Monica Bellucci News

Source: Times Online ()

The Christmas fair on Piazza Navona in the heart of Rome looks as cheerful as
ever: glittering decorations, funfair booths and roasting chestnuts. In St
Peter’s Square the giant Christmas tree is lit, and the streets are full of
visitors soaking up the festive version of la dolce vita.

The markets in the residential districts tell a different story. The lights
are bright but the mood is sombre. “I’m buying fewer presents this year, and
cheaper ones,” said a woman fingering fur hats at a stall near the Vatican.
“And as for food . . .”

There is a sense of national angst in Italy as 2007 comes to a close. A
defining moment came this week when, for the first time, Spain overtook
Italy in terms of living standards. Greece is now breathing down Italy’s
neck.

The self-lacerating mood goes far beyond prices and incomes, reaching into the
heart of Italy’s debate with itself over soul and identity. Italians are
ruling significant parts of the world: Fabio Capello has taken charge of the
England football team and Carla Bruni has conquered the heart of the French
President.

Yet, at home, Italians are consumed with a sense of domestic decline. “When an
entire country goes into crisis over the ‘who are we and where are we going’
debate, it means we are reaching new heights of hysteria,” the writer
Umberto Eco said. “This explosion of provincialism is truly painful.
Personally I feel depressed.”

So do many of his fellow countrymen. There is a sense that while the past is
Italy’s glory, it is also its prison, with politics and business dominated
by a gerontocracy and the younger entrepreneurs and politicians held back.

When Romano Prodi, the centre-left Prime Minister, held a summit in Rome this
week with Nicolas Sarkozy of and José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero of
Spain, commentators noted that while Mr Zapatero was 47 and …

Source: Boston Globe ()

Film

‘Napoleon and Me’

Email|Print|
Text size
–
+

December 21, 2007

The Museum of Fine Arts continues a run of “Napoleon and Me,” a 2006 film that’s set on the Italian island Elba in the early 1800s. The movie is about a young man who develops a relationship with a beautiful woman (played by Monica Bellucci) and exiled Napoleon Bonaparte (played by Daniel Auteuil). It’s a comedy, so hijinks ensue. 6 p.m. Dec. 30. $9. Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Ave., Boston. 617-369-3306. mfa.org
© Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company.

Source: Boston Globe ()

MOVIE REVIEW

‘Napoleon’ has charm enough to intrigue

Email|Print|
Text size
–
+

By
Mark Feeney

Globe Staff
/
December 20, 2007

“Napoleon and Me” can’t quite decide what it wants to be. Set on Elba during Napoleon’s brief exile there, it has elements of costume spectacle, domestic comedy, period piece, drama of ideas, and that old French favorite, the sentimental education.Certainly, the movie’s 21-year-old hero, Martino (Elio Germano), stands in a long Gallic line. This is despite the fact that “Napoleon and Me” is based on an Italian novel, “N,” by Ernesto Ferrero, and an Italian filmmaker, Paolo Virzi, directed it and helped write the screenplay.As an imaginative creation, Martino is three parts Stendhal to one part Truffaut: impulsive, idealistic, smitten with being smitten. He’s been enjoying a comically tempestuous affair with the much older Baroness Emilia (Monica Bellucci). An even greater passion is his hatred of the tyrant Napoleon. Martino has Romantic urges to go with his Enlightenment beliefs. He literally dreams of killing the deposed emperor.Soon enough, he gets his chance - or chances. Martino’s republican ideals have gotten him fired as a schoolteacher. One of his sister’s suitors wangles him a job as Napoleon’s literary secretary.Alas, just as no man is a hero to a villain, neither is he a villain to his secretary. What Martino finds is not a tyrannous monster but a short, tubby man who’s every bit as self-involved as he is. Daniel Auteuil, who plays Napoleon, bears a disconcerting resemblance to Joe Pesci wearing a fancy hat. This may or may not be intentional, but it has the desired effect, regardless. Martino’s loathing is neutralized. Whether it should be is another matter. A much-admired teacher of Martino has his own ideas about imperial assassination - and the baroness about imperial These factors further complicate Martino’s relationship with Bonaparte, who, lest we forget, will soon be meeting …

Source: Boston Globe ()

