"100, 99, 98, 97, 96..."

I imagine many of you have seen this. It's not undiscovered as web video offerings go. But I hadn't so I'm pretending this amazing countdown of movie quotes is brand spanking new. How many films do you know and love?



...and how long do you think it took to compile? I applaud the sacrifice.

Tuesday Top Ten: Witches

Tuesday Top Ten is back ~ A weekly series for the list lover in you and the list maker in me

I have done nothing to get myself in the proper Halloween spirit this year. No costume contemplation, pumpkin purchases, candycorn chomping, demonic deeds --nothing. You got plenty of bloodsuckers last year, so let's stir some spellcasters into the top ten spot

Top Ten Witches

This list is dedicated to Billie Burke's pill popping Glinda (pink bubbles are not a natural method of travel -even for witches. She's supplementing) and Margaret Hamilton's eternally cackling Wicked Witch of the West. They set the good witch/bad witch mold in The Wizard of Oz (1939) and they've never been surpassed. Rest in peace my pretties...

10 "Gil" (Kim Novak) in Bell Book and Candle (1958)
I haven't seen this in so long but I loved it as a wee tyke. Seen it lately? Does it hold up?

09 "Lamia" (La Pfeiffer) in Stardust (2007)
Defying the Oz rule that only bad witches are ugly, this old crone is actually as beautiful as Michelle Pfeiffer once you get the dumb CGI scowls and excessive latex out of the way. Pfeiffer's BIG performance may be a thing of cartoon beauty but Lamia's is only skin deep: unless you're Hannibal Lecter you probably don't see the pretty in eating hearts and entrails. [prev Stardust posts]

08 "Grand High Witch" (Angelica Huston) in The Witches
From my review: "When Huston first arrives in the film, outside of the hotel where the bulk of the film's actions takes place, she's greeted with a sudden swelling of the film's score. It's entirely redundant. It's not like you could ever miss Angelica Huston's unconventional and powerful screen presence. From her very first lines and tunnel visioned haughtiness its clear that she's having a ball with the role, and making very specific imaginative choices. She zeroes in on "the most evil woman in creation" tag and wears it with pride. Not for this fearless actress a glimmer of humanity, then... "

07 "The Scarlet Witch" in The Avengers
I'm glad this comic book heroine hasn't been moviefied yet. I don't think she'd adapt well: they'd screw up either the luscious curls, the silver fox twin brother, her android loving ways, and especially her "hex" powers --I'm more than certain they would visualize her unpredictable chaos magic as bursts of colored CGI energy balls and who needs any more of those? (see also #10 and #3, sigh)

06 "Alexandra, Jane and Sukie" (Cher, Sarandon, & Pfeiffer) in The Witches of Eastwick (1987)
In this case a picture is worth a 1,000 1,000,000 words

photo by Richard Corman -a gift to actressexuals everywhere

05 "Madame Mim" in The Sword and the Stone (1963)
Her magical duel with Merlin --they try various animals on for size-- is the best part of a Disney movie that almost no one discusses.

04 "Witch" (Bernadette Peters) in Into the Woods
"It's the last midnight / It's the last verse / Now, before it's past midnight / I'm leaving you my last curse" Possibly my favorite stage musical of all time. Vanessa Williams was also pretty good in this role in a recent revival...they added a funny booty shaking beat to her reemergence as a beautiful witch and boy did she sell her strut across the stage. As Sondheim's arguably most commercial endeavor, I've always wondered why Into the Woods isn't the one to make it to the movies. Any theories?

03 "Willow Rosenberg" (Alyson Hannigan) in Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003)
You may have noticed that it's so hard for me to get through any topic without mentioning Buffy... damn Joss Whedon for usurping so much of my hippocampus.

02 "Samantha" (Elizabeth Montgomery) in Bewitched (1964-1972)
No matter how hard I try I can never make my nose wiggle from side to side but even had I mastered that impressive skill, who would have provided the tinkling sound effect? And what good is nose wiggling without it?

P.S. Elizabeth Montgomery is a babe

01 "Maleficent" in Sleeping Beauty (1959)
You sent her an invitation to your latest party, right? Please tell me you sent her an invitation.

[gulp]

if you haven't had enough witchy women, please see the awesome Eartha Kitt "I Want to Be Evil" video in the sidebar. meow

Season 1 of Tuesday Top Ten (for new readers)
Alexander(s) The Great -from Desplat to Xander
The Three Amigos -Del Toro, Cuaron, Innaritu
Best of 2006 -From Marie Antoinette to The Departed
Oscar Talking Points -from Winslet's record breaking to Dreamgirls snub
Christian Bale -From Newsies to American Psycho
Horseplay -From Equus to National Velvet
Celebrity Couples -From Madonna & Guy to Brangelina
Bald Heads -From Channing Tatum to Professor X
Art in Movies -From "David" to some girl with the pearl earring
Political Women "Pick Flick!" or reelect Laura Roslyn
Holly Hunter -my favorite Georgian ~take that Julia!
Tarantino Performances -From Harvey to Uma
Prosthetic Appendages -beer filled legs, Dirk's Diggler
Loveable Cads -from Rhett to 'Bond, James Bond'
Funny Girls from Jame Lee Curtis to Reese Witherspoon
Lesley Ann Warren -embarrassing things I might have said had I met her...
Box Office Bizarre -the sad reality vs. the paradisical imagined
Men of Summer -From Willis to Damon
Women of Summer -From Hathaway to Pfeiffer
Catwoman -Michelle's greatest role? meow
PTA Performances from Fiona Apple to "Rollergirl"
Pixar -What's your 'toon preference?
Top Ten of 2007 (so far) From Grindhouse to Once
Oscar Nominationless -The Stars Oscar Refuses to Love
Fall Film Preview -anticipation for "prestige" season
Future Biopics -From Monty to Liza
H.S. I Love You -an unexpected love letter

20:07 (Two Kinds of People)

screenshots from the 20th minute and 7th second of a movie
I can't guarantee the same results at home (different players/timing) I use a VLC


"I’m glad you come to me. As far as Paddy Ryan is concerned there’s only two kinds of people: right and wrong. And I think you’re right."

DVDs: Zombies, Kubrick and Lancaster

Mmmm brains
Fido –It's a zombie comedy --apparently Shaun of the Dead needed company. It's also a period piece (!) and stars Dylan Baker (Spider-Man 3) as well as Billy Connolly (White Oleander) who plays the title zombie, a family "pet".

But get this: longtime Film Experience reader and fellow Pfeiffer enthusiast Mike Azevedo (pictured, left) plays one of the zombies. How cool is that? I hope Mike asked Billy what it was like to be poisoned by Michelle Pfeiffer herself!

Also
Hostel Part 2 –If you wanna see Dawn Weiner (aka Heather Matarazzo) get sliced up this is the movie for you. Not for me though
Meet the Robinsons –this past Spring's animated hit
Mr. Brooks -Demi Moore, Kevin Costner, and William Hurt are all in the same movie, folding the space time continuum over and returning us all to 1988. Not a bad year at all but still... Note: For some reason Dane Cook is there too. That I can't figure. But I don't even understand why he's in 2007.

From the Vaults
Burt Lancaster: The Signature Collection -He swashbuckled, he conned, he made hot love to Deborah Kerr on Hawaiian beaches and stared at Susan Sarandon lemony breasts... this manly Oscar winner did a lot of cool guy things. But this collection doesn't feature any of that. Instead it offers up The Flame and the Arrow, Jim Thorpe All-American, His Majesty O'Keefe, South Sea Woman and Executive Action. Also: How much would David Lynch have loved Burt's crazy follicular style?

Kubrick Specials
Eyes Wide Shut – a special edition for those of you who take the movie seriously. I know that’s many of you. Despite my amusement at watching a sexless film end with Nicole Kidman's matter of fact come on order "Let’s f***” I’ve always disliked this movie. Maybe we'll talk about it sometime. Maybe not. Maybe I just can't look past the hilarity of CGI people blocking the naughty parts from my virgin eyes. Maybe I don't know why Nicole Kidman is reading all her lines like she's stoned. Maybe I don't understand why Tom Cruise is in it
2001: A Space Odyssey -the seminal classic
A Clockwork Orange -the future shock dystopia
Full Metal Jacket -I haven't seen this one. Abuse me in the comments
The Shining –I wish I loved this movie (a great one) as much as everyone else but I have such issues with the ending (otherwise I love it as much as you). The finale takes me out of chilling fear and plops me into Twilight Zone silly. On a less serious note: I sometimes think that "30 Second Bunny Theater" has passed its expiration date but their their reenactment of this film is one of their best.
...If by know you're suspecting that I'm the least Kubrick mad cinephile alive... well, maybe. It's not that I dislike his filmography. I'm just agnostic about it.

That's So Gay Link

Hollywood Reporter Toni Collette is getting her own show (!?!)
Anne Thompson has the Gotham Award nominations (Margot at the Wedding, Into the Wild, I'm Not There, The Savages and Juno among them)
Guardian Unlimited Funny post about onscreen nudity (brought on by Viggo Jr)
Danny Miller 'Falling in Love with Deborah Kerr'
Broken Projector the blogosphere is celebrating double features

Newsweek -This story making the rounds about Rowling "outing" the beloved wizard Gandalf Dumbledore from the Harry Potter franchise... Ugh. I don't mean to be a killjoy for anyone enjoying the revelation but I'm sick to death of chicken shit stuff like this. It's like sitcom stars waiting to come out until their show is off the air. Tell the public when it matters...when it can actually make a difference. It's just pure self serving nonsense to wait until there's no way your bottom line can be affected or until it can be easily shrugged off (the outing is not part of the books). Consider this reaction joke at the often amusing I Watch Stuff blog:

"In response, my roommate said, "No shit. The whole fucking thing is gay."

As careless as the language may be [gay = stupid/uncool for ∞] it is justified: they're just treating the news as flippantly and dismissively as its delivered.

Whoa. somebody woke up on the wrong side of bed this morning! My apologies. bad blogger bad! Let's try that again: Dumbledore is gay? Cool... the best witches and wizards are.

20:07 ("Deluxe Mental Hospital Tour")

screenshots from the 20th minute and 7th second of a movie
I can't guarantee the same results at home (different players/timing) I use a VLC

So, uh, if you want to watch a particular television progam -- All My Children or something –you… you go the charge nurse you tell her: day, time, show you want to see is own but you have to tell her before the show is scheduled to be on. There was this guy and he was always requesting shows that had already played --Yes! No. YOU. HAVE. TO. TELL. HER. BEFORE. He couldn’t quite grasp the idea that the charge nurse couldn’t make it be yesterday --she couldn’t turn back time, thank you Einstein! Now he –he was nuts... he was a fruitcake Jim!

Naked Gold Man: The Michael Clayton Fix

He's 13 1/2 inches tall. He wears only a sword. He's shiny. Everybody wants him. He's the Naked Gold Man and this is a new weekly Sunday series --my attempt to keep Oscar discussion corraled in the weekends at least until we're truly in the season.

Let's start with Michael Clayton, a very serious fellow. Some people have rushed to take the legal drama off their Oscar lists due to its solid but non explosive opening weekend and the still sturdier if not hosanna-filled reviews. Anne Thompson worried that Warner Bros was releasing too wide for the "delicate" business of kudos seeking fare. David Poland countered the wave of negativity in the box office articles, reminding everyone that this wasn't a terrible take for a serious fall drama... I'd agree with that assessment. What did people expect?

To paraphrase the movie in question: Michael isn't a miracle worker. He's an Oscar contender.
Any Oscar film arriving before December needs sturdier legs far more than it needs a splashy entrance. Flashier competition will undoubtedly surface but there's always a chance for a sober entry to stick. And Michael Clayton may prove a resourceful contender.

