THEY AIN’T SEEN NOTHING YET…

Our Friday musical highlight is HOW DO YOU SLEEP by the late great JOHN LENNON.

And now it’s time for me to exit. Stage left…

THE 2011 VENICE FILM FESTIVAL: THE BEGINNING

FROM THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Projects from several Canadian filmmakers are among the selections for this year’s VENICE FILM FESTIVAL, where Hollywood luminaries GEORGE CLOONEY, MADONNA, AL PACINO and STEVEN SODERBERGH will showcase their latest directorial efforts.

The line up also includes ROMAN POLANSKI’S CARNAGE, an adaptation of the Broadway play GOD OF CARNAGE featuring JODIE FOSTER, KATE WINSLET, CHRISTOPH WALTZ and JOHN C. REILLY.

All 22 movies in competition at the world’s oldest festival are world premieres, organizers said Thursday. One of the 22 titles was kept secret and will be announced in the coming weeks.

“We have looked for and strengthened a relationship with American cinema each year,” said festival director MARCO MUELLER. However, he stressed that the guidelines for selecting art were just “to take beautiful movies, movies that would make one think and dream.”

He cited GEORGE CLOONEY’S political drama THE IDES OF MARCH as an example of a “sharp film that takes a look at today with a critical eye.” The film about corruption and idealism in American politics, which stars GEORGE CLOONEY, RYAN GOSLING, PAUL GIAMATTI, PHILIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN, MARISA TOMEI and EVAN RACHEL WOOD will open the festival on AUGUST 31.

Other U.S. movies in competition include KILLER JOE, a black comedy by WILLIAM FRIEDKIN with MATTHEW McCONAUGHEY in the title role and the second film by AMI CANAAN MANN (daughter of MICHAEL MANN), TEXAS KILLING FIELDS, a murder drama featuring SAM WORTHINGTON and JESSICA CHASTAIN.

Canadian projects include MARY HARRON’S Canada/Ireland coproduction THE MOTH DIARIES, which will screen out of competition and is based on the cult novel by RACHEL KLEIN. It stars SCOTT SPEEDMAN in a tale about a girl haunted by her father’s suicide who suspects her boarding school roommate may be a vampire.

Films in competition in Venice include a spy movie based on JOHN LE CARRE’S bestseller TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY, starring OSCAR winner COLIN FIRTH and GARY OLDMAN and POULETS AUX PRUNES (literally translated as CHICKEN WITH PLUMS), codirected by MARJANE SATRAPI – the author of comic book and OSCAR nominated film PERSEPOLIS – and VINCENT PARONNAUD.

JESSICA CHASTAIN, who had previously starred in THE TREE OF LIFE, also appears in AL PACINO’S WILDE SALOME, an exploration of OSCAR WILDE’S work that combines documentary and film, much like the legendary actor did in his previous film LOOKING FOR RICHARD.

In addition to the five motion pictures competing for the top prize, seven U.S. movies are to be shown in side events. They include AL PACINO’S film and works by JONATHAN DEMME and WHIT STILLMAN.

The line up suggests a star studded red carpet, though MARCO MUELLER would not say which stars will attend the festival.

Among the most highly anticipated events is MADONNA’S second feature film, the U.K. production W.E. The movie intercuts between the romance of a modern woman (ABBIE CORNISH) and the relationship of American socialite WALLIS SIMPSON and Britain’s KING EDWARD VIII, who abdicated the throne for love in the 1930s.

The festival runs through SEPTEMBER 10. The jury awarding THE GOLDEN LION and other official prizes is headed by U.S. director DARREN ARONOFSKY.

LEIGHTON MEESTER: SAMPLE SALE AFICIONADO

Her GOSSIP GIRL character BLAIR WALDORF is often spotted in pricey designer dresses. But LEIGHTON MEESTER isn’t usually that extravagant when she shops.

“The last time I popped out my credit card I bought [a] Proenza Schouler dress,” she told PEOPLE, adding that she picked up a few others that same day during a sample sale for the brand.

“I love sample sales! Proenza always has the good ones and is one of my favourite designers. Most of the Proenzas in my closet are from sample sales.”

Not one to splurge too much, she’s also a do it yourself type, currently redecorating her own home.

“I’m buying tons of magazines, too, like Elle Decor…and I’m addicted to them now. Even though one day I will be done decorating, I’m still going to be buying them because I love looking at them.”

EVA MENDES’ FAVOURITE BEAUTY LUXURIES

EVA MENDES is envied by women everywhere for her glowing skin, coveted curves and silky hair. But behind every beautiful woman is an essential set of beauty tools. The THIERRY MUGLER muse said that she counts on some tried and true favourites to give her an all over glow.

First up? Blush.

“I like…cream based products and Nars does really fun blush and bronzer,” she told Style.com.

“I like to mix those.”

And while she may be drawing attention to the apples of her cheeks, she’s trying to draw attention away from other areas.

“Dark circles are hereditary in my family, which can be useful when doing a role when I’m supposed to be tired and depressed,” she joked.

“But in my everyday life, I try to minimize that” by using LAURA MERCIER SECRET CAMOUFLAGE CONCEALER. To keep her skin clear and healthy, she swipes on DR. HAUSCHKA facial toner, because “it’s so clean and so simple. It’s not drying in any way.”

For nails, she counts on ESSIE polish in MUCHO DINERO. “It’s so elegant,” she said, laughing at the name. “What about this says mucho dinero?”

Luckily, she doesn’t have to spend much on her shampoo and conditioner, both from the PANTENE PRO V MEDIUM THICK SOLUTIONS line. (She’s a spokesmodel for the company.)

“It’s classic and you can get it anywhere in the world,” she said of the brand.

“I tried to cheat and go more expensive, but I came running back with my tail between my legs.”

A CONVERSATION WITH VANESSA CARLTON

This article is written by MIKE RAGOGNA at THE HUFFINGTON POST

MIKE RAGOGNA: Vanessa, how are you and what’s up with your new album RABBITS ON THE RUN?

VANESSA CARLTON: I’m great. I’ve been in a rabbit hole for three years. I’ve been in England, mostly, working on this project. It took me about two years from the commencement of the writing to the mastering and the final days working on it. Actually, I’m still to this day working on the artwork with the wonderful JOE RADCLIFF, who did all of the amazing illustrations of the rabbit for the album cover and the vinyl cover. So, that’s where I’ve been…immersed in this.

MR: Great. Now this is your fourth studio album. Is that right?

VC: Correct.

MR: And you recorded it at PETER GABRIEL’S studio?

VC: I did. I was so lucky to be able to do that. I didn’t even know a place like that existed.

MR: What was that process like?

VC: It was incredibly organic. I call it arts and crafts. It was just a pure exchange of ideas that were kind of hovering around a very distinct aesthetic message that was carved out very clearly. I think that allowed us to really play around. We recorded all analog. We collaborated with PATRICK HALLAHAN, the drummer of the band MY MORNING JACKET and STEVE OSBORNE my producer and THE CAPITAL CHILDREN’S CHOIR – which is a children’s choir based out of London.

MR: Correct me if I’m wrong, but the album had a theme before you even started recording, right? Didn’t you get your inspiration from a couple of books?

