The Linkmaker
Monday, January 21, 2013 at 8:01AM Vanity Fair looks at the Lincoln costumes of first time Oscar nominee Joanna Johnston from sketch to still
LetterBoxd are any of you trying this new cinephile site out? I am.
A Blog Next Door film scores to write to? (Joe Reid was just talking about this habit in that Hours piece). I used to write to the score to Talk to Her but lately I've found music distracting.
MNPP "Who died worse: Fantine or Talia Al Ghul?"
Gold Derby's Tariq Khan thinks Emmanuelle Riva is going to win Best Actress. I wish I believed him!
Empire Lance Armstrong: The Movie?
Coming Soon Here's most uncharted territory for the movies: elderly gay romantic drama. Ira Sachs will follow up his critical hit Keep the Lights On with Love is Strange starring Alfred Molina and Michael Gambon as long time companions who decided to tie the knot.
Tom Shone interviews Spielberg for The Sunday Times (subscription required for full article)
With every movie, some more than others, you have to make the audience your accomplice."
Towleroad Ryan Gosling on his abs and pecs. LOL. Gosling does always give good quote. Speaking of...
Frisky ...remember this classic "Meet Ryan's Abs" infographic? (I can't find the full thing anymore)
i09 sci-fi authors have a sense of humor about the gender politics of genre book covers
Hollywood Elsewhere Marilyn at the 1950 Oscars? This photo looks fake to me but I love it still.
Finally... did you hear that those Django Unchained action figures are being pulled by the Weinstein Co over debates that they have commercialized and trivialized slavery. Oh god. People are so frustrating. If you accept that the movie is historical fantasy fiction, aren't the dolls also exempt from this kind of moral outrage? Or do the $35+ dolls somehow shamelessly commercialize it whilst the $150+ million grossing movies doesn't? At any rate, pulling the dolls is no biggie for the Weinstein Co since the first series is already sold out (and given how many characters were in that series, was there ever going to be a second series?) and selling for $760 to $7,000 online (asking prices). I get that purchasing a slave doll has more uncomfortable connotations than buying a ticket to a movie in which Quentin Tarantino plays with his live action dolls playing slaves but isn't it basically the same thing in the end: a commercial product which makes money off a communal desire to create fantasy corrective narratives about atrocities of the past?
Reader Comments (14)
I'd personally rather have Pi and Richard Parker action figures.
I so hope that Riva or Chastain can pull an upset in Best Actress. Jennifer Lawrence is a homophobic, transphobic, sexist, racist, vulgar, ignorant, untalented disgrace.
If you accept that the movie is historical fantasy fiction, aren't the dolls also exempt from this kind of moral outrage?
I guess the difference between both is that film is art, doll making is not. You can depict any despicable thing in the name of art, not in the name of money.
Sally Field looks ridiculous in half of Lincoln. I'm not sure if that's intended. Do you think Joanna might have a chance considering her long career and the lack of previous recognition?
PS I really hope Tariq Khan is right.
Lynn: Is she pro-torture too?
Lynn I don't want Lawrence to win either but what's your evidence for such accusations?
iggy -- wait. How is doll making not an art while film production is? Genuine question. Not that i care about it as much but it's still a craft that ccan create beautiful things.
Regarding Riva's chances - If you believe it, it will come true!
I remember back in 2007 race when Julie Christie was wining left and right, I still believed that Marion was going to win the Oscar. Then she won the BAFTA, I knew she was winning the Oscar. Thus, I believe Riva will pick the momentum at the BAFTA (well since she wasn't nominated at the SAG) and carry on to her Oscar win.
Is Riva on the campaign trail? I think that is key, Lawrence has Harvey Weinstein backing her and Chastain is leading two big box office hits right now., so I am not holding out my hopes for her though I would like to see her win. As much as I like Lawrence her performance relied way too heavily on her own charisma and charm (and there is plenty of that) but is nowhere near as nuanced as her work in Winter's Bone.
I literally just began fiddling around with Letterboxd today. Not sure how I feel about it yet.
As for writing to music, I kind of need to, or my mind wanders. Go to scores are those belonging to Sunshine, The Social Network and, of all thing, Lady in the Water.
@Nathaniel
Good question! I don't know. In Spanish one is arte and the other one (the beautiful handcrafted dolls, that is) artesanía. So, I guess we learn from nursery school what is officially art, and what is art-ish. Who decides which human works are artistic and which ones can be sold in street markets? I'd like to know it. There're incredibly artistic pieces of furniture and really crappy looking buildings.
Anyway, I suppose a film has always an artistic intention, if not on the part of the producers, at least on the part of the actors or the director, while no one makes Django dolls to become inmortal for doing it.
I just really have to wonder what the mentality was for coming up with these dolls in the first place. Very bizarro.
What the hell is Lynn talking about?
Perhaps a custom hand-made doll based on DU would be considered art but an action figure that was more likely assembled in an offshore factory feels much more unquestioningly commercial?
That said I don't fully agree with that frame of thinking and I wasn't even aware of this doll controversy until this post so I haven't really formed an opinion on it yet.