'By the Sea' was inspired by her mother, says Angelina Jolie Pitt

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Published on Saturday, 14 November 2015 14:58

Written by CS monitor

          Jolie Pitt directs and stars with Brad Pitt in the film 'Sea,' which follows a couple struggling with their marriage who travel to a seaside hotel. 'It was important to try to do it for my mother,' the actress and director said."By the Sea" is a very personal film for Angelina Jolie Pitt — and not just because it reunites her onscreen with her husband, Brad Pitt. It's not even because she wrote, directed, produced, and stars in the film."By the Sea" is personal because it was inspired by the grief of losing her mother in 2007, Jolie Pitt said at the film's premiere, AFI Fest's opening-night gala at Hollywood's TCL Chinese Theatre.She started writing when she was missing her mother, without knowing exactly what she was creating. "When you write something from a blank page, it's very hard to say, 'This is important,' because you don't know: It's your own life. It's your own depression. It's your own questions about your mother. Grief. Where to put your pain," Jolie Pitt said. "For me, it was important to try to do it. And it was important to try to do it for my mother. It was important for myself. And it was wonderful to work with Brad, and for us to be able to get through it together, because we tested ourselves to see if we could do something like this together." "By the Sea" is a slow, quiet drama about a wealthy American couple on a French seaside retreat. Roland (Pitt) is there to write, but mostly just ends up drinking. Vanessa (Jolie Pitt) is there to relax, but ends up grumping around and popping pills. They avoid each other and their relationship is clearly strained. Their dynamic begins to change when they befriend (and secretly spy on) a newlywed couple on their honeymoon.
         As in 2005's "Mr. & Mrs. Smith," the two stars play a married pair facing serious relationship challenges. Only this time, the actors relied on the strength of their real-life relationship to do it."It's really no different than trying to get the kids to bed at night," Pitt said." I mean, you know, it's a tag team, Ultimate Wrestling kind of endeavor. And here on set, again, we're working together and solving problems and making the thing work and figuring it out. And there's just a great collaboration. She's just, she's my wife." As for being directed by his spouse? "She's very decisive. She's really intuitive," Pitt said. "Her instincts are really good with stories. So, I really trust her when she redirects a scene." Jolie Pitt loved working with her husband, too."You're going to have a long life ahead of you and you've got to shake it up and, sometimes, it's really wonderful to test yourselves, to push each other," she said. I talked to (actress) Gena Rowlands. She was talking before, and how she and (director-husband) John (Cassavetes) (would) take the rubber band and you stretch it as far as you can. And this is a part of marriage and this is wonderful. So, that I loved. And that was what we did."

"By the Sea" opens in theaters Nov. 13

source : CS monitor  

Angelina Jolie Reveals What Filming Sex Scenes With Brad Pitt Was Really Like

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Published on Friday, 13 November 2015 05:15

Written by Marie Claire

          Imagine filming a sex scene with Brad Pitt - pretty nice, right? But imagine if you were his wife, and you have actual sex with him anyway, and you're directing and co-starring, and there are plenty of people watching. Pretty awkward, we'd imagine.In a new interview, Angelina Jolie, admitted that filming the sex scenes in their upcoming movie By The Sea was the 'strangest thing'.'It’s the strangest thing in the world to be lying naked in a bathtub with an iPad that’s showing you the shot outside, while your husband is at the door and you're directing him to come in and make love to you,' Ange told Entertainment Weekly. '[And] in front of a bunch of other men with cameras.'Love scenes are strange anyway, but when you're doing a love scene with a person that you really have sex with?' she added. 'The only way to get through it was for us to all talk about the absurdity of it and make sure no one was feeling awkward.'She also revealed that Brad was very protective of her during the scenes.'I couldn't get out of the bathtub to get to the monitor because the director is naked,' she said. 'We're artists and want to be free, but Brad - it's his wife. He was on towel duty. He'd hold the towel over me.'
         Brad previously said that being directed by his wife was 'sexy', saying: 'If I'm going to work, I want to work with my wife. Surprising how much I enjoy the direction of my wife. She's decisive, incredibly intuitive, knife-sharp, and I might say, sexy at her post. I trust her with my life.'Angelina also talked about filming naked scenes after undergoing her double mastectomy, saying she hopes to inspire other women going through the same problems. 'The surgeries still allow you to be a woman,' she said. 'I hope other women - anyone who is worried about those issues and how [your body] can feel or look - can see that through [the scene]. I’m happy that will be in there if that answers something for them.' In the movie (which we can't wait to see), there are also scenes where Brad and Angelina's characters get into huge bust-ups - but the way in which they went about getting inspired was fairly unusual.'Brad and I had this one day when we were like, "Let's just do ridiculous things and see what happens,"' Angelina said. 'By the end of it, he had pissed all over my shoes, I had packed up the entire [hotel] room to leave, and he wrote "pillhead" with an arrow on my head with a Sharpie while [my character] was sleeping.' Well, this is one movie we can't wait to see...

