viulenze

Lo dico subito: A History of Violence mi ha deluso. Non è che sia una catastrofe: i suoi meno di 100 minuti trascorrono senza infamia e senza lode, ma è proprio questo il punto; da un tizio che si chiama David Cronenberg e che considero uno dei grandissimi del cinema mi aspettavo molto di più.

Un tranquillo ed insospettabile padre di famiglia viene d'improvviso travolto da un passato che credeva morto e sepolto; un passato di violenze e omicidi, che si era lasciato alle spalle per iniziare una nuova vita in una piccola cittadina di provincia. Farà i conti con i suoi vecchi "colleghi", e la sua famiglia dovrà fare i conti lui, scoprendo di avere un "mostro" in casa.

Diretto bene (gli scoppi di violenza sono ben costruiti), ma carente per quanto riguarda la sceneggiatura (alcune cose non dette, altre non proprio credibili), lascia nel complesso una sensazione di opera dotata di un buon scheletro ma sul quale ci si è dimenticati di aggiungere la carne.

Brava (e discreta ) la moglie, bravino Ed Harris (uno dei miei attori-feticcio!) mentre le prove attoriali di tutti gli altri sono abbastanza mediocri.
Viggo Mortensen è uno degli attori meno dotati del creato, ma sorvoliamo. In compenso è fooortissimo: né Ed Harris né William Hurt riescono a tenergli testa, e non sono certo dei deboli! Secondo me è forte come La Cosa, quasi quanto Hulk!

Voto: 5.

Spero che Cronenberg torni presto a lavorare con parassiti e schifezze varie, che gli riesce molto meglio!

Mortensen, Viggo

---

Nome di battesimo: Jr., Viggo Peter Mortensen
Data di nascita: 20 October 1958
Altezza: 5' 11" (1.80 m)
Coniuge: Exene Cervenka::(8 July 1987 - 13 March 1998) (divorced) 1 child

Ultimi lavori:

• Alatriste (2006) .... Capitán Diego Alatriste [attore]
• A History of Violence (2005) .... Tom Stall [attore]
• Wild Horse Preservation (2005) .... Narrator (voice) [attore]
• Hidalgo (2004) .... Frank Hopkins [attore]
• The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) .... Aragorn [attore]
• The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) .... Aragorn [attore]
• The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) .... Aragorn [attore]
• 28 Days (2000) .... Eddie Boone [attore]
• A Walk on the Moon (1999) .... Walker Jerome [attore]
• A Perfect Murder (1998) .... David Shaw [attore]

Biografia:
Viggo is the eldest son of Grace and Viggo P. Mortensen. His father, who farmed in Denmark, met his mother, a New Yorker, in Norway. They wed and moved to New York where Viggo Jr. was born, before moving to South America where Viggo Sr. managed chicken farms and ranches in Venezuela and Argentina. Two more sons were born, Charles and Walter, before the marriage grew increasingly unhappy. When Viggo was seven, his parents sent him to a a strict boarding school, isolated in the foothills of the mountains of Argentina. Then, at age eleven, his parents divorced. His mother moved herself and the children back to her home state of New York. Viggo attended Watertown High School and became a very good student and athlete. He graduated in 1976 and went on to St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York. After graduation, he moved to Denmark - driven by the need for a defining purpose in life. He began writing poetry and short stories while working many odd jobs, from dock worker to flower seller. But, in 1982, he fell in love and followed his girlfriend back to New York City, hoping for a long romance and a writing career. He got neither.In New York, Viggo found work waiting tables and bar tending and began taking acting classes. Three years later, he made his film debut with a small part in Witness (1985). Moving to Los Angeles in 1987, he appeared in Salvation! (1987) and married his co-star, Exene Cervenka. The two had a son, Henry Mortensen. But after ten years of marriage, the couple divorced. In 1999, Viggo got a phone call about a movie he didn't know anything about: The Lord of the Rings. At first, he didn't want to do it, because it would mean time away from his son. But Henry, a big fan of the books, told his father he shouldn't turn down the role. Viggo accepted the part and immediately began work on the project, which was already underway. Eventually, the success of Lord of the Rings made him a household name - a difficult consequence for the ever private and introspective Viggo.

