NYFF "My Week With Marilyn" as Centerfold. Er.... Centerpiece!

News continues to trickle in about this year's New York Film Festival, the 49th (September 30th through October 16th). So, yes, expect 2012's festival to pull out all the stops to honor its own 50th birthday. We always cover this festival since its the easiest for The Film Experience, being NYC based, but this year we're aiming to do thrice the amount of our usual coverage. Stay tuned.

Here's what we know so far.

Opening Night ~ Roman Polanski's CARNAGE
Centerpiece ~ Simon Curtis's  MY WEEK WITH MARILYN (World Premiere)
Closing Night & Lineup In General ~ TBA... though it's usually selections that previously debuted at Cannes or Toronto. THE SKIN I LIVE IN is frequently rumored.

The Burmese Harp (1956)Masterworks ~ This is the section where they show old films, rare prints and retrospectives.

This year they'll be screening a restored and aspect-ratio corrected print of William Wyler's much-Oscar'ed Epic BEN-HUR (1959) which is a MUST for big screen viewing. I've had the opportunity once and the chariot race has to be seen blown up for maximum effect. There will be a rare screening of Nicholas Ray's experimental WE CAN'T GO HOME AGAIN (1973) which he tinkered with until his death in 1979. And the bulk of this section is a Centennial celebration of Japan's chameleonic Nikkatsu Corporation. They're showing over 30 of their films including the Oscar Best Foreign Language Film nominees THE BURMESE HARP (1956). More on that sidebar event here.

Tickets go on sale on September 12th unless you're a Film Society member in which case you can purchase early. Among the older films, I'm definitely taking in The Burmese Harp which I've never seen.

"Move Your Bloomin' Arse!" To Debbie Reynold's Auction

I didn't intend for this weekend to become such a costume freakout session but sometimes the universe shouts that something must be and you say "okay. okay. stop shouting." You see, Debbie Reynold's movie memorabilia is going on auction today. How much do you wanna bet THIS dress fetches?

I guess when you're "America's Sweetheart" with hundreds of other famous friends from multiple decades of stardom, you wind up with a few collectibles. But Audrey Hepburn's Ascot dress from My Fair Lady in pristine condition?

"move your bloomin' arse!"♫ What a gripping, absolutely ripping
Moment at the Ascot op'ning day.
Pulses rushing! Faces flushing!
Heartbeats speed up! I have never been so keyed up ♪

Reynolds also has a number of Barbra Streisand costumes from Hello Dolly as well as this "Roller Skate Rag" outfit from one of Funny Girl's best bits.

You can see other stunning pieces of the collection over at Tom and Lorenzo, who correctly note...

If you're any kind of film buff you'll gasp at some point.

My gasps were nearly all actressexual until Stephen Boyd's Ben-Hur scabbard whacked me in the face. I can't tell you how hard I ♥ed "Messala" as a young boy. Like Charlton Heston, I was hilariously unaware of the homo suggestiveness but even when you haven't yet learned to decode...

Debbie Reynolds CatalogueThe Auction is happening today at the Paley Center in Beverly Hills starting at 12 PM PST.

I'm not much of a memorabilia collector -- I prefer staring at it in uncluttered museum / travelling exhibit environs -- but if I were and had gazillions of dollars I'd be snatching up Marilyn's red Gentlemen Prefer Blondes number, Liz Taylor's iconic Cleopatra's headdress, and anything Judy Garland or The Sound of Music. And maybe Rudolph Valentino's matador look from Blood and Sand.

Have you ever collected memorabilia for anything?
Which pieces are you gagging over?

12+ Nominations. An Elite Club Gets a New Member.

How many films have been nominated for 12 or more Oscars in their calendar year? Only 25 across the eighty-three years of Oscar history. The King's Speech is the latest initiate of this very exclusive bunch. The films, along with their number of noms/wins, in chronological order are...

• Gone With the Wind (1939) -13/8
• Mrs. Miniver (1942) -12/6  
• The Song of Bernadette (1943) -12/4
• Johnny Belinda (1948) -12/1
• All About Eve (1950) -14/6
• A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) -12/4
• From Here To Eternity (1953) -13/8
• On the Waterfront (1954) - 12/8 
• Ben Hur (1959) -12/11  
• My Fair Lady (1964) -12/8 
• Becket (1964) - 12/1 
• Mary Poppins (1964) -13/5
• Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) -13/5
• Reds (1981) -12/3
• Dances With Wolves (1990) -12/7 
• Schindler's List (1993) -12/7 
• Forrest Gump (1994) -13/6 
• The English Patient (1996) -12/9 
• Titanic (1997) -14/11 
• Shakespeare in Love (1998) -13/7
• Gladiator (2000) -12/5 
• The Lord of the Ring: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) -13/4
• Chicago (2003) -13/6
• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) -13/3
• The King's Speech (2010) -12/???

 

Biggest Winner Among the Nom' Gobblers:
Ben-Hur nearly made a clean sweep, winning all its categories but Adapted Screenplay which went to the romantic drama Room at the Top instead. Ben-Hur is tied with Titanic and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King with most wins of all time... but curiously enough of the three-top Oscar earners only the fantasy epic made a clean sweep of it winning in every single one of its categories.

Biggest Loser Among the Nom' Gobblers:
Johnny Belinda which took home only one Oscar for best actress (Jane Wyman). Beckett also took home only one prize but it had a huge disadvantage in that 1964 was the most monotonous year ever nomination-wise with three (!) films clearing the obscene 12 nom hurdle. Most years don't even get one film that dominant. My Fair Lady and Mary Poppins in an infamous singing duel to the death devoured 13 Oscars between them. Supercalifragilisticexpialadocious!

CHARTS
But what you really want to know his how many of them won Best Picture, don'tcha? Well, I bolded them above so that's 15 of the 25... with 1 undetermined.

So let's do a pie chart...

God I love pie charts. And pies.
[Tangent: omg. I gotta start thinking about the Oscar party menu]

What does all this mean for The King's Speech?
Well, you'll be the judge of that in the comments, won't you? If you're just eyeballing those pie charts, and not really think about the particulars of this race , the likeliest scenario is that The King's Speech wins Best Picture and four to five other Oscars. But that seems like a lot, doesn't it? With a film as strong as The Social Network hanging around.

Before this rather shocking tally (seriously sound mixing, and cinematography???) most armchair and professional pundits assumed it was heading to only two sure wins: Actor & Screenplay with a lot of competition coming for its expected nominations in Costuming and Art Direction. But given the charts above -- not too mention the 12 nominations -- I'd say we underestimated its pull. Can it steal Best Picture from The Social Network? That would be Grand Theft Oscars.

Related Reading: Best Pictures From the Outside In
and current Oscar Race articles