source : Marie Claire  

Brangelina Film ‘By The Sea’ Trounced By Critics Before Release

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Published on Wednesday, 11 November 2015 20:24

Written by Radar Online

          Movie received only 45% on Rotten Tomatoes—read the scathing reviews! Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have been busy promoting their latest film together, By The Sea, but is the new feature doomed for failure already? While the movie centers around a troubled couple headed for divorce, Jolie—whose frame seems to be shrinking rapidly as of late—said in a recent interview that it served as a fun honeymoon project for the pair, and couldn’t be made had they not been a happy couple in real life. Unfortunately, By The Sea may be a repeat offense of Jolie’s directorial debut film Unbroken, already receiving snubs and slams after its initial screenings and even receiving a lousy 45% on Rotten Tomatoes.“This languid piece of would-be art cinema will prove once again that even the biggest names in the world won’t draw an audience to something that, in and of itself, has no reason for being,” top critic Todd McCarthy of the Hollywood Reporter ripped into the film on Rotten Tomatoes. Justin Chang of Variety was equally unforgiving in his review, writing: “An unabashed vanity project that struggles to turn its own beautiful inertia into a virtue.” Ouch! Meanwhile, audience commenters on the film review website slammed the film in a less flowery manner.“Awful movie don’t waste your money,” Nick M. wrote after screening the couple’s highly-anticipated film.

source : Radar Online  

First look at the set of Angelina Jolie's new film in the heart of the Cambodian jungle

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Published on Saturday, 07 November 2015 12:07

Written by Daily Mail

           Angelina Jolie was spotted scouting locations for her latest directorial project in Siem Reap. Cambodia last month.And now DailyMail.com can reveal a first look at the set of the Netflix movie First They Killed My Father: A Daughter Of Cambodia Remembers.The star is about to direct hundreds of locals in the epic, which she also co-wrote, while her eldest son Maddox - who was born in Cambodia - is going to be heavily involved.Workers have been preparing huts to look like a traditional Cambodian village and fields to look like rice paddies on the set.However there is one potential issue for Angelina and her crew, as they revealed that they had found nine Asian Forest Scorpions - also known as Black Scorpions - lurking underfoot in one day.A single sting from their barbed tails causes intense pain, swelling and a large, red wound that remains inflamed for days and can be fatal if left untreated. One skilled member of the locally sourced crew was in charge of cutting off their stinging tails, before placing them in a jar.His on-set colleague explained: 'You have to be very careful when you’re working. We keep them in a plastic bottle, which they can’t climb out of, but they do try and escape. The pincers can really hurt.'We put them in bottles of whisky, its good for you, it gives you strength! We do the same with centipedes when we find them – although we cut off their heads.'Scorpions aren’t the only problem the film crew faces. There are deadly critters to deal with on the forest floor and up trees - a major problem if anyone is bitten, as the nearest hospital is 45 minutes away on winding dirt roads, which become very difficult to negotiate in the rain.
          A local villager explained: 'The scorpions are very dangerous for anyone who doesn’t know how to deal with their stings.'We have tarantulas here, some of the most venomous varieties, and cobras. They can dive out of the tree and bite you on the head - they’re deadly.'You have to be treated within the hour after being bitten to survive. The hospital is far, but there are some people in the village who know of a special medicine [extract] from one of the trees that can treat the bites.'Angelina, 40, will base herself in Cambodia while she makes her latest movie between now and February 2016.First They Killed My Father... tells the story of the deadly Khmer Rouge regime - which ruled Cambodia with an iron fist and massacred millions of its own citizens between 1975 and 1979 - from the perspective of girl who is five years old at the beginning of the story.It is based on the first-hand account of Angelina’s friend, Luong Ong, whom she met during one of her first humanitarian missions to the country after filming Tomb Raider there in 2000 and falling in love with it. Angelina has said that Maddox, 14, will be very much involved in production to ensure he connects to the country of his birth.'As Maddox and I prepare the film we will be side by side learning about his country,' Jolie explained earlier this year.'He is 14 and this is a very important time for him to understand who he is. He is my son but he is also a son of Cambodia. This is the time for our family to understand all that that means to him and to us.'One local woman who has been hired for the cast - but declined to give her name for fear of losing her part in the movie - told how Angelina’s film has provided work for a huge number of people in the village, some of whom live in grass huts not unlike the ones created for the set.
          She said: 'More than 100 people from the village have been hired by the film crew – they’ve been building the sets, and preparing the fields to have banana trees, rice paddies and potato plants.'They’ve also been making the Khmer Rouge uniforms, which are all black with red and white chequered scarves.'People have been paid between $15 and $25 a day, depending on the jobs they do – it’s a good wage for here.'This film is very good for the village – the rice crop finished around a month ago, so it’s the slow season and this has provided jobs to help everyone through.'Most of the film will be made in the Siem Reap province, and will use a huge cast of between 2,000 to 3,000 people, all of whom will be Cambodian. Angelina is currently promoting By The Sea, which she directed and stars in with husband Brad Pitt. It is due for release in the US on November 13 and the UK on December 11.

source : Daily mail