Today's Must Watch: 14 (Silent) Character Types

Oh to have the New York Times arts budget. They've asked 14 actors to recreate classic character types in 1 minute segments and the results are at turns breathtakingly gorgeous (Natalie Portman), funny (James Franco), exciting (Javier Bardem), questionable (Jesse Eisenberg?) and sometimes plain old garden variety awesome (Tilda Swinton's Falconetti?) Yes please.

Tilda Swinton

Noomi Rapace

Anthony Mackie

But my favorite might be Jennifer Lawrence's screaming victim.

Watch all 14 here (also starring Vincent Cassell, Chloë Moretz, Matt Damon, Michael Douglas, Robert Duvall and Lesley Manville.)  It'll only take you 14 minutes!

Oscar to Choose 3 to 5 of Ten Animated Short Finalists

"Let's Pollute"

The Academy have revealed the finalist list for Oscar's Best Animated Short category. Depending on how voting goes we'll see anywhere from three to five nominees. But the lucky names will be drawn from this entertaining list.

• The Cow Who Wanted to Be a Hamburger (Bill Plympton Studio)
• Coyote Falls (Warner Bros)
• Day & Night (Pixar)
• The Gruffalo (Magic Light Pictures)
• Let's Pollute (Geefwee Boedoe)
• The Lost Thing (Passion Pictures Australia)
• Madagascar, Carnet de Voyage (Sacrebleu Productions)
• Sensology (GAGNE International LLC)
• The Silence Beneath the Bark (Lardux Films)
• Urs (Filmakademie Baeden Wuerttemberg)

6 excerpts/ trailers and 4 full length finalists after the jump... See them for yourselves. Which will you root for? [Thanks to Movielicious for rounding these shorts up.]

Trailer for THE SILENCE BENEATH THE BARK

Teaser : Le silence sous l'écorce / The silence beneath the bark (2009) from joanna lurie on Vimeo.

Trailer for URS

Just an excerpt from MADAGASCAR ...unrelated to the American feature film! ;) The full short is 11 minutes long.

Excerpt from Bill Plympton's THE COW WHO WANTED TO BE A HAMBURGER. This one looks quite a bit different aesthetically than his usual films, which tend to look pencil sketchy but his shorts are often gut-bustingly funny. This is 6 minutes long at full length.

Brief excerpt for THE GRUFFALO. This is 1/2 an hour long at full length.

Trailer for THE LOST THING. 15 minute short.

Full Short COYOTE FALLS

Full Short DAY & NIGHT

Full Short LET'S POLLUTE

Full Short SENSOLOGY. 6 minutes. 

(Gorgeous abstract musical visualizations)

Your verdict?

*

BIFA: The King's (Acceptance) Speech and Other Oscar Matters

You guys. I'm so not (quite) ready for this. It's only November 1st and in English language cinema we've already had at least three awards lineups outside of the film festivals: NY's Gotham Awards, Australia's AFI, and now BIFA... which translates to the British Independent Film Awards.

BIFA considers Oscar-buzzing Lesley Manville as "Supporting"

It will surprise virtually no one that the Oscar hopeful Brit films like The King's Speech (and all of its actors), Made in Dagenham and Another Year are in play for various prizes. It may surprise some that the indifferently received Never Let Me Go, the divisive Kick-Ass, and the largely undiscussed Brighton Rock received multiple nominations as well.

A complete list of nominees (with Oscar-adjacent comments) follows after the jump but I shan't clog the main page with these über long lists that each awards groups hands out.

BEST BRITISH INDEPENDENT FILM

• 
Four Lions

• Kick-Ass

• The King’s Speech

• Monsters
• 
Never Let Me Go

Interesting that Another Year did not make the "Best Film" list, despite important nominations elsewhere. BIFA has no problem with "genre" films as evidenced by the inclusion of both Monsters & Kick-Ass. I'm sure there will be pockets of online rejoicing if this film gets an awards run. I'd like to kick the ass of anyone who votes for it though. Metaphorically speaking! I'm mostly a pacifist. Plus an 11 year-old girl could probably kick my ass in real life, even if she didn't have Hit Girl's training.

