Long Winded Link

Steve on Broadway Australian readers take note: The original cast of AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY is heading to Sydney in August for one last go at the roles they've perfected over the years. Don't miss it.

The Cost of Going to the Movies This is an interesting chart on moviegoing vs. home theater costs. There's an agenda as this is a business site but it's still interesting. I find myself siding with stay home options so much lately from a moral perspective which is so sad because I think the in theater experience is so magical. But like Broadway and the music industry, corporations are all too willing to gouge their audiences price-wise until the audience dwindles. Nobody ever thinks longterm.

Serious Film treats the IMDB Top 250 list very seriously indeed. This rundown has a lot of interesting anecdotes but I just can't stomach looking at it (the list, not this article). I have no time for any list that preferences anything with a super power in it over anything with an actress in the lead role. Plus a list of 250 films which has rooms for films as mediocre as Big Fish and Kick-Ass but no room for anything by Altman, Surges, Sirk or Almodovar? I mean, get real or, rather, FAIL in the popular vernacular. It should be called "IMDB's Subsection of A Certain Type of Hetero Males With Extremely Limited Palettes Between 15-30 Years of Age Top 250." That's a little unwieldy but this list needs a subtitle before it needs anything else. Just for you know the sanity of anyone who chances to look upon it.

Margot Channing. She's sour for good reason

For the record the only movies that are about a female protagonist number 15 of 250 or, 6% of the 'greats'. They are #45 Amélie, #54 Aliens, #55 Spirited Away, #69 Pan's Labyrinth, #88 All About Eve, #96 Rebecca, #121 The Wizard of Oz, #134 Kill Bill Vol 1, #157 Gone With the Wind, #180 Diabolique, #198 Rosemary's Baby, #203 A Streetcar Named Desire, #206 Kill Bill Vol 2, #231 Changeling, #239 Mulholland Dr. (give or take a handful more where you can argue it's actually about a man even though the woman is remembered as the lead -- Fargo, Silence of the Lambs, Double Indemnity, Psycho, Annie Hall, Sunset Blvd). So according to IMDB voters, movies about women are almost never worthy of attention but Changeling is one of the best ever made! 'Screw Mildred Pierce, Joan of Arc, Sally Bowles and the lot of them! Girls. Who needs 'em!?!'

Queerty By now I assume you've read that Warren Beatty and Annette Bening's eldest daughter Kathlyn is rumored to be transgendered and wants to transition to being their son Stephen. I figured I should mention it given TFE's frequent love for the Bening/Beattys. But since no official statement has been released by the family, we figure they deserve more privacy in this matter than they're getting and that's all we have to say.

Vulture Star Market: What is Megan Fox worth? Okay end of long-winded 'click here' comments. I have nothing to say about this other than that it's kind of interesting.

Meanwhile in Russia...


The Moscow Times has details on the Moscow Film Festival which will close with Luc Besson's latest The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc Sec (pictured above) starring Louise Bourgoin. I heard from a reader yesterday that the costumes by Olivier Béirot are something and might catch Oscar's eye if it gets an stateside release. Here's a few clips from the film. Another hot ticket will be the explicit Cannes-shunned Emmanuelle Béart film, It Begins With The End. The festival director isn't shy about his love for her...

We welcome it to Moscow with open arms. Emmanuelle Béart is my favorite actress, and she is doing all these indecencies with her husband, and I enjoyed it a lot.

Hey, just let it all hang out. Why be shy about loving an actress? Particularly one as jolie as Béart.

Any readers follow Russian cinema? What film do you think they'll submit this year for the Oscars given the poor reception of Burnt By the Sun 2 thus far?

20,000 Links Under the Sea

Daily Transom Ebert to pen memoir in high six figure deal.
In Contention looks at how Robin Hood (2010) got all mucked up in development.
Guardian an explicit erotic drama starring Emmanuelle Béart and her husband shunned by Cannes. Ugh. How will we ever see it now? They are so so pretty.
Movie|Line suggests that executives pounce on the Cannes hot ticket 101 year-old Manoel de Oliveira.


The Atlantic a tale of two comebacks: Mickey Rourke and Robert Downey Jr.
Cinema Blend Lana Wachowski and Andy Wachowski (of The Matrix fame) may be making a hard R gay military romance drama? Interesting.
Just Jared Tarsem Singh on Henry Cavill (in his new picture The Immortals) "Hey, I'd f*** him."
A Socialite's Life Tom Munro's celebrity portrait book. If I had a gajillion dollars I'd always have these big glossy photo books lying around.
Quiet Earth nsfw clips from the new Gregg Araki flick Kaboom.
i09 Every time i even see a new clip from a Twilight movie I want to see them even less. How is this possible? Here's Dakota Fanning all red eyed and quietly evil if you're into that.

Finally, The Hollywood Reporter shares yet another project for David Fincher. This time he'll be remaking the adventure film 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. 20,000... brings Fincher's future features in development to a grand total of 12 (according to IMDb). I guess that $125 domestic gross for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button got Hollywood all horny. The first of the dozen we'll actually see is the Facebook story The Social Network which should be completed anytime soon. Remember when David was still making music videos. Or when people thought his feature career was doomed before it began due to Alien³'s reception (so underrated) or when he couldn't get arrested at the Oscars despite making films as good as Zodiac and Fight Club. Ancient history!


Wonder how much money the studio will give Fincher for the octopus alone? Water movies are notoriously expensive to make (Waterwold... Titanic... The Abyss...) so I bet this gets an even crazier budget than Button to begin with and then we'll hear endless internet reportage about it's ballooning disastrous budget during production.

Beauty Break: Emmanuelle Béart

Today is Emmanuelle Béart's 46th birthday. Here she is to your left earlier this summer with another Gallic great Isabelle Huppert. Huppert is still an arthouse draw in the states but it seems like it's been ages since Béart made it to our screens in any significant way. There's been a teensy run here and there (Strayed, The Witnesses) but the last film that won any real attention was 8 Women (2002) also starring Huppert... and Catherine Deneuve and Fanny Ardant and Ludivine Sagnier. Mon dieu, je l'aime!

The last time I remember hearing other Americans talk about Béart was in college in the early to mid90s when Béart had that critically acclaimed run of Un Couer en Hiver (Cesar nom), L'Enfer, A French Woman and Nelly & Monsieur Arnaud (Cesar nomination) but international stardom is a tough thing to maintain for anyone, no matter how beautiful or talented. Exceedingly rare are the Hupperts and Deneuves who can hold on to it with a steel grip all their lives.

Béart often gets wet in photoshoots, non?

She's not French but look at the career of Franka Potente? How the hell did she not stay as famous as she was in the late 90s after Run Lola Run? She was just as riveting to watch in The Princess and the Warrior even if the film wasn't as good and she more than held her own in The Bourne Identity. Makes you wonder what will become of Gael Garcia Bernal, Audrey Tatou, Marion Cotillard in ten years time. Hasn't Zhang Ziyi essentially disappeared already?

<--- The star with her husband, french actor Michael Cohen.

Béart first won my heart as skinny dipping Manon, the youthful goddess of Manon of the Spring. That movie made me bawl. I remember being greatly confused that Jean de Florette (the preface) and Manon (the conclusion) weren't nominated at the Oscars. That epic two-parter had to make due with Globe and BAFTA attention -- though I knew nothing of the other awards back then so the honors were lost on me. I was so obsessed with Jean/Manon that I even bought the soundtrack and used to sing along with the theme song phonetically. What was I singing about? I didn't know but assuming it was a hymn to Béart was good enough for me.

Here is the original trailer to Manon and a recent French cel phone commercial (creepy or funny?) starring the famous beauty.



Where would you rank Béart in the pantheon of French goddesses? And which young French actress are you obsessed with? I mean, besides Ludivine Sagnier who I'll assume you love? If not, don't tell me otherwise!

