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Actor Johnny Depp, Pirates of the Caribbean: the Curse of the Black Pearl Sean Penn, Mystic River Bill Murray, Lost in Translation Viggo Mortensen, The Lord of the Rings: the Return of the King Paul Giamatti, American Splendor Runner-ups: Albert Brooks (Finding Nemo), Hossein Emadeddin (Crimson Gold), Choi Min-Sik (Oldboy), Jack Black (School of Rock), Ivan Dobronravov (The Return)*, Konstanti Lavronenko (The Return), Paul Bettany (Dogville), Song-Kang Ho (Memories of Murder), Joe Alaskey (Looney Tunes: Back in Action), Alessio Boni (The Best of Youth), Luigi Lo Cascio (The Best of Youth), Russell Crowe (Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World), Jeremy Sumpter (Peter Pan), Alexandre Rodrigues (City of God), Alex Frost (Elephant), John Cusack (Identity) *Juvenile Performance of the Year Actress Nicole Kidman, Dogville Charlize Theron, Monster Ellen DeGeneres, Finding Nemo Hope Davis, American Splendor Scarlett Johansson, Lost in Translation Runner-ups: Yo Hitoto (Cafe Lumiere), Rachel Hurd-Wood (Peter Pan), Uma Thurman (Kill Bill: Volume i), Keisha Castle-Hughes (Whale Rider), Jamie Lee Curtis (Freaky Friday), Katrin Sass (Good Bye, Lenin!), Naomi Watts (21 Grams) Supporting Actor John Hurt, Dogville Sean Astin, The Lord of the Rings: the Return of the King Yoo Ji-Tae, Oldboy Tim Robbins, Mystic River Johnny Depp, Once Upon a Time in Mexico Runner-ups: Kim Sang-Hyung (Memories of Murder), Leandro Firmino da Hora (City of God), Douglas Silva (City of God), James Caan (Dogville), Alexander Gould (Finding Nemo), Laurence Fishburne (Mystic River), Steve Martin (Looney Tunes: Back in Action), Paul Bettany (Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World), Crispin Glover (Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle), Yeong Su-Oh (Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter...and Spring), Kevin Bacon (Mystic River), Brendan Fraser (Looney Tunes: Back in Action), Vladimir Garin (The Return), Stellan Skarsgard (Dogville), Zeljko Ivanek (Dogville), Geoffrey Rush (Finding Nemo), Bob Newhart (Elf), Pourang Nakhael (Crimson Gold), Philip Baker Hall (Dogville), Judah Friedlander (American Splendor) Supporting Actress Yeo Jin-Ha, Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter...and Spring Kang Hye-jung, Oldboy Christina Ricci, Monster Yang Kuei Mei, Goodbye, Dragon Inn Patricia Clarkson, Dogville Runner-ups: Joan Cusack (School of Rock), Lucy Liu (Kill Bill: Volume 1), Laura Linney (Mystic River), Marcia Gay Harden (Mystic River), Sonia Bergamasco (The Best of Youth), Jenna Elfman (Looney Tunes: Back in Action), Vivica A. Fox (Kill Bill: Volume 1), Chiaki Kuriyama (Kill Bill: Volume 1), Keira Knightley (Pirates of the Caribbean: the Curse of the Black Pearl), Chloe Sevigny (Dogville), Maya Sansa (The Best of Youth), Stockard Channing (Anything Else), Lauren Bacall (Dogville), Monica Belluci (The Matrix Reloaded) Not seen: House of Sand and Fog, Something's Gotta Give, The Cooler, Pieces of April, Thirteen ------Personally I prefer Samantha Morton in In America for best actress, but we're considering that a 2002 film.

Quotes from 2002 The Pianist Wldyslaw Szpilman: What are you reading? Henryk Szpilman: "If you prick us, do we not bleed? It you tickle us, we we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?" Wladyslaw Szpilman: [seeing that it is Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice] Very appropriate. Henryk: Yes, that's why I brought it. The Lord of the Rings: the Two Towers Gollum: Master broke his promise! Sméagol: Don't ask Sméagol. Poor, poor Sméagol... Gollum: Master betrayed us! Wicked, tricksy, false. We ought to wring his filthy little neck. Kill him! Kill him! Kill them both! And then we takes the precious... and we be the master! Sméagol: The fat hobbit, he knows. Eyes always watching. Gollum: Then we stabs them out! Put out his eyeses! Make him crawl! Sméagol: Yes! Yes! Yes! Gollum: Kill them both. Sméagol: Yes! No, no! It's too risky, it's too risky. Gollum: [sly] We could let her do it. Sméagol: Yes... she could do it! Gollum: Yes, precious, she could. And then we takes it once they're dead. Adaptation Donald Kaufman: Listen, I need a cool way to kill people. Don't worry, for my script. Charlie Kaufman: I don't know that kind of stuff. Donald Kaufman: Oh, come on, man, please? You're the genius. Charlie Kaufman: Here you go. The killer's a literature professor. He cuts off little chunks from his victims' bodies until they die. He calls himself "the deconstructionist".

