OVP: Camelot (1967)

Film: Camelot (1967)

Stars: Richard Harris, Vanessa Redgrave, Franco Nero, David Hemmings, Laurence Naismith

Director: Joshua Logan

Oscar History: 5 nominations/3 wins (Best Cinematography, Art Direction*, Scoring*, Costume Design, Sound)

Snap Judgment Ranking: 2/5 stars

Each month, as part of our 2023 Saturdays with the Stars series, we are looking at the Golden Age western, and the stars who made it one of the most enduring legacies of Classical Hollywood.  This month, our focus is on Franco Nero: click here to learn more about Mr. Nero (and why I picked him), and click here for other Saturdays with the Stars articles.

Franco Nero looked like a Hollywood movie star with his flawless bone structure and ocean-blue eyes, and after the success of Django, he was afforded the opportunity to be one.  But Nero's first language was not English, it was Italian, and when he came to Hollywood to play the role of Lancelot in the big-screen adaptation of the hit Broadway musical Camelot, he wasn't exactly an obvious choice.  Then again, nothing about Camelot came together easily when it came to casting.  The original intent was to reunite the two original Broadway leads, Richard Burton & Julie Andrews, but Burton priced himself out and Andrews was filming another movie, so director Joshua Logan had to go with backup plans, eventually settling on Richard Harris & Vanessa Redgrave, the latter a future screen-legend doing her only true big-screen musical.  The result was a mixed bag, as we'll discuss today.  The film made a fortune in 1967, the rare studio musical of the era to actually turn a profit, but it was given a lukewarm reception by critics, and reappraising it from decades later, I think the critics might have had the inside track over audiences of the time when it came to assessing Camelot.

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie is in many ways a bare bones look at the Arthurian legend, though starting largely in Arthur's adulthood.  We get the King (Harris) courting the beautiful Guinevere (Redgrave), a flighty young woman whose beauty & charm show no bound.  We occasionally get glimpses of Arthur's childhood tutelage from Merlin (Naismith), a figure that is so mythical the only person whom he speaks to the whole film is Arthur himself, but the real-world stakes of having a democratic rule of law (albeit one with an anointed king) start to come to a head later in the film when it's clear Guinevere is madly in love with Arthur's most devoted night Lancelot (Nero), something the king's illegitimate son Mordred (Hemmings) wants to take advantage of in hopes of disrupting Camelot (and giving himself a chance at the throne).  The film ends with Camelot as a concept ending, but Arthur bringing its ideals forward through a young boy he makes a knight before his impending death, his principles of justice and right before might carrying onward.

The movie is way too long.  This is true of a lot of musicals of this era, where they needed a full plot and a full set of musical numbers, and weren't able to trim in the way they had in the 1950's (this is probably because there were examples of over-long, highly-successful musicals at the time such as My Fair Lady and The Sound of Music whose box office receipts justified testing an audience's patience).  It is not helped that the score isn't as universally hummable as those two.  Camelot today has two songs that still exist in the lexicon: the title song, sung by Harris, and "If Ever I Would Leave You" (sung here by Gene Merlino, who dubbed Franco Nero's singing though Nero does his own speaking in the film), though it doesn't have the same resonance as Robert Goulet's cast recording does (he was the original Lancelot on Broadway).  The film isn't necessarily bad-bad.  There are moments it kind of works, like when it's trying to wrestle with the complicated legacy of doing right but having people take advantage of it (the Kennedy administration was called "Camelot" in large part due to the politics of this play emulating that of the late president, who was a fan of the show), but the cast is not strong enough to carry it in its weaker moments.  Harris & Redgrave can sing, but they don't have enough chemistry (Harris, in particular, feels miscast...the studio should've sprung for Burton who would've given the film more gravitas).  Nero is hard to judge here.  He seems like the kind of guy you'd risk getting burned at the stake for to have an affair with (he looks divine), but his acting is pretty stilted in English, and he doesn't do his own singing.

The film received five Oscar nominations and won three.  Of the bunch, the Art Direction & Costume Design nominations make the most sense.  The Art Direction, with its towering castles and in particular the very fun forest where Merlin resides, are ornate and while they aren't as spectacular as it might've been with full-on location shooting (they attempted it in Spain, but heat at the time made it impossible), it still works well.  Redgrave looks glorious in the film, particularly her gold-diamond pattern dress that is maybe the film's most recognizable look, and it offsets that most of the maidens-fare in the background all wear the same dress in different colors.  The sound & scoring nominations I'm ehh on...this isn't a great musical, but it's also one of the better ones in a field of bad musicals (i.e. there's a decent chance I give this film the Scoring OVP statue even if I'm in the middle, largely because there's not much else to go with).  And the cinematography nomination feels fine too-again, it's hurt by being too long, and by not having enough location shooting when you're competing against major steps-forward in the field ala Bonnie and Clyde.  All-in-all, one of the bigger musical gaps in my filmography probably was that way for a reason.

OVP: Agatha (1979)

Film: Agatha (1979)
Stars: Vanessa Redgrave, Dustin Hoffman, Timothy Dalton, Helen Morse, Celia Gregory
Director: Michael Apted
Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Costume Design)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 2/5 stars

One of the more enjoyable parts of the Oscar Viewing Project is that you get to see movies you didn't know existed.  Usually, for me, this is some random comedy from the midst of the Studio System that got nominated for Best Score and suddenly I'm toe-tapping alongside Marion Davies or Eleanor Powell much to my delight.  Occasionally, though, there's something more recent like Agatha which peaks out as a movie that I'm staggered I didn't realize existed, mostly in this case because I'm such a fan of Agatha Christie.  I own everything she's ever written (and can see it from where I'm typing this now), and have read most of it, and yet I never realized that this biography, starring Vanessa Redgrave & Dustin Hoffman at the peak of their fame, existed.

