not only about films but about lives. About their lives, and the lives of the people in your films, and your own life.

 

Without ever making a movie for solely commercial reasons, without ever having a dependable source of financing, without the attention of the studios and the oligarchies that decide what may be filmed and shown, you have directed at least 55 films or television productions, and we will not count the operas. You have worked all the time, because you have depended on your imagination instead of budgets, stars or publicity campaigns. You have had the visions and made the films and trusted people to find them, and they have. It is safe to say you are as admired and venerated as any filmmaker alive—among those who have heard of you, of course. Those who do not know your work, and the work of your comrades in the independent film world, are missing experiences that might shake and inspire them.

 

I have not seen all your films, and do not have a perfect memory, but I believe you have never made a film depending on sex, violence or chase scenes. Oh, there is violence in “Lessons of Darkness,” about the Kuwait oil fields aflame, or “Grizzly Man,” or “Rescue Dawn.” But not “entertaining violence.” There is sort of a chase scene in “Even Dwarfs Started Small.” But there aren’t any romances.

 

You have avoided this content, I suspect, because it lends itself so seductively to formulas, and you want every film to be absolutely original.

 

You have also avoided all “obligatory scenes,” including artificial happy endings. And special effects (everyone knows about the real boat in “Fitzcarraldo,” but even the swarms of rats in “Nosferatu” are real rats, and your strong man in “Invincible” actually lifted the weights). And you don’t use musical scores that tell us how to feel about the content. Instead, you prefer free-standing music that evokes a mood: You use classical music, opera, oratorios, requiems, aboriginal music, the sounds of the sea, bird cries, and of course Popol Vuh.

 

All of these decisions proceed from your belief that the audience must be able to believe what it sees. Not its “truth,” but its actuality, its ecstatic truth….

                                                                             —Roger Ebert

 

 

Best,

:-Dana

     

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