Best Cinematography – 1981

Official Nominations: Reds. Excalibur. On Golden Pond. Ragtime. Raiders Of The Lost Ark.

Vittorio Storaro picked up his second win in as many years, this time for Reds. It’s not exactly on par with Apocalypse Now – what is – but I’m happy for the recognition he was getting around this time after a couple of decades of excellent work before. It’s nice to see something like Excalibur in with a shout, the fantasy genre usually entirely dismissed by The Academy but Alex Thomson’s work elevating things in their eyes. On Golden Pond was always going get a nomination, Ragtime is a curious but justified pick, and Raiders never had a shot of winning but couldn’t be avoided. It’s Raiders which yet again gets my vote, with Douglas Slocombe never picking up an official win even after Academy favourites such as The Lion In Winter and British classics like The Italian Job. Slocombe’s hazy, sun-sweated vision is just as vital a part of the Indiana Jones saga as Ford, Spielberg, or Lucas are.

My Winner: Raiders Of The Lost Ark.

My Nominations: Raiders Of The Lost Ark. Blow Out. Chariots Of Fire. Clash Of The Titans. Escape From New York. For Your Eyes Only. Gallipoli. The Road Warrior. Quest For Fire. Southern Comfort.

I’ve only pulled Raiders over so that I could make room for the more interesting choices. Of my additions, only Chariots Of Fire realistically stood a chance of getting a nom due to its other noms and wins – David Watkin would win a few years later for Out Of Africa. Elsewhere, my choices range from the mumbling pseudo-history of Quest For Fire, which shoots Africa and Scotland to look otherworldly, to the outright fantasy of Clash Of The Titans giving me early fantasies of wanting to move to Greece when I grew up.

Gallipoli should have been in with a shot of receiving a genuine nomination, Russell Boyd continuing his stellar work with Peter Weir, while Blow Out is one of the more visually oppressive and chilling De Palma film’s, enhanced by Vilmos Zsigmond. For Your Eyes Only is one of the more chilling Bond movies, not least because of the snowy locales, but because it’s the most serious of the Moore flicks. From Cortina, to Greece, to England, locations are part and parcel of the Bond package but Alan Hume doesn’t allow the glitz and glamour to take central stage and instead play a role in grounding the story as more of a character piece than most Bond movies.

Southern Comfort even more impressively uses its location as a character, the smouldering and dense rivers and forests of the bayou, squeezing ever inwards to trap a group of National Guard members as they fight among themselves for survival after upsetting the locals. Escaping from dangerous locals is just a day in the life of Snake Plissken, with Dean Cundy’s shadow-drenched Escape From New York every bit as oppressive as Walter Hill’s swamps. Finally, The Road Warrior receives another nomination from me, showing the unending wasteland of the outback as a permanently sunlit purgatory.

My Winner: Raiders Of The Lost Ark

Let us know your winner in the comments!

Best Writing – Original – 1981

Official Nominations: Chariots Of Fire. Absence Of Malice. Arthur. Atlantic City. Reds.

Colin Welland, perhaps better known for his memorable performance in Kes, picked up the win this year for Chariots Of Fire. It would never be my pick and at times it feels like it’s evangelising (pick up Murakami’s What I Talk About When I Talk About Running instead), but I understand it winning. Absence Of Malice gets a courtesy nomination, following its Performance-based noms, while Atlantic City and Reds were guaranteed nominees and are about equal in my estimation alongside Chariots Of Fire. That leaves my personal pick out of these five – the anarchic Arthur which feels like the naughty boy in the corner of class that everyone wants rid of, but can’t ignore because his uncle is President of the School Board. Or something.

My Winner: Arthur.

My Nominations: Arthur. Raiders Of The Lost Ark. An American Werewolf In London. Body Heat. History Of The World Part 1. The Road Warrior. Time Bandits.

