Best Actress goes international: An Alternative Oscar History

by Cláudio Alves

From 1956 to 1958, Deborah Kerr received three consecutive Best Actress nominations. According to such sources as Mason Wiley and Damien Bona's "Inside Oscar," she was considered a favorite for 1957's HEAVEN KNOWS, MR. ALLISON, but lost to Joanne Woodward.

So, the title I gave this new chapter in my ongoing Best Actress series might seem a tad strange. After all, the real Oscars didn’t start honoring thespians for non-English-speaking work for a while.

Following Nathaniel’s advice, I’m only covering three years this time – 1956 to 1958 – a period when AMPAS nominated a grand total of zero performances of the kind, and didn’t even pay much attention to British cinema to add insult to injury. It was a time for Hollywood celebrating Hollywood, perchance in reaction to an awareness that the industry, as it existed then, was fast approaching irrevocable change. The era of the big studio was facing its twilight. The most international stuff you’ll see is more of Kerr’s unfortunate nominations, Magnani recognized for a George Cukor melodrama, and Bergman welcomed back to Tinsel Town by winning her second Best Actress trophy for one of her worst performances ever.

Alas, this isn’t a chronicle of the real Academy Awards, but an alternative Oscar history according to my personal taste. And, at long last, those pesky eligibility lists have started to include a lot of international cinema – the American public was more into subtitled movies in the 1950s than they are now – which means my Best Actress lineups are suddenly quite multilingual and multinational…

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Ranking the two-time Best Actress winners

by Baby Clyde

Hilary Swank accepts her second Best Actress Oscar at the 77th Academy Awards.

To celebrate the 50th birthday of two-time Best Actress winner Hilary Swank, I've decided to rank all of the double champs in everyone's favorite category. It's a list of all-time greats, but the performances range from the sublime to the truly Dangerous. They are being judged solely on the performance, but I may be somewhat swayed if they beat out more deserving nominees or didn't win for their best work. I do not include those overachieving triple and quadruple recipients (Kate, Frances, Meryl, and Ingrid) who don't need any more attention. So, with a hearty Happy Birthday to the birthday girl, let's see how our Million Dollar Baby stacks up against her second-time sisters…

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Showbiz History: Buffy, Muriel's Wedding, and the most Glamourous Globes night?

9 random things that happened on this day, March 10th, in showbiz history...

1938 The 10th annual Academy Awards are held honoring the films of 1937. The Life of Emile Zola wins Best Picture, the second consecutive biopic to win, cementing the agonizing fact that Oscar then and now obsesses over the snooziest of all film genres, the biopic, more than any of its far more interesting cousins. It beat screwball classic The Awful Truth, the actressexual bliss of Stage Door, the non-musical Janet Gaynor version of A Star is Born, and other superior films. Meanwhile Luise Rainer became the first actor in movie history to pull off a two consecutive year Oscar coup with her second win for her yellowface performance in The Good Earth...

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Gay Best Friend: Sebastian Venable in "Suddenly Last Summer" (1959)

 a series by Christopher James looking at the 'Gay Best Friend' trope

Alas, this is most we see of our dearly departed subject of Gay Best Friend this week, Sebastian Venable.Not all gay best friends get a lot of screen time, but they always know how to make an impression. Admittedly, I’m broadening the definition of the trope a bit with this latest entry. Sebastian Venable’s face is never seen. However, he is the coded mystery and the spectre that looms over the entirety of Suddenly Last Summer. The word “coded” is used both strongly and loosely. Gore Vidal’s adaptation of the Tennesse Williams play does everything but say the word “gay” to communicate that Sebastian prefers the company of other men. You’d be hard pressed to find a gayer movie from 1959 (though the Best Picture winner, Ben-Hur, could give it a run for its money).

What makes Sebastian Venable, a man who is talked about and not seen, a candidate for Gay Best Friend?

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Monty @ 100: Friendship, Tragedy and "Raintree County"

by Cláudio Alves

Montgomery Clift's legacy is as defined by tragedy as it is by acting glory. Robert Lewis, his teacher at the famed Actors Studio, would famously describe Monty's downfall as "the longest suicide in Hollywood history". Until now, this centennial celebration has mostly avoided gossip and the dark shadow of doom clouding over the actor's biography. However, as we arrive at his ninth feature, the context of what was happening off-screen is too important to be dismissed…

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