14 July 2009

Trailers: Brothers, Coco avant Chanel, & An Education

Yay, trailers:

1) A new film by writer/director Jim Sheridan (My Left Foot [1989], In America [2003]), Brothers looks to be an intimate film that struggles with the sometimes explosive (see photo above) ramifications of the "widow's love triangle" (i. e., the resultant situation of a supposed widow's romantic entanglement with another man after her husband turns out not to have died). This triangle, in this edition of the tale, is pointed by the nimble actors Jake Gyllenhaal, Tobey McGuire (at his very gauntest), and Natalie Portman. With this cast, I for one am grateful that there is new fodder for the end of this year in film, which was honestly looking a bit patchy.

2) Coco avant Chanel, a film which seems rather like the runner-up after its recent filmic compatriot-predecessor La Vie en Rose (2008) as well as its even more recent televisual dopplegängerm Lifetime's Coco Chanel (2008), features Audrey Tautou as the well-known and much-revered couturière early in her life, before "she become Chanel." Though it could be an interesting jaunt into the life of this pillar of fashion's history, it seems to me to be more like a desultory walk, with nowhere really to go even though there may be occasionally instances of beauty along the way. Time will tell.

3) This third trailer is perhaps the most interesting of this little grouping, precisely because it attempts none of the pomp, bombast, station, or estimation that may be present in the other two that precede it. Rather, it is a quiet little piece, filled by a cast of actors who are not not-so-subtle end-of-the-year--award---hopefuls but who may yet still be on the receiving end of such-awards--related nominations. Particularly, the screenplay and the featured young actress (i. e., Carey Mulligan, who coincidentally appears in Brothers [i. e., film #1, above]) could be particularly worth the watch. This (film) is An Education.

Reviews to come as the films début.

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