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Posted: 04 Mar 2013 02:58 AM PST

Witches always steal the show.

HOLLYWOOD has always had a steady flow of movies that feature witches.

This year alone, we've had at least three movies that involve witchcraft. In the campy Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters, Famke Janssen plays a witch named Muriel; Beautiful Creatures sees Emmy Rossum as Lena Englet who has to decide whether to battle good or bad; and in Oz The Great And Powerful, Michelle Williams plays the good witch while Mila Kunis and Rachel Weisz are the bad witches.

In many of these "witch" films, there always seems to be three witches that are featured. There is a possibility that the number "three" links to the three facets of Wiccan goddesses – the maiden (virgin), the mother, and the crone or old woman. It could also just represent the three stages of womanhood.

Here are some familiar witch movies:

Macbeth (1971)

In the opening scene of Roman Polanski's 1971 film Macbeth, three witches – the maiden, mother and crone – predict the rise of a king named Macbeth, who is just a regular soldier. An adaption of one of William Shakespeare's darker works, Polanski's film, produced by Hugh Hefner, founder of Playboy Enterprises, is rated "X" (above-18 only) due to its violence and nudity.

Witches: Young Witch (Noelle Rimming-ton), Bling Witch (Maisie MacFarquhar) and First Witch (Elsie Taylor).

The Black Cauldron (1985)

The Black Cauldron was the first animated Disney film to be slapped with a PG (parental guidance) rating. This fantasy-adventure film sees a young pig farmer, Taran, out on a mission to destroy the black cauldron before the Horned King uses it to wake the undead. The witches gain possession of the cauldron and trade it for Taran's magic sword, only to reveal that the cauldron cannot be destroyed unless a living being jumps into it. Nice.

Witches: Orddu (voiced by Eda Reiss Merin), Orwen (Adele Malis-Morey) and Orgoch (Billie Hayes).

Witches Of Eastwick (1987)

When three life-long friends meet up for drinks to vent about men, their psychic bond conjures "Mr Right". It's not made clear to the audience the powers these women possess, but their wish did bring the Prince of Darkness, Daryl Van Horne (Jack Nicholson), into their lives for one heck of a ride.

Witches: Alexandra (Cher), Sukie (Michelle Pfeiffer) and Jane (Susan Sarandon).

Hocus Pocus (1993)

This light comedy, featuring soul-sucking witches, is one of the most nostalgic movies for children of the 1990s. After 300 years, the Sanderson sisters are resurrected by Max who just wanted to impress his dream girl Allison and spook his little sister Dani. As the witches return to life, Max, Dani and Allison run off with the witches' vital spell book. In order to stay alive and get their immortality back, the sisters have to recite a magic invocation from the stolen spell book before dawn. Otherwise, they will be gone forever.

Witches: Winifred (Bette Midler), Mary (Kathy Najimy) and Sarah (Sarah Jessica Parker).

Stardust (2007)

Stardust is a love story of a charmingly naive boy who finds a "fallen star", who turns out to be a dame. The boy tries to keep her safe from witches who seek the fallen star and consume her heart for eternal youth.

Witches: Lamia (Michelle Pfeiffer), Mormo (Joanna Scanlan) and Empusa (Sarah Alexander).

■ New witches on the block, Michelle Williams, Mila Kunis and Rachel Weisz star in Oz The Great And Powerful which opens in cinemas nationwide on Thursday.

Class act

Posted: 03 Mar 2013 12:00 AM PST

To call Stanley Tucci a versatile character actor would be something of an understatement. To say he gives interesting interviews would be one, too.

A JOURNALIST has just asked actor Stanley Tucci about a story theme in The Hunger Games, a film in which he plays TV host Caeser Flickerman.

Tucci – who is in London to talk to the press about Jack The Giant Slayer on a cold February afternoon – turns to her and inquires politely about one of the words in her question.

As she repeats the question, it becomes clear that her pronounication of "hope" is not, well, conventional.

Tucci asks with a glint in his eyes: "Where are you from?"

When she informs him, he says with a knowing smile: "I thought so."

He then turns to everyone and explains: "It is my favourite, to hear an Italian say a word in English that starts with the letter H."

At that point, the 52-year-old recalls how in the first film he ever wrote and directed – Big Night (1996), about two brothers running a failing Italian restaurant – he had written a line specifically for Tony Shalhoub's character (who has an Italian accent in the movie, as does Tucci's character).

"The line I say is 'When will this be ready?' and he has to say 'half an hour'. I knew it would be incredibly hard to say, and really funny, because he has to lose the H on 'half' but add an H on 'hour'. So it'd be 'alf and hhour'. And everytime he said it, I would laugh so hard. 'Alf and hhour'," he repeats, laughing at the memory.

Naturally, the line of questioning turns to the fact that it has been a while since he last directed a film (he has made four, the last one being 2007's Blind Date).

Tucci replies: "Thank you for reminding me."

When the same journalist follows up with, "Well, where are they?"

Tucci retorts: "Don't you have them with you?"

Needless to say, the interview with Tucci is definitely turning out to be a little more interesting than interviews with many other Hollywood actors. He is smartly dressed (dark blue pinstripe three-piece suit and matching socks) for interviews, is a perfect gentleman (he stands up to shake our hands), a very nice guy and extremely funny.

It's almost too easy to just have a chat with him, especially when he starts regaling us with his tales of woe, like the fight scene with Ewan McGregor's knight of the realm ("It was fun because I was doing it with Ewan because I like him and I trust him, but ultimately it was pretty exhausting. Not much fun after a while; it just became tedious.") or hanging on the beanstalk on a not-terribly-clean set and trying to say his lines while getting water thrown at him ("It was hard to climb down. They had to let you down. And this went on for weeks and weeks. It was so not fun.").

Still, there were good times aplenty while making the fantasy adventure, in which he plays the villainous Roderick. "Just being on the set with everybody. Doing a scene with Nic (Nicholas Hoult, who plays Jack) and Ewan. And the incredible hair people, costume people. We'd all go out together with Bryan (Singer). We had a lot of fun."

Touted as one of the best character actors in Hollywood, Tucci has been working in films and TV since 1985. During that period, he has created a string of characters from the most hateful (George Harvey in The Lovely Bones), to the most stylish (Nigel in The Devil Wears Prada), from a man with the most artificial smile (Flickerman in The Hunger Games) to the most sensitive of husbands (Paul Child in Julie & Julia).

Even with the varied roles he has played, Tucci is forever looking at upping the challenge to tell stories in different ways. While he doesn't know if there is a dream role that has escaped him, he says "there are certain movies, you kind of go, 'Oh, I should've played that role.' You know what I mean? But that's the old joke, you know. How many actors does it take to change a lightbulb? Ten. One to actually do it and nine to sit around and go, 'I wouldn't have done it like that'."

Tucci declares that he had always wanted to be an actor. "At one point, before I went to college, I thought I wanted to be an architect, but my math was so bad, that was a terrible idea. All the buildings would fall down. Or I would be an artist. That's not really like a back-up plan. And if that didn't work out, I'd be a chef. So luckily this is working out."

Even though becoming a chef may not be in the cards for him, Tucci is very much in love with cooking. He is currently writing a cookbook of his own, having helped his parents compile The Tucci Cookbook – a collection of family recipes and a New York Times bestseller.

In fact, food played a large part in his courtship with his wife Felicity Blunt (the sister of actress Emily Blunt) and his home kitchen has been described as being as well-equipped as that of any Italian restaurant.

When asked how he balances Hollywood's obsession with being thin and with Italian food, he shares: "You just have to eat sparingly, and exercise as much as possible so you can go back and eat again."

'Today' takes top prize at Africa's largest film festival

Posted: 02 Mar 2013 06:15 PM PST

OUAGADOUGOU: A French-Senegalese director's film about a man who knows he will die at the end of the day took the top prize Saturday at Africa's largest film festival, Fespaco in Burkina Faso.

"Aujourd'hui" (Today) by director Alain Gomis follows Satche, played by American hip hop musician and slam poet Saul Williams, on what he and those close to him somehow know will be the last day of his life.

The film took Fespaco's top prize, the Yennenga Etalon d'Or, at the closing ceremony of the festival's 23rd edition before an audience of some 15,000 people in Burkina capital Ouagadougou's main stadium.

Williams also won the best actor prize for his near-silent role in the film, which was an official selection at the Berlin 2012 film festival.

Second prize went to "Yema" by Algerian director Djamila Sahraoui, the story of a mother whose family is torn apart by an Islamist attack. Sahraoui both directed and starred in the film.

Nearly 170 films from all over the continent were shown during the week-long bi-annual festival, which was launched in 1969.

All the juries this year were presided by women, with the jury for the Etalon d'Or headed by French cinema legend Euzhan Palcy. - AFP

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

Ahad, 3 Mac 2013

The Star Online: Entertainment: Movies

The Star Online: Entertainment: Movies

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