Curio: Marie Harnett's Pencil Drawings

Alexa here with your weekly art inspiration.  Marie Harnett is an artist out of the UK whose focus is on film. She makes widescreen-format, small yet intricate pencil drawings of filmstills that "capture fleeting moments of drama, suspense or beauty and, when released from the original context of the film that inspired them, the drawings each tell a story of their own."

Marie holds a miniature Keira

I recently came upon her work and was struck by the level of photorealistic detail she manages to cram into her tiny compositions, and by how they evoke the history of cinema, despite her of-the-minute subjects (she even draws stills from trailers).  And she's doing quite well for herself; tiny mezzotints of her drawings sell for upwards of $2000! Here are some examples of her current work; you can see more on her website.

'Gatsby' series, 2012

Gangster Squad, Chéri, and A Single Man loveliness after the jump

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Best Celebrity Tweets on Globe Night

I ♥ celebrities. Always have. Always will. Even when I find them insufferable I have to stargaze. Having met so many of them now I'm fully aware that they are only people just like you and me that but for one lucky break or important connection or family wealth or extraordinary quirk of DNA or once-in-a-lifetime talent or deals with Beelzebub or being in the right place at the right time or any number of reasons, they'd be on this side of the 'net obsessing on celebrities just like you and I. Well, actually in the age of twitter, the lines are ever blurring and who is on what side anyway. Everyone loves celebrity. Even celebrities. Here's a sampling of some celebrity or celebrity-adjacent tweets I enjoyed from this year's very memorable Golden Globes. 

ZACHARY LEVI (Chuck)

I wanna be the illegitimate offspring of Kristen Wiig and Will Ferrell in my next life.

— Zachary Levi (@ZacharyLevi) January 14, 2013

Wiig and Ferrell did really have the crowd roaring. Wiig is dependably hilarious but they worked so well as a team riffing on one single joke across five nominees. (P.S. After Tangled, shouldn't Hollywood be asking Levi to work in musicals?)

MATT OSWALT (Puddin' strip)

Golden Globes isn't over until Tommy Lee Jones is ziplocked and put back in the freezer between Mickey Rourke and some venison

— Matt Oswalt (@Puddinstrip) January 14, 2013

LOL

Tommy Lee jones was enormously grumpy. It's true, internet. It's true. 

 

more after the jump...

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Jodie is Single. And Singular.

Jodie Foster broke the internet. That’s what happens when you are globally famous, drunk, accompanied by a persona non grata (one Mel Gibson) and come out as a gay person… again… sort of. Jodie was being honored with the annual Cecil B Demille award, a lifetime achievement prize earned at the  young age of 50 (we’ve been celebrating her birthday lately right here) and her acceptance speech won the night’s most important intangible prize “Most Talked About”.

Why? Because it mattered.

Watching this storied actress battle with her past self and its direct conflict with The Way Things Are Now was amazing live television. We were watching deeply personal internal backstory play out as a public Living History right there on the television, intoxicated and intoxicating.

more after the jump

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Non-Committal Golden Globe Live-Tape Delayed Blogging Arrivals. What?

6:00 The official HFPA Twitter account announced a short time ago that this 'this is what the stars will be eating' tonight. Stars they're just like us...

Stars! They're just like us ...if us happens to be starting some California Pepper Honey Goat Cheese on Endive Pear Salad and then gourging on Carmalized Mint Fennel and Smoked Flat Iron Beef with Grilled Sweet Pickled Pepper and and Assortment of Gourmet Rolls tonight. Are us? We?

6:27 What is Jessica Chastain supposed to eat? She's vegan. They're not good with Flat Iron Beef

winners list and brief early comments after the jump

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Multiple Zeroes. Dark Thirty

With a post Oscar nominations wide expansion into movie theaters Zero Dark Thirty won a strong $24 million opening weekend. $24 million is chump change for superheroes and cartoons but it's a big deal for contemporary dramas without bankable stars. Put it another way: that's well over what The Hurt Locker earned in its entire theatrical run here in the States. The torture controversy may have soiled ZDT's Oscar winning prospects somewhat (including that surprise snub for Bigelow) but it hasn't hurt it at the box office.

The Top Five This Weekend

Chart repurposed / visually adjusted from Box Office Mojo

Gangster Squad grossed less than the cheapo laughs of A Haunted House once again confirming that the earth is doomed and also that filling your movie with stars doesn't necessarily help (which also means the earth is doomed... at least for those of us who like our movies with movie stars in them.) That said it took Brad Pitt a long time to be considered "bankable" and Ryan Gosling is inching ever upwards. This is his second best opening (after Crazy Stupid Love, which was also jam-packed with fellow stars) though he has yet to star in a $100 + million hit.

Meanwhile Django and Les Miz continue to prove that their hit status is bonafide. With only three weeks in theaters both are well over $100 million and are on their way to very healthy profits, with or without Oscar statuettes.

Fantine may be impoverished and unemployable but Anne Hathaway now has her SEVENTH $100+ million hit.

I've noticed that that really tired annual meme that Oscar hates blockbusters and that general audiences don't like "Oscar-Bait" movies has died this year thank God! That death rattle lasted forever. Your Best Picture lineup this year is more proof that that's only ever been partially true at best and is often misleading. The average gross from this year's crop is $76 million and it's going up every week. Among the nine only (arguably) Silver Linings Playbook has underperformed given it's box office friendly stars / genre but that's only because they opted to pretend it was a tough arthouse sit with that crawling release pattern. Even after the Oscar nominations its still in less than 900 theaters. 

Do you support Oscars economy each year by seeing the nominees in the theaters?