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Post by RhodoraO on Feb 17, 2017 5:43:31 GMT
Discussion, reviews, news, pics, etc.
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Post by RhodoraO on Feb 22, 2017 3:22:17 GMT
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Post by RhodoraO on Mar 5, 2017 5:09:26 GMT
From THR review at IMDb: - Director Brad Anderson has forged an expert horror-of-personality tale in "The Machinist". It's a brilliantly honed tale of dementia-
- In its very calibrations, from Scott Alan Kosar's edgy, spooky script to Anderson's provocative visualizations of Trevor's disintegrating mind-set, "The Machinist" is a gem. In particular, the film's look -- a combination of stark Germanic-style Expressionism and gritty film noir -- musters up an unsettling, paranoid atmosphere. It's a perfect depiction of Trevor's chaotic, frightening world.
- Under Anderson's shrewd hand, the technical contributions are masterful, including cinematographer Xavi Gimenez's nervy compositions and chiaroscuro shadings and Roque Banos' Bernard Herrmann-like score, lush with foreboding strings and an eerie bass clarinet undercurrent.
- Bale's performance, including his startling weight loss, is a brilliant meld of dysfunction, paranoia and fear. Jennifer Jason Leigh brings an apt tranquility to a portrayal of Trevor's Rock of Gibraltar, a generally addled hooker who soothes his demons.___________________________ I have to admit I have yet to watch the film. I usually only get to watch films on my laptop when my kids are asleep and I have a distaste for watching creepy horror-thrillers in late night when the house is dark...
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Post by RhodoraO on Mar 5, 2017 8:49:27 GMT
That time when Eminem wanted to get the Machinist look for a music video, and what was CB's comment on it: www.mtv.com/news/1653870/christian-bale-to-eminem-on-extreme-weight-loss-dont-do-it/d. 12/8/2010 Christian Bale has done it again. The dude has gone ahead and lost a ton of weight for a role, this time to play real-life boxing champ-turned-crackhead-turned-boxing trainer Dickie Eklund in "The Fighter." It's a startling transformation, and the performance has rightly made Bale the front-runner to win a Best Supporting Actor Oscar.
But not everyone is focused on his "Fighter" weight loss. Bale dropped more than 60 pounds for 2004's "The Machinist," and it's that physical makeover that attracted the attention of Eminem. Last year, the hip-hop star said in an interview that he attempted to mirror's Bale's "Machinist" look for his "3 A.M." music video.
"I was thinking they could make my spine look real crazy like in that movie," Em told Complex. "I started getting real skinny so my veins would pop out and I was trying to get that look, but it just didn't work. My body won't really let me get that low."
That's probably a good thing, because according to Bale, losing so much weight is nothing short of insane.
"Holy crap, that guy needs help in that case!" the actor laughed when we told him about Eminem's quest. " 'Don't do it, don't do it,' I'd tell him."
Joking aside, Bale went on to speak about the surprising effects of losing so much weight. "I was the calmest mentally that I've ever been in my life," he explained. "You just go beyond any bodily needs. Your energy gets to such a low point that it all just becomes mental. You felt like some sort of guru that could go sit on top of a mountain.
"Mentally, it does wonders, but I would never sacrifice the joys, the ups and the downs, the roller coaster of life for that calmness," he added. "I'd rather be getting in there, getting involved and having it a bit more raw than that."
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Post by RhodoraO on Mar 9, 2017 1:26:51 GMT
From Stephen Holden's NYtimes review: - Mr. Bale's appearance is the crowning touch that makes "The Machinist," directed by Brad Anderson ("Session 9") from a screenplay by Scott Kosar, one of the few movies to scale the barrier between chilly fantasy and authentic cinematic nightmare. The actor backs up his stunt with a performance that builds to a pinnacle of savage fury and desperation.
- Filmed in washed-out bluish gray, slashed with shades of red, "The Machinist" is a self-enclosed mechanism as hermetically sealed as the increasingly paranoid state that grips Trevor. The desaturated color and high-tension editing evoke a desiccated psychic environment devouring itself.