VC: Yes, I did. I think one of the books that helped me break out of the writer’s block that I was suffering from at the time was STEPHEN HAWKING’S A BRIEF HISTORY OF TIME. That was a very chaotic time of my life personally and it obviously got in the way of my creative process. I mean, I stopped writing songs. I wrote some instrumental pieces, but I was struggling a lot. That book helped me make sense of a lot of the chaos, from a physics standpoint, that goes on in the universe. But I was able to apply all of that to my micro universe, if you will. The way that he marries the physics and the philosophical made it an incredibly influential and important book to me at the beginning of this process.

WATERSHIP DOWN by RICHARD ADAMS was the other book – which seemed appropriate because he is an Englishman and I recorded this record in England. That story, which is about these rabbits breaking away and creating something pure for themselves, was very inspiring to me. I literally carried that book around with me for a year, almost like a bible.

MR: As you were getting inspiration from these two books, were you also contemplating and exploring consciousness and evolution and things of that nature?

VC: Yes. I think I was also exploring existential reasoning. But, for me, it was kind of figuring out a spirituality of some sort, something that I felt I was maybe missing in my life. I felt much more plugged in once I found the recipe of those two books together for some reason. It made me feel alive again and made a lot of sense to me in terms of exploring my own purpose and why I exist.

MR: Nice. Do you think that the writer’s block that you were experiencing was because of something you were missing personally but found in those books?

VC: Absolutely. Things were very cloudy for me for a couple years. I mean, I think it’s difficult to be in your 20s. But I definitely lost my way and I had to get back on track. I’ve never felt so clearminded as I do now. If anything, it’s the most humbling thing in the world because it makes you realize just how small and daunting everything is, yet how beautiful it is at the same time. But I do think that I had to reach a place where writing was absolutely necessary.

MR: I know we mentioned that this is your fourth studio album, but technically, it’s more like four and a half for you. Can you tell us a little bit about your initial demos and the process leading up to your first full studio album?

VC: Sure. I started recording songs on a cassette tape when I was about 16 or 17, when I was still in ballet school and the cassette tape ended up in the hands of AHMET ERTEGUN who is one of the founding fathers of ATLANTIC RECORDS – the godfather of the music industry. I then had the honour of being invited into his world. After I finished all of my classes during the week, I would go and talk to him and he would tell me stories about the music industry.

During that time, I was also piecing together a record of sorts. Then, I ended up signing with INTERSCOPE RECORDS, mainly because at the time, ATLANTIC was kind of a figurehead in the music industry. I think AHMET was still very interested in working with me, but no one else at ATLANTIC was so I moved on to INTERSCOPE. After all of that, I recorded a record that was kind of put on the shelf that was tentatively titled RINSE – it was a cleansing, if you will. It’s certainly something that a 17 year old girl would come up with. (laughs)

MR: Didn’t you work with JIMMY IOVINE on a few more tracks while finishing up the others?

VC: Actually, I didn’t end up working with JIMMY, but he oversaw the project. He handed the project over to RON FAIR and RON took it over and re recorded it. All at once it was a big deal! It was a big flashy situation that I had never been a part of before – all of a sudden, there was an orchestra and everything. I was just watching everything that was going on with these wide eyes. These were my songs and I couldn’t believe it.

MR: And that record produced the hits A THOUSAND MILES, ORDINARY DAY and SWEET BABY, along with three GRAMMY nominations that year, right?

VC: Yeah. I couldn’t believe it. That was a big surprise.

MR: What was that like?

VC: That really opened some doors for me. I am, to this day, very grateful. That led to more and more work and I felt that it was my job to evolve as much as I can and refine my craft as I could. I really was given an amazing opportunity. I felt like I was lovingly accepted into the music world.

MR: And from there you went on to HARMONIUM, which was recorded at THE SKYWALKER RANCH.

VC: (laughs) Light sabres everywhere. It was similar to REAL WORLD STUDIOS, which is where I recorded this latest one. Kind of. It was beautiful. It was the same in the sense that I was an isolated studio where you lived and could bike to the studio everyday and work there. It was much more elaborate and enormous compared to where I was in England. But when you’re living, breathing and working in the same space in nature, it’s great. To even be able to stumble upon a studio like that is rare, but that’s also the place where I work best. That was a great find.

MR: That album contained one of, if not my favourite, song in your repertoire: WHITE HOUSES.

VC: Thank you very much.

MR: There was also a bit of controversy behind that song, right?

VC: Well, that was a collaboration with the writer STEPHAN JENKINS and it was a great time. I guess there was a bit of controversy and I understand it, I think. I think I was viewed as much more of a sweet girl. I don’t know. Not that that’s not a sweet song, but it’s a very realistic song. It’s a serious song with a serious and multidimensional story. I’m not sure why it was just accepted for what it was and it had to be censored in certain ways. I think it was because of my age or whatever preconceived notion people may have had about my image, I’m not sure. But I’m 30 now, so hopefully, it’s much more accepted. (laughs) Hopefully, the notion is, “Oh, I get it. She’s a woman now.”

MR: It seems that it’s always been a bit more of a struggle for young female pop artists in this industry, that they are judged much more harshly based on their actions and the content of their material than young guys or especially other older artists. Do you agree?

VC: Yeah. The other is issue is that, having been one of those girls, I know that they are all figuring it out on their own, so cut them a break. Also, girls in that position or young women that are coming of age can’t raise your children for you because they are on a path of their own as well. People shouldn’t be so quick to judge them.

Granted, I have seen all of that from afar because I’m not that plugged in to pop culture, but I know who MILEY CYRUS is and I have a lot of compassion for her and I think she’s going to come through all of this and do really well. She alL ready is. But I do think it makes it harder for her and girls like her to get through all of that with the public being so critical. But that’s what happens when you’re in the public forum – that’s just what happens. I think they can be very unfairly judged.

MR: I also feel very strongly that there’s a double standard between young male and female pop artists in that if a controversy arises with a guy, the impact in much smaller than it would be if it were a young female artist.

You know, boys will be boys.

VC: Yeah. That’s just too bad. It doesn’t sound very fair to me.

MR: Very true. All right, getting back to our tour of your career, your next album was HEROES & THIEVES and you recorded some interesting things on the side, including that descant on BIG YELLOW TAXI for THE COUNTING CROWS. What was that like and how did you get involved?

VC: I don’t know, actually. I think like I was replacing someone else, to be honest. (laughs) I’m pretty sure that happened through RON FAIR. I was in Florida at the time and he asked me to come into the studio and sing a couple things. Their first album AUGUST & EVERYTHING AFTER had a huge impact on me so I was really excited about doing something with COUNTING CROWS, though they were not in the studio. I think I met ADAM DURITZ serendipitously on the streets of New York City one day, years after I did that for them and I think I said something silly like, “I’ve been with you!” (laughs) He eventually realized who I was and we chatted. That was my experience with that. (laughs)

MR: You also supported STEVIE NICKS on her GOLD DUST tour.

VC: Ahhhh…Changed my life.

MR: How did it change your life?

VC: STEVIE coming into my life and my friendship with her is one of the most important relationships in my life. She’s a very special, lovely woman and I can go to her with situations, stories and moments and she responds to me in a way that no one else does in my life. It’s just extraordinary. I feel extremely lucky to know such a lovely person. She’s been extremely generous with me.

We did a little video clip for this record CAROUSEL and I did a little ode to her. She gave me a little leather strung necklace that has a little square medicinal pouch with a little sword and I tied it to the back of my white dress. That’s a little secret about the video. It was like my little charm or talisman during the shoot…that made me feel amazing. Unfortunately, the necklace is still in the field that we shot the video in, but she didn’t mind, and she did wind up seeing the video and thinking it was amazing, so that’s important to me. As far as the tour goes, I met her a couple of months before the tour took off and she was just great. That tour was a very important time for me.

