The Star Online: Entertainment: Movies

Spanish director who gave Penelope Cruz her break dies aged 67

Posted: 06 Apr 2013 04:30 PM PDT

MADRID: Jose Juan Bigas Luna, a Spanish director and screenwriter who gave Penelope Cruz her first big screen break, has died aged 67 after a long struggle with cancer, Spanish media reported Saturday.

Bigas Luna, as he was simply known, directed more than a dozen films over his 35-year career.

Perhaps his best-known for international audiences was "Jamon Jamon" (1992), a raunchy comedy which starred newcomer Cruz and up-and-coming fellow Spanish actor Javier Bardem.

Both Cruz and Bardem went on separately to Hollywood careers and later became a real-life couple, marrying in 2010.

A decade before "Jamon Jamon", Bigas Luna had tried his own hand in Hollywood, making "Reborn" with Dennis Hopper in the lead, but the movie garnered little notice.

Bigas Luna kept working in Spain up to his death. In recent months he was preparing to film in his native city of Barcelona a movie called "Second Origin", a science fiction tale about Earth after an apocalyptic alien attack. - AFP

Tang Wei is feeling her characters

Posted: 06 Apr 2013 09:16 AM PDT

Tang Wei is one of China's most celebrated actresses, yet insists she is nothing like her celebrity image.

Tang Wei is one of the few young Chinese actresses who manages to be both popular and keep a low profile. She is a household name in China, largely thanks to her 2007 big screen debut in Ang Lee's Lust, Caution. But while the Golden Lion-winning film brought the then 28-year-old actress fame, she did not bask in the glow.

The film's nude scenes and the political issues raised instead led her to fade away from the spotlight for a year. The Central Academy of Drama (Beijing, China) graduate visited London and honed her dramatic skills further. She took two courses on theatre, auditioned for a number of plays and got a role in Shakespeare's Henry V.

On her return to China, she acted in five films, but seldom promoted them. She has no microblog or obvious web presence, yet still her every move is watched. Video clips of her English speech at an awards ceremony in South Korea and her English interview promoting the 2011 martial arts movie Dragon in Cannes, France were widely viewed online.

Passersby steal pictures of the star in bookstores, small restaurants and at the theatre and post them on the Internet. While her fans praise her mystery and grace, the critics say she is just a product of successful "hunger marketing".

"Stars are like Barbies," Tang Wei, 34, says. She is dressed casually in a white silk shirt and deep blue slim jeans and complains about her 10cm high heels. "I still can't get used to them," she adds.

"People make up their perceptions of a star, just like they put makeup on a Barbie. The 'star' Tang Wei," she says with a smile, pointing to the ceiling, "is there. She has nothing to do with the real me."

She attributes her ability to master dialects and languages like Cantonese in Lust, Caution, and English in Late Autumn, to her "shamelessness". She insists her English used to embarrass her. At a press conference in New York for Lust, Caution years ago, she says she forgot the word for "building". People laughed, but she said the mistake only made her remember the word better.

She claims she is not smart, good at painting – which she learned from her painter father – or acting, and adds her rise through the acting ranks is just the result of working hard, in what she describes as a "dumb way".

In her latest film, Finding Mr Right, she plays a Chinese woman who travels to Seattle in the United States to deliver her baby, whose father is the rich husband of some other woman. She filled a bag with rice and a ball of lead, and carried it around all day except when bathing or sleeping, to get an idea of what it was like to be a pregnant woman.

"I am not one of those gifted actors, so I try to live the character's life as best I can, hoping the physical practice brings mental change." For instance, when playing a farmer's wife in Peter Chan's Dragon, the eighth best movie of 2012 according to Time magazine, she put mud under her nails for the role.

She is an avid learner. She improved her Cantonese when making Crossing The Hennessey, a small budget romance that takes place in Hong Kong's narrow streets and tiny restaurants; learned tai chi for her role in Speed Angels; and some Korean when making Late Autumn, in which her character falls in love with a Korean conman in Seattle.

The latter film helped her become the first foreigner to win best actress at the PaekSang Arts Awards in South Korea.

She once said in an interview she is so curious she would willingly go to the South Pole some day and learn from the penguins.

Even so, her favourite place is still China, where she can speak Mandarin, take public transport and be among friends. She also likes looking for good and small, difficult-to-find eateries.

If discovered by a fan, she says, "I just change direction and keep on eating". What is the gift that you want most?

I wish I could understand a language after listening to it, not only those of people, but also those of animals and extraterrestrials. I believe I can bring a lot more to the world if I could use any language I listen to.

What would you do if you weren't an actress?

Maybe I would open a noodle shop and make it cozy and comfortable for everyone. Many girls dream of opening a bookstore, cafe, restaurant or flower store, and I share that dream, too.

If you could take one book to an island, which would it be?

I would take one about religion. Only a strong faith can sustain you on an isolated island, and religion has this power for you to believe, to read it again and again.

If you could talk to a former great in your industry, who would you choose and why?

I would say Charlie Chaplin at this moment, because I deeply felt how difficult comedy is when acting in Finding Mr Right. An actor needs to be born with a certain gift to do comedy, which I don't have now. I would want to ask him what he has been through, or just stand beside him for a while to see what his world is like.

What do you appreciate most in a man?

Concentration, something I lack now. Men who give full attention to what they are doing, however trivial, are charming and wise to me. I think so, what do you think?

If you could change one thing about your looks or character, what would it be?

What I have been trying to do is to concentrate. I find it hard. In this era when information is so fast and enormous, young people don't concentrate, and this is intolerable in acting. I hope one day I can fully focus on the thing I am doing, be it acting, an interview, or life.

Of what are you proudest?

Every step I have taken was my own choice. I have not done anything that I regret as of now. I am very glad that I have followed the voice at the bottom of my heart, never in a hurry, nor delaying. I feel inner peace, which brings inner peace to people around me, too. I am proud of being independent and relying on myself. – China Daily/Asia News Network

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

Ahad, 7 April 2013

The Star Online: Entertainment: Movies

The Star Online: Entertainment: Movies

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