(Spoilers Ahead) It should be noted that the film itself doesn't take place over Christie's illustrious career, but at perhaps the most mysterious moment of it-the famed disappearance of the mystery novelist that attracted massive media speculation (it was on the front page of the New York Times) at the time.  After all, the world's most famous mystery writer suddenly disappears in a moment that seems plucked from the plot of one of her books?  How could the public not eat that up?  Since that story to this day remains shrouded in enigma (the Christies were pretty mum on the situation with Agatha ignoring the event entirely in her autobiography, and at the time claiming Agatha had amnesia though they divorced soon after), this is a series of made-up events, and in many ways they lean heavily into the idea that this could be one of Christie's novels.  After all, we have Agatha largely playing a Gone Girl situation here, disappearing into a Turkish Bath (truly random coincidence-I was in Hot Springs, Arkansas last week so I actually got to see a bathhouse similar to that used in this movie for the first time!), and attempting to frame her husband's mistress for murder, while in the process attempting suicide (she's unsuccessful in both attempts).

The film features Christie (Redgrave) as a woman of deep introversion, almost socially-awkward and Hoffman as Wally Stanton, an American reporter trying to get a major scoop on the world's most famous writer suddenly disappearing in the midst of a scandalous divorce.  The two actors clearly care about these characters deeply, particularly Redgrave who puts a tenderness around the author that is lacking in the script (which realizes pretty early on that the actual plot, devoid of side characters, is far too thin and so stretches the movie to the point of tedium).  Both are fine actors, but they have zilch chemistry with each other, and cannot seem to connect at all, making their fictional romance exceedingly dull to watch.  The movie at its best shows the mind of Christie, the way that she tries to pick up things from those passing by to create her characters, or the way her plan is never said out loud, so you have to deduce it the same way you would if you were reading her novels.  Unfortunately, these are only short bursts in the film, and the rest is terribly dull.  This isn't really a lost treasure other than in describing its plot; the movie itself is best left forgotten, particularly considering all of the truly great work Hoffman and Redgrave did in the late 1970's.

The movie's Oscar nomination was for Best Costume Design, and while it's easy to see why the Oscars honored it (and a nice nod to Shirley Ann Russell, who had been doing showy work for a decade at that point and never been cited by AMPAS), there's nothing special here.  The suits are fine, but nothing memorable, and the dresses worn by Redgrave aren't particularly insightful.  Yes, she wears frocks and furs as if she's covering up something, but that's about the most basic reading one could make into such a character, and quite frankly may be due more to Redgrave than anything else. Otherwise, this is a case of another period film scoring a citation in a year that was oddly bereft of such opportunities.

OVP: Morgan! (1966)

Film: Morgan-A Suitable Case for Treatment (1966)
Stars: David Warner, Vanessa Redgrave, Robert Stephens, Irene Handl
Director: Karel Reisz
Oscar History: 2 nominations (Best Costume Design, Best Actress-Vanessa Redgrave)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 2/5 stars

If there's any period of Film History that makes me feel like a Philistine, it's probably British New Wave.  While I will admit that, say, the 1980's Action-Hero movies aren't really my cup of tea, on paper the quirky movies of the 1950's and 1960's that came out of that lovely island north of France should appeal to me, but they don't.  This is a problem when I am asked to grade a movie of the era, since I start out with a bit of a resentment against the picture and in particular it's weirdly-specific comedy.

(Spoilers Ahead) And I have to admit that I wasn't able to rise above it all with Morgan!, the 1966 double-Oscar nominee.  The film is about a man who is clearly suffering from a nervous breakdown of sorts, or perhaps has always been mentally-unhinged (we see little in the way to counter this argument), and the film continues on with David Warner (yes, the guy from Titanic) as the title character, frequently devolving into flights of delusion (including most memorably a scene involving King Kong), and occasionally skipping into psychotic episodes that today would be played more for pity or fear than for comedy, but this is the 1960's and it's Britain, so it's all a merry lark.

That may be my biggest issue with movies of this era-they are extremely specific to their time-and-place in a way that's not really relatable today.  Admittedly this is true for the movies of Woody Allen, which I generally enjoy, but the reality is that Woody's films are about love at the end of the day, and I can't really say the same for Morgan!, a movie that sort of exists in its own little world without really inviting us into it.  The film starts in such a way as we are in the middle of the throes of a conversation; don't you have friends like that occasionally?  Ones who start a conversation as if they have already been talking for a minute (my grandmother is famous for this)?  This is what appears to be happening at the beginning of Morgan!, and while it's relatively easy to catch-up, the movie frequently does this throughout the film, assuming the audience will get there eventually when in reality it feels like we're getting cinematic whiplash.

