Links Episode 14,000,000,000

Film "How classicaly trained are this year's acting nominees?" Cool topic, don't you think?
Austin Translation. Cuteness. Pixar was laying down new cement and they let their employees leave a permanent personalized mark.
The Wrap explains Oscar's weighted ballot again. It's much less complicated than people think. And voting a movie #10 doesn't hurt it.
Awards Daily is disgusted by a recent comment by an Academy member who is not voting for Melissa Leo.
Scott Feinberg makes a passionate defense of Melissa Leo, who he considers a friend. Honestly she sounds very cool from the personal anecdotes therein. I've met her only once so I have no stories.
Amiresque a dozen movies to look forward to in 2011. God, I still haven't even though of this.

Bring Mad Men Back sign an online petition. AMC is still jerking fans around. Why on earth are they letting their best show gather dust. This kind of thing can really turn viewers against a network and less committed viewers away from a show. I'm feeling the anger.
Cinema Blend Rosamund Pike is in talks for a Clash of the Titans sequel. Ugh. I want some meaty roles from her.
A Socialite's Life apparently Jude Law and Sienna Miller have broken up... AGAIN. Those crazy kids. Maybe they should star in a remake of Same Time Next Year because obvs they're fond of repetition.
Carpetbagger a disobedient anecdote on the scoring of The Social Network

Finally, you know that AMC is still doing that Best Picture Showcase/Marathon thingy they do each year, right? Even with 10 nominees, they're tackling it. Will you?  Have you ever gone before? I'd try it one year except for that I'm always burnt out on the Best Pictures by the time Oscar night arrives having obsessed over them for five months.

Eve Stewart on "The King Speech" Lacquering, Mike Leigh Yelling and Marlene Dietrich Peeing

How's that for a headline? All that is promised shall be delivered.

I recently interviewed production designer Eve Stewart, currently enjoying her second Oscar nomination for The King's Speech, and it was a completely delightful experience. Some of her spirit must have rubbed off on The King's Speech, which is, whether one is rooting for it at the Oscars or not, a much livelier viewing experience than what anyone might have expected reading a plot description months ago. "If you just hear about it on paper, it sounds..." I begin to admit after becoming acquainted.

"...a bit boring?"  she finishes my thought for me, matter of factly, with no hint of offense. "In the end i just thought 'GOOD GOD!' people are going to be looking at this room for 20 minutes. It better be interesting."

And so it went throughout the interview with Eve Stewart's merry recollections of The King's Speech, the intense work on Mike Leigh films, and her excitement about a new HBO project coming up. Here at the Film Experience we like to begin interviews with behind the scenes movie players by asking them to describe their job.

Moviegoers, including we film bloggers, have differing and sometimes spotty ideas about what each of a film's players bring to the table.

Nathaniel: When I think of production designers and art direction I think of people maybe looking at color palettes, approving sets, looking for props, talking intently to the costume designers. How would you describe what it is that you do?

Eve Stewart: I would describe my job as to support the story visually and to make sure that the world in which the story is set comes to life and creates a 'Bubble of Belief' around the characters which kind of transports the viewer with them.

Nathaniel: When it comes down to the nitty gritty like set constructions and prop work. Do you have a bunch of minions that you're bossing around?

Stewart: Oh I'm really hands on. My team is very small. I did painting at the Royal College of Art. I did opera and stuff like that so I didn't really do the normal film route. So the people I work with are sculptors, painters, fine artists that I've worked with since I was young and they all have a massive role to play.

Nathaniel: Do costume designers report to you since the visual look is your job?

Stewart: They don't report to me but i'm really collaborative.  In the end you are responsible for everything that is seen, all that gets photographed, so you have to make sure it all pulls together. I mean, It's terrible if you're designing a building and it doesn't look like the people live there because you haven't communicated with the costume designer. And also with color, you have to work together and compliment each other.

Nathaniel: The obvious standout set to me is the speech therapist's office, which I like to describe as a "dilapidated diorama"

Stewart: (laughs) Good!

Nathaniel: I love that it feels a bit like a stage. I mean part of that is the way it's shot but it pulls out for us that Logue (Geoffrey Rush) is a theater person at heart.

read the whole interview for more on The King's Speech, her Mike Leigh movies and Marlene Dietrich for HBO after the jump

Click to read more ...

Oscar Nominee Luncheon

Oopsie. Misremembered the date on this.

Thought it was tomorrow. Guess I should have checked my own calendar right here.

Here are my favorite bits from the live stream televised portion

• James Franco at the end of his interview "Is that it? WHAT? all right". Ha. the interviews were super super short.
• Learning that Jeff Bridges is recording an album with T Bone Burnett. Interesting.
• Michelle Williams being sad that Ryan Gosling wasn't nominated but then a quick "but there are lots of other friendly faces" and she was off without even saying thank you or bye to the room.
• Hailee Steinfeld admitting she mostly only watched the Oscars for the red carpet to see what they were wearing. Well, she picked up the gift quickly (see red carpet lineups)

• That Jacki Weaver was practically invisible under the microphone. Actually that wasn't HAPPY but it was interesting. couldn't they have had one of those moving stand that goes up and down.
• Nicole Kidman was asked about other Australians nominated. Re: Jacki Weaver: "its so wonderful to see to see Jacki Weaver who I grew up watching to have this chance it says to so many actors it doesn't matter what age you are you can have a huge break."
• Nicole Kidman also said that this nomination,her third, is the one that made her happiest. Partially because of the movie but also because of how long it's been since she was last honored. "10 years?"
• HAPPIEST MOMENT Hearing that Jacki Weaver has had several offers for new movies. Yes! She says "I've never had grand ambitions to work elsewhere and suddenly i'm thrust into this milieu of excitement. i must say it's become addictive quickly. I've been saying it's the twilight of career but it appears to be the midafternoon."
• One more Jacki Weaver quote: "How do I feel? If I were a bell I'd be ringing."
• John Hawkes was very nonchalant "It's a wonderful time in my life but I'm nervous that my cover is blown" Jeff Bridges also spoke about anonymity being a gift for actors.

• Amy Adams walking out to scattered quiet journalist applause. "That was tepid" she joked. "I'm just playing" She seemed very relaxed.
• Amy when asked about Christian Bale said 'all that matters to me about working with an actor is what happens between action and cut' Interestingly vague. She then said that he stays in character between takes.
• Annette Bening telling the truth about how to combat homophobia and other such issues. " if you can open people's hearts first then maybe people's minds get opened after that."

• Colin Firth on whether people have been treating him differently: "I do get the odd bow which I put down to confusion or facetiousness."
• Helena Bonham-Carter was hilarious throughout in one of the longer interviews. Second happiest moment for me, a long time fan, was her admitting that The King's Speech has born fruit and people are interesting in casting her again. YES.
• HBC on the offer for The King's Speech "When they first approached me I wanted to play George cause that's the best part. I didn't look in the mirror and think I was a dead ringer for the Queen Mum."
• HBC on what she'll wear to the Oscars "I have no idea really. it's probably going to be a catastrophe. "

Best Actress. My Ballot and Time Capsule.

Time is a funny thing. It shifts our feelings, sorts them out. Awards are a product of time, a time capsule. They're equally funny. If you'd told me back in January 2010 when I first saw Blue Valentine that it would end the year as my 4th favorite picture and that Michelle Williams would be in my best actress list, I wouldn't have believed you. I liked her and the movie quite a lot back then but now come February 2011, I love them. The Williams/Gosling duet yields richer rewards each viewing, little intricacies thrown into sharper relief while other ideas you held about the characters get foggier with mystery.