BEST DIRECTOR


• Mike Leigh - Another Year

• Matthew Vaughn - Kick-Ass

• Tom Hooper - The King’s Speech

• Gareth Edwards - Monsters

• Mark Romanek - Never Let Me Go

Leigh and Hooper are safely in the hunt for Best Director Oscar nominations. The rest of them, well, at least they have this homegrown honor to brag on.

BEST DEBUT DIRECTOR [THE DOUGLAS HICKOX AWARD]


• Debs Gardner Paterson - Africa United

• Clio Barnard - The Arbor

• Rowan Joffe - Brighton Rock
• 
Chris Morris - Four Lions

• Gareth Edwards - Monsters

I was confused about Rowan's nomination here until I remembered this wasn't Roland Joffe but his son. Clio Barnard (pictured left) recently on "best newcomer" at the  BFI London Film Festival for the same film. It's a documentary that's also apparently an acted biopic (it's one of those uncategorizables) about the playwright Andrea Dunbar and her experience growing up in a housing project in Northern England.

BEST SCREENPLAY


• Jesse Armstrong, Sam Bain, Simon Blackwell, Christopher Morris - Four Lions

• Jane Goldman & Matthew Vaughn - Kick-Ass

• David Seidler - The King’s Speech

• William Ivory - Made In Dagenham

• Alex Garland - Never Let Me Go

BEST ACTRESS


• Manjinder Virk - The Arbor

• Ruth Sheen - Another Year

• Andrea Riseborough - Brighton Rock

• Sally Hawkins - Made In Dagenham

• Carey Mulligan - Never Let Me Go



Good on Ruth and Sally who are both subtly fantastic in their movies.

BEST ACTOR

Colin Firth probably won't stutter during his Oscar acceptance speech

• 
Jim Broadbent - Another Year

• Riz Ahmed - Four Lions

• Colin Firth - The King’s Speech
• 
Scoot McNairy - Monsters

• Aidan Gillen - Treacle Junior

I suspect this is the only place we'll see honors for Jim Broadbent because Ruth Sheen has the screentime in Another Year and Lesley Manville the showiest character. More pointedly: anyone wanna wager how many Best Actor prizes Colin Firth is going to have to accept this year.... 5? 10? 15? 20? 25? All? I always forget to count but I think there's something crazy like 30+ prizes one can win during precursor and Oscar season.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS


• Lesley Manville - Another Year

• Helena Bonham Carter - The King’s Speech

• Rosamund Pike - Made In Dagenham

• Keira Knightley - Never Let Me Go

• Tamsin Greig - Tamara Drewe

Interesting that in the two "local" awards so far (this and the AFI) we've seen Oscar contenders show up in the opposite category in which they've been pegged for Oscar consideration. It's safe to assume that Jacki Weaver would only be Supporting in her American awards run (despite the "lead" vote in Australia, where she's "a national treasure" according to her director and co-stars) but Manville could obviously go either way, depending on how the Another Year campaign plays out. The most interesting inclusion here is Rosamund Pike. She has a couple really great scenes in Dagenham -- and was my favorite supporting actress in the film -- but I had expected that Miranda Richardson, a more well known 'prestige' actress, would be the one to win honors and Oscar traction. Maybe not?

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR


• Kayvan Novak - Four Lions

• Guy Pearce - The King’s Speech

• Geoffrey Rush - The King’s Speech
• 
Bob Hoskins - Made In Dagenham
• 
Andrew Garfield - Never Let Me Go



<-- Hi, Kayvan! Nice to meet'cha. About this list: I'm pleased for Garfield. As you know, I really loved him in that movie. Meanwhile: This is the first memory jog I've been given that Guy Pearce is in The King's Speech since all the buzz and the trailer attention and whatnot is on the central three characters (Geoffrey, Helena and Colin).

MOST PROMISING NEWCOMER

• 
Manjinder Virk - The Arbor
• 
Andrea Riseborough - Brighton Rock

• Tom Hughes - Cemetery Junction
• 
Joanne Froggatt - In Our Name
• 
Conor McCarron - Neds

Riseborough (pictured right in Toronto -- must have been a crazy year for her) was amazing in Never Let Me Go with almost nothing to work with and also highly watchable in Made in Dagenham in another sideshow role so I'm curious if she's even better in Brighton Rock with a big meaty role? Is more truly more with Andrea? I'm intrigued.

BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN PRODUCTION

• 
The Arbor
• 
In Our Name
• 
Monsters

• Skeletons

• Streetdance 3D

RAINDANCE AWARD

• Brilliant Love
• Jackboots On
• Whitehall Legacy
• Son of Babylon
• Treacle Junior

BEST TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENT


• The Arbor - Sound - Tim Barker

• Brighton Rock - Cinematography - John Mathieson

• The Illusionist - Animation - Sylvain Chomet

• The King’s Speech - Production Design - Eve Stewart

• Monsters - Visual Effects - Gareth Edwards



BEST DOCUMENTARY


• The Arbor
• 
Enemies of the People
• 
Exit Through the Gift Shop
• 
Fire In Babylon

• Waste Land

BEST BRITISH SHORT

• 
Baby

• Photograph Of Jesus

• Sign Language
• 
Sis

• The Road Home



Wow. I've actually seen one of these. Photography of Jesus, about photo archive requests, is cute and interesting and well animated. You can watch it here. Better yet, it doesn't outstay its welcome (which is always a plus whether we're talking short or feature length films).

BEST FOREIGN FILM


• Dogtooth
• 
I Am Love

• A Prophet

• The Secret In Their Eyes

• Winter’s Bone

An odd mix of last year's Oscar nominees (Prophet, Secrets), a current submission (Dogtooth) and two directorial feats that are strangely mostly discussed only in terms of their fine leading actresses (Love, Bone).

NOT YET ANNOUNCED
The Richard Harris (Outstanding Contribution Award), Variety Award and Special Jury Prize have not yet been announced.

And there you have it. What do you make of all of this?
*

Oscar Prediction Revisions: Costume Design, Documentary Shorts

The Oscar Prediction Pages are all finally revised and updated.

Costumes
This morning I was thinking about the costume designers who may be in play. Like many of the Academy's branches, costume designers can be a bit insular about who they nominate (though no group is anywhere near as "final club" elitist as the composers) but one previously unnominated designer I hope they consider is Louise Stjernsward who did the costuming for Made in Dagenham.

The period work in the film (late 60s England) doesn't seem unduly fussed over, which is a plus for a film that's aiming for a light touch on a serious topic. And it's one of those movies where the costumes actually play an important plot role once or twice, as in this red number we see Sally Hawkins wearing below. She's on her way to a very important meeting and she's borrowed the dress to look higher class. It's a touch too big on her.

The film also has quite a broad range of costumes on display since we have businessmen, factory workers at work and on their days off, politicians (Miranda Richardson, left), a swimsuit photoshoot (center) and even lots of undergarment on ever shape and size of woman since the women in the Dagenham factory regularly strip down to work, given the heat.

It seems like it must have been a big project for Stjernswad, but a hugely enjoyable one.

See the new costume design page now with animated gallery.

Documentary Shorts
Here is the trailer for one of eight Documentary Short finalists, Sun Come Up, which looks at the refugees of climate change. It looks gorgeous and sad.


Sun Come Up Trailer from Sun Come Up on Vimeo.

Oscar Prediction Pages: Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress, Foreign Films, Costume Design, Animation & Documentaries, Visual Categories and Aural Categories

Links and Other Drugs

I'm so behind on movie news and readings. It will take me a week to catch up. I'm also aware that I need to revamp the Oscar predix this week. Where to even begin? Links.

IndieWire TIFF completes their lineup. I haven't been posting about TIFF much because I'm so depressed I'm not going. Maybe I'll find someone to cover it for me... [hint. hint]
NY Post will The Walking Dead be a hit for AMC? I do wonder how anyone can make the zombie story fresh these days. This looks exactly like all the rest of them, barring the horseback travel. When will entertainment's zombie addiction end?
Coming Soon a big screen adaptation of the app/game Angry Birds? I have now heard everything. This would only work as claymation. Oh god please not glossy CGI for this property.


Nick's Flick Picks His 2009 Honorees continue with Screenplays. Better late than never, especially with the intriguing but concise writeups.
Cinema Blend video of Viggo and Fassbender in costume and makeup for the new David Cronenberg picture. Oooh, can't wait to see them in action together.
Marc Malkin Meet Kurt's Glee boyfriend
PopMatters "like touching the dead" another rave for Ken Russell's The Devils (1971). I really wish they'd put this on DVD. It really is amazing in scope and the world so needs it right now given that the global addiction to religion is more dangerous than ever these days.
The Ausselio Files creative tension on the set of Diane Keaton's HBO project Tilda
Freckle Face The Musical Yes, Julianne Moore's children's book is now a stage musical. They start singing and dancing in early September
We Are Movie Geeks Readers near St. Louis, MO? You might want to check out the Black Expo later this very week. Movie legends Pam Grier (!), Louis Gossett Jr and Mario Van Peebles are all appearing.

