Spoilers ou twists surpreendentes...

A surpresa que "Hancock" reserva aos espectadores do grande ecrã está a gerar alguma polémica no meio. Enquanto os críticos desaprovam o twist, o público faz do filme um êxito de bilheteira. A CNN aproveitou a confusão para recordar alguns momentos inesquecíveis da história do cinema que, para quem não viu os respectivos filmes, pode representar um gigantesco spoiler.

Spoiler alert! 'Hancock's' twist causes controversy

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- A Will Smith movie packs in millions of people over Fourth of July weekend. No surprises there.
Yet Smith's "Hancock," the tale of an anti-social boozer who happens to be a superhero, comes with an abrupt plot twist, one that has divided critics and the moviegoing public in the real world. (Critics and everyone else can't agree. Now there's a real surprise.)
For those who have yet to see "Hancock," we won't give the secret away, but it has something to do with why Charlize Theron's soccer-mom-style character doesn't want Smith's surly superhero anywhere near her family.
Critics generally thought the turn the movie takes halfway through was a cheat, spoiling what had been a promising idea that was a fresh twist on the superhero genre in its own right. CNN.com's Tom Charity described the twist as coming "so far out of left field you would need a crystal ball to see it coming."
The people who turned "Hancock" into an instant blockbuster beg to differ -- to the sum of $185 million worldwide at the box office in just a few days.

Para ler em CNN.com - Entertainment

O óbito | Sydney Pollack (1934-2008)

Realizou clássicos como África Minha ou Tootsie, mas era com simplicidade que figurava em várias séries de televisão, além de interpretar pontuais (mas memoráveis) papéis no cinema. Na caixa que mudou o mundo, vi-o recentemente em Will & Grace, como pai do protagonista Will Truman, e em Just Shoot Me, como um amante de Nina Van Horn.

US director Sydney Pollack dies

US film director and producer Sydney Pollack has died of cancer, aged 73.
He won producing and directing Oscars for the epic romance Out of Africa, starring Robert Redford and Meryl Streep, in 1985.
He also directed Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie, plus The Way We Were, in which Redford partnered Barbra Streisand.
He died on Monday, surrounded by family members, at his home in Pacific Palisades in Los Angeles. He had been diagnosed with cancer 10 months ago.

Para ler em BBC News - Entertainment

Woody Allen | As primeiras críticas de 'Vicky Cristina Barcelona'

crítica Variety

O mais recente trabalho de Woody Allen já chegou aos ecrãs de Cannes. "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" ainda não tem estreia prevista nas salas portuguesas.

Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Posted: Fri., May 16, 2008, 3:31am PT
By TODD MCCARTHY

"Vicky Cristina Barcelona" is a sexy, funny divertissement that passes as enjoyably as an idle summer's afternoon in the titular Spanish city. With Javier Barden starring as a bohemian artist involved variously with Scarlett Johansson, Penelope Cruz and Rebecca Hall, pic offers potent romantic fantasy elements for men and women and a cast that should produce the best commercial returns for a Woody Allen film since "Match Point." And, in the bargain, if Barcelona wants even more visitors than it already attracts, this film will supply them.

Para ler em Variety.com - Cannes Reviews

"Sex and The City" | A hora da verdade

crítica Variety

Começam a surgir as primeiras críticas ao filme Sex and The City/Sexo e a Cidade. Desilusão ou consagração? Quem tem coragem de ler?

Sex and the City
By BRIAN LOWRY

For a series so steeped in romance, the eagerly awaited “Sex and the City” movie feels a trifle half-hearted. Although there’s pleasure in seeing HBO’s fabulous four reunited, writer-director Michael Patrick King doesn’t fully bridge the gap between TV and film — delivering major story flourishes but, too often, playing like a regular episode bloated to five times its customary length. Best in its small moments, the movie should find receptive gal pals congregating for the mother of all viewing parties, but appeal beyond that core should present New Line with less of a storybook finish than it doubtless would like.

Para ler em Variety.com - Film

"Sex and The City" | A antestreia em Londres

A primeira antestreia do filme do ano (para as meninas, é claro) deu-se ontem à noite em Londres. Segue-se Berlim no próximo dia 15, quinta-feira, e Nova Iorque a 27 de Maio, terça-feira.

Alistair Grant/AP

Vídeos:

• Sex and the City premiere
• Sex and City stars cheered

Imagens:

• Sex and the City at guardian.co.uk

Qual o filme que criou mais riqueza em toda a história do cinema?

