Venice at Home – Day 5: Returning Champions

by Cláudio Alves

The fifth day of competition finds three award-winning filmmakers vying for more golden plaudits. Rebecca Zlotowsky's directorial works have left strong impressions across some of Europe's biggest festivals, and this is her first time in Venice. Her new film, Other People's Children, stars Virginie Efira and Roschdy Zem – he's also in competition as a director with a different film. Next, Italy's  Emanuele Crialese returns with L'immensità after nabbing nine prizes in past editions of the festival. Finally, there's Darren Aronofsky who is a former Venice champion whose new project, The Whale, is already enshrined in Best Actor Oscar buzz for Brendan Fraser.

So today we're looking back at Aronofsky's 2008 Golden Lion winner, Zlotowsky's sensual summer, and Crialese's voyage to the New World…

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Almost There: Faye Dunaway in "Barfly"

by Cláudio Alves

I confess myself surprised by the reader's choice in this last round of voting for the Almost There series. When it came time for you to select what 1987 performance should be explored this week, your votes decidedly indicate a preference for Faye Dunaway's post-Mommie Dearest Oscar bid, Barfly. This under-discussed Barbet Schroeder flick was made from a semiautobiographical script by the bonafide poet of the gutter, Charles Bukowski. It competed in Cannes but it didn't cause much fanfare, mainly valued as an acting showcase for its cast, led by Mickey Rourke as a tic-ridden sing-songy facsimile of Bukowski himself.

As for Faye Dunaway, she takes around 22 minutes to enter this picture about alcoholism and the addicts who scuttle from the light like bugs. Haggard-looking and sitting lonesome at the end of a bar, she's quite distant from the image of a glamourous diva many might associate with the actress' screen persona…

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Team Experience: Great Losers, Actor Edition (Pt 2)

ICYMI we polled all contributors and came up with a list of The Greatest Losing Best Actor Nominees. As ever I must thank Handsome Joe Canada (aka Amir Soltani) for organizing these Team endeavors. If you really wanna dive in (and why wouldn't you?) you should also check out Michael, David and JA's individual lists here, here, and here.

My own list was topped by Dustin Hoffman's Tootsie who came in at #7 in the finals. It was a joy to be asked to think about that star turn again for the write up, though once I was happily ensconced in reminder clips it was hard to pull away; Tootsie is a longtime resident of the Rewatchable Hall of Fame!  A full 70% of my personal choices made the communal top ten, which is the most overlap I've ever had with a Team list. My missing heroes were Paul Newman in Hud (1963, previously discussed), Sean Penn in Dead Man Walking (1995) and Roy Scheider in All That Jazz (1979, previously discussed).

Did these men almost make our group list? Find out who did after the jump...

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Stripper of the Day: "Nancy Callahan"

While Magic Mike is in theaters we're celebrating memorable movie strippers.

Just a horny excop watching an exotic dancer

Though Sin City (2005) plays like a compilation of short films rather than a traditional narrative feature, the story that's barely tying it all together features an old cop Hartigan (Bruce Willis) with a heart condition and his life-changing rescue of a kidnapped a little girl named Nancy Hallaway. Hartigan is punished for his good dead, framed as her rapist by a powerful senator and rots in prison. Nancy writes him weekly as "Cordelia". She grows up to be Jessica Alba. And as Hartigan says observantly in voiceover once he's out of the slammer and in her club...

She grew up. She filled out.

The club in question is  a "lousy saloon" called Kadies, specializing in Booze & Broads. It advertizes this way: "liquour upfront" and "poker in the back". [Ahem] Given Sin City's horny adolescent boy sexuality, it's impossible not to read that euphemistically.

Given the  Alba Mania circa 2005 you'd think her strip routine was the end game of movie stripteases but she doesn't actually take anything off. 

More after the jump...

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Day of Rest

Shhhhhhhhhhhh....

I'm in an emotionally abusive relationship with my blog (it's Rourke / I'm Basinger) and we're both exhausted. Be back in Nine ½ Hours... or, okay, more like 15 hours. Need lots of beauty sleep.