20 Musicals From Warner Bros

It would be incorrect to say that musicals were made to lift one's spirits since plenty of great musicals are as grim as any ruthless drama. But the genre lifts mine even through tears. So I was instantly in love with the new box set that Warner Bros sent. It's called Best of Warner Bros: 20 Film Collection Musicals (on sale now) and it will serve me well in March once I have time to settle in with some older movies again. I wish I had a copy to give away but I'm keeping this one all to myself - mine! mine! mine!

The collection consists of the following films, packaged in chronological order: The Jazz Singer (1927), The Broadway Melody (1929), 42nd Street (1933), The Great Ziegfeld (1936), The Wizard of Oz (1939), Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), An American in Paris (1951), Show Boat (1951), Singin' in the Rain (1952), Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954), A Star is Born (1954), The Music Man (1962), Viva Las Vegas (1964), Camelot (1967), Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971), Cabaret (1972), That's Entertainment! (1974), Victor/Victoria (1982), Little Shop of Horrors (1986), and Hairspray (1988).

Wanna know which musical I watched the first time last night? Continue reading...

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Small Talk With Nosferatu

silent sunday

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A Beautiful Day To Box Office

I should've gone to a movie today because it's the most instantaneous cure I know for the blues. But I'm too backed up with work. Maybe tomorrow if I'm a good boy for President's Day? Bruce Willis & Jai Courtney's father/son tough guy act for A Good Day To Die Hard topped the Valentine's Weekend as the only "manly" option with several softer options competing for similar demographics. Safe Haven came in third just behind last week's champ Identity Thief. The romzomcom Warm Bodies somehow fended off the other supernatural romance Beautiful Creatures which was surely aiming for the same crowd. Was it the simplicity of the Warm Bodies concept or just its strong word of mouth in a 3rd week?

Or maybe it's those totally chaotic Beautiful Creatures commercials. What the hell is it? And can we talk about how much the posters for Beautiful Creatures looks like perfume ads!?! Especially Alice Englert's "Lena"... (I hope the bottle looks just like her necklace.)

From the commercials I'm guessing that Emmy Rossum's "Ridley" perfume smells like succulent ham.

What did you see this weekend?

If you saw Beautiful Creatures, spill. Aromatic or rotten? And you think Jane Campion ever expected her baby daughter to go so mainstream so fast?

7 Days 'til Oscar: Costume Design

Each year at the Oscar ceremony I hope against hope that they'll ditch one of the numerous superfluous montages celebrating something or other throughout history and just do a runway show of the year's best costumes. On rare occasions we've seen a living tableau before the winner was announced and at least once, a Whoopi ceremony, the host actually incorporated costume design into the gig.

Imagine Seth MacFarlane coming out as Fantine in a shredded Les Miz gown or Queen Ravenna's raven collar dress. Sorry, no! I apologize deeply for putting those images in your head. Let's just say that I feel reasonably certain there will at least be a stovepipe hat during the ceremony in honor of Lincoln.

OSCAR NOMINEES
• Jacqueline Durran, Anna Karenina
• Joanna Johnston, Lincoln
• Eiko Ishioka, Mirror Mirror
• Paco Delgado, Les Misérables
• Colleen Atwood, Snow White and the Hunstman

will win: Anna Karenina, it's not quite traditional "royalty porn", their favorite thing in this category, but the Russian aristocracy is close enough.
should win: Anna Karenina, Durran continues to just amaze in film after film.
weird trivia: The Oscars love Colleen Atwood but she only ever wins when she's pitted against their other all-time favorite Sandy Powell
possible spoiler: if Oscar voters are feeling daring and/or sentimental you could see a posthumous win for the great Ishioka whose costumes always function as their own setpieces they're such scene stealers

OSCAR VISUAL CHARTS
My Own Ballot & Semi-Finalists with shout-outs to all the Oscar nominees (great lineup. well done AMPAS) as well as Sharen Davis, Kasia Walicka-Maimone, Caroline Eselin, Julie Weiss, Mark Bridges, and Manon Rasmussen

I think this begs a reader poll...

poll by twiigs.com

Berlin Announces Its Winners.

Jose here. The Berlin Film Festival came to its end a few hours ago and the big winners came from Romania and Bosnia. Călin Peter Netzer's Child's Pose won the prestigious Golden Bear, while Danis Tanovic's An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker picked up the Jury Grand Prix as well as the Best Actor award for Nazif Mujic.

The winners as selected by the jury headlined by Wong Kar-wai were:

• Golden Bear: Child's Pose by Călin Peter Netzer
• Jury Grand Prix: An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker by Danis Tanović
  
  Tanović's movie has a real life family recreate an event that almost cost them their son's life. Not only does this sound like an interesting project but it also shows a two year trend in the festival where real life people dramatizing events have taken the main prizes. Last year's Golden Bear winner, Caesar Must Die (which is great and just opened in NYC!) had real life inmates put on a Shakespeare play. Tanović has also had a great record with awards, remember his No Man's Land upset Amélie for the Oscar twelve years ago? We might be in the presence of the first Oscar-y movie of 2013...

Emile Hirsch and Paul Rudd in Prince Avalanche

• Silver Bear for Best Director: David Gordon Green for Prince Avalanche
• Silver Bear for Best Actress: Paulina García for Gloria
  
  García keeps on perpetuating the fantastic renaissance of Chilean cinema. Chile is having a great year so far, with No (which just opened in the US) being perhaps the only movie that could give Amour a run for its money in the Oscar race. Incidentally Pablo Larraín, who directed No is listed as a producer for Gloria.
   
• Silver Bear for Best Actor: Nazif Mujić for An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker

A still from Closed Curtain.

• Silver Bear for Best Script: Jafar Panahi for Closed Curtain
  
  Panahi, who is still banned from film making, shot this in his own beach house and once again managed to smuggle the film out of Iran! Just two years ago, his brilliant This Is Not a Film (which was shamefully left out of the Oscar documentary race) caused a commotion in Cannes after it arrived via birthday cake! Is it just me or is Panahi's life much more interesting/politically inspiring than Argo? Sigh.

• Award for an outstanding artistic contribution: Vic and Flo Saw a Bear by Denis Côté
• Teddy Award: W imię... by Małgośka Szumowska (the Teddy, an LGBT-focused award, is chosen by an independent jury)
  
  On an interesting note, the Special Award winner - Vic and Flo Saw a Bear- also features lead characters who are gay, yet the movie wasn't featured in any of the Teddy selections. Makes for an interesting question on how different jury members vote for different things and spread out the wealth.
  
  
• Special Mentions:
  • Promised Land by Gus Van Sant (whatever happened to this movie Stateside?)
  • Layla Fourie by Pia Marais

In recent years, more than ever before, we've seen an overlap of Berlin and Oscar, particularly in the Foreign Language category. Just last year Berlin gave awards to War Witch and A Royal Affair, both of which ended up being nominated in the Best Foreign Language Film category this year. Which of these movies are you dying to see? Have you kept up with Tanovic's work after his Oscar win?