Assuming that you know the plot of some of the English language movies that you haven't seen, here's my discussion of four foreign language movies. Amen is a movie by Costa-Gavras based on the true story of Kurt Gerstein, a member of the SS who realized to his horror that the concentration camp at Belzec was actually a death camp where 450,000 to 600,000 Jews were murdered. He tried desperately to inform people, and the movie concentrates on the Catholic Church's refusal to speak out about the crimes. Blissfully yours is a Thai movie by 2010 Palme D'Or Apichatpoing. Weerasethakul, and it's about two couples who have a picnic in the country one day. Two things that most viewers will remember is that the opening credits don't appear until 45 minutes into the movie. Second, one of the couples actually has sex. But it's not all fun and games. One lover vanishes and the male protagonist develops a skin rash making touching painful. You can find more about the movie and Weerasethakul's unique style here: http://sensesofcinema.com/2006/cteq/blissfully_yours/ Ten is an Iranian movie by Abbas Kiarostami with my runner-up for best actress of the year Mania Akhabi playing a woman in Tehran who has conversations with ten people she is driving around the city with. Maher, her actual son, plays her young son angry that his mother has divorced his father. Roya Akbari plays a prostitute. You can find out more about the movie here: https://www.jonathanrosenbaum.net/2003/04/reinventing-the-present/ Unknown Pleasures is directed by Jia Zhangke, and I nominated Zhao Tao for Best Actress. Zhangke makes movies about the real present day China. This movie is about three youths who live in an industrial city who live aimless lives saturated with mass culture, and which ends with two of them, having seen Pulp Fiction, deciding to rob a bank. You can read more here: http://www.slantmagazine.com/film/review/unknown-pleasures

Quotes from 2001 Shrek: Some of you may die, but that is a sacrifice I am willing to make. Ghost World Rebecca: [arriving at the graduation ball] Wow. This is so bad, it's almost good. Enid: This is so bad, it's gone past good and back to bad again. The Royal Tenenbaums Chas: Why'd you try to kill yourself? Etheline: Don't press him right now. Richie: I wrote a suicide note. Chas: You did? Richie: Yeah. Right after I regained consciousness. [Everyone looks slightly confused.] Chas: Can we read it? Richie: No. Chas: Can you paraphrase it for us? Richie: I don't think so. Chas: Is it dark? Richie: Of course it's dark. It's a suicide note. Gosford Park Mary Maceachran: Nobody can stab a corpse and not know it. Robert Parks: Really? When was the last time you stabbed a corpse? The Lord of the Rings: the Fellowship of the Ring Nobody tosses a dwarf! Strider: Gentlemen, we do not stop till nightfall. Pippin: What about breakfast? Strider: You already had it. Pippin: We had one, yes. What about second breakfast? [strider walks away] Merry: I don't think he knows about second breakfast, Pip. Pippin: What about elevenses? Luncheon? Afternoon tea? Dinner? Supper? He knows about them, doesn't he? Merry: I wouldn't count on it.

Dial M for Murder/The Wrong Man Mr. Arkadin Hail Mary Bram Stoker's Dracula The Little Theatre of Jean Renoir/La Marseillaise Dreams Kundun One, Two, Three Two English Girls on the Continent A.I: Artificial Intelligence Shadows and Fog The Innocent Providence Tales of Hoffmann Death and the Maiden/The Ninth Gate Angel/Cluny Brown The Adventures of Goopy and Bagha The Weightless Trilogy

I believe the movie is actually called Igby Goes Down

CinemaInternational is interesting for having Return to Oz, as is Speedracer for having two Demy musicals and Stevo for having The Usual Suspects and Oldboy. JamesStewartfan has all kind of interesting things, such as a premiere for Quadrophenia. But ultimately my vote is for BartonKeyes.

Also we should be clear whether Scarlett Johansson in Lost in Translation and Joan Cusack in School of Rock are lead and supporting.

I saw four movies last week. Ender's Game was quite underwhelming. This big budget sci-fi movie about children who are militarily trained to ward off an invasion of insectoid creatures is both uninvolving and full of bogus moral dilemmas. Wait Until Dark I suspect is more valued for its nostalgic quotient. It was not Audrey Hepburn's last movie, but it was the movie that marked the end of her career as a major movie star. Her next movie was not made until nine years later and further movies were sporadic at best. The movie shows its origins as a stage play. And it's hard to ignore the fact that Alan Arkin's plan is overly complicated. There are some good thrills throughout, but not Academy Award worthy in my view. Two Arabian Knights is best known for having won the first and only Academy Award for comedy direction. This was also the year Charles Chaplin was kept from any of the contested awards with a special Oscar. I don't know why Steamboat Bill Jr, wasn't nominated. It's possible it wasn't released nation wide in time. With those provisos, the result is occasionally amusing. Mary Astor isn't given much more to do than be pretty, but the villain gets a good last line, or last subtitle. Interesting point, at one point the protagonists think of going to the American consulate in Constantinople. I first thought this was odd, because the protagonists are two WWI American soldiers who were caught by the Germans and by complicated circumstances ended up in the Ottoman Empire. But as it turned, the United States never declared war on the Ottoman Empire. Jackie is quite a bit better than I thought it would be. It's more striking than the same director's Neruda. Natalie Portman is extremely good indeed as the distraught widow, while the same time seeking to manipulate both the funeral and a post-assassination interview. It's not a good idea to close with the title song of Camelot, but the movie is otherwise good enough to get away with it.

Any consensus on Hope Davis in American Splendor? The awards groups were divided, but some of them had it as a combined award with The Secret Lives of Dentists.

