The Life Of Emile Zola - 10th Best Picture Winner

The Life Of Emile Zola - 10th Best Picture Winner
1937
#69

Starring:
Paul Muni
Gloria Holden
Gale Sondergaard
Joseph Schildkraut

Directed By:
William Dieterle

1937 Academy Awards
Winner:
Best Picture
Best Supporting Actor
Best Adapted Screenplay

Other Nominated Films:
The Awful Truth
Captains Courageous
Dead End
The Good Earth
In Old Chicago
Lost Horizon
One Hundred Men And A Girl
Stage Door
A Star Is Born


So...this is another blog post I failed to publish back when I watched the film...ah the joys of being easily distracted. Guess that's why I write them on Evernote so I can then eventually post them here? LOL Anyways...

This is a rather political movie, with its rallies against social ills and antisemitism but that is the truth of what Zola was about.
Of course the establishment wants to stamp out any dissonance, to the point of destroying people's lives. 
How even indicative of today, people thinking someone who commits suicide is better off than someone poor and living.

Of course even scandal can sell, as the success of novel Nana can attest. People like scandal.

Aside from not finding a way to publish, the thought of censoring someone because they criticized you is ridiculous. 
However I will say the difference is that Zola's criticism is constructive, not meant to be destructive but critical to induce change.
Sad that only 23 min in and Cezanne is done...

But even more surprising is that this movie is from 1937, in the midst of WW2, with someone speaking against those with anti-Semitic leanings. This was obviously mean as a cry against what was happening in Europe but was it heeded?
And this was set in 1894! And it won Best Picture!
Even then, people are more than happy to turn a blind eye to social injustice. It doesn't affect me so it's not my problem. Never lifting a hand to help anyone in need, hiding in the bubble of a world they have. 
And to show a corrupt army and government! 
It's isn't until someone well known takes up and gives voice to the troubles does someone listen! It's a shame that at the making of this movie we were still oblivious to the horrors of Hitler's crimes.

And then railroad someone? This continues today, so the government can keep secrets. The same thing is currently playing out at the end of the 9th season of Bones - a cover up at the FBI, with someone in the Bureau is dirty, and Booth is trying to uncover it. When being questioned for a possible promotion, he is instead accused of killing an American, without order and a Delta Force team is sent to silence him. When survives, the claim they were simply coming to arrest him...in full tactical gear and blowing doors in...

What is it they say? Those that don't know their history are doomed to repeat it? Well those that ignore their history are doomed to repeat it too. 

Check out more about the 10th Academy Awards

Check out more about the films of 1937

Shakespeare In Love - 71st Best Picture Winner

Shakespeare In Love - 71st Best Picture Winner
1998
#59

Starring:
Gwyneth Paltrow
Joseph Finnes

Directed By:
John Madden

1998 Academy Awards
Winner:
Best Picture
Best Actress
Best Supporting Actress
Best Art Direction
Best Costume Design
Best Original Musical or Comedy Score
Best Original Screenplay

Other Films Nominated:
Elizabeth
Life Is Beautiful
Saving Private Ryan
The Thin Red Line

This is one of the BP Winners that I'd seen before, more than a few times. So rare is it for a comedy to win Best Picture. To me, that is kind of strange, in a way, given the awards are a popularity contest after all. Comedies tend to reach wider audiences than drama so you'd think more would be nominated in general but they just aren't. And to that end, most of those nominated are more what currently people would call a dramedy - part drama, part comedy, and frankly, closer to what real life is like. Most people have times of drama and joy in their lives, the lucky ones having less drama and more joy. But when people think of rewarding something, proclaiming something has more merit than others, I guess things that seem bigger spectacles or that fall into a narrower genre are seen as more work and more deserving than something that reflects real life? Unless that real life was like 30+ years ago...

Films based in part or in whole on one of the works of Shakespeare (on in this case a work and his life) have a decent-ish track record for being nominated for Oscars, with at least 20 films in the history of the awards having been nominated, tho only a few have won their nominated titles, like West Side Story and Olivier's Hamlet (not to mention the number of Oscars Olivier himself was nominated for and won for various works of Shakespeare he was a part of).

This one isn't so much about a specific play, though Romeo and Juliet is the main feature, but about story of what went into writing such a play and performing it and the lives of those that create it. One reason why it was so notable is that through the comedy, it uses a very real point of historical issue - that of the rule that women were not to be seen on stage and therefore all the parts of every play, including the young Juliet Capulet, were played by men or boys. Such a prohibition still speaks to society today in the plight of those denied, well, anything because of their gender, race, age, sexual orientation, etc. Look into history - this was set in the late 1500s and yet today, more than some 400 years later, this is still an issue of today's society. you'd think we'd have all come a lot further in 400 years time...

Also interesting to note that this beat 2 highly acclaimed WWII movies, both of whom many people expected to win Best Picture. While SiL wasn't a total surprise, it's just one of the many times the Academy has given that top prize to something unexpected.

Check out more about the 71st Academy Awards
Check out more about the films of 1998

Gladiator - 73rd Best Picture Winner

Gladiator - 73rd Best Picture Winner
2000
#52

Starring:
Russell Crowe
Joaquin Phoenix

Directed By:
Ridley Scott

2000 Academy Awards
Winner:
Best Picture
Best Actor
Best Visual Effects
Best Costume
Best Sound Mixing

Other Films Nominated:
Chocolat
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Erin Brockovich
Traffic

This is one of the films in the list that I've seen before, in fact, I've seen it in part or whole a number of times. The story itself is not all that complex - the life of a man, one who did not seek power, who was conspired against by those threatened by what he could possibly do. He eventually becomes something they could not predict - in more modern terms, a star - and the people grow to love him, even more than their ruler.

Maximus is a the leader of Roman legions who gains immense favor with the elderly emperor of Rome, so much that the emperor says he will be the one to inherent the throne. When the emperor's son Commodus learns of this, he murders his father, takes the throne, and asks for Maximus' loyalty, which he refuses. The new emperor then sends word to have Maximus' family killed, and after burying them, Maximus is taken captive and forced to become a Gladiator. He has superior skill, and with it, beats every opponent. When they are given the chance to fight at the Colosseum, he shocks Commodus by still being alive. This infuriates Commodus, who, after a series of events in which Maximus tries to escape to lead an army against the emperor, faces him in the arena. Even after severely wounding him, Maximus is still able to kill Commodus before dying of his wounds.

While the movie is a good and engaging story with plenty of action, I think much of the reason it won it's Oscar is due to the new level of effects used in the production. The filmmakers used actual footage of the Colosseum as it now stands, in ruins, for their epic shots of the arena. They combined them with new technology allowing for seamless integration of computer generated graphics and real images to give the viewer an overwhelmingly immense and accurate look at what the arena once was. It's interesting to note that one of the other nominated films that year, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, also used some revolutionary technology to create it's high flying, acrobatic sword fights, but even though that film also has an epic scale, it still feels as so much fantasy while Gladiator felt visceral and real. More than 14 years later though, both still are excellent films and represent some of the better works ever to receive nominations.

The Great Ziegfeld - 9th Best Picture Winner

The Great Ziegfeld - 9th Best Picture Winner
1936
#56

Starring:
William Powell
Myrna Loy
Luise Rainer

Directed By:
Robert Z. Leonard

1936 Academy Awards
Winner:
Best Picture
Best Actress
Best Dance Direction

Other Films Nominated:
Anthony Adverse
Dodsworth
Libeled Lady
Mr. Deeds Goes To Town
Romeo And Juliet
San Francisco
The Story Of Luis Pasteur
A Tale Of Two Cities
Three Smart Girls


So...

I've had this DVD for sometime now. So long, I'm surprised Netflix hasn't charged me for it. Something like oh...seven months...

Why haven't I watched it?

Life, I guess.

And the fact that it's three hours and six minutes long.

Yikes.

Yeah...this one will probably take at least an intermission for me to be able to watch.

weeks later, I'm finally watching, mainly because I need to return this dvd already!

Ugh. Im already bored. Falling asleep.

Opening credits were nice touch though with the letters in lights. Very much like what they did back then for signs, very much like what is still used today, including at the Ziegfeld in NYC.

Oh, and the Wizard is his rival...

the next night

So this is a biopic, but focuses more on his rise to the man we know rather than his success that we are familiar with. And honestly, I'm kinda bored.

This will pick up though. I guess I'm just more interested in the classic recreations of his Follies shows than in the details of his life. As it is, from what I've read about the film, half of it isn't even true. But considering that his wife, Billie Burke, sold the rights to his life story to pay of his debts after he'd died, does it matter how much is true?

Interesting that we have appearances from both Frank Morgan and Ray Bolger, both of whom are most known for their later film, The Wizard Of Oz.

It also seems I'm not alone in thinking it rather dull for the most part and way too long. Was it necessary to be 3 hours and 6 minutes?

I think this one honestly won it's Best Picture because of it's extravagance. It's seriously over the top. Yet there are at least two other films in that list of nominees that I would count as way better films - Romeo And Juliet and A Tale Of Two Cities. Heck, we used a copy of the '36 Tale in my high school English class! (Thanks to my father for that, and for later lending the class a copy of the '68 R&J) At least that was a story with meaning, not just extravagant froth...

And of course it includes a black face number...

The "wedding cake" scene is still a classic. Just gorgeous.

Dancers should take a lesson from Ray Bolger. The split he does...just makes my legs hurt to watch!

I think that had the film not spent such time on performances, it would've cut the time in half. Each of the productions (no matter how classic) contribute to the time bloat of the film.

It should be noted, however, that Ziegfeld is and was such a tremendous influence in the history of theater and shows here in the US. He was one of the greats, always looking to make things bigger and better. While the other shows he had all in production at the same time - Whoopee, Rio Rita, The Three Musketeers - are not truly known today, Show Boat is and will always be a classic, one that is still produced all these years later. Without Ziegfeld, would it even have happened?

Mutiny On The Bounty - 8th Best Picture Winner

Mutiny On The Bounty - 8th Best Picture Winner
1935
#146 (2013)

Starring:
Clark Gable
Charles Laughton
Franchot Tone

Directed By:
Frank Lloyd

1935 Academy Awards
Winner:
Best Picture

Other Films Nominated:
Alice Adams
Broadway Melody of 1936
Captain Blood
David Copperfield
The Informer
The Lives Of A Bengal Lancer
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Les Miserables
Naughty Marietta
Ruggles Of Red Gap
Top Hat

So apparently I never posted this back last year when I originally watched the film. Sorry about that, dear readers. I suppose it goes to this not being one of my more favorite movies to have seen. It took me forever to watch it initially so its no surprise that its more than 7 months later that I'm posting about it!

This is the 2nd of 3 Clark Gable movies on the list. Truth is, I honestly really don't  like him much. The only 2 performances I've ever seen I like are It Happened On Night and GWTW and those have a good deal to do with the story, not just Gable. 

And then this story. Not high on the list of any movie I'd ever normally willingly go see or watch. It's the kind of thing Ive had to sit through with my father. 

And I think that's been the real reason I never got around to watching this. Hell, I'm typing this while just listening. Its already background noise. I've been stuck on this for the last 2 months. I've sent the disc back once and then put it back on my dvd list. But I've got to move on.

And God help me this thing is more than 2 hours long...

(Seriously WTF? Flogging a dead guy?)

Thankfully this was one story that I never had to read in high school or college, and it was never something we studied in Social Studies. And somehow I never had to sit through any other version of this that I can remember, not even the Errol Flynn. (And my father likes his movies, even better if they are silent)

Frankly, given how the men were treated, it's not any wonder why they revolted. The word asshole isn't even good enough to describe Bligh. Even sadder that he remained that way for the rest of his life, even court martialling those men he eventually brought back to England. Those that mutinied had a good time for a while, but nothing was ever peaceful for them, and most died in violence. 

One wonders if the lives they'd had aboard the ship were really worse than what they faced in the years after. 

On the good side, it was a well done film. I can see why it won Best Picture. 

So...Cavalcade...

Cavalcade - 6th Best Picture Winner
1933
#10

Starring:
Diana Wynyard
Clive Brook
Una O'Connor
Herbert Mundin

Directed By:
Frank Lloyd

1932 - 1933 Academy Awards
Winner:
Outstanding Production
Best Director
Best Art Direction

Other Films Nominated:
A Farewell To Arms
42nd Street
I Am A Fugitive From A Chain Gang
Lady For A Day
Little Women
The Private Life Of Henry VIII
She Done Him Wrong
Smilin' Through
State Fair

So...if you read this blog, you might be wondering why I'm mentioning this movie again. I originally posted about skipping this film because it isn't currently available on DVD, and to my knowledge, more than a year after my original post, it still isn't.

