MM@M: Ever sneak out of work for a movie matinee?

Mad Men at the Movies investigates the film references in the Emmy winning series.

Episode 2.3 "The Benefactor"
Two film moments in this episode. In the first Betty is at the stables where she rides when she and her friend spot Arthur (Gabriel Mann) the prettyboy fiance of one of her wealthy peers. Betty won't admit her attraction.

Sarabeth Carson: He looks like a little boy.
Betty Draper: I guess.
Sarabeth: He reminds me of Monty Clift in A Place in the Sun, learning how to ride so he can worm his way into the upper crust.
Betty: Somewhere there's a pregnant girl floating in a lake.
Sarabeth: I'm from the South. There are such people.

Gabriel Mann doesn't look much like Monty except for that arguably little boy lost quality. The actor, who you might recognize from High Art or the Bourne trilogy, certainly doesn't look his age (38).

While several Mad Men characters talk about going to the movies, Don Draper (Jon Hamm, the lead) is the only one we ever follow into the cinema and the only one whose frequent moviegoing is discussed by other characters. Later in this episode he steps out of the office to take in a French film. The sequence has no dialogue apart from what's onscreen, the Francois Villon's poem "Ballade des dames du temps jadis."


There seems to be disagreement online about which film this actually is (I'm not sure myself. Anyone know?) but the French New Wave was a big deal in NYC in the 60s so an avid moviegoer like Don Draper would certainly partake. I love that Don watches movies in the pose that Mad Men's marketing team made so instantly famous.


Though this moviegoing sequence has no dialogue or explanation, it has repercussions. Don fires his new secretary who doesn't cover for him -- excuse me, "manage expectations" -- while he is catching this matinee.

Have you ever sneaked out of work or school for a movie?

Other cultural references in this episode: Movies: Pinnocchio (like A Place in the Sun, it's a recurring reference on Mad Men) | Celebrities: Killers Leopold & Loeb | Art: The Medicis of Florence | TV: The Defenders | Literature: F Scott Fitzgerald's "The Diamond as Big as the Ritz" | Entertainment Politics: "I miss the Black List"

Gay Actors vs. Newsweek. The Controversy Continues

So that controversial Newsweek article "Straight Jacket" -- which suggests that no gay actor can ever successfully play a straight character -- is still rocking the internet. Or at least Twitter. The article's author Ramin Setoodeh is also the Oscar blogger for Newsweek and I swear my fury at him has nothing to do with the fact that I'm terrific at Oscar blogging and have been for a decade but I never get employed by household name magazines to write about them ;) I swear it. I didn't actually know he was their Oscar blogger until today.

Mr. Setoodeh is gay himself -- as he and his new enemy Kristin Chenoweth were both quick to point out -- but that's really neither here nor there in this discussion because homophobia knows no sexual orientation. It can exist in anyone. And whether or not he intended the cynical piece to be self-serving (he's certainly more famous now), that's the effect. So it's hard to listen to him whine about how angry people are at him.

In his latest piece, a response to the attacks that have come swiftly down on him for the piece (including from celebrities like Kristin Chenoweth, Glee's Ryan Murphy and Cheyenne Jackson), he claims that it's been entirely miscontrued and tries to reconfigure the article as being only about two things: the Tony nominated performance of Sean Hayes in Broadway's Promises Promises and that there's no test case for a major male movie star coming out and how the audience would respond and why is that and wouldn't they reject it?

ShareI use the word "reconfigure" because those were only two of the points he made in the article (and one of them isn't a point but a leading question) and they were the two that offended me the least. I haven't seen Promises Promises but when I saw Damn Yankees I felt that Sean Hayes wasn't playing the role much differently than he played "Just Jack" on Will & Grace and that that was a problem in a new context. So maybe he is all wrong for that part... who knows? And it's true that a major male movie star hasn't really come out in their prime to test any of these theories. But so what? Just because something hasn't been done before doesn't mean it won't be done eventually...in fact it almost always means the exact opposite.

Here's what I wrote in response (albeit cleaned up for grammar as I get sloppy when I'm angry)

This is a dodge when what's needed is an apology.

I take no issue with citing one actor for a specific role --- there have been and will always be specific roles for which any actor is not well suited. The problem is that the primary example, Sean Hayes in Promises Promises, is used to paint a large and unflattering picture of gay actors with broad strokes.

It's pretty horrifying to suggest that Sir Ian McKellen, widely regarded as one of the greatest actors in the English language, is unsuited to 90% of the great roles throughout history. Who in their right mind (I mean a mind without homophobic impulses) would suggest this?

And the examples are obviously cherry-picked to draw a conservative "stay in the closet!" picture for actors who haven't come out. I haven't seen one single thing to suggest that audiences want Cynthia Nixon replaced as Miranda in Sex & the City now that she's come out of the closet. I mean, really!?

More troubling still is the not-so veiled suggestion that some of the greatest movie stars of all time suddenly have worthless filmographies. I'd venture that anyone willing to enjoy Hollywood classics won't see the work of Montgomery Clift for example and think 'Damn... this movie is pretty good but IF ONLY HE HAD CHEMISTRY WITH LIZ TAYLOR.' As if A Place in the Sun doesn't offer a striking fascinating chemistry between two of the greatest stars who ever lived.

So in short (too late) I think we still need an apology.

According to Newsweek logic, these terrific beloved actors pictured above (among hundreds of others) are unsuitable for about 90% of the roles they've ever played. What a shame! So many classics and memorable entertainments must now be dismissed because these people are queer. [/sarcasm]

Anyway, sometimes you just have to vent. I must let this go now. Are you still thinking about this controversy or are you just waiting for it to go away?
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Monty in Repertory

Thanks to reader Andy and just a heads up for anyone visiting NYC this spring. BAM in Brooklyn, which often houses great film series and retrospectives, is celebrating Montgomery Clift staring March 11th. They're calling it "That's Montgomery Clift, Honey!" after the Clash song "The Right Profile" a rather irreverent song about the car crash and addictions that derailed his life which you can listen to if you must...



But irreverent references, or not. They're showing 11 of the 17 pictures he made before his death at 45 and that's cause for celebration. Notably missing are Judgment at Nuremberg --probably because it's a supporting role and he was always the star -- and, strangely, two of his three pairings with BFF Elizabeth Taylor (Raintree County and Suddenly Last Summer).

If you've been reading TFE for any length of time you know that he's my favorite actor. Find out why. And find out why I'm always pissed that Marlon Brando and James Dean get all the credit for reinventing acting in the 50s. It took all three of them to get the job done, and Monty came first.

Not all of his films are available on DVD so I'm particularly anxious to see Elia Kazan's Wild River (1960) -- not to be confused with the classic Howard Hawks western Red River (1948) which is an absolute must if you haven't seen it -- which has always eluded me. Patricia Bosworth, who wrote one of the famous Clift biographies, will be on hand to talk about the Best Picture of 1953, From Here To Eternity.


The series ends on March 25th with John Huston's The Misfits (1961) which is a must for any movie obsessive since it's both an amazing film and a crucial elegy for three of the greatest film stars of the 20th century: Marilyn Monroe (her last completed picture and unquestionably one of her best performances), Clark Gable (his last film) and Monty, who was running on fumes.

related post: Monty Got a Raw Deal (the blog-a-thon)

Beauty Break: Montgomery Clift

My favorite actor ever (yes, the tippity top) would have been turned 89 this past Saturday had he lived. Not that he would have lived to be 89 but still... I'm sad that I forgot. I always feel I should write about him more often. I did try to spur on the communal writing with that blog-a-thon a couple years back. At least there was that.

Thankfully Kim Morgan did not forget and wrote up a beautiful piece on the man, his work in A Place in the Sun and the ineffable sadness in his eyes.

And that dance scene -- Stevens’ close-ups. They obviously reveal the actors' beauty, but also how much they, and particularly Monty, could say with their faces. Clift may be blurting out that he loves Taylor, but his beseeching, poignant eyes reveal so many layers of desire, you know something is haunting him even if you don't fully understand the circumstances... It's a dance macabre, and it scares Liz (it would scare me too) but one of the most romantic of all time. [read the rest]

Do yourself the favor and watch one of his great performances this week.

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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Memorial Day

Enjoy your day off. We'll be back early tomorrow to kick off one last week of May featuring: updated Oscar predictions, daily May Flowers posts, Cannes fallout, and more.

77 Appropriate Ways to Celebrate Elizabeth Taylor's Birthday

Be great. Be beautiful. Ride a horse. Get married. Get divorced. Act like a total diva. Wear something spectacularly sexy, preferrably white. Make people want more.


Befriend Michael Jackson. Watch Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? again. Watch National Velvet. Watch A Place in the Sun. Be highly quotable. Get married. Flaunt every piece of jewelry you own. Donate to an AIDS charity. Nurse a sick friend. Get divorced. Show everyone your wicked sense of humor. Fall in love with Montgomery Clift in glorious black and white (any of his movies will do). Ask your best friend to refer to you as "Bessie Mae" for the rest of the day. Get married. Scream "I was the slut of all time!" at the top of your lungs. Survive the loss of someone you loved no matter how hard that is to do. Pretend you've won an Oscar. And another. Drink people under the table. Love dogs. Get married. Polish her star at 6336 Hollywood Blvd. Watch Cleopatra... or at least half of it (okay, maybe a third). Get divorced. Read Elizabeth. Watch the original Father of the Bride. Get married. Get divorced. Get remarried. Get redivorced. Buy a pair of violet contact lenses. Let your passions rule you. Play a game of ping pong.


Don't take yourself too seriously. Role play "Liz and Dickie" with your boyfriend or girlfriend. Get married. Be fabulous. "Tell mama all". Name a perfume after your favorite thing. Gain lots of weight. Watch Giant. Watch Suddenly Last Summer. Watch Reflections in a Golden Eye. Steal something from someone who reminds you of Debbie Reynolds. Descend into "erotic vagrancy"! Give them something to talk about when you leave the room. Photoshop yourself onto the cover of 14 People magazines. Invite people over and play "get the guests" or "hump the hostess", your choice. Watch The Flintstones. Watch Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Watch The Taming of the Shrew. Imagine how Sherilyn Fenn might play you in a TV movie. Study Kabbalah.


Be sexy. Seek a voice role on The Simpsons. Work towards making lots of "all time greatest" lists in whatever it is that you do and actually deserve the honor. Make the world a better place. Get divorced. Go to a gay bar with friends. Jump on a plane to Hawaii. Excite the tabloids. Be legendary. Have a tracheotomy. Survive pneumonia. Have a hip replaced. Have a tumor removed. Survive cancer. Throw your back out. Call yourself "Mother Courage" and mean it. Survive everything.
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Sophia, Liz, Monty, Marlon ... (sigh)

While I was in DC I missed this fab issue of The New Yorker wherein rarely seen Richard Avedon photos were suddenly published (there's a new photo book coming out next month). Since it's Sophia Loren's birthday today and since StinkyLulu always reminds us that they share the same self-celebratory day, here's one of the new/old photos: Avedon in NYC with Sophia, circa 1966.