MR: Nice. Since you brought up your new album, let’s chat about one of my favourite songs DEAR CALIFORNIA. As a transplanted Californian myself, I’d love to know what went into the making of that song.

VC: That song is kind of a mournful one, but it’s also kind of inspired by THE BEACH BOYS as well about my move from San Francisco back to New York.

MR: Do you miss California?

VC: I do. I love California. Well, I miss the foghorns in San Francisco. I do go back every few weeks. I’m a bit of a gypsy, so every few weeks, I go somewhere. So I frequent San Francisco.

MR: What advice would you give to new artists?

VC: Hmm. I’m still figuring a lot of stuff out. But I would say when something doesn’t resonate to you musically but someone is trying to talk you into it, always go with your gut.

MR: Very smart. Thanks again for taking some time. I really appreciate it, Vanessa.

VC: It was my pleasure, Mike. Thanks.

THE 2011 TORONTO FILM FESTIVAL LINE UP

This article is written by GRADY SMITH at EW

THE TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL, which has become an increasingly important platform for awards seeking titles in recent years (both BLACK SWAN and THE KING’S SPEECH played there in 2010), announced its line up Tuesday.

The 11 day fest, set to kick off SEPTEMBER 8, will feature the world premieres of MONEYBALL, a baseball drama starring BRAD PITT; ALEXANDER PAYNE’S THE DESCENDANTS, a drama starring GEORGE CLOONEY; BUTTER, a butter carving satire featuring JENNIFER GARNER, HUGH JACKMAN and OLIVIA WILDE; ALBERT NOBBS, an Irish set period drama starring GLENN CLOSE and FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA’S murder mystery TWIXT, among others.

Other notable pictures playing at TIFF: MARC FORSTER’S religious drama MACHINE GUN PREACHER, starring GERARD BUTLER; MADONNA’S W.E., a romantic drama; GEORGE CLOONEY’S directorial effort THE IDES OF MARCH and CAMERON CROWE’S music doc PEARL JAM TWENTY.

Here are the most intriguing films from the slate…

GALAS

ALBERT NOBBS
COWRITTEN BY GLENN CLOSE & JOHN BANVILLE
STARRING GLENN CLOSE, JONATHAN RHYS MEYERS, BRENDAN GLEESON, MARIA DOYLE KENNEDY, JANET McTEER, PAULINE COLLINS, BRENDA FRICKER

A witty Irish set period drama about the lives of staff at Dublin’s most luxurious hotel: the illegitimate child of a maid, two beautiful people’s impossible love and ALBERT (GLENN CLOSE)…a woman who pretends to be a man to survive.

Nineteenth century Ireland: for a woman to be independent and single, she must deceive everyone — by pretending to be a man. ALBERT, a shy butler who keeps to himself, has been hiding a deep secret for years — he is a woman who has had to behave as a man all her life in order to escape a life of poverty and loneliness.

When a handsome painter HUBERT PAGE arrives at the hotel, ALBERT is inspired to try and escape the false life she has created for herself. She gathers her nerve to court beautiful saucy young maid HELEN in whom she thinks she’s found a companion – but HELEN’S eye is on a new arrival: handsome bad boy JOE, the new handyperson. As ALBERT dares to hope that she might one day live a normal life, we catch a glimpse of a free spirited woman who is caught in the wrong time…

BUTTER
JENNIFER GARNER, HUGH JACKMAN, OLIVIA WILDE, ASHLEY GREENE, ALICIA SILVERSTONE, ROB CORDDRY, TY BURRELL

Set in the highly competitive world of championship butter carving, BUTTER blends social commentary, outrageous comedy and heartfelt drama in telling the story of the ambitious LAURA PICKLER (JENNIFER GARNER), the self anointed First Lady Of Butter Carving. Refusing to accept that her husband (TY BURRELL) wants to step down after his 15 year run as the Iowa State Butter Carving Champion and therefore end the family’s reign in the spotlight, LAURA takes a stab at the title herself.

But her bid for glory is complicated when two unlikely contestants enter the race — one, her husband’s hard living mistress (OLIVIA WILDE) and the other a 10 year old foster child named DESTINY (YARA SHAHIDI).

Enlisting the help of her high school sweetheart BOYD (HUGH JACKMAN), LAURA will stop at nothing to be crowned champion, even if it means resorting to sabotage. Part political satire, part Capraesque comedy, BUTTER is a story about what it means to win at all costs and against all odds.

A HAPPY EVENT
LOUISE BOURGOIN

She turned my life upside down, drove me into a corner, pushed me beyond my limits. She taught me about self renouncement, tenderness and sacrifice in their most extreme forms. Why didn’t my mother ever tell me? Why doesn’t anyone ever mention this?

A HAPPY EVENT breaks the taboo of pregnancy through the tragicomic diary of a young woman who becomes a mother.

THE IDES OF MARCH
DIRECTED BY GEORGE CLOONEY
WRITTEN BY GEORGE CLOONEY & GRANT HESLOV
GEORGE CLOONEY, RYAN GOSLING, MARISA TOMEI, PHILIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN, EVAN RACHEL WOOD, PAUL GIAMATTI, JEFFREY WRIGHT, MAX MINGHELLA

THE IDES OF MARCH takes place during the frantic last days before a heavily contested Ohio presidential primary, when an up and coming campaign press secretary (RYAN GOSLING) finds himself involved in a political scandal that threatens to upend his candidate’s shot at the presidency.

THE LADY
DIRECTED BY LUC BESSON
DAVID THEWLIS, MICHELLE YEOH

THE LADY is the extraordinary story of AUNG SAN SUU KYI and her husband MICHAEL ARIS. It is also the story of the peaceful quest of the woman who is at the core of Burma’s democracy movement. Despite distance, long separations and a dangerously hostile regime, their love endures until the very end. It’s a story of devotion and human understanding set against a backdrop of political turmoil that continues today. THE LADY was written over a period of three years by REBECCA FRAYN. Interviews with key figures in AUNG SAN SUU KYI’S entourage enabled her to reconstruct for the first time the true story of Burma’s national hero.

MONEYBALL
DIRECTED BY BENNETT MILLER
WRITTEN BY STEVEN ZAILLIAN & AARON SORKIN
BRAD PITT, PHILIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN, ROBIN WRIGHT, TAMMY BLANCHARD

Based on a true story, MONEYBALL stars BRAD PITT as BILLY BEANE, the general manager of the OAKLAND As and the guy who assembles the team, who has an epiphany: all of baseball’s conventional wisdom is wrong. Forced to reinvent his team on a tight budget, BILLY will have to outsmart the richer clubs. The onetime jock teams with an Ivy League grad in an unlikely partnership, recruiting bargain players that the scouts call flawed, but all of whom have an ability to get on base, score runs and win games. It’s more than baseball, it’s a revolution — one that challenges old school traditions and puts BILLY in the crosshairs of those who say he’s tearing out the heart and soul of the game.

PEACE, LOVE & MISUNDERSTANDING
DIRECTED BY BRUCE BERESFORD
JANE FONDA, CATHERINE KEENER, CHACE CRAWFORD, JEFFREY DEAN MORGAN, KYLE McLACHLAN, ROSANNA ARQUETTE, ELIZABETH OLSEN

Directed by two time ACADEMY AWARD nominated BRUCE BERESFORD, PEACE, LOVE & MISUNDERSTANDING stars two time ACADEMY AWARD winning JANE FONDA, two time ACADEMY AWARD nominated CATHERINE KEENER, international heartthrob CHACE CRAWFORD and SUNDANCE’S breakout star ELIZABETH OLSEN.

The film is a comedy about an uptight New York City lawyer who takes her two spirited teenagers to her hippie mother’s farmhouse in the countryside for a family vacation. What was meant to be a weekend getaway quickly turns into a summer adventure of romance, music, family secrets and self discovery.

W.E.
DIRECTED BY MADONNA
WRITTEN BY MADONNA & ALEK KESHISHIAN
ABBIE CORNISH, ANDREA RISEBOROUGH, JAMES FOX, LAURENCE FOX, LOLA LEON

W.E. is a romantic exploration of the mysterious connection across decades between two women confronting the consequences of desire. Caught in a loveless Manhattan marriage, abused and frustrated WALLY (ABBIE CORNISH) obsesses over WALLIS SIMPSON (ANDREA RISEBOROUGH), the stylish American divorcee who captured the heart of EDWARD THE VIII (JAMES D’ARCY) who abdicated the throne as King Of England.

As THE DUCHESS OF WINDSOR, WALLACE spends the rest of her life in the glare of celebrity exile. Inspired by THE DUCHESS’ determination to pursue love in the face of social exile, WALLY escapes into the arms of another man (OSCAR ISAAC) whose love sets her free. MADONNA and a world class team of collaborators present a passionate tale of the search for love and the meaning of happiness. W.E. (for WALLIS and EDWARD, forever entwined in the love story of the 20th century) is a rich cinematic portrayal of two strong women resolved to find romance.

SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS

THE ARTIST
MALCOLM McDOWELL, JOHN GOODMAN, JAMES CROMWELL, PENELOPE ANN MILLER

Hollywood 1927. GEORGE VALENTIN is a very successful silent movie star. The arrival of talking pictures will mark the end of his career. PEPPY MILLER, a young woman extra, becomes a major movie star.

AMERICANO
SALMA HAYEK, GERALDINE CHAPLIN, CHIARA MASTROIANNI, CARLOS BARDEM

When MATHIEU was little, his name was MARTIN and he lived in Los Angeles. MARTIN grew up and lives in Paris. When he loses his mother back in California, MARTIN must return to the city of his childhood to deal with the formalities surrounding his inheritance. Unable to face up to his mom’s death, MARTIN takes off to Tijuana on the trail of LOLA, a Mexican woman he used to know and who held a special place in his mother’s life. To make his own peace, MARTIN delve into his past.

ANONYMOUS
RHYS IFANS, DAVID THEWLIS, VANESSA REDGRAVE, JOELY RICHARDSON

Set in the political snake pit of Elizabethan England, ANONYMOUS speculates on an issue that has for centuries intrigued academics and brilliant minds, namely: who actually created the body of work credited to WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE? Experts have debated, books have been written and scholars have devoted their lives to protecting or debunking theories surrounding the authorship of the most renowned works in English literature. ANONYMOUS poses one possible answer, focusing on a time when scandalous political intrigue, illicit romances in Royal Court and the schemes of greedy nobles lusting for the power of the throne were brought to light in the most unlikely of places: the London stage.

A BETTER LIFE
GUILLAUME CANET

YANN, a cook, and NADIA, a server and mother of a nine year old child, decide to risk everything on the purchase of a restaurant. With plenty of talent, energy, love and dreams, but no finances of their own, they find themselves forced into a jungle of financing and bank loans that quickly overwhelms them. To bail them out, NADIA has to take a job in Canada, while YANN is forced to stay behind to save the restaurant. Together, he and the child confront a relentless avalanche of creditors, an uncaring system and the daily grind from which there is no respite. YANN finally understands that his only chance of salvation lies in joining his lover – as well as reuniting mother and child – by following NADIA to Canada and a better life.

BURNING MAN
MATTHEW GOODE, RACHEL GRIFFITHS, KERRY FOX, GIA CARIDES

Why is TOM behaving so badly? Six women and an eight year old boy are fighting, in very different ways, to help. But for TOM, it seems, there are no rules. BURNING MAN is the reckless, provocative and moving story of a father and son’s journey back to happiness.

CORIOLANUS
DIRECTED BY RALPH FIENNES
RALPH FIENNES, GERARD BUTLER, BRIAN COX, JESSICA CHASTAIN, VANESSA REDGRAVE

CORIOLANUS (RALPH FIENNES), a hero of Rome, is a great soldier but despises the people. His extreme views ignite a mass riot and he is banished from Rome. CORIOLANUS allies with a sworn enemy (GERARD BUTLER) to take his revenge on the city.

THE DEEP BLUE SEA
RACHEL WEISZ

HESTER COLLYER (ACADEMY AWARD winner RACHEL WEISZ) leads a privileged life in 1950s London as the beautiful wife of high court judge SIR WILLIAM COLLYER (SIMON RUSSELL BEALE). To the shock of those around her, she walks out on her marriage to move in with young ex RAF pilot FREDDIE PAGE (TOM HIDDLESTON), with whom she has fallen passionately in love.

THE DESCENDANTS
DIRECTED BY ALEXANDER PAYNE
WRITTEN BY ALEXANDER PAYNE & NAT FAXON
GEORGE CLOONEY, JUDY GREER, BEAU BRIDGES, ROBERT FORSTER

From ALEXANDER PAYNE, the creator of the OSCAR winning SIDEWAYS, set in Hawaii, THE DESCENDANTS is a sometimes humourous, sometimes tragic journey for MATT KING (GEORGE CLOONEY), an indifferent husband and father of two girls, who is forced to re examine his past and embrace his future when his wife suffers a boating accident off of Waikiki. The event leads to a rapprochement with his young daughters while MATT wrestles with a decision to sell the family’s land handed down from Hawaiian royalty and missionaries.

ELLES
JULIETTE BINOCHE

ANNE (JULIETTE BINOCHE), a well off Paris based mother of two and investigative journalist for ELLE, is writing an article about university student prostitution. Her meetings with two fiercely independent young women, ALICIJA (JOANNA KULIG) and CHARLOTTE (ANAIS DEMOUSTIER), are profound and unsettling, moving her to question her most intimate convictions about money, family and sex.

THE EYE OF THE STORM
DIRECTED BY FRED SCHEPISI
GEOFFREY RUSH, CHARLOTTE RAMPLING, JUDY DAVIS

In the Sydney suburb of Centennial Park, two nurses, a housekeeper and a solicitor attend to ELIZABETH HUNTER as her expatriate son and daughter convene at her deathbed. But in dying, as in living, Ms. Hunter remains a powerful force on those who surround her. Based on the novel by NOBEL PRIZE winner PATRICK WHITE, THE EYE OF THE STORM is a savage exploration of family relationships – and the sharp undercurrents of love and hate, comedy and tragedy, which define them.

FRIENDS WITH KIDS
WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY JENNIFER WESTFELDT
MEGAN FOX, KRISTEN WIIG, MAYA RUDOLPH, CHRIS O’DOWD, JON HAMM, EDWARD BURNS, JENNIFER WESTFELDT

FRIENDS WITH KIDS is a poignant ensemble comedy about a close knit circle of friends at that moment in life when children arrive and everything changes. There are big laughs and unexpected emotional truths as the last two singles in the group, out of step with their married pals, resolve to have a kid together…and date other people.

