Reader Spotlight: Riccardo

Get to know the Film Experience community! Today we're talking to Riccardo who is very succinct in his answers!

TFE: What's your first movie memory?

Riccardo: Bambi in the late 70s in an afternoon show with mum and sister.

Your three favorite actresses?

Nicole Kidman in The Hours. The scene at the station for me is very emotional and I love listening to her original voice and she was absolutely perfect. Michelle Pfeiffer is an absolutely underrated and talented actress even in a thriller like What Lies Beneath. And I can't explain exactly why I like Marilyn Monroe so much -maybe the mix of weakness and sensuality, that will never be found again. I could watch Some Like It Hot a ton of times without ever being bored. 

Take one oscar away from someone. Regift it.

From Meryl Streep of The Iron Lady. To Viola Davis for The Help.

If you were in charge of the movies for a year, what kind of movies would you greenlight? 
Real stories that tell about real people that changed the world with their acts, thoughts and feeling... A bit boring maybe?

What's the most recent movie you saw in theaters?

Now You See Me which I found it an interesting surpris and I loved Man of Steel  -  Mr.Cavill's personality helped a lot.  Plus lovely Amy and welcome back Kevin.

Hey those aren't real stories about real people! ;) Okay, since you're from Italy what are the three Italian pictures that you think everyone should see?

1. Once Upon a time in America by Sergio Leone is a truly complex masterpiece.
2. La Ciociara (Two Women) with Sophia Loren since I think her Oscar-winning role is one of the most memorable ever.
And recently...
3. Life is Beautiful by Roberto Benigni, a powerful film that just happened to have a huge advertising and Oscar marketing system behind it :)  

Ciao, Riccardo!

Previous Reader Spotlights

The summer blockbuster is dying? Thank goodness

Hi, it's Tim. It’s not typically the Done Thing for us members of Team Experience to respond to each other, but Michael C’s Burning Question yesterday got me thinking especially hard, and coupled with Nathaniel’s mention of my own “why did this summer suck so hard?” jeremiad in his link round-up, it seemed impossible not to address what has suddenly become a hot topic: the death of the great American blockbuster, although with Iron Man 3 striding past $400 million, reports of the death of tentpole filmmaking are perhaps exaggerated.

That said, there’s clearly a problem, and as somebody who still hasn’t grown out of the desire to see robots punching explosions into bigger explosions, or what have you, I count myself among the aggrieved that big-budget Hollywood movies have been steadily turning into such paint-by-numbers, flavorless affairs, too finely-tuned for international consumption to have any real personality. But that’s not what I want to talk about – there’s been enough talk about that. I want to talk about the happy flip side of things, which is that for all that the impressive flops and under-performers, it’s hardly been a dolorous wasteland at the multiplex. In fact, I take the story of this summer to be a hopeful one: the future seems to be taking shape right in front of us, and it’s exactly the opposite of the panicked “Cinema is dying!” rants delivered by such men as the Stevens, Soderbergh & Spielberg, recently.

If I were to pick the single most impressive box-office story of the summer, it wouldn’t be Iron Man 3 hitting a figure that is, however large, not that big a deal for a movie with its kind of budget, especially one serving as de facto sequel to a film that destroyed very nearly every record that exists. I’d go with either The Great Gatsby or The Conjuring. [MORE...]

Click to read more ...

Yes, No, Maybe So: "American Hustle"

If the movie year has been uninspired thus far -- and what honest assessment of mainstream cinema wouldn't come to that conclusion? -- things will undoubtedly be looking up as we move out of the season of movies with only one thing on their mind (profit) and arrive at movies with at least two things knocking around in their heads (awards and profit) but hopefully more. I haven't been much interested in American Hustle up till now (for various reasons) but it dropped a grabby tease of a commercial yesterday so let's play the Yes No Maybe So game and decide how badly we want to see it now that there's something to get a hold of.

...like any part of Amy Adams, just pick one! The trailer and three-pronged breakdown after the jump...

Click to read more ...

You're Gonna Need a Bigger Link

Super Cafe Batman and Supes argue about the title of their upcoming duo movie (Batman's voice is perfect)
Pajiba 25 celebrities you didn't realize were related by marriage 
Angry Nerd has Pixar's number with the brand debasing. NO PREQUELS
Empire Director Zhang Yimou may helm the umpteenth remake of The Hunchback of Notre Dame with Josh Brolin as Quasimodo. I'll only be satisified if Brolin sings "Out There"
Guardian looks at Nollywood (Nigerian cinema) and its depiction of LGBT people
Cinema Blend Sarah Michelle Gellar on a possible movie version of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (and, essentially, why there won't be one) 

MNPP "we three films of disorient argh" wins my vote for best blogpost title of the month and it's only August 1st! JA pontificates on The Grandmaster, Blue Jasmine, and The Call
Tim Brayton thinks its been a rough summer at the movies and in this August preview it's not looking any better
i09 Frankenstein poster sets new record for movie poster at auction
TV Blend Rob Lowe and Rashida Jones are leaving Parks & Recreation. Time to wrap it up, Pawnee. The 6th season is usually when great television starts a downward slide to ungood anyway. (See: too many examples to mention)
Coming Soon Aaron Taylor Johnson talks Quicksilver. He wants the part in The Avengers: The Age of Ultron 

Today's Watch

Our favorite couple of yesteryear filmmaker/genius Paul Thomas Anderson (The Master, Boogie Nights) and musician/genius Fiona Apple have reunited for this music video "Hot Knife". This is my favorite track on her latest "Idler Wheel" and I'm happy it brought them together again... at least for an afternoon to shoot this. Maya Rudolph is cool with it I'm sure. 

Coda
Finally, as follow up to Michael's piece about the Broken Blockbuster culture in Hollywood, /Film is warning us that the enormous grosses for Despicable Me 2 have convinced Universal that their all franchise all the time credo is the right choice. But mostly I want to suggest that you read this piece in The New York Times Magazine about Jaws (1975).

...from that point forward, the tiniest splash of a minnow could set the audience shrieking.

This is really what “Jaws” was about: Not sharks, but fear. Not action, but suspense. That’s what made it possible for the story of a single shark to scare millions of people into avoiding 71 percent of the earth’s surface.

They're right, you know. We really should stop blaming that excellent character-driven film for the terribleness of today's disappointing character-free blockbusters... even if it did make Hollywood obsessed with gobbling big profits each summer.

Should There Be An Oscar For Best Casting?

Yesterday I thought about casting director Juliet Taylor probably more than anyone on the planet who isn't Juliet Taylor. When her name came up on the screen in Woody Allen's trademark font during Blue Jasmine I smiled -- I love that font and those familiar names so much. I recalled that she'd narrowly missed our top ten for "Women Who Deserve an Honorary Oscar", winning the most votes for anyone not in the writing/directing/acting/producing fields. Her resume is astounding featuring the massive Woody Allen filmography and non Woody films as famous as The Exorcist, Taxi Driver, Terms of Endearment, The Stepford Wives and Interview with the Vampire (so you can probably thank her for Kirsten Dunst). We made that list in the hopes that someone with pull in the Academy would read it and think 'huh. These are great ideas to course correct!'

Woody Allen's infamous reputation as a silent director of actors extends into casting where his auditions are notoriously short... sometimes just a meet and greet is all you get. So you know Juliet Taylor works long hours before and after Woody says "yea" or "nay". So there I was thinking about her, wondering about how many decisions she's making on her own when the Academy announced that they were adding another new branch to their ranks, Casting Directors. People are already speculating about whether this means a Best Casting Oscar will be added to the annual horse race for gold.

poll by twiigs.com

My heart and mind war on this topic all the time. My heart knows that casting directors are crucial to a film's success and would warm to them being recognized -- it's obviously the single most important element of filmmaking that doesn't have a category. My mind, on the other hand, isn't sure this is a good idea. My mind knows that people would win the Oscars for the wrong reasons... even wronger [sic] reasons than people win other Oscars for in other categories! I'd argue that casting directors would win for which Movie Stars and Films were favored in any given year rather than their hard work filling the screen with less glitzy faces. I don't work in the film industry but I'd argue that Directors, Agents, Movie Stars, and Lawyers and Studio Heads signing off on budgets are the ones who decide which Movie Star is paired with which project -- especially since movie stars are often in place before the casting director is -- and that the casting director's brilliance is filling out the names in the below the title list, predicting the intangibles of chemistry and guiding the director to the right decisions about who goes best with whom. It's world building actually... the world of faces.

Rich DeliaI imagine Best Casting would nearly always line up with Best Ensemble at SAG and come to mean "Starriest Cast That Is Also Our Vote For Best Picture" which is quite reductive. Do you imagine the same?

If you had to vote on Best Casting for 2013 right now, what would you pick? Without contest I'd name Short Term 12 the winner for 2013 (thus far) which mixes the awesome Brie Larson with Tony winner John Gallagher Jr (currently on The Newsroom on HBO) and a large supporting cast of wonderful unknown child and teenage actors. So congratulations to  Rich Delia for winning my non-existent prize for this year! He only recently graduated to lead Casting Director (He also did Dallas Buyers Club this year) but he's been very busy for the past few years as a Casting Associate on dozens of movies including The Help and August: Osage County.