Thelma Adams: Novelist, Critic, Oscar Expert

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Yahoo! Exclusive: Love Me Tender: Mother Dolores Hart on Elvis, her Big Bang Theory of Sexuality, and her Oscar-nominated short ‘God Is the Bigger Elvis’

March 4, 2012 By Thelma Leave a Comment

Dolores Hart, Elvis, Catholicism, Anna Magnani,Movie Stars,Celebrities

One Loving Mamma: Dolores Hart

 

 This was my favorite interview of the 2012 Oscar Season. I love Mother Dolores:

Look up Dolores Hart on IMDB — and prepare to be wowed. Hart, a Hollywood brat discovered while attending Marymount College, starred opposite Elvis in “Loving You” (1957). George Cukor directed her and Anna Magnani in “Wild is the Wind” (1957). The future prioress starred in the cult favorite “Where the Boys Are” (1960) — and even played a nun in Michael Curtiz’s “Francis of Assisi” (1961). And then, in 1963, at age 24 on the verge of marriage and following the premiere of her final feature, “Come Fly With Me,” this leading lady who had been compared to Grace Kelly and kissed “the King” on screen, entered the Benedictine Abbey of Regina Laudis in Connecticut.

Yes, the Hollywood star gave up the spotlight for God. According to the Oscar-nominated documentary short, “God is the Bigger Elvis,” Hart discovered an inner peace and contentment in the cloister that had been absent on stage and screen, and in her engagement to California businessman Don Robinson. Hart has confessed it’s tough explaining the change in vocation, but has described it as:  “Falling in love. One falls in love with the Lord.” Now, the feisty 73-year-old Prioress, Mother Dolores Hart, will not only attend the Oscars this weekend, she voted for them.  She’s the only nun currently a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Thelma Adams: Why did you agree to make “God Is the Bigger Elvis” for HBO?

Mother Dolores Hart: About two years ago I was taken to Washington, D.C., by a friend of mine for another reason and there I met the now-deceased Archbishop Pietro Sambi, the delegate of the Holy See. When I walked into the office, he stretched out his arms to me and said “Mother Dolores, we would like to make a film on consecrated life.” But Your Excellency, I don’t have any contacts, I said. I’m no longer a part of the motion picture industry, and I am an enclosed nun. And he said “The Lord will provide.” I said I’m sorry, I can’t do it. He said, “Pray about this. I’m sure something will happen because the world needs to know about enclosed life.” He said, “They really don’t know about consecrated life.” And we talked for at least two hours, and he showed me his home, and took me to see all the beautiful art pieces that he had, and walked me to my car, which has never happened to me before. I told this to the abbey, and the abbess, and two days later HBO called me — and neither one had been in touch with the other. We were floored. It was obviously somebody upstairs. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Celebrity, Movies & TV, Oscar Race Tagged With: Anna Magnani, Catholocism, Documentary, Elvis, God is the Bigger Elvis, Mother Dolores Hart, Oscars 2012

Viggo Mortensen Reveals How He Became Freud in ‘A Dangerous Method’

January 2, 2012 By Thelma Leave a Comment

Sigmund Freud, Viggo Mortensen, A Dangerous Method, David Cronenberg, Michael Fassbender, Keira Knightley

Viggo, Siggy; Siggy, Viggo

Here’s my interview with Viggo for Yahoo! Movies the day he won the Golden Globe nomination for playing Freud in A Dangerous Method:

Fresh from his Golden Globe supporting actor nomination for playing the proud papa of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, “A Dangerous Method” star Viggo Mortensen, 53, talked exclusively to Yahoo! Movies about brilliant thinkers — Freud, Carl Jung and director David Cronenberg — and his A-list co-stars Michael Fassbender and Keira Knightley.

Thelma Adams: At the movie’s core is a mentor/pupil, father/son relationship between Freud and Jung. You’ve now made three movies with Cronenberg — “A History of Violence,” “Eastern Promises” and, now, “A Dangerous Method.” Is there a parallel?

Viggo Mortensen: To some degree it’s similar in the sense that, to start with, Jung and Freud had a great deal of affection for each other. With David, our friendship is first and foremost: respecting and liking, and a similar sense of humor. I’ve learned a lot and stretched with him. In “Eastern Promises,” he asked a lot of me and I asked a lot of myself.

TA: And with Freud, is there more scrutiny because it’s a historical character whose reputation precedes him?

VG: Freud was even more of a stretch. And, as for my friendship with David, at least so far we haven’t had the oedipal thing that was played out by Jung and Freud. We get along and hopefully we’ll continue to do so.

TA: Do you have any plans to collaborate again?