City Picks

Email|Print|
Text size
–
+

December 16, 2007

Comic reliefToday: Jim McCue, a comedian who has entertained US troops around the world since 1999, celebrates the release of his first book, “Embedded Comedian,” with a performance and a book signing. Comedy Connection, Faneuil Hall, Quincy Market Building. 8 p.m. $15. 617-248-9700.Acting on impulseTuesday, Dec. 18: McIntyre & Moore Booksellers, in conjunction with the Center for Naturalism, continues its Davis Square Philosophy Cafe discussion series. “Reductionism and Responsibility: Did My Neurons Make Me Do It?” is moderated by Tom Clark. McIntyre & Moore, 255 Elm St., Davis Square, Somerville. 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. Free. 617-629-4840.The exiled ex-emperorFriday, Dec. 21: The 2006 comedy “Napoleon and Me,” starring Monica Bellucci, Daniel Auteuil, and Elio Germano, takes place in 1814 when Napoleon was in exile on the island of Elba. The film accompanies the exhibition “Symbols of Power: Napoleon and the Arts of the Empire Style 1800-1815.” Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Ave. 6 p.m. General admission $9. 617-267-9300.MARY ANN GEORGANTOPOULOSCity Picks features a few of the treasures the Boston area has to offer: things to do, unusual sights to see, you might not think of going. E-mail items to City Weekly at ciweek@globe.com.
© Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company.

Source: Contactmusic.com ()

Promotional posters for violent action film Shoot ‘Em Up have been criticised by the UK advertising watchdog for glamorising gun crime.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ruled that two posters should not be shown again after 55 people, including the Kensal Green Community Safety Forum in London, complained.

In the first offending advert, the film’s villain Paul Giamatti was shown pointing a gun and holding a mobile phone, with accompanying text stating: "Just another family man making a living – Paul Giamatti, Shoot ‘Em Up."

The second featured the film’s other two stars – Clive Owen and Monica Bellucci. Owen was leaping into the air holding a pistol in each hand while Giamatti held a sniper rifle in the background.

Complainants said that the posters glamorised and glorified gun crime, a claim partly upheld by the ASA.

In its adjudication the watchdog recognised the "ironic" nature of the posters and said they were unlikely to "be seen to glamorise or glorify real gun crime" to the majority of people.

But the ASA added that the prominence of a gun in the first poster and the action shot in the second suggested "direct aggression that could be seen to glamorise the use of guns and violence".

In its defence Entertainment Film Distributors said it had been "mindful of growing levels of public concern about the use and threatened use of guns".

The distributor also expressed regret at the coinciding of marketing campaign with the killing of Liverpool schoolboy Rhys Jones, who was fatally shot on August 22nd.

21/11/2007 00:01:00

Source: Boston Globe ()

Movie Review

Star power fails to generate heat

Email|Print|
Text size
–
+

By
Janice Page

Globe Correspondent
/
November 23, 2007

All you should need to know about “How Much Do You Love Me?” is that it stars Monica Bellucci being directed by Bertrand Blier. Unfortunately, you’re about to know why that’s not quite enough to recommend it.Italy’s Bellucci is unquestionably one of the sexiest actresses in the world, blessed with curves that could make a melon baller jealous. And Blier, the heralded French creator of “Get Out Your Handkerchiefs” and “Too Beautiful for You,” is a seasoned architect of provocative (if sometimes thinly constructed) sex-comedy romps.Together, they portend something gloriously combustible and rare, right?Well, as it turns out, not so much.”How Much Do You Love Me?” (”Combien tu m’aimes?” when it was first released in 2005) isn’t actually bad; it just isn’t as good as it should be. Set in Paris, it gives us the story of an unexceptional office clerk named Francois (the irrepressibly virile Bernard Campan), who solicits a prostitute named Daniela (Bellucci) to come live with him until his money runs out. She agrees when he tells her he’s just won millions in the lottery, though from the very beginning she looks certain to bring more turmoil to his life than he’s bargained for.Riffing on a plot point that predates talkies, Francois has a weak heart that makes him prone to fainting, and Daniela’s sensual beauty literally takes his breath away. She mesmerizes his friends and tests his patience until, by the time Gerard Depardieu shows up as the hooker’s crazy, mob-molded pimp, we’re knee-deep in fluffy farce with obvious operatic parallels.Just in case you don’t pick up on that, writer-director Blier hammers home his intentions with a campy, aria-filled soundtrack. It’s funny at first, but then it just feels and empty, as if it’s repeatedly underscoring heft and outrageousness that are lacking in the script. …

Source: Boston Globe ()

Film

The price of happiness

Email|Print|
Text size
–
+

By
Meredith Goldstein

Globe Staff
/
November 23, 2007

The Museum of Fine Arts opens a run tonight of “How Much Do You Love Me?”, a French film about a man who uses his lottery winnings to buy the love of a beautiful call girl (in euros, of course). The call girl in question is played by Monica Bellucci, who is best known in this country as that hot woman from “The Matrix” series. Gerard Depardieu appears in the film as the call girl’s boyfriend. 6:45 p.m. $9. Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Ave., 617-369-3306. mfa.org
© Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company.