HABEMUS PAPAM
DIRECTED BY NANNI MORETTI
WRITTEN BY NANNI MORETTI, FRANCESCO PICCOLO & FEDERICA PONTREMOLI
MICHEL PICCOLI, NANNI MORETTI

The newly elected Pope suffers a panic attack just as he is due to appear on St Peter’s balcony to greet the faithful, who have been patiently awaiting the conclave’s decision. His advisors, unable to convince him he is the right man for the job, seek help from a renowned psychoanalyst (and atheist). But his fear of the responsibility suddenly thrust upon him is one that he must face on his own.

THE HUNTER
WILLEM DAFOE, SAM NEILL

Based on the acclaimed novel by JULIA LEIGH, THE HUNTER is a powerful psychological drama that tells the story of MARTIN (WILLEM DAFOE), a mercenary sent from Europe by an anonymous biotech company to the Tasmanian wilderness on a dramatic hunt for the last Tasmanian Tiger. Against his wishes, MARTIN’S only option is to stay at a base camp house with the despondent wife and spirited children of a missing zoologist. Drawn deeper into the wild landscape in his search for the mysterious Tiger,
MARTIN’S unexpected connection to the family and the majestic wilderness around him, forces him to confront the reality of his work and personal morality, with dramatic consequences.

KILLER JOE
DIRECTED BY WILLIAM FRIEDKIN
EMILE HIRSCH, MATTHEW McCONAUGHEY, THOMAS HADEN CHURCH, GINA GERSHON, JUNO TEMPLE

When 22 year old drug dealer CHRIS (EMILE HIRSCH) has his stash stolen by his mother, he has to come up with six thousand dollars quick or he’s dead. Desperate, he turns to KILLER JOE (MATTHEW McCONAUGHEY) when he finds out that his mother’s life insurance policy is worth $50,000. Although JOE usually demands cash up front, he finds himself willing to bend the rules in exchange for CHRIS’ attractive younger sister DOTTIE, who will serve as sexual collateral until the money comes in…if it ever does.

LIKE CRAZY
ANTON YELCHIN, FELICITY JONES, JENNIFER LAWRENCE, ALEX KINGSTON, FINOLA HUGHES, CHRIS MESSINA

LIKE CRAZY is a film from and about the heart. JACOB, an American and ANNA, who is British, meet at college in Los Angeles and fall madly in love. It’s the purest kind of romance – they’re each other’s first significant attachment. When ANNA returns to London, they are forced into a long distance relationship. Their perfect love is tested, and youth, trust and geography become their biggest enemies. An original, contemplative look at first love, LIKE CRAZY strikes a universal chord as it explores the bittersweet beauty and impermanence of relationships.

MACHINE GUN PREACHER
DIRECTED BY MARC FORSTER
GERARD BUTLER, MICHAEL SHANNON, KATHY BAKER

This inspirational true story, MACHINE GUN PREACHER is about SAM CHILDERS, a former drug dealing criminal who undergoes an astonishing transformation and finds an unexpected calling as the savior of hundreds of kidnapped and orphaned children. GERARD BUTLER delivers a searing performance as SAM in GOLDEN GLOBE nominated director MARC FORSTER’S (MONSTER’S BALL, FINDING NEVERLAND) moving story of violence and redemption.

MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE
ELIZABETH OLSEN, SARAH PAULSON, JOHN HAWKES, HUGH DANCY

MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE is a powerful psychological thriller starring ELIZABETH OLSEN as MARTHA, a young woman rapidly unravelling amidst her attempt to reclaim a normal life after fleeing from a cult and its charismatic leader (JOHN HAWKES). Seeking help from her estranged older sister LUCY (SARAH PAULSON) and brother in law (HUGH DANCY), MARTHA is unable and unwilling to reveal the truth about her disappearance. When her memories trigger a chilling paranoia that her former cult could still be pursuing her, the line between MARTHA’S reality and delusion begins to blur.

THE ORANGES
LEIGHTON MEESTER, HUGH LAURIE, ALIA SHAWKAT, CATHERINE KEENER, ADAM BRODY, ALLISON JANNEY, OLIVER PLATT

The Ostroff and Walling families are best friends and neighbours, living across the street from each other on Orange Drive. Prodigal daughter NINA OSTROFF (LEIGHTON MEESTER) returns home for Thanksgiving dinner after a five year absence, newly broken up with her fiancé ETHAN (SAM ROSEN). Rather than developing an interest in the successful son of her neighbours TOBY WALLING (ADAM BRODY), which would please both families, it’s her parents’ best friend DAVID WALLING (HUGH LAURIE) that captures NINA’S attention.

When the romantic attraction between NINA and DAVID becomes too great to ignore, the lives of the two families are thrown into upheaval. It is not long, however, before the ramifications of the affair begin to work on the other family members in unexpected, hilarious and even positive ways, leading everyone to reassess what it means to be happy and how to find happiness with – and perhaps in spite of – your own family and friends.

PEARL JAM TWENTY
DIRECTED BY CAMERON CROWE

PEARL JAM TWENTY chronicles the years leading up to the band’s formation, the chaos that ensued soon after their rise to megastardom, their step back from centre stage, and the creation of a trusted circle that would surround them – giving way to a work culture that would sustain them. Told in big themes and bold colours with blistering sound, the film is carved from over 1,200 hours of rarely seen and never-before seen footage spanning the band’s career. PEARL JAM TWENTY is the definitive portrait of PEARL JAM: part concert film, part intimate insider hang and part testimonial to the power of music and uncompromising artists.

SALMON FISHING IN THE YEMEN
DIRECTED BY LASSE HALLSTROM
WRITTEN BY SIMON BEAUFOY
EWAN McGREGOR, EMILY BLUNT, KRISTIN SCOTT THOMAS

Stuffy government fisheries scientist FRED is asked by a fishing obsessed Arab Sheik to do the seemingly impossible – introduce British salmon to the wadis of the Yemen. Despite considerable trepidation, FRED is finally won over by the charismatic Sheik, who reveals that fishing brings him closer to God and he hopes it will have the same effect on his country people. FRED also begins to fall for the Sheik’s beautiful legal representative HARRIET and so he rises to the Sheik’s eccentric challenge, casting off his English reserve on a transformative journey of self discovery and late blooming love.

THE SKIN I LIVE IN
WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY PEDRO ALMODOVAR
ANTONIO BANDERAS

Ever since his wife was burned in a car crash, DR. ROBERT LEDGARD (ANTONIO BANDERAS), an eminent plastic surgeon, has been interested in creating a new skin with which he could have saved her. After twelve years, he manages to cultivate a skin that is a real shield against every assault. In addition to years of study and experimentation, ROBERT needed a further three things: no scruples, an accomplice and a human guinea pig. Scruples were never a problem. MARILIA, the woman who looked after him from the day he was born, is his most faithful accomplice. And as for the human guinea pig…

TAKE SHELTER
MICHAEL SHANNON, JESSICA CHASTAIN, KATHY BAKER, LISA GAY HAMILTON

CURTIS lives in Ohio with his wife SAMANTHA and daughter HANNAH. When he begins having dreams about an encroaching apocalyptic storm, he channels his anxiety into building a shelter in their backyard. Though his obsessive behaviour provokes intolerance in his community, CURTIS confides in SAMANTHA, testing their bond against the highest possible stakes.

