1972 - 59th Ceremony

Last Tango in Paris (Director: Bernardo Bertolucci)
Nominees: Cabaret, Solaris, Deliverance, Aguirre: The Wrath of God, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, The Godfather, The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, The Heartbreak Kid, The Mattei Affair, The New Land, Cries and Whispers, Ulzana's Raid, The Goat Horn

Oscars pick: The Godfather
Nominees: Cabaret, Deliverance, The Emigrants, Sounder

I know, I know, The Godfather is considered a work of genius. Some even consider it the greatest movie of all time. Not selecting it is like bypassing Citizen Kane or Casablanca in many folk’s eyes. While I enjoy the feature, most of my love for it stems from my admiration for Marlon Brando's performance.  His voice may be a raspy whisper, but his presence echoes like a sonic boom. And even though he doesn't have a lot of screen time, he’s the heart and soul of the entire production. The movie as a whole… Yeah, it’s great but I believe there are better.

One strong contender for the Felix was the musical Cabaret - which made a big splash in 72. It actually won several international awards for Best Picture over the Godfather, and it earned the Best Director Oscar for Bob Fosse. Along with it there's Cries and Whispers (Oscar nominated for Best Picture in '73), Solaris, and...

By Oscar's rules, Last Tango wasn’t eligible for a Best Picture award until 1973 – but since Felix plays by global rules, and Tango played worldwide in 72. Tango is eligible in 72.

The year belonged to Brando. It was his return to greatness -- a comeback after the tumultuous 60s that nearly saw him blacklisted at its close. It was a short-lived return - we will never again see him reach these highs as an actor, but in 1972 he was in two of cinemas finest. Though in regards to the highly regarded, though controversial Last Tango, I'm one of the few who feel that it isn't simply one of the better films of the year, it's the very best. The Italian made movie is about a recently widowed American named Paul who takes up an anonymous sexual relationship with a young, soon-to-be-married Parisian woman.

While I think Tango is brilliant, I always struggle to articulate why. I resist over analysis because I don't want to lose the powerful emotional response I have to the picture and to Brando's searing performance. This is a movie that deserves to be discussed and explored, but not at the risk of putting out its fire. Saying that, here are a few moments that stick out for me.

Brando's acting is unbelievable and unlike anything he has ever done before. Marlon throws off all artifice to offer up something disquieting. He peels back the layers and gives completely of himself. He was asked to improvise scenes and in those moments he draws stories from his own life.

The sequence at his unfaithful wife's deathbed is unsettling in the way it expresses unvarnished and painfully real emotion. It is said that the scene made Dustin Hoffman so uncomfortable that he hid behind his seat as it unfolded. Ebert called it the greatest piece of acting Brando had ever done. It is not a moment to be viewed in an unlit room with the family. It’s hard to watch this man swearing at this woman’s corpse, crying and releasing all the hurt and resentment he's feeling.

There are also subtle touches. At one point Brando wanders off during a conversation and stands by a door. I wondered at first what the hell he was doing; did he have his lines posted nearby? Then a shock of realization worked its way down my spine... that's what he did when before he found his wife’s body. In the film Paul keeps turning off leaky facets, no explanation, no speeches, it's just something he does. And it struck me that when he came home; perhaps he called his wife’s name. Hearing no answerer he tried the bathroom door, he called out again, put his head to the door and could hear the drip, drip, drip of the bathtub. He enters to find her...

Bertolucci never tells us if this is the case, he never gives us the full story. He simply drops hints and lets us speculate (for example, why does the woman cleaning up the blood, stand there with a slight smile?) It’s a chilling aspect to the story and the performance.

Last Tango in Paris isn't a date movie; it isn't truly sexy. The sex isn't sensual and is often humiliating. The two do share some laughs (the film is not without humor) and she wants to break the rules of anonymity but he refuses -- until something clicks inside of him, which makes him change his mind. That ending was controversial, criticized as pretentious or overblown -- but I felt it fit, it works for me - the whole of the film - the arc of this relationship, works perfectly for me.

I understand I'm committing a kind of film blasphemy, and of all the alt-Oscar reads I've looked over, I'm the only one who bypasses the Godfather as the year's best. I'm not trying to be a rebel without a cause - contrary and defiant for defiance's sake. It’s simply that I genuinely and most emphatically feel that Last Tango in Paris is the best movie of the year. And my opinion is based primarily on the emotional reverberation that tears into me whenever I watch it. As brilliant as the Godfather is, it doesn't pack that kind of visceral wallop. (And honestly, if it wasn't Tango, it would have been Cabaret winning the Felix. And if not Cabaret, then Solaris or Cries and Whisper).

My Best Actor can be no other, but what of my top actress? While Margit Carstensen gave a blistering performance in Bitter Tears, it's more a monologue - and while I liked that - I prefer to see a life lived. Out and about, with a character arc that unfolds on screen in action, not just words. Margit will win in a later film, for acting that had that "life lived" feel to it. So this year I'll go with Liza.

Best Actress & Supporting Actor: Liza Minnelli & Joel Grey, Cabaret
Actress Honorable Mentions:
Margit Carstensen, The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant * Susannah York, Images * Iva Janžurová, Morgiana * Cicely Tyson, Sounder * Glenda Jackson, The Triple Echo * Rita Tushingham, Straight on Till Morning * Micheline Lanctôt, The True Nature of Bernadette * Liv Ullmann, The New Land & Cries and Whispers (also Ingrid Thulin, Kari Sylwan, & Harriet Andersson from that picture)

Best Supporting Actress: Natalya Bonderchuk, Solaris

Best Actor: Marlon Brando, Last Tango in Paris (pictured up top) & The Godfather
Honorable Mentions:
Al Pacino, The Godfather * Klaus Kinski, Aguirre, The Wrath of God * Jon Voight, Burt Reynolds, Ned Beatty & Ronny Cox, Deliverance * Michael Caine & Laurence Olivier, Sleuth * John Wayne, The Cowboys * Paul Winfield & Kevin Hooks, Sounder * Max von Sydow, The New Land * Gian Maria Volonté, The Mattei Affair * Yves Montand, Cesar and Rosalie


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1971 - 58th Ceremony

McCabe & Mrs. Miller (Director: Robert Altman)
Nominees: Szindbád (Sinbad), A Touch of Zen, Harold and Maude, Mon Oncle Antoine, Dirty Harry, Walkabout, The Last Picture Show, Silence, The Emigrants, You and Me, Interview, Fiddler on the Roof, The Go-Between

Oscars pick: The French Connection
Nominees: A Clockwork Orange, Fiddler on the Roof, The Last Picture Show, Nicholas and Alexandra

A superb slate of films is offered in a year that engaged filmgoers with productions that were smart, challenging, and unconventional. Movies like Nicholas Roeg's Walkabout were intriguing puzzles, while Straw Dogs was Sam Peckinpah's violent reflection on the nature of manhood. Polanski's brutal, bloody, and muddy take on Macbeth, featured memorable the camera work (the scene with the mirrors - the witches coven was well staged). And in the years since posting this, I've watched and added several masterpieces to my list of nominees. including Larisa Shepitko's You and Me, Zoltán Huszárik's Szindbád, and King Hu's A Touch of Zen. (Zen went on a convoluted journey. It was broken in two, the first part released in '70, the second in '71, with a two-and-a-half version shown in China (1971). Hu returned to the film and reworked it to his satisfaction; this cut was shown at Cannes in '75).

Each one of these I number among my favorites, and each is worthy of the title "Best Picture of the Year". But one, in particular, stood out.

Robert Altman has had his fair share of misses, but among his triumphs, McCabe & Mrs. Miller –an absorbing anti-western which stars Warren Beatty as a gambler who is building a town, and Julie Christie as tough as nails hooker- might be his finest. Slow brewing and atmospheric, it subverts many of the genre's conventions: Such as staging the iconic final gunfight, not under the blazing sun, in a dusty tumbleweed-filled setting, but in a blinding white snowstorm. And it doesn't tie everything up under a neat bow - no one is redeemed, no one saves the day. Overall, though, it is less about storytelling than creating tone. I believe it's Altman's best film, though it wasn't warmly received on its release. Something it has in common with another top candidate I wanted to spotlight.

Harold and Maude. This is such a special picture to me, It tells of a quirky romance and friendship between a young man obsessed with death and an eccentric old woman who lives life to the fullest, It’s a funny movie, often wickedly so -- as when Harold's mother fills out a computer dating form for her son but gives answers as she sees them. And after he sabotages that first meet-up, with a fake suicide attempt, Harold gives a knowing look into the camera – he’s made us co-conspirators in this game.  Despite its idiosyncratic nature, it's an affecting love story. H&M is one of my treasures -- which features superb Cat Stevens music and Harold's cool modified Jaguar Hearse (Oh how I covet that car).

But for all my love of H&M, it has a few off-key moments, and I believe the Altman film is the overall tighter production, which is why I’m giving it the Felix. (Of Note: McCabe & Mrs. Miller was produced by Bert Schneider, who along with last year's best director Bob Rafelson, helped create TVs the Monkees)

As for the cop flick, The French Connection, which won the Oscar. It was good, solid, but it wasn't one of my toppermosts on the year. 

Acting? Loads of the good stuff: I really liked Kitty Winn in The Panic in Needle Park and Julie Christie in McCabe, but it was Jane's year, hands down.

Best Actor: Malcolm McDowell, A Clockwork Orange
Honorable Mentions: 

Oliver Reed, The Devils * Richard Attenborough, 10 Rillington Place * Michael Caine, Get Carter * Gene Hackman, The French Connection * Topol, Fiddler on the Roof * Gene Wilder, Willy Wonka * Bud Cort, Harold and Maude * Warren Beatty, McCabe & Mrs. Miller * Max Von Sydow, The Emigrants * Zoltán Latinovits, Szindbád

Best Actress: Jane Fonda, Klute
Honorable Mention:
Julie Christie, McCabe & Mrs. Miller * Kitty Winn, Panic in Needle Park * Jenny Agutter, Walkabout * Tuesday Weld, A Safe Place * Ruth Gordon, Harold and Maude * Lili Darvas and Mari Törőcsik, Szerelem * Liv Ullmann, The Emigrants

Supporting Actor: Andy Robinson, Dirty Harry

Close Runner-Up: Donald Pleasence, Wake in Fright

Supporting Actress: Barbara Harris, Who is Harry Kellerman...







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1970 - 57th Ceremony

Five Easy Pieces (Director: Bob Rafelson)
Nominees: The Conformist, The Debut, Kes, Patton, Days and Nights in the Forest, Witchhammer, King Lear, The Confession, The Garden of the Finzi-Continis, The Reconstruction

Oscars pick: Patton
Nominees: Airport, Five Easy Pieces, Love Story, M*A*S*H*

My top contenders include the perplexing and fascinating The Conformist, which is about a fascist assassin. The film's unique structure owes much to the editor - who injected pieces of footage as flashbacks into the narrative, much to the delight of director Bernardo Bertolucci. And I thought Jack Nicholson was electrifying as the restless and short-tempered Bobby Dupea, in the existential road picture, Five Easy Pieces. In which a blue-collar worker –who is more than he seems- heads home to visit his dying father.

In addition: Costas-Garvas' harrowing The Confession was an incredible follow up to his Felix winning Z. I enjoyed Kes (played at a festival in 1969, but didn’t get a wide release until 70), Ken Losey's slight, naturalistic tale of a British schoolboy who raises a falcon. And the Oscar-winning Patton, whose thin story is lifted by an explosive performance by George C. Scott.

Of the remaining Oscars nominees: Love Story was horrid goo. Airport was decent and best known for popularizing the disaster movie fad of the 70s - and Robert Altman’s M*A*S*H* is a film that consisted of a chaotic string of skits. It features the director's normal, rambling, freeform style.

For me, it was a toss-up between the Costas-Garvas, Bertolucci, and Rafelson flicks, and I elected to go with Five Easy Pieces. It was one of the “American New Wave” films that briefly ruled in the late ’60s to mid-70s, which were helmed by directors like Hal Ashby, Peter Bogdanovich, and Bob Rafelson. The film is psychological reality -- an unpredictable look at a smart, talented man, who is dissatisfied, self-destructive and at a loss as to who he is or where he’s going. He has no tolerance for BS, or the traps life puts in his way. As he says... "I move around a lot, not because I’m looking for anything really, but ’cause I'm getting away from things that get bad if I stay." With those words in mind, it should be no surprise what he does at the end, even though it's upsetting.

The movie's hallmarks include the bit during a traffic jam where Bobby leaves his car, hops in the back of a truck and plays the off-key piano that's packed there (and takes Bobby ‘God know where’ as the truck drives pulls off on to an exit). The sequence at the restaurant where special orders do upset 'em, and the talk Bobby has with his sick father, who might not even comprehend what's being told him, are 2 other highlights.

