The May the 4th Be With Audrey Hepburn Blogathon

So Diana over at Flickin' Out has gotten fed up with a particular day of the year being associated with Star Wars. In response to this, she decided to honor another significant event that occurred on the fifth month's fourth day: the birth of Audrey Kathleen Ruston, better known to moviegoers as Audrey Hepburn.

Of course with Hepburn being a popular name amongst classic Hollywood fans, many of her titles were claimed by other bloggers for this event. So what I decide to discuss?

(1959, dir. Fred Zinnemann)

Lesser known than the most noted works for both Hepburn and Zinnemann, it's a film that I claim as one of my favorites. And I'm not sure how many of you have seen it but I hope by the end of the post you'll be seeking it out.

The Golden Boy Blogathon

Virginie of The Wonderful World of Cinema is doing a blogathon on birthday boy William Holden. (Okay, she's been doing it for a few days but still.) My subject of choice? I decided to tackle Holden's three Oscar-nominated performances. Those performances (and whom he lost to) are:

(1950, dir. Billy Wilder)
Lost to José Ferrer for Cyrano de Bergerac

(1953, dir. Billy Wilder)
WON

(1976, dir. Sidney Lumet)
Lost to co-star Peter Finch

(More after the jump!)

The Beyond the Cover Blogathon

Liz of Now Voyaging and and Kristina of Speakeasy have teamed up for a blogathon to cover (no pun intended) film adaptations. As regular readers know, I frequently compare books and their film counterparts. So I decided to discuss one that I've already covered years ago. The title in question?

(1972, dir. Francis Ford Coppola)

Sure, it may be an obvious choice but I wanted to do one where the adaptation is as great as (if not better than) the source novel. And let's be honest, there aren't that many. (Also I wanted an excuse to re-watch it.)

(More after the jump!)

The Bette Davis Blogathon

Crystal of In the Good Old Days of Classic Hollywood is at it again with the blogathons, this time with one about birthday girl Bette Davis. With Davis being one of my favorite actresses, I decided to chip in. Alas this was one of those blogathons that wouldn't allow duplicates and all the obvious titles were already claimed. Thankfully I noticed there was one Davis film I saw that wasn't claimed by another. The film in question?

(1934, dir. John Cromwell)

With W. Somerset Maugham's source novel being one of my favorite books, I was curious about the film. Apart from chopping this epic of a book down to a tidy 83-minute running time, Cromwell does stay true to what Maugham wrote. For some reason there were two other adaptations of the novel. Hey, if it isn’t broken, why try to fix it?

Hit Me With Your Best Shot: To Kill a Mockingbird

[For those curious, this is a regular feature over at The Film Experience. Previous entries can be found here.]

1962 was a damn solid year for film, wasn’t it? Almost makes the 35th Academy Awards basically the award equivalent of Sophie’s Choice. And To Kill a Mockingbird got its fair share of recognition, winning three out of its eight nominations. One of those wins was for Gregory Peck’s immortalizing performance of Atticus Finch and it was richly deserved (as with Horton Foote’s screenplay).

Back to the film. To Kill a Mockingbird is definitely one of the rare film adaptations that perhaps exceeds the book it’s based on. (It also contains some of the very few child performances that are actually effective. Thank you, Mary Badham and Philip Alford, for that.) And being made in a time of racial tensions, it makes the film all the more poignant.

The best shot of To Kill a Mockingbird

Now I feel that shot best sums up Atticus’ nature. Even in the face of anger boiling over in small Maycomb County, he maintains a calm demeanor. (In fact, he only loses his composure once during the whole film.) He stands his ground in doing the right thing, even if it means making enemies in the process.

The Favourite TV Show Episode Blogathon

Terry over at A Shroud of Thoughts has brought back a successful blogathon, and this time around I decided to chip in. The goal is to write about, well, your favorite TV show episode. But there's a catch: you can only write about episodes that "must be from shows that are at least 25 years old." So most of the shows that I watch (Sherlock, the revival series of Doctor Who) were basically ruled out.

Thankfully I had an ace up my sleeve. There's one show that I've recently finished that will be celebrating its 50th anniversary later this year. That show in question?

Of its 79 episodes, there are several that I can claim are favorites: "The Naked Time", "Tomorrow is Yesterday", "The City on the Edge of Forever", "Amok Time", "I, Mudd", "Journey to Babel", "A Piece of the Action", and "Patterns of Force". But what's the one I'll be covering? Perhaps the most iconic episode of the series' brief run:

(1967, dir. Joseph Pevney)

The Marathon Stars Blogathon

Crystal of In the Good Old Days of Classic Hollywood and Virginie of The Wonderful World of Cinema have teamed up for this blogathon. The objective is "to explore the body of work of an actor or an actress from whom you haven't seen many films (or none), but that you're curious to discover." My actor of choice? Tyrone Power.  (And yes, this is the reason for why I've been seeing a number of his films as of late.)

I was already familiar with Power from the likes of The Razor's Edge (which I wrote about in length a few months ago), The Sun Also Rises and Witness for the Prosecution but I was curious to see some of his other work. I opted for six other films of his (because quite frankly I have nothing better to do with my time at the present moment). The films in question?

(1938, dir. Henry King)

(1940, dir. Rouben Mamoulian)

(1941, dir. Rouben Mamoulian)

(1941, dir. Henry King)

(1947, dir. Edmund Goulding)

(1955, dir. John Ford)

More after the jump!

The Oscar Snubs Blogathon

Yesterday I wrote about a film that won a few Oscars, today (on the day of the Oscar ceremony, no less) I write about a director who never won a competitive Oscar. So for the Metzinger Sisters of Silver Scenes and Quiggy of The Midnite Drive-In for their blogathon, I give them this post. Oh, the director in question, you may ask? Why, none other than Sidney Lumet.

With his Honorary Award, 2005

It's somewhat baffling. Here's someone who had fourteen films that were lucky enough to get Oscar nominations (with only three of them winning anything!), and he himself was only nominated four times throughout his whole career. At least those four films were damn good ones, otherwise this would be an awkward situation. The films (and whom he lost to) in question are:

(1957, dir. Sidney Lumet)
Lost to David Lean for The Bridge on the River Kwai

(1975, dir. Sidney Lumet)
Lost to Miloš Forman for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

(1976, dir. Sidney Lumet)
Lost to John G. Avildsen for Rocky

(1982, dir. Sidney Lumet)
Lost to Richard Attenborough for Gandhi

More after the jump!

The 31 Days of Oscar Blogathon

Ah, it's that wonderful and slightly annoying time of year for moviegoers: awards season! Thankfully there are some perks to this, and one can thank Aurora of Once Upon a Screen, Kellee of Outspoken and Freckled, and Paula of Paula's Cinema Club. Why? Because they're the ones hosting the 31 Days of Oscar Blogathon!

Anyway, I of course decided to chip for the fourth installment of this yearly event. I decided to write about a film that got a lot of awards recognition way back in the day. Which one, you ask?

(1961, dir. Stanley Kramer)

Judgment at Nuremberg is one of those films that got a slew of Oscar nominations (eleven to be precise) yet nowadays not many people talk about it let alone have seen it. (The film that beat it for Best Picture and other categories, West Side Story, had the opposite reaction.) Why that is, it's hard to say. An all-star cast for the ages, fantastic performances from all of them (which is to be expected from a Kramer production)...you'd think more people would have seen it. After all, the 1960s had some of the best films released then. (Oh, and for the record, the following passages will most be discussing the performances in this ensemble cast.)

The Movie Scientist Blogathon

Christina Wehner of her self-titled blog and Ruth of Silver Screenings have teamed up to discuss the scientists of the silver screen. My contribution for this one will be a bit shorter than the other ones I've done as of late. (Hopefully it'll still be good.) So my choice for this one?

The Acting Black Blogathon

To commemorate Black History Month, Wendell over at Dell on Movies is hosting a blogathon focusing on, well, black actors. Admittedly, my field in that regard is rather slim but I knew which performance I wanted to cover. Which one, you ask?