- "The Machinist" may be an expertly manipulated exercise in psychological horror, but that's all it is. Don't look for the kind of metaphoric weight you'd find in a movie by David Lynch or David Fincher. As Trevor's world fragments and closes in, and friends turn into enemies, the pieces of his decomposing mind slowly come together to finish the story. Not until the very last moment do they snap into a completed puzzle that's as tight as a steel trap.
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Post by RhodoraO on Mar 13, 2017 5:57:33 GMT
Sundance buzzing about THE MACHINIST THE SKINNY ON BATMAN
The most shocking on-screen transformation in years comes from the future Batman Christian Bale, who stars in the spooky The Machinist.
At the film's premiere, audiences were gasping in horror at the sight of Bale, who shed 63 lbs. to portray Trevor Reznik, an emaciated, insomniac who may be going insane. In many scenes, the American Psycho actor is shirtless, letting the shadowy cinematography pick up every nook, curve and cranny of his skin-stretched-over-skeleton physique. The result is so startling, it had audience members wondering if Bale's appearance had been altered using digital effects.
"We didn't have any money for digital effects," says Bale, bulked back up for his Caped Crusader gig. "That was all me. Or wasn't all me, as the case may be."
Bale, who also altered his body to play the buff serial killer in Psycho, says he enjoys the challenge: "It's masochistic, I suppose. But I enjoy the thought of the guitarist who, while learning to play, cuts up his fingers. It's like that. I enjoy it. Actually my wife quite enjoyed Trevor. She was a little sorry when I started to come back."
Still, his devotion only goes so far. "I'd only do it for a movie like American Psycho or The Machinist. I wouldn't do it for everything. I love The Machinist. "
Bale says he signed on after meeting with director Brad Anderson. "I read the script, then I met Brad, who'd made a film called Session 9, which I think is just fantastic."
Anderson, who couldn't attend the premiere because his wife just had a baby, wrote in a letter read prior to the screening that cast and crew were "constantly awed" by Bale's discipline and devotion.
"When you're that skinny, you don't have any energy. I was exhausted walking down the street," Bale says. "I just basically sat in my caravan and smoked and didn't say much of anything except my lines."
Bale begins the next Batman movie, co-starring Michael Caine and Katie Holmes, next month.
www.canoe.ca/JamMovies/jan20_sundance-sun.html__________________________________ The above link is not working and isn't archived at the wayback machine. Source for the above passages: christianbale.livejournal.com/41418.html
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Post by RhodoraO on Mar 14, 2017 5:56:23 GMT
An archived wittily written tidbit from an old entertainment blog: ONWARD, CHRISTIAN SOLDIER
I hit the road and headed to the Crobar party for The Machinist, for which CHRISTIAN BALE not only didn't add heels, he subtracted the weight of three female Friends stars. But as he pulled up in his Batmobile, Bale looked in the human range again and he even had extra poundage with him�namely stepmom GLORIA STEINEM, who I hear might write an op-ed piece about the movie for The New York Times. (I bet she likes it more than The People vs. Larry Flynt, which she excoriated in one of her last Times pieces.)
The freaky film has the skeletal Bale as a blue-collar worker who never sleeps, eats, or stops being paranoid. ("It's not a popcorn movie," he agreed with me, smiling.) Was his Ally McBeal diet plan sheer self-inflicted torture? "It was tricky," Bale told me, "but it's punishing to have to get into good shape for a movie as well. Losing the weight involved a great deal of restraint, and once you get there, it's a calming place to be." Wait a minute, you Hollywood hunk, starvation is fun? "You get used to that," he swore. "It was something I chose to do�and I knew I was always able to go grab something." And not his agent's neck.web-beta.archive.org/web/20041010102657/http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0439/musto.php
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Post by RhodoraO on Mar 14, 2017 6:09:37 GMT
Another blogger at old E! Online website (archived) writes of his casual talk with Bale and Jennifer Jason Leigh at a premiere. He succeeds in getting actual word about potential James Bond role from Bale: web-beta.archive.org/web/20041212071213/http://www.eonline.com/Gossip/Awful/cauth/Archive2004/041014c.htmldish, dirt & juicy bits October 14, 2004
Christian Bale I pulled aside Mr. Bale--who, by the by, has jacked up since to prepare for his Batman suit--at the Hell-Ay premiere last week. I asked the overwrought insomniac-role player what he does when he can't get to slumber-land. I know what I'd do if I looked like him, but never mind.