Arthur makes it over to my personal list, but it won’t be my winner, not when you have a selection of the most seminal genres movies ever lined up against it. Body Heat puts the sex into the rejuvenated Neo Noir genre and is smarter than it gets credit for, even if it is more fondly remembered for a couple of one-liners. Time Bandits is endlessly inventive and just as quotable as your favourite Python movie. Brooks isn’t at his sharpest in the segmented History Of The World Part 1, but that still means his sharper than most, while The Road Warrior allows most of its supporting cast of creeps and cars to do the talking rather than its protagonist. An American Werewolf perfected the blend of Horror and Comedy in 1982, and few films have come close to capturing its essence, failing to recognise that its success is in its script. My winner falls again to Raiders Of The Lost Ark, a film where every character gets their own satchel filled with snappy dialogue and whip-cracking retorts, all wrapped up in a globe-trotting pseudo history lesson.

My Winner: Raiders Of The Lost Ark.

Let us know your winner in the comments!

1979 Academy Awards – An Introduction

The 52nd Academy Awards were again hosted by Johnny Carson and saw three movies taking most of the glory – Kramer Vs Kramer, All That Jazz, and Apocalypse Now. All three movies will make multiple appearances in my nominations, with one of them being a more obvious category winner for me. However, some other notable films of 1979 will also appear as frequent nominees and winners in my picks, so stay tuned for some large variances.

Honorary Awards were presented this year to Alec Guinness, Hal Elias, Ray Stark, Robert Benjamin, John O Aalberg, Charles G Clarke, and John G Frayne. Presenters included William Shatner, Jamie Lee Curtis, Steven Spielberg, and Farrah Fawcett, while performances were from Kermit, Miss Piggy, and Paul Williams, Dionne Warwick, and others.

Come back over the next few weeks to see my picks in each category, and be sure to share your own thoughts and choices!

Best Actor – 1978

Official Nominations: Jon Voight. Warren Beatty. Gary Busey. Robert De Niro. Laurence Olivier.

In the late 70s, De Niro took over from Pacino in The Best Actor official category, here gaining his third nomination. It was Jon Voight though who picked up the win in a genuinely tough category. I think all five performances here are contenders, but I would have four front-runners including Voight as the severely injured soldier Coming Home. De Niro’s performance also sees him returning home from, going to, and being in Vietnam and I feel it’s the more iconic, more rounded of the two. Gary Busey hits the big time with his superb portrayal of Buddy Holly, one of the most underrated biography performances of all time, while Laurence Olivier gets a veteran nomination as a Nazi Hunter in The Boys From Brazil. Unlike most veteran nominations, this one is deserving on its own merits. Finally, Warren Beatty is the outsider and this feels more like a ‘we love you, Warren’ nomination than anything else. A good performance sure, but not on par with the others.

My Winner: Robert De Niro

My Nominations: Jon Voight. Gary Busey. Robert De Niro. Christopher Reeve. Donald Pleasence. Jan Michael Vincent. Gregory Peck. Brad Davis. Ryan O’Neal. John Belushi.

Three make it over from the official list, joining a mixture of possible snubs and personal favourites. Christopher Reeve burst onto the scene as the only Superman who will ever matter (sorry Dean Cain), a role so all-encompassing that he could never escape it. It’s a great lead performance surrounded by a stellar cast – his comedic talents giving Clark Kent that awkward, clumsy charm while easily transitioning into the all-powerful hero figure. Also kind of playing an awkward and heroic character is Donald Pleasence as Dr Loomis in Halloween, one of the great good guys of horror cinema. the sequels have a fair bit of scenery chewing, but here Pleasence looks like he’s relishing the performance and film, having fun as this slightly manic protector of a child who wsa pure evil. Is he truly a lead though? Tough, I’m adding him.

Jan Michael Vincent didn’t really stand a chance against De Niro and Voight, but his performance in Big Wednesday shares a lot of similarities and should have been a stepping off point to much bigger things. Unfortunately, things never quite panned out that way, perhaps some critical praise would have helped. Gregory Peck goes against type and plays one of the most despicable humans ever in The Boys From Brazil – proving that everyone’s favourite wholesome figure could be much more. Brad Davis could have become a household name if he had received more high profile praise for his star making turn in Midnight Express while John Belushi became an icon after Animal House. Finally, Ryan O’Neal stars as the titular Driver in Walter Hill’s action/chase classic. When people think of Ryan O’Neal they invariably go to Love Story or Paper Moon but for me it’s The Driver which features his best performance, much against type, as the cool and detached getaway driver whose apparently obvious desires are perhaps not so obvious upon reevaluation.

My Winner: Robert De Niro

Let us know your picks in the comments!

Best Actress – 1978

Official Nominations: Ingrid Bergman. Jane Fonda. Jill Clayburgh. Ellen Burstyn. Geraldine Page.

This year it’s another fairly weak category. Fonda got her win for the underrated Coming Home, but I feel like the male performances are so strong as to make everyone else seem on a lower level. Ingrid Bergman delivers her final big screen performance, it’s good but I don’t rate it as highly as some from previous decades. Jill Clayburgh is great in An Unmarried Woman, running the gamut of emotions as her marriage, and life unravels catastrophically. The final two performances get votes more because of who the performers are rather than the performances themselves – fine again, but nothing special.

My Winner: Jill Clayburgh

My Nominations: Jill Clayburgh. Lynn Holly Johnson. Margot Kidder. Jamie Lee Curtis.

Only Clayburgh makes it to my choices, and to be honest I’ve struggled finding a collection of worthy performances. Ice Castles isn’t the best film in the world, but it’s sweet and where it does succeed is down almost entirely to Lynn Holly Johnson’s performance as a young woman who dreams of becoming an Ice Skating champion only to suffer a freak accident. Margot Kidder became just as iconic as Lois Lane as Christoper Reeves did as Superman, a performance often overlooked. Finally, Jamie Lee Curtis makes up the numbers as one of the most famous horror movie survivors Laurie Strode, whose screams and strength and perseverance essentially created both the Scream Queen and Final Girl archetypes. She wasn’t the first, but she’s the poster girl, and for a debut performance few have become more famous.

My Winner: Jill Clayburgh

Let us know your winner in the comments!

1977 Academy Awards – An Introduction

The 50th Academy awards show was again marred by controversy with Vanessa Redgrave using her victory speech to thank those who ‘stood firm’ against fascism in all its forms, while Paddy Chayefsky later retorted that the ceremony was not a platform for political propaganda. Just so all you millennials are aware that political/celebrity standoffs aren’t a new thing and were going on while you were still swimming in your daddy’s nutsack. Elsewhere, a little movie called Star Wars won a few awards alongside Annie Hall, while Julia, Turning Point, and Close Encounters of The Third Kind earned a bunch of nominations. I think you can guess where my votes will be going.

Honorary Awards went to Margaret Booth, Charlton Heston, and Walter Mirisch while Sammy Davis Jr and Marvin Hamlisch performed a tribute for the many performers who died in 1977. Presenters included C3PO and R2D2, Olivia Newton-John, and Jon Voight.

Join me in the next few weeks to see which awards went to which movies, and feel free to leave your comments and picks too!

1976 Academy Awards – An Introduction

The Awards risked debauchery this year by allowing Richard Pryor on the mic, backed up by Jane Fonda, Ellen Burstyn, and Warren Beatty. We had our first ever posthumous acting win (Peter Finch), and the first woman (Lina Wertmuller) to be nominated in the Directing category. As usual, there were some standouts with respect to multiple nominations – both Network and Rocky received ten, and All The President’s Men grabbed eight. Which, if any, of these movies will feature heavily in my picks?

