Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Multiple Acting Oscars®

These actors and families have won more than one Oscar®

Four Katherine Hepburn (Morning Glory, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, The Lion in Winter, On Golden Pond) - I would argue that they missed her best early peformance in Adam's Rib, while only Golden Pond was a standout among her wins. Three Each Ingrid Bergman (Gaslight, Anastasia, supporting for Murder on the Orient Express) - I think they were more entranced by her beauty than her talent photo right Jack Nicholson (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, As Good as It Gets, supporting for Terms of Endearment) - and they missed Five Easy Pieces, arguably his best, most subtle performance

Walter Brennan (all supporting: Come and Get It, Kentucky, The Westerner, all in a 5 yr span, 36-40)

Actor twice: Marlon Brando (On the Waterfront, The Godfather) - and he was the only non-winner in A Streetcar Named Desire photo left Gary Cooper (Sergeant York, High Noon) Daniel Day-Lewis (My Left Foot, There Will Be Blood) - and they missed his best in Gangs of New York, when he won 17 awards for Bill the Butcher Tom Hanks (Philadelphia, Forrest Gump) Dustin Hoffman (Kramer vs Kramer, Rain Man) - his own fave and mine is still Ratso Rizzo in Midnight Cowboy Fredric March (Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Best Years of Our Lives) - one of the best, deserved another for his last, Seven Days In May Sean Penn (Mystic River, Milk) Spencer Tracy (Captains Courageous, Boys Town) - not exactly his best peformances, Adam's Rib was my favorite, impeccable comedy photo right

Actress twice: Luise Rainer (The Great Ziegfeld, The Good Earth) Bette Davis (Dangerous, Jezebel) - maybe the greatest ever, could've also won for All About Eve, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? photo right Ingrid Bergman (Gaslight, Anastasia) Vivien Leigh (Gone with the Wind, A Streetcar Named Desire) Olivia de Haviland (To Each His Own, The Heiress) Elizabeth Taylor (Butterfield 8, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?) Glenda Jackson (Women in Love, A Touch of Class) Jane Fonda (Klute, Coming Home) Sally Field (Norma Rae, Places in the Heart) Jodie Foster (The Accused, Silence of the Lambs) Hilary Swank (Boys Don’t Cry, Million Dollar Baby) - she joins Vivien Leigh as 2 for 2 in this category Both lead and supporting Oscars Robert De Niro (Raging Bull, supporting for Godfather II) photo left Gene Hackman (French Connection, supporting for Unforgiven) Jack Lemmon (Save the Tiger, supporting for Mister Roberts) Kevin Spacey (American Beauty, supporting for The Usual Suspects) Denzel Washington (Training Day, supporting for Glory) Helen Hayes (Sin of Madeleine Claudet, supporting for Airport) Jessica Lange (Blue Sky, supporting for Tootsie) Maggie Smith (Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, supporting for California Suite) Meryl Streep (Sophie’s Choice, supporting for Kramer vs Kramer)

