The Film Experience

Okay, our last dive into 1994! I recently asked readers to send in their '94 related questions (other questions will still be answered but that's for the next Q&A). So here's our final pontifying for that year. You asked, I answer.

JAMES: 1994 was the year of Frankenstein, the movie that led to Emma Thompson and Kenneth Branagh splitting up, due to his affair with HBC. Thoughts on Thompson & Branagh’s (professional) partnership? What projects would they have excelled at if they stayed together?

"IT'S ALIVE!" Or, rather. "IT'S DEAD!" Emma and Kenneth. Kenneth and Emma. Sigh. Insert broken heart emoji. Young Nathaniel was so sad when they split. They were the Definitive Early 90s 'It Couple: UK Edition. That was such an awesome cinematic partnership. I adored their over-the-top genre mashup and reincarnation chutzpah in Dead Again and their luminous Shakespearean comedy in Much Ado About Nothing.

If you think about it Frankenstein, with its pulp grotesqueries, and bodice-ripped lustiness is absolutely the work of the same guy who made Dead Again. I miss that Branagh, still...

Yes, he's a bit camp as a director what with the huge overwrought feeling and swing for the fences productions but when the alternate is his new anemic tendencies (Murder on the Orient Express, anyone?) I'll take it!

I suspect had Kenneth and Emma stuck together they would have had a few more great movies in them -- and I wish we had more couples or platonic co-stars or director/muse duos who would build filmographies together; seeing great chemistry wasted is rubbish -- but they also might just have easily gone a bit stale. There's working with friends/loved ones and then there's constantly working with the same people and not challenging yourself which can cause creative ruts (see Spielberg & Kaminski or Burton & Depp or whatnot)

An unusual year when 3 of the 4 acting winners were repeats.

CASH: Which 1994 acting nominee is most likely to be nominated again in the future? And which one would you most like to see nominated in the future? (My answers: Mirren and Ryder.)

Okay so 20 people to choose from. Process of elimination: Newman, Hawthorne, Landau, and Scofield -- all superb actors -- no longer walk the earth *sniffle* so not them. Most of the others seem unlikely given that they either no longer care about challenging themselves in the acting department (Foster and Jackson) have lost public favor (Sarandon and Freeman) or are no longer prominently featured in high profile films or have decisively moved to TV or whatnot (Sinise, Palminteri, Lange, Tilly, Thurman, Ryder, Harris, and Travolta).

If Dame Helen can almost get nominated for Trumbo of all things, she'll definitely be back again!It's a complete mystery to me why the obvious answer to this question isn't both Miranda Richardson and Dianne Wiest but they fall into the latter category. Despite being amazing actors who have delivered more than one genius performance in their careers, prestige filmmakers don't seem interested; it's totally our loss.

So that leaves the two we're going with. Remember how every year we all think Tom Hanks is getting nominated again and then every time he doesn't, even when he deserves it (see Captain Phillips)? Despite this almost comic history of "oops, nope!" I do think he will get another nomination. In fact, I think he could even win a third. They've ignored him for so long that he no longer feels overrewarded (which will help) and he's still well liked. But the definitive non-risky answer is Helen Mirren. Like Streep, if to a lesser degree, she has a way of getting people excited about every single performance whether or not that particular performance is exciting. Which means she'll definitely be up there again. She probably just missed for both Trumbo (2015) and Hitchcock (2012) and neither of those near-nominations would have aged well had they come to pass.

MR W: Have you any thoughts about Rena Owen in Once Were Warriors? (This is one of my very favorite performances of the decade, and should have won the Best Actress Oscar handily if people had actually watched the film.)

Gulp. I've never seen it. I do enjoy Rena Owen's earnest severity on the TV show Siren though so I should probably watch this.

/3RTFUL: What made the Academy cold to Sigourney Weaver in the 90s? She had Dave (1993), Death and the Maiden (1994), The Ice Storm (1997), and A Map of the World (1999).

This is a mystery but it might not be nefarious. It could just be -- and the evidence seems to back this up -- that they just didn't like any of those movies very much or didn't see them. Most of them were small and little seen, barring Dave and The Ice Storm. When they don't like a movie it's awfully tough to get nominated for it. It's crazy that The Ice Storm was so shunned; Ricci and Weaver would have been valid Supporting Actress choices that year and the movie didn't even get a Screenplay nomination. Not one nomination!

REBECCA: My question - Forrest Gump: why?

The eternal question. Unfortunately America is answering that again right now. The past couple of years have reminded us that Americans worship ignorance (see T***p) and love the conservative brainwashing that suggests that if we ask questions or become politically engaged the end is nigh. Poor Jenny!

EVANGELINA: I know 1994 wasn't a particularly great year for female leads (as far as the actual nominated performances are concerned), but out of all 1994 films which role do you most wish Michelle Pfeiffer had snagged?

Oooh great Q. 1994 marked the turning point in Michelle Pfeiffer's career where she quit chasing the Oscar. After The Age of Innocence snub she made a swerve to strictly mainstream 'light' entertainment (romantic comedies, multiplex dramas, genre films) and it started with 1994's Wolf. It's one of the least challenging leading roles of her career but, as we just mentioned on a recent podcast, it's among her most physically beautiful star turns. Obviously because I think she's a stellar actor when challenged I would have loved to see her in virtually any of the leading roles that year. I wanted to say True Lies or River Wild or The Client but Pfeiffer got her chance to wow in mainstream genre fare and elevate B pictures meant for everyone so that's not the answer. So my top three would go like so:

The Last Seduction -- because there haven't been enough pfilms that made Pfeiffer's icy carnality feel dangerous to other characters (it's usually more internal danger) so that would have been awesome.
When a Man Loves a Woman -- because Pfeiffer as an alcoholic with a crumbling marriage would probably have spelled Oscar nomination in that particular year
Queen Margot -- not that actual movie, mind you, as she doesn't speak French but a Pfeiffer costume drama that leaned into her unobtainable sexual allure and sadness would be... oh wait, she'd just done that in The Age of Innnocence. So never mind: The Last Seduction and When a Man Loves a Woman it is!

HOPE YOU ENJOYED OUR 1994 COVERAGE, PEOPLE. If you missed any of it we talked Best Supporting Actress, True Lies, Pulp Fiction and Bullets Over Broadway, The Madness of King George and Tom & Viv, Best Actress, The River Wild, The Lion King, Muriel's Wedding, and an overview of 94 in general.