Friday, May 17, 2013 at 11:57AM I wanted to share an epiphany I had in the momentary Kidman drought yesterday at Cannes. I finally realized why Kidman's Dior had me drooling, why it had such a physical effect on me. It reminds me of this:
Tough question.
Let the readers decide!
Cannes, Nicole Kidman, polls, yummy Wednesday, May 15, 2013 at 10:00PM 
Jose here. The Cannes Film Festival starts today and I think we all can agree that the most important thing about it this year is the fact that Nicole Kidman is on the jury. Right?
This year's Competition Jury, as Nathaniel has already pointed out, might very well be the real life equivalent of The Avengers, with Nicole being reigning Queen of them all I know Spielberg's the President, shut up... so during the next eleven days, we'll cover Nicole sightings, as we watch her fiercefully conquer the world of auteurship and wonder what some of her most beloved characters would think about what she's up to...
The first Nicole sighting took place Tuesday evening as she showed up to the Jury dinner.
Who She Wore: Dior (hmm is she trying to steal the spotlight from the damoiselles de Dior?)
Which Director She's Trying to Lure: When I first saw this, I immediately thought David Lynch, because I thought it was blue…turns out everyone else rightfully saw it as black and now I keep thinking Wong Kar-wai because this dress screams In the Mood for Love.
What Suzanne Stone-Maretto would think of this: "I'm on TV! Let me shine!"
Wednesday, April 24, 2013 at 11:48AM Cannes is just three weeks away and the final jury lineup has been announced. We knew Steven Spielberg would head the jury but his team was still semi-secret. They are...
Just months after competing for an extra Oscar, they'll be discussing other people's movies
Competition Jury
Only one thing is certain about the outcome based on the composition of the team: By May 26th, Nicki's auteur lust will devour their collective imagination and they'll surely be competing for her hand in filmmaking. Which one of these directors will she work with next? (I mean, besides Steven Spielberg who Kate Capshaw aside, isn't particularly excited by actresses.) Can her first Romanian picture be far off? I'd most love to see what Lynne Ramsay could wrangle out of Kidman but I assume that Ramsay might have difficulty getting funding for her next picture given the ugly fallout from her sudden departure from Jane Got a Gun.
Some years ago I made this visual and it still applies. But you just change the names as the years go by and Kidman recalibrates her attacks. Always plotting for legacy, that one!
Despite the media blitz that accompanies Cannes headliners, the competition jury is never the only jury at Cannes. It's just the one with all the headliners. There are multiple less glitzy but not necessarily less talented juries overseeing other prizes as well.
Short Films Jury
Un Certain Regard Jury
This jury decides who to spotlight in the realm of up-and-coming filmmakers (the ones Cannes isn't yet ready to include in the Competition lineup. Last year their prize went to the Mexican feature After Lucia which Amir wrote about here.) This jury lineup has not yet been announced but Thomas Vinterberg that handsome Dane who made the dogme masterpiece Festen (A Celebration) in the late 90s and whose current feature The Hunt is winning him the best reviews he's seen since that startling debut will preside over this jury.
Can't wait to see which films they all embrace... and which auteurs win Nicole Kidman's hand.
Friday, April 12, 2013 at 2:00PM 
We're getting to know the Film Experience community. Today we're talking to Joey from Pittsburgh. He's currently performing in Godspell on stage. If you're in Pittsburgh there's two more shows this weekend.
When did you start reading The Film Experience?
Around the time that Far From Heaven was released in theaters. I was realizing that Julianne Moore was my favorite actress, so your blog was mecca when I was in college. I love the site because it doesn't just celebrate movies, but it helped me realize that movies can be bad with something great in them (and vice versa).
What's your earliest movie memory?
JOEY: The earliest memory I have is when my Dad took me to go see Beauty and the Beast. I remember playing around outside, and he asked if I wanted to go. I didn't actually answer his question, because I got so excited and just got into the back seat of the car and buckled myself in. The music floored me, and I wanted all of the household objects in my house to come to life.
What's your moviegoing diet like in a year?
JOEY: I see more movies in theaters than I do on demand or RedBox. My dad and I would always go on Saturdays and see at least two (the day we saw Gangs of New York, Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, and Two Weeks Notice was a long day) When I worked at a movie theater, we had a competition to see who could see the most movies in the theater, and I was always the biggest bitch and killed everyone else. When I was really trying to see everything just to see everything I saw 191. It's calmed down considerably, but I will see anything.
What's the last movie you watched?
Stoker. I never want to have Park Chan-wook direct the story of my life, because it was just be so terrifying. It would be gorgeous and edited nicely, but it would scare the crap out of me. Also, I didn't realize how well Nicole Kidman was aging until I saw it. I kept leaning over to my friend and whispering compliments to her, "She's gorgeous...I love her hair...she's soooo beautiful..."
La Pfeiffer was so robbed in 2002Take an Oscar away from someone. Give it to someone else.Can I give a nomination away instead? Take Queen Latifah's nomination from Chicago and give it to Michelle Pfeiffer for White Oleander. Pfeiffer was running circles around everyone else, and she could freeze me with that icy stare any day. I get stupidly angry over a lot of Oscar winners, so if I had to pick an actual winner, I would take away Jennifer Lawrence's and give it to Emmanuelle Riva. I mean...COME...ON!!!
