Happy Oscar Day !

The Oscars are just 3½ hours away. Arrivals in 2½. May you all hyperventilate with joy at least once tonight, when something or someone you truly love takes home a golden statuette.

my fav oscar win from 93.... wanna hear more?

What are you doing to get ready?
Are you throwing a party? Hosting one? Or watching alone in an apartment that is a freaking mess due to furniture delivery and various unfortunate events (*raises hand*)?
Are you able to attempt any normalcy today in the lead up?

Have a super fun night filled with blasts of euphoria... (and take five seconds to "like" the film experience page on facebook so you don't miss any of the after-excitement in March!). Do cheer wildly for your favorites. Do not however jump up and down on the furniture with excitement... unless your party host has expressly condoned it. Otherwise, it's rude.

Since we're talking Oscar Joy, I want you to point you to a virtual gathering at Nick's Flick Picks wherein Nick polled his closest critic friends to list their favorite Oscar wins throughout the years -- only one from each year allowed! I played along. See my list (off the top of my head so some of it might not hold true tomorrow) and the lists of Nick, Guy, Joe, Tim, Colin and Katey. Right now it's just 1996-2011 but there's more to come !

Merry Our Christmas. It's Oscar Night!

In case you're just joining us after weeks away (lame!) here's important tonight-related stuff you might have missed! NAIL BITER RACES |  FINAL OSCAR PREDICTIONS | FILM BITCH AWARDS - The Gold Medals! |  Nathaniel Talks AMOUR on CNNi | ARGO, Second Viewing |  OSCAR'S BIGGEST "LOSERS" and recent live blogs: BAFTA | Spirit Awards 

And On To Next Year?

The Film Experience's annual "April Fools Predictions" will arrive on, when else, April 1st. The best 'year in advance' predictions anywhere on the web if I do say so myself (on that note the Weinstein Co. just picked up the Nicole Kidman vehicle Grace of Monaco and Quvenzhané Wallis just signed for a remake of the musical Annie). Until then March is Reader Appreciation Month with contests and interviews and "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" returns so stick around to get to know the TFE community and reminisce about great older films, this year's High Holy Night (coming right at'cha) and new springtime movies. 

Podcast: A Look Back... and Forward. (What Movies Should Inspire Future Films?)

new podcast!
In part two of the conversation which began with Django Unchained and random final Oscar hunches, we hear about four actors that Joe Reid plans to snub, revisit looooooong Best Pictures that Katey Rich hasn't seen (The Last Emperor anyone?), listen to Nick detailing Viola Davis' future, and learn why Nathaniel hopes Hitchcock will inspire more films like it... even though most people thought it was terrible. [44 Minutes. With Nathaniel, Nick, Katey, and Joe.]

Topics include:

• Sixth spot snubs: Jennifer Ehle?
• Most recent Best Pics that we've each missed from The Green Mile to The English Patient 
• Susan Sarandon circa 1975
• Second-Guessing: Anna Karenina, Take This Waltz, Moonrise Kingdom
• 2012 Movies We Hope Inspire Future Movies from Magic Mike to... 21 Jump Street. (Hey, it was Channing Tatum's Year)
• Queen of Versailles repurposed. Make your own movie! 
• The Fog & Fatigue of Awards

You can download the podcast on iTunes or listen right here at the bottom of the post. Join in the conversation by commenting! 

2012 Inspirations. Future Movies and Retro Glories

Podcast Unchained: Top Ten Sneaks, Actresses of Color, Movie Gifts

Part 1 of 2
For this megamix conversation -- still shorter than most of the Best Picture Hopefuls! -- which is the last before the Oscar Nominations we ignored the act of "predicting" beyond a couple hazy hunches and dug into Quentin Tarantino's new slavesploitation western (which none of us like as much as the internet does as it so happens). But since this is the Film Experience we do love to meander through movie memories and Oscar digressions, Django Unchained is hardly the only film we visit in this 44 minute podcast. [With Nathaniel, Nick, Katey, and Joe.]

Topics include but are not limited to:

• Last minute Oscar hunches: Eddie Redmayne? Michael Haneke?
• Django Unchained
• Ann Dowd's self-funded Oscar campaign for Compliance
• Nathaniel's special Christmas Gift
• 1947 & 1991 Oscar Winner Flashbacks: Loretta Young and Mercedes Ruehl, anyone?
• Middle Of Nowhere's transfixing Emayatzy Corinealdi
• The power and powerlessness of physical beauty 
• Podcast Bingo

You can download the podcast on iTunes or listen right here at the bottom of the post. Join in the conversation by commenting! Did you get any movie related Christmas gifts? What's #6 on your (current) top ten list? 

