skimpole

I saw five movies this week. Guelwaar is an interesting movie by Sengalese director Ousmane Sembene. This movie involves the death, and possible murder, of a local opposition figure, criticism of corruption and foreign movie, while much of the action involves two corpses being buried in the wrong two different cemeteries. Dunkirk involved three differing time frames. I will admit that even I teared up at the end once the movie took a bow for the successful evacuation. The movie itself is little more than competent, with little character development, and with the insistent score making it difficult to hear the not particularly interesting characters. But there are a couple of scenes of drownings, so there's that. Of Human Hearts is one of those movies where Hollywood says, we really love flyover country, we do! In this case the story is of a preacher and his family on the Ohio frontier. As the movie starts, it looks more promising than One Foot in Heaven, since Walter Huston is a better actor than Fredric March, and the movie doesn't always take his side. On the other hand, Huston is dead by the 75 minute mark and the movie descends to having Abraham Lincoln force James Stewart to write a letter to his mother. Beulah Bondi got an oscar nomination that she should have received a year earlier for Make Way for Tomorrow. Much better were the other two movies. Mother! is an interesting, strange movie. Jennifer Lawrence gives a good performance as an understandably alarmed woman and as an allegorical figure. Michelle Pfeiffer gives a good account as the wife who, along with husband Ed Harris, intrudes on Lawrence's happiness. Things to Come is the second movie of 2016 to have a great Isabelle Huppert performance: this is the movie where she doesn't have an unhealthy relationship with her rapist. One might point out that Huppert faces both a divorcing husband and a dying mother, who are less characters in their own right than obstacles to complicate Huppert's life. Huppert's performance is such that one tends to ignore such things.

From Wikipedia (spoilers): The film exists in multiple versions. It was originally released in Italy at 155 minutes, but poor box office performance in its native country led to its being shortened to 123 minutes for international release; it was an instant success.[7] This international version won the Special Jury Prize at the 1989 Cannes Film Festival[8] and the 1989 Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. In 2002, the director's cut 173-minute version was released (known in the U.S. as Cinema Paradiso: The New Version). Director's cut In the 173-minute version of the film, after the funeral, Salvatore glimpses an adolescent girl who resembles the teenage Elena. He follows the teen as she rides her scooter to her home, which allows Salvatore to contact his long-lost love Elena, who is revealed to be the girl's mother. Salvatore calls her in hopes of rekindling their romance; she initially rejects him, but later reconsiders and goes to see Salvatore, who was contemplating his rejection at a favorite location from their early years. Their meeting ultimately leads to a lovemaking session in her car. He learns that she had married an acquaintance from his school years, who became a local politician of modest means. Afterwards, feeling cheated, he strives to rekindle their romance, and while she clearly wishes it were possible, she rejects his entreaties, choosing to remain with her family and leave their romance in the past. During their evening together, a frustrated and angry Salvatore asks Elena why she never contacted him or left word of where her family was moving to. He learns that the reason they lost touch was because Alfredo asked her not to see him again, fearing that Salvatore's romantic fulfillment would only destroy what Alfredo sees as Salvatore's destiny – to be successful in film. Alfredo tried to convince her that if she loved Salvatore, she should leave him for his own good. Elena explains to Salvatore that, against Alfredo's instruction, she had secretly left a note with an address where she could be reached and a promise of undying love and loyalty. Salvatore reveals that he never knew of her note, and thus lost his true love for more than thirty years. The next morning, Salvatore returns to the decaying Cinema Paradiso and frantically searches through the piles of old film invoices pinned to the wall of the projection booth. There, on the reverse side of one of the dockets, he finds the handwritten note Elena had left thirty years earlier. The film ends with Salvatore returning to Rome and viewing the film reel that Alfredo left, tears in his eyes.

Here's my comparison of Academy Award Actors with my choices. Here are Actresses Part 1 1927/28-1956 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 Gaynor nothing (possible runner-up for Sunrise, Street Angel, 7th Heaven) Pickford nothing Shearer nothing Dressler nothing (possible runner-up for Dinner at Eight) Hayes Nominee 1952 K. Hepburn WINNER 1938, 1940: Nominee 1932-1933, 1935, 1937, 1938, 1942, 1955, 1962 Colbert WINNER 1942 Davis Nominee 1939, 1940, 1941, 1942, 1950, Supporting 1942 Rainer nothing Leigh WINNER 1951; Nominee 1939 Rogers WINNER 1935; Nominee 1936, 1942 Fontaine Nominee 1941 Garson nothing (possible runner-up for Pride and Prejudice) Jones nothing Bergman WINNER 1946, 1954; Nominee 1943, 1945, 1950, 1952, 1956, 1978, Supporting 1976 Crawford Nominee 1945, 1947, 1954, Supporting 1939 de Havilland WINNER supporting 1938; Nominee 1949, Supporting 1939 Young nothing Wyman runner-up 1954, 1955 (6th) Holliday runner-up 1952 (7th) Booth nothing A. Hepburn WINNER 1967: Nominee 1956, 1957, 1961 Kelly Nominee 1954 Magnani WINNER 1948, Supporting 1945; Nominee 1951

