A Christmas Tale

Holiday films in the hands of Hollywood make me puke. Mom is usually expiring from something terminal while the family dresses the Christmas tree with brave smiles. This French knockout, tough-minded and all the more affecting for it, turned my head around. It hits hard even the laughs are killers. I should say that Mom (Catherine Deneuve, still an actress and beauty to die for) is slipping away from liver cancer.

So what makes this one magic? Start with director Arnaud Desplechin, who co-wrote the deft script with Emmanuel Bourdieu. Desplechin (Kings and Queen, How I Got Into an Argument) is a world-class filmmaker, not some studio hack. He can maintain a light touch even in the face of tragedy. He can layer a film so that its always springing surprises. He can reference Shakespeare, drop in a puppet show or a kitsch scene from The Ten Commandments, and make them fit like pieces in a Byzantine puzzle. He can have actors face the camera and talk right at you. It all works.

The cast is heaven, starting with Deneuve, Jean-Paul Roussillon as her much older husband, Mathieu Amalric as their prodigal son and Emmanuelle Devos as the Jewish fiancee the son brings home for Christmas. Dark secrets are unlocked, words draw more blood than punches, and Desplechin turns one family into a universe that resembles life as a startling work of art.

See Amy Schumer, Goldie Hawns Raunchy New Snatched Trailer

Goldie Hawn returns to the silver screen after a 15-year hiatus with Snatched, the Amy Schumer comedy that dropped its red band trailer on Friday.Scheduled for release near Mothers Day 2017, Snatched stars Schumer and Hawn as a daughter and mother who take an impromptu trip to South America and find themselves enmeshed in a criminal underworld.

The trailer highlights some of the comedys R-rated humor, including a spit take where Hawns character mishears Welcome as whale cum, and a club scene where Schumer uses a bathroom sink to clean parts of her body that arent her hands. In another scene, Hawn and Schumer are warned they dont have to worry about being sex trafficked because they look like melted candles.

It was on the set of Snatched that Schumer filmed her tribute to Beyoncs Formation, a rendition that drew accusations of racism and appropriation. However, Schumer said of her Formation video: It was a way to celebrate bringing us all together. To fight for what we all want. And to do it together.

Snatched, due out May 12th, was penned by Ghostbusters and The Heat screenwriter Katie Dippold and directed by Jonathan Levine.

How A Ghost Story Became the Most Haunting Movie of 2017

David Lowery knows that youre probably going to laugh at the sheet. He did too, a little bit, when he first saw it. So did Casey Affleck and Rooney Mara. Its a natural reaction, he says. You dont have to fight it. Get it out of your system. Or dont. There were days on the set of A Ghost Story, Lowerys experimental mood-piece-of-a-movie, where the 36-year-old director would look up and find himself face to face with an adult under a large white cloth with two black eyeholes, expecting to be told what to do, and even he would feel the urge to snicker.

And on other days, hed see a man who, only a handful of months later, would be up onstage accepting an Oscar but who, at that moment, looked like he was waiting for the Great Pumpkin to arrive, and then Lowery had to stifle the urge to cry. If I was making this movie with just friends, and not famous actors, maybe I would have felt less pressure, he says, sitting in a conference room in A24s New York office. But Ive got Casey Affleck walking around wearing a sheet, and I dont want him to look foolish. So, you know He trails off for a second, looking forlorn.

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What was supposed to be something that would take 10 days ended up being the most challenging thing Ive ever done, Lowery adds. And because of all of the things going on under the hood, it also ended up being the single most personal thing Ive ever done as well.

Its a testament to the directors vision that A Ghost Story not only gets past the absurdity factor of watching an Academy Award-winning star resemble a toddlers drawing of a spooky specter; it actually succeeds in making this sight one of the most sorrowful, poignant and moving visuals you will see in a movie theater this year, or possibly any year. A largely free-form mediation on mourning that begins with a car accident the one that shuffles a musician named C (Affleck) off this mortal coil and turns his girlfriend M (Rooney Mara) into a grief-stricken wreck and eventually incorporates real-time binge-eating, Blade Runner-esque dystopias and Will Oldham rhapsodizing about the apocalypse into its mix, Lowerys extraordinary work is nothing if not ambitious. But its the way he uses the ridicule-courting sight of the dead observing a living world go on without them that gives the film its power to break your heart.

