Nashville Wrap Up (Part 1)

Howdy y’all. Excuse the twang. I’m just back from Nashville (last night was their closing night) but now I have already plunged headfirst into freelance work for the Tribeca Film Festival. I miss my Film Experience baby but I’ll be back to regular posting duties on May 1st. I had hoped to write up several of the features I saw in Nashville to give you a better picture of this trip to the longest running film festival in the south but we’ll have to cover those films as they emerge on DVD or theatrical instead. For now a quick dashed off note about the festival’s main slate.

a poster for Applaus hangs over the moviegoing crowd

Narrative Competition
The winner was a blast of color and song, a Russian musical actually. The plot was weirdly reminiscent of John Waters Cry Baby only gender-flipped with a side of boys-who-can't-stop-dancing from Swing Kids (Anyone remember that?). It's squares vs. hipsters opening is thrilling but the first musical number almost derails it for sheer confusion before things really get hopping. It's not always a smooth ride but it's most definitely a ride. It gets better as it goes and the ending is a knowing hoot, contextually the title in a way that just about anyone will understand. Recommended! Bonus points: Giving us lots of Oksana Akinshina who you'll undoubtedly remember fondly from Lilja 4ever. She's all grown up now and ravishing, fully convincing as the unknowable dream girl "Polly" who gets the story rolling.

<--- Grand Jury Prize: Valeriy Todorovskiy’s Hipsters
Honorable Mention: The Be All End All
Best Actor: Anton Shagin, Hipsters
Best Actress: Paprika Steen, Applause

It probably won't surprise you to hear that my great takeaway from this festival was a performance by an actress. I was on a separate jury so I didn't vote on the main competition but I was both enormously pleased and as far from surprised as it's possible to be to hear that they were rewarding Paprika Steen for her portrayal of an alcoholic actress Thea in this Danish film. Not only is Steen sensational as the trainwreck actress but she's also blistering as "Martha" who Thea plays in a production of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf that keeps tearing holes in Thea's own narrative with its constant intrusions. I loved this performance -- it's a monster, fully deserving of the closeups it's continually granted -- and I loved the movie, too. You may remember Steen for her intense work in the dogme breakthrough Celebration (1998). She's just riveting in Applause and I'm hoping that the film, which has been working the festival circuit for some time, finds distribution so I can demand that every last one of you see it.

Woolf at the Movies.

Jose here to commemorate the anniversary of Virginia Woolf's birth.



Woolf said that every secret of a writer's soul, every experience of his life, every quality of his mind is written large in his works.
Since this isn't a literature site, what better way to examine this than the ways in which some of her works have been taken to the movies.

First up is Sally Potter's gender bending version of Orlando with Tilda Swinton as the title character. In this luscious reworking of Woolf's classic, Potter concentrates mostly on interpreting the author's groundbreaking prose and reflecting it through the film's sensuous visuals.
Few filmmakers would've been as brave as Potter and give in so much to the undeniable power of the text to a level where the film actually celebrates Woolf more than the director. Jane Campion's crush on John Keats in Bright Star comes to mind-in terms of literature taking over film so much-and if you haven't seen Orlando, what are you waiting for?

Even if at first glance she's only referred to in the title, the ghost of the British author hovers all over Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? her name is supposed to symbolize the fear of leading empty lives and existence out of illusion. While Edward Albee's play is notorious for its explosive nature (as opposed to Woolf's universe of inner conflict) it's feasible to say that the playwright's intention was precisely to make us wonder what would push us to release all those violent, damaging emotions from our minds.

Last but not least, today would be a good day as any, to re-watch Nicole Kidman's Academy Award winning performance as Woolf in The Hours.
Brilliant beyond the fake nose, Kidman has rarely been as introspective and haunting. She might've made one very controversial Oscar winner, but like Woolf's literature her performance doesn't fade, doesn't wither and probably will never grow old.

Are you a fan of Virginia's literature? Do you like how cinema has interpreted her?

Detour, Links Ahead

Nick's Flick Picks remembers moviegoing experiences this decade. A great angle on a 'decade in review', and as beautifully written as you'd expect
Dear Jesus appreciates the kids movies that weren't really for kids in 2009: Mary & Max, Where the Wild Things Are and Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Film Doctor reasons why Fantastic Mr Fox is the coolest film


The Advocate famous TV mom Meredith Baxter (Family Ties) comes out
The Wrap on Invictus and The Lovely Bones
GreenCine Daily Overheard at the Gotham Awards
Cinema Styles has a wonderfully heartfelt piece on Boris Karloff and changing taste in actors as you age
Filmbo Judy Garland time. Wish I'd written this: "Is there no one running a marathon of her show today? What a waste of a TV schedule."
MNPP remembers comeback-man Woody Harrelson in Indecent Proposal. Going back to the roots are we? Well, I suppose that's cheers but he didn't enjoy frottage with Demi Moore on Cheers now did he?

