Miscellinkia: Beatty-ful Summer, Vampiric Tilda, Gamey Thrones,

Links
Ultra Culture Cannes Abuse Checklist. An invaluable chart!
Boy Culture scores the first Val Lauren interview post Sal Mineo / James Franco casting.
Scanners Opening Shots: Woody Allen's Another Woman
IndieWire wonders if winning the Palme D'Or equals box office revenue. Well... it might if any Palme D'Or were released immediately after their win. But by the time they're released summer prestige glory is usually a footnote. Take Uncle Boonmee. No, it was never going to be a "hit" but wouldn't it have played better if it had a normal curve of buzz, release, discussion? Instead of opening 10 months later?

Tilda, Ezra and Lynne Ramsay at the WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN premiere

Movie|Line wonders if a slow burn favorite might win the Palme D'Or instead of The Tree of Life. Cannes Jury predictions crack me up each year because everyone assumes its done deals (just like the Oscars)... but it's often far from predictable.
Towleroad GLAAD Awards. Kim Cattrall's acceptance speech is quite funny. 'I played a gay man on a popular tv show'
Slash Film Tilda Swinton and Michael Fassbender for a Jim Jarmusch vampire flick? Curious and possibly awesome. I guess this means that Countess movie with Tilda isn't happening though. I can't see her doing two vampire films in a row.
Film Doctor steals notes froms the Mrs for Bridesmaids

Gagging on Game of Thrones
I know that my initial impression of HBO's Game of Thrones was far less favorable than most critics and fantasy fans, but can I at least get an amen that the casting of both "fourth in line" Renly Barantheon and his lover The Knight of Flowers, who are often described in the book as intensely charismatic, is terribly off. The casting does not reflect either The Knight of Flowers legendary beauty or Renly's reputation as the most charming fellow in the Seven Kingdoms. They both come across as whiny slightly-bitchy wimps which is about a 180 from the books wherein The Knight is someone you'd NEVER want to meet on a battlefield he's so deadly physically and Renly is someone everyone wishes were king. I really am not pleased with this. And I did not to hear those campy sound effects for well, MOVING ON... But I'll admit that for all my reservations, the series is hooking me just like the first novel did. That first novel was so brilliantly plotted but I really must stop watching this before it goes off the plot horse never to remount in any subsequent books or, uh, seasons as the new case may be.

A Beatty-ful Summer
Tonight in New York City at 92 Street Y, elusive actress/writer/director Elaine May will be showing her cut of the infamous 80s flop Ishtar starring Warren Beatty and Dustin Hoffman. May will discuss the movie afterwards which she rarely does. I'm totally going. Tickets are still available. And then in June, the man himself will be appearing at a Dick Tracy screening in Los Angeles to discuss the movie. Tickets for that are $30 but it's a rare opportunity to hear Beatty talk about his work and see that comic flick on the big screen. If I were in LA, I wouldn't dream of missing it. But then I have an unheathily attachment to Beatty and his Mrs.

This & That: Dick Tracy, Josh Hutcherson, Elizabeth Taylor

Little White Lies talks to French actor Tahar Rahim (A Prophet, The Eagle)
The Wrap Warren Beatty wins Dick Tracy rights lawsuit. Y'all know I love my Beatty but this decision seems ridiculous to me since the rights were only supposed to stay with Beatty if he was actually using the character but he NEVER WORKS. I would love for him to act again but it is obviously not a top priority for him.
Cinema Blend the absurd Face/Off duo (I like that movie) Nicolas Cage and John Travolta may reunite onscreen. May not. The crystal ball is cloudy.
Basket of Kisses Mad Men rumors continue.

Cinema Blend also reports that Josh Hutcherson auditioned yesterday for that Hunger Games role he wants so badly. If you ask me he's already doomed despite fans of the property thinking he's right for it. He seems so much younger than Jennifer Lawrence, doesn't he? And isn't it a love interest situation? The woman reading older is anathema to Hollywood. They are so weird about needing their women much younger than their men.

Oh and P.S. have you seen his "straight but not narrow" campaign? Cute.

Time Out Chicago Melissa Leo interview on a new project which I shan't name anymore -- I've given it too much free promotion. Must control myself unless I'm invited to things and can weigh in with an informed opinion -- but this bit on the Oscars made me giggle.

TimeOut: I was surprised myself by the backlash. Isn’t the awards season all about self-promotion?
MELISSA LEO: Perhaps that’s very so. [Laughs]

A few more Liz & Tennessee articles
Sunset Gun Strong piece on Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
LIFE Magazine published Liz & Monty photos. I've seen some from this shoot before but not these two. I love them together so much.
The Daily Beast has excerpts from an Elizabeth Taylor interview, one bit involving James Dean that she would not allow to go public till she died.
fourfour a Liza Minnelli anecdote on Liz.
Salon the always provocative Camille Paglia on this movie star's pre-feminist power.

and the Oscar Completist has having an Elizabeth Taylor viewing binge and has also written about the rarely discussed TV versions of Tennessee Williams' Suddenly Last Summer (1993), and the 1984 and 1995 versions of A Streetcar Named Desire.

Contest Winners: Warren Beatty "STAR"

Warren & Natalie at the April 1962 Oscars.While Hollywood is busy celebrating Annette Bening's latest big screen triumph, we thought we'd celebrate her husband Warren Beatty with a giveaway of the biography "Star. How Warren Beatty Seduced America" . It's out on paperback finally. I asked contestants to tell me about their favorite Warren Beatty film and I was actually surprised at the breakdown (I expected Bonnie & Clyde to capsize the competition but it did not.) In fact, the contest entries were pretty evenly spread among the top three.

