Today's 5: Carrie, Snatched, Blowup, and more...

Today's 5 mood boosting assignments from showbiz history...

2017 oh wait that's today! New in movie theaters today: Goldie Hawn returns to the cinema in the Amy Schumer comedy Snatched; Uneven but sometimes really exciting director Doug Liman unveils the sniper drama The Wall (starring Brit Aaron Taylor-Johnson with a twangy accent); Guy Ritchie anachronistically Ritchifies the King Arthur legend with Charlie Hunnam and Jude Law; Demian Bichir stars in Lowriders; and Diane Lane takes a road trip with Arnaud Viard in Paris Can Wait when her husband Alec Baldwin bails on her for business.

In their honor: Go see a movie this weekend. Pick a title any title. If you don't want to see one of those catch up with The Lovers or Lost City of Z. Both are good flicks.

1988 The infamous stage musical version of horror classic Carrie opens. It will close five days later. The off Broadway revival in 2012 did significantly better but still closed at a loss

Click to read more ...

50th Anniversary: the 20th Annual Cannes Film Festival

by Nathaniel R

Franco Nero and Vanessa Redgrave at Cannes '67Fifty years ago on this very day over in France the 20th annual Cannes Film Festival opened with the French film I Killed Rasputin directed by Robert Hossein. The jury was headed by the influential Italian director Alessandro and featured both Shirley Maclaine and Vincente Minnelli, two of our favorites.

When the festival closed that year the awards were spread out (as they should be) with lots of countries winning something. The Palme d'Or went to Michelangelo Antonioni's brilliant Blowup at the end of the festival (a film we tried to interest y'all in a few years ago to crickets. *sniffle*). Check out Vanessa Redgrave's frankly awesome full-body get-up on the red carpet with her then brand new lover Franco Nero (of Camelot fame). They finally married 11 years ago!

Both of the acting prizes went to young actors...

Click to read more ...

Curio: Czech Film Posters

Alexa here to share my latest movie poster obsession: Czech film poster design. Under the communist regime from 1948-1989, Czech films were distributed by the government without the use of Western advertising. Czech painters and designers were commissioned by the Central Film Distribution Center to create posters, often with little information on the films. In the 60s and 70s, designers such as Zdeněk Ziegler, Karel Vaca and Wolfgang A. Schlosser created a defining Czech style, distinct from other movie posters in Eastern Europe, with an emphasis on typography and photomontage (as it happens, two of my favorite things).  

Here are some highlights...

Click to read more ...

Hit Me With Your Best Shot. What's Next?

Only three more episodes of Best Shot left before a three week hiatus or an early wrap. You decide with your participation!

Thanks to those who participated in Michelangelo Antonioni's mod frameable Blow-Up (1967), Bryan Singer's template setting X-Men (2000), and John Ford's earnest tearjerker How Green Was My Valley (1941) -- my entry was late icymi.

Tuesday June 3rd - Zorba the Greek (1964)
Dance along with our 50th anniversary 1964-theme party for the month of June (we're going there for the Supporting Smackdown on the 30th and we're trying to be more conscious of time management). This smash hit with both the public and Oscar (3 Oscar wins including Cinematography) is strangely little discussed today despite seeping into pop culture. Plus, I've NEVER seen it. Don't judge. It's a huge gap in my '60s era Oscar knowledge.
[Amazon Instant]

Tuesday June 10th Orange is the New Black (2014) Season 2
A one-off experimental episode. Since the internet will be thinking of little else that week, I'm not even going to try to fight it. Choose your single "best shot" from any episode/episodes of Season 2 that you've watched and would like to discuss. The second season is available on Netflix starting June 6th as a special birthday gift to me. 
[Netflix]

Tuesday June 17th Goldfinger (1964)
The first half of the season will wrap up with a bang bang. I wanted something fun and kicky as the finale. We've never done a Bond film and this one is largely credited with perfecting the formula and regularly placed at the top (or close to it) of best Bond films ever. Sing along with us...

♩this heart is cold... he loves only gold ♫

[Amazon Instant | Netflix Instant]

Three Week Break
SUMMER "BEST SHOT" HIATUS
The 2nd half of the 5th Season -- we'll see how these three episodes go -- will begin on July 15th

The final 7 titles of the season, should we have enough participation in these three, will be announced in late June. I have a few ideas I'm really excited about.

Visual Index ~ Blow-Up's Best Shots

This week's Hit Me With Your Best Shot topic is Michelangelo Antonio's new wave classic Blow-Up (1966) and we're dedicating it to Vanessa: The Life of Vanessa Redgrave, the first biography written about her which is released this week from Pegasus Press. I read an advanced copy on my cruise last month. The author is Dan Callahan, who I know here in New York City and who is a tried and true Actressexual™ (and loved that word the moment Nick and I coined it). He's previously written a book on Barbara Stanwyck so you know he has good taste. Because he values actresses, the biography is more concerned with her gift onscreen and stage than her scandal-laden politics, though those details are there, too. (Dan also picked his favorite shot from the movie for our little weekly viewing party.)

Imagine my surprise when Vanessa Redgrave was barely in the movie! I had remembered the film quite differently but this movie is a slippery one, as you can tell from the write-ups. We had more dissenters than we usually get when we pull films directly from the canon.

Blow-Up's 7 Best Shots?
as determined by the brave cinephiles playing the Hit Me With Your Best Shot game
[Click on the images for the corresponding articles]

As critical an indictment of the camera eye as anyone who made his living on the backside of a camera could possible make." 
-Antagony & Ecstasy 

The photographer as minotaur in his own labyrinth...
- The Film Experience 

More than just a simple glamour shot..."
-The Film's The Thing 

We're just as paranoid as Thomas is...

- The Entertainment Junkie

 Redgrave makes you ask all of these questions and far more."
- Dan Callahan author of "Vanessa: The Life of Vanessa Redgrave" 

Creating his own story using still frames..."
- Intifada

The guy can’t decide what he should be doing, and I think that’s my problem with the movie..."
-Coco Hits NY

I took my cues from Antonioni and his lead and went for something that captivated me simply for the mood it conveys..."
- Film Actually 

NEXT ON HIT ME
Bryan Singer's X-Men (2000). This film was part of our first season of Best Shot so this one, like Mean Girls last month, is a reprise. But if you weren't with us in 2010, now's the time to join the cause before the Mutants Strike Back in X-Men Days of Future Past which opens on the 23rd.