Monologue: "He was a boy..."

Jose here bringing you the Monday Monologue, this time taken from Elia Kazan's production of Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire.

"Blanche, can I ask you a question?" says shy Mitch (Karl Malden) to Blanche DuBois (Vivien Leigh) during one of their dates. She says yes and he proceeds "How old are you?". With this simple question Leigh takes us on a trip down memory, and insanity, lane as she reminisces about her unsuccessful marriage to a "boy" named Allan.

When I was sixteen I made the discovery: love. All at once and much, much too completely. It was like you suddenly turned a blinding light on something that had always been half in shadow, that's how it struck the world for me.

But I was unlucky. Deluded. There was something about the boy. The nervousness, the callousness, an uncertainty and I didn't understand.

I didn't understand why this boy, who wrote poetry, didn't seem able to do anything else, lost every job, he came to me for help. I didn't know then, I didn't know anything except that I loved him unendurably.

"I don't understand" says Mitch, "No, neither did I" says Blanche. And one might say neither did the audiences in the 50's who were oblivious to how the actual play went. You see, Williams made no point of hiding that Blanche had been married to a gay man. "He wasn't the least effeminate looking" she says in the play "still, that thing was there".
She goes on to reveal how she ended up discovering what was his problem "in the worst of all possible ways", by discovering him being unfaithful with another man.

When the movie was made, the League of Decency and their strict Production Code reigned over Hollywood with a firm, prudish hand. The notion of homosexuality being mentioned in film was unthinkable (how could you talk about something that didn't"exist" back then?), this left the filmmakers and cast with a void that needed to be filled. Blanche's monologue is one of the most crucial moments in the plot and Kazan was already having trouble with other elements featured in the play which included shameless lust, domestic violence, nymphomania and rape.

Therefore Kazan had to work his way around a controversial twist that revealed key traits in the lead character without alienating audiences who had to at least try to understand her. What he does then is turn the monologue into an atmospheric confession where Blanche reveals how she "killed" her husband.

Watch how Kazan plays with light, music and setting - they are almost theatrical in their stylized expressionism - and pay special attention to how Leigh bares Blanche's soul so much that for a moment we even forget Mitch is standing right in front of her. As the Varsouviana plays in the background like a nightmarish lullaby, she travels back in time, but always conceals part of who she really is.

The Code may have been an atrocity with the arts and freedom of expression. But who needs obviousness with this kind of acting? Leigh's capacity to elicit fear, pain and hope is miraculous, but the way in which she gave audience members the liberty to choose what was Allan's problem is what makes her immortal.

Like she says "sometimes-there's God-so quickly" and her performance is proof of that.

Wishful Linking

That Little Round Headed Boy has a fun insightful piece on Amelia and "serious" acting
Gold Derby Ricky Gervais to host the Golden Globes this year
ticklepickleme & elliptical edits thrill to the sight of Julianne Moore in A Single Man and in person. I am officially jealous
The Critical Condition has a change of heart about Where the Wild Things Are. Good read
A Blog Next Door appreciates Dollhouse when its icky ethically. As do I
I Need My Fix Emily Blunt & Matt Damon on the set of The Adjustment Bureau


Gawker Paul Haggis (Crash) resigns publicly from Scientology over gay rights. Quelle Scandale!
Gallery of the Absurd twists Mel Gibson's upcoming Beaver picture
wowOwow great and lengthy piece on Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone Penn Ritchie by the one and only Liz Smith
Boy Culture speaking of the big M, did you hear about her gift to Glee?
Towleroad gay neo-nazi drama Brotherhood wins the Rome Film Festival
Art of the Title Sequence on Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. They used Olivia Newton-John's "Xanadu"?!? Now, I have to see this movie
Noh Way on Carrie Fisher's family tree and her broadway outing in Wishful Drinking

And to send you on your way or off to the comments (I always root for the latter) the Sherlock Holmes poster...


Guy Ritchie has made five films prior to this rethink of a classic franchise. None have opened wide in the US to this date (Snatch, his biggest hit here and elsewhere eventually played in 1,444 US theaters but it started in one). Christmas competition will be ridiculously fierce: Avatar will be enjoying (?) its second weekend, two top Oscar hopefuls will go wide (that's Nine and Up in the Air), Meryl Streep's latest comedy It's Complicated debuts, and finally families without taste will presumably flock to that "squeakquel" [*gag*] in droves... I just can't bring myself to type the whole title. Weirdly The Lovely Bones is not going wide until January... I guess Peter Jackson isn't concerned with being to Christmas what Will Smith once was to the 4th of July. But the holiday weekend is super crowded even without him. It's so much competition... so why do I feel like Sherlock Holmes is going to be huge? I'm guessing it opens with a US gross that tops the size of all of Guy Ritchie's previous US grosses combined. (It'd need about $40 million to do that). Doesn't it just seem like the right unexpected-but-familiar topic with the right actually-talented cast at the right time of year?
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BIFA Nominees: Abbie Cornish, Michael Fassbender and More

Oh, agony! The British Independent Film Award nominations have arrived (in October? Damn that’s early) to serve up the dread reminder that there is no such thing as ‘day and date” releases outside of rare mega blockbusters. I suppose I should thank the celluloid cosmos. In a way the erratic nature of film distribution helps me to continue living my blissfully delusional life wherein I pretend that people would actually flock to more challenging higher quality international cinema if they only had access to it and could see it and talk about it at the same time. Isn’t this one reason that television is so popular? It’s communal. Movies are supposed to be communal but it doesn’t work out that way so much.

Michael Fassbender in Fish Tank

I have no idea when I’ll ever have a chance to see Fish Tank for example, which did very well with BIFA though I’d love to. Until it gets an itty bitty American release at two theaters and makes $270,000 instead of $27 million sometime in 2011 I can pretend that the whole world is looking forward to this gritty exceptionally well-reviewed drama. I can pretend that they’re in fact awaiting each new Michael Fassbender performance with an anticipation that borders on the sweaty and the feverish.

