Saturday, August 30, 2008

Movies Of The Year Awards: 1984

Best Picture:

The End: Stranger Than Paradise
Oscar: Amadeus

Best Director:

The End: Jim Jarmusch, Stranger Than Paradise
Oscar: Milos Forman, Amadeus

Actor:

The End: Bill Murray, Ghostbusters
Oscar: F. Murray Abraham, Amadeus

Actress:

The End: Eszter Balint, Stranger Than Paradise
Oscar: Sally Field, Places In The Heart

Supporting Actor:

The End: M. Emmett Walsh, Blood Simple
Oscar: Haing S. Nior, The Killing Fields

Supporting Actress:

The End: Elizabeth Berridge, Amadeus
Oscar: Peggy Ashcroft, A Passage To India

Original Screenplay:

The End: Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis, Ghostbusters
Oscar: Robert Benton, Places In The Heart

Adapted Screenplay:

The End: Peter Shaffer, Amadues
Oscar: Peter Shaffer, Amadeus

Film Editing:

The End: Nena Danevic and Michael Chandler, Amadeus
Oscar: Jim Clark, The Killing Fields

Cinematography:

The End: Tom DiCillo, Stranger Than Paradise
Oscar: Chris Menges, The Killing Fields

Art Direction:

The End: Amadeus
Oscar: Amadeus

Costume Design:

The End: Amadeus
Oscar: Amadeus

Make-Up:

The End: The Terminator
Oscar: Amadeus

Sound:

The End: Amadeus
Oscar: Amadeus

Visual Effects:

The End: Ghostbusters
Oscar: Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom

Original Score:

The End: Randy Newman, The Natural
Oscar: Maurice Jarre, A Passage To India

Original Song:

The End: "Purple Rain", Prince, Purple Rain
Oscar: "I Just Called To Say I Love You", Stevie Wonder, The Woman In Red

Soundtrack:

The End: Purple Rain
Oscar: Purple Rain

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Movies Of The Year(s): The Top 150

I haven't done this for awhile, so I wanted to revise and update my Top 20 movies. Of course, in order to do that I needed a list of movies I loved, which I could whittle down to the requisite number. My initial list was 152 movies long. With two eliminated to avoid that inelegant number, I was left with these 150. At this moment, these are my 150 favorite films, the 150 movies that I think are the best.


150. L'Avventura
149. Magnolia
148. Big Night
147. Alien
146. The Life Of Brian
145. The Last Of The Mohicans
144. Modern Times
143. The World
142. Battleship Potemkin
141. Flight Of The Red Balloon
140. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
139. Happy Together
138. Children Of Paradise
137. Kill Bill, Vol. 1
136. The Wind Will Carry Us
135. Tropical Malady
134. LA Story
133. Mean Streets
132. The Princess Bride
131. The 36th Chamber Of Shaolin


130. Monty Python And The Holy Grail
129. Still Life
128. The Man With A Movie Camera
127. Zulu
126. Chimes At Midnight
125. Goodbye Dragon Inn
124. Shoot The Piano Player
123. I'm Not There
122. The Shining
121. The English Patient
120. Throne Of Blood
119. Lola
118. Three Times
117. Boogie Nights
116. A Matter Of Life And Death
115. Yojimbo
114. Taste Of Cherry
113. I Am Cuba
112. Pulp Fiction
111. Sansho The Bailiff


110. Jaws
109. Hiroshima mon amour
108. Last Life In The Universe
107. Day Of Wrath
106. Trainspotting
105. Star Wars
104. Ikiru
103. Hero
102. F For Fake
101. Chinatown
100. Bringing Up Baby
99. 2046
98. Punch-Drunk Love
97. Dazed And Confused
96. Top Hat
95. Tokyo Story
94. Nights Of Cabiria
93. Eyes Wide Shut
92. Taxi Driver
91. The Godfather


90. Hard-Boiled
89. Morocco
88. Swing Time
87. House Of Flying Daggers
86. Rushmore
85. The Lion In Winter
84. Slacker
83. Unforgiven
82. The General
81. Three Colors: Blue
80. The Thin Red Line
79. Raiders Of the Lost Ark
78. Dead Man
77. The Godfather Part II
76. Contempt
75. Psycho
74. Red River
73. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
72. The Passion Of Joan Of Arc
71. The Maltese Falcon


70. Apocalypse Now
69. Tabu
68. Satantango
67. Last Year At Marienbad
66. McCabe & Mrs. Miller
65. The Wind That Shakes The Barley
64. Fitzcarraldo
63. Celine And Julie Go Boating
62. Sherlock Jr.
61. 8 1/2
60. Mr. Smith Goes To Washington
59. M. Hulot's Holiday
58. Rio Bravo
57. Stranger Than Paradise
56. Lawrence Of Arabia
55. Au hasard Balthazar
54. Sans soleil
53. Andrei Rublev
52. Two-Lane Blacktop
51. Out Of The Past


