December 30, 2014

Happy New Year - 2015

Happy New Year to all! Live in hope as there is no other way.

Picture credit:Happy New Year Wall Papers.

December 21, 2014

Merry Christmas to all!

Enjoy your holidays and take care!

First clip by my friend Chris.

It features Mary Chapin Carpenter,Tommy Emmanuel, and Damien Leith.

Second clip is Jarrod Radnich's version of "I saw Three Ships".

December 19, 2014

John Lennon or Paul McCartney? 550 Matt Schichter Documentary Offers Answers

IT is pop music’s most polarising dilemma — Lennon or McCartney?

Canadian television personality Matt Schichter posed the question to 550 actors and musicians over a decade and has compiled the results in a 34 minute documentary.
He told them to answer the Beatles binary curveball in one word only.
Most of his interview subjects complied but some couldn’t help offering lengthy validations for their choice.Here it is:

Those on Team Lennon usually didn’t hesitate.

Many on Team McCartney felt compelled to explain themselves.

Counting Crows frontman Adam Duritz opined for more than a minute as to why he rates McCartney over Lennon.

He gave the bespectacled Beatle props for his lyrics but cited McCartney’s enduring melodies as the key to his greatness.

“I don’t know how one guy wrote so many pieces of music that I can hum 50 years later,” Duritz said.

“I don’t know how that’s possible. And that to me is such a rare thing.”

Several musicians said they preferred McCartney because of his voice or pointed at Helter Skelter as evidence of his songwriting genius. It was written by McCartney but credited to Lennon/McCartney.

Jakob Dylan was among the 9 per cent of entertainers polled who had no answer or offered McLennon.

“I'm not answering that one. And I never engage in The Beatles versus The Stones. There’s room for all of them,” Dylan said.

Australian filmmaker Baz Luhrmann also sat on the fence.

“As individuals they are absolutely brilliant, together they are something else,” he said.

Rock’n’roll pioneer Bo Diddley didn’t rate either Beatle.

“Neither. I don’t understand what they’re doing. Never have,” he said.

Schichter didn’t intend to make a doco out of the poll responses he had gathered over a decade of interviews.

“Honestly, there was no rhyme or reason. Just thought it was an interesting/telling question and the acts might enjoy the compilation,” he said.

A sample of Team Lennon includes Aaron Paul, Arctic Monkeys, David Byrne, Florence Welch, Gary Oldman, Justin Bieber, Kevin Spacey, Lady Gaga, LL Cool J, Morgan Freeman. Robert DeNiro, Sylvester Stallone, Sam Smith, Daniel Johns and Slash.

Those who answered McCartney included Dwayne Johnson, Ellie Goulding, Fall Out Boy, Franz Ferdinand, fun, Hanson, Selena Gomez, JJ Abrams, Katy Perry, Miss Piggy, Pete Townshend and Psy.

Personally, I am with Justin Long and pick George Harrison.

THE FINAL TALLY

Here were the most popular responses to Schichter’s decade-long poll:
John Lennon: 282
Paul McCartney: 196
No Answer: 50
George Harrison: 15
Ringo Starr: 4
Jimi Hendrix: 1
Lou Reed: 1
Oasis: 1 (That was from Metallica’s Lars Ulrich. We think he was joking)

By Kathy McCabe

With thanks to The Herald Sun

Related posts on The Beatles:
Freda Kelly Recalls Her Days of Working With the Beatles - "Good Ol' Freda"

George Harrison - My Favourite Beatle - "My Sweet Lord" Live

New Beatles Band May Form With Sons

George Harrison and Ringo Starr - It Don't come Easy

For sale: Beatles recording that led to the biggest mistake in music history

Ravi Shankar and George Harrison - Two Music Legends

Was John Lennon Really a Genius?

Ringo Starr: Solo Beatle's lonely art club brand

Becoming The Beatles

Sir Paul McCartney Gaining Back Rights To His Music in 2018, 2019?