Supporting actor twice: Anthony Quinn (Viva Zapata, Lust for Life) Peter Ustinov (Spartacus, Topkapi) Melvyn Douglas (Hud, Being There) Michael Caine (Hannah and Her Sisters, The Cider House Rules) Jason Robards (All the President’s Men, Julia) Supporting actress twice: Shelly Winters (The Diary of Anne Frank, A Patch of Blue) photo rt. Diane Wiest (Bullets Over Broadway, Hannah and Her Sisters) Most nominations for actor Spencer Tracy (9) Laurence Olivier (9) Paul Newman (8) Peter O'Toole (8) – with no wins, a record Jack Nicholson (8) Marlon Brando (7) – four were consecutive, 51-54, still a record Dustin Hoffman (7) Jack Lemmon (7) Richard Burton (6) - with no wins Gary Cooper (5) Tom Hanks (5) Robert De Niro (5) Fredric March (5) Paul Muni (5) Al Pacino (5) Gregory Peck (5) Sean Penn (5) James Stewart (5) Henry Fonda (76) is the oldest winner, On Golden Pond. Adrien Brody (29) is the youngest winner, The Pianist. Jackie Coooper was the youngest nominee at 9 for Skippy. Richard Farnsworth was the oldest nominee at 79 for The Straight Story. Most supporting actor nominations Walter Brennan (4), Arthur Kennedy (4), Jack Nicholson (4), Claude Rains (4) Most Best Actress Nominations Meryl Streep (12) – a record total 15 nominations when supporting is included (photo right) Katharine Hepburn (12) Bette Davis (10) Greer Garson (7) Ingrid Bergman (6) Jane Fonda (6) Deborah Kerr (6) - with no wins Norma Shearer (6) Sissy Spacek (6) Anne Bancroft (5) Ellen Burstyn (5) Audrey Hepburn (5) Susan Hayward (5) Jessica Lange (5) Shirley MacLaine (5) Susan Sarandon (5) Elizabeth Taylor (5) Irene Dunne (5) Jessica Tandy (80) is the oldest winner, Driving Miss Daisy (photo left); also the oldest nominee, beating Dame Edith Evans (also 80 in The Whisperers) by half a year. Marlee Maitlin (21) is the youngest winner, Children of a Lesser God. Keisha Castle-Hughes (13) is the youngest nominee, The Whale Rider, and winner of 5 international awards. Most Supporting Actress nominations Thelma Ritter (6) - with no wins Ethel Barrymore (4), Lee Grant (4), Agnes Moorehead (4), Geraldine Page (4), Maureen Stapleton (4), Maggie Smith (4)

Tatum O’Neal (10) is the youngest supporting actress winner, Paper Moon, photo right. Anna Paquin was one year older in The Piano. Tatum should have been in the lead actress category, she's in nearly every scene in the movie. Peggy Ashcroft (77) is the oldest supporting actress winner, A Passage to India. Gloria Stuart (87) is the oldest nominee, The Titanic. O’Neal is the youngest. The only brother and sister to win Oscars: Lionel Barrymore (supporting for A Free Soul), Ethel Barrymore (supporting for None But the Lonely Heart). Diane Keaton, Jane Fonda, and Julia Roberts each need their brothers to win now. Winning father-daughter combos: Henry Fonda (On Golden Pond), daughter Jane Fonda (Klute, photo left, Coming Home)

Jon Voight (Coming Home), daughter Angelina Jolie (Supporting for Girl, Interrupted)

Liza Minelli (Cabaret), is the only acting winner whose parents, Judy Garland and Vincente Minelli (director, An American in Paris), both won Oscars®

Three generation winners: Walter Huston (supporting actor for Treasure of the Sierra Madre), son John Huston (director and writer of Treasure of the Sierra Madre), grand-daughter Angelica Huston (supporting actress winner for Prizzi’s Honor, directed by her father John) Carmine Coppola (music for The Godfather), son Francis Ford Coppola (director of Godfather II), grand-daughter Sofia Coppola (writer of Lost in Translation). If you add in Francis’ nephew Nicholas Coppola (aka Nicholas Cage), add his best acting Oscar (Leaving Las Vegas).

Photos courtesy of Fanpix.com

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

200 Great Directors' Best Films

These are the top rated films of each director listed by a consensus of critics polls, I’ve included my choices below those if they differ. I included some directors who only had one great picture, such as Laughton, Beatty, Attenborough, if I considered that one film important enough. [Updated: 8.28.09*] Allen, Woody: Manhattan (1979) US (photo rt) – I prefer Hannah and Her Sisters Almodóvar, Pedro: All About My Mother (1999) Spain-France Altman, Robert: Nashville (1975) US – My pick: McCabe and Mrs. Miller Anderson, Paul Thomas: Boogie Nights (1997)* Angelopoulos, Theo: The Travelling Players (1975) Greece Antonioni, Michelangelo: L’Avventura (1960) Italy-France Aronofsky, Darren: Requiem for a Dream (2000) US - many prefer Pi, not me Ashby, Hal: Harold and Maude (1972)US Attenborough, Richard: Gandhi (1982) UK - worth the two decades he spent Beatty, Warren: Reds (1981) US Beresford, Bruce: Driving Miss Daisy (1989) US - many prefer Breaker Morant Bergman, Ingmar: Persona (1966) Sweden Bertolucci, Bernardo: The Conformist (1969) Italy-France-Germany Bogdanovich, Peter: The Last Picture Show (1971) US Bondarchuk, Sergei: War and Peace (1968) Russia Boyle, Danny: Trainspotting (1995) UK – mine: Slumdog Millionaire Bresson, Robert: Au hasard Balthazar (1966) France Brest, Martin: Midnight Run (1988) US – good, but I like Going in Style Brooks, Mel: The Producers (1968) US Buñuel, Luis: Viridiana (1961) Spain – I prefer The Discrete Charm of the Bourgeousie Burton, Tim: Edward Scissorhands (1990) - I like Big Fish better Cameron, James: The Terminator (1984) US – I like Aliens and Terminator 2 Camus, Marcel: Black Orpheus (1959) Brazil-France Capra, Frank: It's a Wonderful Life (1946) US – I prefer Mr. Smith Goes to Washington Carné, Marcel: Les Enfants du paradis (1945) France Cassavetes, John: A Woman Under the Influence (1974) US Cavani, Liliana: The Night Porter (1973) Italy Chaplin, Charles: City Lights (1931) US – I guess I’d pick Modern Times Chen Kaige: Farewell, My Concubine (1993) Hong Kong-China Cimino, Michael: The Deer Hunter (1978) US – he did another film? Clément, René: Forbidden Games (1951) France Clouzot, Henri-Georges: The Wages of Fear (1952) France-Italy Cocteau, Jean: La Belle et la bête (1946) France Cooper, Merian C./Ernest B. Schoedsack: King Kong (1933) US - admirable effects, stupid story Coen, Joel and Ethan Coen: Fargo (1995) US – close, I’ll go with Raising Arizona Coppola, Francis: The Godfather (1972) US – I like Godfather II best (photo rt) Cukor, George: The Philadelphia Story (1940) US – close, I’ll take My Fair Lady Curtiz, Michael: Casablanca (1942) US Darabont, Frank: The Shawshank Redemption (1994) US De Palma, Brian: Carrie (1976) US De Sica, Vittorio: Bicycle Thieves (1948) Italy Demme, Jonathan: The Silence of the Lambs (1991) Deren, Maya: Meshes of the Afternoon (1943) US Dieterle, William: Portrait of Jennie (1948) US Donen, Stanley/Gene Kelly: Singin' in the Rain (1952) US Dovzhenko, Alexander: Earth (1930) Russia Dreyer, Carl: The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) France Eastwood, Clint: Unforgiven (1992) US – Good, but I prefer Mystic River Egoyan, Atom: The Sweet Hereafter (1997) Canada Eisenstein, Sergei: Battleship Potemkin (1925) Russia Fassbinder, Rainer Werner: Ali - Fear Eats the Soul (1974) Germany Fellini, Federico: 8½ (1963) Italy Fincher, David: Fight Club (1997) US - I still prefer The Game Flaherty, Robert: Nanook of the North (1922) US Fleming, Victor: Gone with the Wind (1939) US – gimme the giant girl in Wizard of Oz Ford, John: The Searchers (1956) US – argh, I’ll take Mister Roberts Forman, Milos: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) US – I like Amadeus Fosse, Bob: Cabaret (1972) US – I think All That Jazz was more interesting Frankenheimer, John: The Manchurian Candidate (1962) - my pick: The Train Frears, Stephen: Dangerious Liaisons (1988) US Friedkin, William: The Exorcist (1973) US – yuck, French Connection is far better Gance, Abel: Napoléon (silent, 1927) France Gilliam, Terry: Brazil (1985) UK (photo rt) Godard, Jean-Luc: Breathless (1959) France Griffith, D.W.: Intolerance (1916) US Hallström, Lasse: My Life as a Dog (1985) Sweden Hamer, Robert: Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949) UK Hawks, Howard: Rio Bravo (1959) US – r.u. kidding? His Girl Friday Herzog, Werner: Aguirre - The Wrath of God (1972) Germany – I like Fitzcarraldo Hitchcock, Alfred: Vertigo (1958) US Howard, Ron: A Beautiful Mind (2003) US - my pick: Parenthood Hughes, John: Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986) US Huston, John: The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) US - mine: The Maltese Falcon (42)* (photo bottom) Ivory, James: A Room With a View (1986) US Jackson, Peter: The Lord of the Rings (trilogy, 2001) US-New Zealand Jewison, Norman: In the Heat of the Night (1967) US Kaufman, Philip: The Right Stuff (1983) US Kazan, Elia: On the Waterfront (1954) US (photo rt) Keaton, Buster/Clyde Bruckman: The General (1926) US Kiarostami, Abbas: Close-Up (1989) Iran Kieslowski, Krszystof: Dekalog (Decalogue, 1988) Poland Kubrick, Stanley: 2001 - A Space Odyssey (1968) UK Kurosawa, Akira: The Seven Samurai (1954) Japan Lang, Fritz: M (1931) Germany Laughton, Charles: Night of the Hunter (1955) UK - his only film as director Lean, David: Lawrence of Arabia (1962) UK Lee, Ang: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2002) China-Taiwan-US - he's underrated Lee, Spike: Do the Right Thing (1989) US Leone, Sergio: Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) Italy-US – I much prefer Once Upon a Time in America, the long version LeRoy, Mervyn: Goldiggers of 1933 (1933) Lester, Richard: A Hard Day's Night (1964) UK Levinson, Barry: Diner (1982) US Losey, Joseph: The Servant (1963) UK Lubitsch, Ernst: To Be or Not to Be (1942) US – give me Trouble in Paradise Lucas, George: Star Wars (1977) US Lumet, Sidney: Network (1976) US Lynch, David: Blue Velvet (1986) US Mackendrick, Alexander: The Sweet Smell of Success (1957) US (photo rt) Malick, Terrence: Days of Heaven (1978) US Malle, Louis: Lacombe, Lucien (1974) France – my pick: Atlantic City Mankiewicz, Joseph L.: All About Eve (1950) US Marker, Chris: La Jetée (1962) France Mazursky, Paul: Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969) US - never liked this, loved Enemies-A Love Story McCarey, Leo: Duck Soup (1933) US McLeod, Norman Z.: It's a Gift (1934) US Meirelles, Fernando: City of God (2002) Brazil-Germany-France Mendes, Sam: An American Beauty (1999) I like 2008's Revolutionary Road Milestone, Lewis: All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) US Miller, George: The Road Warrior (aka Mad Max 2) (1981) Australia Minghella, Anthony: The English Patient (1996) US Minnelli, Vincente: The Band Wagon (1953) US – I like Meet Me in St. Louis Mizoguchi, Kenji: Ugetsu monogatari (1953) Japan Morris, Errol: The Thin Blue Line (1988) US - I prefer the pure documentary Fast, Cheap and Out of Control Mulligan, Robert: To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) US Murnau, F.W.: Sunrise (silent, 1927) US *Best Silent* Nair, Mira: Salaam Bombay! (1988) India Nichols, Mike: The Graduate (1967) US (photo rt) Nolan, Christopher: Memento (2000) US Ophüls, Max: Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948) US Ozu, Yasujiro: Tokyo Story (1953) Japan Pabst, G.W.: Pandora's Box (silent, 1928) Germany Pakula, Alan J.: All the President's Men (1976) US Pasolini, Pier Paolo: The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964) France-Italy Peckinpah, Sam: The Wild Bunch (1969) US Penn, Arthur: Bonnie and Clyde (1967) US Pennebaker, D.A.: Don't Look Back (1967) US Polanski, Roman: Chinatown (1974) US Pollack, Sydney: Tootsie (1982) US Pontecorvo, Gillo: The Battle of