Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 204: Dear Diary

It's fair to say that basing your film around a real-life story is a sure fire way to get an Oscar nomination. For example, the most recent winner of the award - Argo was based around a real life event. Similarly, in 1960, The Diary of Anne Frank was also up for the Best Picture award and the majority of us know the story that that was based on. If you don't then it revolves around the titular heroine, a young Jewish girl, who writes of her experiences while being holed up in a cellar in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam. The film starts with Anne's father Otto returning to the cellar and finding his daughter's diary which he then begins to read. The diary, and the film, document Anne's time in the cellar where her family were forced to share the cramped space with the Van Daan family and later with Jewish dentist Mr Dussell. The film, which is based on an award-winning play, looks at the group's silent activity in the day and their nights which were mainly spent listening to updates on the allies' progress in the war. As the years pass by, Anne's views on Peter Van Daan start to change and their affections towards each other grow. The only issue is that the situation in the attic is worsening and the factory workers aiding the group have less of a chance of getting to them. Though the story doesn't end well for Anne, there is an inspiring message of hope to be had from the film.

It is said that Otto Frank wanted Audrey Hepburn to play Anne, but she told him that she felt herself too old to play the role but saw his daughter as a great role model. In the end the part went to Millie Perkins, an relative unknown, who I felt fared rather well transitioning the character of Anne from giddy schoolgirl to realistic teenager. I was shocked to learn that Perkins wasn't even nominated for an Oscar, with the acting recognition going to the more senior members of the supporting cast. Indeed, Shelly Winters actually won the award for her portrayal of the larger-than-life Mrs Van Daan, who she portrayed as an overbearing mother. Meanwhile Ed Wynn, as the long-in-the-tooth, Mr Dussell, was also nominated in the Supporting Actor role and I found him to be rather endearing. Personally, I found the best performance came from Joseph Schildkraut as Otto Frank, as I felt he got the emotional edge to his character just right. George Stevens was able to capture the mood of the attic spectacularly and I felt captured the sense of hopelessness and paranoia that the group would've been feeling. Alfred Newman's score was another highlight and I found it to be a stirring piece of music in what would otherwise be a fairly bleak film. Personally, I found The Diary of Anne Frank to be another film on the list which was far too long and could've done with thirty minutes shaving off its almost three hour running time. I also wasn't too fond of the way that the romance between Anne and Peter was handled and I found it to be a little bit too Hollywood for my liking. Overall though The Diary of Anne Frank was an admirable attempt to film an iconic story and I felt George Stevens more than did Anne's tale justice.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 175: What's It All About

So far in this 1960 section of the challenge we've primarily focused on big, colourful musicals without much comment about life was like in the sixties. However the British were making films which today almost feel like a time capsule this is especially true of Alfie which perfectly documents the swinging sixties. Our titular lead is of course played by Michael Caine and is the consummate ladies' man who is constantly breaking the fourth wall to tell his rules about not wanting to string women along. Though on the surface Alfie is a smooth-talker underneath he is as emotional as the rest of us and throughout the film he learns lots of life lessons. He becomes a father however the mother of his son chooses a more dependable father figure, he is sent to a rest home after the doctor finds a shadow on his lung and he also forces one of his married lovers to have an abortion in what is probably the film's most shocking scene. The film comes full circle as he rejected by the much older Ruby, played with gusto by Shelly Winters, when he discovers she has a new lover who is younger than he is. The end line is the one most associated with the film as the character asks us 'What's it All About?' followed by the title theme sung by either Cher or Cilla Black depending on which version you watched.

Alfie is certainly an unusual film as far as the 1960s go as the character is constantly addressing the audience and also there are no title credits as Caine tells us 'this is where you'd expect the titles to be' instead we have an elaborate end credit sequence featuring pictures of both cast and crew members. I have to say the character of Alfie did take a while to settle into because at the end of the day he is a bit of an ass and treats women as objects often referring to them as 'it'. However Caine is such a charismatic presence that he is able to carry this off for the most part especially in the more dramatic moments when Alfie has a breakdown or sees the aborted foetus of his married lover. Otto Heller's cinematography shows a bustling London where everybody is dressed smartly however director Lewis Gilbert combines this with an underbelly of backstreet terminations and pub brawls. I feel that Alfie is a much different film than the ones we've watched before, especially those that have been tasked with presenting Britain in a certain way, and I have to say it is refreshing to see a film that is so brutally honest in a presenting a character who isn't totally likeable. Overall a unique film with a superb lead performance, some stunning cinematography and a cracking end credits sequence.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 131-132: A Tribute to Elizabeth Taylor Part 1

Sadly earlier this year we lost a big film legend in Elizabeth Taylor. Even sadder is the fact that I haven't really watched a lot of her films save National Velvet and The Flintstones when I was younger. So I have used the 1950s Oscar Hunt to watch five her films all nominated for Best Picture during this decade to kick off the first three.