Presenting awards this year were Muhammad Ali and Sly Stallone, Louise Fletcher, Jack Nicholson and many more, while performances came from the likes of Bill Conti, Tom Jones, and Ann-Margret. The sole Honorary Award went to Pandro S Berman – one of early Hollywood’s biggest Producers.

Join us over the next few weeks as I deliver my verdict on each category, and feel free to share your picks too!

 

Best Writing (Adapted) – 1975

Official Nominations: One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest. Barry Lyndon. The Man Who Would Be King. Profumo di donna. The Sunshine Boys.

One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest continued its clean sweep of the big boys with an official win here. While Kesey was originally going to work on the screenplay, he later pulled out and refused to ever see the film. The film does contain some minor and significant changes to the story, having less of an emphasis on Chief’s role, but it retains the spirit of the novel and is peppered with great one-liners and speeches. Similarly, Kubrick’s screenplay for Barry Lyndon makes a major narrative change in having an omniscient narrator, as well has having little obvious comedy which made for an initially cold experience and reception.

The Man Who Would Be King is a film and story of adventure and glory, and one of the few non-horror films that ends with a severed head in a box. Spoiler alert, I guess? There isn’t much difference from the original story aside from the usual cinematic concessions, but there are plenty of speeches peppered throughout, with the odd bit of sarcastic patriotism. The Italian original of Scent Of A Woman is another weird one – it’s ostensibly a comedy, a film about two injured soldiers returning home to kill themselves, one of whom is blind and therefore accompanied by a younger army aide. While the days tick down he decides to meet as many hot women as he can, getting the boy to spot for him but eventually deciding to, literally, smell them out himself. I never got on well with the remake, and this gives me similar feelings, though plus marks for the unusual story. Finally, The Sunshine Boys, is Neil Simon adapting his own play so if you know his work you know what you’re going to get. It has some great comic talent so no matter what the material is you know they’re going to make it crackle – luckily they have a writer at the top of his game to play off – again plus points for showing something generally unorthodox on screen – old guys bickering rather than teens – but I guess they still did things differently in the 70s.

My Winner: One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest

My Nominations: One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest. Barry Lyndon. Jaws. Picnic At Hanging Rock. Tommy.

The two big names make my list, joining two big name snubs. Jaws has many quotable one-liners and pieces of dialogue which have long since entered the public conscience – my personal favourite always being the Indianapolis speech penned by Robert Shaw, Howard Sackler, and the great John Milius. In fact, the film as a whole features a number of writers and contributions even though Benchley and Carl Gottlieb get the main credits. Picnic At Hanging Rock is an ambiguous novel and the film takes that ambiguity to the next level by instilling a dreamlike tone to the narrative. Finally, Tommy sees Ken Russell (no stranger to stories concerning music and musicians) somehow concoct a somewhat straight film from The Who’s scattered rock opera, expanding loose threads and minor lyrics into a fully formed screenplay.

My Winner: One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest

Let us know your winner in the comments!

Best Foreign Film – 1975

Official Nominations: Dersu Uzala.  Letters From Marusia. The Promised Land. Sandakan No.8. Profuma di Donna.

Of all the Kurosawa films, you’d think Dersu Uzala would be pretty far down the list. It’s not an immediate masterpiece like Seven Samurai, but it’s still great. It’s based on the life of an educated Russian explorer and the nomadic hunter of the title – how these two men work and learn and get older together and come to a mutual respect in a harsh but beautiful wilderness. It you know anything about how Kurosawa directs and frames, then you think of a Russian wilderness you can imagine what how Kurosawa would film it. It’s a lovely, poignant, tragic story too which will remind viewers of something like Ikiru.  Letters From Marusia is pretty tragic too, a film based on a real life event when a town of miners decided to strike for better working conditions. Knowing that this could lead to military intervention from their government, they try to defend themselves. The Promised Land isn’t the most exciting film Wajda ever made, but it is stark and uncompromising, following the lives of three friends trying to set up a business and make loadsa money. Interestingly it has a similar ending to the previous film nominated. Sandakan No. 8 is another stark one, taking a damning look at the way women, or at least prostitutes can be treated in the country. It’s about a young girl sold into prostitution, and how she grows up in the business becoming disillusioned with life and people and how she can’t reintegrate into society once she comes home.  Finally, Profuma di donna is the original version of Scent Of A Woman. It’s actually pretty similar, except it’s in the 70s and in Italy. I’m not a huge fan of either film though.