Algiers (1965) Algeria-Italy (photo rt) Powell, Michael/Emeric Pressburger: A Matter of Life and Death (1946) UK – I think I prefer The Red Shoes, and A Canterbury Tale Rafelson, Bob: Five Easy Pieces (1970) US Ramis, Harold: Groundhog Day (1993) US Ray, Nicholas: Johnny Guitar (1954) US – easily In a Lonely Place Ray, Satyajit: Pather Panchali (1955) India Reed, Carol: The Third Man (1949) UK – I actually prefer Outcast of the Islands Reiner, Rob: This Is Spinal Tap (1984) – my pick: When Harry Met Sally Reisz, Karel: Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960) - I love Morgan! Renoir, Jean: The Rules of the Game (1939) France – like many others, I prefer La Grande Illusion; they’re close in the poll Resnais, Alain: Last Year at Marienbad (1961) France-Italy – not a big fan, but Hiroshima, Mon Amour over this Richardson, Tony: Tom Jones (1963) UK Riefenstahl, Leni: Triumph of the Will (1935) Germany (Nazi) Ritt, Martin: Hud (1963) US - although Norma Rae is more inspirational Rivette, Jacques: Celine and Julie Go Boating (1974) France Roeg, Nicolas: Don't Look Now (1973) UK – I vastly prefer Walkabout, even Performance Roehmer, Eric: My Night at Maud's (1969) France Rossellini, Roberto: Voyage in Italy (1953) Italy Rossen, Robert: The Hustler (1961) US Salles, Walter: Central Station (1998) Brazil-France - a tossup, or: The Motorcycle Diaries Sandrich, Mark: Top Hat (1935) US - I prefer the hilarious The Gay Divorcee Sayles, John: Lone Star (1995) US Schlesinger, John: Midnight Cowboy (1969) US Scorsese, Martin: Raging Bull (1980) US – right, but Taxi Driver is close Scott, Ridley: Blade Runner (1982) US – yes, but Gladiator is close Sharpsteen, Ben: Fantasia (1940) US Siegel, Don: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) US Singer, Bryan: The Usual Suspects (1995) US Sirk, Douglas: Written on the Wind (1956) US Sjöström, Victor: The Wind (1928) US Spielberg, Steven: Jaws (1975) US – over E.T., Close Encounters, Schindler’s List? I even liked Minority Report, Raiders/Lost Ark, Pvt. Ryan more.. Stanton, Andrew: Wall-E (2008) US - not listed yet, I added him for this and Finding Nemo Stevens, George: Shane (1953) US Stone, Oliver: JFK (1991) US - me and Oscar prefer Platoon Sturges, John: The Magnificent Seven (1960) US Sturges, Preston: The Lady Eve (1941) US Szabó, István: Mephisto (1981) Hungary Tarantino, Quentin: Pulp Fiction (1994) US – inspired by Wong Kar-Wai Tarkovsky, Andrei: Andrei Rublev (1966) Russia (photo rt) Tati, Jacques: Playtime (1967) France Tornatore, Giuseppe: Cinema Paradiso (1988) Italy-France Tourneur, Jacques: Out of the Past (1947) US Truffaut, François: Jules et Jim (1961) France Vidor, King: The Crowd (1928) US Vigo, Jean: L’Atalante (1934) France Visconti, Luchino: The Leopard (1963) Italy – not a fan of this, give me Death in Venice von Sternberg, Josef: The Blue Angel (1930) Germany von Stroheim, Erich: Greed (1924) US von Trier, Lars: Breaking the Waves (1996) Denmark-Sweden Wajda, Andrzej: Ashes and Diamonds (1958) Poland Washowski Brothers, Andy and Larry: The Matrix (1999)* Weir, Peter: Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975) Australia – I like Fearless, many like Witness Welles, Orson: Citizen Kane (1941) US Wertmuller, Lina: Seven Beauties (1976) Italy - first woman director nominated for best directing Oscar® Wilder, Billy: Some Like it Hot (1959) US – good but mine: Sunset Boulevard (photo rt) Wise, Robert: West Side Story (1960) US - co-dir w Jerome Robbins Wong Kar-Wai: Chungking Express (1994) Hong Kong – and the sequel Fallen Angels Wyler, William: The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) US Zemeckis, Robert: Back to the Future (1985) US Zhang Yimou: Raise the Red Lantern (1991) Hong Kong – my pick: Hero, one of my favorite films, China’s top grossing Zinnemann, Fred: High Noon (1952)US Note: Currently at 182, I intend to add to this list until I have at least 200 directors The Maltese Falcon (Huston, 42)