The film received two Oscar nominations, neither of which I'd call particularly adventurous.  This was the final year that the Costume category was split between Black & White and Color films, and you can tell the Academy was scrounging to find viable nominees-the category features two foreign-language films, a James Garner movie no one has ever heard of, Morgan!, and the reason that they clung to B&W that year, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (which easily won despite there being relatively few costumes to trumpet in the picture).  This film features occasionally interesting costume-work (the fitted dresses and flapper hats of Vanessa Redgrave, and of course the famed monkey suit), but there's nothing particularly elegant or extraordinary about what's going on in this department, and it feels like this was nominated more out of a dearth of B&W films than for any other reason.

The film also was nominated for Best Actress, and with all due respect to 1966 and its leading ladies, this may also have been because of the lack of contenders.  Everyone on the planet knew that Elizabeth Taylor would be winning for her career-defining work in Virginia Woolf, and that Lynn Redgrave would be in second place for Georgy Girl (always a bridesmaid, Lynn Redgrave), but they clearly had to struggle to fill up the rest of the category, and I suppose Vanessa Redgrave made the most sense for what was clearly the fifth slot (Ida Kaminska and Anouk Aimee, both starring in major foreign films from the year, probably took the bronze and pewter positions).  After all, Redgrave was having a major moment in her career, appearing in a cameo within Best Picture-winner A Man for All Seasons and was in a highly memorable supporting role in the brilliant (one of my absolute favorite movies) Blow-Up.  Plus, there was the added delight of having her compete against her sister for the trophy (we all know how that turned out with the de Havillands), so she made sense, despite being a pretty mundane role by Academy standards, and really not too extraordinary.  Her work here is almost always overshadowed by the showier Warner and while I like the way that she sometimes seems entirely smitten with him (you can see in her work what the script doesn't give you-that she clearly loved this man once, and usually still does) the work itself seems too light and some of the touches (when she delves into madness so quickly from being disgusted with Warner) don't seem in balance with the work.  All-in-all a seemingly throwaway nomination that we wouldn't really dissect further except that Redgrave would go on to become an acting legend (how strange this citation would look in hindsight if she wasn't insanely famous now).  Plus, there wasn't much else to give an award to that year (surely in sixth place was Virginia McKenna in Born Free, someone more known as an activist today than an actor), so no one's probably going to complain too hard here, even if it's probably going to end up at the bottom of the OVP heap.

Those were my thoughts on this trivial curiosity from Oscar's 1960's obsession with British comedy.  What are yours?  Have you seen Morgan!, and if not, what other famed siblings do you wish had competed against each other?  And between Liz, Anouk, Ida, Lynn, and Vanessa, who is your favorite Best Actress of 1966?  Share in the comments!

OVP: Foxcatcher (2014)

Film: Foxcatcher (2014)
Stars: Steve Carell, Channing Tatum, Mark Ruffalo, Vanessa Redgrave, Sienna Miller
Director: Bennett Miller
Oscar History: 5 nominations (Best Actor-Steve Carell, Supporting Actor-Mark Ruffalo, Director, Makeup & Hairstyling, and Original Screenplay)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 2/5 stars

Film reviews are occasionally tricky things.  Occasionally you end up both liking and hating a movie at the same time.  It's not an easy feat to do, but once you start to consider the film a bit (and you should-thinking is good for the soul), your initial reaction to the movie changes a bit, and you end up with a more nuanced look into the motion picture.  That's what happened to me with Foxcatcher, a complicated, but frustrating movie about the relationships between men, money, and lost ambition.

(Spoilers Ahead) I actually was not familiar with this particular story, and so while I usually put some sort of snarky aside when I give a spoiler alert to a true story, the argument for this film is a bit different and I genuinely mean it, since this is not only a true-life story, but one that is a bit of a thriller.  The film follows Olympic gold medalists Mark (Tatum) and David (Ruffalo) Schultz as they enter the bizarre world of John Du Pont (Carell), a ridiculously wealthy man with absolutely no sense of how the real world operates, being part of one of America's wealthiest (and most inbred) families.  John goes about creating a wrestling program at his expansive Foxcatcher Farm, all the while slowly finding ways to manipulate the malleable Mark and finds himself trying to share in the glory of their athletic endeavors.

The film is very atmospheric, and the cinematography by Grieg Fraser is one of the better aspects of the movie.  He does a terrific job of making Foxcatcher seem both wildly large, giving us a sense of the distance that John has from the rest of the world and nearly a prison, which is essentially what it becomes for Mark, who slowly finds himself going mad in the shadow of John, who seems to consistently insist on what he say, how he act, and even who he is.  The film is probably at its best when we are seeing the weird juxtaposition between seemingly endless wealth and how ordinary people push themselves beyond their means in order to continue to gain from a series of enormous checks.

The movie fails, however, when it strays too far from this by trying to cover or skirt around certain issues when they clearly shouldn't.  I feel like there's a giant pink elephant hanging over the movie that felt very distracting when no one dared to even mention it.  It's very clear that Bennett Miller, while not abjectly saying that John Du Pont is gay, is willing to put that as a menacing threat over the film.  There's a film, darkly lit, likely on purpose, where Mark and John are "wrestling" in the dark.  The camera lingers on Channing Tatum's admittedly toned torso whenever it is mirroring John's gaze, and the scene following this late night wrestling match has Tatum with highlighted hair and short shorts, looking very much the part of a cabana boy.  It isn't until others (particularly his brother) come into the picture that Mark starts to realize the lengths he has gone to please his boss, and quite frankly this would have been an interesting movie, but Miller spends WAY too much time trying to hint toward homosexuality without actually saying it.