He texted me: I wanna make a movie this summer, very small crew. Youll be a ghost under a sheet for most of it. Ill
explain later. I said, Im in.'
Casey Affleck

Its an image that Ive loved, thats amused me and confounded me for ages, Lowery admits. Because its simple, yet theres undeniably something very haunting about it. And its actually something Ive wanted to put in a movie for a long time. He points to several examples of how artists have used sheet-ghosts in intriguing, disturbing and downright subversive ways, from Patrick Daughters music video for Department of Eagles No One Does It Like You to the 2010 Spanish movie Finisterrae, which he found inspiring because of how they took this childlike thing out of the context of Halloween or, you know, a Charlie Brown special and found meaning in it. Lowery borrowed the visual for an animated short hed done as a sort of exercise back in 2011, and kept the idea of using it for something bigger on the backburner while his career as a writer, editor, cinematographer and director began to take off.

Then, deep into post-production on his 2016 live-action reimagining of Disneys Petes Dragon, Lowery began to get restless. It wasnt like he was bored working on a large, FX-filled studio film Quite the opposite, in fact; I loved doing Dragon, hes quick to point out. But hed been on the project for close to three years, and felt the need to get back on set: I just wanted to make another movie, something off the cuff. He recalled an argument that he and his wife had regarding whether to move from Los Angeles to Texas. Then the image of the man under the sheet came back. Everything just sort of congealed, or maybe combusted, right then, he says. Lowery sat down and wrote a 10-page script about a couple, a death and a spirit tied to a particular house. The next day, he expanded it to 30 pages. I have no idea what this is, he told his producing partners. But I think we should make it in the Lone Star State over the summer.

And partially because he liked the idea of returning to the same place hed shot his 2013 breakthrough movie Aint Them Bodies Saints,
Lowery sent what hed written to one of that films stars, Rooney Mara.
I wish you could see that script, she says. It read like this
incredible short story. But it was scary, because you immediately
thought, This is beautiful but how can you translate that beauty
into a movie? Is it even a movie at all? Then we talked, and he just
said, Look, it shouldnt take long, well do it in Texas and were
going to do this in secret. Were not telling anybody about this in case
it doesnt work. And I thought, Ok, this is beginning to sound more
and more exciting.

The next person Lowery reached out to was Maras Saints costar, Casey Affleck. It was a text, I think hold on, let me find it real quick, the actor says, calling in from Los Angeles. He begins to read over the phone: I wanna make a movie this summer, very small crew. Would love for you to be in it. Youll be a ghost under a sheet for most of it. Ill explain later.' Affleck laughs. I naturally texted him back immediately and said, Im in.'

We told our agents we were just doing a short, Lowery says. We kept it under wraps so that no one would pay attention to us. I didnt want it hitting the trades that the three of us were down in Texas making some mysterious movie. I didnt want anyone to have expectations or ask questions. Asked why, the filmmaker replies, Because I wanted to give us the chance to fail. And at first, I felt like there was an extremely high probability of that happening. He recounts days on set when Affleck, stuck in what was actually an elaborate costume (Theres this sort of dress that you put on underneath it, to make it move the right way when youre walking like the underpinnings of something youd wear in the 1800s, Mara says, laughing) would bump into walls and nearly trip over the bottom of his flowing ghost-sheet. Youve got Rooney pouring her heart out, he says, and then theres this dumb ghost behind her, and you think He puts his head in his hands, moaning.

Lowery would silently pray that his producers would pull the plug, feeling like he had summoned A-list actors and a loyal crew to work on something that was too high concept for its own good. I was prepared to bury it; because wed told nobody about it, I had that safety net. Everyone else could see that there was something there, however, and encouraged the director to keep everything going. After a few tweaks noticeably ixnaying the idea to do everything as a sequence of one-shot-only scenes Lowery said that flashes of the feeling he was going for begin to penetrate a crushing sense of self-doubt. Just when Id think this isnt working, Id film something that hit exactly the right note, he says. The early scenes of Casey and Rooney talking in bed together, before the car accident those worked immediately. The pie scene was another example. I knew there was something there even as we were doing it.