Sam Neill recreates his Jurassic 90s heyday

Empire Magazine 20th Anniversary Photo Gallery (which maybe came out months ago but which I'm just now noticing... I'm not a regular reader) is very guy-film-only mainstream. Actors (no actresses -- unless they're with the actors) recreate their iconic roles. With 20 years of cinema to play with though it's kind of a shame that the net wasn't a bit wider. Would have been fun to see Thelma & Louise again or Julia redoing Pretty Woman or Linda Hamilton with Schwarzenegger in the Terminator pics but what is featured is super fun.
Sunset Gun remembers Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
IonCinema speculates about the Sundance lineup
/Film Robert Duvall as Don Quixote?
Towleroad Glee's Chris Golfer gives funny interview
MTV I hesitate to link to this article on The Twilight Saga: Eclipse because I think the writer must have been on some sort of drugs while typing it out. But it's so weird I must. It basically asks (without irony) what the franchise could do to widen its audience. Dear god... it's not popular enough?!? These are not struggling limited release art films, crazy-person-who-wrote-this!

And in case you haven't seen this web goodie "Hollywood Vs. New York"

May Flowers, Kathleen Turner

May Flowers, weeknights @ 11:00


Kathleen Turner as Joan Wilder. She's a hopeless... no, a hopeful romantic. What a slam dunk star turn that was. And how galling that Romancing the Stone didn't net her an Oscar nomination. It was deglam and glam in one package. Plus it was super fun and Oscar should remember to have fun more often. Fun movies sometimes have more staying power than dutiful prestige pics. Not all the time but why eliminate them because they aren't serious? Screwball comedies were as far from serious as it gets and Oscar didn't hate those.

The Oscar Nominees that year were four previous winners and one breakthrough performer (Judy Davis)

• Judy Davis, A Passage to India
• Sally Field, Places in the Heart (winner)
  
• Jessica Lange, Country
• Vanessa Redgrave, The Bostonians
  
• Sissy Spacek, The River

<-- Kathleen as "China Blue" also in 1984. She wasn't a dainty feminine thing, don't let the rose fool you.

If I had been giving out my awards back then, the Best Actress list would not have been 60% farm wives. My list might have read like so...

• Judy Davis, A Passage to India
• Mia Farrow, Broadway Danny Rose
  
• Sally Field, Places in the Heart
  
• Kathleen Turner, Romancing the Stone (and Crimes of Passion)
• Lesley Ann Warren, Choose Me
  
  umm... one caveat. I never saw The Bostonians... but back in 1984 when I was a wee boy I was very obsessed with Daryl Hannah in Splash and Elisabeth Shue in Karate Kid so I had no time for Vanessa Redgrave!
  

Basically, Mia Farrow excepted, no movie star had as much right to bitch about the Academy's choices as Kathleen Turner did in the 1980s. Those two just couldn't catch a break with AMPAS. I don't know who they pissed off but it was someone important and vengeful. Turner couldn't even catch a break with TONY voters after her gobsmacking "Martha" in Edward Albee's immortal Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (pictured backstage below)


In case you missed it and you are Turner-simpatico (more people should be) you should listen to my interview with Bill Irwin from last year's Rachel Getting Married. I kept making him talk about Kathleen. I couldn't help myself!

NOTE: For the next 24 hours for no particular reason whatsoever I'm going to be celebrating 1984 --an impromptu 25th anniversary celebration. Join me. Party like it's 1984. Coming up: The Top 10 of 1984 and a look back @ Terminator.

For now feel free to discuss Oscar's 1984 Best Actress choices and yours. You know you want to.
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77 Appropriate Ways to Celebrate Elizabeth Taylor's Birthday

Be great. Be beautiful. Ride a horse. Get married. Get divorced. Act like a total diva. Wear something spectacularly sexy, preferrably white. Make people want more.


Befriend Michael Jackson. Watch Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? again. Watch National Velvet. Watch A Place in the Sun. Be highly quotable. Get married. Flaunt every piece of jewelry you own. Donate to an AIDS charity. Nurse a sick friend. Get divorced. Show everyone your wicked sense of humor. Fall in love with Montgomery Clift in glorious black and white (any of his movies will do). Ask your best friend to refer to you as "Bessie Mae" for the rest of the day. Get married. Scream "I was the slut of all time!" at the top of your lungs. Survive the loss of someone you loved no matter how hard that is to do. Pretend you've won an Oscar. And another. Drink people under the table. Love dogs. Get married. Polish her star at 6336 Hollywood Blvd. Watch Cleopatra... or at least half of it (okay, maybe a third). Get divorced. Read Elizabeth. Watch the original Father of the Bride. Get married. Get divorced. Get remarried. Get redivorced. Buy a pair of violet contact lenses. Let your passions rule you. Play a game of ping pong.


Don't take yourself too seriously. Role play "Liz and Dickie" with your boyfriend or girlfriend. Get married. Be fabulous. "Tell mama all". Name a perfume after your favorite thing. Gain lots of weight. Watch Giant. Watch Suddenly Last Summer. Watch Reflections in a Golden Eye. Steal something from someone who reminds you of Debbie Reynolds. Descend into "erotic vagrancy"! Give them something to talk about when you leave the room. Photoshop yourself onto the cover of 14 People magazines. Invite people over and play "get the guests" or "hump the hostess", your choice. Watch The Flintstones. Watch Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Watch The Taming of the Shrew. Imagine how Sherilyn Fenn might play you in a TV movie. Study Kabbalah.


Be sexy. Seek a voice role on The Simpsons. Work towards making lots of "all time greatest" lists in whatever it is that you do and actually deserve the honor. Make the world a better place. Get divorced. Go to a gay bar with friends. Jump on a plane to Hawaii. Excite the tabloids. Be legendary. Have a tracheotomy. Survive pneumonia. Have a hip replaced. Have a tumor removed. Survive cancer. Throw your back out. Call yourself "Mother Courage" and mean it. Survive everything.
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'I swear, if you existed, I'd link you!'

programming note: I'll get to the BAFTA's live blogging --well, tape delayed reactions -- later tonight (approx. 10:00 pm EST) I can't pass up a concert with Kristin Chenowith. Wheeeee

The Carpetbagger has a fun theorizing piece on celebrity interviews
Actress Archives says goodbye to actor James Whitmore (RIP)
Low Res goes xenophobic (but has an archival point)
wipe that smirk off your face has really tough Oscar trivia. I'm stumped


Scanners on the ho hum controverseries for this year's Oscars
Silly Hats Only the Muriel Awards have begun
The NY Post on the New York Times strange sin of omission in regards to one the First Lady of MGM Norma Shearer. As you may have guessed, this is not okay with yours truly
Thompson on Hollywood the WGA winners. Stop this Slumdog train, I want to get off. I get that people like it but Best WRITING ??? ... and so often? I weep for our collective discernment skills. P.S. On a totally shallow note: How cute is Milk screenwriter, Dustin Lance Black?

Finally, I love this piece at Bright Lights After Dark that talks about the problem of "craftsmanship" in our prestige pieces. Erich Kuersten gets right at the heart of the problem I couldn't quite articulate concerning overly beautiful films like Doubt or Revolutionary Road ...

Craftsmanship in cinema has become synonymous with stifled - when every aspect of your production -- every crew member-- is doing everything above and beyond to get the script quite right and enable them to win awards. When it's something that's meant to be kind of spontaneous and off-the-cuff, like a two person character drama, or some fly-on-the-wall sort of minor key mood piece, like Doubt or The Valley of Elah, for example, you can see the sterility of the Sundance film school-style stress on crafstmanship vs. say, the ass-over-tit rock poetry of something like Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?.

...It has to do with film schools churning out competent gear-heads eager to show off their expensive educations with key lighting and tracking shots instead of dropping acid and going off to Vietnam or whatever heart of darkness is in vogue this year. People are scared of themselves, and it's just not interesting after awhile watching them avoid the mirror.

"ass-over-tit rock poetry" is a shockingly apt description of ...Woolf, is it not? I love reading Kuersten.

And, I should quickly point out, I greatly admire Roger Deakins who is one of the very best DPs in the business. But I think his awesome skill at beauty was wrong for both of those aforementioned films because they needed to be a little uglier to confront. Or at least more dangerous in their aesthetic comportment. Don't you think?
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Bill Irwin, The Film Experience Interview

new podcast!
Part 2 of 2: Rachel Getting Married Special

If you sat through Rachel Getting Married, curious about where you'd previously seen Anne Hathaway's mediating papa "Paul" before I'll help you out. Bill Irwin's film credits stretch all the way back to Robert Altman's Popeye (1980) and he's popped up in films as diverse as Lady in the Water, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Stepping Out, Across the Universe and How the Grinch Stole Christmas. His television appearances include The Cosby Show, Northern Exposure and multiple stints on Sesame Street as "Mr. Noodle"

For theater aficionados he's a much more familiar presence, a bonafide star. I've been an admirer since the first time I saw him on stage in The Goat or Who is Sylvia? in 2002. I was late to the party since Mr. Irwin has actually been winning coveted high profile awards in New York since the 1980s. He's practically an awards magnet. Remember that comic thread in the movie The Savages (2007) wherein Laura Linney and Philip Seymor Hoffman desperately yearned to become Guggenheim Fellows? Well Bill Irwin received just that honor all the way back in 1984...

