"Best Pictures From the Outside In" Returns

Many of you have been asking (publicly and privately) about the trifurcated Best Picture Oscar series that united Nick's Flick Picks, Goatdog's Blog and The Film Experience. Mike, Nick and I created the series together but the ball dropping was all me. I take full responsible for the unfortunate hiatus. Thanks for your patience.

Mrs. Miniver & Mr Schindler. World War II will change them both.

IF YOU'RE A NEW READER the series works like so: We started in early 2008 grabbing the earliest best picture winner (Wings) and comparing it to the most recent (at the time) No Country For Old Men. Then we started working inwards from both directions of Oscar's timeline. Eventually the series will conclude in the late 60s, the halfway point of Oscar's chronology. Here's a complete index of all 15 episodes (thus far) which cover the years 1928-1942 and 1993-2007. Nick is also maintaining a tournament poll of your favorites and ours so, vote.

If you want to really dive into the discussion with us and enrich your knowledge of Hollywood's grand back catalogue, consider renting the match-ups that are on the way. In a couple of weeks we'll be pairing two of Hollywood's most iconic men, Bogie & Clint for a discussion of Casablanca (1943) and Unforgiven (1992). Then it's on to Going My Way (1944) and Silence of the Lambs (1991).

But right now...

Mrs. Miniver and Schindler's List

NICK: Having watched my conspirators in pleasure show such effort and ingenuity in our last two installments to put our disparate films in dialogue with each other, I get to enjoy a ready-made Oscar juxtaposition of World War II dramas: Mrs. Miniver, the first entrant from this AMPAS-beloved genre to swipe the top prize, and Schindler's List, frequently hailed as a highpoint in the Best Picture heritage. Neither film is a battlefield picture; instead, they each focalize the magnitude of the war through the expanding consciousness of the titular character, and the subversion of her or his habits of thought and action. Both were the first movies by their pedigreed, Oscar-friendly auteurs to cop the Best Picture and Best Director trophies after multiple winless nods.

Of course there are also clear markers of dissimilarity between these films and the stories they tell. Mrs. Miniver confronts the war as a crucible of combat, thrift, and social disruption at a time of siege; Schindler's List reconstructs and scrutinizes the supremacist and genocidal ethics and terrible, sometimes enforced complicities that both inspired and drew force from the Nazi war machine. Kay Miniver is a radiant paragon of noble citizenship and domestic steadfastness; Oskar Schindler is a rake and a profiteer whose unlikely emergence as an objector and protector arrives with all kinds of vagaries and caveats attached. Mrs. Miniver was not in every respect a picture that Wyler cherished; Schindler's List was self-consciously conceived, produced, and received as the technical, cultural, and moral apotheosis of Spielberg's career...

Read and comment on the entire discussion at Nick's Flick Picks

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Kiss Her She's Irish

Happy St Patrick's Day


From three of the most successful Irish actresses (not a lot of Irish actresses seem to make a massive silver screen mark) to hit Hollywood: fascinating Anjelica Huston, endearing Maureen O'Hara and the goddess Greer Garson.


Contemporary actresses of varying degrees of Irishness that must be kissed today: Kathy Bates, Fiona Shaw, Rose McGowan, Jennifer Connelly, Allyson Hannigan (Willow), Kristen Bell (Veronica), Heather Graham and Janeane Garofalo. Did I forget anyone? Hollywood likes Irish men much more. Too many to list!

To read previous posts on any of these actresses, click the labels below
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A Dramatic Phone Call

a comment diversion/exercize
When was the last time you received or made one?

<-- Greer Garson demonstrates

Tell us about it. Lie if you have to on the details because you should always be lit like a movie star when having dramatic conversations.

Don't you wish old photos came with audio tracks?

Or that you could time travel into the room as they were being taken.

[photo src]

And if either of those things were possible, wouldn't you grab every Old Hollywood candid you could find in order to listen in or join the party? What exactly would Rosalind Russell, Greer Garson and Merle Oberon chat about anyway? Roz only cares about the camera but who are Greer and Merle all smiles about?

I mean just fantasize for a moment about a night at ... on the bar with Marlene Dietrich and Claudette Colbert.

[photo src]

How much would you have to drink to not be starstruck and join right in. Too much. Too much I say. The mind clouds. The hangover would be epic.

