Blake Edwards (RIP)

Mrs & Mrs Blake Edwards (1974)

Our heart goes out to the divine Julie Andrews in what is surely a difficult time as her husband the writer/director Blake Edwards passed away a few days ago. We apologize for the delay in honoring him. Edwards was long beloved and praised for his comic sensibilities as a writer and director, most famously within The Pink Panther series starring Peter Sellers.

What was less often noted is that he was often responsible for shining a flattering light on actresses, no matter your feelings about him getting Julie out of her clothing. His late career efforts in this realm (Ellen Barkin in Switch and Kim Basinger in Blind Date) weren't as magical as his earlier work but he had a hand in big moments in the careers of Natalie Wood and Audrey Hepburn and was absolutely crucial to Julie Andrews career.

Blake and Natalie Wood in 1965

If you haven't seen many of his pictures, program yourself a festival at home with these highlights.

• Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961) the most universally beloved Audrey Hepburn movie.
• The Pink Panther (1963) though any in the series will do. My favorite as a wee toddler was the one where Sellers is wearing a facial disguise that melts and his nose starts dripping. Anyone remember which in the series that was?
• The Great Race (1965) Check out how jaw droppingly gorgeous Natalie Wood is in this all-star comedy. Some consider it the peak of her beauty.
• "10" (1979) A massive hit when it appeared making Bo Derek and Dudley Moore incredibly famous. Julie Andrews co-stars.
• Victor/Victoria (1982)-You know this one already. Watch it again. Isn't it one of the most rewatchable films ever?
• And maybe end with one of his other collaborations with wife Julie Andrews. He directed her frequently. I didn't personally like their last film together That's Life (1986) but you could try Darling Lili (1970) a war film where Julie sings and is paired with Rock Hudson or  The Tamarind Seed (1974) where Julie is romanced by Omar Shariff or their infamous showbiz satire S.O.B. (1981). Though moviegoers who liked Julie Andrews abso-squeaky clean sometimes resented her husband for his playful and frisky remolding of his wife's image whether that was striptease musical numbers or gender bending (clips from Darling Lili and Victor/Victoria follow), Julie herself obviously enjoyed it.

Julie Andrews in S.O.B. (1981)

 As is true with most comedically gifted filmmakers, Edwards had to wait for an honorary Oscar late in life rather than win one in competition. He was only nominated once, for the screenplay to the wonderful gender-bending farce Victor/Victoria (1982) which happens to be the last musical hurrah of Julie Andrews. Along with Breakfast at Tiffany's it will undoubtedly live forever.







A dream maker and heart taker, indeed.

Related post: A History of... Julie Andrews
*

You Sweet Link.

I Need My Fix Cameron Crowe and Nancy Wilson (of Heart fame) are divorcing. God, it feels like forever since Crowe made a movie, right? Maybe I've just forgotten something.
Mr Hipp imagines Inception's dream team. So cute! I love the take on Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
Boy Culture Isabella Rossellini finally addresses Madonna's "Sex" 18 years after the fact. To your left is one of my favorite photos from the book.
THR a three way discussion on Best Actress and theories as to why Annette Bening isn't really campaigning.
The Awl Ed Koch reviews Black Swan. Whaaaa...?
If Charlie Parker... awww. Natalie Wood wishes you happy holidays.
Time Magazine does a top ten of everything but that link goes to the movies, led by Toy Story 3. Rather annoyingly each entry gets its own page. They want to get 500 page views from you. Boo.
Time Magazine also does a top ten performances, led by Noomi Rapace. But...  Jacki Weaver & Tilda Swinton make the list. So you may applaud.
ABBA try this quiz if you love ABBA. it's so hard. I already forgot my score but I wasn't proud of it.
Towleroad a few words on this weekend's new releases. And a few more links.

Finally, the Detroit Film Critics have announced their nominees. I normally don't link to critics awards before they announce winners (so self indulgent) but it is Detroit and I like to say yes to the home state... especially since I never get back there anymore.

 Unfortunately they're one of those silly silly silly groups (like the upcoming SAG no doubt *sigh*) which feel the need to nominate The King's Speech's entire cast in their individual categories and then again for Best Ensemble. Seriously Detroit? Calm down. In such a stellar year for ensemble casts there really is no excuse for the ensemble nominations and prizes this film is going to ring up from now until the SAG Awards. No one on god's green earth will ever convince me that each of the three principals in The King's Speech needs two nominations for their trouble. Or that Guy Pearce and Eve Best are so sensational as King Edward and Wallis Simpson that they had to be recognized in this way since they won't get to reprise the roles in Madonna's 2011 feature W.E. (which is at least partially about those characters who will be played by James D'Arcy and Andrea Riseborough).

"Ensemble" categories make me crazy. Movies consisting of repeated scenes where two people talk to each is not "ensemble work." Detroit's other nominees in this category (The Kids Are All Right, The Fighter, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World and Winter's Bone) demonstrate that at least some of the Motor City's film journalists are sound of mind.

Oscar's Collection: The Youngest Best Actress Nominees

Another Oscar Trivia Explosion. This time it's the Actresses. 

Jennifer Lawrence made quite a film-carrying impression in Winter's Bone this past summer. It was one of the leggiest arthouse hits in some time, playing for months, and wracking up $6+ million without a huge advertising budget or bankable stars and with grim subject matter. Well done. At Christmas Hailee Steinfeld will lead us on a revenge journey in True Grit. While we suspect she's the lead actress as well, people her age are almost always demoted to "Supporting" if they're sharing the screen with a big star as co-lead and she is. Hi, Jeff Bridges! But we're pretending she's an Oscar lead today so as to have double the excuse to make this list. Humour us, won'cha?

 Imaginary Movie: STEINFELD. LAWRENCE.  WINTER'S TRUE BONE.

36 Youngest Best Actress Nominees

And where Jennifer or Hailee would fit in, were they to be nominated. (Winning performances are in red.) Disclaimer/Bragging: You won't find info this extensive elsewhere! The Official Oscar site / Wikipedia only offer top tens. However the following info is approximate. Though the Academy's top ten is down to the day of the actual nominations, they don't provide official nomination dates only ceremony dates. Inside Oscar and Wikipedia also only list the ceremony dates so we're just using February 1st, ∞ as a general calculation date for when nominations happened for given years.

Youngest "Best Actress" Wins: Matlin & Gaynor

1. Keisha Castle Hughes, Whale Rider (2003) was 13.
   Wow, well would you look at this? Either Jennifer Lawrence or Hailee would become #2 if nominated for Best Actress.
2. Isabelle Adjani, The Story of Adele H (1975) was 20. [more]
3. Keira Knightley, Pride & Prejudice (2005) was 20 going on 21. [more]
4. Ellen Page, Juno (2007) was about to turn 21. [more]
5. Marlee Matlin, Children of a Lesser God (1986) was 21
   She's the youngest winner of all time in this category.

Read more »

MM@M: Old Fashioned Sixties Sweethearts

Mad Men at the Movies. Now practically concurrent with episode airings!

Mad Men 4.2 "Christmas Comes But Once a Year"
In this episode SCDP scrambles to make their low budget Christmas party festive for their biggest client Lee Garner Jr.. Don Draper gets drunks and beds his secretary. Awkward! Meanwhile, Freddy Rumsen (Joel Murray) returns with a valuable client in hand. He and his former protege Peggy argue about the Ponds soap campaign. Freddy wants to enlist a celebrity as the spokesperson.

Freddy: Tallulah Bankhead? She's glamorous. She seems more uncompromising than a movie star. She's on Broadway.
Peggy: She never got off Broadway because she's not beautiful enough.
Freddy: Shame on you. C'mon.

[imagining commercial] A little backstage at the makeup mirror with Ponds. Opening night 'The choice of professionals.' It's good, right?
Peggy: All of their research says they're trying to get young women.
Freddy: Young women look up to older women.
Peggy: For beauty tips. Are you joking?

Joking indeed. Here's Tallulah Bankhead in 1930 and again in the 1960s (she died in 1968). She was one of the hardest living, wittiest and most quotable of stars. Glamorous? Yes. A good spokeswoman for clean beauty regimens? Um... No

Later in the episode...

Freddy: On the short list I got Tallulah, Jessica Tandy, Barbara Stanwyck, and Doris Day -- different types.
Peggy: I don't even understand your list. What's wrong with Elizabeth Taylor?
Freddy: Isn't about making old ladies look good?
Peggy: Nothing makes old ladies look good.
Freddy: The Ponds does.

Freddy's wish-list suggests that he goes to the theater a lot (Tandy & Tallulah both being stage rather than movie stars). An argument erupts between them about what young girls want and whether they'll get married or not and such. Peggy, who has just been called "old fashioned" by her boyfriend in a previous scene, deflects the insult Freddy's way.

Peggy: You know, Freddy, I've brought up your name a hundred times to come in and freelance for me. But everyone is right about you. You and your grand dames and your poor old typewriter and your desperate spinsters. You're so old fashioned, you know that?

Hey, if loving grande dames makes you old fashioned, I've been old fashioned since I was five years old! I've always loved theatrical women of a certain age.

In 1964 when this episode takes place, Liz Taylor was a mammoth star and at 32 still the screen's preeminent beauty (Peggy's suggestion makes sense) but it was actually Doris Day, ten years Liz's senior, who was the box office queen. Day was the top earner, male or female, from 1962 through 1964 according to the Motion Picture Almanac, so it's interesting that Day would be grouped in with Freddy's "old fashioned" taste. But I guess the romantic comedy queens, who always seem to be the top earning females no matter the decade, do appeal to the most conventional and traditional of moviegoers... and therefore all age ranges. (It's interesting that Mad Men is suddenly using Peggy and Freddy, two allies, to dramatize the widening generational gap of the tumultous 1960s.)


Liz and Doris are the constants but the sweetheart crown shifts from Debbie Reynolds to Sandra Dee and then, in the mid to late 60s, a real shakeup begins with the musical stars exerting their power be it Ann-Margret, Shirley Maclaine or the tsunami sized arrivals of both Julie Andrews and Barbra Streisand (just a few short years away). Natalie Wood is a constant during the early 60s (the peak of her popularity) but one assumes she just missed these lists since the bulk of each top ten is made up of male stars.

Since we're now writing about the episodes shortly after they air, I thought I'd add three new elements to each write up.

Best Line
Peggy to her horny boyfriend: "You're never going to get me to do anything Swedish people do."

Best Intangible Something
I absolutely love that everyone is going to have to blow Lee Garner Jr. (metaphorically speaking) to keep his business. Consider it Sal's phantom revenge. (For those just joining the series, Sal --who used to be the defacto star of "Mad Men at the Movies" -- lost his job basically because he refused Lee Garner's sexual advances behind the scenes.)

Best Single Moment
Joanie leads a conga line.


This moment was a major hit with fans everywhere if Twitter is any indication. It prompted several amusing online responses including a conga from GIF PARTY and a campaign for an entire episode composed solely of Joanie leading a conga line. Hell, I'd watch!

Other references: (Music) The Beatles | (Myths/Characters) Potemkinville, Rasputin, Santa, Three Wise Men, Hitler, The Tin Man | (Literature) Article "The Swedish Way of Love"... this episode takes place in December 1964 so we're still a couple of years away from the famous I Am Curious (Yellow) film but the "Sexual Revolution" is approaching in America and Sweden was an early influential leader in this regard.

James Dean, Posterized

Since he only starred in three features, I thought that James Dean would be the easiest "Posterized" episode, a fill in on a Friday when I was short on time. But because I can never leave well enough alone, I had to make this one complicated, too. Here's three sets of posters for his three classics East of Eden (1955), Rebel Without a Cause (1955) and Giant (1956).

What a batting average, eh?

I think these are original release posters (?) Might be wrong. Tough to find dates to coincide with poster designs. But note that the book was actually the initial selling point of East of Eden and that Dean was only top billed once (for Rebel).

Reissues and such. Note how Dean takes over.

And a few foreign versions for fun. I find it quite interesting that Sal Mineo gets to pull focus on the Italian poster (photo src) but then he does have the gun and what is that they say about movies? All you need is a girl and a gun. Speaking of the girl, Natalie Wood rarely gets much focus in Rebel Without a Cause merchandising which is strange since she's such a classic screen icon herself.

But I bet if you lined up all the posters ever made for these three pictures including original release, subsequent reissues, television airings, repertory house / specialty showings and vhs/dvd/blu-ray covers, you'd find the most conflict in the Giant posters. What do you do when you have three mammoth stars in one movie? Giant's credit hierarchy has always been.

• Elizabeth Taylor
• Rock Hudson
• James Dean

...but they don't always get equal billings on the posters. Sometimes Rock & La Liz are the focus (as they were in the 40th anniversary release) sometimes Liz & James are the focus like you see in the 70s rerelease version of the poster from Japan above. And though it's another discussion entirely you know that if the film were released in our current era James Dean would've been nominated (and won) posthumously for supporting actor instead of lead, since they're so scared of 'same sex but both leads' campaigns these days.

Another entirely different discussion: Is it just my imagination or is La Liz the actress of beauty sharing? Which is to say that she always made her co-stars look yet more handsome than they already were. It's as if her glorious beauty was too much for just one face so some of it drifted over to the actors, too.

Have you seen all three films? If the answer is no, you'd best explain yourself. They're all quite terrific in their own ways.

Splendor in the Blog

It's my birthday in just three days and I've been feeling so down, largely due to pet stress. I've also misplaced my creative mojo. I don't want to say I've lost it. ("It must be here somewhere," he says with budding panic in his voice.)


My first birthday gift arrived early: Nick reviewed Natalie Wood's Oscar nominated Splendor in the Grass (1961) performance. That's one of my very favorite performances, Oscar-nominated or otherwise by one of my favorite movie stars. When feeling blue, it's a good idea to lose yourself in actressing. My birthday gift to myself was The Michelle Pfeiffer Star Collection. My pronounced film obsession doesn't translate to DVD ownership (I know some people find that odd... but that's just the way it is) so I didn't have any of these yet, not even The Fabulous Baker Boys! I know, I know. I think I was holding out for the European version which I'd heard had better extras.

I think I'll just keep this old gif of 100 favorite actresses (I'll update it someday -- it definitely needs major revisions) on perma-loop to the top right corner of my screen.

Whenever I glance up, some talented beauty will be appearing and then vanishing, only to be replaced by another. The actress mojo is never lost or misplaced, and ever increases.

Dennis Hopper (1936-2010)

His management revealed his battle with cancer just last year and yesterday 74 year-old long-time film star Dennis Hopper passed away. His cultural legacy is most closely fused with the counter culture sensation Easy Rider (1969) which he directed, wrote and starred in. But it stretches back much further than that and was, at least at the start, quite a case of beginner's luck. When three of your first four movies are titles as major or enduring as Rebel Without a Cause (1955), Giant (1956) and Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957) than things are off to quite a good start no matter how you define such things.

After those promising early years, things got choppy. Addictions and reportedly volatile on set behavior may have derailed major movie stardom but his bad boy reputation, whatever the personal and professional costs, surely added to his iconoclast mystique.

In the end he's left quite a legacy to consider. Decades from now, if you'll excuse the pun, his bumpy journey through the cinema is going to look like an easy ride. So many classics pepper his filmography that his career looks quite consistently charmed once its visibly stretched over five decades of cinema: 1950s, Rebel and Giant; 1960s, Easy Rider and Cool Hand Luke; 1970s, Apocalypse Now; 1980s, Blue Velvet; 1990s, Speed. Many great actors never come close to lining up that many seminal films. And that's just the cream of the crop.

Dennis, Natalie and Dean in Rebel Without a Cause (1955)

The last Hopper performance I personally saw was in the undervalued Elegy (2008) in which he plays Ben Kingsley's dying confidante. I attended that junket, in fact, though I don't attend many. I still remember how excited I was awaiting his response to a question about which films he considered most important if you were teaching film history. After all, hadn't he lived film history himself? He cited Citizen Kane, Treasure of the Sierra Madre and The 400 Blows and anything by Akira Kurosawa. When it came time to talk current directors he wanted to work with it was Oliver Stone and Woody Allen. The answer seemed, to these ears at least, roughly twenty years late. But it also weirdly coincided, chronologically speaking, with Hopper's last widely celebrated triumph, two of them to be exact: the deranged addict of Blue Velvet and the drunk assistant coach in Hoosiers (for which he received his only acting nomination. His other Oscar bid was for writing Easy Rider). Both of those films arrived in 1986 when Oliver Stone's Platoon and Woody Allen's Hannah and Her Sisters were the top contenders for Hollywood's gold statue.

<--- Dennis with Natalie Wood in 1956

But who am I to judge the timeliness of a response? Especially when there are so many decades of his work to wade through. I myself tend to get trapped in a much earlier decade when I think of Hopper. I always think of Rebel first -- though his role was minor -- because it's one of my all time favorites and because the title could well have been coopted for Hopper himself. That classic captured so many young talents memorably, providing us with early livewire peeks at their adult sized movie charisma. Four members of the famous cast died tragically: James Dean in a car crash in 1955, Nick Adams overdosed in 1968; Sal Mineo was murdered in 1976; and Natalie Wood drowned in 1981. Dennis Hopper outlived them all, breaking that mythical "Rebel Curse" and providing intermittent rewards to moviegoing audiences for 55 more years after '55.

He was acting until the end. He has two unseen film in the cans. One is but a voice role but in the other, the comedy The Last Film Festival (2010), he plays a producer. It's one of the only major showbiz roles he had yet to play in real life after hundreds of acting gigs, and a good handful as a writer/director.

Beauty Break: Return of the Pixie

Two of Hollywood's most in-demand young actresses, Carey Mulligan and Mia Wasikowska are now sporting blond pixies. Who's next? Is the 'do about to take over? It hasn't been this Hollywood prominent since Winona Ryder sported it so memorably in the early 90s.


I looked at these two photos from BAFTA (previous post) and an Alice in Wonderland event this weekend and all I could think was Project Runway companion look challenge. Variations on a theme it is: black florals for blond pixies.

What do we think of Mulligan's dress? I almost love it but I really hate it, too. I plan to co-star with it in my next romantic comedy.

More Pixies from Mia Farrow through Winona Ryder. Annette Bening & Halle Berry are probably the true loyalists, always returning to the look.




edited to add: and my beloved NATALIE WOOD. How could I forget?!

She and Him. The Cuteness of Zjoooey

It occurs to me that The Cute Hierarchy must be adjusted yet again to honor the most adorable screen couple of 2009: Zjoooey. I hereby dedicate this week of blogging to them!

"Why do you let me stay here?"

The summer gem (500) Days of Summer wasn't quite enough to unsettle the top tiers of cute. But once combined with the force of their dance moves in the She and Him video (above), small animals with ginormous eyes everywhere were quaking in fear in 2009. So Much Cuteness. Who can compete?

