1. The Adventures of Robin Hood (Michael Curtiz/William Keighley, 1938) Picture, Art Direction, Film Editing, Music-Original Score
2. Bus Stop (Joshua Logan, 1956) Supporting Actor
3. Phaedra (Jules Dassin, 1962) Costume Design - Black and White
4. Klaus (Sergio Pablos, 2019) Animated Feature
5. Marriage Story (Noah Baumbach, 2019) (cinema) Picture, Actor, Actress, Screenplay - Original, Score, Supporting Actress
6. Jojo Rabbit (Taikia Waititi, 2019) (cinema) Picture, Costume Design, Film Editing, Production Design, Screenplay - Adapted, Supporting Actress
7. Little Women (Gillian Armstrong, 1994) Actress, Costume Design, Original Score
8-10. SHORTS 17+25+21+22+17+7+15+8+12+9+28=181 minutes total
a) Une soeur (Delphine Girard, 2018) Live Action Short Film
b) Brotherhood (Meryam Joobeur, 2018) Live Action Short Film
c) The Neighbor's Window (Marshall Curry, 2019) Live Action Short Film
d) Saria (Brian Buckley, 2019) Live Action Short Film
e) Nefta Football Club (Yves Piat, 2018) Live Action Short Film
f) Hair Love (Matthew A. Cherry/Everett Downing Jr/Bruce W. Smith, 2019) Animated Short Film
g) Dcera (Daria Kashcheeva, 2019) Animated Short Film
h) Sister (Siqi Song, 2018) Animated Short Film
i) Mémorable (Bruno Collet, 2019) Animated Short Film
j) Kitbull (Rosanna Sullivan, 2019) Animated Short Film
k) In the Absence (Seung-jun Yi, 2018) Documentary Short Subject
11. J'ai perdu mon corps / I Lost My Body (Jérémy Clapin, 2019) Animated Feature
12. Little Women (Greta Gerwig, 2019) Picture, Actress, Costume Design, Score, Screenplay - Adapted, Supporting Actress (re-watch, cinema)
13. When Harry Met Sally... (Rob Reiner, 1989) Screenplay - Original (re-watch)
14.
Raffles (George Fitzmaurice, 1930)
Sound (re-watch)
TCM. Third viewing, maybe fourth. I love these light and comedic crime films from this period, though truth be told few of them are good enough to watch over and over or make my favorites list or anything. Part of the problem with the ones from the earliest period of sound is, in fact, the primitive technology, which typically makes for broad and loud acting and not very interesting camerawork (hard to move the cameras around and catch dialogue at the same time). Of course that's a problem for every kind of film, but these types of pictures rely on lots of dialogue and typically weren't big budget and so often - the Philo Vance films are good examples - seem very creaky indeed, even compared to other films of, say, 1929-32. This film beats most of the others in the era pretty handily and maybe it's no surprise given that the photography was handled by an old pro from the silent era, George Barnes, and an up-and-coming young guy named Gregg Toland. William Cameron Menzies, one of the greatest of all Hollywood production designers, worked on the sets and future directors Stuart Heisler and H. Bruce Humberstone were also present in editing and second-unit capacities so this had a wealth of talent behind the camera, ensuring a better-sounding and better-looking take on this kind of popular genre piece than most. And it's not a bad story either, with Ronald Colman as the title character, a gentleman thief who is on the verge of retiring when his gambling-addict buddy suddenly needs a thousand pounds (an enormous sum at the time) and the possibility of an easy jewel robbery presents itself. This has some creaky moments for sure but I love Colman, and David Torrence as the initially snotty Scottish inspector on the case is just as good. And the camerawork and lighting are top-notch, with a long tracking shot that goes down a hallway, into a room full of people, zooming in close and then panning a highlight, and a pretty impressive feat for a sound film in 1930.
15.
Brief Encounter (David Lean, 1945)
Actress, Director, Screenplay (re-watch)
TCM. Also third or fourth viewing, but first in quite a while. I've always liked this film about a brief but potent romance, mostly taking place in a railway station cafe and it's environs, but it took until this viewing to really lodge it into the strong favorite category. I think I used to have something of an issue with Celia Johnson - her upper-class delivery and general quick, almost shrill delivery takes some getting used to - and with the comedic elements involving Joyce Carey's shop owner and the flirtatious ticket inspector Stanley Holloway. I guess the latter bothers me less now and I suspect it exists to lighten the mood a little - it's a pretty gloomy film in many ways otherwise - and also to show perhaps an alternate kind of romantic experience, a casual and conversational bit of fun that Johnson's married, middle-class, rather neurotic Laura and Trevor Howard's also-married and needy doctor Alec probably can't even imagine in their intensity and fevered obsession. The way the flashback - the whole film really - is set up, and the slow reveal of the sad short relationship-to-be are brilliant evocations of the suddenness and pain that love at the wrong time and place can bring, and the feeling that this could be the most important even in either person's life, a life-changing experience, are palpable throughout. If it has a flaw of any significance, it's that we don't really get to know Howard's character as well as we might want to - it's clear just through Laura's thoughts and actions what he gives to her that her husband can't provide, but we get no sense of the same in Alec. It's also more clear from this viewing just how much Clint Eastwood and his screenwriter Richard LaGravenese were influenced by this film - the bridge sequences, and much of Celia's inner dialogue in particular, in making
The Bridges of Madison County, the only other romance of this particular type that IMO can stand with this masterpiece. Probably deserving of it's nominations in a great year for Oscar nominations, though I haven't seen everything in the categories it received nods for.
16.
Sons and Lovers (Jack Cardiff, 1960)
Picture, Actor, Art/Set Direction - B/W, Cinematography - B/W, Director, Screenplay - Adapted, Supporting Actress
TCM. This won it's cinematography award and at the outset I will say that it stands up pretty well against the now much more famous
Psycho, Inherit the Wind and
The Apartment, the other nominees I've seen. It's in b/w 'scope, a format I just love when done properly and it certainly is here, though given the amount of time we spend in cramped living quarters it might seem an odd choice. Still the hilly coal-country landscapes are beautiful and it's consistently enjoyable to watch from a pure visual standpoint, and the vastness of the scenery does seem to reflect the desires of many of the younger characters to get out, away, into the wild, wide world. Alas I wish I could say I liked the rest of this dreary D.H. Lawrence adaptation as much, though to be fair a huge part of the problem lies in the miscasting of Dean Stockwell as Paul Morel, the youngest (? it wasn't clear) and most rebellious and independent son of coal miner Trevor Howard and long-suffering wife Wendy Hiller, living in squalor in the English coal country early in the last century. Apparently Stockwell was pushed into the mostly British production to help the film's box office chances in the USA - which probably worked, it did fairly well and obviously got a lot of Oscar attention - but unfortunately his accent seems to vary scene to scene and sometimes word-to-word and he just comes off all wrong, more an angry young man of the 60s than of the 10s. And the film as a whole just doesn't to my mind feel very much like a work of the time the novel was written/set, and much more like the typical British contemporary films of the period starring people like RIchard Burton or Oliver Reed, and is just a mess ultimately. Wendy Hiller is really good though, and Oscar-nominated Mary Ure and Trevor Howard are fine, so it's not all a loss but a very mixed bag at best.