stars, sex and nudity buzz : 10/19/2012

* Helen Hunt will be in contention for acting awards in coming months alongside Jennifer Lawrence and Marion Cotillard. Jennifer is the favorite at the moment though voters always appreciate bravery and Helen win hands down in that department with Marion close behind. But there is a good chance Helen could be downgraded to supporting role category. Don't think she will mind that.

The year’s best sex scenes.
by Dana Stevens
 
Sex scenes in movies—the non-pornographic ones, that is—tend to exist in a few rigidly defined categories: they can be erotic (the scene in Boogie Nights when Julianne Moore coaches Mark Wahlberg through his first shoot), comically grotesque (Ben Stiller and Greta Gerwig’s excruciating beer-and-cunnilingus date in Greenberg) or deliberately repellant (the bone-chilling coupling of Selma Blair and Robert Wisdom in Storytelling). Sometimes these categories can overlap—Awkward and sexy! Disturbing and hot!—but rarely will a movie step outside their bounds entirely and try something new. Then there is that very rare sex scene—say, Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie in their Venice hotel room in Nicolas Roeg’s Don’t Look Now—that does it all: turns us on, moves us emotionally, advances the story, reveals something about the characters, and showcases the filmmaker’s art.

The encounters between a severely disabled man and a hired sex surrogate in Ben Lewin’s The Sessions (Fox Searchlight) may not achieve Don’t Look Now’s level of cinematic artistry, but this frank, funny, tender film both asks and receives more from its sex scenes than any movie I’ve seen in a long time. Lord knows it gets a chance to thoroughly explore the topic: The Sessions is a movie structured entirely around sex, with naked therapy sessions between Mark O’Brien (John Hawkes) and Cheryl Cohen-Greene (Helen Hunt) making up the bulk of the movie’s slim 98-minute running time. When not having sex, Mark is usually either thinking about sex, writing poems about sex, or having no-holds-barred discussions about sex with his unflappable caregiver (Moon Bloodgood) and his free-thinking priest (a marvelous William H. Macy).

Mark O’Brien was a real person, a Bay Area man who died in 1999 at age 49. After having polio as a child, he spent most of the rest of his life in an iron-lung contraption, unable to move any part of his body but his head. A writer and poet (he typed on a computer keyboard using a mouthstick), O’Brien published a remarkable article in 1990 about setting out to lose his virginity to a professional surrogate at 38, after a lifetime of confusion and shame about his sexuality. It’s this piece that Lewin adapted into his screenplay for The Sessions, taking at least one significant dramatic liberty—in real life, O’Brien didn’t fall in love with the surrogate, nor she with him.

The Sessions is, at one level, a love story about the intimacy that grows between these two very particular people. But it’s also an ode to the act of intimacy itself, an unsentimental celebration of the power of sexual healing. Lewin treats sex neither as titillation nor taboo, but as a necessary anatomical function that’s also humanity’s greatest source of pleasure, connection, and mystery. The Sessions is only R-rated, but it’s not a movie you’d want to see with your parents (there should be a separate scale of MPAA ratings for that). The scenes of Hunt and Hawkes in bed together aren’t graphic, exactly, but they’re unadornedly real—there’s full- frontal female nudity (though no penises, for ratings reasons no doubt), close-ups of ears being kneaded and breasts being stroked, and lots of matter-of-fact, often funny banter between client and therapist about what feels good, what doesn’t, and what to do next.

Hawkes is phenomenal as the nervous, phobic, disarmingly honest Mark; there’s not a trace of self-pity or Oscar-baiting in his performance. (In fact, one of Mark’s more charming characteristics is his willingness to complain, his refusal to play the role of the silently suffering gimp. Explaining his Catholic faith to a new acquaintance, he dryly observes, “I would find it absolutely intolerable not to have anyone to blame for all this.”) Hunt, too, is extraordinary as the outwardly warm and nurturing but inwardly fragile sex therapist who must hide her growing connection to her client from her husband (an underused Adam Arkin). The Sessions will no doubt be marketed as an uplifting drama about triumphing over adversity. See it, instead, because it may be the year’s best movie about getting it on.

How 'The Sessions' Tells the Sweet, Awkward Truth About Sex
When Ben Lewin decided to make a film about a disabled man experiencing sex for the first time, he was careful to portray intimacy both frankly and affectionately.
Most love scenes are boring. A man and a woman kiss before they undress, and then the camera cuts away to them smoking in bed. Few movies depict the potential for physical awkwardness, and precisely how the bodies fit.

But the sex scenes in The Sessions, the new drama starring John Hawkes and Helen Hunt, aren't like that. From foreplay to orgasm, director Ben Lewin's camera never flinches from his characters during intimate moments. The film, which won the Audience Award at this year's Sundance Film Festival and a host of rave reviews, is, as New York magazine's David Edelstein put it, "a sexual coming-of-age movie"—one in which any audience member can recognize their own carnal hang-ups and triumphs. What's more extraordinary, though, is that it accomplishes that while telling a true-life tale of an extreme circumstance: a paralyzed man losing his virginity.

How does Lewin, who has the same disability as the subject of his film, manage to make this very-specific material deeply universal? By working to make his protagonist come across as a real, fleshed-out person. His disabled man worries about and obsesses over sex in the same way we all do. His body frustrates him, and his feelings are familiar to anyone who's ever found what they mentally desire to be physically unattainable. "Clinical accuracy is not the message of the movie," Lewin told me. "I was taken by this man's desire for independence, for a physical and emotional connection."

Mark O'Brien had a severe case of polio. He could not move from the neck down and spent most of his time in an iron lung, relying on personal care workers and manipulating small objects with a stick that he kept in his mouth. But O'Brien remained productive: Before his death in 1999, he wrote newspaper articles and several volumes of poetry. One of these articles, "On Seeing a Sex Surrogate," is the basis for Lewin's script about O'Brien's relationship with Cheryl Greene, the professional sex surrogate who eventually took his virginity.

Hawkes plays O'Brien as a smart, funny man whose disability does not define him. His physical limitations are obstacles, not barriers. There are challenges, however, when an able-bodied man portrays a disabled one, especially when the disabled person was four-foot-six and weighed only 60 pounds. Hawkes took his cues from Breathing Lessons, the Academy Award-winning documentary about O'Brien that you can view here, and from the screenplay itself. "When the script includes lines like, 'Because of your curved spine, certain types of intercourse may not be possible,' I can't disregard them," Hawkes said in an interview. "They're clues, and I need to respect them." In order to replicate O'Brien's frame, Hawkes acted while a cushion contorted his back. He even spent hours practicing with a "mouth-stick," a simple tool O'Brien used to dial the phone and turn pages. "I got to be pretty good at it," he said.

Rather than shoot scenes in non-chronological order, which is typical of most production, Lewin decided to film the sex sessions from first to last. As a result, the relationship between the actors and their characters ran parallel: Their initial contact is awkward, and they develop physical and emotional familiarity over time. "There was this spontaneity," Lewin explained. "The first time [Helen Hunt] attempts to undress [John] is when we were shooting it. I ended up using almost every foot of that material." The actors preserved this spontaneity by intentionally avoiding each other. "We made no attempt to even be friendly," Hawkes said. So chemistry between the two grows on screen in an honest, organic way.

And as Hawkes put it, "for once, the nudity in this film is necessary to the plot." The direct, almost sudden removal of Greene's clothing is jarring, but it's needed so that the therapy with O'Brien may continue. It's his body, not hers, that needs the work. As Film.com's Stephanie Zacharek notes, "It's not every day you see bold full-frontal middle-aged female nudity treated so matter-of-factly, and at the same time—almost paradoxically—made to seem so mysteriously powerful."

