Emmy FYC: "Mrs. America" for Best Period Costume Design

by Cláudio Alves

The voting period for the Emmy nominations is coming to an end. It's true that, now, a FYC may feel a bit late, but I can't let go of the opportunity to shine a light on one of the most impressive achievements in recent television. While I love to explore the marvels of acting, costume design will forever be my main passion when talking about the performing arts. The Emmys are particularly interesting when it comes to the honoring of costume excellence since, unlike the Oscars, they have categories separating Period, Contemporary and Fantasy designs, not to mention separate prizes for live specials. In theory, that makes it somewhat easier for great costuming to be honored but that's not always the case, especially when the clothes being considered are more subtle than showy. Sometimes, sheer flashiness can blind people, and subtler creations are left unrewarded. 

Hopefully, such an unjust fate won't happen to the wondrous Mrs. America…

Click to read more ...

Sessue Hayakawa: From sex symbol to Oscar nominee

We've been celebrating 1957 for a couple of weeks. Here's one more from Cláudio Alves

In 1957, Miyoshi Umeki became the first and only Asian woman to win an acting Oscar. However, the Best Supporting Actress champion wasn't the only Japanese performer to score an Academy Award nomination that year. Sessue Hayakawa, who played the ruthless Colonel Saito in the Best Picture winner The Bridge on the River Kwai, became the first male actor of Japanese descent to be nominated by the Academy. Unlike Umeki, who had less than a decade of experience in show business by the time she achieved Oscar glory, Hayakawa had a long history with Tinsel Town. Many decades before his nomination, when the American film industry was creating itself and Silent Cinema was entertainment for the masses, Sessue Hayakawa had been one of the first sex symbols… 

Click to read more ...

Yul Brynner Centennial: "The Ten Commandments"

by Eric Blume

Back in the day, Cecil B. DeMille’s epic The Ten Commandments received an annual Easter airing in network prime-time, much the way The Wizard of Oz and other family classics would be broadcast annually with much fanfare, delivering consistently high ratings each year (remember:  only three network options!).  I feel like I saw The10Cs multiple times when I was a little kid, each year mesmerized by its massive sweep, colossal size, and amazing special effects.

Revisiting the film for the first time as an adult, in honor of Yul Brynner’s Centennial, wowza is it a howler...

Click to read more ...

Smackdown '57: Sayonara, Peyton Place, and Witness for the Prosecution

In the Supporting Actress Smackdown series we take a particular Oscar vintage and explore it with a panel of artists and journalists. This time we're talking 1957

THE ACTRESSES & CHARACTERS
In 1957 Oscar voters were in the mood for fresh faces. Four rising stars (Hope Lange, Carolyn Jones, Miyoshi Umeki, and Diane Varsi) were honored along with one Old Hollywood mainstay, the Bride of Frankenstein herself (Elsa Lanchester). The shortlisted characters were a counter culture partygoer, an exasperated nurse, a Japanese newlywed, and two 18 year-old besties in a small town with both love and grief on their minds.

THE PANELISTS
Here to talk about these performances and movies are filmmaker Q Allan Brocka, theater and film critic Kenji Fujishima, Be Kind Reward's Izzy, film critic Kimberly Pierce, writer/ director/ archivist Brett Wood and your host Nathaniel R. Let's begin...

1957
SUPPORTING ACTRESS SMACKDOWN + PODCAST  
The companion podcast can be downloaded at the bottom of this article or by visiting the iTunes page...

 

Click to read more ...

TCA obsesses over "Watchmen" and "Mrs America"

by Nathaniel R

We have mixed, even contradictory, feelings about the Television Critics Association. On the one hand they've exhibited good taste over the years. Their limited categories mean that their awards are focused and precise and uniquely theirs (always a good thing to have your own voice). As a bonus history shows that they value female actors more than male actors. Same, TCA, same.

On the other their narrow focus can also feel like a curse, or even sometimes read as misanthropic stinginess. Consider that not only do they only have two acting categories but they don't divvy up between female and male actors. This means that even in the Golden Age of Television (are we still calling it that?) only 13 actors get name-checked. 13 from hundreds and hundreds of shows (and dozens of them reportedly great)...

Click to read more ...