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The Franco Revolution - SBIFF - Santa Barbara Edhat. More articles like this The Franco Revolution updated: Jan 30, 2011, 7:18 AM By Mahil SenathirajahEdhat Film Festival Correspondentr See photos of Franco and Rogen from the Tribune right here At 31, James Franco is rapidly turning himself into a one-artist cultural phenomenon. James Franco landed in Santa Barbara last night to receive the SBIFF award for Outstanding Performance of the Year in what I thought was one of the funniest and most engaging tributes in recent years. Given the late start, Jeff Barbakow, graciously turned it over to quickly to Leonard Maltin who jokingly welcomed everyone to "this midnight screening".

All the more remarkable given his lack of preparation and heavy schedule, throughout the evening, he was a relaxed, quick witted and self-effacing story teller; an unlikely combination of Judd Apatowish, good natured, stoner comedian and serious, keenly intelligent actor. He told of his experience acting opposite Robert DeNiro in an early film, City by the Sea. Nic Rad's "Celebritist Manifesto": James Franco fan art becomes actual art-art - James Franco. Artist Nic Rad On His James Franco Manifesto | Crushable. The only person who may be meditating more on the concept of “James Franco” than the actor himself is New York artist Nic Rad.

His performance piece “The Celebritist Manifesto” is an ode, a study, and a satirical performance to the actor who defies all conventions of what it means to be “Hollywood.” Originally written for a group show called “Hashtag,” organized by William Powhida and Jennifer Dalton, Nic plans to stage a second showing of “Manifesto” in New York before the end of February. Nic writes on the “prologue” portion of his Celebritist Manifesto website his original concept for his Franco installation: My first attempt at ‘a stirring defense of James Franco as the greatest artist of this generation, if not all time’ was constructed in the following manor–Step 1: For fifteen minutes I planned to repeat the name “Franco,” to you… my increasingly disappointed audience.Step 2: I would “see what happened.”

That was all. Where did this Franco obsession come from? And student! Marlon Brando’s Lasting Influence on Ryan Gosling, Christian Bale, James Franco. Sixty years ago, Marlon Brando revolutionized acting in A Streetcar Named Desire, creating a template for young actors. “You can’t help but be affected by him,” says Ryan Gosling. It’s there in Ryan Gosling’s affected Brooklyn accent, in Christian Bale’s torturous devotion to character, in James Franco’s manic artist’s life, and even in Inception scene-stealer Tom Hardy’s gay teenage years. Call it the Marlon Brando effect. Like every serious young male actor since James Dean, these guys are paying homage—sometimes consciously, sometimes not–to the man who originated a certain persona that’s now cliché, that of the sensitive macho, the complicated artist, the press-shy diva with depth.

Every recent generation of thespians has had its gang of Brando acolytes. Jack Nicholson, Robert De Niro and Al Pacino were among the first. Sean Penn, Johnny Depp, and Daniel Day Lewis followed them. Gosling is the most conspicuous of this latest bunch. The Brando effect has its irreverent side too. Coolest of the Year 2010. The most valuable contribution a magazine employee can make is to invent a franchise: TIME's Person of the Year, Fortune's Fortune 500, People's Sexiest Man Alive, Franchise Times' Top 200 Franchises.

With magazines dying and the recession not abating, I had to come up with a new franchise to save my job. Which is how, after several minutes of thinking, I came up with Joel Stein Presents: The Coolest Person of the Year™. The slight problem was that neither TIME nor I am an obvious arbiter of cool. But, I argued to myself, it's precisely the mass of uncool who can best determine who the cool is. The editors at People, for example — not all that sexy. With the help of reality-TV producer Michael Hirschorn, I put together a list and ran it by Shane Smith, who co-founded the hipster magazine Vice, hosts MTV's The Vice Guide to Everything and, most important, works in Brooklyn. I started with Jon Hamm, the self-effacing star of Mad Men.

But I listened to him. Next The Tea Party. David Thomson on James Franco | Film. Time magazine has already called James Franco "the coolest guy alive", and the evidence piles up until you wonder: is that "evidence" or hype? Is he running a little too fast? Yes, in a few weeks' time he will be presenting the Academy awards show, along with Anne Hathaway, in the clearest sign yet that Oscar will do anything to get young viewers. And yes, he will be up for an Oscar himself for his performance in Danny Boyle's 127 Hours, where his character has to hack off an arm to get out of a tight squeeze in a Utah canyon.

And no, people have not run to see that film. And yes, this is the James Franco who plays support in the Spider-Man franchise. Yes again, last year he had a collection of short stories published by Scribner, and it would take a bold literary critic to say that the collection would have been published if he were just Jim Frank from Palo Alto, which is where the stories are set. Not that anyone has anything against Franco. Here's the thing I worry about. Internal Memo: James Franco. Who am “I”? And why do “I” have to be one person? Is it just because the letter “I” looks like the number “1″? Too many people are devoted to their own singularity. “I” am not a monad. Or should “I” say, “I” are not a monad. Or should “I” say, “I” are “we” are “James Franco.” The principle components of “James Franco” are: 1 Screen actor “James Franco”: original source of multi-Franconian notoriety predicated on pseudo-Fonz-ian television role on abortive but retroactively nostalgia-inducing proto-Apatovian vehicle Freaks and Geeks. 2 Fiction writer “James Franco”: author of largely unread story collection often enlisted by legitimate mentors (cf. 3 Entertainment mogul “James Franco”: purchaser of options on trendy literary works. 4 Graduate student “James Franco”: candidate for Ph.D. in English, Yale; enrollee, Rhode Island School of Design. 5 Performance artist “James Franco”: exploiter of previously mentioned identities on daytime television.