O'Brien was a funny, self-deprecating man—at one point, he deadpans, "I haven't seen my penis in over thirty years"—and he used humor to make able-bodied people more comfortable around him. That's important, said Hawkes: "It's in our nature to be afraid of what we're not, and people with disabilities remind us of our frailty." And the film doesn't shy away from portraying O'Brien cursing people out when frustrated or in pain. "I want [O'Brien] to neither be a victim or saint, which is often how [the disabled] are portrayed in film," Hawkes said. "[They] can be assholes, too."

In a terrific supporting performance, William H. Macy plays Father Brendan, a priest who listens to O'Brien's confession. O'Brien tells the priest how much he craves sex, and asks whether a just God would let him lose his virginity. Crucially, Father Brendan engages with O'Brien at a human level, not a religious one, concluding that, yes, God would choose mercy over dogma. Their dialogue is ironic and rather warm-hearted. Church affiliation aside, the priest character is gives the audience a powerful, unexpected entry point. He initially listens to Mark because he must, and later he comes to genuinely care for him, as do we.

Roger Ebert, a critic who is no stranger to disability—salivary cancer took away his ability to speak—has pointed out that The Sessions's engagement with practical concerns makes it unique. "The film pays close attention to the physical details involved with both the Hawkes and Hunt characters," he wrote on his blog. "Questions we may often have asked ourselves are fully, humanely, answered here." Like many couples (for lack of a better word) who are first discovering each other's bodies, O'Brien and Greene rely on patient experimentation and trust.

At some point or another, sex is awkward for everyone. There are times when the physical connection simply isn't happening, and it's better to stop than to continue. These moments can be funny, but often times they're embarrassing. The Sessions is a highly specific look at that tension, but specificity is what gives the film its populist, sex-positive message. "My mom is in her 80s—she'd want me to say she's in her early 80s—and I'm sure she'd be fine with this film," Hawkes said. "We've all got bodies—most of us are lucky enough to have sex."

Helen Hunt, uncovered and reborn in 'The Sessions'

Susan Wloszczyna, USA TODAY

The actress takes a risk with the "intimate film" about a sex surrogate, which was a hit at Sundance.

It doesn't take long before Helen Hunt strips off her clothes in The Sessions.

There she stands. Totally, completely, undeniably nude.

As braless and undie-less as the day she was born.

To paraphrase the title of one of her more popular movies, she is as naked as it gets.

Before dirty minds start working overtime, there is a serious plot reason for her state of disrobement in the Sundance hit based on a true story, which opens Friday. She's a certified sex surrogate from Berkeley, Calif., named Cheryl. Her patient? Disabled journalist and poet Mark O'Brien, his polio-weakened body left immobile, distorted and often encased in an iron lung.

At the advanced age of 38, he wishes to relieve himself of his virginity, and she is the chosen one.
"Both director Ben Lewin and I felt I should get naked right away," Hunt explains. "Now that we're in there, there's no going back. It's going to be an intimate film."

As for her reasons for doing such a role, the very fit 49-year-old actress at first says, "The script was great, and it was beautiful. It came to me, and I read it, and somewhere along my periphery, I thought, 'Oh, that (nudity) will be there.' But it wasn't the first thing. If I had slowed down to dwell on that, maybe I would have had second thoughts. But I just said yes right away."

Then she adds, "I had this feeling, it's getting late. What the (expletive)? Let's just do it."

Mark, portrayed with self-deprecating humor and a warm blanket of emotions by John Hawkes (an Oscar nominee for 2010's Winter's Bone), can't help but gawk at the radiant vision of womanhood before him who soon will climb into his bed.

Audiences, too, might stare in appreciation as Hunt, already short-listed as a likely Oscar nominee in the supporting-actress category, skillfully diffuses what could be a squirmy situation with disarming nonchalance and graceful ease on the screen.

They might also ponder where she has been hiding for the past several years.

Fans will recall that Hunt dominated entertainment in the '90s both on TV (she won the best-comedy-actress Emmy for four years straight on seven seasons of the sitcom Mad About You) and in film (she hit the big time with the 1996 summer blockbuster Twister and won an Oscar as single-mom waitress in the 1997 romantic comedy As Good as It Gets).

In 2000, she was in four major titles: Robert Altman's Dr. T and the Women, Pay It Forward (opposite fellow Oscar winner Kevin Spacey), What Women Want (as Mel Gibson's sparring partner) and Cast Away (as Tom Hanks' girlfriend back home).

But after her brief 1999 marriage to longtime sweetheart and Simpsons funnyman Hank Azaria crumbled at the end of that same year, Hunt decided to pull her career into the slow lane for a while.

"I've worked for a long time," says the former child star, who started acting professionally at age 9 and regularly popped up on such TV series as The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Bionic Woman."But I got to the point where I felt like, I am out here so far, how do I get back? I want to have a real life, a personal life. I didn't want a personal life I just visited."

She found it in 2001 with her partner, writer/producer/director Matthew Carnahan. They have a now-8-year-old daughter, Makena Lei, whose name means "many flowers of heaven" in Hawaiian.

Not that Hunt was simply making PB-and-J sandwiches and chauffeuring her daughter to school.

"I wanted to have a personal life that I fully inhabited, not because I am such a great mom, but for me."
She prepared for the inevitable falloff in rewarding offers once she reached 40, an unfortunate Hollywood milestone for many actresses, by directing TV, writing her own scripts and doing a handful of movies, such as the 2004 period piece A Good Woman and 2006's Bobby, about the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy.
"That has allowed me, while doing all those things, to be some version of a stay-at-home mother. I wouldn't have been able to write if I had been flying all over the world, playing somebody's girlfriend or somebody's mother. I've gotten to be on the front lines of a human being taking shape."

However, one of the most crushing blows during this period was what should have been her greatest joy: Then She Found Me, Hunt's 2008 debut as a feature director and her 10-years-in-the-making passion project.

"It took me forever," she says of the process adapting the novel about an adopted fortysomething schoolteacher whose husband (Matthew Broderick, Hunt's co-star from 1987's Project X and former beau) takes off as her birth mother (Bette Midler) enters her life. "To write it, rewrite it, get it financed, get it bought. I believed in it so much. I wanted to make a comedy about betrayal, and I got very interested in that subject."

When it premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2007, "it did so well — a standing ovation with 2,000 people — and it got bought by the very best company, ThinkFilm."

Then disaster struck: "The night before it opened wide, the company went bankrupt," she says. "I thought we had gotten safely over the finish line. But I made it, and people see it still. There are people who look me in the eye and say, 'I got what you said in that film.'"

While Hunt continues to develop her own material, she does concede, "My life has been punctuated with moments of 'Oh, (expletive)! What if I never get a great part again.' "

That is where The Sessions comes in. Lewin, 66, a Polish-born Australian filmmaker who suffered from polio as a child and walks with the aid of crutches and braces, knew he needed a special kind of actress who would allow audiences to relate to the delicate scenes shared with Hawke, Especially since the actor barely budges.

One who could be grounded and convey the conflict that Cheryl, who was married and had a young son, dealt with after developing a deep personal connection to Mark.

"I could see Helen bringing a sort of journey into it," Lewin says. "One that would broaden the character a bit. I could see her beginning in a professional and mechanical way and, as the story progressed, becoming more and more emotionally vulnerable. She really understood the paradox of being a middle-class soccer mom and, at the same time, having sex with strangers as an occupation. It wasn't prostitution, it was something else. That kind of complex role needs a thinking actress."

Even more important, he says, "She brought a kind of banality to the nudity, which is what I wanted."

