Maleficent is Coming

Production began on Maleficent (2014) today. A movie we're both totally in for and dreading for very different reasons simultaneously. Of course pre-production has long been afoot as this new photo of the incomparable Angelina Jolie as Disney's best villainess attests. Oscar nominated costume designer Anna B Sheppard (Schindler's List) has been hard at work (obviously) along with the makeup department in replicating the dangerously sharp cheekboned, horned devil look.

Angelina "Maleficent" Joliedglksg

The film will star Angelina as Maleficent and Fanning the Younger as Sleeping Beauty along with Sharlto Copley (District 9), Sam Riley (Control), some Mike Leigh regulars and Juno Temple. Most intriguing is the slightly unexpected production team which boasts Sheppard (best known for WW II era prestige dramas rather than fantasies) Dean Semler on cinematography (better known for westerns like Young Guns and Dances with Wolves than fantasies). Screenwriter Linda Woolverton who helped pen two Disney classics The Lion King and Beauty & The Beast has the script duties though we might have to worry about yet another "backstory" retelling. Doesn't anyone love the inherent mystery of iconic characters anymore? I know I do.

poll by twiigs.com

Curio: Seeing Silhouettes

Alexa here. Although they were an 18th Century craze,  silhouettes are a familiar sight in our collective film memory (James Bond openers, Elliott and E.T., even Mystery Science Theater 3000).  Cut paper silhouettes that harken back to the history of the medium are making a crafty comeback, so it seems silhouette designs are popping up everywhere from posters to porcelain. Here are some particularly nice backlit movie icons that follow the trend.

Jack and Rose, Jack and Sally, Hiccup and Toothless, handcut by Isabel Talsma.

A little Alfred Hitchcock, Jean Luc Godard and All About Eve after the jump...

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Twins: Luke & Leia

twins daily at 2:22 pm (while we're in Gemini)

Like most people of my generation I grew up with the Star Wars franchise (1977-1983. It ends there, right?) as the single most defining pop culture event of youth. I did not, however, feel any particular need to have it as a continuing Force (heh) in my life, afterwards. By the time I was a teenager I had already moved on to the collected works of dramatic actresses as The Single Most Satisfying Form of Entertainment. So I'm kind of amazed still that in any given month on the internet you can find dozens of new articles or tumblr items or deviant art sketches or nsfw riffs or ANYTHING at all about the franchise. It just doesn't stop... even after George Lucas tried to kill it cluttering up the beautifully sparse frames of the originals with merciless revisionism and CGI accessorizing.

Yet despite my lack of continued love for the franchise to end all franchises (or, more accurately, the franchise to start all franchises -- that's all we get now!) I will admit that Luke & Leia still have a very special place in my adult heart. 

More on Padmé & Darth's twins after the jump...

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Take Three: Cécile De France

Craig here with this week's Take Three. Today: Cécile De France

Take One: Haute tension/Switchblade Romance (2004)
De France brings an entirely new meaning to the term ‘Final Girl’ in Alexandre Aja’s Haute tension (or, to give it its more exploitation-happy title, Switchblade Romance). Spoiler Alert: Although we see Philippe Nahon doing the relentless butchering throughout the film, it emerges toward the end that he’s merely a projection of De France’s Marie’s imagination; he’s the product of pent-up sexual urge in Marie to create a marauding male monster in her mind. It all gets very muddy before becoming incredibly bloody. We witness the farmhouse massacre (the central setting for the film) alongside Marie, and place misguided hopes onto De France to ‘save the day’. With close-cropped hair and slightly (deliberately?) awkward mannerisms suggesting ambiguous duplicity, she's a a striking presence. Some careful direction and judicious editing make the film’s ruse work and ably assist De France to communicate the exact amount of required fear. Her peril is entirely believable when she’s tucked away in a closet ostensibly watching Nahon murder the mother of the house. This high (barbed) wire is even more remarkable after the fact in retrospect. She conveys the final act slide into libido-charged maniacal force with just the right amount of desperate, perplexed kinkiness. Her’s is a three-tiered act in one: she’s victim, saviour and perpetrator. De France physically and emotionally wrenched turn works hard to cautiously hint to one aspect whilst juggling the other two. How many men in horror movies have had to spin those kinds of performance plates? 

two more takes after the jump

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Box Office: Stacey Jaxx is Flop?

Even with a big drop for Conversation Starter Prometheus, the two new wide releases couldn't make a big dent; nobody was holding up their lighter for Tom Cruise or sending Father's Day cards to Sandler. But I'm still curious to see if Rock of Ages can pick up any guilty pleasure WOM and have a non disastrous second weekend. Truth: I always root for musical success -- even when the musicals aren't great -- because I can't live without musicals. Sometimes you gotta take one for the team. If you want more musicals on screen, go see them all!

The best news this weekend was for Moonrise Kingdom which is expanding quite successfully. Your Sister's Sister had the weekend's best per screen average for a brand new film.

box office top five (actuals)
01 MADAGASCAR 3 $34 (cum. $119)
02 PROMETHEUS  $20.7  (cum. $89.3) Premiere Fashions
03 ROCK OF AGES new $14.4 Review & Premiere Fashions
04 THAT'S MY BOY new $13.4 
05 SNOW WHITE & THE HUNTSMAN $13.2 (cum $122) Review & Sequel Plans

What did you see this past weekend?
Did you take your father? Or maybe you just watched father figures on the big screen? The weekend's best opening,