Today's Must Watch: 14 (Silent) Character Types

Oh to have the New York Times arts budget. They've asked 14 actors to recreate classic character types in 1 minute segments and the results are at turns breathtakingly gorgeous (Natalie Portman), funny (James Franco), exciting (Javier Bardem), questionable (Jesse Eisenberg?) and sometimes plain old garden variety awesome (Tilda Swinton's Falconetti?) Yes please.

Tilda Swinton

Noomi Rapace

Anthony Mackie

But my favorite might be Jennifer Lawrence's screaming victim.

Watch all 14 here (also starring Vincent Cassell, Chloë Moretz, Matt Damon, Michael Douglas, Robert Duvall and Lesley Manville.)  It'll only take you 14 minutes!

50 Appropriate Ways to Celebrate Tilda Swinton.

The fabulous Tilda Swinton is now a half century old young timeless -- old, young... these concepts are too limited when it comes to the greats. But fact: On November 5th, 1960 Tilda Swinton first came into the world. So a tribute is most definitely in order.

50 Appropriate Ways 
to Celebrate Swintonian Greatness

• Be a genius.
• Dye your hair white blonde... or bright red.
• Be colorful.
• Imagine you have deep Scottish roots.
• Create an eccentric personal film festival.
• Attend any film festival near you.
• Have tremendous commitment to your art. 
• Exhibit tremendous loyalty to your friends.
• Watch a Derek Jarman film immediately. (This should have been first. Just pretend you did it first.)

• Stand naked in front of the mirror with your goodies tucked. 
• Say "Same person. No different at all. Just a different sex"
• That's right. Watch ORLANDO (1993) again. It's so good.
• Break the fourth wall with Jimmy Sommerville blasting behind you as soundtrack.
• Clone yourself.
• Enjoy your own company.

• Pretend your children (or niece & nephews) are twins. Call them "Xavier" and "Honor" all day. 
• Invite a friend over and do a crazy photoshoot. You photograph so well! 
• Pose for a talented painter.
• Become a muse for multiple creative types: fashion, film, art, music. Anything!
• Experiment with an open relationship.
• Wear attention-grabbing shoes.

• Be enigmatic. 
• Boss someone who looks like George Clooney around. 
• Befriend Justin Bond. 
• Sweat it out in a bathroom stall or nervously rehearse a speech. 
• Cause trouble for someone who looks like Leonardo DiCaprio. 
• Watch I AM LOVE for IT IS CINEMA...
• ...then have sex outdoors with an Italian or a chef (bonus points for both)
• Invite people over to watch you sleep... for a whole week.

• Do the Laurel & Hardy dance from Way Out West.
• Wear your most avante-garde article of clothing.
• Embrace Female Perversions... whatever that may mean to you.
• Listen to Orbital's "The Box"

• Get real drunk and run your mouth constantly ...maybe wear a creepy black mask while doing so?
• Take a swim and pretend you've crossed the English channel.
• Seduce someone who looks like Ewan McGregor.
• Pretend to hate your cat and him/her "Aslan".

• Offer a young bratty boy some Turkish delight.
• Wear a shapeless baggy black dress to an important event.
• Don't wear makeup just because people expect you to.
• Pretend you've just won an Oscar. (You don't have to pretend that you deserved it. You sure did.) 

• Learn another language. 
• Be cultured. 
• Join the 8½ Foundation.
• Complain to everyone who will listen that Tilda should have won a second Oscar for Julia last year. 
• Remember that art is more important than money. (Only sell out temporarily in short doses... even when the offers come flooding in.)
• Be androgynous.
• And/or appreciate the androgynous in others. 

• "Do not fade. Do not grow old."
• Never lack for imagination.
• Be your own person. There is only one you.

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Kristin Scott Thomas Wanted Tilda's Role in "Burn After Reading"

The latest issue of French Premiere has hit the newsstands 'cross the Ocean. It's a big Harry Potter issue with new photos and such but if you look at the top left hand headline you can see the hallowed name of Kristin Scott Thomas, one of the few British acting giants that didn't teach at Hogwarts. Kristin has lately been headlining French films like Leaving (now in theaters) and, of course, I've Loved You So Long a couple years back. 

I had the pleasure of interviewing her a couple of years ago and she struck me as surprisingly unguarded and honest about her career ups and down. Premiere asked her if she ever watches movies and wishes she had played that role. "Of course, all the time" she answered (!) and then some.

Les rôles de garçon, surtout. Il y a aussi Burn After Reading des frères Coen, dans lequel je voulais tourner, mais ils ont préféré prendre Tilda Swinton. Et je suis aussi très fâchée contre Stephen Frears, parce qu’il ne m’a pas proposé le rôle de la femme de l’écrivain dans Tamara Drewe. Tamsin Greig est formidable, mais quand j’ai vu le film, je n’ai pas pu m’empêcher d’aller voir Stephen pour lui demander pourquoi il n’avait pas pensé à moi. Je rêve de tourner avec lui et il le sait très bien !

