Take Three: Thelma Ritter

Craig here with the next Take Three, where each Sunday I look at a different character/supporting actor's work through three of their most notable films.

Today: Thelma Ritter


For take three of Take Three we have a woman who, it's feasible to say, may well have been instrumental in the invention of the term Character Actor. Thelma Ritter's career was full of supporting roles par excellence. A noteworthy six Oscar nominations (tied with Deborah Kerr), but, alas, no wins. But who needs a win with a body of work this strong: A Letter to Three Wives, All About Eve, The Mating Season, With a Song in My Heart, Birdman of Alcatraz - and the three selected below (and countless more besides).

Ah, how I adore Thelma Ritter. And how good it is to know that many others do too. If I meet or talk to someone who loves her too it brings on a good feeling. She's one of the classiest character actors to have seared (warmly braised?) an individualistic groove across cinema screens in her time. Thelma had the cool, no question. When I hear about what was seen as good or thought to be cool about watching films and those who acted in them in the '50s or '60s Thelma emerges victorious. She could coolly wither many a co-star away with one line of dialogue - and how she delivered it! She played wives, mothers, maids, housekeepers, wise types, tough cookies - all notionally working class women. All solidly real women; and all take no lip and mince no words women.

Take One: "You are my inspiration... Al-ma!"

Ritter on top form left and right in Pillow Talk

As someone who likes a cheeky glass of red or seven, seeing Thelma downing the drink like a well-versed fish in the waters of late '50s Manhattan was a joy to behold. As Doris Day's housekeeper Alma in Pillow Talk (1959) Ritter was a permanently sozzled old bird. Alma capably dished out the one-liners and, despite being drunk 24-7, kept Day in check whilst keeping one saucy eye on Rock Hudson. One of her best scenes - and a much-loved one at that - is when she drinks him under the table. Hudson runs into her on the street, desperate to seek her counsel on how to woo Day back, and suggests they have a drink. Alma - smitten as she is with Hudson's Brad Allen - initially acts all coy ("oh no I don't usually, I... might have one just to be sociable"), but when he names 'a nice little bar right down the street' Alma, already dragging him away, responds resourcefully with: "I know a better one."

Alma mater: Ritter downs a glass of mother's ruin whilst Hudson does a spot of table talk in Pillow Talk

Ritter made Alma's boozy demeanor feel much more than a one-note trait and she let the great moments of comedy inherent in the role find their natural outlets. At the bar of her choosing Alma dishes out her drunken pearls of wisdom while a far-more-sloshed Hudson is face down on the gingham tablecloth. It's settled that Hudson will hire Day to decorate his apartment. "OK?" she says, "Happy?", lifting and letting drop his head on the table; he's clearly down for the count. She ends the scene with what feels like - and may very well have been - an ad lib that shows, in one simple throwaway line, her plucky resolve: "Would you care for a little snack of some kind?" She gets out an array of said snacks as the scene dissolves into the next. Alma's been here before: she's attuned to the etiquette of boozing.

Alma was the kind of role Ritter excelled in. A bottomless drink in hand and a cheeky, worldly glint in her eye, she plays it casual and light (the role is a breeze) but with a vivid, knowing gutsiness as if she had known people like Alma all her life. She delivers her lines in signature expert fashion: her assured and well-timed reading of them certainly went some way in helping the film win its one Oscar, for screenwriting. And who wouldn't want someone like Alma as their housekeeper? Raise a glass in her honour - and raise it high.

Take Two: Tell it like it is, Stella

Rear Window: Thelma has her eye on the courtyard psycho, while Stewart has his on Ritter's tit-ters

Rear Window (1954) needed a character to stand in for us, for how we might act when the ones we care about start getting themselves into hot water. But such is the allure of eavesdropping, being let in on a mystery, that even Ritter's housekeeper (another one) Stella involves herself in Jeffrery's (James Stewart) binocular games. She, too, is titillated by what bad deeds are going on across the courtyard, but keeps a level head about it. Ever the practical woman, she relates it all to her own worldview in her own particular way: "You haven't spent much time around cemeteries, have you? It's impossible that he could bury Mrs. Thorwald in a hole the size of one square foot. Unless he buried her standing on end, in which case he wouldn't need the knives and saws." We surely all know someone who, on the discovery of a possible neighbourhood killer, might brightly come up with this piece of "homespun philosophy".

Ritter feasts her eyes on a mystery across the way in Rear Window

Ritter nails it spot on and with the right amount of wry humour. She again acts as comedy relief, and the film needs her to wax lyrical about the practicalities of these matters. There's work to be done, and this daft murder business won't get in the way of a good breakfast, a spot of rest and a clean house. "Come on, that's what were all thinkin'. He killed her in there, now he has to clean up those stains before he leaves." Every budding Peeping Tom needs a stellar Stella to bring it all back down to earth.

Take Three: Moe money, Moe problems

Ritter with Widmark (left) and Murvyn Vye (right) in Pickup on South Street

With roughly one-quarter-of-an-hour's screentime in Pickup on South Street (1953) Thelma Ritter, as New York lady hustler-dealer extraordinaire Moe Williams, showed us how it's done. Every minute is an exercise in crucial, affective, scalpel-sharp acting. Moe is something else; a character like no other. Brilliantly and truthfully written by Pickup's director Samuel Fuller, she's a take-no-flack-but-dish-it-back woman of the world. A Manhattan stool pigeon trying to beat the streets, positioned somewhere between the cops and the crooks, selling whatever enters her world-worn sphere - secrets, information, knowledge, cheap ties. She's a character Tom Waits should've or could've written a song about (Lay Down Moe? Moe on the Down Low?). She needed someone to sing her praises.

Moe is her own person. She's the go-to gal for information; she has the answers. Not merely a stoolie, but a woman who's seen everything - and seen everything turn bad - and has been around, doing her thing for too long. Her precious time is devoted to herself and her dealings, but with some left over for friend Skip McCoy (Richard Widmark), a petty thief embroiled in a mystery involving a secret microfilm he pick-pocketed from Candy (Jean Peters), and which Communist agent Joey (Richard Kiley), among others, wants to get his hands on. Moe has also devoted her life to saving for a funeral plot - a life dedicated to the preservation of death. She can live poor but she won't die poor. Fuller has, with each frame of each of her scenes in his film, fittingly preserved on celluloid Moe's life and her death.


That Ritter makes her unbeatable - despite being, sadly, ultimately beat down - is the crux of the performance. In her famous final scene in Pickup, and indeed in all the preceding scenes besides, you can unmistakably see how the actress's thoughts inform the character's actions. This is why, I believe, her performance is often regarded as exemplary in '50s screen acting. Ritter wearily compiles Moe's façade of utter composure in the face of immanent extermination (yet, pertinently, her front visibly begins to break down before our eyes); and underneath that knowledge of her inescapable murder is a resignation, an acceptance of her horrible fate, that she can only combat with sharp words of defiance. And not selling a friend out, not even for a moment backing down.

It's one of the best examples of an actor showing one thing facially, but through dialogue expressing something else entirely. And I think this is one of the chief reasons why - well, alongside her 4th Oscar nomination she received for the role - Ritter is so compellingly good here (and in everything she was in). In the scene (linked here so y'all can actually also see why she rocks South Street - as if anyone needs reminding) Joey pays Moe a visit - to either retrieve the information he needs or to kill her. Or both. Moe regretfully makes sure it's one thing over the other.


She's lying on her bed, listening to a record play, and doing her numbers in the little notebook she keeps with her. Joey hitches his feet up onto the bed:

"What are ya buying mister? - Joey tries to 'buy' Moe off - "You threatening to blow my head off?" Joey says nothing. "Ask a silly question, ya get a dopey look," she mockingly adds herself.

It's clear Moe knows her fate:

"Listen mister - when ya come in here tonight, ya seen an old clock running down. I'm tired. I'm through. Happens to everybody sometime. It'll happen to you too someday."

She isn't going without voicing her lot in life:

"With me it's... a little bit of everything. Backaches... and headaches. I can't sleep nights. It's so hard to get up in the morning and get dressed and walk the streets... climb the stairs. I go right on doin' it. Well, what am I gonna do, knock it?"


