Familiar Faces. The David Fincher Hierarchy

By now you've undoubtedly confirmed for yourself that Brad Pitt is not in David Fincher's The Social Network... Unless you count that "Tyler Durden" Facebook profile on a computer screen in Jesse Eisenberg's room (blink and you'll miss it but I did catch it the second time through).

A Fincher sandwich. Brangelina brung the bread.

If you foolishly expected Brad to pop up for a cameo, you're forgiven on account of your totally understandable great love of David Fincher movies, in which Brad often stars (Se7en, Fight Club, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button). They're friends in real life and only one year apart in age. But for now, no new movie collaborations are on the docket. 

<--- Fincher winning an MTV Award for Se7en (1995). It wasn't the first time MTV honored him but more on that later.

Beyond the obvious and uncurious case of Brad Pitt, does the popular director even favor repeat actors?  He's not visibly a creature of habit like Woody Allen, previously featured in this new series, but he does reuse actors, like favorite daubs of paint on his auteurial palette. Let's investigate!

The David Fincher Acting Hierarchy
(Quantitatively Speaking)

4 Films.
There's a three way tie for the top honor, each beating Brad Pitt by one film, albeit with much smaller roles than Brad's movie star status would allow.

• Richmond Arquette. Yes, that's the least famous member of the Arquette clan (brother to Alexis, David, Rosanna & Patricia). Fincher always gives him tiny roles but some are key: he makes the dread box delivery at the end of Se7en, makes the first two kills in Zodiac and also appears in Fight Club and Benjamin Button.
• Bob Stephenson, who you might reconize as a series regular from TV's Jericho or The Forgotten, is part of the SWAT team in Se7en, a security officer in Fight Club and a killer in both The Game and Zodiac.
• Christopher John Fields stretches the furthest back with the director, all the way to Fincher's debut feature Alien³ (1992) where he played "Rains" one of the first victims of the acid-blooded beastie. Poor guy. He also appears in The Game as Detective Boyle, Fight Club's dry cleaning man and he's a copy editor in Zodiac.

3 Films.
A man that needs no introduction.

• Brad Pitt delivered his two best performances,  Se7en (1995) and Fight Club (1999), under the director's guidance. Their third union for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008), though a substantial hit, didn't deliver in the same way. It's one of Pitt's duller performances, Oscar nomination be damned, and entire scenes are stolen from him by the make up f/x and the supporting actors.

2 Films.
The Fincher filmography is, we hope, just barely starting its second act. He's currently making his 9th feature (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) and several people have now appeared in two. It's possible some of the smaller character actors will show up in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo but we won't know they're there till the credits confirm their existence. We'll take the two-fers in semi-random order...

• Holt McCallany is the tattooed prisoner who tries to rape Ripley in Alien³ (clearly he had never seen Alien or Aliens) and he's also one of Tyler Durden's disciples/bruisers in Fight Club.
• Jared Leto Remember that Fight Club line "I felt like destroying something beautiful?" used in connection with the destruction of Jared Leto's dreamy face? Leto and Fincher both obviously took that to heart in subsequent projects, too like Panic Room. (What a strange career Leto has had since the teen heartthrob days.) And think of the visual beating Brad Pitt takes in every Fincher film! Fincher definitely wants to destroy his beauty.
  
• Elias Koteas is one of dozens of cops caught up in the Zodiac case and he's also in Button.
• Rooney Mara is onscreen now in The Social Network and so good in it, too. Like "Mark Zuckerberg" we'll be refreshing our screens until she returns in Fincher's version of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.

• Paul Schulze, is probably best known as Nurse Jackie's pharmacist / lover. He appears in both Panic Room and Zodiac (with hair!)
• Charles S Dutton is the prison colony's spiritual leader in Alien³ and a cop in Se7en
• Andrew Kevin Walker is the screenwriter of Se7en but he also acts in the film (he plays "Sloth" ... shudder one of the dead bodies). He's also in Panic Room as "Sleepy Neighbor". Hee.
• Michael Massee who'd you recognize as a regular on one season of television's 24 or FlashForward appears in The Game as an EMT and in the massage parlor in Se7en. I think he's also in Madonna's "Bad Girl" video, directed by Fincher but I'm not positive on this. (But that'd make him a 2+)
• John Getz is Zuckerberg's lawyer in The Social Network and Templeton Peck in Zodiac. Poor man is always shot sitting behind a desk. Does he have legs?
• John Casini is one of the cops in Se7en and a "man in airport" in The Game.

1(+) Film

• James Rebhorn appears in The Game but he's also in the Madonna video "Bad Girl". Just think. If his date with Madonna had gone well, maybe she wouldn't have gone home with that serial killer!? Fincher sure loves the serial killer trope. And "Bad Girl" sure is an interesting piece in understanding David Fincher; the "angel of death" is visualized as a film director.
• Trevor Wright appears in The Social Network but when he was a little kid he appeared in the Fincher directed Paula Abdul video "Forever Your Girl".

1 Film. Hundreds of people share this distinction but the two actresses we'd really like to see David Fincher reteam with are Helena Bonham-Carter who was so against-type revelatory in Fight Club and Nicole Kidman who was supposed to get locked up in that Panic Room but ended up just being a disembodied voice on a phone in the same film.

To come full circle from his music video days, wouldn't it be fun to see three actors Fincher used there in one of his feature films? Why not cast Christopher Walken (Madonna's "Bad Girl"), Elijah Wood (Paula Abdul's "Forever Your Girl" when he was only 8!) or the egregiously underused Lesley Ann Warren (Aerosmith's "Janie's Got a Gun") in a future movie?

Finally... 
We must dedicate this list to the woman who introduced us to one of our favorite directors. David Fincher famously built his visual rep on a series of gargantuan Madonna music videos (Fincher won an MTV Video Award for "Express Yourself" though the big M did not) before escaping to feature films.

 Most people went to see Alien³ because it was the third in a franchise. I went to see it because I wanted to see if the man behind the frankly incredible images in Express Yourself, Oh Father, Vogue and Bad Girl had a feature career in him. He clearly did though most critics and audiences were not impressed. That movie needs a critical reevaluation because it was plain as day even then that he was already a cinematic wizard. My suspicion is that the shockingly nasty and merciless tone threw people off and he lost them in the opening shots by killing off Newt. It was always going to be roughly received, no matter how well made, coming after James Cameron's untoppable Aliens (only among the greatest action films ever made) but the tonal shift further chilled that inevitably cool response.

The second woman we reluctantly must dedicate this to is Paula Abdul since she's also a 4 time Fincher graduate. His videos for her aren't as good but he didn't have as much to work with, you know?

This series is about director's actor preferences but we'd like to note that Fincher, like most great auteurs reuses behind the scenes personell as well. Frequent collaborators include composer Howard Shore (3 films), editors James Haygood (3 films) and Angus Wall (4 films), cinematographer Jeff Cronenwerth (4 films), and production designer Donald Graham Burt (the past 4 films).

If you enjoyed this article, pass it on to your [ahem] Social Networks. Wink! Nudge!
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further reading? SEE THE NEW BLOG
also... "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" on Se7en
and Oscar discussions regarding The Social Network

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Hit Me With Your Best Shot: Se7en (1995)

In this film-loving series we look at movies from all over the cinematic time line and in each genre pool to select a shot that particularly resonates with us, be it for aesthetic, thematic or for simply eye candy reasons.

This week we look back at David Fincher's breakthrough hit, Se7en (1995) which celebrates its 15th anniversary today. It happens to be my favorite serial killer picture ever, though I should note that its only real competition is Silence of the Lambs since this is an overstuffed genre with few actual classics.

Se7en's opening credits were an instant classic of the form and unfortunately so duplicated thereafter that the jarring edits, mental/visual derangements and perfect rock track probably feel like clichés to young viewers. But Se7en absolutely unnerved when it hit in 1995. My favorite shot comes about 80 minutes in when Detective Mills (Brad Pitt) and Detective Lt. Somerset (Morgan Freeman) finally discover John Doe's (Kevin Spacey) lair, the very place those opening credits would call home sweet sick home. After some creative corner-cutting search warrant business, begin to investigate its secrets.


Se7en, like all of David Fincher's work, is meticulously designed and this one in particular is just gorgeously shot. I consider it cinematographer Darius Khondji's best feature work and his omission from the Oscar line up that year was a real shame. That's not actually a split screen. Fincher and Khondji have made awesome use of the multi-room apartment set and smartly blocked the actors. For a brief moment before the detectives separate and cross cutting and horrible discoveries begin, we see them both searching different spaces simultaneously. There's multiple light sources and pockets of saturated color, Somerset's room has cool colors and Mills hallway is hot, rather like the personalities that make up this fractious partnership. But despite multiple lights, colors and faux split screen, the image is never muddied or chaotic, just darkly foreboding and dynamically alive both literally (the movement of the flashlight) and figuratively (what horrors lurk in these rooms?). In this shot, Mills and Somerset are almost shining their flashlights at each other, but as always they're seeing things differently.

