GABRIEL

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"Revenge should have no bounds."

(William Shakespeare, Hamlet)

BLACKIE

"While I have been extremely heartened by the reception of my movie "Hugo", I feel that there is one area where we've been severely slighted. I have been cautioned against speaking out on this issue lest I create the appearance of churlishness. Well, I'm going to have to risk it.

One recent morning, I turned on the television, and imagine my surprise when I heard the nominations for the first Golden Collar Awards for Best Dog in a Theatrical Film. After all, we had Blackie the Doberman in our movie. How could she not be nominated? I listened in vain for Blackie's name to be called, and then to all the hullabaloo over a certain Jack Russell terrier named Uggie. Actually, Uggie is so adorable that he received two nominations for two separate pictures. Well done.

OK, let's lay all our cards on the table. Jack Russell terriers are small and cute. Dobermans are enormous and — handsome. More tellingly, Uggie plays a nice little mascot who does tricks and saves his master's life in one of the films, while Blackie gives an uncompromising performance as a ferocious guard dog who terrorizes children. I'm sure you can see what I'm driving at.

We all have fond memories of Rin Tin Tin and Lassie, the big stars, the heroes, but what about the antiheroes? We have learned to accept the human antihero, but when it comes to dogs, I guess we still have a long way to go.

I'm proud of Blackie, who laid it on the line and dared to risk the sympathy of her audience. Let's just say that on the set, she had a fitting nickname: Citizen Canine. The bath scene alone is a masterpiece of underplaying, with Blackie's wonderfully aquiline face accentuated by the 3-D.

I detect another, more deep-seated prejudice at work. Jack Russell terriers were bred in the 19th century for the purposes of fox hunting by an Englishman, the Rev. John Russell. Dobermans were bred by a German tax collector who was afraid of being bludgeoned to death by the citizenry. But does that mean we must condemn the entire breed? Must we forget the magnificent physical achievements of such legendary Dobermans as Bingo von Ellendonk (who achieved a perfect score in the storied Schutzhund competition), Borong the Warlock, Baracuda Liborium or Caravelle Drillbit?

In short, I protest the omission of Blackie the Doberman from the first Golden Collar nominations. Moreover, I encourage all Times readers to make their preference known to the editors of Dog News Daily by write-in ballot and give Blackie the nomination she so richly deserves."

(MARTIN SCORSESE)

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Nominada A Los Golden Collar Award
Por Mejor Perro

Dedicado a Neo

THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO

"The road is littered with people who have been lucky enough to play characters that the public identifies with them for many, many years. The best example I think is Vivien Leigh… you can’t really give a performance much better than Blanche DuBois, yet she’s still Scarlett O’Hara. That’s a tricky thing to explain to a 25-year-old. In the same way that The Social Network made it hard for people to see Rooney as Lisbeth, Lisbeth is going to make it hard for people to see her as anyone else.”

(DAVID FINCHER)

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Fotografías: Jean-Baptiste Mondino

LA SANGRE ES MÁS DULCE QUE LA MIEL: DANIEL CRAIG

Fotografía: Jean-Baptiste Mondino

THE 2012 OSCAR INJUSTICES:

The nominees who should-have-been at the 84th Academy Awards

Drive for Best Picture

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We accept that not everyone has recognised the godlike genius of Nicolas Winding Refn’s LA noir. It’s even possible that some people – whisper it quietly – found it all a bit slow and mysterious, and didn’t much like the bit where ‘Him from the Notebook’ turned that elevator an interesting shade of head. But we’re confident they’ll come around one day. Sadly, it'll be too late for Academy members who will rue its omission forever. After all, a nod for Drive might finally have made the Academy look cool, hip and in touch with the kids. Instead, they nominated Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. So there you go.

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Kirsten Dunst for Best Actress

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Lars von Trier’s Cannes diatribe meant that he could have made Battleship Potemkin, Citizen Kane and Forrest Gump this year and still been overlooked by the Academy. If the controversy tarnished the film in the eyes of voters – and, let’s be honest, namedropping Hitler hasn’t won anyone Hollywood brownie points recently – it’d pretty rough on Kirsten Dunst. She’s magnetic in a hugely challenging role that calls on her to carry a film while lookingly catatonically at a giant planet. Think Armageddon with Patrick Moore, with Dunst as Patrick Moore.

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The Adventures Of Tintin for Best Animation

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It’s increasingly difficult to define what’s an animated film and what’s not. Tintin was performance captured, so it seems unfair on the likes of Daniel Craig, Jamie Bell and Andy Serkis to call it such – and yet, when it comes down to it, Tintin has to be an animated film. Just ask BAFTA voters. Animators have always used live performance as a basis for their work; the only difference being that it's usually the animators doing the acting, not name stars. And in a year where so-so spin-offs like Puss In Boots can nab a nomination, it’s crazy that an exceptionally well-made, entirely delightful movie like Tintin can’t beat Kung Fu Panda 2 into the top five – even if, admittedly, it doesn’t feature Gary Oldman as a kick-ass peacock.

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The Skin I Live In for Best Foreign Film

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It’s a minor surprise that Pedro Almodovar’s The Skin I Live In still hasn’t picked up an Oscar nod to go with its BAFTA nomination. The Spaniard has previous form in the category, having won for All About My Mother back in 1999, and his wonderfully macabre body horror is all kinds of terrific. Still, with Iranian drama A Separation is garnering huge amounts of buzz among the brainy arthouse crowd, the category is looking like a foregone conclusion. Then again, we said that about A Prophet.

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Excerpt from Empire Magazine article

A STORY OF LOYALTY & SPIES

"For me, this film is much more about human values and betrayal of friendship and loyalty rather than a documentary about the Cold War. Maybe it wouldn’t have been possible to do this film this way back then. Maybe people would have thought it would be too emotional, or they wouldn’t understand it if it was made in ’73. People might would’ve wanted something more true to reality."

(TOMAS ALFREDSON)

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GEORGE SMILEY: __I want to talk about loyalty, Toby. Control recruited you, didn't he? He found you starving in a museum in Vienna, a wanted man. He saved your life, I heard. And yet, when the time came... when it came to picking sides between him and Allenine, you didn't hesitate. It's understandable, perhaps, with your war experience. You survived this long, I suppose, because of your ability to change sides, to serve any master.

TOBY ESTERHASE: __What's... what's this about, George? GEORGE SMILEY: __It's about which master you've been serving, Toby.

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FELICES FIESTAS

Hemos robado a las Galerías Lafayette de París al protagonista de su magnífica campaña (rockera) navideña -Bowie no estaba para estos trotes- para desearos a todos unas Felices Fiestas de cine (rock 'n mode) junto a todos los vuestros.

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UN ABRAZO!!!

FELIZ HALLOWEEN

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Fotografía: PEDRO WALTER

FAYE DUNAWAY, IMAGEN DE CANNES 2011

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Faye Dunaway © photo by Jerry Schatzberg

Artwork: H5 (M. Lelièvre, B. Parienté)