kingrat
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Posts posted by kingrat
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The National Society of Film Critics Awards for 1992 were …
Best Actor
Stephen Rea, The Crying Game*
Clint Eastwood, Unforgiven
Denzel Washington, Malcolm X
Best Actress
Emma Thompson, Howards End*
Susan Sarandon, Lorenzo’s Oil and Light Sleeper
Gong Li, Raise the Red Lantern (91)
Pernilla August, The Best Intentions
Best Supporting Actor
Gene Hackman, Unforgiven*
Jaye Davidson, The Crying Game
Delroy Lindo, Malcolm X
Best Supporting Actresses
Judy Davis, Husbands and Wives*
Miranda Richardson, The Crying Game and Enchanted April and Damage
Vanessa Redgrave, Howards End
Give Jaye Davidson the best supporting actor award instead of Hackman, and I would totally support these decisions.
Miranda Richardson was widely expected to become a big star as a result of her three films this year. I remember one Oscar prognosticator, perhaps in Parade magazine, predicting that she would win the Oscar for this very reason. However, she acquired a reputation of being difficult to work with, and 1992 turned out to be the zenith of her movie career.
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You're absolutely right about Kitty, Tom. Another Mitchell Leisen film. One begins to wonder if this represents part of Leisen's own psyche.
Billy Daniels, who choreographed Lady in the Dark, was Leisen's partner. Leisen's friends tended to dislike Daniels, though one can't be sure what the reasons were. Leisen had hormone shots to "cure" him of his homosexuality, dated women, and then reverted to his true nature and had a relationship with Daniels. Lady in the Dark must have had some personal resonance for Leisen.
Of course, in the world of the romance novel the nice guy your mother would approve is always the wrong man, and the "right man" often behaves like a jerk. Kitty and Lady in the Dark both belong to this tradition. Nonetheless, like you, Tom, I have to wince when a sympathetic woman chooses the jerk, in the movies or in real life.
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Lady in the Dark (1944), shown in a beautiful nitrate print, was one of the closing films of the recent TCM Film Festival. Rarely have I seen a film more divided between its visual aspects--color cinematography, sets, costumes--and its story and dialogue. Visually, it was a feast, with much to look at and enjoy in every scene. The story is so sexist and misogynistic that the large and enthusiastic audience simply laughed at the lines that seem most outrageous by 2017 standards. Director Mitchell Leisen is responsible for both halves, for he worked on the screenplay as well as the decor, costumes, and direction.
For those who don't know the story, Ginger Rogers plays a fashion magazine editor who undergoes psychoanalysis by the young Barry Sullivan when she seems unable to make up her mind about several important matters. Her married lover, a much older man (Warner Baxter), finally arranges to get a divorce from his wife, but she realizes she doesn't want him. A cute movie star (Jon Hall) flips for her, but she doesn't seem eager to follow up on his advances. Finally she is "cured" and realizes that she should give up her job, or most of it, for a man who can dominate her (her words; this got the biggest laugh of the evening). Such a man is Ray Milland, who tells her he wants her job, tells her her business clothes are mannish, and generally behaves like a jerk. Naturally, this is the man she should marry, according to the logic of the film.
According to some sources, the original musical was less strident in this regard. The producer hated Kurt Weill's music, so most of the songs are junked, including "My Ship," the song which is crucial to the plot. It's hummed in part, and a little girl sings the first two lines, but Ginger never gets the chance to sing this lovely song. At least "The Saga of Jenny" gets full treatment in the big dream sequence. According to a friend, the Ira Gershwin estate hates the film and has hindered its being shown on television.
To 2017 tastes Mischa Auer as the flamboyant photographer may be objectionable, too. Auer brings skill and energy to the role, but screaming queen stereotypes, though to be found in real life, seem so, well, 1944. (This is the role that brought Danny Kaye to fame on Broadway.) The whole cast does its best with the material at hand. Too bad Ginger Rogers didn't get the chance to play something closer to the original musical. And the movie does look good on the big screen.
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All the Mornings of the World is excellent, though not a film to see if you are in a depressed mood.
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Lots of good ideas here, ccdc.
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Tom, I definitely agree about how good Howard Da Silva is in The Underworld Story. Lots of nice low-angle shots, especially of Da Silva, in the film. It seems odd to have a white actress in a role that isn't a "pass for white" story. Mary Anderson plays the part well, however. The director is Cy Enfield, and if you've seen films like Try and Get Me, Hell Drivers, Zulu, and Sands of the Kalahiri, you know what a good director he can be.
A big shout-out to TCM for showing Another Part of the Forest. Lillian Hellman's prequel to The Little Foxes is cleverly written; the cast is first-rate; and Michael Gordon's direction is really outstanding. Some imaginative camera movements bring a welcome fluidity; an adaptation of a play can easily be stodgy, stiff, and dull. (Hm, why does Mourning Becomes Electra come to mind?)
These may be my favorite performances by Edmond O'Brien and Ann Blyth, and I can't help rooting for O'Brien as the slick and smiling Ben, though he's certainly no good guy. Dan Duryea plays a sometimes laughable, sometimes detestable, and sometimes pathetic loser like no other actor can. (He's playing the father of the character he plays in The Little Foxes.) Fredric March plays the villainous father with admirable restraint. All of these characters are three-dimensional. Florence Eldridge as the mother of the three little foxes rises to her big scene at the end, crowned by a fine crane shot as she ascends the outdoor stairs from the garden behind the house. That set is particularly admirable.
The supporting cast includes John Dall as the foolish young gallant whom Regina (Blyth) loves, Betsy Blair as his fluttery sister, Dona Drake as a can-can dancer, and Fritz Leiber in the small but pivotal role of the old-school Southern gentleman Colonel Isham. If you like The Little Foxes, you'll probably like Another Part of the Forest, too.
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From the Wednesday evening listings:
Le Plaisir, based on three Maupassant short stories, is quite enjoyable, like most of Max Ophuls' films.
Mademoiselle Fifi, set during the Franco-Prussian War, has certain parallels with Stagecoach. The film can't quite say that the laundress (Simone Simon) is a prostitute, but this is implied. She turns out to behave much more admirably than her social betters. Not one of Robert Wise's better-known films, but I think it's worth seeing.
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I liked Sea of Love. It's a standard thriller, but it's well done, with good turns by Pacino, Ellen Barkin, Michael Rooker and John Goodman.
Well said, Lawrence. I'll second that opinion.
Chattahoochee sounds interesting. That's one I've never heard of.
I recall enjoying Joanne Whalley's performance in Scandal as the infamous Christine Keeler. Bridget Fonda is also good as her roommate, Mandy Rice-Davies. The Profumo/Christine Keeler scandal was big news, the sort of story the tabloids, and more respectable newspapers, too, can't get enough of. Two fun memories relating to this scandal: 1) A friend meant to say "Christine Keeler," but instead said "Helen Keller." Not quite the same. 2) A friend of the family named her beagle Mandy after Mandy Rice-Davies.
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None of the Visconti films I've seen have wowed me, but I don't dislike any of them, either. The Leopard is ponderously paced, which is par for the course with Visconti, but pretty to look at, which is also par for the course. I'd agree that you have to be in the right mood for it. I wish there were more moments as fine as the silent conga line.
Maybe Senso, still unseen, will be the one to make me love Visconti. For those not drawn to Visconti, The Stranger is a good adaptation of the Camus novel, with a satisfying central performance by Marcello Mastroianni. Rocco and His Brothers is like an Italian version of Written on the Wind, and if you like Alain Delon and/or soapy melodrama, that's a good one to try. White Nights is a good romantic drama, especially for those who like Maria Schell. Sandra (Vaghe stelle dell'Orso) can sometimes be found online, starring Claudia Cardinale as a sister who tries to break away from the incestuous feelings of her brother.
Swithin, thanks for posting the picture of Visconti and Helmut Berger.
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Tom, I am also a fan of Fletch Lives. Whatever its faults, it is funny. Favorite moment: Fletch asking, "Is there anyone here named . . . Jim Bob?" and about a dozen guys stand up.
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You'll rarely find opposing kinds of performances as splendid as those offered by Daniel Day Lewis in My Left Foot and Morgan Freeman in Driving Miss Daisy. Day Lewis' performance is extroverted. It's the kind of role, the kind of performance that often wins acting awards. The difference is that Day Lewis ups the standard for this kind of acting. All of the stuff he does seems right for the character.
On the other hand, Morgan Freeman's work is almost all interior. He doesn't have the kind of big scenes that Day Lewis has. Freeman has the "acting is reacting" kind of part. He anchors the film in reality and resists the tendency to comment on an earlier era from the viewpoint of 1989. In many years Oscar would have wound up on Freeman's mantle. Taken together, these two performances show exterior and interior acting at their best.
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I expected to dislike Peeping Tom a lot, but I didn't. Such is the power of low expectations. On the other hand, I don't think it matches the quality of many other Powell films. Perhaps, despite Powell's great skill as a director, the collaboration with Pressburger gave him something he couldn't find on his own. (In similar fashion, Budd Boetticher looks like a much better director when he's working with a Burt Kennedy script.)
I agree with Princess of Tap that something seems off in the storytelling of Peeping Tom. The film is more disturbing but less suspenseful than it needs to be. Suspense isn't the most congenial genre for Powell, and it's probably no coincidence that the best Powell/Pressburger films don't fall neatly into any genre. It's only fair to add that some admirers of Peeping Tom find profundities about the nature of filmmaking, but in the age of reality TV, they don't seem very profound to me.
The psychological explanation for the main character's actions is dated and not very interesting. Anna Massey, by the way, seems to be about as twisted as the killer. I'd be more interested in the psychological basis of her pursuit of a man who has obvious problems.
I certainly agree with filmlover about the excellence of Maxine Audley's performance, which needs to be added to the list of best 1960 performances by a supporting actress.
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Some fine additions to the festival and some tough decisions to be made.
Panique is a superb film noir, with a great performance by Michel Simon and imaginative direction by Julien Duvivier. French anti-semitism, collaboration with the Nazis, and mob behavior form the subtext of this dark story.
Seeing Genevieve Bujold at the showing of King of Hearts is high on my list this year.
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CineMaven and yanceycravat, who have both been guest programmers, would be on my short list of potential hosts. Both have the presence, on-camera experience, film knowledge, and engaging personality necessary for the job.
Madeleine Stowe did an exceptional job as guest host, although I can't help wishing that she would get another role as perfect for her as Victoria on Revenge.
Annette O'Toole would be another top choice, either with or without Michael McKean. The back-and-forth between the two was a lot of fun, and both were quite knowledgeable about classic films.
Eddie Muller probably is too busy with noir-related activities to be a full-time host, but he is a fine addition to the TCM family.
Dave Karger did a good job as guest host, and he seems to appeal to at least one important TCM constituency, doesn't he?
No one will ever really replace Robert Osborne, but for the last couple of years Ben M has served very effectively as the main host of TCM, and will probably continue to do so for years to come. With Ben as the main host, TCM has the option of bringing in someone to take over Ben's previous role or else relying, at least for a while, on a variety of guest hosts. Some of the decision may be budget-driven.
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Oh, filmlover, I hadn't thought of Moment by Moment in years. You hit on the most disconcerting thing of all, that Lily Tomlin and John Travolta look like siblings. What were they thinking? What were they smoking?
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A few comments on 1988:
Best Actor: Tom Hulce, Dominick and Eugene
Best Actress: Glenn Close, Dangerous Liaisons. A narrow choice over Meryl Streep, A Cry in the Dark, and Isabelle Huppert, Une affaire des femmes.
Best Supporting Actor: Sam Neill, A Cry in the Dark
Best Supporting Actress: Geena Davis, The Accidental Tourist
Worst translation of the year (one of the worst film title translations ever): Story of Women for Une affaire des femmes. The character played by Isabelle Huppert is about as unrepresentative a woman as can be imagined. The film is the story of one particular woman. A much better title would have been Women's Business, for the main character becomes an abortionist only to make money.
I would agree with Danny Peary that Dominick and Eugene is a better film than Rain Man, and that Tom Hulce gives a better performance than Dustin Hoffman. Hoffman was fortunate that Rain Man came out before My Left Foot. Daniel Day Lewis' performance blows away Hoffman's skillful but somewhat actorish work, in my opinion, and it seems unlikely to me that Hoffman would have won his second Oscar had voters had Day Lewis fresh in their minds as the standard Hoffman was expected to meet.
A Cry in the Dark offers one of Meryl Streep's best performances. I'm no expert on Australian accents, but she sounds right. She gets extra points for having to wear an unbecoming black wig. A Cry in the Dark is hard to watch, as an unsympathetic woman suffers both the loss of her daughter and a wrongful conviction for homicide. The mother is not only stoic and unemotional, which jurors hate, but she's convinced of her own superiority without much apparent justification for this belief. Perhaps belonging to a fundamentalist church adds to both her sense of superiority and her defensiveness. Her genuine strength comes across as prickliness and lack of feeling. Streep plays this woman from deep inside, and every moment is believable. By the end of the film I believe I know this woman, even if I can't like her, and she refuses to let me pity her.
Also admirable, on a somewhat smaller scale, is Sam Neill as her husband. Dominated by his formidable wife, the poor man seems merely the largest of the satellites in orbit around her planet. The film is her story, not their story. If he isn't forceful or important enough to have a story of his own, he does have a scene of his own, as the prosecuting attorney badgers him and beats him down on the witness stand. Neill plays this brilliantly and, more important, truthfully. Not many actors who can play macho romantic leads would be willing to play this henpecked, rather pathetic man. Sam Neill had been terrific as Reilly, Ace of Spies, playing the man who inspired Ian Fleming to create James Bond. Neill never got to play enough of these roles, for my taste, but his performances in A Cry in the Dark and The Piano show what a very fine actor he was.
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Sam Neill is a hard call. A Cry in the Dark is Meryl Streep's movie all the way--one of her best performances, I think--but Sam Neill won the Australian equivalent of the Oscar for best actor, which is perfectly understandable. As with many supporting actors, Neill has one memorable big scene, the one where he's beaten down on the witness stand.
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What a delight The Young Girls of Rochefort (it's Rochefort, Ben, not Roquefort) turned out to be. I think I like it even better than The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. From the early shot of the truck crossing the river on the extension bridge, I was totally hooked, completely accepting the artificial world so delightfully photographed with much use of bright and pastel colors against white backgrounds. Retroactive Oscars for cinematography, set design, costumes, and probably a best director nod for Jacques Demy. Best musical score for Michel Legrand, too.
Catherine Deneuve and Francoise Dorleac as the lovely twin sisters of Rochefort? Of course. Jacques Perrin's ideal woman would look like Deneuve? Make sense to me. Good-looking young men dance around in tight white pants. George Chakiris and Grover Dale are superb dancers, and Gene Kelly turns up as well. Michel Piccoli brings the right amount of pathos to his role of rejected lover. Danielle Darrieux as the mother of the twins is the only singer who isn't dubbed. Piccoli's music shop is one of my favorite sets ever, and Darrieux's frites stand is a winner, too.
I could make a quibble here and there--Demy is willing to accept a take where not all the dancers are together, for instance, and you might have a question or two about who the most suitable suitors for the girls would be--but this film, which was so not in step with the cutting edge in 1967, looks like a treasure fifty years later.
I believe there will be a repeat of this film for Danielle Darrieux's 100th birthday, and appropriately so.
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As far as film editing is concerned, I recommend the book When The Shooting Stops The Editing Begins by Ralph Rosenblum
There is also a very informative documentary on editing called The Cutting Edge: The Magic of Movie Editing
I'll second Richard's recommendation of Ralph Rosenblum's book. Once you read it, you will never again talk glibly about "the director's vision." Several films only succeeded because of the enormous amount of work Rosenblum did to stitch something together out of the chaos he was handed.
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Wednesday, March 15/16
3:30 a.m. Les Maudits (1947). Rene Clement film has Nazis fleeing Germany to South America in a submarine. Sounds good.
I like this movie a lot. It's kind of like Sartre's No Exit played out on a submarine of Nazis trying to escape to South America. Don't miss the fabulous tracking shot that moves backward through the submarine. In the 40s and 50s Rene Clement was one of the world's top directors.
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I keep reading Barfly as an adverb, like Suddenly.
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Prince of Players is an offbeat film which did not do well at the box office when it was released. However, I think it's a must for Richard Burton fans and for those interested in Shakespearean acting. The movie interweaves the story of the Booth acting family and scenes from the Shakespeare plays they performed.
The father, Junius Brutus Booth (Raymond Massey) was a noted Shakespearean actor, but he was also a drunkard. Massey is on screen too little, but he does get to do Prospero's great speech "Our revels now are ended" from The Tempest. Both Junius Brutus and his daughter Asia (Elizabeth Sellars) believe in the talents of his handsome younger son John Wilkes Booth (John Derek), but the genuinely talented actor is his son Edwin (Richard Burton). Unfortunately, Edwin also inherited his father's tendency to alcoholism. According to the film, because John Wilkes achieves greater fame in the South, he favors the Southern cause during the Civil War.
Edwin also finds love with a young actress in his company (Maggie McNamara), but her health is not strong. Charles Bickford plays a sympathetic theater producer who becomes a friend and mentor to the Booth family.
Shakespearean scenes: John Derek plays a snippet of one of Petruchio's early scenes from The Taming of the Shrew, and this demonstrates why John Wilkes was nowhere near the actor his brother was. I don't think Derek is deliberately trying to do a poor job, but Shakespeare isn't his strength, nor does Maggie McNamara make a particularly effective Juliet in her scenes with Burton as Romeo. Raymond Massey speaks the words of Shakespeare quite wonderfully. Richard Burton was considered the Hamlet of his generation, and we get to see him playing Edwin Booth as Hamlet, Romeo, and Richard III. In his pre-Liz years Burton was a first-class actor, and he makes the familiar "To be or not to be" seem fresh and deeply felt. As an added bonus, we get to see him play a scene as Hamlet opposite Eva Le Gallienne as Gertrude.
Both John Derek and Maggie McNamara are quite good in their non-Shakespearean scenes. Derek makes John Wilkes Booth a dashing, charismatic, and narcissistic figure, and McNamara brings sweetness and pathos to her scenes as Burton's ailing wife. Elizabeth Sellars also does justice to the complex figure of Asia, emotionally close to her brother John, but horrified by his actions.
Arguably, Prince of Players might have been better had it devoted more time to the Booth family dynamics and a bit less to the Shakespearean scenes, but those scenes provide it with much of its interest. Philip Dunne is better known as a writer than a director; a stronger director might have made a stronger film, but I won't complain about the actors and the language being put front and center.
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Monday, March 13
An evening of Philip Leacock films.
8 p.m. Take a Giant Step (1959). With Ruby Dee and Beah Richards.
10 p.m. Hand In Hand (1960). I saw this charming film several times when I was very young. Those were the days when your mother could drop you off at the cinema, no worries and come back and pick you up when it was over.
11:30. Let No Man Write My Epitaph (1960). With Burl Ives, Shelley Winters and Jean Seberg.
1:30 a.m. 13 West Street. With Alan Ladd and Rod Steiger.
3 a.m. Reach For Glory (1963). Another kids film featuring Harry Andrews and Kay Walsh.
4:30 a.m. Innocent Sinners (1957). Have any of these Leacock films been on TCM before?
Bogie, I'm sure that Innocent Sinners has been on TCM, because that's where I saw it. It's the kind of little-known film that may not catch your eye in the program. I like the film very much, and would especially recommend it to those who like Forbidden Games.
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Performance of the Year: Holly Hunter, BROADCAST NEWS.
Favorite line:
Sarcastic producer: "It must be wonderful to always be the smartest person in the room."
Holly Hunter: "No. It's terrible."
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Your Favourite Performances from 1929 to present are...
in Your Favorites
Posted
Perhaps after I see some of the films you guys recommend, I'll have a supporting actor winner. In the meantime, these were slam dunks:
Best Actor: Anthony Hopkins, The Remains of the Day
Best Actress: Juliette Binoche, Three Colors: Blue
Best Supporting Actress: Miriam Margolyes, The Age of Innocence