JESSICA CHASTAIN

JESSICA CHASTAIN
At HIFF 2010Photo by Eric Roffman

JESSICA CHASTAIN
At HIFF 2010Photo by Eric Roffman

JESSICA CHASTAIN CHATTING WITH HARVEY WEINSTEIN
At HIFF 2010Photo by Eric Roffman

JESSICA CHASTAIN
At HIFF 2010Photo by Eric Roffman

JESSICA CHASTAIN
At HIFF 2010Photo by Eric Roffman

JESSICA CHASTAIN
At HIFF 2010Photo by Eric Roffman

Jessica Chastain is one of the stars in the Cannes Film Festival Palme d'Or prize-winning TREE OF LIFE. She plays Brad Pitt's wife and the mother of (the young) Sean Penn

I met her at the Hamptons International Film Festival (HIFF 2010), where she was honored as one of the Rising Stars.  I've included some snapshots of her from the Hamptons Festival (above).  She also played Desdemona in a very interesting Public Theater/LAByrinth Theater production of Othello, with John Ortiz as Othello and Phillip Seymour Hoffman as Iago. (Click on the production photo below to link to our story about this production.)

Jessica is currently in at least six (SIX!) other pictures that have not been released. She plays Salome alongside, and directed by Al Pacino in WILDE SALOME; she is in another Terrence Malick picture (untitled so far) with Javier Bardem and Rachel McAdams that is currently being filmed, and she is in THE WETTEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD. She is also in CORIOLANUS, directed by Ralph Feinnes, and two films scheduled for release this summer, THE FIELDS, a dark film about murder in Texas, and THE HELP, with Viola Davis and Emma Stone, about race relations in Mississippi.

According to Wikipedia and IMDB, after graduating from the Juilliard acting program, Jessica appeared in many theatrical productions of classical dramas (Shakespeare, Chekhov...) before her film career began taking off. She was born Jessica Howard, but took her mother's maiden name. She has been dancing since she was nine, and acting in Shakespeare since she was a teenager.

Jessica is  30 years old (Mar 29, 1981), is 5' 4", has long red hair, and -- in the Hamptons at least -- wears bright red lipstick.

HERE ARE SOME LINKS TO REFERENCES ON JESSICA CHASTAIN AND HER FILMS,

followed by some production photos, and another of my snapshots of Jessica from HIFF 2010.

(Click on the photos below for links to our stories in which Jessica appears.)

JESSICA CHASTAIN on IMDB & WIKIPEDIA

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1567113/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jessica_Chastain

THE TREE OF LIFE on IMDB & WIKIPEDIA

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0478304/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tree_of_Life_(film)

WILDE SALOME

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0795459/

UNTITLED TERRENCE MALICK PROJECT

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1595656/

WETTEST COUNTY IN THE WORLD

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1212450/

Jessica Chastain, Sam Worthington & Marton Caokas
THE DEBT

John Ortiz as Othello, Jessica Chastain as Desdemona, and
Philip Seymour Hoffman as Iago in OTHELLO
Photo by Armin Bardel  

Jessica Chastain
THE DEBT at HIFF 2010
Rising Star / Breakthrough Performer
Photo by Eric Roffman

THE DEBT

THE DEBT is a new American film (about a Mossad operation) that played at HIFF 2010. (More about this later.)

It is a re-make of an Israeli film.

The original Israeli film will be shown at 6:45 today (THU) on the Sundance Channel.

"KISSES, CHLOE" WITH ROBIN SINGER & MIKAL EVANS

Robin Singer, Director Stephen Padilla and Mikal Evans
From KISSES, CHLOE
On the Red Carpet, Opening Night at HIFF 2010
Photo by Eric Roffman

For (much) more (reviews, interviews, pix, features) about HIFF 2010...
QPORIT: HIFF 2010
KISSES, CHLOE, written and directed by Stephen Padilla, takes a fresh, unsentimental, unromantic look at a slice of twenty-something hook-ups, friendships, rivalries, desires, personalities and sex talk. It's an extremely interesting film.

