All Good Links

Before we get to today's link roundup -- I went a little crazy as I sometimes do -- enjoy the heat sensor-like photography of the All Good Things poster. Perhaps Ryan and Kiki were a bit jealous of the ruckus Jake & Annie's nude poster caused online.

P.S. Jake Gyllenhaal is obsessed with Ryan Gosling. Just saying. I would try to quote his answer from Saturday night when the audience question 'who would you like to work with?' popped up but it was so rambling and long and confusing that I can't. But let's just say it began with Ryan Gosling, was jilted by Ryan Gosling via text "I'm busy" and then ended again with a circular non sequitor shout of "Ryan Gosling!" Jake likey. Ryan Gosling is what you might call an actor's actor... since everyone seems to want to work with him.

On to the linkage...
Candy Magazine A double take of pleasure. Yes, that's James Franco to your left continuing his trans formation from one of the great herd of Hollywood pretty boys to an actually interesting celebrity.
My New Plaid Pants is an über fan of Let the Right One In. Doesn't hate Let Me In. Since the response has been so positively muted like "it's good: also, a recreation" I've decided not to see it.
Broadway.com Carrie the Musical being revived. Wow.
Cinema Blend Me pal Katey basically says all I have to say about the trailer for Julie Taymor's Tempest so I don't need to cover it here. What she said, minus the positive bits since I liked the movie even less than she.
The Big Picture Tony Curtis grand sendoff in Las Vegas
Hero Complex Emma Stone will play Gwen Stacy in the new Spider-Man. I'm glad that early reports were wrong. Why do the whole Mary Jane story again. That said, isn't it weird that someone known as a redhead is going to play Spidey's favorite blonde and someone known as a blonde was cast as his favorite redhead. Weirdness.
The Awl Sasha Frere-Jones and Natasha VC on The Social Network. If you haven't read enough yet, it's fun as always to read these two.
50 Best Theater Blogs I'll have to investigate this list.
Just Jared Joseph Gordon-Levitt lost his older brother. So sad.
Towleroad celebs speaking about gay bullying on Larry King Live
Movie|Line offers tips to Renée Zellweger on how she could regain her A list status. I love the suggestion of a brilliant twitter feed. I hope she calls it @Zeéeee after my new nickname for her. Zeéeeee reads me right? *

Double Duty!
Movielicious Have you seen this great mashup poster for Toy Story and Tron? I wish I knew who did it to give them proper cred.
Scott Feinberg "Are Bening *And* Moore All Right." Some smart words on the The Kids Are All Right Oscar campaign.
John Luciano a Calvin & Hobbes mashup with Let the Right One In. Teehee. I used to love Calvin's girlcrush but can't remember her name right now

*Obviously I am kidding. Someone I am acquainted with who works in the industry once told me that every star googles themselves --whether they admit it or not -- and is familiar with their biggest cheerleaders and nemeses online. But I chose not to believe her because it weirded me out too much to think of Beelzebub, She Who Must Not Be Named, La Pfeiff and The Bening reading or even knowing of my puny existence.

Posterized Sissies

Let's talk Sissy Spacek. My friend Matt has been highlighting her something fierce over at Pop Matters, but why should he have the Sissy all to himself?


The great actress, everyone's favorite telekinetic murderess, is finally in a buzzy film again (Get Low opens today). And though I don't much care for the new movie, it's always nice when a frequently absent major actress wins Oscar buzz and praise again.

She's a big name but what does that name mean to today's moviegoers? For people born in the late 80s or 1990s, maybe her stint on TV's Big Love comes immediately to mind (Emmy nominated this year). But I'm guessing if it's not the cross-generational popular Carrie, it's mainly In the Bedroom that takes over the imagination: Sissy breaking plates, Sissy slapping Marisa Tomei, Sissy taking weird drags on her cigarette that manage to be both furious and catatonic simultaneously. How can they be both at once? She's a mysterious but vivid actress in her best work.

For those who lived through the 70s or 80s, the name will probably conjure multiple associations. Her filmography has a smattering of daring side dish classics but the main course is an oversize portion of middlebrow Oscar bait. To extend the food metaphor, that stuff can often taste healthy but afterwards... where is the nutritional value? In the long run aren't so many "prestige films" filled with empty calories? Her filmography also has intermittent weird gaps. And, unless I've got my dates wrong those gaps don't really even coincide with the births of her daughters (which is when many actresses take their long breaks). What happens in these gaps? It's almost as if Sissy gets an enigmatic closeup and then bolts from the cinema as enigmatically as teenage "Holly" abandons home in Badlands.