Trivia random: Is a photographer.
Citazione random: I'm the one who said yes to these movies, and now I'm having to pay the price for it. I mean if I had my druthers, I wouldn't do any movies anymore, frankly.

History of Violence, A (2005)

---

Regista: David Cronenberg
Scrittore: John Wagner, Vince Locke
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Valutazione: 7.5/10 (11937 voti)
Durata: 96 min
Paese: USA
Lingua: English

Cast:

• Viggo Mortensen .... Tom Stall
• Maria Bello .... Edie Stall
• Ed Harris .... Carl Fogarty
• William Hurt .... Richie Cusack
• Ashton Holmes .... Jack Stall
• Peter MacNeill .... Sheriff Sam Carney
• Stephen McHattie .... Leland Jones
• Greg Bryk .... William Orser
• Sumela Kay .... Judy Danvers
• Kyle Schmid .... Bobby Jordan

Trama:
Viggo Mortensen stars as Tim Stall, a humble family man and owner of a popular neighborhood restaurant who lives a quiet but fulfilling existence in the Midwest. One night Tim foils a crime at his place of business and, to his chagrin, is plastered all over the news for his heroics. Following this, mysterious people follow the Stalls' every move, concerning Tim more than anyone else. As this situation is confronted, more lurks out over where all these occurrences have stemmed from compromising his marriage, family relationship and the main characters' former relations in the process.

Trivia random: The surnames given to the bad guys at the beginning of the film (Leland and Orser) are a reference to character actor Leland Orser (perpetrator of "Lust" in Se7en (1995)).

Harris, Ed (I)

---

Nome di battesimo: Harris, Edward Allen
Data di nascita: 28 November 1950
Altezza: 5' 9" (1.75 m)
Coniuge: Amy Madigan::(1983 - present) 1 child

Ultimi lavori:

• Copying Beethoven (2006) .... Ludwig van Beethoven [attore]
• Dirt Nap (2005) .... Melville [attore]
• Empire Falls (2005) (TV) .... Miles Roby [attore]
• A History of Violence (2005) .... Carl Fogarty [attore]
• Winter Passing (2005) .... Don Holden [attore]
• The Human Stain (2003) .... Lester Farley [attore]
• Masked and Anonymous (2003) .... Oscar Vogel [attore]
• Radio (2003) .... Coach Jones [attore]
• T-20 Years and Counting (2003) (V) .... (footage provided by) [misc]
• The Hours (2002) .... Richard Brown [attore]

Biografia:
By transforming into his characters and pulling the audience in, Ed Harris has earned the reputation as one of the most talented actors of our time. Born in Tenafly, New Jersey, Harris grew up as the middle child. After graduating high school, he attended New York's Columbia University, where he played football. After viewing local theater productions, Harris took a sudden interest in acting. He left Columbia, headed to Oklahoma, where his parents were living, and enrolled in the University of Oklahoma's theater department. After graduation, he moved to Los Angeles to find work. He started acting in theater and television guest spots. Harris landed his first leading role in a film in cult-favorite George A. Romero's Knightriders (1981). Two years later, he got his first taste of critical acclaim, playing astronaut John Glenn in The Right Stuff (1983). Also that year, he made his New York stage debut in Sam Shepard's "Fool for Love", a performance that earned him an Obie for Outstanding Actor. Harris' career gathered momentum after that. In 2000, he made his debut as a director in the Oscar-winning film Pollock (2000).

Trivia random: Credits acting for helping him get over his shyness as a young man.
Citazione random: "As soon as I went on stage, I wanted to do nothing else with my life but act. I always liked the attention that playing sports had brought, but acting fulfilled that need even better."

