Thursday, November 2, 2023 at 5:00PM by Nick Taylor
Boo! You all thought this half-alive miniseries was dead for good, but you were wrong! I have returned from the grave for one final shriek to celebrate some of my favorite new watches from this October, along with a shout-out to a surprisingly durable favorite. As I wipe off my makeup from a long night of trick or treating, enjoy your candy and feast your eyes on this!
Saturday, April 8, 2023 at 12:41PM 
This month, in the Criterion Channel, there's a spotlight on Kwaidan, the Masaki Kobayashi classic that became the first significant example of Japanese horror to reach international audiences. You can find critic Grady Hendrix exploring the 1964 anthology on the streaming service, but that's far from the only reason you should check it out. Kwaidan collects four ghost stories that, together, form cinematic poetry of ravishing beauty. No wonder Kobayashi's film has entranced The Film Experience for years. Dancin' Dan once wrote about Kwaidan for the Oscar Horrors series, Nathaniel and Juan Carlos discussed it in podcast form, and I highlighted its costuming for an idealized Oscar ballot.
Still, it's never a wrong time to re-consider Kwaidan, to get lost anew in its visual splendor...
Friday, October 22, 2021 at 11:00AM by Nathaniel R
Have you either of these classics of mid 60s international cinema? In one of the strangest timetables in Oscar history, both of these two film's leading ladies were honored with Best Actress Oscar nominations but neither in the year their film was honored: Sophia Loren (Marriage Italian Style) was nominated for Best Actress in 1964; Ida Kaminska (The Shop on Main Street) was nominated for Best Actress in 1966; inbetween those Oscar years the films themselves were nominated for Best Foreign Language Film of 1965 (now called Best International Feature Film).
I was thrilled to rejoin Juan Carlos Ojano on "One Inch Barrier" to discuss 1965's Best international race, a strong vintage, which also included the family drama Blood on the Land (Greece), the very horny Dear John (Sweden), and the supernatural Kwaidan (Japan). We discuss Best Actress, Oscar's resistance to Asian cinema, sex in cinema, and Sophia Loren's magnetism...
Thursday, October 8, 2020 at 9:33PM Last month, before the 1938 Best Supporting Actress Smackdown, Nathaniel and I discussed what could have been the Costume Design Oscar lineup had the category existed back then. Now, before the '65 Smackdown, I return to the topic of costuming and the Academy Awards. This time, though, there are actual nominees to consider, both for black-and-white films and color pictures. Furthermore, we know some of the runners-up that came close to the nomination.
Before the reveal of my personal Best Costume Design ballot for 1965, let's examine AMPAS' choices…
Thursday, October 27, 2016 at 5:00PM Boo! It's "Oscar Horrors". Each evening we'll look back on a horror-connected nomination until Halloween. Here's Dancin' Dan on a spooky Japanese beauty...
Have any of you ever seen Masaki Kobayashi's Kwaidan? I wouldn't be surprised if you hadn't. Even among Japanese films, it's not much talked about today, though it deserves to be. Kwaidan is a rarity in so many ways - an omnibus film made by one director, a truly artful horror film, a groundbreaking work of art. It was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film in 1965 (losing to the heartrending The Shop on Main Street from Czechoslovakia), and it's a bit hard to imagine it getting that far today, even with its arthouse bona fides like a Special Jury Prize at Cannes...
