My most recent fond memories of the actor were the gentle surprise of his comic timing when we meet him in a frisky scene in In the Loop (2009) in which he flirts with Karen Clark (Mimi Kennedy) by joking about bestiality

[more...]

JA from MNPP here - have y'all seen the first batch of photos from Steve McQueen's upcoming slavery drama 12 Years a Slave? USA Today has several, including the two Fassbender-centric ones you can see here. It's Fassbender's third team-up with the Hunger / Shame director, and I can't be alone in hoping this might be the role that will finally get him some Academy attention after his most terrible omission in 2011. Same goes for the film's actual lead, Chiwetel Ejiofor, who's also been doing great work for several years now - he first really caught my eye in Dirty Pretty Things back in 2002 (although to be honest I cannot for the life of me remember squat about Amistad).

I haven't read the book upon which the film's based so I even hazard to guess whether this could actually be Academy friendly - so far McQueen's proven too outre for their tastes. But this one's got some big-time star-power behind it - it also stars (deep breath) Benedict Cumberbatch, Brad Pitt, Sarah Paulson, Paul Dano, Paul Giamatti, Garrett Dillahunt, Alfre Woodard, Scoot McNairy and Quvenzhané Wallis, amongst many others. And 12 Years a Slave is out at the end of December, a not-so-subtle sign that somebody's thinking statues...

July 3rd American Graffitti (George Lucas, 1973)
 [Amazon | Netflix | iTunes]
"Where were you in 1962?" went the tagline for this hit which went a long way towards popularizing 'instant nostalgia' movies. I wanted something nostalgic for the holiday week but mostly I chose it because I've never seen it and its a gap in my Oscar knowledge (5 nominations including Best Picture). Legendary DP Haskell Wexler is credited as "visual consultant". If you know anyone who was a teenager in the 1960s, use them as "nostalgia consultant" ;) and if you're feeling really ambitious, I keep reading it makes a strong double feature with Richard Linklater's Dazed and Confused (1993). 

July 10th Dead Ringers (David Cronenberg, 1988)
 [Amazon | Netflix | iTunes]
David Cronenberg's artful chiller about twin brother gynecologists (Jeremy Irons at his career best) and the vaginally, uh, complicated woman they both love. This week's choice is in honor of Nick Davis of Nicks Flick Picks. This film plays a key role in his first book The Desiring-Image: Gilles Deleuze and Contemporary Queer Cinema 

July 17th Mary Poppins (Robert Stevenson, 1964)
[Amazon | Netflix | iTunes]
This year's December release Saving Mr Banks concerns the making of this movie. It's garnering much pre-release curiousity so let's revisit this supercalifragilistic musical fantasy starring the practically perfect in every way Julie Andrews. Trivia Note: July 17th is also the 58th anniversary of the opening of Disneyland! 

more titles tba... the season ends in late August

Natalie & Deneuve, the greatest of the 60s screen beauties

top ten
01 West Side Story (1961)
02 Persona (1967)
03 Psycho (1960)
04 The Sound of Music (1965)
05 Bonnie & Clyde (1967)
06 Hud (1963)
07 They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969)
08 [Cheating w/ a Deneuve Double] The Umbrellas of Cherbrough (1965) & Belle de Jour (1967)
09 The Manchurian Candidate (1962) 
10 Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969)

pick a film, any film

i'll only be satisfied with a top 17
11 Rosemary's Baby (1968)
12 Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
13 Splendor in the Grass (1961)
14 La Dolce Vita (1960)
15 Mary Poppins (1964).... coming up soon on "Hit Me..."
16 Playtime (1967)
17 Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

and affectionate nods to... 
Cleo from 5 to 7 (1962), Breathless (1961), Whatever Happened To Baby Jane? (1962), My Fair Lady (1964), 8 ½ (1963), Darling (1965), The Apartment (1960), Bay of Angels (1963), and Rachel Rachel (1968).

Which films define you and which films can't you live without... from the subcategory of the 1960s of course?

Previous Top Ten Quickies
1930s | 1950s | 1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 2010s (thus far)  
and don't forget to like the film experience on facebook

Hush Puppy & Me W/ Aurochs.

Copenhagen
I'll always think of aurochs as the giant pigs that haunted Hushpuppy in Beasts of the Southern Wild but Copenhagen's National Museum tried to wrestle them away from neo movie mythology. 