VG: David always has a couple of things cooking. One possibility is to do a sequel to “Eastern Promises.” The end left you wondering what would happen to my character now in that criminal London subculture. It was an ending that asks for, or allows for, a sequel like the “Godfather,” like Michael Corleone. What will happen next? I’m not a fan of sequels, although “Godfather 2” was as good as the original, maybe somewhat better. With David you can count on something interesting. He’s never done a sequel before. It’s not like with Woody Allen where he gets to do a movie every single year.

TA: That may not be a bad thing — some times I wish that Allen would take a year off and meditate…..MORE….on the Yahoo! Movie website

Filed Under: Celebrity, Movies & TV, Oscar Race Tagged With: Best Supporting Actor, David Cronenberg, Keira Knightley, Michael Fassbender, Oscars 2012, Viggo Mortensen, Yahoo! Movies

Yahoo! exclusive: Charlize Theron in “Young Adult”

December 11, 2011 By Thelma Leave a Comment

Patrick Wilson, Charlize Theron, Young Adult

Photo by Paramount Pictures

Forever Young: Charlize Theron Won’t Grow Up as the Aging Prom Queen from Hell in ‘Young Adult’

By Thelma Adams | The Reel Breakdown – Fri, Dec 9, 2011 6:38 PM EST
t last night’s “Young Adult” premiere, Oscar-nominated Jason Reitman bounded in front of the curtain at Manhattan’s Ziegfeld Theatre and welcomed the audience to “our unmakable movie.” The director went on to say, about Oscar-winner Diablo Cody: “It was really brave for her to write it, and really brave for Charlize to star in it.”This level of bravery  may seem tame to our troops in Iraq, or to Chinese political prisoners, or to the sexually brutalized women in Angelina Jolie’s “In the Land of Blood and Honey.” But we can agree that it’s about bloody time that a multifaceted lead female character behave unsympathetically without having to reach the extreme of serial killer Aileen Wuornos in “Monster,” which earned Theron her Oscar in 2003. Read on…. 

Filed Under: Celebrity, Movies & TV, Oscar Race Tagged With: Charlize Theron, Jason Reitman, Oscars 2012, Yahoo! Movies, Young Adult

Yahoo! Exclusive: Williams on Monroe

December 3, 2011 By Thelma Leave a Comment

Marilyn Monroe,Michelle Williams,Best Actress, Oscar Buzz, Oscars 2012

Photo by Weinstein Company

The Monroe Doctrine: Michelle Williams Discusses Her Months with Marilyn

My first major Yahoo! Movies interview

Pixie powerhouse Michelle Williams, 31, is Oscar-nomination bound for her drop-dead Marilyn Monroe in the whimsical memory-piece “My Week with Marilyn.” The two-time Oscar nominee (“Blue Valentine,” “Brokeback Mountain“) talked to Yahoo! about that famous wiggle — “It was like she was doing a figure eight in a vat of honey” — while making tea. Then she was off to the set of Sam Raimi’s “Oz: The Great and Powerful,” where she’s playing yet another blonde with pop culture baggage: Glinda the Good Witch.

Thelma Adams: How did you transform into Marilyn?

Michelle Williams: It was a long process. I started my prep maybe ten months in advance of shooting, I started watching her movies over and over again, listening to her voice on headphones, or playing it in the car when I drove carpool. [Click for full interview]

Filed Under: Celebrity, Movies & TV, Oscar Race Tagged With: best actress, Marilyn Monroe, Michelle Williams, My Week With Marilyn, Oscars 2012, Working Mother, Yahoo! Movies

Oscar’s Angels: Best Director Roundtable 2012

October 23, 2011 By Thelma Leave a Comment

Alexander Payne,George Clooney,The Descendants

Payne: director most likely to be confused with a high school chem teacher

Let’s turn our gimlet eyes to the directorial achievements of 2011. Here’s my post of the day with the field as I see it to start.

The top five are:

Alexander Payne, The Descendants

Steven Spielberg, War Horse

David Fincher, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

Michael Hazanavicius, The Artist

Stephen Daldry, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Other directorial contenders: Bennett Miller, Moneyball; Clint Eastwood, J. Edgar; Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris; Terrence Malick, The Tree of Life; Tomas Alfredson, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy; Martin Scorsese, Hugo; Oren Moverman, Rampart; and George Clooney, The Ides of March.

Full disclosure: of the top five men in the race, I’ve only seen two of the movies. Oops: no women on list! To be fair, we could include two possible dark mare contenders: Lynne Ramsay for We Need to Talk About Kevin and Phyllida Lloyd for The Iron Lady.

Susan Wloszczyna: I’m not feeling it for the ladies in the directing category this year. Ramsay is more of a Spirit award possibility. As for Phyllida Lloyd, she might be a whiz at staging operas, but never has such a hugely successful film been quite so ineptly directed as Mamma Mia! And I say this as someone who will drop everything to watch Meryl Streep leap on that bed whenever it comes on cable.