Actor Adrien Brody, The Pianist Adam Sandler, Punch-Drunk Love Ralph Fiennes, Spider Nicolas Cage, Adaptation Markku Peltou, The Man Without a Past Runner-ups: Edward Norton (25th Hour), Cillian Murphy (28 Days Later), Tom Hanks (Catch me if you Can), Paddy Considine (In America), Matthieu Kassovitz (Amen), Kanokporm Tongaram (Blissfully Yours), Michael Caine (The Quiet American), Leonardo DiCaprio (Catch me if you Can), Olivier Gourmet (The Son), Tobey Maguire (Spider-Man), Richard Gere (Unfaithful), Antonio Banderas (Femme Fatale), Jet Li (Hero), Tony Leung Chiu-Wai (Infernal Affairs), Morgan Marinne (The Son), Ulrich Tukur (Amen), George Clooney (Solaris), Steve Coogan (24 Hour Party People), John Cusack (Max), Al Pacino (Insomnia), Eminem (8 Mile), Mel Gibson (Signs), Jason Statham (The Transporter), Tom Cruise (Minority Report), David Dorfman (The Ring), Dario Grandinetti (Talk to Her), Zhao Weiwei (Unknown Pleasures), Harrison Ford (K-19: The Widowmaker), Richard Gere (Chicago), Elia Suleiman (Divine Intervention), Khatra Ouid Abder Kader (Waiting for Happiness) Actress Samantha Morton, In America Mania Akbari, Ten Diane Lane, Unfaithful Jodie Foster, Panic Room Samantha Morton, Morvern Callar Zhao Tao, Unknown Pleasures Runner-ups: Rebecca Romijin (Femme Fatale), Miranda Richardsonn (Spider), Naomie Harris (28 Days Later), Naomi Watts (The Ring), Min Oo (Blissfully Yours), Parminder Nagra (Bend it Like Beckham), Jennifer Aniston (The Good Girl), Kati Outinen (The Man Without a Past), Julianne Moore (Just like Heaven), Catherine Deneuve (8 Women), Isabelle Huppert (8 Women), Milla Jovovich (Resident Evil), Natascha McElhone (Solaris), Connie Nielsen (Demonlover), Leonor Watling (Talk to Her), Renee Zellweger (Chicago), Supporting Actor Sergei Dontsov, Russian Ark Andy Serkis, The Lord of the Rings: the Two Towers Forest Whitaker, Panic Room Amin Maher, Ten Philip Seymour Hoffman, 25th Hour/Punch-Drunk Love Runner-ups: Chris Cooper (Adaptation), Ed Stoppard (The Pianist), Christopher Eccleston (28 Days Later), Tony Leung Chiu-Wai (Hero), Dwight Yoakam (Panic Room), Frank Finlay (The Pianist), Jeremy Davies (Solaris), Taye Diggs (Chicago), Bernard Hill (The Lord of the Rings: the Two Towers), Chen Daoming (Hero), John C. Reilly (Chicago), Christopher Lee (Attack of the Clones), Patrick Bachau (Panic Room), Gabriel Byrne (Spider), Thomas Kretschmann (The Pianist), Brendan Gleeson (28 Days Later), Kenneth Branagh (Rabbit Proof Fence), Robin Williams (Insomnia), Christopher Walken (Catch me if you Can), David Wenham (The Lord of the Rings: the Two Towers), Max von Sydow (Minority Report), Ralph Fiennes (Red Dragon), Jim Broadbent (The Gangs of New York), John Neville (Spider) Supporting Actress Catherine Zeta-Jones, Chicago Meryl Streep, Adaptation Kristin Stewart, Panic Room* Kirsten Dunst, Spider-Man Emily Watson, Punch-Drunk Love Runner-ups: Viola Davis (Solaris), Keira Knightley (Bend it like Beckham), Jenjira Jansuda (Blissfully Yours), Maggie Cheung (Hero), Samantha Morton (Minority Report), Sarah Bolger (In America), Roya Akbari (Ten), Lynn Redgrave (Spider), Danielle Darrieux (8 Women), Michelle Rodriguez (Resident Evil), Ludivine Sagnier (8 Women), Rosario Dawson (25th Hour), Emma Bolger (In America), Toni Colette (The Hours), Megan Burns (28 Days Later), Virgine Ledoyen (8 Women), Judi Dench (The Importance of Being Ernest), Amy Adams (Catch me if you Can), Queen Latifah (Chicago) *Juvenile Performance of the Year -------For the first time, I've seen all the nominees in all six major categories -------Actually, I consider In America a 2003 film and my 2003 winner. -------This is the third time Hoffman has gotten a nomination for supporting actor in fifth place for two roles. That will eventually change.

I saw six movies last week. A Quiet Passion was the best, with an excellent performance by Cynthia Nixon, a script that was both witty, moving and intelligent, with plenty of poetry by Emily Dickinson, and the excellent cinematic vision of Terence Davies. One can only hope it will be remembered at year's end. Cruel Story of Youth is known as the Japanese Rebel without a Cause. Although I didn't give it my full attention it struck me as considerably more tough-minded than the Ray movie. Days of Eclipse is a very strange science fiction movie, about a scientist concerned about his research in Soviet Turkmenistan. The plot is not easy to follow but the filmmaking is striking, with the sinuous elegant camera moves that we would see in later Sokurov movies, as the film shifts from black and white (or sepia and white) to colour. It's a difficult film, but worthy of the effort. The Wanderers is also a film with considerable qualities, with a kind of larger picture and competence that would become much rarer in the next decade. The main flaw with this movie about Italian American gang youth members in the early sixties, is that the characters are just a little too stupid, a little too lazy, do not have the right amount of depth. Desire is a sort of Borzage/Lubitsch collaboration where Gary Cooper meets Marlene Dietrich, this time as a charming jewel thief. The result is charming, if not the best achievement of either director, or either star. Sweet Sweetback Baad Asssss Song, has plenty of nudity, a nice sound track and tends to meander as the title stud wanders towards a larger political consciousness after a run in with racist police The result is somewhat mixed as one notices something a bit more interesting than the crude simplicities of the plot.

