Day: September 11, 2017

Oscar-winning actress Angelina Jolie says she never intended to step behind the camera, but traveling around the world for the United Nations opened her eyes to the conflicts that have inspired many of her most recent films.

“I never thought I could make a movie or direct,” Jolie told an audience at the Toronto Film Festival on Sunday, which is screening her Cambodian genocide film “First They Killed My Father” and Afghan film “The Breadwinner.”

Jolie said her first major film as a director, the 2011 Bosnian war drama “In the Land of Blood and Honey,” was prompted by her humanitarian work as a special envoy for the United Nations refugee agency.

“I wanted to learn more about the war of Yugoslavia. I had been in the region and traveling in the UN. It was a war I really couldn’t get my head around. … It was not a goal to become a director,” she said.

“The Breadwinner,” an animated film that she produced, is about a young Afghan girl who cuts her hair and poses as a boy in order to feed her family.

It “tells the sad reality of many girls having to work and not go to school,” said Jolie, who has made several trips to Afghanistan. “The people I have met over the years are truly my heroes.

The nice thing about being a director is to champion other people,” Jolie added.

Jolie said “First They Killed My Father,” was inspired by wanting to learn more about the history of Cambodia, the birthplace of her son Maddox, one of her six children.

She said she wanted “Maddox to learn about himself as a Cambodian in a different light.”

The film, which was screened in Cambodia earlier this year, tells the story of a young girl during the country’s 1970s genocide who is forced into the countryside to toil in rice paddies and then take up arms as a child soldier.

Jolie, 42, who won a supporting actress Oscar for “Girl, Interrupted” in 2000, shrugged off her status as a role model for women.

“I have a lot to learn and need role models myself,” she said.
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President John F. Kennedy’s granddaughter and Caroline Kennedy’s daughter Tatiana Schlossberg has gotten married at the family’s Martha’s Vineyard home.

The New York Times reports the 27-year-old Schlossberg married 28-year-old George Moran on Saturday with former Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick officiating. The couple met in college at Yale. Schlossberg was an environmental reporter for the Times until July. Moran is a medical student at Columbia University.

Schlossberg is Caroline Kennedy’s second child. She has an older sister, Rose, and a younger brother, Jack. They are President Kennedy’s only grandchildren. He was assassinated just before Caroline Kennedy’s sixth birthday in November 1963.

Kennedy served as ambassador to Japan under former President Barack Obama until earlier this year.
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Cardi B. has a breakthrough hit with “Bodak Yellow (Money Moves)” and the rapper said she’s ready to follow the single’s success with an album next month.

“I have an album coming. It will be dropping in October. I’m an October baby,” Cardi B., who turns 25 on Oct. 11, said in a recent interview. “I’m a little nervous to put the project out, but I think it’s going to be pretty good.”

Cardi B. said she’s nervous because there’s “a lot of pressure on” her after the success of “Bodak Yellow,” which is currently No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, just under Taylor Swift’s comeback hit “Look What You Made Me Do” and the year’s biggest smash, Luis Fonsi’s “Despacito.”

“Everybody’s waiting to see what I’m going to have next and it’s like, ‘…I hope people love it,’ ” she added. “But I have confidence. I really do.”

“Bodak Yellow” has become a No. 1 hit on both the R&B and rap charts, and is one of the year’s most streamed songs. The New York-born rapper, who first gained attention on Instagram, appeared on the VH1 reality show “Love & Hip Hop” before the song’s massive success. The song has helped her become one of the few solo female acts to launch a major hit on the pop charts, which has recently been dominated by male performers for the last two years.

“It feels amazing and it’s overwhelming. It’s like, it fills me up with lot of happiness and a lot of joy,” she said. “It’s just like unbelievable. I’ve been through so many things and I worked so hard for me to be here, and it’s like I’m finally here getting what I wanted, (and getting) the respect from other artists and from everybody.”

One of those artists is Beyonce.

“I’m surprised Beyonce liked me,” Cardi B. squealed. “I met Beyonce!”

“It’s like, ‘Oh my God!’ That’s how it feels like. I can’t talk, I can’t breathe,” she added.

When asked what female rappers she’d like to work with, Cardi B. said: “Well, all of them.” She listed Lil Kim, Trina and Remy Ma as some of her idols.

Cardi B. said she’s been finding time to treat herself in between studio recordings, concerts and photo shoots.

“The first splurge that I did I bought like an $80,000 watch but that’s because I’m a rapper. I need jewelry,” she said, laughing.

 
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Renowned French-Lebanese film director Ziad Doueiri appeared before a military court in Beirut Monday to face questions about his role in a past movie project in neighboring Israel. Lebanon bans its citizens from travel to Israel or having business dealings with Israelis as the two nations are in a state of war.

Doueiri was briefly detained at Beirut’s Rafic Hariri airport late Sunday and his passports confiscated after arriving in Lebanon to promote a new movie that received critical acclaim at the Venice Film Festival recently.  Following his release, Doueiri’s lawyer reportedly told media assembled outside the court that Doueiri had been freed following several hours of investigation and given back his travel documents.

