Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Days 375-376: Duelling Pianos

Welcome back to the 21st Century guys and, at least for the time being, this is where I'll be staying as I get closer to completing my quest. However, as the next four films from the decade are all biopics of sorts, I'll be shooting around various time periods. We start with two films that focus on real life pianists albeit two men who have very little else in common.

First up we have The Pianist; a film based on the memoirs of Polish composer and pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman. The film is a blow-by-blow account of what happened to the Jewish Szpilman during the Second World War as he attempted to survive as Warsaw crumbled around him. The interesting thing about Szpilman is he is never presented as any type of hero but instead as somebody who is simply trying to survive the extraordinary circumstances he's found himself in. Although early on he does his best to try and save his family, once he's separated from them he's essentially concerned about himself. The other interesting thing about the character is that his survival often comes from the help of non-Jews including a friendly couple and a man who married the woman who Szpilman once loved. In the film's latter scenes, Szpilman's survival is aided by a German officer whose sole reason for helping him is to hear his music. Indeed, music is one of The Pianist's main attributes and we can see Szpilman's pain as he's forced to keep quite while in a room with a piano. Although it's a film set during wartime, I don't think The Pianist can really be described as a war film and instead it sees the devastation of Poland from Szpilman's eyes. Screenwriter Ronald Harwood cleverly punctuates scenes of actions with quieter moments that simply focus on Szpilman's deterioration. We follow him as he tries to get over his jaundice and his struggles to find food and water in the film's final scenes. The Pianist's main triumph is in presenting a sympathetic character who is necessarily a heroic man but is someone who's pain the audience can identify with.

It's no surprise that Adrien Brody won the Best Actor prize for his performance as Szpilman as he completely commands the screen throughout. Brody has the mannerisms of a silent film star which helps in the latter half of the film where there is very little dialogue. Brody helps the audience understand Szpilman's feelings as he slumps about the deserted streets of Warsaw clutching a jar of pickles in his hands. I felt Brody was absolutely captivating at playing both the charming musician in the film's early moments and the shell of a man in the film's latter scenes. Brody was aided by director Roman Polanski who made the town of Warsaw as big a character as Szpilman. I found some of The Pianist's images truly shocking as Szpilman was horrified by the dead bodies strewn across the streets and later surveyed the hollowed out buildings which were once occupied by happy families. In my opinion Pawel Edelman deserved an Oscar for his superb cinematography which at times made The Pianist feel like a documentary. Thankfully Polanski was awarded with a Best Director honour for helming a truly memorable piece of cinema which has as much to say about the holocaust as Schindler's List. If there's one criticism I have of The Pianist it's that I didn't feel as strong an emotional connection with Szpilman as I possibly could have done. Whilst I admired the film, I was never completely drawn in to what was happening on the screen and instead I felt more like a bystander. Maybe this is the reason that The Pianist didn't win the Best Picture award however I do feel it deserved it over the film that eventually scooped the award.

While The Pianist dealt with just one period of Szpilman's life, the other film in this post was a wide-reaching biopic of a famous pianist and vocalist. Ray, looked at the life and times of the legendary Ray Charles; from a small boy growing up in Florida to one of the most successful jazz artists of all time. Director Taylor Hackford and screenwriter James L White take a fairly linear approach to telling Ray's life; starting with his first performances in a country band. From there we see his first appearances on stage, touring with a band and meeting his future wife. Throughout the course of the story, the film flashes back to Ray's childhood to witness two very traumatic events in his life. The first is the death of his brother, who drowned in a laundry tub, and the second was the gradual loss of his eyesight. I believe that the film explained how Ray managed to get about with a stick or a dog and showed how exactly he seduced the ladies on a nightly basis. What I liked about the film was that it didn't shy away from the more negative side of Ray's personality, particularly his drug use. As the film progressed, and Ray's success grew, so did his reliance on heroin which as a result put him at odds with his friends and family. Additionally Ray's dalliances with various women are portrayed as he conducted various extra-marital affairs throughout his career. One in particular, with backing singer Margie, has disastrous consequences after she dies from an overdose only a couple of years after giving birth to his child. One problem I did have with the film was that it was pretty uneven as it spent too long on some moments and not enough on others. I found that Hackford and White took too long documenting the build-up of Ray's career and not enough time on other key moments in his life. I'd have like to have seen more about his protests against segregation and his attempts to kick his drug habit. As a result I found that the screenplay was largely inconsistent and that slightly affected my enjoyment of the film.

Thankfully Ray benefited from a tremendous Oscar-winning performance from Jamie Foxx, one that arguably made him a big name star. Foxx could've easily portrayed Charles as somewhat of a caricature but instead made him a fully-rounded character. He was particularly strong at portraying Ray's gradual dependence on drugs and the subtle changes in his character. Additionally, he was able to convey Ray's charisma and you could believe just why so many people fell under his spell. Foxx was ably supported throughout the film by a cast of character actors most notably Richard Shiff and Curtis Armstrong as a pair of Atlantic record chiefs and Regina King as the tragic Margie. I think that your enjoyment of Ray does depend on how much you can tolerate jazz music but I personally felt the music in the film was one of its most positive elements. Hackford and White use the majority of Ray's songs to tell a certain story about a period in his life and as a result give the film the feel of a musical. Paul Hirsch deftly edits together these set pieces to allow the audience to associate Charles' songs to either his success or certain moments in his personal life. It was no surprise to me that, alongside Foxx's honour, the film also won the sound mixing Oscar as I believed that the way the music was used was crucial to Ray's success. As his wife notes towards the end of the film, Ray loved music more than drugs, women and even his own family, a message that the film conveys perfectly. Whilst it doesn't really hold up against some of the more prestigious Oscar films, Ray is a fun biopic with lots of enjoyable musical sequence and is anchored by a fantastic central performance.

We continue our cavalcade of biopics with two more films that earned their stars Best Actor Oscars.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 278: The Only Way is Wessex

In almost every decade I've gone through during this challenge there's at least one film that's based on a work of a classic British literature. Whether it be Dickens' David Copperfield, Bronte's Wuthering Heights or Thomas' Sons and Lovers; there always seems to be a lot of love for a good adaptation. That continues this decade with Tess, Roman Polanski's take on Hardy's Tess of the d'Urbervilles. Every time I watch an adaptation of Tess it takes me back to my college days when I studied the text and it was no different this time. Interestingly, Polanski cast German actress Nastassja Kinski in the lead role, presumably because of her looks rather than anything else. I did feel that Kinski brought a certain vulnerability to the role and you believed in all her desires and fears during the film. That being said, I struggled to take her seriously in the role due to the fact that she could never master the Wessex accent that was required of her and every now and then her natural German twang took over. Polanski's adaptation was pretty faithful to the book, which sees Tess work for the devious Alec d'Urbeville who attempts to have his way with her at every turn. I did feel that Polanski slightly toned down the character of Alec from the book as his rape of Tess was never fully explained, but then I can understand that this would probably deter some audiences from watching the film in the first place. From there we see Tess get pregnant, meet her true love Angel and then experience heartache when he can't live with the fact that she isn't as innocent as he first thought. The overriding theme of the film was that all men are evil whether it be the lecherous Alec, the hypocritical Angel or Tess' drunk of a father. I did feel that the final scenes, in which Tess murders Alec then runs away with Angel, were incredibly well-imagined and the Stonehenge finale was skilfully done. Another aspect of the book that was slightly toned down was the ending itself which just sees Tess' arrest rather than her eventual hanging which we simply read about with the help of on-screen subtitles.

I did feel that Polanski's adaptation of the film was a successful one as I think the film would've appealed to fans of the book whilst not alienating a bigger audience who may not have seen it. The film itself was a labour of love for Polanski as his late wife Sharon Tate suggested he adapt the book before her death. Tess is beautifully shot thanks to a stunning Brittany landscape, which doubles here for Hardy's Wessex primarily due to the fact that Polanski couldn't film in the UK for legal reasons. The film's cinematography won an Oscar which was interestingly awarded to Geoffrey Unsworth, who died half way during filming, and Ghislain Cloquet who finished off the work he'd started. The film won a further two Oscars; one for the brilliant period costume and one for the stunning art direction. I believe both of these were deserved as everything about Tess' scenery was incredibly stunning. Away from Kinski, all of the other actors played their characters exactly the way I'd imagined them in the books and this added to the success of the adaptation. Whilst not a great film, I'd say Tess was an incredibly stunning adaptation of a great novel that had a mass appeal to both fans of the book and audiences as a whole.

Next time we return to another actor who we previously met in the 1970s.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Days 223-225: The Jack Pack

It's a rare feat for an actor to win three Oscars in his lifetime and indeed only three men have accomplished this. One of these is Jack Nicholson who has two Best Actor wins under his belt and a third for Best Supporting Actor. Nicholson's rise to prominence really started with Easy Rider, for which he was nominated for a Supporting Actor Award, while the next year he starred in Five Easy Pieces - arguably his first memorable leading role. This post will look at the three Best Picture nominees that Nicholson starred in during the 1970s and each also saw him give an Oscar-nominated performance.

We'll start with Five Easy Pieces in which Nicholson plays oil worker Bobby Dupea who spends most of his free time with ditzy waitress girlfriend Rayette or drinking with best buddy Elton. Though Bobby is initially portrayed as a slacker, we later learn that he is a talented pianist and comes from a family of eccentric musicians. After learning that his father is incredibly ill, Bobby returns home and is forced to take Rayette with him after she threatens suicide. Feeling that Rayette is too common for his family, he leaves her in a nearby motel and journey's to his childhood home. Here he meets and falls in love with his brother Carl's fiancée Catherine, a young pianist who is wowed by Bobby's playing abilities. As time goes on, we begin to realise why Bobby left home in the first place and why he's never been back. The house is full of intellectuals and people who he feels talk a lot of nonsense. Meanwhile Bobby's father is incredibly ill and he's unsure whether or not he can actually be heard when he lays a few home truths to his dear old dad. Eventually, Rayette appears at the house and her arrival isn't welcomed by Bobby who is still intent on chasing Catherine. Like all three of the films in the post, Five Easy Pieces doesn't have a particularly happy ending as we get an ambiguous conclusion for Bobby.

Five Easy Pieces is the only one of the three Nicholson films in this post that I haven't previously seen. It definitely has the feel of an early 1970s experimental piece as the first thirty minutes passes without much incident. Instead all of the first third of the film is intent on presenting Bobby as sort of a working class man who loves bowling, drinking and having sex. It's only after the revelation of his musical ability that the film opens itself a bit more as we meet the quirky members of the Dupea family. The role of Bobby is perfect for Nicholson and sort of saw his transition from supporting player to leading man. He excels playing the quiet and brooding Bobby, who every so often snaps at those around him. Ultimately he is presented as a man who is unable to feel passionate about the music he plays or the people around him. Nicholson earned his first ever Best Actor nomination for his role in the film and I feel that it's more than deserved. For her portrayal of Rayette, Karen Black also received a Supporting Actress nod and again I really enjoyed her turn here. Rayette's unrefined persona was the complete antithesis of the characters that frequented Bobby's family home and this mismatch provided some of the film's best moments. Black made Rayette a memorable character and one who was much more than just a dumb bimbo. Unfortunately, the day I watched the film was the same day that Black tragically passed away which puts a downer on my whole memory of the film. Despite only being 96 minutes long, I did find that Five Easy Pieces dragged occasionally, most notably during Bobby and Rayette's journey to his family home where they pick up a couple of hitch-hikers. Overall though this was 1970s film-making at its most raw and was an interesting exploration of Nicholson's early acting career.

Four years later, Nicholson appeared in another Oscar-nominated film which arguably saw his transition from character actor to leading man. The film was Chinatown, a film noir set in the early 1930s and very reminiscent of movies such as Scarlet Street and Double Indemnity. Here Nicholson starred as Jake Gittes, a former cop turned private detective who is initially tasked with exploring the infidelity of Hollis Mulwray, chief engineer for the LA Department of Water and Power. Little does Gittes know that the woman who has paid him to investigate the case is not Mulwray's wife and he is soon being sued by his real wife Evelyn for deformation of character. Soon Hollis turns up dead and Evelyn asks him to investigate the murder while Evelyn's father Noah Cross, who was also Mulwray's business partner, doubles Evelyn's fee to get him to find Hollis' unnamed young lover. Gittes starts to see how the story of Mulwray and Cross plays into the drought that LA is currently experiencing and he starts to play a dangerous game with some very influential people. Though Gittes does solve the murder, not everybody comes out of the case and unscathed, meaning that we don't quite get our happy ending once again.