 Kristin Scott Thomas and two roles she wanted to play.

My french is of the high school variety but basically she's jealous of the men's roles first and foremost. She also alludes to having auditioned for the Tilda Swinton role in Burn After Reading but the Coen Brothers preferred Tilda. I heart Tilda but I could totally see KST barking orders at George Clooney and John Malkovich while chopping carrots or driving through DC, can't you? She also approached Stephen Frears after seeing Tamara Drewe. 'Why hadn't he thought of her for the role played by Tamsin Greig?'

About the Oscar loss (The English Patient) and the snub for I've Loved You So Long, she has this to say.

Un jour, quand j’aurai 95 ans, ils m’amèneront sur scène et me donneront un prix pour l’ensemble de ma carrière. Mais je n’ai pas vraiment besoin de récompenses. De toute façon, je ne gagne jamais rien, ni loto, ni tombola, ni Oscars.

This is something humorous along the lines of  'I never win anything -- lottery, Oscar -- but I don't need awards.' Maybe when she's 95, they'll bring her up on stage for career honors?

 Kristin and Sergí Lopez in Leaving (Partir)

Kristin Scott Thomas is still inarguably vivid onscreen at 50 and what's more she's still erotically viable, too. Leaving is full of randy sex scenes with Sergi Lopez but my favorite moment in the film is one where her husband (played by Yvan Attal, Charlotte Gainsbourg's real-life man), who has learned of her affair verbally assaults her marking her "sluttish grin" and comparing her to a cat in heat. The moment, which is nasty but unfortunately relatable (given the outright flaunting of her affair), wouldn't work half as well if you hadn't already marked how much she's abandoned herself to desire.

One hopes more directors and casting directors start to notice how well she's maintained her particular screen magic. Maybe her role in Nowhere Boy, in which she's typically excellent playing the key role of John Lennon's (Aaron Johnson) disciplinarian aunt can remind them what they're missing when they don't consider her for the meaty parts. If that pre-fame Beatles biopic takes off at all, it's easy to imagine Oscar traction for her role in Best Supporting Actress.

Can you imagine her in Tilda's Burn role? Do you plan to see Nowhere Boy?
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Venice Red Carpet: The Town, Potiche, Meek's Cutoff

Toronto kicked off last night but before we get to our coverage there -- we'll be hearing from the same folks who covered Toronto for The Film Experience last year -- Venice is starting to wrap up. Awards will be announced before you know it.

The most 'Hollywood' Venice premiere was probably The Town which brought out the happy familiar faces of Ben Affleck, Rebecca Hall, Jon Hamm and last year's Best Actor nominee Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker).


Is it just me or is it always a bit odd to see Jon Hamm smiling? He's smiling so much lately and with that career you'd be smiling too. But it's so UnDraper! These townies had prophetic reason to be happy. Reviews were kind. Here's a sampling:

• Cinema Blend "bigger by nearly every measure" [than Gone Baby Gone]
  
• Newsweek "Affleck’s heist movie is part of a career turnaround so amazing that he looks like the new Clint Eastwood"

One of the most exciting things for cinephiles about film festivals is that they tend to be more auteur-focused than any other movie event.

Tykwer, Miike, Ozon and Guadagino

Tom Tykwer was promoting his latest Drei, a film about a bisexual love triangle between a long time couple and the man they both fall for (unbeknownst to each other). Obsessed With Film called it "punchy and inventive" but wasn't completely bowled over. Tykwer has yet to recapture the type of international enthusiasm that greeted his breakthrough Run Lola Run (1998) but every few years or so we get another good looking movie like Perfume or The International.

Takashi Miike makes a new movie as often as I write a blog post. At least it seems that way. He's twice or thrice as prolific as Woody Allen. The man behind violent sensations like Audition and Ichi the Killer (and many others with less staying power) was premiering 13 Assassins.

François Ozon is one of the best directors of eye candy movies in the world with a gorgeous filmography that includes 8 Women, Water Drops on Burning Rocks and 5x2 among other gems. He's also sweet to look at offscreen. I'm just saying. The gay auteur was in Venice to premiere Potiche, his latest confection starring a starry buffet for hungry francophiles: Catherine Deneuve, Karin Viard, Sergi Lopez, Gerard Depardieu, Judith Godreche among others. Yum yum. Ultimate Addict was totally entertained citing its "snappy, hilarious dialogue" and calling Deneuve "a joy to watch" though you can cut and paste that description into every Deneuve review, n'est-ce pas?