Just lovely, yes?

Click over to see new/old shots of La Liz, Garland, Monty Clift in Montauk and more... and if 2009's big starry musical adaptation of Nine is any good next year, expect a huge Sophia Loren resurgence in the media. After all, she'll be celebrating the big "75th" next year on this very day. Just in time for Nine's Oscar buzz to kick in before its December release.
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"I'd go anywhere with you"

Location, Mental: Big Screen. Location, Physical: Off Off Broadway

Before I head out on my vacation I wanted to let you know about 3 affordable Off-Off Broadway productions, all of them dipped in movies. Though I'm not generally fond of direct film to stage transfers, I enjoy theater with the cinema on its mind. [Plus, it's an ideal way to work in my theater fascination on this here movie blog. Multi-tasking! -editor] Cross pollination of the arts fascinates... so long as the the stage play still knows it's live theater, the television series remembers it's a continuing narrative and so on and so on and so on.

The Rarest of Birds This is a one man show about Montgomery Clift which stars the hardworking Omar Prince. Prince, with dimpled chin and round eyes, looks a bit more like another star (Tony Curtis) but Monty's hair was right and he captures the voice, too. The voice: it's positively eery at times -hello mimicry! Prince studied all 17 of Monty's films for the performance. The play primarily focuses on the more lurid aspects of the great actors life, courtesy of enough personal demons for an entire family tree let alone one man. Watching it, you can't help but wonder why Hollywood still hasn't made a Clift biopic. It's got everything they love: the Hollywood on Hollywood theme, an opportunity for another celebrity to win an Oscar through mimicry, that whole stratospheric rise to fame and fortune with consequent fall from grace courtesy of drugs, drink and dark secrets. Why haven't they made one yet?
$18 ($15 for students) @ Wings Theater in Greenwich Village. Weekends throughout June.

Cinephilia is a play I've written about before by Leslye Headland. I loved it in its workshop phase. Since then this movie-mad seriocomedy about unhealthy relationships between cinephiles has had a run in LA. Now it's back in NYC. I highly recommend, especially for those of you who feel that the love of cinema sometimes messes with your personal life: quoting them, thinking of them in inappropriate moments, living through them. It's very funny and specifically catered to movie addicts like us.
$18 @ Theater Row on 42nd Street. Now through June 15th.

Kill Me Like You Mean It
This is from the Stolen Chair theater company. They did that swashbuckling Captain Blood meets Greek tragedy experiment I told you about a couple weeks ago. This particular play, part 2 of their 4 part "CineTheatre Tetrology (4 years, 4 productions, 4 classic film styles adapted for the stage)" melds film noir with Ionesco. I haven't seen it but I really liked their swashbuckler and I hear this one is similarly inventive and quite good.
$12 @ Williamsburg's Brick Theater in Brooklyn. June 5th and 8th only

Linking Out in the Evening

IndieWire critics polling. There Will Be Blood dominates
Guardian John Patterson reshoots this year's cinema history. I love this post.
Towleroad Channing Tatum and the surge of fight movies
Deep Focus says that There Will Be Blood is a flat out masterpiece, although Boogie Nights is dissed in the process. Which...well, that just ain't right.
The Reeler ...speaking of PTA. He's only in his 30s and he's getting a retrospective in NYC next month. So is his contemporary Apitchatpong "Joe" Weerasethakul
Jim Emerson's Scanners really interesting "guess the top ten list" I can only figure out the top 5.
OMG Kevin Spacey's full moon. omg it's hilarious
Being Boring greatest things about 2007 in no particular order
Lazy Eye Theatre a Christmas wish list
Hollywood Elsewhere on audience shock when Sweeney Todd starts singing. I've long since given up hope on American audiences but it's not like the studios aren't partially to blame. They encourage the ignorance.

I was gazing at this 1948 Life Cover on Flickr "New Male Movie Stars Montgomery Clift". It made me smile and made me curious. That was a plural. Who was on the inside? Didn't anyone know who they were by 1955? And then I got a little sad. And it reminded me of the Vanity Fair series I'm doing... everything that's new today will be yesterday's news will one day be classic and then will one day be gone. *sniffle* This is hardly revelatory news. Just a reminder. god, what is it about holidays that bring out less than totally joyous feelings?

The Montgomery Clift Blog-a-Thon

Montgomery Clift
(Oct 17th, 1920 - July 23rd, 1966)
Scroll down for links to 20 other participating blogs

I don’t remember when it happened or how it is I came to see A Place in the Sun for the first time. I do remember how thoroughly I was hypnotized by the film and its lead Montgomery Clift. It was the first time I'd ever seen him. I’ve long been of the mind that a movie lovers relationships to the most memorable of screen actors (everyone from Streep to Brando to Davis to Taylor etc...) is largely defined by their first encounter or two. Feelings about various character actors can mutate and evolve. Leading actors who are not, in the end, altogether peppered with stardust can fluctuate in their connective power with an audience, too: they surprise on occasion and extend their run of fame but just as often they falter and fade quickly in the public consciousness. But with the true Movie Stars, the select few who stay larger than life and heavily mythologized… well, the first potent encounter sticks.