John Lennon Reveals Torture of Beatles 'Let It Be' Album In Tape-recorded Interview Now Up For Auction

The Beatles Visit To Australia 1964 - Powerhouse Museum Exhibition

John Lennon's Childhood Home To Be Auctioned - Update: Sold for £480,000

Tom Pinch: Time - Lapse Portraits of Paul McCartney and John Lennon

Beatles’ Royal Variety Performance: Fifty Years ago!

John Lennon Set To Stir Up US Stamp Collectors

8th August 1969: The Beatles Waiting To Cross Abbey Road
‘Man on the Run’: New Book About Paul McCartney After The Beatles
Arthur Alexander: The Forgotten Songwriter Who Inspired The Beatles, Bob Dylan And The Rolling Stones

George Harrison's Apple Years Box Set To Be Released

The Art of McCartney Project

Glyn Johns: Defining That Classic-Rock Sound
Fender Stratocaster: A Design Icon At 60
The Traveling Wilburys: Their History
George Harrison and The Bee Gees To Receive Recording Academy Honors
Sir Paul McCartney To Induct Ringo Starr Into Hall Of Fame
'American Pie' Lyrics Sell For $1.2 million In New York

Penny Lane: Original On The Block, Minus The Fanfare
Lost Beatles US Concert Movie Blocked From Release
The Three Lennon-McCartney Hits That Went to No. 1 Without Lennon or McCartney
The Who Release First Song In 8 Years: Be Lucky
Beatles’ First Recording Contract to Be Auctioned For An Estimated $150,000
The Beatles 1 To Be Reissued With 50 Videos
John Lennon Born 75 Years Ago Today
George Harrison's Catalogue Is Now Streaming
John Lennon's Long-Lost Gibson J-160E Guitar Sells for Record $2.4 Million
Ringo Starr Reflects On His 35 Year Marriage
George Harrison: Tribute GeorgeFest Is Coming

John Lennon's Rock 'n' Roll Album - Update: Vale Sir George Martin
The Beatles Anthology: Streaming Now.
Unseen Beatles Footage Released
George Harrison Makes Guest Appearance On Eric Clapton's New Album
Unseen Beatles Footage Released
George Harrison - This is Love
Celebrating The Beatles' Revolver 50 Years On
The Beatles: Eight Days A Week - The Touring Years
The Beatles 'Love' And Cirque du Soleil
Long Lost Live Beatles Exhumed!
Sgt. Pepper Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles; It was 50 years ago today ...
Celebrating George Harrison

George Harrison and The Bee Gees To Receive Recording Academy Honors - A Lifetime Grammy

The Recording Academy has released it’s list of special award winners for this year’s ceremonies in February.

Receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award are the Bee Gees, below, Pierre Boulez, Buddy Guy, George Harrison, Flaco Jimenez, The Louvin Brothers and Wayne Shorter. The Lifetime Achievement Award honors performers who have made contributions of outstanding artistic significance to the field of recording.

Above: Flaco Jiménez & Ry Cooder perform "La Bamba".

The Trustees Award goes to Richard Perry, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil and George Wein. The Trustees Award is the equivalent of the Lifetime Achievement except it recognizes such contributions in areas other than performance.

The Technical Grammy will go to Ray Kurzweil, the man who developed the first electronic instrument to realistically create the musical response of real instruments.

Each honoree will be recognized at a special ceremony on Saturday, February 7 and acknowledged at the Grammy ceremony the next night.

“This year we pay tribute to exceptional creators who have made prolific contributions to our culture and history,” said Recording Academy President/CEO Neil Portnow. “It is an honor and a privilege to recognize such a diverse group of talented trailblazers, whose incomparable bodies of work and timeless legacies will continue to be celebrated for generations to come.”

About the Lifetime Achievement Award Honorees:
The Bee Gees, comprising of brothers Barry, Maurice* and Robin Gibb*, were one of the most successful groups in pop history with hits such as “Stayin’ Alive,” “How Can You Heal A Broken Heart” and “How Deep Is Your Love.” The trio’s contributions to the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack made it one of the best-selling soundtracks of all time, selling more than 15 million copies in the United States and garnering the group four GRAMMYs, including Album Of The Year and Producer Of The Year.

