skimpole

Kind of annoying that The Sorrow and the Pity and Seven Samurai are in the middle of the night.

And now for those actors who got seven nominations. Again, winners over nominees lead over supporting, people in the same category in chronological order by first nomination. Cary Grant WINNER 1940, 1959: Nominee 1937, 1938, 1940, 1941, 1946 Ralph Fiennes WINNER 1996, 2014; Nominee 1999, 2002, Supporting 1993, 2008, 2015 Philip Seymour Hoffman WINNER 2008, 2012; Nominee 2005, 2007, Supporting 1998, 1999, 2002 James Mason WINNER SUPPORTING 1959, 1982; Nominee 1947, 1954, 1962, Supporting 1965, 1978 Tony Leung Chiu Wai Nominee 1989, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2004, 2009, 2013 Max Von Sydow Nominee 1957, 1960, 1968, Supporting 1973, 1988, 1991, 1992 Marlene Dietrich WINNER 1930-1931: Nominee 1929-1930, 1931-1932, 1934, 1937, Supporting 1948, 1958 Isabelle Huppert WINNER 1988; Nominee 1995, 2001, 2009, 2016, Supporting 1980, 1982

I saw three movies last week. Your Name is a charming anime film about a teenage boy and girl who find they are switching bodies. Later, they find out they are not only switching in place (the boy lives in Tokyo, the girl in a charming village), but also in time as well. It's OK, although there are too many false endings until the end. Office Space features a noteworthy performance by Gary Cole as an unpleasant, passive-aggressive boss. But while it's competent, it's not especially brilliant. The Killing of a Sacred Deer is what I call "misanthropy chic." It's supposedly a satire, but of what exactly, except of humanity as a whole? Whereas in the director's previous films Dogtooth and The Lobster, it was clear that the characters were in a strange situtation, Colin Farrell is "off" even before he finds himself in the peculiar situation he finds himself in. Since Farrell and Kidman don't really appear human in the first place, there's no moral point to the manipulations the director puts them through. I think the giveaway is when the daughter puts on lipstick in a way that doesn't resemble how anyone would actually do that. It's not sexy, it's not awkward (the character is 14 years old), it's just...off.

1920-1926 1. Battleship Potemkin (1925) Sergei Eisenstein, USSR 2. Strike (1925) Sergei Eisenstein, USSR 3. The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926) Lotte Reiniger, Germany 4. The Wild Cat (1921) Ernst Lubitsch, Germany 5. Die Nibelungen (1924) Fritz Lang, Germany 6. L'Inhumaine (1924) Marcel L'Herbier, France 7. A Page of Madness (1926) Teinosuke Kinugasa, Japan 8. The Last Laugh (1924) F. W. Murnau, Germany 9. Variety (1925) E.A. Dupont, Germany 10. The Parson's Widow (1920) Carl Dreyer, Sweden I saw #4 on TCM, #6, 10 on youtube. and possibly #7 as well. The rest I saw on either VHS or DVD 1927 Napoleon Abel Gance, France Bed and Sofa Abram Room, USSR The Italian Straw Hat Rene Clair, France The Fall of the Romanov Dynasty Esfir Shub, USSR I saw #2, 4 on youtube, #1 on VHS, and probably #3 on DVD. 1928 The Passion of Joan of Arc Carl Dreyer, France October Sergei Eisenstein, USSR Zvenigora Alexander Dovzhenko, USSR L’Argent Marcel L'Herbier, France Spies Fritz Lang, Germany The Fall of the House of Usher Jean Epstein, France Storm over Asia Vsevolod Pudovkin, USSR I saw #3, 6 on youtube, and the others on either VHS or DVD. 1929 Man with a Movie Camera Dziga Vertov, USSR Pandora's Box G.W. Pabst, Germany Arsenal Alexander Dovzhenko, USSR The General Line Sergei Eisenstein, USSR The New Babylon Grigori Kozintsev, Leonid Trauberg, USSR I saw #4, 5 and possibly #3 on youtube and the others on either VHS or DVD. Best of the Twenties 1. The Passion of Joan of Arc. 2. Napoleon 3. October 4. Battleship Potemkin 5. Man with a Movie Camera

