We’ve watched songstress Charlotte Gainsbourg as an unhinged mother in Antichrist and fill with dread at the impending disaster in Melancholia. Now, the singer-actress may be appearing in her third Lars von Trier film, The Nyphomaniac. The movie is being billed as “an explicit exploration of a woman’s erotic life” that will be told in eight chapters, according to Variety.
Audiences would be privy to a softcore and hardcore version of the sexual evolution story that would follow the actress from age 0 to 50. Von Trier expects to show actual penetration, but has discussed the project being less of a porn flick and more of a philosophical construct with a lot of sex.
Keep in mind that Von Trier is no stranger to cinematic sexytime. His company Zentropa has produced several hardcore films geared toward a female audience. It also doesn’t shock us that Gainsbourg would possibly participate in a hardcore movie, given her brave, riveting performances in the Danish filmmaker’s other features. The actress may be reuniting with co-stars Stellan Skarsgård and Willem Dafoe for Nymphomaniac as they’re also in talks to participate. Shooting is expected to begin in summer or fall of 2012.
Surprised at this casting consideration for the risky picture? Or would you have been more shocked if Gainsbourg didn’t appear in the movie given her ongoing collaboration with the director?
Mick Jagger hasn’t been in a movie since 2001′s The Man from Elysian Fields. Yesterday, Deadline reported that the Rolling Stones frontman may be in line to play a Rupert Murdoch-like character in Tabloid, which is being written by A History of Violence scribe Josh Olson. This got us thinking about other musicians who made the crossover into film. Jagger’s played everyone from Turner in Donald Cammell and Nicolas Roeg’s excellent Performance, to a “bonejacker” (oof) in Freejack — which currently holds a shameful 15% rating at Rotten Tomatoes. Here are other songbirds that also made the leap from stage to screen, in order from best to worst. Leave us your list in the comments.
1. Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, and The Backstreet Boys are among the many pop artists whose songs have recently been banned by China’s Ministry of Culture for containing “vulgar content.” The offending tracks must be removed from Chinese websites by September 15, or their owners will face prosecution. [via Guardian]
2. Here is your first look at Tobey Maguire and Leonardo DiCaprio on the set of Baz Luhrmann’s adaptation of The Great Gatbsy in Australia.
3. We’re excited to see that Bravo has announced the 14 contestants who will be competing in the upcoming season of Work of Art; Simon de Pury, China Chow, and the rest of the gang will return to our lives on October 12 at 9pm. [via THR]
4. The lovely Charlotte Gainsbourg will release a new double album called Stage Whisper on November 7 that will be made up of live and unreleased studio material, and includes collaborations with Beck, Noah And The Whale, Conor O’Brien of Villagers, and Connan Mockasin. [via NME]
5. We know that people love sex, drugs, and rock ‘n roll, but we can’t help but be surprised by the news that Keith Richards’s memoir Life has sold over 1 million copies since coming out last fall. [via USA Today]
On the same day that Demolished Thoughts, the album he produced for Thurston Moore, hits stores comes news of yet another high-profile Beck collaboration: He’s producing Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks’ new record, Mirror Magic. To tide us over until that album’s release, August 23, we’re taking a look back at Beck’s rich history of working with other artists. From Calvin Johnson in 1994 to Moore in 2011, we present a fairly comprehensive guide to Beck’s collaborations.
So, this is an odd pairing: Kirsten Dunst — the sunny, faintly bratty, baby-faced star we’ll always remember as Marie Antoinette, Torrance from Bring It On, and Claudia from Interview with the Vampire – and Lars von Trier, the director most recently known for that scene in Antichrist where Charlotte Gainsbourg… well, if you don’t know yet, we’ll spare you the Friday morning spit take. Von Trier’s latest is called Melancholia, and it bears the tag line “a beautiful movie about the end of the world.” The trailer kicks off at Dunst’s character’s elaborate wedding and foreshadows some kind of space apocalypse (our best guess from the last shot is that Earth gets butt-bumped to oblivion by a much larger planet). Melancholia looks gorgeous, thrilling, and over-the-top in equal measure, which seems about right for the follow-up to Antichrist. The all-star cast also includes Gainsbourg, Kiefer Sutherland, Charlotte Rampling, John Hurt, and Alexander Skarsgård. Tell us whether the film, which premieres next month at Cannes, is on your must-see list after the jump.