Here's my comparison of Academy Award Actors with my choices. Here are Actors Part 3 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 Douglas Nominee 1997 Day-Lewis WINNER 2007; Nominee 1988, 1993, 2012 Irons WINNER 1990: Nominee 1988 Hopkins Nominee 1992, 1993, Supporting 1991 Pacino WINNER 1972, Nominee 1973, 1974, 1975, 1990 Hanks WINNER 1984; Nominee 1998, 2012 Cage Nominee 2002 Rush WINNER Supporting 1998; Nominee 2010 Benigni Nominee Supporting 1986 Spacey WINNER 1997, Supporting 1995; Nominee 1995 Crowe runner-up 1992, 1997 (11th), 1999, 2003 Washington Nominee 2005 Brody WINNER 2002 Penn Nominee 2003, 2008 Foxx runner-up 2004 (11th), 2012 P.S. Hoffman WINNER 2008, 2012; Nominee 2005, 2007, Supporting 1998, 1999, 2002 Whitaker Nominee Supporting 2002 Bridges Nominee Supporting 1971 Firth Nominee Supporting 2011 Dujardin runner up 2011 (9th) McConaughey Nominee Supporting 2013 Redmayne nothing DiCaprio WINNER 2013; Nominee 2015 Affleck Nominee 2016

Here's my comparison of Academy Award Actors with my choices. Here are Actors Part 2 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 Guinness WINNER Supporting 1962; Nominee Supporting 1947, 1965 Niven WINNER 1956; Nominee 1946, Supporting 1978 Heston Nothing Lancaster WINNER 1963, Nominee 1957, 1981, Supporting 1964, 1983 Schell runner-up supporting 1979 (10th) Peck Nominee 1949, 1950, 1962 Poitier Nominee Supporting 1992 Harrison Nominee 1948, 1964, Supporting 1963 Marvin runner-up 1967 (10th), 1980 Scofield WINNER 1966: Nominee 1971, Supporting 1994 Steiger Nominee 1965, Supporting 1954, 1965 Robertson nothing Wayne Nominee 1948, 1956 Scott WINNER Supporting 1964: Nominee 1970, Supporting 1959, 1961 Hackman Nominee 1974, 2001, Supporting 1967, 1992 Lemmon WINNER 1992; Nominee 1959, 1960, 1972, 1982, Supporting 1993 Carney runner-up 1977 (17th), 1979 Nicholson Nominee 1970, 1972, 1974, 1980, Supporting 1981 Finch Nominee Supporting 1976 Dreyfuss Nominee 1977 Voight Nominee 1969 D. Hoffman WINNER 1969; Nominee 1967, 1976, 1978, 1982, Supporting 2004 De Niro WINNER 1976, 1980; Nominee 1978, 1983, 1984, 1986, 1988, 1995, Supporting 1973, 1974, 1987, 1990 Fonda WINNER 1957; Nominee 1940, 1956, 1964 Kingsley WINNER 1982; Nominee 1994, Supporting 1991, 1993, 2010, 2011 Duvall WINNER Supporting 1972: Nominee Supporting 1979 Abraham runner up 1984 (6th), supporting 1986, 2013 Hurt runner up supporting 2001 (18th) Newman WINNER 1961; Nominee 1973, 1982

Let's compare the Academy Award winners for best actor and actress with my choices. This will be done in six parts, about thirty years each, so three entries for each category. 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 So Actors 1927/1928-1956: Jannings WINNER 1929-1930 Baxter Nothing Arliss Nothing Barrymore Nominee Supporting 1946 Beery Nominee 1929-1930 March Nothing Laughton Nominee 1935, 1943, Supporting 1960 Gable Nominee 1939, 1961 McLaglen Nominee Supporting 1952 Muni Nothing (possible runner-up I was a Fugitive From a Chain Gang, The Life of Louis Pasteur) Tracy Nominee 1932-1933 Donat Nominee 1935 Stewart WINNER 1946, 1958 SUPPORTING 1948; Nominee 1939, 1940, 1955, 1959, 1965, Supporting 1936 Cooper Nominee 1935, 1952 Cagney WINNER 1942; Nominee 1931-1932, 1938, 1949, 1961 Lukas Nothing Crosby Nothing Milland runner-up 1954 (7th) Colman Nothing Olivier WINNER 1960; Nominee 1946 Crawford Nothing Ferrer runner-up supporting 1962, 1982, 1984 (17th) Bogart WINNER 1941, 1943; Nominee 1944, 1946, 1950, Supporting 1954 Holden Nominee 1950, 1969, 1976 Brando WINNER Supporting 1979; Nominee 1951, 1954, Supporting 1953, 1972 Borgnine Nominee Supporting 1969 Brynner Nominee Supporting 1956