Here's a photo I've cherished my whole life from an old out of print Natalie Wood book from the 80s. It's Dennis Hopper and Wood discussing acting styles as they screen A Streetcar Named Desire in the 50s. (Vivien Leigh was Natalie's favorite actress)


Imagine how many times "Method" and "Actor's Studio" were invoked in that conversation. Imagine the names that were casually dropped.

Blog challenge!
If you have a blog, post a hollywood candid or three you'd most like to hear the accompanying audio track to. I'll link up right here. Spread the namedropping / eavesdropping love.

first responders
Opportunistic Cinephile imagines that Bette Davis cares
Film Awards Watch goes on set with Jane Fonda and to theater with Orson Welles
A Blogwork Orange wonders if Liza Minelli was faking her laughter. Robert DeNiro can be so touchy. 'You talkin' to him?'
My New Plaid Pants gets kinky with Hitchcock and Kim Novak. Throw in Brando and Dean while you're at it.
Extra Criticum has a laugh with Monty & Liz. (sigh... How much do I love these two together? As much as kittens chasing their tails. Yes, that much)
Wipe That Smirk... attack of the princesses: Grace & Audrey
got here as soon as they could
Situated Laundry chooses Bette Davis and Joseph Cotton on the set of Beyond the Forest (I haven't seen this movie, have you?)
Culture Kid doesn't think Judy G needs that much cake. And what the hell are Queen Latifah and Meryl Streep doing?
The Silver Screening Room goes for Peter O'Toole and the "ladies", two Dames and confessions of a shopaholic?
Oscarvations wonders if DW Griffith was an the alpha male of United Artists? (I'm guessing it was Mary Pickford)
backup has arrived
StinkyLulu Sophia, Sal Mineo and Mae West. Oh my.
Stale Popcorn goes mental with Liza and Liz. Ha!
Reel Artsy Dorothy Dandridge wonders...

Oscar's Best Actress Hierarchy. A Discussion

I'm psyching myself up for Fall pre-Oscar season. Join me. You know how it goes once September hits. The prestige movies arrive and virtually everything from trailers to talk shows to box office numbers work as viral "for your consideration" ads. The new banner up top, which I've broken into two for discussion purposes here, shows in descending order the women with the most "Best Actress" nominations. No supporting nominations were included in the totals. These are Oscar's favorite leading ladies ranked. And this, is (duh) my favorite category.


01. Katharine Hepburn -12 nominations (32/33, 35, 40, 42, 51, 55, 56, 59, 62, 67, 68, 81) look at that time span ~ just astounding isn't it?
02. Meryl Streep -11 nominations (81, 82, 83, 85, 87, 88, 90, 95, 98, 99, 06) the most modern woman on the list in terms of Oscar since she switches between supporting and lead nominations: that's very common now but it didn't use to be for big stars.
03. Bette Davis -10 nominations (35, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 44, 50, 52, 62)
04. Greer Garson -7 nominations (39, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 60) She's the least well known today but see any of her performances and understand why Oscar fell hard. A charm machine.


05. (Tie ~6 lead noms each... in chronological order)
Norma Shearer (yay! 29/30, 30/31, 34, 36, 38) One could argue that she's only had 5 noms since she was nominated for two different performances in one year --before they changed the rules on that. But why quibble? Norma needs -- nay deserves your love
Ingrid Bergman (43, 44, 45, 48, 56, 78)
Deborah Kerr (49, 53, 56, 57, 58, 60) the most nominated female lead to have never won the naked shiny man... though Peter O'Toole has her beat overall in the male counterpart category
Jane Fonda (69, 71, 77, 78, 79, 86)
Sissy Spacek (76, 80, 82, 84, 86, 01)

The last time there was a significant change in the field was when Spacek joined, expanding Oscar's top eight women to a top nine once In the Bedroom (2001) hit, ending her 15 year Oscar drought. How long until someone forces a true top ten?


10. (eight-way tie with 5 lead nominations each)
The next group (5 lead noms) is bigger and includes actresses who've passed away (Susan Hayward, Anne Bancroft, Audrey Hepburn) and one retired giant (La Liz!) so let's just talk about the ones that are still living and working in films and who, thus, still have a chance at increasing their legends:

Shirley Maclaine (58, 60, 63, 77, 83)
Ellen Burstyn (73, 74, 78, 80, 00)
Jessica Lange (82, 84, 85, 89, 94)
Susan Sarandon (81, 91, 92, 94, 95)

Almost all of them have been working strictly in ensembles in recent years. Can they find their own In the Bedroom?