Incidentally this is my favorite Brad Pitt performance outside of Fight Club. It's full of the kind of masculine anguish and wounded bird magnetism that's Leonardo DiCaprio's bread and butter these days. Brad went the extra mile... that broken left wing is his own.


6 More Deadly Sinners. That Makes Se7en

• Brown Okinawa... looks at how attached Detective Somerset is to his job.
• Serious Film... appreciates the craftsmanship and thinks Se7en lingers.
• El Fanatico... gets creative like John Doe's books. Check out all these shot groupings.
• Stale Popcorn... chooses seven deadly shots. Well, one is life-affirming.
• Sketchy Details... absolves the detectives of their sins.
• Plakatay... lives in the shadows.
  

 Other Films in This Series

• Angels in America (2003)
• X-Men (2000)
• Showgirls (1995)
• Bring It On (2000)
• Black Narcissus (1946)
• A Face in the Crowd (1957)
• Pandora's Box (1929)
• Requiem for a Dream (2000)

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Day of Rest

Mr. Pitt

We're not really resting. But behind the scenes things are taking us forever. And we're rapidly running out of stamina.

What are your movie plans like this weekend?

Brangelina 2010

Mr & Mrs Smith Jolie-Pitt. Two crazy kids making it work.
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Chapters Six, Seven, And Beyond

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JA from MNPP here, wishing everybody a very happy Basterds Day! It's like Bastille Day, only... terd-ier? (Ugh, my apologies, I'm on cold medicine here.) Anyway I am taking this opportunity to take a look at seven members of QT's Inglourious cast and see what they're up to next (besides that Inglourious sequel/prequel that Quentin will talk about for years but never make). But the cast's upcoming projects here are of distinct interest since everybody knows that once you've starred in a Tarantino picture, your career just explodes straight into the stratosphere! (Example A - Pam Grier. Oh... wait. Riiiight. Well at least she got to play a decapitated lesbian in John Carpenter's worst movie!) So let's see what these folks have got lined up for the future...

Brad Pitt - Lt. Aldo Raine - Brad Pitt, being Brad effing Pitt, hasn't really got a shortage of projects in the pipeline. In fact he's got six projects listed as being in some sort of production - ranging from Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life, purportedly out sometime this year (though they said the same thing last year), to Moneyball, a movie about the fascinating revolution in baseball drafting through statistical analysis (yeah I fell asleep already too). And after that there are 20 more projects in some form of development (A Steve McQueen biopic? Sure, why the heck not!).

Mélanie Laurent - Shoshanna Dreyfus - I can't imagine her plate won't pile up with credits in a post-Basterds world - although QT's magic touch seems to work longer stronger magic on the fellas (see: John Travolta's woefully extended career versus Uma Thurman's) - but for now she's starring opposite Jean Reno in a French film called La rafle (The Round Up) about a shameful event in French history where their government handed 13,000 over to the Nazis, and Beginners, a film by the director of Thumbsucker, starring Laurent and Ewan McGregor which has already sparked gossipy gossip when she dared be seen (heavens no!) walking around with married Ewan in (no!) public. Da noive!

Christoph Waltz - Col. Hans Landa - First step, Oscar glory! After that he's nemesis'ing Seth Rogen in The Green Hornet for Michel Gondry and abusing Reese Witherspoon in the circus in Water For Elephants, aka that book that I saw everyone reading on the subway a couple of years ago. Anyway it sounds like discovering his inner demon's good for his career, then. And for cinema!

Eli Roth - Sgt. Donny Donowitz - Y'all are just dying to hear what The Bear Jew's up to next, aren't ya? I knew it! Well even though he's now the proud owner of a SAG award, after a brief side-trip to cameo-ville in Alexander Aja's remake of Piranha it appears he'll be sticking behind the screen for a bit (when he isn't jerking off with his fans on Twitter, natch) - he's been talking up a big science-fiction project called Endangered Species as well as a long-form version of his Grindhouse trailer Thanksgiving for ages now. We'll see what comes of any of it. With bated breath I'm sure!

Michael Fassbender - Lt. Archie Hicox - Next up for the sexy Mr. Michael Fassbender is a role as a sexy Roman soldier in Centurion by the director of The Descent, which is out sometime this Spring. Then he'll be a sexy villain tormenting Josh Brolin in Jonah Hex this Summer. Then a sexy commando in Soderbergh's Knockout, then a sexy Rochester in an adaptation of Jane Eyre by the director of Sin Nombre... and then many more sexy somethings for the rest of his sexy life. Sexy, sexy. Exhaustively so.

Diane Kruger - Bridget von Hammersmarck - Perhaps like most of us I just hadn't been paying attention to anything Kruger did before she wowed us in Basterds, because I had been paying some attention to the film Mr. Nobody for a bit - it stars Sarah Polley and Sarah Polley is one of my (many) weaknesses - and I'd never even noticed that Kruger was even in it. But now that I see she is in it this makes me happy! Because she's suddenly revealed herself to be awesome. She's also currently filming a movie with the director of Orphan, which also makes this here geek squeal. Esther 2.0!

Daniel Brühl - Pvt. Fredrick Zoller - Adorable Danny Brühl is currently filming opposite Charlotte Rampling and Pushing Daisies' Anna Friel in Jon Amiel's new film The Angel Makers, described as a dark comedy about British soldiers returning from war to find German POWs having taken over their homes (and beds, and ladies in said beds). Co-starring in this movie are beautiful Tom Tykwer-alums Benno Fuhrmann and Moritz Bleibtreu...


If I hadn't done this post I don't know when I would've heard about this, and everything about this cast is exquisite catnip to me, so I am very happy to have discovered this thing's existence. Thanks, Danny!
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Link Pit(t)

I'll be spending most of the weekend at the movies (I hope). Posting may be light unless I am unusually speedy in the digestion of these big movie meals... which would be a first. I wish there were four of me every December (one to enjoy the holidays, one to earn money, one to see all the movies I missed and all the movies Hollywood withheld simultaneously and one to write about all of that.) Herewith some links to keep you buzzy.

Ed Norton and Brad Pitt as Tyler Durden in Fight Club (1999)

Nerve "Class of 99" This is a neat angle: How did the breakout directors of 1999 fare in the cinematic decade that followed?
Indiewire Oscar's potential Live Action Short nominees
Final Girl Have you seen this series, inspired by my own (20:07). Fun for horror fans though most of it is lost on me, I'll admit. Still I have an affinity for stopping movies at odd places so I like to look at it anyway.
Low Resolution Sandra Bullock: Human Being of the Year

DListed Brad & Angie, sculpturally speaking
New Yorker David Denby's top ten list, with an Inglourious Basterds takedown preface. I love what he says about Up in the Air and you've heard me say virtually the same thing about The Last Station (only I called "without a trace of stiffness" 'unfussy' instead)
In Contention Morgan Freeman IS Nelson Mandela. My god, here we go aga...zzzzzz. When will people finally get tired of each new biopic performance being deemed 'not an impersonation but an incarnation'. Someone says it about someone every damn year.
popbytes "the color of crazy: Brittany Murphy"
A Socialite's Life the Nine premiere in London -- I keep missing pretty things because my schedule is merciless
Movie|Line How big will the numbers for It's Complicated be? Is there no stopping Meryl's box office muscle?

Tuesday Top Ten: Bite Me!

It's Halloween Week! Though a horror movie wuss I be there's one movie monster who I'll always give it up for, the vampire. Herewith: the film & television vampires who I would find most difficult to resist. (I've restricted myself to the past 30 years because there are too many I haven't seen from earlier... like those Hammer Horror films Matt was just talking 'bout). Should these 10 suckers ever come knocking, I shan't be wearing a cross, turtleneck or smelling of garlic.

I've already discussed Seline in Underworld and that hot Mexican in From Dusk til Dawn so I'm skipping them here.

10 Dracula (Gerard Butler) in Dracula 2000 (2000)
There are abundant lists of "best/sexiest vamps" on the net, but most of them go off in directions I can't support [cough Twilight... must everything be about page views? They twinkle. In the sun. Ugh]. But The Daily Beast makes a good point in favor of Gerard Butler: Ceiling Sex.

09 Lady Sylvia Marsh (Amanda Donohoe) in The Lair of the White Worm (1988)
Anyone remember Donohoe? I had a friend who was obsessed with her in the late 80s. And I like vampires to be as interested in their own cruel beauty and fashion choices as they are into their dietary choices. Plus: Ken Russell makes indescribably weird movies. Or at least he used to.


08 Armand (Antonio Banderas) in Interview with the Vampire (1994)
He really shouldn't be on this list since I hate the way they handle his character in the movie and I hate the wig, too. Mostly I just put him here to get back at all of the idiot strangers sitting in that multiplex with me in Utah, circa 1994. They ruined so many movies when I lived there. The conservative audience was super vocally terrified that Louis and Armand were going to kiss in their big invitation/refusal scene. Stupidly, in complete disregard for the tone of Rice's vampire chronicles, they didn't. The homophobic audience was hugely relieved but Armand was not. That Louis, such a fang tease. Now Armand will have to find solace elsewhere (<-- that link is NSFW but I laughed my ass off when I saw it so I had to share.)

07 The Count (Jerry Nelson) in Sesame Street (1972-present)
Ever since a certain episode of 30Rock last season, I've found it difficult not to envision people as muppets (was anything more hilarious last season than Liz Lemon's muppet walk?)...even myself. Plus felt fangs would tickle more than hurt and I'm not so much into pain.




06 PLACE HOLDER
I think with the reinvigoration of the vampire genre, more competitors for this list will soon emerge. I'm particular fascinated by the idea of Julie Delpy and Tilda Swinton in those competing Countess Bathory movies. Watching either of them bathing in virgin blood would be quite arrestingly cinematic, would it not? Delpy's movie must have been finished ages ago. What's going on there? Why haven't we seen it? It can't be as bad as her last journey into the supernatural.

05 Lucy Westenra (Sadie Frost) in Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)
Still one of the most spectacularly creepy vampires the cinema ever dreamt up. Thank you Francis Ford Coppola. She's game for anything with a pulse: demonic wolf men, crying babies, Winona Ryder. In fact, her appetite would make even the oldest vampires blush... and she's barely been turned. She's also on the list because her walk is more mesmerizing than most vampire's magical stare-downs. Bonus points: the actress slept with Jude Law for many years and who needs six degrees of separation when you can narrow that down to one?

04 Eric Northman (Alexander Skarsgård) in True Blood (2008-present)
I'm still pissed they're not letting him play Thor. Casting fail.

03 Spike (James Marsters) in Buffy the Vampire Slayer (-1996)
I know a lot of people hate the way Spike took over the best television show of all time towards the end and I kind of did, too. But remember that episode when Buffy and Spike were having so much sex that the house collapsed in on them? So Much Sex. That wasn't the usual suspend-your-disbelief supernatural extraganza episode. That was a documentary about what it's like to have sex with James Marsters. I'm guessing.


02 Miriam (Catherine Deneuve) in The Hunger (1983)
I'm always horrified when she doesn't make best vampire lists in favor of sparkle-in-the-sunlight bloodless mouth breathers like Robert Pattison. Deneuve forever (which is what you get if you hook up with her as David Bowie and Susan Sarandon discovered)!

Also, to the best of my knowledge, Catherine Deneuve is the only actual immortal to have ever played a fictional immortal onscreen. Points for that.

01 Louis (Brad Pitt) in Interview with the Vampire (1994)
Sure, he'd be all tortured about it but it's not like guilt-ridden sex (aka all vampiric activity) is never hot. Plus, you already know how I feel about Brad Pitt and his little death.

Which vampires would you invite in?
Even if you're not into the bloodsuckers, play along in the comment. You need to get in the mood for Halloween.
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Where My Heart Lies: My Favorite Actors. And Yours?

instead of a tues top 10, a 25.

I did this once for the actresses but I'm always giving the ladies their due. So, here's to the silver screen men that have enriched my movie-life. I admit up front that I haven't investigated Classic Hollywood actors to the extent I've investigated their leading ladies, so this list is highly subject to change the more old movies I see in my life.

Nathaniel's 25 all time favorite leading men
In no particular order and extremely subject to change

Gene Kelly | Tony Leung Chiu-Wai |
Montgomery Clift | Jeff Bridges | Paul Newman

Jude Law | James Dean | William Holden | Gene Hackman | Rock Hudson
Jack Lemmon | Gael García Bernal | Ewan McGregor | James Stewart | Gregory Peck
Steve Martin | Marlon Brando | Jack Nicholson | Burt Lancaster | Richard Burton
Brad Pitt | Johnny Depp | Cary Grant | Warren Beatty | William Hurt

Because sometimes you just want to name names

The list is not comprehensive, not set in stone, not entirely defendable. But they're the ones I love best. The ones I somehow feel are mine. Not that you can't share them.

Post your top 20 at your personal web home -- no explanations necessary, just photos -- and I'll link up!

P.S. 1 I'm already pretty sure I forgot someone important
P.S. 2 Your lists go here... send me your links.


A Blogwork Orange mixes icons like Bogie with modern tastes like Buscemi
Award Talk likes the formal gentlemen Ralph Fiennes, Sir Laurence Olivier and Leslie Howard. and other staples like Clark Gable and Cary Grant
Encore Entertainment gives props to greats that just missed my list like Ed Harris, Albert Finney and Dustin Hoffman
Runs Like a Gay goes retro with James Mason, Spencer Tracy and Alec Guinness
All That Film classics Astaire & O'Toole /modern giants Penn & DiCaprio


Cheerful Cynicism has a quirky mix including Yul Brynner (love!), Clark Gable (I didn't use to like him... but I'm slowly converting I must say), Hugh Jackman and more...
A Cinema Neophyte mostly modern with inspired choices and good pics
Journalistic Skepticism Penn, Hanks, Brando, Stewart and Jack lead
Many Rantings of John ranks his list. Douglas places. Welles and Brando rule
For Your Speculation gives a shout out to some typically supporting guys: Delroy Lindo, Chris Cooper and Peter Sarsgaard. Well played


Theme For Great Cities Bardem, Crudup and Strathairn... oh my
City of Angels ooh, Anthony Perkins and Claude Rains. Yay.
Sorta That Guy covers his favorites: Bernal, Gosling, Franco, Cheadle
Nick's Flick Picks tiered favorites. Chaplin. Fredric March & Sean Penn
Douglas Racso a wondrously international grab bag: Coco Martin, Max von Sydow, Daniel Auteuil, Gael García Bernal, Sir Ian McKellen


Film Away recently went mad for movies: Depp, Foxx, Clooney, Pacino
Reel Artsy Joaquin, Josh, Takeshi (sigh), Tobey
Rants of a Diva did his list ages ago. What took me so long?
A Blog Next Door calls his list "hodgepodge"... Caine, Broadbent, Owen, Marsden
Ferdy on Films is magnetized by Rudolph Valentino's eyes among others: Keir Dullea, Eduardo Noriega, Charles Durning


StinkyLulu is, like me, a dedicated actressexual. But we manage to find room for a few screen gods in our devotions all the same. Can you name the actor and the role?
Situated Laundry makes a vanilla bingo board and adds stage actors. I approve
Gratia Artis Peter Lorre, Charles Laughton, Robert Mitchum
The Sheila Variations ranks them. Mickey Rourke is back on top. Stockwell, Widmark, Duvall and Cooper also place.
new BookeyWookey Oleg Menshikov, Matthieu Kassovitz and Romain Duris. Mmmm x 3
newest Goatdog Penn and Cagney reign
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Tarantino Can't Shut Up. Neither Can We

Now that we've got a few videos under our belts, Katey and I generally wrap up our conversations in about 12 minutes. Then we edit out repetitive / awkward bits. This time, we couldn't stop talking.

Our conversation about Quentin Tarantino's Inglorious Basterds is reflective of the film's overstuffing. We did our best to avoid spoilers though there are a couple of small ones. It's best to avoid all the scenes that are available online before you see it. I know this isn't the way people interact with movies these past few years but it's so fun to be surprised at the movies and it's a pity that that happens less and less frequently. Tarantino is a great example of a filmmaker who rewards those who don't seek out spoilers. You can predict the various elements (i.e. obsessions) that will appear in each movie, but rarely can you foresee how he'll fuse them all together.

YouTube caps videos at 10 minutes so this might be a wee bit choppier than past conversations but we hope you enjoy and definitely join in the conversation in the comments section.

Part One
...in which we talk about violence, self-editing, film criticism and movies that draw attention to the man behind the camera.



Part Two
... in which we attempt to wrap it up with more on the superb European cast, Tarantino's big head, the "wait for the cream" structure and the twisty jokey gamesmanship of this movie about movies.

