Posterized: Tilda Swinton's Greatest Hits

by Nathaniel R

Alien movie star Tilda Swinton is one of the true glories of modern cinema, and she's playing multiple creepy roles this weekend in her third Luca Guadagnino picture. After starring for the Italian director in I Am Love and A Bigger Splash she's the MVP of his new spin-off riff (it's hardly a 'remake') of Dario Argento's classic hallucinatory horror film Suspiria.

What's more this is not even the first time the actress has played mutiple roles sometimes of multiple genders in the same picture (see also Teknolust, Hail Caesar, Man to Man, and Orlando). Since Tilda Swinton works so often, her filmography is over 70 movies long. That means we can't do a comprehensive Posterized lest we be here for literally hours working in Photoshop, so instead we've opted for Swinton's largest and/or most essential roles.

How many of these 21 key Tildas have you seen? The posters are after the jump...

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Showbiz History: Mahalia Jackson, The Terminator, Cary Elwes and More...

5 random things that happened on this day (October 26th) in film history...

1881 The Gunfight at the OK Corral lasted just 30 seconds on this day but it's been immortal since via the movies and television where it's been depicted dozens of times, most famously in Gunfight at the OK Corral (1957) and Tombstone (1993).

1911 Mahalia Jackson, one of the all time greatest singers, born in New Orleans. You know what is weird in this day and age when you can find so many film clips on the internet. There is still no decent clip of her singing "Trouble of the World" from the Douglas Sirk masterpiece Imitation of Life (1959) online. Just multiple blurry filmed off the TV renditions...

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Blueprints: "Halloween (1978)"

This week Jorge goes back to Haddonfield in 1978 for the 40th anniversary of a horror classic to look at how the original film establishes its point of view.

Every script has a point of view. Even movies with multiple protagonists, or whose perspectives change from scene to scene, we are experiencing the events through someone’s lens at any given moment; even if that person is not a character, but someone behind the camera guiding us to what we’re supposed to perceive.

But there are movies with a more literal point of view, where what we are seeing is exactly what one of the characters is. A literal POV is used sparingly in movies, but it’s a great tool to get the audience in the mindset and subjective state of a film. The opening of the original Halloween is told entirely through a POV shot, and though it is abandoned quickly, this sets up the dangerous mood and tone of a franchise that's continued for generations...

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Review: 1985

by Murtada Elfadl

Do most people think of how their stories will be told? Probably when they are closer to the end. That’s the question at the heart of 1985. The greater question it poses is how does someone make sure they are are remembered as their whole self when society has conspired to muffle their voice?

The film tells the story of 20 something New Yorker returning home one last time to his small hometown in Texas before succumbing to death from AIDS. Adrian (Cory Michael Smith who's appeared in Carol and Wonderstruck) knows he’s dying so he tries to patch up things with his loving but disapproving religious parents (Virginia Madsen and Michael Chiklis), create memories and a connection with his preteen brother Andrew (Aidan Langford) and finally own up to a former girlfriend (Jamie Chung) who he’s never come out to...

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Festival Wrap - All The Reviews

We screened them at TIFF or NYFF or Middleburg but you also may have heard about them from Cannes or Venice media coverage. Now that the festivals are wrapped (only AFI remains and we're unable to make it this year *cries*) the rest of the year is all of these treasures and some of the duds hitting movie theaters (hopefully) near you. THEN, THE OSCARS. You know how it goes. It's our very very very favorite time of year. That sound you hear is the squealing of movie fans everywhere.

Nicole making the festival rounds in the fallHere's everything we reviewed from TIFF and NYFF or Middleburg in case you missed any of them...

• Ash Is Purest White (China) - Murtada at NYFF
• Border (Sweden) - Nathaniel at TIFF
• Bulbul Can Sing (India) - Chris at TIFF
• Burning (South Korea) - Nathaniel at NYFF
• Can You Ever Forgive Me? (US) - Chris at TIF
• Climax  (France) - Chris at TIFF
• Cold War (Poland) - Jason at NYFF
• Destroyer (US) - Nathaniel at TIFF  
• Diamantino  (Portugal) - Chris at TIFF
• Duelle's / Mother's Instinct (Belgium) - Nathaniel at TIFF
• A Family Tour (China) - Murtada at NYFF
• The Favourite (UK) - Nathaniel at NYFF
• Fig Tree  (Israel/Ethiopia) - Nathaniel at TIFF
• First Man (US) -Nathaniel at TIFF 

• Giant Little Ones (Canada) - Chris at TIFF
• Gloria Bell (US) - Chris at TIFF
• Green Book (US) - Nathaniel at Middleburg
• Happy as Lazarro (Italy) - Jason at NYFF 
• Her Smell (US) - Jason at NYFF
• High Life (France) - Jason at NYFF
  
  
• If Beale Street Could Talk (US) - Nathaniel at TIFF
• Jeremiah Terminator LeRoy (US) - Chris at TIFF
• The Kindergarten Teacher  (US) Nathaniel at TIFF
• Long Day's Journey Into Night  (China) - Jason at NYFF
• Museo (Mexico) - Nathaniel at TIFF
• Non-Fiction (France) - Jason at NYFF
• The Old Man and the Gun (US) - Chris at TIFF
• The Quietude (Argentina) - Nathaniel at TIFF

• Rafiki (Kenya) -Chris at TIFF
• Ray & Liz (UK) - Murtada at NYFF
• The River (Kazakshtan) - Nathaniel at TIFF
• Roma (Mexico) - Nathaniel at TIFF
• Ruben Brandt Collector (Hungary) - Nathaniel at Middleburg
• Shadow  (Hong Kong) - Nathaniel at TIFF
• Sorry Angel (France) - Jason at NYFF
• A Star is Born (US) - Nathaniel at TIFF
• Tell it to the Bees  (UK) - Nathaniel at TIFF

• That Time of Year (Denmark) - Nathaniel at TIFF
• Too Late To Die Young (Chile) - Murtada at NYFF
• Touch Me Not (Romania) - Chris at TIFF
• Transit (Germany) - Nathaniel at TIFF
• Vita & Virginia  (UK) - Nathaniel at TIFF
• Widows (US) - Chris at TIFF
• Wildlife (US) - Chris at TIFF
• Woman at War (Iceland) - Nathaniel at TIFF

'extras'

• Venice winners - Murtada
• Venice fashion - the gowns -Nathaniel
• Venice thinks pink - Nathaniel
• The men of Venice - Nathaniel
• Toronto Fashion - Murtada
• Nicole in Toronto - Nathaniel
• Jury of One TIFF - Nathaniel's honors
• Best of NYFF Performances - Murtada's honors
• Yalitza Aparacio tribute - Nathaniel at Middleburg
• Diane Warren concert - Nathaniel at Middleburg

It's true we didn't review everything we saw at Festivals but the biggies we didn't get to --  Shoplifters, El Angel, Capernaum, and Boy Erased -- will be in theaters very soon so reviews are forthcoming.