skimpole

Actor Dustin Hoffman, Midnight Cowboy Anatoly Solonitsyn, Andrei Rublev Lino Ventura, Army of Shadows William Holden, The Wild Bunch Jon Voight, Midnight Cowboy Runner-ups: Peter Finch (The Red Tent), David Bradley (Kes), Jean-Pierre Kalfon (L'Amour fou), Tetsuo Abe (Boy), Max von Sydow (The Passion of Anna), Paul Newman (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid), Dirk Bograde (The Damned), Jean-Louis Trintignat (My Night at Maud's), Robert Redford (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid), Arlo Guthrie (Alice's Restaurant), Helmut Berger (The Damned), Oliver Reed (The Assassination Bureau), Michel Bouquet (The Unfaithful Wife), Robert Forster (Medium Cool), Michael Sarrazin (They Shoot Horses, Don't They?), Paul Frankeur (The Milky Way), Mauricio do Valle (Antonio das Mortes), John Wayne (True Grit) Actress Maggie Smith, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie Jane Fonda, They Shoot Horses, Don't They? Bulle Ogier, L'Amour fou Diana Rigg, The Assassination Bureau Liv Ullmann, The Passion of Anna Runner-ups: Francoise Fabian (My Night at Maud's), Stephane Audran (The Unfaithful Wife), Akiko Koyama (Boy), Katharine Ross (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid), Shirley Knight (The Rain People), Catherine Denueve (Mississippi Mermaid), Supporting Actor: Jean-Louis Trintignat, Z Ernest Borgnine, The Wild Bunch Nikolai Burlyayev, Andrei Rublev Gig Young, They Shoot Horses, Don't They? Sean Connery, The Red Tent Runner-ups: Nikolai Grinko (Andrei Rublev), Jack Nicholson (Easy Rider), Robert Ryan (The Wild Bunch), Yves Montand (Z), Paul Meurisse (Army of Shadows), Roy Chiao (A Touch of Zen), Jacques Perrin (Z), Hardy Kruger (The Red Tent), Fumio Watanabe (Boy), Pierre Dux (Z), Edmond O'Brien (The Wild Bunch), Marcel Bozzuffi (Z), Telly Savalas (The Assassination Bureau), Renato Salvatori (Z), Warren Oates (The Wild Bunch), Erland Josephson (The Passion of Anna), Supporting Actress Simone Signoret, Army of Shadows Irma Raush, Andrei Rublev Ingrid Thulin, The Damned Bibi Andersson, The Passion of Anna Claudia Cardinale, The Red Tent Runner-ups: Susannah York (They Shoot Horses, Don't They?), Pamela Franklin (The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie), Irene Papas (Z), Annabella Incontrera (The Assassination Bureau) Not seen: Hello, Dolly!, The Sterile Cuckoo, The Happy Ending, The Reivers, Cactus Flower, Last Summer -------Jon Voight was lucky this year, since two of the movies on my best of year were, on close examination, shifted to 1970.

Richard Brody on Moonlight, for The New Yorker: http://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/the-unbearable-intimacy-of-moonlight

I can't say I'm ever wild about Oscar month, since most of the oscar nominated movies I want to watch I've already seen before. But there are some movies interesting to see in the name of completedness. 2/1 The Adventures of Mark Twain: I remember seeing the first few minutes of this back in 1981, and all I remember is an explanation of the name Mark Twain. On the one hand, a life of Mark Twain sounds interesting. On the other hand, the biopic is not a Hollywood genre I admire or care for. And if I wanted to cast Mark Twain, I don't think I'd cast Frederic March, an actor I don't find particularly interesting. 2/2 Both nice to see Barry Lyndon and The Battle of Algiers. Battleground, early on the 3rd, is a best picture winner I haven't seen. 2/4 I wouldn't mind seeing The Boy Friend again, but Saturday afternoon is not a good time for me. 2/6 Coquette is considered a bad Best actress winner, basically a sop for Mary Pickford. But it would be nice for me to check that out for myself. 2/7 My top 10s for 1927, 1929, 1930, 1938, 1942 and 1943 are incomplete. So Destination Tokyo might be worth a look. So might Dreamgirls, Fame and Fanny. 2/8 Will TCM Canada finally get to see Foreign Correspondent? Don't bet on it. 2/10 The Great Waltz probably won't fit my 1938 top 10, but why not watch it and see? 2/11 The Hasty Heart is one of the few oscar nominated movies to star Ronald Reagan. 2/13 I'll Cry Tomorrow is one of the more respected acting nominees that I haven't seen. Kings Row is one of the other few oscar nominated movies to star Reagan. 2/14 Nice to have La Ronde in a weekday afternoon. 2/15 Love me or Leave Me is one Cagney nominated performance I haven't seen. 2/16 Madame Curie is a "major" 1943 movie. Merrily we Live is a "major" 1938 movie. It's nice to know McCabe and Mrs. Miller is on. 2/19 The Patent Leather Kid is a rare 1927 movie. 2/23 The Sea Wolf is a movie I think of watching but never do. 2/25 I've seen A Tale of Two Cities before, but I would like to see it again. 2/26 A Thousand Clowns is a best picture nominee I haven't seen. 2/28 Tristana is an interesting TCM foreign movie choice. 3/2 Weary River is a largely forgotten 1929 directorial nominee. 3/3 The Young Girls of Rochefort and Z are good foreign film choices to end Oscar month The Young in Heart is another 1938 movie.

It's Documentary Month on TCM! What are you particularly looking forward to? I'm looking forward to The Sorrow and the Pity, The Battle of Chile, Woodstock, Sherman's March and Sans Soleil. I would really like to see part III of The Battle of Chile. I'd also like to see In the Year of the Pig and Winter Soldier instead of, or in addition to Hearts and Minds. And I would really like me some Frederick Wiseman.

Katherine Ross in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid: lead or supporting?

There are movies with love triangles. Usually one side wins and the other loses. What does one do with the loser? Often the loser clearly is supposed to lose: why would anyone prefer Ralph Bellamy to Cary Grant. Often some thing very unpleasant happens to the loser, such as Claude Rains in Notorious. But what about in movies where we are supposed to clearly care for both suitors? Sometimes both lose, one thinks of Three Comrades. Sometimes we can just assume that the loser will find someone some other day: there's no particularly pressing need for him to find someone immediately. One things of James Stewart in The Philadelphia Story. But can anyone think of movies where the loser gets a consolation prize, so to speak? How would that work exactly?

I have never had trouble recognizing Kate Winslet. But I have trouble telling Beckinsale, Knightley and Hathaway apart. Now that I've been looking them up in Wikipedia, I can remember Beckinsale because she was in Love and Friendship, Hathaway was in Rachel Getting Married, and Knightley is in a number of movies, most notably the Pirate of the Caribbean series. Knightley was also in Atonement, which I did not like, Hathaway won an oscar for Les Miserables, which I loathed, and Beckinsale has been in a number of forgettable blockbusters such as the Underworld series, which I've never bothered to watch.

For The Damned I have Bogarde and Berger as leads, and Thulin as supporting. Any thoughts?

How interesting. Last year the only Best Picture nominee I didn't see in a theatre was Bridge of Spies.

How interesting. I also have two films from 1968 in my all time top ten, as well as two each from 1974 and 1985. In my view, it's 1985 that's the weak year.

I saw six movies last week. Lady Snowblood is a Japanese vengeance movie from the seventies, with extra violence over its predecessors. As it stands, I can't say I'm all that sympathetic to the genre. And to make things worse, the spurting blood reminds me nothing so much as of Sam Peckinpah's "Salad Days." Wild Canaries is an odd independent movie. You would not think there would be much call for a remake of Manhattan Murder Mystery with younger, hotter and arguably less interesting actors. But if you stay with it, you can find parts of it amusing. Blue Valentine is a movie about a collapsing marriage and one suspects that the inarticulacy of its working class couple is a convenient excuse for the director's lack of anything particularly profound to say. That's not to say that Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling don't do a good job. They do, and one wishes the story had done them a little more depth. Confessions of a Nazi Spy is known today for two things. It was the first major anti-Nazi movie made by a major Hollywood studio. And it was the National Board of Review's choice of best movie of 1939, Hollywood's golden year. History has done little to vindicate that judgement. It's not particularly profound of exciting. In retrospect it looks more like a pro-FBI movie than an anti-Nazi one. Star Trek: Beyond does nothing to make the existence of its franchise any more necessary. The quasi-magical super bomb or whatever might as well has been called a McGuffin for all the interest we're to have in it. Despite a certain competence, there isn't any real need to make the old series with new actors. Shaun the Sheep is certainly an amusing movie. One wonders why I don't admire Aardman movies more. It's inventive and clever, it just lacks a certain emotional connection. Slightly daft middle age men and their pets perhaps just aren't that compelling to me.

Actor Douglas Rain, 2001: a Space Odyssey Malcolm McDowell, If... Steve McQueen, Bullitt 1967 movie nominated in 1968 Zero Mostel, The Producers Max von Sydow, Shame Replacement for Mostel George C Scott, Petulia Runner-ups: John Marley (Faces), John Cassavetes (Rosemary's Baby), Jean-Pierre Leaud (Stolen Kisses), Do-yun Yu (Death by Hanging), Burt Lancaster (The Swimmer), Michel Terrazon (L'Enfance Nue), Claude Rich (Je t'aime, Je t'aime), Max von Sydow (The Hour of the Wolf), Richard Burton (Where Eagles Dare), Terence Stamp (Teorema), Peter Cepk (The Valley of the Bees), Jack Lemmon (The Odd Couple), Walter Matthau (The Odd Couple), Vincent Price (Witchfinder General), Peter Sellers (The Party), Sergio Corrieri (Memories of Underdevelopment) Actress Liv Ullmann, Shame Mia Farrow, Rosemary's Baby Gena Rowlands, Faces Barbra Streisand, Funny Girl Julie Christie, Petulia Runner-ups: Katharine Hepburn (The Lion in the Winter), Liv Ullmann (The Hour of the Wolf), Claudia Cardinale (Once Upon a Time in the West), Julie Andrews (Star!), Joanne Woodward (Rachel, Rachel), Olivia Hussey (Romeo and Juliet), Claude Jade (Stolen Kisses), Olga Georges-Picot (Je t'aime, Je t'aime) Supporting Actor: Boris Karloff, Targets Ron Moody, Oliver! 1965 movie nominated in 1968 Jean Martin, The Battle of Algiers 1967 movie nominated in 1968 Gene Wilder, The Producers Jason Robards, Once upon a Time in the West Substitutes for Martin and Wilder Daniel Richter, 2001: A Space Odyssey Oliver Reed, Oliver! Runner-ups: Charles Bronson (Once Upon a Time in the West), Paul Angelis (Yellow Submarine), Ralph Bellamy (Rosemary's Baby), Brahim Hadjadj (The Battle of Algiers), William Sylvester (2001: A Space Odyssey), Henry Fonda (Once upon a Time in the West), Jan Kacer (The Valley of the Bees), Robert Vaughn (Bullitt), Jack Wild (Oliver!), Fumio Watanabe (Death by Hanging), Daniel Massey (Star!), Dick Emery (Yellow Submarine), Gunnar Bjornstrand (Shame), Erland Josephson (The Hour of the Wolf), Woody Strode (Once upon a Time in the West), Michael York (Romeo and Juliet), Supporting Actress Ruth Gordon, Rosemary's Baby Vera Galatikova, The Valley of the Bees Delphine Seyrig, Stolen Kisses 1965 movie nominated in 1968 Samia Kerbash, The Battle of Algiers Anne Wiazemsky, Teorema Substitute for Kerbash Sofiko Chiaureli, The Color of Pomegranates Runner-ups: Shanni Wallis (Oliver!), Lynn Carlin (Faces), Akiko Koyama (Death by Hanging) Not seen: The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, The Fixer, The Subject was Roses, Isadora ------One might argue that Douglas Rain is really a supporting performance. But no other from this year is as iconic or indelible. ------Special call out to Richter, even as a runner-up. One should get some kind of recognition when people think you're an actual ape, and they give the makeup award to The Planet of the Apes instead. ------The 20 nominees come from 16 films. This is a record number of movies for this decade from me at least. ------The supporting actress list this year is a bit weak, but the first three at least are very impressive and I did find three/four runner-ups.

I'm actually very interested in A Quiet Passion, a new film from Terence Davies about Emily Dickinson. It's been appearing in film festivals but apparently won't be generally released, if at all, until February (so it will be forgotten by the time the 2017 oscars come out.) Anyway, here's a review from The Guardian by Andrew Pulver: In 2015 Terence Davies released Sunset Song, his expansive adaptation of Lewis Grassic Gibbon’s novel of Scottish hill-farm life; now, early in 2016, another film has emerged: a biopic of 19th-century American poet Emily Dickinson, who died in 1886 after a lifetime of respectable frustration. On the face of it, the two couldn’t be more different: the former revels in its sweeping landscapes and full-blooded screaming matches, while the latter is a resolutely-controlled miniature, barely setting foot outside the Dickinson house in Amherst, Massachusetts. Terence Davies on religion, being gay and his life in film: ‘Despair is awful because it’s worse than any pain’ Read more For all that, A Quiet Passion sees Davies returning again to some familiar themes. His Dickinson – superbly played with a sort of restless passivity by Cynthia Nixon – is, like Sunset Song’s Chris Guthrie, a figure trapped by history and circumstance, desperate to find an outlet for the overwhelming emotions surging inside her. The internal politics of the family plays a dominant path in both – though in A Quiet Passion, the Dickinson paterfamilias Edward (Keith Carradine) is a figure of stern rectitude, for sure, but a long way from the demonic, violent father-figures in which Davies has previously specialised. Dickinson, in her emotional isolation and determination to confound suffocating social norms, also shares something with the Lily Bart of Davies’ 2000 masterpiece The House of Mirth. Dickinson’s circumscribed life, with its interiorised focus, is certainly a challenge for film adaptation, and Davies’ solution – perhaps inevitably – is to cast it as a chamber drama, almost literally. A Quiet Passion rarely ventures outside Dickinson’s study, bedroom or living room, and makes the most of even the most minor of incidents. When Dickinson conceives a characteristically understated passion for a local clergyman – so understated, it’s only after an argument with her sister that you realise she was ever in love with him at all – the act of inviting him and his sanctimonious wife round for tea becomes a highly charged, meaningful encounter. Dickinson’s exchanges with her family – sister Lavinia (Jennifer Ehle), brother Austin (Duncan Duff), mother Emily (Joanna Bacon) – as well as their witticism-spouting friend Vryling Wilder Buffum (Catherine Bailey) form the meat of the film, which is designed to articulate Dickinson’s principled stand against social convention, and to somehow humanise a figure that has become a byword for introversion and reclusiveness. In this it must be said Nixon does a brilliant job, and Davies’ self-written script, which dwells on the quotidian as much as grand gestures, gives her the tools. Above all, though, it is Davies’ ability to invest even the most apparently-humdrum moments with some form of intense radiance that sustains his film. Every shot is beautifully composed and lit – as we have come to expect – and the actors deliver every line with absolute conviction. Dropping key poems on to the soundtrack may be a conventional move, but Davies’ selection is unerring and reinforces the emotion at every point. Classical though his shooting style may be, Davies isn’t afraid to try a little digital trickery: he overcomes the awkward age-jump moment when the younger actors are jettisoned by a smart ageing process in a portrait-photography studio. After a long period in the wilderness, A Quiet Passion is Davies’ third feature since his comeback documentary Of Time and the City, following the Terence Rattigan adaptation The Deep Blue Sea, and then Sunset Song. We should be relieved that there’s no diminution of powers: rather, the opposite, in that Davies appears to be getting better every time.

Yeah, I'd have to argue with the basic premise. At the time a sizable majority of American opposed women running for president, and weren't that wild about them running for any other office. The first female senator to be elected for a full term who wasn't a widow of a male politician was until 1978. Until 1993 there were no more than two elected women senators at any given time. Obviously Hepburn would be the most convincing example of a female senator. But a Tracy/Hepburn conflict would imply a romance, which given the conventions of the time, would involve Hepburn, as the woman dropping out. This is problematic in several ways. First, it would annoy the party she'd represent, which would hamper the box office. Second, given the nature of political partisanship, anyone who got so high up in the party to become its nominee would likely be fairly hostile to the opposing candidate. Third, why would Hepburn play such a role? One thing about the conflict in Adam's Rib was that Hepburn and Tracy were already married. Another thing is that presidential candidates would be more likely be in their fifties or sixties, And actresses in their fifties and sixties tend to be ignored in Hollywood. Gloria Swanson would be interesting. Margaret Dumont and Groucho Marx would be an interesting choice.

Could someone remind who's the lead in The Last Picture Show? Are all the actresses supporting?

ROGER VADIM: W.S. VAN DYKE: The Thin Man GUS VAN SANT: Paranoid Park AGNES VARDA: Le Bonheur PAUL VERHOEVEN: Black Book THOMAS VINTERBERG: The Celebration KING VIDOR: The Crowd LUCHINO VISCONTI: The Leopard FRANTISEK VLACIL: Marketa Lazarova JOSEF VON STERNBERG: The Scarlet Empress ERIC VON STROHEIM: Greed LARS VON TRIER: Europa THE WACHOWSKI BROTHERS: Bound ANDRZEJ WAJDA: Ashes and Diamonds RAOUL WALSH: White Heat WAYNE WANG: MICHAL WASZYNSKI: PETER WATKINS: La Commune (Paris 1871) APICHATPONG WEERASETHAKUL: Tropical Malady PETER WEIR: Witness ORSON WELLES: The Magnificent Ambersons WILLIAM A. WELLMAN: Heroes for Sale WIM WENDERS: Paris, Texas LINA WERTMULLER: JAMES WHALE: Bride of Frankenstein BO WIDERBERG: ROBERT WIENE: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari BILLY WILDER: Double Indemnity MICHAEL WINTERBOTTOM: 24 Hour Party People ROBERT WISE: West Side Story FREDERICK WISEMAN: National Gallery JOE WRIGHT: YUEN WO-PING: JOHN WOO: Red Cliff, Part II WILLIAM WYLER: The Best Years of Our Lives YOJI YAMADA: SADAO YAMANAKA: Humanity and Paper Balloons EDWARD YANG: A Brighter Summer Day PETER YATES: The Friends of Eddie Coyle KOZABURO YOSHIMURA: FRANCO ZEFFIRELLI: Romeo and Juliet ROBERT ZEMECKIS: Back to the Future YIMOU ZHANG: Raise The Red Lantern JIA ZHANGKE: A touch of Sin TIAN ZHUANGZHUANG: The Horse Thief FRED ZINNEMANN: A Man for all Seasons EDWARD ZWICK: Glory TERRY ZWIGOFF: Ghost World

It took two years for one of the decade's most popular movies to get to Italy? That's weird.

I wouldn't say it's the most perfect film ever made. But it's clearly underrated and Jessica Lange gives a very good performance.

"Heineken?! **** that ****! Pabst Blue Ribbon!" Blue Velvet

"Tell me...I'll do it, I'll do it." Blue Valentine

Finally In the Mood for Love, perhaps the most admired movie of this century. And I've been waiting to see The Prisoner of Shark Island for some time.

I saw five movies over the last two weeks. Honeysuckle Rose is a movie I saw because I remembered it coming out in 1980, and was curious that it had been forgotten so much in the meantime. It was directed by Jerry Schatzberg, best know for winning the Palme D'or, or its equivalent, for Scarecrow. I can't say I care much for the music of Willie Nelson, but Schatzberg takes some care to portray the country music scene, and Dyan Cannon gives a good performance. Sunset Song is the best movie of the past two weeks. This version of a woman growing up in the Scottish countryside during the first world war slowly grows on one, as the detail and nuance slowly accumulates. One can compare it to favorably to Brooklyn, in its sense of having a superior sense of time and place, as well as a better visual and auditory scope. Goku: body snatcher from Hell is certainly unusual, and I suppose that's the best one can say about it. Piccadilly is a portrait of an interracial love triangle where the white sides are not particularly interesting or sympathetic. That they end up together is what one might expect from the time, but I kept drifting out of the movie whenever Anna May Wong wasn't on screen. Finally Queen of Earth is an example of Alex Ross Perry's deeply misanthorpic cinema. I didn't much care for his previous movie, and I can't say this story of a woman having a nervous breakdown following the death of her father and a breakup with her boyfriend was very engaging. One can enjoy a bitter breakdown between friends, but it's hard to imagine these the two women even knowing what actually being friends is like.

Actor Albert Finney, Two for the Road Patrick Bauchau, La Collectionneuse Alain Delon, Le Samourai Dustin Hoffman, The Graduate Jean Yanne, Weekend Runner-ups: Warren Beatty (Bonnie and Clyde), Dirk Bogarde (Accident), Joe Shoshido (Branded to Kill), Jacques Tati (Playtime), Lee Marvin (Point Blank), Sergei Bondarchuk (War and Peace), Paul Newman (Cool Hand Luke), Alan Bates (Far From the Madding Crowd), Rod Steiger (In the Heat of the Night), Franco Citti (Oedipus Rex), Patrick Magee (Marat/Sade), Sidney Poitier (In the Heat of the Night), Robert Blake (In Cold Blood) Actress Audrey Hepburn, Two for the Road Catherine Deneuve, The Young Girls of Rochefort Marina Vlady, 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her Catherine Deneuve, Belle de Jour Edith Evans, The Whisperers Runner-ups: Haydee Politoff (La Collectionneuse), Faye Dunaway (Bonnie and Clyde), Mireille Darc (Weekend), Anne Bancroft (The Graduate), Lena Nyman (I am Curious (Yellow)), Lyudmila Savelyeva (War and Peace), Julie Christie (Far from the Madding Crowd), Julie Andrews (Thoroughly Modern Millie), Supporting Actor: Peter Cook, Bedazzled Gene Hackman, Bonnie and Clyde Gene Kelly, The Young Girls of Rochefort Koji Nanbara, Branded to Kill Terence Stamp, Far from the Madding Crowd Runner-ups: George Sanders (The Jungle Book), Eric Portman (The Whisperers), Michel Piccoli (Belle de Jour), Josef Kemr (Marketa Lazarova), George Chakiris (The Young Girls of Rochefort), George Kennedy (Cool Hand Luke), Michel Piccoli (The Young Girls of Rochefort), Jozsef Madaras (The Red and the White), Jean Sorel (Belle de Jour), Vyacheslav Tikhonov (War and Peace), Donald Sutherland (The Dirty Dozen), Ivan Paluch (Marketa Lazarova) Supporting Actress Francoise Dorleac, The Young Girls of Rochefort Juliet Berto, 2 or 3 Things I know About Her, La Chinoise, Weekend Magda Vasaryova, Marketa Lazarova Danielle Darrieux, The Young Girls of Rochefort Eleanor Bron, Two for the Road Runner-ups: Mary Tyler Moore (Thoroughly Modern Millie), Annu Mari (Branded to Kill), Pavla Polaskova (Marketa Lazarova), Tatyana Konyukhova (The Red and the White), Genevieve Page (Belle de Jour), Beatrice Lillie (Thoroughly Modern Millie), Barbara Dennek (Playtime), Katharine Ross (The Graduate) Not seen: Doctor Dolittle, Wait Until Dark, Barefoot in the Park --------after eight years, Hollywood wins a Best Actress oscar. --------The 1967 Best Picture race has an interesting pattern. It contains two uninspiring examples of "Old Hollywood," two more radical choices, and the compromise choice that is the winner. Oddly, one can see the same pattern in 1970 and 1971. In the first we see two blockbusters, and in the second we see a Broadway adaptation and a sentimental biopic. --------Bonnie and Clyde has three of the most notable performances of the decade. So it makes sense that it's the fourth one that won the oscar.

Perhaps it could be stronger, but I have five nominees for 1967 and eight runner-ups. I actually don't make my lists until the night before, but my Supporting Actress winners for 1968 and 1969 are perfectly respectable, unlike 1964. In other matters, I think Ron Moody is supporting in Oliver! notwithstanding his best Actor nomination.

Not yet, and not for another four weeks.