THE NOMINEES

Best British Independent Film: An Education (Lone Scherfig), Fish Tank (Andrea Arnold), In The Loop (Armando Iannucci), Moon (Duncan Jones) and Nowhere Boy (Sam Taylor-Wood)

Three of these films have received release in the states though In the Loop and Moon (video review) will have to wait for their DVD releases to catch on with the right audiences. An Education on the other hand is doing very well for itself as it slowly widens. The twinkly coming-of-age drama hasn’t lost any of its abundant Oscar buzz.

Best Director is the same lineup as this, minus Nowhere Boy’s Sam Taylor-Wood who is nominated for “Debut Director” instead. If you haven’t seen her short film Love You More about two teenagers, a new vinyl record, and their randy escalating sex romp and you get a chance, do! It was my vote for best short at the Nashville Film Festival this spring (Nick also loved it). Jane Campion nabbed the lone director spot from Wood with her exquisitely observed Bright Star. At times while watching Bright Star I worried that it was too insubstantial, not “too light” as in inconsequential but too delicate. But that very delicacy helps it to linger. I'm corrected. I keep feeling the film fluttering in the air beside me, like those butterflies Fanny collects. I already want to see it again.

And, underlining a 2009 theme you'll keep hearing about, 60% of their best picture nominees are directed by women. Oscar will find it very difficult to ignore female directors this year with Bright Star, An Education and The Hurt Locker in the awards mix.

Best Screenplay is the exact same lineup of film as Best Feature.

Best Actress Emily Blunt in The Young Victoria, Abbie Cornish in Bright Star, Katie Jarvis in Fish Tank, Carey Mulligan in An Education and Sophie Okonedo in Skin

Not content to let Keira Knightley and Michelle Pfeiffer have all the fun,
Emily Blunt beds Rupert Friend in The Young Victoria. He's got a lot
of action this year, huh?

The first of many for Mulligan? The first of several for Cornish? The first and last for Blunt? I’m just guessing except for that first bit. That's a given.

Best Actor: Aaron Johnson in Nowhere Boy, Andy Serkis in Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll, Peter Capaldi in In The Loop, Sam Rockwell in Moon and Tom Hardy in Bronson

Despite their love for Bright Star, none for Ben Whishaw? Tis a pity but it’s the kind of role that men aren’t rewarded for… no matter how good they are. Romantic films tend to secure nominations for only the female half of the equation. It's a blindspot with most awards groups. On a far more traditionally awardable scale is Tom Hardy's physical transformation for Bronson. It’ll be interesting to see if the once slim actor can pick up any more steam for suddenly looking like the hulk. Will any American awards bodies watch the picture? I suppose I should get on that myself.

Best Supporting Actress: Anne-Marie Duff and Kristin Scott Thomas in Nowhere Boy, Kerry Fox in Bright Star, Rosamund Pike in An Education and Kierston Wareing in Fish Tank
Best Supporting Actor: Alfred Molina in An Education, Jim Broadbent in The Damned United John Henshaw in Looking For Eric, Michael Fassbender in Fish Tank and Tom Hollander in In The Loop

Both lists look solid but did BIFA voters only see about 8 films this year? Two surprises here for me were Rosamund Pike in An Education and Kerry Fox in Bright Star both of whom I thought were subtly elevating or at least amply filling out what could have been thankless roles (thankless in terms of awards magnetizing I mean) so I'm quite happy to be wrong. I thought Pike was spiking almost every scene in An Education with unexpected sidebar notes (by the end of the movie I wanted a sequel starring her and Dominic Cooper!) and I loved watching Fox’s near-silent gradations of growing respect / understanding of her daughter’s love affair in Bright Star.

Best Technical Achievement: Bright Star's cinematography by Greig Fraser, Bunny & The Bull's production design by Gary Williamson, Fish Tank's cinematography by Robbie Ryan, Moon's original score by Clint Mansell and production design by Tony Noble

It’s interesting to see technical achievements grouped together, thus revealing which elements voters think are making or breaking particular films, but it’s also dismissively coarse, since actors get 5 categories. It's not like acting or technical elements alone ever perform in a vacuum.

Best Foreign Film: Il Divo (Italy), The Hurt Locker (USA) Let The Right One In (Sweden), Sin Nombre and The Wrestler (USA)

I’ve included this category to come full circle to the point that no matter where you live, it’s a different year of cinema. I so wish we could all experience the cinema in unison. I haven’t yet seen Sin Nombre (I know I must) and I’m continually hearing good things about Il Divo so this looks like quite a strong category. You already know how good the other three films are.

Complete List of Nominees

Thoughts? Or don't you care about the "BIFA" (It's fun to say it out loud. Try it)
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F&L: Untitled

First and Last, TFE's popular guessing game, now with a combo of images and words.

first image (prior to the credits)


last lines

waitress: Excuse me, I don't mean to bother you.... I just want to tell you I'm your number one fan.
man: That's very sweet of you.

Can you guess the movie?

That's right, it's [highlight for the answer] Rob Reiner's adaptation of Stephen King's MISERY (1990)
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LFF: Time To Grow Up

Dave here, still at the LONDON FILM FESTIVAL, and apologising profusely for his absence - it's been a busy few days of film, and having an hour staring at Julianne Moore and ten seconds staring at Eva Green. (Both are as stunning as you've been led to expect.) There have been some big names and some big films the past few days, and so this is a triple-threat of things-you'll-actually-have-heard-of - and all this without The White Ribbon, thoughts on which are lingering on my computer, waiting for me to approve of them. For now, you'll have to make do...