Hunt also grilled her real-life counterpart for several hours on the phone, picking up on elements of her thick Boston accent and frank manner, which lent an extra layer of authenticity to her portrayal.
It is ironic that Hawkes, 53, first remembers being aware of Hunt in the 1992 movie The Waterdance. In the acclaimed low-budget film that proved to be a breakthrough of sorts, she played an editor who helps her writer client (Eric Stoltz) deal with his sexuality after being paralyzed in a hiking accident.

"I thought, 'Who's this great actress?' She has always been on my radar ever since."

Unlike many cast mates, he and Hunt avoided hanging out together away from the set. "We didn't know each other well, and that created a certain distance and a certain awkwardness around the love scenes," he says. "And that was perfect. I liked keeping the mystery between us."

What did he learn about Hunt on the job? "I discovered how brave she was. Ballsy, gutsy, all those things that go along with brave. And I found a kindred collaborative spirit to pull off this difficult performance."

That she looked great without her clothes, he says with a smile, "didn't hurt."

Hunt isn't leaving her next career step to chance. "I've written another movie now that I'm trying to get made," she says, referring to Ride, which she hopes to star in as well as direct. "It's about a mother-son relationship. An empty nest gone insane."

Those who were mad for Mad About You would probably welcome her return to TV. And she would, too.
Says Hunt, "I've been offered a couple of shows that have been very successful, but they weren't right for me. It has to be something I could be excited about for a long time." In the meantime, she has pitched her own series idea that she would write and possibly be cast in.

As for her chances for another Oscar, she simply says, "We will see."

But if she does bring home another trophy, she might have to find a better place to display her honors."The
Oscar sits on some shelf above my desk," she says. "If there was an earthquake, I could actually be killed by my own Academy Award."

Helen Hunt on Overcoming Inhibitions for The Sessions
You spend a fair amount of screen time completely naked. How did you get to the point where you were comfortable with that much nudity?
I wasn’t that comfortable! I was as comfortable as I could be, and then after that, I pretended. I think the character’s desire to make him comfortable and my desire to embody a sex-positive human being was what I hung on to.

You and John Hawkes have some very intimate scenes, but your characters also needed to portray a certain awkwardness at first, since they are meeting as strangers. How much time together did you spend before filming?
We did not know each other at all. We never did a read-through. We never really rehearsed. We sat there with the scripts open and talked about what line wasn’t working for him and what line I wanted to add. We did two, maybe three days of that. But I did a lot of homework on my own—writing about my own feelings towards sex. Thinking about where the soul in this movie was for me. . . . There were a few lines in the movie that I was highly invested in. One was at the end when the woman says, “This is your body. This is the body that God grafted for you.” I wanted to be in a movie that would say that. What she says in the first session they have together, about not tolerating anything, about asking for what you want, about saying what you like and what you don’t like—I wanted to be a movie that was about daring to be sexually happy. 

The Sessions Movie Review
The film is on a higher level than you might find on TV’s Hallmark Hall of Fame, nor would the practices illustrated be nearly so explicitly shown on that program. To underline the idea that sex is a normal, human drive that should not be repressed, “The Sessions” exhibits a range of sexual activity that could never be described as porn but which involves full frontal and back nudity by a major American actress. The result is a heartfelt drama with considerable comedy, with the principal male role so endearing that we in the audience could easily understand how a woman might want to be his lifelong partner despite his profound disability.

It is a lovely story to watch.Mark O’Brien (John Hawkes) takes an interest in sex in his late thirties while under the care of the beautiful Amanda (Annika Marks), a desire that he had repressed because of his Catholic upbringing, his guilt in thinking erroneously that he was responsible for the death of his seven-year-old sister, and his belief that nobody would want to couple with such an invalid. He confesses to Father Brendan (William H. Macy) that he has “impure” thoughts. Brendan, after seeking guidance from on high for just a moment—after first brushing away the idea as “fornication”—tells his parishioner to “go for it,” after which Mark gets in touch with both a sex therapist and with Cheryl Cohen Green (Helen Hunt), a sex surrogate who has “nothing against prostitutes” but notes that she limits her sessions to six. Each time that he is wheeled to her at a motel by Vera (Moon Bloodgood), his assistant who had taken over after Amanda is scared away by her boss’s proposal of marriage, Cheryl goes step by step into the process of ending the man’s virginity, a slow procedure since he is at first terrified.

 

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'Masters Of Sex': Beau Bridges Describes An Amazing Scene From Showtime's New Drama

"Masters of Sex" (premiering on Showtime in 2013) is the amazingly attention-getting title for a new TV show, right? According to one of the stars, the Showtime series lives up to it.

HuffPost TV caught up with Emmy and Golden Globe winner Beau Bridges, who plays mentor to Michael Sheen's William Masters and Lizzy Caplan's Virginia Johnson, the two real-life pioneers of human sexuality studies in the 1950s. Since they've only shot the pilot, Bridges didn't have too much to share, but this hilariously graphic scene description kind of says it all:

"It's about Masters and Johnson, the man and woman who instigated all these incredible sexual experiments back in the '50s," Bridges said. "I am the dean of the university where these experiments are happening. I'm sort of mentoring Masters -- he's my hope for the future -- so I'm a little freaked when he tells me what he's going to do."

So what are they going to do exactly? "The first thing I have to do is peer at a woman's vagina through a dildo while she masturbates ... and it's outfitted with a magnifying glass.

"The poor woman who had to have her legs up in stirrups, I couldn't see her face because they had up a cloth ... and then my wife and I are out to dinner in New York, where we filmed, and this lady comes up and was very nice and friendly, 'Oh it's so nice to see you!' and it was this woman that I'd been staring at her crotch all day! [Laughs.] I said, 'I hardly recognize you!'"

As for his leading man and lady, Bridges had nothing but great things to say about Sheen and Caplan. "Oh, they're great! They couldn't have picked two better people to carry this show -- they're gonna knock some people's socks off."

But when it came time to name who he'd love to have come guest star, Bridges was tight-lipped: "No, I can't think of anybody whose crotch I'd like to stare at. [Laughs.] I'm not going to reveal that at this time."

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Rachel Nichols : Bikini

Rachel Nicols can be seen on misfire Alex Cross. It's a basically a thankless role. One of the reason Rachel been obstinate about on-screen nudity is got much to do with her earlier experience as aspiring fashion model. Constant pressure to pose in racy outfits and trying to get her naked for 'artistic' photoshoots which she gave in few times has made Rachel wary about potential exploitation. She quit modeling to try her hand at acting. She was well prepared to resist any attempts to objectify her on-cam. Roles that requires nudity was brushed aside even if it was the lead character or flick with well-written script or has decent productions values. Obvious self-realization of thesping limitations (similar to certain degree like Alicia Witt) currently puts Rachel on a nudity dodging pedestal for more than a decade but it also somehow stonewalled her career from gaining any real momentum. Rachel will be 33-years old next year. She is currently headlining the Canadian sci-fi series Continuum and upcoming Amazonian blood-fest Raze. The tall babe is also a hard-worker when it comes to auditions. She will take on any roles even superfluous ones like Monica Ashe of Alex Cross as long as they don't require her to show her tits. It been about four years since I made a friendly wager with an old friend on mine that Rachel will go au naturel on-screen before she is 36. I still feel - deep in my cock - I'm going to win the bet.

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EMMANUELLE'S REAL LIFE HELL: WORLD'S MOST FAMOUS EROTICA STAR DIES AGED 60

By Simon Edge

Sylvia Kristel pictured in 1974 at the start of her fame

IT's hard to believe now but men and women once queued openly to see the world’s most famous porn movie. Emmanuelle was pretty tame by modern standards, particularly the severely edited version of the French-made flick that eventually got an X-certificate from the British censor.