But then something interesting happened.

Back in February, TCM aired it's yearly tribute to all those films that have won the Best Picture Oscar. The event is part of a month long celebration of all things Oscar, and they try to air as many BP winners as the can. It was a random night, and there, on my television, was Cavalcade. So, I, being a movie geek, stayed up fairly late and watched.

What follows is my general impressions and thoughts of the movie as I watched it. I've decided to leave them in their disjointed fashion.

February...

Seems like an original Downton Abbey
Upstairs/Downstairs

Set at the turn of the century. NYE 1899/1900

All the levels of society in one house, the servants and the society, the women wording about this husbands going off to fight in the Boer Wars.

Mourning for Queen Victoria.

Servant husband comes back and buys pub.

The servants move up in class, with owning the pub, even after the husband dies.

Edward and Edith, kids in the beginning, their mothers friends, get together. A scene has them on a boat talking the future, boat revealed to be the Titanic.

Joey child of society family, Fanny child of servants, meet many years later when she's a dancer and he in WW1.

He has to leave for the War, wants to marry Fanny, she says his mother wouldn't approve. She gives him a locket to remember her.

Mother sees him off, decides to be a nurse.

Joey on a stop sees dad

Servant mother goes to society mom about them though she doesn't know. Says they aught get married. Mom says how do you know and why. Servant mom says oh guess you don't think she's good enough 
Mom says wait till he get a home, asks her to leave.
Gets telegram - Joey is dead. She faints
[Note Servant tried to not call the Society mother by formal title but when she faints, she does)

Fanny is a singer
Her 20th Century Blues song - still poignant today.

Society mothers on NYE 1933, mother father reflect on life

Let us drink to our sons 

Seemed a bit like a Downton Abbey, Upstairs/Downstairs type story. Or I should say they are much like Cavalcade. But that was truly how part of society lived in the times. And at the time this movie was made, it was how many people still lived. Just a slice of life. 

This is one film, though, that I'm not sure why it won. Beating A Farewell To Arms, 42nd Street, The Private Life Of Henry VIII? Those are some pretty well known and loved films, considered part of movie history if you're a real cinephile.  While I don't dislike this film as much as Cimarron, I highly doubt I will ever watch it again. One experience was enough. 

Crash - 78th Best Picture Winner

Crash - 78th Best Picture Winner

2004

#152

Starring:

Sandra Bullock

Don Cheadle
Matt Dillon
Jennifer Esposito
William Fichtner
Brendan Fraser
Terrence Howard
Chris "Ludacris" Bridges
Thandie Newton
Ryan Phillippe
Larenz Tate

Directed By:

Paul Haggis

2005 Academy Award Winner:

Best Picture

Best Original Screenplay

Best Film Editing

Other Films Nominated:

Brokeback Mountain

Capote

Good Night, And Good Luck

Munich

I find myself watching another Best Picture winner on our movie calendar. This one I don't know much about although I know that it in some way owes itself to another Best Picture Winner - Grand Hotel - as it is along the same lines of multiple characters' lives intersecting. 

The difference? 

This time it's about race. 

How we all treat each other 

How each race views what is happening.

This though, like Cloud Atlas, all wraps back on itself. 

An honest take on how we all see those that aren't like us. 

And how those in power abuse that power when they stop treating people as people and only see the color of their skin. 

Race is a topic that is a sensitive one. While most of us never admit it, we all have a skewed perspective on how our race is treated. We all, in some way, buy into the stereotypes. 

In some way we even live them - though we don't realize it. There are those that perpetuate the stereotype and don't know it - in what they say, what they do. They don't know they've bought into what the world says and thinks. 

Some live the stereotype almost on purpose. To the point where they seem to revel in it. They glorify and perpetuate it. Others see hate and injustice and persecution where there isn't any, out of a sense of what? Entitlement? So bent on expecting it to occur because of the color of their skin that they take any small thing as a sign of racial divide.

