30 Days of Oscar: Day 7 - Moonstruck

Movie: Moonstruck
Year: 1988
Nominations: Best Actress - Cher, Best Supporting Actress -Olympia Dukakis, Best Supporting Actor - Vincent Gardenia, Best Director - Norman Jewison, Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay - John Patrick Shanley
Wins:Cher, Dukakis, and Shanley.  The Last Emperor won Best Picture, and Director for Bernardo Bertolucci, and Sean Connery took Supporting Actor for The Untouchables and I can't argue that choice. 

Given that Cher reemerged this year in Burlesque and we've been denied her singing at the Oscars since the Golden Globe winning song wasn't even nominated, I thought I'd look back at her Oscar-winning performance.  Moonstruck is a romantic comedy in the best sense of the word.  The story is simple - Cher plays Lorretta, a widowed Italian book-keeper.  She becomes engaged to Johnny (Danny Aiello), just before he hops a plane to Palermo to be with his dying mother.  Before he leaves, Johnny asks Loretta to find his estranged brother Ronny (a young disheveled Nicolas Cage).  Loretta goes to find him at a bakery, but there's a good reason they're estranged, Ronny blames Johnny for the loss of his fingers (he now wears a prosthesis).  However, Loretta's no-nonsense attitude digs deeper and we find out it's not really Johnny's fault, Ronny just needs someone to blame.  If you've ever seen a single clip of Moonstruck, you'll know Johnny falls for Loretta, but her famous response is "Snap out of it". 
That's the main plot of the movie, the smaller stories are what I found more interesting to revisit.  Olympia Dukakis is Loretta's mother and married to Vincent Gardenia (Mr. Musnik from Little Shop of Horrors), but she's pretty sure he's having an affair.  Dukakis' brother and sister-in-law (Luis Guss and Julie Bovasso) are the comedy part of the movie.  He remembers a huge moon the day Gardenia proposed to Dukakis many years ago, and that moon has reappeared and is playing havoc with everyone's emotions, it seems.  Dukakis is out to dinner alone one night (her husband is at the opera with his mistress), and she meets John Mahoney (the dad from Frasier) getting dumped by a much younger woman.  They dine together and get along very well. 
A movie like Moonstruck would be very unlikely to get a nomination today, but I think having a famous singer being an actress (in her second Oscar nominated performance, the first was Silkwood) was more than the Academy could ignore.  Also, looking at the films nominated that year, the phrase "slim pickings" comes to mind.  Fatal Attraction, Broadcast News, Wall Street, Hope and Glory and Throw Momma From the Train were also big that year, so I guess it's not surprising that Moonstruck made the cut.  It's a cute movie, and the Acting and Screenplay wins were appropriate if not good choices, but it's still a bit odd that it won.  I doubt it would even get a nomination today.  The comparison that comes to mind is Julia Roberts winning for Eat, Pray, Love.  

Musical Mondays: Cabaret

Cabaret won 8 Oscars in 1973, including directing for Bob Fosse. It lost out Best Picture to The Godfather. Francis Ford Coppolla got his revenge on Fosse two years later when he and Godfather II beat Fosse who was also nominated for Lenny. Cabaret took Best Actress for Liza Minnelli, Best Supporting Actor for Joel Grey, as well as Sound, Music, Cinematography, Editing, and Art Direction. On Broadway, the Kander and Ebb musical also won lots of awards in 1967, including for Joel Grey again, and later Alan Cumming in the 1998 revival.

The story differs only slightly between the stage and film versions. A few songs are added and subtracted, and my personal preference is for the recent revival which combines a bit of both. The movie soundtrack was always my favorite growing up. It was produced at a local theater when I was about 11, and my mom let me go not really realizing how adult the themes can be - adultery, abortion, sex, homosexuality, Nazis, etc.