Liz Taylor really made her name in the aforementioned National Velvet but then was still considered a child star but she had to wait till 1950 for what many think as her first adult role in the original version of Father of the Bride a nominee at the 1951 ceremony. Obviously I'm very aware of the Steve Martin remake but have never seen the original starring Spencer Tracy as the father and Taylor as his daughter who gets engaged to Don Taylor's Buckley. Obviously the film shares a lot with the remake but what there is much more of an emphasis on is how much the wedding will cost Tracy's Stanley Banks and his wife Ellie played by Joan Bennett. It also doesn't strike me that the relationship with the daughter is as strong as it is in the remake despite this there is a good chemistry between Tracy, Bennett and Taylor as well as the two actors playing their sons. Tracy's comic voiceover is particularly affecting including in one of the opening scenes where he tries to remember which one of Taylor's potential suitors Buckley is. Tracy is also able to show off his slapstick side in a very long scene in which he tries to try on his old suit which is far too tight for him and which he ends up ripping. From the wedding onwards I recognised most of the scenes from Stanley worrying what he has to say in the church to the fact that he never gets to say goodbye to his daughter until she leaves. I feel that the film isn't quite as funny as it thinks it is but it is still very sweet and you believe that the Banks are a real family going through with a real wedding. To be fair Taylor doesn't have a lot to do apart from look very pretty and sulk occasionally when she feels her wedding is being planned by other people. An interesting Oscar nominee in that is predominantly a comedy film but nonetheless a great film.

A year later Taylor starred opposite Montgomery Clift in A Place in the Sun again a film nominated for Best Picture and once again Taylor missed out on an acting nomination although Clift and fellow co-star Shelley Winters were both nominated. The film starred Clift as George Eastman a poor relation to a wealthy industrial family. George meets his uncle and cousins and is introduced to Taylor's society girl Angela Vickers instantly falling in love. However he feels he isn't good enough for her and instead starts working in the family factory and beginning a casual relationship with Winters' Al. Al and George go out a couple of times and then George is moved up the social ranks and eventually starts seeing Angela but things are complicated when Al reveals she is pregnant and wants to marry George telling him she'll reveal all to his new friends if he doesn't. Desperate for a happy ending with Angela, George sets out to kill Al while on a boat but instead he can't go through with it but when she accidentally drowns he covers it up and is eventually arrested for her murder in the end he doesn't get A Place in the Sun that he so desperately wanted to share with Taylor. As a romantic melodrama, A Place in the Sun was a great film but I'm not sure if it was Oscar-worthy while Clift and especially Winters both deserved their nominations I feel that Taylor was cruelly snubbed here as every time she breezed onto the screen it lit up. A scene in which she realises she is in love with George happens so smoothly that Taylor is able to show the audience her feelings just using her eyes. It's a bit odd to think that Taylor was only 17 here playing against Clift who was over twelve years her senior but their chemistry does work and you do really understand why George would risk everything for Angela because at the end of the day it is Elizabeth Taylor!

Another year and another Oscar nominee for Liz this time in the swashbuckling adventure Ivanhoe. This was during the time in her career when Taylor wasn't getting the roles she wanted and in terms of this film she wanted the main romantic lead Rowena which went to Joan Fontaine and instead she had to settle playing Rebecca the girl who loved Ivanhoe from afar but could never get him and was forced into a relationship with George Sanders' Norman soldier De-Bois Gilbert who knew that Ivanhoe could never love her. In fact this was Taylor and Fontaine's film both women giving strong performances making the women more than just love interests and a lot more interesting than the lead man. Yes Robert Taylor's pioneering hero who was trying to fight King John's men and reinstate Richard the Lionheart was in fact incredibly bland. 15 years removed from the Errol Flynn era this almost seemed like a back-step for the 1950s cinema. I'm sure that the studio heads wanted to revisit these blockbusters to film them in Technicolor but this did nothing for me and went downhill when Robin Hood had to step in to help Ivanhoe and introduce all his Merry Men. The final scenes in which Taylor is falsely accused of witchcraft were poorly but together and I didn't really care about any of the characters coming away from it. Taylor really wanted bigger films than a supporting role in a mediocre epic thankfully in a few years later she would get that chance.