skimpole

I saw three movies last week. The first was On Her Majesty's Secret Service, or, as James Bond skeptics might put it "You will believe a glib sociopath can love." The movie has some striking alpine shots, though mixed with rear projection shots make it look dated. And the idea of having Blofeld using an alpine hideaway as his lair does lead to some obvious plausibility problems. I suppose the largest problem with the movie is that while the idea of having Diana Rigg as both a Bond girl and the love of Bond's life is a good one, it's not executed very well. Cactus Flower suffers from having a very obvious plot, which oddly enough resembles another mediocre film of a Broadway farce, Any Wednesday. Logan Lucky is an amusing heist film, but not much more than that. Everyone is very competent, though one can see the cynicism in the subplot about the hero's daughter.

1. Jules et Jim Francois Truffaut, France 2. Harakari Masaki Kobayashi, Japan 3. Vivre Sa Vie Jean-Luc Godard, France 4. Salvatore Giulliano Francesco Rosi, Italy 5. Le Doulos Jean-Pierre Melville, France 6. The Exterminating Angel Luis Bunuel, Mexico 7. My Name is Ivan/Ivan's Childhood Andrei Tarkovsky, Soviet Union 8. L'Eclisse Michelangelo Antonioni, Italy 9. An Autumn Afternoon Yasuiro Ozu, Japan 10.The Four Days of Naples Nanni Loy, Italy

Now it's 1964. Here is Best Original Screenplay: Alun Owen, A Hard Day's Night Jacques Demy, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg Glaubert Rocha, Black God, White Devil Michelangelo Antonioni, Tonino Guerra, Red Desert Francois Truffaut, Jean-Louis Richard, The Soft Skin And here is Best Adapted Screenplay: Stanley Kubrick, Terry Southern, Peter George, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, based on the novel Red Alert by Peter George Pier Paolo Pasolini, The Gospel According to Saint Matthew, based on the eponymous gospel Satyajit Ray, Charulata, based on the novella The Broken Nest by Rabindranath Tagore Carl Theodor Dreyer, Grethe Risberg Thomsen, Gertrud based on the play of the same name by Hjalmar Soderberg Jean-Luc Godard, Band of Outsiders, based on the novel Fool's Gold by Dolores Hitchens I have not seen Father Goose, One Potato, Two Potato or That Man From Rio (original). The Organizer was nominated the previous year.

Now it's 1963. Here is Best Adapted Screenplay: Pasquale Festa Campanile, Enrico Midioli, Massimo Franciosi, Luchino Visconti, Suso Cecchi D'Amico, The Leopard, based on the novel of the same name by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa James Clavell, W.R. Burnett, The Great Escape, based on the memoir of the same name by Paul Brickhill Jean-Luc Godard, Contempt, based on the novel A Ghost at Noon by Alberto Moravia Nelson Pereira dos Santos, Vidas Secas, based on the novel of the same name by Graciliano Ramos Ryuzu Kikushima, Hideo Oguni, Eijiro Hisaita, Akira Kurosawa, High and Low, based on the novel King's Ransom by Ed McBain And here is Best Original Screenplay: Ingmar Bergman, Winter Light Mario Monicelli, Age & Scarpelli, The Organizer Ingmar Bergman, The Silence Jean Cayrol, Muriel Jacques Demy, Bay of Angels I have not seen Captain Newman M.D, Lilies of the Field, Sundays and Cybele (adapted)

Now it's 1962. Here is Best Original Screenplay: Chris Marker, La Jetee Luis Bunuel, The Exterminating Angel Michelangelo Antonioni, Tonino Guerra, Elio Bartolini, Ottiero Ottieri, L'Eclisse Jean-Luc Godard, Marcel Sacotte, Vivre sa Vie Francesco Rosi, Suso Cecchi D'Amico, Enzo Provensale, Franco Solinias, Salvatore Giulliano And here is Best Adapted Screenplay Robert Bolt, Michael Wilson, Lawrence of Arabia based on the writings of T.E. Lawrence Francois Truffaut, Jean Gruault, Jules and Jim based on the novel of the same name by Henri-Pierre Roche George Axelrod, The Manchurian Candidate based on the novel of the same name by Richard Condon Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita, based on his novel of the same name Eugene O'Neill, Long Day's journey into Night based on his play of the same name I have not seen Divorce Italian Style, Freud, That Touch of Mink (original). O'Neill gets a nomination despite being dead for years because Lumet didn't adapt the screenplay, he just took it as is.