Cronenberg, David

---

Nome di battesimo: Cronenberg, David Paul
Data di nascita: 15 March 1943
Altezza: 5' 8½" (1.74 m)
Coniuge: Caroline Zeifman::(1979 - present) 2 children, Cassandra::(? - ?) (divorced) 1 child

Ultimi lavori:

• London Fields (2006) .... [regista]
• Sisters (2006) .... [attore]
• Fear of the Flesh: The Making of 'The Fly' (2005) (V) .... (very special thanks) [misc]
• A History of Violence (2005) .... (producer) [produttore]
• Spider (2002) .... (producer) [produttore]
• Imagining 'Total Recall' (2001) (V) .... (special thanks) [misc]
• Jason X (2001) .... Dr. Wimmer [attore]
• The Judge (2001/I) (TV) .... Det. Stobel [attore]
• Camera (2000/I) .... [scrittore]
• Resurrection (1999/I) .... Father Rousell [attore]

Biografia:
David "Deprave" Cronenberg, also known as the King of Venereal Horror or the Baron of blood, was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, in 1943. His father was a journalist, and his mother was a piano player. After showing an inclination for literature at an early age (he wrote and published eerie short stories, thus following his father's path) and for music (playing classical guitar until he was 12), Cronenberg graduated from the University of Toronto with a degree in Literature after switching from the science department. He reached the cult status of horror-meister with the gore-filled, modern-vampire variations of Shivers (1975) and Rabid (1977), following an experimental apprenticeship in independent filmmaking and in Canadian television programs.Cronenberg gained popularity with the head-exploding, telepathy-based Scanners (1981) after the release of the much underrated, controversial, and autobiographical The Brood (1979). Cronenberg become a sort of a mass media guru with Videodrome (1983), a shocking investigation of the hazards of reality-morphing television and a prophetic critique of contemporary aesthetics. The issues of tech-induced mutation of the human body and topics of the prominent dichotomy between body and mind were back again in The Dead Zone (1983) and The Fly (1986), both bright examples of a personal filmmaking identity, even if both films are based on mass-entertainment materials: the first being a rendition of a Stephen King best-seller, the latter a remake of famous American horror movie.With Dead Ringers (1988) and Naked Lunch (1991), the Canadian director, no more a mere genre movie-maker but a fully realized auteur, got the acclaim of international critics. Such profound statements on modern humanity and ever-changing society are prominent in the provocative Crash (1996/I) and in the virtual reality essay of eXistenZ (1999), both of which well fared at the Cannes and Berlin Film Festivals. Cronenberg continues to be an active filmmaker today.

Trivia random: Father died at age 61.
Citazione random: "Drugs and creativity don't go together for me. Like everybody in the '60s, I had one acid trip and some cocaine and hash, you know, the stuff everyone did. But it's been 30 or 40 years since I bothered to do that. What I need is clarity. Even not having enough sleep is a problem for me, never mind doing any kind of drugs."

Bello, Maria (I)

---

Nome di battesimo: Bello, Maria Elaina
Data di nascita: 18 April 1967
Altezza: 5' 5" (1.65 m)

Ultimi lavori:

• Butterfly on a Wheel (2007) .... [attrice]
• Flicka (2006) .... [attrice]
• Untitled Oliver Stone/September 11 Project (2006) .... Mrs. McLoughlin [attrice]
• Assault on Precinct 13 (2005) .... Alex Sabian [attrice]
• The Dark (2005) .... Adèle [attrice]
• A History of Violence (2005) .... Edie Stall [attrice]
• The Sisters (2005) .... Marcia Prior Glass [attrice]
• Thank You for Smoking (2005) .... Polly Bailey [attrice]
• Nobody's Perfect (2004) .... [attrice]
• Secret Window (2004) .... Amy Rainey [attrice]