"I read or draw or just sit there and stare at the wall," Christian-cakes revealed. He added that he was only sleeping a couple of hours a night throughout Machinist's filming 'cause he wasn't expending any energy, staying so ghastly thin 'n' all.
Jennifer Jason Leigh Right at his sneakered heels on the ruby parade was Bale's glowing costar, Jennifer Jason Leigh. Girlishly clad in black cigarette pants and a baby pink cardigan sweater, a sleep-deprived Ms. L. cried out, "The longest I've gone without sleep is five days, and by the fifth day, I just know I will finally sleep!" Her bedtime tactics? Contradicting Mr. B.'s offerings, J.J.L. answered:
"It's not about getting up and going to the computer or getting up to read, it's about just sticking with it."
Any crazy dreams she'd care to divulge?
"I just had nightmares about Christian!"
Sure, C.B. played a rather convincing psycho-maniac. Perhaps his character would have benefited from a little thing we insiders like to call Kabbalah?
"From what?" replied the untarnished Tinseltown soul.
I fed his blank look with, "You know, tie a red string around your wrist..."
Oh, ferget it! Always said you were too damn together fer silly mysticism and ludicrous rumors of a James Bond takeover. But, hey, Christian, any thoughts on 007 for the record?
With an unrelenting head shake, he replied, "Nooo, it ain't going to happen." Now that's what I wanted to hear.
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Post by RhodoraO on Mar 14, 2017 6:22:06 GMT
A most detailed interview with Bale at the now defunct url adventure.about.com focusing on the whole weight loss process and that of gaining it all back. I decided to copy the Q&A because of the difficulty of accessing the links for further pages on the Way Back Machine. web-beta.archive.org/web/20050614235042/http://actionadventure.about.com/od/celebrityinterviews/a/aa100404.htm
From The Machinist to Batman Begins
Christian Bale sat in a chair wearing a black Sea Shepherd baseball cap, a black Glendale race cars T-shirt and dark jeans. Sporting a scruffy beard from cheek to chin, his face was full and his arms still showed signs of Batman biceps.
It was a far cry from his look in The Machinist, in which he plays a blue collar worker so disturbed he has stopped sleeping and withered away to an almost skeletal form. The films psychological thriller moments are not nearly as scary as watching Bale lurk around the screen like a Tim Burton stop motion puppet.
But Bale has always immersed himself in roles. You believe him just as much as superficial pretty boy Patrick Bateman as you do a dragon hunter. We can expect hell bring the same commitment to Batman Begins, which he discusses a little bit at the end, but spend some time with us analyzing his commitment to The Machinist and youll be impressed.
You once said that you were in unhealthy shape for American Psycho. How unhealthy was this?
I guess I was fit in it, but just the diet that you have to go on. Yeah, I guess the diet that you have to go on for the vanity side of it, that aint healthy. Its all this protein and crap. This one wasnt healthy either really I suppose. I didnt feel terrible to be honest. I felt quite fine once I got beyond the pangs of hunger et cetera. Your stomach shrinks and you get used to it. And interestingly, I did find that mentally it was very, very calming being that skinny, because you really didnt have any energy for expending on unnecessary things, so you just kept it simple. Life became very simple. Much like when you are ill, you just do what is essential and thats it. But I actually never felt sick really. That really happened actually in putting the weight back on. It wasnt in losing it, it was putting the weight back on. I was a little bit too eager to eat afterwards and I rushed that. That wasnt wise.
How little were you eating?
