My Quest To See the 1000 Greatest: #740 Thru #759

Here is a look at the latest batch of twenty films in my Quest to See the 1000 Greatest Films.  A complete look at my quest can be viewed HERE.

#740 - Roman Holiday (1953) - (#638 on TSPDT)  She may not be the best actress.  Nor is she even the most beautiful.  She is actually kind of funny looking in a cute sort of way (that funny face).  But still, Audrey Hepburn has a certain something - a je ne sais quoi if you will - that makes her and her characters instantly lovable - even those mostly unlikable characters like Holly Golightly.  But then we are not here to talk about Lula Mae Barnes.  We are here to talk about Anya, or Princess Ann, as played by the charming Miss Hepburn in William Wyler's Roman Holiday.   The film is rather slight, but it does show some rather powerful emotion in its second half, and the chemistry between Hepburn and costar Gregory Peck allows Wyler and screenwriter Dalton Trumbo (the once blacklisted writer's name was later put into the credits where it should have been all the time) to play into that.  In the end, I am not sure I would personally include this film on such a list - though it could sneak in near the end.  I suppose that is something we will find out when I make my own list of the 1000 greatest once I finish watching this list.

#741 - Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) - (#665 on TSPDT)  There is a line in the film that pretty much sums up the movie as a whole.  Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell, as money hungry and man hungry showgirls respectively, are boarding a cruise ship bound for France (somehow it is going directly to Paris, but let's not worry about that rather ill-mapped cinematic route right now).  They are of course being ogled by all the men aboard.  One man says to another, "If we hit an iceberg and begin to sink, which one would you save first?" whereupon he receives the reply, "Buddy, those girls aren't drowning."  Oh yeah, and it has a few really fun musical numbers in it as well.  Some a bit homoerotic (really Howard Hawks!?  You did not see that when filming!?) and some just downright diamond happy.  Overall a fun, if not quite great, musical extravaganza.

#742 - Plein Soleil (1960) - (#937 on TSPDT)  The original French version of The Talented Mr. Ripley, has a lot going for it.   Starring a young Alain Delon as the titular M. Ripley, this René Clément film (released as the ill-translated Purple Noon in the US) is appropriately subversive and sneering, just like any good French film should be.   Still though, even though it is enjoyable I do not know about it being ranked on here.

#743 - The Flowers of St. Francis (1950) - (#420 on TSPDT)  As I watched this film from Roberto Rossellini, I felt a strong case of deja vu.  I think perhaps I had seen this film many years ago - sometime in my so-called misbegotten youth - and therefore should have already checked it off the list.  But then again, I probably did not appreciate it back then (I did actually forget seeing it, so...) as I do now.  A beautiful film, it is easily deserving of being on this list, and perhaps should even be a bit higher than it is.

#744 - The Ladykillers (1955) - (#887 on TSPDT)  A fun romp indeed.  Definitely better than the rather mediocre Coen Brothers' remake with Tom Hanks.  Watching Alec Guinness, and his work in the Ealing Studio comedies of the fifties is quite fun.  Perhaps this is isn't one of the great comedies in film history, but it is fun.  Perhaps not quite fun enough to deserve inclusion on the list, but still rather fun.  Maybe I just like my Sir Alec with a bit more Jedi in him.

#745 - Floating Clouds (1955) - (#284 on TSPDT)  I liked this film.  It has all those subtle yet melodramatic touches that stylize Mikio Naruse's cinema.  It had the tragedy of Naruse as well.  Still though, to include what is essentially lesser Naruse, and include it so high on the list, while not including the director's far superior works like Repast or Yearning or A Woman Ascends the Stairs (which used to be on the list) or even an early film like Wife! Be Like a Rose!, seems a bit off kilter.

#746 - Man of Aran (1934) - (#346 on TSPDT)  There are moments, shots in this film that are a thing(s) of naturalistic wonder.  The waves beating beating beating against the rocks.  The surf devouring  the beach.  The faraway longing of the characters.  Of course this is Robert J. Flaherty just doing what Robert J. Flaherty does best.  This one may not reach the pinnacle of the director's oeuvre the way Nanook and Louisiana Story do, but that does not mean it is not worth your time.

#747 - Gun Crazy (1950) - (#450 on TSPDT)  This B-Movie classic is easily one of the sexiest films ever made under the auspices of the Hays Code.  As Peggy Cummins and John Dall fondle their weapons, undressing each other with lusting, gunshot looks (really, how did this stuff get past such prudish censors!?), Joseph H. Lewis' bandit B-Flick explodes with action and intrigue, and of course bang bang gun crazy desperation.  Personally I think this film - very possibly my new favourite noir - should be a hell of a lot higher than where it is - perhaps even in that ever-so-elusive top 100.  To read more on this film, take a look at my full length peice on the matter, "The Wild & Rollickin' Good Times of Joseph H. Lewis' Whirlwind On-the-Run Romance-cum-Film Noir B-Flick Masterpiece."

#748 - The Round-Up (1965) - (#781 on TSPDT)  With the long, long, long tracking shots of Miklós Jancsó, The Round-Up plays out like a methodically tuned whirling dervish of a motion picture - and I mean that in a mostly complementary manner.  Jancsó has never rally been my thing, and even though a talented and sometimes quite stunning of a shot-maker he may very well be, I just don't dig all that much on his cinema.  Still though, this is not to say the Hungarian is unworthy of the list.

#749 - The Threepenny Opera (1931) - (#654 on TSPDT)  The brazen storytelling of Bertolt Brecht.  The cool sophisticated charm of Kurt Weill.  The smooth filmmaking style of Georg Wilhelm Pabst.  The stern cocksure attitude of Rudolph Forster as Mack the Knife.  The disassociated otherworldliness of Lotte Lenya.  All these things pile up to make this early sound, Wiemar Republic version The Threepenny Opera pretty hot stuff.

#750 - The Sun Shines Bright (1953) - (#745 on TSPDT) At first, this Judge Priest tale by John Ford seemed to play out as nothing more than quaint fiddlesticks, but as the story progressed, it transformed itself into one of the western master's most eloquent works of racial and societal inequalities.  Yeah, it ain't The Searchers, but then what is!?

#751 - Letter From an Unknown Woman (1948) - (#94 on TSPDT)  Ya gotta love Max Ophüls and his ornate, succulent style, and it is in high gear in this Hollywood made work.  You also must love the drop-dead gorgeous Joan Fontaine going from a teenage girl to a desirous woman without really ever changing her look (something the actress has done before, most notably in The Constant Nymph - that time in love with a Frenchman as well).  Though the film was made on Hollywood back lots and sound stages, it simply and completely reeks (in the good way mind you) of turn of the century Vienna.  Beautiful work indeed.  Perhaps not quite top 100 material but close.

#752 - The French Connection (1971) - (#578 on TSPDT)  There are some fun chase scenes here (a rather famous car/train one even) and as far as Best Picture Oscar winners go it is the proverbial head & shoulders above most (granted though, not the most difficult of feats), and Gene Hackman hands in one of his best performances (though my vote would have still gone to Malcolm McDowell's Alex DeLarge that year) but still this is not one I would place on the list.

