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introvertguide · 4 years ago

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Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964); AFI #39

The most recent movie for the group to review was the Kubrick dark comedy, Dr. Strangelove (I am not writing out the whole title each time). This film has some of the most legitimately funny lines of bewilderment, with some occasions involving an actor playing across from himself. For most film goers, this will be Peter Seller’s most famous role since he plays three main characters, all with different accents, appearances, and quirks. The film was nominated for 4 Academy Awards (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Actor) but did not take home any trophies. The film did win best picture at the BAFTAs. This film was definitely in the style of Kubrick, but it was in a genre that I don’t believe he delved into again. I want to review the plot before discussing further, so let me get the usual out of the way:

SPOILER ALERT!!! I AM ABOUT TO GIVE AWAY THE WHOLE PLOT OF THE FILM!!! IF YOU WANT TO WATCH THE FILM ON YOUR OWN WITHOUT HAVING ANYTHING SPOILED, STOP NOW AND WATCH THE FILM!!! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!

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At the start, we are introduced to United States Air Force Brigadier General Jack D. Ripper (Sterling Hayden) who is commander of Burpelson Air Force Base. This base houses a group of B-52 bombers armed with hydrogen bombs that are constantly in the air. The planes are constantly within two hours from their targets inside the USSR in case of nuclear war. General Ripper orders his executive officer, Group Captain Lionel Mandrake of the UK Royal Air Force (Peter Sellers), to put the base on alert and to issue "Wing Attack Plan R" to the patrolling bombers, one of which is commanded by Major T. J. "King" Kong (Slim Pickens). All of the aircraft commence an attack flight on the USSR, and set their radios to allow communications only through their CRM 114 discriminators, which was designed to accept only communications preceded by a secret three-letter code known only to General Ripper. Mandrake discovers that no attack order has been issued by the Pentagon and tries to stop Ripper, who locks them both in his office. Ripper tells Mandrake that he believes the Soviets have been fluoridating American water supplies to pollute the "precious bodily fluids" of Americans. Mandrake realizes Ripper has gone insane.

In the War Room at the Pentagon, General Buck Turgidson (George C Scott) briefs President Merkin Muffley (Peter Sellers again) and other officers about how "Plan R" enables a senior officer to launch a retaliatory nuclear attack on the Soviets if all superiors have been killed in a first strike on the United States. It would take two days to try every CRM code combination to issue the recall order, but the planes are due to reach their targets within hours. Muffley orders the U.S. Army to storm the base and arrest General Ripper. Turgidson then attempts to convince Muffley to let the attack continue, but Muffley refuses. Instead, he brings Soviet ambassador Alexei de Sadeski (Peter Bull) into the War Room to telephone Soviet Premier Dimitri Kissov on the "hotline". Muffley warns the Premier of the impending attack, and offers to reveal the positions of the bombers and their targets so that the Soviets can protect themselves.

After a heated discussion in Russian with the Premier, the ambassador informs President Muffley that the Soviet Union had created a doomsday machine as a nuclear deterrent; it consists of many buried bombs jacketed with "cobalt-thorium G", which are set to detonate automatically should any nuclear attack strike the country. Within two months after detonation, the cobalt-thorium G would encircle the planet in a radioactive shroud that would render the Earth's surface uninhabitable. The device cannot be deactivated, as it is programmed to explode if any such attempt is made. The President's wheelchair-bound scientific advisor, former Nazi German Dr. Strangelove (Peter Sellers one more time), points out that such a doomsday machine would only be an effective deterrent if everyone knew about it; Alexei replies that the Soviet Premier had planned to reveal its existence to the world the following week.

Meanwhile, U.S. Army troops arrive at Burpelson, and General Ripper commits suicide. Mandrake identifies Ripper's CRM code from his desk blotter and relays it to the Pentagon. Using the code, Strategic Air Command successfully recalls all of the bombers except Major Kong's, whose radio equipment has been damaged in a missile attack. The Soviets attempt to find it, but Kong has the bomber attack a closer target due to dwindling fuel. As the plane approaches the new target, a Soviet ICBM site, the crew is unable to open the damaged bomb bay doors. Kong enters the bay and repairs the broken electrical wiring while sitting on a H-bomb, whereupon the doors open and the bomb is dropped. Kong joyfully straddles the bomb as it falls and detonates over the target.

Back in the War Room, Dr. Strangelove recommends that the President gather several hundred thousand people to live in deep underground mines where the radiation will not penetrate. He suggests a 10:1 female-to-male ratio for a breeding program to repopulate the Earth once the radiation has subsided. Worried that the Soviets will do the same, Turgidson warns about a "mineshaft gap" while Alexei secretly photographs the war room. Dr. Strangelove declares he has a plan, but then rises from his wheelchair and announces "Mein Führer, I can walk!" as the Doomsday Machine activates. The film ends with a montage of many nuclear explosions, accompanied by Vera Lynn's rendition of the song "We'll Meet Again".

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This is a pretty weird film, but it has some of the funniest lines in cinema. Discussions of not letting a Russian envoy into the war room because he will “see the big board,” the president announcing there is no fighting in the war room, a crazy general constantly talking about a plot to steal American bodily fluids, and a discussion about how the high ranking officials and generals would be hidden in shelters with a 10-1 ratio of hot women to men with the expectation of constant impregnation which everybody suddenly favors: it is all absurd. But I really love it and laugh every time I watch.

The three roles of Peter Sellers is especially noteworthy, as all of his characters are so different. He plays a very British foreign exchange officer (I am not sure this exists), an absolutely whacky former Nazi scientist, and the straight man of the film in the form of the US president. Since Dr. Strangelove was an advisor to the president, there were many scenes in which Peter Sellers was acting across from a stunt shoulder or the back of a head that was supposed to be him. He did a fantastic job of making light of total world destruction during the cold war.

One very notable thing about the acting of Peter Sellers was that he had a couple of ad libs during the movie. Stanley Kubrick is not a director that particularly cares if he gets along with his actors, often times demanding dozens of takes for even the simplest of background scenes. Long dialogue scenes are repeated over and over to the point that many actors did not want to work with Kubrick. And still, the director seemed to like Sellers quite a bit and kept a couple of the takes that were ad-libbed, specifically for the character of Dr. Strangelove. Perhaps the crazy former Nazi character was so unpredictable that random whacky outbursts (like the scream for “Mein Fuhrer” at the end) seemed appropriate.

A little side note is that this was the first film appearance of James Earl Jones as one of the bombardiers on the B-52. He was known for his work in the theatre at the time, so of course he had a bit part in which he was mostly covered in a flight suit and said very little. Now that is a misuse of talent.

A point about the movie that I was unaware but was pointed out by a follower of the group was that the promotional material for the film shows that the plane was named “Leper Colony” (thank you @themightyfoo). This implies that this group was actually a bunch of screw ups, which is part of the overall joke that this group was given access to world ending bombing capabilities. Maybe it was assumed that the order to drop the bombs would never be given and this group was just given this detail to get them out of the way.

So does this movie belong on the AFI list? Yes, but maybe not ranked so high. It has a lot of name recognition, but I think that is more due to the very distinct naming and the titular role. Maybe the notoriety is also due to the subject matter and the time it was released. It is a fine film with great acting, but I find it hard to put above Jaws, Rocky, or Taxi Driver. I guess that is more my humble opinion, but I agree the list would be lacking without this film. So would I recommend it? Absolutely. It is an interesting story about how red tape allowed one high ranking individual to literally destroy the world. And it is a joke. It is such a well told story that they had to put a disclaimer at the front. A great lesson, even today.

#dr. strangelove #stanley kubrick #top 100 #movies #black and white #nuclear war #cold war #dark comedy #peter sellers #george c. scott #introvert #introverts

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dramabitposts · 4 years ago

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The best movie quotes of all-time

Here are some of the best Hollywood movie quotes of all time. Talk about dramatic one-liners!

“Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn (Gone with the Wind, 1939)

“Here’s looking at you, kid” (Casablanca, 1942)

“You’re gonna need a bigger boat” (Jaws, 1975)

“May the Force be with you” (Star Wars, 1977)

“Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore” (The Wizard of Oz, 1939)

“I’m going to make him an offer he can’t refuse” (The Godfather, 1972)

“Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine.” (Casablanca, 1942)

“You talkin’ to me?” (Taxi Driver, 1976)

“There’s no place like home” (The Wizard of Oz, 1939)

“The first rule of Fight Club is you do not talk about Fight Club” (Fight Club, 1999)

“I am your father” (Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, 1980)

“Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.” (The Princess Bride, 1987)

“Why so serious?” (The Dark Knight, 2008)

“I’ll have what she’s having” (When Harry Met Sally, 1989)

“This is the beginning of a beautiful friendship” (Casablanca, 1942)

“We’ll always have Paris” (Casablanca, 1942)

“Bond. James Bond” (Dr No, 1962)

“I see dead people” (The Sixth Sense, 1999)

“I’ll be back” (The Terminator, 1984)

“You can’t handle the truth!” (A Few Good Men, 1992)

“E.T phone home” (ET, 1982)

“Yippie-ki-yay, mother f**ker!” (Die Hard, 1988)

“To infinity and beyond!” (Toy Story, 1995)

“Houston, we have a problem” (Apollo 13, 1995)

“You had me at hello” (Jerry Maguire, 1996)

“There’s no crying in baseball!” (A League of Their Own, 1992)

“Here’s Johnny!” (The Shining, 1980)

”I am serious. And don't call me Shirley.” (Airplane, 1980)

“Mrs. Robinson, you're trying to seduce me, aren't you?” (The Graduate, 1967)

“Carpe Diem. Seize the day, boys” (Dead Poets Society, 1989)

“Leave the gun, take the cannoli” (The Godfather, 1972)

“Show me the money!” (Jerry Maguire, 1996)

“Say hello to my little friend” (Scarface, 1983)

”You've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya punk?” (Dirty Harry, 1971)

“I love the smell of napalm in the morning.” (Apocalypse Now, 1979)

”Fasten your seatbelts. It's going to be a bumpy night.” (All About Eve, 1950)

“Roads? Where we're going we don't need roads.” (Back to the Future, 1985)

”You don't understand! I could've had class. I could've been a contender. I could've been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am.” (On the Waterfront, 1954)

“I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!” (Network, 1976)

”The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist.” (The Usual Suspects, 1995)

“Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.” (The Godfather Part II, 1974)

”Every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings.” (It’s a Wonderful Life, 1946)

“I am big! It's the pictures that got small.” (Sunset Boulevard, 1950)

”What we've got here is a failure to communicate.” (Cool Hand Luke, 1967)

“Shaken, not stirred” (Goldfinger, 1964)

“I’m the king of the world!” (Titanic, 1997)

“Mama says, 'Stupid is as stupid does.’” (Forrest Gump, 1994)

“Just keep swimming (Finding Nemo, 2003)

“If you built it, he will come” (Field of Dreams, 1989)

“I'm not bad. I'm just drawn that way.” (Who Framed Roger Rabbit, 1988)

“I’m having an old friend for dinner” (The Silence of the Lambs, 1991)

”Play it, Sam. Play 'As Time Goes By.’“ (Casablanca, 1942)

”I'll get you, my pretty, and your little dog, too!” (The Wizard of Oz, 1939)

“Hasta la vista, baby” (Terminator 2: Judgement Day, 1991)

“The Dude abides” (The Big Lebowski, 1998)

“I'm also just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her.” (Notting Hill, 1999)

”Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!” (The Wizard of Oz, 1939)

“Stella! Hey, Stella!” (A Streetcar Named Desire, 1951)

“After all, tomorrow is another day!” (Gone with the Wind, 1939)

”You is kind. You is smart. You is important.” (The Help, 2011)

“You know how to whistle, don't you, Steve? You just put your lips together and blow.” (To Have and Have Not, 1944)

”Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You're my only hope.” (Star Wars, 1977)

“I mean, funny like I'm a clown? I amuse you?” (Goodfellas, 1990)

“Go ahead, make my day” (Sudden Impact, 1983)

”I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.” (A Streetcar Named Desire, 1951)

“It’s alive! It’s alive!” (Frankenstein, 1931)

“Argo f**k yourself” (Argo, 2012)

“My precious” (The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, 2002)

“Good morning, Vietnam!” (Good Morning, Vietnam, 1987)

“I wish I knew how to quit you” (Brokeback Mountain, 2005)

“That’ll do, pig, that’ll do” (Babe, 1995)

“Elementary, my dear Watson” (The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, 1939)

“I don't want to survive. I want to live.” (12 Years a Slave, 2013)

”Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the war room!” (Dr Strangelove, 1964)

“You ain't heard nothin' yet!” (The Jazz Singer, 1927)

“Wax on, wax off” (The Karate Kid, 1984)

“Yo, Adrian!” (Rocky, 1976)

“Nobody’s perfect” (Some Like it Hot, 1959)

”Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.” (The Godfather Part III, 1990)

“Magic Mirror on the wall, who is the fairest one of all?” (Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, 1937)

“They’re here!” (Poltergeist, 1982)

”They call it a Royale with cheese.” (Pulp Fiction, 1994)

“I'm just one stomach flu away from my goal weight.” (The Devil Wears Prada, 2006)

”Badges? We ain't got no badges! We don't need no badges! I don't have to show you any stinking badges!” (The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, 1948)

“It was Beauty killed the Beast” (King Kong, 1933)

“I'm walking here! I'm walking here!” (Midnight Cowboy, 1969)

“These go to eleven” (This is Spinal Tap, 1984)

“Forget it, Jake. It’s Chinatown” (Chinatown, 1974)

“Chewie, we’re home” (Star Wars: The Force Awakens, 2015)

“As if!” (Clueless, 1995)

“You make me want to be a better man” (As Good as It Gets, 1997)

”Get your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape!” (Planet of the Apes, 1968)

“I drink your milkshake!” (There Will be Blood, 2007)

“My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius, commander of the Armies of the North, General of the Felix Legions and loyal servant to the true emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife. And I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next.” (Gladiator, 2000)

“You complete me” (Jerry Maguire, 1996)

”If you let my daughter go now, that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you.” (Taken, 2008)

“When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.” (When Harry Met Sally, 1989)

“They call me Mister Tibbs!” (In the Heat of the Night, 1967)

”They may take our lives, but they'll never take our freedom!” (Braveheart, 1995)

“Love means never having to say you're sorry” (Love Story, 1970)

For plenty more dramatic content, check out www.dramabit.com.

#hollywood #dramatic #staw wars #jaws #best #movie #qoutes #all-time #books #ebooks

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dweemeister · 5 years ago

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A list of all films featured in 2020′s 31 Days of Oscar

This is the exhaustive list of all 327 short- and feature-length films featured during this year’s 31 Days of Oscar marathon (down from 388 in 2019, up from 296 in 2018). Every single film that was featured since January 29 was nominated for an Academy Award or won an Honorary Oscar. We started the marathon a few days early this year because of the earlier-than-usual timing of this year’s ceremony (which placed it at Day 12 of this year’s marathon). Thank goodness we’ll go back to usual in 2021 and 2022, where the former’s ceremony will be placed on Day 28 if I, by tradition, start the marathon on February 1, 2021.

Best Picture winners and the one (and only) winner for Unique and Artistic Production are in bold - okay the latter was not featured for this year’s marathon (but perhaps next time!). Asterisked (*) films are films I haven’t seen in their entirety as of the publishing of this post.