French composer Pierre Boulez is internationally renowned having conducted the Südwestfunk Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra and BBC Symphony Orchestra. He served as musical director of the New York Philharmonic from 1971-1977. The 26-time GRAMMY winner continues to be one of the most influential music creators within the classical genre.

Six-time GRAMMY winner Buddy Guy is one of the most celebrated blues guitarists of all time. Throughout his more than 50-year career, Guy has influenced generations of guitar players with his unique sound and style. Guy released his most recent album, Rhythm & Blues in 2013, and continues to tour.

Multi-instrumentalist and singer/songwriter George Harrison* achieved international fame as a member of the Beatles, one of the most influential groups of all time. The 12-time GRAMMY winner’s embrace of Indian music is often credited with helping introduce world music to the West. As a solo artist, Harrison achieved success with projects such as his GRAMMY Hall Of Fame® inducted album All Things Must Pass and The Concert For Bangladesh, the latter of which garnered an Album Of The Year GRAMMY.

Five-time GRAMMY winner Flaco Jiménez has enjoyed a career that has spanned more than six decades, throughout which, he has collaborated with artists such as Bob Dylan, Ry Cooder, Doug Sahm, and Carlos Santana among others. Jiménez has maintained a huge influence on the Tex-Mex genre by continuing to record and tour, as he upholds his status as the definitive Tex-Mex accordionist.

Ira and Charlie Loudermilk, better known as the Louvin Brothers*, rank among the top duos in country music history. Originally beginning their careers in gospel music, and eventually incorporating secular pop songs, they landed a record deal with Capitol Records and quickly became household names in the 1950’s. Eventually the brothers launched solo careers, continuing to set a blueprint for future generations of country and rock musicians.

Saxophonist and composer Wayne Shorter began his jazz career at the tender age of 16. With a successful solo career, his tenure with Weather Report and his milestone collaborations with Miles Davis and John Coltrane, Shorter has distinguished himself as a leading figure in jazz. As a composer, the 10-time GRAMMY winner is best known for jazz standards such as “Footprints” and “JuJu,” among others.

About the Trustees Award Honorees:
Richard Perry is one of the most successful producers in pop music history with a career spanning more than four decades. He has produced classic recordings for such legendary artists as Ray Charles, Neil Diamond, Carly Simon, Ringo Starr, and Barbra Streisand among others. In 1978 Perry launched Planet Records, an independent label that produced many successful hits for artists including the multi-GRAMMY-winning group the Pointer Sisters. Perry continues to work as an independent producer.

The two-time GRAMMY-winning songwriting duo of Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil has created such an impressive body of work within the past four decades that their compositions have been described as “a soundtrack of our lives.” This husband-and-wife team has written hit songs such as “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin'” (with Phil Spector), “On Broadway” (with Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller), “Here You Come Again,” “Never Gonna Let You Go,” “Just Once,” and “We Gotta Get Out Of This Place” among others. Mann and Weil have also composed scores for several film and theatre projects and they continue to explore new creative avenues.

American jazz promoter and producer George Wein is recognized as the founder of the Newport Jazz Festival, which celebrated its 60th anniversary in August 2014. Wein’s pioneering spirit includes incorporating sponsor association along with partnering the original concept of an outdoor music event that would later serve as the impetus for festivals: Monterey Jazz Festival, Woodstock, Lollapalooza, Coachella, and Bonnaroo. Through his production company Festival Productions, he would go on to produce the Newport Folk Festival, which he created with folk icon Pete Seeger in 1959, and the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, which he founded in 1970. Wein celebrated his 90th birthday in October 2014 and continues to creatively influence and advance the concept of live music.

About the Technical GRAMMY Award Recipients:
Ray Kurzweil is an American author, computer scientist, inventor, and is the current director of engineering at Google. He is credited as the principal innovator of omni-front optical character recognition, text-to-speech synthesis, and speech recognition technology.

Kurzweil founded Kurzweil Music Systems and in 1984 introduced the Kurzweil K250, the first computer-based instrument that could realistically recreate the musical response of a grand piano and other orchestra instruments. PBS selected Kurzweil as one of its “They Made America” series.

*Denotes posthumous.

