1964 Endy Awards

A few days ago I said I was going to limit my award-giving only to those years from which I'd seen 40 movies or more. But it turns out there aren't very many years like that prior to the mid-1980s, and limiting myself to recent years like that would be a lot less fun for me. So I'm modifying the requirement to 30 movies and adding a new category, Best Unseen Picture, to give a little recognition to the films I haven't gotten to yet (the winner is the film I think I'll think is the Best). Eligibility is determined by imdb date. Nominees are listed in alphabetical order and the winners are bolded. So, skipping ahead from 1932 to 1964, the Endy goes to. . .

Best Picture:

1. Dr. Strangelove

2. I Am Cuba

3. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg

4. Yearning

5. Zulu

Best Director:

1. Satyajit Ray, Mahanagar

2. Stanley Kubrick, Dr. Strangelove

3. Mikhail Kalatozov, I Am Cuba

4. Jacques Demy, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg

5. Mikio Naruse, Yearning

Best Actor:

1. Peter Sellers, Dr. Strangelove

2. Clint Eastwood, A Fistful of Dollars

3. Rex Harrison, My Fair Lady

4. Burt Lancaster, The Train
5. Stanley Baker, Zulu

Best Actress:

1. Madhabi Mukherjee, Charulata

2. Nina Pens Rode, Gertrud

3. Paula Prentiss, Man's Favorite Sport?

4. Constance Towers, The Naked Kiss

5. Hideko Takemine, Yearning

A lot of great actresses this year. Very tough to leave out Catherine Deneuve in The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Anna Karina in Band of Outsiders, Julie Andrews in Mary Poppins, Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady, Tippi Hedrin in Marnie, Macha Méril in A Married Woman and Jitsuko Yoshimura in Onibaba. 

Supporting Actor:

1. George C. Scott, Dr. Strangelove

2. Stanley Holloway, My Fair Lady

3. Paul Scofield, The Train

4. Michael Caine, Zulu

5. Nigel Green, Zulu

Supporting Actress:

1. Nobuko Otowa, Onibaba

2. Jeanne Moreau, The Train

3. Anne Vernon, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg

4. Tippy Walker, The World of Henry Orient

5. Mitsuko Kusabue, Yearning

As great as the actress category was, I struggled to come up with five Supporting Actresses. Maybe I'm missing someone obvious. . . .

Original Screenplay:

1. Peter Watkins, Culloden
2. Enrique Pineda Barnet & Yevgeni Yevtushenko, I Am Cuba
3. Samuel Fuller, The Naked Kiss
4. Jacques Demy, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
5. Mikio Naruse & Zenzo Matsuyama, Yearning

Adapted Screenplay:

1. Jean-Luc Godard, Band of Outsiders
2. Stanley Kubrick, Terry Southern & Peter George, Dr. Strangelove
3. Carl Theodor Dreyer, Gertrud
4. Satyajit Ray, Mahanagar
5. Cy Endfield & John Prebble, Zulu

Non-English Language Film:

1. Gertrud
2. I Am Cuba
3. Mahanagar
4. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
5. Yearning

Unseen Film:

1. Diary of a Chambermaid (Luis Buñuel)

2. The Gospel According to St. Mathew (Pier Paolo Pasolini)

3. Kwaidan (Masaki Kobayashi)

4. Red Desert (Michelangelo Antonioni)

5. The Soft Skin (François Truffaut)

Film Editing:

1. I Am Cuba
2. Culloden
3. A Hard Day's Night

4. Yearning

5. Zulu

Cinematography:

1. Dick Bush, Culloden
2. Sergei Urusevsky, I Am Cuba
3. Harry Stradling, My Fair Lady
4. Jean Rabier, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
5. Hiroshi Segawa, Woman in the Dunes

Original Score:

1. A Fistful of Dollars

2. Mary Poppins
3. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg

4. Woman in the Dunes

5. Yearning

Soundtrack:

1. A Fistful of Dollars
2. A Hard Day's Night
3. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
4. Mary Poppins
5. My Fair Lady

Original Song:

1. "Goldfinger", Goldfinger
2. "A Hard Day's Night", A Hard Day's Night

3. "And I Love Her", A Hard Day's Night

4. "If I Fell", A Hard Day's Night

5. "My Kind of Town", Robin and the 7 Hoods

A lot of great music in the movies from this year, and figuring out what counts as original and what is adapted is difficult. The Academy put A Hard Day's Night and Mary Poppins in the "Score - Adaptation or Treatment" category rather than "Original Score", but as far as I can tell, the music and songs were written for the film in both cases. Of course, the Academy also didn't see fit to nominate any of the A Hard Day's Night songs, so what do they know.

