skimpole

Comparing the poll of the winners with the actual Oscars, fifties version Supporting Actress Harvey defeated 2-1 vote 7 way tie for 3rd Hunter winner 3-2 Grahame No Votes Reed defeated 5-2 Saint defeated 5-1 four way tie for 2nd Van Fleet tied for winner 2-2 Malone winner 3-2 Umeki defeated 2-1 four way tie for 3rd Hiller tied for winner 2-2 Winters defeated 2-1 six way tie for 2nd Supporting Actor Sanders winner 5-2 plus one vote for Best Actor Malden defeated 2-1 five way tie 3rd Quinn tied for winner 2-2 Sinatra tied for winner 2-2-2 O'Brien no votes Lemmon tied for winner 2-2 Quinn winner 3-2 Buttons no votes Ives 1 vote, eight way tie Griffith no votes Actress Holliday no votes Leigh winner 5-2 Booth winner 3-1 Hepburn winner 3-2 Kelly no votes Magnani defeated 2-1 seven way tie for 2nd Bergman no votes Woodward defeated 5-1 three way tie for 2nd Hayward winner 3-2 Signoret defeated 3-1 three way tied for 3rd (note, ran in different year from award won) Actor Ferrer no votes Bogart defeated 2-1 seven way tied for 2nd Cooper no votes Holden defeated 4-1 five way tie for 2nd Brando winner 5-1 Borgnine no votes Brynner no votes Guinness winner 3-2 Niven no votes Heston no votes

Consul Phil Putnam: Well, I guess that's your privilege. Ed Horman: No, that's my right! I just thank God we live in a country where we can still put people like you in jail. Missing

ASGHAR FARHADI: A Separation RAINER WERNER FASSBINDER: Ali: Fear Eats the Soul MU FEI: Spring in a Small Town PAL FEJOS: Lonesome FEDERICO FELLINI: Nights of Cabiria ABEL FERRARA: Bad Lieutenant LOUIS FEUILLADE: Les Vampires MIKE FIGGIS: Leaving Las Vegas DAVID FINCHER: Se7en RICHARD FLEISCHER: Tora, Tora, Tora VICTOR FLEMING: The Wizard of Oz JAMES FOLEY: Glengarry Glen Ross JOHN FORD: The Grapes of Wrath MILOS FORMAN: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest MARC FORSTER: No preference BILL FORSYTH: Local Hero BOB FOSSE: Cabaret GEORGES FRANJU: Eyes Without a Face JOHN FRANKENHEIMER: The Manchurian Candidate CARL FRANKLIN: STEPHEN FREARS: High Fidelity WILLIAM FRIEDKIN: To live and die in LA KINJI FUKUSAKU:Tora, Tora Tora SAMUEL FULLER: Pickup on South Street JOIRGE FURTADO:

I thought Jules et Jim was a 1962 movie. That's what imdb.com and Wikipedia say.

JOHN DAHL: N/A JOE DANTE:Gremlins 2: The New Batch JEAN-PIERRE AND LUC DARDENNE: The Child JULES DASSIN: Rififi DELMER DAVES: Dark Passage TERENCE DAVIES: Distant Voices, Still Lives CECIL B. DE MILLE: The Ten Commandments MANOEL DE OLIVEIRA: Doomed Love BRIAN DE PALMA: Femme Fatale VITTORIO DE SICA: Umberto D GUILLERMO DEL TORO: Pan's Labyrinth ANDRE DE TOTH: N/A JONATHAN DEMME: Stop Making Sense JACQUES DEMY: The Umbrellas of Cherbourg CLAIRE DENIS: Beau Travail ARNAUD DESPLECHIN: A Christmas Tale MICHEL DEVILLE: N/A LAV DIAZ: N/A EDWARD DMYTRYK: Crossfire ROGER DONALDSON: No Way Out STANLEY DONEN: Singin' in the Rain RICHARD DONNER: Superman ALEKSANDR DOVZHENKO: Arsenal CARL THEODOR DREYER: Ordet JULIEN DUVIVIER: Pepe Le Moko CLINT EASTWOOD: Unforgiven ATOM EGOYAN: The Sweet Hereafter MAURICE ELVEY: N/A MORRIS ENGEL: Little Fugitive SERGEI EISENSTEIN: Ivan the Terrible, Part One

JAMES CAMERON: Aliens JANE CAMPION: Portrait of a Lady MARCEL CAMUS: Black Orpheus LAURENT CANTET: Time Out FRANK CAPRA: It's a Wonderful Life LEOS CARAX: Holy Motors MARCEL CARNE: Children of Paradise JOHN CARPENTER: The Thing JOHN CASSAVETTES: A Woman under the Influence LILIANA CAVANI: The Night Porter NURI BILGE CEYLAN: Winter Sleep CLAUDE CHABROL: The Story of Women PARK CHAN-WOOK: Oldboy LEE CHANG-DONG: N/A CHARLIE CHAPLIN: Modern Times PATRICE CHEREAU: N/A VERA CHITYLOVA: Daisies MICHAEL CIMINO: The Deer Hunter SOULEYMANE CISSE: Yeelen RENE CLAIR: Le Million LARRY CLARK: N/A RENE CLEMENT: Forbidden Games HENRI-GEORGES CLOUZOT: Wages of Fear JEAN COCTEAU: Orpheus JOEL AND ETHAN COEN: Miller's Crossing BILL CONDON: Kinsey FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA: The Godfather, Part II SOFIA COPPOLA: Lost in Translation ROGER CORMAN: The Masque of the Red Death PEDRO COSTA: Colossal Youth ALEX COX: Repo Man WES CRAVEN: Scream 2 CHARLES CRICHTON: A Fish Called Wanda DAVID CRONENBERG: A History of Violence CAMERON CROWE: Say Anything ALFONSO CUARON: Children of Men GEORGE CUKOR: The Philadelphia Story ADAM CURTIS: N/A MICHAEL CURTIZ: Casablanca

I saw three movies this week. The Constant Nymph is the second movie I saw in a month by Edmund Goulding. It has an interesting visual style and the drama involved is interesting. I was actually pleased that Alexis Smith as the wife between the two lovers is actually a reasonable person. Of course, it's disconcerting that Joan Fontaine is supposed to be a teenager, when she patently isn't one. The result is a not entirely successful movie. The Men Who Stare at Goats has one good joke, which I posted in the one-line thread. But George Clooney and his colleagues are patently idiots and Ewan McGregor is too pathetic to realize the truth. So Girlhood is the movie of the week, This looks at a black teenager in Paris and how she tries to get through her depressed and depressing social circumstances by joining a group of other young women like herself and engaging in life affirming juvenile delinquency. It's well acted and well shot.

Actor Laurence Olivier, The Entertainer Anthony Perkins, Psycho Jean-Paul Belmondo, Breathless Jack Lemmon, The Apartment Max von Sydow, The Virgin Spring Runner-ups: Montgomery Clift (Wild River), Toshio Mifune (The Bad Sleep Well), Gabrielle Ferzetti (L'Avventura), Robert Mitchum (The Sundowners), Albert Finney (Saturday Night and Sunday Morning), Charles Aznavour (Shoot the Piano Player), Alain Delon (Rocco and His Brothers), Paul Newman (Exodus), Philippe Noiret (Zazie in the Metro), Kirk Douglas (Strangers When We Meet), Soumitra Chatterjee (Devi) , Burt Lancaster (Elmer Gantry), Alain Delon (Purple Noon) Actress Supriya Choudhury, The Cloud-Capped Star Shirley Maclaine, The Apartment Jean Seberg, Breathless Monica Vitti, L'Avventura Setsuko Hara, Late Autumn Runner-ups: Lee Remick (Wild River), Deborah Kerr (The Sundowners), Kim Novak (Strangers when we Meet), Sharmila Tagore (Devi), Marie Dubois (Shoot the Piano Player), Catherine Demongeot (Zazie in the Metro), Lee Eun-Shim (The Housemaid), Jean Simmons (Elmer Gantry), Eva Marie Saint (Exodus), Edith Scob, Alida Valli (Eyes Without a Face), Hideko Takamine (When a Woman Ascends the Stairs) , Supporting Actor Roger Livesay, The Entertainer Fred MacMurray, The Apartment Peter Ustinov, Spartacus, The Sundowners Albert Remy, Shoot the Piano Player Charles Laughton, Spartacus Runner-ups: Laurence Olivier (Spartacus), Michel Constantin, Jean Karaudy, Philippe Leroy, Raymond Meunier (Le Trou), Renato Salvatori (Rocco and His Brothers), Ralph Richardson (Exodus), Masayuki Mori (The Bad Sleep Well), Axel Duberg (The Virgin Spring), Supporting Actress Janet Leigh, Psycho Jo van Fleet, Wild River Gunnel Lindbloom, The Virgin Spring Lea Massari, L'Avventura Moira Shearer, Peeping Tom Runner-ups: Birgitta Pettersson (The Virgin Spring), Rachel Roberts (Saturday Night and Sunday Morning), Anna Giradot, Katrina Paxinou (Rocco and His Brothers), Yuko Tsukasa, Mariko Okada (Late Autumn) Not seen: The Alamo, Sons and Lovers, Never on Sunday, Murder Inc, The Dark at the Top of the Stairs -------, In Contrast to TomJH, I had no trouble finding sufficient choices for both actress categories this year. It doesn't matter which year Two Women is considered, because Loren just misses the cut-off in both of them. ------, I chose Olivier over Perkins, partly because the serial killer theme has not had a good influence on movies. -------Albert Finney, Alain Delon, and Paul Newman all make their first appearances this year. As it happens they all appear as runner-ups, given a rather strong year in all acting categories. But that will change.

OK, the juvenile award is fairly self-explanatory, since she was the one juvenile who actually won an award. The thing about supporting actors is that strong supporting actors can blur with actors. That's true of three of my other choices for this decade (Vanel, Mifune, Mitchum), while one of my choices for actor actually won the oscar for supporting actor (Sanders). This is rarely a problem for actresses, since there are fewer such roles for women period. Bel Geddes was clearly the leading supporting of the decade, the "normal" role that is never close enough to desire. As for actress, Monroe and Swanson are rightfully iconic, but Bergman is ultimately the more complex role. As for Actor, Stewart narrowly beats out Grant, with Kelly and Dean close behind. Tragic roles usually get more respect than comic ones, but in this case Stewart triumphs for being the more unfamiliar role.

My choices, explanation to follow Actor: James Stewart, Vertigo Actress: Ingrid Bergman, Journey to Italy Supporting Actor: Orson Wells, Touch of Evil Supporting Actress: Barbara bel Geddes, Vertigo Juvenile: Uma Das Gupta, Pather Panchali

Bill Django: That... well, the hooker thing is definitely a lie. (The Men Who Stare at Goats: here's the whole conversation for context) Larry Hooper: Lieutenant Colonel Django used funds from the project's black budget to procure prostitutes... Bill Django: That's a lie! Larry Hooper: ...and to get drugs for himself and his men. Bill Django: That... well, the hooker thing is definitely a lie.

HECTOR BABENCO: Pixote JOHN BADHAM: Saturday Night Fever MAROUN BAGDADI: N/A RAMIN BAHRANI: N/A RALPH BASHKI: The Lord of the Rings NOAH BAUMBACH: Frances Ha MARIO BAVA: Black Sunday HAROLD BECKER: The Onion Field JACQUES BECKER: Le Trou JAMES BENNING: One Way Boogie Woogie ROBERT BENTON: The Late Show BRUCE BERESFORD: Breaker Morant LUIS GARCIA BERLANDA: Welcome Mr. Marshall JOE BERLINGER (& sometimes BRUCE SINOFSKY): Paradise Lost INGMAR BERGMAN: Fanny and Alexander BERNARDO BERTOLUCCI: The Last Emperer LUC BESSON: La Femme Nikita SANJAY LEE BHANSALI: N/A KATHRYN BIGELOW: The Hurt Locker LES BLANK: Burden of Dreams BERTRAND BLIER: N/A BUDD BOETTICHER: A time for Dying PETER BOGDANOVICH: The Last Picture Show SERGEY BONDARCHUK: War and Peace JOHN BOORMAN: Hope and Glory FRANK BORZAGE: Three Comrades STAN BRAKHAGE: The Act of Seeing with One's Own Eyes KENNETH BRANAGH: Henry V CATHERINE BREILLAT: Fat Girl ROBERT BRESSON: A Man Escaped LINO BROCKA: N/A ALBERT BROOKS: Modern Romance JAMES L. BROOKS: Broadcast News MEL BROOKS: The Producers RICHARD BROOKS: Lord Jim TOD BROWNING: Freaks ZBYNEK BRYNYCH: N/A RYSZARD BUGAJSKI: Interrogation ANDREW BUJALSKI: N/A LUIS BUNUEL: The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie CHARLES BURNETT: Killer of Sheep TIM BURTON: Ed Wood

CHANTAL AKERMAN: Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles FATIH AKIN: N/A ROBERT ALDRICH: Flight of the Phoenix TOMAS GUITIERREZ ALEA: Memories of Underdevelopment WOODY ALLEN: Annie Hall PEDRO ALMODOVAR: Volver ROBERT ALTMAN: McCabe and Mrs. Miller ALEJANDRO AMENABAR: The Others LINDSAY ANDERSON: If... PAUL THOMAS ANDERSON: Magnolia WES ANDERSON: Fantastic Mr. Fox ROY ANDERSSON: Songs from the Second Floor THEO ANGELOPOULOS: Landscape in the Mist MICHAELANGELO ANTONIONI: L'Avventura JUDD APATOW:N/A MICHAEL APTED: N/A DENYS ARCAND: Jesus of Montreal DARIO ARGENTO: Deep Red GILLIAN ARMSTRONG: Little Women DARREN ARONOFSKY: Requiem for a Dream HAL ASHBY: Being There OLIVIER ASSAYAS: Carlos ANTHONY ASQUITH: Pygmalion RICHARD ATTENBOROUGH: Gandhi JACQUES AUDIARD: A Prophet BILLE AUGUST: The Best Intentions ALFONSO AURA: Like Water for Chocolate

I saw five movies this week. Old Acquaintance benefits from a good Bette Davis performance. Miriam Hopkins plays the obnoxious witch, but considering that the men in the movie are such drips, I'm inclined to view the women with more sympathy. The Neon Demon is another example where Nicholas Windling Refn shows he had more style than brains. And since much of the style is borrowed from Fellini and Lynch, it's ultimately negligible. At least Drive has a couple of well played out scenes. Belladona of Sadness is both an innovative seventies animated film and flawed pornography. Coming at a time when making animated feature films was incredibly time consuming and expensive, it shows some ingenuity (panning shots of an illustrated shot) and later considerable creativity and originality. On the other hand, the way the heroine is objectified is ultimately objectionable. The Curse of Fu Manchu is very silly, but also objectionable. It's silly that the Chinese villains are played by Boris Karloff and Myrna Loy. It's silly that at one point a hero threatens to arrest the bad doctor in the name of the British Empire, even though they're in Mongolia. It's silly that it's not clear how getting the sword of Genghis Khan is going to help Karloff's plans. But it's also clearly racist,and in a paranoid, contemptible way. Mountains May Depart is an interesting, but not entirely successful drama about a love triangle in contemporary China that moves from 1999 to 2025, that deals with Jia Zhangke's overarching theme of a rapidly changing and increasingly commercial China. Part of the problem was that my DVD had problem playing fifteen minutes of it. More seriously, there was a lack of focus, both on the characters in the triangle, and in the larger point.

First off, as I recall, it takes some time in what is fairly long film for there to be any actual action sequences in Lawrence of Arabia. And that is actually a long march through a particularly exhausting stretch of desert. Second, the reason Lawrence of Arabia is considered one of the greatest of movies isn't simply or even primarily because of the battle sequences. If battle sequences were what counted then Tora, Tora, Tora or even Heaven's Gate would have done much better at the Oscars. No, it is because it is an intelligent, visually stunning and brilliantly acted movie that takes a complex perspective of its protagonist. By contrast, Nicholas and Alexandra simply isn't in the same class. Its appeal is basically sentimental, we are sympathetic to the reactionary nitwits at its centre because they and their children were summarily executed by the Bolsheviks. Had Wilhelm II and his family met the same fate there'd be the same sympathy for them, just as we'd feel less for the executed princesses if they had grown up and, like their German cousins, supported Hitler. Third, there isn't much to say about Schaffner's directorial signature. Planet of the Apes and Papillon are at best adequate movies, with the former best known for its twist ending. And the most striking qualities of Patton are Scott's performance and Coppola's script. Fourth, having five battles in Nicholas and Alexandra would have been insanely expensive. Since they were all ultimately unsuccessful, they would not have encouraged sympathy for Nicholas, whose role in them was comparatively minor anyway.

Actor Cary Grant, North by Northwest James Stewart, Anatomy of a Murder Jack Lemmon, Some Like it Hot Soumitra Chatterjee, The World of Apu Jean-Pierre Leaud, The 400 Blows Runner-ups: Tony Curtis (Some Like it Hot), Vladimir Ivashov (Ballad of a Soldier), Breno Mello (Black Orpheus), Eiji Okada (Hiroshima Mon Amour), John Wayne (Rio Bravo) Dick Miller (A Bucket of Blood), Actress Marilyn Monroe, Some Like it Hot Emanuelle Riva, Hiroshima Mon Amour Eva Marie Saint, North by Northwest Marpessa Dawn, Black Orpheus Lana Turner, Imitation of Life Runner-ups: Leila Goldini (Shadows) , Supporting Actor James Mason, North by Northwest George C. Scott, Anatomy of a Murder Dean Martin, Rio Bravo Joe E. Brown, Some like it Hot Chishu Ryu, Good Morning Runner-ups: Arthur O'Connell (Anatomy of a Murder), Martin Landau (North by Northwest), Albert Remy (The 400 Blows), Ben Gazzara (Anatomy of a Murder), Joseph Welch (Anatomy of a Murder) Supporting Actress Shamrila Tagore, The World of Apu Zhanna Prokhorenko, Ballad of a Soldier Lourdes de Oliveira, Black Orpheus Lee Remick, Anatomy of a Murder Juanita Moore, Imitation of Life Runner-ups: Claire Maurier (The 400 Blows), Susan Kohner (Imitation of Life), Jessie Royce Landis (North by Northwest), Thelma Ritter (Pillow Talk) Not seen: The Diary of Anne Frank, The Last Angry Man, The Young Philadelphians --------And for the second time, Tony Curtis is beat out by his own co-star. --------Marilyn Monroe wins my Best Actress oscar for 1959. And that's the last time anyway in Hollywood does until 1967. --------As it happened, North by Northwest, Rio Bravo, Anatomy of a Murder, Some Like it Hot and Imitation of Life were among the biggest grossers of 1959. They would have made a better Best Picture selection that the ones that were nominated. --------Fewer runners ups this year, though the actual nominees in Actress and the supporting characters were stronger than 1958's. This may be due to the fact that my top 15 includes two documentaries, a Bresson film, and two choices whose cinematic qualities outweigh their thespian ones. --------About two of my choices for best supporting actress: Prokhorenko appears a quarter of the way into the movie, and leaves a quarter of the way from the end. With the exception of a brief prologue Ivashov is the focus of the entire movie. As for Remick, her character is clearly supporting her husband, and he's a supporting actor. That's she's second in the cast list means little, only that they highlighted the attractive young wife over the relatively unknown actor playing her husband.

Just to be clear, everyone agrees The Virgin Spring is a 1960 film, and not a 1959 one?

Is there a website or something who tells you how long a performer is on screen in a given film?

Apparently there was a scene shot to show that he doesn't, just to make sure that the movie fell within Movie Production Code guidelines. But apparently nobody cared enough to demand it was included. But frankly, I don't see how Elstir gets caught. The only evidence against him just fell off a bell tower.

