Best Actress '74 @50: The Greatest of All Time

by Cláudio Alves

Last weekend, on Mother's Day of all days, Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore celebrated its 50th anniversary. The occasion calls for some acknowledgment here at The Film Experience, where actressexual Oscar obsessives abound. After all, Ellen Burstyn won the Best Actress race at the 47th Academy Awards, triumphing over what could be described as the greatest lineup in the category's history. Along with the eventual victor, AMPAS nominated Diahann Carroll in Claudine, Faye Dunaway in Chinatown, Valerie Perrine in Lenny, and Gena Rowlands in A Woman Under the Influence. They might have also nominated Liv Ullmann in Scenes from a Marriage had she been eligible, but we'll get there in time. 

As Faye Dunaway presents a new doc at Cannes, the stars have aligned to relitigate the 1974 Best Actress race. Are you ready? Let's go…

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Podcast: West Side Story, The Tender Bar, Don't Look Up... and Faye Dunaway?

Nick and Nathaniel reunion finale (part 3 of 3). Dear readers we hope you've enjoyed this epic talk between your host here and the long lost Nick Davis. Here's the final part in which we talk more 2021 movies plus a discussion of Gena Rowlands and Faye Dunaway due to the new class Nick is teaching.

 

78 minutes
00:01 Lana Wachowski going full meta in Matrix Resurrections
10:15 Nick's trouble with Leos Carax's Annette  (with some Pola X history)
17:50 Tony Kushner's reworking of West Side Story and its redux performances. Plus a bit of In the Heights thrown in for reasons Nathaniel objects to
32:00 France's Petite Maman  and Austria's Great Freedom 
39:30 Adam McKay's Don't Look Up and its limitations as well as the harsh critical response
47:00 An extremely odd double feature: Wes Anderson's The French Dispatch and George Clooney's The Tender Bar 
          BIG ACTRESSEXUAL FINISH
1:01:06 Nick is teaching a class called "Female Performance in Modern Hollywood" so we discuss our favourite Faye Dunaway and Gena Rowlands performances (with very brief asides to several other post-Method actresses)

You can listen to the podcast on iTunes, Stitcher or Spotify or download the attachment below. If you missed our previous recent discussion covering a full dozen 2021 movies, that's here. 

West Side Tender Bar with Faye

Almost There: Gena Rowlands in "Opening Night"

by Cláudio Alves

It's fair to say that Gena Rowlands is one of the most important screen actors of the 20th century. Her films made with husband, director, and costar John Cassavetes helped usher in a new kind of immersive realism that would thrive in the American indie scene for decades after the pair's heyday. To honor this acting genius, the Criterion Channel curated a collection of 10 films that feature some of Rowlands' most acclaimed work. For the Almost There series, I'm interested in those achievements that got some awards glory while not scoring any recognition from the Academy. After her Oscar nomination for 1974's A Woman Under the Influence, Gena Rowlands returned to the awards discussion with 1977's Opening Night…

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Tweetweek: Pfans, Met Gala Madness, and Handmaid's Dystopia

More tweets after the jump including the healing power of Michelle Pfeiffer, the Met Gala, Face/Off and The Handmaid's Tale...

Never forget the exact moment Nicole Kidman decided — at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party — she was DONE with Tom Cruise's bullshit pic.twitter.com/TtX9s5aOto

— Russell (@RussellFalcon) May 2, 2017

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Podcast: Smackdown Reflections and Film Critics on Acting

Nathaniel talks to Sheila O'Malley, one of the best film critics on acting, as they reflect on recent Smackdown adventures, the chaos of acting careers, and the problems with "best" designations.

Index (43 minutes)
00:01 Acting training, Geraldine Page, and critics who "get" acting
06:45 Glenn Close and Robert Redford Reveries in The Natural
14:00 The quality of acting fields & self-selecting "Oscar movies"
20:45 Romancing the Stone and the "realm of fantasy" versus the "gritty" farm wife movies. Why do some movies hold up so well over time?
27:00 Peggy Ashcroft and Lindsay Crouse. Plus: making out with Ed Harris.
33:00 The rumors about Swing Shift and Jonathan Demme's original cut. Did we lose a masterpiece?
40:18 Sheila's connection to Gena Rowland's Honorary Oscar.

You can listen to the podcast here at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes. Continue the conversations in the comments, won't you?  

P.S. Read more about Sheila's Gena Rowlands tribute here.

a conversation with Sheila O'Malley