32nd Golden Raspberry Awards

AND THE “WINNER” IS… ADAM SANDLER!

The 32nd Golden Raspberry Awards or Razzies was a parodic award ceremony that was held on April 1, 2012 to honor the worst films of 2011. The nominations were announced on February 25, 2012. Taking a break from Razzie tradition of announcing both the nominees and winners before the Academy Awards functions by one day, it was decided in January of 2012 to delay both the Razzie nomination announcements and ceremony by several weeks in order for the actual Razzie ceremony to be held on April Fool’s Day. The actual nominations however, still had some connection to the Oscars ceremony, as they were announced the night before the Academy Awards were held.
Adam Sandler received a Razzie record 6 nominations as an individual and a total of 14 nominations for films he was involved with. “Jack and Jill” was nominated for twelve awards and won in every category, earning it the record for most Razzie wins (beating “Battlefield Earth”) and most wins in a single year (beating “I Know Who Killed Me”).
Note: Voting for Worst Screen Couple was not just determined by members of the Golden Raspberry Award Foundation. Voting for the award was opened up to the general public online and conducted by the website Rotten Tomatoes. A grand total of 35,117 votes were cast. More: http://www.razzies.com
Source: Wikipedia

THE “WINNERS”:

Worst Picture
Jack and Jill
Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star
New Year’s Eve
Transformers: Dark of the Moon
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1

Worst Director
Dennis Dugan – Jack and Jill & Just Go with It
Michael Bay – Transformers: Dark of the Moon
Tom Brady – Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star
Bill Condon – The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1
Garry Marshall – New Year’s Eve

Worst Actor
Adam Sandler – Jack and Jill (as Jack) and Just Go with It
Russell Brand – Arthur
Nicolas Cage – Drive Angry, Season of the Witch and Trespass
Taylor Lautner – Abduction and The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1
Nick Swardson – Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star

Worst Actress
Adam Sandler (as Jill) – Jack and Jill
Martin Lawrence (as Big Momma) – Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son
Sarah Palin – The Undefeated
Sarah Jessica Parker – I Don’t Know How She Does It and New Year’s Eve
Kristen Stewart – The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1

Worst Supporting Actor
Al Pacino (as himself) – in Jack and Jill
Patrick Dempsey – Transformers: Dark of the Moon
James Franco – Your Highness
Ken Jeong – Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son, The Hangover Part II, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, and Zookeeper
Nick Swardson – Jack and Jill and Just Go with It

Worst Supporting Actress
David Spade (as Monica) – Jack and Jill
Katie Holmes – Jack and Jill
The Underwear Model (Rosie Huntington-Whiteley) – Transformers: Dark of the Moon
Brandon T. Jackson (as Charmaine) – Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son
Nicole Kidman – Just Go with It

Worst Screen Couple
Adam Sandler and either Katie Holmes, Al Pacino or Adam Sandler – Jack and Jill
Nicolas Cage and anyone sharing the screen with him in any of his three 2011 movies – Drive Angry, Season of the Witch and Trespass
Shia LaBeouf and The Underwear Model (Rosie Huntington-Whiteley) – Transformers: Dark of the Moon
Adam Sandler and either Jennifer Aniston or Brooklyn Decker – Just Go with It
Kristen Stewart and either Taylor Lautner or Robert Pattinson – The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1

Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-off or Sequel
Jack and Jill (Remake/Rip-off of Ed Wood’s Classic Glen or Glenda)
Arthur
Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star (Rip-off of Boogie Nights and A Star Is Born)
The Hangover Part II
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1

Worst Screenplay
Adam Sandler, Ben Zook, Steve Koren and Robert Smigel – Jack and Jill
Adam Sandler, Allen Covert and Nick Swardson – Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star
Katherine Fugate – New Year’s Eve
Ehren Kruger Transformers: Dark of the Moon
Melissa Rosenberg The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1

Worst Screen Ensemble
Jack and Jill
Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star
New Year’s Eve
Transformers: Dark of the Moon
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1

The Birth of Venus

I dedicate this post to my friend Lima Verde

“The Birth of Venus” (in Italian: Nascita di Venere) is a 1486 painting by Sandro Botticelli. It depicts the goddess Venus, having emerged from the sea as a fully grown woman, arriving at the sea-shore (which is related to the Venus Anadyomene motif). The painting is held in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.

