The Festival De Cannes website, the official website for The Cannes Film Festival, has a nice little note about the Masterclass that New Moon composer, Alexandre Desplat, will be presenting at the festival this year. According to the official website: “Every year, the Cannes Film Festival invites prominent figures from the world of cinema to give “Masterclasses”.” This appears to be quite the honor for Mr. Desplat! Read all of the details below:

“A personal history of film music” by Alexandre Desplat

A passionate love of music and cinema has resulted in Alexandre Desplat working with some of the greatest film directors of our age – Jacques Audiard, Stephen Frears, David Fincher, Roman Polanski and Terrence Malick. Following in the tradition of the French greats of film music composing, this multi award-winning artist has also composed the music for several films in this year’s Official Selection.

As a result of his 2006 Masterclass which he gave on his own work, this year Alexandre Desplat will talk about fellow composers’ work: “Great film scores, he explains, should enhance the film, the collective body of work as well as being able to exist independently of the images. It was by listening to the compositions of Delerue, Jarre, Waxman, Rota, Herrmann, Goldsmith, and Takemitsu that I was able to develop my own style. Personal and intimate, the job of the film score composer is to reveal and become part of the rhythm, light and framing of the film like an invisible character – a parallel scenario. The composer creates a subtle relationship between the images and the music resulting in an intangible vibration that makes him the third author of the film”.

The Masterclass will take place on Saturday, 19 May at the Buñuel Theatre.

See more at the Cannes Film Festival official site here.

Thanks Noor!

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The third part, and conclusion, to “What Do Women Want” by Erika Christakis has been posted by the Huffington Post. While Part 1, focused more on Breaking Dawn and Bella, and Part 2 focused a little more on Edward and his relationship with Bella, this final piece really pulls the whole idea together and celebrates the character that Bella becomes by the end of Breaking Dawn. Bella manages to be the ultimate weapon and protects her family without any having to resort to any violence whatsoever. Read more below:

More than a few Twilight fans got in a lather about New Moon and Eclipse (movies two and three) because some of the overwrought conversations from the books were clipped in favor of jacked-up action scenes no one wanted to watch. A pivotal scene in which Edward apologizes ad nauseum for leaving Bella was reduced to the blink of an eye, denying the viewer the delicious spectacle of a backpedaling superhero. And Stephenie Meyer doesn’t even bother to stage the epic battle scene that the whole series has been building up to in Book Four; everybody just packs it up and works it out in with… you guessed it… talking.

And why, exactly, is this a problem? Shouldn’t we be embracing — or at least not wholesale eviscerating — a blockbuster series that espouses non-violence? I have yet to read a review of Twilight that recognizes the foundational truth of the story: that aggression is almost always the worst option, and that human life merits respect and forbearance. It’s easy to find this tacky or politically threatening; Stephenie Meyer has something to offend both ends of the ideological spectrum. But we needn’t be aligned with conservative religious teachings or lofty liberal pacifism to acknowledge the refreshing rarity of a successful movie franchise that rejects our great national love affair with violence.

Stephanie Meyer sure packs a hell of a punch without it. In a glorious sleight of hand, she makes sweet, gentle Bella the ultimate secret weapon against evil, protecting her whole clan with an uncanny feminine emotional power that’s kryptonite to a bunch of medieval vampire thugs. She becomes a true earth goddess, a Hestia of the vampire world, a warrior queen without the warfare. Take that, you hand-wringing scolds. Bella has the last laugh. As fantasies go, it’s a good one.

Read the entire third part to this fantastic series of articles at The Huffington Post here.

Wow! This author just really got “got” the whole series and why so many of us love it so much and are so captivated by it. Bravo!

What did you think of this series of article that highlighted the strengths of the story in the Twilight Series?

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Young Hollywood had Chris Weitz in their studio recently to chat about his latest film, A Better Life. Of course, when anyone from the Twilight Saga world is interviewed, the interview always takes a Twilight turn. Chris goes on to chat about his experiences filming New Moon, the Team Edward and Team Jacob sides, why he relates to Bella, and being asked to deliver letters to Rob Pattinson. Check out the great interview below:

Oscar-nominated producer/director, Chris Weitz, is in the Young Hollywood Studio to chat about his amazing film, ‘A Better Life’, and how he likes to take on diverse projects to keep himself from being pigeon-holed. He also goes into detail about the craziness of filming ‘Twilight: New Moon’ and explains why he relates the most to Bella! Hosted by Nikki Novak.

Love Chris Weitz!!

Thanks Noor

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The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 has now grossed over $701.3 million worldwide. This means Breaking Dawn – Part 1 should soon be overtaking the $709.8 million that New Moon made, and become the top grossing film in the Saga to date. Of course we still haven’t seen what Breaking Dawn – Part 2 can do! Read more below:

Summit Entertainment and its new parent compnay Lionsgate announced Sunday that The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn–Part 1 will soon overtake the $709.8 million earned by The Twilight Saga: New Moon to become the top grossing title in the franchise.

