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Remember these photos of Julianne Moore as Bette Davis, Ann-Margret and Marlene Dietrich? I can't remember when they were taken exactly. I want to say 1999?
When did all this start? It's a question for the pop culture historians out there. It's been going on for as long as I can remember. And one of the funniest things about is it people get excited each time like it's a new concept. Remember the hoopla over that Vanity Fair Alfred Hitchcock shoot a couple years back when Jodie Foster did The Birds, Javier Bardem and ScarJo did Rear Window and Marion Cotillard did Psycho and so on and so on and so on?
Often this star-on-star mimicry involves Marilyn Monroe. One might have an easier time listing the people who haven't posed as her than listing the people who have. I'm not even talking about the people who have actually played Her (or thinly veiled interpretations of her) in the movies or on television or stage and that list is even longer.
Here's just a small sampling or Marilyn tributes from Madonna, Lindsay Lohan, Angelina Jolie and Scarlett Johansson.
Yes this has a lot to do with iconic imagery and nostalgia but both iconography and nostalgia predate the birth of Marilyn Monroe. Unless the scientists and the zealots are both wrong and the world began on June 1st, 1926. And if it did why the hell was Marilyn Monroe pretending to be Theda Bara?
But anyway... by the time I was born, Marilyn was already well established as Hollywood's most present ghost and she's never stopped haunting popular culture. [Tangent: The first star that I actually remember the death of was Natalie Wood on November 29th, 1981 since West Side Story, which I watched religiously every time I could find it on tv, was my gateway drug into movie freakdom. Rapid onset Oscar mania was just a few years round the corner. Was I trying to fill the hole that Natalie left by discovering Streep, Close, Hurt & Turner, Bridges & Pfeiffer and all the rest? I was... distraught... to say the least.]
This subject is on my brain since I unpacked that "Life at the Movies" book and saw this photo of Tony Curtis and Natalie Wood doing a silent film Rudolph Valentino & Vilma Bánky thing.
Isn't that cute? But wait there's more. How about Paul Newman as a swashbuckler a la Fairbanks / Power
The news of Julianne Moore's casting as Sarah Palin in HBO's Game Change, adapted from the best-selling tell-all about the 2008 Presidential Race, is spreading like wildfire. I haven't read a single piece on it yet (other than the opinion-free news bit from The Hollywood Reporter) but one imagines many Tina Fey references will be popping up. How can anyone outdo that particular crucifixion by spiritiually dead-on mimicry? Perhaps Juli has been considering the role for sometime and asked for pointers on the set of 30 Rock?
Here at the Film Experience we try never to think of Sarah Palin, a true blight on American culture (though perhaps the celebrity we most deserve as Americans given our national habit of treasuring stupidity). Given their diametrically opposed politics, we can only imagine Julianne Moore weeping when thinking of the Politertainer in real life. Though Julianne Moore's whole screen persona tilts toward the weepy so...
Speaking of weeping.
Here at The Film Experience we regularly weep knowing that the surest way for the truly great and imaginative screen actors (like Moore herself) to win prizes is to eschew their own imaginative gift for character creation and hone their technical ability to mimic other famous people instead. But since that's the world we live in, perhaps Julianne can finally win some hardware? At least a Globe? Though she's one of modern cinema's most acclaimed performers she's actually unpracticed at the art of acceptance speeches. Though she won an Daytime Emmy before hitting the movies, since she achieved fame she's won virtually nothing apart from untelevised critics prizes or "special" you're awesome type of career honors -- like the recent Hasty Puddings situation. Apart from a rare "Ensemble" or shared prize she has never won: an Oscar, a Golden Globe, Cannes, SAG, BAFTA, or a Primetime Emmy. She hasn't even managed an MTV tub o' popcorn or even a Saturn win! Her biggest "gets" were the Volvi cup in Venice, the Spirit Award and the "Critics Choice" all for Far From Heaven (2002). And regarding the latter, had the BFCA been the organization in size, shape and tone that they are now back then, she wouldn't have even won that! And I say that as a (frustrated) voting member.
