Kate Winslet | The New York Observer

Because You Missed It the First Time: Revolutionary Road Comes to DVD

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 09:34:20 -0400

One of the very best films to come out in the last couple of years hits DVD today and you haven’t seen it. Why Revolutionary Road, Sam Mendes’ tragically beautiful adaptation of Richard Yates’ novel, failed to connect with moviegoers is a question that has many answers: In an era of hope, it was too depressing; the core audience of 25-to-54-year-olds didn’t want to see their internal fears visualized with such damning reality; and,...

Most Bananas Oscars Ever?

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 09:31:37 -0500

Okay, yeaaah, the Oscars! It’s going to take us at least a few more days to really be able to digest all the absolute batsh*t craziness that went down during Sunday night’s telecast. Can we all just start by agreeing that that show was truly bonkersville? We know there will be plenty of ink shed on the big winners: Kate, Sean, Penélope, Heath, Slumdog, etc., so we’ll just stick to the show itself for...

Kate the Great! Why Winslet, Pitt, Button Should Get the Gold

Tue, 17 Feb 2009 14:41:28 -0500

BEST PICTURE

The Reader

My choice for Best Picture would be The Reader. I think it’s a magnificent film about little people with big experiences. It’s a movie that, at a time when movies are not about much of anything, is a very important film about how one generation pays the price for the sins of an older generation. And...

The SAG Awards: Let Us Bow at the Throne of Queen Meryl! Also, 30 Rock and Slumdog Millionaire Win More Awards

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 08:05:22 -0500

Like most of the English-speaking world, you probably didn't catch any of the 15th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards last night on TNT and TBS (it's an awards show so nice, they air it twice!). That's too bad though. Not only does every movie star in Hollywood show up to bask in the glow of their acting peers--even Sean Penn!--but the broadcast is actually fun. Plus, there are no ugly sound mixers or writers...

The Golden Globes: Too Much Kate, Not Enough Ricky and an Actual Oscar Race

Mon, 12 Jan 2009 08:53:25 -0500

For all the problems we have with The Golden Globes--they're haphazardly produced, completely ridiculous and totally second rate--we cannot stress how much fun it is to watch them each year. Mostly, that has to do with the fact that the stars drink during the ceremony. A lot. Last night, after Slumdog Millionaire won for Best Screenplay, the camera cut to a relaxed looking Brad Pitt, who leaned over to Angelina Jolie and asked, "What...

Love Asunder

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 14:56:26 -0500

Revolutionary Road
Running time 119 minutes
Written by Justin Haythe
Directed by Sam Mendes
Starring Kate Winslet, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kathy Bates, David Shannon

Revolutionary Road, under the detailed, sharp-eyed guidance of Sam Mendes, is a flawless, moment-to-moment autopsy of a marriage on the rocks and an indictment of the American Dream gone sour. When they meet, Frank and April Wheeler (Leonardo DiCaprio and the fabulous...

Great Kate Deserves Oscar, But Can’t She Do Something Fun?

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 14:08:05 -0500

Revolutionary Road
Running time 119 minutes
Written by Justin Haythe
Directed by Sam Mendes
Starring Kate Winslet, Leonardo DiCaprio, Michael Shannon, Kathy Bates

Sam Mendes’ Revolutionary Road, from the screenplay by Justin Haythe, based on the novel by Richard Yates, unfolds in a vale of disillusion and disenchantment so dismal that it seems a strange project to come to market in a crisis-laden period of crumbling values. That...

Who Cares About the Glut of Holocaust Films This Holiday Season? Viggo Mortensen's Good is Different, Dammit!

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 12:17:56 -0500

Wednesday night, the Museum of Jewish Heritage hosted the premiere of Good--another holiday season WWII drama starring Viggo Mortensen as John Halder (a German professor in the 1930s who is trying to be "good" despite societal pressures) and Jason Isaacs, who plays Mr. Mortensen's best friend Maurice, who is Jewish, in the film.

We spoke with Good director Vicente Amorim on the red carpet about the recent rash of films with...