Oscar nominations are in bold.

Prime Cut (72) | Badlands (73) | Ginger in the Morning (74)

Note: Sissy worked with the brilliant art director / production designer Jack Fisk on Badlands and they married the following year when they were both still in their 20s. She's one of those rare actresses, like Meryl Streep, who has been married for almost the entirety of her fame to the same man. Another association. The two actresses are but six months apart in age and both became essential screen icons in the 1970s and won their first Oscars just one year apart.

Carrie (76) | Welcome to LA (76) | Three Women (77)

The underseen Three Women is one of Robert Altman's very best films. It's completely mandatory viewing for fans of Ingmar Bergman's Persona (an influential before) and Mulholland Dr (an influenced after). It's the middle link in that brilliant women-fused-together dream chain. Sissy disappears for a few years right after. And then...

Coal Miner's Daughter (80) | Heartbeat (80) | Raggedy Man (81)

Missing (82) | The River (84) | Marie (85)

Note: Such a star in the 80s she gets top billing over... Mel Gibson.

Violets Are Blue (86) | 'night Mother (86) | Crimes of the Heart (86)

The pinkish tone of the last two posters. They're screaming "GIRL MOVIES!" Not that we don't love girl movies, mind you.

It's too depressing to continue from there. Sissy's last two characters in 1986 were suicidal. Maybe the actress saw the 90s coming? After Crimes of the Heart, for which she was Oscar nominated, she disappears for four years until a series of movies crop up in the early 90s like The Long Walk Home (1990) that are well intentioned but don't go anywhere or did go places (JFK, '91) but didn't need her to get there. By the late 90s she'd been shoved into the supporting classes, from which she never really returns as headliner, but for her last classic, In the Bedroom. She collected a few trophies that year until the late surging Halle Berry (Monster's Ball) trumped her on Oscar night.

Here's three must-sees from the last twenty years of her filmography (though not always for her presence).

JFK (91) | The Straight Story (99) | In the Bedroom (01)

That's the first 15 films of her career (excluding extra work in a Warhol picture) and 3 more still. How many of those 18 have you seen?

And what would you like to see Sissy do next? Some of you have suggested in comment threads that she'd make a great Violent in August: Osage County whenever that becomes a film. She wouldn't be a bad choice for it at all, though one assumes Hollywood will want Meryl Streep to do it since they want her to do everything. As should be painfully obvious The Film Experience loves Meryl Streep, but some of her contemporaries sure could use her the big break of Streep passing on a choice role.

Exit music: Remember when we mentioned Streep's son being a fine musician? That's another thing the two actresses have in common. Here's Sissy & Jack's singer songwriter daughter Schuyler Fisk doing "From Where I'm Standing". Pretty voice, right? You can totally see Sissy in her. It's that lank sunkissed hair and those awesome cheekbones.

Nancy, Come Back!

Craig here, wondering where's Nancy Allen these days?

Here she is, back in the day (Carrie era), when she was more prominent on our screens:


She's been too long in the movie outfield. There hasn't been much eminent work from her since Out of Sight twelve years ago. Out of sight indeed. But never out of (my) mind. Today's her birthday - her 60th. Can you believe?

Along with another AWOL Nancy (Travis), the elusive Ms. Debra Winger, Kelly Lynch, JoBeth Williams, Melanie Griffith and Daryl Hannah and co., Allen has kept her profile low with TV roles, a few small films here and there and other, non-movie-based, projects which have kept her away from cinemas for long enough.

...which begs the question: do more men get late career boosts than women? Tarantino dug up Travolta and Forster -and others besides - for nostalgia-fuelled resurrections (Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown). And Sly, Arnie, Lundgren & co. are back recreating past '80s glories this summer in The Expendables. So, come on, do we need an estrogen-filled collective, alternative comeback for '80s actresses or what? The Indispensables? Let's even out the balance here. Or maybe Kathryn Bigelow should call up Allen's agent to offer a feisty cop role sometime soon. A great match, I'd say.