American Sally Bowles works at a Cabaret in 1931 Berlin. She meets British Brian who rents a room nearby and hopes to teach English to pay his way. The emcee at the Kit Kat Club is the character who links the tumultuous romance between Brian and Sally, and what's happening in real-life Berlin. Brian is staid and proper, and Sally couldn't be more wild. She tries to live a bohemian life, but she really wants a happy secure life but can't seem to behave properly to get it. We see Germany deteriorating and the Nazis picking up their power, and its influence on all of the lives of the characters. Bohemian lifestyles aren't really allowed much in Nazi Germany. Most of the violence is played for laughs on stage in allegory, but interspersed with scenes of real violence. As most movies of the WWII type, nothing ends very well, which generally goes against the rules of previous musical theater. It's a gritty movie that happens to smooth over the roughest edges with song, often in the background or on stage at the club. Liza is wonderful as Sally Bowles. She's flighty, over the top and gets mad when other people tell her she's wrong with the way she's living. Michael York (the future Basil Exposition from Austin Powers) is also great; quietly judging Sally, but secretly wishing he could be more impetuous. And no one beats Joel Grey as the emcee. Alan Cumming and Neil Patrick Harris created their own versions, but Grey really set the standard that no one will ever live up to completely. The video is Cummings at the 1998 Tonys.



The theme of the movie comes from the title song told at the end, but pieces of every song become part of the same central theme. There's very little of a traditional musical theater model that the movie follows in terms of song. There's not really a bad guy - other than the amorphous Nazis - and the heroine isn't really someone worth rooting for when she continuously sabotages herself. "Maybe This Time" is her song about her hopes that life will be different now that she's met a different guy. Nothing's different (she cheats and everything goes down the tubes) - "...everybody loves a winner, so nobody loves me." When Sally meets a rich German guy who wants to date her, she and the emcee sings "Money (Makes the World Go Round)". The emcee sings one of my favorite songs (though I do like quite a few of them), to mock the Nazi hatred of Jews without getting in trouble. "If you could see her" usually has the emcee falling in love someone in a gorilla suit, and he sings "..if you could see her through my eyes, she doesn't look Jewish at all." The emcee gets away with a lot, but does a great job of actually retelling the story going on around him through songs that don't sound nearly as serious as everything actually is. And the final song, "Cabaret" states Sally's feelings perfectly, "what good is sitting alone in your room, come to the cabaret."

If you're trying to see more Oscar type movies, particularly from the 1970s (my own under-watched decade), this makes a great treat, whether or not you're a fan of musicals.

There is one story line that was completely removed from the movie, that of a quiet love story between the older owner of Sally and Brian's boarding house, Fraulein Schneider and a Jewish owner of a fruit stand, Herr Schultz. Ron Rifkin won the Tony for playing Herr Schultz on Broadway. Their story is sweet and shows a very non-bohemian effect of the Nazi terror toward Jews.

DVD Round Up: Precious and Whip It!

I was eager to see Precious now that it's out on DVD, as it never came to a theater near me. Given all the love, and ultimately two Oscars (Supporting Actress and Adapted Screenplay) this movie has received and knowing how dark the subject might be, I was nervous that it couldn't live up to expectations. Clarice Precious Jones (Gabourey Sidibe) is a 16-year-old near illiterate teenager in Harlem in the 1980s. She's pregnant for the second time by her father, and blamed for this by her mother (Mo'nique). She has used her ability to day dream to escape the horrors of her home life and maintains a self-contained hopeful inner life. She's kicked out of school for being pregnant, but offered a chance at an alternative school that seems to help at-risk or troubled girls get their GED. The teacher, Paula Patton, gives her hope that life could get better and when her son is born, Precious decides she's had enough of the abuse her mother doles out. It's pretty violent watching them fight, and you're never sure what will set Mary off. Mo'Nique's performance was definitely Oscar worthy, both for the quick transformations she makes when the social workers come by, and the halting confession she gives at the end trying to explain why she is the way she is. It's a pretty terrific movie, and the acting performances are exceptional, down to the smallest parts. It's not an easy movie to watch, but it is a very good film. 4.5 of 5 stars/lambs

