skimpole

I don't have top tens before 1927, the last three years of the twenties are led by a silent foreign film, then it's three in the thirties, four in the forties, two in the fifties, four in the sixties, three in the seventies, one in the eighties, two in the nineties, three in the zeroes, and three so far this decade.

And here's Best Original Screenplay Charles Brackett, Billy Wilder, D.M. Marshman Jr., Sunset Blvd. Graham Greene, The Third Man jean Cocteau, Orpheus Luis Alcoriza, Luis Bunuel, Los Olvidados Sergio Amidei, Gian Paolo Callegari, Art Cohn, Renzo Cesana, Stromboli I have not seen The Men (original), Panic in the Streets, Mystery Street, When Willy Comes Marching Home (Story), while Bitter Rice and Adam's Rib were nominated the previous year

If Clouzot isn't dead, what is Signoret being charged with?

I've never seen The Assassination of Trotsky, but I wish it had a different ending.

Now it's 1950. Here are my choices for Best Adapted Screenplay Joseph L. Mankiewicz, All About Eve, based on the short story "The Wisdom of Eve" by Mary Orr Roberto Rossellini, Federico Fellini, The Flowers of St. Francis, based on the anonymous novels Little Flowers of Saint Francis and The Life of Brother Juniper Jacques Natanson, Max Ophuls, La Ronde based on the play of the same by Arthur Schnitzler Akira Kurosawa, Shinobu Hashimoto, Rashomon, based on the short story "In a Grove," by Ryonosuke Akutagawa Andrew Solt, Edmund H. North, In a Lonely Place, based on the novel of the same name by Dorothy B. Hughes

Micol Guidelli in The Night of Shooting Stars

I saw three movies this week. Liquid Sky is an attempted cult film, involving aliens searching for a vital substance. They find that sex produces a similar effect, so they find a means of tapping into the feelings of copulating couples. The side effect is that the partner enjoying it is zapped into dust. But as it happens the movie is not only a lot less erotic but a lot less interesting than the scenario provided. It's sort of like pornography with the nudity all removed but with the same poor acting. The Battle of the Bulge suffers from a number of historical inaccuracies, such that Eisenhower apparently came out of retirement to denounce it. The most obvious flaw is that there's barely any snow that took place in the winter of 1944-1945. The actors are mostly forgettable, but there are some interesting tank battles and Robert Shaw has a little charisma. So the movie of the week is Nocturama half brilliant terrorist thriller, half watching the terrorists stuck in consumerist solipsism while hiding out in a Paris department store. One might point out the movie needs a little more political bite, since we don't know why these attractive young Parisians are acting the way they are (they're not jihadists).

1. Umberto D. Vittorio de Sica, Italy 2. Ikiru, Akira Kurosawa, Japan 3. The Life of Oharu, Kenji Mizoguchi, Japan 4. Casque D'Or, Jacques Becker, France 5. Forbidden Games, Rene Clement, France 6. Europa '51, Roberto Rossellini, Italy

Jean Renoir, The Rules of the Game:

And here's Best Adapted Screenplay Kogo Noda, Yasujiro Ozu, Late Spring, based on the novel Father and Daughter by Kazuo Hirotsu Ruth and Augustus Goetz, The Heiress, based on their play of the same name Adolph Green, Betty Comden, On the Town, based on their musical of the same name, co-written with Leonard Bernstein William Templeton, Lesley Storm and Graham Green, The Fallen Idol, based on the short story "The Basement Room" by Graham Greene Mel Dinelli, Robert E. Kent, Henry Garson, Robert Soderberg, The Reckless Moment, based on the short story "The Blank Wall" by Elizabeth Sanxay Holding I have not seen Champion (Adapted), Jolson Sings Again, Passport to Pimlico, The Quiet One (original), The Stratton Story, Come to the Stable, It Happens Every Spring, The Sands of Iwo Jima (story). The Bicycle Thieves was nominated the previous year

Now it's 1949. Here is Best Original Screenplay: Henri Marquet, Rene Wheeler, Jacques Tati, Jour De Fete Akira Kurosawa, Ryuzu Kikushima, Stray Dog Ruth Gordon, Garson Kanin, Adam's Rib Giuseppe De Santis, Carlo Lizzani, Gianni Puccini, Bitter Rice John C. Higgins, Border Incident

And here's Best Adapted Screenplay: Arthur Laurents, Rope, based on the play of the same name by Patrick Hamilton Cesare Zavattini, The Bicycle Thieves, based on the novel of the same name by Luigi Bartolini Borden Chase, Charles Schnee, Red River, based on the short story "The Chisholm Trail" by Borden Chase Orson Welles, The Lady From Shanghai, based on the novel If I Die Before I Wake by Sherwood King Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger, Keith Winter, The Red Shoes, inspired by the fairytale by Hans Christian Andersen

And here's 1948, which is the one year since 1940 not to have a best original screenplay award. So here's my Best Original Screenplay: Preston Sturges, Unfaithfully Yours Roberto Rossellini, Max Kolpe, Sergio Amidei, Germany, Year Zero Leo McCarey, John D. Klorer, Ken Englund, Good Sam Yasujiro Ozu, Ryosuke Saito, A Hen in the Wind Robert J. Flaherty, Frances H. Flaherty, Louisiana Story

I saw three movies last week. Night Must Fall has an interesting performance by Robert Montgomery, an early performance by Rosalind Russell in an untypical role and a striking performance by May Whitty as Russell's irascible aunt. As Good as it Gets has a good performance by Jack Nicholson, but one wishes he could have done something he hadn't done so many times before. One also wishes Helen Hunt and Greg Kinnear gave more than adequate performances. You Were Never Really Here is clearly the movie of the week, what with Joaquin Phoenix's remarkable performance as a deeply traumatized vigilante, and with its stunning visual and aural landscape.

1. Miracle in Milan, Vittorio de Sica, Italy 2. Diary of a Country Priest, Robert Bresson, France 3. Early Summer, Yasujiro Ozu, Japan

There's both Chaplin and Keaton.

I saw three movies last week, all from last year. Murder on the Orient Express suffered from the fact that I was the wrong audience for the movie, since the 1974 Sidney Lumet version is one of my very favorite movies. It's basically off in all sorts of ways starting with the fake CGI effects, and attempts to spice up the story with action that make little sense either from the characters or the scriptwriter. Branagh's ludicrous mustache is the least of his Poirot's problems: while the Lumet version always showed his work, Branagh's leaps to conclusion after conclusion with one non-sequitur after the other. Depp's Ratchett is absurdly rude, barely hiding his mafioso past from someone supposedly traveling incognito. Michelle Pfeiffer would be eaten alive by Lauren Bacall while John Gielgud, Sean Connery, Rachel Roberts, Wendy Hiller, Ingrid Bergman and even Michael York and Jacqueline Bisset easily outshine their 2017 counterparts. The Greatest Showman was a surprise hit. Its songs could have been written four decades ago, and have the odd quality of being forgettable while you are actually listening to them. The movie is actually more sentimental and less critical than not only Yankee Doodle Dandy, but even The Great Ziegfeld/ Except for the love affair between Barnum's partner and an African-American acrobat, and editing tricks mastered in the seventies, this could have been made eight decades ago. BPM (Beats per minute) discusses ACT UP activists in nineties France, one of whose members is seriously ill with AIDS. It's certainly more complex and profound than the other two movies, though the movie has the bad habit of having poor subtitles that are often unreadable against white backgrounds.

1. The Flowers of Saint Francis, Roberto Rossellini, Italy 2. La Ronde, Max Ophuls, France 3. Orpheus, Jean Cocteau, France 4. Rashomon, Akira Kurosawa, Japan 5. Los Olvidados, Luis Bunuel, Mexico 6. Stromboli, Roberto Rossellini, Italy

1. Ivan the Terrible, Part I, Sergei Eisenstein, Soviet Union 2. Children of Paradise, Marcel Carne, France 3. The Bicycle Thieves, Vittorio de Sica, Italy 4. A Day in the Country, Jean Renoir, France 5. Day of Wrath, Carl Theodor Dreyer, Denmark 6. Late Spring, Yasujiro Ozu, Japan 7. Jour de Fete, Jacques Tati, France

Somebody should mention Mildred Pierce: what went wrong. I need to think about the topic more, but Pather Panchali and Aparajito are obvious choices.

My choice for best actor of 1987: Babek Ahmed Poor in Where is the Friend's Home?

Early last year, I did a post for 1978 for the thread in "Your Favorites" of Favorite performances by year. Looking back I had Margot Kidder in eighth place for best actress that year for Superman.

I too, would like to see that. Also, I wouldn't mind it, if we have to have a memorial Day weekend, we could still have foreign language Sunday night. After all the United States had a number of allies, and some of them have made war films worthy of anyone's interest.

I saw four movies this week. Twilight of Honor is based on the idea "let's make a movie for our hot new TV star Richard Chamberlain, and let's make it like Anatomy of a Murder, only worse in every way." The Inn of the Sixth Happiness is one of those Hollywood movies about China where the Chinese people are played by Curt Jurgens and Robert Donat. It has Ingrid Bergman playing a missionary whose ability to mother a hundred Chinese orphans is helped by them all being as undistinguished and uninteresting as possible. With Byrd at the South Pole is actually the most interesting film, an early sound film that is actually a silent film for most of its duration. From the Journals of Jean Seberg isn't really from her journals, it's sort of an essay film made by Mark Rappaport about fifteen years after her suicide with Mary Beth Hurt serving as Rappaport's amaneunsis. One might wonder viewing everything retroactively in the light of her suicide and J. Edgar Hoover's dirty tricks on her is the best way to examine her.

1. Late Spring, Yasujiro Ozu, Japan 2. Jour de Fete, Jacques Tati, France 3. Stray Dog, Akira Kurosawa, Japan 4. The Silence of the Sea, Jean-Pierre Melville, France