Sherlock Jr. @100: For the love of Cinema

by Cláudio Alves

This week, one of the best comedies ever made and a silent film masterpiece celebrates its centennial. It's none other than Sherlock Jr., Buster Keaton's 45-minute miracle of stunt work and cinematic considerations about cinema as materialized dream and broken escapism. A meta-movie for the ages, I consider it the old Stone Face's crowning achievement. Sure, The General is much more complex and Steamboat Bill, Jr. trumps it in sheer iconography. As for technical innovation, something like The Play House is probably Keaton's peak. However, there's something special about the 1924 lark, a simplicity that bolsters perfection, an ingenuity that rekindles my love for cinema whenever I set my eyes on it…

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Oscar History: The Very First Ceremony!

by Nathaniel R

THE FIRST OSCAR CEREMONY (photo from the Academy)

94 years ago today (May 16th, 1929) the very first Oscars were held in Hollywood. The newly formed Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was honoring the films released in the summer of 1927 through the summer of 1928 (a full year prior!). The ceremony, held at the Roosevelt Hotel (which was then about to turn two years old and is now the oldest continually operating hotel in Los Angeles) lasted just 15 minutes.  It would be the first and only fully “private” ceremony with the Oscars broadcasting by radio the following year. It would also be the first and only ceremony ever held in May with the Oscars moving to November the next season. Unusual yes. But only to these modern eyes. It would take the Academy a decade plus to settle into many of the traditions and categories that now seem to have always existed and even longer before the television-specific rituals began (in the early 50’s.)

Let’s look at what they chose in their inaugural year and where you can now screen those films...

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Oscar Completism: Unfinished Business and Happy Endings?

Baby Clyde's Oscar Completist Diaries -- Part 2
(If you missed part one read that first!)

When COVID hit I happened to be in Colombia. I wasn’t frolicking on the beach in 90-degree heat or scuba diving in the beautiful clear blue Caribbean Sea but watching the Best Actress nominees of 1969 (That’s what holidays are for right?). Jean Simmons and Liza Minnelli had somehow passed me by over the years and with my new Russian pal I was able to fill in all the gaps. By the time I was back in London and lockdown had kicked in, I’d decided to make a project of it. Using Kevin Jacobson’s And The Runner-Up Is podcast as my companion I started watching every nomination in reverse order from 1969 down to 1927. I rewatched everything I’d already seen and added in the first-time watches along the way, noting everything down on a colour coded spreadsheet as I went and listening to the corresponding podcast episode (I promise I’m really not as sad as this suggests. I used to be a cool 90’s Club kid, remember!!!). This made for some very interesting stats on my Letterboxd Most Watched List – The best place on the entire internet.

2020 was full of stars of the 50’s and 60’s (Sophia Loren won) whilst 2021 was made up of the biggest names from the 30’ and 40’s (And Beulah Bondi). Cary Grant came out on top. By the end of the year Kevin had invited me on the podcast to discuss the Best Picture race of 1935. I waffled on for 2 hours and 20 minutes...

The further I went the harder it became...

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Chaplin vs. Keaton vs. Lloyd

by Cláudio Alves

Today marks a century since Harold Lloyd delivered his most legendary work to movie theaters. Safety Last! is a silent comedy classic, featuring such riveting stunts as the famous climax that finds our hero hanging from a clock. Though no other Lloyd picture has a comparable legacy, the man's filmography is a treasure trove for slapstick lovers with an inclination for bespectacled hunks. If you have any doubts, jump over to the Criterion Channel, where a new 42-title collection showcases the man's work from the late 1910s to the advent of sound and 1936's Milky Way. If you're not entertained, see a doctor, stat.

But of course, maybe Lloyd's not your preferred flavor of silent comedy. Amid the classic loving community, it seems everyone has a favorite from the three big names that defined Hollywood slapstick and continue to live in the public imagination. So, because this is a day for foolishness, why not indulge in pot-stirring drama and futile competition? Between Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Harold Lloyd, who's your pick? Maybe it's…

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Thoughts I Had... while staring at the first images from "Babylon"

by Nathaniel R

Damien Chazelle photographed by Scott Garfield on the set

Damien Chazelle's Hollywood opus (of some sort or another), Babylon, wasn't ready for the fall festivals so we had no clue when we'd get our first taste. Thankfully today Vanity Fair ended our long drought of information, visual and otherwise, with several lux images from the film. Naturally then it's time to discuss our thoughts, yours and mine (as they come to me). Yours go in the comments. Please don't be shy. The team misses socializing with you in this way. Okay, lots of images to get through so here we go as fast as can, thoughts in the order they came to us...

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