In Denmark the aurochs immigrated after the end of the Ice Age circa 9000 BC these bulls with the largest and most inner dangerous animals in the forest but they could do little against the hunters arrows. The aurochs weighed almost 1000 kg. Old scars on the ribs show that the old giants survived earlier encounters. Three arrowheads lying among the bone suggests that the bull was fatally wounded when I sought refuge in a lake around 8600 BC . A few thousand years later around 6000 BC the aurochs was extinct in Zealand . In Jutland small-stocks survived until the iron age and the last aurochs died in Poland in 1627

I also looked at a whole lot of ancient ships and weaponry but in 2013 København the constant fit blond beauties walking or cycling by remind me a bit less of the brutal scarred Nordic warriors from The History Channel's "Vikings"... and more like a sea of Alexander Skarsgårds (I realize he's Swedish) or, perhaps more accurately, a parade of handsome blond preppy villains from 1980s teen movies: perfect blonde hair, chiseled jawlines, moneyed physical ease.

This store window had it about right...

up where they stay all day in the sun ♫The most iconic of Copenhagen's tourist attractions are Tivoli Gardens (amazing amusement park) and The Little Mermaid statue... one and ½ of which we saw. Tivoli was a blast and even turns romantic at night with the change in the light but The Little Mermaid was a lesser experience. We only saw it from a distance on the canal tour (which I highly recommend if you ever go there despite it being a shamelessly tourist thing to do) but my friends refused to indulge me in visiting it to pay true homage the following day. Did they fear my I'm sure highly original urge to sing "Part of Your World" at it in a photo or are they just curmudgeons?

Still, the statue is, as you must know, hardly evocative of the beloved Disney movie. Instead it expertly conveys the lonely longing of Hans Christian Andersen's original this-will-all-end-in-tears-and-sea-foam tragedy. 

Wenche againOslo
I was exhausted by the time we got there (and feeling a little unfaithful since I wanted to go back to Copenhagen, a city I am now hopelessly infatuated with) but there was much to see. Despite the running on fumes final days of the trip, I can happily report that I never once felt as suicidal as a character in a Joachim Trier movie (Reprise and Oslo August 31st - see them immediately!) and again I ran into Wenche Foss idolatory. She wasn't on the tail fin of a plane this time but just a statue in the park. 

Two little girls spoiled my fantasies of a nation devoted to actress-worship. They glanced at the statue disinterested all "hvem er det?" to their mom (Sigh). Indifference to actresses is a curse found all over the globe!

On the first day we walked on the roof of the newish Opera House (a stunning piece of art and architecture). On the second day we took a ferry and visited several museums including one devoted to the Kon-Tiki expedition, which recently got the movie treatment (twice over actually) to the tune of a Best Foreign Language Film nomination. I wasn't crazy about the new movie -- or the museum, actually, which was rather confusingly laid out and cluttered.

And yet, it was a treat to the see the actual boat. And you know I had to take a picture of me with Norway's first Oscar of sorts, which went to the 1950 documentary on the Kon-Tiki expedition.

The Boyfriend laughed about how the picture came out with the Oscar obscuring / reflecting all over my face "the story of your life"

Bergen
My favorite part of the trip was the middle when we took it easy for a few days and just breathed in Norwegian beauty, fjord trips, train rides and the views from a lakehouse we airbnb'ed in Vestland.

Fjord tour. You get to drink from waterfalls!

I lept wildly into the North Sea / Norwegian Sea twice -- like ice water with moss --  but the most paradisical moment was hiking to the most beautiful stretch of unspoiled land I can recall ever spending an afternoon with. The trees were so green and the ground was so soft and spongy I felt like I could curl up and sleep on it like a lost child in some benevolent magical fairytale woods. When the trail opened up on the most pristine lake with the most swimmable water ever I could barely speak.

The only thing I managed to utter to break the silence in that idyllic moment was: 

The loons Norman, the loons!

...in my best Katharine Hepburn. And then I dove in.

 

I've tried to straighten the gorgeous gay out but it's not budging. Permanently bent!

[one hour later] Oops... I started reading instead of finishing this post which I should not have done since I have to return this copy! I'm so into the launching Cronenberg chapter and am digging the provocative argument that he...no I can't. Must. Return. Get. New. Copy.

I can't even bear to take a photo of the mangled cover so you should remind yourself of how beautiful it is here. And if you haven't ordered it yet, do it now. Nick is a great writer, provocative thinker, and unshakeable cinephile and since it's gay pride month, it's a great time to start digging in. You'll probably even have your beautiful unmangled copy before I get this one replaced by Amazon!

"Musterknabe", 2011, charcoal on paper, 110 x 80 cm

I had found myself in one of those YouTube wormholes of watching Oscar clips at 3am. I am sure we've all been there. I've watched them all so many times that I honestly don't know why I keep going back - especially since rights issues force The Academy's YouTube channel to delete the acting nominee clips (boo! hiss!) Alas, like a masochist I just keep going back. Don't we all?

Nevertheless, I am always frustrated at the selection of videos that The Academy choose to upload. I always want to watch costume designers, art directors, special effects artists, and so on. I like hearing the applause for left-of-centre selections. I think it's fun to see how the writers and presenters represented these categories and people. So, in a joking fashion I tweeted The Academy stating that, gosh, I really just want to see the 1994 costume design category.

