Esther Williams @ 100: "Thrill of a Romance"

Team Experience is celebrating Esther Williams' Centennial.

by Nathaniel R

"Do you mind if I watch, too?" a businessman in a parked car shouts from outside a swimming pool -- a pretty swimming instructor, has asked her students to watch her do a swan dive. "Not at all," she says with a dulcet tone and flirty smile. Moments later the businessman is grilling the child to tell him everything he knows about his teacher including where she lives (!) This is the opening scene from 1945's Thrill of a Romance and courtship was, um, different. Who knows about this fictional swimming instructor but the actress playing her was already used to being gawked at, even before movie cameras arrived.

Esther Williams, the athlete turned movie star, was born on this day one hundred years ago in Inglewood, California. By the time she was 16 she was a national swimming champion with Olympic dreams. A couple of years later she was a star in the Aquacade (paired with another swimming champion, Johnny Weismuller, already a movie star). MGM signed her in 1941 and she became a popular WW II pin-up girl in her endless swimsuit photos. Meanwhile the movies back home were making her yet more famous. 

Which brings us to Thrill of a Romance (1945)...

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Happy 25th to "Matilda"

by Camile Henriques

It's common on the internet to revisit films from childhood and realize that all many of them have going for them is nostalgia. With Matilda turning 25 today, I revisited the film. I'm happy to share that the Danny DeVito-directed adaptation of Roald Dahl's Matilda is as charming, for me, now as it was back then as a child in the 1990's, if not more, since the themes it touches on are given a whole new meaning now.

The film follows a little girl with telekinetic powers big enough to lead her through a new life whilst teaching her negligent parents a few lessons. She's portrayed by Mara Wilson, who, at that time, was one of the most prominent child stars post-Macaulay Culkin. Before Matilda, Wilson had a breakout role in Mrs. Doubtfire, a guest spot in the first season of Melrose Place, and a starring role in 1994's remake of Miracle on 34th Street, in the part that was originally Natalie Wood's...

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Chris Marker @ 100: Visionary, innovator, cat person

by Cláudio Alves

Christian François Bouche-Villeneuve was born 100 years ago, on July 29, 1921. Sources, including the man himself, differ on his place of birth. Whether it was in the capital of Mongolia or France, it doesn't matter. What does matter is that, before World War II, the man became a Philosophy student, later joining the French Resistance. Inspired by his teaching and experiences, he'd become a journalist during the war's aftermath and, eventually, a film critic. From there, he pursued photography and, finally, became a filmmaker during the 1950s. Instead of his given name, the artist preferred to be credited as Chris Marker. This polyvalent artist would become one of the essential names in cinema history, a crucial part of the Nouvelle Vague, and, in his words, the best-known author of unknown films…

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How Had I Never Seen..."Independence Day"?

by Cláudio Alves

Some of my recent choices for the "How Had I Never Seen" series may have leaned towards the esoteric. Probably most people don't wonder why or how they have never set eyes on Valley of the Dolls or Girlfriends. This time around, however, I've decided to fix a pretty deep lacuna in my movie-watching, one that's firmly in the mainstream rather than an arthouse curio. Today marks the 25th anniversary of Roland Emmerich's 1996 Oscar-winning mega-blockbuster Independence Day. To commemorate the date, I finally watched the flick that turned Will Smith into a star of the silver screen, redefined the effects-driven summer movie, and birthed a new era of Hollywood entertainment… 

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The Hunchback of Notre Dame @ 25: The first movie I ever saw

by Cláudio Alves

Do you know what the first movie you watched in a theater was? While I have no memory of the event, my parents were kind enough to remember my inaugural trip to the movies. When I was just two, they took me to see the latest Disney flick to hit theaters, The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996). Supposedly, I was besotted by the sight and, when the picture was released on VHS, proceeded to re-watch it to my heart's content. I still have that videocassette today, a treasured memento of childhood and a token of a kid's blossoming love for cinema. So today, as The Hunchback of Notre Dame turns 25, I revisited that underrated classic of the Disney Renaissance and see if I still loved it…

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