Oscar Nomination Talk..and an Oscar Poll to Boot!!

Well kids, it's time to see just who got nominated for that oh so coveted little golden guy, apocryphally named after Bette Davis' uncle Oscar, as well as find out just how well (or how poorly, but we all know this isn't the case) in my annual predictions.  To get that last little piece of information out of the way (so we can enjoy the rest of our date), I went 39 for 44 in my predictions, or for the more statistically-minded amongst my readers, an 89% accuracy rate.  Not bad, but considering how predictably boring the nominations were (again) this year, I should have probably broken 90% quite easily.  Anyway, I digress.  So, without further ado, let's get a-lookin'.

First off, let's take a look at Best Picture.  As the rules state (and as this guy hates) there can be anywhere from five to ten nominees (and there should be five, as tradition - mostly - dictates), and this year, for the third year in a row, we have ended up with nine.  Oh, and by the way, these are the exact nine that I predicted yesterday.  So take that!  They are: American Hustle, 12 Years a Slave, Gravity, Nebraska, Captain Phillips, The Wolf of Wall Street, Philomena, Dallas Buyers Club, and Her.  So, as they say, no real surprises here - not that there were any real surprises anywhere today.  In Best Director, I went 4 for 5, having picked Paul Greengrass for Captain Phillips instead of nominee Alex Payne for Nebraska. The other four, Alfonso Cuaron, David O. Russell, Steve McQueen, and Marty Scorsese were all pretty much shoo-ins, and therefore easy pickin's in my predictin's.  As for who might win on March 2nd?  Pic is up between Slave and Hustle I do believe, with the slight edge going to the more dramatic Slave, and Cuaron is surely the frontrunner for the directing Oscar (the first Mexican to win?).  Hustle and Gravity are the big winners, each garnering ten nominations, with 12 Years a Slave coming in with nine.  Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa also received an Oscar nomination this morning, but more on that later.  Onto the acting categories.

I went 17 for 20 in the acting slots, acing Supporting Actor, and missing just one each in the other three categories.  The big news here though (at least I think it is) is the fact that American Hustle pulled off a nomination in each of the four acting categories.  Amy Adams and Christian Bale in the leads (Bale was my one misstep in Best Actor) and Cooper and J-Law in Supportings.  This is just the fifteenth time this feat has been accomplished in Oscar history.  The last time such a thing happened?  Just last year, with Silver Linings Playbook.  What?  Huh?  That was a David O. Russell film too.   Howzabout that?  The last time before that was Reds in 1981.  As for surprises...well, there really weren't any.  No Redford (which I predicted).  No Hanks (which I did not).  No Emma Thompson (probably the closest thing to a surprise).  But we did get Sally Hawkins (again, I predicted that one), so that's a good thing.  As for my of-the-top predictions for the eventual winners, I would say (at this time only - this may change before Oscar night) McConaughey, Blanchett (though look out for Amy Adams in a surprise win), Jared Leto, and Lupita Nyong'o (unless they are willing to give J-Law two in a row).   Snubs?  Not that they ever stood even the remotest of chances, I would have loved to have seen Julie Delpy, Mia Wasikowska, or Greta Gerwig in Best Actress (maybe Rooney Mara too), Oscar Isaac, Simon Pegg, or Michael Shannon in Best Actor, Nicole Kidman, Kristen Scott Thomas, or Tao Zhao in Supporting Actress, and Matthew Goode, John Goodman, and (of course) James Franco(!!!) in Supporting Actor - but that's just me.

The screenplay nods were just as boring and predictable as everything else, as I missed just one (predicting the shamefully robbed Inside Llewyn Davis instead of the nominated Dallas Buyers Club for Original Screenplay), so there's really nothing to talk about there.   As I said earlier, I had a success rate of 89% this year, up from my pathetic 77% turnout last year, so all is good.  As for the rest of the nominees?  Well, there are some mentionables, so let's mention 'em.  A snub for Sarah Polley and her doc, Stories We Tell, nominations for Arcade Fire (Score), and Karen O of Yeah Yeah Yeahs (Song), no nod for Blue is the Warmest Color, but the wonderful Great Beauty is up (and will win!) for Foreign Language Film, Miyazaki gets an Animated Feature nod for what he has called his final film (but can he beat Disney's Frozen?), Wong Kar-wai's The Grandmaster is up for two Oscars (Cinematography and Costumes), and yes, the aforementioned Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa is nominated for Best Make-up & Hair.  So there!  A pretty unremarkable year in surprises here, but that seems to be par for the course in these recent Oscar times.  I'll be back on March 1st with my final predictions, but in the meantime, check out the Oscar poll I'm a-running 'round these parts (you will find it near the top of the right hand sidebar).  That's it for now.  See ya 'round the web.

Who You Think SHOULD Win The Oscar!!

Well, well, well.  Lookie here.  It appears to be time to announce the final results in this year's Oscar Poll.  You were asked to decide which of the nine nominated films most deserves to win the Oscar for Best Picture - and answer it you most certainly did.  In fact, you did it with a quite incredible 195 votes cast - 123 more than last year.  Yeah, that's right!

