I link through all this... before you wake up... so I can be happier

to be linked again with you... ♫

Kenneth in the (212) Fun couples at the Emmys. I hadn't seen some of these photos. Cute!
Just Jared The new cast of Dancing with the Stars. I don't watch it but I do find it amusing in a meta way that Jennifer Grey of Dirty Dancing fame will compete.
/Film Dozens of new photos from The Social Network


popbytes I so wish I was in Venice right now for Black Swan.* (yes more on this later today) In a perverse way I hope that Darren Aronofsky does take that X-Men Origins: Wolverine sequel.
The Playlist I forgot to mention that someone finally gave primo scene-stealer Ari Graynor a lead role. That someone was David Gordon Green. I guess he's just smarter than other directors.
USA Today Lindsay Lohan talking to Vanity Fair. She claims she's still a "damn good actress." You always were Linds so prove it again. You can't keep resting on 1998-2004.
Pop Eater Sofía Vergara's boyfriend is in politics? Huh, who knew.
Movie|Line ewwww. the bedbug epidemic has reached Toronto. Will it hurt the Film Festival?

Late tonight... the next episode of Hit Me With Your Best Shot features A Face in the Crowd. Are you joining in?

Robyn doing Björk whilst Björk watches. No pressure or anything.



"Hyperballad" is such a goodie.

The Wizard of Link

Journalistic Skepticism What are the 20 Best Movie Weddings? I'm surprised the AFI hasn't made this list yet.
Mind of a Suspicious Kind looks back over Danny Boyle's filmography prior to the release of 127 Hours
Totally Looks Like Miss Hattie (Despicable Me) = Dolores Umbridge. Huh. I do see it now.
Movies Kick Ass compares The Wizard of Oz with... Andrei Tarkovsky's Stalker?


Self Styled Siren has a really interesting post on the Shirley Temple / John Ford film Wee Willie Winkie (1937) and...
Self Styled Siren ...another post on the attendant hulabaloo at the time by way of controversial critic/ screenwriter/ novelist Graham Greene who called wee Temple "a fancy little piece" in a review that prompted litigation.
Coming Soon First photos from the upcoming 647th film adaptation of The Three Musketeers (2011). This one stars Mads Mikkelsen and Milla Jovovich.
Antagony & Ecstasy reviews Cairo Time. I love this bit.

Which is an extremely good reason why you should never let a plot synopsis be the sole reason you choose your movies (whereas choosing them because of the lead actress - now that's just good sense).

Total Film has been surveying the movie blog landscape. I'm happy to be included on page 3 of their "another 600 movie blogs" but my goodness... 1200 is a lot of linkage with no real gain for anyone right? I mean you can't exactly list it in your bio. It's not like "Declared one of the top one thousand two hundred movie blogs!" is much of a blurb. But I kid. It's nice to be included. What's scary is that's probably only scratching the surface of all the movie blogs in the world.

offscreen
Wall Street Journal on "Judy Garland Lost Tracks"
Playbill on "Judy Garland Lost Tracks." Ummm... how had I missed this news? Seriously. Must have now. Either my brain is a sieve or the internet is because how are people totally discussing this and I didn't even know about it?! Argh. More Judy = yes.
Mighty God King "we need a human behavior patch" See, complainers? I'm not the only movie blogger who sometimes has to let off a little political steam. If you're not sometimes angry about things going on in this world, ur doin it wrong.
Parabasis "let freedom ring" another fine post on the anniversary of MLK's historic speech.
Boy Culture on last week's Scissor Sisters concert. I was there. T'was so fun, sexy, energetic, crazy, etcetera.
OMG Blog catches up with Björk. We hadn't checked in with her in awhile and we're going to Iceland soon. Yay.
The Film Doctor reads the latest horror novel The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing To Our Brains.

Birthday Suits, That Girl Those Girls

1694 Voltaire, Enlightment philosopher, writer, progressive. Candide is his work that's most familiar to modern audiences having been filmed, adapted, and put on lists like this one as well as being adapted into a popular and oft-revived comic operetta. Kristin Chenoweth doing "Glitter and Be Gay" is theater heaven.
1912 Eleanor Powell, queen of tap. Broadway Rhythm it's got me Everybody...



