Poll

Which year should the next Retrospots cover?

1943
4 (21.1%)
1945
9 (47.4%)
Surprise me!
6 (31.6%)

Total Members Voted: 19

Author Topic: Retro Filmspots IV: Year Selection  (Read 11740 times)

pixote

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Re: Retro Filmspots III: Year Selection
« Reply #50 on: January 06, 2017, 01:00:41 AM »
Fun fact: Casablanca was only the sixth highest grossing film of 1943 in the US, behind the likes of Hitler'a Children.

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smirnoff

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Re: Retro Filmspots III: Year Selection
« Reply #51 on: January 06, 2017, 01:11:34 AM »
I'll keep it in mind.

I think I might do well to seek out non-typical films. Things that don't have all the stylistic hallmarks of films made in the 40's, which are the things that bother me. That way of acting, of scoring, of dialogue. Is there stuff that would've been considered really ahead of it's time, or experimental, or just plain weird? Which directors were really marching to the beat of their own drum back then? Who was making films that didn't resemble anyone else's?

1SO

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Re: Retro Filmspots III: Year Selection
« Reply #52 on: January 06, 2017, 08:58:03 AM »
Tough questions to answer because the more unusual films of 1945 also tend to run pretty thick with "That way of acting, of scoring, of dialogue." Talking about The Big Sleep, Hangover Square, The Lost Weekend or The Picture of Dorian Gray.

However, as someone who has Sunset Limited in their Top 100, I have to think A Walk in the Sun is what you're looking for. A theatrical war film that's mostly talk and little action. Performances that are more natural, in a conversational mood. This one definitely marches to its own beat.

I also think Detour might serve you well. It's a ragged Noir with a performance that enters like the Tazmanian Devil and throws "that way of acting" right out of the car. Plus it's real short, so if I'm wrong it won't take too much of your time.

Knocked Out Loaded

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Re: Retro Filmspots III: Year Selection
« Reply #53 on: January 06, 2017, 11:48:02 AM »
I am looking forward to explore the films that Val Lewton produced (4 in 1943, 2 in 1945). Val registered on my radar when Nick Pinkerton wrote about him in a regular column at the IFC blog titled Here & Now & Then. These pages are regrettably no longer availible. Some meat on the bones here and here.
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pixote

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Re: Retro Filmspots III: Year Selection
« Reply #54 on: January 09, 2017, 12:31:49 PM »
Results for the previous poll:

Film
          Votes         
1940
2
1941
2
1942
0
1943
7
1944
0
1945
6
1946
1
1947
0
1948
1
1949
0
Surprise me!
5
Total Voters
17

One final poll has been added above to settle on the year. Vote!

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pixote

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Re: Retro Filmspots IV: Year Selection
« Reply #55 on: January 11, 2017, 05:27:21 PM »
It's official: The next Retrospots will focus on 1945!

Next steps:

1) Agree on categories
2) Submit preliminary nominations ballot
3) Create FYC threads based on preliminary ballots
4) Begin the discovery process and accept new FYCs

As for #1 above, I'm thinking we keep things fairly simple, along the lines of the 1999 categories, with the following adjustments:

Picture
Director
Original Screenplay
Adapted Screenplay
Actor
Actress
Supporting Actor
Supporting Actress
Ensemble Cast
Non-English Language Film
Short
Animated Film
Documentary
Editing
Score
Cinematography
Art Direction
Year

I'm conflicted about Best Year. I thought it was a cool thing to try, but it was occasionally tricky to track the FYCs and made that part of the voting a little murky, with not all voters able to gauge the quality of the nominees year, so I'd just assume do without it. I'm open to whatever, though.

As mentioned earlier, the nominees for Non-English Language Film might be practically predetermined by the limited number of readily available options, but for the sake of continuity, I'd prefer to leave it as is, rather than making in Best Non-Hollywood Film or something like that.

Short should be a good, viable category for 1945, without the troubles seen in 1999.

1999 had seventeen categories, which seemed like a good manageable number to me. If we agree to the edits made above, that puts us at 15 categories for 1945 ... so I wouldn't be opposed to adding one or two more. Best Film Noir? Best War Film? Best Surprise? Best Costumes? Separate categories for live-action shorts and animated shorts? Best Sound? Separate categories for black-and-white cinematography and color cinematography? Best Visual Effects? Best Scene(s)? Best Line?

Or just leave it at 15?

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PeacefulAnarchy

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Re: Retro Filmspots IV: Year Selection
« Reply #56 on: January 11, 2017, 06:08:42 PM »
As mentioned earlier, the nominees for Non-English Language Film might be practically predetermined by the limited number of readily available options,
Only four are predetermined. The 5th spot is wide open and I'm very curious as to what it will be.

I think those categories are fine. There aren't nearly enough colour films to justify splitting the cinematography. It'd just be creating an award specifically for Leave her to Heaven.

pixote

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Re: Retro Filmspots IV: Year Selection
« Reply #57 on: January 11, 2017, 06:32:51 PM »
There aren't nearly enough colour films to justify splitting the cinematography. It'd just be creating an award specifically for Leave her to Heaven.

Haha, pretty much. The Oscar nominations that year looked like this:

Best Cinematography, Color
WINNER
Leave Her to Heaven: Leon Shamroy
NOMINEES
Anchors Aweigh: Robert H. Planck, Charles P. Boyle
National Velvet: Leonard Smith
A Song to Remember: Tony Gaudio, Allen M. Davey
The Spanish Main: George Barnes

Best Cinematography, Black-and-White
WINNER
The Picture of Dorian Gray: Harry Stradling Sr.
NOMINEES
The Keys of the Kingdom: Arthur C. Miller
The Lost Weekend: John F. Seitz
Mildred Pierce: Ernest Haller
Spellbound: George Barnes

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mañana

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Re: Retro Filmspots IV: Year Selection
« Reply #58 on: January 11, 2017, 09:30:22 PM »
There are definitely a number of 1945 films I already know I want to see. Looking forward to the FYCs to get more ideas.
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1SO

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Re: Retro Filmspots IV: Year Selection
« Reply #59 on: January 11, 2017, 10:55:11 PM »
1999 had seventeen categories, which seemed like a good manageable number to me. If we agree to the edits made above, that puts us at 15 categories for 1945 ... so I wouldn't be opposed to adding one or two more. Best Film Noir? Best War Film?
Some rough stats from IMDB:
The site lists 27 titles as Film Noir. I see 12 popular titles, so it could work to get a group of 5 or even 3, but that means people are going to want to watch more Noir to have enough knowledge to take part in this. War is even more narrow, almost a Deathmatch between They Were Expendable and A Walk in the Sun, with much debate over the inclusion of Rome, Open City.