Email here for additions & corrections.

Ishtar
(May, 1987)
The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (OOP)
(Ross, 1976)
The Devils
(Russell, 1974)
The Pirates of Penzance
(Papp/Leach, 1983)
The Fortune
(Nichols, 1975)
-30-
(Webb, 1959)
Betrayal
(Jones, 1983)
Play It As It Lays
(Perry, 1972)
The Outfit
(Flynn, 1973)
Alex in Wonderland
(Mazursky, 1969)
The Legend of Lylah Clare
(Aldrich, 1968)
In The Cool of the Day
(Stevens, 1963)
That Cold Day in the Park
(Altman, 1969)
Thumb Trippin'
(Masters, 1972)
Midas Run
(Kjellin, 1969)
At Long Last Love
(Bogdanovich, 1973)
Brewster McCloud
(Altman, 1972)
Outcast of the Islands
(Reed, 1951)

Reader Submissions
1930's-1950's
The Moon's Our Home
(Seiter, 1936)
Sh! The Octopus
(McGann, 1937)
The Mating Season
(Leisen, 1951)
Bad for Each Other
(Rapper, 1953)
The Phenix City Story
(Karlson, 1955)
Run of the Arrow
(Fuller, 1956)
House of Secrets
(Green, 1956)
Saint Joan
(Preminger, 1957)
Macabre
(Castle, 1958)
The Fiend Who Walked the West
(G. Douglas, 1958
Five Gates to Hell
(Clavell, 1959)
1960's
Key Witness
(Karlson, 1960)
Summer and Smoke
(Glenville, 1961)
The Chapman Report
(Cukor,1962)
Bachelor Flat
(Tashlin, 1962) [on Hulu]
The L Shaped Room
(Forbes, 1963)
The Chalk Garden
(Neame, 1964)
A Thousand Clowns
(Coe, 1965)
You're a Big Boy Now
(Coppola, 1966)
The Whisperers
(Forbes, 1967)
Dark of the Sun
(Cardiff, 1968)
Skidoo
(Preminger, 1968)
Last Summer
(Perry, 1969)
The Comic
(C. Reiner, 1969)
1970-1974
The Revolutionary
(Williams, 1970)
The Landlord
(Ashby, 1970)
Diary of a Mad Housewife
(Perry, 1970)
Tropic of Cancer
(Strick, 1970)
I Never Sang for My Father
(Cates, 1970)
Sometimes a Great Notion
(Newman, 1971)
Marriage of a Young Stockbroker
(Turman, 1971)
The Music Lovers
(Russell, 1971)
Drive, He Said
(Nicholson, 1971)
The Steagle
(Sylbert, 1971)
The Last Movie
(Hopper, 1971)
Made For Each Other
(Bean, 1971)
The Day the Clown Cried
(Lewis, 1972)
Hickey & Boggs (OOP)
(Culp, 1972)
The Carey Treatment
(Edwards, 1972)
Pete 'n' Tillie
(Ritt, 1972)
Slither
(Zieff, 1973)
Man on a Swing
(Perry, 1974)
Open Season
(Collinson, 1974)
The Tamarind Seed
(Edwards, 1974)
Law and Disorder
(Passer, 1974)
Homebodies
(Yust, 1974)
Stardust
(Apted, 1974)
Celine and Julie Go Boating
(Rivette, 1974)
1975-1979
Rafferty and the Gold Dust Twins
(Richards, 1975
At Long Last Love
(Bogdanovich, 1975)
Hearts of the West
(Zieff, 1975)
Welcome to L.A.
(Rudolph, 1976)
W.C. Fields and Me
(Hiller, 1976)
Citizens Band
(Demme, 1977)
Twilight's Last Gleaming
(Aldrich, 1977)
Looking for Mr. Goodbar
(Brooks, 1977)
Girlfriends
(Weill, 1978)
Movie Movie
(Donen, 1978)
The Medusa Touch
(Gold, 1978)
American Hot Wax
(Mutrux, 1978)
Hot Stuff
(DeLuise, 1979)
Scavenger Hunt
(Schultz , 1979)
Players
(Harvey, 1979)
Rich Kids
(Young, 1979)
Nightwing
(Hiller, 1979)
Screams of a Winter's Night
(Wilson, 1979
When You Comin' Back Red Ryder?
(Katselas, 1979
1980's
Resurrection
(Petrie, 1980)
The Awakening
(Newell, 1980)
Simon
(Brickman, 1980)
God's Angry Man
(Herzog, 1980)
Fast-Walking
(Harris, 1982)
Twice Upon a Time
(Korty & Swenson, 1983)
Trouble in Mind
(Rudolph, 1985)
When the Wind Blows
(Murikami, 1986)
Housekeeping
(Forsyth, 1987)
The Glass Menagerie
(Newman, 1987)
Patty Hearst
(Schrader, 1988)
Drowning by Numbers
(Greenaway, 1988)
Haunted Summer
(Passer, 1988)
The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years
(Spheeris, 1988)
1990's
Old Times
(Curtis, 1991)
Prospero's Books
(Greenaway, 1991)
City of Hope
(Sayles, 1991)
The Baby of Macon
(Greenaway, 1993)
King of the Hill
(Soderbergh, 1993)
Dadetown
(Hexter, 1995)
SubUrbia
(Linklater, 1997)