The Academy has nominated fifteen movies in all four acting categories. Here they are, with the categories they won. My Man Godfrey (1936) Mrs. Miniver Actress S. Actress (1942) For Whom the Bell Tolls S. Actress (1943) Johnny Belinda Actress (1948) Sunset Blvd. (1950) A Streetcar Named Desire Actress S. Actor S. Actress (1951) From Here to Eternity S. Actor S. Actress (1953) Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Actress S. Actress (1966) Bonnie and Clyde S. Actress (1967) Guess Who's Coming to Dinner Actress (1967) Network Actor Actress S Actress (1976) Coming Home Actor Actress (1978) Reds S. Actress (1981) Silver Linings Playbook Actress (2012) American Hustle (2013) ================================================================================== And here are the fifteen movies I nominated in all four acting categories, with the categories they won in. Swing Time S. Actor (1936) Make Way for Tomorrow (1937) Singin' in the Rain Actor S. Actor (1952) The Band Wagon S. Actress (1953) Pather Panchali Actress (1955) Smiles of a Summer Night (1955) The Misfits (1961) Out 1: Noli Me Tangere Actress S. Actor (1971) Reds Actor S. Actress (1981) Paris, Texas (1984) Blue Velvet S. Actor S. Actress (1986) Say Anything (1989) The Best Intentions Actress (1992) Requiem for a Dream (2000) A Christmas Tale (2008)

I saw four movies over the last two weeks: three last week and one the week before. Men go to Battle has been described as civil war mumblecore, but it does have its virtues. While civil war soldiers did, on the whole, have clear ideas why they were fighting, it's not surprising that one of the two protagonists does not. There is a sense of what's it like farming in rural Kentucky. And there is the sense of how dark it often is (the contrast with the recent The Beguiled struck me). Get Out might have been better if I had more experience with Jordan Peele's humour. As a conceit, the movie works more on African-American paranoia rather than a plausible metaphor. Not to give too much away, one would think the villains could have achieved more by not bringing up the subject at all. Pete's Dragon, the remake, has some charm and I suppose it's my fault for reading a book of 25+ year old movie reviews than concentrating on the movie itself. Everybody in it is very nice. And yet, if people didn't really care much for the original (which makes its TCM premiere next month) I think kids at the time found the animated Elliot more impressive than this version's CGI one. A Special Day is the movie of the fortnight. Would it make my top 10 for 1977? No, and I wouldn't have nominated Mastroianni and Loren. But they come close. Mastroianni is better as the anti-fascist homosexual about the be deported internally for his "perversions" than Loren as one might think was the classic oscar bait of the beautiful actress deglamorizing herself for the role. But she's good as well as the not very happy housewife. It's a sign of Scola's touch that she doesn't make her more anti-fascist than she is. Admittedly Mussolini was at the height of his popularity after the Conquest of Ethiopia but there was plenty of well deserved skepticism. The story is, if not brilliant, reasonably subtle and thoughtful. Since most of the movie takes place in the two apartment of the main characters, Scola has to develop a unique camera style so it doesn't seem static. I think it's effective, without being ostentatious.

And now the Academy's youngest and oldest best actor winners, followed by mine: Actor Emil Jannings 1927-1928 The Way of All Flesh/The Last Command 44 Years 297 Days Older George Arliss 1929-1930 Disraeli 62 Years 209 Days John Wayne 1969 True Grit 62 Years 316 Days Henry Fonda 1981 On Golden Pond 76 Years 317 Days Younger Warner Baxter 1928-1929 In Old Arizona 41 Years 5 Days Frederic March 1931-1932 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde 35 Years, 79 Days Charles Laughton 1932-1933 The Private Life of Henry VIII 34 Years, 258 Days Clark Gable 1934 It Happened One Night 34 Years 26 Days James Stewart 1940 The Philadelphia Story 32 Years, 283 Days Marlon Brando 1954 On the Waterfront 30 Years 361 Days Richard Dreyfus 1977 The Goodbye Girl 30 Years 156 Days Adrien Brody 2002 The Pianist 29 Years, 343 Days Oldest nominee Richard Farnsworth 1999 The Straight Story 79 Youngest nominee Jackie Cooper 1930-1931 Skippy 9 James Murray 1927-1928 The Crowd 28 Years, 96 Days Older Buster Keaton 1928-1929 The Cameraman 34 Years, 181 Days Emil Jannings 1929-1930 The Blue Angel 46 Years, 105 Days Charles Chaplin 1936 Modern Times 46 Years, 322 Days Charles Chaplin 1947 Monsieur Verdoux 57 Years, 338 Days Peter Ustinov 1978 Death on the Nile 57 Years, 358 Days Erland Josephson 1986 The Sacrifice 63 Years, 288 Days Michel Piccoli 1991 La Belle Noiseuse 66 Years, 94 Days Jack Lemmon 1992 Glengarry Glen Ross 68 Years, 49 Days Younger Peter Lorre 1930-1931 M 27 Years, 136 Days James Dean 1955 East of Eden 25 Years, 41 Days (at which point he had been dead for more than eight months) Bertil Guve 1983 Fanny and Alexander 13 Years, 212 Days Babek Ahmed Poor 1987 Where is the Friend's Home? Either eight or nine Oldest nominee Henrik Malberg 1955 Ordet 82