Emily (Mikal Evans) brings her current boyfriend, Alex (Brad Coolidge), for the weekend to a beach house in the Hamptons belonging to her old friend, the beautiful, blond, "flirty" Chloe (Robin Singer).


The TITULAR Postcard: it tells Emily and Alex to let themselves in
The note is signed, "Kisses, Chloe."
Brad Coolidge and Mikal Evans
In a scene from KISSES, CHLOE

Patterns that the characters identify in each other's behavior are repeated. According to Emily, Chloe just wants to be loved. According to Chloe, Emily is immature, her relationships deteriorate quickly, and she will hang on to ex-boyfriends forever. Also according to Chloe, Alex is a "triangulator:" a guy who gets into relationships with women as long as there is a third guy in the picture to vanquish (and, she points out, Emily has no other boyfriend anymore).

The film features singularly casual and extensive conversations about the sex lives and hook-ups of the characters.

The tone of the film and the behavior of the characters is new and different.

There are only three characters in the film. Just three people talking, alone together in one house by the water. Talking a lot about sex and their sexual experience. And when they are not talking, there is silence. Awkward, painful, uncomfortable pauses, gaps in the conversation.

Mikal Evans, Robin Singer and Brad Coolidge
In a scene from KISSES, CHLOE

Both screenings of the film at HIFF were sold out. A few audience members (mostly couples in middle age), after half an hour or so of sex talk and awkward silence got up to leave. But the revealing fact is that they did not slink out or leave quietly. They announced their own morality with loud, public exclamations such as "Terrible!" "Worst movie I've ever seen!"

When audience members need to justify their own discomfort, it is a sign that a movie has touched a nerve. The remaining audience, almost everyone, seemed very enthusiastic about the film, and what it was saying.

The film script itself is very conspicuous. The film seems to be very much about what the characters are saying. It is about sex talk. There is very little touchy-feely. The one time we see the characters doing sex (not having sex? not making love?) Alex is making Emily tell him about her sexual experiences with Chloe. While the actors don't wear much at the beach, there is no nudity.

The dynamic seems to be:
=>Emily is immature,
=>the relation with Alex may be no longer at its best, and
=>bringing him to meet Emily may be a mark of naive simplicity -- not recognizing the pattern in her relationships, or
=>it may be a test of her relationship with Alex.

Emily goes to bed early, leaving Alex and Chloe alone a lot in the late evening and at night. Emily is passive, Alex is passive, and Chloe is passive even as she talks about sex. The passivity and the casual sex talk, followed by the honest ending is the unique mode of this film.

Robin Singer
In a scene from KISSES, CHLOE

Despite (or because of) all the sex talk, it seems to me that there is a pervasive feeling of loneliness. Each of the characters seems lonely in their own way. Emily retreats to bed. Alex and Chloe talk (and retreat). But connections are hard to make. They try. At the end, perhaps Emily has grown up enough to connect the next time.

Great plays (more than most films, which seem fixed in their visual interpretation and are generally hard to re-make successfully), are different (sometimes very different) with each different realization. And here, too, with a film in which the script seems primary, we can imagine making a completely different film without changing the words hardly at all.

Virtually the same script could support a very different film, in which passivity is replaced by strong (secret) objectives for each character:
=>Emily comes to the house to rekindle a relationship with Chloe;
=>Alex is deeply in love with Emily and comes to the house to re-consummate, re-energize his relation with her; and
=>Chloe wants Alex's bones.

Is Emily willing to "sell" Alex to Chloe, in return for Chloe's sexual attention? In this version of the film, there is nudity, there is a lot of touching, there are no awkward silences, and somewhat rough and "ugly" sex between Alex and Chloe is shown quite explicitly.

This version is not a better film, but it is a very different film that could use almost exactly the same words. Comparison of the film that Padilla did make with the one (I just described) he did not make, may illuminate the intentions of the filmmaker, and his take on these characters.