7th Heaven (1927)*

The Circus (1928)

The Divine Lady (1929)*

Disraeli (1929)*

The Love Parade (1929)*

All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)

Anna Christie (1930)*

The Divorcee (1930)*

The Green Goddess (1930)*

Raffles (1930)*

Five Star Final (1931)*

Little Caesar (1931)

The Sin of Madelon Claudet (1931)

Grand Hotel (1932)

One Hour with You (1932)*

Shanghai Express (1932)

Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933)

Little Women (1933)*

The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1934)*

The Gay Divorcee (1934)

It Happened One Night (1934)

The Thin Man (1934)

Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

The Lives of a Bengal Lancer (1935)*

Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)

Naughty Marietta (1935)

Top Hat (1935)

Broadway Melody of 1936 (1936)*

Fury (1936)*

The Garden of Allah (1936)

The Great Ziegfeld (1936)

Swing Time (1936)

Camille (1937)*

Grand Illusion (1937, France)

The Prisoner of Zenda (1937)

Three Smart Girls (1937)*

Wee Willie Winkie (1937)*

The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)

Dark Victory (1939)

Gone with the Wind (1939)

Gunga Din (1939)

Ninotchka (1939)

Wuthering Heights (1939)*

All This, and Heaven Too (1940)

The Grapes of Wrath (1940)

The Philadelphia Story (1940)

Pinocchio (1940)

Rebecca (1940)

A Wild Hare (1940 short)

Blossoms in the Dust (1941)*

The Devil and Daniel Webster (1941)*

Hold Back the Dawn (1941)*

Lady Be Good (1941)*

Meet John Doe (1941)

Sergeant York (1941)

Casablanca (1942)

Der Fuehrer’s Face (1942 short)

In Which We Serve (1942)*

Now, Voyager (1942)

Road to Morocco (1942)

Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)

Cabin in the Sky (1943)

Destination Tokyo (1943)*

A Guy Named Joe (1943)*

This Land is Mine (1943)*

Marie Curie (1943)*

The North Star (1943)*

The Song of Bernadette (1943)

The Yankee Doodle Mouse (1943 short)

Double Indemnity (1944)

Gaslight (1944)

Going My Way (1944)

It Happened Tomorrow (1944)*

Laura (1944)

National Velvet (1944)

The Uninvited (1944)*

Brief Encounter (1945)

Caesar and Cleopatra (1945)*

Leave Her to Heaven (1945)*

Pride of the Marines (1945)*

The Southerner (1945)

They Were Expendable (1945)*

Vacation from Marriages (1945)*

Great Expectations (1946)*

The Green Years (1946)*

The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946)*

The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer (1947)*

Black Narcissus (1947)

Crossfire (1947)

Gentleman’s Agreement (1947)

The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947)

Green Dolphin Street (1947)*

T-Men (1947)*

The Red Shoes (1948)

Romance on the High Seas (1948)*

It’s a Great Feeling (1949)*

A Letter to Three Wives (1949)*

Little Women (1949)*

Mighty Joe Young (1949)*

Neptune’s Daughter (1949)*

She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949)

The Third Man (1949)

All About Eve (1950)

La Ronde (1950, France)*

Ace in the Hole (1951)

An American in Paris (1951)

Quo Vadis (1951)

Royal Wedding (1951)

When Worlds Collide (1951)*

The Bad and the Beautiful (1952)

Le Plaisir (1952, France)*

Singin’ in the Rain (1952)

The Band Wagon (1953)

From Here to Eternity (1953)

Lili (1953)

Mogambo (1953)*

The Story of Three Loves (1953)*

La Strada (1954, Italy)

On the Waterfront (1954)

Seven Samurai (1954, Japan)

Bad Day at Black Rock (1955)

No Hunting (1955 short)*

Around the World in 80 Days (1956)

The Burmese Harp (1956, Japan)

Friendly Persuasion (1956)

Giant (1956)

Lust for Life (1956)

Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956)*

Written on the Wind (1956)*

Funny Face (1957)

Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957)

Tammy and the Bachelor (1957)*

12 Angry Men (1957)

Witness for the Prosecution (1957)

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958)

Gigi (1958)

Separate Tables (1958)*

Ben-Hur (1959)

North by Northwest (1959)

The Young Philadelphians (1959)*

The Alamo (1960)

The Entertainer (1960)*

Pepe (1960)*

Spartacus (1960)

Two Women (1960, Italy)*

Beep Prepared (1961 short)

Days of Wine and Roses (1962)

How the West Was Won (1962)

Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

Sweet Bird of Youth (1962)

The Caretakers (1963)*

Cheyenne Autumn (1964)

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)

That Man from Rio (1964, France)*

My Fair Lady (1964)

Doctor Zhivago (1965)

The Shop on Main Street (1965, Czechoslovakia)*

The Sound of Music (1965)

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966)

A Man for All Seasons (1966)

The Professionals (1966)

Bonnie and Clyde (1967)

Cool Hand Luke (1967)

Far from the Madding Crowd (1967)*

The Graduate (1967)

The Jungle Book (1967)

The Producers (1967)

The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967, France)*

Funny Girl (1968)

Ice Station Zebra (1968)*

The Lion in Winter (1968)*

Planet of the Apes (1968)

True Grit (1969)

Z (1969, Algeria)

Dodes'ka-den (1970, Japan)

Woodstock (1970)

Carnal Knowledge (1971)*

The Emigrants (1971, Sweden)*

Cabaret (1972)

Cries and Whispers (1972, Sweden)

The Godfather (1972)

The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972)*

Travels with My Aunt (1972)*

Papillon (1973)

The Sting (1973)

The Four Musketeers (1974)*

The Godfather: Part II (1974)

Young Frankenstein (1974)

Dersu Uzala (1975, Soviet Union)

Dog Day Afternoon (1975)

Shampoo (1975)*

The Sunshine Boys (1975)*

Network (1976)

Taxi Driver (1976)

A Special Day (1977, Italy)*

Star Wars (1977)

Autumn Sonata (1978, Sweden)

Superman (1978)

The Swarm (1978)*

Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)

Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)

Kagemusha (1980, Japan)

Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears (1980, Soviet Union)*

An American Werewolf in London (1981)*

Mephisto (1981, Hungary)*

Annie (1982)

An Officer and a Gentleman (1982)*

Victor/Victoria (1982)

Educating Rita (1983)*

Terms of Endearment (1983)

Dune (1984)*

A Passage to India (1984)*

Out of Africa (1985)

Ran (1985, Japan)

Witness (1985)*

Aliens (1986)

Luxo Jr. (1986 short)

Empire of the Sun (1987)

The Last Emperor (1987)

Bull Durham (1988)*

Mississippi Burning (1988)*

Dead Poets Society (1989)

Field of Dreams (1989)

Dances with Wolves (1990)

Ghost (1990)*

Boyz n the Hood (1991)*

The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

Aladdin (1992)

Unforgiven (1992)

The Firm (1993)*

The Wrong Trousers (1993 short)*

Forrest Gump (1994)

Il Postino (1994, Italy)

Little Women (1994)*

Casino (1995)*

Toy Story (1995)

Emma (1996)*

Star Trek: First Contact (1996)

Life Is Beautiful (1997, Italy)

The Old Lady and the Pigeons (1997 short, France)*

Saving Private Ryan (1998)

The Insider (1999)

Toy Story 2 (1999)

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000, Taiwan)

Gladiator (2000)

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001)

A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)

The Crime of Padre Amaro (2002, Mexico)*

Treasure Planet (2002)

The Fog of War (2003)*

The Triplets of Belleville (2003, France)*

Howl’s Moving Castle (2004, Japan)

Walk the Line (2005)*

Babel (2006)*

The Departed (2006)

Letters from Iwo Jima (2006)

Atonement (2007)*

Ratatouille (2007)

The Hurt Locker (2008)

Kung Fu Panda (2008)

Waltz with Bashir (2008, Israel)

Precious (2009)*

The Secret of Kells (2009)

Inception (2010)

Toy Story 3 (2010)

A Separation (2011, Iran)

Amour (2012, Austria)

War Witch (2012, Canada)*

Omar (2013, Palestine)*

The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (2013, Japan)

12 Years a Slave (2013)

Timbuktu (2014, Mauritania)

Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

Hidden Figures (2016)

Kubo and the Two Strings (2016)

Dear Basketball (2017 short)

Negative Space (2017 short)

The Shape of Water (2017)

BlacKkKlansman (2018)

Roma (2018, Mexico)

The nine nominees for Best Picture, including the winner, Parasite (2019, South Korea)

The fifteen nominees for the short film categories (2019)

Ad Astra (2019)

American Factory (2019)*

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019)

For Sama (2019)*

Honeyland (2019, North Macedonia)*

How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (2019)

I Lost My Body (2019, France)

Judy (2019)

Klaus (2019)

Knives Out (2019)

The Lighthouse (2019)

Pain and Glory (2019, Spain)

Rocketman (2019)

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019)

Toy Story 4 (2019)

The Two Popes (2019)*

#31 Days of Oscar

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warningsine · 5 years ago

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200+7 comedies

A film list for my dearest @volatilelovers. Dramedies, romantic comedies and satire are not excluded. Hope that some of them help you a little when you feel down.

So, here we go:

The Kid (1921) dir. Charlie Chaplin

Safety Last! (1923), dir. Harold Lloyd

The Navigator (1924), dir. Buster Keaton

The General (1926), dir. Clyde Bruckman, Buster Keaton

The Cameraman (1928), dir. Buster Keaton

The Circus (1928), dir. Charlie Chaplin

The Neighbor's Wife and Mine (1931), dir. Heinosuke Gosho

Duck Soup (1933), dir. Leo McCarey

Passing Fancy (1933), dir. Yasujiro Ozu

A Night at the Opera (1935), dir. Sam Wood

Modern Times (1936), dir. Charlie Chaplin

Mr. Thank You (1936), dir. Hiroshi Shimizu

A Day at the Races (1937), dir. Sam Wood

The Awful Truth (1937), dir. Leo McCarey

Bringing Up Baby (1938), dir. Howard Hawks

Ninotchka (1939), dir. Ernst Lubitsch

The Women (1939), dir. George Cukor

His Girl Friday (1940), dir. Howard Hawks

The Great Dictator (1940), dir. Charlie Chaplin

The Philadelphia Story (1940), dir. George Cukor

The Shop Around the Corner (1940), dir. Ernst Lubitsch

That Uncertain Feeling (1941), dir. Ernst Lubitsch

Arsenic and Old Lace (1944), dir. Frank Capra

The Big Day (1949), dir. Jacques Tati

Carmen Comes Home (1951), dir. Keisuke Kinoshita

The Machine to Kill Bad People (1952), dir. Roberto Rossellini

Mr. Hulot's Holiday (1953), dir. Jacques Tati

Roman Holiday (1953), dir. William Wyler

Welcome Mr. Marshall! (1953), dir. Luis García Berlanga

Days of Love (1954), dir. Giuseppe De Santis

Sabrina (1954), dir. Billy Wilder

The Ladykillers (1955), dir. Alexander Mackendrick

Summertime (1955), dir. David Lean

To Paris with Love (1955), dir. Robert Hamer

Elena and Her Men (1956), dir. Jean Renoir

Danger Stalks Near (1957), dir. Keisuke Kinoshita

Love in the Afternoon (1957), dir. Billy Wilder

The Smallest Show on Earth (1957), dir. Basil Dearden

Big Deal on Madonna Street (1958), dir. Mario Monicelli

Endless Desire (1958), dir. Shohei Imamura

Equinox Flower (1958), dir. Yasujirô Ozu

Rickshaw Man (1958), dir. Hiroshi Inagaki

My Uncle (1958), dir. Jacques Tati

The Great War (1959), dir. Mario Monicelli

The Mouse That Roared (1959), dir. Jack Arnold

Some Like It Hot (1959), dir. Billy Wilder

The Apartment (1960), dir. Billy Wilder

Love and Larceny (1960), dir. Dino Risi

Two-Way Stretch (1960), dir. Robert Day

Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961), dir. Blake Edwards

Divorce Italian Style (1961), dir. Pietro Germi

‎Killers on Parade (1961), dir. Masahiro Shinoda

Three Daughters (1961), dir. Satyajit Ray

Being Two Isn't Easy (1962), dir. Kon Ichikawa

Il Sorpasso (1962), dir. Dino Risi

The Executioner (1963), dir. Luis García Berlanga

The Twelve Chairs (1962), dir. Tomás Gutiérrez Alea

I mostri (1963), dir. Dino Risi

Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (1963), dir. Vittorio De Sica

Dr. Strangelove (1964), dir. Stanley Kubrick

Marriage Italian Style (1964), dir. Vittorio De Sica

Seduced and Abandoned (1964), dir. Pietro Germi

Welcome, or No Trespassing (1964), dir. Elem Klimov

Adventures of a Dentist (1965), dir. Elem Klimov

‎A Boring Afternoon (1965), dir. by Ivan Passer

‎The Holy Man (1965), dir. Satyajit Ray

I Knew Her Well (1965), dir. Antonio Pietrangeli

Simon of the Desert (1965), dir. Luis Buñuel

Yoyo (1965), dir. Pierre Étaix

Daisies (1966), dir. Vera Chytilová

L'armata Brancaleone (1966), dir. Mario Monicelli

Morgan – A Suitable Case for Treatment (1966), dir. Karel Reisz

How to Steal a Million (1966), dir. William Wyler

What Did You Do in the War, Daddy? (1966), dir. Blake Edwards

The Firemen's Ball (1967), dir. Milos Forman

Two for the Road (1967), dir. Stanley Donen

The Party (1968), dir. Blake Edwards

Stolen Kisses (1968), dir. François Truffaut

Three Resurrected Drunkards (1968), dir. Nagisa Ôshima

The Cremator (1969), dir. Juraj Herz

Le Grand Amour (1969), dir. Pierre Étaix

The Magic Christian (1969), dir. Joseph McGrath

Brancaleone at the Crusades (1970), dir. Mario Monicelli

Between Miracles (1971), dir. Nino Manfredi

Money Money Money (1972), dir. Claude Lelouch

Roma (1972), dir. Federico Fellini

The Seduction of Mimi (1972), dir. Lina Wertmüller

We Won't Grow Old Together (1972), dir. Maurice Pialat

Amarcord (1973), dir. Federico Fellini

Love and Anarchy (1973), dir. Lina Wertmüller

The Cars That Ate Paris (1974), dir. Peter Weir

The Front Page (1974), dir. Billy Wilder

Scent of a Woman (1974), dir. Dino Risi

Swept Away (1974), dir. Lina Wertmüller

Young Frankenstein (1974), dir. Mel Brooks

Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975), dir. Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones

Down and Dirty (1976), dir. Ettore Scola

Murder by Death (1976), dir. Robert Moore

Viva Italia! (1977), dir. Mario Monicelli, Dino Risi, Ettore Scola

A Wedding (1978), dir. Robert Altman

Being There (1979), dir. Hal Ashby

Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979), dir. Terry Jones

The Aviator's Wife (1981), dir. Éric Rohmer

A Good Marriage (1982), dir. Éric Rohmer

Educating Rita (1983), dir. Lewis Gilbert

The Meaning of Life (1983), dir. Terry Jones

Pauline at the Beach (1983), dir. Éric Rohmer

What Have I Done to Deserve This? (1984), dir. Pedro Almodóvar

Peggy Sue Got Married (1986), dir. Francis Ford Coppola

Shadows in Paradise (1986), dir. Aki Kaurismäki

Something Wild (1986), dir. Jonathan Demme

Babette's Feast (1987), dir. Gabriel Axel

Withnail and I (1987), dir. Bruce Robinson

Heart of a Dog (1988), dir. Vladimir Bortko

The Little Devil (1988). dir. Roberto Benigni

Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988), dir. Pedro Almodóvar

Histoires d'Amérique: Food, Family and Philosophy (1989), dir. Chantal Akerman

The Eagle Shooting Heroes (1993), dir. Jeffrey Lau

The Postman (1994), dir. Michael Radford, Massimo Troisi

Chungking Express (1994), dir. Wong Kar-wai

Fallen Angels (1995), dir. Wong Kar-wai

Big Night (1996), dir. Campbell Scott, Stanley Tucci

The Daytrippers (1996), dir. Greg Mottola

Deep Crimson (1996), dir. Arturo Ripstein

Career Girls (1997), dir. Mike Leigh

The Full Monty (1997), dir. Peter Cattaneo

Woman in Witness Protection (1997), dir. Jûzô Itami

Nine Queens (2000), dir. Fabián Bielinsky

O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000), dir. Joel Coen, Ethan Coen

101 Reykjavík (2000), dir. Baltasar Kormákur

The Swamp (2001), dir. Lucrecia Martel

8 Women (2002), dir. François Ozon

About Schmidt (2002), dir. Alexander Payne

Chinese Odyssey (2002), dir. Jeffrey Lau

Divine Intervention (2002), dir. Elia Suleiman

Unknown Pleasures (2002), dir. Jia Zhangke

You Owe Me One (2002), dir. Carlos Cuarón

Good Bye Lenin! (2003), dir. Wolfgang Becker

Sideways (2004), dir. Alexander Payne

Broken Flowers (2005), dir. Jim Jarmusch

Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005), dir. Miranda July

Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story (2005), dir. Michael Winterbottom

Private Fears in Public Places (2006), dir. Alain Resnais

Volver (2006), dir. Pedro Almodóvar

Caramel (2007), dir. Nadine Labaki

In Search of a Midnight Kiss (2007), dir. Alex Holdridge

Happy-Go-Lucky (2008), dir. Mike Leigh

Mid-August Lunch (2008), dir. Gianni di Gregorio

A Rational Solution (2009), dir. Jörgen Bergmark

A Serious Man (2009), dir. Ethan Coen, Joel Coen

Looking for Eric (2009), dir. Ken Loach

Soul Kitchen (2009), dir. Fatih Akin

Mammuth (2010), dir. Gustave Kervern, Benoît Delépine

The Trip (2010), dir. Michael Winterbottom

The Haven (2011), dir. Aki Kaurismäki

The Intouchables (2011), dir. Olivier Nakache, Éric Toledano

Sidewalls (2011), dir. Gustavo Taretto

The Angels' Share (2012), dir. Ken Loach

Frances Ha (2012), dir. Noah Baumbach

Moonrise Kingdom (2012), dir. Wes Anderson

Wadjda (2012), dir. Haifaa Al-Mansour

I'm So Excited! (2013), dir. Pedro Almodóvar

Casse-tête chinois (2013), dir. Cédric Klapisch

Still Life (2013), dir. Uberto Pasolini

Vivir es fácil con los ojos cerrados (2013), dir. David Trueba

The Bélier Family (2014), dir. Éric Lartigau

Gemma Bovery (2014), dir. Anne Fontaine

The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), dir. Wes Anderson

Infinitely Polar Bear (2014), dir. Maya Forbes

The Price of Fame (2014), dir. Xavier Beauvois

The Trip to Italy (2014), dir. Michael Winterbottom

The Voices (2014), dir. Marjane Satrapi

Love at First Fight (2014), dir. Thomas Cailley

While We're Young (2014), dir. Noah Baumbach

Wild Tales (2014), dir. Damián Szifron

Asphalte (2015), dir. Samuel Benchetrit

The Big Short (2015), dir. Adam McKay

Hello, My Name Is Doris (2015), dir. Michael Showalter

Maggie's Plan (2015), dir. Rebecca Miller

The Second Mother (2015), dir. Anna Muylaert

Taxi (2015), dir. Jafar Panahi

Captain Fantastic (2016), dir. Matt Ross

The Distinguished Citizen (2016), dir. Gastón Duprat, Mariano Cohn

Lost in Paris (2016), die. Dominique Abel, Fiona Gordon

Love & Friendship (2016), dir. Whit Stillman

Paterson (2016), dir. Jim Jarmusch

Perfetti sconosciuti (2016), dir. Paolo Genovese

You're Killing Me Susana (2016), dir. Roberto Sneider

Pikadero (2015), dir. Ben Sharrock

Their Finest (2016), dir. Lone Scherfig

Toni Erdmann (2016), dir. Maren Ade

The Announcement (2017), dir. Fazil Coşkun

The Other Side of Hope (2017), dir. Aki Kaurismäki

Let the Sunshine In (2017), dir. Claire Denis

Sir (2018), dir. Rohena Gera

Secret Ingredient (2017), dir. Gjorce Stavreski

The Big Sick (2017), dir. Michael Showalter

The Disaster Artist (2017), dir. James Franco

An Unexpected Love (2018), dir. Juan Vera

Diamantino (2018), dir. Gabriel Abrantes, Daniel Schmidt

My Masterpiece (2018), dir. Gaston Duprat

The Square (2018), dir. Ruben Östlund

Tel Aviv on Fire (2018), dir. Sameh Zoabi

The Interpreter (2018), dir. Martin Šulík

Thunder Road (2018), dir. Jim Cummings

Woman at War (2018), dir. Benedikt Erlingsson

The Two Popes (2019), dir. Fernando Meirelles

P.S. Sorry for any typos.