<--- Yay. It's P&A. The filmmaker and his only real male muse have reunited. They've started shooting The Skin I'm In (2011). Here they are on a break.

Cinematical offers strange speculation about why Penélope Cruz is not in Pedro Almodóvar's The Skin I'm In which just started shooting. Um... how about, Pedro's just using a different girl this time? He does that sometimes. Nothing in P's filmography suggests she'd be uncomfortable with nudity, sex scenes or anything Pedro would ask of her really.
Moviehole Apparently Joss Whedon is aware that people are worried that there are no women in The Avengers. He assures there will be. Um, extras don't count. If you don't have The Wasp or Scarlet Witch, you have a sausage fest, plain and simple.
The Playlist First look at Uma Thurman in Ceremony. I hope this is a hit for her.
Joblo DeNiro, Norton and Jovovich get their Stone poster. I'm falling asleep.
Dial P for Popcorn more Black Narcissus images.

Please someone tell me they watched Narcissus specifically due to all this cheerleading we're doing. Blogging must not be in vain! Speaking of... Tomorrow's "Best Shot" episode is Bring It On. Are you joining us?

Finally, I saw this short at this tumblr where the author said "oh my little heart!! cute/sad shakes" and there's no saying it better. Unfortunately I can't tell you who said so. If I don't save things immediately on tumblr I never see them again. (I don't understand tumblr at all. So disposable it is!)

MARCEL THE SHELL WITH SHOES ON from Dean Fleischer-Camp on Vimeo.

My favorite part is the 'lint puppy'. I would've teared up if my ducts worked properly. One of the undeniable truths of our modern online world is that it has blown out whole new walls as window. There's just so much creativity from so many folks to discover.
*

Joan Collins Just Won a "Best Actress" Prize

Though the headline may come as a shock, it's true... and not unprecedented.

I'm not sure what today's teen and 20somethings know of Joan Collins if anything. Her sister Jackie, the romance novelist, seems to have stayed in the spotlight a bit more this past decade. But anyone who lived through the 80s just heard the opening theme of Dynasty trumpeting in their head. Ms. Collins was a 20something starlet of the 50s who migrated to television, peaking as a 50something with a Golden Globe win as bitchtastic icon "Alexis Carrington Colby" and the series becoming the #1 TV show in the land shortly afterwards. Alexis terrorized the feebler entities (i.e. everyone) on that soap for eight years. She was nominated at the Globes six consecutive times. Emmy voters didn't like the powerhouse serial as much, giving Collins and the show only won chance at the Actress and Series statue (needless to say they lost).

Now in 2010, Collins has won her first acting prize in ages. The New York International Film Festival (this city has so many mini festivals I can't keep track) screened a creepy comedic short called Fetish (2010) in which Collins plays a faded star in conflict with a talk show host (played by Charles Casillo who also wrote the screenplay). The audience was apparently wowed by her deglammed nuanced portrait.

From the set of Fetish, photo by Kelvin Dale.

Now, you can't win Oscars for performances in short films, but the short itself is playing Oscar qualifying festivals so maybe you'll hear more of it later in the year? I'm reading conflicting reports but it's on the long-short side, if you will, coming in somewhere between 25-30 minutes.

I hadn't thought of Collins in a good while until earlier this year when I began reading Star. She's a major figure in the early parts of that Warren Beatty bio. Yes, she was his lover. "Who wasn't?" you shout snarkily in unison. But listen. There are lovers and then there are LOVERS. And Collins was the latter sort, and a crucial figure in foisting the young and impossibly pretty Warren Beatty upon the world in 1961. So crucial, in fact, that she shows up in the very first paragraph of the first chapter of that book.


But I wander...

I hope to catch up with this Fetish film soon. Congratulates to "The Bitch" herself, who, at 77, could maybe somehow possibly if-she-wants-to drift back into the pop culture atmosphere again. Who knows?

