Since it’s that ultra-exciting time of year known as the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs, it seems fitting that we take a look at Academy Award-winning director Alex Gibney‘s 2011 documentary, The Last Gladiators. This compelling and viscerally satisfying examination of hockey’s most feared enforcers is also a paradox, serving as both cautionary tale and celebration of professional hockey’s unique culture of acceptable violence and the men who best practice it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-y9i9RxX7Qw
With unprecedented access to the toughest men to play the game, Gladiators’ main focus eventually settles on Chris “Knuckles” Nilan, a hard-nosed kid from Boston whose NHL dream came true as a beloved character on the 1986 Stanley Cup-winning Montreal Canadiens, the NHL equivalent of the New York Yankees. With relentless bravado and aggression, Nilan stepped into the fray to defend his more skilled teammates from other teams’ taking liberties, the key function of the enforcer, and went toe-to-toe with the toughest guys of his era. Craving validation as more than just a goon, Nilan even scored 21 goals in his best season under legendary coach Jacques Lemaire. But as it does with many athletes, Nilan’s career slowly declined due to injuries and, after a decent stint with the New York Rangers, petered out unhappily with his hometown Boston Bruins, where the the former Canadien was viewed with deep ambivalence.
The fascinatingly complex star of the film’s many present day interviews and great historical clips, the older Nilan comes across as extremely intelligent, self-aware and still quite cocky. Continue reading →
One of Alfred Hitchcock‘s more effervescent cinematic cocktails, 1955’s To Catch a Thiefis a must-watch for any cinephile or aspiring bon vivant. A gentleman can learn many lessons from the impossibly stylish Cary Grant as reformed (or is he?) jewelry thief and hero of the French Resistance, John Robie, aka “The Cat”. Grant’s Robie comes under renewed suspsicion when a series of high profile, high value robberies plague the glitterati of the French Riviera. His old war buddies, with whom he escaped from a bombed out prison, soon turn on him for fear of having their paroles revoked, leading Robie to endeavor to find out who the new “Cat” is before the police pin it on him or his old mates do him in to save themselves. Added to the heady mix is the lucious Grace Kelly in her prime as prim but sexy nouveau riche debutante Frances Stevens, determined to share in the excitement of “The Cat’s” criminal exploits and capture the uniquely intriguing Robie for her own pleasure.
Filmed largely on location in Nice, Cannes and Monaco, To Catch a Thief looks as stunning today as it must have when it was released if not more so because the coast and the Principality had not yet been so frantically overdeveloped. The helicopter shots of high speed drives through Mediterranean hills and villages are breathtaking. And the teasing rapport between the ultra-tan, ultra-suave Grant and the golden, precocious Kelly is pure cinema magic. It’s no wonder that Grant, along with James Stewart, was one of Hitchcock’s favorite male leads. They did four remarkably good films together — Suspicion, Notorious, Thief and North by Northwest — and Hitch was always able to coax the dark shadows of Grant’s sometimes glib personality to the fore. For the Master of Suspense, he was willing to reveal his weakness and even his unattractive side and if you know only the smiling playboy caricature of Grant you’ll be in for a treat watching any of those classic collaborations. One of the unquestionable cinema greats, Grant’s body of work for Hitchcock alone would put him near the top of any list of all-time best movie actors.
And as is well documented, Hitchcock was enraptured by Kelly as his ultimate cool blond with hot blood. After making three terrific films for Hitch in quick succession — Dial M for Murder, Rear Window and Thief — Kelly married Prince Ranier in 1956 and retired from movies to be the Princess Consort of Monaco. While the great director quipped that he was “very happy that Grace has found herself such a good part” he was in fact bereft and struggled in vain to find a new version of her in subsequent films. Hence he has Kim Novak with Stewart in Vertigo, Eva Marie Saint with Grant in North by Northwest, Janet Leigh in Psycho and Tippi Hedren in The Birds and Marnie. While all those actresses did admirable work in their own way, especially the very touching and tragic Kim Novak in Vertigo, it’s no doubt that Hitchcock would have preferred Grace Kelly in all of those roles. After watching her take Grant on a white knuckle ride through the hills of Monaco before stopping to picnic and slyly offering him the choice of a leg or a breast, it’s easy to see why. The fact that Princess Grace was killed in a car accident in 1982 at the age of 52 in those very same cliffs just adds a layer of poignancy to the near-perfection of To Catch a Thief.