The most obvious weapon in its arsenal: the actors.

<--- Tom Wilkinson has made almost two dozen movies since his one and only Oscar nomination for In the Bedroom six years ago. That's a lotta acting. Detractors might say he does a lotta acting as "Arthur Edens" too --'too much' in other words. But I disagree. And even if I didn't: you may have noticed that Oscar voters don't object to a lotta acting. It can't be easy to navigate a mentally ill character with crazy making fecal focused monologues, striptease breakdowns, and inappropriate romantic drives and still keep something valuable in reserve for your character's final act. He does. Wilkinson flips off his crazy switch at exactly the moment the movie most needs him to reign it in and it's a beauty of a scene (shared with George Clooney), forcing the audience to recalibrate their take on his character. If AMPAS voters like the movie at all, he's a safe bet for the short list.

But he isn't elevating the movie alone. Michael Clayton triangulates between three big roles. Wilkinson's role is but the most obvious sharp point from which to hang Oscar Bait. Once hooked, voters will notice that Wilkinson isn't the only one sweating for the film's success. For Your Consideration: Tilda Swinton

Read the rest...

For thoughts on Tilda, Clooney, and the production's other Oscar possibilities. Or, you know, go and see the movie. It's quite good.

Marion Cotillard & Jennifer Jason Leigh

It's that time of year. Every Sunday the NY Times Style Magazine becomes a defacto Oscar FYC ad with luscious photoshoots of would be nominees --Last week Cate Blanchett was doin' her Dylan thing as a coverboygirl. This week's lucky ladies: Marion Cotillard talking about Edith Piaf for all who will listen (though that nomination is already a done deal methinks) and a stellar five page spread of Jennifer Jason Leigh hoping to emerge as a nominee for her abused sibling act in Margot at The Wedding.

No Country For Daryl Hannah

Here's something I don't get about the IMDB, everyones favorite movie database: How does their system come up with their photogallery combos? This is an actual unretouched snapshot from IMDB's No Country For Old Men photo page [editor's note: just checked and they've since changed the page, so you 'll have to take my word for it...]

I love me some Daryl Hannah but I'm not sure why fans of the new Coen Bros film No Country For Old Men necessarily would. She does not appear in the movie. She has never worked with the Coen Bros, Javier Bardem, Kelly Macdonald, Josh Brolin, Tommy Lee Jones, Woody Harrelson ...hell, she hasn't even worked with Frances McDormand, a Coen by holy matrimony. But I love that when I went to look for photos from the movie, there she was next to creepy ass Javier all pleased to watch him aim his weapon as if she appeared in the movie... in a red carpet dream sequence (???)

Now Playing: Vampires, Missing Children, Grief

L I M I T E D
Out of the Blue -Busy Eomer (aka "Karl Urban") stars in this film about a gun collector who killed thirteen people in New Zealand.
Reservation Road -Joaquin Phoenix & Jennifer Connelly lose their son in a hit and run. Mark Ruffalo is to blame. The trailer, one of those tells-you-too-much affairs, makes it look like a one note slog. But perhaps that has unintentionally done us all a favor. If they show everything in 2 minutes do you really need to spend another 100 with it when word is dismal?
Wristcutters: A Love Story -A comedy set in the after-life. Heathers successfully mined black comedy from teen suicide but degree of difficulty with that feat is a 9.9 so good luck Patrick Fugit (Almost Famous) and Shannyn Sossamon

W I D E
30 Days of Night -(based on the graphic novel) They only come out at night. But what if it's always night? Josh Hartnett's Alaskan town is overrun by vampires. Things will get very bloody. As someone who has actually spent time above the arctic circle in the winter, the concept alone terrifies me. It is already freaky enough when there's no daylight where there outta be ... even without a vampire invasion [shudder]
The Comebacks -sports movie spoof. I guess the timing is right
Gone Baby Gone -Ben Affleck's directorial debut stars his kid brother Casey Affleck (an excellent actor: see also Gerry and the current The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford for proof) in a crime drama about a missing girl in working class Boston. It doesn't remind you of Mystic River on accident. It's also adapted from a novel by Mystic author Dennis Lehane. Reviews are strong. Can this film emerge as an Oscar contender? Stay tuned

Rendition -Jake Gyllenhaal has a troubled conscience. Reese Witherspoon has a missing husband. Meryl Streep has a dark side. Throw them all together for a tortured political drama. Get mixed reviews
Sarah Landon and the Paranormal Hour -This is billing itself as the first movie in a series of mysteries. No one told them that episodic detective work is the bread and butter of the small screen?
The Ten Commandments -For people who hated The Prince of Egypt but still feel the need to see a cartoon version of the beloved Bible story? The animation looks as cheap as the CG type that you sometimes see in locally produced TV commercials and they've condensed the whole story into 88 minutes. Famous actors eager for a quick buck (Ben Kingsley, Christian Slater, Alfred Molina) provide the big voices. I don't want to see any Moses movie unless Anne Baxter is there to drool on him "Oh Moses, Moses, you stubborn, splendid, adorable fool!"
Things We Lost in the Fire Susanne Bier (Brothers) directs Halle Berry as a new widow and Benicio Del Toro as a recovering junkie in this drama. I thought the plot sounded similar to Brothers (top ten list 2005) --apparently it's not as much as I feared --but Brothers is being remade. I hope for this Danish director's next project, she steps out of her comfort zone and really surprises.

P L U S
Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas in 3-D returns after a successful mini holiday run last year and I guess so will I (had fun last year and I do love the stop motion).

Sean Penn's Into the Wild takes its magic bus to hundreds of new locations this weekend so you can see what the fuss is about. If the AMPAS voters enjoy it Hal Holbrook's late in film supporting role is a real tearjerking contender. There's also 100+ new screens for haunted western killers and troubled white rich kids in India. And speaking of troubled kids... The Seeker: The Dark is Rising has just set a dubious record: the largest theater drop in history. It's losing 2,338 theaters only three weeks into it's run (10 bucks says this becomes a stand alone --franchise begone)

What are you seeing this weekend?

You Cannot Have Anderson Cooper's Babies

This doesn't have much to do with the movies other than that a new CNN special "Planets in Peril" was billing itself as a film (really?) for a press screening at the CMJ Music and Film Festival. I was there to write about it for Zoom-In but I didn't want to flame out over at the other gig with the mandatory gay lust for Anderson Cooper or his new (?) biceps. Still, I thought you might enjoy this tiny tidbit from the Q & A.

The "movie" has a segment about the unnaturally high chemical count we've all got in our bloodstream these days and Cooper plays willing guinea pig. They run a bunch of tests and the doctors tell him that he's in the 95th percentile for one type of chemical that can cause infertility. Turns out that particular chemical is in the makeup he wears daily for TV.

Anderson Cooper @ the IFC Center in Manhattan. The silver fox superstar does not actually
have triplet brothers --I just combined the only three good shots I got

In the Q & A afterwards:

Concerned woman: 'What will you do about the makeup?'
Anderson: [all relaxed, amiable] 'Oh you mean my low sperm count?'
A Voice From the Crowd: 'You don't need it!'

Can you blame me for thinking they were referencing his baby-making skill? Anderson, chuckling, brought the subject back to television and Hi-Def cameras insuring us that he did, in fact, need it. [editors note: make up... not the ability to procreate. pay attention]

Where the Wild Links Are

film
Big Screen Little Screen has been doing a fine job keeping up with Spike Jonze's adaptation of Where the Wild Things Are
Observations on Film Art "Cronenberg's violent reversals"
Oscar and the City people are starting to agree with my September predicted Best Actress lineup. It looks so "right" right?
MTV Movies Blog the trailer for Kimberly Peirce's long awaited Stop Loss
Nicks Flick Picks offers up a stunning perceptive review of Michael Clayton
And Your Little Blog Too "Hooked on Beauty" fun homemade video of classic Hollywood lovelies. Speaking of...
Just Jared Boss Black brings in the babes. Sample orgasmitastic pic:

damn

tv, books, art, music
Buzz Sugar on Pushing Daisies. It's holding up amazingly well episode to episode (I agree)
NY Mag Julianne Moore is reading to Upper West Side kiddies from her new children's book next week. Damn. The only friends I had with a (borrowable) child in the right age range moved out of town last year. Something about wanting to raise their darling in a more kid friendly town? Parents are so selfish! [/sarcasm]
And Your Point Is... "History of Religion" -5000 Years in 90 Seconds
Yes But No But Yes "Pulp Pop Up" --so cool
ASCAP Great interview with Stephen Sondheim [thx]

20:07 (Open Relationship)

screenshots from the 20th minute and 7th second of a movie
I can't guarantee the same results at home (different players/timing) I use a VLC

If you find somebody and I don't, you know, that's totally cool. But if I find somebody and--and you don't, that's a deal breaker for me. I can't do that

Mom, Todd's Playing With Dolls Again!

How great is this? Todd Haynes spoofs his own filmography for a special screening of his 1995 masterpiece [safe], part of the "Eco Sicko" special program at the Northwest Film Center in Haynes hometown of Portland, Oregon.



Seems the auteur couldn't introduce the [safe] retrospective screening on account of promoting I'm Not There right here @ the NYFF (as previously discussed) So he sent Carol White instead!

Nathaniel to mirror: [whispery voice] "I love Todd... I really love Todd ... I love Todd..." [Fade out]

My thanks to the fine folks at the NW Film Center Portland Art Museum for informing me of this tiny gem.

Deborah Kerr (1921-2007)

When I read that Deborah Kerr had died, a wave of guilt washed over me. I never knew her. (I mean that in the moviegoing sense of course)

As a child I connected Deborah Kerr only to The King and I and though I delighted in the "Shall We Dance" sequence and "Getting to Know You" I was, like those Oscar voters before my time, all about Yul Brynner. Well, Yul and Marni Nixon (but you already know of my fixation for that heard but not seen songbird)

As a seasoned thirtysomething awards nut, I've long since come to regard Kerr primarily through the mirror of her Oscar losses: 6 of them in the Best Actress category, the record. When it comes to movie stars only Peter O'Toole and Richard Burton suffered through more "we love you, but..." devotion from a teasing Academy. I am ashamed to say it but I even began to view her as a proxy jinx: Annette Bening keeps losing; Natalie Wood never won; Julianne Moore is forever a bridesmaid. All three of these lovely women -- three of my favorite actresses of all time -- have starred in Kerr's role in remakes of her films.

In truth the Oscars got in my way (as they do sometimes). I have never really given Deborah Kerr a fair shake. Maybe her passing can prompt Kerr agnostics like myself into a deeper investigation of her work. Help me along by sharing your favorite Kerr performances in the comments...

Related: From Here to Eternity & The Next Deborah Kerr?

63 Finalists for that Subtitled Oscar. But No Lust, Caution

Just a heads up that 63 finalists for this year's Best Foreign Language Film Oscar are now official. You can see details at these links

Argentina to Finland * France to Mexico * The Netherlands to Vietnam

Only three of the previously announced films got the boot: Bolivia was dropped, Israel had to discard English speaking The Bands Visit and Taiwan was also forced to pull a switcheroo by the nit picky Academy. Why Lust, Caution Ang Lee's latest (and dependably terrific) drama was disqualified is a mystery to me at this writing. [Updated: Rejected due toNationality issues as suspected below -read on...] The Academy has often made strange rulings as to eligibility in this category but Ang Lee, Oscared himself, has usually escaped their elaborately excused banishment.

I'd blame it on Tony Leung Chiu Wai's furious naked thrusting (it upset the MPAA) but the Academy's foreign committee nominated the French scorcher Betty Blue back in its day and that film opens with Jean-Hugues Anglade thrusting away atop Béatrice Dalle so it's not that. They don't outlaw content.