#753 - Olympia (1938) - (#528 on TSPDT)  Lavish and full of the typical bravado one would associate with the infamously cinematic Leni Riefenstahl.  Here, instead of helping to empower Da Fuhrer like she did (unwittingly perhaps??) in her earlier Triumph of the Will, Riefenstahl shows us the ins and outs of the 1936 Berlin Olympics.  Granted, Hitler is still involved, but as a much more minor character than before.  Many tend to brush off the talented Riefenstahl as nothing more than a propagandist and/or opportunist (the latter is probably more accurate a description) without also acknowledging how groundbreaking of a filmmaker she actually was.  I would never do such a thing.  Even if she were in bed (figuratively and quite possibly literally) with the Nazi party, this does not take away the bravura sensibilities of her directorial prowess.  And judging from the series of mountain films she did as an actress, she had pretty nice legs too.

#754 - Smiles of a Summer Night (1955) - (#648 on TSPDT)  This is the second early Bergman I have seen recently (the first being the oft-forgotten Sawdust and Tinsel) and it is the second that I have fallen in love with.  Crisp and chilling but ever so funny, this Swedish sex farce inspired many a future film (most notably Woody Allen's A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy), and is surely one of Bergman's best.  Personally, it ends up in my Bergman top 5.  It definitely deserves a much higher ranking than what it receives here.

#755 - Seconds (1966) - (#955 on TSPDT)  This is a film that has always been on my must see list but for one reason or another has always eluded me.  Now that I have finally seen the damn thing, I must remember to put aside some time to beat myself mercilessly for waiting this long to see it.  A fantastic and quite twisted film indeed.  This should definitely be a lot higher.  In fact it (like Gun Crazy above) should be in the top 100.

#756 - All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) - (#356 on TSPDT) The film certainly has some quite harrowing scenes of war, and is one of the better anti-war monuments around, but still, I prefer Kubrick's Paths of Glory or King Vidor's contemporaneous Big Parade. 

#757 - The Wind (1928) - (#310 on TSPDT)  One of the films Victor Sjöström did in Hollywood (handpicked by star Lillian Gish no less) but that does not mean it is a lesser work.  Granted, I personally prefer The Phantom Carriage (probably just my genre-giddy preferences) but The Wind is a pretty powerful work of art - and we get Lillian Gish (better with Sjöström than with Griffith - ha!) at her very Gishiest.

#758 - The Italian Straw Hat (1928) - (#959 on TSPDT)  Gotta admit that even though I normally enjoy the films of René Clair, this one kinda bored the ever-lovin' daylights outta me.  Perhaps it was because I was tired when I watched it (4am or something like that) but I do not plan on rewatching the damn thing just to find out.

#759 - Arsenal (1928) - (#997 on TSPDT) As far as the montage-heavy Soviet cinema of the 1920's goes, Eisenstein is the top dog, and his Battleship Potemkin is the top film.  The rest all seem to blend in together.  Two that manage to stand out a bit more are Earth and Arsenal, both by Dovzhenko.  Still though, Potemkin is the only one I could honestly call great.  Granted though, there are some moments of spectacular and harrowing beauty in Arsenal (the final shot is possibly, save for a certain moment in the Odessa Steps sequence of the aforementioned Potemkin, the best single shot in Soviet silent cinema) but overall it never comes together as a complete and great work of cinema.

Anomalous Material Weekly Feature: 10 Little Known Movies You Need to See Now

Here we are again true believers, with my latest weekly 10 best feature for the fine folks over at Anomalous Material.  For those of you not in the know, those same said fine folks have given me a (possibly foolish on their behalf) regular gig as feature writer.  It is a series of top ten lists on various cinematic subjects - and anyone who knows me can attest to how perfectly suited I am to such an endeavor (yes I am a  list nerd).  This week's feature, my twenty-fourth such feature, is the first in what will be a bi-monthly series looking at those obscure gems of cinema that get overlooked all too often.  The strange and the beautiful.  The unknown and the forgotten.  The lost and the found.   These are the films that you have probably never even heard of.  Okay, I am sure some of you have, but still, you get my point.

Read my feature article, "10 Little Known Movies You Need to See Now" at Anomalous Material.

As I said above, this is going to be a regular bi-monthly series over at AM, which is a good thing because, sadly enough, there are probably several hundred more films that need to be included in such a list/series.  Below is an image from one of these several hundred that can also act as a preview for the next installment in this series.

 

Film Review: Attenberg

More times than not, the national cinema of Greece seems to be in a world all its own.   Granted, there are similarities with neighbouring nations like Hungary and Romania and the Balkans - slow, methodical pacing, strange surreal imagery, the visual over the narrative - but Greece holds its own with its own sense of strangeness.  And in recent years Greek directors have taken this inherent strangeness and played it into an even stranger kind of subversion.  This was more than evident in Yorgos Lanthimos brilliantly sadistic 2009 film, Dogtooth, and it is again evident here in the much sweeter but still quite seditious Attenberg.

Directed by Athina Rachel Tsangari, Attenberg is the story of Marina, a sexually naive 23 year old woman who lives with her dying father and receives life and love lessons from her much more promiscuous and worldly friend Bella.  With more than an obvious nod to the New Wave movements of the 1960's, Tsangari's film is full of both overly giddy excitement and bone-crushing waves of depression, all the meanwhile interspersed with moments of non-sequitor dancing and performance art gaiety.   Granted, this film is no more strange than many out there.  It never delves all that deeply into the bizarre, antidisastablishmentarianism of the works of someone like Jan Svankmajer or the Brothers Quay or Jodorowsky, or for that matter the dark escapes of Bela Tarr or the Romanians, and it certainly is not a cinema for the masses (though in Greece this may not be true), but for the more daring filmgoer, it could easily be a surprising and very welcome little treat.

The true highlights of this film though are the performances of its lead actresses.  Arian Labed as Marina and Evangelia Randou as Bella are both strange and beautiful creatures indeed, and this, should I say otherworldiness for lack of a better or less clichéd word, lends to the insular characterization these two actresses expose us to.  Labed took home the Best Actress prize at Venice, and deservedly so if one were to ask me, for this unusual yet archetypal performance.  Not so incidentally, the film also features the aforementioned Dogtooth helmsman Yorgos Lanthimos as Marina's first encounter.  Lanthimos also acts as producer on this film, as Ms. Tsangari did on Dogtooth, and is directing a new film which stars Labed.  The Greek film industry must be the proverbial small world you've heard tell about.  But I suppose if this is today's Greek cinema, with its kook-kook-kooky cinematic bravura, again hearkening back to the French and Czech New Waves, then there are worse kinds of cinema to be. 

Film Review: John Carter

Walt Disney's latest sci-fi adventure film, John Carter, is based on "The Princess of Mars", the first in an eleven volume series written by Edgar Rice Burroughs, about the trials and tribulations of John Carter of Mars, a Confederate Army Captain who is mysteriously transported to Mars (or Barsoom as the natives call the red planet) and forced to fight for not only his life, but the life of the entire planet.  This year marks the centennial of the book's original publication, so I suppose this is as good a time as any to release a movie on the subject.  Apparently though, while in production, the so-called genius marketing gurus at Disney found out, through agonizingly painstaking demographic research, that people are less likely to see a movie with Mars in the title than one without.  Now this probably has less to do with Mars itself than with the inability to make a good movie about the damned planet.   Though I stand behind both Robinson Crusoe of Mars and, believe it or not, Mars Attacks!, I think Mission to Mars and Ghosts of Mars should be enough relatively recent activity to authenticate such a theory.  But I digress.

