Jane Campion's Gorgeous Cannes Jury

Cannes is but 17 days away and we'll have a TFE team member there this year! Alas it's not me so I'll have to be envious of Diana as she jets off to France in two weeks. We already knew that the brilliant auteur Jane Campion, who regained some cultural caché recently with Top of the Lake (she never lost it with us: Bright Star, hello!) would preside over the jury but this morning the full nine member panel was announced.

Joining Campion this year is a great mix of onscreen talent that happens to include a few people The Film Experience is generally just gaga for from left to right: TFE's favorite Mexican actor ever since Amores Perros, Gael García Bernal;  the future reinterpreter of The Little Mermaid, one of our favorite ladies Sofia Coppola (USA);  former Bond Girl Carole Bouquet will represent the hometeam of France; A Touch of Sin/Platform director Jia Zhangke (China) who I was literally just talking about at brunch yesterday; TFE's favorite Korean actress Jeon Do-Yeon (Secret Sunshine, The Housemaid); the other Mad Dane Drive's Nicolas Winding Refn (Denmark); Hollywood star, experimental indie fixture, and Wes Anderson repertory company player Willem Dafoe (USA); and Leila Hatami, the beautiful Iranian star of A Separation.

 I am in a puddle for this jury. LOVE. 

Linking Spirit

Nostalgia Critic wonders if the film parody is dead. From Young Frankenstein to the Scary Movie movies it is a free fall plummet rather than a steady decline. Lots of clips to illustrate.
Cinema Blend The Muppet Movie is coming to BluRay for the first time
Marvel Thor The Dark World's official site is up 
Fast Design movie posters that reduce your favorite films to geometric shapes - some of these are awesome. Others I dont quite get.
"Fighting Spirits" check out this 5 minute animated short, a semifinalist for the 2012 Student Oscar, about rival ballerinas

Slate great magazine articles that inspired movies from Bling Ring to Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Coming Soon The Weinstein Co's buying spree continues unabated: Jane Got a Gun, Carol, Passengers, Suite Francaise, and The Young and Prodigious Spivet 

Off Cinema
Salon how "You are My Sunshine" became a children's classic 
i09 Joss Whedon's commencement address at Wesleyan "you are all going to die" 
Advocate an interview with Katee Sackhoff. I love her but unfortunately never see her in anything because of the very limited types of shows she appears on.
Slate engaging piece on how technology hindered Arrested Development's popularity in its first three seasons, a show ahead of its time

More Cannes?
Awards Daily two clips from the Cannes champ Blue is the Warmest Color
Ultra Culture excellent piece on the issue of "real sex" in filmmaking and how fake it all still is
Film Comment interesting discussion of the competition films at Cannes from several critics. I love the harsh discussion of Only God Forgives  or at least the parts of it I read (too many spoilers) and the notion that Ryan Gosling should never speak to Refn again. This makes me want to see the movie even more!

TM: It’s very fetishistic about all those aspects—the martial arts aspects, the Asian aspects, the notion of framing. It’s just a big wank frankly. And looking at it from a career point of view, he can get all the big actors he wants at this point because he’s famous and has this free rein. I think he needs to be careful about doing films like this. He needs to be smarter about his career and his script writing. 

JR: It does seem now that there’s a group of filmmakers, and Gaspar Noé is one of them, who are sort of writing fan letters to each other. Noé making films for Refn, etc. This little group of the “wild boys.”

Hee!

Yes, No, Maybe So: "Only God Forgives"

Only God Forgives reunites violence-loving director Nicolas Winding Refn with his Drive star Ryan Gosling for the story of a man (Gosling) whose cold-hearted mama (Thomas) urges him to seek vengeance against the man (Vithaya Pansringarm) who killed his brother. The trailer came out a few days ago (many days ago?) but I couldn't bring myself to type about it before now because my finger was too busy hitting "replay". The film opens in July and the wait might be excruciating.

Kristin Scott Thomas. Cinematography by Larry Smith 

The trailer came out a few days ago (many days ago?) but I couldn't bring myself to type about it before now because my finger was too busy hitting "replay". We'll break it down with our Yes No Maybe So™ system after the jump and I promise to say something about it other than "OMGKristinScottThomas OMGKristinScottThomas OMGKristinScottThomas" though I can't promise I won't also say that a few times.

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Farewell Oscar Hopeful! (Snubs That Hurt Us)

Last night at 4 AM this was the only image my brain would settle on...

I don't normally spend time in the middle of the night thinking of Fassbender lying naked in bed (Shush!). It's just that I had the worst insomnia I'd had in months. As I stared down at this still image in my state of delirious sleep deprivation I'm reasonably certain that he stared back, his eyes shifting just a little. He must have seen a mirror image of his vacant orbs and haunted zombie expressionless. Only with less handsomeness.

Brandon's addiction was sex and mine is the Oscars but either way we are powerless against our disease. Perhaps it was all the Oscar Morn Excitement catching up to me? Fassy's frozen image reminded me that I forgot to offer my condolescences to the Oscar Forgotten yesterday. Some people and cinematic contributions you'd be really happy to spend another 32 days celebrating but the time has come to say goodbye. [sniffle]

Farewell Oscar Hopeful. Better Luck Next Time
8 Snubs/Omissions That Hurt The Most

08 Melancholia Best Anything
Given that mad Dane Lars von Trier's sole nomination is in songwriting (find a more hilarious Oscar statistic, I dare you!) we never suspected that this would be an Oscar film. But the tiny scattered awards crumbs for his dreamy apocalyptic depression metaphor, arguably his best film in a decade, allowed us to pretend in a feverish bipolar sort of way that miracles would occur and it would wake up as the nomination leader. No, not really. But it's a shame that that masterful Cinematography and Kirsten Dunst's spooky narcoleptic bride won so little traction.

Click for 7 more

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Destry Links Again

Film Misery offers up "51 Movies to See Before Oscar Night". Get screening, people.
/Film details on Nicolas Winding Refn's Drive follow-up Only God Forgives starring Ryan Gosling and a "merciless and terrifying".... KRISTIN SCOTT THOMAS. Yes, please. Holy Goddess, yes!
Know Your Meme "first world problems." hee. I wonder how James Van Der Beek feels about that dramatic acting moment always being used in these comical ways?
Guardian funny dismissal of Roland Emmerich's Anonymous

MUBI tells us what's on tap for this year' AFI fest including the classics that guest director Pedro Almodóvar programmed himself. So sad I can't be there for the 25th anniversary screening of Law of Desire; it's only my favorite Pedro! 
Cinema Blend Andy Serkis reaps seven figures for Rise of the Planet of the Apes sequel. Deserved.
Liz Smith lists Hollywood's shortest marriages. Oh Rudolph Valentino... (sigh)
Towleroad a few more links and a note about this weekend's new releases 

Finally...
I must send you off to read Michael's review of Weekend at Serious Film. Michael contributes here from time to time (mostly via Unsung Heroes) but I told him last time I saw him that I was super impatient to hear his reaction as it took him way too long to see it. I love this warning to other straight dudes, commanding them to buy a ticket...

If you don't then you forfeit any right to complain when the multiplexes are filled with nothing but Garry Marshall movies named after holidays.

LOL!