Good Morning, World

French actor Pierre Niney was generous enough to share with us some photos from a recent vacation on his Instagram and natch I snatched up the ones that matter to post here, and you'll see them below. But first! While I was at Sundance news of one of my favorite mini-fests of every year broke -- the schedule and line-up for the Film at Lincoln Center's annual "Rendez-vous with French Cinema" here in New York was announced! To be clear I've been so busy I haven't even had the time to look at the schedule myself but you can check it all right here. All I did notice was what I usually first notice -- the list of hot French actors whose films are included, and Pierre here was among them (and in Michel Gondry's new movie no less!). Other lovelies include Melvil Poupaud, Anders Danielson Lee (not French but whatever), Romain Duris, Vincent Lacoste, and Nahuel Pérez Biscayart of BPM fame, and Félix Lefebvre from Summer of 85. Anyway I've finally got some substantial time this morning so I'm going to go through and see what grabs my attention -- stay tuned, I'll try to post about that later. But first let us hit the jump for a little more happy go lucky Pierre... 

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

Human Nature (2001)

Nathan Bronfman: What is love anyway? From my new vantage point, I realize that love is nothing more than a messy conglomeration of need, desperation, fear of death and insecurity about penis size.

A happy 60th birthday to Eternal Sunshine director Michel Gondry today! It's been almost eight years since Gondry directed a feature-film -- he's done lots of shorts and eight episodes of Jim Carrey's series Kidding (which I never saw any of, did you?) but his 2015 film Microbe & Gasoline was his last full-length picture. I thought that movie was fine -- not terrifically memorable but a big step up from the movie he did right before that called The We & I, which I loathed with such fierceness I literally winced upon being reminded of it while writing this post.

Anyway just because he hadn't reached the heights of Eternal Sunshine again doesn't mean I don't want him to keep trying -- his music-videos have always been a wonder, and there's nobody else like him.  I remember going to an art exhibit of his around the time The Science of Sleep came out and it was a lo-fi magical wonderland, entire cities built of out toilet paper tubes,

That said Gondry has a new movie coming out this year! Soon in fact if you're going to Cannes this month, where it's premiering -- it's called The Book of Solutions and it stars French actor Pierre Niney, who feels like he'll translate to Gondry-dom exactly right. Hopefully it's a return to form and we'll see it everywhere else sooner rather than not sooner.

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

Mary: Adults are, like, this mess of sadness and phobias.

This masterpiece was released 19 years ago this Sunday!

Try not to turn to dust realizing it's almost 20 - too late for me.

I am dust, typing this out with my dust fingers.
Well here's this gif to cheer us up:

Saddle Up, Movie Lovers

Not that it's ever a good time to not think about Brokeback, but I've definitely had Ang Lee's 2005 gay cowboy masterpiece on my brain more often than not over the past few months thanks to Jane Campion's The Power of the Dog and the awards conversation surrounding that film over the past few months -- so what a wonderful coincidence that we're all about to have the opportunity to see Brokeback on a big screen again! It's the 20th anniversary of Focus Features this year, and they're going to be screening several of their classic films at AMC theaters around the U.S. to celebrate that -- from April 29th through may 5th there will be five dollar screenings of Brokeback, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Atonement, and several more magical motion pictures -- you can check out AMC's site here for more info. And there's a trailer, too!

If you hit the jump I have the full press release...

In Memory of You

.

This week's banner is marking an especially special occasion! Tomorrow marks the 15th anniversary of our beloved Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which hit theaters on March 18th 2004 and immediately became one of our forever favorites. We've watched it dozens of times since then, and our affection for the twisty romance between Joel and Clementine only deepens with age. Click on over to The Film Experience where we're zooming in on a pair of smaller but no less vital performances in the movie.

.

Well I Finally Finished Russian Doll

.

Man that's a great promo image. But before you nag at me I am saving some Charlie Barnett pictures for another day, so sit on that for a minute. For now -- here a whole couple of days after everybody was talking about Russian Doll and now that we've all seemed to move on (apparently everybody's now got the time to chew up and spit out entire shows over the course of just three days) -- I just wanna say, "What a show!" I get all the Groundhog Day references which are obvious but it reminded me of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind the most -- the rewinding in on itself, the crumbling of realities, the desperate attempt to rebuild something out of one's emotional rubble.

And perfectly contained -- among the first reactions I'd heard was glee at it sticking its landing and does it ever; you get the feeling they had their ending as soon as they had their start, which is only fitting given its looping nature. It all works, top to bottom to every side. And how great to see Natasha Lyonne given a chance to shine like this -- she's always good on Orange is the New Black of course but that's not this; this is a love letter to her "Andrew Dice Clay meets the little girl from Brave" thing, and we're all the better blessed for it when an appealingly odd duck like she gets the center stage. Thank you, Leslye Headland! Now I gotta go re-watch Bachelorette for the 50 time. So who watched the show?

I Am Link

.

--- Truth Hurts - I haven't bothered watching this myself because the trailer is in French without subtitles but the first trailer for Roman Polanski's new movie has been released, and seeing as how his new movie is an erotic update on Single White Female (or given the fact that Single White Female was already a bit erotic you can call this one "erotic-er") starring Emmanuelle Seigner and EVA GREEN then maybe you don't care it's in French, maybe you just wanna look anyway. The movie's called Based on a True Story and it's out in France in November but we don't have a date here yet. Gimme!

--- Pickles Fever - Liking Jim Carrey has become a dangerous proposition lately due to real-world crazy-person circumstances but I fear I won't be able to help myself now that he's making a TV series with his Eternal Sunshine director Michel Gondry. It'll be called Kidding, it'll air on Showtime, and it's about Mr. Pickles, a kiddie show icon (think Mr. Rogers) whose entire personal and eventually professional life implodes around him. Which, you know, sounds very much like a role the current iteration of Jim Carrey can play.

--- Goodbye Dougie Jones - This week's banner friend David Lynch was asked about the possibility of more Twin Peaks at an event in Belgrade this week and he said it is possible but we shouldn't hold our breath because such a thing would take several years and if we hold our breath for several years that isn't called Transcendental Meditation it is called Dead. Oh and he also tweeted out the news that the blu-rays of the latest mind-fuck of a season will be out in December, just in time for stocking stuffers! (I love that David Lynch uses Twitter, btw.)

--- White Knight - I pointed you to one fantastic Mike White interview yesterday, but can we really have too many Mike White interviews? No, no we cannot. So here is one for Slate, and then over here is one for Backstage magazine (thx Mac). And I'm glad to hear from some commenters that his new movie Brad's Status, the one he's giving all these interviews for, is good and the bad trailer is not at all indicative of the movie's quality. I didn't really ever doubt that, but personal confirmation is peachy keen. Now let's all go see it this weekend together and make sure a Mike White movie does well, okay?

--- Horror Orchestras - David Gordon Green is a nerd just like you and me (well okay he's a nerd with an extraordinary amount of talent and success, so maybe there are some differences) and so he's determined when he makes his horror movie remake it will have music from the person whose iconic music made the original work in the first place. We heard it when he was re-doing Suspiria and he was going to get Goblin to do the music, and now that he's moved from that project (leaving it to Luca Guadagnino) onto the reboot of Halloween he is saying that he's trying his damndest to get John Carpenter to do the music for that.

--- After Dentata - Hey remember Teeth? Of course you do, Teeth was wonderful. (And also it had Hale Appleman in it, who I think of often.) But Teeth was also ten fucking years ago. Where oh where has its director Mitchell Lichtenstein been all that time? Well he made a movie in 2009 called Happy Tears with Parker Posey that I missed (anybody see it?) and he made another movie in 2015, it just hasn't been released... until now. It is called Angelica and it 's a gothic horror movie starring Jena Malone and Janet McTeer and it's getting dropped onto VOD on November 17th and you can watch the trailer right over here. Good things fall through the cracks sometimes so maybe this is one of them, fingers crossed.

--- Mutants United - This news is several days old but still worth a heads-up - Drew Goddard, the talented Buffy alum who hasn't directed another movie since he directed the still wonderful movie The Cabin in the Woods five whole years ago, has signed on to make X-Force, the X-Men and Deadpool spin-off that will apparently put Deadpool 2's upcoming Josh Brolin character of Cable more front and center as the lead dude of a gang of militant mutants. I don't read the comics so I don't care about the geek side to this - I'm just happy that Goddard's finally taking another spin in the director's seat. (He was supposed to make a Spider-man spin-off a couple of years ago but that all fell apart.) (Sidenote: Josh Brolin has gotten enormous for the role of Cable and his Instagram account has become a love letter to his own muscles, so you should probably be following him.)

--- And Finally Radiohead has teamed up with BRAMMMM artist Hans Zimmer to re-do their song "Bloom" off of The King of Limbs album for the soundtrack to the upcoming BBC nature doc series Blue Planet II - the remix is oh so cleverly called "(ocean) bloom" and it'll be attached to a short prequel for the series proper, I guess. Apparently the original version of the song was inspired by the first Blue Planet, so this was meant to be. Oh and speaking of Radiohead if you haven't seen their latest music video for their old song "Lift" (which finally got a proper release, twenty years later, on the anniversary reissue of OK Computer you should, it's lovely and it's below. Pitchfork talked to its director who gave a bunch of behind-the-scenes dirt and Easter Eggs, if you're a Thom Yorke Nerd like me. (thx Mac)

.

.

Which Is Hotter?

.

Today is the 54th birthday of the great Michel Gondry, the man most responsible for turning toilet paper tubes and chalk into unbridled romance - it's been two years since his last film, the seriously underrated coming-of-age buddy comedy Microbe & Gasoline came out -- as far as I know he hasn't announced what he's working on but I'd love for somebody to tell me otherwise. He did put out an adorable commercial for FedEx last month though:

.

.

Anyway Gondry gets a lifetime pass for me for whatever he does thanks to Eternal Sunshine but he has had an admittedly not-great few years, Microbe excepted - I downright hated The We and the I, his film set aboard a city bus full of grating characters, and reactions to projects like Mood Indigo and The Science of Sleep have been mixed. But it's those last two I want to laser in on, specifically their lovely male leads Gael Garcia Bernal (more here) and Romain Duris (more here)...

.

Goodbye Clementine

.

Today's Valentine episode of "Beauty vs Beast" is celebrating the greatest romance of our age (says me), Michel Gondry's Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind -- click here to go vote! I was a bit flummoxed and flabbergasted when I checked that I hadn't ever made people choose between Joel & Clementine before. It's a cruel decision to foist upon people, but knowing the  actress-centric TFE audience the winner seems a pre-ordained given... but my vote is totally Joel. Poor Joel. (I actually probably identify a little too closely with Joel but let's not get into that.)

.

10 Off My Head - Siri Says 2004

.

After the long, long, long run of the New York Film Festival (though there are still a couple more reviews to come!) I'm trying to get myself back in step with the regularly scheduled blogging, and since we haven't had the time to do one of these in a few weeks I figured this would be a good step in the correct direction for that. In case you don't recall this is the series where I ask my phone to pick a number between 1 and 100 and then I choose my five favorite movies from the year that corresponds with that number. 

And well we've had a first -- this morning Siri picked the number 4. This is the first time we've had a number lower than 10 chosen, given me two choices from Cinema's History to choose from. But as badly as I'd love to choose from such hits as Nervy Nat Kisses the Bride and A Nigger in the Woodpile (yes these are real films, and no I haven't seen either of them) I'm going to go ahead and pick my favorite Movies of 2004 instead of 1904, cuz duh. And since it's such a recent year we're going to pick 10 movies instead of 5, cuz duh.

My 10 Favorite Movies of 2004

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

(dir. Michel Gondry)

-- released on March 19 2004 --

Birth

(dir. Jonathan Glazer)

-- released on October 29 2004)

Three... Extremes

 (dir. Fruit Chan, Takashi Miike, 

and Park Chan-wook)

-- released on August 20 2004 --

The Incredibles

(dir. Brad Bird)

-- released on November 5 2004 --

Shaun of the Dead

(dir. Edgar Wright)

-- released on September 24 2004 --

Enduring Love

(dir. Roger Michell)

-- released on November 26 2004 --

Bad Education

(dir. Pedro Almodovar)

 -- released on February 11 2004 --

Mean Girls

(dir. Mark Waters)

-- released on April 30 2004)

I Heart Huckabees

(dir. David O. Russell)

-- released on October 22 2004 --

Mysterious Skin

(dir. Gregg Araki)

-- released on June 24 -- 

-----------------------------------

Runners-up: Palindromes (dir. Todd Solondz), Primer (dir. Shane Carruth), Tarnation (dir.  Jonathan Caouette ), Dead Birds (dir. Alex Turner), Sideways (dir. Alexander Payne), Kill Bill 2 (dir. Quentin Tarantino), 13 Going on 30 (dir. Gary Winick)...
.

... The House of Flying Daggers (dir. Zhang Yimou), Team America: World Police (dir. Trey Parker), Dawn of the Dead (dir. Zack Snyder), Kinsey (dir. Bill Condon), Spider-man 2 (dir. Sam Raimi), Undertow (dir. David Gordon Green)

What are your favorite movies of 2004?

.

Cowboys Know Cowgirls Ride on the Indian Side

.

Andrea Arnold's new film American Honey is easily in my top five anticipated movies of the year, but I have to admit I am worried there's a chance the film could easily stroll into "The We and The I" territory - The We and the I is a 2012 Michel Gondry movie about a bunch of teenaged school kids riding a city bus that I found absolutely unbearable and shrill from my vantage point as an ancient turd. It is possible that American Honey, a road trip movie starring what appears to be the main character from Andrea Arnold's film Fish Tank multiplied by ten. One I could deal with! Feeling like I'm trapped in an enclosed space with a group of over-confident hormone-cases is another thing altogether. 

Those worries aside, the trailer only makes American Honey look like it could be the movie I am worried about in fits and starts - mostly it looks like the movie I hope it is. It looks focused enough on the lead girl and her relationship with Shia to ground the story some, while also opening up across a beautiful, tumbling landscape filled with lots of different types. But don't listen to me, watch the damn thing:

.

.
We still don't have an exact release date but it'll probably be in the Fall - I am really hoping she brings it to the New York Film Festival!
.

Good Morning, World

.

Well the Oscars kept me (and Kate, no doubt) up past our bed-times last night, and so I totally over-slept and I'm getting a super-late start this morning. If you have anything you want to say about the show give a comment! I tweeted a bunch, read them here. And we're getting around, stuff to come, just give us a little extra room this A.M. and speak softly, please.

.

Great Moments In Movie Shelves #22

.

Joel: Hi.
Clementine: Hi. Didn't figure you'd show your face 

around me again. I guess I thought you were...
humiliated. You did run away, after all.

Joel: I just needed to see you.
Clementine: Yeah?
 .

Joel: I'd like to, um... take you out, or something.
Clementine: You're married.
Joel: Not yet, not married. No, I'm not married.
 .

Clementine: Look man, I'm telling you right off the bat, 

I'm high-maintainance, so... I'm not gonna tip-toe around 

your marriage, or whatever it is you've got goin' there. 

If you wanna be with me, you're with me.
.

Joel: Okay.
Clementine: Too many guys think I'm a concept, 

or I complete them, or I'm gonna make them alive. 

But I'm just a fucked-up girl who's lookin' for 

my own peace of mind; don't assign me yours.
.

Joel: I remember that speech really well.
Clementine: I had you pegged, didn't I?
Joel: You had the whole human race pegged.
Clementine: Hmm. Probably.
Joel: I still thought you were gonna 

save my life, even after that.
.

Clementine: Ohhh... I know.
Joel: It would be different, if we could just 

give it another go-round.
Clementine: Remember me.
Try your best; maybe we can. 

.

Here's a Picture of Ryan Reynolds...

.

Ryan Reynolds talking Mississippi Grind @filmlinc

A photo posted by Jason Adams (@jasonaadams) on Sep 22, 2015 at 6:34pm PDT

.

... from last night's screening of Mississippi Grind at FSLC here in NYC that I took to keep you warm for the next couple of hours as I run out to see the new Michel Gondry movie for the New York Film Festival. I am livin' la vida sumpthin!

.

Who Wore It Best?

.

I was going through our Kirsten Dunst archives in order to find the above gif to express my excitement about Bachelorette writer-director Leslye Headland's new flick Sleeping With Other People being out in theaters today when I realized -- why don't I hate Kirsten Dunst? I really should hate Kirsten Dunst. Not only did she date Jake once upon a time, not only is she dating Garrett Hedlund right now upon this time...

... not only is she playing Patrick Wilson's wife on the second season of Fargo very soon, but a glance through her history of onscreen beaus, via those same archives, reminded me she's brushed her teeth with Jesse Bradford and mounted a steed with Jamie Dornan, and gotten down with both Mark Ruffalo and Alexander Skarsgard in their white underpants. Damn you, Dunst. Damn you.

.

.

6 Off My Head - Legends of the Fall Fest Season

.

The New York Film Festival has announced its Main Slate today, and while this isn't everything they'll be showing -- they will still announce the smaller docs and so forth -- it is EVERYTHING, if you catch my drift. You can read the whole list over at The Playlist, but I figured I'd focus in on the five... no make that six movies that are making this everything so much of my everything everything. 

Carol by Todd Haynes -- Yeah, duh. I've only been posting about wanting to see this movie since 2006 when I first read Patricia Highsmith's book The Price of Salt -- in fact I said in that 2006 post that the character of Carol should be played by Cate Blanchett, a full six years before Cate Blanchett singed on to play the part of Carol. CLEARLY this happened because of me. You are all welcome!

Bridge of Spies by Steven Spielberg -- I really wasn't all that bowled over by the trailer for this movie and I'm not the world's biggest fan of Tom Hanks or spy movies in general, so why do I care? I care because I have spent YEARS of my life waiting to be in a room with Steven Spielberg and I somehow MISSED him when he presented Lincoln at NYFF a couple of years ago and this is my chance and I will not mess it up this time dammit! He and I will ride on the backs of velociraptors into the sunset!

The Lobster by Yorgos Lanthimos -- Yanthimos' two previous films Dogtooth and Alps both made my favorite movie lists for their respective years, and this time's he's speaking English and putting Colin Farrell and Rachel Weisz in front of me in a nonsense story about people being transformed into animals - what, you think I'm rubber? I am glue and The Lobster is stuck to me, yo.

The Assassin by Hou Hsiao-hsien -- The only movie of Hou's that I have seen is Flight of the Red Balloon (the power of La Binoche compels me) and I know I've got to right that, so why not start with this rapturously received wuxia starring the rapturously gorgeous Chang Chen?

Steve Jobs by Danny Boyle -- Honestly I could give a shit about Steve Jobs as a person, and Aaron Sorkin gives me hives, but the trailer was really exciting and... well. You know. Fassy. FASSSSSSSSSSSY. And if Kate Winslet shows up on the red carpet and stands in front of me I promise you I will poop my pants. I promise it. (Sorry, Kate.) (Sorry, everybody else.)

Microbe & Gasoline by Michel Gondry -- It's been a rough couple of years for me and my Gondry adoration (I was nearly done in by getting stuck on that bus with those insufferable brats in The We and the I) but I hold out hope, every time, I can't help it - this man made Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, people. Show some goddamned respect.
.