I understand you love musicals and you're a singer/actor. What are your favorites or favorite roles.
Sweeney Todd because, well, it's Sweeney Todd. I've had the pleasure of playing both Tobias and, more recently, Anthony. It lead to two completely different experiences, and I treasure them both. I have three dream roles at the moment (they change every time my iPod changes). I want to be Gabe in Next to Normal, because that show DESTROYS me every time I listen to it. I need to hit the gym before I even consider auditioning for it. Gordo in A New Brain is something I have wanted to play for years, but no one ever does it. I also want to be Jamie in The Last Five Years someday. His songs are so great, but his last one (where you find out he was unfaithful) is my favorite because it shatters his likability right then and there. I can imagine that is just a treat for actors to play.
When I was a theater student in college, I was always told I could a lot with my voice, but I am really short and I look like a child. It's a weird dynamic, I guess.
I also love The Wild Party. Both versions.
There should be a movie! The Wild Party (LaChiusa version) is the only imaginary movie I ever obsessed over directing even though I'm not a director. But I interrupted you. One more favorite?
Moulin Rouge! because I'm human and that movie makes me openly weep. I could be at the most professional event of my life and if someone says "Satine dies at the end" I would just ugly cry the entire way home.
Tuesday, April 9, 2013 at 1:00PM 
Douglas gets into the Spring Breakers spiritReader Spotlights continue as we get to know The Film Experience community. This time we're talking to filmmaker Douglas Reese.
Hi Douglas! We started talking because of Spring Breakers for which you wrote a really impassioned review. What other movies do you think are misunderstood or underappreciated?
DOUGLAS: I find myself defending panned movies all the time. Even when I actively dislike a movie, I can't bring myself to not at least value one aspect of it - whether it be technical or on the level of camp. The horror genre is largely looked down upon unless a respected auteur is behind the movie or if it's more connected with drama. I can't for the life of me see how the ambitiousness of Rob Zombie's films goes unnoticed. His stuff just has a strong sense of style and ownership. His Halloween II film may be one of the trippiest slasher flicks ever made. I also like HellBent because of its engaging wit and then there's I Know Who Killed Me which is, like, the best Dario Argento movie that guy didn't direct. I feel Freddy Got Fingered is misunderstood - it's got a very sick sense-of-humor, but I find myself laughing and feeling disgusted with every comedic setpiece in it. It's just so bizarre and there's never been anything like it before. Southland Tales is a movie I also feel should be focused on a bit more. Even if the movie is a bloated, messy, weird piece of work - I can't think of a more biting satire of American tropes since Showgirls up until Spring Breakers came along. Also, speaking of foursome female leads with one of them being Vanessa Hudgens, Sucker Punch was wildly inventive so I'm naturally perplexed by the strong hate it gets. It's not often a Hollywood-funded blockbuster can also be consider arthouse.
Why do you read TFE?
The Film Experience was always easily one of my favorite Oscar sites (along with the now deseased StinkyLulu) not only because of my strong love for Nicole Kidman but, you were never afraid to admit that there are good camp films out there to enjoy. I always appreciate those who don't feel like the most technically impressive films are necessarily the greatest ever made. And I also enjoy how connected you have always been with your readers.
Thanks and yesssss Nicole Kidman.
No other actress, for me, defines the physical beauty that the camera can contain within a frame and still invoke work that is as stylistically different and well-rounded as hers. My absolute favorite.
Anyone else?
Behind her it's easily Shelley Duvall and her quirky, highly original work in the films of Robert Altman throughout the 70s and her undervalued brilliance that was Wendy Torrence in The Shining. Behind them I'd go with Anna Karina - who, without a doubt, brought a sincerity to her character work in Godard's films; even when he obviously intended to just create his typical ciphers.
What's your first movie memory?
I recall quite vividly watching Disney's Pinnocchio in my diapers early in the morning at my grandma's farmhouse and finding it amusing and frightening. I'm grateful that movie still stands up for me today, because even now it's a totally wonderful experience to endure. Other than that, can I have another rewatch of Hocus Pocus, please? I don't think I've seen that enough.
You make films but your IMDb page is all mixed up with someone else's. What are we going to do about that?
Douglas filming Douglas
I'm not sure why my stuff is on IMDb in the first place. Almost everything on there is experimental no-budget work I've done since 2008. I think they may have assumed I was this Douglas Reese guy who was on "The Dating Game" in the 1980s and just added my work to his credit. Over on MUBI, I offered them to add my work to their catalog and they happily did - and thus born quite a lot of positive (and negative) feedback for some of my stuff, so maybe I really should get the IMDb fiasco fixed? I just don't like to think of myself as a total professional filmmaker, because that's not why I make my films in the first place. My filmmaking aesthetic would definitely be that I'm not really wanting to make technically polished work, but films that capture how I'm feeling about certain things; social or personal. My film Cleaners, for example, was me wanting to capture a kind of American lifestyle currently going on that most people don't want to realize, so it was more social - but something like my movie Snake is otherwise interested in capturing this feeling of dread and depression that I was going through at that time in my life. I just love, more or less than anything, the concept of human suffering and want to showcase how incredible misery can be.
Cheers! Thanks for chatting Douglas.