And now for our list of oldest and youngest best actress winners: Actress Janet Gaynor 1927-1928 Seventh Heaven, Street Angel, Sunrise 22 Years 222 Days Younger Marlee Matlin 1986 Children of a Lesser God 21 Years, 218 Days Older Mary Pickford 1928-1929 Coquette 37 Years 360 Days Marie Dressler 1930-1931 Min and Bill 63 Years, 1 Day Katharine Hepburn 1981 On Golden Pond 74 Years, 321 Days Jessica Tandy 1989 Driving Miss Daisy 80 Years, 292 Days Oldest nominee Emanuelle Riva 2012 Amour 85 Youngest nominee Quvenzhane Wallis 2012 Beast of the Southern Wild 9 Maria Falconetti, 1927-1928 The Passion of Joan of Arc 36 Years, 258 Days Older Claudette Colbert 1942 The Palm Beach Story 39 Years, 172 Days Arletty 1945 Children of Paradise 47 Years, 296 Days Gloria Swanson 1950 Sunset Blvd. 52 Years, 2 Days Helen Mirren 2006 The Queen 61 Years, 214 Days One thing, I can't find anything about the age of Gudrun Geyer, my 1997 winner for Mother and Son. Younger Louise Brooks, 1928-1929 Pandora's Box 23 Years, 140 Days Zhou Xuan 1937 Street Angel, 19 Years, 221 Days Judy Garland 1939 The Wizard of Oz 17 Years, 264 Days Uma Das Gupta 1955 Pather Panchali Supposedly 12 when filming started in 1952, so about 15 or 16 Ana Torrent 1973 The Spirit of the Beehive 7 Years, 258 Days Oldest nominee Lillian Gish 1987 The Whales of August 94

Stuart Klawans on this year's New York Film Festival, full of films whose virtues will only become apparent several weeks after the Academy Award nominations are announced: https://www.thenation.com/article/documentaries-satires-and-epics-the-new-york-film-festival/

I vote for JimmyStewarFan.

The oldest and youngest Supporting Actor winners. Walter Brennan 1936 Come and Get it 42 Years, 222 Days Older Walter Brennan 1938 Kentucky 44 Years, 213 Days Thomas Mitchell 1939 Stagecoach 47 Years, 233 Days Donald Crisp 1941 How Green was My Valley 59 Years 214 Days Charles Coburn 1943 The More the Merrier 66 Years, 257 Days Edmund Gwenn 1948 Miracle on 34th Street 70 Years, 146 Days John Houseman 1973 The Paper Chase 71 Years, 192 Days George Burns 1975 The Sunshine Boys 80 Years, 69 Days Christopher Plummer 2011 Beginners 82 Years, 75 Days Younger Joseph Schildkraut 1937 The Life of Emile Zola 41 Years, 353 Days Van Heflin 1942 Johnny Eager 32 Years, 81 Days Jack Lemmon 1955 Mister Roberts 31 Years, 42 Days George Chakiris 1961 West Side Story 27 Years, 205 Days Timothy Hutton 1980 Ordinary People 20 Years, 227 Days Oldest Nominee Robert Duvall 2014 The Judge 84 Youngest Nominee Justin Henry 1979 Kramer vs. Kramer 8 And now the oldest and youngest from my winners. I started in 1932-33, and then continued with 1936: Chico Marx 1932-1933 Duck Soup 46 Years, 359 Days Older Victor Moore 1936 Swing Time 61 Years, 8 Days Edmund Gwenn 1948 Miracle on 34th Street 70 Years, 146 Days Boris Karloff 1968 Targets 81 Years, 142 Days (at which point he had been dead for more than two months) Younger Marcel Dalio 1938 Grand Illusion 39 Years, 92 Days Joseph Cotton 1941 Citizen Kane 36 Years, 288 Days Donald O'Connor 1952 Singin' in the Rain 27 Years, 203 Days Paul Dano 2007 There Will be Blood 23 Years, 250 Days Oldest nominee Ralph Richardson 1984 Greystoke: the Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes, 82 (at which point he had been dead for nearly a year and a half) Youngest nominee Enzo Staiola 1948 The Bicycle Thieves 9