Last year, The Tree of Life ran away with the whole shebang, garnering a whopping 43%.  This year, things were a bit more spread out, but we still had a rather decisive victory in the end.  Django Unchained, the latest film from Quentin Tarantino (and my favourite film of the year, nominated or not), led from day one, never relinquishing its lead, and actually sported a nine vote lead at one point. In the end, with a grand total of 42 votes, or 22% for the statistically-inclined, it beat out its nearest competitor by seven votes.  And speaking of that nearest competitor, it was Michael Haneke's Amour that finished second, with 35 votes, or 18%.  And that was pretty much the whole race, as third place was another ten votes from Amour, and never really challenged the second place film at all.

But, to get through the other seven films in the race, here we go.  Third place went to Zero Dark Thirty (my second favourite of the pack), grabbing 25 votes, or 13%.  Fourth place ended up as a tie between the two films that have battled for frontrunner status in the actual Oscar race.  Argo and Lincoln each received 20 votes, or 10%.  Meanwhile, there was another tie for sixth place.  Les Misérables and Beasts of the Southern Wild both nabbed 16 votes, or 8%.   Then we have Silver Linings Playbook (my least favourite of the bunch), coming in at eighth place, with 12 votes, or 6%, and bringing up the rear ('cause someone has to) is poor ole Life of Pi, with just 9 votes, or a mere 5%.  Poor little Pi.

Well, there ya go.  Now all that's left is to actually hand out the Oscars.  I will be back tomorrow with my predictions for Oscar night.  After that, I will be busily preparing for our 4th Annual Midtown Cinema Red Carpet Oscar Party - where there may or may not be some tweeting about said show.  And then, we'll see you back here on Monday with a whole big freakin' round-up.  Until then, see ya in the funny papers.

What Film SHOULD Win the Best Picture Oscar?

There has been a lot of talk, in certain circles, about which film is going to walk away with the Oscar.  Will it be Lincoln, or will Argo make a lat minute sneak attack and take home the top gold?  For what it's worth, I believe the latter will end up happening on February 24th.  Director Affleck's snub at the Oscars - while winning pretty much every other award known to humanity - is probably the one defining element that will make such a thing happen.  But then, we are not here to talk about who or what WILL win the Oscar, but instead, who or what SHOULD win the damn thing.  And this is your chance to say so.

I first opened this poll the day of the Oscar nominations announcement, and so far 136 votes have been cast.  Pretty damn good, if you ask me, but it could be better - which is the exact reason why this post exists.  To let everyone know that it is here, or there, or wherever cyberspace really is.  So get your vote on everyone.  If you were handed an Oscar ballot, who would you pick?  Would it be the thrills of Django or Zero Dark Thirty?  Would it be the heartache of Beasts or Amour?  Would it be the suspense of Argo or the stature of Lincoln?  Would it be spectacle of Les Mis, or Miz, if you prefer?  Would it be the ADD comedy of Silver Linings or the sheer visual audacity of Life of Pi?  Which film would you pick to take home the gold?  

All you have to do is go on over to the poll - found conveniently near the top of the sidebar of this very site - and choose which of the nine BP nominees is your favourite.  And please remember, feel free to post as many comments as your heart desires (the more, the merrier - we can never have enough comments), but in order for your vote to count, you must click on the actual poll itself.  The poll will go on until Friday, February 22nd, and the final results will be posted right here (same bat channel and all that) on Saturday, February 23rd.  And, incidentally, speaking of the Oscars, my predictions for the big night will be posted early on Sunday, February 24th.  So go vote people - and send everyone you know this way too.  Let's rock the vote!

There Be Oscar Nominations Maties!...and a New Poll Too!!

Well folks, Oscar Nomination Morning (a strange little holiday in our household) has come and gone, and we are left with all of our why's and WTF's - and I am left with my worst prediction rating in...well, in as long as I can recall.   Garnering a rather pathetic prediction percentage of just 71% (slightly lifted to a still quite poor 77% when including just the big eight categories), I should well be ashamed of myself.  I am not, but I should be dammit.  Anyway, to get on with what gave me such a low rating, here we go.

I went four for five in all the acting and both the writing categories, and I went eight for nine in Best Picture (I even aced the costumes - so there), but alas, it was Oscar's quite surprising choices for the director slot that got me, and many other Oscar precogs I am sure, all befuddled and bewildered.  Allow me to quote what I wrote yesterday, when predicting this category. "The top three here are locks.  No doubts.  In fact, I think Affleck may actually take the Oscar, but that is a story for next month."  Well, those top three, and I may add, the top three on nearly every other prediction I came across yesterday, were Steven Spielberg, Kathryn Bigelow and Ben Affleck.  Anyone who was up early to watch the nominations this morning, or anyone who has looked up the nominees since then, you already know full well that the latter two of those supposed locks, were not named today.  Snubbed, royally snubbed indeed.  So, in the very same category that I boldly claimed that I was assured of at least a 60% accuracy rate, I got just a 40%.  Yeah, I figured picking Tarantino was a bit of a stretch, but I figured Affleck and Bigelow were safe bets.  Locks, no doubt, some said.  Anyway, I digress.

