Revisiting "Crimes of the Heart"

In honor of Diane Keaton’s AFI Lifetime Achievement Award tomorrow, here’s Eric Blume with a look back at Crimes of the Heart (1986)

Beth Henley won a Pulitzer Prize in 1981 for her play Crimes of the Heart, and five years later it was retooled by Henley herself in a film version directed by Bruce Beresford.  The film teamed three of the biggest actresses of the 80’s:  Diane Keaton as the oldest spinster sister Lenny, Jessica Lange as saucy middle child Meg, and Sissy Spacek as spacey youngest Babe.   

Keaton is forced to carry the film for the first ten minutes out of the gate, and she’s strapped with some clunky exposition.  She feels tentative, which is partly aligned with her character, but in a way where she feels not fully assured, like she’s finding her way into the role.  Her Southern accent doesn’t come easily to her, and it takes her a while to learn how to make the accent soar to funny dimensions. 

But then ten minutes in, she has her first scene with Lange, and the film starts to find its groove...

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Beefcake and Linksnacks

Today's Must Read
"Male Stars Are Too Buff Now," a great funny true read from E Alex Jung about Zac Efron in Baywatch and other visually alarming superhuman specimens. 

Linkage
Daily Actor Corey Hawkins on the Juilliard audition he almost failed
Charlene's (Mostly) Classic Movies a "Medicine in the Movies" Blogathon - articles on Contagion, Night Nurse, Reversal of Fortune, The Fountain, and many more
Cartoon Brew Nigeria hopes to train 'an army of animation professionals' with the market for thoe films exploding

The Guardian Guy Lodge's latest DVD column on Toni Erdmann, The Salesman and more
Variety more 'sequels we don't need!' news. Boss Baby is getting one for 2021. Sigh. I actually thought that movie was unexpectedly good but most movies don't actually need sequels. Stop trying to make movies into big TV shows with multiple episodes! TV is great but Movies are not TV!

I Wouldn't Normally Link This But...
Life Site, which appears to be some sort of Christian Fundamentalist Anti-Choice website, has a piece on the Alien franchise that I found gripping and nutjob funny (Satan is the screenwriter of Alien Covenant !) and also kinda justified on a couple of intriguing points. Thanks to IndieWire for pointing it out.

Cannes Mania
Film Comment Pt 1 of Nick Davis's 'Cannes Staycation' looking back at 1987 in which Nick talks Under the Sun of Satan, I've Heard the Mermaid's Singing, and many more...
Film Comment Pt 2 in which Nick talks Wish You Were Here, Shy People, Matewan, and Babette's Feast. Part 3 is coming in a few days.
Vulture How Jane Campion feels about her status as the only woman to win Cannes in its 70 year history
IndieWire 10 Best of Cannes
IndieWire Eric Kohn on what it's like to be a jury member of the sidebar "Critic's Week" at Cannes

Off Cinema
Films for Action "What makes 'call-out' culture so toxic?"
Broadway World a timeline look at Tony nominee Andy Karl's career. (I know he's not likely to win this year but someday! -- such a great performer)

OTD: Annie, John Cameron Mitchell, and Field of Dreams

On this day (April 21st) in history as it relates to showbiz...

Anthony Quinn

1904 Oscar winning cinematographer Daniel L Fapp (West Side Story and Desire Under the Elms, among many films) born in Kansas City

1914 Cinematographer Gilbert Taylor born in England. Though he was BAFTA nominated Oscar never bit despite high profile films and collaborations with famous directors. Credits include: Repulsion, The Omen, Dr Strangelove, Star Wars, Frenzy, Dracula (1979) and MacBeth 

1915 Oscar's all time favorite Mexican actor Anthony Quinn born (Lust for Life, Viva Zapata, Wild is the Wind, Zorba the Greek, La Strada, etcetera)

1918 "The Red Baron," the famous German fighter pilot, shot down in World War I. Snoopy in Peanuts fantasizes about him repeatedly and he's also been a character in many films including Wings, Hell's Angels, and Darling Lili 

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Michael Ballhaus (1935-2017)

by Nathaniel R

It is with great sadness that we share the news of the passing of German cinematographer Michael Ballhaus. The 81 year old artist was a crucial figure in making me the movie maniac that I am today. Michelle Pfeiffer on the piano top in The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989) -- hell the entire movie -- being a defining image in my life, after which I went from enthusiastic regular moviegoer to celluloid-devouring obsessive.

Ballhaus had retired after Martin Scorsese's The Departed (2006) making only one German movie in the last decade of his life and we had hoped each year that he'd be announced as an Honorary Oscar recipient. His three scant nominations -- The Fabulous Baker Boys, Broadcast News, and Gangs of New York -- do no justice to his long and gorgeous career. That's because they don't feel representative of his career as a whole and because, apart from his crowning glory (Baker Boys -- which ought to have walked away with Cinematography in just about any year, let alone 1989) aren't even his best work.

Ballhaus and Fassbinder worked together all through the 70s

Ballhaus got his start as a young man of 24 in German television but quickly graduated to features...

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Happy 75th to Four-Time Oscar Nominee Marsha Mason

by Eric Blume

Marsha Mason speaking at an event in 2015Today marks the 75th birthday of Marsha Mason, one of Hollywood’s leading ladies from the 1970s.  Celebrating her is easy because she brought a lot of light and joy to screens for a decade and a half with her toothy vibrance and warm energy.

It’s strange to think that contemporary young movie audiences don’t even know Mason, since she scored four Oscar nominations for Best Actress over nine years!  Her first nomination came in 1973 for Mark Rydell’s Cinderella Liberty, where she plays a prostitute with an 11-year-old mixed race son.  Her rapport with co-star James Caan and the young actor who plays her son has a scrappy grace to it, and it’s a winning performance. 

Mason’s other three Oscar nominations came from roles written or tailored expressly for her by her then-husband, Neil Simon...

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