Cabaret Winners!

"Beedle dee, dee dee dee,
Two winners.
Beedle dee, dee dee dee,
And I'm the only man,
Ja!"

It's time to announce the winners of the Cabaret contest, pulled randomly from your entries which were doubled if you sent along a Cabaret inspired photo along with your note about your favorite moment in the 1972 masterpiece.

I had fun reading all of your opinions and even more fun watching the film again... though the strangest thing about seeing it on the big screen for the first time after a lifetime spent watching it on various sizes of screens at home was that it suddenly seemed to have less musical numbers. Minnelli's peak razzle dazzle and Joel Grey's indeligible emcee suck up all the oxygen in terms of memories of the movie but there is so much more to the movie which is a really brilliant and disturbing drama about a world(s) about to collapse, specifically Weimar Era Germany (and its funhouse mirror in the Kit Kat Club).

Anyway... I asked you to either "like" the film experience facebook page and tell us your favorite bit of Cabaret or do the same thing by email with a "photo" inspired by Cabaret to win yourself an extra contest entry. The winners of the remastered restored and booklet-beautiful 40th anniversary blu-ray, chosen randomly are:

JOSHUA FLOWER who writes:

My favorite moment comes right at the top - the opening shot that pulls back off the reflection of Joel Grey as he turns to the camera/audience and starts singing "Vilkommen." It might be my favorite opening shot, period. The precision and energy of the camerawork, the hall of mirrors distortion of the reflection, in contrast to the reality, which is kind of garish and severe, combined with the music, which is peppy and weirdly melancholy at the same time... That one shot has always felt like a perfect little encapsulation of the movie as a whole, somehow.

KATE IMY who sent a photo of herself performing "Money Money Money" - how cool is that? She writes:

...a too-literal entry into your "inspired" photo challenge. These are from when a friend and I sang the song "Money Money" in our high school Broadway review style show "Knights on Broadway." Thankfully they hide the fact that I was/am an atrocious singer. My friend with the fantastic makeup was actually quite good. So for purely selfish and awkwardly self-promotional reasons "Money Money" has a special place for me in the movie. Especially the "When you haven't any coal in the stove..." bit. So hard to do but so exciting to watch when it's done well (in the movie). 

CONGRATULATIONS TO JOSHUA & KATE!

After the jump, I thought you might enjoy a few more losing but great contest entries from readers. I'm sorry I didn't have dozens of blu-rays to give away but you all won my heart and that has to count for something!

Click to read more ...

♩To see- to sell- to get- to bring- to make- to LINK- to go to the Festival! Into the Woods ♫

Slate Why do people hate Anne Hathaway? Might it be sexism?
Yahoo Movies Roundtable on the Supporting Actress. I'm quoted here defending Hathaway naturally. One person even disses her for being so isolated as an actress like she's in her own movie. Um... THAT IS HOW IT SHOULD BE. Fantine's tragedy is that she's abandoned by the world and utterly alone. No safety nets or support systems.
Yahoo Movies Roundtable on Supporting Actor. This one is less divisive.
Variety's The Vote this is pretty horrifying. The Hobbit was added to the visual effects Oscar bakeoff without the committe actually seeing it. Terrible slippery slope there, Academy. Fix yourself! 

Kevin O'Keeffe on the twin protagonists of The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty
Pajiba this is so freaking sexy - 47 leading ladies in mannish clothing
Guardian Penelope Cruz is pregnant again... at least we'll see her a couple of times this year before she's gone again (Ridley Scott's The Counsellor and a cameo in Pedro Almodovar's I'm So Excited)
Billy on the Street "It's Spock! Do You Care?" haha. Zachary Quinto is a good sport. 
Awards Daily Mark Wahlberg and Ted will present at the Oscars. It's going to be a Ted heavy night what with the Norah Jones song, the host, and this presenting duo.
The Film Experience my choices for "best poster design" are up in the Film Bitch Awards 

