LawrenceA

It's Joe E. Brown.

#431 looks like Fredric March & Olivia de Havilland, so Anthony Adverse (1936). #432 looks like John Payne & Sonja Henie, so Sun Valley Serenade (1941). I don't know what #435 is. That looks like Dirk Bogarde, though.

April 2020 Criterion Titles Announced Destry Rides Again (1939) April 14 SPECIAL FEATURES New 4K digital restoration by Universal Pictures in collaboration with The Film Foundation, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray New interview with critic Imogen Sara Smith New interview with Donald Dewey, author of James Stewart: A Biography New video essay featuring excerpts from a 1973 oral-history interview with director George Marshall, conducted by the American Film Institute Lux Radio Theatre adaptation of the film from 1945, featuring actors James Stewart and Joan Blondell PLUS: An essay by critic Farran Smith Nehme The Cremator (1969) April 21 SPECIAL FEATURES New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray High-definition digital transfer of The Junk Shop, director Juraj Herz’s 1965 debut short film Short documentary from 2011 featuring Herz visiting filming locations and recalling the production of The Cremator New interview with film programmer Irena Kovarova about the style of the film Documentary from 2017 about composer Zdeněk Liška featuring Herz, filmmakers Jan Švankmajer and the Quay Brothers, and others Interview with actor Rudolf Hrušínský from 1993 Trailer New English subtitle translation PLUS: An essay by scholar Jonathan Owen The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) April 28 DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES 2K digital transfer, supervised by director Wes Anderson, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray New audio commentary featuring Anderson, filmmaker Roman Coppola, and actor Jeff Goldblum Selected-scene storyboard animatics The Making of “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” a new documentary about the film New interviews with the cast and crew Video essays from 2015 and 2020 by critic Matt Zoller Seitz and film scholar David Bordwell Behind-the-scenes, special-effects, and test footage Trailer PLUS: Two pieces by critic Richard Brody and (with the Blu-ray) a double-sided poster and other ephemera Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005) April 28 DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES High-definition digital master, approved by director Miranda July, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray New documentary about July’s artistic beginnings and the development of her debut feature Open to the World, a new documentary by July about the 2017 interfaith charity shop and participatory artwork she created in collaboration with Artangel July Interviews July: Deauville, 2005, a discovery from July’s archives, newly edited Six scenes from the 2003 Sundance Directors Lab, where July workshopped the film, with commentary by July The Amateurist (1998) and Nest of Tens (2000), short films by July Several films from July’s Joanie 4 Jackie project, and a documentary about the program Trailer PLUS: Essays by artist and scholar Sara Magenheimer and novelist Lauren Groff Plus a Blu-ray upgrade for: Army of Shadows (1969) April 7 SPECIAL FEATURES High-definition digital restoration, supervised by director of photography Pierre Lhomme, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray Alternate 2.0 surround soundtrack, presented in DTS-HD Master Audio on the Blu-ray Audio commentary from 2006 featuring film scholar Ginette Vincendeau Interviews from 2007 with Lhomme and editor Françoise Bonnot On-set footage and excerpts from archival interviews with director Jean-Pierre Melville, cast members, author Joseph Kessel, and real-life Resistance fighters Jean-Pierre Melville et “L’armée des ombres” (2005), a short program on the director and his film Le journal de la Résistance (1944), a rare short documentary shot on the front lines during the final days of the German occupation of France Restoration demonstration by Lhomme Trailers PLUS: An essay by critic Amy Taubin, along with (for the Blu-ray) a piece by historian Robert O. Paxton and excerpts from Rui Nogueira’s Melville on Melville

.

.

Patricia Medina

.

While I liked certain aspects of Us and Hustlers (including my choice for favorite performances by lead actress in the former and supporting actress in the latter), I wouldn't call either of them particularly smart, let alone "the smartest American movies released last year." Hyperbole like that doesn't do his argument any service.

Now Stephen King's "in trouble" for a tweet regarding the Oscar diversity "outrage". His contentious quote: "As a writer, I am allowed to nominate in just 3 categories: Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Original Screenplay. For me, the diversity issue--as it applies to individual actors and directors, anyway--did not come up. That said......I would never consider diversity in matters of art. Only quality. It seems to me that to do otherwise would be wrong." That's prompted a lot of negative backlash, led by none other than sometime TCM host Ava DuVernay: "When you wake up, meditate, stretch, reach for your phone to check on the world and see a tweet from someone you admire that is so backward and ignorant you want to go back to bed." After a flurry of other critical responses, King tweeted this: "The most important thing we can do as artists and creative people is make sure everyone has the same fair shot, regardless of sex, color, or orientation. Right now such people are badly under-represented, and not only in the arts." And "You can't win awards if you're shut out of the game." The lesson here, as usual, is that people should stay off of social media. Here's more if one is interested: https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/stephen-king-backlash-diversity-quality-oscars-181036444.html

I'm sure there are quite a few people on these message boards who like Marty more than The Night of the Hunter, even if I'm not one of them (The Night of the Hunter and Sunset Boulevard are my favorite American films of the 1950s). I got into watching Oscar movies in the early 90's or so, when I decided to try and improve my knowledge of classic Hollywood. In those pre-internet days, there wasn't a lot of classic film discussion, especially living in a small, rural town with only one 4-screen first-run theater within comfortable driving distance. I used a World Almanac's listing of the Oscar winners in the acting, directing, and best picture categories as a to-see list, and tracked down as many as I could from the local video stores and taped others off of TV. By watching those, I gradually began to notice which actors and directors I liked, became more familiar with other aspects of classic film (studio and producer style, writers and cinematographers of note, etc), and could then look for other, non-Oscar nominated films that I though might interest me. I eventually expanded my Oscar watching to include the nominees in those 6 categories, which brought an even broader knowledge of classic Hollywood fare. In other words, I used the Oscars as a self-taught film history school. I did the same thing with the 1001 Movies To See books and foreign language films, which I got heavily into over the past couple of decades.

#421 - The Champ (1931) - yes #422 - The Philadelphia Story (1940) - yes #423 - Sands of Iwo Jima (1949) - yes #424 - Botany Bay (1952) - yes #425 - The Seven Little Foys (1955) - yes #426 - Grand Prix (1966) - yes #427 - The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969) - yes #428 - Chinatown (1974) - yes #429 - Educating Rita (1983) - yes #430 - Bowfinger (1999) - yes

.

I saw the first three, and the remake. I wasn't crazy about any of them, although they each have their moments. In the third film, I liked Sam Neill as the grown Damien. The fourth one was a TV movie, if I remember correctly.

The only real disappointment for me was the complete shutout for The Farewell.

This has to be one of the worst sentences that I've read in some time: "At the same time, in a year when the best movies take a leap from the specific to the comprehensive, opening visions of society that reveal machinery of breathtakingly menacing vastness, the Academy dinosaurically exhorts the cinema to buck up."

.

.

Yes, I've been very impressed with her so far, in Bad Times at the El Royale and Widows.

Oh, and I wouldn't have nominated Todd Phillips for best director, The direction was one of the more dubious aspects of the movie. The art direction was very good, though, and I liked the abstract score. I haven't seen 1917, but it's almost certain to win best cinematography thanks to the film's gimmick, and I can't argue with Roger Deakins winning, as he's arguably one of the ten best cinematographers ever. I don't know or care enough about the Best Song nominees to have an opinion.

It may be cheating, but I'd say right now is the best time, since everything that came before is still available, and more accessible than ever. If you wanted to only watch stuff from the 50's or 60's or 70's, you still have that option, and it's easier to see everything from then now than it was then, thanks to video/discs/cable/streaming.

I thought Phoenix did an excellent job in Joker, but it was also the showiest of all of the nominated roles. My personal choice was Jonathan Pryce, whose very nuanced, subtle performance is on the opposite end of the good-performance spectrum from Phoenix's Joker. I haven't seen Pain & Glory, but I'm happy to see Banderas win a nomination. I'm not a big Jennifer Lopez fan at all, but she was my choice for Best Supporting Actress. I admit to not seeing several of the nominees, though. I'm sure Zellweger will win Best Actress, but my choice would have been Lupita Nyong'o for Us.

I managed to see more of the nominated films before the ceremony than I have in 25 years: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood Joker The Irishman The Two Popes Marriage Story Judy I Lost My Body American Factory Rocketman The Lighthouse Avengers: Endgame Ad Astra And I even managed to see a couple of the animated shorts (Hair Love and Kitbull) thanks to a link from Mr6666 on the message boards.

I know what you mean, and I agree that Brad Pitt is a co-lead in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. I knew he'd be up for supporting, though, as he has been throughout the awards season, and he's almost certain to win. However, regardless of their stature in the industry, the other 4 are nominated for what I would call supporting roles. The Irishman is De Niro's film, and Pesci and Pacino are both supporting without question. The Mr. Rogers movie really isn't a Mr. Rogers movie/biopic, but rather about a cynical reporter played by Matthew Rhys assigned to interview Rogers, and how it changes the reporter's life. And The Two Popes is Jonathan Pryce's show. While Hopkins has the second leading role, and the only other role of substance, the story is told from Pryce's character's POV, and Hopkins is there only in the way he affects Pryce's character, if that makes any sense.

.