By far the loudest applause I've yet experienced at the festival was given at the end of Precious. The film's status as a crowd-pleaser seemed odd to me - granted I'd avoided as much press on it as I could, but I knew the basic story. It seems obvious in retrospect that the harshnesses Precious deals with serve to make the audience investment that much deeper, and coupled with the generous, poignant amount of humour the film also emits, it's a hard film to argue with the pure love it might inspire. The education storyline errs a bit closely to the Dangerous Minds, Dead Poets' Society cliche, and the fantasy sequences and vibrant, distorted flashbacks are a bit too overtly flashy (even as these artistic choice makes sense narratively), but the performances are as powerful as you'll already know. Sibide and Carey project a subdued, painful honesty, while Mo'Nique's erratic, monstrous character sears through the screen almost too heavily - the film ends almost unbalanced in her favour. But reservations about the narrative construction and aesthetic flourishes seem churlish in the face of such emotion, such a refreshingly unpretentious attitude, and such vibrant human feeling. B+ [I know this is my show, but if you've yet to read Nick Davis' review of the film, it's one of the best pieces I've read in quite a while and says everything I wanted to, even things I hadn't yet understood I even felt.]

Jacques Audiard's A Prophet retains the nervy, lucid, enthralling energy of his previous films, and objectively speaking it's surely his most assured, controlled piece of work yet. It helps, of course, that newcomer Tahar Rahim is so superb in the central role, progressing from a nervy but proud young offender and, gradually, becoming a top dog. But the greatness of this film lies in the complexity of the arc - the Malik of the beginning is recognisable in the Malik of the ending, and there is no pretence that these experiences mean Malik is anything impressive or worthwhile - a notable conclusion here is of how narrow prison life is, as Malik's youthful wonder remains in his brief experiences of the outside world. And despite the intensely personal, close shooting style that really involves the audience with Malik's story, the story opens out wider, from the toweringly magnetic Niels Arestrup as a prison don to the tragic, intriguing figure of Adel Bencherif's ex-con who proves Malik's only connection to the outside world. The film's compass is more observant than incisively judging, a film that could be - and likely sounds like - a sprawling epic is instead a deeply engrossing personal story, lingering in the mind with its dark, inconclusive ending. A-

Leaving starts with the deadening bang of a gunshot. But as we flashback months previously to see how we reached this mysterious act of violence, we find that Leaving is anything but dead. It's almost too alive. Kristin Scott Thomas, acknowledging her English roots but once more making use of her French-language skills, stars as a married, bourgeois housewife who cannot resist an affair with a builder (Sergi López), much to the violent outrage of her husband (Yvan Attal). Catherine Corsini rattles through the cliched processes of affair melodramas so quickly it's vaguely absurd - "I can't live without you" is uttered about twenty minutes in - but this leaves plentiful room for such dramatics to be expanded upon. Leaving self-consciously seems to acknowledge, in the speed of its melodrama, the childish, impulsive attitudes of all three main characters. The actors, especially Attal with his torrid, merciless anger and Scott Thomas with her naive, wilful, rebellious passion, play up to the faintly hysterical tone, making Leaving both perversely enjoyable and oddly insightful. B

What have you been watching this weekend?

If it's Amelia or Antichrist, those comment discussions are still going on here and here. If it's something else, do tell. I've been desperately craving Mean Girls all day but can't find it anywhere. I can't help it if I've got heavy clutter and a wide set apartment!

F&L: Black and White in Color

First and Last: 'now like gin & tonic. All mixed up!'*

First image

Last lines

woman: [crying] I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry.
man: It's okay, it's okay. The door just closed.

Can you guess the movie?

Highlight the following text for the answer: Kenneth Branagh's DEAD AGAIN (1991) for more first and last puzzles, click the label below
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*thanks to Glenn for filling in so brilliantly on this series last week.

Where We're At: Best Actress

At the beginning of the year when the buzz for Precious had just begun, Gabourey 'Gabby' Sidibe seemed like no more than a long shot. Mo'Nique's tour de force as her monster mom hogged the buzz and Sidibe had several disadvantages: fat, unknown, minority. The Best Actress category, more than any other acting category, is obsessed with beauty, stardom and whiteness*. [Tangent: the DeGlam phenomenon is also connected to the beauty preference. In a perverse way it's still all about the beauty that the voters are aware the famous actress is hiding].

<--- Two weeks before the film's opening, Sidibe's star is rising with coverage in major gets like The New York Times Magazine.

Now that I've seen Precious (see previous post) I can safely say that the Academy won't pass over Sidibe come nomination morning (February 2nd, 2010). It helps tremendously that in real life the first time actress is very different than her character.



When Sidibe is interviewed you quickly realize that the only thing she shares with her character is that plus sized body. She's articulate, educated and appears to have a far more lighthearted soul. This immediately dispells the dismissive (though not always incorrect judgment) that can sometimes attach itself to performances by non-traditional/unknown actors. I'm talking about the "they're just playing themselves!" reaction. Sidibe isn't. So she's in. It seems strange for a major category to be 60% wrapped up before November and any precursorage has taken place but it's tough to argue with the lock-up probability of the Streep/Mulligan/Sidibe trifecta.

Which means the battle for those final two spots will be the main place of speculative Actressy drama for the next three months. What's more, the precursor awards might not help us. It seems easy to imagine a precursor season that's filled with the aforementioned trio... leaving the last spots volatile until the end.

The other competitors are plentiful though none seem like a sure thing. Hilary Swank has the right type of role (biographical, teary, ennobling) but practically nothing about the movie including her all-surface performance works (my review). Helen Mirren has the pedigree and a scenery chewing role in The Last Station (my initial reaction). If voters like the way she masticates the bedroom, swallows the furniture and spits out the table ware (I see a Spacek-style plate smashing sequence as future overplayed Oscar clip) they'll ignore the fact that she's not carrying the film exactly and that she won very recently. Marion Cotillard, if pushed lead for Nine, will have Mirren's two drawbacks tenfold, since she won even more recently and she's sharing her film-carrying duties not with two famous men but with one famous man and several famous women. Maybe other people know something I don't but surely she'll be defeated by the limited screentime unless they put her back in Supporting where all the Nine women belong. Abbie Cornish's Bright Star role would easily place her in the Best Actress shortlist if she had more of an Oscar-bound career profile. For her I suspect it's all about the campaign.