Nevertheless it was pure erotica: there was no plot to speak of and nobody made any pretence they were seeing it for anything other than the sex. And if you wanted to see it the cinema was the only place because home video had yet to be invented.

Seen by hundreds of millions all over the world the film ran at a cinema on the Champs Élysées in Paris for over a decade and spawned six genuine sequels as well as umpteen rip-offs. It also made a global star of Sylvia Kristel, whose death aged 60 was announced yesterday.

At one stage she owned an apartment in Los Angeles as well as homes in Paris, the French Riviera and Holland and with staff to look after her and first-class travel everywhere she went.

But the good times were not to last. Try as she might she couldn’t break away from typecasting and her life was blighted by addictions to drink and drugs, a desperately destructive love affair with Lovejoy star Ian McShane, a 10-year battle with cancer and the loss of all the money she ever earned after she inadvertently signed it away to her second husband.

She was born in the Dutch city of Utrecht where her parents ran a railway hotel. She and her sister had one of the guest rooms, which they had to vacate when the hotel was full. Both her parents drank heavily and worked too hard to give much attention to their children. At the age of nine she was abused by the hotel manager and at 11 she asked to be sent away to a strict Catholic boarding school.

The most traumatic event in her childhood came at 16 when her father appeared at the hotel with a woman he introduced as his next wife. He threw out Sylvia’s mother and the kids and they moved to a small flat. When Sylvia tried to return to the hotel the new wife refused to let her in.

It made her take up modelling and then acting. “I wanted my father to look at me, recognise me,” she told the Daily Express when she published her autobiography five years ago. “And the divorce gave me a burning ambition to make things right for my mother.”

She won the beauty title Miss TV Holland, which led to her first film role and an entry into the Miss TV Europe contest in London. The exposure after she won that too led to the casting audition for Emmanuelle. “I wore a silk dress with little straps and no bra,” she recalled. “When they were asking where I lived, I gave a little movement with my shoulders and the dress fell down to my waist.”

She got the part. Her boyfriend Hugo Claus, a Belgian poet more than twice her age who would go on to father her only son Arthur, accompanied her to Thailand for filming where she simulated multiple orgasms and played skinny- dipping and rape scenes for French director Just Jaeckin. After an initial ban by French censors the film was released in 1974 prompting a worldwide debate about whether sexual liberation was a good thing for women or exploitation.

She herself always rejected the notion that the soft-focus film was pornographic.

“It may not exactly be art but it’s certainly not porn,” she said.

I don’t regret doing it. Looking back, it was rather sweet. With all the pornography around today, if Emmanuelle was released now everyone would compare it to Alice In Wonderland.”

She was paid a pittance for the first film but did well out of a string of sequels, as well a steamy version of Lady Chatterley’s Lover, a nudity-filled biopic of the spy Mata Hari, and the 1981 sex comedy Private Lessons. “I made 50 films and I didn’t take my clothes off in all of them,” she said. “In one I starred alongside George Lazenby. We had to sit drinking champagne, reminiscing. The sex scenes were filmed in flashback, played by younger actors. That was more civilised.”

Hugo had encouraged her to audition for Emmanuelle but he disliked the life that ensued. After a string of affairs, including with Gérard Depardieu, Sylvia fell for Ian McShane on the set of the 1979 film The Fifth Musketeer and the couple set up home in Hollywood. Leaving Arthur in the care of her sister back in Holland, she conducted a turbulent five-year relationship fuelled by champagne, vodka and cocaine.

McShane later said: “I have great memories of Sylvia. The trouble was she was totally paranoid. She was smart, funny, neurotic and spoke six languages. It drove her crazy becoming this symbol of female liberation.”

Things finally came to a head when he threw a champagne bucket at her. She was pregnant when she left him but she fell downstairs and lost the baby. Around this time she was also diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver.

She had an affair with Warren Beatty and a five-month marriage to millionaire businessman Alan Turner, who ended it saying he had made a terrible mistake. In 1985 she met a French would-be director Philippe Blot. They married and went to live in St Tropez and without realising it she became the joint-guarantor of his films – one of which was described by a critic as “the worst ever made”. She came home one day to find the house had been seized by bailiffs who had even impounded her family photos because they had market value.

H aving lost everything she found contentment for a decade with Belgian record producer Fred De Vree until he died suddenly in 2004. By then she had been diagnosed with throat and lung cancer, which she held at bay but put on weight as a result of chemotherapy. She lived out her final years in a rented flat in Amsterdam and was close to Arthur, who lived round the corner. She suffered a stroke in July.

Her autobiography was remarkably serene about the mistakes she had made and the loss of her fortune. “If I had been more prudent and hadn’t partied so much I guess it would have lasted a bit longer,” she said. “But it was all very agreeable while it lasted. And life isn’t so bad.”

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE EROTICA STARS?
by Julie Carpenter

FIONA RICHMOND: The Norfolk-born daughter of a vicar and a convent school headmistress began her career as a bunny girl before performing in Paul Raymond's nude show Pyjama Tops. She and Raymond began a seven-year affair and Fiona was soon courting infamy as a soft-porn queen, stripping and starring in such X-rated Seventies films as Expos© and Hardcore. She also wrote for top-shelf magazines (Around The World In 80 Lays was one of her columns) and penned such books as Tell Tale T**s, an autobiography. She says she was only pretending to be promiscuous. Having retired from the business in 1984 Fiona, now 67, runs hotels in Hampshire and Granada with her partner, former pig farmer Peter Pilbrow.

KOO STARK: Before she started dating Prince Andrew American-born Koo Stark starred in the 1976 British erotic film Emily aged just 17. The actress and model (and later photographer) played a girl discovering her sexuality and one scene featured her in the shower with another woman. Her relationship with Andrew began in 1982 but was said to be scuppered when details of her past emerged. Koo went on to marry millionaire Tim Jefferies from whom she split in 1990. She has one daughter, Tatiana.

LINDA LOVELACE: A forthcoming Hollywood film, Lovelace, starring Amanda Seyfried is about to dramatise the disturbing life of perhaps the most famous porn star of the Seventies. Linda Lovelace (born Linda Boreman) starred in the notorious hard-core film Deep Throat in 1972. It was a movie that gained unprecedented popularity among mainstream audiences and spawned the so-called "porn chic" phenomenon. While Lovelace first claimed such films were liberating, her 1980 autobiography, Ordeal, told a very different story, claiming that her controlling and abusive husband Chuck Traynor coerced her to perform sexual acts on film, sometimes at gun point. By the time she died in 2002 after a car accident, the mother of two had become an outspoken advocate for the anti-pornography movement.

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Starz Denver Announces Full Lineup!
The 35^th Starz Denver Film Festival (SDFF), sponsored by Starz Entertainment and produced by the Denver Film Society, announced today its full Festival line-up. SDFF will run November 1 through November 11 in Denver. The complete list of films can be viewed at denverfilm.org/festival.

“Election day is not the only big event happening this November. The Starz Denver Film Festival will celebrate its 35th edition with signature events and a diverse line-up of films from around the globe featuring everything from student shorts, to a 15-hour film, to some of Hollywood’s most buzz-worthy Award Season releases,” said Festival Director Britta Erickson. “New this year, is a central downtown hub for the Festival at the Denver Pavilions to complement the Denver Film Society’s permanent cinematic home, the Denver FilmCenter/Colfax, and our special presentation house, the L2 Arts and Culture Center.”

This year, SDFF shines a spotlight on Argentine cinema. Fourteen films from Argentina will screen in the Festival and Daniel Burman, a founding member of Argentina’s so-called New Argentine Cinema Wave, will be recognized for having the most films from Argentina play on U.S. screens. For his tribute, we’ll be presenting three of them, All In (2012), Family Law (2006), and Lost Embrace (2004).

“Argentina is not only one of the most prolific film industries in South America, but perhaps the most diverse. We are extremely pleased to be screening a robust sidebar of films from Argentina, including a three-film tribute to Daniel Burman, one of the country’s most successful cinematic exports,” said Artistic Director Brit Withey.

Another SDFF highlight is the inclusion of Mark Cousin’s epic, 15-hour, The Story of Film-- perhaps the most definitive study of cinema from its inception in the late 1800′s to our present day digital revolution. Neatly sectioned in two-hour blocks that detail specific time periods with a vast amount of film clips over which Cousin’s almost ethereal voice charts in detail the infinitesimal to the revolutionary changes in our most popular and accessible art form. The Story of Film will screen one section a day over eight consecutive days (The Story of Film Daily Pass) and in two marathon sections on the last weekend of the Festival (The Story of Film Marathon Pass).

The 2012 SDFF will screen more than 225 features, shorts, and student films, representing close to 40 countries, along with Denver Film Society’s signature programs such as the Cinema Q, Reel Social Club, The Watching Hour and Women + Film. As previously announced, Red Carpet Galas are A Late Quartet, Quartet, and Silver Linings Playbook. SDFF will announce all 2012 award recipients and tributes at a later date.

For the third year, Westword will produce the Starz Denver Film Festival Official Film Guide containing all movie screening information and special events. The Official Film Guide will be available in the paper and throughout Denver on Thursday, October 18.

To keep up to date with the Starz Denver Film Festival, visit www.denverfilm.org/festival, like the SDFF Facebook page www.facebook.com/denverfilmfestival, follow @DenverFilm on Twitter, and join the conversation by using the #SDFF35 hashtag.

FOCUS ON A NATIONAL CINEMA: ARGENTINA
Along with Mexico and Brazil, Argentina has for decades been one of the top producers of films from South America. A staple on the film festival circuit and occasional visitor to the art-houses in the U.S., Argentina is, however, the only South American country to ever win an Academy Award (The Official Story (1985) and The Secret in Their Eyes (2009). The diverse films in this year’s focus-and there are 12 of them-range from two outsider’s take on living in Argentina for a year (one Polish, Argentinian Lesson and one American, The International Sign for Choking), a nouveau, meta-western (Salt), and the oft-examined revolution era of the 1970s (Clandestine Childhood). This is all anchored by a three-film Tribute to the wonderful Daniel Burman.

• All In (La suerte en tus manos) – DIRECTOR Daniel Burman
• Argentinian Lesson (Argentyńska lekcia) - DIRECTOR Wojciech Staroń
• Beauty (Nosilatiaj. la belleza) - DIRECTOR Daniela Seggiaro
• Chinese Take Away - DIRECTOR Sebastian Borensatein
• Clandestine Childhood (Infancia clandestina) – DIRECTOR Benjamin Ávila
• Family Law – DIRECTOR Daniel Burman
• Germania – DIRECTOR Maximiliano Schonfeld
• The International Sign for Choking – DIRECTOR Zach Weintraub
• Lost Embrace – DIRECTOR Daniel Burman
• Mar del Plata – DIRECTORS Ionathan Klajman, Sebastia án Dietsch
• Masterplan – DIRECTORS Diego Levy, Pablo Levy
• SECRECY (SIGILO) - DIRECTOR Karla Gómez
• Salt (Sal) – DIRECTOR Diego Rougier
• White Elephant (Elefante blanco) – DIRECTOR Pablo Trapero

CINEMA Q
Queer voices. Queer visions. Queer lives. Experience the best in films that cover every angle of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer rainbow through our Cinema Q program. These stories reveal the loves and losses of individuals who have been coloring the edges of cinema since its inception.

• Beyond the Walls (Hors les murs) - DIRECTOR David Lambert
• Call Me Kuchu – DIRECTORS Katherine Fairfax Wright, Malika Zouhali-Worrall
• Gayby – DIRECTOR Jonathan Lisecki
• Intersexion - DIRECTOR Grant Lahood
• North Sea Texas - DIRECTOR Bavo Defurne
• Struck By Lightning – DIRECTOR Brian Dannelly

REEL SOCIAL CLUB
Love film? Get social. Reel Social Club is the official young patrons membership extension of the Denver Film Society. We plug the young and young at heart into local film culture through exclusive parties, screenings, and film festival experiences year-round.

• 28 Hotel Rooms - DIRECTOR Matt Ross
• Butch Walker: Out Of Focus – DIRECTORS Peter Harding, Shane Valdes  
• Gayby – DIRECTOR Jonathan Lisecki
• Grassroots - DIRECTOR Stephen Gyllenhaal
• The Iran Job – DIRECTOR Till Schauder
• Journey to Planet X – DIRECTORS Josh Koury, Myles Kane
• Kid-Thing – DIRECTOR David Zellner
• Pearblossom Hwy - DIRECTOR Mike Ott
• Richard’s Wedding – DIRECTOR Onur Tukel
• Salt (Sal) - DIRECTOR Diego Rougier
• Supporting Characters – DIRECTOR Daniel Schechter
• WRONG - DIRECTOR Quentin Dupieux

WOMEN + FILM
Women + Film is a year-round program of the Denver Film Society that not only celebrates the art and achievements of women filmmakers around the world but also brings together an array of scholars, civil and human rights advocates, community leaders, and concerned members of the public to shine a spotlight on social issues through cinema and the dialogue it stimulates. The Starz Denver Film Festival is proud to present and array of candid, thought provoking, and often-iconoclastic works by women-the likes of which aren’t often available or obvious to mainstream audiences.

• Art of Conflict - DIRECTOR Valeri Vaughn
• Bay of All Saints – DIRECTOR Annie Eastman
• Believing (Geloven) - DIRECTOR Mijke de Jong
• Ginger and Rosa - DIRECTOR Sally Potter
• Katia’s Sister - DIRECTOR Mijke de Jong
• Not that Funny - DIRECTOR Lauralee Farrer
• Sister - DIRECTOR Ursula Meier
• Stages (Tussenstand) - DIRECTOR Mijke de Jong
• Violeta Went to Heaven (Violeta se fue a los cielos) - DIRECTOR Andrés Wood
• Virgin Tales - DIRECTOR Mirjam von Arx
• When the Iron Bird Flies: Tibetan Buddhism Arrives in the West – DIRECTOR Victress Hitchcock

THE WATCHING HOUR
Get ready, constant watchers, to venture to a place where cinema cracks open to reveal its hidden core. A primal place where the fantastic meets the terrifying, where you’ll see things you thought existed only in your wildest dreams and your sweetest nightmares. This is The Watching Hour.

• The ABCs of Death - DIRECTORS Kaare Andrews, Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett, Angela Bettis, Adrián García Bogliano, Bruno Forzani and Hélène Cattet, Jason Eisener, Ernesto Díaz Espinoza, Xavier Gens, Jorge Michel Grau, Lee Hardcastle, Noburo Iguchi, Thomas Cappelen Malling, Anders Morgenthaler, Yoshihiro Nishimura, Banjong Pisanthanakun, Marcel Sarmiento, Jon Schnepp, Srdjan Spasojevic, Timo Tjahjanto, Andrew Traucki, Simon Rumley, Nacho Vigalondo, Jake West, Ti West, Ben Wheatley, Yûdai Yamaguchi
• The American Scream - DIRECTOR Michael Stephenson
• The Amityville Horror – DIRECTOR Stuart Rosenberg
• Headshot - DIRECTOR Pen-Ek Ratanaruang
• John Dies at the End – DIRECTOR Don Coscarelli
• The King of Pigs - DIRECTORYeun Sang-ho
• My Amityville Horror – DIRECTOR Eric Walter
• WRONG - DIRECTOR Quentin Dupieux

SPOTLIGHT ON COLORADO
Colorado’s filmmaking scene continues to grow at an unprecedented pace. More often than not, filmmakers are choosing to stay and work in the state rather than moving to Los Angeles or New York. This year’s Starz Denver Film Festival features numerous locally produced, feature-length films and shorts-films we can’t even claim as premieres. Several of these films screened earlier this year at other highly acclaimed festivals prior to their Denver dates.
Feature Length Films:

• The Aviation Cocktail - DIRECTOR David Higgins
• Bay of All Saints - DIRECTOR Annie Eastman
• The Life and Times of Paul the Psychic Octopus - DIRECTOR Alexandre O. Philippe
• Bidder 70 – DIRECTORS George Gage, Beth Gage

Short Films: Dark Days

• 0300 – 0430 - DIRECTOR Jesus Sierra
• Anything Helps – DIRECTOR Rob Shearer
• Bring With You A Heart – DIRECTOR Elizabeth Henry
• Eternal Return - DIRECTOR Kevin Bunch
• Ghosts of Yesterday - DIRECTOR Tony Gault
• Lunchbox Express – DIRECTOR Alexandre O. Philippe
• Meta-Romantic – DIRECTOR Ilian Iliev
• Mounted and Stuffed - DIRECTOR Kiah Butcher
• Open - DIRECTOR Patricia McInroy
• Periapsis – DIRECTOR Timothy Orme
• Return to the World of Dance - DIRECTORS Dan Boord, Luis Valdovino, Marilyn Marloff
• Self Defense – DIRECTOR Daniel Beahm
• Twombley – DIRECTOR Zach Eastman

SHORT FILMS
Shorts 1: Truer Than Fiction

• A BriefHistory of John Baldessari – USA – DIRECTORS Henry Joost, Ariel Schulman
• The Art of Repair - UK – DIRECTOR Will Stewart
• The Bronzer – USA – DIRECTOR Peyton Wilson
• In Hanford – USA – DIRECTOR Chris Mars
• Irish Folk Furniture – Ireland – DIRECTOR Tony Donoghue
• MacPherson – Canada – DIRECTOR Martine Chartrand
• Night, Peace – UK – DIRECTOR Eva Weber
• Open – USA – DIRECTOR Patricia McInroy
• Summer in Helsinki (Helsingin Kesä) - Finland – DIRECTOR Maria Björlund
• Turning a Corner – USA – DIRECTOR David B. Levy  

Shorts 2: Close Encounters of the Animated Kind

• Audition – Netherlands – DIRECTOR Udo Prinsen
• Blik – Netherlands – DIRECTOR Bastiaan Schravendeel
• Cadaver – USA – DIRECTOR Jonah D. Ansell  
• Edmond Was a Donkey (Edmond était un âne) – Canada/France – DIRECTOR Franck Dion
• Into Spring – Netherlands – DIRECTOR Udo Prinsen
• The Maker­ - USA – DIRECTOR Christopher Kezelos
• My Little Underground – Canada – DIRECTOR Elise Simard
• Old Man – USA – DIRECTOR Leah Shore
• Paula – Canada – DIRECTOR Dominc Etienne Simard
• The Pub – UK – DIRECTOR Joseph Pierce
• Wolf Dog Tales – USA – DIRECTOR Bernadine Santistenvan

Shorts 3: Life is What Happens While You’re Making Plans

• Advantage: Weinberg - USA – DIRECTOR David Singer  
• Harry Grows Up - USA – DIRECTOR Mark Nickelsburg
• Hatch - Austria/USA – DIRECTOR Christoph Kuschnig
• Hourglass - Spain/Norway – DIRECTOR Pedro Collantes
• Lemonade Stand – Australia – DIRECTOR Althea Jones  
• Peter at the End – USA – DIRECTOR Russ Lamoureaux

Shorts 4: Shades of Gray

• Another Bullet Dodged – USA – DIRECTOR Landon Zakheim
• Cherry Waves – USA – DIRECTOR Carey Williams
• Delivery - USA – DIRECTOR Amy Redford
• I Am John Wayne – USA – DIRECTOR Christina Choe 
• Katya – USA – DIRECTOR Mako Kamitsuna

Shorts 5: International Scenes

• Asad – South Africa/USA – DIRECTOR Bryan Buckley        
• Birthday – Estonia – DIRECTOR Erik Norkroos
• Eileen Pratt - Australia – DIRECTOR Michael Kratochvil
• How much love you’ve got? - South Korea – DIRECTOR Chong-Kyu Kim
• I Am Going to Italy (Italia Me Kajav) - Bulgaria – DIRECTOR Ivaylo Markov
• It Was My City – Iran – DIRECTOR Tina Pakravan
• The Missing Looks (La Mirada Perdida) - Argentina – DIRECTOR Damian Dionisio  

STUDENT FILMMAKER AWARDS
The First Look Student Film Section is an exclusive selection of short films reserved for outstanding student filmmakers from around the world. In addition to the Spike Lee Student Filmmaker Award, which was established in 2008, new last year we announced a partnership with Liberty Global that has allowed us to include three new packages of films from international student directors. These films will open your eyes to the incredible work being done at films schools outside the United States with films from Australia, Estonia, France, Israel, Germany, Lebanon, Mexico, Poland, South Korea, United Kingdom, Vietnam, and Zambia. To accompany this expanded focus we will award the Liberty Global International Student Filmmaker Award to an exemplary filmmaker in this category.
Liberty Global International Student Films in Competition

• Anna and Jerome (Anna et jérôme) - France/USA – DIRECTOR Mélanie Delloye
• The Tobacco King - USA/Zambia – DIRECTOR Daniel Koehler
• Of Dogs and Horses - Germany – DIRECTOR Thomas Stuber
• Martha Must Fly (Al martha lauf) - Israel – DIRECTOR Ma’ayan Rypp
• Bella Fleace Gave A Party - UK – DIRECTOR Leonora Lonsdale  

Spike Lee Student Films in Competition

• Crossing – DIRECTOR Gina Atwater
• Folkswagon – DIRECTOR Shachar Langlev
• Living The Dream – DIRECTOR Gerry Kim
• Glory Days – DIRECTOR Benjamin Rutkowski
• Real Talk – DIRECTOR Patrick Ng
• Where Is Joel Baum – DIRECTOR Pearl Gluck

PANELS 

CHASING ICE: A Conversation

In spring 2005, acclaimed environmental photographer James Balog headed to the Arctic on a tricky assignment for National Geographic: to help tell the story of the Earth’s changing climate. Even with his scientific background, Balog had been a skeptic about climate change. But that first trip north opened his eyes and sparked a challenge within him that would put his career and his very well-being at risk. Within months of that trip to Iceland, the photographer conceived the boldest expedition of his life: the Extreme Ice Survey. With a band of young adventurers in tow, Balog began deploying revolutionary time-lapse cameras across the brutal Arctic to capture a multi-year record of the world’s changing glaciers.Balog’s story is told in a new Colorado-produced documentary, Chasing Ice. Directed by Jeff Orlowski, edited by Academy Award-winning producer Davis Coombe, and produced by Oscar-winning producer Paula DuPre Pesman and Oscar-nominated independent filmmaker Jerry Aronson, the film has won awards at film festivals around the world. It opens nationwide in November.Join the local team behind Chasing Ice for conversation about the making of the film.

Sunday, November 11, 12:00pm at Denver FilmCenter, Free Event

An Evening With Bob Balaban
Actor Bob Balaban receives the Festival’s first annual Jack Gilford Award for Comedy. Balaban is a veteran of Christopher Guest comedies (Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, A Mighty Wind and For Your Consideration), and also has acted in such films as Capote and the iconic Close Encounters of the Third Kind, which the festival will show as part of the movie’s 35th anniversary celebration. The Chicago-bred Balaban hails from a show business family. His father owned major palatial movie theaters in Chicago, and his mother was an actress. In a career spanning four decades, Balaban not only has acted, but has served as a producer (Robert Altman’s acclaimed Gosford Park) and director (HBO’s Bernard and Doris). He is uniquely positioned to discuss filmmaking from both creative and business points-of-view having acted in 89 films, written seven titles (big-screen and television) and directed 24 titles (also big screen and television). Most recently, Balaban narrated Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom. Jack Gilford, who passed away in 1990 and for whom the award was named, was a renowned and gifted comic actor who appeared in more than 80 movies.

Saturday, November 3, 4:00pm at Pavilions

The Impact of Childhood Domestic Violence
The Children Next Door, directed by Doug Block and produced by Lynda A. Hansen, is the first documentary of its kind to recount the fear and pain of domestic violence through the eyes of a child. Shot in Tennessee, this powerful film takes us on a young family’s journey to overcome a horrific incident that both shattered and shaped their lives. We live in a society where domestic abuse is pervasive. The statistics are staggering, and behind every number is a devastating personal story. A movement is under way across the U.S. to generate awareness about the problem of childhood exposure to domestic violence. This film and this panel are part of that movement. The panelists: Brian F. Martin, founder of The Childhood Domestic Violence Foundation; Rita Smith, executive director of The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence; and Lynda A. Hansen, producer. Moderated by Robert Denerstein.

Sunday, November 4, 2:00pm at L2 Arts and Culture Center

One-on-One with Neil LaBute
Since his scorching debut with In the Company of Men (1997), director Neil LaBute has brought his consistently provocative voice to American cinema. Robert Denerstein’s conversation will follow a showing of a quartet of short films by LaBute, each exploring the dark side of sex, love and romance. The filmmaker and playwright brings his considerable talents to the short form with results that are guaranteed to keep the conversation buzzing.

Saturday, November 10, 4:15pm at L2 Arts and Culture Center

The Talent You Don’t See
A diverse panel of “below-the-line” movie players featuring a stuntwoman, a casting agent, a composer and a costume designer. Robert Denerstein moderates a well-rounded conversation about the critical role played by talented professionals who often receive far too little credit for the important work they do in creating cinematic success.

Sunday, November 4, 4:45pm at Denver FilmCenter

Women + Film: A Panel
Join our accomplished panel of women whose paths have given them a powerful voice in the film industry and learn from their spirit in telling their stories. This panel of women filmmakers brings together a dynamic combination of experience, backgrounds and diverse cultures to discuss their personal journeys that led to becoming accomplished directors. And what continues to motivate their journeys and the creative fires we all share. Panelists include Annie Eastman director of Bay of All Saints, Lauralee Farrer director of Not That Funny, Ursula Meier director of Sister, and Victress Hitchcock director of When the Iron Bird Flies.

Sunday, November 4, 12:00pm at Denver FilmCenter

Young Guns
It has become a tradition at the Starz Denver Film Festival to recognize and listen to the voices of new and independent-minded filmmakers. This panel includes director Mike Ott (Pearblossom Highway), actor David Nordstrom (Pincus) and Argentine Tributee Daniel Burman, who has three films showing in the festival and who is widely recognized as a member of the New Argentine Cinema movement. Panel Moderator Robert Denerstein says that it’s always intriguing to discover what’s on the minds of filmmakers who bring passion, commitment and talent to the often-precarious and over-commercialized world of moviemaking. Joining in on the conversation, author Paul Zimmerman (VIRGIN NOIR: First Time Directors’ Landmark First Interviews with Paul Zimmerman).

Friday, November 9, 7:00pm at Denver FilmCenter

Zombie Town Hall Meeting
Join horror icon George A. Romero (Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead), Max Brooks (World War Z), and Steven Schlozman (The Zombie Autopsies) for a live, trans-generational salon talk on the rise of zombie fandom, the role and impact of the modern zombie on popular culture, and practical matters like: how to zombie-proof your car.

Wednesday, November 7, 7:00pm at L2 Arts and Culture Center

ANIMATION STATION

Competition
Using any animation technique available, teams will have 6 hours to create their own film. The animation theme will be announced at the competition. Teams may bring their own materials including computers, however no images or material created prior to the competition may be used. ASIFA-Colorado will provide basic animation materials (clay, cutout material, drawing paper) as well as cameras for capturing images. You may bring your own computers, cameras, recording equipment, and editing equipment. ASIFA-Colorado will also do minor editing to put the animations on a timeline. The competition will be judged by the ASIFA-Colorado board. Prizes total over $600. Each team will also receive an invitation to a private screening of the animations created during the workshops and competitions. Registration is limited. The fee is $30 per team (each team may have between one and three participants), with discounts for DFS and ASIFA-Colorado members.

Saturday, November 3, 10am – 4pm

Workshop
Using traditional animation techniques, participants will help create a short film. Budding animators are invited to show up with a creative mindset and a willingness to explore. Each animator will also receive a voucher to see a film at the Denver Film Center and an invitation to a private screening of any animations created during the workshops. Registration is limited. The fee is $15 per workshop attendee, with discounts for DFS and ASIFA-Colorado members.

Sunday, November 4, 9am – 12pm: Ages 6 – 11, 1pm – 4pm: Ages 12 and greater

All workshops will be held at: Denver Open Media, 700 Kalamath St., 720.222.0160 

Tickets for the 2012 Starz Denver Film Festival:
Individual tickets go on sale to Denver Film Society Members on Wednesday, October 17 and to the general public on Friday, October 19. Tickets are available for purchase online at denverfilm.org or at two box office locations, Denver Film Center/Colfax (2510 East Colfax Avenue, Denver, CO 80206) or the Starz Denver Film Festival Pavilions Ticketing and Information Center (500 16th Street, Suite #188, Denver, Co 80202).

Six Pack tickets to any regularly priced films and Matinee Six Packs for screenings Monday – Friday before 5:30pm are now on sale. Six Pack and Matinee Six Packs are available to both Denver Film Society Members and Non-Members and can be purchased online at denverfilm.org.

Patron Packages are available for advanced ticket selection and to ensure seating at Red Carpet Presentations and Special Presentations. Contact Alison Greenberg to purchase a Patron Package at (303) 595-3456 ext. 229 or alison@denverfilm.org.

Red Carpet Presentations will take place at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House and Buell Theater at the Denver Performing Arts Complex. Regular festival screenings will take place at the Denver FilmCenter/Colfax, UA Denver Pavilions Stadium 15, and L2 Arts and Culture Center.

About the Denver Film Society:  Founded in 1978, the Denver Film Society (DFS) is a membership-based, non-profit SCFD Tier II cultural institution that produces film events throughout the year, including the award-winning Starz Denver Film Festival and Film on the Rocks. The Denver FilmCenter/Colfax presents film programs daily and is Denver’s first and only year-round cinematheque. Members of DFS support one-of-a-kind programs reaching more than 200,000 film lovers and film lovers-in-training each year.

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Alyssa Campanella all natural: with Randall Slavin

* Alyssa is obsessed with Game of Thrones. Maybe she should audition for a small role preferably something that requires her to be naked most of the time.

