Jamón Jamón (1992) - Lunas' delicious and lively erotic melodrama

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Under the (mighty) ballsack of a mighty monument of a mighty bull, a woman lustily flaunts her stuff on this poster for Bigas Luna's Jamón Jamón

The son of the owners of a large Spanish underwear factory has impregnated one of the workers. His mother sends local 'bull' Raúl after the girl, but she winds up with him herself.

 

Jamón Jamón is written by Cuca Canals (Diary of a Nymphomaniac/Diario de una Ninfómana (2008) and great Spanish co-writer/director Bigas Luna (Bilbao (1978)), with Quim Monzó (Pa d'Àngel (1984)) contributing dialog. The Spanish title translates to 'ham ham'. It is the first in Luna's Ibérica trilogy, with Golden Balls/Huevos de Oro (1993) and The Tit and the Moon/La Teta y la Luna (1994) being the other films.

The affairs are many, SPOILER and in the end Raúl beats protagonist José Luis to death with a ham as his weapon. Why is Spain apparently so filled with passion, one may wonder when watching such a vivid Luna film as this. The film pulsates with sex, has speedy, thrilling editing, delicious performances and enough symbolism to satisfy a classroom full of secondary school teachers. It is a treat of a film.

 

 

Watch a very short clip from the film here

 

Cost: Unknown

Box office: 13-23.5 mil. $ (different reports)

= Uncertain but surely a mega-hit

[Jamón Jamón premiered 2 September (Barcelona) and runs 95 minutes. The film marks Penélope Cruz's (The Brothers Grimsby (2016)) film debut, filmed when she was 17 years old. Shooting took place from September - December 1991 in Spain including in Barcelona. The film reportedly grossed 6 mil. $ in Spain and Italy and had rentals of 7 mil. $ internationally. If the latter number really is a rental and not a gross, then the final gross would be in the neighborhood of the 23.5 mil. $ noted above; otherwise the final gross is in the 13 mil. $ area, still impressive. With a probably budget of 1-2 mil. $, the film was definitely a mega-hit. It was nominated for 6 Goyas. Roger Ebert gave it a 3.5/4 star review, equal in rating to this one. Luna returned with a commercial and theatrically with Golden Balls (1993). Cruz returned in Belle Epoque (1992); Javier Bardem (Being the Ricardos (2021)) in Crónicas del Mal (1992, TV-series) and theatrically in El Amante Bilingüe (1993); and Jordi Mollà (Ibiza (2018)) in Shooting Eliazabeth (1992). Jamón Jamón is fresh at 60 % at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Jamón Jamón? 

Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow/Ieri, Oggi, Domani (1963) - De Sica and stars triumph with sexy smash

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Gorgeously painted and colored situations from the film are highlighted on this delightful poster for Vittorio De Sica's Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

A three-story anthology: A Neapolitan mother is to be imprisoned, if she won't stop birthing children. A rich and superficial star. And a passionate couple nearly steer a young man into decline.

 

Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow is written by Eduardo De Filippo (Frisky/Pane, Amore e Gelosia (1954)), Isabella Quarantotti (Kiss the Other Sheek/Oggi, Domani, Dopodomani (1965)), Billa Billa (Ragazze d'Oggi (1955, actor)) and Cesare Zavattini (Woman Times Seven (1967)), with one segment adapting a novel by Alberto Moravia (Il Disprezzo/Contempt (1954)), and directed by Italian master filmmaker Vittorio De Sica (Rose Scarlatte (1940)), whose 18th feature it was. The title is a literal translation of the original Italian title.

Giuseppe Rotunno's (Red Sonja (1985)) photography dwells on the Italian beauty in three stories that are a perfect combination of sweetness, bittersweetness and desire. Sophia Loren (Io Sono il Capataz (1951)) and Marcello Mastroianni (I Grandi Peccatori (L'Eterna Catena) (1952)) are ravishing and seem as divinely meant for each other. - The film is a far cry from the corset of neorealism that De Sica championed in his earlier masterworks such as Bicycle Thieves/Ladri di Biciclette (1948), the ultimate one.