The other big shakeup: After decades in the top ten, chipmunks finally fall off the list altogether, their plump cheeked reputation forever tarnished by Alvin & the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel [shudder]

1. baby kittens
holding down the top position since 1938 when Shirley Temple was vanquished
2. dolphins (+8)
they're all the rage again

3. puppies
4. baby seals
5. babies
6. otters (-4)
7. cupcakes
8. bunnies
9. WALL•E's Hello Dolly obsession (+5)
10. Hugh Dancy (new entry)

11. dimples
12. baby ducks in a line following their mama (-3)
13. Zjooey
14. unexpected gifts from loved ones
15. Australian accents
16. rainbows
17. Carey Mulligan (especially in the rain) (+6)
18. "The Lonely Goatherd" (+12)
what? Sound of Music was on the tube the other day



19. Natalie Wood in Miracle on 34th Street (+30 ...typical holiday spike)
20. screwball comedy
21. pomeranians
22. bunny slippers
23. Meryl Streep and Steve Martin smoking weed (new entry)

24. Amy Adams (-11)
25. ice cream cones

MM@M: "9 out of 10 Hollywood stars depend on LUX"

Mad Men at the Movies. In this series we've been covering movie references made on the 1960s show. Even if you don't watch, you're here because you love talking 'bout the movies. Previously we covered a telling Gidget reference, a throwaway Wizard of Oz bit and the scandal of Lady Chatterley's Lover. Episode 4 mentions an ad campaign that featured Hollywood's A-List actresses.

1.4 "New Amsterdam"
Young account executive Pete Campbell is at dinner with the rich in-laws. The father in-law has some unsolicited advice.

Tom: You've got to get that LUX soap campaign over to Sterling Cooper. Janet Leigh, Natalie Wood -- now, there's a day at the office. I'm telling you, you boys have got it made: Martini lunches, gorgeous women parading through. In my next life I'm coming back as an ad man.

Pete Campbell: Well, there's slightly more to it than that.
Tom: Yeah? Well, I'd keep that to yourself.

When Tom says "Natalie Wood" he gestures briefly toward his wife rather than the son-in-law he's speaking to. Is the Mrs. a fan? It wouldn't be surprising.

Natalie Wood for LUX soap --->

Wood's fame was not yet at its peak in 1960 (West Side Story, Splendor in the Grass and Gypsy coming right up) but she'd been quite famous since the mid 40s. She belonged to that rare breed of actor, the child star who becomes an even bigger teen idol and then a full on A List movie queen. As the book Pictures at a Revolution reminds us, Natalie held an odd cultural position in the 60s. Though Natalie was younger then many of the members of what came to be known as 'New Hollywood'

"she was Old Hollywood to the core... even if the term New Hollywood had been in use, Wood certainly would have considered herself no part of it.

It figures that she held great cross generational appeal.

But back to LUX soap for a minute. Their ad campaign was an enduring familiar one. It had featured legendary Hollywood beauties for decades with slogans like "To him, you're just as lovely as a movie star" and "9 out of 10 Hollywood stars depend on LUX"

Here's a few actressy LUX ads for fun.


An Olivia deHavilland ad from 1941, a German version starring Marlene Dietrich and Claudette Colbert's from 1935.


Rita Hayworth's from 1957. These ads were generally doubling as sneaky movie advertisements... this one for Pal Joey) and Debbie Reynolds' from 1956.

Other references in this episode
Television: a black and white western series... but which one? | Celebrities: Bob Newhart and Lenny Bruce | Books: Psalms and Nursery Rhymes From France | Theater: Bye Bye Birdie
*

Splendor in the Link

OH. MY. GOD. A Natalie Wood Retro right here in NYC next week. Wheeeee. I'm bouncing up and down in my chair as I type. (I'll fix the resultant typos later).


If you've never seen Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice you'd be insane to miss it. "Oh, Insight!" I'd also suggest catching Inside Daisy Clover because it's a) really weird and b) all about Hollywood and c) they totally nominated the wrong supporting actress from it for the Oscar.

There's also the opportunity to see Rebel Without a Cause, Gypsy, This Property is Condemned or West Side Story on the big screen if you haven't. I have so I'll be trying to catch the ones I haven't laid eyes on yet: Tomorrow is Forever (1946) with Claudette Colbert, the controversial hard to find Kings Go Forth (1958) with Frank Sinatra and Peeper (1975) with Michael Caine. Why can't this series last longer than a week. Where will I find the time that my Natalie deserves?

links
Culture Monster Martin Scorsese fights to save LACMA's film series. Scorsese is so kick ass. If only all successful Hollywood types would care so much about the history of the artform that's brought them all their lucre.
Everything I Know... you've heard about the train wreck production of Broadway's Spider-Man musical, right? It looks like Evan Rachel Wood's schedule just freed up.
Vanity Fair Online Mad Men's costume designer. I'm in love...


Just Jared Sarah Michelle Gellar and her mom in Santa Monica. Doesn't it seem like Buffy has been pregnant for 3 years now? When is that thing due?
I Need My Fix the oft-delicious Nia Long (Gospel Hill, Alfie) gets naked for PeTA. In this day and age though, you really can't get away with this much photoshopping on a major advertisement. You could make this ad at home with rudimentary adobe skills, it's so pieced together. (sigh)
The Fug Girls 'on the other hand'... Rachel McAdams
Some Came Running Glenn Kenny scolds Tarantino's scolders, loves Inglourious Basterds.

