The Furniture: The Chicanery and Posterity of 'The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus'

"The Furniture," by Daniel Walber, is our weekly series on Production Design. You can click on the images to see them in magnified detail.

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus will always be known, perhaps primarily, as the movie interrupted by the tragic and sudden death of Heath Ledger (10 years ago today). This part of its reputation precedes it, particularly given its relatively muted critical reception. The story of its making, and the enlisting of Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell to fill the void, is essential to its reputation. It’s become a marker in time, an unplanned moment in the history of celebrity culture.

It is also, interestingly, a fairly specific moment in the development of visual effects. It lost the Best Production Design Oscar to Avatar, after all. These films stand for two dramatically different ways of using design and CGI to create cinematic worlds, even if they are both fantasies on the surface. And, perhaps, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus comes out ahead...

Click to read more ...

Quick Notes on the SAG Awards

by Nathaniel R

The Screen Actors Guild Awards are so frontloaded, you know. Their famous tradition of beginning the awards show with mini monologues from thespians that always end with "I am _____ and I am an actor" is bliss. But after this hokey and delicious ritual, the awards often feel like something of a chore unless one of the winners gets kooky (remember when Meryl ran through the crowd with her arms up like she was a game show contestant?) because they so often merely rubber-stamp all the other awards shows or themselves. Note Allison Janney's 8 wins here over the years. 

Kristen Bell served as the first ever host and was funny and sparsely deployed (since the show doesn't really need a host since it's all just awards-awards-awards. But bless her for spiking the punch right at the start.

I am Kristen Bell and I am a narcissist. Sorry... I am an actor. And tonight also your host"

After the jump a few notes from the show and the list of winners.

Click to read more ...

Call Me By Your Box Office

No box-office charts this weekend as SAG is this evening (we're expecting repeat winners from the Globes but for maybe a shock Ensemble win for Get Out). The top ten movies were mostly middle America aimed stuff while the Oscar buzzing titles have all finally gone wide but just barely (most between 800-1000 screens). The exception to this divide between all-quadrant aimed releases and adult awards fare is The Post which is benefitting from its triple starpower (Spielberg. Streeps. Hanks) adding another $12 million to its tally.

The weekend's loser is arguably Call Me By Your Name whichwent wide after 9 full weeks -- more than 2 months after it hit theaters and a full years after its Sundance bow! Audiences have apparently lost their once-obvious curiousity about it. This 20th century strategy of platforming just doesn't vibe well with how people consume their media these days. There are so many options out there that if you wait and wait and wait people simply move on. This is not the 90s, Sony Pictures Classics, so wake up!  When you're handling art films with marketable angles (stars, controversy, Oscar buzz) you can... you must... move swiftly (or at least not slowly) to find your audience. If you wanna play that wait-wait-wait game with something harder to sell that you need major word of mouth on (like, oh, subtitled films) go ahead but not an awards vehicle with stars that's inspiring multiple internet memes as this movie did already sometime ago! Despite the addition of over 600 news screens the romantic drama couldn't even crack the top 20. If it isn't a major player at the Oscar nominations this Tuesday its theatrical life is about to end.

What did you see this weekend?

ICYMI
Greatest Showman is a Leggy Hit | Biggest Hits of 2017 

Final Oscar Predictions in Every Single Category!

by Nathaniel R

If only we had been able to devote more time to each category leading up to the nominations. Next year, my friends. Life, a cruel mistress this winter, had other plans this year. But we'll do better about diving into the nominees. As with most pundits I'm expecting The Shape of Water to be the nomination leader, but I don't think it will be setting any records as some are suggesting. The support for it seems less feverish and more pleasant. At least from my perspective. It can expect a big haul but not every single category. On the opposite side of the Best Picture spectrum is The Big Sick, the only potential nominee that could also be entirely shut out since it's hovering on the edges of its most nominatable categories: Picture, Screenplay, Supporting Actress 

So let's break it down by category shall we? We're just listing the basics here but each link will take you to that category's full chart with much more information and the pretty pictures. As always we'll be frantically updating every single chart on nomination morning (January 23rd). So be here frequently this week, pretty please...

Click to read more ...

The 6th Annual Team Experience Awards!

Chris here, on behalf of my fellow Team Experience writers! Before Nathaniel shares his Top Ten and Film Bitch honors (not to mention the Oscar nominations on Tuesday - eek!), we've polled all of the other writers here at The Film Experience for their favorites of the past year without our kind and benevolent leader. It's our 6th Annual Team Experience Awards!

You'll remember last year we awarded eventual Oscar Best Picture winner Moonlight with seven prizes, and this year the wealth is slightly more shared. We had a lot of readers asking to see what our full ballot of nominations would be, so this year we have opened it up to reveal our winner and four runner-ups in each of our categories. Our nomination leader is Call Me By Your Name with 9 mentions, and craft-heavy Phantom Thread and The Shape of Water are right behind with 8.

Our most awarded however was granted to one of our most discussed, Greta Gerwig's Lady Bird. Because as Lois Smith's nun ponders: aren't love and attention the same thing? Check out our winners...

Click to read more ...