Alternate Oscars: 1955 Edition

by Cláudio Alves 

Ever since I started following the Oscars, I've liked to come up with dream ballots. Indeed, it's become something of a hobby to write down such ideal Academy Awards, whether following eligibility rules or not. Lately, through Letterboxd and the influence of an Excel-addicted friend, those lists have graduated from notebooks to an array of overcomplicated multicolored spreadsheets with which I horrify whoever is unlucky enough to see them. All this to say that, when Gabe Guarin asked me to be part of his Alternate Oscars podcast, I was ecstatic. At long last, I've found an opportunity to make good use of those spreadsheets!

On the latest episode of Alternate Oscars, Gabe and I discuss 1955 and come up with our ideal ballots in a podcast awards ceremony full of cinephile gushing and Kenji Mizoguchi-love. Take a listen:

What do you think of our choices? Share your choices, too.

Mizoguchi's women

by Cláudio Alves

Last time we talked about Japanese cinema, we were looking at the history of the Best Costume Design Oscar. Among the five pictures from Japan nominated for that awards, we find Ugetsu, the only Kenji Mizoguchi film to ever receive any sort of recognition by the Academy. Considering some of the director's best films are currently available online thanks to platforms like the Criterion Channel, Kanopy, and HBO Max, it seems like a good time to highlight more of his cinematic mastery. After all, there's much greatness in Mizoguchi's exquisite cinema beyond the sartorial splendor of Ugetsu…

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New to DVD: The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum

By Daniel Walber.

What makes a film theatrical? It’s a word that gets bandied about a lot. Often it just means that the script is like that of a play, with a limited number of locations and lots of dialogue. Or it can be used to describe a style of acting, playing to the rafters rather than the more intimate audience of the camera lens. Rarely, however, do we use the word “theatrical” to describe elements of direction, cinematography and editing.

Yet this underserved implication of the term is the key to understanding The Story of The Last Chrysanthemum, an early triumph of iconic Japanese director Kenji Mizoguchi that has just been released by the Criterion Collection. This epic family drama was a proving ground of sorts for the filmmaker’s signature use of long takes, which would elevate such later masterpieces as Ugetsu and The Life of Oharu. But first he took a much narrower approach, crafting the style of The Story of The Last Chrysanthemum from the conventions of kabuki theater.

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