Ray of Link

Rope of Silicon early commercials starring the ascendant Michael Fassbender
W Magazine a horizontal pictorial of Fassy. I am more and more worried he'll be the surprise snub at the Oscars. I really am. May my prophecy fail me!
NY Times a profile of George Lucas on the eve of his supposed retirement from blockbuster filmmaking. But first Red Tails (2012)
24 Frames Octavia Spencer is getting choosy about her roles but Hollywood is still not awash in leading roles for acclaimed black actresses.

Pajiba on Michelle Williams body body body GQ photoshoot.
Guardian offers a guide of 20 pictures to watch for at the Sundance Film Festival which begins... tomorrow!
Low Resolution Carnage cast power rankings
FlavorWire on TCM's ten most influential silent films. See, The Artist is good for cinema. People are looking back. Silent films are so wonderful. I hope you've seen a bunch of them.

Kenneth in the (212) fans "react" to Madonna winning her second Golden Globe. LOL.
Boy Culture I knew Matt would have smart things to say about the Madonna Globe win and Elton John's ridiculous pissiness about it. Matt on Madonna's "ungracious" speech. 

What was narcissistic about Madonna's sweet speech, anyway? She accepted an award and thanked her co-writers and her leading lady. Sure, she forgot to self-flagellate, but...

Hee!

Guardian Speaking of The Artist. I knew we'd eventually get a story about total idiot moviegoers. Seems some people want their money back because they didn't realize it was a silent movie. Excuse me, I amend. Not idiots, Assholes. Silent films can be just as amazing as sound films.  
In Contention on the costumes of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Ultra Culture 14 Things That Armie Hammer looks like in J Edgar. Hee
Paper Mag has the season 5 poster for Mad Men but to give it context they include all the others too.

If you must know, not that *I'm* counting, that is 67 days away. How will you spend those days?

When the Globes Cut To Commercial...

One of my very favorite things about the Golden Globes is the scan of the crowd whenever they're cutting to commercial or returning. You feel like you're in the room, mingling. Or, rather, gawking. You catch little glimpses of conversations ("they know each other?!?"), unofficial screen reunions (Colin & Julianne!), and you end up pondering the sometimes amusing seating arrangements. For instance, Madonna and Meryl Streep, once vocal rivals over Evita (1996), were separated only by Meryl's dutiful husband Don Gummer who never seems to enjoy these things. At one commercial break Madonna was seen gabbing away. He said not a word. 

Here are some of my favorites shots from the evening.

Zooey Deschanel has her thumbs up for Ryan Kwanten. Whatever for? Care to make a guess? I immediately made a false memory that she had actually played Lizzy Caplan's role on True Blood. If you squint they do look kind of alike and imagine what Zooey could do on V.

Laura Linney has either been demoted to the TV section, that outer elevated rim, or she was running about visiting. But she and Charlize obviously like each other. There will  be enthusiastic hugging and kissing.

Viola was extremely eager to get her Moet refilled (wouldn't you be?). Octavia is probably looking off into the distance but it's fun to think that's she's all "slow down girl! You haven't won yet!" 

[sniffle]

three more after the jump including two Marilyns

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Golden Globe-ing It. Live Blog

6:15 Welcome to the ???nth annual Golden Globes Live Blog. Now with more fever, saltines and ginger ale. I am sick so it is a rare Golden Globes without booze. Which should be illegal. (How to survive the Gervais Smug-a-Thon without a Vodka-Thon?) The first vision that greeted me was George Clooney of whom I am currently bored with (It'll pass), the second vision was Octavia Spencer and Melissa McCarthy gabbing silently. At one point Melissa even cupped her hand to tell Octavia a secret.

I would've voted for you since I wasn't nominated!"

Maybe? 

6:31 Jessica Chastain all giggly and Celia-esque while talking to E! reporters. She even did cute little spins and hand flips to demonstrate her Givenchy. But the camera people and booth barkers at E! never ever take their meds. They pan up and down. They shift focus. They put one celeb in a tiny box while another poses. They 360º it. My head spins. And it's not from the sick.

6:39 Sarah Michelle Gellar let her two year old choose her dress. Way to armor yourself against the fashion police reviews. SMG's idea of good date night is IHOP. The more you know! 

6:40 Diane Lane looking like a movie star as usual. A movie star without movies, unfortunately.

6:47 My cat is howling. He is not impressed with celebrities or my sweatshirt and sweatpants and ginger ale ensemble. The other day he stopped in his tracks to watch the TV for a full 10 minutes which has not happened since Microcosmos. What paralyzed him with interest? A PBS show Birds of the God - Birds of Paradise. 

6:49 And no Monty has not told me what he thought of any of the Oscar movies since Bridesmaids He is like the Haley's comet of Oscar pundits.