Armando Trovajoli's (Mario, Maria e Mario (1993)) music is beautiful and flirtatious. Is the film a bit dated? Perhaps. And a non-Catholic may also object to the salvaging of the young man in the third story, through his joining the cloth and thereby (stifling, potentially dangerous) celibacy. But these are minor reservations to a glorious film.

 

Related posts:

 

Vittorio De Sica: The Garden of the Finzi-Continis/Il Giardino dei Finzi-Contini (1970) - An exquisite, painful De Sica WWII love drama

A Farewell to Arms (1957) or, Love in Spite! (co-star)

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: Unknown, projected 1.5 mil. $

Box office: In excess of 21.75 mil. $ (North America, France, Germany and Italy alone)

= Uncertain but likely a mega-hit (projected return of at least 16.66 times its cost)

[Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow was released 21 December (Italy) and runs 118 minutes. Loren was reportedly paid 500k $ for her performance. Shooting took place in Italy, including in Rome. It is listed as having sold 13.39 mil. tickets across France, Germany and Italy, coming to approximately 12.45 mil. $. Together with its impressive North-American gross of 9.3 mil. $, it should have cleared 21.75 mil. $ in these markets alone. Likely its total gross exceeds 25 and perhaps even 30 mil. $. The film won the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, a BAFTA, 3 David di Donatello award, 1/2 Golden Globe nominations and a National Board of Review award, among other honors. De Sica returned with Marriage Italian Style/Matrimonio all'Italiana (1964). Loren returned first in The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964), and then with Mastroianni in his return also, Marriage Italian Style. 10k+ IMDb users have given Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow a 7.2/10 average rating.]

 

What do you think of Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow?

The Piano (1993) - Campion's enthralling Maori period romance

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+ Best $ Return of the Year: 20 times the cost + Best Erotic Movie of the Year + Best New Zealand Movie of the Year + Best On-screen Couple of the Year: Holly Hunter & Harvey Keitel + Best Romance of the Year

 

A striking, almost ethereal still from the film makes up this poster for Jane Campion's The Piano

A mute woman from Scotland arrives to New Zealand with her daughter and her piano, as she has been married off to a frontier man there, who is a stranger to her. Gradually, however, she falls in love with another man of the new land, who lives in the forest with the native Maori people.

 

The Piano is written and directed by New Zealander master filmmaker Jane Campion (Sweetie (1989)), whose 3rd feature it is.

It is a highly esteemed film about love with beautiful long takes - that are never too long still, (cinematography by Stuart Dryburgh (Gifted (2017))), fabulous nature and music (score by Michael Nyman (Everyday (2012))). 

The actors are also eminent: Anna Paquin (The Irishman (2019)) as the young daughter is brilliant; Holly Hunter (Succession (2019, TV-series)) and Harvey Keitel (Saturn 3 (1980)) as the odd couple are the same. SPOILER A devastatingly tragic ending is averted, (Campion has later divulged that this ending was her original choice), and instead The Piano ends on a life-affirming note.  

 

Related post:

 

Jane Campion: 1993 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 7 mil. $

Box office: Reportedly 140 mil. $

= Mega-hit (returned 20 times its cost)

[The Piano premiered 15 May (Cannes Film Festival, main competition) and runs 117 minutes. Shooting took place from May - July 1992 in New Zealand. The film opened #18 to a 151k $ first weekend in 4 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #7 and in 671 theaters (different weeks), grossing 40.1 mil. $ (28.6 % of the total gross). The film won the Palme d'Or at Cannes (shared with Chen Kaige's Farewell My Concubine), making Campion the first female recipient in history. It was also nominated for 8 Oscars, winning for Best Actress (Hunter), Supporting Actress (Paquin) and Script. It lost Best Cinematography to Janusz Kaminski for Schindler's List, Costumes to The Age of Innocence, Director to Steven Spielberg for Schindler's List, Picture to Schindler's List and Editing also to Schindler's List. It also won 3/10 BAFTA nominations, 1/6 Golden Globe nominations, a César award, was nominated for a David di Donatello award, won 2 National Board of Review awards and the Best Actress award at Cannes (Hunter), among scores of other honors. Roger Ebert gave the film a 3.5/4 star review, equal in rating to this one. Campion returned with The Portrait of a Lady (1996). Hunter returned in The Firm (1993); Keitel in Rising Sun (1993); and Sam Neill (Rams (2020)) in The Rainbow Warrior (1993, TV movie) and theatrically in Jurassic Park (1993). The Piano is certified fresh at 90 % with an 8.50/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Piano?

Heartburn (1986) - Ephron's first-rate script attains greatness with Streep, Nicholson and Nichols

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Two absolute A-list stars get pushed to sell Mike Nichols' Heartburn on this simple poster

Two mature career people, who have both already been married once, risk fate, get married and have children.

 

Heartburn is written by Nora Ephron (Silkwood (1983)), based on her own autobiographical, same-titled 1983 novel, and directed by German-born American master filmmaker Mike Nichols (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)).

There were few problems in Heartburn in my experience; the two protagonists are, to begin with, a bit much (self-involved, more accurately.) There's also an indulgent 'baby' singing scene. But Meryl Streep (Julie & Julia (2009)) and Jack Nicholson (The Missouri Breaks (1976)) are stars of a special breed, who can attract our attention in spite of this, and simply appreciate this time with them together on screen immensely.

Heartburn is also a romance dramedy film that gets better and better, and in its ending left me spellbound by Ephron's strong female-empowerment script. Nichols directs it beautifully, and Streep and Nicholson are eminent. Milos Forman (Labyrinth (1991)) and a debuting Kevin Spacey (The Life of David Gale (2003)) are also good. And I love the sympathetic portrait of the maid.

 

Related posts:

Mike Nichols: Closer (2004) - Nichols and Marber's intelligent film of love and infidelity 
Angels in America (2003, TV-miniseries) or, Dying in the 80's, of AIDS, at L-E-N-G-T-H
Biloxi Blues (1988) or, '45 Army Camp Confidential     
Catch-22 (1970) - Nichols wages war on war with ensemble cast in absurdist satire  

The Graduate (1967) - Submerge yourself in Nichols' terrific classic 

Watch a 3-minute clip from the film here

 

Cost: 15 mil. $

Box office: 52.6 mil. $

= Big hit (returned 3.50 times its cost)

[Heartburn premiered 22 July (New York) and runs 109 minutes. Ephron's novel and script is based on her second marriage, to Carl Benstein (and his affair with Margaret Jay.) Nicholson was paid 4 mil. $ for his performance. Shooting took place from July - October 1985 in New York and Virginia. The film opened #2, behind Aliens, to a 5.7 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent one more weekend in the top 5 (#5) and grossed 25.3 mil. $ (48.1 % of the total gross). Roger Ebert gave it a 2/4 star review, translating to 3 notches under this one. Nichols returned with Biloxi Blues (1988). Streep returned in 2 video short voice performances prior to her theatrical return in Ironweed (1987); Nicholson in The Witches of Eastwick (1987). Heartburn is rotten at 43 % with a 5.50/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Heartburn?

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress/Balzac et la Petite Tailleuse Chinoise (2002) - Sijie's sensual, resonant ode to youth and everything laid to waste by Communist China

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+ Best Chinese Movie of the Year + Best Political Movie of the Year 

The softly contoured young stars lie closely together with a book on this intriguing poster for Dai Sijie's Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress

On an ordered three year re-education stay in a remote Chinese village during chairman Mao's Cultural Revolution, two young men steal literature and inaugurate a young local seamstress in its forbidden blessings.