Review: Inglourious Basterds

I understand the consensus buzz for Inglourious Basterds is muddled and noncommital. I blame two things: first, its muted Cannes reception (please note: some people are already changing their minds about it) and second, Eli Roth. What? He's fun to blame. Quentin has thankfully stayed behind the camera this time but he's unfortunately replaced himself with another director who should stay there. Roth's hostile-Hostel presence coupled with the only easy-to-describe part of the film (Jewish soldiers kill Nazis in World War II) assures that people will get the wrong idea about the movie. It's more than a lame exercize in sadism.

Not that Basterds isn't sadistic. Tarantino's films always are. But one of the most amusing and satisfying things about the writer/director's work is that though you can always predict each new movie's mix of elements: vivid performances, instantly memorable characters, long monologues and dexterous banter, Samuel L Jackson, juvenilia, foot fetishes and movie referencing; the way Tarantino arranges, twists and presents these predictable stock elements is always anything but. He's gifted (even if he still can't edit himself).

So, my brief review...

"You're Basterd People"

At first glance it might seem odd to channel Waiting For Guffman’s Corky St. Clair to title a post on Quentin Tarantino’s WW II film Inglourious Basterds, but a closer inspection excuses the odd allusion. Inglourious Basterds lurches toward the parodic on more than one occasion as it veers like a happy drunk from historical drama to espionage thriller to action gorefest to black comedy and back again. And Tarantino is never shy about cinematic referencing so why should we be when discussing his films? Brad Pitt plays the presumably illiterate Lt. Aldo Raine –hence the title, bound to drive spelling bee champs mad – who leads a group of mostly Jewish soldiers on a mission to kill and scalp “Natzis!” in occupied France late in World War II. But that synopsis, and even the understandable marketing of Pitt as the film’s star are somewhat misleading.

Brad Pitt in Cannes with two members of the terrific German cast:
Daniel Brühl (Goodbye Lenin) and Diane Kruger (Joyeux Noël) in Cannes

Like many of QT’s idiosyncratic efforts, this one is overstuffed with memorable characters and sidebar flourishes. The Basterds, as the multi-chapter plot shakes out, turn out to be the least interesting part of the long but never dull film.

Read the rest at Towleroad
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Gimme Basterds

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JA from MNPP here, dipping my big toe (foot-fetish, how appropriate) into the waters of QT devotion here at The Film Experience. Quentin Tarantino's seventh film, Inglorious Basterds, opens on Friday and I find myself so excited I can hardly stand it. Way back at the start of the year we voted this movie #1 on our "We Can't Wait!" list for 2009, and for me it's pretty much remained way up tippy-top. I know some have waffled in their devotions after the buzz was mixed from Cannes and QT cut a bunch out and then the alternately silly and violent trailer turned some folks off... well silly and violent is pretty much my bag, so it only made me even more enthused.

Plus I realized the other day that I love every single movie Tarantino has ever made. Love. Yes even - especially - Death Proof.

But I thought we might gauge the passion you people are feeling. Because it's all for you, after all! So tell me how you're feelin', love.

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poll by twiigs.com

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Tilda Swinton: Once She Pops, She Can't Stop.

Surfing around the net this evening, reading uncarefully, I was shocked to discover that Tilda Swinton had become Pringle's new face.

Before I could stop myself from what I instantaneously knew was both an embarrassingly Dim-American thought leap and a sign of lazy reading comprehension (oh that telltale apostrophe) I was thinking "What is Tilda doing selling potato chips?!?"

Not that I wouldn't buy anything the cinema's greatest alien amazon actress was selling but I think the general public would be a little frightened if she was hawking food products. What if she's poisoned them?

No, it's fashion house Pringle of Scotland. Tilda selling fashion. Much better fit.


The best part is that she's the face of the women's and the men's line. You gotta love that.

In point of fact, every year I love Tilda Swinton more. And since I've been hooked since 1991 or so (Edward II) that's a lot of love. Once you love Tilda... well, in this one way she is just like that salty caloric demon: you get the fever, you can't stop.

Trivia note: Even had she indeed been hawking that irresistible chip, she would not have been the first movie star to sell them.



Brad Pitt got the fever for the flavor of new Pringles back in 1989 when he was still playing "waiter" or "airport cop" in movies or doing bit gigs on tv shows.