Can Love Survive?

Tue, 09 Dec 2008 20:00:14 -0500

The preview for Revolutionary Road, which opens Dec. 26, is one of those rare and wondrous pieces of promotion that tells you everything you need to know about a movie without really telling you anything at all. There’s beautiful Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio, gleaming in their mid-’50s-era costumes, smoking, sighing, drinking, dancing, screaming, kissing … and then drinking, smoking, screaming and sighing some more. Nina Simone sings “Wild is the Wind” (“love me,...

Kate Winslet 'More Suited' For Reader Role Than Nicole Kidman, Says Screenwriter

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 09:35:33 -0500

Wednesday night, at the much buzzed about premiere of The Reader, we asked Kate Winslet what it had been like to replace Nicole Kidman in the film. (Ms. Kidman departed in January due to her pregnancy.)

"Often actors jump in an out of each others parts, you know?" Ms. Winslet was wearing a brown off-the-shoulder dress with brown shoes and dark lipstick, and had her hair curled slightly off the shoulder. "You guys don't...

Sex and the SS

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 12:43:15 -0500

The Reader
Running time 123 minutes
Written by David Hare
Directed by Stephen Daldry
Starring Kate Winslet, Ralph Fiennes, Lena Olin, Bruno Ganz, David Kross

Stephen Daldry’s The Reader, from a screenplay by David Hare, based on the semi-autobiographical novel The Reader, by Bernhard Schlink, has lost much of the emotional power of the book, which was published in 1995, translated into 40 other languages and became the first German novel...

Oscar, Oscar! The Reader’s Winslet Left Me Gasping

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 12:34:23 -0500

The Reader
Running time 123 minutes
Written by David Hare
Directed by Stephen Daldry
Starring Kate Winslet, Ralph Fiennes, Lena Olin, Bruno Ganz, David Kross

The turkey’s in the soup, the retailers are praying for a Merry Christmas, and the year-end movie countdown is in full swing. I’ve still got a few items on my screening list, but I will go out on a limb right now...

Fashion Roundup: The Met Loves Sarah Jessica Parker; Beyonce Loves Obama; Everyone Loves Comme des Garcons for H&M

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 16:09:39 -0500

Sarah Jessica Parker lent her voice to the Metropolitan Museum of Art for the audio guide to Costume: The Art of Dress, which will be available to visitors starting November 25. “Walking through the galleries listening to Sarah Jessica Parker’s narration will bring a sense of discovery and delight to the experience," said museum curator-in-charge Harold Koda. [WWD]

A reminder: Rai Kawakubo's Comme des Garcons collection for H&M arrives in stores Thursday, November 13....

Fashion Roundup: Beatrice Inn Expands Into Fashion; Katie Holmes's New Headgear; Jessica Stam has a Hobby

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 16:19:57 -0400

Beatrice Inn co-owner Andre Saraiva has come out with a clothing line called Andrewear. [NY Times via The Cut]

Having grown tired of pegged boyfriend jeans, Katie Holmes is now experimenting with head scarves. [Just Jared]

Kate Winslet will reportedly play Vivienne Westwood in the upcoming biopic about the designer. [Vogue UK]

Jessica Stam is learning how to fly planes. [WWD]

Model Lily Cole and her...

Another Awesome Trailer: Revolutionary Road

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 13:35:11 -0400

Here at the Culture Czar, we've had our eye on Revolutionary Road for some time. Academy Award winner Sam Mendes' adaptation of the depressingly awesome Richard Yates novel, which reunites doomed Titanic lovers Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, seems like it should be a guaranteed home run: high-pedigree Oscar bait that will also be incredibly watchable and wildly sad. We. Can't. Wait.

However, there was some cause for concern over what Mr. Mendes would...

