On this day 55 years ago...

Robert here, with a special look at this very important date.

On this day, 55 years ago...
George McFly and Lorraine Baines kiss for the first time, sealing a lifetime of love that would produce three children.

Also on this day, 55 years ago...
The Hill Valley Clock Tower is hit by lightning and hasn't worked since.

Yet still on this day 55 years ago...
Having just witnessed his parents' first kiss, a relieved Marty McFly invents a new kind of music.

And even more, on this day 55 years ago...
Local inventor/eccentric Doctor Emmitt Brown conducts some kind of experiment on the famous clock
tower.

And then, on this day 55 years ago...
Biff Tannen gets a visit from a familiar looking old man who hand him a sports almanac.

Following that, on this day 55 years ago...
Marty McFly, making his second visit, tails Tannen and retrieves the almanac, thus preventing the most dramatic city-wide deterioration since Pottersville.

And finally, on this day 55 years ago...
Marty receives a curious Western Union telegram that's been sitting around for decades.

And it all happened on this day, November 12, 1955.

The United States of Gosling

Craig here, with a brief birthday big-up.

Ryan Gosling, dressed for birthday (and Oscar?) success

Ryan is the big three-o today. It's a big birthday - I hope he's celebrating in style.

With All Good Things and Blue Valentine both on the brink of release in the US (Dec 3rd and 31st respectively), it's never been a better time for Mr. Gosling. The year ahead, his 30th, could be his best. He's already chalked up one Oscar nom, for Half Nelson in 2007 - could January's nominations see another one for either of the two movies above? What do you think, readers? And whilst you're at it, give your answer to this question as a gift to Gosling today:

What is your favourite Ryan G performance?

"Whatever you do..."

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"... don't think about elephants."

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First and Last: Crow

Glenn here. Apologies to the Americans who may be late getting to this, but hopefully the time difference over this side of the world will allow someone new to take correct guessing honours. Let's see how you do.

First image:


Last image:


By the way, isn't that a great opening shot? Yowza!

Unsung Heroes: The Direction of Duck Soup

Michael C. here from Serious Film. So far in this series we've most often covered the types of cinematic achievements that go unappreciated because they are so convincing that they render themselves invisible. Yet there is also the case of the artist who goes overlooked because they do their work in the shadow of personalities so big that they suck up all the attention. That is certainly the case with this week's unsung hero.

It is largely agreed that Duck Soup is top to bottom the Marx Brother's most successful, complete film. Yet when I read appreciations of this movie this fact is usually taken as a fortunate happenstance. As if Duck Soup's production was no different from any of the Marx's others save for an extra helping of lucky who-knows-what that afforded them the opportunity for ninety minutes of uninterrupted brilliance. While there was some luck involved - the creative freedom to drop the dopey romantic subplots was not one they would always enjoy - Duck Soup benefitted enormously from having the perfect man in the director's chair: Leo McCarey.

A director of great wit and sophistication - it is rumored he inspired elements of Cary Grant's persona - McCarey had a loose, improvisational style that proved a perfect match for the Marx Bros. On the set of McCarey's Oscar-winning farce The Awful Truth he would sit at a piano surround by actors and writers and toss around story ideas. Like that classic farce McCarey keeps the laughs rolling in Duck Soup with jokes piling up at a pace that would be the gold standard for later comedic classics like Airplane! and Blazing Saddles to be measured against.

McCarey was a good gagman in his own right - to name just one example McCarey was the one who put scissors in Harpo's hand for the whole movie, which in my book justifies a post in his honor all by itself. Duck Soup lacks a lot of the usual creakiness one would associate with a comdy from 1933. Rewatch the famous mirror sequence again. The shooting is perfect, cutting on just the right moments to emphasize the comedy without calling attention to the tricks required to pull off the stunt, all while maintaining a silence that would have made a less confident filmmaker nervous.

According to Roy Blount Jr.'s account of the production, McCarey was dead set against the idea of serving as traffic cop for the Marxes, going so far as to move to a different studio to avoid the assignment. It turned out the fact that McCarey was loathed to take the assignment gave him the perfect balance needed to not be bowled over by them. In other Marx Brothers movies you get the sense that the filmmakers are trying to keep up with the brothers. Not here. Watching Soup there is no doubt that there is a confident presence at the helm.

McCarey greatest accomplishment here may be the way he managed to keep the humor on target. Other Marx Brothers movies were equally funny but none of them managed to so thoroughly dismantle a target the way Duck Soup took aim at politics and war. It's that extra level that makes Duck Soup a stand alone achievement and not just an enjoyable but otherwise interchangeable piece from the Marx Brothers body of work. When they discuss the great director's of Hollywood's Golden Age Leo McCarey is a name that needs to come up more often.