Yes, the pie scene the long sequence in A Ghost Story in which, still emotionally frayed over her beloveds death, M proceeds to consume an entire pie onscreen. And then, after C has silently observed her gorge, she rushes to the bathroom and gets violently ill, all in real time. Yeah, that was most definitely in the script he sent, Mara says. And it was one of the things that was most exciting to me about the film, to be honest. Because the way it was written, I knew itd be one long scene and that it would be tough. But it was such an interesting way to portray grief. According to Mara, they only did two takes Because theres only so much pie one human being can eat in a single sitting and, as numerousInternet articleshavebreathlessly crowed over the last week, it was the very first time shed ever tried the delicacy. Ive never been a big dessert fan, and I have no desire to ever eat another one again, she says, cracking up. Im a person of extremes all of nothing!

It wasnt until Lowery had begun editing everything together, he admits, that he realized that what hed shot especially the out-there sequences that make up the films mindblowing back half, which takes on the concept of time itself was more than just the sum of its parts. The fact that it does have this cumulative power, that it actually adds up to something quite unique, the director says. It surprised me. Because Id been thinking of it as this series of scenes wed done, and then the first time I sat down to watch the finished film, I He halts, then throws his hands up. I just started watching something that Id made with complete and utter objectivity. Thats never happened before. Not only that, but I found it working on me in a way that I had completely not anticipated. At all.

Still, he wasnt sure that he wanted A Ghost Story out in the world Lowery had asked the Sundance Film Festival for an extension in case he was able to finish before their final submissions were culled down, then decided he wasnt going to submit it at all. Then his agent saw a rough cut, and per Lowery, said, Dude, stop being an idiot. He convinced me to just send it in. Thank God he did. After the movies premiere last January, you could practically dissect the fest into before- and after-Ghost time frames between someone smirking at the idea of that Casey-Affleck-wears-a-ghost-sheet movie and that same person, damp eyes widened, exclaiming You have to see that Casey-Affleck-in-a-sheet movie stat!

Look, Im a very cynical person, Mara says, so it was easy to fall into the trap of Ha ha, what the hell is this? It had the potential to go wrong. But when someone makes something with as much sincerity as David did, thats not cheesy or clichd its hard to feel cynical about it. Almost everyone has lost someone they loved, or thought about death. And he somehow made this movie that allows you to think about these things in a totally different way from those somber dead-husband dramas where its one heavy scene after another. Its weird and funny and contemplative and whimsical. And I like the idea that someone you love is beside you, watching, even after theyve gone.

As for Lowery, hes happy that people have been connecting to this odd little thing hes made, even if hes slightly at a loss to explain why Ghost has struck such a chord with festival audiences leading up to its release. Im still figuring out my reaction to it, honestly, he admits. But I can say both making it and seeing it has helped me come to terms with a few
existential crises that Ive experienced in my own life. The idea of mortality, where we fit in the universe everyone thinks about these things.
And in some way, this movie taps into those common fears and worries
and comforts that we go through as we grapple with those questions.

And the man beneath the sheet? It was the best experience Ive ever had making a movie, Affleck says. It totally changed the way I think about my life, crafting a performance and what actors do. Everyone should make a movie in which theyre under a sheet at least once in their career.

Karen O and the Kids: The Rockers of Where the Wild Things Are

On October 16th the big-screen live-action version of Maurice Sendaks kiddie-lit classic Where the Wild Things Are arrives in theaters, but you dont have to wait that long to hear some of Karen O and the Kids (as the Yeah Yeah Yeahs frontlady is billing her crew of collaborators) soundtrack. The disc is out September 29th and first single All Is Love will come out August 25th digitally.

Karen O composed music for the soundtrack and co-produced it with Tom Biller of the Afternoons. And Rolling Stone has also learned the list of Kids rockers includes her YYYs bandmates Brian Chase and Nick Zinner along with Tristan Bechet (Services), Bradford Cox (Deerhunter), Dean Fertita (Queens of the Stone Age, The Dead Weather, The Raconteurs), Aaron Hemphill (Liars), Greg Kurstin (The Bird and the Bee), Jack Lawrence (The Dead Weather, The Raconteurs, The Greenhornes), Oscar Michel (Gris Gris), Imaad Wasif (New Folk Implosion, Alaska). An untrained childrens choir contributes to the songs and soundscapes.

