Django Unchained, Poster Teased.

It's a pity that there are 257 days left until Christmas. Am I right?

Isn't it wonderful when a movie can be sold on the name of their auteur alone? 

Wouldn't it be wonderful if final movie posters were ever as graphically bold as teaser posters?

Curio: Happy Birthday Quentin

Alexa here. Today Quentin Tarantino turns 49; somehow I thought he was older, if only because he has been in our consciousness for so long. It feels like forever ago that we heard Mr. Brown give his thesis on "Like a Virgin." His Madonna connection got some further milage this week with word that Madge wants him to direct the video for her new single "Gang Bang." ("All he has to do is show up with a camera.") Considering that he lent Gaga his Pussy Wagon, it just might happen.  

Here are a few creations celebrating the prince of palaver.

Quentin's bloody ear, by Gregg Gordon of Gigart.Tribute posters by Ibraheem Youssef

Click for more posters including Django Unchained. Plus: Vincent and Jules as mice...

Click to read more ...

Links: Poitier & Tarantino, Poppins & Gaga, Miyaga & Felt?

Movie|Line Quentin Tarantino loves Sidney Poitier.
Cineuropa Tarantino and Christoph Waltz will reteam for period film about an escaped slave Django Unchained.
IndieWire Focus Features will distribute Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom.

Salon on hot actresses pandering to fanboy culture.
Playbill gets quotes from the Tony Nominees
i09 wonders what this summer's surprise hit will be. I'm confused about how Super 8 could count as a surprise though. So much huzz on that one.
/Film Cameron Crowe reveals We Bought a Zoo images.
TOH! The Webby Award winners: Angry Birds, The New Yorker, Funny or Die, Web Therapy, etc...
MTV Keanu Reeves sidesteps the  'James Franco My Own Private Idaho Art Exhibit' question; he hasn't seen it.

Pretty Pictures
You may have noticed I've renewed my love of illustration of late. So here's a piece from the artist SAUL ZANoLARi called "Echnography of Change" which is using Lady Gaga and Julie Andrews to represent tradition and transgression. My first response is only that Gwen Stefani is going to be so jealous of Gaga [cue "Lonely Goatheard" yodelling]

"Echonography of Change" by Saul Zanolari

Anyway... Remember that "lesson" I drew up, about rewarding students with chocolate, a grand lesson delivered by Michelle Pfeiffer herself? Well I was clicking around to see other Illustrations for that same theme (it's a weekly art party) and I did find one other piece that used movies as a jumping off point. When2FeltEm has a really fun almost tangible looking take on The Karate Kid's Mr Miyagi. Love it.

I also enjoyed this bittersweet universal lesson from Letile and two funny efforts from Vhrsti, lord of the flies, and Hello Auki. Bunnies are always trouble!

Reader Spotlight: Ester

The TFE reader community investigation continues. Get to know more about the other people reading this site! Maybe they're reading what you're reading at exactly the same time! Today we're talking to Ester in Brooklyn who is also a writer.

Nathaniel: Do you remember your first movie experience or obsession?

ESTER: My father took me to see the theatrical re-release of Song of the South in 1986, when I was four. I'm sure he gave me a lecture afterward about historical inaccuracies but all I remember is the animated "Zip-a-Dee-Do-Dah" bluebird and being enthralled by the big screen. A little later on, I became obsessed with Jack Nicholson. It started with "Chinatown," which I would watch anytime I was sick because it was guaranteed to make me forget what hurt, and "Terms of Endearment," because I adored his relationship with the ballsy, hilarious Shirley MacLaine.

Imagine yourself as supreme empress of the cinema. What would you do?

I would...

• declare a moratorium on anything to do with superheros, vampires, or superhero vampires. (Exceptions may be given for pre-adolescent Swedish vampires and Lisbeth Salander.) Sequels would have to be justified in a five-page paper about what their purpose is beside the making of more money to be spent on more sequels. 
• have Pixar lead workshops on Film 101 that are mandatory for any director, writer, or producer whose movies score in the red on Rotten Tomatoes or MetaCritic. 
• take away all of Tim Burton's CGI toys.
• double the budget of Focus Features (and appoint myself to their development department).
• bench Michael Bay and divert his money to Amy Pascal to produce several strong, smart, female-driven comedies.  

How to decide? Categories?

Three favorite actresses. Go

I could have a favorites list that's all "Kates": Hepburn, Blanchett, Winslet, with runner up Catherine Keener. Or one that's all TV actresses: Edie Falco, Mary Louise Parker, and Allison Janney. Or just redheads: Amy Adams, Patricia Clarkson, Julianne Moore. For all-time favorites, I probably have to go with the stars, classic women who manage to be incisive, funny, and mesmerizing over numerous roles: Katharine Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe, Meryl Streep. But I am not happy about having to leave Kate Winslet off the list. 

On your blog you list Quentin Tarantino, Nora Ephron and Charlie Kaufman as influences. I was curious about seeing all three names in the same list. What do you love about their work?

What I love in a movie is some combination of chemistry, intelligence, creativity, audacity, and truth (in the sense that the film is true to itself and its own internal rules, not to any objective standard). Charlie Kaufman is the kind of writer I trust completely because he has thought through every important aspect of a movie: what kind of world does he want to create? What kind of message does he want to send, and how can he communicate it without being didactic? How will characters, dialogue, and visuals all combine in service of that message?  Charlie Kaufman movies aim to please the eye, the ear, the heart, and the brain. They're not very sexy but eventually he'll aim for the loins too. (I hope.)

Meanwhile, no one does vengeance better than Quentin Tarantino. In his hands, vengeance is not a mindless act of good against evil: in Kill Bill, viewers are encouraged to sympathize with the human targets, even Bill himself. Elle Driver is the exception, the only cartoonishly villainous character, and even she is so great that you don’t want to see her die. This is why Tarantino, in Inglourious Basterds, gently raises the question of whether even Nazis deserved to be gunned down, roasted alive, scalped, mutilated, and otherwise inconvenienced. Of course the Third Reich needed to be brought down (and what a job he does of it, too). But no one, no matter how despicable, should have their head bashed in by Eli Roth. Watching Inglourious Basterds, you simultaneously get to enjoy the fantasy and let the fantasy go.

QT is not as abstract or theoretical as CK, but he understands that the smartest movie must still be fun, and vice versa.

Nora Ephron's When Harry Met Sally often gets dismissed as a chick flick, which is too bad, because it's psychologically astute and laugh-out-loud funny, even on the twentieth viewing. None of her other movies are as strong but I also love the dry sense of humor that shows up in her essays and the fact that she continues to make herself relevant & a force to be reckoned with. If failing really is not the falling down but the staying down, she has never failed.

Wow, I love that. I may start employing it as a mantra. Okay final question: Have you ever dressed up as a movie character for Halloween?
The closest I've come is trying to be Joan Halloway from "Mad Men". I had the boobs but not the poise.