Category: Best Picture

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The Accidental Tourist (1988)

Seeing the movie poster for this for many years, I’ve always assumed this was mostly about a quirky Geena Davis whom William Hurt meets on a vacation, maybe whose hijinks cause flights to be lost or hotels to be cancelled. Instead it’s about business travel writer William Hurt who is still coming to terms with the death of his son and whose wife, Kathleen Turner, has recently left him. It’s presented that he has become more distant since his child’s death and that manic pixie dog trainer Davis helps him to feel again, but there’s no indication that he wasn’t that way before the tragedy and there’s not really a change afterward. It’s quite the dull affair though even more quirkiness is added in a trio of siblings for Hurt, played by David Ogden Stiers, Ed Begley Jr., and Amy Wright.   Best Picture Nomination

Oscar Win: Best Actress in a Supporting Role

Oscar Nominations: Best Picture; Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium; Best Music, Original Score

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The Little Foxes (1941)

The Hubbards are a rich family living in the South in the early 1900s. The only daughter of the family, Bette Davis must contend with a society where her brothers inherited from their father and are independently wealthy while she had to find a pliable husband to support her financial ambitions. The three Hubbard siblings are all ruthless and conniving, more concerned with acquiring more than the human collateral damage along the way. Davis is quite good in her role, wicked but still as restrained as society expects her. She goes toe to toe with her brothers, particularly the equally manipulative Charles Dingle.   Best Picture Nomination

Oscar Nominations: Best Picture; Best Actress in a Leading Role ; Best Actress in a Supporting Role; Best Actress in a Supporting Role; Best Director; Best Writing, Screenplay; Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White; Best Film Editing; Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic Picture

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Fanny (1961)

On the evening before he intends to go to sea for five years, Horst Buchholz impregnates Leslie Caron. When she discovers she is pregnant, she agrees to marry much older but richer Maurice Chevalier who has been wanting her for awhile. I’m not generally a fan of Caron, but she’s not too bad here. The tone of the film is a bit odd. It’s a bit too light on tension to be a drama, but much too long and melodramatic as a story to be a comedy. It really feels like it should be a musical, and indeed was based on the book from a stage musical. Reading up on it, Charles Boyer, who played Buchholz’s father, apparently wouldn’t have signed on if it was, which would have been a shame because he is quite a bright spot to the film.  Best Picture Nomination

Oscar Nominations: Best Picture; Best Actor in a Leading Role; Best Cinematography, Color; Best Film Editing; Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture

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It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) – Rewatch

When I was young, I avoided this film. It was one my father loved and I disregarded it as a crusty black and white film, though I did always enjoy the swimming pool scene. In high school, it was shown during a lesson about suicide and I was oddly taken with it to the point where it has become one of my favorites. The well-known and often-copied tale of a desperate but much-loved man who is shown what life would have been like if he had never existed is perhaps a perfect film. It’s well-acted, manages a delicate balance between its drama and comedy, and gorgeously incorporates a real sense of self in its Bedford Falls location. The pairing of James Stewart’s George Bailey hero with Lionel Barrymore’s villainous Potter is unmatched in cinema.   Best Picture Nomination  Holiday

Oscar Nominations: Best Picture; Best Actor in a Leading Role; Best Director; Best Sound, Recording; Best Film Editing

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Miracle on 34th Street (1947) – Rewatch

This is such the seminal telling of the story that I can’t watch any of the other versions despite trying. Edmund Gwenn IS Santa Claus, come to spread Christmas and belief to Macy’s executive Maureen O’Hara, her young daughter Natalie Wood, and New York City at large. I’ve been watching this film all my life at Christmastime and the sentimentality, nostalgia, and desire to believe in the Christmas spirit have never wavered upon each viewing. The one thing that has changed in recent viewings is my joy at seeing the US postal service being a hero in the film. There’s a bittersweetness that gets added when thinking of how it has been gutted in recent years.   Best Picture Nomination   Holiday

Oscar Wins: Best Actor in a Supporting Role; Best Writing, Original Story; Best Writing, Screenplay

Oscar Nomination: Best Picture

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The Prince of Tides (1991)

As far as psychiatric ethics go, this film is an abomination. After his twin sister’s latest suicide attempt, Nick Nolte travels from South Carolina to New York to meet with her psychiatrist, Barbra Streisand. There under the guise of ‘helping’ his sister’s recovery, Streisand holds meetings that essentially become therapy sessions with Nolte and later starts up an extramarital affair with him. Their relationship is mind boggling on its own and then when the big twist is revealed, the whole plot flies off the handle. The film is beautifully shot, particularly the Carolina scenes, and in all of her scenes, Streisand is always cast in gorgeous light.

Oscar Nominations: Best Picture; Best Actor in a Leading Role; Best Actress in a Supporting Role; Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published; Best Cinematography; Best Art Direction-Set Decoration; Best Music, Original Score

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The Bishop’s Wife (1947) – Rewatch

David Niven is a bishop obsessed with plans for building an elaborate new cathedral, losing sight of his family and community in the meantime. To this enters angel Cary Grant, charming everyone he meets (except the bishop) and fixing their lives in multitudes of ways. Despite it’s stellar cast, this is only an occasional Christmas watch for me. I have a hard time carrying about the bishop’s dilemma and it’s a bit disconcerting to find the angel macking on the titular character played by Loretta Young even if her reciprocated feelings are understandable. In a somewhat unnecessary supporting role, Monty Wooley plays a professor who provides some words of guidance and a chance for Grant to display more of his angelic powers.  Holiday  Best Picture Nomination

Oscar Win: Best Sound, Recording

Oscar Nominations: Best Picture; Best Director; Best Film Editing; Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture

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The Story of Louis Pasteur (1936)

A little hyperbolic to say, but this movie should be shown in all schools these days. While questionable in the actual portrayal of Louis Pasteur and the events of his life, it does illustrate the importance of science, being open to having preconceived notions challenged, and vaccinations. It’s hard to get passed the idea that washing hands and boiling instruments would be a questionable to the field of medicine. I’m glad I watched this so soon after Scarface because the comparison really shows Paul Muni’s skills as an actor.  Best Picture Nomination

Oscar Wins: Best Actor in a Leading Role; Best Writing, Original Story; Best Writing, Screenplay

Oscar Nomination: Best Picture

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Ruggles of Red Gap (1935)

In this fish out of water tale, Charles Laughton is a gentleman’s gentleman whose gentleman loses him in a poker game to a bunch of nouveau riche Americans. Laughton’s Ruggles finds himself spirited away to rural Washington where he unwittingly finds himself a local celebrity and embracing American ideas of freedom and self-determination. It’s a sweet tale where Laughton really sells the loosening of his prescribed British service role to finding his own way in the world.  Best Picture Nomination

Oscar Nomination: Best Picture

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Cleopatra (1963)

It’s no surprise that this brought on the end of the Golden Age of Hollywood. Everything about it is overblown: the sets, the cast, the costumes, the run-time, everything. With two parts split between Cleopatra’s relationships with Julius Caesar and Mark Antony, the story just goes on and on. Edited down to an hour or two shorter and it might have held my attention better. Elizabeth Taylor is truly a beautiful woman, but she was terribly miscast in the role of Cleopatra. She lacks gravitas, cunningness, and sexiness. There’s at least the feeling of building an alliance between Taylor and Rex Harrison’s Caesar; the relationship between Richard Burton’s Mark Antony is lackluster. There must have been some love flames between them in production, but they are not seen on screen. Obviously there was no expense sparred in the visuals. Cleopatra’s arrival in Rome is a live-action version of Aladdin’s Prince Ali scene. Despite that money spent in costumes (there is one ridiculous scene where without hesitation Taylor changes between three different outfits and Burton between two), many of Taylor’s look like the same exact style just in an array of candy colors. But I did love the sets. They are lavish and beautiful, truly sights to behold. There are so many little details to be seen: wigs, clothing racks, and umpteen baths. It’s also great to see the various cast in smaller roles: Hume Cronyn, Roddy McDowell, Martin Landau and even Carroll O’Connor as a Senator.  Best Picture Nomination

Oscar Wins: Best Cinematography, Color; Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color; Best Costume Design, Color; Best Effects, Special Visual Effects

Oscar Nominations: Best Picture; Best Actor in a Leading Role; Best Sound; Best Film Editing; Best Music, Score – Substantially Original

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