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress is written and directed by great Chinese filmmaker Dai Sijie (Niu-Peng (1989)), adapting his own same-titled, semi-autobiographical 2000 novel, with Nadine Perront (The Chinese Botanist's Daughters (2006)) contributing writing.
Here is a gorgeously photographed (by Jean-Marie Dreujou (Wolf Totem (2015))) political romance drama with a sensually impressionistic nature. Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress is deeply compelling and moving, showing us new particulars of the horrors of Mao's Communist regime with great authority.
The film has great performances; not least Xun Zhou (The Silent War (2012)) is fabulous. The score by Pujian Wang is beautiful. The protagonist's swimming around in the ending doesn't come off entirely natural.
But the Chinese government's flooding of the paradisiacal area shown in the film is as unbelievable as it is unbearable. It concludes a film that is rare in its successful mix of being funny, intelligent, deep and extremely poignant.

 

Related post:

 

2002 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 

Sijie gives a 12-minute interview in French in this video

Cost: Unknown
Box office: 5.2 mil. $
= Uncertain
[Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress premiered 16 May (Cannes Film Festival, in the Un Certain Regard section) and runs 111 minutes. 11 production companies and governmental support bodies were involved with financing and making the film. Shooting took place from ? - May 2001 in Paris, France and in China, including Shanghai. The necessary permission to film in China took 7 months to procure and only came with the simultaneous understanding that the film would be banned from getting screened in China. The film did not get a general release in the US until 2005, and only in New York: It opened #67 to a 16k $ first weekend in 1 theater, peaking at #49 and in 22 theaters (different weeks), grossing 666k $ (12.8 % of the total gross). The film's 3 biggest markets were Germany with 1.1 mil. $ (21.2 %), North America and France with 662k $ (12.7 %). The film was nominated for a Golden Globe and won a National Board of Review award, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave the film a 2.5/4 star review, translating to two notches lower than this one. Sijie returned with The Chinese Botanist's Daughters (2006). Zhou returned in Where Have All the Flowers Gone/Na shi hua kai (2002). Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress is certified fresh at 77 % with a 6.7/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress?

Portrait of a Lady on Fire/Portrait de la Jeune Fille en Feu (2019) - Sciamma spoils us with picturesque period romance

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+ Best Blockbuster of the Year (2,797.3 mil. $ gross) + Best Superhero Movie of the Year + Most Profitable Movie of the Year: 761.9
mil. $ range+ Best LBGT Movie of the Year + Romance of the Year 

Star Adèle Haenel has caught fire on this poster for Céline Sciamma's Portrait of a Lady on Fire

A soon to be married aristocrat lady spends a period at a reclusive seaside house, where a talented female painter is tasked with making her portrait. The two reach a profound connection in those precious days.

Portrait of a Lady on Fire is written and directed by great French filmmaker Céline Sciamma (Water Lilies/Naissance des Pieuvres (2007)). Sciamma presents another very woman-centered tale with a subtle feminist current running through it, this time especially evident in a scene of the painter's placement at an art opening, where she has been used to paint a 'master' artist's paintings but naturally without any credit given.
Portrait of a Lady on Fire is a picturesque (cinematography by Claire Mathon (Atlantics/Atlantique (2019))) and delicious treat, a sort of lesbian counterpart to the short-term romance gay 'guilty pleasure' of recently, Luca Guadagnino's great Call My By Your Name (2017). - Short and sweet, turning to bittersweet and tears, as the passion it describes becomes but a burning memory.
The attraction is subdued and confined to looks and dialog for the majority of the film, which undoubtedly leaves some audiences a bit restless, before the genie is let out of its lamp so to speak. Then it is still much less explicit than many other recent romances, but plenty sensual, deftly utilizing the looks, the sounds of the surf and smoldering fire to render the heightened sense of existence such powerful feelings of love and desire provoke.
The title seems to work on two planes, as Adèle Haenel's (Ogres/Les Ogres (2015)) aristocrat subject literally catches fire at a beach-set bonfire scene one evening in the film, but also poetically seems to have her soul set afire by the sudden storm of love that she experiences with the other. Haenel and Noémie Merlant (The Brother (2016)) are both outstanding in the film.
Portrait of a Lady on Fire is a near-perfect portrayal of the rush, redemption and pain of finding love and losing it.

