I dislike movies that exploit fear of evil predators and general undercurrents of dread. You can’t be Pollyanna and you have to be careful, but you also have to understand and accept the fact that the vast majority of people are reasonable and considerate. You can’t live in a fear cage. You can’t live life like a deer drinks from a stream in the forest, always looking up every two or three seconds to make sure a predator isn’t approaching.

Every now and then I get this Tony Soprano anxiety thing in which you can’t stop scratching your arm or your leg. No matter how hard you scratch it still itches. You have to use kitchen knives to make it go away. It happened again last night. I used Tony Soprano’s name because when I saw him constantly scratching his arm during the first or second season of The Sopranos I recognized myself.

What I realized last night is that the scratchies can be (or perhaps always are) specifically linked to something you’re nervous about but have been suppressing. I used to think they just happened when they happened because they felt like it.

During last night’s Jerry Lewis Cinefamily tribute “the normally taciturn Lewis, answered a question about The Day The Clown Cried by saying that he objectively looked at the movie and felt it didn’t work…and [therefore] it would never see the light of day,” a friend informs.

The 85 year-old Lewis “shot many questions down, saying it would take too long to get into,” the source adds, “but he offered a lot of cool stuff” including that that he was originally offered to direct Take the Money & Run and decided no and then urged Woody Allen to do it.

Due respect to tonight’s Golden Gobes co-hosts Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, but I suspect (we all suspect) their opening monologue isn’t going to be as snarky or ill-mannered or snap-crackle-pop as Ricky Gervais‘ material was 12 months ago. Good comedians say the things we think but wouldn’t dare say in mixed company. Funny is dangerous taunting in a subtextual way, coming close to a defamation-of-character lawsuit, dancing on the edge of a slippery cliff.

I’ll be attending a Fox Searchight viewing party (starting just before 5 pm Pacific) and then hitting the after-parties. But first I have to crawl under a friend’s house and put up floor insulation with a staple gun.

Tonight’s big question is whether or not Les Miserables wil enjoy its “last grand hurrah” (in the words of TheWrap‘s Steve Pond) by taking the Best Motion Picture, Comedy or Musical award, or whether Silver Linings Playbook, the galloping momentum horse of the moment, will snatch it away.

The point of the Golden Globes “is that the show is a party, that it’s looser than the Oscars – much is made of the fact that they serve alcohol at the tables – and that its results are essentially insignificant, because even the people winning the awards know that the voters are 80-odd junket-loving correspondents for foreign newspapers and magazines who do not exactly have critical or professional credibility,” Pond writes.

“Would the Oscars put up with a host implying that their award was for sale? The Globes not only did that with Ricky Gervais, they invited him back to savage them twice more. Even the HFPA knows that it’s about looseness and fun and ratings and that TV money. It’s about creating only a paper-thin illusion that the show means something, knowing that the only folks who buy it are the ones who aren’t really paying attention.”

Earlier today Academy members received an email from Hawk Koch announcing that everyone will be permitted to vote for Best Documentary Feature, Best Live Action Short and Best Animated Short, and that everyone will be sent screeners of the nominees. No longer will a few hundred voters, if that many, determine the results in those races. “Remember that documentary and shorts producers usually don’t have money for cab fare, let alone the cost of sending screeners to 6,000 Academy members,” a tipster comments. “So who’s footing the bill? Presumably the Academy, and that’s the headline. Good for them.”

HE commenter “Tuan” has been removed from the premises. I never liked his handle and too many of his posts rubbed me the wrong way. He was bringing the conversation down, man! What finally tore it was his subject-changing comment about the passing of Jon Finch, which I mentioned last night. Tuan ignored Finch and said “speaking of Shakespeare, Roland Emmerich‘s Anonymous is a fine, fine film. Probably the most surprising film I saw in 2011. It’s a shame that more people didn’t like it because of its conspiracy angle.” That was it. I won’t have this inanity.

A friend asked yesterday if I’d heard of the passing of Mariangela Melato, 71 — the co-star of Lina Wertmuller‘s The Seduction of Mimi (’72), Love and Anarchy (’73) and Swept Away (By An Unusual Destiny in the Blue Sea of August). Melato was right smack in the heat of the hip-film-world zeitgeist back then, and she had, I’ve read, a full life and a thriving career after that, or at least up until a year or so ago when she began to come to grips with cancer.

Anyway I said to my friend that yes, I’d heard, and due respect but I couldn’t think of what to say off the top of my head. For me, Melato stopped being an actress of even limited interest after her Wertmuller run, or after Swept Away. I’m sorry but no other films she made seemed to break through and that was that. And that’s a long time to keep a tiny white candle burning in a cathedral. But I’m sorry for her passing. A life lived to the utmost. Condolences to friends, fans, colleagues.

Oscar-nominated Moonrise Kingdom co-screenwriter Roman Coppola is either putting us on by speaking favorably about Gold Toe socks, or, as I suspect, he’s speaking sincerely. If the latter is true his HE stock has dropped a few points. In a 1.12.13 interview with Kempt‘s Ben Reininga, he says “fashion is fantastic” but speaking for himself “if I can’t get it year after year, I don’t want it. For instance, I only wear Gold Toe socks, which I buy at Macy’s.”

In a 4.21.12 post I wrote that “there’s nothing more reprehensible in any men’s clothing department than Gold Toe socks. These are truly the sock of schmucks. If someone takes their shoes off and I can see they’re wearing a pair, I would immediately write them off. Just saying.”

Sartorial issues aside, Coppola is the director-writer of A Glimpse Inside The Mind of Charles Swan III (A24, 2.8), which is why he spoke to Reininga in the first place. I’ll be watching this film very carefully, and if Charlie Sheen, Jason Schwartzman and/or Bill Murray are shown wearing a pair…I’ll leave it at that.

Ion Cinema’s Eric Lavallee has ostensibly posted a rundown of the 100 Most Anticipated Films of 2013 but I can only pull up 38 or 39 of them. I don’t want to process any more than that. I’m presuming the remaining two-thirds will show up eventually. Here are the Lavallee picks that have my attention thus far:

(1) Asghar Farhadi‘s The Past;

(2) John Michael McDonagh‘s Calvary;

(3) Paolo Sorrentino‘s La Grande Bellezza;

(4) Hossein Amini‘s The Two Faces of January;

(5) Francois Ozon‘s Jeune at Jolie (an apparent riff on Luis Bunuel‘s Belle du Jour);

(6) Terry Gilliam‘s The Zero Theorem;

(7) Woody Allen‘s Blue Jasmine;

(8) Roman Polanski‘s Venus in Fur;

(9) James Ponsoldt‘s The Spectacular Now (also on my Sundance 2013 list);

(10) Gregg Araki‘s White Bird in a Blizzard;

(11) John Crowley‘s Closed Circuit;

(12) Michael Winterbottom‘s The Look of Love (also on my Sundance 2013 slate);

(13) Susanne Bier‘s Serena — a period reteaming of Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper.

(14) Errol Morris‘s The Unknown Known: The Life and Times of Donald Rumsfeld.

Previously: Wes Anderson‘s The Grand Budapest Hotel, David O. Russell‘s Abscam project (a.k.a. American Bullshit — starts shooting in March so might not be ready this year…who knows?); Steven Soderbergh‘s Side Effects (which I saw and liked on Monday night, 1.7), Noah Baumbach‘s Frances Ha, Richard Linklater‘s Before Midnight (also a Sundance 2013 highlight), Stephen Frears‘ Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fight, Sofia Coppola‘s The Bling Ring, Lars von Trier‘s Nymphomaniac, Wong Kar Wai‘s The Grandmaster, Pedro Almodovar‘s I’m So Excited (all things Pedro!), Joe Swanberg‘s Drinking Buddies (Anna Kendrick, Olivia Wilde, Jake Johnson) and Jean-Pierre Jeunet‘s The Young and Prodigious Spivet (Judy Davis, Helena Bonham Carter, etc.). (12)

Plus (1) Peter Landesman‘s Parkland, Diablo Cody‘s untitled film (which was called Lamb of God when I read the script last year), (3) Brian Helgeland‘s 42 (Jackie Robinson biopic w/ Chadwick Boseman and Harrison Ford); and (4) Oliver Hirschbiegel‘s Diana (Princess of Wales biopic/love affair with Naomi Watts). (4)

The 17 biggies I listed on 12.16 are as follows:

(1) John Wells‘ August: Osage County;

(2) Alexander Payne‘s Nebraska;

(3) Alfonso Cuaron‘s Gravity;

(4) George Clooney‘s Monuments Men (a.k.a., cousin of The Train);

(5) Paul Greengrass‘s Captain Phillips;

(6) Martin Scorsese‘s Wolf of Wall Street;

(7) Jason Reitman‘s Labor Day;

(8) Joel and Ethan Coen‘s Inside Llewyn Davis;

(9) Bennett Miller‘s Foxcatcher;

(10) John Lee Hancock‘s Saving Mr. Banks;

(11) Ridley Scott‘s The Counselor;

(12) Spike Lee‘s Oldboy;

(13) Luc Besson‘s Malavita;

(14) Steve McQueen‘s 12 Years A Slave;

(15) Baz Luhrman‘s The Great Gatsby (which might have issues);

(16) Spike Jonze‘s Her.

(17) Anton Corbijn‘s A Most Wanted Man, based on a John le Carres novel and costarring Willem Dafoe, Rachel McAdams, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Robin Wright.

Also: Terrence Malick‘s two ventures — the film formerly known as Lawless plus Knight of Cups (neither of which might not be released until 2014 or 2015…you know Malick). (2)

One could also include Ben Stiller‘s The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Nicholas Winding Refn‘s Only God Forgives, Ron Howard‘s Rush, David Cronenberg‘s Maps to the Stars. Neill Blomkamp‘s Elysium, Joseph Kosinski‘s Oblivion, Robert Schwentke‘s R.I.P.D., Sam Raimi‘s Oz: The Great and Powerful and Guillermo del Toro‘s Pacific Rim (9).

For whatever reason the Hastings Observer didn’t get around to announcing the death of actor Jon Finch, 71, until today (1.11). His body was reportedly found on 12.28 (two weeks ago!) at his Old Town home in the English coastal village of Hastings.

In my mind Finch had a two-year peak period in which he gave an absolutely brilliant lead performance in Roman Polanski‘s Macbeth (’71) and then played an unjustly prosecuted murder suspect in Alfred Hitchcock‘s Frenzy (’72), He also played a small but memorable role as a lushy gay Scottish hustler in John Schlesinger‘s Sunday Bloody Sunday, and a cuckolded husband in Robert Bolt‘s Lady Caroline Lamb (’72), which was a commercial and critical flop.

And then he turned down an offer to play James Bond (or so it’s been reported), and that was all she wrote. Finch worked enough to keep his hand in and stay afloat over the next 40 years but he never caught fire again, at least to an extent that he caught my attention.

Finch’s ex-partner Helen Drake, who lives in Cornwall, told the Hastings Observer that she and Finch “remained very close…we were like a little family and saw each other regularly in the Old Town. He had been quite unwell for a while as he suffered from diabetes and was becoming confused.

“Jon was quiet and a private person but very warm and generous. He had a fantastic sense of humor. Jon was a wonderful father to his 19-year-old daughter Holly. They got on well and always laughed, having fun together.”

The story explains that Finch moved to Hastings in 2003 “and liked to frequent the pubs in the Old Town.”

Here’s an mp3 of Finch delivering my favorite Macbeth passage:

“Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased?
Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow,
Raze out the written troubles of the brain
And with some sweet oblivious antidote
Cleanse the stuffed bosom of that perilous stuff
Which weighs upon the heart?”

They can rename the legendary Grauman’s Chinese theatre as the TCL Chinese Theatre if they want to, but it’ll always be Grauman’s Chinese. Always. And what’s TCL? Some Chinese tech company…something? Nobody wants to know from some Asian interloper. Nobody cares. And you know they’re going to erect some distasteful TCL sign somewhere on the grounds.

“This is one of the landmarks of North America,” said Hao Yi, vice president of TCL Group, about the re-naming. “It can be a bridge to link the cultures of China and North America.” Oh, you think so, big shot?

Message from Los Angeles film buffs who cherish the lore of this theatre to Hao Yi: Keep your distance, fella. Or better yet, kiss our collective ass. This is our theatre, our temple, that you’re looking to exploit.