A Century of Film: Kids Films

A Century of Film

Kids Films

The Genre

For a lot of people, Kids films mean Animated films.  Perhaps part of the problem is that I really should re-name the genre to Family Films, which I probably would if it didn’t mean making changes in so many different spreadsheets.  “Kids” implies it’s only for children and a lot of these films are only for children (and really shouldn’t even be for them because they’re so insipid) whereas “Family” opens up the notion to films that are good for kids, that kids can enjoy, but really are also aimed at the whole family where adults can also enjoy them.  That would make people stop thinking just “animated” and open things up to films like The Wizard of Oz, Miracle on 34th Street, The Muppet Movie or Babe.

 

A Century of Film: Animated Film

Of all the categories that the Academy took too long to recognize (like Costume Design or Makeup), this is the most excusable.  It would not be until 1941 that there are even multiple feature length animated films, there aren’t five until 1970 and there aren’t really enough to justify a category until the early 80s.  The awards groups probably should have jumped on things earlier like the LAFC (1989) and Annies (1991) did but they didn’t wait way too long like they did with Costume Design and Makeup.

 

A Century of Film: The Top 1000 Films (#600-551)

This is the 9th part of the Top 1000 list.  The introduction can be found here.  Films #600-571 are a 90 and the rest are a 91 which are both low level ****.

 

The History of the Academy Awards: Best Picture – 2020

I didn’t feel the mixing of the two real actors with the amateurs worked but clearly I’m in the minority on that.

The 91st annual Academy Awards, for the film year 2020.  The nominations were announced on 15 March 2021 and the awards were held on 25 April 2021.

Best Picture:  Nomadland

• The Trial of the Chicago 7
• Promising Young Woman
• Judas and the Black Messiah
• Minari
• The Father
• Sound of Metal
• Mank

Most Surprising Omission:  One Night in Miami…

Best Eligible Film Not Nominated:  The Personal History of David Copperfield

Rank (out of 93) Among Best Picture Years:  #45

 

The Year in Film: 2020

For the first time in over 70 years, Dickens is great on film again.

My Top 20

1. The Personal History of David Copperfield
2. The Trial of the Chicago 7
3. Promising Young Woman
4. One Night in Miami…
5. Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
6. Judas and the Black Messiah
7. Soul
8. Minari
9. The Father
10. Tenet
11. News of the World
12. Sound of Metal
13. Emma.
14. Dear Comrades!
15. A Whisker Away
16. Never Rarely Sometimes Always
17. The Painted Bird
18. Onward
19. Wolfwalkers
20. The Dig

They are **** films through #13.  After that they are high ***.5.  A reminder that Quo Vadis, Aida? was not Oscar submitted for 2020 and didn’t get released in the States until March so it’s actually a 2021 film for my purposes.  If it was a 2020 film it would be at #10.

 

Best Adapted Screenplay: 2007

“And in the dream I knew that he was goin on ahead and that he was fixin to make a fire somewhere out there in all that dark and all that cold and I knew that whenever I got there he would be there. And then I woke up.” (final lines)

My Top 10

1. No Country for Old Men
2. Atonement
3. There Will Be Blood
4. Away from Her
5. Gone Baby Gone
6. Charlie Wilson’s War
7. A Mighty Heart
8. Persepolis
9. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
10. 3:10 to Yuma

note:  An excellent Top 5 but not nearly as strong Top 10.  It’s worth noting that thanks mostly to Harry Potter and the MCU this is the last year until 2020 where none of my Top 10 are franchise films.

 

Best Adapted Screenplay: 2006

Nothing Wahlberg says in the film is anything like the dialogue in the original film but damn it’s brilliant.

My Top 10

1. The Departed
2. Children of Men
3. Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story
4. The Prestige
5. Perfume
6. Casino Royale
7. Army of Shadows
8. The Painted Veil
9. Thank You for Smoking
10. Notes on a Scandal

note:  An excellent Top 5 and Top 10.

 

A Century of Film: Film History Through 1949

A Century of Film

Film History Through 1949

There’s not much to say here except to point to my original post that covered things through 1929 and the subsequent post that covers film history through to 1939 and the most recent post that covers the 1940s.

 

A Century of Film: Film History (1940-1949)

A Century of Film

Film History

1940-1949

Filmmaking had supposedly peaked in 1939 just as the war arrived to greatly limit (outside of America, film production was massively down) and influence it (in America, War films took the forefront).  After the war concluded, came the two lawsuits that changed the way of films in America.  First came de Havilland vs. Warner Bros. Pictures which altered the notion of what a studio could put in a contract.  Second came United States vs. Paramount Pictures which meant that production studios would have to sell off their theater chains.  The first hastened the end of the way films were made in the Studio Era while the second altered how they were distributed and brought an to the end to the concept of the “majors” as they had been known.

 

Awards Notes 2020 or I Wish I Knew How To Quit You, Golden Globes (ongoing)

That’s just a reminder that Mark Harris is a funny and smart writer who already wrote one of the single best books about film ever written (Pictures at a Revolution).  He has a new biography of Mike Nichols and even though I rarely buy biographies at all and certainly not new and in hardcover, I will be getting this when it goes on sale on Tuesday.  His Twitter feed is also worth reading and I do that everyday even though I’m not even on Twitter.