That scene from "Unfaithful"

by Cláudio Alves

Oscar voters aren't the greatest fans of erotic thrillers. Despite that, there are some times when a cinematic achievement is so undeniable that AMPAS' usual prejudices are thrown out the window. One good example is Adrian Lyne's Fatal Attraction, a cultural phenomenon that, in 1987, managed to nab six Academy Award nominations, including for Best Picture and Best Actress. Years later, another of Lyne's erotic reveries would be honored with an important nod, though this time it was just in the Best Actress category. The picture was 2002's Unfaithful and the actress was Diane Lane delivering one of the most magnificent performances of her career. Her work as Connie Sumner is a masterclass in sexual discovery and abandonment, guilt, and desire.

If for nothing else, Lane earned the nomination for a scene in the middle of the movie, when her adulterous character is returning home by train, after her first tryst with Olivier Martinez's sexy bookdealer…

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Introducing... Supporting Actress Characters of 2002

The next Supporting Actress Smackdown is just 12 days away. We're on fire this season, aren't we? HERE ARE THE PANELISTS that will be talking about 2002 but we also need your votes. We highly encourage you to rewatch the movies before voting (time can change perspective!). To vote simply email us with "2002" in the subject line by Monday June 15th and include your rating of each of the nominees on a scale of 1 (weak) to 5 (perfect) hearts...

 

• Kathy Bates, About Schmidt
• Queen Latifah, Chicago
• Julianne Moore, The Hours
• Meryl Streep, Adaptation
• Catherine Zeta-Jones, Chicago

For an extra bit of whistle-wetting fun, let's look at how each of the characters are introduced in the movies. NOTE: Please save comments about the performances themselves for the Smackdown event. For now we're talking about the art of introduction in storytelling. Is the filmmaker tipping his hat to a star's arrival (fairly common practice) or merely introducing a new character...

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By a nose...

by Cláudio Alves

When presenting the Best Actress Oscar during the 75th Academy Awards, Denzel Washington famously said "by a nose" before announcing Nicole Kidman as that year's winner for her work in The Hours. It was a reference to the way that, throughout that awards season, the actress's prosthetic enhanced transformation into Virginia Woolf had caused much controversy. Some people appreciated how Kidman left vanity at the door and allowed herself to be made unrecognizable, while many others found it to be distracting. In any case, it was a good booster to her Oscar campaign. The quality of a performance notwithstanding, there are few things that the Academy loves more than beautiful celebrities de-glamming.

Unfortunately, as it sometimes happens, while the performer was showered in gold, the team of makeup artists that made the physical transformation possible was left unrecognized. In the case of The Hours, they were even made ineligible…

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The Furniture: On Frida's Mirrors and Diego's Walls

Daniel Walber's series on Production Design. Click on the images to see them in magnified detail.

Nearly 20 years on, Julie Taymor’s Frida remains both breathtaking (those Quay Brothers puppets!) and befuddling (why isn’t it in Spanish?). It holds up better as a visual experiment than as a biopic, despite the richness of Salma Hayek’s performance. Filmmakers have long struggled to bring the lives of visual artists to the screen in dynamic, resonant ways. Some fail.

When Frida does succeed, it’s largely due to its Oscar-nominated team of art director Felipe Fernández del Paso and set decorator Hania Robledo. Their work doesn’t simply represent the art of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, but interprets it. By transforming Kahlo’s paintings into the stuff of cinema, they directly engage with their meaning - or, rather, Taymor’s own interpretation of those meanings. The result is a film with a lot to say about materiality and identity, the value of brick and the value of life.

We begin with Frida’s bedridden journey to her first solo show in Mexico City. She is carried out of the house aloft, head resting on an embroidered pillow that reads “Amor” and “Tesoro Mio.” But then we see her through her eyes, as she looks up to the mirror into the canopy of her bed, the flowers reflected back at her.

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The New Classics: Gosford Park

Hey everyone. Michael Cusumano here. If you've got to be trapped inside, why not be trapped inside with thirty or so of the greatest British actors ever? 18-year-old mystery spoilers ahead!

 

Scene: The Murder of Willam McCordle 
I don’t think you count yourself as having seen a Robert Altman film unless you’ve seen it three times, minimum. All great films expand on rewatch, but Altman movies transform, accumulating power as additional dimensions come into focus. In no film is this more apparent than his late-period masterwork, Gosford Park...

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