My Winner: Dersu Uzala

My Nominations: Dersu Uzala. Deep Red. Furtivos. Graveyard Of Honour. Inserts. Katie Tippel. The Land That Time Forgot. The Man Who Would Be King. Monty Python And The Holy Grail. The Passenger. Picnic At Hanging Rock. Seven Beauties. The Story Of Adele H. Tommy.

Yikes, what a year. There’s a whole host of great films here, a few I didn’t include and a few I haven’t seen which would likely warrant inclusion. My list does of course include guilty pleasures, but if you enjoy them more than those genuinely nominated that’s good enough for me. Only Kurosawa’s film makes it to my list, but there’s no shortage of classics to accompany it. Staying in Japan we have Kinji Fukasaku’s seminal Yakuza thriller Graveyard Of Honour about the torrid life of one gangster, featuring a number of stunning stunts. Staying in the East we have Picnic At Hanging Rock, one of Australia’s finest films of the decade, haunting, ambiguous, beautiful.

The Land That Time Forgot is a bit of cheat given it’s a joint US/UK production, but I include it here anyway as it is one of the most entertaining films of the era and maybe the best example of the Lost World genre ever committed to screen. Dated now, and not exactly filled with acting greats, it’s nevertheless a personal favourite. Another exciting US/UK venture is The Man Who Would Be King in which John Huston makes a rollicking, if overlong epic while Monty Python And The Holy Grail sees the Python group unleashes their unique brand of insanity upon the world. Tommy is maybe the best, certainly the most regarded, movie based on an album.

Elsewhere in Europe, Antonioni shows off in his films about abandonment and escape – The Passenger features shots and camerawork which still power to wow in today’s world of digital trickery. Paul Verhoeven gives us the life of Katie Tippel in typically sexualized style while Inserts examines in humourous style the options available (porn) for silent actors when talkies became popular – two films which were fairly shocking for the time but never found a worldwide audience. Furtivos is one of Spain’s best films and is crying out to find a new audience – an uncomfortable, uncompromising drama about a deceptive hunter and his monstrous mother, while Seven Beauties is similarly controversial as we follow the life of an Italian scumbag who will do anything to survive – another film which deserves a look by modern viewers. Finally, The Story Of Adele H is Truffaut’s biography of one of Victor Hugo’s daughters as she becomes obsessed with a man, following him around the world in an entirely unrequited path of destruction.

My Winner: Monty Python And The Holy Grail

Let us know your winning pick in the comments!

1975 Academy Awards – An Introduction

The 48th Academy Awards ushered in the era of the blockbuster, with Stephen Spielberg’s Jaws earning all of the money but a host of nominations and wins too. There were several films which had high numbers of nominations – One Flew over The Cuckoo’s Nest leading the way with nine, closely followed by Barry Lyndon with seven and Dog Day Afternoon with six. Rest assured that each of these will feature heavily in my personal picks, along with some other interesting selections.

We had five hosts this year – George Segal, Goldie Hawn, Gene Kelly, Robert Shaw, and Walter Matthau while presenters included Roy Scheider, Ben Johnson, Isabelle Adjani, and Gore Vidal. Performing for the crowd this year were John Williams, Diana Ross, and Keith Carradine amongst others, while Mary Pickford, Mervyn LeRoy, and Jules C Stein picked up Honorary Awards.

Join us over the next few weeks to see what I picked in each category, and be sure to leave you own – the world is (n’t) watching (!).