I have been a fan of Mickey Rourke for some time.
He is making a buss in his latest film "Wrestler"
This is good news for him.
Been some time that he made a good film.
Plus other news from other film and stars.



VENICE (Reuters) - Hollywood outsider Mickey Rourke capped his big screen comeback on Saturday when "The Wrestler," in which he plays a lonely, washed out fighter, won the Golden Lion for best film at the Venice festival.


Directed by Darren Aronofsky, the moving tale poignantly echoes Rourke's own troubled life in and out of the boxing ring and film studio, and critics are tipping the star for an Oscar nomination early next year.

"Darren Aronofsky came here a couple of years ago and fell on his ass," Rourke told the packed Sala Grande theatre where the awards were given out. He was referring to the director's critical flop "The Fountain" which premiered in Venice in 2006.

"I am glad he had the balls to come back. I don't think he wanted to come. I said, 'You've got to come'."

German director Wim Wenders, president of the seven-member jury who decided the awards, added:

"This is for a film with a truly heartbreaking performance in the very sense of the word, and if I say heartbreaking, you know I am talking about Mickey Rourke."

Wenders suggested Rourke could have also won the best actor prize in Venice when he criticized the festival for not allowing a Golden Lion winner to pick up best acting prizes too.

"The Wrestler" was one of 21 films in the main competition lineup, and the awards ceremony wound up 11 hectic days of screenings, interviews, press conferences and red carpet glamour.

"THE BEST EVER"

In an interview with Reuters earlier in the week, Rourke called "The Wrestler" "the best ... movie I've ever made."

It was also the hardest, added the 51-year-old star of 1980s hits "9-1/2 Weeks" and "Angel Heart."

"Three of the hardest movies I ever made -- '9-1/2 Weeks', 'Angel Heart' and 'Year of the Dragon' -- and you could take all three of those movies and roll them into one and it wouldn't have been as hard as this."

The Silver Lion for best director was won by Russia's Alexei German Jr. for "Paper Soldier," set on the cold, barren steppes of Kazakhstan and centering around the Soviet space program of the 1960s.

The best actor award went to Italy's Silvio Orlando for his role in "Il Papa di Giovanna" (Giovanna's Father), the story of an overprotective father and his mentally deranged daughter.

The best actress prize was won by Dominique Blanc in "L'Autre" (The Other One), a haunting tale of a woman who becomes dangerously obsessed with a young ex-boyfriend.

"Teza," by Ethiopian director Haile Gerima, picked up two prizes -- the special jury award and best screenplay.

The story chronicles the life of an Ethiopian intellectual who flees his country during the Marxist "red terror" in the 1980s, only to be viciously attacked in Germany by racist youths.

U.S. actress Jennifer Lawrence was named best emerging actress for her role in "The Burning Plain," in which she appears alongside Oscar winners Kim Basinger and Charlize Theron in a mournful love story directed by Mexican Guillermo Arriaga.

Venice was criticised this year for a main competition lineup that some critics said was generally weak, but a trio of popular U.S. productions towards the end helped lift spirits.

"The Hurt Locker" by U.S. director Kathryn Bigelow led an informal poll of Italian critics impressed by its portrayal of the perils faced by a bomb disposal unit in Iraq.

And actress Anne Hathaway generated more awards buzz with her unusually dark role in "Rachel Getting Married," Jonathan Demme's touching wedding drama.