All hail the great Glenda Jackson!

by Cláudio Alves 

50 years ago, Ken Russell's Women in Love was released in US theaters after having already opened in the UK the year before. Accusations of obscenity and licentiousness followed the picture across the Atlantic and, as it usually happens, polemic was a good catalyst for popularity. Nowadays, such arthouse offerings rarely get mainstream attention but the America of 1970 was a different place as far as moviegoing was concerned. In a time of radical change in society and tastes, Women in Love's tale of bohemian affairs, sexual candor and class hierarchies in 20s England was warmly received by critics and audiences alike. The performance of Glenda Jackson was of particular fame and catapulted the actress to the pantheon of celebrity.

So much so that, by April of 1971, she won the Oscar for Best Actress. To this day, it's one of the weirdest victories in the category's history…

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Luis Bunuel's "Tristana" is 50...

by Eric Blume

Fifty years ago director Luis Bunuel's Tristana, his second collaboration with Catherine Deneuve, opened. It went on to become  a 1970 Best Foreign Film Oscar nominee.  While it lost the statue to Elio Petri's excellent Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion from Italy, it's fascinating to look back at Bunuel's fourth-to-final film and see it still standing strong.

In many ways, Tristana is one of the more straightforward and accessible Bunuel films, but "straightforward Bunuel" is thankfully still pretty fucked up...

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Reader's Choice: Voyage of the Damned (1976)

Last week by popular vote you selected this streaming film for screening & discussion...

by Nathaniel R

It lasted 30 days... You will remember it as long as you live."

So went one of the chief taglines for the Oscar hopeful Voyage of the Damned (1976). It reads like a threat -- when taglines attack! -- this promise of a long unforgettable sit. Having only viewed The Voyage of the Damned for the very first time this weekend, it's too soon to say if we'll remember it for as long as we live, but the other part of the statement is accurate. We won't make a snarky comment about the running time (too easy!) but the titular passage was indeed a month long moment of intensely shameful global history. 

For those unfamilar with the history it goes, very briefly, like this...

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Fellini @ 100: "Amarcord"

A few volunteers from Team Experience are revisiting Federico Fellini classics for his centennial. Here's Eric Blume...

 

Federico Fellini’s 1975 film Amarcord is considered the culmination of his style and artistry, the “most Fellini” of Fellini films, the one that won him his last (of four) Best Foreign Film Oscar, as well as prizes from the New York Film Critics and National Board of Review as director of the year.  And he never made a film afterwards that rivaled its success or connection with audiences... 

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Star Wars and the Oscars, a History.

Get away from Natalie Wood, Darth Vader, we're warning you!

Over at Vulture this weekend, yours truly has a piece up about the history of Oscar's affection (and lack thereof) for the Star Wars saga. I'm glad they liked my Diane Keaton / Annie Hall intro (though they added the Woody Allen bits -- I left him out as I didn't want to distract people) because I couldn't get the image of Diane callously "la-di-da"ing while wielding the Death Star out of my head. Anyway, it was great fun to write so I hope you enjoy. It was also a trip to source the FYC ads -- if only more of them were available online. I couldn't find a single FYC ad for The Empire Strikes Back or The Phantom Menace (among other films).

One thing I didn't have space for  that I could have written much more on was the individual categories over the years -- isn't it strange that Star Wars (1977) is the only time the series has ever been up for Costume Design?!? -- and the individual presentations. Look how excited Farrah Fawcett was to find out who won Best Editing!

And why did Oscar producers pair her with Marcello Mastroianni for a prize that was clearly going to Star Wars? The mysteries that emerge from history... even history as well documented as pop culture.