Best Actress: Inna Churikova, The Debut
Honorable Mentions:
Stéphane Audran, The Butcher * Tuesday Weld, I Walk the Line * Carrie Snodgress, Diary of a Mad Housewife * Catherine Deneuve, Tristana * Chieko Baisho, Kazoku * Angela Lansbury, Something for Everyone

Best Actor: Jack Nicholson, Five Easy Pieces
Honorable Mentions: 

Yves Montand, The Confession * Gian Maria Volontè, Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion * Dustin Hoffman, Little Big Man * George C. Scott, Patton * Gene Hackman, I Never Sang for My Father * Nicol Williamson, The Reckoning * Jason Robards, Ballad of Cable Hogue * Peter Sellers, Hoffman * Georgi Taratorkin, Crime and Punishment

Supporting Actor: Chishū Ryū, Kazoku

Supporting Actress: Dominique Sanda, The Conformist

Special Award - Best Ensemble: Days and Nights in the Forest - Soumitra Chatterjee, Subhendu Chatterjee, Pahadi Sanyal, Samit Bhanja, Robi Ghosh, Sharmila Tagore, Kaberi Bose, Aparna Sen, Simi Garewal (pictured)

Note: Women in Love was first released in the UK in 1969, which is why Oscar winner Glenda Jackson is missing from this season's list of nominees. 


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1969 - 56th Ceremony

Z (Director: Costas-Garvas)
Nominees: The Sorrow and the Pity, Double Suicide, My Night at Maud's, True Grit, Burn, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, They Shoot Horses, Don't They? Goyokin, The Dependent, L'Enfance nue, The Night of Counting the Years

Oscars pick: Midnight Cowboy
Nominees: Anne of a Thousand Days, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Hello, Dolly! Z

I liked Oscar's pick Midnight Cowboy, but I love, love, looooove Z! Costas-Garvas' political conspiracy thriller tells the tragic true story of the Greek Governments sanctioned assassination of leftist pacifist Georgio Lambrakis. And it tells this story with heart and intelligence, nail-biting tension and black humor, all wrapped around stylish direction, cinematography and a kick-ass score. Z has come under fire in some circles as being too slick. Its critics suggest that politically tinged tales should be dry and documentary-like and whatever. I don't agree ~ movies, even political movies should be whatever they want to be, and reflect whatever vision the director has for it. Logic like theirs would have robbed us of such artistic sociopolitical triumphs as The Passion of Joan of Arc, and turned Z into a sterilized copy of dryer material, bereft of that which made it distinct. And if it was anything, Costas-Garvas' film was distinct, entertaining political art.

Z really caught fire in America and was the first film to be nominated for both Best Picture and Best Foreign Language Film. It won the foreign award. In a way, Oscar was having its cake and eating it too.

While I found and nominated several gems from around the globe, I also left out a few critical faves: While Jean-Pierre Melville's Army of Shadows is considered the director's peak masterpiece by many, I found it too cool and aloof. That icy tone fit perfectly for a movie like Le Samouraï but received a frosty reception here (still, I graded it 4 out of 5). Some folks champion the western The Wild Bunch as the year's best, and I thought it was good but not great.

Best Actor: Dustin Hoffman, Midnight Cowboy
Honorable Mentions:
Jon Voight, Midnight Cowboy * Jean Louis Trintignant, Z * Michael Sarrazin. They Shoot Horses, Don't They? * John Wayne, True Grit * James Mason, Age of Consent * Tatsuya Nakadai, Goyokin * Richard Burton, Anne of the Thousand Days * Peter Cushing, Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed * Utpal Dutt, Bhuvan Shome

Best Actress: Maggie Smith, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Honorable Mentions:

Jane Fonda, They Shoot Horses, Don't They? * Jean Simmons, The Happy Ending * Suhasini Mulay, Bhuvan Shome * Mia Farrow, John and Mary * Shima Iwashita, Double Suicide * Inga Mickytė, Gražuolė * Geneviève Bujold, Anne of the Thousand Days * Glenda Jackson, Women in Love

Supporting Actress: Pamela Franklin, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

I also liked Catherine Burns in "Last Summer", and Diana Rigg in "On Her Majesty's Secret Service"

Supporting Actor: Robert Ryan, The Wild Bunch

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1968 - 55th Ceremony

Once Upon a Time in the West (Director: Sergio Leone)
Nominees: 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Great Silence, The Valley of the Bees, Romeo and Juliet, Petulia, Rosemary's Baby, Kuroneko, Memories of Underdevelopment, We’ll Live Till Monday, The White Room

Oscars pick: Oliver
Nominees: Funny Girl, The Lion in Winter, Rachel, Rachel, Romeo and Juliet

Ye gads what a season- and I didn't even nominate Oscar's winner, the musical Oliver - which is a pleasant enough movie, I liked it – though I wouldn't say it quite reaches up towards 'best picture' type magnificence. 