Finally... Are you going to reserve tickets to the 16 minute preview of James Cameron's Avatar? Tickets will be available sometime on Monday for screenings on Friday at the official site. Unusual marketing ploy, that: Get a ticket to come to the theater for a superdupercalifragilistic trailer really. Be sufficiently wowed to do it all over again with a larger time commitment on December 18th when the extravaganza opens 4realz.

Will it work?

Cameron has never missed at the box office but there's a first time for everything. On the other hand, why doubt? People were predicting disaster for Titanic for almost its entire pre-release existence and look what happened there.

Bright Star, Romantic Posters, Mad Men

Despite the title of this post, I have done a reasonably good job of keeping my own internal hype down to manageable levels when it comes to Bright Star : The Return of Jane Campion. Maybe it's because I don't know a lot about John Keats (Ben Whishaw) the poet and I know nothing about Fannie Brawn (Abbie Cornish) his lover. But the poster is not helping me with expectations because I'm a sucker for a good doomed romance.

Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art---
Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night
And watching, with eternal lids apart,
Like nature's patient, sleepless Eremite,
The moving waters at their priestlike task
Of pure ablution round earth's human shores,
Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask
Of snow upon the mountains and the moors---
No---yet still stedfast, still unchangeable,
Pillowed upon my fair love's ripening breast,
To feel for ever its soft fall and swell,
Awake for ever in a sweet unrest,
Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,
And so live ever---or else swoon in death.

-John Keats.

If I know my Jane Campion films I also think it's fitting/clever that Abbie Cornish is the top in this relationship (visually speaking). If you look at the general iconography of romantic movie posters, this poster is fairly unusual. There are only a handful of templates, with three popular options: the lovers are separated by lines or boxes, the lovers are paired somehow as equals and the most popular which is that the lovers are pictured in some sort of embrace with the man on top or higher in your field of view. Some of this is merely due to size, men being taller. Some of this is due to billing, men often getting top placement even if they aren't as famous (for example: James McAvoy's higher billing than Keira Knightley for Atonement before he ever had a hit of his own -- she'd had a few)...

...but since everything involved with movie marketing is a carefully considered choice, some of it has to be a matter of decades of subtly ingrained and probably unconscious sexism about whose in charge of relationships. For instance, I love that even when movie posters leave reality out of the picture altogether (faces floating in clouds like Up Close and Personal) -- the lovers are still obviously in missionary position. Ha!

My favorite man on top poster is an old classic Splendor in the Grass (1961). I love how hysterical the text is and how it foregrounds the fear/danger of female sexuality that's totally obvious in so much of cinema (an artform that's still mostly a man's domain). But, then again, I've been rewatching Mad Men Season 1 in marathon form so gender roles, social expectations and gross inequalities are totally foregrounded at the moment. I'm seeing them everywhere! That show is so, so brilliant. And, TA-DA! it's totally Splendor in the Grass's contemporary. It's easy to see why Deanie (Natalie Wood) went so crazy in that film. It wasn't just small town Bud (Warren Beatty) she had to worry about. Plop her down into the big city and the swarming mad men would have broken her, too.

I bet this would make a great double feature

P.S. The Bright Star website is quite ethereal and interesting

P.S. 2 Though I have this film pretty high in my current Oscar charts I waver continually about my confidence in that projection. I'm far more interested in this film for cinematic reasons (Campion) than for Oscar ones (biopic/romance). Bright Star is currently expected to open in limited release in mid September.

A Day of Rest with Natalie

Today, rather than blogging, I think I'll hang by the pool with Natalie Wood ...and poodle (not "Precious", this poodle has an easier life). Adam will be back with a new "Signatures" this evening. Stay tuned.

What will you be up to today?
While Natalie & Nathaniel sunbathe, please catch up / join in on this week's posts and comment convos. It's been busy what with that 1984 jamboree, Part 1 of The Terminator retrospective, first trailers to Oscar hopefuls Nine and The Road, sex with Channing Tatum and ongoing Cannes fever.
*

Tribeca, French Actresses, Gay History

Next week blogging will return to normal but this weekend I'm mostly offline. That's normally hard for me (My name is Nathaniel and I'm an internet addict) but this wedding weekend is such a blast that I haven't much though of movies... except for when we passed the Alamo Ritz earlier.

Before I left I took in my last Tribeca film, All About Actresses [Q & A] which is a French mockumentary about actresses and their neurosis. The actresses play themselves... but comedic false versions of themselves. The writer/director/star Maïwenn looked SO familiar to me and I just couldn't place her. This is what IMDB is for. Turns out she played the diva Plavalaguna in The Fifth Element. Well, how about that? I always loved her scene in that movie. Her new film is... unusual... but despite my francophilia, I feel like more knowledge of French cinema would have definitely helped me get the comedic twists on the star personas of the various actresses featured: Karin Viard, Charlotte Rampling, Muriel Robin, Karole Rocher, Jeanne Balibar, Romane Bohringer, Mélanie Doutey, Julie Depardieu, Estelle Lefébure. Nevertheless I was horrified that the audience knew even less than I. Consider: One audience member stands to ask a question and prefaces it by saying

I can't remember her name... but my question is about the old lady. The one that was in Basic Instinct 2...