Read more about my interview with Bill Irwin

Or if you're illiterate, you can just move straight to the enhanced podcast @ iTunes to hear me grill Bill Irwin incessantly on the great Kathleen Turner (thank God he indulged me) and hammer out what it is about Rachel Getting Married that makes people love it or hate it so. There's also a standard mp3 if you don't have iTunes. And just for fun here's a couple of Bill Irwin routines from YouTube...



(left) w/ Broadway star Karen Ziemba perform "Sooner or Later" (right) in Regard of Flight with Michael O'Connor and Doug Skinner
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The Longest 'Best Picture' Titles

tues top ten: for the list maker in me and the list lover in you
UPDATE: oops. LotR was messed up. Fixed below.

Jonathan's fun movie facts post led me to this indirectly. But on a dull train ride last week I whipped up this absolutely crucial list. Your life isn't complete without knowing the answer to the following question:

...What Are the Ten Longest Titles of Best Picture Nominees?

10. It's a six-way tie for 10th place: The wordy names being One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) Love is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955), Meredith Wilson's The Music Man (1962). Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), Seven Brides For Seven Brothers (1954) and Around the World in Eighty Days (1956) --Perhaps we should just hand 10th place to 80 Days since it's the most long winded of these six films, clocking in at 3 hours. Hey, it takes a long time to shove in all those celebrity cameos, people. The Player was an hour faster with the same task but Michael Anderson is no Robert Altman.

09. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
I've never seen this film. In my defense there's not an actress in it (well not one with more than a walk-on from the looks of the cast list) and since I'm first and foremost driven by actressing... Well, that's my excuse. Side note: While attending that junket for Elegy last week Dennis Hopper listed this as one of the five best/most important movies ever. He was caught off guard by the question and answering on the fly but still... that's high praise from a man who has been in classics ranging from Rebel Without a Cause and Easy Rider to Blue Velvet.

08. Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind (2004) Oh, wait. Riiiiight. (sigh) the Oscars suck.

08. I am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang (1932) The tag line of this drama about a wrongly imprisoned man is even a mouthful "Six sticks of dynamite that blasted his way to freedom... and awoke America's conscience!"


07. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
By now you've probably read that Paul Newman, our Butch, has limited time left here on earth. That fills me with such sadness... just as I have been digging back into his filmography. What an actor and what a star he's been for multiple decades. Few people ever have had such a long and deserved run.

---> Elijah Wood has seen too much. He is terrified to watch all of the Rings movies back to back.

06 and 05 The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002), and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003 --see previous post) take these spots. I bet you thought they'd come in first. I know I did when I got curious about title length. Incidentally, Return... is also one of the very longest Oscar winners at 201 minutes. I believe ---someone correct me if I'm wrong -- that it's the 4th longest Best Picture ever. Only Gone With the Wind, Lawrence of Arabia and Ben-Hur have numbed more asses. The last Rings film is even one minute longer than The Godfather Part II, currently the fifth longest sit.

03 (tie)
The Russians Are Coming The Russians Are Coming (1966)
I didn't realize this was a comedy until I was writing up this post. No matter how many films I see, huge gaps remain. Has anyone reading seen this? No on speaks of it. So if you have, do.
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003)
Tim Robey of the Daily Telegraph is like a one man army proselytizing this film's greatness. He even convinced Nick to raise his letter grade considerably. That's persuasion. Perhaps I too should give it another spin. I did crazy enjoy Paul Bettany the first time through and liked the movie as a whole. As for the title... I realize it's lifted from the novels but I think it's awkward at best and unintentionally funny at worst.


02 The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) oops. I had this one too low. Perhaps I was appreciating its brevity (length) in the face of Return of the King

01 Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
Not only does this classic comedy have the longest title ever from a best picture nominee, it has one of the best period. Ever. Don'cha think?

I can do without most ":" subtitle situations... but wouldn't it be great if more titles were this creative, funny and movie-descriptive? Remember when that Nicolas Cage romantic comedy was called Cop Gives Waitress 2 Million Dollar Tip which was a fun "ripped from the tabloids" descriptive title and then it became the utterly generic sounding It Could Happen to You, a title which could fit only hmmm two hundred thousand other movies with ease. zzz.

So, here's to short movies with long titles like Dr. Strangelove: Or How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the Bomb. It's easy to sit through them and it's fun to say their names aloud.
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'Hump The Hostess'

from Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee

George: How about 'Hump the Hostess', huh? How about that? How about Hump the Hostess? Do you wanna play that one? You wanna play Hump the Hostess, huh?
Nick: Calm down!
George: Or do you wanna wait till later to get her off into the bushes?
Honey: [completely sauced] HUMP THE HOSTESS!
Nick: Just shut up, will you?

This post has been

for hard language

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My Dinner With... Kathleen Turner

Piper @ Lazy Eye Theater sent me a dinner invitation. Only trouble was it was blank and it required me to actually do the inviting. But before I do, let's consider for a moment the audacity of M. Piper. He sent it to me on January 8th. I know right? Yes, just as the BFCA winners were celebrating and the DGA nominees were being announced... smack dab in the feverish build up to the Oscar nominations it did arrive. January! The nerve.

My friends all know not to try to engage me in actual attention-requiring conversations from mid December through late February (yes, I'm that good to my loved ones). But with Oscar season over, my brain is my own again. I can now enter the kitchen rather than taking my meals intravenously at the computer.

So this is what a kitchen looks like.

1. Pick a single person past or present who works in the film industry who you'd like to have dinner with and tell us why you chose this person.
I'm inviting Kathleen Turner to dine with me.

"I'd love to, Nathaniel. I don't care if this whole room of reporters knows about our rendezvous!"

I'm not inviting Kathleen because she's my favorite "lost" actress from the 80s, though she is (she hasn't made a movie since 2000). This is not because I am Oscar obsessed and she was the first talent I ever considered "snubbed" in my earliest throes of awards curiosity, though she was (I was confused that they preferred three farm wives to her LAFCA winning work in Romancing The Stone & Crimes of Passion). This is not because her "Martha" in the Broadway revival of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf was one of the best performances I've ever seen and she (shockingly) made me forget all about Liz Taylor, though it was and she did.

No, it's a combination of all those things but mostly that I've just finished reading her bio Send Yourself Roses. I was disappointed to discover that it was only 261 pages long. I was hoping her oral profundities would last me through the rest of winter. I'm a slow reader but 261 pages of Kathleen is easy to binge on. Like her film career, this book was way too short.

With my invitation would come roses (no way should the great lady have to self-send) and a note that would hopefully quell her objections to meeting a crazed fan. It would utilise her own get up and go / face the music motto that she winds throughout the book's pages "...you just have to, don't you?"

2. Set the table for your dinner. What would you eat? Would it be in a home or at a restaurant? And what would you wear? Feel free to elaborate on the details.
Kathleen can wear whatever she likes. She's not into fashion. She's into comfort. Her feet bother her (rheumatoid arthritis + knee replacements. Ouch and sympathies) ...socks or flip flops are fine. I would actually hold the dinner in a rented van. No, no sillies --not like a Buffalo Bill type of situation. A van so that Ms. Turner and I could do service together for City Meals on Wheels in between bites. Kathleen is a good samaritan and I'd want to impress. It's been eons since I did something selflessly for someone else. Unless you count all this free promotion I do for celebrities like Kathleen Turner on this blog. Shush.

The trickiest thing about this dinner would be that I would have to have the table especially built so that it was just an inch or two too high. I want Kathleen, a large woman, to have to look up slightly to talk to me. This way, her patented head toss that delights me so would be sure to occur with great regularity as we scarfed our food. If the food was spicy enough maybe I could engineer some extra eye-flashing from her as well.

Kathleen believes in communal dishes. She says so in the book. So the first course would definitely be something we could get our hands into and share, like an African rice dish perhaps. I haven't worked out the entire menu but I'd theme the courses after her movies... can you eat alligator? Kathleen is not a recovering alcoholic as the tabs and her own vodka soaked public breakdowns had everyone believing. She is a self-moderating drinker but, all the same, no booze for this special night.

Kathleen's five best performances, give or take Crimes of Passion (which I
haven't seen in too long to judge) counter clockwise from top left: Body Heat (1981),
Peggy Sue Got Married (1986), War of the Roses (1989), Romancing the Stone (1984)
and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (2004-2007)

3. List five thoughtful questions you would ask this person during dinner.
I would ask 50 --can one ever have enough Kathleen, but do they have to be "thoughtful"? This meme is so strict. Here's a sampling.

1. Why didn't you write about your Oscar loss for Peggy Sue Got Married in your book Send Yourself Roses? You wrote about a few unpleasantries and some straight up tragedies and the way I see it an Oscar loss (when you deserved to win) surely fits somewhere between those polls of ewww. And yet in 261 pages ...nothing. You're torturing me! I fear I remember the night better than you.
2. Your candor has always been a great and rare gift, especially for an A lister. But, if there's one part of the book that feels like you're holding back it's the section on Crimes of Passion (1984). You do dish some stories from the set but once it comes to your first screening, your husband's subsequent anger and assumption that he could control your creative choices, and your own surprise at the same... the book suddenly feels cagey. Can you retrieve the missing 10 pages please. 20? There's more stories there, surely. I wish you had slapped him around a bit. Who marries an actress known for her screen-scorching sexuality and then freaks out when she uses it in the service of a role?... a truly outré role in a deranged Ken Russell movie, but still.
3. You've smartly realized how much better stage roles are for actresses of your calibre and age... but you've also expressed a desire to return to the movies. What kind of roles would you like to play? I've seen you on stage and you're an even better actress than you were when you were a huge movie star. Hollywood is missing out.
4. Can I audit your class at NYU "Practical Acting: Shut Up and Do It!"? I'm not an actor or an NYU student but I love the title and I'm willing to bet that you're an insightful coach. It'd give me great blogging material. You believe in charity. Give. To me.
   
