A Rita Hayworth lovefest

by Cláudio Alves

Born Margarita Carmen Cansino, Rita Hayworth was one of Old Hollywood's brightest and most glamourous stars. As it often happens with such legends of the silver screen, her life was an unhappy one, full of tales of abuse and five failed marriages, crippling insecurity, alcoholism and Alzheimers. Perhaps more hauntingly, her biographers agree that Hayworth despised her existence as a movie star and as a pin-up icon, longing to escape the movie business in her heyday. In Hayworth's later years, she would even come to express disdain towards some of her more famous movies like the iconic Gilda. Still, those same pictures, as well as other classics, made her an immortal legend.

To explore the filmography of Rita Hayworth is to confront the cruel incongruences of her biography, how the movies sculpted her into something bigger than life and made her suffer for it too…

Click to read more ...

Podcast Recap "Mrs. America"

by Murtada Elfadl

Over at Sundays With Cate I’m recapping the first three episodes of Mrs. America which are currently available on Hulu. We dig into Blanchett’s performance and the all star cast. The show is structured so that each episode highlights one of the figures in the fight to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. The first episode is about right wing polarizing organizer Phyllis Schlafly (Blanchett) and how she came to oppose the ERA. The second highlights Gloria Steinem (Rose Byrne) at the time she launched Ms. Magazine and the third takes place at the 1972 Democratic National Convention when Shirley Chisholm (Uzo Aduba) became the first African American woman to run for president. My guest on this episode is writer and filmmaker Tayler Montague. Have a listen!

Are you watching Mrs. America?

April Foolish Predix Pt 2: Visuals & Sound

Hello brave readers willing to fantasize about the 93rd annual Academy Awards while the bulk of the internet (but not us!) is convinced they won't exist! We've previously covered potential options for Best Animated Feature so now let's talk all the craft categories before we get to the 'big eight' (Screenplays, Director, Acting, and Picture). It's a wild wild world out there in terms of possibility. We only know:

a) which movies are "definitely*" still planning to open this year
b) the kinds of things Oscar tends to like in a normal year
c) a vague idea and plentiful hunches about which movies are closest to being finished in post-production and will risk opening. 

So please take all of these predictions in the way they are intended: a bit of fantasy escapism based on past punditry experience mixed with vague ideas about what might happen in the future of this tumultuous year. 

VISUAL CATEGORIES
Our favourite film categories to think about apart from Actressing & International Film. Come look at what we think might happen in Costume Design, Cinematography, and more. 

SOUND CATEGORIES
These are much less fact-based. Composers are often the last part of a creative team hired so a lot of upcoming pictures dont have composers announced yet. Especially since Hollywood isn't at work at the moment. So this is wild guesswork. We also dont know which movies will have original songs. So we are blindfolded while looking at these crystal balls. It's quite odd, punditry, in this pandemic world.

Emmy Watch: Who will be up for Comedy Actress?

by Abe Fried-Tanzer

The "what will be nominated at the Emmys?" conversation continues. Today: Best Lead Actress in a Comedy Series. 

Last year, this category was upended in a major way, with just one of the six eligible previous nominees – winner Rachel Brosnahan (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) returning to the lineup. 2020, then, could be a good chance for any of the booted five to rejoin the race, as three of last year’s nominees won’t be back. Past winners Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Fleabag) and Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Veep) will have to wait for new series to bring them back since those shows have ended, and Natasha Lyonne (Russian Doll) will probably return whenever her show does, which won’t be this season. It’s fair to assume that the other three nominees will be back: Brosnahan, Catherine O’Hara (Schitt’s Creek), whose show just aired its series finale and who is definitely the fan favorite (of this site), and Christina Applegate (Dead to Me), whose second season will in fact arrive on time for Emmy consideration…

Click to read more ...

70s Fashion on Criterion

by Cláudio Alves

The relationship between fashion and cinema is a complex one, with influence going both ways. Sometimes, runway shows take their cues from the glory of the silver screen, while costume designers can find inspiration on the pages of Vogue. In cases such as the collaboration between Audrey Hepburn, Edith Head and Hubert de Givenchy, it's a multifaceted symbiosis where couture and cinema walk hand in hand to the benefit of both. These dynamics aren't exclusive to the Golden Age of Hollywood and the big studios, of course. Just look at the great style icons of the 70s moviedom...

Click to read more ...