A Memorial for "In Memorium"

One last piece on an individual moment from Oscar night?

by Baby Clyde

They couldn’t have started off the In Memoriam segment of the 96th Annual Academy Awards, in a more sober fashion. Recently assassinated Russian opposition leader and subject of last year's Best Documentary winner Alexei Navalny appears on screen, speaking directly to the audience. It’s a bold, surprising opener, somewhat at odds with the slick, professional and ever so slightly dull show that made up the rest of the runtime. This grim reminder of a world outside the Hollywood bubble gives absolutely no indication of the calamitous 4 minutes we're about to endure...

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200 Oldest Living Screen Stars

by Nathaniel R

Your assignment should you choose to accept it is this:  Choose a few of these fine talents this year and investigate the riches of their filmographies while they're still walking the Earth.  Here's the list...

200 OLDEST LIVING SCREEN STARS
as of 05/14/23

100 years old

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Showbiz history: Glynis Johns, Dr. No, Taylour Paige, Pitch Perfect

10 random things that happened on this day (October 5th) in showbiz history...

1923 The great Oscar nominated and Tony-winning actress Glynis Johns (Miranda, Mary Poppins, The Court Jester, The Sundowners, The Ref) born in South Africa. The picture to the left is at the Tony Awards in 1974.  She turns 97 years old today. Happy birthday, Sister Suffragette! Glynis is currently the fifth oldest living Oscar nominee. 

1945 A strike by set decorators turns into a riot "Blood Friday" at Warner Brothers studios. Aren't you glad Daniel's series "The Furniture" on the work of production designers and set decorators is back? I missed it so much when it went on hiatus.

1946 The very first Cannes film festival wraps up...

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Smackdown '60: Glynis Johns, Janet Leigh, one Mary and two Shirleys

A lusty bar owner, a vengeful hooker, a teenage wallflower, a doomed secretary, and a sexually liberated suffragette made up the Best Supporting Actress quintet for 1960.

That shortlist found room for two established Hollywood stars (Glynis Johns and Janet Leigh), both overdue for their first nominations, two rising starlets named Shirley (Jones & Knight) and an acclaimed Scottish import (Mary Ure). They all caught Oscar's attention and it didn't hurt that their films were so popular (all but Dark at the Top of the Stairs were major contenders in multiple categories, and Dark surely intended to be, being a prestige transfer from Broadway). This resulted in one of the most homogenous lineups ever -- all blondes (though Glynis was a redhead for her role) and from their early 20s to mid 30s (average age: 29).

THIS MONTH'S PANELISTS    

Here to talk about these five nominated turns and the movies that housed them (Psycho, The Sundowners, Sons and Lovers, Dark at the Top of the Stairs, and Elmer Gantry) are writer/director Leslye Headland (Russian Doll, Bachelorette), theater and screenwriter Peter Duchan (Dogfight), freelance critic Kyle Turner, and your Film Experience co-hosts Murtada Elfadl  and Nathaniel R

1960
SUPPORTING ACTRESS SMACKDOWN + PODCAST  

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How are the nominees introduced in their movies? (A Smackdown '60 appetizer)

The Smackdown panel is meeting this Sunday to finalize the voting and record our conversation. All five films are available on either YouTube or Amazon but for Dark at the Top of the Stairs which you can watch on the link included below. Watch the movies and vote!

While you wait for the Smackdown and its Podcast, we thought we'd do a little exercize we haven't done in a while. Let's look at how the filmmakers introduce these characters within the overall stories. Bear in mind that these aren't the lead characters, so theroetically they don't have to be introduced in a "stop and look at this person!"" kind of way. But were the filmmakers underlining their entrances, preparing you to embrace an future-Oscar-nominated-star-turn, or just going about telling the stories? 

Let's investigate in the order they show up in their movies...

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