Are we having this lead for 2002? I have Sandler the only lead for Punch Drunk Love and Foster the only lead for Panic Room.

Actor Joel Haley Osment, A.I. Artificial Intelligence* Tom Wilkinson, In the Bedroom Elijah Wood, The Lord of the Rings: the Fellowship of the Ring Gene Hackman, The Royal Tenenbaums Aurelien Recoing, Time Out Runner-ups: Denzel Washington (Training Day), John Goodman (Monsters Inc.) Billy Crystal (Monsters Inc.), Matthieu Kassovitz (Amelie), Ryan Golsing (The Believer), Ben Stiller (Zoolander), Natar Ungalaaq (Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner), Michel Piccoli (I'm Going Home), Aamir Khan (Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India), George Clooney (Ocean's Eleven), Geoffrey Rush (The Tailor of Panama), Gael Garica Bernal (Y Tu Mama Tambien), Lior Ashkenazi (Late Marriage), Bruno Putzuku (In Praise of Love), Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone), Jake Gyllenhall (Donnie Darko), Stephen Chow (Shaolin Soccer), Gene Hackman (Heist), Johnny Depp (From Hell), Branko Duric (No Man's Land), Kumiko Aso (Pulse), Nanni Moretti (The Son's Room), Ray Winstone (Sexy Beast) *Juvenile Performance of the Year Actress Naomi Watts, Mulholland Drive Thora Birch, Ghost World Maribel Verdu, Y Tu Mama Tambien Nicole Kidman, The Others Isabelle Huppert, The Piano Teacher Runner-ups: Audrey Tautou (Amelie), Anais Reboux (Fat Girl), Graciela Borges (La Cienaga), Gracy Singh (Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India), Sissy Spacek (In the Bedroom), Ronit Elkabetz (Late Marriage), Laura Harring (Mulholland Drive), Renee Zellweger (Bridget Jones' Diary), Mercedes Moran (La Cienaga), Cecille Camp (In Praise of Love), Reese Witherspoon (Legally Blonde), Shu Qi (Millennium Mambo), Jamie Lee Curtis (The Tailor of Panama), Beatrice Dalle (Trouble Every Day) Supporting Actor Ian McKellan, The Lord of the Rings: the Fellowship of the Ring Steve Buscemi, Ghost World Jude Law, A.I. Artificial Intelligence Orlando Bloom, The Lord of the Rings: the Fellowship of the Ring Clive Owen, Gosford Park Runner-ups: William Mapother (In the Bedroom), Liberto de Rienzo (Fat Girl), John Lithgow (Shrek), Brad Pitt (Ocean's Eleven), Ben Kingsley (Sexy Beast), Owen Wilson (The Royal Tenenbaums), Tony Shalhoub (The Man Who Wasn't There), Alan Rickman (Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone), Nick Stahl (In the Bedroom), John Rhys-Davies (The Lord of the Rings: the Fellowship of the Ring), Christopher Lee (The Lord of the Rings: the Fellowship of the Ring), Peter Henry Arnatsiaq (Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner), William Hurt (A.I. Artificial Intelligence), Michael Gambon (Gosford Park), James Bentley (The Others), Owen Wilson (Zoolander), Rupert Grint (Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone), Bob Balaban (Gosford Park), Alan Bates (Gosford Park), Billy Boyd (The Lord of the Rings: the Fellowship of the Ring), Ben Stiller (The Royal Tenenbaums), Dominic Monaghan (The Lord of the Rings: the Fellowship of the Ring), Robbie Coltrane (Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone), Stephen Fry (Gosford Park), Elliott Gould (Ocean's Eleven), John Malkovich (I'm Going Home), Jake Thomas (A.I. Artificial Intelligence), Richard Grant (Gosford Park), Ryan Phillipe (Gosford Park), Will Ferrell (Zoolander), Ian Holm (The Lord of the Rings: the Fellowship of the Ring) Supporting Actress Marisa Tomei, In the Bedroom Helen Mirren, Gosford Park Maggie Smith, Gosford Park Gwyneth Paltrow, The Royal Tenenbaums Scarlett Johansson, Ghost World Runner-ups: Fionnula Flanagan (The Others), Frances O'Connor (A.I. Artificial Intelligence), Roxanne Mesquida (Fat Girl), Jennifer Connelly (A Beautiful Mind), Arsinee Khanijan (Fat Girl), Cameron Diaz (Vanilla Sky), Eileen Atkins (Gosford Park), Anjelica Huston (The Royal Tenenbaums), Ann Savage (Mulholland Drive), Kelly Macdonald (Gosford Park), Karin Viard (Time Out), Alakina Mann (The Others), Maggie Smith (Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone), Emily Watson (Gosford Park), Parker Posey (Josie and the Pussycats), Kristin Scott-Thomas (Gosford Park), Julie Deply (Waking Life), Illeana Douglas (Ghost World), Not seen: I am Sam, Ali, Monster's Ball -------Observers will note that not all the cast of The Lord of the Rings saga, as well as the Harry Potter franchise weren't listed. My rule for franchises and sagas is usually to note each actor once, usually in the movie they made the greatest impression. (Though I did nominate Al Pacino's Michael Corleone three times). Certainly, I will not be repeating the actors I've already mentioned. -------I'm not entirely sure that i actually saw Legally Blonde which says something about Witherspoon's strength as an actor, and her bad luck to usually appear in movies I don't particularly care for.

