Link On

click to embiggenBacklots on "the happiest marriage in Hollywood" William Haines and Jimmy Shields from the golden age
Coming Soon first image & poster from Dracula Untold starring Luke Evans which opens in October. (I always giggle when "untold" is used in titles or taglines for characters that every man woman and child has heard of.
Buzzfeed great article on Nicholas Sparks, The Notebook, and melodrama
VF Hollywood Mary Steenburgen on joining Orange is the New Black for Season 3 (I think she removed this tweet because I can't find it) 
Jezebel is the Justice League movie really only going to have one female character?
The Film Stage That's "Sir" Daniel Day-Lewis to you 
Guardian interesting read on how social media killed the official websites for new movies 
Coming Soon Frank Grillo optimistic about returning in Captain America 3 despite being kind of burned alive in Winter Soldier
Variety Adrien Brody and John Cusack joining Jackie Chan in Dragon Blade, one of the most expensive Chinese movies ever. They do know those two Americans aren't box office draws, right? 

Captain vs. Legos
You know how I was all excited about Captain America: The Winter Soldier (which I love and saw again this weekend on a whim) becoming the #1 of the year last week? Well, it's already been replaced as The Lego Movie reclaimed the title the same weekend it debuted on DVD. Only $4,000 separate their grosses - ha! That's what you call a photo finish. The good captain isn't on DVD until September but he's also only in about 200 theaters and could easily lose the rest of them next weekend. Not that any of this matters since Hunger Games: Mockingjay Pt 1 and Grace of Mona-(kidding!) have yet to arrive and will easily surpass them.

What is Valka's purpose in How To Train Your Dragon 2?

Today's Must Read
Tasha Robinson at The Dissolve on "Losing Strong Female Characters to the Trinity Syndrome". Why is it that even when filmmakers care enough to craft and introduce a fascinating female hero, they always abandon, undermine or reduce her by the third act? Two current examples are dissected: Valka (Cate Blanchett) in How To Train Your Dragon 2 who gets the whole second act (but for what purpose?) and Rita (Emily Blunt) in Edge of Tomorrow

Great Moments in Gayness: "Waiting for Omar"

Team Experience is celebrating Gay Pride Week with their favorite moments in gay cinema. Here's David on a 1986 classic introducing a certain 3 time Oscar winner... Happy Gay Pride Week Everyone!

In my experience, it’s always worth waiting for Omar.”

One of my favourite LGBT movies will always be Stephen Frears’ My Beautiful Laundrette, one of the most important and political British films of the 1980s, but also one that was important to the development of my own sexual identity in the calmer climbs of the mid-2000s. It was the first Film Studies class my school had ever taught, I’d just fallen in love with cinema over the summer, and I was a sixteen-year-old struggling with his ‘different’ sexual feelings – there was basically a lot of late blooming going on. [more]

Click to read more ...

Into The... Trainwreck?

For those of you who've had the pleasure of seeing Stephen Sondheim's classic Into the Woods (1986) on stage, you know that, like most of the great composer's once-prolific oeuvre, it is very particularly a Work of Theater. Some artists' skill sets transfer easily between stage, screen, television and literature and so on but others do not. Certain geniuses are so tied to a particular medium they become it; Stephen Sondheim IS Musical Theater. 

But musical theater is different from musical cinema. Naturally compromises will have to be made. The person doing the new compromising is Rob Marshall who Hollywood is still giving the musicals to, presumably because of the huge success of Chicago (2002) and not the floppery of Nine (2009). So yes, compromises must be made...  but they do not have to be made in casting. Many star actors -- if you're forced to cast that way -- have great singing voices. Les Misérables may have botched its casting of Javert (Ugh. Russell Crowe) but elsewhere Tom Hooper seemed to understand that beautiful melodic musical-friendly trained voices were required and could be found in big stars (Hathaway, Hackman, Seyfried) and rising ones (Tveit & Redmayne) and he cast accordingly... except for that bit about letting Helena Bonham-Carter "sing" again post-Sweeney Todd.

Unfortunately Hollywood loves to repeat its mistakes and somehow Sweeney Todd did NOT result in Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham-Carter being lifetime banned from future musicals ...

Click to read more ...