And now for those actors who get six nominations. Again, winners over nominees, lead over supporting, people in the same category in chronological order by first nomination. Charles Chaplin WINNER 1936, 1947; Nominee 1927-1928, 1930-1931, 1940, 1952 Humphrey Bogart WINNER 1941, 1943; Nominee 1944, 1946, 1950, Supporting 1954 Claude Rains WINNER SUPPORTING 1943, 1946; Nominee Supporting 1938, 1939, 1941, 1942 Gene Kelly WINNER 1952; Nominee 1945, 1949, 1951, 1956, Supporting 1967 Jack Lemmon WINNER 1992; Nominee 1959, 1960, 1972, 1982, Supporting 1993 Dustin Hoffman WINNER 1969; Nominee 1967, 1976, 1978, 1982, Supporting 2004 Ben Kingsley WINNER 1982; Nominee 1994, Supporting 1991, 1993, 2010, 2011 Delphine Seyrig WINNER 1963, 1975; Nominee 1961; Supporting 1968, 1972, 1973 Setsuko Hara WINNER 1949 SUPPORTING 1951; Nominee 1951, 1960, Supporting 1953, 1961 Bette Davis Nominee 1939, 1940, 1941, 1942, 1950, Supporting 1942 Mary Astor Nominee 1930-1931, 1941, Supporting 1936, 1941, 1942, 1944

And now for those actors with five nominations. Again, winners before nominees, lead before supporting, people in the same category listed in chronological order of first nomination. Jean Gabin WINNER 1937, 1938; Nominee 1939, 1941, 1954 Peter Sellers WINNER 1964, 1979; Nominee 1964, 1976, Supporting 1962 Ralph Richardson WINNER 1949 SUPPORTING 1949; Nominee 1962, Supporting 1973, 1984 Fred Astaire WINNER 1935; Nominee 1936, 1937, 1948, 1953 James Cagney WINNER 1942; Nominee 1931-1932, 1938, 1949, 1961 Al Pacino WINNER 1972, Nominee 1973, 1974, 1975, 1990 Burt Lancaster WINNER 1963, Nominee 1957, 1981, Supporting 1964, 1983 Michael Fassbender WINNER 2015; Nominee 2008, 2011, Supporting 2009, 2012 Orson Welles WINNER SUPPORTING 1958; Nominee 1941, 1965, Supporting 1942, 1950 Marlon Brando WINNER SUPPORTING 1979; Nominee 1951, 1954, Supporting 1953, 1972 John Hurt WINNER SUPPORTING 2003; Nominee 1978, 1980, Supporting 1966, 1978 Chishu Ryu Nominee 1942, 1949, 1953, 1962, Supporting 1959 Jack Nicholson Nominee 1970, 1972, 1974, 1980, Supporting 1981 Danielle Darrieux WINNER 1953 SUPPORTING 1950; Nominee Supporting 1952, 1967, 2007 Judy Garland WINNER 1939; Nominee 1944, 1945, 1948, 1954 Jodie Foster WINNER 1991: Nominee 1997, 2002, 2005, Supporting 1976 Susan Sarandon WINNER 1995; Nominee 1981, 1988, 1991, Supporting 1994 Meryl Streep WINNER 2009; Nominee 1982, Supporting 1978, 2002, 2009 Ingrid Thulin WINNER SUPPORTING 1973; Nominee 1958, 1963, Supporting 1957, 1969 Lily Tomlin WINNER SUPPORTING 1975; Nominee 1984, Supporting 1993, 2004, 2006 Julie Christie Nominee 1965, 1968, 1971, 1975, 2007 Ellen Burstyn Nominee 1972, 1974, 2001, Supporting 1971, 1977 Cate Blanchett Nominee 1998, 2013, 2015, Supporting 2007, 2015 Tilda Swinton Nominee 1992, 2013, Supporting 1986, 2005, 2007 Angela Lansbury Nominee Supporting 1944, 1962, 1978, 1984, 1991

1. Les Vampires (1915) Louis Feuillade, France 2. The Doll (1919) Ernst Lubitsch, Germany 3. The Oyster Princess (1919) Ernst Lubitsch, Germany

Seriously nothing so far?