AND THEY UPLOADED IT. FOR ME!

"Ask and you shall receive", so they say. And quickly, too. Well, who can say no to The Academy uploading a video just because you ask? This is inarguably one of my favourite Oscar moments and I was so sad when the original video got taken down years ago, but now it's here again for us to watch and marvel whenever we feel like. Watching it now and I still grin from ear to ear when Sharon Stone (a rare Oscar presenter who surely doesn't feel like the telecast's dodgy writing is beneath her) announces a low-budget Australian movie about drag queens as the winner of an Academy Award. When winner Lizzy Gardiner gets on the stage in a dress made of American Express credit cards. When lovably weird Lizzy shoves her co-winner aside: "Shut up, it's my turn!" When they joke about going to "cry with some dignity" and "get a drink." Who can deny it was an amazing moment and now it's there to watch again and again.

"And the Oscar... goes to... And the Oscar goes to Lizzy Gardiner and Tim Chappel for The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert." - Sharon Stone.

The video has already been viewed some 1300 times in just a matter of days, so there are clearly plenty of people out there that want this stuff. Are they all Film Experience readers?If you could ask The Academy to upload one category from what year, which would it be? Maybe they'll read this and upload it for you! And don't forget to watch the Priscilla video over and over again. Maybe then we'll get more like it.

Cinema Blend Marvin Gaye Biopic starring Jesse L Martin doesn't have funds to finish production. Boo. I need another biopic about a famous singer with drug problems like I need another superhero flick but I like Jesse.
/Film Sandra Bullock for Miss Hannigan in Annie? That could be fun but as always say it with me now... "can she sing?"
In Contention a biopic of Ingrid Bergman? I can deal with that... especially since this possible new one has a tight focus on one moment in her life (the best kind of bio) 

Off Cinema
Salon on the battle over Detroit's art collection. News from my first home always seems to be bad :(
Towleroad Cheyenne Jackson pleads "Don't Look at Me" in his new video. We disobey
Vulture the ten best oral sex faces of the 2013 tv season  

This is the entry to a kino here in Norway. My friends didn't let me go in *sniffle* Be back to NYC and thus movies tonight. What did I miss these past ten days? Fill me in! What have you been seeing?

The answer, I am happy to say, is: pretty darn well, notwithstanding the set-in-stone timestamp of any movie that features Kevin Costner as a romantic lead (or features Tim Robbins looking like a 12-year-old). The chief appeal of Bull Durham remains exactly what it was 25 years ago: it really does offer something for everybody, in the words of the cliché.

Anyway... when I arrived in Bergen Monday afternoon I was surprised to see Wenche Foss, beloved Norwegian postwar actress staring back at me on the Tarmac.

It got me to thinking about which actresses we idolize enough in America to give them this sort of treatment. Not that we do but IF we did as we should? Who would it be? Besides Dame Meryl of course?

Illustrated poster by Nour Tohmé.

Kinky Boots support at the Keep-Calm-O-Matic.

Cyndi doll art and trading cards after the jump...

It says all there is to say about the cool state of the box office right now (nobody wants to put something out just in time to have Man of Steel cut its legs off next week) that the big story is a horror movie with toxic word of mouth hugely outperforming expectations. Truthfully, though, $34 million for the Ethan Hawke home invasion thriller The Purge is pretty impressive: it more than doubled the open weekend of Hawke's last horror picture, Sinister, while blasting past pretty much every comparable film in recent memory. That's what a drought in the marketplace will do for you: horror fans will turn out to see new wide releases if it's been a long time, even if the new release in question looks completely awful. I know whereof I speak.

Meanwhile, Wedding Crashers reunion/feature length Google ad The Internship has made exactly the non-splash that could be predicted based on how much nobody in the entire world was talking about the movie, though it's worth pointing out that it's not particularly out of line with the recent films Vince Vaugn and Owen Wilson have made seperately in the past few years. Also, Fast & Furious 6 broke the $200 million mark before Star Trek Into Darkness, which is a statistic that I don't think anybody would have willing to predict at the start of the summer.