So, with Mars successfully out of the title, let us look at the movie itself.  The film, directed by first time live action director Andrew Stanton (Finding Nemo, WALL-E), has been getting a lot of critical flack in the weeks before its release, but I really do not see anything majorly wrong with the film.  Sure, it has its cheezy, quite kitschy elements, but how could a film set on Mars (or Barsoom if you will) and featuring seven and a half feet tall green men with horns and four arms apiece, not be as kitschy as it is?  So kitschy in fact that they cast a man named Taylor Kitsch to play the titular man of Mars.  Kitsch, who incidentally was the man who made this comic book head from long ago quite angry with his quite lame portrayal of Gambit in the all-around quite lame X-Men Origins: Wolverine, gives a gusto-filled performance that is good enough for such a genre as this.  Add to this the sexy warrior princess of the original book's title, played with her own certain gusto (of the ooh la la variety) by Lynn Collins of True Blood, and the aforementioned not-so-jolly green giants (voiced by, among others, Willem Dafoe, Samantha Morton and Thomas Haden Church), and you have yourself a solid, if not more than a bit kitschy, sci-fi adventure film.

It obviously would be quite ridiculous to call a picture that cost upwards of $250 Million a B-Picture, but nonetheless, style-wise that is exactly what John Carter (with or with Mars attached) is.  With an aesthetic that reminds one of those cheesy Flash Gordon/Buck Rogers serials of yesteryear (thanks to CGI, no strings attached when it comes to special effects), as well as having an effect on Star Wars (Lucas names Edgar Rice as a big influence), John Carter is the epitome of the B-Pic mentality, and taking it in this manner, instead of the apparent seriousness some of my fellow critical compatriots have taken it, one cannot help but become enthralled with its wild and crazy goings-on.  Though it costs more (and shows it) John Carter closes relative seems to be the 1980 camp cult classic version of Flash Gordon.  From its reluctant Earth- born hero to its warring factions to its crazed native populations to its hot battle-ready princess to its maniacal despot to its last minute dreaded wedding rescue finale, one cannot help but see the abundant similarities, and this too highlights its kitschy camp qualities.  Sure, this may not be a great action epic that will go down in the annals of film history, but for what it's worth, it is quite an enjoyable picture indeed.

Retro Review: Teeth (Mitchell Lichtenstein, 2007)

The following is part of a series where I bring back some of my "older" reviews (those written during my 2004-2011 tenure at the now mostly defunct The Cinematheque) and offer them up to a "newer" generation.

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Teeth is a giddy mish-mash of genre monikers, from female empowerment movie to coming-of-age saga to black comedy-horror to rape and revenge drama to Lynchian suburban melodrama. Pop artist fil Mitchell Lichtenstein gives us the story of Dawn, a white picket fence pretty young girl coping with growing up "pure and virginal" in a world obsessed with sexual innuendo around each and every corner. This includes her own house as her lecherous big bad wolf epitome'd stepbrother sniffs after her with tongue a-flicking. After a date gone horribly, horribly awry, Dawn finds out that she is cursed with the mythical mutation known as "vaginal dentata" - aka she's got razor sharp teeth in her pussy, yo!  The result is that Teeth ends up being a quirky (how could it not be?), sunnily macabre work of neo-candy pop gyno-horror that can in no way whatsoever be watched by anyone of the male gender without constant squirming and shuffling about in what are suddenly very uncomfortable seats.

Opening in the suburban shadow of a nuclear power plant with towers billowing grey choke from their own gritty teeth, as if a nod-and-a-wink absurdist homage to The Simpsons.  Teeth struts out with a creeping small town menace overlying everything, and proceeds down a road of desperate reciprocatory acts of the most bizarre nature.  With the perils of male violence festooned within every darting-eyed nook and cranny moment, Teeth takes place in a world completely ensconced within one of those old sex ed filmstrips made to keep junior high school girls legs clamped shut until their wedding night - and first-time director Lichtenstein tosses this all at us with the sincerest kind of camp style.

Dawn, played with a scared forest animal comic frenzy by Jess Weixler, looking every bit the girl next door on the verge of bad girl in the basement is spokesperson for a promise ring wearing teenage purity movement - a movement lampooned on Family Guy but given real "teeth" here. Dawn is seen as the ultimate sexual goal-cum-prize by just about every male classmate in her school, as if every teenage boy is some sort of licentious lycanthrope ready to pounce and deflower every pretty girl they come across at the drop of a hat - or any article of clothing. Dawn sees herself as such too and fights even her own naturally budding urges (a scene showing our intrepid heroine in bed "thinking" about a boy she longs for attests to such) to keep her vow of chastity upright. That is until one fateful swimmin' hole romp that ends with the lake being dredged for the body of Dawn's unfortunate date sans one pretty important body part.

Once the newly deflowered Dawn throws away the moniker of cursed hoo-hah and looks upon her mutation as a rightful empowerment to avenge her becoming the victim of the seemingly rampant male violence of this strange new world the film goes from anti-sexual to proto-sexual. With Dawn going from Little Red Riding Hood to the Big Bad Wold herself, the film here turns from strangely charming fantasy to something straight out of a seedy dogeared pulp fiction paperback. It is at this point that Teeth philosophically joins in with such rape & revenge films as Abel Ferrara's Ms. 45 and its more recent counterpart The Brave One from Neil Jordan. Teeth though is a much less mature, more light-hearted film that the aforementioned. After all, horror-edged or not, Lichtenstein is going for laughs here. Leaving a hilarious slew of severed penii (as well as four fingers of a rather over-amorous gynecologist) in her wake, Dawn strews her victims "better halves" across the landscape like discarded cigarette butts in the early dusky morning after a concert in the park.

One scene, inevitably choreographed, involves Dawn's salacious step-brother (played with a grim concupiscence by snarky Nip/Tuck regular John Hensley), his pet rottweiler and his freshly decapitated member half eaten with its pierced tip discarded like so much gristle. Though obvious in its outcome, this scene is certainly the pièce de résistance of this giddily twisted fairy tale of female empowerment overtaking a male dominated society of sexual despotism. On a whole, Teeth is funny, though a little bit crotch-writhing for those of us so engendered. Lichtenstein's film is a delight of, albeit stereotyped caricatures, fumbling their way through a darkish suburban nightmarescape that combines the punchy humor of a youthful Almódovar with the clean efficiently disturbed Middle America of a budding David Lynch. This critic for one, looks forward to what will come next. 

[Originally published as a DVD review at Plume Noire on 02/04/09]

The Lost and Forgotten Legacy of Helen Twelvetrees

The following is my contribution to the Gone Too Soon Blogathon at Comet Over Hollywood.

Simply for having such an unforgettable name, one would think Helen Twelvetrees' memory would live on long after the actress herself did.  Granted, she was never in what one could honestly call a hit movie, and her film career faded away long before she did, but still, back in the pre-code days of Hollywood, the woman born Helen Marie Jurgens, was always just a film or two away from becoming the breakout star that RKO contemporary Katharine Hepburn would become right before the actress's jaded eyes.  Sadly for her, and for those of us who have seen her films (the few that fit such a demographic), this breakout would never come.

Our story begins with the birth of Helen Jurgens in Brooklyn on Christmas day 1908, but since little is known about her childhood, let us jump ahead just a bit.  Helen would go on to graduate from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, where incidentally she would meet her first husband, Clark Twelvetrees, and begin a career on the stage.  As the silent era came to an end and many Hollywood stars could not or would not make the transition to sound films, the studios hit the live theaters and would restock their stable of stars with stage actors.  Among those signing contracts with Fox, was nineteen year old Mrs. Twelvetrees.  She would make her screen debut starring in the studio's second talkie, The Ghost Talks, and would fake a lisp during filming (apparently in order to help show off the new sound technology) that was so successful that a rumour went around town claiming the actress had a speech impediment.

After this, Twelvetrees would star in one of the earliest musicals, Words and Music, a relatively forgettable film that is mostly noteworthy for being the first film in which John Wayne received billing (as Duke Morrison).  Following a split with Fox, after just three films, Twelvetrees would sign with Pathé, which would soon be taken over by RKO.  At her new studio, the actress would make several respectable but ultimately failed films.  Her most notable (and my personal favourite) is a film called Millie, where Twelvetrees plays a jaded goldigging woman who must deal with her wanton life.  This film, with its sexually blatant - at least for the time - storyline, and its somewhat closer-to-the-ground moral code, is a perfect example of the pre-code era in Hollywood.

Twelvetrees, along with other RKO players like Constance Bennett, would become the face of the pre-code era, but Twelvetrees days at RKO were limited - and she knew it.  Upon the arrival of Katharine Hepburn at the studio, Twelvetrees knew her days were up and would go freelance hereafter.  Twelvetrees would make another two dozen films throughout the 1930's, but  relegated to small parts in B-Pictures, she would never become the breakout star some thought she would, and in 1939 she would announce her retirement from Hollywood, and go back to the stage she loved so much - but even this would prove mostly unsuccessful, and she would retire from acting all together, save for a well-received return as Blanche Dubois in a 1951 production of Streetcar, in the 1940's.

Twelvetrees' personal life was just as tumultuous as her zig-zag career, which helped klead to a breakdown in her career.  Divorcing her first husband in 1931 (though keeping his name) and marrying her second, stuntman Frank Woody shortly thereafter.  Between drunken feuds and public panning, Twelvetrees and Woody would divorce in 1936.  Twelvetrees would fade into obscurity after her retirement, and would commit suicide in 1958, at the age of 49, and is interred in an unmarked grave in Middletown, Pennsylvania.  The connection between Twelvetrees' death in Harrisburg, PA, and this being my hometown (for a year or so, I even lived just down the street from the very cemetery the actress now inhabits), brought this look at this mostly forgotten actress to cyber-fruition.  On a high note in this sad tale of the lady with the sad eyes, there is currently a movement to get a headstone placed on Twelvetrees' grave.  One can contribute to the fund here.  This will hopefully become a done deal before Summer hits.

Now granted, Twelvetrees was perhaps not the greatest of actresses.  Her fear of competing for roles with a young Hepburn is proof that she too knew this.  Of course, Twelvetrees' talents were never fully explored so perhaps one day, under better circumstances, she could have grown into a great actress.  In the few films I have seen her in, she did a fine job (her performance in  Millie was especially tragic and she more than held her own in a role that could have been played by someone like Barbara Stanwyck), and showed that there probably was quite a bit more than what we were allowed to see.  Sadly enough, we will never know the full extent of Twelvetrees' talents, but if this piece on the long lost actress gets even just one person to check out her films, then it is well worth the writing.  Now go out there and see these films.

The Wild & Rollickin' Good Times of Joseph H. Lewis' Whirlwind On the Run Romance-cum-Film Noir B-Flick Masterpiece Gun Crazy

Jean Luc Godard famously said that all you need for a good movie is a girl and a gun.  For all we know, the Nouvelle Vague director was imagining Joseph H. Lewis' 1950 B-Picture, Gun Crazy, when he spoke these words.  It would make more than perfect sense if he were, especially considering he and his compatriots' love of American film noir.  I suppose though, that in the case of Gun Crazy, one could give top billing to the gun, not the girl.  Yes, the girl, played by blonde hot-to-trot, flash-in-the-pan Irish actress Peggy Cummins, is your quintessential femme fatale, and it was her genre-specific wiles that caused bad boy to be Bart (lead John Dall) to take up a life of robbing banks and running from the law, but really it is the gun, or in this case the many guns, that make both of these characters go all wobbly in the lower middle.  Sam Adams of the Philadelphia City Paper wrote of the film, "The codes of the time prevented Lewis from being explicit about the extent to which their fast-blooming romance is fueled by their mutual love of weaponry, but when Cummins' six-gun dangles provocatively as she gasses up their jalopy, it's clear what really fills their collective tank."  I think that pretty much says it all - but let's go on anyway.

After a prologue featuring Russ Tamblyn as a teenaged Bart, made to explain the character's unnatural and inevitably tragic attraction to guns, Bart, now played by Dall, meets up with Cummins' Annie Laurie Starr at a sideshow carnival.  Cummins, dressed in the most wet dream inducing of cowgirl outfits, replete with skin tight pants and dangling gun belt, goes mano y mano with Dall's smitten young man on the stage of her shilled marksmanship show.  As these two take William Tell shots at each other, their fingers fondling their revolvers, their lusting eyes glistening with obvious desire, we become acutely aware that these two people want to shoot more than just guns at each other.  With innuendo somehow getting past the censors of the day (though I am sure they could have gone even further if the code had not still been in effect), this run amok romp of guns and guns and more "guns," was pure sex.  Of course, when the director, in an interview in Cult Films by Danny Peary, explains his directions as thus:  "I told John, 'Your cock's never been so hard,' and I told Peggy, 'You're a female dog in heat, and you want him. But don't let him have it in a hurry. Keep him waiting.' That's exactly how I talked to them and I turned them loose. I didn't have to give them more directions." how could this not be a film that was pure (censors willing) sex?

Since its initial release, the film, which not so incidentally was scripted by the then blacklisted Dalton Trumbo whose name was eventually and rightfully re-added to the credits many years later, has become a cult favourite.  Its most important influence would be upon Arthur Penn, who took what Lewis did in Gun Crazy, and ripped it to glorious pieces in his code-shattering 1967 classic Bonnie and Clyde.  Appropriately so, since the latter film is the story of a pair of real life bank robbers (and sexually charged gun enthusiasts) upon whom Gun Crazy was loosely based on in the first place.   Lewis' original 1950 film lent a lot to Penn's iconic sixties film.  Its use of on location shooting and improvised dialogue, much of the film seemingly (and brilliantly) made up on the spot (in order to give it more of a frenzied realism, the bank robbing scene was shot without the knowledge of any of the passersby on the scene), were huge influences on Penn, and for that matter many other filmmakers such as Martin Scorsese, David Lynch, Quentin Tarantino, who has made allusions to the film on more than one filmic occasion, and of course the aforementioned French New Wavers, especially Godard who used it as a template for much of his debut Breathless. 

Dall and Cummins would never have the kind of film career one could call breakthrough or even overly successful.  Dall, known primarily for his stage work, had back to back successes with this film and Alfred Hitchcock's Rope, where he played Farley Granger's more cool minded partner in crime.  Still though, this was more than what the curvy Cummins is known for.  Gun Crazy was Cummins only truly significant film work, and she has lived in the United Kingdom in contented retirement since 1961.  But the impact these two made in a film like Gun Crazy will live on forever.  After all, gun crazed as a boy or not, what red-blooded American lad could successfully fend off the advances, or even want to, of someone like Peggy Cummins' Annie Laurie Starr, no matter how tragic one knows the end circumstances to inevitably be?  After all, the film has an alternate title of Deadly is the Female, so none of Cummins' alluringly deadly come-hitherness should come as any surprise.  I suppose, in the end, Godard was right about needing just a girl and a gun to make a movie - and Joseph H. Lewis makes one hell of a B-flick, pop art motion picture out of these two things.  Oh, and a whole lot of sexual tension to boot.

