Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 298: The Lynch Mob

The name of director David Lynch is certainly synonymous with surreal films that have bizarre plots and often don't make a lot of sense. As a result Lynch's films don't really feature heavily at any of the Oscar ceremonies and he's only ever had one film which made it on to the Best Picture nominee list. The film in question, and Lynch's second feature, is The Elephant Man which is based on two biographies chronicling the story of John Merrick. The deformed Merrick is initially seen in a Victorian Freak Show where he's rescued by Frederick Treves, a surgeon at the London Hospital. Treves believes that Merrick's treatment is the reason that he's treated like a freak and attempts to get him to talk. Treves' colleagues at the hospital are initially sceptical of his treatment of Merrick with many feeling that he's brought him in as a patient simply to further his own career. But, when Merrick is finally able to speak of his own volition, the hospital's governor decides to allow Treves to continue to treat 'The Elephant Man' at the London. Soon publicity for Merrick grows and respected actress Madge Kendal comes to visit him partly out of curiosity. The kindly but stern hospital matron Mrs Mothershead believes that Merrick is still being treated like a fairground attraction even if Treves thinks otherwise. Meanwhile the hospital's night porter begins to profit out of Merrick's presence at the institution as he takes money for people to come and stare at the Elephant Man. During one of these trips Merrick's former owner, brutish freak show proprietor Bytes, kidnaps him and smuggles him to Europe. In the end it's up to his fellow freaks to show that they are in fact the only people to show some sort of compassion. The film ends with one of Lynch's trademark surreal sequences as Merrick is coaxed from this world into the next by his loving mother.

There's no denying that The Elephant Man is a fantastic film. Freddie Francis' black and white photography really adds to the legitimacy of the story and the period setting. Lynch builds up perfectly to the first unveiling of John Merrick and therefore his deformity is all the more shocking. The make-up department deserves credit for their work on making John Hurt completely indistinguishable and it's a shame that the film was released a year before the make-up Oscar was reintroduced. Hurt himself puts in a fabulous performance as we see Merrick go from hopeless freak show act to well-respected member of society. Anthony Hopkins is equally strong as Treves and he essentially has to play the straight man against all of the wonderfully colourful supporting characters. Chief among these characters is Bytes, played with rigour by Freddie Jones, who is a perfect villain as is Michael Elphick's sinister night porter. Now appearing in her sixth decade on the list, Wendy Hiller puts in a memorable term as Matron Mothershead whilst Anne Bancroft is well-utilised as Madge Kendal. It was interesting for me to see a few familiar faces with smaller roles whether it be Pauline Quirke in a blink-or-you'll-miss-it turn or Dexter Fletcher a Bytes' young assistant. The script, co-written by Lynch, looks at human nature and in particular if Merrick or those that profit from him are in fact the real freaks. Despite all these positives, I couldn't really ever connect with The Elephant Man on a personal level and therefore I found myself emotionally detached from it for the most part. Whilst I found Hurt's performance as Merrick sympathetic I never truly care about his fate and instead simply appreciated the film as a whole. Ultimately I would say that The Elephant Man was definitely a film that I felt was well-made but not one that I was ever entertained by.

Next time we take our final look at a featured star from the 1970s who starred in two Best Picture nominees during the 1980s.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Days 221-222: A Couple of Herbert's

In the days of five films being nominated for Best Picture, it was quite a rarity for two works by the same director to pop up in the category. One year where this did happen was 1978 where Herbert Ross' films The Goodbye Girl and The Turning Point were both nominated for Best Picture. Ross started off on the stage as both an actor and choreographer and these influences play into both of these films. As these films were nominated in the same year, I decided to tackle them alphabetically but chronologically they are in the reverse order so read the following post whichever you want.

I start with The Goodbye Girl, which was scripted by Neil Simon, a writer who Ross had previously worked with several times. The story concerns dancer and single mother Paula McFadden who is about to leave her New York apartment in order to join her married lover Tony in L.A. However, her plans are dashed when Tony changes his plans and Paula, along with her daughter Lucy, are stuck in an apartment which has already been subletted to Elliot - an actor friend of Tony's. Despite paying for the whole apartment, Elliot lets Paula and Lucy stay though they struggle to cope with his quirky behaviour. While Paula attempts to revive her dancing career, Elliot is cast in a production of Richard III however his director's vision for the character is vastly different from Elliot's. Predictably, Elliot and Paula become close as he becomes attached to Lucy, though she's less than happy to see her mother start another potentially disastrous relationship.

The Goodbye Girl is an interesting film and I personally feel that it influenced a lot of the romantic comedies that are released today. However, unlike most of those films, The Goodbye Girl is both romantic and funny though it does drag in some places. The film's main strength is definitely Richard Dreyfuss' performance who, as Elliot, really capitalises on his ability to use physical comedy. Dreyfuss' turn in the film rightfully won him a Best Actor prize and he became the youngest man to win the accolade until 2002. Neil Simon keeps the action ticking along nicely with both Elliot and Paula experiencing the highs and lows of being a performer in New York. Marsha Mason, who was nominated for Best Actress, plays her part well though did make it hard for me to like Paula at times. Though I feel her and Dreyfuss really played their scenes together well and made me believe in the burgeoning relationship. Watching in 2013, I found some of the set pieces incredibly cheesy; most notably Elliot attempting to have a chat with Lucy by hiring a horse-drawn carriage but I think at the time these would've been seen as a lot more adorable. Talking of adorable, I didn't really warm to Quinn Cummings as Lucy but I do find it hard to like a lot of child performers especially when the character in question acts like an adult. Ultimately The Goodbye Girl is an easy-to-watch film which didn't set my world alight but was charming and witty enough to fill up two hours of my time.