I got involved because of Spike [Jonze], Karen told MTV U.K. of her former beau, who co-wrote and directed the film. I guess there is a childlike innocence about my music or my persona that he always just kind of dialed into. To play on it and it was a really amazing experience and I think what he has accomplished with the film is basically the impossible. Theres a lot of stuff that they told me Spike couldnt do that he did it anyway and it was a really inspiring and exciting thing to be a part of.

Last year, when rumors were swirling that the film adapted by Jonze and Dave Eggers was in trouble for being too dark and ambitious, Jonze spoke to Rolling Stone, telling us, Weve made the movie we set out to make. He added, I wanted to make a movie that felt true to me and my experience of being a kid, trying to understand the world and people around me, trying to understand the relationships and wild emotions inside me and the people I was close to. As a kid, theres no road map to navigate any of that. Basically, I wanted to take this nine-year-old kid seriously as a person who is trying to understand the world and himself. Read the full Q&A here.

High and Tight: Our Rock & Roll Baseball Experts Choose the Best Baseball Movies of All Time

Thirty-six years ago this April, The Bad News Bears opened in theaters across the country, shocking and amusing audiences with its unbridled vulgarity, as well as its unflinching depiction of the ugly competitiveness at the heart of little league baseball. In the film, obnoxious kids swear a blue streak, politically incorrect insults fly like beanballs, and the local Harley-riding adolescent troublemaker (played by Jackie Earle Haley) proudly informs 11 year-old Tatum ONeal that he hangs out at the ball field because of the abundance of nice ass there. The adults, of course, behave even worse.

As I was a foul-mouthed ten-year-old with major league aspirations, the movie was right in my wheelhouse at the time the nerds, outcasts and booger-eating morons that made up the Bears roster could have easily been my friends and me. It was only later that I came to appreciate the films snappily written script, its refreshing lack of sentimentality, or the beautifully nuanced performance of Walter Matthau as the alcoholic former minor leaguer who finds redemption as the coach of the titular team. The DVD reissue of BNB is subtitled a classic comedy about growing up, but Matthau is the only character in the film who actually matures the kids themselves all remain gloriously, unrepentantly juvenile, even when theyre guzzling adult beverages in the final scene.

Is Bad News Bears the greatest baseball flick of all time? It is for me but unlike with players and teams, you cant use stats to mount an argument for your favorite baseball film; its a personal thing, often depending on when you first saw it as what you saw in it. And since baseball has been a popular motion picture subject dating back to 1898 (Thomas Edisons The Ball Game), theres no shortage of titles to choose from. So this week, we ask our esteemed panel of rock & roll baseball freaks: Whats your favorite baseball movie?

Name: Alice Cooper
Position: Vocals

I think it has to be Fear Strikes Out (1957), the story of Jimmy Piersall starring Anthony Perkins.Jimmy was bipolar and went absolutely crazy. He would fight, he would climb the fences and would have all kinds of psychotic episodes on the field, which I really admire in a ball player.

Name: Joe Pernice
Band: Pernice Brothers
Position: Vocals, Guitar

Without a doubt, it would have to be The Bad News Bears (1976). Its just a great story that masterfully and barely stays on the positive side of the gossamer line that separates tragedy and comedy. In my opinion its the most interesting of the baseball as vehicle to redemption films. And it ends in a hockey brawl. Whats not to like? The script, casting and direction are amazing.

Name: George Thorogood
Band: George Thorogood and the Destroyers
Position: Vocals, Guitar

It Happens Every Spring (1949). It was the first baseball movie I ever saw, and I saw it at a time when I was just starting my love affair with baseball. It stars Ray Milland, Ed Begley, and one of my favorite actresses of all time, Jean Peters; Paul Douglas does a great job, too. And, in the end, the National League team wins the World Series. Perfect!

Name: Daniel Zott
Band: Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr.
Position: Vocals, Guitar

Hands down, its The Sandlot (1993). Benjamin Franklin Rodriguez, Ham Porter, the Beast, Squints, and Wendy Peffercorn. I think everyone dreams of blasting a homer through a firework lit sky as Ray Charles America the Beautiful plays in the background. Its really hard to beat that. I suppose if you want some history over entertainment then you should watch Baseball: A Film By Ken Burns (1994). Everything Ken Burns does is legit.

Name: Ken Casey
Band: Dropkick Murphys
Position: Bass guitar, Vocals

The Sandlot. I watch it with my kids all the time, it reminds me of my childhood pick-up games against the neighbors. Now, you couldnt even find 18 kids at a park to play baseball with, because they are all home playing video games. Man, I sound too old and cranky!

Name:Steve Wynn
Band: The Baseball Project
Position: Vocals, Guitar

Without a doubt, it would have to be Bang the Drum Slowly (1973), even though the ending one of the best last final lines of dialogue in any movie ever made busts me up every time. And I challenge you all to a game of TEGWAR the next time we meet.

Name: Ben Gibbard
Band: Death Cab for Cutie
Position: Vocals, Guitar

The Natural (1984), due in large part to Randy Newmans score and and Caleb Deschanels photography.Seriously, is there a scene in any other baseball movie more epic than Robert Redford rounding the bases in slow motion as the lights EXPLODE behind him? Doubtful. I dont think anyone has gotten close to capturing the beauty and pageantry of the game since.

Name: Steve Earle
Position: Vocals, Guitar

The Natural because you couldnt make a film like that about any other sport.

Name: Scott Ian
Band: Anthrax
Position: Guitar

Moneyball (2011). In this film, they strip away all the fantasy, all the magic of the game, and yet at the same time its that magic and love of the game itself that is driving Billy Beane. Its a real no-bullshit look at the game without having to create the fantasy its already there.

Name:Tom Morello
Band:The Nightwatchman, Street Sweeper Social Club, Rage Against the Machine
Position: Guitar, Vocals

My all timefavoritebaseball film is Reverse of the Curse of the Bambino (2004), a documentary made about the Boston Red Sox first World Series Championship. As a long-suffering Cubs fan, it was nice to be able to live vicariously through another cursed franchises redemption. It helps me to continue to dream my little dream.

Name: Handsome Dick Manitoba
Band: Manitoba
Position: Vocals

The Pride of the Yankees (1942). It harkens back to another era, when baseball and movies ruled the earth. People listened to baseball games on the radio at home, went to movies (one movie, one theatre)and baseball games,and could afford to! Theres alovablecorniness to this movie. The scene where the roadside motorcycle cop and his pals give a speeding Lou Gehrig an escort to the Stadium is priceless. Gary Cooper heads an all-star cast as Lou Gehrig, with Teresa Wright, Walter Brennan, and real Yankees Babe Ruth, Bob Meusel and Bill Dickey (Mr. Dickey was the other #8 on the Yankees) as themselves. The fable-likeway the whole story is told blows me away. Lous relationship with his parents, his love interest, the Yankees when they were the best team in the history of the universe, and finally, the tear-jerker aspect of Lou the Iron Man getting ALS, and THE SPEECH. Add it all up, and it melts this cynical son of a bitch, into a bowl of baseball loving, movie loving, era-gone-by Jell-O!

Name:Scott McCaughey
Band: The Baseball Project, The Minus 5, Young Fresh Fellows
Position: Guitar, Vocals

Lets face it, most baseball movies drag one towards the triumphant-against-all-odds or over-sentimental, heart-rending finales. Not that that cant work, and diamond blockbusters like The Natural, Field of Dreams and Bull Durham all have something to offer, if still pandering to the general populace and low-balling the more artistically-minded movie-goer and baseball fan. As classic Hollywood fare goes, I am a complete sucker for Gary Coopers trademark unassuming performance as Lou Gehrig in The Pride of the Yankees, and Dan Daileys spot-on Dizzy Dean in the similarly titled The Pride of St. Louis (which actually surprised me with its relative historical accuracies). But more so, I love John Sayles dark and moody treatment of Eliot Asinofs classic Eight Men Out (1988), with its intricate story and superb casting, covering one of baseball historys most tragic and fascinating chapters (the Black Sox scandal of 1919). But my current favorite baseball film has to be Sugar (2008), the moving, almost documentary-like portrayal of a young Dominicans trip from one of his native countrys baseball camps to his dream-come-true visit to the U.S. and a chance for major league glory and money. If this had been a major Hollywood production, itd no doubt climax with the kid pitching Game Seven of the World Series and you might have actually heard of the film.But how often is that what happens to aspiring ballplayers?