50. Once Upon A Time In The West
49. The New World
48. The Shop Around The Corner
47. Black Narcissus
46. Rashomon
45. City Lights
44. L'Eclisse
43. Funny Face
42. The Manchurian Candidate
41. The Seventh Seal
40. Young Mr. Lincoln
39. Ugetsu
38. A Canterbury Tale
37. North By Northwest
36. The Big Sleep
35. A Woman Is A Woman
34. It's A Wonderful Life
33. Late Spring
32. Stagecoach
31. Steamboat Bill Jr


30. The Birds
29. Miller's Crossing
28. The Empire Strikes Back
27. Dr. Strangelove
26. 2001: A Space Odyssey
25. Do The Right Thing
24. The Big Lebowski
23. Ran
22. The Rules Of The Game
21. Duck Soup


20. The Umbrellas Of Cherbourg
19. Citizen Kane
18. Millennium Mambo
17. Playtime
16. The Red Shoes
15. Manhattan
14. Vertigo
13. All About Eve
12. Days Of Heaven
11. The Third Man


10. Sunrise
9. The Searchers
8. Touch Of Evil
7. Rear Window
6. Pierrot le fou
5. Singin' In The Rain
4. Annie Hall
3. Casablanca
2. Chungking Express
1. Seven Samurai

Monday, August 25, 2008

Movies Of The Year: 1947

Hey the Democratic National Convention started tonight. I love these things, I don't really know why. I enjoy watching the speeches by the regular folks, the ones the talking heads talk over. That's why C-Span is the only way to go.

13. Sinbad The Sailor - "Mediocre adventure film with lots of big gestures from Douglas Fairbanks Jr and Anthony Quinn, and a very out of place Maureen O'Hara (!). Fairbanks plays the titular hero with a scene-eating bravado that would make even the most over the top of his father's contemporaries cringe. There's some reasonably interesting action, but not enough of it. Alexander Korda's The Thief Of Bagdad did all this much better seven years earlier, with believable acting and excellent special effects as well."

12. Railroaded! - Decent enough, but this Anthony Mann noir didn't strike me as anything special. It does have Hugh Beaumont in it, which is cool. John Ireland robs a bookie, then frames a guy for the killings that resulted from it. Hugh Beaumont's the cop who doesn't quite by the fix. It's got a bit of the nastiness you like to see in a low end noir, but Mann still seems to be figuring things out here.

11. Gentlemen's Agreement - A film designed to win Oscars disguised as a politely liberal examination of the evils of upper class anti-Semitism. Hooray for Hollywood. Gregory Peck plays a journalist who pretends to be Jewish for a story and learns that it kinda sucks.

10. Dark Passage - There appears to be some love out there for this Delmer Daves film, so maybe I just missed something, but it didn't hold my interest at all. Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall team up for the third time, with he playing an escaped convict out to prove he didn't kill his wife. The opening third of the film is shot from his point of view (we never see what he looks like before plastic surgery turns him into Bogart), a device that doesn't ever seem to work, and doesn't here either. It just feels fake and gimmicky.

9. The Bachelor And The Bobby-Soxer - "Screwball comedy that isn't very funny, though it stars Cary Grant as a celebrity caught between two sisters: teenaged Shirley Temple and judge Myrna Loy. Irving Reis is no Howard Hawks." Pretty painless, as comedies go, but these actors deserve better.

8. Born To Kill - Claire Trevor plays a recent divorcee who becomes the object of obsession of a sociopathic killer played by Lawrence Tierney. Tierney, on the run for a murder in Reno, tries to get closer to Trevor by marrying her adopted sister, a rich heiress. Trevor's got her own racket going as she's trying to marry a rich guy for his money, but goes ahead and has an affair with Tierney as well. The body count piles up as they realize a private detective is on their trail. And somewhere in there, the great Elisha Cook Jr shows up as Tierney's best friend. Directed by Robert Wise, it's not as good as his The Set-Up, but it's still a fun, twisted little noir.

7. T-Men - Another Anthony Mann noir from this year, this one is much more interesting. It's a semi-documentary, or at least documentary-style, procedural about Treasury agents tracking down a counterfeiting ring. The great cinematographer John Alton gives a slick noir style to the location shooting, anticipating Jules Dassin's The Naked City, perhaps the best example of this sub-genre, made the next year.

6. Crossfire - A hell of a lot more interesting an indictment of anti-Semitism than Gentleman's Agreement is this Edward Dymtryk noir about GIs embroiled in a murder. The cast is excellent, lead by a dream pairing of Robert Mitchum and Robert Ryan. If only they'd had a part for Sterling Hayden. Less pious and much more angry than the big Oscar winner, it uses the classical noir style very well, but doesn;t really experiment with it the way some of the other noirs this year do.

5. Odd Man Out - Carol Reed directs this very hallucinatory noir with lots of blacks and shadows and crazy artists and snow and nighttime. IRA agent James Mason kills a guy, is wounded and has to make his way out of Dublin with entire British Army after him. An improvement on John Ford's similarly themed The Informer, it's just as poetic, but not nearly as sentimental. Mason's really great, as he usually is.

