Day 11: Hamlet

Hamlet : 1948: winner of the 21st Academy Awards

Starring:

 Basil Sydney as King Claudius.

Eileen Herlie as Queen Gertrude.

Laurence Olivier as Hamlet,

Norman Wooland as Horatio.

Felix Aylmer as Polonius,

 Terence Morgan as Laertes,

 Jean Simmons as Ophelia.

To watch or not to watch? TO NOT WATCH! First off, the fucking box lied to me. I always check the back of the dvd case to inquire the length of said dvd and it said 1:33:1. Let me tell you right now that was a falsehood. It was more like 2:33:1, which was and hour more than it needed to be. Now I have seen (Sir) Laurence Olivier in “The Prince and the Showgirl” and he was rigid and cold as ever. I have problems with his snootiness, because he is a Shakespearean actor and blah, blah, blah, but this was beyond that. I was bored throughout the entirety of it, well except for when the ghost came out. That was actually pretty cool. I was tempted to take it out and say fuck it I’ll wiki it and then pretend I watched it, but I can’t really cheat, as it would be kind of ridiculous, so I watched it and died a little. Even though I have always wanted to see exact Shakespeare on video, I never expected this monstrosity. I also believe that it was nominated because America couldn’t turn down Shakespeare even though it was dreadfully boring and might I say overly dramatic, hey what the hell do I know, my suggestion is however , watch it if you abso-fuckin-lutely have too, for no other reason should thine bright eyes witness it.

It also won awards for:

Best Costume Design, Black-and-White

Roger Furse

Best Costume Design, Black-and-White

Roger Furse

Best Costume Design, Black-and-White: Roger Furse

Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White: Roger Furse,Carmen Dillon

Best Actor in a Leading Role: Laurence Olivier

Day 10: Gigi

Gigi :1958: Winner of the 31st Academy Awards

Starring:

Leslie Caron as Gigi

Louis Jourdan as Gaston Lachaille

Maurice Chevalier as Honoré Lachaille

Hermione Gingold as Madame Alvarez

Isabel Jeans as Aunt Alicia

Eva Gabor as Liane d'Exelmans

Jacques Bergerac as Sandomir

I liked this movie. It was cute and funny and it was kind of like watching to stubborn people fall in love. I wasn’t entirely sure whether Gigi was being raised to be a rich man’s wife or his mistress, but it all worked out in the end. I think Leslie Carron was by far one of the prettiest actress ever and I was totally smitten by Gaston. Angry man, I swear some men were just made for marriage and he was one of them. All he needed was a little vivacity in his life. And Gigi was the one to bring the spunk… pun… get it? Nvm anyway the point is that I liked it and it was one of the first musicals to ever win 9 oscars. I loved it and couldn’t get “The Parisians” song out of my head. Watch it as a date movie or on a rainy day with cocoa. It’s totally worth it.

 It also won awards for:

Best Director :Vincente Minnelli,

Best Adapted Screenplay: Alan Jay Lerner

Best Art Direction: E. Preston Ames, F. Keogh Gleason, Henry Grace, and William A. Horning

Best Cinematography: Joseph Ruttenberg

Best Costume Design: Cecil Beaton

Best Film Editing :Adrienne Fazan

Best Original Score :André Previn

Best Original Song :"Gigi" by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe

Day 9: The Life of Emile Zola

The Life of Emile Zola : 1937: Winner of the 10th Academy Awards

Starring:

Paul Muni as Émile Zola

Gloria Holden as Alexandrine Zola

Gale Sondergaard as Lucie Dreyfus

Joseph Schildkraut as Captain Alfred Dreyfus

Donald Crisp as Maitre Labori

Erin O'Brien-Moore as Nana

John Litel as Charpentier

Henry O'Neill as Colonel Picquart

Morris Carnovsky as Anatole France

Louis Calhern as Major Dort

Ralph Morgan as Commander of Paris

Robert Barrat as Major Walsin-Esterhazy

Vladimir Sokoloff as Paul Cézanne

Grant Mitchell as Georges Clemenceau

Harry Davenport as Chief of Staff

Robert Warwick as Major Henry

Charles Richman as M. Delagorgue

Gilbert Emery as Minister of War

Walter Kingsford as Colonel Sandherr

Paul Everton as Assistant Chief of Staff

Montagu Love as M. Cavaignac

Frank Sheridan as M. Van Cassell

Lumsden Hare as Mr. Richards

Here’s the ticket to one of the precedents to American’s love of angry men in court. The story revolves around the French –some time’s political writer Emile Zola, who went from rags to riches with his hit novel “Nana”. After some time he encounters a real shot to prove his political writings when he tries to aid a general wrongly accused of Treason. He along with the convict get discredited and Emile has to flee for his life. Later the commandeering general is no longer able to keep the secret blows his brains out and Emile is once again believed in and the general gets his life back. Truthfully this was kind of bore, and it made me irritable lucilky after that we watched a Bollywood movie with Salinger so it wasn’t too bad. Watch it if you want to see the principal culprit of American movies in the courtroom. Watch it if your French but don’t watch it and expect entertainment.

It also won awards for:

Best Actor: Paul Muni

Best Director: William Dieterle

I apologize,

My great master Obi-san (Father) has cut the internet for a while, so I have been demoed to the school library to post... however i have not forgotten my quest here's the reviews for the past four days also a seperate post for Grammy fashion. And this is also my post for Whitney Houston, may she rest in peace.

Day 8: The Great Ziegfeld

The Great Ziegfeld:1936:Winner of the 9^th Academy Awards

Starring:

William Powell as Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr.

Myrna Loy as Billie Burke

Luise Rainer as Anna Held

Frank Morgan as Jack Billings

Fanny Brice as Herself

Virginia Bruce as Audrey Dane

Reginald Owen as Sampson, Flo's frequently-nervous bookkeeper

Ray Bolger as Himself

Ernest Cossart as Sidney, Billing's valet, who is hired away by Flo

Joseph Cawthorn as Dr. Ziegfeld

Nat Pendleton as Eugen Sandow

Harriet Hoctor as Herself

Jean Chatburn as Mary Lou

Paul Irving as Erlanger, Billing's later partner

Herman Bing as Costumer

Buddy Doyle as Eddie Cantor

The Great Ziegfeld is a stunning masterpiece! I truly mean it! I was so awed by the stage show that I wish I had a transport machine to take me to the 20’s and be present to one of his shows. The Ziegfeld Follies and to have been able to see them in their hayday! Ahh what a wish, however I could have done without the back story. Ziegfeld going up, Ziegfeld coming down… blah blah blahitty blah. I did like Fannie Brice’s bit though she was funny. Truthfully this is  the movie I thought I would like best from the three and since one I haven’t seen and one I think is kind of awesome “The Broadway Melody” I say watch this only for the shows. Skip the talking and the politics … unless you like to be bored. What I can also say is this, half of the “Wizard of Oz” is in the movie. The Wizard Oz, The  Scarecrow, and The Good Witch of the North. But seriously, this film bleh!

It also won awards for:

Academy Award for Best Actress - Luise Rainer

Academy Award for Best Dance Direction - Seymour Felix - For "A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody".

Day 7: The Broadway Melody

The Broadway Melody:1929: Winner of the 2^nd Academy Award

Starring:

Charles King  as Eddie Kearns

Anita Page as Queenie Mahoney

Bessie Love as Harriet (Hank) Mahoney

Today was the first time I  have seen a movie that old since “Diary of a Lost Girl”, it was pretty good. The plot since I know most people won’t bother to watch , is about two sisters in the era of the two-bit sister act. Hank the older sister is more talented than Queenie but not half as pretty. They are in New York to make it big in the city. Eddie, Hank’s boyfriend, has promised them promising spots, considering he is a sing and dance guy. Zenfield, the head of the department is enchanted by Queenie’s beauty and is happy tp put her in the show despite her lack of talent. Hank has the talent but not the face and is dismissed by Zenfield, however Quenie talks him into hiring them both, so he agrees. Eddie has fallen in love with Queenie and she with him, but they do not dare to carry on with their love because it would hurt Hank. Queenie was raised by Hank and so she knows how disastrous this may seem to her. To dissuade her feelings she starts to go out with a “stage door Johnny” named Jock Wernier. The tension rises because Queenine and Eddie are always fighting about Jock and Hank gets thrown in the middle. After the shows first performance a couple of weeks later Hank realizes that her sister and her fiancé have the hots for each other and decides to step down and let them be happy. A couple of months later, they are seen coming back from their honeymoon and they insist that Hank live with them (as if pfft.) and she politely declines. The last scene is split between Queenie telling Eddie that she is sad that Hank never catches a break and that she took him from her. The other half is Hank in the train car looking dejected but trying to motivate herself.

So this movie was good but fuck that bitch Queenie. I hate her. How dare she steal her sister’s man! How could she, I know the saying goes, “the heart wants what it wants,” but goddamn , Hank has given Queenie everything and Queenie took it away . Her spot in the show, her man  and her chance at happiness. Come on, can Hank please meet a fabulous guy to make up for what Queenie has done! Why is it that its ok for a decent looking girl to lose the love of her life to the prettier girl? I really was burned by that, and I hated Eddie for not being able to look beyond the looks and for falling in love with the “kind and gentle beauty.” *Sigh* It was totally unfair and I have a slight with Queenie, and Hank wasa bigger person for forgiving them and for allowing their love to blossom. I just wish that she had some recompense in return, you know. I liked it well enough the songs are annoyingly catchy,(although not as catchy as a Bollywood song)  and the dance numbers are supreme.  Furthermore it kind of reminds you of a lighter hearted Chicago. Although shit, Vilma Kelly had it right .. do the crime, do the time but get even. 

Day 6: The English Patient

The English Patient:1996: Winner of the 69^th Academy Awards

Starring:

Ralph Fiennes as Count László Almásy

Juliette Binoche as Hana

Willem Dafoe as David Caravaggio

Kristin Scott Thomas as Katharine Clifton

Naveen Andrews as Kip

Colin Firth as Geoffrey Clifton

Julian Wadham as Madox

Jürgen Prochnow as Major Muller

Kevin Whately as Sgt. Hardy

Clive Merrison as Fenelon-Barnes

Salinger and I had wanted to see this film since, well her since she found out that Ralph Fiennes was in it and myself, since I found it on Netflix. However it wasn’t until today and the verdict is, I loved it!!It made me cry and the love story was amazing. The story centers around a burned man found in the Desert after WW2, in this garrison a nurse named Hana tries to nurse him back to health. She has lost everyone she loved and is taking upon herself to save this man, this English Patient. They find an abandoned monastery in the Italian countryside and use it as a place for him to get better. A couple of nights later we meet Moose, David Caravaggio, who was someone that the English Patient knew in a past life, the life he cannot now remember or does not wish too. This is how the love story between Mrs. Clifton and Count de Almasy is told. Through flashback we get a glimpse of the man who was burned and heartbroken. This was a really good, albeit long, movie. I truly enjoyed it and was glad to watch. Yesterday I was complaining about overused love plots and today I find myself rekindled in that belief. Even though it was tragic and sad and I ended up with my eyes watering, I also found myself thinking that love is really all that drives human condition. Without love there is no life. It is life that brings the profound sense of belonging and acceptance that humans need. Yes, I got all that from watching this movie. Because when Hana the nurse is telling the English Patient that she wants to make him better he says that he prefers to leave this world as has his beloved. The movie was really good, I recommended that everyone watch it.

It also won awards for:

Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Juliette Binoche

 Best Art Direction-Set Decoration : Stuart Craig and Stephanie McMillan

 Best Cinematography  : John Seale

 Best Costume Design : Ann Roth

 Best Director :Anthony Minghella

Best Film Editing :Walter Murch

Best Original Score :Gabriel Yared

Best Sound :Walter Murch, Mark Berger, David Parker, and Christopher Newman