It was really cool & so much fun to be able have these @IvanMovie Zoom Press Junket Gallery on Monday with all the wonderful & talented people 💋
・・・
The One and Only Ivan is streaming exclusively on #DisneyPlus starting August 21 💜 🐓 🐕 🦍 🦜 🐘 #OneandOnlyIvanpic.twitter.com/4HZINanlav
This year's Palm Dog winner is Brandy, Brad Pitt's pet pit bull from Quentin Tarantino's #OnceUponATimeInHollywood. Tarantino showed up to receive the red collar prize. Brandy sent her regrets, claiming she had a squirrel to chase. #Cannes2019pic.twitter.com/NdvEwXiipx
ICYMI Quentin Tarantino accepted this year's Palm Dog Awards in #Cannes for Brandy, the rottweiler who stars in "Once Upon A Time In Hollywood" alongside Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio. pic.twitter.com/qEmR8GHeL7
— AP Entertainment (@APEntertainment) May 23, 2019
Rolling up both sleeves to show off his tattoo and new Breitling watch.
And doing his best to make sure he shows off the tattoo clearly and repeatedly. Brad has never been known to have the mannerism of repeatedly holding his chin or posing to ponder simple and obvious questions some of which were already answered in earlier interviews.
At the photo call, he made sure to pose with his left arm clearly visible to show off the Breitling. For junket interviews, he changed his shirt (Leo stayed with the same blue suit), rolled up both sleeves, and made sure his right arm was angled towards the fixed camera to show off his tattoo.
When the May 30 Order leaked, they said the leak was "misleading" and gives an "inaccurate and unfair picture of what is really happening." Because they agreed to stay within the framework of a dissolution case as a safeguard
for the children, they must choose from a set of associated legal
filings what they can use to help them achieve reconciliation, reinstatement, and reunification between Brad and the kids. Those filings -- the May 30 Order and the sealed judgement on status -- are merely tools to nudge the children to
improve their relationship with Brad. The filings thus provide a misleading and inaccurate picture of what is really happening.
Their message is: watch them and the clear signs they are giving for the true picture, not the petition which they never wanted and only agreed to keep at the urging of childcare professionals because they "are focused on what’s best for the kids." They have held tight, weathered the storm, and worked things through TOGETHER. As the new Miraval website makes clear, Brad and Angelina are ONE formidable force. They are PARTNERS since 2005. United, undivided, stronger and closer, and partnersfor LIFE.
I spent 27 minutes with Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio today (they were nice). Here's what they said about their new film, Quentin Tarantino and a few other things: https://t.co/VP1AGOMz73pic.twitter.com/IEbwx6cSKF
By Manohla Dargis
May 22, 2019
CANNES, France — On Tuesday, Quentin Tarantino
returned with a bang and much critical love to the Cannes Film Festival
with “Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood,” his finest in years. A dream
of a movie, it follows a handful of Hollywood types living in smoggy,
starry Los Angeles in 1969, the year the Manson family
went on a frenzied murder spree. Among the victims was the actress
Sharon Tate, then married to Roman Polanski. In Tarantino’s
Hollywoodland, Tate and Polanski live next door to Rick Dalton (Leonardo
DiCaprio), a struggling, self-doubting TV actor. His best friend is
Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt), a stuntman whose glory days are probably behind
him. Rick could be another Clint Eastwood; Cliff should have been
another Steve McQueen.
On Wednesday
afternoon, I sat down for a brief chat with Pitt and DiCaprio in a suite
at the Carlton Hotel, one of the grand hotels overlooking the
Mediterranean. The two were in the midst of a massive publicity
operation that day, giving interview after interview. Presenting a movie
at Cannes can be big business and the army of Sony Pictures employees
handling this offensive had the air of people worried about fumbling the
most delicate of rarities. Their famous charges, by contrast, seemed
wholly relaxed. Each man was affable, direct and seemed happy to talk,
but, then, they have been in the business a long time. They know how to
do this.<
[Read our critic’s take on “Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood.”]
Here are excerpts from the conversation.
MANOHLA DARGIS Did Tarantino show you movies to prepare for your roles? BRAD PITT [to DiCaprio] More you than me. LEONARDO DICAPRIO We had a screening of a multitude of B films that I had never heard of, a lot of 1960s television with actors like Ralph Meeker and Ty Hardin.
These guys could have been McQueen-esque, but didn’t make the
transition from black and white television, especially westerns, to
career-makers like “The Great Escape.” So it was almost like a love
story to them. Did they get that one opportunity? No, that may have
passed them by. So let’s start talking about your character, what he
might have been, what he’s struggling with as a working-class guy in the
industry who has been playing the heavy from television show to
television show. What that does to his psyche and his confidence? PITT
I [remember] a lot of that television. In fact [Tarantino] reminded me
of much of it that I had forgotten. We did watch “Billy Jack,” some Tom Laughlin,
just for fun. We were pretty much weaned on the same television and
film. We talked a lot about the stuntman-actor relationship. I got to
meet Bud Ekens,
who was Steve McQueen’s. This was a legendary relationship. He did the
jump for “The Great Escape,” got Steve McQueen into motorcycles. And,
then, Burt Reynolds and Hal Needham.
We got to talk to Burt. Originally he was going to play George Spahn.
We had rehearsals before he passed. I was surprised what a joy that was
and how giving he was, and I was really moved by it. But then I realized
that so much of my childhood was watching Burt Reynolds — he was the
biggest thing around in the late 1970s.
DARGIS Did you two hang out so you could develop your flow together? DICAPRIO
You come to Hollywood and you’re basically isolated and left to your
own devices. [Rick and Cliff] rely on this friendship for everything. We
immediately fell into those shoes. We understood that relationship
[laughs] so quickly that on the first day, we were those guys. PITT
It was pretty automatic. We both came on the scene around the same
time, we have crossed paths many times, we have the same reference
points. I’ve always felt that you don’t understand the deal you’re
making when suddenly you’re that lone gazelle on the plain and the
herd’s gone, so to speak. And, you know, my friend here [he gestures
toward DiCaprio] has been the same. So there’s automatic comfort in
having experienced the same thing in that way. That’s not a complaint in
any way, I say that merely as fact. We have mutual respect and I know
when an actor elevates a scene, so we carry that respect.
DARGIS
Obviously Tarantino’s movies are very written and his voice is very
strong. Does it take awhile to shake his voice out and fill in yours? DICAPRIO
And hear your own, is that what you’re saying? [Laughs] I suppose so.
He is such an absolute powerhouse of a personality, of course, and an
artist as well. But, look, he gives you real ownership. [There are]
beats that you need to hit. But there are plenty of opportunities where
once you get into the groove, there can be a completely improvisational
scene. And you’re almost making reference points from his dialogue and
his voice and the multitude of talks that you’ve had with him about who
this character is and what kind of movie he wants to make. They sort of
bloom sometimes, and that’s happened quite a few times. PITT
You know when you have an altercation in public or you put your foot in
your mouth, and you’re driving home and you think of that witty thing
that you wished you would have said? His dialogue is that witty thing.
DARGIS Rick Dalton is kind of like the Clint Eastwood who doesn’t happen. DICAPRIO
He is the guy who almost got that shot — and that’s what’s torturing my
character. I grew up in this industry, I have a lot of friends who are
actors, and there’s so much talent out there. But it really boils down
to being at the right place at the right time. PITT
We talk about this with streaming. With streaming, we see so much
talent that was always there. There are so many more opportunities.
We’re seeing this wealth of actors, writers and directors. And it just
reminds us how lucky we were to land where we landed. DICAPRIO Mm-hmm.
DARGIS I worry that so much seems disposable. PITT
It may be. I’ve been really interested in younger generations that
cannot just sit in a chair for the length of a movie. They want their
information quicker. That may just be the changing of the times. I don’t
know.
DICAPRIO
I see positives in the fact that things and ideas and story lines that
normally studios might not take a chance on, through these new streaming
services, will see the light of day. So cream may rise to the top. What
were people saying about the transition from silent films to talkies
and the advent of television? There were all these changes, but great
art is going to be spoken about and, hopefully, we don’t get so
inundated that we become confused.
DARGIS I found “Once Upon a Time” surprisingly moving. PITT Absolutely, you can see it in the script, you can feel it. DICAPRIO
The only thing I’ll say is that I know what the Manson murders sort of
represented, being a native of Los Angeles and having parents who are
still hippies to this day.
DARGIS Real hippies? PITT I met his dad on set and said, “How nice, he’s going to be an extra in the film.” And he goes “No, that’s him every day.” DICAPRIO
They talked about this loss of innocence, this real turning point where
they had these ideals about what the future could be. And then all of a
sudden this one longhaired guy — and how he manipulated these kids to
do what they did — it changed the world forever. PITT I walk away [from the film] with a hopeful reminder of what it can be, what we can be.
DARGIS What was the hopeful part? PITT
Taking care of each other, that’s what I feel at the end. It really
endears me to Quentin. I could be projecting, but I see a kid who was
home by himself a lot and found his — DICAPRIO — solace — PITT
— solace and direction in these heroes on the screen, big and small. I
find that in his dialogue. I find that in the scenarios. I find this one
really endearing. He’s exposing his own self-doubts. [DiCaprio starts
mm-hmming.] I just see this real innocent kid who wishes life could be
this way. Maybe it’s because I know Quentin I find it hopeful and
endearing. I was really, really moved at the end.
DARGIS I find it’s interesting that he’s gone back to the past again. PITT He’s going back to his childhood. DICAPRIO
Yeah, I agree. What Brad said is very pertinent because cinema and
television and all this stuff, it’s in [Tarantino’s] DNA. He puts things
in historical context but he also creates a fairy tale. This whole idea
of him recreating history — like what he did in “Inglourious Basterds” with Hitler — much like Scorsese, too, where in their childhood, cinema became part of their DNA and their language and their ability to converse with others — PITT — their spiritual grounding — DICAPRIO
— yeah, it’s embedded in who they are as human beings. You rarely find
people like that. Like Brad was saying, this is his homage and his
reminiscence of 1969 where everything changed culturally and
cinematically. It’s incredibly imaginative.
Saturday, May 24, 2014
video at link
14-ft wings like a pterodactyl, loved Treasure Island and Dumbo, didn't like princesses
Angelina Jolie is pondering what she’s learned from playing
Maleficent, the eponymous evil queen in Disney’s new live-action family
blockbuster. “Oddly,” she says, those famous zeppelin lips arranging
themselves into a playful smile, “I learned more about myself as a
woman. Which is a very odd thing to say about a horned fairy.”
She’s referring to the fact that the film, a
Wicked-style re-telling of Sleeping Beauty, adds a new psychological
dimension to the child-cursing, cheekbone-sculpted villainess Disney
cooked up for its 1959 animated spin on the fairytale.
“There is a
study in it of how we are born and what kind of people we become,” she
continues. “She’s born with a full sense of justice, but then she’s
abused – and that turns her and makes her darker. And then what she does
with that is go to the worst side: she becomes cruel and hurts innocent
people. And then she has to face that and confront what she has
become.”
It hardly needs to be said that this is not the usual
chat one expects to hear in relation to the main character in a Disney
film. Although the studio seems to have been on a mission of late to
subvert its back-catalogue with the likes of Frozen and Saving Mr Banks,
it’s fair to say Jolie brings a definite edge to the House of Mouse’s
publicity machine, casually dismissing Disney princesses of old (“The
girls, the female characters, were not girls I admired”) and relishing
the opportunity Maleficent afforded her to “embrace her bizarre” –
though not, she adds, to intentionally terrify children. “I didn’t play
this with the intent to scare children, but rather to draw them in and
make them spend time with someone that’s deliciously wicked,” she says.
“They’ll have fun with her evil.”
When I meet Jolie, she’s midway
through the film’s London press junket. Dressed all in black, tattoos
just visible beneath the sleeves of her chiffon dress, she’s a breezy,
relaxed presence and lets out a wicked laugh when talk of hanging out in
Glasgow during the World War Z shoot triggers memories of her first
visit to the city while then-husband Jonny Lee Miller was making
Trainspotting. “That was great,” she says, a glint in her eye, “that was
a great time.”
Having already talked up the still-to-be-finished
Maleficent at a press conference – all the while feeding anecdote-hungry
Euro hacks tiny morsels about her kids and volleying back quips about
everything from Maleficent’s potentially iconic status among draq queens
(“I think we all share a love of this kind of costume”) to whether
she’d ever want to explore her role in Mr & Mrs Smith further (“I
feel like I lived out the rest of that one,” she deadpans) – she knows
this kind of stuff is only a small part of her life now. Offsetting the
banality of the “Brangelina” media construct that kicked into gear while
making 2007’s aforementioned Mr & Mrs Smith with Brad Pitt, Jolie’s
ongoing dedication to humanitarian causes has started to change the
conversation around her. “I do feel like I’m able to do more and
accomplish more,” she says, referring to her increasing workload as UN
Special Envoy and her involvement in the forthcoming “Preventing Sexual
Violence in Conflict” G8 summit that’s scheduled to take place in London
next month. “And people do tend to talk to me more about global issues
or health issues or family, than film. It’s nice because it feels very
grounded and human to be talking about important issues.”
Jolie’s
convictions separate her from the majority of her Hollywood
contemporaries. She’s got a handle on fame and is fully cognisant of its
downsides. She’s not keen, for instance, for any of her kids to follow
in her footsteps, even though her daughter, Vivien, has a small role in
Maleficent (a consequence of Jolie’s costume freaking other toddlers out
too much to be able to perform opposite her). “I think being an artist
is a wonderful life, but I think today, so much of it is about
celebrity. It’s not about honing your craft and telling stories. It’s
different from when I started.”
That said, she knows that her own
baggage can still impact on a project and she thinks “it’s important to
be conscious of when you’re adding to a film or when that thing you’ve
become is distracting”.
This may partly explain be why she’s planning to
step back a little from acting. Though a comment to this effect at the
press conference earlier has prematurely generated headlines that she’s
retiring from performing at the grand old age of 38, she does confirm
that any future roles will have to be quite special to entice her in
front of the camera. “I think it has to be something that is very
challenging and I’ve never done before and I could learn a lot from.”
I
ask if the creative challenges some of her more intense dramatic work
offered – films like A Mighty Heart and Changeling – are now being
fulfilled by directing. “I do think a lot is satisfied now by
directing,” she nods. “I think a lot of what you do as an artist is to
tell a story or discuss certain themes or things that are important to
you – and find the best way to tell them. And so now, I don’t
necessarily feel like I have to be in something, or to express it
emotionally myself.”
Jolie’s transition into directing came about
quite organically. Although she started with a documentary – 2007’s A
Place in Time – she made her feature debut two years ago with In the
Land of Blood and Honey, a harrowing, deeply felt drama about the war in
Bosnia that did well on the festival circuit – or well enough to put
paid to any notions that it was simply a vanity project. “It started
simply because I was trying to understand more about the war in Bosnia
rather than trying to become a director,” she says. “I wrote something
more as an exercise for myself and I just didn’t trust anyone to take it
out of my hands, so I ended up, by default, directing it.”
She’s
currently editing her second feature, the Coen brothers-scripted
Unbroken, and also has a project for her and Pitt, though she’s not sure
she will ever make it. “I wrote it three years ago and have been
sitting on it and playing with the idea of it. It’s a little independent
film. The idea is to give us freedom to be artists; it’s an art film.”
She won’t say anything more about it, but is happy to talk at length
about Unbroken, particularly its subject, 97-year-old Louis Zamperini,
whose incredible life as an Olympic athlete and Second World War hero
was documented in Laura Hillenbrand’s bestseller of the same name. “It’s
so daunting; it’s still daunting,” smiles Jolie of the film, which
stars Jack O’Connell as Zamperini. “Sometimes you make a film for
entertainment and sometimes you make a film for exploring different
things. This film has to be inspiring. The point is to help people with
everything going on in their lives. Every time we feel we can’t take any
more, you watch Louis’ life and think, I can get back up.”
• Maleficent is in cinemas from 28 May; Unbroken will be released in late 2014 or early 2015.
'Children will have fun with Maleficent’s wickedness' Angelina Jolie on playing a fairytale villainess: http://t.co/bbwXo2JcAx@TheScotsman
— Alistair Harkness (@aliharkness) May 24, 2014
Angelina Jolie gets together with Serbian actor Rade Serbedzija, who
stars in her movie "The Land of Blood and Honey," during a visit to New
York City on Saturday. Dec. 3.
Originally Published: Sunday, December 11 2011, 6:00 AM
Updated: Sunday, December 11 2011, 5:00 PM
Ken Regan
Angelina Jolie on the set of ‘In the Land of
Blood and Honey,’ her debut as a feature film writer-director.
Dean Semler
Zana Marjanovic (l) and Goran Kostic play lovers caught up in the Bosnian War of the 1990s.
Kevin Hagen/Kevin Hagen for the New York Dai
Jolie with ‘Blood and Honey’
actor Rade Serbedzija
Ken Regan
Jolie confers with ‘Blood
and Honey’ cast members.
“Hi, I’m Angie.”
An understatement, of course, yet perfectly apt for Angelina Jolie as she walks into a room, accessible and upfront.
The Oscar-winning actress can own a place and be just a part of it at
the same time. Sitting down with one of the stars of her
writing-directing debut, “In the Land of Blood and Honey,” she’s both
magnetic and magnanimous.
“Blood and Honey,” opening in New York Dec. 23 and nationwide in
January, is a riveting drama set during the genocidal Bosnian War of the
1990s. Ajla (Zana Marjanovic), a Bosnian Muslim woman, is beginning a relationship with Serbian policeman Danijel (Goran Kostic) when the strife encompassing the former Yugoslavia erupts around them.
As Serbs round up and kill Bosnian men and force Bosnian women into
camps, where they are systematically raped, Danijel brings Alija to the
prison that’s under his command. However, Danijel — whose father (Rade Serbedzija) is a general in the Serbian army — struggles with his loyalties to his homeland, his history and his heart.
The movie is both a far cry from what Jolie’s fans may expect, and yet couldn’t be closer to her heart.
“I never intended to write and direct a film,” Jolie says. “But after
going to a lot of countries over 10 years and meeting people
post-conflict in places like Afghanistan or Darfur, where the question
of intervention comes up, I wanted to express a story [about\] how war
changes people.
“It’s not just simply about war. It’s about how human beings break down
when surrounded by such ugliness and hate. And how decent people can be
broken.”
Jolie, 36, was named a goodwill ambassador with the UN Refugee Agency
in 2001. When she isn’t traveling for humanitarian causes, the superstar
mother of six sharing her life with another superstar — Brad Pitt
— makes films for a global market (“Salt,” “Wanted,” “Mrs. and “Mrs.
Smith”) and some on a more personal scale (“A Mighty Heart,” “Beyond
Borders”).
As she sits with Serbedzija — the veteran Croatian actor whose stardom
in his country includes a successful career as a musician and whose work
includes roles in “Mission: Impossible II,” “X-Men: First Class” and on
TV’s “24” — Jolie is unfazed from a year of “Blood and Honey.
Just before filming began last year, the Bosnian-Croat culture minister
threatened to suspend her filming permit over the movie’s content.
Jolie says the objections came from people who hadn’t read the script.
Then Bosnian women’s groups protested the film before being assured it wouldn’t sensationalize the subject matter.
The new offscreen drama is a lawsuit filed by a Croatian journalist in Illinois who claims the film took ideas from a book.
But all of this doesn’t scare a woman who’s not easily intimidated.
Jolie even made the entire movie in both English and the Serbo-Croatian
language called BHS. (Every scene was filmed twice, one for each
version.) The subtitled version will be released in the U.S.
And, aside from Serbedzija, she hired unknown actors, many of whom experienced the war firsthand.
First off, though, Jolie wants to shoot down the misconception that the movie is “Romeo and Juliet” set in the Balkans.
“This story is the opposite — it’s two people from the same side who
are told that they’re different, and cannot be together. ... It’s not a
love story. It’s what would have been a love story if not for the war.
“There is a lot of love in it — between a father who, for all his
faults, loves his son; between a mother and her child; between sisters —
and it’s a love story to a country. But it’s about how war changes and
warps us, and makes love impossible.”
Serbedzija, whose career in the West occurred after he and his family
fled the Balkans to go to London, was at an event for his music when
violence erupted.
“In ’92, I’d gone to Sarajevo’s main square, where 200,000 people had
come,” he recalls. “One of my songs, ‘Never Against the Friends I’ve
Known,’ was a popular antiwar song after fighting broke out in Croatia a
year earlier.
“And I was talking to the crowd when men started shooting from atop a
building. Shortly after, we moved to London.” Serbedzija organized
several benefit concerts there and in New York, with celebrities raising
awareness for refugee issues.
For Jolie, it was her late mother, Marcheline Bertrand, and seeing the world that influenced her sense of advocacy.
“I’m sure a lot of it is from my mom. She brought me to my first
Amnesty International dinner when I was a kid,” Jolie says. “So I was
raised a bit like that. But it was when I started to travel — the first
time I went to a war zone, in Sierra Leone, was over a decade ago — that
made me understand what the world is like if you step back and look at
it.”
“The world thinks they know Angelina Jolie,” says Serbedzija, who compares her style to Clint Eastwood’s, a filmmaker they’ve both worked with.
“They do not know her at all.”
While her family is the subject of constant media scrutiny, Jolie says
the attention she and Pitt receive does have one benefit.
“Sometimes, you just jump into things because you’re compelled to tell a story and learn about a situation,” she says.
“But this is a difficult subject matter to get funded and get made. So
if that part of the business that you don’t like helps to get something
like ‘In the Land of Blood and Honey’ made, it balances out.”
It's the end of a long
day of interviews and Jolie is relieved. "I can't tell you what the last
few days have been like," she confided as she nestled into the couch of
her Beverly Hills hotel room. "I'm finally starting to breathe again."
The 36-year-old actress was in Los Angeles to premiere her latest
movie. But this time, she's not promoting a starring role, but a step
behind the camera, writing and directing her first feature film, In The
Land Of Blood And Honey.
"I have never felt so much responsibility for something," she admitted.
Sure, it's not the first time an A-list star has taken their turn
behind the camera, but Jolie has taken on a topic so complex and
emotional that it would challenge even the most experienced filmmaker.
In The Land Of Blood And Honey is set in the brutal and senseless
war in the former Yugoslav republic of Bosnia that lasted between 1992
and 1995. The title hails from a popular local interpretation of the
Balkan region (in Turkish "bal" means "honey" while "kan" stands for
"blood"). The Bosnian war claimed the lives of more than 100,000 people
in a horrendous and notorious policy of "ethnic cleansing", while
violent acts against women were so rampant that it led to the first
tribunal to prosecute rape as an independent crime against humanity.
Jolie was 17 when the war broke out and, like many of us, was
ignorant of its causes and ramifications. Over the past 10 years, in her
role as a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner
for Refugees, she made several visits to the area.
"The
more I read and researched about the former Yugoslavia, the more I was
emotionally affected and ashamed of how little I knew," she said. There
was one particular rape victim she met on one of her trips there who
spurred her into action.
"You could see that it would
never leave her mind and she would never be the same again. I was really
affected by her and it's what really compelled me to write this," she
said.
Acknowledging the pain
In
The Land Of Blood And Honey centres on the relationship of a young
Bosnian Muslim artist, Ajla, and a Bosnian Serb army officer (Danijel)
living in Sarajevo. They meet and fall in love before the war but their
romance suddenly takes a fractured turn, a parallel for the atrocities
that surround them. Ajla is interned with countless other Muslim women
in what were later dubbed "rape camps" where Danijel in now a commanding
officer. He tries to stay anesthetised to the horrors around him, while
Ajla seems paralysed to escape her subjugation.
"The
couple at the centre of this, is what I would relate to the most, if it
happened to me tomorrow," said Jolie. "I couldn't even imagine it to be
possible but as I was writing I kept asking the question: What would
have to happen to change two people this much who love each other?"
Jolie chose to cast local actors who had first hand experience of
the war. To ensure they reacted honestly to the script, it was sent to
them without her name attached. The actors were surprised to learn it
was Jolie. "I had no idea. I thought at first it had to be a Bosnian who
wrote it," said 28-year-old Sarajevo-born actress Zana Marjanovic, who
plays Ajla. "It definitely felt like it was someone who was from the
community but objective enough to present all the different voices of
the conflict."
While Jolie didn't initially set out to
direct, it was hard to relinquish her passion for the project. "In the
end I thought that's what mattered most. I think that's just as
important as the technical skills, having your heart in the right
place."
She sought an inclusive approach that would bring
people together from all sides of the conflict. "We had this
understanding that they could say anything," she said.
"She told us this is our personal story. Only we can give this film
complete justice," said Goran Kostic, who plays Danijel. Kostic escaped
to London for the duration of the war, but like his character, hails
from a Serbian military family.
Other actors like Vanessa
Glodjo, who plays Ajla's sister, Lejla, witnessed the violence first
hand living on the front line in the besieged city of Sarajevo - where
dodging bullets down Sniper Alley was a daily occurrence.
"Being someone who lived in the war, I knew how far I could push the
emotions in that scene," said Glodjo, about the scene where she comes
home to discover her infant boy has been killed by a Serbian soldier.
Jolie admits for any mother it's a tough scene to witness. "I
didn't even want to put it on the page because somehow that puts it
closer to you," she said. "It is without doubt my greatest fear but it's
what happened to people during this time. I wanted to show this for the
people who lost their children, to acknowledge their pain."
Learning from mistakes
Despite the tough scenes it was a surprisingly happy set.
"Everyone came together to relive this terrible time in their history,
but in doing so it brought about so much love, so much kindness, and so
much friendship between them. In between, whenever we had a chance to
lighten things up, we would," said Jolie.
Filmed in
Hungary and Bosnia over 41 days, each scene was shot twice, once in
English and once in the local language. Jolie would have preferred it in
its foreign language version, but wanted to provide an option. "We
wanted to make sure we reached as broad an audience as possible," she
said. "We know there are a lot of people that don't like going to
subtitled movies, so we worked twice as hard so we could share this
story with as many people as we could."
Of course it's hard
to expect her first foray into directing not to grab some headlines of
its own. Early on during filming a Bosnian women's group, mistaking the
nature of the central romance in the film, tried to stop filming, while
Serbian media have been quick to accuse it of propaganda. "It's very
important that people don't misinterpret this in any way and it's
upsetting when that happens," Jolie said emphatically. "That's why,
early on, we made sure we screened this to NGO's, women's groups and
Bosnian women who were victims of the war."
Hollywood seems
to be embracing Jolie as filmmaker. The film received a number of
plaudits including a Golden Globe nod for Best Foreign Language Film,
and the Producers Guild of America honoured the movie with its Stanley
Kramer Award, recognising socially conscious filmmaking.
Jolie may take the director's chair again, but only for an issue that
really moves her. In the meantime, she hoped that In The Land Of Blood
And Honey would provoke the kind of discussion that can bring about
social change.
"There is a big message and it's not to
point fingers," she said. "We have to learn the mistakes made,
understand them, and figure out how to handle these situations that are
going on today. It's not a film intentionally attacking anyone but it is
reminding people what happened."
Jonah Hill walked by and the Brangelina crowd errupted. Really, people? Have higher standards.
In
this Dec. 5, 2011 photo, from left, Bloomberg News Executive Editor
James Rubin, ABC News correspondent Christianne Amanpour, actor Brad
Pitt and Women for Women founder Zainab Salbi pose at the New York
Premiere of "In The Land Of Blood and Honey," a film written and
directed by Angelina Jolie. (AP Photo/Starpix, Dave Allocca)
