Good lord! What was John Huston thinking (or drinking?) when he let loose with this rambling, discursive and largely meaningless five minute diatribe on a late-1970s Oscar broadcast? He certainly sounds magnificent and is, as always, beyond charismatic. I met him in 1981 when I was sixteen years old and
It’s humbling to realize that the films considered the best acheivemernts of the year and celebrated at the legendary awards evening known as the ‘Oscars’ may well turn into utterly unwatchable obscurities in a quick ninety to one-hundred years. (Actually it’s more likely that a couple of decades is enough
Last Friday I suggested a new weekly tradition of posting a Mambo dance to round out the week. Our first example was the lustrous Silvana Mangano–dig this clip of her killer Mambo if you missed it last week. Today we jump ahead a decade and dive into the ‘Dance At
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOCohXRrdkghttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQKuNHhX8Js Apropos of yesterday’s post, I was going to post the highly controversial Vanessa Redgrave Oscar acceptance speech from 1978 in which she criticizes Israel in a virulent and stinging speech that provoked boos and a scolding from Paddy Chayefsky. But you know what? The hell with it. Let’s end
Continuing our history of ‘Annie Hall’ at the 1978 Oscars, here is Paddy Chayefsky announcing the best original screenplay award which of course goes to the magisterially absent Woody Allen and his partner Mashall Brickman, who is there and accepts on Woody’s behalf. (By the way, one of the nominees
Continuing our story of ‘Annie Hall’ and its Oscars moment, above is a short section from a doc about Woody (don’t know which one) which tells the oft-repeated tale of how he blew off the ceremony and didn’t even know the movie had won the major Oscars of that year
Yesterday we watched Woody Allen not pick up his Best Director Oscar for ‘Annie Hall’ in 1978 due to his being in New York playing the clarinet with a band in midtown. However his producers, Jack Rollins and Charles Joffe, chose to make the trip and were rewarded with picking
Last week I posted William Friedkin’s Oscar win for ‘The French Connection’ in 1972. The award was nicely presented by Natalie Wood, who was paired with legendary director Frank Capra. In 1978 the Academy had the good taste (believe it or not) to repeat this actress/legendary director bit again, this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDq6MkwtMgEhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fIqBAuBquE The other day I posted a trailer of a doc about director William Friedkin which revealed him to be a most bracing public personality. Today I’m posting two clips of Friedkin, one historical and one hysterical. The first is Friedkin’s acceptance speech for his Oscar win in 1972 for