The Art Direction I Live In

I always try to finish the "Oscar Categories" of my own Film Bitch Awards before the Oscar nominations. I was racing to the deadline, panting heavily, sweating profusely and then I collapsed. I am now crawling towards the finish line. If anything can revive me it's eye candy! So here are my nominees for Art Direction and Cinematography. I would post Costumes too but I'm still arguing with myself over 8 films. (So many worthy efforts!) 

But while I have your eyeballs, I want to talk about one film in particular. Film is a visual medium so you'd think it would be a given that filmmakers would convey their themes and moods and characters visually. But many of them don't, relying on dialogue as exposition or voiceover profundities or leaning heavily on the gifts of their actors to get themes and nuances across. In other words, we have too few Pedro Almodóvars behind the camera.

In the two stills above from The Skin I Live In (which went without any Oscar nominations and was not submitted by Spain for Best Foreign Film) you can see how visually rich and how carefully planned every beat in an Almodóvar film is [MORE AFTER THE JUMP]

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This Happened on Tuesday. Miraculously The Earth Continues Spinning.

How is it possible that the entire universe did not implode from Too Much of A Good Awesome Thingness when planets as magical as Tilda and Pedro collided right here in NYC? Also present - photographic evidence at Paper Mag: Rossy de Palma, Courtney Love, Bruce Weber, Sarah Jessica Parker, John Waters... and so on. The WOW Report shows you what Emma Stone, Elizabeth Olsen, Cindy Sherman and other luminaries were wearing to the same event.

Not present: me. Which is perhaps for the best since I would have imploded.

Destry Links Again

Film Misery offers up "51 Movies to See Before Oscar Night". Get screening, people.
/Film details on Nicolas Winding Refn's Drive follow-up Only God Forgives starring Ryan Gosling and a "merciless and terrifying".... KRISTIN SCOTT THOMAS. Yes, please. Holy Goddess, yes!
Know Your Meme "first world problems." hee. I wonder how James Van Der Beek feels about that dramatic acting moment always being used in these comical ways?
Guardian funny dismissal of Roland Emmerich's Anonymous

MUBI tells us what's on tap for this year' AFI fest including the classics that guest director Pedro Almodóvar programmed himself. So sad I can't be there for the 25th anniversary screening of Law of Desire; it's only my favorite Pedro! 
Cinema Blend Andy Serkis reaps seven figures for Rise of the Planet of the Apes sequel. Deserved.
Liz Smith lists Hollywood's shortest marriages. Oh Rudolph Valentino... (sigh)
Towleroad a few more links and a note about this weekend's new releases 

Finally...
I must send you off to read Michael's review of Weekend at Serious Film. Michael contributes here from time to time (mostly via Unsung Heroes) but I told him last time I saw him that I was super impatient to hear his reaction as it took him way too long to see it. I love this warning to other straight dudes, commanding them to buy a ticket...

If you don't then you forfeit any right to complain when the multiplexes are filled with nothing but Garry Marshall movies named after holidays.

LOL!

Box Office: Everybody Cut, Everybody Cut... Your Budgets

In this battle of the 80s remakes weekend, Footloose vs. The Thing, it was actually a 1960s derivative, the rock-em sock-em'ish robot movie Real Steel that triumphed.

Box Office (U.S.) Baker's Dozen -Actual Grosses
01 REAL STEEL $16.2  (cum. $51.7)
02 FOOTLOOSE new-ish $15.5 
03 THE THING new-ish $8.4 
04 IDES OF MARCH [capsule] $7.1 (cum. $21.7)
05 DOLPHIN TALE  $6.2 (cum. $58.5)
06 MONEYBALL [review] $5.4 (cum $57.6)
07 50/50 [review]  $4.2 (cum $24.2)
08 COURAGEOUS  $3.3 (cum $21.2)
09 THE BIG YEAR new $3.2 
10 THE LION KING 3D [review] re-release $2.7 (cum. $90.5 for the rerelease)
11 DREAMHOUSE  $2.4 (cum $18.3)
12 CONTAGION $1.8 (cum $71.9)
13 ABDUCTION [review] $1.4 (cum $25.7)

Talking Points
• Footloose's gross is far from spectacular but given the likelihood of solid word of mouth (I keep hearing "surprisingly good!" proving that basement level expectations can totally be a plus!) and considering they kept its budget down, it should turn a profit before it even leaves theaters. So don't expect the 80s remakes to stop.

• Speaking of turning a profit, 50/50 has already tripled its wisely wee budget. Well done.

• Pedro Almodóvar is the most dependable of foreign auteurs on the US box office charts, again opening with a fine per screen average; The Skin I Live In earned nearly a quarter million on just six screens. Whether or not it will hold well is another issue since it seems more divisive than recent Almodóvars. Skin... has alread earned over $19 million overseas. Pedro's biggest post Women on the Verge hit by a significant margin is Volver which earned over $85 million worldwide. 

• Moneyball just entered the top 40 of the year, stealing past Midnight in Paris (which is incredibly STILL on over 100 screens). Don't you think both of them will be Best Picture nominated?

WHAT DID YOU SEE THIS WEEKEND?
As usual, we love to hear what you thought of the new releases. Especially on days when you're suspicously quiet (speak up!)  And given the ever crucial budgets to profit equations, which movie have you seen recently that showed you every penny onscreen?

NYFF: "The Skin I Live In" It's Alive!

Michael C. (Serious Film) here with one of my most anticipated titles of 2011.

Dr. Banderas and his monster?

Dammit, Pedro. I just can't stay mad at you.

Even as he never reaches the emotional impact you expect from an Almodóvar production - as is the case with The Skin I Live In - his filmmaking is so alive in every moment one can't help forgiving him his flaws. Is this a top tier work from the man who made All About My Mother? No. Was I still glued to the screen in every moment as I am with few films? Hell, yes.

To call The Skin I Live In "Almodovar does Frankenstein" is both an accurate description and wildly reductive. Accurate in that, yes, Antonio Banderes plays a mad surgeon with a creation of his own held captive in his mansion. It is reductive because Pedro is not about to be satisfied simply delivering his take on lightning bolts and things jumping at you out of the darkness. The horror in Skin is of a far more unsettling variety involving attacks not just on one's safety but on one's sanity. It touches on Almodovar's familiar themes of sexuality, identity, and stopping everything dead so we can watch a beautiful woman sing a beautiful song.

more sans spoilers after the jump.

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