The movie's central three performances are where it should gain its strength (the script, like with the homosexuality angle, is way too concerned with atmosphere and not enough with credible twists of the plot, and is really only focused on the three main men-Vanessa Redgrave's disapproving mother and Sienna Miller's blank wife have absolutely nothing to do with the movie).  In some ways this works.  Channing Tatum, for starters, is aces as a bulky Adonis with little knowledge about the world and how much people succumb to the power of money.  Unlike Steve Carell, his character actually makes sense to be quiet, introverted, and consistently reliant on others to establish himself.  Ruffalo as his brother acts a bit as an audience surrogate, which makes his death late in the film all-the-more shocking, since he's served as our rational eyes into this bleak and cold world of John Du Pont (though the "KIDS" written on his hand was massive overkill in the department of trying to get the audience to feel for his death).

Steve Carell, though, in my opinion, almost destroys the movie.  I genuinely like Steve Carell, and actually think that he has the grounded nature to be a strong dramatic actor, but he reminded me so much of Felicity Huffman in Transamerica here-letting tics and makeup do what his performance seems incapable of doing.  It's partially the screenplay's fault, but he doesn't help us by making staggered speech and an upturned nose proxy for an actual personality.  This may well have been the way that John Du Pont acted, but Carell's work here should be better, more insightful into the scenes where he is alone.  The fact that Carell is hunting for an Oscar nomination that might otherwise go to someone who is excellent like Jake Gyllenhaal-this is a crime.

And that's probably where I'm going to leave this, though I suspect that there will be more to come in the ensuing weeks about this picture.  What were your thoughts on Foxcatcher, yet another cold chapter in Bennett Miller's "Murderers" collection?  Do you think Carell or Ruffalo will score with Oscar?  Do you think they deserve to?  Share your thoughts in the comments!

Oscar Trivia: The Quest for Six Decades

An Oscar nomination is a truly amazing moment in an actor's career.  For many, it's the moment they have dreamt of all of their lives-the culmination of years of work, determination, and a little bit of luck when just the right fates align and nab them their career high point.

And for most Oscar nominees, that's it.  If I remember my statistics right, it's about 65% of all Oscar nominees for acting will only get that one nomination, that one moment in the sun that will be in the first two lines of their obituary.  And that's great-we'll get to all of you in the OVP (or we've already gotten to you, in which case don't get greedy).

But for other actors, that one Oscar nomination is hardly enough, and they want more.  Some of these actors enjoy quick bursts of nominations like Renee Zellweger or Russell Crowe, but we're going to focus today on people who have managed to sustain decades of Oscar stamina.

It's actually extremely rare to be able to be nominated at least one time in four different decades, and even rarer to pull it off consecutively.  Since we're about to hit the decade's halfway point (can you believe that?!?), this is the perfect time to see who is on-track to continue their streaks and who might be in trouble.

Before we start, let's go through the people who have passed on and are no longer in the running but hit 4 or 5 decades (as the title alludes to, no one has hit six...and yes, this is a trivia article so if I missed an actor, share in the comments below).

Five Decades in a Row: Laurence Olivier (1930's-70's)
Five Decades Non-Consecutively: Katharine Hepburn (1930's-1980's, no 70's), Paul Newman (1950's-00's, no 70's as well)
Four Decades in a Row: Bette Davis (1930's-60's), Jack Lemmon (1950-80's), Geraldine Page (1950's-80's),
Four Decades Non-Consecutively: Mickey Rooney (1930's-70's, no 60's), Peter O'Toole (1960's-00's, no 90's)...both of whom never won competitive Oscars though they both won Honorary ones

Again, it's a short list, and one that has gotten considerably longer as the stars of the 1960's have stuck around further than was typical with stars of yore.  We'll start out with those actors that are still living and have already hit three decades.

Waiting for the Fourth...

Of the thirteen living actors who have been nominated in three separate decades for acting awards (and for the record, the year the film came out is the beginning of the decade-none of this "Google Search Driving Miss Daisy won the 1990 Oscars" crap), some actually have to wait a few more years before they can try again as their third nomination came in the 2010's and they can't get another decade under their belt for a few more years.  Most of these actors did this in the 1990's, 2000's, and 2010's: Brad Pitt, Judi Dench, Cate Blanchett, and Annette Bening all have nominations in each of the past three decades (it's worth noting that Bening is the only one of these four actors who doesn't have an Oscar, and is one of only two actors who have hit more than three that is still alive without an Oscar-I'm just saying AMPAS, but keep that in mind in a few years when you're handing out Honoraries and Bening is still empty-handed).  The only non-consecutive actor who has scored this decade would be Sally Field, who took a 28-year gap between her second and third nods, and did this oddly with only three nominations (Lincoln, her most recent nod, is her only loss to date).  And though it's hardly worth listing all of the actors who have two decades behind them, at least a trio of theoretical threats this year (Julianne Moore, Hilary Swank, and Marisa Tomei) could potentially join this list.

There are eight other actors, however, who could well reach their fourth decade citation in upcoming years.  Most promising of the bunch would be Robert Duvall, who is actually on most people's projections for a nomination later this year with The Judge (though Duvall has come extremely close to grabbing a nomination before with Get Low in 2010 and came up short so he may miss again).  Duvall is in the majority in not having consecutive decades: he's joined by Jodie Foster (who hasn't been nominated in twenty years), Sissy Spacek (who skipped the 90's), Ellen Burstyn (who also skipped the 90's), and Al Pacino (who skipped the Aughts).  All of these actors work fairly consistently, though Burstyn is more about television these days and Pacino is more about cashing in on his once grand legacy as an actor.  Still, though, if Robert de Niro can randomly get nominated for Silver Linings Playbook, anyone can come out of awards show retirement.