There are some significant similarities in style and aesthetics between this film and another film I liked (a lot) recently, The Romantics, which could be, in some sense Kisses, Chloe's older sibling (I call it with neutral sexuality a sibling, because I'm not sure if it's an older brother -- because it's robust; or an older sister -- because The Romantics is very much a woman's movie).

Just to be clear, first of all, of course, the films are different in that The Romantics is a much "bigger" film, with many, very famous actors (compared to just three not (yet!) famous actors); a (not that big, but) much bigger budget; and a (short, but) much longer shooting schedule than Kisses, Chloe's mere 12 days. The characters in The Romantics are perhaps ten years older, more educated and (somewhat) further along in their lives and careers than the characters in Kisses, Chloe.

But the two films are similar in their simplicity, honesty, naturalistic style, and emphasis on the characters as real people. They are both dramas about love and sex.

Both films are about a triangle, with a rather passive man (Brad Coolidge has much the same role as Josh Duhamel) in the middle between two women that have a long standing friendship and a long standing rivalry.

Kisses, Chloe, is an independent, low budget film about modern singles. The commercial success of this film, I suspect, depends on positioning it as a brilliant portrayal of the sexual lifestyle of modern young singles, realized by a quartet of 3 rising young stars, and a director with a striking new vision.

This quartet: the director and all three actors, are people to watch and follow!

Director Stephen Padilla
On location with KISSES, CHLOE


Director Stephen Padilla

Kisses, Chloe, is director Stephen Padilla's second feature film. His first feature, The Little Things, was one of nine films selected for the IFP Independent Filmmaker Labs. It was named “Best of the Fest” at the Philadelphia Film Festival, won the Audience Award at Red Bank and received a Gold Remi Award at WorldFest.

His play, Picking Palin at the 2010 Fringe Fest in New York was a major success.

Stephen has an M.F.A. in Film from Columbia University and a B.A. in Screenwriting from Georgetown University.

Brad Coolidge
From KISSES, CHLOE
Opening Night at HIFF 2010
Photo by Eric Roffman


Brad Coolidge (Alex)

Brad is a theatrical and film actor. He appeared in the screen adaptation of Jean-Paul Sartre’s No Exit (Slamdance Film Festival). He has appeared on stage in The Drilling Company’s production of Much Ado About Nothing, Romeo and Juliet and The Tempest. He was also, apparently, very popular at FAO Schwartz (see his link below).

Robin Singer and Mikal Evans
From KISSES, CHLOE
On the Red Carpet, Opening Night at HIFF 2010
Photo by Eric Roffman


Mikal Evans (Emily)

Mikal is a terrific, subtle actress, with a lovely, warm and friendly face and personality. And she's a beautiful singer / songwriter. She provided many of the songs on the film soundtrack. She is frequently seen around town in performance: solo and with her band. Before playing Emily in Kisses, Chloe, she appeared on stage in Eighteen, Twelfth Night and Haroun and the Sea of Stories. Her critically-acclaimed debut solo EP, A Jailhouse . . . A Kingdom, was released by Gypsy Eyes Records.

Robin Singer
From KISSES, CHLOE
Photo by Eric Roffman

Robin Singer (Chloe)

Robin is a beautiful, serious actress (and writer). She has the special quality in Kisses, Chloe of being both committed and distant at the same time, simultaneously outrageous and simply natural. The best actors seem to be archetypes of a specific personality of a certain generation, and Robin has that quality.

As an actress, she is always perfectly prepared -- I've seen her at work -- and always interesting. She's easy to work with. Both at work and outside of work she is genuinely nice, serious, friendly, and she giggles a lot.

Robin has appeared in a number of films, including Little Kisses (written by Neil LaBute), and Battle of the Bands (LA Reel Film Festival). She has an award winning screenplay working its way through the "system". She has new roles in a film called "Work It Out" and a comedy web series called "Public Relations," both currently in post-production.

