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Self Styled Siren on Margaret. She has no affinity for mess.
24 Frames talks to Anna Paquin about the resurrected movie.
Roger Ebert's Journal on the Oscar lalapalooza. Very strange piece. What's going on here? Ebert seems suddenly willfully ignorant of various Oscar rules claiming, among other things, that The Artist would be ineligible for Oscars if it were in French. Uh, not so, Ebert, not so.
Towleroad new photos from Magic Mike, Soderbergh's stripper movie.

IndieWire ten shooting stars of European film, Elena Anaya (The Skin I Live in) and Alexander's little brother Bill Skarsgård.
Boy Culture Joan Crawford is not one of Rick's (Santorum) Fans! I love it. 
Deja View pencil tests and the challenge of designing Gaston from Beauty and the Beast.
Stale Popcorn on rejected movie posters. I'd never seen some of these. Love a rejected poster from Bugsy that prominently features Annette Bening. 

We Need To Talk About Kevin McAllister...

The crazy thing is that if they wanted to go blonde for Kevin, couldn't Macaulay have worked? 

Interview-lapalooza

Charlize has a sharp eye for great characters.Interviews for the films of 2011

Who would you love to see interviewed in the future?

 Speak up and I'll try and chase them down. I aim to catch these days!

This Season's Conversations

• Corey Stoll (Midnight in Paris) on two great writers Hemingway and Allen and his career-changing breakthrough
• Charlize Theron (Young Adult) on Mavis Gary, hugging day players, and battling Snow White
• Bret McKenzie (The Muppets) is finished with Middle Earth but still playing with those Muppets
• Jessica Chastain (The Help, Take Shelter) won't be slowing down in 2012. She's got big plans and many character creations (no repeats!) on the way.
• Arianna Phillips (W.E.) the great costume designer on her long collaboration with Madonna
• Sean Durkin (Martha Marcy May Marlene) likes it minimal. He stays ambiguous to the end. 
• Judy Greer (The Descendants) is still girl next door relatable but ever more fabulous.
• Olivia Colman (Tyrannosaur) on mommy Meryl's Iron Lady and digging deep for her new film about an abused Christian woman. 

• David Cronenberg (A Dangerous Method) always has something fascinating to say. His new film goes back to the source of so many of his cinematic preoccupations.
• Mike Mills (Beginners) made his personal stories into art. So do his characters.
• Andrew Haigh (Weekend) on casting his perfect chemistry actors and trying to see the film through the audience eyes. It's hard for him; he edited it in his own bedroom.

• Ben Foster (Rampart) is dying for a musical comedy. But he loves working with the "beasts" of cinema.
• Roland Emmerich (Anonymous) likes it big but detours for a little Shakespeare
• Vera Farmiga & Dagmara Dominczyk (Higher Ground) have rich girl girl chemistry and a fine film in common.
• Enrico Casarosa (La Luna) on his animated short film Oscar finalist. 

• Demian Bichir  & Chris Weitz (A Better Life) preparing for emotional climaxes and navigating awards season.
• Christina Hendricks (Drive) on acting during car chases and "that scene".  
• Ludivine Sagnier (Love Crimes) isn't content with being the best of the current French temptresses. She's chasing the legacies of the true legends of French cinema.
• Chris Miller (Puss in Boots) on how one becomes a director of animated features and whether or not he's a cat person

MORE TO COME!

Say What? Jessica & Chloe

Amuse us. Add a caption or dialogue for this photo of Jessica Chastain and Chloe Moretz from last night's BFCA red carpet...

You know you want to!

Distant Relatives: Walkabout and Meek's Cutoff

Robert here w/ Distant Relatives, exploring the connections between one classic and one contemporary film.

Jenny Agutter in "Walkabout" and Michelle Williams in "Meek's Cutoff"

Western people have something of a parasitic relationship with nature. But that's okay. If Werner Herzog is to believed, nature doesn't much like us either. The two films we look at this week, Nicolas Roeg's Walkabout and Kelly Reichardt's Meek's Cutoff look at the relationship of people trapped within the land and how it compares to their relationship with people of the land or who represent the land in their foreignness and threat to those considered 'civilized.' Along the way issues of trust, understanding, innocence, power, gender and whether one can overcome the attitudes and beliefs into which they're boxed, are encountered along with predictably arrid conditions.

Walkabout starts to roll when a teenaged girl and her younger brother (Jenny Agutter and Luc Roeg) are violently abandoned in the Australian outback. They wander lost for a good deal of time until they encounter an Aborigine (David Gulpilil) who becomes something of their guide despite the great distance in culture and understanding between the three. Meek's Cutoff follows a wagon train lost on the Oregon Trail. Of no help is their wilderness guide Stephen Meek (Bruce Greenwood), though of some help may be an Indian they've captured. Leading the contingent to trust in and follow their captives lead, though more out of desperation than principle is one woman, Emily (Michelle Williams).

Both films could be read as tales of reversal of fortune where individuals from the intruding aggressor class find themselves at the will of someone they consider strange and savage...

Questions of Trust and Gender after the jump.

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"Critics Choice" Winners From Viola to The Artist

Kirsten Dunst presented Best Supporting Actress to Octavia SpencerWe tried a live blog experiment which was very chaotic though conversational if you'd like to relive it vicariously through us if you weren't here. But otherwise, let's review the big speeches and the winner's roster.

Do you think all five of the major acting wins will translate to Globe and SAG hoopla... and then on to Oscar? It's been a surprising season to date so will it suddenly become a normal season where the same films and performances win each time?

SUPPORTING ACTRESS -Octavia Spencer for The Help

Okay um. Well I'm not prepared. I wasn't a Girl Scout. I guess the operative word here is Best Supporting  becasue I was truly supported by the most amazing cast and crew. Oh my god this is really kind of crazy. Okay. Uh. I'd like to thank everyone at Dreamworks -- Stacey Snyder thank you for giving me this chance. Holly Barrio. Chip Sullivan. Everyone at Disney. Rich [series of names that all blurred together for us] ...and then of course my two champions Tate Taylor and Brunson Green who have always believed in me. And thank God you believed in me enough to give me a job that actually paid this time!

But thank you so much to the BFCA. I am truly truly humbled by this. Thank you.

SUPPORTING ACTOR - Christopher Plummer for Beginners

Christopher Plummer, young againWinners and a Tearful Viola after the jump...

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