Only three actors are working on the slightly more impressive four consecutive decades: Ben Kingsley, Morgan Freeman, and Holly Hunter.  Freeman and Kingsley work consistently and constantly, and Kingsley in particular is the sort of actor who gets nominated every time there's something prestigious about his work (he also has that feel of an actor who may score one last supporting win to get two trophies).  Hunter has long since been relegated to television (she got her third-in-a-row for a supporting role in Thirteen in something of a comeback, and you only get so many of those).  Still, these are actors to be on the lookout for in coming years to see if they can continue their respective streaks.

Waiting for a Fifth...

Once again, we can start out with five actors who have already scored their 2010's hit and are now just biding their time until they can try again.  Two of these actors have done five decades (shockingly) non-consecutively (which means they very well could have been in the running for six if they'd had a little more luck in a certain year).  Jeff Bridges skipped the 1990's (missing for The Fisher King) and Robert de Niro missed the Aughts (probably getting closest for Meet the Parents...though admittedly not too close).  The other three actors, though, have hit every decade since the 1980's consecutively: Julia Roberts, Denzel Washington, and Daniel Day-Lewis (all, oddly enough, nominated in 1989), and have already gotten this decade crossed off.  Day-Lewis has notably won in three of those four decades.

Another twelve actors have scored four decades and are on the search for a fifth.  They range from actors who are constantly churning out films to actors who have largely retired from the cinema but are thankfully still kicking.  Though many of these actors scored their nominations consecutively, only one of the dozen is currently on a streak: that would be Diane Keaton, who has scored a nomination every decade since the 1970's (and only one nomination per decade, it's worth pointing out).  Keaton rarely challenges herself since Something's Gotta Give, but she's the sort of actor who bides her time until something brilliant randomly comes along and everyone remembers how much they love her.

Other working actors that could make it include busy actors such as Jon Voight (who skipped the 1990's despite constantly making movies since his big break in Midnight Cowboy), Shirley MacLaine (who, had she scored for Postcards from the Edge as she was expected to, would be a column down), Vanessa Redgrave (her botched campaigns for Atonement and Coriolanus actually mean that she could well have had the record by now!), Dustin Hoffman (who continues to make enough films often enough that he should be able to pull this off in a surprise supporting role, despite missing the Aughts), and of course Dame Maggie Smith (who skipped the 1990's, but came roaring back in the past ten years as a genuine box office draw and nearly won a citation for The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel a couple of years ago).  The only one with a legit shot this year appears to be Smith, who has what could be a sleeper hit later this fall in My Old Lady (in a weak Best Actress year her name could be enough, and she's my dark horse contender for a nomination).

Other actors who are looking for a fifth don't work as often or are notoriously curmudgeonly about working again.  Joanne Woodward (not nominated since 1990, but extending all the way back to the 1950's with her streak, the earliest nomination for a living person in this article) rarely works anymore, and Gene Hackman (who missed for The Royal Tenenbaums due to category confusion, costing him his fifth consecutive citation) is happily retired.  Albert Finney (who missed the 1990's) hates the Oscars and only does bit parts these days, though he's the other actor (aside from Bening) who is living and has hit the 3+ decade counter, so he'd also be a decent contender for an Honorary Award (that he'd never show up for it in a million years).  Warren Beatty keeps claiming that he'll make another movie (that long-rumored Howard Hughes biopic is the stuff of cinematic legend), but I'll believe it when I can hold a ticket for the film (my plan is to see it as a double feature with Flora Plum)-he missed the Aughts but made it back to the 1960's with Bonnie and Clyde.  And finally there is Julie Christie, who has resumed working if not necessarily in major cinematic work.  She skipped the 1980's and bizarrely has only received one nomination in each decade she's been cited in (much like Keaton).

Waiting for a Sixth...

As the stats above corroborate, getting a sixth is damn hard work, as there's a reason no one has done it.  Kate Hepburn probably could have had she done more significant film work in the 1970's, but she spent most of that time on the stage, and she's probably the only one who has come close until now.  Three living actors have pulled off five decades in a row, and one in particular seems determined to break yet another of Hepburn's records (not settling for a tie).

Meryl Streep is the only actor who has managed to pull off a 2010 nomination already and have five in a row.  Streep, it's worth noting, is also the only actor to have more than one nomination in five different decades (Olivier getting Rebecca made a year too late), a record that may stand for infinity (of all of the living actors we've profiled, Robert Duvall is the only other actor who has gotten more than two in each of his eligible decades, and he's twenty years behind Streep and is 83-years-old).  Streep will need to continue her current stamina to hit the goal, but at this rate she could well take it in the 2020's (she'll only be in her seventies).

That is if one of the two other living actors don't go for the title first.  Both have received consecutive nominations since the 1960's, and at least one is still working.  Michael Caine, an actor you don't always think of for such lists, got his first nomination in 1966, then got cited in 1972, 1983, 1986, 1999, and 2002, and despite being 81, continues to work constantly (he'll be in the highly-anticipated Interstellar later this year) and has made no secret about his desire to win a third Oscar for a leading role.  Just one nomination would land him the record, and put Streep in a difficult position-2030 is a long way to go to actually beat this title outright.

The other person is the recently retired Jack Nicholson, who made his last film four years ago and claims he is done with cinema.  I don't want to call Jack a liar, but part of me wonders if his best friend Warren Beatty couldn't talk him out of that self-imposed exile to do a showy supporting role in that long-gestating Hughes biopic (surely Beatty's final film?) and get one last nomination.  Either way, it's hard to deny he's had a spectacular career.

And there you have it folks-a morning's dose of Oscar trivia.  Do you think that Streep, Caine, or Nicholson could take the record?  Who will be the next person to score four or five decades' worth of nominations?  Share in the comments!

Who Doesn't Have an Oscar?

With Piero Tosi’s recent Honorary Oscar, it got me thinking about a certain record no one at the Oscars probably wants (though from the outside-in, it’s probably still better than nothing): most Academy Award nominations without a win.  Tosi is currently the living person with the most Costume Design award nominations without actually winning a competitive Oscar.  I thought it would be fun to check in with the living people with the most nominations without a win and see what the odds are that they’ll ever win a competitive Oscar.

(Notes: These totals are from Wikipedia, which is sometimes as reliable as a Republican Tea Party congressman, so if you notice any mistakes, I won’t be offended-share in the comments and I’ll correct and give you credit!  Also, unless otherwise noted, this is the record most nominations for a living person, not just in general)

Best Picture

Most Nominated Without a Win: Kathleen Kennedy

How Many Nominations? Eight

Does She Hold the All-Time Loss Record in the Category? Yes, and she’s tied as the most nominated producer, period.

Most Recent Nomination: Lincoln, in 2012

Best Shot at Winning: Hard to say.  She’s arguably in second place at least twice, potentially three times (for E.T., The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and arguably for Lincoln). 

Will She Ever Win? If Steven Spielberg ever wins Best Picture again she’s certain to take it.  Either way she’ll receive the Thalberg at some point.

Best Director

Most Nominated Without a Win: Peter Weir

How Many Nominations? Four

Does She Hold the All-Time Loss Record in the Category? No-Robert Altman, Clarence Brown, Alfred Hitchcock, and King Vidor all outdo him with five apiece.

Most Recent Nomination: Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, in 2003

Best Shot at Winning: I honestly don’t feel like he was ever truly close.  His best shot was probably in a different category (he’s been nominated for screenwriting and producing as well, but never won in any category)-1990’s Original Screenplay.  If I had to pick one, I’d say Witness in 1985, where he was possibly second and third at the worst.

Will She Ever Win? Doubtful-he’s only been on Oscar’s radar once in the past ten years (a Makeup nod for The Way Back) and as he’ll soon be in his seventies, he seems to be in the twilight of his career.

Best Actor

Most Nominated Without a Win: Peter O’Toole

How Many Nominations? Eight

Does He Hold the All-Time Loss Record in the Category? Yes

Most Recent Nomination: Venus, in 2006

Best Shot at Winning: O’Toole got put in one of those rare circumstances in 1962 where he would have won in almost any other year but Gregory Peck managed to take the trophy for To Kill a Mockingbird.  It’s very possible that he was in second place for The Lion in Winter in 1968 (I get the sense that Cliff Robertson won a close race over O’Toole and Alan Bates).  O'Toole also was nominated for The Stunt Man and My Favorite Year in the early eighties, and may have been in second or third place those years, but I doubt he could have overtaken Robert de Niro or Ben Kingsley.

Will He Ever Win? Though he does have an Oscar (an Honorary one in 2003, and O’Toole correctly protested that his career wasn’t over yet since he got another nomination three years later), he’s retired so the competitive trophy is off the table at this point.

Best Actress

Most Nominated Without a Win: Judi Dench, Marsha Mason, and Vanessa Redgrave all tie

How Many Nominations? Four

Does She Hold the All-Time Loss Record in the Category? No-Deborah Kerr had six before she died.

Most Recent Nomination: For Dench it was 2006’s Notes on a Scandal, for Mason it was 1981’s Only When I Laugh, and for Redgrave it was 1984’s The Bostonians

Best Shot at Winning: Dench surely came the closest in 1997’s Mrs. Brown, where she won the Drama Golden Globe and was in a close race with Helen Hunt (her film’s Best Picture nomination surely helped her across the finish line).  Mason won Globes for her 1973 and 1977 nominations (Cinderella Liberty and The Goodbye Girl, respectively), though I suspect the strangeness of the 1973 field probably made her closest that year.  Redgrave has never really been close to winning-all four of her years she would have been lucky to have gotten third place. 

Will They Ever Win? To be fair, Redgrave and Dench both have Supporting Actress Oscars, which surely helps the sting here.  Of the three, though, Dench is the only one who still works in the “right” kind of pictures to get nominated or win again, and may well break the tie with this year’s Philomena.

Best Supporting Actor

Most Nominated Without a Win: Jeff Bridges, Robert Duvall, Ed Harris, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Al Pacino

How Many Nominations? Three

Does He Hold the All-Time Loss Record in the Category? No-Claude Rains and Arthur Kennedy both have four a pop.

