My beloved bloglines -- where I subscribe to hundreds of blogs and websites in case something interesting pops up -- goes the way of the dodo tomorrow. This is the final link roundup as you've come to know (and love / be indifferent to). I'm taking this opportunity to rethink my web reading and start from scratch in terms of what I "follow" since I spend too much time surfing, skimming, reading, wandering. Not that I won't keep sharing things that amuse me. Question: Would you like the Film Experience to have more frequent tiny-ass posts to cover a broad range of news and topics or do you enjoy the major compilations where everything gets smooshed together like so?
The Film Pie has an interesting "inside movie journalism" story about being the 'first' review posted on Rotten Tomatoes (re: Paranormal Activity 2). Pink is the New Blog Jude Law on Sesame Street. Awwww. I don't get enough Jude Law these days. Or felt puppets. Both at once? Yes, please. Low Resolution Halloween words of wisdom from Beetlejuice. Speaking of... The Exploding Kinetoscope has some birthday wishes for Winona Ryder. Could her career be back on the upswing? popbytes 'Hottie with a Rubik's Cube'. How 80s and now simultaneously. Everything I Know... is not among the fans of Julianne Moore's Off Broadway musical Freckleface Strawberry. Blog Stage considers the changes made for Rabbit Hole as it shifts from stage to screen. Dear Old Hollywood For California readers: The Arclight is hosting a Steve McQueen tribute event on November 11th.
A Toy Story Moment
I thought this was cute. It's a moment of closure for director Lee Unkrich who has been working on the Toy Story franchise forever. If you've ever said goodbye to a long term project that you actually completed, you'll understand.
But this moment would be way cooler if we knew that there'd be no more Toy Story movies after Toy Story 3 which really did close the franchise beautifully. Sadly, Pixar, which once was THE studio for originality, is rapidly becoming like all the other studios when it comes to sequels and franchises and they're going to be beating all their horses way past the time that they're dead (to mangle a metaphor).
Finally, over at Pussy Goes Grrr Andreas made me lol with his love for Cat People. Have you ever seen that movie? There's almost nothing in the world I love more than clever people obsessing over movies. To this day I lol (literally) every time I think of the time Nick, hearing I had just watched Nashville, said "I want to rub that movie all over me." LOL. See, I did it again? It's too bad blogs don't have sound so you could hear. I speak the truth.
Adam of Club Silencio here with another look at my favorite actresses and their distinguishing claims to fame.
Who can blame Catherine O'Hara for leaving Macaulay Culkin home alone... twice... on Christmas... in major metropolitan cities. Artists have other priorities. And as an artist who's consistently playing other artists, Catherine O' Hara certainly knows the bittersweet sides to success. It's all for her art.
From SCTV to her ensemble comedies with Christopher Guest, Catherine O'Hara's donned many different and hilarious characteristic quirks. For me the most beloved is watching her catch the creative bug. Regional theatre, folk music, film production and sculpture - all the more opportunities for Catherine to find her greatest inspiration and internal expression. Somehow, amidst all the neurotic pursuit of fame and and shallow self-service that comes with being an artist, Catherine's always understood that less is more.
"Less is More" Method Acting:
When you're talking to someone you close your eyes - and then you look at them when you're not talking to the person. I mean you open your eyes when you're looking away, but then when you talk to the person you go like that - and you open your eyes - and then you look back at the person, but you never open your eyes when you're talking to them.
Perhaps "less is more" can also be applied to the way that Catherine provides even her most hysterical and horrifying characters with the subtlest shades of heart and humanity. It's a shame that we've only heard the "for your consideration" buzz and never the award win she wholly deserves. But then Catherine's not the type do just anything to win an Oscar, even if her characters are.
I do have trouble doing jobs that I don't really believe in. After Home Alone, another actor might have jumped on that and said, 'I am the reason this is such a big movie.' But I guess I've always been only half-ambitious -- kind of resentfully, after-the-fact ambitious. I'll see something and say, 'How did she get that? I could have done better.' Maybe it's an Irish thing... to hold back from putting yourself on the line and then say, 'That should have been me.'
At this point she's a comedy veteran with the refreshing ability to laugh at the business and take pot-shots at her botoxed peers. Her humor is a craft in itself. Catherine O'Hara is the rare and glimmering artist who's always avoided becoming trapped in her art... Almost always.
This is my art, and it is dangerous! Do you think I want to die like this?!
Dave of Victim of the Time here again; I asked this question of Christina Ricci a couple of weeks ago, and mused on the possibility of doing the same for poor Winona Ryder. (Sidenote: they were apparently in this together. I have not seen that.) So imagine my surprise to see Nat mention her popping up in something over there in Nashville. Noni on the brain; surely a good thing.