The Holy Trinity...er, Quadrilogy
1. Splendor in the Grass (1961)
2. Bonnie & Clyde (1967)
3. [tie] Shampoo (1975) & Heaven Can Wait (1978)

Reds, Dick Tracy, McCabe and Mrs Miller, The Parallax View and Bulworth, in that order, lagged behind. Those nine films are a pretty smart snapshot of the cream of his crop reminding us once again that Film Experience readers are awesome. (Duh!) The rest of Beatty's thin but substantial filmography wasn't mentioned; Beatty only made 22 movies over his 40 year career. Of the 13 that weren't name-checked the most interesting is probably Lilith (1964) about an institutionalized woman (Jean Seberg) and the most infamous is undoubtedly the adventure comedy Ishtar (1987) with Dustin Hoffman.

The classic Bonnie & Clyde (1967) with Beatty & Dunaway

Contest winners and notes on Bonnie & Clyde, Reds and Dick Tracy with Madonna after the jump.

Click to read more ...

Contest: Warren Beatty "STAR"

Had a few difficulties with contests last year, but 2011 is a new year, new site, new beginning. We start anew. Here's contest #1. More to come.

I have three copies of Peter Biskind's book "Star: How Warren Beatty Seduced America", recently released in paperback, to give away. With Warren Beatty escorting The Bening to all these awards shows, I figure it's a good time to expand her current spotlight to include him, "The Most Promising Newcomer of 1962." 

I'd already read the hard copy of this book being a long time Beatty fan and it's rich in Hollywood lore and makes an interesting companion piece to the great Pictures at a Revolution once you get around to Bonnie & Clyde. Though Biskind claims he wanted to write the book to promote a reevalutaion of Beatty's important career as a renaissance man in Hollywood the book is awfully salacious. They must know this is a selling point as the cover even uses this blurb:

Totally Entertaining. Giddily Salacious.

So expect lots of inside Hollywood politics, lots of sex (it's not for the prudish) and cameos or lengthy visits by numerous storied actresses like Leslie Caron, Joan Collins, Natalie Wood, and Julie Christie (who is a completely fascinating character in this book) among others.

TO ENTER...

• Send an email to filmexperience (at) gmail (dot) com with "BEATTY" in the subject line.
• Name your favorite Warren Beatty film (here's a list) and tell us in a few sentences why you love it.
• Full name and mailing address in case ya win.

Send me those e-mails by Monday, February 7th.
I may quote your descriptions of the films so be forewarned.

Curio: Warren Beatty, Young Lover

Alexa here. When Annette Bening gave a shout-out to husband Warren Beatty's 1962 Golden Globe win in her acceptance speech, I was reminded of this 1962 Movieland magazine of mine.  The issue means to cover Hollywood's "hot new crop of young lovers," and features Beatty, fresh off his Globe win and still under Elia Kazan's tutelage, on its cover.  (A must-read is this recent New Yorker piece on Kazan, but I digress.) The issue also covers Troy Donahue, Dick Beymer, Gardner McKay, Horst Buchholz and George Maharis, so clearly Beatty was the right choice for the cover. The section devoted to him, excerpted below, is hilarious in its critique of his acting and its predictions for his future.  

The handsomest of Today's YOUNG LOVERS and the one who's garnering most of the critical acclaim and column mentions: Warren Beatty. Many of those admirers have likened Beatty to James Dean. But apart from a few minor mannerisms (burying his hands in his pockets, peering intently through his glasses, standing stoop-shouldered) that lots of young men exhibit, the comparison is unjustified. A better parallel, for some remarkable coincidences, is Marlon Brando.

After a few roles on television and a little summer stock, Warren Beatty appeared in the short-lived New York play, "A Loss of Roses." But the experience was no loss to him: He got fine notices and the play's author, William Inge, was much impressed with him.  Inge, who had written a screenplay called "Splendor in the Grass," introduced the young actor to the man who was to direct the film, Elia Kazan.  And here's the first Brando link: Acting Style.

Will they still be around ten, twenty, thirty years from now?

As everyone has known, lo! these many years, Brando's first big click was in the theater, in the play, " A Streetcar Named Desire" - directed by, of course, Elia Kazan. At that time, Kazan was still very involved with the Actor's Studio as a director; so was Brando, as star student. In those days, Kazan was young Brando's mentor and the same influence is apparent in Beatty now. Which brings up my only criticism of him: A product of Northwestern's School of Speech, and Stella Adler's acting school in New York, he is closer to being that which he vehemently denies being - a "method" actor.

Warren Beatty is a good actor. But he will be finer when he re-fines some of his "methodisms." Such as the too-studied movements - just rising from a chair, he spills "soul" all over. And the too-deliberate reactions - his slow smile comes muscle by muscle by muscle. Beatty is under personal contract to Kazan for four more films so his method acting may get stronger before it gets better. Yet better it will get - anyone who comes under the remarkable power of Kazan cannot help but grow into a remarkable performer.

Finally, like Brando, the first of the method actors to light up the flicks, Beatty has that which elicits sighs from ladies in the audience: A pure, unadulterated animal magnetism. Translated, that means sex appeal. (Side comment: I asked a junior staff member on MOVIELAND and TV TIME for her reaction to W.B. Her succinct reply was, "Wow!"). Again, like Brando, Beatty's effect from all reports is just as magnetic off-screen. Which is the true test of every great on-screen lover.