Tag: the muppets

84th Academy Awards: Winners

Post author By Ambrose Heron
Post date 27/02/2012

The Artist won five awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, (Michael Hazanavicius) and Best Actor (Jean Dujardin).

Meryl Streep (The Iron Lady) was awarded Best Actress, whilst in the supporting categories Christopher Plummer (Beginners) and Octavia Spencer (The Help) won for their respective roles.

Hugo was the big winner in the technical categories, winning Cinematography, Sound Editing and Mixing, Art Direction and Visual Effects.

The Artist also became the the first silent film to win Best Picture since Wings (1927), which won the same prize at the very first Academy Awards.

So in a year that has seen great changes as cinema shifts from celluloid to digital, there was something appropriate in the big winners being tributes to the silent era and one of its true pioneers, Georges Méliès.

FULL LIST OF WINNERS

Best Picture: THE ARTIST
Best Director: MICHEL HAZANAVICIUS – The Artist
Best Actor: JEAN DUJARDIN – The Artist
Best Actress: MERYL STREEP – The Iron Lady
Best Supporting Actor: CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER – Beginners
Best Supporting Actress: OCTAVIA SPENCER – The Help
Best Original Screenplay: MIDNIGHT IN PARIS – Woody Allen
Best Adapted Screenplay: THE DESCENDANTS – Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, and Jim Rash from The Descendants by Kaui Hart Hemmings
Best Animated Feature: RANGO
Best Art Direction: HUGO – Dante Ferretti
Best Cinematography: HUGO– Robert Richardson
Best Costume Design: THE ARTIST – Mark Bridges
Best Documentary Feature: UNDEFEATED
Best Documentary Short Subject: SAVING FACE
Best Film Editing: THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO – Kirk Baxter & Angus Wall
Best Foreign Language Film: A SEPARATION
Best Makeup: THE IRON LADY
Best Original Score: THE ARTIST – Ludovic Bource
Best Original Song: THE MUPPETS – Man or Muppet
Best Animated Short Film: THE FANTASTIC FLYING BOOKS OF MR MORRIS LESSMORE
Best Live Action Short Film: THE SHORE
Best Sound Editing: HUGO – Philip Stockton and Eugene Gearty
Best Sound Mixing: HUGO – Tom Fleischman and John Midgley
Best Visual Effects: HUGO – Rob Legato, Joss Williams, Ben Grossmann & Alex Henning

> Official Oscar site
> Explore the 84th Academy Awards in depth at Wikipedia

Tags a separation, beginners, hugo, midnight in paris, rango, saving face, the artist, the fantastic flying books of mr morris lessmore, the girl with the dragon tattoo, the help, the iron lady, the muppets, the shore, undefeated

Awards Season music

84th Academy Awards: Original Song

Post author By Ambrose Heron
Post date 17/02/2012

There’s only two contenders up for original song this year, and both are from family movies.

MAN OR MUPPET from THE MUPPETS (Music and Lyric by Bret McKenzie)

This song was used as the official music video for the film and was performed by Jason Segel and Walter the muppet.

The Muppets Original Soundtrack available on Walt Disney Records and more information is on their official site.

You can also download the sheet music and read an Observer profile on Jason Segel here.

REAL IN RIO from RIO (Music by Sergio Mendes and Carlinhos Brown / Lyric by Siedah Garrett)

In the film, this song is divided in two parts: the first is played in the opening sequence and the second is sung in the penultimate scene of the film. (On the soundtrack, the song is complete).

Unfortunately, they don’t seem to have made the full track officially available, so I’ve included the promotional 2 minute clip that the studio released on YouTube back in the Spring.

The official website for Rio is here and you can download the score from the iTunes store here.

> Official Oscar site
> Explore past winners of Best Original Song at Wikipedia

Tags rio, the muppets

Cinema

UK Cinema Releases: Friday 10th February 2012

Post author By Ambrose Heron
Post date 10/02/2012

NATIONAL RELEASES

The Muppets (Disney): Modern update of the TV show which revolves around The Muppets reuniting for a show to save their old studios in Hollywood, which are in danger of falling into the hands of an evil Texas oil man. Directed by James Bobin, it stars Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Gonzo, Animal, Jason Segel, Amy Adams and Chris Cooper. [Nationwide / U]

The Woman In Black (Momentum): A young lawyer (Daniel Radcliffe) travels to a remote village to organize a recently deceased client’s papers, where he discovers the ghost of a scorned woman set on vengeance. Directed by James Watkins, it co-stars Ciaran Hinds, Janet McTeer and Liz White. [Nationwide / 12A]

A Dangerous Method (Lionsgate UK): A drama which explores how the relationship between Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender) and Sigmund Freud (Viggo Mortensen) gave birth to psychoanalysis. Directed by David Cronenberg, also stars Keira Knightly. [Selected cinemas / London 10th Feb, Nationwide 17th Feb / 15] [Read our full review]

Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (20th Century Fox): 3D re-release for the 1999 Star Wars prequel. Directed by George Lucas, it stars Natalie Portman, Liam Neeson and Ewan McGregor. [Nationwide / U]

The Vow (Sony Pictures): A newlywed couple (Rachel McAdams and Channing Tatum) recover from a car accident that puts the wife in a coma. Waking up with with severe memory loss, her husband endeavors to win her heart again. Directed by Michael Sucsy, it co-stars Sam Neil and Scott Speedman. [Nationwide / 12A]

ALSO OUT

Casablanca (Park Circus): Reissue of the classic 1942 film. Directed by Michael Curtiz, it stars Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman and Claude Rains. [Key cities / U]

> Get local cinema showtimes at Google Movies or FindAnyFilm
> The Best Films of 2011
> The Best DVD & Blu-ray Releases of 2011
> Recent UK DVD & Blu-ray releases

Tags a dangerous method, the muppets, the woman in black

Amusing

The Muppets vs Fox News

Post author By Ambrose Heron
Post date 30/01/2012

The Muppets recently responded to criticisms from Fox News about their new film.

For a bit of context, here is the original segment piece which features the obligatory use of the word “liberal” as an insult, shouting-as-debate and swooshing graphics:

At the recent UK press conference, Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy responded:

> The new Muppets movie
> More on Fox News at Wikipedia

Tags the muppets

Amusing Interesting TV

The Orson Welles Show

Post author By Ambrose Heron
Post date 13/07/2010

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I want you to imagine that Orson Welles once had a TV chatshow in the late 1970s.

Then I want to you to get a little bit more creative and imagine that the guests on this show include Burt Reynolds, The Muppets and Angie Dickinson.

But wait. This actually happened.

This is the intro for an unaired pilot Welles did for a chat show back in 1979.

Note how he talks about the possibilities of television like someone evangelising about the Internet circa 1997.

But the really good stuff is yet to come.

Welles introduces Burt Reynolds (“I like him. I like him very much.”) and for some reason they are wearing matching red shirts and jackets (“simple, lousy coincidence!”).

Also note the unconventional format where they ditch the ‘what are you plugging’ banter and dive straight into questions from the audience, some of which prompt interesting answers.

After that we get some contributions from Fozzie Bear, Kermit the Frog and Sam The Eagle, followed by more pontificating from Welles about the nature of television: