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Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Don't get around much anymore
Well, that was certainly an interesting collection of films nominated today for best picture, and I have seen...none of them. In fact, the only films that I saw this year that showed up in the nominations were Little Children (four misbegotten scenes away from being an extraordinary movie), The Devil Wears Prada (I wish Meryl Streep had been nominated in the supporting category), The Prestige (eh, okay). The only other film that I saw that should have been in there somewhere was Friends With Money, if only to acknowledge Frances McDormand (who never fails to make something out of nothing) and Simon McBurney who took what could have been a cheap gag role and made it warm and fuzzy and memorable.
It's always interesting to look at the selection of best picture nominees each year and try to see what it says about us culturally. Sometimes good things like 1974 when The Godfather Part II, Chinatown, The Conversation, Lenny, and The Towering Inferno were the nominees, and the quality of the first three more than made up for the last two, particularly in a year that also offered A Woman Under the Influence , Day for Night, Harry and Tonto, and Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore. Then there was 1978 with nominees The Deer Hunter, Coming Home, Heaven Can Wait, Midnight Express, An Unmarried Woman, and the un-nominated, but should have been, Interiors.
Then there were the "That's the best you've got?" years:
1985: Out of Africa, The Color Purple, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Prizzi's Honor, Witness.
1989: Driving Miss Daisy, Born on the Fourth of July, Dead Poets Society, Field of Dreams, My Left Foot. (I do have a soft spot for My Left Foot, if only for Brenda Fricker and Daniel Day-Lewis, the best actor not working enough).
Worst year ever? Try 1990: Dances with Wolves, Awakenings, Ghost, The Godfather, Part III, GoodFellas. When Goodfellas and Godfather III are the best you've got, perhaps it's time to sit out a year. Okay, I'll that year credit for The Grifters.
None of those are horrible films; we can save that for "winners" like Braveheart or Rocky (which is Marty for the ADD crowd), or On Golden Pond, but some of them tend to make you scratch your head if not smack your forehead.
Of course I'm only going back to the beginning of the seventies* when I came of age, so to speak, and started to hang out nightly in the art houses watching films like El Topo, Vanishing Point, Electra Glide in Blue and recycled imports like Last Year at Marienbad , pretending like I knew what the hell was going on while all the time looking for clues. Of course, these days I don't hit the theaters much anymore due to a wicked brew of age, time spent doing other things (hello? blogging!), and a general misanthropic outlook that makes me despise anyone who sits within four seats of me and can't behave in accordance with my somewhat stringent requirements, (i.e. shut the hell up, turn off your phone, and try to pay attention you slack-jawed dolt). Other than that, I'm delightful.
Anyway, look for yourself here to see what was going on when you were, as Pauline Kael put it, losing it at the movies. Your mileage may vary and I'm sure you'll let us know how much in the comments.
*True story: I was taking a film class in college during this period and one of the producers of The Last Detail came by the class accompanied by budding star Randy Quaid who had just been nominated for his role in the film. Someone in the class asked Quaid what he was working on next, and he said that he was in talks for a film about a returning Vietnam vet based on a book called First Blood. Yeah, that First Blood.
The rest is history. Bad history....
Added: 1975. Good year- Cuckoos Nest, Nashville, Dog Day Afternoon, Shampoo, Adele H, Hester Street, and Farewell, My Lovely. Very nice.
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