Q&A Pt. 1: Sexy Time, Big Scares, Grace Casting, Favorite Kubrick
Monday, November 7, 2011 at 10:00PM 
As an apology for always taking so damn long with these Q & A columns, I'm doing two this week, but shorter just so I can get some questions done. I'm glad the feature is so popular so thanks for your patience when your questions aren't selected or delayed a week. Here we go. You asked. I select eight to answer... for now. Part Two in a day or three.
MARK: Do you think the success of The Help and Bridesmaids will get more female oriented films made, black or white?
Sadly I do not. It's actually not that rare for a female-driven film to become a big success. Everyone in positions of power just has collective amnesia about it the following year or assumes that it's a novelty even though novelty should imply "one off" and not something that occurs pretty much a couple of times a year. ;)
KOKOLO: What is your favorite Kubrick film?
I haven't been a completist about everyone's favorite director but mine. But of those that I've seen my preference is The Shining. I don't like the ending very much but otherwise I love everything about it and I think it's spectacularly creepy. But this could be because I saw it in a spectacularly creepy way for a first time in (wait for it) a cabin in the woods without another house around for miles, surrounded by the pitch black of a forest. I was SO scared. And don't you think that the circumstances in which you first view a movie have a real longlasting impact on you (provided it's a great movie to begin with)?
As for Kubrick in general, I find his films somewhat alienating which I suppose is the point but he's just not a favorite of mine. We're all allowed our off-consensus feelings about "the masters" aren't we? I actively dislike Eyes Wide Shut (1999), hate its faux shocking orgy sequence and cheesy-ass pay cable looking fantasies and the molasses performance beats drive me utterly wild... not in the good way. No, I don't even like Kidman in it very much. I keep meaning to give it a second chance but... every time I see a scene out of context I hate it all over again. I do however worship the opening sequence with Nicole Kidman stripping in front of the mirror.
But because I have never written about Kubrick I will now allow of you to choose one of the following (I skipped ones I didn't feel like writing about) and I will rent and write about whichever one you choose before the end of November. Drum roll... GO!
BIA: Which actresses would you put on a shortlist for this new Grace Kelly movie?
Please god no. We don't need this movie! Unless it's an alternate reality fantasy in which Kelly loses the Oscar to Garland. Hee. But in all seriousness, I did look at my list of actresses in the right age range -- yes I keep age range lists like I'm some casting director! I am an actress nerd. I couldn't come up with anyone suitable - Grace Kelly was 25 at the peak of her movie fame and 27 when she married the prince and retired. [If you're curious some blondes in the 20something age range -- I'm not endorsing them just listing them...
Grace casting, Sexy & Scary movies and more after the jump...
(young side) Margo Robie from Pan Am, Elizabeth Olsen (who you know they'll be considering for every single movie now); (mid 20s) Amber Heard, Dianna Agron, Amanda Seyfried, ScarJo. (late 20s early 30s) Kate Bosworth, Bijou Phillips, Sienna Miller
Grace Kelly | Romola Garai
I couldn't come up with anyone with the right mix of acting chops, beauty, and high-end sophistication (they have to read moneyed, don't they?) but if you put me at gun point right this second I'd go with Romola Garai.
UPDATE: Can i change my answer to Rosamund Pike suggested by squasher in the comments. What a great idea if we must have a Grace bio.
If I were the casting directors I would do a worldwide search and pray for a great unknown. But the reason I choose Garai is that a) she can act and b) like an unknown she doesn't yet have a defined star persona and I personally feel that the practice of using full blown stars to imitate other stars is weird because you want the actor to be in service to the legend and not to have two star personas clashing.
JON: As a Michelle Pfeiffer fan, would you nominate her wonderful performance in Batman Returns? And would you place her in lead or supporting?
I always assume that I would place her in lead and chuck her Love Field performance but this would be a rare time I'd be willing to cheat a bit and call her supporting. I'm not sure. I always think of her as a lead but that might be because I literally only watch her scenes when I watch the movie and have done so for as long as I can remember so it seems to me that her part is even bigger than Michael Keaton's ;)
And yes, I'd want to give her an Oscar for it. I think she should have three Oscars (The Fabulous Baker Boys, Batman Returns and White Oleander) by now.
MANUEL: This may be a first but here it cums: which movie has made you horny?
LOL. Uh... not sure I should answer this one but two college rentals with significant others came to mind. Once after watching The Fabulous Baker Boys with a girlfriend--- uh... NO I CAN'T DO IT! But one of the sexiest things I've ever seen onscreen is that moment when Jeff Bridges slips his hands under Pfeiffer's red dress while rubbing her neck. That whole movie is just wonderfully adult. There was also a certain problem of late fees with Peter Greenaway's The Pillow Book for which we must blame Ewan McGregor and all of that body painting and a brand new boyfriend. Those are the first two that come to mind but only because the effect was so, uh, pronounced. This is embarrassing. But obviously any movie works if you're hot for the person you're watching it with, right?
Wait. I retract. Do not take someone you want to f*** to Shame; no happy endings are likely to follow.
Six of the sexiest things I've ever seen onscreen: Ewan McGregor in the 90s, Kathleen Turner toying with William Hurt through a window in Body Heat, "the twins" in Burnt Money, Cheerleader Bello in A History of Violence, Julie Christie post coital in Don't Look Now, and Pfeiffer's back massage in Fabulous Baker Boys
Other super sexy time movies: Any Almodóvar movie but especially Law of Desire and Tie Me Up Tie Me Down!, Any Wong Kar Wai movie but especially In the Mood for Love and 2046, any movie wherein Gene Kelly smiles, Any movie wherein Catherine Deneuve tosses her hair, Also: Body Heat, Burnt Money, A Place in the Sun, Love Songs, Y Tu Mama Tambien, From Here To Eternity, A History of Violence (Viggo & Bello. I could watch them be married in 10 more movies, couldn't you?)
MARIO: Please, give me your top five favorite horror movies from this decade!
My favorites from the past decade are American Psycho (2000) which should've won Christian Bale the Oscar; I loved 28 Days Later (2002) at the time but it spawned so many mindless imitators that I sort of hate it in retrospect. So tired of zombies!; Speaking of... I went to a Halloween party that was showing Dawn of the Dead (2004) in the background (without the sound) and, true story, I was so impressed with the camera-work, editing and staging of that early all hell breaking loose segment that I went out and rented the movie. Zach Snyder's best movie for me and by a huge margin, too; The Descent (2005) is easily the scariest pure horror movie I've seen in theaters that I also respected in the morning; Like most of the world, I thought Let the Right One In (2008) was special.
The Descent (2005) is bloody good
I've been trying a lot harder to appreciate horror this past decade (since so many critics have fondness for the genre) but it's not really for me. A perfect example is Takashi Miike's Audition (1999 but released here in the US in 2001). I saw it solely because people were calling it a masterpiece but it was way way too sadistic and upsetting for me. I felt completely nauseous after sitting through it which is not the feeling I generally associate with my great love, the cinema. I have an easier time with the subgenre of camp comic horror like Grindhouse: Planet Terror (2007) or Drag Me To Hell (2009) which I do usually enjoy if it's inventive and smart.
TOMBEET: Who is your favorite character in Dazed and Confused?
"Darla" for the win. Parker Posey is one of the best things that ever happened in and to the world. The End.
PIVO: If you could cancel an Oscar category and create a new one, what would you do?
I don't object to two sound categories but I sometimes wonder why they get two when some other fields like say production design and set decoration have to share one category (art direction)? The most aggravating for me is probably Best Original Song because writing a good song has so little to do with the craft of moviemaking outside of making original movie musicals which they don't do anymore and never twice in the same year. Plus they have so many strange rules that end up disqualifying the good ones anyway.
I'd ditch that category for sure and add Best Casting. I know a lot of people would like to see Stunts getting an Oscar but I think Casting Directors are the single most important people to the success of movies that can't win an Oscar for their work.
your turn!
- Movies that make you horny?
- Favorite Kubrick?
- Do you like scary movies?
- Is Catwoman lead or supporting in Batman Returns?
- Grace Kelly biopic? Cast Away!
Reader Comments (55)
1) Among others, Y Tu Mama Tambien, Come Undone, The Dreamers, and - left field - Pickpocket. The Bresson movie. All that vaguely homoerotic staring and so forth. It's hot. Also, Drive (holy hell, Drive). Adventureland. Notorious (Hitchcock, not the Biggie biopic). Lost Highway.
2) Barry Mutha Effin' Lyndon
3) Love scary movies but can only take them in very limited doses.
4) Catwoman is totally lead.
5) I'd like to see Johnny Depp take a crack at Grace Kelly. Might be just the challenge he needs to break out of his blockbuster induced fog.
Your final question: who could place Grace Kelly now? Have no idea. (Why, oh why must we attempt to resurrect our beloved dead stars and replace them with changelings? Why?) If this had been years ago (say, 1999/2000) I could have seen Kidman taking it on BEFORE she became "NICOLE KIDMAN". Alas, not anymore.
Speaking of Kidman, I'd love you to write up Eyes Wide Shut because your write-ups of movies you're dissing are so wonderfully amusing...but I still consider Kidman's perf in it one of her most compelling and very best, whatever that experience may have cost her personally. The film would have benefitted immensely from having more of her and less of Tom in it, and it's only too bad Kubrick didn't see that at the time.
I completely second your shifts of Oscar categories and in fact I've wondered for a long time why Oscars aren't given to casting directors. (I suspect that on some level casting directors, as essential as they are, are somewhat like ghost writers, as explained by Ewan in The Ghost Writer; "We're like the mistress at the wedding".) It seems that everyone - other actors, directors, etc, love to say "It was my idea to cast-so-and-so" particularly if that person becomes famous in retrospect. But Nat you're completely right about the importance of the person who is casting all the roles that fill out a film.
For a moment I wanted to second Suzanne's idea to split the costume catagory because she's absolutely right.The problem, however, is there would be films that shift back and forth between the present and past time periods (this seems to be a frequent theme in films, or is it just me?) Then which catagory would those particular films fall under?
Sexy movie? Well, something happened with me and my sweetie - twice - when we watched Practical Magic *hides in embarrassment* - I can't explain it, except for that close-up of Dianne Weist in the first third of the film. I must love Dianne more than I ever imagined. And again after watching the Libertine (Johnny Depp disfiguring his face and figure to the fullest extent possible, such that it becomes gross and disgusting...what in the world is wrong with me?) But actually erotic movies in and of themselves - impossible to top Body Heat and Fabulous Baker Boys.
■ 9 1/2 Weeks (P.S. has there *ever* been a sexier twosome than Rourke and Basinger in their heyday?)
■ Lolita and 2001 (so avant-garde)
■ Suspensful (Silence of the Lambs), yes; gory (Saw, etc.), no!
■ To me, Catwoman is a co-lead (she's even the last shot in the movie!)
■ Teresa Palmer actually might be my first choice to play Grace Kelly
Mareko -- that's so weird that you mention teresa palmer. I almost listed her and though ....no people won't know who she is and i've only seen her in I am number four lol... which is not sucha GraceKelly role
I don't wanna be this thread's a-hole but I saw Glorious 39 and the close-up and glamorous make-up ares not Romola Garai's best friends. I like the Amber Heard possibility although I need to see her in something.