Tilda Swinton’s new movie, “Julia,” sounds rather excellent. While it’s only getting mixed reviews so far it does sound kind of fascinating (too bad we weren’t invited to a screening, *tears*). She plays an actress who is also a fucked-up addict and free imbiber. TimeOutNewYork calls her turn in the film a “staggering lead performance.” Sounds good to us, we’re sold.
However, more interesting is the project she has coming up next.
She says she’s working with Lynne Ramsay — the MIA Scottish director behind the excellent indie flicks, “Morvern Callar” and “Ratcatcher”– and the two are “developing an adaptation of Lionel Shriver’s book ‘We Need to Talk About Kevin.’ ” That disturbing project about a fictional school massacre has been on the docket for Ramsay — who hasn’t made a picture since ‘Morvern’ in 2002 — for many years now, but we suppose the fact that Swinton is talking about it (and that she’s helping out) means its moving forward? Let’s hope so, it’s been too long since we’ve seen a picture by her (note: Ramsay was supposed to direct Alice Sebold’s “The Lovely Bones,” adaptation before Peter Jackson got a hold of it, but left the project in early 2004). Bring her back, Tilda.
And not any time soon, but still potentially exciting, is a future collaboration with opaque, filmsnob-approved Thai filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul known for his beautifully arty (read: confounding) and Cannes-endorsed films, “Blissfully Yours,” “Tropical Malady” and “Syndromes and a Century” (if you hated “The Limits Of Control” for example, stay away). “Very long-term, the Thai filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul and I are talking about making a film together,” she says. And while it’s not a lot, hey, it’s something we’d definitely be looking forward to.
Wow, very excited to hear that Swinton might be working with Apichatpong Weerasethakul! (But then I am a 'Filmsnob'.) I can certainly recommend that anyone interested in what makes cinema cinematic see 'Syndromes and Century' and pretty much everything else by Apichatpong.
You might also be interested in a piece I wrote recently about cinema and (HBO) television, and how directors like Apichatpong, Alexander Sokurov, Claire Denis and David Lynch are assuming an ever greater importance than ever now that so many mainstream film techniques have been 'borrowed' by television drama. It's at: http://matineeidle.wordpress.com/2009/11/19/hbo-versus-apichatpong-weerasethakul/