Nominees: Mirror, Barry Lyndon, Jaws, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Picnic at Hanging Rock, Under the Blossoming Cherry Trees, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Dersu Uzala, Love and Death, Dog Day Afternoon, Fear of Fear
Oscars pick: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Nominees: Barry Lyndon, Dog Day Afternoon, Jaws, Nashville
Oscar did well in picking its top 5, but over the years I've discovered a couple of productions that eclipsed all others. The first is The Mirror, one of many masterpieces from Tarkovsky. The other is Angelopoulos' complex and challenging the Traveling Players. A 4-hour slice of brilliance that is also so complex and challenging that I needed help understanding it. As I knew nothing of Greek history and was not real versed with Greek theater. I found that help here... worldscinema.org
The picture spans 13 turbulent years in Greek history, from 1939 to 1952. All of which is viewed through the eyes and experiences of an acting troupe. Who are trying, and often failing, to stage a performance of 'Golfo The Shepherdess'. The players themselves are based on characters from the myth of the family of Agamemnon.
As mentioned in that link, times shifts add to the complexity of the picture. I quote... "For example, the players enter a town during the 1952 election campaign and arrive at the central square in 1939. In another brilliant scene, a group of fascist collaborators leave a New Year’s Eve celebration dance in 1946. As the camera tracks them for some 300 yards down the street they gradually undergo a transformation from a group of singing, drunk, staggering and seemingly harmless right wingers to a full-fledged fascist group marching in lockstep to martial music. As the uncut seven minute shot ends, the camera continues to track this group as it merges with the crowd at a victorious Papagos rally in 1952."
I also like the quote from Theo in describing his film... "In THIASSOS even though we refer to the past, we are talking about the present. The approach is not mythical but dialectical. This comes through in the structure of the film where often two historical times are dialectically juxtaposed in the same shot creating associations leading directly to historical conclusions… Those links do not level the events but bypass the notions of past/present and instead provide a linear developmental interpretation which exists only in the present.”
For my actress award, I'm evoking the "Fassbinder Exception" in order to select one of my favorites, Margit Carstensen. In a piece once posted at Filmstruck (now defunct and moved to that messy hellhole Tumblr, so good luck finding it), Jeff Stafford called her one of Fassbinder's "most gifted actresses" and wrote that she "...gives a riveting performance as Margot and it is a more muted and subtle portrayal in relation to her highly operatic range of emotions in Fassbinder’s Martha."
Honorable Mentions:
Al Pacino, Dog Day Afternoon * Michael Caine & Sean Connery, The Man Who Would Be King * Giancarlo Giannini, Seven Beauties * Roy Scheider & Richard Dreyfuss, Jaws * Maksim Munzuk, Dersu Uzala * Robert Mitchum, Farewell, My Lovely * Shin Saburi, The Fossil
Honorable Mentions:
Margarita Terekhova, Mirror * Isabelle Adjani, The Story of Adele H * Stockard Channing, The Fortune * Brigitte Mira, Mother Küsters' Trip to Heaven * Mari Törőcsik, Mrs. Dery Where Are You? * Carol Kane, Hester Street * Glenda Jackson, Hedda * Rachel Roberts, Picnic at Hanging Rock * Maja Komorowska, A Woman's Decision
