Clip from 'Take This Waltz'

Really, this scene should be filler -- something the audience waits to get to the other side of -- but Polley's direction brings it to life. Second-to-second you can't take your eyes off and it's loaded with subtext and subtle reveals about these characters and their marriage. On the surface, very nice. But look deeper and there's something else there -- something not even these two are aware of -- yet it's thematically central to the plot.

What's on the page (if anything) couldn't be captured by another director. This is all Polley -- she scores.



















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Clip from 'Take This Waltz'

Wow -- Sarah Silverman. How many actors can even keep up with Michelle Williams. This scene nails it to the wall.

















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Stop What You're Doing: New Trailer for Sarah Polley's 'Take This Waltz'

At least I think it's new. Anyway, no matter -- every moment is perfect. Polley is one of the best writer/directors out there.

Brilliant.


















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Richard Roeper Reviews Sarah Polley's 'Take This Waltz'

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New Poster for 'Take This Waltz' Breathes

Love this one sheet. This looks like a still from the movie (as opposed to a shot done expressly for a poster). Subtle direction by Sarah Polley is evident. I think she's one of the best helmers working. You rarely see this kind of acting and directors rarely care to shoot for this level. Those that do usually don't succeed.

Obviously, a great addition to Michelle Williams' portfolio, but this may also be a turning point for Seth Rogen.

Beautiful clip from a couple days ago

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Shining Clip from Sarah Polley's 'Take This Waltz'

Fantastic stuff. Luke Kirby and Michelle Williams deliver a live-wire performance in a demanding scene -- like something out of a theater workshop (there isn't any dialogue and they convey the most subtle shifts).

Great arc: From them forcing themselves to enjoy the ride to be polite, to the swaying (everyone in the audience will want them to kiss), to her really getting off on the music and being with him, to the comical return to reality when the lights go up and the music stops.

Superbly executed. What surely looked dumb on the page springs to life under Polley's direction. 'Take This Waltz' is must-see. The reason a lot of us go to the movies.



















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Clip from Sarah Polley's 'Take This Waltz'

Camera and editing are utilitarian, but okay (some would say preferable) in the you-are-there sense. Nonetheless, scene plays brilliantly. Polley gets stuff nobody else can. In fact, I'm not sure anybody else even tries.

Get More: Movie Trailers, Movies Blog

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New Poster for Sarah Polley's 'Take This Waltz' -- Title Emphasis Moving Backwards!

I'm not sure it means anything -- it surely can't -- but this new poster emphasizes the word 'this' in the title

whereas the first one emphasized the word 'waltz'.

Okay, there's a pattern. We're moving backward from the last word to the first. As such the next poster in the series, should it follow this pattern, will emphasize the word 'take' in the title.

You heard it here first...
























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Sarah Polley's Trailers are Visual Poetry

Polley establishes characters with more depth and more fully realized backstory, and elicits more sympathy for them and their plight, even within the restrictions of a trailer, even without utilizing dialogue, than most directors manage to conjure up over the course of an entire movie.

Here are the trailers for 'Take This Waltz' and 'Away From Her'. Watching them is like going to the movies. It's visual poetry. It's almost unfair to other filmmakers.
















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Poster for Sarah Polley's 'Take This Waltz'

trailer

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Charming Trailer for Sarah Polley's 'Take This Waltz'

If you don't know the name Polley made an impressive directorial debut with the acclaimed 'Away From Her'.

The thing about this trailer (that I certainly wasn't expecting) is a heartfelt non-actorly vibe from all the crew. Not a stretch with someone like Michelle Williams but nice to see from Seth Rogen and Sarah Silverman, who you just figure will have an edge, a sort of put-on.

I've been waiting for this since I first heard it was a go. Looks great.

















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Touchy-Feely Sci-Fi Thriller?

I can't help but think certain scenes from 'Splice' will have a lot of audiences squirming in their seats trying not to snicker. Seems too cerebral to be a mainstream hit, but may do well as a rental.

Sarah Polley

Laura Winters at WP has a nice write-up on Sarah Polley, who sidestepped a traditional Hollywood acting career to work with directors that interested her like Michael Winterbottom and Wim Wenders. Her development shows -- her directorial debut 'Away From Her' has the polish of a long-time pro lenser. The technique in the still below of Julie Christie is impressive -- the character is in the right half of the frame and is looking to the right, which throws the frame out of balance and is a visual metaphor for the disorientation of memory loss -- more than you would expect from a young director's first film. Winters quotes Polley:

In the past, Polley was said to dislike interviews, so it's a welcome surprise to find her so open. "The press stuff...felt like a charade where I had to play some role so the journalist would have enough to write about. But now, having directed this movie, I've found my place within this process where I can be myself. I don't feel fraudulent talking about my film."

'Away From Her' is based on the short by the formidable Alice Munro, The Bear Came Over the Mountain. Story is about a woman whose memory is fading as Alzheimer's takes its toll -- but thematically, I believe, it's about what it is to be human.

That Polley was willing to tackle an adaptation of Munro, and could convince the reticent Julie Christie (pictured above) to do another movie speaks volumes for the future of this director. Here is Winters on Christie's involvement:

Christie is elusive in a literal sense, too. "I'm not, as Sarah put it so beautifully, the most ambitious of actresses," she says in Toronto during the festival, sitting on a sofa with her legs curled under her. "I could see that this was a wonderful script, but it was entering turf that wasn't perhaps where I wanted to be. So I resisted for a long time."

Finally, Christie underwent a change of heart and turned in a performance that has people already talking about an Oscar nomination.

'Away From Her' has received strong reviews from the Berlin, Toronto, and Sundance festivals, and is in limited release.

Away From Her

'Away From Her' is the directorial debut by Sarah Polley, and is shaping up to be one of the most interesting movies of the year. The previews I've seen promise a thoughtful story.

The movie, based on the writing of Alice Munro, is about a man who must put his wife in a nursing home. As Alzheimer's progressively diminishes her memory she forgets that the man is her husband, and starts a relationship with another patient at the home. Sarah Polley talks with Terry Gross on NPR's Fresh Air.

The picture stars Julie Christie, Gordon Pinsent, and Olympia Dukakis. Dukakis, whose mother had Alzheimer's, talks with Scott Simon.