And when we are met with someone that doesn't fit into that stereotype, that goes against the perceived societal norm, we don't know what to do. We don't know how to act, to think. Worse yet when we are the one that doesn't fit into what others expect. We only see our life as it is, and don't understand why others have issue with us.

But we all have, at some point, used race as the excuse to hide the real issues. 

Hate. Intolerance. Anger. Fear. Powerlessness.

We deflect what is really happening, what we are really feeling, and instead use slight difference as the blame for our actions and our thoughts. 

But if we removed skin color from the equation? If we all looked the same? 

The film also speaks to the consequences of our actions. What we do to others, what we say, will have meaning. It is not pointless. Every action will cause something to happen to someone else. Every word will cause a feeling or another action which will in turn affect someone else. We joke about what would happen if someone went back 4 million years into Earth's past and killed a butterfly - maybe we'd all have two heads and purple skin. Some call it karma - what you give, what you put out into the world, you will get back. If you make the world a better place, it will be a better place for you. But if you choose to make negative choices, they will eventually come back to you. 

Its only when we do to make things right, to atone for what we did or should've done but did not, that life balances out. 

"Do your little bit of good where you are; its those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world." - Desmond Tutu

Argo - 85th Best Picture Winner

Argo - 85th Best Picture Winner
2012
#145

Starring:
Ben Affleck
Brian Cranston
Alan Arkin
John Goodman

Directed By:
Ben Affleck

2012 Academy Awards
Winner:
Best Picture
Best Adapted Screenplay
Best Film Editing

Other Films Nominated:
Amour
Beasts Of The Southern Wild
Django Unchained
Les Miserables
Life Of Pi
Lincoln
Silver Linings Playbook
Zero Dark Thirty

So I had intended, had I not found work, to watch all the best picture winners this year, leading up to the most recent winner, Argo. But since August, I've had work, so less time to write. I also took up writing for a Doctor Who fansite, so that took me away as well. 

I never realized that we'd chosen to watch this in December, not long after the anniversary of hostage crisis' beginning and not long before the anniversary of it's end. 

For those of you not alive then (or like me a baby at the time) - the exiled Shah of Iran was allowed to enter the US because he was dying of cancer and was seeking treatment to better his last days. The Ayatollah Khomeini (the leader of Iran who had taken over after the Shah was exiled) and many others thought the Shah should be brought back to the country to stand trial for crimes against the state. 

On November 4, 1979, a number of young extremists took over the US embassy and it's compound and took hostages. Even after the Shah had died, they refused to release those they held. And attempt at rescuing the hostages failed. They were not released until 444 days later, after the Algiers Accords were signed on January 19, 1981, and just minutes after Ronald Reagan was sworn in as the US President. 

A small handful - 6 people - managed to get out and with the help of the Canadian, British, and New Zealand consulates, made it back to the US safe and sound, posing as Canadians in a film crew.  

The reading of the fake script in contrast to the statement from an Iranians is stark and very effective. A good juxtaposition of the real and the fictional. The use of the real news footage from the period is also effective. In ways it helps make up for the historical inaccuracies and dramatic license taken for the film and really helps set the tone of the movie and draw you into the time period of the movie.

Is it sad though, that one of the things I'll most remember about the film is that the storyboards for the "fake" movie were actually done by THE Jack Kirby when the real movie was trying to get made?

Personally, I do still favor Beasts Of The Southern Wild from this same Oscar race. The imaginative nature of the movie and the performances were just superb. But Argo is the type of movie that can be Oscar bait - the historical drama. And with Beasts being that director's first movie, to be even considered and nominated really is an achievement. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iranian_Revolution#Hostage_Crisis

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Caper

The Grapes Of Wrath

The Grapes Of Wrath

1940

#95

Starring:

Henry Fonda

Jane Darwell

John Carradine

Directed By:

John Ford

1941 Academy Awards

Winner:

Best Supporting Actress

Best Director

So this is old. More than a month old. But life has been busy and sitting to watch anything and blog about it? Not really happening. This was just something that I was doing while I was watching the movie, mostly just my thoughts as it played. Watching it, I really felt the need to put my thoughts down. So I apologize that it's a bit disjointed. Looking back at it, I attempted to have this make a more narrative type sense but then realized this as it was was truer to what I was thinking at the time. And because trying to have it make any more readable sense was close to impossible LOL

While this isn't among those films that won the Academy Award for Best Picture (although it was nominated) it did win Oscars for Best Supporting Actress for Jane Darwell and Best Director for John Ford. It was also included in both of AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies lists, at #21 and #23 respectively. 

