Showbiz History: Cabaret, Mannequin, The Wedding Singer
Saturday, February 13, 2021 at 9:00AM 7 random things that happened on this day, February 13th, in showbiz history...
1972 Bob Fosse's film version of Cabaret is released in theaters becoming an immmediate sensation. We hope you've read Team Experience's super deep dive of this movie -- we love it so. A year later at the Oscars it looks like a sweeper only to lose Best Picture to The Godfather. It retains the record of most Oscars ever won by a movie that didn't win Best Picture with 8 statues in total. The only movie that's come close to tying that record was Gravity (2013) which fell one short. Four films are tied for third in this particular "loser" trivia with 6 wins: Star Wars, A Place in the Sun, and two very recent ones: La La Land, and Mad Max Fury Road...
1996 Tupac Shakur drops "All Eyez On Me," the last completed album of his lifetime (that's also the title of the 2017 biopic they made of him). He was killed seven months later in a drive-by shooting. The album was a huge success shipping over 5 million copies and spawning two #1 singles.
1981 The animated curiosity American Pop, Michelle Pfeiffer's second movie the ensemble comedy Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen (which we've discussed) and the mystery thriller Eyewitness starring William Hurt and Sigourney Weaver are the new movies opening on this unlucky Friday the 13th.
1987 A very broad and very 80s weekend at the movie theaters with both the comedy Mannequin and the action drama Over the Top opening.
1997 The 47th annual Berlinale begins and Oscar-nominated films from 1996 are all the rage. People vs Larry Flynt wins the Golden Bear, Juliette Binoche wins Best Actress for The English Patient, and Leonardo DiCaprio wins Best Actor for Romeo + Juliet.
1998 Romantic comedy hit The Wedding Singer opens starring Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler. It will later be made into a Broadway musical.
2011 The 64th BAFTAs are held with The Kings Speech double-triumphant taking both Best Film and Best British Film. But despite that obsession they gave David Fincher Best Director for The Social Network. A pity that the Oscars weren't that wise.
Today's Birthday Suit
Happy 88th birthday to 50s era superstar Kim Novak of Picnic, Vertigo, and Bell Book and Candle fame.
Other showbiz birthdays today: Mark Patton who recently participated in the documentary Scream, Queen! about his experience on Nightmare on Elm Street 2, Sophia Lillis (It, Uncle Frank), Stockard Channing (Six Degrees of Separation, Grease), George Segal (Fun with Dick & Jane, The Last Married Couple in America), Oliver Reed (Women in Love, Gladiator), Bo Svenson (North Dallas 40, Inglourious Basterds), Kelly Hu (The Scorpion King, Arrow), Susan Oliver (Peyton Place, Star Trek), Sweden's Pernilla August (The Best Intentions, Attack of the Clones), Mark Patton (), Mena Suvari (American Beauty, American Pie), Neal McDonough (Arrow, Minority Report), Richard Tyson (Battlefield Earth, Black Hawk Down), Henry Rollins (Johnny Mnemonic, Heat), Carol Lynley (The Poseidon Adventure, Bunny Lake is Missing), Daniel Portman (Game of Thrones, Robert the Bruce), David Naughton (An American Werewolf in London, Steel & Lace), Patrick Godfrey (A Room with a View, Ever After), Spains Miguel Fernandez (All I See Is You, Family United), talk show host Jerry Springer, pop star Robbie Williams, and rock star Peter Gabriel.
Reader Comments (23)
La La Land also won 6 Oscars but lost Best Picture
Paul -- right you are. added.
Will a Fosse neck do it?
Cabaret should have won Best Picture, just saying. I think it is the better film.
I know, sacrilege...
Also, I think BAFTA made a mistake awarding Fincher instead of Hooper. Hooper's direction on The King's Speech is one for the ages, while Fincher's in The Social Network is great but too hip and I am unsure if it will pass the test of time.
Jesus -- here i was like YAAAAASS until i got to your second comment and had to change to a NOOOOooooo ;)
Godfather vs Cabaret is a race for the ages. Cabaret is the best film musical ever (fight me) but Godfather is an equally titanic achievement. If Pacino was placed in lead, Brando still would have won (nothing was going to stop him ) but, with less vote splitting, maybe Duvall or Caan could've beat Joel Grey? All Oscar contests should be this good.
@Nathaniel...
I really feel everytime I hear that TSN was better than TKS to send back, that person, to both arts and film school. Like, really.
TKS is still in my top 10 of the century... TSN isn't in my top 50 (but I love it)
... if you're wondering by the way, about what I feel was the BEST film of the century, so far... probably Zhang Yimou's Hero, really closely followed by George Miller's Mad Max: Fury Road
i still think Fincher losing the Oscar to Hooper is one of Oscar's all-time howler mistakes. Hooper doesn't even have a sound concept of where to place the camera in certain scenes! He delivered a by-the-books, curiously uninspired but entertaining British film, in the grand tradition of what we'd seen before from movies about royalty. Fincher finds a visual equivalent for Sorkin's specific brand of dialogue, turns a movie shot largely in offices and conference rooms visually dazzling, and tackles big ideas both prescient and profound in a tough, uncompromising, and multifaceted way. fincher is one of the greatest directors of all time, and it's silly that he hasn't one the biggest prize in the industry.
Eric B -- yup. all of that.
I remember when EYEWITNESS opened and some critic said, that Weaver and Hurt should really become the Hepburn and Tracy of the 80s. The 80s would have surely benefited had that come to be.
Although I certainly would've given Fincher the Oscar in 2010, Hooper gets too much flack for TKS. It's very well crafted and has a singular look (something I know people hate), and it totally holds up 11 years later.
Hooper isn't a perfect filmmaker, but his visual style is often on point.
I got to meet Kim Novak a few years ago at my job. She was a delight. It was very brief though. I wanted to stay and fanboy over her but my boss pretty much forced me to go home.
@EricB
back to arts school!
Just the cenital shot of the royal family moving like insects watched by a God, when they're up to move to Buckingham is 1000 times more powerful in subtext, message and ideas thrown at the audience than one third of The Social Network. Not to mention the extraordinary use of blocking by Hooper, framing the soul state of the King and his relationship with the other characters. The main idea probably a rethinking of the "divinity" of the monarchy institution comfronted to the reality of human desire and limitations... among many other themes.
It's not my fault that people doesn't really pay attention, dismissing the work, as pure "Oscarbait" rather than analyze what is shown on screen, delivered after so much hard work and pre-production ;-)
Ooh, the art police is here
Mannequin>>>>>Over the Top.
The former is funnier, entertaining, and has the better song. The latter isn't a good movie and a terrible song by Kenny Loggins.
Y'all need (to listen to the truth from) Jesus.
Cabaret is wonderful and unique. But The Godfather is perfect.
@brookesboy One imperfection in THE GODFATHER: Coppola's treatment of Connie, played by his own sister, Talia Shire. I don't think you get a single close up of her until the last 20 minutes of the film, and then it's one of her screaming and crying. You can watch this film three or four times and be forgiven for not really even knowing what she looks like. Pauline Kael in her review of the second film, where she's finally given some time in the spotlight, called it "reverse-nepotism." It's the one odd problem in the film. She's one of the Corleone siblings and she should have been treated as well as Sonny, Fredo, Tom or Michael. Shire's work in II and III shows she deserved it and could command the screen.
@JesusAlonso
we're going to happily agree to disagree on the directorial achievements of those two movies. that's what makes arguing about movies fun! i enjoy the discourse.
but i don't think it's kind to suggest i need to go back to arts school. i direct for a living, and i "paid attention" to the king's speech. it's not a bad movie, but if we're in a bar sharing a beer one night, i feel i could deliver an incredibly compelling evening-long argument for why Fincher is a superior director to Hooper. i'd look forward to that convo with you!
Have you successfully directed though EricB?
@EricB
I shot a short film in 3 hours and got admitted to a film festival. Did so after 3 years of studying History of Arts and THEN, both photography and filmmaking (both history and techniques on all those fields). So yes, I know as well, how hard it is, but also have the perspective of watching a filmmaker be inspired not only by film, but by other arts, adding them to fuel the powerful, multilayered message that is seen on the screen.
My comment is simple: if you don't understand why The King's Speech is one of the most perfect films of the XXth Century, is because maybe to fully appreciate its greatness, some arts research would be in order. It wasn't on disrespect.