There were some nice surprises too.  Like, to go right back to that director fiasco, Michael Haneke's first ever nomination in the category - as well as a nod for screenplay (and the film is also up for picture, actress and, of course, foreign language as well).  I did have the Austrian master pegged as my dark horse pick at least.  Other dark horse picks to grab nominations were Joaquin Phoenix for Best Actor and Quvenzhané Wallis for Best Actress.  Wallis, along with Haneke's Amour star Emmanuelle Riva, are now the youngest and oldest ever Best Actress nominees, respectively.  Other nice picks were Tarantino for Screenplay and Christoph Waltz for Supporting Actor.  As a fun sidenote, for the first time ever, all five nominees in a single category (Best Supporting Actor in this case) are former Oscar winners.  So there.  Granted, I would have liked to have seen Matthew McConaughey and/or Ann Dowd get surprise nods, or possibly P.T. Anderson, but alas, 'twas not to happen.  As for who will win, my best conjecture right now is Lincoln, Spielberg, DDL, Chastain, De Niro, Hathaway.  My Alt. Picks: SLP wins all six of these. My Alt. Alt. Picks: Haneke wins Best Director, and Lars von Trier suddenly becomes frontrunner for next year.  But, I am getting ahead of myself here.

Hey, before I go, I should probably mention the new poll here at The Most Beautiful Fraud in the World.  Starting today, and running through February 22nd, you can cast your vote for the film that you think SHOULD win the Best Picture Oscar.  As I am sure you can see (this golden-coloured poll can be found near the top of the sidebar of this very site), all you need do is choose which of the nine nominees you would vote for if you had a ballot.  Remember, not what you think will win, but what you think SHOULD win.  Winners (and losers) will be announced the day before the Oscars - as will my final Oscar predictions.  Here's hopin' I do better than I did today.

Battle Royale #4: Battle of the Horror Movie Giants

Welcome to the fourth Battle Royale here at The Most Beautiful Fraud in the World.   It is an ongoing series that will pit two classic cinematic greats against each other - and you can vote for who is the greater by clicking your choice over in the poll at the top of the sidebar.

With our fourth edition of the popular Battle Royale, we are going to get a little scary.  I remember first seeing many of these two great actor's films on late night television.  Back when I was growing up - that would be the 1970's and early 1980's if you are keeping score at home - before there was constant 24/7 TV broadcasting, there was a thing called the late show.  These late shows, or sometimes, late late shows, were where I first saw such classic horror movies as Dracula and Frankenstein and The Black Cat and King Kong and The Wolf Man and The Creature From the Black Lagoon and many many more.  These films had stars such as Claude Rains, Peter Lorre, Lionel Atwill, John Carradine, Vincent Price, Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing and Lon Chaney, Sr. and Jr. - not to mention Julie Adams in that white bathing suit in The Creature From the Black Lagoon.  But none of these great stars were a match for the two that are invariably numbers one and two on any self-respecting classic horror movie star list - Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi.

Béla Ferenc Deszo Blascó was born in 1882 in the town of Lugos, in what then was called the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and is now called Romania.  After changing his name to Bela Lugosi (taking his stage name from his hometown), the great actor became famous for portraying Bram Stoker's legendary Count Dracula on both stage and screen.  Meanwhile, William Henry Pratt, born in 1887 in London England, and going by the name of Boris Karloff, became equally as famous as Mary Shelley's creation, Frankenstein's Monster.  Always rivals (Lugosi was the first choice to play the monster in James Whale's film) but also always friendly and cordial to each other, Karloff and Lugosi were the kings of Universal Horror in the hey days of the 1930's.  When the horror craze began to wear down (it would speed back up again then in the 50's) it was Lugosi's career that would be damaged the most.  He would end said career with a series of films with the notoriously terrible director Ed Wood.  Meanwhile, Karloff's career (and the actor would not get typecast as badly as his rival, able to make some non-horror films as well) would pick back up again, albeit in the most b-picture manner, until one of his final roles as Byron Orlok, a not so thinly disguised version of himself, in Peter Bogdanovich's 1968 debut masterpiece Targets.

So you must ask yourself, is it Lugosi's creepy charm or Karloff's wicked charisma that gets your vote?  Do you go for the guy who was buried in one of his Dracula capes (at his son and widow's bequest, not his own as is commonly believed) or the man who gave voice to that mean one, Mr. Grinch?  The man who gave blood sucking its original debonair style (long before today's glittering fops turned such a thing into a running joke) or the man who bitch slaps a lone gunman into submission at the end of Targets?  The man who scared the bejeezus out of poor Lou Costello or the man that scared the bejeezus out of poor Lou...oh, yeah, they both did that.  Anyway, it is time to pick your favourite of the horror movie giants.  Karloff or Lugosi.  All you need do is go on over to the poll sitting up there at the top of the sidebar, and make your choice.  You can make as many comments as you wish on this post (and please do just that) but for your vote to count, you must vote in the poll in the sidebar.  You will have three weeks to get your vote in, at which time we will announce the scary victor of our fourth Battle Royale.  And also, if you have any ideas for future battles (preferably in the classic cinema mold), please let me know.  And let's try to get into the triple digits in voter turnout this time around.

Battle Royale #3: Battle of the Tinsel Town Bitches (The Results)

Well it looks like we are the conclusion of yet another tightly contested Battle Royale here at The Most Beautiful Fraud in the World.  Dubbed the Battle of the Tinsel Town Bitches (all you feminists just calm down now), is our third edition of Battle Royale.  This time around, in our series pitting two Hollywood heavyweights against each other, you were asked to choose between lifelong archrivals Bette Davis and Joan Crawford.  And once again, just like in our first two editions, it was a veritable photo finish.  In our first edition, Battle of the Beautiful Swedes, Ingrid Bergman bested Great Garbo by just two votes.  In round two, Battle of the Hollywood Hoofers, Fred Astaire took down Gene Kelly by, you guessed it, two votes.  Well now we come to our third round, and guess what?  Well, if you guessed one beat the other by just two votes, you would be wrong.  No, this one was so photo finish that no winner could be determined.  With both Davis and Crawford receiving 20 votes apiece, we have logged in our very first tie game in Battle Royale history.

