Q&A: Resurrections, Musicals and "Julianne Pfeiffer"

I feel like if I talk about the Oscars anymore than I already do I will slowly become one! Gold plating, lopped off head, ... the works. This week's question were extremely Oscar focused. In order to escape my immobile sword-holding genital-free fate, I'm not answering them just yet. I'm also not answering any "top ten" questions but feel free to go on giving me top ten list ideas ;) 

I'm suddenly realizing this Q&A series is like writing 10 blog posts at once. Which is... well, must rethink this series! So only non-Oscar focused questions today and then we'll just gag on naked gold men tomorrow and Wednesday, K? 

Here we go.

Luiserghio: If you could resurrect one classic director to direct a modern actress/actor?
Nathaniel:  My first thought was William Wyler for just about any actor or actress that needs a chance to really nail a top flight dramatic adult piece. Who has a better track record for directing actors to grand serious performances with nuance and depth? Nobody. But then Vincente Minnelli directing Anne Hathaway popped up and I'll go with that. Not because she wants to play Judy Garland and he's the expert but because he understands color and musical numbers and Hathaway would soar under both conditions. Plus she seems to have an 'Old Hollywood' soul as it were so she'd be perfect for any resurrection.

Mandy Patinkin, Eartha Kitt and Toni Collette in "The Wild Party"Robert G: If you could guarantee one stage musical from any time in history would be adapted to a film, what would it be?
Nathaniel: If you'd ask me this five years ago I would've said Sweeney Todd. 

This is such a tough question as there are so many great ones. Many stage musicals I love wouldn't transfer well like A Choru -- whoops! I regularly try and picture "The Light in the Piazza" and "Caroline, Or Change" as feature films. I think a masterpiece could be made from Sondheim's "Follies" but what director alive is both genius enough to handle the complexity of it and has enough industry muscle to demand that only extraordinarily gifted singing actors handle the vocally demanding songs? So maybe I should just say Michael John LaChiusa's "The Wild Party" because I am weirdly obsessed with it and because there's more room for error. By which I mean it's busy with noise and dancing and banter and that's easier for modern Hollywood to understand than pure singing musicals. If they made a mistake here and there they wouldn't destroy a masterwork and we'd still get an entertaining film. Please note: This guarantee wish comes with Toni Collette reprising her lead role as alcy showgirl "Queenie".

Queenie was a blonde and her age stood still and she danced twice a day in the
... vau-de-ville ♫ 

Sean C: Which of the four actors do you think has the biggest opportunity to drop the theatrical dramedy-ic ball in CARNAGE?

John, Jodie, Christoph and Kate checking out TFE's Oscar charts!

Nathaniel: Such a mean-spirited (or maybe just worried?) question. I'll give you my answer after the jump.

Click to read more ...

Pfeiffer on the Move...

Michelle Pfeiffer sightings are so rare that we must share each and every one of them. The Power of Pfandom Compels Us. She arrived in LAX two days ago so these pap' shots cropped up. Where was she coming from?

She's got her passport so my guess is a break from Dark Shadows (2012) filming in London? Or maybe she's done already. You never know.

The latest from Tim Burton is an adaptation of the cult favorite soap opera about the matriarch of a troubled family (Michelle Pfeiffer) on a crumbling creepy estate. Her centuries-old vampire relative returns (Johnny Depp). Jude Law bestie/Angelina Jolie ex Johnny Lee Miller plays Pfeiffer's brother and the ubiquitous Chloe Moretz her rebellious daughter. Most promisingly, Helena Bonham Carter plays her live in psychiatrist. A live in psychiatrist! Oh the thrilling actressy neuroses that portends.

(Don't you love how I just described the entire movie like it's about Pfeiffer when it's really all about Depp!?! I'm gifted at self-deception!)  

The movie will arrive on May 11th, 2012 and no matter the quality it will make a bajillion dollars and win the Art Direction Oscar which Burton movies always do no matter how gaudy and McGothic they end up looking! 

Pfeiffer's 'Dark Shadows' home... under construction

I miss the days when the thought of a new Tim Burton was exciting. Though perhaps we should be hopeful. He did direct that iconic Catwoman performance afterall and Pfeiffer has always had a knack for elevating genre pieces (see: Catwoman, What Lies Beneath, Ladyhawke, Witches of Eastwick, Wolf, etcetera)

Are you excited about Dark Shadows or have you just given up with Burton?

When Bad Things Happen To Good Actresses (Part Zillion)

What are the chances that Trespass (2011) in which my beloved Nicole Kidman is soiled by association with hacktor Nicolas Cage is as terrible as Next (2007) in which my beloved Julianne Moore was soiled by association with hacktor Nicolas Cage?

Slim? I mean Next is an atrocious movie... so Trespass would have to be less embarrassing, right? Famous last words?

The only reason I saw Next back in the day was because I'm a masochist/completist with Julianne. Even Julianne herself felt sorry for me when I told her I'd seen nearly all of them.

Really? My god, you've seen some junk then!

I haven't been anywhere close to a completist with Nicki Kidman

Click to read more ...

Linkface

Scouting New York Fun/creepy. Take a retro tour of American Psycho's New York City landmarks. 
Pajiba Speaking of Christian Bale. The web is abuzz with all those Dark Knight Rises on set photos now that filming has commenced. I agree with Iggy on Tom Hardy's lipless "Bane" look, however true to character it may be. Iggy wrote...

Hardy. Better with lips.

it must be a cinematic crime hiring Hardy, the most lusciuous male lips, and make him wear that thing. Could this be considered playing against type?

Geekscape Since Batman is in the air, why not a ranking of all filmed Catwomen? I find it hilarious that Anne Hathaway is included in this six-wide field since she hasn't even purred yet. Who knows how good she will or won't be? The Pfeiffer write up is insightful.
Twitch Superhero fatigue has not yet set in. Commissioned scripts for Ant Man and Doctor Strange have been turned in to Marvel Studios. 
My New Plaid Pants surveys the current wanting cinema crop 
Twitch Forbes Highest Paid Actors list: Johnny Depp and Leonardo DiCaprio are up top but the list is soooo 1990s as if nothing ever changes in Hollywood. 

La Daily Musto Hello Gorgeous. Lauren Ambrose (Six Feet Under) will star in the revival of Funny Girl. I'm stunned and happy. Here's a video making the rounds of her doing the famous closing number "My Man"

It's such an interesting choice because it clearly signifies that the producers are NOT trying to duplicate Barbra. Which is, I think most people of sound minds would admit, the only sane way to approach reviving such an iconic connected-to-one-legend piece of theater.

Austin Translation "there's a snape in my boots" 
Regretsy Zombie Golden Girls 
Broadway Blog the original Evita and Che, Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin are reuniting for a limited run concert on Broadway. 

Finally, mark your calendars for August 31st. Gonzo 80s 'classic' Scarface will be showing at 500 screens nationwide to celebrate an epic Blu-Ray release. I'm not wild about the movie which is so widely embraced by gangstas who love its excess unironically and ignore its cautionary tale finale. But if you've never seen it you'd be crazy to miss the chance to see Michelle Pfeiffer's first great performance on the big screen. That year's supporting actress nominees can kiss her skinny pampered ass. Imagine that arguably star-making backless dress / elevator descent entrance on the big screen! Al Pacino's ambitious criminal is hypnotized and so were movie audiences, rescuing La Pfeiffer from her then status as 'Grease 2 girl'. If her entrance isn't enough imagine those 80s dance moves, or the huge-ass sunglasses. Chase those Pfeiffer visuals with mounds and mounds of coke snorting and utter icy contempt for everyone in her field of vision... including herself. She's mesmerizing. Oh and, yeah, some people would describe the movie that way, too.

Your Fav' Eighties Ladies!

Over the past couple of months we've been holding "Best Character" polls for Oscar's Best Actress category history. We asked not who should win the Oscar but which characters own real estate in your memory. Previously you selected Miranda Priestley, Clarice Starling and other iconic bitches as your favorites from the Nineties and the Aughts. 

But what of the 1980s? Here are the results. *asterisks indicate Oscar winning performances.