Whip It! was another movie that never came near where I live, but finally arrived thanks to Netflix. This is Drew Barrymore's directorial debut, and Ellen Page's first big film since her Oscar nominated turn in Juno. She does attempt to rein in the smart-alecky attitude from Juno but you can see it emerging as she gains confidence by joining a roller derby team - The Hurl Scouts. She lies about her age and joins Drew and Kristin Wiig and becomes the new star of the team. Juliette Lewis is the star of the rival team, and attempts to shut down Page by outing her age. Page has been lying to her parents about what she's doing. Marcia Gay Harden and Daniel Stern play her parents who want her to excel at Beauty Pageants, but Page is eager to do something a little more risque with her life, but doesn't want to hurt her parents. Like most of the characters in this movie, there's no commitment to a single story or idea, and it makes for a muddled mix of coming of age, sports triumph, teenage rebellion, and taking charge of your future. Good, but not great. 3 of 5 stars/lambs

Insight's Oscar Predicitions 2010

I can't seem to find my Oscar predictions from last year, so I can't tell you how well I guess them. I did really well on the acting categories for the Golden Globes though (I went 6/6 on the movie actors), and here's hoping I can do as well with the Oscars. My predictions are marked with a * sign, and the ones I wish would win are marked with a + sign. Sometimes it's both.
Also, this year contests abound. We'll see if I win any. If you're a movie blogger, check out VoucherCodes.co.uk to enter. Or go over to the challenge at Spaghetti and Sweet Peas.

Best Actor
* Jeff Bridges in "Crazy Heart"
George Clooney in "Up in the Air"
Colin Firth in "A Single Man"
Morgan Freeman in "Invictus"
Jeremy Renner in "The Hurt Locker"

Best Supporting Actor
Matt Damon in "Invictus"
Woody Harrelson in "The Messenger"
Christopher Plummer in "The Last Station"
Stanley Tucci in "The Lovely Bones"
* + Christoph Waltz in "Inglourious Basterds"

Best Actress
* + Sandra Bullock in "The Blind Side"
Helen Mirren in "The Last Station"
Carey Mulligan in "An Education"
Gabourey Sidibe in "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire"
Meryl Streep in "Julie & Julia"

Best Supporting Actress
Penélope Cruz in "Nine"
Vera Farmiga in "Up in the Air"
Maggie Gyllenhaal in "Crazy Heart"
Anna Kendrick in "Up in the Air"

* + Mo'Nique in "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire"

Best Animated Feature Film
"Coraline"
"Fantastic Mr. Fox"
"The Princess and the Frog"
"The Secret of Kells"
* + "Up"

Achievement in Art Direction
* "Avatar"
"The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus"
"Nine"
"Sherlock Holmes"
+ "The Young Victoria"

Achievement in Cinematography
* "Avatar"
"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince"
+ "The Hurt Locker"
"Inglourious Basterds"
"The White Ribbon"

Achievement in Costume Design
"Bright Star"
"Coco before Chanel"
"The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus"
"Nine"
* + "The Young Victoria"

Achievement in Directing
"Avatar" - James Cameron
* + "The Hurt Locker" - Kathryn Bigelow
"Inglourious Basterds" - Quentin Tarantino
"Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire" - Lee Daniels
"Up in the Air" - Jason Reitman

Best Documentary Feature
"Burma VJ"
"The Cove"
* + "Food, Inc."
"The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers"
"Which Way Home"

Best Documentary Short Subject
"China's Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province"
"The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner"
* + "The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant"
"Music by Prudence"
"Rabbit à la Berlin" (Deckert Distribution)

Achievement in Film Editing
* "Avatar"
"District 9"
"The Hurt Locker"
+ "Inglourious Basterds"
"Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire"

Best Foreign Language Film of the Year
"Ajami"(Kino International)
"El Secreto de Sus Ojos" (Sony Pictures Classics)
"The Milk of Sorrow"
"Un Prophète" (Sony Pictures Classics)
* + "The White Ribbon" (Sony Pictures Classics)

Achievement in Makeup
"Il Divo"
"Star Trek"
* + "The Young Victoria"

Best Original Score
* + "Avatar"
"Fantastic Mr. Fox"
"The Hurt Locker"
"Sherlock Holmes"
"Up"

Best Original Song
"Almost There" from "The Princess and the Frog"
"Down in New Orleans" from "The Princess and the Frog"
"Loin de Paname" from "Paris 36"
"Take It All" from "Nine"
* + "The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart)" from "Crazy Heart"

