Showbiz History: Marilyn & Joe, Jennifer & Elektra, Samuel & LaTanya

7 random things that happened today, January 14th, in showbiz history

newlyweds leaving City Hall

1954 Marilyn Monroe, hot off of her superstar making year, elopes with baseball star Joe DiMaggio to San Francisco City Hall. He would be abusive and possessive and they would divorce the following year but stayed entangled  for the rest of her life.

1970 The Supremes perform their final concert together in Las Vegas... 

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Almost There: Juliette Binoche in "Three Colors: Blue"

by Cláudio Alves

With Pieces of a Woman having premiered on Netflix, Vanessa Kirby becomes one of the big contenders in this year's Best Actress race. She previously won the Volpi Cup, joining a selection of other actresses who managed to turn a win at Venice into genuine Oscar buzz. However, not every Volpi champion is as lucky as to get a nomination. In 1993, Juliette Binoche managed to earn the Cup for her studies of loss in the first part of Krzysztof Kieslowski's trilogy about Europe and the French Revolutionary ideals. Still, when Oscar nomination morning arrived, Binoche's searing work in Three Colors: Blue was not found amid AMPAS' choices…

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Nicole Beharie & Riz Ahmed win at the Gothams

by Nathaniel R

It's not always helpful to "lead" in the nominations. First Cow came on strong when the Gotham nominations were announced but two months later at the hybrid real / virtual ceremony it didn't manage a single win. The winners lineeup surprised with a prize for the wondrously talented Nicole Beharie for Miss Juneteenth  and two ties. We don't remember the Gothams doing this before but maybe they have? I don't know if you'vee heard but there are... things going on in the world... and in the nation's capitol... in short: it's difficult to focus).

Without the hubbub of traditional awards ceremonies this year we don't know how much of that "winner" aura is going to rub off on various contenders as we head toward Oscar. Will anything stick?  The winners and a few speeches are after the jump... 

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Doc Corner: Lynne Sachs' 'Film About a Father Who'

By Glenn Dunks

You can keep your MCU. You can have your… whatever DC’s is. For me, the only cinematic universe that matters right now is the Sachs and Johnson Cinematic Universe. What’s that you ask? Well, it’s the films of brother and sister pair Ira and Lynne Sachs as well as Kristen Johnson with whom the brother Sachs has children, all of whom seem to make movies about and/or featuring one another. I feel like I know these people in very intimate ways because of the way their works reflects each other’s. It’s a curious little enclave of filmmaking that only enriches each additional film that I see.

I lead off with this somewhat facetious observation because the latest film, Lynne Sachs’ Film About a Father Who is about her father, which only seeks to expand and enlighten the story of this fascinating bunch of New York filmmakers...

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The Furniture: Death by Taste in The Talented Mr. Ripley

"The Furniture," by Daniel Walber. (Click on the images for magnified detail)

As we gear up for a Patricia Highsmith centennial, here’s a not-exactly-fun fact. Only one adaptation of her work has been nominated for Best Production Design at the Oscars: The Talented Mr. Ripley. (An earlier version of this article erroneously stated that Carol had also been nominated for this award, as the author had unconsciously, but happily, written The Danish Girl out of his memory. Carol was nominated for costume design, not production design.)

Production design is central to Anthony Minghella’s adaptation of the first Ripley novel, given that so much of the plot hinges upon taste. The young Tom (Matt Damon) ingratiates himself to Dickie Greenleaf (Jude Law) with his self-trained taste in jazz. Freddie Miles’s (Philip Seymour Hoffman) knowledge of his friend Dickie’s taste in furniture is what gets him killed. Ripley’s games of subterfuge and impersonation depend upon his understanding of style and class - and his own fluctuating taste in other people will lead him to the film’s violent end.

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