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Contributed by Dr Andrew Cousins |
Wednesday, 28 February 2007 |
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Method acting is a technique used by many leading Hollywood actors. Everybody from De Niro to Hoffman uses it. One of the leading teachers of method acting working today is Arnold Bloomberg of the Bloomberg Academy of Drama in New York. Dr Andrew Cousins, went to learn more.
AC: What is your fundamental approach to acting?
AB: For me acting isn't just about pretending to be somebody else. It's about becoming a physical and mental actualisation of a character. Acting is in many ways like a triangle with no corners.
AC: Does method acting make for better acting?
AB: Let me put it like this. My job is to take an actor on a journey. That journey is from the place known as ‘bad acting' to the place known as ‘good acting'. The place known as ‘bad acting' is where people like Lou Diamond Phillips hang out and it's a very scary place.
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Contributed by Dr Andrew Cousins |
Wednesday, 08 November 2006 |
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"You see he didn't start out as a robot. He was a policeman who was
gunned down so naturally they transplant his head onto a robot body to
keep him alive and turn him into Cybocop. But the thing they forgot was
his balls, isn't it? He thought with his balls. They controlled his
instincts. "Do I shoot the criminals? What are my balls telling me?"
That was how he operated. Without them he's just a big toaster with a
gun, isn't he?"
Paul
Verhervervint is Holland's biggest export since the tulip. His brash
and trashy style of filmmaking, not to mention the often violent or
otherwise controversial subject matter has made his films incredibly
popular with moviegoers worldwide. Films such as ‘Crude Instinct',
‘Lapdancers', ‘Cybocop' and others have all been extremely successful
at the box office - if not always with the critics.
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Contributed by Dr Andrew Cousins |
Thursday, 02 November 2006 |
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"Is a very powerful love story. There is man. There is woman. Man falls over. Woman falls in love. Man wears funny hat. Oh no! Is woman dying of disease? Yes. Then man fall over some more. She get better. They get married. The end."
Roberto Benitio is best know as the Italian comedian and film maker who directed ‘Wasn’t World War Two Fun?’ which swept the board at the Oscars two years ago. He charmed the American public with his exhuberance during numerous television interviews and with his hilarious antics during the ceremony itself. Who can forget the sight of him mooning Jack Nicholson? Or pushing a custard pie into Steven Spielberg’s face? In another instalment from the vault, and newly illustrated by Eric Dubois, Dr Andrew went to talk to him.
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Contributed by Dr Andrew Cousins |
Thursday, 02 November 2006 |
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"The Love Bug features a car that comes to life. Is it powered by the love of Jesus Christ? We aren't offered any evidence that this is the case so we must, unfortunately, assume that it is in fact animated purely by the power of the Lord of Darkness. I still feel an urge to pray whenever I see a Volkswagen Beetle."
Watching4Jesus.com is a website run by the Divine Church of Holy Intervention in Alabama, Texas. It aims to provide a method whereby films are rated and classified from a Fundamentalist Christian perspective.
As Netribution begins to republish treats from the Carnal Cinema archive, newly accompanied with cartoons from Eric Dubois, we're proud to reprint Dr Andrew's 2002 'interview' with the outfit's spokesman, the Reverend Aloysius Tork.
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Contributed by Dr Andrew Cousins |
Wednesday, 10 May 2006 |
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It
has often been said that men age and women mature. However women, like
wine, tend to mature in one of two ways. They either ripen into
something full-flavoured, with lots of body and a myriad of intriguing
flavours or they turn onto an unpleasant, acidic vinegar.
It's further said that there are no
good parts in Hollywood for the older woman. Well, one person would
take issue with that. She's about to enter her seventy-fourth year and
shows no sign of slowing down. In her time she's worked with James
Cagney, Humphrey Bogart and Kirk Douglas. She once called Cary Grant,
"a worse kisser then my dog". I went to Beverly Hills to meet the one and only Ms. Margaux Shapiro.
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Contributed by Dr Andrew Cousins |
Friday, 14 April 2006 |
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The
low budget digital film making revolution is sweeping the industry like
a big brush. But in this case the brush is made of pixels, ones and
zeros as opposed to the usual brush construction of celluloid,
photosensitive dyes and developing chemicals.