If you'll allow me a train of thought digression, this news reminded me of a passage in Quentin Crisp's amazing book How To Go the Movies (1984) . I'm quoting a big chunk but it's too wonderful not to. Crisp is discussing the fall of the studio system (and the unfortunate rise of television). Joan is name checked.

"..in fact it provided a stable atmosphere in which an actress could perfect her skills with at least some assurance that they would be used. Her studio would carry her through at least one flop, and by the time her contract was well under way, she had usually acquired her own secretary, her own makeup artist --in some cases, her own camera man. In other words, a leading lady became a kind of queen bee attended by five or six drones who had no other function than to enhance her assets and conceal her defects. No wonder so many of them became permanent stars. What keeps a woman young and beautiful is not repeated surgery but perpetual praise. They were eternal mistresses of their public. In deference to the art directors of their films, they changed their costumes occassionally, but only as ballerinas wear tights and tutus to remind us that they are first and foremost classical dancers but, if spoken to nicely, will don a turban to show that for the moment they are the playthings of cruel Turks. A movie star never deprived her public of the thrill of instant recognition at her first appearance on the screen.

This happy predictability no longer prevails. Now, every new picture is a desperate gamble, deafeningly publicized, with its mounting costs broadcast like news of a forest fire. If a film fails, even though its star may have been judged by the critics to have been the only good thing in it, when her name is mentioned, some movie mogul will growl, "Isn't that the broad that costs us thirty-four million dollars?" In these circumstances, actresses have decided to be different people in different roles; they have taken to acting -- a desperate measure indeed.

Though television has wrought all this havoc in Hollywood, it is no real substitute for the movies. It has its star; it has Miss Collins, who remains through all vicissitude of plot the last of the "vamps." If she ever appeared on any screen, large or small, as a nice home girl, the world would come to an abrupt and ignominious end."

From what we hear of Fetish, she is less cartoonishly vampy than before, but still not exactly a sweet wallflower. The world will keep spinning... for now.
*

Falling in Link Again

cinema
Self Styled Siren terrific piece on memorable movie costumes. The Siren writes beautifully. My favorite write-ups are those for Breathless and Strangers on a Train.
Dennis Cozzalio has an amazing piece about the 35th anniversary of Robert Altman's Nashville, one of the best movies ever made.
Boy Culture on the new Burlesque stills and out writer/director Steve Antin. I'm excited for this movie but also fearful that it'll just be the Christina Aguilera show. That would be epically disappointing given the rest of the cast list: Cher, Tucci, Cumming, Bell.
Cinema Blend Viggo & Fassbender on the set of David Cronenberg's Freud/Jung picture Dangerous Method. Can't wait. So excited to see two of today's best actors in character.
Cinematical Neil Gaiman is sick of vampires.

movie stars
I Need My Fix Jude Law in the Czech Republic. Apparently Sadie Frost is writing a book about their marriage. Uh oh.
Old Hollywood Ernest Hemingway to Marlene Dietrich. Awesome quote.
Diva Asia Apparently Gong Li is now divorced. I'm not that concerned with her marriage. I just want her in some incredible movies again. Like something as good as Ju Dou? That's too much to ask, right? I can dream.

a Buffy moment
Flickr Holy Hellmouth, this "Buffy Alphabet" is awesome thus far.
Low Resolution has a three-part incredibly detailed interview with one of the writers on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. If you love Buffy you'll want to read it.

just for fun
pop licks "Best Headline Ever?" Maybe it is. It is pretty vivid.
Chateau Thombeau "Been There" hee x several.

....and because it's just amazing, the video "Big Bag Big Boom" by Blu.

BIG BAG BIG BOOM - the new wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

"Pixels"

Doesn't this short render all future videogame movies obsolete?

Love it. Watch it.

Day & Night, A Strong Possibility For Oscar

This weekend when you see Toy Story 3 --it's safe to assume you'll be there? -- you'll first see a new Pixar short called Day & Night (2010). Don't be surprised if it wins an Oscar on February 27th, 2011. I don't want to spoil one second of the short because it's so inventive, fun and technically /conceptually strong. It's often all of those things simultaneously. You're in for a treat.

Despite Pixar's reputation as an Oscar hog, they're more Streep than Hepburn; They're nominated frequently but they win less than people have imagined.

