Valentine's - An Elephant Love Medley to Moulin Rouge!

We've been celebrating Valentine's with lovers from Eternal Sunshine, Gone Girl, and Weekend. Here's Jorge Molina on a film that's practically our mascot at TFE.

There are many angles I could take on Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge! for Valentine’s Day. Its unapologetic pastiche of classic tragedy and romance. Its embrace of melodrama and sentimentality. Its larger-than-life lens on life and characters. The way Nicole Kidman fake orgasms.

I decided I could take on all of them in 300 words the same way the movie did in 3 minutes and 50 seconds.

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It's the Year of the Rooster

Well... starting January 28th but we were feeling it today.

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Your First Film Screening of 2017? Mine was "Casablanca"

Happy 2017, everyone! Dancin' Dan here, to celebrate how I rang in the New Year in cinema.

I personally opted not to go with any of the new releases, instead choosing January 1st to see a 35mm print of one of my Top Three films of all time, Casablanca. Apparently the print is making the rounds in honor of the 1943 Best Picture winner's 75th Anniversary. The timing, as always with Casablanca, is confusing: Casablanca premiered in New York in November of 1942 but it didn't become Oscar eligible until the 1943 film year winning the Oscar in March 1944 sixteen whole months after its premiere. Technically it's not quite 75 yet.

But never mind that, because Casablanca is always worth celebrating. It's so easy to fall in love with the shared beauty and charisma of stars Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, and to applaud the film's witty, instant-classic lines. This time around, though, I was particularly struck by two things...

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Whew. We made it.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 

Any cinematic resolutions? I have them but they're all behind the scenes to make this blog the best it can be in a wide open new year.

Happy Links Are Here Again

For today's link roundup ONLY articles that made me smile over these past few holiday-smeared days even if a few of them have that melancholy undertow.

Jezebel Rooney Mara refuses Taylor Swift's pleas to hang out
Decider Joe Reid's top 16 of everything 2016
Idolator Deee-Lite's classic "World Clique" LP getting a deluxe reissue. I really cannot express how much I love that record

Adequate Man things that got stuck in people's orifices this year, via emergency room databases. LOL
New York Times fascinating article about Judy Garland and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" from Meet Me In St Louis which is incidentally one of my favorite movies of all time. Like ALL time. 
The Establishment "General Leia Organa is the Hero We Need Right Now" 
Playbill Adorable. Gifted Broadway darling Laura Benanti will be doing a cabaret show with her mother Linda "The Story Goes On" this summer. Want tickets. Now! 
Interview talks to Lucas Jade Zumann about his 20th Century Women breakthrough and auditions as a teenage actor. Ah the endearing often beautiful precociousness of goodhearted showbiz kids. Consider...

It's not that I don't plan on pursuing acting forever, it's just that my ultimate goal is to be a meditation guide and spiritual healer, along with studying plant medicine and stuff like that. I want to be able to do that without profit. I want to be able to provide medicine for people without them having to pay for it, since I think that's something that reduces the value of the medicine. I think that having an acting career and a different source of income would allow me to help people without having to charge them.