Compiled by The New York Post, the list of Best Movie Lines of ’09 is as follows:

1 “I love my babies. Why would I want to push them away from me?” – hippie mom Maggie Gyllenhaal explaining why she’s opposed to strollers in Away We Go

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Was it difficult to work with director Sam Mendes since he is also a good friend of yours?

It wasn’t difficult. In fact, I think one of the most important things about working with a director is finding a way to trust him and feeling like he is seeing you – all the complicated subtle things that you’re doing. So if the director is a friend and you know him already you have both of those elements. Usually you have someone whom you trust and you have someone who sees you. So in my view it only makes it easier.

What have you discovered about motherhood that surprised you the most?

Oh, everything about being a mother has surprised me. I think anyone who is a mother will tell you that.

Is it true you have quit smoking?

Yes, yes it is.

You are seen as a sex symbol across the globe – do you feel like that?

I find myself much sexier than I did when I was 22, partly because I’m so much more in command than I was then. I used to wear the most awful fabrics and not care that they rubbed at my skin. Now I just want to be comfortable and I’ve realised that’s the sexiest thing of all.

Hollywood is obsessed by image. Has it made you more image-conscious?

I have never been someone who is excessively worried about how I look. I’m just a normal girl who thinks it is a pain when I can’t fit into my favourite pair of jeans – but it never bothers me enough to do anything about it. Saying that, we all go through days when we are paranoid about our bodies – it would be ridiculous to say I didn’t.

Everybody does.

Who is your fashion icon?

I would have to say, primarily, Audrey Hepburn. Especially in My Fair Lady. I was dumbstruck by the crown of diamonds. I love that film. She is amazing. I also admire Charlotte Gainsbourg and Julie Christie in their old films.

How would you describe your personal style?

It’s about expressing yourself: who you are and how you feel. Your clothes reflect who you are and what you are feeling inside. I use fashion as a way of thinking about who I am. I hold something up against my body and ask myself, ‘Can I wear this?’ If it doesn’t feel like ‘me’, then I suppose I ask myself why.

Jake Gyllenhaal is your younger brother – do you have any sibling rivalry with him?

I’m so bored with that question. I don’t feel competitive with him any more.

You and Jake did Donnie Darko together. Would you like to work together again?

We’re not planning to do it right now, but maybe at some point in the future. It was a lot of fun before. cns

Source ]]> http://maggie-gyllenhaal.net/2009/09/maggie-gyllenhaal-woman-in-command/feed/ 0 http://maggie-gyllenhaal.net/2009/09/away-we-go-debuts-at-little-theatre/ http://maggie-gyllenhaal.net/2009/09/away-we-go-debuts-at-little-theatre/#comments Tue, 08 Sep 2009 17:40:35 +0000 Connie http://maggie-gyllenhaal.net/?p=537 Kalamazoo Film Society presents “Away We Go,” starring Maya Rudolph, John Krasinski, Jeff Daniels, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Allison Janney, Friday through Sunday, Sept. 11-13, in the Little Theatre at Western Michigan University.

Show times are 7 and 9:30 p.m. Friday; 4:30, 7 and 9:30 p.m. Saturday; and 2:30, 5 and 7 p.m. Sunday. General admission is $5 and $3 for students with a valid ID.

This funny and heartfelt film follows the journey of a young expecting couple as they travel the nation in search of the perfect place to put down roots and raise their family. Along the way, they have misadventures and find fresh connections with assorted relatives and old friends who just might help them discover the true meaning of home.

Directed by Sam Mendes, the 2009 film is shown in English. It has a run time of 98 minutes and is rated R for adult language and some sexual content.

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Maggie drops in on “Good Day LA” to talk about her new role and shares how being a mother has affected her career.

Several of the film’s stars including Maggie Gyllenhaal and John Krasinski, from the US version of The Office, are due to join Mendes at the opening gala.

Sir Sean Connery, Alan Cumming and Frost/Nixon star Frank Langella are also expected to attend.

The 11-day festival will show 135 films, including 23 world premieres.

Cinematic setting

The festival’s artistic director Hannah McGill told the BBC Scotland news website: “Edinburgh has an intimacy that is very special: geographically it’s really manageable, and we try very hard to break down barriers between the audiences and the filmmakers.