Unless you're talking about animated features in which case, yes, yes, they win that a lot. They've won it 5 out of its 9 years. But they also lose ridiculous contests like Monsters, Inc vs. Shrek... despite the math being Monsters, Inc > Shrek by 1000 to 1. Argh. That one will haunt me forever.

Pixar Shorts Oscar History
Winners: Tin Toy (1988), Gerri's Game (1997), For the Birds (2001). They win the animated short category but once a decade.
Nominees: Luxo Jr (1986), Mike's New Car (2002, the only one of their shorts using movie characters to be nominated), Boundin' (2003), One Man Band (2005), Lifted (2006), Presto (2008)
Ignored: The Adventures of Andre and Wally B. (1984), Red's Dream (1987), Knick Knack (1989, one of my personal favorites), Jack-Jack Attack (2005), Mater & The Ghostlight (2006), Your Friend the Rat (2007), Partly Cloudy (2009)

Donald Duck is 76

Do you prefer "Daffy" or "Donald"? I can't say I've ever been much of a fan of either of the famous Ducks (maybe Howard, briefly, in the 80s). Maybe sea fowl just aren't my thing? I was, however, totally into Chip & Dale (and chipmunks) as a child. So here's seven minutes of funny Toy Tinkers (Best Animated Short Film Nominee, 1949) starring all three to start your morning:



Here's a list of the ten best Donald Duck cartoons from a real fan. And if you've never seen Donald's only Oscar-winning short, Der Fuehrer's Face (1942) you can watch it on YouTube.

The Disney and Warner Bros characters used to get Oscar nominated a lot in the Animated Short category. In the past couple of decades the closest thing we have to a perennial in that category is Wallace & Gromit or Pixar as a studio, if that counts, though their characters don't repeat.

You know what I think is a crying shame as animated short films go? That Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) didn't really become a franchise. Disney made three short films with the characters after that blockbuster hit: Tummy Trouble, Rollercoaster Rabbit and Trail Mix-Up though none were nominated at the Oscars. They had the misfortune of arriving in that stretch of a dozen years or so when there were never more than 3 nominees in that category.
*

Lady Gaga's Alejandro: The Fun & Folly of Appropriation

Madonna was once both adored and reviled as "The Great Appropriator" so I suppose it's only fair that Lady Gaga borrows from her. When I first heard "Alejandro" I kept thinking 'Oh, Ok. Gaga has to have her own "La Isla Bonita," too.' And then she went and collaborated with frequent Madonna iconographer Steven Klein for the music video.



So even though Klein is shamelessly borrowing from his own past work here, the wonderful thing about Gaga is that, like her spiritual pop empress predecessor, she's her own artist, too. This makes the appropriation palatable as well as fun... until crazed fans start giving her credit for everything. [But that's another funny subject matter entirely.] I mean even Madonna didn't invent the chameleon approach to pop stardom, though her fans, like Gagas, also tried to give her credit for it at the time.

Doesn't that "what on earth will they wear/look like next?" thing go directly back to Bowie? Or is it earlier than that. Paging pop historians???

Blond helmet bobs and flare pants forevah!

So mark my words. Someday soon -- let's say within the next 3 years -- Gaga is going to have her Madonna "Live to Tell" moment wherein she totally shocks the world, not with a new provocative look but by showing up with a demure, classic one. It'll get everyone talking as much as any diet coke can hair rollers ever did.

The Madonna / Steven Klein collaboration from 2003
One might call the stylings Gaga-esque but for the year in question

So, my point is this: Clumsy homage/ripoff like the kind that Christina Aguilera does in "Not Myself Tonight" when she plagiarizes both Madonna and Gaga *shudder* is not fun at all and should be looked down upon. But riffing on the work of others in a new context or with a fresh twist is totally fun and what many great artists do.

We see this in feature films all the time, too. Both of the best shots in Pedro Almodovar's Broken Embraces are arguably inspired by other work: There's that white sheet shrouded sex scene (Margritte) and that moving emotional climax with the hands caressing the static image (which I'm hearing is a Godard reference... but it totally works in the Almodóvarian context). A couple weeks ago we chatted briefly about the various A grade riffs on Ingmar Bergman's Persona (Lynch's Mulholland Dr and Altman's Three Women). And everyone knows that the wildly popular Quentin Tarantino is all about referencing other movies. But whether or not we recognize the references --I often don't with Tarantino since the genres he loves most are weak spots for me -- great artists reference past work only in the service of making their own fresh visions.

