Sunday, March 9, 2014 at 1:08PM 
If you've ever danced around in your underwear...
If you've ever wanted to forget a love affair...
If you've ever loved digging into a movie with other movie geeks...
Than you owe it to yourself to revisit Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) with us for it's tenth anniversary when "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" returns on Tuesday March 18th.
Sunday, March 9, 2014 at 9:33AM New York Times the miniature model (so edible looking!) of The Grand Budapest Hotel
Interview talks to Jeff Goldblum - I didn't realize how much I missed him until his scenes in the new Wes Anderson
/Film Carrie Fisher to be in London for 6 months for the new Star Wars film... Hmmm perhaps more than a cameo, then. But regardless I'm not really looking forward to these after the debacle of the last trilogy
Towleroad on Neil Patrick Harris as a gay icon
Gawker Rich Juzwiak on the continuation of the gay 300 saga. This line just kills me:
But no one man can satisfy Themistocles. "I have spent my life on my one true love: the Greek fleet," he proclaims. Sounds like an active life!
(I'm never going to see the new 300: Rise of an Empire given the descriptions of how gorey it is -- sounds more vomitous than the first one in this regard! -- but I sure as hell am going to read the hilarious reviews)
The Wire why gay guys love the 300 movies
Cinema Blend Pee Wee Herman's beloved bike auctions for over $36,000. Wait, I thought it wasn't for sale?
Erik Lundegaard if The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 tops the box office charts in 2014 it'll be the first time that's happened in consecutive years for a sequel since... (you'll never guess when)
Salon how hotels like the Grand Budapest became relics of the past
Marlee Matlin, a deaf woman, famously planed a deaf woman in Children of a Lesser God (1986) and won the OscarToday's Most Discussable
Balder & Dash has an impassioned article about why disabled actors should be the only actors cast in disabled roles. The reasoning is very convincing but it does uncomfortably remind me of all of the flak people gave Jared Leto for doing a trans role this year and Leto's very sound response to the criticisms. Just how close do we need or even want actors to be to the roles they play? If we say that a straight man shouldn't ever play a queer role, does that mean queer actors must never play straight roles? And does this mean trans actors who can totally pass as cisgendered people shouldn't be allowed to play cisgendered roles? Does this mean we should never again have a performance like Linda Hunt's great one in The Year of Living Dangerously (1983)? She is not a trans woman or a man, but she played a man convincingly and carried it off beautifully.
It's a fascinating topic and one that I think should be openly discussed even if, in the days of outrage culture, those discussions can be political minefields. My worry is that this sort of stance is just too limiting for artists and boxes them up. On the other hand, though, shouldn't minority artists have first dibs on minority roles? (I know I've been pissed when I've seen bad gay performances in the past and thought "why didn't you just hire a gay?") Have you ever thought about this and are you also torn between two opinions on the matter?
Saturday, March 8, 2014 at 6:52PM Illustration Friday is fun internet exercize for artists and though most of the participants seem to be professional, which I am not, I'm trying it again to celebrate my first iPad (which is much easier to draw on then the phone). This weeks topic is "Spark" and the second I saw the words this image popped into my mind. Because few things at the cinema have ever felt so much like a lit fuse to something powder-keg explosive...
To this day I remember the chills, my breath stopping in the movie theater when the Marquise de Mertueil (Glenn Close) and Vicomte de Valmont (John Malkovich) had their final heated confrontation. They'd fallen out over previous verbal arrangements and epistolary evidence. "A single word" is all he asks to mend things between them, though it sounds like a threat. The single word he's looking for is "yes" but she has a different three letter word in mind.
War.
Movie go boom.
If "fierce" hadn't yet been invented as a word, the existence of Glenn Close's Marquise would have birthed it right then and there. (If Glenn Close were half as frightening as the Marquise crossed, the Academy would never have dared rob her of that Oscar. And rob her they did.)
Which moment lit the most explosive fuse in a movie you love?
Saturday, March 8, 2014 at 3:33PM Sorry this is so many days late! I promised we'd play along this year. And by play along I don't mind dress up in drag while typing but you can't see me so you'll never know but weekly posts on the best reality show on television (the Emmys sure are missing the boat float with their exceedingly conventional and stale nominations). Unfortunately "The Big Opening Part 2" which brough us another set of 7 queens, was much less cinematic in its shout-outs, so I made one up myself: Darienne Lake and June Squibb have the same designer. Pass it on!
Oh. my. god. Revelation as I typed: June Squibb would make the best Guest Judge on this show. Make that happen, Ru.
Not that no queens were compared to queens of the screen. Milk was told to "flash that Lauren Hutton smile" and Trinity K Bonet decided to go with 'something between Star Wars and Buckingham Palace for her look, citing Princess Leia as inspiration. The actual runway look skipped that generation and went straight for Princess Amidala. It worked for the judges.
Saturday, March 8, 2014 at 10:24AM But, let's be honest: that's kinda every day here at the Film Experience. Therefore I have nothing special planned for it. Sorry bout it. I'd list my single favorite actress from every country but who got time for that? Instead a shout out to international readers and please enjoy these pictures of Anouk Aimée, Nicole Kidman, Maggie Cheung & Zhang Ziyi, Monica Vitti, Melanie Lynskey & Kate Winslet and more after the jump...
Tell us which actresses you'd like as cinematic ambassador from your country (or State)!
