Day Ten: Best Actress, 1968

Before the Moonlight / La La Land Best Picture fiasco, it was the most iconic moment in Academy Awards history. There are people who know the entire presentation by heart. It's largely regarded by Oscar Queens as Ingrid Bergman's greatest performance. See for yourselves:

So many things are happening in this story. First is Katharine Hepburn's unexpected win - having just won the previous year for Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?, she became that rarity: the consecutive champion (fitting, too, that the first actor to pull it off was none other than Spencer Tracy). Second is Barbra Streisand's somewhat unexpected win - I say "somewhat" because post hoc, people have accepted that her win happened because of Babs' early admission into the Academy allowed her to vote for herself, therefore leading to a tie; the implication being that it would have been Hepburn's had Streisand not been voting, ignoring the fact that consecutive wins are, as I said, rare, and Streisand was dominating the circuit all year.

Third: the total dismissal, historically, of the three other performances nominated this year, including Patricia Neal's return to film after her strokes and Joanne Woodward's reminding everyone that, yeah, she's got it. Let's give everyone their due, shall we?

Day Nine: Best Picture, 1968

If 1967 was the dawn of New Hollywood, 1968 was a return to values. Yes, the modern is being acknowledged, but wrapped within a more familiar package. The studio musical? We've got two. Historical fiction? We've got two of those, as well. Prestige theatre adaptation? A full four! Rachel, Rachel stands out the most for its frank talk about sex and repression, but Peyton Place was a full 11 years ago - and familiar face Paul Newman was the creative force behind it. So while movies like 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Battle of Algiers, Rosemary's Baby and others are certainly acknowledged, the Academy at large was embracing the familiar.

Which is not to see these movies are bad or boring - they aren't! They're a solid lineup! But they are also clearly the last gasp of the old guard.

The nominees are....

The Past, This Week

This week, the Oscars of 1968 continue with the nominees for Best Supporting Actor, Best Score (Not of a Musical), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Picture, and finally - Best Actress! The movies we'll be talking about are:

 

  

 

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Day Five: Best Supporting Actress, 1968

And so we wrap up our first week with one of the most uncontroversial wins in Oscar History, from Best Supporting Actress. After the jump.

Day Three: Song and Musical Score, 1968

Usually, I like to group the Score categories together - Musical/Adapted/Song Score with Original/Comedy or Dramatic Score - since, you know, they're sister categories. For 1968, I decided to do things a little differently and pair Musical Score with Original Song, mainly because it's only natural for there to be overlap (and there is!); even better, it saves me room on the tags.

Some great music...and some dull music! All after the jump.

The Year is 1968

Tomorrow begins our journey through the cinema of 1968. In his book Pictures at a Revolution, Mark Harris describes 1967 as the great turning point of cinema, when New Hollywood began to definitively shove Old Hollywood for power in the arts. You still see it in 1968, with Golden Age director William Wyler's swan song Funny Girl nominated in the same ceremony as one of the ultimate acid trip movies, 2001: A Space Odyssey.

This week, we'll look at six categories - Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Original Song, Best Musical Score, Best Actor, and Best Supporting Actress. Then, over the weekend, I'll have more in-depth looks at many of these nominees. They are:

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Here It Comes!

Get ready for back-to-back flashbacks on this here blog!

In July: the films of 1968. Two weeks of Oscar nominees, a week of other movies I watched, and then the grand finale - Top Ten, Nominees, two days of Hollmann Awards. Featuring Best Picture nominees:

And in August: the films of 1969! In the same format! Featuring Best Picture nominees:

 

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