As a perfect birthday gift, someone needs to award Allen with a plum part in a prominent film. She was great in ex-hubbie De Palma's Dressed to Kill, working streetwalker chic in early '80s NY, and was just as good in his Blow Out, too. She stuck to RoboCop like glue as Peter Weller's* non-Robo cop partner, Officer Anne Lewis (my favourite Allen role), and was of course Carrie's high school-prom nemesis Chris way back in 1976. And there's more in her repertoire than De Palma flicks and future cops.

Come on Nance, you work a movie set, fur collar and '80s perm with killer style. Get your glad rags back on and return to our screens post haste. You have been missed.


A big happy birthday to you today, too. Please give us another screen appearance before your 61st. Pretty please.

* in a stroke of Robo-coincidence, it's also Weller's birthday today, too. Many happy returns, Mr Weller. Now both of you, go and make RoboCop 4.

"Happy Mother's Day" ~Bad Mommy / Good Mommy

Would you rather...

• Campaign for office with Mrs. Iselin (Angela Lansbury in The Manchurian Candidate)?
• Study the bible with Mrs. White (Piper Laurie in Carrie)?
• Compete for a man with Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft in The Graduate)?
  
• Be cared for when you're sick by Mrs. Fitzgerald (Margo Martindale in Million Dollar Baby)?
• Do household chores with Ms. Crawford (Faye Dunaway in Mommie Dearest)?

I'm sure your mom is closer in spirit to the following fierce moms / mother figures. Which would you want in your corner during a crisis?

Would you rather...

• Deal with mental illness under Mrs. Darko's steady wet-eyed watch (Mary McDonnell in Donnie Darko)?
• Enter mainstream society, despite your debilitating freakishness, with Mrs. Boggs at your side (Dianne Wiest in Edward Scisshorhands)?
• Travel to hostile planets with only Lt. Ripley to protect you (Sigourney Weaver in Aliens)
• Let Mrs. Pierce put up with all of your shit and take the fall for your crimes (Joan Crawford in Mildred Pierce)? Harsh! But then it is Joan Crawford and she's on the other list, too. So...
  
• Battle illness with Mrs. Greenaway handling the medical staff (Shirley Maclaine in Terms of Endearment)
  

Bonus points to whoever makes the most compelling arguments for their answers in the comments. Make your case!

UPDATE: The normally chatty TFE readers were quiet about this teeny contest (Must have been visiting your mothers instead of commenting here. Good for you!)... but the winner is The Medwenitsch. He gets to help me with the next banner --- e-mail me for details, TM.
*

April Showers, Carrie (Twice Over)

When I began the April Showers series I was frustrated that I'd already written about the famous opening sequence of Carrie (1976). But then, Eureka! Something more to say.

Though it might be impossible to choose one thing that's "best" about Carrie, I think the juxtaposition of its two shower scenes is definitely in the running. I've never read the Stephen King book so I don't know which of the film's strengths to attribute to the famed horror novelist but Brian De Palma unquestionably did a lot of things right in the transfer.


The first triumph is his undiluted understanding of Carrie's sexual development as adolescent terror themes. The second is his facility with cinematic language. In the opening shower sequence there's slow motion bodies and soft music. Carrie herself (Sissy Spacek) is completely entranced by the water, lost in the pleasure of it. Until her hand, soaping between her legs, comes up red with blood. Carrie raises her trembling hands up and out, staring at them in a confusion and disbelief that shifts quickly into pure terror. Her screams for help invite mocking from her classmates. Carrie crumbles into the corner until her gym teacher rescues her.

The second shower sequence, even more famous, is its twisted malevolent twin. Carrie isn't any where near a literal shower this time. Declared prom queen, she walks to the gymnasium stage in slow motion, that now familiar sad and soothing theme playing again. Carrie's eyes are entranced and wet, lost in the pleasure of acceptance and applause. Until, standing on the stage, her sadistic classmate drops a bucket of pigs blood on her.


Two showers of blood, then, the second infinitely more garish with the stuff. For the second time Carrie raises her bloodied hands up and out, staring at them in a confusion and disbelief. This time, however, her open mouthed shock produces no screaming for help (none that we hear at any rate in the expressive sound design) and her emotions shift to fury rather than terror.

No crumbling in the corner. No waiting for rescue.


