1975's Oscar Nominees

can't front that it isn't a strong line-up, buuuuut

don't really want to see the two standouts, barry lyndon and nashville, again. maybe on the big screen, but BL is exactly what people always accuse kubo of being, ie inert.

as a 'statement about america on the eve of the bicentennial', i'll take jaws over nashville, which i don't totally 'get'. certainly not as good as a bunch of other 70s altmans.

one flew over the cuckoo's nest hasn't dated too well... i guess dog day hasn't either but of the two acting showcases im going to take pacino over nicholson.

i'd feel wrong voting jaws, but it's kind of going that way.

unpollsuitable

word of the day!

I'll make sure that the next year I poll only features movies I don't, against all Oscar history odds, think are great. Last year, for instance.

against in accordance with Oscar history odds

as a 'statement about america on the eve of the bicentennial', i'll take jaws

you and Fidel Castro, who saw it as an anti-capitalist allegory.

1977's list is even more middlebrow:

Annie Hall
The Goodbye Girl
Julia
Star Wars
The Turning Point

Yes, tho Annie Hall is maybe the best actual winner of the whole decade.

My god, The Turning Point; it's only worth watching for this scene, a masterpiece of camp:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1a_wW3sNRPk

... the hell?

well, also to look at Baryshnikov.

Eric, you really need to catch up on yr '70s middlebrow.

I saw The Turning Point in the Little Carnegie theater on 57th Street -- asnd there is a shot of that theater in the film, I think the only time I've had that Sherlock Jr experience. (Also saw Annie Hall there opening weekend)

Hey, I've seen Kramer vs. Kramer, The Sting and at least two Neil Simon productions.

The Goodbye Girl is paaaaainful.

You know what's stinky? The Oscars.

So, I hate to break it to you, is Mahogany. < / Morbs >

I do wanna view Mahogany at some point, to see if Anthony Perkins' hatred of Diana Ross's lack of professionalism comes through.

(btw Eric, they're reviving The Wiz on Broadway)

Listening to "Do You Know Where You're Going To" at the market last week, I noted Diana's lack of command of grammar.

xpost ooh, i should audition!

I think I've mentioned I scream "Do You Know Where You're Going To" at NYC drivers

I'm a hueg kubrick stan and barry lyndon is his underrated masterpiece so...

have I mentioned my theory that the shining was kubrick's sadistic revenge on the moviegoing public for ignoring barry lyndon?

"Ignore my brilliant 18th-century satire?! Here's... a NONSCARY horror epic!"

So, I hate to break it to you, is Mahogany.

Well, now I know.

Then again, I always knew. Mahogany is stinky. But its stinkiness is noble, precious even. Like Empire Records, it bites off more than it can chew, so damn eager to please everyone in viewing range. But in this, it reflects the well-meaning-but-not-too-well-meaning liberal mindset of Oscar ideology more accurately than the sure-footed snoozefests that usually get the noms. In short, it's beautifully confused. Plus the clothes are fab!

So are the clothes in Nashville!

No they're not.

Right, they're not. But even if they were, they'd be nowhere near as fab as the ensembles (don't pronounce the "s") in Mahogany.

Revision: Everything about Nashville is better than anything in any other movie.

Even Gertrud?

Even Lipstick.

I think this has got to be the strongest Best Picture field ever, with Nashville at the top, Jaws second, Cuckoo's Nest third, then Dog Day, and Barry Lyndon last. And I like Barry Lyndon, even though I think Gene Hackman's famous Night Moves (also '75) joke about Rohmer might just as well have been directed at Kubrick's film. Someone asked about the best non-nominated picture that year--Frederick Wiseman's Welfare, I'd say. I just saw an excellent HBO documentary on John Cazale called I Knew It Was You; not sure who was up for supporting actor in '75 (Henry Gibson?), but they somehow managed to overlook Cazale in Dog Day.

1974 was a better Best Picture year -- if you ignore the nod to The Towering Inferno.

Tough call...For top three, yeah, '74; GFII, The Conversation, and Chinatown are unbeatable. But I don't think Lenny's all that terrific (coincidentally enough, I'm halfway through rewatching it on DVD), and Inferno seriously undermines the other four. I guess I meant that '75 is the rare year where the Best Picture field in almost inarguably five deep.

Fair enough. The Best Director nods are more interesting: Fellini replaces Spielberg (a moment captured on film as Spielberg listens to the announcement) for Amarcord, his best movie since the fifties.

I only dig The Conversation from 1974. Cassavetes/Elaine May robbed in 1974 and 1976. But when wasn't Cassavetes robbed?

Avant-garde, porn, and other art cinemas were sooo much more compelling in the 1970s than this New Hollywood silliness.

Ugh -- Cassavetes. I prefer the dramatizing of his psychodramas when playing villains.

Towering Inferno is no worse than Jaws.

Jaws didn't have a kitty and Oh Jay.

Towering Inferno = Jaws? They're not in the same stratosphere.

jennifer jones being eaten by shark would be better than robert shaw

Avant-garde, porn, and other art cinemas were sooo much more compelling in the 1970s than this New Hollywood silliness.

They were all pretty compelling on the whole, though I think the case for '70s porn has been radically overstated, personally.

I used to think that about 1970s porn until I saw more softcore and sexploitation. And Chuck Vincent. And the greatest film ever made.

nearly all porn is worse than The Towering Inferno, and even worse than A Woman Under the Influence.

Almost every Rohmer and Kubrick film is better than Night Moves. (I also think the Hackman line is sposed to show he's a philistine)

First statement = you're on a mountain of drugs

Second statement = you're in rehab

nearly all porn is worse than

Even this first conditional phrase is untrue. Morbs, have you seen some of the really dark straight porn that's out there? Gay porn has a different dynamic, I think. There's HATE in some straight porn. In a lot of it, even.

I can't think of anything theoretically worse than really dark straight porn.

Tell me about it. Not only enlimpening, but makes you want to scrub your skin off.

I also think the Hackman line is sposed to show he's a philistine.

In the context of the film, no, I don't think so; it's preceded, from what I remember, by Susan Clark saying something to the effect that her co-worker (Hackman's nemesis, the guy she's having the affair with) found the Rohmer film "yummy." It's the other guy who sounds faintly ridiculous, even more so after Hackman's dry dismissal. (Which is not my own dismissal. I've seen Rohmer films that are clearly superior to Night Moves, and others that aren't as good. Ditto Kubrick.)

I think that's obviously true. They're not having a debate about film, fer chrissakes.

I saw Night Moves for the first time only two months ago and was impressed; I'm not an Arthur Penn fan.

anyway, are ppl who call Lyndon dull judging it by wham-bam standards? There's quite a lot going on... Pirates of the Caribbean, now that's boring.