Casting Coup: Tess

NOMINATIONS

Best Picture, Claude Berri/Timothy Burrill

Best Director, Roman Polanski

Best Music - Original Score, Philippe Sarde
Best Cinematography, Geoffrey Unsworth/Ghislain Cloquet - WON

Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Pierre Guffroy/Jack Stephens - WON

Best Costume Design, Anthony Powell - WON

It's the last day of Casting Coup Week! Starting Monday, we start wrapping up 1980 with a Top Ten, Retro Hollmann Awards Nominations, then two days of the awards proper.

Before we get into all that, though, let's talk about Tess, baby. It's only the third cinematic adaptation of the Thomas Hardy novel, the previous two going back to the silent era. Even TV versions are scarce - one in 1960 for ITV (with Geraldine McEwan!), one in 1998 for LWT (with Justine Waddell!), and one in 2008 for BBC (with Gemma Arterton!).

Perhaps it's the subject matter: Hardy's story takes to task the rich for exploiting the poor, religious institutions for their hypocrisy, patriarchal society for its subjugation of women, and the justice system for its treatment of domestic abuse and rape victims. Now that I've written it all out, I'm surprised there isn't a new version of Tess in the works right now - it is, unfortunately, timeless.

And if they were to make a new version right now - who might they hire to fill the many roles? I have a few suggestions....

Casting Coup Month: On the Waterfront

NOMINATIONS

Best Picture (WON)

Best Director - Elia Kazan (WON)

Best Actor - Marlon Brand (WON)

Best Supporting Actor - Lee J. Cobb

Best Supporting Actor - Karl Malden

Best Supporting Actor - Rod Steiger

Best Supporting Actress - Eva Marie Saint (WON)

Best Story and Screenplay - Budd Schulberg (WON)

Best Cinematography - Boris Kaufman (WON)

Best Editing - Gene Milford (WON)

Best Dramatic or Comedic Score - Leonard Bernstein

Best Art Direction/Set Decoration - Richard Day (WON)

It's strange to me that the same people can praise On the Waterfront yet condemn its director, Elia Kazan, for naming names to the House Un-American Activities Committee. Naturally, when he got his Honorary Oscar years later, there were some boos, and some in the audience, like Ed Harris, refused to applaud, or stand. Yet On the Waterfront is the story of the necessity of naming names, and how the stigma of being a rat is a silly notion; sometimes, it is necessary to name names. (Kazan's own reasoning was the insistence by members of the Communist party that there be no paper trail or list of members. To Kazan, an innocent organization would not operate in such a fashion, and naming names shouldn't threaten them anyway if there's nothing to hide.)

This probably explains why my grandfather called me a "pinko commie" over Thanksgiving, for not having seen the film. Naturally, as soon as I returned to university, I picked up the VHS from the library. And, as so often happens, I was impressed. It's a story that never dates: the rights of the people, the myth of not squealing, the nobility of the working-man, the beauty of Eva Marie Saint. It's cinema at it's finest, with an ending that had me cheering and tearing. Clearly, the Academy of 1954 felt the same way, awarding the film eight wins out of its twelve nominations.

I think it's interesting to think about these films in the context of now. Certainly, with the current economic crisis caused by greedy corporate bosses, we can identify with the dock workers trying to keep their jobs at any cost and the greedy boss who takes advantage of their desperation. We all want a Terry Malloy, the ex-prizefighter who realizes he was used as bait to lure a childhood friend to his murder, to fight for the disenfranchised.

But who would be worthy of taking up those reins? And who is worthy of the moral Father Barry, or even the villainous Johnny Friendly? Some possible answers after the cut: