Good Monday Morning, Everyone.
Little blue people partly ruled the box office this weekend. And we’re not talking about those of you who were holding your 
breath waiting for a debt deal in Washington. Nosirree, Bob. As implausible as it may seem, the animated adventures of the resurrected Smurfs fought for domination this weekend with some cowboys and some aliens.
Let’s do the numbers.
Name: Weekend: Total:
1. Cowboys & Aliens $36.2m $36.2m
2. The Smurfs $36.2m $36.2m
3. Captain America $24.9m $116m
4 Harry Potter … $21.9m $318.4m
5. Crazy, Stupid, Love. $19.3m $19.3m
6. Friends with Benefits $9.3m $38.2m
7. Horrible Bosses $7.1m $96.2m
8. Transformers: Dark of the Moon $5.9m $337.8m
9. Zookeeper $4.2m $68.7m
10. Cars 2 $2.3m $182m
Your Monday Must-Read:
The Guardian sits down to chat with the eternally luminous French actress Juliette Binoche, who explains why acting is like peeling an onion.
Here’s the germane part of the story:
“For each character she plays, Binoche prepares intensely. She slept rough on the streets of Paris before playing a homeless woman in Les Amants du Pont-Neuf (1991) and spent months learning to play the violin for her role in the 1998 film Alice et Martin. Ahead of her star turn in Chocolat – the 2000 adaptation of Joanne Harris’s novel, one of Binoche’s few forays into Hollywood – she turned up unannounced at Harris’s house in Barnsley and stayed for the weekend. So how did she prepare for her role as Julie? “Oh, I went to see Strindberg.” She laughs wickedly. “He’s an interesting character. I wouldn’t like to be his wife or lover.”
In the past, Binoche has said she prefers working with independent auteurs – Kiarostami; Krzysztof Kieślowski; Michael Haneke – rather than Hollywood directors owing to her frustration with the way mainstream American films depict women. When I ask about this, she gives an exasperated sigh.
‘That’s a very old question for me,’ she says. ‘That’s a very old way of thinking.'”
You can click through for the full story.
The Cineaste's Lament. 