Team Experience: "Maleficent" and More

I'm always curious about your film experiences out there in the dark. That curiousity extends to the contributors here at TFE, not all of whom I know in real life given that they're spread across the globe. You know them, virtually speaking. Hopefully you love them. But I thought we'd ask them a couple of questions each week. Feel free to answer yourself in the comments and join the conversation.

WHAT'S THE BEST THING YOU SAW THIS WEEK?

JA: A tie between every single second of Emmanuel Lubeszki's photography for The Tree of Life (it's a gorgeous film that left me cold), and that probably photoshopped image of Jake Gyllenhaal doing the Grace Jones pose in his underpants. I see beautiful things!

Andreas: John Carpenter's The Thing -- after several viewings, it retains all of its original power.

Robert: Ramin Bahrani's short film Plastic Bag. I stumbled upon it while attempting to keep my Herzog high going after being enthralled by Cave of Forgotten Dreams. Bahrani's film follows and anthropomorphized plastic bag (shades of American Beauty are minimal) and finds itself spiraling into themes of life, death, and meaning and best of all, it's narrated by Werner Herzog himself... as the plastic bag of course!

Michael (Unsung Heroes). The best thing I saw this week was, without question, the montage of drunk cast members from the latest episode of Parks and Recreation. I want an episode length edit of all the improv that went into that scene.

Jose: Since theaters here are only playing four movies (Rio, Fast and Furious 5, Thor and Priest) I re-watched Gone With the Wind in HD. Mind blowing!  Sure gives any new movie a run for its money. It also felt much shorter than Thor.

WHAT'S THE WORST?

Michael : the worst thing I saw, or rather didn't see, was screen time for Rene Russo in Thor. It's been forever since Russo had a high-profile gig and she gets 30 measly seconds of screen time? You can't tease me like that Thor.

Andreas: The first 10 minutes of I Know Who Killed Me. (Nonetheless, I may revisit it later; I'm a glutton for punishment.)

JA: The worst thing I saw was the original ending to Alexander Payne's Election. Truly, stupefyingly awful.

TIM BURTON HAS OFFICIALLY LEFT DISNEY'S "MALEFICENT".

Robert: The marriage between Tim Burton and Disney makes me so sad. They're like two people who were really sexy back in high school, still trying to fit into their cheerleading and football uniforms, telling each other how great they still look, and wondering how that dorky kid Quentin got so popular (this metaphor has gotten away from me). But I still want to like them very much. So I guess what I'm saying is I wish they'd split and find new partners who could convince them to hit the gym... cinematically speaking.

JA: Never much loved Sleeping Beauty as a kid - I was all up in Alice in Wonderland and Fantasia - so I was never attached, beyond really liking the way the word "Maleficent" rolls off the tongue. Maaaalefahcint! I don't understand why people didn't take it up as a name for their children. Little Maleficent would rule pre-school with an iron fist.

Jose:  Maleficent would serve itself better from a director with an eye for actual Gothic, I say call Jane Campion or Catherine Breillat!

YOUR TURN...

• Who do you think should direct MALEFICENT with Burton gone? 
• What's the best & worst anything you saw this week? I've been enjoying True Blood and Ishtar (more on the later in a bit.)

I Dream Of Dali

May Flowers In Bloom

JA from MNPP here. Today would've been the 107th birthday of the flower man-child seen above, Salvador Dali. While he's best known as a painter - the melting clocks, the over-abundance of inappropriately-placed eyeballs - he of course made several well-known and loved contributions to the cinema too. And no, not just that movie with Robert Pattinson doing the gay stuff uncomfortably. Where would we be without Un Chien Andalou's edit from a razor at a woman's face to a cloud slicing through a moon?

He and Luis Buñuel wrote that script in a cafe in 1929 while Buñuel directed; they would go on to work together on L’Âge d’Or the next year, where they supposedly had a falling out over some of the anti-clerical content in the film, which was an attack on religion and politics alike. And so a pattern was set - it seems every time Dali tried to jump into film-making, difficulties would follow. In 1945 he was brought on board the contentious set of Alfred Hitchcock's film Spellbound by producer David O. Selznick; Hitch and Selznick were not getting along. Hitch had nothing to do with its shooting at all, but Dali shot a twenty-minute dream sequence for the film. It eventually got edited down to under three minutes, and you can see it here.

It's easily the most interesting part of one of Hitch's least interesting films. Then in 1945 Dali and Walt Disney attempted to work together on an animated film called Destino, but budget concerns canned that effort before it even got off the ground. 17 seconds were made. That effort did have a somewhat happy ending though, because Roy Disney picked up the project 58 years later and finished it as best as they could using Dali's storyboards. It was released for the first time as an extra on the Fantasia BluRay just last year. You can watch it over here.

It's All About the Shoes...

On Easter The Boyfriend and I had brunch with two of our favorite people and their daughters. Like so many other little girls (and boys), they love Disney Princess movies so I had to ask the eldest, who is suddenly chatty, which was her favorite? The question rendered her completely shy, like nobody had ever asked her to embrace her inner film critic (though I find this hard to believe since her dad is a huge movie buff and awesome enough to school me on occassion). I had given up hope of an answer, reverting my attention to the food when she shouted "CINDERELLA" at the top of her lungs over her waffles. "But why" I say? This answer came much more swiftly, like it was the silliest question any adult had ever asked her.

