CinemaInternational

Well, that leaves off almost half the films I've seen.....

They haven't said yet. They used to always hold them the day before the Oscars, but they didn't do that this year.

Do I think that some people were turned off by things? Definitely, as can be seen from outrage in certain quarters. But there is another elephant in the room and its bigger and more of a reason why the ratings slid so much. It's a combination of internet and streaming. Internet in that the winners can be found updating after every single award on Wikipedia, and that the clips of the wins turn up within a few days on YouTube. This is what many in my age range have done rather than to sit through a 3 and a half hour ceremony, where over an hour of it is commercials. And streaming caught on so much that millions of people cut the cord and got rid of cable, thus lowering the chances of a bigger audience for ABC. Speaking of which, for the people who do still have cable, the major networks have shed quite a bit of their old audience due to all the other channels out there. And finally, there was another difference between this year and last. Last year had three movies that took over $200 million up for Picture: Black Panther (the biggest hit of the year), Bohemian Rhapsody, and A Star is Born. All pretty much liked by most of their target audience, and all three picked up awards, two of them in multiples, and one even scoring an acting win. They all lost to Green Book, but Film Twitter aside, many seemed to like that film. There was also the potential draw over Glenn Close looking like she'd finally win (I'm still smarting over that hurtful loss). This year, the only hit of that size was Joker, a film that fiercely divided audiences, and your next biggest were Once upon a Time in Hollywood, Little Women, Ford Vs Ferrari, and 1917, all well loved by thoughtful, mature audiences, but films that had trouble (unfortunately) in drawing the popcorn crowd, which is obviously what ABC wanted to tap. You could also say that another problem was that all the award shows this year were mimicking each others wins, for acting, technical prizes, and more. It was like an award ceremony for lemmings, one of the most predictable Oscars I've ever seen.

Parasite won Best picture, the first foreign-language winner in the category. Also the first Cannes winner to win at the Oscars since 1955. I do think though that not as many pay attention to the Oscars as they used to....

I did think though that the film was very sympathetic to Judy though. That said, it was kind of hard for me to watch because it was hard to see such a great star at a precarious point. (And Zellweger was indeed excellent, especially in the final scene)

I figured out it was winning last Wednesday or Thursday. Plus it had alread won SAG and WGA. It wasn't a shock.

Lest's face it, there is no such thing as too much Diane Keaton. She's been exceptional for 50 years in films now.

And Cats aside, musicals have been doing well at the box office, so they will likely continue for now.

It was my favorite film of 2019, though not by a large margin

I knew that its fans loved it. (Have not seen it yet, although I keep wanting to get to the video store to rent it just to see what all the fuss is about) And a few days ago, after reading though some of those anonymous ballots they put out every year, I figured out that it was going to win Best Picture. There were just so many #1 votes for it. it seemed like Once Upon a time in Hollywood was the distant second place finisher, not 1917. When Diane Keaton announced it as the winner for screenplay, it was all over. After all at the end of the night, the loud cheering when the extended clip of it came up cut Jane Fonda off from stating the title for a long time. And on Letterboxd, the film has a higher rating than The Godfather.

It was a pretty strong year for films

I am posting an image (arranged by release date, not by personal rating) of the films I saw from 1988.... Big would rank maybe under 20 of these. Not even close to being the top.

I couldn't stand Crash.... but i didn't see Brokeback, and another nominee Good Night or Good luck ended up being a rather sleepy film. I'd go Capote that year over Munich, but its one of the best Picture lineups I don't care to dwell on so much.

I would have gone Quiz Show, Robert Redford, and Morgan Freeman there.

More in the just confirmed for Criterion file: Ghost Dog (1999) and Coffee and Cigarettes (2003)

Thinking of going after Young Man with a Horn and Last Train from Gun Hill. I have them but haven't seen them yet.

I am a bit ashamed that the title of the last film I saw of his before his passing was A Lovely Way to Die. RIP. He was a great actor and one of the last links to the Golden Age.

I remember a woman who had a small role in 1983's Silkwood named Sudie Bond. A very brief part, but she had the real authentic flavor of the Midwest about her, and when she was shown in near hysterics in a forced scrubdown, she was heartrendingly good.

I'm currently watching The Chapman Report, yes, its definitely trashy, but in a good way. Jane Fonda and Shelley Winters are quite affecting, and Glynis Johns is a howl as the man-hungry wife.

Another death to report, but this one was actually a while ago: this week last year to be exact. The hollywood Reporter just published a long extended article about the search to find out about a missing Oscar nominee of the past, 1969 nominee Catherine Burns, nominated for Last Summer. It was hardly the most seen film, but it left a big impression on those who saw it. Aside from that film though, she only appeared in two other films: Me Natalie (which will be released on DVD/Blu-Ray this summer) and Red Sky at Morning, the latter with her Last Summer costar Richard Thomas. She also made a handful of guest spots on TV including The Waltons, Love American Style, Emergency, Cannon, Medical Center, Adam-12, The Mod Squad, The bionic Woman, and police Woman. She then completely left the business behind, not impressed with it in the least. Death came quietly on February 2, 2019, the result of a fall, though cirrhosis was also a factor. She was 73. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/features/catherine-burns-inside-50-year-disappearance-an-oscar-nominee-1275646

It really was. Even better than Dallas at the start. Wyman was excellent, plus people like David Selby, Margaret Ladd, Ana Alicia, Abby Dalton, and Susan Sullivan turned in strong work. Plus the fireworks whenever Lana Turner showed up in the first two years. They only released the first three years on DVD, although a 4th season was released in a pay-per-season or episode streaming format on Amazon and itunes.

Jane Wyman was always one of the main drawing points of Falcon Crest for me, and although she counldn't appear much toward the end of that show for health reasons, I think her absences killed it, because she was the glue that held it togther, despite how good some of her costars were. My own grandmother loved the show for the first 6 years or so, but she gave up watching it entirely after they killed off Susan Sullivan in that freaky swimming pool scene.

They just took a hiatus so they could just grow some more grapes. Jane Wyman could have given them some hints.

Speaking of Ah-nold, the supporting cast on Last Action Hero includes a lot of people who most decidedly would not be associated with action cinema: Mercedes Ruehl, Robert Prosky, Charles Dance, Ian McKellan, Art Carney, Joan Plowright, F Murray Abraham, and Anthony Quinn! And to top it all off, cameos from Tina Turner, Sharon Stone, Timothy Dalton, Chevy Chase, James Belusci, and Little Richard. Weird.

I added Jessica to my watchlist a few minutes ago. I remember thinking it sounded interesting.