Marni Nixon (1930-2016)

It is with a heavy heart that I share the news that Marni Nixon, beloved voice of Hollywood's supersized musicals of the 50s and 60s has died of breast cancer at 86. It was a long and good and musical life, if never celebrated enough by the culture she gave so much to. It had been our long held dream to see her given an Honorary Oscar which must now be a dream unfulfilled. Because I don't have the words today, I thought I'd share a piece I wrote ten years ago on how special Marni Nixon was to me, a baby cinephile growing up with musicals as my favorite form of cinematic bliss.

Marni Nixon is my Kathy Selden
by Nathaniel R 

Toward the end of Singin' in the Rain (1952), which chronicles Hollywood's seismic shift from silent films to sound production, a hilariously dim and screechy movie star Lina Lamont (Jean Hagen) gets her comeuppance. She has cruelly locked the sweet voiced Kathy Selden (Debbie Reynolds) into a contract to provide her a suitable movie voice. Lamont is after self-preservation: she can't make sound movies with her own unappealing voice, but she also cruelly takes pleasure in preventing Kathy from pursuing stardom. At a live performance Kathy stands behind a curtain, her dreams in tatters, as she sings for Lina. But Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly) pulls the curtain on the act in progress, rescuing his new girl from obscurity and dooming his former co-star to a fast fade.

Singin' in the Rain is many things: a true musical masterpiece, a stellar romantic comedy, and the best movie Hollywood ever made about Hollywood (give or take Sunset Blvd). It's a completely absorbing viewing experience but for this: Every time I see it my mind drifts away to Marni Nixon during this particular scene. Kathy's story isn't exactly Marni's. Marni wasn't forced into submission as the silents were dying. But she was the songbird woman behind the curtain for beloved movie musicals and she was born in 1930 as the silents were emitting their death rattle (Hollywood studios had halted silent film production by 1929. Only a few emerged in movie houses of 30s). Marni Nixon was to be a famous voice but not a famous face ...just like the almost-fate of the fictional Kathy Selden.

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Who Should Receive Honorary Oscars Next?

We're about one month away from the announcement of this year's Honorary Oscar recipients. They're usuallly announced at the end of August for a November Governor's Awards ceremony. This year's ceremony will be on November 12th. Last year rumors circled that it was Doris Day's turn but that didn't turn out to be accurate. For the past two years, The Film Experience has tried to make up for the dearth of movie site reporting about the Oscar Honorary careers (beyond the sharing of press releases / YouTube videos of their speeches) with mini-retrospectives so we're always hoping they'll choose well to give us wonderful careers to discuss right here. 

Let's reprint a list of worthies we shared a year or so ago, with a few adjustments, in case any of the elites in the Academy are undecided about who to put forth or get behind for these coveted honors.

James Ivory (left) is still with us though his filmmaking and life partner Ismail Merchant (right) died 11 years ago. Oscar rarely honors LGBT giants and he's 100% HONORARY OSCAR WORTHY WITH MULTIPLE BEST PICTURE NOMINEES79 SUGGESTIONS FOR HONORARIES
None of whom have Oscars or honoraries but many of whom have been nominated

Voice To The Stars:
Marni Nixon... this is a dream but an impossible one. There's no branch to advocate for her but she'd be more than worthy having contributed so much to an entire genre: the movie musical.

Directors 
James Ivory would be an ideal choice at 88 years of age. He's still with us but his partner (Ismail Merchant) has already passed away and together they made movies that Oscar outright adored. It would also be a nod to the LGBT community which the Academy really ought to make nice with given their history. What's the hold up, honestly? He'd be a PERFECT choice.

Others:  Mike Leigh, David Lynch, Werner Herzog, Agnes Varda, Jan Troell, or David Cronenberg. more suggestions follow...

Actresses Catherine Deneuve is our most fervent dream these days. She's still working and still challenging herself and that filmography is gorgeous and long-lasting and has an enviable number of classics in it.

Other great options: Liv Ullmann, Glynis Johns, Jeanne Moreau, Doris Day, Glenn Close, Mia Farrow, Pam Grier (defined a whole subgenre!) or Gong Li  (stellar acting and filmography and they NEVER honor Asian actors). But we'd like to take this moment to thank AMPAS profusely for actually forcing us to change this list up about, having recently honored two of our most frequent suggestions: Debbie Reynolds & Maureen O'Hara.

Casting Directors: Lynn Stalmaster, Juliet Taylor, Ellen Lewis

Producers Kathleen Kennedy, Ridley Scott, Zhang Yimou, Carlos Saura

Actors Albert Finney, Max Von Sydow, Sir Ian Holm, Sir Ian McKellen, Donald Sutherland, Harrison Ford , and James Caan

Costume Designers Penny Rose (egregiously never nominated), Anna B Sheppard, Julie Weiss, Jeffrey Kurland, or Bob Mackie.

Michael Ballhaus's amazing work spans several classics from Rainer Werner Fassbender to Martin Scorsese and richly beautiful 80s films like The Fabulous Baker Boys

Cinematographers Michael Ballhaus, who is 80 years old, is our favorite option here -- that filmography is splendid and international and he's been nominated three times and he basically retired with the Best Picture winner The Departed (2006). But there's also Roger Deakins and Allen Daviau. They waited too long on our Douglas Slocombe suggestion and he passed away around Oscar time earlier this year.

Production Designer Jeannine Oppenwall

Sound Kevin O'Connell, Michael J Kohut, Greg P. Russell

Editor Richard Marks, Sally Menke (posthumously... Tarantino's movies have never been the same since)

Makeup Edouard F Henriques, Aldo Signoretti

Music Diane Warren, Thomas Newman, Danny Elfman, Philip Glass, or Angelo Badalementi

Documentaries: Frederick Wiseman, Steve James, Michael Apted, or Werner Herzog

Finally...

Though we don't normally approve of and often are outright puzzled by Oscars willingness to give Honorarys to people who've already won -- some more than once! -- we would understand honoraries for the following two win since their wins came very early in incredible careers. 

Anne V Coates with Ethan Hawke recently Photo Source

Anne V Coates -Editor, won for Lawrence of Arabia. Much brilliant work thereafter including Soderbergh classics
Julie Andrews -Actress, won for her debut. Bonafide classics followed. Beloved by multiple generations.

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When Tony Met Janet. And Other Stories...

Today in movie related history...

1907 Cracking Rosalind Russell is born. Stars in many classics including: His Girl Friday, Gypsy, and Auntie Mame and is nominated for 4 Best Actress Oscars. The only actresses that share her fate of 4 Best Actress nominations w/out a win: Greta Garbo, Marsha Mason, and Barbara Stanwyck. Of the four only Marsha Mason didn't receive an Honorary later on.
1913 Suffragette Emily Davison runs onto the track at the Epson Derby and is trampled by King George V's horse. It's a huge turning point in the court of public opinion and the suffragette movement. It was reenacted in last year's Suffragette.
1936 Bruce Dern is born and never stops acting thereafter. Also donates Laura Dern to the world for which he has our undying gratitude
1940 The last allied soldiers leave Dunkirk. Britain's PM vows that his forces will "never surrender". Christopher Nolan is currently filming a movie about Dunkirk called, you guessed it, Dunkirk
1942 The Battle of Midway begins in World War II. John Ford directed an Oscar winning documentary about it that you can watch for free online. If you're interested in the topic you should definitely read Mark Harris's book "Five Came Back" about famous Hollywood directors during the war. 

1951 Rising actors Janet Leigh (23) and Tony Curtis (26) are married. Much bigger stardom is thrown at them like so much rice via iconic films like Psycho, A Touch of Evil, and The Manchurian Candidate (Hers) and Some Like It Hot, Spartacus and The Defiant Ones (His) shortly thereafter. They break up in '62 but not before gifting us with Jamie Lee Curtis.
1952 70s TV star Parker Stevenson is born. Later becomes half of The Hardy Boys and marries Kirstie Alley who famously refers to his junk "giving me the big one" in her 1991 Emmy speech. This was long before the days when the internet made bulge-watching a national pasttime. (Music cue: "Class" from Chicago here, please. Whatever happened to it? It's all Kirstie Alley's fault!)
1964 Kōji Yamamura is born. Later nominated for an Oscar for the Animated Short Mount Head. It's worth your ten minutes, it's so trippy.
1975 Angelina Jolie emerges. The world is never the same.
1978 Deniz Gamze Ergüven is born in Turkey. She was Oscar nominated last season for her debut film Mustang, which made our top ten list.

They're here.