Broken Sword With Broken Arm

"Broken Sword" has broken his arm! It's practically all I've been thinking about today. Perhaps I should explain for those who haven't yet heard...

Tony Leung Chiu-Wai was so injured while training for Wong Kar Wai's next picture, a biopic about Bruce Lee's mentor called The Grand Master (not to be confused with Ip Man starring Donnie Yen which is on the same topic). Apparently his arm must rest for over a month (the September start date is looking shaky). My poor Tony. That arm is a cinematic treasure: it draped languorously over his head while he smoked in bed, it tenderly held stuffed animals and Faye Wong's legs, it smoked endless cigarettes and carried so many noodles, it held Tang Wei down while another appendage had its way with her, it embraced the goddess Maggie Cheung so many times. No real harm should ever come to it.

If you're thinking 'Nathaniel's laying it on thick,' I hereby assign you a triple feature of Chiu Wai essentials.


You'll thank me. Any triple from this list will more than make the case for loving him deeply, fanatically.

• Chungking Express (1994) see the first Wong Kar Wai movie to make a real dent in America. It's so gorgeous. Bonus points: Brigitte Lin and Takeshi Kaneshiro.
• Happy Together (1997) Tony's stormy gay romance with Leslie Cheung.
• In the Mood For Love (2000) among the very best romantic dramas of all time. That isn't hyperbole.
  
• Hero (2002) when Tony did martial arts without breaking his arm.
• Infernal Affairs (2002) doing the DiCaprio thing before DiCaprio himself did it, The Departed being a remake and all.
  
• Lust, Caution (2006) See Tony in the altogether giving (arguably) his best performance.

He's made many other movies. Some fine. Some not so. Like any giant movie star. But he's the best. He's even won the equivalent of three Oscars for Chinese language films.

If anything Tony's broken arm makes me love him even more.
I'm not sure what it is but there is something so appealing about the wounded. I don't mean that in a sick violent way but in an... um... affectionate healer way. Consider. Was Brad Pitt ever more attractive than when his arm was in a sling and his head and nose were all bloody and bandaged in Se7en ? Didn't Javier Bardem radiate more heat from his wheelchair lovemaking in Live Flesh than he did standing on two legs in other movies? Or is this just a personal quirk?

Nah, it can't be. Oscar loves wounded men, too. I know I'm not completely alone. But they like their wounds to be permanent (disabilities, disease) so that they can praise the man for soldiering forth with courage and determination. They like their women wounded too... if you consider the surrendering of beauty (de-glam!) to be a physical disability (and you know they do).

I've lost the thread. My point is this: Get well soon, Tony.
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Brad Pitt's "Basterd". Uma's "Bride" Could Take 'Em.

<-- A new (uninspiring) Inglourious Basterds poster for Brad Pitt. He's standing on a pile of dead bodies. Like Katey says, "subtle". My first thought upon seeing it was that The Bride never felt it necessary to pose atop the bodies of the crazy '88s. Oh, sure she claimed that the body parts belonged to her but she didn't actually keep them. She travelled light. And note: she didn't even have a long range weapon like a machine gun to kill off those enemy hordes. In short, Uma Thurman is more of a badass than Brad Pitt.

It would be misleading to suggest that Quentin Tarantino's current sadism is "new". His films have always had blood and body counts. I haven't seen Basterds yet, I do wonder if the sadism hasn't been consistently increasing. Think about Death Proof's carnage, Basterds entire plot, Kill Bill's massacre and death list... compare and contrast to Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs and Jackie Brown. The early films were deadly, sure, but weren't the characterizations and dialogue the raison d'etre of the films rather than their bloodshed?

When the multiple character posters thing first started taking off, I loved it. I even wished we could have them for movies gone by. Now I'm starting to feel like it's all overkill. Is today's overhyped movie culture a direct result of how early and how often the marketing department is getting involved these days, or am I just an impatient person? I'm willing to concede that it might be the latter but I'm guessing it's a combination of the two. Do you get impatient after a couple of promotional months?

I'm left feeling about Basterds, like I was feeling for Brüno. Stop teasing me already and just open the damn movie.

What's that? Brüno is open?! BYE. I'm off to the movies. I was about to photoshop Brüno posing atop the bodies of vanquished famous homophobes but stopped myself. Perhaps I should see the movie first before implicitly endorsing it as anti-homophobic? As movie|line notes, everyone's got an opinion here on what / who is being mocked and who will have a right to claim the most offense.
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