Julie Christie Loses Oscar to Frenchy

Marion Cotillard stole the Oscar from Julie Christie. What? That's bullshit. Marion played Edith Piaff in La Vie en rose. Christie played a woman with Alzheimer's in Away From Her.

It's the only category I was passionate about. The French suck.

Couple other notes:

I'm intrigued by the movie, Juno, now after watching Ellen Page on The Barbara Walters Special following the Oscars. In particular, the quirky song from the flick, Anyone Else But You, by the Moldy Peaches. Barbara Walters told Page that "she didn't get it" (the song and the group performing it). Walters - retire. You're an idiot. Here's a clip: http://youtube.com/watch?v=BFff-FekFWU

I will also see Once based on the recommendation of my friend, Nick, and because it's set in Ireland and I liked the Oscar-winning song, Falling Slowly. Here's a clip: http://youtube.com/watch?v=XzQRuTwaFI8

The musicians are also the leads in the movie, a modern-day musical about a busker (to play music or perform entertainment in a public place, usually while soliciting money) and an immigrant and their eventful week in Dublin, as they write, rehearse and record songs that tell their love story.

I mentioned I'm pissed Julie Christie lost, right? I am pissed.

Oh - and it was exciting to see clips from the soon-to-be-released Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, the 4th installment series (on The Barbara idiot Walters' special).

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Julie Christie Interview on NPR's Morning Edition

NPR had an interview with Julie Christie this morning (my favorite actress - see previous posts). You can listen to a bit of the interview here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=19174831

Julie Christie: After Decades, Oscar's 'Darling' Again?

Morning Edition, February 20, 2008. One of this Sunday's Oscar nominees is a woman who has a long history with the statuette: Julie Christie won an Academy Award more than four decades ago. Now she's nominated for another award — for a film about a four-decade marriage. Away from Her, in which Christie plays a woman in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease, was written and directed by a woman still in her 20s: Sarah Polley, the latest in an an astonishing list of talented filmmakers who've directed Julie Christie. John Schlesinger's Darling brought her fame, David Lean's Dr. Zhivago superstardom. And then there was Truffaut, Altman, Nicholas Roeg. And then, when she was still a young star, and a hugely famous one, Christie walked away from Hollywood and settled in a remote part of Wales. She tells NPR's Renee Montagne, who's a friend, that it wasn't hard.

Julie Christie in Petulia.

"Oh, God no," she says. "I'm just a hippie at heart, and there I was [in Hollywood], pretending to be something else. And all I wanted to do was get the vegetables going."

Much is often made of how difficult it can be for actresses to find parts in Hollywood once they're past a certain age. But Christie has twice been nominated for Oscars for parts she played after she turned 50. She tells Renee Montagne that age has its benefits.

"I think I'm more focused now," Christie says. "I've not only got a bigger perspective, but I can refine my perspective now, bring it right down and make it laser sharp — I mean, if I'm lucky. ... I was working more in a fog before."

As for the jobs question: "I think it's true of women in every job," Christie says. "It's not just to do with acting." (Though actors, she says, "have the biggest voice, so they shout about it a lot.")

Though they've known each other for years, Julie Christie and Renee Montagne had never previously discussed Christie's career at any length. "I never talk about my work," Christie laughs. "I think it's so tedious, talking about your own work. I like talking, getting information, giving information, listening, growing as the conversation continues," Christie says. "But I've never been terribly interested in acting, so I wouldn't think of it as the most interesting thing in the world to sit and talk with someone about — in fact I never have."

Acting, at least for Christie, is a thing that happens in the moment, then evaporates. "When it's over," she says, "it's so over that I can't remember a single thing about it."

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Christie wins London Film Critics' Circle Award, Loses BAFTA

Julie Christie - my favorite actress - receives yet another acting accolade for her role in, "Away From Her" - the London Film Critics' Circle Award, British Actress of the Year. The awards were held in aid of the NSPCC at London's Grosvenor House Hotel, ahead of the Baftas. The BAFTA (British equivalent of our Oscar) went to some other actress who portrays Edith Piaff in another movie (French singer from the 30' 40's). Who cares. Last but not least...the Oscars are scheduled for Februray 24. Julie better win or there will be hell to pay dammit!

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Julie Christie Wins SAG Award

The Screen Actor Guild Awards (of which I am a member, thank you) were given out last night and my Julie Christie won Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role for Away From Her.

66 years young and still beautiful. Next stop - The Academy Awards.

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Julie Christie Update & "Atonement"

Julie Christie and Gordon Pinsent in Away From Her.

I previously blogged about my favorite actress, Julie Christie (see below)http://jeffircink.blogspot.com/2007/12/women-celebs-i-love-3-julie-christie.html and the kudos being flung her way for the movie, Away From Her. Caught the movie this week with friends, along with, Atonement. Both excellent movies. One much more depressing than the other.

