Flipping Through Movie Book Pages

For no reason whatsoever on this summer day, 08/22, I pulled a few random movie books off the shelf -- i used to buy used movie books all the time as a teenager (though two of these are books from this past decade) -- and opened them to pages 8 and 22 and am sharing my favorite sentences therein with you! If it's a photo page, I shared that instead. 

Ready? here we go!

page 8

page 22

We want our viewers not merely to enjoy the situation with a murmured, "Isn't he cu-ute" but really to feel something of what the character is feeling."

from Disney Animation The Illusion of Life

*

page 8

"Thirty-six tables with their scintillating glassware and long tapers, each table bearing a replica in waxed candy of the gold statuette award, filled the entire floor space of the room," said the hotel's press release.

page 22

The plot was farfetched -Shearer and leading man Robert Montgomery have an affair at the same time her father has one with his mother -- but Mrs Thalberg looked great in her chic Adrian wardrobe and bobbed hair."

from Inside Oscar aka The Holy Bible

*

page 8

Is that goo for his mouth, or the goo for his nose?" Lucas asks wiping a bit of brown slime off Jabba's cheek with his finger.

page 22

Disneyland is a movie that invites its audience right into the screen, combining mass appeal with mechanical ingenuity.

from Skywalking: The Life and Films of George Lucas

* 

page 8

After seeing that film I was left with the understanding that the Bollywood musical and its outrageous comic tragic storytelling succeeded because of a deal that exists between the film and its audience."

page 22

from Moulin Rouge!

*

page 8

'For example, it's striking how obvious it is in retrospect that the New Wave was, fundamentally, a product of it's time: impertinent, playful, inventive; emphasizing chance, rupture, improvisation, and brilliant intuition; creating sequences that loop back on themselves like gags or that metonymically demonstrate the entire film."

page 22

Critical thought enabled them not only to approach film but to conquer it, and it became such an essential element of their intellectual growth that it came to symbolize the entire creative  process for them.

from French New Wave

*

page 8

The gypsy nature of my film life hasn't helped me resolve this disturbing sense of musical beds."

page 22

I wobbled into the building, found the office and in my best southern Brooklynese announced to the secretary, "Ah'm heah to play Scarlett O'Hara"

from Shelley Also Known as Shirley

*

Shelley Winters! Why do I have this book? LOL. The cover says it was a #1 bestseller (published in 1981)

I was just watching her in A Place in the Sun (1951) again Saturday night*. She was not exactly a subtle actress but she was definitely a born loudmouth storyteller. Some people are born to be stars but it's almost like Shelley was born to be an old loudmouth lady recalling stardom and gossiping about even bigger stars. When I was a kid it seemed like she was always on tv talking about one celebrity or another from '50s era Hollywood.

This post = SO RANDOM! 

*times have sure changed. Shelley was nominated for Best Leading Actress for this movie but today this would 100% be considered a supporting performance given that she's missing for huge passages of the film.

Say What? Superheroes

Amuse us. Add a caption or dialogue to this unofficial photo from an outdoor shoot of Joss Whedon's The Avengers (2012) starring Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr and... well, you know who's in it. I'll repost later with the winning bit.

photo src

UPDATE: WINNING ENTRIES HAVE BEEN POSTED

P.S. If you're new to The Film Experience -- i see a lot of new names in the comments -- welcome! Especially Whedonesque readers. Nathaniel is a huge Joss Whedon fan though he readily admits he hasn't been writing about him much lately. The previous incarnation of the blog has more Buffy and Dollhouse if you're so inclined.

But take a look around here. We've got plentiful semi-weekly series. You can see past Captain America posts, general Oscar mania, Disney films, box office, lots of vampirism, whatever. Investigate. Come back :)

Box Office Bloodbath: The Help Cleans Up.

This weekend was a bloodbath for new releases, and not because Conan the Barbarian and Fright Night's Jerry the vampire were spilling so much of it. Both of them bombed. Though I enjoyed Fright Night, can we at least hope that the combined failure here makes Hollywood question the need to remake every 80s hit? Maybe not. With The Smurfs chuggling along nicely despite virtually no one enjoying it, we'll still get name brand regurgitation until all of them start bombing. 

Box Office U.S. Top Ten (estimates)

01 THE HELP [review] $20 (cum $71.3)
02 RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES [articles] $16.1 (cumulative $133.5) 
03 SPY KIDS: ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD $11.6 
04 CONAN THE BARBARIAN $10 
05 THE SMURFS $7.8 (cum $117.5)
06 FRIGHT NIGHT [review] $7.7 
07 FINAL DESTINATION 5 $7.7 (cum $32.3)
08 30 MINUTES OR LESS $6.3 (cum $25.8)
09 ONE DAY $5.0 
10 CRAZY STUPID LOVE [articles] $4.7 (cum $64.2)

Three Talking Points:
Emma Stone hits are bookending the top ten this week, her star shines ever brighter.

In fact, though one can hardly name Emma the reason for its success, The Help barely dropped at all, doing a rare climb to the number one spot after its debut week (a rarity). In other words, it's shaping up to be a long legged big hit. And people are still definitely talking about it, even if it's mostly to call each other names (such as: this article which has upset some people.) 

The biggest news though occured outside the top ten as Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris crossed the $50 million mark this week. To celebrate, Sony Pictures Classics announced that the comeback hit will be going wide AGAIN (even more of a rarity) next weekend.

Shall we celebrate?

If so, how?

If you haven't yet seen it, here's your last (theatrical) chance essentially. Movies don't generally lose hundreds of theaters and then return to them but the film has had such great legs that SPC is obviously bullish about its Oscar chances at this point. If you don't adjust for inflation this is Woody's biggest US hit ever and if you don't adjust for inflation it will soon be his second biggest hit ever worldwide where it has grossed $84 million; any second now it will pass Match Point though surpassing Vicky Cristina Barcelona's nearly $100 million take might still be a considerable challenge.

What did you see this weekend? Are you also bullish on Midnight's Oscar chances at this point?

Ask Nathaniel...

It's Q&A time again. You be asking. I be answering. At least some of the questions. Don't try any of those greedy five part questions either ;) Go!

Take Three: Viola Davis

Craig here with Take Three. Today: Viola Davis

Take One: Far from Heaven (2002)
Davis, currently elevating The Help as a long-suffering maid, had already supplied some hard home graft back in Todd Haynes’ 2002 race-and-homosexuality Sirkian pastiche Far from Heaven. Davis quietly excelled as Sybil, Cathy’s (Julianne Moore) full-time housekeeper and part-time confidant. She does a lot with a little. Ever present she curiously lingers within its most emotionally fraught scenes and makes a subtle impression in more incidental ones. Sybil maintains a watchful eye on proceedings, on how Cathy and Raymond (Dennis Haysbert) play out their furtive longing and on the arguments between Cathy and husband Frank (Dennis Quaid).

Whilst Moore is delicately cracking up due to wifely duties and illicit romance, Davis is on hand to help keep her together. “I don’t know how on earth I’d ever manage...” Cathy begins, cautiously trailing off. She knows her words reveal volumes about the very issues facing her, Raymond and indeed Sybil herself. Davis gets to assert her character as the narrative becomes more sweepingly emotional. She lets on to Cathy more about her life away from the Whitakers and, in her best moment, finally allows herself to tell Cathy about Raymond’s injured daughter. Davis plays the scene with a minor requisite guardedness. I can only imagine that had Haynes opted to fold more of another Sirk film, Imitation of Life, into his emotive meta-study, Davis may well have come front and centre.

Take Two: Eat, Pray, Love (2010)
Davis isn’t often, if at all, mentioned in synopses of Eat Pray Love. Her character Delia Shiraz, Julia Roberts’ best friend, isn’t significant enough to the overall narrative, apparently. This is a shame, as although she’s only in the first thirty minutes she’s its most resonant performer. In fact, I’d rather it had been about happily-married yet realistically cynical new mother Delia. There’s ample reason, given in a handful of scenes, that she would’ve made a far better lead character. Davis gets to flex her acting chops and be delightful regardless. But the best evidence of why she should’ve been the one doing the global traipsing is to be found in the lesser-seen only-six-minutes-longer director’s cut.

Before Roberts’ Liz jets off to vainly find herself across three continents, a rightfully sceptical Delia sees her off. It’s the first time Delia does more than provide mere friendly solace for Liz. "You know why I was giving you such a hard time?” Delia reluctantly says. 

I love my job, my guy and my kid, but... I wish I could go."

Instead of coming across as lightly bemused or content, as in earlier scenes, Delia is starkly honest. Imagine the resounding emotional tug the film could’ve pulled for Delia’s plight (and with more at stake) had her and Liz traded places. Through Davis’ well-balanced turn, Delia exhibits a better understanding of life in one line of dialogue what takes Roberts’ Liz 133 minutes to grasp. Evidence, if any were required, that top-tier character actors are most often the ones doing the best work. With simplicity, Davis intriguingly suggests why Eat, Pray, Love should’ve been Let, Viola, Shine.

Take Three: Doubt (2008)
If anyone’s going to make mighty Mezzer Streep question her certainty it may as well be Viola Davis. In Doubt, her one-scene, barely twelve-minute role as Mrs. Miller, mother to a troubled boy at a Bronx Catholic school, was of course performed entirely alongside Meryl’s sister act. An hour in, Davis’ brittle, quietly astonishing and astutely underplayed performance causes a major Nunquake measuring 9.5 on the actressing scale. She totters along in dowdy beige coat, armed with pre-work accoutrement (she never lets go of brolly or handbag – she “only has half an hour” before work) and, with pin-point concision, razes the film’s emotional territory. And all before a noon shift cleaning floors!

Davis’ performance is open-wound acting of the rawest kind. It seeps through the celluloid, embedding within it a strain of desperate, matchless emotion. She steals the film outright from its trio of big hitters.

Mrs. Miller’s baffling, questionable revelations reverberate through the remainder of Doubt. Sister Aloysius (Streep) is understandably perplexed at her reactions, but defiant Mrs Miller seemingly overlooks her son’s current well-being in favour of his future betterment. The undertow of this sad, richly dramatic exchange displays a vivid understanding of 1960s race issues. Davis’ succinct performance allows valuable in-roads into Mrs. Miller’s life; she clearly deserved the highest accolades. If the Academy gave Judi Dench a statue for six minutes in Shakespeare in Love – ditto Beatrice Straight in Network – then they really should’ve given one to Davis for twice their time and quadruple their quality. But 11 other award nominations and six wins point to it being a lasting portrait of bleak determination none the less.

Three more key roles for the taking: Solaris (2002), State of Play (2009), It’s Kind of a Funny Story (2010)