May. It's a Wrap

For reasons beyond my control, May was a tremendously difficult month and the least active in The Film Experience's long history of daily postings. But it wasn't without highlights. If you've been drifting away, [cue Keira's chokey Atonement voice] "come back..." because June will be hopping.

Ten Highlights from the Month... 

Cast out your inner monster!

Annette Bening as Myra Langtry Still on the Grift
Tilda, Candied still the most peerlessly iconoclastic actress
Thoughts I Had... while staring at Tom Cruise's W Cover
The Exorcist and Nothingness Beau's fascinating guest post

Maleficent Now with more... Mike Leigh?
Tennis in the Movies - a top ten list 
Raise the Red Lantern - my favorite installment of this month's "Best Shots" 
Smash - that "bombshell" finale 

Most Eyeballs: The Avengers Reviewed.
Most Discussed: "Goodbye Dad." Thanks for all your support out there in the dark. 

COMING IN JUNE: Witches of Eastwick week for its 25th anniversary, the completion of the 2011 Film Bitch Awards (I know I know), Updated Oscar Predictions (very soon), Gina Gershon, Beasts of the Southern Wild, The next Reader Ranking project, Pixar's Brave, The Parent Trap and Dead Ringers and other twin movies, Prometheus, Snow White and the Hunstman, Ally Sheedy, True Blood Season 5, and the premiere of something I've been cooking up forever called "Actressland".

And finally, I'll take it all off for Male Strippers Magic Mike week (Kidding! This isn't horror month.) 

What are your plans for June? Other than visiting The Film Experience thrice a day. That goes without saying, duh.

Twins: Isabella & Isotta Ingrid

We're celebrating twins while we're in Gemini

Did you know that Isabella Rossellini had a twin sister? They aren't identical but she does. The legendary screen goddess Ingrid Bergman had four children, the first Pia arrived with her first marriage to Peter Lindstrom. After her scandalous affair with Italian director Roberto Rossellini (which sank her career in the US for a good long while -- her third Oscar was seen, to some extent, as Hollywood's forgiveness) she moved to Italy, and had son Roberto Rossellini folllowed by daughters Isabella and Isotta Ingrid.

The Rossellini kids in 1959: Isabella, Roberto and Isotta Ingrid

Do you think Isotta Ingrid is as fascinated by animal sex* (Green Porno forever!) as her sister Isabella? Well, Isotta is in Academia, so... maybe.  

a more recent picture of the twins and more after the jump.

Click to read more ...

Yes, No, Maybe So: "Les Miserables"

Q: You know what I always wanted for Christmas?
A: A miserabilist musical epic about whores, convicts, slum lords, revolutionaries and starving street urchins in 19th century France.

Thanks, Santa!

And thanks, Baby Jesus! Even though your dad was not as forgiving as Fantine (Anne Hathaway) dreamed. Les Misérables trailer and discussion after the jump

Click to read more ...

The Bling Ring?

Hey, why didn't anyone tell me there was a new Sofia Coppola movie on the horizon? Or did I just forgot. Nevertheless... The Bling Ring is coming and its 'stars' are walking right at'cha.

Taissa Farmiga, Israel Broussard, Emma Watson, Katie Chang & Claire Alys Julien "The Bling Ring"

Well... not exactly. Sofia Coppola is the star this time out since this band of moneyed kids is an ensemble and none of them have the hefty screen presence (yet) of a Kirsten Dunst or a Scarlett Johansson. And besides, even in the starriest of circumstances Sofia is at least the top billed co-star of all or her movies, having such a distinct auteur voice.

The Bling Ring is the name of the thieving group (above) who burglarize celebrity homes. Expect starry cameos, including our beloved Kiki (who previously headlined Coppola's Marie Antoinette and The Virgin Suicides), Paris Hilton and possibly Lindsay Lohan and Orlando 'Legolas' Bloom among them.  No word about Scarlett Johansson but if both Scarjo and Kiki lent their dreamy girl star wattage The Bling Ring may well be the apotheosis of Coppola.