6:52 Rooney Mara is truly terrible at being interviewed. But then Ryan Seacrest is asking her whether she kept her "intimate piercings" from Dragon Tattoo so it would take a sassy pro to deflect that and own the situation. She merely says 'some of them. I didn't want to have to repierce'. No no noRooney. You don't answer those questions. You deflect that either sassily, mysteriously, flirtatiously or... if all else fails, a  look that could kill. We know you have the latter in your arsenal.

poll by twiigs.com

 7:07 Bérénice Bejo has not seen The Artist in three months. #uselessredcarpetconfessions.

7:09 Commercial break. Starting to feel a bit better. Having fish for dinner. Cat howling to commence again in 5...4...3...

7:15 Charlize Theron needs to give every young starlet lessons in red carpet banter. She is so excellent at it -- even with laryngitis. MORE with Theron, Moore, Pfeiffer, Streep and the lot of 'em.

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Red Carpet Convos: Critics Choice Easter Eggs

Awards season is truly upon us. The red carpets are unfurled and waiting for the glitterati to trample them. Tomorrow night is the Golden Globes (we'll be here live-blogging it old' style if you'd like to join us!) but for now one last look back at the Critics Choice Awards held Thursday night. For this edition of Red Carpet Convos I've invited Joanna Robinson from Pajiba to join me. Joanna is a longtime reader of The Film Experience (she even won a contest once years ago!) and a delightful person, too. 

Nathaniel: Hey Joanna. Welcome. Let's start with the pastel field and uh... HAPPY EASTER!?!

Olsen, Pyle, Woodley, Miller, and Kruger

Joanna:  ‪As faberge as Elizabeth Olsen looks, I think she looks better than her "fashion plate" sisters have looked in years‬.

Nathaniel: ‪Give her time. If the Olsens practice hand-me-down fashions she's in trouble.‬ 

Joanna:  ‪I see burlap sacks in your future, girl!‬ Also, whoever designed Diane Kruger's dress hates both women and their anatomy.

This is Joanna! Go read her stuff.Nathaniel:  ‪Speaking of women and their anatomy. We've gone so "exotic" for this red carpet convo. I'm speaking to a biological woman.‬ 

Joanna:  ‪I have anatomy!‬ 

Nathaniel: What IS going on with that dress though. It's like her breasts are being caged in.

Joanna:  ‪And around her, um, lady garden?  Are those horns?  I am baffled.‬ 

Nathaniel:  ‪I was thinking it was a rare moment of restraint. The designer wanted to ‬‪trap her vagina in as tight as her breasts but decided to go "subtle"‬ 

Joanna:  ‪Speaking of subtlety, I actually think Missi Pyle looks lovely.  Really sweet.‬

Nathaniel: Agreed. Though sweet, lovely, and subtle aren't the adjectives I normally think of with Missi for which I entirely blame her for being so convincing and hilarious as a crude perpetually drunk and horny partier in Spring Breakdown. Tell me you've seen it!

Joanna:  ‪I haven't!  But her larger than life performances in Dodgeball and Big Fish are enough to make me a Pyle fan.  And her Lina Lamont impression in The Artist was perfection.‬ 

Nathaniel: Yes. I almost wanted there to be sound just so she could say "I CAINNNNNNtSTANNIT."‬

Funereal Black, Dashing Men, and "Team Help" after the jump...

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Distant Relatives: Walkabout and Meek's Cutoff

Robert here w/ Distant Relatives, exploring the connections between one classic and one contemporary film.

Jenny Agutter in "Walkabout" and Michelle Williams in "Meek's Cutoff"

Western people have something of a parasitic relationship with nature. But that's okay. If Werner Herzog is to believed, nature doesn't much like us either. The two films we look at this week, Nicolas Roeg's Walkabout and Kelly Reichardt's Meek's Cutoff look at the relationship of people trapped within the land and how it compares to their relationship with people of the land or who represent the land in their foreignness and threat to those considered 'civilized.' Along the way issues of trust, understanding, innocence, power, gender and whether one can overcome the attitudes and beliefs into which they're boxed, are encountered along with predictably arrid conditions.

Walkabout starts to roll when a teenaged girl and her younger brother (Jenny Agutter and Luc Roeg) are violently abandoned in the Australian outback. They wander lost for a good deal of time until they encounter an Aborigine (David Gulpilil) who becomes something of their guide despite the great distance in culture and understanding between the three. Meek's Cutoff follows a wagon train lost on the Oregon Trail. Of no help is their wilderness guide Stephen Meek (Bruce Greenwood), though of some help may be an Indian they've captured. Leading the contingent to trust in and follow their captives lead, though more out of desperation than principle is one woman, Emily (Michelle Williams).

Both films could be read as tales of reversal of fortune where individuals from the intruding aggressor class find themselves at the will of someone they consider strange and savage...

Questions of Trust and Gender after the jump.

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