All posts by MostlyFilm

Feminine Iconology, Part Two

Actors, History, , , , , ,

Image for Vanity Fair by Annie Leibovitz

Yesterday we brought you the icons of the silver screen from the Golden Age: one writer, one actress, one decade. You’ll have to imagine that a single person can represent an entire gender for an entire ten year span. Bear with us on that.

Today we move through Hollywood’s 1970s renaissance to the present day. How times have changed! Times have changed – right?

This post covers the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s (and the 2000s – so fresh we did them twice!). If you haven’t read yesterday’s post, we covered the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s and 1960s.

Continue reading Feminine Iconology, Part Two →

Feminine Iconology, Part One.

Actors, History, , , , , , ,

Betty Grable, Lauren Bacall, Marilyn Monroe

It’s the 101st International Women’s Day! To mark this hugely important milestone, we have dedicated the next two days to some of the most iconic, glorious females in Hollywood. One writer, one actress, one decade. You’ll have to imagine that a single person can represent an entire gender for an entire ten year span. Bear with us on that.

Of course, the limitations of the brief mean that some big names have been missed. No Elizabeth Taylor, Louise Brooks, Jane Russell? Huge names, but that’s fine, it’s not a competition. There’s no thesis presented here, just personal choice. Each writer chose an actress they felt represented their decade, from the 1920s to the 2000s. You may draw your own conclusions of the evolution of the role and perception of women in the movies, of course.

We did not set out to create a definitive list – that would be absurdly arrogant – and no doubt you will have your own views on who best represents each decade. That’s why we have a comment box…

Come back tomorrow to see who we thought represented the spirit of the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and 2000s (Twice), but today we cover the classics – Golden Era Hollywood. The 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s and 1960s start right after the jump.

Continue reading Feminine Iconology, Part One. →

David Lynch’s The Straight Story

Cult Movies

by Laurent de Alberti

When Septuagenarian Alvin Straight finds out that his estranged brother has suffered a stroke, he decides to embark on a journey to reunite with him, in spite of his own poor health. Unable to drive, he resorts to riding a lawn mower through the Midwest to cover the 300 miles that separate them.

It is a popular opinion among Lynch detractors that his films are all style and no substance, and under the cover of mystery, glamorous amnesiacs and strobe lights lay some pretty empty propositions. This is obviously unfair and actually completely inaccurate. The American director might not be dealing with emotions in the most obvious way but far from being shallow, all of his films remain explorations of human nature, even if, more often than not, it is usually its darker side.

Continue reading David Lynch’s The Straight Story →

Mostly Frocks – the red carpet

Awards, Live blog, The Oscars, , , ,

Good evening! Welcome to the MostlyFilm liveblog of the 84th Academy Awards: the red carpet.

Mostly Film’s Oscar Livebloggers:

Tindara Sidoti-McNary is an art and film geek and fatshionista. Special interests include artist filmmakers and lipstick. She tweets as @Tindara

Concetta Sidoti is a journalist who tweets as @concettasidoti

Laura Morgan blogs at Glad All Over and tweets as @elsie_em

11.25pm

Laura: Good evening. I’ve installed myself on the sofa with the laptop, the iPad, a bottle of cola flavoured branded soft drink and a mountain of snacks. I’m playing red carpet bingo and I’m looking out for one of each of the following:

A dress that makes the wearer look naked from a distance
A flashed nipple (male or female)
A gravitationally improbable hairstyle
A nominee being effortlessly outshone on the red carpet by their other half (Brad Pitt is the obvious candidate here, but I’m always open to surprises)
A dress that in any other context would be a wedding dress

Please shout in the comments if you spot one or more of these before I do.

Tindara: Evening all. The washing’s on, I too have snacks and caramel flavoured beverages.

Red carpet news so far is that Berenice Bejo and Milla Jovovich will both be wearing Elie Saab, I’ve seen Jovovich, a fishtail one (exaggerated) shoulder number, with a subtle white/metallic sequin sparkle.