Maybe Tang Wei's mesmerizing flexibility (her leg is where now?!?) reminded them that they don't like productions that stretch across too many borders and Ang Lee's films always do. His three previous nominees were all submitted by Taiwan (and accepted by Oscar) but Ang Lee can't stay put: The gay romantic dramedy The Wedding Banquet took place in New York, Eat Drink Man Woman cooked in Taipei and the third, foreign film winner Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon flew all over China --borders, international financing, indigenous languages and "country of origin" concerns were just about the last thing on its mind as it balanced serenely on leafy branches between rounds of ass kicking.

Speaking of... who wants to kick the Academy's?

20:07 (Why Do They Run?)

By popular demand, the 20:07 series returns
screenshots from the 20th minute and 7th second of a movie
I can't guarantee the same results at home (different players/timing) I use a VLC


"Well, there goes another one"
*

The Montgomery Clift Blog-a-Thon

Montgomery Clift
(Oct 17th, 1920 - July 23rd, 1966)
Scroll down for links to 20 other participating blogs

I don’t remember when it happened or how it is I came to see A Place in the Sun for the first time. I do remember how thoroughly I was hypnotized by the film and its lead Montgomery Clift. It was the first time I'd ever seen him. I’ve long been of the mind that a movie lovers relationships to the most memorable of screen actors (everyone from Streep to Brando to Davis to Taylor etc...) is largely defined by their first encounter or two. Feelings about various character actors can mutate and evolve. Leading actors who are not, in the end, altogether peppered with stardust can fluctuate in their connective power with an audience, too: they surprise on occasion and extend their run of fame but just as often they falter and fade quickly in the public consciousness. But with the true Movie Stars, the select few who stay larger than life and heavily mythologized… well, the first potent encounter sticks.


How else to explain that Montgomery Clift will always signify A Place in the Sun to me even though I’ve seen several of his other films? I've found many of his other performances just as or more impressive -- Red River and From Here to Eternity come immediately to mind. How else to explain that whenever I begin to think of him my thoughts eventually and invariable jump ship to La Liz -- and vice versa, too. A Place in the Sun continues to occupy the most mental space in my Montgomery Clift fandom.

I’d intended to write about the offscreen relationship of Monty & Liz and their onscreen magic --that palpable flexible chemistry as witnessed in the three films they made together: For the uninitiated they were romantically paired in both A Place in the Sun (1951) and Raintree County (1957) and then played doctor and hysterical patient in the outré Tennessee Williams hit Suddenly Last Summer (1959). But the hard-to-find County conspired against my plans. So this will be the first edition of three Monty & Liz articles (the others will arrive in the distant future –as soon as I get my hands on a good copy of County... so, um don't hold your breath)

Monty & Liz: A Place in the Sun

I thought he was the most gorgeous thing in the world, and easily one of the best actors. And he wasn’t a bit snide about acting with a ‘cheap movie star'.

-Elizabeth Taylor on Montgomery Clift

“I’ve found my other half!”

-Montgomery Clift on Elizabeth Taylor

One of the first things you notice about Clift is the distinctive way he holds his upper body: all pinched, shoulders hunched, like his entire body hangs from the knots in his neck. The stance of someone not entirely at home in his own skin? This physical quirk sparks tremendously well with the fuel that's already embedded in his signature role, George Eastman the dark and brooding outsider in this George Stevens masterpiece.

When we first spot Eastman he's hitchhiking into town, the up and coming nephew to a rich businessman uncle. He's there to join the family business but he's still very much the outsider: ostracized from co-workers (nepotism you know) and received with less than open arms by the rich society types his bloodline gives him access to --that is, with the notable exception of local princess Angela Vickers (Elizabeth Taylor), heir to another fortune.

Despite rules about fraternizing with the staff of his uncle's business, George almost immediately goes into predatory mode. He quickly beds a frumpy lonely employee, a factory girl named Alice Tripp (Shelley Winters). You can tell from the beginning that he's not thinking with his heart but somewhere south of there. George wants to get laid. It's a 50s movies but to its eternal angsty glory the sexual/romantic drives of all three principals come through loud and clear. George may be satisfying selfish urges with a worker bee but he's on his way up. The second he spots Angela, you know she's queen. His relationship with Alice is not long for this world.