Now that we've given all our performances, we can indulge in Alternate Oscar trivia! If you look around Wikipedia you can find lists of winners by age in each acting category. You can also find on each category page the youngest and oldest nominee. Let's start with Best Supporting Actress category. The first winner would, of course, been the oldest and youngest winner. Over time we can see the Youngest and Oldest winners grow younger and older over time: Gale Sondegaard 1936 Anthony Adverse 38 Years, 17 Days Older Alice Brady 1937 In Old Chicago 45 Years, 128 Days Jane Darwell 1940 The Grapes of Wrath 61 Years, 135 Days Ethel Barrymore 1944 None But the Lonely Heart 65 Years, 212 Days Josephine Hull 1950 Harvey 74 Years, 85 Days Peggy Ashcroft 1984 Passage to India 77 Years, 93 Days Younger Mary Astor 1941 The Great Lie 35 Years, 299 Days Teresa Wright 1942 Mrs. Miniver 24 Years, 128 Days Anne Baster 1945 The Razor's Edge 23 Years, 310 Days Patty Duke 1962 The Miracle Worker 16 Years, 115 Days Tatum O'Neal 1973 Paper Moon 10 Years, 148 Days Oldest Nominee Gloria Stuart 1997 Titanic 87 So that's the actual winners. When I started my list, I gave winners for supporting characters in 1932-33, but then didn't resume until 1936 Margaret Dumont 1932-1933 Duck Soup 51 Years, 147 Days Older Ruth Gordon 1968 Rosemary's Baby 72 Years, 166 Days Peggy Ashcroft 1984 Passage to India 77 Years, 93 Days Younger Paulette Goddard 1936 Modern Times 26 Years, 264 Days Olivia de Havilland 1938 The Adventures of Robin Hood 22 years, 237 Days Margaret O'Brien 1944 Meet me in St. Louis 8 Years, 59 Days Oldest nominee Danielle Darrieux 2007 Persepolis 90 Youngest Nominee Margaret O'Brien 1943 Jane Eyre 7

I'll have to consider that Here in the meantime are the awards I gave to actors for playing real people: 1927-1928 Maria Falconetti Actress The Passion of Joan of Arc (Joan of Arc) 1942 James Cagney Actor Yankee Doodle Dandy (George M. Cohan) 1942 Walter Huston Supporting Actor Yankee Doodle Dandy (Jeremiah "Jerry" Cohan) 1944 Nikolai Chersakov Actor Ivan the Terrible, Part I (Ivan IV, Tsar of all The Russias, also known as "Ivan the Terrible" or "Ivan the Awe-Inspiring") 1962 Peter O'Toole Actor Lawrence of Arabia (T.E. Lawrence) 1962 Alec Guinness Supporting Actor Lawrence of Arabia ( Faisal I bin Hussein bin Ali al-Hashemi, Faisal I of Iraq) 1966 Paul Scofield Actor A Man for All Seasons (Sir Thomas More) 1966 Leo McKern Supporting Actor A Man for All Seasons (Thomas Cromwell) 1970 Yves Montand Actor The Confession (Arthur London) 1976 Jason Robards Supporting Actor All the President's Men (Benjamin "Ben" Bradlee) 1980 Robert De Niro Actor Raging Bull (Giacobbe "Jake" LaMotta) 1981 Warren Beatty Actor Reds (John Reed) 1981 Maureen Stapleton Supporting Actress Reds (Emma Goldman) 1982 Ben Kingsley Actor Gandhi (Mohandas K. Gandhi) 1989 Tom Cruise Actor Born on the Fourth of July (Ronald Kovic) 1990 Jeremy Irons Actor Reversal of Fortune (Claus Von Bulow) 1990 Lorraine Bracco Supporting Actress Goodfellas (Karen Hill) 1991 Gary Oldman Supporting Actor JFK (Lee Harvey Oswald) 1998 Geoffrey Rush Supporting Actor Elizabeth (Sir Francis Walsingham) 2000 Julia Roberts Actress Erin Brockovich (Erin Brockovich) 2002 Adrien Brody Actor The Pianist (Wladyslaw Szpilman) 2005 Q'Orianka Kilcher Actress The New World (Matoaka "Pocahontas" Rebecca Rolfe) 2006 Helen Mirren Actress The Queen (Elizabeth II of Great Britain) 2007 Gabrielle Lopes Supporting Actress Persepolis (Marjane Satrapi) 2009 Meryl Streep Actress Julie & Julia (Julia Child) 2010 Jesse Eisenberg Actor The Social Network (Mark Zuckerberg) 2013 Leonardo DiCaprio Actor The Wolf of Wall Street (Jordan Belfort) 2015 Michael Fassbender Actor Steve Jobs (Steven "Steve" Jobs) 2016 Cynthia Nixon Actress A Quiet Passion (Emily Dickinson)