The news went out on Lionsgate letterhead, and marks the first official Lionsgate-Summit release.

Through Sunday, Breaking Dawn has earned $701.3 million globally. It has yet to open in Japan and China.

Domestically, the pic has grossed $280.3 million, putting it behind threequel The Twilight Saga: Eclipse ($300.5 million) and sequel New Moon ($296.6 million).

Conversely, Breaking Dawn is already the franchise’s top earner overseas, where its running cume is $421 million. The previous best was the $413.2 million earned by New Moon.

See the full story at The Hollywood Reporter here.

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The Wall Street Journal has the very latest box office numbers tonight for The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1. As of tonight, Breaking Dawn – Part 1 has taken in $139.5 million domestically and another $144 million worldwide, bringing the worldwide total to $283.5 million in it’s opening weekend. This makes Breaking Dawn – Part 1 only second to New Moon in The Twilight Saga so far, which had a domestic opening weekend of $142.8M. Read more below:

“The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1″ earned $283.5 million world-wide in its opening weekend, proving the vampire-romance series hasn’t lost any of its bite with audiences.

The latest installment of the fantasy movie took in $139.5 million domestically and grossed $144 million abroad from 54 territories. The movie, which cost $110 million to make, was released by Summit Entertainment LLC.

As for domestic openings this year, “Breaking Dawn Part 1″ trails only the $169.2 million opening of “Harry Potter and Deathly Hallows Part 2″ in July. Unlike the Harry Potter film, “Breaking Dawn Part 1″ was released strictly in 2-D and didn’t receive any bump from higher-priced 3-D tickets.

The total for “Breaking Dawn Part 1″ includes $30.3 million from midnight screenings on Thursday night.

Read the full story at at The Wall Street Journal here.

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While we patiently (or not so patiently) wait for Breaking Dawn – Part 1 to open in just a couple of weeks, E! Online’s Ted Casablanca has put together a list of the top five sexiest moments in The Twilight Saga movies so far. Bring on the honeymoon!

1. Meadow Makeouts!

Forget the pretty flowers and whatnot in the original Twilight, all we could focus on was that passionate kiss between Rob and Kristen Stewart’s onscreen counter parts: Bella and Edward (duh). As all the fans will tell you, this is a pretty crucial part of the Twi novels, and its onscreen counterpart did not disappoint.

2. If the Tent Is a Rockin’…

It just wouldn’t be fair if Edward got all the action, would it? Well, in Eclipse, Taylor Lautner’s Jacob gets some much needed lovin’! A freezing cold Bella gets warmed up by the hunky werewolf since Edward’s icy vamp self cannot help. And let’s not forget about Lautner’s line in the scene, “Let’s face it, I am hotter than you” (OK, some of the Twilight flicks do have good lines).

3. Sweet, Sweet Prom Night Kisses:

While we usually wouldn’t celebrate a way innocent prom night (in the first Twi film), we swooned when Edward kissed Bella’s neck while the two got their slow dance on! Sure, it wasn’t bedroom biz like their first kiss, but we’re pretty sure Twi-hards will agree that they nearly died during their sexy gazebo smooch.

Read the top two scenes at E! Online here.

I think I’ll always love that first kiss in Twilight!

Which Twilight Saga scene is your favorite?

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We’re getting closer to the big Breaking Dawn – Part 1 special on MTV this coming Thursday, and today MTV revealed the fourth biggest Twilight Saga movie moment thus far. Number four on the list just happens to be the big reveal of Taylor Lautner’s abs as Jacob in New Moon. Check it all out below:

We already know that the “Eclipse” tent scene, showing the friendly rivalry between Edward and Jacob, sits at #5, and a particularly sexy scene stands out as our next fan favorite. So, what made the cut at #4? Well, it happens to be Lautner’s reveal of his very cut abs in “New Moon.”

Long before that scene was captured on film, there had been fan chatter about whether a teenage Lautner could beef up enough to keep his part of werewolf Jacob Black in the second installment of the “Twilight Saga.” Determined to prove to naysayers that he had the muscle for the role, Lautner hit the gym and showed that he had the ambition, drive and physical bulk to keep the role.

“I have been working out,” Lautner told MTV News in December 2008. “I’ve been working out since the day we stopped filming ‘Twilight.’ I just weighed myself today; put on 19 pounds [and] guaranteeing [director Chris] Weitz 10 more by filming.”

All the promises and hard work paid off. The reveal of his admirable physique in the movie remains a fan favorite as our voters revealed. And, four movies in, it’s just as fun (and sexy) to watch the chivalrous Jacob strip off his shirt, just to assist an injured Bella.

Read more at MTV here.

I honestly cannot believe this is actually one of the top five. I mean really?

Where do Taylor Lautner’s abs rate in your top five Twilight Saga movie moments?

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