Most Recent Nomination: This is a laundry list, but they are: 2000’s The Contender (Bridges), 1998’s A Civil Action (Duvall), 2002’s The Hours (Harris), 2012’s The Master (Hoffman), and 1992’s Glengarry Glen Ross (Pacino)

Best Shot at Winning: I don’t feel like any of Bridges’ nominations came close to winning-all three had fairly well-established frontrunners.  Harris was considered the frontrunner by many in 1995 and 1998 for Apollo 13 and The Truman Show, respectively.  Duvall was surely in the conversation for Apocalypse Now! (though Melvyn Douglas had a solid lead that year) and was second to Harris from predictions in 1998 (James Coburn's surprise win was one of the biggest upsets of that decade).  Hoffman was in second place in 2008 for Doubt and probably was in the running for last year’s The Master.  And finally Pacino was surely in second place for his lead work in The Godfather, which was put in supporting to ensure Brando had a clear path to victory (and we all saw how that turned out).

Will They Ever Win? All but Harris have won an Oscar in the leading categories, and while I do feel Hoffman will get a second trophy at some point, I just don’t feel the same way about Harris.  He still works regularly and won great praise for Game Change, but he doesn’t campaign, which hurts when you want an old-age honor.

Best Supporting Actress

Most Nominated Without a Win: Amy Adams

How Many Nominations? Four

Does She Hold the All-Time Loss Record in the Category? No-Thelma Ritter does with six (she’s also the most nominated period in the category)

Most Recent Nomination: 2012’s The Master

Best Shot at Winning: I once made the comment that Amy Adams was likely in fourth place in all four of her Oscar-nominated years, and I stand by that assessment.  The tightest race was probably 2010’s The Fighter, but fourth place is not close to winning. 

Will She Ever Win? She’s got a good shot this year, but in Best Actress.  The Academy clearly adores her, but if she can’t stick the landing in a few years, she’s going to be in tough shape.

Best Original Screenplay

Most Nominated Without a Win: Mike Leigh

How Many Nominations? Five

Does He Hold the All-Time Loss Record in the Category? No-Federico Fellini won six nominations but no trophies

Most Recent Nomination: 2010’s Another Year

Best Shot at Winning: Secrets & Lies (1996) resulted in Leigh getting a Best Director nomination (one of only two in his career) and had it not been for the Coen Brothers’ Fargo, he surely would have won.

Will He Ever Win? Doubtful.  Leigh’s approach with screenplays is largely toward having his actors improvise, which can’t sit well with the writers’ branch.  But the Academy surely likes his films, so he could very well overtake Fellini’s record and has an outside shot at an Honorary Award at some point.

Best Foreign Film

Most Nominated Without a Win: Israel

How Many Nominations? Ten

Does It Hold the All-Time Loss Record in the Category? Yes

Most Recent Nomination: 2011’s Footnote

Best Shot at Winning: No idea-trying to predict the winner in this category is generally impossible-the also-rans would be a fool’s errand.

Will It Ever Win? Certainly-Israeli cinema is on the rise (four of these nominations came in the past six years), and will likely win pretty soon.

Best Cinematography

Most Nominated Without a Win: Roger Deakins

How Many Nominations? Ten

Does He Hold the All-Time Loss Record in the Category? No-George Folsey hit thirteen without a win.

Most Recent Nomination: Last year’s Skyfall

Best Shot at Winning: 2007-he received two nominations for Best Cinematography that year, and had to be a close second to Robert Elswit’s There Will Be Blood (Deakins did the Best Picture-winning No Country for Old Men).

Will He Ever Win? I’m starting to lean toward no.  He’s not terribly old (he’s 64) and works regularly (he’s had three nominations in the past five years, and has a decent shot at an eleventh this year for Prisoners), but he doesn’t lens a lot of visual effects-laden films, which seems to be the trend of this category.  He’s a genius though (I’ve given him two OVP awards already) and could be a great candidate for an Honorary Award.

Best Costume Design

Most Nominated Without a Win: Piero Tosi and Patricia Norris both tie

How Many Nominations? Five

Does He Hold the All-Time Loss Record in the Category? Yes, though the late Howard Shoup also has five.

Most Recent Nomination: Neither work frequently anymore.  Norris’s last one was 1988’s Sunset (I’d never heard of it either) and Tosi’s was 1982’s La traviata.

Best Shot at Winning: I honestly don’t feel like Tosi ever really came close, though it’s hard to say whether his earlier foreign language films had a higher rate of people seeing them (foreign films being more readily honored by the Academy in those days).  I’m going to assume that both came the closest  in 1982, when Gandhi inexplicably won this category.

Will They Ever Win? Tosi is winning an Honorary Award this year, and while Norris probably deserves to be mentioned for one as well, I doubt she’ll take it (it’ll be a while before they pick another costume designer, and she’s 82).

Best Original Score

Most Nominated Without a Win: Thomas Newman

How Many Nominations? Ten

Does He Hold the All-Time Loss Record in the Category? No-Alex North has it with fourteen nominations before his death.

Best Shot at Winning: My gut says that 1999’s American Beauty is probably the closest he came.  The Red Violin from that year was something of a surprise, and if I recall correctly, Newman was the frontrunner to beat it.

Will He Ever Win? Yes.  Newman has had an incredible bad luck streak, but he’s so regularly nominated in a field that favors default nominees that loves to re-nominate and is only 57, so he’ll time will come.  I wouldn’t be stunned if he made it an eleventh nomination in this category with the upcoming Saving Mr. Banks, for starters.