Fuller's camera slowly begins to zoom in tighter on Moe's fraught face.

"I have to go on makin' a livin' so I can die. But even a fancy funeral 'ain't worth waiting for if I gotta do business with crumbs like you. And I know what you're after... I know you Commies are looking for some film that don't belong to ya."

"You just talked yourself into an early grave - what else do ya know?" Joey retorts. Ever the savvy no-nonsense talker, Moe goads Joey further:

"What do I know about Commies? Nothin'. I know one thing. I just don't like them." Joey cocks his gun; Moe sits up in bed, clasping her chest. "So I don't get to have the fancy funeral after all. Anyway, I tried... Look mister... I'm so tired. You'd be doin' me a big favor if you'd blow my head off."

Fuller's camera pans left to the now-ending song on the record player, and a shot is fired. Earlier in the film Moe says to Capt. Dan Tiger: "Look Tiger, if I was to be buried in Potter's Field, it would just about kill me." But thanks to Skip's last minute intervention, Moe didn't end up joining the other nameless dead out there.

And in a roundabout way Tom Waits did write a song about her - or, at least, the song could've been sung from Moe's perspective. Her memory resonates in the lines of his jazzy, noir-infused song called, fittingly, Potter's Field: 'and you'll learn why liquor makes a stool pigeon rat on every face.' A fitting lament for Moe.

Ritter herself deserves her praises sung and more: now it's your turn.

Cast This! "Scar Night"

The Film Experience book club is returning. Hell, I figure I'm turning the pages anyway. Reading is a great subway activity and we New Yorkers spend much time on subways. So why not hold those monthly weigh-ins with readers about 'who should play who?' in imaginary movie versions of novels. We've done this a few times in the past: the historical fantasy The Curse of Chalion, the corporate satire/drama Then We Came to the End and one play August: Osage County. The latter turned out to be one of the biggest comment threads ever (109!) at TFE .

So, the next selection will be Scar Night by Alan Campbell. I'm about a fifth of the way in and have already met enough interesting characters to make it a worthwhile casting discussion. So, if you like fantasy novels, pick it up and read this month. We'll discuss casting on Wednesday, June 30th. This is a debut novel which takes place in the chained city of Deepgate (it's a bit steampunk flavored) and stars two very different angels (the last of their kind), a sinister theocracy, and all sorts of secretive unsavory business and dark magic. An intriguing read so far.

We'll discuss casting on Wednesday, June 30th.

Eat Pray Link

eat, pray
<--- Look, it's the new poster for the Julia Roberts flick Eat Pray Love. Julia appears to be eating a little low fat ice cream or substitute product or some such. Two days back, while melting in the hateful sun and picking up more cat medicine -- don't ask, things have been terrible -- I actually bought a cup of this stuff. Eating while praying, I had to cheer up.

The marketing department was always going to be hard pressed to beat the book cover but isn't this a bit... dull? Especially considering how much they have to work with: Different countries, hot co-stars, spiritual awakenings. I mean, there's an elephant in the movie. Elephant! How can you pass up an elephant for a stone bench? Ah well, at least it's not a giant floating movie star head. Which is pretty much all you'd see if I did an episode of posterized with Julia herself.

Are you excited to see this in August? I'm hoping it's good. Seems like the sort of thing that's just right for Julia in the right now. [see also: previous post]

link
Fassinating Fassbender the Michael Fassbender fanblog gets its own interview with the man himself.
Telegraph UK Tim Robey "Why I Love: Juliette Lewis". Ah, I knew I loved Tim for a reason. Well, several of them.
CHUD laments the state of movie posterdom. The only great ones (Buried) are rip offs of classics.

I Need My Fix Quote of the Day Ashton Kutcher on his post Killers body
Cinema Blend a test screening review of the remake Let Me In. It's extremely positive but I'm hoping critics take this down on principle ;) Why remake something if you're only going to copy it? That's living off other people's glory.
Towleroad a couple of notes on Splice. My feelings haven't changed much since Sundance but I suppose the parts that were good have aged well. That "Dren" really is a memorable creation. Good sound design, too. There's more interesting links there, too...

Eat Pray Link. But mostly Link apparently.

Spy vs.Spy

Jose here.

Assuming you've seen the excellent The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (my review here)...

Who's your favorite, book-to-screen, spy so far this century?


Stieg Larsson's Lisbeth Salander (as played by Noomi Rapace).

OR


Robert Ludlum's Jason Bourne (as played by Matt Damon).

Discuss!

For all you European readers who've already seen the entire Millennium trilogy how does it fare when compared with the amazing Bourne series? How do these two fare when compared to the books?

Career Lessons From Angelina Jolie

Posterized [episode 4]

Angelina Jolie turns 35 today. Her supernova career holds many lessons for talented young actors (and we civilians, too). While an unforgettable presence, the key ingredient, is not exactly duplicable even for those with above average skills, other elements are. If a young actor can muster up even half of her watchability, they'll have a robust career. Just a quick perusal of her filmography brings certain lessons to light.

Cyborg 2 (1993) | Hackers (1995) | Foxfire (1996)

Rule #1 Take anything you can get (at first).
Ms. Jolie, unlike many children of Oscar winning movie stars before her, didn't exactly aim high at first. She'd do youth movies, genre movies, straight to video movies, music videos, short films, television, cyborg movies. You can lose a lot of opportunities if you're too picky, too soon. Those posters up top are just a few from her teenage and early 20s period.

Gia (1998) | Playing God (1997) | Playing By Heart (1998)

Rule #2 Never phone it in
Or: Always make an impression. There's nothing more disheartening than watching an actor do something they feel they're above or can't take seriously (see Halle Berry in any superhero flick). Whatever your skill set, use it. Angelina knew she had sex appeal and boy did she flaunt it. There was no holding back. Even in an ensemble like Playing by Heart, where she couldn't flaunt it as spectacularly as she did in Gia, she was 100% committed to making an impression.

Pushing Tin (1998), Bone Collector (1999), Girl, Interruppted (1999)

Rule #3 Raise Your Game
If you're lucky enough to get those early gigs, you have to get pickier once people know you can do the job. Take the secondary lead opposite bigger stars (Heh. That Pushing Tin poster is now hilarious. Blanchett and Jolie less saleable than Cusack and Thornton? My how things change) and don't forget rule #2 while engaged in #3. Witness the grand theft movie that was Angelina in Girl Interrupted (1999). Angelina wasn't even on the poster (at first).

Gone in 60 Seconds (2000), Tomb Raider (2001), Original Sin (2001)

Rule #4 Embrace Your Strengths
Many actors would have shifted over to prestige fare once they'd won their Oscar, but why go for a job you're not as well suited for just because it's more "respectable." Angelina knew that the intense appeal of her physicality was at least the equal of her acting gift. Action movies and erotic thrillers it was then.

Life or... (2002) | The Cradle of Life (2003) | Beyond Borders (2003)

Taking Lives (2004) | Sky Captain... (2004) | Alexander (2004)

Rule #5 Experiment and Network
Once you're famous (or steadily employed since mega fame happens to precious few) and know your strengths, continue to mix it up a little and work with all kinds of different people on all kinds of different projects. Take a job that's smaller than what you'd normally go for and practice rule #2 (see Sky Captain or Alexander) or just try different genres and stretch a little. Not everything will work, but you have to try. You can always lean back into your strengths.

Mr & Mrs. Smith (2005) | The Good Shepherd (2006) | A Mighty Heart (2007)

Wanted (2008) | Changeling (2008) | Salt (2010)

Rule #6 Remember All Previous Rules But Play Harder to Get
Notice how Angelina just keeps flipping between Action / Drama but we don't see her as often? Sometimes we literally don't see her but her fame is maintained (voicework: Kung Fu Panda and Shark Tale). By doing all three of these things she gets to keep her superstardom, her mystery, and Real Actress cred all intact.

Disclaimer: Though these rules can be equally helpful to careers outside of the movies, #6 is not advised until you're very successful. If you hope to keep your job, you do have to show up.

<--- Angelina illustration by Kyle T Webster

How many of Angelina's performances have you seen? Do you think you'll try these rules at your own job? I suppose we should talk about the posters, too. The marketing departments seem to consider her lips her #1 attribute and her full body is only employed for the action flicks.

Best of Angelina @ the Blog
My Real Life Angelina Sighting
Monologue: A Mighty Heart
Nobody Puts Baby Angelina in a Corner
April Showers, Changeling
A History of... Angelina Jolie
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"You're boring me."

"I have a husband. I don't particularly feel the need for another"

[Great Moments in Screen Bitchery #422, Sigourney Weaver, The Ice Storm]

The Golden Girls. Rue McClanahan (1934-2010)

And then there was one. Rue McClanahan, best known as "Blanche" on the eternal sitcom The Golden Girls has passed away at 76 after years of health problems. That leaves only the increasingly popular Betty White as the last Golden Girl standing, there to receive all the love we have left for these awesome women.


Rose (White) was my favorite but Blanche (McClanahan) the runner up in the laugh-generation department for me (I've always loved the saucy dames). I was just thinking about The Golden Girls yesterday because my mind was drifting to the upcoming Emmy nominations. The Emmys are often quite terrible about divvying up the goods, giving way too many prizes to the same shows and performers over the years. But in the case of The Golden Girls, the Emmy voters seem to have a very welcome and secret conspiracy to spread the wealth; All four of the women won one statue for their famous characters. Betty won it in '86, Rue in '87 and Bea & Estelle both took it home in '88. Other famously strong ensembles (like Friends and Sex & the City) didn't have any such "you're all winners!" awards luck. Only Cheers comes to mind immediately as a similarly lucky recipient of "spread the wealth" mentality: Woody Harrelson, Shelley Long, Bebe Neuwirth, Kirstie Alley, Ted Danson, Rhea Pearlman all won that golden winged woman for their efforts.

<--- Rue co-starred with Dustin Hoffman in Broadway's "Jimmy Shine" in 1969 (photo src)

"Blanche" as a character seemed to fit Rue like a glove (though she was originally intended for Betty) and will easily dominate memories of her acting work. Maybe it was all those husbands (she married six times) that gave her such facility with that man-crazy character?

But Blanche is not the whole story. Rue had been a working actress since the 1950s when she first hit the stage. In fact, she returned to Broadway for a stint as "Madame Morrible" in Wicked just five years ago. She also appeared in 21 movies over the years including They Might Be Giants (1971), the early gay film Some of My Best Friends Are... (1971) and post-Blanche comedies like Out to Sea (1997) and, inexplicably, Starship Troopers (1997).

Blanche seemed to prize her body above all but Rue showed real heart. She fought actively for both the ethical treatment of animals and gay rights. Thank her for being a friend.
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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.

Eight (Links) is Enough

Ask David Lynch I asked him a few questions today. He was sympathetic about my cat's health problems but he sure was mean / incoherent once I asked any question about myself. What will Lynch tell you?
CHUD "What if Jaws (1975) was made today?" I love this article and I absolutely believe that it would be as described. So...much...backstory nowadayzzzz
IMDb Q'Orianka Kilcher (The New World) arrested in oil related protest. We all know that oil companies (and our dumb societal resistance to developing alternate forms of energy) are going to be the death of us all so it's good to see young activists out there.
fourfour turns five. Happy birthday to an amazing blog. Rich shares his 20 favorite posts

Observations on Film Art Why are today's movies so unimaginatively shot with back and forth closeups? I'm always bitching about this so it's nice to see other people begging for variety, too. More blocking for your actors, please, directors. Try "The Cross"
The Scott Brothers on The Discreet Charm of Catherine Deneuve:

It’s that filmic resolve that sometimes gets labeled as “emotionally distant”, which is wholly unfair and misses the point of her amazing abilities as an actress.

Movie|Line Christina Hendricks removes her body parts in sci-fi music video. Honestly I think I just read a book like this. Was it Saturn's something?
Los Angeles Times the great cinematographer William A Fraker (Rosemary's Baby, Bullitt, Looking For Mr Goodbar) passes on. RIP

Where Are the Musicals? (Part Two)

Last week I thought I was being a little bit overdramatic when I started worrying about the absence of future movie musicals. But maybe I wasn't dramatic enough. Is it time for panicked hysteria? Just ten years into the genre's spectacular rebirth -- which I trace back to the 1-2-3-4 spectacular punch of Dancer in the Dark (00), Moulin Rouge! (01), Hedwig (01) and Chicago (02) -- it seems to be dying again.

I read today that plans for Hairspray 2 have been halted. It's not often you hear of sequel ideas to hit films being cast aside. Adam Shankman's statement about the dead sequel sounds rational on the surface:

That got killed. I was so happy with the first one, let's leave well enough alone. It's all good.

Since when were Hollywood types ever all zen about the "leave well enough alone". They live for easy money and what is easier than getting a big opening weekend out of pre-sold popularity be it through sequels, remakes, reboots or reinterpretations? Hollywood (speaking generally of course) never has original ideas. What's more they're usually spectacularly proud of their insistence on repeating themselves.

The only musical in development that's getting discussed lately is a remake of My Fair Lady. A remake.

Even weirder and more worrying is that Universal reportedly decided against a Mamma Mia! sequel (2008) even though ABBA has a thousand other great songs that could be similarly massacred for coin if such a film were to exist. I never in a million years thought I'd be freaked out about that decision, "Hooray!" being the only sane response. But I can't recall one time in the history of ever that a major studio has decided not to make a sequel to a movie that grossed over half a billion dollars.

All right... I exaggerate a little. But I'm scared because I love my song & dance. Mamma Mia! is currently the 50th highest grosser ever worldwide*. As it turns out, there are a few higher grossers that don't have sequels (yet) or weren't sequels to begin with. Of the other 49 the stand-alones are (in descending order)

• Avatar (sequel in development)
  
• Titanic (a wee problem called historical accuracy prevented sequels)
• Finding Nemo
• Independence Day
• E.T. The Extra Terrestrial
  
• 2012
  
• Up
• Forrest Gump
• The Sixth Sense
• Kung Fu Panda (the sequel arrives next year)
  
• The Incredibles
• Hancock
• Ratatouille
• The Passion of the Christ
  

That's fourteen other movies, a few of which will undoubtedly get sequels. It seems like the only reason a hit movie doesn't get a sequel is if its lead character dies, or if it stars Will Smith (two examples there, but isn't he his own franchise? Maybe those are sequels) or if it's made by Pixar and isn't named "Toy Story".

If Wicked needs bankable 20something stars,
Anne Hathaway & Amanda Seyfried can both sing.

All of this, plus the weird absence of money-magnet "Wicked" in Hollywood's current Oz-mania production slate, is really getting to me. The stage show's cumulative gross is approaching half a billion dollars (it's currently at $469 million and it still earning over a million a week) Why wouldn't Hollywood be rushing to capitalize on it?

I'm officially very worried. It's too easy to blame it on Nine which cost a fortune (What did they spent the money on? It takes place on a stage! How did that cost $30 million more to make than Mamma Mia! or Sweeney Todd?).Perhaps the problem is actually Sweeney Todd. It earned $152 million worldwide which sounds like a decent amount... until you stop to consider what Burton/Depp pairings usually make.

You'd think it'd be an ideal time to grow a hit musical. The past ten years should be seen as ample fertilizer: the genre has produced hits, several song and/or dance adept celebrities have become much more famous/bankable (Hathaway, Jackman, Harris, Chenoweth, Tatum, Seyfried), musical theater stars have started to gain more fame outside of New York than they have in some time (Cheyenne Jackson, Jane Krakowski, Audra McDonald, Lea Michelle, Idina Menzel) and then there's a little something called Glee on TV. Maybe you've heard of it?

Greenlight some musicals, suits! Just make sure they don't cost as much as Nine so you have a chance at a profit. That shouldn't be hard. It's not like Sweeney Todd looked bad for $30 million less. It looked great. It just didn't sound that way.

*none of these figures are adjusted for inflation. The biggest musical hit of all time (and the third biggest hit of any type ever) is The Sound of Music (1965) which made over a billion dollars in today's numbers.

An Imperfect Circle.

Jose here. Is it me or has the release of Agora gone quite unnoticed in the United States?



Not that I'm saying everyone should leave whatever they're doing and go see it (I thought it was pretty mediocre actually as you can read in my review) but I find it surprising that so little has been mentioned about a movie that could generate controversy.