Now it's 1961. Here is Best Original Screenplay: Alain Robbe-Grillet, Last Year in Marienbad Arthur Miller, The Misfits Ryuzu Kikushima, Akira Kurosawa, Hideo Oguni, Yojimbo Federico Fellini, Tulio Pinelli, Ennio Flaiano, Brunello Rondi, La Dolce Vita Jacques Demy, Lola And here is Best Adapted Screenplay: I.A.L. Diamond, Billy Wilder, One, Two, Three based on the play of the same name by Ferenc Molnar Sidney Carroll, Robert Rossen, The Hustler based on the novel of the same name by Walter Tevis Julio Alejandro, Luis Bunuel, Viridiana based on the novel Halma by Benito Perez Galdos Ernest Lehman, West Side Story based on the play of the same name, book by Walter Tevis George Axelrod, Breakfast at Tiffany's based on the novella of the same name by Truman Capote I have not seen General Della Rovere (original)

It occurs to me that since the Academy started having competitive oscars for best foreign language film in 1956, we can also include the official nominees each country chose before the Academy selected five from them. The list of submissions for 1961 can be seen here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_submissions_to_the_34th_Academy_Awards_for_Best_Foreign_Language_Film Last Year in Marienbad and La Notte are the most famous also-rans for 1961.

Why wouldn't Viridiana be considered a Spanish film? Bunuel isn't a Mexican director, he was a Spanish director living in exile in Mexico. The Spanish authorities were notoriously both enraged by the film, that had gone to Cannes without thorough vetting, and embarrassed when the Vatican criticized it as blasphemous.

theyshootpictures.com top 1000 movies 1961 Viridiana Luis Bunuel, Spain #76 Last Year in Marienbad Alain Resnais, France #91 La Notte Michelangelo Antonioni, Italy #255 Yojimbo Akira Kurosawa, Japan #393 Accatone Pier Paolo Pasolini, Italy #490 Chronicle of a Summer Jean Rouch, Edgar Morin, France #496 Lola Jacques Demy, France #502 Placido Luis Garcia Berlagna Spain #535 The End of Summer Yasujiro Ozu, Japan #829 Il Posto Ermanno Olmi, Italy #891 A Woman is a Woman Jean-Luc Godard, France #945 Jonathan Rosenbaum's top 1000 movies Accatone Pier Paolo Pasolini, Italy Chronicle of a Summer Jean Rouch, Edgar Morin, France Cleo from 5 to 7 Agnes Varda, France *Last Year at Marienbad Alain Resnais, France Lola Jacques Demy, France Paris nous appartient Jacques Rivette, France Viridiana Luis Bunuel, Spain *A Wife Confesses Yasuzo Masumura, Japan An asterisk (*) means the movie is one of Rosenbaum's top 100. Note years are not exact.

I don't know how much of a cliche this is actually. But last month I caught the beginning of Caddyshack, a movie I otherwise have no strong opinions about, and it starts off with a throwaway joke that Michael O'Keefe's working class Irish parents have a lot of children. This cliche would not have a long history for two reasons. First, the Hays Code might find it slightly racy. Second, screenwriters have limited reasons to refer to a large number of siblings or children. There are a couple of movies which deal with large families: Cheaper by the Dozen and Yours, Mine and Ours, oddly both remade. But given that birth rates have been falling all across the board for at least half a century and that nativist fears have moved from Catholic birth rates to Hispanic immigration, I suspect this passing "joke" is a lot less rare.

I still have both.

Last Year in Marienbad would.

I saw four movies last week. Three Coins in the Fountain so beautifully films postwar Rome, or at least the more touristy areas, one wishes one didn't have to worry about the three bland love stories that take place in it. Taurus is part of Alexander Sokurov's tetralogy of power. In this case it deals with the dying Lenin. It's a striking movie, with Lenin being more brutal than he was under Soviet times, shot in a striking green filter. Zama is an interesting movie about a Spanish bureaucrat in colonial Latin America. He would like to get back to Spain and his family and he faces bureaucratic problems worthy of Kafka. The beautifully shot film takes an elliptical approach, often jumping ahead once Zama faces major problems. The movie certainly improves as it goes on, with Zama eventually joining an expedition to hunt an infamous bandit. Logan is not of the same caliber, but Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart are actually fairly good as the last of the X-Men in a dystopian future with no promise of a happy ending.

1. Last Year in Marienbad Alain Resnais, France 2. Lola Jacques Demy, France 3. Yojimbo Akira Kurosawa, Japan 4. A Woman is a Woman Jean-Luc Godard, France 5. Il Posto Ermanno Olmi, Italy 6. The End of Summer Yasujiro Ozu, Japan

Well if I had nominated the Oscars, the most Best Picture nominees with the most Acting nominations would have been in 1955 and 1974 (14 each), while the least would have been in 2002 (three).

Now it's 1960. Here is Best Original Screenplay: Jean-Luc Godard, Breathless Billy Wilder, I.A.L. Diamond, The Apartment Michelangelo Antonioni, Elio Bartolini, Tonino Guerra, L'Avventura Leo Marks, Peeping Tom Hideo Oguni, Eijiro Hisaita, Akira Kurosowa, Ryuzo Kaushima, Shinobu Hashimoto, The Bad Sleep Well And here is Best Adapted Screenplay: Joseph Stefano, Psycho, based on the novel of the same name by Robert Bloch Francois Truffaut, Marcel Moussy, Shoot the Piano Player, based on the novel Down There by David Goodis Louise Malle, Jean-Paul Rappaneau, Zazie in the Metro, based on the novel by the same name by Raymond Queneau Jacques Becker, Jose Giovanni, Jean Aurel, Le Trou based on the novel The Break by Jose Giovanni Ulla Isaksson, The Virgin Spring based on the ballad "Tore's Daughters in Vange" I have not seen The Angry Silence, The Facts of Life, Never on Sunday (original) or Tunes of Glory (adapted). Hiroshima Mon Amour was nominated the previous year.

Now it's 1959. First here is Best Original Screenplay: Ernest Lehman, North by Northwest Francois Truffaut, Marcel Moussy, The 400 Blows Robert Bresson, Pickpocket Marguerite Duras, Hiroshima, Mon Amour Fereydoun Hoveyda, Sonali Senroy DasGupta, India: Matri Bhumi Satyajit Ray, The World of Apu based on the novel Aparajito by Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay Billy Wilder, I.A. Diamond, Some Like it Hot, based on the movie Fanfare of Love Wendell Mayes, Anatomy of a Murder based on the novel of the same name by Robert Traver Jules Furthman, Leigh Brackett, Rio Bravo based on the short story of the same name by B.H. McCampbell Eleanore Griffin, Allan Scott, Imitation of Life based on the novel by the same name by Fannie Hurst Wild Strawberries was nominated two years earlier

Now it's 1958 First, here is Best Adapted Screenplay Alec Coppel, Samuel Taylor, Vertigo, based on the novel D'Entre Les Morts by Pierre Boileau, Thomas Narcejac Sergei Eisenstein, Ivan the Terrible, Part II, a sequel to the movie Ivan the Terrible, Part I Orson Welles, Touch of Evil, based on the novel Badge of Evil by Whit Masterson Eric Ambler, A Night to Remember based on the book of the same name by Walter Lord Satyajit Ray, The Music Room based on the short story of the same name by Tarashankar Bandopadhyay And here is Best Original Screenplay: Jacques Lagrange, Jean L'Hote, Jacques Tati, Mon Oncle Ben Simcoe, Murder by Contract Agenore Incrocci, Furio Scarpelli, Suso Cecchi D'Amico, Mario Monicelli, Big Deal on Madonna Street Mohammed Abu Youssef, Abdel Hai Adid, Cairo Station Ryusu Kikushima, Hideo Oguni, Shinobu Hashimoto, Akira Kurosawa, The Hidden Fortress I have not seen The Goddess, Houseboat, The Sheepman or Teacher's Pet (original).

I've seen Burn on TCM, and I only started watching it in 2005/2006.

Can you answer this oscar trivia question, since I myself don't know the answer. Form 1944 to 2008, there were five nominees for best picture. Can anyone name the year these five movies collectively had the most acting nominations (out of 20)? Can anyone name the year when they had the least?

theyshootpictures.com top 1000 movies for 1960 Breathless Jean-Luc Godard, France #19 La Dolce Vita Federico Fellini, Italy #31 L'Avventura Michelangelo Antonioni, Italy #37 Rocco and His Brothers Luchino Visconti, Italy #176 Eyes Without a Face Georges Franju, France #346 Shoot the Piano Player Francois Truffaut, France #357 The Cloud-Capped Star Ritwik Ghatak, India #397 The Naked Island Kaneto Shindo, Japan #857 Le Trou Jacques Becker, France #871 Jonathan Rosenbaum top 1000 movies for 1960 Les bonnes femmes Claude Chabrol, France *The Cloud-Capped Star Ritwik Ghatak, India Devi Satyajit Ray, India The False Student Yasuzo Masumura, Japan The 1,000 Eyes of Dr. Mabuse Fritz Lang, West Germany Tirez sur la pianiste Francois Truffaut, France Zazie dans le metro Louis Malle, France An asterisk (*) indicates that the movie is one of Rosenbaum's top 100. Note that dates are not exact.

Aside from rewatching The Hidden Fortress (much improved seeing it on the big screen) and Underground (its considerable vitality is still evident) I saw five movies this week. Let the Sunshine In was the best one. In this story about an attractive women in her fifties trying to find love, Juliette Binoche may have been the best actress of 2017. Unfailingly intelligent and realistic, Claire Denis is, admittedly, not the most audience friendly of filmmakers. But one should make the effort. Two other contemporary movies have gotten high praise, but deserve it less. Hereditary certainly starts out well, with an unpleasant sense of unease, where it's not clear where the threat is coming from, following by a horrific act of violence. Toni Collette tries very hard as the grief stricken mother, but the film loses a certain energy after the aforementioned HAOV. Arguably, Gabriel Byrne does a better job as Collette's loving, but ultimately ineffective husband. Unfortunately once it becomes clear what's going on about three quarters of the movie, things become much less effective. Several plausibility problems emerge. Let's just say a family drama that used horror trappings, becomes a horror movie that uses family drama trappings and the change is not for the better. The final scenes do have some genuine chills, even if they are of the "Boo! There's something in the dark!" variety. But even they go on too long. First Reformed has gotten what I consider an undue amount of praise. In its defense Ethan Hawke does give a credible performance as, of all things, a Protestant minister. But much of the movie is derivative of Winter Light. (Poor Victoria Hill is even made to look like an unnaturally mousy Ingrid Thulin.) At first this is only broken when it becomes clear that it's also derivative of Diary of a Country Priest. Once Paul Schrader goes beyond that it's with a gesture that is, to put it mildly, very poorly thought out. And it concludes with a final gesture that shows Schrader is no Bresson or Dreyer. Two other movies are much older. Mandingo was wildly loathed when it came out. But since then some critics have noted it as one of the few movies that portrays the savagery of slavery. Perhaps. I wonder what the Raoul Walsh movie TCM showed earlier was like. In its defense one could say the sexual themes could have been shown even more meretriciously than they were. But having James Mason (who is simply wasted) say slaves don't have souls shows general ignorance (pro-slavery Christians of course believed that slaves had them). And the slave breeding and slave fighting doesn't really get to the heart of the matter. The Professionals looks like an oscar friendly The Wild Bunch. (Richard Brooks got an oscar nomination for Best Director, in a year where the Academy was clearly desperate to find something other than A Man for all Seasons and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf.) Lots of people die, but considerably more tastefully than in The Wild Bunch. People talk about the value of the Mexican revolution, but in a vague way not as to be associated with any revolution going on in 1966. Woody Strode is used as one of the four Professionals. But in case anyone might object, he doesn't really do or say much. On the plus side, it's nice to see Burt Lancaster and Claudia Cardinale together again.

