L'Uomo Vogue March 2010 : Hollywood's Oscars

[MissMagAddict]

source | vogue.it

L'Uomo Vogue doubles for the Academy Award, with two cover stories: Alec Baldwin, the host of the Oscars, and Jeff Bridges, nominated for Best Actor

On the eve of the 82nd edition of the Oscars, L'Uomo Vogue celebrates Hollywood with a special issue dedicated to actors, directors, screenwriters and other prominent professionals who share a common feature: they have all received one (or more) nominations for the prestigious Oscar statuette.

On the two covers, Alec Baldwin and Jeff Bridges. The former will host, with Steve Martin, the event that will be held next Sunday at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles; the latter was four times really close to victory. And this year he is among the favorites in the Best actor in a leading role category, thanks to his amazing performance in Crazy Heart.

On the cover Alec Baldwin photographed by Pierpaolo Ferrari. Shirt and bowtie, Ralph Lauren. Hat, Borsalino. Jeff Bridges photographed by Mark Seliger. Fashion editor Rushka Bergman.

 

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ALEC!

 

[Fontastic]

special issue

It's not "special" anymore if you have been doing it for years almost every issue.
But hey, at least they have changed the cover headline to something that doesn't include the word "unique".

 

[Donatello89]

aesthetic result is awesome

 

[Cosabella]

I miss the old L'uomo Vogue back when it wasn't celebrity worshiping.

 

[MON]

I miss the old L'uomo Vogue back when it wasn't celebrity worshiping.

I couldn't agree with you more

 

[Prescott]

Still has its own feelgood thing. Kind of.

 

[montrealm]

hooray!

 

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After the definitive refusal to do Spider-man 4, the actor of Brothers say he is "extremely excited" at the idea of being able to move into a genre of cinema which has not yet been widely explored. Whilst his own production agency grows in strength

With a Marine's figure, a seriously attractive face and his wild-eyed look, Toby Maguire's role as Captain Sam Cahill in Brothers is far from the romantic nerd from the Spiderman trilogy, one of the roles which first made him famous. Yet there are mixed opinions about his interpretations of Jim Sheridan's film: In Variety's review it is noted that his explosion of rage (the climax of the film) is "mechanic", yet it was the intensity of this same piece which won him the nomination at the Golden Globes and sparked a media buzz which suggested him as a possible candidate for an Oscar. In preparation for the role Maguire spent time at Camp Pendleton in California and also analysed, through talking to army medics and psychologists, the effect of trauma caused by war. He also lost nine kilos for the part. "It was hard, but I think it was necessary in order to visually portray how much he had gone through and it really helped me to get into the part."

vogue.it

 

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Tahar Tahim is the protagonist in the latest Jacques Audiard film, A Prophet, in which he plays the part of a young imprisoned Arab. It is a role which has consecrated him as the new promise of French Cinema

Last year Tahar Rahim arrived on the Croisette as a perfect stranger, and left as the new promise of French cinema. He convinced the press and jury of his talent with his role as leading man in A Prophet, a prison movie by French director Jacques Aurdiard, winner of the Grand Prix by the jury at Cannes, nominated for 13 Cesar awards and currently running for Best Foreign Picture at the Oscars.

Thanks to that role, the young French actor of Algerian descent has made a great leap toward stardom yet still describes himself as a simple person, a "country boy." Born 28 years ago in a small French town on the border with Switzerland Tahar Rahim discovered the world through television. When he announced his desire to become an actor to his parents he was met with unexpected support.

So began the difficult years when Tahar divided his time between nights at random jobs and days of acting school. In 2007, a fateful encounter with Jacques Audiard marked a turning point in his acting career. "With what Audiard taught me, I learned to find a foothold within myself. I learned to walk on my own legs, to dive so deeply into a role to forget that I'm acting."