I saw three movies last week. Wind River is directed by the same man who wrote the scripts for Hell or High Water and Sicario. Jeremy Renner is good as the protagonist, Grahame Greene is good as the Native American police officer, and Elizabeth Olsen is OK, all investigating a rape/probable homicide on a reservation in Wyoming. But there are no shortage of problems when one thinks about them. For a start, the movie makes much of missing and abused Native American women. But the overwhelming poverty isn't really understood: one gets the impression the main problem with living in Wyoming is that everyone is so far from each other. And there's the fact that both the guilty party and the forces of justice both, independently as it happens, make stunning stupid moves. The Judge is pure oscarbait, and I'm not biting. It is so full of cliche and free of genuine insight that I lost patience with it long before its hardly surprising ending. Little Sister is an independent movie about a young woman about to become a nun who visits her family. One problem with the movie is that she is shy to the point of blandness. Another problem is that one doesn't really connect her character with her past (she was into Marilyn Manson as a teenager) to her present. At one point we see her arguing with her mother, played by Ally Sheedy, and not only do we think she's Sheedy's daughter, we don't really think they're in the same movie.

From the BBC: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-41684181 French actress and singer Danielle Darrieux has died aged 100 in her home in Bois-le-Roi, France. She became unwell "after a little fall", her partner Jacques Jenvrin told AFP news agency. Fondly referred to as the "grande dame" of French cinema, Darrieux had about a 140 films to her name in a career over eight decades. But her decision to continue working during the Nazi occupation of France saw her branded as a collaborationist. Born in Bordeaux in 1917, Darrieux started in comedy with a film role on Le Bal at just 14. She went on take more dramatic roles in films such as Mayerling by Anatole Litvak in 1936 where she starred opposite Charles Boyer - for which she won a National Board of Review Best Actress prize. During the Nazi occupation, she continued to work and even travelled to Berlin in 1942. She was visiting her then-husband, Porfirio Rubirosa, who had been arrested by the Germans on suspicion of espionage. After the war, her career picked up again with such notable films as La Ronde in 1950 and The Earrings of Madame de... in 1953. Lingering doubts about her wartime activities were quashed by her performance as Marie Octobre in the 1959 thriller about the survivors of a French resistance network and their quest to find the person who had betrayed their murdered leader. In 1967, she starred and sang in Jacques Demy's classic Les Demoiselles De Rochefort, a move which gave her career a new lease of life, and she would later find work in Hollywood and Broadway. "I went to the studio as one went to school, I was lazy and I remain so," Darrieux once said but she continued working until she was 99, lending her voice in the 2007 animated hit Persepolis. Darrieux joins a list of French icons who have all passed away in recent months, including Jean Rochefort, Mireille Darc, Jeanne Moreau and Emmanuelle Riva. French television stations are rescheduling their programming to include some of Darrieux's work this week.

And we get, supposedly, The Tree of Wooden Clogs. Somewhat annoyingly, a relatively rare showing of Lives of a Bengal Lancer is only six hours after The Exorcist II.

