DC in Ed Zwick's DEFIANCE

[Germangirl]

i cannot make that in my mind

7th? only $12 by Monday? that low? or is good?

i see films open and by mondya they have $30 plus?

It is good, as they say - not too good critics but people go and see it.

[Thelma]

i cannot make that in my mind

7th? only $12 by Monday? that low? or is good?

i see films open and by mondya they have $30 plus?

It is good, as they say - not too good critics but people go and see it.

Glad to see it's doing well at the box-office

[Dunda]

short clip: two survivers, who lieved in the forrest for two years:
http://www.citynews.ca/news/news_31082.aspx

[Daskedusken]

short clip: two survivers, who lieved in the forrest for two years:
http://www.citynews.ca/news/news_31082.aspx

Thanks Dunda

[Germangirl]

Lifelong friends team up to create 'Defiance,' the story of the Bielski brothers
http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/ ... 0193.story

Daniel Craig talks about ‘Defiance’
http://www.hollywoodtoday.net/2009/01/16/defiance/

[Anglophile]

Thanks, that was interesting

[Daskedusken]

Lifelong friends team up to create 'Defiance,' the story of the Bielski brothers
http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/ ... 0193.story

Daniel Craig talks about ‘Defiance’
http://www.hollywoodtoday.net/2009/01/16/defiance/

Thx GG, love you. Very interesting

[advicky]

Visual Effects Society Awards nominations

The nominees for outstanding special effects in a motion picture are Chris Corbould, Peter Notley and Ian Lowe for "The Dark Knight"; Scott Beverly, Robert Spurlock, Jon Warren and Brian Kelly Hahn for garbage truck crash mechanical effects in "The Dark Knight"; Neil Corbould, Steve Warner, Anna Maria Walters and Alan Young for "Defiance".


http://theenvelope.latimes.com/news/la- ... 9035.story

[Thelma]

Anticipation Builds Up Ahead Of Tomorrow’s Oscar Nominations Announcement

Time for everyone to start placing their bets ahead of Thursday’s announcement with the nominees for this year’s Academy Awards.

The nominations are yet to be revealed, so everyone is free to argue who should or shouldn’t be among the contenders for the golden statues which will be handed out on February 22.

Actor Forest Whitaker, who took home an Oscar for best actor for his performance in “The Last King Of Scotland,” and Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President Sid Ganis are slated to unveil the nominations in 10 of the 24 award categories at a 5:30 a.m. PT news conference Thursday at the Academy's Samuel Goldwyn Theater.

As far as the best picture award is concerned, there’s a consistent list of flicks that appear suitable, including “Revolutionary Road,” starring Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio, “The Reader,” WWII drama “Defiance” with Daniel Craig, “Slumdog Millionaire,” “Milk,” Brad Pitt’s “The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button” and of course, “The Dark Knight. However, only five will make the cut. No superhero movie's ever been nominated for best picture, but maybe “Dark Knight” will change that.

Unsurprisingly among the favorites, “The Dark Knight” is also considered by many a valid contender for other Academy Award honors, including best director, cinematography and editing. But a nod for the movie in the main categories could do wonders among the audiences when this year's Academy Awards telecast will be broadcast by ABC.

In other news, the new economic environment is making a mark on this year's Academy Awards telecast which will have a budget of just $1.4 million, down from $1.7 million last year. On top of that, for the first time ever, ABC has decided to break with tradition and air commercials for movies during the show. Ads used to be forbidden in the past in order to avoid giving the impression that movie studios had any involvement in the ceremony itself. The move is apparently a business decision to bring more ad dollars to the program, which netted its lowest ratings in history last year.

http://www.efluxmedia.com/news_Anticipa ... 33732.html

[Thelma]

Ed Zwick on the making of Defiance

[Guinness]

Ed Zwick on the making of Defiance

nice eye again thelma-you are da bomb! He is so freakin cute!!!

[Elaine_Figgis]

I initially put this in the news thread. I forgot Defiance had it's own thread.

One of our members, Dr. David Herschtal, is a nephew of the Bielski partisan fighters featured in the film Defiance. He recently shared his personal thoughts about his Uncles portrayed in the movie. Reading this, before or after, seeing the film will, I believe, add to a greater appreciation of this amazing historical story.