Art Direction:

1. Dr. Strangelove
2. Masque of the Red Death
3. My Fair Lady
4. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
5. Woman in the Dunes

Costume Design:

1. Mary Poppins
2. Masque of the Red Death
3. My Fair Lady
4. Onibaba
5. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg

Make-up:

1. My Fair Lady
2. Onibaba
3. Zulu

Sound Mixing:

1. Culloden
2. A Hard Day's Night
3. My Fair Lady
4. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
5. Zulu

Sound Editing:

1. Culloden
2. Dr. Strangelove
3. Goldfinger
4. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
5. Zulu

Visual Effects:

1. Goldfinger
2. I Am Cuba
3. Mary Poppins
4. Masque of the Red Death
5. Onibaba

1932 Endy Awards

So I decided to go ahead and keep on handing out awards, limiting myself to years in which I've seen at least 40 movies to get a good base from which to arbitrarily assign fake trophies. The earliest year from which I've seen 40 is 1932, so we're starting here. As always, eligibility is determined by the year imdb assigns to the film and if I haven't seen it, I can't award it. Nominees are listed in alphabetical order and winners are bolded.

Best Picture:

1. One Way Passage

2. Scarface

3. Shanghai Express

4. Trouble in Paradise

5. Vampyr

Best Director:

1. Yasujiro Ozu, I was Born, But. . . 

2. Howard Hawks, Scarface

3. Josef von Sternberg, Shanghai Express

4. Ernst Lubitsch, Trouble in Paradise

5. Carl Theodor Dreyer, Vampyr

Best Actor:

1. Boris Karloff, The Mummy
2. Spencer Tracy, Me and My Gal

3. William Powell, One Way Passage
4. Paul Muni, I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang

5. Herbert Marshall, Trouble in Paradise

Best Actress:

1. Kay Francis, One Way Passage
2. Jean Harlow, Red Dust
3. Marlene Dietrich, Shanghai Express
4. Ann Dvorak, Three on a Match
5. Miriam Hopkins, Trouble in Paradise

Supporting Actor:

1. Harpo Marx, Horse Feathers

2. Bela Lugosi, Island of Lost Souls
3. Charles Laughton, The Island of Lost Souls
4. Lee Tracy, The Strange Love of Molly Louvain
5. Tatsuo Saito, Where Now Are the Dreams of Youth?

Supporting Actress:

1. Glenda Farrell, I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang
2. Myrna Loy, The Mask of Fu Manchu
3. Claudette Colbert, The Sign of the Cross

4. Anna May Wong, Shanghai Express

5. Kay Francis, Trouble in Paradise

Original Screenplay:

1. Kalmar, Ruby, Johnstone & Perelman, Horse Feathers

2. Geibei Ibushiya, I Was Born, But. . .

3. Wilson MIsner & Joseph Jackson, One Way Passage
4. Jules Furthman, Shanghai Express
5. Kogo Noda, Where Now Are the Dreams of Youth?

Adapted Screenplay:

1. Jean Renoir & Albert Valentin, Boudu Saved from Drowning

2. John Mahin, Red Dust

3. Ben Hecht, Scarface
4. Sidney Buchman & Waldemar Young, The Sign of the Cross
5. Samson Raphelson, Trouble in Paradise

Foreign Language Film:

1. Boudu Saved from Drowning
2. I Was Born, But. .
3. No Blood Relation

4. Vampyr

5. Where Now Are the Dreams of Youth?

Live Action Short:

1. The Music Box (James Parrott)

Film Editing:

1. No Blood Relation
2. Scarface

3. Shanghai Express

4. Trouble in Paradise

5. Vampyr

Cinematography:

1. Sol Polito, I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang
2. Karl Struss, The Island of Lost Souls
3. Victor Milner, Love Me Tonight & Trouble in Paradise

4. Lee Garmes, Shanghai Express

5. Rudolph Maté, Vampyr

Original Score:

1. Blonde Venus

2. Horse Feathers

3. Love Me Tonight

4. One Hour with You

5. Vampyr

Original Song:

1. "Hot Voodoo", Blonde Venus

2. "Everyone Says I Love You", Horse Feathers

3. "I'm Against It", Horse Feathers

4. "Isn't It Romantic?", Love Me Tonight

5. "Mimi", Love Me Tonight

Art Direction:

1. The Island of Lost Souls
2. The Mask of Fu Manchu

3. Shanghai Express
4. Trouble in Paradise

5. Vampyr

Costume Design:

1. Love Me Tonight
2. The Mask of Fu Manchu
3. Shanghai Express
4. The Sign of the Cross
5. Trouble in Paradise

Make-up:

1. The Island of Lost Souls
2. The Mask of Fu Manchu
3. The Mummy

Sound Mixing:

1. Love Me Tonight
2. Shanghai Express
3. The Sign of the Cross

4. Trouble in Paradise

5. Vampyr

Sound Editing:

1. The Island of Lost Souls
2. Love Me Tonight
3. Scarface
4. Tarzan, the Ape Man
5. Vampyr

Visual Effects:

1. The Crowd Roars
2. The Island of Lost Souls
3. The Mask of Fu Manchu
4. The Mummy
5. Vampyr

This Week in Rankings

These are the movies I've watched or rewatched over the last week or so, along with where they place in my year-by-year rankings. I've linked each to my short reviews on letterboxd as well. As you can see, I've been watching a lot of Johnnie To-related movies in preparation for a new episode of They Shot Pictures (check out the recently posted episode on Mikio Naruse). I also revived the Endy Awards (2011 and 2012), look for more of that kind of thing in the coming weeks.

A Better Tomorrow - 1, 1986
City on Fire - 9, 1987
Porco Rosso - 6, 1992
Pom Poko - 8, 1994
Comrades: Almost a Love Story - 1, 1996
Too Many Ways to Be No. 1 - 7, 1997

Where a Good Man Goes - 15, 1999
Needing You - 10, 2000
Fulltime Killer - 14, 2001
The Heroic Duo - 26, 2003
Moonrise Kingdom - 1, 2012
Argo - 50, 2012

2011 Endy Awards

After not being able to see many movies before Oscartime last year, due to baby-induced home-boundness, I'd always meant to come back and do a proper awards post for 2011, something I'd forgot about until putting together the awards for 2012 this past week. So with Endies on the mind, I guess now is as good a time as any to reward the best of what I've seen from 2011. As always, eligibility is determined by the date given by imdb. I'll list the nominees in each category in alphabetical order and the winner will be in bold.

Best Picture:

1. Damsels in Distress

2. The Day He Arrives

3. The Deep Blue Sea

4. Margaret

5. The Tree of Life

Best Director:

1. Hong Sangsoo, The Day He Arrives

2. Terence Davies, The Deep Blue Sea

3. Johnnie To, Don't Go Breaking My Heart

4. Kenneth Lonergan, Margaret

5. Terrence Malick, The Tree of Life

Best Actor:

1. Jack Black, Bernie
2. Alex Ross Perry, The Color Wheel

3. Liam Neesen, The Grey

4. Michael Shannon, Take Shelter

5. Gary Oldman, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Best Actress:

1. Greta Gerwig, Damsels in Distress

2. Rachel Weisz, The Deep Blue Sea

3. Anne Marsen, Girl Walk // All Day

4. Anna Paquin, Margaret

5. Leila Hatami, A Separation

The actor category for this year is merely OK, but this might be the strongest group of actresses ever. Can't believe there's no room for Tilda Swinton in We Need to Talk About Kevin, Gao Yuanyuan in Don't Go Breaking My Heart, Carlen Altman in The Color Wheel, Michelle Williams in Take this Waltz, Jessica Chastain in Take Shelter and Charlize Theron in Young Adult.