1997 L.A. Confidential The Fifth Element Boogie Nights Kundun The Sweet Hereafter Mother and Son Taste of Cherry Lost Highway Princess Mononoke The Spanish Prisoner Runner-ups: Deconstructing Harry, The Game 1998 Saving Private Ryan Lovers of the Arctic Circle Dark City The Thin Red Line Eternity and a Day Black Cat, White Cat Out of Sight The Flowers of Shanghai Rushmore After Life Runner-up: Beloved 1999 Time Regained Magnolia South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut The Matrix Toy Story 2 Eyes Wide Shut The Ninth Gate Beau Travail Felicity’s Journey Rosetta Runner-ups: The End of the Affair, Fight Club, The Straight Story, The Wind Will Carry Us, Ghost Dog: the Way of the Samurai, L'Humanitie 2000 Requiem for a Dream Memento La Commune (Paris 1871) The Gleaners and I In the Mood for love Werckmeister Harmonies The Circle As I was Moving Ahead I Occasionally Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty The House of Mirth Yi Yi Runner-ups: Platform, Amores Perros, George Washington, High Fidelity, The Day I Became A Woman, Nine Queens 2001 A.I. Mulholland Drive The Lord of the Rings: the Fellowship of the Ring In the Bedroom Ghost World The Others Gosford Park Amelie The Royal Tenenbaums Fat Girl Runner-ups: In Praise of Love, La Cienaga, The Piano Teacher, Time Out, Atanarjuat

Moonraker has an excellent beginning, and Michael Lonsdale is so good you forget his character is an idiot: the British have no reason to suspect him, so why try to kill their representative as soon as he shows up?

Comparing the polls to the oscar winners, nineties edition Supporting Actress Goldberg, winner 2-1 Ruehl, tied 2-2 Tomei, no votes Paquin, defeated 2-1, six way tie for 2nd Wiest, tied 2-2-2 Sorvino, no votes Binoche, winner 3-2 Basinger, no votes Dench, no votes Jolie, 1 vote, seven way tie for 1st Supporting Actor Pesci, winner 2-1 Palance, no votes Hackman, defeated 2-1, four way for 2nd Jones, defeated 3-1, two way tie for 3rd Landau, winner 3-2 Spacey, defeated 2-1 (by himself) five way tied for 2nd Gooding, no votes Williams, winner 3-1 Coburn, no votes Caine, defeated 2-1 five way tie for 2nd Actress Bates, winner 2-1 Foster, winner 4-1 Thompson, winner 3-1 Hunter, no votes Lange, no votes Sarandon, tied 3-3 McDormand, defeated 2-1, six way tied for 2nd Hunt, no votes Paltrow, winner 3-1 Swank, winner 3-1 Actor Irons, 1 vote, five way tie for 1st Hopkins, tied 2-2 Pacino, no votes Hanks (1), no votes Hanks (2), defeated 2-1, four way tied for 3rd Cage, winner 2-1 Rush, no votes Nicholson, defeated 3-1, five way tie for 2nd Benigni, defeated 3-1, five way tie for 2nd '1997] Spacey, 1 vote, seven way tie for 1st

Here are the movies from the top 500 of theyshootpictures.com top 1000 greatest films of all time that TCM has not actually shown: #40 Blade Runner (1982, Scott) #61 Shoah (1985, Lanzmann) #64 Mulholland Drive (2001. Lynch) #92 Aguirre: the Wrath of God (1972, Herzog) Coming in September #96 The Shining (1980, Kubrick) #101 Satantango (1994, Tarr) #102 The Mother and the W*or* (1973, Eustache) #109 Once Upon a Time in America (1984, Leone) #114 Star Wars (1977, Lucas) #118 L'Age D'Or (1930, Bunuel) #126 Don't Look Now (1973, Roeg) #131 Yi Yi (2000, Yang) #134 E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982, Spielberg) #137 Histoire(s) du Cinema (1998, Godard) #147 Come and See (1985, Klimov) #151 The Gospel According to Saint Matthew (1964, Pasolini) #162 The Passenger (1975, Antonioni) #165 L'Argent (1983, Bresson) #167 Mouchette (1967, Bresson) #171 Dekalog (1989, Kieslowski) #172 The Travelling Players (1975, Angelopoulos) #174 Spring in a Small Town (1948, Fei) #177 Celine and Julie Go Boating (1974, Rivette) #184 There will be Blood (2007, Anderson) #191 Le Samourai (1967, Melville) #198 Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975, Pasolini) #199 Breaking the Waves (1996, Von Trier) #203 A City of Sadness (1989, Hou) #204 Two or Three Things I Know About Her (1967, Godard) #205 Wavelength (1967, Snow) #207 Cache (2005, Haneke) #210 The Thin Red Line (1998, Malick) #212 Schindler's List (1993, Spielberg) #217 Fargo (1995, Coen) #219 Chungking Express (1994, Wong) Coming in June #220 The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974, Hooper) #223 The Colour of Pomegranates (1968, Parajanov) #225 Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981, Spielberg) #235 The Tree of Life (2011, Malick) #241 Tropical Malady (2004, Weerasethakul) #243 The Thin Blue Line (1988, Morris) #247 Three Colours: Red (1994, Kieslowski) #251 Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004, Gondry) #256 Floating Clouds (1955, Naruse) #258 Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988, Davies) #259 Magnolia (1999, Anderson) #263 El Verdugo/The Executioner (1963, Garcia Berlanga) #264 The Big Lebowski (1998, Coen) #270 Week-End (1967, Godard) Coming in June #273 Black God, White Devil (1964, Rocha) #277 Memories of Underdevelopment (1968, Gutierrez Alea) #283 Underground (1995, Kusturica) #284 Love Streams (1984, Cassavetes) #287 An Autumn Afternoon (1962, Ozu) #289 Kings of the Road (1976, Wenders) #293 Listen to Britain (1942, Jennings) #295 Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980, Fassbinder) #296 The Puppetmaster (1993, Hou) #302 The Empire Strikes Back (1980, Kershner) #305 All About My Mother (1999, Almodovar) #307 In the Realm of the Senses (1976, Oshima) #310 The Crime of Monsieur Lange (1936, Renoir) #313 The Matrix (1999, Wachowski) #314 The Thing (1982, Carpenter) #316 October (1927, Eisenstein) #317 The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976, Cassavetes) #318 Dawn of the Dead (1978, Romero) #319 Werckmeister Harmonies (2000, Tarr) #320 El (1952, Bunuel) #322 The Time to Live and the Time to Die (1985, Hou) #329 A Touch of Zen (1969, Hu) Coming in July #331 Eyes Wide Shut (1999, Kubrick) #335 City of God (2002, Meirelles) #337 Happy Together (1997, Wong) #339 Through the Olive Trees (1994, Kiarostami) #340 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937, Hand) #342 Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks (2003, Wang) #343 If (1968, Anderson) #345 Lost Highway (1997, Lynch) #349 Don't Look Back (1967, Pennebaker) Coming in September #350 The Green Ray (1986, Rohmer) #354 The Celebration (1998, Vinterberg) #357 Last Tango in Paris (1972, Bertolucci) #361 The Tenant (1976, Polanski) #363 1900 (1976, Bertolucci) #364 In a Year with 13 Moons (1978, Fassbinder) #366 Chelsea Girls (1966, Warhol) #367 Man of Aran (1934, Flaherty) Coming in September #375 Landscape in the Mist (1988, Angelopoulos) #376 The Cloud-Capped Star (1960, Ghatak) #377 A Moment of Innocence (1996, Makhmalbaf) #378 The Tree of Wooden Clogs (1978, Olmi) #381 Dead Ringers (1988, Cronenberg) #386 Out 1: Noli me Tangere (1971, Rivette) #389 Charulata (1965, Ray) Coming in September #394 The Dead (1987, Huston) #395 Brokeback Mountain (2005, Lee) #397 Wall-E (2008, Stanton) #398 Teorema (1968, Pasolini) #399 The Gleaners and I (2000, Varda) #401 Carrie (1976 De Palma) #402 The Hour of the Furnaces (1968, Getino, Solanges) #405 Opening Night (1977, Cassavetes) #406 Raise the Red Lantern (1991, Zhang) #410 Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010, Weerasethakul) #412 Dogville (2003, von Trier) #418 Army of Shadows (1969, Melville) Coming in August #420 Barren Lives (1963, dos Santos) #421 Fitzcarraldo (1982, Herzog) Coming in September #422 Marketa Lazarova (1967, Vlacil) #425 Terra em Transe (1967, Rocha) #427 The Turin Horse (2011, Tarr) #428 The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (2005, Puiu) #430 Fight Club (1999, Fincher) #432 Quince Tree of the Sun (1992, Erice) #435 The White Ribbon (2009, Haneke) #439 TheWind Will Carry Us (1999, Kiarostami) #440 La Region centrale, (1971, Snow) #444 The Shawshank Redemption (1994, Darabont) #448 Platform (2000, Jia) #449 The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974, Herzog) #450 Elephant (2003, Van Sant) #452 A nos amours (1983, Pialat) #455 Short Cuts (1993, Altman) #459 Fantasia (1940, Various Directors) #460 Triumph of the Will (1935, Riefenstahl) #461 Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979, Jones) #463 Shadows of Our Forgotten Ancestors (1964, Parajanov) #465 The Road Warrior (1981, Miller) #466 Muriel (1963, Resnais) #467 Punch-Drunk Love (2002, Anderson) #469 Pinocchio (1940, Sharpsteen & Luske) #470 Toy Story (1995, Lasseter) #471 Naked (1993, Leigh) #475 The Sound of Music (1965, Wise) #476 The Silence (1963, Bergman) #477 Land Without Bread (1932, Bunuel) #478 Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000 Lee) #483 Flowers of Shanghai (1998, Hou) #485 Yellow Earth (1984, Chen) #486 Melancholia (2011, von Trier) #489 India Song (1975, Duras) #494 Tale of Tales (1979, Norshteyn) #496 Miracle in Milan (1951, De Sica) #497 Talk to Her (2002, Almodovar) #499 Safe (1995, Haynes) #500 All That Jazz (1979, Fosse)

