Marty's on Letterboxd! Are You?

by Cláudio Alves

During the actors' strike, many directors were put front and center of their films' promotion, stepping into the place usually occupied by their stars. It's an understandable strategy, alright. That's what happened to Killers of the Flower Moon, which, regardless of the industry's actions, would have hinged much of its publicity on Martin Scorsese. However, his centrality in the marketing meant we got to see more of him than expected, including a social media surge that can probably be attributed to the director's daughter, Francesca Scorsese. Between TikTok videos and snappy interviews, the old master even joined Letterboxd…

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Oscar history: Titanic's not-quite clean sweep, Julia's ascendance, and Chicago vs The Pianist

5 things that happened today, March 23rd, in Oscar History only...

1950 The 22nd annual Academy Awards honoring 1949 are held. All the King's Men wins Best Picture but it's the Olivia de Havilland classic The Heiress, among the Best Picture honorees, which wins the most Oscars (Actress, Costume Design, Art Direction, and Score) and has had the longest cultural shelf life thereafter.

1990 Pretty Woman hits movie theaters becoming a sensation and Julia Roberts ascends to superstardom...

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Monty @ 100: "The Heiress"

by Camila Henriques

Montgomery Clift achieved greatness early in his career. Just one year into the Hollywood industry, he was tapped to co-star in a period drama by William Wyler, who was still riding the waves of the second of his three best directing Oscars, for 1946’s The Best Years of Our Lives. It was the combination of a very particular brand of acting and heartthrob looks that made Clift a star, and that mix is undoubtedly present in The Heiress.

Cemented in Hollywood history as the film that garnered Olivia de Havilland a second well-deserved Oscar, The Heiress also arguably introduced Monty as the romantic (or not) lead...

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The Furniture: Olivia de Havilland Embroiders Her Fate

Daniel Walber's series on Production Design. Click on the images to see them in magnified detail.

Olivia de Havilland was in nine films that were nominated for the Oscar for Best Production Design. It’s not the record, but it’s quite something. I’ve covered three of them: Hold Back the Dawn, My Cousin Rachel and Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte. But none of those actually won the award, so I still have some work to do. I haven’t got time for Gone with the Wind, and The Adventures of Robin Hood can wait a few weeks until our 1938 celebration, so I dove into The Heiress.

I hope you’re ready to think deeply about embroidery.

Granted, I’m not entirely sure director William Wyler was thinking deeply about his protagonist’s favorite pastime. The emphasis on Catherine Sloper’s (de Havilland) stitching can feel like little more than shorthand for “spinster” status. And the mid-19th century was a high point for this association, as embroidery was a standard part of the girls’ school curriculum.

Dr. Austin Sloper (Ralph Richardson) sent Catherine to the finest boarding schools, where she would have learned the art of the sampler from an unmarried teacher. The end of the film bluntly zooms in on one of these stitched alphabets, which in this context might as well read “OLD MAID”...

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Beauty vs Beast: Say it With Cerulean

Jason Adams of MNPP here with your brand new edition of our "Beauty vs Beast" poll -- not to over-Meryl us (does such a thing exist?) with two Meryl polls in the span of three weeks on top of her much-talked-about turn on Big Little Lies, but it was the 13th anniversary of The Devil Wears Prada back on June 30th and it suddenly struck me like a very expensive coat in the face that, blasphemy of blasphemies, we have never done a Prada Edition for this series. I KNOW!! Insert a gif of one of Miranda's withering glares here. Shameful. So let's see if the Anne-Hatha-lovers have any tricks up their designer sleeves...

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PREVIOUSLY Last week between bouts of Meryl we tackled another queen of screen Olivia de Havilland, and while she may not have taken down Ryan Murphy with her Feud-based lawsuit Livvy at least got one over on that other queen Monty Clift, taking 59% of your Heiress vote. Said joel6:

"Morris is a beauty and perhaps Catherine is too naive but that's her father's fault not hers. Morris is a low down gutter snake that gets exactly what he deserves and seeing Catherine serve it up to him is sweetness itself. Olivia de Havilland gave several great performances but this is the cherry on top of the cake! Wishing her all the best as an awesome 103 year old and as long as her health holds may she see many more birthdays!"