Film Review: The Kid With a Bike

Not many filmmakers do the edge of tragedy better than brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne.  Just when you feel yourself getting cocky enough to think you know what will happen next, these ever-so-sly Belgian brothers pull the proverbial rug out from under your cinematic expectations.  With their latest, The Kid With a Bike, it is business as usual for the brothers, which means nothing but good things for all those Dardenne admirers out there - myself included.  One of the few directors, or pair of directors as the case may be, to be honoured with Cannes' Palme d'Or twice (for Rosetta in 99 and L'Enfant in 05), this film, which incidentally was awarded the Grand Prix, Cannes' second highest honour, is nearly those film's equal - if not their actual equals.  And that ain't just me whistlin' hyperbolic Dixie either.

Brilliantly seductive, with the Dardenne's usual subtle and deceptive grace, The Kid With a Bike is the story of a boy, his bike and the woman who tries to pull him out of the violent world he begins to crumble into after being abandoned by his father.  With a pair of quite spectacular performances from Cécile de France and Thomas Doret, and with more than a mere nod to The Bicycle Thieves, this tender and quite disarming coming-of-age tale takes the genre and ferociously, but quite carefully so, turns it on its own head.  In fact this is probably the most poignant, and the most realistic (while at the same time playing as a modern day fairy tale of sorts), and the most demanding (the Dardennes' cinema is nothing if not a demanding kind of cinema) coming-of-age story since Ken Loach gave us Kes way back in 1969.  The Dardennes have taken their typically no-frills style of poetic realism (and this time, unlike their past oeuvre, with an actual soundtrack set perfectly in tune with the film itself) and once again make it sing with a much deeper resonance than one would expect from such a type of cinema.

It may sound as if I am gushing - and I suppose I am - but I don't seem to be able to stop myself.  It may not be the be all and end all of modern cinema (there are at least two films released this year that I have liked more) but it is probably better than anything the brothers have yet done, with the notable exception of the aforementioned Rosetta (the duo's one true masterpiece of endurance cinema), and better than most of what world cinema has given us in recent days.  The Kid With a Bike may not have the overbearing power of the doubly aforementioned Rosetta, but in a much smaller, more subtle way, (this film will certainly sneak up on you) it is its very own emotionally charged powder keg of a film.  Just think of how this film would be ruined in the hands of the modern day machine that is Hollywood.  Like I said earlier, the Dardenne's take us to the precipice of tragedy, and pull us back when we think it is not enough, or toss us over when we are afraid it is too much, better than just about anyone out there today - and after a minor, just minor, slip with Lorna's Silence, the brother's prove just that.  A pair of modern day Bresson's indeed.

My Quest To See the 1000 Greatest: #720 Thru #739

Here is a look at the latest batch of twenty films in my Quest to See the 1000 Greatest Films.  A complete look at my quest can be viewed HERE.

#720 - Les dames du Bois de Boulogne (1945) - (#508 on TSPDT)  This earlier, more story driven Bresson film seems a bit pedestrian when compared to his more artistic and aesthetic later work, but a well acted piece nonetheless - which I suppose is ironic since Bresson later wanted his actors, or models as he called them, to do anything but act.

#721/722 - The Golden Coach (1952) & French Cancan (1954) - (#507/484)  Back to back Renoir is pretty hard to beat.  These succulent, gorgeous films, both coming during the auteur's exile in the Hollywood, are simply beautiful to look at and beautiful to listen to.  Both playing games with the idea of stage and screen - what is real and what is not - these two films, along with Elena and Her Men (not on the list, but should be) make up a trilogy of sorts on this very same idea.  The River may be Renoir's greatest work outside of France, but these two come a close second and third.

#723 - The Fallen Idol (1948) - (#668 on TSPDT)  Before taking on My Quest, The Third Man was the only Carol Reed film I had seen.  My take on that was that Orson Welles had probably ghost directed much of the film since it seemed to be in his style.  Didn't really give poor Mr. Reed much credit, even though, upon finally seeing The Fallen Idol (about time, huh?), he surely deserves it.  Now perhaps Welles did give some pointers, especially the scenes involving old Harry Lime, but we can see here (in another adaptation of Graham Greene) that Reed had a filmmaking prowess all his very own.  A sly and twisted film that is highlighted by the always wonderful, and always dangerously sly himself, Sir Ralph Richardson in the titular fallen role.

#724 - You Only Live Once (1937) - (#809 on TSPDT)  Fritz Lang's second film after arriving in Hollywood, and a typically strong work of noirish Langian cinema.   With obvious influences upon Nick Ray's work, this film about an ex-con in over his head and the faithful love of his life, has got to be a major influence on They Live By Night particularly.  I know the Ray film is based on a novel, but certain moments do seem to be echoed in Ray's debut feature twelve years later.  But of course it is Arthur Penn's Bonnie & Clyde that owes the biggest debt here, being that this film is somewhat loosely based on the hold-up duo.  And of course stars Henry Fonda and Sylvia Sidney are both great in their roles.   I would surely place this at number two (below Rancho Notorious but above Beyond a Reasonable Doubt) of Lang's Hollywood output.

#725 - Limite (1931) - (#751 on TSPDT)   An experimental film from the early days of Brazilian cinema.  Well, anyone who follows this site and/or has read past entries in My Quest knows my somewhat strong aversion to the so-called art of experimental cinema.  Still though, this film does have some interesting moments to it, but as is the case with much of experimental cinema, it just goes on way too long.  Ah well, it least it was not Stan Brakhage.

#726 - Subarnarekha (1965) - (#808 on TSPDT)  Directed by Ritwik Ghatak, the man responsible for the beautiful Cloud-Capped Star.  This film tends to drag at times (some editing would have been welcome) but when it doesn't, it sings.  Ghatak may not have the passion of Guru Dutt or the humanism of Satyajit Ray, but he does have a flair for haunting faraway imagery. 

#727 - There's Always Tomorrow (1956) - (#717 on TSPDT)  Ya gotta love Sirk.  Granted, this is somewhat lesser Sirk, and for that matter, it is lesser Stanwyck too (and probably lesser MacMurray as well), but still a rather strong melodrama of the day.  Still though, I am not sure why this film is on the list and the far superior Magnificent Obsession is not.  But I suppose I could say that about a lot of films suspiciously missing from the list - but I will gripe about that some other time.

#728 - Louisiana Story (1948) - (#985 on TSPDT)  Such a simple film, a boy and his pet raccoon lazing their way through the bayou, with occasional visits to the world's friendliest oil rig, but so damn mesmerizing.  Flaherty's final film and the ethnographic documentarian's finest and most beautiful work.  I first heard of this film way back when I was just getting into the world of cinema, while perusing the BFI's Sight & Sound lists of the greatest films (it was on the original 1952 list, above Rules of the Game and Citizen Kane, the latter of which did not even make the list), but for one reason or another, I did not catch up on it only now.  Well, I suppose I can say it was worth the wait indeed.

#729 - ¡Que viva Mexico!  (1931/1979) - (#631 on TSPDT)  When one thinks Sergei Eisenstein, one probably does not automatically think of the history and culture of Mexico.  Yet, here it is.  Shot by Eisenstein in 1931 but never completed until 1979, thirty one years after the great Soviet director's death.  Edited and finished by Eisenstein's friend and colleague Grigori Aleksandrov, this film is by far the director's most romanticized and naturalistic film - though much of this could have been Aleksandrov's touches.  A fascinating piece of motion picture history that works as a look into the non-partisan side of the director (though there is a revolutionary section of the film) as well as his most pure and unadulterated cinematic work.   This film can stand alongside any of the director's Soviet works of the 1920's any day.

#730 - Faust (1926) - (#437 on TSPDT)  Though there is a stellar, bigger than life performance by Emil Jannings (what other kind of performance did the big man ever give!?) and an appropriately dark and demented feel that goes hand-in-hand with the cinema of German Expressionism, this is still my least favourite Murnau.  Of course even lesser Murnau is better than most other things, so take that as you may.

#731 - Great Expectations (1946) - (#335 on TSPDT)  David Lean's films tend to be long and drawn out and often quite tedious.  Granted, they usually look great, but still, for better and for worse, they have no real feel to them.   With that said, I must admit to actually enjoying this rather truncated version of the Dickens classic.  Even with its silly, happy ending.   Does this make me a bad person?  Oh well.

#732 - El Verdugo (1963) - (#344 on TSPDT)  The highest ranked of Luis Garciá Berlanga's three films on the list, yet also my third favourite of these same three films (actually my favourite of the Spanish comic auteur's three list films was kicked off during the last update, but that is another complaint for another day).  Still though, a quite funny tale of mishaps and miscreants galore.

#733 - Kaagaz Ke Phool (1959) - (#719 on TSPDT)  Tragic figure Guru Dutt's final film as a director (though he may have ghost directed others after this) is a look at the film industry in India, and more specifically, one director (played by Dutt, as was the norm in his films) and his attempt at creating art and loving the star that will eventually become bigger than he.  With similar motifs to Fellini's 8 1/2 a few years later, Dutt's film (a financial and critical flop which led to his quitting directing) is one of those works than can be called haunting without the term seeming all that clichéd.  Out of the eight films Dutt directed between 1951 and 1959, I would place this one second to his one near masterpiece Pyaasa.

#734 - Claire's Knee (1970) - (#388 on TSPDT)  I have got to admit that I am not a huge fan of Eric Rohmer (I would place him fourth, behind Godard, Truffaut and Rivette, if I were to list my favourite New Wave directors) but that does not mean I look poorly upon his films.  In fact, I think this has now topped Pauline at the Beach (in a way a very similar film) as my favourite of the auteur's oeuvre.  Probably the first Rohmer I would come close to laying the word great upon.  A strange little film that plays at being both innocent and demure, while also subtly sexually subversive.  Okay, perhaps not all that subtly.

#735 - The Naked Spur (1953) - (#695 on TSPDT)  Anthony Mann made a series of revisionist westerns with Jimmy Stewart that combined to change the face of the western that would eventually lead into the days of Leone and Peckinpah.  This film is the middle one of these five films and it is the one ranked the highest on the list (though still not that high).  Perhaps Mann's films do not have the physical beauty of some by John Ford, but as far as creating a compelling, oft-times psychologically twisted, story, then, Anthony Mann is your, er...man.

#736 - The Nutty Professor (1963) - (#884 on TSPDT)  Many, some of them may have been French, have called Jerry Lewis a comic genius.  After finally seeing what is considered his greatest work toward such a moniker, I do not think I would go quite that far.  Funny as hell?  Sure.  But a comic genius?  Probably not.  But still funny as hell.  Some of the nuances that Lewis puts in to his nerdy prof and his alter ego Buddy Love is quite funny.  With some of the same comic timing that people such as Groucho Marx and Buster Keaton have shown throughout their careers, Lewis has created a very enjoyable romp with The Nutty Professor (a film that has since been ruined for younger generations thanks to Eddie Murphy's God-awful remakes) but I would leave the comic genius tag with the aforementioned Groucho and Buster.

#737 - A Woman of Paris (1923) - (#795 on TSPDT)  This was Chaplin's first dramatic work and the first time he did not appear in (other than a quick, unrecognizable cameo as a train porter) a film he directed.  And just so no one was taken unawares, Chaplin had even prefaced the film, and all its ads, with this fact.  But alas, the film was a box office flop.  The people wanted the Little Tramp dammit!!  Actually, the fact that the film, with its subtle acting and progressive storyline (censored in many cities and towns), was way way way ahead of its time, may have had something to do with the film's flopping.  Nah, it was probably the whole no Little Tramp thing.  I quite liked it though.

#738 - Tabu, A Story of the South Seas (1931) - (#228 on TSPDT)  This Muranu film (co-directed of sorts with Robert Flaherty), the director's final film, released just after his death, is the highest ranked film in this update, and for the most part (excepting the two Renoir and Flaherty's own Louisiana Story) deserves to be.  A fascinating look at tribal culture and law in the form of a tragic romance.  History tells us that Flaherty was not happy with Murnau's screenplay - calling it too westernized - but even with this dissent, the combination of the German auteur's directorial prowess and Flaherty's naturalistic filmmaking style, make for a surprisingly intriguing work of cinematic art.  I suppose considering this is a film from these two men, I should not be all that surprised at its bravura standing.

#739 - Anatomy of a Murder (1959) - (#872 on TSPDT)  Jimmy Stewart is one of those actors who never seem like they are acting.  He is just smoothly natural with a homespun charm that covers up how sharp-witted and powerful of an actor he truly is.  His performance in this Otto Preminger film is one of his finest, but such a great film as this - one of Preminger's finest as well - is already quite spectacular, even without Stewart.  But yeah, he certainly makes it better.  Many in the field of law have called this the most accurate look at a court trial ever put onto film, but more importantly, much more importantly (who wants truth when they can have the artifice of the most beautiful fraud in the world - yeah, I said it), is that Preminger has sewn together a succulent and quite devious motion picture experience, and one of the main contributing factors (along with Some Like it Hot and Psycho) to the eventual downfall of the Hays Code in Hollywood.

Film Review: Chico & Rita

With its semi-surprise late inning Oscar nod for Best Animated Feature (I predicted it - just sayin'), this unique work of animation, incorporating hand drawings with live action rotoscoping and computer generated effects, showing us the lively world of Cuban Jazz before the revolution, and the fatalistic world post revolution, is a bravura work of daring gusto.  Sexy and sensual in both picture and story (we do get animated lovemaking and full frontal cartooning, but in a much less sensationalized manner than in something like Heavy Metal) the Spanish born, Havana/NYC/LA/Vegas set Chico & Rita takes away the sheen of the typical high end modern day animation a la Pixar and company, and gives us a rough-hewn, passionate look at love, life, music, success and loss.  In other words, a dynamic feeling and even more dynamic looking work of animation chutzpah - and it works baby.

Directed by Fernando Trueba (Belle Époque and Calle 54) and artist/designer turned first time director Javier Marsical, and telling the story of Chico, a down and out piano player and songwriter and the long and tumultuous affair he has with  singer/dancer Rita, this rather erotic look at Cuba in its heyday, and the downfall of both this society and the love between these two young lovers, replete with backstabbing, star struck stupidity and hot Latin jazz of the period, is a sight for sore eyes one could very well say.  The imagery of the film (some animation ne're do wells have called the film cheap looking, but what do these fools know!) syncs beautifully with story, as both are dangerous and could come apart at any moment - and I mean this as a compliment on both ends.

With a soundtrack that includes Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gellespie, Chano Pozo, Tito Puente and Bebo Valdés, a Cuban pianist and arranger of the film score, who was brought out of obscurity by Trueba in his 2000 jazz doc Calle 54, and a look and feel that recreates a boom time in Cuba and in its music (a time before communism, when many would come to the States to play) this film is a buggy beast of boss tones that holds no punches in its storytelling, while still maintaining the most classic tale of love and loss and love again - and I mean that as a compliment as well.  The film ended up losing the Oscar to the more well known, and more well seen, Rango, and I suppose it rightfully did so (its nomination was its reward some might say), but nonetheless, Chico & Rita is a film well worth seeing if not for its taut storyline, which is worth it alone, then for its incredible jazz and flamenco soundtrack.   If only more animated films had such heart and soul.