RIP Dino De Laurentiis

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JA from MNPP here. When I think of the name Dino De Laurentiis my mind instantly flashes to a bunch of much beloved cheese-fests from the 70s and 80s - Barbarella, the two Conan movies, Flash Gordon. But the man did it all, from Nights of Cabiria to Army of Darkness.

I don't know anything about his personal life but he's one of those legendary movie-men whose names become as big as the very big movies that they make. He won the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award in 2001, on top of a statue for La strada in 1957. He was 91 years old.

What's your favorite movie of his?
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Cinematic Soldiers for Veteran's Day

Robert here. For many of us being a soldier is an experience we'll only get vicariously courtesy of the movies.  In honor of Veteran's Day, I thought I'd share some of my favorite portrayals of American soldiers.  They aren't always the most famous actors or the biggest roles, but they've made impressions.  If you've not seen any of the particular films listed and don't want to know who lives or dies, you may want to skip to the next entry.

General George S. Patton played by George C. Scott in Patton (1970)

Starting off with a big one.  Patton is such a towering figure in American History and Scott's Oscar winning portrayal gives us an understanding of the man who often found himself caught in a place between his own talents and the stern hand he felt was needed and the more careful policies of those he served.

Steven Pushkov played by John Savage in The Deer Hunter (1978)

As the sense of patriotism imbued by World War II films made way for the cynicism of the Vietnam era characters like Steven whose great sacrifice seemed to leave no echo or purpose became more and more common.  There's something unspoken and tragic about not only Savage's portrayal of a newlywed filled with a sense of duty only to have his life change forever, but the fact that his story is so common it doesn't even warrant more than a tertiary plot line.

Homer Parrish played by Harrold Russell in The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)

One of the many successes of The Best Years of Our Lives was its ability to illuminate the lasting scars of even what was considered the most just of wars.  Primary to this success was Russell's portrayal of Homer Parrish.  It's the type of performance that makes you feel every struggle and frustration of a man's life as you come to a greater understanding of someone other than yourself and feel thankful that the film will be around for posterity so that others may understand.

Read more »

First and Last: Tattoo Lady

Glenn here for more fun and games. Can you guess the movie from the first shot after the credits and the final line of dialogue?

First shot:


The last shot was of the film's lead actress so that was a no-no. Instead, we'll go with the final words spoken.

"...I'm a musician. Just a chick in a band. And you know what? It's f**king cool!"

Birthday Wishes for the Dream King

Hi all, Tim here from Antagony & Ecstasy.

Today, somewhere outside Minneapolis, fantasy writer Neil Gaiman celebrates his 50th birthday (or not; birthdays don't seem to fit the persona the author has created for himself. But I don't have to care). And while he's better known for his comic books and novels than for his work in movies, his short cinematic career is filled with enough highs that it seems more than fair to commemorate the man's half-century.

Gaiman's film career got a rough start with his BBC miniseries Neverwhere: cheaply made and hurt by an underbaked structure, it's not half as memorable as the novelized version of the same story from the following year (the morbidly curious can find it on Netflix Watch Instantly). Fortunately, Gaiman first theatrical project was quite a bit more promising, as Miramax tapped him to write the 1999 English dub for Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke. The challenge of telling a densely mythological story in which details fly at the audience without pause was perfect for an author whose own created worlds were so rich, and his Mononoke script maybe remains the best thing he's done in the movies.

In 2003, Gaiman directed his first film, the mockumentary A Short Film About John Bolton; for a freshman effort it's not half-bad, but a bit stiff and overly talky. Better by far was his next project, the script for MirrorMask, directed by longtime collaborator Dave McKean. Gaiman's plot is a standard-issue Alice in Wonderland riff, but its simplicity is a virtue: McKean's incredible visuals are the true star, and Gaiman managed to walk the fine line of telling an elemental story with enough detail that the protagonist is real enough to like, without unbalancing the rest of the fantasy. The movie is unjustly overlooked, the script most of all.

2007 was a banner year: summer saw Matthew Vaughn adapting his book Stardust, and he also co-scripted Robert Zemeckis's Beowulf that fall. The first of these is fairly reedy and thin, through no fault of the author's; his delicate fairy tale was made leaden and obvious through clumsy filmmaking. Beowulf, while problematic, at any rate found Gaiman and Roger Avary bringing the ancient British poem to life with crisp, fresh language that is modernized without being idiotically slangy or informal.