Luca Guadagnino, Tilda's I Am Love director was also in town. He's on Tarantino's competition jury. I include him because I am nuts for I Am Love and his proposed Auntie Mame remake with Tilda in the lead is the greatest movie ever made that doesn't actually exist yet. Ohmygod I want to see that like three years ago. Please make it. If only I were a multi-millionaire and could fund the project myself. This is why I should have been born rich instead of poor. I could have supported so many worthwhile creative endeavors. (Sigh)

Michelle, Tilda, Paz and the immortal Deneuve

But we mustn't forget the actresses beautifying the red carpet.

Michelle Williams is sharing a closet with Carey Mulligan? They're like twin pixie fashionistas. Michelle was in town for her role as Kelly Reichardt's (Wendy & Lucy) main muse, this time in the western Meek's Cutoff.

• Time Out London "just as rich, nuanced, mysterious and low key as anything she's made."
• Guardian "far from action packed, but still gripping."
  

Tilda Swinton appears magically wherever there are A list festivals. It's a rule of the cinema nature ...a benevolent one, too.

Paz Vega. Remember her? Would Spanglish jog your memory or have you tried to forget it?
She's in town with the Italian drama Vallanzasca.

Anyway... we could do this all day. But the question is now who will take the prizes from Tarantino's jury? Guy Lodge has predictions. Will Natalie Portman's psycho ballerina win her the Best Actress prize? Will a non-English language picture rise to the top, forcing the media to note that not all movies are from Hollywood? Venice pulls the curtains closed tomorrow.

The Curious Case of Demi Button, the Blood Countess

Cele|Bitchy shared cel phone bikini pics of Demi Moore. Gawker, where I first saw these photos in a clueless* article on John Travolta, suggests that Demi is starring in her own real life adaptation of Benjamin Button.

But I think what we're looking at is a Countess Elizabeth Bálthory situation.This 47 year old superlebrity is obviously bathing in the blood of virgins.

I still haven't had an opportunity to see Julie Delpy's horror/bio/period film version of this tale, The Countess. None of the confusing and rare reports of the other film version (the one supposedly featuring Tilda Swinton) seem to give me much hope that it's actually not an elaborate internet delusion. But obviously this story should be able to resonate in our youth obsessed age where 50 is the new 40 and 40 is the new 30 and every single pitch meeting on the West Coat involves vampires.

Might I suggest an I'm Not There / Palindromes style interpretation where all of Hollywood's most mysteriously ageless women get a crack at the role? Or maybe they should just make an omnibus film I ♥ Bathory with, say, a dozen filmmakers doing shorts on the evil Hungarian royal that picked up the vampiric baton from Vlad the Impaler back in the day -- the day being the 16th century.

Three recent film interpretations:
Stay Alive (2006), The Countess (2009) and Bathory (2008) starring Anna Friel

But which filmmakers could do that fascinating story justice in short film form? I'm going with Martin Scorsese because he's always a bit more unpredictable when he skews girlie (see Age of Innocence or Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore); Jonathan Glazer because he needs to work more and Birth proves that he knows from eery and disorienting psychology; Lynne Ramsay because some of those shots in Morvern Callar were downright spooky and hallucinatory while still seeming so grounded in mundane realities; Baz Luhrmann (Moulin Rouge!) because there are five operas about Báthory and one musical, and I'd love to see how he'd respond to the constraints of a short film.

Obviously I want this supposed 2011 version starring Tilda Swinton and Isabelle Huppert but it sounds way too good to be true. I mean, Tilda and Isabelle?! Simultaneously!??? Get real. You don't even need sets or costumes or other actors. You just need a camera since both of those faces just emanate Unknowable Unfathomable Unboring Psychology.

But play my little game anyway. Which director would you like to see making a short film about the 16th century female alleged serial killer / vampire ? Sound off in the comments. Don't even say Tim Burton. I'm warning you!

*Trust me, if this is truly the "worst kept secret" for decades now, Kelly Preston knows. I love that people pretend otherwise. It's so cute and reverse sexist, Hollywood wives as wide eyed innocents. Hee. ♪ Money... ♪ Money changes everything.

Tilda Swinton, Posterized

Art house patrons first saw Tilda Swinton in a series of controversial works from gay British auteur Derek Jarman's in the late 80s and early 90s (he died in 1994). A much larger international audience followed with Orlando (1993). In the past decade, key roles in mainstream Hollywood efforts won the great Swinton plentiful new devotees.

Do you remember the first time you saw her onscreen? My first time was Edward II in 1992 and though I was impressed, I had no idea what marvels awaited in Orlando the next year...

Tilda Swinton in Posters...

Caravaggio (86, debut) | The Last of England (88) | Edward II (91)

Orlando (92) | Female Perversions (96) | Conceiving Ada (97)

The Beach (00)| The Deep End (01) | Teknolust (02)

Young Adam (03) | The Chronicles of Narnia (05) | Stephanie Daley (06)

Michael Clayton (07) | Julia (08) | I Am Love (10)

That's not the complete filmography but the lead roles and a few key / essential supporting gigs. There are many more smaller roles. She's not at all afraid of a crowded ensemble film or a blink and you'll miss her cameo. The best of the latter is probably Love is the Devil. And even if you don't blink you might miss her in that rough trade art biopic (starring Derek Jacobi & Daniel Craig) because she's so shockingly unrecognizable in it.