Name: Pete Yorn
Position: Vocals, Guitar

To me, the one that has the most impact is Eight Men Out. It always strikes a chord with me when a group of men, in this case baseball players who happen to be the best in the world, get caught up in corruption. Sure they were underpaid, and even though ultimately found not guilty of throwing the World Series, the commissioner of baseball still decided to ban eight of the Chicago Black Sox from baseball forever. Shoeless Joe Jackson denied any wrongdoing, and his part in the scandal remains controversial. His Series-leading .375 batting average has me believing in his innocence.

Name: Greg Dulli
Band: The Twilight Singers, Afghan Whigs
Position: Vocals, Guitar

The Bad News Bears. I read once where someone called it the Casablanca of kids movies, and I agree. Its quotable and the character interaction is memorable because its so well written. One of Walter Matthaus finest moments as an actor and Tatum ONeal and Jackie Earle Haley are wise beyond their years. Vic Morrow is fantastic as the antagonistic asshole Yankees coach, and the kids who play Tanner, Lupus, Engleberg and Ogilvie are unaffected and believable in their roles. One of the great movies of any genre, really.

The Many Faces of Vader

YOUNG DARTH
HAYDEN CHRISTENSEN

I was originally exposed to the Star Wars universe through memorabilia. My brother Tove was a big Star Wars fan, and those action figures were always lying around our basement. I didnt really see the films until they were rereleased theatrically but as a young kid, I was doing my best Darth Vader impression anyway. On long car trips, Id sit in the back seat with my little sister Kaylen and scare her by imitating Darth, lowering my voice and breathing heavy. Now Im playing him. Its very surreal.

Certain things about Star Wars are embedded in your psyche from a young age: Anyone who picks up a light-saber toy just automatically starts making the whooshing noise. In fact, Ewan and I were never really able to refrain from doing it. When we were filming, George would have to come up to us after some takes and say, Listen, guys, that was great, but youre both moving your lips when youre fighting. Really, we can add that noise in post, so dont worry about it. We werent even aware that we were doing it.

Darth Vader epitomized all that was evil. People responded so strongly to him because of his mystery. All you really got was this very intimidating masked figure, and the breathing, and that great voice that James Earl Jones provided. Otherwise, you knew very little. The audience could imagine their worst fears; Vader could represent what was most villainous and evil to them.

This last film change everything. Now were really able to see Anakin Skywalker behind that Darth Vader mask. Obviously, his use of the Dark Side is what changes him, but hes still the same person. Star Wars has traditionally been very black and white, and now George is exploring shades of gray: Theres ambiguity and confusion, and Anakin really doesnt know whats right or wrong through most of this film. It makes him a more pathetic character; it humanizes him.

Being behind the Vader mask is almost indescribable. Its so cool. Its empowering. A beastly feeling wells up inside you and theres a sense of imprisonment. I thought that was appropriate for what Anakin should be feeling. But its claustrophobic in there: Your vision is extremely limited, its hot and its awkward to move around in. To make adjustments for my height difference, they put huge lifts in the shoes, so it was difficult to walk. I told George I needed practice walking around in the costume, because my movements were so rigid and I didnt feel like I was walking like the Darth Vader we knew from the original trilogy.

He told me, Thats what I want. Anakin is not acclimated in this suit yet; its very new to him. He shouldnt be able to walk effortlessly. It was an interesting choice.

It took about twenty minutes to get suited up. Theres no Darth Vader underwear; I wore my own. It starts off with the pants, followed by the boots and upper coverings, which come in a few layers. Theres a leather jacket, then a fiberglass chest piece. Then theres a leather jock piece, which looks a little funny. Then its the helmet and the cape. The lights on the costume dont start blinking until they plug you in on the set.

