Over & Overs: Amadeus (1984)

by Cláudio Alves

To celebrate the recent centennial of sound mixer turned movie producer Saul Zaentz, I decided to revisit my favorite of his projects, the glorious marvel that is Amadeus (the second of his three Best Picture winners). On paper, the movie may sound like the most airless and insufferable of Oscar champions. It's a musician's biopic, probably my least favorite of prestige subgenres, whose take on history is closer to feverish invention than thoughtful analysis. With a theatrical cut running for nearly three hours, the movie's a behemoth of excess in a decade when the Academy was prone to shower such things with undeserved accolades. Nevertheless, I find myself besotted by Milos Forman's 1984 Best Picture winner, its meditations on mediocrity and spiritual discontentment, its celebration of opera, the lushness of its emotions...

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Cinema Audio Society likes Sound of Metal, Trolls World Tour, My Octopus Teacher and more...

by Nathaniel R

Trolls World Tour snagged a CAS nomination

The 57th annual CAS awards, aka Hollywood's sound guild, have announced their nominations for this year's April 17th virtual event. George Clooney will be honored with their annual non-competitive Filmmaker Award and William B Kaplan will receive their Career Achievement Honor at that ceremony.  Their nominations for the 2020 film year are after the jump...

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Showbiz History: King Kong, Sound of Music, Daniel Craig, Jennifer Jones

4 random things that happened on this day, March 2nd, in showbiz history...

1933 King Kong opened in NYC, where the film begins and ends, on this day. It played in two gigantic theaters (one of which is still standing, Radio City Music Hall) and was preceded by a stage show calld "Jungle Rhythms". The highest ticket price was 75¢ or $14 in today's prices -- imagine getting a stage performance + movie for that price today...

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Top Ten: Greatest Onscreen Pigs

Did you know that it's National Pig Day? Now you do! The day was created back in 1972. To celebrate we thought we'd list the ten best screen pigs of all time with apologies to Pua from Moana and more. If we've forgotten an essential pig, we trust you'll let us know in the comments.

TEN BEST SCREEN PIGS

Let's start with a beauty from a doomed production...

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Oscar Race: Best Actress won't settle!

by Nathaniel R

The Golden Globes threw a molotov cocktail at the Best Actress race last night. Pundits have mostly agreed that four spots were cemented with Viola Davis, Carey Mulligan, Frances McDormand, and Vanessa Kirby as the leaders. The fifth spot was deemed up for grabs with some growing sentiment that it would be Sophia Loren (The Life Ahead) emerging from behind (without precursors) to score that contentious final seat in the throne room. But last night the Globes did some very loud FYCing for both Rosamund Pike (I Care a Lot) and Andra Day (United States vs Billie Holiday), both of whom starred in 2021 pictures vying for the "best of 2020" honors due to the extended eligibility period. In other words, it paid to wait until the last second with the Globes this year.

Will these two wins affect the Oscar ballots which go out this Friday? Let's discuss after the jump...

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