[If you aren't familiar with Béart or maybe just beginning to fall in love with French cinema, Netflix has 21 of Béart's movies. Lots to choose from.]

Now Playing: Giant-Sized Women

links go to trailers

L I M I T E D
Guest of Cindy Sherman This documentary sounds fascinating. It's about Cindy Sherman, the famous multihyphenate artist, but it's also about the awkward "plus one" status of those who date people exponentially more famous than themselves. Directed by a former boyfriend of Cindy's, the artist Paul H-O.

American Swing a documentary about the swingers movement in tumultuous 70s New York

The Education of Charlie Banks is a coming of age tale set in upstate New York in the 80s. Jesse Eisenberg, so great in both Roger Dodger and The Squid and the Whale, stars. Is he about to break through to wider fame? This would be the year to do it. He's got about approximately nine pictures opening in the next 24 months. Craziness. This is Fred Durst's (Limp Bizkit) directorial debut. (Next up for Eisenberg is Adventureland with Kristen Stewart)

Shall We Kiss? French romantic comedy starring Michaël Cohen, who happens to be the "plus one" (i.e. husband) of the far more famous French goddess Emmanuelle Béart -- see how I'm working a theme into what might otherwise be a really dull "informational" post? I'm amazing. I work so hard pour vous, n'est-ce pas? --Béart is sadly not in this movie. Michaël's lips are busy with co-star Julie Gayet.

Spinning Into Butter This long delayed screen adaptation (filmed in 2005) of a hit play that once starred Hope Davis (replaced by Sarah Jessica Parker for the movie) is about racism on a college campus. Beau Bridges, Mylketi Williamson and Miranda Richardson co-star. I was suspicious of this movie the first moment I saw SJP's flat brown color job. I'll never understand why filmmakers tend to think reducing the style/beauty of actors makes a film more potent dramatically speaking. Usually it just makes the movie appear as as flat as the hair. Boo to deglam.

Goodbye Solo this well reviewed indie is about the unlikely friendship between a Sengalese immigrant and a good ol' southern boy. From writer/director Ramin Bahrani whose last picture, Chop Shop won him the "Someone to Watch" Award at the Indie Spirits.

W I D E
12 Rounds I hadn't even heard of this movie until I started typing this sentence. But I thought it looked familiar. It turns out I knew its parents!

Its poster parents, that is. 'Lil 12 Rounds'... so cute! Although he's really too young to be playing with so much firepower. No matter how violent his parents happen to be.

The Haunting in Connecticut I'm starting to feel like the horror genre actually produces more movies each year than even Bollywood. This one stars CGI gunk that projects out of the mouths of young boys (I'm just guessing from the advertisements). Virginia Madsen is aghast! You would be too if you could do what she can do and this is all your agent could find for you.

Monsters vs. Aliens Reese Witherspoon (well, her voice) gets all giant-sized in this 3D animated adventure.The movie has found a way to humorously visualize what we all subconsciously know to be true. That Reese towers above us all. She could crush anyone on a whim. This looks like fun and box office pundits claim it will tower over the competition, crushing them with ease.

How Much Does David Lynch Charge For a Headshot?

The irrepressibly odd auteur behind Mulholland Drive and INLAND EMPIRE recently shot eight très jolie actresses for French Elle including TFE international favs Emmanuelle Béart and Charlotte Rampling (you'll recall that both actresses made my top 100 of the aughts a couple years back). You can see what David Lynch came up with for all eight stars (including covergirl Monica Bellucci) over at Oh No They Didn't!

I can't say that I find the photoshoot particularly stunning but I enjoy multi-hyphenate cinematic types --actors who write or paint, directors who dabble in other mediums, yes! David Lynch is king of the dabbling, isn't he? Television, film, comic strips, coffee making, and photoshoots. What hasn't he done? Jokesters might answer "made a coherent film" but, you see, he's done that too.