BOX OFFICE TOP TEN
01 THE PURGE $34.1 *NEW*
02 FAST & FURIOUS 6  $19.2 (cum. $202.8)
03 NOW YOU SEE ME  $19.0 (cum. $60.9)
04 THE INTERNSHIP $17.3 *NEW*
05 EPIC $11.9 (cum. $83.9)
04 STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS  $11.4 (cum. $199.9) The Dumbing Down of Star Trek
07 AFTER EARTH  $10.7 (cum. $46.1) M Night Shyamalan's Fall
08 THE HANGOVER PART III $7.3 (cum. $102.3)
09 IRON MAN THREE $5.8 (cum. $394.3) Reviewed & Podcasted
10 THE GREAT GATSBY $4.2 (cum. $136.1) Reviewed & Dreamt About

In limited release, Frances Ha and Before Midnight are both purring along nicely (both were up from last weekend, in fact!), though neither they nor anything else came close to breaking into the top 10. The only prominent new film, Joss Whedon's modern-dress version of Much Ado About Nothing, put up a strong but not mind-blowing $34,388 per-screen average at five theaters, and didn't even crack the top 20, though its nationwide expansion on June 21 ought to improve its fortunes considerably, while giving all of us who don't live on the coasts a chance to see what Whedon's post-Avengers palette cleanser plays like.

Did you see anything this weekend? I didn't, taking advantage of the weather to do yardwork, though a friend and I are catching The Purge tonight. Like I said, horror fans are used to seeing things that we know are going to be utterly worthless.

There were many things from last night's show worth discussing - that opening number, the Smash cast all seated plum in the front row, Megan Hilty's performance in the ode to axed TV series with Andrew Rannells (The New Normal) and Laura Benanti (Go On), Cicely Tyson's ruffle dress, the terrible Bring It On performance, the incredible Pippin performance - but one of the most interesting is, I think, Cyndi Lauper now being just an Oscar away from finishing off the prestigious EGOT.

Ever since winning the Best New Artist Grammy in 1985 the careers of Cyndi Lauper and Madonna have been intrinsically linked. Madonna wasn't nominated for the Grammy (can you believe?), but these two fiercely iconic 1980s superstars have always felt like competing examples of the fortunes of '80s superstars. While it's generally accepted that Lauper's career as a top 40 artist ended far too soon just as Madonna's was soaring, Cyndi hasn't been laying low all these years. In between her Grammy in 1985 (and 1988), she has continued to record and tour and in 1995 won an Emmy Award for her guest stint on Mad About You, performed in The Threepenny Opera to critical acclaim (but no Tony attention), and been a fierce feminist and advocate of the LGBT community. Add in last night's sparkly Tony for scoring the stage adaptation of Kinky Boots (we've all forgotten how bland the movie is, right? I think that's for the best - check out Nathaniel's review of the stage show to see why) and she has no reason to be disappointed with now it all turned out. Now she has but one statue to go before completing the EGOT. Can she do it and solidify a place as an all time great? Because the mountains of cash she continue to reaps from "Time After Time" and "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" just aren't satisfying enough, clearly. Madonna who?

Dear Madonna: I love you forever. Please be my friend. 

Unlike Madonna, Cyndi has never appeared all that interested in Hollywood. Oh sure, she attempted a crossover career with Vibes, but the toxic reaction to that Jeff Goldblum flick set inside a Chinatown laundry and South American jungle (?!?) from 1988 probably turned her off future endeavours. That film did, however, bring us one of Cyndi's most under-appreciated hits (it went top ten in Australia and New Zealand so we can call it a hit even if it was a flop everywhere else), "Hole in My Heart (All the Way to China)". Just one of many songs from the mini-phenomena of the 1980s that went in a vaguely racist direction of reappropriated Asian culture into wacky pop melodies that utilised a lot of gongs and pipes and one presumes there was a Chinese fisherman's hat somewhere in there that was a horrifically misjudged fashion statement. Like the urban sombrero. Cyndi's song is fantastic, "Oriental Boy" by The Flirts is not.

Cyndi's only other foray into feature film songwriting (unless I'm missing something - am I?) was "The Goonies 'R' Good Enough" from The Goonies in 1985. A dinky pop ditty that sounds exactly like one would expect from an up-and-coming singer on the soundtrack to the teenage adventure film. I'm not as big a fan of the song as many others, and apparently Cyndi herself hates it, too. The more you know. I'd still prefer it as an Oscar nominee over anything from White Nights though.

Grammy, Emmy, and now Tony. Is Oscar next for Cyndi?

Other than that Cyndi has steered clear of recording tunes for soundtracks. Why, I'm not so sure? Still, if Cyndi is keen on completing the EGOT now would be the time to strike. In doing so she would become the first since Scott Rudin in 2007 (his Oscar for producing No Country for Old Men sealed that deal). She's clearly popular with awards bodies and nobody has a bad word to say about her. Plus the Academy's music branch would surely appreciate the fact that she hasn't appeared desperate for it like her chief '80s rival. And even though they might like to appear otherwise, they're not totally against giving the award to big celebrity songwriter these days (Adele says hi). If she ever does win, Dolly Parton's famously friendly persona may finally crack. What does she have to do to win one of those golden bad boys?

Chin up ladies, Jane can split her second Oscar between you.