Max Von Sydow (1929-2020)

by Nathaniel R

It is with great sadness we must announce the passing of Max von Sydow. The international acting legend had worked steadily since his big screen debut in Sweden in 1949. Multiple Swedish classics followed including Miss Julie, Wild Strawberries, and The Virgin Spring. International fame happened quickly through his mutli-film collaboration with Sweden's most celebrated auteur Ingmar Bergman. By the mid 60s he began headlining international productions, first as Jesus in The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965) and by the 1970s he was a mandatory for prestige all star productions (Voyage of the Damned, The Exorcist). He's been a mainstay of cinema for 70 years, that exceedingly memorable long face flipping from sweet to sinister to authoritative to wise (and everything inbetween) on command for the demands of any role.

Before his death he completed a lead role in an as yet unreleased WW II drama Echoes of the Past which is currently in post-production. Let's pray it's a fitting swansong for one of the inarguable greats.

We had the privilege of interviewing him over coffee when he was making the awards rounds for The Diving Bell and Butterfly and he was sweet, humble, and talkative about his career and the cinema. We've begged the Academy to give him an Honorary Oscar quite frequently but, tragically, they didn't listen and they've missed their long long window to do so.

After the jump the first 10 Max von Sydow roles that jumped to mind in no particular order when we heard the news...

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Honorary Oscars 2019 - The Speeches

by Nathaniel R

Our dream is to one day attend that invite only Honorary Oscars / Governor's Awards. The ceremonies aren't televised but for clips for YouTube and such but everyone who is anyone in Hollywood is there with an emphasis on Hollywood's golden history which we here at The Film Experience have always appreciated. Sites that only cover new releases -- what are you doing with your lives?!?

Here are the speeches and some notes from the special night.  First up Geena Davis, Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award winner who shares that it was really Thelma & Louise (1991) that changed her life (you and me both, diva!) and set her on the path that she's now being honored for. Her face when Tom Hanks says her name... ❤

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Honorary Oscars 2019 - Red Carpet!

by Nathaniel R

Once you start seeing who shows up at ceremonies that they don't even technically have to be at, you know who is serious about their own awards prospects. Or maybe who just wants to be there to support their film in the event that constant reminders help a film get nominated (that's a yes, they do). At the Honorary Oscar ceremony last night in Los Angeles the stars were out in force and it's easy to see the films that are already serious about pushing their awards prospects hard: the cast and/or directors of Booksmart, Hustlers, Little Women, Waves, Atlantics, Pain and Glory, Bombshell, Marriage Story, 1917, Harriet were out in force. 

Let's look at the lovely gowns and tuxes shall we? 

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David Lynch's "Eraserhead" Debut

The Governors Awards (Honorary Oscars) will be held on October 27th, 2019. We've been discussing two of the honoraries: Directors Lina Wertmüller and David Lynch. Here's Mark Brinkerhoff...

Having just retrospected Mulholland Drive, David Lynch’s penultimate film (to date at least), let’s venture back to 1977’s Eraserhead, the debut film of American cinema’s enfant terrible ne plus ultra. 

To say that Eraserhead is weird would be a profound understatement. Not only is it deeply weird, but it’s wildly inventive. Made for a tight (even for the mid-‘70s) $10,000, Lynch’s first feature, shot in glorious black and white, seems like both a precursor and a post-script to the legendary director’s storied career...

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The Honoraries: David Lynch's masterpiece "Mulholland Dr"

The Governors Awards (Honorary Oscars) will be held on October 27th, 2019 with director Lina Wertmüller, actress Geena Davis, director David Lynch, and actor Wes Studi celebrated. We'll be discussing each of them.

by Eric Blume

The decision to give David Lynch an honorary Oscar this year is among the Academy’s smartest and most inspired choices.  Lynch’s movies are so singular, so not-conceived for commercial consumption, that he was never likely to gain enough popular majority to actually win as Best Director. But he has garnered three nominations over the years: 1980’s The Elephant Man, 1986’s Blue Velvet, and 2001’s Mulholland Dr.  Each of these films contains stunning and memorable images, a feverish sensibility, a subversively compassionate worldview, and a mastery of storytelling... even when the story feels incomprehensible.  

Mulholland Dr truly merits the term overused word "masterpiece".  Lynch is in complete control and it’s a film that could only have sprung from his mind and heart.  While we’ve seen many versions of the American Dream story, none has ever emphasized the “dream” portion of that term in the way that this film does...

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