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In his new Precious, the director explores, as in his previous films, uncomfortable topics: poverty, gender, abuse and degradation

Lee Daniels' films are hard to watch. And yet, considering the awards, acclaim, and box office sales of his most recent and rawest work, Precious, it's just as difficult to look away. This is all fine with Daniels, a black homosexual from the projects of Philadelphia, who transforms "nobodies" into the protagonists of impressively dramatic films.

His latest film is based on the novel by Sapphire about an illiterate sixteen year old in Harlem during the 80s who is impregnated by her father and is mentally and physically abused by her mother. The film has had quite a season: three Sundance awards, three Golden Globe nominations, and six Oscar nominations including Best Director and Best Picture.

In all of Daniels' films, including his debut Shadowboxer, there is no escaping the dark side. "My technique is to start talking nonchalantly about sex, drugs, sunglasses, or wine or whatever and then say 'action!' To create a perfect tone before turning on the camera. This is my secret weapon," explains the director.

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The German actor debuted in cinema in 2009 with The White Ribbon by Michael Haneke, which won the Palme d'Or at Cannes and is currently nominated for an Oscar as the best foreign film. For years he performed in the local theaters of Hanover and Dresden, but since Cannes everything has changed. "Famous? I haven't yet noticed being so. Hankeke's rehearsals are true life experiences, they last for days, over the corse of which he teaches you to act in his own way. His obsession with detail isn't oppressive, but, to the contrary, nourishes the actor. On the set I felt all inhibition scatter, above all in front of the prying eye of the camera." In the near future Friedel would like another film project. "My dream? A Haneke 2! But also a film with Tim Burton or David Lynch. Maybe a more evil part, as an antagonist." He also has a knack for music (a passion which scored him the part in the film), that he has cultivated semi-professionally since childhood. "I hope to find the time to become a true musician and develop a career as a theater actor and cinematographer. I'm eclectic: doing only one thing has always bored me."

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A wolf with the voice of George Clooney that, tired of being a journalist and running a normal family life, gives into his primordial instinct to rob what his neighbors offer: poultry and cider, thereby causing an endless feud. Fantastic Mr. Fox is most recent product of the creative monster that is Wes Anderson, and is up for Best Animated Feature Film and Best Soundtrack at the Oscars. It will be in Italian theaters in April with the title Una volpe troppo furba.

The Texan director, screenwriter and producer changes the genre but not the mood of his quirky and bitter comedies. At forty years old, Anderson has created a unique brand of cinema whose main ingredients are eccentricity, imagination, and eternal adolescence. He uses a small circle of "trusted" actors, including the brothers Luke and Owen Wilson, Bill Murray, Anjelica Huston and Jason Schwartzman.

He shoots them using static, photographic framing that emphasizes the symbolic and unreal atmosphere in which they find themselves. Fantastic Mr. Fox, filmed in stop motion, was inspired by the 1970 Roald Dahl novel of the same name. In addition to Clooney, the voice overs include Meryl Streep, Michael Gambon, Willem Dafoe and Wes Anderson himself.

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The director of Crazy heart was able to transform a great passion into the key of success. Today the story of singer-songwriter "Bad Blake", has won two Oscars

When, at three years old in 1974, he began to listen to the bluegrass of Bill Monroe and Ralph and Carter Stanley, he couldn't have imagined that, 25 years later, his love of country music would serve as the turning point in his career. Scott Cooper, screenwriter, producer and director, began his acting career after studying at the famous Lee Strasberg Institute of New York.

He debuted on the big screen in 1998 with Dry Martini by Alejandro Chomski, followed by several films and television series. "But, it's when I came across the novel by Thomas Cobb, Crazy Heart, that I thought the character of the book would allow me to tell the story of all the great country singers," he explains. And so it was. Crazy Heart, shot in only twenty-four days with a budget of seven million dollars, was a tough challenge for Cooper.

Now the actor/director holds his breath and, despite receiving daily work proposals, prefers to spend some time with his two daughters, Ava and Stella, three and six years old. In the future he would like to work on several fronts: writing, producing, directing and acting, he just can't resist the allure of creating something from nothing.

