Guardian: Pretentious Moi? — Suffering With ‘Actor-Speak’

The Guardian’s Hadley Freeman:

“I have always been interested in what I call actor-speak – and when I say “interested”, I mean “intrigued in the way you might be by a man talking to himself, without having any desire to go over and engage him in conversation”. However, while I continue to march past muttering men on park benches, I am, thanks to my job, an unwitting expert on actor-speak, having spent many hours of my life listening to actors bang on about their “love of the craft” and “the thing about [insert name of director] – he takes you on an emotional journey”.

“Some may call this argument prejudicial, but those who do have never spent a morning with Helen Hunt, listening to her expound on her skills. This has nothing to do with lack of respect for actors; just a lack of respect for the language they learn – perhaps at acting school – to describe what they do.

“The New Yorker event sounded promising: its panel of pleasing scene-stealers included John Turturro and Joan Cusack. But when – just 10 minutes in – panel member and actor Richard Kind (you’ll know him, look him up), said actors do theatre “to nourish themselves”, I knew I’d made a grave tactical error. The verb “nourish” should only be used in a culinary context, and even then with restraint. (more…)

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Tags: Actor-Speak, Guardian, Helen Hunt, Joan Cusack, John Turturro
Posted Oct 23rd 2009 at 4:41 pm in Celebrity News | 25114227 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/bighollywood/2009/10/23/guardian-pretentious-moi-suffering-with-actor-speak/Guardian%3A+Pretentious+Moi%3F+--+Suffering+With+%27Actor-Speak%272009-10-23+23%3A41%3A17Big+Hollywood

DVD Review: ‘Do the Right Thing’ (20th Anniversary Edition)

Director Spike Lee’s third film, “Do the Right Thing,” hasn’t aged a day since its 1989 release. The film’s misguided views on violence were wrong-headed the second it hit theaters. And the election of President Barack Obama surely puts some of the film’s victimization subtext in fresh perspective. But as sheer entertainment, “Thing” remains a blistering experience, the culmination of every one of Lee’s unique gifts as a filmmaker.

The film’s re-release on DVD June 30 reminds us Lee hasn’t come anywhere close to matching “Thing’s” raw power in the intervening years.

“Thing” stars Lee as Mookie, a disinterested pizza delivery man working on the hottest day of the summer in the Bed-Stuy section of Brooklyn. Pizza shop owner Sal (Danny Aiello) is thoroughly old school, and his bickering sons (John Turturro and Richard Edson) are hardly paragons of virtue. But Sal doesn’t have hate in his heart for his customers, who are almost all black. His food has fed them for years, he says with pride. (more…)

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Tags: Danny Aiello, Do the Right Thing, John Turturro, Martin Lawrence, Ossie Davis
Posted Jul 7th 2009 at 10:53 am in Reviews | 17749062 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/cftoto/2009/07/07/dvd-review-do-the-right-thing-20th-anniversary-edition/DVD+Review%3A+%27Do+the+Right+Thing%27+%2820th+Anniversary+Edition%292009-07-07+17%3A53%3A12Christian+Toto