Finally, two of my favorite actresses of all time could still be contenders if the Academy is feeling either discerning and adventurous (Tilda Swinton in Julia) or 'we're sorry' career sentimental (Michelle Pfeiffer in Chéri). There are many things that are entirely predictable about the Oscar race in any given year. But when and if AMPAS will feel adventurous or sentimental are not among those things. Sometimes they feel it. Sometimes they don't.

*This is statistically true. Only 10 Best Actress nominations have gone to women of color, compared to 20+ supporting actress and actor nominations and 25+ supporting actor nominations (I don't have the exact numbers) though it's not entirely fair to blame the Academy since they can only vote on what's presented to them and actresses of color still don't get big roles as often as actors of color.

Screen Queens: Hammer Horror

Hi, Matt here with your weekly dose of Queer Cinema. With Halloween coming up, we turn our focus to horror.


Hammer Horror films are not truly part of the gay canon, and as a body of films they are conservative in their narrative arcs and messages. However, I've always been a huge fan. They are undeniably camp and always feature either subtle homoeroticism or full on Lesbian Vampires. For those unfamiliar with this horror subgenre, it is a collection of films produced by Hammer Film Studios from the late 50s to early 70s that mixed Gothic melodrama with exploitation horror. The studio was most famous for their vampire, mummy, Frankenstein, and cave girl pictures.

The vampire films stand head and shoulders above the rest. Hammer's Vampires went through two major cycles, the gothic Dracula films with Christopher Lee and the later sexploitation-y lesbian vampire films. The early Hammer films are the most respectable. The closer you get to the seventies, the trashier and campier the films become. Obviously the later ones are my favorites! Two representative films from each cycle are the Dracula Has Risen From The Grave (1968) and the girls boarding school set Lust for A Vampire (1971).

Dracula Has Risen From The Grave has Dracula being resurrected accidentally by a cowardly, wayward priest who becomes the dark prince's slave. Dracula returns to his castle only to find it has been exorcised by the Monsignor. He goes off in search of the Monsignor's virginal niece to corrupt and bring her over to the dark side.

The film's camp is off the charts, with heaving bosoms, fake blood, and Dracula's potent sexual allure entrapping men, women, and......virgins. Dracula's blood shot eyes are supposed to signify his evil, but they really just look like he's smoked alot of weed before going out cruising.


Lee's relationship with his slave priest has elements of S&M, while the virginal Maria is only too happy to trade in her virtue for some dark and steamy vampire sex. The film might end reaffirming the superiority of heterosexual monogamy, but it has too much fun showing all the transgressive sexuality embodied by Dracula to be effective. The overacting, melodramatic plots, kitchy sets, and costumes all add to the fun, making the film as campy as Mommie Dearest. The director uses endless coloured filters, making sections seem like a Gothic acid trip. While it has an overlong prologue, the film is really fun and has a lot to offer the gay spectator, not the least of which is Christopher Lee's dominant Dracula.

Lust for A Vampire is loosely based on Sheridan le Fanu's archetypal lesbian vampire novella Carmilla (1872). The film has the Karnstein family resurrect the buxom Carmilla Karnstein in order to enroll her in an all-girls boarding school for the sole purpose of allowing her maximum access to dishy young virgins. This film's camp is exponentially higher than the Lee films, because the whole point of this film is seeing a minxy vampire seduce anyone who makes eye contact with her (literally).

There are plenty of girl-on-girl massages, blood soaked breasts, and over dramatic declarations of love and lust to keep even the most jaded cult fan interested. The acting is dreadful, the dialogue is worse, but the look (sets, costumes, cast, and again use of filters) is beautiful, in that iconic Hammer Horror style. There are so many incredible moments. Richard's dream sequence is amazingly kaleidoscopic in its use of fade-outs, dayglo filters, psychedelic music, and sex-and-gore images.


Another key scene is the resurrection of Carmilla where a virgin's blood makes her materialise naked and blood soaked. Any of the lesbian sequences or spontaneous declarations of love (my count: 4) are worth the price of a rental. It's possibly the trashiest and most enjoyable of the entire Hammer oeuvre and not to be missed.

These films have so much to offer a spectator who relishes camp, and their explorations of non-normative sexualities (regardless of their ultimate affirmations of heterosexual monogamy) make them important and enjoyable members of the Queer Horror cannon. Other late greats are Taste the Blood of Dracula (1969), The Vampire Lovers (1970), Dracula A.D. 1972 (1972), and the mummy film Blood from the Mummy's Tomb (1971).

Kate Bush pays tribute in the amazing song Hammer Horror

Does anyone have any other favourite gay or gay-ish horror films for us to enjoy over Halloween?
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Halfway House: Child Stars Are Demonic

Halfway through the day we stop a movie halfway through...

Oh, Christine. Gin and tonics won't help you forget your demon child!

Sixty-four minutes into The Bad Seed (1956) Christine Penmark (Nancy Kelly) tries to disguise her concerns about her daughter's malevolence under the pretense of research for a murder-mystery she's writing (Fail: She isn't even a writer!). Unfortunately family friend/criminologist expert Mr. Tasker (Gage Kelly) doesn't exactly allay her fears.

Bad Liar: The...uh... question that I wanted to ask you is a psychological one. I doubt that it's been asked or answered, if it has, until recently.

Oblivious Man: Well, I may not know all the answers.

Bad Liar: Well perhaps no one does. This...story that I'm thinking of writing made me wonder. Tell me, do children ever commit murders? Or is crime something that's learned gradually and grows as the criminal grows so that only adults do really dreadful things?

Oblivious Man: Oh, yessss. Children often commit murders... and quite clever ones, too! Some murderers, particularly the distinguised ones who are going to make great names for themselves start amazingly young.

Bad Liar: In childhood?!?

<--- Rhoda (Patty McCormack) is eeeevil. What is a mother to do?

This scene goes on and on and even repeats its exposition and thesis over again once a third adult character enters the room. 'As we were just saying...' Ha!

