<p>“beautiful actress disease” pretty funny!</p>
<p>It’s been too long since I saw Love Story - I thought it was stupid at the time so I haven’t been tempted to see it again. At least it didn’t actually win. I have to agree though that Titanic was dreadful and it won. Around the World in 80 Days is another dreadful movie that won.</p>
<p>I’ll take Titanic for the music. No, not Celine Dion! The Celtic music, which I really like. And DiCaprio over O’Neal, any day.</p>
<p>I think Erich Segal wrote the book, in like, one day. (Love Story.)</p>
<p>Hm. Towering Inferno? That is just hysterical.</p>
<p>So much for awards. The greatest upset in award history IMO is that Jimmy Stewart won for the Philadelphia story and beat Henry Fonda, who, in Grapes of Wrath, gave one of the most important American movie performances. And important. But I guess the politics of Grapes of Wrath not attractive compared to the antics of rich in Philadelphia Story.</p>
<p>Mythmom, that’s the problem with comparing comedies with heavy dramas. Stewart’s performance in Philadelphia Story was terrific, and I still think Grapes of Wrath is heavy-handed and borders on maudlin at times. The subject matter of Philadelphia Story is far less significant than Grapes, though, so it’s hard to compare them in any objective way. For what it’s worth, both films have firm, endearing places in the history of motion pictures.</p>
<p>Here’s a trivia question for you – how many under-30 women have won Best Actress for roles where they were NOT playing prostitutes? I don’t know the answer, by the way, but I’d bet that a good 50% were hooking.</p>
<p>Patty Duke</p>
<p>I don’t think I’ve seen Love Story since the initial viewing but one thing I remember that stood out in all that was ridiculous about that movie was during one of the hockey scenes. Oliver was clearly wearing figure skates! Hilarious.</p>
<p>Titanic’s problem was mainly with the writing. I don’t think anyone could argue that Leonardo and Kate are not lightyears ahead of Ryan and Ali in their acting abilities.</p>
<p>The story goes that Jimmy Stewart won for “Philadelphia Story” because he was robbed the year before, when his performance in “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” was overlooked in favor of Robert Donat in “Goodbye, Mr. Chips.” Who also defeated Clark Gable in “GWTW,” by the way, and Olivier in “Wuthering Heights.” Not that I’m crabbing, because I like Robert Donat, and each of the other guys wound up with an Oscar eventually.</p>
<p>For my money, Stewart’s best performance was in “Vertigo,” which wasn’t even nominated. I agree that Fonda was magnificent in “Grapes of Wrath” - as he was in “Mr. Roberts,” for which he wasn’t nominated.</p>
<p>None of this stuff ever makes sense.</p>
<p>Looking at it in retrospect is delightful…seeing the “classics” that were shunned and the movies no one remembers or respects winning.</p>
<p>Yeah, maybe Grapes of Wrath is heavy handed, but I just Henry Fonda’s face deserved an Academy Award IMO. But give me Cary Grant in the Philadelphia story. Any day.</p>
<p>And I don’t think he ever won anything. He made being Cary Grant look so easy.</p>
<p>WashDad: They can be hooking or make themselves ugly or both, as in Charlize Theron in Monster.</p>
<p>Jimmy Stewart, yeah Vertigo or Real Window.</p>
<p>Yeah, be pretty and make yourself ugly. Or play the opposite gender. Or biopics are always good for a win.</p>
<p>By the way, Reece Witherspoon should have NEVER won for playing June Carter Cash! Did y’all use to watch the Johnny Cash show? Reece did not even approach June. There was such an odd country-sexual-tension thing gong on between the real June and the real Johnny that Reece didn’t even attempt.</p>
<p>I don’t think anyone could argue that Leonardo and Kate are not lightyears ahead of Ryan and Ali in their acting abilities.</p>
<p>Oh I agree. Even though I didn’t get the extreme hype re: Leo when he first started getting adult roles- I think is a quite an excellent actor- Kate too ( we share a birthday!)</p>
<p>Speaking of who didn’t get nominated there has been complaining on the Tenclub message pit- because while Eddie Vedder won a Golden Globe for best song for Guarenteed from Into the Wild ( and has been nominated for a Grammy) and was nominated for a Golden Globe for best score- he was ignored by Oscar.</p>
<p>But he has some excellent company-Bernard Herrman who was the composer for Hitchcocks films like Psycho, Vertigo and Citizen Kane, won his only Oscar for the Devil Daniel Webster.
Im sure Eddie doesn’t care anyway- but sometimes the Oscar rules are funny.
The score was apparently not nominated because it consisted of “songs” even though they were instrumental in moving the story.
(xxxing my fingers I will see him tonight- you never know-)</p>
<p>Up there I meant to tpye “enduring” not “endearing.” Sheesh.</p>
<p>Reese Witherspoon should have been nominated for Election. What a funny, nasty movie. I also think she was brilliant in Legally Blonde, but it was a great performance in a sort-of-dumb movie. The Academy doesn’t really value comedies, and certainly not ones as un-edgy as this one.</p>
<p>I don’t get the thing of imitation in biopics as deserving of Oscars: Reese Witherspoon, Jamie Fox, Cate Blanchett, Phillip Seymour Hoffman. All have given better performances. Imitating a person’s exterior distracts from the true acting job of communicating their interior, IMO.</p>
<p>But I think Reese’s singing as good, better than her acting.</p>
<p>For amazing singing see Meryl Streep at the end of Postcards from the Edge. I can’t wait to hear her sing ABBA.</p>
<p>I agree, but did you see La Vie en Rose? Maybe the makeup folks should get the Oscar, but that actress WAS Edith! (At least to this American’s eye.)</p>
<p>I remember liking Titanic. I remember not liking Love Story (although my Mom and I both read the book the week of publication, before there was any hype at all, and we looooooved it). I saw it again on TV a few years ago, and, yes, it was worse than I remembered.</p>
<p>Jenny had Victorian Women’s Gentle Expiration Syndrome. I thought that was clear. Young, beautiful women used to die of it all the time, especially in books and movies. Debra Winger had it in Terms of Endearment. Thank heavens, literary and cinematic science seems to have conquered the disease in recent decades, and now we get to see beautiful actresses take a stab at looking ugly for a scene or two before they die. That’s progress. It sometimes still shows up in less developed countries, though. Rani Mukherjee died of it, quite fetchingly, in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai.</p>
<p>EDIT: Re Reece Witherspoon’s singing. Her voice is significantly better than June Carter’s. It was one of the things the movie prettied up, although it did have Carter referring to the the fact that she wasn’t that good a singer. But if you compare the original recordings of those songs to the soundtrack, Witherspoon (with perhaps an assist from Autotune) has much more standard “quality” than Carter. Physically and vocally, Carter was a jolie laide. Witherspoon is, of course, a very jolie blonde.</p>
<p>I actually thought they made Debra Winger look pretty bad/sick in Terms of Endearment. (Talk about a tear jerknig scene!!!)</p>
<p>Meryl Streep, who of course wasn’t young, really looked terrible in One True Thing, even in the scene in which she’s naked in the bath.</p>
<p>It’s kind of amazing that she cold come back from that and be a lead in Mamma Mia.</p>
<p>The funniest reference to the mysterious disease JHS mentions is in Moon Struck when Cher is at the opera and says, “She’s dying and she has to go on singing” because of course La Boheme and La Traviata are operas all about this disease.</p>
<p>For the Victorians TB seemed to them to make the women even more beautiful, feverish red cheeks, bright eyes, so their demise was even more poignant. Perhaps the movies are alluding to this.</p>
<p>It’s similar to the make-up women in war zones always wear in the movies. Always freshly applied.</p>
<p>I always thought the greatest Academy Award “passover” was when John Wayne won the Best Actor award for his portrayal of Rooster Cogburn in True Grit over both Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight for Midnight Cowboy, although you could argue they split their votes.</p>
<p>Yeah, they were both brilliant, but I have to go with Ratso. Can’t ever hear that Nilson song without feeling sad.</p>
<p>EK–good luck on getting to see Eddie tonight! I still think it’s a shame he didn’t get a nomination, though he might not care–the music from that movie is just incredible!</p>