The "You Must Remember This...A Kiss Is Just a Kiss" Blogathon

Happy Valentine's Day! To celebrate, Lesley over at Second Sight Cinema is hosting a blogathon where the whole objective is to cover a famous locking of lips from a classic movie. Now the one I've chosen is more of a series of kisses within one scene. The scene in question?

The yacht scene from Some Like It Hot (1959, dir. Billy Wilder)

Oh, Joe. You just couldn't follow your strict rule to Jerry of "No pastries, no butter and no Sugar" very well, could you? (Then again, that devilish glint in Tony Curtis' eyes says it all.) With his posh accent (Curtis nicked that from Cary Grant) and thick glasses (Joe nicked those from Beinstock), his second disguise of Junior is admittedly a cheap ploy to seduce an innocent woman. (Thankfully, he realizes before film's end that he was acting like a heel.) But boy, that scene on the yacht is charged with a sexual energy that could only come from a picture during the 1950s. (Then again, when the likes of Curtis and Marilyn Monroe are involved, this is inevitable.)

The O Canada Blogathon

Kristina of Speakeasy and Ruth of Silver Screenings have teamed up to bring the second installment of the O Canada Blogathon. Feeling adventurous (this will be one of several blogathons I partake in this month so you've been warned), I decided to chip in my two cents on a particular Canadian subject. Of course there are several people who've gotten famous over the last several decades that hail from there (as well as films being produced and/or filmed there) so whom did I settle on writing about? Well, Andrew and Kyle, get excited because I'm writing about one of your favorite directors: Xavier Dolan.

Now you yourself may not be well-versed with his small filmography but if you saw the music video for Adele’s "Hello", then at least you've seen one piece of his work. His films, however, deserve recognition beyond the art house film critics. With two films being released in the near future (one of them sometime this year), I decided to re-visit his films. For the record, they are:

(2009, dir. Xavier Dolan)

(2010, dir. Xavier Dolan)

(2012, dir. Xavier Dolan)

(2013, dir. Xavier Dolan)

(2014, dir. Xavier Dolan)

I think what makes Dolan an interesting director to watch is not just because of the many images he captures (believe me, it wasn't easy screencapping only three shots per film) but because of the elements that are known to his films. Like Pedro Almodóvar before him, Dolan frequently features queer characters in his films. (More often than not, said characters are played by Dolan himself.) And of course there are the stories he tells...

Classic Symbiotic Collaborations: The Star-Director Blogathon

Theresa of CineMaven's Essays from the Couch is hosting her first blogathon. The theme for it involves the many famous collaborations between actor and director. Lemmon and Wilder, Stewart and Capra, Bogart and Huston...the list goes on and on. I decided to focus on one that doesn't frequently gets talked about. Maybe because it's a collaboration that lasted only three films. Maybe because it sometimes gets overshadowed by the more famous collaborations the director had with other actors. I am of course referring to the brief collaboration of Grace Kelly and Alfred Hitchcock.

On the set of To Catch a Thief

Well, Hitchcock's films with Cary Grant and James Stewart seemed too obvious, so I wanted something different. Anyway, for a fresh reminder, these are the films that Kelly and Hitchcock did together:

(1954, dir. Alfred Hitchcock)

(1954, dir. Alfred Hitchcock

(1955, dir. Alfred Hitchcock)

Let's have some fun, shall we? (More after the jump.)

The Remembering Barbara Stanwyck Blogathon

Crystal of In the Good Old Days of Classic Hollywood has another blogathon up and running, this time it's about legend Ruby Stevens -- sorry, Barbara Stanwyck. As per usual with these blogathons as of late, I decided to give myself a challenge. For this one in particular, I chose to write about the films that got Stanwyck Academy Awards nominations (though sadly, no wins). Those films (and whom she lost to) are:

(1937, dir. King Vidor)
Lost to Luise Rainer for The Good Earth

(1941, dir. Howard Hawks)
Lost to Joan Fontaine for Suspicion

(1944, dir. Billy Wilder)
Lost to Ingrid Bergman for Gaslight

(1948, dir. Anatole Litvak)
Lost to Jane Wyman for Johnny Belinda

(More after the jump!)