Showbiz History: Superman's premiere, Middle Earth's arrival, Bollywood's physique

Six random things that happened on this day, December 10th, in showbiz history

1966 "Good Vibrations" by The Beach Boys, considered on of the most influential and important compositions of the rock era, hits #1. Remember when Paul Dano did such amazing work playing Beach Boys genius Brian Wilson in the biopic Love & Mercy (2015) and then got such a shabby awards season response (though at least we nominated him here!)?

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• Esquire John David Washington profile before Tenet arrives
• Instagram Nikki Blonksy (Hairspray) came out for Gay Pride 😍
• Cartoon Brew new trailer for animated feature Over the Moon 
• Variety RIP Bollywood's famous choreographer Saroj Khan
• /Film The Ghibli Museum is offering a rare online peak inside
• Film School Rejects Ray Harryhausen's monstrous centennial
• /Film Lesley Manville to take over the Princess Margaret role in The Crown
• Variety San Sebastian takes on the Cannes selections
• Cartoon Brew Sony Animation pres thinks adult toons are coming
• Instagram in lieu of clubbing Kate Beckinsale and cat 😂
• Esquire Chris Pine exuding internet boyfriend energy

Irrfan Khan (1967-2020)

by Nathaniel R

The very last screen shot of Irrfan Khan in the cinema. From the film Angrezi Medium (2020). (Hat tip)

In truly terrible news the great Indian actor Irrfan Khan has died of cancer at just 53 years of age. His passing came just four days after his own mother passed away... though he was well enough a month ago to be tweeting and supporting what would become his last picture Angrezi Medium.

The international star had recently headlined the popularPuzzle (2018) co-starring Kelly Macdonald but he was diagnosed with cancer that year and hadn't been working much since. The beloved Bollywood star actually began his big screen career in an Oscar nominated film. It was Mira Nair's breakthrough Salaam Bombay (1988) which became India's first Oscar nominee in the Foreign-Language Film category. A success in Bollywood in the 1990s, Irrfan crossed over into international stardom in the mid Aughts with a series of fine performances in well received English language films...

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100 Most Popular Foreign-Language Films of 2019

Our year in review party . A different list each day! Here's Nathaniel R...

With Parasite sucking up so much awards oxygen, it's easy to let the good news slip by that it was hardly the only great film out there that played with subtitles. Pedro Almodóvar and Zhang Yimou's return to triumphant form (and box office success) with Pain & Glory and Shadow, respectively, were just two of many other goodies that delighted cinephiles and critics at movie theaters and festivals this year. 

Yes, it's time for our annual look back at international non-English language fare in cinemas. [For comparisons sake here are the lists from 2018, 2017 and 2016] For the purposes of the following list we skipped documentaries and animated films to keep the list more focused (and avoid arguments about dubbed versions or whatnot). Please note: This list does not include Portrait of a Lady on Fire since it's not getting a proper release until 2020. It made a very strong $118k in its Qualifying Week before getting pulled.

TOP 100 FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILMS OF 2019
Domestic Box Office Grosses Only - Figures as of March 12th, 2020
🔺= still in theaters | ★ = TFE recommends

01 ★🔺 Parasite (Neon, South Korea, October 11th) $53.1
Bong Joon-ho's Palme D'Or winner took American arthouse theaters by storm and expanded beautifully through word of mouth and aggressive smart publicity from Neon, making it the biggest foreign hit in the States since Hero (2002/2004)...

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TIFF Quickies: Animated Bollywood, Mother/Daughter Science, and Annette Bening

by Nathaniel R

HOPE GAP (UK, William Nicholson)
Have you ever wanted to see Annette Bening play a retired British poet attempting to create her own 'Martha & George'  dynamic with her unwilling elderly husband (Bill Nighy)? That was a rhetorical question. Of course you want to see The Bening do that as you'd want to see her do all things onscreen if you have any taste. Hope Gap, the second directorial effort from long time screenwriter William Nicholson (Gladiator, Shadowlands, Nell, etcetera...), is about a married couple of 29 years whose marriage has died. The wife just doesn't know it yet and continually "has a go" at her husband, eager to see him fight back or express anything at all. Their loving but avoidant son (Josh O'Connor, doing a 180 from his breakout role in In God's Country) is completely out of his depth as he is forced into the role of shoulder-to-cry on, referee, and messenger boy all at once. Though Bening struggles a bit with the accent, she's on typical fire when it comes to blending a well of complex emotion with crackling comic timing...

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