Monday, June 22, 2009

World's Best Comedy Films

[* = new additions]
  • Airplane!
  • Auntie Mame
  • Babe
  • Baby Boom
  • Beautiful Girls*
  • Beetlejuice
  • Being John Malkovich
  • Born Yesterday
  • City Slickers
  • Clueless
  • Dr. Strangelove (bw)
  • Driving Miss Daisy
  • Duck Soup (bw)
  • Ghostbusters
  • Going in Style
  • Good Bye, Lenin!* (Germany)
  • A Great Wall
  • Hannah and Her Sisters*
  • Heathers
  • Kind Hearts and Coronets (bw)
  • M*A*S*H
  • Midnight Run
  • Mister Roberts
  • Parenthood
  • The Producers (original)
  • Raising Arizona
  • The Russians are Coming, the Russians are Coming!
  • Singles
  • Thank You For Smoking
  • The Thin Man (series)
  • Tootsie
  • Wall-E*
  • When Harry Met Sally*
Runners-Up: Animal House, Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, Gung Ho!, La Cage Aux Folles (France), A Night at the Opera*, Smoke Signals, The Sunshine Boys, The Tall Blond Man With One Black Shoe (Italy), Young Frankenstein The Thin Man series is hard to classify, is it crime/mystery or comedy? It certainly stood out for the cleverly sarcastic repartee of the two characters, Nick and Nora Charles, expertly played by William Powell and Myrna Loy. The first two in the series are the best; the thin man actually refers to a victim, not to William Powell, and the dog Asta is the true scene stealer of the series. In all honesty, I like the series for its bizarre romance (he's always leaving her with ex-cons he helped put away), but without their humor they would be droll mysteries indeed. [Updated: 6.22.09]

Is Ghostbusters the Greatest Comedy?

I thought this post at Obsessed With Film was good enough to repeat the link, check this out: 50 Reasons Why Ghostbusters just might be the greatest movie of all time and maybe one reason why it isn't I wouldn't go as far in my accolades but it is a very funny spoof of science-fiction films and religions, directed by Ivan Reitman, and starring Bill Murray, Dan Akroyd, Harold Ramis, Rick Moranis, and Sigourney Weaver - but this is Bill Murray's attitude and film all the way. "We came, we saw, we kicked its ass!" "He slimed me!" "It's a free-form, autonomous, floating vaporous apparition." "I've worked in the private sector, they expect results!" "Ok, so she's a dog." "Normally you don't get that type of behavior out of a major appliance." "Real old testament wrath of God type stuff.." "Well, let's say this Twinkie represents the normal amount of psychokinetic energy in the New York area. Based on this morning's reading, it would be a Twinkie thirty-five feet long, weighing approximately six hundred pounds." "Man, that's one big twinkie." "I'm studying the the effect of negative reinforcement on ESP ability." "The effect? I'll tell you what the effect is, it's pissing me off!"

Sunday, June 21, 2009

The Best Dance Scene Ever: Carmen

The rehersal scene for the tobacco factory fight in Carlos Suara's flamenco Carmen. Choreographed by Antonio Gades, this is the most exciting dance scene in any film, in my opinion (but I could be wrong..)

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Mozart on the Floor Piano

We're moving all these videos to Small Cinema, please check there for more