Beauty Break: Smoking Kills (Glamorously)

Confessions, multiple: I have never been a smoker, I've been thrilled and proud of my friends whenever they've kicked the habit, I have never once missed the days when bars / restaurants allowed smoking...

... but I miss smoking in the movies. 

Rock Hudson blowing smoke rings

Fifty years ago this very day the Surgeon General first deemed it hazardous to your health and over the next fifty years it's slowly faded from the movies. Nowadays when you see smoking onscreen, it's nearly always to signify "rebellious character" or "villain" or is shot through some sharp retro-commentary filters: see everything about everyone in Mad Men or David Straitharn's whole act in Goodnight, and Good Luck. 

I know smoking is wrong. I know it kills. I hate the way it smells. But those tendrils of smoke on screen or a movie star's lips around a cigarette look so damn sexy. Here's proof...

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Team Top Ten: Oscar's Greatest Losers (Actor Edition)

Al Pacino won his Oscar on his eighth nomination. He deserved it more the other seven times!Amir here, back with another monthly team poll. Back in May, we had a look at the Best Actress Oscars and picked what we thought were the greatest losers in history. Since we all love symmetry, it’s only fair to give the losing gentlemen their chance to shine. And it's also quite topical in December 2013. This year's Best Actor race has so many worthy choices that the losers are inevitably worth celebrating in advance. 

This was an incredibly arduous task. Though we may all have our regular disagreements with AMPAS, there’s no denying the wealth of talent on display in their record of movie history. These are some of the most iconic performances in film history and to narrow them down to just ten is a fool’s errand. List-making always is! How does one judge Mickey Rourke’s brooding anti-hero Wrestler against Chaplin’s satirical Great Dictator?  Is tortured Joaquin Phoenix in The Master too fresh in the memory to compare to tortured James Mason? Jack Lemmon in The Apartment or Jack Lemmon in Some Like It Hot? It’s heartbreaking to leave anyone out, but now it’s done. Have a look for yourself and let us know who would have made your list. 

THE 10 GREATEST BEST-ACTOR-LOSING PERFORMANCES
after the jump

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Reader Spotlight: Peter Chan

We're getting to know the Film Experience community one-by-one. It's taking a long time, bless you! Today we're talking with Peter, a script supervisor.

Peter working on the set of a movie!

Nathaniel: When and why did you start reading TFE?

PETER: I was referred to it from Kenneth in (212) and thought TFE catered to the fun side of film I adored and come awards season... glued. I haven't looked back.

Nathaniel: You work in the industry, right? What's your favorite part of the biz?

PETER: Yeah. I've been a script supervisor primarily for independent features for close to 8 years. It's still strange to me that I get paid to do what I do. Though there are definitely bad days, I generally love what I do. It's great to be on the scene and be so close to the process. My favorite part of this nutty business on the independent level is seeing how sometimes unforeseen elements (ie. weather, talent illness, location flooded) can force the creative team to come up with last minute solutions to make that particular scene work. It really becomes a collaboration and it's a great example of why I love working indies. Some of the best stuff from projects I've worked on resulted from this.

Terrifying, really!Do you remember your first movie?

When I was 6, my dad brought me and my sister to see The Land Before Time. It was very traumatic. Me and my sister cried our eyes out from all the death and abandonment. My dad had to take us out of the theater because I'm sure everyone was staring. I vowed to never go to the movies ever again, thinking it's just a big, dark room where bad things happen. Little did I know....

Do you have a dream project as filmmaking goes?

Oh boy... As a scripty, I'd love to be part of another smart comedy. I love the vibe it sets to the behind-the-scenes team and the relationship it creates amongst cast & crew. On the far-reach scale? A period musical. Oh yeah... my brain gets orgasmic just thinking about that. Someone should really be remaking Newsies now that it's doing well on stage.

these are a few of his favorite things ♫

Name your three favorite movies in each genre.

Sci-Fi/ Fantasy: Gattaca, The Fifth Element and Blade Runner
Horror: The Exorcist, Ringu & does Stephen King's "It" count? I still can't watch the whole thing in one sitting and am relieved once that spider monster thing appears because I know I made it and now I can just enjoy the campiness.  
Comedy: Best In Show, Mean Girls & try to not judge too hard, but Rookie of The Year. I wanted to be Henry Rowengartner so much as a kid.... "Pitcher has a big butt...". That movie will always have a place in my nostalgic heart. -
Drama: Ordinary People, A Streetcar Named Desire & Grave of the Fireflies
Musical: The Sound of Music, The Lion King, Moulin Rouge!

Take away an Oscar. Regift it.

I know Humphrey Bogart was great in The African Queen, but I think it's a travesty that Marlon Brando didn't win for A Streetcar Named Desire. He transformed the way I see how a performance can truly elevate a film.