Just about everybody who second-guesses the Oscars selects, 2001: A Space Odyssey for 1968. And after finally seeing to on the big screen I can see why. It's an incredible experience.

Just behind it...

Franco Zeffirelli's adaptation of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet was magnetic and moving and had me completely wrapped up in the story and characters. I also was gob smacked by Richard Lester's unique Petulia - very much a 60s movie, it's notable for its quick edited flashbacks and flash-forwards. Tonally unconventional, it goes from kooky romantic to bizarre gaudy grim to melancholic. Petulia stars George C. Scott & Julie Christie, who are both fantastic. And features a lingering score from John Barry (of James Bond fame) and dynamic camerawork by Nicolas Roeg.

While college students were having their minds blown away by Kubrick's Space Odyssey, something more down to Earth -but equally as spectacular- was doing the same to mine. Sergio Leone's grand and epic Spaghetti Western, Once Upon a Time in the West was one of those special, elevated film experiences.  

The first time I saw Leone’s masterpiece I was left slack-jawed and speechless, but I’ll try and find my voice for this posting. Sometimes a movie can be something you enjoy as a spectator, other times a movie asks that you participate and engage. And sometimes it does all that and more: Writers Leone, Bernardo Bertolucci, and Dario Argento gave us an expansive story, with several plot threads that are adroitly woven into an explosive whole (I won't go into detail as one of the joys in this film is in the discovery). The ensemble cast, which includes Henry Fonda, Charles Bronson, Jason Robards, and Claudia Cardinale, breathe life into these interesting people they portray, and their interactions are a huge plus. The filmcraft is inspired (the credit sequence - the sound design and unhurried pacing set the table brilliantly) - shot in widescreen splendor by cinematographer Tonino Delio Colli and scored with beauty, whimsy, and power by the great Ennio Morricone. "Once Upon" expertly and ambitiously blends drama, mystery, suspense, outrage, humor, sex, and psychology. My admiration and affection can’t be overstated, and I consider it, with Eastwood's Unforgiven and Ford's The Searchers, the greatest western ever made.

Postscript, with spoilers: While casual or younger viewers might not understand its impact, Henry Fonda's first appearance set the uneasy tone of the film. Fonda often played men of reason; there was gentleness and warmth in him. And the first time he strode onscreen, with those sky-blue eyes of his, I irrationally thought "Oh good, he’s here to save the day." And then he guns down a boy in cold blood. Holy shnikey -- that was unexpected. People back in the day, my father included, couldn't believe it. Leone stole the breath from our lungs and let it be known that appearances would be deceiving from here on out.

🎭 After all the ballots were counted, the Academy found themselves with a tie at Best Actress, with Hepburn & Streisand sharing the award. Barbara's never done a lot for me, she fine, has oodles of personality, but isn't top shelf for me (singing sure, the other, 'eh). It also doesn't help that I didn't care for the ho-hum Funny Lady. For me Katherine's closest rival was the unnominated Mia Farrow, who runs the gamut from sweet and innocent, to traumatized in Rosemary. However, while I have no problem with ties and co-winners, I've elected to go solo with my victor in 68. 

Of Hepburn's record setting 4 wins (Morning Glory, Look Who's Coming to Dinner, On Golden Pond) Felix and Oscar only teamed up on Lion. This is her second Felix (she won in 1938 for the comedy, Bringing up Baby) and 9th nomination by year.

Her co-star, Peter O'Toole, earned his first win on his 3rd nom (4 tot). Fonda took home his 2nd on 9 noms - Garland won on her first and only nomination.