How many of those 15 have you seen? Which are your favorites?

I AM LOVE is an absolute must see for Tilda fans and art film aficionados in general. The film opened in LA and NYC last weekend and adds more cities today. Did it hit your town yet?

previously on Posterized: Tom Hanks, Will Smith, Angelina Jolie, Viggo Mortensen, Cate Blanchett and Barbra Streisand.

Tilda Swinton's 8½: Will You Dance Along Next Saturday?

You may have heard about this already but it took me days to process. For just when it seem liked Tilda Swinton had scaled all available Mt. Awesome peaks, she went and invented a new way to be awesome. Her latest project is named after Federico Fellini's masterpiece and it's way cooler than any other derivative thereof.

<--- This isn't a new photo of Tilda but I feel certain that Federico Fellini would endorse it.

Here's the description of the 8½ Foundation from the official site

What great movies would you give to a child on their 8½ birthday?
8½ is a great age to fall in love with cinema, and so the 8½ Foundation aims to give all children an 8½th birthday, glimpses into new worlds and cultures, into magic and the heights imagination can take you to.

The Foundation is holding a flash-mob style kick off on June 26th in Edinburgh where Tilda (and anyone else who shows up) will perform a Laurel & Hardy dance. No joke. Here's the dance. You're supposed to learn it beforehand.

The instructions

On Saturday 26 June 2010 at 10:45, come rain or shine, we’re gonna meet at Festival Square, Lothian Road, Edinburgh. At exactly 11:00, music will start – The Avalon Boy’s ditty “At the Ball”. It’s a song from Laurel and Hardy’s funniest film Way Out West. In the film, Stan and Ollie do a wee dance, one of the most charming, amusing musical numbers in cinema history.

In tribute to Stan and Ollie, and to dancing in public and in unabashed celebration of doing something as a group and looking like dafties…when the music starts, we will put down our newspapers and do the Laurel and Hardy dance.

I don't have the funds to fly to Edinburgh next weekend but I think I'll learn the dance and do it in my living room at 5:45 AM EST 06/26 for my Tilda across the Atlantic. If any readers want to join me take a picture so we can all pretend we did it together. I either have to do this or convert my apartment into a Shrine to Swinton for the purposes of daily worship. For what actress is more deserving of such devotion?

P.S. I Am Love (Io sono l'amore) opens today. It's grand. And Tilda wears the loveliest things in it. See it.

Link Crazy Pt. 2: Randomness

Cinema Blend Katey Rich on Sex & The City 2's wardrobe budget "Marie Antoinette might call it a little much."
As Little As Possible Dan Zak on I Am Love "I kind of love the whole movie, either in spite of or because it is such a bald stab at profound auterism, and an exploitation of the visual mysteries of Swinton."
Peer to Peer an interesting interview piece on the decisions behind promotional materials for Red Cliff and Tilda Swinton's star turn in the glorious I Am Love
Kenneth in the (212) "If I had a gun" post = hilariously succinct evisceration of not one but two summer movies


SLatIFR interesting piece on different types of film buffs and where their limits are in terms of interest and history
The Fug Girls Juliette Binoche in The English Patient and at Cannes 2010
Hollywood Elsewhere Blue Valentine press business. I wonder about this "Cannes bounce" apparently the film is shorter now than when I saw it at Sundance. Seven minutes can make a huge difference in how a film plays. Must see it again

offcinema diversions
izasmile makes funny (well, several of them) with Bill Gates and Steve Jobs
Broadway.com makes a 'top ten stage stars of the decade' list. Unfortunately the list should be titled 'top ten film/tv stars who also do stage'. You can't really do justice to the past decade in theater without mentioning Donna Murphy or Sutton Foster

television
The networks have been busy with "Upfronts" lately which means new shows are announced (Ken Levine has advice for the newbies) and old ones are axed. Did you see that ABC is doing a riff on Pixar's The Incredibles mashed up with The Fantastic Four's origin story? It's called No Ordinary Family and mom, dad, daughter and son get superpowers from some crazyweird accident.



Uh... good luck competing with memories of the incredible The Incredibles... although it shouldn't be too hard to wipe the floor with the awful and finally cancelled Heroes.

Waiting For Cannes Info...

The official Cannes lineup is announced tomorrow. [UPDATE: Here it is!] I bring this up a day early because occasionally while attempting to organize my hard drive (so many folders, so much disarray) I find rather inexplicable photos... Behold!

The Best/Weirdest Cannes Photo Buried On Nathaniel's Hard Drive

Quentin Tarantino affectionately attacks Kathleen Turner while Tilda Swinton, amused, seems to be conversing telepathically with the camera man.

