And what the hell did Disney have against Astrology in the 1930s? Horoscopes aren't evil!
Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (1937) was so fun to watch again. I could do a massive post like those 101 Dalmatians or Toy Story look backs. Have you watched Snow recently? Tonight is HIT ME WITH YOUR BEST SHOT and it's not too late to join in. The post will go up at 10:30 PM. Pick your shot and join in!
February ends. Which means Oscar season has wrapped for another year and we begin anew for 2012. (I realize there's a few loose ends and we'll make like boy scouts and tie them.)
Here were a dozen highlights from the month that was.
Most Popular: SAG Live Blog Most Discussed: Reader's Ranking Streep Project from Music of the Heart to Sophie's Choice and Streep's Third. Internal Conflict Y'all always want to talk Streep. "The Streep Experience" ayiyiyi. I love her as much as anyone but I really need a break. I am taking a long Streep break in 2012. Other actresses deserve the discussion now. Let me think on who to obsess over though you're free to give me ideas.
IN MARCH! We're taking a few days off soon (GASP! That never happens) but then we'll be back with new films like John Carter, Boy, and Hunger Games, and we'll be celebrating the return of Mad Men (OMG). We'll also maybe look back at Raising Arizona, and I'm even considering an entire Tim Burton retrospective on the way to Dark Shadows so as to try to revive the love so as to get excited for Pfeiffer's return.
Some anniversaries coming up. What sets your anticipatory heart thumping?
I apologize that posting has been draggy of late. While we prep new articles and prepare ourselves emotionally for the Oscar nominations which are just 38 days away (and which will surely hold Meryl Streep's 17th nomination), I thought it might be fun to celebrate with a reader ranking of Oscar's favorite actress.
Rather than a simple polling I'd like to do a group rank by point system. If you'd like to participate please send me an email] with "Streep Rank" in the subject line by Tuesday, Dec 20thUPDATE: This project has wrapped. Here are the results. In the email put these performances in order, no comments necessary unless you really need to say something. Only vote once!
78 Deer Hunter 79 Kramer vs Kramer 81 The French Lieutenant's Woman 82 Sophie's Choice 83 Silkwood 85 Out of Africa 87 Ironweed 88 A Cry in the Dark 90 Postcards from the Edge 95 The Bridges of Madison County 98 One True Thing 99 Music of the Heart 02 Adaptation 06 The Devil Wears Prada 08 Doubt 09 Julie & Julia
That's 16 performances. If you have not seen all of them just list the ones you have seen. I'll parse all the info and we'll see where it takes us!
This past summer we polled you once or twice a month about the Best Actress characters that you think of the most often from the past 50 years of the cinema taking us all the way from 1961 through to this past spring's Oscars for the films of 2010! With the new fall season of The Film Experience kicking off and the Oscar films arriving, I thought we'd take one last look back at that polling.
It was quite fun for little OCD actressexual me to peruse and "sort" and all of that in excel. If you're OCD like me and want to know how I compiled the chart, which is listed in alphabetical order below and pictured in slide show format in chronological order, there's more information after the list. I'd love to say that we'd do 100 articles to celebrate (one for each of your fav' fictionalized ladies) but that would be an insane thing to promise. But we'll use the chart for inspirational somethings! Give these characters a big round of applause for all their years of entertaining service.
By all means if you haven't seen any of the 98 films represented, make it a viewing priority.
Your 100 Most Memorable Best Actress "Characters" 50 Years | 100 Greats (1961-2010)
List presented visually (chronologically) and in text form (alphabetically) after the jump. Plus: Statistics!
Nathaniel. Home again from a relaxing weekend offline. My last for the next six months as it's all prestige movies and Oscar hoopla from now until March.
I've had a lot of fun writing up True Blood during the summer (finale writeup tomorrow). I have no intention of turning the blog into The TV Experience but a little variety never hurt anyone and I might add a briefer small screen column -- possibly with guest bloggers on occasion-- or maybe just continue with the odd "TV at the Movies" episode. I'm cancelling HBO when True Blood ends. Why? Budget reasons and a clear lack of interest in their slate of original programs. I never thought I'd say the latter but it's too man-centric for me now, as if their entire programming directive is "get me more Sopranos / Entourages ... literally. put them in period garb or relocate the action. whatever". I miss the Sex & The City / Six Feet Under / Sopranos days when the network felt more equal opportunity thrilling and more original ... as if their goal was to corner every market that was demanding quality television. The point: I have a lot of DVR openings now given cancellations, loss of interest in longrunning shows, delays, etcetera... so I may take a deeper looker (offline) at the new season offerings -- which basically start tomorrow with RINGER -- than I normally do.
Christian Borle, Debra Messing and Anjelica Huston in SMASH (2012)
The new show I'm most interested in isSmash, the first television series (to my knowledge) that's ever used Broadway musicals as its topic. In one of those daydream fantasies where one imagines oneself a tv creator this is always the topic I dreamed up for MY series that I would direct and produce (fantasizing remember... I do neither of those things). I imagined just such a show so many times. I wish they had gone with Broadway musical stars in the major roles (it'll be weird that Glee uses more of them given the respective topics) but Katharine McPhee (from American Idol) has a good voice and I'm intrigued to see how Oscar winner Anjelica Huston will fare in the key supporting role -- can she finally win the Emmy that's eluded her for the past 22 years despite frequent nominations?
But Smash doesn't premiere until 2012 so here are some shows I'm considering sampling -- which usually means just the first episode unless it's very intriguing -- primarily chosen for topics or actresses I like. As I do.
Wednesday, April 11, 2012 at 8:09AM 