I forget exactly what it was, but it starts off and I just kept on seeing how far I could go without eating. But you have to try to find some kind of pattern because otherwise, if you just starve yourself for a while, then you really get cravings to just binge and so you go and binge and it just doesnt really work. So I just gradually said to myself, Okay, no eating before 12 and then no eating after six in the evening. Then gradually cut down on the things that I was eating. And eventually, I think it also helped a great deal once I was actually over in Spain and occupied mentally with the movie, that that took up much of my time. I was always somebody who kind of would forget to eat during the day. Just if I was busy doing something, Id suddenly realize Ive got a funny feeling in my stomach. Oh, Christ, I havent eaten. So I just tried to rekindle that and try to get nutrition through other means. Go read a book instead of eat when I started feeling hungry.
How much did you exercise?
I started off exercising with just running. Actually, I became very good at being able to run very long distances but very slowly. I had no oomph to me, but I could just go and go and go. But then I got to a point where it actually all started falling apart and I really couldnt run any longer. It just got too stupid. I looked like a 90 year old man trying to run and I just couldnt do it after a while. I have a couple of scenes in the movie where I do have to run and I just hated those days so much because it was so tiring, and so after a while it pretty much just became about sitting still and smoking cigarettes really instead of eating.
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What happens to your other organs? It looked like you didnt even have room in your vacuum of a stomach cavity to have any.
Well, they fit in there. They work it out. I never felt any problems internally. I suppose some people could look at what I did and say it was ridiculous anyway, but to me, I said it becomes ridiculous at the point that I actually feel like Im going to damage myself. I dont believe I did. I wouldnt want to do it again. I think repetition of it, I may very well be potentially damaging myself but I never felt like anything was going wrong inside. And if that ever did happen then I would just let myself go with whatever urges I was having for eating, whatever. Your body tends to tell you a great deal about exactly what it is that you really need. What daily tasks became impossible in that state? Well firstly, I didnt really socialize a great deal. The temptations, the smells, socializing generally involves drink or food or whatever, and that was just something I didnt want to tempt myself with. Being in Barcelona was not a wonderful thing in those terms because they have such fantastic food over there. Walking, you know. I just didnt much enjoy it really. I could do it but it had to be at my pace which was very, very slow. It was a real snails pace. I drew and I read. I didnt actually sleep a whole lot during the filming, so I would often just find myself sitting up in bed at nighttime and read a complete book.
It actually made you an insomniac?
Well, I think that losing the weight and so not really having bursts of energy, rather just having a constant state of slowness meant that I just didnt really tire that easily. I was always a little bit almost like on the verge of sleep, but not quite enough that you actually wanted to go to sleep. It was enough for me to sit in bed and rest and I would often just have a couple of hours sleep each night and felt okay for the next day.
How did you still act?
Well, it helped it really because that was what Trevor was going through and I had to isolate myself a little in order not to have all the nice food temptations, and so I found myself very much in my own head much more than usual in life. And thats certainly where Trevor finds himself, so I think it helped it really. Its a funny thing. Every movie Ive had to do, you know, there are some movies where you dont really have to do anything. It doesnt matter what somebody looks like at all. And then some like this, The Machinist, and like American Psycho where I think that it was very essential, its a very important part of the persons character. And its a very helpful thing because obviously with acting, you can just fake it, but with anything physical, you have to really do it. And its quite amazing how much your own physical state affects your mental state.
What is more challenging to you, the physical or psychological aspects of a character?
Well, the physical becomes a psychological challenge. American Psycho, Im not somebody that really enjoys going and working out in the gym. Batman, I had to do the same. I dont really enjoy it to be honest, so you have to psychologically will yourself to be doing that in a very intense fashion, but Im better at that. I prefer doing things in a very intense way and having a deadline and really having to strive to reach it rather than just sort of having a general lifestyle of fitness. For me I prefer to do it for a while and then just forget the whole thing for a while as well. But ultimately, obviously acting can involve physical change, but thats not really what the whole things about. Its exceptional parts where you have to do that and primarily its correct to be focused more on the psychological side of things and theres far more depth and interest to that than anything you can ever achieve physically.
