Into Link Groove

general cinema
Dark Eye Socket a triple bill recommendation: frightening fiendish females
Inquirer Entertainment Shirley Maclaine is still quotable. Also babysits Bening-Beatty kids!
Socialite Life Kellan Lutz to play Poseidon in War of the Gods. This story is all over the blog rounds but the best part of the story is the one that's not making any headlines: Tarsem Singh (The Cell, The Fall) is in the director's chair. Therefore, we must assume instant must-see rather than trashy dumb action flick


Old Hollywood Great 70s quote from Patti Smith on French legend Jeanne Moreau
My New Plaid Pants wait, what? Helen Mirren was besties with Brad Davis? Helen Mirren is quite possibly the most fascinating actress with whom I don't have a particularly deep bond. I should learn to love her more
SUNFiltered Isabella Rossellini's uniquely awesome Green Porno series gets a new name and batch of creature carnality
Towleroad Have you heard about this awful situation in a Canadian bar regarding Jake Gyllenhaal and asshole homophobic blogger? Yuck
Life Archives 17 great photos of Steve McQueen, King of Cool [thx]
Queerty a parody of RuPaul's Drag Race

politics and films
i09 has a great piece on healthcare reform through the prism of sci-fi's dystopia stories
Michael Moore have you read this astute Open Letter to Republicans. Funny, sad, and smart in equal measure.

off screen fun
Pop Justice Finland choir does Lady Gaga's 'bad romance'... how long til America tries a version of this reality concept? Post Glee I totally see it happening.
Critical Condition starts a (seemingly massive) Madonna countdown project
I Need My Fix Kristin Chenoweth is delightful whether on Twitter or Ambien or both simultaneously
AIGA/NY an evening of really bad book covers. Sounds interesting
Litely Salted "Oh, Lindsay" I've placed LaLohan in the "offscreen" section because she is obviously no longer movie-related. Which is sad.

Viva Jeanne!

Jose here to remind you that the magnificent Jeanne Moreau turns 82 today.

Go and celebrate by watching Elevator to the Gallows, Diary of a Chambermaid, The Lovers, Querelle, The Bride Wore Black, Jules and Jim, The Last Tycoon or my favorite La Notte.
Heck you can even watch Ever After if only to enjoy that smokey voice narrating a fairy tale.

If you've seen those and love Jeanne, today's a perfect day to revisit them and if you're not familiar with the woman Orson Welles called "the greatest actress in the world", what are you waiting for?

Hounds of Link

"If I only could, I'd make a deal with God. And get him to link our places...."

This Woman's Link
fourfour has a thang for Kate Bush. So many memories are embedded in this post I felt like my heart was going to burst whilst my mind was blown. I l-o-v-e Kate Bush. That is all. Where's her biopic? And who on earth would be gorgeous enough but suitably bonkers to play her?

Wuthering Links
Blog Stage Jane Fonda and Angela Lansbury: "non-divas"
Gawker is Warren Beatty holding up the rights to the Dick Tracy franchise. Did you even remember that this could have been one? Speaking of Dick Tracy...
Boy Culture Madonna as Jeanne Moreau in Bay of Angels. Sorta...
Screengrab inaugurates a new series "Not on DVD" with the bio Patty Hearst (1988) starring Natasha Richardson.
/Film the strange case of the distributorless Jim Carrey/Ewan Macgregor prison love story I Love You Phillip Morris
Victim of the Time the best review of Duplicity ever?
World of Wonder says goodbye to Oscar nominee Betsy Blair (Marty). In the photo with this post she's pictured with Nathaniel's two all time favorite classic male movie stars. How about that?!

The Ninth Link
Nick's Flick Picks on the Best Actresses of 1941

And finally, have to leave you with this pointed bit from Jimmy Kimmel Live. Portia De Rossi apologizing to everyone she hurt by marrying Ellen DeGeneres.



Heh.
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New Podcast: Oscar 2008 Foreign Film Competition

Pick your jaw up off the floor.

Yes, yes, it's been [ahem] several months since the last podcast. But the new episode is now playing and hopefully it'll only be a few weeks until the follow up. We can dream.

In the 3rd installment I'm speaking with Boyd Van Hoeij of European Films about the current Oscar Best Foreign Film race. [The official 67 film-wide submission list has been announced. You can see the full list here]. But this installment of the podcast kicks off with an interview with one of cinema's future bright lights, director Joachim Trier who talks about the inspiration for his first feature Reprise (yes, I'm still plugging that one now that it's out on DVD. I love it), working with non-actors, writing as metaphor, Norway, and even a meeting with Jeanne Moreau. He's an articulate film buff as well as a fine new director.