At issue was the earlier film, The Attack, which was released in 2012.  The Attack, about a suicide bombing in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv, was filmed in part in Israel and banned in Lebanon.

Profoundly hurt

In a statement to the French news agency before his appearance in court, Doueiri said, “I am profoundly hurt.  I came back to Lebanon with a prize from Venice.  The Lebanese police have authorized the broadcast of my film (The Insult).  I have no idea who is responsible for what has happened.”

Doueiri had flown from the Venice Film Festival, where The Insult, his fourth film, had won the Coppa Volpi best actor prize for Palestinian actor Kamel El Basha.  The Insult is set in Beirut and focuses on the escalation of a minor argument between a Palestinian refugee and a Lebanese Christian.

Doueiri was offered the support of Lebanon’s culture minister, Ghattas Khoury, following the brief detention.  “Ziad Doueiri is a great Lebanese director and that has been honored across the world,” Khoury tweeted, before adding, “Respecting and honoring him is a duty.”

Doueiri, however, angered many Lebanese when the earlier movie, The Attack, was released.

Unpredictable approach

According to Ayman Mhanna, director of Lebanon-based free speech NGO SKeyes, Doueiri’s appearance in court was symptomatic of an unpredictable approach within the government regarding the director’s time in Israel.

Although Mhanna “did not question” the laws preventing Lebanese visits to Israel, he told VOA that Doueiri had visited Lebanon numerous times without repercussion.

The government’s response was “chaotic” and “destabilizing,” he added, with one part of it endorsing Doueiri and another seeking to detain him. Mhanna noted that the Ministry of Culture recently backed Doueiri’s latest film, The Insult, to represent Lebanon in the foreign film category at next year’s Academy Awards in the United States.

Meanwhile, the trying of civilians in military courts has also attracted criticism.

A report by Human Rights Watch earlier this year highlighted the use of such courts to try civilians involved in protests against the Lebanese government’s handling of the country’s waste crisis.

Bassam Khawaja, of Human Rights Watch, told VOA, “Regardless of detentions being brought, Doueiri should not be tried in a military court.

“Unfortunately military courts are still used in Lebanon to try civilians on a broad range of charges, in violation of their due process rights and international law.

“These trials largely take place behind closed doors, with limited grounds for appeal, and it is difficult to see how he would get a fair trial there.”

Long history

There is a a long history of perceived moments of Israeli acknowledgment or collaboration drawing swift rebuke in Lebanon, which was first invaded by its southern neighbor in 1978.

In May, global box office hit Wonder Woman was barred from Lebanese theaters because it starred former Israeli army soldier Gal Gadot.  Last month, Swedish-Lebanese dual citizen Amanda Hanna was stripped of her title Miss Lebanon Emigrant after those behind the event discovered she had visited Israel using her Swedish passport in 2016.

Doueiri is one of the most acclaimed Lebanese directors of his generation.  He first made a name for himself with Lebanese civil war classic West Beirut, which was released in 1998.

He began his career as first camera assistant for Quentin Tarantino on the director’s films Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, and Jackie Brown.
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Kristen Bell says she’s “singing in a hurricane” while riding out Irma in Florida.

The “Frozen” star is in Orlando filming a movie and staying at a hotel at the Walt Disney World resort. She stopped by an Orlando middle school that was serving as a shelter and belted out songs from “Frozen.” Back at the hotel, Bell posted pictures on Instagram of her singing with one guest and dining with a group of seniors .

Bell also helped out the parents of “Frozen” co-star Josh Gad by securing them a room at the hotel .

Bell tells Sacramento, California, station KMAX-TV, where her father is news director, that the experience is her version of one of her favorite movies, “Singin’ in the Rain.”

 
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Miss North Dakota, a 23-year-old who said President Donald Trump was wrong to pull the United States out of the Paris climate accord, was named Miss America 2018 Sunday night in Atlantic City.

Cara Mund topped a field of 51 contestants to win the crowd in the New Jersey seaside resort, where most of the 97 Miss Americas have been selected.

In one of her onstage interviews, Mund said Trump, a Republican, was wrong to withdraw the U.S. from the climate accord aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming.

“It’s a bad decision,” she said. “There is evidence that climate change is existing and we need to be at that table.”

In an interview with The Associated Press before preliminary competition began, Mund, who lives in Bismarck, North Dakota, said her goal is to be the first woman elected governor of her state.

She said she wants to see more women elected to all levels of government.

“It’s important to have a woman’s perspective,” Mund, who had an internship in the U.S. Senate, told the AP. “In health care and on reproductive rights, it’s predominantly men making those decisions.”

The first runner up was Miss Missouri Jennifer Davis; second runner up was Miss New Jersey Kaitlyn Schoeffel; third runner up was Miss District of Columbia Briana Kinsey, and fourth runner up was Miss Texas Margana Wood.

Earlier Sunday, as a deadly hurricane was slamming her home state, Miss Florida Sara Zeng sent a message of support to those in harm’s way _ and was then eliminated from the competition.

