Solo Silhouette, Foreground

I snapped this photo at my local multiplex earlier this week. Matchy-matchy!

If you hadn't been paying any attention you'd be forgiven for thinking that Oblivion, 3, and Into Darkness (not the full titles) were a trilogy arriving in marathon form within one month as summer movie season kicks off.

All of these posters with solo (male) silhouettes against an imposing backdrop. Will cinema ever tire of one man shows, Our Hero against the world. They'll even sell ensemble films that way -- everyone knows that Star Trek Into Darkness will be an ensemble picture as all Star Treks are but you'd think Captain Kirk* was the sole survivor of a futuristic apocalypse by the looks of this.

Oh and the movie I was there to see that day...

I don't know if only one man will survivie a future apocalypse but only one graphic designer survived 2012; all movie posters for summer 2013 look the same!

* Readers are telling me that this silhouette belongs to the villain played by Benedict Cumberbatch. Either way the point remains, a solo silhouette that could be anyone... for the reader to project themselves into. Just one solitary hero against a harsh imposing world!

February. It's a Wrap

Obviously we are quite consumed with Oscar-Mania each February. You can see an index of the big night here along with the final podcast of the season. But what else did we talk about? If you're new to the Film Experience, look around. Here's ten mostly off-Oscar posting highlights from the month that was...

Which Character? do you play when you play Clue? 
The First Image... from Nymphomaniac  
Posterized The Steven Soderbergh Experience 
Interview Alexandre Desplat on Argo & Zero Dark Thirty 

Showboat part of the Warner Bros Box Set of 20 Musicals
Interview Rich Moore on his long journey with Wreck-It Ralph
Amour my first CNN talking head gig

Argo & Silver Linings Playbook - two second viewings 
Small Talk with Nosferatu. Awkward!
The Film Bitch Awards (13th annual!) in all the Oscar type categories 

Coming Soon: MARCH is reader appreciation month. Stay tuned for: contests, interviews, the return of Hit Me With Your Best Shot, Quentin Tarantino week, new releases and more...

Ang Lee at 28. Ang Lee Now

Here is the two-time Oscar winner working on a Spike Lee documentary all the way back in 1982 when he was 28 years old!!! 

(The woman he's with there is painter Ann Yen who posted the photo recently on a social network site, prompting some coverage in the Asian press. Yen and Lee are still friends - I hear that she played one of the Mahjong women in Lust, Caution (2007).

His whole life and career was (way) ahead of him. Ang was one year away from getting married to his charming wife who got a little air time this weekend at the Oscars. He was still ten years away from making his first feature as a director (Pushing Hands), still eleven years away from his first Oscar nomination (Best Foreign Film, The Wedding Banquet) and basically a whole lifetime away from becoming the legendary two-time Best Director Oscar winner (Brokeback Mountain and Life of Pi) that he is today.

Well done, Ang Lee. Have a hamburger. You deserve it!

Podcast: Oscar Night Season Wrap

For the final podcast of the season, Joe Reid, Katey Rich, Nick Davis, and me, your host, Nathaniel R let reader questions be our guide for this spontaneous Oscar Night Review.

Topics include but are not limited to:

• Musical Performances: Adele, Shirley Bassey, Babs, Jennifer Hudson, and Catherine Zeta-Jones's Jazz
• Future Nominations or Backlash for the winners: Christoph Waltz, Jennifer Lawrence or Anne Hathaway?
• Ben Affleck's speech
• Can Michael Haneke ever return?
• What were the best reaction shots and when did we do our best reaction shots from home?
• On Naomi Watts' career choices and Oscar's love of "it" girls
• Documentary and Costume Design
• Seth Macfarlane versus Jokes and Musical Theme
• Emmanuelle Riva cutaways

You can download the podcast on iTunes or listen right here at the end of the post. 

All That (85th Oscars) Jazz
The Big Night: Fun Arrivals, Winner's List, Jennifer Lawrence in the Press Room
The Look Back: Seth's Hosting, Funniest Tweets, & This Podcast
The Fashions: Fifteen Men, The Ten Nominated Ladies, Goodbye Glamour

Oscar Night Season Finale

Life of Link

Movie Line could The Canyons revive Lindsay Lohan's film career?
The Onion "Area Woman's Baseless Hatred Of Anne Hathaway Reciprocated" LOL
Awards Daily Oscar Post-Mortem. Great 2012 movies that received no Oscar nominations this season. Will you remember them, anyway?  

Wet Dark and Wild what is Jake Gyllenhaal up to? Prisoners
The Carpetbagger explains what's going on with Visual Effects in the wake of that Life of Pi speech so unceremoniously cut off by Jaws music on Oscar night
Vulture a timeline of Oscar weekend parties with appearances from Quvenzhané, Chastain, John Hawkes, a reunion for The Help.  I love this bit on Tommy Lee Jones... I mean who knew:

11:58 p.m. The most romantic moment of the night comes from Tommy Lee Jones, of all people. He's holding up an In-N-Out burger for his wife Dawn to graze on, while looking at her lovingly. She's literally eating out of the palm of his hand right now.

newsy
Coming Soon the new Annie, starring Quvenzhané Wallis will hit movie theaters on Christmas day, 2014 
Hollywood Carrie Fisher hospitalized after bipolar meltdown :(  
i09 Chris Cooper joining The Amazing Spider-Man 2 as Norman Osborne. Studios never learn their lessons and this one is getting as crowded as X3!
My New Plaid Pants Annie Wilkes herself, Kathy Bates, is joining the new season of American Horror Story