Rabbi Paul Plotkin

DEFIANCE SPEECH
(Defiance Premiere, Boca Raton, Florida
Wednesday, January 21, 2009, 7PM)

You're about to see one of the greatest stories NEVER told; the largest documented armed resistance and rescue, of Jews by Jews, during the Holocaust. The 1200 people saved then, number an estimated 20,000 today. And I would now like to make it personal. By 1957, my mother, Estelle Bielski Herschthal and all of the other Bielski brothers and sisters who survived the Holocaust had moved directly from Europe to America and had been living in Brooklyn with their families for 10 years. However, the Bielski Brothers that led the Partisans went directly to Palestine after surviving the Holocaust, and went to war again, to help establish the State of Israel. So I was 6 yrs old, 1957, when my Mother told me that her brother Tuvia, a great war hero, would be moving from Israel to America. He'd be our guest for a few weeks and would be arriving later that night. I'd have to give my bed to him, and now share a bed with my younger brother, all three of us crowded into one small bedroom. I was not pleased about this inconvenience and thought, after all, how big of a hero can he be if he has to share a room with us kids? My brother and I were fast asleep when he finally arrived late that night as he was when we left for school early the next morning. To register my dissatisfaction, I poured baby powder all over the head of my sleeping uncle. As I started to exit the room I was firmly and yet gently stopped and lifted by two steel like arms. I was temporarily paralyzed with fear and was turned around to face a giant white powdered smiling laughing face, who gave me a big warm welcoming hug. We were fast friends ever since.

Tuvia's family and the other remaining Brothers and their families arrived from Israel soon afterward. Now all the Bielskis and many of the other Partisan families lived within minutes of each other in Brooklyn as one large, mostly happy family. We were close, at times it could seem too close, and did everything together, including observing and celebrating holidays, birthdays, bar mitzvahs, graduations, weddings and of course, funerals.

At all these events there was a certain protocol. At a significant moment, typically after the blessing of bread and wine, came the equivalent of a blessing, an acknowledgement of Tuvia and the Bielski Brothers for making it possible for all of us to be there. No matter the significance or insignificance of the event, there was always a respectful proclamation of gratitude to the Bielsky partisan unit. This practice continued well into the 2nd and now present 3rd generation. Tuvia could have cared less about these accolades. He derived his satisfaction from merely observing the thriving and increasingly multiplying descendants of those he saved.
As youngsters we were fascinated by the physical aspect of what they did but were mostly lost to the bigger picture. The Uncles were quite humble and hardly ever spoke of the military aspects of their struggle, and only spoke of them saving Jewish lives.

It was their kids or the people that they saved that freely supplied us with all the graphic details of various battles, missions, raids, retributions and even executions. Tuvia would never have any part of these types of conversations. On the other hand, my Uncle Zus, when egged on was all too glad to demonstrate to us kids some of his lethal hand to hand combat techniques.

We had absolutely nothing in common with other 2nd generation Holocaust kids as their commonality was their parents reluctance to discuss the Holocaust, whereas for us it was part of our normal discourse and frankly entertainment. While they played cowboys and Indians, we played Nazis and Partisans. And guess who played the Nazi?

I was amazed, while growing up, at how many people personally told me over and over again how they owed their existence to my uncles saving them and their families. Nevertheless, it still seemed like a LOCAL vs global story. Even though there were many articles and books written about the Bielskis, they were mostly testimonials written by fellow Partisans Chaim this or Chaim that. They were not widely read or known.
As time progressed from the 80s through the 90s and the Holocaust was popularized as an academic and cultural subject much more light was shed on the horror that occurred to the 6 million. But The Bielski story was still little known. In fact, I must confess, that some of us, while never doubting the essence of the story, assumed that some of the more implausible aspects of the Bielski story just might be slightly embellished or exaggerated. Well, shame on us!!

The tipping point occurred several years after the last of the Bielski Commanders died, when an Irish Catholic NYT reporter named Peter Duffy, wrote a popular and well researched book, published by HarperCollins in 2003, documenting their story and placing it in its proper historical context. The author had gone back to the then newly opened Archives of the Soviet Union and uncovered detailed records of the Bielski Partisans' achievements. The Bielski Partisans had some arms and intelligence supplied to them by the Russian Military, including a Russian liason officer who kept records and even some photographs of what they did. The story turned out to be much, much bigger than previously reported. Academicians and historians started paying attention. Articles were written. The press picked up on it and so did Hollywood. The movie rights were ultimately purchased from another book, hence the name Defiance. Uncle Tuvia and the Brothers who saved over 1200 Jews, now, ironically had their story saved and immortalized by an Irish Catholic reporter and Hollywood.