As each piece comes on, layer by layer, you feel the essence of Darth Vader overcoming you. The Darth Vader scenes were the last day of filming we saved the best for last. Everyone from the crew and the production office came out to bear witness and see Vader again. As I walked past people I knew and was friends with, I watched their reactions. It was phenomenal: There was awe and excitement in their eyes, but there was also a certain level of respect that needed to be paid, and a tinge of fear. As I walked by, they would gasp, and then they would lower their heads and take a couple of steps back-as you would if Vader was passing.

There was a hint of sadness when I put on that costume. I was given the job of being the connective tissue from Jake Lloyd in Episode I to Darth Vader. Getting to finally don the dark helmet meant something bittersweet: My task was complete.

BABY DARTH
JAKE LLOYD

I was eight when we started The Phantom Menace. My favorite memory was on my sisters birthday: They brought horses to the set for us to ride around on, I think people like Darth Vader so much because hes sinister. Everyone can appreciate that at one point or another. Hes a badass.

FIGHTING DARTH
BOB ANDERSON

David Prowse could not fence, so they needed somebody who knew about swordplay. I fenced in the Olympics and did lots of movie work, and so I was picked to wear the Darth suit for the light-saber fighting scenes in Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. I choreographed those fights. Luke Skywalker had no protection whatsoever, so Darth needed to be careful and not hit him, but you just couldnt see a lot with that mask on.

That uniform was terrible. Im six feet one, and I had three extra inches on my helmet and two inches on my boots. I had a couple of cloaks on, and the helmet was the icing on top of the cake. Quite often, I was fighting with Mark Hamill, and I could see only his feet, so I was doing it virtually blindfolded.

My favorite fight was probably in the freezing chamber in Empire, where Han Solo was sealed in carbonite. The set had to be kept at a very high temperature because of the steam, and I had this outfit on, plus all the fighting I lost about fifteen pounds that week. I was a bit overweight anyway.

VOICE OF DARTH
JAMES EARL JONES

Im just special effects. But I loved doing it. My agent called and said, Do you want a days work? And I said sure, because I was unemployed and broke and living in L.A., and it took about an hour and a half to do it. It was a pretty good days work. I hadnt seen the whole film, but I was able to see the scenes with Darth. I was grateful he wore a mask, so I didnt have to lip-sync.

George paid me between seven and nine thousand dollars. For someone living in Hollywood with no job, thats not bad. I was not one of the actors, so I got no points and I didnt become a millionaire. But I enjoyed being part of that whole cult. And to give George some credit, he gave me a Christmas bonus equal to my salary. Which wasnt hard, but it was highly appreciated. And when he did The Empire Strikes Back, having sold myself not expensively the first time around, I couldnt very well hike up the price!

When it came to the famous line I am your father, I didnt believe it. I said, Hes lying again. My own son, whos now twenty-two, hated Vader. He said, Papa, how could you give yourself to that evil person?

George directed me very specifically the first time around. But the second time around, we discovered the confinement of Darth Vaders inflections. I kept trying to make my character more interesting and expressive, and he finally said, You know what? The trick is to use a very narrow band of inflection, because he aint quite human.

SON OF DARTH
MARK HAMILL

When I first read the script, Vader just popped off the page. I would come to the set, even on days I wasnt shooting, Just to watch George work, Dave Prowse comes through the door for his first entrance, and I asked George, Are you going to set it up with some guys on the other ship saying, Darth Vader is the mightiest of the Sith lords? He said, Nah, hes all in black. Well just play some scary music.

They didnt tell Prowse they wouldnt be using his voice. But come on, Darth Vaders not from Cornwall. He was doing all this dialogue with a strong rural accent. The meanest members of the crew called him Darth Farmer.

When we did the I am your father scene, thats not in the script. Dave Prowse said, Obi-Wan killed your father. By then they were worried about leaks and within days, the false info was in the British tabloids. George pulled me aside before the scene and told me the real line, but he said, You cant tell your wife, you cant tell Harrison, you cant tell Carrie. It was extraordinary to be sitting on a secret that explosive.