I think we all know what became of her really, though: she got busted. But, looking back, her career didn't look in the finest shape anyway; Girl, Interrupted got stolen by a manic Angelina Jolie, Autumn in New York went down like a balloon filled with air instead of helium (terminal illness and an older man lusting after a young woman- where did all go so wrong?), and I'm not sure anyone should ever mention Mr. Deeds again (unless of course it's followed by the words "Goes To Town"). In fact, after an obviously necessary period of staying out of the spotlight, Noni's slowly been rebuilding respectability in her career, albeit out of the A-List limelight she once inhabited. Her films in the last few years may not have been of the finest quality, or had the widest releases (indeed, most of them haven't swum their way over to these shores), but with things like Star Trek and The Private Lives of Pippa Lee on the horizon, perhaps Noni's career is finally getting back on track.
She seems to have suffered from a similar problem to Christina Ricci; the public perception of her never really seemed to change. Like Ricci, Noni's a small lady, but rather than the child Ricci inescapably plays, Noni was, from the day she appeared in Beetle Juice (which, shoot me, I still haven't seen) and Heathers, forever a teenager. Parts like those in The Age of Innocence and The Crucible never really seemed to fit her, and she didn't seem particularly comfortable in them; Jo in Little Women, on the other hand, fit her almost too well for her own good. Trying to play 'adult' roles- throw Girl, Interrupted (although the 'girl' of the title tells you something) and possibly Alien: Resurrection into that hat as well- made our beloved Noni come across slightly bland, stripped of the sardonic, cutting humour the teenager parts let her express.
Post-you-know-what back in 2002- and note that, A Scanner Darkly aside, I'm going solely on plot descriptions here, so feel free to contradict me- she seems to have, whether willingly or not (they may be the only parts she was offered!), used her damaged image to appropriate a new persona (often involving drugs), and it may be working out, after a few years hard slog. From wiseacre teen to... wiseacre, battered adult. I see her conviction as the division between teenage Noni and adult Noni- it might have been the best thing for her personally, but it looked like her A-list status was dwindling anyway; taking an enforced break, and coming back with an unavoidably altered public image, meant she could finally grow up. (And, yes, she may be in a movie with Hilary Duff, but... Nope. I got nothin'.)
JA from MNPP here, momentarily realizing how strange it is that this is the second time lately (last time) that I've popped up here at The Film Experience to natter on about something related to Beetlejuice. But there it is. I have a problem apparently.
It's Geena Davis' birthday though, and I want to wish her a very happy one, and beg on her behalf a career renaissance. Where has she gotten herself to anyway? Did her sleeve catch on one of those near-Olympian-level arrows she was slinging and carry her off to Never Never Land? She played the Lady-In-Chief in that missed-the-zeitgeist-by-a-hair television program and then promptly vanished.
The world needs her, I say. What is the movie-world without a plump-lipped fire-haired Valkyrie to carry it on her shoulders? Nothing! A big boring bowl of plump-lipped fire-haired Valkyrie-less oatmeal. Bah!
tuesday top ten: for the list lover in you and the list maker in me
Today is the 532nd birthday of Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (aka just "Michelangelo"), one of the most prolific, documented, celebrated and imitated artists of ... ever. So in honor of his birthday, herewith a top ten list devoted to artists or art related moments in the movies. Art was on my brain anyway, what with having just seen Jake Gyllenhaal's cartoonist in Zodiac (more on this soon) and last night's episode of Heroes still fresh in mind. I don't know about you but that stereotype of drug use enhancing ones artistic abilities is always delightful to see reinforced [/sarcasm] --and every week on Monday nights no less!
Obviously I will be forgetting many great art-centric films in this list (but hey, that's what comments are for --share your own favorites)
Art in the Movies
10 & 09 Max von Sydow as "Frederick" in Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) and Julianne Moore as "Maude Lebowski" in The Big Lebowski (1998) Two great comedies which contain supporting performances of archetypal artist types. Von Sydow is the cranky solitary "pure" artist --he's not just uncomfortable with the business of art, he's infuriated by it. Moore essays the 'artist as avant-garde nutjob' stereotype as a vaginal performance artist. It's her one and only great comedic work.
08 La Belle Noiseuse Michel Piccoli spends 236 minutes sketching a nude Emmanuelle Béart in this 90s French import and many of those 236 minutes are pleasureable and/or intriguing. Is it Béart's stunning body and performance that make it so? (Previous Béart love here and here) The sheer extended chutzpah of the whole enterprise? The rare almost real time (or as close at you'll get) peek into the craft? Or maybe it's just, simply, a fine film.