Upcoming

January 8

Bitch Slap

Waiting for Armageddon

Wonderful World

Youth in Revolt

January 15

January 22

Drool

Extraordinary Measures

The Girl on the Train

Men Must Always Be Watchful

email this story
read comments (12)
post a comment

Newish one-sheets for a pair of major year-end releases came through yesterday -- the Australian-market poster for Baz Luhrman's Australia (which opens in Oz on Thursday, 11.13, according to the IMDB, preceding its Wednesday,11.26 U.S. release by 13 days) and a fresh image -- less communal, emphasis on Daniel Craig's studliness -- for Ed Zwick's Defiance (Paramount Vantage , 12.12). The latter was exclusively previewed late yesterday afternoon by Kris Tapley's In Contention.

Ed Zwick's Defiance (Paramount Vantage, 12.12); Baz Luhrman's Australia (20th Century Fox, 11.26)

There's something a bit unusual about the Australia poster, or the fact that the eyes of the embracing Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman are both shut tight. This indicates something besides just intimacy and bonding -- it indicates relief (having recently experienced serious trauma, one gathers) and Kidman-Jackman communing with some inner aspect of themselves as much as with each other. It doesn't just say "I love and need you" -- it says "whew, thank God we got through that one!" and "let me just hold you and imagine that our troubles are no longer waiting around the corner and ready to pounce."

They look scared or shaken up. Actually, the more I look at the poster the more Jackman looks like he's sleeping.

It seems, in a word, vaguely unmanly for Jackman, who seems to be taking comfort in Kidman's embrace the way a 3 year-old boy would take comfort in being held by his mother. Real Men Never Close Their Eyes -- they keep their eyes at least half open in case predators are lurking about. As Marlon Brando's Don Corleone put it, "Women and children can be careless, but not men."

Look at any number of passionate-lovers-embracing images from past films and posters, and you'll find that most (or the vast majority) shows the male with eyes half-open or slitted. The only other love-embrace poster I can think of in which both partners' eyes are closed is the Warren Beatty-Diane Keaton Moscow train platform poster for Reds. (Come to think, you can't see Beatty's eyes in that image, but the implication is there.)

I'm not saying embracers don't close their eyes in real life -- of course they do. All I know or feel is that Jackman looks wussy with his eyes closed. He seems to be going "mommy, mommy." Or nodding out on something.

Here's a larger image of the Defiance poster plus a larger Australia. And here's a recent Defiance trailer.

Geezers Sift Political Pics<< previous | next >>Reader is Rudin-Less

Posted by Jeffrey Wells on October 10, 2008 at 6:49 AM

comment #1

actionman says ...