Last week I saw seven movies. It didn't start off well. A Good Day to Die Hard was not only completely unnecessary, it managed to be thoughtlessly mediocre in a wide variety of ways. One particular problem is that the CIA seems to have been deeply stupid in the first place, and there's no good reason why Bruce Willis should catch on to the plot twist when he's running around in a foreign country that is not really enthusiastic having foreigners running around with firearms. Tie me Up! Time me Down! is certainly superior to it on a technical level, though one might wonder what about a movie which suggests that its all right for a nitwit to kidnap a porn star until she falls in love with him if said nitwit looks like Antonio Banderas. Paradise is There: the New Tigerlily Recordings is a documentary about Natalie Merchant who decided to rerecord her 1995 album 'Tigherlily." I actually like the album, although Merchant appears a little vain about it and her fans don't appear particularly perceptive. More music in the music documentary would have helped. There is one interesting scene, involving the song 'Wonder,' where Merchant back in the mid nineties met two twin girls who suffered from a serious disease who were inspired by the song. We see them meeting after the girls' graduation, we Merchant talking to their mother, we see the girls grown up later, and later we learn that the two have in fact died. Colossal is a more impressive movie, with Anne Hathaway looking very pretty and fetching as a bit of a screw-up who finds that when she walks through a park in the morning, a giant monster shows up in Seoul. Hathaway is very good, and the show plays out its conceit very well. (Although one important point is told rather than shown.) Night and Day may join They died with Their Boots On for egregiously historically inaccurate Hollywood movies that are still enjoyable. Grant is charming, and one might think he would be perfect to play Cole Porter if you had no idea of what Porter actually looked like. There are also some nice musical numbers. Personal Shopper is an odd, but interesting film, with a very good performance from Kristen Stewart, who plays a shopper for a supermodel who would find it too awkward to do her shopping herself. The movie appears to be a number of things, a picture of a woman essentially be a servant of the super rich, an erotic thriller and also a supernatural thriller. The result is genuinely disconcerting in places. The Warriors is a movie that one would think would have a bigger reputation than it does. It's well shot, well directed, with a fine sense of atmosphere and a good music score. One should note Lynne Thigpen as an especially sinister DJ. One should also note the relatively nuanced gender politics involved. It says something about how New York exists in the popular imagination that critics noticed at the time how unrealistic it was. Such is the image of the almost bankrupt city that isn't immediately apparent when you see it for the first time. The violence that attended the original release also hampered the movie's reception.

Why is Buscemi the lead? It's not his story, but Birch's. The groups that noticed his performance, Chicago, Independent Spirit, National Society of Film Critics, New York Film Critics, Village Voice Critic Films Poll (which Buscemi all won), Toronto, Golden Globes, AFI (where he was nominated) all had him as supporting.

Actor John Cusack, High Fidelity Tony Leung Chiu-wai, In the Mood For Love Guy Pearce, Memento Jared Leto, Requiem for a Dream Wu Nien-Jen, Yi Yi Runner-ups: Lars Rudolph (Werckmeister Harmonies), Christian Bale (American Psycho), Michael Douglas (Wonder Boys), Javier Bardem (Before Night Falls), Donald Holden (George Washington), Bruce Willis (Unbreakable), Chow-Yun Fat (Couching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), Michael Douglas (Traffic), Ricardo Darin (Nine Queens), Abdelhak Zayra (Ali Zaoua), Wang Hongwei (Platform), George Clooney (O Brother, Where Art Thou?), David Spade (The Emperor's New Groove), Patrick Fugit (Almost Famous), John Malkovich (Shadow of the Vampire), Stanislaw Merhar (The Captive), Harrison Ford (What Lies Beneath), German Jeramillo (Our Lady of the Assassins), Jason Statham (Snatch), Vin Diesel (Pitch Black), Actress Julia Roberts, Erin Brockovich Maggie Cheung, In the Mood for Love Gillian Anderson, The House of Mirth Bjork, Dancer in the Dark Ellen Burstyn, Requiem for a Dream Runner-ups: Laura Linney (You Can Count on Me), Sylvie Testud (The Captive), Zhao Tao (Platform), Michelle Yeoh (Couching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), Cameron Diaz (Charlie's Angels), Zhang Ziyi (Couching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), Drew Barrymore (Charlie's Angels), Juliette Binoche (Code Unknown), Sandra Bullock (Miss Congeniality), Michelle Pfeiffer (What Lies Beneath), Supporting Actor Joe Pantoliano, Memento Jack Black, High Fidelity Albert Finney, Erin Brockovich Jonathan Chang, Yi Yi* Marlon Wayans, Requiem for a Dream Runner-ups: Samuel L. Jackson (Unbreakable), Emilio Echevarria (Amores Perros), Jeff Bridges (The Contender), Willem Dafoe (Shadow of the Vampire), Benicio del Toro (Traffic), Joel Grey (Dancer in the Dark), Johnny Depp (Before Night Falls), Gael Garcia Bernal (Amores Perros), Robert Downey Jr., (Wonder Boys), Dan Aykroyd (The House of Mirth), David Morse (Dancer in the Dark), Chang Chen (Couching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), Eric Stoltz (The House of Mirth), Ian McKellan (X-Men), Philip Seymour Hoffman (Almost Famous), Hsi Sheng Chen (Yi Yi), Morgan Freeman (Nurse Betty), Bill Murray (Charlie's Angels), Eugene Levy (Best in Show), Issey Ogata (Yi Yi), Oliver Reed (Gladiator), Michael Caine (Miss Congeniality), *Juvenile Performance of the Year Supporting Actress Aurelia Petit, La Commune (Paris 1871) Jennifer Connelly, Requiem for a Dream Catherine Zeta-Jones, Traffic Chloe Sevigny, American Psycho Catherine Deneuve, Dancer in the Dark Runner-ups: Carrie-Ann Moss (Memento), Kate Hudson (Almost Famous), Kelly Lee (Yi Yi), Maryiam Parvin Almani (The Circle), Fatemeh Cherag Ahkar (The Day I Became a Woman), Hanna Schygulla (Werckmeister Harmonies), Parker Posey (Scream 3), Elaine May (Small Time Crooks), Reese Witherspoon (American Psycho), Fatemeh Naghavi (The Circle), Amanda Peet (The Whole Nine Yards), Holly Hunter (O Brother, Where Art Thou?), Frances McDormand (Almost Famous), Zooey Deschanel (Almost Famous), Catherine O'Hara (Best in Show), Marcia Gay Harden (Pol**k), Shabriam Tolouei (The Day I Became a Woman), Not seen: Chocolat, Quills ------Chocolat is the last best picture nominee that I have not actually seen. ------There are surprisingly more movies from this year that I like, but a surprisingly large number of them don't really have performances. ------Catherine Deneuve joins James Mason, Max von Sydom and Jack Lemmon for getting acting nominations in five consecutive decades.