Gaiman's finest cinematic moment came when Henry Selick adapted his children's book Coraline for the screen in 2009. Here we find the spirit of his prose captured perfectly, finding the exact blend of innocent wonder and literary worldliness that marks the writer's work. One of the best animated films in years, Coraline is a promising demonstration that Gaiman's work, no matter how overwhelmingly written, can be turned into the best kind of cinema in the hands of a gifted filmmaker.

Most of the rumored Gaiman adaptations in the pipeline are in one stage of development hell or another, some for more than a decade. So let's play producer: what Gaiman project do you want to see made into a movie next, and who would you have on either side of the camera?

The Eyre Above

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JA from MNPP here. If Nat were around he'd perhaps do one of his "Yes No Maybe So" posts for this, but I've got nothing but yes for this, the first trailer for Cary Fukunaga's adaptation of Jane Eyre, which isn't out until March. (via)

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Fukunaga's Sin Nombre - and I know Nat agrees with me on this - is a wonderful film. Thrilling and moving and gorgeously shot. So no matter what he did next I'd have been paying attention, but an adaptation of Jane Eyre was not at all what I was expecting and that makes me even happier. Love it when a director throws a curve-ball. And the cast... the cast! Michael Fassbender, Mia Wasikowska, Michael Fassbender, Judi Dench, Jamie Bell, Sally Hawkins and Michael Fassbender... drool.


And that trailer is just stunning. I posted a slew of screencaps over at MNPP in case you want to ogle it that way. What do we think?
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Month of the Moustache

 The Sam Elliott

Erich Kuersten of Acidemic here, filling in for Nathan and telling you about "Movember" -- a worldwide charity event wherein men grow out their moustaches and people have parties and models sponsor them and profits go to fight prostate cancer. In other words, it's a men's health thing, cocaine and Cristal are optional. Women do walk-a-thons for breast cancer, men sit back and smoke 'sinse in a steam tub, whilst they grow 'staches for prostate cancer. And somehow, that's totally fair.

Now, I already have a moustache, which disqualifies me from the event (one must start the month clean shaven according to the rules). But as a film blogger guesting for the great 'stache enthusiast Nathaniel R, I'm going to concentrate on bringing you random highlights and examples in the world of the cinematic moustache menagerie.

 The Squaramerican

The square American 'dad'-stache often is accompanied by nerdy glasses and a disturbingly sincere smile, maybe also a toupee. It's a part often played by William H. Macy. Here, it's the wondrous Matt Damon in the Macy-ish role of THE INFORMANT. This moustache screams of wanting children, a family man who might just kidnap some if he can't grow his own.

 The Pencil

Price embodies elgance and sinister style with his pencil thin trademark 'stache. He's the perfect 'stache candidate thanks to the long gap between nose and upper lip. Whenever he plays a role that requires him to go stache-less, he kind of crosses the line between creepy fey and just fey, and creepy, as in this shot from Corman's FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER (1960):

 (Disqualified)

John Waters rocks the pencil with irony, and B-list MGM gigolos like Edmund Lowe rocked it with seriousness. It says: "Embrace me world, I'm fey and accessible! You don't have to take me seriously as a he-man, and I'll join you in the kitchen to sneer at Dana Andrews!"

Now every once in awhile a slew of mustaches come along that just raise facial hair to a new level. You can't tell me the current rash of mustaches and beards ain't cuz of 2007's double whammy of Daniel Plainview in THERE WILL BE BLOOD and Josh Brolin in NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN. But what about five years earlier, and ALMOST FAMOUS's Billy Crudup? All the women I love love his stache, but I hate the movie for the way Cameron Crowe co-opts and then de-fangs rock culture. But I can't deny Crudup, or that stache:

The Seventies Moderate

Yes, the seventies was an amazing time for moustaches. I could devote whole encyclopedias to an exploration of Italian giallo detective 'staches. But why? Instead let's balance things out by examining some of the less effective, if not downright silly examples.

The Lip-Shredder

Dean Stockwell in THE DUNWICH HORROR (1970, my review here) wears a moustache that's cut so sharply along a central line that you really feel the pain of whatever girl has to kiss him, in this case, it's poor old Sandra Dee.

The Tonsilorium Paste-Up

Sometimes a moustache can't be grown; it has to be pasted. In the case of Val Kilmer as Doc Holliday in TOMBSTONE, it always feels like it's about to fall right off. But we love Val Kilmer, so who's to judge? And for god's sakes, grow it out, and get some Movember merch to wow your aides and support your pros. Hair's looking at you, kid! Oh no he didn't! Stay tuned for part deux!

