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Friday, April 24, 2015 at 7:32PM 
You've been awfully awfully quiet this week.
What's on your cinematic mind? What movie, actor or director have you been thinking of a lot lately? Don't be shy. Tell us everything.
Reader Comments (35)
For some reason, I have not been able to stop thinking about/re-watching MAGNOLIA all week. " The book says we may be through with the past but the past ain't through with us."
I can't stop thinking about Myrna Loy -- the forgotten movie star.
I think it's because we're waiting for the rest of your Oscar predictions...
Waiting patiently for your answers to last week's Q&A!
I'm seeing "Unfriended" tomorrow. Hey, you asked.
Just screened "Night of the Hunter" for a class this week and the students did not seem as shocked by it as I expected. It still surprises me every time I rewatch.
I second what James said!
I rewatched The Heat the other day and that movie just gets funnier and funnier each time I watch it. Sandra and Melissa are both hilarious and the way they bounce insults off each other is comedic gold! I can't wait for McCarthy's Spy to come out.
Give me Spy right now. I want to see Spy.
I have a 94 year old relative that I sometimes watch movies with.
On one hand, it can be hard to find a movie to watch, since there can't be any swearing, nudity, sex or violence.
On the other hand, it's fun to have someone to watch really old movies with who doesn't complain about them being in black and white and dated. (We watched Grand Hotel, which I'd never seen before, and I didn't have to explain who Greta Garbo was).
This week we watched Moonrise Kingdom, and he thought the look of the movie was really special and good looking. We agreed that finding a good friend that really likes you is a treasure and worth making a movie about.
The "Oscar" movie that we saw in the theatre this year was The Theory of Everything. When the lights came up, we realized there were half a dozen of his elderly buddies in the crowd, also brought by their families. They all liked that movie (imo, simple through line, likeable characters, dealing with lack of mobility).
Next up, A Tale of Two Cities with Ronald Colman.
Where are your April Fools Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress predictions? I'm dying for them.
I have been watching a lot of Agatha Christie stories on film ... Death on the Nile, Ten Little Indians, Murder on the Orient Express, Evil Under the Sun, etc ... they are all pretty fun, if light.
Have you guys seen Albert Lewin's 1951 film "Pandora and the Flying Dutchman" starring Ava Gardner? So entranced was François Truffaut by the poetic beauty of Gardner and the film, he said, "Ava Gardner's body is yet that of the first woman, who, along with her hair, undoes the ties of all fatalities... cinema, once again the magic lantern of our childhood, has borne us very far and very high on the wings of the dream."
It's no secret that Gardner was one of Truffaut's favorite actors, and if I'm not mistaken, "The Barefoot Contessa" was counted among his 10 favorites.
In case you couldn't tell, Ava Gardner is on my cinematic mind. ;)
I have been obsessed by the you tube clip #makeitfair -with 70 women (including Rita Wilson and Mamie Gummer) singing about gender inequality.
Also "Inside Amy Schumer" and the sketch with Tina Fey, Patricia Arquette, and Julia Louis Dreyfuss in "Last Fuckable Day".
Amy Schumer is so brilliant I have been re-watching season 2 as well.
I am looking forward to "Spy" like everyone else.
Love the comments about Agatha Christie movies (I tend to love them) and Spy (can't wait!).
Since it was just Shakespeare's birthday I was thinking about how good Ben Whishaw was playing Richard II in The Hollow Crown, and I can't wait for some of his upcoming movies (The Lobster, Spectre, In the Heart of the Sea) to come out. Really wish he'd get another killer lead role.
Saw The Honorable Women last week on Netflix and fell completely in love. Not a huge fan of spy/espionage pieces but this was so marvelously intertwined with the political intrigue against the backdrop of national/dynastic feuds that it left me breathless (even if it got kind of outlandish near the end, as they're wont to do). But overall, it was SO incredibly well done. I don't think I've loved any miniseries this much since Top of the Lake. (I see the connections here, don't worry.) And Maggie Gyllenhaal was FLAWLESS. My admiration for her is mostly derived from Secretary, and I've always thought her as winning and sexy, but I've never seen her gone to such convincing emotional depths or dame-level regality before. After this I feel pretty confident in moving her up to "best of generation" status. Am I way behind?
I just saw my 100th movie this year. It was Edge of Tomorrow, and it was far more enjoyable than I thought it would be. The ten before that were: The Big White (2005, Mark Mylod), The Pretty One (2013, Jenee LaMarque), A Star is Born (1937, William A. Wellman), Twixt (2011, Francis Ford Coppola), Guardians of the Galaxy (2014, James Gunn), Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood (2002, Callie Khouri), The East (2013, Zal Batmanglij), The Bishop's Wife (1947, Henry Koster), The Babadook (2014, Jennifer Kent), and The Boys Are Back (2009, Scott Hicks)
What I've learnt is that Francis Ford Coppola has completely lost his touch.
Adri - isn't Grand Hotel great? Love that film. So soapy but classy and involving
I've been going back over David Fincher's back catalogue before he began directing his films, particularly his music videos. What a gift he had in that field.
Vogue, Express Yourself, Freedom 90 etc, the list goes on. Really makes me want to see him tackle another one soon.
I've been thinking about Lee Remick. By chance I caught five of her films this week. The Running Man, where it's a competition who is more beautiful Lee, Alan Bates or the Malaga locations, Baby, the Rain Must Fall with Steve McQueen, No Way to Treat a Lady with George Segal and two I saw for the first time, Wild River with Monty Clift and Hard Contract with James Coburn.
What a talented and underappreciated actress she was.
^^This. I've been thinking about Remick myself, probably because Keri Russell reminds me of her sometimes and I am loving her work in The Americans.
@Caroline - I'm so happy that another person has discovered THW, I saw it last summer and have been raving about it ever since. Maggie G. made such an impression on me -more than she ever had before.
I can't make up my cinematic mind since I went through Oscar's acting categories to find out which and how many nominated performances I've not seen. Due to the imbalance between the lead and the supporting categories, the results unfortunately aren't as satisfying as I'd hoped they'd be. I've missed 13 in Best Actor, but only 2 in Best Supporting Actor. 12 in Best Actress, but only 1 in Best Supporting Actress. Fuck. Results like these provoke mixed emotions and I don't know if I should be disappointed or proud of myself. In the end of course, I assume that my vanity will prevail, just as it always does.
I've firstly been pondering why I love In The Cut so much and why it's so divisive.
Secondly, hoping Nathaniel will answer the Next British Acting Dames question (and also trying to predict who will be awarded, rather than who should).
Caroline and Lady Edith - I too love The Honourable Woman and was a little disappointed that only Stephen Rea got a BAFTA nomination. Janet McTeer was robbed, though suspected Maggie would struggle as a non-Brit. Was trying to remember if a non-Brit had ever picked up a nomination at the TV Awards and came up with Anamaria Marinca and Gillian Anderson (though I believe that both are kind of British citizens so may not count!)
Joel6--Right on about Remick! I've always found Lee delightful, especially in her big break as the small town tramp in "Anatomy of a Murder." And how heartbreaking was she as the teetotaler who hubby Jack Lemmon turns into a lush in "The Days of Wine and Roses?"
And Lee's huge baby blues always slayed me...
I saw Blue is The Warmest Color again and I'm devastated the Adele Exarchopoulos' career is not happening. Where is she? This is a Tang Wei situation, an all-time best breakthrough performance and then, nothing else? (Loved Tang Wei in Blackhat)
For some reason I've been obsessing over the idea of a Rock Hudson/Doris Day movie starring Channing Tatum and Emma Stone. And if Channing isn't available, maybe Miles Teller? I'm not even a huge fan of biopics but I find it odd that nobody's tried to at least tell Hudson's story on screen yet. It's especially strange to me since it seems like that era is one that filmmakers love to revisit.
And I really should watch more Lee Remick movies, I loved her in Anatomy of a Murder.
Loving all this Maggie talk. I'm a fan, and I've had her Globe speech running through my head on a loop all week. Must be something in the air.
(And speaking of something in the air, I had Lee Remick on my mind, too - an actress I'm not super acquainted with, but who I looked up this week to learn how her career played out.)
Really curious about this year's release of The Overnight, Patrick Brice's new dark comedy on a modern take of contemporary manners and sexuality amongst the California bourgeoisie.
And Jonathan Glazer's Birth had its run ten years ago; on a recent rewatch the film held up quite well, in no small part because of Nicole Kidman's haunting, mesmerizing performance along with Cameron Bright as an eerily effective ten-year-old boy.
@cal roth
Adele Exarchopoulos is under 22, white and French, her career prospects will never mirror that of an Asian actress. She's been cast in a Sean Penn directorial effort. She has plenty of time to happen. Hollywood offers garbage opportunities to foreign actresses anyway. You really want her to be some shrill girlfriend or long suffering wife?
Love to see all the Lee Remick interest. She had such a varied career in her short life. As much as I enjoyed Audrey Hepburn in Wait Until Dark I would to have loved to see Lee, who originated the role on Broadway, repeat her stage performance since it was so acclaimed including a Tony nomination.
@3rtful
Yes, she does have time to happen, but her early break-through suggested me a Binoche/Huppert/Adjani career, with LOTS of great roles in their first years, and not in Hollywood. If you had a movie like Blue is the warmest color, you just don't wait.
I saw the re-cut version of 54. Still not a good movie, but maybe a better, not-good movie than it originally was.
Nicole Kidman returns to the London stage in September and bought my ticket :) Don't hate me because I am beautiful.
@Yavor That's not why I hate you ;-)
But seriously OMG!
I've been thinking about Isabelle Adjani a lot lately. So gorgeous, so talented.
Recently found out she was the director's first choice for the Glenn Close role in 'Fatal Attraction.' Would have have been interesting to see her interpretation of that character.
i just heard the song Riptide by vance joy tonight and thought of you, nathaniel. have you heard it? it has a michelle pfeiffer reference.
How is the baking going? I miss the pie photo.