Psychotic break time. (God bless the split screen!) This time it won't be Carrie doing the screaming.
*

Fast Eddie Fathered Carrie White

.

JA from MNPP here. I watched The Hustler yesterday for the first time, and every time Piper Laurie was on-screen (as Eddie's usually-sloshed lover Sarah) all I could hear was the future echo of that career-defining "roadhouse whiskey" speech Laurie would give 15 years later in Carrie. What do we really know of Carrie's father after all? Just that he puts his drunken hands all over her mother Margaret and Margaret liked it, she liked it!!!


Sarah liked it so much that when Eddie recommended she get treatment for her drinking problem, she she slid into his arms and slurred "I'm getting my treatment right here."

I hear ya, sister. That's some treatment.

When was the last time you couldn't watch one performance by an actor without it being colored and reshaped by another performance of theirs that's so iconic to you that it infiltrates their every cinematic moment that you see?


Piper will just always be Margaret White to me, and St. Sebastien bless her for it.
.

The Best Brand New Movie Poster of an Old Movie...

I've seen in a long looooong time.


The Alamo Drafthouse commissioned this new poster from Methane Studios for Brian DePalma's Carrie (one of my favorite movies ever, don'cha know) which you can buy here. I don't need any posters but if I could buy this on a Tee I'd be ordering it five minutes ago for same day delivery. LOVE.

I love every detail... especially the kitchen utensils and that (pubic referencing?) hand. Poor Sissy Spacek -- she just didn't know about "the curse" (related post).

[news source]

Signatures: Sissy Spacek

Adam of Club Silencio here with a look at my favorite actresses and their distinguishing claims to fame.

Sissy Spacek is the rarest of Hollywood starlets. Nowadays she contently weaves her wonder into tiny, thankless roles, and so rarely glams up the red carpet or graces the tabloid page. She makes it almost easy to forget her certifiable A-list rank, even as we watch her dazzle and disappear in films like the upcoming Four Christmases. But never turn your back on her; Sissy's always been one for the third act stunner.

Consider it a lesson learned: It's always the quiet ones...


Sissy has mastered the ability to go from meek to madwoman in the blink of a telekinetic eye. How easy we forget that she torched her entire graduating class and took out a sizable portion of the Midwest population. Blame it on her strict religious upbringing or a boyfriend with homicidal tendencies, but Sissy's never one to be underestimated. That pleasant homegrown beauty and peaceful naivete can so readily warm our hearts like a smooth country ballad, but one should always be prepared for Sissy to steal an identity, or something far worse.


Fair enough, her characters often have good reason for turning on a dime -- things like public humiliation or familial loss. But if you think Sissy's always justified in this momentary madness, try saying it to Marisa Tomei's face...


Sissy says of her startling, unhinged moment with Tomei, "She was a really good sport about it, but I felt awful. I mean, she had a bag of ice on her face, to keep the swelling down between takes. And that was our first scene together."

Upon playing Ruth Fowler, her Oscar-nominated role from In the Bedroom, Sissy says she initially found little in common with the emotionally reserved character. But rest assured Sissy quickly found her creative spark as only she could, "I'll be in the middle of throwing a fit and I'll think, 'I've got to remember this, I can use this. This is going in my toolbox.'"

Got Link?

StinkyLulu Oscar Smackdown 1976: teen hookers, religious kooks, and women scorned
Towleroad Interesting. James Schamus (of Focus Features) responds to that Hollywood Reporter article I linked to yesterday on Milk's marketing campaign
Hot Blog wowed by Milk
CHUD How far we haven't come since the days of Harvey Milk
MetaCafe you have approximately two weeks to make a 30 second commercial for Australia (the movie) and win a trip to NYC and Australia. Go...
Wired on flailing third parts and Chris Nolan's hesitation re: Batman³ (which is actually Batman8... so relax, fella)
Thompson on Hollywood campaigns for golden boys begin: first up WALL•E & The Dark Knight
Oscar and the City a poll regarding and a shot from the set of next year's musical Nine
MTV Huh? Robert Pattison (Twilight) as Salvador Dali?

and to sign off on this Milk-y link roundup, here's Diego Luna and Emile Hirsch at last night's premiere @ the Castro

[img src]

Kiss of the Spider Woman Contest Winners

Monologue Monday (Interrupted)

This is where the important part begins. The part about the lovers...