The iconography of “The Birth of Venus” is very similar to a description of the event (or rather, a description of a sculpture of the event) in a poem by Angelo Poliziano, the “Stanze per la giostra”. Written between 1475-8, the poem includes a fictional description of reliefs cast by Vulcan for the doors of the Temple of Venus. It would seem likely that Botticelli would have known this text when he painted his Birth of Venus. In any case, both Poliziano and Botticelli were working in the context of the Medici court in Florence. Cosimo de Medici established a Platonic Academy modelled on the classical example of Plato’s own Akademia. In describing the imagined reliefs cast by Vulcan, Poliziano was employing a literary form that became popular in the Late Antique world known as ekphrasis, where one artistic form emulates another artistic form. The relationships of the arts, most specifically painting and poetry, was related to a famous dictum in Horace’s Ars Poetica, “ut pictura poesis,” or literally “As painting so is poetry.” This comparison and rivalry between painting and poetry was an important way artists tried to elevate their status above the manual arts. The following is an excerpt from Angelo Poliziano’s poem “Stanze per la giostra”:

XCIX 99
In the stormy Aegean, the genital member is
 seen to be received in the lap of Tethys, to drift
 across the waves, wrapped in white foam, be-
 neath the various turnings of the planets; and
 within, both with lovely and happy gestures, a
 young woman with nonhuman countenance, is
 carried on a conch shell, wafted to shore by
 playful zephyrs; and it seems that heaven re-
 joices in her birth.

C 100
You would call the foam real, the sea real, real
 the conch shell and real the blowing wind; you
 would see the lightning in the goddess’s eyes,
 the sky and the elements laughing about her; the
 Hours treading the beach in white garments, the
 breeze curling their loosened and flowing hair;
 their faces not one, not different, as befits sisters.

CI 101
You could swear that the goddess had emerged
 from the waves, pressing her hair with her right
 hand, covering with the other her sweet mound
 of flesh; and where the strand was imprinted by
 her sacred and divine step, it had clothed itself
 in flowers and grass; then with happy, more than
 mortal features, she was received in the bosom
 of the three nymphs and cloaked in a starry gar-
 ment.

CII 102
With both hands one nymph holds above the
 spray-wet tresses a garland, burning with gold
 and oriental gems, another adjusts pearls in her
 ears; the third, intent upon those beautiful
 breasts and white shoulders, appears to strew
 round them the rich necklaces with which they
 three girded their own necks when they used to
 dance in a ring in heaven.

CIII 103
Thence they seem to be raised toward heav-
 enly spheres, seated upon a silver cloud: in the
 hard stone you would seem to see the air trem-
 bling and all of heaven contented; every god
 takes pleasure in her beauty and desires her hap-
 py bed: each face seems to marvel, with raised
 eyebrows and wrinkled forehead.

CIV 104
Finally the divine artisan formed his self-portrait,
 happy with such a sweet prize, still bristly and
 scabrous from his furnace, as if forgetting every
 labor for her, joining his lips with desire to hers,
 as if his soul burned completely with love: and
 there seems to be a much greater fire kindled
 within him than the one that he had left in
 Mongibello.

The model for Venus in this painting has traditionally been associated with Simonetta Vespucci – who had been a muse for Botticelli,  and was seen as the model for female beauty throughout Florence – especially for the Medici family for whom this painting had been created. There is added credence to this suggestion from the fact that she was born in the Ligurian fishing village of  PortoVenere – called Port of Venus because there was a little Temple to Venus there from 1st Century BC. The other model for the pose of Venus in the painting was possibly the Medici Venus – a first century BC statue depicting Aphrodite in a Venus pudica pose. It is actually a marble copy  of an original bronze Greek sculpture,  that Botticelli would have has an opportunity to study whilst visiting the sculpture school or the Platonic Academy which flourished at the family home of the Medici in Florence.

