Randomness: Xavier, Fassy, Pedro, Hathaway and "Best" Directors

My New Plaid Pants reminds us that Michael Fassbender and Steve McQueen are reuniting (YES) post Hunger for a movie called Shame, which is not a remake of the Ingmar Bergman flick but a contemporary drama about sex addiction. Carey Mulligan, who looks nothing like Fassy, is playing his sister. Filming now!

It just occurred to me that I've been calling The King's Speech "Royalty Porn" for months now. It has a whole new meaning now.

In Contention does some investigative journalism about that gay porn / King's Speech controversy we were just discussing last night. As for Guy's note that the porn was shot before production on The King's Speech began I have no idea what to think. I can only assume that the wall treatments discussed in the film experience interview were done to emphasize preexisting conditions -- Stewart didn't claim she made up the look, only that she was recreating it and layering it (perhaps to make it read better on film?). Not to get all serious about a very funny news story, but I do hope this doesn't overshadow Stewart's accomplishments. I mean, Christ, Topsy-Turvy. You know?

Less smutty links!
The Movies Were Wrong About Everything TRILOGY METER.
In Contention Kris Tapley's annual good (cinematography) read: top ten shots of the year. Love the inclusion of a sweet moment from Cairo Time as it's quite unexpected.
The House Next Door on writer/director/actor/wunderkind Xavier Dolan (Heartbeats, I Killed My Mother)
i09 interesting interview with Andrew Chambliss, a sci-fi television writer on what that particular grind is like.
The Wrap Costume Design Guild winners: The King's Speech (period), Black Swan (contemporary) and Alice in Wonderland (fantasy)
The AV Club ponders the age-old question: Can Natalie Portman act? I wish Nick's piece on Portman were done to be in conversation with this one.
OMGBLOG Natalie Portman cries a lot, a supercut.

Here's the latest Oscar Host in Training Videos. These are SO fun. This one features Anne Hathaway vs. the teleprompter.

Finally, EW releases a "25 Greatest Working Directors" list. To save you all the trouble of viewing 25 pages. The list goes like so:

1. David Fincher
2. Christopher Nolan
3. Steven Spielberg
4. Martin Scorsese
5. Darren Aronofsky
6. Joel & Ethan Coen
7. Quentin Tarantino
8. Terrence Malick
9. Clint Eastwood
10. Pedro Almodóvar
11. Paul Thomas Anderson
12. Guillermo Del Toro
13. Roman Polanski
14. Danny Boyle
15. Kathryn Bigelow
16. David O. Russell
17. David Lynch
18. James Cameron
19. Peter Jackson
20. Edgar Wright
21. Spike Lee
22. J.J. Abrams
23. Brad Bird
24. Mike Leigh
25. Wes Anderson

It's a curious lineup for sure. And it's absolutely bizarre to see Almodóvar below 9 other people but whatevs. He makes films that require US list-makers to read (GASP). Most of the obvious casualties (Weerathesakul, Haneke, Assayas, Audiard, Desplechin, Denis, etcetera) are wildly acclaimed filmmakers working outside the English language so it's kind of a miracle to see Pedro up so high even though he should be higher. Despite its curious choices, it's also just as expected since you can always tell when a list was made based on what's on it. And you can tell that this list was made within the past 5 or so months since 4 of the 5 current Best Director nominees and heat from the Oscars last year is also accounted for. I'm still chuckling about everyone suddenly claiming they've been a fan all along of Kathryn Bigelow last year. (I have been which is why I know people are lying through their teeth about their devotion! It was a lonely fandom.)

P.S. [UPDATED] Speaking of Almodovar though... People are getting excited for this new reportedly horrific film The Skin That I Inhabit which released this curiousity-inducing original teaser poster to the left and now this fan art has popped up which I'm sure it well intentioned (as fan art always is) but it makes the movie look a bit like a Saw knockoff.

And if there's one thing one could never say about Almodóvar, it's that he's not imitative. People steal from him. Not the other way around ;) [Thanks to Iggy for sharing the link]

P.P.S. Pajiba offers a compare and contrast list to EW's list 25 Most Profitable Directors and Awards Daily responds with a 50 They Forgot list.

Podcast: Oscar Switches, Summer Dreams

See?

We are trying to get weekly. We recorded the new podcast early this week (included at the end of this post) as today I knew I would be all wrapped up in a wedding. Well, attending one that is. But you know how time consuming they are. It was a lovely snowy Connecticut wedding and I'm just back. So here is the new podcast. There's a bit of a lull in Oscar happenings as we wait for the big night, so this week, Joe and Katey and I go a little more Off-Gold than usual. 

Topics include:

• Chris Nolan (Inception and a brief Memento cameo)
• The Jesse Eisenberg Show 
• Spirit Award Best Actress ballot. Could there be a Natalie Portman upset?
• The success of the Best Picture field at the box office
• Our individual least favorite Best Picture nominees (surprising results!)
• Toy Story 3. Is it a great movie or just a great 15 year narrative?
• Oscar Narratives. Reading purpose.
• Super 8 and Superbowl trailers
• Crushing on Michael Fassbender
• Nostalgia for Harrison Ford
• Reese Witherspoon: "Think about your choices, lady!"
• Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher

Join the conversation in the comments.

Podcast: Oscar Switches, Summer Dreams

Yes, No, Maybe So: "X-Men: First Class"

The trailer has arrived.

Travel back in time with me to the late 70s. Yes, I know the movie we're about to discuss takes place in the early 60s. But I wasn't alive yet and neither were many of you. Wee Nathaniel was alive in the 1970s (shut up!). Jump forward to Christmas 1979. In Nathaniel's Christmas stocking, the greatest gift he'd known until that time: The Uncanny X-Men #129. He tore through the pages, died right on the spot from joy and went to heaven. The End.

The point is this: no matter how many bad superhero movies may come, no matter how glutted the superhero genre becomes at the movies, no matter how many bad X-Movies arrive (Hi, X-Men 3 and X-Men Origins: Wolverine. You suck!) Nathaniel will always be susceptible to Charles Xavier and the School For Gifted Youngsters. He will always hope that the movies will ever capture the magic of those first comic books. He will always be glad that Bryan Singer's X-2 (the second or third best superhero movie ever made) nearly managed it in a few scenes.

To this point the X-Men movie series has ignored The Hellfire Club, who were all introduced in this very (personally sacred) issue that changed my young life. I was a junkie thereafter for mutants, comic books, and spectacularly-bodied superheroines like Storm & Phoenix and spectacularly-bodied ice queens like Emma Frost, The White Queen. Kitty Pryde was also introduced in this movie but she was only 13. (Even then I preferred the older ladies. Storm and Phoenix were probably only 20 or something but to me that was ADULT. anyway.... reign it in. geezus!

This time the movies are going there, Emma Frost (January Jones) and all.

X-Men: First Class trailer and further anxiety after the jump! Wheeeee

Click to read more ...

Jane + Mr. Rochester. TLA?

First clip from the new Jane Eyre starring rising star Mia Wasikowska and the already-obsessed-over-by-cool-people Michael Fassbender.

I think rinnyp said it best on twitter when she said "fan your privates".

My memory has gone entirely blank on the Jane Eyre plot. Here's to cultural literacy! My only memory of the book at this point is that my mom loves it. It's quite an unexpected follow up to Sin Nombre as Cary Fukunaga's sophomore feature, don't you think?