And now for those actors who got four nominations. Again, winners before nominees, lead before supporting, those in the same category listed in chronological order of first nomination. Albert Finney WINNER 1967, 1974; Nominee Supporting 2000, 2007 Anton Walbrook WINNER 1948, SUPPORTING 1950; Nominee 1934, Supporting 1943 Henry Fonda WINNER 1957; Nominee 1940, 1956, 1964 Jean-Pierre Leaud WINNER 1973; Nominee 1959, 1966, 1971 Daniel Day-Lewis WINNER 2007; Nominee 1988, 1993, 2012 George Clooney WINNER 2009; Nominee 1998, 2007, 2009 Bill Murray WINNER 1993; Nominee 1984, 2004, Supporting 1998 Johnny Depp WINNER 2003; Nominee 1994, 1995, Supporting 2003 Takashi Shimura WINNER 1954; Nominee 1952, Supporting 1949, 1950 John Cusack WINNER 2000; Nominee 1989, Supporting 2014, 2015 Joseph Cotten WINNER SUPPORTING 1941; Nominee 1942, 1943, 1950 Roger Livesey WINNER SUPPORTING 1960; Nominee 1943, 1945, Supporting 1946 Gunnar Bjornstrand WINNER SUPPORTING 1957; Nominee 1955, 1963, Supporting 1958 George C. Scott WINNER SUPPORTING 1964: Nominee 1970, Supporting 1959, 1961 Sean Connery WINNER SUPPORTING 1989; Nominee 1975, Supporting 1969, 1987 Samuel L. Jackson WINNER SUPPORTING 1994; Nominee 2015, Supporting 2012, 2015 Jason Robards WINNER SUPPORTING 1976; Nominee Supporting 1962, 1968, 1977 Christian Bale Nominee 1987, 2006, 2015, Supporting 2005 Viggo Mortensen Nominee 2003, 2005, 2007, Supporting 2011 Fernando Rey Nominee 1972, 1977, Supporting 1961, 1971 Gene Hackman Nominee 1974, 2001, Supporting 1967, 1992 Anatoly Solonitsyn Nominee 1969, 1979, Supporting 1972, 1977 Myrna Loy WINNER 1934, SUPPORTING 1946; Nominee 1936, Supporting 1936 Simone Signoret WINNER 1952, SUPPORTING 1969; Nominee 1955, Supporting 1970 Jeanette MacDonald WINNER 1931-1932, Nominee 1929-1930, 1930-1931, 1932-1933 Barbara Stanwyck WINNER 1941; Nominee 1941, 1944, 1956 Marilyn Monroe WINNER 1959; Nominee 1953, 1956, 1961 Audrey Hepburn WINNER 1967: Nominee 1956, 1957, 1961 Jeanne Moreau WINNER 1962; Nominee 1958, 1958, 1963 Diane Keaton WINNER 1977; Nominee 1975, 1979, 1981 Holly Hunter WINNER 1987: Nominee 1993, 2004, Supporting 1996 Emma Thompson WINNER 1993; Nominee 1989, 1992, Supporting 1989 Kinuyo Tanaka WINNER SUPPORTING 1954l Nominee 1948, 1952, Supporting 1953 Julianne Moore WINNER SUPPORTING 1997; Nominee 1999, Supporting 1999, 2014 Claudia Cardinale WINNER SUPPORTING 1963; Nominee Supporting 1963, 1969, 1982 Anna Karina Nominee 1961, 1962, 1964, 1965 Gena Rowlands Nominee 1968, 1974, 1980, 1984 Jane Fonda Nominee 1969, 1971, 1977, 1979 Joan Crawford Nominee 1945, 1947, 1954, Supporting 1939 Mia Farrow Nominee 1968, 1983, 1984, Supporting 1989 Sissy Spacek Nominee 1973, 1980, 1982, Supporting 1983 Gong Li Nominee 1993, 1994, 2006, Nominee 2004 Nicole Kidman Nominee 1996, 2001, 2003, Supporting 1999 Anjelica Huston Nominee 1987, 1990, Supporting 1985, 1989 Winona Ryder Nominee 1992, 1994, Supporting 1993, 2015 Ann Miller Nominee Supporting 1938, 1948, 1949, 1953 Thelma Ritter Nominee Supporting 1950, 1953, 1954, 1961