4. Monsieur Verdoux - "A terrific late Chaplin film about a serial killer just trying to support his family in the years before the Depression. He charms old ladies, marries them and then inherits their money after murdering them. Totally lacking in the sentimentality that colors far too many of Chaplin's films, it also avoids the nostalgia of the otherwise great Limelight or the political aggressiveness of The Great Dictator. Chaplin's too old for the best of his physical comedy, but the movie still manages some moments of hilarity, especially in his interactions with Martha Raye as his most obnoxious wife."

3. The Lady From Shanghai - Orson Welles's craziest film appropriately ends in a funhouse Hall Of Mirrors, as that's exactly what it does to the film noir genre: twist and distort and exaggerate it almost to the point of parody at the very peak of its popularity. Welles plays a seaman who gets hired by Rita Hayworth to work on her yacht. He witlessly gets caught up in an near incomprehensible web of murders and double crossings and a courtroom scene out of a Bob Dylan song ("Drifter's Escape"?). As wonderfully weird as any movie I've seen, it nonetheless lacks the weight of the slightly more restrained Touch Of Evil, my pick as both Welles's and noir's greatest film.

2. Out Of The Past - The other contender for that Greatest Noir title is this masterpiece by Jacques Tourneur. Robert Mitchum plays a former private eye, hiding out as a rural gas station attendant who gets sucked back into his old life. He'd been hired to track down Kirk Douglas's girlfriend, Jane Greer, with whom he quite naturally fell in love instead. She turned out to be quite fatale, of course, and somebody got killed. Now Douglas and Greer are back together and trying to frame and/or kill Mitchum. It's textbook noir, with snappy dialogue, chiaroscuro lighting, convoluted plot, existentialist post-war dread, etc etc. All those elements are perfected here, along with great performances from the three leads: Mitchum was never better, managing to convey both defiance and resignation simultaneously.

1. Black Narcissus - Deborah Kerr leads a group of nuns into the Himalayas to establish a convent/school/hospital. The cliffside location of the convent, along with a constant wind and thin atmosphere seem to drive all the nuns more or less nuts. Kathleen Byron's Sister Ruth is the nuttiest of them all. She becomes obsessed with the local British agent (David Farrar, whose clothes reflect a striking ambivalence to season and weather), leading to the twin horrors of makeup and homicidal bell-ringing. Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger shot the film almost entirely on stages in England, and the art direction is nothing less than stunning. jack Cardiff's Technicolor cinematography is top-notch, the blacks, whites and grays of the nuns constantly being overwhelmed by the lush greens, blues and reds of the locals and the local environment (green is the dominant color of Kerr's flashbacks: Irish fields, an emerald necklace; red the color of Byron's psychosis: her hair, dress and lipstick). It's an extremely tough choice for the top spot this year, as both these two films are among my Top 40 or so movies. But Black Narcissus is a Metro Classic, so that's got to give it an edge, right?

Here's what I haven't Seen, there's a lot more noir out there from this year:

Miracle On 34th Street
The Ghost & Mrs. Muir
The Bishop's Wife
The Paradine Case
The Angel & The Badman
Kiss Of Death
Nightmare Alley
Qui des Orfevres
Lady In The Lake
13 Rue Madeline
The Woman On The Beach
Golden Earrings
One Wonderful Sunday
Brute Force
The Fugitive
Bommerang!
The Record Of A Tenement Gentleman
Daisy Kenyon
Brighton Rock
The Man I Love

And the Awards:

Best Picture:

The End: Black Narcissus
Oscar: Gentleman's Agreement

Best Director:

The End: Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, Black Narcissus
Oscar: Elia Kazan, Gentleman's Agreement

Actor:

The End: Robert Mitchum, Out Of The Past and Crossfire
Oscar: Ronald Coleman, A Double Life

Actress:

The End: Deborah Kerr, Black Narcissus
Oscar: Loretta Young, The Farmer's Daughter

Supporting Actor:

The End: Everett Sloane, The Lady from Shanghai
Oscar: Edmund Gwenn, Miracle On 34th Street

Supporting Actress:

The End: Kathleen Byron, Black Narcissus
Oscar: Celeste Holm, Gentleman's Agreement

Original Screenplay:

The End: Charles Chaplin, Monsieur Verdoux
Oscar: Sidney Sheldon, The Bachelor And The Bobby-Soxer

Adapted Screenplay:

The End: Daniel Mainwaring, Out Of The Past
Oscar: George Seaton, Miracle On 34th Street

Film Editing:

The End: Viola Lawrence, The Lady From Shanghai
Oscar: Francis D. Lyon and Robert Parrish, Body And Soul

Black And White Cinematography:

The End: John Alton, T-Men
Oscar: Guy Green, Great Expectations

Color Cinematography:

The End: Jack Cardiff, Black Narcissus
Oscar: Jack Cardiff, Black Narcissus

Black And White Art Direction:

The End: Odd Man Out
Oscar: Great Expectations

Color Art Direction:

The End: Black Narcissus
Oscar: Black Narcissus

Costume Design:

The End: Out Of The Past

Sound:

The End: T-Men
Oscar: The Bishop's Wife

Original Score:

The End: Charlie Chaplin, Monsieur Verdoux
Oscar: Miklós Rózsa, A Double Life

Soundtrack:

The End: Monsieur Verdoux
Oscar: Mother Wore Tights