Reader Spotlight: "Mysjkin" in Norway

Mysjkin with Woody Allen. As close as she fears she'll get to him!We're getting to know the Film Experience community. Should this be a weekly feature? Today we're talking to Ann-Mari from Norway who goes by "Mysjkin" in the comments.

Quick what's the last movie you watched before I asked you to do this reader spotlight?

MYSJKIN: I finally got around to watching Let the Right One In after finally having read the book. As a librarian I am intrigued by how page translates to screen. It's impossible to completely capture a novel, choices need to be made. Let the Right One In was to me a really well judged adaptation, focusing on what I found to be the heart of the novel; the relationship between Eli and Oscar and their fragile, violent and compelling coming-of-age.

When did you start reading The Film Experience?

MYSJKIN: I discovered TFE back when IMDB had links to fun stuff at the bottom of their page and I clicked to read Unsung Heroes: The SFX of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, that being one of my favourite films. After reading that post and several of your own, I felt like I had discovered a treasure chest of cinematic goodness!

I was so sad when IMDb stopped that link feature but I'm glad you stayed - that was just before the site overhaul.

MYSJKIN: I love the mix of old and new and the unabashed obsession with actresses and Oscar! All your contributors are excellent and reading the comments is highly enjoyable, that last bit is in itself a rare online treat. But most of all, it's your writing, your warmth, wit and creativity that keeps bringing me back.

Tusen takk! Do you remember your first movie?

No, but I remember my first movie obsession. It was Pete's Dragon. I would watch that video tape (<3 the 80s ) over and over and over. Whenever someone claims to have seen something weird, "A dragon, a dragon, I swear I saw a dragon!" is the first thing that pops into my head.

Let's move on to more adult matters. Have you ever broken up with someone because of a movie?

Haha! Almost... When I was 19, my boyfriend of about a month wanted me to watch 'the best film he had EVER seen'. It was Braveheart... I had my first portent that it would'nt last right then and there. It was over a couple of months later.

 

Three favorite actors?

Vintage Gem: Gregory Peck
Current Obsession: Michael Fassbender (yes, like EVERYONE else ;D)
God Among Us: Daniel Day Lewis.

I saw The Last of the Mohicans in theaters at the tender age of 15. The hotness! The hair! The instant teenage girl crush! The jawdropping realization that this was the same actor I had seen in A Room With a View only a few months prior.

Since I speak a little broken Norwegian tell us which 5 Norsk movies readers should check out? 

I'm so happy about your love for Joachim Trier, because I think Reprise and Oslo, 31. August are perhaps the two best Norwegian films ever made! ...and third place goes to DeUsynlige (Troubled Water). For some vintage spookiness, watch De dødes tjern (not sure if there's an English title, but it translates as Lake of the Dead) and to tap into the Norwegian Heart and Soul, watch Flåklypa Grand Prix

Finally, we need to talk about Elling! Not only is this a good, heartwarming film, but it also features yours truly as an extra! Yup, (as you will see from the attached picture) that's the back of my head right there! I'm only visible for a few seconds, but it was enough to secure the film an Oscar nomination! ;D

LOL. kjempe kul.

previous reader spotlights

Podcast: Oscar Night Season Wrap

For the final podcast of the season, Joe Reid, Katey Rich, Nick Davis, and me, your host, Nathaniel R let reader questions be our guide for this spontaneous Oscar Night Review.

Topics include but are not limited to:

• Musical Performances: Adele, Shirley Bassey, Babs, Jennifer Hudson, and Catherine Zeta-Jones's Jazz
• Future Nominations or Backlash for the winners: Christoph Waltz, Jennifer Lawrence or Anne Hathaway?
• Ben Affleck's speech
• Can Michael Haneke ever return?
• What were the best reaction shots and when did we do our best reaction shots from home?
• On Naomi Watts' career choices and Oscar's love of "it" girls
• Documentary and Costume Design
• Seth Macfarlane versus Jokes and Musical Theme
• Emmanuelle Riva cutaways

You can download the podcast on iTunes or listen right here at the end of the post. 

All That (85th Oscars) Jazz
The Big Night: Fun Arrivals, Winner's List, Jennifer Lawrence in the Press Room
The Look Back: Seth's Hosting, Funniest Tweets, & This Podcast
The Fashions: Fifteen Men, The Ten Nominated Ladies, Goodbye Glamour

Oscar Night Season Finale