Link: The Director's Cut
Thursday, February 5, 2015 at 5:00PM The Film Stage talks to the team behind Tangerine, the iPhone shot movie that was my favorite from Sundance
Pajiba green screen Jean-Claude Van Damme clips for you to make your own movie with
T, The New York Times Style Magazine profiles Xavier Dolan
Entertainment Junkie looks at the visual effects Oscar race
The Dissolve The Voyage of Time Terrence Malick's forthcoming film will have two versions. One with Brad Pitt's voice and one with Cate Blanchett's. I'm getting tired of multiple versions of the same thing, I must admit. It seems so indecisive. But maybe I'm just smarting because today I learned that...
The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby arrives on DVD and Blu-Ray on Tuesday and I keep hearing conflicting things. Some say it has all three versions of the film and some say it just has "Them" (which from everything I've read is the disappointing compromise). Should you be lucky enough to have access to the original two parts, which I recommend, watch "Him" first.
Awards Daily The Visual Effects Society Winners a complete list but the three key big screen wins are Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Big Hero 6, and Birdman.
Film School Rejects want Edward Norton to win Birdman's acting Oscar
/Film Baz Luhrmann is developing a music-related series for Netflix called The Get Down which focuses on the rise of hiphop, punk and disco in the late 70s. Could be amazing. Cross your collective fingers
Guardian wonders which modern actresses are channeling their inner Hepburn.
(True story. Last night I had a dream in which I was doing a sisyphean task of loading and unloading bags of ice. And Katharine Hepburn was my grandma in that dream.)
Retro Pleasures
Comics Alliance a look back at the awesome production design of Batman Returns which plays that stinkin' city like a harp from hell
The Dissolve "all the weird angles of Fritz Lang's M"
Medium a piece on Gene Kelly's death two decades ago and various tributes
Off Screen
Vox has a fascinating long read on the Men's Rights Activism and social media debates about persecution and privilege
Playbill Anthony Rapp of Rent fame has co-created the first ever BroadwayCon for theater fans. The first annual event will be held next January!
This Week's Must Read
Kyle Buchanan at Vulture demonstrates beautifully how indie Sundance break-outs and subsequent career offers for their no-budget scrappy directors are a microcosm of Hollywood's White Guy Problem. It's so true! A young white man can go from directing an indie for less than a million to helming huge blockbusters in one short step. Buchanan has examples and no such offers greet the directors of color or those with vaginas whose breakout films are just as mainstream leaning and just as popular.
Reader Comments (7)
I really loved The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby in its original form and am bummed that it was so ignored upon release. Jessica Chastain is my #1 Best Actress in a very rich year.
Interesting that you recommend watching Him first. I saw it in the opposite order and thought it worked very well that way, too.
I do think for as boring as many say 2014 was for film, I think there were interesting approaches to conventional filmmaking... Birdman with the "one take" continuous shooting style, Boyhood shot for an extended period, watching the cast grow over 12 years, and the Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby with the same story shot in two (three?) different perspectives. I think it's pretty awesome even if I can agree that there were some lackluster aspects to the 2014 film year.
I loved the Kyle Buchanan article in Vulture regarding the inequity of opportunity given to white male directors versus directors who are female or visible minorities. Examples of this abound, and this type of inequity is so ingrained I suspect those in power don't notice it, let alone question it.
Btw. Nathaniel - what do you think of the Vanity Fair Brit invasion shorts? Any anglophile out there will enjoy that bit of fun.
I'm stupidly, ridiculously excited for Voyage of Time. Terrence Malick in IMAX? Let me buy TWO tickets: one so I can DIE and the other one to bring me LIFE.
Also The Criterion Collection is reportedly releasing The New World in all his alleged cuts (extended, theatrical, director's) sometime this year so there's that too. I say with someone like him where his true calling is in bringing movements of pace and visuals and music together seamlessly, I honestly don't mind any which way he prefers to show them off. In fact, when someone who's working on a whole other level of serious film artistry (like Godard or Kubrick) wants to show us more of what their thought process might be and how they get from point A to point Z, I say we're only blessed to have them around.
BTW the Eleanor Rigby thing is ridiculous. If the director intended for three versions of the film to be available and we're getting anything less, then that's completely unacceptable and no one should bother checking them out. Same reason I'll never buy any Kill Bills until QT releases his definitive versions.
My review copy of Disappearance has all three versions on it. I started with Her and will watch Him and Them soon.
I LOVE The Disappearance of Eleanor RIgby!
though I have only watched THEM.
It was a really sad yet romantic story, I cry so many times watching it.
McAvoy and of course Chastain deliver as usual great performances.
It's a crime this movie is overlooked this awards season.
At least on iTunes the 12.99 deal comes with all three versions. Him, Her, Them.