Not only does it feature a woman as lead, but the woman in case (Hypatia of Alexandria played effectively by Rachel Weisz) was also, allegedly, quite ahead of her times and had no need of a man in her life. Think of her as a character of Sex and the Old City.

But the most divisive point in the movie might be Amenábar's portrayal of early Christians as the wreckers of reason. If you think Almodóvar has pent up Christian anger, wait 'til you see the Gibsonian way with which Amenábar jumps against preachers of the gospels.

There's a great article out there by Tim O'Neill that wonders how much Amenábar bent history at his will to push his own agenda. It's highly recommended, if only because of the amount of research the author put into it.

Yet despite all the silliness and shortsightedness of Agora I couldn't help but be mystified and intrigued by the way Amenábar could've done a great film based only on the nature of his visuals.
Agora is after all based on a geometric principle. His allegations of Hypatia's premonition of Kepler's laws might be a little far fetched but his ideas of the "evolution" of the circle as a mystic figure are remarkable.

The first half of the film glorifies the circle and establishes it's a symbol of perfection (you can even see its love of it in the poster)





But as the plot advances, the characters' idea of the circle begin to shift towards the possibility of its imperfection, which gives us the ellipse.




Then we get views of buildings and elements we'd seen before with a slight change in perspective (the circle becoming an ellipse) and while the obvious plot sinks into a biased melodramatic condemnation of fundamentalism the things we're seeing suggest something altogether more significant.

Besides the implications of Kepler's contribution to science what can we learn about the effect of the circle in cinematic storytelling?
Wasn't the elliptical nature of cinema after all a major contribution to narrative aesthetics and the way humanity could perceive the world around them?

Perhaps if Amenábar had been a little less worried about pre-postfeminism and religious hooligans he might've realized he had the power to create a complete film course.

What's your take on Agora? have you seen it yet?

Open Thread

Discuss whatever cinematic topic you will. I'm making my cat-sitting rounds at the moment. Veddy important.

First and Last, Season 3 Finale

the first image and the last from a motion picture.


Can you guess the movie?

Highlight for the answer if you're stumped: PAN'S LABYRINTH
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See all previous episodes here ...now with highlightable answers in every old post for easy browsing. How many have you gotten over the three seasons? Do you want a fourth season after a break? Sound off in the comments and in the poll.

poll by twiigs.com

The Longest Link

Uh... I got a little carried away. Enjoy the ones you will

JACKintheblog 'Is it just me or does Jake Gyllenhaal look...'
Everything I Know responds to EW's list of "greatest characters" with a few theatrical suggestions. EW only allowed for two stage characters. EW sucks at list-making. They're always pandering to the OMGRIGHTNOW
CHUD Austin Texas' great theater The Alamo Drafthouse could be coming to your city. I've only been to Austin once and I only peeked at the exterior but I would go there so often...
The Pixar Blog "Groovin' With Ken" an interview clip that's not in Toy Story 3
The Telegraph Tim Robey on Mark Ruffalo, The Unpretentious Leading Man
Dark Eye Socket What the 00's meant to TFE contributor Craig. It's never too late for a list!
Dear Old Hollywood looks at Bette Davis early homes in California
Anomalous Material is hosting a "greatest comedy of all time" tournament. Let them know what makes you laugh the hardest
Movies Kick Ass "A woman's right to shoes" on Dorothy & her ruby slippers. This is part of...
Encore's Movie Musicals Blog-a-Thon which I didn't know about in time. Ah well.