As judges were narrowing the field of 51 contestants (each state plus the District of Columbia), they interviewed Zeng, a 22-year-old from Palm Coast, Florida, who noted that her family is safe.

But she expressed concern and support for friends and strangers endangered by Hurricane Irma, which was tearing its way up the Florida gulf coast on Sunday.

“I’m thinking about everyone in Florida every single day, but I know that regardless what happens, we’ll all get through this together,” Zeng said.

Shortly after her speech, judges read the names of the remaining Top 15 finalists, which did not include her.

Earlier in the week, Miss Texas Margana Wood gave a shout-out to her flooded hometown, Houston; she won Wednesday night’s swimsuit preliminary.

Zeng won Friday’s swimsuit prelim, and promised she’d be part of the post-Irma cleanup and recovery effort, whether as Miss America or not.

The competition took place at Atlantic City’s Boardwalk Hall, where it originated as a way to extend summer tourism to the weekend after Labor Day.

They were vying to succeed the outgoing Miss America Savvy Shields, who won the title last September as Miss Arkansas.
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The kind of breakthrough performance where it’s immediately apparent that an actor is going to be a star for years to come is a rarity in movies. Think of Emma Stone in “Easy A” or Jessica Chastain in “The Tree of Life.”

But that kind of thunderbolt moment is striking now for 21-year-old Timothee Chalamet, a New Yorker with the talent to speak multiple languages, play numerous instruments and take the festival circuit by storm with a handful of performances  — including one assured of ranking among the finest performances of the year.

The Toronto International Film Festival has been a coming out party for Chalamet, who has three films at the festival. He stars in Luca Guadagnino’s coming-of-age, coming-out tale “Call Me By Your Name,” he’s a supporting player in Greta Gerwig’s equally lauded coming-of-age tale “Lady Bird,” and he co-stars in the Christian Bale-led Western “Hostiles.” A Cape Cod thriller in which he stars, “Hot Summer Nights,” was also acquired here by A24.

But the headliner is his performance in “Call Me By Your Name,” which Sony Pictures Classics will release Nov. 24. In the film, adapted by James Ivory from André Aciman’s novel, Chalamet plays Elio, a headstrong 17-year-old living with his parents in 1980s northern Italy. When a handsome academic (Armie Hammer) comes to stay with them, Elio has a self-discovery that mingles love with art, language and natural beauty.

In the film, he plays piano and guitar, speaks fluent French and Italian, and indelibly captures the experience of first love. The film and its cast are considered likely Academy Awards contenders, partly because of Chalamet’s uncommon poise and wide-ranging intelligence in a deeply sensual movie.

“It feels like a real seminal moment,” said Chalamet in an interview. “I feel like the luckiest guy in the world that I get to share it with Luca and Armie and Michaels Stuhlbarg. I’m obviously very young and I’ve had a short career, but I’ve never been a part of anything like this.”

“He’s being excessively humble,” Hammer cuts in. “He’s the man of the year here at TIFF and we’re just riding his coattails.”

Though the two are separated by a decade in age and experience, they’ve become close friends, drawn closer by the intimacy of making “Call Me By Your Name” in the meadows, cafes and villas of Crema, Italy, where Guadagnino lives.

“He’s a very difficult dude to hate,” Hammer said.

What Chalamet lacks in vanity, those around him make up for in their praise for him.

“Not to sound pompous, but the guy is kind of a genius,” said Guadagnino, the Italian filmmaker of “I Am Love.” “He has a capacity for understanding human nature instinctively that’s astonishing. It’s also naive in a way, because he’s young, but also very focused. The cinema is at its best when it can present a new personality in the world.”

Chalamet doesn’t come out of nowhere. He’s appeared on stage, earning a Drama League Award nomination for John Patrick Stanley’s “Prodigal Son.” He was a regular on “Homeland” and played smaller roles in films like Christopher Nolan’s “Interstellar” and Jason Reitman’s “Men, Women and Children” — his screen debut.

“I have been working for a number of years,” says Chalamet. “I just graduated from theater high school in New York. I went to LaGuardia so I’m very close to the reality that lot of actors work rarely.”

Chalamet’s mother was a Broadway dancer and his French father works for UNICEF. He credits them for pushing him into piano lessons and taking him on trips to France.

He recently shot a father-son drama, “Beautiful Boy,” in which he plays a methamphetamine-addicted son to Steve Carell. After making “Call Me By Your Name,” he shot his scenes for “Lady Bird,” in which he plays the alluring love interest of Saorsie Ronan’s high-school senior.

“To have those films back-to-back, and they contrast so heavily, it helps you understand filmmaking,” said Chalamet. “There’s the truth to every moment that you have to bring to every scene, but you have to understand the tonality the film before you begin, which isn’t something that’s instinctual to me.”

Chalamet will have plenty of practice to get accustom to that adjustment. He’s also to star in Woody Allen’s next, untitled film. But whatever lies ahead for Chalamet, making “Call Me By Your Name” will remain an experience he long treasures.

“I miss the sense of belonging somewhere,” he says. “I miss the sense of belonging on a film as much as I did on ‘Call Me By Your Name.”’
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