Best Picture
"Avatar"
"The Blind Side"
"District 9"
"An Education"
* + "The Hurt Locker"
"Inglourious Basterds"
"Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire"

"A Serious Man"
"Up"
"Up in the Air"

Best Animated Short Film
"French Roast"
"Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty"

"The Lady and the Reaper (La Dama y la Muerte)"
+ "Logorama" (Autour de Minuit)
* "A Matter of Loaf and Death" (Aardman Animations)

Best Live Action Short Film
"The Door"
"Instead of Abracadabra"
"Kavi"
"Miracle Fish"
* + "The New Tenants"

Achievement in Sound Editing
"Avatar"
* + "The Hurt Locker"
"Inglourious Basterds"
"Star Trek"
"Up"

Achievement in Sound Mixing
"Avatar"
* + "The Hurt Locker"
"Inglourious Basterds"
"Star Trek"
"Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen"

Achievement in Visual Effects
* + "Avatar"

"District 9"

"Star Trek"

Adapted Screenplay
"District 9"

"An Education"

"In the Loop"

"Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire"

* + "Up in the Air"

Original Screenplay
"The Hurt Locker"

* + "Inglourious Basterds"
"The Messenger"
"A Serious Man"
"Up"

Heath Ledger's last film: The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus

With all the hype that was originally surrounding Heath Ledger's last film (he died before filming was complete) I was really excited to see it. Then when it wasn't given a wide release and had trouble finding a distributor, I was worried that the movie wouldn't be worthy of Ledger's talent. Most actors don't make one successful movie right after another, so it wouldn't be fair to add the weight of it being his last film to it being the movie he made right after The Dark Knight and won the Oscar, and sadly The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus isn't a movie that will go down in history as topping The Dark Knight but definitely be remembered both as Ledger's last film and because it's a wackadoodle fantasy movie that I'm sure will find a following once people get a chance to see it.

Dr. Parnassus (Christopher Plummer) owns a traveling show staffed by his daughter, Valentina (Lily Cole), Anton (Andrew Garfield) and Percy (Verne Troyer). They try to get people to enter the Imaginarium mirror which seems to be linked to a trance Dr. Parnassus goes into and provides the entrant with a world of whatever their imagination creates. That's the basic premise. Dr. Parnassus is immortal thanks to a deal with the devil (Mr. Nick - Tom Waits) but part of that deal will give away his daughter. They run into a stranger hanging from a bridge and attempt to save his life. He awakes with no memory of who he is (Heath Ledger) and joins their troupe and becomes incredibly good at drawing people in and they make money. It turns out Tony (Ledger) isn't such a great guy, and eventually gets in trouble in the Imaginarium, but it all ends well for the characters you like, but it's a trippy journey to get there.

I think the story was improved by the changes they were forced to make due to Ledger's untimely death. Whenever Tony enters the Imaginarium he is another vision of himself played by Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and in the longest sequence by Colin Farrell. However, the changes are not ignored, but incorporated into the story and make sense and add to the fantasy imagination created. It's a really great technique that makes the Imaginarium even more powerful (and less malevolent than it seems at the beginning). Overall, I enjoyed the movie, though the trippy sequences were a little more like nightmare scenarios than imagination. And I would definitely say that the movie was overlooked for the make-up visual effects awards (though perhaps it wasn't eligible for this year anyway). 3 of 5 stars/lambs

Lamb Devours the Oscars: Best Achievement in Makeup

I was privileged to be assigned to this category last year, so I've done my research and you can see the background here at last year's post. It's a fairly recent award and it looks like my rule of thumb for who gets nominated has nearly held up this year as well. Last year I said "Usually only 3 movies are nominated, often one of the best Picture nominees, a major movie, and then something random." I was only off by saying a best Picture nominee rather than a period piece, which Benjamin Button was both last year. This year the nominees are: The Young Victoria (period piece), Star Trek (a very big movie, with other nominations for visual effects and sound), and Il Divo (the random choice if ever there was one). Here are my individual comments on each movie from a perspective of makeup.

