Nominees: The Red Shoes, Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Red River, Portrait of Jennie, Spring in a Small Town, Johnny Belinda, Les Parents Terribles, Oliver Twist
Oscars pick: Hamlet
Nominees: The Red Shoes, Johnny Belinda, The Snake Pit, Treasure of the Sierra Madre
At first, I wasn't buying it. I remember the first time I sat through Powell and Pressburger's The Red Shoes –which tells the tale of a ballet dancer who is torn between the man she loves and her dream to become a prima ballerina. The first reel plays and the look is garish and the acting theatrical. John Huston's The Treasure of the Sierra Madre appeared secure in its place as the years best.
I loved Huston's tale of gold fever – the acting (Humphrey Bogart was so good) and complex character study - scene after memorable scene, filled with quotable dialog - all of it makes for a brilliant and entertaining yarn. But as Red Shoes unfolds, I find myself drawn in deeper and deeper. Yes, it was over the top, garish and melodramatic, but gloriously so. The colors were of a rich vibrancy I'd never experienced (No less than Martin Scorsese considers it the most beautiful color film of all time) I began to buy into the emotion and become completely immersed in the story. I was transported, awed by the surreal ballet sequences. And suddenly I was no longer so certain that Madre was the best picture of the year. In fact, the only thing I was sure of was that I'd just discovered something special.
And then entered a new player, an influential piece of Italian neorealism, DeSica's powerful Bicycle Thieves. The complete opposite to the Red Shoes in every way imaginable – while the line between theater and reality was blurred in the Archer’s film, and fantasy embraced to the full - Bicycle was raw, cast with nonprofessional actors and as unflinchingly real as the dirt under its protagonist's fingernails*. It tells of a working-class man in post-war Rome, who searches for his stolen Bicycle, which he has to have in order the keep his much needed and hard won job. And while the setting and circumstances are specific to the age, it hasn’t lost its capacity to move.
The acting by these non-professionals was heartfelt and honest. I was especially impressed with 7-year-old Enzo Stailo, who played Antonio's son, Bruno. Who, according to Godfrey Cheshire in his Criterion essay, could be the key element in this feature. He writes... "Though it starts out focused closely on Antonio’s poverty and desperate need to recover his bicycle, by the latter sections what most concerns us is not what happens between Antonio and the bicycle or his social position but what transpires between the man and his son. Indeed, a second viewing of the film might suggest that this has been the main drama all along, that Bruno has been “looking after” Antonio in several senses that point us toward the film’s justly famous final moments, when a touching gesture of filial solidarity replaces the class solidarity that De Sica and (Screenwriter) Zavattini evidently saw as receding in Italy."
It's an embarrassment of riches, and I mean come on 1948, I love having these delights to watch (and those such as Howard Hawks unforgettable western, Red River, the romantic Portrait of Jennie (one of Bunuel's favorites), Lean's Oliver Twist, marked by Guy Green's stunning cinematography, or that classic tale of a love triangle set in post-war China, Fei Mu's restrained and delicate, Spring in a Small Town). But making me pick just one, that’s plain cruel.
As for Oscar's choice? Hamlet is a decent movie. Decent, but not within spitting distance of these giants.
Acting Note: Bogart and Huston gave incredible performances. Among their best ever. However, they have awards (and Bogart is due another for what I feel is his finest effort). If I was going to spread the wealth, I needed actors who were equally amazing, equally charismatic or -as in the case of my lead- with equal levels of psychological intensity. And I think I found 2 who fit the bill. Note: There several top-notch supporting performances in '48, but I wanted to give a shout out to Sydney Greenstreet and Agnes Moorehead in "The Woman in White", who's work in this film is not often spoken of
Honorable Mentions:
Jane Wyman, Johnny Belinda * Siobhán McKenna, Daughter of Darkness * Wei Wei, Spring in a Small Town * Lizabeth Scott, Pitfall * Moira Shearer, The Red Shoes * Irene Dunn, I Remember Mama * Nargis, Aag * Joan Fontaine, A Letter from an Unknown Woman * Olivia de Havilland, The Snake Pit
Honorable Mentions:
Humphrey Bogart & Walter Huston, Sierra Madre * Takashi Shimura & Toshirō Mifune, Drunken Angel * Lamberto Maggiorani & Enzo Staiola, Bicycle Thieves * Van Heflin & Robert Ryan, Act of Violence * Edward G. Robinson & Humphrey Bogart, Key Largo * Orson Welles, Macbeth * John Wayne, Red River
Supporting Actress: Claire Trevor, Key Largo
* Post script to Thieves: Saying that, it too is accomplished mise-en-scène filmmaking. De Sica described his directorial style as, "Transposing reality into the realm of poetry". Unlike other neorealists like Rosellini and early Visconte, De Sica coached his non-actors and didn't allow for improvisation. He also carefully staged and organized sequences, with multiple cameras and angles, so that they were not merely documentary-like in look and style. There is a strong directorial hand at work here.
< Previous * Next >
Home
