Linkopolis

Movie|Line Noomi Rapace and Rachel McAdams take over for Kristin Scott Thomas and Ludivine Sagnier in the insta-remake of Love Crimes (read my Ludivine interview) now dubbed Passion 
Self Styled Siren and friends are hosting another For the Love of Film blog-a-thon (May 13th-18th) to raise money for a recently discovered fragment of White Shadow which was assistant directed by Alfred Hitchcock. I shall try to write a Hitchcock piece to join in.
NPR worries that James Cameron will be stuck on Pandora forevermore with Avatar sequels. I wouldn't worry. It takes him so long to make a movie, we'll be lucky if we get even two more narrative movies -- of any kind -- out of him.  

Animation Magazine Guillermo Del Toro will be co-directing a new Pinocchio movie and presumably be given all the credit for it (sigh). His soon to be unsung partner will be the Fantastic Mr Fox whiz Mark Gustafson so this should look lovely.
Stale Popcorn is working on a 1994 retrospective and has already covered Reality Bites, Blink, and Nell... all movies I loved back in the day. 
Hollywood and Fine has had its fill of Zooey Deschanel. Is she overexposed and overquirked now? 
Pajiba proof that every rabbit in the history of cinema has been evil.  Yes, even the boiled one in Fatal Attraction.
John August first person account of a year on the writing staff of Ringer. Interesting behind the scenes glimpse 

Avengers Mania
The Atlantic terrific piece on Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow in The Avengers and the challenge of being a woman in male entertainments
THR The Avengers sequel confirmed (duh) so it's 3 solo sequels over the next two years (Iron Man, Thor, Cappy) followed by another group effort. Why not a Black Widow / Hawkeye movie just to keep things just a tad fresher? I know there are people clamoring for a third Hulk movie since he stole the show but there's a reason he stole it. It's called "leave them wanting more"... something Hollywood is not good with once something's successful.  
Vulture times the six heroes to see who has the most screen time. They seem surprised by Black Widow's showing but I wasn't at all. It's Joss Whedon and he always makes room for strong women.

Cannes is Coming
In Contention Cannes Check Jeff Nichols' Mud (and the McConaughey Renaissance continues)
Little White Lies has predictions from four of their contributors. Good read. So much to think about. 
The Playlist amazing photoshoot of Robert Pattinson styled after older Cronenberg movies like Dead Ringers and Videodrome. 

"Hit Me With Your Best Shot" Season 3

Ready for Season 3 of "Hit Me With Your Best Shot"? 

Newbies take note: each week we pick a movie and we all pick our favorite shots. Consider it a mini blog-a-thon. If you've seen the movie you might already have an idea of the image if you'd choose. If you've never seen it, here's a nudge to do so! Your "best shot" might be the image that most reminds you of the film, the one you think of as the most beautiful, the shot that's the most resonant in terms of the movies theme... anything really since "Best" is in the eye of the beholder. You can post yours and why you chose it on any of your web homes and let me know and we'll link up when we publish on Wednesday evenings at 10 PM. 

Films we've already covered in this series 
1920s The Circus (1928), Pandora's Box (1929); 1930s Tarzan the Ape Man (1932); 1940s The Woman in the Window (1944), Black Narcissus (1947); 1950s A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), Night of the Hunter (1955), Rebel Without a Cause (1955), A Face in the Crowd (1957); 1960s Rocco and His Brothers (1960), Psycho (1960), La Dolce Vita (1960); 1970s Eraserhead (1977); 1980s Aliens (1986), Law of Desire and Matador (1986/1987), Peggy Sue Got Married (1986); 1990s Beauty & the Beast (1991), Heavenly Creatures (1994), Se7en (1995), Showgirls (1995); 2000s Bring it On (2000), Requiem for a Dream (2000), X-Men (2000), Moulin Rouge! (2001), Memento (2001), Angels in America (2003), Mean Girls (2004).

SEASON 3 BEGINS ON MARCH 21st

March 21st Ladyhawke (1985)
It's Matthew Broderick's 50th birthday and we thought this would be a fun feature to look back on visually. And not just for all the Pfeifferisms but can you believe we've never done a Pfeiffer Pfilm here?
March 28th Bonnie & Clyde (1967) March 26th-30th is WARREN WEEK 
Warren Beatty turns 75 on the 30th. We'll celebrate one of the greatest stars in the Hollywood firmament all week. Which films should we revisit?
April 4th Easter Parade (1948)
We love a musical and this one's timed for the holidays.

