The Last Blog Name On Earth

Directed by Robert Rossen

Screenplay by Robert Rossen and Sidney Carroll, based upon the novel of the same name by Walter Tevis

Starring Paul Newman, George C. Scott, Piper Laurie and Jackie Gleason

There’s a pretty phenomenal performance in The Hustler and it’s probably not the one you’re thinking of.  In the grand story of movie history – or at least the history of film I created in my own head – it’s assumed the Academy shafted Paul Newman out of his rightful Oscar in 1961 by giving it to Maximillian Schell for what is essentially a supporting performance in Judgment at Nuremberg.  This is not to say Schell was not Oscar-worthy, because I recall him being very good in an otherwise painfully-earnest film, it’s just he was not the Leading Actor in that film.  That was actually Spencer Tracy, followed by Burt Lancaster and Richard Widmark. Continue reading →

Directed by Roman Polanski

Written by Gerard Brach, John Blowjohn and Roman Polanski, based upon the novel of the same name by Thomas Hardy

Starring Nastassja Kinski, Peter Firth and Leigh Lawson

There’s one thing I want to make absolutely clear right from the start: Though Tess was directed by Roman Polanski, I will not be discussing Roman Polanski’s guilty plea in 1977 to the charge of unlawful sexual intercourse, in the course of this post.  I will not take sides on that issue, nor will I make moral judgments about it. Continue reading →

Directed by Louis Malle

Written by John Guare

Starring Burt Lancaster, Susan Sarandon and Michel Piccoli

Dateline – Atlantic City.  An aging mob-adjacent man (Lancaster) finds himself embroiled with a thief trying to make a drug sale, and the thief’s estranged wife (Sarandon).  When the wife’s life is threatened, the complacent man must take action.

In one sense, the movie is just a simple story about people from the lower classes trying to make good, in any way they can.  In another, it’s about the transition between the old Atlantic City and the new, the metaphorical changing of the guard, and the expected growing pains everybody feels. Continue reading →

Directed by Paul Mazursky

Written by Paul Mazursky and Josh Greenfeld

Starring Art Carney, Ellen Burstyn, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Melanie Mayron, Josh Mostel, Larry Hagman and Chief Dan George

Art Carney was basically a television actor – that was his career and he made a good one out of it.  He did something like 76 episodes of The Morey Amsterdam Show in the late 1940s, 39 episodes of The Honeymooners, 180ish episodes of The Jackie Gleason Show spread across it’s two incarnations in the late-50s and the late-60s, not to mention a ton of TV movies.  He was so clearly a TV actor that when he starred in Harry and Tonto he was making just his third movie, after a cameo in A Guide For The Married Man (1967) and a small part The Yellow Rolls-Royce (1964).  Imagine that – a well-traveled actor of 55 being a movie novice.

I used to think it was a big deal that a television actor won an Oscar because in the past, those two mediums just did not mix – you could be a success in one, or the other, but there was little crossover between them.  And where there was, it didn’t seem to matter in terms of the box office, or ratings, because one did not reflect the other.  After all, a big star like Jimmy Stewart could transition to TV, only to see his projects fail for low ratings, while TV stars like Jackie Gleason could hardly gain traction on the big-screen. Continue reading →

Directed by Federico Fellini

Written by Federico Fellini and Tonino Guerra

Starring Bruno Zanin, Magali Noel, Pupella Maggio and Armando Brancia

I don’t ‘get’ Fellini.  As others might struggle to ‘get’ Kubrick, or Bergman, or some other director who you’ve been told is important, I don’t ‘get’ Fellini.  I don’t relate to him at all and his films fail to connect with me on any level: emotional, visceral, or as pure filmmaking.  Others might see him as god-like, while I see him as a head-scratcher.

To be fair, I’ve only see one other Fellini film in it’s entirety – that being La Dolce Vita – so it’s not like I’ve done a deep dive on his oeuvre and decided he’s not the  filmmaker for me.  That said, I only made it to the end of La Dolce Vita because I felt like I had to.  That because it was a ‘historical’ and ‘important’ film I was required to finish what I started and, if I didn’t like it, or get it, that was on me for being a philistine. Continue reading →

Directed by Edouard Molinaro

Screenplay by Francis Veber, Édouard Molinaro, Marcello Danon, and Jean Poiret, based on the play by Jean Poiret

Starring Ugo Tognazzi and Michel Serrault

The further back into Academy Awards I delve, the easier it is to find films to include in this project – that is, it’s easier it is to find a Best Picture loser I haven’t seen before.  Which is to be expected, given people tend to be more interested in things contemporary to their own lives, and not so much on things before.  So, my knowledge of films since the mid-70s is much deeper than my knowledge of those films from before then. Continue reading →

Directed by William Wyler

Written by Isobel Lennart, based on the stage-musical by Jule Styne and Bob Merrill

Starring Barbara Streisand, Omar Sharif, Kay Medford and Walter Pidgeon

Twice there has been a tie at the Oscars in the acting categories.  That’s just two ties in nearly 90 years of awards, during which time there were four acting Oscars for all but 8 of those years.[1]  Or, less than 1% of the awards resulted in a tie.  And really, one of those ties wasn’t even a tie, but was close enough that under the rules at the time, it was considered a tie. Continue reading →