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CINEMA STARS Like McQueen, Alfonso Cuaron ("Children of Men," "Y Tu Mama Tambien") is known for his predilection for uninterrupted takes. He opens "Gravity" (Oct. 4) with an unbroken 17-minute shot, the kind that bravura craftsmanship cinephiles will drool over. In the film, Sandra Bullock and Clooney play astronauts tethered together after they're left stranded in space. The film is, in part, a chamber piece between two characters, floating in the black abyss. It's also a playground for Cuaron and his cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki to experiment with 3-D effects and zero-gravity camera movement that isn't beholden to up or down. To keep the audience adrift in space, Cuaron resisted cutting. "It's the idea of trying to create a moment of truthfulness in which the camera happens to be there just to witness, and respecting that moment in real time," says Cuaron. "In this film, we felt it was going to bring the added value of the immersive element." Many other top-flight filmmakers will be showing their craftsmanship this fall, including Martin Scorsese, who'll release his "The Wolf of Wall Street" (Nov. 15), a story of the decadence of modern finance starring Leonardo DiCaprio that should rival that of the actor's last film, "The Great Gatsby."
The Coen brothers have "Inside Llewyn Davis," (Dec. 20), a film about a folk musician struggling in early 1960s Greenwich Village. Ridley Scott will release "The Counselor" (Oct. 25), a dark Mexican border thriller from a script by Cormac McCarthy. "Nebraska" (Nov. 22) is Alexander Payne's return to his native Midwest, a black-and-white father-son road trip. Spike Lee has his remake of Chan-wook Park's "Oldboy" (Nov. 27). More fanciful will be Ben Stiller's "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" (Dec. 25), an adaption of James Thurber's short story; and Spike Jonze's "Her" (Dec. 18), a futuristic romance starring Joaquin Phoenix. FAMILY FISSURES To create a realistic impression of the Westons, the Oklahoma family of "August: Osage County," Wells congregated his cast
-- picked to feel like a family -- at an old Osage County home. "The cast lived in a complex of small town homes together throughout the shoot," says Wells, the producer of "ER" and "Shameless," making his second feature film following 2010's "The Company Men." "It was a ways from town and from home. People didn't return to the trailers often. We were just in the house, living as a family and rehearsing." The cast even started adopting similar physical gestures and facial expressions to match their fictional parents, Wells says. Streep's three daughters (Roberts, Juliette Lewis and Julianne Nicholson) aped her mannerisms to lend a familial truthfulness. Other tales of family, albeit of very different sorts, this fall include "Prisoners" (Sept. 20) a thriller in which Hugh Jackman and Terrence Howard play fathers whose daughters go missing. In "Out of the Furnace," Christian Bale and Casey Affleck star as brothers separated when one is lured into a gang while in prison. In Jason Reitman's "Labor Day" (Dec. 25), Kate Winslet plays a mother who, with her 13-year-old son, encounter an escaped convict.
AWARDS ATTENTION Many of these films will naturally enter the awards circuit and the months-long handicapping leading up to the Oscars. It was only months ago that Russell went through that gauntlet with "Silver Linings Playbook," which received eight Academy Awards nominations, winning one for Lawrence. An instinctive filmmaker ("There's an immediacy when it comes from the gut," he says), Russell escaped the frenzy by jumping
-- quicker than he ever had between films -- into "American Hustle" (Dec. 25). The film, which stars Bale, Lawrence, Bradley Cooper and Amy Adams, is a stylish story about the FBI Abscam operation and a cast of corrupt characters operating in the
'70s recession-era Northeast. "It's about the world of these people who are jaw-dropping to me," says Russell. "You look at them, and you're like: Oh my God. Who are these people? . They're messed up and human, but they're fighting to survive." Russell can again expect the prestige of a release in the heart of awards season. But the aura of the season, he says, ultimately means little. "The film has to prove itself," says Russell. "Let the proof be in the pudding."
[Associated
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