Blog Archives
Oscar Vault Monday – Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, 1966 (dir. Mike Nichols)
I saw this for the first time about a month ago during TCM’s Summer Under The Stars and I was completely blown away by it. It’s compelling and perfectly shot, featuring some truly exquisite black-and-white cinematography. It sinks its hooks into you from the very beginning and doesn’t let up for a minute, ending with one of the most simultaneously heartbreaking and tender finales in cinematic history. It also features one of the greatest on-screen, as well as off-screen, couples, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, in some of their greatest work. It was nominated for thirteen Academy Awards, winning five: Best Sound, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Score, Best Film Editing, Best B&W Costume Design (won), Best B&W Cinematography (won), Best B&W Art Direction (won), Best Supporting Actress Sandy Dennis (won), Best Supporting Actor George Segal, Best Actress Elizabeth Taylor (won), Best Actor Richard Burton, Best Director Mike Nichols and Best Picture. It was up against The Sand Pebbles, Alfie, The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming! and winner A Man For All Seasons.
Oscar Vault Monday – Beauty and the Beast, 1991 (dir. Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise)
Beauty and the Beast is the first Disney movie I 100% remember watching in theaters. I was probably about five years old at the time and I loved it to death. It was also the first year I can remember watching the Academy Awards. I wanted it to win Best Picture SO BADLY. At the time, I had no idea that it was the first animated film to be nominated for the award, nor did I really understand what an honor an Academy Award was for a film. My mom had the sad job of informing me that it was most likely going to lose to The Silence of the Lambs, a film that I most definitely had not seen at the time. Now, however, it’s the only other film nominated that year that I’ve seen. I can see why it won, such strong performances, a perfect genre flick (and a history maker in itself, only one of three films ever to win Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Actress), but I still wanted, and to some extent, still wish that Beauty and the Beast had won the award. It was joined earlier this year by Up as an animated film competing for the top prize. Hopefully, as this awards season comes to a close, those films will be joined by Toy Story 3 (and as one of the best reviewed films of the year, it has a fighting chance of actually winning). Also nominated in 1991 were Bugsy, Jfk, The Prince of Tides and winner The Silence of the Lambs. On top of being nominated for Best Picture, the film was up for five more, bringing the total to six Academy Award nominations, winning two: Best Sound, Best Song – Belle, Best Song – Be Our Guest, Best Song – Beauty and the Beast (won) and Best Score (won).
Oscar Vault Monday – American Graffiti, 1973 (dir. George Lucas)
My first memories of American Graffiti mostly revolve around my love of the film’s soundtrack. I remember watching it as a little kid and not really being able to follow the plot, but absolutely falling in love with the soundtrack. It’s perhaps the best soundtrack of all time. That may be debatable, but I’ll stick with my opinion there. Apparently George Lucas wrote the screenplay after being challenge on the set of THX-1138 by Francis Ford Coppola to write something that mainstream audiences would enjoy. Lucas then set the film in 1962 around the cruising culture he remembered as a teenager in Modesto. The result was a ridiculously successful film full of early-60s, pre-Vietnam-era nostalgia. The film had a $775,000 budget and wound up grossing $118 mil. It was also nominated for five Academy Awards: Best Original Screenplay, Best Film Editing, Best Supporting Actress Candy Clark, Best Director and Best Picture. It was up against A Touch of Class, Cries and Whispers, The Exorcist and winner The Sting.
Oscar Vault Monday – A Streetcar Named Desire, 1951 (dir. Elia Kazan)
I hadn’t seen this movie until about a month or so ago, when I discovered it was on Instant Netflix. I watched it pretty late at night, and I must say that was probably not the best idea. It is a brilliant masterpiece of a film, but it is has such heavy subject matter, it made for a pretty fretful night of sleep. I’ve watched several adaptations of Tennessee Williams plays, and I definitely think this is the best of the lot. I also think it is Marlon Brando’s best work (although, I have not seen but pieces of The Godfather; please refrain from stoning me, I swear I’ll remedy that soon). It was nominated for a whopping 12 Academy Awards, winning four and is one of a handful of films to be nominated in all four of the acting categories. It was nominated for: Best B&W Cinematography, Best B&W Costume Design, Best Score, Best Sound, Best Writing, Screenplay (this was back when their were three writing categories), Best Actor Marlon Brando, Best Director Elia Kazan and Best Picture. It won the following categories: Best B&W Art Direction, Best Actress Vivien Leigh, Best Supporting Actress Kim Hunter and Best Supporting Actor Karl Malden. For Best Picture it was up against A Place In The Sun, Decision Before Dawn, Quo Vadis, and winner An American In Paris. I’ve seen two of those films and I would most definitely say the Academy made the wrong decision here. It was really another case of flashy musical winning over gritty, masterful drama.
Oscar Vault Monday – Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, 1958 (dir. Richard Brooks)
This is one of my favorite classic films. It’s a masterful adaptation of Tennessee Williams’ play of the same name. Like many a Williams play, it is hot and steamy and filled with tension. Richard Brooks is such an amazing director and he hits every note of the film perfectly. Somehow this masterpiece lost the Best Picture award to the overblown, boring musical adaptation Gigi. I watched Gigi recently I was aghast that it had won nine Oscars. I thought it was absolutely one of the most boring, overwrought films I’d ever seen. Then to add insult to injury I discovered it beat Cat On A Hot Tin Roof. This is definitely a case of pomp winning over substance. Cat On A Hot Tin Roof was nominated for six Academy Awards, but didn’t win a single one: Best Actor – Paul Newman, Best Actress Elizabeth Taylor, Best Color Cinematography, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Director – Richard Brooks and Best Picture. Aside from the two acting categories, it lost all the awards to Gigi. The other nominees for Best Picture that year were Auntie Mame, Separate Table and The Defiant Ones.