The unusual feature of Botticelli’s early paintings is that they are based on mythologies, not religious paintings – which at the time must have itself been something of a shock to people outside the Neoplatonic, Humanist circle of friends of the Medici. Botticelli’s early style was to create visual poetry, unlike Ghirlandaio and even his own teacher Fra Filippo Lippi, he was not trying to construct space within the picture frame and he made no attempt to model solid three dimensional people; instead his figures float flatly on the front of the picture against a decorative landscape backdrop with their form defined by a thin outline. The story of “The Birth of Venus” is well described below by a Homeric hymn but it’s relevance to the painting is disputed as the poem was only published, by the Greek refugee Demetrios Chalcondyles, in Florence in 1488 – five years after the painting was completed as a wedding gift for Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de’ Medici in 1483.

Of august gold-wreathed and beautiful
Aphrodite I shall sing to whose domain
belong the battlements of all sea-loved
Cyprus where, blown by the moist breath
of Zephyros, she was carried over the
waves of the resounding sea on soft foam.
The gold-filleted Horae happily welcomed
her and clothed her with heavenly raiment.

In 1989, English director Terry Gilliam, inspired by the Botticelli painting, made a beautiful scene in his movie “The Adventures of Baron Munchausen” where actress Uma Thurman plays Venus and Oliver Reed plays his husband Vulcan.

The professional photographer Alex Vanzetti also inspired by the painting made the amazing photography below:

Who lives in a clamshell above of the sea? From pop artist Elen Ameli Lin: “Botticelli’s little bit changed picture Birth of Venus. Sophie is Venus, SpongeBob is Zephyr, Sandy is his wife, and Patricia – is Horae.”

Read more about The Birth of Venus: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Birth_of_Venus_(Botticelli)
Read the poem “Stanze per la giostra”: http://natey.com/poliziano/book1.html

Sharon Tate

SHARON TATE

Sharon Tate, January 24, 1943 – August 9, 1969

Sharon Marie Tate was born in Dallas, Texas, the eldest of three daughters, to Colonel Paul James Tate (1922-2005), a United States Army officer, and his wife, Doris Gwendolyn (1924-1992). During the 1960’s she played small television roles before appearing in several films. After receiving positive reviews for her comedic performances, she was hailed as one of Hollywood’s promising newcomers and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for her performance in “Valley of the Dolls” (1967). She also appeared regularly in fashion magazines as a model and cover girl. Married to film director Roman Polanski in 1968, Sharon Tate was eight and a half months pregnant when she was murdered in her home, along with four friends, by followers of Charles Manson.

THE FEARLESS VAMPIRE KILLERS

In 1963 Sharon was introduced to Martin Ransohoff, director of Filmways, Inc., who signed her to a seven-year contract, but kept her under wraps until he felt she was ready to appear in substantial film roles. “Mr. Ransohoff didn’t want the audience to see me till I was ready”, Sharon was quoted in a 1967 article in Playboy magazine. She continued to gain experience with minor television appearances, until late 1965 when Ransohoff finally gave Sharon her first major role in a motion picture in the film “Eye of the Devil”, co-starring David Niven, Deborah Kerr, Donald Pleasence, and David Hemmings. Sharon was dating Jay Sebring, a former sailor who had established himself as a leading hair stylist in Hollywood. Much of the filming took place in France, and Sebring returned to Los Angeles to fulfill his business obligations. After filming, Sharon remained in London where she immersed herself in the fashion world and nightclubs. Around this time she met Roman Polanski.

Sharon Tate and Polanski later agreed that neither of them had been impressed by the other when they first met. Polanski was planning “The Fearless Vampire Killers”, which was being co-produced by Ransohoff, and had decided that he wanted the red-headed actress Jill St. John for the female lead. Ransohoff insisted that Polanski cast Sharon, and after meeting with her, he agreed that she would be suitable on the condition that she wore a red wig during filming.

The company traveled to Italy for filming where Sharon Tate’s fluent Italian proved useful in communicating with the local crew members. A perfectionist, Polanski had little patience with the inexperienced Tate, and said in an interview that one scene had required seventy takes before he was satisfied. In addition to directing, Polanski also played Alfred, one of the main characters, a guileless young man who is intrigued by Sarah Shagal, Sharon Tate’s character, and begins a romance with her.

The film is set in the heart of Transylvania where Professor Abronsius, of the University of Königsberg, and his apprentice Alfred are on the hunt for vampires. Abronsius is old and withering and barely able to survive the cold ride through the wintry forests, while Alfred is bumbling and introverted. The two hunters come to a small Eastern European town seemingly at the end of a long search for signs of vampires. The two stay at a local inn, full of angst-ridden townspeople who perform strange rituals to fend off an unseen evil. Whilst staying at the inn, Alfred develops a fondness for Sarah, the daughter of the tavern keeper Yoine Shagal.

After witnessing Sarah being kidnapped by the local vampire lord, Count von Krolock, the two follow his snow trail, leading them to Krolock’s ominous castle in the snow-blanketed hills nearby. They break into the castle, but are trapped by the Count’s hunchback servant, Koukol. Upon being taken to see the count, he affects an air of aristocratic dignity whilst he cleverly questions Abronsius about why he has come to the castle. They also encounter the Count’s son, the foppish (and homosexual) Herbert. Meanwhile, Shagal himself has been vampirized and sets on his plan to turn Magda, the tavern’s beautiful maidservant and the object of his lust while he was still human, into his vampire bride.

Despite misgivings, Abronsius and Alfred accept the Count’s invitation to stay in his ramshackle Gothic castle, where Alfred spends the night fitfully. The next morning, Abronsius plans to find the castle crypt and kill the Count, seemingly forgetting about the fate of Sarah. The crypt is guarded by the hunchback, so after some wandering they climb in through a roof window. However, Abronsius gets stuck in the window; and it is up to Alfred to kill the Count, which he feels unable to do. He has to go back outside to free Abronsius, but on the way he comes upon Sarah having a bath in her room. She seems oblivious to her danger when he pleads for her to come away with him, and reveals that a ball is to take place this very night. After briefly taking his eyes of her, Alfred turns to find Sarah vanished into thin air.

After freeing Abronsius, who is half frozen, they re-enter the castle. Alfred again seeks Sarah but meets Herbert instead, who first attempts to seduce him and then, after Alfred realizes that Herbert’s reflection does not show in the mirror, reveals his vampire nature and attempts to bite him. Abronsius and Alfred flee from Herbert through a dark stairway to safety, only to be trapped behind a locked door on a turret. As night is falling, they become horrified witnesses as the gravestones below open up to reveal a huge number of vampires at the castle, who hibernate and meet once a year only to feast upon any captives the Count has provided for them. The Count appears, mocking them and tells them their fate is sealed. He leaves them to attend a dance, where Sarah will be presented as the next vampire victim.

However, the hunters escape by firing a cannon at the door by substituting steam pressure for gunpowder, and come to the dance in disguise, where they grab Sarah and flee. Escaping by horse carriage, they are now unaware that it is too late for Sarah, who awakens in mid-flight as a vampire and bites Alfred, thus allowing vampires to be released into the world.

Read more about the film on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fearless_Vampire_Killers.

As filming progressed, Polanski praised her performances and her confidence grew. They began a relationship, and Sharon moved into Polanski’s London apartment after filming ended. Jay Sebring traveled to London where he insisted on meeting Polanski. Although friends later said he was devastated, he befriended Polanski and remained Sharon Tate’s closest confidante. Polanski later commented that Sebring was a lonely and isolated person, who viewed Tate and himself as his family.

MARRIAGE AND DEATH

In late 1967, Sharon Tate and Roman Polanski returned to London, and were frequent subjects of newspaper and magazine articles.

Sharon was depicted as being untraditional and modern, and was quoted as saying that couples should live together before marrying. They were married in Chelsea, London on January 20, 1968 with considerable publicity. Polanski was dressed in what the press described as “Edwardian finery,” while Sharon was attired in a white minidress. The couple moved into Polanski’s mews house off Eaton Square in Belgravia.

