Vintage '65

by Nathaniel R

Year of the Julies: Andrews and Christie dominated both the Oscars and the box office

The Supporting Actress Smackdown 1965 Episode arrives on October 9th, so you have until October 8th to watch the four movies and vote on them. Let's talk context...

Great Big Box Office Hits: 1)The Sound of Music 2) Doctor Zhivago 3) Thunderball 4) Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines 5) The Great Race 6) That Darn Cat 7) Cat Ballou 8) What's New Pussycat? 9) Shenandoah 10) Von Ryan's Express

Oscar's Best Pictures: The Sound of Music  and Doctor Zhivago (10 noms / 5 wins each) led by the two Julies, battled it out at the Oscars The other Best Picture nominees were Ship of Fools (8 noms / 2 wins), Darling (5 noms / 3 wins) another Julie Christie vehicle, and A Thousand Clowns (4 noms / 1 win). But what would have been nominated if the Best Picture race were 10 wide...

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"Here We Go Again..." on this very day two years ago!

Awww, it's Meryl loving on Cher in Mexico City on this exact day (July 17th) two years back... 

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Over & Overs: Moonstruck (1987)

In our new Team series, members of The Film Experience wax rhapsodic on movies they can't help watching frequently and can't turn away from if they stumble upon them. Here's Deborah Lipp...

 

I ain't no freaking monument to justice!

As with many of my favorite movies, I find Moonstruck endlessly quotable. I open with a quote in the hopes I can restrain myself from doing nothing but quoting in the course of this write-up.

We are here to ruin ourselves and to break our hearts and love the wrong people and die!

Oops.

Moonstruck is infinitely watchable because it works on so many levels... 

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Showbiz History: The Best Cannes Year? The Birth of Cher!

Here are 10 things worth celebrating on this day in showbiz history, May 20th.

Federico Fellini and Jeanne Moreau were both winners at the 1960 Cannes festival but they look none too happy about it!

1891 Thomas Edison's prototype kinetoscope gets its first public display (to the National Federation of Women's Club). Could any of them have imagined the colossal artform that would spring forth in those early days?

1960 The 13th annual Cannes Film Festival wraps up with Federico Fellini's masterpiece (well, one of them at any rate) La Dolce Vita taking the Palme d'Or. The competition lineup was insanely rich...

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Chita Rivera Awards, Cher, and Film Choreography.

by Nathaniel R

Isnt It Romantic?

Did you know that Oscar once had a category for dance? Well, "Dance Direction" to be particular. Which is not quite choreography but close. The category was held for three years and discontinued after the 1937 Academy Awards. Despite the first three to four decades of Oscar ceremonies arriving in a time when movie musicals were plentiful, the Academy Awards never instituted a choreography category. The sole example, apart from Dance Direction was a special Oscar for Jerome Robbins for West Side Story (1961), a redundant trophy in a way since he also shared the Best Director Oscar win due to his choreography and dance direction on that immortal classic (currently being remade). 

At any rate, the Chita Rivera Awards, which sprung back to life three years ago (they were once called the Fred and Adele Astaire Awards)  DO give awards to movies for their dance sequences in two separate categories, in addition to their primary focus which is honoring Broadway and Off Broadway achievements...

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