Directed by Garth Davis with a screenplay by Iain Reid and Davis based on the book by Iain Reid, Foe stars Saoirse Ronan, Paul Mescal, and Aaron Pierre.
Foe is a science-fiction thriller as a haunting exploration of marriage and identity with a setting in an uncertain world. Hen and Junior, played by Ronan and Mescal, farm a secluded piece of land that’s been in Junior’s family for generations.
An uninvited stranger, played by Pierre, throws their otherwise quiet life into turmoil. He shows up at their farm door with a startling proposal.
Davis helms a story through Foe’s mesmerizing imagery. He brings persistent questions to the surface. They concern the nature of humanity and artificial humanity. Davis draws attention to the not-too-distant future of a luminous life.
Davis is an Australian film and television director known for directing Lion (his debut feature) and Mary Magdalene. He also directed episodes for Top of the Lake, starring Elisabeth Moss, noted in a Vanity Fair.
Directed by Tom George, the story happens in London’s West End in the 1950s. There are plans for a movie version of a smash-hit play to come to an abrupt halt after a pivotal crew member ends up murdered.
When world-weary Inspector Stoppard, played by Sam Rockwell, and eager rookie Constable Stalker, played by Saoirse Ronan, take on the case, the two find themselves puzzling whodunit within the glamorously sordid theater underground, investigating the mysterious homicide at their own peril.
Directed by the elusively funny Wes Anderson, The French Dispatch is a love letter to journalists set in an outpost of an American newspaper in a fictional 20th-century French city that brings to life a collection of stories published in “The French Dispatch” magazine.
The cast is an A-list of Hollywood superstars, including Saoirse Ronan, Timothée Chalamet, Elisabeth Moss, Billy Murray, Owen Wilson, Edward Norton, Willem Dafoe, Tilda Swinton, Liev Schreiber, Frances McDormand, Adrien Brody and Benicio Del Toro.
According to IMDB, The New Yorker reported a piece that outlines some characters, subjects, and situations described in this movie, along with the corresponding The New Yorker articles, themes, and writers that Wes Anderson references. These include:
Arthur Howitzer Jr., played by Bill Murray, inspired by the New Yorker’s founding editor Harold Ross.
Herbsaint Sazerac, played by Owen Wilson, inspired by the writer Joseph Mitchell
Julian Cadazio, played by Adrien Brody, inspired by Lord Duveen, the subject of a 1951 six-part New Yorker profile by S. N. Behrman
Roebuck Wright, played by Jeffrey Wright, inspired by James Baldwin and A. J. Liebling, who were both New Yorker contributors over the years.
Lucinda Krementz, played by Frances McDormand, inspired by Mavis Gallant, She wrote a two-part 1968 piece on the student uprisings in France. This character also shares a last name with Jill Krementz, a photographer whose work has often appeared in the New Yorker and is the widow of the novelist Kurt Vonnegut.
The New Yorker also reported in the same piece that the movie takes place in a fictional French town called “Ennui-sur-Blasé.” “Ennui” and “blasé” are both English words, albeit both terms originate from the French, which means roughly the same thing: world-weary boredom, apathy, and sophistication. It is relatively common for French place names to contain the word “sur” (“on”) between two other words as a geographic descriptor. for example, the French Riviera village name “Beaulieu-sur-Mer” translates as “beautiful place on the sea.” So if it were a real place name, “Ennui-sur-Blasé” would mean, more or less, “Boredom-on-Apathy.”
For Anderson, the filmmaking process is 100% organic from start to finish. That begins with the writing. “It’s a real adventure to work on these things,” says longtime collaborator Jason Schwartzman, who co-wrote the story with Anderson and Roman Coppola and plays the role of the magazine’s cartoonist. “The stories are sort of concocted in real-time. There’s not some big outline or something that you’re filling in. You’re literally creating each moment as you get to it. It’s sort of like building a bridge while you’re on the bridge, and that’s what’s really exciting. When you wake up in the morning, you really have no idea what could happen to the story, to the characters, and that is such an exciting place to be. It’s free form but focused, and Wes is the captain of the ship.”
So funny!
The official name of the New Yorker-inspired magazine is The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun, a publication inspired by the history of The New Yorker and the origins of two of the people who made it what it is: Harold Ross, the magazine’s co-founder, and William Shawn, his successor, both inspirations for Bill Murray’s character and both born in the Midwest. “Kansas seems to me like the most American place in America,” says Anderson. “I mean, really, in the end, The French Dispatch isn’t publishing for the people of Kansas. They’re publishing for America.”
Creating the story’s striking still-life passages, Anderson actually asked the actors to freeze in place. “It’s a game I play with my daughter,” says del Toro, “it’s probably one of the earliest things that I remember playing as a kid, and suddenly… we’re doing it, every actor from Tilda Swinton to Henry Winkler, all these legends, all playing the game. And it’s contagious. It’s really nice to see actors going back to their childhood and playing, Simon Says. There’s something very freeing about it. And I felt like it added to the film in another way. Wes could have frozen the action digitally, but there’s something about the actors actually freezing that makes it… you can feel it, you can touch it, and the audience can feel the joy behind it.”
