Alternative Film Guide

Saturday, June 14, highlights on Turner Classic Movies:
Many consider The Third Man (left) Carol Reed’s best film. Some even claim it’s so good that Reed couldn’t have directed it, detecting Orson Welles‘ touch of genius throughout the mystery thriller. That said, those who worked with Reed on the film insist(ed) that it’s Reed’s all the [...]

Sunday, June 8, highlights on Turner Classic Movies:
Some consider Stagecoach, a rip-off of Guy de Maupassant’s "Boule de suif", John Ford’s best film. Personally, despite a few good performances, I find this psychological Western perfectly watchable but, considering its reputation, somewhat of a letdown. (I much prefer Christian-Jaque’s Boule de suif (1945), with Micheline Presle [...]

Thursday, June 5, highlights on Turner Classic Movies:
Love Me or Leave Me is a competent biopic, with Doris Day giving a capable performance as torch singer Ruth Etting, while Johnny Belinda is an underrated psychological drama — one that features a then scandalous rape scene — that boasts an excellent star turn by Jane Wyman, [...]

Wednesday, June 4, highlights on Turner Classic Movies:
There’s quite a bit to recommend:
The thriller Targets was one of Peter Bogdanovich’s first and one of Boris Karloff’s last movies; The Won’t Forget deals with bigotry in the American south after Lana Turner gets bumped off, purportedly at the hands of a Jewish businessman; and Mary Stevens, [...]

Tuesday, June 3, highlights on Turner Classic Movies:
TCM continues with the not-to-be-missed "Asian Images in Film" series, with several silents and a couple of early talkies featuring East Asian characters.
The Cheat is an overwrought melodrama that is a must-see simply because it stars Sessue Hayakawa (right), the first (and only?) Hollywood-made East Asian superstar. [...]

Wednesday, May 8, highlights on Turner Classic Movies:
John Frankenheimer’s speed-racing epic, Grand Prix, boasts an all-star cast, split screens, lots of noise, and one excellent performance, courtesy of the always reliable Eva Marie Saint.
Bachelor Mother (right) was a minor disappointment, but Charles Coburn is outstanding as the patriarch who doesn’t care if his son (David [...]

Bette Davis would have turned 100 today. This clip, in which Bette Davis sings "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?," is from the December 20, 1962, episode of The Andy Williams Show.
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? was released that year, earning Davis her tenth — and last — Academy Award nomination. She won two [...]

The new documentary Thou Shalt Not: Sex, Sin and Censorship in Pre-Code Hollywood and five Pre-Code films will be shown on Turner Classic Movies on Monday, March 3 (more details below).
The five racy Pre-Coders are: The Divorcee (1930), A Free Soul (1931), Night Nurse (right, 1931), Three on a Match (1932), and Female (1933). [...]

According to Oscar savants, experts, and know-it-alls everywhere, one TV-ratings point was lost per unfunny repartee at the 2008 Oscarcast. If so, the one between Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway was both long and unfunny enough to lose the show about 2 million viewers.
 
Blame it on the dark-themed films, the (relatively speaking) little-known nominees (in [...]

2007 Costume Designers Guild Awards
2007 Costume Designers Guild award nominations: January 16, 2008.
2007 Costume Designers Guild award winners: Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills on February 19, 2008.
("*" denotes the winner in each category)
 

 
FEATURE FILMS
EXCELLENCE IN CONTEMPORARY FILM:
* Blades of Glory — Julie Weiss
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly — Olivier Bériot
Into the Wild — [...]

2007 Irish Film & Television Academy Awards
2007 Irish Film Award nominations: February 1, 2008
2007 Irish Film Award winners: Gaiety Theatre in Dublin on February 17, 2008
(”*” denotes the winner in each category)
 

Garage was the big winner at the 2007 Irish Film Awards. Directed by Leonard Abrahamson and written by Mark O’Halloran, both of whom won [...]

For the third time, TCM host and The Hollywood Reporter scribe Robert Osborne will be greeting Academy Award nominees, presenters, and performers on the 2008 Oscar’s red carpet in front of the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center on Sunday, February 24.
Red carpet arrivals are expected to begin at approximately 3 p.m. Pacific [...]

2007 ACE Eddie Awards
2007 ACE Eddie Award nominations: January 11, 2008.
2007 ACE Eddie Award winners: Beverly Hilton Hotel on February 17, 2008.
("*" denotes the winner in each category)
 

 
BEST EDITED FEATURE FILM (DRAMATIC)
* The Bourne Ultimatum
Christopher Rouse, A.C.E.
Into the Wild
Jay Cassidy, A.C.E.
Michael Clayton
John Gilroy, A.C.E.
No Country for Old Men
Roderick Jaynes
There Will Be Blood
Dylan Tichenor, [...]

