sundance

How many different ways can Don Draper say “What?”

For those of you going through withdrawal now that Mad Men’s latest season has come to a close, here’s semi-related YouTube video someone put together of Don Draper uttering the word “what” in the first four seasons. Don Draper uses the word “what” as Van Gogh used color or Beethoven used sound. Here’s the man [...]

Trapped inside HD

Recently my whole existence has changed. You see, my household has acquired a 47″ flat screen HD monitor (TV? I guess you could call it that), and our minds are being blown. The question is, is HD really better? It certainly is … strange. Sports? Sure. Amazing. But my tried and true film look? It’s gone, to my eye. A friend and I watched MAD MEN the other night and she kept saying, “I feel like we’re watching rehearsal. [and then again] It feels like we’re watching rehearsal.” Try watching an old classic or two — you probably have. I tried CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF (1958, Richard Brooks). Holy crap. (The image above? Nuthin. Pixels. Chunks.)

I had a good childhood and all, but in HD with a modern transfer using advanced digital noise reduction, it’s not like I’m “really there,” it’s not “more than reality,” I’m living INSIDE Big Momma’s internal organs, and it ain’t pretty. “Big Daddy got a clean bill of health!” Help me, I’m inside her liver. Elizabeth Taylor slinks around as Maggie the Cat, Paul Newman limps around with his drink, and Mae and Gooper’s children run in with their guns, frightening everyone. It’s a wonderful film, even though apparently Tennessee Williams despised it. But in HD? I had to rethink it. The late 50s was not the hey day of creamy shallow-depth-of-field imagery in film, and so the Metrocolor crispness is now, well, singed. Orson Welles’ deep focus? Let’s call it deep deep deep focus. You can see what Brick is thinking about.

Photos: on set and behind the scenes of Mad Men

Rolling Stone published a great photo gallery of behind the scenes of Mad Men, including this awesome photo of “Ken Cosgrove and Harry Crane” accidentally stumbling upon a MacBook Pro left behind accidentally by a time traveler.

Peek into Mad Men’s closet

My roommates finally got me hooked on Mad Men and like everyone else I’ve become quickly obsessed with the clothing, especially those suits (God, those lapels: Drool!). This video of Mad Men’s costume designer Janie Bryant giving a tour of the closets of Don and Co. is a treat for any fan of the show. [...]

You Gotta Have Another: Every smoking scene in Mad Men

Whirled, a nifty looking creative ad agency in San Fran compiled every smoking scene in Mad Men, seasons 1 through 3 (total of 39 episodes), into a single YouTube video that will leave us non-smokers feeling nauseous. This video will have one of two results. This repetitious, perfunctory and seemingly pointless act of inhaling smoke [...]

Mad about Mad Men

The 50 glorious minutes that are the first episode of Mad Men season 4 more than justify all the show’s pre-premiere hype. Spoiler Alert: If you didn’t cancel all your plans between 10-11 pm last night and sit glued to AMC, then you’ll want to click away until you come to your senses and watch Betty and Don and the rest of the gang in all their season 4 glory.

Mad Men Barbies

Mattel is set to release four new Barbies ($75 each!) based on characters from Mad Men this coming July to coincide with the start of the show’s fourth season. There’s main character Don Drapper and his soulless wife Betty, company head Roger Sterling and his one-time mistress and office manager extraordinaire, Joan Holloway. While Mattel chose to leave out the “inappropriate,” sinful accessories like martinis, packs of Lucky Strike, and silk panties in suit pockets that are ever-present on the show, it’s still a bold choice for the company to celebrate such a debauched group of alcoholic adulterers. But then again, Barbie was created in 1959, right around the time Mad Men takes place — a time when women were expected to simply look pretty and shut up, make a nice home, and expect their husbands to cheat. So maybe this licensing agreement is not so bold, maybe it’s just eerily perfect.

Mad Men and JEANNE DIELMAN: Separated at birth?

The New York Times had a great DVD review last week of two releases that inspired some ‘compare and contrast.’ The two films that just happened to go to market simultaneously are John Cassavetes’s HUSBANDS and Chantal Akerman’s JEANNE DIELMAN, two classics of the 1970s. See visual references below: Could there be two more different looking movie stills?

Sunday nights with Don Draper

A scene from the first of episode of season 3

After waiting ten months to see their witheringly cynical faces again, MAD MEN is back in all its wife cheating, sharp suit wearing, cocktail sipping glory. To amp up for the premier of season three, AMC sponsored a variety of Mad Men themed happenings around NYC last week, like free fedoras at Friday night’s Met’s game, old timey cocktails at the Hilton (which any good bar should be able to make, Mad Men fever or not) and the costume contest prior to the Times Square screening last night. Going to Times Square, especially in costume, has never been my idea of a fun night out, so instead of sweating side by side with strangers on another sweltering summer night, I was perfectly content to watch the first episode of season three on my couch.