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beauty queen Jessica Rafalowski : Lingerie



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Shirtless guys take off on TV
Plenty of buff, half-naked men are gracing the small screen this season. Is this a way to lure female viewers?

Carol Memmott, USA TODAY

There's something missing on television this year: Shirts. On men.

So far this season, an array of new shows, from Elementary, Arrow and Chicago Fire to The New Normal, Emily Owens, M.D. and Last Resort, has paraded toned male torsos. Popular returning series such as Hawaii Five-0, New Girl and even Modern Family have flashed abs, as well.

And in what may be seen as a pop-culture turning point, CBS daytime game show The Price Is Right just introduced its first male model — and producers promise he'll go topless from time to time.
It wasn't always like this. In the 1970s and '80s, "it was a little like spotting a rare bird. You'd be watching TV, then suddenly there was this hunky shirtless guy," says Cosmopolitan editor at large John Searles. "Now every time you turn on the TV, there's a guy half-naked."

Some people theorize the recession has made the TV industry focus more intently on pitching to women, who watch the most television — and who still pack a lot of purchasing power in their handbags.

"You can tie an outbreak of man-flesh to the economic trends touched off by the great 'he-cession,' " says David Zinczenko, editor in chief of Men's Health, who calls this the least-surprising trend in TV history. "Sex sold when the medium was invented in the '40s, and it will still sell on whatever screens we'll be watching in 2042."

"Women generally watch more TV than men," says Brad Adgate of ad firm Horizon Media, so programmers are pandering to their core audience. He traces the recent trend partly to the social-media buzz created by another shirtless guy, soccer star David Beckham, in a commercial in this year's Super Bowl: "It got a lot of comments on Twitter; all these shows have hashtags, so it's just a way to get them in the conversation socially."

Jay Ryan, a native New Zealander who stars as Vincent Keller on CW's remake of Beauty and the Beast, buys into the marketing theories. "I think that it has to do with the audience demographic becoming heavily female-based. They are the No. 1 shoppers in retail, and TV is made to sell products. So it's only natural (for) male actors having to get their kits off."

As for The Price Is Right's first male model, Rob Wilson, executive producer Mike Richards says: "We're in daytime, and daytime is predominantly female. We've made lot of changes on The Price is Right, in terms of the prizes, to target women more.

"This is kind of an extension of know your audience and know what your audience likes," he says, "and the sound that the women in our audience made when they first saw Rob confirmed that we had done the right thing."

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CAA Finalizes Joint Venture Deal With Indian Talent Agency KWAN

BREAKING: CAA has closed a deal to create CAA KWAN, a joint venture between the Hollywood agency and leading Indian talent agency KWAN Entertainment and Marketing Solutions. The arrangement, which has been in the works since February, gives CAA a larger footprint in the growing entertainment and media marketplace in India.

The expansion is different from CAA’s move into China, where the agency formed its own satellite office. The decision here instead to partner with an agency that is well established. The goal is to rep local talent in India, and create cross-border opportunities for CAA and KWAN’s clients. The venture will be run by CAA’s David Taghioff and Caleb Franklin, along with KWAN CEO/Managing Director Anirban Das Blah and COO Indranil “Neil” Blah. The joint venture will be headquartered in Mumbai with satellite offices in Delhi, Bangalore and Hyderabad, with a staff of 60. Franklin and Taghioff are CAA corporate development execs. Franklin will move to Mumbai.

“India’s robust entertainment industry offers CAA KWAN tremendous opportunities for talent across multiple platforms,” said CAA president Richard Lovett. “In a very short period of time, KWAN has intelligently scaled and diversified their business to maximize this thriving marketplace for their clients. KWAN’s deep network of relationships, local-market knowledge, and collaborative business philosophy make them a powerful partner in furthering CAA’s existing business in India and providing our clients with more opportunities.”

Said KWAN’s Das Blah: “We believe that the combination of CAA’s experience, influence, and expertise, with KWAN’s extensive knowledge of the Indian entertainment industry, will enable us to provide an unmatched spectrum of services for our clients.”

CAA already had a track record in India. Among other things, the agency advised Reliance on its investment in Steven Spielberg and Stacey Snider’s DreamWorks, and UTV when it formed a joint production venture with Will Smith and James Lassiter’s Overbrook Entertainment. CAA reps such Bollywood talent as actress-singer-model Priyanka Chopra (in the U.S.), writer Akshat Verma (Delhi Belly), writer-director Zoya Akhtar (Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara), writer Sooni Taraporevala (Salaam Bombay), and author Amish Tripathi (The Immortals Of Meluha).

* “India’s robust entertainment industry offers CAA KWAN tremendous opportunities for talent across multiple platforms,”
One of the positive offshoot will be availability of actresses willing to work as body doubles, perform nude scenes without the hassle of nudity clause which is something increasingly utilized by Brits/Aussies. Thanks to India's diverse population, some of the girls could even pass off as Caucasians. Good times are here for India and particularly Americans hungering to see exotic babes in the buff. Female artists in India are frustrated with lack of female-centric roles in local movies. Many of these young women are highly educated, outspoken, have modernistic outlook and don't mind taking it off if the role requires it. But in India they're looked upon as glorified hookers, the mass media treats them like dirt and major movie studios ignore them because the girls don't want to kowtow the male leads, the pay is crap, script is tinted laughably towards hero worshipping and refusal to sleep with the big-wigs to sweeten the deal. Is it any wonder some of the actresses have attempted to make inroads into US market in recent years without much success due to lack of proper representations. American producers shouldn't face any problems when it comes to hiring Indian actresses. They're open minded, a bargain salary-wise, fluent in English and with accent coaching can even sound American. The girls rather be exploited on-screen than off-screen like in India where lack of work forced many of them into escort biz. Safe to say the days of Aiswarya Rai and other sub-continent actresses worried about the society perceptions of them are over.

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Mandy Moore, 28: My Husband Ryan Adams and I Are Waiting to Have Kids
She's not "tangled" up in baby fever yet!

Married to singer Ryan Adams since 2009, Mandy Moore isn't necessarily all-consumed with motherhood like other women her age.

"I'm 28, so I think I have time," A Walk to Remember's Moore told Us Weekly on Wednesday at the West Hollywood launch of Rachel Zoe's Jockey "Major Must-Haves." Explaining that she "definitely" wants children in "a couple of years," the singer-actress says she and her indie rocker husband, 37, are having fun as a twosome before they expand their family.

"We're enjoying the animal children first," Moore reasons of the couple's pets: Rescue cats Vincent and Theo and adopted dog Joni. Moore's also trying to learn her way around the kitchen before having to whip up baby food: "I don't cook very well at all," she admits. "I'm the girl that can't make scrambled eggs."

Another reason Moore is putting off motherhood for the time being: She's hard at work on a new album! Chatting with CBSNews.com in July, Moore revealed that she'll enlist Adams to help out with her seventh studio effort.

"There's tremendous influence right now around the house," she told the site, adding that the pair have been writing together. "From the music I've been introduced to, and being very happy and in a healthy, relationship. I think that still garners a lot of material to write about." 

* feel sorry for the dude. The longer a woman delays her motherhood the likely it's she don't want to have a child with you. Always thought Pink was the freakish one in the Moore clan with lesbo tendencies but gossip mongers focused on the wrong member of the family. There's something off about Mandy....I recalled the time when she abandoned Christianity and talked about being more spiritual than an actual believer. It's around the time she was the 'it' girl of Hollywood for very short period. Mandy is hiding something deep in her soul. Before he married Mandy, Ryan was high on gay-o-meter despite dalliances with celebs prior to meeting the tall brunette. I'm not saying he is gay, okay. Please don't sue me..my own opinion was that Ryan way too nerdy to land a hot chick like Mandy.

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