5. Speaking of... Will you star with me in a YouTube response video called "I'm F#@*ing Kathleen Turner"?
   ...........I've already written the song.

4. When all is said and done, select six bloggers to pass this Meme along to. Link back to Lazy Eye Theatre, so that people know the mastermind behind this Meme.
okay, get cooking people... Emma @ All About My Movies, 14 or Candy @ Circus Hour, Gabriel @ Modern Fabulousity, Jackie @ Spectator, JA of My New Plaid Pants and Dave @ Victim of the Time.

AFI: The New Top 100 List

The Revised Greatest American Films List
I'm happy to see Blade Runner, Nashville, and Cabaret added. They all hold high rank in my own favorites listing. What say ye about this new lineup? (To be helpful I've added their previous AFI ranking to the right --big changes in bold)

1. "Citizen Kane" (1941) same
2. "The Godfather" (1972) 3
3. "Casablanca" (1942) 2
4. "Raging Bull" (1980) 24
5. "Singin' in the Rain" (1952) 10
6. "Gone With the Wind" (1939) 4
7. "Lawrence of Arabia" (1962) 5
8. "Schindler's List" (1993) 9
9. "Vertigo" (1958) 61
10. "The Wizard of Oz" (1939) 6


11. "City Lights" (1931) 76
12. "The Searchers" (1956) 96
13. "Star Wars" (1977) 15
14. "Psycho" (1960) 18
15. "2001: A Space Odyssey" (1968) 22
16. "Sunset Boulevard" (1950) 12
17. "The Graduate" (1967) 7
18. "The General" (1927) new
19. "On the Waterfront" (1954) 8
20. "It's a Wonderful Life" (1946) 11

21. "Chinatown" (1974) 19
22. "Some Like It Hot" (1959) 14
23. "The Grapes of Wrath" (1940) 21
24. "E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial" (1982) 25
25. "To Kill a Mockingbird" (1962) 34
26. "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" (1939) 29
27. "High Noon" (1952) 33
28. "All About Eve" (1950) 16
29. "Double Indemnity" (1944) 38
30. "Apocalypse Now" (1979) 28

31. "The Maltese Falcon" (1941) 23
32. "The Godfather, Part II" (1974) same
33. "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" (1975) 20
34. "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" (1937) 49
35. "Annie Hall" (1977) 31
36. "The Bridge on the River Kwai" (1957) 13
37. "The Best Years of Our Lives" (1946) same
38. "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" (1948) 30
39. "Dr. Strangelove" (1964) 26
40. "The Sound of Music" (1965) 55

41. "King Kong" (1933) 43
42. "Bonnie and Clyde" (1967) 27
43. "Midnight Cowboy" (1969) 36
44. "The Philadelphia Story" (1940) 51
45. "Shane" (1953) 69
46. "It Happened One Night" (1934) 35
47. "A Streetcar Named Desire" (1951) 45
48. "Rear Window" (1954) 42
49. "Intolerance" (1916) new
50. "Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" (2001) new

51. "West Side Story" (1961) 41
52. "Taxi Driver" (1976) 47
53. "The Deer Hunter" (1978) 79
54. "M*A*S*H" (1970) 56
55. "North by Northwest" (1959) 40
56. "Jaws" (1975) 48
57. "Rocky" (1976) 78
58. "The Gold Rush" (1925) 74
59. "Nashville" (1975) new
60. "Duck Soup" (1933) 85

61. "Sullivan's Travels" (1941) new
62. "American Graffiti" (1973) 77
63. "Cabaret" (1972) new
64. "Network" (1976) 66
65. "The African Queen" (1951) 17
66. "Raiders of the Lost Ark" (1981) 60
67. "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" (1966) new
68. "Unforgiven" (1992) 98
69. "Tootsie" (1982) 62
70. "A Clockwork Orange" (1971) 46 (i still don't understand how this one qualifies as American)

71. "Saving Private Ryan" (1998) new
72. "The Shawshank Redemption" (1994) new
73. "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" (1969) 50
74. "The Silence of the Lambs" (1991) 65
75. "In the Heat of the Night" (1967) new
76. "Forrest Gump" (1994) 71
77. "All the President's Men" (1976) new
78. "Modern Times" (1936) 81
79. "The Wild Bunch" (1969) 80
80. "The Apartment" (1960) 93