While there were some allusions made to how tough the world of ballet was in The Goodbye Girl, The Turning Point makes that point its key theme. The Turning Point stars Shirley MacLaine, as DeeDee a former professional dancer who left the ballet behind to raise a family with fellow dancer Wayne. The pair now co-own a studio together in Oklahoma and are delighted when their old friends from the American Ballet Company come to town. DeeDee is also reunited with her old friend Emma, who has stayed with the company and become one of the most renowned dancers in the country. Their reunion stirs up memories for both as DeeDee feels that Emma convinced her to have a family because she was a better dancer while Emma disagrees. Meanwhile, Emma encourages DeeDee's elder daughter Emilia to become a dancer herself and she joins the company and is paired with Russian dancer Yuri. Yuri and Emilia begin an affair however she later starts to get upset when she realises that he sleeps with other girls as well as her. DeeDee also embarks on an affair with an old friend, which angers Emilia who feels that her mother and father should remain faithful to one another. At the end of the film stars are made and others end their career but the ballet is always the most important thing to the majority of the characters.

Indeed, the ballet sequences are possibly the most memorable element of The Turning Point as Ross uses them to narrate his story. As someone whose personally not a big fan of the ballet, I felt these segments went a bit long but were necessary for the story to progress. I felt the film was at its strongest when either Emma or DeeDee were on screen as it's always a joy to see Anne Bancroft and Shirley MacLaine in a film. Both were nominated for Best Actress and both nominations were more than deserved. MacLaine excelled at playing a woman who was unsure of her place in the world and regretted a lot of the decisions she'd made. Meanwhile Bancroft was great as the fading star, unsure of where her life would take her next and unable to cope with the changing face of her industry. Professional dancer Leslie Browne proved to be a fairly captivating presence as Emilia, an innocent who was thrust into the harsh world of dance and struggled to cope. Though Browne deserved her Best Supporting Actress nod, I don't think Mikhail Baryshnikov really deserved his nomination for Supporing Actor. Indeed, I feel Baryshnikov was nominated more for his outstanding dance skills than he was for his acting, which left a lot to be desired. The Turning Point was a stronger visual spectacle than The Goodbye Girl and therefore it was given a lot more nominations. In fact it holds the records for the film with the most nominations, including a director nod for Ross, without winning a single award. However, I feel that The Goodbye Girl had more heart and kept my attention while the extended ballet scenes in The Turning Point ruined the pace a little.

Overall I feel Ross is an under-rated director who really gets the best out of his actors and I'm really not sure why he's not a name that's as remembered as some other directors who were big in the 1970s. Next time I'll continue to look at another body of work this time by an actor who has amassed an impressive twelve acting nominations at the awards.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 205: Top of the Class

As I've noted throughout my journey round the 1960s Oscar nominees, it seems that this decade was a time of great change within the industry. Though the same colourful epics were being made, there appeared to be a move to more character-based stories which employed innovative camera techniques. I would say that a film that definitely fell into the latter category was The Graduate, which was nominated for the Best Picture prize at the 1968 ceremony. The film has a very basic story as it follows Benjamin Braddock's return to his LA home following his graduation from a college on the East Coast. It sees him attempting to decide what to do with the rest of his life while beginning an affair with the much older, married Mrs Robinson, a friend of his parents. As the affair continues, Ben realises that he and the unhappy Mrs Robinson have very little in common and she's later appalled when he's forced into a date with her daughter Elaine. Benjamin initially attempts to sabotage the date, but later bonds with Elaine and falls in love with her. When Mrs Robinson finds out about their growing relationship, she threatens to tell Elaine everything but Benjamin gets there first. The rest of the film sees Benjamin trying to win Elaine back against the wishes of both her parents and the new man in her life.

From the opening sequence, in which the camera tracks Benjamin as he journeys through the airport, I fell in love with The Graduate. It's a film that it's incredibly hard not to like as it combines a simple story with a number of complex characters and plenty of visual flair. There are so many scenes that I love so I won't name them all, but one that sticks in my mind is Ben jumping into his parents' pool wearing a diving helmet. This scene is so great as we watch everything from Ben's point of view, so the sound is muted and all we see are the expressions on the other characters' faces. Obviously the final ten minutes is particularly iconic and has often been copied but never bettered. The film more than benefits from the score by Simon and Garfunkel with both 'The Sound of Silence' and 'Mrs Robinson' going onto become massive hits for the group. The Graduate was the first film to put Dustin Hoffman on the map and even though he was playing a much younger character, he was 30 at the time, he was still utterly believable. Hoffman perfectly exemplifies Benjamin's nervous energy and you never really tire of watching him even though he's in every single scene. Meanwhile Anne Bancroft was perfectly cast as the cold, calculating Mrs Robinson who was only interested in bedding a younger man to break up her monotonous life. I also though Katharine Ross put in a great turn as Elaine, who was a lot more open and was everything her mother wasn't. Buck Henry and Calder Willingham's script was just superb as it jumped from comedy to tragedy with great ease. Unfortunately The Graduate was nominated for the Oscar in a fairly strong year so didn't win the top prize, however Mike Nichols did take home the Best Director trophy which in my eyes makes it the second best film of that year.