Biografia:
Maria Bello was born on 18 April, 1967 in Norristown, Pennsylvania. She went to Villanova University, majoring in political science. She had every intention of becoming a lawyer, but she took an acting class during her senior year, just for fun. She discovered she was very good at it, and she was soon cast in small off-Broadway plays, such as "The Killer Inside Me", "Small Town Gals With Big Problems" and "Urban Planning". She later guest-starred on episodes of "The Commish" (1991), "Nowhere Man" (1995), "Misery Loves Company" (1995) and "Due South" (1994). She got her big break when producers Kenny Lenhart and John J. Sakmar cast her in the spy show "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" (1996) as Mrs. Smith (they remembered her from her performance in a failed pilot that was a remake of the classic TV series "77 Sunset Strip" (1958/I)). The show was canceled after eight weeks on the air. Then came a spot on "ER" (1994) as Dr. Anna DelAmico, in which she guest-starred on the final three episodes of the third season. The show's producers were so impressed with her that they asked her back as a regular on the series.

Trivia random: Became good friends with Mariska Hargitay when Hargitay had a recurring role as Cynthia Hooper on "ER" (1994) from 1997-1998.
Citazione random: "I think I take a film because I'm in the process of discovering something about myself."

Hurt, William (I)

---

Data di nascita: 20 March 1950
Altezza: 6' 2" (1.88 m)
Coniuge: Heidi Henderson::(5 March 1989 - 1992) (divorced) 2 children, Mary Beth Hurt::(1971 - 1981) (divorced)

Ultimi lavori:

• Beautiful Ohio (2006) .... Simon Messerman [attore]
• The Good Shepherd (2006) .... [attore]
• "Nightmares and Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King" (2006) (mini) .... John Renshaw (segment "Battleground") [attore]
• Downloading Nancy (2005) .... Albert [attore]
• A History of Violence (2005) .... Richie Cusack [attore]
• Hunt for Justice (2005) (TV) .... General Mortimer [attore]
• The King (2005) .... David [attore]
• A License to Steal (2005) .... Walter L. Shaw Sr. [attore]
• Neverwas (2005) .... Dr. Peter Reed [attore]
• Syriana (2005) .... Stan [attore]

Biografia:
This handsome, cerebral, WASPy-looking actor has amassed an amazingly diverse gallery of performances, and is perhaps the most talented of the generation of actors that came to prominence during the 1980s. After studying theology in London and Boston (and acting at Juilliard), he performed in many stage productions and made his film debut as the intense, obsessed scientist in Altered States (1980). Movie audiences found him more accessible as the mildmannered janitor in the thriller Eyewitness (1981), which led to two star-making leading roles for writer-director Lawrence Kasdan: the manipulated Southern lawyer in Body Heat (also 1981) and the impotent drug dealer in The Big Chill (1983).Hurt established himself as an actor unafraid to assume totally different personas from film to film, and cemented that reputation as an imprisoned homosexual in Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985), winning a Best Actor Oscar (as well as honors at the Cannes Film Festival) for his chores. He also snared Oscar nominations as a teacher of deaf students in Children of a Lesser God (1986, opposite Marlee Matlin) and as a not-so-bright TV anchorman in Broadcast News (1987). He has continued to choose surprising and challenging roles, among them a Russian police inspector in Gorky Park (1983), the melancholy travel-book author in The Accidental Tourist (1988, directed by Kasdan), a comic would-be assassin in Kasdan's I Love You to Death (1990), Mia Farrow's wealthy and aloof husband in Woody Allen's Alice (also 1990, a wonderfully knowing performance in essenti ally a cameo role), a wisecracking, irreverent medico who is humanized by his own illness in The Doctor (1991), and the world traveler working on a machine to benefit blind people in Until the End of the World (also 1991). Hurt frequently returns to the stage; other film credits in- clude The Plague (1992), Mr. Wonderful (1993), Trial by Jury (1994), and Smoke (1995). Copyright © 1994 Leonard Maltin, used by arrangement with Signet, a division of Penguin Putnam, Inc.

Trivia random: Speaks French quite fluently.
Citazione random: "I'm still not comfortable with all this. I'm not comfortable with walking the red carpet in a tuxedo and seeing all the women with their boobs pushed up and all the men dressed as penguins - particularly when the subject of your film is the nature of violence and humanity. But that's the nature of Cannes. That's the process that we are both dealing with today."