Stilted acting and underlined expository conversations are a true joy in the right context (i.e. old movies), aren't they? The american fascination with Psychology in the 1950s produced so many great and great/bad movie moments. I can't wait to see what StinkyLulu and crew say about this movie's two supporting actress nominees (Eileen Heckart and Patty McCormack) on Halloween weekend, can you?
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Oscar... Now With More Spirit Fingers

Shankman's got spirit!

Do you follow the Oscar show news in the way you follow the Oscars? I don't so much, despite this life I lead constantly writin' about the awards themselves. I care who hosts to some degree but I tend to ignore the rest. But I found it interesting this week when director Adam Shankman (Hairspray) was named as one of the producers and his choreography skills were noted as a reason to be enthused about this assignment. At least he has a sense of humor about his, um, limited history with the big event

I was one of Paula Abdul's 'Under the Sea' pirates," Shankman said. "The last time I was at the Oscars, I was in Lycra, with a pirate hat on.

Shankman's presence must mean more musical numbers. I'm all for musical numbers provided they rehire Hugh Jackman as host. He was so fine last year.

But Shankman's involvement suddenly had me worried that John Travolta would present Best Picture or something. If any Shankman connected star gets that honor, it sure as hell better be Michelle Pfeiffer (look how cute they are together).

I am so sick of the lack of imagination the AMPAS producers have when it comes to the Best Picture presenters. They don't give directors the honor all that often but even if you're an actor it's not even a matter of being a legendary A lister. Some people, for what we assume must be insider reasons, have a stranglehold on this particular honor on Hollywood's High Holy Night.

Seriously, this is how it's gone done in the past 20 years:

2008 Steven Spielberg
2007 Denzel Washington
2006 Diane Keaton and Jack Nicholson
2005 Jack Nicholson
2004 Dustin Hoffman & Barbra Streisand
2003 Steven Spielberg
2002 Kirk & Michael Douglas
2001 Tom Hanks
2000 Michael Douglas
1999 Clint Eastwood
1998 Harrison Ford
1997 Sean Connery
1996 Al Pacino
1995 Sidney Poitier
1994 Robert DeNiro & Al Pacino
1993 Harrison Ford
1992 Jack Nicholson
1991 Elizabeth Taylor & Paul Newman
1990 Barbra Streisand
1989 Warren Beatty and Jack Nicholson

Yes, Jack Nicholson has had the honor 20% of the time in the past twenty years. 20%! I love Jack as much as anyone. It's great to see him sitting in the front row with his shades on each year ... but there are other legends in the house. Let's show some imagination, not to mention respect. Once you get past Jack (7 times altogether) you're still stuck with Spielberg, Streisand, Douglas or Pacino lately, you know? Enough.

In 81 Years of Oscar Nights...

Minorities (all 4 of them) who've had the honor
Akira Kurosawa, Eddie Murphy, Sidney Poitier and Denzel Washington

Actresses (all 14 of them) who've had the honor
3 times: Elizabeth Taylor and Audrey Hepburn
2 times: Julie Andrews and Barbra Streisand
Once: Ethel Barrymore, Mary Pickford, Janet Gaynor, Ingrid Bergman, Olivia de Havilland, Lillian Gish, Loretta Young, Carol Burnett, Diane Keaton and Cher

Important actors and/or mega stars who have not presented Best Picture and wouldn't any of them be fine choices (hint hint... things I'd most love to see in red)?
Meryl Streep, Michelle Pfeiffer, Vanessa Redgrave, Julia Roberts, Catherine Deneuve, Nicole Kidman, Tom Cruise, Bette Midler, Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, Maggie Smith, Goldie Hawn, Jodie Foster, Sissy Spacek, Christopher Plummer, Will Smith, Mia Farrow, Liza Minnelli, Drew Barrymore, Joan Fontaine, Cate Blanchett, Johnny Depp, Sally Kirkland*, Joanne Woodward, Peter O'Toole, Glenn Close, Jessica Lange, Julie Christie, Mickey Rooney, Judi Dench, Helen Mirren, Susan Sarandon
_____________________ ... and a little nobody named Jane Fonda.

Breathe deep Oscar. Be brave. Envision a world beyond Jack. Spread your golden wealth.


This post is a few months too early, yes. I hear you. But please stop interrupting my lucid fantasy that Shankman and other movers and shakers read this blog daily, poring over its every awards culture command. 'Yes, Nathaniel, yes. We shall obey!'

Who would you love to see close out the 82nd Oscars with an enthusiastic line reading of "and the Oscar goes to..."

*just wanted to see if you were paying attention
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Sage Advice From the Movies, Totally 80s Edition

Never say 'Never!'... at heaven's elevator door


Because... once you dare
you can't get it up
Anymore!!!

That's so true Vanity. It's so true.



This message has been brought to you by Nathaniel's adolescence, permanently warped by Prince and all of his women... Vanity chief among them. She found a place, she ♫ fiiiin'lly found a place for you and me to go | if you want to get in, ha ha | Step on the elevator, press number 7 | that's all you got to do to get yourself in heaven ♫... Argh It's happening again. This song has been stuck in my head for days. I...uh... I... swear I don't know how it got there. I swear I haven't seen a frame of The Last Dragon for years. Not one single frame, sho' nuff. I swear I never sang this song while dancing around in my parent's basement, flashing my eyes like a madwoman.
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A Couple of Notes on ANTICHRIST

I had intended to open this post with an image of Lars von Trier's head almost floating in the space of a giant gray screen. It was a real image that I had snapped from my camera while attending the Skyped press conference at the NYFF weeks ago (von Trier, as you know, doesn't fly so cross-Atlantic festival appearances are out of the question). While Von Trier gazed down impishly at the crowd from the screen that had just shown his latest firebomb Antichrist, my thoughts jumped to Shosanna's "Giant Face" in Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds. It wouldn't have surprised me at all to find that the doors had been locked and von Trier was planning to burn down the theater. Figuratively! Though Lars is kind of a sick puppy, he's more of a prankster than a true nihilist.