Above: Photographer Eliot Elisofon in the Congo, 1951 (Joan Elisofon/National Museum of African Art)
Time’s passage can elevate and it can also erase. Once great men can see their fame grow as the years pass while others who were prominent in their day are practically forgotten. The latter circumstance is the unfortunate case with Eliot Elisofon, arguably a lost titan of 20th century photography. If the name does not ring a bell, you’re not alone. While Elisofon was a staff photographer for LIFE magazine during WWII and after, part of a team of luminaries like Alfred Eisenstadt and Margaret Bourke-White among others, his name is not very well known today. And that is a pity because Elisofon had an important and multifaceted career from the 1930s until his death in 1973.
American soldiers in North Africa during the Allied Tunisia Campaign, 1943 (Eliot Elisofon—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images)
Jessica Tandy & Marlon Brando in A Streetcar Named Desire, 1947 (Eliot Elisofon—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images)
Born on the Lower East Side of New York City in 1911, Elisofon graduated from Fordham University and promptly became a member of the socially conscious Photo League in 1936. Continue reading →
After a long period of establishing herself as a versatile and talented actress in big movies, Naomie Harris rocketed to worldwide fame with a bullet. Literally. As James Bond’s support agent in the field, she is responsible for taking the shot on M’s orders to stop a terrorist entangled with Bond on a speeding train. Instead she hits Bond and derails his life sending the world’s favorite secret agent into injury-induced existential crisis. Such is the beginning of 2012’s dark and biographical 007 blockbuster Skyfall. And only at the end of the film do we discover that Ms. Harris’ sexy and capable character is, in fact, Eve Moneypenny, now quitting the field and destined for a lifetime of desk work and double entendres. Now that is how you become a big time movie star.
The daughter of Caribbean immigrants in London, Naomie’s mother was a scriptwriter for the long-running BBC soap EastEnders and she caught the acting bug quite young, where she had success as a child actress. Her big break came in Danny Boyle’s excellent 2002 post-apocalyptic thriller 28 Days Later as Selena, one of the harried survivors of a horrible pandemic. After good roles alongside Colin Firth in Trauma and former Bond Pierce Brosnan in After the Sunset, Ms. Harris was tapped to play the mysterious and supernatural Tia Dalma for the 2nd and 3rd movies of the mega-budget Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, Dead Man’s Chest and At World’s End.
Then came her revelatory work in Skyfall, memorably making amends with Daniel Craig’s Bond in Macao but never succumbing to his legendary charms. And then, as if to prove that she was more than just a lithe and beautiful starlet, Ms. Harris did awards-worthy work as Winnie Mandela alongside Idris Elba in the respectful biopic, Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom.
It’s readily apparent from her now-long and accomplished resume that the 37-year-old beauty can not only act alongside today’s hottest leading men — from Depp to Craig — but can also deftly hold her own with them under any circumstances. In a movie world often dominated by blond bombshells, the dark and lovely Naomi Harris stands out with playful sex appeal, acting chops and a sharp-edged sense of humor. She’s an unconventional original and a major talent and that’s something we absolutely can’t resist. In short, she’s an MFL kind of gal and she’s one of the many reasons we’re keenly anticipating Bond #24 and all her other future work still to come.
And I mean the whole album, Miles’ first for Columbia in 1955, and not just the admittedly fantastic Thelonius Monk track “‘Round Midnight” that opens up this seminal work.
With Davis on trumpet, Coltrane on tenor sax, pianist Red Garland, bassist Paul Chambers and Philly Joe Jones on drums, this was the archetypal 1950s quintet’s maiden voyage and set the tone for a massive outpouring of now-classic music that filled four more smokin’ albums in quick succession (Cookin’, Workin’,Relaxin’ and Steamin’).
As the session that started it all, the newly patented mix of Cool and Hard Bop sounds magically intimate, warm and almost casually virtuosic and ‘Round Midnight still has that “breaking of a new dawn” kind of effect even today. From the not-quite-eponymous opener to the gorgeously aired out “Dear Old Stockholm” to the telepathic “Bye-Bye Blackbird”, this 10-track masterpiece is an album that belongs in any serious music collection, Jazz-focused or otherwise. It creates an inspired mood all its own, whether you’re on your own, entertaining friends or wooing that special someone. It never disappoints and always sounds fresh. How many things can you say that about?
Hailing from a country that produces more than its fair share of good looking people, draw droppingly beautiful Australian Abbie Cornish combines natural sex appeal with plenty of talent. After success at home as a model and budding star actress, Abbie made the seamless transition to Hollywood ingenue. The usually blond, hazel-eyed 31-year-old vegetarian broke through in 2007, looking ravishing in historical finery in the big budget sequel Elizabeth: The Golden Age, where she held her own alongside such heavyweights as Kate Blanchett as the Queen and Clive Owen as her lover, Sir Walter Raleigh.
She also had key roles in the 2008 Iraq War drama Stop-Loss with Ryan Philippe (with whom she had a relationship), the 2009 Keats biopic Bright Star and alongside Bradley Cooper and Robert De Niro in 2011’s Limitless. That year she also appeared in the preposterous Zach Snyder flop Sucker Punch — she was her usual sexy self weilding swords and guns amidst the mayhem but looked even hotter without the S&M accoutrement.
Ms. Cornish has had better material to work with recently in the 2012 black comedy Seven Psychopaths and this year’s action blockbuster reboot, Robocop, as the hero’s steadfast wife. She was also co-lead in the Discovery Channel’s first scripted programming, the historical gold rush miniseries Klondike.
With her best years ahead of her and a face that only seems to get more lovely with time, we’re sure that Abbie Cornish is destined for much more success. Some actresses will always be in demand and a looker like Abbie is definitely on our much-watch list.
I admit that I blow hot and cold on Steely Dan. There is something just so… L.A. about them, so very arch. Their lyrics are so damn in-the-know that they come across like the guys in the private room in the back doing blow. And you’re not invited behind the velvet rope. They legendarily named their band after a sex toy from Burroughs’ Naked Lunch, for chrissakes. That said, you can’t argue with their sterling musicianship. Before Steely Dan became a huge success, the core members Walter Becker (bass) and Donald Fagen (guitar) worked as a backup band for Jay and the Americans. And those two, who were really the only constant through the years, always had a special knack for picking ace talent to make up the rest of the band with a particular affinity for Jazz influences. A song like “Do It Again” from their 1972 debutCan’t Buy a Thrill shows their chops off to subtle perfection.
With its loping beat and intricate raga-like guitar and percussion, I associate “Do it Again” with palm trees, warm sea breezes and a cold rum drink. Or maybe a drug deal gone bad. Famously averse to live performance, here’s an early live version of the band with David Palmer singing lead for the unwilling Fagen.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NC7n4G5f1A4
The singing isn’t much to write home about — Palmer soon left the group and Fagen found his courage shortly thereafter, although he and Becker would always prefer the studio. But that magical groove is something else again.
When it comes to paranoid film thrillers, the 1960s and 70s were the golden age. And John Frankenheimer’s 1964 classic Seven Days in May was perhaps the grandaddy of them all. Now, you can argue that Frankenheimer’s undisputed masterpiece The Manchurian Candidate, released two years earlier, was actually the prototype for the cinema’s soon-to-be omnipresent conspiracy-minded neurosis. But while Candidate does involve a horrifying plan to bring down the US government, the key difference is that in Seven Days in May that threat is coming from inside the country.
Burt Lancaster as General James Mattoon Scott & Kirk Douglas as Colonel Martin “Jiggs” Casey
What is it about Swedish beauties that stirs the, um, soul? Take the lovely Malin Ackerman. She made an indelible impression in Zach Snyder’s remarkably faithful (with one major exception to the deus ex machina) 2009 film adaptation of Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons’ paranoid 1980s graphic novel masterpiece, Watchmen. Dressed up in a kinky bumblebee-colored latex costume and sporting a brunette wig, Malin’s Silk Spectre was the kind of sexy superheroine dreams are made of (though not it you’re a bad guy — then you just get your ass kicked).
While she’ll never be confused with greats like Ingrid Bergman or Liv Ullman in the acting department, Ms. Akerman does tend to light up the screen whenever she’s on it with her classic Scandinavian good looks and playful charm.
She’s also a rock chick, yet another turn-on, and was lead singer for the Petalstones where she met her now ex-husband, the drummer (of course — but, hey, I said “Ex” at least), with whom the 35-year-old stunner has a son. And while she left the group to focus on acting, that experience undoubtedly helped her accomplished and sexy duet with Tom Cruise singing Foreigner’s “I Wanna Know What Love Is” in 2012’s big budget classic rock musical, Rock of Ages, where both stars do the singing for real.
Malin can currently be seen showing off her comedic chops in ABC’s Trophy Wife alongside Macia Gay Harden and Bradley Whitford. While we’re certainly happy for her success on that funny sitcom, we can’t help but wish it were on a more risque channel like HBO or Cinemax. Because the more we see of Malin, the more we like.
Apologies for the radio silence — we’ve been moving the MFL world headquarters to new digs and as anyone who has moved recently (or ever) knows: it’s a time consuming PITA. But we’ll be back and running up to full strength very soon, have no fear. In the meantime here are a couple of sterling versions of Duke Ellington‘s gorgeous Jazz standard, “In a Sentimental Mood”, to tide you over while we get back up to speed.
