May Flowers: Eyes Without a Face (1960)

Robert G from Sketchy Details here. I'm drawn to the beautiful imagery hidden in horror films. There's something intriguing about the dissonance between something so beautiful in the middle of an otherwise disturbing feature. 

Eyes Without a Face is one of the more aggressive horror films from the Black & White era. The entire film concerns a doctor trying to restore his daughter's beauty after a car accident severely burned her face. He goes so far as to fake her death after a failed medical experiment to better control his wandering child.

Even with the graphic imagery and grave subject matter, Eyes Without a Face is ultimately a film about hope and the attempt to renew a young life. This is made quite clear in the funeral scene.

After all the guests have left, Dr. Genessier and his assistant Louise are left to tend to the large quantity of flowers left at the grave. The arrangements are traditional--white lilies--but seem unnaturally bright and alive against the foggy background.

Where Dr. Genessier is unwavering in his plans, Louisa is losing faith. She's the one who always has to clean up his mistakes. She loses her composure in the Genessier family tomb against a wall of perfectly white daisies. 

A slap across the face is all it takes to bring Louisa back to reality. Her patient, Genessier's daughter, deserves a chance to be beautiful again, just like the flowers at her staged funeral. 

Armie Hammer Can Fire A Machine Gun (And Other Linkables)

FilmDetail GASP. Terrence Malick actually photographed in Cannes this weekend. Or is it a cardboard cutout?
Vulture picks the best (and worst) performances from Glee Season Two now that it's wrapped. Sound choices throughout actually.
Austin Translation the latest Pixar short La Luna wraps production.

Dan Hipp 'I am Tetsuo!' (an Akira moment)
FourFour on Kate Bush's "Director's Cut"
Gold Derby Jane Lynch (Glee) may host the Emmys
IonCinema proves that it's not just Oscars that cajole people into ridiculous predictions: herewith predictions for Cannes May 2012 edition.
Pajiba imagines worst-cast baby names from the current crop of starry couplings.
Kenneth in the (212) Justin Bartha on Matthew McConaughey's McConaunuts. What the...

Oh and mark your calendars for March 8th, 2013 if you're so inclined. That's when they'll be releasing Sam Raimi's Oz: The Great and Powerful, one of many Wizard of Oz themed projects that is stupidly not the mega-popular half a billion plus grossing Wicked. Alas.

Finally...
did Armie Hammer really need to compare kissing Leonardo DiCaprio to operating a machine gun in that you just have to pretend to know what you're doing even though you don't?

Excuse me Armie but you know what you're doing! Unless you're marriage is really unconventional. I'm constantly bemused by this topic. Hello world? Listen up. As someone who has kissed both men (duh) and women (what? I experimented in college) I'll break it down for you: both men and women are human [GASP]. Each human being has lips and a tongue whether or not they have a penis or a vagina. I know that's hard to wrap your head around, world, but it's TOTALLY TRUE. Have you ever met someone without lips or a tongue? Kissing is kissing and the  major variable, gender-wise, is facial hair. Otherwise the differences are pretty much person to person. It feels best when you're hot for each other. It feels dumbest when you're not which any professional actor is more than well acquainted with as kissing is a basic job requirement; more basic than firing automated weaponry! The end.

DVDs. Which Will It Be?

Now that we've caught up with the last Reader Request (Beauty & The Beast) and we're finally done with 2010 movies (Jesus, that took forever!), it's time to really dig into 2011. The earliest releases of 2011 are already on DVD and the summer movie is in full swing. Here is a list of newish movies from either the past couple of weeks or today's DVD batch. It's time to bring back the Reader Request.

• GNOMEO & JULIET -garden gnomes do Shakespeare in this animated film.
• I AM NUMBER FOUR- alex pettyfer shoots stuff from his hands in sci-fi/romance.
• THE MECHANIC - jason statham teaches ben foster how to kill people.
• NO STRINGS ATTACHED - natalie portman and ashton kutcher are f***buddies.
• THE OTHER WOMAN -natalie portman marries another woman's man.
• THE RITE -studying exorcism with scary-eyed anthony hopkins.
• THE ROOMMATE -leighton & minka rip off "single white female" in college thriller.

Which of those 2011 feature releases would you like Nathaniel to write-up about? Your vote is my command.

poll by twiigs.com

"at the ballet-ayyyyyyyyyy"I'll write up the winning choice for next Monday. UPDATE: HERE IS THE WRITE UP ON THE OTHER WOMAN.

There are two documentaries also hitting DVD that I've already written about, the orangutan in captivity meditation known as Nenette (brief thoughts) and the Broadway doc Every Little Step (review) which is worth seeing if you have any emotional investment in "A Chorus Line" or any intellectual curiousity about the casting process on big Broadway shows.

20:10 The Patriarch's Wishes.

The 11th annual Film Bitch Awards have wrapped... finally. Just for fun and a bit of retro nodding, here's the image from the 20th minute and 10th second of 2010's Gold Medalist,  I AM LOVE.

It's that fateful dinner time scene when the Rechhi patriarch makes a shocking announcement that will begin to tear at the fabric of the wealthy clan, eventually weakening their solidarity and collective grip on their prized exotic possession, Emma (Tilda Swinton). Ugh, I love that movie so much!

He picked me, mommy. Did you hear me?

Black Swan was the leader with 16 nominations and 13 medals all told spread out on every awards page: major nods, acting, visuals, sound, line readings, character & extras, and scene work but it was The Social Network which took home the most gold (8). The South Korean marvel Mother managed the best nomination tally without any accompanying medals (4) and Rabbit Hole, which just missed the year's top ten list, had a strangely not-so strong showing with only 2 nominations and one gold (Nicole Kidman, Best Actress) ...

But awards are never a 100% accurate reflection of one's love.

Links: Descendants By Poster, Friends With Benefits, Uma in Blue

Lookie. It's the first poster for The Descendants starring George Clooney in which a man in Hawaii tries to reconnect with his young daughters. Will it be an Oscar player? It sure looks good on paper with Clooney leading and Alexander Payne (Sideways) in the director's chair but time will tell. I'll update the current Oscar predictions this weekend.

Brandon Ney looks at the famous "Hush" episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer from a Zen Buddhist perspective.
Stale Popcorn on the different posters for Friends With Benefits. Australians do do it dirtier.
In Contention chooses the top ten performances in Terrence Malick films. The director tends to hog the accolades for his film but that doesn't mean the performances aren't top notch.

Off Cinema Time Out
Drawn! "Where do ideas come from?" This is true. They are elusive little buggers.
Loldwell.com A true story about coffee (I can't quit!).
Critical Condition Lady Gaga and her "Dark Idealism" -good piece on the new record.

Finally...
Go Fug Yourself investigates Uma's Blue Period at Cannes. Love this quote on the dress to your right.

It's the type of thing you can't wear unless you are SUPREMELY sure that you are smoking hot, because basically the only design element to the dress is: your boobs, your abs, your bum. Fortunately, Uma appears to be architecturally sound there.

Plus: Uma suddenly has new film projects lined up.... although I'll believe Kill Bill Vol. 3 when I see it.

And if you feel you just didn't get enough Cannes coverage, IndieWire has a huge index of writings and interviews, Cineuropa has links to film trailers and awards reactions and Sasha tries to keep an open mind about Oscar and Cannes over at Awards Daily.