#films #comedy #film #cinema #list #long post #i'll reblog with more at some point

2 notes · View notes

amtopmthoughts · 6 years ago

Text

OSCARS

Legenda:

Legenda - Winners I have watched

Legenda - Winners I don’t know of

Legenda - Winners I know of

Legenda - Nominees I have watched

Legenda - Nominees I don’t know of

Legenda - Nominees I know of

1927/28

BEST MOVIE

Wings

The Racket

7th Heaven

= 0

BEST ACTRESS

Janet Gaynor:

for her role as Diane Angela, The Wife in 7th Heaven and Street Angel Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans

Louise Dresser:

for her role as Mrs. Pleznik in A Ship Comes In

Gloria Swanson:

for her role as Sadie Thompson in Sadie Thompson

1928/29

BEST MOVIE

The Broadway Melody

Alibi

Hollywood Revue

In Old Arizona

The Patriot

= 0

Mary Pickford:

for her role as Norma Besant in Coquette

Ruth Chatterton:

for her role as Jacqueline Floriot in Madame X

Betty Compson:

for her role as Carrie in The Barker

Jeanne Eagels:

for her role as Leslie Crosbie in The Letter

Corinne Griffith:

for her role as Emma Hamilton in The Divine Lady

Bessie Love:

for her role as Hank Mahoney in The Broadway Melody

1929/30

BEST MOVIE

All Quiet on the Western Front

The Big House

Disraeli

The Divorcee

The Love Parade

= 0

Norma Shearer:

for her role as Jerry Bernard Martin in The Divorcee

Nancy Carroll:

for her role as Hallie Hobart in The Devil’s Holiday

Ruth Chatterton:

for her role as Sarah Storm in Sarah and Son

Greta Garbo:

for her role as Anna Christie/Madame Rita Cavallini in Anna Christie Romance

Norma Shearer:

for her role as Lucia Marlett in Their Own Desire

Gloria Swanson:

for her role as Marion Donnell in The Trespasser

1930/31

BEST MOVIE

Cimarron

East Lynne

The Front Page

Skippy

Trader Horn

= 0

Marie Dressler:

for her role as Min Divot in Min and Bill

Marlene Dietrich:

for her role as Mademoiselle Amy Jolly in Morocco

Irene Dunne:

for her role as Sabra Cravat in Cimarron

Ann Harding:

for her role as Linda Seton in Holiday

Norma Shearer:

for her role as Jan Ashe in A Free Soul

1931/32

BEST MOVIE

Grand Hotel

Arrowsmith

Bad Girl

The Champ

Five Star Final

One Hour with You

Shanghai Express

The Smiling Lieutenant

= 0

Helen Hayes:

for her role as Madelon Claudet in The Sin of Madelon Claudet

Marie Dressler:

for her role as Emma Thatcher Smith in Emma

Lynn Fontanne:

for her role as The Actress in The Guardsman

1932/33

BEST MOVIE

Cavalcade

42nd Street

A Farewell to Arms

I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang

Lady for a Day

Little Women

The Private Life of Henry VIII

She Done Him Wrong

Smilin’ Through

State Fair

= 0

BEST ACTRESS

Katharine Hepburn:

for her role as Eva Lovelace in Morning Glory

May Robson:

for her role as Apple Annie in Lady for a Day

Diana Wynyard:

for her role as Jane Marryot in Cavalcade

1934

BEST MOVIE

It Happened One Night

The Barretts of Wimpole Street

Cleopatra

Flirtation Walk

The Gay Divorcee

Here Comes the Navy

The House of Rothschild

Imitation of Life

One Night of Life

The Thin Man

Viva Villa!

The White Parade

= 0

BEST ACTRESS

Claudette Colbert:

for her role as Ellie Andrews in It Happened One Night

Grace Moore:

for her role as Mary Barrett in One Night of Love

Norma Shearer:

for her role as Elizabeth Barrett in The Barrett of Wimpole Street

Bette Davis:

for her role as Mildred Rogers in Of Human Bondage

1935

BEST MOVIE

Munity on the Bounty

Alice Adams

Broadway Melody of 1936

Captain Blood

David Copperfield

The Informer

The Lives of a Bengal Lancer

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Les Misérables

Naughty Marietta

Rugs of Red Gap

Top Hat

= 0

BEST ACTRESS

Bette Davis:

for her role as Joyce Heath in Dangerous

Elisabeth Bergner:

for her role as Gemma Jones in Escape Me Never

Claudette Colbert:

for her role as Jane Everest in Private Words

Katharine Hepburn:

for her role as Alice Adams in Alice Adams

Miriam Hopkins:

for her role as Becky Sharp in Becky Sharp

Merle Oberon:

for her role as Kitty Vane in The Dark Angel

1936

BEST MOVIE

The Great Ziegfeld

Anthony Adverse

Dodsworth

Libeled Lady

Mr. Deeds Goes to Town

Romeo and Juliet

San Francisco

The Story of Louis Pasteur

A Tale of Two Cities

Three Smart Girls

= 0

BEST ACTRESS

Luise Rainer:

for her role as Anna Held in The Great Ziegfeld

Irene Dunne:

for her role as Theodora Lynn in Theodora Goes Wild

Gladys George:

for her role as Carrie Snyder in Valiant is the Word for Carrie

Carole Lombard:

for her role as Irene Bullock in My Man Godfey

Norma Shearer:

for her role as Juliet Capulet in Romeo and Juliet

1937

BEST MOVIE

The Life of Emile Zola

The Awful Truth

Captain Courageous

Dead End

The Good Earth

In Old Chicago

Lost Horizon

One Hundred Men and a Girl

Stage Door

= 0

BEST ACTRESS

Luise Rainer:

for her role as O-Lan in The Good Earth

Irene Dunne:

for her role as Lucy Warriner in The Awful Truth

Greta Garbo:

for her role as Marguerite Gautier in Camille

Janet Gaynor:

for her role as Esther Victoria Blodgett/Vicki Lester in A Star is Born

Barbara Stanwyck:

for her role as Stella Martin Dallas in Stella Dallas

1938

BEST MOVIE

You Can’t Take It With You

The Adventures of Robin Hood

Alexander’s Ragtime Band

Boys Town

The Citadel

Four Daughters

Grand Illusion

Jezebel

Pygmalion

Test Pilot

= 0

BEST ACTRESS

Bette Davis:

for her role as Julie Marsden in Jezebel

Fay Bainter:

for her role as Hannah Parmalee in White Banners

Wendy Hiller:

for her role as Eliza Doolittle in Pygmalion

Norma Shearer:

for her role as Marie Antoinette in Marie Antoinette

Margaret Sullavan:

for her role as Patricia “Pat” Hollmann in Three Comrades

1939

BEST MOVIE

Gone With The Wind

Dark Victory

Goodbye, Mr. Chips

Love Affair

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

Ninotchka

Of Mice and Men

Stagecoach

The Wizard of Oz

Wuthering Heights

= 0

BEST ACTRESS

Vivien Leigh:

for her role as Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind

Bette Davis:

for her role as Judith Traherne in Dark Victory

Irene Dunne:

for her role as Terry McKay in Love Affair

Greta Garbo:

for her role as Nina Yakushnova “Ninotchka” Ivanoff” in Ninotchka

Greer Garson:

for her role as Katherine Bridges in Goodbye, Mr. Chips

1940

BEST MOVIE

Rebecca

All This, and Heaven Too

Foreign Correspondent

The Grapes of Wrath

The Great Dictator

Kitty Foyle

The Letter

The Long Voyage Home

Our Town

The Philadelphia Story

= 0

BEST ACTRESS:

Ginger Rogers:

for her role as Kitty Foyle in Kitty Foyle

Bette Davis:

for her role as Leslie Crosbie in The Letter

Joan Fontaine:

for her role as The Second Mrs. de Winter in Rebecca

Katharine Hepburn:

for her role as Tracy Lord in The Philadelphia Story

Martha Scott:

for her role as Emily Webb in Our Town

1941

BEST MOVIE

How Green Was My Valley

Blossoms in the Dust

Citizen Kane

Here Comes Mr. Jordan

Hold Back the Dawn

The Little Foxes

The Maltese Falcon

One Foot in Heaven

Sargeant York

Suspicion

= 0

BEST ACTRESS:

Joan Fontaine:

for her role as Lina McLaidlaw Aysgarth in Suspicion

Bette Davis:

for her role as Regina Giddens, The Little Foxes

Olivia de Havilland:

Emmy Brown, Hold Back the Dawn

Greer Garson, Blossoms in the Dust

Barbara Stanwyck, Ball of Fire

1942

BEST MOVIE

Mrs. Miniver

The Invaders

Kings Row

The Magnificent Ambersons

The Pied Piper

The Pride of the Yankees

Random Harvest

The Talk of the Town

Wake Island

Yankee Doodle Dandy

= 0

BEST ACTRESS:

Greer Garson, Mrs. Miniver

Bette Davis, Now, Voyager

Katharine Hepburn, Woman of the Year

Rosalind Russel, My Sister Eileen

Teresa Wright, The Pride of the Yankees

1943

BEST MOVIE

Casablanca

For Whom the Bell Tolls

Heaven Can Wait

The Human Comedy

In Which We Serve

Madame Curie

The More the Merrier

The Ox-Bow Incident

The Song of Bernadette

Watch on the Rhine

= 0

BEST ACTRESS:

Jennifer Jones, The Song of Bernadette

Jean Arthur, The More the Merrier

Ingrid Bergman, For Whom the Bell Tolls

Joan Fontaine, The Constant Nymph

Greer Garson, Madame Curie

1944

BEST MOVIE

Going My Way

Double Indemnity

Gaslight

Since You Went Away

Wilson

= 0

BEST ACTRESS:

Ingrid Bergman, Gaslight

Claudette Colbert, Since You Went Away

1945

BEST MOVIE

The Lost Weekend

Anchors Aweigh

The Bells of St. Mary’s

Mildred Pierce

Spellbound

= 0

1946

BEST MOVIE

The Best Years of Our Lives

Henry V

= 0

1947

BEST MOVIE

Gentleman’s Agreement

The Bishop’s Wife

Crossfire

Great Expectations

Miracle on 34th Street

= 0

1948

BEST MOVIE

Hamlet

Johnny Belinda

The Red Shoes

The Snake Pit

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

= 0

1949

BEST MOVIE

All the King’s Men

Battleground

The Heiress

A Letter to Three Wives

Twelve O’Clock High

= 0

1950

BEST MOVIE

All About Eve

Born Yesterday

Father of the Bride

King Solomon’s Mines

Sunset Boulevard

= 0

1951

BEST MOVIE

An American In Paris

Decision Before Dawn

A Place in the Sun

Quo Vadis

A Streetcar Named Desire

= 0

1952

BEST MOVIE

The Greatest Show on Earth

High Noon

Ivanhoe

Moulin Rouge

The Quiet Man

= 0

1953

BEST MOVIE

From Here to Eternity

Julius Caesar

The Robe

Roman Holiday

Shane

= 1

1954

BEST MOVIE

On The Waterfront

The Caine Mutiny

The Country Girl

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers

Three Coins in the Fountain

= 0

1955

BEST MOVIE

Marty

Love is a Many-Splendored Thing

Mister Roberts

Picnic

The Rose Tattoo

= 0

1956

BEST MOVIE

Around the World in 80 Days

Friendly Persuasion

Giant

The King and I

The Ten Commandments

= 0

1957

BEST MOVIE

The Bridge On The River Kwai

12 Angry Men

Peyton Place

Sayonara

Witness for the Prosecution

= 0

1958

BEST MOVIE

Gigi

Auntie Mame

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

The Defiant Ones

Separate Tables

= 0

1959

BEST MOVIE

Ben-Hur

Anatomy of a Murder

The Diary of Anne Frank

The Nun’s Story

Room at the Top

= 0

1960

BEST MOVIE

The Apartment

The Alamo

Elmer Gantry

Sons and Lovers

The Sundowners

= 0

1961

BEST MOVIE

West Side Story

Fanny

The Guns of Navarone

The Hustler

Judgment at Nuremberg

= 1

1962

BEST MOVIE

Lawrence of Arabia

The Longest Day

The Music Man

Mutiny on the Bounty

To Kill a Mockingbird

= 0

1963

BEST MOVIE

Tom Jones

America America

Cleopatra

How the West Was Won

Lilies of the Field

= 0

1964

BEST MOVIE

My Fair Lady

Becket

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

Mary Poppins

Zorba the Greek

= 1

1965

BEST MOVIE

The Sound of Music

Darling

Doctor Zhivago

Ship of Fools

A Thousand Clowns

= 1

1966

BEST MOVIE

A Man for All Seasons

Alfie

The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming

The Sand Pebbles

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf

= 0

1967

BEST MOVIE

In the Heat of the Night

Bonnie and Clyde

Doctor Dolittle

The Graduate

Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner

= 0

1968

Oliver!

Funny Girl

The Lion in Winter

Rachel, Rachel

Romeo and Juliet

= 1

1969

BEST MOVIE

Midnight Cowboy

Anne of the Thousand Days

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

Hello, Dolly!

= 0

1970

BEST MOVIE

Patton

Airport

Five Easy Pieces

Love Story

M*A*S*H

= 0

1971

BEST MOVIE

The French Connection

A Clockwork Orange

Fiddler on the Roof

The Last Picture

Nicholas and Alexandra

= 0

1972

BEST MOVIE

The Godfather

Cabaret

Deliverance

The Emigrants

Sounder

= 0

1973

BEST MOVIE

The Sting

American Graffitti

Cries and Whispers

The Exorcist

A Touch of Class

= 0

1974

BEST MOVIE

The Godfather Part II

Chinatown

The Conversation

Lenny

The Towering Inferno

= 0

1975

BEST MOVIE

One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest

Barry Lyndon

Dog Day Afternoon

Jaws

Nashville

= 0

1976

BEST MOVIE

Rocky

All the President’s Men

Bound for Glory

Network

Taxi Driver

= 0

1977

BEST MOVIE

Annie Hall

The Goodbye Girl

Julia

Star Wars

The Turning Point

= 0

1978

BEST MOVIE

The Deer Hunter

Coming Home

Heaven Can Wait

Midnight Express

An Unmarried Woman

= 0

1979

BEST MOVIE

Kraver vs. Kramer

All That Jazz

Apocalypse Now

Breaking Away

Norma Rae

= 1

1980

BEST MOVIE

Ordinary People

Coal Miner’s Daughter

The Elephant Man

Raging Bull

Tess

= 0

1981

BEST MOVIE

Chariots of Fire

Atlantic City

On Golden Pond

Raiders of the Lost Ark

Reds

= 0

1982

BEST MOVIE

Ghandi

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial

Missing

Tootsie

The Verdict

= 1

1983

BEST MOVIE

Terms of Endearment

The Big Chill

The Dresser

The Right Stuff

Tender Mercies

= 0

1984

BEST MOVIE

Amadeus

The Killing Fields

A Passage to India

Places in the Heart

A Soldier’s Story

= 0

1985

BEST MOVIE

Out of Africa

The Color Purple

Kiss of the Spider Woman

Prizzi’s Honor

Witness

= 0

1986

BEST MOVIE

Platoon

Children of a Lesser God

Hannah and Her Sisters

The Mission

A Room with a View

= 0

1987

BEST MOVIE

The Last Emperor

Broadcast News

Fatal Attraction

Hope and Glory

Moonstruck

= 2

1988

BEST MOVIE

Rain Man

The Accidental Tourist

Dangerous Liaisons

Mississipi Burning

Working Girl

= 0

1989

BEST MOVIE

Driving Miss Daisy

Born on the Fourth of July

Dead Poets Society

Field of Dreams

My Left Foot

= 1

1990

BEST MOVIE

Dances with Wolves

Awakenings

Ghost

The Godfather III

Goodfellas

= 1

1991

BEST MOVIE

The Silence of the Lambs

Beauty and the Beast

Bugsy

JFK

The Prince of Tides

= 1

1992

BEST MOVIE

Unforgiven

The Crying Game

A Few Good Men

Howards End

Scent of a Woman

= 0

1993

BEST MOVIE

Schindler’s List

The Fugitive

In the Name of the Father

The Piano

The Remains of the Day

= 1

1994

BEST MOVIE

Forrest Gump

Four Weddings and a Funeral

Pulp Fiction

Quiz Show

The Shawshank Redemption

= 3

1995

BEST MOVIE

Braveheart

Apollo 13

Babe

The Postman (Il Postino)

Sense and Sensibility

= 4

1996

BEST MOVIE

The English Patient

Fargo

Jerry McGuire

Secrets & Lies

Shine

= 0

1997

BEST MOVIE

Titanic

As Good as it Gets

The Full Monty

Good Will Hunting

L.A. Confidential

= 3

1998

BEST MOVIE

Shakespeare in Love

Elizabeth

Life is Beautiful

Saving Private Ryan

The Thin Red Line

= 3

1999

BEST MOVIE

American Beauty

The Cider House Rules

The Green Mile

The Insider

The Sixth Sense

= 1

2000

BEST MOVIE

Gladiator

Chocolat

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

Erin Brokovich

Traffic

= 3

2001

BEST MOVIE

A Beautiful Mind

Gosfrod Park

In the Bedroom

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

Moulin Rouge!

= 1

2002

BEST MOVIE

Chicago

Gangs of New York

The Hours

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

The Pianist

= 1

2003

BEST MOVIE

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Lost in Translation

Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World

Mystic River

Seabiscuit

= 0

2004

BEST MOVIE

Million Dollar Baby

The Aviator

Finding Neverland

Ray

Sideways

= 1

2005

BEST MOVIE

Crash

Brokeback Mountain

Capote

Good Night, and Good Luck

Munich

= 0

2006

BEST MOVIE

The Departed

Babel

Letters from Iwo Jima

Little Miss Sunshine

The Queen

= 2

2007

BEST MOVIE

No Country for Old Men

Atonement

Juno

Michael Clayton

There Will Be Blood

= 1

2008

BEST MOVIE

Slumdog Millionaire

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Frost/Nixon

Milk

The Reader

= 1

2009

BEST MOVIE

The Hurt Locker

Avatar

The Blind Side

District 9

An Education

Inglorious Basterds

Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Saphire

A Serious Man

Up in the Air

= 4

2010

BEST MOVIE

The King’s Speech

127 Hours

Black Swan

The Fighter

Inception

The Kids Are All Right

The Social Network

Toy Story 3

True Grit

Winter’s Bone

= 5

2011

BEST MOVIE

The Artist

The Descendants

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

The Help

Hugo

Midnight in Paris

Moneyball

The Tree of Life

War Horse

= 3

2012

BEST MOVIE

Argo

Amour

Beasts of the Southern Wild

Django Unchained

Les Miserábles

Life of Pi

Lincoln

Silver Linings Playbook

Zero Dark Thirty

= 4

2013

BEST MOVIE

12 Years a Slave

American Hustle

Captain Philips

Dallas Buyers Club

Gravity

Her

Nebraska

Philomena

The Wolf of Wall Street

= 4

2014

BEST MOVIE

Birdman

American Sniper

Boyhood

The Grand Budapest Hotel

The Imitation Game

Selma

The Theory of Everything

Whiplash

= 2

2015

BEST MOVIE

Spotlight

The Big Short

Bridge of Spies

Brooklyn

Mad Max: Fury Road

The Martian

The Revenant

Room

= 3

BEST ACTRESS:

Brie Larson, Room

Cate Blanchett, Carol

Jennifer Lawrence, Joy

Charlotte Rampling, 45 Years

Saoirse, Brooklyn

2016

BEST MOIVE

Moonlight

La La Land

Arrival

Fences

Hacksaw Ridge

Hell or High Water

Hidden Figures

Lion

Manchester by the Sea

= 5

BEST ACTRESS:

Emma Stone, La La Land

Isabelle Huppert, Elle

Ruth Negga, Loving

Natalie Portman, Jackie

Meryl Streep, Florence Foster Jenkins

2017

BEST MOVIE

The Shape of Water

Lady Bird

Call Me by Your Name

Get Out

Darkest Hour

Dunkirk

Phantom Thread

The Post

Three Billboards Outside Ebbig, Missouri

= 4

BEST ACTRESS:

Frances McDormand, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Sally Hawkins, The Shape of Water

Margot Robbie, I, Tonya

Saoirse Ronan, Lady Bird

Meryl Streep, The Post

TOTAL = 71/

7 notes · View notes

punishedvenomsnake · 4 years ago

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Dr. "Huey" Emmerich was a mechanical engineer responsible for developing bipedal locomotion technology for the Peace Walker Project in 1974 and later served as the chief engineer of Metal Gear Sahelanthropus in 1984. He was the biological father of Hal "Otacon" Emmerich and the stepfather of Emma "E.E." Emmerich.

Biography

Early life and career

Emmerich was born on August 6, 1945, the day of the Hiroshima bombing, as the son of a scientist that worked on the Manhattan Project. He was born a paraplegic, unable to walk because his spine was abnormally shaped, and thus confined to a wheelchair. Although he used to respect his father because his research had saved American lives, his respect decreased significantly during the fifth grade when a Japanese transfer student showed him photos of what happened in Hiroshima after the bomb hit.

After skipping a few grades, Emmerich joined NASA after graduating from MIT and worked alongside Strangelove. While working with Strangelove, Emmerich was given the nickname "Huey." He was once considered to be part of a project involving space rockets, but he was eventually relocated after it was cancelled due to détente.

Bipedal weapon development

Emmerich met and became colleagues with Soviet scientist Aleksandr Leonovitch Granin, supporting Granin's bipedal tank theory by writing a paper that was criticized. In September 1964, Granin intended to send designs for such a weapon to Emmerich in the United States, after funding for its development was cut.

A photograph of Granin (left) and Emmerich (right), displayed in the former's office.At some point after 1972, Huey was hired by CIA Station Chief Hot Coldman to build the "Perfect Deterrent" for the Peace Walker Project, after supplying him with Granin's blueprints that Coldman had earlier procured via CIA contacts,[2] as well as later blackmailing him with the theft to keep him in line.[3] He was willingly working for Coldman, having been convinced that the "Perfect Deterrent" was to be used solely as a deterrent, never to be launched even once. Huey was also responsible for developing three prototype AI weapons.

Peace Walker Incident Main article: Peace Walker Incident

In 1974, Huey and Strangelove built several AI prototypes for the Peace Walker Project: Pupa, Chrysalis, Cocoon and Peace Walker.

However, Huey learned of Hot Coldman's true intentions to launch a live nuke from the weapon, in order to prove its power as a deterrent. He then got into an argument with Coldman, and refused to cooperate any longer. As a consequence, Coldman hurled him down a stairway, wheelchair and all. Big Boss (Naked Snake) attempted to help Huey back into his wheelchair as he tried to warn the former about Coldman's plans to launch a nuke. Huey would later aid Big Boss in Pupa's destruction when it was deployed to take Snake out.

Huey, circa 1974.After Big Boss destroyed the Pupa, Huey encountered the mercenary claiming to be an entomologist searching for butterflies for the Washington Treaty. Huey explained to Snake the nature of the Peace Walker project, and suggested a way to stop Peace Walker itself: by sabotaging the AI designed to operate the weapon, located within Dr. Strangelove's laboratory. Huey gave Snake his ID card to gain access to the lab, as well as a love letter addressed to Strangelove to deliver (although he allowed Snake to believe that it was a recommendation letter). Huey then decided that he might quit working in the field of science due to his role in nearly causing a disaster. However, Snake suggested that he instead join their "Outer Heaven" as Huey would fit into the group.

Afterwards, Huey was placed into the Militaires Sans Frontières' R&D division, where he provided further information on the AI weapons, as well as overseeing the development of the bipedal tank Metal Gear ZEKE, under his suggestion.[4][5] Upon being placed in the R&D Team, he then briefed Snake on the method to creating ZEKE, requiring salvaged parts from the AI weapons due to MSF not being able to afford creating ZEKE from scratch.[6] Huey was dismayed to learn that Strangelove had revoked his security clearance for Strangelove's AI lab, believing this had done so out of dislike towards him, forcing Snake to locate an alternate ID card.[7]

After Snake failed to sabotage the AI at Strangelove's lab, Huey gave MSF intel in regards to the location of Peace Walker's final testing base: an underground base disguised as a mine. He later supplied some info about the final test at a U.S. missile base in Nicaragua: namely that it needed some more modifications before it was launch capable, and that the launch date was deliberately chosen on the day of the SALT II talks in Vladivostok. He later operated the entire Mother Base as its skeleton crew while the majority of the MSF headed towards Nicaragua to put a stop to Coldman's plans. He later helped Snake achieve contact with the Pentagon, after Coldman activated Peace Walker and nearly caused an all-out nuclear war.

Huey held romantic feelings for Dr. Strangelove.Afterwards, Huey participated as a referee in a soccer match between Nicaragua and Costa Rica, and at one time even tried to stop a fight from breaking out, as they were not supposed to be enemies, quoting Big Boss during this point. During development, he constantly pestered Strangelove, resulting in her complaining constantly. After ZEKE was completed, he explained to Big Boss of it being utilized for outside operations from Costa Rica/Nicaragua, and also cited it as a work in progress.[8]

Shortly thereafter, under the suggestion of Kazuhira Miller, it was armed with a nuclear warhead recovered from the remains of Peace Walker under Lake Nicaragua's waters. When Big Boss asked Huey why he decided to arm ZEKE with nuclear weapons, citing its similarity to Peace Walker, which he despised, he claimed that it was because the two were actually different with intentions: the CIA won people over with charm, and turned their backs on them when things got hairy, whereas Big Boss was honest about his intentions, so he trusted Big Boss with the decision.

When Paz Ortega Andrade hijacked and used ZEKE against Big Boss, as well as the agent of Cipher threatening of nuking the East Coast and frame MSF with the deed should they not rejoin Cipher, Huey was horrified that his creation was once again being used in the exact way he didn't want it to be used for.[9] After ZEKE was damaged due to Paz hijacking it, he suggested to Snake that he should have a mock battle against ZEKE so that the next time something similar happened, Big Boss would be prepared before leaving for Mother Base's AI lab in order to check the progress of ZEKE's repairs.[10]

He later approached Strangelove regarding their relationship, and though he was still hesitant to discuss his feelings for his colleague, the two came to an understanding when Strangelove implied that he should "come walk with [her]" when he had gained enough confidence.

Post-Peace Walker

A few weeks later, Huey was one of the minority in favor of an inspection of Mother Base by the UN. He even sent a letter indicating that MSF had changed their minds regarding their earlier refusal, as well as getting at least two major western networks to do stories on them, with the intention of "proving" that MSF didn't have a nuke. Big Boss and Kazuhira Miller, however, were irritated by Huey's actions but their hands were tied and preparations for an inspection were made. Despite Huey's crush on Strangelove, he let go of the fact that his love interest left Mother Base due to the AI department not giving results as well as ZEKE being completed anyways, deciding that he had "bigger issues to worry about." As such, because of his involvement in the UN inspection, Huey was the only civilian to remain on Mother Base, with the other civilians having been evacuated earlier. Huey handled the preparations for the UN inspection while Big Boss went to rescue Chico and Paz in Cuba.[11]

Leaving the MSF soldiers disarmed for the inspection, Huey was relegated to the control tower of Mother Base's Command Center, and met the inspection crew personally. He reported that everything was going smoothly while Big Boss was returning to base. However, the inspection proved to be a Trojan horse for Cipher's elite strike force XOF, who succeeded in destroying Mother Base. Huey's body was never recovered from the ruins, causing Miller to believe that Huey had fled after the attack started and suspect him of treachery.

Over the next decade, Huey remained underground, strengthening Miller's suspicions of Huey's involvement in the Mother Base attack. He was eventually made chief engineer for the new Metal Gear that was being developed in an XOF research facility in Afghanistan, under their leader Skull Face. Huey primarily worked in his lab located in the Soviet Central Base Camp on behalf of the Soviets, who agreed to keep Huey protected as part of the agreement for the new Metal Gear. Here Huey was constantly under guard and was not allowed to leave under any circumstances unless to work on the new Metal Gear at the XOF facility.

Huey was eventually reunited with Strangelove and they became romantically involved. During their time together, Strangelove was allowed to keep the Mammal Pod inside Huey's lab, although at some point Skull Face ordered Huey to reprogram and modify the pod against Strangelove's objections. In 1980, they had a child together, whom they named Hal.[12] Huey was also allowed to develop an exoskeleton for his legs that would allow him to walk, abandoning the use of his old wheelchair. He also designed a smaller variant of Metal Gear which he named Walker Gear, a fully customizable war machine that could be used for both assault and stealth missions. Impressed by Huey's creation, Skull Face had Huey's prototype mass produced and sold several Walker Gears to the Soviet Army and several PMC's that were operating in Central Africa.

Phantom Pain Incident See also: Hospital Escape and Phantom Pain Incident

Skull Face confronting Huey.By 1984, Huey had nearly completed XOF's Metal Gear Sahelanthropus, which was thought to have been developed for the Soviet Union as they had financially backed Sahelanthropus' development. In reality, it was to be used by Skull Face for an ethnic cleansing campaign on the English language. During the development of Sahelanthropus, Huey also attempted to use his own son as a test subject, as Sahelanthropus could only allow for a child to pilot. However, Strangelove was outraged with his choice, resulting in a huge falling out. To prevent Huey from using Hal for any future tests, Strangelove sent Hal to America. In retaliation, Huey sealed Strangelove inside the Mammal Pod and let her suffocate.[12]

By the time Venom Snake awoke from a coma, Huey was in Afghanistan. In addition, Miller, largely because of what happened to MSF and Huey's direct role in it, harbored a huge grudge against him, which he made very vocal. Furthermore, various Diamond Dogs members who survived the events of MSF's destruction referred to Huey by the more impersonal "Dr. Emmerich" or simply "Emmerich", rather than his nickname of "Huey."

They eventually learned that Huey planned to defect from XOF to Diamond Dogs and decided to "ensure" he defected, wanting to exact revenge on him for his role in MSF's destruction earlier. Skull Face later learned of Huey's intended defection and personally threw him down the stairs and threatened him before detaining him at the Afghanistan Central Base Camp. Skull Face anticipated that Venom Snake would attempt rescuing him and only kept Huey alive to draw Snake out. Huey then noticed Venom Snake, and pondered whether he was really Big Boss. Venom Snake then put a hood on him, only briefly removing the hood to allow him to activate a special Walker Gear prototype so he could use it to escape. While Ocelot agreed that he should use Huey's prototype as a means of escape, Miller angrily objected stating that Snake didn't need Huey's toy. In any case, Snake made his way through the Soviet Base Camp and managed to make is way out. However, Skull Face unveiled that Sahelanthropus was active despite Huey insisting that it wasn't complete yet.

Huey, interrogated by Ocelot.After arriving back at Mother Base, a hooded Huey was later interrogated for six hours by Diamond Dogs' interrogation specialist Ocelot, who threw water over him, as well as injected him with truth serum. This was overseen by Miller and Venom Snake, presumably for his suspected role in XOF's attack on Mother Base nine years earlier. Wanting to know why Huey was associated with XOF, the scientist claimed that Skull Face had abducted him during the assault on Mother Base and brought him all the way to Afghanistan to design and build a Metal Gear for the XOF, claiming that he was being held in their facility against his will for the past nine years. Ocelot and Miller later interrogate Huey about Metal Gear Sahelanthropus, giving them detailed information about its armor and weapons systems, but was unable to explain its sudden activation during their escape from Afghanistan, explaining that he wasn't given time to develop an AI operating system to get Sahelanthropus fully functional.

Miller, who wasn't buying Huey's story of being abducted, took the time to exact his own personal revenge against Huey by using a magnetic device to bend one of his legs out of shape, noting that unlike the other MSF survivors, Huey never actually lost anything in the MSF attack in response to Huey's accusation that Miller was the mole due to his prior contact with Cipher. Miller and Ocelot then gave Snake, who was observing the interrogation from another room, a tape for what they have so far, and relayed that, though not much, Huey did give some useful information: Namely, XOF was primarily done in Afghanistan and went over to Africa, and that they planned to create a weapon that would surpass Metal Gear (with Snake deducing that what XOF was building was "not simply another nuke"). Huey later gave a suggestion on creating a new weapon system called Battle Gear. Venom Snake experienced a sense of déjà vu from this speech.

Despite not trusting Huey, they ultimately allowed him to work on the mech and depart,[13] although not before Ocelot whispered coldly to Huey that he only barely saved himself from the chopping block. Sometime later, Huey requested to speak with Big Boss in private, demanding to know if anyone else was listening in. Huey, who was being secretly recorded by Venom, tells him about the current state of the Les Enfant Terribles project and that Dr. Clark, who has become a recluse, took charge of the project. After the events in Africa, and learning from Code Talker that they are headed back to Afghanistan with Sahelanthropus, Miller and Ocelot utilized metallic archaea, destroying his glasses in the process, to interrogate Huey into revealing where they are headed, with his admitting that they're headed to OKB Zero, an outpost helmed by the Soviet Philosophers when they were still around. Content with the information, they then departed, although not before Ocelot sadistically placed the metallic archaea's syringe right near one of Huey's titanium legs.

Emmerich stands, using exoskeleton-assisted legs.Huey then accompanied them to Afghanistan, and after Venom Snake narrowly stopped Sahelanthropus which had been prematurely activated by Tretij Rebenok due to him being intoxicated by Eli's hatred of Venom Snake, whom he believed to be his father Big Boss, they then "paid a visit" to Skull Face, where Huey managed to kill Skull Face despite Venom Snake and Miller opting to leave Skull Face to die in agony. He then secretly repaired Sahelanthropus after it was delivered to Mother Base and also had the child soldiers, including Eli and his group, aid him in the repair work, also telling them everything about how the machine operated,[14] later claiming he thought they were just curious in how it worked. After Huey completed the Battle Gear, Miller, deciding his usefulness was expended and that he'll probably try something to Diamond Dogs, decided to investigate his role in MSF's destruction, and requested that Venom Snake go to the Soviet Central Base Camp in Afghanistan to recover The Boss AI.[15]

What they found inside the AI pod upon retrieving it was more than they bargained for: a human corpse that was relatively well preserved due to it being firmly sealed from outside air and emitting a low-grade temperature inside. Suspecting that Huey had a role in the corpse being inside, they interrogated Huey, and discovered the identity of the corpse: Strangelove[16] and also began finding holes in his story when he initially claimed no one could open it, yet then implied that someone DID seal her in. Miller recorded the interrogation session and submitted it to Snake, also notifying him of their discovery around the time Snake was at the Medical Platform of Mother Base due to Quiet being hospitalized after she risked her life to retrieve a necklace belonging to the deceased former leader of the Mbele Squad, Shabani, that had been dropped inside a vat filled with chlorine disinfectant.[16]

After Eli and the other child soldiers made off with Sahelanthropus, they investigated why it was operational again, and eventually discovered Huey's role in its repair, resulting in yet another interrogation sequence[14] where he lets slip that he had actually not only seen Hal (he had earlier claimed that Hal was been taken away from him by Skull Face before he could even see him), but also implied that he used him as a test subject for Sahelanthropus before he lost him. The interrogation was recorded on tape and sent to Venom Snake's iDroid, with Miller notifying him of Huey's role.[14]

Huey would later cause the vocal cord parasites on Mother Base to mutate by illicitly modifying X-ray scanners on the quarantine platform with a beta-ray emitter. When Diamond Dogs discovered the radiation leak resulting from the modified scanners, Huey claimed it was nothing to worry about. However, when this leak led to another parasite outbreak, forcing Snake to kill all infected soldiers, Huey's role in the affair was deduced by Miller, and proceeded to have him interrogated.[17] After finding out about Huey's role in the disaster, including causing the wolbachia to mutate in order to test a new parasite he intended sell to Cipher,[18][19] as well as for all of his previous crimes against MSF, Diamond Dogs and Strangelove, Miller and the remaining survivors all called for Huey's execution.

However, Miller decided initially to just try and find proof before convicting him and try to assemble the evidence first, after Huey begged to be spared. The Diamond Dogs staff had eventually gotten restless with having to wait, especially with their discovery of everything Huey'd been up to in addition to his role in the quarantine facility outbreak, thus forcing the Diamond Dogs to proceed with the trial ahead of schedule as well as Miller calling Venom Snake to return to base to attend to avoid a riot.[20]

After showing all the evidence they had uncovered, Miller then declared Huey "guilty, all counts", with the Diamond Dogs then demanding for his death. Venom Snake, however, decided that Huey was instead to be exiled from Mother Base via life raft. As the raft was being lowered, Huey ranted that he was innocent, the Diamond Dogs were the real murderers, and Venom Snake was the one who should be exiled. Due to his exoskeleton legs nearly causing the raft to sink, Huey was forced to discard them, leaving him unable to walk again.[12]

While Huey was in the raft, Ocelot stated that the former would one day understand the man he really was. Huey also left behind some of his research notes, and Diamond Dogs proceeded to replace him with the R&D Team to ensure his projects weren't abandoned from use by Diamond Dogs. Despite Huey's exile from the base, Miller wanted to have Huey tailed in case the scientist tried anything, but was immediately stopped by Venom Snake, telling Miller that Huey was gone and that he should finally let it go.

Later life

Huey eventually made it back to civilization and reunited with his son, Hal. He would later wed British national Julie Danziger, his second marriage at the time.[1][21] Circa 1997, Emmerich discovered that his wife was having an affair with his son, and decided to drown himself in the family pool, nearly taking his stepdaughter Emma with him.[22]Emmerich's suicide was later covered up as an accident, something his stepdaughter herself believed, although his own son knew the truth and blamed himself.[23]

#long post #suicide #murder

1 note · View note

aion-rsa · 4 years ago

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The Masque of the Red Death: Roger Corman Talks Pandemics and Restoration

https://ift.tt/3pjWssJ

During the 2020 lockdowns and ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, people at home sought isolated comfort. News reports continued to count the number of dead while people in charge downplayed its seriousness or offered dubious advice on dealing with the disease. It certainly didn’t interrupt many golf games. As workers were furloughed from jobs, they binged. One of the movies at the top of the playlist was The Masque of the Red Death, Roger Corman’s 1964 low budget masterpiece.

It told the tale of a wealthy medieval prince in a country decimated by an epidemic. The satanic overlord, played by the legendary actor and horror icon Vincent Price, locks his gates to his god-fearing dominions while he and his friends party like it’s 1999.

Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Masque of the Red Death” is about 2,300 words. Corman’s adaptation, which has been fully restored and can now be seen in its lush, psychedelic splendor, padded it with more Poe to reach 90 minutes. The screenplay by Charles Beaumont and R. Wright merged the tale with Poe’s “Hop Frog,” along with elements of the short story “Torture by Hope” by Auguste Villiers de l’Isle-Adam.

The devilish revelries came deep into a filmmaking cycle that began with American International Pictures executives Samuel Z. Arkoff and James Nicholson asking their in-house director Roger Corman to make two black-and-white horror films at $100,000 each. At the time, Corman had been producing tightly budgeted horror, science fiction, and juvenile delinquency quickies. With this opportunity, he pitched one film based upon Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher,” saying it would move AIP to up in the motion picture world, as the studio was regarded as the maker of exploitation pictures.

It was the first of a cycle of eight films. Poe is read in every high school and is part of America’s literary canon; Corman’s Poe cycle made the writer an international gothic horror fan favorite.

The Masque of The Red Death was the seventh in Corman’s series. The adaptation also stars Jane Asher (Alfie, Death At A Funeral), Hazel Court (The Premature Burial, The Raven), David Weston (Becket, The Red Baron), and Nigel Green (Jason And The Argonauts, Zulu).

The 4K restoration of the extended cut of The Masque Of The Red Death was done by Martin Scorsese’s Film Foundation, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Additional funding came from the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation. The Masque of the Red Death opened the same year as Stanley Kubrick’s nuclear nightmare Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. The fallout from an atomic war would result in a Red Death among survivors. Corman’s take on Poe was seen as a comment on the collateral damage of the Cold War, but it is a film which bridges generations of apocalyptic omens.

We spoke with Corman about the timeliness of his classic adaptation, as well as about stars Price and Asher, cinematographer Nicholas Roeg, and why Corman continues to find different delivery systems for message pictures.

Den of Geek: The last time we spoke, it was right before the inauguration. You had put Malcolm McDowell in funny hair and made him the president of the United Corporations of America. At the time, you said you hadn’t expected Trump to win. Today is the day after his (second) impeachment. Now that 2020 turned out to be a death race, did you expect him to be President Prospero?

Roger Corman: No. I assumed that [Joe] Biden was going to win. The polls all indicated that he was ahead. The polls have not always been correct, but in this case, they were so much in his favor, I assumed he was going to win.

Was there a conscious effort to put out The Masque of Red Death during the COVID-19 crisis with him as president?

Yes. Masque of the Red Death, in the United States, was on one of the platform streaming services, and the ratings on it went way up during COVID, because it was so appropriate. It’s actually more pertinent today than when it was made, because we do have the equivalent of the Red Death pandemic that is killing people all over the world.

In Masque of the Red Death, Prince Prospero brings together his friends, aristocrats and so forth, and they hold themselves up in the castle, to prevent the Red Death from killing them. And we have a somewhat similar situation today.

For instance, Trump is very careful. He claimed that the coronavirus was overrated. As a matter of fact, he said there was no such thing as coronavirus; it was “a hoax” perpetrated by the Democrats to make him look bad. But at the same time he was saying that, he was holed up in the lighthouse, going up primarily only to play golf or to hold big rallies. People were not protected within the rallies, but he himself made a real point of staying away from the crowd, to be on the stage and let the crowd get together and kill themselves, which they did.

The Mar-a-Lago of Red Death.

The Masque of the Mar-a-Lago.

Is it hard to keep a social distance when you’re squirming around on a floor like a worm?

It’s a little difficult, I would believe.

Vincent Price’s voice is beautiful in this movie. This is one of his most seductive parts. How quickly did he capture the character, from rehearsal to shooting?

He had the character pretty much set in mind when he came into it. Vincent always did a great deal of preparation. So what we would do [is] we would discuss the characters, just Vincent and me, before the rehearsals. He and I were in agreement on the character, and then he would bring that character to the rehearsals. We did not do a great deal of rehearsing because of the Screen Actors Guild rules. They charge you as if you are shooting when you rehearse.

Do you remember any notes you had to give him?

This is so long ago. It’s a little bit difficult to remember. But as I remember, I said, “The real key to Prospero’s character is that he believes God is dead.” And everything stems from that belief. That with the absence of God, he was free to do anything he wanted.

Did he always talk like that, like when he was ordering a bagel?

It was pretty much his normal voice. He added a certain drama to [lines], but basically that was Vincent. He was a highly educated man and very intelligent, so he spoke very well. And we simply heightened that somewhat in the films.

The film suffered some major censorship from the Legion of Decency, and the package booklet points out there was church involvement. Did you ever wonder whether you might be going to hell?

No, that never occurred to me. I’m sort of a lapsed Catholic, and I don’t believe there is a hell.

Is Red Death a disease or a sin?

The Red Death is a disease. That’s one of the reasons that’s a plague. You could consider it to be the Black Death of the Middle Ages. It would be the equivalent of coronavirus today.

In the booklet which comes with the DVD, it says that Father Miraliotta said the occult parts of the screenplay were “strung together gibberish” and “mumbo-jumbo Latin.” But did any of the satanic rituals have any validity?

No. We made up pretty much what we wanted. Actually, there were two writers, Chuck Beaumont and Bob Campbell, and I think it started with my discussions with Chuck.

How was Jane Asher to work with?

Jane Asher was wonderful to work with. She was a very young girl. She had worked on the stage. I think she was in the Young Shakespeare Group. And I don’t know if it was her first picture or not, but she was very good. She was an excellent actress and very good and easy to work with.

She was dating Paul McCartney when this was made, and her brother was a musician and a producer. Did you get to experience any Swinging London in-crowd during shooting?

A little bit. As a matter of fact, I can tell you a true story. Jane and I used to have lunch together in the studio commissary. And on a Thursday, she said a friend of hers was traveling through, on his way to London the next day. Would it be all right if he came and watched a shooting during the morning, and we could all have lunch together? And I said, “Sure, fine.”

Culture

When Paul McCartney Braved the Set of Roger Corman’s The Masque of the Red Death

By Tony Sokol

So, I got a director’s chair, sitting next to mine, during the shooting. And it was a nice, young guy, and we talked during the shooting. And I explained to him a little bit between shots how it all worked. And then we all, Jane and he, and I, had lunch together. And it all went very well. I said at the end of it, “Jane tells me you’re going to London. What are you going to be doing in London?”

He said, “Well, I’m with a singing group from Liverpool, and we’re going to be making our debut tomorrow night in London.” He was very cool. He knew that as an American, I didn’t know who The Beatles were or what he was. And as he left, I said, “Well, good luck, Paul, on your debut in London tomorrow night.”

And I remember he was very cool. He understood and he didn’t want to say, “Listen, buddy, we’re the number one group.” He just said, “Well, we’re a singing group.”

And then I saw the paper Sunday morning headlines, “Beatles conquer London.”

Did he ever come back to the set again?

No. But it was very funny. We were at an Academy Award party, which was I think the Vanity Fair party, which was a big thing, of people who were invited and so forth. We were at the Vanity Fair party, and I saw across the room Paul McCartney. And I said, “Oh, there’s Paul over there.”

And my wife, Julie, said, “Let’s go over and talk to him.” And I said, “No. I had lunch with him 60 years or so ago. He isn’t going to remember some guy he had lunch with 60 years ago, and I don’t want to intrude.” because he was in a conversation.

And Julie said, “Well, I want to meet Paul McCartney.” So, she went over and talked to him, and he came over to see me. As he approached, he said, “Masque of the Red Death.” He knew exactly where we’d met.

I interviewed William Shatner a few months ago and I asked about The Intruder, a piece he’s still very proud of. What draws you to consistently infuse your works, in any genre, with at least social questioning?

I’ve always been on the left, liberal side of politics. The Intruder was a time when the desegregation of schools in the South started. The schools in the South had maintained separate schools for Blacks. They were separate, but equal. And the Supreme Court ruled they were separate, but they were not equal, which was correct. They were inferior, and schools had to be integrated rather than keeping them separate. And it caused tremendous rebellion in the South. Chuck Beaumont, who worked with me on a number of pictures, had written the book The Intruder about an agitator, a little bit like somewhere between Joe McCarthy and Trump, who comes in, talking about patriotism and being against integration.

And I bought that book, The Intruder, and made it with Bill Shatner. It was his first picture. He was a Broadway actor, and he just came to Hollywood, and he was wonderful to work with, and the picture got incredible reviews. I’m trying to think of one of them, which was really good. Oh, it said, “The Intruder is a major credit to the entire American film industry.” And it won a couple of awards at minor festivals nobody ever heard of, but it was the first picture I ever made that lost money.

You consistently do social commentary in your work. What brings you back to it?

I stayed with it, but I tried to analyze why The Intruder got such wonderful reviews and such a great reaction, but the audience didn’t come to see it. And I thought, “I think I was too serious in this.” It was almost like delivering a message. And I remember years ago, some Hollywood producer said, “If you want to send a message, use Western Union.” And I thought, “I broke that rule.” And I thought, “I forgot that motion pictures are really basically an entertainment.”

So, from there on in, I used motion pictures as an entertainment, but as a subtext, with whatever theme or thought I was interested in. But first and foremost, the audience came to see and got the entertainment they paid to see. And as a bonus, as it were, there was the subtext, which sometimes was so slender that people didn’t get it. But [some] people got it. That was fine with me.

The restoration is really beautiful. I’d like to ask about the look. Your translation of Poe’s colors. Nicolas Roeg was the cinematographer. What was that collaboration like?

It went very well. It was the first I had done in England, except for a Formula One racing picture, which was in England and a number of other places. And they showed me a work of a number of English cameramen, and I thought Nic was the best of the group. And the collaboration went very well. I thought he did really, a brilliant job of camera work.

Afterwards he became a director. I never knew, did I inspire him to be a director, or did he feel if Roger can do it, anybody can do it?

So, he didn’t actually go through the Corman school of directors. I know you never produced any of his films.

I did not. He did it on his own.

You shot Masque on the set of Becket. What was different about having that as a cinematic playground, as opposed to shooting Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre?

It wasn’t really the set of Becket. What it is, Danny Heller, my art director, and I, always went to what was called a scene dock in studios where we’re going to work. The scene dock contained flats from previous pictures, just individual flats. Each of the pictures we shot in the United States, we were shooting at small rental studios, and the flats were not particularly impressive, but Danny would use them in the designs of sets.

When we did Masque of the Red Death, we found these magnificent flats from Becket. So they were not the sets, but we used those flats, and used them as an integral part of the sets.

Masque of Red Death was one of the first films that you had a longer shooting schedule. What was the first aspect of filmmaking that you noticed was affected by the extra time?

Well, two things. The English crews were very good. They were fully equal to the Hollywood crews, but they worked a little bit slower than the Hollywood crews. So I had a five-week schedule, whereas I had a three-week schedule in Hollywood. And I always thought I really had a four-week schedule, because we were working a little slowly.

Also, when we’d show up to work at 11:00, we would stop for elevenses. And then we would stop for lunch. And then in the middle of the afternoon, we would stop for tea. And I remember mentioning, I’ve forgotten who the assistant director was, but I said, “We’re spending half the day eating here. We should be shooting.”

But he said, “Well, this is the way we do it.”

In 2009, you made the Joe Dante series, Splatter, and each episode was shot in a week based on audience votes. Was that reminiscent of your early days of shooting on the 10-day schedules?

No. By that time, when I first started, although I did shoot a number of films in five or six days, in one picture, The Little Shop of Horrors, in two days. But my general schedule was two weeks when we started. As we moved along, starting with The Fall of the House of Usher, the first of the Poe pictures, I had three-week schedules. And our standard schedule for everything at that time was three weeks, so it was shot on a three-week schedule.

Did you really edit Little Shop of Horrors during a lunch break?

No. I shot Little Shop of Horrors in two days with a little bit of night shooting. So I’d say maybe two-and-a-half days. What happened, I had an office at a small rental studio in Hollywood and I was having lunch with the head of the studio. And he mentioned they had just finished a fairly big, slightly bigger budget picture. It was still low budget, and they had this really good, big set of an office. And I said, “Can you leave that up for a little while?” And he said, “Sure. We’ll leave it up until somebody comes in and rents the stage. And we’ll tear it down and put up the new set.”

So, after lunch, I went over and looked at it. And it was really a very good set, and I said [that] I was sort of experimenting with the concept of comedy and horror combined. And I thought, “It might be fun.”

I didn’t have a great deal of money at that time and nobody was going to back me with what I wanted to do. I thought, “I could shoot a picture here. And since almost everything is within this set, what I could do, I could shoot it in a couple of days, based upon this.”

Movies

Little Shop Of Horrors & the Tale of its Lost Ending

By Seb Patrick

Movies

The Roger Corman Fantastic Four Movie: The Most Faithful FF Ever

By Mike Cecchini

Screen Actors Guild salary structure was such that if you hired a person for a day, he got more money than one-fifth of what the weekly structure was. So I thought what I’ll do is hire everybody for a week. We’ll rehearse Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, because everything is in this set. And with everything set up, we can come and shoot on two days, on Thursday and Friday, which is what we did. And the whole thing was done sort of as an experimental lark.

It was quite successful. They made a Broadway play out of it and one thing and another, and a musical. And one of the reasons I think it was so successful was that none of us were taking it seriously. We were taking it and just sort of fooling around and having fun. And I think that attitude helped the picture, because the crew had the same attitude, and the whole thing permeated the shooting.

I remember we started shooting Thursday morning at 8:00. And at 8:30, the assistant director announced we were hopelessly behind schedule.

What are your favorite genres to shoot, and are they the same ones as the ones you watch?

Not particularly. I should watch more genre films to keep up with it. Actually, I watch a certain number, specifically to keep up and see what’s going on now. But I’m more inclined towards somewhat more serious films, and particularly foreign films, although I see fewer foreign films now than I did before. I don��t know why.

We were a production/distribution company, New World, which I founded in 1970, and we distributed for Fellini, Bergman, Kurosawa, Volker Schlöndorff, François Truffaut, a number of others. And I was a great fan of those films and went out of my way to distribute them. I was very much interested in that type of film.

In your early films, were you watching Mario Bava to see what he was doing? And were you expanding on that?

Actually, I saw only one film by Mario Bava, who incidentally I think was a brilliant filmmaker. It was because Jim Nicholson, who was the head of American International, had seen the film and liked Barbara Steele in it. He suggested I see the film and possibly use Barbara Steele.

I saw that one film. I don’t remember the name of it, but I thought it was really excellent. And indeed, I did bring Barbara Steele over. I think it was The Pit and the Pendulum. She played the leading lady.

What did Poe bring to your storytelling that, say, Lovecraft’s adaptations didn’t provide?

Well Poe, and this was part of my interpretation of Poe, I think Poe was working with the unconscious mind, from a writer’s standpoint, the same way that Freud, a little later in the same century, was working from a medical standpoint. I think the concept of the unconscious mind was starting to influence thinking in the 19th century, so I always thought that Poe represented the unconscious mind, and I shot according to that. It was one of my themes.

For instance, I felt the unconscious mind doesn’t really see the world. The conscious mind sees the world with eyes, ears, and so forth, and simply transmits information. So I made a point on all of the Poe films of never going outside unless I absolutely had to do it. I wanted to have full control, to shoot within the studio. Whether it came through to the audience, I don’t know. But at least in my own mind, I was able to deal with special effects with a number of things, with the concept of the unconscious mind.

When I did go outside, I tried to make it something that was not normal. For instance, on the very first picture, The Fall of the House of Usher, the only exterior sequence is when a man, played by Mark Damon, rides through a forest on his way to the House of Usher. And before we were shooting, there was a forest fire in the Hollywood Hills. I saw a picture of it in the Los Angeles Times, and all of the trees were burned. Everything was covered with ash, and I immediately put together, I think, a three or four-man crew. And we were up there in the Hollywood, burnt out hills, showing Mark on his horse, riding through that exterior.

I also used the ocean, a number of times. I feel that essentially, we came out of the ocean, and I felt somehow there is something fascinating about the ocean, even today.

Hazel Court’s invocation sequence is exquisite. When you were putting it together, were you having fun experimenting, trying to capture the unconscious mind?

Yes, it was all of the above. It dealt with the unconscious. We were experimenting, and I was having a lot of fun. I give a lot of credit to Danny Heller, the art director on that, because he would construct certain backgrounds. I would then work with different colored lenses on the camera, and then we would go in to a special effects shop, and they would take what I’d shot and overlay certain images. It was just a lot of fun putting them together, but I think I used that concept in almost every one of the Poe films.

And then of course, many, many years later, when I did The Trip, which was about an LSD experience, I really went crazy with those sequences.

On the other hand, I have to say this, at the time they came out, I got a lot of critical praise for that. But if you look at them today, they look primitive because the special effects today are so brilliant and so far advanced, that not only my pictures, but everybody was pictures at that time, when we used special effects, there was no way we could get the effects you can get today.

What do you think we’ve lost from the Mitchell cameras and having to lug things around and meticulously put together special effects? What do you think is lost in technology making filmmaking easier?

What’s gained is the fact that the special effects are just beyond anything anybody ever dreamed of before. They’re just astonishing. What is lost is the fact that there’s a tendency for the special effects to take over the picture, and the story and the characters are secondary to the special effects. And we’ve lost that to a certain extent. I wouldn’t say all the way, but we’ve lost to a certain extent the examination of characterization and the simple narrative, and the writing of dialogue.

How do you work with your composers on your films?

I work with composers probably a little less than most directors do. I don’t pretend to have great knowledge of music. What I do [is] I talk with the composer and discuss the themes, the mood within each individual scene, the basic feeling I want from the music, and then I leave it to him.

For instance, directors are generally on the soundstage when they’re recording the music. I’m never there. I’m not a conductor. I leave that to the composer.

The last movie you directed was Frankenstein Unbound in 1990. What would it actually take to put you back in the director’s seat?

Well, what happened was because when I started in 1970, I started my own production/distribution company. And I had planned simply to take a year off from directing, because I was just tired. I’d directed about 60 films in about maybe 15, 16 years. And I thought I would take a sabbatical, one year off from directing, and just be a producer and a head of the company. But then the company became instantaneously successful.

It was really amazing. Our very first picture was a giant success, and so were all of the following ones. And I got so involved in all of that [that] I just stepped away from directing. But then Universal did some kind of research, and they came up with the idea that “Roger Corman’s Frankenstein” would be a success for a film, and they asked me if I would like to make it, to produce and direct it. And I said, “No. You may have that research, but in my opinion, it’s just going to be another Frankenstein film. There have been so many Frankenstein films. It isn’t worth going back.”

But they kept coming back to me, and they offered me so much money. Finally, I thought, “Geez, I’d be an idiot not to turn this opportunity down for what they’re now offering me.” And I said, “All right, I can’t say yes right now. But if I can find a new version, something that is a different interpretation of Frankenstein, I will do it.”

And I read a novel, Frankenstein Unbound, by Brian Aldiss, a very good English science fiction and fantasy writer. And it was a story of somebody from the future, who, through a time warp, is thrown back into the 19th century and meets Dr. Frankenstein.

In the novel, he was some sort of a diplomat. But in the movie, I changed him from being a diplomat to a scientist, so that the picture essentially brought a 21st century scientist back to meet a 19th century scientist. And I thought that was an original and new interpretation. So I said, “If you can buy that novel, I’ll make the picture.” Which we did.

With all the streaming alternatives now for new projects, do you think it’s easier for an independent director to break in, or is it still just the same corporate-owned studio stuff?

I think you would divide that into two sections. It’s a little bit more difficult today, particularly with the studios, because they’re making now primarily these giant special effects pictures, and they’re not going to give a new director a chance to play with a $200 million budget.

But new directors are breaking in pretty much the way they were when I started, which is on independent films and particularly on low budget films.

You’re both the producer and the director on Masque. Were there things that you wanted to do as a director that you wouldn’t let yourself do as a producer?

I was a producer and director on almost all of my films, so I never really had any problems with the producer. If there was a problem with the producer, it was a problem with myself.

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nitrateglow · 7 years ago

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Favorite film discoveries of 2017

Most represented year: 1967 with three movies

Most represented director(s): GW Pabst and Yevgeni Bauer tie with two movies apiece

While I didn’t get to watch as many new movies (feature-length and shorts) as I did in 2016 (slightly over 200 as compared to slightly over 400), it was certainly a case of quality over quantity.

Wait Until Dark (dir. Terence Young, 1967)

I am so glad I followed a whim and watched Wait Until Dark when it aired fairly late on Turner Classic Movies on a weekday night in June; I was tired all morning at work the next day, but it was so worth it. This underrated movie made me jump twice, and scared the crap out of me in ways more explicit horror movies and thrillers have failed to do. Often praised for how it builds suspense, particularly in its final twenty minutes, this movie also sports great performances from Audrey Hepburn as the determined heroine caught in a deadly game and Alan Arkin as the sadistic thug preying upon her, as well as a deft illustration of the art of set-up and pay-off. Hepburn’s performance is among the best of her career: not only is she convincing as a blind woman, she’s emotionally vulnerable yet badass and smart, very much like a Miyazaki heroine. More than merely a story of a woman surviving a dangerous situation with a visual impairment, it’s a story about a woman learning her disability need not define her or limit her independence. I’ve re-watched Wait Until Dark close to ten times in the past six months; it is remarkable how the tension and sinister atmosphere continue to hold up, especially when the most horrifying things are only threatened, implied, or committed offscreen. It’s easily a new favorite of mine.

(Read my longer review here.)

Martin (dir. George Romero, 1978)

The late George Romero once claimed he considered Martin the best of his movies because it was the least compromised by outside meddling. A satirical and revisionist take on the vampire myth that doubles as a character study of a lonely man, Martin is largely unsung in the history of horror, which is a big shock to me. Though Night of the Living Dead is more influential and iconic, I think Martin is the better movie; at the very least, it is the more mature movie of these two great classics, made by a filmmaker more assured in his own storytelling. John Amplas is amazing as the socially awkward vampire who tries to reconcile his bloodlust with his desire to find true human connections. It takes a special talent to make a character who does some truly heinous things sympathetic and even lovable, but Amplas does it and makes such a feat seem effortless. The home invasion sequence in the middle of the movie is worth the price of admission alone; it scared the hell out of me, that’s for certain! Martin surely deserves a solid home video release—dare I say the Criterion Collection should pick it up for distribution? It merits more than the minor and very sporadic releases it’s had over the years, and it certainly deserves a bigger audience.

(Read my longer review here.)

The 3-Penny Opera (dir. GW Pabst, 1931)

The 3-Penny Opera could easily compete with Pennies from Heaven for Most Cynical Movie Musical. Pabst’s adaptation of the Brecht stage production is at once entertaining and kind of depressing. Its criminal protagonists run the gamut from being charming rogues to downright vicious murderers. Their London underworld is decidedly expressionistic, coated in grime and cast in dramatic shadows, yet there is nothing romantic about any of it: this is a nasty world with nasty people inhabiting it. Nevertheless, these unsavory criminals are witty and human, and the film remains one of the most vibrant of the early talkie era.

Day of Wrath (dir. Carl Th. Dreyer, 1943)

I didn’t fully understand this movie, but it touched something deep within me. The story takes place in the somber world of 17th century Denmark, where a pastor’s much-younger wife falls in love with her stepson and embraces the darker side of her nature. The acting is passionate and the slow-burn pacing does well to add to the tension and paranoia. Dreyer’s heroine Anne (played with a quiet and at times sensual intensity by Lisbeth Movin) is a marvelous character, dynamic and bewitching (no pun intended). Initially, we think she is an ingenue, but as she becomes aware of her powers, she becomes more open and independent in a society where these qualities mark her for trouble. Unlike the titular character of Dreyer’s more famous The Passion of Joan of Arc, I’m not sure if Anne ever gets any kind of grace or peace. The film is enigmatic and unforgettable, and now I’m itching to rent it from my local library once again.

After Death (dir. Yevgeni Bauer, 1915)

I don’t want to say After Death is cinema’s first great ghost story because claiming anything to be a “first” when it comes to movies is a dangerous pastime, but regardless, it’s one great ghost story. It tells the story of a young man who becomes obsessed with a deceased stage actress. Having rejected her love when she was alive, he falls madly in love with an idealized notion of who she was once she kills herself. He is haunted by her image (or rather, the image of her as a virtuous, devoted maiden more in tune with Victorian ideals of womanhood than the modern, elusive character she actually appeared to be) and this torments him into madness. Psychologically complex, After Death says much about the line between delusion and love, and its characters are hardly simplistic archetypes of melodrama. The actress’s motivations for her suicide are not clear-cut and her posthumous admirer is a man in love with an idea more than he is with a woman. Cinematically, After Death is hardly primitive either: its use of long-shot, camera movement, and mise-en-scene feel quite modern.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (dir. James Gunn, 2017)

If you told me I would be excited for any new Marvel movies earlier this year, I would have laughed. I’ve never hated the MCU, but I’ve never been compelled by what I’ve seen either, at least not to the degree other people seem to be. However, seeing the Guardians of the Galaxy sequel in May changed my outlook entirely. I don’t care what the critics have to say: this movie is way superior to the original movie from 2014. The visuals are more interesting, the old-school pop music is more creatively woven into the narrative, and the story takes these characters into darker, more emotional territory. My sister and I went back to the theater to see it four times. I’ve NEVER seen a single movie that often in the cinema—I never imagined I’d do so for a Marvel film. After having seen and loved Thor: Ragnarok as well, I’m actually excited for Infinity War. That’s crazy to me, but it goes to show how our tastes can expand in surprising ways over time.

The Young Girls of Rochefort (dir. Jacques Demy, 1967)

Despite the candy color palettes and fairy tale motifs of his oeuvre, most viewers would probably not classify Jacques Demy as a feel-good filmmaker. His films are often about the bittersweet in life: disappointments and disillusionment abound even in a straightforward fantasy like his adaptation of Donkey Skin. However, The Young Girls of Rochefort is an anomaly in this respect, a musical comedy in which all past disappointments are mended and true love wins the day. Complete with catchy musical numbers and outstanding choreography, this is just one of those movies that has me grinning from ear to ear. The only other movie musical which has a similar effect on me is Singin’ in the Rain and I would absolutely claim this film to be that classic’s equal. About the only sour note in the film is the knowledge that one of its stars, the charming Francoise Dorleac, would be killed before her time in a car crash shortly after filming. Seeing her here, so alive and charismatic, makes one mourn for the career that never got the chance to flower, but at least we have this marvelous tribute to the classic Hollywood musical and her other work.

The Hitch-Hiker (dir. Ida Lupino, 1953)

The Hitch-Hiker is a bold, underrated noir suspense-thriller that attacks Hollywood-style masculinity in bold ways. Two men are held hostage by a psychopathic hitch-hiker they picked up during a brief fishing trip. Making it clear he’s going to kill them eventually, these guys try to find a way to escape without getting a bullet between the eyes. This movie plays the scenario without macho heroics: the hostages are ordinary men who are terrified for their lives. Instead of making them out to be cowards, Lupino goes against our expectations of what “real men” are like by showing how these men-in-distress rather realistically interact with a total maniac, played to chilling perfection by William Talman. Nightmarish and tightly written, I highly recommend this to all film noir aficionados, as well as people who think all Old Hollywood movies upheld conventional views of gender behavior.

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (dir. Stanley Kubrick, 1964)

After my viewing of Dr. Strangelove, I finally saw all of Kubrick’s filmography, from his 1950s shorts to Eyes Wide Shut, and yet I was not sad because one of Kubrick’s greatest strengths is that his films are endlessly rewatchable. Dr. Strangelove is certainly that. You would think a political satire so closely tied to the culture and politics of the decade in which it was made would date despite its great performances and stellar cinematography. But no. If anything, this movie has become relevant yet again in the light of recent world events. It hasn’t dated in the slightest, which both delights and terrifies me.

The In-Laws (dir. Arthur Hiller, 1979)

I rarely belly laugh when watching comedies by myself. It doesn’t mean I’m not enjoying myself, but I usually need to be watching funny movies with other people in order to really have my sides split. The In-Laws proved itself a rare exception to that trend: I laughed loud and hard twice, at one point even ending up on the floor, finding it hard to breathe. And even when I wasn’t reacting that extremely, I did chuckle often and enjoy myself very much. Peter Falk and Alan Arkin make a great comedy team, playing off of one another perfectly. The story is INSANE in the best possible way and I don’t dare spoil its bizarre twists in case you’ve never seen it. It feels like a 1930s screwball comedy transplanted to the 1970s and mixed with a buddy-action film—and even that trite description doesn’t do the quirkiness justice.

Only Yesterday (dir. Isao Takahata, 1991)

While Grave of the Fireflies is Takahata’s most well-known film, I argue Only Yesterday is his masterpiece. Often coming across like a cross between Ozu and Bergman, this is a coming-of-age story like no other. It follows a twenty-something woman at a crossroads in her life as she both reflects on her childhood in the 1960s and wonders about what path to take in the future. I saw parts of this movie as a teenager and could never get into it, but now watching it in its entirety as a twenty-something woman at a crossroads in her life, I relate hardcore. This movie is so perfect in capturing the uncertainty of being a young person still undecided about what they want their future to be: do you follow a traditional path? Do you try to make your parents happy? Do you follow a more unconventional path and risk crashing-and-burning? If you needed an antidote to the idea that animation is only for family comedies or shock value “adult” satire, then watch Ozu’s masterpiece.

Excalibur (dir. John Boorman, 1981)

People tend to love or loathe Excalibur, but I found myself loving it quite a lot. The 1980s was a golden age for cinematic fantasy and this strange movie is one of the best of the decade, if not the best film interpretation of the Mallory’s Le Morte Darthur. For those who demand realistic dialogue and psychological nuance, this is not your movie; it has a mythic feel which means it foregoes realism for larger-than-life characters and symbolic episodes. Visually, this movie is gorgeous and Trevor Jones’s soundtrack, which samples Wagner, gives epic weight to the images.

Yojimbo (dir. Akira Kurosawa, 1961)

Oh man, Yojimbo is badass. This movie may not be Kurosawa’s “deepest” or “most artistic” movie, but it ties with The Hidden Fortress as his most entertaining. It’s got everything: dark comedy, great swordfights, an anti-hero who’s both coarse yet ultimately compassionate, menacing villains, a catchy soundtrack, and one of the best final lines in any movie ever. I haven’t seen A Fistful of Dollars, though I do have to wonder how it could match this excellent work.

Branded to Kill (dir. Sejuin Suzuki, 1967)

Don’t ask me if I understood it, because I don’t think I did and I’ve seen it twice. Branded to Kill is best described as film noir meets a very bad acid trip. Regardless, even if you don’t get 100 percent of what the hell you’re watching, this is still a great piece of pop art. I’ve read that it’s best to view this movie as a kind of commentary on noir itself, though I don’t know if it’s aim is to subvert, parody, or deconstruct noir conventions and archetypes. Probably a little bit of the three.

Vagabond (dir. Agnes Varda, 1985)

Agnes Varda’s Vagabond follows a young homeless woman named Mona. A la Citizen Kane, the movie starts with her being found dead in a ditch and then the rest of the movie is told from the perspectives of various people who encountered her in her last days. One thing that sticks out most to me about this movie is how Mona is not glamorized or sexed up; she is a plain, dirty drifter, no make-up. She is also remarkably enigmatic; we see her through the eyes of those who either pity her for her loneliness, shrink from her coarseness, or seek to exploit her for money or sex, but neither the audience nor the other characters are allowed to learn who she truly is. It’s a fascinating work from one of our best living directors, stark in its images and its themes.

