Thoughts

Helloo people! I know I haven’t written in for forever, but I have honestly, truthfully, pinky-swearingly been very busy. I came back to India, went back to college, spent an entire week running to and from theatres because of the film festival, and now I’m sick.

1) The film festival was great. It was my first fully immersed festival experience and I did make the most of it. I saw 26 films. My favourite new film was Blue is the Warmest Colour. It really is an excellent movie and Adele Exarchopoulos (I will learn the spelling before Oscars. Yep) is by far my favourite performer of the year. Lea Seydoux is great too. And yes, the 7 minute lesbian sex scene can get a little awkward but do what I did- stare at every middle aged man in the room (and there were so many!!) and see their reactions. It’s hilarious. I saw some other great movies too. Don Jon was awesomesauce and Scarlett Johansson was on fire. Other first timers I really liked were Blancanieves, Paradise: Faith, Pieta, Touch of the Light and The Past. Also, if you are a Louis Garrel fan, watch Jealousy which is in black and white and therefore Garrel is in black and white and then your ovaries die. The films I wasn’t such a big fan of were Bastards, Of Good Report and Night Train to Lisbon. The first was just generally an awful movie going experience which might have made me dislike the film more than I ought to, the second was just boring and creepy and the last one was painfully mediocre. It had Jack Huston (who is American), August Diehl (who is German) and Melanie Laurent (who is French), all playing Portugese people. What? My absolute favourite thing about the festival however was the chance to see classic movies on big screen. I saw Elmer Gantry, Gone with the Wind, Sabrina and The Apartment (YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS) and really enjoyed myself. The fact that a lot of the people who seemed to be so grumpy throughout the festival just started clapping during the Wilder movies kind of restores my faith in humanity a little bit.

My KIFF experience :P 

The Louis Garrel comment on the right is by my friend Alliya and I agree whole-heartedly.

2) Adam Levine has been voted the Sexiest Man Alive by People Magazine. The people at People
Magazine need to fill up the biggest douchebag jar they can find for making this decision. My choice? Duh.

Actually, any one of them will do too-

Yum.

3) The Honourary Oscars were given out recently and Steve Martin, Angela Lansbury, Angelina Jolie and Piero Tossi. I really loved Jolie’s acceptance speech. I am one of those saps who cries watching acceptance speeches (I even cried in Emma Stone’s MTV Award speech), and I thought Jolie’s was really beautiful and heartfelt. And goooo Steve Martin!!!

4) So guess what’s happening this Saturday? Only something I have been waiting forever for. Or, well, since April or something. Anyways, the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary is nearly here! (Isn't my banner awesome?) I already went nuts over the official trailers, though I am cautiously avoiding all other clips since I want a complete experience watching “The Day of the Doctor”. My entire plan of rewatching all of Nu Who and then ranking my favourite episodes before “The Day of the Doctor” *obviously* went kaput since my planning skills suck, but I promise to do one before series 8 next year. Anyways, it seems our dearly departing Doctor, Matt Smith, is in talks to star in Star Wars Episode VII. Of course it is all rumours at present, but if it comes to pass, this will be a massive opportunity for Smith. I just hope he doesn't end up in some ridiculous alien make-up. Especially now that his hair is growing all nicely.

5) Imogen Poots (I love her name so much), might be starring in Todd Field's next film, Beautiful Ruins. It is apparently his most ambitious project yet and it will span over a number of decades, from the 60s onwards. It is about three characters and their lives that is altered by an incident that takes place during the shooting of Cleopatra. I recently watched Little Children and loved it, and this is Field's first movie since then. I think Poots is really pretty and it will be interesting to see her take on such a role.

6) Joe Wright is going to make a film about the origins of Peter Pan called Pan. Generally, I would be against it because I think we *have* had enough of fairytale movies for a decade, but I have really loved everything Wright has made so far (except The Soloist, which I haven't seen). I have full trust in his vision. Javier Bardem is being considered for Captain Hook, according to rumours.

7) ScarJo is on a career-rise again. She kicked ass in Don Jon, but it is her work in Her that is getting awards attention. This is very unusual because she herself, i.e. er perfect sexy human self, is not in the movie, but her voice instead. But it's great to see actors getting recognition for their voice-work. She just got an award at the Rome Film Festival.

8) Fassy is going to star in a gangster film called Trespass Against Us. It will be directed by UK director Adam Smith, who has worked for things like Doctor Who and Skins, and the score will be created by The Chemical Brothers. The movie is "set across three generations of the rowdy Cutler family, who live as outlaws — hunting hares, ram-raiding stately homes and taunting the police. The family have always lived this way but, defying the expectations of his father, Chad Cutler is looking for a way out of the criminal life." Fassy will play Chad and I think will do a really good job. I'm kind of surprised he hasn't done more films like this tbh.

9) Robert Pattinson and Benedict Cumberbatch are going to star in Lost City of Z. The film is based on New Yorker science writer David Grann's book of the same name. Cumberbatch plays Lt. Colonel Percy Fawcett, a British archeologist and explorer who went missing in South America while hunting for the lost city of Z. The book follows the Fawcett expedition and tries to piece together what exactly happened to him and his team, which included Fawcett's son Jack and one of Jack's friends. RPatz will probably play Jack. It sounds like an intriguing project (Brad Pitt's name was attached to it formerly. Now he's producing). The Brit duo is also unique and I'm curious to see how they gel together.

10) Wes Anderson made a short film for Prada starring Jason Schwartzman!

Don't you want to live in a Wes Anderson film?

11) Alex has some awesome news!

12) Trailers- The Maleficient teaser looks a little half-baked, although it does give us it's two most important aspects of the film-Angelina Jolie as the titular character and Elle Fanning as Aurora. Jolie looks and sounds amazeballs, and if anyone can make me not hate Aurora, it's Fanning. The Wind Rises has a very pretty trailer out and I am really looking forward to it. It looks as lovely and poignant as all the Miyazaki that I have seen. The Devil's Knot looks quite intriguing. I have only seen the first half of the first Paradise: Lost documentary, so it will be interesting to see how the material is treated in this film. Plus, good cast. Speaking of, Muppets Most Wanted looks awesome! I SPOT HIDDLES! I'm really excited about this one. I absolutely adored the first film. Oh God, Noah :/ :/ (See what I did there). But seriously, I don't know how to feel about this film. On one hand, I want to trust Aronofsky and his vision, but on the other hand, there is Russel Crowe and his face that makes me sick for whatever reason. And the material and the way the trailer seems to be treating it does not pique my interest at all. Divergent trailer is meh. I'm just all-round meh about this film. Mehhh. There are two trailers I really loved and are my king of trailers in this post. One is Nymphomaniac. This will be some batshit crazy stuff but lord help me, I'm intrigued. The second is the teaser to The Raid 2: Berandal. THAT'S HOW YOU MAKE A TEASER, PEOPLE!! So fucking awesome.

13) Finally, with "The Day of the Doctor" almost upon us, let's all listen to Sir Ian McKellen's words of wisdom about the show-

Re: Matt Smith- Never knew Sir Ian and I would have so much in common.

DO WEE DOOOOOOOOOO! HAPPY DOCTOR WHO 50TH EVERYONE! ALLONS-Y FOR NOW!

Thoughts

       Helloo! How is everyone? Before Midnight has released in some part of the world, not sure where but not in any third world countries, which is where I live. So Operation AVOIDALLSPOILERSERMAHGERD is go! I hope I don't have to wait too long.

1) I had spoken of this exactly a year back, about how Cate Blanchett and Mia Wasikowska have been cast in the adaptation of a Patricia Highsmith's novel, which will be called Carol. Boy A director John Crowley was going to helm the project that was about two women in the 50s in a relationship. Crowley has unfortunately left the project, but replacing him is none other than Todd Haynes. Haynes has made films like Velvet Goldmine, Far From Heaven and I'm Not There and I feel is more than capable for a story and cast like this. This is v.v.v. exciting news indeed.

2) Evan Peters of the American Horror Story fame is going to star as Quick Silver in X-Men: Days of Future Past. This is sort of unfortunate, even though I quite like Peters, as Joss Whedon had earlier announced that the character of Quick Silver and his sibling hero Scarlet Witch will be joining The Avengers 2. As much as I enjoyed X-Men: First Class, it was more because of the combined beauty and bromance of McFassy and very little else. And let's not get into how much I loved The Avengers. It will now be interesting to watch how they settle this whole dilemma.

3) The Fault in Our Stars movie has cast its Augustus Waters. Ansel Elgort, who will also be seen in the new Carrie and the new sci-fi film Divergent is going to play the beloved character of Gus. Funnily, Elgort is playing the brother of Shailene Woodley, who has been cast as TFiOS's protagonist Hazel Grace,  in Divergent. I am not that impressed by this casting choice as he just doesn't look like the Gus I had imagined. Also, I wish I had seen him in something. We'll see how this works out. I really hope they do the book justice, and a big part of that will be having the right Gus.

4) Posters and pictures- Woody Allen's next Blue Jasmine has a poster out. It's an okay poster on its own, but gosh I want this film!!! Pictures-wise, instead of linking to some new promotional pics, I want to share these incredible 100 behind-the-scenes pictures from 100 movies. Some of them are just gob-smacking. 2001, GoldenEye, Kill Bill Vol. 1- everything!!!

5) The second episode of Across the Universe Podcast is up. We discuss The Great Gatsby.

6) So if you did hear the podcast, I bitched a little about the unnecessary lingerie shot of Alice Eve in Star Trek Into Darkness. Apparently, so did a lot of others, which is why J.J. Abrams apologised and spoke about how the film was actually going to have a small scene of Benedict Cumberbatch's character showering to balance it. YES IT SHOULD HAVE!

7) Trailers- My most anticipated film of the year, The World's End has a full trailer out now. If I had to choose only two films to watch this entire year, it would be this and Before Midnight. I need them. Even though I audibly groaned when I saw Jennifer Aniston's name in the cast, We're The Millers actually looks really hilarious. Mostly 'cuz Nick Offerman is awesome. Ain't Them Bodies Saints looks really, really good. I love the look and the cast, and I swear I had thought of a similar idea for a story a few years back. Ah well, c'est la vie. I want to watch Metallica Through the Never for Dane DeHaan but I am really not a Metallica person :/ The trailer of the week is Don Jon, which is the directorial debut of Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who is also the lead. Co-starring are Scarlett Johansson and Julianne Moore. I think this is going to be weird and hilarious and JGL and ScarJo look brilliant.

8) Finally, I saw this on Tumblr yesterday and haven't stopped laughing since-

He looks so cool :')

Adieu!