And now for the actors I nominated three times: winners over nominees, lead over supporting, people in the same category by year first nominated. Erland Josephson WINNER 1986 SUPPORTING 1983; Nominee Supporting 1983 Kevin Spacey WINNER 1997 SUPPORTING 1995; Nominee Supporting 1995 John Cazale WINNER SUPPORTING 1974, 1978; Nominee Supporting 1975 Michael Palin WINNER SUPPORTING 1975, 1985; Nominee Supporting 1988 Maurice Chevalier WINNER 1931-1932; Nominee 1929-1930, 1932-1933 Groucho Marx WINNER 1932-1933; Nominee 1930-1931, 1935 Nikolai Chersakov WINNER 1944; Nominee 1938, 1958 Paul Newman WINNER 1961; Nominee 1973, 1982 Malcolm McDowell WINNER 1971; Nominee 1968, 1973 Warren Beatty WINNER 1981; Nominee 1971, 1991 Tom Hanks WINNER 1984; Nominee 1998, 2012 Bruno Ganz WINNER 1998; Nominee 1987, 2004 David Niven WINNER 1956; Nominee 1946, Supporting 1978 George Sanders WINNER 1950; Nominee 1954, Supporting 1945 Yves Montand WINNER 1970; Nominee 1953, Supporting 1970 Paul Scofield WINNER 1966: Nominee 1971, Supporting 1994 Tom Cruse WINNER 1989; Nominee 1999, Supporting 1999 Robert Downey Jr., WINNER 2005; Nominee 2012, Supporting 2007 Michael Caine WINNER 1975; Nominee Supporting 1986, 2006 John Cleese WINNER 1988; Nominee Supporting 1975, 1979 Toshiro Mifune WINNER SUPPORTING 1954; Nominee 1957, 1961 Alain Delon WINNER SUPPORTING 1963; Nominee 1967, 1970 Jean-Louis Trintignat WINNER SUPPORTING 1969; Nominee 1970, 1994 Steve Martin WINNER SUPPORTING 1997; Nominee 1983, 1984 James Woods WINNER SUPPORTING 1984; Nominee 1983, 1985 Walter Huston WINNER SUPPORTING 1942; Nominee 1936, Supporting 1948 Boris Karloff WINNER SUPPORTING 1968; Nominee 1945, Supporting 1945 Alec Guinness WINNER SUPPORTING 1962; Nominee Supporting 1947, 1965 Michael Lonsdale WINNER SUPPORTING 1971; Nominee Supporting 1973, 1979 Errol Flynn Nominee 1938, 1941, 1942 Gregory Peck Nominee 1949, 1950, 1962 William Holden Nominee 1950, 1969, 1976 Marcello Mastroianni Nominee 1961, 1963, 1996 Joaquin Phoenix Nominee 2012, 2013, 2014 Charles Laughton Nominee 1935, 1943, Supporting 1960 Rex Harrison Nominee 1948, 1964, Supporting 1963 Robert Redford Nominee 1973, 1976, Supporting 2014 Anthony Hopkins Nominee 1992, 1993, Supporting 1991 Clive Owen Nominee 2005, 2005, Supporting 2001 Erich von Stroheim Nominee 1928-1929, Supporting 1938, 1950 Kirk Douglas Nominee 1951, Supporting 1947, 1949 Rod Steiger Nominee 1965, Supporting 1954, 1965 Peter Falk Nominee 1974; Supporting 1970, 1987 Adolphe Menjou Nominee Supporting 1937, 1951, 1957 Lauren Bacall WINNER 1944 SUPPORTING 1974; Nominee 1946 Anna Magnani WINNER 1948 SUPPORTING 1945; Nominee 1951 Maggie Smith WINNER 1969 SUPPORTING 1978; Nominee Supporting 2001 Gloria Swanson WINNER 1950; Nominee 1927-1928, 1928-1929 Ginger Rogers WINNER 1935; Nominee 1936, 1942 Deborah Kerr WINNER 1947; Nominee 1943, 1957 Julie Andrews WINNER 1982: Nominee 1964, 1965 Juliet Berto WINNER 1971; Nominee 1974, Supporting 1967 Kirsten Dunst WINNER 2011; Nominee 1999, Supporting 2002 Samantha Morton WINNER 2003; Nominee 2002, Supporting 2008 Anouk Aimee WINNER 1961; Nominee Supporting 1961, 1963 Helen Mirren WINNER 2006; Nominee Supporting 1981, 2001 Olivia de Havilland WINNER SUPPORTING 1938; Nominee 1949, Supporting 1939 Shirley MacLaine WINNER SUPPORTING 1979; Nominee 1960, Supporting 1958 Anne Wiazemsky WINNER SUPPORTING 1966; Nominee 1982, Supporting 1968 Gwyneth Paltrow WINNER SUPPORTING 1995; Nominee 1998, Supporting 2001 Vanessa Redgrave WINNER SUPPORTING 1977; Nominee Supporting 1966, 1992 Greta Garbo Nominee 1929-1930, 1937, 1939 Lillian Gish Nominee 1928-1929, 1987, Supporting 1955 Wendy Hiller Nominee 1938, 1945, Supporting 1966 Rita Hayworth Nominee 1946, 1948, Supporting 1941 Maggie Cheung Nominee 1996, 2000, Supporting 1990 Zhao Tao Nominee 2002, 2006, Supporting 2013 Marion Cotillard Nominee 2007, 2014, Supporting 2004 Michelle Williams Nominee 2008, 2010, Supporting 2016 Moira Shearer Nominee 1948, Supporting 1951, 1960 Bibi Andersson Nominee 1967, Supporting 1957, 1969 Scarlett Johansson Nominee 2013, Supporting 2001, 2005 Bulle Ogier Nominee 1969, Supporting 1971, 1974 Barbara Hershey Nominee Supporting 1983, 1988, 1996