William Hurt was named Best Actor @ Cannes and by Oscar, NBR, LAFCA & BAFTA voters

Lovers of actresses & cinema for our purposes today.

For the entire first reel (and then some) of Kiss of the Spider Woman, William Hurt's "Molina" tries to monologue his way through memories of a favorite film. He loves to perform but his cell mate "Valentin" (Raul Julia) never lets him get lost in his speechifying the way he plans to, continually interrupting him with requests, jokes, corrections and commentary. And so begins an odd couple film that wraps political idealogy, cinematic obsessions, and sexual identity into a memorable actor's duet with as much theatricality as Molina himself wraps his head while daydreaming of his favorite screen diva (Sonia Braga).

The Kiss of the Spider Woman was a best picture nominee for 1985. The other shortlisters were more traditional fare: a beloved novel adaptation The Color Purple, the romantic epic Out of Africa, the mafia black comedy Prizzi's Honor, and the contemporary hit drama Witness. Kiss... has since been the hardest film for younger Oscar completists to see but a 2 disc collectors edition is now out and I have four copies to give away, one for each of its nominations. But before I announce the winners (drawn randomly) I wanted to share some really fun contest entries. I asked contestants to throw a headwrap on and make like Molina, obsessing over a favorite actress/performance in their imaginary prison cell. Some of them even sent photos --can I just say that TFE readers are so awesome to play along!

Originally I was going to post my favorite entries but there were so many that I decided I had to limit the 'extra' sharing to the entries that came in with photos ;) The following contestants did not win the random drawing but but they are so awesome for playing along...

<--- Jonathan from NY

Meryl Streep. Sophie's Choice. Cliched? Perhaps. But can the others recite word for word, facial tic and intonation down pat, the scene where she struggles to tell Stingo about being sent to Auschwitz? Or what about that accent? And she's never been more sexually charged in a film. Best performance by any actor (that I've seen but no, I'm just going to say it, EVER) in history. Streep at her streepiest, and I've loved every 20+ viewings of it. Whoever's in that jail cell better know what I'm talking about when I reference the famous silent scream in the climactic scene, or else they'll be getting an earful.....

Brian in New Mexico --->

I would likely develop, and discuss at length, whose marvelous powers I most wished to possess on any given prison day. Would I want to channel Sissy Spacek's Carrie White and her telekinetic grudge match powers? Or would it Rita Moreno's Anita and her ability to deliver a scathing insult as though it was a love pat? Or would it be Meryl Streep's dexterity in self-transformation that I would covet? (Of course, on really bad days, I would likely pretend to be Hope Emerson and leave it at that...)

<--- JS in the Philippines

Anyone in prison would have to learn and emulate the virtues of Glenn Close's performance in Dangerous Liaisons because like her, you'd be in a similar environment where you would have to practice detachment, learn how to listen and deceive all in service of devising means of escape no one had ever thought of before. It's "win or die." :)

Mark in Manchester --->

I could have gone the easy route and picked Sigourney in Aliens but if I shared a cell i'd obsess over Brooke Smith as Sonya in Vanya on 42nd Street. I only saw this performance recently and was so moved we could act out her final monologue scene with the cellmate as Wallace Shawn.

<--- Cenzig in Florida

Liza Minnelli as Sally Bowles. She oozes that Fosse sexuality that we all know and love. She captures our attention with "Divine decadence darling!" and holds it, even through the tears during "Cabaret" You root for her. You know the mess that is about to be WWII and you want her out, to live with Brian in delicious sin. She's Fun. She's Fabulous. She's Fucking Sally Bowles!!!

You know who is fun and fabulous? Everyone who entered this contest!
For those that didn't win or haven't seen the film, catch up on a little 80s Oscar lore by seeking it out now that it's available again for home viewing.

[drum roll please]

And the winners are...

Nick in Connecticut

I would talk with my cellie about Salma Hayek in Desperado, because, while the film isn't a masterpiece, she was INCREDIBLY sexy in that film. The way Rodriguez lit her, and her willingness to take part in that steamy love scene with Antonio, set my pulse racing as a 15 year old action-movie junkie. She's still one of the hottest women ever to grace the silver screen, and the way she looks in Desperado is the sort of thing that dreams are made of. Those sun-dresses, that long, wavy hair, her accent, her curves… man-o-man what a stunning creature she is.