1982 Poltergeist and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan both open in theaters
1984 Bruce Springsteen releases his classic "Born in the USA" album the title track of which is used in many movies since. The first video "Dancin' in the Dark" introduces the world to soon to be household name actress Courtney Cox. 
1989 The Tiananmen Square protests come to a violent end in Beijing with hundreds of young protesters killed. Hollywood has ignored it despite their love of historical event movies and Chinese films usually ignore it too due to the topic being taboo with the government. But two sexually controversial movies released in the Aughts used it as part of the narrative: the gay drama Lan Yu (2001) which won four Golden Horse awards and, more prominently, the college student drama Summer Palace (2006) which was banned at home, and withdrawn from competition at Cannes. Both films are worth seeing.

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

Happy Memorial Day my peoples. Let's have another history lesson via showbiz

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

1431 Joan of Arc is burned at the stake. If you've never seen The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928), one of the best movies of all time containing hugely powerful actressing by Falconetti you must repent. Save your soul and watch it.
1536 King Henry VIII, whose wives all tended to die prematurely (funny how that happens) marries Jane Seymour (not to be confused with the Dr Quinn Medicine Woman & Somewhere in Time actress). 477 years later Oscar Isaac sings about Queen Jane's tragic life in Inside Llewyn Davis's very best scene. 
1896 Howard Hawks is born. Makes so many great films but my favorites are: Bringing Up Baby (1938), Red River (1948) and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) 

Inside Llewyn Davis (2013): The Death Of Queen Jane (The Movie Title Song) from dky6dcnQbL dky6dcnQbL on Vimeo.

1899 Movie titan Irving Thalberg is born. The craziest actressexuals (*raises hand*) know him as Mr. Norma Shearer but mostly people think of him as "another name for an Honorary Oscar" though the prize is actually a bust of the man himself. 39 people have won this at the Oscars for bodies of work that "reflect a consistently high quality of motion picture production". All 39 of them have been men.
1920 Franklin J Schaffner is born in Tokyo to American missionary parents. He'll eventually direct motion pictures like The Stripper, Boys from Brazil, and Planet of the Apes and win the Oscar for Patton (1970). 
1928 International treasure Agnès Varda is born in Belgium. Anne Marie wrote about her work last year so check that out.
1941 Blood and Sand, Tyrone Power's matador pic, is released. Wins Best Cinematography at the Oscars. Happy 75th Anniversary!
1971 "Adele Dazeem" is born, shatters the ear drum of the doctor who spanks her newborn tush.
2003 Finding Nemo opens in movie theaters. Begins its gargantuan box office swim through movie theaters 
2014 Maleficent opens in theaters, desecreating the beautiful wickedness of one of the all time great screen villains by making her a misunderstood victim.  

Will you be making history today? What's your plan?

November Highlights Pt.1

If years were musicals we'd be about to hear  the 11th hour showstopping numbers before the climax in December when Oscar Fever and List Mania truly begins. Consider that in two days two of the best films of this already great year emerge in theaters: Carol, Mustang and then the Thanksgiving blockbusters hit. But for now some highlights from the month's first half since we don't want you to miss anything! We're illustrating with Slave Girl Princess Leia because we reject any corporate attempts to erase popular culture touchstones because people are so easily offended. Slave Girl Leia turned her chains into weapons and defeated the patriarchy Jabba the Hut and should be celebrated not covered up. 

Grey Gardens Manuel's HBO LGBT retrospective season reached this eccentric gem
Female Directors diversity in director's chair is the hot topic of the year 
Charming Sir Ian at the Brit brunch party for Mr. Holmes
Oscar Gossip direct from Los Angeles
Pilou Asbaek goes to A War (then Game of Thrones)
Q&A we discuss favorite Oscar-winning quartets (what's urs?) and much more
AFI Fest reviews of The Big Short, Concussion, Lady in Van, James White, etc
Tennessee Williams Biopic? Yes please 
Spectre Tim's review 

Honorary Oscars
Spike Lee we looked at Bamboozled and Crooklyn
Debbie Reynolds we looked at Singin' in the Rain, The Unsinkable Molly Brown and Charlotte's Web
Best Dressed at the Governor's Awards

...and we'll have more to come on Gena Rowlands! But for now enjoy Spike & Gena's awesome speeches 

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Awards & List Mania 
BIFA Nominations, 16 Eligible Animated Features, IDA documentary nominations, Spirit Predictions, WGA Funniest Screenplays