18. (fourteen-way tie: 4 lead noms each)
Just below them in the Oscar horse race are many who've passed on (Barbara Stanwyck, Irene Dunne, Greta Garbo, Janet Gaynor, Rosalind Russell) five retired winners (Jennifer Jones, Jane Wyman, Olivia DeHavilland, Joanne Woodward, Glenda Jackson) and one who has moved to TV guest work (Marsha Mason)...

Three working legends are also in this tier. How many more rungs up the ladder can Judi Dench (97, 01, 05, 06), Diane Keaton (77, 81, 96, 03) or Vanessa Redgrave (66, 68, 72, 84) climb? Or is it supporting roles from here on out?

Oscar's 80th birthday is just six months away ~ What happens to the Best Actress field in Oscar's octogenarian years? Must we wait until Kate Winslet is in her 40s for a real shakeup of the rank? You want to share your theories about the future of this hierarchy in the comments. You know you do.

Thanks to ~Little Golden Guy for a great database. Related stuff ~This year's Best Actress Race (updates soon) or click any of the labels below for more on these cinema greats...

"Both of you... It's wonderful!"

Last night I watched Mrs. Miniver for the first time but I had already read the details in Inside Oscar. That might have been a small mistake. I knew that Greer Garson fell in love with the actor playing her son Richard Ney --a story the tabloids ate up back in 1942. Garson was huge that year. Think Nicole Kidman in 2001 and then amplify it. Not only was she in the highest grossing film of the year (this one) she had a second huge hit too in Random Harvest.

For those who haven't seen this Oscar-showered film, here is a little clip. Greer Garson plays the title character. Her soon to be daughter-in-law Teresa Wright is at the top of the staircase with her (they both won Oscars for this). The happy fella in the scene is the aforementioned loverboy, Richard Ney. The knowledge that he and Garson were having a little affair made this clip unintentionally funny to me.

"I sort of don't know which way to turn..." (hee)



I watched Random Harvest and Mrs. Miniver back to back and am officially (at this moment) head over heels for Greer Garson. Nick had just watched them both as well since we're preparing for StinkyLulu's 'Supporting Actress Smackdown' this Sunday. Nick told me that Garson was lots of fun to watch and it's true. Both of these roles are the type that could be played very Jennifer Connelly-ish, a la mopey and tragically. Instead Greer brings real spark and unexpected humor to very traditionally stuffy roles like "grieving wife" and "war mom." I loved her in both films (though she is not, as the star, the actual subject of this upcoming 'supporting smackdown')

Mrs. Miniver is top notch all the way around, too. It takes some flack for being a "propaganda" film, debuting as it did in the middle of World War II and being filled with valiant and patriotric Londoners during the blitz. And it does in fact end with a clunky "fight for freedom" speech and a title card about purchasing war bonds. Yet within the war framing I found it to be a lovely, funny, and moving family drama. It won me over right at the beginning: Clearly the war is about to start and there will be upheavals aplenty but the filmmaker (the great William Wyler) still wants you to treasure (and not judge) the frivolity of Mrs. Miniver buying a silly hat that she can't really afford. The hat as it turns out is hideous but if you love freedom you'll want Mr & Mrs Miniver to have many more days filled with silly impulse shopping.

Battle of the Goddesses

Over at the main site, the results of the Classic Actress Poll continue to surprise me. So far it's clearly Hepburn Vs. Hepburn in a virtual dead heat. All others seem mere pretenders. I'm going to leave this up a bit to see if it attracts some more votes but for now it's 01. Audrey 02. Katharine 03. Bette Davis 04. Ingrid Bergman 05. Julie Andrews (!!!) 06. Vivien Leigh 07. Liz Taylor (thought she'd be higher I did) 08 (tie) Faye Dunaway (who I suppose shoulda been left to the 70s up-to-current poll) & Grace Kelly 9. Anne Bancroft 10. (tie) Marilyn Monroe, Natalie Wood, Geraldine Page, Barbara Stanwyck (strange 4-way there) 11. Judy Garland (thought she'd be much higher)

Everyone else. And I mean everyone else including major stars like Crawford, DeHavilland, Garbo, etc... received no more than 3 votes each. People said there were too many choices but I even forgot some major players like Myrna Loy, Greer Garson, Jean Harlow, Mae West, Shirley Maclaine, and Marlene Dietrich. Eep!