Submit Yourself to Processing. Win "The Master" on Blu-Ray

One of the creepiest and most clever FYC items I received this winter was a proselytizing newspaper "The Cause Footpath" for Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master, featuring mostly articles and reviews praising the film but peppered with ads and items from Lancaster Dodd and The Cause.

So I've used that to guide me in this new Blu-Ray contest. The Blu-Ray comes out on Tuesday just after the Oscars and includes a WWII veterans documentary from 1946 called Let There Be Light by the legendary John Huston. And your normal mix of outtakes and additional scenes, a short called "Unguided Message" and so on.

I have two copies to give away. Do you want it?

To enter the contest you must submit yourself to processing...

You can answer those questions by Monday February 25th either by e-mail or by sharing your responses on facebook, twitter, your blog or whatever (so long as you link back here & comment so I know you've done so). You can answer as yourself or in character or with simple text, photos, videos, however you want to answer it. The point is just do it somehow. Submit yourself to processing! Without blinking.

I'll announced the winners by Wednesday next week. I'll choose two winners based on the responses I most feel compelled to share with the group ;) 

Cabaret Winners!

"Beedle dee, dee dee dee,
Two winners.
Beedle dee, dee dee dee,
And I'm the only man,
Ja!"

It's time to announce the winners of the Cabaret contest, pulled randomly from your entries which were doubled if you sent along a Cabaret inspired photo along with your note about your favorite moment in the 1972 masterpiece.

I had fun reading all of your opinions and even more fun watching the film again... though the strangest thing about seeing it on the big screen for the first time after a lifetime spent watching it on various sizes of screens at home was that it suddenly seemed to have less musical numbers. Minnelli's peak razzle dazzle and Joel Grey's indeligible emcee suck up all the oxygen in terms of memories of the movie but there is so much more to the movie which is a really brilliant and disturbing drama about a world(s) about to collapse, specifically Weimar Era Germany (and its funhouse mirror in the Kit Kat Club).

Anyway... I asked you to either "like" the film experience facebook page and tell us your favorite bit of Cabaret or do the same thing by email with a "photo" inspired by Cabaret to win yourself an extra contest entry. The winners of the remastered restored and booklet-beautiful 40th anniversary blu-ray, chosen randomly are:

JOSHUA FLOWER who writes:

My favorite moment comes right at the top - the opening shot that pulls back off the reflection of Joel Grey as he turns to the camera/audience and starts singing "Vilkommen." It might be my favorite opening shot, period. The precision and energy of the camerawork, the hall of mirrors distortion of the reflection, in contrast to the reality, which is kind of garish and severe, combined with the music, which is peppy and weirdly melancholy at the same time... That one shot has always felt like a perfect little encapsulation of the movie as a whole, somehow.

KATE IMY who sent a photo of herself performing "Money Money Money" - how cool is that? She writes:

...a too-literal entry into your "inspired" photo challenge. These are from when a friend and I sang the song "Money Money" in our high school Broadway review style show "Knights on Broadway." Thankfully they hide the fact that I was/am an atrocious singer. My friend with the fantastic makeup was actually quite good. So for purely selfish and awkwardly self-promotional reasons "Money Money" has a special place for me in the movie. Especially the "When you haven't any coal in the stove..." bit. So hard to do but so exciting to watch when it's done well (in the movie). 

CONGRATULATIONS TO JOSHUA & KATE!

After the jump, I thought you might enjoy a few more losing but great contest entries from readers. I'm sorry I didn't have dozens of blu-rays to give away but you all won my heart and that has to count for something!

Click to read more ...

Win "Cabaret" on Blu-Ray

I have two copies of Cabaret, one of my personal top ten favorite films of all time, remastered on Blu-ray™ for its 40th anniversary, to give away to musical-lovin' readers!

Flamboyant and eccentric American entertainer Sally Bowles (Minnelli) sings in Berlin’s decadent Kit Kat Club, even as Nazism rises in Germany in 1931. She falls in love with a British language teacher (York) – whom she shares with a homosexual German baron (Griem). But Sally's insular, carefree, tolerant and fragile cabaret world is about to be crushed under the boot of the Nazis as Berlin becomes a trap from which Sally's German friends will not escape.

 

Remastered for the first time in over 20 years with new and vintage special features! 

The new BluRay comes with a little book as well... 40 pages of insightful photos and text. (This special edition will also be available on DVD next week.) I haven't yet watched the blu-ray and I know that the negatives needed to be cleaned up but I hope they haven't scrubbed all the grain out of the movie. I love how filthy Cabaret always looks. Filthy and Gorgeous.

WILKOMMEN

To enter the Cabaret contest...

1) "like" The Film Experience on Facebook and tell us your favorite moment in Cabaret in a comment here or there. (You'll have to do both for it to count... since some of you have already liked the page)

No Facebook? if you are a Facebook agnostic (I understand some of you exist) you can e-mail me your entry instead with "Come to the Cabaret" in the subject line.