The poster for Defiance is a little standard looking but that new trailer is pretty sweet. Looks like some beautifully shot action at the very least.

Is Australia going to be the surprise of the year?

Posted by actionman at October 10, 2008 7:32 AM

comment #2

arch451 says ...

It actually looks like Jackman and Kidman are in the act of sex, but they seem to be fully clothed. Their expressions certainly do make them look passive and boring.

Posted by arch451 at October 10, 2008 8:14 AM

comment #3

Chase Kahn says ...

Jamie Bell's accent doesn't sound particularly convincing in that short sample, plus Craig and Schrieber's sound nearly identical...juding by THE LAST SAMURAI and BLOOD DIAMOND, I'm not expecting much from DEFIANCE.

Posted by Chase Kahn at October 10, 2008 8:17 AM

comment #4

Mark says ...

i can't help but notice that in the Defiance one-sheet, Craig looks an awful lot like James Bond. His hair is equal length and is even lighted to appear blonder than is apparent in the trailer.

I suppose it's contractractual. That once a budget exceeds a certain number, he and actors like Keanu Reeves must have the same hair as their most iconic characters. I just wish Sam Jackson was in the same boat, and had to sport the fro of Jules Winnfield in every flick he headlined. Lakeview Terrace would have at least been more enjoyable.

Posted by Mark at October 10, 2008 8:49 AM

comment #5

DavidF says ...

Maybe Kidman's eyes are only closed because she blinked and the Botox wouldn't allow her to open them again for a few hours? Then, presumably, Hal closed his too so she wouldn't feel lonely? It's a theory, anyway.

And I feel like you're gonna have to do something a bit different to show Daniel Craig holding a gun in your poster without it looking like he's James Bond. Getting him from a suit into woodsy clothes doesn't do the trick.

Posted by DavidF at October 10, 2008 9:10 AM

comment #6

Bocephus says ...

Actually, David, she can't blink anymore without the assistance of CGI.

Posted by Bocephus at October 10, 2008 9:24 AM

comment #7

katcalls says ...

Jeff, from a woman's perspective, Hugh Jackman can be nothing less than manly, even when he's shaking his hips doing the macarena on Broadway.

Posted by katcalls at October 10, 2008 9:30 AM

comment #8

BurmaShave says ...

Jews Fight Back is my new favorite sub-genre, and I look forward to the scene in the next Judd Apatow when they all thank Liev Schreiber for them getting laid.

Posted by BurmaShave at October 10, 2008 9:54 AM

comment #9

bmcintire says ...

Actually, Jeff, he's got his eyes closed TWICE while embracing another character in this poster.

Posted by bmcintire at October 10, 2008 10:03 AM

comment #10

p.Vice says ...

I love the grizzly old abornigine dude standing around doing nothing on the left flank. Oh, that's right... there are black people in Australia too!

Posted by p.Vice at October 10, 2008 10:52 AM

comment #11

bachelorcool says ...

Given Fox's disastrous year at the box office so far, Australia could prove to be either their Titanic or Meet Dave 2.

Something tells me the lattar, as living in the trenches, I can't see much appeal for the two stars and a story that won't exactly draw in punters as one they'd actually care enough about to see in the cinema.

Posted by bachelorcool at October 10, 2008 12:55 PM

comment #12

desert rose says ...

Unlike katcalls, who thinks Hugh Jackman never looks anything but manly, I'm a woman who thinks he always looks a bit fey, even when trying to be a manly drover. In every picture of him as a supposedly sweaty, dusty drover, he looks like he's about to break out into "Oooooklahama". All the seemingly intimate pictures of Hugh and Nicole look posed and fake, as if they're right off the covers of bodice-ripper romance novels - which I do not read, by the way.

I will definitely go see Australia, but so far I'm not impressed. It looks too fakey and phony and trying too hard to be Gone in the Outback.

Posted by desert rose at October 10, 2008 5:15 PM