The Diary of a Lost Girl (dir. GW Pabst, 1929)

While this movie is often overshadowed by Pandora’s Box, I think I prefer The Diary of a Lost Girl, if only because it has better pacing (though don’t get me wrong: PB is damn excellent). Louise Brooks is, as always, amazing, one of the most subtle and expressive of silent cinema’s actresses. The movie follows Thymian, a young girl’s persecution after she is raped and impregnated by one of her father’s employees: branded a whore by a society that blames the victim, she is sent away to a brutal reform school and is eventually forced into actual prostitution. The film is melodramatic, yet never crude or simplistic, especially in regards to Thymian’s unkind stepmother, who is revealed to be more complex than she appears. Unlike the tragic PB, Diary is more humanistic and hopeful, urging the audience to be more compassionate. And even in 2017, this little melodrama still moves and inspires.

Things to Come (dir. William Cameron Menzies, 1936)

I had never heard of this film until recently and after having seen it, I wonder why. A Trip to the Moon and Metropolis are often cited as influential early science-fiction movies, and I argue that Things to Come absolutely deserves to be as well-known, for its predictions about the future are often alarming in their accuracy. In addition to covering the topics of another world war and space travel, it also sports a sort of proto-post-apocalyptic flair in the 1960s and 1970s sequences, where a zombie-like plague ravages the landscape and people live in tribes among the ruins of civilization. Visually, the film is a feast, sporting an art deco twenty-first century and pretty nifty special effects.

The Twilight of a Woman’s Soul (dir. Yevgeni Bauer, 1913)

Who said all silent film heroines were helpless damsels again? Or that all silent melodramas uphold conventional Victorian/Edwardian ideas about gender? The Twilight of a Woman’s Soul must have seemed socially bold back in 1913: it features a woman who, after being raped by a stranger and subsequently deemed unworthy of her fiancée’s respectable hand in marriage, does not go into exile or die conveniently. Instead, she finds healing and pursues her dreams of a theatrical career—never once looking back or feeling less like a woman for not marrying! Thoughtful performances and lovely composition make this film a great showcase for how sophisticated early movies could be, both artistically and culturally.

Feel My Pulse (dir. Gregory La Cava, 1928)

Nothing groundbreaking, but this movie is a thoroughly enjoyable comedy with a clever, resourceful female protagonist, which is very much my thing, especially when it challenges the tiresome stereotype that all silent film heroines were passive damsels. While there is one gag routine featuring booze and a song that goes on a little too long, the rest of the movie moves along swiftly. Bebe Daniels is funny and charming as the hypochondriac heiress who isn’t as over her head as the other character think. A pre-stardom William Powell plays the scummy villain and has a lot of fun doing it. Richard Arlen dresses exactly like Indiana Jones.

This Sporting Life (dir. Lindsay Anderson, 1963)

Lindsay Anderson is quickly becoming one of my new faves, if only because his films have such diverse atmospheres: there’s the youthful rebellion of If…. and the surreal cynicism of O Lucky Man!, and then there’s the more starkly realistic This Sporting Life, starring Richard Harris as a lonely rugby player exploited by the upper classes and yearning for something meaningful in life. He’s a brute in many ways, aggressively pursuing his widowed landlady (played to heart-breaking perfection by Rachel Roberts) in rather uncomfortable ways. Though put off by his rude manners, she is drawn to Harris’s athlete and the two engage in an affair that proves tragic. The film is a bit overlong and if you haven’t seen an Anderson film before, the two I previously mentioned are likely better introductions to his work, but the intensity of the performances and the ways in which Anderson and his collaborators explore class struggle make this riveting viewing.

Honorable mentions: Catch-22 (1970), The Producers (1968), Thor: Ragnarok (2017), Blade Runner (1982), Let Me Dream Again (1900), The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (1968), Blade Runner 2049 (2017), Baby Driver (2017), The Little Match-Seller (1902), The Sands of Dee (1912), Robocop (1987), Regeneration (1915), Daydreams (1915), The White Sister (1923), David Copperfield (1935), The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), The 39 Steps (1935), The Informer (1935), Fury (1936), The Road Warrior (1981), Super (2010), Slither (2006), The Lodger (1944), Bedlam (1946), Raw Deal (1948), Moulin Rouge (1952), Moulin Rouge! (2001), Cliffhanger (1993), Eraserhead (1977), A Touch of Zen (1971), Late Spring (1949), Harold and Maude (1971), Night of the Living Dead (1968), How to Steal a Million (1966), Ruka (1965), Three Outlaw Samurai (1964), Paris When it Sizzles (1964), The Haunting (1963), Experiment in Terror (1962), The Brides of Dracula (1960), Bigger than Life (1958), Napoleon Dynamite (2004)

What were your favorite film discoveries in 2017?

#thoughts

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papermoonloveslucy · 7 years ago

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LUCY GETS HER MAN

S1;E21 ~ February 24, 1969

Directed by Jack Donohue ~ Written by Fred S. Fox and Seaman Jacobs

Synopsis

Harry's old Army buddy is working in Counter-Intelligence and needs a stenographer to help get the goods on a suspected spy (Victor Buono). Naturally, Lucy gets the assignment.

Regular Cast

Lucille Ball (Lucy Carter), Gale Gordon (Harrison Otis Carter), Lucie Arnaz (Kim Carter), Desi Arnaz Jr. (Craig Carter)

Guest Cast

Victor Buono (Arthur Vermillion) was a character actor whose screen career began in 1959. He was nominated for a 1963 Oscar for his portrayal of Edwin Flagg in Whatever Happened To Baby Jane, which he quickly followed up with Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte, both starring Bette Davis. He is perhaps best remembered for playing arch-villain King Tut on “Batman” (inset). Buono died in 1982 at the age of 43.

Buono uses a thick middle-European accent as Vermillion. According to the dictionary, ‘vermillion’ (or ‘vermilion’), describes a deep, brilliant shade of red. ‘Red’ is slang for a communist, based on the color of the communist flag, which ties into the spy theme of the episode.

Mary Wickes (Isabel) was one of Lucille Ball’s closest friends and at one time, a neighbor. She made a memorable appearances on “I Love Lucy” as ballet mistress Madame Lamond in “The Ballet” (ILL S1;E19). In her initial “Lucy Show” appearances her characters name was Frances, but she then made four more as a variety of characters for a total of 8 episodes. This is the first of her 9 appearances on “Here’s Lucy.” She also played Isabel in “Lucy Goes on Strike” (S1;E16). Their final collaboration on screen was “Lucy Calls the President” in 1977.

Wickes only has 40 seconds of screen time at the very start of the episode. Before Mary Jane Croft joined the show, the character of Isabel was intended to be a secretary friend of Lucy Carter’s who works in her building. Wickes only played the character twice before moving into different characters for the rest of the series.

Robert Carson (Buzzy Brock) was a busy Canadian-born character actor who appeared on six episodes of “The Lucy Show.” This is the second of his five appearances on “Here’s Lucy.”

Buzzy was an Army Colonel at the Pentagon during World War II. He got a Purple Heart when his desk collapsed! He is currently working with 'Counter-Intelligence'.

Chicago Tribune, February 24, 1969

This is the third spy story on “Here’s Lucy” in just five months, preceded by “Lucy's Impossible Mission” (S1;6) and “Lucy and the Great Airport Chase” (S1;E18). Spy series' such as “Get Smart” and “Mission: Impossible” were tremendously popular at the time. Craig mentions a show called “Spy Mission” and Kim talks about “Counter Agent,” both made-up TV spy programs.

Lucille Ball and Victor Buono were both featured in “Like Hep!”, a Dinah Shore special that aired a few months after this episode. In it, Ball did a variety of sketches, including one set in a speakeasy with Buono as a mob boss.

Upon arriving at work, Lucy off-handedly says “another day behind the iron curtain.” The Iron Curtain was the name for the imaginary boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1991. The use of the term contributes to the spy nature of the story, but seems a bit precipitous considering the plot has yet to be revealed!

Isabel calls Harry Jack the Ripper, comparing him to the famous London serial killer. There was also a character named Jack D. Ripper in the 1964 iron curtain comedy Dr. Strangelove. Could this be another vague and precipitous reference to the episode’s theme?

After Isabel and Harry continually bump into one another going out the door (doing a sort of ‘after you’ dance) Harry calls her St. Vitus. Saint Vitus (290-303 AD) was a child saint from Sicily. In the late Middle Ages, people celebrated the feast of Vitus by dancing before his statue. The name "Saint Vitus Dance" was given to neurological disorders like epilepsy. It also led to Vitus being considered the patron saint of dancers.

We learn that Harry was an Army major during World War II and worked at the Pentagon.

Buzzy calls Harry 'Foamy' because he wore out twelve foam rubber cushions on his swivel chair. Clearly Buzzy and 'Foamy' (aka Harry) were desk jockeys during the war. The script doesn't specify, however, why Buzzy is named Buzzy.

When Kim comes home from school, she asks her mother if Jerry called. Presumably, Jerry is her boyfriend. Jerry was also the name of Lucy Carmichael's son on “The Lucy Show.” She uses her childrens’ questions as a memory test for her upcoming spy assignment.

Kim says her birthday is the 17th of next month. In real life, Lucie Arnaz's birthday is the 17th of July.

The song Kim and Craig play for Uncle Harry, to show him what life with teenagers in the house might be like, is a jazzy version of “I Know A Place” by Tony Hatch. The song was recorded in 1965 by Petula Clark. It is here performed without lyrics with Kim dancing and Craig playing the drums. Lucy danced to the song in “Mod, Mod Lucy” (S1;E1). Clark will do a guest appearance on the series in season 5, although she will not sing “I Know A Place.”

When Lucille Ball enters Vermillion's hotel suite at the (fictional) Crescent Palms Hotel wearing a black wig, she gets a round of applause from the studio audience.

If the horse statue in Vermillion’s hotel room looks familiar, it is likely the same horse used later that year on the set of “The Brady Bunch” (1969-74). Both shows were filmed at Paramount Studios. Similar horses also turned up on “Bewitched” (1964-72) and in the film Bell, Book and Candle (1958) starring Ernie Kovacs. This iteration of the horse statue has its saddle and reigns painted black, but they are otherwise identical. Equine statuary was quite common in mid-century decorating.

Vermillion, under the guise of a greeting card writer, dictates correspondence to

Gregory Schmidt, General Delivery, St. Louis, Misery

and another to

Igor Shaffsky, Hotel Scimitar, Istanbul

He eats his notes. Is he really a spy or just really hungry?

When Vermillion looks around the room to see that they he and Lucy are alone, the soundtrack plays “Mission: Impossible” style music. The TV score by Lalo Schifrin was extensively used in “Lucy's Impossible Mission” (S1;E6).

Victor Buono is best known for his role in the Bette Davis / Joan Crawford 1962 horror film What Ever Happened to Baby Jane, a movie that was mentioned on “No More Double Dates” (TLS S1;E21). Lucy Carmichael rejected the film for date night as “too scary”. Coincidentally, both shows were the 21st aired episodes aired in their first seasons!

This is not the first time Lucy has mined humor from being sat on by a larger actor. She was underneath a tubby tourist (Audrey Bentz) in “The Tour” (ILL S4;E30) and a girthy granny (Reta Shaw) in “Lucy Misplaces $2,000″ (TLS S1;E4).

Lucy Ricardo also “wore a wire” when trying to record a confession by who she thought was a Texas oil swindler in “Oil Wells” (ILL S3;E18). Both times her urge to be wired for sound was misguided.

Thinking they were enemy agents, Lucy Ricardo also spied on the “New Neighbors” (ILL S1;E21). Like Vermillion, the O'Briens were not who Lucy first assumed they were but they sure talked a good game!

This is not the first, nor the last, time Gale Gordon will get into unconvincing drag without shaving off his mustache!

FAST FORWARD!

On August 16, 1971, Victor Buono and Lucille Ball were both guests on “The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson”. Kaye Ballard was the musical guest.

Vermillion is not the last character to be a writer of greeting card verses...

It would also be the occupation of Ben Fletcher (Don Knotts) when “Lucy Goes on Her Last Blind Date” (S5;E16).

Sitcom Logic Alert! Craig just happens to own a pocket-sized miniature tape recorder. Doesn’t every teenager in 1969?

Color Blind! Vermillion tells Harry (as the Bellboy) that he “never wears blue” yet he is clearly wearing a powder blue tie. Is he just trying to get rid of Harry through intimidation?

Product Dis-Placement! The brand name of Craig’s drum set is partly taped over. The top loop of the ‘R’ reveals that it is made by Rogers. Founded in 1849 in Farmingdale, NJ, by Joseph Rogers, the company went out of business in 2006.

Where the Floor Ends! In the lower right corner of the above screen shot, viewers get a glimpse of where the Carter’s wall-to-wall carpet ends and meets the cement stage floor!

“Lucy Gets Her Man” rates 3 Paper Hearts out of 5

A nearly five minute scene without Lucille Ball, when Kim and Craig convince their Uncle Harry to keep an eye on their mother, is a bit awkward and too long. Mary Wickes is given virtually nothing to do in this episode. Her lines could just as well have been spoken by an uncredited day player. Lucille Ball's scene with Victor Buono, however, is quite good and Gale Gordon in maid drag (with his trademark mustache) is well worth the wait. The surprise ending actually makes sense and is very funny, if a bit abrupt.

“Ja. Yust like mama!”

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ethanalter · 8 years ago

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Oscars: Ranking the Best Years Ever for Best Picture

With 14 nominations, La La Land has been the Best Picture frontrunner since Oscar nominations were announced and even before that with its raved-about North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. With one film dominating the conversation, it’s easy to overlook the fact that 2016 boasts a particularly strong Best Picture line-up. The eight films surrounding La La Land —Arrival, Fences, Hacksaw Ridge, Hell or High Water, Hidden Figures, Lion, Manchester by the Sea and Moonlight — have received critical praise, as well as strong box office numbers. That’s not always the case: For some years, voters clearly struggled to find five quality nominees. (The category has expanded and contracted over the decades; between 1931 and 1943, 10-12 nominees was the norm; that number shrank to five in 1944, eventually returning to up to 10 in 2009.)

Even though 2016 has been a very good year, it’s not the best year for Best Picture nominees. We combed through the Academy lists from the 1920s to today and ranked the Top 15 Best Picture groupings — the years where (almost) every film is a winner. Read our ranked list below and then weigh in with your own picks.

(Dates below refer to the years in which the films were released. The actual Best Picture winner from each year is indicated in bold.)

Related: 2017 Oscars Predictions: Our Picks in Every Category

‘You Can’t Take it With You’ (Photo: Columbia Pictures/Getty Images)

15. 1938 The Adventures of Robin Hood Alexander’s Ragtime Band Boys Town The Citadel Four Daughters Grand Illusion Jezebel Pygmalion Test Pilot You Can’t Take It With You

Let’s be clear: the one-two-three punch of The Adventures of Robin Hood, starring Errol Flynn at his swashbuckling best, Jean Renoir’s World War I drama Grand Illusion and Frank Capra’s sparkling rom-com You Can’t Take it With You are enough to put ’38 among the all-time great years for Best Picture. But treasures await amid the other eight nominees as well, from Spencer Tracy’s Oscar-winning performance opposite a young Mickey Rooney in Boys Town to Bette Davis going full Scarlett O’Hara a year before Vivien Leigh in Jezebel. And then there are curiosities like Test Pilot, Alexander’s Ragtime Band and The Citadel, which showcase what mainstream studio entertainment looked like in the ’30s.

‘Chariots of Fire’ (Photo: Everett Collection)

14. 1981 Atlantic City Chariots of Fire On Golden Pond Raiders of the Lost Ark Reds

This year found two of Hollywood’s New Wave directors — Warren Beatty and Steven Spielberg — helming stories straight out of the Golden Age. Beatty’s three-hour historical drama Reds has the sweep and scope of a David Lean epic, while Spielberg channeled the action-packed exploits of vintage pulp heroes into Indiana Jones’s maiden adventure. Memories of the good old days are also on display in On Golden Pond, which reunites father/daughter Hollywood royalty Henry and Jane Fonda (along with Katharine Hepburn for good measure), and Chariots of Fire, the compulsively watchable ’20s-era British drama best remembered for its soaring Vangelis score. Even the nominee that feels the most modern, Louis Malle’s deceptively low-key drama Atlantic City, is enriched by the presence of aging screen lion Burt Lancaster.

Laurence Olivier, Basil Sydney, Eileen Herlie, Jean Simmons in ‘Hamlet’ (Photo: Everett Collection)

13. 1948 Hamlet Johnny Belinda The Red Shoes The Snake Pit The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

One could claim that Laurence Olivier’s Hamlet always had an unfair advantage, given that it’s based on one of the greatest dramatic texts ever written. Nevertheless, the four other nominees from ’48 give ol’ Shakespeare a run for his ducats. Take John Huston’s masterful tragedy of greed and treachery, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, starring a never-better Humphrey Bogart. Meanwhile, Powell & Pressburger’s The Red Shoes remains one of the most innovative and influential movie musicals ever made. And while they’re not as celebrated now, The Snake Pit and Johnny Belinda are star vehicles for great actresses — Olivia de Havilland and Jane Wyman, respectively — that also tackled daring subject matter for the times. In fact, compared to the competition, Hamlet almost comes across as being too square and stagey, but that’s part of its charm. Much like Fences this year, it offers a great actor the opportunity to preserve a career-defining stage role for future generations.

‘All About Eve’ (Photo: Everett Collection)

12. 1950 All About Eve Born Yesterday Father of the Bride King Solomon’s Mines Sunset Boulevard

In recent years, it’s gotten increasingly rare for comedies to muscle into the Best Picture race. (Case in point: The funniest nominee among this year’s Best Picture crop is probably Manchester by the Sea, an otherwise wrenching drama about grief.) Not so in 1950, which remains a unique year in that four out of the five nominees possesses a comic streak that still generates big laughs nearly seven decades later. And they’re not all the same kind of comedy either: You’ve got your screwball variety in the form of Born Yesterday, your domestic comedy with Father of the Bride and two very different flavors of showbiz satire in the quotable classics Sunset Boulevard and All About Eve. Pity poor King Solomon’s Mines, starring Stewart Granger as famous adventurer Allan Quatermain, which had to keep a straight face in the company of these cut-ups.

‘No Country for Old Men’ (Photo: Miramax)

11. 2007 Atonement Juno Michael Clayton No Country for Old Men There Will Be Blood

This year is considered, in some quarters, to be the high water mark for 21st century cinema so far. And these five nominees represent that year’s bounty well…although we wouldn’t necessarily complain if, say, David Fincher’s sprawling crime saga Zodiac took the spot occupied by Tony Gilroy’s tightly-wound Michael Clayton. On the other hand, absolutely no one would argue with the presence of 2007’s towering achievements, No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood. At the time, and still today, those neo-Westerns overshadowed Atonement and Juno, which have occasionally been treated as punching bags in the decade since their release. (That’s particularly true of Juno, which spawned its own cottage industry of takedowns.) But we’re stepping up to offer some backlash to the backlash, home skillet: Both of those movies are fully deserving of hanging out with Anton Chigurh and Daniel Plainview.

Related: Oscars Survey Says: Most Americans Have No Idea What’s Nominated for Best Picture, Who’s Hosting the Show

‘My Fair Lady’ (Photo: Everett Collection)

10. 1964 Becket Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb Mary Poppins My Fair Lady Zorba the Greek

Disney’s Beauty and the Beast holds the distinction of being the first animated feature ever nominated for Best Picture. But the supercalifragilisticexpialidocious Mary Poppins, which famously features an extended mixed-media sequence combining live action and animation, was the first Mouse House production to find itself in the Best Picture race. Poppins‘ star Julie Andrew also won the Best Actress trophy, which probably helped her recover from losing the role of Eliza Doolittle in the My Fair Lady adaptation to Audrey Hepburn, despite originating the character on Broadway. Stanley Kubrick also made his Oscar debut in ’64 with his seventh (and, sadly, more relevant than ever) nuclear annihilation comedy, Dr. Strangelove, while Becket and Zorba the Greek offered memorable roles for a trio of screen giants: Richard Burton, Peter O’Toole and Anthony Quinn.

‘Forrest Gump’ (Photo: Everett Collection)

9. 1994 Forrest Gump Four Weddings and a Funeral Pulp Fiction Quiz Show The Shawshank Redemption

At the time, the 1994 Best Picture race was viewed as a referendum on the merits of Forrest Gump vs. Pulp Fiction, with Gump emerging the victor even as Pulp re-shaped indie cinema. Over the years, though, the real winner has proven to be Frank Darabont’s beloved three-hankie prison drama, The Shawshank Redemption, which is firmly ensconced atop IMDb’s user-picked Top Rated Movies. Four Weddings and a Funeral has an equally devoted audience, and remains a contemporary rom-com touchstone. Robert Redford’s Quiz Show might seem like the odd nominee out in terms of having an enduring fanbase, but count us among its devoted admirers. It’s the best movie Redford ever directed not named Ordinary People.

‘How Green Was My Valley’ (Photo: Everett Collection)

8) 1941 Blossoms in the Dust Citizen Kane Here Comes Mr. Jordan Hold Back the Dawn How Green Was My Valley The Little Foxes The Maltese Falcon One Foot in Heaven Sergeant York Suspicion

Sending Citizen Kane home with just the Best Screenplay trophy may represent Oscar’s version of original sin in many movie buffs’ eyes. Take hindsight out of the equation, though, and look at the deep bench of quality productions voters had to choose from in ’41. The Maltese Falcon is the prototype for every noir-ish detective yarn spun since, Suspicion is top-flight Hitchcock and eventual winner How Green Was My Valley stands tall among John Ford’s rich filmography. Everyone recognizes the forward-thinking genius of Kane now, but in the moment, it was just one of many movies that mattered.

Related: 2007 Oscar Flashback! Beyoncé, Ryan Gosling, Reese Witherspoon, and More

‘The Godfather’ (Photo: Paramount/Getty Images)

7. 1972 Cabaret Deliverance The Godfather The Emigrants Sounder

Much like La La Land in 2016, there was little chance that Francis Ford Coppola’s pop culture-dominating Mafia tale was going to lose Best Picture on Oscar night. Still, strong cases can be made that each of the also-rans could have been frontrunners in any other year. Certainly, Bob Fosse’s Cabaret is one of the darkest, most audacious movie musicals ever, while John Boorman’s backwoods adventure story Deliverance plumbs deeper metaphorical depths than your average “man vs. wild” story. And while neither of the remaining nominees — the Swedish drama The Emigrants and Martin Ritt’s quietly moving adaptation of the young-adult novel Sounder — achieved the same level of commercial success, both are ripe for re-discovery.

Sylvester Stallone, Carl Weathers in ‘Rocky’ (Photo: Everett Collection)

6. 1976 All the President’s Men Bound for Glory Network Rocky Taxi Driver

The sumptuously-photographed, but slackly-told Woody Guthrie biopic Bound for Glory and the more dated scenes from Network (could Faye Dunaway be forced to play more of a misogynistic nightmare?) keep ’76 just outside the Top 5. Between All the President’s Men, Rocky and Taxi Driver, though, you’ve got three of New Hollywood’s finest achievements.

‘The King’s Speech’ (Photo: Everett Collection)

5. 2010 127 Hours Black Swan The Fighter Inception The Kids Are All Right The King’s Speech The Social Network Toy Story 3 True Grit Winter’s Bone

This year most clearly demonstrates the benefits of expanding the Best Picture roll call back to 10 possible nominees. Smaller, more challenging fare like 127 Hours, Black Swan, The Kids Are All Right and Winter’s Bone — the movie that gave one of Hollywood’s biggest stars, Jennifer Lawrence, her first major showcase — are examples of films that likely would have been sidelined in a standard five-slot scenario. Ditto mainstream blockbusters like Inception and Toy Story 3. Even the typical Oscar bait entries, including True Grit, The Social Network, The Fighter and, yes, The King’s Speech are top-quality productions. Know what makes this a really great roster? These 10 films would constitute a fantastic weekend film festival even without the Best Picture hook.

‘In the Heat of the Night’ (Photo: Everett Collection)

4. 1967 Bonnie and Clyde Doctor Dolittle The Graduate Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner In the Heat of the Night

As outlined in Mark Harris’s terrific book, Pictures at a Revolution, the 1967 Best Picture race captured Hollywood in a fascinating state of transition, pitting the new guard (Bonnie and Clyde and The Graduate) against the old guard (Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner and In the Heat of the Night) with a white elephant (Doctor Dolittle) caught in the middle. Leaving aside the larger social ramifications, each of these movies enjoyed substantial commercial success precisely because they contributed something to the cultural dialogue. Well, except for Doctor Dolittle; you’d have to be a chimpanzee to understand the appeal of that one.

Related: The People With the Most Oscar Nominations Without a Win

‘Schindler’s List’ (Photo: Everett Collection)

3. 1993 The Fugitive In the Name of the Father The Piano The Remains of the Day Schindler’s List

This was a year where Oscar voters embraced globalism in a major — and majorly rewarding — way: three out of the five nominees originated abroad in such countries as England (The Remains of the Day), Ireland (In the Name of the Father) and New Zealand (The Piano). Meanwhile, native son Steven Spielberg went to Poland to make his career-redefining Best Picture winner Schindler’s List. Andrew Davis’s superior chase flick, The Fugitive, is the only nominee set on American soil and represents an old school approach to action movies that Hollywood once excelled at…before it migrated overseas as well.

‘Gone with the Wind’ (Photo: Everett Collection)

2. 1939 Dark Victory Gone With the Wind Goodbye Mr. Chips Love Affair Mr. Smith Goes to Washington Ninotchka Of Mice and Men Stagecoach The Wizard of Oz Wuthering Heights

Often considered Hollywood’s greatest year, 1939 features a Best Picture category overflowing with classics. Most years, voters would be happy to have a Gone With the Wind, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Stagecoach, Ninotchka or The Wizard of Oz in the race. In ’39, they had all five, plus TCM staples like Dark Victory, Goodbye Mr. Chips and Wuthering Heights. It’s an entire history of the industry’s Golden Age distilled into a single list.

‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ (Photo: Everett Collection)

1. 1975 Barry Lyndon Dog Day Afternoon Jaws Nashville One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

Even the best Best Picture years makes room for at least one movie that’s a cut below the rest. Not so in ’75, where all five nominees represent career-best work for the cast and filmmakers involved. Whether you’re in the mood for the painterly beauty of Barry Lyndon, the deep humanism of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the soulful sprawl of Nashville, the you-are-there immediacy of Dog Day Afternoon or the masterful jolts of Jaws, each of these movies is a winner regardless of which one walked away with the actual statue.

Watch a supercut of every Best Visual Effects winner:

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#_revsp:wp.yahoo.movies.us #awards #_author:Ethan Alter #_uuid:1d19dcd5-3955-31d1-8c2e-b0d7b14a3177 #_lmsid:a0Vd000000AE7lXEAT #oscars #oscars 2017

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classicfilmfreak · 8 years ago

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New Post has been published on http://www.classicfilmfreak.com/2017/01/12/unsinkable-molly-brown-1964-debbie-reynolds-harve-presnell/

The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964) with Debbie Reynolds and Harve Presnell

“Sure, I may be tuckered, and I may give out, but I won’t give in.”— Molly Brown

Quality��Hollywood movies somehow increased in 1964, and one of the best years of the decade offered a little more variety than usual. Dr. Strangelove shocked as an imaginative black comedy about two superpowers on the brink of world destruction and The Night of the Iguana did its own shocking with alcoholism and repressed—and expressed—sexual passions. Becket as a serious historical, Shakespeare-like drama portrayed a king and his wayward archbishop and Zorba the Greek made high cinema of an earthy peasant. The Pink Panther offered the greatest contrast of the four; to an unsuspecting world, it introduced the bumbling Inspector Clouseau and his personification in one Peter Sellers.

Being in the center of a decade of extravagant musicals, 1964 alone produced three competitive song and dance films—Mary Poppins, My Fair Lady and The Unsinkable Molly Brown. In most of the Oscar categories two of them, sometimes all three, were nominations. When a musical won, which was thirteen times, it was never The Unsinkable Molly Brown.

And its nominated Best Actress star, Debbie Reynolds, lost to the favorite, Julie Andrews, for Mary Poppins. It would be Reynolds’ only Oscar nomination, though she received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the 2015 Oscar ceremonies, February 28, 2016, belatedly extended by the Academy, as usual for elderly, Oscar-less stars. But even that was none too soon, for Reynolds died on the twenty-eighth of another month, December 2016.

She is perky and high-stepping in Singin’ in the Rain (1952), easily her most popular and best film, and one of the greatest musicals of all time. Untrained as a dancer, Reynolds was highly tutored by Gene Kelly, co-director with Stanley Donen. She shared her choreographic routines with another light-footed elf, Donald O’Connor, and no one would have ever imagined she wasn’t a professional dancer from the start.

In The Unsinkable Molly Brown, music and lyrics by Meredith Willson, she is more than a mere “high-stepper”: she is a keg of dynamite about to explode. She is loud, common and vulgar, until she transforms her character into a lady—well, only partially—and seeks a place in the upper echelons of society. There, at first, she finds only snobbery and exclusion, but determined—and “unsinkable,” as it will prove—she triumphs and receives all she ever desired during her poverty days.

Although Debbie Reynolds’ supporting cast members are all competent and throw themselves with wild abandon into some of the crazy antics of the film, she has only one serious co-star, one fellow singer of stature, Harve Presnell. There is obvious chemistry between her and this six-foot-five-inch, gangling actor, who never competes with but compliments Reynolds with his quite different acting and singing style.

Unfortunately, Presnell’s career faltered in the closing years of the decade, when the vogue for musicals, reaching a pinnacle with The Sound of Music in 1965, was fading, at least for a while. Doctor Doolittle (1967) and Hello, Dolly! (1969) were among several singing disasters. In Paint Your Wagon(1969), sluggishly directed by Joshua Logan, Presnell is the only professional vocalist among such non-singers as Clint Eastwood, Lee Marvin and Jean Seberg, though she, fortunately, was dubbed (by Anita Gordon).

A baby, surviving the rapids of the Colorado River, is adopted by frontiersman Shamus Tobin (Ed Begley, Best Supporting Actor Oscar two years earlier for Sweet Bird of Youth) and given the name Molly (Reynolds). Molly becomes a tomboy, dresses in trousers and a shabby shirt and uses foul language.

Her fight with Shamus’ three sons produces a rip-roaring “I Ain’t Down Yet,” and between lyrics she expresses her philosophy: “I hate the word ‘down,’ but I love that word ‘hope,’ ” and “I mean much more to me than any one I ever knew.” Soon, though, Molly believes it’s time to leave, with two objectives, to learn to read and write and to marry a rich man.

Against a sumptuous mountain landscape, the owner of a gold mine, Johnny Brown (Presnell), bursts into song: “Colorado, My Home.” After happening upon Molly taking a bath in the river, he takes her to his cabin.

After a brief stay, she goes to Leadville and is hired by saloon owner Christmas Morgan (Jack Kruschen) as a singer and piano-player, though she cannot sing or play. Toying with the keyboard, Molly finds two notes, one in the treble, one in the bass, that comprise her “piano playing,” and she becomes a hit in “Belly Up to the Bar, Boys.”

Johnny buys her some dresses and begins teaching her to read. Under a tree on a knoll, lessons continue and Presnell sings the key song of the musical, “I’ll Never Say No.” The song is the equivalent of “Till There Was You” in Willson’s first musical, The Music Man (1962). For tune detectives, “I’ll Never Say No” uncannily resembles the trio of the scherzo of Brahms’ Horn Trio in E-Flat.

Johnny remodels his cabin, with a room for Shamus and, for Molly, a bedroom with a big brass bed. The couple wed, but she confesses it isn’t what she wants, that there’s still . . . money. He sells his claim for $300,000, but unaware she has hidden it in the stove, he decides to warm himself after a cold bath, and—— No, money doesn’t matter after all, they decide. Johnny tosses a pickax in the air, it strikes a nearby mound of earth and gold trickles out.

Now back in the money, the Browns buy an enormous mansion in Denver, with a room for Seamus. They introduce themselves to the city’s social elite, crashing the party of Gladys McGraw (Audrey Christie), but they are excluded from the table of the so-called “Sacred 36” of Denver, and the butler closes the door in their faces.

An angry Molly then throws her own party. Nobody comes, though Shamus hits it off with “Buttercup” (Hermione Baddeley), Gladys’ mother. Molly decides the Browns will go to Europe and learn something about art, music and manners.

In Paris, they wander through museums, gaze at paintings, stare warily at nude statues and attend the opera. Molly takes piano and French lessons. The royalty like the down-to-earth Molly and she becomes the toast of Parisian society. At a clique fashion show, she meets the Grand Duchess Elise Lupavinova (Martita Hunt, Miss Havisham in Great Expectations [1947]), who winks at her, and becomes a friend.

The couple return to Denver, accompanied by ten of Molly’s aristocratic friends. She intends to show the second-generation society of Denver some real culture. She does well at first. Mrs. McGraw is clearly impressed and shamed to be exposed as only a dilettante of the arts, unable to converse in French or German, paint or play the piano.

But things go awry when Johnny’s friends crash the party, resulting in a long rendition of “He’s My Friend.” Then a fight breaks out, and Molly’s plans for gaining the approval of Denver society are destroyed.

She returns to Europe—without Johnny, who tells her he’s saying “no” for the first time. Before long, she realizes that putting herself before others is wrong and sets sail for home on the Titanic. When the liner sinks, she rescues many of the passengers, giving up her fur coat.

Returning home, now as a headlining heroine, she is accepted by all of Denver, including Mrs. McGraw, and, of course, Johnny.

Margaret, actually “Maggie,” Brown was a real person, born in Missouri and dying in 1932 at age 65, but much of The Unsinkable Molly Brown is far from accurate. Certain liberties are taken, both with the facts of the real Brown and with simple screen logic. It is a musical, after all, so these liberties are expected and can mostly be excused. If it goes on a little too long for the material at hand—the musical has far fewer and less memorable songs than The Music Man—and becomes sluggish at times, it is nevertheless high screen entertainment, typical of the decade, the era and the history of the American musical.

Debbie Reynolds is the star and she takes charge, no doubt about it. Her vitality and sincerity—and her likeability—compensate for the deficiencies in the film. It’s possible to see in her portrayal of Molly a reflection of Reynolds’ own character—determined, someone who knows what they want, a survivor. It’s possible, as well, to see in Molly’s distraught anguish, in that scene before her final departure from Paris, the shattering traumas in the actress’s own life—the scandalous lost of first husband, Eddie Fisher, to Elizabeth Taylor, the bankruptcy of her second husband and the death of daughter Carrie Fisher one day before she herself died of a stroke.

Perhaps, finally, Debbie Reynolds was what Molly Brown called “down,” what she never wanted to be. Perhaps it was more than the actress could take.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vk10MoMpMIA

#Debbie Reynolds #Harve Presnell

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