The world premiere of Miral was held yesterday at the Venice International Film Festival, and now the first reviews are here! It’s been given mixed-to-poor reviews by the US critics, saying that it doesn’t quite live up the high expectations everyone had after Julian Schnabel’s last movie The Diving Belle and the Butterfly. I’ve featured some of the reviews below.

Remember, these are only a first look at reviews for Miral, I will make another post of reviews where top industry critics are included closer to the release date.

While any film addressing the Israeli-Palestinian divide can expect a measure of controversy, few hearts or minds are likely to be stirred by Julian Schnabel’s inoffensive, well-intentioned “Miral.” Schnabel’s signature blend of splintered storytelling and sobering humanism feels misapplied to this sweeping multigenerational saga of four Arab women living under Israeli occupation, the youngest of which, Miral, emerges a bland totem of hope rather than a compelling movie subject. A year-end Stateside release date will raise expectations unlikely to be borne out by either passionate critical response or sustained arthouse biz.
[...]
Bound to raise perhaps the most criticism is the casting of Pinto, the Indian actress-model who came to fame in “Slumdog Millionaire,” in the role of an Arab Everygirl — an odd choice for a drama predicated on specifics of cultural identity. While Pinto looks appropriately willful, driven and occasionally fierce as Miral clashes with her loving guardians (and is later whipped in prison for her suspected terrorist involvement), neither she nor the material convincingly demonstrates why, of the countless stories that have been told about the conflict, this one was worth singling out.

• Justin Chang, Variety

Some of the dialogue in Miral is portentous in the extreme. Characters deliver lines like “this is a very crucial moment for our country – our people can’t take it any more” rather than speaking in anything that remotely resembles normal speech. There are distracting cameos from stars like Vanessa Redgrave and Willem Dafoe, who are on screen for a few moments and then disconcertingly disappear from the story without trace. Schnabel is covering three generations but his storytelling style is more cumbersome than nimble. At its most leaden, this is more like a school lecture in Middle Eastern history than it is a piece of drama. Newsreel footage is thrown into the mix in heavy-handed fashion and characters – as they age – suddenly go very grey. Quiet domestic scenes and climactic political moments are juxtaposed in seemingly random manner. Even so, it’s hard not to root for Husseini (played with great dignity by Abbass) as she tries to educate the orphan kids and thereby save them from a rootless existence in the refugee camps. Miral herself is played very engagingly by Freida Pinto as a mischievous and idealistic teenager with an acute sense of natural justice.

• Geoffrey Macnab, The Independent

(continue reading…)

Another Italian magazine alert! Freida Pinto’s also featured in a very special Venice Film Festival-supplement to L’Uomo Vogue’s September issue. She talks about Miral, which is premiering tonight at the festival! Not only is it a new interview, but a new picture as well. She looks gorgeous (though a little unrecognizable) in it, as seen in the preview above. Click on it to see her feature in a slightly bigger size. Thanks to Emmanuelle for the heads up!

If you have the magazine, I’d really appreciate scans or a translation of the interview. Simply e-mail me at freidapintofan.com@gmail.com and you will be given full credit for your help.

The actress reveals how she attained her most challenging role yet, in Miral.

For Miral Schnabel was looking for a Palestinian protagonist. “The casting had already started, but Danny Boyle was good enough to personally direct my video for the audition. The script moved me in an inexpressible way: to a certain degree the story narrated is very similar to what happened when India and Pakistan were divided up. I wanted the role at all costs. I don’t know why Schnabel chose me; I can only say that when I did the audition I so identified with the role that I put all of myself into it.

At a certain point I had to say how much I loved my father: at the end Julian commented: “You really must love your father”. I think my total support for the character convinced him. And I have the feeling that looking a little like Rula Jebreal helped matters too”.

Freida Pinto’s featured in the September issue of O Magazine (Oprah’s magazine) in the section “Aha! Moment”. She talks about a very important question: the view on different skin-complexions in India. I really recommend you to read it (and check out the gorgeous photo attached to the article) in the press archive or the gallery.

Not only is Freida in O and T magazines (seen in the previous posts), she’s also featured in the September issue of In Style, with actress Hilary Swank on the cover. I will have original HQ scans from that as soon as I receive the magazine. Stay tuned for those and more coming soon!