To really understand how this act of Defiance came to pass, you have to appreciate the Bielski family background before the Holocaust. The Bielskis were multi-generational, redneck, hillbilly jewish farmers who lived on a poor Ponderosa at the edge of a forest in the middle of nowhere Poland, surrounded by a Jew hating populace (anti-semitic is too mild a word). Mix into the Bielskis, a little bit of Robin Hood and lot of Sopranos, and you can first begin to appreciate their temperament. A recent NYT article described the Brothers as "casually violent, sexually predaceous and occasionally murderous". I sincerely hope these traits are not hereditary. They were hard drinking and hard living men who were not likely candidates for future heroes . Yet, at the same time, they valued honor, family and a full love of life.

They were historically forced to defend themselves and their property as the local laws did not protect them. Their acts of retribution were legendary thus making them locally feared. Once the Nazis controlled their territory it would have been relatively easy to only save themselves, by simply hiding deep in the forest where they grew up. After all, they were expert horsemen, outdoorsmen and survivalists. They were not accountants. But Tuvia and the Brothers risked their own lives, by saving those Jews, mostly strangers, unable to save themselves. And at the same time created a community, often- times referred to as a"Jerusalem in the Woods" that saved their cultural identity. And that's what makes this story one of a kind. The brothers loved life and were determined to fully sustain it.. They showed us that real Heroes are flawed human beings. They provided a glimmer of light and hope, in a time when there was none. History will hopefully look at the Bielski story, not a corrective to the Holocaust's 6 million, but rather an inspiring addendum. Future genocides can only be stopped by international cooperation and early government detection and prevention. And while we pressure governments to act, one must ultimately summon, Defiance!

Thank you
David Herschthal MD

[Germangirl]

Whole lot of brotherly love on 'Defiance'
By Genevieve Loh, TODAY | Posted: 06 February 2009 1247 hrs

LOS ANGELES : They couldn’t be any more different: One is an intense, impossibly tall, imposing American father of two from New York who graduated from Yale Drama School; the other, a short, small-framed 23-year-old single Brit whose granddad still makes fun of his waning Northern accent when he returns to his tiny hometown of Billingham to visit.

And it’s that difference that makes Liev Schreiber and Jamie Bell’s brotherly bond in "Defiance", the big-screen version of the true story of the Bielski Partisans, all the more remarkable.

Even if Bell - the Bafta-winning actor (that’s the British Oscars) who took the trophy home for Billy Elliot at the age of 13 - did find sharing the screen with two highly respected actors in Schreiber and his other “brother” Daniel Craig initially “a little bit” daunting.

“I have a big admiration for these guys as actors, even more so now as men,” Bell told TODAY.

“The great thing about it was realising that they’re incredibly generous with everything; with their ideas, with their acting, with their ability. They’re actors who, when you stand in front of them, elevate your performance without really doing anything.

“So it was daunting, but immediately I was equal, and immediately there was none of that sort of macho stuff that usually happens on movie sets.”

Schreiber attributed the harsh weather conditions during the location shoot as a real bonding factor.

“We were all freezing,” shared the versatile actor/director/writer who won the Tony award for the 2005 Broadway run of Glengarry Glenn Ross.

“You had to hike out of the woods to go to a trailer, so you didn’t. You sat around in a group, you huddled and you drank tea.

“We were out there with nothing to do but sort of spend time with each other. Telling stories, and, you know, having snowball fights.”

Said the 41-year-old with a laugh: “We were very childish. There was a lot of goofiness. And I think that was about us recreating the childhood that we hadn’t spent together.”

One thing the two lads had in common? Nothing but praise for their “big brother”, James Bond.

“I’ve been a massive fan of his for a very, very long time,” gushed Bell, who plays Asael, the youngest brother caught between his older siblings’ fierce rivalry. “I think our knowledge of this guy seems to fall to one name, and that’s James Bond, but for me that isn’t the case at all. I know Daniel Craig as the very fine versatile actor.

“So translating that admiration that I have for him into this guy who basically idolised his brother was actually very easy.”