Sofia  has been accused of not stretching enough safely ensconced in her sheltered moneyed world of discontent. First there was the hazy teenage girls trapped and scrutinized by the gaze of others (Her The Godfather Part III experience via The Virgin Suicides. You can see it, right?) then the girl in the orbit of real celebrities who hangs out bored and unloved and disconnected in hotel rooms (Lost in Translation) then the moneyed girl born into great privilege, accussed of narcissism and disconnected from everyday living (Marie Antoinette) and finally a star driving around in circles, vaguely aware that they need to find new roads to travel (Somewhere). If you're inclined to project whole interior lives onto the unknowable rich and famous -- and frankly, who isn't? -- well, Coppola will make it easy for you.

But the synopsis of The Bling Ring sounds like newish terrain, albeit still adjacent to the world she knows all too well.

This & That (And A Bit More On *That*)

Woodcutting Fool David Lynch carved
Go Fug Yourself on Reese Witherspoon (and child) in France
MUBI's Notebook lists favorite Cannes films of 2012 (the winner being way down the list)
Film School Rejects Why blockbusters need to get their third act together. Heartily agree with much of this.
TV|Line Smash will lose two of its major male characters in Season 2. Does this mean Dennis & Bobby get more screen time? (I know it doesn't but my wishful thinking can be noisy and demand sentences all its own.)

AV Club wins the Best Snarky Headline of the Week (*not a real award) with this beauty... "Malin Akerman is playing Debbie Harry, who is also blonde."
Pajiba Most Versatile Bruce Willis
No Film School Most Fascinating Michael Haneke 
Coming Soon new Les Miserables photos. Apparently the trailer arrives today as well. We'll hear the people sing tonight in a Yes No Maybe So post.
Rope of Silicon Batmobiles  

Splitsider the Joss Whedon Roseann episodes
Playbill free outdoor staging of the hilarious stage adaptation of Xanadu will play Park Slope Brooklyn this summer
Acidemic on reality-warping multiple viewings of three 'comedies of remarriage' The Lady Eve, Bringing Up Baby and Bell Book and Candle 
My New Plaid Pants The Exorcist for TV via Martha Marcy May Marlene director?!?
La Daily Musto international beauties Léa Seydoux and Diane Kruger go sapphic for a  lesbian Marie Antoinette film called Farewell My Queen.

KISS HER! 

The Release Date Shuffle: Michael Haneke's Amour will be opening (and thus Oscar qualifying) on December 19th a bit earlier than Haneke's previous feature White Ribbon which did one of those awful New Year's Eve weekend releases in time for Oscar; G.I. Joe: Retaliation's shocking pushback to 2013 is prompting specalutation about how bad it might be. Last second release shifts for wannabe blockbusters are rare as they're expensive to open... and I promise that's the last time we group G.I. Joe with Michael Haneke in a paragraph; The Life of Pi arrives one month early so you can gobble it up for Thanksgiving instead of unwrapping it at Christmas time which is the inverse of what happened with the new Barbra Streisand picture, The Guilt Trip; And finally yes... yes... Cuaron's Gravity, our most anticipated this year, is now our most anticipated of 2013 (sniffle) which means that we've got to update those Oscar predictions. I know I know. Don't rush me! (This weekend?)

A Personal Note: I thought a link list was in order to get back up to speed (as much as one can in a day)... I generally cull the links through a process of trying to keep up to speed with What's Going On even though "news items" are only like ¼ of the links shared. 

But I couldn't let this return to blogging (glad to be crawling back -- we should be back in full swing by Thursday night) go without a hearty thank you to all of you, the readers, who sent such kind words on facebook, by email or right here on the blog after my father passed away. I spent a week in Utah with my mom and siblings and there were tears and memories and even laughter, too. My mom demanded a correction from my memoir post though. The photo that I love of my parents was taken before they were married. Hey, I wasn't there - honest mistake. She told me an amazing personal story about it and, as it turns out, it's her single favorite picture of the two of them. Now, I ♥ the photo even more.