I am now back from vacation and ready to start updating the site frequently again. And it looks to be a busy coming month for Freida Pinto! She’s currently on the cover of T Magazine’s Fall 2010 Style issue (the outtakes were added a few minute ago). I have now added the magazine scans in fantastic quality (really!) to the gallery.

Be sure to visit the gallery right away to check them out. Also, read the interesting interview with Freida from the magazine in our press archive!

It’s official without an official announcement being made: Freida Pinto has been cast in the Planet of the Apes reboot, Rise of the Apes, where she’ll join fellow cast members James Franco and John Lithgow. Earth’s Mightiest had the opportunity to catch up with the actress ever so briefly to discuss the film.

Pinto, who has just wrapped production of Tarsem Singh’s Greek Gods adventure Immortals and who became an instant star with Slumdog Millionaire, reflects on what she looks for in the characters she chooses to play, and her general feelings about Rise of the Apes.

The film deals with a scientist (James Franco), who, in his attempts to find a cure for Alzheimer’s, which his father (John Lithgow) is suffering from, attempts genetic experimentations on an ape named Caesar, inadvertently sets into motion a series of events that will result in the downfall of humanity. Pinto plays a primatologist named Caroline.

“What I try to do with my characters is to bring something different to all of them. Sometimes just being yourself can bring out the uniqueness of whatever it is. For Rise of the Apes, I auditioned for it without reading the entire script. I don’t remember when it was that I watched Planet of the Apes, but it was ages ago. When I read what the story was about – and the idea of the film is out there – I really thought that, yes, it was a big budget film and all of that, but it really had a soul in the kind of story that they really wanted to put out there. It’s a battle between humans and apes with humans trying to make themselves superior by exploiting another animal.”

“I just thought that there was a lot of soul to it. When I read the script, finally, after auditioning, I found myself even more drawn to it. I also like films with a lot of animals in it, and what happens to animals really does break my heart.”

Rise of the Apes is scheduled to reach theatres in June of 2011.

Freida was recently interviewed by Indian newspaper Hindustan Times on how her life has changed since Slumdog Millionaire. It’s a very interesting read as we learn a lot of new things on the lovely Freida Pinto. Be sure to check it out in full in the press library!

It’s been a year since Slumdog Millionare put her on top of the world. Sitting pretty across the seven seas, Freida Pinto looks down to tell us how much life has changed

So, are you the next Bond girl?
I have already issued an official statement that I have not been approached for the next Bond film opposite Daniel Craig as yet. The rumours are of course flattering but for the moment my projects for 2010 – 2011 include Julian Schnabel’s Miral, Woody Allen’s You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger and Tarsem Singh’s Immortals.

Did you watch the Oscars this year?
Yes, I did watch the Oscars, as I do every year. I was rooting for Gabourey Sidibe who I thought was fabulous in her first film Precious. And Sandra Bullock who besides a phenomenal performance in The Blind Side looked so very beautiful. Sandra finally got her due!

What memories of the red carpet did it bring back?
I was reminded of the chaos, the battle with time to finish all the important interviews and the non-stop running around in high heels which made your feet ache after a while. 2009 will always be a great year for me.

Why weren’t you there at this year’s Academy Awards show, as a presenter or at least as part of the audience?
That’s a question for the producers and organisers. (Laughs) They probably had an overdose of us last year. I can’t question their decision.

When you look back on the year that was, what have been the highs and the lows since Slumdog Millionaire’s release? Has Freida Pinto changed much?
Of course I have changed… And have also remained the same! (Laughs) Confused? Well, let me explain… My level of awareness has changed and so has the sense of self-reliance. My ambition to succeed has amplified and my responsibility to both my family and myself has increased. But at heart I’m still the same Freida who her near and dear ones know best. And I like it that way!

Read the complete article!

Freida Pinto is featured with a brand new picture and interview in the Times of India. She looks gorgeous in the photo and the article is very interesting and lets us know what’s been going on in Freida’s life the past months. Be sure to read it below. Enjoy!

The news is out. Freida Pinto, who somebody said went from obscurity to worldwide superstardom in the blink of a well-curled eyelash with Slumdog Millionaire, has bagged the biggest and perhaps best role of her young career as an actress.

