"sweetheart..."

Which Best Actress would you have voted for 25 years ago in the Oscar race?

• Brenda Blethyn, Secrets & Lies (BAFTA, GLOBE, LAFCA, CANNES, BSFC)
• Diane Keaton, Marvin's Room
• Frances McDormand, Fargo (SAG, OSCAR, NBR, CFCA, KCFCC, CCA, SEFCA)
• Kristin Scott Thomas, The English Patient (NBR *supporting)
• Emily Watson, Breaking The Waves (NYFCC, NSFC)

This is why we do Gold, Silver, and Bronze medals here at TFE. It's easier that way! Anyway... 1996 was one of those years like 1950, 1974, 1987, 1995, or 2006 that Best Actress fans will be debating forever. Do you think 2021/22 will be like that or will we look back on the current race as a mild 'coulda been better' one? 

Passing: Finding the Grey between Black and White

by Patrick Ball

In Rebecca Hall’s devastatingly delicate Passing, light plays a powerful role. One I haven't seen in many films before. The use and placement of natural and artificial light introduces and reintroduces us to the characters over and over. Depending on how the situation suits them, they bask in it, hide from it, are able to play up their ruses, daring us to look a little closer, or cling to shadows, to the safety of the shade. 

As many of us in America came to a new and widened understanding of the foundational race issues in our country following the deaths of George Floyd and Brianna Taylor last year, and the resulting national reckoning that came after, I spent a lot of time considering how my experience as an “ethnically ambiguous” mixed-race black person has shaped my perception of race, and of media. In Passing, Tessa Thompson’s Irene wryly remarks to a white acquaintance that “we all are passing for something or another, aren’t we?” And isn’t that at the heart of the imposter syndrome we all feel at a new job or opportunity, the shades of ourselves we put on in social gatherings, the walls we build to hide our flaws and insecurities? There is something universal in the facade...

Click to read more ...

Podcast: Cannes 1996 Revisit

Nathaniel, Nick, and Joe revisit the Cannes film festival of 1996 (you might wanna quickly check that lineup & those prizes before listening) and the Best Actress race that started there. We also recommend other 1996 goodies that you may or may not have seen... or thought of in years.

Index (43 minutes)
00:01 Intro, Juries, and Crash's audacity prize
03:00 Best Actress: McDormand (Fargo) vs Blethyn (Secrets & Lies) vs Watson (Breaking the Waves)
10:09 Goodbye South Goodbye, The Eighth Day, Pillow Book, and Microcosmos
17:50 Trainspotting, Flirting With Disaster, A Self Made Hero, Lone Star, and Love Serenade
30:07 David Cronenberg's Crash
37:45 We each recommend a few more 1996 titles from Bound to The Long Kiss Goodnight

You can listen to the podcast here at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes. Continue the conversation in the comments. Which 1996 picture have you still not seen? Who got your Best Actress vote that year?

tfw when you're turned on by car crashes

Articles We Mention
• 5 Contentious Cannes Juries 
• Nick's Annual Cannes Project 
• Nick on Cronenberg's Crash 

Cannes 1996. Recommendations