How else to explain that Montgomery Clift will always signify A Place in the Sun to me even though I’ve seen several of his other films? I've found many of his other performances just as or more impressive -- Red River and From Here to Eternity come immediately to mind. How else to explain that whenever I begin to think of him my thoughts eventually and invariable jump ship to La Liz -- and vice versa, too. A Place in the Sun continues to occupy the most mental space in my Montgomery Clift fandom.

I’d intended to write about the offscreen relationship of Monty & Liz and their onscreen magic --that palpable flexible chemistry as witnessed in the three films they made together: For the uninitiated they were romantically paired in both A Place in the Sun (1951) and Raintree County (1957) and then played doctor and hysterical patient in the outré Tennessee Williams hit Suddenly Last Summer (1959). But the hard-to-find County conspired against my plans. So this will be the first edition of three Monty & Liz articles (the others will arrive in the distant future –as soon as I get my hands on a good copy of County... so, um don't hold your breath)

Monty & Liz: A Place in the Sun

I thought he was the most gorgeous thing in the world, and easily one of the best actors. And he wasn’t a bit snide about acting with a ‘cheap movie star'.

-Elizabeth Taylor on Montgomery Clift

“I’ve found my other half!”

-Montgomery Clift on Elizabeth Taylor

One of the first things you notice about Clift is the distinctive way he holds his upper body: all pinched, shoulders hunched, like his entire body hangs from the knots in his neck. The stance of someone not entirely at home in his own skin? This physical quirk sparks tremendously well with the fuel that's already embedded in his signature role, George Eastman the dark and brooding outsider in this George Stevens masterpiece.

When we first spot Eastman he's hitchhiking into town, the up and coming nephew to a rich businessman uncle. He's there to join the family business but he's still very much the outsider: ostracized from co-workers (nepotism you know) and received with less than open arms by the rich society types his bloodline gives him access to --that is, with the notable exception of local princess Angela Vickers (Elizabeth Taylor), heir to another fortune.

Despite rules about fraternizing with the staff of his uncle's business, George almost immediately goes into predatory mode. He quickly beds a frumpy lonely employee, a factory girl named Alice Tripp (Shelley Winters). You can tell from the beginning that he's not thinking with his heart but somewhere south of there. George wants to get laid. It's a 50s movies but to its eternal angsty glory the sexual/romantic drives of all three principals come through loud and clear. George may be satisfying selfish urges with a worker bee but he's on his way up. The second he spots Angela, you know she's queen. His relationship with Alice is not long for this world.


Alice may be on her way out but boy is this movie on its way up. The yowza chemistry between the teasing trophy that is Liz Taylor and this fierce actor, all internal combustion and tragedy --notice that even his smiles are half-cocked... as if a full grin would cause pain-- sends A Place in the Sun into the stratosphere of 50s movie heaven. Their whirlwind courtship leads to one of the cinema's greatest screen kisses


...and tragedy thereafter.

You seem so strange... so deep and far away. As if you're holding something back.
-Angela Vickers (Liz) to George Eastman (Monty)

For those inclined to enjoy readings of star performances through the distorting prism of what we know of their personal lives --in Clift’s case: addictions, homosexuality, depression, and "pathological compartmentalization" of his social life-- this also makes George Eastman and A Place in the Sun an ideal vessel for carrying nearly all the crucial pieces of the Clift mythology. It's here in one classic package: implosive sensational talent (this was the second of four Oscar nominations) beauty you can drown in (boy is Shelley Winters is in trouble...in both senses of the word), self-destructive sexual behavior (George is living dangerously for an up and comer, isn't he?) and existential angst that doesn't overpower his charisma so much as inform it (check out how quickly Liz loses her ground as seductress to become both seduced and matronly, desperate to sex him up and save him). Just about the only missing piece of the Clift myth is the homo eroticism but there's always Red River for that.

A Place in the Sun also serves up a mirror of sorts in regards to Montgomery's place in the Hollywood firmament. The gorgeous black and white cinematography and machinations of the screenplay (both won Oscars) position George Eastman as a troubled and shadowy figure, a black sheep in this world of wealth and glamour. He unquestionably belongs there but is never fully absorbed into it, never at peace there. Isn't that Clift, too? Hollywood's ultimate troubled child is unquestionably one of the great film stars but he still exists somehow apart from the Brandos, Bogarts and even the Taylors in Classic Hollywood's pantheon.

the participating Clift-loving blogs

career overviews / his persona
Self Styled Siren "On the Manliness of Montgomery Clift"
The Sheila Variations A huge compendium of Monty related Hollywood quotes
My New Plaid Pants lusts for but doesn't quite love the man of the hour
Gallery of the Absurd 'If Montgomery Clift Were Alive Today' by "14" (previously interviewed right here) She always finds the details
Stinky Lulu 5 thoughts on the actor from fear to emotional adoption


individual star turns
Nick's Flick Picks looks deep into The Search
And Your Little Blog Too Monty's dexterous and intelligent work in The Heiress
Movie Morlocks "You would too recognize me" Monty in The Misfits
Peter Nellhaus on The Young Lions
Eddie on Film "Hidden in Shadows" (A Place in the Sun)
Moon in the Gutter Wild River and Freud, the "missing masterpieces"
Goatdog Monty's 7-minute solo in Judgment at Nuremberg
Rants of a Diva Falling for Monty in The Search
A Blog Next Door Queering and dequeering in Suddenly Last Summer
Strange Culture Clift @ Court (A Place in the Sun & Nuremberg)

photos & video tributes
If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger Great photos including one of my favorites of the actor taken by Stanley Kubrick himself
Ongoing Cinematic Education... YouTube -the Clash's "That's Montgomery Clift, Honey"
Boy on Film 'love of the pretty'
Stale Popcorn career cliff notes from YouTube
Rural Juror Saying goodbye to Monty

Montgomery Clift is Coming...

