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<\/p>\nLet the games begin! The Oscars will be handed out on March 10 next year but campaigning began with a bang in Venice this week – and simultaneously across the ocean at the Telluride festival in Colorado.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a four dimensional and very expensive game of chess at the best of times, with screenings, suppers, armies of publicists and carefully placed media stories in play as everyone jockeys to get their film and their actor up on the stage at the Dolby Theatre.<\/p>\n
This year though, with everyone\u2019s hackles raised by the actors\u2019 and writers\u2019 strikes, the signs are that it\u2019s going to be a dirty fight.<\/p>\n
Emma Stone\u2019s sensational turn as the uninhibited Bella Baxter in the Yorgos Lanthimos film Poor Things \u2014 premiered at both festivals \u2014 has her as an early favourite to be named Best Actress for the second time (after La La Land in 2017).<\/p>\n
Lanthimos, who directed The Favourite with Olivia Colman, is also expected to be nominated for his wildly original film \u2014 adapted from a book by Scottish author Alasdair Gray.<\/p>\n
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Emma Stone\u2019s sensational turn as the uninhibited Bella Baxter in the Yorgos Lanthimos film Poor Things has her as an early favourite to be named Best Actress<\/p>\n
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The picture contains over a dozen explicit sex scenes and a huge amount of foul language<\/p>\n
The picture contains over a dozen explicit sex scenes and a huge amount of foul language.<\/p>\n
Lanthimos chuckled when I asked him about the sheer quantity of bonking and said: \u2018Why isn\u2019t there more sex in all movies?\u2019<\/p>\n
Director Ed Berger, an Oscar winner last year for All Quiet On The Western Front said: \u2018I\u2019ve never seen anything like that before. It blows my mind.\u2019<\/p>\n
But some have been sucking their teeth over Emma Stone who \u2014 despite the actors\u2019 strike \u2014 showed up in Telluride.<\/p>\n
She was careful not to attend any promotional events and pointed out that she did so \u2018on her own dime\u2019 with the humble objective of watching new movies . . . but some feel that it was inappropriate to do even that, while negotiations remain deadlocked and heated.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile an anti-Poor Things whispering campaign has started, with some saying that the use of the word \u2018retard\u2019 early on in the movie is problematic \u2014 as is Stone\u2019s depiction of Bella in the initial period, after her brain has been swapped with that of her unborn baby. We shall see if that controversy takes off.<\/p>\n
Stone\u2019s nearest competition for the best actress Oscar will likely be Annette Bening, 65, whose new film Nyad premiered in Telluride. The movie tells the story of marathon swimmer Diana Nyad, who swam from Cuba to Florida at the age of 64. Bening, Oscar-nominated four times but never a winner, would be a sentimental favourite.<\/p>\n
But stand by for the backlash . . . or should that be backsplash. On the day of the premiere, the LA Times published an investigation into Nyad which suggested she exaggerated her achievements, possibly had assistance with her swims and even told falsehoods. The swimmer admitted telling untruths to the paper and expressed her regrets.<\/p>\n
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Annette Bening as Diana Nyad and Jodie Foster as Bonnie Stoll in NYAD<\/p>\n
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German actress Sandra Huller is in the running for Zone Of Interest (pictured), a powerful film set in Auschwitz, and Anatomy Of A Fall, a stunning courtroom drama<\/p>\n
It was clinically timed. Spinners for the film are saying that voters should separate the flaws of the character from the achievements of the film.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile German actress Sandra Huller is in the running for Zone Of Interest, a powerful film set in Auschwitz, and Anatomy Of A Fall, a stunning courtroom drama.<\/p>\n
Hitherto a complete unknown, I\u2019m told Huller is now being looked after by a Hollywood publicist \u2014 and she just made the cover of The Hollywood Reporter, which ran a long and flattering piece about her.<\/p>\n
Last year an eruption came just before the ceremony when the Academy investigated the campaign which landed micro-movie To Leslie a nomination for the performance of its lead, British actress Andrea Riseborough.<\/p>\n
I hope they are ready for a busy period between now and March.<\/p>\n
Actor Bradley Cooper is being widely hailed for Maestro, the Netflix film about conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein, which had its premiere in Venice and attracted glowing reviews, despite nearly being overshadowed by a row over Cooper\u2019s prosthetically-enhanced nose.<\/p>\n
Cooper (pictured) produced, wrote, directed and stars in the picture, which comes out on November 22 \u2014 and his talents don\u2019t stop there. Yannick Nezet-Seguin, the Canadian conductor who was a consultant on the film, praised the star\u2019s conducting, saying that Cooper had learned to imitate Bernstein\u2019s freestyle method of handling the baton.<\/p>\n
Cooper even played the piano for real in the movie. Bernstein\u2019s daughter Jamie commented: \u2018He\u2019s quite a musician.\u2019<\/p>\n
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Sweeney is no shrinking violet and this week also appeared writhing around on the back of a car for a Rolling Stones music video<\/p>\n
