Until Next Year!

We will be taking a small holiday break,

but we will be back January 2, 2007.

Have a safe and wondrous Holiday.

White Christmas~Best Song Nominee

One of my favorite and most unforgettable Christmas movies is 1954’s White Christmas, with Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye and Rosemary Clooney. From the first few minutes to the last scene it makes you laugh, cry and feel that you are right there. Irving Berlin was nominated for a Best Music Oscar, surprisingly enough, not for White Christmas as it had won in 1942, but for “Count Your Blessings Instead of Sheep” which lost out to Five Coins in the Fountain.

Directed by Michael Curtiz, White Christmas was Paramount’s very successful follow-up to its popular Holiday Inn (1942). It was filled with Irving Berlin’s songs, one of the greatest writers in musical history. Songs like; Blue Skies, White Christmas, and Rosemary Clooney singing Love, You Didn’t Do Right By Me. Many people may have not ever seen the movie, but I’m sure we’ve all heard those songs. An Oscar contender, this film should have garnered more than one Oscar nod from the Academy, but regardless it is a timely tradition today.

FINAL Oscar Predictions!

Okay, here are my final Oscar Predictions:

BEST FILM:

Babel
Bobby
The Queen
Letters From Iwo Jima
The Departed

BEST DIRECTOR:

Martin Scorsese ~ The Departed
Clint Eastwood ~ Letters From Iwo Jima
Alejandro Innaritu ~ Babel
Pedro Almodovar ~ Volver
Stephen Frears ~ The Queen

BEST ACTOR

Forest Whitaker ~ Last King of Scotland
Ryan Gosling ~ Half Nelson
Peter O’Toole ~ Venus
Leonardo DiCaprio ~ The Departed
Will Smith ~ The Pursuit of Happyness

BEST ACTRESS

Helen Mirren ~ The Queen
Meryl Streep ~ The Devil Wears Prada
Judi Dench ~ Notes of a Scandal
Penelope Cruz ~ Volver
Maggie Gyllenhaal ~ Sherrybaby

Best Supp. Actor

Ben Affleck ~ Hollywoodland
Brad Pitt ~ Babel
Jack Nicholson ~ The Departed
Djimon Honsou ~ Blood Diamond
Eddie Murphy ~Dreamgirls

Best Supp. Actress

Cate Blanchett ~ Notes of a Scandal
Abagail Breslin ~ Little Miss Sunshine
Jennifer Hudson ~ Dreamgirls
Catherine O’Hara ~ For Your Consideration
Carmen Maura~ Volver

Home Alone ~ 1991 Musical Score Nominee

Of course when we think of Christmas Classics we think of It’s A Wonderful Life, Miracle on 34th Street, even Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. But in 1990, writer John Hughes and director Chris Columbus brought us a Christmas film that would also become a classic and make young Macaulay Culkin a major celebrity. Culkin plays Kevin McCallister, an eight-year-old who is mistakenly left behind when his family flies to France for a Christmas vacation. While initially relishing his time alone, he is later threatened with two house burglars, whom he outwits by rigging the house with booby traps.

The burglars, played by Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern as Harry & Marv are the true stars of this film as they are attacked by the resourceful 8 year old by all of his booby traps. Such slapstick humour has not been seen on film, this good since the keystone cops. Catherine O’Hara and John Heard play Kevin’s parents who have an adventure of their own trying to make sure their son is okay, once they discovered he was left behind.

Home Alone is one of those movies you watch the first time and you either love it or hate it, but as my children were quite young when this film was released, let’s just say that after the 40th time of sitting through this movie, I’d seen it enough.

The score and music were the highlight of this film, and the Academy agreed nominating John Williams for Best Original Score. However it did not come home a winner. Regardless if it was an Academy Award winning film or not this movie has definitely already become a Christmas classic.

Oscar Prediction Updates

I made a few changes in my predictions as the date gets closer, more and more films are being looked at, and more and more awards are being given. My Updates are listed at the link on the right hand side of the page.

Just this week the National Board of Review have given their awards in Motion Pictures. Letters From Iwo Jima received Best Picture, will Martin Scorsce receveied Best Director. Forest Whitaker won Best Actor, while Helen Mirren garnered another Best Actress award for the season. One of the suprises was Catherine O’Hara winning Supporting Actress award.

I am not sure if I will make many more, if any more changed in my predictions. I think I’ve got it where I want it at this point.