It says a lot about the quality of this year's Best Actress field that Sally Hawkins in Made in Dagenham didn't even make the finalist list. She does expert work revealing how ordinary courage and moral outrage properly channeled, can transform even the meekest of people. It says a lot about the quality of this year's Actress field that Jennifer Lawrence in Winter's Bone didn't even make the semi-finalist list. She does fine work embodying the cold small range of feeling that this life might allow for and she gives the hard film just the right amount of heart as a resilient eldest sibling acting as parent. In the end though, despite Lawrence's absence, my own ballot is the closest its come to Oscar's Actress list since...er... 1987. [Trivia: that's the only year from the past three decades that my own choices for Best Actress line up 5/5 with Oscar.]

Needless to say I was quite pleased with Oscar's nominations. It's my favorite Best Actress Oscar list in recent memory with the exception of 2006... maybe.

Needless to say part two: It was such a toss up for spots 4-8 that I'm sure I'll regret my choices tomorrow. If anyone in tier 2 had come out in 2009 or 2008 or 2007 or even 2006, they would've knocked someone out of the 5th spot. And if they'd ALL been released in 2005, my awards would have been radically different. Such is the arbitrary nature of awards, chained to calendars as they are.

Favorite Dozen Lead Actresses 2010 (in alpha order). If only I could nominate 12 people!

• Annette Bening, The Kids Are All Right
• Greta Gerwig, Greenberg
• Sally Hawkins, Made in Dagenham
• Kim Hye-Ja, Mother
• Nicole Kidman, Rabbit Hole
• Lesley Manville, Another Year
• Natalie Portman, Black Swan
• Ruth Sheen, Another Year
• Paprika Steen, Applause
• Emma Stone, Easy A
• Tilda Swinton, I Am Love
• Michelle Williams, Blue Valentine

My nominees with write-ups

This will undoubtedly feel anti-climactic as my own nominees are usually more off Oscar's path -- who knew they'd have such good taste this year ;) -- and I usually finish before Oscar nominations and here I am wrapping up the first half of the Film Bitch Awards (medals and all) a week late.

I think the year produced two true masterpieces I Am Love and The Social Network so I split on Picture/Director, Picture going to the one I've remained most possessed by but I think both will stand the test of time. And yes, Nicole Kidman finally gets her Gold Medal after many years of near-misses. She's just transcendent in Rabbit Hole nailing the insatiable hunger of grief for more and more of itself and doing so with the barest minimum of histrionics and more humor than you'd think was possible. She also brilliantly foreshadows Becca's escape route through her thicket of pain, a path cleared by her curiousity, compassion, and capacity for stillness on a park bench, feeling whatever it is she needs to feel.

S**g You!

Jose here. Remember how last year the Academy got rid of the Best Original Song performances and in the process denied us the chance to drool at Marion Cotillard's sexy striptease and, eventual winner, Ryan Bingham's dreamy, country sensitivity?

Well, this year they won't deny us the pleasure of making fun of the corny staging for the song contenders (though they dared to deny us the presence of Cher!) and they've brought back the performances in an all-star lineup set to include Oscar winners Randy Newman and Gwyneth Paltrow.

Newman will perform "We Belong Together" (sadly not the epic Mariah ballad) from Toy Story 3, while Paltrow will sing "Coming Home" from Country Strong. Gwyn has a big month ahead and is also set to perform at the Grammys this weekend where she will duet with Cee-lo Green and, wait for this, The Muppets... The music academy is probably terrified Cee-lo and G.Pa will let out one of the infamous expletives in "Fuck You" and are using the Muppets as some sort of insurance. But in a time when Lady Gaga wears Kermit for cocktails isn't it safe to say that no puppets are sacred?

Joining Gwyn and Randy will be Mandy Moore and Alan Menken who will perform "I See the Light" from Tangled and Oscar winner A.R. Rahman and Florence Welch, filling in for Dido, to sing "If I Rise" from 127 Hours. 
If there's someone who can bring some life into that tepid song it has got to be Florence (at least her gown is sure to be a sight to behold)

Also, now that I think about it, we have Newman, Rahman, Gwyn and Menken. So, wait, is this the first time an all Oscar winning lineup of performers will do the nominated songs? I'm sure there's a random Oscar statistic here waiting to happen. Can anyone think of another year when that happened?