MORE FILMS TBA... 

Will you join us this year? If so, spread the word.
This series thrives on several pairs of eyes. 

"Hit Me..." Last Three Episodes!

Hit Me With Your Best Shot, the series in which we look at pre-selected features and choose the best (okay our favorite) shot has gotten a bit wobbly this past month (queue problems, off-blog deadlines) for which you have our hearty apologies. Here is a revised Season 2 finale schedule. We promise to stick to this one since the holiday craziness (Gay Pride / 4th of July) will have passed. Just three more episodes...

• Wed July 6th: Luchino Visconti's ROCCO & BROTHERS (1960)
• Wed July 13th: ALIENS (1986)  25th anniversary spectacular theme week!
• Wed July 20th: REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE (1955) for Natalie Wood's bday

Please considering joining us. Spread the word to fans of Lt. Ellen Ripley or red jackets. Those weeks we did Beauty & The Beast and Moulin Rouge! were so fun. The more blogs, tumblrs and sites the merrier.

P.S. And a round of applause for all the previous participants this season. Please check out these blogs and add them to your reading queues if you like them: Movies Kick Ass, Awww the Movies, Film Actually, Antagony & Ecstasy, Stale Popcorn, Pussy Goes Grrr, Cinephilia & Sass, The Entertainment Junkie, Ahora, Victim of the Time, Film Misery, Amiresque, Encore Entertainment, His Eyes Were Watching Movies, Against the Hype, Serious Film, Tom Clift, Movies and Other Things, Okinawa Assault, Cheap Seat Reviews, Kyle Unscripted, Dial P For Popcorn, Intafada, Being Norma Jeane, Mosaical Musings, Derrek's Tumblr, Moved by a Screen Dream, Sketchy Details, Sorta That Guy, A Blog Next Door, Animation Revelation, Awards Nazi, The Red Headed Invasion, musicinephile, Melanie Lynskey, The Owls Are Not What They Seem and Missemmamm.

Movies are meant to be a communal experience. Thanks for getting that. If you've always meant to join in the screen-cap discussing fun, why not finish out the season with us battling acidic aliens or teen angst 1950s style? 

Tennessee 100

Starting Monday... it's Tennessee Williams Week! The great American playwright's centennial is on March 26th and since his stage work has had such crucial impact on the big screen especially for actors, since Nicole Kidman and James Franco will soon attempt to revive Sweet Bird of Youth on Broadway, and since his writing has influenced other legendary writers or filmmakers like John Waters, Edward Albee, Tony Kushner and Pedro Almodóvar, why not a whole week?

For those of you who haven't seen any of the movies based on his work, why not rent a couple? On Wednesday night we'll celebrate A Streetcar Named Desire with "hit me with your best shot" but other films we hope to touch on include Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Fugitive Kind, The Rose Tattoo, Baby Doll, Suddenly Last Summer, Sweet Bird of Youth and Night of the Iguana. If you have a blog, tumblr or whatnot and you do anything to honor him this week... make sure to let us know and we'll check it out.

Netflix has Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Summer and Smoke and The Glass Menagerie (TV version) available on Instant Watch. TCM is showing A Streetcar Named Desire (Tues at 3:45) though strangely they have no centennial programming this month for one of the artistic giants of the 20th century.

"Hit Me With Your Best Shot" Returns

This series was a big hit last year so we're bringing it back for round two in exactly two weeks time. Participating is easy. You just rent the movie, take a screencap of your favorite shot in the film and post it on your blog, journal, flickr, wherever. You can write an explanatory essay, a brief note or nothing at all. Let us know you posted it and we'll link up at 10 PM EST when The Film Experience post goes up.

Wed March 16th  -  MEMENTO (2001, Tenth Anniversary Celebration)
Wed March 23rd - A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE (1951, Tennessee Williams Centennial Week)
Wed March 30th  -  PSYCHO  (1960, in celebration of the excellent debut novel "What You See in the Dark" by Manuel Muñoz that comes out that week. I read it in galley. More on that book/author soon.)
April Titles - TBA

So put those films on your queue. If you have other visually motivated friends that you think would enjoy this 'group gaze,' challenge them to participate. Last year we covered the following films: Requiem for a Dream (2000), Se7en (1995), Black Narcissus (1947), Pandora's Box (1929), Bring it On (2000), A Face in the Crowd (1957), Showgirls (1995),  Mean Girls (2004),  Night of the Hunter (1955), X-Men (2000) and Angels in America (2003).