We hope Laura Dern has a wild at heart and weird on top kind of birthday. The actress celebrates tomorrow, but we’re stealing our slice of cake a day early but taking a look at Dern’s relationship with director pal David Lynch. While the star has been busy filming Paul Thomas Anderson’s scientology-inspired drama The Master, her early career days were spent with the king of strange, Lynch. Dern’s appeared in three of the director’s films — keep in mind he’s only made 10 features since starting out in the late ’70s — and has been a unique, expansive female character in his canon, as this article from The Awl has also pointed out. It’s clear that there’s a depth to Dern’s dramatic allure Lynch greatly admires. While we hope to see the director take up with his muse once more, we thought it’d be a perfect time to celebrate a few other inspired collaborations. Click on to see some of our picks, and tell us yours, won’t you?
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Wes Anderson is one of those directors with an extremely distinctive visual style — so distinctive in fact, that plenty of people have pointed out that the trailer for his upcoming film Moonlight Kingdom plays like a borderline self-parody (not that we personally mind that one bit). Admittedly, the Anderson hallmarks are there, from the saturated primary colors to the weird characters to an almost holy reverence for all things twee in the detailed production design. But here’s something that we never noticed about the auteur’s fancy camerawork before: the man really has a thing for capturing images of his actors’ hands from above. Click through to watch a fantastic compilation of 46 of these overhead shots in 40 seconds by Vimeo user kogonada, the same guy who put together that artful montage of POV clips from Breaking Bad not too long ago.
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Welcome to “Trailer Park,” our regular Friday feature where we collect the week’s new trailers all in one place and do a little “judging a book by its cover,” ranking them from worst to best and taking our best guess at what they may be hiding. We’ve got seven new trailers for you this week; check ‘em all out after the jump.
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It has been way too long since we’ve been treated to a live action Wes Anderson movie — so long, in fact, that we’re going to jump the gun on tomorrow’s weekly “Trailer Park” feature to alert you that the teaser for the director’s Moonrise Kingdom arrived online this afternoon. And it looks pretty wonderful! Not only are we working with a stellar cast (Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton, and Jason Schwartzman), but the setting — a New England summer camp in the mid-60s — is the perfect match for Anderson’s nostalgic aesthetic. Does it look like we’re seeing anything new from the auteur here? Not really, but we don’t really mind. For our money, there’s no one who tells a twee coming-of-age story quite like he does. Even if the plot ends up being a totally bizarre mess, we’ll relish watching the film for the cinematography alone. Well that, and the scene with Bill Murray going to chop down a tree in his underwear. Click through to check out the trailer now, and let us know in the comments what you think of it.
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In retrospect, last week’s gift guide for movie geeks was seriously lacking in one important element: it needs more Criterion. The Criterion Collection, as you presumably well know, is the preeminent home video label for film nerds, lavishing their second-to-none skills of restoration and supplementation on titles both well-known and obscure. So yes, a week-late addendum: if you’re shopping for cinephiles, a title or two from the Criterion Collection should do the trick.
Alas, which titles? At 600+ films (and growing monthly), sifting through the collection is a daunting task. Thankfully, the label is more than happy to help out; one of the most enjoyable time-killers on their site is their section of Top 10s, in which film fans from across the spectrum — directors, screenwriters, actors, cinematographers, comedians, critics, etc. — select their ten favorite Criterion titles, often with concise mini-reviews for each. After the jump, in a bit of meta list construction, we’ve picked out ten of our favorite folks from that page, and a few of their recommendations as well. Read More »
Any time you have the gumption to pose a list of the ten definitive anything, you’re going to get some pushback. But because Flavorwire has the greatest readers in the world (/blatant sucking up), our post last week of The Most Definitive Music Cues in Film History prompted very little venom, and several excellent additions (including a few that had been on our first, wildly overambitious draft). The concept, once again, is that certain films use pop music cues so well that the movie and the song get inextricably bound together in your head; when you think of the movie, you hear the song, and when you hear the song, your see the film in your mind’s eye. We’ve picked our ten faves from the addendums offered by you, the reader, after the jump; feel free to add more of your favorites in the comments. Read More »
Darren Aronofsky’s unsettling crystal meth PSAs made the rounds earlier this week. The Black Swan director worked with the Meth Project Foundation to trouble us with visions of intense drug addiction, and boy did it work. Aronofsky isn’t the only gifted filmmaker who has dabbled with short-form film and the telly advertising world, however. Many auteur moviemakers found their start on TV, creating some of the most memorable works that have ever been brought to prime time. Others just enjoy creating little bites of film-esque entertainment as a break from the Hollywood machine. Whatever the reasons, the condensed screen time provides a fascinating snapshot of each director’s overall style. Click past the break for a look at ten directors who made creative commercials for the small screen.
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The strong compositions and colorful characters in Wes Anderson’s films are something to behold, which is why the Royal Tenenbaums director has inspired San Francisco gallery Spoke to host a second exhibition dedicated to the filmmaker. To celebrate their one-year anniversary and previous exhibition Bad Dads — a collection of art based on the movies of Anderson — the culture mavens are having a sequel showing. The new Bad Dads exhibit opens this weekend and features great work from artists like Joshua Budich and Max Dalton. (His pieces glow in the dark!) Check out a preview of the exhibition past the break where The Life Aquatic and more awaits you. If you dig it (and how could you not?), head to Spoke on Saturday, October 29 and Sunday, October 30 for the opening reception. Visit the gallery website for further details.
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A new semester has begun for college kids throughout the States, and now that they’ve settled into new living quarters, bought loads of clunky textbooks, and have their routines down, it’s time to talk wall decor! If you’re as tired as we are of bland walls and once-classic, now-tired posters and art prints, then fear not, dear reader! You can decorate your digs — whether it’s a dorm room or a new apartment — with this killer collection of posters that replace old standbys with fun, original, and inspiring pieces. So say goodbye to Einstein, sayonara to Animal House, and au revoir to Keep Calm and Carry On and prepare to fall in love with a brand-new collection of wall decor, after the jump.
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We’ll admit that ever since Wes Anderson used “Starálfur” in the background of that scene from The Life Aquatic, just hearing a few seconds of the beautiful track instantly transports us to another world. So, it’s only fitting that Gizmodo chose the same Sigur Rós song for this never-before-seen clip, which features a series of time-lapse videos captured over the course of 14 years by the Hubble Space Telescope. No, there’s no jaguar shark to be found here, just some protostellar jets blasting away as stars are created 1,350 light-years from Earth. Check out the stunning footage here, and if you’re like us, try to keep reminding yourself that what you’re watching is real and not a movie.
