Time flies - TIFF 2007 and perhaps the biggest WDW adventure of them all - so far...

I don't think there's a film festival quite like it and I'm delighted to hear that Maggie Gyllenhaal will be back at the Toronto International Film Festival this Thursday to showcase her Victorian comedy Hysteria in the Roy Thomson Hall. Maggie and Jake have made regular appearances at TIFF over the years, together in 2002 (for Secretary and Moonlight Mile), and  then Jake was there again for Brokeback Mountain and Proof in 2005 and for Rendition in 2007.

Looking back now to 2007, four whole years ago, it makes me realise how fast everything was moving, how quickly we followed Jake from Brokeback in 2005 to Zodiac (Cannes) and Rendition in (Toronto, Rome) in 2007. I hope more than a lot that it won't be too long before we see Jake charm the media and fans alike at another big international festival. Preferably TIFF because you don't have to be press or in the industry to enjoy the excitement of walking around Yorkville, mingling with stars and fellow movie lovers. Some decent cocktails too...And you just never know who you'll see around the next corner.

Back in 2007, on 7 September to be precise, Rendition had its gala premiere in Toronto. It also marked one of the most fantastic and incredible weekends of my life - who'd have thought I would ever have visited Canada from England for just a weekend?! I certainly wouldn't have. I got more than I ever could have dreamed - several close sightings of Jake (and Peter Sarsgaard), a seat in the theatre, meeting with good friends, exploring a new, beautiful city (no-one told me it was that hot in Toronto), and bumping into filmstars and filmlovers. George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Ben Affleck, to name just a few.

I realise that quite a few WDW readers may not have enjoyed it all the first time around and so I hope you won't mind if I link to a couple of posts from that weekend as I sink into Jake Nostalgia mode! Here's my report of the gala day itself, a summary with more pictures and a report on what TIFF was like the day after Jake left and it was incredible. But before all that there was biggest thrill of my first night in Toronto, fresh off the plane, when I wanted to walk off my jetlag and I came across the biggest possible proof that Jake was in the city with me. At the end of 2007, I summed it all up.

Afterwards, I learned that other friends were at the Rendition screening including a bunch who were able to get Jake to sign one of his shirts from Brokeback Mountain.I don't think any of us will ever forget.



Pictures from WDW and IHJ.

Jake Gyllenhaal Part 2: When the right role comes along 'I go after it like a wolf!'

After a break for jogging and while Jake Gyllenhaal irons his shirt, collects his dry cleaned suit and ponders over which shoes to wear for tomorrow's Golden Globes, here is the second part of the sensational and lengthy interview conducted with Scott Feinberg. In this part Jake covers the 'teenage in transition' roles, the big movies of the mid 2000s, living privately in the public eye and his pride in Love and Other Drugs. As before, there are times when words are unclear and/or muffled and I've done my best and so, as previously said, any mistakes are mine and not Jake's. Over to Jake:


Teenager in Transition

'I just remember being pretty confused! There was a lot coming at me and I didn't... and I think that was what Donnie Darko was born out of, Bubble Boy was born out of that - the question of confusion of adolesence and growing up and being out there on my own for the first time. And even the movie Highway that I did with Jared Leto which never came out at the the theatres. The Good Girl really. All of these characters came out of, I think, a sense - I think I have always tried to just,... but I guess I just learned from the lesson of the moment... where I was in that moment I think, that I kept on questioning...'


I care very deeply about what I do and I think that leaves me very vulnerable in a lot of ways

'It's funny but I've seen over the past five years the image of an actor really sort of change. What an actor does and what people expect from them. Being outside scrutiny, and the internet and all these things - you have to maintain integrity (laughs). There are a lot of different things that changed since 2005 to 2011, you know what I mean? In terms of what it is to be an actor and what young actors think it is to be an actor. There are people acting all the time, all over the place, themselves, really. For me, I think I saw, there was definitely a phase in there with Proof and Jarhead and Brokeback Mountain - those came at me in way that was just like kismet. There was just a real... being at work with those movies. And yes the beginning, trying to find a real ease in the acting process and I think that ease translates maybe into being an adult.'


'And then with Brokeback and what Brokeback became, that was... all of us in that process, that was overwhelming. I see that a lot with people involved in movies that are such... and become these huge things in culture and that happens, it does happen. I think there was a little bit of searching after that for me. I was like, Ok, there's Rendition and then there's... I did Zodiac, which was, looking back on it, particularly the honour to be working with David Fincher and Mark Ruffalo and Tony Edwards and Downey, and seeing where Downey was, that was a really special time. There was searching in that, for me that's what it feels like when I think of that.'


'And then even with Prince of Persia there was a search in there, figuring that out. And then I think when I did Love and Other Drugs there's a... to be there's a real clarity actually, just knowing the character, finding a character that, a real character that I fell in love with. And for the first time... there are a couple I'd say - Donnie Darko and Jarhead and Brokeback, even October Sky, there are a couple of characters in there that I felt sure about and when my instinct comes up like that I go after it like a wolf! I mean I really do! And I did with that. Imagine me with... that for me was Love and Other Drugs. That, that marks the beginning of something else for me and that's why I feel so proud of it and that's why the character and the role I feel... I feel at ease with it. Like when the movie came out, there's usually a lot of... I like to think that they're only there... I care very deeply about what I do and I think that leaves me very vulnerable in a lot of ways to some people's responses but with this one, with Love and Other Drugs, I was like I didn't really care... and that's the beginning of another phase for me, which is different than I've ever felt before.'


I'm just as guilty of being interested in the people that I admire

'I approach all this stuff with great trepidation because I always feel that I never know how my words will be interpreted which I think is the weird irony like I said of being an actor because ultimately the only thing I see that I want to see from actors is vulnerability and I want to see them open their hearts. And when somebody tries to do that in their work and other people know very little about what's actually going on and tend to paint a very, very simple picture. I'm not necessarily sure why that happens but I think it's just... we're all part and parcel of it, do you know what I mean? I'm just as guilty of being interested in the people that I admire or somehow I find as interesting as the next person. I do happen to be a part of that, of some people's interest.'


'But I think, to be really honest, which is hard to be, I think it is kind of really... I think for a while there I thought it sort of impacted my life in a way and then I realised like, you know,... I'm a very private person. I try - the irony about all of this is that I really try to be a very private person and I definitely am, in choosing what I want to do, giving up that privacy, which is already confusing (laughs). But I think that... I think what I've noticed is that it's so hard for anybody, whether they're under scrutiny by a photographer or by some tabloid, or whatever, any journalist, whatever you might do, it's hard for anybody to find themselves, really their true selves. It's just frustrating when people have intentions and the intentions are... They've made it so, so simple when it's a so complicated, fascinating, extraordinary thing. And that's what I see movies moving away from too - it's harder and harder to have people make movies about complicated, fascinating... because that's not what's being consumed as much but actually it feels like maybe there's talk about it this year, that maybe people are really wanting that. That they really do want that... I realise, as I said, that it can be seen like 'Why the hell are you in these things every week?', they might not like that.'


'There is something that I would love... I love that people understand that it's a funny thing, I think, in the end and you hear about celebrities getting upset at the photographers and I understand why! (Laughs) I don't know what it is but it's just a real... it's made it impossible for people to be totally honest because when you're honest it's manipulated.'


Love and Other Drugs

'When Annie came on the project, as what happens when anybody who's a great actor, they're looking for the reasons for why their character exists. That's the first real question you always have to ask and sometimes actors I think can fit themselves into something that's the way they've been given weight to, they can create weight themselves. Sometimes the weight's already there entirely written by the writer and they just show up and read their lines and somehow the story creates something even deeper than you could have imagined. But in the case of Annie and that role, it wasn't as much and I made a decision, which was great advice from a lot of different people who had read the story, that the strength of the script was always - and I believe the strength of the movie is too - is its love story and all the rest of it, not that all the rest of it can go away, but in a way it could.'


'And what I think mattered the most as an actor is going towards the thing that works. Its seen for any created thing, that anybody who has any great success in the movie business, moving towards the thing that works and that is the most honest. And when Annie came on, she was like 'what the hell is this girl doing here?' I don't understand. Is she just like a thing... to create sympathy?' And we worked on it to make it a real love story and we just started cutting things, that the story used to be a story about this guy who goes through a journey and then it became a love story.'


'And I think it really was born out of Ed, Annie and I all deciding that that was something... At any point along the way me, or Annie or Ed could have said 'I'm out of here. No, this isn't the story I wanted to tell.' I could have said I wanted to be that guy who learned something and Annie could have said this character isn't developed enough and if it's not about her I'm out of here, and Ed could say any number of different things. But I think we were all on the same page with it and Parkinson's is what she deals with and I think the movie deserved a trememdous amount of more weight than it had been given initially in the script. So we just went that way and I hope that answers your question.'


Thanks

'It means a lot that you like the movie. To me, Annie, Ed and I tried so... we tried so hard to make something special with this movie and the fact that people respond to it makes me... how much hard work was put into it and how much we care about these characters. It means a lot, thank you.'


Personally, I am delighted to hear Jake mention Zodiac. It sounds that now Jake looks back on that as an important part of his career. I'm thrilled with David Fincher's success with The Social Network, including victory at the Critics Choice Awards. And so good luck to Jake and Anne for tomorrow night's awards!

Includes pictures from IHJ.

Jake Gyllenhaal and Dennis the Menace (in French)

It was recently commented upon in the comments of WDW whether Jake Gyllenhaal has any French. We've heard him talk about reading the great dead authors, not to mention his completely unfathomable dislike of dinosaur studies, but what about his languages? Upon looking around, it seems that Jake answered this question when the subject of Dennis the Menace raised his head in a Prince of Persia phone interview.


The French interviewer from Phosphore recalls receiving a phone call from Jake at one in the morning (time is relative when it comes to Jake). They compared Dastan to Dennis the Menace and asked if Jake agreed: 'Who?'  'Deunisse ze Menaisse.' 'Sorry, I wish I could speak French with you, but I don't understand.' The interviewer had to spell it out ... "Aaaaaaaah, Dennis the Menace!!'


Here is a Rendition flashback to a little bit of Jake talking a little bit of French:

Jake Gyllenhaal in "RENDITION" Vidéo CGBCOMS sélectionnée dans Cinéma

Jake also recalled that France was the location of one of his childood traumatic moments: ''Um (long pause) I'm a little freaked out by heights. I never thought I was but I am. I remember I went to the Eiffel Tower when I was little with my parents. I thought I would like going up, but when I got to the second level I was crying and I didn't want to go up - I was eight years old or something. My dad was like, "He's coming to the top! That's my boy!" Yeah, and he stayed down on the second level.'


Talking of Dennis the Menace, Jake mentioned him again during the PoP publicity and we should be grateful Dastan wasn't dressed in red and black stripes. In this interview 'A long-haired Gyllenhaal, still in costume, sat down for an interview halfway through the Pinewood shoot, looking appropriately handsome and heroic in knee-high boots, leather trousers, a wide-open linen shirt, and two daggers affixed to his belt.' On whether Dastan has some Indiana Jones in him 'Oh yes, definitely, along with Dennis the Menace and all the rest. I like that Dastan's a mischief-maker, a bit of a curmudgeon, that he nearly always thinks he's right and that he's quite sarcastic and wry and above all very cheeky.' You can read the rest of the interview here.


And finally...

I was very fortunate to spend the day today with my good Jaking friends, Ruby Anouska and Winterbird. We go back a long way and today we gathered to wish bon voyage to Winterbird. Bon chance!


Includes pictures from IHJ and Mr Ruby.

Jake Gyllenhaal: Actor, Movie Star, Heart Throb - WDW Guide Part 3

Without much more ado, here is Part 3 of the WDW GyllenGuide. Actually, there is a bit of an ado thanks to the wonderful new old pictures of Jake Gyllenhaal with Peter Sarsgaard in New York back in February 2009 from IHJ. As you'll recall, Jake was in town to support Maggie and Peter for their play Seagull and it also gave him an opportunity to push Ramona on the swings. Which might explain the tutu...




And so on with the post - Remember that this is an opinionated guide, and different points of view are welcomed!

Title: Zodiac
Date: 2007
Role: Robert Graysmith

Hotness: 8/10
Mascara-proof? Yes (but you may lose your finger nails from hanging on to your seat)
Chemistry: 5/10 (Chloe Sevigny) 9/10 (Robert Downey Jr) 8/10 (Mark Ruffalo)
Sex scenes: No (although there is an attempt at a romantic dinner and he does bang on Mark Ruffalo's window at night)
Hair: 9/10
Bonus features: cartoons, Donovan, pong, squirrels in the fridge, Golden Gate Bridge


What can I say about Zodiac except to say that if you haven't seen it what are you waiting for? All right, it's a little scary in places, but much is suggested rather than shown, although the scene with the basement is the most terrifying example of Jake in Peril to date in my opinion - never mind those wolves and ostriches. Much has been said about Jake's relationship with David '65 Takes' Fincher but Jake has often said that he picks his roles for their directors and undoubtedly he learned a great deal in this procedural drama from such a meticulous director who put the story above the actors. Jake has said that he felt like an extra for much of the film. But just look at the result - from the opening frame, here is a film that grips and draws one in with the detail and the obsession.


Jake may be one of an ensemble but here the group is so skilled, the direction so clear that we are treated to some of Jake's finest acting. Robert Graysmith is a role of which Jake should be rightly proud. And I am thrilled that Jake took the chance to work with the master David Fincher - just look at the extras on the DVD and you get a real glimpse of that relationship. And Robert Downey Jr too! This film brought RDJ back into the mainstream and opened up doors. This film is the film of Jake's I admire the most, it has the soundtrack I love the most and the atmosphere that chills me the most, the recreation of the past that is most exact. While I may enjoy Hot Jake more in other films (mentioning no names,... Dastan), Zodiac as a whole is without parallel for me. I know it's tinged by my so vivid memories of LA and Cannes, but even so... And the RDJ and Jake commentary is a huge bonus.

WDW Rating: 10/10


Title: Rendition
Date: 2007
Role: Douglas Freeman

Hotness: 10/10
Mascara-proof? Yes (but tense, very tense)
Chemistry: NA (Not hugely applicable although the potential for sex scenes was great)
Sex scenes: Almost
Hair: 9/10
Bonus features: Morocco, gum, scrapbooks, Meryl

Rendition is not an easy film to write about. It had a lot going for it - that's obvious from the very first shot of Jake in a Moroccan bed with chest and a whiskey glass by his side. Take that one scene further and we have Jake sitting on a bath embracing his girl. But, from then on in, things became serious, very serious indeed. The interviews that Jake gave at the time demonstrate that torture was the theme and the goal was to raise awareness of western involvment in the unmentionable practices of torture in unnamed countries. The message was topical and director Gavin Hood's Oscar-winning history gave this film a gravitas, supported by Meryl Streep, Peter Sarsgaard and Alan Arkin. Arab and Israeli actors also shone in this film and, arguably, they - especially Omar Metwally and Igal Naor - were the stars of Rendition. However, Reese Witherspoon was clearly squeezed in as an Oscar winner but she was given nothing to work with.


I find Rendition awkward. Again the soundtrack was great, the imagery of the film was great and most of the acting was fine indeed. For me, this was a hot role for Jake - opinion is greatly divided on the Rendition hair but having seen it in person at the BAFTAs I loved this look on Jake. But looks aren't everything and there are flaws in this film. For one thing, Jake isn't in it nearly enough. I found the ending with the twist in the tail marvellous though. I saw this film twice with Jake in the cinema and no doubt this coloured my opinion of it, but three years on I can now look back on Rendition afresh and not feel so wrapped up in it. The cinematography of Rendition is particularly good - more of those Morocco colours - and now I can give it another go.

WDW Rating: 6/10


Title: Brothers
Date: 2009
Role: Tommy Cahill

Hotness: 9/10
Mascara-proof? Yes (unless you're a big Tobey Maguire fan)
Chemistry: 7/10 (Natalie Portman)
Sex scenes: No (but maybe there should have been)
Hair: 10/10
Bonus features: skating, kitchen decorating tips, batter

When I first heard that Jake was involved in Brothers - when I knew there was already a very good version - I was ambivalent. Jake's roles have always fascinated me, not just for what they depict but for why he chose them. With Brothers, I think it was very much because of Jim Sheridan. Jim is a great director when it comes to portraying families at times of trial and if anything motivates Jake it's family. We had had to endure two years of film delays - Nailed should have been on the way too - and when Brothers came out, I grabbed it and it was like cool rain drops in the summer desert.


However, after the initial euphoria of seeing Jake back on the big screen where he belongs, subsequent viewings disappointed me. The stereotypes in this American Irish family, the flaws in the plot (why was Natalie told that her husband was dead when he was missing?), the holding back, all have now left me with a film I may not watch much again. And this is a shame because Jake was indeed very hot in Brothers - and Jim appears to have heard our pleading at the time by including a gratuitous shower scene! Two of my problems with Brothers will always be that I don't care for Tobey Maguire and I don't think Natalie Portman can act. Speaking entirely personally, I think I was in to a no-winner with Brothers from the day it was announced. However, talk about hot... Love this look on Jake.

WDW Rating: 5/10


Title: Prince of Persia
Date: 2010
Role: Prince Dastan

Hotness: 9/10
Mascara-proof? Yes (but it may not be lipstick proof with the amount of smiling you'll do)
Chemistry: 8/10 (Gemma Arterton)
Sex scenes: No (but a wanting to be kissed scene that lasts for hours)
Hair: 9/10
Bonus features: Austrians, fountains, armour, gold glitter


I think Prince of Persia was a surprise to all of us Gyllenhaalics - I know I could hardly believe my ears when I heard that he had taken this role. But after years of competing for Batman, Spider-Man and Superman roles, here was something just for Jake and no matter what anyone thinks of the film (and I think it's great) Jake's Dastan is a character to adore. Ably matched by Gemma Arterton, here is a great couple from the romantic heroic past for cynical modern audiences to enjoy.


I've never hidden the fact that I love a good blockbuster but I was nervous about PoP. Would the accent work? Would Jake pull off the action set pieces? Yes and yes! Hearing Jake speaking with a believable English accent was superb and this was backed up with incredible action, excitement and gold! Everything in PoP glitters with sand and gold. I'm a Jake fan (Yes! I know I hide it well) and Jake's physical presence at the heart of PoP is all-powerful. From the floating silks to the Hasanssin dens, Prince of Persia is a delight to the senses. Speaking as someone who has played the games for years, I am so glad that Jake brought PoP to life.

WDW rating: 9/10


And finally...

Firstly, do check out this fascinating article on the CGI behind a few scenes in PoP. Most of the film, of course, was CGI free - it was actually made for real.

A WDW interlude - a hot summers evening encouraged a motorbike ride to a country pub in a village of thatched cottages and fields, protected by ruined walls, pheasants and fowl.


Includes pictures from IHJ, links and WDW.

Ukraine wins again. And playing 'The dumb clown'

The assumption that Brothers will be released in early December was strengthened today when IMDb put up the date of 4 December as the release date for Brothers. Rather intriguingly, and strengthening the realisation that Ukraine is the place to be for all Jake fans from now on, the other dates were also removed and Ukraine was given the much earlier screening date of 8 October. Finland has faired less well with 5 February.


Contrasts

It has not escaped my attention that, thanks to the glimpses we saw this week, the Prince of Persia has a bit of action in it. Not only will Prince Dastan be required to leap, ride, disrobe, fight, chase, run, disrobe, climb, smooch, disrobe, he will also have to yell a lot. This contrasts with much of Jake Gyllenhaal's earlier work in front of the camera in which, as Jake has said, the meaning is in the pauses and in the ellipses.


Donnie Darko rarely made eye contact with the camera, ours was a world that he could not reach, but in Moonlight Mile, Jake's Joe had very little to say. And that presents all sorts of problem to an actor: 'A lot of my job in the film was just listening... and to prepare to listen is hard.'


Jake told the Herald News in 2002: 'To watch it [Moonlight Mile] is strangely dreamlike, as if I wasn't even there... `Cause I wasn't even really there until the moments that I had something to say. It's a really weird thing. I can't really describe it. You can't prepare listening.' To the Star Trubune: 'I'm trying to keep everyone else afloat... I spend all my time listening to the other actors. And I found that very difficult to prepare for. When you talk, you break down your lines the night before [filming]. But you can't do that when you're just listening.'


And, in the Boston Globe, 2002: '"I didn't arm Jake with a lot of words for the first half of the film," Silberling says. "He has to be a little bit of a silent movie star." Agrees Gyllenhaal, "Brad cast me primarily because he said I was very similar to him, so we didn't rehearse too much. It's a certain kind of role. It's basically a lot of listening, and he would guide me where I needed to go. I was just the dumb clown."'


Some years later, for Rendition, Jake had to arm himself again with the difficult skill of silence: '[Influence for Rendition] Richard Burton in The Spy Who Came In From the Cold," he says with a laugh, only to instantly adopt a more serious demeanour. "I'm not kidding. I learned a lot from that performance about how to play a guy who's invisible. And who's silent."


'I think, if I've succeeded in the role, I've become somewhat invisible. It's not hard in the cast [of actors] that I'm among [chuckles], but that was my intention, I think. This is a guy who doesn't really want to be seen, and doesn't really want to be dealing with his life.'


'People have said to me, 'All the characters you play, you can really read everything going on on your face.' I wanted to play a part where you didn't read anything, you know. Where he's almost invisible and functioned, like in apathy rather than emoting.'


But we should never think this skill of Jake's is easy or casual. Yigal Naor: 'It was beautiful to work with Jake,” he reveals. “ I’m double his age – I have a son his age - and what really amazed me is his kind of silence, his way of letting things go through him without pushing anything. He goes so deep into himself and has this way of searching for his truth. He’s fighting for every feeling, even the slightest glimpse of the eye. He is a great cinema actor.”



Includes pictures from IHJ.

Fine Just the Way It Is - Jake Gyllenhaal and TIFF 2007

Annie Proulx has published a new collection of short stories from the west: 'Many of the stories in Fine Just the Way It Is are breathtaking in their cool depiction of the hardships of that life and the astonishing amount of stubborn resolve it takes to survive it — or just try to.'


'They are also often breathtaking in their descriptions of the harsh beauty of the landscape, utterly indifferent to humans but irresistible to those who fall in love with its canyons and peaks, its soaring skies and singing rivers. For some of Proulx's characters, that love of the wild land is deeper than anything they feel for other people.'


Back in 2005, Jake Gyllenhaal, Heath Ledger, Ang Lee and the rest of the Brokeback crew took their film to Toronto, where it received a rapturous and deeply emotional welcome. Jake was also there to promote Proof, but it was Brokeback Mountain that Jake still talks about. Also there in 2005 was Gavin Hood, winning the People's Choice award for Tsotsi. The screening of Brokeback took place in Toronto almost three years ago exactly, on September 10. But one year ago today, on 7 September, Jake and Gavin (and Peter) were back in Toronto to present Rendition, on what was without doubt one of the days in my life I will remember always.



Here is a link (which hopefully works...) to the press conference that took place in my hotel, Sutton Place, during which we were waiting outside to see Jake and were not disappointed. We were also lucky enough to have seats in the theatre and to see Jake and all the others take their places, not to mention having them walk past us in the foyer.






These two interviews are a curiosity to me, because they are by the same interviewer - the first interview was back in 2005 and the second in 2007 (with a hot in more ways than one Jake) for Rendition.



I also enjoyed this anecdote from Toronto (unfortunately the link has now gone but I saved it here) and E! Online: ''Jake Gyllenhaal Is a Backpacker: Don't know what that means? It's a term used to describe die-hard hip-hop fans, and I call him that because he told me he is loving the new Talib Kweli album right now. Our interview for his latest film, Rendition (costarring Reese Witherspoon), got really intense because, let's face it, it's about a suspected terrorist who's detained and tortured. To lighten the mood, I asked Jake if he still had the Indigo Girls on his iPod, something he told me several years back. Didn't see that one coming, did ya!'


Includes picture from IHJ and WDW. A big hello and wave here to the three people with whom I was fortunate enough to share the whole wonderful experience, a year ago today.
How time flies!