TRISHNA
DIRECTED BY MICHAEL WINTERBOTTOM
FREIDA PINTO

Starring FREIDA PINTO and RIZ AHMED and based on THOMAS HARDY’S novel TESS OF THE D’URBERVILLES, the film is set in contemporary India and tells the tragic love story between the son of a wealthy property developer and the daughter of a rickshaw driver.

TWIXT
WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA
VAL KILMER, BRUCE DERN, BEN CHAPLIN, ELLE FANNING, JOANNE WHALLEY, DAVID PAYMER, DON NOVELLO

A writer with a career in decline arrives in a small town as part of his book tour and gets caught up in a murder mystery involving a young girl.

TYRANNOSAUR
WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY PADDY CONSIDINE
PETER MULLAN, OLIVIA COLMAN, EDDIE MARSAN

JOSEPH is a man plagued by violence and rage that is driving him to self destruction. As JOSEPH’S life spirals into turmoil, a chance of redemption appears in the form of HANNAH, a Christian charity shop worker. Their relationship develops to reveal that HANNAH is hiding a secret of her own which has devastating results on both of their lives.

WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN
DIRECTED BY LYNN RAMSAY
WRITTEN BY LYNN RAMSAY & RORY KINNEAR
TILDA SWINTON, JOHN C. REILLY

A suspenseful and psychologically gripping exploration into a parent dealing with her child doing the unthinkable, WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN is the highly anticipated third feature from director LYNNE RAMSAY and features a tour de force performance by TILDA SWINTON.

WOMAN IN THE FIFTH
KRISTIN SCOTT THOMAS, ETHAN HAWKE

American writer TOM RICKS (ETHAN HAWKE) comes to Paris desperate to put his life together again and win back the love of his estranged wife and daughter. When things don’t go according to plan, he ends up in a shady hotel in the suburbs, having to work as a night guard to make ends meet. Then MARGIT (KRISTIN SCOTT THOMAS), a beautiful mysterious stranger walks into his life and things start looking up. Their passionate and intense relationship triggers a string of inexplicable events…as if an obscure power is taking control of his life.

HIS FINAL INTERVIEW: REMEMBERING THE LATE GREAT SIDNEY LUMET

This article is written by BRAD BALFOUR at THE HUFFINGTON POST

At the time BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU’RE DEAD was released, it first premiered in the U.S. at the 2007 NEW YORK FILM FESTIVAL. Its director SIDNEY LUMET had long been regarded as an internationally respected auteur who had made several benchmark films like PRINCE OF THE CITY and NETWORK, as well as the two AL PACINO star vehicles SERPICO and DOG DAY AFTERNOON.

During that period when Mr. Lumet’s film was getting all the ballyhoo, he joined in on the press day that all the journalists there knew was an important occasion. It was not only for the film’s brilliant and unique story structure or its sterling cast (PHILIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN, ETHAN HAWKE, ALBERT FINNEY, MARISA TOMEI and AMY RYAN), but for the director’s application of HD video cameras.

The film details the tragic tale of two brothers who organize the robbery of their own parents’ jewelry store. The job goes horribly wrong, triggering a cascading set of events that sends them, their parents, friends and lovers careening towards a disastrous climax.

Little did we know at the time that it would be his last press day or his last film. On April 9, 2011 he died at 86, after a long career as an actor/writer/director who made over 50 films – many garnering OSCAR wins or nominations for its actors.

The son of Yiddish thespians, SIDNEY LUMET began acting at age four, made his Broadway debut at 11 and first film appearance at 15. But it was as a filmmaker – first in early live television and later in movies – that he found his true calling, drawing on his experience in front of the camera to become the very definition of an actor’s director.

From 12 ANGRY MEN in 1957 to BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU’RE DEAD, the Philadelphia born director was, in the words of WOODY ALLEN, “the quintessential New York filmmaker,” whether telling gritty stories of urban corruption or adapting Broadway stage classics in cinema.

On the occasion of his passing earlier this year, THE FILM SOCIETY OF LINCOLN CENTER put together an extraordinary retrospective of 16 Lumet classics, PRINCE OF THE CITY: REMEMBERING SIDNEY LUMET, culminating in tonight’s screening of his powerful last feature in THE WALTER READE THEATER at 8:30 pm.

The following is that last roundtable interview which has had a few excerpts of it published or posted. Here now is nearly a complete rendition of that final conversation.

Q: How well rehearsed were the actors for this film? Did you do a lot of takes with them for the more challenging scenes? Did you rework scenes with them or was it just straight ahead, one or two takes?

SIDNEY LUMET: We’re very thorough in rehearsal. We do everything. In fact, before the rehearsal ends, we do a run through from top to bottom – fights, anything, everything. The scripts are out of their hands. It’s a very thorough preparation. I’m a big believer in it.

Q: From start to finish?

SL: Start to finish. Everything is covered every day, because first of all, it’s the only time they can do it in sequence. They’ll never get it in sequence again.

Second of all, when you’re going to ask for this level of intensity, you’re not going to get it if they’re insecure in any way. If they’re tight, the rehearsal just relaxes them completely because they get to know what they’re doing. It’s that that allows all of the emotion to come jumping out and springing to the fore. Yeah, I find it invaluable.

Q: Why did you think of MARISA TOMEI for GINA – the wife of PHIL HOFFMAN’S character?

SL: I fell in love with her in MY COUSIN VINNY and it hasn’t abated a bit. A superb actress. When I met her after MY COUSIN VINNY, I couldn’t believe it, because I thought she was that.

Every once in a while you see a performance and say well, the director went out and got a nonprofessional and I thought that was true of MARISA. I thought it was true of TIM ROBBINS in BULL DURHAM…and I thought, “My God, they went out and got themselves a real cracker.” So I loved her work from that and some subsequent work.

Also – this is very important for a picture like this – if you know my pictures, I don’t do sex scenes. I don’t do sex scenes because I don’t believe them.

Only one picture I ever believed in [doing it] and there was a reason I believed, but I knew I was going to have to have it in this, that opening scene.

It was very important that both actors be relaxed about it, because if they weren’t then it would be like any other sex scene, the ones I don’t believe.

And I knew that MARISA just is totally uninhibited. She’s not an exhibitionist by any means, but it’s just another part of acting for her. And I’m sure that PHILIP is not used to it because he’s not the conventional leading man.

When we were blocking – this is during rehearsal, after we’d finished three days around the table talking and so on – then we got up on our feet, we started to stage it just like you would in the theatre.

So that’s the first scene, the first one we get to and there’s a set laid out on the floor and a bed. MARISA, bless her, she hops onto the bed.

I wrote out the description very carefully, because there are instances of actors saying, “Oh I didn’t know I was going to have to get undressed,” and by union regulations you cannot make them. I wrote it out in great detail so that they couldn’t say they didn’t know.

So MARISA hops onto the bed, gets up on her knees and on her elbows and slaps her ass and says, “Let’s go, Phil!”

It was so great because it not only put it in its proper place – which is part of the movie, part of a performance – but for PHILIP, that must have been such a release and such a relief that there was nothing competitive or what have you.

Q: That took all the stress out of it.

SL: Absolutely. I was thrilled with her. I was thrilled with her.

Q: How do you bring that essence out of an actor?

