It's the Singer and the Song: Best Original Song, 1971

Time to make another mixtape, this time of Original Song nominees!

I have to confess, Glen Campbell...I'll Be Me sits with The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies as the only non-specialty nominees I have not seen. But I've listened to it! And I liked it!

Now: the music. After the jump.

Crafty Bugger: Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, 1971

In looking at this year's nominees for Best Production Design, one cannot help but be reminded of the nominees for its then-equivalent Best Art Direction-Set Decoration in 1971. Especially if, like me, you're devoting an entire month to forcing those kind of parallels. Hopefully, however, you'll see a pattern emerge...one that makes the word "forcing" seem like a disservice.

Take Interstellar, which showcases the same grounded sci-fi steeliness as The Andromeda Strain.

Or  The Imitation Game, whose attention to period authenticity does for World War II Britain was Mary, Queen of Scots' similar approach does for Elizabethan England.

Take Into the Woods, with its rather ugly, straight-faced take on fantasy, much as Bedknobs and Broomsticks grounds itself in a reality unprepared for the witchcraft on display.

Or Mr. Turner, with lived-in locations that echo the same intimate veracity as Fiddler on the Roof.

And then, of course, there's The Grand Budapest Hotel, grand and big and bold and colorful, as befits a fantastical Wes Anderson flick -- it's amusing, then, that its closest counterpart is the historically-based Nicholas and Alexandra, a film that went to great lengths/expense to capture the ostentatiousness of the Romanovs.

And we'll see just what I mean, after the jump....

Here We Go: Best Original Song Score and Adaptation, 1971

Over the next three weeks, we'll be taking a look at the films of 1971 -- as usual, seen through the prism of the Academy Award Nominees from that year. Not as usual, we will also take a look at the corresponding nominees of this year's Oscars. How does J.K. Simmons stack up alongside Ben Johnson? What is the parallel between Alexandre Desplat and Jerry Fielding? Can we trace an evolution, or possible plateau, in the 43 years that have passed between The French Connection and Selma? These are the types of questions we will try to ponder.

Later, though. For now, let us concentrate on one of my favorite categories to have gone the way of the dodo -- the Adapted Song Score (aka...well, see post title).

I'm still not entirely sure why they discontinued the category (is it because no one could top Prince?), especially since the minimum required was only three. Easy enough, I should think. This year alone could have seen nominations for Annie, Begin Again and Into the Woods, all of which use both songs and music derived from those songs to create a complete score. Previous years would have been able to honor Frozen, True Grit, Black Swan, Ray, Walk the Line -- plenty of options!

In 1971, there were a full five to choose from: