Best Adapted Screenplay: 1977

This opening bit might not be in the book but most of what follows is.

My Top 10

1. That Obscure Object of Desire
2. King Lear
3. Equus
4. Oh God
5. The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
6. The Marquise de O
7. Dersu Uzala

Note:  That’s it.  That’s all I’ve got.  I had actually placed Jacob the Liar on the list (at #4) but when I looked at it again, I realized that it was a screenplay first, then, when cutbacks in film production in East Germany delayed the film for nearly a decade, it was rewritten as a novel.  But the screenplay had already existed which means, in spite of the credits, it’s not really an adapted script and I can skip having to review a very good film (and book) that are also brutally depressing so Happy New Year (2019) to me.

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A Century of Film: War Films

A Century of Film

War

The Genre

Though there are those who consider a less stringent definition, for me, a War film is one that actually depicts what is going on during the war.  By that, I generally mean the combat field, though it can also mean those fighting the war who aren’t in actual combat.  I don’t, for the most part, mean things that are happening due to effects of the war (for instance, Holocaust films or other films about civilians during the war), though those do sometimes get war sub-genres.

 

The History of the Academy Awards: Diving into the Nitty Gritty of the Rules

Sadly, I don’t have all the time in the world.  If I did, my Century of Film pieces on War Films and 20th Century-Fox would already be posted and I wouldn’t still have over 60 films recorded off TCM waiting to be watched.  As a result, I rarely revisit old posts to make corrections and I haven’t had time to peruse all the Academy Rule Books that they have posted.  Yet, some weirdness has come up and I’ll quickly address a couple of issues that I have discovered (or, to be more precise, I did research on after they were pointed out to me).

 

Who said anything about a White Christmas?

I never did like that song anyway.  So, I’ll go with a different one.

You can take your snow and shove it /
This is our Christmas and we love it . . .

Yes, it’s only in the mid 60’s with some scattered showers, but last year on Christmas, it snowed several inches with a flash freeze and 30 mph wind gusts, so the hell with that.  We’ve come home and San Diego is where we’re staying and this year snow won’t keep us from going to the movies (Mary Poppins Returns at 10:30).

 

Best Adapted Screenplay: 1976

“Deep Throat moved closer to Woodward. ‘Let me explain something,’ he said. ‘When you move on someone like Haldeman, you’ve got to be sure you’re on the most solid ground. Shit, what a royal screw-up!'” (p 220)

My Top 10:

1. All the President’s Men
2. Solyaris
3. Carrie
4. Voyage of the Damned
5. The Outlaw Josey Wales
6. The Shootist
7. Marathon Man
8. The Last Tycoon
9. The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars and Motor Kings
10. The Seven-Per-Cent Solution

Note:  There has been a change since my Nighthawk Awards, with The Shootist moving up into the Top 10.  If it seems like a big leap, that’s because #6-10 aren’t all that strong and in a good year many of them wouldn’t make the list.  The only two films on my list that aren’t in the Top 10 are both reviewed below because of nominations: Bound for Glory and Family Plot.

 

2018 Oscar Season notes

I honestly don’t know how much I will add here.  Time and money aren’t at high availability right now and I don’t know how much I’ll be able to see in the theater over the next month or so.  I’m struggling just to get some regular posts completed.  This definitely won’t have the kind of updates I did last year.  I will try to put things in here as they come up if I can.

But, I wanted to especially provide a forum for those who comment on the awards season so they have a place to put their comments and have a discussion so that they don’t have to throw them up among comments on other (less relevant posts).

At this point, I honestly haven’t quite decided my current #1 for the year between First Man, A Star is Born or BlacKkKlansman, all three of which are quite equal in my mind.  The only categories (of the 20) which I have a clear #1 at this point are Actress (Lady Gaga), Supporting Actress (Claire Foy), Song (“Shallow”) and Animated Film (Incredibles 2).

So, feel free to make any comments about anything for the awards season.  Most comments made during the day (PST) won’t post until I get home (late evening PST) but I will approve them.

 

A Century of Film: Actress

A Century of Film

Actress

Lead actresses, of course, have been a part of film since its history began and certainly since feature films began.  Indeed, Lilian Gish was the big star of D.W. Griffith, the first director who focused on American feature films.  She had already proven that while there was a definite market for sex appeal (dating all the way book to Theda Bara and continuing on through to any number of sex symbols such as Clara Bow, Louise Brooks, Betty Grable, Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield and any number of others, with variable rates of acting return with their sexuality.  But Gish, quite distinct looking, was not particularly sexual and there was always a market for those who were not as traditionally beautiful but could act like Bette Davis or actresses who aged out of their explicit sexuality like Rosalind Russell, Katharine Hepburn, Anne Bancroft or Meryl Streep.