2007 Art Directors Guild Awards
2007 Art Directors Guild Award winners: Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills on February 16, 2008.
("*" denotes the winner in each category)
 

 
FEATURE FILMS
PERIOD FILM
AMERICAN GANGSTER PD: Arthur Max
ATONEMENT PD: Sarah Greenwood
ELIZABETH: THE GOLDEN AGE PD: Guy Hendrix Dyas
SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET PD: Dante Ferretti
* THERE [...]

2007 Visual Effects Society (VES) Awards
2007 VES award nominations: January 7, 2008.
2007 VES award winners: Kodak Grand Ballroom in Hollywood on February 10, 2008
("*" denotes the winner in each category)
 

 
Outstanding Special Effects in a Motion Picture
* HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX
John Richardson, Stephen Hamilton, Richard Farns, Stephen Hutchinson
Outstanding Visual Effects [...]

2007 Writers Guild of America (WGA) Awards
2007 WGA Award television and radio nominations: December 12, 2007. 2007 WGA Award motion picture nominations: January 10, 2008.
2007 WGA Award winners: February 9, 2008.
("*" denotes the winner in each category)
 

As expected, Jason Reitman and Diablo Cody’s successful comedy about a pregnant 15-year-old girl looking for the ideal [...]

2007 Producers Guild of America’s Golden Laurel Awards
2007 Golden Laurel feature-film and long-form TV nominations: January 14, 2008. Television series nominations: November 15, 2007.
2007 Golden Laurel winners: Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills on February 2, 2008.
("*" denotes the winner in each category)
 

The two biggest surprises among the PGA’s 2008 Golden Laurels was the presence [...]

The smaller, shorter, subdued’er 2008 Golden Globe "news show" — a result of the ongoing WGA strike, now entering its tenth week — ended not too long ago. There was no red carpet, no dress parade, no dumb questions from journalists, no mind-numbing speeches, no godawful jokes, no poorly staged musical numbers, no toilet paper [...]

2007 BAFTA Scotland Awards
The 2007 BAFTA Scotland (or Scottish Bafta) award winners were announced at City Halls in Glasgow on November 18, 2007.
("*" denotes the winner in each category)
 

The Last King of Scotland, an early 2007 release in the United Kingdom, was the big winner at the 2007 BAFTA Scotland awards. Directed by Kevin Macdonald [...]

"Much like Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life in American culture," writes Peter Finn in the Washington Post, "the Soviet film The Irony of Fate has a permanent home in Russian hearts — and on TV screens every holiday season."
Finn describes Eldar Ryazanov’s 184-minute 1975 romantic comedy-drama as "a sweet, witty romance that also took [...]

Louis J. Horvitz will return early next year to direct the 80th Academy Awards telecast, producer Gil Cates has announced.
This will be Horvitz’s 12th time directing the Academy Awards show. For his Oscar ceremony efforts, he has received eight Emmy nominations and four Emmy Awards.
Horvitz has also directed countless "Primetime Emmy Awards," "Kennedy Center [...]

8th American Film Institute (AFI) Awards - 2007
The 8th AFI Award lists were announced on December 16, 2007.
The 8th AFI Awards ceremony will be held at the Four Seasons Hotel in Los Angeles on January 11, 2008.
 

 
FILM
BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU’RE DEAD
THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY
INTO THE WILD
JUNO
KNOCKED UP
MICHAEL CLAYTON
NO COUNTRY FOR [...]

Jon Stewart (right), one of those appallingly rare comedians who are actually funny and witty, will host the 80th Academy Awards telecast, as Oscar show producer Gil Cates announced today. This will mark Stewart’s second stint as Oscar host. (His first Oscar show was in 2006. Stewart also hosted the Grammy Awards in 2001 and [...]

Little Dieter Needs to Fly (1997)
Direction and screenplay: Werner Herzog. Cast: Dieter Dengler
 

 
By Dan Schneider of Cosmoetica:
Little Dieter Needs to Fly is another in the remarkable body of Werner Herzog’s film work, one that is without peer. Having recently rewatched it on DVD, nearly a decade after its initial US release in 1997, it has [...]

This evening, Friday, June 29, Turner Classic Movies will screen three creepies: The Unholy Three (1925), West of Zanzibar (1928), and Vampyr - Der Traum des Allan Grey / The Adventures of David Grey / Castle of Doom. The first two are silent Lon Chaney vehicles directed by Tod Browning at MGM; the third one [...]