Nominees: Scarlet Street, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Rome, Open City, Brief Encounter, Red Meadows, Leave Her to Heaven
Oscars pick: The Lost Weekend
Nominees: Anchors Aweigh, The Bells of Saint Mary, Mildred Pierce, Spellbound
While it's showing its age, Billy Wilder's Lost Weekend was an important picture about alcoholism, and for the time, a solid choice by Oscar. However, aside from it and Mildred Pierce, I felt the Academy’s remaining nominations were a bit weakish. I prefer Rossellini’s neorealistic Open City (co-scripted by Fellini), David Lean's Brief Encounter, and Fritz Lang's second feature with the trio of Robinson, Bennett and Duryea, Scarlet Street. In which an older, rather pathetic Edward G. Robinson goes ga ga over trashy young Joan Bennett.
I would have chosen the Lang film, if not for the poetic genius of Children of Paradise, which many consider the greatest French film of all time. Carné’s masterpiece is set in the theatrical world, and thus an artificial air hangs over the entire production. With truth and illusion bleeding into both the onstage and offstage goings on. Despite its dreamy charms, there is something real in it. An honesty – as Terry Gilliam notes in his DVD introduction- that you don’t find in U.S. studio productions. As poetic as it is, Paradise doesn’t ring false, it’s not the gritty realism of a later French film like the 400 Blows, but it comes off just as authentic.
The story concerns a woman who draws the attention of several men, causing the ruination of a couple of them. The characters are based on real people. In fact, the real-life thief and killer in this film was the inspiration for Dostoevsky's Raskolnikov in Crimes and Punishment. The picture has a kind of melancholy magic to it, especially in the scenes with the pantomime (which I liked best). It runs about 3 hours, with the first half brighter and moving at a quicker pace - the second half, set several years later, has a darker, more leisurely style.
Watching them back to back, Scarlet Street is still something special, but Paradise is in another stratosphere. To select anything else would be akin to taking "How Green Is My Valley" over "Citizen Kane".
Honorable Mentions:
Celia Johnson, Brief Encounter * Joan Bennett, Scarlet Street * Arletty, Children of Paradise * Maria Casarès, Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne * Peggy Anne Garner, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn * Joan Crawford, Mildred Pierce * Judy Garland, the Clock * Wendy Hiller, I Know Where I'm Going * Greer Garson, The Valley of Decision
Best Actor: Jean-Louis Barrault, Children of Paradise
Honorable Mentions:
Ray Milland, The Lost Weekend * Edward G. Robinson. Scarlet Street * Pierre Brasseur, Children of Paradise * Aldo Fabrizi, Rome, Open City * Trevor Howard, Brief Encounter * Boris Karloff & Henry Daniell, The Body Snatcher * Dick Powell, Cornered * Robert Livesey, I Know Where I'm Going
Supporting Actress: Anna Magnani, Rome: Open City
also liked Angela Lansbury in the Picture of Dorian Gray and María Casarès in Children of Paradise
also liked Angela Lansbury in the Picture of Dorian Gray and María Casarès in Children of Paradise
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