2009

www.montepictures.net
 www.montepictures.net
CONTENTS
Highlights Best Actresses of the 1950s . . . . . . .3
Judy Holiday
Steven Martin, Alec Baldwin Vivien Leigh. . . . . . . .4
Shirley Booth
to co-host the Oscars Audrey Hepburn. . . . . . .5
Grace Kelly
Anna Magnani. . . . . . . 6
The 82nd Academy Awards Ingrid Bergman
ceremony on March 7, 2010 Joanne Woodward. . . . . . . 7
Susan Hayward
Simone Signoret. . . . . . . 8
The Stars and their Muses. . . . . . . 9
The Vampire Chronicles. . . . . . . . .10
History Interview with the Vampire
30 Day of Night. . . . . . .11
Monte Pictures was originally founded by Javier Serrano From Dusk till Dawn
in 2007. Monte Pictures is the subject to the founder’s Nosferatu . . . . . . 12
passion: to establish a film company. At this time, Dracula
Monte Pictures runs independently through monthly Twilight. . . . . . . 13
newsletters composed by the founder and his editor-in- Review: New Moon . . . . . . 14
chief Julia Wieczorek. Contacts Movie Reviews. . . . . . . .15
Se7en
Copyrights Javier Serrano, A.A. The Wedding Banquet . . . . . . . 16
Founder – MONTE PICTURES The Band’s Visit
© 2009 Monte Pictures Newsletter. We acknowledge all Email: info@montepictures.net Heavenly Creatures. . . . . . . 17
photography, images, and icons are subjected to their Phone: (619) 450-3638 EOTM: Shohreh Aghdashloo . . . . 18
original owners. Monte Pictures was created to express, James Cameron’s Avatar. . . . . . . 19-20
entertain and educate members of Monte Pictures the Julia Wieczorek
variety of film selections available. We do not sell our Executive Editor – MONTE PICTURES
newsletters nor accept donations of any kind; we are Email: info@montepictures.net “This newsletter is dedicated to
neither a corporation nor a non-profit organization. you, the reader!”
 “Best Actresses
of the 1950s”

Email: info@montepictures.net Phone: (619) 450-3638 Web: www.montepictures.net

 4 MONTE PICTURES© Newsletter

Born Yesterday
Dir. George Cukor; 1950 A Street Car Named Desire
Starring: Judy Holiday, Dir. Elia Kazan; 1951
William Holden Starring: Vivien Leigh;
Marlon Brando

Judy Holiday is known absolutely for her Best Actress Oscar-winning

What a film! A Street Car Named Desire features some of the finest
performance in Born Yesterday, where her image as a loud, uneducated ensemble acting ever offered on the screen. The film opens with
and annoying girlfriend seems to be pretentious. Harry Brock, played by Blanche, played by Vivien Leigh (most notably as Scarlett O’Hara in
Broderick Crawford, comes to Washington to buy himself some
1939, Gone with the Wind) arriving in New Orleans, where she intends
senators. He brings his girlfriend Billie Dawn, played by Judy Holiday, to stay with her pregnant sister Stella, played by Kim Hunter in her
along with him. Though he is embarrassed at her drinking, profanity, Oscar-winning performance. Stella’s husband Stanley, played by Marlon
and lack of intelligence, he hires the suave and handsome Paul, Brando in a controversial, yet screen classic performance, is utterly
played by William Holden, to brilliant as a working-class hunk
smarten her up. Of course, they who conveys his physical and sexual
fall in love. And of course, it potency of a performance that definitely
turns out Billie is smarter than makes the character work. He becomes
she looks and acts. The film is infuriated with Blanche and sets out to
definitely slow from the start reveal the truth about her secret. Elia
but it makes up for it when Judy Kazan’s direction, however, sometimes
Holiday appears on screen, that verges elsewhere like recreating the
is why she won the Best Actress Broadway staging. Fortunately, the actors Vivien Leigh
Oscar beating out heavy
favorites Anne Baxter and Bette are what truly define this film, especially Vivien Leigh, where at the end
Davis in All About Eve and of the film she struggles emotionally which is by far her best performance
Judy Holiday
Gloria Swanson in Sunset Blvd. she has ever given. A Street Car Named Desire became the first and only
film to-date to garner three Oscars in the acting categories for Leigh,
Therefore the film is witty, entertaining and most definitely brilliant Hunter and Karl Malden.
when it comes to the amazing performances.
5 MONTE PICTURES© Newsletter

Roman Holiday
Come Back, Little Sheba Dir. William Wyler; 1953
Dir. Daniel Mann; 1952 Starring: Gregory Peck, Audrey
Starring: Shirley Booth, Burt Hepburn
Lancaster

Roman Holiday remains a favorite for all lovers of romantic comedies.