Photographer Peter Evans later described them as “the imperfect couple. They were the Douglas Fairbanks/Mary Pickford of our time… Cool, nomadic, talented and nicely shocking.”

In the summer of 1968, Sharon Tate began her next film, “The Wrecking Crew” (1969), a comedy in which she played Freya Carlson, an accident-prone spy, who was also a romantic interest for star Dean Martin, playing Matt Helm. She performed her own stunts and was taught martial arts by Bruce Lee. The film was successful and brought Sharon strong reviews, with many reviewers praising her comedic performance. Her career was beginning to accelerate and for her next film, Sharon negotiated a fee of $150,000. She became pregnant near the end of 1968, and on February 15, 1969 Sharon and Polanski moved to 10050 Cielo Drive in Benedict Canyon.

Encouraged by positive reviews of her comedic performances, Sharon chose the comedy “The Thirteen Chairs” as her next project, as she later explained, largely for the opportunity to co-star with Orson Welles.

She returned from London to Los Angeles, on July 20, 1969, traveling alone on the Queen Elizabeth 2. Polanski was due to return on August 12 in time for the birth. On August 8, 1969, Sharon was two weeks from giving birth. She entertained two friends, actresses Joanna Pettet and Barbara Lewis, for lunch at her home, confiding in them her disappointment at Polanski’s delay in returning from London. In the afternoon Polanski telephoned her. Her younger sister Debra also called to ask if she and their sister Patti could spend the night with her, but Sharon declined.

In the evening she went to her favorite restaurant, El Coyote, with Jay Sebring, Wojtek Frykowski (playboy) and Abigail Folger (coffee empire heiress). The group would then return to her home at 10050 Cielo Drive at about 10:30 p.m. During the night, they were murdered by members of Charles Manson’s “family” and their bodies discovered the following morning by Sharon’s housekeeper, Winifred Chapman. Police arrived at the scene to find the body of a young man, later identified as Steven Parent, shot dead in his car, which was in the driveway. Inside the house, the bodies of Sharon Tate and Jay Sebring were found in the living room; a long rope tied around each of their necks connected them. On the front lawn lay the bodies of Frykowski and Folger. All of the victims, except Parent, had been stabbed numerous times. The coroner’s report for Tate noted that she had been stabbed sixteen times, and that “five of the wounds were in and of themselves fatal”.

Read more on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharon_Tate wikipedia
Visit Sharon Tate Official Site: http://www.sharontate.net/index.html

SEE ON YOUTUBE:
THE KIDNAPPED BATHROOM SCENE FROM “THE FEARLESS VAMPIRE KILLERS”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meQ5SvLQ5nI
ALFRED FINDS SARAH FROM “THE FEARLESS VAMPIRE KILLERS”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SidDWfESBPQ
THE DANCE SCENE FROM “THE FEARLESS VAMPIRE KILLERS”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAXVDH_1q_M
A TRIBUTE TO SHARON TATE:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcqH16O5tng

PHOTO GALLERY:

Rita Hayworth

THERE NEVER WAS A WOMAN LIKE RITA

Rita Hayworth, October 17, 1918 – May 14, 1987

Rita Hayworth (born Margarita Carmen Cansino) was an American film actress and dancer who attained fame during the 1940s as one of the era’s top stars. She appeared in 61 films over 37 years and is listed as one of the American Film Institute’s Greatest Stars of All Time. Read more on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rita_Hayworth.

GILDA

“Gilda” (1946) contains the most famous role and peak performance of WWII’s GI “love goddess,” the beautiful, alluring, and provocative, red-haired pin-up Rita Hayworth – with her sleek and sophisticated eroticism, lush hair and peaches and cream complexion. Director Charles Vidor lavished admiration on her in this film, helping her to reach her apotheosis as the reigning Hollywood 40s love goddess with this immortal role. Film posters cried: “There NEVER was a woman like Gilda!”

Hayworth’s most famous scene is the seductive striptease (to the tune of Put the Blame on Mame) when she only removes long black satin gloves from her arms. Rita Hayworth’s life was forever affected by her role, as she once reportedly said: “Every man I knew had fallen in love with Gilda and wakened with me.”

The film-noirish screenplay by Marion Parsonnet (and adapted by Jo Eisinger), was taken from an original story by E. A. Ellington. The complex, eccentric, cynical tale was in keeping with the prevailing attitudes of the American post-war era, playing upon US political paranoia of German-Nazi war criminals who escaped and assumed new identities in South America. [Another similar plotline is found in Hitchcock’s Notorious (1946). The film’s themes include implied impotence, misogyny and homosexuality, although only suggested with liberal euphemisms and innuendo to bypass the Production Code. The semi-trashy crime drama is also known for the erotic strains of the strange, tawdry, aberrant romantic triangle (menage a trois) between the three main characters. Read more: http://www.filmsite.org/gild.html.

In the movie “Gilda”, Rita wears a black strapless dress made in satin by Jean Louis, Columbia Pictures costume designer, who collaborated with the actress in nine films from the 1945 until 1959. Louis is considered “an essential ingredient in the formula that created the image of Rita Hayworth.”

Other sources:
Gilda on IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038559/
Gilda on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilda

SEE RITA FIRST SCENE IN GILDA ON YOUTUBE:

SEE RITA’S PUT THE BLAME ON MAME FROM GILDA ON YOUTUBE:

SEE RITA WITH FRED ASTAIRE “I’M OLD FASHIONED” FROM 1942 MOVIE YOU WERE NEVER LOVELIER ON YOUTUBE:

Enjoy the Rita Hayworth gallery.

Carl and Ellie – A Love Story

“Up” is a 2009 American computer-animated comedy-adventure film produced by Pixar, distributed by Walt Disney Pictures and presented in Disney Digital 3-D. The film premiered on May 29, 2009 in North America and opened the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, becoming the first animated and 3D film to do so. The film was director Pete Docter’s second film, the first being 2001’s “Monsters, Inc.”, and features the voices of Edward Asner, Christopher Plummer, Bob Peterson, and Jordan Nagai. It is Pixar’s tenth feature film and the studio’s first to be presented in Disney Digital 3-D.

Young Carl Fredricksen is a shy, quiet boy who idolizes renowned explorer Charles F. Muntz. He is saddened to learn, however, that Muntz has been accused of fabricating the skeleton of a giant bird he had claimed to have discovered in Paradise Falls, Venezuela, South America, and the organization fires him. Muntz needed a plan to clear his name. So he vows to return to Paradise Falls to capture the bird alive, and he will not return until he does. One day, Carl befriends an energetic and somewhat eccentric tomboy named Ellie, who is also a Muntz fan. She confides to Carl her desire to move her “clubhouse”—an abandoned house in the neighborhood—to a cliff overlooking Paradise Falls, making him promise to help her.

Carl and Ellie eventually get married and grow old together in the restored house, working as a toy balloon vendor and a zookeeper, respectively. When they are told by a doctor that they are unable to have children together, they repeatedly pool their savings for a trip to Paradise Falls, but end up spending it on more pressing needs. An elderly Carl finally arranges for the trip, but Ellie suddenly becomes ill and dies, leaving him alone.

Some time later, Carl still lives in the house, now surrounded by urban development, but he refuses to sell. He ends up injuring a construction worker over his damaged mailbox. He therefore is evicted from the house by court order due to them deeming him a “public menace”, and is ordered to move to a retirement home. However, Carl comes up with a scheme to keep his promise to Ellie: he turns his house into a makeshift airship, using thousands of helium balloons to lift it off its foundation. A young member of the “Wilderness Explorers” (a fictional youth organization analogous to the Boy Scouts of America) named Russell becomes an accidental passenger, having pestered Carl earlier in an attempt to earn his final merit badge, “Assisting the Elderly”. Source: Wikipedia.

See Carl & Ellie A Love Story Video, from “Up” on YouTube and know one of 1001 reasons why we love Pixar Animations Studios. Enjoy and drop a tear if you wish. Or click here to see another video version on YouTube.