I'd kill for a transcript of all Cannes jury deliberations, ever. So many crazy fabulous people, and such random groupings of the same each and every year. Oh, to be there in the heart of it all each May. This year's jury king is Tim Burton. Juliette Binoche is the light-painting official poster girl.


Important Names for this Year's Fest

• Tim Burton, Jury President (Competition)
  Burton's Jury is composed of: Giovanni Mezzorgiorno (actress, Italy), Kate Beckinsale (actress, UK), Emmanuel Carrere (screenwriter, France), Benicio del Toro (actor, Puerto Rico), Victor Erice (director, Spain) and Shekhar Kapur (director, India). update: Some websites reported that Gael Garcia Bernal (actor/director/international-hottie) was on this jury but he's heading another jury instead.
  
• Claire Denis, Jury President (Un Certain Regard)
• Gael García Bernal, Jury President (Camera D'Or... which honors first time filmmakers)
  
• Atom Egoyan, Jury President (Cinefondation)
  Egoyan's jury is composed of: Emmanuelle Devos (actress/goddess, France), Dinara Droukarova (actress, Russia), Carlos Diegues (director, Brazil) and Marc Recha (director, Spain)
  
• Agnes Varda (to be honored with the Life Achievement Award)
  

That's May. That's next month -- would that I could be there -- but right now it's still April and I'm off to the Nashville Film Festival to do my own jurying. I'll undoubtedly spot a few celebrities (country music division)... only I won't know who they are thereby negating the excitement of it. While I'm away the We Can't Wait countdown continues and I'll try to pipe in with a couple of Nashville nuggets.
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RCL: Demi Gods, Bag Ladies, Gutsy Smurfs and Action Heroes

Red Carpet Lineup: Once weekly we check in with random celebrities. Who is Where and Why? And What (are they wearing)?


From left to right: Jonathan Groff was at the Paley Center to promote GLEE (He's joined the cast drizzling yet more awesomeness on a show that's already fully marinated in the stuff). Groff wowed New York on stage (Spring Awakening + Hair) and now he's after the rest of the world. He's pulling off a mere mortal look here surprisingly well but do not be fooled. He's actually a demi-god (see: that 'I'll Possess Your Soul And You'll Ask If I Can Take Your Body, Too' stare in Taking Woodstock and the actual demi-god thing in The Baccae last summer where he hypnotized Anthony Mackie into doing all sorts of, uh, naughty things). Helena Bonham-Carter attended the premiere of Alice in Wonderland in Paris. If HBC ever feels the public has lost interest in her, I have a surefire solution for a comeback: stop dressing like a billionaire bag-lady. Think of the uproar if she showed up somewhere all sleek, minimalist and goddessy ... like a Cate Blanchett look or something. People would be talking about it for a month!

poll by twiigs.com

Tilda Swinton premiered I Am Love in Italy in navy tiles. We love I Am Love but worry that it's going to be one of those movies that has premieres all over the world for the next 17 months without ever once feeling like it's playing in theaters. Marion Cotillard received the Officer of the Order of the Arts and Letters in Paris. That sounds prestigious and we love that Marion shows up all demur/pastel to receive it "What? No! What did I do to deserve this? You're too kind. You mean little Oscar-winning me?"


from left to right: Meryl Streep is wearing a beige drapey sweater look that would be right at home in a Nancy Meyers movie. She was bestowing honors at Diane von Furstenberg's DVF awards. The awards are for women who struggle to improve their communities which sounds like such a worthy selfless thing... until you remember that the woman who created the honor named it after herself. Adrien Brody hit SXSW to premiere footage from Predator. Honestly, I don't understand his career at all post-Pianist. Nor do I understand why people are surprised that he has muscles to play an action hero. King Kong five years ago, 'member? Jennifer Tilly is still alive and proved it by taking in a gallery show in LA. This Official Declaration of Life I direct towards Hollywood's casting directors who have misfiled her headshot into their posthumous file 13. That's the only explanation for her screen absence. She's one of a kind. "Charmed. Charmed. Charmed."

We end with Alan Cumming who hosted the first leg of GLAAD's media awards this past weekend in NYC (there's two more events coming up in California). Funky suits are sometimes really fun to look at but immediately after smiling at them you think "You can only wear that once. Hope it was worth the money". Not that the fab Tony winner should worry about money. There's the cologne, the album, the abundant voicework and the television, film, stage and Spider-Man villain gigs. He's also one of the voices for the upcoming The Smurfs movie. Full disclosure: I loved The Smurfs as a kid (why pretend otherwise?) but I do not remember any character named "Gutsy Smurf".

FiLM BiTCH AWARDS Medals Ceremony

This site's 10th annual honors have been announced. Cue the title themes to Bright Star and The Hurt Locker. Hunger doesn't really have a score so just cue a tinny radio transmission of Margaret Thatcher's voice. I dunno, get creative. Director Steve McQueen certainly did.

