We are now on Twitter @rushmoreacademy! We would like to hear your comments about and ideas for the new site!
Wes Lists His Favorites for Gwyneth
Gwyneth Paltrow asked her favorite filmmakers to recommend their five favorite films on her blog Goop. This illustrious list includes Wes Anderson, Steven Spielberg and Sofia Coppola. 
Wes Anderson directed Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, etc. He is one of the most specific directors I have ever worked with. When I played Margot in The Royal Tenenbaums, he knew exactly how he wanted my hair, clothes and eye makeup. He is so inspiring to work with because you feel like you are the one crazy, important color he needs to create the whole picture. Also, he is a great dresser.
The site lives…
I promise. The “Yankee Review” has been temporarily delayed, but we will be working through the materials soon.
If you have news to report or commentary/literary pieces to contribute to the site, drop me a line at edwardappleby at yankeeracers.org!
Glory fades.
Meet Chiara Clemente
Chiara Clemente’s new film about New York artists “Our City Dreams” opens soon. Chiara is the partner of frequent 
Anderson collaborator Waris Ahluwalia. Page Six has a small profile on her:
The couple met in 2003 in Rome when Chiara was living there and Waris came to town to shoot Wes Anderson’s The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou. “Friends gave him numbers to call while [he was] there. I had never met him but I was so excited to talk to him on the phone,” Chiara says. “It was such a familiar voice. It was a New York voice.” One year later, the pair left Italy and moved back to New York. “She was at the tail end of her stay there, realizing she didn’t want to spend the rest of her life eating and drinking aperitifs and walking around piazzas,” Waris says. “She had something bigger planned.”
Interview with Ian Dingman
Time Out Chicago interviews “Bottle Rocket” Criterion DVD artist Ian Dingman:
TOC: So did you make a truckload of money?
Ian Dingman: [Laughs] I deduced that I made about 50 cents on the hour over the eight months. There were a couple of times where I worked 36 hours straight. But it was one of those jobs I would’ve done for free.
Wes interviews Peter Bogdanovich
Cheers! And, Happy New Year!
From the Yankee Racers:
There’s an awesome set of videos up on youtube of Wes interviewing Peter Bogdanovich about his film They All Laughed. It’s really interesting and cool to see Wes getting to talk to one of his heroes – check it out!
(sorry for not embedding the videos, but the function has been disabled for these videos)
Part 1 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCdn_Rd5ZGE
Part 2 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_CgmZhX8Y8
Part 3 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYRAoLPxjqs
NYT: Dave Kehr reviews the new Bottle Rocket Criterion DVD
An old favorite of ours, Dave Kehr, has a great review piece on the new DVD:
Stylistically, “Bottle Rocket” swings between poles of tension and release, order and chaos. In purely visual terms the film is tightly structured, with a systematic use of color (white for Dignan, bright red for Anthony), frontal compositions anchored by the horizon line, and a self-consciously theatrical sense of space: an open foreground for the action, played against a flat, immobile background (just as the motel rises from the flatlands around it). And there is no more linear plot structure than that of the heist film, in which pleasure lies in the orderly fulfillment of a precise program.
Wes directs Brad Pitt?
From the LA Times:
What is Brad Pitt doing in this strange Japanese TV commercial?
Well, it’s directed by Wes Anderson, so there’s that. And according to Us, it’s a remake of the 1953 French film “Les Vacances de Monseieur Hulot.” Pitt shot the Softbank commercial in Normandy on Sept. 20.
“There were lots of children on the set, and Brad was very friendly to all of them,” a set source tells Us. “Some of the children had complicated French names. He turned to them and said, ‘What is your name?’ in the most perfect French. He’s obviously been studying hard.”
As well as learning French, Brad is also mastering Japanese. “Brad also used a few Japanese words to the Softbank execs too,” the source told Us. “He’s becoming a master of many languages.”
Apparently, the Pittster’s been doing wackadoodle Japanese commercials for a few years.
Thanks to everyone who sent this along.
More soon. Sorry if it feels like we’re operating on a tape delay.