What do you make of this news? Excited to see her try mimicry for a change?
CAST THIS Since Julianne Moore is the only star announced thus far that leaves four major power couple roles uncast? Who would you have as (clockwise from top left: John & Elizabeth Edwards, Bill & Hilary, John and Cindy McCain, and Michelle and Barack Obama. And oops I forgot Joe Biden in the photo.
Mark with his wife Sunrise<--- Obviously this is not Sandra Bernhard. We'll get to her in a minute.
To fend off the silly depression that can often follow depressing Oscar outcomes, it's good to remember that anyone nominated for an Oscar just got a huge career boost. The "Losers", especially the first timers, won. They now have that "Oscar Nominee" stamp to throw around at the contract table and they also get a place in the history books. Oh sure, if you ask the general public to tell you about so and so's nominated turn in 1978 they won't know what you're talking about, but it's still a historical document of worth in your chosen profession. It's a win.
Before the Oscars last night I meant to post this acceptance speech that Mark Ruffalo tweeted "in case I lose". It went like so (spread across several tweets of course).
Thank You Sunrise. My wife and my partner in crime and fun and hard times and joy and sadness in heartbreak and healing and dinners and kids. Lisa Cholodenko, Thank you so much in your belief in me and allowing me. You love Actors and create a work place where we are free. Adore U.
I must thank my dear fellow Actors. Especially the Glorious Julianne Moore. Any recognition must be shared with her. It was all in the dance. Annette, Mia, Josh, Thank you for making it so easy to react off you and live off your brilliant naturalistic performances. Honored. The crew, thank you for being such a great team. We all had a hell of a good time and you didn't skip a single beat in 23 days of no sleep.
I would like to thank Stuart Blumberg and Lisa for creating a beautiful script with real people doing real and human things. Paul kicks ass. I would like to thank all the producers but especially Jeffery Levy-Hinte who is an unsung hero. You carried this movie to the finish.Thanks. James Shamus and the folks at Focus Features, Thank you. You have given this movie every opportunity and supported us in cash and spirit. XO.
Mom and Dad, Thanks for telling me I would be okay if I left home and went to LA. Thanks for helping me when you couldn't afford it. Love U. Keen, Bella, Odette my dearest ones, my little teachers. Thank you so much for being patient with Papa having to be away so much. Last but not least. The people who came out to see the movie and support it and talk about it and send your friends. You are being honored 2. I know I must be forgetting someone. IF I am I will amend my twit-speech. I would like to also shout out to all actors. 5000yr tradition!!
Sweet right?
Mark Ruffalo and Javier Bardem hug it out.
If you put yourself out there in the world, you open yourself up to those who snark or scoff but you also are putting yourself out there in the world. Sorry to get all Marianne Williamson on ya but I just go with my moods and it's a good one this Monday morn'. Feel the love.
In another tweet, responding to a fan's note on Julianne Moore, the Ruffster said "Julianne Moore you are a film Goddess" That's so true. I'm glad her peers know it.
We lived on farms. We lived in cities. Now we live on the internet. -"Sean Parker" via Aaron Sorkin in The Social Network.
I've been an online presence now for a decade and it's been thrilling to watch the world change and shrink in a way. Unfortunately this new "closeness" hasn't changed our capacity to hate or war or any of that stuff -- hate travels just as fast as love -- but it has definitely shifted celebrity and entertainment culture in interesting ways. You wouldn't have Lady Gaga without the virtual community of the internet. And you wouldn't have exchanges like I had with Sandra Bernhard last night.
Oh sure, that happened for a few seconds and it was over and it meant 11,000,000 times more to me than Sandra or anyone listening in but it's still a fact: Someone I have admired and followed and supported with my purchases who has made me laugh and think countless times since the late 80s "heard" something I said and responded.
It was a kick.
And if you've never seen The King of Comedy (1983) you really should. It's one of Martin Scorsese's best films and Sandra is riveting and scary and hilarious in it.
Which celebrities put smiles on your faces last night? Are you feeling love this morning or something else entirely in the way of SpeechGate ;) ?
The British Academy have long since finished handing out their prizes and we're still waiting for BBC America to begin the Broadcast. It's so delayed we may just wait till tomorrow morning to watch it and check out the Grammys instead tonight. Who knows? It's so strange to be denied *live* events on the telly. If you don't want to know the winners before you see the taped broadcast, skip this post. The Harry Potter Gang
You already knew that it would be a big night for the Harry Potter crowd, since they were getting a special tribute but it was an even bigger night for Bellatrix LeStrange, our Lady Helena, as she took home Best Supporting Actress for her very popular film The King's Speech. It occurred to me today that HBC, for all the ups and downs of her career, noone but her husband has really been casting her for some time, she's really sealed her place in history, not once, not twice, but three times over. Other actresses should be so lucky. She's an irreplaceable part of 80s era cinema as a major Merchant/Ivory rep player. She's an irreplaceable part of Tim Burton's filmography (and despite his rocky past decade in terms of quality, that means something). AND she's an irreplaceable part of the Harry Potter franchise which dominated the past decade of film. So, well done HBC.
It was sort of a stealth approach to screen immortality but however you get there...
BAFTA WINNERS Academy Fellowship: Christopher Lee Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema: the Harry Potter films Film: The King's Speech British Film: The King's Speech Outstanding Debut: Four Lions, Chris Morris Director: David Fincher, The Social Network Screenplay: The King's Speech Adapted Screenplay: The Social Network Foreign Film: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo Animated Film: Toy Story 3 Actor: Colin Firth, The King's Speech Actress: Natalie Portman, Black Swan Supporting Actor: Geoffrey Rush, The King's Speech Supporting Actress: Helena Bonham Carter, The King's Speech
a major night for the Royal family with both Best Film awards
Music: Alexandre Desplat, The King's Speech Cinematography: Roger Deakins, True Grit (read the Film Experience interview) Editing: Angus Wall & Kirk Baxter, The Social Network (read the Film Experience interview) Production Design Guy Dyas, Inception Costume Design: Colleen Atwood, Alice in Wonderland Sound: Inception Visual Effects: Inception Makeup and Hair: Alice in Wonderland Short Animation: The Eagleman Stag Short Film: Until the River Runs Red Rising Star Award: Tom Hardy
More dresses? Who do you think is best dressed? (UPDATE: More pictures are coming in so this is just a teensy peak of the fashion)
I'm glad that Julianne Moore got one more big event this year as a nominee. She looks great. She didn't get to cheer on Annette Bening, though. Aside from the supporting categories -- which were part of the very dominant King's Speech (though strangely technicals like production design & costumes were not) -- the BAFTAs gave us the same crop of winners as virtually everywhere else in one of the most samey-samey years in awards history. It's unlikely that Oscar night will hold any surprises. Hopefully there will be major fashion risks to give us plenty to talk about other than "Which of Colin Firth's major speeches did you like best?"
How are you feeling about the BAFTA choices? Disappointed? Happy? Empty Inside?
Robert here, with my series Distant Relatives, where we look at two films, (one classic, one modern) related through a common theme and ask what their similarities and differences can tell us about the evolution of cinema.
Your sons and your daughters are beyond your command
The relationship between art and social change is one open to debate, with some people believing that art is essential to such change and others believing that its influence is non-existant or minimal at best. Still, as society continues its constant march forward, we can disagree about whether great art can effect it, while perhaps agreeing that the best art often reflects it, becoming a statement of what it meant to be in a certain time and place while touching upon deeper human truths that elevate it to the realm of timeless. Guess Who's Coming to Dinner and The Kids Are All Right are two films from two different times in American history that deal with the changing definition of marriage. Both are domestic dramas. Both find their conflict by indroducing an unfamiliar outsider into a comfortable family atmosphere. But each handles the social issue at their center differently, the prior attempting to effect it, the latter to reflect it.
