A handicapping friendo who didn’t see Substance in Cannes, and therefore was unsure about Demi Moore‘s chances of snagging a Best Actress nom, got in touch yesterday: “Does Demi Moore have a shot at a Best Actress nom?”
HE to friendo: “Moore soldiers through Substance, but it’s a smart body-horror exploitation film with a feminist sheen. Appreciation and respect, but no Oscar action. Okay, she might be nominated because of the metaphor of women suffering on the altar of wanting to looking younger, and because voters might figure Moore deserves an honorary gold watch because she’s a former Brat Packer in her early 60s. And because it’s a weak year.”
We’ve all read about the many people who worked on Dick Powell‘s The Conqueror in ’54, and wound up succumbing to cancer in the ’60s and ’70s. John Wayne died from cigarettes, but Powell and costars Susan Hayward and Pedro Armendáriz were probably fallout victims.
This trailer for The Conqueror: Hollywood Fallout suggests frankness, intelligence. It’s probably a decent effort. I’ve asked for a link. It opens on 6.28.
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John Wayne‘s Temujin to Pedro Armendariz‘s Jamuga: “This Tartar woman is for me…my blood says ‘take her'”
Above and beyond the camp factor, The Conqueror is primarily known as the worst radioactive fallout and subsequent cancer affliction film in Hollywood history.
Exteriors happened in the vicinity of St. George, Utah, which is 137 miles (220 km) downwind of the United States government’s Nevada National Security Site. It received the brunt of nuclear fallout from testing active in this period.
“In 1953, 11 above-ground nuclear weapons tests occurred at the site. By the end of 1980, as ascertained by People magazine, 91 cast and crew members had developed some form of cancer and 46 had died of the disease.”
Wikipage excerpt: “Director Dick Powell died of cancer in January 1963, seven years after the film’s release. John Wayne, Susan Hayward and Agnes Moorehead all died of cancer in the 1970s. Pedro Armendáriz was diagnosed with kidney cancer in 1960, and killed himself in June 1963 after he learned his condition had become terminal.
“Several of Wayne and Hayward’s relatives who visited the set also had cancer scares. Michael Wayne developed skin cancer, his brother Patrick had a benign tumor removed from his breast, and Hayward’s son Tim Barker had a benign tumor removed from his mouth.”
A friend, going on the word of a colleague, has just told me Steve McQueen‘s Blitz is allegedly “great.” Good to hear!
And yet World of Reel‘s Jordan Ruimy is rattled about what he’s hearing, or not hearing rather.
I’m asking right now for someone else to tell me that Steve McQueen‘s forthcoming Germany-bombing-Londoners-during-WWII movie, titled Blitz, is at least pretty good.
And I was wrong. In a way I’m glad that Sundance is still operating this way. Hardcore wokester shit circa 2020 or ’21. Because people are sick of it. Sundance has been dying for four or five years now, and nobody is sorry. Die already….die die.
Please listen to these chicks and take issue with whatever, including the stuff about any and all immigrants should pour into this country and who are we to say no? And how Jesus/Yeshua and Christianity are basically a branch of oppressive paternalism and corporate-industrial mind control, etc. Revolution is happening all over.
The top photo is Le Sancerre, 87 Rue Des Archives, 75003.
The bottom was snapped on the steps leading down from Place Caulaincourt, just past Chez Ginette. The entrance to the Lamarck metro station is at the bottom of the steps. The yellow awning on the right is L’Escalier Bistro. The sloping street below is rue de la Fontaine-du-But.
If you’re any kind of Dr. No fanatic, this nearly 19-minute catalogue of shots, set-ups, sunlight challenges and other technical and logistical hurdles during the first day of shooting in Jamaica is fascinating. Really.
Wiki summary: “Filming began on location at Palisadoes Airport in Kingston, Jamaica, on 1.16.62. The primary scenes there were the exterior shots of Crab Key and Kingston. Shooting took place a few yards from Fleming’s Goldeneye estate, and the author regularly visited the filming with friends.[62] Location filming was largely in Oracabessa, with additional scenes on the Palisadoes strip and Port Royal in St Andrew. 2.21.62, production left Jamaica with footage still unfilmed due to a change of weather.”
I somehow hadn’t watched the Sing Sing trailer when I tapped out last Friday’s Best Picture projection piece, but now I’ve seen it and am persuaded…well, certainly that Colman Domingo will be right at the top of the Best Actor nominees list but also that Greg Kwedar and Clint Bentley‘s allegedly spirit-lifting prison drama, about a wrongfully imprisoned guy putting on a play alongside other cons, will probably end up with a Best Picture nom. Maybe.
Based on a true story about the Rehabilitation Through the Arts (RTA) program at New York’s Sing Sing prison, pic follows the friendship of two RTA alumni, John “Divine G” Whitfield (Colman Domingo) and Clarence “Divine Eye” Maclin (Clarence Maclin himself) as they work together to stage an original production. Vulnerability, trust, integrity, pride, etc.
Sing Sing will open limited on 7.12.24. Pic will expand in August.
I speculated on 5.7 that 2025’s strongest Best Picture contenders will probably be those that don’t feel especially woked-up or agenda-driven (i.e., POC narrative, #MeToo-assertive, LGBTQ- or trans-promotional).
That doesn’t mean there won’t be any agenda-driven nominees. Emilia Perez (Netflix) will almost certainly be nominated upon the shoulders of musical fans as well as gay and trans celebrationists.
I’m actually not detecting anything especially wokey about Sing Sing. Okay, it focuses on a mostly black cast with two or three white guys (including Sound of Metal‘s Paul Raci) on the side, and given the setting it has to be a little bit gayish…no? But mostly I’m sensing soulful and heartwarming.
Plus it automatically earns an extra five points for presenting itself within a 1.66:1 aspect ratio.
Over the years Academy and guild members have been trained like dogs to focus only on award-season releases (Labor day to Christmas) for potential Oscar contenders, but exceptions pop up every so often. Sing Sing may be one of them.
I am therefore projecting that the following eight films have the best chances of being nominated for Best Picture:
Todd Phillips‘ Joker: Folie à Deux (Warner Bros., 10.4) Jacques Audiard‘s Emilia Perez (Netflix) Steve McQueen‘s Blitz (Apple, undated but surely opening during award seaeon) Sean Baker‘s Anora (Neon, 10.18) Greg Kwedar and Clint Bentley‘s Sing Sing Edward Berger‘s Conclave (Focus Features, 11.15) Ridley Scott‘s Gladiator II (Paramount, 11.22) Robert Zemeckis‘ Here
…is what Alfred Hitchcock’s ShadowofaDoubt (‘43) was, but absolutely not what Saboteur (‘42) was…not even close. Not that this concerned the Spanish poster illustrator. Sell whatever sizzle comes to mind; to hell with plot specifics.
Who in their right mind would want to see Barry Lyndon (1.66:1 aspect ratio) on a super-curved Cinerama screen?
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