Angelina Jolie Cradles Her Kiddies

linda says,losers like that never leave,the just want the attension,the best way is to give them the silent treatment,if they wanna be rude then take another step or flag them,

got to go will b back later,ignore the losers, have fun,bampzs rock

Over the past few years, director Michael Winterbottom’s leapt from genre to genre with a far-ranging deftness where the distance of the jumps is matched only by the agility of the landings. He’s given us rollicking rock-and-roll comedy (24 Hour Party People), innovative literary adaptations (Jude, The Claim, Tristam Shandy: A **** and Bull Story), partially-baked sci-fi (Code 46), art-house sexuality (9 Songs), gripping documentary (The Road to Guantanamo) and more — and quietly putting together a filmography whose scope and quality put him near Steven Soderbergh’s level of production and excellence. A Mighty Heart, playing outside of competition here at Cannes, sees him working with his biggest star to date — Angelina Jolie — and turning a true story into a compelling, intellectually and emotionally engaging film that may take him from the art house to the mainstream.

A Mighty Heart is adapted from the memoirs of journalist Mariane Pearl (Jolie), who was posted, along with her Wall Street Journal reporter husband Daniel (Dan Futterman), to Karachi Pakistan, in the wake of 9/11. In 2002, the Pearls were literally one day away from leaving Karachi when Daniel had one last interview to conduct — a tentative meeting with an elusive subject. He left as his wife was preparing a farewell dinner with their friends in the area. He never returned.

Part of A Mighty Heart is a police procedural played out on the global stage, as U.S. personnel (led by Will Patton’s Randall Bennett) and Pakistani authorities (led by Irrfan Khan’s character, known simply as ‘Captain’) scour Karachi’s backstreets and secret places, trying to find the extremists who have kidnapped Daniel. On the home front, Mariane worked her own connections and sources along with her husband’s Wall Street Journal peers (Asra Nomian’s Archie Panjabi) and superiors (Denis O’Hare’s John Bussey). It’s hard to imagine anyone who doesn’t know how this story ends — Pearl was executed, as captured on a notorious videotape, weeks after his abduction — and that pall of certainty hangs over all of the character’s efforts and struggles. We know this ends in death; at the same time, the frustration, panic and worry captured on screen show that the real people involved at the time knew that was a possibility from the instant Daniel Pearl didn’t come home.

If one thing elevates A Mighty Heart above ripped-from-the-headlines melodrama — and you shudder to think what a less-talented director could have done with this material — it’s Winterbottom’s insistence of shooting in Karachi and incorporating a real sense of place into every frame of the film. Karachi’s a sprawling, squalid metropolis — cluttered streets and grinding poverty — and its role as a crossroads in the war on terror, and a crossroads for the war terror wages against the world, hums and thrums throughout every scene.

The supporting cast is all excellent, but special praise has to go to Khan and Futterman. Khan’s character is the head of the new Pakistani anti-terrorism unit, and he’s a man torn between the public pronouncements of support for the West’s initiatives and the labyrinthine power-struggles of his government and massive public support for radical Islamic action. The Captain is the face of a new kind of power in Pakistan, and Khan’s every line, every motion has the coiled power of a punch about to land, even in stillness. Futterman’s challenge in portraying Pearl is trickier — after the initial sequences of the film we only see him in flashback or in photos and video — but Futterman still makes Pearl come alive for us as a husband, a lover, a son, a journalist.

Jolie’s portrayal of Pearl — who was six months pregnant when her husband was abducted — has been the subject of some controversy due to some mild cosmetic elements — her hair is curlier, her skin slightly darkened to convey the real Mariane Pearl’s Cuban-French heritage — but there’s nothing insensitive or overdone in the mild make-up artistry of the part; the inner performance is what shines out. Jolie’s Pearl may feel fear, but never hate — and her public face of grace and calm is one part humanism, one part strategy. She’s deliberately trying not to provoke the men who hold her husband captive — and she also truly believes that peace and justice are the ultimate weapons against those who would kill and maim in the name of God. Asked about Karachi’s role as a cultivator of terrorism, Marianne’s reply is fast, smart and sincere: “Wherever there is misery, they find people.”

But Jolie’s Mariane Pearl isn’t some plaster secular saint, either; when the inevitable end to the story comes crashing down, her howling, devastated grief ripples off the screen with brute force and power. (And frankly, the make-up artistry in the film re-contextualizes Jolie’s well-publicized features in a way that lets her simply act to a degree she hasn’t been able to in years.) John Orloff’s scrrenplay adaptation of Mariane Pearl’s book is strong, but it’s Winterbottom style and choices — location shooting, a fluid sense of time, a run-and-gun approach to scenes — that make A Mighty Heart stand out as more than just a tragedy. The Cannes production notes for A Mighty Heart point out that in the five years since Daniel Pearl’s brutal murder, nearly 230 other journalists have been killed on the job through out the world. A Mighty Heart shows us the death of one man, but it also demonstrates how the forces that would destroy us despise the truth itself — and how killing those who try to bring truth to the world through a free press is a cornerstone of terror’s brutish, ignorant war against civilization itself.

Hi bampzs always ready to be replyng to the negative comments and turn the thread?yes that what you do all the time instead to ignore.

ok I will come back later.Don’t forget that whe have one loser in this thread sam with different name.What continued to give him a time of your life.

back on topic awwwwww daddy girls.Beautifuls;

#713

Thank you for your comments.

Your post left me speechless when you mentioned Hilton and Richie. You proved my point!!!

Show business is show business!!!

By Ray Bennett
May 22, 2007

Dan Futterman and Angelina Jolie are Daniel and Mariane Pearl.

CANNES — Michael Winterbottom’s expertly fashioned documentary-style drama “A Mighty Heart” relates the intense manhunt launched in Pakistan when jihadists kidnapped Wall Street Journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002. Angelina Jolie delivers a well-measured and moving performance as the reporter’s wife, Mariane.

With the BBC’s Gaza correspondent Alan Johnston now missing and believed kidnapped for 70 days and journalists in danger in hotspots around the world, a film version of Mariane Pearl’s book about the search for her husband could not be more timely.

Set for release in the U.S. in June and the rest of the world in September, the film’s even-handed approach to incendiary topics should generate substantial interest.

Jolie’s voice-over sets the scene as the movie begins in Karachi, a vast, sprawling city where her husband went missing. He was on assignment to meet a man who could tell him more about Richard Reid, the captured shoe bomber. The events of Sept. 11 were not long past, and the situation was made difficult by the Wall Street Journal going public with the fact that it had turned over a suspicious computer to the CIA.
The film traces Pearl’s movements on the night he was kidnapped, with him being warned several times to meet his contact only in public. His trail died when a taxi dropped him off at a restaurant. When he fails to return to the place where he and his wife, who is pregnant with their first child, are staying, she calls in the authorities. Senior people from the newspaper including John Bussey (Denis O’Hare) and Steve LeVine (Gary Wilmes) drop everything to help in the hunt headquartered at the home of the Pearl’s friend, writer Asra (Archie Panjabi). U.S. diplomatic security specialist Randall Bennett (Will Patton) and representatives of assorted American agencies join the team that is led by the head of the Pakistani counter-terrorism unit who is known as Captain (Irrfan Khan).

The news breaks internationally, and various parties claim that Pearl is with the CIA or Mossad, which complicates things. One Pakistani government member dismisses it as a crime by India. Winterbottom shows the painstaking steps taken to link one mobile phone caller to the next and efforts to track down a single Internet provider that is used to send e-mails about the kidnapping. Marcel Zyskind’s cinematography captures the frantic bustle of the over-populated city as agents swarm into tenements to arrest suspects.

The film alarmingly implies that torture works when one suspect reveals names under duress and watching the no-holds-barred approach of the Pakistani authorities on a raid, the American Bennett declares, “I love this town!”

For the most part, however, the film reflects the dispassionate view espoused by Mariane Pearl, who sees that it is misery that breeds terrorism. Jolie plays her with respect and a firm grasp on a difficult accent influenced by France and Cuba. She has a powerful scene in which she lets out a shriek of grief that will be recognized wherever people suffer from terror and loss.

Shiloh is so beautiful.

the date that angie will be on the early show?

frican Girl | 06/18/2007 at 9:17 am

664 Seriously! | 06/18/2007 at 6:05 am
First off, I’d like you not to presume to know what motivates each and every one of us. There are people on the board from different walks of life, different backgrounds and different age groups, who identify with this couple for different reasons. You ask “how many of you will volunteer…” (as if to say none of us already do) I think the more appropriate question is “How many HAVE volunteered and are still volunteering” Contrary to what you’d like to believe, many fans admire this couple because of their humanitarian efforts (Yes, Humanitarian Efforts. As long as someone who had nothing benefits from what AJ and BP have given, I’d call it Humanitarian efforts) and the fact that they look good doing it, is an added bonus. Seriously though, If beauty was the only reason people like them….then we’ll have an equal number of comments on the Heidi Klum, Gwen Stefani or any other thread with a beautiful mom holding her beautiful children.

Your post seems to be about identifying who is a humanitarian and who isn’t. So what…pray tell is the sign of a true humanitarian? Is it someone who’s given up all their worldly goods to go live with the poor? Someone who is also starving while helping others…..surely you aren’t that idealistic? The reality IS money goes a long way in helping. I am not dismissing the efforts of those who have given from the little they have but let’s be real here….without the money and/or attention brought in by the likes of AJ and BP, what do you think will become of them? You say you applaud those who help with little resources, I also do but again…won’t more people be helped with more resources?
You also say their new found fame will probably generate more money into their personal accounts…..and I honestly fail to see what the problem is here. Of course, the reason could be because I am from the school of thought that if you are good, you will be rewarded in ten-folds but if that is too philosophical for you, Let’s look at the this from a different angle…Take Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie, these women have not done anything worthy for anyone…yet their new fame has generated more money for their personal accounts. I hear PH already has a book deal for her story (based on her time in jail), another source of money into her personal account. We have the girls gone wild producer….lining his pockets with money made from exploiting women, I could go on and on with examples of people making money and getting fame off of something which does not add value to someone else life ….yet, you and others like you have the audacity to look upon AJ and BP with disdain. Seriously?!!!

Let me ask you this….do you really believe those who get help care one way or the other what kind of person helps them? Do you imagine they go “This money is from two Hollywood stars, who may or may not be well-intentioned, two Hollywood stars who may or may not be pure of heart?” Do you also imagine the children refusing to go to schools because their benefactors aren’t living in poverty like they are? Or maybe you have a scenario where mothers throw away the medicines for their babies…just because people like you believe AJ and BP aren’t true humanitarians.

Honestly, it always amuses me when people vote themselves as judges on what counts as humanitarianism and what doesn’t’. These people completely miss the fact that the only reason why they have time to question others is because they aren’t in some third world country, in cloths barely enough to cover your body, rummaging through the trash for food and drinking water from the sewer. The next time you’re eating a rotten banana and drinking spoilt milk….ask yourself if you’ll reject good food and water from someone helping you because you think their motives aren’t pure.
Please do not confuse what you’re doing here with concern because it is an insult those who really care…and by that I mean AJ and BP>

_________________________________________

GREAT post.

I live in a 3rd world country (Philippines). You’re right, it doesn’t matter where the money comes from, what matters is that HELP is given.

Who cares about showbusiness as long as lives are saved or least, made bearable. Only those who are too narrow-minded can bear a grudge against celebrities trying to go good in this world.

Two thumbs up to Angelina and Brad, for daring to make a difference and trying to make this world a little bit better.

http://www.northstarwriters.com/jv009.htm

Jessica Vozel Jessica’s Column Archive

June 18, 2007

Fox News Hardly a Victim as Angelina Jolie Puts Limits on Premiere Press Coverage

Usually I find it irritating when celebrities complain about being in the public eye and try to sensor the questions put forth by their interviewers. Like it or not, being a celebrity goes hand-in-hand with leading a visible life. To enjoy the benefits of being rich and admired, you must deal with the downfalls, as do the rest of us regular folks at our less glamorous jobs.

But the recent hoopla over Angelina Jolie’s movie premiere press requirements – which included a pre-interview contract prohibiting members of press from asking about her personal life and an initial ban on Fox News attending the premiere - is a bit overblown and misses the point.

No one has been more vocal about Jolie’s indiscretions than the jilted Fox News, who called Jolie hypocritical for making a movie that discusses the importance of freedom of press and then setting into motion bans and requirements for the press at the movie’s premiere. The movie, A Mighty Heart, is based on the memoir of Marianne Pearl, a French-born journalist whose husband, Daniel Pearl, was kidnapped and killed in Pakistan while on assignment for the Wall Street Journal.

The movie premiere itself was held in conjunction with a fundraiser for Reporters Without Borders, an organization promoting freedom of press. I’ll admit, it sounds bad. Given the context of the premiere, Jolie probably should have thought twice before making such a move (or allowing her lawyers to make such a move as she now contends was the case). But looking past Jolie’s prima donna behavior, comparing Fox News to Daniel Pearl is even more ludicrous and egotistical.

Daniel Pearl was in Pakistan to cover issues regarding the War on Terror, and died at the hands of terrorists in the name of reporting the facts. Members of the press in Jolie’s case want to know what her husband and four children ate for breakfast. An article on the subject appearing on FoxNews.com sarcastically quips, “Reporters Without Borders, indeed,” as if Reporters Without Borders’ sole concern is whether or not the press can ask personal questions of celebrities. It is insulting to Daniel Pearl that the press would invoke his name and the circumstances of his tragic death in conjunction with something so inconsequential, and arrogant of Fox News to align their situation with his, especially considering that they were able to attend after all.

According to the contract put forth by Jolie’s lawyers, questions directed at the actress should be about the movie, and really, they should be anyway. Perhaps Jolie and her “people” just wanted to make sure that the premiere was handled in the media with the same seriousness with which the film itself handles real issues regarding journalism and personal loss. Surely if every question directed at her at the premiere somehow involved her personal life, it would appear that Angelina was stealing the spotlight from the issues presented by the movie and by Reporters Without Borders. And if she were to have told every reporter on the red carpet who asked about her personal life that she wasn’t going to answer such questions, she would still look self-important.

It’s not as if Angelina is shy all the time when it comes to talking about her life outside of her movies and humanitarian work. She recently did an interview with Marie Claire where she spoke lovingly and openly about her family. In that venue, a women’s magazine, such a discussion was relevant. At a movie premiere, which is supposed to be about the movie, not so much. Besides, how many times do we have to hear her say that Brad Pitt is a great dad and that she wants to adopt more kids?

Maybe reporters need to reconsider what is important. Sure, one can report about Paris Hilton’s stint in jail or Lindsay Lohan’s stint in rehab and still report about foreign affairs. It is when reporting of the former outweighs the latter, and even worse, when reporting on celebrity gossip becomes, in the eyes of the media, as important to free speech as reporting on the War on Terror, that we must acknowledge that something is not quite right with the state of American journalism.

always adorable…

#712 / lylian
What?! That Bi…..I mean I’m glad she had a lovely time with my GC. Look how she can’t stop gushing….goes to show how incredibly sweet, kind and romantic he is, no? *Sigh*