Blog Archives
Oscar Vault Monday – A Room with a View, 1986 (dir. James Ivory)
So when I first rented this film about seven years ago, I thought it was pretty, but boring. I watched it again last night hoping maybe my opinion would change. This was not the case. There are moments in this film that are truly wonderful, but as a whole it, for me, feels lifeless. It’s a pretty sexy subject, too, so it’s a shame they didn’t find a way to capture that (see The House of Mirth for a film that does it right). The film was nominated for eight Academy Awards, winning three: Best Art Direction (won), Best Costume Design (won), Best Cinematography, Best Adapted Screenplay (won), Best Supporting Actor Denholm Elliott, Best Supporting Actress Maggie Smith, Best Director and Best Picture. The other films up for Best Picture that year were Children of a Lesser God, Hannah and Her Sisters, The Mission and winner Platoon.
Movie Quote of the Day – My Left Foot, 1989 (dir. Jim Sheridan)
Christy Brown: Why did you say you loved me?
Dr. Eileen Cole: Because I do love you.
Christy Brown: Ah, you mean platonic love. I’ve had nothing but platonic love all me life. Do you know what I say? Fuck Plato! Fuck all love that is not 100 percent commitment!
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.
“Argo” Tops Screen Actors Guild Awards
BEST ACTOR:
- Bradley Cooper – “Silver Linings Playbook”
- Daniel Day-Lewis – “Lincoln”
- John Hawkes – “The Sessions”
- Hugh Jackman – “Les Miserables”
- Denzel Washington – “Flight”
BEST ACTRESS:
- Jessica Chastain – “Zero Dark Thirty”
- Marion Cotillard – “Rust and Bone”
- Jennifer Lawrence – “Silver Linings Playbook”
- Helen Mirren “Hitchcock”
- Naomi Watts – “The Impossible”
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR:
- Alan Arkin – “Argo”
- Javier Bardem – “Skyfall”
- Robert De Niro – “Silver Linings Playbook”
- Philip Seymour Hoffman – “The Master”
- Tommy Lee Jones – “Lincoln”
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS:
- Sally Field – “Lincoln”
- Anne Hathaway – “Les Miserables”
- Helen Hunt – “The Sessions”
- Nicole Kidman – “The Paperboy”
- Maggie SMith “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel”
BEST ENSEMBLE:
- “Argo”
- “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel”
- “Les Miserables”
- “Lincoln”
- “Silver Linings Playbook”
STUNT ENSEMBLE
- “The Amazing Spider-Man”
- “The Bourne Legacy”
- “The Dark Knight Rises”
- “Les Miserables”
- “Skyfall”
Oscar Vault Monday – In the Name of the Father, 1993 (dir. Jim Sheridan)
In The Name of the Father was Jim Sheridan’s second film, his first being 1989’s My Left Foot, which itself was nominated for several Oscars including Best Picture and Best Director (it won for Best Actor, Daniel Day-Lewis and Best Supporting Actress, Brenda Fricker). This film was a slightly fictionalized account of the Guildford Four, who were falsely convicted of an IRA pub bombing in 1974. They weren’t proven innocent until 1989. I don’t really want to get further into their story, as that would spoil the film entirely. In The Name of the Father was nominated for seven Academy Awards, although it failed to win a single category: Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Editing, Best Supporting Actress Emma Thompson, Best Supporting Actor Pete Postlethwaite, Best Actor Daniel Day-Lewis, Best Director and Best Picture. It is currently #226 on IMDb’s Top 250 user-generated list. The other films nominated for Best Picture that year were: The Fugitive, The Piano, The Remains of the Day and winner Schindler’s List.
Movie Quote of the Day – The Crucible, 1996 (dir. Nicholas Hytner)
John Proctor: Tell them Proctor broke to his knees and wept like a woman. But, my. . .my name. . .I cannot sign.
Judge Thomas Danforth: Why? Do you mean to deny this confession when you are free?
John Proctor: I mean to deny nothing.
Judge Thomas Danforth: Then explain to me why you will not —
John Proctor: Because it is my naaaaaaame! Because I cannot have another in my life! Because I lie and sign myself to liiiiiiies! Because I am not worth the dust on the feet of them you have hanged! I have given you my soul; leave me my naaaaaaame!
Movie Quote of the Day – There Will Be Blood, 2007 (dir. Paul Thomas Anderson)
Daniel Plainview: If you have a milkshake, and I have a milkshake, and I have a straw. There it is, that’s a straw, you see? You watching?. And my straw reaches acroooooooss the room, and starts to drink your milkshake. . .I. . .drink. . .your. . .milkshake! [beat] I drink it up!
the diary of a film history fanatic 