Winslet Is Suburban Bovary In Field's Little Children

Sun, 29 Oct 2006 19:00:00 -0500

Todd Field’s Little Children, from a screenplay by Mr. Field and Tom Perrotta, based on the novel by Mr. Perrotta, is centered on a contemporary suburban Madame Bovary, Sarah Pierce, played with full-bodied grace and gusto by Kate Winslet. Sarah is a housewife who seems determined to mortify her ingrained feminist sensibility at every turn. First, she drops out of graduate school to marry a well-off but dull older man, Richard Pierce (Gregg Edelman),...

Winslet Is Suburban Bovary In Field’s Little Children

Sun, 29 Oct 2006 19:00:00 -0500

Todd Field’s Little Children, from a screenplay by Mr. Field and Tom Perrotta, based on the novel by Mr. Perrotta, is centered on a contemporary suburban Madame Bovary, Sarah Pierce, played with full-bodied grace and gusto by Kate Winslet. Sarah is a housewife who seems determined to mortify her ingrained feminist sensibility at every turn. First, she drops out of graduate school to marry a well-off but dull older man, Richard Pierce (Gregg Edelman),...

Eternal Sunshine Left My Mind Spotless

Sun, 28 Mar 2004 19:00:00 -0500

Michel Gondry's Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind , from a screenplay by Charlie Kaufman, didn't work for me, despite (or perhaps because of) all the rave reviews it's received. Since Kate Winslet, who plays hippie-chick Clementine Kruczynski, has always held a special place in my heart-ever since she romped around in Peter Jackson's Heavenly Creatures (1994)-the prospect of her involvement in an obsessive love story with Jim Carrey seemed well-nigh irresistible. So what...

Is There No More Escapism? Napalm, Mayhem Fill the Screen

Sun, 30 Mar 2003 19:00:00 -0500

Antoine Fuqua's Tears of the Sun , from a screenplay by Alex Lasker and Patrick Cirillo, deserves the bad reviews and the lackluster earnings it has accumulated thus far. But I saw it at an interesting moment, an early-afternoon showing 72 hours before the pre-emptive invasion of Iraq. The audience, not surprisingly, consisted of me and three other white guys, suggesting that Tears of the Sun was not a "crossover" attraction like, say, Bringing...

Death Row Double-Cross

Sun, 02 Mar 2003 19:00:00 -0500

Slapping itself to death with red herrings, convoluted bleeding-heart propaganda and contrived plot maneuvers so confusing even Brian De Palma would have ordered a rewrite, The Life of David Gale is one strange movie. Still, I found most of it mesmerizing. Its flaws are many, and like so many movies do these days, it literally falls apart in the final 10 minutes and chokes on its own bathos, but it certainly doesn't deserve the...

Winslet Joins Keitel in Campion Sequel

Sun, 17 Oct 1999 20:00:00 -0400

Jane Campion's Holy Smoke , from a screenplay by Anna Campion and Jane Campion, treads a fine line between mordant irony and mere facetiousness as it hops back and forth between Australia and India in a guru-driven sensual quest for faith and fraud. Ms. Campion is a wild talent even by Australia's wild standards, which is to say that Holy Smoke is by turns witty, messy, perceptive, outrageous, incoherent, satirical, bombastic, cruel, lecherous, compassionate,...

What Happened to Kate Winslet … 24 Hours on Ecstasy

Sun, 18 Apr 1999 20:00:00 -0400

What Happened to Kate Winslet

We all know what happened to Leonardo DiCaprio. There's a camera crew in position every time he goes to the bathroom. But what about his Titanic co-star? Not to worry. Kate Winslet is back, doing serious work in a strange, intoxicating film called Hideous Kinky , as far from the fame and lights of Hollywood hysteria as a plane ticket and an independent budget can carry her. It's as...

Titanic Pleasure Cruise

Sun, 01 Mar 1998 19:00:00 -0500

As you may know, Titanic is a movie about a grand ocean liner that goes down, dumping its passengers and crew in the water, 1,550 of whom freeze to death or drown. The mind-bending success of Titanic has brought with it an unforeseen side effect: The fictional romance between the characters, played by young beauties Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, has sunk the actual tragedy in a sea of cross-promotion.

Take the top-40 radio station...