It is in Tarsem Singh’s $100 million Greek mythological epic War of The Gods which will release in the summer of 2011. An excited Hollywood press is supposed to have cranked up the buzz blaster and Tarsem himself described his film “as a larger-than-life adventure with the look and feel of an Italianrenaissance painting — a setting well-suited to Freida’s timeless beauty”.

The actress, who plays Phaedra — the hero’s oracle in War of The Gods, was in Mumbai when the story broke. I met her for tea one evening at a city hotel poolside where she was shooting a campaign for a UK human rights organisation. She walked upto me with her hair blowing madly in the breeze, long legs flashing in snug designer jeans, golden-beige thongs peeping carelessly over the waistband through a tomato-red top. I thought she looked what she was, a sweet and young Catholic girl from Malad in whom Danny Boyle saw some spark and cast in Slumdog, changing Freida’s life forever.

Read the complete article

Freida Pinto of the Slumdog Millionaire fame has etched a name in the global forum. Her underprivileged girl act from the film has taken a new dimension in the real life as she would be now involved with a foundation that aims to provide free education to 1,00,000 girls across India by 2010. The foundation, named ‘Nanhi Kali’, is an initiative of Anand Mahindra the famous business tycoon, who aims to rope in the support of 101 most successful women in the world.

Freida seemed like an obvious choice, since with her mark and fan following in the west, she could easily manage to pull in many celebrities who would donate for the cause. Sheetal Mehta, President, Mahindra Foundation Trust said that their reason to choose Freida was due to her global appeal and her inspiring success story. She is independent, successful and an achiever in her own right”.

She is fast becoming a part of Hollywood with her two upcoming films with some of the most respected directors – You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger by Woody Allen and Miral by Oscar Nominated director Julian Schnabel. With that kind of success in a short span of time, it is only befitting that Freida stands alongside big names like Cherie Blair, Nita Ambani, Priyanka Chopra, Sania Mirza and many others in supporting this cause.

Source: Bollywood Hungama

A new interview, by IBNLive.in.com, has Freida talking about all the stuff we’ve been wondering about for the last couple of weeks. It’s a very interesting read, so I recommend all of you to head over to the press archive right away to check it out! Enjoy some tidbits from the interview below.

Rohit Khilnani: How was life before Slumdog? What was Freida Pinto up to?
Freida Pinto: Before I auditioned for Slumdog I was hosting a travel show. I traveled all over South East Asia and I thoroughly enjoyed it. That was another experience that really made me grow. I had to take charge and go out there and in fact do exactly what you are doing. So I don’t regret anything. The struggle has made me understand all this a lot more and made success even sweeter.

Rohit Khilnani: How did the Woody Allen film happen?
Freida Pinto: I auditioned for the film, somewhere around the month of February. My agent said that this is a Woody Allen project, why don’t you go and read for it. I did, and I got it.

Rohit Khilnani: So is it true that you are the next Bond film?
Freida Pinto: Should I continue the rumour? But yeah it is very flattering that, people think Freida Pinto is the next Bond girl, which is obviously not true. I really don’t know what the source of all of this is and would really one day like to write a book on it.

Rohit Khilnani: Right, so you have any free time and what do you do? You read? You listen to music?
Freida Pinto: I have no free time. The little free time I have I keep it for my family. You know I have projects, I have movies coming etc and I may not have time for my family.

Read the entire interview here!

I have added a new article from the Times of India where Freida Pinto talks about meeting with Woody Allen, being a “world citizen”, her newfound stardom and her next role. That’s right, in the coming days another new project for Freida will be announced! Stay tuned to Freida Pinto Fan for the details.

Read a sample of the interview – entitled ‘Woody Allen is Shy’ – below, then check it out in it’s full form in the press archive!

How did you bag the Woody Allen film?
I am represented by CAA, one of the most powerful agencies in Hollywood. It was through them that I got this role. I met Woody Allen a few days after the Oscars and that’s how it happened.

How has the interaction with Woody Allen been?
I would describe my meeting with Woody Allen as “different”. He’s a shy and reticent director but one with a beautiful vision. It will be a dream-come-true since I was a literature student and I studied Woody Allen’s plays back in college.

What’s the first thing you wish to do once you return to India?
Eat homemade Indian food. Westerners should know that curry isn’t our staple diet.