BODY OF DARTH
DAVID PROWSE

My whole career was based on bodybuilding. I had a fifty-three-inch chest when I did Star Wars. As a bodybuilder, you learn how to display your physique: Youve got a few minutes to show off your body. That stood me in good stead: Since Darth Vaders got no facial expressions, how he moves is extremely important. Hes regarded as the ultimate screen villain of all time, so I must have done something right.

I had a part in A Clockwork Orange; Lucas saw it and remembered five years later. He said, Im doing a film called Star Wars, and Id like to offer you one of two parts. One was Chewbacca, but I didnt want to spend three months in a sweaty gorilla suit. He said the other one was Darth Vader, the main baddie. I told him, Dont say any more Ill take that one. The best decision I ever made.

Most of us thought we were filming a load of rubbish. There was no music or special effects and nobody had ever seen the blue-screen process before. But the suit was quite comfortable. It was made of quilted leather and fiberglass, and it went on in about fifteen different pieces. It was custom-made to fit me I was six feet seven and 280 pounds. With the costume and boots, I probably went up to about seven feet.

I was doing all the dialogue, but my voice was muffled from the mask. I asked George, What are we going to do about the voice? He said, Dont worry well rerecord all your lines. I thought he meant that/would rerecord the lines! But I didnt hear anything, until the movie came out in the States. Then I got a telegram from Russ Meyer, a friend. He said congratulations, and by the way, did you know they overdubbed your voice?

Valentine Movies That Dont Suck

Down with Valentines Day. Actually, I dont mean that. What I do mean is down with Valentines Day films. Whenever someone asks me what movie they should watch on V-Day, I always feel Im expected to come up with titles that, in the words of Oscar Wilde, reek of more than usually revolting sentimentality.

Come on, a date movie doesnt have to be Beaches or The Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood. And guys, a double feature of Hostel movies wont cut it either.

If youre looking to go out to a new movie, take a chance on the at least bearable Definitely, Maybe, and not the wretched Fools Gold, which only a fool would suffer gladly. With Maybe you get the definite pleasure of watching Ryan Reynolds hit on three gorgeous and intelligent women Elizabeth Banks, Isla Fisher and my fave Rachel Weisz.

As a lead in to next weeks Oscars, you might want to catch up with one of the five nominees for Best Picture. Youll get the sweet in Juno and the hot in Atonement. From No Country for Old Men, Michael Clayton and There Will Be Blood youll gets bubkas in terms of romance.

If youre looking for a DVD, you could go with Blockbusters list of the most popular choices:

1. 50 First Dates

2. Casablanca

3. When Harry Met Sally

4. Wedding Crashers

5. The Princess Bride

6. My Big Fat Greek Wedding

7. Jerry Maguire

8. Theres Something About Mary

9. Bull Durham

10. The Wedding Singer

If it must be an Adam Sandler movie, make it The Wedding Singer and not the sugary 50 First Dates, though Drew Barrymore is adorable in both.

Id go off the beaten track with lesser known movies that are a good deal spicier.

Hardly anyone saw Out of Sight, and George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez are out of sight sexy in it, especially that scene in the trunk of a car where they discuss the sparks that fly between Robert Redford and Faye Dunaway in Three Days of the Condor (catch that one too, why dont you?)

Nothing against Cameron Crowes Jerry Maguire, but Id go with his underrated Say Anything, featuring John Cusack, who holds a boombox over his head outside Ione Skyes window and lets Peter Gabriels In Your Eyes speak for him. Works every time.

And remember that fun doesnt kill the mood. Id rather watch Bill Murray hit on Andie MacDowell over and over in Groundhog Day than watch Ryan Gosling get moony over a sex doll even once in Lars and the Real Girl.

For gay passion, go with Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal in Brokeback Mountain or vampire Catherine Deneuve sinking her teeth into Susan Sarandon in The Hunger, with David Bowie thrown in for bi-sexuals.

If you must have high-toned British romance, theres nothing in The English Patient that can touch the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice in which Colin Firth the ladies love him with his shirt dripping wet finally confesses his feelings to Jennifer Ehle, You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you. That Jane Austen was some tease.

Happy Valentines Day