CHARACTER IN FOCUS: Lilly Raines, "In the Line of Fire" (1993)

Lilly Raines in her office... (photo credits: Columbia Pictures)

For the first time in movies, male Secret Service Agents work with women, and that happens in the movie In the Line of Fire (1993), with Frank Horrigan (Clint Eastwood, great in Dirty Harry movies, Gran Torino, Million Dollar Baby, and others) and Lilly Raines (Rene Russo). 
Rene's Lilly Raines in this movie has a double function: as a Secret Service associate and a lover. Even Frank and Ms. Raines had a difficult start together, during the movie their relationship began to concretize when Mr. Horrigan said to himself: "If she looks back, that's means she's interested."

Rene Russo all eyes on Clint Eastwood: sexiness and seduction
is on her way. (photo credits: Columbia Pictures)

And also during the movie, Frank and Lilly's conversation were all about jazz, work, strategy and mainly romance. For movie critic Roger Ebert, it looked like a real conversation between real people. And thanks to Lilly, she saved Frank from the killer Mitch Leary (John Malkovich), who was thrown up high in the elevator. 

And the ending was like a fairytale ending.... Lilly ended happily with Frank. #verycute. 

Lilly Raines' first impressions about Frank: only enchantment.
(photo credits: Columbia Pictures)

According to Ms. Russo, in 2014.... "Well, first of all, he was the only actor I've ever been intimidated by. We were being driven to set together, I don't know why. It usually doesn't happen. But I was in the car, and I just didn't know what to say to him. I was blathering on about nothing. I mean, talk about embarrassing. 'Blah blah blah blah blah' — and he did not say one word. He's wonderful. [But] he did not say one word. 

We made a pact. I eat garlic and he eats garlic. And so we promised each other that we would both eat garlic, so we would cancel each other out, and we wouldn't have to give up our garlic. And then I had to come back for the love scene — because there was a period there where I wasn't shooting, and he was. It was about three weeks or a month. And when I came back, I was pregnant (of Rose Gilroy), and I really couldn't eat garlic. So, yeah, that was a really difficult love scene. I mean, I had morning sickness. I was like, Are you going to hold this together here?" 

Rene Russo: concentration and elegance.
(photo credits: Columbia Pictures)

Hope u like it.

loveuguys.

xoxoxo

ME

In the Line of Fire (MOVIE REVIEW)

Poster for the movie In the Line of Fire, starring Clint Eastwood, Rene Russo & John Malkovich.
(photo credits: Columbia Pictures/Castle Rock Entertainment)

Director: Wolfgang Petersen. 

Producer: Jeff Apple. 

Writer: Jeff Maguire.

Main Cast: 

Clint Eastwood ------ Frank Horrigan

John Malkovich ------ Mitch Leary / John Booth / James Carney

Rene Russo ------ Lilly Raines

Dylan McDermott ---- Al D'Andrea 

Gary Cole ------- Bill Watts

John Mahoney --- Sam Campagna

Rene Russo & Clint Eastwood: great chemistry in scene.
(photo credits: Columbia Pictures/Castle Rock Entertainment)

Release Date: July 9, 1993 (USA) / October 22, 1993 (Brazil)

Running Time: 128 min.

Budget / Box office: US$40 million / US$177 million (box office hit success)

Plot Summary: Frank Horrigan (played by actor/director Clint Eastwood) is a veteran Secret Service agent who is close to retirement. He keeps thinking back to November 22, 1963, when we was a hand-picked agent for President John Kennedy, and, became one of the few to lose a president to an assassin after Kennedy's death. 30 years later, the USA President is the target of former CIA assassin Mitch Leary (John Malkovich, great in Dangerous Liaisons & Con Air), because the assassin felt betrayed by the government. That's the reason for what Leary plans to kill the president. 

Rene Russo in a wonderful performance as Lilly Raines.
(photo credits: Columbia Pictures/Castle Rock Entertainment)

Later, Mr. Horrigan and his partner, Al D'Andrea (Dylan McDermott, from Hamburger Hill & Steel Magnolias) go to the White House meet the other agents, the director Sam Campagna (John Mahoney, from Frasier); Bill Watts (Gary Cole), a young assistant; and Lilly Raines (Rene Russo), the female agent of the Secret Service team, who is enchanted by Frank, and vice-versa. And that is proved when Mr. Horrigan takes Ms. Raines to the Lincoln Memorial, and both eat an ice cream.  He says to her that he believes that female agents work in the Service simply because the President wishes to court the female vote throughout the country. By the time Lilly walks away, Frank thinks to himself: "If she looks back, that means she's interested."