SL: It varies picture by picture. And another big variable in it is that some actors are in themselves closer to the roles they’re playing and some actors are farther away.

Here, the most important thing there was to work on was the intensity, because like all good melodramas the story is completely unbelievable.

The only thing that’s going to create a belief is if the intensity of performance is so high that your audience can’t deny it, that you’re sucked in completely. So for these actors it was a question of getting up onto a high enough pitch in the inner life of the performance.

Q: You worked with ALBERT FINNEY (who plays the father) before in MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS 33 years ago. Did you talk aboutthe differences and similarities of working with him back then and working with him now?

SL: Never. I don’t even see my old movies, and old movie is anything I did last. When this round is over with and the premieres that I have to go to and so on, I won’t see this again. Next Wednesday is the last time I’m going to see this movie.

Q: You’ve shot all your movies with multiple cameras. This one seemed to be very much a stationary camera looking into these lives. Was this something very conscious that you wanted to do or something very different from your older movies?

SL: I never think of the camera work as separated from the picture itself. One of the reasons I love high def – I think in high def – is because multicamera has become much simpler.

For me that takes me right back to my origins, that takes me right back to live TV, because there I’d be using as many as six cameras. So it was a terrific pleasure. I love high def anyway; I’ve worked in nothing else for the last five years.

Q: In light of doing it in high def, what was similar or different about making this film from your other films?

SL: The multicamera use. For instance, in two scenes, there’s one camera there, there’s one camera there, this camera’s covering him, this camera’s covering him. Look, you can get anything you want to in normal film, I realize that; it’s a question of the effort.

Take a scene like where ETHAN and PHILIP are ripping off the dope dealer’s place and PHILIP has just shot that stranger lying there in the bed and he’s rifling stuff in the closet and ETHAN is just standing there petrified – this tension begins between them.

“Did you touch anything?” “What?” “Did you touch anything?!”

I guess I could have gotten that with individual cameras, first one side, then the other, but two things: it would have taken me all day to build up to that level of intensity, number one and number two, I still don’t think they ever would have been able to seem like they were working out of each other so completely.

Each one of them was in perfect reaction to what the other person was doing because they were doing it together at the same time. All pieces of work you kind of keep hoping for the good accident and it happened when PHILIP stuck his head out and he said, “OK, are we good?”

Now that wasn’t in the script. Extraordinary line, extraordinary reaction. And also from a character point of view, because for the first time, the only time in the movie, PHILIP is the insecure one and ETHAN is the secure one. That inversion is just so humanizing to those two characters.

A complete accident and I think it only could have happened if both of them were being recorded at the same time.

If that had happened on PHILIP’S side and he’d thrown that in and then two hours later I’d turned around and gotten ETHAN’S side, I don’t think he ever would have gotten to that reaction.

Q: That’s a fascinating perspective that only a good director would have. You actually wrote a draft of the film. You didn’t take a writing credit?

SL: No. I would have loved one, but those things are decided by THE WRITER’S GUILD. I don’t know what they use as judgment, but they are very suspicious – and rightly so – of directors who put their names on as writers as well.

Because the normal amount that I do on a script I wouldn’t think of asking for a credit for. The writer may have written “the battle happens and the North wins,” and then the director, because he’ll stage the battle, he’ll ask for a writing credit…and I don’t think he should get it.

Q: How hard was it to get this one made?

SL: I don’t know. It’s a peculiar time in movies now because there’s so much private financing in it and I don’t know what MICHAEL [CERENZIE, the producer] had when he sent me the script. I don’t know how much money he had lined up and when the last of it clicked into place.

Q; With a small movie like this, OSCARS are a different game now; it’s changed a lot. Now you have to campaign for them.

You’ve had so many OSCAR nominated and award winning movies. How important are awards to movies like this?

SL: I have no idea. It’s like catching lightning in a bottle. I don’t think you can ever figure on it. I don’t aim anything for it.

The reason it’s all so much more a sales job now, and ads and this that and the other – in the old days when you were working at 20TH CENTURY FOX, DARRYL ZANUCK sent you a note saying, “Vote for this picture.” Literally…So your vote was decided for you.

Q: How would they know who you’d voted for?

SL: They knew.

Q: It’s amazing that you’ve made nearly 50 movies in your 83 years. And this movie is so great…and to come out at this time in your life. Will you continuing making movies after this?

SL: I hope so.

With a little luck, with a little help from my friends…Yeah.

AMY WINEHOUSE: HOW SHE PAVED THE WAY FOR OTHER POP STARS

This article is written by CHUCK ARNOLD at PEOPLE

The first time I saw AMY WINEHOUSE was at JOE’S PUB – an intimate cabaret style setting in Manhattan’s East Village – in early 2007.

Even before the release of her game changing album BACK TO BLACK a couple of months later, there was all ready so much buzz about this soulful saucy Brit with the beehive. And with celebs like JAY Z in the house, you could feel something special in the air that night. AMY didn’t disappoint, filling the room with a smokiness even when no smoking was allowed.

As she brought life to the bad girl drama of her songs, it sometimes felt as if she were teetering on the edge. This was no act.

Sadly, the same darkness and demons that made AMY WINEHOUSE’S music so compelling would prove to be her undoing, as the world watched her spiral out of control even as she won international acclaim. The rebellious “no, no, no” refrain of her signature hit REHAB – which won her three of the five GRAMMYS she took home in 2008 – became all too real. Just as telling was the ETTA JAMESesque YOU KNOW I’M NO GOOD, on which AMY seemed to foreshadow her own downfall:

I cheated myself/Like I knew I would/I told you I was trouble/You know that I’m no good

Despite her death on Saturday, AMY WINEHOUSE’S legacy will live on – no doubt she has been one of the most important figures in pop music this millennium. Her jazzy retro soul sound spawned a wave of old school singers, many from her native U.K., like DUFFY.

Eerily, AMY WINEHOUSE died at 27, the same age that music legends JANIS JOPLIN, JIMI HENDRIX, JIM MORRISON and KURT COBAIN also passed away far too soon.

We’ll always wonder what more she could have done, what that follow up to BACK TO BLACK would have sounded like. Certainly, BACK TO BLACK will go down as a classic, even more so now that it is the last music we’ll hear from her.

But I, for one, will find it harder to listen to it now, knowing that she will never find the happiness that eluded her in those songs. Maybe she will find that peace in the next life.

AMY WINEHOUSE PASSES AWAY AT 27

FROM THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Everyone that knows me is well aware of how much I adore AMY WINEHOUSE. Her passing may not have come as an enormous shock. But it’s an incredible tragedy just the same.

She was gorgeous and exceptionally gifted. AMY reminded me a lot of BARBRA STREISAND. Her star quality and charisma were white hot. She was an authentic original.

She had the world at her feet. But the last note has now been sung.

It’s very hard to pick a song that sums up such an exquisitely talented woman. REHAB and BACK TO BLACK are revolutionary but rather inappropriate for various reasons.

If you know her music, I’m sure you’ll understand what I mean.

Instead I’m going with YOU KNOW I’M NO GOOD. Just so no one jumps to the wrong conclusions (again…), the video and the song have nothing to do with anything that I’m going through. I’m with the most beautiful man in the world. He loves me and supports me unconditionally through everything…and I feel exactly the same way about him.

We will never be parted. This year has bonded us together forever.

But the song has a fabulous kind of stand back – fuck you, you don’t know who you’re messing with vibe.

