Monthly Archives: February 2013
Movie Quote of the Day – White Palace, 1990 (dir. Luis Mandoki)
Max: What if I told you, I have no interest in getting laid right now?
Neil: Interest in getting laid is the human condition!
New From WarnerBlu: Cabaret 40th Anniversary Blu-ray Book
Last year, WarnerBlu released a fabulous new Blu-ray book for the 60th anniversary of A Streetcar Named Desire. Yesterday saw the release of one of my favorite films, which I just wrote about for Oscar Vault Monday, Cabaret.
Movie Quote of the Day – Baisers volés (Stolen Kisses), 1968 (dir. François Truffaut)
Fabienne Tabard: Do you like music, Antoine?
Antoine Doinel: Yes, sir.
Movie Quote of the Day – The Last of the Mohicans, 1992 (dir. Michael Mann)
Cora Munro: What are you looking at, sir?
Hawkeye: I’m looking at you, miss.
Oscar Vault Monday – Cabaret, 1972 (dir. Bob Fosse)
The first time I saw this film was during TCM’s 31 Days of Oscar in 2011 and a few days ago I gave it a much deserved re-watch. I think I liked it even more on this second viewing. There is a new Blu-ray edition coming from Warner Brothers, which I will be reviewing later this week. Cabaret holds the record for most Oscar wins (eight!) without winning Best Picture. I would be hard-pressed to choose between this film and The Godfather, too. Pretty much every year in the 70s had too many great, important, monumental and insanely entertaining pieces of cinema. In the end, I think the films’s awards are not as important as the impact of the films themselves. That said, Cabaret‘s ten Academy Award nominations were: Best Song Score or Adaptation Score (this category doesn’t exist anymore, won), Best Cinematography (won), Best Editing (won), Best Sound (won), Best Art Direction (won), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor Joel Grey (won), Best Actress Liza Minnelli (won), Best Director (won) and Best Picture. The other films nominated for Best Picture that year were Deliverance, The Emigrants, Sounder and winner The Godfather.
Movie Quote of the Day – The Hitch-Hiker, 1953 (dir. Ida Lupino)
Emmett Myers: You guys are gonna die, that’s all. It’s just a question of when.
Ben Affleck Named Best Director At Directors Guild Awards
This means Affleck, who was not nominated for Best Director at the Academy Awards for his film Argo, has won the award at the Critic’s Choice, Golden Globes and now the DGA. Pretty strange. I’m not sure the last time something like this has happened, but it sure is bizarre. The other nominees at this year’s DGA ceremony were Kathryn Bigelow for Zero Dark Thirty and Tom Hooper for Les Miserables, also whom were not nominated at the Oscars, and Ang Lee for The Life of Pi and Steven Spielberg Lincoln. Spielberg is the frontrunner for the Oscar win, while Argo is currently the frontrunner for Best Picture. If it were up to me Michael Haneke and his film Amour would win all the awards, but I don’t get to vote.
Movie Quote of the Day – The Deer Hunter, 1978 (dir. Michael Cimino)
Axel: Lemme ask you a question: how come I never see you eat?
Nick: I like to starve myself: it keeps the fear up.
Movie Quote of the Day – Groundhog Day, 1993 (dir. Harold Ramis)
Phil: So, what do I do?
Psychiatrist: I think we should meet again. How’s tomorrow for you? [beat] Is that not good?
Social Cinema, New York City and the 80s: January 2013 in Film
January was a pretty great month for me in terms of film watching. I started the year out with a great choice (more on that below), went to New York City for the first time (and visited several movie theatres; I promise I’ll make a post on that soon), I guested on the Matineecast podcast for the third year in a row to discuss the Oscar nominations and started hosted films for Milyoni’s Social Cinema. Please do give that service a look; it was a lot of fun to do and I guarantee you’ll have fun watching the films! Anyways, as always you will find the complete list of what I watched after the cut, as well as a few featured favorites.
the diary of a film history fanatic 