First and Last: Waiting Room

Glenn from Stale Popcorn here to provide some fun and games in Nathaniel's absence. We're going to start with an easy one. I think the longest ever F&L comment thread came from one I did so I hope I can come up with one as good while he's away!

First image after the opening credits sequence:


And the last image before the end credits sequence:


Can you name the movie?

The Art of Good Acting, By Jessica Alba

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JA from MNPP here. Celebrated thespian Jessica Alba is getting some flack this week for sharing the following wisdom in an interview with Elle magazine:

"Good actors never use the script unless it's amazing writing. All the good actors I've worked with, they all say whatever they want to say."

I don't see what the problem is personally. If anyone knows about the craft of good acting it's Jessica Alba. That part where she wore the penguin panties in Good Luck Chuck? Do you think writers came up with that? What about that part in Machete where she looked a little bit touched while simultaneously taking a very angry shower? All her! Words - what the hell are words good for? You can't see words coming out of a person's mouth. Penguin panties, on the other hand...

But John August, screenwriter of Charlie's Angels and Frankenweenie, doesn't see it that way and posted a rebuttal on his blog. It's all filled up with words though so I don't recommend you read it. Words! Blah!

What do we all think on this controversy? And if you could leave your comments only in the form of links to pictures and uncomplicated emoticons that'd be appreciated. Or just throw your penguin panties in a heap somewhere. That'll show commitment to the cause!
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Top Ten: Best in Show's Funniest Lines

Hey, folks. This is Michael C. here from Serious Film, thrilled to be helping fill in for Nathaniel this week while he takes his well-earned vacation.

Now that I have free rein to spend a few days smudging my finger prints all over The Film Experience, item one on my to-do list is to make sure this year doesn't zip by without us commemorating a notable anniversary. 2010 year marks ten years since Christopher Guest's Best in Show came along to blow the lid off dog shows and answer such burning questions as, "If you were making an all-dog football team, which breed would you want as wide receiver?" So to mark this anniversary here are my top ten funniest lines from the movie. I am sure you will inform me in the comments which of the few hundred equally funny lines I overlooked.

Ten Funniest Lines From Best In Show

10. "We're so lucky to have been raised amongst catalogues."
If I have a favorite part of Best in Show it might be the materialistic, fashion-obsessed Swans, played by Parker Posey and Michael Hitchcock. Guest's improvisational techniques are firing on all cylinders with these characters. Like a comedic cousin to Mike Leigh, they have been built from the ground up, and there is a wealth of hilarious details to show for their efforts. From their matching sets of braces to the way they speak in catalogue shorthand to the way they let their tone of voice addressing the dog bleed into their dialogue with each other, the Swans are unforgettable comic creations.

09. "On the marquee, big letters: Us!"
This line from John Michael Higgins perfectly captures the mentality of those who have been behaving as if they are on camera long before the documentary crew showed up. Guest's films have coincided neatly with the rise of reality television, and have proven prophetic in a lot of ways. What, after all, are the opening rounds of American Idol other than a less affectionate version of Waiting for Guffman. And how often do the competition shows bring Best in Show to mind when the eccentric personalities of the competitors take center stage over the finer points of the competition.

08. "The judge in his mind...because he can pick up on the telepathy...will sometimes give...blue ribbon..."

Christopher Guest's characterization of bloodhound enthusiast Harlan Pepper is notable for being such a subtle performance in the midst of all the improvisational fireworks. Being the director, Guest didn't have to worry about vying for the spotlight so it freed him to focus entirely on getting into the skin of his character. It's quietly astonishing work; there's not a trace of Corky St. Clair to be found. In this line from Harlan, Guest zeros in on the heart of the material as he slowly drifts away from simple praise for his dog until he has convinced himself that his animal can communicate telepathically with the judge.

07. "Is there some process by which they physically miniaturize the dogs?"

If I'm not careful this whole list could easily turn into a collection of Fred Willard quotes. Looking back ten years it's clear what a perfect pairing of actor and role Buck Laughlin was for Willard. All he had to do was wait for the signal from Guest and let loose with his seemingly bottomless supply of nonsense. From speculating about miniature jockeys racing the dogs, to wondering aloud why nobody thinks to dress the hounds like Sherlock Holmes, Willard give the impression he could fill the whole of the movie with this inspired drivel without a moment's pause.

