Saturday, December 23, 2006

FACES I LOVE #8: LIGHTS OF THE SEASON


"The countenance is the portrait of the soul, and the eyes mark its intentions." ~Cicero

"It matters more what's in a woman's face than what's on it." ~Claudette Colbert

Gloria Grahame

Phyllis Diller

Anna Massey (1969)

Anna Massey (today)

Claudia Cardinale

Selma Blair

Regina King

Patty Loveless

Ming-Na

Melanie Lynskey

Jennie Finch

Helen Mirren

Fiona Shaw

Famke Janssen

Eva Mendes

Eileen Atkins (1969)

Eileen Atkins (today)

Penelope Cruz

Corinne Bailey Rae

Carole Laure

Natalie Mendoza

Elizabeth Banks

Raquel Torres

Maureen O'Hara

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Next week, my top ten list (complete with movies I haven't seen), some thoughts on recent documentaries, Moments Out of Time, more lists, plus the year's best movies for children from a child's perspective. I'm taking a break until Tuesday. Have a merry Christmas, everyone!

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10 comments:

Lester said...

Jennie Finch, right on Dennis, she is so tough, yet so beautiful. I never expected, nor did I ever think about her photo being added to your collection of faces. Definately shows the versitality and range of your subject matter. Merry Christmas.

Anonymous said...

At first glance that photo of Patty Loveless appears to be Nicole Ritchie. The similarity is actually striking. I have always that Famke was a knock-out and Eva... wow.

Hey Dennis, what do you think about 300, the movie about Thermopylae adapted from a Frank Miller (of Sin City fame) book. The director is Zack Snyder, who director the remake of Dawn of the Dead, and his next movie is Watchmen, the granddaddy of all comic book adaptations. Needless to say, I am very interested to see how this one turns out. The trailer is out and it looks promising and horrible all at once. My hopes are sky high, but my expectations are low so as not to have my heart broken.

The trailer: http://tinyurl.com/y6ru6u

Dennis Cozzalio said...

Not being much on following graphic novels, I have to admit I didn't know what 300 was until I saw the trailer. It certainly doesn't look like anything else I've ever seen, and at least one smart fan I know feels like there's good reason to be very excited. And I loved Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead, so I'll be very interested to see what he comes up with. I hope you like this one better than V for Vendetta!

Anonymous said...

I wish I hadn't read V for Vendetta before seeing the movie because then I probably would have had two things to love. I fully admit that my opinion was biased by my geeky love of the book.

300 on the other hand is a cool read, but nothing near and dear. I don't want them to mess it up, but I think it will be plenty kickass in any case and that might be good enough. I went and checked out the screenshots comparison on solace in cinema and it looks like Zack is doing it right.

The big adapation is the Watchmen though. I am a minor comic nerd, I read the classics on graphic novel and love them, but I am not that passionate and I read books with no pictures far more than the other. However, among those who are true fanboys, Watchmen is held in absurdly high esteem. It is widely praised as the single best hero comic book ever (someone said that it was the exclamation point at the end of the genre, something like Unforgiven). In other words, no way those people will dig the movie, unless it is a 6-8 hour long frame for frame adaptation. I hope that after being disappointed by V for Vendetta I will have learned my lesson and go in expecting nothing and hoping for everything. Anyway enjoy 300 and happy New Year!

Anonymous said...

Have you finished reading V for Vendetta, Dennis? I just went back and reread your two posts (were there more?) on V and you mention several times that you hadn't finished. I think that there are a lot of cool characters that didn't make it into the movie.

Dennis Cozzalio said...

It's still at my bedside, and I'm inching my way through it-- just like the (literally) 14 or 15 other books piled up beside, and around, and on top of it right now. I'm actually kind of glad that there's some separation for me between seeing the movie and reading the book, but that's largely a sad rationalization on my part. The reality is, it's awfully hard for me to find time to sit down and read for any prolonged period of time, so the books tend to really pile up. I am frightfully close to finishing Sarah Vowell's Assassination Vacation, though! And I'm really enjoying languishing in books by Jonathan Rosenbaum, Roger Ebert, as well as that great volume of collected baseball writing edited by Philip Lopate. So I'm not illiterate, even though sometimes, when I get into bed and fall fast asleep after only one page, it feels like it.

Speaking of which, the Giants get rid of Schmidt so they can overpay for Barry Zito for seven years? I actually feel bad for Mets fans! Although seeing the inevitable Schmidt-Zito matchup this coming summer will certainly give Rick and Charley something to lather over!

Anonymous said...

I think the Dodgers got the better end of it. 7 is a big number in pitcher years.

I am almost finished with Positively Fourth Street, David Hajdu's bio on Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Richard Farina and Mimi Farina. Thankfully I live in Chicago, no LA, so I have time to read on the train (reading in traffic jams is bad for your health). On the other hand I was excited because it was in the mid 40s today...

I notice that you have a link to the Steely Dan dictionary on your website. Are you a big fan? If so you probably decoded my blog's name fairly quickly.

Dennis Cozzalio said...

California tumbles into the sea/That’ll be the day I go back to Annendale

I suspected it was a Dan reference, but I couldn’t remember whether I’d ever talked to you about them!

I haven’t been so hot on Fagen’s last two albums—intermittently brilliant, I think, but nothing like The Nightfly. However, I love Two Against Nature and Everything Must Go. (“Godwhacker” was born a classic.)

But even though there’s hardly a track of theirs that I don’t unreservedly love (maybe “Deacon Blues”), my Steely heart belongs to The Royal Scam. That, to me, is a perfect record.

Agents of the law
Luckless pedestrians
I know you’re out there
With a rage in your eye
And your megaphone


Happy new year!

Anonymous said...

Ha, yeah they went to Bard college, plus there is the Shakespeare reference and I just graduated so I figured there were enough shit thrown against the wall for it all to work. "Deacon Blues" is the first song that I got into, so it is funny to hear you say you don't like it.

Hey nineteen
Thats retha franklin
She dont remember
The queen of soul
Its hard times befallen
The sole survivors
She thinks Im crazy
But Im just growing old

Have some Cuervo Gold, but no fine Colombian and a wonderful new year, Dennis.

Dennis Cozzalio said...

Well, I wouldn't say I don't like "Deacon Blues"-- it's just that, as I do most every other song in their catalog, I don't lurrrrvv it, I don't lufff it! (All apologies to Woody Allen and/or Alvy Singer.)

I will take your suggestion to heart and avoid the fine Colombian (unless Maria Full Of Grace shows up on HBO at just the right time), though I will be trading up from Cuervo to my favorite agave-based beverage.

Happy new year to you and yours, Benaiah!