Are there any multi-hyphenates you're fascinated by?

Tuesday Top Ten: Art in the Movies

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

Today is the 532nd birthday of Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (aka just "Michelangelo"), one of the most prolific, documented, celebrated and imitated artists of ... ever. So in honor of his birthday, herewith a top ten list devoted to artists or art related moments in the movies. Art was on my brain anyway, what with having just seen Jake Gyllenhaal's cartoonist in Zodiac (more on this soon) and last night's episode of Heroes still fresh in mind. I don't know about you but that stereotype of drug use enhancing ones artistic abilities is always delightful to see reinforced [/sarcasm] --and every week on Monday nights no less!

Obviously I will be forgetting many great art-centric films in this list (but hey, that's what comments are for --share your own favorites)

Art in the Movies

10 & 09 Max von Sydow as "Frederick" in Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) and Julianne Moore as "Maude Lebowski" in The Big Lebowski (1998)
Two great comedies which contain supporting performances of archetypal artist types. Von Sydow is the cranky solitary "pure" artist --he's not just uncomfortable with the business of art, he's infuriated by it. Moore essays the 'artist as avant-garde nutjob' stereotype as a vaginal performance artist. It's her one and only great comedic work.



08 La Belle Noiseuse
Michel Piccoli spends 236 minutes sketching a nude Emmanuelle Béart in this 90s French import and many of those 236 minutes are pleasureable and/or intriguing. Is it Béart's stunning body and performance that make it so? (Previous Béart love here and here) The sheer extended chutzpah of the whole enterprise? The rare almost real time (or as close at you'll get) peek into the craft? Or maybe it's just, simply, a fine film.

07 Michael Beck as "Sonny Malone" in Xanadu (1980)
I know this is a horrible horrible eyesore on an otherwise respectable list but don't you miss painted album covers? That was his job! That used to be an actual profession. I was a kid when this movie came out and oh how I wanted his life when I grew up: painting for a living and romancing Olivia Newton-John. Mmmmm. I miss paintings everywhere: magazine covers, cd covers. Why is it always photography now?



06 Catherine O'Hara as "Delia" in Beetlejuice(1988)

This is my art and it is dangerous!

Long before we were familiar with Christopher Guests mockumentary troupe in films like Waiting for Guffman and Best in Show, O'Hara was already spinning comedic gold in the movies. She was in superb form as a narcissistic sculptor in this early Tim Burton hit.

05 the sidewalk paintings in Mary Poppins (1964)
Art is transporting -- in this case literally so. "I draws what I likes and I likes what I drew"Who hasn't wanted to dive into a drawing at one time or another?


04 Scarlett Johansson as the Girl With the Pearl Earring (2003)
In this case the appeal is the subject (Scarjo in her best performance) rather than the artist Colin Firth as "Vermeer". And to be fair it's also the exquisite and painterly cinematography by the talented DP Eduardo Serra

03 Julianne Moore (artist) and Madeline Stowe (subject) in Shortcuts (1993)
Casting siblings is obviously more difficult than not, given how many screen blood ties feel forced or improbable. But I love this duet from Robert Altman's Los Angeles panorama. The two actresses have a great silent rapport. Their modelling session together sends Moore's screen husband (Matthew Modine) into a flustered awkward exit after seeing his sister-in-law naked. The two actresses share a sudden synchronized laugh that's conspiratorial, exclusionary, and entirely sisterly. I love it.

02 Pollock (2000)
Ed Harris and Marcia Gay Harden both wowed in Harris' sturdy biopic. It holds a special place in my Oscar-obsessed heart because it was my first major claim to fame as a pundit: I predicted both of their nominations, which was --I know it's hard to believe now -- not the thing to do at the time: precursors had ignored them. Though Pollock is entirely too conventional to be a great film it's still a solid directorial debut from the great actor and one wonders why Harris hasn't followed it up. The aha! moment of Jackson's splatter painting technique is annoying and historically questionable but there's abundant pleasure in the performances: Harris didn't win the Oscar but his grunting masculinity is, for this moviegoer, far more potent than that of his conqueror (Russell Crowe in Gladiator). Marcia Gay Harden furiously chews scenery as his neglected wife and fellow artist, Lee Krasner. Best of all for art world aficionados Amy Madigan (Harris' real life unneglected wife) is a complete scream as the inimitable Peggy Guggenheim.