Personally my vote went to Miss Crawford, which means this is the closest my choice has come to winning yet.  Sorry Gene and Greta.  But alas, no one victor could be determined this time around, so we will have to call Bette and Joan equal Tinsel Town Bitches.  Neither one would be very happy at that outcome I am sure.  What I am not happy with was the low turnout at the so-called polls.  After 50 votes were cast in the Garbo/Bergman battle, and 66 in the Astaire/Kelly bout, just a mere 40 were cast this time around.  What's wrong, you don't want to be in on all the fun of pitting classic stars and directors against each other in bloodless combat?  Of course you do!  Which is why I just know we can get the voting numbers into the triple digits with round four.  And speaking of round four, the classic Hollywood participants of that round will be announced in just a few days.  I am sure this round will be both classic and scary indeed.

Battle Royale #3: Battle of the Tinsel Town Bitches

Welcome to the third Battle Royale here at The Most Beautiful Fraud in the World.   It is an ongoing series that will pit two cinematic greats against each other - and you can vote for who is the greater by clicking your choice over in the poll at the top of the sidebar.

For our third edition, we are going the bitchy route.  Pitting perennial arch-rivals against each other in what is sure to be the doggiest of dogfights - and these ladies are pit bulls indeed.  In the first corner is Ruth Elizabeth Davis, better known as Bette.  Hailing from Lowell Mass., Bette was a headstrong woman in a male dominated world.  A tireless campaigner of equality for women in Hollywood, co-founder of the Hollywood Canteen and a crusader for the war effort - not to mention, one hell of an actor - Bette was the first female president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.  She was winner of two Academy Awards and the first person to receive double digits in nominations.  Of course she was also what one might call a thorn in the proverbial sides of the old studio system, but the thing she hated more than anything else (one presumes here) was the lady standing on the opposite side of our Battle Royale ring.

Born Lucille Fay LeSueur in San Antonio, Texas, the woman better known by her stage name of Joan Crawford, was one of the few women in Hollywood that could match Davis blow for blow in demanding equality for women in the business.  Starting out in flapper roles in the precode days before "graduating" to more prestigious roles - one of which, Mildred Pierce, would win her an Oscar - Joan, like Bette, was also a crusader for the war effort, and she too was a thorn in the sides of the studios.  She was so much a thorn that it pretty much destroyed her career before she pulled herself back up to the top, only to see it collapse once again.  Joan, it would come out much later, was also a thorn in private life.  Not one to win any mother of the year awards (though the stories may be exaggerated for dramatic flair) Joan is now looked upon just as much for her homelife antics (watch out for those wire hangers) as she was for her stellar acting - perhaps, sadly enough, even more so.

Now while Davis' career would slow down in her old age, Crawford's would train wreck by the sad end.  Her final film was the b-horror thing known as Trog.  But it is not necessarily the careers of these two powerful actresses that we are here to discuss today.  It is the tabloid-esque duel in the sun that these two powerful women had going for years.  This historic rivalry would come to a head in the one and only film these two women did together - Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?.   The in-fighting on this production was quite legendary.  From Davis kicking Crawford so hard she needed stitches to Crawford putting weights in her clothes for a scene where Davis had to drag her body around, resulting in Davis having back spasms, these two simply hated each other.   Davis even said of her costar, "The best time I ever had with Joan Crawford was when I pushed her down the stairs in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?"  Davis also said of Crawford "I wouldn’t piss on her if she was on fire." Obviously theirs was not a friendly relationship.  Rivals from early on, these actresses competed for many of the same roles, though Davis always considered herself above Joan, calling Crawford a movie star while she herself was the true actor.  Crawford went so far as to attempt a sabotage of the Academy Awards.  When Davis was nominated for Baby Jane and Crawford was not, Joan was furious.  She actually persuaded the other nominated actresses to allow her to accept their Oscar if they could not be there.  When Anne Bancroft was declared the winner for her work in The Miracle Worker, Joan triumphantly pushed her way past Davis saying "Step aside!", and swept onstage to pick up the trophy.  The two rivals were meant to do a follow-up to Baby Jane, called Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte, but after a few days, Crawford backed out due to illness.  It is probably a good thing though because one of them may have ended up dead by the end of production.

So whether your choice is Bette Davis, of whom Crawford said, "Bette and I work differently. Bette screams and I knit. While she screamed, I knitted a scarf that stretched clear to Malibu.", or Joan Crawford, of whom Bette quipped, "She has slept with every male star at MGM except Lassie." - it is time to vote for your favourite Tinsel Town Bitch.  You can vote for whom you believe to be the better actor or you can vote for the one you think would win in a fight.  The point is to vote vote vote.  You will have three weeks to get your vote in before we announce the bruised and bloody victor.  And please remember that you can make as many comments below as you wish (and please feel free to do so) but in order for your vote to be counted, you must go and click on your choice in the poll at the top of the sidebar. Allow me to close with yet another Davis quip about Crawford.  This one came shorty after Crawford's death.  "You should never say bad things about the dead, you should only say good . . . Joan Crawford is dead. Good."  Now get over there and vote.