The Na'Vi honor the ceremonial wins of their destroyers.
Avatar wins 3 gold and 2 silver in technical categories.

The gold, silver and bronze medals are now announced for all of the "traditional" categories. I'm still working on the extra fun pages. Many of these medals were tough calls, so don't get too flummoxed if your favorites were bronze instead of silver or some such. Next month I might wish I'd switched a few up. After all, so much of "favorites" is mood-driven and susceptible to rescreenings. Although, don't get me wrong, there are incontestable gold medals, too. Tilda Swinton's win for Julia and Mo'Nique's for Precious were easy calls. They're the two best performances of 2009 (with Christoph Waltz a semi-distant third though he too is quite marvelous) and they'd be high up on a "decade" list, too.

The Hurt Locker reigns with the highest medal count (4 gold among them). What can I say, it was a rare "consensus" year for me. It was also a good year for toons. Between them, Coraline, UP and Fantastic Mr. Fox took 7 medals.

P.S. Before anyone freaks out about "The Dude" losing gold, remember that I owe him nothing. I didn't keep him waiting nearly as long as Oscar voters did. He won the top prize here just five years back for The Door in the Floor... a performance I still prefer to that Crazy Heart.

P.P.S. More awardage and final Oscar Predictions coming tomorrow.

Read Between The Links

Out Ewan McGregor is still acting. Just to make sure you're still paying attention, he claims he loves kissing boys (onscreen at least). Mmmmmm...
Go Fug Yourself Has words for Tilda's electric blue Berlinale gown
Moviezzz details the massive Clint Eastwood box set. Just to make sure you're actually reading Moviezzz announces that Flags of Our Fathers is better than Letters From Iwo Jima. Unnhhh...
Movie|Line explains how the last season of Lost is just like the last season of Buffy. Conveniently forgets about the Slayerettes.
In Contention the annual "top 10 shots" cinematography article. Just to make sure you're actually reading IC tries to claim worth in both Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and The Lovely Bones. Errrr...
Esquire the much discussed profile "Roger Ebert: The Essential Man"
My Internet is Where I Want You To Touch Me shares a horrific famous video. Just to make sure you're really sure about this Sandra Bullock thing. Ewwww.
Antagony & Ecstasy (a palate cleanser for you after the last link) Timothy's top ten movies of the Aughts

Best Actress, Oscars Ballot and My Own

I love actresses too much.

It makes life complicated for me emotionally. I fuss and fuss and fuss and refuse to fill out my Best Actress ballot each year because I don't want to leave any of my favorite ladies out. I don't want to hurt any of their (imaginary) feelings. Oscar, on the other hand, doesn't mind leaving my favorites out. They do it all the time.

The Oscar Nominees

• Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side
• Helen Mirren, The Last Station
  
• Carey Mulligan, An Education
  
• Gabourey 'Gabby' Sidibe, Precious
  
• Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia

In truth, I like all five of those performances. I think they're all good and better than the films that house them and they all strike me as very "right"... at least in terms of the idea that the Oscar lists are essentially an industry stamp, a group pronouncement of "This is what we do and value!". You've got the big stars in biopics (Meryl & Sandra), the breakout sensation (Mulligan), the old pro who could do this in her sleep but does it very very very well you have to admit (Mirren) and the magical debut (Sidibe).

I want Meryl Streep to win.

I've made no secret about that. I'm tired of waiting for that third Oscar to come and she's just delightful in Julie & Julia even if it's no patch on something like The Devil Wears Prada which she should have won for (I'm sorry but what she accomplished there was far beyond what Helen Mirren was doing in The Queen). But she didn't make my list (just barely). See what I mean about complicated emotions?

Whatever the outcome of Oscar's race -- and I can feel myself checking out on Best Actress in particular (my favorite category) -- because if Streep isn't going to win I'm so not interested. (I think Bullock's nomination is cute in a Big Hollywood way. But all the wins make me nauseous. That's taking it way too far. I see Roberto Benigni dancing on chairs again and everybody being embarrassed about their gigantor-obsession almost immediately after the house lights go up.)

My Favorite
But it's all beside the point anyway. I knew the Oscar year would be ruined for me the minute I saw Tilda Swinton in Julia some months ago.


I knew she'd barely be in the conversation come awards season but not only do I think it's the best performance of 2009, I think it's the best performance of 2008 AND 2009... (and maybe 2007, too). That's how great it is. Gold medal! Sorry to give the game away. And though I knew my favorite iconoclastic actress would barely be in the conversation I was and still am shocked that not one critics group could give it up for her. That's forty(proof) kinds of crazy. That's as crazy, reckless, incompetent and dumb as Julia herself! It's even dumber than Julia once you add in the widespread inexplicable shunning of Abbie Cornish in Bright Star. Look, I love Emily Blunt so don't take this the wrong way. She's done more for me than Abbie Cornish (in general) but no way was she more deserving of year-end attention for her costume parade than Cornish was for hers.