The glass slippers.

She didn't add "duh" but it was right there, loud and clear, in her squeal of laughter.

Tale as Old as Time...

... that tale being "I'm running late!" My entry in tonight's Hit Me With Your Best Shot featuring Beauty & The Beast is going to have to go up tomorrow evening. [UPDATE: My Entry is Finally Up.]

Honestly my DVD just vanished into thin air -- it's like someone cursed me instead of that handsome prince. I was literally holding the dvd in my hands on Friday saying to myself "self, this is going to be so exciting to watch. You haven't seen it in 10 years." And then for the past three days of searching, nothing. Adventure in the Great Wide Somewhere is going to require buying a new copy. I even cleaned the whole apartment looking for it. I even cleaned the whole apartment without the help of animated househould objects.

BE OUR GUEST
Read these fine blogs who DID see the movie today to choose a Best Shot.

• Antagony & Ecstasy Belle and the Beast, who are rich opposites.
• The Red Headed Invasion The Beast, who is alarmingly expressive.
• Ahora 'The Provincial Life', which is most luscious.
• A Blog Next Door Belle, who wants. She wants more than she can tell.
• Film Actually Gaston, who is also a beast.
• Okinawa Assault Beauty & The Beast, which is suspiciously colourful.
• LS2GH Belle and the Beast, who see themselves as the other.
• Animation Revelation The Great Wide Somewhere, the forest to be more precise.
• Amiresque The Beast, who loves architecture. He loves it more than he can tell.
• Victim of the Time The crying or the dying, which are beautiful.
• Movies and Other Things Belle, who is no 'little wife'.
• Dial P For Popcorn Belle, who becomes an explorer.
• missemmamm Gaston, who uses antlers in all of his decorating.
• Against the Hype The Great Wide Somewhere, which has moved locales.
• Sorta That Guy Belle and the Beast, who could have danced all night.
• Cinephilia & Sass Belle and the Beast, who cozy up.
• The Entertainment Junkie The Beast, who is not as he once was.
• Serious Film The Beast, who is Prince Charming Character.
• Movies Kick Ass The crane shot, which is sweeping and magical.
• musicinephiles Belle, who moonlights as a nurse.
• Awards Nazi The Beast, who is too aggressive even in kindness

Reader Spotlight: Andrew

The "Reader of the Day" was a popular feature during Reader Appreciation Month so we're going to share a Reader Spotlight a couple times a week now for another month. What'cha think about that? Get to know the Film Experience community!

Today's reader is Andrew, another Canadian. He's an actor, too. A lot of actors read The Film Experience. This makes me happy though I can't say that I knew it before starting these Reader Spotlights.

Nathaniel: So Andrew what's the first movie you remember seeing?
ANDREW: The first movie I can remember seeing in theatres was The Lion King, which I loved. I had a lot of Disney movies on VHS and I remember just watching them over and over again. Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, 101 Dalmatians, The Little Mermaid, and The Rescuers... obsessively.

We are all children of Disney, really. No matter what generation. It's kinda scary!

Three Greats: Andrea Arnold and slowpokes: Baz Luhrmann and Jane CampionNew Question. You're suddenly in charge of world cinema for a year. Name 5 directors you'd give big budgets to with a blank slate. Wield your power!

Where do I start?! I would end up being a bit selfish (how could you not be?!) and pick directors that I personally would like to see more films from. I would love to see what Lars von Trier would do with a big budget and completely blank slate. Derek Cianfrance, Jonathan Glazer and Andrea Arnold are all filmmakers I have a personal interest in making sure they stick around. And funds to Jane Campion and Baz Luhrmann to give them some incentive to work more frequently. I love their films so much, but I hate that they take so long in between projects. I know I picked six, but it was difficult narrowing it down!

Three Favorite Actresses?
Kate Winslet. Meryl Streep -the quality of work she puts out is absolutely top notch, and you can look at any time in her career and find work that is intriguing and just as strong as any other actress out there. She is also so compulsively watchable on and off  screen. However my absolute favourite actress has to be Nicole Kidman. Her film choices are so brave and unexpected, I would say she is definitely a risk-taker when it comes to her career and I love that about her. She really challenges herself as an actress.

Have you ever dressed as a movie character for Halloween?
I once went as "Bang Bang" from The Brothers Bloom for Halloween, but it didn't really last long because I got into the vodka and the costume came off pretty soon thereafter.

Bang Bang! And the awesome Joan Chen

LOL. Okay, the movie of your life. Cast it. Etcetera.
I am only 23 so I feel like my life has barely started. Actually it would just be a selfish excuse to work with Ang Lee who is one of my favourite directors. I would star in it myself. I am not Chinese but I think it would be a blast to have Joan Chen play my mother... her collaboration with Lee was so awesome in Lust, Caution so it would be a great reunion. I would also cast Chow Yun-Fat as my father because I think he is great and really underrated.