Will it help girl power-wise that Lisbeth Salander will soon be the Harry Potter of literary-inspired action femmes? The anti-social hacker with the pitbull personality is a perfect heroine for our Apple worshiping age. Maybe a win for Fincher is a win for womankind?

I do have an inkling that Woody might sneak into this category, with Daldry maybe sitting it out this time.

THELMA: I’m skeptical about Fincher being able to keep the girl in The Girl in the Dragon Tattoo on center stage, Susan, but we’ll see. Right now, it seems like a bit of the not-so-old and old-boy’s club. Of that group, I favor Payne and Hazanavicius but that’s my anti-serious-Spielberg bias poking through.

SUSAN; I am willing to put money on Payne now. But much hinges on the public’s reception to The Descendants. Somehow I think they will warm to this Clooney more than they did the Up in the Air George.

THELMA: I agree. Although, the degree to which Jason Reitman apparently hurt that movie’s chances on the long red carpet from Toronto to the Kodak Theater is hard to estimate. What do you think, Melissa?

Melissa Silverstein: This is one of the times of year I hate because we hardly ever get to talk about women. I know we are all waiting to see The Iron Lady but Lynne Ramsey did a spectacular job with We Need To Talk About Kevin. The problem with that film is that it is so hard to swallow that it won’t get much of a push beyond star Tilda Swinton, which is most deserved.

Two young women made great movies that won’t get too much Oscar notice. Maryam Keshavarz wrote and directed Circumstance and Dee Rees wrote and directed Pariah. I think that Pariah could get Indie Spirit nominations and it is so good but about a topic that doesn’t necessarily interest Oscar voters: a young African American woman coming to terms with her sexuality.

I’m still waiting to see Phyllida Lloyd’s work in The Iron Lady before I write her off. I saw her show, Mary Stuart, and thought it was beyond impressive. I think we should give her the benefit of the doubt even though people didn’t like Mamma Mia! Remember it has made over half a billion dollars at the box office. That is more than most Meryl Streep movies.

THELMA: More than any of the ones she earned an Oscar or a nomination for that’s for sure! You have a point about box office and Mamma Mia. And also that this year it looks like some female directors will end up in the Indie Spirit or Gotham’s Awards. Which male directors do you favor in the race, Melissa?

MELISSA: I haven’t seen a lot of the films yet so I am not the best person to pick but I think that the front runner is Alexander Payne. I am also interested to see what The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo looks like and whether David Fincher could get it with a movie that is a hard R and has a lot of violence. I never count him out. I also think that Bennett Miller from Moneyball and George Clooney for Ides of March could get some traction.

Sasha Stone: I can’t count out Fincher. For me the only lock is Alexander Payne for The Descendants. But it’s always tricky to predict anything until it’s been reviewed by the major critics, which this film hasn’t. It has Todd McCarthy in its favor, so that looks like a good sign.

Of those that HAVE been reviewed, you have two – Woody Allen for Midnight in Paris and you have Bennett Miller for Moneyball – stellar reviews for both. The third director to consider is Terrence Malick. I could see the directors picking him even if the film misses a Best Pic nod. His movie is just so large in scope it’s hard to imagine it not getting one.

Of those who have yet to present themselves, we have:
David Fincher
Steven Spielberg
Stephen Daldry
Cameron Crowe
Jason Reitman
Tomas Alfredson

I really don’t know how to choose between these. This is genuinely a case of having to wait and see. We have to sit on our hands and wait. It’s not easy but there is simply no way to know.

Do I think any women will break through? No. When the Academy decided to not do ten Best Picture nominees they basically fucked women once again. We will not see a year like last where two Best Pic nominees were written and directed by women. We’ll see more like five directors and five to seven Best Pictures.

None of those five will be women. Unless The Iron Lady is really all that.

Where you’ll see women pop up will be in the screenplay category if at all.

THELMA: I hate to sit on my hands, but I understand the impulse in this case. The season is going to start to roll very fast as the NYFCC, of which I’m a member, voted this past week to do our awards balloting on November 28th. That’s going to move up the pace of screenings — and, possibly, reviews. But, considering the rapturous reviews and reception, I just don’t think the heretofore relatively unknown French director Michel Hazanavicius, promoted by Harvey Weinstein, will be overlooked in this category.

As for women directors, I can only hope that more filter up in the next few years, especially if we Oscar’s Angels are in gatekeeper positions and swing the doors wide open.

And here’s my deepest, darkest fear: that Spielberg, with two movies premiering on the same week in December – War Horse and The Adventures of Tin Tin – will become a double slam dunk for the honors. Talk about a dog-and-pony show!

Filed Under: Movies & TV, Oscar Race Tagged With: Alexander Payne, Best Director, Oscar's Angels, Oscars 2012, Steven Spielberg

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