Love Actually

Rated R

Samizadata has a commentary on LA.

Love Actually was Best British Film and Emma Thompson Best British Actress in the Empire Awards 2004.

18 December, 2003, Love Actually has been nominated for a Golden Globe in the best musical or comedy category. The other 4 films in the category are "Big Fish", ``Finding Nemo'', ``Lost in Translation,'', and ``Bend It Like Beckham''. Richard Curtis was nominated for best screenplay

Manuela sent a link to an article where AR's quoted,

Rickman, 57, also has been a longtime spectator of other people’s emotional airport dramas, so much so that he bears a friendly grudge against Curtis.
“Strangely enough, I’ve always had in mind that I wanted to make a short film of just people saying hello and goodbye at airports, and he snatched it away from me,” said Rickman, whose “Love Actually” character is a steadfast husband put to the test by a flirtation with an amorous colleague. “It just goes to show if you have an idea, you better do it fast before someone else does.”
For Rickman, no particular airport scenes from his own life come to mind.
“The trouble is, my airport experiences usually are, ‘Where’s the driver? Where’s the luggage? There’s too much luggage. The luggage is too heavy,”’ Rickman said. “That’s why I look around at airports for signs in other people that they’re having a better day than I am.
“I think it’s everybody for themselves at airports.”

The same contributor that first told us AR was scheduled to appear at the NYC premiere has generously sent us a link to the Wireimage site featuring lots of premiere photos. Emma Thompson and Greg Wise look gorgeous, and so do Liam, Colin Firth, and of course AR. Unfortunately the Wireimage people didn't check out Salman Rushdie's real name.
Helen watched Hugh Grant and Emma Thompson on the Oprah Show. There was not one mention of Alan Rickman, though he did appear in the previews for Love Actually. The big news, to my mind, was that Hugh said they were working on the sequel to Love Actually right now! Let's hope Alan's in it!!. However, Mellie clarified, "Just a note (and correction): I also watched and Tivo-d the Hugh/Emma interview on Oprah Monday. Hugh did not say he was currently shooting the sequel to Love Actually--he is currently involved in the sequel to Bridgette Jones' Diary. As far as I know, there is no sequel for LA nor any plans for one. Saw the film in a sneak preview here in St. Louis last Saturday--it's wonderful". So it looks like there's no sequel to LA, at least for now.
M. emailed to warn us that the latest issue of Time Mag has a review of the film with a major plot spoiler. The article's on line, if your are curious, but M. wasn't amused by the spoiler.
Previews are playing on TV. There was an ad in the NYT Sunday Arts section, and color ads in various magazines. There's a paperback book in the works, but not yet available at Amazon.com. Georgiana sent an e-card that can be sent from the website by clicking on "downloads", and then on "ecards". Send one to your friends!

Gloria & Lauren sent a link to a trailer that I can post. Lauren sent a link to a trailer directory site that's certainly worth a visit. A couple of months ago, DW, Geri, Manuela, Stacey, & Tiny sent other links to the trailers, which are listed at the IMDB.

Manuela sent an update on the release dates, and bear in mind these dates all are subject to change:

Since 1995, Richard Curtis, who wrote the script for Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, and Bridget Jones's Diary, has been providing movie-lovers with one very simple, albeit crucial pleasure: watching Hugh Grant trying to find love while saying "actually" a lot. In Curtis's new one, Love, Actually (whose full title is Love Actually Is All Around), Grant shares the screen with a juggernaut of talent -- Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman, Colin Firth, Liam Neeson, and Laura Linney, to name a few -- and this time, says Curtis, "they're not just 35-year-old people looking for love". A multi-narrative films with casually interweaving stories in the style of Robert Altman, Love Actually examines love in its many forms -- family love, childhood crushes, even the affection between an aging rock star and his manager.
The movie marks Curtis's debut as a director. "I thought, I've hit 45. If I don't do it myself now, I'd just have a heart attack next time", he says. Along the way he gained an insight into why he has become the Go-To Guy when it comes to getting romance on-screen. "One of the stories in this movie has a little boy who's in love, and as we were auditioning, I found out that most of the little boys we spoke to couldn't give a damn about girls", Curtis says. "I've known who I was in love with every day since I was five. I can tell you the names of the girls in sequence"

On July 17, Dawn sent a link to "two more reviews are up at Ain't it Cool News. On July 14, 2003, Hannah tells us
According to Yahoo's Entertainment website, Love Actually is going to be released nationwide on November 7, 2003. Let's cross our fingers!
Here's the synopsis from the website: This ensemble comedy tells ten separate (but intertwining) stories of love in London (with a small portion set in France), leading up to a big climax on Christmas Eve. One of the threads follows the brand new (unmarried) Prime Minister (Grant) of the United Kingdom, who on his first day in 10 Downing Street falls in love with the girl (McCutcheon) who brings him his tea (Thompson plays his sister; Rickman plays her husband). Another story follows the relationship between a stepfather (Neeson) and his young stepson.

Helen sent quotes from two reviews,

From the site: http://www.filmjerk.com/nuke/article673.html “Love Actually” is smug, childish, clichéd, unrelentingly and sickeningly upbeat, and when Hugh Grant decides to shake his ass to the Pointer Sisters’ “Jump (For My Love),” the picture becomes embarrassingly silly. But, inner-preciousness detectors be damned, I couldn’t take my eyes off the screen. "Assembling a cast of about 20 main characters to follow in the continually intertwining story, “Love Actually” often resembles a Robert Altman film if it were on Prozac and maybe a touch of Viagra. It zigzags through two handfuls of stories about all kinds of love found in the world, whether it’s platonic, romantic, fraternal, reliable, detestable, forgettable, desirable, taken for granted, or so heartfelt it crushes all in its path." It refers to "....national treasure Alan Rickman"
And From Guardian Unlimited
"Love Actually weaves together 10 love stories that take place in the run-up to Christmas. There are many varieties of love on offer: unrequited love, inter-class love, love that can't articulate and a love triangle, featuring Makatsch, Rickman and Thompson, which provides some of the more grown-up emotion in the film. Some scenes were lost in the final edit, but she denies there's a Makatsch-Rickman sex scene lying on the cutting-room floor. Of her secretary's office romance with her boss she comments, 'I think it's something that a lot of people can relate to. In long relationships there is often a temptation, a betrayal or a loss of faith,' she counsels."

Drawing courtesy of Luanne