Twentieth Century Fox
The best movie culture writing from around the internet-o-sphere.
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“’That silly little dress: the story behind Marilyn Monroe’s iconic scene” – Anne T. Donahue at The Guardian celebrates the 60th anniversary of hot air affecting a dress by sharing some interesting facts about The Seven Year Itch.
“Grey Gardens and the tragedy of short-term beauty” – Nathan Rabin at The Dissolve spends some time with two nice ladies.
“Grey Gardens is a film of mysteries. Why did a pair of semi-shut-ins seemingly hiding from the prying eyes of an unfeeling world allow this window into their madness, loneliness, despair, and alternately loving and poisonously co-dependent relationship? Why would people who talk throughout the film of propriety, of the way in which things must be done, allow themselves to be seen in a state of borderline-feral madness, as dotty cat women living in colorful squalor?
The answer, I suspect, has a lot to do with the Beales’ exhibitionism, in the way they never lost the hunger for the validation of the spotlight. They never stopped craving the adoring gaze of men besotted by their incredible beauty, class, and the way they sang, moved, smiled. That need for validation helps explain why the Beales invited the Maysles into their homes and never stopped performing for them. Even their fights have a theatrical quality, as if the two women’s endlessly circular fights were workshopped in earlier conversations, and were presented for the film in their finished, polished form.”
“30 Years of Coens: Fargo” – Christopher Orr at The Atlantic shares some notes on a cold crime film filled with insane people.
“Oscar Buzz: In Defense of Awards Season” – Oliver Lyttelton at The Playlist argues that awards hype is the only thing saving us from 100% superhero saturation.
“To put it simply: if the Oscars and the cottage industry surrounding it disappeared tomorrow, we’d likely see even fewer movies being made not aimed at teenagers, or teenagers-at-heart. We’re already at a point where many of these films are getting only brief theatrical releases, and simultaneous rollouts on VOD are going to happen more often, not less. And as has been endlessly noted, many filmmakers are skipping theaters altogether and heading to the world of TV. It’s easy to imagine that The Godfather would be produced today as an HBO miniseries rather than being released in theaters, and would retain every bit of its cultural impact.