Early August...

In the category of You Might Be A Movie Geek When...

Not much on tonight.
Could've watched the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark and Temple of Doom. Or the Hangover. I chose to sit thru The Grapes of Wrath from 1940.

While known to not be exactly like Steinbeck's book, this is one of the films teachers love to show. Sometimes seeing what you've read about in a book is the only way to really have the mind and the heart make a connection

Shot of tractor tracks past the family and through the house and then following behind the CAT as it keeps going is powerful. Doesn't matter what your income level is, you feel as if those tracks are run right over your own heart.

To think that your only choice is to load up everything you own that you can carry and leave is heartbreaking. The film makes an adventure of it of sorts with some cheerful music as the ride Rte 66 but the reality of it is harsh.

And then reality hits. What they are heading to, what they hope and assume is there, probably isn't. This is the Depression.

Some more stark reality - the car repair shop guy cant believe they are living on the road, ridding out to CA. The other says guess they don't know better. They have good jobs. They haven't felt the reality of no money and no job and no food

We've seen grandpa pass on the trip, now grandma.

How so much has changed. We travel some of the same routes and roads but dying on the trip doesn't happen. Its not the same journey

Get to CA and there is no work. Get to a camp for transients and its packed. No work. No food.

Scammers trying to get men to work without contract so they can stiff them on the wages.

Growers paying half what they say to get more work done for less wages. Keeping the families they employ - because the kids work too - from even being able to afford the overpriced goods in the only store they can get to, owned by the company.

The story isn't just about their hardships. Its about the family. How they're trying to keep together despite the hardships.

And then the promised land as it were. A camp run by the governmant Dept of Agriculture. 

The kids don't even know what a bathroom is, what a sink, or a flush toilet is.

Finally a place were there is running water, decent food, licensed agents to get you work, dances even!

Even then things aren't perfect and the past catches up to them

So many layers -
Economy
Poverty
Injustice
Dealing with what comes in life

Were the people. We keep on living. They cant wipe us out they cant lick us we keep right on living

Just so interesting to see how while things have changed, they haven't. The more things change the more they stay the same, yeah? We are currently struggling with massive amounts of people being out of work (like I was at the time I watched this) or with people being underemployed (like I am now) and with the same issues of living conditions and hunger and poverty. Those things will never go away but even after all these years - 74 of them! - you'd think maybe this whole world would be a little better? 

Just for a little extra, here's the film's Rotten Tomatoes page.

It Happened One Night - 7th Best Picture Winner

It Happened One Night - 7th Best Picture Winner

1934

#65

Starring:
Clarke Gable

Claudette Colbert

Directed By:

Frank Capra

1934 Academy Awards

Winner:

Outstanding Picture

Best Actor

Best Actress

Best Director

Best Adapted Screenplay (or Best Writing, Adaptation)

Other Films Nominated:

The Barretts Of Wimpole Street

Cleopatra

Flirtation Walk

The Gay Divorcee

Here Comes The Navy

The House Of Rothchild

Imitation Of Life

One Night Of Love

The Thin Man

Viva Villa!

The White Parade

The classic rom-com. I dare say one of the best, even 79 years later. Gable and Colbert are wonderful with each other, though Gable clearly steals every scene. You can see here why years later they'd want him for Rhett Butler. Some of the looks he gives Colbert speak so much without word, you can almost hear what he is thinking.

This isn't one of the movies on the list that I'd ever seen before, but so many people know of it for one little scene - Gable's Peter Warne and Colbert's Ellen Andrews are trying to hitchhike on the road after running away from the Greyhound bus they had been on because the investigators her father had hired to find her would be closing in on them soon. He tries to seem like he knows all about hitchhiking, telling her there are different types of sticking your thumb out and they all say different things about you. But try as he might, all of the passing cars just go right by them...so she gives it a try.

Along comes a car and she...hikes up her skirt. 

Very racy for 79 years ago! 

Of course you know it works too!

And it's such a classic that's so many others have used it or a take on it.

This was the first movie to win the "Big 5" Academy Awards - Picture, Actor, Actress, Director, and Writing (Adaptation)

Interesting to note that this won against the movie version of The Gay Divorcee, a Rogers/Astaire picture that is just as well known for it's Cole Porter, "Night and Day" song and dance number.

.

Its also refreshing to see a rom-com that, since it's from 79 years ago, when thoughts on sex and sex scenes in movies were a LOT different, that we have a couple thrown together who sleep in separate beds and don't get together until the end of the movie - after they are married! A bit "old fashioned" I know, but proof a good story doesn't always need to go there. Such things are almost a crutch in the movies of today, that are so unsure they have a good story, they feel they need to throw skin shots into the film or no one will like it.

Cavalcade - 6th Best Picture Winner

Cavalcade - 6th Best Picture Winner
1933

Starring:
Diana Wynyard
Clive Brook
Una O'Connor
Herbert Mundin

Directed By:
Frank Lloyd

1932 - 1933 Academy Awards
Winner:
Outstanding Production
Best Director
Best Art Direction

Other Films Nominated:
A Farewell To Arms
42nd Street
I Am A Fugitive From A Chain Gang
Lady For A Day
Little Women
The Private Life Of Henry VIII
She Done Him Wrong
Smilin' Through
State Fair


So...the one I have to skip. This movie is currently not available on any region 1 DVD, though I have seen rumor that it will be released on Blu-ray soon. But from the reviews I've seen, I'm not sure I will go back and watch it. Seems that it isn't that well liked.

Apparently based on a Noel Coward play of the same name, it is the story of well off Londoners from New Years Eve 1899 through New Years Day 1933.

Grand Hotel - 5th Best Picture Winner

Grand Hotel - the 5th Best Picture Winner

1932

#60

Starring:

Greta Garbo

John Barrymore

Joan Crawford

Wallace Beery

Lionel Barrymore

Directed by:

Edmund Goulding

1931-1932 Academy Awards

Winner: Best Picture

It should be noted that as of 2012, it is the ONLY picture to win Best Picture without anyone else involved in the production or the production itself being nominated for other awards.)

Other films nominated:

Arrowsmith

Bad Girl

The Champ

Five Star Final

One Hour With You

Shanghai Express

The Smiling Lieutenant 

The film is based on a stage play of the same name which, in turn, is adapted from the 1929 German book Menschen im Hotel by Vicki Baum.

We begin...

The phone bank. Lots of calls, each operator very busy. 

We are in the lobby areas of a very large hotel, with visitors as well as semi-permanent residents all bustling about. 

So this will be an anthology film - multiple stories that are woven together by some point shared by all. The hotel. (According to Wikipedia, this may be the first.) 

Story 1 - Door man - wife having baby

Story 2 - Sick man - spending all his money before he dies

Story 3 - The general director (the businessman) calling home on business. He's there for a business meeting. He's asked for a stenographer. 

Story 4 - The maid for the ballerina. She cannot rehearse today. 

Story 5 - The baron, plotting something and in need of money

The doctor,  he laments that nothing ever happens here. 

The stenographer comes a little to early. Oops. 

Our stories begin to cross. To weave together. The baron talking to the sick man, the stenographer talking to the baron. The baron talking to the stenographer. They flirt. Life in the hotel. 

We aren't above the innuendo... "Would you take dictation from me someday?" 

The ballerina that doesn't want to go on. She is weary and tired of it all. There is no applause any more. She doesn't think it worth it anymore to go on, but when told there is an audience, she will go on

Turns out our baron - he's after the ballerina's pearls that she's left behind. 

Our stenographer is working for the businessman. But maybe his business isn't going the way he wants to. 

And now our baron is going in for the heist...

Only to be stuck and having to hide because the maid comes in.

Oh but now the ballerina is back. Seems she didn't actually go on. And they are worried about her. We see just how weary she is here. (Her apparently famous line) "I just want to be alone."

Meanwhile, trapped in the closet...

She finds that someone went on in her place. The show must go on. Maybe she isn't the best anymore. Maybe she is done. Its over. She contemplates killing herself. 

But the baron stops her. He cant let her end it. He confesses his want to hold her in his arms (the old euphemism for love and sex lol)

He knows she really doesn't want to be alone. She needs someone. 

The sick man and the doctor have had a good time, living it up! 

The business meeting. But the businessman isn't saying that the merger with the other company is off...he's trying to make things happen without needing them. But the others aren't buying it. 

Our ballerina and baron are chatting...and he reveals himself. He is a thief...but he is in love with her.

She loves him back anyways

She tells him about heading to Vienna and he vows to be on that train with her

The business meeting has devolved into arguing about who was the one that approached who about the merger. A stalemate. 

The deal is off.

So he lies and says the other merger is on. These men change their tune! But they don't know the lie - and only then does he tell his partner! They will have to figure out how to keep it secret. But what about that stenographer? She knows!

The sick man has had the time of his life. Plenty of alcohol and adventures! 

Our baron is now stepping out with the stenographer. But he's changed. He's in love!

The the businessman doesn't recognize our sick man - but the man works for him. No matter, the man  needs to go off and dance with the stenographer.

But now there is an altercation. The businessman is rude to the sick man - but now it comes out. The horrible treatment of the workers. He's working himself to death! He tells the man off after he tries to fire him.

"No one can discharge me now I am my own man!"

The businessman wishes to employ the stenographer on a trip. But she will need money. 

The baron promises the ballerina he will be there...but he is broke.

The sick man asks if he can help. But of course its not enough. But maybe they can get a game going...

But the sick man is a better gambler. He wins, the baron loses

"Oh gentlemen, please don't go. Be my guest. Be my guest! I beg of you, don't go I know I oughtn't to presume, but I'm so grateful to ya, you've been so marvelous. For the first time in my life, I've gambled and I've drank! Oh you gentlemen can laugh, but for the first time in my life I've tasted life! Life is wonderful but its very dangerous! If you have the courage to live it's marvelous! You don't know anything about that, you're all healthy and happy but I, believe me, if a man doesn't know death, he doesn't know life!"

The baron sees the sick man's wallet...he takes it.

But the man realizes its gone.

Baron lies. The man is distraught. The baron can't keep it. His conscious can't let him hide it.

The businessman...maybe this hiring the stenographer isn't just business...he tries to get handsy...but she easily brushes him off...and he sees in the next room...

The Baron is trying to rob him...

He threatens to arrest him. They fight and the stenographer hears it...the baron...he is...

dead

she screams

runs out for help

the ballerina and party don't know there is anything wrong

she gets the sick man

the businessman tries to get away

he is for sure dead

the businessman blames it all on him he tried to rob me! And where is the girl? She's in on it that's it! she lured me to her!

we need to get our stories together! I cant have scandal!

my life is in your hands!

ah yeah but what about when it was the other way around? 

but but I can help you! Give you a good position!

"NO! I'm never going back! Worry about yourself!" 

The staff is alerted

The ballerina is giddy.

But its too quiet...

"All these flowers make me think of funerals..."

She rings the baron. He isn't there to answer. But she doesn't know he won't ever be.

Where can he be?

They take him away...

The businessman is arrested

There's been a murder? Oh no not him! Why? No I can't believe it!

Madam mustn't know!

The sick man, the stenographer, they grieve. 

"You loved him didn't you.

Me too. He was my friend when no one else was. He was just desperate."

Oh let me help you. We can travel! 

You can have the rest of the money when...when I'm gone.  

NO! We'll find a doctor. They can cure anything

First train to Paris! We'll go

The ballerina, she is leaving. But yet they say nothing. 

"Where is he?"

"He...left about an hour ago."

"Forget it I will ask myself."

"Have you seen him?"

"He is not here madam."

"Is he gone?"

"Yes madam"

Oh come now. We have a rehearsal! We must get to the train

The Grand Hotel! We've made it!

The hospital! What? What? WHAT? Its a boy! My wife is well!

We're gonna miss the train! I'm coming!

'The Grand Hotel. Always the same. People come, people go, nothing ever happens.'

Films like this can be hard to follow. It takes a good story and the right people,acting and behind the camera, to make it work right. Is it any wonder that "Grand Hotel theme" was used to talk about films in this style? I admit though, I needed to write down all of what was going on so I could pay attention and not miss anything! 

(Forgive me please how this came out as a blog. With all the story lines, this kind of came naturally as a recap of it.)