...to this blog and several fine others in just 10 days. The Clift Blog-a-Thon, headquartered right here (details if you missed the announcement), arrives on October 17th. If you're planning to join us with your own post, tribute, article, or whatnot...or, if just want to help spread the word, feel free to use any of these images for branding, advertisement or other purposes. Monty Clift... mmmm 50s Hollywood... yes. Can't wait.

Top Ten: Future Biopics

tuesday top ten. for the list maker in me and the list lover in you

Christian Bale, my friend, is blowing in the wind

I’ve developed a reputation for hating biopics and whilst perusing a list of them the other day I realized that I actually don’t. In the recent past I’ve loved Ed Wood (1994), Marie Antoinette (2006), The Aviator (2004) and loved pieces of others like Ali (2001) and Hilary & Jackie (1998). It turns out I just hate what most filmmakers do with the genre. My theory is this: They're dangerous movies to make because they're too easy to phone in. The storyline is written for you if you don’t feel like shaping it into a dynamic structure. No film genre is more boring if a lazy or uninspired writer / director is behind the wheel. Those birth + arm chair psychology friendly life shaping event + event + event + event until death screenplays? Wake me up when the movie is over. The performance blueprints are also mostly in place for the actors so if they don’t have any ideas about the character they can just copy the real mccoy and still win accolades.

So for today’s top ten, I am opening my heart to the genre. Here’s ten biographical pictures I’d love to see. Some are really happening. Others are lost dreams.

Biopics I Want To See

10. I’m Not There (2007)
For all intents and purposes this should be #1. Writer/director/genius Todd Haynes has never made a bad film. More promising than that (considering the type of film under discussion) he’s never made a film that isn’t highly interesting. “Highly interesting” is even more rare than “great” when biopics are involved. I'm Not There, Haynes' multi-actor rumination on Bob Dylan, is #10 rather than #1 because I am tired of being anxious to see it. I’m trying not to think about it until the day I sit down in the theater. I'm even attempting to ignore the trailer. Don’t even tell me about it in the comments!

09. Kirsten Dunst in Blondie (200?)
About a year ago Kirsten Dunst, arguably the most hated young actress in Hollywood --or at least on the internet, was rumored to be signing on to a Debbie Harry biopic. Nothing concrete has happened since. I'm hoping she lands a high profile demanding role soon. Any open minded perusal of her work outside of the Spider-Man series and Elizabethtown could only bring the viewer to one conclusion: this girl can act! I’m so tired of reading bitchy comments to the contrary. It’s sheer ignorance given that we’ve seen her work wonders with drama (crazy/beautiful, virgin suicides), genre pieces (interview with e vampire) light comedy (bring it on) and, yes, biopics. She's great in the underseen Cat’s Meow (old review) and she's just what Sofia Coppola ordered in Marie Antoinette (top ten 2006). I may be the lone member of the Kiki fan club but I'm OK with that.

08. The Young Victoria (2008) More on this one here

07. Monty (development hell)
Montgomery Clift is a dark celluloid legend. A movie about him could potentially make for a great film --provided that the filmmaker had something to say about all sorts of touchy subjects that swirl into the Clift mix: homosexuality, Hollywood beauty and the loss of it, the death of old Hollywood acting and the birth of the method, as well as all sorts of topics covered by almost every other biopic made (addictions, early death, rise and fall of the famous)


Even if Monty didn't have something deep to say it could be gorgeous to look at. As recently as The Aviator we were reminded that recreations of classic Hollywood are unbeatable eye candy for movie lovers. But this dreaming is all for naught since this project has been dead for years. Even if it weren't there's a huge elephant of a hurdle for the production to jump. Good luck finding an actor to measure up to the man in question (all of the people who've played him in the past --he's been a character in other Hollywood biopics-- haven't). Reminder: The Clift Blog-a-Thon is coming in October.

06 Robert Moses
I once asked the Cinemarati (RIP) readers about what biopics people they'd like to see. Somebody brought up this polarizing 20th century behemoth and I thought it was a great answer. Why hasn't some ambitious filmmaker thought to devote a biopic to the man who helped build New York and who shaped the future of the modern city in general? He seems like an ideal fit for the movies. Other brilliant and influential men who accomplished impossible feats have had movies made about them. Why not Moses? He's a colorful enough figure to fill out a movie and he was a mover and shaker in a cinematic time and place (early 20th century New York).

05 Georgia O'Keefe
You'll have to travel back in time for this one. A long time ago in a Hollywood far far away a goddess named Michelle Pfeiffer wanted to play the famous artist in a movie. I've learned to not hold my breath when Pfeiffer expresses interest in something. Even if she does so repeatedly (see also: Jodie Foster as Leni Reifenstahl... which I forgot about while cooking up this list)

I'm not sure if this project ever truly had a pulse but for a long while after its maybe death, I held out hope. After all the photos one sees of O'Keefe are almost always of an older regal looking woman. I would watch Pfeiffer do anything. Why not watch her paint absurdly closeup images of flowers? I'm dialing up moviefone right now for tickets.

