The Furniture: Reframing the Legend of King Arthur

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

King Arthur, the character, is listed by IMDb as appearing in 149 films and TV shows. That’s more than Dracula. I’m not going to go through all of them, obviously. But circumstance has given me a good excuse to compare two examples: Knights of the Round Table (1953) and King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (2017). The latter just came out on Blu-ray. The former will serve as a bit of a tribute to Mel Ferrer, whose centennial was this past Friday.

The most obvious difference is between Ferrer’s version of Arthur, noble and even a bit meek, and the ever-hulking Charlie Hunnam. But this isn’t a physique column. Instead, I want to take a brief look at how Hollywood’s presentation of the loosely defined Arthurian Age has changed...

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A steamy day in movie history

on this day (August 28th) in showbiz-related history, things get sweaty and hot hot hot... time to rub lemons all over our bare bodies.

1980 The 37th annual Venice Film Festival kicks off. The Golden Lion that year will prove to be a tie (!) with Atlantic City, starring Susan Sarandon and her lemons, and Gloria  splitting the top prize. Atlantic City will go on to five Oscar nominations including Best Picture

1981 Kathleen Turner and William Hurt do filthy things to each other in the window smashingly erotic Body Heat brand new in theaters on this day.

1987 Dennis Quaid fingers Ellen Barkin in The Big Easy  new in theaters. The orgasm is so explosive it rockets both careers to the next level instanteously.

1998 54, legendarily butchered in the editing room, attempts to chart the bisexual opportunist antics of Ryan Phillipe in his twink god years.

2009 Taking Woodstock opens in theaters with Emile Hirsch in his naked hippie mode and an early screen appearance by Jonathan Groff's crazy seductive bedroom eyes.

2014 Blake Lively attacked by bees!

Happy Birthday to Them!
Oscar Nominees: David Fincher, Quvenzhané Wallis
More Shiny Talents: Armie Hammer, Jennifer Coolidge, Jack Black, Jason Priestley, Daniel Stern, Luis Guzman, Billy Boyd, and Ai Weiwei
Les Chanteuses: Florence Welch, Shania Twain, LeAnn Rimes
Departed but Amazing: Artist Jack Kirby (how proud would he be of the Marvel Cinematic Universe?), genius cinematographer James Wong Howe, author Leo Tolstoy, actor Ben Gazzara, actress Helen Hayes, actor Vladimir Ivashov (BAFTA nominated star of a great Russian film Ballad of a Soldier)

Interview: Grace & Frankie's Emmy-nominated costume designers

by Nathaniel R

One of the most satisfying moments of Emmy nomination morning was the contemporary costume nomination for Grace & Frankie. The Netflix sitcom starring Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin is hot off its third and best season. The writers and creative team seem to know the characters and their interpersonal dynamics, in and out at this point. That intimacy is abundanctly evidence in the terrific costuming. Until the television Academy split off their costume design category into period and contemporary, their was little opportunity for designers who specialize in contemporary clothing to be honored no matter how strong their work - exceptions like Sex and the City were all too rare.

I had the opportunity to discuss Grace & Frankie's worthy and vibrant work with its three nominees Allyson B Fanger the costume designer, Heather Pain, her assistant costume designer, and Lori DeLapp the costume supervisor. Their overlapping answers, despite their separate duties, and light ribbing over the abundance of statement piece jewelry worn by Frankie were ample evidence that they're totally in synch.

That's true whether or not their subjects Grace (Jane Fonda) and Frankie (Lily Tomlin) are seeing eye to eye in any given episode...

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What did you see this weekend?

by Nathaniel R

Weekend Box Office (Aug 25th-27th)
W I D E	L I M I T E D
1. THE HITMAN'S BODYGUARD $10 (cum. $39.6)	1. 🔺 T2 in 3D  $.5 on 386 screens ALL TIME FAV
2. ANNABELLE CREATION $7.3 (cum. $77.8)	2. 🔺  A GENTLEMAN $195k NEW 135 screens
3. 🔺 LEAP! $5 NEW	3. MENASHE $172k (cum. $973K) 103 screens REVIEW
4. 🔺 WIND RIVER  $4.4 (cum. $9.8) REVIEW	4. 🔺  THE TRIP TO SPAIN $132k (cum. $284K) 56 screens

5. LOGAN LUCKY $4.3 (cum. $15) REVIEW	5. 🔺 PATTI CAKE$  $105k  (cum. $197k) 59 screens
6. DUNKIRK $3.9 (cum. $172.4) PODCAST | TOM HARDY	6. MAUDIE $91K (cum. $5.7) 96 screens REVIEW
7. SPIDER-MAN HOMECOMING $2.7 (cum. $318.8)  REVIEW	7. AN INCONVENIENT SEQUEL  $80k  (cum. $3.3k) 127 screens  REVIEW
8. 🔺 BIRTH OF THE DRAGON $2.5 NEW	8. 🔺 GOOK $75k   (cum. $109k) 22 screens
9. THE EMOJI MOVIE $3.7 (cum. $76.4) REVIEW	9. 🔺 COLUMBUS  $68k (cum. $242k) 22 screens
10. GIRLS TRIP $2.2 (cum. $108) REVIEW | PODCAST	10. STEP $66k (cum. $972k) 118 screens
🔺 = new or significant expansion numbers from box office mojo

In a lame weekend All Saints, Leap, and Birth of the Dragon were the only new wide releases. To fill in that gap several films expanded including Ingrid Goes West, Good Time and Wind River though only the latter was sufficiently rewarded for doing so. The weekend was so dire that Wonder Woman and Despicable Me both took the opportunity to add back tons of theaters (earning $1.6 million each with that gambit). 

The most exciting indie release this weekend was the gay Sundance-winning drama Beach Rats (review coming soon). It opened in only 3 theaters (it would have been #11 in the limited release chart above) but to a strong per screen average so expect it to come to other cities soon. 

Emmy Ballots Due

Voting for the 69th annual Emmy Awards closes Monday. The televised event will be held on Sunday, September 17th (same day TIFF wraps up!) with the Creative Arts ceremony (for below the line and guest acting awards) generally happening a few days beforehand. In case you missed any of our Emmy-related investigations, here they all are.

Comedy Actress will Julia Louis-Dreyfus continue breaking records?
Drama Lead Actress Movie/Mini Kidman, Witherspoon, Lange, etc.
Drama Supporting Actress Thandi Newton, Millie Bobby Brown, etc.
Drama Guest Actress Ann Dowd, Alexis Bledel, and more
Drama Male Acting Categories Sterling K Brown, Riz Ahmed, etc.
Voiceover Can Kevin Kline triple crown?
Production Design The Young Pope, Portlandia, Hairspray Live, etc.
Contemporary Costumes Grace and Frankie interview
Costume Design, Period/Fantasy Feud, The Handmaid's Tale, Genius etc.
Main Title Design American Gods, The Crown, Westworld, etc
Music Supervision Big Little Lies soundtrack
Music Supervision Pt 2 The whole category

Nomination Snubs Rita Moreno, Minnie Driver, Insecure, etc.
Nomination Happiness Laura Dern, RuPaul's Drag Race, etc.
Official Nominations Westworld and Saturday Night Live led...
Team Experience's Ballot not the actual Emmy list obviously

ANY LAST MINUTE FYCS AS TELEVISION ACADEMY MEMBERS COMPLETE THEIR BALLOTS?