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner is the tale of a stalwart, liberal, San Francisco couple (Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn) whose stalwart liberalism is challanged when their daughter brings home her new fiance, a brilliant, black man (perfect in that he is Sidney Poitier, imperfect for that same reason). Director Stanley Kramer, a great craftsman who never met a social issue he couldn't direct the hell out of, fills the next two hours with a series of soul searching debates, safe revelations, long speeches, and a delightful scene where Tracy gets into a fender bender with a black driver while trying to procure himeself some comfort ice cream. "Thirty or forty bucks, that's how much" says the other driver when asked the approximate cost of fixing his car. And so it is, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner is a film of its time.
The Kids Are All Right tells of a long standing lesbian couple, Nic (Annette Benign) and Jules (Julianne Moore) whose family is thrown into chaos when their kids bring their own guest to dinner. In this case, it's the man whose sperm is responsible for both youngsters. Played by Mark Ruffalo as a free spirited man of the earth, Paul's intrusion is dangerous as a disruption of a family unit already fragile from nothing more than the emotional comings and goings of every day life. In a series of events that involve less pontificating than the older film, Paul comes to represent an individual escape for each family member, something new, exciting, refreshing, as they come to mean the same for him.
Tell me who are you?
While both films purport to begin from a place of viewer sympathy, traditional (whatever that means) married couples will find more in common with Nic and Jules than Dinner's Matt and Christina Dreyton. Matt is a newspaper publisher. Christina runs an art gallery. Their daughter Joey is studying in Hawaii when she meets Poitier's John Prentice. They are clearly the creme de la creme of society. Their lives, until the introduction of John are pretty perfect. Contrastly Nic and Jules are at a point in their marriage where their love for each other, while clearly evident, is starting to be overshadowed by the little annoyances, work stresses, and two teenage kids who are, as teenagers tend to do, struggling to find their places in the world. The fact that Nic and Jules are lesbians, while essential to the story, is also almost beside the point. Their family is your family.
Guess who's Coming to Dinner casts the viewer in the role of the All-American white family who must deal with change when it shows up at their doorstep. The Kids Are All Right casts the viewer as the unconventional family with two matriarchs who must deal when the All-American man (what is Paul but a modern cowboy with a motorcycle instead of a horse?) shows up at their door. According to both films, if you’re of the family’s young generation, you’re likely to embrace or even introduce the change. If you’re parental but romantic, you’ll come around quickly, but if you’re stoic and cynical, you’ll take far more convincing.
We got this solid love
This casting speaks loudly to each films’ motives. Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner is a persuasive piece. It wants to change your mind and suffers from it. The film creates a number of devices to funnel every conflict into the interracial message issue. Included in this are the aformentioned beatification of Poitier’s character, his refusal to marry without the Dreytons’ consent, the short amount of time he and Joey have known each other (1 week -- drama!), Joey’s willingness to define herself only in terms of his wife (“and when we’re married, I’m going to be important too,” she says), and their impending departure to marry (that evening). Now, over forty years later when the interracial marriage element is a non issue, all of these, combined with the fact that Poitier is closer in age to his fiancee’s parents than hers, linger as genuine issues that you wish the characters would be reasonable to address. The film still stands as a slice of time and place but has cornered itself out of any larger universal context.
The Kids Are All Right is different. There’s no attempt here to manufacture drama. If the film does anything to make a persuasive argument for gay marriage it's by presenting Nic and Jules and their family as likable, flawed, realistic, capable of surviving great challanges but not without great effort. But generally the film seems disinterested in dignifying the debate by becoming piece of propaganda. The final statement seems to be one in favor of the strong bond of family. Only those who put in the hard work can be a part. So there is another common theme between the films, they are both strongly and progressively pro-family.
The final similarity between these two films (and by means of feeling I've been a little too hard on Guess Who's Coming to Dinner) is a great cast, a collection of fantastic performances, filmmakers who, whatever their motives, have a clear and great empathy and understanding of their characters, and a general sense that life is measured in dinnertimes, when everyone gathers around in anticipation of joy, drama, food and family.
Friday, March 18, 2011 at 12:30PM 