...I lost that image and also lost my notes. Very ill the day of the screening, you see. Also missed random minutes of the movie thrice. Thus, no proper review and an indecisive grade. Maybe those of you who brave it this weekend can help me decide what to make of it.

"Eden" production design by Karl Júlíusson, art direction by Tim Pannen
and cinematography by Anthony Dod Mantle

In the movie Charlotte Gainsbourg as She and Willem Dafoe as He play doctor both figuratively and connotatively after the death of their only children. That is to say: He's a psychiatrist who decides to treat his own wife (taboo), they fuck (a lot), they fuck each other up even more (mentally at first but then...). "She" and "He" do all of this in a place called "Eden". Von Trier's giant face mentioned the title of this country home and shook his head at the heavy handedness. "Yeah, sorry about that" He told the crowd unprompted.

At some point in the press conference he asked if anyone had walked out of his movie, and seemed delighted when someone yelled out that they did in fact see someone leave. People, especially jaded critics, like the idea of people fleeing a movie. I like it too. It helps us feel superior to people who can't handle audacious cinema. But, um, that was me. I was just going to the bathroom. Thrice (didn't return to the same seat). It's not like I'd walk out of a von Trier picture. I love that Mad Dane.

Antichrist has a few of terrific moments, some decidedly vile ones and several arresting images. And, yes, those categories overlap as the couple descends further into violence (that already infamous scissor poster is not the half of it), psychotic breaks and demonic hallucinations in Eden, nature being "the church of satan" according to She. But in the end this psycho-horror film felt -- to sick me remember (I'm willing to try again) -- like a 45 minute story that kept repeating itself as the director dragged his actors sadistically through their grotesque marks. The praise for the twin performances seems excessive. Dafoe and Gainsbourg bravely render He and She, sure, but these aren't characters so much as blue puppets for the auteur. Not that every film needs full characterisations (this one didn't).


I suspect that von Trier is having a chuckle at all the “masterpiece” talk since the film often feels like an increasingly sick comic conversation he’s having with himself. The topic is his own perceived misogyny, recent confessed depression and general cinematic nihilism. Antichrist plays like a movie about von Trier for von Trier starring von Trier. Perhaps that's why my very favorite moment came first. I loved the loudly scored cut from the title card "LARS VON TRIER" to the title card "ANTICHRIST", both hand-scrawled in bold colorful colors. I'm not sure if the former is the latter, owns the latter or merely feels a special kinship but it was hilariously juxtaposed all the same.

update: Katey and I talk about the movie

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for previous takes on Antichrist (everyone will have an opinion and some guests have already weighed in) just click the label below

AMELIA

The review...

If you’re going to make a film about an aviatrix, it better soar. Mira Nair's AMELIA seems to understand this with reverent voiceovers about flight sprinkled throughout. It even begins by prepping for liftoff as we see Amelia Earhart (Hilary Swank) waving from her plane’s wing, about to embark on a historic flight. Unfortunately it's the historic flight, as in her last. Argh! The movie has opted for that musty old biopic framing device: Start at the famous end, jump backwards in time to see how it all began, count down with us to the famous celebrity death! When a biopic begins this way, you have to worry that it has nothing fresh to say, being closer in spirit to a Wikipedia entry than a movie.

From that initial take off, complete with an overzealous score that assumes every moment's a climactic one, Amelia the film zooms through Amelia the person's rise to fame as if we all know every detail and can't wait to get to that doomed flight. Though clearly in a rush to get there, it feels like it's crawling rather than flying toward its final destination...

Read the rest at Towleroad.

In that weekly column at Towleroad (for those of you who don't read it, it's a popular news site "with homosexual tendencies") I'm expected to cover new releases but the content and focus is of my choosing. I knew I had to write about "Amelia" since she's a lesbian icon although the movie Amelia won't be a hit with the ladies who love ladies. [Tangent: I'm unsurprised by the immediate regurgitated arguments about Earhart's orientation popping up in the comments at Amelia's official site. This always happens with historical figures who are either rumored to have been gay or are of particular fascination to the gays. It's the way of things.]

One thing I didn't mention in this review is how absolutely crazy the sanctification of Saint Amelia made me. I understand that the rarity and vast achievements of iconic historical figures practically insures that they will be viewed through a distorted lens (color, rose). They're our cultural heroes, after all. But it's anti-dramatic to sanctify your lead... not to mention historically suspect. If you're going to make a movie about a hero, allow them to have edges or curves. We know them two-dimensionally already! The casting of Hilary Swank (though she looks nearly perfect for the role) adds to this problem since she loves to be martyred and sanctified as an actress. Oh shush, you know she does!

"Sorry, haters. I got two! No takebacks allowed."

Oscar hopes? Two longshot possibilities only I think: Swank for Best Actress (they sometimes lose their minds for this sort of stiff biographical posing. See... well, see a lot of nominees) and the cinematography by the great Stuart Dryburgh (The Piano, The Painted Veil). His work is part of the sanctification problem but hot damn it's pretty.

Coming tomorrow: "Antichrist" and by that I mean the movie and not Hilary Swank.
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LFF: Women With Emotional Problems

Back to the LONDON FILM FESTIVAL with Dave, with an actressing overload today. Coming within the next few days, sanity pending, will be thoughts on Precious (yes, again), A Prophet and, finally, The White Ribbon.

A vague plot synopsis, like the one found in the film festival's literature, makes Chloe's icy erotica seem coyly alluring. A full plot synopsis might reveal the more tawdry aspects of the film, but what delight there is within Atom Egoyan's latest may well remain within the unfolding, so I'll keep as mum as I can manage. But something doesn't feel right from the start. You can film a cold place but it takes something more to make the film cold itself - and Chloe is too heavily photographed, too close to really appropriate that at all. There's no law that says a film set in Canadian winter has to send chills down the back of your spine, but what Chloe's atmosphere is instead is just a bit vulgar and melodramatic. Egoyan can wax for as long as he wants about how this is an adult, complex psychological drama about 'human interaction' and 'mature relationships', but the truth will out - it's an erotic thriller with remnants of French intrigue that can't help overloading on inexplicable obsessive madness, blowing all subtle humanity to the wind. Or out the window. C- [Taken from my extended thoughts, which you can read here.]