 Charlotte Rampling?!? CHARLOTTE freaking RAMPLING reduced to 'the old lady that was in Basic Instinct 2?'

........Nathaniel wept.

I kept trying to picture All About Actresses with more familiar Hollywood actresses and it'd be quite a watchable oddity that we'd have to talk about. We'd have to talk about it a lot. My greatest take away was that I missed Romane Bohringer and I definitely want to see more of Karin Viard's work.

I forgot to mention it earlier but I also attended a special screening of the work in progress documentary Making the Boys [Panel] which covers the history of Mart Crowley's landmark gay stage play turned movie Boys in the Band (1968-1970). I have long been in the camp that feels that the property in question is a classic example of internalized homophobia but the documentary is terrific at showing all the sides of the arguments surrounding it. It attempts to put it all into perspective in terms of Boys place in the chronology of gay liberation. When it's completed it'll also be a must see for classic Hollywood devotees -- especially Natalie Wood fans. She was Crowley's patron saint, friend, and frequent employer and she gets lots of time and love in the documentary. Major bonus points: archival footage from parties at Wood's beach house with Hollywood stars like Sal Mineo and Roddy McDowall and great anecdotes about Bette Davis, William Friedkin and Richard Harris among others.

...more later but now I sleep and attend wedding festivities. Have a great weekend.

*

Don't you wish old photos came with audio tracks?

Or that you could time travel into the room as they were being taken.

[photo src]

And if either of those things were possible, wouldn't you grab every Old Hollywood candid you could find in order to listen in or join the party? What exactly would Rosalind Russell, Greer Garson and Merle Oberon chat about anyway? Roz only cares about the camera but who are Greer and Merle all smiles about?

I mean just fantasize for a moment about a night at ... on the bar with Marlene Dietrich and Claudette Colbert.

[photo src]

How much would you have to drink to not be starstruck and join right in. Too much. Too much I say. The mind clouds. The hangover would be epic.

Here's a photo I've cherished my whole life from an old out of print Natalie Wood book from the 80s. It's Dennis Hopper and Wood discussing acting styles as they screen A Streetcar Named Desire in the 50s. (Vivien Leigh was Natalie's favorite actress)


Imagine how many times "Method" and "Actor's Studio" were invoked in that conversation. Imagine the names that were casually dropped.

Blog challenge!
If you have a blog, post a hollywood candid or three you'd most like to hear the accompanying audio track to. I'll link up right here. Spread the namedropping / eavesdropping love.

first responders
Opportunistic Cinephile imagines that Bette Davis cares
Film Awards Watch goes on set with Jane Fonda and to theater with Orson Welles
A Blogwork Orange wonders if Liza Minelli was faking her laughter. Robert DeNiro can be so touchy. 'You talkin' to him?'
My New Plaid Pants gets kinky with Hitchcock and Kim Novak. Throw in Brando and Dean while you're at it.
Extra Criticum has a laugh with Monty & Liz. (sigh... How much do I love these two together? As much as kittens chasing their tails. Yes, that much)
Wipe That Smirk... attack of the princesses: Grace & Audrey
got here as soon as they could
Situated Laundry chooses Bette Davis and Joseph Cotton on the set of Beyond the Forest (I haven't seen this movie, have you?)
Culture Kid doesn't think Judy G needs that much cake. And what the hell are Queen Latifah and Meryl Streep doing?
The Silver Screening Room goes for Peter O'Toole and the "ladies", two Dames and confessions of a shopaholic?
Oscarvations wonders if DW Griffith was an the alpha male of United Artists? (I'm guessing it was Mary Pickford)
backup has arrived
StinkyLulu Sophia, Sal Mineo and Mae West. Oh my.
Stale Popcorn goes mental with Liza and Liz. Ha!
Reel Artsy Dorothy Dandridge wonders...

DVD: Natalie Wood 6 Times!, Nick & Norah

Collections ~ It's Tuesday so there are new box sets available highlighting everything from tired hockey masked killers (you know who) to highly respected thespians (Peter Sellers and Alec Guiness) but the big ... make that B-I-G... deal for The Film Experience is the "Natalie Wood Collection" which includes six films. I haven't seen Bombers B-52 or Cash McCall but even if they're bad you still get to stare at her for two hours. Her beauty justifies most any running time.

