Curio: The Driver

Alexa here.  After seeing Drive this past weekend I am now one of the legions of obsessives screaming about how cool it is all over the internet.  So, of course, I found myself on a search for some original poster designs for the film.  To me, its 80s stylings and rich atmosphere scream for visual homage (it even got Nathaniel sketching again!).  

Here are some recent designs I spotted.  I'm hoping to see more soon.

Poster by Cory Schmitz and Maré Odomo.

Two more from the series.

CLICK TO SEE MORE

Click to read more ...

Sleep Deprivation, Hungarian Potatoes & Oscar Charts

Yesterday morning I had to pass up a chance to see Hungary's Foreign Film submission The Turin Horse which saddened me. But half an hour of footage of peasants boiling potatoes in black and white mixed with three hours of sleep (2011 Insomnia Plague right here!) would not be an ideal match. If I die from operating heavy machinery while sleep deprived (what if my computer falls on me?) please know that it was fun talking movies with you this past decade.

The Turin Horse -- not to be watched without sleep

OSCAR'S FOREIGN FILM RACE
But good news! This week I will be seeing Mexico's submission Miss Bala (more specifically I'm watching it as you read this), Iran's submission A Separation, Turkey's probable submission (Once Upon a Time in Anatolia) and what I suspect will be Argentina's submission The Student which recently received the Academy's official "go ahead, then" despite some initial concerns about its eligibility (something due to the format it was shot in). In other words, it's on! I don't think anyone, even those who say they do, knows what will happen this year with either the executive committee or the nominating groups given how many high profile critical darlings and crowd-pleasing baity entries are already in the mix to split all types of aesthetics in the voting. And we still don't even know about 20 entries including three big deal Oscar countries: Spain (19 noms, 4 wins) update: it's Pa Negre (Black Bread) a Spanish Civil War Drama that won big at the Goyas, Italy (26 noms, 10 wins) and the Czech Republic (8 noms, 3 wins). 

Joshua Marston shot by Andreas Rentz in Berlin, 2011CONTROVERSY
In related news, the controversies we've already noted here are covered over at Deadline in more detail in addition to the new but totally expected story that Albanian's entry "The Forgiveness of Blood" might not be deemed Albanian enough what with Joshua Marston (from California) in the director's chair.

Given that Marston was already booted out of this category once (Maria Full of Grace) due to his citizenship despite his international spirit -- consider that he has yet to make an English language feature -- we are reminded again how frustrating the Academy rules are. You do have to have rules, mind, but there are always casualties when the letter of the law rather than the spirit rules.

Please to enjoy the ever-expanding charts and pass them on! Nobody gives you this category like The Film Experience. 

Trailer for the Swiss entry and the entire Cuban film (if you can speak Spanish) after the jump.

Click to read more ...

Michelle & Tim's 20th Anniversary Reunion

Michelle Pfeiffer and Tim Burton reunited on the set of Dark Shadows... nice visual. It only took two decades!  For reasons we've never understood since we don't hear that she's particular "difficult" or anything, Pfeiffer rarely works with directors twice. She barely even repeats co-stars (apart from, famously, Pacino & Nicholson). It's a strange thing about her career when you hold it up against other stars of her stature.

In fact, before this film with Tim Burton which opens 20 years after Batman Returns, the number of directors she's had a second round with number just two. And that number was only one up until the film before her 1000th hiatus (yeah, I'm bitter).

• Michael Hoffman (One Fine Day and Midsummer Night's Dream)
• Stephen Frears (Dangerous Liaisons and Chéri)

Weird, right? 

I REALLY must stop posting photos about Dark Shadows (I'm sure there will be many more temptations) or I won't be able to mock other movie blogs anymore for their anti-movie / pro-marketing approach (i.e. 200,000 articles about New Movie before it arrives, 1 when it does and then it magically transforms to Old Movie And We Don't Talk About Those! But it was either Dark Shadows anticipation or New Year's Eve (groan) so, you know... what could I do? Dark Twisted Pfeiffer is way more exciting than Mall Mom Pfeiffer. (I don't know any pfans who prefers Mall Mom Pfeiffer.)

There's another photo from Dark Shadows featuring Johnny Depp doing a Nosferatu-style air grab if you must over at Empire who reported from the set. 

Q&A: Shady Ladies, Brutal Scuffles, and Winsletisms

I begin with the lamest of blog clichés, an apology about my tardiness with the Q&A column. Somehow I completely forgot to do my "A"s last Monday despite asking you for the "Q"s. I've been lost in some sort of daze on which I blame the weather (why not) insomnia (for sure) and Lars von Trier (hear me out). Melancholia keeps creeping back into my peripheral vision at inopportune times and I feel I really need to talk about it. But, see, I'm the sort of guy who likes a good conversation and film culture continues to torment me with its deathly shuffle. It takes FOREVER for movies to open after people first start talking about them. By the time many of you get a chance to see Melancholia, Lars von Trier will probably be editing his next picture instead of trying to cast it... thus killing all beneficial opportunities for conversation between moviegoers and the media. 

Now on to the movie questions you totally forgot you asked since we're one week late!

Brian Z: A large number of filmmakers (Crowe, Payne) seem to be back after a bit of a hiatus. What director who have been away for awhile would you most like to see again?
Nathaniel: Obviously Paul Thomas Anderson needs to come back (and stay). I'm ready for Jonathan Demme post Rachel Getting Married. I don't understand why Christopher Guest needed to go away (though I did find For Your Consideration disappointing).  I want to say Peyton Reed but only if he would get funding for something he really wanted to do (he started off in such a high spirited / original way with Bring it On and Down With Love but then...). And if you want to go much further back it's disappointing to me that Leos Carax who so startled with Lovers on the Bridge (1991) and Pola X (1999) hasn't followed those difficult memorable dreams up with another visionary feature.

Michael: If all of Viggo Mortensen's characters got into a fight, who would win?
Nathaniel: Immediately I'm picturing Nikolai (Eastern Promises) in a naked steam room brawl with all the other Viggos for which I thank you (and David Cronenberg). Viggo has played several dangerous men over the years but I think the final rounds include brutal military officer (G.I. Jane) vs. Tom Stall (A History of Violence) but since Demi Moore can kick his the Chief's ass than he doesn't survive Tom Stall's crazy speed and death blow efficiency aim. Nikolai puts up a long fight and makes it through several rounds but in the end when Aragorn arrives with all his superpowered friends and ghost armies in tow, his massive sword swinging low, then it's really no contest whatsoever. Aragorn for the win.

Middle-P: Do you think that Marti Noxon and the new writing staff will actually be able to redirect/save Glee from the uneven mess of a sophomore slump it took during season 2?
Nathaniel: I think Glee may have been doomed from Season 1 when it made the same mistake that all high school shows make (you'd think someone would learn) when it didn't think to vary up the ages of the key characters so that nobody would kill the show when they graduated (and I'm sorry but without Kurt & Rachel, they just don't have a show) and decided that Sue Sylvester would have to be the Big Bad for all time. Jane Lynch is funny but it just doesn't work as a constant war of ridiculous proportions. But I think you mean tonally. Good writers can definitely mend its weird personality switcheroos. I hold out hope that Season 3 is an improvement but I think the show will be a short-lived wonder and maybe they'd be totally smart to call this their final season and go out on a high note, no pun intended. 

Bryan: What are your top five Kate Winslet performances?

FIVE BEST KATES and more actressy goodness after the jump.

Click to read more ...

All Male Revue: Brad, Andy and Ryan (who is just too Ryan).

The Film Experience is known the world over for its actressy devotions but for this quickie link-list, we've gone Men Only for some reason. Must be all that Best Actor talk in the air... or rather in the internetz. On that front I would like to note that my Best Actor chart is HAUNTING ME. It went the way of the dinosaur once Moneyball hit... rendering past speculations moot and the html coding is suddenly acting up, too. Yes, Brad Pitt vaults up when the charts are all redone on Friday. Weekly updates, however minor, follow from then on. Aren't you excited?

Okay okay. Enough screams and tears of joy for weekly charts. Settle.

Hello Giggles a must-read letter to Ryan Gosling. "You have to stop. Just stop. It’s getting to be too much."
Oscar Metrics Mark Harris in the lonely outfield, doubting Brad Pitt's nominatability for Moneyball.  
In Contention surveys the crowded Best Actor field and talks Michael Fassbender and Michael Shannon.
Cinema Blend  Justin Timberlake has already played one man who rocked the rock world (Napster founder in The Social Network.)  Next he'll play Neil Bogart who introduced 70s acts like KISS and The Village People to the world in Spinning Gold.

Towleroad Actor Sean Maher (of Firefly and The Playboy Club) comes out of the closet.
Movie|Line talks to Corey Stoll of Midnight in Paris career-boosting.

Oh and only because I know I'll forget. A very happy 50th birthday to Andy Lau tomorrow. He's been super busy lately what with festival appearances, multiple new films and headlining the Hong Kong Oscar submission A Simple Life which stars Deannie Yip (Best Actress Venice) as his life long nanny who suddenly needs him to caretake. Please to remember that Lau was Matt Damon before Matt Damon was Matt Damon in The Departed by way of the original film Infernal Affairs. Have you ever seen that one?  

Here's the subtitled trailer to his Oscar entry A Simple Life.