On This Day: The Bling Ring, Bambi, Prizzi's Honor...
Wednesday, June 14, 2017 at 8:00AM 
Okay, let's get back on track with a robust daily blogging schedule here at TFE. Happy Wednesday y'all. Here are your 5 assignments for the day.
5 Ways to Honor This Day (June 14th) in History
2013 The Bling Ring opens in movie theaters. By and large people fail to recognize its brilliance immediately. This is the same thing that happens to almost every Sofia Coppola movie.
In its honor: Take all early reactions to The Beguiled, good bad or indifferent, with a huge grain of salt. It opens very soon but first impressions are not likely to last. Her movies are sticky.
1985 John Huston's penultimate movie Prizzi's Honor starring Jack Nicholson, Katheen Turner, and eventual Oscar winner Anjelica Huston, opens in theaters. It's not even the earliest release for a Best Picture nominee that year! Get this statistic...
60% of the Best Picture list in 1985 opened in theaters before August (!) and only one of the acting winners came from a December release. Can you imagine? Wouldn't it be sweet to see Oscar look at a whole calendar year again?
In its honor today: Get frisky. Roll right off the bed like Kathleen & Jack or, to honor Anjelica's "Maerose Prizzi," do it on the floor "...right there on the Oriental. With all the lights on." Hee!
1951 Russian director Alexander Sokurov of Russian Ark and Francophonia fame was born on this day.
In his honor today: Go to an art museum and pretend he's watching you in one long unbroken shot. P.S. If you have time Francofonia which is about the Louvre during Nazi occupation is now streaming on Amazon Prime.
1942 Walt Disney's Bambi is released in the United States. On this same day over in The Netherlands, Anne Frank begins her diary which she had received on her birthday two days prior. Imagine a better world when that famous 13 year old girl could have enjoyed something as frivolous and beautiful and magical as a Disney movie instead of worrying for the lives of all her loved ones.
In their honor: Fight for that better world. Vote only for politicians who fight for the dignity of all people, not just ones that look and believe and act as you do. And if you're only worried about your own kind, check yourself. Divisions and "othering" labels make us vulnerable to evil men who are all too happy to exploit those divisions and prejudices for their own gain.
1847 Robert Bunsen invents "The Bunsen Burner". Did you know that Bunsen Honeydew is named after him? And you agree that Bunsen Honeydew is the best Human muppet, don't you? That last question is rhetorical. Of course you do.
In his honor: Invent something. Or torture your own "Beakie" if you're feeling feisty.
Other Anniversaries
Actors Born on this Day: Happy 103rd birthday to Gisele Casadesus (Afternoons with Marguerite, Sarah's Key) in France. Yes she's still alive!. Also: Burl Ives (1909), Sullivan Stapleton (1977), Louis Garrell (1983); Other Luminaries Worth Celebrating Born on This Day: legend Boy George (1961), Oscar winning editor Bob Murawski (1964), tennis star Steffi Graf (1969), writer Diablo Cody (1978), Movies Released on This Day: The Parallax View (1974), Secret Admirer (1985), Robin Hood Prince of Thieves (1991), The Cable Guy (1996), The Bourne Identity (2002), Man of Steel (2013); So Feisty: Zsa Zsa Gabor is arrested for slapping a Beverly Hills Patrolman (1989)
Reader Comments (17)
The Bling Ring was just marvelous-I think it's Watson's best work by far (I know she's become a bit of a pariah after that ridiculous Buzzfeed article, but I still think she has quite a bit of promise as a performer, this being Exhibit A).
I'm here for the Bling Ring. It's definitely Emma Watson's best performance (that opening scene!), and really holds up on multiple viewings.
Angelica Huston is simply marvelous in Prizzi's Honor, which is one case of nepotism I can get behind. Huzzah.
Count me a Bling Ring fan, too - I think it's very underrated, and in many ways the sharpest of SC's films.
Winfrey is my preference for winner. But her loss here was a sober reminder that Hollywood is impenetrable with its indifference to nonwhite female talent. Her TV show proved to be her path to greatness leading to a humanitarian Oscar statuette and a Kennedy Center Honor.
Huston was mature for a Hollywood starlet. Early 30's. But had the luxury of being the daughter of a prominent director and being the girlfriend of the most powerful male movie star ever. This helped her career and confidence. Her win also repeated itself with subsequent losses to Irish unknown character actresses. With Julia Roberts as her co-nominee consecutively.
I think The Bling Ring is great, but I like all of Sofia's films. They're all rewatchable, too. I don't think she's made a dud yet.
Emma Watson's best performances are in Bling Ring and Perks of Being a Wallflower. They're different enough roles that I have hope for her future.
Of course I love Bunsen, but everyone knows that Janice is the best human Muppet.
No. The best human muppets are Waldorf and Statler! My life goal is become like them.
/3rtful -- that's an uncharitable reading of why Oprah lost. I personally think that that had zero all to do with it back in 1985. Even at the time there wasn't agreement that she was the best even within her movie. And she had internal competition with that smashing performance by Margaret Avery in the same film. I think in retrospect everyone thinks that Oprah is an easy call because Avery didn't have much of a career thereafter and Oprah became a superstar the very next year with her meteoric talk show rise and Anjelica Huston got even better as an actress topping her own "best" work. But nobody knew that that was the way it would all pan out back in 1985.
I enjoyed The Bling Ring which I thought was Sofia's most accessible film since The Virgin Suicides. I had a ball watching that and, with all of Sofia's films so far, I own it on DVD.
The annoying thing about the Wolf of Wall Street love is critics (mostly straight guys) pretending they need to go out on a limb for it—a five-time Oscar nominee that grossed almost $400 million at the box office. They treat it like it's a misunderstood little gem!
I replied on the wrong post!
Anjelica Houston is probably the worst supporting actress winner. She doesn't even bother to act in "Prizzi's Honor" and when she does, it's painfully amateur. And the worst part is that she's a terrific actress. But this was all nepotism at its finest.
Avery > Winfrey in TCP. When is /3rtful not uncharitable?
Anjelica Huston's performance in Prizzi's Honor was raved at the time--she's one of the rare actresses to win NYFCC+NBR+LAFCA+NSFC+BSFC+KCFCC (all the major critics prizes back then) for a role. Marlon Brando said hers was one of his favorite comedic film performances. Nepotism may have helped her get the role, but the performance inspired genuine passion.
If she could only win once, though, I wish it had been for The Grifters. She's terrific in it and it's the performance she's the most proud of.
I wish we got to see more of her these days. Ryan Murphy should make her one of his muses.
@Mareko: Winfrey is miles better than Avery in "TCP". Is this perception that she can't be a tremendous actress because of the gigantic fame on her shoulders?
@Mike: Which tells how little you can trust awards circuits. Did they even see "Prizzi's Honor"? And how is that a comedic performace? She doesn't even try to be funny and the movie is not even a comedy. It's more like romantic gangster drama. There's zero sense in Brando's statement (if he ever said that, let alone if he saw the movie)
Nathaniel gave you context, but you all chose to ignore it.
Thank you for mentioning my idol Steffi Graf! I know you like tennis Nathaniel but I had not expected her name to pop up on The Film Experience :-)
So this thread made me curious about Prizzi's Honor, which I have never seen--it's a difficult movie to track down! It's not on Netflix streaming, it's not available for rent on iTunes or Amazon. Supposedly a Blu Ray release is on the way, but I'm hoping it will be available for rent on one of those services.