The Year Was 1998

JA from MNPP here - I know it's 2003 Month here at The Film Experience but Vulture has been doing a 15 year anniversary retrospective of all things 1998 this week, which has me reminiscing about that year too. I was in college working at the local art-house cinema - that'd be the lovely Little Theatre in Rochester New York, which everyone should visit if you ever happen to find yourselves in that neck of the woods. I loved working there - I was studying film at school and living film at work. I saw everything released during that period of time, and got to mingle with the Rochester rich and famous - I handed Phillip Seymour Hoffman a napkin once! This was when Happiness was out so, you know, it really meant something.

Anyway I was looking through the list of movies released in the Fall of 1998 and was wowed by a double-header that came out fifteen years ago on November 6th - Todd Haynes' Velvet Goldmine and Bill Condon's Gods and Monsters. Talk about grabbing my brain and yanking it back through time, so vivid is my recollection of what a one-two punch of queer cinema that week was. Brendan Fraser in nothing but a towel and a gas-mask, fumbling on the floor with Ian McKellen; glam-rocked Ewan McGregor and Jonathan Rhys Meyers splayed out for all the world, and Toni Collette, to see - I wish I'd known at the time what a good time it was for gay movies, but who could for-see the yawning chasm of the 2000s quick approaching?

Oh and another movie came out that week - Elizabeth. Yes that means it's been fifteen years since Cate Blanchett's first Oscar nomination for Best Actress, just as she's about to stampede the competition for her first win in that category. I think just by mentioning this I can still flare up people's anger about her losing to Gwyneth, right? Harvey Weinstein rawr! All that jazz. Anyway I personally probably would've given the statue to Holly Hunter for Living Out Loud that year so what do I know?

What are some of your favorite 1998 movies?

Mia Out, Mara In.

Jose here with this week's Rooney Mara news.

In case you haven't heard, Mia Wasikowska dropped out of Todd Haynes' Carol in which she was to star opposite Cate Blanchett and none other than my beloved Rooney Mara was chosen to replace her (a vast improvement if you ask me). The film is an adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's The Price of Salt which she published under a pseudonym because of its controversial subject: two women in love.

Blanchett will play a married woman who falls for a young department shop employee played by Mara. We all know Haynes is an impeccable director with a remarkable eye for period detail; even those who hated Mildred Pierce - how dare you! - were in awe of his attention to detail, which made it feel like a documentary more than a soapy drama. But above that, we know how great Haynes is with actresses. So this probably has secured them at least Golden Globe nods. The film doesn't star shooting until 2014 though, so we'll have to wait...

P.S. With Cate and Rooney onboard, A.K.A the best dressed women alive, and oft-Riccardo Tisci-muses we've also secured endless red carpet orgasms for 2014 (?).

How do you feel about the casting switch? Will Cate & Rooney have constant Givenchy-offs on the red carpet?  Share your thoughts!  

Link is the Longest Blog Post

Flavorwire 15 great female film critics you should be reading
IndieWire Before Midnight has a great opening night in an unfortunately tiny amount of theaters. If I ran the world this would make $100 million this weekend ;)
Funny or Die "the reviews are in for Behind the Candelabra" LOL
Grantland Wesley Morris on two Cannes entries Claire Denis' Bastards and Nicolas Winding Refn's booed Only God Forgives 
My New Plaid Pants Allegedly Ewan McGregor 
/Film interesting. Jon Stewart's directorial debut Rosewater will star Gael García Bernal and is about a man who was held in an Iranian prison

Twitter Bryan Singer announces Evan Peters as Quicksilver. I've always thought the X-Men franchise was marred by sloppy casting (especially the further you get away from the centerpiece roles) and this one strikes me as no exception. The actors chose beyond the Magneto/Professor X/Wolverine trinity always seem "off" for the roles. Am I just too connected to the comic books? It's worth noting that Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver (twin siblings in the comics and two of my personal favorite characters in all of the Marvel Universe), due to complicated legal situations, can be used by both Marvel Studios and Fox but cannot reference the other so we may see a different actor play Quicksilver if Joss Whedon decides to use him.
Variety ...which he has according to this interview
Coming Soon an extremely annoying motion poster for the new Carrie
Variety Blue is the Warmest Color wins Fipresci prize at Cannes
In Contention ..speaking of lesbian dramas. Todd Haynes finally has a new movie project. It's called Carol and it's based on Patricia Highsmith's novel "The Price of Salt". Cate Blanchett is Carol, a married woman, who has an affair with a shopgirl Therese (Mia Wasikowska)
i09 DC heroes invade George Seurat's famous sunday in the park painting 

anniversaries and goodbyes
The Film Doctor happy 5th anniversary to a film blog I quite enjoy! 
Drawn is closing its doors. sniffle. i love this tumblr which was always a great way to stay connected to illustrators on the web 
Awards Daily Sasha's last entry from Cannes - missing buzzy Blue ... and attending the Nebraska press conference. Although I'll admit the reveal of a 30 minute time frame to file a review filled me with abject horror. It takes me SO LONG to write reviews. Are other critics really done with them in 30 minutes? How! 

