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The official trailer for Madonna's film W.E.

It looks beautiful...

The power of touch...

Estee Lauder explores the power of touch in a fresh lil' ad promoting their newest fragrance Sensuous Nude. Watch.

Fashion on the street.

 

The following is the trailer for a documentary about New York Times street fashion photographer Bill Cunningham. I wasn't even aware of this film but now I'm gonna have to go seek it out. It looks fabulous. Watch!

Pucker up, baby.

I featured a synopsis of the film, Lemonade, a while back and I was thrilled to see that it's finally available online. RJH and I watched the short film recently and loved it. The film is about what happens to hard working individuals when they are given the boot at their jobs. What seems like a horrible situation becomes the best thing that ever happened to them. You can watch it now too.

Blog on a Scandal

Yikes - Helen Mirren, my front runner for best actress at this years Oscar's, has her work cut out for her. Me and my boyfriend ventured out on a gray January Sunday afternoon to see Notes on a Scandal and LOVED it. Judi Dench gives one of the most riveting performances that I have seen on screen. It's absolutely no wonder why she was nominated for Best Actress. She is SO good. She, along with Cate Blanchett, play highly intense and complicated women. Both women find themselves in lives that are far from what they would have expected. They both long for love, a feeling of completion, elation, joy, a life that is more what they dreamed and less what they actually live. It is their own realization and internal struggle that leads to a highly explosive pair after their subsequent meeting. Both women need each other for very different reasons which takes their friendship in frighteningly different paths. The result is what makes this film so truly and emotionally beautiful and complex - much like real life - which is what we hope movies capture. Obviously that isn't always the case. Hollywood has a way of glamorizing "real life" instead of putting a mirror up to it. Aesthetically, "beautiful” is not what you would call this film. It's raw and dirty and exposed. Dame Judi Dench has not an ounce of make up on in this film. She is shot in unflattering light and every wrinkle is there for the eye to see. I will not delve any deeper in to the plot than I already have. I'd hate to ruin it for anyone reading this that is planning on seeing this film. It's worth every penny - 1100 hundred pennies if you are in NYC. This is another reason to see the Oscar awards live February 25th @ 8pm Eastern on ABC. This will be quite the race. Be sure to check out all the movie stills at the Notes on A scandal photo page found on Flickr. oh and did i mention? SEE THE FILM! It's BRILLIANT! 

3 reasons to see the new Bond

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Wanna see more?

Long live THE QUEEN

So this past weekend I had the pleasure of seeing THE QUEEN starring the absolutely brilliant actress Helen Mirren. Let me put it out there now that I think Helen should be nominated for an Academy Award. Her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II is so very good. Her performance is one of the most beautiful and powerful ones I’ve seen – ever. The story of THE QUEEN follows the royals through the week following the tragic death of Princess Diana. WATCH THE TRAILER. I have always been fascinated with the whole story of Princess Diana and the details surrounding her untimely death. I think every generation has those moments where they can place exactly where they were when they first learned of a horrible tragedy or a major milestone in history. If you were alive to experience certain events such as the shooting death of JFK, the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the horrific events of 9/11 or the attack on Pearl Harbor, many can picture exactly where they were when they heard the news. I remember it was late August and I was camping out with my best friends at my friend Jason’s Mom’s house and we heard the news. I don’t remember exactly who told us but I know that it really freaked us out. We all knew it was a huge event and in the coming days we saw on the news what an impact her death made on the world. I don’t think I grasped, as deeply as I should, the substantial loss that the British people were facing. Seeing this movie and being able to get a feeling for what many of the folks in the country were going through was tremendous. In the movie, focus is placed greatly on the newly elected Prime Minister Tony Blair played by an excellent English actor named Michael Sheen. Without delving to deeply in to the entire plot of the movie, the Royal family is hesitant, if not entirely resistant, in making a public statement on the death of Diana. Politics, Royal tradition and the current relationship between the newly divorced Diana from Prince Charles all lend themselves to reasons why the Royals do not feel the need to address the people. Their delay adds to only further complicate matters and increase the feeling of separateness that the English people feel from the Royal family in their time of mourning and crisis. Tony’s handling of the death of Diana with the British people painted him in a highly sympathetic light adding to his already growing popularity. The Labor Party had just won the 1997 General Election by a landslide, voting Tony in as the youngest Prime Minster at the age of 43. Watching the film, I couldn’t help but think of Rudy Giuliani during the chaos that ensued after September 11th. During the most confusing days directly following the tragedy, it was comforting to have a stoic figure arise with a clear head and positive determination to make it through this tragedy and on to the next chapters in our lives. Tony was very similar in that respect. The movie is so excellent on many levels. The acting is superb, from Helen’s no nonsense delivery to the fine work of James Cromwell as Prince Phillip. I hope that everyone will see this film as soon as possible. It’s one of the true great films of 2006. Witnessing Helen’s acting in this film is an education. You’ll be sorry if you miss it.