Natalie Wood *swoon*

The other four are more notable players in her filmography. There's the Edith Head costumed Helen Gurley Brown comedy Sex and the Single Girl (1964) and two true classics: the musical Gypsy (1962) and the legendary 'Warren Beatty Destroys Lives!' teen angst of the unbeatable Splendor in the Grass (1961). Adventurous movie fanatics might be most interested in getting a good long look at the underseen and idiosyncratic inside Hollywood drama Inside Daisy Clover (1965) from director Robert Mulligan (To Kill a Mockingbird). Natalie, 27 when the film was released, was too old for her role as an ascending teenage starlet, but Robert Redford is just right as her undeniably breathtaking but possibly gay lover. Ruth Gordon is her crazy mama (and strangely Oscar nominated though she's barely in the movie). Inside Daisy Clover's true Best Supporting Actress is Katharine Bard (someone I'd never heard of) who plays a slightly "off" Hollywood wife named Melora Swan. I was riveted every time she appeared. She was apparently a television actress and only made two feature films after this one. I guess nobody noticed how terrific she was. Shame.

From the Vaults ~ Being There (30th Anniversary) is sitting on my TV waiting for me to screen. I love Hal Ashby movies and I've never seen it. Oops. It stars Peter Sellers as a gardener who becomes a political advisor. Shirley Maclaine co-stars and they get Oscar winning support from Melvyn Douglas. When I wrote up that piece on The Little Mermaid two years ago, Bruno Paxton reminded me that I was giving it a teensy bit too much credit as THE comeback for Disney animation since Oliver and Company was a hit the year before. So yeah, 20th anniversary DVD for that cute 2D kitten. Finally Babs somehow found the time to return to her musical Yentl for an "Extended Directors Edition". Would that she would return to acting instead.

Newbies ~ Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist in which Michael Cera moves on from Juno (not the town in Alaska) and into Kat Dennings. Sweet funny movie with stellar comedic support from Ari Graynor. Can I see her in another movie NOW (previous posts)? There's also the Southern girl-fest The Secret Life of Bees starring actresses Queen Latifah, Sophie Okonedo and Dakota Fanning and singers Jennifer Hudson and Alicia Keys, Space Buddies which I'd really rather not type about... moving on! And Zack and Miri Make a Porno which I have yet to see. Worth a rental? Help me out.
*

"it's silly, but I believe"

Where My Heart Lies. And Yours?

Nathaniel's 20 all time favorite actresses (in no particular order and if you ask me on another day...)

Audrey, Kate, Vivien, Ingrid, Natalie, Jane, Bette, Meryl,
Kathleen, Julie, Diane, La Liz, Norma, Carole, Michelle,
Judy, Julianne, Catherine, Julie and Joan

Because sometimes you need to be reminded.

P.S. 1 my apologies to Marilyn Monroe who I did forget (and whom I prefer to, say, Audrey Hepburn) and about 20 others I love nearly as much as these 20 including the much maligned Ms. Kidman and everyone's favorite Georgia Peach --no, not Julia, HOLLY! ...

P.S. 2 Let's have a meme of all time actress love. Post them just like so --no explanation and no ranking necessary

P.S. 3 I've linked up as they came in but I really must stop updating this post now.

P.S. 4 if you need something more accurate about my love please see the earlier post Top 100 of All Time OR the Top 100 of the Aughts which is about 3 years old now and which I will revise in late 2009 to reflect the last 4 years of cinema.

JA's list. Sissy, Samantha, Sigourney oh my.
J.D.'s list. Annie, Knightley, Linney, Ziyi...
El Gringo's list is specifically meant to provoke me. He steals away an adolescent crush (Elisabeth Shue) and my current imaginary gf (Marisa Tomei). He must be stopped!
Nick's list (and I didn't even tag him. Show off) Tilda up top
Peter's list. Lovely photos and my Natalie is there
Glenn's list down under. Toni. Nicole. Michelle. Lily...
Flickhead's list. Deneuve. Kidman. Wood. Weld. yummy
Jeremy's list. Though he cheated and left out the "all time" part ;) It's post 70s only
Ivan's list is fascinating: Holm, Remick, Trevor, Grahame
Celinejulie's list. Very different than the rest
Ed's list. Dalle, Seberg, Schygulla, Thurman...
Sheila's list. Adjani, Kahn, O'Hara, Monroe...
Rick's list. Cheung, Colbert, Pfeiffer, Dunaway. Mmmm
Dave's list: Marlene. Mia. Miranda.
Tony's list has Fonda (Bridget!???), Abril (si!) and more
Bob's list: Masina, Moreau, Testud, Gyllenhaal
Cinebeat's list cheats with 23 ~Three of them have to go!!! But which?
Jonathan opts for only character actresses. StinkyLulu would be proud
Dame Jame's has Marie Dressler & Thelma Ritter. I love this
Darren goes all mysterious with only pics. Can you name all 20?
J.C. goes classic Hollywood. My Norma is there!
Kotto honors performances rather than actresses
StinkyLulu narrows the 20 down even further turning it into a history of his smackdowns
Laura's list: Loretta, Ginger, Irene
Jason cheats too. It's just top 20 of rightnow
Tim's list reflects on all of these lists
Wendymoon commits heresy. Says she likes actors better!

Help -- the meme has totally evolved! Soon it will walk on two hind legs and learn how to make fire

And... if you would like to read more on any of the actresses above chase their labels below.
*
*