Which is yummier?

poll by twiigs.com

Nic's No Nympho

.

JA from MNPP here with some sad news - Nicole Kidman has dropped out of her reunion with Danish dare-monger Lars Von Trier for his next flick, the sexually explicit Nymphomaniac. She's too busy playing a Princess to mime unspeakable acts with Shia LaBeouf, it seems. The assumption is that the recently added Uma Thurman is her replacement, but (nothing against Uma) I'm hoping it's another name just added to the cast instead - let's see Willem Dafoe fill in Nicole's shoes!

.

First & Last: Horizons

The first and last images from a motion picture.

Can you guess the movie?
 

Podcast: The Impossible Life of Pi on the Hudson

Here's part two of my October conversation with Katey, Joe and Nick. In part I, Nathaniel, made the embarrassing confession that I had yet to see The Master due to pneumonia, subway mishaps and so on... The day that I knew Part 1 of the podcast would air (Sunday) I rushed to a matinee of The Master so as to course-correct before my shame went public. I only had a few hours free and when I arrived at the theater the ticket seller informed me that The Master was not showing thus prolonguing my public humiliation:

Me, Wracked With The Master-Related Guilt: But I looked it up just 45 minutes ago... 12:30 PM! I'm here. It's 12:30 PM. I have to see it.
Lady Who Knew Not My Blogging Shame:  Where did you look it up?
Me: Moviefone.
Lady: We're not affiliated with them. Next time try Fandango.
Me: Are you telling me that Moviefone just made this up?!
Lady: I'm telling you that it's not showing and we aren't affiliated with them.
Me: Fine... Argo.

ANYWAY... [/tangent]

Podcast Part Two.
Topics in this incredibly rambling 41 minute Oscar podcast include but are not limited to:

• Life of Pi
• Hyde Park on Hudson - why the festival showings?
• How to Survive a Plague, Documentaries & FYC Screeners
• Leonardo DiCaprio in Django Unchained
• Naomi Watts in The Impossible
• Amour, Emmanuelle Riva and Best Actress
• The Matthew McConaughey Narrative
• The Normal Heart and August: Osage County in 2013

You can download the podcast on iTunes or listen right here. Enjoy (and please comment if you do).

The Impossible Life of Pi Oscar Ramblings

Oscar Horrors: For "The Hell of It"

HERE LIES... Paul Williams' rock opera score for Phantom of the Paradise, lain to rest by Nelson Riddle's nostalgia-drenched work on The Great Gatsby.

Andreas here with more spoooky Oscar Horrors, this time singing the praises of composer Paul Williams. His Oscar-nominated work on Brian De Palma's horror musical astonishes with its versatility, bouncing from one pop mode to another—surf rock to glam rock to piano ballad—all the while keeping tempo with De Palma's virtuosic visuals. The songs aren't hollow pastiches, either; Williams imbues them with surprising emotional depth, coloring the whole film with their underlying melancholy. In order to pull off such an operatic saga, De Palma needed big music, and Williams really delivers.

Phantom, after all, is a macabre tale of the music industry, filled with songwriters, divas, and wannabes (Williams himself even co-stars as the villainous Swan, a kind of Mephistopheles by way of Phil Spector.) The characters, like composer-turned-phantom Winslow Leach and his beloved Phoenix, speak the language of show-stopping musical numbers. The plot is driven by one such song, "Faust," written by Winslow and stolen by Swan, reprised over and over as the characters' relationships shift.

All my dreams are lost and I can't sleep

And sleep alone could ease my mind

All my tears have dried and I can't weep...

Like so much of the soundtrack, "Faust" is rich with longing and regret, paralleling the film's themes of love, fame, and sacrifice. Williams' music matches the rest of the film's mood so well: funereal and otherworldly, with a strain of twisted dark comedy. The jukebox-ready opening number "Goodbye, Eddie, Goodbye" demonstrates this latter trait especially well, as does "The Hell of It." Perhaps the film's best song, "The Hell of It" plays over the ending credits, with Williams gleefully singing its damnation-centric lyrics: "And though your music lingers on, all of us are glad you're gone!"

Williams himself is not gone—as we're reminded by the new documentary Paul Williams Still Alive—but his music for Phantom of the Paradise sure lingers on, and on, and on.