The Young Victoria tells the story of Britain's Queen Victoria from just before her ascension through the beginning of her reign and marriage. She reigned from 1837 to 1901, the longest of any female monarch in global history. This means, the make-up must be appropriate for the 19th century. In addition, it seems that the Academy has lumped hair design into the category for makeup. The two nominees for Young Victoria, Jenny Shircore and John Henry Gordon, are both listed (on IMDB) as hair stylists/designers, and Ms. Shircore is listed as the makeup designer. She also won the Oscar for Elizabeth. Lumping them together makes sense to me if you think of it as all of the things done to a character that are not costumes be one award. The makeup throughout the movie made Emily Blunt look young, fresh, and regal, and the hair styles of all the characters put them into a recognizable time period. Victoria has to battle between the influences of British politicians and German/Belgian relatives and politicians. The hair styles, while perhaps not perfectly accurate, did make it easy to visually distinguish between the two without being too strange. Given that Benjamin Button won last year, and this is a good movie overall, I expect this to win the Oscar. You can read my full review of the movie here.

Star Trek could give Victoria a run for the money if the Academy loves sci-fi as much as I do. The nominees are Barney Burman (prosthetic makeup designer), Mindy Hall (makeup), and Joel Harlow (prosthetic makeup supervisor). All are first time nominees, but have tons of movies to their credit. I would give them the award for the sole reason that I had no idea Eric Bana was even in the movie thanks to the insane amount of prosthetic make up that made him into a very Trek-appropriate bad guy. Also, their challenge of making beloved characters come to life in different actors at a younger age while still trying to make them seem like they belong in 2009 rather than 1970. There were lots of other "species" of characters throughout the movie that fit in seamlessly, which is a huge credit to the make-up department. So while I do think Victoria will take the award given the Academy's recent history of period pieces, they have a split history of giving the award to incredible prosthetic work so don't count Star Trek out.

Finally, the random selection, Il Divo. This movie was release in Italy in 2008, and made the various film festival circuits winning some awards, mostly for acting. It did win the Italian version of the Oscars in this category however. In fact, the two nominees for this movie are the most nominated of the bunch. Vittorio Sodano (prosthetic make up designer) and Aldo Signoretti (key hair stylist) were nominated together for Apocalypto, and Signoretti was nominated for Moulin Rouge as well. Since I doubt many people saw this (it had a limited release last April in addition to the film festivals), I'll summarize it. It's a story about the former Prime Minister in Italy, Guilio Andreotti, who was accused of ties to the mafia and negative ties with the Vatican, and basically follows him and his family through various accusations from his political opponents of murdering people who got in his way. The movie won the Jury Prize at Cannes, but having seen the movie I have no idea why it was nominated in this category. All the people look fairly normal, though given the titles of the nominees, I presume several are wearing prosthetic pieces. Nothing particularly interesting struck me, so I highly doubt this movie has any chance of winning.

If I had to give the odds of winning, I'd say Victoria has about a 70% chance of winning, with Star Trek at 29%, and simply by virtue of being nominated, Il Divo has 1% chance. I hope this helps you fill out your Oscar Ballot!

Vacation Catch-up: The Reader

I saw quite a few movies on my vacation so I'm going to write up reviews of all of them, though most cinephiles will have already seen them. What I'd love is to hear what other people also thought of them, or how you agree or disagree with me because even if I read a review on a fellow blogger's site, or a general review, it would have been months ago when these movies opened, so I'm not sure anymore what people thought. First up, The Reader. I actually read the book just before seeing the movie (I don't usually care about having read the book when I see the movie but I remembered it was around and not too long). Both are fantastic. Possibly because I liked the book so much, it colored how I thought about the movie, but I just think the story is fantastic. The acting was good, and the methods the screenwriter and director used to bring a remembered account to life was fantastic. Kate Winslet was terrific, playing Hanna Schmitz, a 30 something trolley car ticket taker who helps our 15-year old hero, Michael Berg, get home when he gets sick right in her doorway. When he returns to say thank you, he sees her putting on her stockings and a sexual relationship evolves. He completely falls for her over the course of a summer. They take a biking trip together, sleep together, bathe together and he reads to her. He reads his school assignments and then things that interest her. You wonder why she wants to be read to so much, but she just seems to enjoy it so much. Hanna leaves without warning one day and Michael is heartbroken and never really recovers. He later attends law school and a seminar that examines a trial going on of female guards from some of the Nazi concentration camps. Surprisingly, to Michael, Hanna is one of the guards on trial now. The rest of the movie follows her trial and sentencing. It's difficult to watch and hearing Winslet deliver the pivotal speech about "what would you have done?" to the judges is just heartrending. Ralph Fiennes plays Michael as an adult and is wonderful struggling with his boyhood love, which he never got over, appearing later as a criminal he has been taught to think of as pure evil. It's a terrific movie and an Oscar worthy performance by Winslet and excellent performances by Fiennes, and David Kross, the younger Michael.

