Schnabel movie

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.

I have completely fallen in love with the new Julian Schnabel movie. God, I want to see it again and again. Its based off the real life memoirs of a Fashion Editor at Elle Magazine who suffered a massive stroke. He woke up to find himself in a hospital bed with a condition called “locked-in syndrome” (imagine that). We spend the rest of the film living his paralyzed dogs-eye-view and residing inside his brain while he recollects his life. He managed to relay his life memoirs by dictating his thoughts to a bedside publisher using the blink of his eyes. Sounds like a downer, but I swear its one of the most uplifting stories I’ve ever seen. Just to add to the European authenticity and flavor, its all in French. The film was raved at this years at Cannes Film Festival. And the cast? I can’t stop gushing… just go see it when it comes out this December 07.

(oh, for all those women panicked about aging in Hollywood, this film is good medicine and throws that theory out the window. Every single female is older, sexy, wiser, and a testament to real women).
J

Graphic of the Day

W Magazines Design Director, Eddie Leida, made this little graphic for no reason. Isn’t’ it cute? Short and to the point.
J

Battle in Seattle

Important flick

Its not every day writers/directors pour their souls into telling a good story considering how fast Hollywood churns out films these days. Ever since I met Stuart Townsend 7 years ago, he’s been researching, writing, and passionately creating a super complex narrative of what really went down those 5 days in 1999 in Seattle. For those that don’t know, The World Trade Organization (WTO) was scheduled to meet and thousands of American citizens showed up to protest. How did they organize? Online. It was considered the first real internet revolution in the USA.

Stuart lived off a steady diet off Adbusters and GNN while gobbling up book after book on globalization, free trade, farm subsidies, protesting organizations, and global warming, among others. The results? A smart script. Complicated characters. From the Seattle police going to work that day, to innocent bystanders stuck on the streets, to the difficult job of Seattle’s mayor (ex Vietnam vet no less) having to call in the National Guard and greenlight forceful control over peaceful protesters. The tales intertwine in Crash-like manner culminating into an emotional (and real life) positive ending. “People-power” in action.

The movie got bought by ThinkFilms at this years Toronto Film Fest, so keep an eye open for it in theaters. We hope to see Stuart directing many more stories in the future.
J

The website is another world unto itself and goes deeper and deeper into the real issues everyone came out into the streets that day. To get schooled on the causes, go to:

BATTLE IN SEATTLE OFFICIAL SITE

Meet’n'Greet: Amara

Amara Karan

Today, this sweet actress came in our office. We talked about her new movie being released tomorrow, Wes Andersons Darjeeling Limited which was co-written by Wes and Roman Coppola. The film also stars Jason Schwartzman and Owen Wilson. I asked her how she managed to get into such a cool film as a newbie, and she straight-up said she got sent to general casting and just made it through all the call-backs. Lucky girl. In her next film, St. Trinian she plays someone called Peaches who’s in a school of “ungovernable” girls……and so a new career is launched!

We gave her the “Starworks Word Association game”. Here’s how she fared.

ACTING: “fun”
CHILDHOOD: “warm”
WES: “anderson”
INDIA: “times”
BRITNEY SPEARS: (she took a deep breath before answering this one…) “pop”
DARJEELING TEA: “green”
HERO: “Superman”
FAMILY: “too many”
MUSIC: “classical”
RELAXATION: “meditation”

Cavalli for H&M

Leigh spotting.

Here’s a sneak peak H&M ad for the Roberto Cavalli Limited Edition line coming out November 8th. Note: Leigh of the Misshapes sitting front and center next to Roberto. I cant keep up with these guys.

Run to your local H&M on 11/8 when the line hits about 200 of their stores. Its gonna go like hotcakes!
J

MORE HERE.