The Malaysian Insider :: Showbiz
The Malaysian Insider :: Showbiz |
| Knightley stars in film on birth of psychoanalysis Posted: 02 Sep 2011 07:29 AM PDT  British actress Keira Knightley (left) poses with US actress Eva Mendes during a photocall for in competition film "Last Night" by Massy Tadjedin at the Rome Film Festival on October 28, 2010. — Reuters pic Between the recognised titans of the discipline Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, played respectively by Viggo Mortensen and Michael Fassbender, came Sabina Spielrein, portrayed by Keira Knightley. The psychologically troubled, fiercely intelligent young woman was a real-life patient first of Jung and later Freud. Some historians also believe she had an affair with Jung, and in the film he sets out on a path of sexual liberation and obsession with his charge prompted by the debauched and dangerous Otto Gross. For Knightley, a role involving scenes of hysteria and sexual spanking was a departure from the demure, restrained characters for which she is best known. Asked whether she enjoyed the role, she told reporters in Venice where the film has its world premiere today: "It's great fun. I'm an actress so I'm obviously crazy anyway so I think I drew on that. It's fine." Cronenberg joked that he chose his cast based on their need for treatment. "I'd like to just say that my cast has a great need of psychoanalysis — it was why I cast then actually. "It was to sort of introduce them gently to the idea that they needed help, a lot of help. And you can see they're much better people. Before they were messes when I found them." Leading figure Spielrein went on to become a respected psychoanalyst in her own right, and in the film her ideas challenge both Freud and Jung to rethink their own approach. Cronenberg said his cerebral costume drama about what he called an "intellectual menage a trois" was "very accurate." "There's so much in the letters," said the 68-year-old director of hits like "The Fly" and "A History of Violence". "At this era in Vienna there were maybe five to eight mail deliveries every day. It was like the internet before the internet. "There are tonnes of letters amongst all these characters and in those letters they quote each other ... So there's a lot of material out there which is the basis for the screenplay." Oscar-winning writer Christopher Hampton penned the script, which is based on his own play "The Talking Cure". For Mortensen, who also starred in Cronenberg's "A History of Violence" and "Eastern Promises", the key to playing such a well-known figure as Freud was not to get too bogged down in the detail. "In the end it's not an academic exercise, it's not a documentary movie, it's a drama that's interesting, that sometimes is funny, that sometimes is tragic, that doesn't deal with the academic issue so much." Cronenberg said Freud's ideas were considered dangerous at a time when many people believed man was on a one-way path to enlightenment and progress. "Freud, with psychoanalysis, said this is not true, this is a very thin veneer of so-called civilisation ... and that these ... unconscious things could erupt in a very disastrous way. "This was on the eve of the First World War, which of course ended the dream of progress and so-called European civilisation." A Dangerous Method is one of 22 movies in the main competition at this year's Venice film festival, and is due to hit US theatres in November. — Reuters |
| Madonna’s crown slips with mediocre movie reviews Posted: 02 Sep 2011 07:05 AM PDT  US singer Madonna gestures as she performs during her Sticky and Sweet tour at the O2 Arena in London on July 4, 2009. — Reuters pic The picture, which had its world premiere at the Venice film festival yesterday, is loosely based on the life of American divorcee Wallis Simpson, whose affair with King Edward VIII led to his abdication. Madonna said she had been fascinated by the story for some time, pondering why a man would make such a huge sacrifice for love. Andrea Riseborough stars as Simpson and Abbie Cornish as a modern-day woman who becomes obsessed with the person who prompted a constitutional crisis in 1936. Britain's Guardian newspaper did not spare Madonna's feelings with a one-out-of-five star review. "Could it be that Madonna is in deadly earnest here?" wrote Xan Brooks. "If so, her film is more risible than we had any right to expect; a primped and simpering folly, the turkey that dreamed it was a peacock." Others were less damning, although the general tone was negative and one website quipped that it may be time for the 53-year-old singer to abdicate as a film maker. Todd McCarthy of the Hollywood Reporter opined: "Madonna's second foray into directing is pleasing to the eyes and ears, but lacking anything for the soul." And Mark Adams, chief critic for Screen Daily, wrote: "Madonna aims high as she seeks to tackle love, celebrity, fame, abuse and disappointment, often hitting her targets — and sometimes not — but always offering up images that are beautifully shot and staged." He singled out Riseborough's performance, which he described as "quite brilliant". The Daily Telegraph gave W.E. three stars out of five, while Baz Bamigboye of the Daily Mail was generally complimentary. "A lot of people will loathe it, simply because it's been made by Madonna," he wrote. "But if they were to watch it with no knowledge of who directed, they would be pleasantly surprised. They might even find much of it enjoyable, although the odd moment may have them wondering if Madge has committed treason." Some of Madonna's collaborators on the picture had wondered whether viewers' judgments might be coloured by their opinion of the 53-year-old celebrity. "When an iconic, global entity is involved it will be interesting to see how people react to that and whether people can judge the film without their own baggage or how they've felt about Madonna for 30 years," producer Kris Thykier told trade publication Variety. The budget of W.E. is estimated to be around US$15 million (RM45 million), and it hits movie theatres in North America in December. — Reuters |
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