Somehow – wherever she is – I firmly believe that AMY would heartily approve.

In her lifetime, AMY WINEHOUSE often made headlines due to her tempestuous and dramatic personal life. But it’s her small but powerful body of recorded music that will be her legacy.

The singer was found dead Saturday at age 27 by ambulance crews called to her home in north London’s Camden area, a youth culture mecca known for its music scene and its pubs. She joins the ranks of rock stars JIMI HENDRIX, JANIS JOPLIN, KURT COBAIN and JIM MORRISON, who all died at the same age.

It was not a complete surprise, but the news was still a huge shock for millions around the world. The size of AMY WINEHOUSE’S appeal was reflected in the extraordinary range of people paying tribute as they heard the news.

TONY BENNETT, who recorded the pop standard BODY & SOUL with AMY at London’s ABBEY ROAD STUDIOS in March for an upcoming duets album, called her “an artist of immense proportions.”

“She was an extraordinary musician with a rare intuition as a vocalist and I am truly devastated that her exceptional talent has come to such an early end.”

ROLLING STONE RON WOOD dedicated Saturday’s reunion performance of his band THE FACES to AMY. “It’s a very sad loss of a very good friend I spent many great times with.”

THE DAP KINGS, a band that worked on her second album, spoke of AMY fondly: “She was one of a kind and we were fortunate to have had the chance to make music with her. She was always gracious and a pleasure to work with in the studio and on the road. She brought a lot of people joy with her voice and her irreverent personality. It is a tragedy that she was taken from us so soon when she had much more music to give.”

BRYAN ADAMS remembered her: “She was an enormously talented and sensitive woman. I will miss her greatly.”

AMY WINEHOUSE was something rare in an increasingly homogenized music business: an outsized personality and an unclassifiable talent.

She shot to fame with the album BACK TO BLACK, whose blend of jazz, soul, rock and classic pop was a global hit. It won five GRAMMYS in 2008 (including RECORD OF THE YEAR, SONG OF THE YEAR, POP VOCAL ALBUM and BEST NEW ARTIST) and made the singer one of music’s most recognizable stars.

“I didn’t go out looking to be famous,” she told THE ASSOCIATED PRESS when the CD was released. “I’m just a musician.”

But in the end, the music was overshadowed by fame and the accompanying difficulties that automatically appear with such an intense level of exposure. Fans who had kept the faith waited in vain for a followup to BACK TO BLACK.

AMY JADE WINEHOUSE was born SEPTEMBER 14, 1983 to taxi driver MITCH WINEHOUSE and his pharmacist wife JANIS WINEHOUSE.

AMY grew up in the north London suburbs and was set on a show business career from an early age. She attended THE SYLVIA YOUNG THEATRE SCHOOL, a factory for British music and acting moppets, later went to THE BRIT SCHOOL, a performing arts academy in the FAME mold and was originally signed to POP IDOL svengali SIMON FULLER’S 19 MANANGEMENT.

But AMY was never a packaged teen star and always resisted being pigeonholed.

Her jazz influenced 2003 debut album FRANK was critically praised and sold well in Britain. It earned AMY an IVOR NOVELLO songwriting award, two BRIT nominations and a spot on the shortlist for THE MERCURY MUSIC PRIZE.

But AMY expressed dissatisfaction with the disc, saying she was “only 80 percent behind” the album.

FRANK was followed by a slump during which she broke up with her boyfriend and suffered a long period of writer’s block.

“I had writer’s block for so long,” she said in 2007. “And as a writer, your self worth is literally based on the last thing you wrote…I used to think, ‘What happened to me?’”

“At one point it had been two years since the last record and (the record company) actually said to me, ‘Do you even want to make another record?’ I was like, ‘I swear it’s coming.’ I said to them, ‘Once I start writing I will write and write and write. But I just have to start it.”’

The album she eventually produced was a sensation.

Released in Britain in the fall of 2006, BACK TO BLACK brought AMY WINEHOUSE global fame. Working with producers MARK RONSON and SALAAM REMI and funk group THE DAP KINGS, AMY fused soul, jazz, doo wop and, above all, a love of the girl groups of the early 1960s with lyrical tales of romantic obsession and emotional excess.

BACK TO BLACK was released in the United States in March 2007 and went on to win five GRAMMY awards, including SONG OF THE YEAR and RECORD OF THE YEAR for REHAB.

Music critic JOHN AIZLEWOOD attributed her trans Atlantic success to a fantastic voice and a genuinely original sound.

“A lot of British bands fail in America because they give America something Americans do better — that’s why most British hip hop has failed. But they won’t have come across anything quite like Amy Winehouse.”

AMY’S rise was helped by her distinctive look — a black beehive of hair, thickly lined cat eyes, girly tattoos — and her tart tongue.

The songs on BACK TO BLACK detailed breakups and breakdowns with a similar frankness. Lyrically, as in life, she wore her heart on her sleeve.

“I listen to a lot of 60s music, but society is different now,” she said in 2007. “I’m a young woman and I’m going to write about what I know.”

Increasingly, her private life began to overshadow her career.

She acknowledged struggling with eating disorders and told a newspaper that she had been diagnosed as manic depressive but refused to take medication.

Though she was often reported to be working on new material, fans got tired of waiting for the much promised follow up to BACK TO BLACK.

Occasional bits of recording saw the light of day. Her rendition of THE ZUTONS’ VALERIE was a highlight of producer MARK RONSON’S 2007 album VERSION and she recorded the pop classic IT’S MY PARTY for the 2010 QUINCY JONES album Q: SOUL BOSSA NOSTRA.

But other recording projects with the producer, one of the architects of the success of BACK TO BLACK, came to nothing.

In May 2007 in Miami, she married BLAKE FIELDER CIVIL, but the honeymoon was brief. That November, he was arrested for an attack on a pub manager the year before. He later pleaded guilty to assaulting barkeep JAMES KING and then offering him 200,000 pounds to keep quiet about it.

AMY stood by BLAKE throughout his trial, often blowing kisses at him from the court’s public gallery. But British newspapers reported extramarital affairs while he was behind bars.

They divorced in 2009.

AMY’S health often appeared fragile. In June 2008 and again in April 2010, she was taken to hospital and treated for injuries after fainting and falling at home.

Her father said she had developed the lung disease emphysema from smoking cigarettes and crack, although her spokesperson later said AMY only had “early signs of what could lead to emphysema.”

She left the hospital to perform at NELSON MANDELA’S 90th birthday concert in Hyde Park in June 2008 and at THE GLASTONBURY FESTIVAL the next day, where she received a rousing reception. Then it was back to a London clinic for treatment, continuing the cycle of music, excess and recuperation that marked her career.

Her last public appearance came three days before her death, when she briefly joined her goddaughter singer DIONNE BROMFIELD, on stage at THE ROUNDHOUSE in Camden, just around the corner from her home.

AMY is survived by her parents and an older brother ALEX. Her father MITCH, who released a jazz album of his own, was in New York when he heard the news of her death and immediately flew back.

Despite the years of frustration and disappointment, AMY retained a huge number of fans, all hoping she would find her feet again. Some gathered outside her home after her death, laying flowers, comforting each other and taking in the police tape and ambulance that marked the end of her journey.

FALLACIOUS PSYCHOPATHIC TERRITORY

Our Friday musical highlight is the ELVIS COSTELLO classic WATCHING THE DETECTIVES.

Now it’s time for me to exit. Stage left…