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This thirty-nine year old Californian has loads of TV and film experience, but "The Hurt Locker" offers him the ultimate opportunity

Jeremy Renner has the face of the man next door. He's not one of those overly handsome leading men, but more reminiscent of the great character actors such as Robert Mitchum, Harry Dean Stanton, and Warren Oates; men that could seem tough and sensitive at the same time. Jeremy Renner should be happy to have that face, because it has guaranteed him solid career in cinema. Without that face he never would have gained the trust of director Katheryn Bigelow or the respect of the writer Mark Boal. He would not have gained the opportunity (and the part) that changed his life, that of Major William James in The Hurt Locker.

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With "The Hurt Locker" she became the first woman to win the Oscar for Best Director. Beating out her ex-mentor and ex-husband, James Cameron

"No makeup, lets get it over with" booms Kathryn Bigelow. Tall, slim, with long hair and a sincere smile: she's spectacular and, just like the films she makes, essential. "No lip gloss and no stylist; I'm happy with a jacket and jeans, please, I'm almost sixty. I've got an instinctive aversion to awards ceremoniues and the spotlight, but I admit that of course, it's flattering. But it's not like I expect to win!"

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The young director of Thank You for Smoking and Juno hits the mark once again with the cynical and contemporary Up in the Air

At the Beverly Hilton Hotel, packed for the Golden Globe finals, Jason Reitman darts, iPhone in hand, between journalists gathered for the press junket of his film Up in the Air. They ask tens, hundreds, thousands of questions, recording short videos that will later be edited into a music video accompanied by the tunes of Wilco, his favorite band. "If I win, I'm going to bring my dad and do a shoot for Uomo Vogue. It's all about winning, apart from participation." After filming the last shots and sending the last copies of the DVD to the members of Hollywood foreign press, victory is in the hands of destiny.

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He waited with bated breath for 11 months before getting the part. Today, we're smitten with the protagonist of A Serious Man, who after years of theater now wants to stick with quality films

Michael Stuhlbarg is a seasoned actor. He has done hundreds auditions and the first time he stepped on stage dates 30 years ago. He had never, however, undergone a process as long and torturous as the bid to play the main character of the Coen brothers' last film, A Serious Man. Eleven months passed from the first audition to when we has assigned the role of Larry, claims the actor.

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The Nazi with a tender heart from "Inglourious Basterds" has clear ideas about his future, but in the meantime explores unlikeable roles

Thanks to his portrayal as Frederick Zoller, the sensitive Nazi of Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds, Daniel Bruhl's fame has crossed the ocean, making him one of Europe's best known actors in America, and certainly the most famous German translator (though born in Spain) outside of Germany. At 31 years old, things couldn't be more promising for the young Berliner. With five films out in 2009, he's been a protagonist of the last cinematographic season, and with even more projects currently undertaken, 2010 promises to be a hot year for the actor.

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His latest screen appearance is in the role of a fallen country music legend, who finds himself reduced to playing in dive bars, in an independent film shot in twenty-four days by a debut director. But Bridges' "Bad" Blake goes straight to the heart - and after numerous nominations, it finally won the actor his first Oscar

"Bad" Blake has a gravelly voice, roughened by years of smoke, whiskey and late nights. His body shows the bloat of alcohol and time, his hair has turned grey, and yet he hasn't lost that boldness and brashness of a man who has known fame and glory. Shaggy beard, ponytail and guitar slung around his shoulder, he moves from place to place- alone and often not sober - singing his country songs in unremarkable locales. Once this was a man who filled stadiums and had women at his feet. Bad Blake is the alcoholic, fallen hero of "Crazy Heart": a low-budget, independent film that was shot by the debut director Scott Cooper in twenty-four days. Jeff Bridges' outstanding acting brought this little film into the spotlight, earning awards and nominations.

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