In Charles-Roux's recently reissued "Chanel and her World" (Vendome; $50), a life in pictures adapted from her biography, there is a photograph of Coco at thirty (she always looked a decade younger than she was), posing on the rocky beach at Deauville, hatless and windblown, in front of a weathered cabana.
Davies's last film, Of Time and the City (2008), was a withering documentary about the sad decline of his hometown, Liverpool, and it followed two feature pictures adapted from American novels set at different times and in different American milieux, John Kennedy Toole's The Neon Bible and Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth.
Oscar voters gave it the awards for best picture, adapted screenplay, color cinematography, editing and drama-comedy score.
Jesus Christ, Madonna, Princess Diana have all had their picture adapted and inserted under Che's familiar red star beret, and framed by the same shaggy locks, in a subversive format pioneered by irreverent manipulators of the Mona Lisa.
If any of the high-profile films at TIFF deserve faint praise it's "August: Osage County," this year's Oscar-bait "prestige picture" adapted from Tracy Letts's Pulitzer Prize-winning play and starring Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts amongst many others.
The Big Picture, adapted from a Douglas Kennedy novel of the same name, sets the story of an extramarital affair against the striking scenic backdrops of moneyed suburban Paris and Montenegro.
Starring Gordon Pinsent and Julie Christie as a married couple coping with Alzheimer's disease and a lingering history of infidelity, the film won six major Genie Awards, including those for best motion picture, adapted screenplay, and achievement in direction.
Should win: Picture, adapted screenplay.
When it comes to blacks and the Oscars, the news isn't always bleak: It was just 18 months ago that "12 Years a Slave" won best picture, adapted screenplay and supporting actress prizes.
Back in 1978, the original "Star Wars" (released in 1977), now known as "Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope," captured 10 nominations, including picture, adapted screenplay and supporting actor for Alec Guinness' portrayal of Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Gilroy sent Washington the script and once the actor had read it they met for a long lunch in New York as Washington was preparing to direct and star in the adaptation of August Wilson's "Fences," which earned Viola Davis the supporting actress Oscar and nominations for best picture, adapted screenplay and actor for Washington.
