Superheroes Have Birthdays, Too

Batman
Did you know that May marks Batman's 75th birthday? The billionaire in the cowl was introduced in Detective Comics #27 May 1939 edition (a comic that sold a few years ago for over a million dollars). He's aged well but trust funds will help that way. And Bruce Wayne had more money than God even before Batman was a cultural icon and DC and Warner Bros figured out how to make billions from trotting him out consistently. Warner Bros is planning a year-long celebration as well they should since their ownership of DC's superheroes on screen probably accounts for a nice sliver percentage of their profits. 

I'd suggest a theme week here but after the past 25 years of movie blockbusters featuring the caped crusader, maybe I need a break. What say ye? Celebrate or Ignore? Or somewhere inbetween?

Quicksilver
One of the sexiest of superheroes (saith I), Magneto's son, the sometimes evil sometimes good super speed silver haired young fox turns 50 this very month. He's never been visualized onscreen but due to complicated rights issues we'll get him twice over in the fourteen months with Fox's X-Men Days of Future Past (played by Evan Peters in a terrible wig in 2014) and Marvel Studio's Avengers: Age of Ultron (Aaron Johnson with silver hair despite earlier awful suggestions he'd stay brunette in 2015). [Long story short: Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver as spawn of Magneto are connected to The X-Men mythology but more often connected to The Avengers in terms of regular appearances so both studios can use them provided they never mention their other heroic connections.]

Next month Daredevil and The Black Widow both turn 50. They were once lovers in the comics but due to rights issues they aren't really in each other's orbits onscreen.

The Black Widow is back very very quickly in Captain America: Winter Soldier and the latest incarnation of Daredevil will arrive whenever Netflix gets around to their planned series. That one is certain to be the most satisfying simply because it can't be worse than the movie version. I only pray they make him a redhead this time like he's supposed to be. Male gingers deserve their proxy heroes, too.

Namor turns 75 in April, the Green Goblin turns 50 in Julym, Scott Pilgrim (not really a superhero I know) turns 10 in 2004, and Hawkeye turns 50 in September

50 Years in the Pink

Tim here, extending our unexpected and unplanned tribute to 50-year-old Peter Sellers movies by one day, following Diana’s lovely tribute to The World of Henry Orient. For today marks the 50th anniversary of the U.S. release of The Pink Panther, the arch-‘60s caper film that begat Sellers’ iconic Inspector Jacques Clouseau, the pratfall-prone Frenchman who remains the actor’s most famous character this side of a certain wheelchair-bound ex-Nazi (and Dr. Strangelove ALSO opened in 1964, which was just an all-around great year for Sellers).

The film itself is a fascinating relic, a by-turns hilarious and lumpy encapsulation of what European high society looked like as filtered through the comic sensibilities of Blake Edwards of Tulsa, OK. Scenes of breathless physical comedy rub elbows with elegant caper film machinery and deadening longeurs as Claudia Cardinale rolls around on a tiger skin while suffering from a wobbly case of dubbing. [more...]

Click to read more ...

50 Years On... "The World of Henry Orient"

Here's new contributor Diana D. Drumm to with a trip back to a film that opened today in 1964...

We open at the 1964 Cannes Film Festival, with all of its bubbles and laughter and cinema. A jury, including the likes of Fritz Lang and Charles Boyer, peer at a roster featuring now-classics The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and The Pumpkin Eater alongside cult favorite The World of Henry Orient... Oh, you haven’t heard of The World of Henry Orient?

Well, that isn’t so surprising, even considering its headliner, the late great Peter Sellers, it’s been lost to TCM and cult nostalgists. In terms of Sellers’s filmography, it’s sandwiched between two biggies -- Dr. Strangelove and A Shot in the Dark (this loaded schedule along with a marriage to Swedish bombshell Britt Ekland would lead to his first major heart attack in 1964).

Sellers stars at the eponymous “Henry Orient”, a famous pianist based on the dry actor-musician-wit Oscar Levant (you know, Gene Kelly’s friend in An American in Paris) who is being stalked *ahem* pursued *ahem* by two teenage fangirls throughout Manhattan from the Upper East Side down through Greenwich Village. [More...]

Click to read more ...

Happy 25th: Uma Thurman in a Half Shell

Terry Gilliam's The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, also known as Uma Thurman Being a Literal Goddess For the First Time, opened 25 years ago today. Now, it's not technically true that this was Uma's cinematic debut since she appeared in two long forgotten movies (Kiss Daddy Goodnight, Johnny B Goode) and one well remembered one (Dangerous Liaisons) before March 10th 1989 when this film premiered (due to delays -- you know how Terry Gillian do). But it was meant to be her debut. And print the myth, you know? And Uma is enough of a goddess that she deserves the myth and not the truth.

Uma as "Venus, Goddess of Beauty and Love"

One of my favorite 80s anecdotes was Gilliam being furious that Dangerous Liaisons beat him to release in the two film contest of prestige costume pictures that could get the new jaw-droppingly beautiful starlet out of her costumes first for audiences. She was 18. I still remember this anecdote because Uma's breasts were among the first I remember seeing in a movie theater... and remaining among the finest.

It's somewhat strange that The Adventures of Baron Munchausen is so forgotten today. It was nominated for 4 Oscars in 1989: Makeup, Costumes, Art Direction and Visual Effects, making it the second most honored Gilliam film in Oscar's books (after The Fisher King) but maybe AMPAS was apologizing for only giving Brazil two nominations in 1985? Terry Gilliam hasn't been a major cinema presence in a very long time for reasons that are well documented but wouldn't it be sweet if he managed one last major artistic triumph in his 70s? 

Anyway...

Happy 25th anniversary (of sorts) to Uma Thurman and the Movie Camera! They've had a volatile affair but they were meant for each other. I guess this means we should all watch Nymphomaniac Pt 1 as soon as possible. 

Happy Binoche Day

Our favorite French Oscar winner celebrated the big 5-0 today.

Better news:  Several movies on the way!

In both the would be blockbuster Godzilla and Olivier Assayas' Clouds of Sils Maria, both arriving this year, she has potential talent imbalance problems with co-stars (CGI Monster, Kristen & Chloe respectively) but both films might be great, fingers crossed.

She's also currently filming the true-story The 33 with Antonio Banderas and Rodrigo Santoro which is about that Chilean miners who were trapped for weeks.  Three more movies have been announced but announcing and actually happening are two different things with movies. We'll see. Hollywood has lost interest (Hollywood only allows one French lady at a time so Marion Cotillard has to watch her back with Léa Seydoux rising) but we shouldn't!

Juliette Binoche's last team-up with Olivier Assayas was the terrific "Summer Hours"

What's your favorite Binoche? Mine is 100% Trois Coleurs: Bleu though she's perfection in quite a few others, like ahhhh Flight of the Red Balloon. Just gorgeous.