1938 Marlo Thomas, That Girl. Yes, that one.
1941 Juliet Mills, Globe nominated film actress (Avanti!) best known for TV roles. She was a cougar before they had a word for it, marrying hunky Maxwell Caulfield when she was 39 and he was 21, before he'd even made Grease 2. They're still married, going on thirty years now. Today's generation might know her best as witchy Tabitha from her long campy run on daytime soap Passions.
1943 Brigitte Broch, favored production designer of both Baz Luhrmann (Romeo + Juliet, Moulin Rouge!) and Alejandro González Iñárritu (Powder Keg, Babel, 21 Grams, Amores Perros). Oscar winner (Moulin Rouge!)
1944 Harold Ramis actor/writer/director/ghostbuster
1945 Goldie Hawn, giggler
1952 Lorna Luft daughter of high maintenance legend, half sister of high maintenance legend. 'my mother! my sister! my mother! my sister!' *slap*
1956 Cherry Jones theater giant, tv president, film cameoist (seriously... where are the bigger roles?) and right on awesome gay activist. Most famously, she's the original Sister Aloysius in Doubt. Check out how many big names she had to beat for her Tony statue below. Curiously both of her Tony Awards are for Oscar-loved film roles from two-time winners: Olivia de Havilland in The Heiress (1949) and Meryl Streep in Doubt (2008).



1965 Björk, genius
1984 Jena Malone actress, Jake Gyllenhaal makeout partner. Currently onscreen riding Ben Foster in her birthday suit in The Messenger.

Musicians and the Acting Bug

The A.V. Club has an interesting piece up on musicians who aced acting roles. Lot of good choices inside including Björk (Dancer in the Dark), Tom Waits (Bram Stoker's Dracula... how odd that we just barely spoke about that) and Frank Sinatra (The Manchurian Candidate) but it's obvious that their listmakers tried to steer away from... the obvious. "How you make a list like that and don't include Cher, I'll never know," he said whilst rolling his tongue and tossing hair back.



I think Dolly Parton was also aces onscreen. Sure, she was playing variations of Dolly every time but what giant movie star (outside of the small chameleon circle) doesn't do that exact same thing?

Why did Sting quit acting? He was doing it pretty regularly for awhile and his performances were fairly well received. Why do you suppose Gwen Stefani never tried again after that bizarre SAG nomination for The Aviator? Cyndi Lauper keeps dipping her toes in. She's already won an Emmy and she has a lead role in an indie called Here and There (pictured left) which is about New Yorkers marrying Serbian immigrants for the ole cash/citizenship papers deal. It's currently working the festival circuit.

What do you make of Justin Timberlake's screen career? What kind of role could they ever find for Lady GaGa? Amy Winehouse? [editor's note: I'm trying really hard not to mention Beyoncé in that Obsessed movie. The trailer is practically BEGGING for Razzie votes.] Wouldn't you like to see Sufjan Stevens in a movie (blue or otherwise)? What do you think P.J. Harvey thinks of Juliette Lewis's impersonation of her in Strange Days? Which musician are you fond of onscreen?

Why do I have so many questions today?!? It's like I'm ready to dance and there's no music playing.
*

Kristen Wiig as Björk

Somebody give her the Oscar. Or, okay, the EMMY. She was so funny in her brief bit in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, too.

Red Carpet Lineup

A random sampling of actresses from premieres, parties and events this past week...

[original images]

Amy Adams may be playing a nun currently but she still steps out looking like a cartoon princess. I think it's been much too long since we've seen Alfre Woodard, don't you? Have you seen Passion Fish (1992)? It's been on my mind lately for some reason. Cate Blanchett apparently just stepped out of a time machine direct from the set of Björk's "Who Is It?" video. But that's a compliment. Anything that reminds us of Björk is very welcome, indeed. I've been noticing that Marisa Tomei's red carpet wear is getting increasingly outre as the weather gets colder. If she keeps this up she might be in Tilda territory by the time the Oscars roll around in February. One can always dream. I can't wait for you all to see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button because Taraji P Henson gives her character this one little physical gesture in a church healing scene that just made me grin from ear to ear. I'm so glad her career is taking off. Did Kim Basinger think she looked fat in The Door in the Floor or something? Is it wrong that every time I see Heather Graham I want to hand her a pair of rollerskates? I never want her to take them off.