LINKS:


KISSES CHLOE
http://www.facebook.com/pages/A-Family-Affair-Films/127611520584947
http://www.kisseschloe.com/KC/Home.html


ROBIN SINGER
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3295250/
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3295250/resume
http://publicrelationstheseries.com/home.html


MIKAL EVANS
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2669510/
http://www.myspace.com/mikalmevans
http://mikalevansband.wordpress.com/


BRAD COOLIDGE
BRAD AT FAO SCHWARTZ: http://nymag.com/nymetro/news/people/n_8495/
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3502336/


THE ROMANTICS
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1403988/
10+ REASONS TO SEE THE ROMANTICS AND WHY IT IS AN IMPORTANT FILM...
http://qporit.blogspot.com/2010/09/10-reasons-to-see-romantics-and-why-it.html

For (much) more (reviews, interviews, pix, features) about HIFF 2010...

QPORIT: HIFF 2010

ON THE PATH & ZRINKA CVITESIC

Zrinka CvitesicAt the Breakthrough Performers' Panel HIFF 2010
Photo by Eric Roffman

ON THE PATH is a terrific film, exceptionally richly directed by Jasmila Zbanic, and exceptionally richly acted by Zrinka Cvitesic.

This is a film which is all "sub-text." Nominally, and if you read the synopsis, the film seems to be about a man who becomes a devout Wahhabi Moslem. That is what is happening on the surface. But that text is just the enrichment of the real story.

The actress, Zrinka, speaking for herself and the director, says that in reality the film is about love -- about a couple that love each other with a bond that threatens to come apart when the man develops an obsession.

The story takes place in Bosnia, and is about a couple which is moderately, almost secularly Muslim. Then the man becomes more and more involved in very ritualistic, fundamentalist, orthodox (I'm not sure what the correct word is) Muslim practices.

But the man, they say, could have become a workaholic computer hacker, or developed any other obsession, and the essence of the story would have been the same.

The film gives life to the culture and geography of Bosnia. This immersion in the culture of Bosnia helps give the film its special richness. The richness is enhanced by the commitment of the actress and the actors to the specific life of this specific Bosnian couple. (In fact, although there is not one hint of it in the film, the principal characters are essentially created from the stories of very real people.)

But contrary to what one might expect -- what I certainly expected after reading the synopsis in the HIFF program -- there is no suggestion that the Muslim orthodoxy described in the film is in any way related to terrorism or international terrorism. This is in no way a story about politics -- though it is political. It is a love story. Still, it is political, because it seems to me the story is a defense of moderation, accommodation, compromise, and modern values in the service of love.

The description of the ways the man behaves in his Muslim orthodoxy, in reality, is not significantly different from a description that could be written about a non-religious man in love in New York who goes to Israel, where the man becomes involved in Ultra-Orthodox Zionist Judaism, with new rules for praying, touching women, and strict dietary rules; where everyone who used to be around him may fear (without any evidence) that these religious beliefs have political overtones that could have a violent outlet.

The film, in fact, is a celebration of moderation. Unlike films like Carlos and Che, where the film has a section in the beginning where the protagonist and title character is shown as idealistic, and committed to social improvement, as well as hunky, handsome and virile -- so that a section of the film could be taken out of context and used as a recruitment vehicle for terrorists -- ON THE PATH has no period where terrorism is glorified. It does not demean or mock the man's choice of religion either, though it does show the strains his choice puts on his relationships.

As a celebration of moderation, and a story of love, and a setting in a faraway, exotic land not well known to most Americans, and a story that explores religion and personal life, this film could (and I think should) have a commercial life in a circuit that includes colleges, and moderate Christian, Jewish, and Muslim religious groups and organizations. Mel Gibson built a distribution system for a violent religious film. It is time to build (or re-build: these used to exist!) a distribution system for wholesome, dramatic films (foreign and domestic) that do not rely on violence or sophomoric humor.

(To expand on that thought for a moment, it may be that heavy promotion of free, full-screen, high-resolution streaming video of brilliant, but otherwise rarely seen, feature films could be used to build a market for films that currently have little or no American distribution.)

Bosnia, where the film is set, escaped about fifteen years ago from a war with neighboring Serbia in which atrocities were committed and houses and property were appropriated. That is the background for this story.

