I Quit Smoking Fourteen Years Ago Today

Cue up your best cancer cough and prepare for imminent arousal, as it's our favorite smoke-tastic time of year again -- May 5th, when I annually celebrate the day I stopped smoking cigarettes with a massive collection of photographs of celebrity actor people posing with butts in hand. The smoking kind of butts! Not the other kind -- after all we post the other kind of butts being handled 364 days a year. Today's for the simple smoking sort.

Anyway it's kinda nuts I've been doing these posts for fourteen (!!!!) full years now (click here for the entire archive) and I still haven't come anywhere near to running out of photographs -- I do keep a folder of these all year long to build up to the moment, but still, this is the easiest job I assign myself. And that's probably why I've managed to keep it up! 

But disastrously deadly health side-effects aside nobody's stopped taking these photos in the slightest. And there's something kind of horribly reassuring about that to me? Don't get me incorrect, I am incredibly glad I qui, and I don't recommend anybody start and/or continue smoking... but it remains the second sexiest damn thing I can see beautiful men doing. I'm sorry! It just is and does and I have the proof of it! Now hit the jump for dozens...

Good Morning, World

Actually not so good, as I'm bearing woeful news -- actor Gaspard Ulliel has died at the far-too-young age of 37 after a skiing accident in the Alps. He collided with another skier and suffered a traumatic brain injury. What a horror. And he was just about to have his biggest U.S. platform to date in Marvel's The Moon Knight series (I just shared the trailer yesterday) -- not that he doesn't leave a ton of worthy work in France, but it was something to look forward to, seeing more of him. The last thing I saw him in was 2019's Sibyl opposite Virginie Efira, which I was weirdly just talking about yesterday (for those keeping count that is two Gaspard Ulliel projects I alluded to yesterday without even realizing it) -- but it was 2014 with Saint Laurent when I really came to appreciate him. That was my fourth favorite film of its year and he was obviously a huge part of that. What a tremendous loss. Check our archives for more of him, and sound off on your favorite roles of his in the comments!

Sibyl of Many Sides

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Another day, another NYFF review -- today it's Sibyl, director Justine Triet's dramedy that swings as melodramatically between comedy and drama as does its leading lady, played to full tilt perfection by Virginie Efira. Efira isn't pictured above though -- instead I picked a photo of the three faces I knew beforehand, going in to Sibyl, belonging to Saint Laurent himself Gaspard Ulliel, Blue is the Warmest Color's Adèle Exarchopoulos, and Toni Erdmann megastar Sandra Hüller. The three of them have a love triangle that would be a regular movie's love triangle but Sibyl's about the madwoman who comes swinging in wildly and busts up the normal stories. Anyway click on over to The Film Experience to read my review -- this one's one of the lighter flicks at NYFF but the actors are all absolutely smashing.

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Which is Hotter?

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I think it's kind of weird I couldn't turn up a photo of Saint Laurent actors Jérémie Renier, Louis Garrel and Gaspard Ulliel together except for that shot above -- you'd think even just being famous French actors whose projects besides have no doubt repeatedly overlapped there'd be more, but alas we'll make due. Anyway Bertand Bonello's sumptuous film of fashionable disco disarray is turning five years old tomorrow and if you've not been paying attention, well, we love it.

Here's our five year old sort of review -- weirdly that link is actually supposed to be a review of Abel Ferrera's film Pasolini, which fiiiinally got a release here in the US last week after a, you guessed it five year delay -- it was supposed to be a Pasolini review but I got distracted talking about Saint Laurent because s'so good. And even though I've written a lot about Saint Laurent ever since then that sort of makes me sad -- it deserves a proper review. I'll add it to the list! Until then let's be continue being basic...

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10 Off My Head: Siri Says 2014

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Since I do these "Siri Says" posts less frequently as of late I keep feeling the need to reintroduce the concept of them when I do, so here's the quick gist -- I ask the Siri lady on my cell phone to pick me a number between 1 and 100 (I usually have to do this several times now since the pickings are getting slim at this point) and whatever number she gives me I then choose my favorite movies from that random corresponding year. Well today Siri picked a good one on her very first try -- Siri gave me "14" and so now we're going to choose favorites from the Movies of 2014. 

Why is 2014 a good pick? Well these movies are all celebrating their 5th anniversary this year, first off. But even better -- I never made a list of my favorite movies of 2014! Our so-called "Golden Trousers Awards" skipped that year for some reason that I can't now recall -- I think I was just burned out. Having just done our most recent edition a couple of weeks ago I get that inclination -- it's a lot of work. But now with five years of hindsight I think I can manage. A quick version, anyway. But instead of just the usual Top 5 I will give y'all a Top 10, and bonus of bonuses, instead of just a random Top 10, I will actually order them. Will wonders never.

My 10 Favorite Movies of 2014

10. Love is Strange

(dir. Ira Sachs)

-- released on August 22nd 2014 -- 

9. The Grand Budapest Hotel

(dir. Wes Anderson)

-- released on March 28th 2014 -- 

8. Gloria

(dir. Sebastián Lelio)

-- released on January 24th 2014 -- 

7. Force Majeure

(dir. Ruben Östlund)

-- released on December 30th 2014 -- 

6. Snowpiercer

(dir. Bong Joon-ho)

-- released on July 11th 2014 -- 

5. Clouds of Sils Maria

(dir. Olivier Assayas)

-- released on July 9th 2014 -- 

4. Saint Laurent

(dir. Bertrand Bonello)

-- released on September 24th 2014 -- 

3. Nightcrawler

(dir. Dan Gilroy)

-- released on October 31st 2014 -- 

2. Under the Skin

(dir. Jonathan Glazer)

-- released on April 4th 2014 --

1. The Babadook

(dir. Jennifer Kent)

-- released on November 28th 2014 -- 

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Runners-up: Lilting (dir. Hong Khaou), Neighbors (dir. Nicholas Stoller), Edge of Tomorrow (dir. Doug Liman), Wild (dir. Jean-Marc Vallée), Gone Girl (dir. David Fincher), Frank (dir. Lenny Abrahamson), 99 Homes (dir. Ramin Bahrani)...

... Selma (dir. Ava DuVernay), Beyond the Lights (dir. Gina Prince-Blythewood), Unfriended (dir. Leo Gabriadze), The Boxtrolls (dir. Stacchi), Paddington (dir. Paul King), Kingsman: The Secret Service (dir. Matthew Vaughn), Mommy (dir. Dolan)...

... The Look of Silence (dir. Oppenheimer), Obvious Child (dir. Robespierre), Appropriate Behavior (dir. Desiree Akhavan), Captain America: Winter Soldier (dir. Russo Bros.), Lucy (dir. Luc Besson), '71 (dir. Yann Demange), The Guest (dir. Adam Wingard), Godzilla (dir. Gareth Edwards) 

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What are your favorite movies of 2014?

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Great Moments In Movie Staches

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How have I done sixteen posts in this series without getting to Louis Garrel in Saint Laurent yet? Blasphémer! And instead of going with the usual - meaning the scene at the club where Louis dances and smiles and seduces every goddamn person on the screen and in the audience at once, or to a lesser extent the scene where he and Gaspard Ulliel make out to great affect -  instead oh highlighting those stiff used up rags of scenes I figured let's focus in on the film's sleazy centerpiece, the part where he orgies up with Yves.

As it was autobiographically true all of this partying heartily is eventually shown to lead YSL down a destructive path, but man alive does the movie make it clear how easy and seductive and goddamned hot that path can be. Truss Louis up in a leather tank and have him sneer while straddling some rough trade and I dare a single person to find their knees anywhere but weak and wobbling. 

In related news this film, one of my favorites of its year by far and one I watch a little bit of whenever I wanna get my knees wobbling again, is on sale for super cheap on Amazon right now - the blu-ray is less than nine bucks! That's a heckuva steal for something so swank, y'all. That's like only a dollar per enticingly straggly mustache hair...

5 Off My Head: French Kisses For Everybody

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Did that photograph of Raphaël Personnaz grab your attention? I feel as if that photograph of Raphaël Personnaz might've grabbed your attention. It grabs mine! And now that we're all good and grabbed, here's the good word - the ever wonderful Film Society of Lincoln Center here in NYC has just announced the full line-up for the annual awesomeness that is their "Rendezvous with French Cinema" series, and it's a doozy. You can see the entire line-up right here - it runs for the first two weeks of March - but I'm gonna highlight five titles that are grabbing me the hardest.

Frantz (Francois Ozon) - It's Ozon, period. I'm there. But I've been wanting to see Frantz for several months even besides, thanks to the trailer full of a shirtless mustachioed Pierre Niney running around. Watch the trailer here, with bonus gifs. 

And bonus: Niney also co-stars in the Closing Night film The Odyssey, which stars Lambert Wilson as Jacques Cousteau...

... Niney plays Lambert's son and Audrey Tatou plays his wife. The funny thing that made me laugh about this movie is I looked up its writer-director, a man named Jérôme Salle, to see what else he'd done and wham, even the director is hot:

I love the French. Anyway Salle will be there for a Q&A with The Odyssey, and Francios Ozon will be there for a Q&A with Frantz too.

Raw (Julia Ducournau) - This is the last title I expected to see popping up here in this series and I let out an audible gasp when it saw it was - this cannibal comedy has been making people literally pass out and get sick at film festivals for months now, so naturally I've been clamoring for it and clamoring for it. 

Nocturama (Bertrand Bonello) - I know a lot of people think that Bonello's last movie, 2014's fashion biopic Saint Laurent, is too long and self-indulgent, but I hate your dumb face if you think so - it's glorious. I saw it three times in the theater and I could've gone every night for a month. So whatever he did next I was gonna be excited about, but FSLC's write-up of this movie has got me literally goose-bumping. Let me just cut and paste because HELL YES:

"The audacious new film from Bertrand Bonello (Saint Laurent) unfolds in two mesmerizing segments. The first is a precision-crafted thriller, following a multi-ethnic group of millennial radicals as they carry out a mass-scale terrorist attack on Paris. The second—in which the perpetrators hide out in the consumerist mecca of a luxury department store—is the director’s coup, raising provocative questions about everything that came before. Bonello stages his apocalyptic vision with stylishly roving camerawork, blasts of hip-hop, and a lip-synced performance to Shirley Bassey’s “My Way.” This is edgy, risk-taking filmmaking that is sure to ignite debate. "

In the Forest of Siberia (Safy Nebbou) - And we get to Raphaël Personnaz, as promised! Raphaël, who we've been crushing on ever since we first saw him in a movie at the 2015 edition of Rendezvous (you'll really want to click on this link here because we have been thorough with our love), stars as a young dude who isolates himself in the wilderness... aka an excuse to stare at a man as gorgeous as Raphaël Personnaz framed against white snow while staring plaintively. I'm there. Oh and I should mention he also walks around the snow buck naked, as captured by us already in this post from October. Seeing that on the big screen? I'm REALLY there.

It's a shame I'm limiting myself to just five titles because there are even more I want to see -- Gaspard Ulliel in The Dancer! Marion Cotillard and Louis Garrel in From the Land of the Moon! Natalie Portman as a 1930s spiritualist in Planetarium!!! Basically just say goodbye to me for the first two weeks of March, is what I am saying.

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It's Only the Trailer for The End of the World

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I really only skimmed the reviews (and by reviews I mean complaints) of Xavier Dolan's It's Only the End of the World out of Cannes, but the one thing I remember pretty much everyone saying was that the film is shot almost entirely in close-up... and that's very clearly the gospel now that we have a trailer! We be riiiiight up in everybody's faces.

Thankfully Gaspard Ulliel and Marion Cottilard and Vincent Cassel and the rest have some gorgeous goddamned faces to be all up in, and Xavier Dolan ain't no slouch at making pretty people prettier either. Anyway I stayed out of the side-taking that surrounded the film immediately having not, you know, actually seen the thing, and also my opinions on Dolan's films have veered wildly from film to film... hell, from scene to scene. My favorite to date is Tom at the Farm; you can technically say that I "liked" Mommy but it was often so histrionic I felt like running from the theater at times. 

Anyway It's Only the End of the World is out in France and Quebec in September, while per usual we have no US date because we only see his movies years later than everyone for some reason. Here's the international trailer:

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Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

In Bruges (2008)

Eirik: I was trying to rob him. And he took my gun from me. And the gun was full of blanks. And he shot a blank into my eye. And now I cannot see from this eye ever again, the doctors say. 

Harry: Well to be honest it sounds
like it's all your fault. 

Eirik: What? 

Harry: I mean basically if you're robbing a man and you're only carrying blanks and you allow your gun to be taken off you and you allow yourself to be shot in the eye with a blank which I assume that the person has to get quite close to you then, yeah really it's all your fault for being such a poof, so why don't you stop wingeing and cheer the fuck up. 

Yuri: Eirek - I really wouldn't respond. 

Eirik: I thought you wanted the guy dead? 

Harry: I do want the guy dead, I want him fucking crucified 

but it don't change the fact that he stitched you up 

like a blind little gay boy, does it? 

I don't want to hear a single peep about this scene's "homophobia" from a single one of you people -- this is some funny ass homophobia delivered with exquisite venom by Ralph Fiennes right here. But we're not here for Ralph (sidenote: we're always here for Ralph) we are here for the "blind little gay boy" played by the terrific Belgian actor Jérémie Renier, who's turning 35 today.

Maybe you know him from many an Ozon movie (Potiche or Criminal Lovers way back) or maybe you know him from many a Dardennes movie (The Kid With a Bike or L'enfant) or maybe you know him from that scene in last year's spectacular film Saint Laurent where he and Gaspard Ulliel rolled around naked together...

(And by focusing in on his generous full frontal, seen below in full, I don't mean to belittle the rest of his performance -- the scene where he and Brady Corbet hammer out financial details in overlapping languages is one of the most electric in the entire electric film.) Anyway where ever you know him from you know him, and he is terrific. Insanely it seems that I've only posted on Jérémie once previously, so join me after the jump for a gratuitous catching-up...

Good Morning Slash Day, World

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What I said last night about my busy schedule off-blog this week mainly applies to today - today is so busy I can already feel my head levitating off of my body. So I'd be surprised if I post much at all on this fine Christmas Eve Eve Eve. But just so you don't feel totally alone here's Gaspard Ulliel offering a warm bed and warmer company, until I can come shove you out of the way anyway.

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Kiss Me Gaspard I'm Dying

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One of the very best movies of the year says me (here's my review) is Saint Laurent, Bertrand Bonello's sexy time-hopping designer biopic with Gaspard Ulliel, and now every single one of you (I'm assuming you've got a television or a computer, since you're reading this) can watch it because it's finally out on demand and on blu-ray. I'm curious how the film will play at home with distractions all around; both times I've seen it it's been in the theater on a big screen and I found it hypnotic, but it is very long and it might not play as well on the couch. Anyway The Playlist chatted with star Gaspard, who is fantastic in the film, and my choice bit is natch when he's asked about making out with Louis Garrel (psst there's video of the scene on YouTube) who he has screen-scorching chemistry with:

The Playlist: The kiss between you and Louis Garrel is one of the most memorable moments in "Saint Laurent." I have to ask, is Garrel a good kisser?
Ulliel: He is. The best! With a mustache! It was the first time I was kissing someone with a mustache. I'm very proud of this kiss, because it was maybe the only thing that you see in the film that was not in the script. During that night of shooting, Bertrand the director came to us, and he could sense there was something going on that was very smooth between Louis and me.
The Playlist: Smooth?
Ulliel: Very easy. No fear, no shyness. So he came to us and said, I realized that I missed something, a kiss between these two men. It would be a very strong moment. And Louis and I looked at each other for a beat, and we said ok, we'll give you one take. And that's the one you see in the movie.

Today's Fanboy Delusion

Today I'd rather be...

... taking French lessons from Gaspard Ulliel.

That gif's from the 2004 movie The Last Day; you can watch the whole scene here. The actor he is kissing is Thibault Vinçon (and yes that's a young Melanie Laurent bouncing around in the full clip, too); I could watch these two make out for days, couldn't you?

In related news I tried to watch Hannibal Rising this weekend (I've never seen it) but only made it about halfway through before the boredom overwhelmed me. I will finish it at some point, but I'm not really in a hurry. It's way too dreary.

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We'll Be Having Some Old Friends For Dinner

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While there's always been a morbid tinge to Bryan Fuller's shows - Jaye very seriously contemplated the fact that she might be completely out of her mind when the tchotchkes started talking to her in Wonderfalls, the starting point in Dead Like Me was our protagonist getting killed by space sewage, and Pushing Daisies' pie-sweetness was tempered by that terrible wake of constant murder - he's never properly dived head-first into straight-up horror. We here round MNPP have long known he was a fan of the genre, and hoped he might... well look at this!

"If Hannibal Rising did not sate your appetite to see the early days of Hannibal Lecter, then a television series might be the answer for you.

French production outfit Gaumont is launching a Los Angeles branch and it is working with Pushing Daisies' Bryan Fuller to create Hannibal, a one-hour television series exploring Lecter's early days, namely his time going head-to-head with FBI agent Will Graham.

The back story between the two characters was lightly explored in Thomas Harris' novel "Red Dragon" and the films Manhunter and Red Dragon. Martha De Laurentiis - of Hannibal Rising and Red Dragon - will produce the show."

Who would be your dream casting for the young Hannibal Lecter? I still haven't seen Hannibal Rising, but that didn't stop me from going and finding a bunch of pictures of Gaspard Ulliel, the Frenchie that played him in that movie, anyway. See them after the jump...