“Of course there’s a glamour element and respect for the visiting talent, but we want the audience to really feel part of it.

“Also we have the advantage of being in one of the most beautiful cities in the world – Edinburgh is really a very special and particularly cinematic setting.”

Highlights include the world premiere of Le Donk, the new Shane Meadows movie, which features the Arctic Monkeys, and the European premiere of Steven Soderberg’s The Girlfriend Experience.

Director of The Wrestler, Darren Aronofsky, will be hosting an In Person session during the festival, as will legendary B-movie maker Roger Corman and elusive Scottish filmmaker Bill Forsyth.

BBC Radio Five Live’s Simon Mayo and film critic Mark Kermode will present their own brand of Wittertainment during a live audience event on Friday.

Ms McGill said it was difficult to choose the highlights from such a packed programme, however, she admitted The Crimson Wing, a portrait of the life cycles of flamingos in Tanzania, was a personal favourite.

She added: “I’m thrilled to be bringing two of my favourite actors, Diego Luna and Gael Garcia Bernal, to Edinburgh for the UK premiere of Carlos Cuaron’s Rudo & Cursi.

“I’m yet more thrilled that the great Joe Dante, director of Gremlins and Innerspace and Matinee, and now 3D pioneer, is going to be on hand – that’s my 80s childhood coming out.

“Then there’s Sharmila Tagore, one of the legends of both arms of Indian cinema: Bengali art film and commercial Bollywood cinema.

“She was the glamour girl of Indian cinema in the 60s.”

“And I’m overwhelmed that Mary Sweeney, the genius who edited the vast bulk of David Lynch’s films, has given us the world premiere of her directorial debut, Baraboo.”

Controversial film Antichrist, by Danish director Lars von Trier, has been added to the festival programme at the last minute.

The dark thriller featuring graphic scenes of sex and mutilation received a mixed reaction at the Cannes festival.

For the second time in the past six months, director Sam Mendes has come out with a film probing the anatomy of a relationship.

But “Away We Go,” starring “Saturday Night Live” alum Maya Rudolph and “The Office” regular John Krasinski as an expectant young couple grappling with where to put down roots, shares little else in common with “Revolutionary Road.”

The former has a much airier, freer vibe in contrast to the studied claustrophobia of the latter.

Despite the lightness of tone and lively turns by the likes of Allison Janney, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Catherine O’Hara, the soul-searching trip taken by its leads is not without the occasional overly purposeful bump in the road.

Even as summer counterprogramming, the Focus Features release could find it tricky luring its targeted female demographic away from such higher-profile openings as “My Life in Ruins” and, potentially, “The Hangover.”

A first-time feature collaboration between novelists Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida, “Away We Go” traces the geographical/spiritual journey undertaken by the introspective, six-months-pregnant Verona (Rudolph) and goofy Burt (Krasinski), who are trying to determine the best place to call home after his folks (O’Hara and Jeff Daniels) have announced they’re leaving Colorado for Belgium.

Included among the stops on the itinerary is Phoenix, home to Verona’s former business colleague, the wildly inappropriate Lily (a wildly appropriate Janney); then it’s off to Tucson to visit her sister, Grace (Carmen Ejogo), uncertain as to where her own relationship is headed.

Next comes Wisconsin, where Burt’s close family friend Ellen (the always-welcome Gyllenhaal) has become the totally Zen “LN” after hooking up with the smug Roderick (Josh Hamilton); and a stopover in Montreal, where Verona’s former classmates Tom (Chris Messina) and Munch (Melanie Lynskey) preside over a seemingly joyful household of adopted children.

Obviously each destination offers a snapshot of the various challenges inherent in carving out the family unit one would like to create as opposed to the family into which one was born.
But though it’s nice to see Mendes take a looser, not quite so studied approach to his filmmaking, some stops along the way — like a detour to visit Burt’s suddenly single brother (Paul Schneider) — feel dramatically off-course.

Production values have a nice, grassroots texture, including Ellen Kuras’ cinematography and John Dunn’s costume design, though musically the film could have packed a bit lighter where the extensive and occasionally intrusive acoustic song selection is concerned.

Opens: Friday, June 5 (Focus Features)

Hollywood Reporter

Who else will show up?