2) for a bonus entry send a photo of yourself inspired in any way by Cabaret along with a bit about your favorite moment in the film that I can share in a "life is a Cabaret" post with your fellow readers right here.

I'll announce winners on Monday February 4th.

after the jump the Cabaret cast on the Today show to celebrate the anniversary...

Click to read more ...

Contest: Development Hell

If this blog were a movie, you'd have never read it. I'd have typed up innumerable drafts and discussed them with producers. They'd have missed the point entirely -- 'Have you thought about adding more unmade superhero movie rumors (the internet loves those) and ditching the actresses (booooorrring!)? -- then they'd hand over the reins to another writer entirely and another. No one would hit publish.

But this blog is not a movie and I hit publish all the time. The only "Tales From Development Hell" that effect me here involve plans for series that have trouble getting going or lose their way during production. 

If this blog post were a movie it would never be published and the books I have to give away to you would gather dust, cobwebs, and cat hair... so so so much cat hair (curse you, summer!). 

Anyway... THE BOOK! 

It has crazy stories about various aborted versions of The Planet of the Apes which led to Tim Burton's trainwreck. It charts the difficult journey of Total Recall  to the screen just in time for the remake.

Ahnuld demonstrates the face worn by all people working on movies in development hell.

'First of all, I really wanted to cast William Hurt,' he says, 'and the difference between Bill Hurt and Arnold Schwarzenegger probably tells you everything. I was doing something that I thought was faithful to Phil Dick and also to my own sense of the complex understanding of what memory is and what identity is. Obviously it would have been sci-fi and you would have gone to Mars, but it would have been like "Spider" goes to Mars,' he adds referring to his 2002 film starring Ralph Fiennes as a man struggling to piece his memories together, 'as opposed to "Raiders of the Lost Ark" Goes to Mars.' "
-David Cronenberg on his version of "Total Recall" 

It has a depressing story of Darren Aronofsky's Batman:Year One proposal (depressing because "gimme")... and much more. The movie choices lean a little fanboy -- I'd love to read a book like this on Jodie Foster's Flora Plum -- but the stories are interesting and it'll totally make you respect movies that get made... at all. What a rough business showbizness is.

If you wanna read it send me an e-mail by Saturday July 14th with "Development Hell" in the subject line with the following three pieces of info:

1. Your Name
2. Your Shipping Address
3. (Briefly for possible publication here): Name a recent movie you wish had stayed in development hell longer. What two things would you have changed about it before it hit screens.

I'll announce the winners on Sunday! So start e-mailing and rewriting recent movies.

P.S. While we're on the subject of development hell, a version of the 2002 documentary The Sweatbox (supposedly Disney prevented the release from ever happening?) about the difficult production history of The Emperor's New Groove is showing in its entirety on YouTube. Have any of you seen it?

"Evita" Contest Winners!

Don't cry for these three readers who've won themselves a 15th anniversary Evita Blu-Ray. I asked contestants to submit a photo of themselves in the famous arm(s) up Evita pose if they weren't shy. It was super fun to read the stories of Evita moviegoing and musical obsession, so a big thanks to everyone who participated. I wish I had dozens more copies to give away. 

The winners, drawn randomly, go like so...

TFE Reader Brian on the actual Casa Rosada !

Winner #1 BRIAN, NEW YORK

I had the privilege of traveling to South America last year, and in a two-week trip filled with "money shots" (Machu Picchu, Rio, etc.), the attached photo is probably the champ.  It was taken of me on the actual balcony at the Casa Rosada.  (Madonna popularized the neighboring balcony, inaccessible to tourists, but Eva used both.)  I mean, come on.  How much better does it get for an Evita/Madonna fan?  I still get chills thinking about approaching that balcony.

-Brian

Wow! I never thought when I asked for photos that I'd get a real Casa Rosada shot for posting. Well done, Brian.

Winner #2 ROBERT, UTAH

I remember it was cold and snowing a little, and the line stretched out into the parking lot. Evita was important for me because it was when I fell in love with Madonna. Of course I had sort of followed her career, but I was young (12 in 1996) and I didn't really get into her until I got the soundtrack. As a kid I loved musicals and musical theater, so this was like crack. The curtains opened, the audience fell silent and they were enraptured for the next 2+ hours. I saw it two more times.

It's also just a very special memory with my family. That Christmas was ALL Evita ALL the time. My friends and I would stage "Buenos Aires" or "Another Suitcase" or "Don't cry for me Argentina" in my garage. Great times.

Winner #3  ALAN, CALIFORNIA

I was living in London in the 70s and was one of the lucky theater goers to first see Evita. London went wild over Elaine Page when she brought Evita back to life. I love both the theater and film versions. Madonna most captures the look and essence of Evita. Listening to the score always transports me back to that London night and the magic of Evita and Buenos Aires.

 Congratulations to the winners!