04 The Countess (2008)
I wrote about this one @ Zoom In last week

03 Baz Luhrmann's Alexander (2004 oh, never mind)
You know what would be spectacular spectacular? If Baz would take on his own boy (or girl) wonder directorial apprentice. They could pick up his discarded projects and run with them. The story of Alexander the Great is too cinematic to have Oliver Stone's weirdly tentative and talky misfire as its chief modern vessel.

02 The Mayor of Castro Street (2009)
The last time I read about this biopic of slain politican Harvey Milk, out gay director Bryan Singer (X-Men, Superman Returns) had it on his schedule shortly after Valkyrie (now filming with Tom Cruise). I'm glad that a gay director is on board. The famous San Francisco politician has had enough mistreatment in his life, what with his murderer getting off lightly with that infamous "twinkie defense". Hopefully a queer director will understand how to tell the story without cheapening it or misrepresenting it. The Times of Harvey Milk is one of my all time favorite documentaries. If the live action feature telling of his life is anywhere close to as good and moving we're talking Oscar nominations.


01 Toni Collette as Liza Minelli
(now playing on every screen in the multiplex in Nathaniel's head)
Ever since I first imagined this dream role for Toni it's been my #1 favorite movie fantasy. Think about it: Toni can sing and dance, she has a weirdly bulbous lower lip and so does Liza. They've both got huge eyes and kooky beauty. In one musical swoop, Toni Collette could finally win that deserved Oscar and Liza-mania could be reborn!

recent top tens
Fall Film Preview * Oscar Nominationless
sort of unrelated but...
I just watched Volver again and now I want a biopic of Pedro Almódovar. Love that man.
*

Two Months Till Monty

"Still on your knees, huh Pruitt?"

The Montgomery Clift Blog-a-Thon is two months away (Oct 17th). Get his movies on your Netflix or GreenCine queues (you won't regret it. He's made several fine ones). And remember, if you're contributing an article, let me know and I'll send a reminder as the date nears.

Monty Got a Raw Deal

Blog-a-thon Announcement
Today is the 41st anniversary of the death of Montgomery Clift also known as 'the longest suicide in Hollywood history' or as doctors put it "coronary occlusion". He was 45. Now is the time to officially announce the next Film Experience blog-a-thon.

Montgomery Clift ~ October 17th, 2007
UPDATE: THE BLOG-A-THON IS HERE

As longtime TFE readers know my cat is named after my favorite actor, Montgomery Clift. I like to think that my furry friend is paying homage to the tragic star during his frequent brooding moods. For what classic film star is more inexplicably sad?

Ah, perhaps inexplicable is not the right word. 'Monty Got a Raw Deal' (as REM put it) didn't he? He was troubled by addictions. He suffered through a car accident that marred his considerable beauty and acting ability. He was unable to deal with his sexuality. The last sad straw: though influential as an actor, history likes to pretend that Marlon Brando alone revolutionized acting. They were peers and friends and once even shared a nickname in Hollywood "the gold dust twins" for their near-simultaneous meteoric rise to fame.

Let's give Clift his place in the (internet) sun on October 17th --his 87th birthday had he lived. There's a LOT to talk about. Any Monty-connected topic is fine. First and foremost there's 17 films:

The Search, Red River, The Heiress, The Big Lift, A Place in the Sun, I Confess, Indiscretion of an American Housewife, From Here to Eternity, Raintree Country, Lonelyhearts, The Young Lions, Suddenly Last Summer, Wild River, The Misfits, Judgment at Nuremberg, Freud, The Defector

Many of those are classics...seriously, what a filmography! Now would be a good time to screen a couple. Other topics of interested: queer Hollywood in the 50s, Oscar battles, and Monty's famous Hollywood friendships with Monroe, Dean Martin, and of course Liz Taylor (his most frequent co-star). The classic film lovers should come out in force for this one and I hope that younger bloggers will take the time to discover him. Monty has detractors too (you know who you are) but anyone is welcome to participate.


.

20:07 (The Sergeant and the Captain's Wife)

screenshots from the 20th minute and 7th second of a movie
I can't guarantee the same results at home (different players/timing) I use a VLC
This series returns to its regular weekday schedule on July 16th


Mrs. Holmes: Well, if it isn't Sergeant Warden... you better step inside or you'll get wet.
Sgt Warden: I am wet.

Mrs. Holmes: If you're looking for the captain he isn't here.
Sgt Warden: And if I'm not looking for him?
Mrs. Holmes: He still isn't here.

**
And so begins a torrid affair on an army base in Hawaii just before America goes to war. It'd be fair to replace "torrid" with bipolar, too. From Here to Eternity's adulterous lovers (Deborah Kerr and Burt Lancaster) jump from a cold fish meet & greet in their first scene to a confusing make out session (in this, their second scene) to a "no! but yes but no but yes!" affair in the ocean waves --you've seen their lovemaking in the waves even if you've never seen the movie -- despite the fact that they've already had their 'no but yes but no' conversation.

Hot (left) and Cold (right) within seconds...Kerr and Lancaster switch temperatures

About that conversation. After the wonderfully terse flirtation in the rain (quoted above) the emotional content of their navigation into choppy affair waters is clear but the dialogue gets cloudy --at least to my modern ears. This is Mrs. Holmes again...

You're doing fine sergeant. My husband is off somewhere and it's raining outside and we're both drinking now. You probably only got one thing wrong: the lady herself. The lady is not what she seems. She's a washout if you know what I mean. And I'm sure you know what I mean.