Sex?
i cite has a thorough piece up about what critics missed in their savage takedowns of Sex and the City 2. Great read, though I wish I had enjoyed the movie this much! For me it's a miss
The Film Doctor 'don't leave me hangin' here'... a discussion about the movie that I appreciate because it's not OTT histrionic / hateful. There's very few discussions of that movie that aren't. And speaking of...
The Telegraph Tim Robey discusses "Sex and the City and the Art of the Pan" citing hilarious takedowns of this film and other hated films.
Huffington Post dating lesssons from the fab four
Tim Seidell equates Sex & the City to Star Wars. Seriously, he does. Original trilogy and 'prequel trilogy' and all
Sling Blog 5 pop culture hits besides SatC that were savaged by audiences that they weren't remotely intended to be enjoyed by

Finally...
Nicks Flick Picks has reached the final 10 in his Best Actress Project. Incredibly he will soon have seen every Best Actress nominee. Latest writeups: Bergman's Anastasia and Irene Dunne in Love Affair. He's got two of my all time favorite nominees coming up in his final 8 screenings: Natalie Wood in Splendor in the Grass (1961) and Judy Garland in A Star is Born (1954). I'm prepared for the worst. Though Nick and I are great friends we disagree surprisingly often on the subject of Actress so I have no expectations as to how he'll respond.

P.S. Don't even ask how close I am to having seen all 408 performances. So much left to see. At least that means multiple pleasures await.

United States of Tara and the Deceitful Netflix Envelope

I just received the second disc of Showtime's United States of Tara in the mail (I know, I know. Shut up. Better late than never) and noticed an odd bit of ad copy.

"Steven Spielberg created this wry cable series that follows Tara (Toni Collette)..."

Er... I know Ol' Spielberg is a beloved household name and all but bad form, Netflix copy editor types, bad form! While Spielberg's name is attached (Executive Producer), Tara is the brainchild of Oscar-winning Diablo Cody (Juno) and one ought to give credit where it's due.

P.S. I like the series so far with "Alice" being my favorite of Tara's alters -- is this because it reminds me of her slam dunk cameo in The Hours (2002)? -- and her son Marshall's "Hell House" experience being my favorite subplot. I'm enjoying the way Toni plays her multiples in a performative rather than strictly naturalistic way. This adds a nice layer to the larger thematic questions of identity building / role playing that the show appears to be building towards. I could be wrong, though. Just halfway through.

P.P.S. I find it unfortunate that after the one-two punch of Rachel Getting Married and this series that Rosemarie DeWitt may be forever typecast as The Female Protagonist's Resentful Sister Who Craves the Familial Attention That the Protagonist Wins via the Sheer Enormity of Her Mental Problems. I mean... that is a microscopic niche. That's even more problematic than Jodie Foster's narrow 'Female Protagonist Trapped In Confined Spaces' phase from a decade back. Good luck finding your next role, Rosemarie!

P.P.P.S. Now that I've seen 8 or so episodes, I'm dying to discuss it. Travel back in time a couple of years and discuss with me. Do you love it?

Earliest (Second Hand) Movie Memory: Jaws (1975)

I'm ready to love a big summer blockbuster again. But will there be one worth loving? I worry.

It pains me to say that I don't remember my first moviegoing experience. Some people do and I'm jealous of each and every one of them. I assume it was something Disney but I've never been able to recall and my parents aren't helpful there (they're not movie people). My earliest cinematic memory is actually second hand. I was scared to death of Jaws (1975) as a little kid a full decade or so before I actually saw it. Ahhhh, irrational childhood phobias...

[These illustrations were first published on the site in 2003]

First Panel: Jaws' poster haunted me. Neighborhood kids fixated, snickering, on the nude swimmer. I stared in horror: How could any animal have so many teeth ?!?

Second Panel: I tried to inure myself by playing the famous theme on our piano. Nothing worked. The backyard pool became fraught with terror.

Third Panel: People blame Spielberg for creating the blockbuster filmmaking mentality. I blame him for ruining summer in the pool.

What's your earliest movie memory?
Were you scared of any movies as a kid that you didn't see until years later? I'd especially love to hear from any readers who have first memories from earlier than the mid 70s so that I don't feel so old! ;) I don't suppose TFE readers born in the 1990s have any movie fears. Don't they wean kids on slasher flicks now?

First and Last, "He's Going to Miss His Train, Frank"

the first & last images after the opening credits and before the closing credits. Along with the first and last lines of dialogue. We're very alpha/omega today because the third season of first and last concludes tomorrow!


"He's going to miss his train, Frank."


"I'll think about it."

Can you guess the movie? I watched it again about a year ago with one of my best friends and I'd totally forgotten how fun it was.

Highlight for the answer: MARRIED TO THE MOB (1988)