Category: Oscar Nominee

Posted on 2021-10-09 | No Comments |

Three Comrades (1938)

I’ve found Margaret Sullavan unexpectedly appealing ever since seeing The Shop Around the Corner. Here she is a sick woman in post-World War I Germany who becomes the shared love interest of long-time friends Robert Young, Robert Taylor, and Franchot Tone. There is a lot of chemistry amongst the foursome and I really appreciate that time is spent showing the relationships in every possible pairing. It’s unusual to see a portrayal of Germany between the wars filmed during that time period. While the politics are only lightly touched, there is a sense that the touch is an honest one for at least some part of the population.

Oscar Nomination: Best Actress in a Leading Role

Posted on 2021-10-08 | No Comments |

The Dresser (1983)

There is a very stagey quality to this film about an aging travelling Shakespearean actor and his dresser during World War II. Albert Finney as the actor and Tom Courtenay as the dresser put their all into their performances and it’s often exhausting to watch. It remains riveting as these two men clash and spar, both entirely dependent on each other while also wanting to push the other away.

Oscar Nominations: Best Picture; Best Actor in a Leading Role (2); Best Director; Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium

Posted on 2021-10-07 | No Comments |

More About Nostradamus (1941)/Penny Wisdom (1937)

Here I go again combining two short film Oscar nominations together. I highly doubt either of these would ever be considered for nominations in modern times, but we also don’t get to see shorts like these to watch before each movie anymore either. More About Nostradamus is a sequel of sorts to 1938’s Nostradamus focusing on various predictions that could be construed as relating to World War II, making it an odd propaganda piece as well.

Penny Wisdom is a Pete Smith-narrated short about a stupid housewife (this is reiterated multiple times) who is a failure at cooking dinner, so help in the form of advice columnist Penny Prudence saves the day. There are at least a couple of interesting home economics tips thrown in for good measure.

Oscar Nomination: Best Short Subject, One-reel (More About Nostradamus)

Oscar Win: Best Short Subject, Color (Penny Wisdom)

Posted on 2021-10-07 | No Comments |

The Prisoner of Zenda (1937)

An Englishman on a Ruritanian holiday finds himself caught up in courtly intrigue. Ronald Colman is delightfully genteel in duel lookalike roles as both the Englishman and the soon-to-be coronated king. He’s helped along the way by David Niven and C. Aubrey Smith. It’s a quick adventure tale filled with romance, moats, fencing, and evil usurpers (one gleefully played by Douglas Fairbanks Jr.).

Oscar Nominations: Best Art Direction; Best Music, Score

Posted on 2021-10-06 | No Comments |

Last Year at Marienbad (1961)

I’m not even going to pretend that I understand most of what this film is trying to say. At a luxury hotel, a man meets up with a woman, who is staying there with another man, and talks of an affair that they had a year earlier which she denies. As someone who often suffers from sensory overload, this film felt a lot like being in a crowded room where it’s difficult to pull out particular voices. The dialogue is repetitious and brings forth a dreamy ambiguity where it’s hard to trust the recollections of either of the main characters and there’s no telling what actually happened last year at Marienbad.

Oscar Nominated: Best Writing, Story and Screenplay – Written Directly for the Screen

Posted on 2021-10-05 | No Comments |

Cruella (2021)

I mostly avoid these Disney live-action money grabs for good reasons. They throw lots of money at the production (How many rock songs can we fit? Buy them all!) and little care for actually addressing the origin story (How exactly does Cruella become a wannabe dog killer?). The purpose seems to be to distract with lavish visuals and to touch as many points from the original film as possible with no actual direction or purpose. The Emmas put their all into their characters for sure and I enjoyed the casting of Horace and Jasper, but there’s no explanation as to why anyone goes along with the machinations of someone clearly suffering from a mental illness nor how that extra neatly wrapped up ending even comes to pass.

Oscar Win: Best Achievement in Costume Design

Oscar Nominations: Best Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling

Posted on 2021-10-04 | No Comments |

Torch Song (1953)

Since I’ve been aggressively watching more movies in the last year or two, I have lost count of the number of times I’ve been taken aback by blackface that suddenly inexplicably appears in a musical number. Here again is one of those times. It’s hard to not feel that this musical is a bit of a parallel to Joan Crawford’s real life. Her character here is a Broadway star who aggressively feels like she knows better than anyone else, alienating those around her. There’s a campiness to her portrayal, especially in the choice to have her lip sync to a voice that does not match her own.

Oscar Nomination: Best Actress in a Supporting Role

Posted on 2021-10-04 | No Comments |

The Go-Between (1971)

The story here reminds me a lot of Atonement, where a child is exposed to adult love affairs in ways they can’t comprehend. Dominic Guard is a young boy staying with a more wealthy schoolmate’s family for the summer. After his mate comes down with measles, he finds companionship with his mate’s older sister who uses him as the deliverer of secret love letters to a neighboring farmer. Class differences are strictly adhered to here, where Guard’s character is openly mocked for his poorer wardrobe and it is unheard that an aristocrat could marry a simple farmer. While the Victorian countryside is a beautiful setting, everything is drawn out longer than necessary to tell the story.

Oscar Nomination: Best Actress in a Supporting Role

Posted on 2021-10-03 | No Comments |

The End of the Affair (1999)

In post World War II London, Ralph Fiennes is the former lover of Julianne Moore, the wife of his friend Stephen Rea. Through flashbacks, the reasons for the ending of their affair are told from both of their perspectives. The film explores variations on love, here on earth and beyond; Fiennes’s expressed in a seething intensity while Moore’s is quieter and more internal but no less encompassing. It’s a beautiful, languid movie with beautiful people, but I can’t help feeling that perhaps some of the story’s depth was lost in movie form.

Oscar Nominations: Best Actress in a Leading Role; Best Cinematography

Posted on 2021-10-02 | No Comments |

A Tale of Two Cities (1935)

The only thing I knew about the Dickens novel was the opening line. Though I have no idea if it adheres closely to the Dickens’s story, this version is an engaging story of various individuals (aristocrats, hoi polloi, and Londoners) in Paris and London during the years surrounding the French Revolution. Basil Rathbone is perfectly evil as the Marquis who begins the tale, crushing everyone beneath his whims. He is paralleled by Ronald Colman who portrays a superbly clever and noble version of lawyer Carton who is willing to make great sacrifices for the one he loves.

Oscar Nominations: Best Picture; Best Film Editing