Italy chooses "Notturno" (Plus Italy's robust Oscar history)

by Nathaniel R

Italy has chosen Gianfranco Rosi's highly acclaimed documentary Notturno (which we reviewed at the AFI fest) to represent them at the Oscars from 25 Italian films that were submitted for consideration. Italy previously submitted his 2016 documentary Fire at Sea (which was not nominated for International Film but did score in Documentary Feature). Perhaps emboldened by Honeyland's double nomination last season for Best Documentary and Best International Film, more countries than usual have submitted documentaries this year hoping to repeat that historic double. That said, only three docs have ever been nominated in this particular category: Waltz with Bashir, The Missing Picture, and Honeyland.

As we've seen in past Oscar seasons, Italy skipping over The Life Ahead for their submission entry is not at all a deterrent for Sophia Loren's Best Actress campaign. Movie stars and world famous directors operate by different rules, if you know what we mean...

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Review: Sophia Loren returns with "The Life Ahead"

by Cláudio Alves

The Movie Star and Her Director Son

Even before we see her face in The Life Ahead, it's impossible to draw the eyes away from Sophia Loren. Following in the tradition of European realism, Edoardo Ponti's camera captures an Italian marketplace with shaky energy. However, no matter how shabby the framing might be, the colors depart from the standards of realism. Angus Hudson's cinematography makes everything a bit too bright, the sun shining on the streets like golden flames, every saturated color intensified. It's reality as if painted with crayons by an enthusiastic child. 

In this sunny landscape, a shot of bright blue, bluer than the sky, stands out, crowned by a mess of gunmetal hair. Dressed in azure, Loren may have lost some of the youthful glow of her heyday in the midcentury, but the star power is intact, her magnetism as strong as ever. Furthermore, the director, her son, knows how to pay reverence to the screen legend without making it too obvious or too elegiac…

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Ahead of "The Life Ahead," Actressing in Subtitles in the 2010s

by Juan Carlos Ojano

Cinema legend Sophia Loren makes a potential comeback with this year’s The Life Ahead this Friday on Netflix after more than a decade of career hiatus. Loren made history as the first Oscar winner for a performance not in the English language for 1961’s Italian film Two Women. Her second Best Actress nomination came with 1964’s Marriage Italian Style. If nominated for The Life Ahead, Loren would break the record for the longest gap between nominations with 56 years (though she'd only tie the record for most nominations for subtitled performances since her frequent co-star Marcello Mastroianni holds that record with three).

Loren is part of the longstanding tradition of Best Actress nominations for performances not in the English language (it happens far more often there than in other acting categories). Whether through sheer talent, strategic campaigning, and/or the dearth of quality roles for actresses in Hollywood, these performances overcame the one-inch barrier of subtitles and ended up with Academy recognition...

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Beauty Break: National Book Lovers Day

Curated by Nathaniel R

Clark Gable reading about Rhett Butler. Research!

Today is National Book Lovers Day so we thought we'd celebrate with heavenly creatures getting their book club on. Please enjoy these stars reading (or pretending to read) books for pleasure, or work, or photo-op purposes. Or sometimes as a character in a movie. We love this sort of pic as it's harder and harder in the real world to know what people are reading. You can no longer track what the hot book is by glancing around on the subway -- it's how i discovered lots of great books in the Aughts -- because everyone reads on very private tablets now.

Photo gallery after the jump...

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Best Actress Predictions

by Nathaniel R

Sophia Loren with her son, director Edoardo Ponti

We try to save the best for last. We know where our bread is buttered. Or, rather, what kind of bread we like in the first place, and which buttery spread is the perfect topper. Which brings us to BEST ACTRESS...

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