The Film Experience™ was created by Nathaniel R. All material herein is written by our team. (This site is not for profit but for an expression of love for cinema & adjacent artforms.)
Stars are our larger-than-life figures. We worship them. We tell stories about them and fancy ourselves made in their images. In fact, bona fide movie star celebrity dates all the way back to 1909, when Carl Laemmle (who would later co-found Universal Studios) placed false notices of the tragic death of “the Biograph girl” in a street car accident. When it was revealed that she was alive and well, the nation rejoiced and everyone cesuddenly knew the name of Florence Lawrence. In this way, Hollywood stardom has always had not just a religious flavor but a Christian Messianic one at that.
Over the next century, countless stars have profited from the love of the resurrection narrative. Remember the elation when Barbra Streisand announced to the world that Lauren Bacall wasn’t in the tomb but gorgeous and talented and right there on-screen? And it was just two years ago that Matthew’s McConaissance brought him Oscar glory.
What are your favorite movie star resurrection stories?
We're near the end of Ingrid Bergman's career so here's the penultimate episode in our retrospective. Happy 100th to the superstar on August 29th. Here's Lynn Lee...
By 1974, Ingrid Bergman was a grande dame of film in the twilight of her career, with two Best Actress Oscar wins under her belt, and nothing left to prove. Perhaps that’s why she deliberately opted for such a small part in the star-studded Murder on the Orient Express, despite director Sidney Lumet’s attempts to coax her into taking a bigger one. And yet, despite her own efforts to stay out of the spotlight, it found her anyway, with her tiny role as a mousy, middle-aged Swedish missionary netting her an unlikely third Oscar.
We don’t see too many movies like Orient Express these days – A-list extravaganzas where most of the stars end up with little more than glorified cameos but just seem to be in it for fun. And to be fair, the movie is fun and directed with flair, even as it plays up the absurd theatricality of the whodunit setup – something that doesn’t register as strongly when you’re reading Agatha Christie’s plummy prose. It’s a bit much at times...
Variety several distributors want the Sally Field vehicle Hello My Name is Doris, an indie hit at SXSW. But neither of the big Oscar dogs want it (no interest from Weinsteins or Fox Searchlight. Hmmm) Teenage Bedrooms on Screen a tumblr celebrating movie sets from teen films. I thought this was appropriate to share after... TFE a discussion of interesting / fun film sets Variety our favorite Israeli actress Ronit Elkabetz will serve as president of Cannes' "Critics Week" the festival's sidebar focused on newer filmmakers (That's often where the best movies are anyway!) My New Plaid Pants on a current rumor about the "toxic" set of Alejandro González Iñárritu's The Revenant
Vanity Fair looks back at Pretty Woman for its 25th, specifically it's originally much darker screenplay TFE in case you missed it Manuel also looked back on the nation's (and his) 25 year old Julia Roberts obsession Daily Mail Lauren Bacall's estate auctioning off collections. Her Manhattan partment is also for sale for (gulp) $26 million The Guardian match the evil quote to the Disney villain - I got a few of these wrong. The Shame! CHUD Marvel has reportedly cast Carol Danvers (aka Captain Marvel) already and she might even be added to The Avengers: Age of Ultron. WTH... how many actors can be in that one movie and shouldn't they have finished it already given that it opens in a month? Film School Rejects Anthony Russo & Joe Russo, who did such a great job on Captain America: Winter Soldier have been adopted by Marvel and will now direct all of their movies (not really but they're locked up for awhile)
The Film Stage a one hour conversation with Jessica Chastain The Playlist Viggo Mortensen turned down Hateful Eight? Sad. He'd be great in a Tarantino and could use a hit In Contention Sandy Powell talks Cinderella costumes ET Online and speaking of costumes, Billy Magnussen talks about his unmissably tight leather pants in Into the Woods
Today's Watch
Tom Hanks reenacts his filmography's greatest hits in seven minutes with James Corden. Hanks seems to be having a lot of fun with himself lately, right?
Small Screen Coming SoonThe X-Files stars David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson are returning to their iconic roles for a miniseries. The original series lasted 9 years and was revived in two feature films so it's had quite a shelf-life. Variety I find BAFTA so confusing. They have so many different awards branches and different announcement times. But the TV craft nominations are out with Penny Dreadful doing well Ryan Murphy Chloe Sevigny returning to American Horror Story next season. She was a pleasant surprise for me on Netflix's Bloodline. I forget sometimes how totally watchable she is Towleroad rumors circulating that HBO is cancelling Looking albeit with a wrap up film *sniffle* Salon Jon Hamm just out of rehab for alcohol addiction. With Mad Men wrapped hopefully he won't be reminded of the glass in hand for a while. Best wishes!
2. This doesn't have a movie connection apart from a well earned dig at that awful Flawless movie starring Philip Seymour Hoffman but The New York Times has an essay on the feminist evolution of the word "flawless" that is really something. A great read.
3. David Poland has said these things before and will say them again. And we've also harped on his underlying theme / advice to the Academy - 'Embrace the fact that you're THE movie institution. be proud, not worried.' But it's always worth repeating and he does a great job in "48 Weeks to Oscar: Academy in Crisis (?)" at highlighting all the problems... which don't have to be problems! Read it (if you've ever bitched about or defended the Oscars). Live it (if you're AMPAS). Love it (if you love the Oscars).
Criterion Collection Pedro Almodóvar write about his experience making Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down (1990). I so love that one. So weirdly romantic in spite of its whole Stockholm Syndrome business Natasha VC Brad Pitt before and after makeup. Hee In Contention Tapley wonders if Eastwood's American Sniper will have an impact on Oscar with its Christmas release The Dissolve John Lithgow has revealed that Pixar's The Good Dinosaur (which he does voice work on) has been completely reimagined Buzzfeed investigation into 80s arcana: who deserved credit for Flashdance and didn't get it?
The Hairpin the best friends of romcom heroines, in order The Guardian on "my favorite city in film: Blade Runner's LA i09 Have you ever wondered how Replicants are made in Blade Runner? Salon interesting piece on Lauren Bacall (and Bogey's) political activism which the obits have steered clear of mostly Chiseler Bacall's recent death also prompted this look back at Humphrey Bogarts first actress wife, the now forgotten Mayo Methot AV Club Keanu Reeves moves to television for a series called Rain about a half Japanese half American assassin but... /Film ...there's also a TV show being developed based on Keanu's hit The Devil's Advocate in which he is not involved. Strange timing, eh? RogerEbert.com interviews Ira Sachs on Love is Strange. That finally comes out this month. Do NOT miss it Cinema Blend Johnny Depp to star with his teenage daughter in Kevin Smith's Yoga Hosers. I do not understand what's going on with that career. I really don't Empire Bradley Cooper to headline a new franchise based on the "Mack Bolan" book series about a man at war with the Mafia
Off Cinema Towleroad Portia de Rossi surprises Ellen DeGeneres on their anniversary Entertainment Junkie on the Emmy contest for "Best Writing in a Drama Series" Taye Diggs dancing. That's all. That's enough. AV Club looks back at the seminal single "Stay" from Lisa Loeb. God, I loved that one. I can't remember if it was written for Reality Bites (1994) or not but if it was Oscar made the worse choice in not nominating it
The Stuff of Nightmares Cinema Blend Chinese movie theaters projecting audience texts onto screen.
ahem... I used to worry about keeping The Film Experience PG-13 because I knew teenagers were reading and when the site was first created you didn't want to be labeled NSFW because it shut you off from tons of traffic and search engines and so on and so on. And now I just feel like the biggest prude every day since even mainstream websites that people read at work print photo galleries of "bulges," naked celebrities, and charity events involving random civilians stripping. Case in point in the past 24...
Gawker imagining what's inside Jared Leto's pants courtesy of a quote from Alexis Arquette Jezebel imagining what Disney Prince Charming dicks look like.
So basically I am a prude and singing "Class" from Chicago right now as I type this. But I click on all these links, so, guilty.
Alexa here, with my late entry eulogizing last week's departed greats. I always find it interesting when we lose two idols at the same time, and they become linked in our mourning. There couldn't be two more different performers than Williams and Bacall, could there? Bacall, with her sultry, almost somnolent cool, and Williams, with his live-wire kinetics. Here are some curios, vintage and handmade, to celebrate their careers in film.
Saturday, March 26, 2016 at 10:00AM 