If you’ve ever wondered what your favorite literary characters might be listening to while they save the world/contemplate existence/get into trouble, or hallucinated a soundtrack to go along with your favorite novels, well, us too. But wonder no more! Here, we sneak a look at the hypothetical iPods of some of literature’s most interesting characters. What would be on the personal playlists of Holden Caulfield or Elizabeth Bennett, Huck Finn or Harry Potter, Tintin or Humbert Humbert? Something revealing, we bet. Or at least something danceable. Read on for a cozy reading soundtrack, character study, or yet another way to emulate your favorite literary hero. This week: the example of all mothers’ say sos, Little Red Riding Hood.
A disillusioned painter, Serge Gainsbourg became one of the most influential singer/songwriters of the 1960s, ‘70s, and ’80s by putting real yet provocative thoughts about sex, life, and death to song. Lover of Brigitte Bardot and Jane Birkin, father of actress and singer Charlotte Gainsbourg — with whom he recorded the bizarre but supposedly punning duet “Lemon Incest” — and composer of popular tunes for Petula Clark, Juliette Greco, and Dionne Warwick, Gainsbourg had a keen eye for photography and worked with some of the best practitioners of the medium in his day.
Puppets, powdered wigs, and poltergeists, oh my! This week’s best videos feature everything from Vampire Weekend in 18th-century garb and Ray-Bans to Massive Attack being haunted by ghosts that look like they just came out of the laundry. We also got to accompany Charlotte Gainsbourg on a gravity-defying walk through the woods, go clubbing with Jahcoozi, and groove to rhythms of Big Boi’s funky puppet band. After the jump, enjoy our random sampling of the best the week had to offer and let us know what you think of our picks in the comments.
1. Now that American Idol has made her some kind of expert, Ellen DeGeneres is starting a record label. Her first act? Twelve-year-old Bieber clone Greyson Chance. We’re pretty sure this is not a joke. [via Vulture]
2. Jesse Eisenberg will reunite with Zombieland director Ruben Fleischer for 30 Minutes or Less, a heist comedy that will also star Aziz Ansari. [via Cinematical]
3. Trustees have voted to move 80-year-old American art institution the Whitney from New York’s Upper East Side to the meatpacking district. Meanwhile, by the time the new building is finished, in 2015, we’re guessing all the galleries in that area will have relocated to Brooklyn. [via New York Times]
4. Apple may be in hot water with the U.S. Justice Department over its attempts to prevent record labels from signing exclusivity deals with Amazon. [via NME]
5. Charlotte Gainsbourg cements her status as coolest woman in the world with a new video for the single “Time of the Assassins.” [via Pitchfork]
It’s hard to believe Record Store Day is only in its third year, having quickly become an institution around the US and overseas, drawing thousands of audiophiles into record shops to snag exclusive special-edition releases and watch intimate in-store performances by everyone from Ani DiFranco to the Black Lips to Bill Callahan. It all began when Chris Brown, employee of the local Maine/New Hampshire record store chain Bull Moose, decided to give brick and mortar record shops a day in the sun. Having visited the flagship store in Portland, Maine, we can confidently state that Brown and his co-workers definitely know what they’re doing.
By now, you’ve probably heard about some of the kajillion 7-inch and fancy vinyl releases just waiting to be snatched up this Saturday, so we’re going to give you a quick rundown of the most stellar in-store performances and events happening all over the country, plus a chance to win some sweet Smashing Pumpkins merch.
