Showbiz History: CinemaScope, Recycled Comedy, and Jennifer Tilly

9 random things that happened on this day in showbiz history...

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1936: Henry Fonda (then 31 years old and a fresh new face at the movies) marries his second wife, socialite Francis Ford Seymour (then 28). Their marriage will be unhappy and end tragically in 1950 (with her suicide), but their union will produce one of the great inventions of the 20th century: Jane Fonda. 

1953: Biblical epic The Robe starring Richard Burton and Jean Simmons, world premieres in New York. It's the first movie shot in CinemaScope, "the new dimensional photographic marvel you can see without glasses"...

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The beauty of Dion Beebe’s cinema

by Cláudio Alves

Despite some dubious victors, the 78th Academy Awards honoring the films of 2005 had many great lineups filled with splendorous movies. Later this month, Nathaniel and his guest panelists will take a look at the Best Supporting Actress category. Before that, however, I invite you to bask in the beauty of that year's Cinematography nominees. Specifically, we'll be taking a look at each of the five nominated cinematographers, their filmographies, and characteristic style. First up, we have that year's winner, Dion Beebe (Memoirs of a Geisha). The Australian filmmaker is a master of color, always up to play with wild palettes and shadow games which make bright pigments look even bolder. His best achievements tend to avoid naturalism in search of something more unreal, be it the metallic sharpness of a Californian thriller or the spectacle of Cinecittá.

Here are ten highlights from his filmography…

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Michael Mann's "Miami Vice" 10 Years Later

Please welcome back new contributor Bill Curran for a 10th anniversary look at Miami Vice

The major studio head-scratcher of its year, the ultimate distillation of Michael Mann’s brand of clean sheen noir, and the most authentically auteurist film of the aughts, Miami Vice was the movie offspring of a successful and ever-parodied 80s TV series that was nothing like the original. Instead, Mann unleashed a brooding and voluptuously pixilated peacock of a crime thriller upon an unsuspecting public

If only every recent remake had as much reckless spirit as this one did when it opened nationally ten years ago today. Though the film received favorable notices from top print critics, including a rave from A.O. Scott, the majority of reviewers (and almost all audiences) were simply confused...

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