With thanks to Noise 11

Related:

Robyn Gibb's Solo Album Now Relased

Bob Stanley's Book:Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!: The Story of Pop from Bill Haley to Beyoncé

Barry Gibb: The Last Bee Gee

George Harrison to receive Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award

The Recording Academy announced that the others to be honoured were pop music band the Bee Gees, blues guitarist Buddy Guy, French composer Pierre Boulez, Texas Tejano musician Flaco Jiménez, country music duo the Louvin Brothers, and jazz composer and saxophonist Wayne Shorter.

“This year, we pay tribute to exceptional creators who have made prolific contributions to our culture and history,” the Academy's President-CEO Neil Portnow said in a press statement.

Describing the Beatles' composer, singer and guitarist, George Harrison, as a 'multi-instrumentalist', the Recording Academy said in its statement that his embracing of Indian music had often been credited with helping to introduce world music to the West.

In Aug 1971, Harrison, a 12-time Grammy winner, and his friend sitar maestro Ravi Shankar organised a benefit concert at the Madison Square Garden in New York.

The show was meant to raise international awareness of the 1971 Liberation War and fund relief efforts for the refugees, who had fled Bangladesh and taken shelter in the neighbouring Indian states of West Bengal, Tripura and Assam.

The historic 'Concert for Bangladesh' was followed by a bestselling live album, which went on to be the Album of the Year in the 15th Grammy Awards in 1972.

With thanks to BDNews 24

There are other posts on George Harrison. Please use the search function or click on the pictures of George and The Beatles in the side bar.

Sir Paul McCartney To Induct Ringo Starr Into Hall Of Fame

Robyn Gibb's Solo Album Now Relased

Bob Stanley's Book:Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!: The Story of Pop from Bill Haley to Beyoncé

Traveling Wilburys To Travel Into New Territory - Streaming

December 18, 2014

Led Zeppelin's Master Guitarist Jimmy Page Is Writing New Songs - Updated

In an interview with the U.K.'s biggest music magazine Jimmy Page said this week that he's not just about remastering old Led Zeppelin material, as he did in a project just completed. He is also, he said, still moving forward musically.

Page, set to turn 71 in January, said he's written new material and is nearly ready to present it. Or ready to get ready to be ready. "I'm playing guitar at the moment,” Page told the Classic Rock mag. “Because I'm getting ready. Starting to get ready."

The guitar wizard appears to have given up ideas for a Led Zeppelin reunion, as much thanks to Robert Plant's absolute refusal to do so as his own need to move on. Perhaps more than any rock musician now so old, Page gets requests and plenty of attention and he's active always, but much of it seems to be connected to Led Zeppelin and the past.

He just published an autobiography stuffed with 600 photographs, each one chosen by himself. Jimmy Page by Jimmy Page comes after a similar book he released in 2010, over 700 photos, most of Led Zeppelin. The 2010 book was published by Genesis Books, the same publisher for his latest, but it was a pricey, well-bound, limited edition that cost at the time about £450, a hefty $700 American. It sold out to collectors quickly.

In August of 2011 Page put up a Jimmy Page website, a memory-inducing and varied site that features photos and interviews. It also features "on this day" recaps, telling us where Led Zeppelin was, and sometimes where rock n' roll and the world was, on the same date back in, primarily, the 60s and 70s.

In the interview Page, awarded an Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2005 for all the charity work he's done, didn't sound prepared to simply turf the past and replace it with a new venture. But he's not completely got a hold of it and more than once in the talk he said that often he does not know what he's doing until he's doing it. "Whatever I do, I don't want people to have made up their minds before I've done it," Page said. "They already have. On the internet, people are telling me, 'you're doing this, and you're doing that'. Am I? You just wait and see what I do. I've got new material that I’ve written, and it will be surprising."

Despite those surprises the past won't entirely be abandoned, not at all. It just won't be the only focus. “I don’t want to go out there and bore people,” he said. “If I was doing a show or something, I’d like to show what I’ve done along the way but definitely have musical surprises for people so they wouldn’t start yawning.”

This isn't the first time in 2014 that he's spoken about getting back to it. During a trip to the U.S. in the Spring, Page told the Boston Globe it was time. "It's definitely time," he said. "I won't say to start dusting down the guitar, it doesn't need dusting down, but time to get together with some musicians and be seen to be playing.

That's the important thing." Around the same time he told Rolling Stone: "I've got lots of material I've written on acoustic guitar. Lots and lots. Right now I need to get myself up to speed, and that won't take too long. "I don't know what musicians I'd play with. I do have material and a passion for it; I need to work towards it, and now I can without all the other side issues going on. I play guitar at least once a week.

Now the Zeppelin project is finished, I'll be playing daily for the foreseeable future." In the end though, nothing is set or much closer than in the Spring. Which is perhaps the reason we can't resist this: It's been a long time since he rock and rolled, been a long time, been a long time, been a long lonely, lonely....time.

And it looks like it will be even longer.

By Marcus Hondro

With thanks to Digital Journal

Picture credit and lots more information with many thanks to John Reiber

This post is for Mario!

Jimmy Page To Release Sound Tracks Album

Led Zeppelin guitar legend Jimmy Page will release a box set of his two film soundtracks expanded with never before released music.

‘Sound Tracks’ will feature music composed by Page for the two movies he worked on ‘Death Wish II’ (1982) and ‘Lucifer Rising’ (2012).
According to Page “The archive material and work included here serve as an illustration of the ongoing process at the time of these two projects.”
The collection will be available as a 4CD, 4 vinyl or signed deluxe edition.
‘Sound Tracks’ will be available in March.

By Paul Cashmere

Preview, and thanks to Noise 11

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Glyn Johns: Defining That Classic-Rock Sound
Is Led Zeppelin's 'Whole Lotta Love' Really The Best Guitar Riff Ever?
Led Zeppelin Physical Graffiti Remaster Coming February
Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant And Jimmy Page Face 'Stairway To Heaven' Trial
The Weirdest Musical Instruments
Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page Denies Stealing Stairway To Heaven Riff
Led Zeppelin To Pay Copyright Legal Costs

The Best Movies Of 2014 - Updated

This list is compiled by Leigh Paatsch so it is a personal version, and very likely to fit with many others' opinions. I have seen quite a few of them, and tend to agree with many movies listed here. Note the number of biographies.
If you visit the source there is also a list of the 10 Worst Movies.

1.12 Years A Slave
The best film released this year tackled a type of subject matter that Hollywood has conspicuously avoided exploring in too much detail for far too long. A film as complex, compelling and confronting as 12 Years a Slave not only reignites a familiar sense of outrage about a shameful past. It also promotes a fresh understanding of a terrible era in US history.

2. The Grand Budapest Hotel
A sprawling, lavish and highly enjoyable escape from reality, a fictional five-star crash-pad in an equally fictional corner of eastern Europe. The famously micro-managed visuals of director Wes Anderson are further enhanced by the surprising comic smarts of Ralph Fiennes. (I loved this movie! See this post.)

3.Gone Girl
Gillian Flynn's sensational 2012 best-seller copped a malevolently mischievous adaptation from one of the best directors around, David Fincher (The Social Network). An entertainingly provocative film, it set tongues wagging and minds racing in the trashy tradition of Basic Instinct and Fatal Attraction.

4. The Lego Movie
The anything-goes creative ethos that is the very spirit of Lego was applied to all levels of this stunning animated production. The movie's conceptual agility never ceased to dazzle, the all-Lego visuals both innovated and resonated at heights only previously scaled by Pixar.

5.Whiplash
Never the typical underdog-triumphs-against-all-odds anyone expects it to be. This gripping double character study of an aspiring student drummer and his oppressive instructor follows its own powerful beat to a frenzied conclusion. Young lead Miles Teller is a dead-set star of the future.

6.Ida
The best foreign-language film of 2014 by a clear space. A minimal plot concerning a young Polish woman visiting her only known relative is magnified by mesmerising direction and astonishing B&W cinematography. Not a single frame, line or gesture is out of place. Find and cherish this film.

7.The Wolf Of Wall Street
Just as Leonardo DiCaprio was unforgettable as the infamous Jordan Belfort - the man who put the "broke" in stockbroker - so too was the scorched-earth direction of veteran Martin Scorsese. He attacked this immorality tale with energy and menace.