See if you can catch every single actor in this movie.
Based on the perennial novel by Louisa May Alcott and written for the screen and directed by Greta Gerwig, Little Women comes to the movie houses once again with Saoirse Ronan in the lead role as the Alcott’s distinctly other-self, Jo March.
Most of you are familiar with Gerwig’s Lady Bird, where Ronan played Lady Bird, a teenage girl trying to find the meaning of life through a coming of age and innocence. Gerwig also casts another alumnus from the movie, Timothée Chalamet, who plays the neighbor Laurie.
Jo reflects back and forth in her fictional life as Gerwig crafts the beloved story of the March sisters. They are four young women, each determined to live life on her terms, which is timeless and timely.
The sisters in the movie include Emma Watson, Florence Pugh, Eliza Scanlen, Laura Dern as Marmee, and Meryl Streep as Aunt March. New York Film Critics Circle (2019) awarded Laura Dern Best Supporting Actress for both Little Women and Marriage Story.
Gerwig tight directing brings new life to Little Women, as you can see in this clip.
I like this movie clip because it’s clean and smooth, and the message is clear.
The movie shot beautifully, love Dern as the mother.
I love this clip with Letts. It’s so good.
The next set of featurettes tells the story of making the movie.
Written and directed by Greta Gerwig, Little Women comes to the movie screen once again with a stellar cast of women and a couple of men. Many renditions of the classic book have come to us over more than 100 years of moviemaking.
The first adaption of Little Women was a British silent film in 1917 starring Gaiety Girl Ruby Miller. In 1918, U.S. silent film starred Dorothy Bernard. The first talking movie starred Katherine Hepburn and directed by George Cukor in 1933. The second movie starred June Alyson and Elizabeth Taylor with Mervyn LeRoy directing in 1949. The third starring Wyona Ryder in 1998. Then, a modernized version in 2018 starring Melanie Stone.
Gerwig, who directed the sleeper hit Lady Bird, crafted Little Women in a way the draws both the classic novel and the writings of Louisa May Alcott. The movie unfolds as the author’s alter ego, Jo March, reflects back and forth on her fictional life.
In Gerwig’s take, the beloved story of the March sisters – four young women each determined to live life on her terms — is both timeless and timely.
Portraying Jo, Meg, Amy, and Beth March, the film stars Saoirse Ronan, Emma Watson, Florence Pugh, Eliza Scanlen, with Timothée Chalamet as their neighbor Laurie, Laura Dern as Marmee, and Meryl Streep as Aunt March.
Gerwig’s signature filmmaking shines through with stunning backdrops and charming costumes.
Directed by Josie Rourke, Mary, Queen of Scots, is based on the book by John Guy called “Queen of Scots: The True Life of Mary Stuart”. Mary Stuart’s, played by Saoirse Ronan, attempt to overthrow her cousin Elizabeth I, Queen of England, played by Margot Robbie. Stuart finds herself condemned to years of imprisonment before facing execution.
The second trailer shows how fierce each woman gets over winning the throne. I posted some behind the scene clips on My YouTube Channel. The clips show details in the costumes, amazing.
Watch the trailer and clips. You will see some fine acting.
Mary, Queen of Scots appears to be Rourke’s first movie, but her theatrical experience is quite extensive. She is the Artistic Director of the Donmar Warehouse, and her productions have transferred to Broadway, the West-End and won Olivier Awards.
The two featurettes are put together showing how the two women interrelated with each other and their times. Rourke shares the difference between the two queens while Ronan talks about Mary Stuart as a dynamic woman. Robbie talks about how the two women were influenced by men who influenced and ruled the culture at the time.
Based on the play of the same name by Anton Chekhov, written for the screen by Stephen Karam, and directed by Michael Mayer, The Seagull is a pure classic. The story is an actor’s dream to play one of the characters of the poignant and crucifying Russian play, which was first on stage in 1896.
The cast is brilliant with four very strong actresses including Saoirse Ronan, Annette Bening, Elizabeth Moss, and Mare Winningham.
The movie follows an aging actress named Irina Arkadina, played by Annette Benning, who spends her summers visiting with her brother Pjotr Nikolayevich Sorin, played by Brian Dennehy, and her son Konstantin, played by Billy Howle, on a country estate.
On one occasion, she brings Trigorin, a successful novelist, played by Corey Stoll, with her. Nina, played by Saoirse Ronan, a free and innocent girl on a neighboring estate, falls in love with Trigorin.
As Trigorin lightly consumes and then rejects Nina, so the actress, Arkadina, all her life has consumed and rejected her son, who loves Nina. The victims are destroyed while the sophisticates continue on their way.
If you are familiar with Chekov’s play, you know the ending of the four-act play. I doubt the movie will be as long.
The movie trailer is very good and shows the conflict between the Nina, Irina, Trigorin, and Konstantin. The supporting cast, such as Elizabeth Moss, appears to offer comic relief. Moss’ last line in the trailer is an awesome delivery.
