Our 1989 25th anniversary celebration continues...
Have you ever seen sex, lies and videotape? Steven Sodebergh won the Palme D'Or at Cannes for his very first film and somehow it wasn't all downhill from there. The film, which was a minor box office hit, was crucial in planting the seeds for the American indie boom of the 1990s but when Oscar nominations rolled around the Academy played it very safe largely shunning both of the year's most provocative critical darlings (the other being Do the Right Thing which we honored earlier this summer in a post just like this one). I spotted these FYC ads on eBay and thought I'd share them.
Andie MacDowell has won a lot of harsh criticism over the years for various performances, most notably Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (for which she was dubbed over by Glenn Close) and Four Weddings and a Funeral but she's really wonderful in this picture and in Short Cuts. Blame Steven Soderbergh and Altman if you must but don't even try to deny it!
She got as far as a Golden Globe nomination, shared Best Actress at LAFCA with Michelle Pfeiffer in The Fabulous Baker Boys (which I don't need to tell you is a great honor) and won the Independent Spirit Lead Actress prize... but no Oscar nod.
James Spader won Best Actor at Cannes. But no further awards attention. Well, not until he moved to TV and the Emmys have veritably worshipped him ever since.
I couldn't find an ad for Laura San Giacomo who won a LOT of attention that year winning the Spirit Award, some critics awards and a Golden Globe nomination. I've always suspected she was the only cast member who truly came close to an Oscar nomination. But she had to settle for the dread sixth spot. (Had she been nominated we would've been discussing her on the 31st instead of either Lena Olin and Anjelica Huston for Enemies... who the Globes didn't recognize).
Laura followed her breathrough up with another popular performance in Pretty Woman so for a few years it seemed like she might happen as it were... though she eventually ended up jumping ship for a long running TV series "Just Shoot Me" which won her a second Globe nomination.
Which performance in sex, lies and videotape is your favorite and how anger-making is its single Oscar nomination for you?