The Furniture: The Age of Innocence and the Living Museum

"The Furniture" honors the Production Design of The Age of Innocence (1993) for its 25th anniversary year. The Martin Scorsese classic is newly available from the Criterion Collection. (Click on the images to see them in magnified detail.)

by Daniel Walber

The final act of Martin Scorsese’s The Age of Innocence leaps through time. The ever-roving camera comes to a temporary rest in the home of Newland Archer (Daniel Day-Lewis), married to May (Winona Ryder) and entering the longue durée of family life. But this relative physical stasis comes with the sudden acceleration of time. Scorsese and editor Thelma Schoonmaker fast-forward through years of business, leisure and child-raising. After nearly two hours of social whirlpools and lingering formalities, suddenly it’s a new century.

But despite the speed of this sequence, it’s important to pay close attention. On the wall of Newland’s family home rests one very famous painting. Somehow, through the magic of cinema alone, our hero has ended up with JMW Turner’s The Fighting Temeraire. 

It’s an icon for his last days, a masterpiece of a bygone era being towed away...

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Beauty vs Beast: Oscar's Best Bits

Jason from MNPP here, nursing my annual Oscars hangover but mostly feeling just fine about last night's winners. (The high I got off of James Ivory's Elio Shirt carried me through the whole show, honestly.) As far as a production the show had its highs (loved that cut quartz set) and its lows (really not feeling that war movie montage) but it's the two stand-out visual gags of the evening that will probably stand the test of time are the subjects of this week's "Beauty vs Beast" poll...

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PREVIOUSLY We've got to give Jennifer Lawrence some credit because she actually held her own on The Film Experience against no less fierce an opponent than queen goddess mother Michelle Pfeiffer herself - Michelle still won last week's mother!-themed poll (of course) with 70% of the vote, but it would've been way worse for most mortals. Still, said Brad:

"Give me a movie where Michelle Pfeiffer taunts and tortures Jennifer Lawrence for six or more hours and I'll be happy forever."

Beauty vs Beast: Home is Where the Hearts Are

Jason from MNPP here with the last "Beauty vs Beast" before the Oscars. This week's poll doesn't have anything to do with the Oscars though because let's face it - the Academy, bless their shiny hearts, is never going to be as cool and adventurous as our host Nathaniel is. Nathaniel dropped his Top Ten of 2017 over the weekend and at #9 was a movie AMPAS was never going to go anywhere near - Darren Aronofsky's spectacularly divisive mother! starring Jennifer Lawrence (who's got Red Sparrow out this weekend) as a sink-bracing Suzy Homemaker under, uh, extreme duress. But we're never going to forget mother!, and we doubt you will either - even if it's just to picture Michelle Pfeiffer whenever you slip a little extra something into your lemonade...

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PREVIOUSLY We wished Sidney Poitier a happy birthday last Monday, wondering why he wasn't the one who got AMPAS' attention in 1967's In the Heat of the Night - he certainly got our attention, rounding up 85% of your vote from his co-star (and statue-snatcher) Rod Steiger. Said Red:

"Watching Sydney Poitier reassured me that I could grow up into the kind of adult I wanted to be. He still had what we kids had and adults had lost. He was honest, honourable, brave and full of joy."

Here is "Where is Kyra?"

Chris here. It has been over a year since Where is Kyra? kicked off Michelle Pfeiffer's return to cinemas with a very quiet debut at Sundance and we've been awaiting word on a release ever since. We've had two big releases and Emmy/Globes nominations since, but this once had fallen beneath the cracks. Kyra's mixed response met a very unforgiving distribution landscape, but it appears we'll finally get our eyes on the film this spring.

From the looks of the first trailer, Andrew Dosunmu's Mother of George follow-up looks to be as laguid and moody as we've been promised if a touch more starkly engaging (our Murtada was impressed, particularly with our beloved Pfeiffer). After a trio of supporting turns, it's about time we get to see the actress reemerge with a larger showcase for her talents, even if it is on a smaller canvas.

Mini distributor Paladin Films has the releasing duties, so we're probably heading towards a tiny release. Regardless, we are psyched to see Pfeiffer back in a leading role that puts the focus squarely on her abilities. Where is Kyra? opens in limited release on April 6!

"Ant-Man and the Wasp" Peek and Digestif?

by Nathaniel R

Yes yes we already talked about Michelle Pfeiffer once today but where is the perfect goddess in the first, thankfully non-plot driven, teaser for Ant-Man and the Wasp? The trailer only really focuses on the second titular character, and will surely be just one of many trailers if recent history is indication with would be blockbusters. 

The trailer and a few Marvel-centric notes after the jump...

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