Come Back, Little Sheba is such a Hollywood melodrama of the Princess Ann, played by the adorable and fashion icon Audrey
1950s. The film stars Burt Lancaster as Doc Delaney, an Hepburn, is representing an unnamed European country on a
alcoholic trapped in an unhappy marriage. His wife Lola, played continental tour. Her latest stop is Rome, Italy, and where she has
by Shirley Booth, was a college fling, where she got pregnant, but taken an emotional meltdown. When her secretary confronts her
lost the baby after they married. Lola measures herself by her schedule for the next day, she has a fit and dazes into hysteria. The
failure to interest him, yet often acts childish. doctor arrives minutes later and gives Ann a shot to calm her down.
In her drugged state, she slips out of the palace and into the city,
Delaney blames her for ruining
where she poses as a drunk and homeless girl. Reporter Joe Bradley,
her career. Added to this
mixture is an attractive young Played by the handsome Gregory Peck, finds
student who boards with them her on a bench and feels guilty so he takes
(Terry Moore) and becomes a her back to his small apartment. The next
surrogate child. Come Back, morning, Mr. Bradley discovers the identity
Little Sheba is painfully real and of his mysterious guest and begins plotting
not fun to watch. However, an exclusive story of the situation. However,
purposely hopeful ending both Ann and Joe spend the entire day in
hints at the possibility of the imperial city of Rome where his affection
reconciliation not for sake of a for his companion grows. There has been
feel-good ending, but because speculation that Roman Holiday was Audrey
in real life people often get Hepburn’s film debut, which is entirely false.
second chances. Shirley Booth However, this was the film that launched Audrey Hepburn
Audrey Hepburn into Hollywood, and of course, garnered an Oscar for
Best Actress.
 6 MONTE PICTURES© Newsletter
The Country Girl
Dir. George Seaton; 1954
Starring: Grace Kelly, Bing
Crosby, William Holden
In this 1954 film, two of Hollywood's greatest stars give what might be their
best performances. Bing Crosby plays a pathological liar and alcoholic
whose second chance at fame on Broadway is too much for him to take.
Grace Kelly plays his long-suffering wife, who has helped him through ten
years of failure and emotional abuse. William Holden rounds out the
starring cast as a hotshot director who seems abnormally determined to give
Crosby a second chance. His single-minded devotion to the idea of proving
the rest of the New York theater crowd wrong inadvertently leads to the
major conflict of the film, the tensions among the three leads.
Grace Kelly was practically unrecognizable,
and was completely believable as the
harried wife of Bing Crosby's alcoholic
character. It is a testament to her skill as an
actress that the most glamorous woman in
Hollywood could pull off playing this thirty-
something, weary, and suspicious plain
Jane. This was among her last films; a year
later, she headed off to become Princess
Grace of Monaco. She won Best Actress,
Seaton won Best Screenplay, and the film Princess Grace Kelly
was nominated for several others, including
Best Picture, Director, and Actor (Crosby).
The Rose Tattoo
Dir. Daniel Mann; 1955
Starring: Anna Magnani,
Burt Lancaster
The 1950s conservative ideology and its emphasis on middle class
domesticity were particularly evident in the changes made in
transferring stage plays to the big screen. In the process, these plays
suffered immensely as a result of the strict impositions of the
Production Code. The heroine of Tennessee Williams’ The Rose
Tattoo, Serafina Della Rose, played by Italian Anna Magnani, in an
Oscar-winning performance, is an Italian born seamstress, transplanted
from Sicily to Florida's Gulf Coast. After the death of her small-time
smuggler of a husband, she turns into a recluse, keeping his ashes in a
vase in her shanty parlor. Serafina is contrasted
with Rosa, played by Marisa Pavan, her naive
teenage daughter, who's experiencing her first
love. At fifteen, Rosa claims she is ready for
marriage and motherhood. Daniel Mann's film
version of The Rose Tattoo scaled down the raw
sexuality and passion, which defined the
original play and made it controversial. The
Hollywood minder, softer touch diffused
Williams’ criticism of conventional morality
and the kind of sexuality allotted to him by
Anna Magnani
mainstream culture.
 7 MONTE PICTURES© Newsletter

Anastasia
Dir. Anatole Lutvak; 1956
Starring: Yul Brynner, Ingrid Bergman
The Three Faces of Eve
After being blacklisted, due to her desertion Dir. Nunnally Johnson; 1957
of husband Petter Lindstrom and their Starring: Joanne Woodward,
daughter Pia and subsequent affair with David Wayne
Italian director Roberto Rossellini, Ingrid
Bergman received her second Best Actress
Oscar for her big comeback Hollywood
performance. Bergman plays the title role, an
Joanne Woodward's performance in the title role is pretty much the
amnesiac refugee chosen by scheming conman General Bounine, played
only reason to see the film today; mental illness has been handled with
by Yul Brynner as the woman to be passed off as the last surviving
much more grace in the years since. Woodward deftly handles the
daughter of Tsar Nicholas and Alexandra of Russia Up to a point; Anatole
difficult task of running through three characters: At first she's Eve
Litvak's picture blends skillfully mystery, romance, and melodrama-
White, a troubled and plain young woman, and soon enough Eve
Hollywood style. In Arthur Laurent’s' script, based on a popular play by
Black, a bold hussy, comes to the forefront, doing battle with Eve
Marcelle Maurette and Guy Bolton, Russian exiles in Paris conspire to
White.
present someone as Anastasia, the daughter of Czar Nicholas in order to
collect the 10 million pounds held in her name by the Bank of England.
As her psyche continues to degenerate, a
General Bounine finds a destitute girl on
third identity, Jane, comes to the forefront.
the verge of suicide, takes her under his
Eve's psychiatrists are offered up as heroes
care and grooms her in all of Russian royal
and through a series of absurd hypnotisms
ways. In due process, in this Pygmalion-like
she eventually comes to grips with her past
saga, the more Bounine learns of her, the
abuse and, like that, gets well. The film
more he begins to believe that she is the
merited an Oscar for Woodward -- it would
real Anastasia. Mystery persists up until the
be one of the most notable films in which
end, when she is presented to the Russian
an actor earned the award for playing a
Empress, played by Oscar winner Helen
mentally ill character, but the film is
Hayes, who will identify her as "true" heiress
in a series of tests and rituals. Ingrid Bergman
surprisingly bereft of any other notable Joanne Woodward
qualities.
 8 MONTE PICTURES© Newsletter
I Want to Live!
Dir. Robert Wise; 1958
Starring: Susan Hayward
In Robert Wise’s black-and-white drama, I Want to Live! Susan Hayward
won the Best Actress Oscar for what's possibly her most famous role.
Hayward is cast as the real-life Barbara Graham, a tough, cynical amoral
woman, a victim of a broken home, who becomes the consort of criminals
and died in the California gas chamber for a murder some people believe
she did not commit. While at the women’s prison at Corona, more and
more people are beginning to believe that Barbara is innocent, pushing for
legal maneuvers to save her. Interviewed by the renowned psychologist, Carl
Palmberg, played by Theodore Bikel, she is
diagnosed as amoral and antisocial, even if
Palmberg is convinced that she did not kill. The
psychologist rallies the forces to her defense, and
in due time, even the reporter Ed Montgomery
(Simon Oakland), who led the smear campaign
against her, changes his mind and joins the
campaign to free her. In the end, all the appeals
for clemency and legal maneuvers fail and the
execution date is set for the third and final time.
Removed to the death house at San Quentin,
Barbara is executed at the age of 32. Susan Hayward
Room at the Top
Dir. Jack Clayton; 1959
Starring: Simone Signoret
Room at the Top set the tone
and lured adult viewers back
into the theaters, thanks to its
frank treatment of sexuality and candidly mature dialogue. The movie
broke new grounds in realistic dialogue, sexual frankness and indictment
of class-consciousness. Despite being grounded in the era's socio-economic
and class distinctions of British society, Room at the Top has withstood the
test of time, largely because of Simone Signoret's work, which was
acknowledged with the Best Actress Oscar against all odds. Giving one of
his strongest performances, emerging star Laurence Harvey plays Joe
Lampton, the film's ruthless anti-hero, hoping to move beyond his
working-class origins. Arriving at a bleak Yorkshire industrial town, Joe
secures a low-paying job as a government accountant, but soon realizes
that professional skill won't bring social status.
Joe then begins an affair with Alice Aisgill
(Signoret), an actress and married woman ten
years his senior. Room at the Top is one of the
few pictures in which the hero winning to love's
fortune makes for an unhappy ending giving
one of the great performances of all time,
Signoret deservedly and unexpectedly won the
Oscar. The fact that Signoret won the Best
Actress Oscar was a big surprise, considering
her known leftist politics and standing in the
industry. Simone Signoret
 9 MONTE PICTURES© Newsletter
Spain’s Penelope Cruz and Pedro Almodovar Denmark’s Anna Karina and Guy Godard

The Stars
and their
Muses

China’s Gong Li and Zhang Yimou America’s Diane Keaton and Woody Allen
The Vampire Chronicles:
The 5 Best Vampire Films of All Time
 11 MONTE PICTURES© Newsletter

30 Days of Night #4
Dir. David Slade; 2007
Interview with the Vampire Starring: Josh Harnett; Melissa George
Dir. Neil Jordan; 1994
Starring: Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise #5
The vampire has been a powerfully
tenacious movie villain for the past
Director Neil Jordan perfectly century or so, and every once in a
captures the threatening beauty of while there comes a new flick that
New Orleans after midnight. The adds some much-needed creativity to
movie draws you in and enfolds you the classic creature. David Slade's 30
in a thick fog of menace. Jordan is a Days of Night, which is based on the
master of poetic, deceptive graphic novel by Steve Niles, and is
atmosphere; just watch his Oscar- one of the roughest, toughest, and
winning film The Crying Game. At the most novel vampire stories you're likely
same time, he isn't afraid to break the to come across.
spell with a shocking image.
Here's the concept that's so simple it's almost genius: An Alaskan town is
This is perhaps Tom Cruise's best work since Born on the Fourth of July,
beset by vampires. The surviving humans must do all they can to survive
and not just because he plays a villain. Rice's idea was to tell the story
the month. Our hero is the young-but-tough local sheriff, played by Josh
through the eyes of a more "innocent" vampire – Louis, played by Brad
Hartnett, who does all he can to save as many townsfolk as possible, and
Pitt, a depressed young man who can't accept the bottom line of
protect not only his little brother, but also his estranged wife.
vampirism. Louis forms a fatherly bond with Claudia, played by
Kirsten Dunst in a chilling performance, the little girl he initiates into
vampirism. Together, they flee to Paris. The stars of the film: Josh
Hartnett, Melissa George, Ben
Interview with the Vampire could be a Foster deliver some fine
little tighter. The seemingly performances. 30 Days of Night
indestructible Lestat keeps popping is a blissfully mean-spirited and
up in various stages of decay, and aggressively creepy terror tale,
Jordan doesn't do enough with the and one that's not content to
vampiric code that states thou shalt simply rest on its one good
not kill other vampires. Kirsten Dunst concept. Josh Hartnett
 12 MONTE PICTURES© Newsletter

From Dusk till Dawn #3 Nosferatu #2

Dir. Robert Rodriguez; 1996 Dir. F. W. Murnau
Starring: George Clooney, Quentin Starring: Max Shreck, Gustav von
Tarantino Wangenheim

Quentin Tarantino and George In the realm of vampire films, this

Clooney are a couple of ruthless 1922 silent is the original mother lode.
bank robbers who take Reverend No one since has matched vampire
Keitel and his children hostage and Max Schreck's creepy loathsomeness.
set off across the border to Mexico Director Murnau's German
where all they have to do is last from Expressionistic compositional touches
dusk till dawn in a seedy nightclub in delineate the story's visceral drama.
order to make good their escape. Though diminished by decades of pop-

horror incarnations, the vampire remains uniquely evocative of both dread

This Tarantino-scripted thriller turned vampire flick has an intrinsically
and fascination, horror and seductiveness. Monsters from werewolves to
low-budget feel, and seems a little uncomfortable about getting the high-
Freddy Krueger may frighten, but neither victims nor audience are drawn to
budget treatment. Yet a lot of fun can be had with the sharp-witted
them. By contrast, the vampire suggests the horror of evil working on our
dialogue, and the tributes to what seems like most films Tarantino has
disordered passions. Though, the film’s
ever seen.
production is infamous for an unauthorized
adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Nosferatu
Robert Rodriguez directs with limited made few concessions to copyright beyond
direction, as if he has no ambition, name and place changes: Count Dracula
however, his gruesome special effects is became Count Orlock, played by Max
what defines his specialty in Schreck, Jonathan Harker became Thomas
filmmaking craftsmanship. Hutter, played by Gustav von Wangenheim,
Mina Harker became Ellen Hutter, played by
Greta Schröder, and scenes set in England Max Schreck
George Clooney and Quentin were moved to Bremen, Germany.
Tarantino
 13 MONTE PICTURES© Newsletter

Dracula
Dir. Tod Browning; 1931
Starring: Bela Lugosi #1
Ladies fainted when Bela Lugosi rose
from his coffin as a vampire in the 1927
Broadway production of Dracula that
preceded Tod Browning's brilliant 1931
film version that had an equally chilling
effect on movie audiences. Playwright
Hamilton Deane based his lean script Kristen Stewart as Bella
on Bram Stoker's famous novel, and
introduced horror to the era of sound Twilight
film. Dir. Catherine Hardwicke; 2008
Starring: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson
For his well-established part, Lugosi is positively blood-curdling as he
stalks every scene with his thick native Hungarian accent and dapper Adapted from the first novel in Stephanie Meyer's wildly popular
tuxedo and cape. Dracula is more than a milestone of cinematic horror; series, Twilight is a quiet and conspicuous smudge of a movie, wherein
it represents a marriage of nightmare and reality that establishes an a human girl, Stewart's Bella Swan, moves to a rainy Washington State
American gothic sensibility for other dramatic genres that followed. town and encounters a strange boy, Edward Cullen, played by Robert
Stark, cold, and deeply sensual, Dracula's atmosphere and intention is Pattinson. Edward is obsessed with Bella the minute he lays his color-
rooted in a fear of unknown lust and desire from which there can be no changing eyes on her, because he can read everyone else's mind but
escape. To view "Dracula" is to be bitten by the vampire's desperate hers. Oh, yes, did we also mention, he's a vampire.
attack. Not by any means the masterpiece of
The gifted director Catherine Hardwicke (Thirteen, Lords of Dogtown)
fond memory or reputation, although the
approaches Twilight as another portrait in her gallery of teen angst. She
first twenty minutes are astonishingly fluid
doesn't go at the film as the first in a likely lucrative franchise; she
and brilliantly shot by Karl Freund, despite
makes it a Catherine Hardwicke film, convincing in small, everyday
the intrusive painted backdrops. However,
details. She doesn't quite know what to do with the supernatural
Lugosi's first words: 'I...am...Dracula' will
elements, which always seem to throw off the tone, though the scenes
definitely be forever imprinted in
of Edward taking Bella on a hop between various high trees are nicely
everyone’s mind after watching this film.
Bela Lugosi accomplished. In the end Edward must protect Bella from the bad
vampires, but also from himself.
 14 MONTE PICTURES© Newsletter

New Moon
Dir. Chris Weitz; 2009
Starring: Kristen Stewart, Taylor Lautner

Adapted from the second novel in Stephanie Meyer's wildly popular series, New Moon picks up where Twilight left off. Bella Swan (Kristen
Stewart), starts her senior year with her vampire boyfriend Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) by her side. While attending her 18th birthday
party at his house, which his sister Alice (Ashley Green) throws for her, Bella gets a paper cut that sends a drop of blood to the floor. Jasper
(Jackson Rathbone), Alice’s husband, being the newest vampire cannot control the thirst this causes and before he can attack Bella Edward
once again saves her life. For Edward this is too much, he breaks-up with Bella and the Cullens move away. Bella is left heartbroken and
severely depressed, but then there's Jacob (Taylor Lauter) who becomes Bella’s best friend. He helps her feel alive again and on her new
obsession: doing dangerous things, to which she only does because she hallucinates Edward being there. Jacob hides his own secret, he’s a
werewolf, and now the story becomes interesting as vampires and werewolves collide and Bella must choose to move-on with Jake or not. In the
end it is now Bella’s turn to save Edward when he makes a Romeo and Juliet-esque mistake in front of the evil law enforcers of the vampire
world, the Volturi.