Friday's Ways... To Musicalize, My Way

Howdy everybody, JA from MNPP here! It's well-documented - even here at The Film Experience - my troublesome relationship to the musical genre. I hem and haw, but there are plenty of musicals I do like... I just tend to be drawn in by the less straight-forward takes on the genre - the self-conscious attempts to deconstruct always seem to draw me in.

Hence my like of Lars von Trier's Dancer in the Dark, a film which I paid some death-scene mind to yesterday with my Thursday's Ways Not To Die series (as noted by a commenter there, I suppose the post is spoilery if you haven't seen the film... but honestly, I take eight years as being well past the spoiler-expiration-date, and the series is really a celebration of spoilers in itself... I digress). Put together one the most talented, weirdest musicians out there (well two of the most talented musicians, although we're getting ahead of ourselves there) with a fearless button-pusher like Lars von Trier and something interesting is bound to spark, right?

Well it did. And down the You-Tube'd rabbit-hole we go. The inspiration for Dancer was, of course, Bjork's video for her song "It's Oh So Quiet," which was directed by Spike Jonze, off of her 1995 album Post,

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Genius, that. So Lars sees that, and wants to make the movie, or so the story goes. Five years later, ta-dah, movie. The stand-out song, the one that gets nominated for an Oscar, is called "I've Seen It All," which comes in two flavors. There's the movie version, where actor Peter Stormare sings the male part:

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And then there's the album version, where my personal God, Radiohead front-man Thom Yorke, sings the part:

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I don't know the exact politics of why Bjork got Thom to sing on Selmasongs besides the fact that it resulted in a track I've listened to more times than any other single song she's ever produced, but good on her. As a semi-connected, sorta-random side-note, Radiohead recently did a live cover of a Bjork song, "Unravel":

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Loveliness. Anyway, one thing that's always bugged me was Thom's absence at Bjork's swan-dress-clad rendition of the song at the Oscars in 2001. I would've melted into a puddle of happy goo if the two of them had taken to the stage... but no:

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Not that Bjork didn't give a terrific performance on her own. She most certainly did, and as much as I love the movie Wonder Boys, Bjork deserved the damn Oscar here too. Bob Dylan couldn't even be bothered to show up! Touring in Australia my ass. Priorities, Mr. Dylan.

Of course, that was hardly the largest injustice that evening... that was busy going down over in the Best Actress category...
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You Ain't So Tough

So you're a member of the paparazzi. You tell your friends how hard it is; Britney Spears attacks you with an umbrella, David Schwimmer gives you the bird and Bjork goes ape-poopy on you at the airport. HA! That's nothing compared to the Ekberg treatment. Here's Anita in front of her villa in Rome in 1960 threatening paparazzi with ... a freaking bow and arrow!

When the paparazzi are outside my house (you wouldn't believe how often it happens) I usually just throw Coke bottles at them. Sometimes flaming sacks of dung. Depends on my mood. If I'm really annoyed, I'll call Bjork - she makes problems go away.

Hump Day Hottie: Matthew Barney

Because some days, like days in which you return to New York City from Utah (just... hypothetically speaking), nothing but a Mormon obsessed art world superstar will do.

Matthew Barney in "The Order" from Cremaster 3

There's nothing like a man who likes to toss his own sculptures around, wear feather headdresses, pink kilts and shove bloody rags into his mouth.

The many faces (and bodies) of Matthew Barney

Sometimes there's nothing like a man who dresses his nude body in intricate outfits and squids, obsesses about viscous fluids, shrinks his own testicles for art and then ties ribbons on them, chops up his pop star girlfriend in rising water before transforming into a whale, and reworks the Guggenheim as a video game setting.

There's nothing like a man who makes things with his hands.


Today is one of those days. No other man but Matthew Barney will do.

And Now.... A Brief Music Video Break

The deeper I sink into cinephilia the less room I have for other things in my life like music. I can't do a top ten list of favorite songs or CDs since I haven't been paying much attention. But I do occassionally get into something or am convinced to love a song/artist by pleading friends. A close friend of mine --who some of you will know from the comments as 'kristoferrobbin'-- is in town and he's making cinematic concentration difficult. Damn him! So herewith a semi random assortment of 10 videos/songs I dug this year. Enjoy whilst I work on the movie stuff.



Jay Brannan (Shortbus) official video for "Body is a Temple". You should also be reading his blog --good stuff. And I'm sure you've seen Alanis Morrisette's Fergie spoof "My Humps" --it's still the funniest few minutes of film I've seen all year. With the possible exception of The Landlord.


Jackie Beat's "Filthy Whore" [NSFW] which is a spoof/response to Britney Spears lame ass "Gimme More" video. I f***ing love Jackie Beat. One of the only drag queens that still understands the old John Waters school of thinking. Quoth he 'I think a drag queen should horrify a family. I think families should run up the street in fear at a drag queen and not want to invite him home for dinner.' Jackie is terrifying. and genius. Let's pair Jackie with adorable and tiny Mika and "Grace Kelly" --she'd eat both of them alive.



Rihanna's "Umbrella" ella ella ay ay ay and Pink's "U + Ur Hand" because who doesn't love these songs? Pink's CD came out ages ago but it hangs on.


Björk's Volta CD only really scored media wise with the lead single "Earth Intruders" but I actually prefer the second release "Innocence" which has a triptastic beat. If a hip hop artist had thought that one up, they'd be bragging about it for the rest of the CD it's so hot. And let's pair Björk with another legendary crazy gal, Dolly Parton. Her new single is called "Better Get to Living" and her video stars the one and only Amy Sedaris. I mean... why not?


Behold: Charlotte Gainsbourg's "Songs That We Sing" I'm having the crush this year on account of this but mostly her spin on the jilted wife role in Todd Haynes's Dylan dissertation I'm Not There. And in every music post I must spread the gospel of Rufus Wainwright. This is "Rules and Regulations" His music hits me right there.

Finally, these aren't from 2007 but the Ian Curtis biopic Control is and its still haunting me around the edges a week after seeing it. So with Joy Division in my brain, I thought I'd throw up two covers for your consideration. First is Agent Provocateur and Siobhan Fahey (of Bananarama / Shakespeare Sister / ex Mrs. Dave Stewart fame --It makes me crazy that she never records a CD) doing "She's Lost Control" [NSFW] and then there's Swedish singer/songwriter José González with a cover of "Love Will Tear Us Apart". Such a flexible classic.



Any music recommendations you'd like to share? You know what to do.

'Soundtrack' Updates

I've added three songs to the jukebox (sidebar) which I'm calling "soundtrack" since I try to keep it movie related, natch. I always suggest refreshing your screen weekly at the film experience since i love to tinker with graphics, banners, sidebars ... This widget is such a fun toy. Like all wondrous things I discovered it through ModFab. He gets all the best toys and gets them first!


The new additions
Julie Delpy "Waltz for a Night" from Before Sunset. Both grounded and ethereal --how the hell does she pull that off? Miraculous.
Mika "Grace Kelly" Great song. Great lyrics plus, hello, the title. Is Mika an actressexual?
Björk "Earth Intruders" from the upcoming CD Volta. I read a horrifying thing at Electroqueer wherein they stated they'd taken a break from Björk after Post. You don't take breaks from Björk, people. I can't even begin to describe what you've missed the past decade if you haven't been listening. She is a genius. genius. if you stopped listening when the radio stopped playing her you've missed her two best CDs (Homogenic & Dancer in the Dark) and one beautiful undervalued one (Vespertine) Oh, the movie connection: she was in one once.

Top Ten: Prosthetic Appendages

tues top ten: a weekly series for the list lover in you and the list maker in me


Rose McGowan may have the first machine gun leg in the current "hit" Grindhouse [Please allow me to willfully ignore the box office problems. I'm not a big gore or exploitation movie buff but the least the gore loving moviegoing public could do to satisfy my worries about their bloodlust is go see something with at least some pretense of quality or reason for existence beyond the carnage. Thank you -your editor] but she isn't the first actor to be blessed with a memorable part. Get it? "part" I kill myself.

Ten Memorable Prosthetic Appendages

10 Virginia Woolf's nose in The Hours. When Denzel Washington presented Nicole Kidman with her Oscar for this movie he made a really stupid joke about winning "by a nose". But, you know, that probably did tip the scales in her favor what with the Academy being the Academy. A gimmick goes a long way.

09 ROSE MACGOWEN HAS A MACHINE GUN FOR A LEG! Yes, we covered this already. Calm down.

08 Adam's demon arm gets firepower in Buffy the Vampire Slayer (season 4). Or as Adam likes it call it: upgrades. Yes, BtVS works its way onto every top ten list. I'm an addict, can't be helped. If you still have not taken the cue and learned to love this television series as much as I than it's really your problem, not mine.



07 Björk and Matthew Barney legs in Drawing Restraint 9. At least I hope those were prosthetic legs they were both wearing in that truly sickening whaling climax. Or maybe they were the real deal in which case the arty rock star and the rocking art star are both wearing proshetics now. Mommy! Björk & Barney are scaring me again.

06 Lena Olin's limbs in Romeo is Bleeding *SPOILER*. I remember virtually nothing about this movie other than that Lena Olin's ferocity scared the s*** out of me. And she capped off the movie with a truly masochistic evil fait accompli involving the loss of her own limbs. Ewwww

05 Steve Martin's nose in Roxanne. Any Cyrano movie would certainly do but I include this one because I have to share this anecdote I had totally forgotten about before typing this list. I had my undergraduate experience at BYU which is *gasp* a Mormon school. I usually avoided their campus cinemas because they would edit all the movies so as not to offend delicate sensibilities. Delicate sensibilities are abundant with religious types, don'cha know. One night we went to see Roxanne on campus. I'm sitting there totally enjoying msyelf when it comes to that big bar scene where some redneck calls Steve Martin a "Big Nose." Steve then humiliates the name-caller by relaying 20 wittier insults he could have used. It's a long scene that's essentially a countdown joke --a crowd pleaser -- and we're just laughing away and then they bleep out the fucking punchline. The entire countdown joke ruined. Argh. Some people don't deserve movies at all.

04 Mark Wahlberg's penis in Boogie Nights. Contrary to popular juvenile belief found every damn place on the internet the majority of famous men --hell the majority of men period -- do not have gigantic pornstar phalluses. So don't be so shocked next time you see a tabloid nudie shot of a movie star and he doesn't look like he's cut out for a career with Falcon Entertainment. So... Marky Mark got a fake one for Boogie Nights. [Obviously NSFW] People complained at the time that it didn't look real but whatevs. How often do prosthetic appendages look totally real in the movies? I mean, aside from that machine gun leg on Rose McGowan: a study in verisimilitude.

03 Luke Skywalkers right hand in Empire Strikes Back gets all chopped off and replaced with robotics. Like father, like son. I was pretty damn obsessed with Lukes fate in Empire as a wee boy. As previously detailed here.

02 Beer filled legs in The Saddest Music in the World. Like a lot of precocious or quirky auterial work (see also John Waters) Guy Maddin's films tend to be more fun to think about in retrospect or beforehand than whilst watching. I still chuckle inwardly whenever I think of those beer legs in this complete oddity of a musical. Isabella Rossellini, very well cast here and absolutely in love with her alcohol legs, is one of the most adventurous thespians working. "If you're sad and like beer, I'm your lady" Indeed.

01 Captain Hook in Peter Pan. You have to top each list with a classic. It's a rule or something.

Beyond the Valley of the Stardolls

Say you have some time to waste and you happen to be a teenage girl (or just think like one) you can probably lose an hour or three of your precious life playing with Stardoll. I gave myself a strict time limit because I am a sucker for interactive goofiness. So here's my 30 minute red carpet creation.


On the left we have BFFs Salma Hayek & Penélope Cruz. You can't see that I placed them in handholding BFF poses because I also gave them unfortunately poofy matching dresses -- what's a BFF good for if you can't wear matching ensembles? I threw in Johnny Depp for some eccentricity... and while I was going there added Björk too. They did have a swan dress for her but why be so literal? Instead I just gave her a bathrobe with a tie and some edible accessories (dog bone and pastry hat for the obvious reason of: why not?).I already regret placing Anne Hathaway in a dress that's more suited for an aging goddess like Julie Andrews or Glenn Close but it's easy to imagine Ms. Hathaway on the red carpet when she's 60, isn't it? (The one major problem with this time sucker: 17 pages of celebrity paper dolls to choose from and not even that number of individual gown choices? Oh the humanity!)

I couldn't find a dress I liked for Beyoncé so I just made a slutty one out of shiny necklaces since it's that kind o' tacky that gets media attention. Perhaps I erred, Beyoncé being so shy and all? I finished the dress up game with Channing Tatum but I didn't think clothing was appropriate. Less is more.

Stardoll has *gasp* 5 million users. (It's not like they need me to point at them. But like I said: sucker for interactivity) That's a lot of pre teen and teen girl power. Apparently, based on polling, they're all rooting for Kate Winslet to win the Oscar. Poor things... Sunday night will be rough on them. Oscar breaks everyone's heart eventually.

Tuesday Top Ten: Bald Heads

tuesday top ten: new series for the list lover in you and the list maker in me

I wasn't going to go here but as I logged into my blogger HQ Britney Spears started playing on my iTunes (to paraphrase the song she's singing to me right now: she drives me crazy. Seriously, girl, pull it together). You may have heard a million times in the past 24 hours that Britney Spears has shaved her head. Some people look hot with a shaved head (Natalie Portman, take a bow). Some people do not (sorry Britney). I shaved my head last week but somehow I didn't end up on CNN or ET. What gives?

10 Favorite Bald-Headed Characters
This list is dedicated to Oscar, the most coveted bald-headed man on the planet.


10 Channing Tatum. Shaved heads count. Any excuse to post pictures...

09 "Tommy" Hugh Jackman in The Fountain. Hugh has beeyootiful hair but if you're gonna be straight up bald for a third of a movie, you might as well pair it with pajamas, tai chi and floating bubbles of light for the maximum memorable factor (previous Hugh drooling)

08 Silver Surfer. A literal embodiment of the "chrome dome" I loved loved loved this character in the comics. But I can't believe they're going to try and movie-ize him. This is not a transferrable character... on account of the unintentional giggles factor. A character who flies around on a surfboard through outer space? In a movie?

07 Bruce Willis. If we're talking action stars, give me Willis's empty dome over Nic Cage's plugs and wigs any second of any day forever. Thank you.

06 Bjork in the "Hunter" video. Björk doesn't look conventionally attractive bald (Britney is not alone) but one of the greatest things about this icelandic genius is her complete lack of vanity. Everything is in service to the art. And this video is striking.



05 Sinéad O'Connor back in the day. It started with the totally brilliant "The Lion and the Cobra" which we 80s new wave kids worshipped. The rest of the world freaked out en masse when "Nothing Compares 2 U" arrived and shot to the top of the charts. I never thought I'd be comparing Sinéad to Britney but she also kinda lost it in the fires of white hot fame. Not everyone can handle it.

04 "Ripley". Never mind that pesky prison colony lice infestation that prompted the buzz job--this was a great look. Somehow Sigourney Weaver's signature character was even fiercer and sexier in the underappreciated Alien³.

03 "Colonel Kurtz" in Apocalypse Now. Our first glimpse of Marlon Brando as the mad Colonel all bathed in shadows has to be one of the great entrances in film history. (personal canon entry)

02 Yul Brynner as "Rameses" in The Ten Commandments I know it's terrible but I always wanted him to win when I watched this Biblical epic as a kid. Also: The King and I. "Etcetera etcetera etcetera"


01 Professor Xavier. Because all my life I wanted to attend "Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters" in New York. I wanted to fly in the Blackbird. Take classes with Kitty Pryde. Train the Danger Room with Cyclops. And chase Nightcrawlers tail ... TMI. But anyway. I love Charles Xavier in print and onscreen (Patrick Stewart didn't disappoint in the films) and it's wonderful that there's at least one iconic bald comic book character that's not a super villain.

Related Post: A History of... Bald Women
Previous Tuesday Top Ten: Celebrity Couples

Great Performers, NY Times Division

The New York Times Sunday Magazine has their annual portfolio of celebrity portraits up. These aren't the stunningly odd creations of last year's batch --there was a lot of writing on faces in that one. There's less of an element of surprise in the photos (fairly traditional portraiture, sometimes even dully so) so the surprise comes in their choice of subjects: Vin Diesel (Find Me Guilty), Abbie Cornish (Sommersault), and Paul Dano (Little Miss Sunshine) alongside kudo fixtures like Helen Mirren (The Queen) and Leonardo DiCaprio (The Departed). At least they chose the right film for Leo, even if their taste elsewhere is questionable. Ivana Bacquero (Pan's Labyrinth) is unarguably a photogenic child but a great actress? Like Audrey Tatou in Amélie, she's a beautiful face around which the film's true strength, the visuals, orbit. But calling it a "great" performance. That's stretching it till it snaps.


If you click on that link above and hit the slideshow you can see all the photos but I've included my three favorite portraits here: Annette Bening all simple elegance with her trademark twinkle, Ryan Gosling looking old school dapper, and Rinko Kikuchi reminding me of a Björk video or CD cover or something... or maybe an old photo of Vanessa Redgrave? Bet you didn't expect to hear those two names compared. But, ahhh, that's the associative triumph of weird ass collections like this one.

tags: Annette Bening, Ryan Gosling, Helen Mirren, Leonardo DiCaprio,movies, portraits, photography, cinema, New York Times

Eiko Ishioka

Today marks the birthday of a true visionary, Eiko Ishioka. Though this artist has been enriching the world for 67 years now I first became aware of her work when watching Francis Ford Coppola’s gonzo take on Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992) for which she designed the costumes. In interviews at the time Coppola suggested that his original idea was for the costumes to function almost as set design … as if they alone would carry the entire burden of creating the films eery visually spectacular world. Ishioka deservedly won the Oscar for her breathtaking work.

Disappointingly for screen costume enthusiasts like myself, Ishioka spreads her talents over many fields (album covers, music videos, poster design, theatrical costuming, etc…) so her film efforts are few and far between. Generally her work is seen only a couple of times a decade on our movie screens. But within the next year or so we’ll have two (!!!) movies touched by Ishioka. First up is The Fall a reteaming with Tarsem Singh for whom she costumed The Cell (2000) . The second is a Spanish drama about a feminist mystic, Saint Teresa, starring Paz Vega.


Links to Love:
Eiko directs Björk in "Cocoon"
Eiko Ishioka on The Cell
Eiko and Cirque du Soleil
Eiko books

Incredibly Random Star-F**king Goodness

Queerty loves The Devil Wears Prada. Re: it's box office, I love that I called that this would be a big hit and no one believed me. One reader actually told me privately 'you're crazy. Only gay men will want to see that' and I also staunchly defended its unusual trailer (just one scene) which some people hated but which totally did the trick: i.e. introduced the characters. Made you want more...
Oh No They Didn't on Keira Knightley's skeleton.
Just Jared w/ photos of God and her family. So many redheads! I'm glad she's multiplying and replenishing the earth, good talented genes and all... but I hope she starts making good movies again.
Female First on the "top gays" Sir Ian rules. Oh, and that pic above is of Gandalf marching in London pride with a guy who is rumored to be his new boyfriend (the guy to the left in the Blondie t-shirt) --if you haven't yet voted on the fav actor right now poll Ian is one of your contestants.

and just because it's the Fourth doesn't mean we can't be critical...
Cinematical on South Korea's quota drop for Hollywood films. My opinion? A very bad move on South Korea's part. The countries that survive, cinematically speaking, put quotas on these things and their citizenry is thus coaxed to see their own good stuff and Off-Hollywood cinema survives ...as it should. Cinematical also has an intriguing post on the 'anti-american accusational brouhaha over Superman Returns. I totally agree with their take.

And why am I showing this picture of Matthew Barney and Chlöe Sevigny chatting it up? Well, like the Ian pic and Keira link above it's from Oh No They Didn't. The photo is labelled something like 'the talented Chlöe Sevigny'. You know that I worship celebrities as much as the next person and enjoy the gossip blogs but crap like this bugs. When one of the most important celebrated artists in the world (and Mr. Björk to boot) is standing next to a talented indie actress, shouldn't he at least get a mention? I mean think about it. He's far more important to the art world than Sevigny is to the gossip / celebrity world. Grrrr. It's like seeing a photo of Nicole Kidman with Barack Obama on a political blog and the blog just saying "the wonderful Barack Obama" ... and ignoring that one of the world's most important movie stars happens to be standing right next to him. Ah well. At least it didn't read "...and unidentified friend."

Matthew is on my brain at any rate because my friend Astroboy (who wrote those last couple of horoscopes for y'all. This is him to the left, his beau in the middle, and yours truly to the right) just went with The Boyfriend (mine. pay attention) to this exhibit "Into Me, Out of Me" at PS 1 this past Sunday and who was actually there to see the same exhibit? Matthew Barney, Björk, and their daughter Isabella. Astroboy, who feels about Björk the way I feel about La Pfeiffer, was entirely beside himself and has not uttered a word about anything else for the past 48 hours. If my one and only with Michelle Pfeiffer in the flesh is any indication... he'll be talking about this day for years to come.