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Do you have a normal fitness routine you do between films?
No, I dont really do sh*t. If I dont have to for work, I do just what I feel like doing. And especially if youve had to do it for work, you just feel like youre reclaiming your own identity by not doing it because youve been forced to for so long. Whether it be losing a great deal of weight and looking unhealthy or trying to look as healthy as possible, its an obligation that you have during the work time. And so its an obligation that I like to reject completely immediately following. So for instance, after American Psycho, I had no interest in working out ever again. And after Machinist, all I wanted to do was just stuff my face. Its a rebellion, like reclaiming your own identity each time.
What was the best comfort food when you started putting the weight back on?
Bizarrely, apples. Youd kind of think it would be something a little bit more indulgent than that, but it was them. It was apples that I really wanted. I dreamed about them. Any kind. There were all sorts of different apples that they had in Spain and I was really into them and interested in finding out about all the different kinds of apples. And then different crew members would bring me different apples to try. And Ive never liked apples particularly in my life, but it must have been I guess the vitamin A I believe thats in apples that my body was craving.
Did you do any research on machinery?
I attempted to more than actually succeeded at. In reading the script, I did feel that probably a good deal or research would be needed. And also just sometimes I think that regardless of whether or not it actually is useful for the movie, I like to use it as an excuse to gain entrance to places that I wouldnt usually. And just have a look around and see how other people work and live. So I did contact a number of different machine shops. Most of them werent really interesting. They kind of just gave me comments like, Look, were actually working here. Were not here to entertain actors who are pretending to work. And so I went along to a place which actually does training, myself and the writer, Scott Kosar. We went around in the valley. We stopped at various small kind of family run machine shops which have much more basic machines, but tended to be on the small side whereas we were looking at larger machines for the movie. But in America, its become a much more technologically advanced profession where most of it is guided by computers, so most of it actually really just involves pressing buttons and youre not physically laboring, working the machines as much any longer, much for safety. So I realized that it really wasnt actually going to get what I was looking for, and ultimately, it ended up to be completely useless anyway because we used a genuine machine shop on the outskirts of Barcelona where they had these very antiquated looking machines which each machine seemed to have its own personality to it. And we would work through the night, and then the actual workers would come in at six in the morning and take our place. And so we had each worker actually show each of the actors exactly how to work each of their machines. And to be honest, with my machine, we wanted something that was very, very repetitive, very simple and very mind numbing. That it was something that Trevor had actually consciously sought out in order not to have to really engage himself very much during his days. And so I learned it in five minutes flat. That was all that it took, and then it was just a matter of patience, of just the monotony of doing it for hours on end.
Are audiences savvy to twist endings now?
I don't know. I think Brad [Anderson] did a very good job. Its very interesting when there is such a twist, or revelation really more than a twist, because we do know that hes searching for the truth throughout. I think though that it doesnt depend wholly on that twist. I think theres a lot more substance to the rest of the movie that provokes a lot of thought. So I would hope that they dont get there beforehand, but I think that if
What does he get from the relationship with Stevie, because she offers to commit and he doesnt want to?
I think that he is very curious about that, about the possibility. There are some nice correlations between his relationship with Stevie and then his relationship with Maria as well. In the fact that obviously Stevie is a hooker, so he pays. And then he also with Maria feels that he has to tip her hugely in order to have her company. Hes somebody who wants no involvement. He doesnt want anybody really introduced into his life thats problematical and not something that would be beneficial for them, but I think he likes the idea with Stevie that it could be possible. That kind of against all the odds and against his instincts that it may be possible for this complete wretch of a man to actually have a womans heart.
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Post by RhodoraO on Mar 14, 2017 6:33:16 GMT
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Post by RhodoraO on Mar 16, 2017 14:48:02 GMT
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Post by RhodoraO on Apr 14, 2017 20:13:18 GMT
On set pic:
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Post by RhodoraO on Dec 20, 2020 2:08:49 GMT
A 3-part BTS of the movie:
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