Throughout history, Bosnia, Croatia, and Serbia (and other countries which were once part of Yugoslavia) have been the site of many, many wars of conquest and liberation and shifting alliances and unions.

Muslims are the largest religious group in Bosnia; Catholics the largest in Croatia; Serbia is largely Protestant.

The director, Jasmila Zbanic, is a moderate Bosnian Muslim woman. She is a very independent woman. She is interested in the lives of women, their love lives, their personal lives, their happiness. One usually thinks of a "feminist" as someone who is especially interested in women as professionals, so perhaps Jasmila might be called (at least on the evidence of this movie) a "womanist," rather than a feminist.

Her method of auditioning her actors was quite unique. She had the actors all become clowns for a week, and gave them almost impossible tasks to do. I think this helped her create a cast of fearless actors, who retained strong bonds with each other.

Her direction created a film of absorbing richness, both in the behavior of the actors, and the backdrop on which the love story was played. She provides a large palette of emotion and experience; and cinematography that can be beautiful or gritty as the scene requires.

On the strength of this film, I would expect her to become a major international directing talent -- provided that Bosnian films can reach the world market.

Zrinka Cvitesic (pronounced -- I'm guessing here -- Svi TEZ itch) has exceptional range, both physically and emotionally. In this film it seems as if at least three different actresses are playing her role as she evolves through the story of the film. She is not afraid of any kind of behavior. On her website, her portfolio (see the YouTube slideshow below) shows a whole spectrum of poses from "nice young lady" to exotic model. She can be quite plain or fabulously beautiful; young and innocent to sophisticated and worldly; under control and totally free.

Zrinka was selected as a Shooting Star by the EFP, European Film Promotions, and came to HIFF as one of the Breakthrough Performers. On the Breakthrough Performers Panel, and in person, she was charming, lovely, friendly, articulate -- in English, and very interesting in providing background to the film and her own creative development.


Breakthrough Performers Zrinka Cvitesic and Pihla Viitala
Talking with Harvey Weinstein
At the Chairman's Party HIFF 2010
Photo by Eric Roffman

The Breakthrough Performers Program and the Shooting Star Program were both designed to give exceptionally promising young actors the opportunity to develop creatively and professionally by networking and being mentored by established figures in the film world; and simultaneously they promote their films throughout the world.

Although not part of this film, it should also be noted that Zrinka is a singer and a terrific dancer: she won the Croatian version of Dancing With The Stars. (Two YouTube videos are below showing her singing --in English! -- and dancing. She is quite amazing in the range of her talents!)

For ON THE PATH, Zrinka, who is Croatian, learned the Bosnian dialect and manner. In fact, in preparing the role, she needed to represent a specific Bosnian woman who had been the subject of a famous photograph (showing her suffering from anti-Bosnian violence, from which she did survive). Although that identity never shows up in the film, I suspect that the specific identification helped to create the tangible feeling of reality that permeates the film.

Zrinka speaks excellent English. In fact she lived for a bit in the US. With a look that can be natural or exotic; beauty that could make her an international supermodel, prodigious acting talent, and the facility to dance her way to the top, I'm looking forward to Zrinka's next great films, and fantastic career.

Cvitesic may be hard to figure out how to pronounce. Supermodels often go by a single name. I'll call her Zrinka!


TRAILER FOR AN EARLY FILM -- HORSEMAN:




MODELING/POSING:




DANCING:




SINGING:




LINKS --

IMDB: ON THE PATH (NA PUTU)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1156531/


WIKIPEDIA: ON THE PATH (NA PUTU)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Path


IMDB: ZRINKA CVITESIC
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0194152/


WIKIPEDIA: ZRINKA CVITESIC
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zrinka_Cvite%C5%A1i%C4%87


HOME PAGE: ZRINKA CVITESIC
http://www.zrinkacvitesic.com/en/index.php


IMDB: JASMILA ZBANIC
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1120092/


WIKIPEDIA: JASMILA ZBANIC
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jasmila_%C5%BDbani%C4%87