Penelope Ann Miller is in halter neck pastel pink with subtle sparkle too. So far bang on trend, with metallic shimmer and pastels.

Continue reading Mostly Frocks – the red carpet →

Mostly Oscar Predictions

Awards, The Oscars

With the Oscars appearing on maybe half a dozen Sky HD TVs this weekend, two of our writers look at the prospects for this weekend’s 84th Academy Awards.  Warning: contains a spoiler for Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy:

The weeks between the Oscar nominations and the awards have always been the highlight of my cinema year.  Each year (with a small-child-inflicted gap) I do my best to see as many of the main nominees as possible before the big day.  In the past this would involve a final dogged trip to London on the last weekend  to sweep up the last 2 (or one year, 3) films which hadn’t come to the sticks but which were always available at the Odeon Panton Street.

Some years this was great, others, well, watching House of Sand and Fog, Mystic River and 21 Grams in a single day doesn’t make for a cheery coach ride back to Oxford.  The actual night is usually a complete letdown, hours  of frocks, excruciating musical numbers, plodding delivery of bland jokes* and the wrong winner in most categories. And last year’s inexplicable juggernaut shut-out by The King’s Speech made the actual telecast pretty tedious. But I’ve never before had a year where I just can’t be bothered to see so very many of the nominated films.   Looking through the lists again is a weary, weary prospect, but here’s my view on the big four:

Continue reading Mostly Oscar Predictions →

Hadewijch

New Releases

by Yasmeen Khan

Before 2009’s Hadewijch, Bruno Dumont made three exceptional feature films – La Vie de Jésus (1997), L’Humanité (1999) and Flandres (2006) -and one terrible turkey – Twentynine Palms (2003), not to be confused with 29 Palms (2002), which is also the only one to be set outside France. So it’s encouraging to see him return there for Hadewijch. His style suits contemporary French cinéma du corps much better than it does the Californian thriller. Dumont’s films are bleak and powerful explorations of personalities in crisis, set against the barest outlines of plot, naturalistic, drawn on drab streets or brutally beautiful landscapes, concerned with extremes of emotion, with setting and atmosphere rather than narrative.

Continue reading Hadewijch →

Easy Rider, Raging McQueen

Art

by Tindara Sidoti-McNary

A New York story: Steve McQueen's 'Shame'

Back when I realised that artists were making movies, I felt a real frisson of excitement. Films! Only in a gallery where you can watch as long as you like. Reminds me of the old days at the cinema when dad took us to see Annie and we got there half way through. We went to the next showing and stayed till the exact moment where we got in; remember when you could do that? For many going to galleries these days, the moving image artwork has become normality; the reassuring familiarity of film or television never far away. There’s a palpable sense of relief when you get to the part of a show where there’s a film, particularly one you can sit down in front of. Ah, I know what to do here. Sit down on this hard bench, let the flickering pictures wash over, let your mind drift to a place where images of Hollywood or European films sit like better-looking family photos. They hook you in a much more visceral way than a painting or sculpture. Continue reading Easy Rider, Raging McQueen →

Shame

New Releases, , ,

by Laurent de Alberti

Back in 2008, director Steve McQueen and actor Michael Fassbender were virtual unknowns when their first collaboration, Hunger, took the independent film world by storm, nabbing a Camera d’Or for best first film in Cannes, and giving them worldwide recognition. So it is an understatement to say that their second collaboration was much anticipated. And yet it turns out to be a surprise disappointment.

In Shame, Michael Fassbender plays Brandon, a successful executive in New York City, whose life is dominated by his pursuit for sex: internet porn, prostitutes, casual hook-ups, he is in thrall of a never ending sexual addiction, while being unable or unwilling to commit to any relationship. The arrival of his needy and unstable sister Cissy (Carey Mulligan) disturbs his carefully managed lifestyle.

Continue reading Shame →