 

Related post:

 

2019 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 4 mil. €, approximately 4.45 mil. $
Box office: 9.7 mil. $ and counting
= Flop (has returned 2.17 times its cost so far)
[Portrait of a Lady on Fire premiered 19 May (Cannes Film Festival, in competition) and runs 120 minutes. Shooting took place from October - December 2018 in France. The film opened #39 to a 67k $ first weekend in 2 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #16 and in 334 theaters and grossed 3.7 mil. $ (28.1 % of the total gross). Its release was disrupted dramatically by the corona pandemic. The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets have been France with 2.3 mil. $ (23.7 %) and South Korea with 1 mil. $ (10.3 %). The film was shortlisted as France's submission for the Oscars but wasn't ultimately chosen. It was nominated for a Golden Globe, a BAFTA, won 2 awards in Cannes, 1/10 César award nominations, 1/3 European Film award nominations, nominated for an Independent Spirit award and won a National Board of Review award. IMDb's users have voted the film in at the site's Top 250 at #232, sitting between La Haine (1995) and It Happened One Night (1954). Sciamma has not announced her next project yet. Haenel has also not announced her next project yet; Merlant returned in Shakira (2019, short) and theatrically in Jumbo (2020). Portrait of a Lady on Fire is certified fresh at 98 % with a 9.01/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Portrait of a Lady on Fire?

Heartbeats/Les Amours Imaginaires (2010) - Dolan's second is the year's guilty pleasure #1

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1 Film Excess nomination:

Best Costumes: Xavier Dolan (lost to Pat Field for Sex and the City 2)

+ Best Canadian Movie of the Year
+ Best Youth Movie of the Year
+ Sexiest Movie of the Year

Xavier Dolan looks enamored and slightly annoyed, perhaps at being enamored, on the poster for his own Heartbeats

Two good, fashionable friends get a new friend, whom they both fall in love with and idealize, while he manipulates them.

Heartbeats, with the original French title Les Amours Imaginaires (which translates to 'the imaginary loves'), is the second feature from Canadian master writer-director Xavier Dolan (Mommy (2014)). It presents a story that seems ideal for a short film, which is then stretched to feature length. It thus comes off as a very light but also delightfully tender and elegant film of the little unhappy romances in life, and especially the ones that primarily remain fanciful.
Niels Schneider (Opium (2013)) is good as the favored Adonis, whose casual cat-and-mouse game with the two enamored 'friends' annoys me to the point where I just want to scratch his eyes out. Dolan himself is dreamy as the wildly frustrated Francis, and Monia Chokri (All Yours/Je Suis à Toi (2014)) is also divine, (although she smokes too much) as the equally frustrated Marie. They are a damn sexy trio.
The film can seem almost superficial due to its hyper-aestheticism (the neat cinematography is by Stéphanie Anne Weber Biron (I Killed My Mother/J'ai Tué Ma Mère (2009))) and thematical lightness, so it feels like a guilty pleasure still to dig Heartbeats in a big way. It employs the element of having younger people unrelated to the story discuss their love lives to the camera, which works for the most part, (and lengthens the film, which may have been the main reason for incorporating it.) Dolan has, as he likes to do, picked out the stylish costumes for the film himself.
Heartbeats is a sensuous, deliciously sounding style-soup of a film to savor, and I have enjoyed watching it several times.

Related posts:


Xavier Dolan:  2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]   
Mommy (2014) - Dolan has outdone himself and orchestrated the (probably) best film of the year
Tom at the Farm/Tom à la Ferme (2013) - Intense, eerie sub/dom-themed sex thriller (without sex)
Laurence Anyways (2012) - Dolan serves a stylish, jumbled, massive transsexualism tale 
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: Approximately 595k $
Box office: 588k $
= Big flop
[Heartbeats premiered May 16 (Cannes) and runs 101 minutes. It was made on a small budget and premiered in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes Film Festival. In the US, the film opened to a 7k $ first weekend in a single theater, widening to 10 theaters at its biggest, grossing 68k $ (11.6 % of the total gross). Its biggest markets were France/Canada with 411k $ (69.9 %) and Germany with 159k $ (27 %). The film played at various festivals and won the Sydney Film Festival's Best Film award. Heartbeats is certified fresh at 73 % with a 6.9 critical average on Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Heartbeats?