Oscar Vault Monday – Jaws, 1975 (dir. Steven Spielberg)
I don’t have a memory of the first time I saw this film; I think that’s because I was very little when I first saw it and I don’t remember a world wherein Jaws didn’t exist. I thought it would be fitting to write about this film as summer ends since it was the first summer blockbuster and to this day one of the most critically acclaimed. I love this film. I have seen it so many times now, including at least once in theaters, that I practically have it memorized. It’s only rated PG, but somehow it is insanely terrifying – even upon repeat viewings. I think Spielberg managed to create a film that is the perfect combination of chilling, exiting, heartfelt and innovative. What also makes this film work so well is the great performances from everyone in the cast. It’s almost as if they made a B movie at an A-list calibre (much like Hitchcock’s Psycho). It was nominated for four Academy Awards and won three – Best Film Editing (won), Best Score – John Williams (won), Best Sound (won) and Best Picture. It was up against Barry Lyndon, Dog Day Afternoon, Nashville and winner One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest.
Oscar Vault Monday – Chocolat, 2000 (dir. Lasse Hallström)
I really love this movie. When I first saw it in theaters I was with my mother and afterwards all we wanted to do was eat good chocolate. In recent year, I’ve noticed a tendency in film bloggers to complain about this movie for being nominated for Best Picture. They use it as a way of showing that a “mediocre” film can get nominated for the top prize with a great campaign and/or if it’s backed by the Weinsteins. I think this is a completely unfair and narrow view of the film. I would in no way call this a “mediocre” film, for one. Also, it’s a film that was both critically acclaimed and loved by audiences. Isn’t that the kind of film we always wish the Academy would nominate? You can’t complain about the Academy being too pretentious with one breath and then bash this perfectly lovely film with another. This film was nominated for five Academy Awards – Best Actress Juliette Binoche, Best Supporting Actress Judi Dench, Best Score, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Picture; it didn’t win a single award. It was up against Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Erin Brockovich, Traffic and winner Gladiator. 2000 was actually one of my favorite years for Best Picture nominees (behind 1997, which is maybe my favorite year) as I love every single film that was nominated for the top prize.
Oscar Vault Monday – Moonstruck, 1987 (dir. Norman Jewison)
I don’t even remember when I first saw this movie, but it must be over 15 years ago now. I love it so much. I used to own in on VHS, yes VHS, and I’d watch it anytime I needed a pick-me-up. There’s just this wonderful energy about the entire film. It’s a lot of fun and full of heart. It was up for six Academy Awards, winning three: Best Actress – Cher (she won), Best Supporting Actress – Olympia Dukakis (she won), Best Original Screenplay – John Patrick Shanley (he won), Best Supporting Actor – Vincent Gardenia, Best Director – Norman Jewison and Best Picture. It was up against Broadcast News, Fatal Attraction, Hope and Glory and winner The Last Emperor.
Oscar Vault Monday – Babe, 1995 (dir. Chris Noonan)
Whenever I think about the 1995 Oscar race I smile a little. It was such a strange and varied year. Up for Best Picture you had a foreign language film – Il Postino, an Oscar-bait period classic literature adaptation – Sense and Sensibility, a slice of American History – Apollo 13, a historical epic – Braveheart (it won) and a fable-esque adaptation of a beloved children’s novel – Babe. I still haven’t seen Il Postino, but I love all four of the other films on this list. Babe, however, will always have a special place in my heart. I read the book when I was in third grade and the film came out when I was in fourth grade – making it the very first film I’d ever seen wherein I’d read the book beforehand. I was so excited to see it and it did not disappoint. I even noticed things like the field where the sheep dog trials took place being named “Kingsmith Fairgrounds” – the author of the book is named Dick King-Smith. This is truly a magical film and I don’t know a single person who’s seen it who doesn’t at least like it, if not love it. It even has a 98% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. In the end it was nominated for seven Academy Awards – Best Visual Effects (it won), Best Art Direction/Set Decoration, Best Film Editing, Best Supporting Actor – James Cromwell, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Director – Chris Noonan and Best Picture.
Oscar Vault Monday – A Clockwork Orange, 1971 (dir. Stanley Kubrick)
I first saw this film as a midnight movie my sophomore year at Berkeley. It scared the crap out of me. Walking home in the dark afterwards I was scared to death, even though I’d gone to a lot of midnight movies that semester and walked home each and every time. I think I was scared because the haunting atmosphere of A Clockwork Orange was still with me. When a movie can affect my immediate perception of the world around me, I know I’ve seen something quite brilliant. The film was nominated for four Academy Awards – Best Film Editing, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Picture. Three of the four of those nominations were for Kubrick as he wrote, directed and was sole producer of the film. It did not win a single award. It was up against Fiddle On The Roof, Nicholas and Alexander, The Last Picture Show and winner The French Connection. Confession: other than that one great car chase, The French Connection bored me to death.
the diary of a film history fanatic 