The Supporting Actress Smackdown of '64 is just 8 days away. So it's time to get your votes in on the nominees that year. Readers, collectively, are the sixth panelists, so grade the nominees (only the ones you've seen) from 1 to 5 hearts. Your votes count toward the smackdown win!
Lila Kedrova Zorba the Greek
But before we here at TFE get to that particular metaphorical musical-horror mishmash of films with one of the most senior lineups the Academy ever offered up in this category, let's meet our panelists for this 50th anniversary retrospective competition.
The Panel
Special Guest
MELANIE LYNSKEY
Melanie Lynskey is an actor from New Zealand. She made her film debut in Peter Jackson's Heavenly Creatures (1994) and is currently starring in Joe Swanberg's Happy Christmas available On Demand this Thursday. She lives in Los Angeles with her little brown dog, Mouse. [Follow her on Twitter | IMDb]
What made a stellar actress like you want to participate in a Smackdown?
I'm a huge fan of TFE and I harbour a secret dream to be a film critic. The smackdowns are always so fun and I always have a ton of opinions about them (for instance: 100% believe Renee deserved her "Cold Mountain" Oscar) so it's exciting for me to get to participate. Choosing an earlier year means I can be really honest without having to worry about hurting the feelings of anyone I may potentially work with (though I did once work with Michael Cacoyannis [Director of "Zorba the Greek"] and loved him dearly).
When I think of 1964 I think of...
... Dr King; civil rights; the beginning of The Rolling Stones and Marianne Faithfull; Sidney Poitier winning an Oscar; Beatlemania; The Supremes; Betty Friedan and second-wave feminism; Sam Cooke's death...
Returning Panelists
NICK DAVIS
Nick is the author of the on-again, off-again, actress-obsessed website NicksFlickPicks, which he hopes is now on again. He is also a professor of film, English, and gender and sexuality studies at Northwestern University. [Follow him on Twitter]
When I think about 1964 I think about:
...the Civil Rights Act being passed into law, the Gulf of Tonkin crisis, and the Nobel Peace Prize going to Martin Luther King, Jr. I also think of the remarkable vitality of American theater that year, both aesthetically and politically, with Amiri Baraka's "Dutchman" and personal favorite Adrienne Kennedy's "Funnyhouse of a Negro" getting their first productions. Based on the five movies that spawned Best Supporting Actress nominations, you'd never know the country and the world were in such extreme ideological foment, or that popular cinema had anything to say about it. At least "Dr. Strangelove" (in Picture), "The Best Man", and "Seven Days in May" (both up for Supporting Actor) risked some edge and some sense of jangled societal nerves.
BRIAN HERRERA (aka StinkyLulu)
Brian convened the first Supporting Actress Smackdown and hostessed more than thirty. He is a writer, teacher and scholar presently based in New Jersey, but forever rooted in New Mexico. [Follow him on Twitter]
When I think about 1964 I think about:
For me (and maybe only me), 1964 is a major watershed year in Oscar's history. See, more actors we might today recognize as Latina/o were nominated for and won Oscars between 1947 and 1964 than any comparable period before or since. And Anthony Quinn's 1964 nomination for "Zorba" would be the last nomination for a US Latina/o or Latin American actor more than two decades. (At least until 1987, when Edward James Olmos would become the next US Latino nominated and Norma Aleandro would become the first Latin American actor ever to get a nod.) It's a quirky bit of Oscar trivia that some crackpot might even write a book about. (Which, in a way, is exactly what this crackpot did. Look for it next summer. If they're still making books.) So I approach 1964 with an alternately giddy and morbid fascination. ¡Vámanos!
JOE REID
Grayson Hall in the streets but Ava Gardner in the sheets. Joe Reid edits the entertainment coverage (and writes just as often as he can) at The Wire. [Follow him on Twitter]
When I think of 1964 I think of...
...it's tough to know what to think of. 1964 really does seem like, if not the last gasp of a certain style then certainly the fallow period awaiting what I'm told by my film blogger elders was quite the revolution. But look at the kinds of movies on display. Even if we only limit ourselves to the films that are still remembered in some way today, you've got the madcap Beatles farce (A Hard Day's Night) and the old-school Bond (Goldfinger) and the spaghetti western (A Fistful of Dollars) and the prestige musical (My Fair Lady) and the Godzilla movie (Mothra vs. Godzilla) and Frankie and Annette (Bikini Beach) and Elvis (Viva Las Vegas) and Disney (Mary Poppins). These aren't bad movies by a long shot, but when woven together, they're the old guard of movies that the cinema revolutions of the subsequent decade and a half would be upending. If you're looking for the early shots across the bow, you can find Dr. Strangelove or The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, either waiting for their time to come or waiting for cult status to settle in. The old days were still just the days back in 1964, but not for very much longer.
And your host
NATHANIEL R
Nathaniel is the founder of The Film Experience, a reknowned Oscar pundit, and the web's actressexual ringleader. Though he holds a BFA in illustration, he found his true calling when he started writing about the movies. [Follow him on Twitter]
When I think of 1964 I think of...
a certain woman, 'practically perfect in every way' descending from the clouds to nanny us all... and her titanic onscreen/offscreen Oscar/Showbiz battle with a girl from the gutter who was trying to perfect her vowels. And how their unprecedented success quickly and unbelievably eclipsed by that singing nun in the Alps the following year ended up dooming the film musical (I'm reading "Roadshow" right now so I'm suddenly obsessed with this exact time frame in a way I haven't been since Mad Men Season 4). After those Fair Ladies, it's Cherbourg, Dr Strangelove, and "I Wanna Hold Your Hand ♫"
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