The Furniture: All the World's a Circus in "Topkapi"

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

Last week’s column on Suddenly, Last Summer was a bonus sidebar to our ongoing Montgomery Clift retrospective. Today, I offer a diversion from our wall-to-wall Monty programming, in the form of a tribute to someone else’s centennial: Melina Mercouri. None of this film star's movies were nominated for Best Production Design at the Oscars, but I adore her anyway. And one of her films, made at the peak of her fame, is a perfect fit: Topkapi (1964)

Mercouri’s brand, so to speak, was one of obstinate vitality. In Stella, her film debut, she played a nightclub singer who simply refuses to be married, even at the expense of love. Her character in Never on Sunday, for which she received her only Oscar nomination, insists upon her own chipper versions of the Greek classics. Medea, who didn’t really murder her children, gets her husband back and they all go to the seashore. Mercouri’s signature vivacity is always at odds with her surroundings, defying the rules of both tragedy and society.

But the visual climax of this attitude comes in Topkapi, for which the entire world seems to have been refashioned to fit the expectations of Mercouri’s persona. She even introduces it, casting the world as a funfair even before the opening credits...

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Showbiz History: Doris in Peril, Daniel Craig as 007, and the Goldblum/ Davis Split

8 random things that happened on this day, October 14th, in showbiz history

1930 The Gershwin musical Girl Crazy opens on Broadway, introducing the standards "Embraceable You" "But Not For Me" and "I Got Rhythm" into the American songbook. Future movie star Ginger Rogers was in the original cast! It was adapted to film twice, first in 1932 and then with Mickey Rooney & Judy Garland in 1943.

1960 Did you know that Doris Day didn't only make comedies? A thriller called Midnight Lace, was new in theaters that weekend with Doris in danger!

Rex Harrison, John Gavin, Myrna Loy, and Roddy McDowall co-starred and Doris Day was nominated for Best Actress, Drama at the Golden Globes. How about that? If you've seen it do tell...

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Almost There: Andrew Garfield in "The Social Network"

by Cláudio Alves

Aaron Sorkin and David Fincher are back on Oscar's radar. Sorkin's sophomore directorial effort, Trial of the Chicago 7, is set to premiere on Netflix later this week while Fincher's movie about the making of Citizen Kane, Mank, is scheduled for a December release, also on Netflix. Looking back at the last time both these men were in the awards conversation brings us to 2010 when The Social Network was the critics' favorite going into Oscar night. The drama about the creation of Facebook was the David that fought against the Goliath of Weinstein's The Kings Speech. Unlike the biblical tale, however, the giant won this battle.

The signs of trouble and pending defeat were obvious for most pundits. After all, despite the film getting eight nominations, one of its stand-out performers and expected honorees failed to make the cut. Andrew Garfield had earned great support from the precursors and reviews to match, making his absence from the Best Supporting Actor lineup a shocking snub…

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Monty @ 100: The absolutely bonkers "Suddenly, Last Summer"

Team Experience is watching ever Montgomery Clift film for his Centennial

by Mark Brinkerhoff

Much has been written at The Film Experience about Tennessee William’s one-act play-turned-wild-ass movie (including again here, just last week), though with Elizabeth Taylor and Katherine Hepburn going head-to-head, how can you not? But generally un(der)discussed among the trio of stars of Joe Mankiewicz’s 1959 film, adapted by Gore Vidal of all writers, is the by-that-time uninsurable Montgomery Clift.   

Reuniting onscreen for the third (and final) time with Taylor, his closest friend in real life (who, in fact, made it possible for him to appear alongside her by resolutely refusing to do the film otherwise), Clift gallantly cedes the floor to his co-star...

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"Mother! Oh God, mother! Blood! Blood!"

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