Since my original post on Julie, she was awarded the Golden Globe for Best Actress and she's been nominated for an Academy Award for her role as a women struck down with Alzheimer's Disease. As wonderful as this movie is, it was extremely painful to watch. As an actor, my attention to characters in movies is much the same as my approach to a character that I'm portraying on stage or on film - I put myself in the character's shoes, asking, "what would Jeff Ircink do if HE were that person?". Not a novel approach by any means, but of all the acting approachs (Method, Meisner), this works best for me.

So I put myself in the shoes of Julie Christie's husband, is forced to deal with his wife's increasing memory loss, then he puts her into a home and then watches from afar as she become "involved" with another patient - a man who she takes "a liking" to her (and she to him). I now have a greater appreciation for the loved ones of Alzheimer victim's - it's the loved ones who seemingly suffer the most. My God, how heart-wrenching to see Christie's husband crumble in the face of everything that he faces - none of which he has contol over. Honestly, if you're in a shitty or depressed mood, wait until you have a skip back in your step before you watch this.

Great acting job by everyone involved. And Julie Christie is as lovely and beautiful as ever.

Atonement is another excellent movie - essentially about how two lovers just prior to WWII are separated from each other and the hardships they endure along the way. I really don't feel like writing a review on the movie...just watch it - it garnered 8 Academy Award nominations. It was very lyrical and poetic (I stole that from my writer-friend Donovan, who's working on his first novel by the way, but I would've said the same thing), drifting from present to past and back again very seamlessly. And again, as in Away From Her, I put myself in the character's shoes (the lead male), feeling the joy and sorrow and emptiness that he felt. I know what it's like not being with the one you love. Many of us do. It's one of the most empty feelings one can have. Just horrific. This is another great movie. Go see it.

And see it with someone you're deeply in love with.

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My Favorite Actress, Julie Christie, Wins Critics Award

I love Julie Christie.

Broadcast Film Critics Association's 13th Annual Critics' Choice Awards, which were bestowed in Santa Monica, California on January 7 awarded Best Actress honors to Julie Christie for Away From Her. She had already won both the New York Film Critics and National Board of Review awards for best actress. I haven't seen this movie yet - I will. For more about Julie, see my previous post at Women Celebs I Love No. 3: http://jeffircink.blogspot.com/2007/12/women-celebs-i-love-3-julie-christie.html

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Women Celebs I Love #3 - Julie Christie

I absolutely am in love with British beauty/actress Julie Christie - my favorite actress of all time. I believe it was in Dr. Zhivago that I first became witness to one of the icons of Swingin' London in the 1960's (I liken it to the quintessential California 60's "hot-tee" of which I would include American Michelle Phillips from the Mamas and the Papas, for instance). Then of course, there's her turn in the duel role in Ray Bradbury's classic book-turned-movie, Fahrenheit 451 (my favorite actor, Mel Gibson, was supposed to direct a re-make of F451 a few years ago, but he couldn't get Tom Cruise or Brad Pitt signed on for the project, among other snafu's).

Here's a quick scene from Dr. Zhivago - my God, she is gorgeous! http://youtube.com/watch?v=BSgryyxp-cg . And here's a short interview with her after she either won or received the Academy nomination for Darling. http://youtube.com/watch?v=_dZQloqs4Us

I really love the whole package, I guess. Her lips. Her stare. Perhaps the accent. The eyes. That come hither jaw line. She's feisty and extremely independent (from what I've read). And never married. Hmmm.

You have to see her and Donald Sutherland in Don't Look Now - a weirdish movie about a couple living and working abroad who are terrorized by the memory of their young daughter drowning. There's a sex scene between husband/wife Sutherland/Christie that always makes the lists of "best sex scenes in movies". It's really a 'making love' scene. You have to see it to understand it but basically there are two scenes going on at the same time - the love-making in juxtaposition with the couple getting ready and dressed to go out AFTER the love-making session. Like I said, you have to see it to really appreciate it. Well done, Mr. Roeg.

Julie with former lover Terrence Stamp in Far from the Maddening Crowd.

To the left with hat, as Lara in Dr. Zhivago. Other movies you might recognize her from include:

Away from Her, Afterglow, Heaven Can Wait, Demon Seed, Shampoo, Don't Look Now, McCabe & Mrs. Miller, Far from the Madding Crowd, Fahrenheit 451, Doctor Zhivago and Darling (for which she won the Academy Award in 1965)

Julie today. As independent and vivacious as she was 40 years ago. As recent as this week, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced their nominations for the 65th Annual Golden Globe Awards. Julie Christie has been nominated for her work in Sarah Polley's debut feature directorial debut, Away from Her. She plays Fiona, a woman whose long, sometimes shaky marriage to a once-adulterous but now steadfast husband, Grant (played by veteran Canadian actor Gordon Pinsent), goes into decline as her memory fades from Alzheimer's. To ease Grant's pain, Fiona checks herself into an institution while she still retains most of her faculties. But she deteriorates so quickly that she no longer recognizes Grant, who suffers through quiet jealousy as his wife begins a flirtation with another aging patient.

Julie Christie. I love you.

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