Chris Weitz (The Golden Compass) is able to take the story Stephanie has created and meld the effects we were all hoping the first film would
give us. The newest cast members, the Volturi vampire coven and the Quileute werewolf pack, give us interesting performances, creepiness and
strength that sets up for the future films in the franchise. Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner carry the movie on their shoulders and it shows
how much they put into making it what it has become. Their performances are so full of emotion and real-life feeling that it is so easy to
envision being their shoes. The film, overall, was very well done and gave true justice to the book, something many films based on books fail to
accomplish.
MovieReviews
 16 MONTE PICTURES© Newsletter
Se7en
Dir. David Fincher; 1995
Starring: Morgan Freeman, Brad
Pitt
Dark, grim, claustrophobic, and scary, the serial killer
Se7en is David Fincher's second film. The movie depicts
the desperate efforts of two cops, well played by Morgan
Freeman and Brad Pitt, to stop an ingenious serial killer,
whose "art work" is inspired by the seven deadly sins. On
the surface, the film concerns the initially uneasy
relationship between the world-weary veteran cop William
Somerset, played by Morgan Freeman and the younger
cockier, easily irritable newcomer David Mills, played by
Brad Pitt. That said the movie is brilliant in defying and
playing against viewers expectations. It's not a typical male
buddy-buddy picture, and it's not graphically violent.
Indeed, rather than showing the act of killing, the film
shows the effects. Discovering the aftermath of these
crimes is scarier than actually witnessing them. Moreover,
the film’s style is not realistic but expressionistic with
nearly surreal visual scheme and ambiguous tonality. The
entrance of Kevin Spacey, who plays the deranged killer
John Doe, is nothing short of shocking, violating the
rules of most serial killer procedurals by revealing the
killer's identity mid-way. Up to this point, Doe has evaded
his capture. But now, with his arms raised, walking into
the police station in broad daylight, he gives himself up.
The Wedding Banquet
Dir. Ang Lee; 1993
Starring: Winston Chao
The sharply observed The Wedding Banquet, Ang Lee's best film to date, is
a madcap comedy about a marriage of convenience between a gay
Taiwanese-American and a Chinese woman in need of American
citizenship. The movie examines the primacy of the individual within a
culture that worships authority and rewards conformity, a society in
which tradition carries the weight of generations. Tapping the resources
of his homeland and adopted country, Lee's film conveys with humor his
ambivalence about that heritage. Wei Tung, played by Winston Chao, a
successful businessman, has hidden his homosexuality from his
Taiwanese parents who're desperate to
have grandchildren. His yuppie lover
Simon, played by Mitchell Lichtenstein
suggests a marriage of convenience to Wai
Wai, played by May Chin, a struggling
artist who'll do anything to get a green
card. When Wei's parents unexpectedly
arrive from Taiwan, they lament the
impersonal civil-service ceremony. Finally,
he gives in to their demands for a more
lavish and traditional wedding. Lichtenstein and Chin
 17 MONTE PICTURES© Newsletter