1. Breathless Jean-Luc Godard, France 2. Shoot the Piano Player Francois Truffaut, France 3. Le Trou Jacques Becker, France 4. Zazie in the Metro Louis Malle, France 5. The Virgin Spring Ingmar Bergman, Sweden 6. L'Avventura Michelangelo Antonioni, ItalyNa 7. The Bad Sleep Well Akira Kurosawa, Japan 8. La Dolce Vita Federico Fellini, Italy 9. Rocco and His Brothers Luchino Visconti, Italy 10. Late Autumn Yasujiro Ozu, Japan 11. The Naked Island Kaneto Shindo, Japan 12. Cruel Story of Youth Nagisa Oshima, Japan

Now it's 1957. First we have Best Adapted Screenplay: Reginald Rose, 12 Angry Men, based on his teleplay of the same name Clifford Odets, Ernest Lehman, The Sweet Smell of Success, based on Lehman's story "Tell Me About it Tomorrow." Shinobu Hashimoto, Ryuzu Kaushima, Akira Kurosawa, Hideo Oguni, Throne of Blood, based on the play "MacBeth" by William Shakespeare Ingmar Bergman, The Seventh Seal based on his play "Wood Painting" Stanley Kubrick, Caleb Willingham, Jim Thompson, Paths of Glory, based on the novel of the same name by Humphrey Cobb Now we have Best Original Screenplay: Ingmar Bergman, Wild Strawberries Federico Fellini, Ennio Flaiano, Tullio Pineli, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Nights of Cabiria Chris Marker, Letter from Siberia Yasujiro Ozu, Koga Noda, Tokyo Twilight Leonard Gershe, Funny Face I have not seen Designing Woman, The Man of a Thousand Faces, The Tin Star (original), Heaven Knows Mr. Allison (adapted)

1. A Man Escaped (1956) Robert Bresson, France 2. The Seven Samurai (1954) Akira Kurosawa, Japan 3. Ordet (1955) Carl Theodor Dreyer, Denmark 4. Pather Panchali (1955) Satyahit Ray, India 5. Ivan the Terrible Part II (1958) Sergei Eisenstein, Soviet Union 6. The World of Apu (1959) Satyajit Ray, India 7. The Earrings of Madame De.. (1953) Max Ophuls, France 8. Miracle in Milan (1951) Vittorio De Sica, Italy 9. The Seventh Seal (1957) Ingmar Bergman, Sweden 10. The Wages of Fear (1953) Henri-Georges Clouzot, France 11. Throne of Blood (1957) Akira Kurosawa, Japan 12. Umberto D (1952) Vittorio De Sica, Italy 13. Diary of a Country Priest (1951) Robert Bresson, France 14. The Flowers of Saint Francis (1950) Roberto Rossellini, Italy 15. The 400 Blows (1959) Francois Truffaut, France 16. Smiles of a Summer Night (1955) Ingmar Bergman, Sweden 17. Mr. Hulot's Holiday (1953) Jacques Tati, France 18. Lola Montes (1955) Max Ophuls, France 19. La Ronde (1950) Max Ophuls, France 20. The Music Room (1958) Satyajt Ray, India 21. Wild Strawberries (1957) Ingmar Bergman, Sweden 22. Ikiru (1952) Akira Kurosawa, Japan 23. Mon Oncle (1958) Jacques Tati, France 24. The Nights of Cabiria (1957) Federico Fellini, Italy 25. Orpheus (1950) Jean Cocteau, France 26. The Life of Oharu (1952) Kenji Mizoguchi, Japan 27. Ugetsu (1953) Kenji Mizoguchi, Japan 28. Rififi (1955) Jules Dassin, France 29. Early Summer (1951) Yasujiro Ozu, Japan 30. Tokyo Story (1953) Yasujiro Ozu, Japan 31. Letter from Siberia (1957) Chris Marker, France 32. Sansho the Bailiff (1954) Kenji Mizoguchi, Japan 33. The Hidden Fortress (1958) Akira Kurosawa, Japan 34. Pickpocket (1959) Robert Bresson, France 35. The Snow Queen (1957) Lev Atamanov, Nikolay Fyodorov, Soviet Union