One of the leading exponents of this
'Cinema Electronique' is Dutch auteur Hans Von Looz. His films such as,
'Breaking My Patience', 'The Nutters' and 'Oddville' are all made
according to a strict set of rules laid down by Von Looz. Dogma 3000,
as these rules are known, is intended to be the blueprint by which the
next generation of low budget cinema is made. I met with Hans to ask
him about film making in the 21st Century and beyond.
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Contributed by Dr Andrew Cousins |
Thursday, 13 April 2006 |
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This
year has seen something of a resurgence of interest in the political
movie with 'Good Night. And Good Luck' and 'Syriana' both doing well
both critically and financially. In contrast, the British Film Industry
hasn't produced a political film since the late eighties. One man aims
to change all that. Tobias Blennerhassett has produced some of the most
successful films ever produced in this country including, 'Strippers on
the Dole' and 'The Short, Fat Thursday'.
I went to speak to him find
out more about his plans for what he hopes will be the greatest British
political film ever made - Lib Dems: The Movie.
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Contributed by Dr Andrew Cousins |
Saturday, 08 April 2006 |
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Caine, Hopkins, Connery, Finney, Attenborough, Guinness, Mills, Gielguid, Olivier. Names that epitomise the very best in British acting talent. But one name towers above them all; Sir Wilberforce Reddington.
He made his first screen appearance as Willy Reddington playing Third Cockney Urchin in 'It's a Right Bloomin' Caper Alright' in1937. From then on his face became a familiar fixture on British cinema screens. The list of his screen roles runs to several pages and reads like a roll call of classic film greats.
Now celebrating his 95th birthday, I went to talk to him and look back over a lifetime in cinema.
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Contributed by Dr Andrew Cousins |
Sunday, 26 March 2006 |
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Forget
Buddhism, Kabbala, and Scientology - there's only one religion that the
Hollywood A-list want to be seen to be worshiping these days -
Knowledgology.
It began five years ago when the
Reverend Doctor-Professor Solomon Profundis set up The Knowledge Hub, a
spiritual retreat where burned out celebrities could recharge their
batteries and at the same time broaden their religious horizons. Here
they are introduced to the Elucidation Programme where the central
philosophies of Knowledgology are explained to them. Ever since there
has been a steady stream of Los Angeles great-and-good flooding through
their doors. However Knowledgology does have its detractors, being
variously described as "a cult" and a "bunch of alien-worshiping
crackpots".
I went to The Knowledge Hub and met
with the head of the Church of Knowledgology, the Reverend
Doctor-Professor Solomon Profundis.
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Contributed by Dr Andrew Cousins |
Sunday, 19 March 2006 |
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Following
the success of Brokeback Mountain and Capote, 2006 has been called by
some, the gayest year in recorded history. But one man has gone further
still. Josh Tenttrow is Professor of Gender Studies at the University
of San Francisco. Often called the most flamboyant academic in the US,
Tenttrow has written a string of books examining gender and sexuality
issues in mainstream cinema. These include works like, 'Steers and
Queers: Gay Imagery in the Contemporary Western', 'Is that your
Lightsabre or are you just pleased to see me?: Science Fiction and
Sexuality' and 'Hello Dolly!: The Musical as a Gay Text'.
Now Tenttrow has gone one step
further. He says that in fact all movies have a hidden gay subtext. I
went to San Francisco to meet him.
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Contributed by Dr Andrew Cousins |
Saturday, 04 March 2006 |
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If the 80's were epitomised by the Action film and the 90's were the domain of the more thoughtful independent film, then the early 21st century could easily come to be defined by the dominance of the comic strip adaptation. Ever since 'X-Men' and 'Spider-Man' hit the cinemas, Hollywood has been desperately trying to find the Next Big Thing. Even multi-award winning directors like Sam Mendes and Ang Lee have got in on the act with 'The Road To Perdition' and 'The Hulk' respectively.
Dan Waveney is the latest director to try to breath three-dimensional life into a two dimensional character as he brings Intenso-Man to the big screen.
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