She's Just Not That Linked To You

24 Frames Carey Mulligan nervous about expectations surrounding The Great Gatbsy
Felix in Hollywood Liz, Judy & Monty together. Love this photo.
Hollywood News We Bought a Zoo early positive reactions
Interview Magazine Scarlett Johansson covers the December issue. You can't call it a comeback as she's never been away but will her new films revive her heat as an actor ? What'cha think?

Cracked Speaking of ScarJo. Remember when we were talking about the difference between the way male and female heroes are portrayed -- here's a new illustrated parody/reminder with The Avengers.

La Daily Musto Charlize Theron is a "director slut". Love this exchange. 
Awards Daily a Q&A with Steven Spielberg post War Horse screenings.
Joblo a new role for Juliette Lewis in a thriller called Blood or Water
In Contention is there any revival coming for Nick Nolte's Best Supporting Actor chances for Warrior?
Adeilade Now good interview with Ryan Gosling who believes he thinks like a girl. I love the bit about returning to directors (Derek Cianfrance, Nicolas Winding Refn) with whom he's already had creative success. 

I feel like I've been dating all these film-makers and now I just want to get married." 

just 4 fun
Boing Boing a rollercoaster staircase. Whaaa? love. 

Got two hours?
Here's Boyd Van Hoeij, a friend of ours and terrific critic, interviewing one of our favorite filmmakers Todd Haynes for a film festival "master class" at the XIIth Queer Film Festival Mezipatra in Prague. If you'd like to hear this conversation in podcast form you can do so over at Mezipatra's official site.

Venice: "Ides" and Oscar, Winslet in "Carnage", Madonna for "W.E."

[Editor's Note: I told you we'd have two correspondents in Venice this year. Doubleplusgood. You've already heard from Ferdi from Italy. Now we have Manolis from Greece. We're very happy to have them both covering the fest this year. Show them comment love. -Nathaniel R.]

Hello Film Experience fans. I’ve been a reader myself for many years and i am happy that this year i have the chance to cover the festival for Nathaniel and for the Greek site Cinema News. English is not my native language but I hope you'll enjoy my coverage. 

DAY 1: Venice at this time of the year is at its finest and busiest. The festival is of course the main attraction but there are many unaware tourists that are wondering what all these people with the badges around their necks are here for.  The event of the day was the opening ceremony of the Festival with the premiere of George Clooney’s The Ides of March. Even though The Ides of March is a political film the atmosphere at the press conference was not heavy at all. Most of the questions were aimed at George Clooney who once more ‘played’ the room as he answered questions with wit and humor. What else could he do when the questions varied from "Is this movie a comment about Dominique Strauss Kahn?" to "Have you ever thought of running for president?". He also joked about the amount of research he did for his character in Ocean’s 11 -- "I spent years researching for this role in Las Vegas" -- and he joked that the right side of the movie's poster was better looking than the left.  

Which side do you prefer?

He also said that Gosling was his first choice for the role and that the production of the film was postponed because after Barack Obama’s win everybody was very hopeful about the future of polictics in the U.S. and the timing wasn’t right for it. 

Of Day One's three other press conferences, the most compelling was the Jury of the Competition Section. This year's president Darren Aronofsky and his jury members were here to discuss how they will pick their winners. Todd Haynes got the most interesting question when asked how partial he could be in judging Kate Winslet’s performance in Carnage so soon after working with her in Mildred Pierce (which is also showing at the festival).

He answered politely and predictably and persuaded nobody. 

I am happy to say that The Ides of March is a very good film, directed with passion and care for detail. However it's the kind of film that everyone likes and respects but nobody is really passionate about. Ryan Gosling is excellent in the lead role and has the audience on his side even when he makes the wrong decisions; he could very well be nominated. One of the difficult things to judge is whether the supporting players will feature in the Oscar race. I would say that Clooney has the best chance in the Supporting Actor category, as he portrays a charismatic character (not an acting stretch, I know) that has faults and is vulnerable. Paul Giamatti and Phillip Seymour Hoffman are marvelous actors but they don’t do anything we haven’t seen them do before. (Giamatti and Marisa Tomei are in very little of the movie.) Evan Rachel Wood on the other hand has an important role and a lot of screen time and has a good shot at a nomination. If I had to pick the surest nomination that would be in the Adapted Screenplay category since the dialogue is excellent and the the scipt (Written by Clooney and his creative partner Grant Henslov) is the strongest element of the movie.

W.E. and Carnage after the jump

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