Nine

[Laderlappen]

This is one of my most anticipated movies of the year. The trailer was incredible!

 

[JP]

Trailer was AMAZING!!!

 

[Watchman]

I was already excited for this because everything Daniel Day Lewis is in is amazing. After the trailer I can't wait for it. It looks like a musical version of 8 1/2

 

[Carmine Falcone]

So, this is like a film version of the Broadway version of 8 1/2. That's...odd.

 

[Heisenberg]

That trailer is quite amazing. I'll watch anything with Daniel Day Lewis, so I'll definitely be seeing this.

 

[Watson]

What the hell? How did FERGIE get into a movie with Daniel Day Lewis?

I think she plays the village ****e...I guess she could pull it off.

This looks weird. Almost like it's parodying Fellini's films, rathen then being an homage.

 

[Hunter Rider]

Cool trailer, I'd check it out.

 

[Poetic Chaos]

Kidman looks hot. I haven't been able to say that for a long time.

 

[Kane52630]

for a sec i thought this was the movie 9, the animated movie that is coming out latter this year

 

[JP]

So, this is like a film version of the Broadway version of 8 1/2. That's...odd.

No, this is the film version of the Broadway musical Nine, which is based on 8 1/2.

 

[Carmine Falcone]

Yeah...that's what I meant.

Very original.

 

[xwolverine2]

as always id watch anything with nicole kidman


other than that... this movie looks like somebody wants an oscar.

 

[Octoberist]

but it looks nevertheless.

 

[Raiden]

I'd (almost) watch anything with Daniel Day-Lewis in...he's that good.

 

[gwynplaine]

as always id watch anything with nicole kidman


other than that... this movie looks like somebody wants an oscar.

One AICN talkbackers said that the trailer actually looked like the oscar ceremony, it made laugh. (Because it's true).

 

[The Guard]

The word I'm searching for is "yes".

 

[Watson]

One AICN talkbackers said that the trailer actually looked like the oscar ceremony, it made laugh. (Because it's true).

LMAO, that is very true.

 

[flickchick85]

Looks a bit more "Chicago-y" than I was expecting, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. This is definitely one of my most anticipated movies of (the rest of) the year. It would be very difficult for Rob Marshall to go wrong with that cast and that source material (both source materials). Even Fergie didn't sound bad there at all. Can't wait!

 

[Pyrox]

I thought Fergie was shockingly good in the trailer's song.
Her and Hudson were two of my worries with the film

 

[flickchick85]

I thought Fergie was shockingly good in the trailer's song.
Her and Hudson were two of my worries with the film

Ditto on both. My worries have now been eased with Fergie (assuming she doesn't really have a lot of acting to do), but the Hudson concerns remain. Still, I know they both have relatively small roles, so I don't really think it's likely that either of them could ruin the film or anything like that. I just hope working with this cast and crew raises their game to the level the movie deserves.

 

[Laderlappen]

Kate Hudson is actually a very talanted actress. She just picks bad roles.

 

[flickchick85]

Oh no, I agree with you for the most part, even though I think the last film I saw that it seemed like she was putting any effort into was Almost Famous (which she was great in). Still, I know she's more than capable in the acting department to not hurt the film in that way - no, what I'm concerned about on her end is the singing. And an accent. She's...not good with accents, so I really hope they don't have her trying to do one in this film. I'm somewhat familiar with the Broadway show but I don't remember her character at all, so any idea if she's playing an American in this? And has anyone ever heard her sing before?

 

[flickchick85]

Several updates on this one.

A nice "Rehearsal Montage" (I love the score to this show):



A clip of Penelope's "A Call from the Vatican" number:



And the full-length audio of "Be Italian" performed by Fergie:




Full audio of Kate Hudson's "Cinema Italiano":



Full audio of Marion Cotillard's 2nd song, "Take It All" (the one that replaced "Be On Your Own" from the show):



So far, I'm REALLY not liking Hudson's number at all. Not because of her - she actually sounds pretty good, imo - but that new song just sounds all wrong for a musical like Nine. It sticks out from the rest of the score like a sore thumb, imo. IDK, maybe I'll change my mind when I see it in context.

Other than that, though, I think everything else looks/sounds great. I wish we didn't have to wait 'till Christmas for it now. I really can't wait to see this one.

 

[green]

New trailer mostly featuring Kate
http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/nine.html?showVideo=1

 

[flickchick85]

Ugh, I hate that they are calling that a trailer. I hope we get a real trailer sometime soon...or at least that they run the teaser trailer in theaters instead of that. "Cinema Italiano" is the worst song to choose to actually represent the musical, imo.

There's a new screening review at AICN. Excerpts on the performances:

Day-Lewis is incomparable once again. Displaying a rather powerful singing voice, clear, distinct, commanding, he unfortunately doesn't have a whole lot to sing in the movie as compared to the stage show (he only sings twice in the film) but both songs are masterful. He embodies Contini from head-to-toe, as one would only expect him to. Always with a cigarette in his hand, a twinge of chaos in his eye and looking like he should: like he crawled out of bed and his people kind of 'put him together'- combed his hair, made his tie, shaved him so that he would not go out and embarass himself. The complexities he finds in the character run very deep, making it easy to fall in love with him and forgive his madness.

Marion Cotilard is deserving of another Oscar Nomination for this role. What she manages to with Louisa, is nothing short of spectacular. I was a little skeptical about her casting at first. In the stage show, Louisa and Guido have been married for 20 years, and by casting her so young, it lead me to believe that you would lose some of that history between these characters. Boy was I wrong. Marion's performance is a quiet, controlled bit of brilliance. You can see all of the pain she's ever felt as this character with just one simple look. She looks like an angel and sings like one too. Her two songs couldn't be more contrasting. The quiet but dark 'My Husband Makes Movies' expresses what life is like with Guido and reveals some past regrets she's had in giving up her career in place of his. Her later song, 'Take It All' is anything but quiet-- performing somewhat of a striptease for an audience full of men, to make Guido see that she can go far too--screaming that she's had it with him and ending with her finally leaving him. For me, Marion's performance is the best in the film.

Judi Dench's scenes with Daniel Day-Lewis are just a pleasure to watch. It's not hard to sit back and just enjoy these two remarkable actors do what they do best together. You can see that they hold each other in extremely high regard as well-- not only as Lilly and Guido, but as Judi and Daniel. My only wish was to have seen more of Judi. Whilst in the stage play, the character of 'Lilli' is really 'Liliane La Fleur-' the producer of Guido's film and a former vedette of the Follies Bergeres (Marshall explained that because of the period that the film is set-- 1965, having a female producer would have been unheard of, so they changed 'Liliane the producer' to 'Lili the Costume Designer'). In doing so, I feel like Dench's number, 'Follies Bergeres' loses some of its purpose and ends up being a momentary distraction from the plot instead of actually moving it along. Though Dench sells the number like a pro and sounds pretty great.

Penelope Cruz, who I'm getting increasingly impressed with, does a fantastic job as Carla. Delivering her hilarious number 'A Call From the Vatican' while oozing sexuality, swinging and playing with ropes and twisting her body in ways I didn't think were possible. I had been expecting her to keep her Spanish accent unchanged, but was pleasantly surprised to hear her modify her vowels and speech patterns and shift her accent into more of an Italian one. She provides much of the laughs of the film in her scenes with Day-Lewis and they play off of each other incredibly well.

Sophia Lauren looks great in the film and performs wonderfully, though I feel like there wasn't a whole lot of time spent on examining her relationship with Guido and she hence becomes somewhat of a passing character. The new song, written for her, 'Guarda La Luna,' is a pretty, lullaby-ish tune, but like, Follies Bergeres, just doesn't quite really move the plot along.

The best musical number of the film for me, would have to be Fergie performing 'Be Italian.' I'm sure we're all familiar with the song, having watched the trailer, but once you hear (and see) the full number, it will really rocks your socks off. Fergie gained 17 lbs to play Saraghina, the ****e that taught Guido the art of love-making. She looks exactly like she should- smoldering eyes, a low, direct gaze, scraggly hair, boobs pushed up- she is the epitome of sexuality. The song inter-cuts between two scenes in Guido's mind-- his black & white memory of visiting Saraghina when he was nine and paying her to dance for him and the full colored fantasy Saraghina dancing and singing with the other women in his life. Fergie does a great job...selling sex. Not a whole lot of dialogue, but it's all in her gaze and you just believe her. And of course, she sounds fantastic.

One of the best surprises of the film is Kate Hudson, as Stephanie- a Vogue reporter who tries to seduce Contini. She sings a new number called "Cinema Italiano" in which the aim is to remind the audience about this age of film making of the 60's-- the height of Italian art films, which introduced us to the skinny ties, sunglasses, coffee houses, etc. The bad news is that the song is pretty bad and the character seemed completely unnecessary; the song even more so. If you would have cut the entire character from the film, it literally would not have affected anything one single bit. The good news, though, is that Kate Hudson sings and dances the **** out of it and discovering that she can could sound THIS good was worth it all for me.

The biggest disappointment for me was Nicole Kidman. I'm a fan of Nicole's but I honestly think she was completely miscast in this film. She's not in it for very long at all, but the bits she was in just didn't work for me. Her accent was muddled between Australian/English and Italian; some words were accented in Italian, some words sounded completely English. It wasn't hard to imagine why her character, Claudia, is a huge star and Contini's muse- she looks incredible, of course. But her delivery of arguably the best song in the film and stage show, 'Unusual Way,' was nothing less then a disappointment. Her singing may have worked in 'Moulin Rouge' where the whole film was such a ****ing madhouse, it didn't really matter whether or not she sounded good... but NINE is no 'Moulin Rouge' and, to me, she was unconvincing in both her song and her scenes. I would've been curious to see what Catherine Zeta-Jones would have done with it (Kidman replaced her). She certainly would have sounded better, to say the least.

All in all, the movie is somewhat of a curious delight.

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/43090

Here's a new TV spot with actual *gasp* dialogue:


And apparently, Daniel Day-Lewis, Nicole Kidman, Penelope Cruz, Marion Cotillard and Kate Hudson will be promoting the movie on Oprah today.