07 Michael Beck as "Sonny Malone" in Xanadu (1980) I know this is a horrible horrible eyesore on an otherwise respectable list but don't you miss painted album covers? That was his job! That used to be an actual profession. I was a kid when this movie came out and oh how I wanted his life when I grew up: painting for a living and romancing Olivia Newton-John. Mmmmm. I miss paintings everywhere: magazine covers, cd covers. Why is it always photography now?
Long before we were familiar with Christopher Guests mockumentary troupe in films like Waiting for Guffman and Best in Show, O'Hara was already spinning comedic gold in the movies. She was in superb form as a narcissistic sculptor in this early Tim Burton hit.
05 the sidewalk paintings in Mary Poppins (1964) Art is transporting -- in this case literally so. "I draws what I likes and I likes what I drew"Who hasn't wanted to dive into a drawing at one time or another?
04 Scarlett Johansson as the Girl With the Pearl Earring (2003) In this case the appeal is the subject (Scarjo in her best performance) rather than the artist Colin Firth as "Vermeer". And to be fair it's also the exquisite and painterly cinematography by the talented DP Eduardo Serra
03 Julianne Moore (artist) and Madeline Stowe (subject) in Shortcuts (1993) Casting siblings is obviously more difficult than not, given how many screen blood ties feel forced or improbable. But I love this duet from Robert Altman's Los Angeles panorama. The two actresses have a great silent rapport. Their modelling session together sends Moore's screen husband (Matthew Modine) into a flustered awkward exit after seeing his sister-in-law naked. The two actresses share a sudden synchronized laugh that's conspiratorial, exclusionary, and entirely sisterly. I love it.
02 Pollock (2000) Ed Harris and Marcia Gay Harden both wowed in Harris' sturdy biopic. It holds a special place in my Oscar-obsessed heart because it was my first major claim to fame as a pundit: I predicted both of their nominations, which was --I know it's hard to believe now -- not the thing to do at the time: precursors had ignored them. Though Pollock is entirely too conventional to be a great film it's still a solid directorial debut from the great actor and one wonders why Harris hasn't followed it up. The aha! moment of Jackson's splatter painting technique is annoying and historically questionable but there's abundant pleasure in the performances: Harris didn't win the Oscar but his grunting masculinity is, for this moviegoer, far more potent than that of his conqueror (Russell Crowe in Gladiator). Marcia Gay Harden furiously chews scenery as his neglected wife and fellow artist, Lee Krasner. Best of all for art world aficionados Amy Madigan (Harris' real life unneglected wife) is a complete scream as the inimitable Peggy Guggenheim.
01 6 Degrees of Separation (1993) In this transfer of the hit play Stockard Channing gives a revelatory Oscar nominated performance as "Ouisa" and Donald Sutherland lends her able if eventually incompatible marital support. It's hard to pick a favorite moment in this film about art dealers and a young man (Will Smith) who disrupts their carefully controlled if precarious existence. But two moments that are on loop in my head and have been since 1993 ... spinning the Kandinsky"chaos. control. chaos. control. you like? you like?" and Ouisa's self-startled joy slapping the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. See this movie! you'll like. you'll like.
The Top Ten Movies That Make Me Think of Halloween...Concludes! 01. The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) With an affectionate "BOO!" to the entire filmography of Tim Burton
Who better to be considered the cinematic patron saint of Halloween than that weird, wild-haired auteur Tim Burton? Most of his filmography from his debut featurePee Wee's Big Adventure(1985), to the amazing run of Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, and Batman through to Ed Wood, Mars Attacks! and this year's Corpse Bride displays a sweet magical combo of the macabre and innocent spiced with dark humor and mighty visual invention. In other words, it's easy to love Tim Burton's movies for the exact same reasons that it's easy to enjoy Halloween.
In this Henry Selick directed Tim Burton produced animated adventure all of these auteurial character quirks were literalized into the perfect Halloween movie. Oh, sure...Nightmare's storyline is actually about a longing for Christmas. But from its hilarious and jokily gruesome opening number "This is Halloween" to its triumphant 'let's put on a show' reaffirmations of purpose, this movie subverts all the Christmas love into an ode to Halloween as the supreme holiday for those with ghoulishly creative minds. That twist is this movies most memorable trick. The Nightmare Before Christmas is a sickly delicious treat.
"Boys and girls of every age Wouldn't you like to see something strange? Come with us and you will see This, our town of Halloween This is Halloween, this is Halloween Pumpkins scream in the dead of night This is Halloween, everybody make a scene Trick or treat till the neighbors gonna die of fright It's our town, everybody scream In this town of Halloween."
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