1957: Another Iconic Year for Deborah Kerr

by Camila Henriques

The mid 50s were huge for Deborah Kerr. She followed up the huge hit The King and I (1956) with two leading roles the following year in Heaven Knows Mr Allison and An Affair to Remember.

1957 brought Oscar nomination number four to Deborah Kerr. It happened for her turn as a nun in Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison. She lost to Joanne Woodward’s intricate work in The Three Faces of Eve. She would applaud, sitting in the Academy audience as a gracious nominees, twice more until the Academy gave her an honorary award in 1994 (presented by Glenn Close, who has since then inherited the forever bridesmaid mantle, *le sigh*). But, for me, it was another movie she did in '57 that truly cemented her as a Hollywood icon. 

Leo McCarey’s An Affair to Remember put Kerr in the same frame as Cary Grant. It wasn’t a first time partnership for them, as they had worked together in 1953’s Dream Wife...

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Familiar Faces: The P.T. Anderson Players

We're celebrating PTA this week for his 50th birthday!

by Nathaniel R

Famed auteur Paul Thomas Anderson is not, perhaps, the creature of habit we expected him to be after his first three films made him a legend-to-be and suggested a steady stable of actors shifting guises with each film like a Scorsese or an Altman or an Allen. Since that magnum ensemble opus Magnolia (1999) his films have shifted closer to the traditional one or two man focal point employed by most auteurs even as they've gotten more experimental in other ways. It's as if he was purposefully shaking off the Altman-progeny tag.

That's a wee bit disappointing since auteurs who are particularly genius at assembling a whole mess of actors and watching the idiosyncratic group dymanic spark are few and far between. With PTA's next project set to be a drama about a famous child actor in high school, it's unlikely we'll see many repeats from his troupe, though there's always a possibility one or two of them show up as a teacher or parent or co-star on set.  Let's look at the actors he's used the most in his filmography thus far...

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1957: Harriet Andersson in "Smiles of a Summer Night"

Before the next Smackdown, Nick Taylor will be visiting some "alternates" to the Supporting Actress Ballot.

Existence, am I right? Being alive? Inhabiting a physical form and experiencing things until we inevitably pass from this mortal coil? Few filmmakers have captured the ache of true, unbearable unhappiness with oneself, with love, with God, with time, with humanity itself like Ingmar Bergman did.

Yes, he did more than just contemplative, psychologically precise, wholly accessible dramas, like the fantastical, expansive, occasionally harrowing depiction of childhood in Fanny and Alexander. Still, who would expect the auteur behind Through a Glass Darkly and Cries and Whispers (truly one of the most upsetting films to watch under self-isolated quarantine) to make a bedroom farce as light and entertaining as Smiles of a Summer Night? The sheer fact of Smiles is almost as surprising as the narrative, which artfully succeeds at being funny and sexy while wrapping itself around ideas of human behavior that fit neatly into Bergman’s filmography...

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Spike Lee's underrated gems

by Cláudio Alves

It seems like Spike Lee's on everybody's mind these days. First and foremost, we have the release of the director's latest feature, Da 5 Bloods, to thank for such cultural prominence. However, it would be irresponsible not to mention how current events are also bringing people to this filmmaker's oeuvre. In a time when racial injustice is being actively protested on the streets, the Black excellence and political vigor of Spike Lee's movies seem more relevant than ever…

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Horror Actressing: Marcia Gay Harden in "The Mist"

by Jason Adams

If you've ever been a big fan of a book that's been turned into a movie then you have probably known the eyebrow-singeing sensation of a book character getting cast by an actor that seems so correct, so perfect for the role, that it astonishes. Think of Alan Rickman playing Severus Snape in the Harry Potter films, or of Nicole Kidman as Mrs. Coulter in the admittedly ill-fated Golden Compass movie -- these actors were already the faces you were picturing when you read the book, and seeing the movie get it right this way, it's always a buzz.

I both did and did not experience this sensation when Frank Darabont hired Marcia Gay Harden to play the character of Christian super-bitch Mrs. Carmody in his 2007 adaptation of my all-time favorite Stephen King story, The Mist.

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