Para quem gosta de cinema e de economia, aqui fica a resposta - Taxi Driver (1976), de Robert de Niro. Porquê? Porque inspirou uma tentativa de assassinato que, por sua vez, possibilitou a Ronald Reagan reduzir os impostos. Curioso, não?

The Travis Bickle Effect
By John Authers, 12 May 2008

What was the greatest wealth-creating film of all time? Titanic might be a popular guess, but the answer, according to Columbia University's Nobel laureate economist Robert Mundell, is Taxi Driver.
The 1976 classic, directed by Martin Scorsese with Robert De Niro as the bitterly alienated protagonist, gave the world De Niro's catchphrase "You talking to me?," and also introduced a young Jodie Foster. But what does it have to do with the world economy?

Para ler em FT Alphaville

"Sex and The City" em contagem decrescente

A primeira antestreia mundial do filme "Sex and The City" acontece esta segunda-feira, em Londres. A ansiedade dos fãs já começa a dar sinais, sobretudo porque só chega a Nova Iorque a 27 de Maio e até lá pede-se sigilo quanto à história do filme.

'Sex and the City' mania hits London

LONDON, England (CNN) -- It is one of the most hotly anticipated movies of the year and after years of feverish speculation, Sex and the City the movie, premieres in London Monday night.

The film has been dogged by controversy in the four-year lead up from small to big screen-- rumors abounded about squabbling over pay, editorial control and even outfits, among cast members Sarah Jessica Parker and Kim Catrall, who plays maneater Samantha.

Para ler em CNN.com - International

Sex and The City quartet back with movie
Mon May 12, 2008 3:57pm EDT

By Douglas MacLaurin

LONDON (Reuters) - Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte and Miranda are back -- The "Sex and the City" TV stars took to the big screen on Monday with the world premiere in London of their tales of love and high fashion in New York.
The film takes up four years on from where the hit series left the sassy singletons, who were so blatantly honest in their desire to have "sex like men" but also lusted as much for a new pair of Manolo Blahnik heels as they did for the perfect beau.

Para ler em Reuters

"Sex and The City" | O regresso

Este ano há dois filmes do ano, um para meninos (Indiana Jones e o Reino da Caveira de Cristal, que se estreia nas salas portuguesas a 22 de Maio), outro para meninas. Destaque para o segundo, baseado nas aventuras de Carrie Bradshaw e amigas na cidade de Nova Iorque. "Sexo e a Cidade - o Filme" chega a Portugal a 5 de Junho.

"Blindness" poderá ser o filme de abertura de Cannes

Baseado no romance "Ensaio sobre a Cegueira", de José Saramago, o filme "Blindness" poderá abrir a edição deste ano do Festival de Cannes. Realizado pelo brasileiro Fernando Meirelles, "Blindness" conta com Julianne Moore e Mark Ruffalo nos principais papéis.

Blindness
by moviestrailer

Cannes eyes 'Blindness'
'Hunger' set to open Un Certain Regard
By ADAM DAWTREY, JOHN HOPEWELL

LONDON — Fernando Meirelles’ “Blindness” is being eyed to open the Cannes Film Festival, while “Hunger,” from Brit director Steve McQueen, is the leading candidate to kick off Un Certain Regard.
A drama-thriller about a city succumbing to a blindness epidemic, “Blindness” stars Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo.
It’s produced by Meirelles’ Brazilian label O2 Filmes, Japan’s Bee Vine Pics and Rhombus Media in Toronto, the source of many press reports that identify the film as the May 14 Cannes opener.

Para ler em Variety.com - Film

O realizador mais velho do mundo no activo

Sim, é Manoel de Oliveira. De resto, há vários anos. Agora o The New York Times dedica-lhe algumas páginas e vários artigos.

Centenarian Director’s Very Long View
By DENNIS LIM
Published: March 9, 2008

WHEN referring to the Portuguese director Manoel de Oliveira, it is now — and has been for some time — customary to affix the phrase “world’s oldest active filmmaker.” The operative word is “active.” Mr. Oliveira, who turns 100 in December, has made at least one movie a year since 1990 (when he was 82). His late-career surge, a gratifyingly long goodbye, defies preconceptions of what an artist’s twilight period should be. Mr. Oliveira’s undaunted productivity is remarkable, as is the undimmed creative vigor of his films.

Para ler em The New York Times - Film

A confissão do homem que matou Adrienne Shelly

Podia ser o argumento de mais um episódio de uma série televisiva, subjacente à temática "CSI", mas trata-se de um caso real. A actriz e realizadora Adrienne Shelly foi assassinada a 1 de Novembro de 2006 por um emigrante ilegal equatoriano que, após ter contado uma primeira versão do que aconteceu, revelou agora, em tribunal, o verdadeiro motivo do crime e a forma como procedeu.

In Guilty Plea, Actress’s Killer Changes Story to Robbery
By ANEMONA HARTOCOLLIS
Published: February 15, 2008

His original confession had the ring of truth: He was an illegal immigrant working on a renovation job in a Greenwich Village building when the imperious woman upstairs confronted him over construction noise.
They argued. She scratched him. Panicked that she would call the police and that he would be deported, he punched her and pushed her to the floor. Mistakenly thinking he had killed her, he hanged her from the shower rod of her bathroom, in a staged suicide.
But in a courtroom on Thursday, the construction worker, Diego Pillco, 20, told a very different story of how he killed the woman, Adrienne Shelly, a filmmaker, on Nov. 1, 2006. Ms. Shelly, who was 40 and the mother of a 3-year-old daughter, had just finished a film, “Waitress,” which opened to warm reviews after her death.

Para ler em The New York Times - N.Y./Region

Heath Ledger encontrado morto

O actor australiano Heath Ledger, nomeado para um Óscar pelo seu desempenho em Brokeback Mountain, foi encontrado morto esta tarde num apartamento em Manhattan, Nova Iorque (EUA). As causas da morte permanecem desconhecidas, mas a principal hipótese considerada pelas autoridades é suicídio. Ledger tinha 28 anos e uma filha, Matilda, com dois anos, que nasceu da sua relação com a actriz Michelle Williams, de quem se separou em 2007.

Actor Heath Ledger Is Found Dead
By Sewell Chan
January 22, 2008, 4:42 pm

The actor Heath Ledger was found dead this afternoon apartment in Manhattan owned by the actress Mary-Kate Olsen, according to the New York City police. Signs pointed to a suicide, police sources said. Mr. Ledger was 28.
At 3:31 p.m., a masseuse arrived at Apartment 5A in the building, at 421 Broome Street in SoHo, for an appointment with Mr. Ledger, the police said. The masseuse was let in to the home by a housekeeper, who then knocked on the door of Mr. Ledger’s bedroom. When no one answered, the housekeeper and the masseuse opened the bedroom and found Mr. Ledger naked and unconscious on a bed, with pills scattered around his body. They shook him, but he did not respond. They immediately called the authorities.

Para ler em New York Times - N.Y./Region

Artigos posteriores:

• Heath Ledger dead at 28
• An Actor Whose Work Will Outlast the Frenzy
• Prince of Intensity With a Lightness of Touch
• 'It's not fair. It's not right'
• Fate of Ledger's last films uncertain
• Heath Ledger, 1979 - 2008
• Heath Ledger’s Death Is Ruled an Accident
• Heath Ledger (1979 – 2008)

Johnny Depp e a sua faceta musical

O protagonista de "Sweeney Tood: O Terrível Barbeiro de Fleet Street" revela um talento até agora ignorado pelo grande público. Johnny Depp sabe cantar. Em entrevista à revista americana RollingStone, o actor fala sobre o seu mais recente trabalho com Tim Burton, que deverá chegar às salas portuguesas no dia 31 de Janeiro.

Johnny Depp Sings
After belting for the first time in "Sweeney Todd," Depp rocks out on his life in music

GAVIN EDWARDS

Posted Jan 09, 2008 5:46 AM

Attend the tale of Johnny Depp: still Hollywood's most perverse superstar, he has followed up the family-friendly Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy with Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, a buckets-of-blood saga of cannibalism that is also — gulp! — a musical. That's right, Depp sings for the first time ever onscreen, and critics are warbling his praises for tackling the notoriously difficult score from theater legend Stephen Sondheim.

Para ler em RollingStone - News

As estrelas dos filmes de 2007

Este ano não foi marcado por muitas idas ao cinema, por isso a selecção dos melhores filmes exibidos em Portugal em 2007 aqui publicada está sujeita a essa limitação e, como sempre, é muito subjectiva.
Assim, no Top 7 de "Um Jornal Virtual" encontram-se:

• "Stranger Than Fiction"/"Contado Ninguém Acredita" (2006), de Marc Forster **** 1/2
• "Fast Food Nation"/"Geração Fast Food" (2006), de Richard Linklater ****
• "Flags of Our Fathers"/"As Bandeiras de Nossos Pais" (2006), de Clint Eastwood ****
• "The Pursuit of Happyness"/"Em Busca da Felicidade" (2006), de Gabriele Muccino ****
• "O Mistério da Estrada de Sintra" (2007), de Jorge Paixão da Costa ****
• "Hairspray" (2007), de Adam Shankman ****
• "The Inner Life of Martin Frost"/"A Vida Interior de Martin Frost" (2006), de Paul Auster ****

De seguida, gostaria ainda de destacar alguns filmes que vale a pena ver:

• "Breaking and Entering"/"Assalto e Intromissão" (2006), de Anthony Minghella *** 1/2
• "Last Kiss"/"O Último Beijo" (2006), de Tony Goldwyn ***1/2
• "Zodiac" (2007), de David Fincher ***1/2
• "The Simpsons Movie"/"Os Simpsons - O Filme", de David Silverman (2007) ***1/2
• "Death Proof"/"À Prova de Morte" (2007), de Quentin Tarantino ***1/2

Por fim, eis um filme que recomendo não ver:

• "The Wicker Man"/"O Escolhido" (2006), de Neil LaBute **

Na corrida para os Óscares: PT Anderson

Autor do aclamado Magnolia, Paul Thomas Anderson é um dos fortes candidatos ao Óscar de Melhor Realizador deste ano. O seu mais recente trabalho chama-se "There Will Be Blood" e conta com Daniel Day-Lewis no principal papel. Em Portugal, deverá estrear-se no primeiro trimestre de 2008.

Paul Thomas Anderson

Directors in the Oscar race

By ANTHONY KAUFMAN

Posted: Tue., Dec. 4, 2007, 11:59pm PT

There's no spontaneous singing or frogs falling from the sky in Anderson's "There Will Be Blood." But this intimate epic -- about greed and false prophets set in turn-of-the-century California and based on Upton Sinclair's 1927 tome "Oil!" -- comes as just as much of a surprise from the 37-year-old iconoclast. Unlike Anderson's layered, multicharacter studies "Hard Eight," "Boogie Nights" and three-time Oscar nominee "Magnolia," "Blood" focuses more singularly on Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis), a black-gold maverick who devotes his life to beating his competitors -- and small-town preacher (Paul Dano), no matter the cost to his son or his sanity. If there are any similarities to Anderson's last film, the eccentric romantic comedy "Punch Drunk Love," they exist only in the angry outbursts and bold artistic choices that have continually marked the helmer's career.

GENESIS: After "Punch Drunk Love," Anderson says he felt "the world was full of possibilities," but he can't pinpoint the exact birth of the project. "It's like you've written enough and there's enough good scenes in a row that there's a point of no return."
VISION: "I didn't want to be tied down with storyboards," he explains. "We were working from research material of what a derrick and the town looked like, and we never made allowances for what a camera might do. It's one of the nice things about shooting in a desert location: You're just struggling for survival, because it's hot, it's fucking dusty, and you don't have time to think."

CHALLENGES: "I wouldn't say there was anything tremendously difficult that we didn't relish, that wasn't fun," he says. "But I'm Pollyannaish about that. I always look back and think, 'That was fun,' and everyone else is like, 'That was a fucking nightmare.' "
MAGIC: The scene in which an oil derrick goes ablaze, "because you're lighting something on fire and there's thousands of gallons of diesel fuel and there's going to be a match lit, but as much you prepare yourself, you can't imagine how hot it was and how beautiful it was."

in Variety.com - Award Central

"Sweeney Todd", o musical de Tim Burton

Johnny Depp e Helena Bonham Carter são, de novo, os protagonistas do mais recente projecto cinematográfico do realizador americano Tim Burton.

Peter Mountain/Paramount Pictures

Demon Barber, Meat Pies and All, Sings on Screen
By SYLVIANE GOLD
Published: November 4, 2007

SOME time in 1980, during the five months that the grim and glorious musical “Sweeney Todd” played the Theater Royal Drury Lane, a California college student visiting London bought a ticket. And another and another and another.