8.Dallas Buyers Club
The compelling true story of a man who turned a life sentence into a career opportunity. This little indie affair burst from nowhere to have a big impact at the last Oscars, thanks largely to a virtuoso performance from the once-maligned (and now-venerated) Matthew McConaughey.

9. Nightcrawler
If Jake Gyllenhaal wasn't already the most consistently gifted actor in the business, this unsettling portrayal of an ambitious TV cameraman removes all doubt. A movie that gives all white-lying media types the black-eye they deserve.

10.Force Majeuere
An icy cold psychological drama that chills both to and through the bone. After an avalanche strikes a posh French ski resort, a single question remains: did one man make a run for it before his wife and child were out of harm's way?

AND THE NEXT TEN

11. Boyhood
12. Interstellar
13. Nebraska
14. Her
15. Snowpiercer
16. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
17. Paddington
18. The Skeleton Twins
19. Guardians of the Galaxy
20. These Final Hours

With thanks to the Herald Sun

And here's another list with some over-laps:

A very good year for Matthew McConaughey with three movies in these two lists.

2014 has given us some brilliant films. Sure there have been a few flops, and even some serious political issues in the industry such as the trouble between North Korea and Sony following the studio’s planned release of the film The Interview. But overall, it’s been a positive year for moviegoers, with a wide choice of blockbusters and more insightful arthouse films gracing our screens.

With so many excellent films to choose from, the Billionaires team has had a hard time narrowing it down to just 10 of our favourites, but we’ve done it, so here they are, the Billionaires top ten films of the year for 2014. Enjoy!

Wolf of Wall Street
After winning a bidding war with Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio paid former New York stockbroker Jordan Belfort $1 million for the rights to become the Wolf of Wall Street. Costing over $100 million (AU$122.3 million) to make, this controversial flick grossed over $392 million worldwide, making it Martin Scorsese’s highest grossing film. Star man Leo took home around $100 million for his contribution but Jonah Hill, who plays Jordan’s sleazy sidekick Donnie Azoff, settled for the industry minimum $60,000 – he was just so stoked to be part of a Scorsese movie.

To be honest, how could we not pick The Wolf of Wall Street for the Billionaires list? This film is all about excess: excessive wealth, excessive drug taking, excessive risk taking, excessive sex, excessive swearing and excessive law breaking. DiCaprio takes the audience on a rollercoaster ride through the world of finance and boy is it a thrilling journey.

Interstellar
British director Christopher Nolan knows how to make a blockbuster. He delivered the hugely successful Batman Dark Knight trilogy and he crafted the immensely ambitious dream-in-a-dream-in-a-dream world of Inception. Building on Nolan’s previous successes, Interstellar is a visually captivating tale on an incredible scale.

Masterminded by scientific genius Professor Brand (Michael Caine), Nasa pilot Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) embarks on an intergalactic space journey through a wormhole that was created by an unknown alien species, in search of a new home for humanity.
The making of this movie, which involved transporting 10,000 pounds worth of mock spaceships to Iceland, planting 500 acres of corn to be destroyed in an apocalyptic dust scene and the construction of three complex space crafts, cost $165 million. So far it has grossed a tremendous $622 million worldwide. That’s what you call a blockbuster.

Boyhood
Financially speaking, the $4 million spent on the creation of Boyhood pales in comparison to the budgets of other films on this list. But when you consider that Ellar Coltrane, the actor playing the main character in Linklater’s latest flick, started filming at the tender age of seven and finished the project 11 years later when he was an 18-year-old adolescent it is easy to see what all the fuss is about.
Filmed intermittently over an 11-year period, Boyhood is an intimate portrayal of a parent-child relationship that is unprecedented in scope. It was met with almost unanimous critical acclaim and took top gong at several film festivals.

The Grand Budapest Hotel
Auteur filmmaker Wes Anderson is known for his fast-paced, character-driven comedies and his distinctive storybook visual style. The Grand Budapest Hotel is no exception to this trend; it is a delicious filmic feast of obsessively symmetrical camera shots and meticulously designed miniature props that are brought to life by the narrator’s quirky and, at times, melancholy voiceover.