I saw five movies last week. The remake of 3:10 to Yuma is a the remake of a movie that I never particularly cared about in the first place. But whatever qualities the updated version has with its two strong leads has is ultimately ruined by its idiotic and pointless ending. Taken marks the unlikely creation of Liam Neeson as an action hero, which has vastly improved his bank balance while shredding his credibility as an actor. The movie doesn't start badly, but its violence becomes increasingly ludicrous (and probably counter-productive at more than one point). This mastery of violence may be flattering to a certain American mindset, but it isn't the absence of overwhelming force that has hampered American objectives since 2001. Swamp Water was the first of Renoir's American films, though apparently Darryl Zanuck had such a vice on it that Renoir didn't really feel much pride of ownership in it. Like all his American movies, with the partial exception of The Southerner, it doesn't fully work. The scriptwriters hardly do the subject of a small unique rural community the justice it deserves. And this isn't the subject Hollywood ever really did very well. So there are some interesting camera movements, and some nice touches (such as when Walter Huston and his wife talk for the first time). I didn't like the novel The Razor's Edge is based on, so the fact that the movie was slightly better than that is a point in its favor. Of course, the religious theme is just middlebrow hogwash. Clifton Webb, George Marshall and Gene Tierney arguably acquit themselves well: they're certainly better than Tyrone Power as the hero. Unfortunately Anne Baxter's role is classic oscarbait: she loses her husband and child, then suffers from alcoholism and the shame of being a fallen woman. So I suppose Five Graves to Cairo is the movie of the week. Franchot Tone is competent, Anne Baxter is an improvement over her two previous movies of the evening, and Wilder shows signs of promise that would be quickly vindicated the next year with Double Indemnity. Erich von Stroheim gives a reasonable, measured performance as Rommel, and the solution is actually both simple and clever.

Actor James Stewart, Vertigo Chhabi Biswas, The Music Room Nikolai Chersakov, Ivan the Terrible, Part II Zbigniew Cybulski, Ashes and Diamonds Jacques Tati, Mon Oncle Runner-ups: Vince Edwards (Murder by Contract), Gary Cooper (Man of the West), Max von Sydow (The Magician), Shin Saburi (Equinox Flower), Marcello Mastroianni (Big Deal on Madonna Street), David Niven (Bonjour Tristesse), Alec Guinness (The Horse's Mouth), Gregory Peck (The Big Country), Youssef Chahine (Cairo Station), Toshiro Mifune (The Hidden Fortress), Actress Kim Novak, Vertigo Jeanne Moreau, The Lovers Ingrid Thulin, The Magician Jean Seberg, Bonjour Tristesse Jeanne Moreau, Elevator to the Gallows Runner-ups: Deborah Kerr (Bonjour Tristesse), Cyd Charisse (Party Girl), Jean Simmons (The Big Country), Susan Hayward (I want to Live!) , Supporting Actor Orson Welles, Touch of Evil Gangapada Bose, The Music Room Gunnar Bjornstrand, The Magician Dean Martin, Some Came Running Joseph Calleia, Touch of Evil Runner-ups: Waclaw Zastrzezynski (Ashes and Diamonds), Chishu Ryu (Equinox Flower), Burl Ives (The Big Country), Kenneth More (A Night to Remember), Dennis Weaver (Touch of Evil) Supporting Actress Barbara Bel Geddes, Vertigo Adrienne Servante, Mon Oncle Shirley MacLaine, Some Came Running Marlene Dietrich, Touch of Evil Hermione Gingold, Gigi Runner-ups: Serafima Birman (Ivan the Terrible, Part II), Ewa Kryzyzewska (Ashes and Diamonds), Carroll Baker (The Big Country), Not seen: Auntie Mame, The Inn of the Sixth Happiness, The Brothers Karamazov, Teacher's Pet, Lonelyhearts ------The Second part of Ivan the Terrible was released in 1958, twelve years after its production and 10 years after Eisenstein's death. ------This is the third oscar I've given Stewart, having won both an Actor and Best Supporting Actor oscar in the forties.

I'm inclined to agree. I didn't see the recent remake of Beyond a Reasonable Doubt, but the reviews certainly didn't suggest that they overcame the problem.

The Sorrow and the Pity! Awesome! Also The Ascent and Battleship Potemkin. Wow! The first two parts of The Battle of Chile! Also Sans Soleil! Why do they show Burden of Dreams, but never Fitzcarraldo?

I'm not seeing Richard Lester.

I recall they gave Elia Kazan an honorary Oscar in 1999, notwithstanding the fact he had won two before. As it happened Robert Bresson died later that year, leaving the message that you don't want to honor integrity too much.