Spall in the Family

The Guardian: Spall in the family -- The extraordinarily gifted Timothy Spall is a hard act to follow. Yet his son Rafe seems to have inherited the acting gene. Now, for the first time, they are working together, playing a father and son. Amy Raphael meets them for their first joint interview

As Rafe slowly proved that he was capable of sidestepping the long shadow cast by Timothy, it was only a matter of time before someone thought of casting father and son together. Andrew Davies, who wrote the original script for BBC Four's The Chatterley Affair, had been impressed with Rafe in this, his first leading role. When he was working on an adaptation of EM Forster's A Room With a View for ITV, Davies immediately thought that Timothy, 50, and Rafe, 24, would be perfect as Mr Emerson and his son George: the working-class father desperate for his isolated, detached son to fall in love.

Charles Dance: how common

The UK Telegraph: Charles Dance: how common -- Army officers, worthy medicos, louche aristos, and now a donnish C.S. Lewis in 'Shadowlands' – when casting directors need 'a toff actor', Charles Dance is top of their list. It's all pretending, the secret plebeian tells Nigel Farndale, and he loves it. - Thanks, Amelie

There is life after ER

Variety: Goran Visnjic joins Judd in 'Helen' -- Film is Nettelbeck's English-language debut

7,714 Movies, and Counting

When he was 12, NEWSWEEK's David Ansen started a list of every film he'd seen. No. 1 was 'Cinderella.' The last is—well, that's a long story. In fact, it's the story of his life, and of his generation

Shutter Island - Dennis Lehane

Variety: Scorsese, DiCaprio team for 'Island' -- Paramount, Columbia to co-produce film

Sidney Lumet - After 50 Years, Still No Time for Cheap Sentiment

The NY Times:

MOST directors do not go on to make one of their best films after receiving their lifetime achievement Oscars. But then, most directors do not have the near-legendary stamina and efficiency of Sidney Lumet, who accepted his honorary Academy Award two years ago, turned 83 in June and now has made 44 features in 50 years. (By his standards he has slowed down a little. For the first 40 years of his career he was averaging one movie a year.)

TV - Mad Men Season Finale

Because it is so superior, Mad Men gets into this film blog. They ended the season with Don sitting alone in his house on the steps going upstairs while Bob Dylan sings "Don't think twice, it's all right."

It ain't no use to sit and wonder why, babe
It don't matter, anyhow
An' it ain't no use to sit and wonder why, babe
If you don't know by now
When your rooster crows at the break of dawn
Look out your window and I'll be gone
You're the reason I'm trav'lin' on
Don't think twice, it's all right

New Republic vs David Denby of the New Yorker

ARE WE RUNNING LOW ON MOVIE STARS?:

David Denby's New Yorker piece on the supposedly waning appeal of movie stars is not, alas, available online. However, his thesis can be summed up rather neatly: Not only are there fewer stars than there were seventy years ago, but the stars themselves "mean less" to us, the audience. These days, Denby argues, we're more likely to read about them in the tabloids or, as he helpfully points out, try to view them nude on the internet, than to watch them act.

The essay has some arresting lines, but, typically for an article like this one, the past is heralded and the present is undersold. In fact, I think it's easy to argue that Denby has things completely backward. With the studio system sixty years behind us, and with "event" movies and special effects so prevalent, it's pretty remarkable that Hollywood still has the number of stars it does. Denby affords the label to Russell Crowe and Julia Roberts, but then discounts Tom Hanks because he's so nice. Tom Cruise, Mel Gibson, Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Nicole Kidman, and Denzel Washington are either slighted or ignored. What's interesting here, too, and which Denby doesn't mention, is that everyone on that list (not to mention George Clooney and Bruce Willis) are on their worst days better actors than Gary Cooper and Clark Gable. In fact, even the weakest among them are still competent and good at their craft.

This elision also leads Denby to miss another obvious point. He writes:

It's that larger-than-the-role mythic element that distinguishes a star (Cooper, Clint Eastwood) from someone who may be a much greater actor (Fredric March, Robert De Niro). Courageous as he is, De Niro has never pulled us toward himself; he remains his own man, not ours.

Really? Robert De Niro is not a movie star? Has Denby seen a De Niro movie in the last ten years? But the bigger point is that unlike sixty years ago, people become stars because of the respect they gain as actors. Think of Jack Nicholson and De Niro and Al Pacino. (One sign of having reached this status is the ease you display in using your "larger-than-the-role mythic element" to achieve success in comedies).

If you do get a chance, Denby's piece is worth a read. Still, there is a lot more to be written on this subject.

--Isaac Chotiner

The Times London Film Festival

Breaking and Entering:

Jude Law’s architect is the epitome of successful middle-class decency, yet emotionally he is barely alive. Amira is the heart and soul of the film, and Binoche is marvellous in the role. The trauma of the Bosnian conflict is still fresh in her memory, as is the husband who left her in Sarajevo and failed her son. Yet Amira stirs feelings and desires in Will that have not been moved for years.

I saw this film, and recommend it.

Michael Clayton

The NY Times:

They Call Him the Fixer in a World That’s a Mess

5 Minute Preview - The Golden Age

5 Minute Preview

Clive Owen on Raleigh & Elizabeth

Leading ladies

FT.com:

Every summer Variety, the unofficial bible for anyone working in Hollywood, devotes a special supplement to the “Showman of the Year”, the individual judged to have made the most impact on the entertainment industry over the preceding 12 months.

This year was slightly unusual because two people received the award: Amy Pascal and Michael Lynton, the co-chairs of Sony Pictures Entertainment. It is a measure of the clout Pascal wields that she is the only person to have won it twice, having also been Showman of the Year in 2002.