Film Review: The Secret World of Arrietty

In today's world of sleek picture perfect computer animation - the kind of Pixar/Dreamworks kind of stuff that is nearly flawless in its look but utterly cold and antiseptic in its feel - it is always a welcome respite to be able to peer upon the classic cel animation style of Japan's Studio Ghibli.  It may not live up to the near impossible standards of today's aforementioned picture perfection - nor to that younger generation of why nots that crave the smooth shiny coating to the chewy yummy center of things - but its charming visual cadence and soft, watercolour like appearance, give the studio that brought us the brilliant Spirited Away, the succulent My Neighbor Totoro, the haunting Grave of the Fireflies and the adorable child's tale of Ponyo, the most elegant and painterly of looks - and to this old school animation guy, that is the best thing one could hope for.

The latest lovely piece from Studio Ghibli is The Secret World of Arrietty, or as it was originally known in its native Japan, The Borrower Arrietty.  Written by Japanese anime master Hayao Miyazaki (director of three of the aforementioned studio works), along with Keiko Niwa, and based on Mary Norton's classic children's book The Borrowers, the Secret World of Arrietty, directed by first time director and Miyazaki protege (and, at just 38, the youngest director in Studio Ghibli history) Hiromasa Yonebayashi, is the story of the most charismatic of Miss Norton's Borrowers, a young and most curious girl by the name of Arietty.  For those not in the know, Borrowers are little people (small enough to stretch out in a human's hand) who live in the nooks and crannies of houses and live on items they borrow, but that will not be missed, such as sugar cubes and tea leaves.  In our story, little Arietty is seen by a human boy, and it is with this much taboo event that the Borrowers lives erupt in very unwanted excitement and danger.

First released in Japan back in 2010, the film finally winds its way to the States in, as is par the course for Studio Ghibli films, a Walt Disney distributed English dubbed version.  Sadly though, unlike earlier releases of films like Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle, where the films were released in both Japanese and English versions in the US (the Japanese tending of course to play in the more art house kind of venues) it would seem that Arrietty is being released in an English only rendition this time around.  Now granted, the English version is not a bad film - hearing real life husband and wife Amy Poehler and Will Arnett as Arrietty's parents is somewhat odd but still quite fun - but to hear a film in its native tongue is always the preferred way.  But alas, as far as theatrical release goes, Disney's English language dubbing is what we get (the UK also has their own version, with Saoirse Ronan as the titular little person), so I suppose it is what we must live with it - unless of course you were able to seek out the original Japanese version which incidentally is available on DVD, and as I have already stated, is the preferred way to watch said film.   But either way, the tender yet vivid animation on the film is quite stunning and the story, though perhaps a bit more slight than some other Studio Ghibli works, is nonetheless quite enthralling.

Oscar Round-Up.....and Almost a New Record

Damn that Meryl Streep!  Seriously, with just two awards left to go in the night - Actress and Picture - and having already predicted 18 of the first 22 correctly, it looked as if I would finally break my record of 19 correct guesses (done in both '08 and '09 before plummeting to a record low of 16 last year).  But no dammit, that bitch Streep had to come in and ruin everything.  Okay, I am not really mad at La Streep.  How could anybody be mad at La Streep?  So please, do not comment about how much of a bastard I am - because it is just a joke people.  Just a joke.  Even if her film was what they call utter crap, or at the very least (or best?) utterly mediocre, Streep's performance was quite good.  Seriously though, I was happy to see Meryl win this (my personal vote would have gone to Rooney Mara, or perhaps the ever lovely Miss Michelle Williams), even if she did screw up a possible new record.  But alas, I digress.  Congratulation to The Artist for its five awards, including Picture, Director and Actor, and to Hugo for its five awards as well (if you do not count the four that The Departed won, that is more Oscars than every other Scorsese film combined).

As far as the record goes, I did come close, but with 19 out of 24 right, it was still just a tie.  Missing just five this time around (adding Costume Design, Visual Effects, Film Editing and Cinematography to the aforementioned Best Actress) was pretty good I suppose, considering how up in the air many of the tech awards were.  But hey, I aced all three short films, so I must know what I am doing, right?  Yeah, sure I do.  Anyway, the Oscars are now over for another year, so it is back to watching, talking about and writing on both classic films (planning on finally finishing the 1000 Greatest Films list) and new releases (upcoming reviews of The Secret World of Arietty, Albert Nobbs, Chico & Rita, Once Upon a Time in Anatolia and the Oscar winner for Best Foreign Language Picture, A Separation are on their way).  I will also be back with my waaay in advance Oscar Predictions for next year.  This silly folly will happen sometime in April.  After all, in the same nutsy nine month in advance way, I did pick five out of the eventual nine Best Picture nominees correct this past year.  I even had Rooney Mara correctly predicted - something I did not do in my eventual final predictions.  Crazy, huh!?  Oh, and congrats to you too Ms. Streep.

FINAL Oscar Predictions!!!

After back to back years of correctly guessing 19 out 24 (two years running, my personal career best) in my annual Oscar precognitive ritual, I ended with just a measly 16 right last year (an all-time low).  Well, as they say, another year, another chance (they do say that, right?).  Anyway, without further ado, and in the hopes of reaching that elusive 20 out of 24 threshold, here are my final Oscar predictions.

Best Picture - The Artist

This is pretty much a no-brainer at this point.  The Descendants had been the frontrunner early on, but now only a crazy person would pick something else to win.  I would love to see The Tree of Life or Hugo take home this prize (and if I had my druthers one of them would) but that surely is not happening.  This year will be the year of The Artist.  

Best Director - Michel Hazanivicius for The Artist

For a while it looked as if Scorsese would be taking home his second Oscar, even if The Artist were to take home the top prize, but after victories at both the BAFTAS and the DGA (the two  most accurate precursors in this case), it looks to be M. Hazanavicius' year.

Best Actor - Jean Dujardin in The Artist

Seriously, this looks to be shaping up to be the year of The Artist.  Granted, this is really a two way race, between the Frenchman and George Clooney (who had been all but the sure bet about a month ago), but with several victories under his belt, including the BAFTA, it looks like The Artist will make a clean sweep of these top three awards.

Best Actress - Viola Davis in The Help

Now on with one of the less sure bet categories.  Many are saying this is a two way race between Davis and La Streep in The Iron Lady.   Early on it looked as if Davis would go supporting (she is not the lead here, Emma Stone is) but after the campaign for lead began (a category where she would not have to compete with her costars) the steam began to roll.  Streep on the other hand, is a legend with two Oscars already under her belt (the last one waaay back in 1982) and she is playing that stalwart of Oscar winning, an actual historical figure.  In the end, obviously, I am going with Davis.  Unlike Halle Barry's win back in 2001, which may have been just white guilt, Davis does a phenomenal job in a much less than phenomenal picture - and a thing like that actually helps.  Then again, Hollywood does love when someone in Hollywood plays someone else in Hollywood, and therefore Michelle Williams' turn as Marilyn Monroe could surprise.  I actually almost went with her in the end.

Best Supporting Actor - Christopher Plummer in Beginners

Back to another no-brainer. Probably the biggest no-brainer of the bunch.  Back in December and early January, there was nary a reasonable voice claiming that Albert Brooks would not take home this award.  Gradually Plummer took over the frontrunner status, and then to top it off Brooks was not nominated.  What!!?  But yeah, this is Plummer's award.  A veteran actor (at 82 he will become the oldest Oscar winner Sunday night) with only one previous nomination (and that was just two years ago) this could be looked at as a lifetime achievement kind of thing, but considering how great of a performance he gives it is a worthy victory after all.

Best Supporting Actress - Octavia Spencer in The Help

This is a category that could go many ways.  Spencer is considered the safe bet, and I am going with her, but it would not be a surprise to hear Melissa McCarthy's name called either.  The supporting categories are more likely to go to a comedic role than the leads (think Marisa Tomei's surprise win in 92 or Kevin Kline's in 88) but then again, her performance may be a bit too raunchy for the decidedly older Academy membership.  We could also see Bérénice Bejo take home the award if The Artist plays the sweep card.  I suppose I will go with the safe bet here though, and leave the more daring guesses for other categories.

Best Original Screenplay - Woody Allen for Midnight in Paris
Best Adapted Screenplay - Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, Jim Rash for The Descendants

In another safe bet, I am picking the two WGA winners here.  Allen is the safer bet indeed though The Artist or even Bridesmaids could surprise, but only in sweep mode. In the more open Adapted race, I think people are going to want to vote for The Descendants somewhere on their ballot, and since Clooney has fallen from frontrunner status in Best Actor, this would be the most reasonable spot to do so.  Then again, the screenplay for Moneyball (my own personal choice) that was written by Aaron Sorkin and Steve Zaillian (the two best writers working in Hollywood today!) could surprise and take the award, even though back to back wins in this category (Sorkin won last year for The Social Network) is a rarity, having happened only twice in 83 years.  Another surprise could be a win for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.

Best Foreign Language Film - A Separation (Iran)

Conventional wisdom would say to go with the frontrunner A Separation.  The Iranian film has won pretty much every precursor this year, so who wouldn't pick it to win.  Of course considering that Biutiful, A Prophet, The Class, Pan's Labyrinth, Paradise Now, Hero and Amélie were all frontrunners and none of them took home the Oscar, one could make a fair assumption that such a thing could happen again.  This is the category with the most instances of upsets, but then A Separation is a pretty bold frontrunner to get knocked off.   In going with this trend (which of course does not happen every year) I had a tough time deciding between this Iranian film and the more traditional choice of In Darkness, a film about that old stalwart of the Oscars, the Holocaust - as well as a film that may play to the older Academy members.  In the end though, A Separation is probably just too obvious to be upset.

Best Animated Feature - Rango

Here is another one that I was tempted to go out on a limb for and pick Chico & Rita over the more sensible choice of Rango.  The Adventures of Tintin was the logical frontrunner early on (it won the Golden Globe) but once it was snubbed on nomination morning, Rango took over the lead status.  We could see a surprise here since Rango is not that strong of a frontrunner (though still the best of the nominees), and the likely surprise is the aforementioned Cuban film.

Best Cinematography - The Tree of Life
Best Art Direction - Hugo
Best Film Editing - The Artist

The fabulous The Tree of Life has got to win something here, right!?  Cinematography is the most logical spot for that to happen, though the slick silvery nuances of The Artist could take the prize.  Then again, this category has only synced up with Best Picture once in the past decade (Slumdog Millionaire in 2008), so perhaps Hugo or even The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo would be a more reliable surprise.   But still, the love for The Artist may still triumph everywhere.  As to Art Direction, this is an award that usually goes to the most elaborately decorated film (the last two winners were Alice in Wonderland and Avatar) and Hugo certainly fits that bill - unless of course voters wish to reward the now finalized franchise of Harry Potter, or if The Artist is in sweep mode.  As to Film Editing, it has synced up with BP six out of the last ten times, which kinda makes The Artist the frontrunner here, even though a film as sharply edited as The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo could surprise.

Best Costume Design - Hugo
Best Make-up - The Iron Lady

Costume Design is an award that more oft than not is awarded to the most elaborate costuming.  This is why we see so many winners from films set in the Victorian or Elizabethan ages.  The last six awards have gone to just such films (if one can count Alice in Wonderland as Victorian age rather than straight fantasy).  Of course we have also seen wins for The Aviator, Chicago and Moulin Rouge (yeah, that last one is technically Victorian age, but still with a more modern flair) so a victory for Hugo over something like Jane Eyre or Anonymous would not be all that far fetched.  And it is three-time winner Sandy Powell, who is very well respected in Hollywood.  Then again, there is that possible Artist sweep mode I keep throwing about and it is set around the same time.  Then we cannot count out Madonna's royal love story, W.E.  Basically, what I am trying to say is that this is probably the one and only true 5-way race in the bunch.  As for Make-up, they have gone the monster route (The Wolfman, Pan's Labyrinth, Star Trek, LOTR twice) as well as the old man/woman route (La vie en Rose, Benjamin Button, Elizabeth) and there is really no telling which route they will take.  Harry Potter could get a franchise-wrapping win here but I still think The Iron Lady is the one to beat.

Best Original Score - The Artist
Best Original Song - "Man or Muppet" from The Muppets

Ludovic Bource's score for The Artist, though rife with controversy over its sampling of past film scores, most notably Vertigo (something Kim Novak has equated with rape!?), has won most every award this year and I do not think that will end any differently come Sunday night.  And a Muppets victory for Best Song (a contest of just two nominees) is a pretty solid bet as well.

Best Sound Mixing - Hugo
Best Sound Editing - Hugo
Best Visual Effects - Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Usually the old story goes that the loudest movie will win the sound awards, which I guess technically would mean victories for The Transformers, but I do not see that happening.  Hugo, with its leading eleven nominations is bound to take home several awards, so the two sound ones will more likely go to that film than any other.  Though a victory for Drive's lone nomination would be fun to see.  And I do not think we should count Spielberg's War Horse out of the race just quite yet (a lot of voters will want to give that film something) - or for that matter, we probably should not count out that Tattooed lady either.  If voters wanted to award the entire franchise, then Visual Effects could easily go to Harry Potter but if they haven't given them the award yet (only three of the seven films have even been nominated) then they probably won't bother to do it now.  I think the work done in Rise of the Planet of the Apes is the most worthy and the most likely as well.

Best Documentary Feature - Undefeated

This is a pretty wide open race here, with films like Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory and Wim Wenders' Pina in the running.  Some have kindly asked the Academy not to nominate Paradise Lost 3, due to the series' rather seedy history, but that doesn't mean they listened - oh yeah, I guess they did not.  It's in the headlines story could give it the victory here but I think the emotional high of Undefeated (no, not the Sarah Palin thing) will pull off the eventual victory.  But again, this is a tough call indeed.

Best Documentary Short Subject - Saving Face
Best Animated Short Film - The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore
Best Live Action Short Film - The Shore

In my opinion, these three are anybody's guess, so I am just throwing out some guesses and hoping they land near their intended targets.  I have been relatively successful at this, going 5 for the last 7 in both Animated and Live Action predictions - not so much in Documentary.  So who knows what will happen.

Well that's it for now.  All that is left is to wait and see who the winners will be.  I am confident in only about half of my picks (perhaps semi confident in another 5 or 6) but I am still hoping for that ever elusive 20 out of 24 (or even better) score.  I will be back on Monday with a round-up and tally-ho of how I did, or rather how well the Academy did in trying to predict my predictions.