At one point The Boyfriend was standing next to Barney and Astroboy was standing right next to Björk as they all stared at the same exhibit. Oblivious to the art and the starfucking fandom, wee Isabella played with her necklace on the museum floor. My favorite part of the story is that at one point they saw Matthew Barney holding his daughter and pointing at his own installation in the show (which features him dangling in a harness --buck naked of course --it's Barney) and explaining it to her.

I love Matthew Barney & Björk. Loved them separately. Love them together. I obsess on Cremaster and even made it through Drawing Restraint 9 (pictured right) which completely terrorized my fragile psyche. So why did I stay home instead of seeing this exhibit with them? Bad decision on that particular Sunday afternoon, I'll tell you that.

No Restraint

OK. So it's 2 AM and I really need to be asleep. But I gotta tell you...I just got back from seeing "The Björk & Barney Show" (AKA Drawing Restraint 9). About 2/3rd of the way through it they went from being the hippest genius couple in the world to something like a highbrow Mickey & Mallory Knox. I'll be sleeping in the fetal position tonight. If I get any sleep at all.

I didn't really think that either of them could freak me out at this point. I have loved and watched Björk since the Sugarcubes days. I sat through all 10 hours of Cremaster. This isn't my first Drawing Restraint etc... And, yet, they managed it. um. congratulations?

music makes the people come together

Similar to that Book thing a week ago--here's a music meme. Can you tell I'm procrastinating other things? (I started writing an actual film review but I'm so woefully out of practice.) For young music lovers out there: Please forgive the 80s intensity of the following list. They say the music from your adolescence is always more resonant for you and many of these questions are of the "life forming" variety.


1. Total Number of CDs/Albums I Own:
400ish I think. I still long for my missing vinyl though. It was lost somewhere in my frequently moving college years *sob*
2. Last Album I Bought:
THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZAoriginal Broadway cast recording. It's just great. Adam Guettel is, sadly, never going to make the mark people think he will. He's too damn unprolific to be the next Sondheim or Hammerstein (as the case may be). The next purchase I'm definitely making is Missy Elliott THE COOK BOOK. I have everything else. As long as Missy keeps on dropping, I'm snatching them up.
3. Last Album I Listened To:
Antony and the Johnsons I AM A BIRD NOW --just weird and gorgeous. Rufus Wainwright and Boy George both have guest spots. That's how gay and theatrical it is, god bless.

4. Currently Listening To:
Gwen Stefani LOVE. ANGEL. MUSIC. BABY.
5. Lyrics or Beats?:
Lyrics. I'm all about the dialogue. even when that s*** is bananas. b-a-n-a-n-a-s
6. First Album You Fell in Love With:
That would be Olivia Newton John GREATEST HITS VOL. 2--many people are embarrassed by their first love. But not I. Do not be dissin' on Olivia anywhere near me. Ever. Not even under your breath while reading this blog.

7. Biggest Impact:
Madonna. period. All of 'em. She gives good soundtrack to life.
8. Favorite Album:
Kate Bush THE HOUNDS OF LOVE crazy, pretensious, spooky-girlie, and essential for any record collection
3 runners up in no particular order
George Michael LISTEN WITHOUT PREJUDICE Vol. 1 a perfect pop record -too bad he lost it.
Yaz UPSTAIRS AT ERICSVince Clark also brought the world Erasure and Depeche Mode but Yaz has it all over any other new wave band because it's got the magic combo. Vince AND Alison Moyet.
Eurythmics SAVAGE this one is mine I loved it way before the rest of the world began to realize how awesome it is/was/will continue to be.
9. Most Listened To:
Probably Madonna's RAY OF LIGHTthough I never kept count ;)

10. Sexiest Album:
Björk VESPERTINE has to be way up there.
11. Biggest Disappointment:
Annie Lennox BARE I just can't get into it ~too monotonous. I weep that she takes so long between albums.
12. Five Albums That Mean the Most to You:
Other than those mentioned in the other 11 questions I have to go with...Rufus WainwrightPOSES , Cyndi LauperSHE'S SO UNUSUAL, John Cameron Mitchell & Stephen TraskHEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH, Jason Robert BrownTHE LAST FIVE YEARSand Tori Amos BOYS FOR PELE