Altupdates #6 (July2017 to Present) 2004-2016 OK, let's put this into several categories: Unenthusiastic runner-ups in the years 1927-1948, when I didn't have formal runner-up lists: Fred Astaire Best Actor Ziegfeld Follies (1946), Ethel Barrymore Best Supporting Actress None but the Lonely Heart (1944), Pierre Fresnay Best Actor, Orane Demazis Best Actress Cesar (1936), Walter Brennan Best Supporting Actor The Westerner (1940) Runner-ups from 1927-1948 I have genuine enthusiasm for: Choko Iida Best Actress Record of a Tenement Gentleman (1947). Perhaps if i rewatched it, it could be a top 5 choice. The same goes as well for Rosalind Russell Best Actress My Sister Eileen (1942), though the Tracy/Hepburn relationship in Woman of the Year is more attractive than Russell and what's his name. Claudette Colbert Best Actress, Joseph Cotton Best Supporting Actor Since You Went Away (1944) Performances that would make the bottom of my runner-up lists: Chishyu Ryu Best Actor Tokyo Twilight (1957), Gregory Karr The Suspended Step of the Stork (1991), Klaus Kinski Best Actor Cobra Verde (1988), Cicely Courtneidge Best Supporting Actress The L-Shaped Room (1963), Al Pacino Best Actor, Kitty Winn Best Actress Panic in Needle Park (1971) Performances that would be close to the bottom of my runner-up lists: Mahmud Bigham Best Actor, Roya Nonahali Best Actress Marriage of the Blessed (1989), Glynnis O'connor Best Actress Ode to Billy Joe (1976), Gena Rowlands, Winona Ryder Best Supporting Actresses Night on Earth (1991), Blythe Danner Best Supporting Actress Mr. and Mrs. Bridge (1990), Soumitra Chatterjee Best Actor, Haradhan Bandopadhyay Best Supporting Actor The Coward (1965), Ariana Ugarte Best Supporting Actress Julieta (2017). Post 1948 performances actually worthy of greater recognition: Wendell B. Harris Jr., 11th Place Best Actor Chameleon Street (1989), Clark Gable 8th Best Actor, Ava Gardner 7th Best Actress Mogambo (1953), Howard Da Silva 7th Best Supporting Actor Border Incident (1949), Rosalind Russell 6th Best Actress Auntie Mame (1958), (possibly higher), Jeanne Moreau 6th Best Supporting Actress The Suspended Step of the Stork (1991), Paul Newman 7th Best Actor, Joanne Woodward 6th Best Actress (possibly higher) Mr and Mrs. Bridge (1990), Leslie Caron 9th Best Actress The L-Shaped Room (1963), Madhabi Mukherjee 7th Best Actress The Coward (1965) Performances that actually meet my nomination short list: I rewatched Stalker and realized that of the central trio of the movie Alexander Kaidonovsky is a lead, and Nikolai Grinko is supporting, and switched their places. Isusu Yamada makes my Best Supporting Actress list at 5th place replacing Teresa Izewska for Kanal for her role in Tokyo Twilight (1957). I'm not sure where Setsuko Hara and Ineko Arima fit in the Best Actress year. I know Giuletta Massina is the best actress and Deborah Kerr deserves her nomination. I would have to rewatch White Nights, Silk Stockings and Funny Face to be sure. Mary Astor in The Great Lie moves all the way to 2nd Best Supporting Actress (1941). leaving whether it is Sarah Allgood or Rita Hayworth who is denied a nomination.

Altupdates #5 (April-June 2017) 1991-2003 OK, let's put this into several categories: Unenthusiastic runner-ups in the years 1927-1948, when I didn't have formal runner-up lists: Rosalind Russell, best actress Sister Kenny (1946), Spencer Tracy best supporting actor Thirty Seconds over Tokyo (1944) Runner-ups from 1927-1948 I have genuine enthusiasm for: Still not top five but Charles Boyer and (to a lesser extent) Jennifer Jones as the leads in Cluny Brown are delightful (1946) Myrna Loy would be a strong runner-up for best Actress in Test Pilot, ahead of lead Clark Gable and supporter Spencer Tracy (1938) Cary Grant is not as good as Boyer, but Night and Day (1946) is still fun. Performances that would make the bottom of my runner-up lists: Peter Ustinov, Best Actor and Robert Ryan, best supporting actor Billy Budd (1962), Phil Daniels, best Actor Meantime (1983) Karen Allen, Toni Kalem, and Linda Manz, best supporting actress The Wanderers (1979), Michael Beck, best actor The Warriors (1979), Yusuke Kawaze, Miyuki Kawane, best actor and actress Cruel Story of Youth (1960) Performances that would be close to the bottom of my runner-up lists: Hassan Darabi, best actor in The Traveler (1974), Setsuko Hara best actress in The Sound of the Mountain (1964), Tim Roth best supporting actor in Meantime (1983), Ken Wahl best actor, John Friedrich, Tony Ganios best supporting actor The Wanderers (1979) Post 1948 performances actually worthy of greater recognition: Pierre Etaix 9th Best Actor Yoyo (1965), Olga Antonova 6th for best supporting actress, Sergei Popov 10th Best Actor The Asthenic Syndrome (1989), Deborah van Valkenburgh, Lynne Thigpen 8th and 9th Best Supporting Actress The Warriors (1979), Aleksei Ananishnov 13th best actor Days of Eclipse (1988)

I saw four movies this week. First are two unnecessary blockbusters. The Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides shows that Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow is still tolerable, especially if you have the movie in the background while you're walking on other things. But the interlocking plots, done with some charm in the second movie, is just tedious in this one. And caring whether or not Penelope Cruz has a genuine daughter-father relationship with Blackbeard pirate--who really cares? The latest version of The Mummy has a female villain this time. It also has Tom Cruise and a very uninteresting woman as his love interest. There are some obvious plot holes, such as why bury the title character in Iraq? Since the secret institute finds a way to take her down once halfway through the movie, why not do the same thing when she gets free for the big finale? And why have your institute led by a man who has great difficulties not changing into a super powered sociopath? One the one hand, there's nothing as offensive as the casual racism of the 1999 version. And there's one bright idea: the Mummy is able to control the sands and directs them against the good guys. And since sand and glass are both made of the same materials that means she can send a blizzard of shattered glass against them. Of course, this leads immediately to one of those scenes where the good guys outrun a disaster that is maiming and probably killing dozens of people behind them. The Great Lie is perhaps best known as the movie Mary Astor won an oscar for, given to her in the same year the Academy ignored her in The Maltese Falcon. What can we say about this melodrama? Sam McDaniel is really annoying as a cringing Jim Crow servant. Fortunately he plays less of a role as the movie goes on. Davis is good as the wronged woman, and Astor as the nefarious other women is also good, and comparatively better in the supporting actress category. George Brent as the man being fought over is, quite uninspiring. Also, it's sexist that Astor is damned for caring about her career, and quite rich given the star power of the women are the drawing point of the movie. Julieta is based, oddly enough, on three Alice Munro stories of all things. While Adriana Ugarte is fairly charming as the younger version of the protagonist, I had problems with the movie as the melodrama folded out. At one point the protagonist makes a frankly inexplicable decision. But the larger problem is that the tragedy tends to deal on happenstance and a certain abruptness that doesn't fully work.

Altupdates #4 (January-March 2017 1978-1990) I think this can be put into several categories. First, there's the runner-ups in the years where I didn't really have runner-ups from 1927-1947. There's Dana Andrews, best actor, for Fallen Angel (1945), Fredric March best actor for The Adventures of Mark Twain (1944), Greer Garson Best Actress for Madame Curie (1943). Then there are the additions that would come in at the bottom of the runner-up lists that I did make, such as James Cagney, best actor, Love me or Leave Me (1955), Barbara Harris, best supporting actress A Thousand Clowns (1965), Betty Schneider best actress Paris Belongs to Us (1961), and Joanne Woodward, The Effects of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-moon Marigolds (!972). Richard Burton almost makes the bottom of my best actor runner-ups for Look Back in Anger (1959). And then there are a couple of performances that came close to changing my lists. Josephine Baker in Princess Tam-Tam might replace Edna May Oliver in David Copperfield as my sixth choice for 1935 Best Actress (when there were six nominees, sort of). I'll have to check and make sure. Nell Potts makes my #10 spot for Best Supporting Actress in 1972 for The Effects of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-moon Marigolds.

Altupdates #3 (October-December 2016 1964-1977) Spite Marriage: Had I seen it before I first made my lists, Buster Keaton would still have been beaten by his earlier performance that year for The Cameraman. He and Dorothy Sebastian would therefore be runner-ups that year. Piccadilly: possible runner-up for best Actress 1928-1929 for Anna Mae Wong The Pumpkin Eater: Anne Bancroft 13th for Best Actress 1964 (bottom of my list) La Marseillaise: Edmund Ardisson runner-up Best Actor 1938, Pierre Renoir, runner-up Best Supporting Actor Possessed: Van Heflin runner-up for Best Actor 1947 (I actually started making them systematically for 1948 onwards, so all my runner-ups before then are uncertain) Travels with My Aunt: Maggie Smith 14th for Best Actress 1972 (bottom of my list) Not a particularly good quarter.

Altupdates #2 (July-September 2016 1951-1963) At some point in the last fifteen months I rewatched Ikiru and thought Miki Odagiri could be a supporting actress nominee. But I would have to rewatch it and Gloria Grahame in The Bad and the Beautiful I also watched a number of past oscar winners. Many of these ranged from the underwhelming (To Each His Own) to very underwhelming (Tortilla Flat). If Grace Kelly made the runner-ups for The Country Girl it would have to be at the very bottom. Had I runner-ups for 1927-1928 Janet Gaynor definitely would have made it for Street Angel. Clifton Webb might have made my runner-ups for 1945 supporting actor, while Gene Tierney would certainly have made it for runner-up 1945 supporting actress, both for The Razor's Edge. Both certainly do better than Anne Baxter, who actually won an oscar for that year. Baxter does better as a possible runner-up for 1943 supporting actress in Five Graves to Cairo. Erich von Stroheim is also good, indeed better, but he'd only make 9th for best supporting actor that year. Bette Davis may make 7th place for 1943 Actress for Old Acquaintance. Charles Boyer and Joan Fontaine may also make runner-ups for Actor and Actress that year for The Constant Nymph. Betty Davis is clearly the stand-out performer for The Corn is Green, as opposed to the two stars the Academy nominated. She might make 6th place for 1945 Actress runner-ups.

I've been seeing movies since we started this exercise, including past oscar nominees. There aren't that many changes to my previous lists, but it's best to look over it in three month periods. So here is the first of my six alternate updates, or altupdates. (April-June 2016: 1938-1950) A Song to Remember: notwithstanding Paul Muni's oscar nomination, the movie meant little to me. Ditto for Min and Bill and He was Her Man Objective, Burma!: If I had runner-ups before 1948, Errol Flynn would make it, but not the top five.