Similarly to Rebecca, I found the title of Chinatown fairly misleading as only really the final scenes of the movie take place in the district. What Chinatown did have was one of the best screenplays of all time, written by Robert Towne. Towne was originally asked to adapt The Great Gatsby, but declined the offer instead creating this original piece of great storytelling. Towne plays the audience perfectly as the pieces begin to fit together gradually building to that famous final scene in Chinatown. Oddly, it was director Roman Polanski who decided on the melancholy final scene with Towne wanting something a little bit more upbeat. Towne was rewarded for his work with a Best Screenplay Oscar, which was the only Oscar the film won. Nicholson's performance here was a lot more captivating as he played the smart, everyman who wanted to make it clear that he was just trying to earn an honest living. Nicholson initially plays Gittes as someone who doesn't let their emotions get in the way of the job, however gradually his feelings for Evelyn cloud his judgement. Faye Dunaway is perfectly cast as the classic noir heroine - a mixture of femme fatale and damsel in distress, who goes from being a fairly emotionless character to someone who acts in the heat of the moment in order to keep a loved one safe. John Huston adds fantastic support as the seedy Noah Cross while Jerry Goldsmith's score enhances the period vibe of the whole piece. I find it's a shame that Chinatown was nominated in such a strong year, as it does feel like a film that in any other year would be a Best Picture winner. Despite this the film has lived on due to the outstanding script and infamous scenes which mean that, unlike Gittes, we will never forget Chinatown.

Thankfully, Nicholson didn't have to wait long to win his first Best Actor Oscar, as the next year he starred in a film which became one of only three films to win the 'Big Five' Oscars. That film was One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest which went onto win Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Director and Best Screenplay. Here, Nicholson stars as Randle McMurphy, a low-rent convict who has been serving time on a prison farm for statuary rape. McMurphy has been admitted to a mental asylum for evaluation, while he hopes that his time there will be an easy ride where he will avoid going back to prison. However, McMurphy didn't factor in the cold and calm Nurse Ratched, who runs the ward and who manages her patients through a strict diet of medication and humiliation. It's clear that Ratched doesn't like the affect that McMurphy has on the patients as he tries to lift their spirits by taking them on fishing trips and organising card games between them. After learning that he could be staying at the asylum longer than he first thought, McMurphy decides to escape however his attachment to one of his fellow patients means that he ends up making the ultimate sacrifice. This is the third film in a row not to have a happy ending for Nicholson's character, but at least the conclusion does provide a moment of hope for one of the asylum's long-term residents.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is a film that has stayed with me for a long time and is one that I have written essays about in the past. I personally feel that this film is a masterpiece and perfectly combines well-rounded characters, a confined setting and a brilliant set of performances. Milos Forman's direction gives you a sense of place almost instantly as the white walls of the asylum gives you a real claustrophobic feel for this particular institution. The creepy music that plays during medication time and the awkward group sessions also stick in the mind and add to the feeling that this is a place of routine. Of the three films, Nicholson gives his biggest performance here as the slightly unhinged and worldly-wise McMurphy. Nicholson plays Randle as somebody whose personality is infectious and he's easily implanted as the leader of the group. Nicholson's Oscar was well-deserved especially in the latter scenes in which McMurphy chooses to stick up for young, nervous Billy rather than escaping from the asylum. Nurse Ratched, who I believe to be one of cinema's greatest villains, is beautifully written and expertly played by Louise Fletcher. What makes Ratched so chilling is that she never raises her voice and we know nothing of her apart from her job in the asylum. The film is fleshed out by a whole group of memorable supporting characters as all of the patients on the ward are given very different identities. Among the most famous are William Redfield's cultured Harding, Christopher Lloyd's deranged Taber and Danny DeVito's delusional Martini. Best of all is Brad Dourif as the tragic Billy, who was nominated but never won the Best Supporting Actor Award. If you've never seen One Flew, I can't recommend it enough and it really is film-making at its very best.

That isn't the end for Nicholson who'll pop up throughout the remaining decades, winning two more Oscars along the way. But next up is a focus on an actress who herself one two Oscars, both of them in the 1970s.