Showbiz History: Bicycle Thieves, Fur Bikinis, and a Costume Design King

6 random things that happened on this day, November 24th, in showbiz history...

1948 Vittorio de Sica's Bicycle Thieves (also known as The Bicycle Thief) is released in Italian theaters. It will take a few years for it to travel the world (global distribution is slow now and was even slower back then) but it will become an international hit the following year and receive the Globe, the Oscar, the BAFTA, and the NYFCC prizes for 'foreign film' in the 1949/1950 awards season. The National Board of Review went one further and just named it "Best Film" period, the second consecutive year they'd given that honor to an Italian film (the first non-English language winner had been Roberto Rossellini's Paisan the previous year) 

1956 Giant released in movie theaters the month after glitzy premieres in NYC and LA

1966 Wet, fur-bikini'd international sex-symbol Raquel Welch arrives in One Million Years BC ... 

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Bentonville: Geena Davis, Jamie Brewer, and the Fabulous Freddie Mercury

Part 1 of 3 by Nathaniel R

"Include," was scrawled across every sign at the 5th annual Bentonville Film Festival which just wrapped up. As part of the logo, it was hard to miss. More noteworthy is the fact that you would have been able to hear that message loud and clear at any of the screenings and events even if you'd never seen the logo. Oscar winner Geena Davis launched the festival five years ago. It's a smart offshoot of the actresses work at the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media... and that advocacy reaches beyond gender to include film industry representation for multiple minorities: queer people, people of color, and disabled people, too.

Bentonville, sight unseen at least, is an odd locale for a film festival. That is until you see how much money that corporate sponsor WalMart, headquartered right there, has poured into the festival. The Film Experience has had the pleasure of attending several regional festivals across the years and Bentonville is definitely among the most well-funded / well-run. The attending filmmakers even got a mini-retreat before the festival began for industry networking opportunities. The town itself is a little slice of Americana with little shops, cute restaurants, a charming town square, and a lux gorgeous museum named Crystal Bridges.

Geena Davis in the house!

Crystal Bridges is where the trademark opening event "Geena and Friends" is held...

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Showbiz History: Wrecking Balls, Two Commandments, and Makeup & Hair Nods

8 random things that happened on this day (November 23rd) in showbiz history

1923 Cecil B DeMille's The Ten Commandments premieres. He would of course remake it as the infinitely better-remembered 1956 camp? technicolor classic of the same name.

1934 Romantic drama The Painted Veil starring Greta Garbo and Herbert Marshall opens in movie theaters. It's later remade (quite well!) in 2006 with Naomi Watts and Edward Norton.

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Link Roundup

NYT Dan Kois profiles 'the loose screw rattling around inside the Marvel machine,' director Taika Waititi as Thor Ragnarok approaches
Film Stage Murtada interviews the director of Senegal's Oscar submission Félicité
TFE ...which you may recall he raved about right here.
Variety Jamie Foxx and Anthony Mackie will star in a Johnny Cochran biopic (Mackie as Cochran) with Taylor Hackford directing
Guardian can Michael Fassbender survive his string of flops?

Coming Soon The Seagull starring The Bening and Saoirse Ronan will be distributed by Sony Pictures Classic next year
ScriptNotes John and Craig welcome female screenwriters Daley Haggar and Dara Resnik to discuss the possible Post-Weinstein era in Hollywood
The New Yorker Harvey Weinstein's cameo in a 2005 animated movie for Mattel
My New Plaid Pants five photos of rising French actor Rabah Nait Oufella
My New Plaid Pants 'do, dump, or marry' on Greg McLean's Jungle with Daniel Radcliffe
Streamline on William Wyler's now-underdiscussed Wuthering Heights (1939)
Awards Daily Still no Best Picture frontrunner this late in season? (I personally love the more unpredictable years)
Tracking Board Netflix trailer for a western series Godless starring Jeff Daniels and Jack O'Connell and a mysterious town of all women
Variety Ben Mendelsohn eyeing the villain role in Marvel's Captain Marvel

LGBT
Towleroad a step-by-step sculpture of Freddie Mercury
Metro John Boyega is still being asked questions about whether Poe and Finn are gay for each other in Star Wars
Gr8er Days There's a documentary coming about the gay actor who starred in A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge

RIP
EW Actor Robert Guillaume, best known for his classic "Soap" character Benson (so popular he spun off into an even more popular series "Benson") but whose career hit all three acting mediums has died at 90.
Browbeat Legendary musician Fats Domino has died

Soundtracking: "Big Mouth"

Chris takes on the original songs of Netflix's new raunchy delight...

Have you caught up to Netflix’s newest and filthiest animated series Big Mouth? From the minds of Nick Kroll and John Mulaney, it’s a take-no-prisoners look at puberty that’s actually rather sweet and thoughtful between cringeworthy, painfully reminiscent laughs. Now before you relegate it to the crass animated rung of less imaginative programs, take note that the show is quite surprising on many fronts - not least of which is its hilarious original songs.

The important role of music in youth is a recurring theme of this column but Big Mouth catches its young characters in an interesting middle ground, musically speaking. The onset of grown up hormones often means your musical tastes are growing up as well, leaving behind simpler tunes. Think of the show's musical stylings like a logical, but naughty progression from Schoolhouse Rock or Free to Be... You and Me: packed with valuable life lessons and annoyingly catchy. But rest assured, these NSFW tunes sound exactly right for characters pushing themselves to be more grown up - and all the pain of adulthood that awaits.

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