The crisply fascinating The Last Days of Emma Blank is a cool, drolly amusing critique of the assumptions of social classes, and an intriguingly played plot of family interactions. The titular madam is dying, so she says, and cruelly controls the servants - who, as we gradually discover, are in truth members of her family she's somehow convinced to perform servantile roles (one even acts like a dog, dry-humping and all). The main source of humour is never really knowing where you stand - there's something odd about a middle-aged man being called like a pet, but the script plays it's cards one at a time, each revelation or surprising turn changing perceptions. Shifts and nuances in the interpersonal relationships are craftily conveyed by the observational, connective camerawork, with helps partially disguise the stage origins of the film, and plays the same games with the characters as Emma tries to with her household. One particular plot element undoes the film a little in the end, but it remains a darkly comic little treat. B

London River is a quietly affecting drama bolstered by two strong lead performances - you might expect such from Brenda Blethyn, more restrained than usual, but the rakish, frail Sotigui Kouyaté delivers an equally affecting performance through the quiet. The pair are parents searching for their just-adult (21) children in the aftermath of the 7/7 bombings (Britain's first suicide bombers, back in 2005), but despite the appropriation of a keenly felt event it never lapses into histrionics. It's almost too low-key, really - the tense percussive score is used sparingly, and the heavy sound makes the location feel dull and realistic. But the characters make a fascinating pair - Blethyn's French-speaking, slightly xenophobic widow isn't always sympathetic, nor is the eerily calm Kouyaté, who hadn't seen his son since he was six years old. But these flaws make them feel more engaging, more involving, precisely because we can't get comfortably involved behind their plight. Instead our response to the characters shifts as much as their fears and predictions as regards their children do. It's a lonely, sparse drama, but winds a tangible emotional connection through its uncommon rhythms. B

Directors of the Decade: Ramin Bahrani

Robert here, continuing my series of the directors that shaped the past 10 years. Glad to see the first installment generated lots of conversation and debate. Sticking with my promise to feature young talent along with legends, this weeks subject is Ramin Bahrani.

Number of Films: Three.
Modern Masterpieces: You could make a case for any of them and I’d be inclined to agree with you.For my money, Chop Shop is the winner.
Total Disasters: None.The term “disaster” seems so intertwined with excesses.
Better than you remember: none, unless you remember any as being bad.
Awards: A handful of awards from small film festivals and a little Independent Spirit recognition.
Box Office: Keeps improving though don’t expect any of his films to make a lot of money.Goodbye Solo is the current champ with just over $800,000
Critical Consensus: Critics love him.Chop Shop and Goodbye Solo duke it out for his best reviewed.
Favorite Actor: Ahmad Razvi from Man Push Cart showing up in Chop Shop (in support) is the only overlap.


Let's talk about:
The American Dream. Ramin Bahrani seems like a fitting director to discuss following Martin Scorsese, as the two have a lot in common.Both are first-generation Americans whose directorial sensibilities are deeply rooted in the classic cinema of their heritage. And while their films aren’t always about the “immigrant experience,” they deal regularly in the lives of outsiders, those with seemingly no place in the world. But here’s where the similarities end: Scorsese loves his outsiders conflicted, alienated, angry. Bahrani’s outsiders are well meaning, hard working, and headed directly for the brick wall of reality. Which brings us back to the “American Dream,” which despite being a cliché and a loaded term, still has enough people aiming for it, that it’s worth exploring. And Bahrani’s films never feel cliché, contrived, or even manipulative. Starting with Man Push Cart, we know relatively soon that Ahmad’s future won’t be bright and joyous. It seems like such a natural assumption, even though it’s based off little else other than the fact that he seems like a nice guy (oh cinematic nice guys, neorealist films be your doom).

Ramin Bahrani

Ahmad is literally an immigrant though Ale, the boy at the center of Chop Shop, may not be (it hardly matters). Ale is far further out of place among the slums of New York’s Iron Triangle (more than a few critics noted how closely it resembles a third-world country). Here Bahrani seems further intent on drawing a line between the hope, represented by Ale who’s saving up money to buy a food cart, and the sad practicality (Ale’s teenage sister, who’s method of making money is more fatalistic) of the American Dream. Their ability, or inability to coexist takes us into another realm of the dream (it’s not all economics, you know), love, familial, or otherwise. It’s almost too much to ask: love and money. But don’t despair. Even though we spend the film hopelessly rooting for Ale and sister Isamar, it’s not a masochistic endeavor.

Finally with Goodbye Solo, Bahrani again separates the hope and despair, this time represented by immigrant Senegalese cab driver Solo and disgruntled senior William who strike up a unique friendship (doesn’t that just sound Hollywood-esque… it’s not). Solo’s future looks brighter than any Bahrani character thus far but he’s naturally headed up against a brick wall, courtesy end-of-his-rope William. Solo is a great character, optimistic, full of life. When, half way through the film, something goes well for him, you might find yourself shocked (considering Bahrani’s record). But as he comes the recognize the inevitable existence of impossible demons near the end of the film, I couldn’t help but ponder how much William represents Solo plus time. Now there’s a depressing thought.

I don’t want to end on a depressing thought, so here’s some good news for you: There’s this young director named Ramin Bahrani who proves that the future of cinema isn’t as bleak as you’re led to believe. Roger Ebert calls him “the new great American director.” He’s right.

Oh and a quick pet peeve. When researching this article, I came across the phrase “Iranian director” more than a few times. Though there’s little doubt that Bahrani has been influenced by the great Iranian New Wave films of Kiarostami and Makhmalbaf (who in turn were influenced by the great Neorealists of Italy who, of course were vital in shaping the work of that other great American director, Martin Scorsese) Mr. Bahrani was born in North Carolina.
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7 Word Movie Review: The Last Station

Lively, engaging than (mostly) potent. Oscar bound.