By the movie goes by, Horrigan suspects that Leary uses lot of false identities, such as Joseph McCrawley, John Booth and James Carney, and the assassin makes lots of victims, including Al.

The ending, in my opinion, is fantastic, and it happens in Los Angeles. Leary, now as James Carney, points his plastic gun at Frank, who tries to save the president, but who ended shot was Mr. Horrigan... and everybody ran away. After that, the killer takes Horrigan to the elevator, up up and away, and what surprised him is that the agent had a bulletproof vest. Agent Raines, with all the agents, witness the scene. 
At the hotel elevator, Leary breaks the glass, and both fight there, and at the end, the killer loses balance until his sudden death, thrown up high in the elevator. And Frank ends the movie happily ever after with Lilly Raines, now acclaimed as a hero (and himself decided to announce his retirement).

Rene Russo: concentration and elegance.
(photo credits: Columbia Pictures/Castle Rock Entertainment)

Fun Facts about the movie:

• Rene Russo and John Malkovich will reunite together 25 years after this movie, in Velvet Buzzsaw, by Dan Gilroy, premiering October 26, on Netflix.
• Also in a Wolfgang Petersen movie, Rene Russo portrayed the main character's love interest/female lead, both in the movies In the Line of Fire (1993) and Outbreak (1995).
• Clint Eastwood (Frank Horrigan) and Dylan McDermott (Al D'Andrea)'s characters used Sig Sauer 9mm pistols (Secret Service weapons).
• Clint is also a professional jazz pianist, that's why he did his own piano scenes in this movie.
• And one of my favorite villians of John Malkovich, along with Con Air (1997), and Dangerous Liaisons (1988). In the movie In the Line of Fire, he improvised the scene when he puts his gun on his mouth.

Critical Reception:

• IMDB: 7,2/10
• Rotten Tomatoes: 95% (fresh; 96 reviews).
• CinemaScore : A (A+ to F).
• Metascore: 74/100.

Next week, on July 30, I'll talk about Lilly Raines on "Character on Focus"... 

Enjoy this post...

loveuguys.

xoxoxo 

ME

Rene Russo on the beach!!! (Rene Russo Fanpage Fashion Special)

Rene in a Bain de Soleil ad, 1976. Sexy 'n' cool for the summer!
(photo credits: Archive photo)

"Whoa, amber is the color of your energy

Whoa, shades of gold display naturally..."

(Amber, 311, 2001).

This post is going to be a cool one and it will be for all you, readers. I love beach, Rene loves beach, and everybody loves beach!! In my opinion, "the beach is fascinating" and also the beach is every people's paradise. 

In Brazil, it might not be summer (but in California it is, and Rene is from California), but most of people go to this wonderful paradise even on weekends, or even the entire month, because July is the holiday vacations' month. 
I chose Rene's pic in Bain de Soleil ad, for a good reason. This wonderful lady is relaxing on a beach chair and on a sunny day. I imagine her in St. Tropez (France) or in Malibu (California). Beside it's sexy and seductive!!! #sexyreneinaction. 

Rene Russo with Tony Spinelli in a Peruvian beach. In the first pic... Ms. Russo shows her seduction to him, and in the second, Rene all eyes on Tony. (photo credits: Francesco Scavullo - Vogue/collage: M.E.Serrano)

This composition above is made of two beach pictures, and both are done by photography master Francesco Scavullo in the Peruvian beach of Santa Maria, in 1976. According to David (@d_ast777 on Twitter), from Moreno Valley, California, he loved both photos (as I loved too), because "each one of the pictures has its own attributes". In the first pic, Rene shows her sexiness, and it shows on her face and body expressions... and the pic on the right, she shows her sublime, majestic beauty, showing that the camera loves her!

Ms. Russo's first pics as a model were on the beach. SOOOOO SEDUCTIVE!
(photo credits: Richard Avedon-Vogue/collage:M.E.Serrano)

The next composition above is also inspired in Saint-Tropez, but the only difference is that these pictures are made by another famous photographer, and his name is Richard Avedon. Like Scavullo, Mr. Avedon is also from New York City (the city that never sleeps), and worked many times with Ms. Rene Russo. 