I saw five movies last week. The Florida Project is one of the most highly praised movies of the year. But I found this movie about a girl and her young poor mother living in a motel near Disneyworld one of the most exhausting movies I've ever seen. It's exhausting, in fact, to the point of being excruciating. Sean Baker uses lots of little short fevered scenes that make the movie seem longer than it actually is. When I realized that there was more than forty minutes left, my heart sank. Never have I wished more for a movie to end. Part of the problem is that the girl and her mother are so patently irresponsible you quickly get a sense of impending disaster that is insufferable to experience. (The girl and her friends accidentally burn down some abandoned buildings well before the half way mark). To vary Chekov's quip, the movie is like watching a small (and very annoying) child, play with a gun for 110 minutes. Many, indeed most, critics admired its take on poverty. But by having the central pair portrayed as rampaging ids, with only cursory context it's close to conservative contempt for the poor people. Willem Defoe acquits himself well, putting his experience playing Jesus to good use while portraying an infinitely tolerant apartment manager. The Landlord was the first Hal Ashby movie, and its story about a rich nitwit of good intentions playing by Beau Bridges becoming an "inner-city" landlord at best appears as a rough draft for more interesting movies like Harold and Maude. Lee Grant got an oscar nomination as Bridges' mother in particular seems a rough draft for the much better performance Vivian Pickles did in that movie. As it stands, it's a little too obvious and dated in its liberal self-righteousness. (Several references by Bridges' racist coterie to "law and order" are particularly clumsy.) Having Bridges in two interracial relationship may have been edgy in 1970, and the fact that they're troubled shows some understanding on Ashby's part. But I felt that someone should have pointed out that white landlords have been sleeping with their black tenants for centuries in New York whether the latter liked it or not. Mademoiselle unites a script from two leading French novelists with cinematic successes in the past, one of France's leading actresses playing a sexually repressed schoolteacher, and director Tony Richardson. I'm inclined to blame Richardson, an overrated director, as to why this movie is so uninvolving, not passionate or intelligent enough to deal with Moreau's twisted lusts. Bitter Moon is I suppose the movie of the week. The version I saw on youtube had nudity but was missing 23 minutes. Nevertheless this account of an unhappy relationship between a selfish American, played by Peter Coyote, and the french women he seduces, works wells, as do the other Polanski movies I've seen. 20th Century Women is a vaguely autobiographical movie about the director's adolescence, with the three women being Annette Bening as his much older mother, Elle Fanning as the friend of his never to be consummated dreams, and Greta Gerwig as a slightly eccentric tenant. "Slightly eccentric" is a good way of describing the characters, who are laid back but otherwise sensible in 1979 Santa Barbara. The movie doesn't crassly remind everyone of the year, and everyone does well in their roles. Fanning and Gerwig are especially noteworthy. If I described the other "women' movie of 2016, Certain Women, as four women in search of an epiphany, this movie does end wondering about its overall significance. Three of the five cast members leave the mother/son and each other. Nothing particularly dramatic happens, no particularly intense experience takes place, there's no grand insights gained. I suppose you really had to be there.

Now who got the most nominations from my alternate oscars? Let's start with those who were nominated twice, and won twice: Marcel Dalio WINNER 1939 SUPPORTING 1938 Leo McKern WINNER SUPPORTING 1965, 1966 Christoph Waltz WINNER SUPPORTING 2009, 2012 Louise Brooks WINNER 1928-1929, 1929-1930 Ana Torrent WINNER 1973, 1976 Arletty WINNER 1945, SUPPORTING 1939 Jessica Lange WINNER 1989, SUPPORTING 1982 Paulette Goddard WINNER SUPPORTING 1936, 1940 Martha Raye WINNER SUPPORTING 1941, 1947 Lena Olin WINNER SUPPORTING 1988, 1989 Edith Scob WINNER SUPPORTING 2009, 2012

I saw it 1981 as a child, on a black and white television set. I suppose the fact that it was Canadian maybe why it doesn't get more love, since while certainly grim, it doesn't strike me as so horrible that it should remain in obscurity. Then again there are late seventies movies which seem to be too late for TCM and too old for normal commercial viewing, which I why I've never seen Coming Home, North Dallas Forty, Go Tell the Spartans, Fedora or Saint Jack.

The Self Styled Siren and Some Came Running were good blogs. But now they go for months at a time without being updated. Now if you want to find out what their authors are up to, follow Farran Nehme Smith and Glenn Kenny on twitter.

If you want to see what movies of this century will be classics, check out this site: http://theyshootpictures.com/21stcentury.htm

Tomorrow is the penultimate day of November. Shouldn't TCM have come up with its oscar tribute schedule for February 2018?

(1) I strongly suspect that Apollo 13 will be viewed as little more than a competent blockbuster, and it will never get out of the shadow of The Right Stuff. (2) I must have missed the happy ending vibe of Citizen Kane or Vertigo.

Four movies this week: The FBI Story suspiciously resembles an official film. It's striking that Stewart starts off by attacking the ****, when J. Edgar Hoover's contribution to the civil rights struggle was trying to besmirch Martin Luther King's name. The back story of Stewart and his wife is not very interesting, though some of the cases discussed show the competence that Mervyn Le Roy put to better use in other movies. The Villainess is a Korean movie that starts with a single take with the protagonist rampaging and murdering a couple of dozen criminals. It's shot like a video game so one the one hand it's striking to look at, while on the other hand it's repulsive because, duh, mass murder shouldn't look like a video game. As the movie proceeds, the movie becomes more interesting and we learn more about the character, even if the similarities to La Femme Nikita are a little too obvious. But then a enemy whose motivation doesn't really match his malignancy and a predictably elongated final sequence once the point has been lost, kind of spoils the end. Hush...Hush Sweet Charlotte is sort of a spiritual successor to Whatever Happened to Baby Jane which stars Bette Davis, Olivia de Havilland, Joseph Cotten and Agnes Moorehead, and it makes one wonder why Hollywood couldn't find them to be in a better movie. Not a bad example of the Southern Gothic genre, though it goes on, de Havilland is better than the other cast members, and the introduction amounts to a big giveaway to viewers of Baby Jane. Kate Plays Christine involves the famous (but unrecorded) suicide of a television anchor in 1974 on live television. Kate Lynn Sheil is going to play the eponymous Christine. And so it seems that we're not watching a documentary about the unfortunate anchor, but a documentary about Sheil making a docudrama about her. If this appears unpromisingly meta, it does improve up until the end, when the movie takes a bold, rather hypocritical turn for the worse.