I want to say more about Time Regained, my favorite movie of 1999, one of my favorite movies of the nineties, and winner of my best Actor and Supporting Actor awards. Although the movie takes the title from the last of the seven volumes of The Remembrance of Things Past, it is not a simple adaptation of the novel. Rather it builds on the novel while making allusions to the other six novels. It does help immeasurably if you actually know what the novel is about. One can divide the movie into three roughly equal sections (it's about 160 minutes). The first introduces Marcel on his death bed, and then introduces the characters, in particularly the relations of his childhood friend Gilberte Swann (pictured above, played by Emmanuelle Beart), and her troubled marriage with Robert Saint-Loup, the nephew of leading aristocrats who is both having an affair with the Jewish actress Rachel while having bisexual affairs. (Marcel says to Gilberte at one point: "It's good that you feel sad: it proves that love him.") Catherine Denueve plays her mother, Odette. Ironically, Denueve's actual daugher, Chiara Mastoianni, appears briefly as Marcel's lost love Albertine. (One scene has Marcel confusing Gilberte's and Albertine's signatures.) The second part of the movie deals with the war years, as did the final novel. We see here especially John Malkovich as the Baron de Charlus. From Stuart Klawans' review:  "This brings us to one of the brothel’s clients, the Baron de Charlus, and the masterstroke of Ruiz’s casting. Aesthete, moralist, hypocrite, soft touch, conversational terror and all-around instructive figure, Charlus is played by John Malkovich. Supplied with a thatch of frizzed-out hair and a tuft of beard beneath his lower lip, Malkovich looks uncannily like Montesquiou (Proust’s model for Charlus), with Whistler thrown in for good measure. Does Malkovich sound like a native speaker of French? Not at all. But he’s a sly actor and knows the baron’s epigrams might rise languidly to the lips, as if half-sung. The care Malkovich must take with his pronunciation turns into a feature of the character. As for the giggle, the imperiousness, the X-ray vision, the vain attempts to hide the bad teeth and, finally, near death, the shambling pathos, these all come directly from the book and from some unknown source within Malkovich. This is easily his best performance." One is particularly struck by a sequence where Charlus is whipped in a male brothel. After the experience he complains to his loyal retainer Jupien about his flagellator: "He says 'scum,' like a schoolboy reciting by rote." Later he confronts the brothel's employees: "How sweet. You say it so well. It almost sounds true." The third part deals with a concert held after the war that Marcel attends. Saint-Loup is dead, Charlus is severly aged, and his treacherous lover Morel shines as the one playing piano. It's important to note that this tripartite structure does not proceed in a simple chronological manner. Often Marcel will remember something and time only slowly advances as the movie proceeds. One is struck by the sinuous, elegant long takes and tracking shots. Several times in the movie it appears that the furniture is moving or changing. And the movie revels in the sensuous beauty that is key to the novel. Rachel refers at one point to "strawberries in ether like kissing snow." There is one shot that looks at the apples in the japanese style wallpaper in Marcel's bedroom, then through the windows to the trees outside and then in the distance the spire of Combray cathedral. Marcel remembers the exquisite china of the Verdurins, "their anemic roses turning violent." There is a scene where Marcel takes tea, and the butler asks milk (no), then sugar (one lump), then slowly stirs, and the movie segues back to a memory of Marcel on a train. And there is a last scene where Marcel notes a girl with a vulgar laugh, but is entranced with her cuffwork. The final shot, with the adult Marcel at the Balbec sea resort he visited as a child, brings to light Adorno's comment: "Proust is a martyr to happiness."

My choices for the nineties Actor Morgan Freeman, Se7en (1995) Actress Mara Wilson, Matilda (1996) Supporting Actor Kevin Spacey, The Usual Suspects (1995) Supporting Actress Lorraine Bracco, Goodfellas, (1990) Juvenile Performance Mara Wilson, Matilda (1996)

French Wikipedia gives her birthday as October 1975 for a movie released in February 1990, whose title for American release is indeed C'est la Vie.

Incidentally, I clearly indicated that Julie Bataille was my choice for juvenile performance of 1990. It seems to have been missed.