Para ler em The New York Times - Movies

Marilyn segundo Marilyn

"Last Talk With a Lonely Girl: Marilyn Monroe by Richard Meryman" trata-se de uma entrevista publicada pela primeira vez na revista "Life" a 17 de Agosto de 1962 , 12 dias depois da morte da actriz. É agora reproduzida, numa versão editada, pelo "The Guardian".

'When you're famous you run into human nature in a raw kind of way'
This is an edited version of Last Talk With a Lonely Girl: Marilyn Monroe by Richard Meryman, first published in Life magazine, August 17 1962
Friday September 14, 2007
The Guardian

Ever since she was fired from Something's Got to Give, Marilyn Monroe has kept an almost disdainful silence. As far as her troubles with 20th Century Fox were concerned, she simply said she had been too sick to work - not wilfully tardy and truant as the producer charged. While 20th Century Fox and her lawyers were negotiating for her to resume work on the movie, Marilyn was thinking about broader aspects of her career - about the rewards and burdens of fame bestowed on her by fans who paid $200 million to see her films, about drives that impel her, and about echoes in her present life of her childhood in foster homes. She thought about these out loud in a rare and candid series of conversations with Life associate editor Richard Meryman. As a camera caught the warmth and gusto of her personality, Marilyn's words revealed her own private view of Marilyn Monroe ...

Para ler em The Guardian - Great Interviews of the 20th Century

Cinema | O gordo é o novo magro

trailer

Estreia-se hoje nas salas portuguesas o musical "Hairspray", com John Travolta, Michelle Pfeiffer, Christopher Walken, James Marsden, Queen Latifah e a estreante Nikki Blonsky nos principais papéis. Entre canções e penteados estilosos, o filme leva-nos para o início da década de 60, onde a cidade de Baltimore, nos EUA, é palco das mudanças que na época se começavam a fazer sentir por todo o país, nomeadamente a integração racial. Tracy Turnblad (Nikki Blonsky) é uma jovem que sonha um dia dançar no programa televisivo Corny Collins Show, mas o facto de ter alguns quilos a mais pode ser um obstáculo...

Trailer de "Hairspray" (2007)

O cinema veste-se de luto

Depois da morte do realizador sueco Ingmar Bergman, aos 89 anos, hoje foi divulgado o desaparecimento do italiano Michelangelo Antonioni, aos 94 anos, na noite de segunda-feira, dia 30. Dois nomes grandes da história do cinema, que a partir de agora apenas poderão ser recordados através dos seus filmes.

Michelangelo Antonioni dies at 94
Helmer depicted alienation of modern world
By ASSOCIATED PRESS

Gabriele Ferzetti and Monica Vitti star in Antonion's masterpiece 'L'Avventura,'ROME — Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni, whose depiction of alienation made him a symbol of art-house cinema with movies such as "Blow-Up" and "L'Avventura," has died, officials and news reports said Tuesday. He was 94.
The ANSA news agency said that Antonioni died at his home on Monday evening.

Para ler em Variety.com - Film

Aos 94 anos
Morreu o cineasta italiano Michelangelo Antonioni
31.07.2007 - 10h01 Agências

O cineasta italiano Michelangelo Antonioni morreu ontem à noite, em sua casa, aos 94 anos de idade, anunciou hoje a agência Ansa. Com uma carreira de mais de seis décadas, foi o autor de filmes como "Profissão: Repórter" (1975), "Blow Up - História de Um Fotógrafo" (1966) ou "A Aventura" (1960).
O anúncio da morte de Antonioni chega 24 horas depois da notícia da morte de outro grande realizador do século XX, o sueco Ingmar Bergman.

Para ler em Público.pt - Última Hora


Outros artigos relacionados:

• Cinema King repõe filmes de Bergman e Antonioni
• O xeque-mate da morte marca o fim de uma era

Harry Potter | Cinco filmes depois

"Harry Potter e a Ordem da Fénix" estreou-se na passada quinta-feira nas salas de cinema portuguesas. No New York Times, Manohla Dargis propõe comparar com os quatro filmes anteriores. Vamos ver as diferenças...



Harry Potter and the Four Directors
By MANOHLA DARGIS and A. O. SCOTT
Published: July 15, 2007

IN "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," which started sneaking into theaters Tuesday night, Harry enters his fifth and most tumultuous year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.


Para ler em NY Times - Movies