Peggy Link
Tuesday, May 26, 2015 at 11:00AM Theater Mania Juliette Binoche to return to the stage with Sophocles' Antigone
Playbill interviews Laura Benanti
Variety the charming animated fable Song of the Sea takes Best Picture at the Irish Film Awards. Have you seen it yet? It was very nearly my favorite of last year's animated pictures.
Guardian interviews Vincent Cassell on his disturbing Australian drama Partisan with a look back at his now-classic breakthrough in La Haine (which might get a sequel)
Variety critics hash out the best and worst of Cannes together with the most fascinating split being on Hou Hsiao Hsien's The Assassin which Debruge finds "impenetrable" and for which Chang expresses rapturous love. (Note: they also seem to admire Carol more than love it - which is why I've always been less bullish than most early Oscar prognosticators in assuming AMPAS's future love for it)
Nick Davis, Tim Brayton, Ivan Albertson and Amir Soltani continue their collective committed Cannes 1995 retrospective hitting films like Shanghai Triad (I loved that one at the time!), The Madness of King George, and Todd Haynes classic [safe]
Sad News
The Guardian reports that 1960s superstar Omar Sharif has Alzheimers
Kenneth in the (212) RIP to Anne Meara aka "Mrs Sherwood" in Fame (1980) but was also a multiple Emmy nominee and Ben Stiller's mamma
In Contention in case you hadn't heard John & Alicia Nash, the subjects of the Oscar winning A Beautiful Mind were died in a car accident Sunday
Popcorn Season
Coming Soon lists the "15 biggest disaster movies" but skimps on older films with only four movies listed that existed prior to 1996.
CHUD new pics from Ridley Scott's Martian featuring Matt Damon's space suit (the costume designer is Ridley Scott regular, Janty Yates)
Empire shares new Ant Man images
/Film in more 'franchises never die' news, the Conan series may be revived as The Legend of Conan with Arnold Schwarzenegger back as the barbarian in his older years
Observations on Film Art on the waning thrills of CGI comparing The Hobbit to Lord of the Rings and Mad Max Fury Road to the general contemporary action film
Pajiba Captain America Civil War is filming and thus, lots of photos from the set
The Dissolve has a long read on genre movies that followed in the wake of Star Wars: Flash Gordon, Superman, and Star Trek and where they went right and wrong
David Johns does a Law & Order style Daredevil edit. Good job
Showtune to Go...
This morning we chatted briefly about the upcoming Peggy Lee biopic so why not a little Peggy for the afternoon? Enjoy this Peggy Lee & Judy G medley that kicks off with "I Like Men"
Reader Comments (7)
The old Judy Garland Show is the gift that just keeps on giving!! That clip is so amazing. Today would have been the divine Miss Peggy Lee's 95th birthday so it's wonderful she's getting the spotlight shown on her.
That list of disaster movies is highly selective some truly belong, Airport, Poseidon Adventure, Towering Inferno, Independence Day but 2012?? That stinking pile belongs on the worst disaster movies list along with Avalanche and The Swarm and nowhere else!
Terribly sad news about Omar Sharif....and also about the passing of Anne Meara.
Scott Foundas and Justin Chang really love Carol, only Peter Debruge didn't fall for it but he's a Maïwenn fan so whatever.
But yes, Carol will arrive in the US with so much anticipation but only half of an award, thanks to the lovely Xavier Dolan, so when all the critics see it I'm expecting what happened to Foxcatcher, except this time it's a women's movie directed by the eternally underrated Todd Haynes so it will probably get 2/3 nominations if Weinstein doesn't completely botch the release.
People always seem to forget that critics and AMPAS are two diffrerent clubs.
There are a lot of high praised movies that didn't earn much Oscar love.
Not saying Carol won't recieve much love... I'd REALLY wish it would get as much love as it can, but given it's subject: a serious lesbian love story, not a wet dream fantasy sequence, I'm just not sure how it will connect with the mainly straight white male club at all.
I do HOPE I'm wrong, though.
I am agog at that list of disaster films. 2012 over The Hurricane, San Francisco and In Old Chicago? Come on!
Though that photo of Ben Affleck makes me remember about when I realized I was gay, so kudos to that Armageddon.
Sonja -- The patriarchal white supremacist voting bloc will appreciate two hot chicks getting it on in the English language with Weinstein's backing. And the two hot chicks in question are previous nominees.
If you go on Metacritic for any given year and see the highest reviewed films by critics, only a handful of them will show up at the Oscars in major categories. The rest may get one or two nods, but nothing more. Both sides are to blame, in my view. Critics, at times, give raves to films like Mr. Turner and Winter Sleep that are pretty to look at but excruciatingly boring to watch unfold, whereas the Academy gives awards to films like The Theory of Everything and The Imitation Game that are pleasant to watch but lack any artistic value. Rarely do we ever get the middle ground, where simultaneously artistic AND entertaining films are acknowledged.
You're going to see Binoche live? She is like the best actress of the last 20 years, but she's so inherently movie-ish that I can't imagine how her minimalist acting registers on the stage. There are no close-ups!
I know she has some stage credits (including that dance project) but her most important feature is her face. It could be tricky.