May Flowers on their way

Gatsby's waiting on them. 

Have you – got everything you need?”

Perhaps some more flowers…”

Do you think it’s too much?”

Well, we hope not. I asked Nathaniel to renew May Flowers for another year since it's one of the first things I knew the blog from (Sentiment and flowers go well together, yes?). May flowers are coming at you most afternoons. Any requests?

While on the topic of The Great Gatsby, though, are you anxious for the premiere? The film opens Friday. Don't we all feel as nervous as Gatsby at the beginning of the trailer? I want to lean over and ask, "Have you got everything you need, Baz?" Hopefully he does. 

Cannes: The Official Slate

It's afternoon in Paris but bright and early here in NYC and the official Cannes lineup has been announced. In 28 days Baz Luhrmann and his undoubtedly enormous Bazmark posse will be hitting the Croisette for the opening night film The Great Gatsby.  Immediately following that debut reactions will explode chaotically all over the web with unvariably less art-directed beauty than the fireworks in the film. 

But here's what'll actually be competing for the Palme D'Or and assorted main jury prizes. 

IN COMPETITION

• Behind The Candelabra (Steven Soderbergh)
• Borgman (Alex Van Warmerdam)
• Un Chateau En Italie (Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi)
• La Grande Bellezza (Paolo Sorrentino)
• Grisgris (Mahamat-Saleh Haroun)
• Heli (Amat Escalante)
• The Immigrant (James Gray)
• Inside Llewyn Davis (Joel & Ethan Coen)
• Jeune Et Jolie (Francois Ozon)
• Jimmy P (Arnaud Desplechin)
• Michael Kohlhaas (Arnaud Despallieres)
• Nebraska (Alexander Payne) 
• Only God Forgives (Nicolas Winding Refn)
• The Past (Asghar Farhadi)
• Soshite Chichi Ni Naru (Hirokazu Kore-eda)
• Tian Zhu Ding (Zhangke Jia)
• Venus In Fur (Roman Polanski)
• La Vie D'Adele (Abdellatif Kechiche)
• Wara No Tate (Takashi Miike) 

Which of those films are you bullish on for prizes and/or your own impending fandom? Out of competition and more after the jump...

Click to read more ...

Curio: Marie Harnett's Pencil Drawings

Alexa here with your weekly art inspiration.  Marie Harnett is an artist out of the UK whose focus is on film. She makes widescreen-format, small yet intricate pencil drawings of filmstills that "capture fleeting moments of drama, suspense or beauty and, when released from the original context of the film that inspired them, the drawings each tell a story of their own."

Marie holds a miniature Keira

I recently came upon her work and was struck by the level of photorealistic detail she manages to cram into her tiny compositions, and by how they evoke the history of cinema, despite her of-the-minute subjects (she even draws stills from trailers).  And she's doing quite well for herself; tiny mezzotints of her drawings sell for upwards of $2000! Here are some examples of her current work; you can see more on her website.

'Gatsby' series, 2012

Gangster Squad, Chéri, and A Single Man loveliness after the jump

Click to read more ...

Amir's Most Anticipated Films of 2013

Ewan McGregor and I (from TIFF). What movies do you think he's looking forward to?Amir here. For most of us moviegoers the first day of January doesn’t coincide with the start of a new film year. We wait for the release of films like Zero Dark Thirty or Amour in our corners of the world. But to wish you all a slightly belated happy new year, I thought there’s no better way to semi-start 2013 than with a top ten dozen list of possible cinematic treasures that await us.

It was a tough task to narrow down but that’s the fun in list-making. I know I’ll be first in line when Lars von Trier’s Nymphomaniac hits the screens, or when Under the Skin, Jonathan Glazer’s long-awaited follow-up to the masterful Birth, is unveiled. And how could I not be excited about Side Effects from the always intriguing Steven Soderbergh, or Les Salaudes, the newest film from Claire Denis, one of our greatest living directors? James Gray’s Nightingale almost made my list, as did Park Chan Wook’s Stoker and Edgar Wright’s The World’s End. Joachim Trier, whose last film Oslo, August 31st was my favorite of 2011 (2012 for many US critics) is working on an English-language debut called Louder than Bombs,  too. I’ll be there for all of them, but if I had to pick only a dozen films to watch this year? Here they are....

12. I’m So Excited
An apt title for a film on a list of this kind, but that’s definitely not the only reason I’ve included it here. Pedro Almodovar, everyone’s favorite Spanish auteur, is going back to the realm of comedy with this story of intersecting romances and dancing gay flight attendants on an airplane.

I’m So Excited stars a whole lot of Spanish stars like Javier Camara, Cecilia Roth, Lola Duenas, Paz Vega and my biggest crush of the moment, Blanca Suárez. Almodovar’s regulars Penelope Cruz and Antonio Banderas are apparently in for small roles. 

more after the jump...

Click to read more ...

Yes, No, Maybe So: The Great Gatsby

Jose here. The summer not only brings us cheesy special effects movies and superhero blockbusters, it also announces the start of something else in movie theaters: the arrival of Oscar season trailers! Yesterday we got our first glimpse at Baz Luhrmann's take on F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby which, no surprise, showed us Baz at his Baziest.

Those of you who were expecting him to show some restraint will be highly disappointed (although didn't you learn your lesson with Australia?) while the rest will rejoice in the way he flahses his unique visual style. Anyway, before you pick a team, let's do our usual Yes, No, Maybe So...

Click to read more ...