Click here to listen to the enhanced podcast with the service of your choice or, if you don't have an enhanced player like iTunes or somesuch you can just listen to the plain ol' mp3.
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Jeanne Moreau in Bay of Angels

monday monologue

My friend Vern, alarmed at the absence of Jeanne Moreau from that favorite actresses list I concocted, quickly brought over a sizeable stack of Jeanne Moreau DVDs to brainwash me with. Does his wife know about this zealous obsession? He carried them over with a herniated disc. This is devotion to an actress!

Jeanne Moreau & Claude Mann in Bay of Angels (1963)

The first one we watched together was Jacques Demy's gambling romance Bay of Angels (1963). My only previous Demy experience was his 1964 musical The Umbrellas of Cherbourgh which sits comfortably among my favorite films of all time. Bay tells the story of a naive young Jean (Claude Mann) who goes gambling one day on a whim. He wins big and drops everything to vacation with his newfound riches. Jean soon meets Jackie (Moreau) a platinum blonde casino hopper and the two have a rollercoaster adventure filled with cash, casinos and hotels. They win and lose... and win and lose some more.

After one particularly big win, Jackie cajoles Jean into providing her with a magnificent suite and he questions her expensive taste and obsession with riches. Her response:

No. I don't like money. You see what I do with it when I have it. If I loved money I wouldn't squander it. Gambling attracts me by its stupid mixture of luxury and poverty.

And also the mystery of numbers... chance. I often wondered whether God ruled over numbers.

The first time I entered a casino I felt as if it was a church. I had the same emotion. Don't laugh. Try to understand. I tell you gambling has become my religion. Money means nothing to me. Nor this robe, this room. Nothing. I knew you wouldn't understand.

One chip is enough to make me happy.

One chip. That's both cold, chilling even, in its naked honesty and a charismatic deceit. Jackie isn't happy or free, despite her defensive mode about her rootless lifestyle. As a big fan of the 'women who lie to themselves' subgenre of movies, I found this Demy film a pretty thrilling sit. Jeanne Moreau has great facility for portraying enigmas (most famously in Jules & Jim, 1962) and she sure can seize hold of the camera while doing so. Jackie lives by and recognizes only her addiction but she's a nightmare of denials, and a mercurial creature of whim.

Add this one to your rental queues (netflix / greencine / blockbuster). At 79 minutes it offers a big return on investment. Would that more modern filmmakers would train their lens so tightly on characters and events in miniature and see what miracles can arise.

Romancing the Link

Randomness
Gold Derby wonders if Kate Winslet will tie the Deborah Kerr & Thelma Ritter Oscar loser record with either The Reader or Revolutionary Road
Film Brain ponders Tilda Swinton's new picture Julia and the reactions from distributors and some critics
Jürgen Fauth falls deeper in love with P.T. Anderson's filmography
Glenn Gaslin has a hetero man-crush on Jason Statham
My New Plaid Pants realizes he's seen David Wenham many times before. (one of those ubiquitous actors we were talking about)
Scanners on IFC's deal with the devil (i.e. Blockbuster). Seriously... IFC? What were they thinking?
Jezebel thinks Lindsay Lohan has had botox. After watching this clip, I agree. Lindsay is 21 years old. As an unrepentant lover of actresses of a certain age, I don't mean this in the way other people would but Lindsay could pass for a thirty-something and that's not good. Thirty-something is beautiful as long as you're actually in your 30s. You may recall that I was quite a fan of the redhead upstart but I've mostly successfully weaned myself away. Every once in a while though, I get sad again.

My Dinner With...
When I told you about my imaginary dinner with Kathleen Turner I ended by passing the meme to other bloggers too. Quite a wide array of dinner guests. Modfab went classic with Orson Wells, All About My Movies went current with Rose Byrne, and Victim of the Time went overseas with Jeanne Moreau. So many scrumptious conversations.

It's Kathleen's World
Towleroad reviews the stage revival of Crimes of the Heart (Turner is now delving into directing)
The New Yorker's review of the same
Globe and Mail "a grande dame with true grit"
Female First Kathleen is wearing shoes again!
Libby Purves talks to Kathleen (this is an mp3)
92nd Street Y (where they hold a ton of cool readings and conversations here in NYC) also has their chat with Kathleen available. I almost went to this but I was broke. *sniffle*