America's Actress: March 2000, contd

Continuing from yesterday's rewatches of March 2000, here are my first-timers from that same period. Among them is the first of the second of the year's releases to go on to Oscar glory.

That movie, of course, is Erin Brockovich, which opened before the Oscars for 1999 even aired and immediately had Julia Roberts as the Best Actress frontrunner for the next year's ceremony, momentum that never once slowed down. It was perfect, in a way: despite a Supporting Actress nomination for 1989's Steel Magnolias, her superstardom began with 1990's Pretty Woman, the 20th Century ending with her as our reigning rom-com box office queen, America's Sweetheart. It's only fitting that the 21st Century began with her being lauded not just as a genuine thespian, but as our Best Actress. (Sometimes I think, oh that all happened fast, but that's actually the typical timeline for breakthrough-to-Oscar for female movie stars - Emma Stone, Jennifer Lawrence, Grace Kelly...hell, Audrey Hepburn won for her debut!)

Here's where Erin Brockovich fell within the March 2000 landscape:

Nominees for the 1962 Retro Hollmann Awards

I screened 69 movies for the 1962 retrospective:

Advise & Consent

Billy Budd

Billy Rose's Jumbo

Birdman of Alcatraz

Blast of Silence

Bon Voyage!

The Cabinet of Caligari

Cape Fear

The Case of Patty Smith

Carnival of Souls

The Connection

Confessions of an Opium Eater

Creature from the Haunted Sea

Damn the Defiant!

David and Lisa

Days of Wine and Roses

Divorce Italian Style

Electra

The End of Summer

Experiment in Terror

Eyes Without a Face

Fallguy

A Flame in the Streets

Freud

Gigot

Girls! Girls! Girls!

Hatari!

Horror Hotel

In Search of the Castaways

The Interns

Jack the Giant Killer

Jules and Jim

Last Year at Marienbad

Lawrence of Arabia

Lolita

Long Day's Journey Into Night

The Longest Day

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

The Manchurian Candidate

The Miracle Worker

Mr. Arkadin

Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation

Mothra

Murder She Said

The Music Man

Mutiny on the Bounty

Peeping Tom

Period of Adjustment

Phaedra

The Phantom of the Opera

Premature Burial

The Road to Hong Kong

Satan Never Sleeps

State Fair

Sweet Bird of Youth

Tales of Terror

Taras Bulba

A Taste of Honey

Tender is the Night

That Touch of Mink

Through a Glass Darkly

To Kill a Mockingbird

Tower of London

Two for the Seesaw

Victim

A View from the Bridge

Walk on the Wild Side

What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm

From that batch of films comes this slate of nominees - 32 films in 18 categories, all after the jump:

My Top Ten of 1962

A month late it may be, but I think that extra reflection gave me a more accurate read on which movies really knocked my socks off. Some faded a little after the initial excitement, while others that just wouldn't leave me be. Apologies to the nine that just missed out: Blast of Silence, The Connection, In Search of the Castaways, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, The Miracle Worker, Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation, Mothra, Phaedra, and Taras Bulba.

Now, without further blah-blah: my top ten films of 1962, in alphabetical order:

Cinema '62: Best Supporting Actor

Yesterday, we looked at the Adapted Scores of 1962. Today, it's the Best Supporting Actor lineup. All of these actors were here for the first time; none of them would be back for a second nomination (although...one of them still could, one day). We'll talk about many of these films again, but there is one film for which this was the lone nomination: Billy Budd.

Have you seen Billy Budd, co-written and directed by Peter Ustinov, adapted from the novel by Herman Melville and a play by Louis O. Coxe and Robert H. Chapman? It's a beautifully done movie whose conversations about interpreting justice, shortcomings of the law, and the decision to believe in and behave the best in the face of the worst could be dull or didactic; instead, the intelligent screenplay and complex performances make for an exciting two hours. Good year for boat films!

The nominees: