Day One: Original Song, 1969

So we begin our journey through the Oscar-nominated films of 1969.

It's not often that one of the biggest wins of the night goes to Best Original Song, but here we are. Like "Moon River" eight years earlier, "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head" was an immediate phenomenon, the #4 song of 1970, and apparently, an automatic addition to the American Songbook, with at least thirteen cover versions from all over the world released within a year of the initial B.J. Thomas recording. I even remember the first time I heard it: middle school, listening to South Florida's oldies radio, Majic 102.7, hosted by the Tall Italian himself, Tom Caminiti. You've heard it, your parents have heard it, everyone knows it. It helps that it came from the number one film of the year.

The rest of the field were all future standards. My sister used to play "Jean" on the piano; Lea Salonga performs "What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?" as part of a Legrand-Bergman medley in her recent concert album The Story of My Life: Live from Manila; "True Grit" was as tied to Glen Campbell's legacy as "Wichita Lineman". It's a lineup of genuine hits and legends - let's take a listen.

Coming Attractions: 1969

Starting Monday, we celebrate a LOT of 50th anniversaries with the 1969 Retrospective! The first two weeks take us through the Oscar nominees in eleven categories, followed by a week of talk on other movies, culminating in my personal Top Ten and Retro Hollmann Awards in week four.

Week One: the nominees for Best Original Song, Best Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Director, and Best Supporting Actor, featuring...

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The 1968 Retro Hollmann Awards, Part Two

Here it is, the concluding chapter of the 1968 Retro Hollmann Awards - and therefore, the conclusion of my look at 1968. Make sure you catch up with Part One of the awards, as well as the full list of nominations and the Top Ten. Onward...

Best Score

1. War and Peace
Vyacheslav Ovchinnikov

2. The Young Girls of Rochefort

Michel Legrand

3. Romeo and Juliet

Nino Rota

4. Rosemary's Baby

Christopher Komeda

5. Yellow Submarine

George Martin

The remaining awards - writing, directing, lead acting, Best Picture - and Original Song! - after the jump.

The 1968 Retro Hollmann Awards, Part One

Let the 1968 Retro Hollmann Awards begin! For more context, check out the nominations from last week, as well as my Top Ten.

Best Ensemble

 Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell

2. The Birthday Party; 3. Night of the Living Dead; 4. The Odd Couple; 5. The Young Girls of Rochefort

A woman with a reputation to protect, a daughter on the verge of a life-changing decision, three possible fathers, their wives, a housekeeper, and a vintner who's loved the first woman all along. Plus a countess who doesn't have to say a word to convey haughty disapproval - we stan! Every cast member is zeroed in on Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell's zany, good-hearted delights.

In second, a different kind of madness effects the cast of The Birthday Party. In third, survivors who hate living and dying together in Night of the Living Dead. In fourth, The Odd Couple and their poker buddies and coo-coo neighbors. In fifth, the sunny, beautiful singer-dancers of The Young Girls of Rochefort.

More after the jump - with each category presented in the exact order as they were at the 41st Academy Awards.

The 1968 Retro Hollmann Awards Nominees

You've seen the top ten (I hope - if you haven't, why not?). Now, the nominees for the 1968 Retro Hollmann Awards!

The nominees are....

Best Costume Design

   

 

Barbarella
Jacques Fonteray / Paco Rabanne

The Fixer
Dorothy Jeakins

Oliver!
Phyllis Dalton

War and Peace
Vladimir Burmeister / Nadezhda Buzina / Mikhail Chikovani / V. Vavra

The Young Girls of Rochefort
Marie-Claude Fouquet / Jacqueline Moreau

The remaining after the jump...

Top Ten of 1968

Here 'tis - my Top Ten Films of 1968! Honorable Mentions: The Boston Strangler, Bullitt, Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell, The Detective, The Fixer, Funny Girl, Hell in the Pacific and Hour of the Wolf.

The Battle of Algiers
dir: Gillo Pontecorvo
pr: Antonio Musu / Yacef Saadi
scr: Franco Solinas, story by Franco Solina and Gillo Pontecorvo
cin: Marcello Gatti

Much like my first viewings of Z (can't wait to revisit that next month) and 1987: When the Day Comes (my pick for 2017's Best Picture), The Battle of Algiers electrified me with its sweeping ensemble, tense action sequences, and the cat-and-mouse game played between the urban guerrilla forces and the forces of the occupying government. No one gets off scot-free: revolution is a messy, bloody business, with innocents slaughtered on all sides. And yet! This is decidely not a both sides appeasement - the condemnation of the occupying forces whose presence necessitates deadly action by people who want to be free is clear as crystal.

The remaining nine, after the jump...

Cinema '68: Gays Upon My Works

In 1959, Sam Spiegel's adaptation of Tennessee Williams' Suddenly, Last Summer gave mainstream audiences a good look at homosexuals in the guise of Sebastian Venable, a never-seen, demonic figure who uses the women in his family to "procure" young men desperate for money, using them up before moving on to a new location, a new set of victims. Yeesh. By the 1960s, the Motion Picture Code was loosening up to allow more frank depictions of homosexuality on screen, though the MPAA still chafed at any depictions that ennobled or normalized such people. As Vito Russo says in The Celluloid Closet, "Homosexuality had come out of the closet and into the shadows, where it would remain for the better part of two decades. In the 1960s, lesbians and gay men were pathological, predatory and dangerous; villains and fools, but never heroes. It was sideshow time."