Box Office: Some Movies Made $. Some Didn't. The End.

Whenever a mega-hit comes along reporting on box office gets yet duller. How many times can the internets type "SHATTERING RECORDS!" There aren't enough thesauri in the world to rescue us. I've tried goosing the box office column up with cartoons, illustrations, and extra lists so that The Film Experience retains its air of not phoning this in! So begone repetitive top ten chart. Let it suffice to say that the box office looked something like this over the weekend...

• THE AVENGERS
• Unauthorized Transformers Sequel
• Outrageous Antics of Sacha Baron Cohen III
• Marketing Hooks
• Old Ladies
• Movies
• Movies only New Yorkers and Los Angelenos are allowed to see for some reason 

Next week is a holiday weekend. Can The Avengers withstand the onslaught of Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones and Josh Brolin as Tommy Lee Jones in Men in Black III for a fourth weekend on the top of the mountain of money? Stay tuned!

Did you see a movie this weekend? 

Tilda, Candied

First the prize jewel in gay activist's Derek Jarman's filmography. Then critical adulation and fame with Orlando "same person...different sex". On to Female Perversions and into The Deep End. Finally and impossibly, sorcerous big box office, red carpet goddess, unashamed polyamory, and Oscar-winning internationally adored actress. All this and she's never lost a single wisp of that original avant garde spirit.

Queen Tilda.

Now, a covergirl for the "first transversal style magazine"! Fifty-one years fabulous and still going impossibly strong. Long may this queer icon reign.

heart-stoppingly exciting photos by Xevi Muntané after the jump...

Click to read more ...

Chastain @ Cannes

I was thrown for a giddy loop while watching the Lawless trailer last week when Jessica Chastain strolled into frame with this sassy rhetorical question:

Well... do I get the job?"

Oh, Jessica. You get every job.

Quoth Movie|Line two weeks back when she finally turned down a role (in something as fame-boosting as Marvel Studio's billion dollar superheroes franchise (Iron Man 3 to be exact):

Asked for their reactions, every other young actress in Hollywood sighed in unison, "Finally." 

When I interviewed Jessica Chastain this past Oscar season she was name dropping international auteurs like Olivier Assayas and Michael Haneke as dream directors, as a true cinephile and would be auteur muse would. I guess when you kick things off with stellar co-stars and Terrence Malick you have license to dream big. Will she actually court them (or vice versa) while in the South of France?

Or maybe she's recalibrated to pursue Jacques Audiard (extremely worthy target) who has a festival hit with Rust and Bone. What do you think Jessica Chastain is doing at this EXACT moment over in Cannes? It's 2:15 AM there at this very moment but it's not like anybody sleeps during the festival.

Divalinkious

Clothes on Film on every costume worn by Doris Day in Pillow Talk. Love it.
Felix in Hollywood Louise Brooks is looking at you.
Film Doctor on Dark Shadows. (Eek. I pforgot the promised pfeiffer pfriday posting). He says my pfavorite thing anybody has said about Michelle Pfeiffer recently:

America does not appreciate her enough... she deserves to be treated at least as well as France treats Catherine Deneuve

I've always felt the Deneuve/Pfeiffer comparison was apt. But the auteurs aren't biting or Pfeiffer isn't baiting. Deneuve, on the other hand who is 15 years her senior, is still making vital films for important directors. 

A New York Night *CONTEST* Sarah Jessica Parker is inviting you to her place if you win the contest to attend her Obama fundraiser. Yes, I entered. We need a sensible President and, more importantly, I need to be inside SJP's home!
Towleroad the Magic Mike pr blitz has begun. 
Time countsdown the 10 greatest movies made since the year 2000. Kind of an odd list -- very Oscar bestpicturey -- but lists are like pizza. Usually worth devouring even when far from satisfying. I'm in love with number•1

ways in which the upcoming Tonys are just like the Oscars
Gold Derby on the "precursors" the Drama Leagues. It may lock up the expected Tony wins.
Everything I Know... hates Ghost the Musical -- based on the hit movie Ghost (1990)-- and would like to remind Tony voters about about one of our Oscary pet peeves:

 I would like to remind the Tony voters that "best" design doesn't necessarily mean "most expensive" or "most complicated." Ideally, it would mean "design that works with the dramatic intent of the piece, enhancing the inherent effectiveness of the work, rather than hiding the fact that there essentially is no effectiveness." 

Amen. I haven't seen this musical but this is a standard awards group problem.

Oh what the hell. 2 more links to go.
My New Plaid Pants [nsfw] is always reminding me of hot things I've forgotten, like Game of Thrones' Nikolaj Coster Waldau doing Clive Owen in Bent (1997)
Rope of Silicon Ewww. what the hell with Matthew Fox's new body for Alex Cross. He plays a serial killer. (If you believe the movies, serial killer is practically as common a profession as waitressing!)

"I can't believe we're doing this"

I assume that many of you have seen the very brief daydreamy clip from The Paperboy (2012) in which Zac Efron fantasizes about Nicole Kidman in a wedding dress before she kisses the camera. I can't stop watching it. I love the overlapped images and Kidman's accent and the snap back to reality. After the strange Shadowboxer and the moving but divisive Precious we all know that director Lee Daniels is confident (or over confident if you will) about bizarre flights of fancy in imagery and performances that run racing to the cliff's edge.

All of which might make him an ideal candidate to direct the ever fearless still underappreciated Nicole Kidman. I say "underappreciated" about this major star and Oscar winner only because she takes a lot of guff from critics, general audiences, and media types who all seem giddy about disparaging her work for shallow reasons. She's clearly one of the most important actors of either sex in the past twenty years and it seems obvious that future generations will still know her thanks to that auteur-friendly filmography. I'm gushing and I haven't seen the movie yet. (I hate when people do that so apologies.)

As for Zac Efron. First he duets with Michelle pF'in Pfeiffer (New Year's Eve) and then lusts after Kidman (The Paperboy)? This is the closest I've ever felt to him... and the most envious. Who's next: The Bening, Juli, Tilda, Ms Hathaway, Kiki Dunst? HE'S INSIDE MY MIND !!!

*deep breaths deep breaths*

The Paperboy premieres on Thursday May 24th at Cannes, in the last rush of films before the jury makes their decisions. Can Kidman give Marion Cotillard a run in Best Actress? Or will some non-Oscared international actress emerge triumphant?