Queering the Oscars: Best Actor "A Special Day"

by Eric Blume

Marcello Mastroianni’s 1977 Best Actor Oscar nomination for Ettore Scola’s film A Special Day was one of the first examples of a straight actors being recognized for playing a gay role.  Prior to that, we’d only had Peter Finch in Sunday Bloody Sunday and Al Pacino in Dog Day Afternoon, and neither of those actors had such an entrenched persona of the “macho lover” as did Mastroianni.   

A Special Day gives us not just one Italian cinema icon playing against type, but two...

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Queering the Oscars: Visconti's "The Damned"

by Cláudio Alves

At the 42nd Academy Awards, the Best Original Screenplay category was a rarity of historical importance. You wouldn't know it in 1969, but all nominees would be studied for years to come. Whether seen as seminal works in their author's careers or cultural milestones with much to reveal about the society that produced them, the films form an illustrious bunch, going from Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice's pop psychology to the revisionist brutality of The Wild Bunch. The winner was Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, a western which has inspired queer readings for over half a century though it was far from the queerest picture in the race. 

That would be Luchino Visconti's The Damned, marking the start of his German trilogy, the international metamorphosis of his cinema, and the most open expression of gay sensibilities in his oeuvre to that point…

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Cannes at Home: Day 11 – A Tale of Two Realisms

by Cláudio Alves

Well, it's over. Another festival ends, and so does another edition of the Cannes at Home series. I've watched many a great film this past week and hope you have enjoyed the ride. To finish things off, it's time to consider the last two filmmakers to present their latest works at the Croisette. Alice Rohrwacher dazzled away with her La Chimera, starring a scruffy-looking Italian-speaking Josh O'Connor, and Ken Loach's The Old Oak proved as divisive as all his late-career films have been. 

This last Cannes at Home dispatch looks at these auteurs' greatest pictures, titles that crystalize the two distinct forms of realism each work within. There's Rohrwacher's magical spin on Italian neorealism with Happy as Lazzaro and Ken Loach's perpetuation of the kitchen-sink tradition of British social realism in Kes…

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Cannes at Home: Days 7 & 8 – The Grand Tour of Europe

by Cláudio Alves

Victor Erice's "Close Your Eyes"

The last few days of the Cannes Film Festival have been a whirlwind. The titles premiering out of the main competition have given audiences reason to talk. Why on earth would Thierry Frémaux doom them to less prestigious sections? Victor Érice's grand return to feature filmmaking after a 30 years absence is the most glaring example. The director spoke out in an open letter about being blindsided by the programmer, having been persuaded to present Close Your Eyes at the Croisette under false pretenses. Less controversial is the announcement of a Fists in the Pocket English-language remake which will star Josh O'Connor, Kristen Stewart, and Elle Fanning. The director will be none other than Karim Aïnouz who is currently in competition against the original Fists in the Pocket director, Marco Bellocchio...

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Best International Film Reviews: Croatia, Italy, and Portugal

by Cláudio Alves

Let's continue our travels through the Best International Film Oscar submissions, with a focus on Southern European cinema this time. Specifically, today's subjects are the films from Italy, Croatia, and my beloved Portugal. This is a tale of one victor and two persevering losers who still manage to send in new films for consideration every year. While Italy is the category's reigning champion with eleven wins, Croatia and Portugal have yet to be nominated. They've never even made it into the shortlists. In the latter case, the country holds the record for the most submissions without a single nod. With great sadness in my heart, I must say that Portugal's Oscar fate is unlikely to change this season…

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