The Bishop’s Wife ~ Best Picture Nomination 1947

The Bishop’s Wife is a Christmas perennial that is not as often remembered or shown as Miracle on 34th Street or It’s A Wonderful Life, but it is just as delightful.

David Niven plays an Episcopalian bishop who has immersed himself into raising for a new church. By doing so, the Bishop has alienated his adoring and loving wife, played by the beautiful Loretta Young.

Enter Dudley, an angel, played by the debonair Cary Grant. Dudley begins doing good deeds throughout the town and everyone loves him, except the Bishop who begins to come to the conclusion that this angel was sent here not to help him, but to replace him.

With a wonderful supporting cast, including one of my favorites, Elsa Lancaster (Bride of Frankenstein) and an Academy Award nominated Score, the Bishop’s Wife is one of my favorite Christmas films and try to catch it every year. The movie was also nominated for 5 Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Direction, it won for Best Sound Recording.

This film was remade in 1996, as The Preacher’s Wife with Denzel Washington & Whitney Houston.

It’s A Wonderful Life ~ Best Picture Nominee 1946

There is not a better loved or better known “Christmas’ film than Frank Capra’s IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE. Yes, there are other “Christmas” films but a very small selection of those could be called great. Classics like MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET and A CHRISTMAS CAROL to more recent works like THE POLAR EXPRESS. Yet, Capra’s 1946 film still goes down as one of the most cherished “Christmas” films of all time.

IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE, surprisingly was not a huge box office hit when it was initially released. It wasn’t even a critically acclaimed film by the critics of its time. Several significant American critics of the 40’s loathed the film. However it did manage to garner five Academy Award nominations, including one for Best Picture and one, most importantly and deservedly, for Best Actor for the late Jimmy Stewart in the lead role, but critics and filmgoers alike nevertheless poorly received the film. Flash-forward 60 years and IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE, remains not only one of the most appreciated Christmas fables of all-time, but is often seen as a landmark work for both Jimmy Stewart and director Capra. It was also according to their own words, both Capra and Stewart’s favorite works. Many times Jimmy Stewart stated that of all his work on film he was the most proud of George Bailey.

IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE became an essential part of our cinematic and Holiday Seasonal traditions, so to speak. This film is listed in the 100 Greatest American Films and Jimmy Stewart’s George Bailey as one of the greatest roles. This small town classic grew and grew until; essentially, it became something more than just a holiday film…it became a holiday ritual.
The film is universally loved mainly due to the fact that it is simple and straightforward. Storytelling at it’s finest. Yes, it’s corny and very Dickens’s like, but the film nevertheless grows greater with age and improves with familiarity and repeated viewings. But yet, no matter how many times you watch the film it still remains fresh, entertaining, wonderful and enduring. That is what makes it a classic, and a true Frank Capra at his best.

A story line that is as familiar as Christmas itself, it’s the tale of an average American home grown boy with dreams of leaving his hometown for bigger and better things only to remain due to his own selflessness. From the time he saves his brother from drowning, loosing his hearing in the process, you can see where his life is really headed. By his own philosophy, Bailey lived his life feeding off of the riches of friendship and family, which always meant more to him than monetary wealth.

As time goes by, Bailey unfortunately fails prey to the evil and miserable town millionaire, Potter (played with an unsurpassed amount of nastiness and contempt by the great Lionel Barrymore) as he tries to take over the town. The Bailey business seems to be the only one he does not own, and he is willing to do anything to take it over (and in one desperate and despicable scene, I do mean anything). Through one incident perpetrated by Potter himself, Bailey and his business reach a point of financial ruin, which builds to a crescendo of absolute despair for the hapless Bailey.

As the film enters the third scene the picture turns dark and despairing as Bailey contemplates suicide, thinking that is the only answer. Enter his guardian angel played by Harry Travers who tries to convince George just how wonderful life is, and how different it would be without him. I think it’s no surprise at all that, in the end, George comes to his senses and the film ends on a scene of overwhelming sentiment and uplifting power, so much so that how anyone could not be reduced to tears is beyond me.

Looking at this film and the many times I have personally viewed it, I have found that it is more than just a “Christmas” film, but a film with a strong powerful message for anyone, during any time of the year. What it does, – and does so effectively – is use Christmas as an emotional backdrop to frame the narrative and themes. The film is an enriching and emotional experience not only because it takes place at the most loved time of year, but more because it pulls at our heartstrings by presenting to us the brightest and darkest aspects of the human psyche. When we meet George Bailey he is a confident and kind man, willing to do anything for anybody. Near the end of the film we see him at his absolute lowest point, where he becomes such an atheist to the goodness of the world and society that he begins to lose his faith in that society and those he has touched around him. A place where we have all been at one place or time in our own lives. This ideology brings us to the essence of the film. It works on us because we are as much the everyman as George Bailey. We relate so much to him as a character that when he does hit rock bottom, we really feel for him.

Capra was a genius at crafting this melodramatic fantasy, but he was also gifted at casting. Jimmy Stewart was never better than he was as Bailey and he plays so role so low key and with such a disarming charisma. There’s no denying the likeability of Bailey and I think that’s why he remains one of cinema’s most engrossing and cherished of characters. His persona became more than just a small man of simple pleasures and ideals; he has become synonymous with the epitome of small-town American values. In a way, he is one of cinema’s greatest heroes in the sense that he reaches out and touches the lives of so many, often with something as subtle as a polite smile, a handshake, or a caring and understanding ear. George Bailey is the kind of person we all wish we were, and his perseverance as an iconic image of this universal and elemental vision of the goodness of the common man is one of the film’s most gratifying elements.

So much of IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE is memorable. Some films have a few great scenes; Capra’s has dozens, often that work on so many diverse levels. The ending needs no more exploration than was already given, but I also liked how touching some of the other more less obvious moments were, like the moonlight stroll that George and his high school sweetheart Mary (played memorably by Donna Reed) take, or the slapstick antics of that occur at the high school dance they go to. There are also the scenes where George saves his brother, and one terrifying moment where George, as a boy, tries to tell his drunken boss, a pharmacist, of his ill-calculated prescriptions.

However, two scenes in particular still remain as some of cinema’s finer moments. One occurs in during a phone conversation where an angry George and Mary become hopelessly drawn to one another (It’s one of film’s all-time great love scenes). The other moment occurs where George, completely beside himself, down on his luck, and in a drunken fit of absolute desperation, pitifully and quietly prays to God for guidance. If you want to see film acting done as well as it ever has, watch Stewart in that heart wrenching moment. It’s one of the cinema’s great scenes of isolation and inner helplessness.

For a film that Frank Capra never intended to be seen as a “Christmas movie,” IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE remains the definitive Christmas film. It’s a joyous story of “feel good” sentiment at its finest. Yet, the film remains great despite its clichés and powerful despite its warmness and overt cheerfulness. It accomplishes what great films do: they become transcending. They work on more strong and visceral levels. IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE is one of the great populist fables because, at its core, its about us. The film is a celebration of the lives of the common and ordinary citizen and how, despite all of the negative that can be thrown at us, we are still are able to do the right things to help ourselves and those around us, despite enormous obstacles. IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE is a powerful, enduring tale of human ability to rise above diversity and it tells it in a truly real and visual way that we can all relate to. Modern films today only wish they can successfully do what this film and Frank Capra was able to do. Bring the values and morals of real men and women and marry the ideals and values together into something meaningful that Capra’s film has.

The Academy is a Scrooge

When you think of Christmas, and Christmas movies several come to mind. One of the most classic, based on the Charles Dicken’s novel, “A Christmas Carol” has been put to film numerous times. One of the most classic renditions is the Brian Desmond Hurst’s direction of the 1951 film “Scrooge”. A classic which is played over and over again during the holiday season. Other film adaptations have been made over the years but amazingly enough out of the 7 film renditions only two have ever been nominated for an Academy Award.

The 1970 musical rendition “Scrooge” with the incomparable Albert Finney playing the lead role of Mr. Bah-Hum-Bug himself was nominated 4 times. Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Best Costume Design, Best Music, Original Song for the song “Thank You Very Much”, and Best Music, Original Song Score were the nominees, and they walked away with nothing. In 1989, the very bad comedy with Bill Murray, “Scrooged” was nominated for Best Make Up and also lost.

Albert Finney was tremendous, but no one can play Scrooge better than Alastair Sim did in 1951. How he, nor the film was not even nominated for an Oscar is beyond me. So, this year as you sit down and watch one of the renditions of this great film classics this year, remember that even though they are classics they are not Oscar winners.

Oscar Predictions Update ~ Director

Martin Scorsese
The Departed

Alejandro Gonzalez Innaritu
Babel

Stephen Frears
The Queen

Clint Eastwood
Letters From Iwo Jima

Emilio Estevez
Bobby

Oscar Predictions Update ~ Best Picture