Back to business. The pic from the left is the most sexy photograph that Rene did in her  entire modeling career. She feels sultry (when many men see this masterpiece, they feel sweaty, because of Rene's sexiness), and even full of desire. 

And in the second pic... Rene looks more sexy, seductive and romantic (because she's between two men on the beach). #love 

In the movies, Rene impressed the audience with The Thomas Crown Affair beach scenes on Martinique...
even Ms. Russo did some beach scenes on Lethal Weapon 4 (1998).
(photo credits: MGM Pictures/collage: M.E.Serrano).

How about Rene's beach scenes in movies? Well... here it goes! She had some beach scenes in her first Lorna Cole scenes on Lethal Weapon 4 (1998), along with Mel Gibson. But we are all focused on Rene's scenes on Thomas Crown Affair (1999), on Martinique, in which most of her scenes were topless. And one of my favorite scenes is the towel scenes, when Rene lassos Pierce and both of them kiss together.

According to Ms. Rene, in 2014, "I was standing in a heavy bathrobe and a g-string underneath, waiting for Pierce, and the double doors open (...) with a beautiful silver tray, two glasses and a bottle of champagne, so... that's who Pierce is. He's so great." OMG, Rene, u make us breathless.... we all love YOU!!

Hope u like it.

Loveuguys.

xoxoxo

ME

Music source:
Amber by 311 is from the album From Chaos. 
Released in June 19, 2001. Courtesy of Volcano Entertainment.

CHARACTER IN FOCUS: Catherine Banning, "Thomas Crown Affair" (1999)

Rene Russo in a Michael Kors dress, 1999. The dress is part of her character's
wardrobe in Thomas Crown Affair. (photo credits: Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images)

As I said on last post, Rene Russo's character on Thomas Crown Affair, Catherine Banning, is her best character done in her entire acting career... In comparison to Faye Dunaway's character in the 1968 original (in the 1968 original, Faye was Vicki, and in the 1999, she was the psychiatrist), I prefer Rene's character better, and there're a lot of reasons... Ms. Banning has lots of sex appeal and makes the audience (specially men) very "all eyes on her", and also the wardrobe (created by Michael Kors specially for Ms. Russo for the movie), in general, is sexy, stylish and it fits her like a glove, in my opinion!

Rene Russo: sexiness and class in scene! (photo credits:
MGM Pictures)

Catherine, in TCA, besides being a dedicated and a sexy insurance investigator, is also smart, driven and alone. She is brought by the NYPD in finding a Monet painting (the cost is US$ 100 million), stolen from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York City, and the masterpiece is stolen by Thomas Crown (portrayed by the talented actor Pierce Brosnan). She suspects of Thomas, but unexpectedly Ms. Banning falls in love with him. 

Rene Russo: eye to eye on Pierce Brosnan. Show us some seduction, Rene!
(photo credits: MGM Pictures)

Although Catherine is very seductive and smart... she also has some weak links. Ms. Banning's emotional fragility shows when Thomas has also a "lover" besides Banning. I'm talking about Anna (played by Esther Cañadas). But between Anna and Catherine... Thomas has better chemistry with Catherine. According to Rene (Russo), in 2014: "Many women ask of him (Pierce Brosnan)... what was he like? Is he cute? Is he dreamy? Yes he is. He's a good kisser. (...) For the love scenes, are always really hard! (laughs)"

Rene's character Catherine Banning, holding a coffee in her hands.
And concentrated! (photo credits: MGM Pictures)

And talking about love scenes... the love scenes in Thomas Crown makes the audience entranced. In one of my conversations on Twitter (it happened this week), one of my fans praised TCA and specially Catherine Banning:

"@sscalise88: I love #ThomasCrownAffair! Better than #FiftyShadesofGrey"

"@sscalise88: I Love #ReneRusso in The Thomas Crown Affair & I Agree with You @mariaemma16 ! Rene Russo was Truly #Chic ! #Fashion was Great In the #Film & Her #Style was Impeccable! Such an Artistic Film! Hey All YOU Twitter Friends... Who Else Loved #TheThomasCrownAffair #ThomasCrownAffair " (source: Twitter, 26/6/18).  

Hope u loved it!
loveuguys.

xoxoxo 

ME