Said Schreiber, who plays the more passionate, hot-headed second brother, Zus, to Craig’s leader, Tuvia: “I was just so impressed with the fact that this major motion picture star wasn’t going back to his trailer. You know, in between takes. It was freezing out. Some of those set-ups took an hour and a half, two hours to accomplish. And he’s out there the whole time.”

The common ground between Bell and Schreiber, however, ends there. In fact, their future roles couldn’t be further apart. Bell is slated to play Tintin in the Steven Spielberg-directed movie adaptation of the beloved Belgian comic-strip hero (Craig will play the villainous Red Rackham), while Schreiber rips things up as Sabretooth in the highly-anticipated "Wolverine" movie.

“I was a fan of the comic books,” he said, “I knew the character really well. Initially I’d been asked to play General Striker and I asked ‘Is there any chance I might be able to play this Victor Creed guy?’ He is incredibly brutal and feral and has a bloodlust unlike any other character I’ve ever played - much, much more than Zus.

“Zus is basically a lover. Sabretooth is a real killer.

“I guess for me it’s the same thing with (approaching) a character like Zus. It’s like rather than just saying they’re violent brutes, what’s the cocktail that makes the brute tick?”
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/ ... 04/1/.html

[Laredo]

I saw Liev in the promo for Wolverine the other day , Hugh was shirtlass and Liev was cute too .

[Germangirl]

A Polish story through Hollywood's eyes
New film "Defiance" prompts questioning over the mythologizing of two WWII resistance fighters.

By Jan Cienski - GlobalPost
Published: February 9, 2009 18:20 ET
WARSAW — "Defiance," the new Daniel Craig movie about a band of brothers who build a Jewish resistance movement in the forests of Belarus during World War II, is creating a storm in Poland.
There is no dispute that the real-life Bielski brothers, led by Tuvia, played by Craig in the film, created a group of fighters who helped save about 1,200 Jews whom the Germans would otherwise have murdered.
But in Poland, the Bielskis’ crew is accused of cooperating with the Soviets, taking part in attacks on the Polish underground Home Army, which had units in the same region, stealing food and raiding local peasants, many of whom were Polish.
A Polish book also accused the brothers of participating in the 1943 attack on the village of Naliboki, where Soviet partisans killed about 120 people. The attack is being investigated by Poland’s Institute of National Remembrance, which catalogues crimes committed against Poles by Communists and Nazis.
“The fact of the participation of partisans from Bielski’s unit in the attack on Naliboki is only one of the avenues being explored in the investigation,” Andrzej Arseniuk, spokesman for the institute, told the Polish news agency.
With the opening of "Defiance," these accusations have been the subject of front-page newspaper stories and TV talk shows.
Despite the charges in the book, an investigation by the Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper found that the Bielskis’ fighters were not near Naliboki during the time of the killings, but that Tuvia did help betray a Polish underground leader to the Soviets, and in 1944 took part in a joint operation with the Soviets aimed at wiping out Polish anti-communist units.
The world in which the Bielskis operated was much more complicated than the film lets on. In the Hollywood version of history, Jewish fighters battle the evil Nazis and are helped by the decent Soviets — the Poles don’t figure much at all.
The brothers were born before World War I, when the region was part of the Russian Empire. After the war, the area became part of Poland and Tuvia served in the Polish army. When the Soviets invaded and annexed eastern Poland on Sept. 17, 1939 as part of their pact with the Germans, Tuvia became a Soviet official.
When the Germans turned around and attacked their erstwhile allies in 1941, one of their first priorities was rounding up and killing the thousands of Jews who formed a large part of the population of the region’s towns and villages. Tuvia and his brothers escaped to Europe’s last tracts of old growth forests, where they set up their partisan unit.
In the first years following Germany’s invasion, the Soviets were Poland’s allies, but that relationship broke down in 1943, when German troops discovered the bodies of thousands of Polish officers whom the Soviets had executed in 1940. Moscow broke off ties with the Polish government in exile in London and began to try to disarm and destroy non-communist underground units. Bielski’s force was eventually incorporated into the Soviet Red Army.
The Bielskis remained almost unknown in Poland until a former inhabitant of Naliboki, Waclaw Nowicki, published a book in 1993 in which he accused the brothers of taking part in the attack on the village. However, the investigators have found “no archival documents” to support the theory, said Arseniuk.
The controversy has not kept "Defiance" from a big opening in Poland, where it is playing in movie theaters around the country.
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/pola ... woods-eyes