The Band’s Visit

Dir. Eran Kolirin; 2007
Starring: Ronit Elkabetz Heavenly Creatures
Dir. Peter Jackson; 1994
Starring: Kate Winslet,
When we speak of conflicts Melanie Lynskey
between people or ideologies,
there’s a tendency for broad
categorization. Who are the
liberals or the conservatives?
Every once in a while a film appears that is so audacious in its narrative,
What type of people make up the Israelis or Palestinians? Who are the
so startling in its visual style, so emotionally disturbing, that one gets
people of color and who are white? These lines are becoming blurred,
excited again over the possibilities of the film medium to tell interesting
and underneath it all, it boils down to familiar humanity. Who’s going to
stories in a radically new way. This was my initial reaction after seeing
reach out to demonstrate that? Perhaps writer and director Eran Kolirin
in his brilliant Israeli film debut The Band’s Visit”. The story centers on Peter Jackson's Heavenly Creatures, the astounding film from New Zealand,
at the Toronto Film Festival. Set in l954, the movie is based on the true
a band of Egyptian police musicians in absurd matching blue uniforms
story of two bright teen-age girls from opposite poles of the social
anchored by longtime conductor Tawfiq played by Sasson Gabai. When
spectrum. A product of a poor, uneducated family, Pauline Rieper, played
they are invited to the opening of an Arab center in Israel, an errant bus
by Melanie Lynsky, is a shy, insecure girl, who's literally snapped out of her
ride from the airport gets them lost in a small town. An inconsequential
shell by the arrival at school of Juliet Hulme, played by Kate Winslet, a
diner becomes their refuge where owner Dina (Ronit Elkabetz) and her
flamboyant, self-assured English girl whose neglectful parents are self-
patrons offer overnight accommodations
absorbed careerists. As an account of true
until transportation arrives in the
events leading to a brutal murder, the film
morning. The subsequent interaction
is neither a thriller nor a docudrama of a
between these native dwellers and the
alien musicians divulges moments of tabloid crime. Instead, Jackson, assisted by
co-writer Frances Walsh, takes us deep
true affirmation. We see bittersweet and
into the psyches of two lonely, eccentric
beautiful emotions running throughout
the film. girls whose friendship goes beyond normal
Sasson Gabai affection into obsessive attachment-intense
physical and psychological passion. Winslet and Lynskey
18 MONTE PICTURES© Newsletter
Entertainer of the Month
Shohreh Aghdashloo
If we thought Hispanics, African-
Americans, Asian-Americans, etc.,
have it hard finding acting roles in
Hollywood, guess again! Shohreh
Aghdashloo, an Iranian born actor,
was perhaps regarded as Iran’s
leading lady of the 1970s. However,
during the 1979 Islamic Revolution,
Aghdashloo fled her native country
Iran for England in the year 1978,
where she completed her education
in International Relations.
In 1987, Aghdashloo moved to Los
Angeles to pursue her acting
ambition, though only snagging roles
of stereotype Iranian immigrants in
America. However, her biggest acting
acclaimed was in Vadim Perelman’s
2003 House of Sand and Fog, which
she garnered a Best Supporting Oscar
nomination making her the first and
only Iranian actor to be nominated
for an Academy Award.
Review: The Stoning of Soraya M
The movie was both brutal and
harrowing. The leading actresses:
Shohreh Aghdashloo and Mozhan Marn
deserve to win Oscars. The movie is set
in an isolated village in Iran, just after
the Khomeini revolution. A French
journalist played by Jim Caveizel, who
played Jesus Christ in Passion of Christ,
finds himself stuck there for a short time
after his car breaks down. A woman
named Zahra approaches him and sets
up a meeting to talk about the horrific
stoning of her niece Soraya that took
place the day before. The stoning scene is
more brutal than the crucifixion scene
from Passion of Christ. Grade: A ++
James Cameron’s Avatar
20 MONTE PICTURES© Newsletter

Zoe Saldana as Neytiri

Opens Dec. 18
Writer-director James Cameron is no stranger when taking big risks. Just watch
his most successful films like Terminator 2: Judgment Day, True Lies, Aliens, The
Abyss, Rambo II and his most famous film to-date: Titanic, which collected 11
Oscars, best director and picture, and becoming the highest-grossing movie in
cinema history. Avatar is Cameron’s first feature film since Titanic and is
already stirring buzz from the film’s enormous budget of $500 million.
Avatar is a groundbreaking combination of 3-D filmmaking, photo-realistic
computer animation and live-action drama. To observe Cameron directing
Avatar is to witness filmmaking as it has never been done before. While most
movies add all of their visual effects in post-production, Cameron was able to
see fully composited shots in real time: The actors he was directing may have
been performing in front of a blank green screen, but Cameron's camera
eyepiece - not to mention giant 3-D television monitors - immediately displayed
lush, synthetic backgrounds. Will James Cameron’s Avatar become his next
Titanic or will this be his last voyage?
A Monte Pictures© Newsletter/A Julia Wieczorek Editorial©