06. "The Pom broke his gait. He may as well have taken a dump."
I think I speak for most viewers when I say I could watch dog shows all day and never spot the slightest difference between the best and worst dogs in competition. That's why lines like this from John Michael Higgins are such a hoot. Best in Show wisely never pushes the events of the competition outside the plausible. Rather, Guest and company understand dog shows are innately funny with their teeny tiny details inflated to ridiculous importance. The fact that Higgins' character is positively gleeful at the Pomeranian's misfortune only adds to the funny.

05. "I'm gonna punch you in the eye 'til it turns to jelly. I'll stab you with forks 'til you bleed, how 'bout that?"
Part of the pleasure of Guest's films is that he finds room for lots of comedy pros to come in as ringers and absolutely nail a scene or two (think David Cross's UFO expert in Guffman). The blue ribbon for Show's funniest one-scene wonder has to go to Larry Miller as the aggressively unskilled crisis negotiator. A pessimistic negotiator is a funny enough idea on its own ("They always jump") but it crosses into uproarious when we get to hear him in action letting loose with this stream of graphically brutal threats.

04. "He went after her like she was made out of ham!"
You couldn't expect me to limit myself to just one Fred Willard line, could you? This one, arriving at the sad finale to the busy bee incident, may be the single biggest laugh of the movie. Aside from his ingenious idiocy, I think part of the reason Willard so thoroughly runs away with his scenes is the fact that, for all his stupidity, Buck is the only cast member who refuses to take the proceedings seriously. He can't ignore what he knows, and what those of us watching the movie know: that they are, after all, just dogs.

03. "A pet store downstairs? What are you a wizard? A genius? Why didn't you tell me that before, you stupid HOTEL MANAGER!"

This line, shouted by an enraged Meg Swan at the height of the busy bee meltdown, never fails to inspire fits of laughter in me. At the risk of analyzing all the funny out of it, let me count the ways this is brilliant. First, the way Posey somehow manages to turn "hotel manager" into an obscenity. Second, the perfection with which she portrays the limits of egomaniacal stage parent lunacy ("You obviously don't know my dog!") Finally, the way it highlights the benefits of the improvisation. Somehow I doubt a writer sitting at a laptop could have accessed the desperation that inspired Posey to reach for "wizard" in the heat of the moment.

02. "Awww!"
That line, in case you didn't recognize it written out, is the sound of Catherine O'Hara's Cookie Fleck injuring herself by tripping over absolutely nothing. Comedians often measure a performer's commitment to a bit as a mark of their ability. By that standard O'Hara stands with the best in the business. So much so that they didn't even need to write a gag to sideline her character for the finale. Guest simply had O'Hara go down like a ton of bricks and O'Hara sold it like the pro she is.

01. "I remember you said that last year."
The competition is killer, but I've got to award best in show to this line from Jim Piddock's poor Trevor Beckwith, uttered in response to yet another tasteless joke from the albatross around his neck, Buck Laughlin. As co-commentator for the Mayflower Dog Show, Beckwith is the model of class and professionalism. So naturally his performance is a study in slow-burning indignation at being saddled with a blithering, uninformed nitwit as a co-host. This line is a throw-away that grows into a gut-buster on repeat viewings. It suggests a long-suffering history for the horribly mismatched pair. How long has he been putting up with this dim bulb's cheerful "observations"? How many times has poor Trevor been cajoled into guessing how much Buck could bench press? In one deft stroke it makes an already hilarious segment exponentially funnier.

"Bridget Jones already a legend."

Jose here.

Bridget Jones was born on a day like today. She's the chubby, British spinster we all love to watch but fear to become: neurotic, obsessive, insecure and very, very unlucky.
Do you remember how she spent her birthday in 2001?


Oh joy! I am broadcasting genius, celebrating by cooking birthday feast for close friends. I have a sneaking suspicion I'm also something of genius in the kitchen as well!


Coming from a great day at work she decided to cook for her friends. Is it normal for the birthday girl to cook her own party food?


String soup?


Bridget was obviously not as genius as she thought...


But ah, she has the perfect savior in the shape of good ole booze.


That is until the perfect savior comes along in the shape of Mr. Darcy (Gotta love how Colin Firth pulls off those white shirts...)


Judging by the guests' faces the dinner was far from scrumptious.


But still she deserves a toast!

To Bridget who can not cook but who we love just as she is...


And boy how we do!

Ah, can you believe it's been almost ten years since this movie was released? Has Renée Zellweger ever been as lovable again? What would you give Bridget for her birthday?