The Furniture: Of Tesla and TED Talks

"The Furniture," by Daniel Walber, is our weekly series on Production Design. You can click on the images to see them in magnified detail.

Does genius have an aesthetic? And what would it look like? Tesla poses this question in a big way, tossing out the visual parameters of a typical period piece in the process. Director Michael Almereyda has said that he was inspired by “Derek Jarman, Henry James and certain episodes of Drunk History,” which absolutely comes through - and is a good thing. But, to be honest, Tesla also reminded me of a major component of the 21st century tech aesthetic: the TED Talk.

It’s in the script, too. The first thing we hear is a tale of the title inventor’s childhood, told by our narrator Anne Morgan (Eve Hewson). The young Tesla once noticed static electricity on a cat, a little memory that will be woven into an origin story for genius. This is immediately followed by a scene in which Thomas Edison (Kyle MacLachlan) waxes poetic about his own memories, which include an early boat ride on Lake Ontario and witnessing a friend drown shortly thereafter.

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The New Classics: First Reformed

Michael Cusumano here with the most recent film I've yet to induct into this series. Despite its newness, it's one of the titles I'm most confident will earn the label of classic in the course of time.

Can you pinpoint the moment someone crosses the line between faith and fanaticism? Is it even possible to fully define the boundaries between the two? Most reasonable people would agree it’s around the moment someone commits an act of violence in the name of God, but an individual crosses that boundary internally long before he straps on a suicide vest. 

That elusive moment of radicalization exists somewhere in the vast gray silences of Paul Schrader’s First Reformed. It passes by so quietly that it is possible to be late into the film and have no inkling of the wild-eyed zealot Ethan Hawke’s Reverend Toller will become in the film’s shocking final movement...

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Zainab Jah and Jayme Lawson reminisce about Sundance

by Murtada Elfadl

 

In the final part of the conversation I moderated between the actresses Zainab Jah (who will next be seen in Seacole) and Jayme Lawson (who will next be seen in The Batman), they talk about going to Sundance for the first time. They were there in January to premiere their film together Farewell Amor in which they play mother and daughter immigrants. With nostalgia for film festivals in full bloom, let's take a trip back to a happier time just a handful of months ago...

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Taste the Blood of Showbiz History

5 random things that happened on this day in showbiz history...

1941 Citizen Kane has its world premiere in NYC

1969 Wes Anderson born in Houston, Texas

1970 Happy 50th anniversary to Hammer Horror's Taste the Blood of Dracula starring Christopher Lee which opened on this day.

1998 Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke get hitched, two days after Uma's 28th birthday and two months before the birth of their daughter Maya (who is now an actress, see Stranger Things season 3). They had co-starred in the previous year's sci-fi drama Gattaca and will make two more films together (Chelsea Walls and Tape) as well as a second child before separating in 2003 - a very big year for Uma, professionally. Yes Uma has been on our brains this week.

2000 Gladiator has its world premiere in Los Angeles before opening nationwide the following weekend and becoming an enormous hit. Later it competed for Best Picture at the big awards show and when the envelope was opened it was always...

GLADIATOR!"

Juries Juries Juries: Sundance and Venice

by Murtada Elfadl

Garcia, Rees and Hawke

It seems like there's a festival jury annoucement everyday!

The Sundance Film Festival has chosen 25 celebrated and revered expert voices across film, art, culture and science to review the films among their different programs. The 2020 Sundance Film Festival Jury members are... 

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