I haven't seen Darkest Hour but I respect A.O. Scott more than Joe Wright, so here's his review: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/21/movies/darkest-hour-review-gary-oldman.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fmovies&action=click&contentCollection=movies&region=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=sectionfront "Churchill’s resolve, like the bravery of the soldiers, airmen and ordinary Britons in 'Dunkirk,' is offered not as a rebuke to the current generation, but rather as a sop, an easy and complacent fantasy of Imperial gumption and national unity. Standing up to the Nazis, an undeniably brave and good thing to have done, is treated like a moral check that can be cashed in perpetuity. 'Darkest Hour' is proud of its hero, proud of itself and proud to have come down on the right side of history nearly 80 years after the fact. It wants you to share that pride, and to claim a share of it. But we have nothing to be proud of."

Derek I suppose. Neither are very interesting, and they were never in good movies, but at least Derek's husband didn't have to bribe the Hollywood Foreign Press Association to get people to notice her.

I actually find the idea that the villain has to die in the last few minutes of the movie a rather annoying convention, assuming that the audience shares the blood lust the movie makers have so cynically cultivated. I'm reminded of Stuart Klawans' reference to "The Final Bad Guy--the leader of a whole gang of monsters who must be killed off one by one in ascending order of importance." He gives the example of Clear and Present Danger ("an uninvolving movie based on an unreadable novel"), which I may have seen and completely forgotten about, but the classic example before that was Die Hard. t

I saw six movies last week: one very good, five not so much. Wonderstruck is the good one, an enchanting and intelligent movie involving two deaf children in two different time zones trying to make their way in New York. Todd Haynes picture of the seventies is better than that of the twenties, which doesn't get that era's sense of wealth and progress. By contrast, Haynes' seventies is usefully cluttered. Admittedly, it helps if you find dioramas charming (much of the movie takes place in museums). Plus there is one brilliant scene where a classic seventies song comes out of nowhere. Flirtation Walk has the distinction of being the third Frank Borzage movie to be nominated for Best Picture (or Best outstanding Production). I doubt that anyone seeing would think it was in the top three Borzage movies. It's basically a trifle, for people who thought that the problem with Dames was too many Busby Berkeley numbers, too many memorable songs, and too little Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler. Viktoria is a 2014 Bulgarian movie not be confused with the 2015 German movie Victoria. It's about a woman in the last decade of Bulgaria's Communist rule who would prefer not to have a child but, despite her best efforts, has one anyways. The title character has no umbilical cord or navel and because she was born on the Bulgarian national day, she becomes the baby of the decade. So the first half of the movie is a little strange and a very obvious satire on the Communist regime. Then halfway through the two and a half hour movie the government falls, but Viktoria and her mother are still miserable. The movie is full of slow, static shots, often in long shot, and one wishes this style was used by someone who had a point. Thursday was apparently "All the Marsha Mason you can stand" day, with three of her movies seen. Cinderella Liberty, it turns out, is not the name of her character, but a naval term for a certain kind of pass. Although Mason got an Oscar nomination, it's James Caan who is the core of the movie. Arguably Mason is more of a supporting character than a lead actress. The movie originated from the same novelist beyond The Last Detail. I'm not the biggest fan of that movie, but whereas Nicholson gave a good performance that should be overshadowed by better ones, this movie has a number of serious problems, and Mason is key to two of them. One can understand that Mason's quasi-prostitute character is not supposed to be the most admirable of people. But it's not clear why Caan's character would fall in love with her and try to marry her. And while one can understand that Mason isn't the best mother to her half-black son, one doesn't get a sense of a real parental relationship. Her character is shallowly conceived. The Goodbye Girl is a much better movie, and one can enjoy Mason's performance, along with Richard Dreyfuss' and Quinn Cummings'. That doesn't mean the movie deserved its oscar nominations; it's a bit off, with too much of a sitcom structure, with a little PG rated naughtiness. Although it's better than the previous Neil Simon movie The Sunshine Boys, a key joke doesn't work well, in which a director insists Richard III was a homosexual and Dreyfuss plays him like a flaming queen. (Why not play him like John Gielgud, who after all played Clarence in the Olivier movie?) Blume in Love has Mason playing one of George Segal's girlfriends while he pines for the wife who divorced him. This is clearly, for no fault of Mason's, the worst movie of the week. For a start, Segal/Blume seems incapable of having a mature relationship, caring only about sex. So it's hard to sympathize with him. And while Anspach has a job and a social conscience (she's a welfare case worker), much of the movie shoots her as a bimbo. And this is before the ghastly plot twist that would have revolted people even before the Weinstein revelations. Oddly enough, Mazursky's marriage lasted more than sixty years until his death.