Django Unchained, Top Ten Sneak Peeks

Interview: Julie Weiss on Visitation Rights to "Hitchcock"s World

We haven't talked Costume Design much this year -- course correct, course correct! -- so  let's talk about two time Oscar nominee Julie Weiss and her work on Hitchcock. Hitchcock met with rather cool reception from critics and the public when it debuted last month. Part of that was, I think, due to its all encompassing title. While not a great picture, it self-sabotaged by allowing expectations of a factual and expansive biopic of the Master of Suspense when it actually only had plans on taking a lightly comic snapshot of one year in a famous Hollywood marriage.

Peggy (Toni Collette), Alfred Hitchcock (Anthony Hopkins) and Alma Hitchcock (Helen Mirren) in 1960s Hollywood

Though inside showbiz pictures are rarely big hits, movie buffs and those who are actually inside showbiz tend to like them -- go figure! Julie Weiss is no exception. We spoke on the phone but I could swear her eyes were lighting up each time she talked about the honor she felt recreating Old Hollywood.

"That's what we want!" she told me emphatically. "We want the visitation rights to all of these worlds."

Julie Weiss attends a Hitchcock screeningI wondered if she felt the need to let loose creatively in the non-Psycho scenes since she wouldn't have felt as restricted by previously established conography but her passionate response surprised me. She didn't feel hemmed in by Psycho at all.

"Fidelity is an interesting word when memory comes into view," she said explaining that exactitude wasn't the pressure at all. We certainly know Hitchcock but recreating the look of Psycho she reminds me was only part of her job. Especially since the legendary film was shot in black and white and this look back is in color. Color is a key factor in many costuming decisions and we spoke at length about the scene where Alma (Helen Mirren) and Janet (Scarlett Johannson) first meet, with Alma in her usual red and Janet in the palest of pinks.  

"When the costume becomes clothing you know it's the actor becoming the character," Julie explained, describing fittings as crucial to her desire to help the actors transform. "I'm far more interested in watching an actor becoming a character than have a gown stand by itself."

"Scarlett Johansson playing Janet Leigh playing Marion Crane," in particular she describes poetically as a "prism that turned three times." Hitchcock proved a difficult assignment since it encompassed famous film costumes, movie premiere glamour, and everyday period wear in Hollywood and beyond (the Ed Gein sequences). She had to accomplish it all with with little prep time. "So difficult but worth it."

The only time Weiss seemed disappointed in her latest costuming gig was when the conversation turned briefly to the shower scene.

As a costume designer, I wished she were wearing something."

Hee!

Weiss previously performed these old showbiz tricks with Hollywoodland (2006), the lower rent story of the mysterious death of past his prime Superman actor George Reeves played by Ben Affleck. But up until now Julie Weiss's most famous work came from three very different assignments: the dystopian hobo rags and space suits of Twelve Monkeys (1995, Oscar nomination) the pinata-colorful gowns of the art biopic Frida (2002, Oscar nomination) and the uniforms of suburban dysfunction within American Beauty. 

I told her that my favorite costume from American Beauty was the navy sheath dress on Annette Bening that made her blend in with her prized vertical striped sofa. 

"I'm so glad you noticed that. It means a lot when people notice," she said and shared that she was also made sure The Bening's gray dress matched the metallic of the gun. But before our chat spun into endless 'love your work' back-patting she poked at herself endearingly.

I still worry I should have put more dirt on her apron!" 

This last comment was funny and telling. Julie Weiss was surprisingly self-effacing in the end. Despite a celebrated career with these unmissable peaks, she's really just there to help us win visitation rights to these other worlds.

"I love just standing back and watching that universe come to life. What you really want as a costume designer is that when the person walks out of the theater that they don't remember the costume against a white piece of paper but that they remember the scene and the world."

related...
costume design articles
more on Hitchock
previous interviews 

Lincoln, Sky Fall, Oscar Rumble... ♫

... we will stand tall... and face it all together ♩

NEW PODCAST 
Let Oscar season begin. In the latest tightest hottest edition of the podcast, Nick (Nick's Flick Picks), Joe (Low Resolution) and Katey (Cinema Blend) join me, Nathaniel, to talk four new movies: Steven Spielberg's Oscar buzzing Lincoln, box office devouring Skyfall, utterly baffling Holy Motors and the wildly uneven Flight. 

We also take a moment to pay homage to Jodie Foster and each of our favorite performances by her on the week of her 50th birthday and before the Golden Globes shower her with praise via the Cecil B DeMille award.

You can download the podcast on iTunes or listen right here at the bottom of the post. But, as always, the podcast isn't complete without your voice. Talk back to us in the comments!

Lincoln, Bond, Jodie, Denzel