MY BALLOT

a drunk criminal, an illiterate victim, a precocious schoolgirl,
a barefoot psycho and a lovestruck seamstress

And yours?

P.S. You can now vote for your favorite among the Oscar nominees on the Best Actress page.

P.P.S. My 15 favorite lead actresses of the year (in alpha order) at this particular moment.


I didn't see everything obvs. And, oh crap, I know who I forgot already...

P.P.P.S. Have you O.D.ed on actressness just reading all of this?
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Sundance Day 4: I Am Buried, Love!

An easy day for me after the day 3, 5 film marathon (scroll down). I saw just 2 films. There would've been 3 but for a bus mishaps. Boo. Have also developed an irritating persistent cough. I blame all this fresh mountain air. My lungs are citified.

lo sono l'amore (I Am Love)
I'll have more to say about this Italian stunner as it approaches release but I'm too sick to parse it at the moment. So for those of you who are tweetless, I share this exchange between Guy Lodge and I.


I've rediscovered here at Sundance that I tend to respond best to visually driven films. Another critic I sat with at I Am Love complained that it kept him at a certain remove and that's totally true so long as you're speaking about its narrative or dialogue but the emotional content was all in its at first stately and then increasingly baroque rush of images and score. B+/A-? [I also suspect that I liked The Runaways better than most because I dug the visuals from director Floria Sigismondi, another contestant in the long line of great music video directors who made their way into feature films. But that's a story for another post.]

One more thing about I Am Love. I find it amusing that the initial foreign poster and the American poster are basically the same thing but for the star-f***ing.


Not only do three characters get cropped out to focus on the nuclear family, but it's also becomes all about Tilda Swinton. The font obscures the other actors and loops around to create a Bust of Movie Star. Place her sculptural beauty on your mantle.

...by which I mean buy a ticket when the film opens later this year.

Buried
The announcement that this accurately named thriller had been bought by Lionsgate -- who made (tidal) waves for the Sundance acquisition Precious last year -- came shortly before the screening for critics. I don't usually do this but I spent some of the movie and a good deal of time after the movie, thinking about how they could possibly market it. The movie takes place entirely inside a coffin with Ryan Reynolds as the unfortunate American truck driver trapped inside. He wakes up to this nightmare at the beginning of the film with only a cel phone and a lighter (and unfortunately all of his clothing). Spanish director Rodrigo Cortés displays enough technical creativity here in sound, lighting and shot differentiation that the gimmick is sustained surprisingly well. But how will they ever do a trailer without revealing the onion being peeled as it were? The fun (if such a thing can be called fun) is in how the story, predicament and politics are parceled out. And if you see a lot of that in the trailer... B

P.S. [*light spoiler*] I'm tempted to pettily subtract a grade due to the completely unimaginative voice casting. You'll never believe this but ubiquitous character actor Stephen Tobolowsky (in one of the voice roles) plays an asshole! Shocking right? When you hear that voice you simply know, thereby ruining one of the film's nastiest surprises.

Woolf at the Movies.

Jose here to commemorate the anniversary of Virginia Woolf's birth.



Woolf said that every secret of a writer's soul, every experience of his life, every quality of his mind is written large in his works.
Since this isn't a literature site, what better way to examine this than the ways in which some of her works have been taken to the movies.

First up is Sally Potter's gender bending version of Orlando with Tilda Swinton as the title character. In this luscious reworking of Woolf's classic, Potter concentrates mostly on interpreting the author's groundbreaking prose and reflecting it through the film's sensuous visuals.
Few filmmakers would've been as brave as Potter and give in so much to the undeniable power of the text to a level where the film actually celebrates Woolf more than the director. Jane Campion's crush on John Keats in Bright Star comes to mind-in terms of literature taking over film so much-and if you haven't seen Orlando, what are you waiting for?

Even if at first glance she's only referred to in the title, the ghost of the British author hovers all over Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? her name is supposed to symbolize the fear of leading empty lives and existence out of illusion. While Edward Albee's play is notorious for its explosive nature (as opposed to Woolf's universe of inner conflict) it's feasible to say that the playwright's intention was precisely to make us wonder what would push us to release all those violent, damaging emotions from our minds.

Last but not least, today would be a good day as any, to re-watch Nicole Kidman's Academy Award winning performance as Woolf in The Hours.
Brilliant beyond the fake nose, Kidman has rarely been as introspective and haunting. She might've made one very controversial Oscar winner, but like Woolf's literature her performance doesn't fade, doesn't wither and probably will never grow old.

Are you a fan of Virginia's literature? Do you like how cinema has interpreted her?

