The Film Experience™ was created by Nathaniel R. All material herein is written by our team. (This site is not for profit but for an expression of love for cinema & adjacent artforms.)
Pajiba wonders if The Master's insane per screen average this weekend will finally translate into mainstream box office dollars. (No P.T. picture has ever grossed more than $40 million in US theaters) First Showing Melissa Leo prepping for a busy 2013. So many films, one of them (Prisoners) is with Hugh Jackman from the director of Incendies. Cinema Blend Gong Li may become The Last Empress... but she needs a director first
The Guardian on Mitt Romney and his choice of favorite film O Brother Where Art Thou? Geekologie impressive fan sculpture of He-Man Pajiba on the casual barely-trying success of the Resident Evil and Underworld franchises Coming Soon has an exclusive with Oscar Isaac (Drive) singing songs from two new films 10 Years (it's a song he co-wrote)and the Coen Bros Inside Llweyn Davis. Here's the oft-covered "Dink's Song" from that forthcoming Coen Bros picture...
...and we end with a little tangentially 007 related business (we'll have a Bond series soon with guest star Deborah Lipp of "Basket of Kisses" and "The Ultimate James Bond Fan Book" fame) Press Play Matt Zoller Seitz on From Russia With Love and Singin' in the Rain and "unsophisticated" audiences... Monkey See responds to this article with more on the problem of contemporary audience's "ironic distancing" from older films. Very worthy topic o' discussion Movie|Line a tale of two posters for Skyfall
Alexa here. I just can't let the week go by without posting something about my biggest film boner since Black Swan, PT Anderson's The Master. I know this is bandwagon time, but my excitement knows no bounds here. I can't wait to see Joaquin Phoenix back in prime form; I will always forgive his sidestep into indulgence because, the talent! And another film paired with Johnny Greenwood's haunting tones? Yes please! I missed Chicago's only 70mm showing (grrr), but will be first in line on Friday. To force you to revel in anticipation with me, I present a few fan posters (with the exception of Wes Anderson, no one brings out the fan art quite like PT), and some fabulous photographs taken from the set by photographer Jack Erling.
The Venice film festival has wrapped and with it come those winged lions and other elaborately shaped awards. The jury led by director Michael Mann named Kim Ki Duk'sPietathe best film in competition. It's a violent mother/son drama, the son being a loan shark. Kim Ki-Duk, best known stateside for spring, summer, fall, winter and spring (2003) is no stranger to the Venice Festival having won multiple prizes for 3-Iron (2004) eight years ago.
The winners...
Golden Lion (Picture)Pieta Silver Lion (Director) & Special Jury Prize (Director)there seems to be some confusion about this as Ulrich Seidl for Paradise: Faith andPaul Thomas Anderson for The Master alternate who won what in various reports Best Actress Hadass Yaron for Fill the Void Best Actor (Shared) Joaquin Phoenix and Philip Seymour Hoffman for The Master Screenplay Olivier Assasyas for Apres Mai (English Title: Something in the Air) Cinematography Daniele Cipri for E Stato Il Figlio
Best Young Actor & Best Actress
Mastroianni Award (Young Actor) Fabrizio Falco for Dormant Beauty and It Was the Son FIPRESCI Award (Competition) The Master (Paul Thomas Anderson) FIPRESCI Award (Orizzonti) The Interval (Leonardo Di Contanzo)
Orizzonti Jury PrizeTango Libre (Frédéric Fonteyne) Luigi De Laurentiis Award (Best First Feature)Kuf: Mold (Ali Aydin) Orrizonti: Best FeatureThree Sisters (Wang Bing) Orizzonti Jury PrizeTango Libre (Frédéric Fonteyne) Queer LionWeight Jeon Kyu-Hwan
a few notes...
The Weight, the winner of the Queer Lion, is about a hunchback mortician and the people in his life. Here is the NSFW trailer
IndieWire has a full lengthy list of winners since there are dozens of special awards outside the jurisduction of the main jury (including some of those prizes above). Several of these films picked up additional prizes.
Nice to hear the name "Frédéric Fonteyne" again, since he hasn't been on my radar since directing the wonderful romantic drama Une Liaison Pornographique. His new film is about a woman in a tangled relationship with three men. Must See!
PSH and the great Olivier Assayas accepting their prizes
Amusingly, news reports say that Philip Seymour Hoffman flying in at the last minute, barely arrived in time to pick up the prizes on behalf of The Master and apologized for his dishevelled appearance. You mean he's been aware of it all this time?!? The double actor win reopens the whole question of Oscar campaigns again. Will they actually let both stars compete in the leading category as they should? Can The Master leap the hurdle of critical darling Oscar problems like being more "challenging" and respected than actually warmly loved? Did There Will Be Blood set the stage for another Oscar run?
I'm kind of annoyed by The Envelope's suggestion that the jury wanted to give the Golden and Silver lion and Actor honors to The Master (sweeps not being allowed at most A grade festivals, thank god). If they really thought it was the best in every category, wouldn't they have handed it the Golden Lion? Instead let's congratulate Pieta and The Master and Paradise: Faith, all three of them winners to this jury.
The Film Doctor usually finds interesting angles. For Hope Springs he interviewed his signifant other on the depiction of marital turmoil and therapy therein. Final Girl this one is for you horror fans, a funny mashup of The Human Centipede with slasher icons. The Playlist 15 new stills from P.T. Anderson's long awaited scientology drama The Master Coming SoonLife of Pi will open the New York Film Festival and... Awards DailyFlight will close it. (Will Robert Zemeckis and Denzel Washington and Ang Lee all be returning to Oscar's good graces?)
In Contention You've probably read Guy Lodge's Sight & Sound top ten list by now but in case you haven't it's interesting from top to bottom. Somehow I hadn't completely registered that Guy shared my love of Colorogy. So much green and red happening here! Guardian so Jennifer Aniston is engaged and there's a whole new round of false romcom press narratives happening NYT interesting observations on the trainwreck spectacle of online confessional blogging AV Club Jodie Foster to direct a female-led mob drama on Showtime. Interesting... but I sure wish she'd rediscover her love of bigscreen acting instead. There are a lot of directors who are good at helming TV series. There are very few actors who can be Jodie Foster on the bigscreen. /Film lately I actually forgot Ron Howard existed but they've reminded me that he is making a movie with Chris Hemsworth and the adorable Daniel Brühl called Rush Film Junkie has behind the scenes photos from 12 Years a Slave Pajiba on 8 memorable marital fights on TV
Wednesday, September 19, 2012 at 11:30AM 