They will be Blood and The Tree of Life are my choices for the movies of the last ten years that are most likely to survive. I think that in time A Christmas Story and The Shawshank Redemption will be viewed the way From Here to Eternity and The Ten Commandments: popular movies but not really considered the best of their time.

Here's my comparison of Academy Award Actors with my choices. Here are Actresses Part III 1987-2016 Some points to remember -----Awards and nominations are for leading roles, unless I say supporting -----Runner-ups will only be included if the performer was never nominated. Only the most successful will get a ranking. -----I only started runner-ups with 1948 Cher runner-up 1987 (7th) Foster WINNER 1991: Nominee 1997, 2002, 2005, Supporting 1976 Tandy Nominee 1989 Bates nothing Thompson WINNER 1993; Nominee 1989, 1992, Supporting 1989 Hunter WINNER 1987: Nominee 1993, 2004, Supporting 1996 Lange WINNER 1989, SUPPORTING 1982 Sarandon WINNER 1995; Nominee 1981, 1988, 1991, Supporting 1994 McDormand runner-up 1996 (14th), supporting 2002 Hunt nothing Paltrow WINNER SUPPORTING 1995; Nominee 1998, Supporting 2001 Swank WINNER 1999 Roberts WINNER 2000; Nominee 1990 Berry nothing Kidman Nominee 1996, 2001, 2003, Supporting 1999 Theron Nominee 2003 Witherspoon runner up 1991, 1999, 2001, 2009 (9th), supporting 2000, 2014 Mirren WINNER 2006; Nominee Supporting 1981, 2001 Cotillard Nominee 2007, 2014, Supporting 2004 Winslet Nominee 2004, Supporting 1996 Bullock WINNER 1994 Portman Nominee 2010 Lawrence Nominee 2010, 2012 Blanchett Nominee 1998, 2013, 2015, Supporting 2007, 2015 Moore WINNER SUPPORTING 1997; Nominee 1999, Supporting 1999, 2014 Larson runner-up 2013 (14th), 2015 Stone Nominee 2016, Supporting 2014

Here's my comparison of Academy Award Actors with my choices. Here are Actresses Part II 1957-1986 Some points to remember -----Awards and nominations are for leading roles, unless I say supporting -----Runner-ups will only be included if the performer was never nominated. Only the most successful will get a ranking. -----I only started runner-ups with 1948 Woodward WINNER Supporting 1993 Hayward runner-up 1952 (6th), 1958 Signoret WINNER 1952, Supporting 1969; Nominee 1955, Supporting 1970 Taylor Nominee 1966 Loren runner-up 1961 (7th), 1963, 1964, supporting 1965 Bancroft Nominee Supporting 1980 Neal Nominee Supporting 1963 Andrews WINNER 1982: Nominee 1964, 1965 Christie Nominee 1965, 1968, 1971, 1975, 2007 Streisand Nominee 1968 Smith WINNER 1969, Supporting 1978; Nominee Supporting 2001 Jackson runner-up 1970 (7th), 1971, 1980 Fonda Nominee 1969, 1971, 1977, 1979 Minnelli WINNER 1972; Nominee 1977 Burstyn Nominee 1972, 1974, 2001, Supporting 1971, 1977 Fletcher runner-up 1975 (12th) Dunaway Nominee 1976 Keaton WINNER 1977; Nominee 1975, 1979, 1981 Field WINNER 1979 Spacek Nominee 1973, 1980, 1982, Supporting 1983 Streep WINNER 2009; Nominee 1982, Supporting 1978, 2002, 2009 MacLaine WINNER Supporting 1979; Nominee 1960, Supporting 1958 Page nothing Matlin runner-up 1986 (17th)