One of the talking points in Venice \u2014 so to speak \u2014 was the return of the silent film star. There were plenty of glamorous stars in Venice for the film festival this year… but none of them wanted to speak, lest they be deemed to have breached the actors\u2019 strike, which has been going on since mid-July.\u00a0<\/p>\n
White Lotus and Euphoria star Sydney Sweeney and Stranger Things actress Sadie Sink both went to the huge Armani fashion show and party \u2014 the starriest of the festival \u2014 and Sweeney was seen grooving away to a set by British DJ Mark Ronson.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sweeney is no shrinking violet and this week also appeared writhing around on the back of a car for a Rolling Stones music video.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Also at the Armani bash was actress Jessica Chastain, who is in Venice promoting the film Memory. The film has an interim agreement which allows actors exemption from the strike. It premieres tonight.\u00a0Sources indicate that she flip-flopped over coming until the last minute.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Penelope Cruz was going to come, to bang the drum for Ferrari this week, but then cited personal reasons for staying away. Actor Adam Driver was one of the few to make the trip to the Lido.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Adam Driver has irritated some Italian actors by winning the roles of Maurizio Gucci in House Of Gucci in 2021, followed by Enzo Ferrari in the forthcoming film Ferrari (pictured).\u00a0<\/p>\n
Actor Pierfrancesco Favino quipped: \u2018The Guccis had a New Jersey accent, didn\u2019t you know?\u2019 He added: \u2018There\u2019s this idea of cultural appropriation. I don\u2019t understand how actors like Toni Servillo, Adriano Giannini and Valerio Mastandrea are not being cast in these roles. Instead, they\u2019re going to non-Italian actors who use these exotic accents. Why can an American play an Italian?\u2019<\/p>\n
Actor Bradley Cooper is being widely hailed for Maestro, the Netflix film about conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein, which had its premiere in Venice and attracted glowing reviews, despite nearly being overshadowed by a row over Cooper\u2019s prosthetically-enhanced nose.<\/p>\n
Cooper (pictured) produced, wrote, directed and stars in the picture, which comes out on November 22 \u2014 and his talents don\u2019t stop there. Yannick Nezet-Seguin, the Canadian conductor who was a consultant on the film, praised the star\u2019s conducting, saying that Cooper had learned to imitate Bernstein\u2019s freestyle method of handling the baton.<\/p>\n
Cooper even played the piano for real in the movie. Bernstein\u2019s daughter Jamie commented: \u2018He\u2019s quite a musician.\u2019<\/p>\n
Director Wes Anderson has become almost a part of the Dahl family. He said this week that he got to know Roald\u2019s widow Liccy, as well as his children and grandchildren, while making the 2009 film Fantastic Mr Fox \u2014 and those relationships stood him in good stead when he was developing his film of Dahl\u2019s short tale The Wonderful Story Of Henry Sugar, which comes out on September 20.<\/p>\n
\u2018I\u2019ve known Luke (Dahl, Roald\u2019s grandson) since he was a little boy. He held the Henry Sugar story for me for years, as I loved it.\u2019<\/p>\n
By the time the film was made \u2014 with Ralph Fiennes as Roald Dahl and Benedict Cumberbatch as Henry Sugar \u2014 the author\u2019s works had been sold to Netflix, but Anderson (pictured in Venice) still let Luke know about the project. \u2018He was excited when I told him Ralph was going to be Dahl,\u2019 Anderson said.<\/p>\n
The 38-minute film puts Dahl\u2019s language at the forefront, and Anderson\u2019s filmed three more short stories: The Swan, Poison and The Rat Catcher.<\/p>\n
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‘Director Wes Anderson has become almost a part of the Dahl family’<\/p>\n
In director Woody Allen\u2019s new film, Coup de Chance, there are a number of scenes in which the villain of the piece \u2014 a wronged husband \u2014 is seen playing with a huge train set in his Paris apartment. The model railway takes up an entire room in the flat.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s an unusual motif and may cause some unease, because Allen\u2019s adopted daughter Dylan accused him of abusing her when she was seven years old . . . while she played with a train set in the attic of Mia Farrow\u2019s Connecticut house.<\/p>\n
Why Allen, 87, might choose to apparently refer, even tangentially, to the accusations that created such a storm \u2014 and which he has always strenuously denied \u2014 is a mystery.<\/p>\n
In 1991 his relationship with actress Mia Farrow broke up after it emerged that he was in a sexual relationship with Soon-Yi Previn, Mia\u2019s 21-year-old adopted daughter.<\/p>\n
A vicious custody battle ensued, in which Mia won custody of the three children she shared with Woody: Satchel (who now goes by his middle name Ronan), Moses (a boy) and Dylan (a girl).<\/p>\n
Allen married Soon-Yi (pictured with him in Venice) in 1997 and they have adopted two daughters, Bechet and Manzie, who accompanied him on the red carpet.<\/p>\n
Caleb Landry Jones, who was Banshee in X-Men: First Class, astonished many by speaking with a Scottish accent in Venice, even though he is from Texas.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Landry Jones, promoting Luc Besson\u2019s oddity Dogman, said he is preparing for a new film and didn\u2019t want to \u2018break character\u2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos was not quite so at home north of the border. He referred to Willem Dafoe\u2019s accent in Poor Things as \u2018Glasgowan\u2019 and when told that the correct term is \u2018Glaswegian\u2019 sputtered: \u2018What! What the hell?!\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n