Who's Your Favorite Dame?

Imelda Staunton. Photographed by David Rose. [Source]Here's Murtada on his favorite subject; British ladies of a certain age who delight on screen and stage.

Happy New Year! Some Brits usher in the new year celebrating their newly bestowed knighthoods. This year Queen Elizabeth II honors, among others, Idris Elba and David Oyelowo. There are different designations to the honor. For example Imelda Staunton became a CBE i.e. not yet a Dame but well on her way. It’s obvious The Queen hasn’t ventured out to the theater in 2015 or Staunton would be Dame Squared for her triumphant Mama Rose alone.

This year’s newly minted Dames are British TV stalwart Barbara Windsor (EastEnders, the Carry On movies) and Welsh stage veteran Sian Phillips (Daniel Day Lewis’ mother in The Age of Innocence), who was once Mrs. Peter O’Toole.

But when we talk dames we mostly talk about the holy trinity who still have vibrant movie careers: Judi, Maggie and Helen. No last names necessary if you say Dame first. Oscars and other awards, big successes on the boards on both sides of the Atlantic and long thriving careers for all three.

But who is your favorite? To help you decide let’s dig a bit deeper. [More...]

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December. It's a Wrap

No. No. We aren't wrapping 2015 yet. There's still prizes to hand out and a few more lists to finish writing. But we can and must wrap up December since it ends in a few hours when everyone will be kissing on everyone and screaming "Happpy New Year!" 

Since the film year doesn't truly end until the last Oscar statue is handed out, it'd be more accurate to scream...

Happy New Calendar Year -- the Oscars Are Only 58 Days Away!"

But try convincing the drunk masses to scream that one out at midnight tonight!

December Highlights
• SAG Ensemble who got left out even though their film was nominated? 
• Son of Saul Interview the director and star of Oscar's foreign film frontrunner (now playing)
• Star Wars Oscar History then but now?
• Critics Choice Shark Jump we embarrassed ourselves like never before over the new Star Wars
• Outstanding Achievement in Abs meet the new Tarzan, more eight-packy than the previous Tarzans
• Mildred Pierce Manuel looked back at Todd Haynes pre Carol, HBO miniseries
• Julianne Moore Acts for Tips in Times Square
• Brokeback Mountain, Mermaids, and Doctor Zhivago we celebrated the 10th, 25th & 50th anniversaries with our favorite scenes and memories
• Production Design: Room one of the year's most creatively boxed-in challenges 
• "You Need Serious Hair" magical DIY makeovers

BEST OF 2015. PERIOD
We spent a lot of time obsessing over the year's best picture Carol, it's true. But mostly we've had a ton of fun sharing our "15 best of '15 lists". There's a few more coming but if you've missed any please do dive in. We've already covered:

• Scariest Moments BOO!
• Hardest Working Actors ubiquity for days
• Best Things on TV from Veep to Penny Dreadful
• Greatest Screen Hunks dino trainers, strippers, boxers, and farmhands ohmy
• Movie Animals Not all of which try to eat Leonardo DiCaprio!
• Co-Star Chemistry these pairs caught lightning in a bottle!
• Biggest Box Office Hits in 4 different categories

• Worst of the Year Hateful Eight and other things that aggravated
• Red Carpet Looks only one per lady allowed 
• Delicious Music Videos Sia, Tame Impala, Madonna and more
• 15 Most Popular Tweets

 COMING IN JANUARY
The Film Bitch Awards for 2015 (we stuck one toe in thus far), the BAFTA nominations, The Golden Globe and SAG Awards, various Guild Nominations, and much Oscar Mania. You should also expect lots more on the big Oscar titles including interviews and second looks. Plus we'll gaze at Sundance from afar (since we couldn't afford the trip this year - tight budget for 2016). ANY REQUESTS?

To Gong Li on Her 50th Birthday

One of the screen's all time great beauties turns 50 today and she's still completely ravishing. Gong Li holds the fascinating distinction of being the only Chinese cinema star that Oscar has ever been consistently interested in. Despite Oscar's historic (and frankly bizarre) resistance to Asian cinema, even in the foreign film categories, an incredible six films from her resume have been nominated for Oscars.

Alas she has not been nominated herself, though she was "in the conversation" as it were on two separate occassions.  A Gong Li beauty break and those six of her most famous films after the jump... 

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Women's Pictures - Celine Sciamma's Girlhood

In Yes Please, Amy Poehler writes,

If you ever want to see heaven, watch a bunch of young girls play. They are all sweat and skinned knees. Energy and open faces.

Celine Sciamma's 2014 film Girlhood opens with just such a small slice of heaven: a group of French teenage girls play American football in an empty stadium. Unobserved by outside eyes, the girls throw, and tackle, and sprint. If not for the flashes of eyeliner and braids peaking out of their helmets, you'd be hardpressed to figure out who these young athletes were at all. This brief but intense scene is the last time these young women will be so carefree and unwatched. The rest of Sciamma's film is about growing up watched and watching, as one girl tries to break free of the constraints placed on her by class, gender, and race.

Marieme is a tall, shy tomboy living in the outskirts of Paris. Played with openfaced observance by Karidja Touré, Marieme is a frustrated dreamer. Told by her counselor that she doesn't have the grades for 2 years of high school, she leaves school rather than accepting vocational training. [More...]

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FYC: Sarah Paulson, Carol's Best Supporting Actress

The Film Experience is proud to welcome back Matthew Eng for this personal FYC

Sarah Paulson photographed for VarietyThese days, to simply see Sarah Paulson’s name in the opening credits of any project is enough to make me sit back, relax, and sigh with deep and reverent relief that — no matter the lapses in storytelling, the dubiousness of politics, or the haphazard efforts of other actors — I am in the hands of at least one supremely assured and eternally convincing performer.

As someone who missed Aaron Sorkin’s infamous Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and the extensive list of sitcoms and serials she appeared in from the mid-nineties to the late-2000s (not to mention her numerous stage roles and occasional film appearances), my Sarah Paulson fandom is fairly recent. Of course, like many, I’d seen and admired her wry gal pal in Down with Love, which remains a fun but frankly flaky memory.

But truthfully, I wasn’t fully onboard the Paulson bandwagon until 2012, when she offered American Horror Story’s peak Asylum season a truly new and refreshingly tough-minded depiction of devastated-turn-mobilized female victimhood and then, a year later, sauntered into Steven McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave as one of contemporary cinema’s most memorably unrepentant villainesses, terrorizing Lupita and manipulating Fassy with ferocious, bone-chilling conviction.

When I heard Paulson had joined Carol, I took another of those deep and reverent sighs of relief, as if to say, 'Alright, this film will actually be as perfect as I need it to be.'  [More...]

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