Anderson has assembled a characteristically star-studded cast but particular praise must be given to actor Ralph Fiennes who plays the hotel’s fastidious concierge with exceptional vigour and masterful wit.

Blue Jasmine
Lauded by critics as Woody Allen’s best film in years, Blue Jasmine features a famously good performance from Oscar winner Cate Blanchett as Jasmine, the deluded ex-wife of a fraudulent financier. It is a fascinating look into the complexities of socialite culture.
When Jasmine’s husband is imprisoned for running a Ponzi scheme her life begins to unravel. Robbed of her affluent identity, deluded and arrogant Jasmine struggles to adapt to a life of little money with her sister Ginger (Sally Hawkins). Tinged with dark humour throughout, Allen’s expert storytelling and Blanchett’s magnificent acting make this film a masterpiece of pathos.

Haider
This modern-day Bollywood adaption of William Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet is a remarkable feat of flamboyance and subtlety. With the visual resplendence and lively soundtrack that you would expect from a Bollywood flick, Haider manages to retain the key plot themes and intricacies of Shakespeare’s classic play, whilst simultaneously dealing with the controversial contemporary issue of political turmoil in Kashmir.
Polished production values and a powerful cast add weight to Director Vishal Bhardwaj’s most accomplished movie to date.

12 Years a Slave
Triple Oscar winner 12 Years a Slave is not just one of the year’s best films; it is also one of the year’s most important. This historical drama tells the real life story of Solomon Northup, a black man kidnapped and sold into slavery in 1841. It is a harrowing and detailed account of the barbarity of slavery but also of the complex relationships between master and slave.
Shot with virtuoso Spanish painter Francisco Goya in mind, the film has an exquisite visual quality atypical to the gritty subject matter. The power and poignancy of 12 Years a Slave helped it win Best Picture, Best Director (Steve McQueen) and Best Supporting Actress (Lupita Nyongo’o) at the Oscars, Best Drama at the Golden Globes and Best Film at the BAFTAS, where formidable Chiwetel Ejiofor also picked up the award for Best Actor.

Nightcrawler
An indicting comment on the erosion of newsroom ethics and the state of the jobs market, this pulse pounding thriller delivers a raw yet sleek insight into the underbelly of Los Angeles.

Jake Gyllenhaal’s exceptional performance as Lou Bloom, an amateur filmmaker/ambulance chaser well versed in the diction of self-help gurus but with little regard for the law, could well steal the Oscar for Best Actor in the New Year. Lou’s sickly charm and drive for success help accelerate his ‘career’ at an alarming rate, equalled only by the blistering speed of the thrilling car chase scene that brings this mesmerising modern masterpiece to a close.

Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom
An inspiring and moving cinematic account of the great man’s 1995 autobiography of the same name, Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom chronicles Nelson Mandela’s life-long fight to end apartheid in South Africa. Worth watching for Idris Elba’s magnetic central performance alone.

The Great Beauty
Winner of Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars, the Golden Globes and the British Academy Film Awards, our final choice is Paolo Sorrentino’s luxuriant depiction of Rome during the Berlusconi years and it demands your attention.
The Great Beauty, or La Grande Bellezza in Italian, is a gorgeous reflection on the decadent life of prodigal novelist turned gossip columnist Jep Gambardella (Toni Servillo). Though adorned with nonpareil memories of lavish parties and exclusive social events, Jep starts to question the purpose of his life when he learns that his first love has passed away.

This list with thanks to Billionaires Australia

Grand Budapest Hotel amid BAFTA contenders

COMIC confection The Grand Budapest Hotel is the surprise front runner for the British Academy Film Awards, while English acting darlings Eddie Redmayne and Benedict Cumberbatch are competing in the best-actor category.

WES Anderson's Hotel received 11 nominations on Friday, including best picture and best director.

Ralph Fiennes was nominated for best actor as the unflappable concierge of a chaotic European hostelry.

Acting nominees also include Michael Keaton, as a washed-up actor aiming for a comeback in Birdman. The Alejandro Inarritu-directed movie was nominated in 10 categories, as was James Marsh's The Theory of Everything, which stars Redmayne as physicist Stephen Hawking.