The only real issue with doing this is when the new artist acts as if it's completely and 100% their invention. Which is why it was a shame that Beyonce's otherwise awesome and awesomely ubiquitous "Single Ladies" video didn't have a "thank you Bob Fosse" attached to it, for example.

Madonna & Gaga. They're both "tops"

So, I can't help but think about Madonna the entire way through"Alejandro" maybe because of the Catholic imagery. I see "Alejandro" like so: Madonna's men in cone bras helping hot blond divas masturbate (Like a Virgin, Blonde Ambition Tour), women topping men suggestively in dance choreography (Express Yourself, Blonde Ambition Tour) and catholic girls obsessing over funerals and death in snowy black and white ("Oh Father") plus a couple choreographed bits from "Human Nature" and "Express Yourself" all get tossed into the Gaga/Klein blender and come out the other end as an angry military puree. Here the woman isn't topping men with a flirtatious feminism but actually appears to be penetrating them rather more subversively like a man would. And instead of just obsessing at the coffin and weeping for her dead loved one, the girl is actually leading the funereal procession. And the cone bras become guns. Bang Bang.

I'm not sure I've ever fully registered the sheer amount of aggression in Gaga's art before. But after the mass murder of "Telephone", the crispy end-gag in "Bad Romance" and the poisoned Skarsgaard in "Paparazzi," and this, it's abundantly clear. Suddenly those silly rumors about Tarantino wanting to work with her that sprung up when she used Kill Bill imagery for "Telephone" make more popcultural sense. Gaga is out for blood!

Unfortunately this new video is too effortfully mounted and grave to be half as fun as her previous outings and it also feels more derivative. Will she ever top the exquisite aesthetic control, hilarious sight gags and awesome choreography of "Bad Romance"? That said, even though I'm unmoved by this new work, I really love Lady Gaga and remain thrilled that someone is taking the music video format so very seriously again and has the fanbase to back up that particular passion. It had been a long while since each music video premiere felt so "NEW SHORT FILM!" headline worthy.

Three final errant thoughts...


On a shallow film referencing note, can I just say that I absolutely hate beautiful men with perfect bodies. It's entirely unfair that anyone can stay "hot like Mexico" while sporting Moe's Three Stooges 'do. Entirely unfair.

How much do you love that lyric "you know that I love you, boy | hot like Mexico"? Well, I love it more than you do. Genius.

This final image is thrilling and for some reason it makes me desperate to shove Lady Gaga into a time machine and make her do a video with James Bidgood or Ken Russell in the 70s, Almodóvar in the 80s or maybe Pierre et Gilles or Marc Caro & Jean-Pierre Jeunet in the 90s.

Marion Cotillard, Lynched... David Lynch'ed.

The latest commercial/film in Marion Cotillard's Dior deal is out. (How much are they paying her anyway?) It's a 16 minute whatsit from the inimitable David Lynch called "Lady Blue Shanghai"


Given that the film contains grainy dv shots, ominously loud ambient soundscores, a nervous girl walking down empty corridors, overlapping image bleed and red curtains, it's Lynchian with a capital L. But parodically so?

In some ways it plays like a distant cousin of INLAND EMPIRE, a lightweight cousin with a heftier clothing allowance. Cotillard has her talents -- I like the way she handles one of those absurdly obvious Lynch questions "who knows what's inside that bag?" -- but nobody will ever top Laura Dern for her facility at embodying Lynch's psychotic break story beats in all their humor, danger and weird sincerity. Give or take Laura Palmer.



For what it's worth the film is more beautiful to look at on the Lady Dior site. I have no idea who her co-star is here. It says "with Gong Tao" but a search brings up nothing by way of an actor or model with that name.

I love that modern corporations have taken to employing acclaimed auteurs for longform commercials (a nice way for them to make extra money while audiences ignore their filmographies to buy tickets to the latest CGI film) but I doubt anything will ever top The Hire (2000-2001, starring Clive Owen) in this particular realm of filmdom. Those were such gems.



Share

* Further reading on this Lynch project at /Film and The Financial Times