Which move would you want to live inside of?

As a young kid, it was being a Von Trapp kid in The Sound of Music. As a grown-up kid, The X-Men universe for sure. I don't know what mutant power I'd have (it'd probably be a lame one) but living in a world where it's a reality would be awesome. The strange thing is that I'm not sure if I'll be part of the X-Men or the Brotherhood... Haha.  

Hmmm. If you don't know it's The Brotherhood ;) What's the last movie you saw before these questions?

Bluebird, a film I worked on last winter had its world premiere during this year's Tribeca Film Festival. And yes, Roger Sterling is just as cool as you think he is in person!

Dr. Link

Columbia Journalism Review looks back at a watershed moment in celebrity profiles: Truman Capote meets Marlon Brando
The Film Doctor thinks Wreck-It Ralph is more corporate brainwashing for profit
Movieline Brad Pitt turns furniture designer. Unfortunately you can't see the show which is in New York next week if you're not in the design industry -- I looked it up after treading this; private appointments only 
Awards Daily Soundworks profiles Flight. How many Oscar noms will that film win? 
Studio Briefing Daniel Craig's "get me outta this" feelings for Bond since day one -- I'm amused by how seriously people are taking these comments. Please, it's not like he's going to quit just yet.

My New Plaid Pants a double o version of Do Dump or Marry shook and stirred me. So hard to answer!
Coming Soon It seems like Channing Tatum has as many movies coming out next year as he did this year! New pics from White House Down 
Cinema Blend the last star-laden version of Les Misérables, which was stupidly not the musical at the time,  comes to DVD in time for Christmas. Remember that one? Uma Thurman is Fantine and Liam Neeson is Jean Valjean
Family Room Gary Ross not at all sad that he walked away from The Hunger Games
/Film the beloved (but sometimes reviled) indie comic hit Elfquest from the 70s and 80s is still trying to become a movie. Fans who made a short film type trailer are hoping to be the ones to accomplish it. I'm a bit confused by their short though since it only features the female elves. It has to be a measure of Elfquest's impact that I recognized every single character... and not like distant memories either.

Today's Watch...
Well, if you have a couple of hours to spare that is...

Good concept though. They've linked up the Bond films chronologically, and then used roughly five minutes of film from each in sequential order to create a FrankenBond movie.

After Link

Letters of Note a telegram from Marlon Brando to Marilyn Monroe
Old Hollywood Rita Moreno West Side Story rehearsal photo. Love it.
In Contention "The top ten shots of 2011" Tapley's annual selection.
Cartoon Brew is interviewing the makers of the Oscar nominated animated short films each morning. This one is on The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore which I reviewed last week.
People White Collar star Matt Bomer who will soon be seen (and a lot of him, too, presumably) in Steven Soderbergh's Magic Mike comes out. I've been so busy I almost missed this news. Congratulations Bomer!

The Incredible Suit rants about the whole embarrassing ordeal of a national awards show (BAFTA) that's not aired live and then only aired in a highlights package. It's true. That's one of the reasons why it's the only regular movie awards show that many movie fans seem to feel okay about skipping.
My New Plaid Pants Which is Hotter? Vertigo edition
Capital New York Sheila O'Malley on the Best Actress performances
Rope of Silicon more pics from the set of After Earth. RoS is right. Jaden Smith does look more and more like his daddy.
Oscar Metrics Mark Harris argues for eliminated the animated feature category.
La Daily Musto an amusing he doesn't swing that way story from Raquel Welch about her hots for Stephen Boyd on the set of Fantastic Voyage. When I was a little kid I loved Stephen Boyd. Of course I did.

Coming Soon Bryan Fuller the genius behind the very original series Wonderfalls and Pushing Daisies is sadly only doing reinterpretations now. We hope it's due to Hollywood's risk aversion and not due to his creative well drying up. His next two projects are a Munsters redo (pushed back) and now a TV series about Hannibal Lecter which has a direct-to-series order. Difficult to imagine it in series form but Fuller does fine work.
24 Frames Emmanuel Lubezki wins the ASC cinematography award for The Tree of Life. Next stop Oscar... Or will it swing The Artist's way?
The Wrap Oscar nominated composer Dory Previn (Two for the Seesaw) dies.
Movie|Line "Oscar season distilled into 14 words." lol because it's true.
Just Jared First look at Brad Pitt (and Richard Jenkins) in Cogan's Trade

And just in cast you missed it, the teaser to Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

The Film Experience is the only site that seems to know who Benjamin Walker is -- it cracks me up that people headline this as a Tim Burton project just because he is the only "name" among the executive team -- but that's because we're the best. And the most Streep/Stage obsessed of movie sites.