Monthly Archives: January 2011
TCM’s 31 Days of Oscar Begins Tomorrow!
31 Days of Oscar-winning and Oscar-nominated films? This is why I love Oscar season so much. Turner Classic Movies doesn’t stick with just classics, they’ve got things as new as 2003’s The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King on their schedule. 31 days of non-stop Oscar is a lot to handle, so I thought I’d give y’all a little help. So with this post I’ll go from February 1st through the 7th and tell you what I’m looking forward to the most. Some of these picks are films I’ve already seen, but recommend you watch if you haven’t, and some are films that I’ll be watching for the very first time. I’ll do the same for the other three weeks of their schedule as well.
Oscar Vault Monday – The Magnificent Ambersons, 1942 (dir. Orson Welles)
It took A LOT of searching to find this movie. It is not available on DVD in the United States (click here if you want to try to do something about that). While probably not as well-known as Citizen Kane, I think this film is just as much a masterpiece Welles’ more famous film, though probably less universally approachable. I’m going to talk a little later about some of the production (and the headaches it caused). The film was nominated for four Academy Awards, though it went home empty-handed: Best B&W Art Direction, Best B&W Cinematography, Best Supporting Actress Agnes Moorehead and Best Picture. The other nominees for Best Picture that year were 49th Parallel, Kings Row, The Pied Piper, The Pride of the Yankees, Random Harvest, The Talk of the Town, Wake Island, Yankee Doodle Dandy and winner Mrs. Miniver.
The King’s Speech Takes Best Ensemble at the SAG Awards
Best Ensemble
- Black Swan
- The Fighter
- The Kids Are All Right
- The King’s Speech
- The Social Network
Best Actor
- Jeff Bridges, True Grit
- Robert Duvall, Get Low
- Jesse Eisenberg, The Social Network
- Colin Firth, The King’s Speech
- James Franco, 127 Hours
Best Actress
- Annette Bening, The Kids Are All Right
- Nicole Kidman, Rabbit Hole
- Jennifer Lawrence, Winter’s Bone
- Natalie Portman, Black Swan
- Hilary Swank, Conviction
Best Supporting Actor
- Christian Bale, The Fighter
- John Hawkes, Winter’s Bone
- Jeremy Renner, The Town
- Mark Ruffalo, The Kids Are All Right
- Geoffrey Rush, The King’s Speech
Best Supporting Actress
- Amy Adams, The Fighter
- Helena Bonham Carter, The King’s Speech
- Mila Kunis, Black Swan
- Melissa Leo, The Fighter
- Hailee Steinfeld, True Grit
Site Update: Cinema Fanatic Guest Starred On A Podcast
Recently I recorded a podcast with The Dark of the Matinee‘s The Mad Hatter. You can find the podcast on the sidebar of their site, as well as on iTunes and various other podcast places on the vast interwebs.
Please take a listen. In it we discuss what we think about the Oscar nominations, as well as give some early predictions. There’s also a neat little intro wherein I answer questions like “What was the first movie you ever saw?” and “What essential film have you not seen?” My answer to that last one is rather shocking. Here’s the link again. Go take a listen. I swear you’ll enjoy it. Also, be sure to check back at The Dark of the Matinee tomorrow and leave feedback on their official post with your thoughts! And while you’re at it, check out their Facebook page as well.
POLL: Predict The Screen Actors Guild Awards
The Screen Actors Guild Awards are tonight at 8PM EST / 5PM PST on both TNT and TBS. The Oscar race has done a 180 in the last two weeks with The King’s Speech taking top honors at both the PGA and the DGA. All we’ve got left is to see if it sweeps the SAG awards tonight. After the cut are polls for all the film categories.
Movie Quote of the Day – Network, 1976 (dir. Sidney Lumet)
I don’t have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It’s a depression. Everybody’s out of work, or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel’s worth. Banks are going bust. Shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter. Punks are running wild, and there’s nobody anywhere who knows what to do and there’s no end to it. We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat. We sit watching our TVs while some local newscaster tells us that today we had 15 homicides and 63 violent crimes, as if that’s the way it’s supposed to be. We know things are bad. Worse than bad. They’re crazy. It’s like everything, everywhere is going crazy, so we don’t go out any more. We sit in the house, and the world we live in is getting smaller. All we say is “Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials and I won’t say anything. Just leave us alone.” Well, I’m not going to leave you alone. I want you to get mad! I don’t want you to protest. I don’t want you to riot. I don”t want you to write to your congressman, because I don’t know what to tell you to write. I don’t know what to do about the depression, the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street . All I know is that first you’ve got to get mad! You’ve gotta say “I’m a human being, goddammit! My life has value!” So… I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window, open it and stick your head out and yell “I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take this any more!”