Weekend (2011) or, The Nottingham Romance Blues

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+ Best LGBT Movie of the Year

One of the really pretty posters for Andrew Haigh's Weekend

Our protagonist in Weekend is a soon middle-aged gay man in Nottingham, England, who has a one-night-stand after a night out. The two continue to talk and see each other again over the course of the following weekend. 

Weekend presents an intimate, (nearly crassly) realistic shortened romance. The acting by the two leads Tom Cullen (The Last Days on Mars (2013)) and Chris New (Chicken (2015), writer) is good, the concept is tight, and by the end of it, I was inevitably thinking back on romances in my own life, which were perhaps ended prematurely.
Nottingham looks like a less than enviable place to be gay in in Weekend. New's character Glen's gay identity is a little grating in its singularity, but perhaps this can be explained by his environment, - and in any case it isn't uncommon.
Weekend is a down-beat gem from great writer-director Andrew Haigh (Looking (2014-15)), his second feature, following Greek Pete (2009).

Related posts:
 
Andrew Haigh: Looking - season 2 (2015) - Patrick, Dom, Augustín and Co. reach the height of their potential
Looking - season 1 (2014) - Look for something real with your new Frisco friends
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III] 
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2011 in films - according to Film Excess  

Watch the trailer for the film here

Cost: 120k £ (approximately 170k $)
Box office: 1.1 mil. $
= Huge hit
[Weekend was filmed on location in Nottingham on a very small budget and has therefore become a runaway hit despite a pretty small gross. It played several festivals and received a handful of nominations and awards. It made 0.4 mil. $ (36 % of the total gross)) in North America.]

What do you think of Weekend?

My Week with Marilyn (2011) or, The Prince, the Showgirl and Me

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1 Time Film Excess Nominee:


Best Actress: Michelle Williams (lost to Bérénice Bejo for The Artist)

+ Best Period Movie of the Year

Michelle Williams really looks a lot like her character on the poster for Simon Curtis' My Week with Marilyn

We follow a young, well-off movie dreamer Colin Clark, who gets a job as 3rd assistant director on Laurence Olivier's light comedy The Prince and the Showgirl (1957) and falls for the film's American star, Marilyn Monroe.

Michelle Williams (Take This Waltz (2011)) is simply wonderful as Monroe, giving a truly Oscar-worthy performance, (she was nominated, but Meryl Streep won the award as The Iron Lady.) Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything (2014)) is sweet as Colin; Oscar-nominated Kenneth Branagh (Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014)) is solid as Olivier, who is played as something of a cold prick here; and Judi Dench (Philomena (2013)) and Dominic Cooper (Dead Man Down (2013)) give warm supporting performances.
My Week is a very beautiful film; both the romance, Monroe's profound loneliness and unhappiness and the intimidating aspect of performing are captured well in the film, which is written by Adrian Hodges (The Go-Between (2015)), based on two books by the real Colin Clark, and directed by Londoner Simon Curtis (Born in the USA (2007)) as his first theatrical feature.
The casting of Emma Watson (The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012)) as tiresome second banana, who doesn't exactly inspire our sympathy, is not exactly inspired, and the color use in the film, - especially in the scenes in the Prince and the Showgirl sets, - are not wild and rich enough in my opinion.
Still, these are minor detractors for a film that is both funny, sad and beautiful. - Recommended!
Curtis is currently out with his Woman in Gold (2015), in which Helen Mirren plays a Jew who lost a prestigious family painting in WWII.

Related posts:
 
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III] 
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2011 in films - according to Film Excess

Watch the delightful trailer for the film here

Cost: 10 mil. $
Box office: 35 mil. $
= Big hit
[My Week, a UK/US co-production, succeeded in America with a 14.5 mil. $ gross (41 % of the total gross) and 3.1 mil. £ (around 14 %) in the UK. Williams won a Golden Globe for her performance. The DVD sale opened #6 in the US, making 2.5 mil. $.]

What do you think of My Week with Marilyn?