Supporting Actor:

1. Sonny Carl Davis, Bernie

2. Tom Hiddleston, The Deep Blue Sea
3. John Doyle, Girl Walk // All Day

3. Lau Ching-wan, Life Without Principle

4. Brad Pitt, The Tree of Life

Supporting Actress:

1. Megalyn Echikunwoke, Damsels in Distress
2. Carrie MacLemore, Damsels in Distress

2. Cécile De France, The Kid with a Bike

3. Denise Ho, Life Without Principle

5. J. Smith-Cameron, Margaret

Original Screenplay:

1. Whit Stillman, Damsels in Distress

2. Hong Sangsoo, The Day He Arrives
3. Milkyway Team, Don't Go Breaking My Heart

4. Kenneth Lonergan, Margaret
5. Lee Kwangkuk, Romance Joe

Adapted Screenplay:

1. Richard Linklater, Bernie

2. Terence Davies, The Deep Blue Sea

3. Craig Schultz & Stephan Pastis, Happiness is a Warm Blanket, Charlie Brown

4. John Logan, Hugo

5. Lynne Ramsay & Rory Kinnear, We Need to Talk About Kevin

Foreign Language Film:

1. The Day He Arrives (Hong Sangsoo)

2. Don't Go Breaking My Heart (Johnnie To)

3. Romance Joe (Lee Kwangkuk)
4. A Separation (Asghar Farhadi)

5. Wuxia (Peter Chan)

A great year for Johnnie To and his collaborators at his Milkyway Image studio, with two of my favorite films of the year. Unfortunately, they came up short awards-wise, barely beaten out in the supporting acting categories and edged by masterful work in directing and original screenplay. Foreign language film was probably their best shot, but Hong Sangsoo's The Day He Arrives is one of his best. 

Documentary Feature:

1. All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace (Adam Curtis)

2. Crazy Horse (Frederick Wiseman)

3. Fragments: Surviving Pieces of Lost Films

4. Pina (Wim Wenders)

5. The Story of Film: An Odyssey (Mark Cousins)

Animated Feature:

1. The Adventures of Tintin

2. Happiness is a Warm Blanket, Charlie Brown

3. Rango

4. Winnie the Pooh

The best Peanuts special since The Great Pumpkin, seamlessly integrating the classic strips and characters into modern animation techniques (POV shots, computer-rendered crane shots) while respecting and preserving the unique stylization of Charles Schulz's original drawings.

Animated Short:

1. La Luna

Live Action Short:

1. La belle epoque (Hou Hsiao-hsien)

2. Green Island Serenade (Hou Chi-jan)

3. Key (Leon Dai)

4. Ritual (Wang Toon)

5. Unwritten Rules (Cheng Yu-chieh)

These are all part of the Taiwan Film Festival's compendium 10 + 10, a series of 20 short films by 10 veteran and 10 younger Taiwanese directors. A mild upset here as Hou Hsiao-hsien was the heavy favorite, but Hou Chi-jan's swoon-inducing musical time travel picture won me over.

Film Editing:

1. A Dangerous Method

2. The Day He Arrives

3. The Deep Blue Sea

4. Life Without Principle

5. The Tree of Life

Cinematography:

1. Florian Hoffmesiter, The Deep Blue Sea

2. Gökhan Tiryaki, Once Upon a Time in Anatolia

3. Emmanuel Lubezki, The Tree of Life

4. Janusz Kaminski, War Horse

5. Saemus McGarvey, We Need to Talk About Kevin

Art Direction:

1. The Cabin in the Woods

2. The Deep Blue Sea

3. Flying Swords of Dragon Gate

4. Hugo

5. The Turin Horse

Costume Design:

1. The Artist

2. Damsels in Distress

3. The Deep Blue Sea

4. Hugo

5. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Make-up:

1. East Meets West

2. The Grey

3. Super 8

Sound Mixing:

1. The Deep Blue Sea

2. Hugo

3. The Tree of Life

4. The Turin Horse

5. We Need To Talk About Kevin

Sound Editing:

1. Hugo

2. Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol

3. Super 8

4. War Horse

5. We Need To Talk About Kevin

Visual Effects:

1. The Cabin in the Woods

2. Flying Swords of Dragon Gate

3. Hugo
4. Rise of the Planet of the Apes
5. Wuxia

Original Score:

1. Damsels in Distress

2. Drive

3. The Muppets

4. The Tree of Life
5. The Turin Horse

Soundtrack:

1. Company
2. The Deep Blue Sea
3. Girl Walk // All Day
4. Midnight in Paris
5. The Tree of Life

I would have loved to give more awards to The Deep Blue Sea, but Davies's screenplay and this for soundtrack will have to do. The group singalongs give the film's love triangle a historic perspective, one of lives shattered in a community similarly shattered by the war. Hilary Hahn's recording of Samuel Barber's Violin Concerto makes up the rest of the soundtrack, and Davies times his camera movements and edits perfectly with the melodramatic swoops of the music. The film's opening sequence is one of the great achievements in recent history.