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2009 | 2005

6 articles from 2009

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The Forgotten: Fairies at the Bottom of the Garden

20 November 2009 3:26 PM, PST | The Auteurs | See recent The Auteurs news »

When critic David Ehrenstein told actor Sir Ian McKellen that there existed a photograph of actor Roddy McDowell (How Green was My Valley, Planet of the Apes) performing oral sex upon himself, the great stage and screen star's response was immediate: "Put it up on the internet!" he boomed, in the voice that breathed life in to Gandalf the Grey.

Alas, or not, the image under discussion still apparently lacks a public forum, and is as elusive as McDowell's sole film as director, Tam Lin a.k.a. The Ballad of Tam-Lin a.k.a. The Devil's Widow, starring Ava Gardner.

1970, of course, was the one year in the history of western civilization when the ability to self-fellate was alone enough to guarantee a directing career, and so it was that McDowell found himself in Scotland, filming Ian McShane (sweary Al Swearingen from TV's Deadwood) running screaming through a swamp on Lsd. »

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Ten Directors Share Fond Memories of the Lacma

3 September 2009 9:03 AM, PDT | Cinematical | See recent Cinematical news »

James Gray (Two Lovers) remembers going to see Walter Murch talking about his groundbreaking sound and editing work on The Conversation. John Landis (An American Werewolf in London) remembers seeing the original King Kong, a "life-changing experience." Allison Anders (Gas Food Lodging) remembers seeing an obscure Bette Davis movie with a packed house. Rian Johnson (Brick) one time just simply walked in without even knowing what was playing (it turned out to be Fellini's And the Ship Sails On). Those four, plus six other directors, shared their feelings with the Los Angeles Times on the uncertain fate of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and especially its beloved Bing Theater.

But some of the others aren't in the mood for reminiscing. John Singleton (Boyz N the Hood) says, "seeing a film like How Green Was My Valley and Duel in the Sun on the wide screen is a whole other thing. »

- Jeffrey M. Anderson

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How Green Was My Shower?

13 April 2009 3:36 AM, PDT | FilmExperience | See recent FilmExperience news »

April Showers @ 11 Pm all month long

Donald Crisp gets the old school shower treatment from Sara Allgood in How Green Was My Valley (Best Picture win 1941) while their dirty dirty* boys look on. (Robert Redford also did this manual labor shower trick for Meryl Streep in Out of Africa but he was more gentle/sexy about it. Sara is hardcore, she just douses her man).

This is a totally green way to clean. Your shower water becomes your bath water. Voila!

*What?!? They're coal miners. »

- NATHANIEL R

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Playing it Straight

7 April 2009 6:31 PM, PDT | AfterElton.com | See recent AfterElton.com news »

While Sean Penn’s recent Best Actor Oscar win for Milk helped bring Harvey Milk’s message to a wide audience — both from the increased visibility of the film and from Penn’s moving acceptance speech — the occasion marked another instance of a Hollywood tradition: a gay character played by a heterosexual actor.

Penn, like Tom Hanks (Philadelphia [1993]) and William Hurt (Kiss of the Spider Woman [1985]) before him, was praised for his “bravery” for taking on the role and even — eek! — kissing another man.

Gay actors, on the other hand, get no such credit for playing gay roles; let’s not forget the year that Rupert Everett’s hilarious supporting turn in My Best Friend’s Wedding (1997) was ignored by the Academy, with the implication that queer thespians need merely show up to play queer characters, with no actual acting involved. (To add insult to injury, that same year saw »

- dennis

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Oscar's Biggest Blunders

7 February 2009 3:26 PM, PST | JustPressPlay.net | See recent JustPressPlay news »

As we creep closer to the 2009 Academy Awards, prognosticators look back as much as forward to try and determine who the favorites will be. By looking back, I mean to suggest that past Academy choices perhaps unfairly paint them in a certain light, and support the group's predictability and oft-whispered bias. For instance, feel good films generally trump depressors. Oscar loves a comeback story almost as much as they love to reward seasoned veterans with lead acting awards and fresh faces in the supporting roles (particularly supporting actress). And despite a requisite surprise or two every year, they mostly play it safe. Usually painfully boringly safe. That, and the fact they get it wrong more often than they get it right. So I present a glance at the ten most egregiously shortsighted Oscars ever given.

I'm focusing solely on the big one: Best Picture. If I included anything and everything, »

- Matt Medlock

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January. It's a Wrap

31 January 2009 8:17 PM, PST | FilmExperience | See recent FilmExperience news »

Welcome to all new readers and thank you to the many loyal long-timers. Things are buzzing here. It's that time of year but there's lots of stuff in planning stages for the Post Oscar season. In case you missed anything here are 10 highlights from the first month of '09 (though we all know the film year doesn't really start until 02/23/09. It's still 2008 until the last naked gold man is handed out).

Eve in Wall•E an appreciation.

Breakfast With... I hope you're loving the new series. What's your favorite episode thus far?

Top Films of 2008 robots, vampires, wedding guests, washed up wrestlers.

Sharing Time it's always a party when the comments really kick in. Thank you for being such chatty and civil moviegoers. Group hug!

Braveheart vs. Rebecca Mel is scary but Hitchcock truly haunts.

SAG live blogging I almost wish there was an awards show on every week. What's wrong with me? »

- NATHANIEL R

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2009 | 2005

6 articles from 2009

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