Ben in Los Angeles

Naomi Watts in Mulholland Dr, hands down. You get two characters to talk about individually, and then you get to talk about the two together. Plus, you can obsess over how overlooked she was in terms of bling for the mantle - no Oscar? Psh!

Dennis in Wisconsin

If I had to go with one performance, it would be Vivien Leigh in Gone With the Wind. That movie had such an impact on me when I first saw it at 12 years old. She rocked my world! I could talk about Scarlett/Vivien for days.

Chuck in Kentucky

Maria Falconetti. Perhaps it is unfair to choose an actress who appeared only in one film. Yet I believe that Falconetti's performance in Dreyer's seminal The Passion of Joan of Arc goes beyond a mere cineast obsession, and can be viewed instead as a sort of religious longing, a desire for emancipation, a devotion to something intangible and ethereal. Falconetti's struggle would be my own, and the haunting memory of her performance would move me more than any other celluloid creation. My memory of those tortured eyes would no doubt provide the sort of spiritual solace only found in prayer; she would be the single slash of light that cuts through the coagulating and ever-present darkness.

I hope you enjoyed reading about these personal cinematic obsessions as much as I did. And while we're on the subject of Kiss of the Spider Woman... you can check out my vague recollection of my favorites in 1985 If you have any thoughts to share on that 1985 Best Picture race, do so in the comments. Out of Africa, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Prizzi's Honor, The Color Purple or Witness? How many have you seen and what's your choice for "Best" ?

April Showers

a special terror-inducing edition

Something I Have Been Obsessed With This Week For No Apparent Reason

That Jack Fisk, art director extraodinaire (There Will Be Blood) is married to Sissy Spacek. And that's not all. That they've been married since...1974. They were in their 20s and they're still together. I wonder if they met on Badlands (1973)? --they've worked on several of the same projects including a personal favorite, Carrie. Y'all know I love that one. I have no idea why this particular nugget of info has captivated me all week. But it has. I suspect he might win the Oscar this coming weekend.

8th Close-Up of Carrie's Hands

Approximately every 8 days in 2008 we celebrate the 8th Something of Something -- whoa, specific

The rest of the internet is going on and on about Marion Cotillard's Psycho Janet Leigh murder recreation in Vanity Fair , so I thought I'd hit the showers, too. I love Carrie. It's easily my favorite Brian DePalma picture. All of its excesses thrill me from the soft core of the title sequence to everything about Piper Laurie's Jesus freak mama-from-hell to the Psycho like sound cues when Carrie uses her powers.

The first scene is a volleyball game which Carrie loses with her clumsiness ("You eat shit") Right away we know this abuse is common for Carrie from her classmates [Aside: Karen Allen plays the queen bee heather (Chris) and Amy Irving is her veronica (Sue) in this early collection of mean girls] As the opening credits roll, the girls hit the locker room and DePalma and his cinematographer and composer lull you into soft-core land with slow motion nude girls and Carrie's sad theme playing.


The volleyball game, the actual opening scene, is all long and medium shots. So the first true close up of this classic anti-heroine is actually of her hand reaching for the soap, so I thought I'd count that out (pictured above). On the 7th shot, Carrie drops the soap. Something's wrong. uh oh... Which brings us to the 8th closeup of her hands and the reveal which sets this whole bloody (sorry) story in motion


Carrie has become a woman. She thinks she's dying. Her classmates attack mercilessly again ("plug it up! plug it up!"). Her psychic rage is triggered for the first but relatively harmless time. The gym teacher sends her home ... and boy is Carrie in for it when her mama realizes she's received "the curse"

20:07 (Poetry Reading)

Each morning a screenshot from the 20th minute and 7th second of a movie. Along with the line o' dialogue being spoken if there is one...

Well class ...any criticisms?

I've been trying not to comment too much on the captured moments. To leave it up to interpretation. But you know... This is from Brian DePalma's classic Carrie. And DePalma is arguably a critics filmmaker. He makes movies for people who love debating movies. I'm really starting to think this 20:07 project is hyper revealing about the movies as represented by their random moments.

Or is this just projection, the brains way of making order from chaos?