Hollywood by now you've surely heard that it's official that Meryl Streep will play The Witch in Into the Woods. The film will be directed by Rob Marshall so expect lots of terrible reviews since the world probably hasn't forgiven him for Nine yet. Anyway I thought this called for a poll for all my fellow Sondheim fanatics out there. I've listed my favorite musical phrases from the Witch below and you tell me which you're most excited to hear Streep singing? Got it? Okay... Into the woods with you...

poll by twiigs.com

Off Cinema
Boston Globe "Smash" refashions itself into a show about the making of Broadway musicals for its second season. Promises promises, people. We shall see... (I'll be writing about the show weekly again this year)
Rasky Baerlein When pop culture and politics interlock: Obama and Jay-Z

"Cabaret" Old Chums!

Come taste the wine... Come hear the band... Come right this way start celebrating... ♫

Michael York, Liza Minnelli, Joel Grey & Marisa Berenson. Photo via Daily Mail

That's Michael York, Liza Minnelli, Joel Grey and Marisa Berenson last night at the Zeigfeld, Manhattan's best movie house for festive events like retro celebrations or new premieres. Cabaret's principle cast was gathered for the second time with TCM for this special screening since the Blu-Ray is coming on Tuesday. The restoration apparently cost Warner Bros somewhere between $1 and 2 million but it's worth it. Spend the money if you've got one of the greatest films of all time in your catalogue. The movie looks beautiful and thankfully they haven't scrubbed it so free of its natural grain that it doesn't look like itself anymore.

More about the event after the jump 

Click to read more ...

Misérables No More. Les Joking.

You know a depressing drama has achieved deep market penetration when no one can stop joking about it. Is this a communal embarrassment from making ugly cry faces in the movie theater (don't worry, no one can see you.)? Whatever it is, Les Misérables has now joined Brokeback Mountain and Titanic and _____ in the small club of deeply sad dramas that everyone loves to make jokes about.

Have you seen "Les Mean Girls"? The tumblr mashes the musical up with Tina Fey's classic comedy, Amanda Seyfried being the key to all things (no seriously. she's everywhere).

But my favorite current Les Misérables joke is this expert repurposing of the big "I Dreamed a Dream" showstopper as Living FYC Satire. I totally love this even though I think Anne Hathaway is everything in the movie and totally deserves the Oscar.

One Night Only ♪

Have you heard that The Academy is going to honor the renaissance of the movie musical with tributes to Chicago, Dreamgirls and Les Miz during the ceremony on February 24th? I'm never been that big on amorphous "tributes" which usually come in the form of sloppy montages at the expense of time celebrating either specific grand careers (lifetime achievements) or actual nominees. And I can't quite see what the through line is between those three pictures (as opposed to any other modern musicals). But you know I love musicals. Still... this makes precious little sense to me, not when you have a decent current lineup of Original Song nominees you could focus on for once. And not when you're only focusing on three films, two of which had little to do with the musical genres resuscitation.

It's a Musical Diva Throwdown

Everyone knows (or should come to understand) that it was the one-two-three-four punch of Disney's resurrection (The Little Mermaid + Beauty & The Beast) + Dancer in the Dark + Moulin Rouge! +  Hedwig and the Angry Inch from 1989-2001 that reopened the musical floodgates artistically and reminded everyone "ohmygod... look what this versatile genre can do!!!". Chicago (2002) then was the behemoth that came charging down that road that had been pre-paved for it by stronger films, despite how grandly entertaining it was, to claim the trophy for the whole genre.

At any rate the strangest exclusion from their planned tribute is surely Moulin Rouge! which had, if you'll recall, just as many nominations as both Les Miz and Dreamgirls (I guess 8 is the magic number for non-BP winning popular musicals), starred people who are still very much in the cultural conversation, and is already widely regarded as part of the new canon. That's something that none of the three films Oscar is planning to rehonor on the ceremony can quite claim... no, not even Chicago.