Contest Winner: "I Know Where I'm Going"

Eeep! I forgot to announce the contest winners for this new Katharine Hepburn "I Know Where I'm Going" bio from Charlotte Chandler. I asked participants to name their favorite performance from "Kate the Great" and I just now pulled the winners randomly from those contest entries.

Which Hepburn performances are favored by our three winners? Read on!

Annie in New York. She writes...

My favorite Katharine Hepburn performance is in Bringing Up Baby (1938). Reasons: The improvised line, "I was born on the side of a hill" when the heel on her shoe broke; the glorious close-up of her smiling face that brings the film to a complete halt just to luxuriate in it; "Did we get to the other side?".  It's her full commitment to every aspect of the funniest movie ever made that makes this my favorite Hepburn performance.

Seisgrados in Spain. He writes...

Leonor of Aquitania in The Lion in Winter (1968). Her character is talked about like a bigger than life figure, strong, conniving, powerful, long before she enters the movie.



It's so hard for an actor to live up to those expectations in any film but when Hepburn shows up in this, she manages to be all that. An irresistible force.

Kimberly in Massachussetts. She writes..

Growing up Katharine Hepburn was the first real "actress" I knew of save my fathers obsession with Vivien Leigh (and all things Gone With The Wind). Living in New England she's considered a treasure. I could easily rattle off a specific reason, scene, or line that make each of these performances my favorite: Stage Door - I long to have a real life dialogue where I can use a few of the gems her and Ginger Rogers spout at one another; Bringing Up Baby for the early scene in the restaurant when her dress is ripped; The Philadephia Story drunk in Jimmy Stewarts arms...

But, my favorite would be in Desk Set (1957). Besides being the most often quoted film between my father & I, the performances are pitch perfect. It makes me sad that so many people haven't seen this film. As a woman this film has always stood out to me because Bunny Watson never tried to dumb herself down for Richard Sumner - he came to love her because she was smart. Hepburn also plays off of Joan Blondell in a fantastic way - Kate was rarely given girlfriends in her films - she was tough and always sparred with the boys, so it's fantastic to see her be a girls girl. This is one of my all time favorite films and I watch it every single time it's on. 

Congratulations to the winners! Your books will be in the mail soon.

Was your favorite Hepburn performance duly noted?

Pssst. Mine is Bringing Up Baby with Alice Adams as runner up but I am far from a completist.

Links: Brawling Badlands, Wonder Woman, Coy Cleopatra

Twitch an open letter to visual effects artists. Wow, I had no idea that they weren't unionized like other movie crafts. Hollywood is ripping them off!
GQ an oral history of the making of Terrence Malick's Badlands. Great quotes including some discrepancies about his nature. Paul Lee, a Harvard philosophy instructor, says  "he was so robust, like Belushi. Like a wrestler, even though he wasn't aggressive in any way" Not aggressive? Martin Sheen says he literally beat up a producer on the set!

Heat Vision X-Men First Class skywriting. Now there's some advertising for you.
Pop Matters "Trouble in Wonderland" the fairy tale's current cinematic crisis.
Cinema Blend Bizarre story that I'm hoping is just an interview pull out of context: Angelina Jolie doesn't want to portray Cleopatra as a sex symbol this time. Uhhhh
Movie|Line Nine milestones in the evolution of Brad Pitt

Off-Cinema
Not Racist But... This is a horrifying website but I'm glad someone is taking the time to collate these. It needs a companion site, Not Homophobic But... anytime someone starts the sentence with a disclaimer, watch out.
Lemonwade is exhausted by Lady Gaga's ubiquity. Will we see more defectors?
iFanboy reviews the Wonder Woman pilot that didn't get picked up. And the verdict is mixed but more positive than you'd maybe expect given the homogenous sight-unseen online vitriol.
A Socialite Life Alexander Skarsgård covers Interview magazine. In blue.

Memorial Day

It's Memorial Day Weekend and since the 'net is slow anyway as summer unofficially begins -- my my it's warm here -- we're taking it easy. Be back Tuesday morning with regular postings and Moulin Rouge! 10th anniversary week (which, who knows, but we'll at least do a "hit me with your best shot" on Wednesday evening! Join us)

[Pictured: Rita Hayworth and Marlene Dietrich serving it up for the troops; Marilyn Monroe also serving it up.]

Take Three: Catherine Keener

Craig from Dark Eye Socket here with this week's Take Three. Today: Catherine Keener

Take One: Being John Malkovich (1999)
Do you think it’s possible to admire an actress’ immense talent yet still be somewhat immune to her overall allure or effectiveness? Or perhaps it’s fair to acknowledge their greatness, but have issues with many of their performances? It’s been this way with me and Cathy K for eleven years. It was very likely Being John Malkovich that kick-started my general viewer/star incompatibility with Keener. I did, however, enjoy her sarcastically dry, bolshy, personality-destroying task master Maxine Lund in Spike Jonze’s breakthrough film a great deal. But in the film – and in many things since – she’s baffled, transfixed, annoyed and intrigued me in equal measure. Watching one of her films is a tug-of-war, filled with both appreciation and irritation.

Objectively I can see just how good a performance Keener gives here (evident to anyone watching). She has her eye on the ball at all times. Maxine’s never less than alert to her surroundings and ready to manipulate any sad interlopers who infiltrate them to her advantage. While sympathetic to protagonist John Cusack’s plight, I didn’t blame Maxine for maneuvering every event to her betterment. But Malkovich was the key film in how I came to view Keener as an oddly awkward yet undeniably captivating screen presence. Maybe her interpretation of this adversely egoistical role was too successful and the character and actress detrimentally intertwined in my mind.

Keener herself apparently didn’t originally think she was right for the part because of her dislike of Maxine. Regardless, her Best Supporting Actress Oscar nod was well deserved. Unlike her second one...

Take Two: The 40-Year-Old-Virgin (2005)
...or should I say her second Oscar nomination was misplaced?

Click to read more ...

Look! Fincher, Lohan, Whedon, Pinnocchio, Sheen, "Chloe"

We've gone clip happy in this roundup because there are things to gawk at and it's a slow weekend online,  everyone being outdoors where it's awfully hard to look at computer screens.

Geekologie sneak peek of a marionette for the new stop motion Pinnocchio (produced by Guillermo Del Toro). Eery little false boy, that.
Film on Paper is a new website devoted to poster art. Big collection on launch with beautifully prepared photos of original posters.
Tailgate 365 looks at the three most recent Joss Whedon series (Firefly, Dollhouse, Dr. Horrible) to determine what makes them tick and what makes them so rewatchable.
Ken Levine feels for character actors. It's hard out there for a number of reasons.

The Hobbit everyone's favorite beautiful blond braided elf is back; Orlando Bloom officially reprising "Legolas" for The Hobbit. Quoth Peter Jackson.

"10 years on, I’m thrilled to be working with Orlando again.  I look older – he doesn’t!"

Look! it's a camcordy peak at the teaser for David Fincher's Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. It's very rapid fire "greatest hits" of the now well-known story but it looks enticing (as Fincher's films always do)

Look! it's Lindsay Lohan in a "psychological portrait" that's basically riffing on famous screen imagery from the 60s. But if a "psychological portrait" is only homages to great European and Scandinavian cinema, what is that actually saying about the object of the study. I'm not sure I see the point. But some of the images are very pretty even if Lindsay's psychology is not.

Look! It's Drew returning as "Chloe" for a special Memory-ial day video. For the life of me I can't decide what makes these "Chloe" spots so funny but they're just brilliant bliss.

Look! it's a Twilight fanfic reading by Michael Sheen. Feel free to LOL. I know I did.

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Sheen's big movie roles (Frost/Nixon, The Queen, Underworld) always reveal a very solid actor but I prefer him best when he's using that actor's wit like he is here. He has fun with his self-aggrandizing know-it-all in Midnight in Paris as well. As much fun as Woody allows him to have, I mean. He's barely in it.