Dead Ringers ~ Visual Index

If you haven't been playing along with the Hit Me With Your Best Shot series, the idea is simple: a film is selected by your host (c'est moi, Nathaniel). Then he and any blogger who would like to join in watch the film do so and write up their choice for "best shot". It's a way to celebrate and mimic the collaborative beauty of motion pictures.

"You've cured me!"

This week's topic is David Cronenberg's 1988 masterpiece Dead Ringers (1988) which is a troubling complex movie and one that demands repeat viewings. I like it more each time I see it. We chose it for three reasons: first, it needs a bigger audience as one of the finest films of the 1980s; second, we like to correct Oscar wrongs in our imaginations and this film, which received zero nominations, deserved at least a handful of them and; third, this film plays a key role in "The Desiring Image", the first book written by our friend and brilliant critic Nick Davis.

After the jump see The 13 Best Shots from the film...

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Cinema Swimwear: The Talented Mr Ripley

This summer The Film Experience is launching its own swimwear line! *not really

◀ Back to Results | You are in: Swimwear

larger viewThe High Waisted Mr Ripley Racing Brief
★★★★★ - 18 Reviews

Product Details
Designers Ann Roth and Gary Jones collaborated to bring you this blinding beauty (modelled by sneaky slim Matt Damon) which is perfect for that ex-pat trip to far-away moneyed shores. Even if you never get in the water! It's time to lose yourself with old school chums. You're so white -- grey, really -- both you and your suit will glow with purpose and the confidence you'll need to reinvent yourself.  Besides, you've always wanted to summer in Italy. "This is your swimsuit... questo è il vostro costume da bagno"

Color
Only available in Neon Lime Green! For when you positively have to be accidentally noticed because you definitely can't be remembered. 

Sizes

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The Link Is Not Yet Rated

Vulture features a fascinating memoir about a troubled 70s childhood and the not-optimistic catharsis of TV's 70s superhero show The Incredible Hulk
Awards Daily Sasha never misses a beat with director David Fincher and his new muse Rooney Mara. Have you seen their Calvin Klein ad? What's most shocking about the ad (to me) is that Rooney SMILES in it. Can you imagine? Not the smiling sort at the cinema, you know.
Variety Halle Berry developing an indie comedy called Mother. Her frequent producer is directing but his filmography is suspect!

Zap2It "Giant Colin Firth statue emerges from lake in London's Hyde Park" a most clickable headline, don't you agree?
Awards Circuit wonders where we're not looking for Oscar contenders for this year's race. Any under the radar guesses?
Salon's description of US Weekly in this article about their "zoom-in" interactivity with paparazzi photos of Angelina Jolie's cleavage made me LOL
My New Plaid Pants "do, dump or marry" with the men of Pacific Rim: Idris Elba, Charlie Hunnan and Rob Kazinsky
Salon speaks about and to Guillermo del Toro as Pacific Rim, his first film in 5 years if you can believe it given how ubiquitous his name has been in that time frame, nears release

Finally have you heard that Los Angeles banned this Project Runway ad from appearing on billboards? I don't get it.

This nudity is so safe. This is only side cheek nudity. The models aren't even in sexually suggestive poses. But hey, Project Runway has got to do something to get people talking now that it's 12 seasons old. (I hated "TEAMS" so much, I can't even. It really turned me against the show). I think this would have been a much braver funnier and more successful ad if they had all of the new contestants naked and worshipping the hosts. It would have also been more controversial since imperfect regular-person bodies really alarm people. Partially because you don't see them in the media very often. But, tell me, why was this ad banned? I've seen much worse on public display. I didn't even feel the need to hide it "after the jump". But sex, like violence, is a terribly inconsistent thing when it comes to public policy and censorship. TV has adopted film's extremely forgiving and casual relationship with violence now (they'll regularly show things you couldn't see in an anything other than an R rated movie just a couple of decades ago) and I can't any longer get a hold on what you can or can't say in terms of profanity on the small screen. But sex -- it's always sex -- still manages to get people flustered and "that's obscene!" even when it isn't. A few nights ago while channel surfing I chanced upon some sort of reality show wherein the contestants were dropped naked onto deserted islands - like an "Extreme!" riff on Survivor. They even had "Naked"  in the title. And the nakedness was blurred out.

Top Ten 1940s

We're almost done with these quickie surveys of my favorites and yours from decades past. Herewith the 1940s which I hesitated jotting down as there are more classics from this decade that I haven't seen than in arguably any other. If I keep waiting until I've watched everything it would never be posted. In truth, I need a project which forces me to fully deal with the gaps in my 40s viewing. A pleasurable project it would be, surely. But for now, off the top of my list-manic head....

Black Narcissus (1947)

top ten
01 The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)
02 Casablanca (1943)
03 The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
04 Meet Me in St Louis (1944)
05 Double Indemnity (1944)
06 Black Narcissus (1947)
07 Citizen Kane (1941)
08 Notorious (1946)
09 It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
10 Gilda (1946) 

with apologies to other greats
The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (1945), Beauty and the Beast (1948), Mildred Pierce (1945), The Lady Eve (1941), Red River (1948), The Bicycle Thief (1949), Pinnochio (1940)

honorable mention
Rope (1948), The Heiress (1949), Spellbound (1945), Now Voyager (1942), Miracle on 34th Street (1947), The Search (1948), Fantasia (1940)

I'll admit I don't love these three quite as much you're supposed to... 
His Girl Friday (1940), Rebecca (1940), All the Kings Men (1949)

I've never seen (gulp)
Too many to list. More than in any of these other quickie top tens I'll gladly take your word for it with your top ten lists in the comments. Maybe we'll do a poll to force me into a handful of 40s films as follow up. 

PREVIOUS TOP TEN QUICKIES
1930s | 1950s | 1960s | 1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 2010s (thus far)  
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Coming Soon... Dead Ringers

Dead Ringers poster designed by Jay ShawDon't forget that Wednesday we'll be celebrating David Cronenberg's masterfully creepy Dead Ringers (1988) in Hit Me With Your Best Shot.

This film about twin gynecologists (Jeremy Irons) who fall for the same troubled actress is widely regarded as one of Cronenberg's very best. To kick off the episode, which is dedicated to Nick Davis's new book "The Desiring Image: Gilles Deleuze and Contemporary Queer Cinema", Nick himself has posted his choice for "Best Shot". As is my habit, I don't read these articles until I'm done with mine, so I'm excited to see what he's chosen. But, alas, I'll have to resist the curious urge for a few hours. But if you don't need to wait, click over now.

5 other early bird participants have already chimed in at: Antagony & Ecstacy, Amiresque, Fistful of Films, Entertainment Junkie and Film Actually.

Now back to your regular programming but join us late tonight as we pull out the speculum to investigate this mutant film together.