Film Experience Blog

Celebrating the birthdays of the film-famous. If it's your birthday, we'll sing you a happy one in the comments.


1906 Louise Brooks, dancer, silent film actress, icon, quotable diva, film critic, memoirist, ...Lost Girl, Lulu. Her hair is legend.
1908 Joseph McCarthy, he saw only Red(s). He's been a villainous figure in movies ever since, whether seen, unseen or fictionalized. See: Guilty by Suspicion, The Way We Were, The Manchurian Candidate, Good Night, and Good Luck. and many more...
1919 Veronica Lake, femme fatale, purveyor of the peek-a-boo bang (her hair also being legend). Kim Basinger didn't even have to get "cut" to look like this goddess in LA Confidential. She just had to sell those glorious blonde waves.
1945 Paul Hirsch, editor of Carrie, Star Wars (Oscar win), Ferris Bueller's Day Off and more...
1951 Zhang Yimou, fine director, awesome goddess worshipper. Think of what he did for both Zhang Ziyi (Hero, The House of Flying Daggers) and Gong Li (Raise the Red Lantern, Ju Dou, Shanghai Triad)
1952 Chris Noonan, writer/director of the wondrous Babe (1995)
1954 Condoleeza Rice, crazy person. Also played crazily by Thandie Newton in W.
1972 Josh Duhamel actor often seen being chased by giant fucking robots and/or Fergie

How is this for a weird coincidence? Leopold Mozart and Johann van Beethoven were both born on this day in the 18th century. They would go on to father enormously important children. Their offspring are none other than immortal and beloved composers Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven. There have been countless films about musicians over the years and there will be countless more -- silent purists may argue but music was a good match for the movies -- but in this particular arena will anything ever top Amadeus 's enviable success trifecta: critical/commercial/Oscar?

Hollywood Reporter I guess turnabout is fair play and Hollywood is always remaking Asian films. Zhang Yimou is going to remake the Coen Bros debut film Blood Simple. Er... good luck
Bright Lights After Dark reminds us that not everyone loves the legendary Pauline Kael as a critic. 'She didn't "get" the 60s' is the claim here.
Socialite Life Harrison Ford and Rachel McAdams to co-star in Morning Glory (not a remake of the Katharine Hepburn Oscar winner
Empire Watchmen getting rereleased... and it's even longer now? (gulp)
Topless Robot remembers the geek side of Farrah Fawcett's career
Twitch Audition, one of the scariest movies I've ever seen, is getting a 10th anniversary DVD edition with extras


Splash Page fan made Spider-Man 4 posters. Eliza Dushku as the Black Cat? Yes, please
Mike Lynch 200 characters from Dick Tracy. Does anyone besides me wish the movie version had had a sequel?
Billy Loves Stu Brad Pitt (Cutting Class) and the vagaries of fame

More takes on the Oscar's Best Picture nominee doubling
AV Club pros & cons
Nick's Flick Picks with charts of what 1999-2008 might have looked like. We should probably do this here at some point. So many projects!
Movies Kick Ass 'Oscar Should Wait'
Risky Business Oscar's Decathlon

Transformers Revenge of the Fallen reviews > Transformers Revenge of the Fallen
Kim Morgan suggests that Bay is an idiot savant surrealist. She thinks he needs to embrace/realize it
James Rocchi "And no, I can't shut my brain off and have fun, anymore than I could rip out my tongue and enjoy a meal, because my brain is where I feel fun."
Peter Bradshaw "like watching paint dry while getting hit over the head with a frying pan"
Timothy Brayton Robots in Disgust
Cinematical absurdities they love

Sorry I've been mostly absent this weekend. The Film Experience (i.e. Nathaniel) is relocating to DC for a month starting tomorrow. This hopefully won't affect you as readers much but you never know. Between packing, shopping for trip and watching the Olympics I haven't had any time to think let alone write or see movies. The summer has been busy: I still haven't even seen Mamma Mia! and that opened weeks ago. Can you believe it? All that buildup to a new Streep Sings moment and no payoff for Natty.

But let's talk about the opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympics for a second.


I'm feeling eternally grateful to political activists and the inimitable Mia Farrow who succeeded in pressuring Steven Spielberg into backing out as the "artistic advisor". I know that people think Spielberg is the greatest film director on earth and [insert hyperbolic statement here] but to me Zhang Yimou, who did directing duties, is better at two things and they happen to be two things the Olympics can't do without: pageantry and spectacle. Plus, he's Chinese. Shouldn't Olympic Ceremonies always run to homegrown talent first? I doubt he needed advice from Spielberg.

Zhang Yimou's filmography includes Raise the Red Lantern, House of Flying Daggers, Curse of the Golden Flower, and Ju Dou so when it comes to a skilled way with eye candy, well, I rest my case. Yimou was pleased with the big night and why not. It was the best opening ceremony I've personally ever seen: that absurdly precise choreography of thousands, those vibrant storytelling colors, the elaborate but still human special effects and costumes, the incongruously calm brush strokes in the midst of chaos; It was just like Hero only less violent.

I'm sure it cost more to produce than three over budget Hollywood blockbusters put together.

Just about the only thing that wasn't perfect was the absence of Chinese movie stars. Did we really need what I presume was China's Liberace? Did we really need ...Sarah Brightman? (a useful question in many situations). I know the torch finale is an athletes-only kind of gig but couldn't they have let Gong Li or Tony Leung Chiu Wai do a lap with it or something before the big scrim-running finale?

Did you watch? Did you love?
*