Battle Royale #2: Battle of the Hollywood Hoofers (The Results)

Well, our second Battle Royale is over, and just like our first one (Ingrid Bergman vs. Greta Garbo in the Battle of the Beautiful Swedes), it was what one would call a real squeaker.  With 66 votes cast (16 more than our first Battle Royale incidentally) it was a veritable photo finish, with just two votes separating our two song-and-dance men of legend and lore.  Now the only question that remains is just which one of these Hollywood hoofers received those two aforementioned extra votes.   Would it be the Omaha born toe-tapping of Frederick Austerlitz or the gymnastic artistry of Eugen Curran Kelly of Iron City, that would win the day?  Would it be the class and old world style of Fred Astaire or Gene Kelly's flawless acrobatic choreography that would take the Battle Royale crown?   Well, with a score of 34 to 32 (or 52% to 48% for the statistically-minded among us), it was Fred Astaire, Daddy Long Legs himself, squeaking out a victory over Gene Gene the Dancing Machine.

Personally my vote went to Kelly (twice now my choice has lost) but alas, twas not to be.  In the end it was the elder statesman over the brash kid (Astaire was thirteen years older).  In all actuality though, Kelly himself would have probably voted for Astaire as well.  The elder statesman was one of Kelly's heroes.  Kelly said of Astaire, "Ginger Rogers danced with Astaire.  It was the only time in the movies that you looked at the man, not the woman."  Kelly also said that Astaire represented the aristocracy, while he represented the proletariat.  Kelly also (reputedly) said, "If Fred Astaire is the Cary Grant of dance, I am the Marlon Brando."  Take that in whatever way you wish.  Anyway, that is it for the second Battle Royale.  I will announce the next battle in a couple of days, so watch out for that.  It will surely be the bitchiest battle so far.  And remember to tell all your friends to join in on the fun so we can up the vote totals.  The more the merrier after all.  See ya in a few days oh faithful readers and true believers.

Battle Royale #2: Battle of the Hollywood Hoofers

Welcome to the second Battle Royale here at The Most Beautiful Fraud in the World.   It is an ongoing series that will pit two cinematic greats up against each other - and you can vote for who is the greater by clicking your choice over in the poll at the top of the sidebar.

For our second go-around of Battle Royale, we are going with a classic Hollywood musical bent.  There have been many great and talented song-and-dance men throughout cinematic history, and during the golden age especially, but no two have been more loved and more idolized than this pair of battlin' Hollywood hoofers.  This is a battle - a Battle Royale if you will - between classic old world charm and the more modernized world of choreography.  In the first corner we have the man that was famously, and probably apocryphally so, written about after a screen test as, "Can't sing. Can't act. Balding. Can dance a little."  Born Frederick Austerlitz, the man who would become Fred Astaire, decked out in his finest bib and tucker, which usually meant tails and top hat (he even sang about as much), would tap dance his way (sometimes on the very ceiling) to super stardom, with a flair and grace that defined the era.  Partnered with Ginger Rogers for ten films, Astaire would attempt an early retirement, only to be forced out again to star opposite Judy Garland in Easter Parade, and later with Cyd Charisse in one of my all time favourite musicals, The Band Wagon.

Fred's competition comes from one of the most athletic dancers to ever grace the silver screen.  Gene Kelly,  may not have had the old world style of Astaire, but with his modernist style of choreography and unique song-and-dance innovations, he would transform the Hollywood musical into a whole other beast.  Starring in An American in Paris and my all time favourite musical (as well as one of my ten favourite films) Singin' in the Rain, Kelly was as much the epitome of new world charm as Astaire was of old world.  The two men only ever danced together once on screen (1946's The Ziegfeld Follies, from whence the pictures included in the post come) and it is certainly a shame we only ever got that one brief glimpse of these two great dancers together.   Cyd Charisse once claimed that the way her husband could tell who she had danced with was, "If I was black and blue, it was Gene. If I didn't have a scratch it was Fred."  I think that pretty much sums up the differing dance styles of these two combatants.

So go ahead and vote vote vote.  Go on over to the poll widget near the top of the sidebar and make your choice.  And please feel free to leave any comments you wish to on the subject, but also please remember that in order to have your vote (and your voice) counted, you must go over to the poll in the sidebar and actually vote.  No votes listed in the comments section can or will be counted.  But please go ahead and comment anyway (the more, the merrier) but do it after you vote.  Our first Battle Royale garnered fifty votes, but I believe we can do better this time around. You have just under three weeks to vote.  After that I will announce the victor and we will move onto Battle Royale #3 - whomever that may include.

Battle Royale #1: Battle of the Beautiful Swedes (The Results)

Well, the inaugural edition of The Most Beautiful Fraud in the World's newest regular feature is at an end.  The final bell has rung on our first Battle Royale, and a winner has been decided.  Our Battle of the Beautiful Swedes has been a hard fought battle but in the end, after fifty votes have been cast, a winner has been decided.  The only question that remains is whether it was the enigmatic Miss Garbo or the able-bodied Miss Bergman that would end up as our very first Battle Royale champion.  Which of these Stockholm born Hollywood legends would be the champ?  Well, a squeakier victory could barely have been had.   With a final score of 26 to 24 (or 52% to 48% if one wishes to delve into the stats) the victory goes to three time Academy Award winner Ingrid Bergman.  Sure, first she takes all the Oscars, and now this.  No wonder Garbo vanted to be left alone.  But seriously, I would like to congratulate our first Battle Royale champion, even if chances are pretty high she is not reading this particular post.  Or is she?  And to Miss Garbo - a valiant battle fought milady, and if it is any consolation (because of course she is reading this as well) you had my vote at hello.  

