Best Supporting Actor in the 80s: An Alternative Oscar History

by Cláudio Alves

As in real life, Jack Nicholson takes a Best Supporting Actor prize during the 1980s. But not for TERMS OF ENDEARMENT, however.

November is coming to an end and so is our 80s throwback celebration. That means I have to wrap-up these alternative Oscars posts. After sharing personal ballots for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress, it’s time for the other acting categories, starting with the thespians who enrich their films from the sidelines. As ever, the ballots presented follow Oscar eligibility rules, all its quirks and oddities. There are also honorable mentions, some ineligible gems who weren’t up for the Oscar due to release date shenanigans or a lack of submission on their distributors’ part. Finally, I also added a number of titles on my watchlist and would appreciate all your recommendations to enrich these dream Oscars of mine…

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1984: Paris, Texas

As part of our celebration of the year of the month, 1984, Lynn Lee revisits the winner of that year's Palme d'Or, Wim Wenders' Paris Texas.

While it may not quite have the status of an iconic movie, there’s much about Paris, Texas that feels iconic.  A hybrid of those two most iconically American genres, the Western and the road trip—directed, natch, by a German and starring two European actresses—it bears the distinctive features of both.  The long stretches of silence, only occasionally broken by snatches of spare Sam Shepard-scripted dialogue or, as often as not, monologue.  Ry Cooder’s haunting slide-guitar score, which seems to meld with the harsh, lonely, yet strangely sublime landscapes of Texas deserts, highways, and roadside motels.  The lighting, especially at dusk.  The weathered countenance of Harry Dean Stanton—how does it manage to be at once so stoic and so expressive?—and the exquisitely sculpted planes of Nastassja Kinski’s face, as they quiver and dissolve in the movie’s most emotionally wrenching scene. 

That last aspect is at once the film’s ace and its Achilles heel.  By the latter I don’t mean Kinski’s acting (I think she’s fantastic, shaky Texan accent aside) or the writing of that particular scene.  Rather, I mean the conception of her character, Jane, and Jane’s relationship to Stanton’s wanderer Travis, which culminates in that scene.  

If the first two thirds of Paris, Texas are about Travis’ reconnecting with his brother and young son as he slowly comes back to life, the last third is dominated by his efforts to find Jane...

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On this day: Billy the Kid, The Dark Knight, Hello Nasty

Happy Bastille Day! Isn't it weird that violent/bloody days often become holidays later on?

On this day in history as it relates to the movies...

Howard Hughes The Outlaw (1943)

1862 The Artist Gustav Klimt is born. Later Dame Helen Mirren will fight for custody of one of his most famous paintings in the bad movie Woman in Gold (2015).
1868 Explorer Gertrud Bell is born. Nicole Kidman played her in an ill-fated unreleased Werner Herzog movie Queen of the Desert
1881 Outlaw Billy the Kid is shot and killed outside Fort Sumner. Numerous stars have played him in movies including Roy Rogers (Billy the Kid Returns), Kris Kristofferson (Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid), Emilio Estevez (Young Guns), and Paul Newman (The Left-Handed Gun). The most famous film version of his story may well be The Outlaw (1943) the Howard Hughes film which starred Jack Buetel as Billy and Jane Russell, in her star-making role, as his girl. You'll probably remember the funny scenes about this scandalous film (and Jane Russell's controversial cleavagae) within Martin Scorsese's The Aviator (2004)

more after the jump including Harry Dean Stanton's 90th birthday...

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Curio: Bubblegum Card Oddities

Alexa here. Everyone knows that there is a whole universe devoted to sports trading cards, with stories of someone selling their Mickey Mantle card for thousands.  Of course a similar form of geekdom revolves around sci fi films, with Thor and Star Wars trading cards produced by the truckload.   But occasionally I run across some vintage film trading cards that I find a little unexpected.  Here are some I've enjoyed.

Yes, I bought this complete set of Saturday Night Fever trading cards about 15 years ago.  You'll be happy to know that I didn't spend all that much; apparently a card of Tony Manero in his black briefs isn't worth much in the open market.  The unopened packages still had gum!  My favorite part was being able to assemble the poster image from the back of the set.

Although it makes sense that they produced Alien trading cards in 1979 (in a feeble attempt to ride the Star Wars sci fi wave) I find it hilarious that this means there are trading cards out there of Veronica Cartwright and Harry Dean Stanton!

But wait there's more: Marlon Brando, Mia Farrow and...

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