would you rather...?

Some mellow choices this time on 'would you rather' because it's August, the grossest month of the year. Everyone stay air-conditioned.

WOULD YOU RATHER
...sip some drink with Marisa Tomei?
...drive to work w/ Grant Gustin and puppies?
...see Greece with Paul Bettany?
...curse your diet with Josh Brolin?
...convalesce with Cindy Sherman and a camera at the hospital?
..."share a moment" with Sam Claflin?
... teach Sharon Stone's dog new tricks?
... take a contemplative trip with Juliette Binoche?
OR
... learn your place in the star food chain with Tom Holland?

Pictures are after the jump to help you decide.

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Part One: 70 Best Gowns of the 70th Cannes Festival

by Nathaniel R.

Monica Belluci, Mistress of Ceremonies, in her Opening Night Gown which just missed our list

It's a giant-sized edition of Beauty Break fused with our traditional Red Carpet Lineup today. But before we begin, can we get a final round of applause for Jose's wondrous work charting all the Kidmanifestations this past week?

Kidman aside, or alongside as the case will be in this post, we couldn't let Cannes wrap up without honoring how glamorous the event is in a big way. Kidman wasn't the only goddess just slaying that red carpet. There were so many of them working those premieres that we even had to leave some A listers off altogether (like Charlize Theron who showed up briefly in a sheer black gown but it wasn't quite a wow if she was just going to do drive by fly by fashion. Alas we've now time to photoshop all the looks with our usual minimalist showcased flare -- please forgive -- but you'll see why given the immense amount of gowns we must cover as we say au revoir to Cannes. 

70 BEST GOWNS OF CANNES 70 
35 red carpet wins are after the jump

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Red Carpet Lineup: Cannes '17, French Actress Heaven

It's been a little overwhelming looking at all the gowns on display at Cannes but before we get 10 whole days behind, let's celebrate the Gallic glory of French actresses. The 70th Anniversary Cannes party that the festival threw itself in the middle of its week long party had the biggest collection of international stars imaginable including these nine giants of French cinema after the jump...

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Isabelle Huppert, French Legends, and Oscar Stats

by Nathaniel R

Are you biting your nails yet? No prediction for this year's Best Actress shortlist can come without some degree of "I could be getting this very wrong!" nerves. We've been Oscar watching for a long time and it's genuinely never looked this open this late in the game (with the possible exception of 2003 but for nearly the opposite reason). If Best Actress is not a five-way lock up by now (and it often is) it's usually at least settled but for a minor battle between two women for the "just happy to be nominated" fifth spot. This year is different. Seven women remain strong and precursor supported and virtually any combination of five names seems possible as long as you include both Emma Stone (with the reliable boost of leading a Best Picture frontrunner) and Natalie Portman (with the reliable boost of Oscar's deep-deep love for mimicry).

We always believed that Isabelle Huppert was a genuine threat for a Best Actress nomination this season for her phenomenal star turn in Elle. It wasn't so much that Elle, in which she plays a video game enterpeneur who becomes obsessed with her rapist, was a a fresh look at an old star (against type) or right in Oscar's wheel house (a dark comedy about rape. LOL, no). The appeal instead is that in Elle is a suffusion of everything that's special about Huppert: her superior intellect, fascinating opacity, tortured psychology, and her daring sexuality. Oscar would be wise to pounce in a year where the media has been this celebratory about her unique place in the cinematic landscape. 'It's time!' feelings don't generally come around all that often for true iconoclasts or women of a certain age. She's both so they must act now.

Binoche, Cotillard, Adjani, Deneuve

Here's another far more superficial but still excellent reason why Isabelle Huppert needs to be nominated...

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Thoughts I Had Looking at Binoche, Fiennes and Scott Thomas

by Murtada

This weekend the Rome Film Festival celebrated the 20th Anniversary of The English Patient with a special screening, attended by its three stars Kristin Scott Thomas, Juliette Binoche and Ralph Fiennes.

• The English Patient was 20 years ago????
• Juliette laughing and KST mistily looking away is reminiscent of their characters, warm melancholy Hannah and icy melancholy Katharine.
• I miss KST’s icy grandeur… now that she is a Dame will she get a new wind to her career?
• Am I K in your book?
• I still lived in Sudan in 1997 where cinemas were scarce. I remember wanting to see the movie for months and finally managed to see it on a trip to London a month after it won 9 Oscars. I went straight from the airport, dropped my bags and rushed to an afternoon screening in Leicester Square. That’s how bad I wanted to see it, I couldn’t wait another minute.

What are your memories of the first time you saw The English Patient?