81. "Spartacus" (1960) new
82. "Sunrise" (1927) new
83. "Titanic" (1997) new
84. "Easy Rider" (1969) 88
85. "A Night at the Opera" (1935) new
86. "Platoon" (1986) 83
87. "12 Angry Men" (1957) new
88. "Bringing Up Baby" (1938) 97
89. "The Sixth Sense" (1999) new
90. "Swing Time" (1936) new

91. "Sophie's Choice" (1982) new
92. "Goodfellas" (1990) 94
93. "The French Connection" (1971) 70
94. "Pulp Fiction" (1994) 95
95. "The Last Picture Show" (1971) new
96. "Do the Right Thing" (1989) new
97. "Blade Runner" (1982) new
98. "Yankee Doodle Dandy" (1942) 100
99. "Toy Story" (1995) new
100. "Ben-Hur" (1959) 72

<---they're tearing him apart: James Dean lost BOTH his spots on the top 100. And Monty Clift too. Argh. The films that fell out were...Doctor Zhivago #39, North by Northwest #40, Birth of a Nation #44, From Here To Eternity #52, Amadeus #53, All Quiet on the Western Front #54, The Third Man #57, Fantasia #58, Rebel Without a Cause #59, Stagecoach #63, Close Encounters of the Third Kind #64, The Manchurian Candidate #67, An American in Paris #68, Wuthering Heights #73, Dances With Wolves #75, Giant #82, Fargo #84, Mutiny on the Bounty #86, Frankenstein #87, Patton #89, The Jazz Singer #90, My Fair Lady #91, A Place in the Sun #92, Guess Who's Coming To Dinner #99

weirdest entry: Sophie's Choice... almost never listed in any "best of", apart from Meryl Streep's astonishing performance, is in the top 100 --They collectively name it the 6th best of the entire 80s decade. Whaaaa?

lesson learned: nothing below the top 30 is ever safe. It all depends on who they poll and which way the winds blow.

Apropos of Nothing...

...other than a conversation I just had with Nick M and a desire to think about something other than the Oscars for five minutes here are my 5 favorite plays (ask me tomorrow it'll be different). I'm not claiming they're the best productions I've ever seen (in some cases I've never completely loved a production of said piece) or the best ever written. Just the five I have the deepest affection for currently. If you want more than five, just add anything by Albee or Williams to the shortlist.

(alpha order)
"ANGELS IN AMERICA" Tony Kushner
"CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF" Tennessee Williams
"THE CRUCIBLE" by Arthur Miller
"MACBETH" by William Shakespeare
"WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF" by Edward Albee

For people who know theater better than I, send me suggestions of things I should read (obviously this list is very mainstream in it's "best" way.)

Best Actress (the ones you've heard of)

Now... for you filmgoers out there: You may actually know these next ladies better than the ones in the musical category. I'm not sure why so many fine Broadway actors seem to be restricted to guestspots on Law & Order but no one has hired me as a casting director so I can't guess who will fix the system. But, anyway, in this particular category some names will be very familiar to filmgoers as well.


CHERRY JONES as "Sister Aloysius" in Doubt
Possible Campaign Angle: A true modern theater star giving a much buzzed about turn. Trust me, you'd be hypnotized. This is her fourth nomination.
Why You Know Who She Is: Frequent appearances in character roles in Hollywood pictures like Signs, Erin Brockovich, Oceans 12, The Village, Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, The Horse Whisperer, The Perfect Storm and Cradle Will Rock. Plus she's an outspoken gay activist --If you saw her, you'd recognize her.
Pros: Genuine powerhouse stage performer.
Con: She's won already for The Heiress

LAURA LINNEY as "Patricia" in Sight Unseen
Possible Campaign Angle: Great performer. Plus she's not slumming on Broadway for attention. She returns every couple of years in between films despite being in demand in Hollywood.
Why You Know Who She Is: Oscar nominated turns in You Can Count on Me and Kinsey.
Pros: Great reviews. What do you expect? Didn't you read the words "Laura" and "Linney" above?
Con: Ancient history having played its limited run last summer.

MARY LOUISE PARKERas "Rachel" in Reckless
Possible Campaign Angle: "It's just an honor to be nominated"
Why You Know She Is: Billy Crudup's ex (famously dumped for Claire Danes while she was pregnant with Billy's child). Recent Golden Globe win for Angels in America and Tony win for Proof. Most well known film role is probably still within Fried Green Tomatoes
Pros: A marvelous stage actor.
Con: Revival closed after only 77 performances.

PHYLICIA RASHADas "Aunt Ester" in Gem of the Ocean
Possible Campaign Angle: She won last year for A Raisin in the Sun. "It's just an honor to be nominated"
Why You Know Who She Is: Many years as the Mrs. in TV's beloved Cosby Show
Pros: Aunt Ester is a crucial character in August Wilson's 10 play cycle, which documents the African-American experience decade by decade, but this is the first time Ester has appeared in one of the plays.
Con: The play closed after only 72 performances.

KATHLEEN TURNER as "Martha" in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf
Possible Campaign Angle: Her best performance in years. She's made the NYC stage her home after Hollywood kissed her goodbye.
Why You Know Who She Is: La Turner was an 80s film superstar. Like Martha, her character in Woolf,she was always more than a match for her male co-stars who've included Michael Douglas (Romancing the Stone, The War of the Roses, Jewel of the Nile) Nicolas Cage (Peggy Sue Got Married) Jack Nicholson (Prizzi's Honor) and William Hurt (Body Heat)
Pros: Great performance. Legendary Role.
Con: Virginia Woolfis losing momentum and Doubt is gaining given the Pulitzer.

Who will win?
I think Cherry Jones has a comfortable lead, given that she's an important stage actress and that Doubt is a hit with audiences and critics. The only possible spoiler is Kathleen Turner for her savage and boozed-up star turn as Martha. This role gave Uta Hagen her Tony and Liz Taylor her second Oscar. It's not impossible.

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf

Despite two hours of sleep on Wednesday night and a marathon work day on Thursday, I was wide awake on Broadway Thursday night for the duration of that infamous and vicious couple's pub crawl through the home of George and Martha. The boozy evening of which I speak (for those of you who are young...or older folks who have lived under a rock) is the framework of Edward Albee's masterpiece Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf.

For those unfamiliar with the original play or its film incarnation, it begins as if already in Act 2: George and Martha, a middle aged college professor and his wife, return home from a faculty party already inebriated and waiting for the arrival of a younger couple whom they met earlier in the evening. For the remainder of the three act play George and Martha torment each other, their guests, and especially themselves. It's an all-night binge on strange love, regret, bourbon, petty grudges, and the comfort of familiar emotional baggage. Sounds like a laugh riot, huh? Yet thanks to Albee's razor sharp skills as a writer and the indelible characters within, the play is thrillingly alive and therefore funny, smart, and joyous in the way art can be even when its subject matter is bone-crushingly dark.

Woolf is hardly Albee's only major theatrical claim to fame; he also wrote the blisteringly funny The Goat, or Who is Sylvia and Three Tall Women among other important pieces for the stage. His most recent triumph was the off Broadway The Play About the Baby which was, in a peculiar way, a kind of abstract rendering of Virginia Woolf's central mystery. Albee has also won the Pulitzer three (!) times. Yet George and Martha's epic tussle remains his signature piece. In the course of its history (1962 to the present) and throughout its various incarnations it has won 8 Tony Nominations (with more presumably to come for this production), 5 Tonys, 13 Oscar nominations, 5 Oscars, 7 Golden Globe nominations, and many others. Not too shabby.

This Broadway revival's cast features Bill Irwin (famous New York clown) as George in his second dark descent into Albee's land of tormented couples. He previously starred in The Goat I'm happy to report that he's much more impressive here. But then, to be fair, Bill Pullman's creation of The Goat role would have been impossible for anyone to top -being one of the best performances ever(hyperbole fully intended). But of course the marquee name here is the one and only Kathleen Turner.

For longtime readers of my site, my love for certain actresses is well known. Yet my devotion to Kathleen Turner may have slipped by unnoticed due to her rather abrupt descent from the movie star ranks. Those who first dropped jaw at this actress's debut in Lawrence Kasdan's early 80s noir effort Body Heat probably wouldn't have seen a fine grande dame stage career in her future.... but, in a way, Turner has been building up to Martha for years. From her memorably dangerous seduction of William Hurt in that film to her breakout star turn with Michael Douglas in Romancing the Stone through her sometimes violent love/sex matches with Jack Nicholson in Prizzi's Honor Steve Martin in The Man With Two BrainsTony Perkins in Crimes of Passion and within the divorce dramedies The War of the Roses and Peggy Sue Got Married nearly all of Turner's important characters have been women in the midst of extremely contentious and high stakes coupledom. Stepping into Martha's shoes, once inhabited by legends as large as Uta Hagen and Elizabeth Taylor is, to Turner's great credit, a completely unforced fit. Taylor's bray as Martha in the film version was a perfect match and won her the Oscar. Turner's famously husky voice and big throaty laugh spin just as naturally from and in service of one of the best written characters for stage or screen. She is Martha and will certainly be rewarded with one of this year's Tony nominations.

By the end of the play I had momentarily forgotten all about the film (which I love) so immersed was I in this new production. The finale is a marvel. In those superb last moments overflowing with repetitive "yes" and "no"s the consensual nature of George and Martha's emotional violence hits home. For these weary warriors, one realizes with a shudder, this night might be just like any other night. It's a dismaying thought. But for the audience, happily, this is not just any night at the theater. Highly recommended.