trophy wife

So I sat down to write the blog about the film Potiche and really just discovered I wanted to pay homage to Catherine Deneuve instead. I figure since RiverRun closed the festival with the film, word was already out on the gift that is Potiche so I'm covered right? Just in case here is a link to the review from Matthew Lucas in From the Front Row and the trailer below:

On to the Catherine Deneuve tribute:

First, is she not the coolest mademoiselle ever?

Seriously, here she is with fashion icon (second to Bill Cunningham, of course) Yves Saint Laurent. She was considered his muse btw.

I'm sure when this photo was taken all of the hommes were wishing they were this miniature dog. Apologies for my liberal use of French...I don't speak it, but wish I did.

France even used her likeness for a while as their national emblem Marianne (following in the footsteps of Bridget Bardot).

And after over 100 films she still knocks 'em out (this image actually does happen to be from Potiche).

And on a personal note and to wrap up my idol worship, in my research I discovered that Ms. Deneuve has her very own engraved Jaeger-LeCoultre watch, a company I spent two years in marketing with...a nice bow to wrap up the package.

We're not the only ones who love PBR

It's Friday, and that can only mean new movie night at a/perture. This week it's the Will Ferrell film Everything Must Go. In perusing reviews I found a common denominator that was nice, but didn't give full credit to Mr. Ferrell's body of work. Yes, he takes a turn as someone a little more serious, but I don't want to hear how this is his Punch Drunk Love or his Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. He's tried that already, with Stranger than Fiction. Mark Burger avoided stigmatizing Ferrell's past roles as brainless fodder, and since I'm very obviously biased I applaud him for that and reward him by linking his review of the movie.

What Will Ferrell pulls off in this movie is to draw you in to the story of Nick Halsey, a recently laid-off salesman who comes home to find his wife has left him and dumped all of his worldly possessions out in the front yard. While Will is front and center in this film and pulls of a stunning performance, he has some help from the cast. The son of the rapper Notorious B.I.G (I love it when they call me Jig Poppa - RIP Biggie), Christopher Jordan Wallace plays a neighborhood kid who needs some direction, but ends up providing that for Nick. Along the way run-ins with the pregnant neighbor with an absentee husband (Rebecca Hall), an old high school flame (Laura Dern) and Nick's AA sponsor (Michael Pena) help Nick realize the only way to get his life back is to let everything go.

Being distributed by the indie Roadside Attractions, I figured Everything Must Go could use some of those fancy quotes they throw on trailers and ads talking about why you should run out and see a film IMMEDIATELY. So I found some quotes from his movies that somehow also gave a nod to his newest flick.

"Dear Lord Baby Jesus, I want to thank you for this wonderful meal, my two beautiful son's, Walker and Texas Ranger, and my Red-Hot Smokin' Wife, Carley and this awesome movie, Everything Must Go."

- Will Ferrell as Ricky Bobby in Talladega Nights

"Hey Mom, can we get some meatloaf, and go see that rad movie Everything Must Go?"

- Will Ferrell as Chaz in Wedding Crashers

"Well, um, actually a pretty nice little Saturday, we’re going to go to Home Depot. Yeah, buy some wallpaper, maybe get some flooring, stuff like that. Maybe Bed, Bath, & Beyond and go to a/perture and catch Everything Must Go, I don’t know, I don’t know if we’ll have enough time.”

- Will Ferrell as Frank the Tank in Old School

"I love scotch. Scotchy, scotch, scotch and Everything Must Go. Here it goes down, down into my belly with some other wonderful a/perture concessions like cake balls, cheese straws, and chocolove bars."

- Will Ferrell as Ron Burgundy? in Anchorman

If only I could have juxtaposed those into the trailer...speaking of which, after watching the snippet below, get excited about our own yard sale happening from 11-4 on Saturday on our patio (where you can enjoy the spring weather with refreshments of your choice from a/perture, even if you're not watching a movie).

Plus, while they last we still have some free t-shirts to giveaway with the purchase of an Everything Must Go ticket!!!!

monks

So based on the description of the film OF GODS AND MEN (opening today), you might think it is a film to skip out on....

Eight French Christian monks live in harmony with their Muslim brothers in a monastery perched in the mountains of North Africa in the 1990s. When a crew of foreign workers is massacred by an Islamic fundamentalist group, fear sweeps though the region. The army offers them protection, but the monks refuse. Should they leave? Despite the growing menace in their midst, they slowly realize that they have no choice but to stay... come what may. This film is loosely based on the life of the Cistercian monks of Tibhirine in Algeria, from 1993 until their kidnapping in 1996.

Trust me it is not. It is an emotional, heartbreaking, and divinely-acted film about faith, community and devotion. It's the kind of film arthouse theaters love to screen not merely because it is a subtitled French film, but because it is a worldly film that encourages dialogue and further exploration into the historical events portrayed. Check out Mark Burger's review and the trailer below.

Last year Of Gods and Men won the Gran Prix at Cannes...so look at it this way...while the celebrities and paparazzi are partying it up on the beaches of Cannes as I write...you can experience your very own Cannes Film Festival at a/perture...just add a glass of wine.

"We all get dressed for Bill"

..so says Vogue editrix Anna Wintour and so would I if I had the most adorably fascinating octogenarian following me around town with his camera. But since Bill Cunningham is a die-hard New Yorker I doubt he'll be moving South anytime soon, so we'll just have to settle for watching him on the big screen when we open BILL CUNNINGHAM NEW YORK today.

For decades, this Schwinn-riding cultural anthropologist has been obsessively and inventively chronicling fashion trends and high society charity soirées for the New York Times Style section in his columns “On the Street” and “Evening Hours.”

Documenting uptown fixtures (Wintour, Tom Wolfe, Brooke Astor, David Rockefeller—who all appear in the film out of their love for Bill), downtown eccentrics and everyone in between, Cunningham’s enormous body of work is more reliable than any catwalk as an expression of time, place and individual flair. In turn, Bill Cunningham New York is a delicate, funny and often poignant portrait of a dedicated artist whose only wealth is his own humanity and unassuming grace. Check out the LA Times Review for their endorsement.

Take a second to watch the trailer and I promise you will be hooked.









BCNY shows 5/6-5/12 at 5:30pm (except Monday). Yes, there are just six shows so make your plans now!

Fun with Rochester and Jane

Hello high schoolers (I'm including those of us who wish we could go back) - have a book report due tomorrow? Then I really can't think of a better book to pick up than Jane Eyre. Why? Is there a book that's been made into a movie more? Well, yes, but this one's gone the big and little screen route. And more importantly it's playing at a/perture right now. Normally when I hear titles like Wuthering Heights or anything that Emma Thompson's been in, I run for the hills or hope Lawren will want to see said movie with her mom, but this version of Jane Eyre has been a little different. Cary Fukunaga, the man behind the camera for Sin Nombre? Yes please. Michael Fassbender, that inglorious basterd who will be playing Magneto in the new X-Men movie and graced our screen in Fish Tank? Double yes. And Mia Wasikowska, the alright kid who went a little trippy in Alice in Wonderland. If there was a Golden Globe for crew with last names most fun to say out loud, this group would be a shoo-in.

Okay, we all know the story, or at least we're supposed to, since I have reportedly read this book about three times. But just in case, here's two cliff notes versions of the film, and why you should see it, one from Roger Ebert and the other that appeared in Relish this past week. Visually stunning, here's a taste of the movie that had the highest specialty debut of 2011: