"BILLIONS"

I rented the 4 x DVD set of the first season of Showtime's "Billions" last week, we watched it over 4 nights - 3 episodes a sitting. I'd been keen to see it due to its leading actors: Paul Giamatti and Damian Lewis, two of my favourites. The series' subject matter (the world of high finance and hedge funds) isn't one that fills me with enthusiasm, but with these two in leading roles I'd watch absolutely anything!

Messrs Giamatti and Lewis didn't let me down - they never have, never will. Two first-class actors who put acting before celebrity, and can play perfectly just about any role presented to them.

In "Billions" Paul Giamatti as Chuck Rhoades, US Attorney for New York's southern district, an intense, determined, occasionally with peculiar quirks, is the major foe of Bobby Axelrod (played by Damian Lewis), a self-made billionaire, from humble background. Axelrod's obscene wealth comes from shady manipulations of financial markets. It's a tale with classic pedigree - think along the lines of Jean Valjean & Javert (Les Miserables), or Captain Ahab and Moby Dick, and you'll have the story's general theme of cat and mouse - but in this case which is which?

The series' other DNA strand is the anti-hero genre, one that has become popular of late. Viewers feel they should seriously dislike Bobby Axelrod ("Axe") the billionaire, but he's too charismatic, generous and nicely humane in so many ways that it's difficult. US Attorney Chuck Rhoades has moments of rage, moments of sweetness, moments of peculiarity, yet retains integrity, keen sense of justice, and humanity. These men are both multi-layered, strong characters - it takes great actors to play them. I'm not convinced that the whole story-line is quite up to standard, we're required to suspend disbelief here and there, but it does, just about get by, confidently carried by the actors' undeniable talents.

"Billions" has many quirks all its own, as became obvious from the opening scene of episode 1 when we saw US Attorney Chuck Rhoades bound and gagged, about to have a stiletto heel imprinted in his chest with something warm to follow!

The wives of US Attorney and billionaire provide good foils to all projected "alpha male" goings on: Maggie Siff as Wendy Rhoades, a psychiatrist/performance coach who works for Axelrod's firm, and Malin Aker as Lara Axelrod who runs her own restaurant.

Matters of high finance are a closed book to me, even after having seen other movies with a similar theme. I had to learn again, as the 12 episodes unfolded, what is "a short", "insider trading", a "squeezed short" etc.

It's not easy to see how a second series of Billions could follow; if a follow-up is intended. I'm wondering if, perhaps, it'd be in the same vein as the second season of True Detective: different cast of characters, same broad theme.

I'm glad to have added Billions to my list of "seen" performances by Giamatti and Lewis, and now look forward to their next outings, whatever they may be.

It's Music Monday - staying with a theme cat & mouse chases, though in very different environment:

"Pancho and Lefty" - Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard

Music Monday ~ Actors brave enough or good enough to get up and sing...

We watched a DVD of a movie from 2000 the other night: Duets, one of my favourite actors, Paul Giamatti, surprised me by singing! The film in general is a bit clunky, but Paul Giamattti, never disappoints - it was worth the price of the DVD for his part alone! His character in Duets gets himself involved in a karaoke competition, singing with a hitch-hiker who, it turns out, was on the run from the police. Here's his duet, Paul does not lip-sinc, though his partner does.

The actors who sang their own tunes in the film...: Huey Lewis, Gwyneth Paltrow, Paul Giamatti, and Maria Bello. Arnold McCuller sings all of Andre Braugher's songs [Paul's partner in the duet]....
(Wikipedia)

That got me chatting to anyjazz and remembering other actors who have surprised us by being able to sing - sing well that is!

My second contribution, from another favourite actor, Robert Downey Jnr, in his part in the TV series Ally McBeal. He got up to sing to Ally, a song written by Sting - and Sting joins him on the stage as he sings. As someone, somewhere, wrote "you don't just get up and sing with Sting"...well, not if you can't sing!



AND

Here's a link to RDJnr singing with Sting again, elsewhere, to prove he wasn't doing a lip-sinc for Ally.


Anyjazz rumaged in the garage for a few minutes and came back with two LPs, one by Robert Mitchum, one by Rhonda Fleming. Hmm - oldies eh? I found a couple of YouTube examples of their singing talent:

Robert Mitchum, live on a British TV show - he warms up considerably after the halfway mark!



Ms Fleming could definitely sing!




Throwing this open to any passing readers. There are several lists online to refresh memories, by the way.
Who, among well-known actors, has surprised you by demonstrating their singing talent?

Movie Monday ~ The Ides of March ~ Ryan Gosling ~ US Politics

I'd been waiting to see The Ides of March since first reading of it months ago. The movie never did reach our local cinema, so we awaited the DVD release, rented it during its first week out. Main reason for being so keen to see the movie: Paul Giamatti is in it. Bored, disgusted and disillusioned as I'm feeling about the whole US political circus, The Ides of March's fictional political scenario wasn't enough to put me off seeing a performance by Giamatti.

Sad to report, though, I was disappointed in the movie, apart from Giamatti's performance. He never disappoints; Philip Seymour Hoffman likewise.

Maybe I was expecting too much. Maybe the travesty that is real-life US politics has by now completely deadened my appetite for more. I've enjoyed every past political movie - seen all the big ones, and a few lesser known. This is the first where my reaction was definitely: "Meh!".

The film is an adaptation of an original stage play, Farragut North, by Beau Willimon who assisted George Clooney and Grant Heslov in writing the screenplay. Strange title - Farragut North; it is, I discovered, a Metro station in Washington DC in the business district. I suspect the story's transition from stage to screen may be where something went wrong. I understand that in the original stage version the candidate character (George Clooney in the movie) never appears, is only referenced. Dialogue is between campaign managers and other "interested parties". I can kind of see how that would have worked. The presentation would have been a more oblique and subtle look at the backroom workings of political power. Simplifying it all, filling in the blanks, joining the dots for a movie audience might have brought the whole thing down a notch or several, caused it to become...I don't know....shallow, facile, comic-bookish?

Cast of the movie at the Venice Film Festival. Photo from HERE.

Clooney isn't the "star" of the film, but plays a key character: one of two Democratic primary candidates duking it out for the nomination. Ryan Gosling is meant to have the star-billing. He plays an up and coming press secretary in Clooney's campaign workforce. It's the first time I've seen him in a movie. He has earned the reputation of being a real hot shot actor, yet I didn't "get" him or believe this characterisation at all. He mumbled much of his dialogue, it was a real effort for me to understand at times, and such a relief when superb actors, Paul Giamatti and Philip Seymour Hoffman delivered their lines. There's also something about Ryan Gosling's face that just doesn't appeal. Eyes too close together?

George Clooney plays George Clooney, pretty much, until the last scenes. Some of his campaign speeches were music to my ears - or would have been if I hadn't lived through our current president's campaign speeches - and what has followed.

The two main female characters, a hard-bitten reporter, Marisa Tomei and a supposedly naive intern played by Evan Rachel Wood, both gave decent performances with the rather clichéd material available. In the case of Wood's character there were several plot loopholes, not her fault, of course.

The movie's title, from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, is the best thing about it. There were "Et tu, Brute?" moments for each of the main characters at some point in the movie. (The biggest real life "E tu, Brute?" nowadays is the 99% shouting it out to all politicians, everywhere.)

Bearing in mind what we all know, now, about a succession of political characters in real life, a medley, mosaic or montage of the sum total of it all might satisfy some viewers. I couldn't find it satisfying, not without seeing a few just deserts being dished out. Real life politics may not dish out just deserts very often these days, but it is within the power of movie makers to depict what is missing.

A peek at Ryan Gosling's natal chart. Maybe I can identify something to account for my apathetic reaction to him and his performance which many critics have praised highly.

Born 12 November 1980 in London Ontario. Chart is set for 12 noon - no time of birth known. Moon would be in Capricorn, but degree uncertain. Rising sign unknown.

All his planets lie in the segment of the zodiac between Libra and Capricorn. Not a lot to dislike there. In spite of the clustered formation there's "a bit of everything" : Air, Water, Fire and Earth; Cardinal, Fixed and Mutable involved. The emphasis on just four of the twelve signs indicates a certain strength of focus in his nature, something which, no doubt, will have energised his zoom to success.

Creative Neptune conjunct dynamic Mars in mutable Sagittarius is an excellent combination for an actor.

Without Gosling's time of birth it's not possible to know which of the planets and signs lie in strong positions, i.e. near chart angles (ascendant, mid-heaven and opposite points). That information would throw a brighter light on his real-life personality.

I don't see any astrological reason why I didn't warm to him. To parody another quote from the same source as the movie's title: "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in the movie".

A quote, again from the same source, Shakespeare's Julius Caesar and apt in view of the movie's plot and events of the US political scene in 2012:

How many ages hence
Shall this our lofty scene be acted o'er,
In states unborn, and accents yet unknown!

Monday Movie ~ Barney's Version

We rented a DVD of the movie Barney's Version last weekend. I'd been waiting for release of the DVD since reading about the film, which never made it to within 200 miles of our town.

Anything involving Paul Giamatti is a must-see for yours truly. He won a Golden Globe for this performance, but was passed over at the Oscars, possibly due to all the PR noise about The King's Speech. He's one of the best actors there is -arguably THE best. I enjoy, but am not overly impressed by De Niro, Colin Farrell, Jack Nicholson, et al, and actively dislike Tom Hanks (yes, I'm the one). Paul Giamatti plays the impossible roles, but makes them believable. Nicholas Cage, the other actor who plays impossible roles, makes them unbelievable.

Being a fan of Giamatti I've already posted on his natal chart HERE.
- He has Sun in Gemini by the way.

Barney's Version is an adaptation of the novel by Mordecai Richler. I haven't read the book, and am wary of doing so now in case it spoils the movie (reverse of the usual sentiment).

I notice that Richler was born on 27 January, same day as me - earlier year though. He died in 2001. Canadian and Jewish by birth, he was known for his acerbic (note: Saturn close to Mercury in Capricorn) yet comic tone, fascination with the absurdity of life and human nature - all of which come through clearly in Barney's Version - last of his 10 novels.

My husband had read the novel, and was able to clarify the rather mysterious clue thrown in during the final sequence. I'll say no more about that so as not to spoil it for others. The movie's theme, in a nutshell, is a 30-or-so year trawl through the life and loves of Barney Panofsky, who some might perceive as the consummate douchebag. Due to Paul Giamatti's kindly "aura" which I could not completely block out, I saw a risk-taking guy, loyal to his good friends, aware of his responsibilities, yet unable to supress an abiding romanticism. The die-hard romantic in him led him to fall in love at first sight with a guest at his second wedding!


He could also be curmudgeonly, awkward and selfish - yet always vulnerable (Giamatti does that so well!) Barney married three times, and divorced three times - not a particularly unusual pattern for someone in the entertainment industry as he was - producer of a tacky Canadian TV series. The colourful characters involved are what put Barney's story apart from the norm.



Scenes cover timelines and locations from 1970s bohemian Rome (in the novel I understand it's Paris), to New York and Montreal in the late 1990s. One of Barney's best friends from their bohemian days provides the mystery element in the movie, not solved until the final scene.....which had to be explained to me by well-read husband!

Female stars: Barney's wives are played by Rachelle Lefevre, Minnie Driver and Rosamund Pike. Dustin Hoffman plays Barney's father - brilliant little sketch: rough diamond of a Jewish ex-cop!





Hoffman's real-life son, Jake, plays Barney's son, and though there's no resemblance to Barney, there's plenty of likeness to Barney's Dad - naturally!

Good movie - great acting.

SATURDAY/SUNDAY SUNDRIES

I'm a regular visitor and infrequent commenter at Common Dreams, and a few weeks ago was surprised to find one comment referencing astrology, in the midst of a seriously political thread. It came from one "Sioux Rose", a regular commenter there, politically well-informed and eloquent. I complimented her on her bravery in referencing astrology in such an environment - soon thereafter she had to deal with a skeptic attack. I've recently stumbled across one of Sioux Rose's astrological pieces and in case it hasn't been spotted before by astro-oriented readers, here's a link:
Do Astrological Portents Lend Credence to the Mayan Prophecy?







Tomorrow, 6 June, is the birthday of the wonderful actor Paul Giamatti. There's an archived post about him HERE. We watched him this week in a DVD movie, Cold Souls - a silly story about having one's soul removed, or replaced. Only Paul could make such a plot entertaining. Gotta love him!







I got me a used copy of British cartoonist Ronald Searle's slim volume "Searle's Zodiac". He's a national treasure in Britain. One of these days I'll get around to drafting a post on Mr. Searle - 'til then, a taste from the fly-leaf:

Click to enlarge







And....tomorrow, 6 June, is of course the anniversary of D-Day when, in 1944, an armada of allied forces crossed the narrow strip of sea between England and Normandy, France, to break the Nazi grip on western Europe. I can't ever forget this, if it wasn't for the events of that day, I might not be here to record the anniversary.

I've oft wondered what the "D" means.

The term "D Day" indicates the beginning of an attack or other military operation when the specific date has yet to be selected or secrecy is required. "H Hour" is similarly used to designate the time of the attack.
The "D" and "H" are derived from the first letters of "day" and "hour." There is one D Day and H Hour for all units participating in an operation. Plus and minus signs are used to indicate the number of days or hours that precede or follow the specific operation. (HERE)

Paul Giamatti

We saw "Duplicity" at the weekend. Didn't like it - will not waste energy writing about it. The brightest spark in the movie, for me, was Paul Giamatti.

I first became aware of him, by name, when he played John Adams in the HBO TV series of the same name, last year. He was absolutely brilliant in the part. Once I'd connected the name to the face I remembered other movies in which we'd seen him playing character parts - "Lady in the Water", and "Cinderella Man" among them.

Paul was a guest on one of the late night shows recently. He displayed a delightful personality, so different from the characters he plays. In real life, he comes over as an easy-going, amiable and funny guy. He never stopped joking and laughing - so far from the weirdo, scum-bag, or deadly serious characters he's most often been selected to play on screen.

During that jolly late night interview I was reminded more than ever of a well-loved British comedian (now no longer with us): Eric Morecambe. Look!


























Anyway, here's a rapid drive-by look at Paul Giamatti's natal chart (and a furtive glance at Eric Morecambe's - just because I can.)

Paul was born in New Haven Connecticut, 6 Jun 1967. No time of birth available, so a 12 noon chart has to suffice.




Sun in Gemini - here's his sociable, likeable and versatile side . Moon was in Taurus before 6pm, in Gemini if born later than that. Now, to me he doesn't look like a double Gemini - he's not wiry, lanky, slim-faced. His facial structure and stature is more Taurean - I'd go for a birth time before 6pm - but on appearance only. His ascendant sign remains unknown (but his round face whispers Cancer).

Sun is in close trine (harmonious aspect) to Mars - plenty of energy, self confidence and enthusiasm for life in and out of his chosen profession. Sun also sextiles (60*) Saturn, and Saturn trines Jupiter. Those are two more very helpful connections, and they link Saturn's stability and Jupiter's beneficence back to Paul's core self, the Sun. Mercury and Venus are both in sensitive, caring Cancer which adds a softer side to Paul's nature (I think this shows clearly in his face), and Jupiter, though in the early degrees of the next sign, is conjunct Venus, adding a further link to the chain already mentioned.

In a nutshell, I'd say that Paul Giamatti as well as being so clearly talented, is a very nice guy.

As for the late Eric Morecambe, he was born with Sun in Taurus and Moon probably in Gemini, so there could be a similarity in basic astro-makeup there. Also they both have a planet at 22 Scorpio and they both have planets at 8 or 10 Aries - which may mean nothing at all, but I found it interesting. Paul does very much remind me of Eric - when he's being himself. Moviemakers might also take note of this, if ever they make a bio-pic of the lives and careers of famous British comedy duo Morcambe and Wise.