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Lust, Caution (2007) More at IMDbPro »Se, jie (original title)

3 items from 2009

30 October 2009 12:30 PM, PDT | MTV Movies Blog | See recent MTV Movies Blog news »

Ang Lee hasn't had much mainstream success since he won an Oscar for directing "Brokeback Mountain" a few years back. His follow-up was the hard-to-distribute Nc-17-rated Chinese period romance "Lust, Caution." Then, this past summer he released the much broader "Taking Woodstock," a comic look at a singular true story behind the scenes of the legendary music festival, and it failed to find an audience (I recommend seeing it when it hits DVD on December 15, specifically for Imelda Staunton, who deserves an Oscar already).

Fortunately, Lee's next film will be based on a best-selling novel and could therefore bring him back to the spotlight for the moviegoing masses. He confirmed to Digital Spy that he thinks he's going to do "Life of Pi," which he's adapting from Yann Martel's Booker Prize-winner. Of course, if you're familiar with the source material, you may wonder how on earth it's going to work as a film. »

- Christopher Campbell

28 August 2009 7:00 PM, PDT | The Hollywood Reporter | See recent The Hollywood Reporter news »

Poor Ang Lee. The last four years have seen the versatile helmer do some of his best work of his career (which is saying something). And yet the American movie gods have sprinkled on the rain.

The karma started nearly four years ago when an Oscar best picture win that was rightly his, for the socially conscious and richly character-driven "Brokeback Mountain," leaked away to the faux social consciousness and thinly-veiled caricatures of "Crash."

The director then goes and makes what is arguably the most ambitious film of his career -- the culturally important, narratively compelling and beautifully photographed "Lust, Caution" -- but finds the period Chinese-language pic released in the toughest market for foreign and specialty fare in a generation, resulting in a modest $4 million domestic take (though a huge overseas haul).

Lee then dramatically switches course to make the entertaining and likable "Taking Woodstock." »

26 August 2009 2:29 PM, PDT | Hitfix | See recent Hitfix news »

Had an opportunity to see Anne Fontaine's "Coco Avant Chanel" last night and while I can't review it at this time I will heap some praise on the gorgeous score by Alexandre Desplat you can already find online.Desplat is a two-time Oscar nominee for his work in "The Queen" and "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," but his music has usually been hit or miss in my opinion with his score for "Lust, Caution" being his most memorable score to date -- before "Chanel" that is.  To say his music makes the movie wouldn't be fair to the strong performance from »

3 items from 2009