So faithful readers, long time no write/read. I’ve had a very busy couple of weeks so sadly the Sanctuary’s been on the back burner. It is my solemn promise that this will change in the next few weeks as my workload steadily drops away and I can dedicate more time to my precious cinematic musings. Coming up on the docket is my much promised Edith Head gallery, national studies on France and Japan, the usual Actress obsessions and Director worship, the 1956 Oz Awards and of course plenty of quotes, countdowns and other quality junk. 80-odd posts in and it’s time to step back and reflect on the blog so far. Plenty of details after the jump.

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Once again, I’ve been guilty of letting the blog turn overly girlie (A series on costume design? Romantic comedy? What was I thinking?) so here’s a genre countdown I’m sure the boys can relate to - albeit the nerdy ones. One of my biggest shames is that I’m a massive closeted sci-fi nerd - it feels good to admit that. If a movie’s set in space or in a dystopian future or features close encounters of the green and tentacled kind, I’m there. It’s not all about the stars: wars and trek respectively though; science fiction is so much more. Here’s a countdown of the greatest gifts the genre has to offer.

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The penultimate post on great costume designers features 10-time Oscar nominee and 3-time winner Sandy Powell. Before the post on Edith Head in a few days, I thought I’d mention some other designers that deserve to be cited. These artists aren’t less worthy of coverage than the four I chose to cover, but at the end of the day this isn’t a costume design blog and covering all the greats would take an age. The work of Adrian, Jean Louis, Dorothy Jeakins, Irene Sharaff, Orry-Kelly, Walter Plunkett, Helen Rose, Piero Gherardi, Milena Canonero, Anthony Powell, Albert Wolsky, James Acheson, Ann Roth and more are worthy of note. Sandy Powell has worked with the likes of Scorsese, Todd Haynes and Neil Jordan and her designs are highly functional, but always visually arresting. She may be best known for her work in lavish period dramas, but her best work will always be the glam-rock threads of Velvet Goldmine. Gallery of top designs after the jump.

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WORSHIPEE: Robert Altman - Born: 1925, Died: 2006.

Robert Altman was the king of his domain. His freewheeling, multi-stranded ensemble epics are pure Americana and so masterfully precise in their chaos. Never one for your conventional narrative driven affair, Altman found inspiration in the divine disorder of everyday life. His works are like rich tapestries depicting a world of heightened reality where everyone has a story and everyone’s story is as important as the next person’s. There are no stars in a Robert Altman film, everyone gets their chance to shine, but no one is there to steal the show. This isn’t to say that the acting isn’t generally superb, but everybody involved is there to serve the greater vision rather than themselves. Dialogue often gets lost in the general din of many people talking at the same time, but it’s meant to be life not artifice and it all fits with Altman’s motto that life isn’t focused or ordered but many things at once. Altman was lost much to soon, but he left an incredible legacy and an indelible mark on the history of film.

TOP 5 FILMS:

1. Nashville (1975) [Trailer]
2. MASH (1970) [Trailer]
3. McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971) [Trailer]
4. Short Cuts (1993) [Trailer]
5. A Prairie Home Companion (2006) [Trailer]

So after much speculation, we finally have the line-up for the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. There aren’t any films that inspire the immediate anticipation that The Tree of Life  and Melancholia did last year, but the festival always brings in some great works that come out left field to inspire and astound. As expected, Wong Kar Wai’s long awaited The Grandmaster and Terrence Malick’s as-yet-untitled new film will not be featured, but there are plenty of other intriguing prospects to be found on Cannes’ press release. I was sad to see that Park Chan-Wook’s Stoker was not going to premiere, but what can you do? Read on for a list of in competition films and expected highlights or see the entire press pack here.

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VIRGINIA TRAILER: Dustin Lance Black’s Virginia originally premiered at the Toronto Film festival all the way back in 2010 under the original title What’s Wrong With Virginia? The reviews from the festival were tepid to say the least and the film was indefinitely shelved. Virginia is now getting a belated US release in May this year after a complete re-edit from the version seen at Toronto. From the look of the trailer, the film has had a tonal shift as well from the psychological drama originally advertised to a quirky small town black comedy. I’m keen to see whether the response differs much from the original version when the new and hopefully improved Virginia surfaces next month. I’m a Jennifer Connelly fan from way back and who doesn’t love Ed Harris? See the trailer after the jump.

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After the obituary and gallery for the late great Eiko Ishioka a couple of weeks ago, it got me thinking about other greats in costume design. I’ll be doing write-ups on Sandy Powell and Edith Head in a few days, but right now here’s 3-time Academy Award winner Colleen Atwood. Notable for her many collaborations with everyone’s favourite oddball Tim Burton and stage director turned film maker Rob Marshall, Atwood’s designs are sumptuous and eye catching and always complement the individual director’s vision. Two of her three Oscars may have come for works that were respectively safe (Chicago) and kitsch (Alice in Wonderland), but her best designs are some of cinema’s most iconic. Who could forget the jumpsuits of Catwoman and Edward Scissorhands or the many breathtaking kimonos from Memoirs of a Geisha? After the jump is a gallery of work from Atwood’s 6 best film assignments.

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I was going to do another Casting Couch post for this, but I found it really hard to think of appropriate actors for what I foresee as an animated film. For those who don’t know, Grim Fandango is a computer game from the late 90s that while not immediately successful later developed a massive cult following of devoted fans. It tells the story of Manny Calavera a Grim Reaper in The Land of the Dead. This land isn’t the fire and brimstone underworld of old, but rather a classic film noir world of corruption and big business filled with cool cats and seductive femme fatales. The game is an epic tale of mystery and excitement with majestically rendered settings and a colourful array of characters. It feels like a movie as you’re playing it and it has always been my wish that an animated film adaptation would come to fruition. There was talk years ago of Tim Burton being interested, but what I’d really love to see is Coraline director Henry Selick make one of his trademark stop-motion classics out of the material. Its never going to happen but one can dream. Trailer for the game below.

Here’s the genre that is probably in the most dire need of rejuvenation. Anyone who has sat through the latest Katherine Heigl travesty knows what I’m talking about. Romantic comedy has sadly become a parody of itself over the years. Stringently faithful to a tired formula, the contemporary romantic comedy is everything the classics of the genre were not - that is predictable, joyless and completely without romantic spark. But enough with the negative - romantic comedy may be most identifiable with the likes of Julia Roberts and Meg Ryan, but it’s really so much more. Let’s countdown the very best.

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So Oscar season is really a good 6 months away, but being April (April fools!), it’s time to take a wild stab at what films and film maker’s may be in play for the 85th Academy Awards in early 2013. After the jump are my first predictions for nominees and winners in the major categories and out on a limb winner predix for the tech awards. Have at them.

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I decided to take some time out to to focus briefly on an important part of my film fanaticism that I’ve been neglecting in the blog thus far. That is namely my passion for the great films of the masters of Italian Cinema. We’re talking Fellini, Antonioni, Visconti, De Sica and more. This may or may not turn into a series of essential films from around the world depending on how I feel, but for now let’s see what films from Italy no self respecting cinephile should be without.

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