Paul Giamatti who?

He’s one of those actors who, brilliant though they may be, look only vaguely familiar but whose name you don’t quite remember. You see them in a movie and you’re sure that you’ve seen them in another movie but even if you remember the role, still you can’t figure out who they are.

He’s who? Paul Giamatti, that’s who! Paul Giamatti who?

I’m embarrassed to admit that that was the same question on my mind even when I was face to face with, that’s it, "the actor who looks vaguely familiar but whose name I don’t quite remember" during the press junket for Universal Pictures’ Cinderella Man, directed by Ron Howard (of A Beautiful Mind fame and soon, The Da Vinci Code, starring Tom Hanks), opening today in Metro Manila (go see it).

I and the 50-plus other journalists from around the world did watch the movie the night before at a special press screening and we were all impressed by Giamatti’s powerful performance as Joe Gould, the intense and loyal manager of Great Depression boxer-turned-national hero Jim Braddock (played by Russell Crowe who is, even this early, touted to be a shoo-in for Best Actor – and so is leading lady Renée Zellweger as Braddock’s supportive wife Mae – in the next Oscar race).

But when he showed up for the one-on-one TV interviews (and the round-table print interviews) the next day, Giamatti wore a lush beard that covered half his face, wearing eyeglasses, unlike in the movie where he’s clean-cut sans eyeglasses. When he passed by, I thought he was one of the production guys, not one of the movie’s leading men.

Told about it, Giamatti grinned and said, "You’re not alone," meaning many people feel the same way about him. No, he wasn’t offended; he was amused.

But after a head-turning performance as a failed novelist in Sideways, the surprise hit directed by Alexander Payne and for which Giamatti earned nominations, and now his marked portrayal as Joe Gould in Cinderella Man, I guess nobody will have any problem matching the face with the name. Yes, that’s who Paul Giamatti is.

At 38, Giamatti has an impressive track record as an actor. According to the Cinderella Man production notes, Giamatti first appeared in the hit comedy Private Parts, which was followed in Milos Forman’s Man on the Moon (topbilled by Jim Carrey), Tim Robbins’ The Cradle Will Rock, Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan, Peter Weir’s The Truman Show, Duets (with Gwyneth Paltrow), Big Momma’s House (with Martin Lawrence) and Robert Pulcini’s American Splendor.

Yes, you must have seen some or all of those movies but Paul Giamatti hardly stuck to your memory, did he? Not especially with Tim Burton’s Planet of the Apes in which he was made to look like an orangutan. And then came the critically-acclaimed Sideways. Finally, the "beautiful loser" (as he was fondly described in the title of a GQ story).

You’ll love him in Cinderella Man, I assure you, holding his own beside Russell Crowe in their scenes together.

Giamatti’s family background is just as impressive. He grew up in New Haven, Connecticut. He’s the youngest son of A. Bartlett Giamatti, the well-loved English professor at Yale who became the university’s youngest president (from 1978 to 1986) and later, president of Baseball’s National League and then as commissioner of the entire league.

The GQ story noted that Paul studied at the Yale School of Drama (where the likes of Paul Newman, Meryl Streep and Sigourney Weaver also studied) and he spent his childhood in the company of some of America’s greatest intellectuals who were his father’s colleagues.

"I was the old-man actor," GQ quoted Giamatti as saying. "If there had to be somebody in a Chekov play, you know, in a wheelchair with a blanket over his legs and a Panama hat, that was me."

Not anymore. Today, Giamatti is getting choice and meaty roles that befit his enormous talent.

Paul Giamatti who!?!

You know who!

Masahista Is Going Places

Meanwhile, here’s a report from Funfare’s Toronto-based international correspondent Ferdinand Lapuz.

The 30th Toronto International Film Festival is just on its fifth day but we already have some good news about Masahista (The Masseur) which had its North American premiere last Friday.

Picture This Entertainment, a Los Angeles- based company, has acquired the US and Canadian distribution rights (all) of the film. While writing this e-mail, we are waiting for the official press release which will be published by Screen Daily and Daily Variety. This is the second film acquired by Picture This Entertainment in Toronto this year with the French film Cold Showers being the first.

Prior to the acquisition of Masahista in Toronto, I have already closed a deal for the distribution of the film in Germany, Austria and German speaking Switzerland by Salzgeber. This is the same distributor in the same territories for the Mel Chionglo films Sibak (Midnight Dancers) in 1994 and Burlesk King (1999) which were acquired in Toronto for the US by First Run Features and Strand Releasing respectively.

I am also finalizing my negotiations for the film's distributor in the Baltic states: Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. Estin Films, a distributor based in Estonia, had seen the film at the Locarno International Film Festival where it was the co-winner for the Golden Leopard Award in the video program

It will have its second press and industry screening tomorrow, Monday and the third public screening this Friday at the Varsity Cinema. Both our public screenings last Friday at the Cumberland Cinema and Saturday at the Paramount Theater were successful.

With me in Toronto are director Brillante Mendoza, actors Coco Martin and Alan Paule (who both delighted the crowd during the second screening), supervising producer Ihman Esturco and Gee Entertainment bigwigs Fedelyn and Melissa Geling. The producers and direk Brillante are both happy with the results (Golden Leopard and international sales) of Masahista that we are now mounting their second production either late this year or early next year.

Masahista is tentatively scheduled to open in select cinemas in Metro Manila this Oct. 19. After Locarno and Toronto, Masahista will be shown in the following film festivals: Vancouver, Chicago, Vienna, Flanders and Ghent, Thessaloniki, Sao Paolo, Ljubljana and Hong Kong. I am still confirming other festivals for December and for the early part of 2006.

Masahista was written by Boots Agbayani Pastor with Bing Lao as script consultant. It also stars Jaclyn Jose with the special participation of Katherine Luna, Paolo Rivero and Kristoffer King.

The festival is still six days to go and I really hope that I have better news in my next e-mail.

(E-mail reactions at [email protected])