(alternate 7 word review)
Mirren’s nomination chances? Golden.
McAvoy’s deflowering? Priceless.

(38 word gripe)
Christopher Plummer, Helen Mirren and James McAvoy all have lead roles in this film. Paul Giamatti, Anne Marie Duff, Patrick Kennedy and Kerry Condon are the supporting players of note... but Oscar campaigns will do what they will.

F&L: Overture

First and last, now like gin & tonic. All mixed up! A mix of images and words, can you guess the movie?

First image


Last line "He said don't get anybody else. He said you stay with me, you take care of me."

Can you guess the movie?

Highlight the following text for the answer: East of Eden (1955) starring James Dean
for more first and last puzzles, click the label below

LFF: Oscaring The Middle-East

Dave here, with a note of shame: I'm afraid I'm shirking writing about Michael Haneke's The White Ribbon for now, because it's too overwhelming a prospect at the moment. It's not one of his most brilliant films, but it is relentlessly enigmatic and fascinating as always, and it's taking my brain some time to unlock it properly. (But with any luck, this might mean another full review.) So, for now, make do with these slightly more palatable vignette reviews, and tomorrow I'll have news of Julianne Moore's sexuality getting explored, because she just doesn't do that enough in the movies.

Not to get too personal, but The Boys are Back (apparently already released in the US - have you seen it?) is what I constantly fear I am: witless. It's a familiar, comfortable, lazy story, which starts off so appaulingly maudlin I suppose it's inevitable that it eventually becomes bearable. It marks Scott Hicks' return to Australia, where he's not been since the Oscar-winning Shine thirteen years ago. Clive Owen is passable as Joe, a man left to cope as a single father when his wife dies (naturally, she hangs around in comforting hallucinatory form to offer words of words of advice), a task further complicated when his teenage son from his previous marriage turns up to spend some time with his father. All of your favourite teary cliches are here: heart-tugging piano melodies, with a touch of 'native' vocals; a bit of plate-smashing; a man sobbing on his son's bed... It's not a hard film to figure out. The predictably lovely ending might raise a smile, but not because the film will have made any impression on your memory. It'll be filed 'learning to live again' movies, and forgotten within a week. C-

Israel's submission for the Foreign Film Oscar, Ajami is a chaptered, complexly plotted story set in Jaffa, an area of Israel which sees Christians, Jews and Muslims all overlapping. What's particularly intriguing about this is that it's an Israeli-Palestinian co-production, with the two directors coming from the different sides. A familial set-up is instantly disrupted by a sudden burst of violence - a template for the film as a whole. It seems almost overloaded with the breadth of subject it attempts to take in - religion, family, money and power, illegal immigrants, and so on. As such, characters become muddled and those who do recur are hard to become truly involved with, as the roving plot might see them killed in one chapter and then move backwards to see them alive again in the next - a problem when the crux of the film is the emotional involvement of the final revelations. It's still a solid piece of work, performed well by amateur actors, but you do feel a bit like you've seen it all done before, and more strikingly. B-

And we're a two-fer for Foreign Film Oscar contenders (sadly timing constraints meant I missed out on a triple bill - Serbia will have to remain a mystery), with Iran looking a more likely contender with the highly involving About Elly. The easy, amusing banter of the film's opening passages, as a group of friends head to a seafront holiday villa, gives way to tragedy and a fascinating undoing of any and all facades as the group inevitably re-evaluate every miniscule detail of what they'd ignored before. This comes to feel slightly drawn out, but it reflects the feeling of rotting devastation that emerges from the uncertainty, bleeding with sodden tension and despair. If I sound like I'm being vague, I am - it's more the intensity of reaction than what actually occurs that makes the impression, but not knowing will make the mark all the keener. Simple, clean, polished work, this is well worth looking out for. B+

Stanley Tucci Rising "Gird Your Loins!"

On the same day I sat in the presence of Tilda Swinton (which I already told you about), I also attended the similarly formatted Stanley Tucci event at the New Yorker festival. You can read my article about the experience over at Tribeca. I love that they festooned it with an old Levi's ad of Tucci's. So weird to see him like that.

As you may have noticed in past conversations, I'm fairly fond of Tucci and I've been happy to see his (supporting) star rising. I knew nothing about him personally so the event was my first reveal of what he was like off stage: serious but funny (and punny as the case may be). He's often referred to as a Character Actor which he dubs a

redundant term. What they mean is you're not a leading man. It's like saying that someone is heavyset or 'she's a handsome woman!'

That perception frees him up since he doesn't have to worry about the parts drying up with age. "It's like I feel very fortunate in a weird way that I lost my hair." he told us joking "I had it all plucked. It was a conscious plucking."

Tucci & Streep as co-workers in The Devil Wears Prada
and spouses in Julie & Julia. Here's to team-up #3. His
comments on Streep are in the article.

When it came to the very standard topic of straight-man-playing-a-gay-man (zzz, why is this still so amazing to people?) as he did in Prada, Tucci was relatively inoffensive although he couldn't resist joking about his (late) wife ribbing him about it "Well, that was pretty easy for you wasn’t it?". He told a great story about the making of the film involving his famous "Gird your loins!" line, which marked the impending arrival of Miranda Priestley.. Maybe this is on the DVD commentary -- I haven't checked -- but each take the director had him utter a different line to keep the cast on their comic toes. One time, Tucci recalls laughing, he even yelled...

'TITS IN!' which doesn't even make any sense!

'Gird your loins' for that Oscar campaign, though. The New Yorker event showed a lengthy clip of Tucci as George Harvey from The Lovely Bones. The clip wasn't exactly what you might call "subtle" -- Peter Jackson not being a demur director -- but it showcased Harvey cleaning up after the murder of Saorsie Ronan and frantically 'straightening up' his place (chillingly not in the way one would normally straighten up, quite the opposite) when the police come knocking.

Do you see Tucci as being in play for Oscar... or are you holding out for the actual film evidence?

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