Monologue: Dianne Wiest x 2 in "Rabbit Hole"

As awards season gets into full swing The Film Experience will grow more Oscar focused by the week. I'm nowhere near as adept at prognostication as Nathaniel, but I reckoned it was as good a time as any to resuscitate one of our key features, the Monday Monologues. To make up for its absence, you get two quickies.

I was re-watching a few episodes of In Treatment last weekend and remembered how much I love Dianne Wiest. I’m sure you do, too. In a career of illustrious turns (including her duo Oscar wins) I’m turning my attention to one a little less feted, the supporting role of "Nat" in Rabbit Hole.

Rabbit Hole remains one of the most interesting curios in recent Oscar history. [more]

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"In years to come, they will continue to whisper your name NICOL... I mean GRACE"

The teaser for Grace of Monaco has finally arrived and it is one money shot of Goddess and/or Opulence and/or FYC Advertisement after another, all to further iconize Grace Kelly through another film icon Nicole Kidman.

It's an actressexual oroborus and I be gobbling it up.

Gobbling it up whilst fretting about the reviews and response to come. I'm not so secretly dreading the onslaught of negativity about 'how dare Kidman play Princess Grace' when discerning cinephiles or anyone who has actually watched their respective filmographies will surely understand that Kidman > Kelly. And anyone who can look past glamour iconography will surely understand that Grace Kelly was only 25 years old for 12 months of her life... that just happened to be the year of her life when the bulk of movies she's remembered for appeared (Rear Window, The Country Girl, Dial M For Murder) and looked different later on after leaving Hollywood. (Different being older).

Long after The House of Grimaldi has fallen, the world is going to remember your name, your highness. You are the fairy tale, the serenity to which we all aspire. And peace will come when you embrace the roles you have been destined to play.  For no matter where you are in the years to come they  will continue to whisper your name, the Princess Grace.  

The teaser's monologue is set to a lovely piece o' opera familiar to all little boys who obsessed over A Room With a View's original motion picture soundtrack in their bedroom in their parent's basement in Michigan. Hypothetical little boys from Michigan who now write film blogs in NYC which obsess over Nicole Kidman!

(Is that supposed to be Alfred Hitchcock in the first shot? Is a Costume Design nomination locked up for Gigi Lepage? Are you gagging over the beauty or just gagging? Tell us in the comments)

Nicole Kidman is Indestructible

Two items appeared on Page Six's feed back-to-back today.

Photo 1. A paparazzi on a bike reportedly "plowed" into Nicole Kidman here in NYC. Curse him. Memorize the face. Worst person ever. 

But no matter. Brush it off.

Photo 2. Moments later the actress is seen consuming/giving Fashion Week beauty with Rooney Mara & Naomie Harris, three peas in a goddess pod.

NOW, YES, I KNOW I KNOW.

These events actually occurred in the reverse order (and look at the grace with which she rises and brushes herself off in those photos!!!). An ambulance was called, she had some shoe trouble and was shaken up a bit.

But just go with my preferred order for a better story: the diva eternally unfazed by cruel media sabotage. We're running with a fantasies about Nicole Kidman theme. Indulge us. And get well soon, Nicole. Walk it off!

Besties Bounce Bell Bio-Pic

JA from MNPP here - I know I'm preaching to the choir here, but don't you just love forever besties Nicole Kidman and Naomi Watts? I saw them once walking into the movie theater in Union Square in New York and I spent weeks contemplating what they were going to see. I mean, I can't be the only one who spends an unhealthy amount of time imagining them laying on a sofa, both in sweatpants, Naomi's head in Nicole's lap, a comically enormous bowl of popcorn on Naomi's belly, as they nosh and watch some difficult and demanding foreign film and see who can call dibs on the director first, right? That's totally how it rolls.

Anyway, picture that. Only this time Naomi rolls over, spilling some kernels on the floor, super sad. "Aww, what's wrong, puss-puss?" Nicole Asks. Nicole calls Naomi "puss-puss" in this scenario. Just go with it. And yes, Nicole is nervous that Naomi's going to bring up the reviews for Adore, or even worse the Princess Di bio-pic - Nicole has her own bio-pic worries, what with that guy who was supposed to be cutting the trailer for Grace of Monaco having fallen off the face of the Earth and all. But Naomi doesn't have any of that on her mind, thankfully. "I don't think I can make the Herzog movie," she cries. Ahh, Nicole thinks. The Gertrude Bell bio-pic! That's a juicy one! Nicole's laser quick control of her facial features kicks in - do not let on your glee, she thinks! "Oh no, puss-puss. That's terrible. We both love Herzog so much." She emphasizes "both," but not too dramatically.

And so it goes. As Naomi goes and dries her tears in the bathroom, Nicole reaches into the drawer of the side table stealthily, pulling out her long-ago scribbled list of names - Auteurs I Will Work With One Day, it says in large block letters. She draws a firm red line through Werner Herzog with a smile. She'll wait to call her agent tomorrow; now's the time to bust out the box of wine from the fridge and soften Naomi up for the transition.

In the bathroom, Naomi flushes the toilet and speaks quietly into her cell-phone. "Hey Werner. It's puss-puss. We got her. No worries."

Firth and Kidman Chug Along in The Railway Man

Glenn here looking at an upcoming film from my home country. I may live in America now, but I am still very much interested in what Australia is producing (as I and many of my fellow countrymen can attest, it's probably against my better judgement to do so). One title I've been keeping an eye on is Jonathan Teplitzky's The Railway Man. There a was a minor fuss a few years back when The King's Speech producers were denied Australian funding and, thus, when it won Oscars it was unable to be classified as an Australian co-production despite its producers being Australian and its others local ties. Well, the funding bodies learned their lesson and are officially on board with The Railway Man, a British/Australia co-production from the memoir by Eric Lomax.

Nathaniel showed a bit more faith than others in the project by listing it in several of his Oscar categories. Other prognosticators don't seem to even know it exists! I've been skeptical that the film would even see the light of day in 2013 since the Australian media love being able to hail a star vehicle such as this as "ours", and yet there hadn't been a peep in terms of trailers, posters, or a release date. They'd be all over it ("Our Nicole Returns Home!" read headlines during production) if there was anything to actually talk about. Well, it's Australian distributor has finally put it onto the schedule and they chose the biggest day of the year - Boxing Day, 2013. [more]

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