Three unarguably iconic characters: Sophie, Celie and Aurora

1981-1985

1. *SOPHIE ZAWISTOWSKI (Meryl Streep) from Sophie's Choice
2. CELIE (Whoopi Goldberg) from The Color Purple 
3. *AURORA GREENWAY (Shirley Maclaine) from Terms of Endearment
4. KAREN SILKWOOD (Meryl Streep) from Silkwood
5. VICTORIA GRANT (Julie Andrews) from Victor/Victoria

Diane Keaton's wondrous performance in REDS (1981) has not been forgotten.Runners Up: To complete the top ten you'd need (in descending order) a third Streep with KAREN BLIXEN from Out of Africa, Debra Winger's EMMA GREENWAY from Terms..., Jessica Lange's rendition of troubled movie star Frances, and with nearly a tie for tenth place Katharine Hepburn's *ETHEL THAYER from On Golden Pond and Diane Keaton's LOUISE BRYANT from Reds. 

Observations: The Streepster's reascendance in the Aughts has obviously polished her earlier work to a healthy shine which would partially explain her tremendous lead as "Sophie" (well, that and the performance itself) and Karen Blixen's near top five placement, despite being hardly as memorable as Sophie or the other Streep/Karen. 

Weakest Showing: While Jessica Lange was an Oscar favorite in the 1980s, her JEWEL IVY in Country received 0 votes. But then Oscar's oft-derided "Year of the Farm Wives" fared terribly, with all three of the farm women failing to muster much enthusiasm. And to think they could have had Kathleen Turner's fiction writer Joan Wilder from Romancing the Stone in there. (She would've hit the top five most memorable characters, don'cha think?)

1986-1990

Dangerous Ladies ruled the Late Eighties

1. LT ELLEN RIPLEY (Sigourney Weaver) in Aliens
2. ALEX FORREST (Glenn Close) in Fatal Attraction
3. *ANNIE WILKES (Kathy Bates) in Misery
4. SUSIE DIAMOND (Michelle Pfeiffer) in The Fabulous Baker Boys
5. MARQUISE DE MERTEUIL (Glenn Close) in Dangerous Liaisons

Runners Up: Completing the top ten in descending order are Julia Robert's Pretty Woman VIVIAN WARD (who initially looked like a top three threat but kept fading throughout the course of voting), Cher's *LORETTA CASTORINI in Moonstruck, Streep's SUZANNE VALE (AKA CARRIE FISHER) in Postcards from the Edge, Anjelica Huston's hard as diamonds LILLY in The Grifters and in a tie for tenth place Holly Hunter's JANE CRAIG from Broadcast News and Jessica Tandy's *MISS DAISY the one who who drove right over the Pfeiffer/Oscar dream. Damn you, Oscar voters!

Observations: Looking back it looks like Meryl Streep owned the first half of the 1980s while Glenn Close threatened her dominance in the decade's second half. And to think they might go at it again this year?!? This poll was the most contentious of the six polls we've held with very small differences in rank between the winners and much in the way of surges and drops. A certain formidable alien fighting woman was always out front but Alex Forrest refused to be ignored and wouldn't allow her a huge lead. Spots 3 through 10 shifted repeatedly with my beloved Kathleen Turner's PEGGY SUE just missing the top ten. [Sniffle]

Fonda and Bridges in THE MORNING AFTER (1986)Weakest Showing: Jane Fonda's ALEX from The Morning After  (which Nick and I tried to recall on the "1986" podcast) received 0 votes from the nearly 800 cast. Of Fonda's seven nominations it's her last and (obviously) her least remembered. It's currently available on Netflix's Instant Watch. Sadly Sally Kirkland's ANNA only barely registered. Kirkland is best known to today's audiences as that crazy-dressing lady who sometimes shows up at the Oscars but that surprise nomination for 1987 was hard-earned. Don't believe me? Watch the movie on Netflix Instant Watch.

Should we do the 1970s?  
What do you make of these 80s polls? Did your fellow TFE readers choose well or would you like to stalk them with Alex Forrest's butcher knife, Ripley's flame-thrower or Annie's hobblin' hammer and right the wrongs they done?