Canadian girl out and aboot

As you can probably guess, I'm nearing the end of the Oscar project.

Films I still have to watch- Cimarron, Ordinary People, The Godfather 2, The Deerhunter, A Broadway Melody, Driving Miss Daisy, Cavalcade, Ben-Hur.

Ones I am re-watching because it's been over 10 years since I saw them and I want to see how my opinion has changed- The Last Emperor, Casablanca, Gone with the Wind and Shakespeare in Love (8 years). Maybe I should re-watch "The English Patient" too, because I thought it was really boring the first time I saw it.

Cavalcade is currently unavailable as it's not in DVD form yet and I don't know where to get it on VHS because the Vancouver Public Library doesn't have it.

Around the World in 80 days won the Best picture award in 1956. It's a comedy and a fun, action filled picture. The only thing about this one, is that you must suspend all judgements about poor ethnic representation. For example, First Nations people attack the train and whoop about and an Indian princess is played by none other than Shirley MacLaine !
If you can get past all that, this is a really enjoyable film. The basic premise is that a bunch of stuffy old Englishman bet their friend that he cannot travel around the world in 80 days. He takes them up on the bet, and travels the world by various forms of transportation including boat, balloon, train and elephant. There's a lot of intrigue and fun. This movie also coined the idea of the cameo, since there are tons of cameos from stars in various roles. I couldn't spot them all, but I did manage to spot Marlene Dietrich and Frank Sinatra. I missed Red Skelton, Buster Keaton, Noel Coward, Peter Lorre and Edward R. Murrow.

This film was a huge undertaking and clocks in at 183 minutes. It features tons of extras, over 30,000 costumes (some of which are pretty awesome) and a huge variety of sets. Sets and filming were done in England, Hollywood, Hong Kong and Japan.

If you like big, light old Hollywood pictures, this one is a good one to go with.

I watched this movie last week, but I wanted to wait until Darren had returned from Northern Voice.


Unforgiven , directed by Clint Eastwood, is one of the few Westerns to have claimed the Best picture (1992). It stars Eastwood, Gene Hackman, Richard Harris, Morgan Freeman and Frances Fisher. Alberta stands in for Wyoming again. In fact, in one scene, I recognized a particular stretch of the Badlands. Movies set in the prairies make me nostalgic and sad; I guess I'm homesick for Big Sky Country.


The movie, which was originally supposed to be called "The Cut-Whore Killings", starts in media res, which is great. The viewer is immediately interested. The premise begins because a prostitute has her face cut up because she insults one of her clients. The group of prostitutes in town want justice, so they hire a gunslinger and some of his buds. Gene Hackman is the sheriff who wants to keep things civil in his town.

Eastwood looks pretty spry in this film, especially compared to "Million Dollar baby." This is a tight script, and the dialogue is quick. It wasn't my favourite film, but I still thought it was good and really enjoyed Frances Fisher. I would have liked to have more of her character.

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Since the last Oscar project movie I watched was an Eastwood picture, I started thinking about Eastwood's last few movies (Unforgiven, Million Dollar Baby, and Mystic River, which I loved). Eastwood picks tight scripts with good dialogue. In one of the critiques that I read about "Unforgiven", someone mentioned that the film has a message about anti-violence. If you think about Eastwood's last three films, there is an overarching theme of how violence can destroy lives and rip them apart. If you compare and contrast the three films, you could probably write yourself a decent essay.

And no, I was never an English major.

ETA- My favourite line- "I ain't got no guns. I'm a writer."

The Life of Emile Zola was the best picture winner in 1937. Starring Paul Muni as the title character, it's a strange little biopic. The first part of the movie is entertaining. Zola and his friend the painter Cezanne live in a drafty apartment in Paris in the 1890s. They are both poor and idealistic. Then Zola writes hit after hit and eventually becomes a wealthy gentlemen. Cezanne goes to visit him and is appalled at how his friend has become a self absorbed member of the very social class that he has been protesting in his writing.

Zola begins to realize that he is a betrayal to himself as well. At this time, Lucie Dreyfuss, the wife of Captain Dreyfuss who was wrongly convicted in the Dreyfuss affair, comes to convince Zola that her husband is innocent. This part is still interesting. Zola then takes up the cause, and this is where the movie gets a little dull. From there on, the viewer is forced to watch a lot of speechifying and courtroom scenes.

I enjoyed the historical elements in this film and may pick up a book by Zola one day. It's not a bad film, but not one that I feel I ever have to watch again.

My favourite line in the film is- "We all have to defend our country. Some prefer the sword, I use the pen." (Not an exact quote, but something similar)

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In related Oscar news, B* bought me Inside Oscar Volumes 1 and 2 for Christmas. These fat books are full of Hollywood gossip and weird bits of Oscar trivia. For example in 1937, Spencer Tracy was assigned to play a Portuguese fisherman in "Captain Courageous". He didn't like the accent he had to use, or the hairdo he was assigned for the film, especially after Joan Crawford ran into him on the Metro Lot and yelled, "Oh my god, it's Harpo Marx!"
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From Volume 1, I learned that Paul Muni played one of the Chinese people in "The Good Earth" the year before he was "Emile Zola." His first major role was playing Louis Pasteur in a bio-pic. I'm not sure how one would make an interesting movie about pasteurization, but what do I know?

Laurence Olivier's version of Hamlet won the Best picture in 1948. By directing and starring this, Olivier became the first person to direct himself to an Oscar win for Best actor. I must admit that I did doze a bit during this movie, I think I was quite tired. However, there are some good things-

1. Hamlet's father's ghost looks a bit like Darth Vader and has a similarly shaped head. I think it might have been part of an influence from the war? Not sure.

2. Ophelia floating in the water is amazing.

3. Hamlet REALLY wants his mom, if you catch my drift.

4. The play to get the attention of Claudius is quite the highlight.

I must admit that Hamlet is not my favourite Shakespeare play, as I find Hamlet's dilly dallying and lack of decision making annoying. I am constantly frustrated by people who cannot make up their minds, in fiction or in real life. However, I did like how Olivier delivered the major soliloquies, and could appreciate his talent. Also, his hair in this movie makes him look a bit like Sting.