Esther Williams @ 100: Neptune's Daughter

by Camila Henriques

As we continue with our celebration of Esther Williams's centennial, we're thrown into the story of "a girl, a guy and a swimsuit". All in all, that's an accurate summary of Neptune's Daughter, the 1949 film directed by Edward Buzell that paired the star with one of her frequent onscreen partners Ricardo Montalbán. Like other Williams efforts, the picture relies on her screen charisma to succeed, and, when it does it's pure magic.

It's a funny coincidence that her centennial comes as we're invaded by the Olympic spirit. Williams herself was never able to compete in the games. Her big shot came the year they were cancelled due to World War II, in 1940...

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A Room with a View Pt 1: A Florentine Summer

Occasionally we'll take a movie and baton pass it around the team and really dive in. If you missed past installments we've gone long and deep on Rebecca (1940), West Side Story (1961),  Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (1966), Rosemary's Baby (1968), Cabaret (1972), Silence of the Lambs (1991), Thelma & Louise (1991), Aladdin (1992) and A League of Their Own (1992).  

 

A ROOM WITH A VIEW
(a three part retrospective)
part 1 by Cláudio Alves

Ismael Merchant and James Ivory's breakthrough hit, A Room with a View, based on the 1908 novel by E.M. Forster marked the beginning of a new era of British costume pictures. It opened in both the UK and the US in the spring of 1986 (the year we're celebrating this month at The Film Experience) on its way to becoming a beloved modern classic.

The movie won the BAFTA for Best Film and was nominated for 8 Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Since it's currently streaming on both HBOMax and the Criterion Channel, it's a perfect time to revisit. Let's dive in...

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Locarno Diary #3: Phil Tippett, the "Mad God" of special effects

by Elisa Giudici

Being a prestigious European movie festival but not one of the crowded and powerful ones, Locarno is the perfect size to showcase the work of  artisans. Every year there are one or two guests who are legends in peculiar, unseen, less discussed niches of the movie industry. I am confident that meeting Phil Tippett, a legendary special effects creator, animator and supervisor, will be one of the most vivid memories of this edition of the festival.

Before Locarno and the opportunity to meet Tippett, I knew close to nothing about his career other than that he was a collaborator and close friend of Paul Verhoeven's. So much so, he said, that on the set of RoboCop they asked each other, with dry humour, who they were forced to be nice to...

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Category Analysis: Are Three Nominees a Charm for 'Ted Lasso' in Comedy Directing?

Team Experience takes a look at the episode submissions for all the major Emmy categories. 

Apple TV+'s "Ted Lasso" earned three nominations for Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series.

By: Christopher James

How do you beat a frontrunner? Ted Lasso submitted four episodes for directing and three of them earned nominations. The freshman Apple TV+ series is the odds on favorite across nearly all comedy categories. Yet, this category is prime for an upset. The last two times Veep had three directing nominees, they all lost. Granted, Modern Family prevailed in 2011 when it had three nominations in this category.

So who else is nominated? There are three other pilots in contention - B Positive, The Flight Attendant and Hacks. Past pilots that have won directing over the past decade include The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and Glee. Mom is also in contention for an episode from its eighth and final season. So what stands the best chance to win Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series? Let’s dive into the nominees...

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Esther Williams @ 100: "Thrill of a Romance"

Team Experience is celebrating Esther Williams' Centennial.

by Nathaniel R

"Do you mind if I watch, too?" a businessman in a parked car shouts from outside a swimming pool -- a pretty swimming instructor, has asked her students to watch her do a swan dive. "Not at all," she says with a dulcet tone and flirty smile. Moments later the businessman is grilling the child to tell him everything he knows about his teacher including where she lives (!) This is the opening scene from 1945's Thrill of a Romance and courtship was, um, different. Who knows about this fictional swimming instructor but the actress playing her was already used to being gawked at, even before movie cameras arrived.

Esther Williams, the athlete turned movie star, was born on this day one hundred years ago in Inglewood, California. By the time she was 16 she was a national swimming champion with Olympic dreams. A couple of years later she was a star in the Aquacade (paired with another swimming champion, Johnny Weismuller, already a movie star). MGM signed her in 1941 and she became a popular WW II pin-up girl in her endless swimsuit photos. Meanwhile the movies back home were making her yet more famous. 

Which brings us to Thrill of a Romance (1945)...

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