The Film Experience™ was created by Nathaniel R. All material herein is written by our team. (This site is not for profit but for an expression of love for cinema & adjacent artforms.)
It's always staggering to really stop and breathe in the whole of her career, how long this screen giant has wowed and wooed us. Consider that in 1980 (I nabbed this old pic to the left from the wondrous Simply Streep site), she already had an Oscar and the world was already in love with her! And that was just the very beginning.
There have been bumpy patches in the marriage between audience and star, as there are in all relationships, but for the most part we've all lived happily ever after with Mary Louise Streep (Gummer). The moviegoing public, both domestic and international -- and probably even intergalactic if alien cultures have been observing our screens and stages -- has remained hopelessly besotted with Meryl since the late 1970s when she first sprang up, fully formed, an instant movie star.
Today is Meryl's 62nd birthday and she's been famous for just over half of those! We ♥ her.
Many movie stars peak just as they ascend (sad but true) and are defined by one to three (if they're lucky) signature roles. The beauty of Meryl's career is that she simply refused to peak. It's like she wasn't climbing any mountains of stardom but just floating above us all, serenely. Ironically, given her chameleon reputation, the world's most acclaimed actress's signature role is actually MERYL STREEP.
Here's a video The Film Experience crafted for her 60th birthday... time to share it again!
SERIES DEBUT! "Secret Messages From the Movies" will alternate daily with "First and Last" (returning tomorrow for its fifth season), as its another "guess the movie" puzzle. Here's your first episode...
Behold the blurry teaser poster (courtesy of Pixar Planet) for Pixar's Brave an original story with their first female lead "Princess Merida"
I normally wouldn't post a blurry advertisement, but having just seen Cars 2, I'm going to rub this teaser all over me for soothing balm. I need this one to be great. Cars 2 stinks (more later) and the Toy Story short that proceeds it "Hawaiian Vacation" is also soul-crushing. Oh Pixar, you said farewell to these characters so beautifully last year. You had a whole world weeping under 3D glasses and then you bring the whole gang back instantly for such a disposable mediocrity? What are we going to do with you? We depend on you! Love - a concerned fan since that bootleg viewing of Tin Toy in the 1980s.
Just Jared it's official: Aishwarya Rai, will finally pass her gorgeous genes on. She and star hubbt Abhishek Bachchan are expecting their first child. I Need My Fix Ian McShane joins the cast of Snow White and the Hunstmen as the leader of the dwarves. Unless they've TOTALLY changed the story, I'm confused. Isn't he contractually obligated to only play evil characters? Jewish Journal talks to James Franco about his new film The Broken Tower in which he plays gay poet Hart Crane. Good interview. The Wrap interviews John Slattery on his fascinating Mad Men character Roger Sterling. Can he finally win the Emmy this year? La Daily Musto [NSFW] claims these are Burt Lancaster nudes unveiled but it's hard to trust any nude photos in the age of photoshop. Playbill Angela Bassett coming to Broadway with Samuel L Jackson for Mountaintop.
Booth & Steinfeld (maybe they're going for a brother/sister vibe this time?)Finally... In case you haven't heard it's contractual by law that every generation get their own Romeo and Juliet. Or thereabouts. There was kind of a big gap between Franco Zeffirelli's (1968) and Baz Luhrmann's (1996) but it's basically a perennial. Perhaps because it's Shakespeare it's never a grotesque matter of 'rebooting' so much as "hey, we haven't done that one in a while!"
Variety reports that we have our new Romeo and Juliet and it's 19 year old British actor Douglas Booth and 15 year-old Hailee Steinfeld for the new version, scripted by Julian Fellowes. If you ask me they're never going to be able to top Baz's psychovisual poetry or the doubleplusgood acting of Leo + Claire but here's a bright note: Holly Hunter as Nurse!!!
The theater world gets a bit quiet during the summer, post Tony Awards, but there are still live performances to be seen and talked about. Like "Shakespeare in the Park" in, well, Central Park. If you've never been it's always worth going no matter what the show is because it's free and open air theater is truly a special everyone-should-try-it experience. But I wish they'd be more daring with their selections. Some years they stray from the bard, whilst retaining the title, like the year they relaunched HAIR -- god, that was a great production -- or when they mounted that Jonathan Groff / Anthony Mackie Euripides moment Everyone but me hated that one but I think I was just so glad to see something that wasn't performed as often and with two actors I quite like.
Danai Gurira rehearses for "Measure for Measure"
This year they're back to the bard. They're doing two of the "problem plays" Alls Well That Ends Well and Measure For Measure through June and July. Click here for dates. I took in Measure for Measure which... well, I haven't much to say about it. The problem with the problem plays is that they're problematic -- PROFUNDITY! [Editor's note: I warned you!] It was an absolutely decent production but it lacked a defining thrill, defining moment. As for definitive performances, I give my highest marks to Danai Gurira (The Visitor) who was in very strong form as the pious Isabella, who must choose between her brother's life or her chastity (long story!) in the convoluted Jacobean plot. On the comic side, Carson Elrod as Pompei, "the tapster" (aka procurer of johns for the whores? That's how it read from my seat), who offers up a pretty great distillation of how to give a modern performance while still delivering Shakespearean language.
Neil Patrick Harris as eternal bachelor "Bobby" puts the moves on Christina Hendricks in "Company"Company The recent very brief Philharmonic staging of Stephen Sondheim's COMPANY played this past week in select movie theaters around the country. I wasn't paying close enough attention to times and missed my one best opportunity. Hopefully it'll come to DVD. Neil Patrick Harris led the all star cast as "Bobby". Company is only one of the greatest musicals ever written so if you ever have a chance to see it performed, do so. If any of you caught it, speak up in the comments.
I've always wanted someone to make this musical into a movie because the songs are just so spectacular. But I fear Hollywood wouldn't understand it. It's not "flashy" and that's the only kind of musical they make anymore.
Links! Joe's Pub STREEP TEASE!!! That Meryl Streep Monologue show with an all male cast is coming to NYC next Monday night. One night only. Broadway Blog wonders if Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark can join the list of shows that triumphed after rough starts? Broadway Blog also looks at the history of Broadway songs on the pop charts. Does the man upstairs hold sway? It seems like it. Billboard answers a question I was asking on twitter (Thanks Mark!) about whether in-theater sales of Original Cast Recording count on Billboard charts as record sales. The answer is both closer to a "maybe so" than a yes or a no. BlogStage wonders if Shakespeare is being performed too often in the world? My answer: Duh! I've been saying this for years.
Finally... Mocking Acceptance Speeches as a special theater event?
Q: What's so great about acceptance speeches? A: What we discovered doing this show is that they're actually really joyful to watch even if the person is a self regarding narcissist.
I didn't even know about this until it was over. The theater community has yet to discover and worship The Film Experience properly. Where are my press invites? ANYWAY... there's nothing quite like an acceptance speech which is why its hateful when the same people win 10 things in a row. Variety is wonderful... and so is a good variety show.
Wednesday, June 22, 2011 at 12:00PM 
It's always staggering to really stop and breathe in the whole of her career, how long this screen giant has wowed and wooed us. Consider that in 1980 (I nabbed this old pic to the left from the wondrous Simply Streep site), she already had an Oscar and the world was already in love with her! And that was just the very beginning.
