Call Julianne Moore By Her Name

by Jason Adams

A couple of weeks ago I told y'all about Luca Guadagnino's next film project, a feature based off of Bob Dylan's 1975 album Blood on the Tracks that he plans to make with Chloe Grace Moretz. Well Luca, never one to rest on them laurels of his, has sneaked in a totally seperate project while we weren't looking (or rather while we were gaping at the exploding heads of his Suspiria coven), much to my thrill. He's gone and directed a 35-minute short film slash "memory piece" for the fashion house Valentino that will star Kyle MacLachlan and Julianne Moore, along with Marthe Keller, KiKi Layne, Mia Goth (aka the secret MVP of Suspiria), and Alba Rohrwacher. Here's how it's described in Variety:

"Moore plays Francesca, an Italian-American writer who lives in New York and must return to Rome – and, by extension, her childhood – to retrieve her aging mother, a painter played at different ages by Keller and Goth. Layne plays “the spark that triggers the stream of consciousness in Francesca,” said Guadagnino, while Rohrwacher plays “a grande dame at a party. ”All the male characters – “fathers, lovers, servants,” Guadagnino noted – are played by MacLachlan."

Making a short-film for a fashion house probably isn't the best way for Luca to combat last week's criticism from the original Suspiria's director Dario Argento that he "makes beautiful tables, beautiful curtains, beautiful dishes, all beautiful…" but Luca gonna Luca (and bless him for it, quite honestly). The short was shot by Call Me By Your Name and Suspiria DP Sayombhu Mukdeeprom and the soundtrack is from Oscar-winner Ryuichi Sakamoto, and the plan is for it to hit legitimate film fests so stay tuned, fabulousness ahead.

Jason Gives Thanks

Team Experience members were invited to give thanks this week so you'll be hearing from a few of us. Here's Jason Adams... 

For all of the hairs on my head and the hours of sleep that I've lost in 2018 I do feel, just a little bit,  as if I've traded them in for a couple of worthy life lessons this year. Enough to make up for the state of the world? Not for all the hair and dreams that have ever been or ever will be. But I will say that feeling in a near constant state of emergency has made me a smidge bit of a better writer, and it's nudged me ever so gently towards getting some of my shit together. To paraphrase Ryan Gosling's schtick -- one small step for me, one giant leap (into the abyss) for mankind. Helluva trade. Here's some of the great stuff I'm thankful for the nudges from...

• Moviepass burned high and too too bright this year, echoing our migraines, but I'm thankful to the service at its height for letting me see Luca Guadagnino's Call Me By Your Name in the theater a personal record shattering 18 times - in a crazy world those six summer weeks learning about love and peaches with Oliver and Elio and Elio and Oliver were the only thing that made any sense to me. For a film so warm and sunny I'll weirdly forever associate it with walking through cold weather in Central Park to get to or from the Paris Theater, "Love My Way" by the Psychedelic Furs blasting in my ears. (I rounded up most of my writing on the film right at this link.) 

• Funny enough the end of 2018 belongs to Luca too, as the only music haunting my ear buds this Autumn has been Thom Yorke's by turns gorgeous, terrifying score for Suspiria. I'm thankful for that whole unholy beast of a film, bursting with ideas and emotions and Tildas...

Click to read more ...

Podcast: The Hate U Give, Burning, Border, Suspiria

Nathaniel R and Murtada Elfadl talk four new films now in theatrical release in select cities

Index (67 minutes)
00:01 The Hate U Give is heavy handed but moving. Amandla Stenberg and Russell Hornsby are very good in it
27:19 Spoiler warning about our discussions of Burning and Border (though in truth we don't get that spoilery. We still speak vaguely but if you wanna go in completely cold, skip!)
28:12 Burning starring Steven Yeun and directed by genius Lee Chang-dong
39:30 Discussion of Oscar's foreign film hopefuls and how they routinely ignores Asian movies
47:00 Sweden's bizarre submission Border and its multiple genres
53:15 Luca Guadagnino's remake of Dario Argento's Suspiria
64:00 Running times and wrap-up.

References / Further Reading
• Nathaniel's review of Burning & Border
• Dan's Review of The Hate U Give
• Chris's review of Wildlife 
• Carey Mulligan drag Instagram cuteness 
• Best Foreign Language Film Predictions

You can listen to the podcast here at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes. Continue the conversations in the comments, won't you? 

The Hate U Give and more...

Yes, No, Maybe So: Suspiria

What’s good? It's Salim. Yesterday, Amazon Studios graced us with the second trailer to their upcoming horror film, Suspiria, a film that performs double duty as the remake to one of the seminal horror films in cinematic history by Italian legend Dario Argento and Luca Guadagnino’s follow-up to his acclaimed Oscar contender Call Me by Your Name. To some, the attempt to remake such a perfect masterpiece as Suspiria may feel like sacrilege. To yours truly, it has been one of my most anticipated movies ever since Guadagnino was announced as the director years ago (Much less so when the poor fit of David Gordon Green was attached) and seeing the cryptic first teaser months ago felt like manna after long speculation of how the results would be (including Armie Hammer going on record after seeing it calling the movie “evil”). 

More on the Trailer After the Jump

Click to read more ...

Links: Nutcracker and the Two Directors, Schrader on Selfishness

Gr8ter Days Terence Stamp makes rare US appearance to talk about this career and push his new memoir. The great actor is about to turn 80...
TFE ...so he's still too young for this 100 Oldest Living Oscar Nominees list.
THR Movie attendance has been steadily rising in Russia but the UK and France remain the top European movie markets
/Film Hmmm, The upcoming Disney spectacle Nutcracker and the Four Realms will now have two directors credited after reshoots. Joe Johnston (Captain America: The First Avenger) will be credited after the original director Lasse Hallström
Vulture Director Susan Seidelman on her 80s NYC classics Smithereens and Desperately Seeking Susan 

MNPP Luca Guadagnino has shown Suspiria to Quentin Tarantino who loved it
Moviemaker Paul Schrader on our selfish legacy and environmental disaster (DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVEN'T YET SEEN FIRST REFORMED)
Playbill if you're in NYC in the second half of July there's a lot of 15th anniversary happenings for Avenue Q including an original cast concert
Pajiba Sofia Vergara's ex is making an anti-abortion movie about Roe v Wade and the news about it gets worse and worse
i09 The legal system in The Incredibles 2 is confounding
Pandemonium this video is 90 minutes long but if you're studying to be a screenwriter it's worth a look since Michael Arndt (Little Miss Sunshine, Toy Story 3) maps out what makes for a great third act of a story
Coming Soon Keri Russell joins Star Wars: Episode IX. Her role is unknown but will involve fight scenes so I'll guess she'll have more to do than Laura Dern did.
Awards Daily the Limited Series race at the Emmys is wide open this year (with 44 programs eligible)  since no single series has been especially dominant with critics or the public this time around 
Film School Rejects the best movies of 2018 thus far
Nick Davis Nick does his beloved "fifties" to detail the best of the movie year thus far