Actually Mrs. Holmes, I don't. I have a suspicion but it seems awfully risque for a 50s movie. Even if it is a sudsy epic like this one.

The most modern characteristic about From Here To Eternity's frisky couplings is how noncommittal and indecisive they all are; both frequently fighting couples (the other pairing is Montgomery Clift and Donna Reed who won the supporting Actress Oscar) make love declarations but in all four of these enemy love combatants you end up wondering about their sincerity or at least their capacity for self-delusion. Are any of these people really in love?

Maybe Donna Reed as "the 'Princess' Lorene" is. She's the most sidelined character but she's intriguing. She works in a members only club entertaining the soldiers. As a self-reliant pragmatist she resists her dreamy man's romantic vision of the future for a good long while. But once she finally gives in, converting to his way of thinking --more of a marital mind recognizably 50s way-- she's undone. Maybe the film making team wasn't viewing it that way but it reads so from a modern perspective.

From Here to Eternity is set in 1941 but it's unmistakeably of it's time. The 50s are such a fascinating decade for film. We have this picture of the decade as being very sanitized and repressed but in so many films there are visibly adult undercurrents... maybe repression is an overstatement. Was their a visible itch that was constantly being scratched? In a lot of 50s films you can feel the upheaval of the 60s coming --and I don't think that's entirely a byproduct of "hindsight is 20/20". I really don't.

Have you seen this 1953 Best Picture Winner? Your thoughts please ...

AFI: The New Top 100 List

The Revised Greatest American Films List
I'm happy to see Blade Runner, Nashville, and Cabaret added. They all hold high rank in my own favorites listing. What say ye about this new lineup? (To be helpful I've added their previous AFI ranking to the right --big changes in bold)

1. "Citizen Kane" (1941) same
2. "The Godfather" (1972) 3
3. "Casablanca" (1942) 2
4. "Raging Bull" (1980) 24
5. "Singin' in the Rain" (1952) 10
6. "Gone With the Wind" (1939) 4
7. "Lawrence of Arabia" (1962) 5
8. "Schindler's List" (1993) 9
9. "Vertigo" (1958) 61
10. "The Wizard of Oz" (1939) 6


11. "City Lights" (1931) 76
12. "The Searchers" (1956) 96
13. "Star Wars" (1977) 15
14. "Psycho" (1960) 18
15. "2001: A Space Odyssey" (1968) 22
16. "Sunset Boulevard" (1950) 12
17. "The Graduate" (1967) 7
18. "The General" (1927) new
19. "On the Waterfront" (1954) 8
20. "It's a Wonderful Life" (1946) 11

21. "Chinatown" (1974) 19
22. "Some Like It Hot" (1959) 14
23. "The Grapes of Wrath" (1940) 21
24. "E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial" (1982) 25
25. "To Kill a Mockingbird" (1962) 34
26. "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" (1939) 29
27. "High Noon" (1952) 33
28. "All About Eve" (1950) 16
29. "Double Indemnity" (1944) 38
30. "Apocalypse Now" (1979) 28

31. "The Maltese Falcon" (1941) 23
32. "The Godfather, Part II" (1974) same
33. "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" (1975) 20
34. "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" (1937) 49
35. "Annie Hall" (1977) 31
36. "The Bridge on the River Kwai" (1957) 13
37. "The Best Years of Our Lives" (1946) same
38. "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" (1948) 30
39. "Dr. Strangelove" (1964) 26
40. "The Sound of Music" (1965) 55

41. "King Kong" (1933) 43
42. "Bonnie and Clyde" (1967) 27
43. "Midnight Cowboy" (1969) 36
44. "The Philadelphia Story" (1940) 51
45. "Shane" (1953) 69
46. "It Happened One Night" (1934) 35
47. "A Streetcar Named Desire" (1951) 45
48. "Rear Window" (1954) 42
49. "Intolerance" (1916) new
50. "Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" (2001) new

51. "West Side Story" (1961) 41
52. "Taxi Driver" (1976) 47
53. "The Deer Hunter" (1978) 79
54. "M*A*S*H" (1970) 56
55. "North by Northwest" (1959) 40
56. "Jaws" (1975) 48
57. "Rocky" (1976) 78
58. "The Gold Rush" (1925) 74
59. "Nashville" (1975) new
60. "Duck Soup" (1933) 85

61. "Sullivan's Travels" (1941) new
62. "American Graffiti" (1973) 77
63. "Cabaret" (1972) new
64. "Network" (1976) 66
65. "The African Queen" (1951) 17
66. "Raiders of the Lost Ark" (1981) 60
67. "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" (1966) new
68. "Unforgiven" (1992) 98
69. "Tootsie" (1982) 62
70. "A Clockwork Orange" (1971) 46 (i still don't understand how this one qualifies as American)

71. "Saving Private Ryan" (1998) new
72. "The Shawshank Redemption" (1994) new
73. "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" (1969) 50
74. "The Silence of the Lambs" (1991) 65
75. "In the Heat of the Night" (1967) new
76. "Forrest Gump" (1994) 71
77. "All the President's Men" (1976) new
78. "Modern Times" (1936) 81
79. "The Wild Bunch" (1969) 80
80. "The Apartment" (1960) 93