Best Actor: Peter O'Toole, The Lion in Winter
Honorable Mentions: 

Toshirō Mifune & Lee Marvin, Hell in the Pacific * Max von Sydow, Shame * Charlton Heston, Will Penny & Planet of the Apes * Boris Karloff, Targets * Vyacheslav Tikhonov, We'll Live till Monday * Alan Arkin, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter * Burt Lancaster, The Swimmer * George C. Scott, Petulia * Alan Bates, The Fixer

Best Actress: Katharine Hepburn, The Lion in Winter

Honorable Mentions: 

Mia Farrow, Rosemary's Baby * Claudia Cardinale, Once Upon a Time in the West * Vanessa Redgrave, Isadora * Joanne Woodward, Rachel, Rachel * Tuesday Weld, Pretty Poison * Liv Ullmann, Shame * Julie Christie, Petulia * Beryl Reid, The Killing of Sister George * Patricia Neal, The Subject Was Roses 

Supporting Actress: Beverly Garland, Pretty Poison

Supporting Actor: Henry Fonda, Once Upon a Time in the West

Also liked Jack Albertson in The Subject Was Roses, though he was more a co-lead 






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1967 - 54th Ceremony

Belle de Jour (Director: Luis Buñuel)

Nominees: Marketa Lazarová, La Musica, Le Samouraï, Scattered Clouds, The Plea, The Tied Up Balloon, The Graduate, Samurai Rebellion, Bonnie and Clyde, In the Heat of the Night, Two for the Road, Cool Hand Luke

Oscars pick: In the Heat of the Night
Nominees: Bonnie and Clyde, Dr. Doolittle, The Graduate, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner

A movie that gets better every time I see it, earns the Felix in '67.

In Belle de Jour, Catherine Deneuve stars as Séverine, a sexually frustrated Paris housewife who secretly spends her afternoon hours working in a bordello. The film has its toe in the surreal, and leaves viewers with unanswered questions (what's the deal with the cats - never seen but heard and referred to. And what's that buzzing thing in the box? It doesn't matter, what matters is Séverine's reaction to it and how that contrasts with the other ladies' responses). There's a nod to Godard's Breathless (but is that a tribute, Bunuel wasn't a fan of the director) another to Millet's painting The Angelus (which might actually be a nod to Dali, who had an obsession with the painting and was of the belief that it held messages of repressed sexual aggression). The Criterion essay called Belle a "...gently absurdist take on contemporary social mores and class divisions. Fantasy and reality commingle in this burst of cinematic transgression.” Oh, and Deneuve is stunningly beautiful, even covered in muck she's a goddess.

Of my nominees, The Graduate was a movie I loved as a teenager and still like today. Critic James Kendrick accurately noted the film's "...satirical view of the affluent American upper class as a morass of immaturity and corruption hidden behind beautiful houses and garden parties."  The script has bite and a lot of laughs, The performances, and the Simon & Garfunkel tunes are memorable, and it boasts one of the greatest final scenes in film history.

Marketa Lazarová is considered the greatest Czech film of all time... and yeah it's hard for me to argue with that. It's a stark, brutal, yet poetic slice of medieval delirium. A second viewing was better than the first, a third helping might even see it unseat Belle.

In the Heat of the Night was Oscars pick, and it's a good one. Challenging, suspenseful and human. It addresses racism, big city North vs. small city South prejudices, all wrapped around a murder investigation.  Steiger won a much deserved Oscar, but I'm going the Cannes rout and award this as an acting pair because he and Sidney Poitier were so good together.  I like the contrasts between the two men: Steiger rough and loud to Poitier's elegance and educated manner.

As for my supporting actor, there was a bunch to chose from. Alan Arkin in Wait Until Dark, Terence Stamp and Alan Bates in Far From the Madding Crowd, Hackman, Bonnie and Clyde, Tom Courtenay, The Night of the Generals and Oscar winner George Kennedy in Cool Hand Luke, I was originally going to go with Peter Cook in Bedazzled, but upon a re-watch I think he's more of a co-lead with Dudley Moore. Out of them all, I found I liked Peter Finch's work in Madding Crowd the best. Finch plays the older suitor to Julie Christie's Bathsheba Everdine. Watching the way he comes undone over this woman, just loses all reason, was quite impressive. The way that desperation plays out on his face - wearing the expression of someone trying to keep it together, but failing at every step.

Best Actor: Sidney Poitier & Rod Steiger, In the Heat of the Night
Honorable Mentions: Robert Blake, In Cold Blood * Toshirō Mifune, Samurai Rebellion * Sidney Poitier, To Sir, with Love * Alain Delon, Le Samourai * Dustin Hoffman, The Graduate * Paul Newman, Cool Hand Luke * Marlon Brando, Reflections in a Golden Eye

Best Actress: Audrey Hepburn, Two for the Road (also Wait Until Dark)
Honorable Mentions: Catherine Deneuve, Belle de Jour * Geraldine Chaplin, Peppermint Frappe * Anne Bancroft, The Graduate * Edith Evans, The Whisperers * Julie Andrews, Thoroughly Modern Millie * Ruriko Asaoka, Thirst for Love * Yōko Tsukasa, Scattered Clouds * Sandy Dennis, Up the Down Staircase

Supporting Actress: Julie Harris, Reflections in a Golden Eye

Supporting Actor: Peter Finch, Far from the Madding Crowd







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1966 - 53rd Ceremony

Andrei Rublev (Director: Andrei Tarkovsky)
Nominees: Persona, War and Peace, The Face of Another, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Blow-Up, Closely Watched Trains, Au hasard Balthazar, The War Is Over, Knight Without Armour, Almost a Man, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, A Man for All Seasons, Pharaoh

Oscars pick: A Man For All Seasons
Nominees: Alfie, The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming, The Sand Pebbles, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf

1966 was a great year in film, and one of the most challenging to write about. I've struggled mightily to piece together a reasoned appraisal of my top 2 cinematic giants.

Bergman's Persona, for example, is a puzzle - a mystifying mix of hallucination and dream and reality, used to address the nature of identity. Some critics might call it pretentious, but I don't see that as a detriment, because the director is so damn brilliant that he’s able to pull it off. Plus, I don't believe that this is showiness simply for the sake of showing off.

Liv Ullman stars as an actress who suddenly stops talking in the middle of a performance. Her doctor suggests that she take rest at a seaside beach house and assigns a nurse (Bibi Andersson) to look after her. And that sets the table for a relationship that shifts from caring to abusive -- and what is real is difficult to discern. The film engages the brain, as well as the eye, as it's wondrously surreal. That Persona is such an enigma is one of the reasons I enjoy it. The movie blows my mind.

And there there's Andrei Rublev, Tarkovsky’s slow, episodic and mostly invented look at the life of Russia’s great icon painter. It's a sweeping journey, and one I found difficult due to its fragmented chronology -the way it would suddenly jump to another time and place- and that at times Rublev wasn’t even present during an event.

However, I was stunned by the striking imagery: from the opening scenes where we see a man whisked away on a hot air balloon, to the beautifully crafted sequences with the pagans in the woods.  And with subsequent viewings I could see things a little more clearly, I'd catch the details and threads that wove from episode to episode. And after doing a little research into the history and symbolism, I was able to then simply sit back and experience the film in all its glory - to soak in the horrific violence as well as the inspired acts of creation. To be thrown into the blood and mud and paint... and horses. To experience the scope of the human condition and all the pettiness and jealousy, wonder and even kindness there.

Persona is one of Bergman's best, perhaps his prime mästerverk - the same can be said of Tarkovsky's Andrei Rublev; there is so much to see, so much to feel. Like the paintings shown in a burst of color at the end, it never loses its power to move. (I posted more thoughts on the film and the 183-minute cut here... letterboxd.com/andrei-rublev)

Best Actor: Richard Burton, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf
Honorable Mentions:
Tatsuya Nakadai, Sword of Doom & Face of Another * Paul Scofield, A Man for All Seasons * Michael Caine, Alfie * Per Oscarsson, Sult * Wallach, Eastwood & Van Cleef, GB&U * Jacques Perrin, Un uomo a metà * Uttam Kumar, Nayak * Walter Matthau, The Fortune Cookie * Max von Sydow, Hawaii * Donald Pleasence, Cul-de-Sac

Best Actress: Bibi Andersson & Liv Ullmann, Persona
Honorable Mentions:
Elizabeth Taylor, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? * Lynn Redgrave, Georgy Girl * Anna Karina, The Nun * Silvia Pinal, La Soldadera * Michiyo Aratama, The Thin Line * Ayako Wakao, Red Angel * Anouk Aimée, Un homme et une femme * Vanessa Redgrave, Morgan!  * Maya Bulgakova, Wings

Supporting Actress: Wendy Hiller, A Man for All Seasons

Supporting Actor: John Mills, The Family Way

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