The Secret Life of Bees

There are many, many books that have become movies, and some books that have become plays, and even some movies that have becomes plays and plays become movies, but The Secret Life of Bees is the only story I know that I first read the book, saw it performed as a one-woman play, and now have seen the movie. I'm also happy to say that the story holds up to the various media. Lily Owes (Dakota Fanning) lost her mother as a child and now lives with her father, T-Ray (Paul Bettany in a scary yet sympathetic role) on a peach farm in South Carolina during the 1960s. President Johnson has just signed the Civil Rights act, and Lily's housekeeper, Rosaleen (Jennifer Hudson, proving she deserved her Supporting Actress Oscar) is going to register to vote. She runs into racists idiots who won't let her register and beat her up. This is the impetus Lily needs to run away, helping Rosaleen escape the hospital and heading to Tiburon, SC. Lily has just a few items from her mother, an image of a black virgin Mary, white kid gloves, and a photo. It's the Mary that sends her to Tiberon where she finds the Mary as the label for a brand of honey. This brings her to the pepto-bismol pink home of the Boatwrights, August (Queen Latifah), June (Alicia Keys) and May (Sophie Okonedo). Lily lies about why they are in Tiberon, but the Boatwrights take them in and teach Lily about beekeeping and Rosaleen helps May in the kitchen. There are quirks about each of the women, and the story resolves itself with the sad conflicts you might expect in a story about black women in South Carolina in the '60s. Overall, I really liked the movie, but found that without the tidbits about bees and beekeeping the book weaves through, the story is mostly sad. 3 stars/Lambs. In case you've missed the trailers, books, or plays, here's the trailer to remind you.

Rethinking Oscars Past

I heard a piece on NPR the other day about the Oscars of 1968. They discussed the five films up for Best Picture that year, and I was amazed at how wonderful the top five movies were, but I still wondered if the same picture that won would still be considered the best of the five 40 years later. The first film is good, but was never a real contender in my opinion, Doctor Dolittle was a musical version with Rex Harrison of a children's book about a man who could speak to animals and more importantly could understand the animals too. A great film, yes, and probably nominated because musicals had been big winners in the recent past (My Fair Lady, The Sound of Music, West Side Story), but those were the last winners until Chicago in 2002. Now the other four movies nominated in 1968 are all incredibly famous and have really stood the test of time. Bonnie and Clyde, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, The Graduate, and the winner In the Heat of the Night. Bonnie and Clyde is a period piece about bank robbers from the early 1930s. The line "We rob banks." - Bonnie Parker lives on in the greatest lines of movie history. The story is huge, violent, based on a true story, and starring two Oscar nominated (and later Oscar winning) actors. Definitely a film ripe for Oscar glory.

However, in a year like 1968, it doesn't make the top 3 (again in my opinion). Actually, one of my other favorite movies from 1968 didn't even get nominated for Best Picture - Cool Hand Luke. What an amazing year. Sidney Poitier wasn't even nominated in an acting category even though he starred in TWO of the nominated films. Guess who's coming to dinner is an amazing look at race relations from a high-brow society perspective in just one family. With superb acting throughout, it was actually a miracle it got made (according to this NPR story). The movie couldn't even be shown in 16 states without riots, and just months before its release laws against miscegenation were ruled unconstitutional. Talk about a timely story being made to put a hollywood face on a public issue. It's a wonderful movie that still holds the test of time, even when few people would be shocked by inter-racial couples, due to the intricate writing and complex family relationships.