81. "Spartacus" (1960) new
82. "Sunrise" (1927) new
83. "Titanic" (1997) new
84. "Easy Rider" (1969) 88
85. "A Night at the Opera" (1935) new
86. "Platoon" (1986) 83
87. "12 Angry Men" (1957) new
88. "Bringing Up Baby" (1938) 97
89. "The Sixth Sense" (1999) new
90. "Swing Time" (1936) new

91. "Sophie's Choice" (1982) new
92. "Goodfellas" (1990) 94
93. "The French Connection" (1971) 70
94. "Pulp Fiction" (1994) 95
95. "The Last Picture Show" (1971) new
96. "Do the Right Thing" (1989) new
97. "Blade Runner" (1982) new
98. "Yankee Doodle Dandy" (1942) 100
99. "Toy Story" (1995) new
100. "Ben-Hur" (1959) 72

<---they're tearing him apart: James Dean lost BOTH his spots on the top 100. And Monty Clift too. Argh. The films that fell out were...Doctor Zhivago #39, North by Northwest #40, Birth of a Nation #44, From Here To Eternity #52, Amadeus #53, All Quiet on the Western Front #54, The Third Man #57, Fantasia #58, Rebel Without a Cause #59, Stagecoach #63, Close Encounters of the Third Kind #64, The Manchurian Candidate #67, An American in Paris #68, Wuthering Heights #73, Dances With Wolves #75, Giant #82, Fargo #84, Mutiny on the Bounty #86, Frankenstein #87, Patton #89, The Jazz Singer #90, My Fair Lady #91, A Place in the Sun #92, Guess Who's Coming To Dinner #99

weirdest entry: Sophie's Choice... almost never listed in any "best of", apart from Meryl Streep's astonishing performance, is in the top 100 --They collectively name it the 6th best of the entire 80s decade. Whaaaa?

lesson learned: nothing below the top 30 is ever safe. It all depends on who they poll and which way the winds blow.

A History of... Gay Cowboys

It's Tuesday, y'all. Time for "a history of..." The debut effort garnered the most hits ever for anything I've done here at the blog--like Oscar-Day traffic at the homebase. A little Gyllenhaalism goes along way apparently. Never seek treatment. So, in lieu of that and in anticipation of Sunday being Oscar night...


1920s The West gets mythologized in American culture. The movies speed that along. Wikipedia tells us that what we know as the cowboy shirt actually comes from Hollywood. "Snaps, used in lieu of buttons, allowed the cowboy to escape from a shirt snagged by the horns of steer or bull."

Oh, snap.

1943 Rodger & Hammerstein's immortal musical Oklahoma! premieres on Broadway at the St. James Theatre. Wins the Pulitzer. Becomes a legendary theater touchstone. Over 600 productions are licensed worldwide every year. That's hundreds of opportunities annually for showtune lovin' boys to play "Curly" onstage and Ado Annie behind the curtain.

1948 Western hotties Montgomery Clift and John Ireland fondle each others pistols (no, literally. They do) in Howard Hawk's classic western Red River. When they're not ogling what the other is packin', they're betraying crusty old John Wayne who is clearly not up for the movie these two are planning to star in, once this one wraps.

1953 Immediately prior to Judy Garland's comeback (A Star is Born, 1954), Doris Day pinch hits in her absence as gay icon. Adorably butch as cowgirl Calamity Jane, her "Secret Love" power ballad becomes yearning gay anthem.

1978 Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson record Alma Del Mar's favorite record. It speaks to her.

1979 The Sundance Kid, lost without Butch Cassidy, becomes The Electric Horseman. Cher, Bob Mackie, Sally Kirkland, Liberace, and Bette Midler are all embarrassed to be seen with him.

1980 Disco emits its catchy death rattle as the bad-musicals-we-love Xanadu and Can't Stop the Music both premiere at theaters. The Village People, "Randy the Cowboy" among them, star in the latter. Xanadu's 10 minute climax is filled with visual types. I'm willing to bet there's a cowboy in the mix.

1989 Sitting in a movie theater in Utah with my girlfriend (no, literally. I was) I get very turned on watching Matthew Broderick and Brian Kerwin make out in Torch Tong Trilogy. OK, so they're not gay cowboys or anything but they do kiss on a farm. In a barn... uh, I reckon there's a shot of some hay? I'm reaching. (Just wanted to share.)

1990 Costner bares his, um, ego in Dances with Oscar Wolves.

1992 Billy Ray Cyrus has a smash hit with Achy Breaky Hea--oh, right. Sorry. We were talking about the other kind of "gay."

2000 Madonna, five years ahead of the curve, kicks up some dirt with a bunch of Ennis & Jacks in her music video for "Don't Tell Me". A short-lived western shirt craze kicks off in Chelsea and West Hollywood.

2005 Brokeback Mountain fever begins. Jack and Ennis deliver the first big box office hit about gay cowboys since Red River packed them in in '48. It's so good it gets buried in gold statues. Emotional impact, craftsmanship, intelligence. meaning. It's only missing one thing: a time travel plot twist wherein River's Clift and Ireland are transported up to ole' Brokeback just in time for a fourgy. Plot twist? Plot nasty!

2006 Adam & Steve, a new gay romantic comedy opens next month. The climax, featuring Jackie Beat singing the hilarious "Shit Happens", is an elaborately choreographed gay western hoedown. (no, literally. It is)


previous and subsequent histories
Jodie Foster * Gender Bending * Bald Women * Sarah Jessica Parker *
Gay Cowboys * Julianne Moore's Screen Kids * Gyllenhaal

back to the full blog--there's lots more to experience.