1987: The Living Daylights and “Strong Female Characters”

1987 is our year of the month. Here's Deborah Lipp...

One of the unusual things about 1987 is that three of the ten top-grossing films of the year are female-centric. Perhaps two of those films—Moonstruck (about which I’ve written here ) and The Witches of Eastwick—are more correctly called “Cher-centric.” Perhaps the force of nature that is Cher is what made the difference here? (More on her later in a different article). Regardless, 1986 and 1988 are both more typically Hollywood, which is to say, more male.

And speaking of male-centric movies, let’s talk about James Bond. 1987 is the year of The Living Daylights, the first Timothy Dalton Bond movie, and the mid-point of a nadir for Bond box office. (At some point, a Bond box office article will be forthcoming.) Specifically, though, let’s talk about the “Bond girl” of The Living Daylights, Kara Milovy, played by Maryam d’Abo...

Click to read more ...

1965: "Thunderball" and the heavenly choirs of 007

By Deborah Lipp, author of The Ultimate James Bond Fan Book

 But of course, I forgot your ego, Mr. Bond. James Bond, who only has to make love to a woman and she starts to hear heavenly choirs singing. She repents, and immediately returns to the side of right and virtue. But not this one.

The first, and arguably greatest femme fatale of the James Bond movies was introduced in 1965’s Thunderball, the fourth James Bond movie. Fiona Volpe, played by Luciana Paluzzi was both thunderously femme and stunningly fatale. We meet her as the very sensual, very beautiful lover of Francois Derval. Soon, though, she is supervising his murder and replacement by a surgical double. Next, she is the mysterious motorcyclist who murders a SPECTRE agent who was indiscreet. 

So, before Bond ever encounters her, she’s shown us the full range of thrills and chills; sex, death, and speed...

Click to read more ...

Posterized: Michelle Yeoh

by Nathaniel R

It's a new season of our series Posterized in which we look back at the entire careers of various actors and directors. Last week Spike Lee joints. Today, Malaysia's finest: Michelle Yeoh. The fifty-six year old Asian superstar is currently grande dame'ing it through the romantic comedy Crazy Rich Asians, giving the movie nearly all of its dramatic bite through her excellent nuanced underplaying of the intimidating and at times outright cruel potential mother-in-law. 

Yeoh's career is harder to track here in the US since not all of her films are released here. Nevertheless, let's do our posterized retrospective. We've pruned just a bit for lack of quality posters or obscurity but this is nearly everything starting with her first leading role in 1985 in Yes, Madam! (which has apparently been retitled Police Assassins), a dual-lead action vehicle with American actress Cynthia Rothrock (of late 80s B movie fame). Anyway... on to the pictorial survey.

How many of these 34 Michelle Yeoh projects have you seen? Was it more than you expected? The posters are after the jump...

Click to read more ...