More has probably been written about The Graduate than any of the other films. They even made another movie about The Graduate origins (Rumor Has It). "Mrs. Robinson, you're trying to seduce me." will always be recognized and being Mrs. Robinson was what people used to call "cougars" I think. Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft tear up the screen throughout this movie. I can't possibly due it the justice it deserves, but I'll assume everyone knows the movie, if only from the soundtrack. But I'm not sure it was the best movie.

I do think the best movie of the lot won for Best Picture. In the Heat of the Night is an awesome mystery story with an unlikely hero. Virgil Tibbs, a renowned Philadelphia homicide detective, is wrongly accused of a crime in rural Mississippi. Fighting all kinds of racism, he decides to help the police find the real criminal. Poitier is wonderful playing a character not often seen on film at the time. His simmering hatred for the people who belittle him is carefully controlled with the knowledge he is their superior in every way. It's a terrific suspenseful movie, that might even have grown greater over time for its snapshot of history. I watch it every time it's on. "They call me Mr. Tibbs" - Det. Virgil Tibbs.

Anyway, I sort of wanted to see what other people thought of these 5 films and if they would have chosen a winner differently than the Academy.

DVD Roundup

Given the current climate of films at our local cineplex, I've been checking out a few more DVDs. And luckily, I really haven't been disappointed at all. Two very, very different, but equally enjoyable movies have arrived in the mail recent. The first is The Counterfeiters (Die Falscher) which won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film for 2007. The tagline for the movie on IMDb is, "It takes a clever man to make money, it takes a genius to stay alive", but that barely describes the depths of this movie. Salomen "Sally" Sorowitsch is imprisoned by the SS prior to WWII for counterfeiting IDs, passports, and even the American dollar. He works in the prison camps for a while, and then is sent to a concentration camp once the Holocaust is underway. However, the officer of the SS (now a leader in the concentration camp schemes) searches for him (it's always amazed me the records the Nazis kept of their horror) and brings him to join Project Bernhard. It's in the middle of a concentration camp, but the inmates have soft beds, showers, lots of food, and even a ping-pong table for weekends. In return, they have to counterfeit the British pound and eventually the American dollar. In the largest counterfeiting scheme in history, the Nazis intend to fuel the war effort by flooding the currency market with perfectly forged currency. As our hero Sally was the best there is, he's brought in to be sure perfection is achieved. He's a bit of a smarmy, little, soft-spoken weaselly guy that only looks to survive. He does everything he's told. However, the other key player in Project Bernhard is Burger, an expert in the technology needed to make the dollar, but who refuses to collaborate with the Nazis. Imprisoned for printing anti-Nazi propaganda, Burger continues to sabotage the efforts to produce the dollar. He constantly makes the argument that it's better to die than to help them, while Sally represents the surviving at any cost argument. The acting throughout is superb, with every character winning your affection and dislike repeatedly. This is a terrific movie that focuses on a single element of the Holocaust and the different methods, arguments, and morals that go into fighting for what is right. I loved the whole film. 5 of 5 stars/lambs.

The other movie I saw on DVD, coincidentally, takes place just prior to WWII also, though in London. Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day is a movie made from a book written by a woman ahead of her time. Frances McDormand plays Miss Pettigrew, a destitute former governess searching for work. She stumbles upon Delysia LaFosse (Amy Adams) in need of a social secretary, and manages to work her magic to get Delysia the lead in a new play. She moves among the elite of London society for the day, attending a lingerie show and a party at the club where Delysia performs her final night. During this day, our straight-laced Miss Pettigrew meets the 3 men who claim to love Delysia - Phillip, the producer of the play, Nick, the owner of the club and her caretaker, and Michael, the penniless piano player who wants to take Delysia to New York to start fresh. The movie attempts to be a '40s style farce with mistaken identity, misunderstandings and love triumphant. It does a very good job of achieving them all. It's a cute romp about living in a man's world and still trying to find love and be yourself. Very cute 4 of 5 stars.