Seriously though, this was a close close race (I myself only chose Garbo over Bergman by the slightest of hairs) and that is what the Battle Royale is meant to be all about.  Pitting closely related cinematic giants against each other - one on one.  So remember to check back for more hard fought battles.  Each Battle Royale will have a voting period of three weeks.  The second Battle Royale will be announced in a few days.  I am guessing that all those song-and-dance fans out there will enjoy this one.  And yes, fifty votes was a good turnout, but I know we can do better.  Hopefully we can up the number of votes this time around and make it even more interesting.  See ya in a few days oh faithful readers and true believers.

Battle Royale #1: Battle of the Beautiful Swedes

Welcome to the first Battle Royale here at The Most Beautiful Fraud in the World.   It is an ongoing series that will pit two cinematic greats up against each other - and you can vote for who is the greater by clicking your choice over in the poll at the top of the sidebar.  

For our inaugural Battle Royale we travel to the land of the smörgåsbord and the midnight sun.   Okay, technically Norway is the Land of the Midnight Sun, but close enough, because we are traveling to the beautiful Scandinavian country of Sweden.   The land of the, um...lingonberry?  Yeah, Land of the Midnight Sun just sounds better.   Anyway, we are off to Sweden.  Well, Sweden via Hollywood that is.  So it is time to make your choice.  Who is your favourite beautiful Swedish icon of cinema?  Is it the enigmatic Greta Lovisa Gustafsson, better known as Greta Garbo?  Or perhaps it is the spectacular Ingrid Bergman who strikes your cinematic fancy.  Who is the best of these two talented and lovely Swedish born icons?   Only you can tell - with your votes.

So in one corner we have the woman who vanted to be left alone.  She is the great Garbo whose exotic mystique in the silent era exuded a strange and beautiful sexuality and whose throaty voice and infectious laugh in the golden age of Hollywood only managed to ratchet that sexuality into high gear.   And boy could the woman act!  In films ranging from The Temptress, Flesh and the Devil, Anna Christie, Camille and The Painted Veil; her performances as Anna Kerenina, Mata Hari and my personal favourite Queen Christina with (of course) John Gilbert; the Oscar winning Grand Hotel and her role as the Russian agent softened by Melvyn Douglas in her penultimate farewell film Ninotchka.  Garbo went from icon (she was the highest paid star at MGM for several years; more stars than the heavens, and she was the biggest) to legend to cult figure when she retired from acting in 1941 and became one the most famous recluses until her death in 1990.  Garbo is such a legend that she is actually going to be on money in Sweden (the 100 Krona note) beginning in 2014.  Bette Davis, not one to hand out compliments lightly, said this of the actress: "Her instinct, her mastery over the machine, was pure witchcraft."

And in the other corner we have the stunning powerhouse actress Ingrid Bergman.  One of the finest actresses ever to work in cinema, Bergman, the winner of three well-deserved Academy Awards, brought to Hollywood a Nordic freshness and vitality unseen in anyone else at the time.  Her performances in Intermezzo, Gaslight and The Bells of St. Mary's are legendary.  Her films with Hitchcock and those with her lover Roberto Rossellini cemented her iconic status.  Later in life she would play a more mature woman in comedies like Cactus Flower and mysteries such as Murder on the Orient Express, but still never losing any of her sexual energy or youthful exuberance.  And of course there is her performance as Joan of Arc and her role as the internationally longed for Ilsa Lund in Casablanca.  Falling in and out of favour with America due to her affair with Rossellini, Bergman never once stopped being the glamorous natural beauty and talent that she always was and always would be.  With songs written about her (most notably a rather erotically-charged ditty by Woody Guthrie) and praises heaped upon her, Bergman was the epitome of natural womanhood.  George Cukor said of the actress: "Do you know what I especially love about you, Ingrid, my dear? I can sum it up as your naturalness. The camera loves your beauty, your acting, and your individuality. A star must have individuality. It makes you a great star. A great star."

Now I personally am having one hell of a time coming up with who I choose between these Stockholm-born actresses and super stars.  If I were to make up a list of my ten favourite actresses, both of these talented ladies would be on there.  Perhaps you are having a difficult time as well.  But difficult choice or not, it is a choice you must make.  Okay, you don't have to, but hey, that is why we are gathered here today.  So go ahead and vote vote vote.  And please feel free to leave any comments you wish to on the subject, but please remember that in order to have your vote (and your voice) counted, you must go over to the poll in the sidebar and actually vote.  No votes listed in the comments section will be counted.  But please go ahead and comment anyway - after you vote. You have just under three weeks to vote.  After that I will announce the victor and we will move onto Battle Royale #2 - whomever that may include.

Who SHOULD Win the Oscar Poll Results

Almost a month ago, a few days after this year's Oscar nominations were announced, you my faithful and constant readers (thanx to Mrs. Parker for the borrowing of at least part of that phrase) were asked to choose which film you think should win this year's Oscar for Best Picture.  Not the film that will win (which incidentally seems to be more than a foregone conclusion at this point) but which film you would vote for if you were a member of the Academy.  Did you pick the swaying genius of The Tree of Life or the giddy nostalgia of The Artist or Hugo?   Did you cast your vote for Woody back in Woody form in the magically inclined Midnight in Paris?  What about the love of the game directness of Moneyball or the dramatic poignancy of The Descendants?  Did you vote for the succulent looking but emotionally manipulative War Horse?  What of the pandering mediocrity of The Help, which though wonderfully acted all around, saddled with the most inane screenplay imaginable?  Or perhaps your choice was for the insipid atrocity that was Incredibly Loud and Obnoxiously Close?  Perhaps you can see a bit of my own leanings from the above statements, but after all, I am one of those nasty critics everyone speaks so badly about.  Anyway, on with the results of the poll.

In no real surprise, and by a veritable landslide, Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life, easily the most acclaimed film of 2011 and my own personal favourite, wins the thing hands down as they say.  Garnering 31 votes (out of an overall total of 72 cast), which is another way of saying 43%, Malick's gorgeous film (hated and reviled by much of the mindless multiplex masses) is our big winner.  I would love to see it spoken when they open that final envelope of the night on Sunday, but that, as they are prone to say, ain't gonna happen brothah.

Coming in at a distant second and third are a pair of films that look back into the annals of cinema history.  With 12 votes (16%), just squeaking out the silver medal spot by one vote, is Martin Scorsese's Hugo.  This film, my second favourite of the year, is followed by the frontrunner to win the actual Oscar, The Artist, grabbing 11 votes (15%).  Pretty much from the beginning this was really a race between these two motion pictures for the honour of coming in second to The Tree of Life, and it was nearly a photo finish - but in the end, Hugo had all four feet off the ground.  In case you do not get that last reference, check out some, appropriately enough, very early, pre-film history here.  

That brings us to the rest of this nine horse pack.  With 6 votes (8%), coming in in fourth place is Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris, which in turn is followed by Moneyball and The Descendants in a tie for fifth with 4 votes (5%) each.  Then we have those lesser films - and not just in my not-so-humble opinion but apparently in the voter's eyes as well.  With 2 votes (2%) apiece are Steven Spielberg's visually stunning (see I can say good things too) War Horse and that 9/11 work of arrogant stupidity (okay, not everything can have good said about them) Incredibly Overblown and Ridiculously Annoying.  Then we have that last place finisher, The Help, in a sad state of affairs, grabbing exactly zero votes. 

Well, there you have it true believers (now I must thank Stan Lee for usurping his tagline) - the results of how you would vote if you were a member of the "illustrious" Academy.  And speaking of the "illustrious" Academy, I will be back on Saturday to announce my final predictions for these so talked about Oscars.  Until then.....

Film Poll: If You Could Vote For The Oscars.....

Close your eyes.  Go ahead, close them.  You can trust me.  Are they closed?  Really?  Good.  Now imagine that you are a member in good standing of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and therefore are allowed to vote on the Oscars.  Okay, now open your eyes again and look over at the sidebar of this very website.  Over there you will find a poll with all the Best Picture nominees listed.  Now keep pretending you are a member of AMPAS and click on which motion picture you would vote for.  Not the one that you think will win mind you, but the one you think should win.  Whether it be the silent antics of The Artist, the grief stricken drama of The Descendants, the love of the game romanticism of Moneyball, the literary dreamworld of Midnight in Paris, the sheer audacious beauty of The Tree of Life,  the cinephiliac hopefulness of  Hugo, the treacly visual bravura of War Horse, the racial divisiveness of The Help or the 9/11 pandering of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.  Whatever your choice (even if it is one of those latter three) go ahead and vote vote vote.

And please remember that in order for your vote to be recorded, you must actually click your choice over in the poll.  Any votes merely posted in the comments cannot be counted.  For some reason we have had confusion over this in past polls.  But still, please feel free to comment away - once you have voted.  And also remember, you can vote only once per server, so if you happen to be struggling between two different films then you can simply vote for one in Firefox and another in Chrome (or Safari, or Opera or even Microsoft IE if you so wish).  Of course then you can vote on different computers as well.  Basically what I am saying is vote early and vote often.  Seriously, just vote dammit. 

There's A New Poll in Town: Name Your Favourite Lars von Trier

It has been a few months since The Most Beautiful Fraud in the World has done a poll.  Well the dry spell is over.  In light of the recent release of Lars von Trier's eleventh feature film, Melancholia, you are asked to name your favourite film by the audacious Danish director.  Be it Breaking the Waves or Dogville, Dancer in the Dark or Antichrist, The Idiots or Europa, The Element of Crime or Epidemic, Manderlay or The Boss of It All, or his latest, the aforementioned Melancholia, go on over to the sidebar of this very site (relatively near the top of said sidebar) and click in your vote.  And remember, you must vote in the poll on the sidebar - votes left in the comments section will not be counted (though feel free to comment away).  And for all you von Trier haters out there (and I know there are a lot of you), there is no choice for "none of the above" so take your hatred elsewhere (though I do encourage even the haters to make comments below).  The poll will go on until shortly after the New Year, where upon the results will be announced.

Terrence Malick Film Poll Results: It's A Tie !!