Top 50 Performances of the Decade (Female)

This list has more repeat offenders than the male list yesterday. Please give these 45 talented women one last round of applause before we take a break from the decade stuff to embark on the 2009 awards. As with the male list, I didn't include any 2009 performances (let the year settle first) though there is at least one that would obviously (x 50) be here if I did...

"And it's time my luck changed. And it's time something went right for me!"

-"Julia" makes a plea for a surprise Tilda Swinton nomination this year.

PLEASE NOTE: This list should not be mistaken for an updated 'Actresses of the Aughts' chart. [editors note: I may attempt to return to that massive project in a definitive way after this year's Oscar race is complete]. How you feel about someone's entire career can be markedly different than how you feel about individual turns and an actress whose skill you may admire might not hit you as hard emotionally as she hits others. Then there are actresses I prefer to some of the ones who show up here who don't appear at all! Etcetera. These lists were made quickly and are obviously personal. Try to make one yourself and you'll be surprised who you have to leave out. That's the subjective nature of listmaking. Here's the top 50 alphabetically (the dozen best/favorite hastily marked in red and are highly subject to change).

• Amy Adams, Junebug (2005)
• Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married (2008)
  
• Annette Bening, Being Julia (2004)
• Björk, Dancer in the Dark (2000) *
  
• Cate Blanchett, The Aviator (2004)
• Catherine Deneuve, Dancer in the Dark (2000) *
  
• Catherine O'Hara, A Mighty Wind (2003) *
  
  "♫ ...more precious than a pot of gold"
  
  
• Catherine Zeta-Jones, Chicago (2002)
• Charlotte Rampling, Under the Sand (2001) *
  
• Daryl Hannah, Kill Bill (2003/2004) *
  
• Diane Lane, Unfaithful (2002)
  
• Ellen Burstyn, Requiem for a Dream (2000)
• Emily Blunt, The Devil Wears Prada (2006) *
  
• Emmanuelle Devos, Kings & Queen (2005) *
  
• Holly Hunter, thirteen (2003)
• Imelda Staunton, Vera Drake (2004)
• Isabelle Huppert, The Piano Teacher (2002) *
  
• Jeon do-Yeon, Secret Sunshine (2007) *
  
• Joan Allen, The Upside of Anger (2005) *
  
• Judi Dench, Notes on a Scandal (2006)
• Julia Roberts, Erin Brockovich (2000)
• Julianne Moore, Far From Heaven (2002)
• Julie Christie, Away From Her (2007)
• Julie Delpy, Before Sunset (2004) *
  
  
"what does that mean: the 'right' man, the 'love of your life'? The concept is absurd!"


• Kate Winslet, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
• Laura Dern, INLAND EMPIRE (2006) *
  
• Laura Linney, The Savages (2007)
  
• Laura Linney, You Can Count On Me (2000)
• Maggie Cheung, In the Mood For Love (2001) *
  
• Maggie Gyllenhaal, Happy Endings (2005) *
  
• Maria Bello, A History of Violence (2005) *
  
• Michelle Pfeiffer, White Oleander (2002) *
  
• Miranda Richardson, Spider (2002/2003) *
  
• Meryl Streep, Adaptation (2002)
• Meryl Streep, The Devil Wears Prada (2006)
• Naomi Watts, Mulholland Dr (2001) *
  
• Nicole Kidman, Birth (2004) *
  
  
"Don't bother me again."


• Nicole Kidman, Moulin Rouge! (2001)
• Nicole Kidman, The Others (2001) *
  
• Patricia Clarkson, Far From Heaven (2002) *
  
• Penélope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008)
• Penélope Cruz, Volver (2006)
• Rachel Weisz, The Constant Gardener (2005)
• Rosemary DeWitt, Rachel Getting Married (2008) *
  
• Sally Hawkins, Happy-Go-Lucky (2008) *
  
• Samantha Morton, Morvern Callar (2002) *
  
• Tang Wei, Lust Caution (2007) *
  
• Tilda Swinton, Michael Clayton (2007)
• Uma Thurman, Kill Bill (2003/2004) *
  
• Virginia Madsen, Sideways (2004)
  
  

Which performances do you hold most dear from the past 10 years? And which are you "off consensus" on? In regards to the latter, do you often feel beat up by friends & strangers for not genuflecting as expected? I know I do! Finally -- and I think this question is most interesting -- which performances have continued to surprise, grow on you, or play games with your memory over the years?

Update Summer 2010: These 2009 performances, now that they've settled in as "cinema of the past," would have to be included in this top 50. Who to drop to make room for them?

• Gabourey Sidibe, Precious (2009)
• Mo'Nique, Precious (2009)
• Tilda Swinton, Julia (2009)
  

See also: male performances and top 100 films...

an * indicates a performance that was snubbed by Oscar. I consulted only my own "best" lists and not Oscar charts while composing the list. A surprisingly robust 52% of these performances were not Oscar nominated.
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