Jessica is currently in Venice promoting some of her movies, and today was the Wilde Salome screening. I added the first batch of HQ pictures from the photocall. Check it:

Venice ‘11 Review: Al Pacino’s ‘Wilde Salome’ An Oddity Dominated By Titanic Jessica Chastain Turn

But there’s one principle reason to see “Wilde Salome,” and the clue is in the second part of the title. Pacino (and, we assume, Parsons) can claim bragging rights on Jessica Chastain, who plays the title role in the production; she was cast in the stage version way back in 2006, long before her current omnipresence, when all she had to her name were a handful of TV credits on the likes of “E.R.” and

“Veronica Mars.” Not only does Chastain (only 25 at time of filming) exude star quality and a serious-minded work ethic in the behind-the-scenes footage, but she’s also sensationally, jaw-droppingly good as Salome. It’s a far cry from her ethereal turn in “The Tree of Life,” the actress moving effortlessly between the innocent, the seductress and the monster. It’s impossible to take your eyes off her when she’s on screen, and it firmly reinforces what’s become more and more clear over the course of 2011; that she’s a truly precious talent, and one that will only go on to do more and more impressive work over the years.

It remains to be seen if the film gets even the kind of limited release that “Looking for Richard” received—it’s a much more niche piece of work, and being much less well realized, is unlikely to attract even much of an arthouse crowd. But even if it ends up airing on PBS years from now, it’s worth checking out, if only for the acting fireworks. [C]

Read the full review here.

Jessica is everywhere, and this is a true statement. While I was wondering why she didn’t attended “The Help” screening today at Deauville festival in Paris, she was in Italy attending the 2011 Gucci Award For Women In Cinema Awards Ceremony, in Venice. I have found only two pictures so far, but I hope more will be available soon.

Today is the opening of 37th Deauville Film Festival in Paris. The Help and Take Shelter is being presented at this festival, and Jessica was already seen being flawless at Paris streets. Even if we don’t post candids here, this pictures are really worth seeing.
Let’s hope Jessica’s pictures at red carpet surfaces soon.

Jessica Chastain is featured as a LA Times Magazine Scene Stealer.

Jessica Chastain
Between the red hair and those girl-next-door good looks, Chastain hails more from the Nicole Kidman School of Sexy than the Jennifer Lopez Bombshell Academy. Sure, she can do the retro-glam thing (you no doubt saw her as curvy newcomer Celia Foote in The Help or the graceful wife of Brad Pitt in Tree of Life), but at her core, this copperhead is all steel. Check out her slate: She settles old scores as a young Mossad agent in The Debt—out now—spells doom for John the Baptist as the titular beauty in Al Pacino’s much anticipated Wilde Salome and, in the just-wrapped Wettest County in the World, rubs shoulders with a bootlegging gang in the Depression-era South. “You know,” Chastain mulls, “over the past four years, I’ve made 11 films, and I always approach things with the idea of, Who’s going to be my teacher on this set? What am I gonna learn? I never think about how much money I’m going to make or if a movie is going to make me famous. I just think, How is this a master class for me right now?”

“The Debt” is a remake of the 2007 Israeli film “Ha-Hov.” Working from a screenplay by Matthew Vaughn, Jane Goldman and Peter Straughan, director John Madden (“Shakespeare in Love”) delivers a film that works as a spy story but also raises provocative questions about what happens when creating a national myth requires taking liberties with the facts.

Although Mirren is impressive, it’s Chastain who gives “The Debt” its urgency and its soul. Virtually unknown just a year ago, she has emerged as one of the most exciting actresses in American film, with recent standout roles in “The Tree of Life” and “The Help.” Chastain has the rare ability to disappear into a character while paradoxically retaining her singular charisma.

Read more…

A few months ago, she was unknown. Now she’s ubiquitous.

Jessica Chastain isn’t yet a household name, but the 30-year-old California native and Julliard graduate has turned 2011 into a remarkable cinematic coming-out party.

It started with Terrence Malick’s adventurous “The Tree of Life,” in which she played Brad Pitt’s wife and the ultimate nurturing mother figure.

She’s currently on screens in the hit “The Help,” as the ditzy but open-minded black sheep of a racist Mississippi town.

Still to come: Jeff Nichols’ festival favorite “Take Shelter,” in which she plays a long-suffering wife whose husband (played by Michael Shannon) has disturbing visions of ecological catastrophe. And “Coriolanus,” director/star Ralph Fiennes visceral Shakespeare adaptation, in which she’s the title character’s wife. And Al Pacino’s daring documentary “Wilde Salome,” the unconventional chronicle of a Pacino staging of Oscar Wilde’s “Salome,” in which Chastain plays the title character.

More? There’s “Texas Killing Fields,” a murder drama from Ami Canaan Mann, the daughter of director Michael Mann. And “The Wettest County in the World,” a Depression-era crime drama bought by the Weinstein Co. at Cannes.

Before those last five movies hit theaters, though, Chastain will show up in “Shakespeare in Love” director John Madden’s “The Debt” which opens on Wednesday. (more…)

There is a fantastic film in The Debt. With a director like John Madden behind the camera, it’s a bit surprising that he didn’t churn out something of a higher caliber, especially when there’s plenty of scenes that show signs of a competent, meticulous storyteller at work. And, sure enough, when those scenes play out – a tense train station sequence in particular – they outweigh the film’s less impressive qualities.

The Debt tells the story of three Mossad agents – Rachel Singer (Jessica Chastain), David Peretz (Sam Worthington) and Stephan Gold (Marton Csokas) – hunting down a Nazi war criminal in 1965. It’s a promising hook, and the script (initially scribed by Matthew Vaughn and Jane Goldman, then worked on by Madden and Peter Straughan) delivers on that promise, but only in 1965. Everything involving that mission is tightly paced, suitably claustrophobic and keenly aware of the gray area of each character’s motivations.

It’s when we meet these same characters 30 years later that problems arise. (more…)

DreamWorks’ “The Help” helped itself to the $100 million mark at the domestic box office, the studio announced Wednesday.

The $25 million period drama has been one of the summer’s surprise breakout hits, winning the domestic box office during its second and third weekends of release.

“We went from opening not No. 1 to being No. 1, which is unusual in itself,” Dave Hollis, Disney’s executive VP of distribution, told TheWrap. Disney handles distribution for DreamWorks.

Three weeks into its run, “The Help” is actually adding locations: It opened with 2,534 theaters in the U.S. and Canada, expanded by 156 in its second week, by another 88 in its third and is going up by some 65 more this weekend, Hollis said. The movie opens in its first international territory, Australia, this weekend.

Source: Reuters