"Skyfall" and Art Direction

A new vlog from the set of the new Bond picture Skyfall has emerged (included below). The chief discovery: Dennis Gassner wears berets. Gassner, who hails from Canada not France, is someone whose work I've long admired. I first learned his name when he pulled off the semi-rare trick of a double Oscar nomination in one category competing with himself for Best Art Direction with Bugsy (1991) and Barton Fink (1991), two absurdly handsome films. Bugsy won but it's oh so satisfying that both nominations were deserved. 

The narrative of this, it's going to be groundbreaking. It's going to be a new chapter. So it's really about finding things that are different and exciting for the audience to look at."
-Gassner on designing Skyfall 

Other credits include The Golden Compass, Road to Perdition, The Man Who Wasn't There, Big Fish. In short he's up there with the best of 'em like Rick Heinrichs, David Wasco, and Dante Ferretti.

But obviously James Bond movies don't court Oscar favor. The entire franchise only has 9 nominations and 2 wins if you can believe it. There's been zero Oscar attention for 30 years! For Your Eyes Only's (1981) song nomination was the last for the franchise. Not even the major critical / audience revival that was Casino Royale (2006) won any attention from the Academy so the conversation ends there even with Gassner designing its look.

Useless Trivia of the Day: only one James Bond movie was ever nominated in the Art Direction category and that was The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) which is Oscar's favorite James Bond film (3 nominations).

Have you ever worn a beret?  

Have Link Will Travel

New York Times on Paul Thomas Anderson's secretive new movie The Master. It's about... something.
MNPP Charlize Theron and Alexander Skarsgård are dating? The Mayans were right about 2012 
Your Movie Buddy interviews The Hunter's storied leading man Willem Dafoe 
Draw Adrian Draw isn't happy about Anne Hathaway as Catwoman but is sketching her anyway
Michael Musto "who's your favorite Taylor?" fun question except there's only one appropriate answer. La Liz! Not that I don't appreciate Taylor Mac...

The Incredible Suit unexpectedly loves The Avengers ... even the Hulk part.
Awards Daily Sasha Stone loves HBO's Girls and Lena Dunham in particular
Stale Popcorn meet the Cannes class of 2012. Serious Thespians (lol) 
Flavorwire always finds interesting things. Did you know that crazy auteur Werner Herzog didn't realize that crazy auteur John Waters was gay for 30+ years. lol
Gold Derby who will Laura Dern (Enlightened) knock out of the Emmy Best Comedy Actress race this season? 

Today's Most Oscary Discussable:
Stranger Than Most looks at the oddest Best Picture snubs of all time. i.e. films that were nominated in the always Best Picture related fields (Dir+ Editing + Screenplay + Acting) and still missed out. Incidentally I love every single one of the "top five" that weren't actually top five (They Shoot Horses Don't They, Hud, Thelma & Louise, Bullets Over Broadway, and My Man Godfrey)  Like crazy 'would run away with them for lost sex-weekend' kind of love. That's how much!

Hud (1963), for example, is a movie I continuously feel guilty about not forcing upon people at every opportunity -- we should totes do it for "Hit Me" but I keep forgetting to put it in the schedule. It's just a freaking masterpiece. And it's weirdly underdiscussed given how many of Paul Newman's films endured.

Curio: Oscar Food 2012

Alexa here. When my friend Mike found out that I would be making a pie in honor of this year's Oscars, he made some quick guesses as to the theme: 

• Black and white for The Artist?
• Pineapple coconut for The Descendants?
• Ringling Bros clown cream pie for Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close?
• Humble Pie by Alabama for The Help?
• A Trip To The Moon cheesecake for Hugo?
• French Silk pie for Midnight in Paris?
• Baseball, hotdogs, apple pie and Chevrolet for Moneyball?
• Pi for The Tree of Life?
• Cowpie for War Horse? 

I quickly wished I had the energy to make nine pies instead of just one. In that spirit, here are some great Oscar-themed goodies I've seen around the web, along with the pie I ended up with. Feel free to share your own menu cleverness in the comments.

Of all the Oscar recipe ideas I've seen, I thought these Oscar-themed dogs were best (but then again I'm from Chicago, where encased meat is king). From the top: The Help Southern fried chicken sausage dog, The Artist old-time Hollywood dog, Midnight in Paris Parisian Pâté dog, The Descendants Hawaii dog with grilled Pineapple and Sriracha, Hugo watch dog, War Horse bruised and bleeding dog, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close NYC dog with mustard and sauerkraut, The Tree of Life dog with spinach, and a simple ballpark dog for Moneyball.

Click for yummy desserts... 

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The Morning After

We always need a bit of time to recuperate. We'll be wrapping this year's Oscars up tonight through Wednesday. But for now... chilling. It's the morning after.

We've all seen this stone cold classic photo of Faye Dunaway the morning after her Oscar win for Network but Framework was kind enough to share more photos (and other Oscar types) in a slideshow gallery  and I did a little more searching too.

More "Morning After" after you click including Best Scene Steal and 2 Greedy Gretchens.

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Randomness: Oscars, Silents, Women Helmers, Loser Gifs

Salon on the reinvention of Brad Pitt. Good history piece / career overview
Vulture Best Pictures as infographics
Pajiba "interviews" Amanda Seyfried about her latest hacktress movie Gone.
NPR Monkey See smart provocative piece on the politics of Warrior (2011)
New York 100 pictures of Meryl Streep through the years. She ages backwards in this gallery
IMDb a gallery of your acting nominees in and out of character

My New Plaid Pants has my favorite "which is hotter?" of all time featuring (American Psycho)
Low Resolution's top ten films of 2011. Not your average top 10 list.
Some Came Running objects to the frequent comparisons of Singin' in the Rain and The Artist
Sunset Gun, now married to Guy Maddin -- is this the first time a film critic has married a director? trivia experts? -- explains his latest project, seances if you will to remake lost silent films.
Booby Finger How To Watch The Oscars a very snarky guide if you're into that sorta thing

Film Festivals Are Infinite
With Skyfall just around the corner I find myself thinking of 007 James Bond quite often and then Pierce Brosnan popped up in my inbox. Have you ever heard of Cinemagic? It's a film festival / workshop type thing for young people interested in filmmaking. (I'm reasonably confident that someone starts a new film festival every day of each year in the 21st century; they are infinite). It's Irish born but it's been expanding and Pierce Brosnan is a celebrity supporter.

Should I revisit all the Bond films this year. I'm torn on how to honor the 50th anniversary.

Our Apologies To 50% of the World's Population
Between the still pervasive global problems of sexist, patriarchal and theocratic governments and cultures and religions that love to treat women like shit, and the latest hypocrisies of the ever sick-making US Republican party ("we believe in small government except when it comes to war-making and your personal morality so hold still while we insert this probe into your vagina without your consent!") women just can't catch a break lately. So why not share this video from IndieWire's Women in Hollywood blog about the female directed movies Oscar didn't love.

It's interesting how many quality female-helmed films there were this past year and I absolutely support the notion that we need more female directors. But I also think it's worth being realistic and saying that none of these films would have won Oscar attention even if their directors had penises. Not that kind of movie(s).

Sally Kirkland when Cher wins. Love ya, SallyWhat you still need more Oscarable links? Jesus!
24 Frames interesting bit about Alfre Woodard's activism within AMPAS
Vulture Best Pictures as infographics
In Contention Guy defends The Artist ... and has money on it.
Gawker on Netflix user reviews of Best Pictures
Slate Acceptance Speeches! Yes, I linked / wrote it but wheeee interactive

Finally... fourfour has a "how they lost" an animated gif wall of Oscar name-reading and the instant smiling that follows. I don't know what caused it but I kind of think nominees are better at hiding their feelings in today's Oscar world which makes it less fun.

Naturally I love this gif wall though my favorite isn't listed. So here it is again for you because it's my preferred method of self-flagellation.

I love you Kathleen!

I'm aware that this post is extremely scattered but it's the day before the Oscars. I'm all over the place with anxiety!