Redmayne said his acting nomination was "beyond imagination".

He insisted he felt no rivalry with Cumberbatch, who was nominated for playing World War II code breaker Alan Turing in The Imitation Game. That film received nine nominations.

"One can try and create a rivalry but it will not happen!" Redmayne said from Los Angeles.

"We both absolutely understand people wanting to pitch us against each other, but we are old, old friends and I think he is the most wonderful actor. He is sensational in The Imitation Game and I love watching him. "

Jake Gyllenhaal is also nominated for his performance as a sleazy journalist in Nightcrawler.

But there was no recognition for Timothy Spall, whose performance as artist JMW Turner in Mr Turner took the best-actor prize at Cannes.

Best-actress contenders are Felicity Jones for The Theory of Everything, Amy Adams for Big Eyes, Julianne Moore for Still Alice, Rosamund Pike for Gone Girl and Reese Witherspoon for Wild.

Other front runners include Richard Linklater's decade-spanning Boyhood and Damien Chazelle's drumming drama Whiplash. They have five nominations each.

The best-picture nominees are Birdman, Boyhood, The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Imitation Game and The Theory of Everything.

The separate category of best British picture includes The Imitation Game and The Theory of Everything alongside tense Northern Ireland drama '71, alien chiller Under the Skin and animated ursine adventure Paddington.

Winners of the awards, known as BAFTAs, will be decided by 6500 members of the British film academy and announced at London's Royal Opera House on February 8.

The British prizes are seen as an indicator of likely success at Hollywood's Academy Awards, whose nominees are announced next week.

With thanks to The Australian

Complete list of Golden Globe winners here.

Here is the list of 2015 Oscar winners.

Oscar Winners 2016: The Full List

Tina Turner: What’s Age Got To Do With It?
Sylvester Stallone: Not Feeling Old!
Hedy Lamarr - Beauty And Brains in Abundance
Charlie Chaplin: The Birth Of The Tramp
Alfred Hitchcock: Mysteries Of The Master Of Suspense
Carlos Gardel And The Tango In Movies
Audrey Hepburn Quotes
Biopics Now Focus On Key Moments Rather Than A Whole Life
Christopher Nolan’s "Interstellar": Is The Science Accurate?
Joni Mitchell: Why She Blocked Taylor Swift For Biopic Role
Top 10 Best Actress Oscar Winners Ever?
The Sound of Music at 50: Still Our Favourite thing?
10 Historically Inaccurate Movies
10 Historical Movies That Mostly Get It Right
Woman in Gold: Another Biopic For Dame Helen Mirren
Queen Latifah To Play Bessie Smith
The 100 Greatest Movie Characters
Burt Bacharach Brings Back The Hits: From Marlene Dietrich to Glastonbury
Alfred Hitchcock: Mysteries Of The Master Of Suspense
"Love and Mercy" - A Review Of The Brian Wilson Biopic
Top 10 Movie Sets Ever Built
23 James Bond Themes And How They Charted
Sophia Loren Quotes
Michael Douglas: The Hemsworth Brothers And Hugh Jackman Are Hollywood Gold
After Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, The Hemsworths, Where Are The Men Of The Movies?
How Groucho Marx Invented Modern Comedy
Marilyn Monroe: Fashioning The Myth And The Reality
Gregory Peck: Hollywood Legend
Florence Foster Jenkins: Meryl Streep's Latest Biopic
Citizen Kane: Orson Welles’s Masterpiece, As A 1941 NYT Critic Saw It
"The Man Who Knew Infinity" Review - Jeremy Irons And Dev Patel
New Book: Mom In The Movies By Richard Corliss
The 100 Greatest American Films
Loving Vincent: The World's First Fully Painted Film
The Lasting Legacy Of The Good, The Bad And the Ugly
Are These The Top 10 Songs Named After Famous People?
Judy Garland: Happy Birthday!
Marilyn Monroe: Her Secret Diary
The Rolling Stones: A New Movie About The Making of 'Exile on Main Street'

Steven Spielberg: Is He A Lost Talent?

Re -Train Your Brain To Happiness