01 6 Degrees of Separation (1993)
In this transfer of the hit play Stockard Channing gives a revelatory Oscar nominated performance as "Ouisa" and Donald Sutherland lends her able if eventually incompatible marital support. It's hard to pick a favorite moment in this film about art dealers and a young man (Will Smith) who disrupts their carefully controlled if precarious existence. But two moments that are on loop in my head and have been since 1993 ... spinning the Kandinsky "chaos. control. chaos. control. you like? you like?" and Ouisa's self-startled joy slapping the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. See this movie! you'll like. you'll like.

Rachel, Connie, Taryn, and Miranda...

What do Rachel McAdams, Emmanuelle Béart, Connie Nielsen, Taryn Manning, Emily Watson, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Cara Seymour, Miranda Otto, Cameron Diaz, and Isabella Rossellini have in common? They're appreciated by yours truly today in the Top 100 Actresses of the Aughts Countdown (numbers #60 through #51).

Coming soon: The Top 50. How high will your favorites place?

Hump Day Hottie: Emmanuelle Beart

Last week, we visited Taiwan's most beautiful child Takeshi Kaneshiro. This week we head over to St. Tropez, France. I first fell hard for Emmanuelle Béart when she appeared on US screens as a blond avenging angel in that great two part French melodrama/epic Jean de Florette and Manon of the Springs(1986). It didn't take long for Hollywood execs to get their lecherous hands on her for throwaway 'exotic beauty' roles in films like Date with an Angel (1987) and Mission Impossible (1996). But they didn't get it. You see, she's best appreciated in serious films that actually use both her incredible disconcerting beauty and her dramatic gift. She won Best Supporting Actress @ The French Oscars (the Cesars) for Manon and has an additional seven Cesar nominations for her dramatic performances . She's also won various international prizes for films like Régis Wargnier'sUne Femme Française (1995) , Nathalie...(2003) co-starring Fanny Ardant and Gérard Depardieu, and the chilly wrenching love triangleUn Coeur En Hiver ( A Heart in Winter)(1992).

The most recent roles to garner her international attention have been in Sentimental Destinies(2000), 8 Women (with a gaggle of other gallic legends), and Strayed(2003). Her latest film is Danis Tanovic's follow up to his Oscar winning debut No Man's Landwhich is called L'Enfer. L'Enfer is actually the second film in the Heaven / Hell / Purgatory trilogy that the legendary Krzysztof Kieslowski (famous in America forThe Double life of Veronique and the Trois Coleurstrilogy) had intended to make before his death. The first of these, Heaven(2002), was made by Germany's Tom Tykwer starring Cate Blanchett. (If you'd like to read a recent TIFF review of L'Enfer here is one from Jeremy Heilman 'the Movie Martyr' --warning: he didn't much like it.)

To see Emmanuelle Béart in full sensual glory, here is a fairly hot desktop sizeshot (NSFW) and another --oh, what the hell. Here's a whole page or tasty jpegs (partially NSFW) and finally here is a still from the film La Belle Noiseuse. Noiseuse is (literally) 4 hours long. I bring this film up because, though it's hardly pornographic-minded (it's really a meditation on the creation of art), Emmanuelle is naked for most of the running time. That'll make the 240 minutes pass swiftly enough for her hordes of international fans. In 1992 when I saw this @ the Detroit Institute of Arts my best friend at the time (who had just gotten married) remarked to me 'Um, I think I'm more familiar with Emmanuelle Béart's body than my wife's.' And then he took off! Wonder where he went...

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