I figured from the very beginning that the winner of our Terrence Malick poll would be either Days of Heaven or The Thin Red Line.  Well lo and behold, I was right on both accounts.  Receiving 24% of the vote each (which is 13 votes each from the 53 cast) these two films shared top honours.  Here is a rundown of the final tallies.

Days of Heaven - 13 votes (24%)

The Thin Red Line - 13 votes (24%)

Badlands - 12 votes (22%)

The Tree of Life - 9 votes (16%) 

The New World - 6 votes (11%)

Now I am no math expert but this seems to come to just 97% of the vote.  It makes me wonder what the Blogger poll app did with that final 3%.

Anyway, I would have liked to have seen The New World have a better showing but I did expect it to come in last.  My personal list goes: The Tree of Life, Days of Heaven, The New World, The Thin Red Line & Badlands.  But of course even the least Malick is better than the best of many a director.  So to close out, please allow me to end with an image (and a beautiful one of course) from that last place finisher, The New World.  Oh yeah, and another poll will be announced soon, so stay tuned.

Film Poll: Terrence Malick

It has been a while since I handed out a poll question here at The Most Beautiful Fraud in the World, but to all those who have enjoyed such things in the past, not to worry for the poll hath returned.  For the return of the poll (which will be a monthly event from now on - even though I am a few days late in getting this one started) we look at one of the least prolific but most artistic directors of the past forty years.  That man of course is the enigmatic Terrence Malick.  Your mission, should you decide to accept it (and c'mon, why wouldn't you?) is to name the film you think is Malick's best and/or your favourite.  Malick made his first film 38 years ago but there are only five films to choose from (all of which I personally think are stunning in their own way).  You will have until August 31st at midnight to make your choice.  All you need do is go over to the poll gadget in the sidebar and make your choice (you are free to make comments - in fact I warmly welcome them - but votes made in the comment section will not be counted).  So go to it.

Film Poll: Fritz Lang, American Style

There is a new poll in town and it is all about the great one-eyed auteur Friedrich Christian Anton Lang, aka Fritz Lang.  The twist here is, that none of his great German-made work is eligible.  No M.  No Metropolis.  No Dr. Mabuse.  This is purely American Fritz Lang.  The German (Austrian born actually - Austria-Hungary born to be even more exact) director came to the states in 1934 (after a year in Paris, fleeing the now Nazi-controlled Germany) and a year and a half later released the first of his twenty-two films in Hollywood, before returning to Germany in the late fifties.

Your mission, if you decide to take it, is to go over to the lefthand sidebar and pick your favourite among M. Lang's twenty-two American films.  Simple as that.  The poll will go until April 8th at midnight, so if you have not seen all of Lang's American films (Film Forum just had a great retrospective on this very same subject, which is where I got the idea, the thief I am) you have a whole month to catch up - a fun thing for any self-respecting cinephile to do (I still have a few more to catch up on myself).

Film Poll #9: The Oscar Results

And our Oscar poll is finished and we declare a tie.  Never has there been a tie for Best Picture at the Academy Awards (some other categories, yes, but never in the top spot), but here a tie there be maties.  Sorry about the pirate speak.  Anyway, here are the results.

The Social Network - 21 votes (27%)

Black Swan - 21 votes (27%)

In third place is the most likely winner at those "real" Academy Awards later this weekend.

The King's Speech - 13 votes (17%)

And then the rest (distantly off).

Winter's Bone - 6 votes (7%)

True Grit - 6 votes (7%)

Inception - 3 votes (3%)

The Fighter - 2 votes (2%)

The Kids Are All Right  - 2 votes (2%)

Toy Story 3 - 2 votes (2%)

And then the poor little film (actually my personal choice for fourth place) with no votes to call its own.

127 Hours - 0 votes (0%)

And that is it for this poll.  Enjoy the Oscars (though they are woefully predictable this year) and come back here for another poll in a few weeks.

For now, enjoy this great moment from (fictional) Oscar history.

Film Poll #9: What is Your Oscar Choice?

The nominations have been announced and now you get to throw in your two and a half cents.  You have exactly one month (from nomination day) to choose the film you would vote for for Best Picture.  Just go over to the left-handed sidebar and make your choice.  Results will be posted on the day before the Oscar telecast (which is Feb. 27th btw, well the Oscars are the 27th, the results will be posted Feb. 26th).

Film Poll #8: Name Your Favourite Darren Aronofsky Film

And the votes are in. Perhaps it has to do with none of us having very long attention spans, but the latest Aronofsky was voted your favourite Aronofsky.  This was my pick as well, so I don't know why I am whining about it.  It was actually a two-dog race from beginning to end, as the first Aronofsky and the latest Aronofsky were neck and neck until the latter took the lead in the final hours of voting.

The results:

Black Swan - 7 votes (36%)

Pi - 6 votes (31%)

The Fountain - 4 votes (21%)

The Wrestler - 2 votes (10%)

Requiem for a Dream - 0 votes (0%)

This victory for Black Swan comes on the day that Natalie Portman takes home the Golden Globe for her stellar performance in the film.  Now onto the Oscar...

My personal picks, in case you care, are (in descending order, though I have thoroughly enjoyed all five of the mustachio'd auteur's films) Black Swan, The Fountain, The Wrestler, Requiem and Pi.

I will be back in a few weeks with a brand new poll (which will probably have something to do with the Oscars).