Source: Now Magazine Online ()

Charlize Theron has been voted Top Serial Stripper in a new Hollywood poll.

The South African actress, 32 – who’s stripped off for 10 movies, including 2 Days In The Valley – was voted in for her steamy sex scenes and repeated nudity.

Runners up were Monica Bellucci, 43, Angelina Jolie, 32, and Sharon Stone, 49 – who became famous for her saucy role in Basic Instinct.

And even Oscar winner Dame Helen Mirren, 62, was voted in at No 8 for her 13 nude movies.

Kate Winslet won Top Brit and received praise for her ‘phenomenal body’.

SEE VIDEO of Charlize Theron in her underwear in 2 Days And The Valley…

SEE VIDEO of Charlize Theron strip in Aeon Flux…

SEE VIDEO of Angelina Jolie wearing nothing but body in Beowulf…

SEE VIDEO of Monica Belucci stripping off in Malèna….

Alison Adey

Source: NewsBlaze ()

By Prairie Miller

Wearing its virtually bulletproof heart on its sleeve with brazen imagination and self-mocking though smirky attitude. Shoot ‘Em Up’s outlandish comedic crime spree gets into high gear by shooting down all known previously untouchable sacred taboos. Showing neither motherhood, nuns or nursing newborns any mercy along its playfully irreverent way, the film works as both rapid fire thriller and a hard core caricature of itself.

Clive Owens sets the stage as Mr. Smith, the reputed angriest man in the world. Packing a gun and a scowl and in perpetual defensive mode, the carrot chomping Smith gets his private angst rudely interrupted by chance when crossing paths with a bloodthirsty gang of hitmen led by dapper homicidal maniac Hertz (Paul Giamatti). When he gets wind of the gangsters chasing a woman in labor down the street, the apparently ambidextrous Smith guns most of them down with one hand while delivering the newborn from the bullet-ridden body of mom with the other.

With a dead mother and a wailing infant to deal with, what’s a gunman to do except get in touch with his inner nice guy and do a little emergency surrogate dad by default duty. But sorely lacking any basic maternal instincts of his own, Smith tracks down sometime squeeze DQ (Monica Bellucci), a prostitute at a brothel run by females dressed in nun habits from the waist up, and not much else below. DQ, as luck would have it, just happens to be a lactating hooker who specializes in combo breast and bottle feeding fixations for men with unresolved assorted mammary issues.

This hastily formed mom ‘n pop dysfunctional family unit flees across town dodging bullets, with Hertz and his henchmen in hot pursuit. Though, Smith has to at times really show his stuff when hiding out, by gunning down home invaders with one hand while in the unstoppable heat of nude compromising sexual interlude with DQ, or blowing away another set of attackers clinging to parachutes …

Source: KalingaTimes ()

World cinema gems set to invade India

By Saibal Chatterjee
Panaji, Nov 30 (IANS): Lovers of world cinema, both classic and contemporary, are in for a sumptuous treat in the coming year. Several key players in the Indian market have firmed up plans to release internationally acclaimed European and Asian films on the Indian theatrical and home video circuits.
Sunil Doshi of Handmade Films, the production company behind such films as Rajat Kapoor’s "Mixed Doubles" and Sagar Ballary’s sleeper hit "Bheja Fry", has acquired the India rights to Danish master Bille August’s multi-nation co-production "Goodbye Bafana".

The powerful drama set in apartheid era South Africa centres on Nelson Mandela’s unlikely friendship with a White Afrikaner warder on Robben Island .

Doshi will also be distributing veteran French director Alain Corneau’s thriller "Le Deauxieme Souffle" (The Second Wind), based on the Jose Giovanni novel about a gangster who must do one last job in order to make the money he needs to get himself and his girlfriend out of the country.

The film features Daniel Auteuil and Monica Bellucci in the principal roles and has undeniable commercial potential.

"We have already tied up with PVR Pictures and these films are likely to hit the multiplexes by February," reveals Doshi.

Other critically acclaimed foreign films on his slate are Naomi Kawase’s "The Mourning Forest", a French-Japanese co-production, and Florent Emilio Siri’s war film, "The Intimate Enemy".

All the four films in Doshi’s kitty, screened in the Cinema of the World section of the ongoing 38th International Film Festival of India, have been received enthusiastically.

Washington-based Harish Vanjani, who was the festival to test the waters, has bought Cristian Mungui’s Palme d’Or-winner "4 Months 3 Weeks …