Alice may be on her way out but boy is this movie on its way up. The yowza chemistry between the teasing trophy that is Liz Taylor and this fierce actor, all internal combustion and tragedy --notice that even his smiles are half-cocked... as if a full grin would cause pain-- sends A Place in the Sun into the stratosphere of 50s movie heaven. Their whirlwind courtship leads to one of the cinema's greatest screen kisses


...and tragedy thereafter.

You seem so strange... so deep and far away. As if you're holding something back.
-Angela Vickers (Liz) to George Eastman (Monty)

For those inclined to enjoy readings of star performances through the distorting prism of what we know of their personal lives --in Clift’s case: addictions, homosexuality, depression, and "pathological compartmentalization" of his social life-- this also makes George Eastman and A Place in the Sun an ideal vessel for carrying nearly all the crucial pieces of the Clift mythology. It's here in one classic package: implosive sensational talent (this was the second of four Oscar nominations) beauty you can drown in (boy is Shelley Winters is in trouble...in both senses of the word), self-destructive sexual behavior (George is living dangerously for an up and comer, isn't he?) and existential angst that doesn't overpower his charisma so much as inform it (check out how quickly Liz loses her ground as seductress to become both seduced and matronly, desperate to sex him up and save him). Just about the only missing piece of the Clift myth is the homo eroticism but there's always Red River for that.

A Place in the Sun also serves up a mirror of sorts in regards to Montgomery's place in the Hollywood firmament. The gorgeous black and white cinematography and machinations of the screenplay (both won Oscars) position George Eastman as a troubled and shadowy figure, a black sheep in this world of wealth and glamour. He unquestionably belongs there but is never fully absorbed into it, never at peace there. Isn't that Clift, too? Hollywood's ultimate troubled child is unquestionably one of the great film stars but he still exists somehow apart from the Brandos, Bogarts and even the Taylors in Classic Hollywood's pantheon.

the participating Clift-loving blogs

career overviews / his persona
Self Styled Siren "On the Manliness of Montgomery Clift"
The Sheila Variations A huge compendium of Monty related Hollywood quotes
My New Plaid Pants lusts for but doesn't quite love the man of the hour
Gallery of the Absurd 'If Montgomery Clift Were Alive Today' by "14" (previously interviewed right here) She always finds the details
Stinky Lulu 5 thoughts on the actor from fear to emotional adoption


individual star turns
Nick's Flick Picks looks deep into The Search
And Your Little Blog Too Monty's dexterous and intelligent work in The Heiress
Movie Morlocks "You would too recognize me" Monty in The Misfits
Peter Nellhaus on The Young Lions
Eddie on Film "Hidden in Shadows" (A Place in the Sun)
Moon in the Gutter Wild River and Freud, the "missing masterpieces"
Goatdog Monty's 7-minute solo in Judgment at Nuremberg
Rants of a Diva Falling for Monty in The Search
A Blog Next Door Queering and dequeering in Suddenly Last Summer
Strange Culture Clift @ Court (A Place in the Sun & Nuremberg)

photos & video tributes
If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger Great photos including one of my favorites of the actor taken by Stanley Kubrick himself
Ongoing Cinematic Education... YouTube -the Clash's "That's Montgomery Clift, Honey"
Boy on Film 'love of the pretty'
Stale Popcorn career cliff notes from YouTube
Rural Juror Saying goodbye to Monty

20:07 (Transfigured by Italy)

By popular demand, the 20:07 series returns
screenshots from the 20th minute and 7th second of a movie
I can't guarantee the same results at home (different players/timing) I use a VLC

"Smell. A true Florentine smell. Inhale my dear. Deeper!
Every city, let me tell you, has its own smell"

Oh, and the punchline...

With Maggie Smith there's always a punchline


God I love that movie