The Iron Linky
Tuesday, January 3, 2012 at 9:20AM 
By now you've heard that Meryl Streep will be receiving an Honorary Golden Bear at Berlinale in February. The fun part of this news that you probably haven't heard elsewhere is this is the 62nd Berlinale Festival and Meryl is... 62! They grew up together! The best part of this news for those attending the festival? That would be festival screenings of Kramer vs. Kramer, Sophie's Choice, The Bridges of Madison County, A Prairie Home Companion and Out of Africa. I'd love to see all of those on the big screen again... even though they're not the five exact choices I would have made as a programmer (obvs you have to have Kramer & Sophie though). Coming next weekend we'll look at the Reader Streep Rankings. (Thanks for all your e-mails.)
Oscarables
The Wrap Will the Oscars move away from the Kodak Theater in two years? They're considering their options before recommitting to the contract.
Gold Derby shares the new Oscar ballots for Best Picture and accompanying instructions sent to Academy members. Voters can only vote for five favorites though more than five might be nominated given the complicated rules and thousands of ballots.
Etcetera
Antagony and Ecstasy rips into Phyllida Lloyd's The Iron Lady. Only Streep survives.
Low Resolution rips into Albert Nobbs. Close survives. Sort of.
Paper Mag Matthew Modine turns to short filmmaking with Jesus Was a Commie. May also battle the Batman but won't confirm it.
Guardian Swordsman Bob Anderson, who staged fights for massive beloved franchises Lord of the Rings and Star Wars, has died.
24 Frames talks about a quartet of movies with ambiguous endings. Spoilers obviously. Strangely the author chastises you for not having seen Rampart. Not that the distributor will let you!
Stale Popcorn thinks Rooney Mara is The Girl With the Ungrateful Stuck Up Attitude.
Cinema Blend Demi Moore will cameo as Gloria Steinem in that Amanda Seyfried Linda Lovelace biopic which keeps getting starrier.
In Contention interviews Jeremy Irvine and Richard Curtis on War Horse
Reader Comments (9)
Don't turn your back on us! Sexy pic ;)
PS I don't expect a warm reception from the Berlinale press...
Oh wow the last time Demi Moore and Sharon Stone were in a movie todether was "Bobby"... Now "Lovelace"... Intriguing!
Ooh, a Streep retrospective screening series at Berlinale sounds divine. Incidentally, if you did the programming, what *would* your five be? (Mine would be Kramer vs. Kramer [duh], Sophie's Choice [duh x 2], Silkwood, Postcards from the Edge and The Devil Wears Prada.)
I'm glad that I'm not the only one who thought the same thing about Rooney Mara after reading the EW article. She didn't come off very well in the interview.
@Erik
Ms. Mara doesn't come off very well in every interviews. It's such a waste despite she got some talent.
I already mentioned this at Antagony & Ecstasy itself, but I find it interesting that every review I read of The Iron Lady is aghast that the film seems so enthralled by such a reputedly terrible, horrible person; while my friends and I, who admittedly knew nothing of Thatcher going in, found it to be a rather scathing piece. As my roommate (who only knew Thatcher was a prime minister) said after the screening, "She seems like the worst person ever!" Hyperbolic, maybe, but it gets the idea across.
Myself, I know who Thatcher is and of her reputation, but only a little about her actual policies. Time and again, I find myself sitting down to watch movies that are "surprisingly/offensively sympathetic" to controversial figures, like Nixon, W., and The Iron Lady. And each time, I come away thinking of the characters as virtually unsympathetic, prisoners of their own egos and lust for power -- and often, the films seem more condescending than sympathetic.
Not that I'm defending Iron Lady as a film. I like it, but it doesn't give a real sense of the times or anyone else around her (though this could be because it's all from her own POV), and its editing is...inconsistent. I just feel like unless Maggie was kicking babies in the mouth and eating puppies while setting homeless shelters on fire with her own hands, it would be deemed as "too sympathetic".
Just a quick note, Nathaniel - your link for the Matthew Modine story actually goes to the (spoiler-filled) ambiguous endings article.
wellington -- ugh. fixed. THANK YOU for pointing it out. I hate making errors like that.
Demi Moore and Sharon Stone were the best things about Bobby besides the actual footage and speeches bookending the film.