Best Sound Mixing

Most Nominated Without a Win: Kevin O’Connell

How Many Nominations? Twenty (that is not a typo)

Does He Hold the All-Time Loss Record in the Category? Yes-he’s also the most nominated person in Academy history to never win an Oscar.

Best Shot at Winning: For all the fanfare about O’Connell’s many, many snubs (it’s ridiculous), he hasn’t been close to winning very often.  I’d say he was within striking distance for 1983’s Terms of Endearment, 1996’s Twister, and 2007’s Transformers, but that’s probably it.

Will He Ever Win? Possibly, though he hasn’t gotten one in a while by his standards (for some reason he dropped out of the Transformers franchise, otherwise he’d be at 22 losses), and he typically makes the sort of films that get you nominated but don’t let you win.  He still works like crazy, though, so it could happen.  If nothing else, this is a clear case of AMPAS owing the man an Honorary Oscar.

And those are it for now.  If anyone knows who the Film Editing, Adapted Screenplay, Original Song, Art Direction, Sound Editing, Visual Effects, and Makeup leaders are let me know and I’ll add them to the list (I couldn’t find them).  And what are your thoughts-do you think any of these men or women will end their losing streaks (or at least continue them to break the all-time records?)  Share your thoughts on when they should have won, if they’ll win, or why they shouldn’t have this many nominations to begin with in the comments!

The 25 Most Quotable Quotes of 2007

Here they are, after careful consideration (and probably more work than I intended), I have assembled the 25 Best Quotes of 2007:

25. "I can't tell dreams from truth." -Marketa Irglova, speaking what we all feel, in Once

24. “Spider-Pig, Spider-Pig. / Does whatever a Spider-Pig does. / Can he swing / from a web? / No he *can't*, / He's a pig. / Look out! / He is the Spider-Pig!” -Homer Simpson with America's newest icon in The Simpsons Movie

23. "“Yep. I'm very passionate about Italian food. In fact, um, I'm in love with Italian food.” -Jim Halpert, making a metaphor of his love for Pam, on The Office

22. "“Over the last week, I have listened to you, and in the process I found my own voice.” -Hillary Rodham Clinton, getting her groove back in The Granite State

21. "“I can't keep doing this on my own with these... people.” -Daniel Day-Lewis, losing his humanity in There Will Be Blood

20. "“My point is...a penis when seen in the right context is the most wonderful sight for a woman. But when seen in the wrong context it's like a monster movie.” -Michael Scott, appreciating women, in The Office

19. "“My money is on a Freudian pizza.” -My best friend, trying to explain why I always have weird dreams

18. "“When someone gives you odds like 10,000 to 1, you take it. If John Mellencamp ever wins an Oscar, I'm gonna be a very rich dude.” -Kevin Malone, describing one of the vortexes of my personal hell, in The Office

17. "“I gave them their happiness.” -Vanessa Redgrave, making our jaws drop, in Atonement

16. "It's not enough you love blow and I love puff." -Amy Winehouse, crooning a drug reference I don't understand, in "Back to Black"

15. "Because deep down, you know you deserve to be punished, don't you Mr. Potter?" -Imelda Staunton, finding the devil wears pink chiffon, in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

14. “Hello, I'm Tom Hanks. The US Government has lost its credibility so it's borrowing some of mine.” -Tom Hanks, brilliantly lampooning on at least five different levels, in The Simpsons Movie

13. “I love you. I'll wait for you. Come back. Come back to me.” -Keira Knightley, making us swoon, in Atonement

12. "What's the most you ever lost on a coin toss?” -Javier Bardem, making us bite our lips, in No Country for Old Men

11. “You’re not making the rules, you used to when you did this, you don’t do this anymore, elections have consequences.” -Barbara Boxer knocking out Jim Inhofe as the CHAIR of the Environment and Public Works Committee

10. “Just imagine the fan fiction.” -J.K. Rowling, outing Albus Dumbledore

9. “I'm not suprised. Pam is the office mattress.” -Angela Martin, spouting her always hilarious hypocrisy, on The Office

8. “I saw “Wedding Crashers” accidentally. I bought a ticket for “Grizzly Man” and went into the wrong theater. After an hour, I figured I was in the wrong theater, but I kept waiting. Cause that’s the thing about bear attacks…they come when you least expect it.” -Dwight Schrute, sharing his wisdom, on The Office

7. “Could you double-check the envelope?” -Martin Scorsese, finally winning his Oscar

6. “Once I'm officially regional manager, my first order of business will be to demote Jim Halpert. So I will need a new number two. My ideal choice? Jack Bauer. But he is unavailable. Fictional. And overqualified.” -Dwight Schrute, describing his perfect Assistant to the Regional Manager, on The Office

5. “She’s Alexis, big as Texas, she knows what it’s like to be both sexes.” -Kenny, rapping rhapsodic, about his boss, in Ugly Betty

4. “We only said goodbye with words.” -Amy Winehouse, shedding her sorrow in song, in "Back to Black"

3. "“And my straw reaches across the room and starts to drink your milkshake, I drink your milkshake! I drink it up!” -Daniel Day-Lewis, finally falling over the edge, in There Will Be Blood

2. "You can't stop what's coming.” -No Country for Old Men giving Tommy Lee Jones (and all of us), a universal truth.

1. “The scar had not pained Harry for nineteen years. All was well.” -J.K. Rowling, closing the door, in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows